mission 1D: melancholic moon (continued)

[Dizzy]

In the outskirts of Karakura Town, a senkaimon gate opens. The sliding doors come apart, bathing the scene in a vibrant white light that – while illuminating all that it shines upon, casts dark and sinister shadows as well. Black-robed figures step out of it, strangers to this land who are not necessarily welcome here. They seem cautious and watchful, almost as if they’re searching for something.

They have arrived on a dirt path between a forest and the town itself, currently empty. It is evening here in Karakura, only minutes before sunset. Although it is still light out, that light is fleeting, like a dying candle. Birds twittering in the twilight, are the only sound to be heard. The ground is grassy, the air clear and refreshing. This place has a definite aura of peace around it.

There are a variety of trees in the forest – oak, elm, birch, and plenty more, the vast majority being deciduous, the loss of their coats in the winter begetting beautiful foliage in the warmer seasons. They are enormous and flourishing, great monoliths reaching up to the heavens. The forest is compact and dense – trees and other plant growths cover almost the entire area, leaving only a few clearings in the thick of it.

If one inspects the forest closer, they will find that a few of the trees have deep cuts and char marks on their trunks, and a few have even lost branches, some that had been cleanly sliced off, and some that were snapped off more messily. The deeper one looks, the more damage there is. Even further within the forest, a single stain of blood is still fresh.

The double doors slide shut, its otherworldly light banished from this plane. Slowly, the gateway itself disappears as well, the last sign of home fading away. Elsewhere, observers lurk, their interests piqued by this sudden arrival.

[Shdo]

Ezzo stepped into the real world, the air was light, and everything felt light…there was little energy in the air. He looked around him, they were in a forest and the smell of charred wood was felt in the air.
Ezzo sniffed at the air and found what he looked for, "blood, there," he pointed into the depths of the woods, and others.

It troubled Ezzo, this was supposed to be a rescue but there was little blood, he expected more.

[DarkPulsar]

As Erin stepped through the gate and into Living World for the first time, she immediately noticed two things. The first was that the air, unlike in soul society, was not filled with reishii. She found the air to be distasteful, and felt a slight weakening of her power. The second thing she noticed was that her ability to sense reiatsu here would be virtually useless to her and everyone else until she had a good idea of what she was looking for. She instantly recognized a high level of spiritual activity in the surrounding town, and many people with noticeable reiatsu signatures. She wouldn't just be able to find the problem, lock onto it, and go from there.


Slightly discouraged, she turned to look out over the town. It was very pretty, the sunset basking the town in a light orange glow. Though she figured their destination lay in the dark forests behind her. Her thought's were confirmed when Ezzo mentioned that he smelled blood.


"Keen senses you have there, rather handy," she said to him. "I get the feeling we're going to be here awhile. This looks rather troublesome."

[Unicorn]

After Sayuri had sent the Hell Butterfly back to SS, she turned around to survey the place they were transported to. Having attended quite a few missions during her shinigami career, she adjusted quickly to the different atmosphere and cast her senses out to check the surroundings.

Eying the forest as carefully as she could in the deepening gloom, Sayuri noticed that a fight seemed to have recently occurred. Didn't Koichi mention missing shinigami, blocked reiatsu, and a search party?

Why was Erin complaining already? They just stepped through the gate!

Sayuri walked up to him, bowed slightly and spoke in a low whisper. "Sir, I need to inform you that I am supervising my 7th Seat. If we could be assigned together at all times, I would be very grateful."

[Shdo]

The first crack of sunlight paralyzed Ezzo as he allowed the sun to engulf him with her warmth. When he came back to his senses he peeked around him, looking for the spot where the sun hit first at the ground.

He went to that position and started to dig franticly with his bare hands, removing large amount of ground, and his tail flailing around behind him as his digging movement dictated while ignoring the rest of the team, his mind was focusing on one thing only, digging deep.

[Mystic Serenade]

As Mai walked out of the senkaimon she quickly took in her surroundings. Great...a forest, plenty of spots to get randomly jumped and ambushed.

She figured she might as well make the best of the situation and attempted to get into her researcher's mind set, but then she saw that the giant lizard thing stomped off and started digging at the ground. She couldn't help but point and laugh loudly at the sight.

[DarkPulsar]

Erin wanted to ignore Mai's reaction, she really did. But she couldn't. She tried her best to conceal a smirk as Mai laughed at the furiously digging Ezzo, but found it hard to do. She was secretly grateful for the comedic interlude, the laughter easing some of the tension she'd been feeling.


Taking a moment to refocus herself, she glanced over at Koichi.


"So where do we go from here?"

[Dizzy]

The shinigami have it confirmed through their headsets that the forest in front of them was the last place where the missing team’s reiatsu signatures had been detected. Surveying the forest, Koichi makes his decision on their first foray into the wilderness.

Alright, that means there's no use in going into the city. Helps narrow things down a lot.

“We’ll split up into four groups of two to find them,” he declares, “and then use the plan I said back in Soul Society.”

He snatches up his list from his hakama pocket and contemplates his choices, keeping his punishment pairing in mind, and decides how it will work. “Alright,” he finally says, “Maine, you go with Himura. I’ll take Hiyashiwa. Miyazaki, why don’t you go with Kotone?”

Now he pauses for effect, smiling out of scathing amusement. “And I suppose that leaves Hanazuki and Coatl together,” he finishes casually, folding the scrap of paper back in half and replacing it in his pocket.

[Mystic Serenade]

Oh hell nah, he just didn't do that. And was that a smile on his face while he announced that? Someone was about to feel the hurt. Then again...Mai looked back and saw that the lizard was still digging his random hole.

"Aye aye captain," she said as she took to climbing a near by tree to go "scouting". She made sure to throw a few branches at the man's back once it was turned.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru landed gracefully on both feet upon exiting the senkaimon. He was glad that he'd thought to pull his hair up before leaving; it really would have just gotten in the way here. After an observing glance at his surroundings, he felt just a tad bit more comfortable. This was actually his first time outside of the Seiretei, and he merely hoped that it would go without incident.

The Third Seat noticed that Ezzo-san had already dettached from their group and was now furiously digging in the ground. "What is he doing...? No, on second thought, I really don't think I want to know...", Kaoru thought silently to himself. It was then that Hanazuki-san and Maine-san began laughing at the amusing sight of their comrad digging. He felt a small sweatdrop form on the side of his forehead. They were here to help the shinigami who had sent the distress signal, not to have fun and laugh.

But he calmly kept his silence as their acting leader, Koichi-san, began to pair them off into sets of two. He smiled and nodded his head as he was asked to partner up with Kotone-kun. "Of course." With that, he moved to stand beside the other boy, grateful that he hadn't ended up with any of the stranger or more troublesome members among them. It wasn't that he found them to be enduring. He was just more focused on the severity of the mission that they had all signed up for.

[Aoi Innocence]

Landing gracefully on the ground, Yukiko scanned the setting around her. The sun shined it's bright orange rays around the group of shinigami and the forest rustled slightly. The air was dense, very dense and gave off a light feeling. She looked mesmerized as she continued to gape at her surroundings. It was her first time in the Living World and everything looked beautiful but, they were on a mission. Yukiko suddenly slapped on a serious face as she heard her name being called. They were being split up into four groups of two and she was partnered with their leader. Slowly walking towards him, she continued to stared at the sunset.

'It looks...familiar.'

Stopping right by their leader's side, she shook her head and turned her attention to him. Then, a wave of reiatsu hit her like a ton of bricks. Different sources of reiatsu was scattered throughout the perimeter. Looking behind her, sh stared at the sunset once more before returning her attention back to the group.

[halfnhalf]

Through the blinding light...Kotone thought he was not only going to be deaf but that he would have to add being blind to his disability list as well. But before the light became unbearable, Kotone barreled through the gate and straight into the ground....perhaps he should have stepped though the gate. Kotone used his arm as leverage against the ground, and pushed himself up. The ground was much like the ground in the slums. Dirty and well....uncomfortable and ugly. Kotone got up to laugher and brushed himself off, only to get a chunk of dirt thrown at his face, by the digging of the lizard he couldn't understand.

Wiping the dirt off his face and side-stepping the next projectile of dirt, Kotone finally got a chance to observe the "real" aspects of the REAL world. It was not as the books he had read described. They told him of big buildings and ignorant people but nothing of the beautiful nature the world caressed and took care of. Suddenly three things overcame his senses. It hit Kotone like a brick, all at once...and pre-tty heavy too. First was the air, it felt like a slight suffocation, kinda like breathing through a small hole, bearable but uncomfortable. Given Kotone's 'heightened' sense of reiatsu...this probably hit him the worst out of the group. Second of the impact was the slight build of different reiatsu in the area. It was much less than any shinigami and thus was a shock to Kotone who could not determine the location or the person of whom the small reiatsu belonged. The third was the worst; Kotone felt the presence of death, not of the blood but of death that overpowered and filled the area in which he stood. It was a feeling Kotone had not felt since the time his parents were killed by the bandits who were experts in the art of death.

Quickly but painfully Kotone overcame the impacts and ignored some others. His first trip to the real world and it had.....well, frankly it sucked. Kotone only liked the nature that Soul Society had as well but in a much lesser quantity. Kotone's attention was diverted to the "leader" who parred him him up with Kaoru Miyazaki: a person Kotone had seen and chatted with before...but only breifly...now he might become friends.

"Hey Kaoru! were partners I see, I have your back and you have mine...I don't like fooling around so lets get to business and be the first ones to complete the mission." Kotone paused a second before continuing. "I have one favor to ask of you first Kaoru...could you relay the messages that you get on your headset?...my headset is not adapted to the hearing impaired" Kotone really liked Kaoru's priciples and presence however, he hoped that he would mind the little favor and dropping of the honorifics, that Kotone felt unconfortable to say because he never grew up with it.

(ooc: btw guys...if any of you don't know...Kotone is deaf. He can read lips but he can't hear Hell's butterly, audio sounds and Ezzo. He can read lips very well but only of humans....thats why he cant understand Ezzo....Shdo you know about that already...thanks for telling me)

[Shdo]

Ezzo didn’t listen to the order; he just kept doing his thing, digging in the ground to the depth of a meter or so. He then proceeded to cover the sides of the hole with leaves, opened his bag and placed a piece of meat in the middle of the hole.

With the preparations done he continued to place some items from the bag in the hole, keeping it out of sight of the rest of the shinigami. Some branches and some dirt back in place and the hole were covered.

When he finished he noticed that he was alone. There was an awkward silence.

[Unicorn]

Sayuri moved up to stand beside Erin.

"We're partnered together." She announced softly, with a sideways glance at the other girl.

