Categories > Anime/Manga > Bleach > Careless Wonder
(This chapter was not written as well as I wanted it to be.)
Careless Wonder
Chapter Six: Losing Control
"I'll kill him," the voice whispered from all around, echoing on and on and on.
Aria opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness. An abyss so vast she couldn't see a single shred of light. She should be panicking, but she wasn't, she was used to seeing the darkness when she fell asleep. She was too use to it.
"I'll kill him," the voice continued, hissing from all around her. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
She closed her eyes again, continuing to float through the dark abyss waiting for it to pass. To pass the time, she decided to answer the voice. Something she hadn't done in a very long time. "This time you won't succeed."
"And what makes you say that?" She felt hot breath on her face, she opened her eyes again only to see eyes black as the darkness around her and yellow irises she would never forget. Her inner hollow, which was the exact replica of herself, was face to face with her. Its body sticking straight up, its head tilted up to look into her own eyes. "Ichigo Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki! Will you be adding an I to your tattoo when I take his life?"
"That won't happen."
"The next time I take control I'll destroy that boy, I'll rip his heart out and I'll make you watch him die. Everyday I'm getting closer and closer. Every minute I'm getting closer. Every second I'm getting closer. Look," Aria felt something pulling on her hair and shot her eyes open not believing that she was able to touch her. "I'm able to touch your hair. Why don't you keep it down? We look prettier when it's down."
"You're not me," she spat out, swatting its hand away from her face.
"You're wrong. I'm you. I'm your dark thoughts, your inner desires. Your lust. Your want. Your need. I'm everything you wish you could be. The sooner you realize this the better."
Aria reached out and gripped her inner hollows forearm. It was shocked for a second but soon recovered, smiling wickedly. "Getting bolder, I see."
Aria brought her face close to it, her eyes burning with a desire the hollow could not quite understand. Its smile began to fade. "I will beat you. I will control you. I will be your master, your so called queen, and Ichigo will help me defeat you. You better start running because I'm coming after you."
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Ichigo and Aria flashed stepped through the trees, trying to look for an open field that wasn't anywhere near a soul village. Ichigo scouted the area, so far nothing seemed fitting for the task at hand. He glanced over to Aria, he noticed that her head was down in thought and the bags under her eyes seemed darker than usual.
"Is everything okay?" Ichigo asked, the worry clear is his voice.
Aria looked up to see Ichigo giving her an intense stare. "It's nothing. Just a little excited for what's coming. Couldn't sleep last night because of it."
"It spoke to you last night, didn't it? I'm guessing from the bags under your eyes your hollow contacts you every night." He looked away from her. He didn't have to see her expression to know that he was right. She didn't respond. Ichigo kept his eyes forward now continuing his own search. If she wanted to talk to him, she would talk. If not, he wasn't going to force her. Time was the key in this sort of situation.
A scream echoed through the woods, bouncing off tree after tree as if it was trying to find a recipient to hear it. There were multiple screams, from the sound of them they sounded young; children.
Aria was the first to stop, her feet hitting the tree branch with a thud before standing up straight and listened intently to the forest around her.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, stopping when he noticed Aria had fallen behind. Then he heard the screaming too, but before he could react Aria's head sharply snapped to her left, her eyes scanning the area in front of, calculating. Then, she took off in the direction she knew she heard the scream. Ichigo swore under his breath and took off after her. She was fast. Almost too fast for Ichigo to follow.
Then another scream ripped through the air, the two tone voice making Aria pick her speed up. That was a hollow. Now she knew why the children were in a panic.
Finally, she came to a clearing. Down below she saw three children running through the brush and into the clearing. One fell, a little girl, her chin hitting the ground hard. Two boys ran forward, but one looked back and ran back for her, begging for her to get up.
Aria reached to her side, her Zanpakuto's appearing at her side as she pulled the one with the black hilt in her right hand. The hollow came into view, rampaging through the brush, desperately trying to get to the three souls. She leaped forward, her sword at her side ready to strike, the hollow only mere inches away. But out of nowhere a black blur appeared in front of it, slitting it in half before Aria even realized what happened.
She fell down, landing on her feet with ease, sheathing her katana back in its holster. The blurr she now recognized as a man, sheathed his sword too, then turned to find Aria staring at him. He was genuinely surprised to see her. Aria recognized him instantly, that tattoo's on his face being the dead giveaway. He was that guy who was with the wolf captain those two times she came across him.
