Adult-FanFiction.org : Bleach

Trial of Fire
By : NovaAlexandria
Category: Bleach > General
Views: 7859 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or make any profit from this story
Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chapter 13
Earth Guardian

Kinomi waited as patiently as she could, only the weight of Pantera on her back and the blades reiatsu swirling around her own kept her somewhat calm. As long as those two were there then it meant Grimmjow was alive somewhere.

And swirl around her Pantera�s reiatsu did. Ever since she touched the hilt of the Zanpakuto the blades reiatsu had been brushing against hers, almost like a needy cat asking for a scratch behind the ears when its owner got home, and Kinomi briefly wondered how long the Zanpakuto had been laying all alone on the floor.

Kinomi was never more grateful for how in tuned Kyatssuai and she had become then this exact moment. A screaming of frantic warning from the white panther was all that saved her head as a scythe from nowhere tried to remove it.

The creature was among them before they had a chance to react. Reina was the most vulnerable in her trance like state and took a large gash from the creatures scythe across her back.

Barbo was by her side in an instance, blocking the second strike from the creatures 2nd scythe. They scattered, giving each other some room. The creature pause in its assault, standing in the ring they had formed around it when forced to scatter.

Kinomi studied the weird thing. It had a humanoid shape, if not tall and lanky. It appeared to be covered in a sort of brown mud that obscured all of its features other then its pale hands, a scythe held in each tight grip. Red, gem eyes glowed at them in a weird parody of mindless intelligence.

It was like it knew every aspect of fighting and was watching for their next move while at the same time didn�t have a coherent thought. It was the most unnerving thing Kinomi had ever seen.

�I can�t sense it at all.� Zan reported.

�Neither can I.� Galgo agreed.

Azucena had made her way to Reina�s side, a green glow enveloping the young woman�s back as Azucena began to heal the wound. The creature moved lightning fast. Zan dodge the first strike aimed at him and parried the second with his Katar. As fast as the strike went Leon was by Zan�s side in an instant, lashing out with his staff to hit the creature on its head.

The staff bounced off and clacked like he had hit a solid rock, having no effect on the creature whatsoever. Leon was able to dodge the counter the creature swung at him, but not fully and a red line appeared across his cheek as he jumped away.

Zan also retreated and they now stood in a line against the creature.

�That thing is stronger than Zan�s R.Hierro.� Leon reported.

�No, Kidding.� Zan grumbled.

�Can you hold it still?� Reina asked, now recovered from her wounds.

�Yes.� Kinomi answered.

�If you can hold it still I can cut it.�

Kinomi nodded. �Restriction release, level 1.� She declared.

With nods from the others they settled into their combat stances.

�Hitonomi, Kyattsuai.�

�Hamukau, Garou.�

�Volar, halc�n.�

�Warihane, Tenkou .�

�Tobikomi, Namazu.�

�Morder, Leon Melena.�

�Subir, Luna Sangre Gemelo.�

Four blades changed shape, three people changed forms, one disappeared. Reina stepped back and Kinomi took the lead, launching herself at the creature with a Toranekosuto leading the way.

The creature merely swung one of its scythes, slicing through her attack as if it was nothing and swinging the other around to tare a gash down her arm as she shot passed him. Leon and Zan were right behind her, one taking the creatures, left, the other the creature right.

Zan locked the blade of one of the scythes with his now three, bladed katars. Leon threw a kicked to the creatures exposed side and winced as his foot made contact with what felt like a rock wall.

Galgo came in behind Leon, slashing at the same side while Barbo caught the creatures other scythe before it could bare down on Zan�s unprotected head. Galgo�s wolf fang shaped blade also just ricocheted off of the armor, but the drops of red acid that landed on the creature�s body did sizzle and burn it.

The creature more or less pinned down, Reina rushed in, her blade slashing at the same exposed side. The creature lashed out at her with its foot. Barbo noticed the counter and cast a quick binding spell to stop the leg from rising all the way.