"I am also meant to supervise you as this is your first mission. So please stay close to me, watch what I do and above all else, stay quiet. Do not draw unnecessary attention to yourself, is that clear?"

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru smiled at the other's enthusiasm. It was refreshing to see such energy and focus from another member of their group. He nodded once more as Kotone wanted them to be the first ones to complete the mission. But then there was a small pause before his partner continued speaking. "Ah, yes... He can't hear us, only read the words from our lips.", the Third Seat suddenly remembered that small detail. "Of course I will. If you need help with anything, anything at all, please ask me. I'll do whatever I can.", he said softly with another smile at the end.

"Now, which direction would you like to proceed in?" It wasn't that he was ignorant of the environment surrounding them. Basically, Kaoru couldn't sense the oppressive feeling in the air or the intense reiatsu signatures surrounding them, let alone feel the blood or death radiating through the area. He was, essentially, a babe in the woods, or something comparable to that. So, it was a very good thing that he'd been paired with young Kotone.

[DarkPulsar]

Sayuri moved up to stand beside Erin.

"We're partnered together." She announced softly, with a sideways glance at the other girl.

"I am also meant to supervise you as this is your first mission. So please stay close to me, watch what I do and above all else, stay quiet. Do not draw unnecessary attention to yourself, is that clear?"


"Yes sir," she said softly. She grabbed the hair tie she kept on her left wrist, and hastily threw her hair into a ponytail. No distractions. Don't want it getting in the way, she mused. She placed her headset onto her head, made sure her medical supply pack was properly fastened. Satisfied that she was ready, and remembering she was told to make as little noise as possible, she gave a brief nod to Sayuri, signaling that she was ready to go.

Time to get to work.

[Shdo]

"Where did that demon go to?" Ezzo sniffed at the air, looking for the cat scent, as if he could forget that stench…he followed the scent to a tree not too far away, whatever she did there wasn’t important, be it sleeping or scheming something…he draw his sword and with a swift strike cleaved the trunk, causing tree to come crushing down.

"I was looking for you…"

[Mystic Serenade]

Heh heh stupid lizard, whats it doing anyway. Too stupid looking to be a trap, he making his residence out here or something? she giggled. She continued to watch the lizard and couldn't help but continue to laugh. However she then noticed he drew his zanpakuto and pulled it back. "Oh shi..."

As the tree she was hiding in came crashing down, she jumped through the leaves and branches. The girl tumbled along the ground a few times before coming to a stop. "Looking for me eh, didn't have to cut down a fucking a tree to get me to come out dumbass," she yelled, once again wielding the almighty finger to punctuate her current statement at the lizard.

[Shdo]

"True, I didn’t have to…" he turned away, his tail overshooting her head by a slight distance.
He really hated cats.
After sheathing his blade he sniffed the air. "There is some blood in that direction, which is weird, I expected more blood in a rescue mission…something is wrong."

[Mystic Serenade]

"Eh who knows, maybe the hollow were really big and just ate everybody whole," she shuddered at the thought. "So what, you wanna go that way or something?"

[Shdo]

"To tell the truth, I don’t really care about the rescue, you mammals will die anyway so is it matter if it happens now or in 20 years? I am more interested in why there is no more blood."

Ezzo started to move towards that place, not looking back to see if the cat follows.

[halfnhalf]

Kotone looked at Kaoru returning that warm and caring smile. This was a good pairing, they both covered each others weaknesses and seemed to have the same respect for the wise and old. Kotone saw this mission not only as a mission obviously but as a race as well. A race in which, the winning team would boost not only their own reputation but of their devision as well. Kotone was glad Kaoru was his teammate, they knew each other although not very well but it was enough for them to bond on and complete the mission the fastest.

Kotone whispered to Kaoru, "Hey Kaoru, we ought to be smart. Let the teams leave and then we can investigate the area. If we don't find anything I have another lead, but investigation would be the best way about this." He looked at Kaoru knowing that he too shared the desire to complete the mission and could be serious about it too.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru leaned his head in just a tad bit closer as his mission partner began to whisper something to him. He ran the strategy through in his mind and nodded. The two of them would wait until all of the other pairs had departed to search their own independent areas. Then they could follow Kotone's lead and hopefully turn up something. It truly was a race against time, since shinigami lives hung in the balance. The Third seat lowered his voice as well. "All right.", he agreed.

[Unicorn]

Sayuri nodded shortly to the noisy pair of shinigami (Ezzo and Mai) playing amongst the trees.

"Although their behaviour may be unauthorised, they will possibly draw out anyone who's waiting to ambush us." She continued talking to Erin in a soft voice.

"Which means they might be the first ones to get injured. So keep an eye on them. Also keep an eye on your surroundings. Someone might be quietly watching us too."

[Dizzy]

Koichi nodded at Hiyashiwa, who seemed about ready to go. He felt kind of guilty for picking the one who seemed like she'd be the most professional, barring the ones who were assigned together or had to be punished, but she was also the lowest-ranked, so he supposed it evened out.

He tried his best to ignored the Hanazuki/Coatl team of doom, who were either throwing things at him behind his back or randomly digging holes and felling trees. Apart from the urgency of the missing shinigami's situation, he wanted to move fast just to be away from them.

"Right," he said, starting to draw up a plan of action. "Since the last place where the shinigami's reiatsu could be detected was in the midst of the forest, it'd probably be a good idea to look in there first. If the reason for their reiatsu to disappear was injury, they definitely couldn't have gone far."

Taking a few steps closer to the trees, he noticed the telltale signs of sword damage. "We ought to start by following these," he murmured, walking deeper into the wood and gesturing for his partner to follow.

[Mystic Serenade]

"Uh sure, whatever you say lizard man," she said to his reply. Nutjob...

She followed at a distance, she didn't like the lizard, but he was seemed strong enough to deal with anything that possibly that could have gotten in their way and also the more tasty looking of the two. Her ears perked up at the sound of other voices mentioning her and the lizard being the most rowdy and first to get jumped. I hate 4th division...

[DarkPulsar]

Erin nodded, taking note to keep careful track of the reiatsu signatures of Mai and Ezzo. She kneeled to the ground, checking the immediate area for any sign of footprints. Seeing nothing noticeable, she stood back up, listening for any sign of movement, her eyes scanning the trees. As expected, she saw or heard nothing that gave anyone away. If the guilty party was waiting in ambush in the immediate area, they were waiting for the group of shinigami to split up before they showed themselves.


"Shall we be off?" she whispered quietly to Sayuri.

[Shdo]

They reached the depth of the forest; Ezzo kneeled at the ground and touched a little pool of blood, "two hours maximum… this is all the blood there is…" he turned to the cat.

"The enemy is good in hiding and good in concealing its prey, we can only go into his trap and kill it or make our own trap and try to bait him…what do you prefer?"

[Aoi Innocence]

Feeling a sweatdrop fall from the back of her head, Yukiko ignored the strange animal-like shinigamis and listened to her partnered. Nodding her head to signal Koichi that she understood, she followed right behind him as he pointed towards damaged on nearby trees and gestured her to follow him. Walking right behind him, she canned the forest area to see little but noticeable damage.

'Most likely done by a sword.'

Looking ahead, she can still feel the other's reiatsu and more foreign one's that were spread about the perimeter. She glanced up at the top of trees for any clues if she could find and looked towards the bottom. Shaking her head, she continued to follow Koichi as they made their way towards the midst of the forest.

'For some reason, I have a bad feeling that just won't go away. Shinigami disappearing in the middle of the forest while facing hollows. Then an alert sent to Soul Society. Something doesn't feel right. Maybe..... She shook her head and frowned slightly.

[Mystic Serenade]

Mai thought about the options in her head. Meet unknown enemy in unknown trap and have a high chance of dying. Or creating a trap to try and lure the enemy in that might not even come or if it does they can assess the situation and run away if necessary. Yep definitely not much of a choice.

"I say we make our own trap and try to lure it in," she nodded.

[Dizzy]

Koichi walked briskly, alert and ready for any ambushes that would come. They were now isolated from the others but for their headsets, which although at first thought a blessing, made them considerably more vulnerable. He's have to trust Hiyashiwa to watch his back.

He walked deeper into the forest, occasionally pausing to inspect a particularly nasty cut in a tree that wouldn't have been from a zanpakuto, but finding no clue as to the whereabouts of the missing team, or even whatever caused their reiatsu signals to disappear.

Strange ... what could've done all this damage and yet left so stealthily? It doesn't make any sense ...

He turned back to his partner. "Hiyashiwa-san, do you have any guesses as to what might've happened? I'm completely stumped by this one."

[OOC: Feel free to have your characters find footprints or something and then follow them into the forest.]

[Unicorn]

@ Dizzy - query. Is there anything in the forest that we should start sensing? Or a total reiatsu blank?

...

"Shall we be off?" she whispered quietly to Sayuri.[/FONT]

Sayuri nodded in response. "After you, please."

Walking behind the other girl would allow her to watch how she acted during missions, as well as covering her back if necessary.

They slowly followed a trail that led them deeper into the forest. Along the way, several trees still oozed sap from major damage. Shikai ability? Something else?

Sayuri cautiously looked about and down, trying to get a sense of what may have happened or what may still be there.

[Aoi Innocence]

" Without any clues or leads, I'm just as lost as you. Though I do have a feeling."

Her eyes scanned the area, looking from the nasty scars on the tress to the slightly grass on the ground. Blood, cover the green patches. Sighing, something caught her eyes. Maybe she was just imagining things but, something shiny caught her eyes.

"Reiatsu signals disappeared and their bodies are nowhere to be found. Could somebody dropped their mobile?" making her way slowly she stopped and looked back to Koichi. She waited for him to give her the okay sign before picking up or inspecting the strange object. Who knows, it may could've been a trap.

[Shdo]

"So the question is what bait we make? Do you go around and play injured, hoping that the enemy like females as snack while I borrow myself? Or do you go on a tree and I challenge the enemy head on with some provocative moves?"

Either way, Ezzo pulled a small jar with paint and started to paint his face with bright red and with stripes. "War symbols."

[Dizzy]

At hearing this, Koichi perked up immediately from the burn mark he's been looking at. This had big implications; all sorts of clues could be derived from it.

Somebody dropped their mobile? Impossible, that'd still be detectable by Soul Society's radar! What on Earth -

He scrambled over to get a better view, and got his hopes deflated as soon as he had a look. Most of the phone was in bad condition, but most telling of all was the fact that the antenna had been snapped off.

"Damn it," he cursed, "it's broken."

Peering at it again, he pondered something. "Good find though - if we turn it on, we can find out which shinigami it belonged to and whether he was part of the missing team."

