Chapter 9: Chapter 9
- Kensei, Kensei! Where are we going? - I heard a conversation, but rather a whining, approaching a couple of shinigami, wandering towards my meeting on the way. I noticed the captain's reiatsu from afar, but I did not immediately realize that they were going along the same road as me, and when I realized, I did not dare to turn sharply back, it would be even more suspicious. On the other hand, I was confident in my disguise: I had been traveling in Rukongai for several months and had met shinigami on the street more than once. And not once did any of them take an ear. It helped that both the hole and the remnants of the mask were easily concealed: the hole with plain clothes, and the mask with a bandanna. So I did not do anything, continuing to walk as I walk.
- I already told you where we are going. - The captain answered wearily.
- I forgot! Say it again.
"I won't tell you if you forget it again.
- This time I won't forget!
"You said the same thing last time.
- Well, Kense-e-ee, where are we going? - The girl did not lag behind, bypassing her captain from different sides. Having come up with a couple, I, as befits an ordinary inhabitant of Rukongai, respectfully bowed to them, and walked on, listening with distant curiosity to their skirmish.
- I'll tell you, but this will be the last ... - Then he suddenly fell silent. - Hey, you! - A little surprised, I turned to the shinigami, and saw a not very pleasant picture: the captain of the ninth detachment was very attentive to me.
- Lord Shinigami? - With indicative nervousness I asked. - Can I serve you somehow? - Calm down, everything is fine, my disguise is perfect ...
- Who are you? Why are you hiding your reiatsu?
- ... - What the?! He managed to scan me ?! No it is not! If he sensed my Hollow response, he would attack without question. But then why ... Damn me, what an idiot I am !!! Realizing my mistake, I wanted to bang my head against that tree over there. Well yes, the disguise is perfect ... Too perfect! I did not let out a drop of my own reiatsu, so it was impossible to detect me, which is good in the forest, or in a crowd, but ... The fact is that Kensei did not feel me, but he saw, and even the weakest soul has a little reiatsu. Any resident of Soul Society can be felt ... If he does not actively hide his reiatsu. - I have no right to answer this question. - I said importantly, straightening up and looking him straight in the eyes.
- How? - He frowned. - Why?
- I have no right to explain anything. - I continued to play as "the secret agent of the bigwigs of this world."
"In that case, you will come with us, I will contact Captain Shihoin, and if she confirms your mission, we will forget about your existence.
- ... - Well, yes, the Shihoin clan and the second squad are engaged in secret missions, and as a captain himself, he can easily contact Yoruichi. And it was clear that Kensei was not going to let me go just like that. - I cannot waste so much time. My mission is of the utmost importance! - My last hope!
- I take responsibility for myself. - Here you are! Four months of calm wanderings, and on you! Captain ... On the other hand, on the contrary, it is logical. They are not called Captains for nothing ... And how good everything was ... I robbed some merchant, got dressed up, bought money, decided to live a little in Soul Society, and then after a year and a half of research and experiments from the gray desert, I started to feel sick. It seems that it will not work out peacefully.
- Well ... - I gave up. And you can't run away: if I use sonido, then part of my reiatsu will spill out and he will understand that he is dealing with Hollow, but you can't run far from the captain on foot. No matter how you look, but from this situation I will not be able to get out without revealing myself. It's a shame, of course, but on the other hand, what will they get from this? As far as I know, no one here knows about the Arrancar, which means I will be just a new, exotic Hollow species for them. "Then I'll have to convince you to let me go. - I changed my tone to a serious one, and stopped hiding my reiatsu.
- !!! - O! How their faces changed immediately! - Mashiro, step aside. - Kensei said seriously, not taking his eyes off me.
- Kensei! I want to fight too! I will help you!
- I said step aside.
- No, I'll help you. - She did not calm down. I was not going to waste time: the longer I stand here, candle for my reiatsu, the greater the chance that reinforcements will arrive in time for my enemies. So I just used sonido and moved right next to Mashiro. The girl managed to notice the threat and even began to move to block the blow, but did not have time: my fist, not finding obstacles, imprinted on her right cheekbone, and considering that I added a fair amount of reiatsu to the blow, the girl ... learned to fly. The course of uncontrolled flight passed through three rather thick trees, and would have continued further, if Kensei had not come out of the girl's path from the shunpo, who caught her.
- Mashiro!
- I ... I'm fine ... - I barely heard her weak voice from here. Alive. She probably suffered a serious head injury, but I don't think her life is in danger. Hmmm, I underestimated the strength of the lieutenants, I had to hit harder.
