Trial of Fire

Chapter 14

Air Guardian



Akata was one of the few members of the 12th that was permitted to have his own workroom. This was because he was working on a specific project that Kurotsuchi-taichou had signed off for him, although the man claimed to have no memory of ever doing so but it was definitely his reitasu burned signature on the orders and he couldn\'t be bothered to remember every minor insignificant detail.



One of the monitors began to beep, drawing Akata’s attention towards it even as data began to stream at a rapid pace.



“Kurosaki-san, I see you are playing already.” He grinned as the data flowed.



Not just hers, but that of the other HMKs. He quickly diverted all the memory of the equipment to gathering and analyzing the data as it streamed in at a rapid pace.



“Niisama.” A voice drew his attention to the silver haired girl at the door to his workroom, one of three who had a key to get in.



The other two were his Tiachou and Fukutaichou and that could not be avoided without arising too much suspicion.



“Gintsuki. Come in and man that monitor.”



His half sister rushed to the station, expert fingers running over the controls just as he had trained her. She didn’t have a strong enough level of reiatsu to make it as anything more than an average shinigami. Like him her mind was extraordinarily sharp and she learned all he had to teach her with an ease that pleased him.



“Kinomi-neesan is fighting.” She noted. “It is not often she needs to use this much of her power.”



“Indeed. It is no wonder that the machine clicked in. Clearly her mission has started.”



His sister nodded her head in agreement.



“So no one noticed we hacked the system to set their missions up than?” Gintsuki asked.



“No. You have done well.”



His sister beamed with pride at the praise.



He was not surprised when Kinomi had come to him with the request to set them all up with missions at the same time. It worked well for him since he himself wanted to know what condition Las Noches was in and rather or not they could retrieve any data from his father’s systems.



While it was true Kurotsuchi-taichou had been able to retrieve a decent amount of data from Szayel’s lab, it was about a fraction of the info that had been there. He was also damn sure no one had found the entrance into his fathers work area’s either.



After the rescue the Gotei 13 hadn’t hung around, although he recalled Kurotsuchi-taichou arguing against it. He would do anything to get his hands on his fathers work, work that he had been promised he would one day assist his father with when Aizen had discovered just how sharp his son’s mind had been.



“Okaasan wants to know when you plan on stopping by for dinner again.” Gintsuki spoke up, her fingers not pausing in their work and her eyes remaining on the monitor.



Akata sighed. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for his mother, but she really had no place in his life. And secretly he though she slightly resented them. After all who would be interested in forming a relationship with the woman who bore and raised the children of two traitors?



While there was absolutely no proof that Gin was Gintsuki’s father, not even in looks for she was the spitting image of their mother, the fact she had been used by the traitor automatically made everyone just assume. The fact his sister had no hollow features or abilities seemed to give power to the rumours, for every last half breed born, with the exception of Galgo, had a mask fragment somewhere regardless of how their reiatsu turned out.



“Tell her Kurotsuchi-taichou is keeping me very busy and I am not sure when I will get an evening off.” He answered.



His sister merely nodded and continued to go through the data as it come to her screen. She was indeed the perfect assistant and if it was one thing he could love his mother for it was for providing him with such a useful sibling to train.



The data finished streaming, the fight no doubt finished. Gintsuki continued to work in silence; organizing, categorizing and streaming the data with an ease that made Akata slightly jealous of his sisters skill at handling data.



“Thank you, HMK‘s. As usual you have giving me a virtual treasure trove of data that I can use. Please keep it up. I look forward to receiving the Data from your next fight.”



“Gintsuki, when are you expected home?” He asked.



“Not anytime soon. What do you need me to do Niisama?” She asked.



He smiled, pleased with her eagerness to help.



“Finish up compiling the data here. I have a task to perform.”



She nodded and set to work while he headed out towards the 1st after swinging past his Taichou’s office. He needed to travel to Hueco Mundo for the next part of his tasks and in order to that he would need the seal and approval of the Sotaichou to have a Garganta opened for him.



He was admitted and waited patiently for his turn to see the Sotaichou. Once he entered the room he bowed and waited until the door closed, leaving the two of them alone.



“Saimin, Sakkaku.” He declared as he drew his Zanpakuto.