[DarkPulsar]

Erin walked slightly ahead of Sayuri, ears sharp, and eyes focused, on constant alert for any sign of trouble. She walked slowly, deliberately, careful that she did not set off any would be traps. (Thanks for that, Ezzo,) she mused. (At least if I get caught in some enemy trap, it won't be from carelessness.) She paused, trying to remember the mission briefing. She took out her notepad, forcing some kidou to the tip of her index finger to give her enough light to read it.


(This group was ambushed. The entire team's reiatsu disappeared at the same time? Somehow, whatever happened, someone knew exactly where the group would be, and when they would be there. An inside job?)


"I don't like this," Erin whispered to Sayuri. "The missing squad's reiatsu signatures all vanished at once, right? It'd make sense if they'd been killed, they were clearly overpowered. But someone let them send out a distress signal? It just doesn't make sense...it's like they wanted reinfocements to come. I think we're walking into a trap."

[Mystic Serenade]

"Uh heh, nice," she laughed nervously. "How about the second option," she said as she climbed up a tree. "Alright do your thing then lizard man," she yelled down.

[Aoi Innocence]

Staring at the phone that was in poor condition, she took the phone into her hands. Pushing the button that would make the phone turn on, Yukiko stared in thought. If she recalled, the whole group disappeared...at the same time no less. A simple task of dispersing hollows was a walk in the park but, why did they vanished. They were most likely killed from the way blood was splattered on the ground. The question is...how were they killed by measly hollows? Another enemy didn't appear if so, they would most likely have their reiatsu on the radar. The only reiatsu that was out here was theirs and the hollows. So how were they killed?

Bright light flashed before her pupils as the mobile phone turned on. She parted her lips slightly.

"Unless there was a traitor." She whispered.

[Shdo]

"Hissssss, always fearing death…" he said to himself as the cat climbed the tree.
He then proceeds to take off the upper part of his cloths, revealing a massive torso covered with hard scales that resembled plate armor. He continued to paint his torso as well in exotic colors, making sure that he will be visible. With this he draws his blade and cut into his flesh, releasing a sigh as the blade barely pierced the skin.
With some blood dripping he proceeded to walk into the forest, and then he started.

Whatever language it was no one knew, it was too old, it sounded harsh and insulting in tune and loud.
He then dropped on all fours with his tail swinging behind him, from head to tail it was almost 5 meters, and then he stopped and stayed silent, took a big breath and released a roar.
As the jaw opened wide as possible, a head could have fit there with room to spare between the rows of small daggers. The roar itself was powerful enough to cause a little shockwave around Ezzo, pushing a single circle of dust outward.
It could have been heard across forest, the challenge was presented.

There was little reason to drag this, the enemy knew they were here all along, walking in the forest for hours without end will result with the same ending, ambush.
"lets get done with this...come..."

[Unicorn]

She took out her notepad, forcing some kidou to the tip of her index finger to give her enough light to read it.

(This group was ambushed. The entire team's reiatsu disappeared at the same time? Somehow, whatever happened, someone knew exactly where the group would be, and when they would be there. An inside job?)

Sayuri peered over the girl's shoulder and read the note. "Was that the mission briefing or your thoughts?" She asked in an almost-whisper.

"I don't like this," Erin whispered to Sayuri. "The missing squad's reiatsu signatures all vanished at once, right? It'd make sense if they'd been killed, they were clearly overpowered. But someone let them send out a distress signal? It just doesn't make sense...it's like they wanted reinfocements to come. I think we're walking into a trap."

Sayuri nodded thoughtfully. It was similar to her own thoughts regarding a trap. The area was too quiet and clean despite the fresh signs of fighting around them.

"I'm going to check in." She whispered, then flicked the switch on her communications headset.

Only to hear a fearsome roar echo through the trees. Sayuri quickly sensed which direction it came from - seemed to be the lizard shingami.

"Sir! Himura Sayuri and Erin Maine reporting in. Doesn't sound like the lizard shinigami is in pain. Should we stay or meet up?" Sayuri reported over her headset.

[DarkPulsar]

Sayuri peered over the girl's shoulder and read the note. "Was that the mission briefing or your thoughts?" She asked in an almost-whisper.


"Just my own thoughts," she whispered. "I like to write things down so that I can focus my mind elsewhere and come back to things later," she managed to say just before she heard the enormous roar.


Erin kneeled down, using the light emanating from her fingertip to scan the ground for any signs of missing equipment, while waiting for Sayuri to get a response.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru moved into the dense and desicrated woods, observing and taking mental notes on all of the signs of battle that were present. Several trees had deep gashes scored into their bark, some were missing branches. In many places, the earth had been upheaved, different from how Ezzo-san had dug his hole. But the lack of blood and other gore was almost... disturbing. However, there were no vital clues and no signs of where the surviving shinigami were.

All of this made the Third Seat increasingly nervous. So much so that he reached for the fan tucked away into his obi. When Hanamaru rested securely in his grip, he moved further into the damaged woods. It was at this point that Ezzo-san let loose a horrendous howl which easily made Kaoru jump just a little bit. He found himself envying Kotone's disability for a few moments as his racing heart slowed to a normal pace. The other gave him a questioning look.

"Oh... Gomen ne. Ezzo-san just roared, and it startled me. So... Have you found anything over here?"

[Mystic Serenade]

As if to answer Ezzo's call, a large wolf like creature jumped forth from the trees and slammed it's arms down into earth, causing a minor earthquake effect for meters around. It opened its jaw and let out a bestial yell, a few trails of saliva flinging outward from its mouth and stared Ezzo straight in the eyes.

(Lil reference pic for you, not shown, but picture nice clawed hands too)
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3793/beastform1je1.png
=================================================

A figured flashed in front of Koichi, too quick for him to notice before it was too late. Though it's eyes were covered by its helmet made of bone, it appeared to stare him straight in the eyes as it lifted him up by the collar of his uniform. "Been a while since I played with any shinigami, show me your strength," it said as it sent a swift fist into his face.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/386/arrancar1zi7.png

(OCC: Just for reference, you can probably guess who these two are, but at the moment they're only releasing their strength in an amount so they feel like their power level is at 3500, so unless you really want to, you're probably not being crushed by their reiatsu.)

[Dizzy]

... A traitor?

Koichi paused to think about this one. It was surprisingly plausible, considering the facts. Even though it didn't explain much, it did fit a few pieces of the puzzle, though it still didn't explain that much. But he still had one reason to dismiss that argument.

"I'm not too sure of that," he said uncertainly. "This team has been here together for an entire month, and all but one are from the 10th Division, so they're pretty close. The one member who probably didn't know the others too well is ... "

He peeked at the lit screen of the mobile phone and inhaled sharply before reading off the name that appeared on it. "Saharu Hanaka, 8th Seat of 5th Division. If you're right, we might just have our culprit here."

But it still doesn't explain how there can be so little blood, or why they're reiatsu signals disappeared. Or even why we've followed the damage for so long and still haven't found anything.

Suddenly, the lizard-man let loose an earsplitting roar. Himura reported as much over the headset, wondering aloud if it required their attention. Koichi was only a split second removed from answering when a fist suddenly planted itself in the side of his head from out of nowhere.

For just a moment it felt his skull was being crushed in, and then he was sent spiraling through the air like a football, smashing right through the branches of a tree in a mess of bark and leaves, and slamming headfirst into a tree trunk. The man crumpled like a sack of potatoes, a crimson stain coating the left side of his face.

He was also out cold.

[Unicorn]

ooc: I will have Sayuri eavesdrop on what's happening in Koichi's corner of the world, unless the headset is completely broken.

...

Sayuri's eyes widened in alarm as, instead of a response to her question, she heard the unmistakable crashing sound of a body hitting something.

"Sir?" She whispered, as the headset buzzed forlornly. There was no response. She swung back to Erin.

"Something's happened. We will go meet the others now. Can you shyunpo?"

[Aoi Innocence]

"Koichi-san!" She ran over to him to check his condition. Placing a palm on his forehead, she could tell he was out cold. Withdrawing her hand, that was now smeared in blood. She drew her za-panktou out, ready for the surprise attacks. Reporting over the headset, she quickly spoke through it.

"Himura-san, Koichi-san is now unconscious but is still breathing. We currently under attack. Please send any of the shinigamis to our location quickly!" Her eyes scanned the area, daring the enemy to make a move.

[DarkPulsar]

Erin bit her lower lip, shaking her head.

"I'm afraid not, sir. Perhaps you should go on ahead, and I can catch up with you?" she said nervously, not really wanting to be by herself. It may be the best option though. She didn't want to be the reason anyone died or suffered heavy injuries just because she wasn't fast enough to keep up.

[Shdo]

"They are here," Ezzo pressed his headset, "wolf thing, seemed like hollow but I don’t see a hole, Ezzo out," he threw his headset aside.

Ezzo started with the offensive, grabbing his sword and cutting down a tree only to hurl the trunk at the wolf in great speed followed by a charge and a high strike from his blade.

[Unicorn]

Can't shyunpo. Sayuri didn't have time to express her frustration at being forced to supervise a complete newbie whilst ensuring her group's well-being.

Her headset crackled again.
"Himura-san, Koichi-san is now unconscious but is still breathing. We currently under attack. Please send any of the shinigamis to our location quickly!"

"Understood, Hiyashiwa-san. On our way." Sayuri replied briskly. "What is the situation, how many attackers, who else is nearby?"

Whilst talking, she cast her senses out to locate Hiyashiwa's exact location. Then Sayuri turned, grabbed Erin's elbow, and shyunpo'd off.

add: the headset crackled again with Coatl's distinctive voice advising of a wolf-like attacker.

[DarkPulsar]

When they arrived on the scene, Erin decided not to hesitate and ask for instructions first, taking matters into her own hands. Figuring that Himura would tell her to tend to Koichi, she quickly moved over to the motionless shinigami, checking his breathing and pulse. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, she reached into her medical supply pack, grabbing a small towel, peroxide, and some bandages with which to dress the wounds. It would have been more efficient to use kidou to simply close the wound, but she still hadn't learned any, and had to rely on more traditional methods. Luckily for her, that would be plenty sufficient in the current situation.

"Well, I'm fairly certain he's concussed," she muttered to nobody in particular. "Looks like maybe a broken jaw too."

She poured a liberal amount of peroxide onto the towel. (Good thing you're unconscious, 'cause I sure wouldn't want to be awake for this if I were you,) she thought inwardly. Dabbing the towel over the cut, she was careful to very thoroughly clean the wound. There was no telling how long they'd be in the living world, and she really didn't want to risk infection. That done, she reached into her bag, finding a numbing agent for the jaw. It wouldn't do much in the long run, but it'd sure beat the initial searing pain.

