Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 15 Hours, 57 Minutes, 59 Seconds..
As Nel looked around, she had no idea where she was. All she saw around here was complete darkness. but the part that creeped her out about her dream was the fact that she could hear breathing all around here. It wasn't just an echo either, she knew for a fact something was surrounding her on all sides. She gasped as she heard footsteps behind here, but felt a sign of relief when she saw Ichigo's face.
"Itzygo!" She said cheerfully. But her face went to curious as she noticed Ichigo hadn't moved at all, or changed his expression. "Itzygo?" She said again, tugging on his Kimono. She gasped as she saw Ichigo fall to the ground. Her eyes widened in terror as she saw a large sword in his back. She turned around as she heard a maniacle laughter behind her. Her face went blank as it was the same demon she met in her last dream.
"Missed me?" It said, sarcastically. Nel screamed as the demon grabbed her shoulders, not letting go. She tugged on the demons arms trying to break free.
"Let me go!" Nel kept saying, trying to break free. It was at that time Rukia was shaking her shoulders. She heard Nel yelling in her sleep, as she was moving around as well. She started to worry though as she saw Nel tugging Rukia's arms away as she tried to sleep. She kept trying to shake her to wake her up from the strange nightmare she was having. Nel's eyes snapped open as she suddenly woke up. She breathed a bit heavily as she finally woke up, seeing Rukia holding her by the shoulder.
"Are you ok?" Rukia asked. Nel was still breathing hard for a bit. She looked around to see Geddon there as well, sleeping near the fire. As she looked around, she realized they were in the forest, surrounded by trees. There was a campfire near them as well, surrounded by a circled formation of the trees. Nel looked as Geddon suddenly woke up.
"What's wrong?" Geddon asked Rukia, seeing Nel in a panicked like state.
"She was having a nightmare." Rukia said, looking at Geddon then back at Nel, who was sleeping on her lap.
"It was..." She started, breathing heavily. "Weally...weally scawy." Nel said, leaning her head back on Rukia's chest.
"What happened in your nightmare?" Rukia asked. She began to feel nervous about asking though when she saw Nel's eyes starting to fill with tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you don't have to tell me if you don't want too." Rukia apologized, resting her hand on Nel's broken skull. Nel sniffed a bit before replying.
"It was Itzygo..." She said, sniffling a bit. Geddon and Rukia looked at her curiously. "A...a demon killed him...again..." She said, as more tears rolled down her cheek.
"Again?" Rukia asked questionablly. "You had it before?" Rukia asked. Nel nodded as she sniffed.
"It was weally scawey...Da thing looked like a shinigami, but was dark and wed all over." Nel said, causing Rukia and Geddon to look at each other surprised, then back at Nel. "The fwist time, I was in da city. It was buwning everywhere, and dis time it was completely black until I saw..." Nel didn't finsih her sentence as she started to cry again. Rukia rubbed Nel's head head to sooth her.
"It's alright Nel, it was just a dream. Head back to sleep, we'll be in town tommorow morning." Rukia said, trying to comfort her.
"I don't wanna doh! I don't wunna have da nightmare anymore." Nel cried, hugging Rukia.
"Look Nel, just remember what I said earliar." Rukia said. Nel sniffed as she was remembering.
"He neva bweaks a pwomise..." Nel replied. Rukia nodded a bit with a smile as Nel leaned back, slowly falling asleep. Rukia and Geddon looked at each other a little worried though, wondering what the dream was about...
Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 11 Hours, 25 Minutes, 23 Seconds...
Ishida, Renji, Chad, and Orihime were exhausted. Whether or not the hollows were illusions, they were still attacking humans, and turning others into hollows. After what seemed like twelve straight hours, the four of them had met back on the top of a building, where they saw the last hollow, before they "killed" it. Unfortunately, Orihime was above Renji by two kills. His head was down in shame.
"I...think that's the last of them..." Ishida said, breathing heavily.
"We should be able to rest now..." Chad said, who had collapsed on the ground, exhausted.
"God this is a pain. Whether or not we kill any hollows, more just take it's place." Renji yelled, squeezing his fist in anger. Ishida's eyes widened though as he realized something.
"Everyone, run away from here." Ishida warned, taking out his spirit bow. The others looked at him confused.
"What's wrong?" Renji asked, knowing when it came to Ishida, he could tell whenever something was wrong.
"Don't you find it weird? We all split up, taking four diffrent areas of the town. I took North, Orihime took South..." Ishida started, before being interrupted by Renji.
"Just get to the point!"
