Guardian Angel III:
Neo Arcus Angelus
Chapter 3
The Angel and the Fox
Heyo! I know, almost two months since my last update here, I suck. I don't really even have an excuse except that I had a major case of "Lost Muse", which basically means I had no motivation to work on this thing at all. Really this story isn't even getting many readers (I admit this is probably because I never update, but that's beside the point), so most of my attention has been focused on either Caught in the Middle, an original piece that I'm picking at in my free time, or school. Plus, I've been pre-writing the first few chapters of the next new fic I'll be putting out sooner or later.
I'm going to try working more on my fics, and going to see if I can pull off three at a time instead of my normal two, so my new one will probably be coming around pretty soon. A good deal of it is already started, so I can just post and forget, which leaves me more time to work on this and Caught in the Middle.
Anyway, you've waited long enough, so chapter 3!
Damn it all if that sword of his wasn't fast. Matt was currently engaged with the white haired man that had attacked him on the roof, and was impressed by his speed. He could tell that a lot of his spiritual pressure was being suppressed, and if his estimation was correct, he was easily captain level in strength. His sword was abnormally short, more along the lines of an elongated dagger. If his memory served him well, it was a wakazashi.
Matt flipped backwards out of the path of a horizontal slash, and he landed on the slanted shingles of Holly's house. He quickly brought up Gabriel and blocked another vertical swing, and brought his right leg up and shot it out aiming for his opponents head. He twisted to the side, deflecting Matts blade, and grabbed his leg, whipping around and tossing him across the roof and off the edge of the house.
The raven haired soul reaper landed on his back and lost grip of his sword. He rolled back and onto his feet, reaching for Gabriel. Before he could grasp the claymore though, his attacker leaped down from the house and forced Matt to pull his hand back and leap away.
After sliding to a stop on the damp grass, Matts eyes darted from Gabriel, to his opponent, and back again. He could use kido and some hand-to-hand in a pinch, but this guy was good; he wasn't sure how long that method would fly.
He'd have to put it to the test, his attacker was making a beeline straight for him. When he came in range, he immediately set to work trying to dice up Matt with his wakazashi. His movements were a blur of gleaming metal reflecting light from the moon. Mate ducked and dodged, slowly bust surely being pushed back and farther away from Gabriel.
He needed to stop fooling around and enter Shikai at least, but this guy wasn't giving him any openings, and he couldn't enter it without having Gabriel in his hand. He needed a divergence, something to at least get him off his back.
"Way of Destruction 31: Shot of Red Fire!" he shouted, extending his hand out. The red beam had the desired effect, and his opponent backed up, back flipping just in time to dodge the effect radius.
Matt shot forward like a man on fire, jumping straight over his white haired opponent, landing and rolling forward, and finally feeling his blade return to his grasp. He whipped around and deflected two heavy strikes before jumping to the second story of the house, and pushing off it, landing in the middle of the street where it wasn't so slippery and wet.
He silently cursed; he had told Soi Fon over and over again that putting the limiter on him was a bad idea, but no! Three years ago, it was also decided that part of Matt still keeping what was left of his soul reaper status was that he was to have a power limiter put on, just like all the captains and lieutenants had. His power was cut to twenty percent just like all bankai capable soul reapers excluding Ichigo, except with him, he also had his stability pendant to consider, which sapped about an extra two or three percent of his strength to keep his Spirit Buffers from overloading, so really, he was merely fighting at seventeen or eighteen percent full strength. At this level of power, it would take all he had at bankai just to keep up with this guy in Shikai.
Speaking of which, the white clad fighter jumped from Hollys lawn onto the street. Matt realized he'd wasted enough time and steadied Gabriel in his hands.
"Bring Heavens Wrath: Gabriel!" he shouted, and for the first time in a long time, he felt Shikai take over. The burning sword and his snow white soul reaper robes were a welcome sight.
"Oh, very nice! The flames are very intimidating, I'm a little frightened now," he mocked.
"No your not, not yet," growled Matt, then shunpo'd out of sight, only to re-appear right above him.
"But you will be in a second!"
He brought down Gabriel with all his might, and the flaming sword was met with the short wakazashi. Spiritual Pressure shot out in all direction, cracking the concrete below them and sending a gust of wind down the entire street. The stubby blade was still holding firm under Matt's onslaught, much to his frustration.
He shunpo'd away again and tried an attack from the rear, but the short sword wielder simply did an amazingly fast 180, and sent his blade wide, leaving him open. He watched practically in slow motion as the wakazashi reversed direction and sliced open his side, splattering blood onto the crumbled cement and sending him tumbling back holding his bleeding side.
"Better," said his opponent casually, "but still not very good. I'd say you've got the relative strength of a fifth seat at best."
Matt laughed as he regained his balance. "I'll take that as a compliment. My girlfriend's a fifth seat, and she's hella strong."