Satisfied with her work, she quickly grabbed the bandages, dressing the wound. It'd probably be faster if Sayuri finished the job with kidou when the threat was over, but Erin left Koichi in far better shape than he'd been in when they arrived. She turned, her eyes watching Himura and Hiyashiwa, wondering if there was anything she could do to help them.

[halfnhalf]

Kotone looked at his surroundings. While Kaoru investigated the signs of battle, Kotone was trying to put all the clues together. The gashes in the trees, the missing branches and the weird displacement of the ground confused Kotone. Could they be just signs of struggle? If so then we could learn about our enemy's weapons.

After just briefly inspecting the clues that Kaoru would inspect further, Kotone tried to piece everything together. He started out with the gashes in the trees. Now this was a sign of a struggle, a fight....it was pretty obvious and what you would expect in a fight against a hollow or another enemy. However the gashes seemed too....well placed....like they had been either deliberately placed there by the enemy for a trap or perhaps the enemy was very organized and had planned each attack in a series of swipes. Both possibilities were almost impossible for regular hollow, plus to wipe out a group of shinigami would require a group of hollow, and no group of hollow no matter how smart they are would be able to pull of either of those. Kotone looked at the gashes further, they were small horizontal cuts mostly. Wide cuts but narrow cuts as well, they were cuts because there was no gouging of wood...just a uniform slash. So taking in all this evidence, Kotone concluded that the enemy who made the marks were not hollow, unless it was one hollow with tremendous power but something like that would have been noticed. So it was not a hollow, first, the slashes required an intelligence level no group of hollow possessed; second, the cuts were too narrow for a hollow's claws, unless they had one claw and it was the same length of a katana; and third, the cuts on the trees were made by swords or some other bladed weapon that had to be wielded by a creature of human size and of a little more strength.

Just examining one piece (no reference to the anime: one piece) of evidence and Kotone had concluded that the culprit or at least the one who cut the trees was most likely a shinigami or a human with equal qualities. This person must be either trying to lure everyone into a trap, or their attack was highly planned.

The missing branches only told signs of a struggle, perhaps of the same origins and purpose of the gashes in the trees. The missing branches however, were not in a uniform order, they were random and some could have been done by mother nature. However, if they were done by human hands, then it was most likely just done in a fight.

The displacement of the ground, an irregularly made hole of missing dirt in the ground....confused Kotone. It didn't offer any evidence of who or why the culprit did what they did. However, it didn't offer some evidence to a kind of weapon or attack, the enemy used. It wasn't a footprint and the lack of big footprint's further supported Kotone's thesis that the attack was not done by hollow. Kotone sensed some kind of reiatsu from the hole but he couldn't tell what kind....perhaps it was a result of a shikai...the reiatsu of a shikai is very hard to determine since it is so unique.

Now one last thing was left for Kotone to inspect, or perhaps the lack of the thing is what Kotone was inspecting. The lack of blood, of gore. The death was still lingering, it was obvious that a large number of shinigami had died, perhaps all of them for giving the amount of death in the area only one or two shinigami out of the group could have survived. The fact that all of the shingami's signals had dissappeared all at once posed three situations. First, all of the shinigami were forced to turn off or disable their mobiles and make it seem like they were dead. This was very probable because there was no blood however, the amount of death in the air highly disproved this fact unless the enemy did this and then kept them alive for a little while...extracted some information and then disposed of them. Second, the enemy had some device to make it appear that they were dead, and then kept them alive for a while for some reason and then killed them. And lastly was pretty probable, the enemy killed all of the shinigami at once, execution style. This means that they would either have to have many people or an ability to kill many people of once. Perhaps the enemy could duplicate themselves, or maybe they had multiple hands, and perhaps they grouped all of the shinigami into one area and disposed of them in one blow. The one blow theory provided some reason behind the hole in the ground but these theories would not explain the lack of blood, they only explained how the enemy could have done it.

For the lack of blood, Kotone came up with two explanations. First, the enemy has a device to clean up the blood, perhaps that is a part of the enemy's ability that killed them. The second reason is the most terrifying, what if the enemy killed the shinigami internally or mentally. Perhaps the enemy was able to kill them by attacking organs without needing to open a wound, or perhaps the enemy used a virus or disease that acted very quickly and killed them, or perhaps the enemy has some way to instantly kill his enemy through mental attack.

Lost in thought for a while, something very easy for the deaf....no sounds distract or annoy them. While observing the trees, he saw Kaoru jump and put his hand on his weapon. Instantly, Kotone did the same looking at his partner who looked more scared than ready to fight. But after reading Kaoru's lips, Kotone learned of the roar that had started his friend.

Kaoru had asked Kotone if he had found anything, and Kotone told Kaoru all that he had found. With the same evidence he had found many things about the enemy. Kotone asked a question himself after the long explanation of his findings:

"So Kaoru, did you find any other things after inspecting the evidence so much, I think we have got more than any other group member but I feel we should share our information. I am going to find someone who has some new evidence and tell them our own, after all we are all in this."

But suddenly, right after he asked his question, Kotone felt a ridiculous amount of reiatsu in the area, it suffocated him, so much so that he couldn't remain to answer Kaoru, he expected his partner to follow him into another area with less pressure. After finding a good area, and sensing his fellow shinigami's reiatsu as well, Kotone felt relieved. He looked at Kaoru who had obvious concerns.

"Don't worry! Given the amount of reiatsu that has just sprung up, we wouldn't even be able to fight them, but Ezzo and his partner got this. We shouldn't worry, we just have to find someone with equal evidence. Do you agree with me on this one Kaoru?"

(OCC: Ok guys, I know this is a bad time but my parents moved up my trip to Rhode island by two days, just to stop in Brooklyn. I have announced this before but I don't think many of you know. I am leaving tomorrow, for a camp in Rhode island. Since I'm stopping in Brooklyn for this weekend, I will be unable to post anything. However on Monday when I arrive at the camp, I think there are computers and I might be able to post. If there aren't then Ill be out for two weeks, but I doubt that. Well I don't think this will be today's last post, but if it is then Kotone takes his evidence to Dizzy's character: Koichi and they both conclude the evidence together at which point, Kotone takes a small break, and Kaoru will either go solo or he can take over my character.)

[Unicorn]

Sayuri arrived on the scene and was about to tell Erin to wait and check in case the attacker was swooping in for another try. Instead, the girl trotted off to begin checking and bandaging Koichi-san. Bandaging?

With a mental growl, Sayuri turned to face Hiyashiwa-san and wait for a response to her queries. And took the opportunity to draw her sword and activate her advanced-cell-regrowth spell.

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

It gave out a snarl as it jumped upward into the air and kicked at the tree trunk, sending it back towards the charging shinigami. After going through a back flip, it landed on all fours and likewise charged at the reptilian shinigami, ready to give it a good swipe with its claws.

Arrancar

She looked over to the healers that had arrived in the area and merely gave a shrug. If they did their job well enough, maybe she'd have more fun fighting that wuss she just knocked out.

"Oh, so more of your friends should be here soon huh," the arrancar reached down and grabbed the girl's zanpakuto by its blade and lifted it up. "So how about we play a little, just you and me."

Mai

Oh fuck, that doesn't look good...
Though observing a little more, lizard man seemed to have some sort of plan. Yea, she'd just let him take care of it for now and just jump in later. Hopefully that would never be necessary. So yea woot, go lizard man.

[Shdo]

As the trunk hurled back at Ezzo he had two options in his mind, block it with his chest, which will slow him down, or cut it down, losing the chance to cut the wolf and getting cut on his own…but there was a third option...the primal one.

Swifly the blade came down on the trunk cutting it in half, but there was no time to swing again…but there was time to take a bite.
The charge continued, Ezzo opened his mouth and launched it towards the wolf, going for the hand that tries to cut Ezzo.

Claw vs fang.

concept


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1307/1163788978_fe81a31c97.jpg?v=0

[Mystic Serenade]

The wolf skidded to a near halt as it closed in on the lizard, planting its feet down as it now grabbed at it's opponent's face. It would use his assailant's momentum from its charge to toss him.

[Shdo]

Ezzo was tossed, the enemy used Ezzo momentum to his advantage but he did one mistake. By throwing Ezzo he might have evaded Ezzo teeth claws and blade but he also made the tail pass above the wolf back.

As Ezzo was plunged above the wolf the tail struck down and while it wasn’t a full strength hit from the middle of the thick tail, it was still a vicious fast whip to the shoulder blade.

Ezzo struck the ground with a resounding thumb noise. He rose to meet his foe with his sword in his hand.

[Mystic Serenade]

The wolf let out a noise reminiscent to a smirk, the lizard had some fight in him. Though, nothing too spectacular in the big scheme of things, the wolf could hardly call the tail whip an actual hit. This time around it stood in place an opted to attack from long range, swiping at the air with its claws once each. However with each swipe, a crescent shaped piece of energy flew from each of his five claws and made its way to Ezzo. It would be entertaining to see how it would respond.

[Shdo]

Evasion, self perseverance, fear of death and injury, those have no meaning for Ezzo.
The wolf might have expected Ezzo to avoid or to defend but not to charge like this. Ezzo focused his reitsu into his blade and struck at the ground. Explosion of dust erupted to all sides. As the wind crescents hit the dust cloud it caused the dust to move even further into all directions. But the wind also caused the dust to dissipate, revealing the sword which was stuck in the ground. And the lizard? A movement caught the attention of the wolf; something was twirling at the ground…a tip of tail about 20 centimeter long. But the way it was cut…it wasn’t cut by a blade, it was discarded.

It was a trap, the moment Ezzo threw the sword at the ground, causing the explosion, he jumped with his monster muscles, discarding the tail tip in the way that lizards use it to confuse their hunter.
Ezzo himself was now charging from above, hurling towards the wolf with claws, teeth and legs forward, a impressive display of sharp things on a brick wall in a disperesed pattern, something must scratch the wolf even if he will try another move like before. several cuts were visiable on his limbs even if it didnt seemed to slow him down, the adrenalin was already pumping.

[Aoi Innocence]

Staring into the Arrancar's eyes, Yukiko slowly let her za-panktou go and drop towards the floor. Kicking the arrancar in the shin, Yukiko stood up and prepared herself to perform a kidou.

"Hadou 33: Soukatsui(Way of Destruction)!" The ball of spiritual pressure shot from her hand and towards the arrancar.

[Mystic Serenade]

Though not visibly noticeable, the arrancar had cocked an eyebrow at the shinigami kicking at her shin. Not that it would have done much anyway, but when one's opponent has armor covering their shin, the usual practical reasons for kicking it are kinda, meh.

She moved her leg back from the small force of the kick and then spun the shinigami's zanpakuto in her hands until she held it by the hilt. "Abandoning your weapon, a brave move," she said as she slashed at the ball of reiatsu with it, causing it to dissipate. "Come on, you're better than that right."

