Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
"Where are we going?" Suichi asked.
"Wherever" Shin answered back. Both men were trapped in an inky darkness that didn't seem to end. Complete lightlessness enveloped them from all sides. Suddenly, along the way, they both felt a sudden drop and began falling from up high. Shin and Suichi reacted on dissimilar instincts and grabbed up, clutching onto a smooth and pleasing fabric that they had just fallen through. The ceiling tapestry that had dropped them and now held their weight started to give way and both shinigami found themselves swinging down on a thick, red robe of cloth.
"Holy hell!" Suichi shouted. Shin stayed stern and kept his eyes forward. A wall was coming up and the drop from as high up as they were would surely break something essential.
"Suichi" Shin shouted. "Get ready to run."
"What!?" Suichi asked. He looked forward and saw the same wall, then he smiled. "Race ya!"
"You're really gutsy today" Shin casually mentioned. As they neared the wall the prepared their legs and once close enough they planted them. From parts unknown these two had entered the upper levels of the palace, leaving the bottom floor to their impatient comrade. Shin and Suichi raced along the wall, holding tightly the same long piece of fabric as they went, until gravity suddenly jerked them down.
"Oops" Shin droned. He held the cloth out in front of him and looked at it. Then he looked up at the fluttering other end as it flew from off of the ceiling. "Well, what's a leg or two?"
"Keep running!" Suichi said. He was leaned so far into the wall that his shoulder was nearly touching it, but somehow he was defying gravity to the point where his feet fell nearly flat on the sideways surface. Shin picked up on his technique and tried hard to imitate it. He started tapping the wall as he fell with his feet while drawing himself in with his shoulders, but in the end he was still falling down!
"HOW!?" Shin shouted as he lost distance quickly. "Screw it" Shin growled. He took out his sword and dug it into the stone. This isn't the time or place to practice crap like that. I just need to survive long enough to fight.
Why not try it? Shikei asked from within. If Suichi can do it then you can perfect it! You could even run as if on a flat surface like the ground with your body straight out away from the wall.
Shut up Shin chided. I'm smarter than that. I'll figure it out later. For now, living is good enough.
If you say so... Shikei responded. At length the two were able to find the proper ground to set themselves down and rested for a moment.
"That" Suichi said between panting "has to be some kind of record!"
"You're just full of awesome today" Shin praised. "Now if you could only fight that well." Suichi finished catching his breath and stretched his back by pressing it near his hip and leaning back. With a loud sigh of comfort he looked around and placed a wary hand on the hilt of his sword. Shin sheathed his but kept his grip tight.
"This is weird" Suichi noted.
"Yeah" Shin agreed. It hadn't dawned on them until right now, but the hallway they were in was taller and wider than the palace was from outside. The length they had run was easily twice the length of the block the palace was on. The height of the ceilings was nearly double the width of the hall. Shin looked up and could see the single piece of tapestry that had fallen and was still falling. The he looked back behind him and growled.
"Suichi" Shin called. "Shouldn't that end of the hall be...farther away?" Suichi turned around and saw, some few meters away, the high, stone-and-mortar wall they scaled from outside and entered in from the shaded space above the ceiling. Suichi was visibly shocked and agitated with his mouth wide open in pained exclamation. "Well...dammit."
"That's it?" Suichi asked. "Just dammit? Where's the real anger, Shin? I'm pissed as hell!"
"So swear" Shin said. He sat down, legs crossed and hands lazily placed in his lap, to meditate on the current situation. "Right now what we need to do is assess ourselves." Suichi was moved a bit by Shin's unusual calmness. He stared blankly for a moment, then joined his powerful ally on the floor with his fists peacefully together in his lap. They both breathed slowly and took in their entire abnormally huge environment, looking for an explanation for the absurdity of the world...
And while his friends contemplated existential thoughts, Hoji spun his sword around by its tassel high above his head with an open palm in front of his face. He was surrounded completely by men shifting constantly as they waited for an unexpected attack. Hoji had his eyes closed and was spinning slowly around with his sword, feeling the wind it made and making a plan for his slaughter based on where the currents blew.
Tch he thought. There's a lot of them. Like...damn, a lot, and I can tell that these aren't even the top guys, too. This could be bad. I mean, obviously I outskill these guys one-to-a-thousand, but they can still outmaneuver my defense.
So if defense won't work Torakaze said in her sophisticatedly luring voice, what should you do? Hoji grinned. He stopped spinning and moved his hand away from his face so everyone could see the malice in his toothy smile. He stopped spinning his sword and took it in its most peculiar grip. Energy started swirling calmly around him, most of which the mercenaries could see.
"No!" one shouted. "Don't let him release!"
