Soul Reaper Zero Ch 6

Chapter 6: Arrival

“I’ve got some snacks everyone” said Ururu in her meek voice as usual. Jinta helped her bring the snacks, followed closely by Tessai. Everyone who had split off gathered around.

“Whoa, what’re those?” asked Leviathan. She was looking in the direction of the snacks that Ururu brought. “These? They’re called Manju” replied Orihime, taking a piece. In the tray were many round, yellow-brown soft looking things the new guys hadn’t seen before.

“Manju?” repeated X. “What’s that?”

“Wait, you seriously don’t know?” asked Ichigo, with a confused look on his face.

“Before that, why did she pop a rock into her mouth?” asked Fefnir. The rest of the group looked on deadpanned, as if not believing someone asked such a thing. Calling sweet buns as rocks was new, even to them. The only ones who didn’t share the same opinion were the reploid turned human group.

“Wait, wait….hold on….don’t tell me you’ve never seen this in your whole life……and you guys are supposed to be centuries old…” struttered Uryu with a comical shocked expression on his face.

“These are some tasty sweet buns!! If only I there were some good ol’ sake to match up with it!” exclaimed Dr Light, surprising everyone present.

“Dr, you know what these are?” asked X.

“Well of course! These were pretty popular and common too during my time!” he remarked, biting into a Manju piece he had.

“Wait so if you know, then how come they don’t?” asked Rukia, pointing towards the ex reploids.

“Well, the most likely explanation is that ‘food’ wasn’t the same as it is for us during their time” explained Light

“Hmm…now that you mention it, even during my prime, nature was really rare, less than 1% of the Earth’s surface had nature still flourishing. Having normal food like fruits and vegetables were a luxury. Almost all humans used what we call E-Crystals. They are basically crystals which have pure energy imbued into them. By consuming one, it provides energy directly to the body, thus satisfying the daily energy needs.” said X.

“Fruits and vegetables were a luxury? Are you kidding me?!” asked Ichigo, with a shocked expression.

“No he’s not….its true, and during my time, nature did not exist at all….we were lucky to have found Area Zero which had some amount of nature. Dr Weil tried to destroy that last piece of our treasure. That’s why, even if we had to put our lives on the line, we had to stop it, no matter what. It was the last piece of humanity’s hope.” Said Ciel.

“Good thing he’s gone now…..I can’t imagine him being here again”  she continued, shivering a bit. The thought of Weil being here, alive, here in this world was something she never wanted to happen again. Not just for the threat he represented, but so that X and Zero may never go through something like this again.

“Yeah…..but I’m really surprised……this means none of you ever had ‘food’ like the rest of us….that’s…….really sad” remarked Ikakku.

“Then, lets throw a big feast! Your very first steps as humans!!” exclaimed Renji.

All of a sudden, a titanic pressure hit them, like an ocean wave had just come crashing upon them.

“What the f-”

“What is this spiritual pressure!!! Its insane!!! How can anything have spirit energy this huge?!” exclaimed Rukia. Most of the people present got down on one knee, unable to stand the pressure.

Even Urahara and Yoruichi were shocked beyond their beliefs. During their entire lives as captains, not even the Head Captain’s presence came close to what they felt now.

“Its coming in that direction!” shouted Ichigo, pulling out his soul badge and ejecting his reaper body from his real one. The soul reapers swallowed their respective soul candies and changed into reaper forms.

“Damn, we’ll have to  use our shikhai to even be able to move without feeling strains on our bodies! Who or what is having this much power?!” shouted Toshiro.

“Alright then here goes…Roar, Zabimaru!!”

“Extend, Hozukimaru!!”

“Bloom, Fujikujaku!”

“Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!!”

“Growl, Haineko!!”

“Scream, Benihime”

“Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!”

“Wha- Rukia?! You got your powers back? And what is that zanpakuto?!” asked Ichigo.

“I’ll explain later, but first, we gotta find out what’s happening! Come on, lets not waste time!” replied Rukia hurriedly.

“Let us come too! We can help!!” remarked X.

“Look, not gonna happen, you guys have just awoken here, I’m not even sure if we can take whatever is causing this head on” replied Ikakku with a serious expression.

“I already had a bad feeling before this! Please, just let us come! I believe my help….our help will be required!!” pleaded X.