(OCC: Pausing Wolf actions until Kaoru posts to see what he does.)

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru's dark eyes widened as he heard all of the disturbing noises and messages being passed through the headseat. It seemed the situation had indeed gone from bad to worse. From what he'd gathered, Koichi-san had been knocked unconscious and the ladies of the Fourth Division had returned to help him and Hiyashiwa-san, in case of another attack. It was also apparent that Ezzo-san was now fighting one of their enemies, a strange Hollow-like wolf that didn't appear to have a hole in its body. Once he and Kotone were in an area of lower spiritual pressure, he began to relay all that had happened to his partner.

"Kotone, I agree that Ezzo-san can handle himself, but even so... I'd like for you to go and observe his progress. As for myself, I'll be going to help Hiyashiwa-san and the others with her, if I can. If you need me, in any way, on your end, just call for me over the headset. All right?", he explained, leaving the other with a confident smile and a gentle wave before using Shun Pou to reach Hiyashiwa-san and the others. The Third Seat arrived just in time to see Hiyashiwa-san use a Kidou on her opponent. Instead of entering the scene and joining the battle immediately, he hung back and observed, waiting to see if the Kidou could impact the strange woman. If it couldn't, then he would simply ambush her from his unknown location and hopefully deal out some damage.

Unfortunately, the Kidou was easily sliced in half, made useless. Kaoru gripped Hanamaru and let the metal blades fall open silently. He shifted into a better position and swung the fan, unleashing several crescent shaped wind blades, strong enough to cut through even the thickest armor. There was a small chance that the woman would block them or dodge them, but she couldn't do it to all of them. Besides, it was meant to be an ambush, and she was never supposed to see it coming.

Meanwhile, Kotone had managed to make his way into Ezzo's general area and he found himself next to Mai, who was watching the battle from up in a tree. He was having just a little bit of trouble functioning correctly, due to the massive amount of spiritual pressure, but it was nothing that bad. "So, Hanazuki, is Ezzo losing or winning, from what you can tell?"

[Aoi Innocence]

Watching as the Arrancar struck down her kidou, Yukiko began to think of a plan. She observed her surroundings, while at the same time making sure the Arrancar doesn't notice. She glanced behind the arrancar to see a tree just right behind her. Even if it doesn't cause much damage, it could still buy Yukiko time to grab her za-panktou. Making one final wish, she positioned herself again for another kidou spell. She channeled her reiatsu and looked up.

"Hadou 31: Shakkahou!" Aiming right past the Arrancar, the kidou went straight through the tree, tearing away it's mid-section.

[Unicorn]

Sayuri watched the proceedings carefully. The strange girl with the helmet powerful arrancar had seen them, yet she had simply shrugged and went for Hiyashiwa.

Not letting up her guard, she continued watching until another shinigami arrived to help. Miyazaki, 11th Div member. Good, he could fight.

They had been given a little more breathing room. Sayuri turned a sharp look at Erin and cast her senses about them. Nothing except the two attackers.

"We need cover. Maine, drag him behind this tree." She ordered curtly, then repacked the used items, shouldered both packs and retreated. It wasn't that much further, but hiding behind the tree would allow them to concentrate on healing whilst being near enough to listen to, and prepare for, the outcome of the battle.

Sayuri cleared stones and branches from a patch of ground, then indicated that Koichi should be placed there. She was already casting her senses over Koichi whilst Maine was dragging him.

"I'm going to heal him. You will be on guard and watch and sense if anything is coming too near us. If so, wave a hand under my eyes until I pay attention to you. Understood?" She snapped at the other girl.

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

It appeared the lizard was willing to do anything to win in a fight, how intriguing. Abandoning his blade to leave a trap and to turn most of his body into a weapon, he wondered how much experience the reptile had. However no matter how much experience it may have had, it probably would not expect what was to happen next.

The wolf jumped forward to where the lizard's zanpakuto was stabbed into the ground with a speed that the lizard would not be able to even see. In addition, it would notice that his descent back down was noticeably slowed, as if he was like a feather. It was as if time for him slowed down and increased for the wolf. The wolf then threw the zanpakuto at his opponent like a spear, timing it to hit when his opponent landed. At the same time, he threw the blade, his opponent would also feel that whatever force that was slowing him down was now gone.

Arrancar

She gave a smirk as she burst into a sonido, dodging both the falling tree and numerous wind blades. She had to admit, if she hadn't been keeping track of where everyone was from the beginning, that attack might have damaged her slightly. But lucky for her, that wasn't the case.

She reappeared behind Kaoru, cupping his cheek in one hand and wraped an arm around his waist. "You know, if you want to effectively ambush someone, you should do a better job of hiding your reiatsu...Kaoru-kun," she whispered into his ear. However the voice she used was not her own, and if he were to look her visage would not be her own either, instead he would see and hear that of 11th Division's Sai Amilay.

Mai

She was a little surprised to see someone join up all of sudden, but meh, no big. She had been observing the fight and so far things appeared to be even or at least, maybe the wolf was playing around with them? She rubbed her eyes a little when it looked like lizard man was floating in the air, but maybe that was her eyes playing tricks on her. "Uh, so far they're tied I guess."

[DarkPulsar]

"Understood sir," she said, eyes not leaving the battlefield. She focused her reiatsu, reaching out with her senses to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them. She tried to calm her nerves, to keep her arms from shaking, but she was afraid! Figuring that if she had to do that much to get Sayuri's attention, she focused a fair bit of her reiatsu into her right index finger, Byakurai charged and ready to fire.


(If it takes that much to get her attention, we're probably all dead by the time I do. Afraid or not, nothing's getting by me without having a hole blown through its chest,) she resolved to herself.

[Unicorn]

Sayuri glared at the other girl. She was radiating nervousness like a small fire.

"Maine. Come here and tell me what you have diagnosed." She snapped, then dug around in her satchel for a pill.

"You're leaking reiatsu like a giant 'eat me' sign. Swallow this. It helps to calm you down so you can suppress your reiatsu and focus!"

[DarkPulsar]

"Yes sir!" she said as she hurried over. "I believe that he's concussed pretty badly. The cut itself seems to be pretty superficial, but I believe his jaw is broken," she said. She took the pill offered to her, swallowing it hastily. She closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, and instantly felt more relaxed.


"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to this. It's the first time in my life I've ever been exposed to any...real danger. I'll keep it under control from now on," she said as she resumed her watch duty, listening for any further instruction.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

"Damn it! She dodged every one of them...", Kaoru cursed in his mind as he watched the woman almost effortlessly dodge every blade that was cast at her. He gripped Hanamaru more tightly as he lost sight of his opponent. Before he could move to a different position, he suddenly felt someone appear behind him. A gentle hand rested on his cheek and an arm was encircling his waist. Then a familiar voice reached his ears. It was the voice of Eleventh Division's Fifth Seat, Amilay Sai; his dearest friend. Upon hearing it, his tense body relaxed and he felt more calm. "... Sai-chan... What are you doing here? You're a little late for this mission...", the Third Seat said, placing his free hand on Sai's arm, which was still wrapped around his waist.

Kotone read Mai's lips and gave a gentle nod of his head before turning to continue observing the fight. Immediately, it didn't look good. The tables appeared to be turning in favor of the strange Wolf Hollow. This was starting to make him increasingly nervous. If Ezzo couldn't hold his own against the Hollow, then did any of them really even stand a chance? He also couldn't stop his mind from wandering onto how Kaoru and the others were fairing with their own enemy.

[Shdo]

The moment Ezzo landed something sharp hit his back, piercing couple of skin layers; it's been a while since Ezzo was cut so deeply. Good.

He grabbed the object only to see that it was his own sword. Even better.

"Tezzio, ezpantil…" a shockwave of reitsu emitted from Ezzo, red flaming reitsu, the Shikai was released.

The blade changed into a red, flat club with sharp obsidian blades at the sides, an Aztec macuahuitl. "quizozo," Ezzo commanded and as he said the word the blood flow from his wounds stopped, the wounds were still open but the blood just stayed there. And then the second ability started to take effect, in the area that the two combatants fought there were several stains of blood from the battle, the stains started to move, floating in the air towards the blade, entering the obsidian blades and changing their color to dark red.

"hmm, it seems that there is not enough blood…I guess I'll take the rest from you," Ezzo charged at the wolf but didn’t tried to hit him, instead he struck the ground with the 1.5 meter macuahuitl, sending sharp shards of stone from the ground at every direction around Ezzo, it looked like a little meteorite hit the ground.


(if you decide to bleed from the shards then keep in mind that the bleeding will be more then it should be, thanks to Ezpentil ability. and if you chose not to bleed...then you suck :stare)

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

Heh, he must be really into this guy or something. Should be fun.
"I arranged to come as soon as I found out about it." He gave a mock frown, "You know you should have let me know that there was a mission, could have gotten me at my room. So what's going on right now?"

Wolf

Well didn't this guy just become more interesting by the minute. How impressive, to stop your own blood from flowing out and to draw blood to your own weapon. He guessed that it must power him somehow, he would have to see. On that note he let the small shards of stone cut into him. It appeared that it flowed out quicker than normal and immediately was attracted to the lizard's weapon. It would be alright, if he played it safe.

So time to go see exactly what this did for him. He increased the power he was using slightly and charged forward with a swipe of his claws.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru closed his eyes and leaned his head back, resting it on Sai's shoulder. "I'm sorry... There was no time for me to come back and inform you. Time was a huge factor in this case." With that said, he relayed a detailed summary of everything that had happened on the mission up to the point they were at right now.

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

"Oh, well everything is fine now right, I'm here." As he listens to Kaoru relay everything that has happened he runs his hand through Kaoru's hair. "Sounds like a pretty sticky situation, we should keep our guard up then huh."

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

"Yes, you're here and soon things will be all right..." Kaoru kept his eyes closed as Sai ran a hand through his long hair. When had it come free from its ponytail...? Not that he really cared to hear an answer at the moment. It was such a soothing gesture and he felt as though he were falling under some sort of spell. He heard the other mention that the two of them should keep their guard up and realized that he just didn't want to; didn't want to move or re-enter the fight again. "... Yeah, that's right. Guard up..."

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

"Hmm well it's been a while and we haven't been attacked yet, guess we should call in or something at least though to check on the others." He reached his hand over to move Kaoru's face to look him in the eyes, "though you can relax I guess, I'll do my best to protect you."

