Trial of Fire

Chapter 17
Akumizu

If it was one thing they all knew Hueco Mundo was, it was that the place was the home for hollows. If it was one other thing they all knew about the home of the hollows, it was that the place was also a desert.

Thus when they came across what must have once been a rather large colony of hollows on the shore of what was clearly a large lake with a fortress on an island in the distance, it actually left them all silent and speechless. The lake was so large they could not see the other shore and the island was barely discernable.

They might have though it was an ocean or inland sea if it wasn’t for the fact the water was not salty in any way.

Kinomi double checked but nothing had changed. ‘tera was pulling her towards that fortress deep in the lake. It was way too far to swim or to run on the air. They decided to check the village first.

The huts were crude, but effective. There were a lot of spears laying around haphazardly, as well as other weapons. And then there was the blood. It was everywhere, old and black.

The corpses were long since gone either having disintegrated or been consumed by whatever had destroyed this place. A thorough search of the place brought up a few boats and even a fair number of fishing nets.

“A fishing village?” Taka asked in disbelief.

“Well, we know there are lizards and rats here, why not fish?” Kinomi shrugged, remembering how Taka and herself use to chase the critters around Las Noches when they were younger.

“I think this one looks sturdy enough.” Leon called out.

They approached the small boat and looked across the way.

“I do not agree with this course of action.” Reina declared. “By traveling on the water we leave ourselves vulnerable to whatever might dwell there.”

“By flying we paint ourselves as ducks.” Kinomi refuted.

“As displeasing as it is to agree, Kinomi-san’s course of action is the correct choice.” Barbo pointed out.

“I am not sure if I should be pleased or insulted by that.” Kinomi grumbled.

Taka, Leon and Zan just chuckled.

“We should take two boats, it would get too crowded in one and if one goes down we have the other.” Galgo grumbled.

Kinomi nodded in agreement and after finding a second boat that looked sturdy they decided to settle in for the ‘night’ to rest in the huts not soaked in blood.

It was first thing in the ‘morning’ when they began to row across the large lake, Leon and Zan controlling one with Barbo steering while Kinomi and Taka rowed the second with Galgo steering.

They were halfway across the lake to the island when they were close enough to spot the black dots in the sky and hear the screams of what were the equivalent of hollow seagulls. They were all over the place and appeared to be fighting over something in the water.

“Disgusting.” Reina commented as they approached the outer perimeter of the birds and a horrible stench reached their noses.

Kinomi felt like being sick as they rowed past the first bloated body, its flesh picked to shreds by the birds and fish. The first was hardly the last until the water was covered in the dead, putrid, bloated bodies of what had once been hollows.

The birds screamed at them in anger for disturbing their feast and even dared to dive at them until Reina and Azucena, being the only two not occupied with moving the boats, sliced them apart.

“Man this smell is just rank.” Taka complained.

“Indeed.” Reina agreed, covering her nose with a cloth that probably costs more then their full uniforms.

“We are almost there.” Kinomi commented.

Kinomi looked ahead at the small amount of beach before it was cut off by a massive cliff that the castle, if it could be called that as it looked like something hammered into the rocks, was built upon. Clearly the bodies were coming from that location as they were getting so thick the water was now almost more bodies then water.

Shore was not much better where many of the corpses had washed up. They tripped and stumbled over the beach of flesh, chasing off birds who screamed madly at them and rats who squeaked in frustration.

Kinomi felt sick thinking about how Grimmjow could be in a place like this, and possibly Nel to. She briefly wondered if this place had been here during Aizen’s reign or if another mutt had just raised its head from the ground when the big dog was gone to take his place.

They had just cleared the bodies and were staring up at the cliff face, contemplating on how they were going to get up there, when she caught movement out of the corner of her eyes.

She twirled around to face the movement, hands going to her blades and Kyattsuai hissing in agitation in her mind.

“What is it?” Taka asked, her own blade already drawn.

“I thought I saw something move.” Kinomi answered, scanning the sea of corpses before them.

“A bird?” Galgo asked?

“No, it was bigger.” Kinomi answered.

A long moan starting from somewhere in the distance drifted past them in a wave of noise. The others had their blades drawn now to, backs against the cliff wall. All eight pairs of eyes popped open wide when the sea of corpses shifted.

Slowly they began to rise, empty eye sockets turned to face them and a wave of water erupted before them, Inside the pillar Kinomi spotted the tell tale shadow of a figure.

“This would be Akumizu I take it.” Zan commented.

The others didn’t comment as the corpses began to shuffle towards them. They stood in a defensive line just like they had trained and been training to do. Kinomi shared a look with Taka, and with wide grins the two of them dove into the fray, their blades slicing and dicing.

