The Outskirts of Tokyo

It was suicide... Skaon was no match for a hollow such as this. His friend Keiji found that out the hard was, and he had actually made it to his second year of the Shinigami Academy.

Sakon had only one year under his belt before he decided that to truly become powerful, he must duke it out in the real world. He and Keiji had each other's backs up until his death only two days earlier.

Though he knew he would probably meet the same fate, wasn't about to turn tail and flee. He needed a plan... Some way to give him the upper hand... Then, as Sakon noticed a the soul of a young boy walk into view, a plan hatched in his mind. God have mercy on my soul...

He must've been heartless to even think about trying such a reckless plan, but he knew it had to be done. There was no one else he could count on to do it for him. Sakon had no other friends within the soul society, no one to call in for back up. So now here he was, using this small boy as bait while he sat up high in the shadows.

Night fell and a cool breeze began to pick up. Street lights came on, block by block. Sakon was alert as ever, the hollow he was tracking only came out after the sun had set. He could only hope it'd come out now...

Sakon cursed himself for not learning more about kido... He knew there was one that would trap a hollow in a net of fire and even keep the boy safe in the center. At least that way it'd be slightly less dangerous for him... As it was he'd have to rely on his zanpakuto, and his ability to perform a surprise attack...

All at once the air was filled with the blood curdling howl of a hollow. He heard it approach the area Sakon had laid his trap, a small playground, somewhere behind an abandoned school building. It was the perfect place for the wandering soul of a young boy to wander off to alone. Windows shattered on the old stone building as the beast perched itself on the roof. It licked it's lips menacingly, glaring down at the young soul, prepared to pounce. Sakon unsheathed his sword as he waited for the right moment, a bad move on his part. He'd forgotten that there was a full moon this night and that his sword would reflect the moonlight as his pulled it from it's scabbard.

The creature jumped off of the roof and lunged towards him, he was the obvious target since he was the only one that posed a threat to the hollow. In a matter of seconds the beast had managed to jump from the adjacent building, toss Sakon off the roof, and position itself on the high ground, leaving no time to escape before he was lunged at...

He gripped his sword even tighter, knowing that this may very well be his end... and he was not going out without a fight...

Felix stared into the night as he waited for anything that might satisfy his thirst for a fight. He had been dead for over a century and the one thing he learned was that if you want to survive you have to fight, still he preferred not to go looking for a fight usually. Tonight was different though, tonight he wanted a fight so taking to the human world he wandered hunting hollows.

Feeling the malevolent presence of a hollow he stalked it for over an hour hoping that it would leave the heavily populated area. Then as the hollow started to fight but, there was something else a presence he had felt many times before. "Shinigami" he said in a low voice as he rounded the corner.

From what he could see the shinigami wasn't very adept at exterminating, he had let himself get cornered for one and he held his zanpakuto too tight. This is going to get really messy if I don't help him out, but if I help him he is going to start asking questions. Stepping out of the shadows he whistles trying to get the hollows attention.

"Hey ugly why dont you fight someone with a bit more bite behind him, or are you scared that you wont make the cut?." he stood there looking bored as he tried to antagonize the hollow.

The behemoth lashed out at Sakon with a massive tail, tossing him across the playground. It then turned to face Felix, eyes piercing through him like razor-sharp daggers. It launched itself at Felix with agility of a cat and the ferocity of a bull. It howled as it closed in on the rogue shinigami, the windows around him shattering under the sonic might of its call.

It swiped at Felix with a gigantic set of claws. They whistled as they sailed through the air towards the well-muscled rogue soul reaper...

Meanwhile Sakon climbed to his feet, shaking of the pain in his shoulder from when he landed on the ground. He glanced over at the small boy to make sure he was safe and sure enough he'd already fled inside the abandoned schoolhouse. Sakon made sure he hadn't received more than just a new bruise before he dashed towards the Hollow. With a creature of this caliber, this rogue would need a hand, and Sakon could now flank...

Felix smiled as the hollow charged him, this is going to be fun, he thought as he ran at the hollow showing his own stubborn will. At the last minute he put his foot on mask as he ran up the hollow and sat on its shoulders like he was riding a bull. "Yee-Haw!" he said cocking his arm back as he aimed a punch for the top of the hollow's spine.

Remembering the other Soul Reaper he looked around but couldn't see him, "Feel free to lend a hand any time, I don't want to steal all the fun." With this he tossed his head back and laughed. Sliding off the back of the hollow he drew his blade holding in one hand his eyes turned dark "Time to get serious, I cant let you destroy anymore buildings or homes."

Sakon smiled as the other shinigami seemed to be enjoying himself, but this wasn't the time to be playing games, and they both knew this. The other man quickly grew serious as he drew his blade. A strong amount of spiritual pressure erupted as the hollow began to release a monstrous roar. It's skin began to mutate even more than it already had. Its eyes turned red and it's teeth began putting out of its mouth at awkward angles. A massive set of wings sprouted from it's back and it now launched itself onto the schoolhouse roof.

It bellowed once more and stretched its wings to their full length, stretching out to both ends of the playground. Sakon's eyes grew wide in fear, this creature managed to get even bigger... No wonder Keiji had been taken so easily, the thing had been masking most of its true power.

