Dragon's Fang (Renji Abarai x OC)

¢нαρтєя 10

Hotaru awoke what seemed like hours later, although by the look of the daylight, a few minutes had passed. She sat up rather painfully and let very recent memories return to her head.

Remembering the fight with Renji, she instinctively grasped her side to control the bleeding. Her hand didn't get wet, and she looked down to see why. She smiled slightly as she ran her fingers over the styptic covering her wound.

"I knew you had some Renji in you, I knew it" she said, knowing full well Renji had followed Ikkaku's example and hidden a blood-clotting ointment in the hilt Zabimaru. He would never admit it, but Hotaru always knew it.

Her smile faded quickly as she remembered how cold he had been while fighting her, and even worse, that he was no longer nearby. She knew he had to be fighting by now. Looking up to see the stairs to the Shrine of Penitence, she rose slowly to her feet and started walking towards it. She knew she shouldn't rush because the styptic was only so strong, and even if she did, there was no guarantee she could do anything.

After getting down from the roof, she followed along the corridors. She could still feel Renji's reiatsu, although there was a very powerful one she could feel that had to belong to the ryoka right by him. Pushing herself to her limit, she rounded the corner as quickly as she could.

From her spot against the wall, she could see the entire courtyard in front of the stairs leading up to the Shrine of Penitence. Renji and the orange-haired Shinigami representative who had been causing all the commotion were faced off against each other, although Renji had yet to release Zabimaru. Clearly Hotaru had come just in time to witness the fight in its entirety.

Off to the side, at the other end of the courtyard were two others, a ryoka and a smaller Shinigami, although this one was familiar. Hotaru recognized him as the one who had been in charge of cleaning Rukia's cell while she was in the 6th Division prison, although she could not remember his name. The Shinigami did not look like he had been dragged here forcefully, but of his own free will. She frowned at the thought, but turned her focus back on the battle that had commenced.

Renji had made a few attacks, all of which had been dodged or blocked, although Hotaru wasn't worried since Zabimaru had still not been released. If Renji just released his blade, the fight was sure to be over.

Renji seemed to have come to the same conclusion, and quickly released his blade. The two men battling paused, and Hotaru realized she would need to move closer to hear what they were saying to each other.

Inching around the wall and crossing one of the corridors, she climbed back on to a roof and hung low along it as she moved closer. By now she was a yard or two away from the two people off to the side, and could easily hear their dialogue.

Finally being able to hear Renji's shouts, she looks up just in time to see the ryoka take a direct hit from Zabimaru. The blow knocks him back through a wall and into a nearby building, where Zabimaru continued to push into him. What is even more shocking is that, when Renji retracts the blade, the ryoka stood right back up.

Hotaru's eyes were bugging out of her head at this point. Sure, Renji had fought him before and had trouble, but they were in Sereitei. The lieutenants and captains were 5 times stronger than they could be in the human world. There was no way that the ryoka had improved that much.

Hotaru had never seen Renji fight with such an intensity. It was no longer fun, it was life and death. She watched in awe as he destroyed wall after wall just trying to hit the ryoka. Renji chased him out of sight briefly, so all Hotaru could see was the unsettled dust from their scuffle.