"Rip and Tear" Hoji began. The soldiers wouldn't allow him to finish his incantation. They rushed in to get him out of his position, but unfortunately they hadn't predicted Hoji being as amazing as he was. Without moving his hands out of their proper form on the handle he effortlessly blocked and pushed away each attack. Utilizing his strong upper-body and whipping his powerful hips in rhythm with his shoulders he fended off enough of the attackers to prove just how futile a plotless rush on him was. And so, he finished with an angry, growling flourish...
"TORAKAZE!!!!" Wind exploded from his arms. The sword became two gauntlets of gold, his shikai the 'Tiger Wind', and he posed with them, lowering one and raising the other up with a bent elbow so the claw was at eye level. He tilted his head down so only the manic whites of his eyes shined out to the fearful mercenary army.
"What the hell!?" one soldier shouted in disbelief. "Wind? Where's all this wind coming from?"
"It's that guy!" another said. "His shikai, he can create...wind!"
"That's right!" Hoji shouted, pointing with a flick of his finger. The force of his casual little flick caused a group of soldiers to barrel into the wall and some straight out the door into the street. Aside from the initial shock of getting literally blown away by a man's finger they were fine. "Torakaze can create and control the wind! It's more powerful than any one of your pitiful little sticks!" The men all growled in retort...although they held back the shame that Hoji was right.
"Forget him!" a rogue soldier shouted. "Come on! We still outnumber him 50-1!"
"There's only fifty of you?" Hoji asked. "Tch. I thought there were more." The soldiers all rushed in with blades high overhead and prepared to attack with all the barbaric verve they had harnessed and trained for over the years as professional soldiers of fortune. They didn't stand a chance. Hoji parted his legs, keeping them straight without locking his knees, and brought the bladed palms of his gauntlets together. Merciless winds started forming around his hands.
"Tch" Hoji scoffed. "You guys have no idea the crap you just ran into!" Despite his warning they continued approaching with swords ready to cut, gnash, slice and tear. Hoji clamped down hard with his hands and then quickly separated them with a mirrored motion, flinging his arms far out to the side. "Rip them all to pieces! Shinkuuken: Mugoi Danmaku!!!" In a horrific whip of wind and a silent blast of air, every man succumbed to the attack Hoji unleashed. Waving scars like tiger stripes appeared on the bodies and arms of each individual within the range of Hoji's blast. The others who were just outside the attack's radius were blown away and fell to the hard ground head-first.
Hoji stood tall among the scattered human debris. He straightened himself out and rolled his shoulders until his neck clicked. He winced at it and ribbed at the sore spot, being careful not to apply enough pressure to actually rend himself up. All his victims were losing enough blood to at least stay unconscious for the rest of the fight, and he could kill them at his leisure.
"Tch" he scoffed. "That wasn't even fun. You guys aren't worth any more of my time." And so Hoji began walking away from the battlefield. He kept his shikai active as he walked toward the stairs, sure that any political figure would be nestled somewhere deep within the palace and surrounded by elite guards, and kept his sense of pride just under the cautiousness of his gait. There was no trace of spiritual pressure for him to worry about, but he stayed ready just in case.
That was impressive Torakaze praised.
"Tch" Hoji again scoffed, "no it wasn't. That's a basic move. I could have just spun around on my toes and held my hands out, the air blades would have killed them all. Right now I just don't have that kind of time."
Well it still would have been impressive Torakaze continued if you would have at least given them some kind of lenience. You are a monster, after all.
"Heh" Hoji smirked, "you're right. Next time someone wants to fight, I'm going all out. It's Kaijuu time, baby!"
"Well here's an opportunity!" a manly voice called. From far above the hall Hoji now found himself in a man dropped down. This shinigami, dressed like the others in eccentric garb, held in his hand a pre-released sword of strange design. He was taller than Hoji, with his head shaved clean, and his sword was great and broad with three long teeth-like spikes along the bladed edge in precise intervals from the tip to the handguard. He stood fully erect and looked down from his nose at the little shinigami with the golden gauntlets and stomped forward.
"Go ahead" the man said in a loud and annoyingly prideful voice, "try and fight me, monster!!!" He took his sword, in one hand, and smashed it down faster than Hoji could follow. Hoji didn't flinch, as he saw the trajectory of the sword before it was swung and he knew it wouldn't hit him. It slammed into the floor beside him, kicking up dust and chunks of stone tiling with a blast of air, but Hoji still stayed firm in his pose. "I am the first-grade lieutenant of the Rose Revolution, Yergle Mundus!"