"I didn't expect to see you out here," he stated calmly, walking over to her with a grip on his Zanpakuto. Instantly he noticed the two Zanpakuto's she had on the left side on her hip, his eyes narrowing in his own surprise. She didn't know if he was doing that out of habit, or if he didn't trust her. She didn't know him well enough to know which.
He was a couple of feet away before she narrowed her eyes at him, making him stop with hesitation. She didn't speak, only stared at the tattooed man in front of her. Before long, Ichigo appeared beside her, his eyes instantly meeting Hisagi's.
"Hisagi… what are you doing all the way out here?"
"Chasing after that hollow, of course. Why else would I be out here?" Hisagi turned to look at Aria again to see she still had her eyes set to a glare at him, not trusting him. "Do you have a problem with me?" He straight out asked, not understanding why she was acting the way she was.
Instead of answering, she turned to her right and began to walk. Both men watched her in wonder until they saw the kids sitting in the grass shaking. She walked to them, staring down at them with her normal uncaring, cold eyes. She knelt on one knee, getting to their levels and said not too nicely, "What the hell are you guys doing out here all alone? If that man back there hadn't been around you would be turning into hollow poo right about now." She wasn't the greatest with kids.
Ichigo and Hisagi both fell over with exasperation, their feet twitching in the air. Ichigo recovered quickly and hurriedly walked over and grabbed Aria by her collar, bringer her up to his level. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you like tormenting kids?"
Aria blinked in confusion. "I only said the truth…"
"Saying they're going to turn into hollow poo isn't something you should say to reassure someone, especially kids!"
"Well, sorry," she said with sarcasm dripping off every word. "The world isn't full of butterflies and sunflowers and the only way to get kids to realize this sooner rather than later, the better off they are!"
Hisagi walked over to them, a sweat drop sliding down the side of his face as he stared at the two idiots in front of him. He brought his hand up, one finger pointed and asked, "Uh, guys?"
"Maybe your childhood wasn't full of butterflies and – whatever, doesn't mean others can't."
They heatedly stared each other down, both thinking they were right on the matter. The kids just watched as the two argued, the smallest had tears in her eyes, and then began to cry. Ichigo and Aria looked down at the child.
"Look, you made her cry!" Ichigo yelled, continuing the argument.
"She's only crying because you're arguing with…" Her eyes grew wide, not believing what she was feeling that very second.
Ichigo noticed and let go of her collar. "What is it?"
She turned around and looked up into the sky, the two men following suit. The sky began to ripple and distort, a large tear forming, almost like someone was ripping a wound open. And it was just like that as hands appeared at the opening and pulled, ripping the whole bigger and wider.
"Fuck!" Aria turned around and grabbed all three of the kids. "I'm putting them in the cave over there." She flashed stepped, Ichigo watching her as she put the kids at the entrance and was speaking frantically to them. They nodded at her and ran into the cave. She appeared next to them again, her eyes moving back to the tear. "Ichigo…"
Ichigo looked back at her, her head still looking toward the hole but she was looking at him in the corner of her eyes. "I want you to go in that cave as well, keep the kids safe. I'll keep them away from the cave so you won't have to do much fighting."
The screams echoed through the air, all three gritting their teeth, not believing what they were seeing. Hisagi looked at the two, his voice holding one of authority. "The soul society should be notified. They should be sending out a division now as we speak." Secretly, he wished it wasn't the 11th.
Aria took a step forward, but Ichigo put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "There's no way in hell I'm going to let you fight alone, not when you can't even use your Shikai-"
"Ichigo…" She cut him off, her voice filled with venom and hate that Ichigo had to let go of her shoulder, hesitating with confusion. "Don't make me say it again. Either you go in there or I'll force you. If I force you, you'll have to be sent to the 4th division barracks after I'm finished." She turned her head, her eyes glaring, she opened her mouth to say something more but stopped, her eyes growing wide again.
Finally, the first hollow made it through, but it wasn't a normal hollow. It was big, and they way it was looking away and not diving forward in search of food, suggested it had some intelligence "Adjuchas…" She breathed out.
"But, that's impossible!" Hisagi yelled, his eyes shaking with horror as more like the first hollow came forth, their spiritual pressure matching the first. Then, other hollows came through as well, almost all were normal hollows.
