Chapter 32:
Zalya flicked his arm and shot his blood straight at Hitsugaya's face. He blocked with his wings, but the blood had moved in a different direction. The attack was now aimed at his legs. No, lower. The blood formed a long coil and pulled Zalya's sword from under Hitsugaya's foot.
The blood snapped in the air and flung the sword back into Zalya's hand. Zalya ran forward and clashed blades with Hitsugaya yet again. The blood from his arm flew into the air and struck from above. Desperate, Hitsugaya froze everything in his path but Zalya and the blood retreated.
As Zalya jumped back, Hitsugaya noticed an important detail in the way Zalya moved. He didn't land firmly during this retreat. He stumbled slightly.
This was an indication of Zalya's condition. To Hitsugaya, not everything Zalya had been saying a few moments ago made sense. He seemed to be making it up as he went along, as if he were stalling. Hitsugaya had thought that's what Zalya was doing, but now he knew better. Zalya was beginning to deteriorate.
It wasn't his mental capacity but an effect from having lost so much blood. As a result of drawing blood over and over again, Zalya was starting to weaken.
Normally, in human beings who had their blood drawn or donated, only a pint is taken and there were no significant changes. Not unless they participated in strenuous activities. However, if more blood were to be taken, then the human would most likely suffer some minor confusion or feel lightheaded. They might even start to feel tired and weak.
Hitsugaya had no idea how much blood Zalya had drawn from himself but it must have been more than two pints. It must have been. He had no way to accurately measure it but it was apparent in Zalya's behavior. Zalya might not have been aware of it because his adrenaline was numbing the effects.
Zalya might be in danger and not even be aware of it.
Of course, Zalya wasn't human so Hitsugaya didn't know exactly how much blood-loss would be fatal to someone like Zalya. For all he knew, Zalya's body was stronger so it could tolerate losing so much blood and not be risky for him. However, the body could only withstand so much. It had to give out at some point. There was no way Zalya was immortal.
Zalya fired a round of blood bullets at the young Captain, chasing him towards one of his ice pillars. He was trying to corner him. With Hitsugaya's back pressed against the ice, he would have nowhere to run. "Now I've got you." Zalya threw himself forwards and slammed the edge of his sword against Hitsugaya's. Their blades grinding together sounded like a power sander turned on high. Hitsugaya feared his sword might just break from all this pressure. Zalya still had so much power.
Zalya took one hand off his sword and ran his palm up the side of Hitsugaya's sword, drawing even more blood. At this close range, Hitsugaya would have a hard time dodging. The blood was launched at his face and he blocked with his left arm, keeping his right firmly on his sword.
"It will cut right through you, baby. What a foolish Captain you are... Ah?"
Hitsugaya was not cut. His arm was encased in ice. It acted as armor and protected him from the blood attack.
"Fine." Zalya glared at the Captain and pulled back. He clenched his fist, drawing more blood from his wound and threw it at Hitsugaya. He froze the blood as it came towards him and jumped to a different location. "Not flying anymore, I see."
Hitsugaya glanced at the flower hovering between his wings. He had already lost one, leaving only three petals remaining. The third one was already starting to dissolve.
Should he have used Bankai? Was it a mistake? Was now the time to use it? What about the leader? Shouldn't he have saved it for Yagi? Was now the time to reveal his power? Should he have waited? Was it too big a risk?
These thoughts entered his mind and disappeared just as quickly. He knew what had to be done. He couldn't question himself.
His thoughts went back to Ichigo.
Ichigo didn't seem to question himself. He made up his mind and did what he set out to do. To him, it was clear. He knew what had to be done and did it. However, by not questioning more, Ichigo walked right into a trap. Maybe it was good to have some doubt in order to have a back-up plan just in case things didn't go perfectly. Then again, Hitsugaya didn't know if Ichigo had other plans in mind. He didn't know what he was thinking. He knew his motives, but not what was going through his mind. Maybe he did have a back-up plan. Maybe he knew he was walking into a trap.
His intentions outweighed his fears. Ichigo wanted to protect everyone, so it didn't matter what happened to him. That's what it seemed like to Hitsugaya.
Call it bravery, call it irrational. The point was Ichigo had done something reckless for the sake of others regardless of knowing that it was a trap. Hitsugaya had to repay him. He had to show Ichigo that his efforts were not in vain. If he let this Quincy continue doing what he was doing, then more people Ichigo risked his life to protect would be killed. He couldn't question whether going Bankai was the right thing to do or not. He had to win.
Ichigo was willing to take risks in order to protect others so he had to do the same.