Slicing heads off seemed to have little effect, but slicing open their stomachs seemed to work as water came gushing out of the corpses with a putrid ranking smell. Like wise Leon seemed to be having good results with lightning, as his weapon was a staff and not that great at slicing things. Reina was quick to join him, not wanting to get near the things.

They were so busy fighting the hoard of Zombies that they failed to notice the beeping of the radar.

A serge in ‘tera’s power was all the warning Kinomi got as the blade flashed its reiatsu out to cushion the blow coming from one of Akutuschi’s scythes. Kinomi didn’t have time to wonder at the strange behavior from ’tera as the scythe that came down upon her missed impaling her shoulder but did put a nice gash down her shoulder blade.

“Release.” Kinomi shouted.

It was a good thing Barbo was quick because a wall of fire was coming down at them before she even finished the command, only to be intercepted by a wall of water from Barbo.

The flames were quickly fanned up again as a large wind was picked up as Akukaze made himself known. Behind that came a beam of light. Kinomi was no longer able to concentrate on how the others were doing as she parried Akutsuchi’s strikes while dodging zombies.

The space was far too cramped to be fighting on this small beach. Trusting that the others would be able to take care of themselves, for they had no choice at this point, she leaped at the cliff face and climbed it, a hissing Akutsuchi following her.


Leon took to the sky, leaving the zombie horde below him as he let his gaze be drawn to the being made more or less of pure light. They had all read the file of info on the former espada and if the core of each of these beings were one, then he would need to learn which one this one was quickly to find the gem.

With his eyes shut to block the blinding light, he charged in, trusting the years he had spent training under the Shihoin house to guide him as he used his reiatsu and ears to judge his opponents moves and location.

He wasn’t sure why but his opponent felt stronger this time. He had to learn which Espada this had been quickly and destroy the gem before the fight got dragged out too long.

He quickly reviewed the data he had, figuring the begins had to be from the bottom seven in the least and they knew Grimmjow was most definitely not one of them. He quickly ran down the ranks and names.

Ulquiorra? Very unlikely. Nnoitra was Akutsuchi. Zommari? Possibly. Szayal was Akukaze. Aaroniero was possible as well. He had a feeling Yami was Akuho judging by the shear size of the beings core.

So it was either Zommari or Aaroniero. He quickly ran through what was known about the two and looked down to the hordes of Zombies. Yeah. Akumizu was probably Aaroneiro which meant this guy was probably Zommari.

Confident he had figure out the true identity of his opponent, Leon quickly made it his focus to get to where the Gem had to be if this was indeed Zommari. As if sensing the danger the creature upped the game, and it was all Leon could do to block the strikes being made against him.

Yes, this one was definitely stronger then the one they had fought the day before. It was either a stronger copy, because they were closer to the source, or because this was the original.


Taka flew quickly away from the others, molted brown wings pumping furiously as she flew to the side of the island, Akukaze on her tail. Azucena was more or less silent in her mind, but data flew past the eye piece.

Once she was a safe distance away she turned about the face her opponent. Now that she knew the beings core was Szayel she knew where the controlling gem was. All she had to do was get to it.

She couldn’t risk using another Gran Ray Cero to blast him to bits like she had before as it would drain too much of her energy. She wasn’t expecting much result, but she fired her Acero Pluma at him anyway, not at all surprised when the feather blades were whipped away by the creatures hurricane.

Then she was dodging as Akukaze shot a blast of air her way. Her eye piece caught the movement of the air and she dodged easily.

“Azucena, scan for weaknesses.” She commanded.

“Yes, Neesan.” Azucena’s voice came to her.

Taka ignored the data streaming past her eye, leaving Azucena to sort through it. With a wide grin Taka dove in, a regular Cero leading the way. Alone, with just the two of them, she could go full out without worry of hitting or harming her friends.

She felt her blood rise and a wild grin, that would greatly please Kenpachi-taichou, lighted up her face at the thought of the coming fight with a strong opponent.

This was the moment she had been waiting for. This was far better then getting to spar with some Adjucas. This was a former Espada and by the data Azucena shared with her she had a feeling this one was far stronger then the one they had fought out on the field. No this one felt like the original and was far stronger.


Having the strongest armor of them all, Zan faced off against Akuho. Like the others he had taken his opponent away from the starting area to give them space to fight so he could go full out without worry for the others. While Taka had gone to the west, he had gone to the east.

He dodged bolts of flames as they were shot at him, steam rissing from the water as it hit. Unlike Taka he didn’t bring his opponent up into the air, but rather stayed closer to the water in case he needed to put his clothing out or cool down.