They were hanging in the air, searching the area, almost like they were calculating… or maybe they were looking for something. "There's no time to speculate why, we need to take action now!" she ordered. She grabbed her black sword in her right hand and turned around to look at Ichigo, but unlike before her eyes were pleading. "Please go."
He smiled. "Like I said before. It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me." Aria noted how genuine he was looking right then and there.
She turned around and snorted. "Your funeral. Don't expect me to come save your ass when you start fainting from using up whatever spiritual energy you have left."
"Nice vote of confidence…"
"There coming," Hisagi warned taking his sword from its sheath and jumped into the air to meet them halfway. Ichigo and Aria followed close.
All three stopped, swords drawn, ready to kick some hollow ass. They drew near, Aria lifted her sword up and placed it on her shoulder, her eyes darting from each Adjuchas. Twenty. Twenty different Adjuchas, and around fifty regular hollows. Her eyes narrowed, not liking the odds. Especially since she had to watch over Ichigo. His spiritual energy have been fluctuating the last couple of days, it was hard to tell how long he had. One day, his spiritual energy was high, normal, then the next, it was almost diminishing. She didn't understand why.
The Adjuchas were nearing, but once they were close enough, they stopped. Their bodies all ranging in size and color.
One began to laugh. He was the one in the front, random, she didn't suspect he was the leader. Actually, she had a feeling their leader wasn't there. She knew that they had a leader. This kind of attack wasn't random.
"Only three soul reapers? What a disappoint, a disappointment indeed." He flat out laughed, other followed his lead.
Another one began to speak, somewhere in the back where they couldn't see him through their massive bodies. "Who gets to eat them, I call dibs on the spikey, black haired one."
"No!" yet another one spoke. "Whoever kills them first gets to eat it. Rules are the same here, no matter where we are!"
And with that, they charged. All three braced themselves for the coming barrage of hollow bodies. The first swept its arm at Hisagi, but he easily dodged, in return cutting into its wrist. "Dammit," he grimaced, realizing it didn't go through all the way like it would have with a normal hollow. Another came behind, he dodged, then another, all repeating from either side of him.
Ichigo and Aria were in the same predicament. Aria cursed when she was separated from Ichigo. She dodged, sliced, kicked and flipped backwards, dodged again, and repeated. Her blows were hardly doing any damage. If only she could use her Shikai, one swipe of her black hilted sword in its released state would easily take care most, if not all, of the damned hollows.
She brought her sword up as a hollows mouth came bulldozing down toward her. It struck his bottom teeth, lodging in-between them. Another hollow came to her right, hitting her shoulder with its claws. She barely moved back and dislodged her sword in time before the blow was fatale. Still, blood flew through the air and she grimaced from the pain. She landed in a crouch and used all the strength in her legs to lunch herself forward at the one who wounded her and sliced her sword upwards when she was close enough to its face. It was a clean hit, blood spraying forward as it fell backwards. She landed one foot on its forehead and lunched herself forward onto her next target.
Where the hell were their so called back up? Did they not know about the giant Garganta that appeared out of nowhere in the sky only miles away from them?
Something wasn't right.
Was this… planned?
Ichigo used the power of his sword, the blue light cutting through the arm of a hollow. As it was preoccupied he set his sights on another one, calling forth the power of his sword once more. Unfortunately, a blow landed down his back, blood splaying forward and he let out a small, muffled cry. He brought his sword around, the blue light leaving it and killed the idiotic hollow that damaged his back.
"Dammit," he said while trying to get his breath back. "Where the hell are they?"
"Are you alright, Ichigo?" Aria called out, her attention drawn on her own hollows.
"Peachy."
Hisagi cut through another, realizing that they weren't getting anywhere when their getting attacked at all angles. He had to admit that Aria and Ichigo were holding their own, dodging the hollows attack without much damage. An idea popped in his head when he looked down.
He put some distance between him and the hollows and called to the two humans. "If we go in the woods, we might have an easier time losing some of the hollows while concentrating on others."
"Right." Ichigo let himself fall, Aria falling behind as she pushed back the hollows following close behind.
All three landed and turned back to back. The hollows circling around them. "Use the trees to your advantage," Hisagi said as he jumped forward and began to take down as many normal hollows he could so he wouldn't be as distracted when he goes after the more powerful ones.
