Chapter 32

10 chapters ahead in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Oldherd.

<--------------------------------------->

Chapter 32

(General P.O.V)

What was he going to do with one injured arm? He thought, crouching behind a cube after the unexpected attack from a group of three Togabito. He should have expected that this would happen. Him, Chad and Uryu had been forcefully split apart.

"Are you okay?"

Ash asked his passenger. Yoruichi slapped him on the cheek with her paw.

"I should be asking you that! I'm not the one with a broken arm!"

That statement only served him to remind him of his situation more.

The pain was something he had gotten used to after his many deaths but that did not mean it was any less distracting.

Boom!!

Ash was pushed away by another explosion that managed to land close to where he was. The cube he had been using as a hiding spot lost a corner, shaved off by another of Taikon's attacks. It seemed like he knew where Ash was. Ash pulled away into the sky using the dust cloud as cover. Yoruichi held onto him, her claws jotting out of her paws to dig into the grooves on Ash's hardened skin.

More missiles from Taikon started flying towards him from the ground. He ducked while trying to pull in to help Chad who was being attacked by Garogai and Gunjo at the same time. He was holding up well but it was only a matter of time.

"We can't fight them here. The Kushinada will be drawn towards the fight and we have more to lose than the Togabito do."

Yoruichi told Ash. The teen flew further up into the sky, getting out of range of Taikon's attacks. From up above he could survey the scene much better.

Uryu had been caught on the side by the pressure blast from Taikon's first attack, throwing him off the cube they were standing on. He had just made it back and he announced his arrival by letting loose, arrows at Garogai.

The monstrous Togabito was pushed away by the explosion of the arrows landing on his body, freeing up Chad to slam a fist on Gunjo's left cheek after Garogai had been preoccupied by fending off Uryu's attacks.

On another point, The Kushinada were deceptively sneaky for their size and without Uryu and Chad's knowledge, some of them were coming their way.

The situation seemed dire. The chances that they could fight back both the Kushinada and the Togabito was close to zero. They would have to either give up their search without even getting to the second layer of hell, or fight and risk death. Ash remembered Isshin's face. He had promised himself that he would reunite Ichigo with his dad. For all of his selfishness, Ash knew that this was something he had to do.

"You were right." Ash said after surveying the scene.

"I would say we only have 2 minutes before the Kushinada arrive and we become cornered. We have to finish this fight before then."

"What are you going to do? You can't win with that arm!"

Ash looked at Yoruichi after her small outburst.

"Then do something, Yoruichi! We both know you can end this entire fight in a second."

Yoruichi narrowed her eyes.

"How..."

"Your Reiryoku." Ash answered, already knowing what she was going to ask.

"It's massive. I've gotten better at sensing and it's no less than Tessai's or Urahara's. I know you're the most powerful thing around here. You can't hide it from me."

He added, thinking of how if she wanted, she could use Shunko, her own created skill where she combined Kido with high speed movement to attack and move faster. She wasn't known as the Flash Goddess for nothing.

"Huh."

Yoruichi simply said.

"I cannot fight in this form and it would be a hassle to shift into a more useful one right now."

She waved him off.

Ash frowned. He didn't have a choice now, guess he and the other two couldn't count on Yoruichi. He loosened the sleeves of his jacket, wincing as his arm flopped down.

"What are you doing?"

Yoruichi asked in concern.

Ash didn't answer.

Down on the ground, only a few seconds had passed and the Togabito after Uryu's entry were finally getting back in the groove, pressuring the two teens on the ground.

"Where is Ash and Yoruichi?"

Uryu shouted, evading a pink Reiryoku beam from Taikon by way of a Hirenkyaku, the Quincy high speed movement skill. Chad could not answer, merely grunting from one of Gunjo's tentacles wrapping around his leg and pulling his feet from under him.

Garogai took the chance when the tall teen was down on the ground and jumped, aiming his trajectory to fall and crush Chad under his feet, while he was entangled by the tentacle.

Then a flash of light intercepted him, passing by his huge form in high speeds. Garogai flipped uncontrollably through the air before falling onto the blue highway constructed around the cubes in a grid like format. He crashed, creating a crater under him.

A figure appeared in mid air between Uryu and Chad and the other Togabito, Taikon and Gunjo.

"We don't have time to waste on you, three. Fuck off or get hurt."

Ash declared.

"Ash? What... you're different."

Uryu said in surprise that was shared by Chad.

His jacket was now tied around his hips tightly. On his right hand was a long energy knife that was almost 10 inches long, his body pulsed with a shroud of purple Reiryoku and his right arm was a smooth grey. With his black boots and pants, red Tshirt and blue glowing eyes, Ash looked outstanding.

"Garogai!" Taikon yelled for his colleague. He and Gunjo both gaped in shock when Garogai stood up unsteadily. And missing an arm.

"What?" Ash taunted, holding up the missing arm.

