Six Shinigami Chronicle
Chapter 12: Introducing Super Charged Hollows
Shioru crept around the corner. The morning was still a dreary grey and the school was silent and dark. She had come, or rather she had broken in, to find another target board to practice her Kidou with because the last one had snapped in half when she shot it with a binding spell. But what lay between her and the equipment shed was the teachers staff room and teachers being teachers (who were renowned for being… a bit whacked up in the head) could possibly be awake at this time of the day. This was confirmed when she slipped between two buildings to take the course that had maximum cover and yellow light spilling out from a window. Grateful that the light was not as white and blinding as Tifa's Zanpakutou, she crouched under the window and decided to eavesdrop.
"We must graduate them soon; it is the wish of the Gotei 13," Sanada's irritated voice floated to where Shioru was, leaning into the shadows as much as she could. "I would not want to disappoint them."
"But the children aren't ready! Most can't even take down an ordinary Hollow without some assistance," another voice, this time feminine with a lilting accent argued. "If they can't do that, what use are they to the Protection Squads? If we must graduate them, then we at least should give them the top students."
"The casualty rate is alarmingly high! We need more back up if the world is to be balanced. Curse those Hollows," Sanada's voice dropped. "What are they again? Aren't they just 'Super-charged'* Hollows who happen to have a very high resistance to any attacks we throw at them?"
"That's about it. I'm not clear on the details. No one is."
Shioru heard Sanada sigh. "Could you please close the window? I feel a draught coming in."
A shadow appeared in the patch of light on the ground and Shioru watch it as it closed the window. All she could hear now were just muffled sounds. Never mind though, there are still target boards waiting to be stolen.
.
Sanada walked in with pursed lips. He set down his armful of books and whatnot onto the table then shot a piercing glare straight at every student in the class. Anyone could see the cogs and mechanics in his brain working at full speed but what the cause for haste was, no one had even the slightest inkling. After he had stared everyone down, he produced quite a number of sheets from his folder and sent people around distributing them.
"Hey, reckon how many trees he killed with all that paper?" Hiyori nudged Mochi who just shrugged her off.
"Baka, they're all made from spirit particles anyway, who cares?"
"But, but, global warming! And climate change!" Hiyori cried
"They only exist in the real world. Besides, I think it's a government scam."
Hiyori cocked her head to the side and started to garble about how she never saw that one coming, to which Mochi just sighed. When Sanada wasn't looking, Mochi decided to whack Hiyori with the book she was reading. That immediately shut Hiyori up. Mochi turned her attention to the worksheets in front of her and scrutinized the writing and she almost felt sorry for the Division or whomever was made to transcribe and copy this rubbish down.
Turning away from the sheets, she decided to ask Shioru about Sanada's out of character behaviour, but instead of the usual flamboyant* answer, she received a pensive look. Shioru was, undoubtedly, acting strangely, though she tried to cover it up. And learning from experience, that was, Hoshika and Saiko acting a bit, ahem, pardon the stereotype, 'emo', she realised that something was indeed up and as soon as Mochi came to that conclusion, she began to wait in an almost impatient manner for the bell to ring.
When the god-forsakenly loud toll of a school bell rang, Mochi immediately cornered Shioru, but not without drawing any attention**. Apparently, Hoshika had just happened to pass by the ambush site, and so, the three stood in a circle in silence. Mochi gave a reproachful look at having to start the conversation.
"Explain," Mochi began, eyeing Shioru warily, "Sanada's behaviour and such."
Shioru gave Mochi an inscrutable look before relaying what she had heard the previous night. After she had said everything that she could, the three sat in relatively thoughtful silence, going over what they had learned and digesting it slowly. How long they sat there could not possibly be measured in hours, but it was evidently long enough that the other three of their group would care to go looking for them.
"Mochi! Shioru and Hoshika too!" Hiyori sang as she rounded the corner. "Omo! What is this? A gathering of the three awesome people? I wanna join!"
"Baka, you're too pathetic to join! This is the group of the sane people. Saaaane dude, sane," Saiko dragged out the word. "And the clearly evident problem here is that you, my friend are insane."
"Insane?" Tifa questioned. "That just means that I'm in sane, as in I'm inside the sane world."
Tifa and Hiyori shared a look before bursting out in laughter, Hiyori also trying to congratulate Tifa on her lame pun whenever a break in her laughter would allow. Saiko was trying to bash both Hiyori and Tifa up for such a lame pun while wearing an exasperated face that was so ridiculously twisted, it sent the other two girls into another round of giggling.
