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.


It was obvious from the start of the battle: Hoji had an advantage in movement. However, as the fighting went on, Mundus showed that he had the real edge in sheer speed. Hoji tucked and rolled out of the way of yet another floor-cleaving slice, then screeched to a halt in the wide, open corridor he was fighting in. He stood up, claws curled into fists, and glared his opponent down, still struggling not to burst out laughing at his name.

"Is it frightening?" Yergle asked.

"Not as much as you face" Hoji said.

"Oh?" Yergle grunted. "So, my manly, warrior's appearance has stricken you, has it? You find it difficult to move with the sheer force of my amazingly rugged, deep features, and you are terrified of the glint in my eyes! Yes! I am quite a scary man, Mr. Shinigami!"

"Dude" Hoji said, "that was an insult. I was calling you so ugly that it's scary."

"WHAT!?" Yergle shouted angrily. "I won't be taken lightly, you bald sarcastic knave!"

"Bald...?" Hoji lowed.

"You see" Yergle began, "my sword can move as fast as any man in a full motion Flash Step. It is an attack I call 'Sonic Strike'! My sword is named for one of the living world's fastest animals, Ahoudorikiba!"

"Bald!?" Hoji spat with a much greater amount of disdain. Yergle could see a hateful energy swirling around, his enemy obviously deeply insulted by his observation.

"Uh" Yergle began nervously, "well, you don't have a lot of hair...at all...anywhere on your head, do you?" One flash step later, Yergle's mouth was shut. Hoji delivered a flying kick, propelling himself with a clean raking motion with his clawed hands, and ground his foot in hard until he could feel the teeth in his mouth shifting position. The kick shot Yergle as far back as the wall behind him where he settle loudly into a hole that his back graciously made, then sank back down to the floor with his knees buckled and hands gripped painfully around the hilt of his sword. Hoji posed, one foot on the ground and the other high up in the air with knee bent, his torso angled to be straight from his hips and then curve up near his chest so his head was straight up and tilted to the side. A martial-arts pose, one would imagine.

"I ain't bald, jackass" Hoji said in a very even tone. "I've got a pigtail on the back of my head. I can understand calling me bald, however, since it's hard to see."

"Oh no worries" Yergle shakily said from his spot on the ground. "It was my mistake...I suppose..." Hoji kicked into the air, set his foot down, and brought both his arms in with fists turned up and muscles pumped. He drew them in, winding them up for what looked like two punches at once, and breathed deeply. Yet another take on martial arts in this place and time of shinigami culture.

"You bastard" Yergle cursed in a high-pitched whisper. "I'll kill you here and now! Swoop!" At his called his sword made a strange hum. Hoji noticed it and took a defensive action. He parted his legs and brought his arms together in a cross against his chest. In a flash of untraceable movement Yergle swung his sword in a perfect, horizontal swing at Hoji and an invisible blade of air roared across the hall.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed with a smirk. He stepped forward, parted his arms and slashed the air-blade into pieces with his claws. The scattered fragments of Yergle's attack blew chunks of stone out of the walls and tattered the rug on the floor in many random places. "What was that? A wind-based attack?" Yergle looked confused, as if his attack not working had never happened before, and he struggled to get himself up. "You may as well give up now. Torakaze is the King of Wind based attacks!"


You know I'm a woman, right? Torakaze reminded its somewhat incompetent wielder.

Shut the hell up, dammit! Hoji snarled internally, keeping his face plastered with a cocky grin and glaring eyes. He doesn't need to know that, you bitch!

"My, my!" Yergle said in strangely good spirits. "That was unprecedented! No one has ever been able to avoid my 'Swooping Gale' attack, let alone deflect and dismiss it! HAHAHA! I feel quite foolish!"

"I don't get it" Hoji said flatly. Yergle stopped chuckling long enough to watch Hoji teleport with remarkable speed right up to him, faces mere inches apart. "I mean, I don't get why a corpse is in such a good mood all of a sudden." Yergle was honestly stunned by the sheer bluntness Hoji had used in called him already dead. Hoji rotated his hips and kicked Yergle in the jaw. Before he even staggered into the wall Hoji super-sonic-flashed his was to the side that was falling in a crouch with his hands down and wrists together. With his palms flat out he shot a sudden, full-body propelled blast into Yergle's side.

"Guharghblgk!" Yergle shouted in pain, sparing no expense in illustrating how much Hoji's open-palm blast had hurt him. He started drifting quickly up, but not before Hoji could move. He appeared suddenly with his feet planted on the wall in the exact spot Yergle was flying at and drew back a ready hand to punch. Yergle kicked himself around and spun, facing Hoji with a ready sword. He swung fast, but apparently it wasn't fast enough. When the lines stopped blurring it was seen clearly that Hoji had caught the sonic blade in his forward hand, the other still wound far back for a devastating punch.