"Looking for something?"

He threw it away like trash.

Anger crowded Garogai's mind. And the brute charged forward, with one missing arm. He jumped towards Ash with only one arm, blood leaking from the wound of his missing hand. Ash saw the large form of the Togabito headed towards him and merely sidestepped him, swiping out his knife to slash Garogai across his back. The Togabito yelled in pain, falling towards the ground while disoriented from the pain.

Ash looked at the point of impact and the small dust cloud produced.

"What was he thinking, jumping towards someone who is superior at aerial combat like that. Do you Togabito lose your common sense after death?"

Ash shook his head and asked.

"Garogai!" Gunjo shouted in disbelief.

"You'll pay for that you insolent little whelp! Do you know who we are?! Take this!"

Taikon raged, pointing a finger towards Ash's form. A pink Reiryoku beam shot out of his open palm towards Ash. The teen waited until the blast was close to him and swept out his Plasma Knife, shredding the beam into two.

Then a small pressure blast exploded out from behind him. Ash cleared the distance between him and the fat Togabito, Taikon. Ash stretched out his hand, fingers wrapped around the Plasma Knife and slashed down at Taikon. Blood exploded out of Taikon chest, the wound carved out by Ash's weapon dealing damage to him, before the heat finally cauterized his flesh. Taikon screamed out in pain.

"How?..." Gunjo found himself asking. Taikon could absorb anyone's Reiryoku and then use it for his own purposes. How come he failed to absorb the energy weapon? He could understand if it was Garogai but for Taikon, dealing with such an attack should have been easy. Who was this kid?!

"Don't let your guard down Human!"

Gunjo yelled, letting loose over a dozen tentacles tipped with sharpened spikes at the end.

Ash had to abandon pursuing Taikon in favor of evading the attack. A few tentacles came close to hitting him when his smooth grey arm rose up mechanically to block the attacks. Ash used the force behind the tentacles to glide closer to Uryu and Chad's position, touching down in between the two.

"Are you guys alright?"

He asked, not taking his eyes off the enemy.

"I thought your arm was broken?"

Chad stated.

"I thought so as well." Uryu narrowed his eyes.

"How can you move it?"

Ash sighed, staring at the Quincy from the corner of his eyes.

"Is this really the time to be asking questions?"

No sooner had he responded when, Garogai yelled as his arm and back regenerated with a sudden burst of green reiryoku.

"You!"

Garogai stated, eyes burning with even more Fury as he stared at Ash.

The three teens and Yoruichi were standing on one side while on the other, the three Togabito looked on, ready to pounce and fulfill their orders.

"I know Lord Shuren wanted them alive but I propose we kill the blue eyed one."

Taikon ground out, hand pulsing with a pink light that he ran down his injury.

"Agreed."

Garogai added.

Gunjo tactically agreed as well. Ash was the most annoying one of the bunch. He could fly and apparently had a weapon that was not made from Reiryoku.

"Fine. We kill him first and then hell will do the rest for us."

Gunjo decided.

"Hehehe...I cannot wait to have some time alone with him. I will make him squeal like a pig."

Taikon laughed.

"Ash, it doesn't seem like you're making friends."

Uryu quipped.

"Must be my winning personality."

Ash said, flexing his grey hand. He could not feel any pain and the sensation was muted. This was a new application of his quirk where instead of turning more of his form harder by adding upon the layer of hardening on his skin, he instead went the opposite way and compressed it.

When activated, his hardening quirk felt like a spiked ball of energy inside his mind. To enter Unbreakable, he merely added more spikes to it's spherical shape. The new skill that didn't have a name as of yet did the opposite. He smoothed out the spikes, compressing them to form a very hard uniform material that was more akin to marble than rocks or stones. It was harder than marble as well as his regular unbreakable state with a few side effects.

For starters, he could not move the arm as fluidly as he might have wanted. Secondly, most sensation was muted as the hardening was not only skin deep but even the tendons and muscles of his flesh were turned into the same hard material. All the way to the bones. The good thing was that now he could not feel the same agonizing pain from before.

A few screams rang out from far away as other unconcerned Togabito ran away from the massive forms of the Kushinadas coming Ash and the others' way.

"You need to finish this, fast."

Yoruichi said to them from her perch on Ash's shoulder. A serious look was on her feline face. Past the Kushinada, she could sense a few strong powers headed towards them.

The scanner in Uryu's pocket begun to flash in an orange color, showing that their target was close by. None of them noticed it.

"Ok, how do we do this then?"

Chad asked, his fingers tightening into fists.

"Chad you take Green braids, Uryu you can probably handle Tentacle dude and I got the fat one, he is slower than the others and with my flight, I can escape his beams more easily."

"Who died and made you the leader?"

Uryu sneered but pulled on his spirit bow all the same, aiming a few arrows Gunjo's way.

"Let's go!"