- Lie here. - The captain said to the girl, after which he gently lowered her to the ground, and rising to his feet, began to slowly approach me. "I don't know who or what you are, boy, but you chose the wrong opponent.
- Well, actually, I didn't choose anyone. - I spread my hands. - You yourself stuck to me: who is, what are you doing? And now I am also to blame for everything? Or do you take offense because of the girl? You should thank me: I finally shut up this stupid balalaika.
- Bankai! Tekken Tachikaze. - It seems he got angry ...
- Don't waste time warming up? - I chuckled, looking at his Bankai, after the wind died down, and I could see him. Well, yes, the same as I remember it: a metal tape wrapping around my arms, and two large knuckle dusters-blades. Of course, I was much more interested in something else, namely the reiatsu of his zanpakuto, but I will analyze this information later. Now I have to survive: Captain, this is not a shinigami patrol. - "Tiger Flash". - I activated my "combat mode". Yes, this technique is finally available to me again. After so many years of failure, I was finally able to feel the full power of the Nen Masters' ultimate technique again. The most interesting thing is that I managed to activate it right after Arrancarization and the first time! I don't know what contributed to this: improved control over the reiatsu, or the fact that this technique was originally designed for a human body, which I did not have before Arrancarization, but I did not complain. True, it does not look the same as in that life, but this is understandable: visually, Nen's energy was golden, while my reiatsu is burgundy, so now my whole body is covered with burgundy flame.
- ... - Kensei was in no hurry to attack, apparently trying to understand what he was dealing with. And here everything was quite simple. If you do not consider what needs to be done to activate the "Flash". In fact, "Flash" pumps out all my reiatsu, and this happens all the time, then condenses it, and then covers my body with it, like a second skin. As a result, I got something like a force shield, ideally protecting me, and since this shield consisted of pure, compacted reiatsu, I literally used my "skin" for unique combat techniques that worked exclusively on this incredibly dense reiatsu. In other words, by activating the "Flash", I lost the opportunity to use the familiar Hollow skills, like Sonido or Sero, because there was not a drop of reiatsu left in me, but I got access to new, more destructive techniques. In general, "Flash" is an ideal technique for Arrancar, because the more reiatsu you have, the stronger your "shell" will be, and Hollow, judging by my observations, has much more reiatsu than shinigami. Even now, my reiatsu level was almost twice that of Kensei. Another thing is that the level of reiatsu does not equal strength. At least until your superiority in reiatsu is total, as it was with Aizen.
- So you will stand? - I asked, after which, without waiting for an answer, I went on the attack. Nothing too clever, just a quick rapprochement and straight into the nose. Well, yes, so he gave me a hit. Dodged and launched a counterattack. A simple kick Elementary: I move to the side, and knuckle-duster blades pass by, after which something hits me with such force that I break through a thick tree and find myself on the ground. Without a scratch, but without understanding anything! Kensei! The captain appeared directly above me, and clasping both hands together, lowered them on my chest. Get away from the blow, went away, but something hit me in the back again, sending me flying! Is that his Zanpakuto? But I thought that his Bankai was simply concentrating all the power of the wind in those blades, making his impact incredibly destructive! Although we are talking about the captain ... I don't believe that this is the only ability of his bankai. So we add to this the "shock waves" sent by each wave of the hands. In general, it is convenient: if the enemy blocks or accepts the blow, he will receive all the power of the blow, if he dodges, he will be carried to the side, protecting Kensei from a counterattack. And how to deal with it? Well, everything is simple for me: when he again left the shunpo next to me and delivered another blow, I did not even try to dodge.
- Kgha! - From a powerful blow to the stomach, all the air was knocked out of me, I physically felt how the "flash" cracked at the place of the impact, how several fragments of my barrier flew to the sides, but nevertheless the barrier held out, and the cracks almost instantly disappeared, returning in its original form. I managed to grab the captain by the hand and kicked him in the stomach with all my might, until he added more punches to me. Now it was his turn to fly: just like I recently, Kensei destroyed several innocent trees, but when he got to his feet, I did not notice much damage on him.
- Not a bad blow. - He said, cracking his neck. Again shunpo, again hitting, this time in my face. Again the short flight, again the "Flash" cracked ... No, I play with fire: its blows are strong enough to almost pierce the "Flash". We must end up with a fight, or else I'll run into some kind of "surprise". Sharply breaking the distance, I adopted a standard fighting stance when working with the Flash.