"It's a trap!" Ishida said. Suddenly, a group of hollows surrounded them. Reacting quickly, each of them disposed of the nearest ones. Chad used his strength to push a large Hollow off the edge of the building, but what he saw caused him to look surprised. Climbing the building, there were hundreds of diffrent hollows all heading for the top.
"Guys, over here." Chad mentioned. Everyonelooked over and gasped.
"Theres alot of them." Orihime said, a bit shocked.
"That's not the worst problem. Look over there!" Renji warned. What the others saw caused them to gasp. At the very bottom of the building, a group of hollows were attacking, attempting to destroy the entire building.
"They're going to destroy the building!" Orihime said, frightened.
"This doesn't make any sense." Ishida said to himself. "Hollows could never be this organized, how could they pull something like this off? Wait a minute..." Ishida said, looking closely at the sides of the building."That's it!" Ishida raised his bow above his head. "Everyone get down!" Ishida warned. The others looked questionabbly at first before they saw Ishida firing arrows all around him, ducking from them. The arrows went everywhere for a bit before they heard one of the arrows hit something. When the other's looked, they gasped as they saw all the hollow have vanished.
"W-What just happened?" Renji stammere, shocked.
"Those were real illusions." Ishida said, pushing up his glasses.
"Well played I have to admit I never thought someone would discover my illusion so quickly." A mysterious voice said. When the four looked, standing on the pole on top of the building, they saw what appeared to be a someone in a grey suit. He had a strange array of purple eyes, and red hair, and a black mask.
"Who the hell are you?" Renji stammered, taking out his zanbakuto.
"I am the illusionary knights, Zan....Ahhh!" The stranger screamed, accidently falling off the pull. There was a large thud as the stranger's head landed on the ground, while the others felt a drop of sweat behind their head. The stranger coughed a bit of dust out of their mouth got up. "As I was saying, I am the famous Zaniko!" The stranger yelled.
"....Who?" Chad asked. Zaniko lowered his head in shame.
"The name's Zaniko! A lot of people call me Zani though." The stranger replied.
"Are you the one who's been making these hollows appear and disappear?" Ishida asked.
"Hm...only the one's you just saw. I garuntee that the others were quite real. Tell me though, I was interested in how you did figure out the illusion. Care to explain?"
"Well...it's just that it was poor in detail..." Ishida replied.
"What?!" Zani Stammered.
"Well first off, when the hollows attacked the building, their arms simply went through everything. And when they climbed the buildings, there were no marks or whatever that indicated they were climbing..." Zani's head lowered again in shame.
"For an Illusion knigt you're not too bright..." Renji replied, causing Zani to lower his head even more.
"What's an Illusion knight?" Orihime asked.
"A clan of shinigamis who call themselves the Illusion knights. They morph their spiritual energies to corrupt the mind of the ones their fighting, then launch an attack."
"I could've answered that for her you know!" Zani stammered.
"Do you even know where your clan originated?" Renji asked, lowering his eye brows. The stranger opened their mouth, about to say something, but lowered their head again in shame.
"Well look, we don't have time to play right now. Come back some other time man." Renji said, leaving. Zani's eyes flared up.
"You fat jerk!" Zani said, instantly appearing in front of Renji. The group looked shocked at Zani's incredible speed. Zani slapped Renji in the face, leaving behind a beating red mark.
"Ow!" He shouted, rubbing the mark on his face. He suddenly realized something at that moment though. "...Take off your mask." Zani started to look nervous.
"Uh...why?"
"Just do it."
"No way jerk!" Renji raised an eyebrow before getting an idea.
"Your bra is noticable you know?" Zani's eyes started to look like they were panicking. The stranger looked down their chest worriedly. Their eyes widened though ocne they realized it was a trick.
"Shit..." The stranger swore to themself. The stranger took off their mask, revealing a long-red haired woman with green eyes. The others looked surprised.
"I knew it!" Renji stammered. He screamed in pain again as he felt the girl slap him across the same cheek.
"You jerk! I thought you were being serious!"
"A girl as a knight? Girls can't fight though..." Renji started, before being slapped on the other side of the face. This time he felt Orihime slap him.
"You know she's right, you are a jerk." She said, glaring at him.
"I meant girls aren't allowed to be knights in her clan!" He shouted. Orihime felt a sweat drop behind her, knowing she just made a mistake.
"Sorry..."
"Why can't the girls be knights?" Ishida asked, suriously.
"The females of the clan are taught self defensive techniques, and therefore called Illusion defenders." Renji replied.