Reina�s blade tore through the creature, causing it to howl in pain so high pitched they all felt their heads reeling and had to clap hands over their ears, letting the creature go in the process.

Reina�s blade had drawn blood, but to their horror the gash was already sealing. Everyone broke off from the target as it swung its now free scythes about in a circle. Zan took a slash across his forehead deep enough to hit bone.

The target clear Taka, who was hovering in the air above, launched her own attack at the creature.

�Acero Pluma.� She called, more of a warning to the others then to impress anyone with her war cries.

Taka flapped her wings, bolts flying from her wings shaped like feathers that riddle the creature with holes. Holes that filled up with the brown, solid, mud like substance the creature appeared to be made of as fast as they were made.

The creature howled, seemed to take a breath, and then fired balls of what appeared to be mud at her. Cursing she folded her wings and plummeted a few feet to quickly avoid the attack before spreading her wings again and quickly flying right as the creature kept firing at her.

�Issui.� Barbo called, pointing his shikai towards the creature.

A jet of water burst forth from his blade to slam into the creature, tearing away the mud like substance to reveal what appeared to have been once white clothing before the mud returned and launched itself like a spike toward the Kuchiki heir

Barbo stopped his attack and turned his blade to catch the strike, the force pushing him back several feet. Zan and Leon struck at the same time next.

�Rascar Incendio.� Five thin blades of red shot from Leon�s clawed hands to burn the creature, but did little else for damage.

�Sangre Inciso.� Zan called, the red blade of energy striking the creature and dusting some of the substance before it healed itself.

The attacks out of the way Kinomi dove in, drawing the creatures attention and bringing it back into melee combat. She was suddenly very thankful for all the training she had done with Hisagi-fukutaichou for this creatures weapons were very similar.

�Remind me to give Hisagi-fukutaichou a wagon full of his favorite pocky when we get back.� Kinomi asked Kyattsuai.

�Chocolate?�

�Strawberry, but don�t tell anyone. I think 69 boxes would be appropriate.�

Kyattsuai couldn�t help but to chuckle despite the tense situation. Kinomi pulled Pantera from her back, duel wielding both blades and asked Kyattsuai to add Ikkaku-taichou to the list.

She had to learn to use her sheath as another blade while learning how to fight Hisagi and Ikkaku, and Ikkaku had been more then thrilled to teach her how. Using Pantera was easier then her sheath as the blade was better balanced and had an actual handle.

By keeping the creature busy and taking no few scratched from the things scythes, Reina was able to make another strike against the thing while Kinomi held his attention, this time slashing right through the centre of its head and down the body, splitting it in two.

The creature wailed again, causing them all to clasp hands over their ears and stumble away, but not before Barbo caught a flash of red before it disappeared as the creature melted back together again.

�What does it take to kill this bloody thing?� Leon snarled in annoyance.

�Left eye, red gem, aim for it.� Barbo shouted.

Zan and Leon rushed in low, permitting Barbo to fire another Issui over their heads in the creatures face. Zan tangled one of the scythes up with his twin katars while Leon dove for the things legs and snagged them.

Kinomi and Taka rushed to grab the creatures other arm, leaving him open for another strike from Reina. The creature saw the incoming strike and with a strength that could only be born of desperation threw them all off of its body before disappearing into the ground.

They all took to the air, not wanting to have the creature come up underneath them. Taka�s eyes remained fixed on the ground, not moving an inch from where the creature had disappeared.

�Is it still there?� Kinomi asked.

�Yeah. It might not have any reiatsu, but my Aguila Ojo can still lock onto it.� Taka answered.

�What the hell was that thing?� Leon asked.

�I believe it to be in our best interest to analyze the sample of blood I have acquired with Tenkou.� Reina commented.

�We can�t go back one day into a mission with blood acquired from Hueco Mundo.� Zan pointed out.

