Yoruichi and I gated to where she had left the mortal woman with her not-horse steed-thing Tanner, cooling her heels on a world made (from what I could see) of purple sand, with mesa's of rock jutting up against the pinkish colored sky that seemed to be painted by the dust rising up in strange glowing column-like vents at odd intervals. Weird place.
"Renji, you're okay!" she said, sounding relieved. I looked over at her, newly conscious of what Yoruichi had told me, and gruffly replied.
"O' course I am, why wouldn't I be?"
"You were being attacked by a horde of little shrunken-head things like out of a movie," Isana replied smartly. "I figured that that many of them would bring you down. I guess you really are strong."
"Not as strong as some," I said hastily. "My Captain's a lot stronger than me. If you want to see someone clear a battlefield, watch him step onto one!"
Isana did not look impressed by that. I didn't want to press the issue, partly because I didn't want to have to sing the praises of a guy I hoped to one day defeat. Without another word, I took up Tanner's reigns as Yoruichi changed forms back into a cat and hopped up onto the saddle-pad for a ride again.
Even through it looked sorta like a desert (a weird one, but that was the thing it most closely resembled) the Realm wasn't hot, so we made good time through it at a flat run. The ferals from the last world had been interesting and I'd gotten a chance to try out my really strong attack from Zabimaru, not something I got to spend a whole lot of time using. The next Gate took us to another Realm where the stench of Shadow was so thick I nearly passed out. I called a halt immediately outside the Gate platform and circled our three person war-band in for a powow.
"Shadows," I reported to my team. "A lot of them. Either that, or there are ones that are just more powerful than the ones weve encountered so far," I said shortly, still trying to recover a bit from the shock of all that weird spiritual energy overpowering my senses.
"Do the Shadows even have a ranking system?" Yoruichi wondered aloud.
"I'd have ta go with yes on this one," I said. "The Arrancars in Hueco Mundo have one, so do the Soul Reapers, and the Nature Spirits of the Great Elemental Courts definitely have one. Shadows are faded deities like the ones from the Courts so I imagine that there are are ones that are more and less powerful among them."
"Then how powerful are the ones we've seen so far?" Isana asked worriedly.
"We have no way of knowing until we encounter more of them," I said with a shrug.
So far I'd only fought two; the one that turned me mortal, and the one from the ring that made the Shadowbeast.
"That's what I was afraid you'd say," she muttered.
"From what I can scent, there's a whole bunch of different Shadow scents coming from different directions in this Realm and converging on one Gate," I said, pointing ahead of us.
"Whatever is beyond that Gate must be what they're aiming at," Yoruichi hypothesized. "Otherwise they'd all be heading in different directions."
"Ya think that it might be their lair?" i asked hopefully.
"It's possible, we won't know for sure until we scout it out though."
I nodded, then frowned. It had been a long day from the beginning and we were nearing the end of it. I looked over at Isana, and, despite the fact she looked determined to struggle on, I could tell she was already weary. Aside of the massive pygmy attack this morning, we'd also hit a few more worlds with unfreindlies in 'em and I had gotten two more chances to try out my master attack, as well as all the Denshou Hou's and Raikou Enjin's I'd fired off in the course of all the other battles. In short, the day had been a wearying one for me too. If I was going to have to face down another Shadow, let along a Shodowbeast or possibly more than one of them, I needed to be at the top of my game. Like an Arrancar, this was not the sort of enemy you could face at fifty percent. It ticked me off, but there it was. I was out in the feild with no back up, except Yoruichi, and a (mostly) non-combatant to protect. I shared a single long, speaking look with Yoruichi, who seemed to be able to read my thoughts, for she nodded and started heading back the way we came.
"What are we waiting for then, let's get going so we can get my son back!" Isana said eagerly.
I kept my grip on Tanner's reigns and stood still.
"We're going to find a safer place and build camp so we can rest," I said firmly.
Isana stared at me, almost uncomprehendingly.
"But... but we're so close! My son could be on the other side of that Gate! We cant' stop now!"
"We have to," I said implacably. "You're not rested, and neither am I. If we have to face a really tough opponent, or even worse, a whole lot of tough enemies, then I need to be at the top of my game and so do you. That means adequate rest beforehand and fuel enough to see me through. I don't have either right now, and if I try to face down any more than one Shadow in my current position then I'm toast and so are you. I know yer worried about yer kid, and I don't blame you, but you need to-"
"I need to get through that Gate and get him out of there!" Isana snapped cutting me off and trying to turn the not-horse back. I held firm and didn't let go.
