Cold Wave (Bleach Lovestory)

Chapter 6 - First Wave

The spiritual pressure was immense. Normally, hollows weren't a big deal at all, but Tamami gasped when she saw a portal open and hollows swarming out.
"There's so... many..."
"I would have never guessed this amount...", she looked at the running Captain in front of her as he glanced back.
"Be careful and don't do anything reckless. Stay close."
"Understood", she watched him jump up and unleash his Shikai, "Sit upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyourinmaru!"
He slashed a group of hollows with his ice dragon, staying up in the sky and attacking the flying enemies. Tamami watched him in awe for a few seconds before she remembered, there was no time for this.

She pulled her zanpaktou out of her sheath, cutting a hollow's leg off before stabbing him in the head. She glanced at her zanpaktou which was now covered slightly in blood, but the soft blue shimmer of its blade was still visible.
"It's been a while since we had a fight like this, huh?"
"Let's see if all that training paid off. I'm sure you also want to impress a certain someone, right?~", the voice of her zanpaktou echoed in her head mockingly and she blushed.
"S-Shut up!"
"You're right...", it immediately changed to a more serious tone and Tamami focused on the hollows again.
"Show them what you've got, girl!"

She dashed at hollow after hollow, soon feeling other familiar spiritual pressures, coming from Ichigo and his friends. As soon as she spotted them, she fought her way through the enemies.
"Kurosaki!"
"Hoseki? I'm glad you're here."
"Hitsugaya... uh, -taicho is here too, he's up there", she looked into his direction, finding him in the sky, attacking the hollows fiercely.
"We were quite near when we felt it..."
"Damn, thanks. But this is ridiculous! There never have been this many before", he looked worried and upset, she couldn't blame him.
"We'll get this under control, don't worry", she shot a reassuring smile towards him and he nodded.

Tamami was glad he trusted them so much and was actually interested in his back story. The only thing he heard about him back then was that he saved Rukia and that his powers were quite strong. She still wondered if it was true when she heard he even fought Captain Byakuya.

Getting back to the business at hand, she grabbed her weapon in one hand and held it over her head, starting to twirl it.
"Time for my Shikai... Rain upon the land, Arashi!", her zanpaktou got visibly longer until it turned into a three-pronged spear.
"A... trident?", Ichigo's voice rang behind her surprised and she glanced at him, grinning.
"Cool, right? I couldn't fight with it at all the first time", she chuckled thinking back, "Now things are interesting."
She grabbed her trident tightly and dashed at the next group of hollows.

Due to the length of her weapon, she had it easier dodging attacks. There was a comfortable distance between her and the enemy, not to mention how simple it was to jump into the air, like with a high jump bar. And it also functioned as the perfect spear, piercing through the enemy's body.

Speaking of which, just as her weapon stuck inside a hollow's body, she quickly yelled: "Senkai suru mizu!"
Water emerged from the trident and swirled around it like a whirlpool, killing the hollow.
Tamami caught it gracefully and got into a battle position again, taking a quick glance at the Captain.

"Guncho Tsurara!", the wave of little ice daggers destroyed another group of hollows and she smiled. He was so strong, no wonder he became Captain at such a young age. She wondered if her powers were enough for this title too...

"Hoseki-san!", Inoue's voice reached her ears and she quickly turned around, panicking. It was just enough time for her to stab the hollow and watch it disappear.
"T-thanks, Inoue", she looked over to the relieved looking girl and sighed. That one got a little too close for comfort.

"Pay attention, you dummy!", her zanpaktou's voice echoed in her head again.
"This doesn't really help, Nami... I am, you know. I just... got distracted for a few seconds...", she almost pouted, not really needing a lecture at the moment.
"That doesn't matter right now. Even if these are only mere hollows, there has to be something bigger behind this. Get this done with and then you can continue investigating."
"It's not as easy as you say it to be."
"Oh? Why's that? You just need to concentrate", Tamami slowly got annoyed.
"What do you think I'm doing? This is taking my whole concentration! There's nothing else I could think about at the mom-", suddenly it clicked in her head, "Nothing else at all... only this... just like..."
"A distraction. For something bigger."

Of course, she almost forgot that. She was so fixated on handling this matter that she nearly dropped the thought of something else happening. Not dropping it entirely really, but maybe they needed to change their point of view.

"You mean... someone's not just controlling these attacks to cause destruction, but..."
"It could be that something else is happening at the same moment, right under our noses. With all that mess of spiritual pressure no one would notice anyway."
"You know... you could be onto something there..."
"But of course I am, my gut never lied to me before~"
Tamami sweatdropped and shook her head, "Let's just get this over with for now."

*Timeskip*

Even though it seemed like ages, it calmed down. Finally the hollows were all defeated and with one last slash from Tamami, it was over.
"Argh, I'm so done with this!", Ichigo groaned and the others nodded tired.
"I hate to admit it, but Kurosaki-kun is right", even the serious Uryu looked exhausted.
"This has been going on for three weeks now... I hope with your help this will find an end soon", Inoue said.
"We'll give our best...", Tamami didn't want to give their hopes up. They were here for that matter after all, but if they had to fight too they wouldn't find time for anything else.

"Tamami", a calm voice made her turn around and face the short Captain.
"Hitsugaya...-taicho", she glanced behind her at the others, "We're unharmed, just a few scratches here and there. Nothing major."
"That's good to hear", he crossed his arms, "That attack surprised even us. We never knew Kuchiki was talking about this amount. It were only hollows, but it still drained our energy."
"And there were even more", a new voice joined the group and they looked at its owner.

"Byakuya!", Ichigo exclaimed surprised.
"Byakuya-taicho, were you able to find something out?", Tamami couldn't hold back and asked him excited. He looked at her for a brief moment before shaking his head just ever so slightly.
"When we felt that the group of hollows were near you, we assumed we could start investigating, but another group attacked civilians close to us so we had to defeat them first. Rukia and Renji stayed with me, Soi-Fon-taicho made her way to Urahara's shop. She received a message from Shihoin Yoruichi that they were attacked too and needed backup."
"So neither of you could gather any information being too busy?", Hitsugaya asked.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"That is unfortunate indeed, but we can't do anything else now... Let's all take a break and start again tomorrow."
And so they all parted ways, going home to recharge their batteries and rethink their strategies.

As soon as Tamami was back at Inoue's place with her and Hitsugaya though, she suddenly gasped.
"I nearly forgot the report! I need to start writing it before I forget important details!", she rushed to her room, "Start eating without me!"
She wasn't looking forward to dinner cooked by the lovely Inoue anyway...

*Timeskip*

Later that day, it was nighttime already, the white haired Captain gently knocked on Tamami's door.
"Tamami?", he wasn't exactly sure why he felt the need to check on her again, but he told himself it wouldn't hurt.
Upon receiving no answer though, he quietly opened the door and stepped inside the room. He chuckled slightly when he saw the girl asleep with her head on her desk, probably after finishing writing the report.
Hitsugaya grabbed the blanket from the bed and covered her carefully.
"Now we're even."
A small smile found its way onto his face when he noticed how calm and... soft she looked in her sleeping form. So much different than that afternoon when he saw her fight for the first time so serious...
He shook his head with these thoughts away and left the room as quietly as possible.
Little did he know, someone was listening and watching the whole scene with a big grin.

"..."