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.


With a snarling hiss, Radeorul charged forward with her sword up high and her eyes glaring white at Rei. It seemed the shinigami was still stunned by the sudden realization of her mistake. Her underestimation was indeed a costly one. It almost distracted her from blocking entirely. Raderul's sword was caught with a clash upon the metal of Rei's own sword, held to guard her head from splitting. Now, with twitching might, Radeorul tried hard to press down. Rei stepped back, away from the sword entirely, and lowered it so that the tip passed over her smiling, maidenly face.

"I'm sorry" Rei said. "I mistook you for an Adjuchas earlier. I shouldn't have guessed your power to be so low...although, of the Arrancar I have seen before, your pressure certainly is the lowest, I'm afraid." Her stinging words, said through a still grinning mouth and piteous eyes, did not phase the Hollow. Radeorul stomped forward and made a stab for Rei's face. The shinigami retreated a flash-step back as the Hollow charged forward with her sword once more.

A blind swing down and into the ground while Rei slipped by to the side, her own sword slicing through the air. Radeorul blocked with her hardened tail-fin and turned around with a snap for another swing. This time Rei could only duck, not avoid, and lost a few stray strands of hair in her effort. Radeorul reeled her leg back for a kick and swung a deep, punting leg at Rei who rolled around to her sword-armed side.

Rei shot up from her feet in a stab that was blocked and deflected. Rei landed ready to defend and blocked the numerous incoming attacks from her enemy. Radeorul finally managed to stun Rei and spun around to slap her with her tail. Rei took the blow and rolled through the air until she was stopped by, once again, Radeorul's tail. It impacted on her back and slammed her into the ground. Then it snaked its way around her neck and lifted her back up to powerlessly watch Radeorul's haughty glare and twitching stub of an arm.

"You didn't think" Radeorul began "that all of my power can come from my pressure alone, did you?" Suddenly, with a wet burst, a new arm was sprouted from Radeorul's shoulder. The remainder of the arm that was there was shred to bloody pieces and scattered around. The lizard beast took her bladed claws up to her mouth and nursingly licked her fingers clean with a seductive forked tongue. Rei noticed how much leaner and thick her arm was compared to before.

"Indeed, shinigami, your eyes are working right. Once a limb of mine is cut off it will regenerate, and not only that but it will come back to me twice as powerful!" Rei knew what trouble she was in and steeled her nerves and abdomen muscles as hard as she could. The Arrancar took a sliding step in with her foot and gave a thrusting punch to Rei's gut. The lady was reeled with pain and coughed out a mouthful of spit in response. Radeorul's tail gripped her tight, wound her up and then tossed her away, down the hill like living garbage.

"Hmmm..." Radeorul growled. "I can see you're at your limits...or at least someplace near there. I can only hope that you realize what a foolish match this turned out to be. I am still more powerful than you, regardless of your speed and apparent stealthy powers. You are simply no match for me at all, weakling Rei! HUHUHUHUUU!!!" That haughty laughter was the last straw. Rei stood back up, her sword in both hands, her eyes focused away, a glaring and emotionless stiffness over her face.

Rei took her sword now in one hand, placed the other open palm at her chest in a prayer form, and swung her sword out to her side, humming and holding a single, peaceful note. Radeorul recognized the oddity of her stance and of her swirling, gathering energies. She was performing what the Hollows from her nest remembered to be a release, a 'Shikai'. Radeorul growled loudly and charged forward, not intending to let the shinigami attempt any sort of maneuver that could turn the battle her way. As she neared Rei a blasting wave of pressure dropped on her. The Arrancar was paralyzed, barely able to stand let alone charge. Rei closed her eyes and made a wide circle with her sword, moving it slowly in front of her, creating a glowing white path where the sword's blade flowed.

"Forces of light, gathering to face the darkness" she began in a trance. "Gather together and cut through pain and suffering. Abolish the wicked injuries of yesterday, make what was once gone whole again today. Mujitsuyu." With her peaceful incantation over, the glowing, white path the sword had cut in the air began to shine brighter and brighter. Radeorul growled under the severe pressure, bearing all her fangs and her thinly-slit vertical pupil. She was ready to break from the tension, the want to pounce and tear apart. Her animistic nature overcame her and she broke through the pressure field with a wicked roaring.

