DISCLAIMER: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite, Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Bisco Hatori. I like pie. My apologies to H.P. Lovecraft. ;)
Chapter 7: Black Magic
"How did you know what we were talking about?" Tamaki panted as they raced down Ourans deserted hallways. They'd pulled out their medieval European knight set, were in full costume armor complete with prop swords – it would have no effect against hollows but classmates would certainly take a beating, if need be.
"Easy. Who else sends you into your corner that fast but Nekozawa?" Karou panted.
"Oh yeah…"
Despite the dire situation, Kon was bouncing along ahead of them, his armor clanking merrily. He really enjoyed the cosplay, he really, really did. "I don't want it to be over yet!" He sighed. "I don't what to have to go back to Karakura! This place is so wonderful!"
"Even with the monsters?" Hunny asked.
"Nee-san is taking care of that right now. After they're done, there shouldn't be any hollows here. No more than usual I mean."
"There's usually hollows?" Tamaki gulped.
"A few. What do you think shinigami do all day?" Kon shrugged.
Conversation ceased as they approached the hall that contained the much dreaded chem lab. Slowing to a trot, then an apprehensive stalk, they made their way as stealthily as possible down the shadowy corridor. It was far more sinister than Tamaki remembered. They must be in there.
Approaching the door, Kon and Hunny positioned themselves on either side, the rest of the club drew their prop swords and readied themselves for a charge. Hunny nodded to Kon, who then leapt out and kicked the door in, then bolted inside, Hunny hot on his heels and Mori loping in sedately.
Understandably, Tamaki was last. By the time he scooched in the door, the rest of the club was wreaking havoc… mostly chasing the Black Magic Club around, flailing wildly. Nekozawa was nowhere to be seen. "He isn't in here!" He yelped.
All motion ceased.
"Really?" Asked Kon, scratching his head with a free hand as the other held a short boy by the cloak.
"I dunno what I did but I'm sorry!" The boy sobbed.
"Where is your President?" Kyoya asked. He was riding shepherd over the twins, who had cornered a trio of cloaked figures.
"He went to the bathroom." One of the cloaked figures whimpered. She hugged her arms to her chest.
One snorted and pulled her hood back. "What are you idiots doing anyway? It's not like you to raid other clubs, although the costumes make sense."
"What are you up to?" Knowing that Nekozawa wasn't around at the moment gave Tamaki a boost of confidence. He strode into the center of the room, swept his cape back dramatically and inspected the cauldron resting there. It had a rather odd vibe about it.
"You wouldn't even be able to comprehend what rites we're performing." The bold girl scoffed.
Kon sighed and twisted the short boys arm around.
"Ooowww!"
"Answer the mans question."
"Aaack! We're summoning something!" The boy yelped.
"Daisuke!" The girl hissed.
"What kind of something?" Kon asked, adjusting his grip slightly.
"I dunno it – aaahh! A… a Horrow!"
"Horrow?" The twins echoed, exchanging dumbfounded looks. "What the hell is that?"
"Do you mean… hollow…?" Tamaki asked.
"I don't know!" Daisuke sobbed. Kon let him go, he immediately scampered over to where the other three club members were being held.
"Engrish?" The mod soul asked.
"Yeah. It's gotta be." Tamaki nodded. "Can you summon a hollow?"
"Um… well, sorta." Kon shifted his weight. "They're attracted to high spirit energy, so it is possible to bait them." He shuffled over and inspected the contents of the cauldron. "But, this won't do it."
"Of course not, that's just the catalyst."
Tamaki felt a cold chill creep up his spine at that voice, that horrible voice…
"Ah, there you are, Nekozawa-senpai." Karou said, leaning casually against his brother.
"Mind telling us what you've been doing the past week?" Hikaru added.
Nekozawa simply chuckled. "Research."
"What's up with the cat puppet?" Kon asked, quirking a brow.
Tamaki felt his hair fuzz up as he dashed to the shorter boys side. "Shhhh! Don't make him mad!"
"Why, this is Bereznoff," Nekozawa smiled, the candlelight briefly illuminating one blue eye hidden in the deepest depths of his hood. "My helper and friend."
"Okay." Kon gave Tamaki an appraising look. "You're afraid of this guy?"
"Terrified!"
"Ooookay…"
"It seems, Nekozawa-senpai, that whatever it is you've been doing here has been causing problems." Kyoya said coolly.
