I do not own Bleach or any of the characters.
Memories of Before
Kurai lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. His mind was wandering. Seeing Renji attacking Rukia had brought up a lot of old memories. Both of Soul Reaper academy and before then. As he thought, it centered on a memory not directly tied to them but still as a result of them.
"So, tell me again what we're doing here?" Kurai yawned.
"You're going to go in there to find the trapped humans," the Soul Reaper stated. "You're still in the academy, remember, so try not to get into any fights you can't win. This is a stealth mission. Get in, free them, get out."
"Sure," Kurai nodded. "I promise."
The Soul Reaper nodded and lowered his barrier. Kurai walked past and into the compound. The barrier reappeared behind him, not to be dropped again until the humans and Kurai returned. He started through the compound, hearing the shriek of hollows frequently and loudly, blaring in his ears. He could have sworn they were right beside him but they weren't. The hallways wound and twisted, forming a kind of maze. Several times Kurai had to backtrack. Finally he had to stop, needing to rest. It was easier said than done with the hollows all shrieking so loudly.
"God I wish they would stop that," Kurai growled. "How they hell do I find them? This place is massive. And with real hollows...I can't believe their sending a student instead of a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads."
A hollow shrieked louder than normal and Kurai flinched.
"I'm so the wrong guy for this," Kurai sighed. "Advanced class or not. I'm still in the academy."
He sighed and sat against the wall, his zanpakuto in his hand, ready to be drawn and used at a moment's notice. He was unable to drift off but after less than two hours, he sighed, standing and continuing down the hallway. After an hour, he stepped out of the end and into the same stretch that he had entered through. He saw the barrier and the confused Soul Reaper standing guard on the other side. Kurai shrugged then turned and followed the path for the second time, this time taking a side passage he had skipped before and the path wounds its way around and around until finally the path opened into a massive chamber. It wasn't the big square room he had been expecting, the room the schematics said should be there. The hollows had carved the room into a massive round cavern with the four trapped humans sitting on the ground in the center of it. They were looking around, terrified, all bound and unable to move much at all. None could see the four hollows standing around them and none could see Kurai. That would make the task of getting the hollows away a bit easier as he wouldn't have to worry about being seen.
He drew his zanpakuto silently, saying a silent prayer as he stood. Before he could do anything, one hollow turned toward him, a humanoid one standing about twice the height of a human and with a mask looking something like a cross between a spider and a house fly. It had claws, and a spiked tail and seemed to be commanding the other three as they all turned in unison when it pointed at Kurai.
One was a massive green hollow that looked like a lizard of some kind with several tails, another looked like a spider but with a tail curled up on its abdomen and tipped with a scorpion tail, from the looks of it, and the third hollow, from what he could see, was a hornet.
"Ugly bastards," Kurai growled.
The hornet flew at him and he leapt at it, slashing. It suddenly veered out of the way and webbing of some kind wrapped around him like a net and attached him to the wall as the large green hollow swung a tail at him.
"Shit!" Kurai shouted as the tail smashed into the wall.
It moved away, rubble dropping to the floor but there was no Kurai on the wall. He was still attached to the webbing that was now stuck on the hollow's tail. After a moment he managed to get free and leapt away as two of the hollow's tails crashed together, getting stuck instantly. Kurai landed on the wall where he had been and looked around. The humanoid one hadn't moved while the others had been fighting. The hornet, which Kurai assumed was the lure for the trap, was on Kurai's left, the spider on the left, and the large green hollow was in front of Kurai.
The hornet began to fly toward him but he grinned and turned, running to the right and dodging around spider's silk as he did. Just as he leapt at the spider, the hornet appeared in front of him, stinger forward and extending. He managed to slash it out of the way but it grazed his arm which instantly went numb. He gasped jumping off the air as spider's silk shot past.
"Damn!" Kurai growled. "Spider first. Then the hornet."