Ichigo jumped back, dodging through trees as hollows barreled through trying to reach him. The smaller hollows were easy, his sword cutting through them like butter. But the more powerful ones were difficult. They would send in the weaker hollows in to attack and when they were distracted, they would try and take the kill. It wasn't a hard tactic to figure out, all three knew their plan.
Aria watched from the corner of her eye as Ichigo fought. She saw sweat forming down the side of his face. She growled, hating how things were going so slow. When the backup comes, if they ever come, she was going to give them all a new hole to crap out of.
Someone screamed. She instantly glanced at Ichigo, but saw he was still fighting his own. She glanced at Hisagi who was fighting with ease as well.
Then, she realized where the screams were coming from. Her features distorted to worry as she whipped around and looked toward the cave. The idiot children were outside, a hollow was flying down toward them, its mouth wide open, drooling as it expected an easy kill. Those stupid, stupid kids! She told them to stay in the cave and only to come out when she said so.
She cut through a normal hollow with ease, dodged another one, and then jumped off the mask of one coming from below as she propelled herself forward. The hollow was coming from the other direction of her.
"Aria!" Ichigo yelled out as he saw her propel through the air and down toward the cave. He saw the hollow directly below him, as Aria neared the cave she was at an angle where she didn't see the Adjucha follow close behind the other hollow.
But before he could even warn her, she already landed, her sword posed up as she swung down and cut through the hollows mask. It fell down, Aria watching it as it fell. A shadow jumped from above, its large mouth aimed for her. She brought up her sword to block, cursing herself for not seeing the damned thing following behind the hollow. The sword made contact with the teeth of the hollow, it pushed her back, her sword not cutting through.
Her back hit the wall, but the hollow continued to move forward from the momentum, angling to its right as the side of its mouth closed around her left shoulder and ribcage.
She yelled out in pain, as she tried to keep the mouth open with her sword. With her left she reached for her white hilted sword, but as soon as she looked over another hollow was on top of her, its mouth closing over her hip and right leg forcing her to scream out in complete agony.
No. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.
"ARIA!" Ichigo yelled, he lunged forward but was caught by another hollow, forcing him to push back. He fought back, calling on his Bankai, slicing through the hollow and making another dive for her. He had to save her. He just had to.
He promised.
Aria's head fell forward, everything turning to slow motion. She saw Ichigo use his Bankai, using a lot of his energy to do so. The two hollows mouths slowly closed around her, crushing her bones and forcing blood to spew from her mouth.
She closed her eyes.
This was it. She was going to die.
'You're not dying that easily…'
Her eyes opened, the whites of her eyes turning black and her once blue eyes now a golden yellow. She smiled, a laugh reverberating from her throat, as she forced her left hand down and grabbed the white hilted sword. The whole right side of her body, including her face began to manifest white bone, growing and spreading. She let out a fit of laughter, swinging her sword down on top of the hollows scull, cutting through the Adjuchas skull with ease, and then swung to her right finding the same result.
She didn't hesitate, she flung forward, her laughter never stopping, taking out hollow after hollow. The muscles tearing from the exertion, but she didn't feel it. Her hollow side didn't give a damn about her body. Besides, she had more power than her human side. A hell lot more power.
With each cut, with each splatter of blood, with each kill, her laugh grew until she sounded hysterical, completely losing her mind.
The hollows began to dwindle, the adjuchas running for their lives, but Aria wouldn't let them go. She appeared in front of them, laughed at their pathetic attempt to escape and easily took care of them before they even realized what happened.
Ichigo watched in horror as Aria flung her body at the hollows. The power she was exerting, he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. It was terrifying. Was this what he looked like when he changed? Were other people terrified of him, too? She was enjoying the kill, her two-tone laugh echoing through the air sounding wicked and… wrong. That didn't sound like the Aria he knew. This was her hollow side. Her side that didn't care about anything but itself. Her whole right side was covered with the white mask, and it was growing at an incredibly fast pace. If it completely consumed her, he would lose her forever.
Aria killed the last hollow, her wicked eyes searching for another but was disappointed to see they were all destroyed. "That was it! No more?!" She bellowed. "Gah! That was weak! Pathetic!" her eyes searched frantically, looking for another opponent.
Her eyes settled on Ichigo. The look of horror on his face made her lick her lips with pleasure. "Ichigooooo… wanna play?"