"BIIIIIIIITCH DIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!" Rei only opened a calm eye halfway at the Arrancar. She brought her sword into her praying hand and the metal of her sword was burst apart into a glistening cloud of misty dew drops. The blade was touched and absorbed by the shimmering white halo and reformed with a flash. Rei's sword was now an echo of what it once was, a sword now colored white and shining. A miraculous looking instrument. Radeorul ignored it and made a desperate swipe for her head. Rei appeared several steps behind her with her sword drawn down at her side, held in relaxed and calm hands.

"Our powers" Rei said "aren't too different either, it seems..." Radeorul landed with a thud and turned with her sword still gripped in her clawed hand. "We both have the power to heal...only, I am not so selfish..."


"What did you say!?" Radeorul bellowed. Rei only stared at her from the dark corner of her eye, not willing to turn and give her full face. The Arrancar sneered and began laughing. "You're a pathetic one, aren't you. You think a little release like that is going to stop me? You're wrong, shinigami! I will-" Radeorul aimed her left arm up to point at Rei to increase the impact of her mocking. However, even though the command seemed to reach her arm and fingers, she could not see it. Her arm didn't follow itself up. It was detached again, floating in the air and slowly simmering into ash. Radeorul looked over at her shoulder and saw a perfectly healed stub covered in her natural scales instead of left gaping open and bleeding.

"I heal others" Rei plainly said, poising her sword over her shoulder and at the Arrancar. "However, if there is no injury, you can't heal yourself. Now you are stuck with that stub, unable to regenerate it again." Rei expected more rage from the Arrancar, but instead she was treated to a hissing, mad laughter that built and built until it was echoed up to the sky.

"EEHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAA!!!!" Such brazen madness and withheld rage forced Rei to take a more defensive stance. Even with her shining white sword of supreme holy power, she had to make a stand if she wanted to survive and meet with her own deeply cared for tenants and guards that still fought up above at the gates.

"Lady Unohana!" Natsumo called as she raced into scene, her sword sheathed in its scabbard with Katana running close behind. They both approached the border of honorable distance to their lady and stopped on the mark to prostrate themselves before her. "We have defended the manor. The rest of the staff awaits your return. Can we be of any assistance?" Katana looked up and fell over backwards at the sight of the grinning, armless Arrancar.

"Holy..." Katana began, stopping himself from uttering any obscenities that may offend his gracious lady so close by. "Wha, what is that? A Hollow?" Natsumo rose to her feet and reached behind her head.

"It is an Arrancar" she said, "is it not my lady?"

"It is" Rei affirmed. Natsumo set her hair up in a bun with two broad strands tied over it to form a cross from behind, giving it support. Katan got up to his feet as well and placed an eager hand on his sword. The rest of the guard stayed up at the manor on the top of the sloped but watched down below, anxious for their lady's victory. "Her name is Radeorul Sinesta. She possesses great powers of regeneration at present."

"Do you need assistance, my lady?" Natsumo asked. Katana didn't ask. He just drew his sword and made a lurching step forward. Rei gave the matter a moment of thought, but her monstrous enemy was unwilling to wait for her.

No Rei thought. Help is not necessary. This is my duty... As she opened her eyes from her thoughtful trance she found herself clashing swords with the vicious Arrancar. She made a swift upward-to-downward attack that threw Radeorul's sword up and gave her a thick, glowing slice down her torso. Stunned, Radeorul began toppling over. Rei took her sword in one hand to her side and extended a closed fist forward. As the light dimmed on Radeorul's torso she found that there was not cut and no pain whatsoever. Rei opened her palm and let out a blast of her pressure in an explosive wave. The Arrancar tumbled head over foot until it finally caught the ground with the extended claws of her fingers and the grinding of her taloned toes against the cold dirt. She was poised over, back arched and legs tense, exactly like an animal preparing to pounce or charge.

"Bitch..." Radeorul lowed. She twirled her sword around her head a few times and then charged, confident once more of her abilities in battle. Rei intercepted her attack, deflected it, stabbed her and threw her away with the same attack as before. Radeorul recovered in the air and ducked her head down so her tail reached over her back. A glowing ball began to grow at the tip of her finned tail. Rei recognized the energy in an instant and turned to the warriors behind her.

"Run!" Rei commanded. Natsumo acknowledged in an instant. Katana was slower on the draw, wanting to see the attack come to full fruition, but ran away none the less.

