He didn't know if it was Firiat stalking him or the other one, Luetha, but either way she at least wasn't going towards the others. He paused at the river. He would need less Spirit Energy bringing the water to him, which would mean less damage caused to the area around him.
"Clever boy, finding a source of water." A female voice with a slightly French accent called him out. He turned to another figure garbed in a crimson cloak. In the pale light of the moon he saw light green hair, bangs framing her face and the rest up in a high bun, violet eyes glancing over him hungrily. A silver band went across her forehead with dangling jewels and she had rather tall ears, pointed like an elf. "Come away from there, now, I have no plans to hurt you."
"Forgive me if I think you're nothing but a liar." Toshiro snapped back, unsheathing his blade.
"That may be true." She shrugged. "But really, Prince, do you think you stand a chance?"
"Better than most."
She narrowed her violet eyes and smirked, reaching into her cloak. His grip tightened on his blade. However, it was no weapon she pulled out, but a flute, a violet one with silver markings decorated across it that shined in the moonlight.
"No man can resist my song."
Toshiro flicked the tip of his blade higher and a blast of water shot up from the river, launching towards the musician. She smirked and put the flute to her lips, playing a few notes that were actually quite beautiful. The ground beneath her gave way to a large wall of plant matter that blocked off the wave of water. The young prince turned the water to ice and broke down the barrier, but the woman had moved.
"Luetha Kornes, Demon Leader of Song." She seemed to purr before playing her song once more.
'Don't listen!' Hyorinmaru roared, blocking out a few of the notes and removing the mist that had tried to spread itself over Toshiro's eyes.
Scowling, Toshiro spread the water across the ground before freezing it over. Luetha's song cut short as the sudden ice made her lose balance and she narrowed her eyes at him, upset. He wasn't about to let her start playing again and he Flash Stepped forward, sword aiming for her heart. She vanished into shadow.
"Resilient, you are." She sighed, now a few yards to his right.
Toshiro started to let his Spiritual Pressure rise, the ground around him quickly freezing over and clouds starting to form in the sky. That was as much as he dared raise it, though, for fear of killing anyone nearby. It was enough to form a small energy dragon which he had race towards the violet eyed songstress. Even if he couldn't kill her, he could at least scare her off enough to force her to leave.
"Toshiro!" Someone called out and his eyes widened. The idiots!
Ichigo appeared by his side with Karin, Rangiku and the others, all in Soul Reaper form.
"Oh…company." Luetha grinned, lifting the flute back to her lips as she easily dodged the dragon.
"What, gonna sing us a lullaby?" Ikkaku snickered.
"Idiot, she's an enchantress." Toshiro snapped, falling into old Captain habits. "Let your guard down and you become her slave."
The woman giggled and began to play, making her point quickly as the sweet song relaxed their muscles, their swords becoming loose in their grasp. Hyorinmaru's roar kept Toshiro from falling under that spell and he spoke a silent Kido spell in his mind, something he'd learned during the trials. He cast Shakkaho at her, but she did not stop her song, simply danced to the side. He winced as a break in Hyorinmaru's roar allowed the song to latch onto his senses, dulling them and blocking out the dragon.
"Hitsugaya!" Someone shouted, bringing him back out.
A figure was thrown into the songstress and they fell back. The one thrown turned out to be Firiat, who jumped to her feet with an expression of fury. The one who had thrown her appeared by Toshiro with her blades out, her familiar alighting next to her as a panther.
"You brat!" Firiat snarled. "Why don't you stay dead, huh!? One would THINK you'd get the message by now!"
Ruala's blades lit aflame.
"You wanna fight with fire? Fine!" Firiat became cloaked in flames of her own, a hellish scarlet that made the enraged look on her face that much more demonic. "My fire always did beat yours!"
"Enough." Luetha snapped, dusting herself off and standing. "We're not to fight them."
"But-" Flames dying out, Firiat turned to the woman with a pout.
"Orders, Firiat."
"Dammit!" The blue eyes girl snarled fiercely like a caged animal and in out of spite she cast a wave of fire at them before Luetha latched onto her and they vanished into darkness.
"Crap." Ichigo cursed and lifted his zanpaktou.
Water rushed past him from the river, glowing icy white and forming into the shape of a dragon which then launched itself at the wall of fire. It collided and spread out, enveloping the crimson flames before freezing over. Once extinguished, the frozen flames broke apart and evaporated. With only one person around capable of controlling ice in the form of a dragon, all eyes turned to Toshiro.
"You all could have gotten killed." He stated, his back turned to them. "They were Demon Lords, elite killers working under Kamai Dethmaiyn, a man out to kill me. Even at my level they would have been hard to fight…they would have easily killed you."
"Now wait just a minute." Ichigo scowled, stepping in front of the young prince. Teal eyes looked up at him calmly, hiding the fact that Toshiro wanted to beat them all for showing up like they did and forcing him to lower his Spiritual Pressure. "We came to help you, you ungrateful brat, don't start shoving us aside like you did when Kusaka came around."
"I'm not." Toshiro replied. "I'm stating facts. I can't release my full power here because it's far too much. When you all showed up I had to lower down what I'd already raised. You can't even sense me right now, can you?"
"Well…no."
"It's that high. If you'll give me a moment I'll have it back to a less destructive level and I'll explain what I can."
"Hitsugaya." Ruala warned, her panther giving out a low growl.
"They'll only jump in again if I don't tell them." Toshiro cut off her argument. "They're those kinds of friends."
Ichigo blinked in surprise; Toshiro had called them friends? That was new.
