Chapter 11 – Sidetracked, but did they really?
'What? Why me?' asked Ratiasu looking at him with confusion.
'You need to know nothing.' As soon as he said that, he flash stepped in front of her (his sword already drawn) and slashed down at her. Hikari saw the danger and flash stepped right away to block the attack.
'Get lost.' She swung her sword at Plata, which made him jump backwards, she then pointed her sword at him, 'Blossom Rozehana,' she said. The sword transformed and she jumped back and shot blades at him. Plata didn't flinch he raised his hand effortlessly grabbed the blades and crushed them. He charged at her with amazing speed and hit her in the stomach, she didn't have time to dodge and was knocked back a few metres.
'Hmph, you're weak.' He raised his hand once more, a red sphere formed in his palm and shot at Hikari. Both Haruka and Ratiasu flash stepped to block it but Rukia got there first.
'Dance, sode no shira yuki.' She hesitated for a fraction of a second and then, 'Next dance, white ripple.' The blast of ice collided with the cero blast and exploded with a huge impact. Everyone shielded themselves with their hands and didn't see that Plata had fired another cero blast at them. The second shot hit the Rukia, exploded and blew all of them off their feet. Blood rained down from Rukia as she fell unconscious, three more cero blasts followed, one hit Hikari blood spurted out of her mouth and she fainted. Haruka and Ratiasu both managed to dodge them but the collision of the cero blast and the ground had enough impact strength to knock them into the air. Two bala shots shot at Haruka and Ratiasu, Haruka released her sword in the fraction of a second and was able to fire her attack to block it, but the attack hit Ratiasu and she fainted straight away. But before she did she saw Plata open a pathway to hueco mundo and hear him whisper, 'my job is done.' He left. The next thing she saw and remembered was complete darkness.
Ratiasu woke up and sat up. She was in a large room the light was dim, there was no windows which made it look underground. She was lying on a rather small bed and she saw, Rukia and Hikari on two other beds in front of her.
'Hey, Kari, Rukia, you two ok?' she said sounding worried, after a while they didn't answer, she got up and walked towards their beds. Both Rukia and Hikari were sleeping, as Ratiasu was about to heal them a voice came from behind her.
'You needn't do that, they're already healed, they'll be fine,' said a male deep voice behind her. She instantly drew her sword. It was a young man about mid-twenties black hair, fairly tall with one eye brown and the other purple (rather scary), he was wearing a soul reaper uniform and a sword at his side.
'Who are you?' she said threateningly.
'No need to be so hostile, truth is, I healed them and you. Nice to see you're awake by the way.' He saw that she didn't lower her sword, 'Sorry, guess I should introduce myself, I'm Haodong Zhang, I'm one of the few remaining soul reapers to have survived the massacre, it's nice to meet you.' Another person came in behind Haodong and whispered some words to him, this man was taller, blonde hair, blue eyes and also had a soul reaper uniform, 'sorry, I got some things I need to take care off, you're friend Haruka will be here in a minute. Look after yourself, bye.' And he walked off down a long tunnel through which he came.
Ratiasu stood there, trying to take in what just had happened and sat down on her bed again. The minutes passed and nothing happened, the odd voice was heard down the path but she didn't dare go towards them. About an hour later Hikari and Rukia woke up.
'Oh crap what just happened?' asked Hikari who sat up and looked around. Rukia looked like she was about to ask the same thing but didn't say anything. Ratiasu described to them what just happened.
'We were rescued by soul reapers? Wow, I'm surprised there are still some alive. Guess we should be grateful then.' Hikari got up and stretched a bit. 'So, where's Haruka?'
'Don't know, that guy, Haodong, who came by said that she'd be coming by soon but it's been an hour. Hmm.. where is she,' replied Ratiasu.
Just as if Haruka heard her question and decided to answer, she walked through the door. 'Well, well, look who's awake?'
'Hey, how come you're not hurt?' asked Rukia looking astonished.
'Lucky I guess,' Haruka smiled and walked towards them. 'So you guys alright now?'
'Yeah, we're fine,' replied Hikari. 'Since Ratiasu was out, who healed us? And what happened after we fainted.'
Haruka sat down on a bed next to them and she explained how she carried them out of the desert found a small village which she thought was empty but was actually inhabited by about ten Gillian class menos. She was ambushed but was rescued by a group of soul reapers who had survived Hisaigo's massacre and taken to their hideout underground. This group of soul reapers live here and thought that no hollows would come out this far so they picked here as a place to stay until Hisaigo leaves but were also attacked by the Gillian, now they're hiding underground waiting for a perfect moment to attack and wipe out the Gillian and reclaim their homes. She also told them it was the leader of the group who healed them because he happened to be the fourth seat of squad four. The others in the group haven't introduced themselves yet but they all seemed to be ranked officers in the gotei thirteen, otherwise they wouldn't have survived the massacre.
'Hmm… interesting.' She paused, 'Well I guess we should get moving, we've wasted too much time already. We still can make it by tomorrow if we leave now,' said Hikari grabbing her sword which was by her bed.
'What? We're just going to leave? After they've just saved us? That's been rather bad mannered. I think we should stay and help them get rid of those Gillian menos. I don't like to just leave after they risked their lives for us, after all they are planning to attack tonight. We should stay and help, a few Gillian menos shouldn't be much trouble for us to handle, it won't take long and we can set off when we finish, I'm sure if we flash stepped some of the distance we'll make it with no problem,' said Haruka.