"You're wasting my time!" Zalya shot another round of blood towards him and this time Hitsugaya flew into the air. "So you're gonna fly, huh?"
Zalya saw a corpse laying on the ground and cut it open with his sword. He drew the blood from the corpse and threw it into the air. Hitsugaya froze it as expected. Zalya repeated the action until the corpse had no more blood to give. He moved to a different corpse and that's when Hitsugaya struck from above. He froze the corpse and all the other dead Soul Reapers laying on the ground in various positions.
It pained him a little to do that, but they were already dead. The least he could do was make sure their blood wasn't used to kill more Soul Reapers. He knew they would not want to be used by the enemy.
Zalya stood in front of the ice cocoons, staring at the corpses laying just a few feet away. He was no longer able to reach them. These bodies were useless to him now. He turned back and saw the Captain circling above him like a vulture. Hitsugaya was trying to prevent him from using blood. He wouldn't let him have his way.
"You cannot stop me from using blood." Zalya shoot off from the ground and clashed blades with the Captain. "You cannot stop me, baby!"
Hitsugaya coated his arm with ice and sharpened it to a point. Using it as a spear, he drove it into Zalya's ribs and watched him bleed.
"Hahaha! I thought you didn't want to cut me," Zalya said maliciously. "What a fool, you are!" He summoned the blood to his hand and threw it at the Captain.
Hitsugaya froze the blood with an chilling mist and watched it fall. Growling, Zalya grabbed Hitsugaya's hair and smashed his forehead into his. Zalya kicked Hitsugaya in the stomach and chased him with his sword. Hitsugaya gave Zalya a rough shove, sending him into a building. Zalya hit the building and dropped to the ground.
He stumbled.
Just as he thought. Zalya was weakening.
Zalya ran his sword across his arm, coating it in blood. He launched himself back at the Captain and their blades clashed again. On contact, the blood splattered Hitsugaya's jacket and face. The blood drops turned to needles and pierced his flesh. Blood was drawn and moved to attack with more power. Hitsugaya froze the air around him, including the mixture of his and Zalya's blood. Zalya used the remaining blood coating his sword to turn it into a trident. He threw it towards Hitsugaya who froze the blood to the sword, making sure the blood could no longer move from its current position.
"That's not going to be enough to stop me!" Zalya used the sword as a club and slammed it against the side of Hitsugaya's head. The blow threw him out of the sky and into one of the ice pillars. The hit wasn't enough to knock him out but came very close. Hitsugaya was seeing stars.
Zalya looked at his sword which was still intact but the blood which had been turned to ice had shattered during the attack. Now he had just his regular sword to work with. He didn't mind. As long as it could cut, he could still use it.
He stood over Hitsugaya and got ready to plunge the sword into his chest. Hitsugaya kicked the sword out of Zalya's hands and froze it to the ground. Without his sword, Zalya could no longer fight.
"I've taken away your blade. Your blood and those corpses. You have nothing left," Hitsugaya told him. "This fight is over. It's finished."
Zalya laughed. "I don't give up that easily."
"Just end it," Hitsugaya said in annoyance. He was getting tired of this fight. He was at his wits end. "The fight is over."
"It's over... when one of us is dead." Zalya summoned his bow and fired an arrow at Hitsugaya.
For a moment, Hitsugaya had forgotten about his other weapon. The weapon Quincies were known for. Zalya hadn't used it for a while so Hitsugaya had forgotten that he even had it.
"Crap!" Hitsugaya fled from the onslaught of arrows. He ducked behind a pillar and peered over at Zalya who had stopped firing. He was biting himself again to draw more blood. He drew enough to fashion himself a small board and started to use it to fly into the air. Hitsugaya wouldn't let him.
Ice crept up the walls of the buildings until every inch of them was covered in a hard shell. From the tops of the buildings came jagged ice spears which jetted out in different directions, making it impossible for either of them to fly out.
Zalya shivered, seeing his own breath. It had gotten even colder thanks to the Captain's latest attack.
Hitsugaya stepped forward with his sword in hand. "You have nowhere to go. Just give up."
"I told you, baby. This fight will end when one of us dies. If neither one of us is dead, then the fight's not over." He used the blood to attack Hitsugaya. Then he used his arrows to follow the blood's path.
Hitsugaya froze the blood and dodged the arrows. "Just stop already. Now you're just using the same attacks over and over again."
Zalya started to lift his arm.
"If you insist on biting yourself, then I'll just freeze your mouth shut."
"Don't bother." Zalya scraped his arm against the side of small ice pillar. It wasn't a deep cut but his flesh was torn. Just to prove his point, Zalya broke off a piece of the ice and held it in his hand like a knife. "You've already given me all the weapons I need."
