Hollow Clash! Ahatake vs Senkaku!

Above the ruins of the Yuurei Oukoku buildings, a lone Garganta opened up, and a figure stepped out, hands in his pockets. He looked on with slight intrest at the buildings that were under him, as well as constant repair by the civilians. He took a few steps, his head looking every which way for something. Despite his position, and the fact that he could've possibly been seen, he seemed quite carefree. It didn't matter if they saw him; if they chose to attack him, he would simply fight back. He had the power to do so.

Besides, he had a companion along for the ride. His eyes shifted towards it. "I hope the Hollow weren't too hostile." He said calmly. "I would've went another way, if I knew it."

A young woman turned her head to look at him. "Why did you pick this region of the Soul Society, Senkaku?" She asked, her eyes scanning the ruins. "Even I have never been here."

Senkaku looked down, taking in a deep breath. "Kaa-san informed me of this place." He explained to his partner, without looking at her. "It's called Yuurei Oukoku, a supposed utopia of Soul Society. However, it recently got into a civil war that annihilated nearly the whole city. I couldn't help but get a little curious... these things don't happen often in your lifetime. And, since you said you'd be accompanying me..."

Again, the man made her curious. Why would he visit an annihilated city just to look at the scenery. "You came her just to see what state this area is in?"

"No. I came here because even after the war was over, I'm sensing large amounts of reiatsu in the area." Senkaku replied, lifting a finger to scratch his nose. "I'm going to find the source of it. And I'm going to see whether whoever the guy that finished off the Yuurei leader's actually worthy of his strength."

"I see." Seikai replied. "Then this may turn out to be entertaining after all."

Elsewhere, Ahatake was hard at work, along with a great number of others, helping to rebuild Yuurei.

Normally, it would've taken a long time, considering the lack of machines and such as it was in the Human Realm. However, there happened to be a select few who were good with their energy, similar to the Yuurei soldiers. With careful manipulation, they managed to restore much of the area back to its original form. It made the work much quicker and easier, though it left the civilians exhausted.

Ahatake had managed to absorb most of the fires that had been spreading over town, and was getting down to the actual labor part of the job, reconstruction. Luckily, everything was almost done.

"Keep it up, people! You're doing great!" Juushin himself had the liberty of directing the whole thing, giving words of encouragement and orders to the workers alike. Every now and then, he'd instruct someone to go to one place, or a group of people to another. It seemed like he knew what he was doing.

Ahatake reached for bottled water and sighed. "I can't wait until this is all done!" He said, hammering a nail into place as he set the water down.

"It will be."

Beside him, Chidori was using the manipulation of her own energy particles to fix up the ruins of buildings into the foundation they had made up before. She was the one who had spoken to him, Juushin having not paid attention due to his giving orders.

"Yeah. Not much more left." Ahatake said, adding the finishing touches to the building it was on. "And then I can rest."

Chidori allowed herself to smile. "Maybe you can rest now. The rebels are working on the other buildings, so we don't have to strain ourselves..." She offered, taking a seat next to the wall of the building.

Ahatake jumped down and drunk some more water. Wiping his mouth, he looked at Chidori. "Hey Chidori, I've been meaning to ask. Aren't you Juushin's girlfriend?"

The woman stopped for a moment. "Oh, no!" She replied, raising her hands up to emphasize. "Just close friends. We're both single."

"Wierd." Ahatake said, chuckling. "I thought you two were a couple."

Did they really seem like that? A small, faint blush came across Chidori's cheeks as she thought of it. "We don't really seem like that, do we?" She asked, a bit shyly as she turned over towards her work.

Ahatake chuckled again but said nothing. He looked around. The place was really getting better, though he had to say he was responsible for most of the fires. But those were all put out. "Imma take a break." He said to Chidori, and began walking off, away from the construction area.

"All right!" Chidori called back to him, before returning to her own work. She couldn't help but wonder, though; where had Tereya been in all this? For a moment, back when the King died, she had felt the woman's brief, but definitely space-filling presence along with Ahatake. But after he had come out, it had simply... vanished. Had the former Kurosaki abandoned them? Surely, she wouldn't do that to her own family...

She shook her head, taking a seat on the ground once more. The work was getting to her brain...

Ahatake yawned. Life certainly got boring without Tereya. He supposed he'd have to get used to it. He kept walking for awhile, until he realized he was at the beach. He sighed and sat down, looking out at the ocean.

It was unfortunate enough for him to not notice the figure re-appearing behind him, a finger outstretched. It was even more unfortunate that a small sphere of energy formed at the tip, a green color covering his nails and forefinger. It was like a gun to the head of a hostage; point-blank, and ready to shoot.

Without a second of hesitation, the Cero was fired.

It was at that moment however, that Ahatake chose to move his head to get a better look at the horizon, and the Cero sailed past him. He turned, surprised.

For his troubles, he received a promptful kick to his face that sent him tunneling into the sands, off to the side where he had once been. The collision caused a mild sand storm to overtake the beach, enveloping anyone's view from each other. However, through the midst of sand, two figures were standing, one slightly behind the other. The lead figure had a leg raised; the guilty one for attack. Slowly, it lowered the leg and stood still.

"What the hell?" Ahatake grumbled sitting up and rubbing his face. "Who the hell did that?"

"I did."

It was the voice of Senkaku, along with his figure to emphasize as the dust settled back down to the earth. He had his hands into his pockets, a small grin on his face as he looked over the Kurosaki. "Your reaction time is poor..." He commented, sounding slightly like a teacher. "And your reflexes are slow. Were you really the one of the two that was responsible for the Yuurei King's death?" Thanks to his mother, he had done his research before coming.