"Anyways, what's up?" Tifa said as she calmed down. The three girls who were still deep in thought glanced at each other, weighing the consequences and came to the conclusion that telling them wouldn't hurt. So Shioru recounted her story once again, at the end of which saw all six girls in quiet deliberation.
"Let's eat the 'super-charged' Hollows alive!" Saiko said enthusiastically whilst flailing her arms in a fashion that vaguely indicated a poor representation of battle. Tifa agreed instantly, stating that she could now use her Zanpakutou in a real fight. And that was all the encouragement Saiko needed to get pumped. She grabbed the nearest two people and started to drag them away, Tifa following close behind. Mochi and Shioru sighed simultaneously and trudged after them, loudly regretting ever telling the crazy psycho of the Gotei 13's predicament.
"Where are we going anyway?" Shioru asked Mochi.
"Who knows? Most likely to a Senkai gate to try and sneak out," Mochi replied and pulled her book out of her sleeve*** and proceeded to flash step at a pace that her companion could keep up with.
"What about last time?" Shioru distinctively remembered Hoshika's triumph over everyone's stupidity when they decided to sneak out to the real world, only to have been tricked by the Thirteenth Division. It was humiliating to say the least. "Would it happen again?"
"Hoshi-hoshi will know when we get there."
As the two arrived at the main Senkai gate, they saw Saiko spitting at the guard's faces with Hoshika trying to restrain the livid girl. Mochi took one look at the display and rolled her eyes, muttering something along the lines of 'childish idiot', while Shioru just chuckled.
"Move aside, Saiko!" Tifa's voice said. "And watch my prowess!" Tifa started to draw her sword from her waist. "By moonlight, freeze; Hyosesu!"
The five other girls averted their gaze from the blinding white that they knew would be coming, but unfortunately for the guards, they got the sun reflected into their eyes, temporarily blinding them. As they stumbled around brandishing their swords dangerously close to the group, the six friends— who had carefully masked their reiatsu— crept close to the double doors and leant against them. They all threw glares at the tiny words on the bottom that read 'Open Sesame'. As one of the double doors opened, six Hell Butterflies flew out to greet them, and they pelted past the threshold and into the blinding white.
They ran far into the white until they saw the traditional circular door opening ahead and they staggered into the night. It was a clear night. The moon hung in the sky, smiling brightly down at the six girls who stood still, detecting any Hollows via reiatsu. They stood there for perhaps a few minutes, frowns etched across the faces before all six pointed northwest and yelled, "there!" in very excited tones.
Throwing glares at each other, they hurriedly flash-stepped to the site. Mochi, being the fastest, reached the enemy first and dispatched it before Shioru, lagging behind as she was, arrived. Disappointed that it wasn't one of the 'super-charged' Hollows Shioru had overheard, they huddled together to discuss.
"Are you sure you heard right?" Hiyori questioned Shioru. Shioru nodded. "And are you sure they are 'super-charged'?" Again, Shioru responded with the affirmative. "And are you sure that they aren't talking about some random business?"
"They seemed very serious," Shioru replied.
"And are you sure—"
Saiko let out an exasperated 'argh!' noise, grabbing her face and draggin it down while Mochi's eye almost twitched. "Will you shut it with the 'are you sure's'? Clearly, we were just unlucky enough to meet an ordinary Hollow! I mean, come on! No one ever said they were so common place that the first hollow that on would run into outside of Soul Society would be a 'super-charged' one!" Saiko yelled, now flailing, as was customary when she was irritated.
"But what if the 'super-charged Hollows' never even existed in the first place?" Hiyori protested just as loudly as Saiko.
"Well, I don't know! We can all look like idiots together, happy? Then Sanada-sensei and Ukitake-taichou can scold us all too, after which we will fail our exams and never become actual Shinigami! Hell, the Hollows are annoying. Why am I here again? If the Hollows are annoying, what do you think the 'super-charged Hollows' would be like? I bet you they're going to invade Soul Society roaring like stupid beasts—"
Silence fell on the group. Each glanced at the other.
"Did you hear?" Tifa asked unnecessarily because it was obvious that they had all heard.
The wind blew gently and the sound was again heard. It was a distant war cry, challenging the girls. Only one beast could be roaming around at night, in the city and make that noise that no other person could hear. Saiko grinned diabolically. What a nice target, forget about it being annoying! This was one fight she wasn't going to miss. She darted off, before any of the others could react, throwing a 'Race you there! It's mine! The damn thing is mine!" over her shoulder. The others hurried up to catch her.