Hitsugaya looked around at the icicles and jagged edges of the pillars. Without intending to, he had given Zalya others means of cutting himself. He was very resourceful, which Hitsugaya was already aware of. It was foolish of him to not see him using the ice against him.
Zalya threw the piece of ice at Hitsugaya, missing. "I can use any of this ice I want against you. It's sharp enough to inflict some damage either to myself or to you. You foolish complain."
Zalya stopped, realizing his words were starting to slur. He meant to say 'Captain' not 'complain'. He had used the wrong word. His lips were starting to go numb.
It was so cold in this ice prison that he was starting to lose feeling in his face and hands. He had to attack quickly before the Captain took advantage of this.
Zalya broke off an icicle and jammed it into his arm wound. He forced the blood out and used it to strike the Captain. Hitsugaya froze the ice with little effort. Zalya broke into a run with every intention of using the ice in his hand to stab Hitsugaya.
He stumbled and fell. His legs had gone numb as well.
Did the Captain intend to freeze him to death? Didn't this cold bother the Captain at all?
Hitsugaya stood still. He wasn't shivering. Yet Zalya was freezing cold.
With a snarl. Zalya bent his knees and threw himself at the Captain. Hitsugaya dodged the ice and watched Zalya sail past him. Zalya landed on both feet and sprang at Hitsygaya again. The sudden change in direction caused Zalya to feel dizzy and slid across the ice when Hitsugaya dodged him a second time.
Zalya stood up, shivering. He felt so cold. And tired. He felt weak.
Zalya looked at his hands. His fingertips were starting to turn a pale blue color. The rest of his skin was pale. He looked up at Hitsugaya who did nothing but watch in silence. He knew Zalya was starting to figure it out.
He had dark rings under his eyes and his lips were turning blue. His whole body was pale and he felt weak. His body was shivering but not from the ice.
It all made sense to him now. He knew what was happening. Zalya felt cold but it wasn't as a result of being surrounded by all this ice. His coldness was internal. He was aware of his shivering but it wasn't from the temperature as he had originally thought. The ice had fooled him.
He wasn't shivering from the cold. It was from the lack of blood in his body.
That was why he was so pale and weak. He had lost too much blood. Zalya was freezing because of all the blood he lost. His body was starting to shut down.
"I see..." Zalya turned to look Hitsugaya in the eye. "Was this your plan? Use all this ice so I wouldn't notice? Fool me into thinking I was cold from all the ice and snow when I was actually freezing from lack of blood?"
"Actually, no," confessed Hitsugaya. "I use ice to fight. It wasn't my intention to fool you. The ice being around so you wouldn't notice how much blood you were losing was just a fortunate accident. But you should have been aware of your condition, cutting yourself as much as you were. Is it because you're impulsive or that you just cut yourself without thinking? You had no idea what you were doing to yourself, did you? You just kept cutting yourself because that's how you get a weapon you can control. You didn't stop to think what it could be doing to you. As if it were an inexhaustible resource."
Zalya smirked. "Actually... That's only part of it. Of course I cut myself without thinking in order to get at my weapon of choice. But even I know not to hack off a limb in order to get a lot of blood. I take only a bit from myself then use it to attack those around me so I can get more blood. I just have to start it."
Zalya didn't always think before he acted, but he wasn't stupid. He knew he could die from blood-loss. He was usually more careful than this.
"It's the fact that I've never fought anyone for this long before in a one-on-one battle. I'm used to slaughtering a bunch of people and moving on. I've never faced someone like you before. I guess I got careless. And desperate."
Hitsugaya couldn't help but feel a little proud at hearing Zalya admit that he hadn't faced someone like him before. He gave Zalya a run for his money. He forced him to draw more blood from himself because of his fighting style and weapon of choice. The ice really did help him, but Hitsugaya didn't do it alone. If it weren't for all those people who fought Zalya and survived to pass on the information, Hitsugaya might have not lasted as long as he did. He might have been thrown off guard if he went into battle without knowing what to expect from a man like Zalya.
"I've never faced anyone like you myself," said Hitsugaya. "You're very strong. I might not have survived if this battle had taken any longer. Or if I had gone in without knowing what you could do."
Zalya chuckled. "Who said it's over?"
Hitsugaya stared at him. "You've lost too much blood. You would have bled out by now if you hadn't used that blood from before to keep your heart pumping. The rest of the blood was used against me and is now frozen on the ground. You can barely stand. You cannot continue the fight."
"I told you before, Soul Reaper... It's not over until one of us is dead."
"You're going to die from blood-loss shortly," Hitsugaya told him. "Look at you. The state you're in... You won't last."