"I know this is hard for you," i said, trying to go for a soothing tone. "But-"
"But nothing! I'm not going to quit when I'm so close."
"Who said anything about quitting," I snapped, nettled. "We're just going to rest. I'm not about to go traipsing into their lair with no-back up but Yoruichi here, and carrying around a mortal woman, without bein' rested enough to take on whatever the hell it is that waits on the other side, so get over it. I'd love to be able to keep going on too, but this damn mortal body's got limits and I need to be careful with them or I might find myself back on the Wheel of Rebirth. Yer the only one that's gonna rescue yer son, so if we fall due to carelessness, then who else is there? You can't just think of your own wants here, there are others on this mission with you."
Isana frowned, looking rebellious and for a long moment. I could see her eying my collar consideringly, and I looked her square in the face, just daring her to try it. She could compel me to fight, but she couldn't compel me to fight well. Not as exhausted as I felt right then. It had been a rough day and we were all tired. Isana looked up longingly at the Gate in the distance.
"Renji's right Miss Isana," Yoruichi said gently. Isana transferred her glare over to the cat.
"We are all feeling weary from the journey today. It would be best to face what lies ahead of us rested and well-fed." She added in an undertone to the Mortal that I wasn't supposed to hear but could anyway.
"You know what he's like, Renji loves a good fight, for him to stop us and tell us to rest must mean that he's feeling really tired."
"Oh fine!" Isana muttered, clearly not liking it.
I took that as a victory and led Tanner and his burdens back across th Gate behind us to the Realm that had been relatively safe. I hadn't encountered any ferals in it and it had adequate cover and a supply of fresh water from a stream with a small waterfall nearby.
Yoruichi helped Isana pitch the tent that the two of them shared while I went out to look for firewood. Most animals tended to stay away from fires. I had most of an armful of wood, and was thinking about heading back when my sensitive nose picked up the smell of sulpher and water. Curious and hopeful I followed my nose back to the source and was elated to find that it led me straight to a hot-spring.
:Alright!: I thought, delighted. :I can finally have a warm bath!:
I headed back to camp to drop of the load of wood I'd collected and tell the ladies about my find, chances are they'd want to use it first. That was fine, I could wait.
"Hey ladies, there's a hot spring back that way. You can go ahead and use it if you want, I'll take care of dinner."
"Can you cook?" Isana asked dubiously.
"I think I can handle rice," I said dryly.
It wasn't exactly like she was a gourmet chef either so I didn't see how she had room to toss stones my way.
"A bath..." Isana said longingly.
"If yer goin' then take Yoruichi with you, you never know what kind of feral might be hiding out," I replied as I set the pot full of water on top of the heater in preparation to start dinner.
"Are you sure you don't want to join us Renji," Yoruichi said in a sultry tone.
Underneath it I could hear the teasing note.
"I'd love to," I replied in the same vein. "Unfortunately, if it's a choice between you or my stomach, the belly gets first dibs."
"Wow... he'd take food over a bath with two beautiful women," Isana murmured sotto-voce to Yoruichi. "The man really loves his food."
"If the road to a man's heart is through his stomach, Renji has a six-lane super-highway," Yoruichi replied as the two of them walked off, bathing supplies in hand.
I decided to go hunting (in the opposite direction of the bath) to kill time (and dinner) while I waited for the girls to finish their bath. There was bound to be something in these woods that was good for killing nearby. Plus, it would have the added benefit of letting local wildlife in the area know that there was a dangerous predator (me) about and they shouldn't approach.
My enhanced sense of smell caught the strange scents of several forms of life, but lifeforms that smelled like meat always had a basic scent in common, so I picked the freshest and smallest and started tracking it down. Flash-leaping from tree to tree, I discovered that the critter was some kind of thing that looked like someone had crossed a rabbit and a squirrel with a monkey. Strange-looking, but it was fat and made of meat. I needed my protein. I caught a second and a third shortly after and then made my way back to camp where the two women were fully dressed, drying off thier hair and the water over the fire was just starting to boil.
While dinner cooked, Yoruichi went over the basics of reiatsu and kido, I listened with half an ear while I quickly gutted, skinned and spitted the animals I'd just killed to roast them over the fire. The water wasn't quite boiling yet so I kept an expert eye on the meat while I waited for it to finish heating up. After dinner I had the vague idea of getting in a little more practice with my kido.