"Yeah except me." Zani said, standing a few feet away from the group. "Which reminds me, you might wanna watch your steps..." Out of nowhere, a giant hole appeared in the roof beneath them. The four of them screamed as they began to fall, with nothing to grab onto or save their lives from the seemingly bottomless pit...
Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 12 Hours, 38 Minutes, 42 Seconds...
As Nel, Rukia, and Geddon entered town, they noticed there weren't many people outside. It didn't make any sense to them though, because people around Earth die all the time, so they'd expect at least someone to be there.
"Where is evewybody?" Nel asked, noticing how empty the town was.
"There should be someone around here." Rukia said, questionablly. Rukia's eyes shot out to the side though as she noticed a strange shadowy figure through the window, before disappearing out of sight. Geddon noticed how Rukia looked at the window strangely.
"Something wrong?" She asked. Rukia focused on the building more before looking back at Geddon.
"I don't think the town is really empty. C'mon." Rukia commanded, walking into the building. As soon as they entered, the three looked surprised as they noticed it had alot of people around inside. But the way they were all together made it curious, wondering if they were all hiding from something or not.
"What's going on here?" Nel asked, looking around at the hundreds of people. Everyone got a frightened look on their face though when they saw Nel.
"I-I-It's a hollow! They're gonna kill us!" Said a male soul, pointing at Nel's skull. Everyone began to go into panic as they all left the place, running into another building. Rukia and Geddon felt a sweat drop as they watched.
"I'm not dunna kill anybody..." Nel said, a bit upset.
"Na, don't listen to them Nel. They're just being stupid is all." Rukia said, smiling a bit as she looked at Nel. They all looked though as they saw someone coming out of a door.
"Oh, hello there...Where'd everybody go?" The spirit asked, looking around. He appeared to be an aged old man, with grey hair.
"Well apparently they all left. Something about hollows..." Rukia said, trying to take the subject off of Nel.
"Ah yes...my memories aren't as good as they used to be. Theres been reports of hollow attacks all across town..." The man said, looking as if in thought. Rukia's eyes widened a bit though at what she heard.
"What? Why haven't any shinigami's looked into the problem?" Rukia asked, confused.
"Apparently they've been busy by my guess. They've been having alot of meetings and such about the weird disturbances." The old man replied. Rukia looked a bit shocked though. She knew there have been strange occurances around the human world, but it was strange that disturbances were affecting the soul society as well.
"I suppose I could give you three a room tonight, seeing how everyone else is gone." The old man said, shuffling through dwares in a desk. He finally took out a pair of keys with numbers on them.
"Please enjoy your stay." The man said, handing Geddon the keys, then walking away.
"Uhh...thanks?" Geddon replied, a bit confused with the old man's behavior.
"Dat seemed easy." Nel said, a bit cheerfully.
"I am curious about the hollow attacks though. Usually shinigami's would have enough people to spare for something like this. I wonder what is going on." Rukia said, walking down the hall. It took the three a few minutes before finally finding their room. As Geddon opened the door, the group were quite surprised at the room. It wasn't classy like, it's just that it looked like it was just used, and no one has cleaned it for awhile.
"At least it's got two beds." Nel said, hopping on of Rukia's back and hoping on the bed. "And it's comfy." She commented, patting on the soft bed. Geddon looked around too, quite surprised at how nice it seemed, even with the fact it was used. As Geddon looked outside, her eyes looked strangely at the empty town.
"Why is everyone staying inside? How is that going to protect them from hollows?" Geddon asked, seeing someone run inside a building.
"The buildings are spiritually protected. They keep out dangerous things like hollow, making it impossible for hollows to destroy buildings with normal attacks." Rukia replied.
"I'm gonna be gone for awhile." Rukia said, walking out the door. Nel looked at her questionablly.
"What? Why are you weaving?" Nel asked, a bit upset.
"It's alright Nel. I just gotta meet the person who I'm expecting help from." Rukia replied, looking back at Nel. Nel sighed a bit disoppointingly.
"Ok den." Nel replied. She stared at her stomach though as it growled.
"I'm getting a bit hungry too." Geddon mentioned, looking at her stomach. "Let's order room service." Geddon said, grabbing the phone in their cheered a bit from this as Rukia giggled.
"I shouldn't be that long. Stay out of trouble you two." Rukia said, leaving.
"Bye Wukia." Nel said, waving.
Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 12 Hours, 20 Minutes, 3 Seconds...
As Renji and the others fell, they began to grow tired of the never ending pit. They were more bored than scared as of now, actually wishing if it was real it would hurry up and kill them.