"Yergle!?" Hoji said with an amused grin. He nearly broke out laughing but bit his lip to stifle it and furrowed his brow to force his anger back to the surface. Hoji then snapped his arm into Yergle's sword and moved it out of the stone floor and into the air. He then jumped back to the wall that separated the hall from the stairs he had just ascended and landed on all fours, claws forward and toes to the floor behind.
"Nice to meet you, Mundus" Hoji greeted. "I'm Hoji Araijin, and you're dead meat! Kaijuuryuu!!!"
"Monster?" Yergle repeated curiously. "What is this? Some kind of strange shinigami ritual? Very well. Come at me, Hoji Araijin! Come at me with all your might!"
"Got it" Shin said suddenly. Suichi opened his eyes and turned to his friend curiously.
"Got what?" Suichi asked.
"Hoji" Shin answered. "I finally picked up on his spirit pressure. He's getting ready to fight someone and he's serious."
"That doesn't sound good" Suichi said. Shin stood up and Suichi followed. "We should try to find him and help out."
"He can handle it" Shin said. "Trust me, if Hoji is getting serious it means he's going to win. He never stays serious for long if he feels like he might lose, then he gets focused and angry."
"Well" Suichi began "then we should try to find a way out of here."
"I already have" Shin said. He drew out his sword slowly and positioned it in a reverse grip at the floor. "I've figured out the trick that got us in here. It's kido. I just have to kill the illusion and we'll be fine."
"Why is everything death with you?" Suichi asked, almost scarcastically.
"Because" Shin replied, raising his sword up and preparing to stab hard, "I am death." With a grunt of rage he sliced into the floor, finding it oddly permissive, and then took a hard step forward. His step carried his shoulder and with a snap of his hips his blade sang straight through the stone floor and up into the air. "Joushou Kyoufu!!!" The path he had cut started to bubble up with an intangible blackness. Then, all at once, a huge slicing wave of sheer power ripped out and blasted its way across the endless hallway. The air started cracking like glass, and the barrier that surrounded Suichi and Shin was shattered. The blade of screaming black pressure continued traveling until it hit a wall, cut through it, and hit another unseen wall. Such was the terrible power of Shin Kenpachi.
"Oh crap" Shin growled. He looked around at the curiously edged walls of mortar gray and then up at the ancient and battle-worn ceiling. Shackles from countless prisoners were bolted into the stone wall. Four tiny cracks of light shone down from the outside. Plague and bile ran rampant across the floor.
"Claver bastards" Suichi said. "They sent us straight to prison." Suddenly a door of metal slammed shut. Shin and Suichi whipped their neck around and saw, to no surprise at all, a group of men locking them both into their cell.
"Ha!" one soldier shouted mockingly. "Joke's on you, stupid shinigami! We captured you before you even got into the palace hallways!"
"You've been under our spell the whole time!" another mocked loudly. The group shared a loud and annoying guffaw at Shin's expense. Suichi backed away as he could feel his bones starting to creak.
"What are you so worried about" Shin asked to his ally. The soldiers all suddenly stopped laughing and started quietly worrying. The air around Shin looked dark and malicious. They could see his pressure crushing everything around him as he unconsciously blasted it out. A pitch-black curtain of his power draped itself over everything. The bones of ancient prisoners shattered into dust that neatly settled into skull-shaped piles. "It's not like...you're going to die..." Shin's trailing voice, coupled with his glowing white eyes in a barrier of black, made most of the men freeze in horror.
"Oh crap" one man muttered. "We're going to die!"
"Calm down!" another said with panic in his voice. "He-he can't break through this metal with his sword! It's enchanted metal! We're safe as long as we're on the other side of these bars!" Suddenly Shin was meeting the men with nothing but the bars separating them. He had flashed over with such graceful speed that no one, not even Suichi, picked up on it.
"You think magic metal bars can stop me?" Shin asked with a low and breathy voice. "You're an idiot. Nothing stops Death." It was over. The villains and mercenaries had never predicted detaining death itself. With a quick sweep of his blade, Shin decapitated the lot of them and crushed their bodies into a fine mist, all of which shined with a brilliant shade of black in his field of deathly pressure...
And now he just had to figure one last thing out.
"Dammit!" he exclaimed, lifting his field upon ruining his mood. The bars were still intact, although the rust seemed to have shifted when his sword went through them. He attempted to touch the metal with his sword, but it just phased through like the bars were made of liquid. It was even harder to pull his sword out when he tried. Then he touched it with his hand, and it was pure cold metal. "Now what?"
"More meditation?" Suichi asked. Shin sighed. It was going to be a long day...
Shinkuuken: Mugoi Danmaku = Vacuum Blade: Merciless Barrage
Joushou Kyoufu = Rising Dread
Random note: Please, feel free to mock my inability to make up meaningful names on the fly in the reviews. In fact, I encourage it.
