My thanks to SilvermistAnimeLover and Fukuko-chan for reviewing, have a cookie each.
And on with the chapter...
Chapter 13 – Hunters
The man, girl and wolf faded, leaving a fuming blue-haired Espada in their wake. Said Espada charges after his companion who had earlier ignored the disappearing trio. The smaller Arrancar looked round as the hot-headed other charged closer. Grimmjow grasped the Quatra by the neck, slamming him into the nearest tree, rage-filled reiatsu flaring, keeping any others away, and a low growl escaping him.
"Release me, trash," a quiet, emotionless voice cuts through the silence, further infuriating the Sexta, though he makes no move to act on it or obey the command given. Empty, emerald eyes narrow slightly, almost imperceptibly, at the other's lack of reaction. A deathly pale, black nailed hand rises, green energy gathering at the tip of a finger. The cat-like Arrancar, knowing he's outmatched and hating the feeling immensely, drops his smaller companion, inwardly relieved as the energy dissipates, outwardly as furious as ever.
"Why?" Grimmjow asks, strangely quiet given the anger playing over his face. The other pauses in his silent exit after being released.
"Why do you ignore her, as if she's no threat? Who knows why she's here." The anger and frustration builds in his voice until he's shouting as normal once more.
"She is merely a spirit. She cannot touch, doesn't speak, she is no threat. Nothing she can do will have any effect on us so it is pointless to think on." Ulquiorra speaks quietly, contrasting Grimmjow completely. He turns away from the other and absconds, leaving no disturbance in his surroundings to betray his passing, while the Sexta takes out his fury on the unfortunate tree that was growing beside him.
Mid-morning found the group of Shinigami, hollows, Exorcists, human and demon travelling ever closer to their quarry. Quiet chatter staved off boredom, the ginger shinigami getting on well with the white-haired exorcist, much to the annoyance of said shinigami's hollow and the amusement of demon, girl and bookman.
An arrow flew past Saeko's head, burying itself in a tree and unbalancing the girl from her perch on Aeshma's back. The demon whips round, growling, towards the arrows origin, the shinigami and his hollow counterpart drawing Zangetsu, the exorcists preparing to activate their Innocence.
More arrows follow the first, from different sides, all aimed towards the giant wolf crouched protectively over Saeko. Allen activated his Crowned Clown, spreading the white cloak over the defenceless girl, allowing the demon to move. After a few more moments, the rain of arrows ceased, dark cloaked figures emerging for the undergrowth. There were eight hunters, most wielding a long sword, one, which appeared to be the leader, wielded a pair of wakizashi.
Foolish mortals, retreat while you can, you shalt not win this battle. Aeshma growled angrily at the humans who dared attack him and his daughter. Ichigo and his hollow position themselves to make a triangle, with the demon, around the others.
"Let the humans go, they have no part in this." The hunters' leader spoke calmly, ignoring the flaring energy flooding over him. The hunters all showed good discipline, not wavering under the pressure.
You seem to misunderstand, Hunter. The humans are here of their own volition, I am not holding them here. A slight tinge of amusement tempers the anger in the demon's voice, lightly dimming the red glow in his golden eyes. The hunter quickly masks his surprise and studies the humans, seeing that there are no bonds holding them to the demon.
"Then they shall have to join you in death, unless they choose to leave now. Sympathizers are always given this choice, if they stay they are treated as demons as well ." The hunter allows a little regret to show in his forest green eyes as none move from their positions.
Ichigo's hollow lets his maniacal grin spread in anticipation of the fight about to occur. The hunters readied themselves, cautious of the humans they didn't know the strength of.
A quiet whirring alerts the group to Allen's cursed eye activating.
"North, closing swiftly," the Exorcist spoke quietly, unheard by the hunters except for their leader. Ichigo, as the closest, shifted slightly to face North, only half-watching the hunters, instead turning his attention to the approaching hollows and Akuma.
"What is approaching?" The leader of the hunters allowed his attention to divert slightly from the demon before him, searching for something that could cause it and the humans with it to no longer care about the hunters around them.
They are demons from other worlds; it is to get rid of them and their masters that we travel here now. Before the hunter could reply the hollows burst out of the trees, attacking the hunters who happened to be closest to them. A group of Akuma, mixed level one and twos, soon followed, homing in on the Exorcists.
