Chapter 30: Watch The Light Fall And Dim 1/2

Chapter 30. Third chapter of the Oración Seis arc and things are already getting hectic. Things are only going to get better, or worst, all dependent on your view on the situation. There is a reason I've planned this arc to be so important after all.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Bleach. Shame, it would be great if I did

Protector Of The Fairies

Watch The Light Fall And Dim

Erza's eyes widened as the smoke exploded outwards. Her gaze quickly fell back to Angel, the woman showing no signs of being annoyed or embarrassed from setting off the signal flare. In fact, none of Oración Seis seemed worried.

Why? Were they that overconfident in their skills? They had demonstrated them a minute ago and she couldn't deny that they were all strong, but this was madness. Did they really think they could fight Ichigo and the others so easily?

Unless they had something else planned. None of them could stop Oración Seis, and lying on the ground like this made them excellent hostages. Were Oración Seis planning to use that to their advantage? Despite the situation they were all in, Erza found herself actually wishing Ichigo would ignore the signal flare. They would find a way to survive, but this all reeked off a trap.

And then she felt her hopes vanish as she saw the blast of black energy from the distance, the heavy feeling of Ichigo's Magic stretching out towards them all and getting closer at an alarming pace.

Angel glanced in the same direction and smiled as she turned to Brain. "It seems he is coming."

"Excellent," muttered Brain, what looked like an expression of glee on his face. "All of you get ready. I want to speak with him first."

"You're sure he'll listen to you before attacking?"

"This will make him."

Brain held out his staff and darkness shot forth. Erza brought up blades as she forced herself in front of the darkness but it bent past her, continuing past the group. It finally reached a large rock and shot around it. A cry was heard and then Wendy was pulled out from it, reeled in too fast for any of them to catch her.

Brain grabbed her with his free hand and threw her behind him, a bit of darkness spiralling around her that restrained her from moving. "That should make him a bit more likely to speak first."

"YOU BASTARD!"

Brain raised an eyebrow as Natsu flung himself forward, his flames doing the moving for him. "Smart kid. He's using the flames to move his body since the poison is slowing him down. Midnight?"

The only indication that Midnight had actually heard was a slight nod, breaking from the slow pattern he had been in for a moment. And then Natsu's flames shot away from the Dragon Slayer, wrestled out of the boy's control before he could stop them. Natsu hit the ground near Erza, struggling to move. "Damn it."

"These pests are bothering me," said Brain. "I'm tempted to just kill them now just to see if Ichigo speeds up."

A sword suddenly smashed into the ground between him and the Allied Forces, a long chain stretching back from it. All they saw was a slight tug on it and then a black blur as Ichigo crashed into the ground, flicking his sword from the ground with a Black Getsuga wrapping around the blade.

"WAIT!"

Ichigo froze at Erza's words, glancing towards her uncertainly. She just gestured towards Brain and Ichigo got the message when he saw Wendy behind them. "I see."

The Black Getsuga disappeared as Ichigo lowered his sword but everyone could see it could be brought back up as quickly as breathing. It was more of a way to act courteously than anything else. Ichigo looked towards Erza and the others. "Are you guys okay?"

Hibiki answered for them all. "We are now. Are the others on their way?"

Ichigo shook his head. "I came alone. We felt something was off and decided for me to go on ahead. We still need to be ready for the worst if Nirvana gets released."

Brain glanced Ichigo up and down before taking a few steps towards the orange haired Shinigami. "That was much quicker than I had even expected. You truly are as fast as the rumours said."

"There are rumours? Strange. I've been back just a few weeks and everyone already knows."

"The curse of standing in the light. To be honest, it would have been far greater to your advantage if you had stayed in the darkness. Few people knew you existed, and few knew what you were capable of too. It probably saved your life for a few years in those early days."

"Are you a member of Oración Seis," asked Ichigo, attempting to get rid of the small talk Brain was trying to engage him in. Brain didn't let him break away from it easily however.

"Of course, but do we really need to talk about me right now? I'm more interesting in talking about your future."

"I'm guessing it's going to involve stopping you."

Brain shrugged. "Do you really need to stop us though?"