He dropped to the floor, sprinting at the spider, leaping and slashing at it but it faded into dust and a dozen more appeared around him, along with hornets, the sudden increase in volume from their vibrating bodies deafening and giving him a splitting headache.
"Damn hollows!" Kurai growled looking around before noticing something.
he new hollows' limbs didn't end. They faded into nothingness.
"Illusions," Kurai growled leaping into the air and onto the wall. "Hallucinatory toxin."
He groaned as his headache worsened and looked around. Thousands of hornets flew at him, all of them with stingers extended. He leapt to the side, the real stinger grazing his back. He spun, slashing but all the hornets his zanpakuto passed through turned to dust as the illusionary spider had. Just as he finished his swing, webbing crashed into his arm, pinning it and his sword to the wall.
"Damn!" Kurai shouted pulling as hard as he could. "Shit. Can't even use Kido to kill them because I don't know which it...oh duh. Bakudo number one, Sai!"
All of the hollows, including the illusionary ones, suddenly found their limbs immovable. The hornets all had their legs and wings crumbled up on their back, ruining them all as the hornets fell. Kurai closed his eyes, listening as the hornets landed, the only impact coming from his left. He snapped his head around, opening his eyes and held his hand out, palm flexed and fingers together.
"Hado number thirty one, Shakkaho!" He shouted firing the spell at the area he thought the sound had come from.
Almost a dozen hornets were vaporized but all turned to dust. Kurai fired twice more. The hornets that were destroyed were all turned to dust, except one. It faded slowly, as any real hollow would, and slowly the rest of the illusions all faded as well, the hornet's influence over Kurai's senses having ended.
"Finally," Kurai sighed as he looked around.
The humanoid hollow had broken its arms free already, as had the large green hollow but the spider was still captured by Kurai's spell. Kurai gave one last fruitless tug against the webbing before the green hollow smashed another tail into Kurai. This time, it had avoided the webbing but its strike had broken free the stone beneath it. Kurai managed to break the webbing free from the wall then from his arm by gripping the stones that were left on it. Then, he sprinted over and killed the spider. He spun back and leapt over the tail flying toward him, backflipping onto the wall and looking between the two hollows. Out of the two, only the humanoid remained an unknown. The larger creature was relatively weak, its biggest advantage being its size and the size of the seven tails it used to fight. But the other one, was the one that worried Kurai.
"Well, I won't find out anything staying here," Kurai growled. "And I still have humans to save. They must be so confused right now."
He had to smirk at the thought of what they must be thinking about the walls seeming to break apart and collapse of their own accord. Then, he leapt at the larger hollow. Sure enough, it swung the exact same tail he had predicted swung up in front of him and then at him. He slashed it, cutting it off easily before landing on the tail and leaping at the hollow again. Two more tails swung at him and they both fell away in as many swings. He leapt from one to the next then at him, a tail swinging at him from both in front and behind. He slashed the one ahead of himself, swinging around to the other side and kicked the tail segment into the other tail, leaping at the hollow as the last two tried to crush him from above and below. He began somersaulting and slashed both tails as they reached him before steadying himself in time for the hollow to try to take a bite out of him. As it leaned forward, he swung his zanpakuto in an uppercut swing and bisected its head.
"There he goes," Kurai sighed. "Now for the-"
The humanoid smashed a fist into his back, smashing him into the ground. It removed its fist, stepping back and Kurai pushed himself up. The hollow chuckled and Kurai stood, charging and leaping at him. The hollow swung at him but he avoided it, slashing the arm and wounding it before removing the head altogether.
"That was easier than I thought," Kurai sighed landing by the humans as the hollow began to fade. "Let's get out of here shall we?"
He cut the ropes and all four humans scrambled to their feet, three, looking around in surprise and fear. One of them, the only woman, was staring at Kurai.
"You can see me," Kurai guessed. "And them."
"Yes, I can," she nodded. "They can't but, when you get manhandled, tied up, and the watch the room be destroyed without anything else in the room to do it, you start to believe there's something there you can't see."