"Toshiro, why is this demon guy after you?" Karin questioned, stepping forward. Her power not as high as her brother's she noticed a cold pressure around him that instinct told her not to walk into…or maybe it was the voice in her head. Her zanpaktou would do that sometimes.
"Dethmaiyn was promised the throne before I was born and now he's lost that position. He wants it back and so needs me dead."
"But if he's from the Soul King's Realm, how come he has control over demons?" Rangiku asked.
"My father thinks he has a connection to Hell somehow, allowing him to get in and control demons. Where he is now, we don't know, but he's no longer welcome in the Soul King's Realm." Toshiro's attention shifted for a moment, as if sensing something. Ruala moved as well, sending her panther out to investigate. "I should go. As long as I'm here those two will be following me."
"You have to go back to the Soul Society first, right?" Karin asked. He turned to her, nodding. "Then we'll all go. At least there we can talk without them finding us."
"There's probably more of them there." He argued. "Tavain mentioned there being five of them, we've only seen two, and there's no doubt many demons beneath them. The faster I leave the safer everyone will be."
"What, you're gonna leave us out of the fight?" Ikkaku scoffed. "Sounds like it's gonna be a Hell of a fight, too."
"It's best you don't barge into this fight." Toshiro sighed and put the hood over his head. "I'm sorry."
"Wait!" The pressure had finally gone away, Toshiro's Spirit Energy lowered to that of a Tenth Seat, and she took that chance to reach out and latch onto his arm. "Will you stop running off!? We're trying to help you!"
"You can't help me." Toshiro snapped at her and she took a step back. "Just…try not to get killed."
"There's got to be something we can do." Momo pleaded, also not wanting him to leave.
"Nothing I can think of other than stay alive."
Sofia returned, finding nothing, and she along with Ruala and Toshiro walked away from those gathered. The young prince opened a Senkaimon back to the Soul Society, leaving them all there on the banks of the river.
"Well…I can assume we're not going to sit here and wait for him, are we?" Kisuke piped up.
"Damn right." Ichigo scowled. "He wants us to stay alive, then we fight."
"If the demons can't get into the Soul King's Realm they're either going to be here or in the Soul Society." Uryu mused. "Or, perhaps, they'll be in Hueco Mundo."
"We've got Nelliel back in adult form watching over the place." Yoruichi added. "If we tell her and her Fraccion about the demons she should report to us on anything suspicious. If this Kamai character is there, she'll find him."
"What about Hell?" Rangiku argued. "Hitsugaya did say he got his army there, perhaps that's where he's hiding."
"Army or not, he's still a spirit, which means remaining down there would kill him." Isshin countered. "Let's just stick to the three realms we have access to and see what we find. Keep your guards up and train hard, I can tell these Demon Lords are more than meets the eye."
All agreed, they parted their separate ways.
Further away, Firiat fumed and cursed, hitting anything she passed as she paced back and forth.
"I coulda had her, that elemental wench!" She snarled. "I coulda strangled her! Coulda had that snow haired bastard in my hands!"
"No!" Luetha snapped and Firiat froze, startled. "Remember, Master must be the one to kill the brat. By doing so he succeeds the rightful heir and takes the throne by force, since he was chosen as a candidate before. What we need is not him but the person most important to him, remember? Did you see who it was?"
"Tch, no." Firiat rolled her eyes. "I thought I was supposed to catch him."
The woman hit her upside the head.
"Firiat, our mission is to find the person that would break him the most when they die. We need the one close to his heart. You're telling me you didn't see which girl it was?"
"Well…" Firiat scratched her head. "He was sitting with this black haired girl when I found him. But he was just staring at the ground and she wasn't even looking at him. To me it looked more like they were bored with each other."
"No awkwardness, no gifts passed?" Luetha questioned. She groaned when the black haired girl shook her head. "You have absolutely no observational skills. Alright, let's do it this way. If she's in any way the girl we're looking for, he's going to have some slight fear that we'll find her and will have given her something to protect her."
"But we are trying to find her…"
"Exactly, which means him giving her such an item makes her that much easier to find. I'm sure his daddy's told him about our power of Fear, so he'll have given her something to protect her from that. Corner her and use it. If she's fine, she's the one we want."
"And if not…" Firiat trailed off hopefully, grinning.
"She's useless." Luetha shrugged. "Do what you want with her."
"Best day ever!" Firiat darted out but the older woman grabbed her cloak.
"Not today." She hissed. "They're still on alert. Remember, our power is restricted here, too. We're not supposed to be making a scene."
"Oh, right."
Wondering why she put up with the pyro, Luetha settled in to wait. They had plenty of time yet to find their target.
Another of the Solar Five Sisters, the enchantress. By the way, Firiat has a Japanese accent, but since they're in Japan it would sound normal. Each of the sisters is from a different world(in their original story, anyway) and all have accents similar but not exactly like Earth accents. In here they're just from ancient races and became demonic while living in different parts of the world. Anyway, enough about them, moving on! Shiro has to go back to the Soul King's Realm and as always Ichigo isn't going to sit this one out, and neither is anyone else. Enjoy!
Wait! Before I forget. There's this person who keeps commenting that I can't reply to so i'll have to place my replies here. Sir/Ma'am, this story clearly states that the leading roles are Toshiro and Karin, even if Karin's entry into the story was really late, not Ichigo. I can tell you want Ichigo to play a major role but to be honest I had no intention of giving him that big a part. Yes, he'll be helping in the fight, because that's what Ichigo does, but he is NOT the main character of this particular fanfiction, Shiro is, so therefore Shiro will be the strongest with the most influence and all that. Sorry to make this such a public reply but since you're a guest I can't do it privately.
Enjoy!