"Who says all my power" Radeorul began "has to be in one place? I may be a selfish healer...but I'm infinitely more destructive than you are!!!" The ball began to hum out a fearful resonance, a deep and hollow roaring of energy. Cero. Rei parted her feet and held her sword in both hands, blade parallel to the ground at her hip. She glared up at the growing attack and wrapped her fingers tighter around the hilt of her glowing sword. She was going to deflect it, a direct competition between the darkness and the light! Finally the black sphere surrounded by bloody-red energy was ready and with a rumbling roar it parted through the air straight at Rei. Her sword moved with the killing grace of the moon across the sky and sliced into the attack. The Cero hit the ground and blasted up a cloud of dust. The shinigami were left to watch in horror from above as Radeorul landed unharmed, licking her lips at the plume of smoke that rose from the ground...


The ground rumbled beneath the black hooves as the unstoppable Bucephalus charged out of the woods and up the slope with its rider on its back grinning and glaring at the battle ahead. His sword slowly drew from its sheathe across his back and flashed in the night, a flat and broad beast carved with runes from tip to handle along the inside curve of the blade. It was held by his rugged, calloused hand wrapped in a thin and worn cloth. As the beastly Hollow galloped along the clouds seemed to move overhead accordingly. The light was dimmed as the moon was covered by the veil of the thick, creamy clouds high in the sky.

"Almost there now, my companion!" the rider declared with a flashing grin over his rugged, manly face. "Almost there, and just in time!" Despite the merciful time given, Rei hadn't stirred from the still smoking crater. The wisps of dusty gray and earthen brown clouded together in a frantic meshing plume that continued climbing skyward. Radeorul stood at the border of the crater, sniffing the cloudy air until her slit nostrils were tickled by the dust and she was forced to sneeze.

"He-Choo!" she sneezed, wiping at her nose with one of her bladed fingers. The laceration on her upper lip healed instantly, leaving her perfect, horrific glare unmarred by any marks once more. "That's right. Stay down, you turgid little whore!"

"Lady Unohana!" a guard shouted in horror. "She...I can't sense her pressure! She must be dead!"

"That's impossible!" Natsumo denied. "Our Lady Unohana is not weak, but she is resourceful. She must have hidden her presence from us so that we couldn't reveal her position!"

"How smart of you" Radeorul said. Natsumo's eyes went wide and her face was flushed pale. She was gripped from behind by sharp claws and forced off her feet. The Hollow turned her around and lifted her up to her eye level to leer her down with a seductive grin across her upper lip and lower nail-toothed jaw. "So then, as one of her closest servants, you should be able to pick up on her no matter how slight her pressure is?" Natsumo struggled to whisper profanities but her opportunity to insult the monster was cut short by the advance of Katana. He made an ineffective strike at Radeorul's back. She was none too pleased but linient enough to let him get away with a simple swipe of her tail.

"You're all so weak" she uttered "compared to me. All of you are nothing but fodder for me and my army."

"What army?" Natsumo asked. "Look around. Do you see any remains of your little force?" Natsumo was chocked into submission and, once silent, thrown to the ground to cough and breathe through her strained and injured throat.

"You think that was it?" Radeorul said haughtily. "I wouldn't send my entire army on my first siege. I am no fool! Back at my nest in Hueco Mundo I have a tremendous army of blood-thirsty Hollows and Adjuchas waiting for my signal to attack! Your feeble shinigami defense may prove useful against some thirty-odd Hollows, but against an entire army, hundreds of Hollows all stronger and larger than the one's you've already faced, what will you do except die!? You're hope is lost, little shinigami! All there is left for you here is to die! HAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"I see" Rei said. "Thank you." Appearing in a flash-step, using a transcendental speed unmatched by any spiritual eye, from one place in hiding to thrusting her sword through the Arrancar's chest, just above her hole. Radeorul was forced down to her knees by Rei's powerful, glowing blade. The wound gave her no pain but the fact that such a weapon was still thrust inside her proved to be a mortyifying thought that allowed her to be so easily guided. At any moment that sword could drift up and sever her face in half, a blow she couldn't recover no matter how she tried.

"Why" Radeorul hissed. "Why aren't you dead...?" Rei moved in close and talked in a whisper so only the Arrancar could hear.

"When you launched your Cero" Rei began "I was able to negate it with my sword. However, knowing you would not relent to continue attacking me once my guard was down, I hid my pressure and ducked into the trees, moving up the hill while you waited and made my way up onto the gates, still undetected, so I could drop down in an instant and surprise you."

"You cheating bitch!!!" Radeorul hissed. Rei turned the sword around in her chest and pointed the sharpened white blade upwards. Radeorul knew what would follow and looked down with dread.

