Heroes

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Thankfully there was only one. Any more and we would have been obliterated.

It came out of the crack, making us realize it’s complete size. It was…I dunno…about twice the Eiffel Tower? Sounds about right. Either way, it was scary as hell. 

I noticed the flock of Hollows beginning to gather around their seeming “master,” but ignored them for the moment. The real challenge was here, with the “master.” 

The Menos was a sight: along with it’s height, it had a strange, pointy-nosed mask, a necklace of spikes jutting from its lower neck, and eyes like black holes. It was creepy, and reminded me a bit of Gorillaz. And trust me, Gorillaz traumatized me as a kid. But anyway.

The Menos’ tongue, long as a city street, shot out and grabbed a smaller Hollow, slicing it in half and bringing it back to the body where the Menos devoured it, leaving a trail of blood around its mouth. 

“How barbaric!” Uryu said, amazed at the sight before him. “How are we supposed to fight a thing like that?”

“Why are you thinking?” Ichigo said stupidly. “We just gotta chop, chop, chop! Cut ‘im down! There’s no other way!”

“WAIT!” I yelled, but he ran anyway. The Menos barely took note of his presence and kicked him away effortlessly, making Kurosaki go flying.

“I TOLD YOU TO START LISTENING TO ME!!!” 

Ishida took a shot at him, firing an arrow into his neck. It barely left a scratch, almost doing nothing. 

“Are you okay?” Ishida asked. 

Ichigo popped up, a grin on his face and an exorbitant amount of blood protruding from his head. “Wow! Look,” he said excitedly. “I’m not dead!”

“Was your crib painted with lead? Did you bite the bars?” Ishida yelled. I had to admit I laughed a bit at that line. 

I noticed the Menos was beginning to charge. Oh crap, Cero! I tried to warn the boys but Ichigo (again) rushed headfirst without thinking and stuck his zanpakuto, blade up, into the air.

Amazingly, it worked. 

The red energy beam deflected off it into a million directions, none of which hit our team, serendipitously enough. I had to admit, Kurosaki had a lot of strength, no matter how stupid he was.

Ichigo dragged his sword up, slicing the Menos almost in half. It was the most powerful attack we’d seen out of him thus far. And it was completely unbelieveable. 

The Menos noticed its state and began to retreat. As it left, we all celebrated their victory.

“YES!!” Ichigo yelled adolescently. “VICTORY!!”

Ishida just stared in shock. 

“Hey,” Ichigo said to him, “no thanks?”

Ishida looked skeptic. “Excuse me?”

“I cleaned up your mess! I think a thank you is deserved!”

“Shut it, Ichigo!” I said, walking over and knocking him on the head. “It was equal work. I think you owe everyone in town an apology for endangering them all today.”

The two boys put their heads down in shame, acquiescing to my statement. 

“Okay, guys!” Kisuke said a bit too happily, “cleanup time!”

I grinned and sang quietly to myself. “Cleanup, cleanup, everybody do your share! Cleanup, cleanup, everybody everywhere~”

Ishida and Kurosaki looked at me strangely but I just shrugged. “It’s a song we sang in kindergarten when it was time to clean up after arts and crafts or whatever. Feel deprived that you didn’t get to sing it.” Before they could rebuke I walked over to the suspicious salesman. “So, Kisuke,” I said. “Y’all need any help or can I get my friends home?”