5 The Monkey and the Iron Fist

[Bleach Ost- Breakthrough Even]

Bikou emerged from the explosion bleeding from his head.

' That blast was powerful, but-' As Bikou watched Kensei emerge from the smoke, he took note of the bruise on Kensei's jaw. ' He took about as much damage as I did.' He narrowed his eyes at Kensei's fists. ' Those blades are a problem.'

Bikou rushed towards Kensei.

Kensei brushed off the damage done to him and met Bikou headstrong. ' Ughn! This guy's powerful. How did something this strong sneak up on us?' He wondered. Kensei could feel the power of the Hollow's punches even through his armor, which was nothing to scoff at. 

Bikou bawled his fist up and tried punching Kensei, only for Kensei to block it with his left arm. Kensei returned the favor by punching Bikou right in his chest, resulting in another explosion, that engulfed Bikou.

Bikou went flying backwards, and Kensei chased after. As Kensei closed in, he tried to punch the Hollow, however, Bikou managed to jump over Kensei's fist just before it landed.

Bikou brought his feet up to his chest, and started spinning sideways, like a tornado. Bikou used both of his legs as weapons, forcing Kensei to use his arms to block the attacks.

Each leg managed to knock one of Kensei's arms down, and once his head was exposed, Bikou followed up, by slamming the palm of his hand on the back of Kensei's head, knocking him into the ground face first.

Bikou, then raised a finger and pointed it right at Kensei. Red energy quickly gathered at the tip of his finger, before being fired out like an explosive red beam.

" A cero?!" Kensei muttered.

Kensei got up quickly, just as the beam was reaching him and slammed one of his fists right into the center of the cero, splitting the beam in half with his Tekken Tachikaze.

Kensei grit his teeth in slight pain.

' This Cero is different from any Cero I've seen before.' He noted. ' The pressure, the speed he fired it, even the density is different from a normal Hollows.' 

At the same time, Bikou was impressed that Kensei was able to not only block his cero, but completely overpower it with his bladed knuckles. 

' He actually stopped my cero. This guy is awesome! I can't believe the soul society is full of strong guys like this. I'm gonna need to switch it up... Just a little.' 

Bikou smirked and ended his cero, before staring Kensei down.

The two men locked eyes and waited for the next to make an attack. 

" Damn, you are one tough bastard." Kensei muttered. " Time to switch things up a bit." 

Bikou watched as Kensei's knuckle blades changed shape into two tiny, spiked brass knuckles. 

" So, we're done with the warmup, huh? Alright. Let's go!"

Bikou and Kensei rushed each other again. This time, their fists collided together, sending out another shockwave. However, despite seemingly being an equal to Kensei, Bikou noticed that his fist was the one being beaten back.

'What is this?!' He wondered. The moment Kensei's fist landed Bikou noticed a continuous sharp pain in his arm, that reverberated throughout his entire body. ' It's almost as if, something is hammering my arm repeatedly. Damn. It hurts!' 

Kensei smirked as he stared at the genuine confusion and look of pain on his opponent's face.

" Confused? Let me explain. My sword Tachikaze can send out multiple lines, that explode. My Bankai crams all those explosions into my gauntlets." Kensei explained. 

Bikou's arm finally dropped, and Kensei took a deep step forward, slipping past his guard.

" Those explosions...." Kensei muttered. He then slammed his fist right into Bikou's chest. " Continue to hammer whatever my fist is touching an infinite number of times!"

Bikou felt his chest being hammered repeatedly by Kensei's explosions. 

' Damn!' Bikou clenched his teeth as blood began spilling from his mouth. Realizing the danger he was in, Bikou raised a finger towards Kensei's gut and fired a cero point blank, sending Kensei careening backwards.

Mashiro, who sat still on the sideline, watched in amazement as Kensei battled the Hollow. She found herself struggling to keep up with the two, but with what she could see, she was beyond amazed. 

Kensei quickly recovered from the blast and jumped straight for the Hollow.

Bikou, now knowing that he couldn't afford to stay in contact with those fists for too long, had an idea. A crazy one, but an idea, nonetheless.

He began charging a cero within the palm of his hand. 

He needed something to take Kensei off guard, a normal Cero wouldn't do it. That much was clear. Kensei was too experienced in dealing with Hollows to be taken out by a normal Cero. But this wouldn't be a normal Cero. 

The Cero was fully formed and ready to fire, but that wasn't Bikou's goal. Instead, the perfect sphere quickly began to change shape.

However, Kensei was getting close as well.

Bikou jumped backwards to gain distance on Kensei and continued working his craft. 

' Let's see how he handles this!'

Bikou changed his cero into a serrated disk and started making it spin. He then threw the spinning disk right at Kensei as he got closer.

Kensei's eyes widened in surprise, as he had never seen a Hollow change how a Cero looked before this. 

" What the hell?!" Kensei exclaimed. He stopped and raised his arms to block the cero as it approached. However, he hadn't prepared himself for what exactly followed. 

The spinning disk crashed against Kensei's hardened armor and bounced. It hadn't cut through the Bankai as Bikou had hoped, but its change of trajectory did allow it to slip partially past Kensei's guard and cut him across the chest. " Gah, Damn it!" Kensei cursed.

But it wasn't over just yet. 

Once the cero cut Kensei's chest, it bounced up and over his body, slipping past him. 

