Deadly Medicine

Before she could even pick herself off of the ground, Chiaki felt an enormous pressure well up under the ground where she had fallen. Managing to pull herself out of the way fast enough to avoid the brunt of the force, Chiaki winced as she felt numerous thorns and spikes graze her skin. Don Kanonji on the other hand was utterly dumbstruck by the sudden chaos, and acting quickly, Chiaki tackled him out of another oncoming spike, before hissing frustratedly into his ear.

"Listen, I need you to snap out of it and either use your power to help or get lost. You're a hero, right? People can get hurt if you don't act."

"What?!?"

Kanonji's eyes widened as he shook himself out of his stupor.

"That m-monster! Miss, what is that thing?"

"Just go!"

To his credit, he seemed to quickly take in the situation, and pulling himself up to his feet, he nodded to Chiaki before moving to wave at the crowd:

"Do not worry my friends, my apprentice has come to aid me in my fight against evil! Now, step back and allow us to work our magic and purge this haunted ground of evil spirits!"

"…That'll have to do."

Chiaki had no time to judge the quality of the announcement or pay it any mind, occupied as she was by the continuous attacks. Barely dodging another wave of spikes, Chiaki rushed toward the hollow's location, trying to get close enough to land a blow. In contrast to the powerless hollow from the manga who only posed a threat to an Ichigo with a stuck sword, this one seemed to be able to manipulate the area that he had claimed as his domain to his empty heart's content.

[Being able to attack from any direction… I need to get close and threaten it to force it to defend itself, otherwise, I'm going to be dealing with these attacks constantly.]

Beneath Chiaki's feet, the hollow's power caused the ground to wobble and shake like an elastic band, threatening to knock her off her feet: thinking quickly, Chiaki slammed her feet down to propel herself forward, using the ground's own elastic force to accelerate her jump and take her straight towards the hollow in question. The dark ghost responded with another barrage of concrete thorns formed from the side of the building, trying to catch her in mid-air while she couldn't dodge, but Chiaki manifested her Burst Blade from both arms, twisting her body to slide the attacks apart and blow them away with the blade's erupting force.

Unfortunately, slowed down by the recoil of her own attack, Chiaki's jump fell just short of the hollow's perch on the roof, resulting in her landing straight on the wall. Holding on with nothing but her superhuman strength, fingers digging into the building, Chiaki would feel another wave of pressure build under her fingers. Letting go of the grip her right hand held on the wall, Chiaki's body swung out of the way, just in time for numerous rods of metal to erupt from the wall, barely avoiding being impaled by a hair's breadth.

[…I might be in over my head.]

Regardless, Chiaki knew it was too late to turn back: her only option now was to kill the hollow before it got a lucky hit and tore her apart. Grabbing hold of the rods that now jutted from the structure's walls, Chiaki used them as a foothold to pull herself up and jump onto the roof, putting her face to face with the leering face of the hollow who had been tormenting her.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm here for you, dickweed."

Chiaki dodged out of the way of another storm of spikes from the ground, stepping out of the way and slipping to the right. The hollow's movements were predictable to her: it would always make spikes erupt from the ground in front of her, in order to prevent her from moving towards it. It also had learned to not fire projectiles out of the ground, instead keeping it connected to the greater system, allowing Chiaki to surmise that it couldn't control anything not connected to the hospital its heart had been tied to.

[I can read you like a book. It's over now.]

Weaving in out of its attack patterns, Chiaki quickly flanked the monster from the right, rushing with a speed that rivaled Shunpo to circle around it and swing her arm blades, slicing off its leg with a motion too fast to be seen by a human eye, dropping the hollow to the ground.

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHH"

The beast let out a bloodcurdling scream, but despite the pain it felt, did not slow down. Chiaki dodged once more, slipping back to the left to dodge another spike eruption, only to see the hollow already reforming its leg. Chiaki immediately moved forward to slice off its head and end it permanently, only for her to be met with a spike through her thigh, stopping her in her tracks.

"Oh shit"

Hidden with its own massive limbs until the last seconds, the Hollow had caused a spike to erupt that went through them both, a trap that made use of both its own unique power and regeneration. Chiaki had no choice but to retreat, jumping back to place some space between herself and the hollow.

This time however, it seemed thienmonster had learned its lesson, and Chiaki felt the ground give way under her foot, trapping her in the roof like a sinkhole as she was trapped up to her abdomen. Then, a searing pain, greater than any she'd felt before, as numerous rods pierced her abdomen from all sides. Now it was Chiaki's turn to scream, and as she did, time seemed to slow down, the moment lasting for eternity as fear flashed through her mind, as her short life flashed before her eyes.

[This really is the end for me huh? I wasted my second chance and failed miserably… I'm such a fucking failure…]

Resigned to her defeat, Chiaki waited for the spikes to appear and finish her off, hoping that they would simply go through her head and end her suffering quickly this time. However…

"DON'T TOUCH MY SISTER!"

In a blur of motion, Ichigo was upon the hollow, swinging his massive sword with such force that it was sent flying back, and even as it began to heal the gash that had been left on it, it had already been forced into another attack: Don Kanonji's Kannonball, which exploded with a surprising amount of force considering the medium's low power. Caught from both sides, the hollow fell to the ground, riddled with wounds that would take even its powerful regeneration a long time to recover from.

Chiaki managed to recover from her stupor, though still reeling from the pain of her impalement. Realizing that she needed to get out of the way of further attacks, Chiaki began to use the Burst Blade to cut her way out of the roof.

["You can keep going Chiaki, don't count yourself out yet! Reiatsu is life force, so long as you haven't burned yourself out, you can make it."]

[I know! Just give me a moment.]

Chiaki pulled herself out of the pit, spikes still in her abdomen. Taking them out was out of the question until she could find someone with healing Kido, since right now they stymied the bleeding. She still had to finish things now, before her strength gave out.

Chiaki rushed towards the area where Ichigo and the hollow were locked in combat, the latter being cut more than he had been against any other enemy, evidently not being used to fighting such an unorthodox enemy.

Its attention being split did offer a prime opportunity however: Chiaki waited for her opportunity, and upon seeing the hollow's attention drawn away by Ichigo dodging to the right, used all the superhuman strength she could muster and rushed around from the opposite side into its blind spot, tackling the hollow off the roof. Even as it kicked and flailed, Chiaki held firm, using her burst blade to dig into its body and weaken it.

"Kanonji! Fire now!"

From below, Don Kanonji would look up towards the rooftop, his spiritual prsssure already having been compressed into his signature explosive attack. Understanding immediately what he had to do, the shaman would throw his attack with everything he had, straight into the path of the falling hollow's head. Chiaki felt the explosive force press the hollow against her, and seizing the opportunity, pressed her own blade into the hollow's body at the same time. An overwhelming grinding noise of her rushing relshi cutting through it's thick reverberated throughout the area, until finally, Chiaki sliced it clean in two, black sludge pouring out from the gaping wound.

Even so, the dying hollow still fought back, trying to take her down with it as it clawed and bit frantically to bleed every last drop of blood from her body. Chiaki held firm with all her strength as the two of them picked up speed, spiraling towards impact almost too quickly to process, and both fought unconsciousness even as they traded blows midair, not knowing who would hit the ground first. The last thing Chiaki heard was a violent CRACK; Then, everything went dark.