A/N: Thank you to war90, Taeniaea, nexuswarrior, Turtle-chan in Blue, DigiPal, The Great Pineapple MEKI, Ilovebleach102012, Genysin69, and serenity095 for reviewing last chapter!

Hinamori's Apprentice

Chapter 42

Toushiro, Momo, Rangiku, Ichigo, and Rukia held their breaths as two rogue Shinigami walked down the hall. Together with Kyr, they clung to decorative statues that jutted out of the walls near the ceiling. When the two enemies were out of sight, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness," Momo said, "If they had raised the alert, who knows what would have happened."

"Te path not over yet! Yow alert remain!" Kyr said, leaping down from the statue he was sitting upon. The others followed suit, jumping down to the floor and following after Kyr down the long hall.

Thanks to Kyr's guidance, they managed to infiltrate the fortress without being noticed. It was fortunate that they had been able to recruit his help, for without it they surely would have been discovered by now. The complex they were in was astonishingly large; had they tried to navigate it on their own they would certainly have become lost.

"How much further?" Toushiro asked quietly.

"Kyrzk lead yow to te lower south wing. That where te gul being keep. Where in te south wing, Kyrzk don't know. Once yow get there, up to yow," Kyr answered.

"What type of opposition can we expect to run into?" Ichigo asked.

"No many. Few here for such large fortress. No more arrancar, under a hundred renegade Shinigami, din Usagi Uzaki servants. Kyrzk people te only ones to be concerned with. Others no problem," Kyr said, "If avoid attention, no oppose likely."

"I see…"

They continued to make their way stealthily through the fortress, occasionally hiding when they thought they heard an enemy. They ran into no actual opposition, however, and were able to go deep into the enemy base. After a long while, they reached a circular room with a fountain in the middle and six doors.

"This as far as Kyrzk know," Kyr said, "Those two door lead to te lower south wing. Gul somewhere there. Yow have to search now. Kyrzk must go."

"Go? What do you mean?" Rangiku asked.

"Kyrzk must reunite with people. Won't tell of yow presence, but no can aid you further. Goodbye," Kyr said. With that, he pulled out the silver device again and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"I guess we're on our own now…" Rukia said.

"Kyr said that those two doors lead to the area where Karin is being held," Toushiro said, "Momo and I will take the one on the right, you three take the one on the left. If Karin is found, we'll use Tenteikura to spread the message among us. When that happens, we'll all meet up here and get out the same way we got in. Everyone understand?"

The others nodded in understanding, each of them wearing a determined expression.

"Good. Let's go."

"This way? You're saying this is the way out?" Karin whispered. The creatures guiding her grunted affirmatively, gesturing for her to go down a narrow passageway.

Karin squeezed into the narrow corridor, presumably used by these creatures for quick transportation. She was grateful for her fairly small frame, for if she were larger she probably wouldn't fit. As she and the creatures that were now her allies made their way forward, Karin could not help but smile to herself.

She might actually make it. Thanks to these creatures, she not only had her Zanpakuto, she had a way out. If they could get out of this place and back to Seireitei, she was sure that they'd somehow be able to remove the device that threatened to kill her. In fact, there were probably patrols of Shinigami all over the place who could take her back to Seireitei. Yes, things were looking much brighter now than they had just a few hours ago.

Despite her hope, Karin internally reminded herself that it was not over yet. She was still in the enemy base, and the possibility of getting caught was very real. These creatures might be able to guide her out, but they couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't be intercepted by enemies. Karin had briefly considered the possibility that the creatures were in fact acting on Usagi's orders and leading her into some sort of trap, but she quickly dismissed the idea. She had seen the way they had been hurt and abused by Usagi. They were seeking freedom just as much as she was.

The creatures stopped walking after a short while and pointed at the ceiling, where Karin saw that there was a hole. One of the creatures pointed at several indentations in the wall, proceeding to use them like a ladder to climb up through the hole. The others looked at Karin expectantly, apparently wanting her to go next. Karin lifted herself onto the indentations and began climbing, careful not to lose her footing. When she was at the top, she grabbed onto the edge of the hole and pulled herself through, the creature at the top aiding her in this.