Careless Wonder
Chapter Six: Losing Control
"I'll kill him," the voice whispered from all around, echoing on and on and on.
Aria opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness. An abyss so vast she couldn't see a single shred of light. She should be panicking, but she wasn't, she was used to seeing the darkness when she fell asleep. She was too use to it.
"I'll kill him," the voice continued, hissing from all around her. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
She closed her eyes again, continuing to float through the dark abyss waiting for it to pass. To pass the time, she decided to answer the voice. Something she hadn't done in a very long time. "This time you won't succeed."
"And what makes you say that?" She felt hot breath on her face, she opened her eyes again only to see eyes black as the darkness around her and yellow irises she would never forget. Her inner hollow, which was the exact replica of herself, was face to face with her. Its body sticking straight up, its head tilted up to look into her own eyes. "Ichigo Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki! Will you be adding an I to your tattoo when I take his life?"
"That won't happen."
"The next time I take control I'll destroy that boy, I'll rip his heart out and I'll make you watch him die. Everyday I'm getting closer and closer. Every minute I'm getting closer. Every second I'm getting closer. Look," Aria felt something pulling on her hair and shot her eyes open not believing that she was able to touch her. "I'm able to touch your hair. Why don't you keep it down? We look prettier when it's down."
"You're not me," she spat out, swatting its hand away from her face.
"You're wrong. I'm you. I'm your dark thoughts, your inner desires. Your lust. Your want. Your need. I'm everything you wish you could be. The sooner you realize this the better."
Aria reached out and gripped her inner hollows forearm. It was shocked for a second but soon recovered, smiling wickedly. "Getting bolder, I see."
Aria brought her face close to it, her eyes burning with a desire the hollow could not quite understand. Its smile began to fade. "I will beat you. I will control you. I will be your master, your so called queen, and Ichigo will help me defeat you. You better start running because I'm coming after you."
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Ichigo and Aria flashed stepped through the trees, trying to look for an open field that wasn't anywhere near a soul village. Ichigo scouted the area, so far nothing seemed fitting for the task at hand. He glanced over to Aria, he noticed that her head was down in thought and the bags under her eyes seemed darker than usual.
"Is everything okay?" Ichigo asked, the worry clear is his voice.
Aria looked up to see Ichigo giving her an intense stare. "It's nothing. Just a little excited for what's coming. Couldn't sleep last night because of it."
"It spoke to you last night, didn't it? I'm guessing from the bags under your eyes your hollow contacts you every night." He looked away from her. He didn't have to see her expression to know that he was right. She didn't respond. Ichigo kept his eyes forward now continuing his own search. If she wanted to talk to him, she would talk. If not, he wasn't going to force her. Time was the key in this sort of situation.
A scream echoed through the woods, bouncing off tree after tree as if it was trying to find a recipient to hear it. There were multiple screams, from the sound of them they sounded young; children.
Aria was the first to stop, her feet hitting the tree branch with a thud before standing up straight and listened intently to the forest around her.
"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, stopping when he noticed Aria had fallen behind. Then he heard the screaming too, but before he could react Aria's head sharply snapped to her left, her eyes scanning the area in front of, calculating. Then, she took off in the direction she knew she heard the scream. Ichigo swore under his breath and took off after her. She was fast. Almost too fast for Ichigo to follow.
Then another scream ripped through the air, the two tone voice making Aria pick her speed up. That was a hollow. Now she knew why the children were in a panic.
Finally, she came to a clearing. Down below she saw three children running through the brush and into the clearing. One fell, a little girl, her chin hitting the ground hard. Two boys ran forward, but one looked back and ran back for her, begging for her to get up.
Aria reached to her side, her Zanpakuto's appearing at her side as she pulled the one with the black hilt in her right hand. The hollow came into view, rampaging through the brush, desperately trying to get to the three souls. She leaped forward, her sword at her side ready to strike, the hollow only mere inches away. But out of nowhere a black blur appeared in front of it, slitting it in half before Aria even realized what happened.
She fell down, landing on her feet with ease, sheathing her katana back in its holster. The blurr she now recognized as a man, sheathed his sword too, then turned to find Aria staring at him. He was genuinely surprised to see her. Aria recognized him instantly, that tattoo's on his face being the dead giveaway. He was that guy who was with the wolf captain those two times she came across him.
