Chapter 19: Hikaru's Attack (2)

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

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Chapter 19: Hikaru's Attack (2)

Following the groups short respite Hikaru signaled for them to continue traversing the woodlands. The resurgence of thick smog and the pungent smell of iron had put them on edge once again. 

Hikaru tugged Hirato by the collar and dragged him to his side, taking in the unnerving sight of herbage surrounding him no matter where he looked. If someone managed to catch them off guard here, picking at least one of them off wouldn't be a tall task. 

"Lieutenant? Is something the matter?" The medic had noticed that Hikaru appeared to be more frugal than before, something in the air had changed. The others were most likely oblivious to it, but the officer was well aware. 

"Hirato, your Bakudo skills, how good are they?" The grip on his hilt tightened, he spared a single glance to the healer, hoping he wouldn't be completely reliant on him for survival. 

Anything could happen in the heat of battle after all. 

'Someone's here, but another powerful presence is clouding my senses, not good' 

"I can do up to the 40's level, why?" Hikaru didn't expect someone as green as Hirato to have already reached the 40's, but at the moment it was a most welcome surprise. 

"Good, be prepared to use them" He responded with a nervous gulp and a brief nod, clenching his puffer bag as they continued to march forward. 

Snap! 

Hikaru's pupils contracted upon hearing the sound of someone's foot crushing a small twig. Void of hesitation, he grabbed Hirato and pushed him downwards. 

Boom! 

An invisible force crashed against the timber behind the medic, bits of bark exploding into small fragments. Had Hikaru not acted in time, the small segments of lumber would have most likely taken the place of Hirato's skull. 

"Lieutenant!" His subordinates called out, he attempted to signal for them to raise their defense, but his words were drowned out by a shrill cackling sound before he could get the message across.

Unfortunately two of his underlings were struck with a swift streak of pale blue lightning to the temple. Hirato's face paled in horror as he watched their bodies helplessly fall upon the soil. 

'Shit!' 

Almost instinctively, Hirato tried to sprint towards the fallen duo before a pulling force kept him locked in place, he craned his neck only to see the Lieutenant shaking his head reluctantly. 

"Leave it, they're dead" The medic grit his teeth in frustration, he had been brought here to keep these people alive. What use was he if he couldn't even enact his one purpose? 

Still reluctant to unhand Hirato, the Lieutenant poured all his effort into locating the attacker, cursing whoever they were inwardly for their cowardice. 

The environment was most certainly not on the Shinigami's side today. 

"Are you Yachiru!?" He bellowed. 

All he got in response was a low cackle that eerily echoed throughout the forest, the voice seemed to be coming from all directions, his vision was too obscured by the cluster of trees to pinpoint where it was coming from. 

"Yachiru? If I was Yachiru…" The screams of his juniors assaulted his ears as he quickly unsheathed his Zanpakuto, his head throbbed as he heard the rustling of litter coming directly from behind him. 

"You'd already be dead by now" The voice proclaimed. 

Their blades grated against one another, finally he was able to get a good look at his opponent. 

It was a man with spiky ashen hair, scarlet eyes and a rather toned figure. His garments were somewhat similar to his save for the lack of red lining, but that manic smile of his gave him the impression of a borderline lunatic.

"Do you even know who we are!?" He barked, the aggressor responded by merely shifting his pupils to the russet badge strapped onto Hikaru's arm. 

"Soul Reapers right? Are you also a Lieutenant?" His tone suggested that he was familiar with them, but if that was the case— where on earth did he get the confidence to attack them so brazenly? 

"Knowing that you'd still attack us!?" Whoever this was, clearly wasn't right in the head. 

"Of course, after all you made Yachiru grumpy—" Before he could finish his eyes shot to the right, picking up on the sight of one of Hikaru's remaining subordinates aiming their palm towards him, his mouth clearly moving as he did so. 

"Tch" He clicked his lips as his foot struck Hikaru in the gut, allowing him to distance himself from the Soul Reaper as he positioned himself.

And just like the wind, he flickered out of his existence, Hikaru's eyes could barely keep up with the man's movements.

'The hell is up with that agility? He moves like a Shihōin!' 

He could briefly hear the audible cries of his peers, before their wailing duly faded out into silence, save for Hirato it was safe to assume the last of his squadmates had finally perished. 

Not that they would have been of much use against whoever this was in the first place, especially when having to fight in such difficult terrain. 

"As I was saying, I'm the one who has to endure her moodiness, if you were in my shoes you'd be doing the exact same thing" Hikaru couldn't even begin to figure out what he was referring to, but at least one thing had been made clear. 

This person had some sort of relation to Yachiru, he was bound to have been their enemy regardless. 

"Honestly I'm not sure why someone of your caliber bothered to come here. You're after her, correct? Even if you used your Shikai scratching her would be nothing short of an impossible feat" 

'He knows about Shikai as well? He's speaking as if he's fought Shinigami before!' 

From what their intel had stated, Yachiru always fought alone. They were well aware of her position within the Roamers, but they also knew her rank was more of a vanity. 

She didn't really care much for the fate of her subordinates, they had taken plenty of their members hostage but hadn't gotten so much as a word from the woman herself.

