78 Fear's Absence

"This guy is starting to annoy me..." remarked Ohta, slowing the psychic platform to a crawl as Runuganga materialized a 20m tall wall of sand to block their path. He could easily break through it, but, having grown tired of the sand-formed Hollow's antics, he decided to end it once and for all.

"I see you've consigned yourself to your fate!" shouted Runuganga. "Now, prepare to have your bones ground to dust...!"

Extending his hand, Ohta released an invisible wave of energy with the intention of crushing Runuganga as he had the contortionist Hollow back in the underground passage. Before he could, Rukia leaped from his lap, shouting, "Leave this one to me...!" as she manifested Sode-no-Shirayuki without calling her name.

"I'll help...!" added Orihime, rising to her feet but staying atop the psychic platform as she shouted, "Cry gently, Kokoroyoi! Suzu-no-Kyoshin...!"

Empowered by Orihime, Rukia brandished her Zanpakuto to freeze the entirety of Runuganga in a single go. Moisture happened to be the natural enemy of the monstrous Hollow, so while he wasn't killed outright, he was incapacitated and would suffer tremendously for the next couple of hours.

Returning to the psychic platform, landing near Ohta, Rukia puffed out her nearly non-existent chest and hummed, "Did you see that? You don't have to try and do 'everything' yourself. Orihime and I make a great team, even without-"

Interrupting Rukia's bragging, Ichigo abruptly shouted, "When did Orihime become a Shinigami...!?"

"Are you kidding me?" asked Uryu, staring at Ichigo in disbelief as he added, "It was right after we returned from the Soul Society. Just how oblivious are you to your surroundings?"

"I was focused on my training!" contended Ichigo. However, as he had seen Orihime wearing a Shihakusho numerous times, that wasn't a good excuse. He just thought she was cosplaying to fit in or not draw attention to herself during battle...

Jingling the bells of her Kokoroyoi, Orihime, feeling much better after releasing it, adopted a radiant smile and explained, "I wanted to be of better help to everyone, and..."

Directing her gaze to Rukia and Ohta, focusing on the latter, Orihime added, "I wanted to stay beside the people I respect and admire the most..."

Though she wanted to say something a little different, Orihime didn't want to put Ohta on the spot in front of so many people. She also didn't want to make it sound like she was betraying Rukia. However, as there was a good chance they could die on this mission, she had to say something...

Fortunately for Orihime, Rukia promptly gave Ohta a swift smack when he initially just stared at her, shouting, "Stop trying to act cool and pat her on the head or something, you dog-brained buffoon...!"

"I don't approve of domestic violence..." muttered Ohta, rubbing the spot Rukia had slapped him even though he hadn't felt the blow. Then, eliciting a startled yelp from Orihime, he pulled the buxom ginger to sit in his lap, wrapping his arms around her abdomen as he said, "Protect me from the monkey-bun, Gingersnap...!"

"Uh...o-okay...!?" replied Orihime, surprising both Ohta and Rukia as she pointed to the flower-shaped pins in her hair before producing a triangular barrier to 'protect' him.

Adopting a shit-eating grin, Ohta pat Orihime on the head, saying, "Good girl," while Rukia stared at him with narrowed eyes before sighing in mock exasperation...

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After finally reaching the base of Las Noches, Ohta asked, "So, what now? Are we passing through or going up? Those towers at the top of the dome are pretty conspicuous."

"Do you think that's where they're keeping Karin?" asked Ichigo.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ohta replied, "I genuinely have no idea. But I doubt someone who wants to depose the closest thing in this world to a god would be content concealing their throne in a heavily guarded area. At least one of those towers should be Aizen's ego den..."

Furrowing his brows and crossing his arms, Ichigo put his few surviving brain cells to work, seriously considering his response before stating, "I don't think it's a good idea to fight Aizen without the support of the Gotei 13. Unless we confirm that's where Karin is being held captive, we should try and avoid it..."

"I don't agree with that plan," said Ohta. "Kidnapping Karin had to have been Aizen's idea, so even if she isn't being kept near him, he's the most likely to know where she's being held."

Shaking his head, Ohta's expression became serious as he said, "The six of you can enter the main complex of Las Noches to lure the enemy and search for Karin there. I'm here for the snake's head..."

"That's crazy!" exclaimed Renji. "There's no way you can take on Aizen by yourself! We should use this opportunity to diminish his forces before the final battle...!"

Furrowing his brows, Ohta asserted, "We came here to rescue Ichigo's tomboy sister. Besides, do you believe the enemy will line up and wait for us to gang up on them individually? What if the opposite happens, and we must battle all the Espada simultaneously? Ichigo can barely hold his own against one of their mid-tier fighters. What-"

Interrupting Ohta's tongue-lashing, a powerful Reiatsu descended on the group from above, compelling him to move the psychic platform backward to evade a small yet exceptionally fast figure. When the figure impacted the ground, an explosion of white sand and crystalline debris hundreds of meters tall was produced. At the same time, a powerful shockwave struck the outermost layer of Ohta's barrier, causing it to shimmer before peeling away like a plastic wrapper.

