14 Growl, Haineko.

Chapter fourteen.

''Hm, you're not going to run like your friend there?'' A bald… Shaved soul reaper questioned his opponent, pointing towards the figure of Ganju Shiba who appeared to be running away from the place.

''Hey, you, get back here!'' Ganju wasn't alone though, since giving him chase was yet another soul reaper, with a feminine looking appearance. The soul reaper in question was Yumichika Ayasegawa, the fifth seat of squad eleven.

His appearance made him stand out from your average soul reaper, since he had colorful feathers on his right eyelashes. This alongside his purple eyes and jaw-length black hair made him an easily recognizable figure.

Yumichika and Ganju didn't stay there for much longer, both of them disappearing in the distance as one gave chase to the other.

''I don't have time to waste.'' His opponent replied, said person was no other than the substitute soul reaper Ichigo Kurosaki. ''I'll beat you and move on, I'm sure Ganju can handle your friend too.''

''Oh? Is that so?'' The baldie shinigami questioned, smirking at the words of the intruder. ''Those are some strong words, let's see if you can back them up then.''

Ichigo didn't offer him a verbal answer, allowing his actions to speak for themselves and wielding his massive zanpakuto in front of him.

''…'' Ichigo released his spiritual pressure, forming a blue aura around him while his own brown eyes adopted that same glow. ''Like I said, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll have to make things quick.''

''... It appears that you are more than just words.'' The shaved man noted while his gaze turned considerably more serious, drawing his blade and pointing it at his enemy. ''I'm the third seat from squad eleven, Ikakku Madarame!''

'Third seat, huh?' Ichigo thought, until now he didn't have no one to compare himself to aside from Kuromiya. 'He has a strong spiritual pressure, but I think I can handle him.'

''What's wrong? Aren't you going to tell me your name?'' Ikkaku inquired while meeting his opponent eye to eye. ''It's proper etiquette in a fight, after all.''

''Ichigo Kurosaki.'' The orange haired teenager replied, lifting his sword slightly as he prepared himself to launch the first blow of the fight.

No more words were exchanged between them, the two opponents charged at the other while swinging their sword simultaneously, clashing against the other while their blades released the sound of screeching metal.

. . .

''The landing wasn't as bad as I expected.'' Ishida noted, hiding alongside his two classmates while using a small group of trees as cover. ''I guess we have to thank you for that, Sado.''

''Ishida's right! You saved the two of us there, Sado-kun!'' Orihime complimented their friend, after all it was the big teenager who had tanked the fall while acting as some sort of shield for them.

''You don't have to thank me for that.'' Chad replied while glancing towards one of the streets not too far away from them. It had been fortunate that the group had been able to find a few trees in which they could hide, since most of the streets all around them were flooding with shinigamis. ''But it looks like we got separated from the rest.''

''It can't be helped.'' Ishida added, fixing his glasses while looking at all the movement that their arrival had caused. ''I don't think we will be able to move for a while either, we will have to wait until things calm down a little.''

. . .

''Yoruichi, do you feel it too?'' Kuromiya talked to the black cat, both of them had been running for almost an entire hour since their fight. Their current predicament was that the unmistakable spiritual pressure of a strong person was approaching them, and judging by its overall size it couldn't be anything less than a lieutenant.

''I do.'' The woman answered, both of them coming to a stop in the middle of an empty street. Their current location was somewhere around west side of the Seireitei, and considering that there wasn't much people there it meant that most of the soul reapers had been allocated around the center of the place. ''It has to be a lieutenant, and considering the speed at which it's approaching us, I don't think we can run without revealing our own spiritual pressure.''

In a normal situation it wouldn't have been a problem for neither of them to outrun the person behind them, but if either of them released too much spiritual pressure while doing so it would be like screaming to all the captains to come and get them.

''Hm… A lieutenant, huh?'' Kuromiya muttered, since he hadn't ever met any of the lieutenants in person, it wasn't possible for him to recognize them from their spiritual pressure alone. ''I can handle it if you want, unless the person is suppressing itself I should be able to handle such an opponent.''

''It's up to you.'' Yoruichi told the teenager, she was confident that nothing short of a captain would be enough to pressure them to run. ''But keep in mind that we can't afford to have a long fight either, otherwise there's no point in stopping here.''

''I will deal with it, somehow.'' Kuromiya assured her while facing the direction from which the spiritual pressure was approaching. ''You can move on and make sure there is no one near the area, I will catch up once I am done with this.''

''… Alright, but if you think you can't win then just run.'' Yoruichi replied after some seconds of consideration, even though it didn't sit well with her leaving him to fight someone like a lieutenant, it was still the more reasonable approach. ''You and Ichigo can't lose if we want to get Rukia back.''

''What is that supposed to mean? I will beat whoever is coming and move on, end of the question.'' He replied with a slight smirk. And so, Kuromiya was left alone at the empty street while waiting for his opponent to show up.

. . .