Let it go! Torakaze blared in warning. Hoji's eyes widened for a moment and he released the blade. Then, sensing another attack imminent, he warped away and skidded to a stop on the floor with his claws digging up the stone beneath the rug. Yergle had indeed swung, not just once, but three times where Hoji was at. Based on the trajectory and the power of each swing, Hoji knew that Yergle was mad. He had swung for his neck, his heart, and his groin all in less than a flash. Now Yergle floated gently back down, dragging his sword along the wall to slow his fall, and glowered at Hoji through the shadows of his beady eyes.

What happened? Hoji asked his sword.

I could feel something Torakaze explained severely wrong about that sword. It was...actually hurting me to touch it. It's far too sharp to catch, that is for certain, but just coming in contact with it on any side may be detrimental.

Tch Hoji grunted internally. His frustration expressed mentally, he tensed up in a low position with claws bared and legs wound up to pounce. "Tch" he grunted angrily.

"What's the matter, little kitty?" Yergle asked. "Oh no, that's right. You said you use some style called Kaijuryuu? Well then, Mr. Monster, what is bothering you?"

"Shut up" Hoji lowed. "I haven't got all the time in the damn world to screw around here. I've gotta meet my friends."

"Oh, silly boy" Yergle chuckled. He started breaking out in a mad laughter that lasted all of three seconds. Then he became frighteningly mad. "You're friends are already dead!" Hoji was stunned, not by the news, but by the desperation and booming fierceness that was in Yergle's voice.

Yergle charged forward, abandoning his safety and turning up the heat on Hoji. Hoji started quickly hopping away as his enemy approached, and when he saw an attack coming his way, he warped up to the ceiling and clawed his fingers into the rafters. Yergle swung, throwing a flash-speed air-blade down the long, wide hallway.

Hoji hit the ground far behind Yergle and then warped in, back to back, to throw a fist above his head and backhand Yergle in the head. Yergle wasn't daunted by the hit, but he registered it. He began spinning on his heel with sword at the ready and attempted to slice Hoji down with a flash-speed chop. Hoji was already gone, staying behind his opponent and controlling his blind spot.

"You can't stop the wind" Hoji growled. Yergle picked up the voice from behind, turned his sword blade around, and threw a swing blindly behind him. The act of desperation proved more foolish than anything, as the speed and power that carried his arm dislocated and disjointed it from the shoulder.

"GYAAAH!" Yergle shrieked in pain. He struggled to readjust his arm while Hojji moved in to continue his attack. He dropped down form high above where he retreated to avoid the bladewave the sword made and now, with fists tightly knotted, he was ready to attack. He stepped straight up to Yergle's open torso and planted his feet sternly into the ground.

"TCHYAAAA!!!" Hoji roared. He attacked with a solid, powerful punch to the chest. Then he followed by twisting his body and delivering another punch to the chest. He twisted his hips again and punched, again and punched, punch, punch punch punch punch PUNCH PUNCH PUUUNCH!!! "HUOOOOAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Hoji roared with an undulating pitch.

"BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBUUGH! BLUUGH!" Yergle shouted in retort with the rapid-fire pain. The attack became more comical than effective at this point, but Hoji continued letting his fists flow like raging, fiery wind in a hurricane!


"Otakebiarashi no KEN!!!" Hoji announced. His fists were moving with amazing, almost arcane speeds. The space between Hoji's torso and Yergle's was filled with a strange, golden blur of rapid movement neither fighter could really trace with their eyes. It was a remarkable burst of speed and a succession of blasts that never lost their power.

In the midst of the blinding barrage a loud crack was heard. Yergle noticed, through the streaming fire of pain in his chest, that his shoulder was set back into place. Yergle noticed, but he didn't know if Hoji had noticed or not. Regardless, he knew that no matter how quick on his feet or hands, Hoji wouldn't be able to dodge an attack this close.

"HRGH!" Yergle grunted. Hoji's eyes shot open in realization and he retreated with a flash-step backwards. The sword came blazing down and nearly struck him, but because Hoji stayed on the ground the resulting air blade did hit him. His arms had stopped moving, he realized, when they should have moved up to block. Now he was cut from hip to shoulder, a shallow gash made by the sharpened edge of an air-cutting sword.

"You can take that" Yergle said, pointing his sword up "with a side of rice, knave!" Hoji raised his upper lip and started snarling. He threw his hands to the ground and slid his feet back. His muscles tensed as his back arched up and flaring white hatred coursed through his eyes.

"KAIJURYUU!!!!" Hoji screamed. He became an animal in an instant, a real monster. With amazing movement he came barreling down on Yergle, throwing punches and kicks that were so fast they could not only not be seen but they couldn't be felt for moments after they were received by the skin. Hoji never stayed in one place long. He would throw a myriad of hyper-speed punches and kicks, warp away, and appear somewhere else to continue his flurry.