It was always a huge risk when he did this for the Sotaichou was both fast and smart. The rest of the division would knew he had been here so he would still have to come up with a good excuse as to why he was here.



Today was a lucky day though and his Zanpakuto’s Shikai snapped the Sotaichou under his control. Akata handed the now controlled man the form he needed filled out, one he had made a copy of for if a form was missing from the pile it would bring up questions.



The form completed and signed Akata quickly folded it up and placed it in his robes before returning to his kneeling position and sheathing his Zanpakuto. Yamamoto blinked before asking what he could do for him.



He handed the Sotaichou the reports from Kurotsuchi-taichou he had been expecting before bowing his way out. All was going according to plan, as usual.









Kinomi led her band forward, following the pull from Pantera like a blood hound crossed with a shark that had caught the scent of blood. She had to force herself to keep to an even pace they could all keep up with and not burn through their reiatsu.



She knew the Stupid Earth creature, or Akutsuchi as they had dubbed it, was following them at the edge of the radar. Every time it got within five miles they would take to the air.



Akutsuchi would hiss at them and delve into the ground again, continuing to follow them. So far they had only seen the one creature. Not a single Pesquisa caught any sign of other hollows.



This could have been due to the creature having hunted them all down, or because the hallows were fleeing from the group of high level reiatsu the HMKs were putting out. Since they didn’t have to hide out here every last one of them let their reiatsu fly, and each was as strong as a fukutaichou in the least, with the exception of poor Azucena who wasn’t even seated officer strength.



They would take turns guarding their camp when they rested, always with an eye on the radar and the other for any other threats, be they hollow or more strange mudmen. It was the third day at noon when they stopped to eat that Akutsuchi came closer, stopping just outside the range they would usually take to the air.



They were so busy watching him, and for others like him, that the attack from the sky took them by surprise. A large, gale force wind dropping on top of them like a tornado and tossed them about like rag dolls.



Akutsuchi moved in at once, charging straight for Kinomi, who managed to parry his first scythe and took a slash from the second across her left shoulder. She barely had time to draw Pantera and parry the third strike before it took her leg off.



She was too caught up with Akutsuchi to snag a look at the new opponent, hovering in the air above them and launching devastating guest of winds all over the place. She heard the others call out their releases.



Her opponent was not giving her a second to even call out hers to release her Shikai. Fortunately Barbo was quick to enter the fray, his Issui blasting away at Akutsuchi and sent the thing flying away as the jet of water tore through the earth, turning it to soft mud and cutting deep enough to see a large portion of the center pieces former clothing.

Giving a second to breath, Kinomi skipped right over her Shikai and into Bankai.



“Bankai: Shirohyou Kyattsuai.” She shouted, power rushing through and around her.



One of these things nearly beat them all, two of them she was not going to play around with. The moment the transformation was over she found it much easier to block and parry the things strikes, her new senses far sharper and her movement much faster and more graceful.



Barbo let lose another Issui and Kinomi took the relief to get a quick glance at who was where doing what in the fight.

The new creature was hard to make out as it was completely enveloped in strong winds that was preventing anyone from getting too close if they did not want to be tossed away from the vortex.



Even the few Kidou spells Galgo tossed at it bounced off. There was clearly a man shaped shadow in there and Kinomi no longer had any doubts these two creatures were related to each other.



That was all the time she had to look away as Akutsuchi came rushing at her again and she had to bring Pantera and Kyatssuai around to block the double strike, weary of the blades extended, unique reach.



Locked in together Barbo fired off another Issui, this time in the things face. The mud was blasted away and Kinomi caught sigh of a human face, a large, red gem shoved into where its left eye should have been and surrounded by what appeared to be mask fragments.



She drove Kyattsuai towards the gem, but Akutsuchi managed to bring up more mud from other parts of his body to deflect the attack, and all to quickly the gem was safely covered again in that thick mud her blade could still not pierce through.



Akutsuchi launched spears of earth from his body towards Barbo, clearly getting annoyed with Barbo’s threatening attacks. The Kuchiki heir dodged to the side and flashed away with Shunpo, appearing off to Akutsuchi’s left before firing another issui.



“Above!” Kyattsuai’s warning came at the last second and Kinomi was forced to dodge to the right as a blast of air hit the ground where she had just been standing, whipping up sands and blinding her in the process.