''… What was that light in the sky this morning?'' The voice of Kuchiki Rukia echoed inside the empty tower, her worries had only grown after such an unprecedented event.

''From in here, I can't feel any spiritual energy.'' She muttered, clenching her hand into a fist while her brows furrowed in visible frustration. ''Could it really be…?''

The words that Renji had told her a few days ago were more than enough to stir doubts inside her mind. It could be that her friend was just messing with her and attempting to get a reaction out of her, but for some reason she didn't think that was the case.

''Ichigo…'' Rukia felt revolted at the thought of people like Kuromiya and Ichigo being in such a dangerous place. ''… Akihiko, please don't be here.''

. . .

''Well… This sure is a pleasant surprise.'' Kuromiya smirked as his opponent arrived at their soon to be battlefield. ''I wasn't expecting a cutie like you to be our stalker.''

[Hidden quest completed:

Meet Rangiku Matsumoto.

Reward: 250 I.P]

Right in front of his eyes was Rangiku Matsumoto, the lieutenant of squad ten. This woman was not only quite strong, but also happened to be one of the most beautiful soul reapers that you could find inside the Seireitei.

She was a young woman with long and wavy orange hair and a small beauty mark just under the right side of her mouth. Her shihakusho did little to hide her curvaceous figure and big breasts that forced more than one male to shift their gaze towards. Her last two garments were a pink haired scarf and a thin golden necklace tucked in between her cleavage.

''I wasn't expecting this either.'' Rangiku talked after a while, she had been looking around them as if looking for something too. ''Where's the other one?''

''No need to be so on the edge, I can assure you no one is around here.'' Kuromiya told her, noticing that the orange haired woman seemed worried due to the fact she couldn't spot the last person she was feeling. ''If I wanted to ambush you, I would have done it already.''

''… Oh? You are a bit too confident, don't you think?'' She questioned with a slight smile, the careless behavior of the young man in front of her was difficult to miss. ''You shouldn't take me too lightly.''

''Believe me, I am not.'' He assured her, meeting her smile with one of his own. ''Although I would love to keep talking, I can't really afford to spend much more time here since you have been flaring your spiritual pressure around.''

''Mhm, I wouldn't mind talking a bit more though.'' Rangiku countered, her smile widening despite the fact that her intentions had been discovered. ''You could keep me company a little longer, at least until my captain and the rest of our squad arrives.''

''Sorry, but I am not one for double dates.'' Kuromiya replied, drawing his sword with a swift movement. ''… So I will have to cancel, I'm afraid.''

[Side quest obtained:

You know what they say, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Make them jiggle.

Reward for defeating her: 1200 I.P]

'I swear to God I will find a way to mute your ass, system.' Kuromiya replied inside his mind, but he prepared himself to fulfill the quest nonetheless.

Kuromiya disappeared from the spot, closing the more than ten meters of distance in a single motion. Now in front of her, he decided to make the first strike against her and with a quick movement from his right hand, he made an upwards slash at her.

Rangiku wasn't a lieutenant by name though, and in that mere window of less than a second she was able to draw her zanpakuto and block the blow with her own blade. Still, the momentum that Kuromiya had built up with his Bringer Light allowed him to send the girl back, her feet sliding on the ground as she was forced to move away.

''And here I was having such a good time talking to you…'' Rangiku told him, now able to stop herself from losing too much ground.

''I am sure your captain would enjoy having a talk with me too.'' Kuromiya added, attacking once again while closing the distance for a second time. This time however, Rangiku didn't limit herself to blocking and decided to go for a counter attack too.

The blue eyed boy decided to strike once again, this time aiming at her jugular but she parried the blow by holding her sword vertically. Yet again, she found herself feeling her hands tremble due to the amount of strength behind her opponent's blows.

Their battle raged on despite the difficulties that she was having, and for each attack that the teenager unleashed against her, she would meet the strike with one of her own, which ended up forcing them to a somewhat even position.

Just when the fight appeared to be at some sort of stalemate, Kuromiya's preparation were finally over. Due to the fact that she had been defending herself and pushed back, the woman wasn't allowed to decide the overall direction of the fight, and so her opponent had deliberately pushed her towards a certain point.

Their current positing determined that by the next hit she would end up with no space to retreat towards, her path blocked by a wall.

And so it happened, after blocking another hit no more than a few seconds later, her back crashed against that same wall. Rangiku had just deflected one of his strikes, but unfortunately for her the strength behind the blow was more than enough to throw her hand back too.

'Got you.' Kuromiya thought, unleashing a strike that the woman wouldn't be able to counter. Just when his sword was millimeters away from piercing her skin, she disappeared from the spot with a flash step.

His sword sliced nothing more than thin air, the presence of the woman behind him revealing that she was now at his blind spot. Rangiku didn't wait, this was her chance after all and so she lunged towards his unprotected opponent, stabbing with her sword towards him.

However, just before she made contact her eyes widened in surprise. She had not only missed the decisive strike, but Kuromiya had also disappeared from the spot, leaving nothing but a trail of green light behind him, mimicking her own movement from before.