"Hey! Shinigami!" Sakon leaped on top of a nearby swing set, allowing him to jump onto the adjacent roof extension. "I'm not sure if we can take this thing but either way I'm not going to let up. If something happens to me I want you to do me one favor... find the family of my friend Keiji Saito... tell them that Sakon Ikeda gave his life to avenge him!" Sakon charged the creature, its fangs barred at him, ready to strike if he'd give it the chance. Sakon knew that the favor was a strange one to ask of some one he had never met before but he had no one else that could deliver the message should it come to that, though he was determined to have it otherwise.

Felix watched as the hollow took flight, a little annoyed that it had been hiding its power. He heard the Shinigami yell at him to find a family if anything went wrong, but he smiled. “First off, I aint a Shinigami and second you aint going nowhere.” Felix could feel the massive blade in his hand as he took off running, gaining speed he started up the wall of one of the buildings. I am not about to let this thing get away and I will die long before I let it kill. Jumping he raised his blade over his head hoping to lob off a wing, “I aint done with you yet!” he said through gritted teeth.

Landing Felix looked at his blade there was blood, but that didn’t mean he had hit the mark he wanted. Turning back he looked at the other soul reaper, “My name is Felix Pyre, you can call me many things, but never ever call me a shinigami. I don’t work for those military dogs.” He spat the last words as if they were poison. “Now let’s finish this monster, it’s is starting to get boring and someone might notice the damage.”

Sakon nodded. This was getting way too out of hand; they had to put a stop to it now before it destroyed anything else. He gripped his katana in his right hand as he ran along the rooftop, the beast was hovering just above the playground now. A small amount of blood was dripping from its wing...

Sakon launched himself onto the beast, slashing at the slightly injured wing and driving his zanpakuto into the creature's back. The behemoth howled the pain in its back now coursed through its body. It flew up a little higher and did an aerial backflip, trying to throw the soul reaper off of its back. It had been partially successful... Sakon fell off, leaving his zanpakuto lodged only inches from its spine. He began descending rapidly, heading towards the ground with terrifying speed.

Sakon's mind raced for any possible thing he could do to save himself. "Bakudo #4! Hainawa!" A rope of energy burst from his hand and wrapped itself around the Hollow's leg. He grabbed a hold of the rope, stopping him only a few feet from the ground. The beast flew a bit higher, attempting to bring Sakon away from the safety of the ground once more. As it did so, he swung towards the roof, hoping he'd land without injuring himself in the process...

Felix’s smile faded as the hollow rolled tossing the shinigami from its back, right before the he hit the ground the shinigami saved himself with a last minute kido. Looks like he lost his zanpakuto, that can’t be good, now where did he lose it? As the hollow turned again the glint gave it away, not bad trying to cripple it but, he couldn’t get it deep enough before it tossed him off.

Running towards the beast Felix was directly under it when he jumped his spiritual pressure was focused this time as he propelled towards the beast. This is getting to far out of hand reaching out as he grabbed the injured wing and held on for dear life. “Come big guy this fight aint over yet so why don’t you come back down and party?” Felix sliced outward with his blade and felt it slice deep into the haunches where the wing and the back meet. Without missing a beat Felix yanked the wing toward himself as he got a better grip on the beast.

“Hey if you got anything that can attack from a range, aim at the wing!” he started yelling at the shinigami, “One good blast and it’s over!” Bracing himself Felix was preparing for the hit. If I die, at least this thing dies with me.

Sakon nodded. There was only one ranged attack in his arsenal; the only thing he'd actually been good at using. It wasn't precise by any means, though it would tear through that wing without much difficulty. It was times like these when Sakon wished he'd praticed kido like Byakurai more, for his accuracy with any precision-based attacks was disgusting to put it lightly.

"You better brace yourself then soul reaper. This is going to hurt like you wouldn't believe."

Sakon tried to aim the attack as much as possible, not wanting to shred the man who'd come to save him to pieces. "Hado number 7! Black Thunder!" A thunderous roar began to emanate from the air around him. Trees and loose garbage began to dance in the swirling vortex that was Sakon's spiritual energy. The wave of reiatsu came crashing towards Felix with blinding speed. The marvelous grey color to his reiatsu had always amazed his teachers in the academy for it had been said that only one's capable of unleash immense amounts of spiritual energy could break away from the uniform black color in which the kido had been aptly named.

He always just thought of it as his specialty, rather than an immense energy, for he sucked at just about everything else. Whatever the case, it was now zooming towards the the hollow with a ferociously high frequency. There was no chance for the thing to dodge. It would have had to drop straight out of the sky in order to miss being made into beef stroganoff. The wing was ripped from its body, sending it in a mad death spiral towards the playground below. Sakon could see Felix beginning to lose his grip just before the Hollow crashed into the concrete walkway in the middle of the playground.

Sakon launched himself towards the beast, spying his zanpakuto lodged in its back still. Felix lay beside the thing... unmoving... Sakon crouched beside him to check if he was still alive...

Thump... Thump... Thump... His heart rate was surprisingly good for the condition he appeared to be in. The man's eyes snapped open as soon as Sakon had uttered a sigh of relief...