"Attack these strange demons, the others can wait." The four remaining hunters followed the leader's example, whirling into action to assist the demon and his humans against their common enemy. Ichigo used his incredible speed to try and finish the battle quickly, his hollows laughter echoing evilly as he took his time killing.
The Akuma fell prey to Lavi's fire seals, any getting too close swiftly eradicated by Allen's clawed hand.
The hunters were made fairly redundant only killing a few hollows that the shinigami and his hollow hadn't gotten round to yet.
As the last stragglers were dispatched, it was noticed that two of the remaining hunters had just been scraped by the Akuma's bullets, and were disappearing into ash blown away by the light breeze. The remaining three prayed silently, to the four Gods, for their fallen comrades. The others remained silent, allowing them their grief, although for Ichigo's hollow it was somewhat forcibly silent, Ichigo's hand over his mouth and Allen's clawed hand at his throat may have had something to do with it.
"It seems that, for now, we have a common enemy. If it is to rid this land of them, we shall assist you, afterwards we will likely be enemies once more." The hunter's leader lowered his hood revealing long, midnight blue hair - similar to Kanda's but allowed to hang loose - and black eyes. A light tan covered his skin, dulling slightly the details around his high cheekbones. The wear lines on his face showed a life of hardship in the seemingly only twenty-one years of existence. The forest green cloak opened, allowing a calloused hand to emerge from where it had been hidden after sheathing his wakizashi.
"My name is Asura. These are my sisters, Zanki and Datana." The other two hunters lowered their hoods, showing their faces for the first time. Zanki had long, crimson hair to the small of her back, two strips at the front were braided and used to tie the rest into a ponytail. She had eyes of icy blue, practically white in their paleness, and the same skin as her brother and sister which seemed to make her pale eyes stand out all the more. A ring of turquoise adorned the little finger of her right hand, matching earrings hanging from her ears and a silver chain around her neck that disappeared behind the cloak, leaving the pendant unseen. Her sister, in contrast, had shortish, pink hair arranged in spikes with eyes the blue of an early sunset, no jewellery to be seen.
"I am Saeko, adoptive daughter of the demon, Aeshma. These are Allen, Lavi, Ichigo, his twin, Hichigo and Nel." Ichigo punched his 'twin' in the head before he could protest about being related to the strawberry, or the name that the girl had given demon and exorcists instead nodded politely at the hunters, as a way of greeting, the latter deactivating their Innocence.
"I believe you know more about these strange creatures than us, it would be best to know something of the enemy we are to fight." As they travelled, the hunters were given a quick overview of the situation, Datana was silent, absorbing the information, Zanki, ever the contrast to her younger sister, was continuously asking questions, almost bouncing as she walked - the group kept thinking of her as a female Lavi - Asura was much more composed, only asking for extra details and keeping his movements silent, always aware of all that was going on around them.
At midday, Timcanpy appeared, almost missing his landing on Allen's head as he settled down to chew the snowy locks. The exorcist removed the golem from his perch, before he found himself with a bald spot, and listened to the message from Kanda's group.
What's happened? Aeshma posed the question on all of their minds. Allen set the golem on his shoulder before speaking.
"Kanda's group have found the Noah, he's five miles North East of us, the Noah, one mile North North West of him. Uryuu's group is three miles West of us but going strait it will only take them an extra fifteen to twenty minutes to reach the Noah than from where we are."
It would be best if the two smaller groups joined up and took the Noah, they are more dangerous but there are only three. We'll continue North, the Arrancar should be near. For the rest of the day we should rest, we'll need all our strength for the coming battle.
Allen sent Tim to Uryuu, telling his group of the plan before the golem relayed the message to Kanda as well. Uryuu, Chad, Orihime, Chaoji and Krory trekked North East to meet up with Kanda, Lenalee, Renji and Rukia, two miles off the Noah's position.
Aeshma led the rest of his group off the deer track they had been following, and into a dense grove, thick underbrush forming a wall between the closely packed trees.
The rest of the afternoon was spent training. Ichigo and Hichigo sparred together, likewise Allen and Lavi were together and the hunters had a three way free-for-all. Aeshma created barriers around each of the groups to prevent them from being detected and Saeko played with Nel to distract her from boredom. They all turned in for an early night to recover their strength.