Of course diving into the water could be just as bad as the zombies seemed to have the island surrounded and were reaching hungrily for him from the dark depth. He was hardly worried about them though as in his release form his heirro was far stronger then anything they could hope to get through.

He studied his opponent, noting the massive frame the core seemed to be composed off. If the theory was right and these were all former espada then only one fit the bill of such a massive frame.

“Yami?” Zan asked, though he truly was not expecting an answer.

The creature roared at him and flung out a fist, fire flying from it towards Zan.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Zan noted as he side stepped the blaze, steam rising from the water where it hit and incinerated several of the zombies.

Feeling confident on who his opponent was, Zan charged in, launching duel Sangre Inciso from his Katars and following behind the red slashes to strike at his target.

Akuho managed to dodge the twin strikes and even parry Zan’s attacks with his massive flame coasted fist. Fire liked at Zan’s heirro and he had to retreat quickly or risk getting badly burned.

The flames felt far hotter and Akuho seemed far stronger to be able to block him so easily this time. This was not going to be an easy fight, but then so far none of them had fought these things one on one yet and these incarnations seemed stronger.


Reina continued to fry the zombies, lightning flying in every direction. Out over the water Barbo was fighting Akumizu, water spraying in every which direction as the two of them vied for control over the element.

Galgo was also near by, slicing zombies apart with his wolf fang shaped zanpakuto. Getting a small break in the crowd Reina quickly held Tenkou before her while she had the chance.

“Celestial Anomestar, Tenkou.” She declared.

In a flash of light she reappeared in her red gown. Quickly pumping her white angelic wings she took to the sky, hovering over the horde. She glanced at all the fights going on, waves of reiatsu washing over her as her friends fought.

She had caught the wound Kinomi had taking and letting Galgo know where she was going, followed after Kinomi before the five minutes were up. Besides, so far she was the only one able to piece the thick heirro of the creature.

She caught up to them quickly, and stared at shock. Akutuschi no longer had two arms, but rather six and Kinomi was clearly hard pressed to keep herself alive, red lines appearing all over her body as the blades she failed to parry or dodge sliced her up.

Reina folded her wings and dove, Tenkou in its Shikai form before her, aiming for where she knew the gem to be. She folded her left wing and dodged to the side at the last second before impaling herself on the spear of earth that Akutsuchi blindly shot out of his body at her.

“Reina?” Kinomi panted, able to use Shunpo to get a bit of distance between herself and Akutsuchi.

Reina wasted no time reversing the damage Kinomi had taken. Kinomi wasted no time releasing her Bankai now that she had a second to breath.

“Find Grimmjow and Nel.” Reina ordered. “They are stronger. Mission first. Only you can find.”

This was combat and as such she shortened all the sentences to the bear minimal as they had agreed ages to do to save time when every second could count.

Kinomi made to open her mouth to argue, but stopped. With ‘tera to lead the way only she could really find Grimmjow, and pray that Nel was close by.

“Will you be alright?” Kinomi asked.

“Yes. These appear original. Request full release.”

“Granted.” Kinomi authorized, following it up with four short burst of her reiatsu to let the others know they had permission to fully release.

“Thank you.” Reina thanks

Holding Tenkou out before her with the blade pointed at Akutsuchi, Reina spoke one word as Kinomi moved away, following ‘tera’s trail toward Grimmjow.


“About time.” Zan panted as he hovered in the air, his clothing singed and soaking wet form having put the flames out.

Grinning with relief he bit his thumb to draw blood, and then pulled up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a tattoo of twin moons facing each other on his left fore arm.

“Kai.” He called out, running his thumb between the duel moons, leaving a trial of his own blood.


“Took her long enough.” Taka grumbled, Azucena agreeing with her as Kinomi’s pulse flowed over them.

Following Zan’s example she bit her thumb and drew a line of blood down the centre of her tattoo showing a falcon in full flight.

“Kai.” She shouted.


Leon picked himself up from the ground as Kinomi’s reiatsu washed over him.

“Thank god.” He grumbled.

He ran his blood down the tattoo of a lion.


Galgo just sighed as Kinomi’s reiatsu washed over him.

“Good. This was getting difficult with just me.” He noted, looking at the horde of zombies he was keeping occupied.

Out over the water he noticed Barbo stiffen and the two of them shared a quick look before holding their blades before them like Reina had done.

“Bankai.” Both boys declared at the same time.

“Ginkiri Namazu.”

Barbo’s blade disappeared and a thick mist surrounded the boy, getting more dense as the second passed. The mist surrounded the horde of Zombies, shortly before it sliced into them as if made from millions of sharp razors, slicing them to ribbons but leaving Galgo unharmed.