Ichigo looked at Brain like he was stupid. "Yes, I believe that's the reason I have a sword ready."

"Ah you foolish boy." Brain sighed. "Can you not see it? Why do you stand with them? You could do so much better standing with the dark."

"Nice try, but I'm quite happy where I stand."

"For now, but you can't be dense enough to not be able to sense it. Your Magic argues with you. It is so dense and heavy, but so dark too. Just standing this close to you lets me feel it. It's like a storm, devouring everything in its path. Don't fight it. Embrace that darkness."

"Do you try and recruit everyone you meet?"

Brain sighed once more. "You must see it. Why is your Magical Power black like that? Surely you must be asking yourself that question? After all, there has never been a Shinigami with Magic as black as yours is right now. To be honest, it even seems a bit… Hollow."

Ichigo's grip tightened around his sword's hilt. Brain's words were hitting a cord with him. He already had the same suspicions Brain was talking about, and he didn't like hearing them out loud like this.

"But you already know this don't you. Just look at that reaction of yours. You're angry at me. You want to strike me down where I stand. You want to destroy my very being until there is nothing left. I wonder how much that thing influences you and how much of that darkness is actually your own."

Ichigo brought up his blade, the point aimed at Brain. "Let Wendy go, and I'll let you leave for now."

"I'm afraid we won't be able to come to such a compromise. You see, we kind of need that little girl right now. Do you even realise what she is capable of? If any of you did, you would have never let me even get close to her."

Brain glanced at Wendy. "The Sky Sorceress. The little girl who sees and hears the very movement of the air around us, and can manipulate it to her own will. And her gift makes her one of the most powerful healers to currently exist."

"She's a little girl. Let her go."

"She's not much younger than you were when you wiped out Poison Viper." Ichigo flinched. "You thought I wouldn't know who wiped them out? They served under us after all, yet that man didn't go to me in the end. He went to hell instead."

"Me and her are different."

Brain glanced once more at Wendy. "I can see that. One too kind, the other too vicious. I want to see that side of you, the part of you that you didn't dare let out when you fought Laxus Dreyar. Show me that monster."

"Go to hell."

"Really? Such a shame. Maybe I can see the results I want to witness from someone else. I've heard of two lovely little girls that could be interesting to test. Twins in fact."

Ichigo's eyes snapped to him in anger, his thoughts already connecting the dots. "How do you know about them?"

Brain smiled. "It wasn't very easy, but I have my ways. People will do anything, for the right price or motivation. Imagine my surprise when I finally worked out that name of yours, Ichigo Kur-"

Ichigo appeared right in front of him, striking down at the man. Brain dodged by a hair's width and jumped backwards, Magic enhancing his steps to get away faster. "Negotiations fell short then. Plan B."

Darkness wrapped around Brain before he shot it towards Ichigo as a large beam, Ichigo bringing up the blade's edge to block the strike. Darkness trying to get past the small blade but Ichigo had none of it, redirecting the blast upwards away from the people behind him. And then he charged forward, his blade slicing at Brain's throat.

Brain's smirk was the only warning he got before a burst of pain flickered across his back. Racer shot round to attack again but Ichigo was ready for him this time, his blade clashing against the knife Racer had pulled out. There was something strange about the blade. Bluish light flickered around it, and he could just about hear the sound of something being cut. Was that the air?

Racer smirked. "You aren't the only one who is fast."

"Clever. If you had used a normal knife, it would have shattered into pieces from my strike. Can you block this one though?"

As Ichigo pushed Racer back, he swung at him again from the left, Racer rushing backwards as the sword sliced past him. As Racer moved backwards though, Cobra filled in the spot, a hand of poison aimed straight towards Ichigo's unguarded chest.

Ichigo was anything but slow though. He couldn't block it in time but he had other ways to avoid it. He just had to dodge. Cobra's punch met thin air but Cobra kept smirking, Racer suddenly making himself seen as he appeared above Ichigo, slashing downwards.

Ichigo rolled, his blade flicking upwards and almost hitting Racer. It was only Cobra's timely intervention that saved Racer, quickly grabbing the Mage in midair and pulling him out of the way as Ichigo's strike flew past them.