"I didn't expect to see you out here," he stated calmly, walking over to her with a grip on his Zanpakuto. Instantly he noticed the two Zanpakuto's she had on the left side on her hip, his eyes narrowing in his own surprise. She didn't know if he was doing that out of habit, or if he didn't trust her. She didn't know him well enough to know which.
He was a couple of feet away before she narrowed her eyes at him, making him stop with hesitation. She didn't speak, only stared at the tattooed man in front of her. Before long, Ichigo appeared beside her, his eyes instantly meeting Hisagi's.
"Hisagi… what are you doing all the way out here?"
"Chasing after that hollow, of course. Why else would I be out here?" Hisagi turned to look at Aria again to see she still had her eyes set to a glare at him, not trusting him. "Do you have a problem with me?" He straight out asked, not understanding why she was acting the way she was.
Instead of answering, she turned to her right and began to walk. Both men watched her in wonder until they saw the kids sitting in the grass shaking. She walked to them, staring down at them with her normal uncaring, cold eyes. She knelt on one knee, getting to their levels and said not too nicely, "What the hell are you guys doing out here all alone? If that man back there hadn't been around you would be turning into hollow poo right about now." She wasn't the greatest with kids.
Ichigo and Hisagi both fell over with exasperation, their feet twitching in the air. Ichigo recovered quickly and hurriedly walked over and grabbed Aria by her collar, bringer her up to his level. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you like tormenting kids?"
Aria blinked in confusion. "I only said the truth…"
"Saying they're going to turn into hollow poo isn't something you should say to reassure someone, especially kids!"
"Well, sorry," she said with sarcasm dripping off every word. "The world isn't full of butterflies and sunflowers and the only way to get kids to realize this sooner rather than later, the better off they are!"
Hisagi walked over to them, a sweat drop sliding down the side of his face as he stared at the two idiots in front of him. He brought his hand up, one finger pointed and asked, "Uh, guys?"
"Maybe your childhood wasn't full of butterflies and – whatever, doesn't mean others can't."
They heatedly stared each other down, both thinking they were right on the matter. The kids just watched as the two argued, the smallest had tears in her eyes, and then began to cry. Ichigo and Aria looked down at the child.
"Look, you made her cry!" Ichigo yelled, continuing the argument.
"She's only crying because you're arguing with…" Her eyes grew wide, not believing what she was feeling that very second.
Ichigo noticed and let go of her collar. "What is it?"
She turned around and looked up into the sky, the two men following suit. The sky began to ripple and distort, a large tear forming, almost like someone was ripping a wound open. And it was just like that as hands appeared at the opening and pulled, ripping the whole bigger and wider.
"Fuck!" Aria turned around and grabbed all three of the kids. "I'm putting them in the cave over there." She flashed stepped, Ichigo watching her as she put the kids at the entrance and was speaking frantically to them. They nodded at her and ran into the cave. She appeared next to them again, her eyes moving back to the tear. "Ichigo…"
Ichigo looked back at her, her head still looking toward the hole but she was looking at him in the corner of her eyes. "I want you to go in that cave as well, keep the kids safe. I'll keep them away from the cave so you won't have to do much fighting."
The screams echoed through the air, all three gritting their teeth, not believing what they were seeing. Hisagi looked at the two, his voice holding one of authority. "The soul society should be notified. They should be sending out a division now as we speak." Secretly, he wished it wasn't the 11th.
Aria took a step forward, but Ichigo put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "There's no way in hell I'm going to let you fight alone, not when you can't even use your Shikai-"
"Ichigo…" She cut him off, her voice filled with venom and hate that Ichigo had to let go of her shoulder, hesitating with confusion. "Don't make me say it again. Either you go in there or I'll force you. If I force you, you'll have to be sent to the 4th division barracks after I'm finished." She turned her head, her eyes glaring, she opened her mouth to say something more but stopped, her eyes growing wide again.
Finally, the first hollow made it through, but it wasn't a normal hollow. It was big, and they way it was looking away and not diving forward in search of food, suggested it had some intelligence "Adjuchas…" She breathed out.
"But, that's impossible!" Hisagi yelled, his eyes shaking with horror as more like the first hollow came forth, their spiritual pressure matching the first. Then, other hollows came through as well, almost all were normal hollows.