"Yes, the spirits are restless, aren't they Tamaki-san? Are you enjoying the company of the shinigami?"
Tamaki bolted out of the half crouch he'd been in. "You can see them!?"
"Of course! The ability to commune with the dead runs in my family."
Tamaki and Kon exchanged glances. "Well, then you should know that calling hollows here is a bad idea." Kon snapped.
Tamaki groaned. "You were sending the hollows after me weren't you?"
Nekozawa, or rather, Bereznoff tilted his head to the side. "…hollow?"
Everyone sweatdropped. Kon growled and marched over to a heavily curtained window, threw the curtain back. "Shutters?"
"Nekozawa-senpai cannot stand bright lights." The bold girl informed.
"Geeze you people are weird," Kon sighed. He opened the window and attempted to open the shutters but, apparently, they were nailed shut. Grumbling to himself, he hopped up onto the counter, prepared to kick.
"Don't bother, Kon-san, they're on the other side of the school, I believe." Kyoya tapped the hilt of his sword. "Besides, you don't want to owe Ouran money."
Kon paused. "Thought it was kinda quiet." He turned around and sat down on the counter. "Anyway, I was going to show you what a hollow is but it looks like I'm just going to have to tell you."
Before he could start, a blast of reiatsu welled out from below. Nekozawa cackled like a madman, Bereznoff rubbed his little paws together. "It's starting! Quickly! The container!"
The twins bristled, not allowing the rest of the Black Magic Club to pass although it was Hunnys dark look and Mori's stoic presence that truly kept them from advancing. Tamaki hid in the corner.
"You cannot stop me now, Tamaki-san!" Nekozawa crowed, pointing an accusing finger at the blonde as Bereznoff made spooky gestures with his paws. He bolted for a particular sink, drawing a strange, wooden object out of his robes. Tamaki felt the ambient reiatsu flare ominously. He poked his head above the desk he was wedged behind just in time to watch Kon do a double take.
"Where the hell did you get one of those?" He yelped, scrambling to catch up with the president of the Black Magic Club.
"I told you, my family has a long, proud history of communing with spirits!" Nekozawa snapped. He held the wooden object above the sink and placed a brass bowl over the drain. "And now…"
"Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!"
HIGH POWERED MOTOR!
"Renge-kun?" The Host Club gasped.
"Ho ho ho ho! Are you ready, Haruhi-san?"
"Yes!"
"Haruhi!?" The Host Club yelped.
"EVIL BEAM!" Renge crowed. Suddenly, the most blinding light anyone had ever seen erupted out of Renge and Haruhis hands, catching Nekozawa square in the chest. Actually they just had flashlights but they had the desired effect; Nekozawa screamed like a girl and ran away. Renge lunged after him, laughing crazily, flashlight in one hand, prop sword in the other. Haruhi hopped off the platform and shuffled to the wall, flicked the lights on. Everyone blinked back the glare, the Black Magic Club pulled the cowls of their hoods foreword (but otherwise seemed unfazed).
"That was brilliant!" Tamaki leapt to his feet. He had intentions of glomping her but froze. "Where'd you get the costume?"
"Renge-kun." She shrugged and straightened her hakama. She was wearing shinigami robes, the hilt of a prop sword stuck out of a scabbard at her waist; it was pure white. Kon suppressed a giggle and gave her a thumbs up.
"So, is that it?" Hikaru asked.
"I don't know…" Tamaki turned to Kon.
"Still a lot of restless reiatsu out there." He shrugged. "They may just need to clean up now or…"
Nekozawa ran back in, the lights went out as he passed. Renge slid in next and crashed into a desk. "Damn these sandals!" She hissed. "Absolutely no traction!"
"You have to use your toes, Renge-san." Haruhi offered helpfully, daintily placing a sandled foot down and wiggling her toes to demonstrate – not that you could really tell with the candlelight and those funny socks.
"So cute!" Tamaki gushed, dashing to the other side of the room and scooping Haruhi up into a hug.
"Gah! Tamaki-senpai!"
"What is that?" Kyoya asked, joining Kon by that particular sink.
"Its sort of like hollow bait, no ones used these in a long time." Kon said, turning the small wooden carving of a strange, winged, squid faced creature over in his hands. "They're supposed to be able to control hollows, but they don't work very well." He set it down on the counter and inspected the brass bowl. "No idea what this is for though."