"Thanks," she said, "What is this? Some type of ventilation shaft?"

The creature in front of her grunted incoherently as its companions climbed up to join them. It was small and cramped, with Karin forced to stay on her hands and knees. She wasn't sure what this place was or where it went, but was glad that they were now travelling in a way in which they wouldn't be noticed. Despite the cramped conditions, she felt a lot more at ease crawling through these shafts than walking through the halls below where capture was much more likely.

Crawling was slower than walking, but without constantly having to stop and look for enemies, they were in fact making greater progress than they had been before. Karin didn't know for sure how far they had gone or how far they had left to go, but instinctively felt that they were getting closer to escape. It was only a matter of time before she got out of this place and went back to Seireitei.

"Beware, Karin."

"Denryu?" Karin said in surprise, "What do you-"

Before Karin could finish her sentence however, there was a loud noise that caused the shaft they were crawling through to shudder. All who were in the shaft stopped, looking around in confusion. Then there was another one, this one seeming to come from just beside them. The creatures began grunting amongst themselves in panic.

"Hurry! We've gotta get out of here!" Karin said. They began crawling as fast as they could, but before they could get far, there was another loud noise, this one accompanied by an explosion right in front of them that blew off the side of the shaft. Acrid smoke filled the enclosed space, causing them to cough and making their eyes water.

Another explosion occurred right behind them, this one making the shaft shake violently. As they coughed in the smoke, there was a horrible loud creaking noise, followed by a sudden jolt as the section of the shaft they were on collapsed. The end behind them came down hard on the ground beneath, making Karin and the creatures accompanying her fall backwards down the broken section of shaft.

They found themselves lying in a pile of ceiling fragments on the floor. As Karin forced herself up, she heard the sound she dreaded most. A sickening, high pitched cackle drew her eyes to Usagi Usaki, standing triumphantly with his black rod in one hand and his pistol in the other. Karin now noticed several holes in the ceiling, no doubt where Usagi had fired his weapon to bring them down. No longer wearing his dark glasses, his horrible throbbing purple 'eyes' made him look like a demon as he leered down at them.

"Well, well, well, what do you know? Looks like my servants are traitors! Not that I expected much of a bunch of mindless animals to begin with of course," Usagi chuckled, "Now then, Karin Kurosaki, I'll be returning you to your cell to resume what we started."

Karin shook, partly in fear, but mostly in anger. Anger for being forcibly taken from her brother and friends. Anger for being tortured. But most of all, anger for being treated as if she were worthless. She would make her stand here. She wouldn't allow Usagi to treat her like dirt ever again.

"Repel, Denryu!" she yelled as she drew her Zanpakuto. Denryu straightened, taking its shikai form of a rapier. Karin did not hesitate for a second, immediately lunging for Usagi, the tip of her Zanpakuto aimed for his chest. Usagi jerked his black rod up, pushing the point of Karin's sword upwards so that the sides of their weapons were pressed against each other.

"So you wanna fight over it, huh?" Usagi smirked, "Fine by me; after all the trouble you've given me, I'm looking forward to giving you a well deserved thrashing. But first, please excuse me while I take care of a few ungrateful pests." Usagi raised his pistol to shoot the small creatures that had once been his servants.

"No!" Karin yelled, forcing his weapon back and slamming herself against Usagi's outstretched arm. A blast of blue energy was launched, but thanks to Karin it impacted harmlessly with a nearby wall. Before he had the chance to shoot again, Karin swung her sword in an arc, cleaving the pistol in two with a shower of sparks.

"Why you little-! I'm going to make you pay for that!" Usagi snarled, tossing away the useless remains of the pistol and swinging his weapon at her. Karin blocked it, glancing anxiously at the creatures that were now at risk of being caught in the crossfire. She noticed that only one end of the shaft they had crawled through had collapsed, and that the other end remained tenuously connected. If they could crawl through that… no, Usagi would never give her the chance… but if Karin could just keep him occupied… yes, that would work. Karin would just have to make her own way out.