Kurai grinned and nodded then looked around.
"Follow me and we'll get out of here," Kurai stated and she nodded, telling the others to follow her.
Kurai led them to the base of the wall below the tunnel he thought he had entered through then picked the woman up and jumped up to the opening, setting her on her feet before returning for the men, who all freaked out when they were picked up by something invisible before flying into the air and then to the tunnel. They started down the tunnel and through the twists and turns and Kurai quickly realized it was not the tunnel he had entered through. Finally, they stopped because the humans were all getting tired. They stopped to rest and Kurai sat away from the humans. After a bit, the woman waked over and sat beside him.
"Thank you," the woman smiled. "For saving us. The others are still afraid because they can't see you but thank you. You saved my life."
"You're welcome," Kurai smiled. "My name's Kurai."
"Angel," the woman smiled.
She was roughly as old as Kurai looked and as his gigai was. She was attractive, if not beautiful. She had blonde hair halfway down her back, stunning blue eyes, and pale flawless skin. Even with the dirt that covered her, she still was among the most beautiful women Kurai had ever met.
"Pleasure to meet you," Kurai bowed as best he could while sitting.
She giggled and the others all glanced at her like she was crazy. She ignored them and rested her head on his shoulder, noticing him stiffening.
"Which way out?" Angel asked, looking up at him.
"Honestly, I don't know," Kurai sighed. "I led us out the wrong side. But it shouldn't be too hard to work our way around."
"I hope not," Angel yawned. "I'm sick of this place."
Kurai smiled and nodded in agreement, wrapping an arm around her and hugging her comfortingly for a moment before moving to pull his arm back but stopped when she caught his hand, holding it in place. He raised his eyebrow but complied, holding her against him as she drifted off to sleep. The three men soon did the same and Kurai waited silently, listening for hollows. After a few hours, he gently shook Angel awake and she smiled up at him before going to wake the other men, leaving Kurai sitting where he had been, head swirling with a tidal wave of emotions and thoughts he couldn't even begin to make sense of.
"Angel," Kurai spoke up, pushing himself to his feet. "We'll need to move faster. We're already late and if we take much longer, the others will probably send a rescue squad to drag me out."
Angel nodded, relaying the need to move quickly and they all began moving, faster than the day before and quickly wound their way around and around until they finally slid to a stop, the barrier visible in the distance, the Soul Reaper there sighing and waving for Kurai to hurry up. They ran over and Angel looked at the barrier in wonder while the other three looked at her in confusion.
"Why aren't we leaving?" one asked.
"Barrier," Angel breathed. "Exit's sealed to keep the things that had us inside."
"She can see us?" the Soul Reaper questioned.
"Yes," Kurai nodded. "And hollows. That's how I got them here. Sorry I'm late."
"It's fine," the Soul Reaper shrugged. "It'll take me a couple minutes to lower the barrier."
"Take your time," Kurai smiled.
Just then, the walls of the compound shook as a hollow shrieked somewhere nearby inside the compound.
"I take that back," Kurai growled. "Hurry the fuck up."
The Soul Reaper nodded, pale and Kurai walked to the front of the group, drawing his zanpakuto and waiting. After a moment of silence, the ground below the humans collapsed and Kurai dove in instantly, catching Angel and stopping them just as the three men's souls were torn from their bodies, flying into the waiting mouth of the same humanoid hollow as before. It grinned up at him and Kurai flew Angel back up to the hallway, depositing her by the barrier then flew back down, slashing at the hollow. It blocked the slash with its left claws, slashing at him with its other hand. He flipped over the claws, kicking the hollow back then slashed again. Again it blocked with its left claws then slashed with its right. This time, Kurai felt the claws tear gashes in his left arm. He backed away, readying himself and grinned.
"Let's test that shall we?" Kurai grinned.