"It's to focus the energy." Nekozawa grumbled. Renge had him by the back of the robe, flashlight to his head. His hood had fallen off, and his dark wig was slightly askew, revealing a few curious glimpses of golden blonde locks.
"Can you reverse this?" Kon asked, gesturing to the reiatsu that was swiftly filling the room.
"Uh…" Nekozawa shuffled a little awkwardly. "… I'm not sure."
"Not sure?" Haruhi asked, finally breaking free. She sidled over to the sink, wrinkled her nose. "This is so weird…"
"You can sense something, Fujioka-kun?" Nekozawa perked up, Bereznoff looked downright delighted.
"A little." She sighed and turned around, leaned against the counter, still tired from running helter skelter around the school. "All I know is that there's a lot of monsters out there right now. Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
"Of course! We're summoning a Horrow!"
"Hollow." The Host Club corrected flatly.
"They're a third level summoning monster in this book…" he dug around in his robes and produced a surprisingly large tome. Kyoya slid over to take a look at it.
"The Necronomicon…?"
"That sounds familiar," mused Kon. There was a rather ominous roar just then. Tamaki and Kon looked up.
"It's coming!" Nekozawa giggled, dancing a little jig.
"Shit on a stick… everyone get down!" Kon grabbed Haruhi and pulled her down with him, Tamaki dove under a desk. The rest of the occupants of the room hesitated until the sound of Ourans roof being ripped off reached their ears.
Wood and metal screamed, masonry crumbled, there was a rain of desks then sunlight and dust flooded the room. Against his better judgement, Tamaki opened his eyes. He locked gazes with Haruhi who was frozen in fear, wedged partway under the sink; Kon huddled next to her, his eyes bugging out.
What's going on? He mouthed to Tamaki, pointing up.
Tamaki gulped and poked his head out to take a look. The biggest hollow he'd ever seen was looming above them, staring curiously down into the room. Letting out a vaguely amused sounding grumble, it slowly reached a massive hand down… directly towards Haruhi and Kon.
"Run!" Tamaki hissed, gesturing wildly.
Kon poked his head out and froze. "Menos grande…"
Tamaki was torn between keeping hidden and getting Haruhi out of there. Luckily, he didn't need to make that decision. The space in front of him warped and Ichigo was there.
"It's attracted to the reiatsu that's oozing out of that sink!" He snapped planting his feet and raising his blade over his head.
"So it would be wise to move after all…" Kon grunted, gesturing to Haruhi, who crawled out ahead of him.
"At least these things are stupid and slow…" Ichigo muttered. Slicing the hollows hand as it reached him. As the hollow inspected its bleeding hand, he teleported himself overhead, planted his feet on thin air.
"Getsuga Tenshou!" Blades of black energy blazed away from Ichigo as he swept his sword in an elegant arc. The attack hit the hollow square in the mask. It roared and stumbled back a few steps. As it did so, Ichigo launched himself off of whatever it was he was standing on up there and sped in for the final blow, slicing the hollow in two in a spray of dark blood that, thankfully, dissolved before it had the chance to hit anything.
He reappeared in the demolished classroom a moment later as the monster dissolved. "Damn thing oozes worse than me." He grunted, trotting over to inspect the sink Haruhi and Kon had been hiding under.
"Where's Nee-san!?" Kon asked, bouncing to his feet.
"She's still fighting the other hollow with Renji. Bastard just wont go down."
"Why aren't you helping?"
"I was, then the Menos showed up." Ichigo sighed. He scanned the room, his brown eyes rested on Nekozawa, who was staring at him wide eyed from beneath his hood. "You're kidding me – he can see me too?"
Tamaki nodded. "It runs in his family."
"I am honored, Shinigami-dono!" Nekozawa bowed low.
Ichigo gave him a weird look. "Er… yeah. Anyone hurt? That's lucky. Why is Haruhi back and wearing a shinigami uniform?"
"She came back with Renge-kun to help." Kon shrugged. "It was hilarious actually." The twins nodded in agreement.
Ichigo was quiet for a moment, stared at the sink then glanced back at Nekozawa. "So… what exactly were you doing in here?"
"Summoning a horro-"
"Hollow!" The Host Club corrected.
"- Hollow." Nekozawa shuffled a bit nervously.
"He doesn't know what a hollow is," Kon sighed. "Or, at least he didn't. Nekozawa, you know that big thing that Ichigo just pwned? That was a hollow."