"I'm not dead yet." Zalya looked at his feet. He searched the ground for something and when he found it, he smiled.
Zalya stomped on some slush he found on the ground. It was blood. This blood wasn't encased in a block of ice like the others. This had been rendered powerless by the icy mist Hitsugaya unleashed during one of the attacks. The blood wasn't completely frozen, but it had been reduced to slush. When Zalya stomped on it, he was crumbling the small fragments of ice mixed in with the blood. By doing this, he was making the ice smaller and smaller until it was mostly liquid again.
Now it was a puddle of red. Ice and blood mixed together.
Zalya smirked. "Don't you get it? I can't be stopped."
The puddle began to ripple. It bubbled and shook and finally lifted into the air.
Hitsugaya watched in horror.
"It's really no different from how I kept my heart pumping from before when you attacked me. Remember?" Zalya commanded the blood to his body. "I can still control it. I can shatter the ice and warm it up until I can reach the blood inside. This blood wasn't frozen through. You just turned it to slush. But don't worry. I can still use it. Just as I can draw blood from my body, I can put it back in."
Hitsugaya watched the blood float to Zalya's arm and enter his body through the wound.
"Hahahaha! You see?" Zalya gloated. "I can return it to me. This is my blood! I can put it back in as easily as I took it out. I won't die from blood-loss. No way, baby. Before I get close, I can simply put it back in. As for those corpses, I can always chip away at the ice until I reach them and use that blood to attack you and chip away at the blood frozen all over this place."
Zalya's veins pulsed as the blood re-entered his body. The blood floating in the air dwindled down to only a few drops and then those last remaining drops entered Zalya's body.
"You see, baby? I cannot be defeated. I won't die from blood-loss. I just have it enter my body again and I'll be as good as- ugh!"
Zalya clutched his chest.
Hitsugaya blinked.
Zalya gave several quivering gasps, a look of panic on his face. His breathing was sharp and quick. He couldn't draw a full breath. He sounded like he was fighting for air.
Hitsugaya understood what was happening. Zalya had made a crucial mistake by putting the blood back into his body.
Judging from the look on Zalya's face, he wasn't aware of the error. He had no idea what had caused this.
"Putting the blood back into your body to keep yourself from dying from blood-loss was actually a good idea. It might have worked... if you hadn't used that blood."
"Wh- what?" Zalya gasped quickly. His chest was heaving.
"The big difference here isn't blood type. After all, it is your blood you're using. The mistake was using blood that was, as you said, slush. It's temperature."
Zalya's plan might have worked if he had used blood what was the same temperature as the rest of the blood inside him. He was using cold blood.
"You can't put cold blood into someone's body. It causes a reaction. When you forced cold blood into your body, you sealed your fate."
Putting the cold blood straight into his body was fatal. There was nothing that could be done now.
"Like I said, things might have been different if you had used warm blood. The blood you used was practically frozen. Putting cold blood into your body is deadly. It was a foolish mistake that ended up costing you your life."
Zalya had unintentionally killed himself. He wanted to save his life but ended up killing himself faster.
If only he had known.
Hitsugaya sheathed his sword and deactivated his Bankai. "It's as you said... The fight's only over when one of us dies. So I guess the fight's over."
If only he hadn't recalled the blood to his body. Cold blood should never be injected into a warm body. A lesson he learned too late.
Zalya fell to his knees. He looked up at Hitsugaya, the dark rings under his eyes were even darker now. Zalya gave one final smirk and said, "That's cold, baby."
His body seized up and Zalya fell over.
The ice around them started to melt and crumble away. Hitsugaya stood over Zalya's body as it happened. The sunshine broke through, lighting up the street, helping the ice melt even faster, or so it appeared.
Zalya was no longer breathing and his body was cold to the touch. He was dead. The infamous blood-wielder Zalya was dead.
Hitsugaya fell to his knees and slumped against a broken piece of building. He couldn't move anymore. He pressed a hand to his chest wound, moaning in pain. He knew someone would find him. Someone would help him.
He was trying to stand strong in front of his opponent, but Zalya was incredibly strong. If his plan to recall the blood to his body had worked the way he wanted, Hitsugaya might not have been able to last much longer. He might have lost the fight. Thankfully, he didn't.
"It was Zalya's stupid mistake... so can I really call this a victory..?"
Maybe he could. If he hadn't frozen the blood, it wouldn't have prompted Zalya to cut himself more, which would have led to him dying from blood-loss. It was him turning the blood Zalya used to slush which caused his death so maybe Hitsugaya could call it his victory.