"What's taking this thing so long?" Orihime asked, who looked like she was laying on her back with her arms under her head.
"I have no idea. Illusion knights are known for having their illusions last for a long time. Even if there was a bottom to this, we would just wake up when it killed us." Renji replied, who looked like he was leaning on his side as he continued falling.
"Uhh...guys? I think it gets worse than this." Ishida said, pointing up. When the others looked, they moaned as they saw the opening of the hole they fell through.
"How long are we going to be like this?" Chad asked.
"I don't know. An untrained Illusionary knight is a bad mix up." Renji replied. Ishida gasped quietly though at what he just thought of.
"Everyone, I got an idea, but I don't know if it'll work." Ishida said, taking out his bow.
"W-What are you doing?" Orihime asked nervously.
"Sorry if this doesn't work Orihime." Ishida said, firing it right through Orihime's head. The others gasp at what he had just done, until they saw Orihime puff into smoke.
"W-What just happened?" Renji asked.
"It makes sense now. We were never physically in her illusion to begin with. Killing ourselves in here will wake us up!" Ishida said, pointing at the others, who grew nervous looks.
"A-Are you sure it won't hurt at least." Renji asked, hesitantly.
"Of course...but just in case I'm doing it to you first." Ishida said, firing arrows at Renji and Chad. He watched as they both disappeared into smoke. He sighed deeply as he pointed the bow at himself and fired. Everything went black for a few seconds until he finally opened his eyes. He looked around, seeing as the others got up as well. He sighed, seeing how he was right about his prediction.
"Well, now what do we go?" Renji asked, looking around town. As Ishida and the others looked, they saw the sun was already setting, indicating however long they were out for passed quickly in reality.
"In my opinion, we should look for that knight again. If she keeps causing problems like this, it won't be good for the people living around here." Ishida said, looking around. His eyes widened though as he saw streets torn apart, and some buildings had collapsed.
"What the hell happened!?" Renji stammered, seeing the destruction.
"You don't suppose it was Zani, do you?" Orihime suggested, looking at the destroyed streets.
"Not likely. Illusion knight or not, they don't have many physical attacks, only mental ones with self images." Renji replied. "Whatever did this had way more power than Zani, and giving the amount of damage, I'd say it was done all at the same time."
"What could be strong enough to do all this at the same time?" Chad asked.
"I don't really care what it was, all I do care is that we stop whatever caused it in the first place." Ishida said, looking around.
"Uhh...guys?" Orihime mentioned, trying to get everyone's attention. The others looked at her questionably as they saw she was looking at the sky. Their eyes shot out at what they saw. Up in the sky, they saw what appeared to be giant sized astroids, all heading at the same time, but at a very slow rate.
"I-Is it my imagination, or are those giant stars?" Chad asked, seeing the weird astroids.
"Something like this isn't possible. Astroids don't come all lined up like this and move at the same rate. Something else is going on here." Ishida said, looking around the sky. His eyes widened though as he saw more of the astroids, all going in one straight line, around the globe. "They're all coming at the same rate at the same time."
"Do you think this is Zani's doing?"
"I don't think she's bright enough to pull something off like this." Renji replied.
"Hey I heard that!" A voice shouted. The group looked as they saw Zani standing near a ledge of the building.
"What the? What do you want now?"
"Well I was waiting for you guys to wake up, then you started babbling about the stupid astroids just as I was about to congratulate you for getting out of there!" Zani stammered.
"I'm not sure getting complemented by you is exactly a good thing..." Ishida said, feeling a sweat drop roll down the back of his head.
"But since you are awake, it means I can leave." Zani started, turning around. Right when she was about to take a step off the building, Ishida's eyes widened a bit.
"Wait!" Ishida shouted, stopping Zani ,who looked back, from stepping off the building.
"What do you want now?"
"Why were you waiting for us?"
"Because, the stupid hollows are ruining my relaxation, so if you weren't going to wake up by the time the moon showed up, I was going to wake you." Zani said, turning back towards the edge. The group gasped a bit as they saw her walk off the building. They all ran to the edge, wondering if she really fell off the building, but were a bit shocked to find out she vanished.
"Who was that strange girl?" Orihime asked, still looking around.
Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 10 Hours, 47 Minutes, 42 Seconds...
As Rukia looked around the town, she noticed how empty it was. The only people she could see were those through windows, but that was about it. She was walking down the street, looking for the place where she was suppose to meet her "inside" helper. She finally found the street she was suppose to meet at. She sighed as she leaned against the side corner of a building. She could hear sighing on the other side of the corner, indicating someone was there.