�Leon, open a gate to Shinji-san�s shop.� Kinomi ordered

With a nod Leon did as ordered. They stepped through, looking up in time to see half of the Vizards come flying into the underground training facility after detecting the gate. They sheathed their blades when they saw who awaited them and Shinji walked up to them, smile on his face as he greeted Kinomi.

�Pantera-chan, to what do we owe the pleasure?� Shinji asked.

�I need to speak to Urahara-san.� She answered. �We found something we aren�t quite sure what it is.�

Shinji frowned as he listened to her re-account of their fight verses the whatever it was. If he was shocked they had gone to Hueco Mundo it didn�t show. Nodding in understand and looking weary at the thought of a new threat, he escorted Kinomi and Reina to Urahara�s shop, deeming this recent event worthy of waking the ex-taichou up. The others remained hidden at the Vizards hideout to recover and have Hachi treat their wounds.

Urahara answered the door when they banged on it, looking slightly disheveled at being woken up at four in the morning, his associates apparently off on some weekend camping trip.

�Kinomi-chan, Reina-chan, Shinji? What brings you here at this time?� He asked, fake smile slowly lighting up his face.

Kinomi quickly explained the situation, and he let them in at once, taking Reina�s Zanpakuto and bringing it to his lab. He took a sample of the blood from Tenkou�s blade and starting doing gods know what with it.

�You said that the creature was covered in something like a solid mud?� He asked.

�Yes.� Kinomi answered. �It was hard to get through, like Zan�s Heirro strength hard. Easily high level Espada type Hierro level. Only Riana�s Tenkou was able to slice through it and Barbo�s Issui managed to cut through the stuff.� She answered.

�Maybe you should start from the beginning.� Urahara suggested.

The sun was coming up and Kinomi was resting in the living room half asleep out of pure exhaustion. Pantera was in her lap and she was stroking the blade in her worry, feeling slightly relieved as the blades power fluctuated warmly over her and Kyattsuai.

Ever since the incident at Las Noches Kyattsuai had been riding shot gun in her mind. Kinomi left her mind open to the white panther. Kyatssuai had saved her life once already and she knew her spirit was as worried over these events as she was.

�In all my time as a Shinigmai, I know of only one other who had his Zanpakuto sealed in two separate blades. But then, the Reiatsu of this one feels different.� Urahara commented, drawing her attention to him.

�Hmm, Oh, she isn�t mine.� Kinomi answered, pausing in her stroking of the blade so Urahara could see it better.

�The reiatsu feels like an espada�s.� He commented. �Pantera?� He guessed.

Kinomi nodded her head in the affirmative.

�We found her in Las Noches covered in old blood.� She answered sadly. �Do you have any information?� She asked, standing up and sheathing Pantera as she did so.

�Yes.� He answered, and she noticed he seemed uncertain.

�Well, what was that thing?� She asked.

�And how do we kill it?� Kyattsuai added in her mind.

�The blood Reina-san has on her blade is that of an arrancar.� He answered simple.

�An arrancar?� Kinomi asked confused. �The thing had no reiatsu what so ever, how could it be a hollow?� She asked.

�The body was a hollow, from what you have told me it is more likely the body is a host for whatever the mud substance is.�

�Similar to a Parasite?� Reina asked, apparently woken up from her nap by their conversation.

�Something like that. I believe Reina-san�s prediction on the gem is correct. If you see the thing again I would target that.�

Kinomi nodded, even though she half wanted to see it again because it was one hell of a good fight and half didn�t because it was creepy as all hell and very powerful. Still, she had no doubt it was somehow involved with what was going on, and so help her she would get to the bottom of it and find Grimmjow and Nel if it killed her.

�Can you think of a way to track it?� She asked.

To that he smiled and gave her a strange little remote with a green screen.

�I put a sample of the things blood in their to act as a radar. It should focus on that.� He answered.

"Thank you." The two girls and Vizard rose to return to the warehouse.