"Run!" she yelled at the creatures, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine, just get out while you can!"

The creatures looked at her for a second, some clutching small knives and looking like they might rush to help her, but eventually they did as she said, and began scrambling up the broken shaft.

"Not so fast! You vermin won't escape my wrath!" Usagi yelled, throwing a silver sphere that Karin recognized as one of his bombs. Thinking quickly, she swung her Zanpakuto so that the tip nearly touched the bomb.

"Antei Teisei!" Karin said. A sphere of bright blue static surrounded the device that Usagi threw as it seemed to stop in mid-air on the tip of Karin's Zanpakuto. Karin flicked her sword to the side, releasing the device in another direction away from the fleeing creatures. The screen of static around the device quickly disappeared, but when the weapon hit the ground across the room, it did not explode, but simply let out a pop and began to leak a thin wisp of smoke.

"What did you do?" Usagi said in anger and shock, quickly backing away for fear that Karin would use another new technique.

"It's called Antei Teisei. It uses the electromagnetism of my Zanapkuto to alter volatile or unstable substances and devices so that they become stabilized and harmless. I assume that it alters electrons or atomic structure to render unstable substances harmless, I don't really know for sure. I was only a C-average student when it came to physics after all," Karin allowed herself a slight smirk at the sight of Usagi's visible shock, "In any case, I discovered the principle behind this technique shortly before you kidnapped me, and all the time you made me spend in my cell gave me a good opportunity to meditate on it and perfect it."

"I see; it looks like this will be a contest of fencing then," Usagi giggled.

"What do you mean?" Karin asked, glancing aside as the last of the creatures escaped.

"Look at the way you're holding your sword," Usagi said. Karin didn't move. She wasn't going to fall for a trick to make her lose focus, she already knew exactly how she was holding her sword. She held it in one hand with her arm straight, the tip pointed at Usagi's feet, ready to be raised for attack or used to parry one of his strikes.

"Well if you won't answer, I will," Usagi said, "What you carry is known as a rapier. Unlike the Katana that Shinigami traditionally use, it is a weapon not for slashing, cutting, and chopping, but for thrusting and stabbing. When two rapier-users face off, they do not block each other's blows, they parry them. The point is the most vital area for a rapier; in the human world, they sometimes don't even sharpen the sides. Of course, for you things are a bit different. Thanks to your ability, the sides of your Zanpakuto can be used just as effectively as the tip. Electromagnetic pulses allow you to easily bat away heavier blades, and by using it right you can even use it to rip through metal, as you demonstrated with my gun earlier. By using pulses to make it vibrate, you can even shear through non metallic substances. It is a truly useful weapon."

"Thanks, but I still don't get what you're trying to say," Karin said.

"Fine, let me spell it out for you. This is my weapon, Muchiyari," Usagi held up his pointed black rod, "As you probably noticed, only the point is sharpened. What you probably didn't notice was that I designed it myself, and that it has an internal crystal structure as hard as diamond. As it is so hard and not made of metal, it renders your techniques useless. Of course, that new ability you just demonstrated also renders most of my gadgets useless as well, so this will just be a good old fashioned sparring match."

"Fine by me," Karin said defiantly.

"Of course, don't think for a second that you can win," Usagi said, "You'll need to deliver quite a few strikes to me before I'll go down, where as I only need to give you a single scratch and you'll be down courtesy of my own special blend of toxin. Don't get too confident, you little runt."

At this, Karin suddenly grinned and stifled a bit of laughter, causing Usagi's eyes to narrow.

"What precisely is so funny?" he asked coldly.

"Oh it's nothing," Karin smirked, "It's just that now that you're not on that glider or torturing me, I realized that you're only a little taller than I am. Pretty short for a guy, don't you think?"

"That is irrelevant at the moment," Usagi said coldly, visibly angry at Karin's taunt, "Let's begin this."

"Yes, let's. Little runt."