Ichigo observed the two Mages carefully. They were trouble. One was fast, almost as fast as he was. He had to keep an eye on that one as even with weaker attacks a good clean hit would be all the man would need.

Then there was Cobra. The Magic from that guy was strange, something he didn't want to get hit by. Cobra was meant to be a user of poison after all. But the way he had saved Racer from being taken out was strange. Cobra hadn't hesitated for a moment. It was like he had known it was going to happen.

His Magic flickered to life around his blade as he brought it back, black energy wrapping round it. "Getsuga…"

Brain's eyes widened as he shouted towards Midnight. "WAKE UP!"

"Tenshou!"

The energy flew forward, the crescent blast of Magic preparing to smash into Cobra and Racer. Why weren't they moving though? They should have at least tried to block it somehow, if just to minimise the damage. And Racer should have been able to dodge. The man should have been fast enough.

And then the energy flew past the two Mages. Ichigo's eyes widened. That shouldn't have happened. It should have hit them. What happened?

His gaze flickered towards the now awake Midnight who stood on the Magic Carpet that he had previously been asleep on. One of Midnight's arms was extended, his palm open towards the previous path of the Getsuga Tenshou.

Had Midnight done that? Changed the path of his Magic so that it hadn't hit the other Oración Seis members? What kind of Magic let you take control of someone else's Magic?

So it looked like he wouldn't be able to use Getsuga Tenshou at range as long as Midnight was in play. He would have to change that then.

Cobra charged in once more, surprising Ichigo as the Poison user dodged each of Ichigo's counter strikes. At the same time, Cobra found himself unable to land a hit on Ichigo too. But he still smirked. He didn't have to land the hit.

Racer kept up his assault from behind, jumping in and out of the battle when he was sure he could get close enough to be able to slip past Ichigo's guard. The wounds weren't deep, and they kept healing too which annoyed him, but he was still landing the hits. As he charged in once more, he saw Cobra's eyes start widening and his mouth opening.

"BACK!"

Racer realised it was too late, already seeing Ichigo's sword slicing towards him. But as the blade grew closer, Racer felt himself falling, the ground collapsing to mud under his feet. He let it take him away, swallowing him and taking him away from Ichigo's range. He shot back out of the ground by Hoteye, giving a quick nod of thanks to the large man.

In that gap from Racer's assault though, Ichigo rushed away from Cobra, his path taking him towards Midnight. Midnight raised an arm only for nothing to happen, the black haired man looking shocked that nothing was happening.

He was saved as pillars of earth shot out around him, and by the time Ichigo slashed them apart, Midnight was gone. He shot back out of the ground next to Hoteye, glaring at the man.

"What about my carpet?"

"I'll buy you a new one, yes! But you should have remembered about his Magic. If you had money, you would have remembered, yes!"

Ichigo glanced at the two before his gaze moved towards Angel, Jura standing by here. It didn't fool Ichigo though. The real Jura wouldn't be a traitor. The man had too much honour for something like that. That meant this was a fake. A good one, but still fake. But being able to use Jura's Magic was another problem. He doubted Jura's Earth Magic would break as easily if the two fought but the level the copycat had with it did slow him down a bit.

Their skills were starting to annoy him. Getsuga Tenshou wasn't usable, and he wasn't sure if Kidou could be used either. That defence was annoying too. He could break through it but, combined with that liquid Magic, they were able escape before he could reach them. And then Racer and Cobra kept him occupied too, as they were doing now as he tried to think. None of them were actually managing to do serious damage, and that was helpful, but it was still a nuisance.

There could be a way though. His Getsuga Tenshou was too obvious in its creation, and he doubted he would gather it before that Midnight either moved it away or even scattered if it the man was capable of such a thing.

Kidou had the same weakness, just as long as the chant was used. So there was the way around it.

As Racer rushed back in, he brought up his blade and parried the Speed Mage's knife. Magic burst to life around his left arm, its nature changing as it recognised his will and the Spell he wished to use. It burst to lightning and Midnight rushed to try and stop him. Too late.

"Dark Capriccio!"

"Hadou Number 63: Raikouhou!"