Barbo and Kinomi took to the air, Akutsuchi snarled at them from below. Kinomi drew up alongside Reina, who had been standing back and launching Kidou spells at the new opponent.



“We can’t keep the gem open long enough for me to get a strike in.” Kinomi stated.



Reina nodded, informing her they were having the same problem, more so because the swirling vortex surrounding the creature made it almost impossible to get close enough for Reina’s blade to slash it.



“One opponent at a time.” Kinomi decided. “Reina, redo the damage to Akutsuchi. It must appear when he doesn’t expect it.” She ordered.



Reina nodded in understanding of the command, her blade retuning to its sealed state.



“Barbo, Zan, Leon, switch.” Kinomi shouted out.



With nods Zan and Leon disengaged from the new opponent and dove down to Akutsuchi.



“Celestial Anomestar, Tenkou.” Reina declared.



Kinomi watched as Reina was enveloped briefly by power as she activated her Resurrección. The wave of power diminished and Reina appeared. Pure white, feathered wings adorned her back and her clothing was replaced by a shimmering red gown. Somehow her tiara shaped hollow mask appeared more noticeable and Tenkou remained in her hand.



“Still can’t believe she is the only one with BOTH abilities.” Kinomi thought to herself, briefly remembering when they had learned of her Resurrección and the jealousy that came from Zan and Leon over it.



Kinomi returned to the ground, trusting Taka to deal with the other threat while she directed Zan and Leon. She was pleased to notice that the boys had taken either side of Kurotsuchi and were working together as one unit to keep those deadly scythes occupied.



Kinomi dove in from behind, slashing Akutsuchi’s back with Kyattsuai. A gash was made in the mud but it hardly went through to the body. She jumped back before she was able to do a follow up with ‘tera as more spikes of earth erupted from the body, chasing after her.



She blocked three of them, but took the fourth through her shoulder. It went right through and pinned her to the ground before she swiped Kyattsuai across it and severed the spike from the main body, at which point the mud turned to dust, releasing her.



Cursing she forced herself to her feet, blood gushing down the hole in her shoulder to run down her chest and back in a river. Snarling she pushed the pain away and watched as Leon and Zan gained Akutsuchi’s full attention again, both of them sporting growing wounds from the scythes.



Kinomi braced herself, watching and waiting, Kyattsuia a silent presence in her mind as they both focused fully on the fight. Akutsuchi’s attention was fully on the two boys before him.



“Now.” Kinomi and Kyattsuai shouted in her mind together.



“Regresar.” Reina declared from her place hovering in the air.



Kinomi launched herself off with the fastest Shunpo she could possibly maintain, flashing right passed Akutsuchi. All the damage that had been done to Akutsuchi over the last five minutes suddenly returned, leaving the gem clear for her to strike. Kyattsuai and Pantera flashed as she slashed out with both blades, Zan and Leon caught the counters that had been intended for her as she had trusted them to do, for the strike had left her completely open.



With the sound of shattering glass the gem in-bedded in Akutsuchi’s head flashed a bright red before shattering into large chunks that glowed for but a moment before dying.



Akutsuchi screamed, and then collapsed. The mud was running off of his body to reveal the man that had been trapped inside.



Kinomi glanced up in shock in time to see Taka hit the other creature with an extremely large blast that left them all reeling. With a screech and large gust of wind the other creature disappeared.









The wind creature was a pain in the royal ass. So far only Reina had been able to draw blood once with her shikai, and only because they had yet to find anything her blade couldn’t cut through.



Every time they got close to the creature it would whip up a whirl wind around itself and push them all away. It was literately protected in the centre of a small tornado their attacks just could not seem to get through.



“This is getting retarded.” Taka growled to herself.



Their Kidou spells were reflected by another gust of wind, snuffing the balls of fire out with its force. Lightning seemed to be having the greatest effect as it moved too fast to give the creature time to counter. As those who had Kidou were pelting it over and over again, but they might as well be using a screwdriver to chip away a mountain for the damage it seemed to be doing.



Taka could not use Kidou. But there was another spell she could use that was far stronger then any Kidou Leon could fire off and she started charging it.



She was aware of Barbo and Kinomi joining them in the air while she continued to charge her attack. Leon, Zan and Kinomi returned to the ground and Barbo joined them. Reina dropped her Shikai in favor of her Resurrección and Taka instantly understood what Kinomi was going to do.