Before the massive cloud of dust had a chance to disperse, several fast-moving projectiles, remarkably similar to the arrows fired by Uryu, struck the second layer of Ohta's barrier, piercing through several others as they got lodged into the invisible membrane. Then, a much larger, spherical projectile impacted the center of his barrier, causing it to become visible as it indented and began to fracture.

Leaping toward the powerful projectile, Ohta slapped his hands together, transforming into his jackal form as he shouted, "Get to a safe distance...!" before slamming his fist into the rapidly spinning spherical projectile. He intended to shatter it to pieces. Instead, the sphere deformed under his fist before rebounding into the cloud of dust, creating a cylindrical tunnel through the veritable column of sand.

To Ohta's surprise, a vaguely familiar figure came into view when the 'ball' of dense Reiryoku returned to its origin, producing a large shockwave that created a void within the cloud of dust. They, or, more accurately, she had darker skin, aquamarine eyes, a mask resembling a forehead protector, a Hollow hole just below her navel, and an incredibly skimpy outfit, but Ohta immediately recognized the raven-haired individual as Karin...

After catching the sphere of Reiryoku with the sole of her foot, the Karin-like Arrancar briefly juggled it like a soccer ball, ultimately resting it on her knee as she asked, "How is it? Still think I'm weak...?" with a smug grin on her face.

"I think you're in serious need of an ass whopping..." retorted Ohta, his expression a deep-set frown as he resisted the urge to attack the Karin lookalike, forcing himself to ask, "What happened? Why are you attacking us...?"

Instead of answering Ohta's question, the Karin lookalike turned her body sideways, grinning mischievously as she gave herself a firm smack on her perky bottom and teased, "I always knew you were a sadist, what with all that intense training you put me through. Did you know, every time you pushed me to the point of exhaustion, I imagined you taking advantage of me? Then, when you didn't, it made me feel self-conscious, even though I knew you weren't that type of guy..."

Before Ohta could respond to the Karin lookalike's words, Ichigo rushed over, screaming, "Karin! Is that you!? What...what happened to you...!?" in a frenzied panic.

Furrowing her brows into a pout, the Karin lookalike muttered, "Ichi-nii..." before kicking the super dense sphere of Reiyroku into the air, bouncing it off of her knee before leaping up, abruptly twisting her body with extreme speed and flexibility as she shouted, "Can't you see I was talking to Ohta-kun...!?"

Kicking the Reiryoku sphere like a soccer ball, Karin caused the pupils of Ichigo's eyes to shrink as it barreled toward his chest with meteoric force. He managed to pull his cleaver-like Zanpakuto from his back, blocking the projectile with the flat of his blade, but he couldn't arrest its momentum. Instead, like a superhero trying to stop a train, he was forced backward at nearly the same speed as the projectile, obliterating several dunes before deflecting the superdense energy sphere skyward.

Using the time she had bought for herself, the Karin lookalike regained her smile as she scampered over to Ohta, exclaiming, "Did you see that, Ohta-kun!? With this kind of power, I don't need protection, and I never have to feel afraid anymore! I might not be as strong as you are right now, but I'm sure I can catch up if you keep training me...!"

Recovering from a momentary stupor, Ohta extended his hand to caress the Karin lookalike's head. There was a good chance she was a fake sent to distract them, but if she were the real deal, it indicated Aizen had done something to fuck with her common sense. He didn't want her going full postal by lashing out or chastizing her, so he forced a smile and said, "You certainly got stronger...now, mind explaining to me what happened? Also, stop bullying your brother. He did come all this way to try and rescue you, after all..."

"Eeeeeh..."

Looking past Ohta to where Ichigo was staring at her with equal parts shock and concern, the Karin lookalike exhaled an exasperated sigh and replied, "Fine, but only because you asked me to. If Ichi-nii and Tou-san had told me the truth from the start, I might not have been kidnapped so easily. At the very least, I could have become much stronger than I was. Not that I have anything to complain about now. Here, check this out..."

Extending her left hand to the side, Karin materialized a bow, seemingly formed from the same white bone as a hollow mask. There was no string, but as she grabbed at the location where one would have been, Reiryoku condensed around her hand and fingertips in a manner nearly identical to Uryu. As she pulled back and prepared to fire, however, what condensed at the front of her bow was more like a Cero, a spiraling mass of dark blue energy that caused the surrounding space to warp slightly.

As she loosed the Cero-like arrow into the distance, a look of expectation formed on Karin's face as she noticed Ohta's 'awe.' She had no idea how powerful she was at the present moment, but as long as it was enough to impress Ohta, she didn't care about the specifics.

Causing her to care at least a little, Karin's unique Cero impacted a sand dune several kilometers away, subsequently detonating like a small-yield nuclear warhead. A blinding light forced everyone witnessing the scene to shield their eyes, but when they regained the ability to see, they couldn't quite believe what they saw as a dark blue mushroom cloud had formed on the horizon. A few seconds later, a wall of sand, driven by a powerful shockwave, impacted them, nearly burying several of them before Ohta took action to pull them to safety, holding the broadly smiling Karin under his arm as she stared at the destruction she had wrought with glistening aquamarine eyes...

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(A/N: Sorry about the limited chapters yesterday. No one was leaving any comments, so I took a long nap. I'll try to publish a fourth one today, but positive feedback and power stones go a long way toward ensuring I'm sufficiently motivated (O 3 O)...)