Ash shot off towards Taikon, the other two right behind him. He dodged past Gunjo's tentacle attacks, strafing and streaking around in erratic patterns.

Garogai stomped forward before taking a leap towards Ash.

"Look out!"

Yoruichi shouted in his ears just as his instincts screamed at him to dodge. He failed to move away fast enough and Goragai's fist tagged him on his hasty left handed block.

The grey arm received the attack but pushed him away from his initial trajectory.

Ash allowed it, seeing arrows whoosh right beside him in the air headed for Gunjo. The attacks landed, throwing the tall Togabito away.

"Damn you!"

Taikon opened his mouth and let loose a straight beam of reiryoku towards Uryu.

Ash dove in and grunted, swinging out his plasma Knife and shredding the attack into two while struggling to fly closer to the fat Togabito. Taikon was not ready for the hardened grey fist that was planted on to his left cheek. His jaw dislocated and his eyes rolled up as he was lifted off the ground and fell off the side of the blue road.

Ash was about to fly after him and finish the job when he felt a hand wrap around his leg. Thinking quickly, he entered his in unbreakable form and immediately realized that it was almost not enough. He felt the breath inside his lungs leave him when he was slammed onto the tough ground once by Garogai

Then the second time the Togabito smacked him onto the floor, his ribs cracked.

"Aaah! El Diablo!"

Just before he was lifted and slammed down for the third time, Chad collided his fist on Garogai's chest. The monstrous Togabito widened his eyes and spit out blood, getting thrown away by the attack, allowing Ash to get back on his feet from the crater formed below his body.

Ash coughed out, glaring at Yoruichi who was standing on the floor next to him, rubbing herself on the side of a cube. She just watched him as he got the Loki treatment!

"What?"

Yoruichi asked in her deep voice.

"You had it handled."

She added, making Ash shake his head. There was probably nothing he could say to the shameless shihoin princess.

Now that Taikon and Garogai were out of the picture, Ash joined Uryu and Chad in fighting Gunjo, the last of the Togabito. Uryu was taking expert pot shots whenever he could, giving Chad the opening to fight Gunjo in close quarters while the Togabito used it's many limbs to fend off the Quincy's arrows.

Ash flew around the two clashing individuals. It was crazy to see Chad holding his own while fighting someone who had him outmatched physically. Chad ducked a vicious slash and slammed an uppercut on the Togabito's chin.

"El Diablo"

A shockwave escaped the contact of his fist on Gunjo's chin.

Ash saw his chance and pulled in with a flex of his body. Using the legion ring felt more and more natural each passing day. He slammed his shoulder on the Togabito's legs, flipping him through the air almost three times before Gunjo smacked on the hard ground.

Uryu used Hirenkyaku and appeared right above the Togabito with his bow pulled back. He let close to a hundred arrows fly, decimating Gunjo's surroundings and causing a tremor to rock the whole area.

The dust cloud settled as Ash descended to the ground.

The four of them looked at the devastated area and breathed out a sigh of relief, upon seeing Gunjo's shredded body.

"We...won."

Ash said, as if he couldn't believe it.

A shadow appeared above them as the first of the Kushinada arrived.

"Not yet..." Uryu said backing away as the Kushinada turned it's sights towards them.

"Let's go, I don't want to be turned into that thing's lunch."

Ash said as they all begun to run away.

They could feel the Kushinada chase after them and it wasn't alone either. However, it stopped and they realized why when Taikon and Garogai were grabbed off the ground, kicking and screaming before being devoured.

"Yeah...we should run faster."

Ash told them while increasing his speed. He was as fast as an average human but by using the legion ring to glide, he could clear more distance faster.

Having dealt with the three Togabito they could escape and focus on their mission to find Ichigo.

"There's someone up ahead."

Yoruichi said.

And sure enough from far away, Ash could spot a head of orange hair and another figure dressed in white running towards them.

'Wait...is that?' Ash could not believe their luck. They had actually managed to come across Ichigo without journeying to the rest of Hell's layers.

Uryu removed the scanner from his pocket and saw the blinking red light when he pointed it at their front. A smile graced his face.

"It's Ichigo."

"Finally."

Chad said as they all increased their speeds. They could now clearly see the other teen. Only a few hundred meters were separating them. Ash thought of flying ahead but then, something changed.

A feeling of dread overcome him and then, pain.

"Ash!!"

Yoruichi screamed as a lance of flames speared through Ash's chest.

"Leaving so soon?"

A sinister voice sounded out from behind him.

Ash tried to crane his neck to see who it was when the fire lance going through his chest exploded, destroying his heart and lungs.

'Oh Fuck...not again'

Darkness creeped quickly in at the corner of his eyes. The familiar terror of dying gripped him tightly.

"Don't...rry...is not permanent in...ll."

The words from his attacker were disjointed but Ash managed to understand what he meant.

"Don't worry. Death is not permanent in hell."

Loops remaining: 4/5