Chapter 4 : Giants Fall
As Uryū darted down the street with Chad just behind him he would have been willing to swear on his Quincy honour that retreat was the only option on this day. There were just too many dam Hollows for anyone to fight. But the really scary thing wasn't just that there was a lot of Hollows, but that they were many many powerful Menos class Hollows out there, possibly hundreds of them
As a Quincy Uryū had a well developed ability to detect spiritual energy and discern different types and quantities with considerable sensitivity. As of right now the combined spiritual energy that was of a Hollow nature was far higher than the spiritual energy of Shinigami nature by a large margin.
Uryū was broken from more determined readings of the Reishi by more pressing and immediate concerns....
"Two humans who are strong in spiritual energy, but who are also very clearly alive." The brutish Arrancar spoke as it land with a crash in front of the two men. "I do wonder wh..."
" Quincy!" Uryū shouted as he summoned his bow and blasted the flat footed Arrancar with many many arrows, resulting in it becoming very very dead in a very brief amount of time. Which was kind of the point.
Chad looked at him with a surprised look.
"We have absolutely no time for elaborate and polite duels Sado-kun!" Uryū quickly explained. "If we delay then we only give the increasingly number of Hollows in the area a increasing chance of finding and overwhelming us with both numbers and power!"
Chad nodded at him.
"Then lets get out of here." He said simply and calmly before returning to running. After one last glance at where the Hollow had died Uryū returned to running himself.
Meanwhile out on the edge town a very worried and frightened Yuzu was looking down at Rukia's unconscious form.
"Don't die you dam inconsiderate bitch!" Karin screamed at the fallen girl in a voice full of rage. "We need you Rukia! Brother needs you! Won't you be breaking your promise to brother if you die and leave us unprotected you dam fool!"
Yuzu stared at her twin as she bit her lower lip and the rain started to fall down from the sky. Karin always got angry when she was upset. But Yuzu could always tell the difference between her annoyed angry and hurt angry. Karin normal tones was cynical and controlled, showing her unwillingness to lose control and to let her heart show, even when annoyed. However when she was upset angry her voice was NOT controlled and often changed in pitch throughout sentences.
It hurt Yuzu to hear those tones. It hurt Yuzu to see her twin ,already scared by pain, going through even more pain. It also hurt Yuzu to see Rukia, who been sleeping in the same room as Yuzu for months and was clearly very important to Ichigo, collapsed before her and clearly becoming very close to death.
It was all too much for her and Yuzu began to wail. Seconds latter she felt Karin arms wrap around and hug her tight.
"Yuzu!" Karin shouted in her ear. "Please don't cry like that." Her tone softening after Yuzu's name. Yuzu stopped wailing so loudly and instead cried quietly into her sister shoulder.
"We need to keep hidden and alive." She whispered softly and rapidly into Yuzu ear. "And I'm sure Rukia didn't put herself in danger for us, for us just to give up and cry Yuzu."
Yuzu buried her head in Karin's shoulder for a little bit longer, letting the tears get out of her system before speaking.
"Your right." Yuzu finally spoke weakly. Karin silently replied by holding her tighter and silently .Yuzu knew she did so because sometimes words where the wrong way to communicate.
"We will survive sis." Karin spoke quietly. "We get stronger and pull through this dark time."
"And smarter too." Yuzu added quickly. "We run if we have to run, fight if we have to fight, but we never bow to the horror again!"
Yuzu looked to the fallen Rukia as pulled herself out the hug before walking over and knelling down before her.
"Friend of Ichigo." She said in a soft and serious tone as she closed her eyes. "Thank you for saving us, thank you for sacrificing for us. Thank you for giving us a chance to live, we won't forget you, we won't forget this and we promise we make you proud of us too."
She knelled there for what seemed an age as she lost herself in trying to figure out just who Kuchiki Rukia was. And why she was willing to go so far for the sake of Karin and her.
Eventually Yuzu stood up and turned to her sister in the rain.
"Were going to have to take her somewhere peaceful, we going to have to make sure her last..." Yuzu stopped mid sentence as she saw her sister eyes go wide and turned to look at Rukia.
Not so far away Uryū and Chad where making there way out of Karakura Town in what had turned into pouring rain. The sound of battle was finally dying down behind them, it seemed like they were going to get out of the hell hole that use to be there home.
"Seems were almost in the clear." Uryū explained with a relived tone. "Just a few more minutes of none stop running for our life's and we actually be able to slow down to a walk."
"Good." Chad simply replied. Being straight to the point as normal. Never one to speak two words when one would do. Uryū flinched his eyes to the left suddenly.
"What is it?" Chad asked politely as they continued to run.
"A Arrancar is approaching." Uryū said as he came to a stop and ready himself for combat. "A fairly strong one at that. It moving too rapidly and directly for us to avoid it, so it seems we going to have to fight it."
"Right." Chad said simply as he summoned both his arms. "Lets hope it's a short battle."
The two men stood there, waiting for the Arrancar to come. And they waited and waited. Considerable time seem to pass, every Quincy sense Uryū had told him it was close. But as the minutes rolled by it seemed that close wasn't as close as he thought.
"Seems I was wrong Chad, let move..." Uryū said as he turned to Chad, only for him to realise it wasn't Chad any more.
He grown into a huge red and white Hollow, mask and all. In many ways he was mostly still humanoid in shape, but of far greater size with arms and legs a little too big. His mask look demonic and Uryū realised that he was too silent, that the sound in the area had somehow been removed or muted.
"...." was the lack of words that came out of Uryū's mouth. A huge fist came towards him in the complete silence and it was more luck and instinct that made him move out the way in time, than any message from his brain to his legs.
Then suddenly the sound came back and the Chad Hollow roared as he threw punch after punch at Uryū's as he jumped out the way, until suddenly the Hollow Chad stopped.
"Aren't you going to kill the Hollow Quincy, destroy your friends soul?" Said a girl in a red jogging outfit with a Zanpakutō on her back as she appeared next to the Hollow Chad via flash step. "Or are you going to run away and annihilate other peoples friends and loved ones instead?"
Uryū stood there a few moments with a shaking bow in his hands. The she pulled out a Vizard mask.
"Run!" She screamed in a distorted voice as the Hollow Chad began to charge at Uryū again. And run Uryū did, because he knew in his heart that he couldn't shoot that arrow at Chad. He couldn't annihilate the soul of his friend. He couldn't end Chad forever and look at himself in the mirror ever again.
Back with the girls Yuzu turned and saw Rukia's eyes open and one defiant word came out her mouth.
"Ban-ki!" Rukia shouted with all her might as she rose up to her feet, her sword held high in both hands, as her appearance changed.
First a incredible drop in temperature hit the area with the rain rapidly turning to snow. Rukia's sword then began to grow like a ice crystal from a sword into a long curved scythe with a slightly curved blade on the end the pointed down. From its base a long white ribbon emerged with one word in thin black writing on it that said 'Zangetsu'. Finally her black robes changed into a thick pure white ones with a hood that left only her face exposed. Finally delicate white gloves appeared on her hands to give a almost completely white impression.
"First greater dance, white snow" Rukia spoke as she elegantly spun the scythe around her. With that the snow flew directly into her and the colour returned to her previously pale cheeks. Yuzu stared, Karin stared, Rukia spoke.
"You didn't think I let Ichigo down by dying did you?" Rukia said with a mischievous grin on her face as spoke to the twins.