They were hanging in the air, searching the area, almost like they were calculating… or maybe they were looking for something. "There's no time to speculate why, we need to take action now!" she ordered. She grabbed her black sword in her right hand and turned around to look at Ichigo, but unlike before her eyes were pleading. "Please go."
He smiled. "Like I said before. It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me." Aria noted how genuine he was looking right then and there.
She turned around and snorted. "Your funeral. Don't expect me to come save your ass when you start fainting from using up whatever spiritual energy you have left."
"Nice vote of confidence…"
"There coming," Hisagi warned taking his sword from its sheath and jumped into the air to meet them halfway. Ichigo and Aria followed close.
All three stopped, swords drawn, ready to kick some hollow ass. They drew near, Aria lifted her sword up and placed it on her shoulder, her eyes darting from each Adjuchas. Twenty. Twenty different Adjuchas, and around fifty regular hollows. Her eyes narrowed, not liking the odds. Especially since she had to watch over Ichigo. His spiritual energy have been fluctuating the last couple of days, it was hard to tell how long he had. One day, his spiritual energy was high, normal, then the next, it was almost diminishing. She didn't understand why.
The Adjuchas were nearing, but once they were close enough, they stopped. Their bodies all ranging in size and color.
One began to laugh. He was the one in the front, random, she didn't suspect he was the leader. Actually, she had a feeling their leader wasn't there. She knew that they had a leader. This kind of attack wasn't random.
"Only three soul reapers? What a disappoint, a disappointment indeed." He flat out laughed, other followed his lead.
Another one began to speak, somewhere in the back where they couldn't see him through their massive bodies. "Who gets to eat them, I call dibs on the spikey, black haired one."
"No!" yet another one spoke. "Whoever kills them first gets to eat it. Rules are the same here, no matter where we are!"
And with that, they charged. All three braced themselves for the coming barrage of hollow bodies. The first swept its arm at Hisagi, but he easily dodged, in return cutting into its wrist. "Dammit," he grimaced, realizing it didn't go through all the way like it would have with a normal hollow. Another came behind, he dodged, then another, all repeating from either side of him.
Ichigo and Aria were in the same predicament. Aria cursed when she was separated from Ichigo. She dodged, sliced, kicked and flipped backwards, dodged again, and repeated. Her blows were hardly doing any damage. If only she could use her Shikai, one swipe of her black hilted sword in its released state would easily take care most, if not all, of the damned hollows.
She brought her sword up as a hollows mouth came bulldozing down toward her. It struck his bottom teeth, lodging in-between them. Another hollow came to her right, hitting her shoulder with its claws. She barely moved back and dislodged her sword in time before the blow was fatale. Still, blood flew through the air and she grimaced from the pain. She landed in a crouch and used all the strength in her legs to lunch herself forward at the one who wounded her and sliced her sword upwards when she was close enough to its face. It was a clean hit, blood spraying forward as it fell backwards. She landed one foot on its forehead and lunched herself forward onto her next target.
Where the hell were their so called back up? Did they not know about the giant Garganta that appeared out of nowhere in the sky only miles away from them?
Something wasn't right.
Was this… planned?
Ichigo used the power of his sword, the blue light cutting through the arm of a hollow. As it was preoccupied he set his sights on another one, calling forth the power of his sword once more. Unfortunately, a blow landed down his back, blood splaying forward and he let out a small, muffled cry. He brought his sword around, the blue light leaving it and killed the idiotic hollow that damaged his back.
"Dammit," he said while trying to get his breath back. "Where the hell are they?"
"Are you alright, Ichigo?" Aria called out, her attention drawn on her own hollows.
"Peachy."
Hisagi cut through another, realizing that they weren't getting anywhere when their getting attacked at all angles. He had to admit that Aria and Ichigo were holding their own, dodging the hollows attack without much damage. An idea popped in his head when he looked down.
He put some distance between him and the hollows and called to the two humans. "If we go in the woods, we might have an easier time losing some of the hollows while concentrating on others."
"Right." Ichigo let himself fall, Aria falling behind as she pushed back the hollows following close behind.
All three landed and turned back to back. The hollows circling around them. "Use the trees to your advantage," Hisagi said as he jumped forward and began to take down as many normal hollows he could so he wouldn't be as distracted when he goes after the more powerful ones.