“Tch….fine we don’t have time to debate this. Lets go!” said Ikkaku, running ahead. One by one all of them started heading towards the reiatsu, while Tessai, Ururu, Jinta and Dr Light stayed back to look after the base.

“Be careful everyone!” shouted Dr Light from behind.  What no one realized was that Ciel also tagged along.

“Damn, what power! The air seems to be getting thicker and thicker!!” said Uryu, as they made their way to the source.

“I have a really bad feeling about this…..” remarked Urahara, with a slightly dark expression on his face. It bothered them a bit, for it was really rare to see Urahara leave his calm and collected demeanor.

“ I sense 4..no..5 presences…one of them seems to completely dwarf the other 4” remarked Yoruichi, sweating a bit after sensing that huge spiritual pressure.

When they got close to the source, they found a huge crater in the middle of it, countless motionless bodies strewn about, as if their very life was sucked out of them, and in the midst of these bodies were 5 people. Two of them were dressed completely in white robes, both having cracked hollow masks on their faces and a katana sheathed in their belts. One of them was tall and very muscular, balding head with a long ponytail tied at the back of his head, orange markings under his eyes and a cracked hollow mask-like jaw below his mouth. The other was slimmer and well built, with a hollow hole in his neck and short black hair and two green tear line like markings in his face and deep green eyes. The ones standing next to them was….

“NO WAY……ITS YOU!! WEIL!!!” screamed Zero.

“But how?! You’re supposed to be dead!!!” shouted X.

“Hehehehe……..I hope you remember me too, X!” rasped the voice of a hooded figure at the back, removing his hood.

“WHAT?!?!” exclaimed X. “SIGMA!!”

“Sigma?! That’s the guy you mentioned? And he’s Dr Weil?!” asked Ichigo, glaring at them.

“Don’t be too surprised now!” said the other hooded figure, with an evil grin, he too removing his hood to revealing….

“OMEGA!!” barked Harpuia, clenching his fists.

“That’s the guy? The one who took over your body?” asked Rukia.

“Yeah….I can’t believe they’re here……why aren’t they dead!?” asked a confused Zero.

One thing they did notice that the three latter enemies looked slightly different than what they remembered them to be. Sigma and Omega had hollow masks, albeit cracked ones and Weil missed his glass container on his head and he too had a sword, apart from Omega and Sigma.

“Weil!! Answer me!! How?! I sent you to your maker personally!!” asked Zero.

“Shush now…..you always were the impatient one Zero….is it really unbelievable that I found my way here if you could?” asked Weil.

“Bastard! Don’t tell me…..” cursed Fefnir, before being interrupted by Weil.

“No don’t get me wrong. The dark elf didn’t send me here nor I need her help. I was the one who made her after all. I know her energy signature well. Before Zero destroyed me, I converted all of my remaining strength into a condensed form, turning me into something similar to the dark elf. After that, all I needed to do was follow her and find myself a body. I must say though, the power of a vasto lorde combined with my previous powers feels quite amazing!!” he remarked, smirking.

“He did what?!” exclaimed Ichigo. He was briefed by Toshiro and group about the different classes of menos before he visited Urahara’s and after having heard Zero’s story, he had a hunch as to the power of Dr Weil. So when Dr Weil told him that, he very well could tell his current prowess.

“You….you must be that Ichigo kid Aizen mentioned….I see…you really do have some potential….but the way you are now, its no where good enough to be a threat….” Remarked Weil dryly. At the mention of Aizen’s name, everyone became alert.

“You know Aizen?!” asked Toshiro.

“Why, of course! I did meet him in Heuco Mundo. He seems to posses some decent spirit energy himself……almost comparable to mine. Lets just say we’ve reached an agreement, hehehe ” he smirked.

“So this guy’s teamed up with him….this could be bad, Aizen was plenty strong and he stole the hogyoku too….and now another guy shows up with the potential to surpass even Aizen’s powers” thought Urahara to himself.

“That’s enough nonsense, why are you here Weil? The world we knew is long gone! What more do you want? Do you meant to terrorize the people of this world too!?” asked Harpuia, shaking a fist at Weil.