The notion of encountering someone else near her alleged residence hadn't even crossed his mind. 

They had gravely underestimated Yachiru's prowess, effortlessly doing away with a 3rd Seat didn't even begin to do her true strength justice. Notwithstanding, Hikaru had more pressing matters to worry about, the crunching of fallen litter had become audible once more.

This time his attack was aimed at Hirato rather than Hikaru, the latter promptly snatched him away but couldn't prevent the ashen-clad figure from cutting into Hirato's ribcage. 

The young prodigy started to drag his palm closer to the wound before being interrupted by Hikaru quickly snatching his wrist. 

He reduced his voice to a whisper in order to prevent his opponent from hearing him. 

"Endure it, if he sees your ability there's a chance that he might exclusively target you. Just wrap it up with some bandages and soldier through it, got it?" Hirato reluctantly nodded as he reached into his puffer bag and groggily tended to his injury.

Hikaru quickly rushed over to a distant tree, gently setting the medic down as he allowed his Reiryoku to surge forth— uncaring of whatever attention he might attract. 

As long as he could get the assailant to focus him down instead of Hirato, all would be well. 

"Too slow" Just as quickly as he could disappear, he flickered in front of Hikaru. Punting him in the wrist and forcing his Zanpakuto to fly out of his hands, causing his armament to embed itself in the nearby soil as he prepared to finish off the Shinigami. 

But the Lieutenant wasn't completely helpless just yet, he managed to duck beneath his aggressor's swing and elbow him in the gut, pushing the wind out of his lungs momentarily as he clenched his abdomen in agony. 

The opening allowed the officer to pummel Koda with a roundhouse to the chest, knocking him backwards and allowing Hikaru to retrieve his sword. 

'Hand to hand combat? Can't say I was expecting that…' 

Hikaru had managed to catch him off guard once, but there wouldn't be a second time. 

Koda's attention fell upon the sight of Hirato tying his waist whilst unbeknownst to both Koda and Hikaru, murmuring something as he did so. 

'Hm, he's awfully protective of the little guy, perhaps it's worth a shot?' 

Upon noticing Koda's intent, Hikaru did just as the former expected and rushed over to defend his comrade, or at least he tried. The difference in speed between the two combatants was simply too large, Koda swung his Asauchi down expecting to be met with the sensation of tearing into the small figures' flesh. 

But instead the alloy of his blade touched upon a revolving blue sphere of energy that hovered in front of Hirato. Unohana had already taught him what that was, he admonished himself for his brashness as he prepared for what was to come.

'Fuck!' 

Koda braced himself as he felt the impact assault each and every bone in his body, both himself and Hirato were entrapped in a large cloud of dust following the azure light. 

'I'm pretty sure that was Seki, but how dense does his Reiryoku have to be to be able to deflect a head on attack from me?' 

Trying to take advantage of Hirato's surprise attack, Hiraku positioned himself behind Koda with the brunt of his hand aimed directly at his torso. The air began to heat up as a blistering sensation radiated from the Lieutenant's presence. 

"Hadō #31: Shakkahō!" 

Hiraku's palm erupted in a crimson beam-like flame, shooting towards Koda as if it wanted to burn every last fragment of his being into ash. 

'That's a powerful spell alright, but without a proper incantation it isn't strong enough to overpower my Reiryoku!' 

Koda clasped his hands together as an ivory hue gradually began to illuminate from his skin. A faint smirk crept up his face as he prepared to match the flames head on. 

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa" 

A luminescent rope extended from his fingers, snapping like a whip and sending the cluster of Reiryoku that had been hurriedly jammed in the Hadō into disarray. 

The spell's true purpose was to latch onto the opponent and directly restrict their movements. But Koda had a tendency to get— creative, to say the least. 

As the dust began to clear Koda's attention was caught by the sound of hurried footsteps coming his way, Hirato somehow thought that rushing at him head-first was in any way a good idea, or at least that's what it looked like. 

Koda's trained eyes were able to spot a faint light seeping through the crevices of Hirato's interlocked fingers, that alone wasn't nearly enough for him to identify the spell he was planning to use, but spotting it alone was enough for him to intercept it. 

He vanished from Hirato's vision and prepared to plunge his Asauchi straight through his torso. 

"Crush, Tankyū-sha" 

With seemingly break-neck speed, a chain wrapped around the medic's torso and yanked him back to Hikaru's side before the tip of Koda's Asauchi could so much as graze Hirato's skin. 

"So you finally decided to use it…" Koda found it strange that Hikaru had taken this long to activate his Shikai.

'Is there perhaps some sort of drawback that I could take advantage of?' 

Hikaru's Zanpakuto had remodeled itself into a blood-red sickle connected by a drab chain, Koda couldn't even begin to guess what its ability was, but the immense bloodlust that oozed out of the weapon meant it wasn't to be trifled with. 

'I don't remember Tomio's Shikai being this sinister…have I underestimated him?' 

"Hirato" He looked up to the Lieutenant who seemed to be utterly brimming with wrath, his bangs covered his eyes but Hirato felt as if he was better off not seeing them in the first place. 

"Yes?"

"Leave" He ordered. 

The real fight had begun.