'Geez, well I guess I've never been the sort of person to run off when there's someone in need of my help. Fine, we'll help them, but we leave as soon as the Gillians are dead,' said Hikari, although she doesn't seem completely sure of it.
'Great, well like I've said they're planning to attack tonight, so come on, follow me and I'll lead you to meet everyone.' Hikari left through the door followed by Rukia, Ratiasu and Hikari. They walked through a torch lit hallway the walls were rather moist with moss growing from them. The hallway was more like a small tunnel built stably like those of the catacombs and extended for a far distance. A few minutes of wandering in the endless maze, they came to a room. The ceiling was a few metres high, there was a large round table in the middle, and about ten torches on all four sides of wall lit the room. Eight people sat at the table, talking loudly about the invasion plan.
As soon as Haruka entered they all went quiet, until Haodong shouted, 'hey come on, sit down, glad to see that you're all okay.' They obeyed and took the four empty seats. 'Well, now that we are all here maybe it's time for some introductions. If no one wants to start I'll go first.' He looked around at everyone and no one said anything so he started, 'I'm the 4th seat of squad four, Haodong Zhang nice to meet you.' Hikari stared at him with great interest (hmm… I wonder if what she's thinking, don't you?). He bowed and sat down waving to the person behind him, who was the person who came by earlier, blond hair, fairly tall, with blue eyes.
He stood up bowed and said, 'I'm Matthew Richardson, 20th seat of squad two. It's a pleasure. Oh and please call me Richo.' He sat down again rather hastily as if he's a bit nervous.
The next person round the table stood up, he was about the same height as Matthew also with grey hair and blue eyes, but was obviously more confident that him, 'Hi, I'm Chris Kayley. 13th seat of squad six.' He smiled at everyone and sat down again.
Moving on two people stood up at the same time, one had Really short spiky hair, but not bald yet, and brown eyes and looks like the comedian type of person, the other had long brown hair reaching up to his neck and was seemingly happy. The one on with the short spiky hair spoke first, 'We're from squad ten, and I'm Lewis Buckley, I'm 15th seat.' Then he gestured to the person with the long hair. 'And this is my good friend Craig Bently, he also in squad ten but only 19th seat. Ha, you're crap Craig.' Craig looked at him and shook his head, they both sat down with Lewis still laughing hysterically.
'That's our comedian for ya,' said another guy on the opposite of Lewis. He has medium length red hair, a bit short as well. 'I'm Simon McLovin (not my choice of naming by the way) 8th seat of squad seven.' He sat down, and the last two of them eight stood up.
First to speak was another person with long brown hair that covered half his face, he has brown eyes and a non-caring look on his face. 'I'm Colin Salters, 7th seat of squad six.' He sat down again looking bored and unbothered.
The other person who stood up with him had deep brown colored hair, green eyes and rather tall. He spoke with an unusually high voice, 'Hello, I am Daniel Sanders, I'm also in squad six and I'm the 12th seat.' He waved at the girls in an idiotic fashion and sat down.
Haruka stood up this time, 'Well as many of you know by now, I am Haruka Rose an unranked Soul Reaper under squad five.'
Hikari stood up, 'Hikari Uera, captain of squad five.' There was a lot of murmuring between the eight men when she said this.
'I knew I recognized you,' said Haodong, who stood up immediately, 'I wasn't sure you were a captain though by the fact that you aren't wearing a haori.'
'I don't like to seem I'm better than everyone else, so I only wear it when I have to.'
'Ah I see, well please carry on,' beakoned Haodong
Rukia and Ratiasu both stood up, Rukia spoke first, 'I'm Rukia Kuchiki, standing captain of squad thirteen.' again a lot of murmuring.
'It'd be a lot easier to know who you were if you just wore your haoris,' said Colin.
'I would, but I had to run as fast as I could when Hisaigo attacked so I didn't have time to get it,' said Rukia.
'She makes a good point,' said Chris looking at Colin, who just shrugged and looked bored again.
Next Ratiasu spoke, 'I'm Ratiasu Zakihara, vice-captain of squad thirteen, pleased to have met you all.' She sat down.
'Well, with two captains and a vice-captain here this invasion should be a piece of cake, after they are only Gillian menos,' said Chris looking happy.
'Don't underestimate them, even if they are Gillians. If they were that easy to beat, we would've done it already instead of sitting in this underground cavern,' said Simon. Chris went quiet after that looking rather unhappy now.
'Okay then, Matthew here has devised a plan for us, so please Richo, tell us what you think.'
Matthew stood up and laid a map on the table. 'Well, erm. This is a map of our village, it is split into four quads, North, East, South and West. Basically what I'm planning is to attack the east quad, which has two Gillians guarding it then draw the rest of the menos to that quad and ambush them. With twelve of us and the element of surprise we should be able to take them easily.'
'I like it, simple plans are usually the best,' said Hikari politely.
'Well, if Kari says yes then I guess I'll agree as well,' said Ratiasu, Haruka and Rukia both nodded.
'Sounds good, we'll attack tonight at eleven o'clock sharp, those menos won't know what hit them,' said Haodong sounding confident. They all walked off back to heir rooms after that.
A bit of a filler, but most of these new characters will return later on in the story and about 2 will have a bigger role later on, see if u can guess who. Anyway next chp will be out on usual day of wednesday