Her attack ready, she shouted out the agreed upon warning for this maneuver. The others gave her some space at the warning and she fired off the energy. The Gran Rey Cero launched from her hands, blasting towards the creature.



The creature screamed in pain as the Cero hit and tore through the wind barrier like water. Taka would have preferred like paper but the fact it penetrated at all was enough to make her happy.



The entire upper portion of the body had been blasted to pieces, but like Akutsuchi it quickly knitted itself back together again, much to her disappointment. She had time to spot the pink hair of the thing trapped inside the wind, but no clue as to where the gem was in this one before the body finished knitting itself back together again and the wind storm obscured her view of the creature.



The creature fled, clearly not wanting to eat another one of her Cero’s. Truthfully Gran Rey Cero was an espada level Cero and it had taken a lot of her reiatsu to fire the damn thing off. She would not be able to fire another easily any time soon. In fact her father would probably actually get up to beat her half to death for firing one in the first place.









They all gathered around the body of Akutsuchi, staring down at the long, thin body of what was clearly once an arrancar. There were still several chucks of the red gem shoved in what was clearly his hollow hole, although none of them had ever heard of a hole being in the face before.



“I think we should bring him to Kisuke.” Taka was the first to speak.



“I agree.” Kinomi agreed.



With a flash Taka dropped her Resurrección and Azucena rushed to Kinomi side, enveloping her in a green light and starting to heal the hole through her shoulder and bandage her up.



“Did anyone draw blood from Akukaze?” Kinomi asked, giving a name to the newest creature as it was faster then saying, the evil wind using thing.



“Yes.” Reina answered, showing a few drops on her blade.



Kinomi held out the device Kisuke had giving them and Reina managed to smear some of the blood on the receiver. There was no way to tell if it was working though as the screen was showing up blank at the moment.



Kinomi took out the second device Kisuke had giving her and pressed the big red button. She had muted the volume before she could even hear what might have been programmed into this device, but the dancing figures around the screen left little to be desired.



Kisuke’s face came onto the screen and she turned the mute button off.



“Kinomi-chan. I wasn’t expecting a call from you so soon. Or did you just miss me?” He asked with a wide smile.



“No. We found Akutsuchi again and managed to defeat him.. However, well, I think it might be best just show you rather then to try and explain or describe it.”



She turned to phone like thing around so he could see the body. She made sure to move the phone closer and run it down the entire length of the body so he could get a good picture as well as showing him the shards from the gem.



Once she was done she turned the phone thingy around so she could see and speak to him. He had that rarely seen serious expression on his face that did not bode well.



“Well, any idea’s?” She asked.



“Kinomi-san, do you know who that is?” He asked.



“No. Why would I?” She asked.



“Kenpachi never told you about his fights in Hueco Mundo?” Kisuke asked again.



“Kenpachi-sensei isn’t the bragging sort.” Taka pointed out from Kinomi’s left side, Azucena was on the right still bandaging up her wound.



“Indeed. What you have there is a former Espada, the 5th Espada, also known..”



“Impossible.” Kinomi interrupted.



“Is the body, for sure, dead?” Kisuke asked.



Azucena walked carefully up to the body, as if afraid he would jump up and attack them. Examining the body Azucena frowned.



“It’s a doll.” She said softly.



“Please explain.” Kisuke requested.



“It’s almost like a gigai.” Azucena explained. “There isn’t even a hint of reiatsu. It’s not like a normal corpse.”



“I see.” Kisuke frowned. “A puppet then, controlled by the gem no doubt.”



“Does that mean the real arrancar is out there somewhere?” Galgo asked.



“Most probably.” Kisuke confirmed with a frown. “Kinomi-san, I am not sure how strong these puppets you are fighting are, but Nnoitra was strong enough in his release state to come close to killing Kenpachi-taichou.”



Kinomi nodded in understanding.



“Can you send the body and the remaining gem fragments to me?” Kisuke asked.



“Yeah, we can get Leon-kun to drop it off with Shinji.” Kinomi promised.



“Please do. And be careful. Let me know if you learn anything new.”



“I will.” Kinomi promised. “Please get back to me when you have any news on what we are up against here.”



“I will.” Kisuke promised.