Now once again against the wall like she had been a moment ago, the woman didn't have to look back in order to know that his opponent was behind her, completely unprotected for the next counter attack.

The lieutenant felt a sharp pain at her left side, just below her hips, and her opponent's next words just confirmed her thoughts.

''You avoided that well, but that injury should make it difficult to move from now on.'' He pointed out, waving his sword in the air in order to clean it from the blood. ''Give up, this fight is over.''

The beautiful woman furrowed her brows at that, she hadn't really dodged the attack. To her, it felt more like he had slowed his swing just enough to allow her to avoid the fatal blow.

''… Tch.'' Rangiku touched the wound with her free hand while turning towards him, feeling a puddle of blood tainting her hand in nothing but red. ''I guess I can't help it… Growl, Haineko!''

. . .

''Oh, that's interesting.'' Far away from them, the unmistakable voice of the current Kenpachi was heard. The bloodthirsty man was running while searching for the two people that interested him, now coming to a stop to talk with his small lieutenant. ''There's a few fights going on, one of them is fighting Ikkaku and the other… Oh, that woman from squad ten, huh? Let's see how he fares against a lieutenant.''

''I sure hope both of them can manage AT LEAST that much, otherwise it won't be too much fun.'' He ended, a sudden breeze making the bells attached to his hair jingle around.

''Mmm, I don't get it, Ken-chan.'' Yachiru muttered, still hanging from his shoulder. ''How is it you can't sense people's spirit pressure but can tell when they are fighting from far away?''

''Heh.'' He smirked. ''That's because I'm strong.''

. . .

From one jump onto another, Kuromiya was being forced to constantly dodged in order to escape from the wall of ash that approached him. This was the shikai of Rangiku Matsumoto, and it was no pushover either.

Wherever that ash touched, said place was sliced with no apparent resistance, and to top it off, it was also incredibly quick. That didn't mean he was being pressured though, since right now he was appearing and reappearing all over the place.

For each time he used Bringer Light in order to dodge the ash, an afterimage was left on that same spot for a few seconds. Truth be told, Kuromiya felt like he could be able to keep dodging until he was able to find an opening, but there was one problem with that.

'I can feel someone coming.' He thought, while narrowly dodging a stream of ash with a quick turn of his head.

Unfortunately for him it appeared he had underestimated her shikai, although he was able to dodge the main wave of ash with his head movement, some of it managed to graze his forehead. As a result, a decent amount of blood started pouring from the cut, covering his left eye in red.

'The amount of spiritual pressure seems to suggest that it isn't another lieutenant, so I can only guess that Toshiro is coming here very soon.' Despite his new injury, he ignored the pain and finished his line of thought. 'I will need to finish this now.'

'What is up with this guy? He had me before, when he managed to dodge my attack he could have landed a fatal wound on me.' Rangiku thought, her frustration increasing by each time the blue eyed managed to dodge her attacks. 'There is no way he doesn't feel my captain approaching, that was his best chance…'

While Rangiku's head was plagued with doubts regarding the previous events, Kuromiya was close to deciding how to finish this fight. Knowing fully well that he would need to finish the fight before her captain arrived, his necklace started to shine as he whispered a single word.

''Bookmark.'' Then it happened, the moment he had activated bookmark all the patterns that his movements had been following abruptly changed. Before, he had been making a circle all around her while dodging, attempting to find an angle to strike.

Now however, he disregarded all defense and jumped straight towards her.

'What is he doing!?' Rangiku panicked, watching as his opponent who not too long ago had made the absolute best he could to avoid her ash suddenly launch himself towards it.

Rangiku's reaction was purely instinctual, with a swift movement of her hand that held the hilt of her zanpakuto, she commanded all her ash to launch itself straight at her opponent's heart.

''…'' Kuromiya didn't bother to dodge, allowing the ash to come at him and pierce his heart without care. To his surprise however, at the last possible second the ash shifted downwards, piercing his chest and barely missing his heart.

Still, little did it matter if the attack pierced his heart or not, since he was now right in front of the shocked and defenseless woman.

''!?'' Rangiku felt all the air leave her lungs as the young man smashed his hilt with full force against her stomach, all the momentum he had built up serving to further strengthen this one blow.

Watching the defeated woman fall to the floor, he couldn't help but look down to his own chest.

Were the ash had pierced him, there was now a hole around the size of a baseball, no doubt a fatal wound. That wasn't what bothered him though, what bothered him was that she could have pierced his heart if she wanted.

''She avoided piercing my heart, huh?'' It wouldn't have mattered, of course. But still, the intention alone was more than enough to make him smirk a little.

The thirty seconds now over, his necklace started to shine as his bookmark started doing its thing, healing the damage he had sustained during its activation.

''This is farewell for now, Rangiku.'' He muttered, vanishing from the place while leaving that trail of familiar green light behind.

End of chapter fourteen.