�Oh, Before you leave Kinomi-chan.� Urahara caught them by the door. �If you find anymore of those things, simply pull out the side bar and put a drop of their blood on it and the device should track them as well.� He explained.

�Thank you, Urahara-san. Can we count on your discretion?� She asked.

�But of course.� He gave her a winning smile, seeming more like his normal, fan waving, cheerful self.

�Can I ask you to do one last thing before I go?�

He looked at her curiously.

�Can you send a bouquet of Yarrows to this address.� She requested, scribbling down something on a piece of paper and handing it to him with some of her living world cash.

�I will see what I can do.� He promised, looking at the address in confusion.

Tossing him a smile of thanks, they left. Once they were out of sight he frowned. The address was confusing but he had a feeling there was a reason behind it.

This situation Kinomi had stumbled upon could be big and he went back to his lab to look at what the blood had told him. The blood was old and dying, as if taking from a fresh corpse, or a corpse being preserved through some other means. It definitely bore looking into, as did the dust he had gotten from their blades, for it was no ordinary dirt.

As much as Kinomi wanted to go back to the hunt as quickly as possible, she understood they were all going to need to rest before they fought that thing, or possibly others like it, again.

They returned to Hueco Mundo that evening, Leon opening the gate up in the air least that creature still be waiting for them. Because Taka had dropped her Resurrecci�n she had to drop her Aguila Ojo, but the radar Urahara had giving her went wild, pointing the creature to be right where they had left it.

Kinomi sighed at the little flashing, warning flags and the Kanji proclaiming �here� with a ridiculously large red arrow pointing at the very small dot on her screen. Sometimes she really wondered about that man.

�Let�s continue on to the North.� Taka suggested.

�A good idea.� Kinomi agreed.

Staying in the air they moved North, the little arrow on the machine followed them several miles out side of Las Noches before it stopped. It was either guarding the place, had giving up, or knew something they didn�t. Kinomi prayed it was the first.

Several more miles out Kinomi deemed it safe enough to walk to conserve reiatsu and request Reina do another search. With a nod Reina went into her meditate pose, casting her Pesquisa ahead of them in a fan to try and find what she could.

The rest of them formed a defensive circle around her with Kinomi keeping an eye on the radar just to make sure the creature hadn�t come after them after all. About five minutes later Reina sighed, stood up, and declare she was unable to sense any reiatsu, not even from lesser hollows.

They spread out a bit in a line, with the exception of Azucena who stayed close to Taka, and moved forward in a sweep, looking for any traces that could tell them where the others had gone.

�Power call�s to power, more so to power like itself.� Kyattsuai�s voice echoed in Kinomi�s head, breaking her out of her slump as she scanned the ground for any signed of someone passing through.

�?�/i> She sent back.

�Power to power.� Kyatssuai repeated.

Her eyes lit up as sudden dawning came to her. She drew Pantera, closing her eyes and focusing on the feel of familiar power coming from the blade, a power that paused in its pulsing to acknowledge her and caresses its reitasu against hers softly.

�Show me, please Pantera. Show me where the other half of your soul is.� She silently begged the blade.

The power remained curled around her own reiatsu as if in comfort, and then she felt it, a small tug to the North East. It was faint, so very faint, but it was there. She silently thanked the Zanpakuto, returning Pantera to her sheath and calling the others over, heading out in the direction the pull was coming from.

�Grimm-ji, Nel-chan. Hold on, we are coming.� She silently pleaded as they followed the invisible thread between Grimmjow and Pantera, not sure what to expect when they did catch up to the two missing Espada.

�Calm down Ichigo, it�s just a routine mission. They will be back by the end of next week.� Rukia grumbled as her husband paced back and forth in agitation.

He did this every time the kids went off on their own, even if they were not technically kids anymore and had far more training then he did when he went off on worse missions. Rukia would say that age was catching up with him as he was fast approaching his 40�s, but he still didn�t look much older then early twenties.

