Chapter 5: Into the Bear's Cave

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters of Beach this is just me using them for non-commercial profit.

The streets were bathed in the bright cheap orange glow of the street lights, leaving shadows in certain spots where things could pop out to grab them. Kukaku was patrolling the street as she walked up the abandoned street; the worst time to be walking the street by yourself with a dangerous hollow or hollows on the loose was definitely night. She and Yuruichi split up to cover more ground, but Kukaku would have much preferred that there was someone to back her up. It was too quiet for her taste, but then again she was used to having her loudmouth brother near so a lunch room in kindergarten would be too quiet for her. Turning a corner, she bumped into a smaller, black haired shinigami.

"So sorry, Shiba-san," said Rukia bowing as she tried to stifle the nose bleed she got from bumping into Kukaku.

"Don't go apologizing, baka," scolded Kukaku as she helped Rukia with her nose bleed. "What are you doing down here?"

"Captain Saito said that he sensed movement underground so he sent me to survey the sewer system," replied Rukia as she looked at the covering for the sewer. "I do not want to have to jump in there."

"Don't worry, I'll back you up," replied Kukaku as she pushed off the covering. "God this is really going to smell bad."

"Why me," asked Rukia with a sob before she jumped into the filthy hole.

Saito was cutting through the last of the hollows when he suddenly felt a strange presence coming from below his feet and he knew that it couldn't be good. Scratching his head, Saito looked at the ground that was before him waiting for the creature below to come out so he could just kill it and get over with it. Ichigo was right behind him fighting off another one of those creatures, Gods knows how many there are, and Saito decided that he had had enough of waiting so he blew a hole into the street and jumped into the tunnel. Strangely enough, there was no one inside of the tunnel and all he could see was the footsteps left in the sludge and whatever the hell that green stuff was. From the sandal imprints, he could reason that Kukaku and Rukia had been down that path and were probably being chased since the trail was right next to imprints that could have only been left by one or two of those creatures.

"Ichigo get down here, we have two women in trouble," called Saito from inside the hole, but he forgot to mention how slippery it was and that the floor was covered with an icky green slime, much to the misfortune of Ichigo.

"Eeeeewwww, you could have told me about this," exclaimed Ichigo as he looked at his shinigami uniform, which use to be black. "This is never gonna come out."

"Did I give you permission to bitch," asked Saito in the same tone he used to bark orders. "Get up and help me track the two girls don before they get killed!"

"Yes sir," replied a nervous Ichigo, worried about getting on the wrong side of his captain.

Rukia was running from the dangerous creature that was chasing her, its footprints leaving imprints into the ground as it approached her with its claws extended. Kukaku hurled one of her explosives into its face, the detonation blowing apart half of its head, but it still seemed to be coming at them. Behind that monster were three other monsters, all as hungry as the one in the front and from the looks of things they could run at the same speed for a long time, a luxury that Rukia did not share. Another luxury that she didn't share was the ability to see through fumes and mist that seemed to fill the tunnels of the sewer, which she would be certain to remind herself to never go into voluntarily ever again.

"Make a right," shouted Kukaku as she pulled the small shinigami into the curve so he could run down the other halls, but it turned out to be a dead end. "Okay, new plan, we fight them off right here."

"Just how do we do that," asked Rukia as she looked at the woman beside her and then at the creatures that were slowly coming out of the mist, like vampires in an old horror film.

"In case you didn't notice, we have no choice in the matter," replied Kukaku as she pulled out her own sword that was very thin and straight like jian. The hand guard on it was very round and cupped the hand like a saber except it was all around instead of just covering the knuckles. "I hope you have some luck with you."

"If I had luck then it's being lazy right now," replied Rukia as she cut at the extended claw that came toward her. The creature brought its hand back as it howled in pain.

Kukaku tossed her remaining explosive at the remnants of the creature's head, blowing it off completely to finish the thing off. It might have made Kukaku happy if there weren't others coming from behind and she knew that the explosive she had just flung was her last. Now she would have to use her strength and her sword, which she was both confident in, but going toe-to-toe with these creatures might be a bit of a problem. The creature right behind the other creature's corpse lunged at the two women and felt the searing pain of Kukaku's sword in it's hand as Rukia jumped up and cut at its face, but its head was stronger than the other creature's.

"What we need is a miracle," declared Rukia as she helped Kukaku fight the creature, while trying cut deeper into it. "If we don't get back up soon we might be in deep shit."

"Did anyone call for a miracle," asked Ichigo a she jumped into the fray to cut through the creature's head, letting it fall on the ground.

"Glad you're here, but now can you help us," asked Rukia as she pointed at the other creatures that were slowly making their way towards them.

"Don't worry, the captain's behind them," said Ichigo as he pointed to the smirking Saito, who had his released zanpakto in his left hand. In an instant, the shinigami captain had thrust his sword into the fray, tearing a hole in one of the creatures, while turning around to cute through another creature's head.

"Now then I think we have destroyed most of the creatures I want you to take Rukia back to the surface," commanded Saito as he placed his hands on Kukaku's shoulder. "I'm glad you're alright, I don't know if I could have taken losing you."

"It's okay, I can handle these things just fine," said Kukaku as she placed her hand on his own. "My god, you are overprotective, Captain Saito."

"I guess so," said Saito, smiling as he led the way out. "Our hunting is done for tonight, but I doubt this will be the last time we ever cross paths with such creatures. This Halloween was just the beginning."

This fan fic will continue after halloween.