"Yes." Ahatake replied. "And it's not my fault if my reflexes were slow. I wasn't exactly expecting company."

"And here, with that sword of yours, I thought you were a fighter." Senkaku berated, raising his fingertip to point at Ahatake again. "Now, let's try this again...." Promptly, he unleashed another Cero blast at the Kurosaki, his energy cutting the very air and causing it to disrupt into outward, but small shockwaves.

Ahatake scowled, releasing his own split-second Cero to counter, green and red colliding.

This time, his reflexes showed as the Cero collided. The split-second Cero was enough to stop Senkaku's own, but only for a moment. The more powered Cero was able to push through the weaker energy, but at the last second, Senkaku stopped the flow of reiatsu and dispelled his attack once Ahatake's had weakened well enough.

"What are you?" Ahatake asked. "Vizard, Arrancar, or Xiāochú?" He asked the man.

"Does it matter?" Senkaku questioned back. "You shouldn't be worrying about who your killer is."

"My killer?" Ahatake laughed. "And who's the girl behind you?"

"Seikai Joshin, Xiāochú." The woman replied quietly.

"Never really met another Xiāochú before." Ahatake grinned.

The laugh at his apparent threat caused a twinge of annoyance to stir within Senkaku. But, the Arrancar had only meant the statement to be a challenging remark and nothing more. It wasn't something he could be sure to carry out. All he wanted was to test the full extent of Ahatake's strength. "The matter of fact is, we... or I came here to fight you. So go ahead and draw your sword." He stated dryly.

"Is it possible to take a rain check?" Ahatake asked. "I'm really not in a fighting mood at the moment."

"I don't care. Either you fight, or you die." Senkaku's tone was calm and stoic, but the words emphasized his impatience and coldness of the sentence. He raised one of his hands from his pockets. "So you'd better be readying yourself to that fighting mood." He ignored the voice in the back of his head that repeatedly told him that he was being quite...well... brash. But he would need to get it over with either way.

"Hey can't you control this guy?" Ahatake asked, looking at Seikai. She slowly shook her head an walked over an stood near a tree.

Ahatake sighed as he drew his sword. "I am not in the mood for this."

Senkaku lowered his hand back once again, but didn't move himself just yet. He could've drawn out his own sword in order to put a less insulting aura to the Kurosaki. However, he needed to show his opponent the brunt of his own strength just so he would realize what he was up against. Maybe if he did, he could force the Kurosaki to fight more seriously. And, how he would love to see this man's Bankai...

Senkaku's small smile faded away from his face. As the challenger, he performed the first move; a teleportation-speed Sonido that allowed him to appear off to the side of the Kurosaki. He swung his fist forward in a strong jab attack, with his body lunging forward to increase the power of his attack.

Ahatake jumped back, increasing his speed with Shunpo and landing on the water. Gathering Reishi under his feet, enabled him to walk across the water as if it were solid ground. He extended his hand, firing a Cero at the distant Senkaku.

Running away? How pathetic.

A disapproving frown came across Senkaku's face as he saw the Cero coming for him. His Sonido activated once again, and in a matter of milliseconds, he closed the distance between himself and Ahatake easily. Such was not a miracle for him; his constant reliance of Sonido to counteract his illness had allowed him to improve its effects on the battlefield, allowing him to match nearly any opponent he came across. This Kurosaki would be no different.

He swung his hand again, this time in a backhanded strike.

Ahatake jumped into the air, dodging his opponents strike, and gripping his blade, he shot down like a bullet, his blade pointed at the man's skull. if he missed, the collision with that water would sting.

Senkaku chose not to dodge this time.

The blade collided with his skull, sparks flying down the cut as it ran down the front of his head and down to his torso. The force jerked his head downwards to face the water surface, as well as stir up a few rough ripples from under their feet. He could feel the heat of the blade as it ran down his skin, the teeth sawing his nerves. He liked that feeling; it meant that his fighting instincts were kicking in.

Ahatake jumped back, surprised. "How the hell did you survive that?"

Slowly, Senkaku raised his head up to look at Ahatake with half-lidded eyes. "I'm sure you're not new to the term Hierro." He replied, standing straight once more. It was a rather short remark, but he felt that it was all that was needed to explain. After all, the strength of an Arrancar's Hierro was dependant on his or her spiritual energy. Now, Senkaku had allowed his own spiritual energy to be gauged by Ahatake. All he had to do was wait for him to react.

"So you're an Arrancar." Ahatake said, gripping his sword. "Since I have no choice but to fight, I might as well get some fun out of it. And I haven't fought an Arrancar in at least 50 years."

"Glad to see you've finally decided to enjoy yourself." Senkaku commented, raising a finger towards Ahatake once more. "Anything else would be quite a disappointment." He unleashed another Cero blast towards the Kurosaki. However, this one was more condensed, meaning more power would be put into it than an unrestrained Cero.

A condensed Cero...Ahatake vaguely remembered Hikaru lecturing him on that. He smiled and jumped, the Cero barely missing him as he unleashed his own Cero blast, as condensed as the one he had just dodged.

Dispelling his blast with one hand, Senkaku raised his other hand in order for his palm to intercept the attack immediately. The energy felt like fire in his hands, almost as if he was wielding the blast himself. With a side toss, he diverted its path away from him, causing the Cero to explode upon contact with the water. It was a safe distance away from the two fighters, but as the resulting geyser came down, rain-like droplets fell on both of them.