"I presume you will not answer if I ask who you are." Ulquiorra's quiet voice welcomed me to another night vision. "Although, it appears you are earlier than usual." My sight clears from the blur that it takes when first entering a vision. The Arrancar sits on a fallen log not far from my position, staring impassively at me. For the first time, besides Aizen, I allow myself to speak in the other's presence.
"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough." My voice holds a dream-like quality, as if my mind is elsewhere. The Quatra's expression barely changes, and only for an instant, but it's enough to know that I had surprised him.
I drift away, leaving the Espada to ponder my words. My aimless walk takes me past Aizen, I absently acknowledge him speaking and try to grab me but the hand passes through my ethereal form.
I come across the Millennium Earl, plotting to himself, and, realising that he can't sense me in any way, I edge closer, listening to the Noah's plans.
"...They're too weak, not dedicated enough, thinking they have a choice in what I tell them to do. Best to get rid of them now and cultivate the next generation to be better. Dear Road, Lulubell and Tyki, it's a shame really..." I back away, horrified that the man can talk of sacrificing his own without a care. My mind is yanked out of such thoughts by the sensation of walking through something and a confused 'Huh?' from a distinctly male voice.
"Why does it feel like I just walked through something?.. Why, hello, child, who might you be?" I spin around to see Tyki Mikk staring back at me, a welcoming smile on his face. A slightly confused 'er...' escapes me as my thoughts race. 'He can see me? I thought they couldn't see me. is it because I walked through him? Gah, speak girl, you can't just stand there with a blank look on your face, catching flies.' At the realisation of how stupid I must appear, I focus again to find the Noah's face a bare few inches from my own, looking concernedly at me. After a quick back-pedal that accidentally placed my in a tree, I cleared my throat nervously and finally got round to answering his question.
"My name is Saeko, and you are...?" I feign ignorance to his identity, thinking it would be awkward to explain how I know his name when we haven't physically met before.
"My apologies, it appears my manners have fled, I am Lord Tyki Mikk, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I fail miserably to hide my embarrassment as he bows to me and offers a hand, although the hand is retracted once I display my inability to touch by putting my hand through the tree I had previously walked into, and raising an eyebrow.
In my mind a plan begins to formulate, if I could get Tyki to believe me that the Millennium Earl wants him and the others dead, it could cause them to turn away from the man, therefore saving the others a battle and giving the exorcists a useful ally when they get home. I decided to ignore the little voice in my head whispering 'If, they get home.'
"Tyki, is it? You wouldn't happen to know a really tall, round man in pink with an unnaturally large grin would you?" Planning has never really been a strong spot of mine and it doesn't appear that Tyki will have much time left, so jump in headfirst and hope for the best seems to be the only available strategy.
"How do you know the Millennium Earl?" The Noah's face darkened slightly, his pleasant demeanour crumbling fractionally as a small inkling of suspicion sets in.
"You can't go near him!" I let my voice take on a near hysterical tone. "That, Millennium Earl, or whatever you call him, wants you dead, something about you having too much freewill and it's the same for another two, Road and Lulubell, I think." The hysterical babble gradually slowed to an only faster than normal, but otherwise relatively normal speech.
"What do you mean?" The suspicion in Tyki's voice was replaced by curiosity.
"That man, the Millennium Earl, he wants to kill you, and the other two, and 'cultivate the next generation'. You can't go near him." In my desperation to make him understand, I somehow made myself corporeal enough to cling onto him.
"Such a shame, they weren't supposed to know. But how did the little girl overhear me without attracting my attention, hmm..?" A terrible, too cheerful voice speaks slowly before Tyki can make any response. A slight rustling draws my awareness before a child-like girl's voice is heard.
"It's true? But Millenie... Why?" Confusion and sorrow seeps into Road's voice. I look at her, pity filling me at the sight of her stricken features, disbelief etched onto her face.
"My dear Road, I'm afraid the why's don't matter. Just die now, and all will be well." My resolve hardens, refusal to allow this slaughter to occur coursing through me. I focus on the power within me, the same power I unconsciously drew on to get Timcanpy into this world, and pull the Noah with me as wakefulness begins to take hold.
Please review, I feed on reviews.
And I feel this story is coming to an end, but perhaps there will be a sequel. We'll see.
Kouseki.