Kinomi nodded and the screen went black. She pocketed the device while Leon and Zan gathered the body and went through a gargata before quickly returning. They moved several miles away before settling down to tend to their wounds more seriously.



Kinomi was the worse off, with Zan and Leon following from the cuts they had taken from Akutsuchi’s scythes. Those who had been fighting Akukaze were more or less just shaking, bruised and tossed about.



Kinomi couldn’t help but to feel they had gotten off lucky and that Akukaze hadn’t gone too far away while also feeling they hadn’t seen the last of Akutsuchi if the corpse at their feet was indeed a doll or puppet.



“Hay, Kinomi-neesan.” Zan piped up after all their injuries had been attended to and they were settling down to eat.



“Yeah?”



“If Akutsuchi was a former Espada, what do you think the chances that Akukaze is as well.” Zan asked seriously.



That caused everyone to pause what they were doing to stare at Zan in silent horror at the thought.



“I mean, it had to be something of Espada level to take Otousan and Nel-chan down, so it sort of makes sense. And if there were more then two of them…..”



“Grimm-ji is really strong, but if four or five of us went after him at full strength we could possible beat him. It took all nine of us to even handle Akutsuchi the first time we fought him.” Kinomi realized. “And even now only Barbo-kuns Issui and Reina-chans Tenkou has been able to get past that armor.”



“Only because earth is weak against water and Reina’s Tenkou can cut through ANYTHING.” Taka pointed out.



“If two or more of the things attacked Grimm-ji then it is possible he could have been beating with no way to get passed the armor.” Kinomi finished.



“Let us pray there are no more then the two creatures then.” Barbo declared.



“And if there are, how many more do you think there could be?” Galgo asked.



“There were originally ten Espada. Only four survived the winter war. The leaves six.” Reina answered.



“Six of those creatures.” Azucena whimpered.



“It’s only speculation.” Kinomi pointed out. “The wind creature seemed weaker, maybe it’s core is just an arrancar, or even and adjucas.”



“Or it wasn’t fully formed.” Barbo suggested.



“Once these creatures discover or learn Reina-san can penetrate their shields, they will target her.” Barbo pointed out.

Kinomi nodded her head in agreement. Reina would become that target and she was not as skilled as the others in Zenkendo, although her Kidou was just fine.



“Barbo-kun, because I know you will do it anyway, keep an eye on Reina-chans six.”



He nodded.



“So if the center of that last one was potentially an arrancar or adjucas, does that mean there could be more then six out there?” Galgo asked.



“Perhaps.” Kinomi sighed, feeling a head ache coming on. “I’ll take first watch.”



“No, you were injured. I’ll take first, you rest.” Taka interjected.



Kinomi agreed without a fight and settled down to rest, but her mind refused to let go of the possibility that out there were six former espada who might be hunting after their blood, making sleep all but impossible.



The next morning, if it could be called that as the sky didn’t really change in Hueco Mundo, they set out again, Kinomi leading the way by following the pull of Pantera. She didn’t want to worry the others, but the pull felt slightly weaker today.



It was halfway through the ‘day’ when the radar went off again, causing them all to fall into a defensive stance as they scanned the sky for Akukaze for the dot was white instead of the brown Akutsuchi had been.



The white dot moved away closer to the edge of the radar and they kept moving, wondering if maybe the creature hadn’t spotted them. That didn’t seem to be the case as Akukaze continued to circle just out of range the way Akutsuchi had done.



This did not make them feel better and they kept a close look out for any other new threats that might appear. The rest of the day passed without incident and Akukaze remained a good distance away.





Stay Tuned for Chapter 15: Torture



The next chapter is rather gory.



Yes my Minions, you are right. Akutsuchi was Nnoitra. I assume most of ya have now caught the flow with Akukaze\'s arrival, so lets play a game. I\'ll give you the names of the six villains and you tell me which Espada you think they once were. Aku is evil, the second part is the element they wield. So Akutsuchi is more or less evil earth.

Akutsuchi

Akukaze

Akuho

Akumizu

Akuawai

Akuyami



I love Reina\'s Resurrección. Can anyone guess what her abilities in this state are. Her spell was called Regresar.



As usual /love my reviewers. And wow, it makes me feel really honored to know some people are more interested in my work than canon.