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

It did register in his mind that the fact that they hadn't been attacked within the last few minutes was a little strange. But he failed to grasp the real meaning of why. Instead, Kaoru opted to take Sai's advice and check in with the others through the headset. But before he could do so, he felt the other's hand gently push his head to the side so that he was facing Sai directly. The promise of protection drew a bright blush onto his cheeks. He wanted to believe it, so much, but something about this whole encounter just didn't seem right. His brain was screaming at him but he couldn't discern the words. Finally, it clicked and he knew.

Kaoru closed his eyes slowly. "I'm sorry... I want to believe you, really I do... But, there's just one thing stopping me. You aren't Sai. You see, even though you put a lot of effort into acting like him, Sai treats me differently. Your touch is too gentle, whereas he's usually rougher. Also, he never calls me Kaoru-kun. It's always just Kaoru. Besides, even though he would do anything to protect me, he would do so without holding me like this. Even though the fantasy you were trying to create is nice, it's still just a fantasy, you bitch."

At that, the Third Seat raised Hanamaru away from his waist and held it in front of his chest. He opened his eyes and uttered his Shikai release command. The blades on his fan tore away from each other and transformed, reforming into the larger ringblade. As it formed itself, the blade encircled Kaoru and the Arrancar woman. He made sure to get a tight grip on her arm so that she couldn't get away as easily. In his other hand, he held the handle of the ringblade. With one swift motion, he swung the ringblade around his body, aiming to cut and slash and dice the opponent behind him. If he got injured while attempting this manuver, then so be it.

[Unicorn]

"Yes sir!" she said as she hurried over. "I believe that he's concussed pretty badly. The cut itself seems to be pretty superficial, but I believe his jaw is broken,"

She listened to Erin's diagnosis and compared it against her own findings.

"Correct." Sayuri said and offered a slight smile. "He also has a couple of minor cracks on his skull. Easily fixed."

"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to this. It's the first time in my life I've ever been exposed to any...real danger. I'll keep it under control from now on,".

Sayuri didn't reply but watched as Erin again took up her guard position. The pill seemed to be working, she was less nervous and her reiatsu was more suppressed.

She went to work on Koichi, using her cell-regrowth technique to heal his broken jaw and fractures.

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

As the ring blade swung around the two, the Arrancar made screamed and struggled to free her arm. "Arrggh, the pain, stop it stop!!"

"Just kidding," she laughed, "This must be the first time you've fought an arrancar or something, but let me tell you now, we got a little something called hierro. And with your level of reiatsu, I don't see you putting a single dent in it with your blade. Oh, and I have a free hand too," she said as she reached down and grabbed at the ring blade to stop its spinning.

"But you know, for mussing up my fur like that, let me pay you back boy," she pulled out the zanpakuto she had kept from the other shinigami from a nearby tree trunk and cut away at Kaoru's shoulder and also repositioned her hand on his waist to stab her claws into his side.

[DarkPulsar]

Erin watched as Kaoru attacked the arrancar, only to be clearly rebuffed and overpowered. She briefly thought it might be a good idea to approach the clearly shaken Yukiko, but decided against it. She looked a little scared perhaps, but not injured, and Erin had other orders to attend to.

(No, I was told to stand guard here. I can't leave Sayuri vulnerable while she's healing Koichi,) she thought. Keeping her focus, she locked onto the arrancar's reiatsu, keeping it in her sights, and feeling it's presense no matter what. She wasn't going to let it past her, she thought as she turned to watch the battle. (If it gets too close, and Kaoru needs help..) she trailed off inwardly, still holding her Byakurai charged and ready to fire if it came to that.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru's dark eyes widened as he felt his ringblade hault in mid-motion, forced to a stop by the woman's grip. She let go but only moved to grab Hiyashiwa-san's discarded Zanpakutou instead. He was about to summon Hanamaru's gales and try for another swing attack when he suddenly felt the blade embedd itself in his shoulder, sending a spray of blood into the air. It hadn't been a clean cut. Just a mad hack and slash shot. Then he felt a searing pain dive into the side of his abdomen. The woman had also stabbed him with her claws. That finally tore a loud cry from his throat and left his entire body shaking from the painful sensations.

(Yeah... I really didn't want Kaoru's hair to be cut, so instead I had her attack his shoulder. I hope that's all right.)

[Mystic Serenade]

"Hmm, you're a lot more fragile than I thought," she smirked. "Well, it was fun playing with you, I'll give you that. So all in all, next time enjoy the dream a little, cause reality will bite you in the ass."

She pulled out the zanpakuto from his shoulder and now with him screaming his little head off she freed herself from his grasp and threw her towards the two healers. "So you think any of you three can do better?"

(Yea its cool, its why I gave the option xD)

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

A gasp ended the screaming as the blade was pulled from his shoulder, leaving it with a few severed tendons and muscles, making it useless. Fortunately, it was his left arm, which he didn't use for much of anything. He could still wield Hanamaru in a fight with his right hand. The claws removed themselves from his abdomen, releasing a gush of blood down his hip and the leg of his hakama. But the pain was much less severe now. The woman effectively freed herself from his ringblade and went straight for Hiyashiwa-san and the healers from the Fourth Division.

"No... They'll be killed for sure. Pull yourself together, damn it!", Kaoru mentally reprimanded himself. He forced his body to move, swinging his blade once to summon Hanamaru's gales and winds. The strong air currents slammed against each other in an attempt to block the Arrancar's path and keep her away from the others. Moving within the currents were more of the wind blades, threatening to cut whoever tried to venture forth. "Hey... I'm still alive, you know.", he said, panting just slightly.

[Unicorn]

The increasing gales made her hair flap into her eyes, and Sayuri could no longer concentrate properly. No matter, she was nearly finished anyway. Koichi would have a slight headache when he woke up, but would be otherwise fine.

She became aware of a nearing commotion and before she knew it, a body landed on the ground nearby. Miyazaki He stood up again and rushed towards the Arrancar. Typical 11th Division behaviour.

"Maine!" Sayuri called, then nodded towards the other shinigami. "Stay where you are but diagnose him."

[DarkPulsar]

Erin went the couple of steps it took to get to Kaoru's side. "Please, you're in no condition. Stand down and let them handle this for the moment. You're seriously wounded, and I need to know the extent of the damage!" she barked at him, uncharacteristically harsh. Knowing there wasn't much he could do to resist, Erin cleared a spot on the ground, not wanting to move him. She grabbed his shoulders, gently laying him on the ground as she begun her initial examination.


"It's really bad!" she shouted to Sayuri. "All of his vitals were spared, but he's losing a lot of blood. It looks like the abdominal muscle has been torn, and his left shoulder muscles and tendons have been completely severed by the sword attack! He'll need to have the muscles and tendons reattached!" she noted. "I'm going to begin treatment," she said as she reached into her medical supply pack. She grabbed a fresh towel and poured a liberal amount of peroxide over the abdominal wound, causing Kaoru to hiss wildly. She thrust the towel into his right hand. "Hold this against your abdomenal wound. Apply as much pressure as you can," she instructed.


Erin had never used any type of healing kidou in an actual danger situation before, but she didn't have the luxury of choice this time. Harkening back to her academy days of just a few weeks ago,, she'd have to give it a try, and risk the potential consequences. Bandages and such weren't going to cut it this time. She'd have to be careful not to mess up. Placing her palms on either side of Kaoru's shoulder wound, she focused her reiatsu, concentrating on attempting to stop the blood flow, and closing the wound.

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

"Alive, but barely. Give it up bo..." It was then the smaller of the two healers reached up and grabbed the injured one, reprimanded him, and started to diagnose and heal him. That kind of thing in their situation, it was just too...funny. She could not help but fall on her back and laugh at the group before her.

[Shdo]

Again the enemy attacked, but now Ezzo was stronger, and growing stronger with more and more blood flowing into the blades.
With a swift uppercut like movement with his blade, Ezzo hit the ground, sweeping a little tidal wave of dirt at the direction of the wolf as a diversion.
At the end of the tidal wave move the blade ended in a high position ready to strike down at his furry enemy.

Ezzo felt weird, the scent of the blood confirmed that this wolf wasn’t a hollow but a human.
"Human, why are you wasting my time here? playing like you were a hollow?"

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

"Well ain't you smart, I thought the lack of a hole going through my chest was a big enough hint," he spoke for the first time during the encounter. At the sight of the tidal wave of dirt he swiped once at it launching the crescent blades of energy at it. From the momentum of the swipe he spun around once and at the end of that slashed both claws down in a motion to fire off even more crescents. "And shinigami, I have my reasons and quite frankly, you don't need to know."

He took note that it was rather troublesome this guy knew the scent of his lupine form, he'd have to be watchful of where he did his transformations from now on.

[Shdo]

The club went down again, hitting the crescents and then the ground causing another small meteorite effect. The sheer shockwave and wind blast negating one another.

The bloody lizard raised his head, "Do you even have any connection to the shinigami unit that disappeared earlier?" Ezzo started to lose intrest in this battle fast, if this got nothing to do with the mission then he should move on.
Objectives are important

[Aoi Innocence]

Staring at the laughing Arrancar, Yukiko grit her teeth and poisition herself for another kido spell.

"Hadou 33: Soukatsui!"

[Dizzy]

Koichi sat up slowly, his head throbbing horribly and feeling like it'd been hit by a train. Bleary-eyed, he suddenly remembered the situation, in part thanks to the blaring noise coming from right next to his ear. Upon further inspection, it was his headset. He shook his head to clear it, but the voices coming through were scattered and crackled with static - the reiatsu levels of their attacker must've been messing with the frequencies or something.

"Huge reiatsu - " he heard, evidently from Soul Society. " - Traces of hollow reiryoku, but they aren't - *crackle* - where is Koichi?"

They? Does that mean there're two? Shit, I'd better get back in the game quickly.

He noticed Himura standing over him and said a grateful thanks before turning his attention to the headset. "This is Koichi reporting in, sorry, I was indisposed for a bit there. We'll try to repel the attackers, but be on standby for us."

He paused. All he heard from Soul Society was static, though thankfully, the other shinigami's voices were still audible through it. Ignoring the pain in his head, he stood himself back up, grabbing his zanpakuto's hilt, and turned to Himura. "Do we know who or what these things are yet, or whether they're the ones who attacked the other team?"

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru had been focusing his full attention on keeping the Arrancar away from the others, so he didn't notice at all when Maine-san moved to his side. The young lady demanded that he stand down and allow Hiyashiwa-san to take over the battle. Before he could properly respond, he found himself laying on the ground. Appearantly his injuries were worse than he had thought them to be. Or perhaps he hadn't even been thinking about how severe they were. "Maine-san, please, let me fight.", he protested.

