Into the Fire: Brotherly Bond

This article, , occurs in the immediate aftermath of the Investigating Grat arc, dealing specifically with the Second Battle of Grat and the effects The Collapse have upon Grat. Randy Jones and Lloyd serve as the joint primary POV characters, with Hitoshi as the primary antagonist.

Lloyd slid backwards on a flow of reishi whilst loosing a trio of arrows from his wrist-mounted bow. His target -- the Kikkashō agent known only to them as Hitoshi -- side-stepped into the cover of a large industrial rubbish skip, with Lloyd's arrows penetrating about three-quarters of the way through.

"That bastard's fast." Lloyd noted casually.

"I always catch my conquests." Randy remarked.

Lloyd continued loosing swift arrows knowing full-well they weren't going to hit the mark. At this point he was content only keeping Hitoshi busy. He had a matter to dash before Randy and he could begin fighting in earnest.

"This ain't one of your skanky barmaids!" Lloyd reprimanded, firing all-the-while. "Get your head in the game. This guy is a friggin' beast. One lapse in judgement and we are dead!"

Randy looked aggreived for a moment before he replaced it with utter seriousness.

"... You're right, I'm sorry. How do we do this?"

"Shock and awe." Lloyd said, as if to signal a plan.

Randy threw up a rock and impacted it with his fist. The sheer momentum this lent it caused it to fly through the air as if he had fired it from a gun. As he struck it however he invoked his Fullbring's secondary power, which caused a transformation to occur in the stone, for it began to glow. As the stone trailed after Hitoshi he dodged yet again. The transformed stone detonated violently however; a response even Hitoshi did not foresee, for he was sent off-balance and subsequently had his shoulder pierced by two of Lloyd's arrows!

Randy, propelling himself towards the pinned man with Bringer Light, invoked his primary Fullbring ability and connected with a powerful haymaker! The building behind Hitoshi shook before crumbling away to dust. Hitoshi's chest was a ruin: blood flowed from holes where the veins and arteries had literally exploded, and his breast bone was clearly visible.

"Got you." Randy exclaimed.

"GET BACK!"

Lloyd's warning came just quickly enough. The Hitoshi that Randy thought defeated shimmered once and then vanished, leaving behind nothing but the ruined remains of the man's green-coloured jacket. The real Hitoshi, very much unarmed and emitting a flickering green light all along his body, very nearly sliced Randy's head open with his Zanpakutō! His follow-up would have certainly done major damage if not for Lloyd once more. He loosed a single arrow, charged for extra power and size, which impacted the blade and sent Hitoshi reeling backwards with a curse on his lips.

"Thanks!" Randy called as he returned to Lloyd's side.

"I told you not to let your guard down." Lloyd admonished. "You're damn lucky I suspected a trap."

"Yeah, mom, thanks."

"You're welcome."

Hitoshi closed the gap to engage Lloyd, hoping to remove their long-ranged options. Randy, however, intercepted him and used his large frame as a road-block. Hitoshi crashed into his guard with a raised knee before throwing a right-jab. Randy, taking both blows on his guard, moved inside to assault Hitoshi physically. He seemed to have learned from his earlier match with Ries at the Beatdown. At the moment Randy was noticing similarities between Hitoshi and Ries's form; enough so that he was actually overlapping Hitoshi with Ries in his mind's eye. It lent Randy an edge that allowed him to leverage his kick-boxing talents and, with a thrust kick, send Hitoshi trailing backwards.

"NOW!"

Lloyd needed no guidance. Using Hirenkyaku he moved directly behind Hitoshi with a raised ! He successfully evaded Hitoshi's intended counter by shifting position quickly with Māipō, at which point he combined both principles, appearing to shimmer around Hitoshi. He finished by impaling the Kikkashō agent through the shoulder!

"This fight is over, Hitoshi." Lloyd remarked. "I suggest you leave."

"That thing steals and gathers the reishi around it, whether it belongs to you or someone else." Randy noted. "Right now its stuck in your shoulder siphoning off reishi even now, and I'm not even going to guess how many times he lightly grazed you with it just now. I'd listen to my Quincy friend if I where you."

At that point Lloyd, retrieving his Seele Schneider, began walking away with Randy. The duo where watching the so-called breeches vanish; apparently Tiffany was doing more than just kicking ass.

"You are naive fools." Hitoshi barked. "If I where you... I'd kill me. Otherwise I will be back and I will kill you."

Randy was about to snap back but Lloyd merely placed a hand on his friends shoulder and shook his head.

"I've got this."

When he turned he fired the Seele Schneider from a traditional solid bow-shaped, which stopped mere militeres from Hitoshi's chest.

"Gert Sprenger."

A high-density reishi barrier enveloped Hitoshi as thousands of minuscule blades -- the cuts from the Seele Schneider inflicted by Lloyd earlier -- assaulted Hitoshi. He then threw a silver-coloured tube which impacted the end of the Seele Schneider, causing a massive explosion as the barrier imploded!

"Maybe they'll learn now that I hate it when people threaten my family."

"You're too ugly to be my relative." Randy countered. "But I share the sentiment, buddy. I really do."

Instead of moving away however Randy moved closer to Hitoshi's prone body, eliciting a groan of annoyance from Lloyd.

"The hell are you doing? Tiffany needs us."

"He's still alive." Randy noted.

He then grasped Hitoshi by the throat and closed his eyes as he began to concentrate. Randy's Fullbring, which had previously been manifested via Randy's finger-less gloves, now possessed a skeletal appearance instead of their run-of-the-mill design. Randy's spiritual power, as sensed by Lloyd, was likewise bolstered significantly.

"Robbing the dying now?" Lloyd inquired. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Hawke's old man. C'mon, it's time we got out of here. With him defeated there won't be any more Hollow to contend with."

End.