Arina Kawagana, Sannouske Kenpachi, Xiang Yue and Akio Kanai
Part II - Enter, Hiroshimoto Masumata
Mal's abandoned body continued to decay and as it did the caustic reiatsu in the air gradually lessened. The body had only dissolved a small portion of its size.
Sano, initially stood tall from Mal's attack, body unflinching from the events that transpired before him. Blood slowly slid down from his ears, his eardrums ruptured causing him to hear most things as inaudible sounds. Sano knew he could have dodged that if he hadn't been so reckless but he didn't care in the long run. What he truly cared about was the fact that hollow seemed to have gotten away before their very eyes. He almost angrily took a step forward before he felt Arina's touch, something he knew exclusively. He looked back at her out the corner of his eye, analyzing her body to make sure she was okay. Most important to this whole moment was the fact they lost their hollow. The mission was a failure and people were too hurt to really go on except for Sano. He didn't need the sound to keep him in the fight as long he had his gut, could see, smell, and feel then he felt like he could fight for days.
At least that's what he had thought, before it hit him. A wave of intense nausea and disorientation...followed by a harsh rattling of his skull and every bone of his body. Muscles would tense and relax, spasming uncontollably. However, he wouldn't retain consciousness long enough to feel any of that unpleasantness, no before he even truly realized what had hit him, he was knocked out cold.
Although Arina’s hearing had mostly returned, the ringing in her ears hadn’t subsided and she was sure than any form of raised voice would give her a splitting headache. She had regained her balance and had pulled herself up, using Sano’s hand for leverage. Her blue eyes scanned the Kenpachi for a moment, looking for any signs of damage, and aside from blood in the ears, there appeared to be none. So when he dropped, her arms shot out to grab him, only for her to fall along with him. She managed to soften his fall slightly and when she hit the ground her hands gripped his shirt as her irises scanned over him again. He wasn't dead but he was far from alright. She had wondered how she and the others had come out from Mal's attack virtually unscathed, and as Sano's unconscious form lay beneath her slightly trembling hands, she found her answer. He had absorbed practically all the damage from the attack.
She closed her eyes for a moment before calling out to her Lieutenant,
"Xiang, take Sano with you. He needs a medic."Xiang sighed. People she didn't want with her. On the bright side, he was knocked out cold. With a flick of her wrist, a rope grabbed him, and also put him on her trampoline. She turned to her captain.
"You'd better do the Gotei 13 proud captain. If not, someone else will have to take your place. I'm catching up."She nodded at Kanai.
"Take care of my captain."With that bit of cheer, she left in a Shunpo.
While those who remained recovered from Mal's attack, his abandoned body slowly dissolved into particles of reishi, dispersing into the air. Kanai and Arina would soon regain their hearing, though louder noises would continue to be a bit painful for awhile yet.
After five minutes had passed, the massive centipede's errant body finally finished dissolving, leaving only the blood of the hollow's victims strewn about as well as the damage he had wrought to the jungle gym.
However, it appeared that their luck would be turning over a new leaf, for as the seventh minute passed and they likely geared up to return to base...a shockwave erupted from the sky and two taloned hands parted it like a curtain, ripping open a kumon. Out climbed what, at first, might appear to be a Menos grande...until one looked upon its mask which differed significantly.
Glancing about, the massive hollow quickly located the shinigami and stepped fully out of the rift in the sky.
"These are the shinigami," it stated, its voice deep and resonant, its tone somewhat guttural as it echoed throughout the abandoned park. The Gillian was one story tall and by the sensation of its reiatsu...appeared to be around a lieutenant in strength. It wasn't weak...and it wasn't alone. From the very bottom of the kumon rift stepped a much smaller hollow--though it was of a seemingly similar appearance...its mask excluded, which was perhaps the most bizarre combination of plague doctor beak, masquerade mask, and pope hat that one could dream up. In a sonorous, excitable female timber, the second hollow spoke up, its form reaching only 5 meters(16 feet) in height, whereas its comrade was considerably larger, standing at 12 meters(40 feet).