“I thought I told you, Harpuia, that only a human could understand what it means to rule! Reploid scum couldn’t begin to comprehend how I could feel!! And after joining my spirit with a hollow, its as if I felt whole again! The feeling of power coursing through my body……of crushing those who stand in my way……the ecstasy….there’s no way you could begin to understand….”

“That’s enough!! Come on, with all of us here, we have nothing to worry, lets get ‘em” shouted Fefnir, rushing forward.

“Hey hold on, don’t rush forwards blindly!” said Renji, charging towards them.

“Hehehe, Omega! Sigma! Teach these fools what happens to people who defy Lord Weil!!” he barked.

“Hah, its about time doc, I was getting sick of all that bullshit!” remarked Sigma, drawing his sword. It was a plain sword with a circular hilt with a green transparent blade. It made whirring, crackling noises as he swung it.

“Zero, you may have destroyed me before, but things are different now….you no longer possess the power you had before, whereas I’m better than ever! Prepare to die!!” said Omega, drawing his transparent magenta blade.

“Hah, treating us like some third wheel, Lord Aizen might have asked us to co-operate , but I wont stand such insults!” shouted Yami, preparing to attack. Ullquiora simply stood, doing nothing.
 
“Alright guys, this is it! These guys are monsters, so don’t go easy on them” said Renji.

Sigma rushed at fefnir and slashed at him horizontally, which fefnir avoided by back stepping and then countered with a diagonal slash aimed at his Torso. Sigma caught the blade and threw the blade and fefnir aside. He flew a short distance and crashed into a nearby boulder. Renji then swung his zanpakuto, causing it to extend and fly towards his neck. Sigma slashed with his sword and the sword cut Zabimaru’s sections in two, leaving slightly molten metal at the cut section. Renji watched, astonished as his blade was so easily destroyed. Nearby, Omega rushed towards Zero, and Zero dashed towards him first and thrust his sword forward, which Omega simply stepped aside and swung his blade in an arc, aiming at Zero’s neck. Suddenly, a golden triangular shield stopped his magenta blade. Zero blinked, expecting the blade to make contact but opened his eyes to see the sword stopped by the shield. Looking back, he saw Orihime with her hands stretched forwards, implying that she had saved his neck, literally.

“Tch, another pest…” spat Omega, rushing after Orihime instead.

“Not so fast! Getsuga Tenshou!!” cried Ichigo, firing off a huge light blue crescent wave at Omega. He simply swung his sword and split the Getsuga in two, sending it in two different directions.

“Damn! Guess shikai isn’t enough…” said Ichigo, extending his blade arm forwards, the cloth wrap wrapping his hand. “Bankai!”

A pillar of vertical black-maroon reiatsu erupted, causing everyone’s attention to waver a little. After the dust cleared, Ichigo was revealed to be wearing a slightly longer cloak, and a thin, pitch black katana with chains at its end.

“Tensa Zangetsu”

Quickly flash stepping towards Omega, he appeared in front of him. “Wha-” Ichigo quickly raised his sword and slashed diagonally, but the sword went through him with almost no resistance, and his form simply faded away.

“An afterimage…” Ichigo’s eyes scanned for Omega.

“Kurosaki-kun, behind you!!” shouted Orihime, but it was too late. A large slash appeared behind Ichigo’s back, spraying blood. The wound was also burnt, giving off a burnt skin smell. Ichigo seethed with pain, dropping on his knees.

“Dam you, you’ll pay for this!! Some no mai, Tsukishiro!” shouted Rukia, causing an ice pillar to form below Omega’s feet. He seemed to be frozen inside the pillar, but the pillar shattered after multiple slashes appeared in it, melting the Ice around the cuts. Omega jumped out and forming a red aura around his clenched fist, he punched towards Rukia, causing a Purple projectile to fly off towards her. “Bala” It came in so fast, she could barely see it before it hit and caused a small explosion, with Rukia flying backwards through the dust cloud covered in bruises and burns and landing face down.

“Heh is that all you have? This is hardly worth my time” smirked Omega

Yami faced off against Chad, delivering a punch at his torso. Chad quickly changed his right arm and blocked the blow. The blow was much stronger than he expected, and he was sent flying backwards, but he managed to gain footing. He could feel his whole body vibrating from the impact. Uryu then fired off a volley of arrows, which surprised Chad.

