Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach although I do own the OCs in this and all my other fics
Chapter two: Thinning the ranks
As Renji leapt form rooftop to rooftop he spotted his first target. A couple of small children were walking through the door of a nearby store, a small rat like hollow was scurrying down the front of the store eager to get at them.
"Zabimaru" he cried as he leapt from the rooftop, unsheathing his zanpaku-to, eager to get at the hollow. The hollow looked up and threw itself to one side, avoiding the swords attack by a hairs breadth. As Renji drew back his blade for a second swing a large icicle pierced the hollows mask and it fell to the ground as it broke apart and it's cleaned soul left to journey to Soul Society, Renji groaned as he realised what had happened.
"Looks like first blood's mine" Rukia said as she stepped out from behind the mailbox she'd been hiding behind
"No fair, that was my kill, you stole it" Renji complained
"Alls fair in love and war Renji, remember that" Rukia said before spying another hollow and setting off in hot pursuit.
"You got that right," Renji said to himself, remaining where he was. Ikkaku spotted Renji from up on the rooftop where he was standing
"Hey Abrai, get your head in the game or you'll come dead last, think about your girlfriend later" he called down
"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFREIND!!" Renji yelled, his face turning the same red shade as his hair, but Ikkaku had already moved on, eager to resume the hunt.
"Here hollows, come on hollows" Hanataro called out feebly, walking down a busy main street, his zanpaku-to held out in front of him. He continued down the street, glancing up overhead to see a wasp like hollow fleeing from Ikkaku, the hollow glanced down at Hanataro, then returned to its flight, apparently not interested in the seventh seat of 4th company.
"Oh who am I kidding, I can't find any hollows and even if I did, none would be bothered to fight me. He said to himself, sitting down on a nearby bench. Unknown to him, a cobra like hollow slithered out of a nearby storm drain and slithered towards him, it appeared behind him and raised its head, preparing to strike the unsuspecting soul reaper. As its head descended Hanataro caught a glimpse of its reflection in a nearby puddle and rolled out of its way as its body collided with the bench, smashing it to pieces in the process.
Panicking he lifted his zanpaku-to and slashed the hollow right across its face. Unfortunately Hisogomaru's ability kicked in and as soon as it had made the wound, it began to seal it back up. The hollow wheeled back around to face him, the wound now completely healed, and Hanataro thought the snake was laughing at him as it lunged forwards again, eager to finish the weakling off and move onto better, more worth prey.
As the hollows fanged head descended once again an energy blast struck it, halting its attack. The hollow looked confused but quickly got its bearings and resumed its attack only for a second energy blast to slam into it, which Hanataro was able to get a better look at. The blast was a cero blast and unlike normal cero blasts it was blue and in the shape of a wolfs head. With the second blast the hollow reeled back, unsure of what exactly was happening or who was attacking it, Hanataro saw a shadowy figure dart forwards and grab the hollow by its head with its left hand. The figure fired cero blast after cero blast until he dropped the hollow, which sank to the ground, its head almost completely destroyed by the cero bombardment.
"You should really keep your guard up, especially with such an…unusual zanpaku-to," the figure said, trying his best not to insult Hanataros weapon.
"Who are you?" Hanataro asked him; from the insignia on his uniform he could see he was from 12th company, and its third seat.
"I'm Kio Yukian, 12th divisions third seat and our representative in this little hunt" he replied, he had bright blue hair and pale purple eyes. The left side of his face was covered in shadow, seemingly cast into perpetual darkness
"And my captains greatest experiment" he added, turning so Hanataro could see the other side of his face. He nearly screamed when he saw it; the other side of his face was a blue and purple hollow mask.
"Shocking isn't it?" he said, raising his left arm, which was a hollows, before turning and walking away.
"If I were you I'd watch my back more carefully from now on, someone like me might not be around to save you the next time you let your guard down" he said as he departed. Suddenly Kio fell to the ground, the front of his shinigami uniform splattered with blood, which had come from the massive gaping wound that had appeared in his neck.
Hanataro quickly drew Hisogamaru and dragged it over the wound, which quickly closed up.
"What were you saying about letting your guard down?" he said as he helped Kio up
"I see your point, that would explain it" he said
"Explain what?" Hanataro asked
"I found the hunters from 9th and 2nd company a few minutes ago, both of them were dead and from the looks of it, both had been taken by surprise, it if weren't for you I might have joined them" he replied
"Yeah, I guess my zanpaku-to's not as useless as it looks" Hanataro said, looking down at the blade
"I'll make you a deal, I fight the hollows, you watch my back and heal me if whoever attacked me tries the same thing again. If I win the hunt I'll make you my lieutenant captain and see that you get the recognition you deserve" Kio said, extending his clawed hollow hand
"Do we have a deal?" he asked, Hanataro shook his hand
"We do" he said and at that the two Soul Reapers sheathed their blades and pressed onwards, back in the game.
Up on the rooftops Ikkaku finally had another hollow in his sights, a immense black hollow that looked similar to a stealth bomber, it was hovering over the ghost of a teenage boy loitering around at a bus stop, preparing to devour the spirit.
Drawing Hozokimaru he swung into action. He leapt down from the building, bringing his zanpaku-to down, intending to hack the hollow clean in half. Unfortunately another person had the exact same idea.
Ikkaku felt another spirit pressure, nearly equal to his own suddenly appear behind him, he felt something slam into his back, sending him crashing down to the ground. Overhead he saw the hollow fall to the ground, hacked in two right down the middle. His attacker paused to do a quick spirit burial on the boys ghost before turning around to look at 11th divisions 3rd seat.
"You snooze you lose cueball" she replied, resting her zanpaku-to on her left shoulder. It looked like a normal katana but with a spiral shaped blade, like a corkscrew.
"Who are you and how'd you manage to knock me down so easily?" he asked her, she smiled
"Me? I'm Alita Hanraoa, the new 4th seat of 3rd division, and I beat you so easily because of my zanpaku-to, Kamisaku (divine corkscrew), it can disrupt your spiritual pressure and your sense of balance, think of it as the ultimate combo of vertigo and whiplash" she said, looking very pleased with herself
"And you'd better remember my name, if you're nice to me after I win this thing I just might give you a good post in my new division, maybe my housecleaner, or perhaps you can help 4th division clean the streets, or maybe…" whatever else she was about to say was lost as her zanpaku-to slipped from her hand and fell to the ground with a clatter. She sank to her knees and looked down, dozens of massive gaping wounds had suddenly appeared across her chest and arms, she clasped her hands over the biggest one on her chest, trying in vain to stem the flow of blood. It failed and she looked at Ikkaku, her gaze a mix of shock, pain and fear as she fell to the ground.
Ikkaku leapt to her feet, intending to run to her aid but stopped almost immediately afterwards, realising there was nothing he could do, she was dead. He immediately realised he could be next and held Hozokimaru out in front of him, circling round and round quickly, hoping to stop whoever had killed her before they could do the same to him. He sensed another two groups of spiritual pressure and spun around seeing Renji and Rukia coming towards him from across the street.
"What happened?" Rukia asked as soon as she reached Ikkaku, kneeling down to get a better look at Alitas injuries.
"Did you see anything Ikkaku-senpai?" Renji asked him, scanning around to see if there was any other Soul Reapers nearby, or Ichigo.
"Nothing, she was fine one minute, the next she was like that, I've got no idea what could inflict that many wounds in the blink of an eye" he said
"We should tell someone, find one of the Captains, they'll know what to do" Rukia said, standing and getting ready to leave to find 13th divisions commander.
"No, they've all gone back to Soul Society, we're on our own now" Ikkaku said, returning his zanpaku-to to it's unreleased form
"So what should we do, Ikkaku-senpai?" Renji asked him, he shrugged
"Beats me, that kinda question's why I never became captain" he said
"I thought you didn't become captain because every time you tried Captain Zaraki kicked your…" Renji didn't get a chance to continue as Ikkaku whacked him over the head with the blunt edge of his zanpaku-to
"I don't think your girlfriend needs to know about that" he said
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFREIND!!" Renji yelled before slumping to the ground, out cold from the whack to the head.
"Getting back to the question, what should we do? You're the senior officer here now Renji's out cold" Rukia asked Ikkaku
"I guess we should stick together, that way we'll be prepared if whoever's doing this tries to do the same thing to us" he replied
"What about her?" Rukia asked, motioning to Alitas motionless body
"There isn't anything we can do for her now, we'll tell the captains and someone'll come and get her after the hunts over" he replied
"And what about if we see any hollows?" she asked him, he grinned
"Then it's first come, first served, now get your boyfriend and let's get going" he replied, unlike Renji Rukia didn't reply but only smiled slightly, picked Renji up and hoisted him onto her shoulders, and the three of them took off again.
After they'd cleared the scene two figures stepped forward from the shadows, one of them reached down and snatched up Alita's zanpaku-to
"Here, get this back to Las Noches, Aizen'll want Szayel to take a look at this as soon as possible" it said to the other figure, who turned around
"I don't see what the Arrancar can possibly gain from this little venture of yours Tenalava, or why it was necessary for me to kill all those Soul Reapers. Such trash is not a good use of my skills" Ulquiorra said in his normal emotionless tone
"Relax, Aizen made me the 5th Espada for a reason" Tenalava replied, the sun reflecting off his dark orange eyes, and enhancing their shrewd, cruel stare. Like Ulquiorra his hollow mask was on his head and it covered the back of it like a helmet, and like Ulqiorras it resembled that of a Vasto Lorde
"As I recall he made another of us the 5th as well" Ulquiorra said
"Hey, he only did that cause I'm never around, he needed to give someone the post or ol'Grimmjow would've tried to grab it for himself, not that Notoria's not a bad choice for the post" Tenalava replied, handing the zanpaku-to to the 4th Espada
"Regardless, I'll be taking this back to Las Noches, when you're done here, please feel free to follow" he replied, opening a portal and stepping through it, leaving the human world for Hueco Mondo
"I aint done here yet, not by a long shot" Tenalava replied, continuing on in his plan
Meanwhile in the park…
"Come on Tatsuki, this game's pretty simple once you get hang of it" Orihime called to her friend
"How do you play basket bowling again?" she asked her
"It's simple, you bounce the ball off the ground and try to knock down all the pins" Orihime said, bouncing her basketball and getting a strike, knocking down all the pins she'd set up earlier.
As the two girls played the latest of Orihimes long line of bizarre games, a hollow that looked like a giant black ball was rolling its way across a nearby rooftop, grinning wickedly as it sensed the two high levels of spirit energy nearby. It sped up into a rolling charge, reached the end of the rooftop and propelled itself off the edge into the air, where it dropped like a evil wrecking ball, aiming right at the two girls.
As it neared them 10th divisions hunter saw what was happening, and who the hollow was about to attack, springing into action he ran forwards form where he'd been hiding behind a set of swings, drew his zanpaku-to and slashed at the hollow. Orihimes attention was quickly diverted from the game of basket bowling when the two pieces of the hollow dropped the ground on either side of her. The Soul Reaper who'd saved her then stepped forward to introduce himself. When Orihime saw his face she could barely form a response
"S…Sora?"
In chapter 3 – Orihime's brother is back and the Espada continue with their plan for the remaining hunters
To be continued, reviews and feedback are encoraged and appreciated