There, in the middle of a park, stood a Hollow. It was perhaps around the same height as a three-storey building with a muscled build. It took on the appearance of a dinosaur, with far-too-large fangs that hung down, glistening in the moonlight. The colour was a sickening green that had a touch of brown. But what was unusual was the colour of its eyes. Those who were sharp enough caught the red, bloodlust-filled gleam, different from the normal yellow. The red held some amount of intelligence as Saiko, eager for a good sword clash or in this case, a sword-against-claws clash, charged, all the while yelling vulgar insults.
Saiko approached, sword behind her as she used her momentum to give strength to her slash. Clang.
The monster blocked the seemingly powerful attack with just one oversized claw. Shocked, Saiko gritted her teeth and tried to saw the claw off. Concentrating hard, she leant into it, driving her blade as far into the claw as she could. If she could chop it off, then she could chop its head off right? It just meant the creature, this 'Super-charged' Hollow, wasn't as invincible as Shioru made it sound. Now if she could just—
White! Fuck! Something flashed on the edge of her vision. A 'Saiko!' was heard. Then black blue, black blue as Saiko felt herself tumble.
"Damn that Saiko!" Shioru muttered. "If I hadn't done the first level Path of Destruction spell, she would be dead!"
The monster looked at the girl it could've killed with just one swipe of its claws. It seemed to know that Saiko was a bit disorientated and decided to take full advantage of it. It completely turned its large body and raised one foot. It roared a triumphant cry into the night as Saiko looked up at the shadow that had just fallen on her. The beast brought its foot down. Hard.
Something, no, six somethings, were poking into its foot. And it hurt. The creature retracted its foot and saw the six shinigami standing there, bickering.
"Far out dude, I didn't need any of your help!" Saiko was yelling.
"Sure, sure, like you wouldn't be ripped in half if Shioru hadn't used Kidou to knock you out of the way," Tifa Yuri replied sarcastically.
"Oh, shut up!" Saiko exclaimed as she turned on Tifa, her eyes glaring daggers. Tifa saw the look and sensibly backed away.
"Kira!" Hoshika ordered. Glaring eyes bored into the taller girl. "We're not going to fight, understand?" Hoshika paused, then said quietly, "did you notice?"
Mochi and Shioru replied the affirmative while scrutinizing the monsters every move. Tifa glanced at the monster and commented on how the air felt distorted around it. Hiyori scrunched up her face as she tried to feel whatever Tifa was feeling. Saiko just huffed.
"The monster…" Shioru trailed away when the monster's forelegs twitched. Instinctively, her hands raised a fraction, as if ready to shoot a Kidou spell.
"It should be called a beast," Mochi stated calmly as she produced some parchment from her sleeve. "It's too dumb to be called a monster. Take care of it for me. I'll be by that tree"— she pointed at a random direction and headed towards it— "that is, if you can't defeat it on your own."
There were exclaims full of either panic or incredulity on Hiyori's part as Mochi left. The monster's blood red eyes followed the girl's movements but left her alone for she wasn't attacking. It turned its attention to the remaining girls. It growled, a gurgling, unintelligent noise from its chest.
"Oh yeah! Nice one. Just leave the slavering monster-bastard to the incompetent fools. Yeah! Great idea, baka," Saiko drawled as she pelted towards the Hollow.
"She'll only be wasting her strength," Shioru commented. "We need a plan."
Hoshika, Hiyori and Tifa nodded. Hoshika said, "I'll observe from above and look for a pattern in its moves." And the brunette jumped away, gathering spirit particles to form a platform. She watched. The monster's head was lined with sharp spikes that protruded towards the sky. From up there, the beast looked like a plastic toy, a T-rex model that little boys would want to play with, bobbing it from side-to-side, forwards and backwards, attack to the left, retreat towards the right, block Saiko's sword with a claw, then left again, right, left, left… like as if it knew that Saiko was right-handed and that her left side was weaker… but that was impossible.
Hoshika had, along with some of the others, observed how low of intelligence it was. It couldn't speak, it only roared. All it cared for was survival… But Hollows' strength, as they had learned, grew with its intelligence, but this was certainly not the case here, which meant only one thing…
Saiko looked like an ant against the Hollow from above, an ant armed with a deadly sword, lunging for the Hollow's chest. There! The Hollow had acted strangely! Hoshika witnessed the Hollow as it shifted its weight and turned its body a bit as if avoiding wanting the sword to plunge dead set in the middle of its chest. It must've been something, otherwise the beast wouldn't have let off a cry of rage and charge recklessly at Saiko.