“Didn’t you lose your powers, Uryu?” he asked.

“It’s a long story, save it for later! Lets focus on the fight for now” he replied.

Yami simply stood, as the arrows did absolutely nothing when they hit him. Phantom then flash stepped forwards, thrusting his sword forwards, which Yami simply caught with his bare hands. Pulling the sword forwards, he swatted away phantom like a fly, sending him crashing. Leviathan then charged forwards and jumped, stepped off on Yami’s incoming hand and thrust her sword towards his head. The sword too was stopped, not penetrating his skin.

“Oww…that hurt, you little swine!!” he cried, punching Leviathan. Yami then grabbed Uryu and with his other hand, flicked Uryu in the head, causing an unpleasant sound as he lost consciousness, his forehead bleeding profusely. Toshiro then swung his Zanpakuto, creating ice as the sword swung forwards. Yami simply swung his arm to the side, causing the ice to shatter. “You think you can hold me down with a little ice? Pathetic!!” shouted Yami. He then draws his arm back, clenched, red circular energy gathering around it. He then punched the air towards toshiro, causing a fast red projectile to hurl towards him. When the dust cleared, all the 4 warriors were lying face down, burnt and bruised.

“How do you like that hah?! That wasn’t a cero, its called a Bala!! It is a projectile of spirit energy. Its not as powerful as a cero, doesn’t need to be. Its 20 times faster!!” explained Yami, all the while laughing maniacally

After Renji had his blade cut down, he felt a breeze move past him, and a green blur, after which he could feel himself falling down, his eyes blurred as he could barely make out a red spray in front of him. Sigma was behind him, the hilt of his sword with a little blood on it.

“No, Renji!!” shouted Ikkaku, rushing towards Sigma. He engaged in an exchange with Sigma, making sure to avoid the blade. The blade seemed to be made of reishi, so if he had to parry it, his reishi would have to be higher than Sigma’s. He could barely keep up with Sigma’s fast blows and even got cut here and there. Finally, when he managed to connect with Sigma’s torso, he watched with a shocked expression as Hozukimaru’s blade cracked. Sigma then grabbed him by the neck and slashed downwards, making a huge cut across his torso. Yumichika then charged forwards, yelling.

“Haaaah!!!”

He swung Fujikujaku aiming at Sigma, but he disappeared leaving behind an afterimage, appearing directly in front of him. Not wasting a second, Yumichika, knowing that he can’t afford to hold back at this time, chanted “Bakudo #30, Shitotsu Sansen!” creating an inverted triangle from his crackling arm, and three smaller triangles smashed Sigma into a nearby tree, binding him in place.

“Hehehe, so this is ‘kido’ eh? Too bad something at this level is barely worth my time and attention!” he smirked, as he broke free with no effort. In an instant, he disappeared and sliced him squarely in the front.

“Argh!!.....He got me.....Damn!!!” cursed Yumichika, as he fell backwards, broken Zanpakuto falling alongside with him. “This is insane…no matter how strong these guys are, we should be able to hold them at bay…..what’s going on?!”

Zero regained his composure after Ichigo got hit, this time, planning the best attack strategy. He watched as the others fell, one by one, at the hands of these three. What he couldn’t understand was how no one could even put up a fight. Toshiro was a captain and he couldn’t have fallen so easily. “What the hell’s happening?!” he cursed inwardly. X and Rangiku came along to help him out.  “Zero, you ok?” asked X.

“Yeah , Orihime managed to save me, but Ichigo, Rukia and the others don’t seem to be doing so well….”

“I’m ok…..this is nothing…” said Ichigo as he slowly got up.

“Kurosaki-kun please wait, I’ll heal you”

“ No….go get Rukia and the others………they need your help more than I do…” replied Ichigo. Hesitantly, she hurried off to heal the others. X, Zero, Ichigo and Rangiku braced themselves.

“One of us can keep him distracted and the rest attack when he shows an opening” said X. “I’ll use my kido to bind him temporarily and at that instant, immobilize him somehow. We cant beat him the way we are now, so the least we can try to do is minimize the damage.”

“Sounds good”

“Ok”

“Sounds good, but let me be the one to bind him. Since you’re not used to using kido so well, use that time to prepare an incantation. I’ll bind him. Zero and Ichigo can get him then” said Rangiku.

