Corroded Spirits

Corroded Spirits: 39

Chapter 39: Relentless Retribution

 "What the hell was that?" Chad blurted, stopping from his run and looking over his shoulder. Another explosion had occurred, ending the sullen silence that had suddenly dawned on Seritei. "Toshiro and Byakuya are both over there." Ichigo pointed out, feeling both of the captains' respective Reiatsus. "No doubt, Inoue-san and the Arrancar are also there." Kisuke said, stating the obvious. His eyes slanted, however, when he noticed something. "What could they be doing there, though?" He voiced out almost to himself. "Why? What's over there?" Ichigo asked, growing oddly curious. "That's where the Chamber 46 is located."

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  Remnants of the Cero began to fade away as Toshiro slowly allowed Hyourinmaru's ice to melt. The moment it did, the creature came dashing towards them in an instant. Quickly bringing up his sword, Toshiro managed to guard himself from the powerful sweep of the wing, but the force drove him a few good yards to the left against the wall. Orihime was about to advance on him further, but then she felt the other man behind her, and quickly whipped around to raise her wing in defense.

  The stare that Byakuya directed at her was close to being equal with hers. She noticed him turn his hand, and then he dropped his Zanpakutou to the ground. "Bankai..." As soon as the thousands of pink blades scattered from the blade, Orihime disappeared via Sonido, and re-materialized across the room. The blades didn't touch her, but she was bleeding still. Byakuya hesitated for the slightest of second before he commanded his deadly petals to seek and destroy the Hollow-fused human.

 Even though they knew it was a human with a soul of an Arrancar that they were fighting, it was still frightening to see the girl use Sonido so proficiently, they could barely even see her between the shifts. Recovering himself from the wall after assessing he had no injuries, Toshiro quickly took the chance to dive in the scene. "Hyourinmaru!" He swept his sword towards the fiend, and a dragon of pure ice flew towards her direction. She Sonidoed away again, the ice dragon exploding against the wall. But the bladed chain caught her by the wing. "You won't escape this time." He remarked, tugging on the chain to pull her towards him. Quickly, Orihime initiated another Cero to prevent him from doing anything.

 As swift as she was able, she broke the chain from her wing and moved further back from the captains. Though she stood perfectly straight and still, like an unbreakable tree, Orihime had to fight for dear life to keep her shaking breaths from escaping her lips. However even as she masked her pain, her two opponents still caught on it when they saw more blood draining itself from her. "You're losing a lot of blood.." Toshiro pointed out. Orihime, as always was undeterred. "You keep on stating the obvious.." There was a slight strain in her voice that proved their assumptions that she was in fact starting to wear down. "Why don't you just stop already, Arrancar?" Byakuya said, speaking to Ulquiorra.

 The green of her eyes glinted, implying that it was Ulquiorra whose side was currently in the body. "Why should we?" He asked, slightly curious. "Because you are killing her.." Toshiro filled in somberly. There was a slight raise to the entity's brow, but they could barely see it. "Can't you see?" Toshiro inquired, taking a small step forward. "The power you are giving her, your presence in her body... She can barely take it any longer. How you've even managed this far is beyond us, but even you can tell that Inoue is falling apart piece by piece."

 Blood trickled out from Orihime's nose as if to prove the captain's point. Before all else could be done and said, the wall to their right exploded in, dust and smoke covering the area. Orihime was no longer surprised when she saw that three new people had come to join them. "What the hell took you guys?" Toshiro asked. "Well that tends to happen when you don't give a certain set of directions, Toshiro." Ichigo stated, coming in first with Kisuke and Chad tailing behind him."What are you going to do now? It's 5 against 1. And with your deteriorating condition, I'd say you won't even have a chance to get away scot-free on this one." Kisuke said.