“Sameru Garou.”

Galgo’s blade also disappeared, but that was fine as he was suddenly no longer standing on his own two feet, in fact he was at least six feet off the ground now.

“About time.” Garou growled as the large grey wolf shifted restlessly beneath him, wearing full battle armor and as large as a work horse. “This place smells bad.” The wolf complained.

Ignoring the comment Galgo drew one of the two katanas, similar to his Zanpakuto’s sealed form, sheathed across Garou’s shoulder blades.

“What is our prey?” Garou asked with a snarl, red droplets of acid dripping from his mouth that melted even the sand as it landed.

“Akumizu.” Galgo answered calmly.

With a howl to the heavens, Garou charged into battle as Barbo and Galgo switched out their opponents. Garou charged over the water as if it was land, running easily on the air as grey flames erupted around his paws.

The thick white mist that was Barbo’s Bankai flooded over the large field, leaving nothing but ribbons of the zombies as he headed towards where Zan and Akuho were fighting.


Reina may have been the weakest of the fighters physically other then Azucena, but then getting dirty was not how she preferred to do things. She was relatively safe up in the air for the creature seemed to have lost the power to walk on air, not doubt due to its lack of reiatsu.

She always found it amusing how she was not the only one with both powers, as Zan and her half brother could also wield both sets, but the only one to have a Resurrección and achieve Bankai.

Tenkou was no longer a sword. In fact it was more like a pitch forked shaped Glaive with the two outer tines appearing as wings. Like its shikai form, Jikuu Tenkou could still cut through anything.

She was not one to play with her prey and she grew weary of the pitiful land locked creature below her who was trying in vain to impale her with spears made from his body. When that didn’t work he tried shooting mud bullets at her, which were sickly easy to dodge.

There were others who would need her help so she decided to end this right here and now before it got tedious or before Akutsuchi actually found a way to get to her or lost interest in her and went after Kinomi again.

She pointed Tenkou down at Akutsuchi, who hissed in fury at her and even tossed two of his scythes up at her, causing her to roll to the side to avoid them and noticing only at the last moment that chains of earth connected the blades to the creature.

She felt the scythe rip through her wing, severing it from her body, ripping out a scream of pure agony as she started to drop to the ground, Akutsuchi rushing eagerly forward to where she would approximately land.

“Regresar.” She managed to pant out.

The pain disappeared and her wing reappeared as if it had never been sliced off. The creature howled in rage and pulled its arms back to throw the scythes again. Reina would not give him a second chance.

“Heki Tengai.” She shouted.

Three bolts of light shot forth from the three points of Tenkou, shooting towards Akutsuchi and piercing right through him to the ground and possibly right through the world like a hot knife through soft butter.

Akutsuchi roared in agony and thrashed about. Reina cursed herself for missing the gem. She wasn’t giving a second chance as the creature disappeared back into the earth. Unlike Taka she had no way of tracking it.

Turning away from where the being had been she quickly checked on everyone’s reiatsu and where they were before she moved towards Taka.

Despite Zan’s release of power Akuho’s power was still overwhelming as the creature turned up the heat some more to the point Zan could not get close because the raging inferno was chewing up all the oxygen and even with his strong heirro the heat was enough to cook him alive

For some strange sick reason Zan couldn’t help but to compare himself to a crab in a pot of boiling water where the hard shell that would protect him from any physical attack did little against the heat roasting him alive until his shell turned red and he was ready to be dipped in butter.

Mist began to form around him and he rubbed his eyes only twice before realizing his vision was fine and turning to where Barbo was calmly walking up to him. With a nod to the older boy he stepped back.

Barbo’s water type Zanpakuto was far more adapt at handling this being of fire, more so now that he had been permitted to release his Bankai and had an entire lake of water to draw upon, unlike when they had fought in the middle of the desert.

“Want any help or you got this?” Zan asked.

“I will be fine.” Barbo answered.

With a nod and a grin Zan retreated for where Leon was fighting. After all Zan was the only other one trained in blind fighting and with a being that annoyingly bright it was a definite advantage.


Water may have been a neutralizing agent, and Akumizu did have an entire lake the size of an inland sea to call upon, but all of it failed at the pure strength of Garou’s acid. Spires of water shot at them, but the giant wolf easily dodged them as they raced towards the blob of water with its humanoid core.

Garou didn’t hesitate for a second as he plunged into the watery body, his fangs snapping shut around the head of Akumizu’s core. There was a duel screech that probably would have been deafening if it hadn’t been muffled by the water.