Ichigo redirected his movements, throwing himself into the large beam of darkness coming from Brain's staff and shot the Kidou generated around his hand into the beam's path, a burst of lightning shooting along the beam. Brain just increased his attack's intensity and the two attacks exploded against one another, neither able to gain the upper hand.

Ichigo dodged the surprise attack from Racer, his next attack being dodged by Cobra in turn. It seems he had discovered the powerhouse of the group. And it looked like if he tried to do anything too big, Brain would simply launch a blast towards the rest of the others.

He glanced at his fellow Mages from the corner of his eye. They were still recovering. Lyon and Sherry will still struggling to free themselves from the liquid they were in, as if it had been created like that to delay them as long as possible. The Trimens were all battered, showing that they really weren't good at taking much of a beating. Unless it had been from Racer because a fast hit like that could do a lot more damage.

Lucy and Gray looked to be in best condition out of all of them, but he doubted Gray could block one of Brain's attacks so easily, and Lucy was too new to Magic. He doubted she had a Spirit that could help here against so many strong Mages.

He kind of wished Natsu and Erza would recover soon, but it seemed that whatever was affecting them was stronger than they had expected. Erza was slowly looking weaker, while Natsu was forcing himself to move by a mix of sheer will and physical flames. Not the situation someone should fight in.

Now he regretting coming alone without Shinji and Toushirou. One of them could have helped take the pressure off, but none of them could have predicted this outcome. All of Oración Seis at once? They had meant to be the ones doing the sneak attack.

And then all of Oración Seis vanished, sinking into the mud before shooting back out moments later around him, still keeping a distance to stay out of his reach. He instantly spun as they shot round and launched a silent Getsuga but Midnight was still ready, the attack breaking apart as it flew through the air. Each swiped towards him as chains shot out from their hands, each wrapping around a different part of his body.

Ichigo tested the strength of the chains, seeing how much effect it would take to break them. They were certainly strong, and the way they trapped him made it harder to move Tensa Zangetsu round to shatter them.

"So what now?" he asked. "You've trapped me, but for how long?"

Brain raised his staff. "Long enough."

Purple seal patterns appeared in front of the staff, one in front of the other till there were three created. Ichigo glanced at them in worry. "What the hell…"

A flicker of purples runes around Ichigo was his only warning before the entire area around him exploded upwards in a massive purple shockwave of Magic, stretching up to the clouds. The members of Oración Seis except for Brain felt their chains snap and a black blur shot out of the pillar a moment later, crashing down near the Allied Forces.

Ichigo used his sword to lean on as he struggled back on. He ignored the gasps of shock from the Mages behind him. He knew that attack had done a lot to him. Half of his Bankai's clothing had been ripped to shreds and the other half wasn't it much better condition. What probably shocked them the most was the blood falling from the wound where the lower half of his left leg should have been.

"ICHIGO!"

He held out a hand, stopping Gray from running towards him. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Don't be an idiot," Gray tried to argue. "You can't fight with only one leg."

"Or can he?" said Brain, interrupting whatever Gray would have said next. Brain looked more amused than disappointed, glancing at where the remains of Ichigo's old leg had been. "I'm surprised this is all the damage you sustained though. We all pooled a lot of Magic into that Seal. Amaterasu isn't exactly easy to use, even when it's only Formula 28."

Brain glanced back at Ichigo. "But then that your Bankai's power is speed, isn't it? Sure, your physical body is enhanced too, but it isn't the same. The jump in power isn't very high and it is more like body reinforcement than anything else. I am surprised that you would sever your own leg so easily though, even if to escape. That ease implies practice."

Ichigo grunted before a pale bit of flesh shot out of the wound, stretching down and extending outwards and Ichigo's leg reformed before them all. "I've had a bit."

Brain's smile widened. "Instant Regeneration. Strange though. I'm sure I heard that you… What do you and the other Shinigami call yourself? Visoreds? I'm sure you needed to materialise a mask for your abilities to work."

"And you would know how?"

"Oh, just something I heard of recently. Quite interesting don't you think?"

"A bit off from the truth."

"Maybe. Or maybe the scales are so closely balanced that the two naturally flow into one another."