The high level reiatsu his sister Karin shared appeared to be extending their age by a significant amount. Yuzu was not so lucky and showed everyone of her years. Orihime seemed to have slowed down, not as much as Ichigo or Karin, but then she did not have Shinigmai blood flowing through her veins. The same could be said for Chad and Ishida.

Ichigo stopped his pacing and forced himself to sit down. Truthfully he had been expecting to return to the living world by this point now the kids were done attending Shinoreijutsuin, but he didn�t have the heart to pull Kinomi and Zan away from the divisions and friends they had made here when both kids were quite happy where they were.

Truthfully he had drifted away from most of his human friends over the nine or ten years he had been living here. No, that was a lie. He had been drifting away since before his trip to rescue Rukia. He only kept in touch with Chad, Tatsuki and Orihime now and even they were starting to move on with their lives after the fifteen years or so of relative peace they had enjoyed since Aizen�s defeat, inter spaced with the odd Hollow attack that was child�s play compared to fighting arrancar.

What worried him the most was he knew his daughter, who was so much like him in some ways. It had been about three years or so since they had heard from Grimmjow and Nel and he was getting very worried, more so over Nel.

He would not put it past his daughter to find a way to get to Hueco Mundo to go looking for the two missing arrancar. Hell, he wouldn�t be surprised if one of the brats could open a garganta, Taka certainly had the power to do so.

�Ichigo, please stop worrying and come to bed.� Rukia ordered.

He didn�t even hear her. Not now that his brain was running. Kinomi had been very vague on her mission details, and now that he thought of it all nine of the HMKs were out on a mission for the same length of time for the same dates.

�Rukia?� He started. �What was the missions the kids were going on?� He asked.

�I don�t remember. Kinomi-chan and Zan-kun didn�t say much about them. Come to bed already. It is late and we both have missions tomorrow.�

Ichigo sighed and let his wife push him to bed. He had a mission in the living world tomorrow evening and he could pin down Urahara and ask the man if he had seen or heard form the brats. Somehow Urahara had a tendency to know more about what was going on then the man should.

Everything was dark, and pain was all around him. Such terrible pain that waxed and waned and changed so he could not grow accustom to it. Through it all a soft voice that promised him peace should he submit.

He told it exactly where it could go. He had no idea how long he had been hanging in this darkness, his arms long since numb and he could no longer feel the chains digging into his wrist as he hung in that pitch, black hell. There was no sound or sight here.

Suddenly the silence was pierced by a loud scream of pain that dragged him out of his inner world of hell and into the real one. His wrist and arms were still numb from the chains holding him up, but there was a bit of light coming from under his cell door.

He had beaten the darkness back again and he could fell the displeasure from the voice in his mind. He focused on his cell door, the small thread of light coming from the bottom shifted as figures passed in front of the light.

At first he had thought he had imagined the scream, but it came again a moment later, this time in far more anguish. He wondered who it had been only briefly before he felt that strong pull trying to drag his mind back into the world of darkness and pain.

He fought against it with all of his being, each time his escape was getting harder and each time it was easier to drag him into it. He would not submit. He would not kneel. He would fight that voice and the darkness it promised until his very being was destroyed.

He was almost dragged down again, his body weak and exhausted from several months of mistreatment, when he felt a pull on his soul. He latched onto that feeling like a drowning man grabbed onto the rope thrown from a boat.

He felt the anger from that unknown voice at his continued resistance to being broken and submitted. He laughed mockingly in his head at the voice and held onto that tugging for all he was worth, refusing to admit to himself that even this hope would only last so long.

Stay Tuned for Chapter 14: Air Guardian

Where we learn a bit about what/who the creatures are/were.

As usual /love my reviewers

12

13

14

You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Trial of Fire	By : NovaAlexandria Category: Bleach > General Views: 7859 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or make any profit from this story

Trial of Fire