Garou shock his head back and forth, shaking the core body like a rag doll. Unfortunately Galgo and Garou both needed to breath, and Garou was forced to relinquish his prey to get them out of the water for a breath of oxygen.

Regardless, Akumizu apparently had enough and the blob disappeared into the water, the remaining corpses that hadn’t been butchered by Barbo’s bankai stilled and returned to being dead.

Galgo hung on as Garou shook himself vigorously to get the water out of his fur before trotting back to shore, snorting at the rancid smell of the dead bodies and putrid water now stuck to his fur.


Taka smiled in victory as Akukaze roared in agony and surrounded himself in a swirling vortex of wind. Raptors were the masters of the sky and air currents and could read them as easy as a fish could read the ocean’s currents.

There had been a small slip stream between his attacks and Taka had dived into it, her blade slicing just shy of the gem as the winds that surrounded his body had managed to push her blade just off its course.

As the wind settled Akukaze was gone, no doubt running away with its tail tucked firmly between its legs. Taka turned to face Reina as the other woman arrived. Seeing the fight over the two of them headed back to where the fight had began, sensing Galgo was already there.

Barbo didn’t even waste any time as he summoned up a shield of thick mist to protect him from the strikes Akuho was attempting to throw at him. Safe inside the bubble of cool mist be began to gather as much water as he could, calling it to him and bending it to his will.

When he was sure he had enough he sent it cascading down upon Akuho, who’s flames were instantly snuffed as he was positively drenched in water. Screaming as if in true agony at the fire being put out Barbo got a good look at his target.

He wasn’t fast enough to destroy the gem however as the creature burst into flames and disappeared. Frowning in annoyance he headed back to where everyone was gathering.

So many years of training together with extremely sharp senses let Zan and Leon know precisely where the other was and what they were doing. They did not need eye sight for that.

So it was with greet glee that Leon maneuvered Akuawai into position to fully take the strike Zan had prepared. Akuawai screamed shortly before collapsing dead, Zan’s tri-bladed katars shoved through his chest.

Leon caught the body of the dark skinned, former espada, bringing it with them as they met up with the others, everyone accounted for except for Kinomi.

Using Taka as a sort of medium for they dared not drop their powers yet, Azucena confirmed that the corpse was just another doll. So either the creatures were getting stronger because they were closer to the source of their existence, or because their enemy had found a way to make the clones stronger. Either was not a good sign.


Kinomi smiled as she felt her friends raised reiatsu wash over her as they fully released, something only done when they were training in the safety of the S.T.C. The limiters had been placed on Leon, Zan and Taka to help hide their true power from the public, and also so they wouldn’t hurt the souls of humans during their missions to the living world.

Reina had been the first behind her to achieve Bankai and Kinomi attributed it to the fact Tenkou was as much Reina’s sealed power as it was her inner spirit and thus had a much deeper connection to her blade then the rest of them.

Barbo got his last year as far as Kinomi knew and Galgo his only six months ago. As such their forms were still no where near as powerful as they would be someday and they couldn‘t hold them for long, but she was confident it would be enough to fight these weakened creatures.

Concentrating on ‘tera’s pull, Kinomi raced towards the castle, holding onto her Bankai form. There was still the master of those creatures after all, and truthfully she was expecting one more, no matter how impossible it may seem.

“Fire, water, earth, air and light. Only one element is missing.” She noted. “That and the master of these creatures.”

She felt Kyattsuai agree with her and ‘tera pulsed warmly against her. Kinomi landed in the main courtyard and spotted only one door leading into the fortress carved from the rock.

She still could not feel any reiatsu but her friends and had to trust in ‘tera that Grimmjow was here. Moving towards the door she stopped at the last second as a blast of pure darkness fell before her.

“That would be Akuyami.” She guessed correctly as a creature made from pure darkness descended towards her.

It seemed to have four wings, small horns on its head, and a rather long tail that whipped around behind it with a small blade attached to it. Even had the creature not been shrouded in darkness she would have recognized the description and wondered how it was even possible giving that this being was suppose to have disintegrated upon death with three very reliable witnesses.

A much as Kinomi usually loved a good, strong, challenging fight, she wondered if she even had the power to fight this being despite the fact being changed seemed to weaken them.

“Kyattusai. ‘tera. Please lend me all the strength you have. We are going to need it.” Kinomi silently requested of the two blades.

She was very grateful at this moment in time that Reina had healed her for she was going to need every ounce of her abilities to defeat the former 4th.

Stay Tuned for Chapter 18: Defeat

Where not all battles are easily won and old acquaintances make an appearance.

As usual /love my reviews. Had to edit this chapter quickly since I was out and running off my battery so there might be a few errors.