CH 157: SENNA’S FIGHT (2)
A few moments ago, Senna was sitting in the back seat of the car absentmindedly. Her eyes staring at the road.
Rather than school, she was more interested in what kind of hollow she would fight and when it would happen.
Despite the fact that she was trained since she was a kid by many strong and skilled fighters, her own fighting experience was pitifully low. So it was an occasion she couldn’t miss.
The better she was during the hunt, the more chances she would have to fight again.
‘I need to go all out.’
It was when she was thinking that she felt it.
"...!!!"
A sudden heavy pressure-filled the world and what looked like the jagged maw of a beast opened wide and appeared in the sky.
For normal humans, they would only feel discomfort and chalk it to a bad day or a brewing cold.
But for people with knowledge and the power to see the world beyond. All they could see was darkness leading to a world beyond.
Garganta. The gate to Hueco Mundo.
For most people spiritually aware, the sight of this gate was just a cause of fear. But for Senna, all she could feel was excitement.
“I am going! Send an artificial soul in my stead at school.”
“Understood.”
Once she received the answer, Senna grinned, and with just a nudge of her mind, her body went from physical to spiritual.
This was Senna's peculiarity.
She wasn’t a Soul, but neither was she alive.
She was something different. Something in-between and that was why she could freely transition without having to give up on her physical body.
Now clad in her Shinigami uniform, she immediately jumped through the door of the car, and in an incredible display of speed, reached the highest building in the surrounding area, giving her a clear view of what was happening.
“Haha! It’s finally time for you to shine, my friend!”
Laughing out loud, she took her sword.
Was it because of Yoruichi's influence during her birth? Or was it because of Gojo?
“Roar Against The Raging Heaven: Susanoo!”
Senna didn’t know. What she did know though was that her Shikai was different.
ROOAAR!
Lightning spread and the wind howled. The sword in her hand dissipated into motes of light before reforming into what looked like a two meters tall White Tiger with clouds below its feet.
This was Senna's Shikai. A rare living type. In the whole Soul Society, only Unohana had a living type Shikai.
"Let's go Susanoo!"
Jumping on the back of the Tiger, Senna shouted and showed the direction of her target.
—-
While Senna was rushing for her kill, she did not see Gojo appear not far from her as he inspected the situation.
When he saw her directly summon her Shikai, he nodded in approval.
Senna's Shikai was very powerful and he awaited the day she would complete her Bankai.
He had no doubt about the victory of Senna and in fact, would be pretty disappointed if she failed after all the training she went through.
He had three reasons to come here.
The first one was obviously to see his daughter fight.
The second one was to ensure that no dangerous external factors would come to disturb her.
As for the last one–it was curiosity.
Why did that Menos come here? No matter how you looked at it, it was really strange.
Looking as three Menos Grande came out of the Garganta, Gojo simply rose an eyebrow.
Though he was soon disrupted by something else.
'Huh?'
His sense caught someone running towards the place.
‘Well, well, well. Would you look at that?’
Gojo grinned when he saw who was the incoming intruder. He debated slightly between stopping her or not but in the end, his curiosity won and he decided to let things go their course.
‘Let’s see how it will go while I search for the goal of those hollows.’
—---
‘What is happening…?!’
Jumping around while being careful to keep her skirt from fluttering too much was an orange-haired young girl clad in a high school uniform.
On both her hands and legs, blue veins made out of light could be seen as they traced complex forms on her body. It was Blut, the secret technique of Quincy and the one using it was none other than Masaki Kurosaki.
Today should have been a day like any other.
She had been worried about Senna getting attacked but it seemed that those worries had been superfluous.
Everything changed when she suddenly felt that Reiatsu and saw the opening of the Garganta.
She was lost about what to do then.
When a Shinigami ‘killed’ a hollow, they in fact simply purified them. Meaning that the overall number of souls and the balance between the three worlds always stayed the same.
But when a Quincy killed a hollow. It was an absolute and total extermination. There was absolutely nothing left and the more hollows Quincy killed, the greater the difference between the three worlds became, thus creating an unbalanced situation.
Back then the Shinigamis had asked Quincys to stop hunting hollows but they refused. This was what sparked the war. At least this was the official version Masaki knew of.
Whether this was the truth was another matter but what she did know was one thing—
—Quincy did not have the right to hunt hollows anymore.
This was the rule that had been established after the Quincy lost the war 130 years ago and were nearly exterminated by the Shinigami.
It would be one thing if she simply were to kill a minor hollow. The death of such hollow even when killed by a Quincy would not affect the universe.
But what about Menos?
Even the weakest of Menos, the Gillian were the result of hundreds of Souls gathered together. Meaning that killing one would be the equivalent of erasing at least one hundred souls from the universe.
As for killing three?
Masaki shuddered then and there. If she dared to do this, the Shinigami would hunt her down without a doubt.