He flew forward, slashing at the right side of its body but it wrapped both hands around him and flew straight up, crashing up through the floor and hurling Kurai through the wall and into a large room. He stood and charged, slashed at the right side as it blocked with its left claws before slashing with the other hand. Kurai flipped over the claws, slashing at the hollow's mask but its right claws flashed up, smashing the zanpakuto away at the same time as slashing Kurai. He landed on his back, blood pooling under him as the hollow laughed holding up one finger on its right hand.
"Die, Soul Reaper," the hollow growled darting forward and driving the claw at him.
Before it drove its claw through Kurai, Angel stepped between them, the claw embedding itself through her abdomen, stopping an inch from his eye before retracting, Angel collapsing at Kurai's feet. He stared at her for a moment before sprinting forward, a voice appearing in his head.
"Jump!" the voice shouted.
He jumped. The hollow's claws swept under him.
"Slash at his left shoulder!"
He slashed. The hollow's blood sprayed into the air.
"Spin kick him in the face!"
He spun. His heel smashed into the hollow's face and it flew back, crashing into the wall.
"Duck!"
He ducked. The hollow's tail flashed above him and he instinctively removed it. The hollow shrieked, charging at him again.
"Left!"
He dove left. The hollow crashed to the ground claws first where he had been, claws getting stuck. He leapt at it, bisecting its head and it faded, this time for the last time. Just as it did, two more Soul Reapers ran in, one of them sprinting to Angel and beginning to heal her. After nearly two hours, the Soul Reaper stopped, sitting back as Angel's eyes fluttered open, looking around and seeing Kurai, smiled in relief. He walked over, kneeling beside her as the other two left.
"You won?" Angel checked, voice hoarse.
"Yes," Kurai nodded. "Thanks to you. Thank you for shielding me, but why did you do it?"
"I couldn't...let you die," Angel breathed. "You saved me. I had to return the favor, and it would have killed me after it had killed you anyway."
Kurai smirked and Angel smiled.
"You just wanted to be able to see my handsome face again," Kurai joked.
"That too," Angel agreed. "I was hoping I'd see you again sometime."
Kurai blinked in surprise then smiled and helped Angel to her feet.
"Eventually maybe," Kurai nodded. "But I'm a Soul Reaper. Time isn't the same to me as it is you. It may be some time before we see each other again and then I'll look exactly the same."
"It's alright," she smiled. "I'll wait."
Kurai sighed smiling an hugged her.
"Come on," Kurai chuckled. "We'd better go let them know you didn't kill me."
She nodded and they walked out of the compound, finding the two Soul Reapers waiting.
"I'll take her back to her house," Kurai stated. "I'll meet you back here in a bit."
The Soul Reaper who had brought Kurai to the World of the Living nodded and he picked her up, using his flash step, which he had gotten quite good at using when not fighting, to get her back to her house in seconds. He set her down and she looked at him skeptically.
"Why didn't you do that while you were fighting?" she questioned.
"I can't focus well enough when fighting to use that ability," Kurai stated pulling a Kikanshinki from his robes and sighing. "I'm really sorry too."
"Why?" Angel questioned.
"By tomorrow, you won't remember me," Kurai stated. "You probably won't remember any of this. That's the law."
"You're going to...erase my memory?" Angel questioned.
"Sorry," Kurai winced. "I really wish I didn't have to."
"It's alright," Angel smiled. "Like you said, it's the law for you. But...before you do...can I...make one request?"
"Sure," Kurai nodded.
"A kiss?" Angel mumbled. "Just one?"
Kurai blinked in surprise before looking both guilty and relieved at once. Rather than say anything, he smiled and leaned forward, placing his lips on hers. She sighed, kissing him back and wrapping her arms around his neck. After a couple seconds, he pulled back, raising the Kikanshinki.
"No," Kurai growled. "I will not remember. Not that."
Kurai stood, walking out of his house then to the one place in the Soul Society that he could train in peace. Once there, he drew his zanpakuto and began.
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