- ... - Deep breath, create the desired mental image ... Tiger Flash: Shooting Star! At the moment of activation, the world around stopped, and only I was moving at normal speed. Well, I was moving ... This technique is not time dilation, and I could move with considerable difficulty. In the sense that my body was now approaching the frozen Kensei at great speed, but I could not move my arms and legs. Yes, in essence "Shooting Star" is a rough ramming technique. It combines the almost impenetrable defenses of the Flash and unrivaled speed to destroy the enemy. It is one of the simplest techniques, just what you need, because I have not yet adapted more complex techniques for reiatsu. Kensei, meanwhile, came close, and during this time I managed to group myself so as to bump into him with my shoulder. Contact, and now I crash into his fist, which with obvious difficulty, but still crumples to the body, here I hear the crunch of broken bones, here his body lifts off the ground, a few more moments of close contact, and Shooting Star is over. Subjective time again synchronized with objective time, and Kensei ... His body was shot like a pistol: in a split second he cut more than a hundred trees and disappeared somewhere in the forest. I don't know the exact flight range: one of the downsides of the Flash was that I couldn't use my radar. Are you ready? It is necessary to check, there were too many cases in my practice when the enemy survived after a "fatal" blow. Unfortunately, the sonido was not available, and I was not going to deactivate the "Flash", so I had to run along the newly created clearing.
- Ha! - In front of my nose, a very crumpled, bloody, but still alive Kensei emerges from the shunpo, who, without wasting time, punched me in the face with his knuckle blade. As expected, I got off the ground and flew back. Is he not learning anything? - Kenome! - I heard.
- Hmm? - Not having time to turn my head in his direction, I saw how a brightly glowing green energy ball formed between Kensei's fists, which immediately went to me. Having twisted in the air, I was about to leave its trajectory, but the ball followed me, and at full speed it crashed into my chest ... And flew to shreds. And that's all. I stopped my flight, jumped to my feet, and only then noticed what was happening: the very "scraps" into which the ball had scattered, now formed a real tornado around me: air currents rotating at an incredible speed were ten meters away from me, and their number , as the speed increased and increased ... Unfortunately, I did not have time to come up with anything: in a split second the tornado "collapsed", and only then I realized that I had hit my full ass: I was immediately lifted off the ground, and razor-sharp the streams began to greedily try the Flash for strength. And the last one was cracking at all the seams, fragments of the "shell" flew in all directions, and the restoration simply did not have time to restore all the damage! - Grugh! Here "Flash" was punched in one place, where I immediately got a cut almost to the bone. Here's another breakthrough defense! And one more! Damn, I won't last that long! A little more and "Flash" will lose stability, and fly to pieces! But then everything stopped, I found myself in free flight and, having crashed to the ground, spent about a second thinking about the damage received. Twenty-eight deepest cuts, three of which are potentially life-threatening if I don't give myself first aid soon! Wow, full blown! Lesson learned, do not joke with the captains, you will be more alive. Speaking of Kensei ... He must be finished while he is exhausted after the last dose! Straight from the recumbent position, I rushed to the captain. Tiger Flash: Claw of the Patriarch! With a wave of my hand, as if intending to slap him in the face, I activated the technique. At the same moment, a ghostly clawed paw with disproportionately large claws formed around my palm. The paw itself was slightly larger than my hand, while the claws were thirty centimeters long. Kensei managed to cover himself with his hands, but he was in vain: the claws cut the block off without the slightest difficulty, depriving the captain of both hands in the process, and at the same time rewarding his torso with four lacerated wounds. To his credit, it must be said that Kensei managed to stagger back, because of which my claws did not reach his heart. True, now the captain does not care that he is dead: there, even his Bankai disappears, turning into a katana.
- Rg-gr-rh ... - Is he still conscious?
- Goodbye, captain. - I said calmly, raising my hand for the final blow. And it was at that moment that something huge and black blocked my field of vision. The most powerful blow once again sent me flying today, although this one was by no means weaker than Kensei's blows. But what the hell is it? Damn, I miss my radar! Love and Rose stood between me and bleeding Kensei. And this cactus-like shikai flew into my face. It's a bad thing: if one captain beat me up like that, then I can't cope with two of them, especially since I'm seriously injured now ... Without hesitating, I opened Garganta behind me, and without taking my eyes off my opponents, retreated into her. And only when the gap in space disappeared, I relaxed and hurried to Hueco Mundo: there I can heal myself, otherwise it won't be long.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone