Part 30

Not missing a beat, the Chusei imposter ran at her again, not giving the girl enough time to get a proper grip on Kurobara. As she deflected the latest attack, the sword was wrenched out of her fingers and landed a few feet away. The two girls looked at it, then back to each other. Fake Chusei had a look of glee in her eyes which made Deha snort. "You seriously think I'm that easy to take down?"

With one swift movement she raised her leg and kicked Chusei square in the stomach, sending the girl reeling backwards. "You can thank Renji for teaching me that one." She dived for her zanpakuto just in time for the other girl to recover and attack her again; this time she was pissed off and came at her with a vicious attack. The girls carried on fighting; slashing and deflecting with all their might. Deha had an advantage in height and weight, but what Chusei lacked in stature she made up for in speed, which was what gave her the advantage when Deha made a sideways swipe with Kurobara, then used the hilt to butt her opponent in the face. Chusei sidestepped and went for the taller girls injured leg in one movement. Deha leapt backwards and found herself pressed up against cold stone. Chusei swung once more aiming for the girls neck, but Deha blocked the attack, both zanpakutos crisscrossed against her throat.

The Chusei imposter looked at her, frustration evident in her eyes, and Azdeha suddenly remembered what had seemed wrong earlier. The Chusei in front of her had been distracted when Byakuya had hurled Renji into the wall. She had shown emotion, like she was now. The red head could have kicked herself. They weren't fakes, they were the real deal and whoever had set this up had led them right into a trap, where they couldn't feel each others reiatsu.

If she had a free hand she would have facepalmed herself but as it happened, both hands were currently busy fending off an attack from a real captain level shinigami; all she had was her mouth.

"Chusei, you wanna back off a bit and stop trying to slice my head off? It's bad enough you already took a chunk of my hair."

Part 28

Azdeha threw herself to the ground just in time to avoid a fatal blow from Chusei's zanpakuto, but the captain had still managed to land a blow. Wincing from the pain, the redhead glanced down at her thigh which had a long diagonal slash across her hakama. She could feel the blood pouring down her leg and bit her lip, trying to fight past the pain; she hoped Chusei had managed to avoid the artery. Only time would tell.

She rolled into a crouching position and pushed herself to a standing position, bearing her weight on her uninjured leg as she tightened her grip on Kurobara. Opposite her, the fake Chusei was watching her intently, trying to work out the girls next move. She knew that even though this Chusei wasn't real, the copy's skills were superior to her own, despite having come out top of her class in swordsmanship, and she was grateful that neither of them could perform Kidou right now. Both girls were on equal footing when it came that particular combat technique, Deha, however, preferred not to use it, opting instead to fight her opponents in armed combat. She found it much more fun.

The two women circled each other, both trying to work out the others next move. Out of the corner of her eye, Deha saw Byakuya land a blow on Renji, knocking him backwards into the wall of the cavern, and for a moment, Chusei was distracted. The red head grinned and grasping Kurobara in both handstook the opportunity to charge at the other girl, raising kurobara above her head slashing downwards in the ryodan technique she had been taught at the Academy.

Chusei recovered from her distraction quickly however, and raised her blade just in time to deflect the attack, sending Deha skidding backwards, Kurobara still raised. She stared at Chusei, frowning for a moment. Something wasn't right. There was definitely something odd about the whole situation but she couldn't put her finger on it.

She shifted her weight and a sharp pain shot up her leg. Wincing, she transferred her weight back to her other foot, and focused on Chusei. The imposter chose that moment to throw herself at the redhead, blade glinting in the torchlight as she sliced through the air, aiming for her opponents middle.

Gritting her teeth and preparing for the pain, Deha launched herself off the ground, using all the muscles in her legs, and somersaulted over her adversary. She landed heavily on both legs, and then collapsed onto one knee, trying in vain to push the pain away. Across from her Chusei turned around and shook her head.

"I thought you things were meant to be easy to beat." she muttered before planting the tip of Kurobara's blade into the ground and using the sword as a crutch to get back on her feet. She knew the zanpakuto wouldn't be too pleased about that but screw it. It's not like she was much use for anything else at the moment.

Part 27

"You take on the Azdeha copy." Renji murmured, eyes darting to Chusei for second, checking she was prepared. "I would struggle against a copy, I'll admit that now." Chusei looked back just as breifly before grimly nodding and bringing herself to stand beside Renji.

"Got it. Will you be ok with the Byakuya though? I mean even if these copies are weaker that the real things-"

"Hey I have fought against the real guy before remember?" Renji smirked, eyes, however, never leaving the Byakuya before him. Chusei didn't comment further. She was tempted to comment on the state he was left in as a rustle of said fight but now wasn't the time or place.

Watching the pair before them seem to talk Chusei couldn't help but be a little too convinced of who they were. Azdeha even called out and was wrangled back in a way which was just like the Byakuya and Deha she and Renji knew. Before long she shook her head and snapped out of her thoughts.

"Ready?" Renji muttered.

"I was born ready! I'm just going to pretend it's like the time she said I looked like Rukia." Chusei grinned. Renji shook his head before there was a pause. The mood hightened as the pair got serious. "Go."

Dashing forward Renji was the first to clash with Byakuya who ran to meet him but Chusei slipped past and turned to deflect a first strike and swung round Shunen-Ryu to try attack herself. When Azdeha dodged out the way, a few hairs ending up trimmed though, Chusei moved away to try judge the next attack. Next attack she blocked, she struck out, it was deflected. Another strike from Chusei, deflected. Soon the pair both had their backs to the opposing walls, panting lightly. Up close the Azdeha really did look like the Deha Chusei knew. She had certainly had convincing details added to her to look like she may have been down in this horrid place for a while. In the back ground Renji and Byakuya clashed loudly, Renji's unsubtle roars as he attacked echoing around them. Looking right in to Azdeha's eyes Chusei didn't know what to think any more, she was convinced but Renji was right, she had to depend on her senses and she sensed nothing.

Familiar frustration at being messed around mounting in seconds, Chusei kicked out at Azdeha and used the attacks distraction to roll away along the wall to leave her with space behind her and room to attack and keeping the battle between Renji and Byakuya as far away from her as possible.

"You sure do look like the real thing." Chusei crouched a little, glaring at Azdeha, "Unfortunately if there is no reiatsu there is no reality to you so forgive me." Shunen-Ryu glowed dully in the reiatsu-zapping corridor. "I am not going to enjoy this but it needs to be done!" With the last word Chusei lunged forward with another attack.

As Chusei pulled away and frowned slightly when she saw Azdeha's eyes widen a little, like she had said either something important or offensive. [i]'Bingo.'[/i] Chusei figured the imposter realised she knew she was a fake. Smirking, Chusei grabbed both hands on Shunen-Ryu and in a powerful move that made her zanpaktou roar through the air toward's Azdeha's side.

Part 26

"What if they're real and we hurt them...well....you hurt them." Deha was under no illusions as to her own strength. "We should probably try to find out instead of slash no, ask questions later."

"Deha, we don't have time for that. I can't feel any reiatsu off them, can you?"

"Well, no. But I can't feel any off you either." she pointed out. "Unless you're suppressing it."

"No. It's the stone."

Azdeha looked around and for the first time noticed they were surrounded by sleek dark grey stone, like the stone around Seireitei. "So we have no way of telling if they're real."

Byakuya shook his head. Deha thought for a moment then, never taking her eyes off their opponents, directed her thoughts to Byakuya. "The lab where Mayuri had me...I couldn't feel your reiatsu then either. Not until after you took me off the table."

"The table Mayuri used was made of the same stone."

"So how could you tell I was real."

Byakuya thought for a moment, then, "Your eyes. Every fake I've come across has shown no emotion."

"Ok...so we just have to get close enough to look into their eyes. Piece of cake." she groaned, knowing full well the closest she was going to get to either of the shinigami in front of them was about 20 meters if they had their way.

"There's one more thing..." Byakuya gestured towards their zanpakuto. "No reiatsu, no release, remember?"

Azdeha looked down at Kurobara, only just noticing that the usual vibrations that ran through her sword were gone. "Son of a...."

"It's better for you...we're now all on equal footing. If we can't use our release..they can't use theirs. It's all down to swordsmanship."

Azdeha's shoulders dropped. "Still."

"I'll take Renji...you and Chusei are more equally matched in height and strength..and you'd no doubt get distracted fighting your own brother."

Azdeha groaned again, hoping with everything she possessed that Byakuya was right about their opponents not being able to release their zanpakuto either.

"Here goes..."

Part 25

The two shinigami walked side by side in silence, the only noise coming from their waraji hitting the soft ground, and the occasional swish of material against material. It had been ages since they had seen any doorways or hint of another nightmare and Azdeha wondered if it was because there were two of them now. Whoever was controlling this place couldn't work out how to separate them, nor could he work out how to combine their nightmares. She mentally cheered.

Shinigami 1 - douchebag - 0.

Still, she had to hand it to whoever was behind this, he had given her alone time with her captain, even if said alone time was spent wandering through endless corridors in the dim light of torches, not really talking to each other. Both shinigami were tired and their reactions weren't as quick as they would normally be, so they had decided that silence was the only way to be sure that something wasn't about to sneak up on them. Deha didn't mind in the slightest. It wasn't like Byakuya was the most talkative person in the world at the best of times.

She wrapped her fingers tighter round his and shifted closer. His longer legs meant she often ended up trailing a little behind and needed to catch up every so often. He looked down at her, "Do you need to rest?"

Deha shook her head, "Nah, I'm fine. Just..." she indicated towards her feet, "...little legs."

A small smile crept across Byakuya's lips and he turned his head to what was in front of them again, slowing his pace as he did so.

"Byakuya...do you think we'll ever find the others?"

The taller shinigami stopped in his tracks, eyes staring straight forward. "I think we'll find something." He dropped the girls hand and grabbed Senbonzakura. Startled, Azdeha drew her eyes away from his face and looked down the long corridor ahead. There were two figures standing across from them. Both looked like they had been to hell and back, and both had their zanpakuto out.

"CHUSEI!! RENJI!!" With a cheer, Deha ran forward, towards her brother and best friend, but she didn't get very far before she found herself being grasped round the waist and dragged backwards. "Byakuya! What are you doing? It's Renji and Chusei."

"Shhh." He deposited her on her feet, but kept hold of her wrist to stop her moving again. "We have no idea of knowing if they're the real ones, or just another nightmare."

"Oh come on! We're in a corridor, not one of those creepy room." Deha tried to wriggle free, but Byakuya was stronger.

"Stay back, and get your zanpakuto out." He gritted his teeth. "That's an order!" he added when he saw that the girl had no intention of doing either.

Azdeha glared at her commanding officer and groaned, doing as she was told. She grasped Kurobara in her right hand, and unsheathed the zanpakuto. "But for the record, I object to this."

"Noted."

Part 24

They stood like that for a moment, just enjoying the comfort of no longer being alone. Deha buried her head in his torn uniform, savouring the familiar scent of him; cherry blossoms mingled with sweat from battle and an underlying hint of blood. It was a scent she loved, more so than when he had just stepped out of a shower, after all, he was a warrior.

He pulled away from her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking her up and down for injuries, his eyes fixed on the blood stained top she wore. She stared down at it and shrugged. "Not mine...I'm fine."

He looked dubious but he could clearly see there was nothing more than a few bruises and grazes on her arms and face from her frequent collisions with the floor, and opted to trust her. "You on the other hand..."

Deha shook her head and lifted one of Byakuya's torn sleeves. He had a gash down the length of one arm and though it wasn't bleeding now, it had been quite heavily at one point. The man grunted and shook her off. "Forget about that for now. We need to get out of here and locate the others."

Azdeha nodded, though begrudgingly, and looked around the partly demolished room. There were 4 doors and no windows. It was different to the one she had encountered Hisana in so she had no idea which of the doors let outside. If they even led outside. She strongly suspected that the moment they opened one of them, they'd end up back in that underground maze. It probably didn't matter which one. She took a deep breath and walked over to the nearest one, yanking it open. As she suspected...compacted dirt caverns. Behind her, Byakuya had opened another door and was staring out at the same view.

"Guess it doesn't matter what we choose huh?" Deha kicked her door shut and strolled over the the captain, her hand on her zanpakuto. "Let's just get out of here."

Byakuya nodded and held out a hand, "Keep hold of me. This thing will try and separate us and I doubt it'll let us find each other again."

Entwining her fingers around his, the two Shinigami walked through the doorway, the male slightly in front in case anything decided to ambush them. Deha didn't exactly need protecting but she couldn't help feeling a little bit girly and giddy at the small gesture of chivalry.

They found themselves in another dimly lit cavern, this one at least with flickering torches at intervals along the walls. "Byakuya?"

"Hmmm?"

"What is this place?"

He stopped and turned to face her, the shadows under his eyes far more pronounced in the dim torchlight. "I'm not sure. As far as I can tell, we're being forced to live out our worst fears, whatever they are."

"So someone's trying to scare us to death?"

"I don't think they're trying to kill us. If that was the case, the illusions we come up against would be stronger and more difficult to beat."

That made sense. After all, there was no way she would have been able to beat fake Byakuya so easily had whoever it was been trying to kill her. "So you think this person, or thing, is trying to get to us psychologically? Wear us down and make us second guess ourselves?"

"I suspect as much. Let's keep moving."

He turned away and she stumbled after him, keeping a firm hold of his hand and taking comfort in the warm, calloused familiarity of it. "How come we ended up in the same place then?"

In the dim light she saw his shoulders rise in a shrug. "I think we must share a similar fear, which led us to find each other. Whoever set this up probably didn't anticipate it."

"So if we share fears with the others in here...then we might be able to find him?"

"Possibly. But I doubt that there's anything that we would all class as a nightmare."

He was right. She couldn't imagine Kenpachi being fearful of anything, let alone the stuff she feared. In fact he was probably sitting on his own on the steps that led to this  place wondering where everyone else had gone. She laughed despite herself and felt Byakuya squeeze her hand. 

Part 23

The captain held out his free arm, and dropped Senbonzakura, blade down on the floor. The steel of the katana sank into the ground, with ripples of reiatsu and the 4 shinigami were plunged into darkness as bright blades erupted from the ground all around them, towering high above them. "Chire, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

The blades separated into thousands of tiny shards which surrounded them in a whirlwind of metal. They scattered in all directions before converging into one giant cloud which was aimed directly at the two imposters. Anticipating the move, Mayuri grabbed Nemu and flung her into the path of the blades, using the momentum, coupled with his shunpo to move out of the way. The woman didn't even make a sound as the blades seemed to swallow her whole.

"Throwing away your lieutenants life to save your own? How dishonourable."

"Says the man who gave up his wife for his own sexual gratification. And with a street rat no doubt." Mayuri sneered and shunpo'd out of the way of Byakuya's latest attack.

"Hisana died a long time ago. Nothing can bring her back." Byakuya sent another wave of blades after Mayuri who merely moved out of the way again. He had always been masterful at shunpo and Deha knew that unless she or Byakuya did something, they could be at a stalemate for hours.

Despite Byakuya's earlier warning to stay exactly where she was, the young girl wriggled around in his grasp so that her zanpakuto was no long wedged between them. As long as she stayed close to him she wouldn't be in any danger so he couldn't exactly reprimand her for merely turning around.

"Dakishimeru Kurobara." She whispered it, knowing the spirit within the blade would hear her regardless and watched as the steel lengthened and drooped, transforming into a steel whip embellished with thousands of tiny thorns. As Mayuri shunpo'd from place to place, each time avoiding Senbonzakura's attack, Deha calculated her next move and the next time Mayuri paused, she used the split second to crack her whip, much to both captain's surprise, and annoyance, and the zanpakuto coiled itself around Mayuri's arm, keeping him in place. The captain sneered and pulled at the coil, which only led to the thorns embedding themselves deeper into his arm.

"Byakuya, now!" Deha held on tight to stop Mayuri from pulling back, as another wave of petal like blades headed towards him, but Mayuri was too fast. Realising that the one person Byakuya was trying to save was on the other end of the whip, he grasped it with his other hand and yanked as hard as he could. Deha stumbled forward, closing the gap between her and the insane imposter, and right into the path of the oncoming shards.

"DEHA!" She was knocked to the ground by a powerful impact and lost her grip on Kurobara, but it had been enough. She raised her head in time to see Mayuri being engulfed by a ball of tiny glittering blades which then dissipated, leaving the man lying, broken, on the ground.

She felt the weight that was pinning her down let up, and she rolled onto her back. Byakuya was standing over her, his face a mixture of anger and relief.

"Why do you find it so hard to obey even the simplest of orders?" he sighed offering her a hand getting off the ground.

"It's all part of my charm?"

She took his hand gratefully and he helped her up, pulling her into his arms, and crushing her against his chest.