Brain brought his staff back up. "Never mind though. I think it's time we ended this fun. Shall we?"

Ichigo rushed forward, black energy springing to life around his blade as he lunged at the closest, in this case being Midnight. Midnight was immediately swallowed up by the ground once more as he made his escape but Ichigo still had other targets available.

Kicking off the air, Ichigo changed directions suddenly, pushing himself faster and faster. If they kept vanishing, he'd take away the one who did that. He'd defeat them one by one if that is what it took, or even just hold out long enough till Shinji inevitable decided to show up. That Amaterasu Spell had to have sent off alarm bells for his fellow Visored.

As he reached Hoteye, the fake Jura brought up the rock wall again. Ichigo pushed himself faster though, slicing through the rock like butter as he pushed through. His hands grasped forward and missed Hoteye by a second. Pulling his hand back, Ichigo glanced at the hint of orange hair in his hand, Hoteye appearing at the far end of the field with his hair a bit messed up.

He was getting the timing down. He had to go faster. That was the best way to catch them. Go fast enough that they couldn't escape.

Before he could chase after another, Cobra was engaging him in close quarters, desperate to land a hit. Ichigo moved faster, dodged each strike with ease. Yet with the return of Racer's attacks from behind once more, Ichigo found it harder and harder to deal with them. It was like a stalemate, neither side able to press the advantage.

That meant he had to simply move faster. Whatever Cobra was using to predict his movements wasn't enough for Cobra to land a hit, but it was enough to dodge. If he moved fast enough, then he'd remove that advantage from Cobra.

So he let himself keep at his current speed, letting the two Mages around him adjust to his speed. And no matter how fast Racer said he was, there was no way that he would be able to beat his top speed.

Cobra's strikes got closer and closer, Racers attacks doing the same. Cobra's snake even shot out of the ground to join in. Ichigo kept dodging, letting them fall into his trap. No matter how fast they could react, he'd need only a second's distraction to deal with Cobra.

And as Racer and Cobra overextended their latest attack, Ichigo made his move. He spun round, blocking Racers to send the man off balance and then moved, rushing straight past Cobra to behind the man. He could see the widening off eyes from both Oración Seis and the Mages he was trying to protect, even from those who had already seen the Phantom Step. His blade came round, attempting to take down Cobra in that brief moment.

The blade swung straight through the air, hitting nothing. Ichigo's eyes widened like the others' had before, Cobra crouching right below the path of the blade. How? How had Cobra dodged?

That distraction that he had planned to use to his advantage instead became Cobra's, his snake lunging and stabbing its fangs into Ichigo's chest. Ichigo struggled back, ripping the snake from its grip on him and chucking it away. Cobra slowly turned round and Ichigo realised what Cobra had done.

Cobra slowly opened his eyes and smirked. "That's a brilliant trick there. I honestly would never have reacted to it in time if I hadn't realised it was coming. The danger anyone faces when fighting you is seeing that technique. See it and you get shocked, unable to move in time. So I closed my eyes."

"That doesn't explain how you knew where my strike was coming from," Ichigo snarled out, a hand clutched to his chest in pain. Why wasn't his regeneration stopping the pain?

"I hear you. You movements, your breathing, you very thoughts. It was a simple matter to just listen. I did wonder when you would finally decide to use it though. You kept us waiting quite a while."

"You-"

Ichigo couldn't say anymore as he collapsed to the ground, his body shaking slightly.

Brain took a few steps towards Ichigo's body, satisfied that he wasn't getting up any time soon. "Excellent work Cobra. It seems the reports were correct. A step so fast that you don't even see him move."

"YOU BASTARDS!"

Brain leaned backwards, a sword slashing through the ground of where he had been. Shinji spun round, positioning himself between Ichigo and any member of Oración Seis. "What the hell have you done to him?"

Brain raised an eyebrow. "He's simply poisoned. He'll wither in pain for a while, and then he'll die."

Shinji shook his head. "You'll have an antidote. So which of you has it?"

"And let you hunt that individual down?" Brain laughed as he walked back towards Wendy. "You have to be joking." He reached a hand towards Wendy and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. "Of course, you could always ask this girl to save him."

"You leave her alone."