"You come alone?" Rukia asked, shifting her eyes to the side of the building her help was on.
"As agreed, you?" Ukitake asked.
"Of course."
"What about the other two?" Ukitake asked.
"I had them stay at the Inn. They should be fine for the time being. I outta thank you for spreading rumors about attacking hollows around here. Otherwise we'd be stuck in the street a whole lot longer, increasing the chance someone would find us." Rukia said. Ukitake chuckled at this.
"It was my plesure. All I had to do was destroy a building, leave the scene, then say that hollows attacked it later." Ukitake replied. Rukia looked at him a bit disturbed, which Ukitake noticed. "Oh no, don't worry. It was abbandoned years ago."
"Oh..." Yukia said, sighing.
"Anyway, I may be able to get some people to help, but we do have one problem." Ukitake said, catching Rukia's attention. "It's Byakuya." Rukia's eyes widened at what he just said. "He's looking for Geddon. He thinks she's trying to gather spiritual energy to destroy everything, but obviously, even if we did believe him, we have orders not to harm her." Rukia was a bit worried. She knew how stubborn Byakuya could be when he didn't give up on something.
"Any ideas where he is?" Rukia asked.
"Last I checked, he's hired some old man to watch over the Inns'." Ukitake said, causing Rukia to gasp, remembering the old man she met earliar. She quickly took off, running back to the Inn. Ukitake looked at her, concerned.
"What's wrong?"
"I think Geddon and Nel are in trouble. I gotta go check on them!" Rukia said, taking off again. Ukitake looked at her a bit worried, deciding to follow her.
Countdown To The End Of The World: 6 Days, 10 Hours, 9 Minutes, 37 Seconds...
Nel and Geddon sighed happily as they finished the last of their food. They ordered some pizza, which both of them liked quite a bit.
"Dat tasted good." Nel said, patting her stomach.
"Yeah, I liked it too." Geddon said, throwing away the pizza box. Suddenly, the outwer wall of the room exploaded, causing dust and smoke to scatter everywhere. Nel and Geddon covered their eyes to keep the smoke out, coughing a bit though as it filled their lungs a bit. Geddon opened one of her eyes, and was quite shocked at the fact she couldn't see anything, causing her to panic.
"Nel? Nel where are you?" Geddon asked, coughing a bit.
"I'm over here..." Nel said, coughing a bit, still having her eyes closed. She opened her eyes though as she tugged on something. "G-Gedden?" Nel said, opening her eyes just a little bit, trying not to get smoke in her eye. As she started looking up, she noticed it was a robe, which meant it wasn't Geddon. "Wukia..." She started, thinking of the only alternative. Her eyes widened though as she saw it was Byakuya, looking down at her.
"Take your arm off me, arrancar." Byakuya said, tugging his kimono off of Nel, who fell back. Nel looked a bit horrifired as she went backwards, until she bumped into a wall. She began to grow more worried as she saw Byakuya walking towards her. "Where's Geddon?" Nel just continued to look in fear, unable to answer his question. Her eyes widened as he took out his weapon. "If you do not tell me where she is, I will kill you."
"I-I dunno!" Nel said, scared. Technically, she really didn't know as of now. She couldn't see Geddon anywhere, and didn't know if she was blasted somewhere.
"If you continue to lie to me, so be it." Byakuya said, raising his sword.
"Ahhh!" Nel screamed in fear, covering her face. As Byakuya swung the sword down, Geddon came out of nowhere, pushing Byakuya and herself out through the giant hole in the wall. Nel looked as she watched the two fall out.
"Gedden!" She screamed, worried. As Geddon and Byakuya fell out, Geddon lost grip of Byakuya, and landed a few yards away from her. Byakuya easily got to his feet as he landed. Geddon got to her feet a few seconds after landing.
"Leave your hands off of her!" Geddon yelled glaring at Byakuya.
"Sacrificing your life to save her. Quite noble. I promise to make this painless." Byakuya, taking out his sword. His gaze went to behind him though as he heard footsteps. As he looked, he saw Rukia and Ukitake appear.
"Byakuya stop!" Rukia said, worried.
"Ukitake, your part of this too?" Byakuya said, a bit surprised, but with the same expression as always.
"Byakuya, if you continue I will be forced to fight, and they'll surely execute you for killing another captain." Ukitake said, taking out his zanpakuto.
"It matters not. If death will be my punishment, then so be it. But not until after I kill Geddon." Byakuya said, looking back at Geddon. The so quiet streets would soon become an all out battle zone.....