7
~Hell~
Yuzu is in a cage sleeping while the Sinners were waiting for Ichigo to arrive in Hell. The brown-haired girl didn't know of this yet, but within her dreams she finds out. In her dreams, she is in a field that has flowers of all different shapes, size, and color. Far in the distance were mountains, but one of them had smoke coming out of it; it was a volcano. 'Why would there be a volcano in my dream?' Yuzu questioned herself.
"This is your inner world, Yuzu. That volcano over there represents your darker side. As I'm sure you noticed it's not all that big. That's because you are too nice," A voice said from behind her.
Yuzu turned around to see a woman with long, blond hair that reaches down to her mid-back, gold on red eyes, and black markings around the eyes. She wore a gold kimono with a red Chinese dragon wrapping around the left sleeve, and black sandals that have a small heel. On her hip lies a katana with a golden hilt and a black guard within a red sheath. Yuzu thought that the woman looked beautiful, but knew she was dangerous if the sword was anything to go by. The only thing keeping her from panicking is the fact that the woman was giving her a motherly, kind look. "Who are you, if I may ask, and what is an inner world?"
The woman smiled. "You can ask me anything you want, my dear. My name is Asa, your inner demon. I come from your mother's side of the family; I'm sure you remember this from your brother, Ichigo, when he came back from Hell after training with his grandfather." Yuzu nodded, remembering that her family had demon blood in them. "To answer your other question: an inner world is a place that only you can get to and is located within your soul. In other words, this is what your soul looks like. It's very beautiful," Asa complemented with a motherly smile.
"Oh, okay…" Yuzu thought for a moment, but remembered that something happened before she fell unconscious. "Wait, I remember me and Karin being attacked by something. What happened to us!?" She was starting to panic; worried about her sister more than herself.
"Your sister is fine, but you were taken by spirits from Hell called Sinners. They are humans that have committed crime in life," The she-demon explained.
"I need to get away then! Knowing Onii-chan, he'll come here to save me, but he'll get hurt. I don't want him to get hurt because of me!" Yuzu said determined.
Asa nodded her head in agreement. "I can get us out of here; we just have to wait a little bit longer." Yuzu nodded her head in understanding, and sat down to wait.
~With Ichigo and friends~
Ichigo, Brielle, and their friends walked out of a portal and into a weird looking place. At first the soul siblings didn't think this was Hell, but they just walked out of a gateway that would bring them to where they needed to be. So it had to be the Underworld...right?
Kokuto was the last to walk out of the portal, and then say, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hell."
"This is Hell? It's a lot different then what I was expecting," Renji said while looking around at his surroundings.
Brielle looked at Kokuto. "You sure this is Hell?" She asked just in case. What she said seemed to have confused Uryu.
"I thought you and Ichigo were here before," He whispered to the two after he brought them closer. He knew it wasn't a good idea to let Kokuto know that Ichigo has been here before and is a Devil-Spawn.
"We were, but we weren't in this part before," Ichigo said.
"I can assure you that this is Hell, just the first level," Kokuto explained.
'That's where most of the Sinners are located,' Ichigo mused.
"If you want to find your sister we'll have to go farther down. If we want to get to her on time… we better run," said Kokuto as he started to run and jump on different cubes with the others following.
While they were running, Ichigo, his sister, and his friends started to notice other Sinners hiding from fear, walking into walls, not moving, or freaking out. "Are they all Sinners too?" Renji asked.
"Yeah, they are, but as you can see they have no will to fight anymore. They're the unlucky souls that weren't strong enough to keep fighting. It's what happens to all Sinners in Hell. It shows us how weak we really are," Kokuto explained.
Brielle rolled her dual-colored eyes. "Not surprising since humans always thinks they're strong, but take away all their weapons and put them in a lion's den, what do you thing is going to happen?" She asked bitterly.
Ichigo cringed; he knows that his sister is right. Humans are only strong when they have a gun in their hands. But if you put them up against something like a lion, they would be dead within seconds without that gun. "Let's not get into that, or you might go insane in here," the orange-haired teen suggested.
Brielle sighed, "Yeah, your right."
It was silent for a few moments before a huge skeletal-like monster came up from below them.
"What in the world is that thing?!" Renji asked with some panic in his voice.
"It's a Kushanada; one of the guardians of Hell," Kokuto said while said Kushanada started attacking and eating Sinners. "They chase us down, crush us, and then eat us."
"I don't get it. Wouldn't that just kill you?" Uryu asked.
"You would think, but that's not how it works in Hell. If you die here, you'll just come back so you can be eaten again," The Sinner explained. "Just keep running and don't let it catch you. The same goes for you, if you die. When that happens, you'll be trapped down here forever."
"Good thing there is only one then," Brielle said, but it was too soon as more of the creatures show up out of nowhere.
"Brielle, you jinxed it!" Ichigo shouted.
"I'm sorry… I should have kept that to myself." Brielle whined while lowered her head down in shame.
"Doesn't matter we'll have to fight them now." They all had to dodge first before they could try to fight the Kushanada. Renji and Rukia released their Zanpakuto and attacked the Kushanada, Uryu fired a large arrow at one of them, Brielle got her Dark Crystal sword and fired a dark wave of energy that hit three of them, and Ichigo was about to fire a Getsuga when his mask appeared on his face which shocked him for a moment, but didn't have time to think about it and fired the attack taking out five of the Kushanada.
Ichigo landed back on a cube and took off his mask and looked at his hand in confusion. 'Shiro, what just happened?' He asked his Hollow.
"Sorry, the air here is driving me crazy. I'm going to hide somewhere deep in your soul. If you need help, ask Yuuto," Shiro said, and then hid before Ichigo had time to say anything.
Ichigo's friends and soul sister ran up to him, and Brielle hit him on the back of his head with her whip, and then let Renji take over. "What the heck were you thinking using your mask?! You should have warned us, because it almost got us killed!"
"It did?" Ichigo asked while nursing his now-in-pain head, and then looked back down at his hand. "Sorry, the air here is making Shiro go crazy, but I guess it's not helping that I'm worried about Yuzu."
"I'd say." Brielle sighed, "Let's just keep going." They continue to run to get to the next level.
When they get to the end of the level, they saw a giant gap. "I don't think we're not going to make it," Renji said.
"Get ready to jump!" Kokuto called back to them, and they all jump down the gap.
When they landed, they landed on a giant skull, or rather Ichigo did.
"Where are we?" Uryu asked.
"Looks like a graveyard for those monsters," Renji said.
"That's because it is," Kokuto stated.
"Where's Yuzu?" Ichigo asked.
"Don't worry, darling. I'll give you what you want," A voice said from above, and Ichigo saw one of the Sinners about to land on top of him, so he jumped off the skull. Not long after he landed again, two other Sinners showed up.
TBC
For some reason I felt like I was talking about a video game when I kept saying "level"… Weird… -_-'
Ichi: I think they'll see what you mean. Now mind telling me why you brought Yuzu in here?
Yuzu: Because I was in this chapter. :D
Ichi: WHAT?! OoO *tries to look at the beginning of the chapter*
Enj/Bri: Oh, no you don't! *tackles Ichigo to the ground* Yuzu, close the chapter down! D:
Yuzu: Okay! ^-^ *closes chapter down*
Enj/Bri: That was a close one.
Shiro: Can I see it? :)
Enj/Bri: No, you'll see it next chapter.
Shiro: But that's 2 weeks… :(
Yuzu: You'll be fine. :)
Enj/Bri: What she said. ;)
Yuzu: Please review! :D