Even as he was finishing recovering, his opponent didn't waste any time taking advantage of his still unprepared state. He felt a foot connect with his chest, and he was sent tumbling back, taking turns slamming into the ground, only to hop back into the air again like a skipping stone until he finally built up enough friction to come to a stop. His left sleeve on his robes was in tatters from the scraping concrete, but other than having the wind knocked out of him, he was fine.
Out of no where, the white haired man shunpo'd over to him and stabbed downward. Matt rolled to the side, letting the wakazashi embed itself into the street. Matt took the opening and once he'd rolled back onto his feet, he made a thrust of his own. Once again it missed, as the man removed the blade and twirled to Matt's right, practically did a 360 spin, and in the process sliced open the right side of his forehead.
Matt desperately shunpo'd away, blood pouring down his face like a waterfall. He re-appeared on top of a house further down the street and pulled out his communicator; he couldn't take much more of this.
"Commander Anderson, what do you need?" came a voice from the other end of the line
"Too slow!" shouted a voice above Matt, and he instinctual dodge rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging a fatal blow.
"You can lower my fucking limiter for starters!" he shouted.
There was a silence over the line as he kept dodging and weaving the wakazashi, occasionally resorting to flinging Gabriel out at the last second to deflect the faster attacks.
"Got it Commander, just wait a few moments while we get the necessary authorization."
Matt's irritation continued to build in pressure. "What? No, fuck the authorization, get it down now!"
Matt ducked under a horizontal swipe. "I'm sorry Commander, but regulations are regulations, not even the captains are exempt from them. We understand you're in danger; believe me, we're working as fast as we can manage, just hang in there."
"I'm way past danger here, I'm getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter," he said, rolling to the left to dodge another slash, "Look, you've got two options here buddy! Either save me now and maybe get a nice fruit basket in return, or you can take your sweet time and let me die! Trust me, you'll regret option number two; I can get you sent to Hell, I've got those sorts of connections!"
As he was yelling into the speaker, he didn't notice the kick coming at him until his head whipped to the side and he was set flying back down into the street, face down. He groaned and pushed himself up into his hands and knees, spitting some blood out that was gathering around his gums. He wiped the rest off his mouth and push himself into a kneeling position with Gabriel.
'Those idiot's better hurry; going into bankai would be embarrassing against a guy still in his sealed form, but it it comes to that...'
"You're just an all around disappointment," said his opponent, who had jumped off the house and slowly drifted to the ground, "I was expecting a grand battle, but all I got was some kid too weak for his own reputation. Who did you suck up to to get that Commanders position, has Soi Fon gone so low that she'll be swayed by a sad look from a kid while I was gone?"
Matt coughed and held on tighter to Gabriel. "Ya, and who are you? What makes you such a big shot?"
A fox-like grin popped back onto his face. "My name's Gin Ichimaru, former captain of the third division and former general of Lord Aizens arrancar army."
The name finally clicked and Matt knew who he was now. "Right, I remember hearing about you; Ichigo mentioned you guys a while back while I was hangin' with him. Didn't he completely gut you or something?"
"Now, now, that's my little secret. You just be a good boy and die," said Gin as he spread his legs back and brought his wakazashi back as well, like he was bracing for something.
"heh, Shoot to Kill: ShinsÅ!"
Matt's eyes bulged as his wakazashi grew longer...a lot longer. It fired out and at him like a bladed bullet, barely giving him any time to react, and definitely none to dodge. He threw Gabriel up in reflex and the flying blade smashed into the edge of Gabriel's blade, practically shattering it in half on the spot. The crack that shot across the width of the blade stopped just short of the other end, leaving it relatively in one piece and holding the attack off, but Matt was already losing a lot of road length, and he doubted his sword would hold once he started smashing through buildings.
"NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD! NOT GOOD!" he shouted as he was flying down the road, his feet not even on the ground anymore.
He was more than halfway down the long street when his communicator finally responded again. "Commander, Commander!"
"I swear to God, if you don't have good news I'm surviving this just so I can kill you!"
"We have the necessary authorization, you are free to activate your full power!"
"Yes, you are so getting that fruit basket!"
With a roar, hit forced his feet down and dug into the concrete of the street and began summoning all his previously missing strength. He practically burst with his fiery orange reishi and he gradually came to a stop. With his power back and his sword repaired, he held off the Gin's blade with one hand and grabbed hold of it with his free left hand.
"Time for some oh so sweet payback!"
Another roar and he swung his arm left, dragging the sword and Gin along with him. He began spinning the quarter-mile blade in a full circle until he built up enough momentum and hurled the former captain into the air. A quick shunpo later and he was in the air, right in front of the tip of the blade again, and once against, grabbed it. He swung it over his head, flinging Gin downward and slamming him into the cement street, blowing away the entire section.
The fire on Gabriel flared into a blazing inferno as he brought it back while he fell downward back to earth. He fired a Sanctus Incendia down, and it exploded in a bright flash.
"That one was for cutting me!"
