"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. "Come out come 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 moment 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 presume."
Shinji's eyes narrowed into slit as the lead Hollow mentioned his name. 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 came to a harrowing realization that he couldn't help but comment on. "Hey hey, you've got to be kidding me, right? That bastard already went and did it, ain't he?"
Even their garbs were somehow 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 me off."
Sparks flew before anyone could react as Shinji's blade and Ulquiorra's clashed against each other.
"This is rather new to me." Shinji said jovially but his eyes were anything but when they stared back into Ulquiorra's jade. "A hollow holding back against me."
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 former 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 same and judged that his friends could take care of them relatively easily especially since they were being ganged up on. Except something 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 somewhere."
"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 mere squabble?"
"Yea, he would." Why did they come? None of them bore any direct hostility except the natural hostile air that surrounded them as Hollows. If anything, this felt like they just came 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 come on down the next time ya lot decide to come 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 same 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 came 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 something doesn't seem right." Lisa commented while cleaning her glasses before putting them back on. "They came 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 somebody or something. We can safely assume 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 someone 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 mean only Kisuke and our mutual enemy, right?"
Shinji remained silent and they all got the message. 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 some time 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 sentiment that unfortunately brought down the mood of the group even more.
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[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 volume 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 moment, at least the ones that didn't belong to the Hollows. And that was the point of this whole report.
For someone like Itachi who had a more rounded information concerning some specific parties, the conclusion he came to was one he was sure Mayuri wouldn't come 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 came with a lot more freedom and authority, it also came 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. Sometimes 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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