The smaller of the two lurked behind its partner as they regarded the shinigami from roughly 40 meters away, though they were quite visible and not even attempting to hide their presence.
The larger one spoke up,
"These are the ones we will kill, Saishi?" It asked, its mannerisms blunt, making the question sound more like a statement. The smaller female hollow, Saishi, spoke up,
"Yes, they feel like the reiatsu that was on Maly so they must be! Specifically the big one!" She hopped back and forth from foot to foot excitably, her reiatsu spiking hither and thither.
The larger hollow grunted and Saishi laughed.
"Gonna get 'em Kiretsu? Get us a good meal?"The larger hollow grunted again before opening its mouth, a cero forming in an instant.
Saishi called out in excitement,
"Yaaaaay, huntin' time!" So it was that the hunt--apparently--began.
It had been a few minutes since what seemed to be the end of their battle and they were preparing to head out. Arina's worries rested upon Xiang and Sano. They had been blindsided by the centipede hollow and the Kenpachi had paid the price. Although, she was rather greatful thatthe rest of the team had remained practically unscathed.
She was about to speak to Kanai when the shockwave erupted from the sky and as the kumon was ripped open, a sigh of annoyance escaped her lips, her blue eyes glancing to the two hollows as they made their presence known. She was growing tired of this mission at a rather fast rate of knots.
She glanced to the Lieutenant, suppressing her complaints as the two Hollows mentioned hunting them.
Kanai had finished his duty with removing the people from the "play ground" and entrusted Xiang with taking them to a safe place. His hearing had returned and this is hat alreted him to the precense of two new enemies. One was a Gillian and the other was a naormal hollow, or at least that is what it looked like to Kanai. The two hollows began to talk about how they where hre to "hunt" ands this caused Kanai to scoff.
"Those two hunt us, I mean I'm not one for underestimating but I am pretty sure we can take em." he said with confidence to the rest of the team that could listen.
He looked at Arina for orders but he was ready to fight, it had been awhile since he last used his zanpakuto, and this caused him to feel like a blade going dull.
"I am ready when ever you are Captain!"Arina frowned at Kanai's words, her eyes never leaving the two creatures - slightly narrowing as a cero formed. Her hand gripped the hilt of her Zanpakuto for a moment as one of her feet stepped back.
"Lieutenant, disengage," her voice was low and stern,
"We're going to fall back, get back to the mansion."While she waited for Kanai to turn and run, she drew her sword murmuring her release, incase she needed to make a quick defense.
"Bend and Shift... Collude without ends; through will I grant you form...."
He was half way to his goal when he felt it. The sudden fading of a previously substantial amount of reiatsu. One with which he had acquired a familiarity with in the years of late. Kenpachi Sano's. Thus, it was mid shunpo that the shinigami snapped his body about to face his east, simultaneously flexing the muscles of his legs prior to initiating yet another series of shunpoes. Doing so with a frightful
boom as he momentarily shattered the sound barrier, now moving at roughly twice his previous rate. A wave of his hand prior to the action being the only expresion of his desire for the others to press on without him.
As he darted through the air, his heart began to race. Filled with both worry and concern. Hence every step grew fiercer, every stride harder, until he himself became all but the most subtle of blurs. A single thought filling his equilibrium as his subconscious guided him to the reiatsu's origin point.
Arina.
His concern only deepened when two more reiatsu signatures suddenly appeared in the vicinity. Their feel all too familiar.
"Hollows." The word rolled of his tongue with an air of disgust, causing him to only further his efforts in speed as he drew nearer to his destination. Especially given that one of them had begun to gather a voluminous amount of reiatsu in the last moments of his trip.