She was the last Kurosaki. One of the last pure Quincy. While she had never really cared about things such as purity, she knew very well how important it was for the others.
Could she selfishly put herself in danger like this?
Masaki had hesitated.
So why then was she running at full power towards those hollows?
The reason was pretty simple. She was dumb and she knew it.
Notions such as honor, future, and pride were too complicated for her to understand.
For her, "taking proper care of herself" meant making sure she did what she could here and now. Because if she decided not to take action because of rules and customs and somebody died because she did nothing, she didn’t think she would be able to forgive herself for that
Masaki didn’t think of herself as a hero.
She had no intention to uphold justice.
She just wanted to do what she wanted to do.
As for the outcome?
“Haha! let the future Masaki agonize about that headache.”
Laughing like this while letting out such outrageous words, Masaki accelerated even further and jumped from a high building before beginning to walk in the air.
‘I knew that putting those short would be useful.’
She couldn’t even imagine how embarrassing it would have been if she had to move like this with her panties out to see for the world.
It was when she was about to reach the Menos that she heard it.
“What are you doing here?”
Masaki immediately stopped short, her eyes widening as she recognized this voice.
But, she shouldn’t hear it here.
“Senna!?”
Turning around, Masaki opened her eyes wide when her suspicions were confirmed.
There, riding on a ferocious-looking white tiger with small clouds under its feet and clad in the same uniform as her, was the girl Masaki had come to consider a friend.
While Senna didn’t have the usual black kimono, there was no doubt about it.
Senna was a Shinigami.
“Move!”
Senna’s shout woke up Masaki immediately then, using Hirenkyaku, a high-speed movement technique belonging to the Quincy, she moved out of the way of a powerful ray of light.
A cero.
*Whoosh*
‘Oh no! The city!’
Masaki immediately regretted her reflex. She would have been able to tank this hit if she focused on her Blut but now the city would pay for her mistake.
At least that was what she thought.
“Tch! As if I would let that happen.”
<<Bakudo #39: Round Lock Fan.>>
<<Bakudo #73: Inverse Mountain Crystal>>
In one instant, two powerful Kido spells were activated at the same time.
The first one, the #39, was activated by Senna herself. But with a twist.
The normal Round Lock Fan was only large enough to cover one person. But, in Senna's hand, the spell transformed into a large yellow shield that was as large enough to cover a few kilometers.
BOOM!!!
The power of the Cero was no joke but the result as it crashed against the shield was that it did not leave even the slightest crack on it.
Of course, it didn’t stop there.
If Senna was the one to throw to Kido #39, the Kido #73 on the other hand was activated by none other than Susanoo.
This was one of the abilities of her Shikai. Susanoo could use all the spells Senna knew herself and use them to the same level of power and skill as herself.
Immediately, three large inversed pyramids formed around the Menos and sealed them, making it impossible for them to cause any more damage.
Masaki was completely astonished by what she was seeing. The display of skills was simply that overwhelming. But Senna did not stop there.
“Susanoo. Let's finish this, it would be shameful if father saw me struggle against those weaklings.”
The usual calm and gentle Senna was nowhere to be seen.
As the daughter of Gojo himself, there was no way she did not have her own sense of pride. It was just that she never showed it outside of battle.
ROOAAR!
Howling toward the sky, dark clouds filled with lightning began to cover and hide the sun, casting shadows all other the city.
*Bzzz* *Bzzz* *Bzz*
Masaki gasped and felt like she was unable to breathe in the presence of Senna. The Reiatsu she was emanating made those Menos Grande seem like a joke.
Lightning gathered more and more in the sky to the level where she could feel it prickle her skin.
Looking indifferently at the three imprisoned Menos, Senna huffed.
She initially wanted to play around with them a little more but, since Masaki had appeared, she knew just wanted to finish them fast and discuss the truth with her.
Meanwhile, the Menos understood the gravity of the situation and tried to do everything in their power to free themselves, but there was nothing they could do. In front of the overwhelming difference in power, all resistance proved futile.
“How useless…”
Senna sighed and pointed at them. Her words, the final verdict that would decide their destiny–
“Vanish with the roar of thunder.”
–and their destiny was death.
BOOM!!!
—--
Meanwhile, standing in the basement of a house, Gojo finally knew what had attracted the hollows towards this zone.
But he was not happy in the slightest.
“Who… are… you?”
Looking at the emaciated girl, that had been starved for days, Gojo gave a bright smile despite what he felt inside.
“I am an angel.”
He grinned at the way she looked at him as if he was crazy but then widened her eyes in surprise when he showed his wings.
At the very least, the girl was not completely dead inside.
Crouching down so that he was eye level with her, Gojo asked gently,
“What about you?”
“My name is…” She seemed to hesitate. Either because of the dryness of her throat or the fact that he was a stranger. But in the end, the girl that had never seen the outside world finally gave her name.
“...Aura Michibane.”