He fired a second, further intensifying the explosive force.
"That was for kicking me!"
Then he fired a final third Sanctus Incendia, practically engulfing the entire road in flames and reducing it to tar.
"And that was for saying I kiss up to Soybean!"
With his combo complete, he fell the rest of the way down to earth and landed in the flame ridden crater where Gin lay. His white robes were in shreds and it his chest was burned to the point where it hardly looked like skin anymore. He sent out a reishi pulse and put out all the flames; he didn't want to burn down his own neighborhood.
He knelt down after all the fire was gone to check Gin's pulse. He didn't even need to really, because his hand never got to his neck. Instead, Gin grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and put his now re-sealed wakazashi up to Matt's neck.
"Now that one was a doosy! He never mentioned you had a limiter; if I had known that I woulda' waited for ya to lower it. Still, that was impressive. Lucky for you, I'm not allowed to kill ya, so I guess I'll be headin' back now. Bye bye now!"
Then, just like that, he faded into dust and flew off into the wind like he'd never been there. It was oddly remeniscent of...could it really be? Why after three years though? Well, either way, he got what he came here for, so he supposed it was time to head back. He opened a Senkaimon and headed back to the Soul Society.
Soi Fon was sitting behind her desk, finishing her latest stack of paper when she heard a knock on the door. She called for them to enter without even looking up. The door slid open and she spared a short glance, but was able to catch enough to see a black haired soul reaper with a badge on his arm.
She looked up and saw Matt in horrible shape. He had a gash on his right side, his face was doused in blood from a deep cut on his forehead, and his right cheek was developing a nasty bruise -it was already a sickly yellowish-blue.
"Should I even ask?"
"I always attract the weirdos," he replied.
He walked in further and took a seat across from her on the other end of the desk; he looked exhausted.
"See, this is what happens when you put a limiter on me. I end up running into an crazy undead captain, and I get my ass kicked until, miraculously at the last moment, I'm saved in the nick of time by a big boost in energy. Can I please get this thing removed?"
"No, it's part of your deal, now what do you mean an 'undead captain'?"
Matt rested his right leg on his left knee and sat back. "Well, Gin Ichimaru is dead isn't he?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Yes he is, are you trying to tell me you encountered him in the world of the living, because if you are, then I can only assume this is another one of your immature attempts at humor."
He spread his arms and presented his entire body. "Have you seen my shit-beaten self? I damn near died fighting that lunatic! No thanks to the limiter if I may reiterate!"
"I'm inclined to believe that whoever was attacking you merely used his name to intimidate you."
"His zanpakuto's name is Shinso, he's got silver-gray hair, and his eyes are always squinted. Did I get that about right?"
Soi Fon nodded. "You did."
"Well, that's the guy who I fought, how do you explain the fact that he had the same zanpakuto unless he was Gin Ichimaru?"
She didn't answer, but looked at him with an expression that said she wasn't having any of it.
Matt sighed. "Alright look, at least let me ask you this. Would you say Gin was an bad guy, I mean a real bad guy?"
She stayed silent for a moment. "I would. Most would argue that he merely made the wrong choices, but those people hadn't fought the arrancars. They weren't there when he personally denounced everything he previously stood for and cut all ties to his past life in the Soul Society, so yes, I would say he was not only bad, he was evil."
"Evil enough to go to Hell?"
She nodded.
"Alright then, that's all I need to know. It's a stretch, but now I'm pretty sure I know just how he got here."
Before she got a chance to ask him what he meant, he was already out the door and walking down the path out of the barracks. She simply sighed, wondering what she would do with him, and went back to her paperwork.
Matt didn't have the energy left to shunpo back to his house like normal, so he kept to walking. He was utterly drained and didn't even bother carrying Gabriel over his shoulder, instead dragging it by the hilt and letting the tip scrape against the ground. He looked up and nearly cried in joy when he made it to his house. He pushed the front door open and stumbled in.
'screw the bed, I'll crash on the couch.'
He dropped Gabriel somewhere on the floor and sloppily plopped down on the couch. At least, he thought it was the couch, but the couch doesn't usually throw whoever tries to sit on it to the ground.
Matt fell to the floor and stumbled for the lamp on the entable next to his couch. The light flickered on and the room was bathed in artificial light. When he turned back to his couch, he looked up and saw someone he hadn't seen in three years.
"Hey Matt; not that I don't like you or anything, but I'd really prefer to sleep alone."
There, on his couch, sat Acedia in all his dirt covered glory.
Obviously Holly handn't listened to him when he said "stay out of trouble".
And there we are, the very VERY overdue chapter 3. Please forgive my procrastination filled ways!
So no, Acedia isn't dead in the technical sense the he went to Heaven or Hell, but his is dead in the fact that he had a scythe blade shoved through his face, but that's a totally different story...chapter...whatever.
Anyway, the few of you who actually read this thing, would you mind reviewing? Thanks.