"Stay still!" Yergle demanded. A swift open-palm blast to the face shut him up. He started swinging blindly, hitting and slicing the air, hoping he could catch Hoji as he moved form here to there. At last, when Hoji's barrage stopped, Yergle swung deep and heavy in one random direction. The air-blade that traveled tore up the floor and slammed into Hoji. Rather than slice through him, Hoji caught it with his bladed fingers and let it carry him all the way down the hall. He finally was able to rip it to shreds and skid on his feel to a stop.

"Tch" Hoji scoffed, staying up on the balls of his feet. "Great. A range game. This guy's got the upper hand on me, no kidding, but at least I dented his body up before he threw me over here. Even if he wants to, he can't swing at full power anymore..." The hall was silent for a moment. Hoji relaxed and stood plainly, arms straight at his sides, and waited for something to come at him from the faraway darkness. Then suddenly, a blade of air came spiraling towards Hoji. He flash-stepped out of the way and sighed. A hundred or so more blades were coming into view. Hoji bared his claws before his face, crossing his arms near the wrists, and prepared to defend as best he could...

"TAKE IT ALL!" Yergle shouted madly. His blade was swinging in his arm faster than he himself could follow. All he knew is that his endless barrage of blades had a destined path for Hoji's neck. Once blade would be enough, he knew, and that one would eventually find its way to its target. With such a small shikai as his, Hoji could only defend against so many blades at once. "This is my ultimate technique, heh heh! The darkest attack in my arsenal! Surudoimori!!!" The blades kept ringing out of thin air, flying righteously down the corridor to attack Hoji Araijin at the far end.

"Tch!" Hoji scoffed angrily. His fists were moving as rapidly as they could, but he knew it was in vain. The blades were endless, unlike his stamina, which was nearly at its final stretch. His strength had been sapped from the attacks he made earlier. His breathing started to become heavy and dry. He could see a sliver of darkness grow into a curtain of sleep. He was at his end, finally, and with one final and desperate motion he exhausted whatever was left of his low energy. Hoji disappeared somewhere once again, this time not to return to battle.


"HAHHHH!!!" Yergle triumphantly laughed with a wheezing breath at the end. He was face-up on the floor, breathing laboriously with his sword out of its shikai and lazily gripped in his right hand. The wing-like hand guard reflected in its true nature, a bird more swift and agile than any other creature in the living world. "As always, I am the victor! My Sonic Slicer is invincible! Great job, Ahoudorikiba, as always you performed to my excellent standards...huhhh..."

"Get over yourself" Hoji growled from behind. Yergle's eyes shot wider than ever before. His eyes shrank and almost became white in shock. He wasn't able to turn around, but if he could he would see Hoji, covered in the fresh cuts and shallow lacerations that the last-ditch ability Surudoimori had given him. His shikai was disengaged as well and his blade had all but lost its polished sheen. It looked almost dilapidated and old, an aged blade ravaged by war. "I'll admit, you were tough, but not beyond me. Now get up. I'm not killing a man lying on his damn back."

"Guh...!" yergle groaned in shock.

"I thought so" Hoji lowed. He tabbed his sword to his shoulder, feeling it shake and rattle inside its own hilt. He winced at the pain in a manly way and started walking forward. "I'm about to do your pansy-ass team mates a favor, here. I can't fight anymore, but if it were really up to me and my honor I would keep fighting, despite what this nagging bitch has to say about it." Hoji shook his sword so Yergle, who still could not see or move to see, would understand just what he meant. "Therefore, I'm just going to kill you...and then I'm going to leave."

"What?" Yergle demanded. "Wh...why leave? If you've killed me, why not depart and keep fighting until you die? Surely a warrior like you has a better place to be than-"

"SHUT UP!" Hoji blared. He slapped a hand to his face and rubbed his weary muscles. "It's because I'm a warrior with honor and integrity that I can't fight to my death." Yergle cursed at himself. His only plan left, to send this dying shinigami into the lion's den, had failed in a way he didn't expect. "There's no honor in killing a dead man. Once I cut off your head I'm going to exit stage...wherever and wait for my friends to finish up."

"I don't understand you..." Yergle admitted. "...Mr. Shinigami."

"Araijin" Hoji corrected. Yergle closed his eyes and finally accepted sweet mercy in his painful moments of life.

"Mr. Araijin" he sighed. Hoji brought his sword up high, then swung down low.

Blood hit the walls and stained the tapestry. Yergle Mundus was dead, and his shamed killer sheathed his sword to retire outside in hiding. Hoji would wait in the shadows fearfully for the wrath Shin would have prepared for him later...


Ahoudorikiba: Albatross Fang
Otakebiarashi no Ken: Fist of the Roaring Tempest
Surudoimori: Sharp Forest