Alas, it was like some sort of otherwordly specter that he suddenly phased into existence before the group. Chest rising and falling in heavy pants as he stood, angled, betwixt Arina and the two hollows. His materialized zanpakuto firmly within his right palm as he extended his sheath back in her direction. Adopting an openly protective stance. Intent on recovering his breath, a brief backwards glance was all the greeting he could spare.
A flash of worry went through Saishi's mind as another reiatsu signature appeared, but it was too late to analyze it as a moment after she noticed and the figure appeared, her partner unleashed his cero. Of course, Kiretsu had noticed too, and in doing so he bit down on the cero as it released. What would normally be a sphere of fast moving energy, erupted into several hundred thin beams, that blossomed out and forwards in the direction of the shinigami.
Saishi hopped happily, establishing a connection between the shinigami and Kiretsu, signalling him with a specific flare of her reiatsu. Then the two would be violently pulled towards one another and likely into the piercing, burning beams of energy that Kiretsu had released. However, none of it really touched him--though if anyone was looking it would appear to--as his ability allowed him to travel through most things he could react to unharmed so long as they weren't composed of reishi or kishi. As he traveled he kept a small pocket behind him open, which Saishi had hopped into, hitching a ride on his back--thus hidden from view.
Together, the two of them could track and react--respectively--to most things thrown their way. Of course, little did they know that the man who had just arrived was going to be a tough adversary for them both.
Having arrived on edge, Hiro's senses were in full swing. Instinctively fuelled by the rush of battle. Alas, he wasted no time in identifying and absorbing his opponent's reiatsu as the tethers formed. Redirecting them towards the sheath of his zanpakuto as it consumed the would be links. While he was unsure as what the hollows intentions were, he knew better than to simply allow an opponents reiatsu to make contact with his being.
For good measure, he began to then collect all ambient reiatsu via the sheath. Concerned for the repercussions of having Arina fall prey to whatever they had attempted.
Arina had one thing in mind as she stood in between the hollows and Kanai, and that was to keep them at bay until the Lieutenant could get out of harm's way. So when a new arrival seemingly appeared out of nowhere she was rather taken back. She would have vocalised that she had never been more happy to see him, but that would have been a lie considering there had been one or two occasions in the past where she had been more relieved and ecstatic to see the man, and this was no time to bring that up.
Her blue eyes stared wide at him as he took a protective stance in front of her and her form faltered for a moment,
“Hiro…”She breathed his name as if she hadn’t spoken it in years, relief washing over her body as she relaxed slightly in the Captain's presence. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to go up against these hollows by herself, but now he had made an appearance, she liked their odds.
Her attention snapped back to the situation as her eyes narrowed on the cero as it was released, but scattered, causing it to rain down on them in hundreds of beams.
“Jigoku Shōheki (Infernal Barrier).”Arina’s voice was low as she murmured the incantation, stepping closer to Hiro and stabbing her scythe into the ground, causing the ribbons to shoot up and merge together into a sphere around the two of them. The outer shell would harden and act as a makeshift barrier in attempt to shield them from the blast.
Once again, her blue eyes would glance back to the Division Seven Captain,
“Thank you for coming.”As she spoke, a smirk quickly took his lips. relief washing over him as he confirmed that, for the most part, she was alright. However, he did not waste words on the pleasantries of greeting an old friend. Even as his anger swelled upon the notice of the injuries she hid all too well. Instead, he elected to voice his intentions. Eyes trained upon the barrier now erected between the attack and them.
"Together." His tone was stern and yet gentle. As if to both ask and command at the same time. His head nodding to the barrier as to show his intention to force his way through. A flash of reiatsu erupting before him as a myriad of spiked balls materialized upon the barricade's inner wall.
The shinigami then stabbed his sheath into the floor next to him. Taking his zanpakuto in both hands as he focused his senses, tracking the movements of the hollows intent on seeing them to harm. Maintaining his composition only out of necessity as his eyes narrowed, and the enemy arrived.