"I am grateful for what you've told me" Rei said. "Now I know to prepare against even more Hollow attacks in the future. However, it would be selfish of me to only take such information without giving something back. You are one of the few beings to hear the incantation for my shikai release." Rei stopped drifting her sword up just as she reached Radeorul's chin and leaned her in even closer than before. "I have already mastered my Bankai release. Saying the same incantation for shikai is unnecessary." That final revelation sent Radeorul into a pit of despair she could never hope to recover. The fact that she fought against such a powerful opponent for so long made her pleased just as the white flash that drifted between her eyes in a beautiful swipe filled her with grief.

Although Rei's attack made no cut, the fear of death still sent Radeorul out of consciousness and straight down to the ground. The battle was over...or so it seemed.


"Thank goodness" Natsumo sighed "you are alright, my lady. Truth be told, I was becoming a bit worried for myself." Rei came up close to Natsumo, snapping her determined subordinate to attention. Rei smiled and took a gentle hand to Natsumo's bruise-red neck and sent a pulse of healing energy into it. Natsumo took in a warm breath and as she breathed it out her neck was absolved of all pain. Rei took her hand back and folded both hands into her sleeves.

"You fought excellently, Natsumo" Rei praised. "I am glad you decided to embrace your sword's destructive powers as a youth when you had the chance."

"Anything to service you" Natsumo said with a deep bow. Rei gave her a meager bow as well and turned to face the rest of the watch. No one had been injured tonight, at least not as badly as last time. She was pleased. The entire estate was safe for yet another day.

A sudden shocking wave of pressure and a powerful, low rumbling that shook the air. At the tip of Radeorul's erect tail a Cero ball formed, this one much less stable and growing at a highly accelerated rate. The Arrancar raised up her face from the dirt and glared down Rei, who was frozen in place.

"Hahaha!" she laughed. "I'll kill you yet, Rei! I'll pour all of my energy into this final Cero, and create an explosion that will obliterate your whole, flimsy little building! You'll be dead!!! ALL OF YOU!!!" Things seemed grim now. No one could move through the pressure, not even Rei. She could, however, see through it and realize that it was not just one field but two that seemed to keep her fast to the ground. A mountain of a shadow appeared behind Radeorul as she climbed up to her claws again. Just as she raggedly made her last stand she was pierced through the back with a black spear barbed with dark-iron studs around its round tip. A new hole opened up as the summit of the spear peaked through her chest, leaving the spikes around the stabbing end still inside her body.

"HUUUAAAAAAAANNNNHHHH!!!!!" Bucephalus roared.

"EEERRRYAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" Roared its rider. The Cero had already dissolved like a snowflake, powerless remnants of its light floating around like pieces of a shattered snowflake. The Arrancar was helplessly thrust off her feet, into the air and was then spun around by a quick twist of the warrior's wrist. The spear shred her insides apart and then seemed to suck them in. The spear was spun so many times and so quickly that wherever it touched on Radeorul she was sucked away into the blackness until nothing, not even her shattered mask, was left. Then, with an earth-shaking stomp, Bucephalus stopped as its owner spun the deadly black spear over his head. With a flash it reverted to its sword form, the runes along its inner curve glowing one at a time, and then it was returned to its leathery sheathe.

The man dismounted to the ground, standing tall over all the gathered and awing guards, an arrogant and victorious smile across his proud, warrior face. Rei gave him a curious look, then changed her view to a deeply analytical apathetic stare.

"DUDE!" Katana exclaimed. "That was badass! That was amazing! Who the hell are you!?"

"Yes" Rei agreed, cutting Katana off with a much more flat voice. "Pray tell...just who are you?" The man swiped his broad thumb across his nose and took in a short breath.

"I just figured you could use a bit of help" he explained "so I rode up here based on the rumors that a certain sword-wild man had left you undefended. My name is Carroll Cane, I hail from the lands far to the North of here, across the Fissure, and I am here to help you survive another sleepless night of Hollow fighting!"

Rei had nothing to say to him. She just let the wind move the clouds so the moonlight could shine again and glare off of his markedly pale skin. He looked nearly like a Hollow, especially in comparison to the smoke-bellowing one he rode in on. "...are you now...?" Rei lowed, keeping her voice from reaching his ears. Even the greatest of gifts can cause us the greatest harm. Such a limerick crossed Rei's mind the moment she met this man, and for good reason...


Mujitsuyu: Innocent Dew (Mujitsu=Innocent, Tsuyu=dew)