"Oh." Bereznoff nervously scratched the back of his head. "My bad."
Everyone groaned.
"Ah, if you don't mind me asking… are you two brothers?" Nekozawa, or rather, Bereznoff pointed at Ichigo and Kon.
"Something like that." Ichigo sighed. "Alright, can you reverse whatever it was you were doing? Or at least stop the flow of reiatsu?"
"The… what?"
Ichigos head dropped. "You know, this isn't my area, I'm gonna go switch with Rukia."
Everyone started crawling out of their hiding spaces as the shinigami flickered and disappeared. Tamaki sat on the desk he'd been under, Kon plopped down on a counter across from the sink in question
"What are you guys doing?" One of the black magic club members asked, the bold girl from before. She was still defiant but there was a definite quiver to her voice. "Shouldn't we be running in terror?"
"Ah, Ichigo-san just went to get Rukia-san. She should be here shortly." Tamaki gestured to the space that Ichigo had just occupied, then recalled that she hadn't seen him.
"I don't think we can get out of here anyway." Kon jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the interior wall. There was a lot of rubble blocking the door, most of it too large to move. He smirked. "Well, I can get out of here, but you guys are stuck."
Ichigo flickered back into view then, Rukia perched on his back. Tamaki blinked a couple of times, surprised that Rukia couldn't move at ludicrous speed. "Ah, welcome back Rukia-san!"
"Nee-saaaan!" Kon made as if to glomp but Rukia cut him off with a look.
"No time. Alright, what have we here…" She hopped off Ichigos back and began inspecting the sink.
"Well, I'm gonna go back – "
"No, wait, I might need you for something." Rukia straightened up and rolled up her sleeves. "I know of a way to reverse this but I need a clear space around that pipe." She pointed to the capped pipe beneath the sink. "Which means the sink and counter have to go."
Ichigo gave her a flat look. "I'm a shinigami, not a plumber."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to demolish the sink, I just need your help clearing out the stubborn bits." She took a step back and rose her hands.
"Whoa! Whoa wait!" Ichigo stepped in front of her, gently pushed her back then dropped to his knees, reached a hand under the sink. "If you're gonna do what I think you're gonna do, I wanna make sure the gas and water's turned off first. Especially the gas."
Rukia blinked and watched him for a second. "I thought you said you weren't a plumber. And why would there be a gas line to the sink?"
"Bunsen Burners use the gas, Rukia-san." Tamaki informed.
Ichigo shot her a flat look then backed out from under the sink. "Water's off, and there isn't a gas line to this station. Go for it." He jogged around to the far side of the room, safely behind her. Tamaki gestured for everyone to back up.
"Hadou #31!" Rukia rose her hands again; a ball of red hot energy formed around her deceptively delicate hands. "Shot of red fire!"
Everyone ducked as the sink abruptly exploded. "Ah! Didn't need you after all!" Rukia said as the smoke cleared. There wasn't much left.
"That was a little scary." Kon commented.
"Yeah." Tamaki agreed.
"So, I can go?" Ichigo asked, poking his head out of his hiding place.
"Yep! We can get the rest!" Rukia beamed. Ichigo crouched then flickered out of sight. "Kon, help the Host Club clear a two meter radius around the sink. Nekozawa is it? Lets have a look at that book of yours."
Nekozawa, who was paler than usual (he was almost glowing from inside his hood) after watching the shinigami at work, nodded, eyes wide. Tamaki relayed the message to the club. The more cumbersome bits of armor were tossed into the wreckage and sleeves were rolled up as they set to work. Surprisingly, the Black Magic Club joined them.
"Oh, Tamaki-san…?"
"Yes, Rukia-san?" Tamaki half turned.
"Why is Haruhi-san dressed like me?"
"Renge-kun." He chuckled.
"Oh." She shook her head then began flipping through the Necronomicon.
A/N: That Nekozawa! ;) Oh yeah, in the Ouran manga, it's implied that there are several members in the Black Magic Club. To my knowledge they're never seen. Oh, and I figured that by the end of the SS arc, Ichigo could handle a Menos Grande since they're mostly just big, if Hitsugaya is to believed.
Hitsugaya: That's Ca… oh you actualy called me Hitsugaya.
Me: Yep. Now begone, oh frosty one!
Hitsugaya: (eyeroll)