Now that he thought about it, it didn't matter. He just had to stop Zalya from killing anyone else. As long as he was defeated, Hitsugaya didn't care who was responsible.
"Hyah!" Kira took a swing at Yaku's flank but Yaku's mirror forced his sword back. No matter where he struck, Yaku's mirror would stop him. If only he could attack from two directions at once. Then again, when he tried that with Hisagi, Yaku was agile enough to avoid them. Apparently having poor depth perception made him an expert at dodging anything that came his way.
Yaku took a few steps back and stood still, waiting for the next attack.
He was a defense fighter, Kira realized. When he wasn't using his mirror to drain people of their will, he stood by and waited to be attacked so he could throw it back at his opponent. As long as Kira did not attack, Yaku couldn't do anything. With Yaku's one attack being useless against Kira, he could do nothing else but wait.
This was both good news and bad. As long as Kira did not attack, Yaku could not attack. However, standing and staring at each other wasn't going to win anyone the fight. Kira had to bring Yaku down and the only way to do that was to attack.
"But how?" Kira asked himself. "How can I possibly attack when everything I throw at him is just going to be sent back at me?" There had to be another way.
Yaku's eyes drifted to his left, but didn't appear to be looking at anything in particular. He was just glancing in that general direction.
"Zalya..."
"Huh?"
Yaku's expression did not change. His face remained calm and melancholy. His eyes, however, flickered with emotion. Only for a second, then was gone.
"It has grown strangely quiet in that direction. Before I could sense Zalya fighting and enjoying himself quite a lot. Now... I am having trouble sensing him."
"You mean his Spiritual Pressure has gotten weaker?"
"Faded, actually." Yaku gripped his mirror. "Or so it seems."
Did that mean that Zalya was defeated? Had the terrible blood-wielder been stopped? Kira hadn't been paying too much attention to what was happening around him, focusing all his attention on Yaku, so he didn't notice. If Zalya had been defeated, that was wonderful news. According to rumor, he was one of the most challenging Quincies to face off against. His power alone was terrifying. With him gone, this only left Yaku.
If Zalya was defeated, then it meant they weren't all powerful. As frightening as Zalya was, he was not invincible. This made Kira want to defeat Yaku even more now. If the terrifying Zalya could be defeated then there was no excuse for him not to win this fight. He had to take down Yaku. It was all up to him.
"I knew he would be a challenge for you Soul Reapers to face," said Yaku calmly, "but I also knew Zalya well. I knew he would get cocky. He relies too much on his own blood when cutting someone else is not a possibility. My guess is that someone either cut him into little pieces before he could react in time, or he simply bled to death. If the latter occurred, then it was an utterly boring end for him. The way he boasted, I imagined him going out in a fiery explosion and putting on a grand show. Much to Zalya's delight, I might add. I figured he would go for something like that. He was very theatrical. For him to face a less than showy demise would be depressing. Partly for him."
"Did you want Zalya to die or something?" Kira asked.
Yaku sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. But I will admit that him going out in the 'blaze of glory', is that what it's called..? Anyway, for him to die in a very showy way would be fitting for a man like him. But for him to die so simply would be something I could have seen coming and always did. I warned him but he never listened to me. How depressing. That is my point."
"Because you get to say 'I told you so'?"
Yaku shrugged again. "I suppose. But then again, I could be wrong. Perhaps he isn't dead yet. I could be mistaken. Whether he is or not isn't really my concern. I had a feeling he might get reckless and find himself in a fix."
Yaku spoke so casually, as if he didn't care. This was a man he fought alongside and called his comrade. Did he really feel nothing for him? Did Yaku feel anything for anyone? Even when they died?
What must that have been like to not feel anything for someone's loss? To be unable to mourn. To not feel sadness. For Kira, he thought that was truly depressing.
While it must have been seen as convenient and fortunate to be able to turn those feelings off, Kira understood their importance. Feeling sad wasn't a pleasant feeling but it was necessary. He would never want to trade it for anything. He couldn't give it up.
"Emotionally distant, aren't you?" Kira said to him.
Yaku looked down at his mirror. "I wouldn't say that. Again, I have difficulty expressing my emotions through words. I can't always say what I mean or how I feel."
"But you do feel?"
Yaku did not answer.
"Forget it." Kira didn't have time to waste. He had to think of a way to combat Yaku before more Soul Reapers showed up and became victims of his mirror's power. If that happened, Yaku could use the people as a shield or even kill them before Kira could reach them.
However, he still could not figure out a plan of attack. He had to think of a way to get close to Yaku without him using that mirror to throw him back. There had to be a way to attack and have it not backfire on him.
Then, after a few moments of thought, he had an idea.
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