Kensei's eyes returned to Bikou.

' What's he doing?' He wondered. Kensei watched as Bikou grinned ear to ear and extended a hand towards him.

A bright light then began to appear behind Kensei, and it was at that point Kensei realized the Cero hadn't exploded yet. 

' SHIT!' Kensei cursed himself as the Cero suddenly expanded and exploded right behind him, swallowing his entire body in the blast. 

"KENSEI!" Mashiro screamed out in terror as the man was suddenly swallowed up in smoke and fire. 

Kensei was left lying in a crater, blood seeping from multiple parts of his body. 

" Kensei!" Mashiro yelled the man's name once more. 

Hearing her calling for him, Kensei rose from the smoke-filled crater, his entire body singing in pain. " Damn you, Hollow. Just what the hell are you?"

" I am Bikou. And I have to admit, you are the strongest foe I have ever faced." Bikou told the man. While not showing it outwardly, Bikou was heavily injured by Kensei's earlier attack. The continuous explosions that hammered his arm and stomach did an untold amount of damage to the Monkey.

Bikou and Kensei stared each other down, preparing themselves to engage once more, when suddenly they both felt a powerful spiritual pressure converging on them.

" Strike and sever! Raiga!" A powerful voice yelled out.

A flash of lightning appeared in Bikou's eyes before a searing pain engulfed his entire body.

" GAAAAAAAH!"

 Bikou hit the ground hard, gasping in pain as lightning surged through his body.

' What happened?!' He wondered. ' Who did that?'

Bikou lifted his eyes towards his foe, and realized who it was that attacked him.

Landing right behind Kensei, in the nick of time, was the captain of squad 9, himself, Koga Kirigane the lightning blade.

" Kensei, you got beat up pretty badly." Koga spoke. " Your opponent must have been a tough one."

" Yeah." Kensei muttered. 

" You're good Kensei, but you should step aside for now. I'll handle this Hollow."

Koga stepped past Kensei, who reverted out of his Bankai, and stood in front of Bikou.

" HM!" Bikou stared up at Koga and grinned. The pain that coursed through his body sung a song of power that beat throughout his body. " You must be his captain... Right?" Bikou asked.

Koga's eyes widened in surprise. " A hollow that can talk? That's a first. Why did you come here?"

" I came looking for a challenge. And I must say, you certainly did not fail to meet my expectations. Kensei. I'll remember this day for the rest of my life, and I'll use it to grow even stronger." 

Koga laughed. " Oh man, that's pretty funny. But you must be crazy if you think I'm gonna let you just leave."

" Hah! You think you have what it takes to stop me?! Give it your best shot!" Bikou exclaimed. Bikou raised his finger and pointed it at Koga, charging a cero right at the tip of his finger. 

" Strike and sever! Raiga!" Koga's sword turned into a bolt of lightning, and he hurtled it right at Bikou.

Bikou changed the direction of his cero and pointed it right at the ground. and fired, creating a large explosion.

Koga's eyes widened and he rushed into the smoke with a bolt of lightning in his hand in the shape of a sword.

But when he cleared the smoke with his speed, Bikou was gone.

" Damn it! Kensei, quickly get the others and search the area, we-"

" CAPTAIN!" Mashiro yelled.

Koga looked back at Mashiro and Kensei and watched as Mashiro held the man up with her own body.

" Kensei's hurt!" She yelled.

Kensei was still suffering from the blood he lost during his fight and had finally reached a point where he could hardly stand on his own two feet.

Koga grit his teeth and for a moment, regret hit him like a wave. However, he still had a job to do, and that was make sure his people made it out alive. 

Koga turned back and grabbed both Kensei and Mashiro and rushed them out of the forest as fast as he could to take them both to see Unohana, the soul societies greatest healer.

' What the hell, was that Hollow?' 

.................

Meanwhile, Bikou crash landed on the dusty plains of Hueco Mundo, a lightning bolt jammed right in his stomach. 

" Hgn!" Bikou groaned. 

At the last moment, the explosion from the cero diverted the trajectory of Koga's lightning bolt forcing it to go up into Bikou's bone armor, instead of hitting the small area of flesh that was left uncovered by his armor. 

Bikou's breathing was heavy and hoarse. Every inch of his body ached as if lightning was surging through him.

And yet, despite being so very close to death, Bikou smiled. He smiled and laughed. He laughed like a maniac, realizing he could still become so much stronger.

" Thank you, Kensei... Captain. I think I know how I'm gonna get stronger." Bikou muttered.

" Ehaaaaaaaar!"

Suddenly a large group of Hollows started converging on Bikou's position.

Noticing them coming, Bikou laughed. 

" You think, because I'm injured and because I'm outnumbered.... That you can crush me? Hehahahaha! Think again." Bikou, despite his injuries, pulled himself up to his feet. " 

Bikou formed two ceros in his hands and started merging them together, taking inspiration from both Kensei and Koga, and shaping his two ceros, until they straightened out into one long pole. 

" Haaaaaaaah!" Bikou groaned. " Alright now, bring it on!" Bikou yelled. He jumped into the group of Hollows, swinging his staff back and forth, slamming every Hollow it touched with the blunt force of a cero.

Bikou's new weapon was powerful, and with it he continued chopping, pushing through the Hollows one by one. A new fire lit within his stomach.

..........................