As the Third Seat tried to push himself up, a sharp jolt of pain shot through his body from the wound in his side. It made him immediately lay back down. Okay, so maybe he should just do as the healer told him to. One verbal warning was all he recieved before Maine-san poured a large amount of peroxide into the gaping wound in his abdomen. The sensation was like that of fire and he couldn't stop a sharp hiss from escaping his mouth. She then pressed a towel into his hand and told him to apply pressure to the wound. Kaoru complied, panting softly from the treatment.

His dark eyes watched the healer as she then moved to his mangled shoulder. He realized that he couldn't even feel her touching the sides of the cut and it startled him. A gentle glow resonated from her hands, haulting the blood and slowly starting to repair the damage that had been done by the blade. Kaoru remained still and silent, letting the young lady have full concentration on what she was doing. If anything, he could live with scars, but losing the use of his arm... That was an entirely different story; one that he didn't want to start.

[Unicorn]

Sayuri let the other man stand up, watching him critically in case he was unstable and needed to lie down again.

"Do we know who or what these things are yet, or whether they're the ones who attacked the other team?"

"I personally think that they're very powerful hollows. Coatl got attacked by a wolf one, and we got attacked by this." Sayuri replied, then thought for a few moments.

"They seem very powerful and too intent to play with us. This one ignored the healers and went straight for 11th Div. It does not fit with the report where the entire team's reiatsu vanished at the same time and only one distress call was made."

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

"I may, or may not," the wolf shrugged. "If you're investigating the matter, you really think I'd tell you?" A white light surrounded the wolf and almost instantaneously all his small wounds healed up. "Anyhow, I think you've gotten enough of my blood to make this more than interesting enough."

Arrancar

"Hmmm?" The arrancar halted her laughter a moment and flipped off her back to avoid the incoming blast of lightning. She waved a finger at the shinigami, "Bad girl, it's not good to shoot lightning bolts at people when they're laughing. Especially when they're holding on to something that belongs to you." She spun the zanpakuto in her hands, "Cause you know, I could accidentally break it or something."

Her interest piqued at the group of healers behind the girl, it appeared that the one she knocked out before had come to. With a push of her feet she appeared behind the man and started to give him a shoulder massage. "Nice you finally came too, ready for another round that makes you look less like a failure?"

[Shdo]

"I see...you don't have any connection to this...the previous group disappeared in an instant while I can still feel my team reitsu, your answer confirm what I already suspected. you indeed wasting my time," Ezzo turned away and started to walk towards the grass, picking his headset.

"If you want to play games with someone then you picked the wrong person to do that, I've lost all interest in you, you can play with the cat girl on the tree over there if you want to amuse yourself."
He started to walk away.



(since Ezzo have zero fear of pain and death he really is leaving because mani is irrelevent to Ezzo objective, in Ezzo mind that makes sense.)

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

"Well that's just a shame, because regardless of what you may be thinking, we have business with you." He pointed his finger at the lizard and at that moment, subjected his body to a strong enough gravity to prevent him from moving. "I don't like playing with people who are unwilling, so just stay right there and talk to your little friends until our business is done with you."

He looked up into the tree, "They can help you if they want."

Mai
She looked down from the tree, things looked sorta bad. On the plus side though, looks like they probably were not gonna die. She looked over to Kotone, "So uh, what do you think we should do?"

[Dizzy]

"They most likely aren't affiliated with the ones who attacked the other team then? The others had a bit of a skirmish before their reiatsu signatures disappeared, but those hollows were leading them into the forest, and they were nowhere near this level - "

Without warning, their enemy disappeared. He did a double-take, bounding forwards to get a better view of what could've happened, and suddenly he felt clawed hands biting into his shoulders.

"Nice you finally came too, ready for another round that makes you look less like a failure?"

Incensed, Koichi whipped around, unsheathing his zanpakuto with such force that the sound of it against his scabbard pierced the air. He glared at the hollow, but then realized that she was practically humanoid - in fact, more like a fox than a hollow. He inhaled sharply before he spoke, even stuttering from his shock.

"V - vastoroode?"

[Shdo]

"You two, mammals, get down of the tree and start cutting trunks, when you have about 10, roll them under my body in steady intervals. Its the same trick i used to make my pyramid, makes it a lot easier to your puny bodies to handle the weight...the amount of slaves i lost in order to move my statue was enormous...its all because you don't have a tail. and that isn't a tail miss, that is a worm that you got over there...a big tail can support the pure mass of the large torso allowing greater...(he went on and on with this, explaining how weak their bodies are and how inappropriate they are for temple building and general slavery)

now do that, i just need to get out of this area...the grass...its crushed under its own weight all around me...and try not to step into this circle."

[Unicorn]

Sayuri jumped aside as the attacker suddenly appeared beside her and started talking to Koichi. And Koichi identified it as a Vastroode. Sayuri eyed it critically... Vastroodes were the stuff of legends that only Captains got to see.

Whilst the enemy was busy with Koichi, she kept an eye on it whilst moving quickly towards Erin.

"I'll take over, quicker this way." Sayuri muttered urgently. "You contact Soul Society now and report a Vastroode sighting!"

"You stay still." Sayuri growled at the 11th Div member and placed her hands above his wounds. Both hands and wounds began to glow.

[DarkPulsar]

Erin rushed behind the nearest tree as Sayuri took over her job healing Kaoru, and immediately attempted to contact soul society.


"Maine to Soul Society, this is urgent! Seventh Seat Erin Maine of 4th Division reporting in, we have a vastorode on site! Repeat, we have a vastorode on site! Miyazaki Kaoru, Third Seat of 11th Division is down! Koichi Daisuke is currently engaged with the enemy, requesting reinfocements immediately!" She heard nothing but static. "Argh, its no good! I can't get through!" she shouted. She'd have to do something else.


Lifting an index finger into the air, she summoned a hell butterfly. Insantly, it landed calmly and gently on her finger, somehow appearing tranquil even amidst all the current madness. She transmitted her message, the same she'd tried to through the headset, and went back to Sayuri.


"The headset wouldn't work, I sent a hell butterfly instead. What should I do now? Should I help Koichi?"

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru was vaguely listening to all of the commotion coming in over the headsets, but he was mainly paying attention to the progressive healing of his shoulder. His still functioning hand continued to press the towel, which was now soaked through with blood, against the wound in his side. Suddenly, he felt very light-headed and allowed his eyes to fall closed. It was then that Himura-san took over his treatment. As she barked her command at him to stay still, he looked up at her and gave a small nod, intent on obeying. He watched with slightly unfocused vision as she began to heal both wounds simultaneously. The relief was slow-coming, but he was grateful to feel it.

Kotone adorned a confused expression as he watched Ezzo begin to walk away from his opponent. He didn't understand what was going on. His confusion only grew as Ezzo suddenly stopped walking, as though held in place. The Wolf and Ezzo appeared to be talking but, unfortunately, he couldn't read their lips and was at a complete loss. The situation would have been so much easier if he'd just had Kaoru there to tell him what was happening with their current situation. Finally, he looked over to Mai. "I don't understand what's going on right now.", he said. "Please, can you explain it to me?"

[Unicorn]

Instead of going into full-concentration, Sayuri kept half her attention on her surroundings due to the danger about. So she was aware when Erin began talking to her.

"Don't go near them. Even captains are reported to have trouble with Vastroodes." Sayuri muttered, half her attention on healing.

"Find two energy pills from the Medical pack, and give them to Miyazaki."

[Mystic Serenade]

Arrancar

She moved back a little to avoid getting slashed by the shinigami's drawn blade and took to picking up the one she took from the girl from its position embedded in the ground next to her with her left hand. "My my, aren't you the jumpy one." She came closer enough to pat the man on his cheek, "Well you're the observant one aintcha, yes I'm a vastoroode. Care to play?"

Mai

"Er well, apparently the lizard decided it wasn't worth his time to fight anymore, so he wanted to walk away. Wolf over there says he has business with us, but I don't think he's interested in fighting us." She pointed to Ezzo, "Lizard there wants us to cut trees and roll them under him and to not get near him, but he kinda insulted us by calling us mammals and saying stuff about how we're weak and puny, excuse me for a moment."

"FUCK YOU LIZARD MAN!!" She took to throwing a tree branch at it's head. "That's like the shittiest way I've heard anyone ask for help. Least my tail is aesthetically pleasant to look at, fugly son of a...whatever your momma was!!"

[DarkPulsar]

"Yes sir," she said, quickly grabbing a pair of energy pills. She rushed them to Miyazaki.


"Here, take these. They'll replenish your energy," she said, turning her focus back to the vastorode. There may be nothing she could do to harm it, but she'd jump in if she thought it might help, even briefly, at her own expense.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru raised his hand and accepted the pills that Maine-san had brought to him. He popped one into his mouth, and then the other. They were a little hard to swallow without any water to help them down, but he managed it. A few moments passed before he started to feel its effects. When they finally kicked in, he pushed himself up off of the ground and onto his feet. He had full feeling back in his shoulder and arm, and with it he picked up his ringblade. "Thank you for your treatment, Maine-san."

Kotone blinked, moving just a few inches away from Mai as she hurled a tree branch at Ezzo. Okay, so the Wolf wanted to talk with them. He figured they should probably hear what he had to say, since it was much better than being killed. He waited until Mai finished with her outburst before turning to look at Ezzo. "Hey! I think we should just wait and hear him out. Besides, you're not going anywhere." With that, he looked back to Mai. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to tell me all that they say."

[Aoi Innocence]

"Vastoroode?"

Yukiko heard about vatsoroodes before but meeting one was rare. They were the most powerful of all forms of hollows. A mere 5th seat, hell even a third seat couldn't take it down. A Captain would even have trouble defeating one. Clenching her fist tightly, Yukiko shook her head to get rid of her thought so she could focus on at least injuring the woman. This was going to be one hell of a time. Sprinting towards Koichi and the Vastoroode, she stopped before reaching Koichi's side. Positioning herself once more, she whispered a kidou chant.

"Hadou 4: White Lighting." She aimed the lighting slightly to avoid damaging the now awaken Koichi. Aiming it at the Arrancar's head, Yukiko let out a small breath.

[Shdo]

"Pretty? Aesthetically pleasant? Your tail look like a worm wiggling around, its completely useless and play no role beyond you grooming it in order to ignore the loneliness of your life. And this wasn’t a request…I am telling you to do that."

As the branch entered the field of gravity it became heavy and plumed to the ground, "and you ARE puny…hairless monkeys…no fur, no scales, no feathers and no exoskeleton…what the hell were you thinking? Not to mention you put your genitals outside of your body…stupid design for stupid creatures…get me out of here, i am the only shinigami that is able to do half fight around here…"

A thought came into his mind, Ezzo was able to hold his own only because of his lack of fear from death and pain…the rest will scream in pain from flesh wounds such as losing an arm…"Wolf, you know that the cat girl is a trained assassin…you should make sure she doesn't go around freely…"

[Dizzy]

Koichi gave the vastoroode a steely-eyed glower, gritting his teeth as she moved in close enough his pat his cheek. He knew that if the hollow wanted it, their entire team would be dead in a second. So far, she and her friend had appeared to be toying with them. But their interests could change quickly, and they could decide to kill as soon as they become bored.