Agreeing, all of them prepared themselves. Rangiku cried out “Bakudo #61, Rikujokoro!” causing 6 rectangular light bars to bind him in place. X then prepared to cast Senjukotentaiho, while Zero and Ichigo dashed forwards.

“Good plan, but you seem to have forgotten something, soul reaper. A battle between two spiritual beings is a battle between their reishi. In other words…” he said, as he shattered the Bakudo spell. “Your flimsy reishi cant hold a candle to mine!!!” He then quickly slashed the approaching Ichigo and Zero, incapacitating both.

“Damn!!”

“Urgh!”

A buzz sound was heard before Omega appeared before Rangiku and kicked her in her gut, sending her crashing into some trees. She barely remained conscious as her Zanpakuto returned to its sealed state. “What power!! Who ARE these guys….not only did they take us all on, but to have defeated taichou as well….its not possible….”

Meanwhile, with Urahara and Yoruichi, both of them currently engaged Weil,  delivering punches and kicks from Yoruichi and occasional attacks from Benihime, its whistling sound echoing throughout the field. Weil didn’t even seem to try to avoid any of them, simply parrying whenever necessary and sometimes, he would simply take them head on simply because it made no difference to him.

“It seems impossible that someone such as captain Hitsugaya would go down so easily against such opponents, but that’s not the case is it? You’ve been using your spiritual pressure to put pressure on all of us throughout the battle, haven’t you?” asked Urahara, moving aside to let Yoruichi to attack. “ Its been restricting us from using our full powers, am I wrong?”

“Hehehe….Urahara Kisuke, it seems Aizen wasn’t exaggerating when he said what he did about you. You really do possess a keen intellect, but there is such a thing as a difference in power, you cant beat me as you are now, even with a spirit such as yours”  he remarked, as he raised his reiatsu even higher, causing the two ex captains to waver a bit. Their bodies felt heavier and even lifting theirs swords was a chore. And he wasn’t even using his full power yet.

“This isn’t good!.....he’s simply toying with us….if he decided to get serious, we might be in some real trouble….”he thought

“I think its about time I end this…..this wasn’t what I had hoped for, but when Aizen told about ‘interesting’ humans, I had hoped for better….their reishi is barely worth my attention….not like that matters now, I’ve seen to it that it’ll be taken care off…anyways…” he said, turning towards Urahara. “ Its such a pity to waste someone like you, who I believed had some potential…too bad you’ll be obliterated in an instant!”. Extending his arm, a purple, glowing sphere began to form in his hand, growing in size.

“Damn….this is bad! How can he have such power……if that Cero hits, not just us, but this whole place will!.....” cried Yoruichi, shielding herself, bracing for impact.

“Even my blood mist shield can’t block an attack of such caliber….At least I can try to redirect the blast to protect those behind us..”

Everyone was barely conscious enough to make out what was happening. The could see the cero becoming larger with each passing second. Suddenly, as the blast fired off from his hand, a figure sped past them and put itself before the blast and all of a sudden, it vanished, without a trace.

“WHAT?!” Weil looked with a bewildered look on his face. Ichigo looked at the figure and gasped. Rukia, Renji, Toshiro and the rest of the soul society team watched wide eyed. Urahara raised an eye, and then spoke “so, its you….” . But the most shocked one of all the others were X, Zero and the 4 guardians. They couldn’t believe what they saw before them. A woman with long blonde hair let loose halfway down till her back, a blue cloak, similar to ichigo’s bankai shihakushou in shape with a white bands running along its length, a blue white helmet with white, feather like projections extending backwards like a visor, in her hand a slim sword, sheathed in a black sheath, a small, red jewel encrusted at the bottom with gold linings both in the sheath and her robes. But the most distinctive features were the three angular front bangs and those clear, blue eyes bluer than an the seas.

“Ciel…..!!”

Hope it was good compared to the chapters so far! I am really bad at explaining appearances, so I’ll mention a site where you can get a visual picture. Its pretty common in google images if you search, but if I leave a reference, it would be easier. Thanks to keichan411 for the artwork! Again, thanks for reading and do leave your comments and reviews and let me know how you feel. Chapter took long to update due to my exams. Next chapter will be within 1-1.5 weeks.