Ichigo jumped back, dodging through trees as hollows barreled through trying to reach him. The smaller hollows were easy, his sword cutting through them like butter. But the more powerful ones were difficult. They would send in the weaker hollows in to attack and when they were distracted, they would try and take the kill. It wasn't a hard tactic to figure out, all three knew their plan.
Aria watched from the corner of her eye as Ichigo fought. She saw sweat forming down the side of his face. She growled, hating how things were going so slow. When the backup comes, if they ever come, she was going to give them all a new hole to crap out of.
Someone screamed. She instantly glanced at Ichigo, but saw he was still fighting his own. She glanced at Hisagi who was fighting with ease as well.
Then, she realized where the screams were coming from. Her features distorted to worry as she whipped around and looked toward the cave. The idiot children were outside, a hollow was flying down toward them, its mouth wide open, drooling as it expected an easy kill. Those stupid, stupid kids! She told them to stay in the cave and only to come out when she said so.
She cut through a normal hollow with ease, dodged another one, and then jumped off the mask of one coming from below as she propelled herself forward. The hollow was coming from the other direction of her.
"Aria!" Ichigo yelled out as he saw her propel through the air and down toward the cave. He saw the hollow directly below him, as Aria neared the cave she was at an angle where she didn't see the Adjucha follow close behind the other hollow.
But before he could even warn her, she already landed, her sword posed up as she swung down and cut through the hollows mask. It fell down, Aria watching it as it fell. A shadow jumped from above, its large mouth aimed for her. She brought up her sword to block, cursing herself for not seeing the damned thing following behind the hollow. The sword made contact with the teeth of the hollow, it pushed her back, her sword not cutting through.
Her back hit the wall, but the hollow continued to move forward from the momentum, angling to its right as the side of its mouth closed around her left shoulder and ribcage.
She yelled out in pain, as she tried to keep the mouth open with her sword. With her left she reached for her white hilted sword, but as soon as she looked over another hollow was on top of her, its mouth closing over her hip and right leg forcing her to scream out in complete agony.
No. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.
"ARIA!" Ichigo yelled, he lunged forward but was caught by another hollow, forcing him to push back. He fought back, calling on his Bankai, slicing through the hollow and making another dive for her. He had to save her. He just had to.
He promised.
Aria's head fell forward, everything turning to slow motion. She saw Ichigo use his Bankai, using a lot of his energy to do so. The two hollows mouths slowly closed around her, crushing her bones and forcing blood to spew from her mouth.
She closed her eyes.
This was it. She was going to die.
'You're not dying that easily…'
Her eyes opened, the whites of her eyes turning black and her once blue eyes now a golden yellow. She smiled, a laugh reverberating from her throat, as she forced her left hand down and grabbed the white hilted sword. The whole right side of her body, including her face began to manifest white bone, growing and spreading. She let out a fit of laughter, swinging her sword down on top of the hollows scull, cutting through the Adjuchas skull with ease, and then swung to her right finding the same result.
She didn't hesitate, she flung forward, her laughter never stopping, taking out hollow after hollow. The muscles tearing from the exertion, but she didn't feel it. Her hollow side didn't give a damn about her body. Besides, she had more power than her human side. A hell lot more power.
With each cut, with each splatter of blood, with each kill, her laugh grew until she sounded hysterical, completely losing her mind.
The hollows began to dwindle, the adjuchas running for their lives, but Aria wouldn't let them go. She appeared in front of them, laughed at their pathetic attempt to escape and easily took care of them before they even realized what happened.
Ichigo watched in horror as Aria flung her body at the hollows. The power she was exerting, he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. It was terrifying. Was this what he looked like when he changed? Were other people terrified of him, too? She was enjoying the kill, her two-tone laugh echoing through the air sounding wicked and… wrong. That didn't sound like the Aria he knew. This was her hollow side. Her side that didn't care about anything but itself. Her whole right side was covered with the white mask, and it was growing at an incredibly fast pace. If it completely consumed her, he would lose her forever.
Aria killed the last hollow, her wicked eyes searching for another but was disappointed to see they were all destroyed. "That was it! No more?!" She bellowed. "Gah! That was weak! Pathetic!" her eyes searched frantically, looking for another opponent.
Her eyes settled on Ichigo. The look of horror on his face made her lick her lips with pleasure. "Ichigooooo… wanna play?"
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