Luckily, Himura had the sense to tell Maine to request backup. That decision could potentially save all of their lives. But now, he had a choice to make. What would be most likely to keep his team alive? He could stall for time until a captain arrived ... or he could demand that his team vacate the area immediately and then hold the vastoroode off for as long as possible by himself.

The question with the second one was whether she would find his team more interesting prey than him, but seeing as she'd gone out of her way just to rile him up, adding in the factor that he was easily the strongest on their side, it probably wouldn't be the case. He made his decision.

"Everyone," he barked dangerously, electricity in his voice, "get out of here, right now. This is an order from your team leader and superior officer. Take Miyazaki, find the other three, and run in the opposite direction from Karakura. We don't want them chasing us into the city at any cost."

The entire time, his attention was riveted on the vastoroode standing dangerously close to him. Abruptly, he raised his knee, aiming for her stomach, and at the same time, slashed down hard with his sword.

Without a pause, he put his free hand over his zanpakuto's guard. "Purge, Gattaca!"

The blade shone brilliantly with a vivid white light that surrounded it, hiding it from view entirely, while it shrank and at the same time, appeared to split in two.

When the light faded, Koichi's zanpakuto had become a wakazashi, but its most distinguishing new feature was the chrome machine gun-like apparatus now mounted onto the guard, protruding at a 45-degree angle. His reiatsu frothed and flared up, tossing dirt and branches like a slowly growing windstorm.

He reiterated his instructions. "Everybody leave, now."

[Mystic Serenade]

Mai

She looked at Kotone, oh he's just insulting us again, I think we should sit still, pardon me again."

"My life is a happy one thanks you very much, and I wouldn't expect someone of your fugliness to understand what is aesthetically pleasant," she stuck her tongue out at the lizard, clearly taking advantage of his immobile state. "And blah blah blah, like I care about that stuff, and for your information, I as a female have my genitalia located on the inside of my body, go back to school and take proper sex ed or something, noob! I bet your mama just abandoned you as an egg huh, like all them lizards do. And I don't have to take orders from someone as stupid as you, nyah nyah," she kept her tongue out and added waving hand gestures at the side of her face.

"Don't worry wolf man, the Lizard lies. I won't do anything to you so just stay over there kay!"

Wolf

He just stared at the group in front of him, and wondered what insane asylum they crawled out of. O God...I hope she's have a better time than I'm having right now...

Masaki

"Well well well, aren't you the noble fella. Lets see how long you hold up this..." she felt another bolt of lightning come dangerously close to her head and she jumped back, luckily in time to also dodge the knee to the gut and slash of the victim she picked out. "Girl I see you still don't have any manners, but here you can have this back now," she tossed the zanpakuto at the girl's feet.

She watched the man call out his zanpakuto's name. "Just shikai huh? Well suppose that's the best I can expect from you." She got into a fighting stance. "Show me what you got."

[Aoi Innocence]

Picking up her za-panktou that was now in front of her, Yukiko smirked and sheathed the sword back into the sheath that was located on her left side. Remembering Koichi's orders, she quickly turned her back and walked slowly.

"Are sure?" She asked Koichi. Even if the orders were to retreat, what if Koichi died during battle? She would feel terrible for even leaving him in the first place. Just leaving comrades to battle an enemy that could killed them right then and there was worst than death itself to Yukiko. Abandoning comrades was an order Yukiko would disobey. She couldn't let anyone die if she had the chance to help them. She just couldn't.

[Shdo]

"Well, your gender got that pair of milk humps in the front, just as bad as the male organs, swinging around as you run, stretching down as you get old...yeah! you are 'much' better then the male counterpart...that was sarcasem, i guess you couldnt tell because of my voice, but its there," He bite at the air in the direction of Mai, his response to her tounge.

"Wolf, is that other attacker a friend of yours?" Ezzo started to get used to the gravity thing, it wasn't that bad, but he was still stuck. Sure he could stand but if he will try to walk that will mean that all the weight will be on one leg and that cant be good.
He should have left a 'finger' in his quarters at the 6th division, then he could have informed Ito or shinji that there is a problem...he mentally noted this to himself.

[Unicorn]

Well... Koichi seemed to want to sacrifice himself so the group could live.

"I agree with Hiyashiwa-san, Sir. After you, there's nothing stopping her attacking us." Sayuri spoke up. She hated disobeying direct orders, but she also hated leaving someone to die.

"I would prefer a group attack."

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru turned his gaze back to where Koichi-san and the Arrancar were. Yes, he'd heard their acting leader's orders loud and clear, but he wasn't at all comfortable with them. It was along the same lines of what Hiyashiwa-san and Himura-san were thinking; abandoning a team mate in a battle where they would most likely die didn't sit well with him and he would not do it. Despite the fact that he'd been fooled once and injured twice, he had also recieved the proper treatment and could now continue to fight. He moved up to where Hiyashiwa-san and Koichi-san were standing. "I offer my apologies in advance. But we can't leave you to fight her all by yourself, let alone that strange Wolf. Let us stay and help."

Kotone could tell there was some sort of heated discussion going on between Mai and Ezzo, but he couldn't understand Ezzo's side of the conversation. But judging from Mai's enraged words, he decided that perhaps he really didn't want to know. When he saw the opportunity to cut in, he looked at the Wolf. "Hey. What did you want to talk to us about? Mai can tell me whatever you say, so start talking."

[DarkPulsar]

Erin turned to Koichi. "With all due respect sir, we all have a much better chance of surviving if we work together here. If she wants us, there's no way you can stop her from getting to us. Running isn't really an option. We should all stay and fight, and hope reinforcements arrive on time." It took every ounce of resolve to calm herself down, but somehow she managed. Her first mission, and here she was standing up against, and about to fight a vastorode, an enemy which captains may not survive. She knew the odds, but neither was she going to let anyone die if she could help it.


"I've already sent for reinforcements. Hopefully they get here on time. If they don't, at least we won't die alone," she said with a morbidly grim smile on her face.

[Mystic Serenade]

Wolf

"Yes, she is a friend of mine," and to you up there in the tree, "I have nothing to say to you except don't get in the way unless you're feeling brave."

Mai
"I'm in the springtime of youth baby, don't gotta worry about that stuff for another few millennia kekeke."

She relayed the wolf thing's message to Kotone, "Wolf thing says just don't get in the way. I think we're safe for now yes yes. Though I guess we should let the others know we're just standing here at the moment."

[Dizzy]

Koichi's eyes narrowed - he appreciated the sentiment, but now was definitely not the time. What was the point of staying to fight a vastoroode? Even a captain would probably fall to these monsters, them alone wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.

"Look," he said, frustrated by his team now, "this vastoroode is going to kill any of us who decides to face it, and right now, she's only interested in fighting me. Better that the rest of you have a chance to survive than if we all die here."

He raised his voice, to the point where he was almost shouting. "Don't you guys understand?! You won't be saving my life by fighting here, you'll just be throwing your own away! Playing the hero is useless if all of us die for it!"

Koichi's voice became low, but still crystal clear to everybody in the clearing, almost acidic. "I am ordering all of you to leave, right now. Don't make me repeat myself again."

His reiatsu output picked up, creating currents of wind that encircled his position, as he pointed the gun end of his zanpakuto towards the vastoroode.

[OOC: Get outta here, plot requires you guys to move on.]

[Shdo]

"Oh is that so..." Ezzo pressed his headset, "This is Ezzo, the enemy agenda isnt to kill anyone, i doubt any of you can actually understand this but the solution is simple, just keep on with the mission, those two are not those who wiped the previous team, their tactic is too diffrent, too brutish, they are distractions..." what the worst thing that would happen? they will die? *yawn*

"And you two on the tree, if you are not planning on helping then continue on the mission and find those 10th division members...earn the oxygen you are consuming, you waste pile of biomass."

[Unicorn]

ooc: Okay guys, from now on, I am going to co-pilot this thread with Dizzy. One of us will be around regularly to feed this, so PM either of us if there are any concerns.

...

Sayuri was extremely unhappy at the decision, but Koichi's tone of voice made it clear he would not accept any further questioning. She reluctantly made the decision to obey.

"Maine." Sayuri spoke quietly. "Relay this update to Seireitei. As per Team Leader's orders, he is sacrificing his life against a Vastroode so we can flee and be safe for the time being."

She stared at her fellow mission members. "We have a direct order." Sayuri announced. "I am not happy but we will obey it and inform Seireitei. Now please move as fast as you can into the forest."

[DarkPulsar]

Erin frowned when she heard the order, but knew better than to disobey. She muttered a disheartened "yes sir" under her breath, and began to run into the forest. The further she got, the less static she head from her headset, until finally she was able to make direct contact with Soul Society.


"Seventh Seat of 4th Division, Erin Maine, reporting in. In case the hell butterfly I sent earlier hasn't arrived yet, we encountered trouble. Communications were down, which is why I sent the butterfly. We encountered a vastorode class arrancar in the forests outside of Karakura Town, where we were deployed as per mission parameters. Currently, Koichi Daisuke, Sixth Seat of 3rd Division is engaged with the enemy, allowing the rest of us to escape. Reinforcements requested. As an update to my earlier report, Miyazaki Kaoru, Third Seat of 11th Division, has been healed, and is in good condition. That is all. Maine, over."


That out of the way, she kept her senses on high alert, to try to make sure the hollow hadn't followed. It was unlikely, but it certainly wouldn't do to be caught unaware.

[Kaoru Miyazaki]

Kaoru sighed defeatedly, but didn't argue further. He resealed Hanamaru into the fan and tucked it into his obi before moving to follow Maine-san into the forest. While running through the trees, he tried to sense where Kotone, Hanazuki-san, Ezzo-san, and the Wolf were. It would be best if they could regroup with the other shinigami and then reach a secure area outside of Karakura together. 'I really don't like this... but it was a direct order...', he kept thinking, trying to dispell the nagging voice in his mind.

[Aoi Innocence]

Clenching her fists, she bit her bottom lip to keep herself from shouting out. There was no point in arguing. Even if all of them died helping it would be better than leaving him to die alone. But..it was Koichi's decision and his decision was final. The action of leaving was killing her inside slowly but, she would have to respect his decision. Turning around she walked slowly to the others.

"Don't die." She whispered softly. Her unclenched fists laid by her side, she let out a small breath and walked a little faster. She was