“Courage is being scared to death, but doing it anyways.” — Kensei Muguruma.
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Shinji’s half lidded eyes observed his surroundings with a smirk on his lips. “Co out co out, wherever you are~” He said in a singsong voice.
The others with him looked around warily but found no sign of their would-be stalker. “Oi Shinji-”
“Shh. Any mont now.” Shinji said with a finger to his lips.
With his words as cue, dark rips and tears like an open maw started appearing in the sky and three people stepped out.
Calling them people however depended on whose perspective. For Shinji and the rest of his clique, these people were no more than monsters, regardless of how human they looked.
“And what do we have here? This is rather surprising, is it not?”
“Shinji Hirako, I presu.”
Shinji’s eyes narrowed into slit as the lead Hollow ntioned his na. They were Hollows alright, no matter how eerily humanoid they were.
Despite their appearance, what drew every one of Shinji’s comrades attention was the sword they each had strapped to their waists.
“Curious about these are we? Hehe, of course you would be.” Zommari Rureaux said. His comrade beside him, Aaroniero Arrurueirie, snorted. Both of them stood behind the Hollow whose appearance had Shinji and his group worrying.
Ulquiorra Cifer – the ever curious Hollow.
Love eyed the three Hollows and ca to a harrowing realization that he couldn’t help but comnt on. “Hey hey, you’ve got to be kidding , right? That bastard already went and did it, ain’t he?”
Even their garbs were sohow similar to that of the Shinigami.
It was a similarity that made their hatred for that particular man hollow even deeper.
“I don’t know what you lot are up to but it’s both your fault and his for pissing off.”
Sparks flew before anyone could react as Shinji’s blade and Ulquiorra’s clashed against each other.
“This is rather new to .” Shinji said jovially but his eyes were anything but when they stared back into Ulquiorra’s jade. “A hollow holding back against .”
While he had his blade drawn and at the ready, Ulquiorra’s blade was still in its sheath and it was the hilt he had used to parry Shinji.
With the leaders of the two groups flying into action, the rest of the Visored circled around the remaining two Hollows and attacked at once.
Shinigami who gained Hollow powers, the Visored – the masked ones –, and Hollows who gained Shinigami powers, the Arrancars – the unmasked ones. A poor reflection of the forr and an inadequate illusion of the latter – strangers to both worlds.
Their blades communicated that Shinji swung his sword again at the jade-eyed Hollow who effortlessly dodged and parry. The fight had yet to get serious seeing as neither of them were doing anything special except for the standard strike and evade tactics.
While he could more or less gauge the problematic Hollow’s strength or more aptly the range of it, it pleaded him that the Hollow’s comrades weren’t quite the sa and judged that his friends could take care of them relatively easily especially since they were being ganged up on. Except sothing was nagging him at the back of his mind.
He disengaged from the Hollow with a critical stare and asked his rather lax opponent. “Where’s Aizen? He obviously sent you here to do his dirty work but I can’t shake the feeling that he’s watching us from sowhere.”
“He said you were comrades at one point so you should have an understanding of who he is if not how he thinks. Do you really think he would need to watch what would amount to a re squabble?”
“Yea, he would.” Why did they co? None of them bore any direct hostility except the natural hostile air that surrounded them as Hollows. If anything, this felt like they just ca to feel them out, nothing more.
“That bastard still hasn't given up on resorting to cheap tricks huh? Why don’t you tell him to co on down the next ti ya lot decide to co on out ta town.”
Ulquiorra looked surprised at Shinji’s words and asked curiously. “How did you know?”
“Quite the naïve one aren’t ya? I’ve been fighting Hollows for centuries, punk, I know a tactical retreat when I see one.”
As soon as he said that, a Garganta ripped open right above them and a barrage of Cero petered the sky like droplets of rain.
“No you don’t. Rōjūrō!”
The both of them fired off the sa Kidō spell simultaneously.
“Hadō #79: Gaki Rekkō!”
An umbrella of green energy appeared above them and shot out branching beams of Reiatsu that collided with the incoming Cero and exploded most of them midair, creating a chain reaction that engulfed the rest of the Cero blasts.
It ca as no surprise that the three Hollows were gone after that slight distraction.
“I guess we can take that as Aizen finally getting ready to make his move.” Miyako said what was in all their minds as she landed with Kensei behind her.
“But sothing doesn’t seem right.” Lisa comnted while cleaning her glasses before putting them back on. “They ca seemingly without any objective in mind and left before the fight even got the barest bit serious.”
“So what? They were probing our reaction?” Miyako frowned as did the other Captains.
Love scratched his chin in deep contemplation. “Or they were looking for sobody or sothing. We can safely assu that the recent waves of Hollows have been their doing…”
“So they wanted to draw us out.” Shinji said. “Well they did, quite successfully too. But to what end? They didn’t try to fight us nor did they try to delay us. A little probing yes, but one that is wholly inconsequential.”
“We aren’t their target.” He deduced confidently. “We are just landmarks. Their target is soone else.”
“Kisuke.”
“Urahara.”
“That damned bastard.”
Shinji nodded. “Quite so.”
“What do we do, Shinji? Do we try and reach out to them?”
Shinji however shook his head much to their confusion. “Chances are he probably already knows. We’ll wait and see how they move for now.”
Rōjūrō sighed, a difficult expression marring his face. “By ‘they’, I reckon you don’t an only Kisuke and our mutual enemy, right?”
Shinji remained silent and they all got the ssage. The chances of Soul Society being aware of their presence in this place was 50/50, probably more since their attention would have been focused here for so ti now because of the waves of Hollows for the past week.
“Well on the bright side at least this way we’ll know once and for all if they still want us in Muken or dead. It can’t get any worse than that right?” Kensei joked grimly, a sentint that unfortunately brought down the mood of the group even more.
……
[Soul Society, 2nd Division]
In front of Itachi was a kneeling ROOT who presented an urgent report to him.
There was a spike in Reiatsu in one of the 12th Division’s sensors coming from a human town and from the volu and the intensity of it, coupled with the prior events surrounding that town, quite a complicated picture was painted.
Granted the Reiatsu didn’t soar above a certain level except for a split mont, at least the ones that didn’t belong to the Hollows. And that was the point of this whole report.
For soone like Itachi who had a more rounded information concerning so specific parties, the conclusion he ca to was one he was sure Mayuri wouldn’t co to except he had more information.
“Dismissed.” The subordinate silently withdrew from his presence, leaving Itachi alone to contemplate his next move. Unlike before, he was now a Captain and while that position ca with a lot more freedom and authority, it also ca with its inconveniences. It was harder to pull a disappearing act now that he was a Captain.
“I guess I should seek out Kisuke Urahara again. He should have it working by now.”
He looked at the report in his hands. ‘What to do with this?’
Telling the Head Captain was one thing, in fact it was what he wanted to do but he would rather not have to explain himself and the basis of his assurance. His track record as a Captain wasn’t the cleanest, which was very ironic.
He sighed to himself. Sotis following orders was the simplest thing one could do.
Well, if he couldn’t easily insert himself in this current situation he’d just have to make it convenient for him to do so.
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