Arina didn't have to be told, after close to a century of being with the man, she had learned to understand him, even when he spoke so few words. Her eyes met with his once more as she silently nodded her head, waiting for him to get into place before she lifted the scythe out of the ground and slashed it upwards, chanting something as she did so,
"Akuma Mori (Demon Lance)."As she did this, the barrier would shatter and the tendrils of shadow would morph into four lances. She would wait for his command before bringing the scythe down and releasing them at the hollows, two at each creature.
A signal which came in the form movement. Having raised his katana above his head, Hiro's stance grew wide. Arms risen and poised to strike as he entered into a Jodan No Kame sword posture. Another breath later and the man's reiatsu exploded. Momentarily shrouding him in a crimson aura as he brought his blade to bear. Intent on utilizing the force of his strike to amplify the speed of Arina's lances, which had now enveloped the metal spikes - hiding them within.
The beams struck the barrier, and as it was dispelled they continued to be scattered around them, slamming into the ground and pulverizing it, sending dust and debris into the air, obscuring their vision. Kiretsu, despite looking like a big lumbering oaf, and despite his being the brawn of the pair, was still intelligent enough to attack with more than one purpose in mind. His partner on the other hand, who
was the brains of the bunch was having trouble, as it appeared that her ability did not work on the newcomer...at all.
She gritted her teeth and retreated, signaling Kiretsu, who in a flash threw another volley of ceros, creating a number of debris clouds, one to each side excluding in front of them. Saishi retreated into one of them and plotted her next move while Kiretsu held their attention. With Saishi having retreated Kiretsu knew things were likely to fall on him for the most part--it wasn't likely to end well, even he knew that much.
They'd need to stall. In the interest of such he charged two ceros in his mouth, grabbed them with his hands and then began charging a third, waiting for the shinigami to make their move as he ceased approaching, instead hiding his presence within the massive cloud of dust and debris his cero had kicked up. Hopefully they could get out of this alive.
A shadow loomed a bit in the distance, watching atop a building,completely obscured. Despite its reiatsu and visibility being obscured, it talked to itself, almost reassuringly.
"If your comrade is being defeated, you should see it as an opportunity. Rather than standing in the way, you should stab the enemy in the back. And if the enemy is so far above your level that you cannot even manage that... then you should let your comrade die. That is our way." It didn't move yet to join in one side or the other.
Arina didn't even need to look at Hiro to know what he needed her to do, her ice blue eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the two hollows disappear into the dust they had created with the cero. And with one swift movement, she brought her scythe down in a swinging motion - releasing only two of the lances, aiming them forward. As they detached, they would launch forward, but crash into the ground, filling the entire area with a cloud of dust, engulfing the two Captains.
Then, without a word, she stepped back and to the side, her arm brushing against Hiro's due to the close proximity. She had no intention of being seperated from the Division Seven Captain, and this way, she could still recieve any silent signals he might give her.
With his body tense, its entirety flexed in anticipation, her touch brought with it a sense of comfort once long forgetten. Bringing with it a renewing clarity as his eyes combed the storm of debris and dust. Allowing the shinigami to feel as if his body had suddenly grown lighter. So it was that he then closed his eyes and once again focused his senses. This time training them upon his own reiatsu - or rather the spikes comprised if it as he suddenly expanded their size. Causing them to burst free of the two entrenched lances which housed them within. Sending several hundred spikes cascading across the entire battlefield like the shrapnel from a duo of bouncing bettys.
He tracked each and every one.
With his ears, he listened for movement. Ready to judge distance and location. With his nose, he smelt for the stench of a hollow. Determined to discern the presence of his foes. However, it was only after idly deflecting a few dozen spikes which threatened the two captains, that he felt for any vibrations within the ground. Searching for anything that might betray the movement of the brute.
Upon returning his blade to his side, he then pressed his free arm ever slightly against Arina's. Returning whatever affection lay hidden within the fleeting embrace.
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