"Way of Binding, number sixty-one: Six Rods Prison of Light!" Shioru yelled, panicking. That Saiko! Always rushing into things just for the fun of it! The Hollow screamed in pain as it was stabbed. It tried to thrash around, its forelegs striking the yellow spell, visibly cracking it. Shioru's eyes grew wide. Hiyori yelled for Mochi to help as the spell completely disintegrated.
The monster bellowed, its eyes gleaming in anger. It reared back then threw its head forwards, jaws wide, straight at Shioru. Rooted to the spot, the girls could only watched as the teeth grew closer. Suddenly, something fell from the sky, heavy like a rock, and landed on the Hollow's face. Distracted, the Hollow clawed at its own face. Hoshika, who had plummeted from the sky, stabbed the butt of her sheathed blade into the Hollow's eye and flash-stepped away, grabbing Saiko's arm in the process.
"Yuri, your sword. Blind that thing's other eye," Hoshika commanded. Stunned, Tifa could only comply. "Kira, you're going to distract it. Just flail your arms about like you usually do. Ri, go with her and make sure she doesn't die in the process. Akechi, get ready to cast a binding spell, this time say the incantation. Kanda, get your lazy self over here! I want you to use Soragen and get a good shot at the chest, dead straight in the centre."
"By moonlight, freeze, Hyosesu!" Tifa called. Everyone shielded their eyes and Tifa expertly directed the light into the Hollow's eyes, making it give off a pain-filled screech. Saiko stomped over and flailed her arms around, windmill style, like Hoshika told her to, with Hiyori tagging nervously behind. Saiko gave off quite a lot of reiatsu, tempting the Hollow with it.
"Akechi!"
"Right, Hoshika," Shioru took a deep breath. "Carriage of Thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Way of Binding, Number Sixty-one: Six Rods Prison of Light!"
The spell hit the Hollow and it howled with agony again. It knew this feeling, and it remembered what happened last time. It thumped the things that was holding it down while trying to strike where all the Shinigami reiatsu was coming from. It was hungry, it wanted more.
Hoshika nodded at Mochi. Mochi looked down at her sword. "Not worth it," she mumbled under her breath as she drew it. "Just a simple Shunpo and slash." In a blink of an eye, she pushed off from the ground, then once again on one of the Rods that held the Hollow captive and stabbed the sword right through the heart. Warm blood flowed from her sword and onto her hands. She just hoped that her parchments she was reading earlier wouldn't get stained.
With one last scream to the full-moon above, the Hollow turned to ash.
"I'm exhausted!" Shioru exclaims as she lay down on the ground. "That binding spell was way too much for me."
"Well, I'm up for another round of Hollow hunting! Fwooo!" Saiko shouted and whooped, jumping around in the moonlight, looking for all the world to be a delusional demon on drugs.
"Argh, go home, Saiko," Tifa slumped on the grass. "It's passed our bedtime already."
The girls lay on the ground. All except two.
"Mochi," Hiyori whispered. "I thought I saw someone among the trees when I was with Saiko. I swear I saw a haori. I think it was either… Third, Fifth or Twelfth Division."
"If it was Twelfth, I think you would know. Did the person have a weird head?" Mochi wrinkled her nose minutely.
"No, but… Do you think we should tell?" Hiyori glanced at some of the half asleep Shinigami-in-training.
"In time," Mochi replied, waving a hand in dismissal while pulling a book out.
Hiyori could only look worriedly back and forth at her friends then at the trees, whispering secrets to each other, concealing the truth behind leaves. Just what was the Hollow? Who was here? Why are the Hollows like this? In what way is the person that she saw related to the Hollow they had killed today? Questions that could only be answered with the rising of the sun, or perhaps the many sunrises after it. Hiyori could only hope that all would end smoothly and peacefully.
"So. Who's up for some ramen?" Saiko pulled a stove out of a convenient hole in the ground, then cups of ramen, "Don't look at me like that. You all know I've got caches everywhere. Jeez."
A/N: Lame ending, and a whole month or more of waiting. I must apologise to the readers!
I want the readers to read the bit where the Hollow is attacking Kira Saiko again. There's something the Hollow does that... relate... to the plotline. If you can decipher what it is, well then, you'll have an idea on what will happen!
X. TANgled