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This article, Day 28: Grat Runs Red, is the twelfth chapter of the Investigating Grat arc, which is part of Bleach: Cataclysm. It follows a number of POV's, which include Garrett, Tiffany, Ries, Randy, Lloyd and May. Aaron Sheppard, Anko Amatsuki and Kenji Hiroshi feature in a supporting capacity.
"You have got to be kidding me!!"
Garrett ran through the streets like the hounds of Hell themselves where snapping at his heels! His lungs burned and sweat had soaked his head so much that his hair was slicked back as far as was possible. His mad dash was interrupted briefly as he slid across the ground though he did not dare look back. He felt the ground shake first and braced himself against the inevitable impact.
"Tiffany, I've got more on my heels! I could use a hand here!"
"Same here! I'll try to double-"
He was speaking into his blue-tooth headset when the line went dead and his heart sank.
"Call Randy!"
He was hoping his voice-dial would get him through, but as was the case with most voice diallers it failed to do what was advertised. Garrett was left cursing as he ducked beneath the arm of a particularly large buffalo-like Hollow with a big tusked mask and arms the width of tree trunks.
"This has not been my week."
Which was to say this very thing had been happening all week. He and his friends had more-or-less put all of their plans on-hold. Hollow, in numbers that dwarfed anything Garrett had seen before, poured through a breech in the heavens themselves and went about destroying buildings and devouring innocents. Grat was the current spirit-enriched plot: almost everyone in the town had spiritual powers, latent or otherwise.
He and his friends had been fighting pitched battles like this for an entire week! Garrett was beginning to really get annoyed.
"You bastards are- Wait, that was Tiffany!"
Her spiritual pressure spiked suddenly: indicative of her releasing her Shikai. He was however surprised by something else completely. The Hollow around him just... stopped.
"Allow me to handle this."
"No way!"
Anko Amatsuki had been a teacher at Garrett's school before accepting a post at Grat's university. Once there she had put a word in for Garrett to get a part-time appointment as one of the campuses janitors. Anko was now walking up the street towards him playing a flute.
"I thought you didn't like displaying your powers?" He asked her.
"I don't. But I make exceptions when my students are in danger." She claimed. "I suggest you meet up with Tiffany. Randy and Lloyd are approaching their limits."
"What about May? We got separated!"
"May is in good hands. Now go! Or would you rather I repeat myself?" He bolted. "So headstrong, that boy."
"Garrett? Garrett, are you still there?" Silence. "Damn it!"
Tiffany leapt into the sky and lashed out with her Zanpakutō; her Zanpakutō took the form of a nodachi with gray-colored hilt wrapping and a square-shaped guard missing its four corners. Its sheath was strapped to her back by way of a yellow-coloured sash. As she struck out the Hollow she targeted screamed as she split its head, though she was far from finished. The moment her feet touched the floor she disappeared with the distinct "swish" of Shunpo accompanied by a flickering green light, which allowed her to evade a pincer attack from two approaching Hollow.
"Let Loose, Raikōisan!"
The declaration was followed by her Zanpakutō adopting a wild electric coating along the blade, which burnt the attacking Hollow with only a single slash apiece! Now in a kneeling position she looked up towards the heavens, where yet more Hollow poured out from the breech.
"Collapse, Raikōisan."
The coating of electricity passed from her Zanpakutō to her body instead. With an accelerated Bringer Light-enhanced Shunpo she leapt into the sky towards the Hollow, all the while muttering an incantation beneath her breathe.
"I wonder what Kenji would think of this? He didn't exactly teach me to use my Shikai this way." She thought. "I'm just glad I'm good at replicating things I've seen other people do."
She set her sight not only on the Hollow but the breech from which they where pouring. "Hadō #94. Shiden!"
She loosed the spell in conjunction with the electricity of her Shikai. The usually purple-coloured Shiden became dark-blue and expanded to roughly three times its usual size, which gave it an appearance akin to that of an electrically charged Cero! Numerous howls escaped the Hollow along its path until that blast struck the left-hand side of the breech.
"Direct hit!"
Her heart soon sank however. Disappointingly the breech was still very much there, and it appeared to be none the worse for wear.
"Oh, come on! That worked yesterday." She complained.
"Lloyd, watch your back!"
"Right back at you!"
Randy and Lloyd fought back-to-back to maximize their defensive coverage, but they where only slowing the inevitable. The pair where exhausted: continual life-or-death fighting over an entire week had left them at their limits. Blood oozed from a nasty gash on Randy's right arm whilst Lloyd sported a cut above his left-eye that had probably left him concussed for by. He was already experiencing dizziness. Those injuries aside the pair where wrapped in bandages from their earlier fights.
Lloyd spun around and sunk his fist into a Hollow's mask! He then loosed an arrow from his wrist-mounted Spirit Weapon, which served to dispatch another. Afterwards he sunk to his knees.
"Lloyd!!"
Randy leapt into the path to shield his friend. Not only did he have a nasty gash on his right arm, but he now found a talon piercing his shoulder! With his left arm and a pained cry of desperation, Randy unveiled his Fullbring. His fingerless glove glowed momentarily as he struck the attacking Hollow in the chest. The result was immediate: the Hollow's entire body began to crack and crumble, until nothing remained but dust.
Randy, like Lloyd, sunk to the floor.
May sensed the battles unfolding throughout town. She felt the spike in Tiffany's spiritual energy just as she felt the sudden dip in Randy and Lloyd's spiritual energy. On her way to her house she had been attacked as well, but the Hollow had been dealt with before she could even raise her own hand to it.
"Go." Her rescuer had said. "I will hold them off."
It had been the first time May had ever thought anything good of Aaron Sheppard, but who was she to judge? Garrett had said he had misunderstood his father. This time he was as good as his word. He shimmered before a large group of Hollow died, and the man didn't appear to have broken a sweat either.
"Thoughts for another day." She thought. "Now where did I put that bracelet!?"
"... Looks like this is the end of the road..." Randy whispered.
"Looks... like it... Thanks, Randy." Lloyd answered.
"Don't talk... like that."
They where on their knees and surrounded by countless Hollow on all sides. Their odds where not good, and Tiffany -- who was the closest -- was having troubles of her own. Even Garrett was occupied. Lloyd could sense the latter's frustration. Garrett could sense that they where in deep trouble and there was nothing he could do to get to them.
"I seriously hope you two aren't giving up?"
Ries Nohr descended into the centre of the encircling Hollow, right in front of Randy and Lloyd, where he immediately diverted an approaching Hollow by diverting the force of its charge and throwing it over his shoulder! With that accomplished he tapped the air. When another Hollow attempted to finish off the weakened duo its attack ricocheted off a barrier, the insides of which crackled with electricity. The current rendered both Randy and Lloyd unconscious, but at the same time the duo where stabilized. Their injuries where actually beginning to heal!
Ries's Shinigami form.
"Now... I think its time we finished this, don't you?" The surrounding Hollow merely growled. "Poor last words, but I'm not surprised. Oh, well. Time to die!"
Ries swallowed a lime-green pill. His physical body fell away as the man stood in the form of a Shinigami! Unlike most Shinigami however he wore nothing at all on his upper body, which revealed a series of Celtic-like tribal-esque tattoos across his shoulder blades, lower back, and right-arm. His left ear sported a number of piercings and resting on his shoulder was his Zanpakutō which, strangely, was identical to that of Tiffany's Raikōisan.
He closed his eyes briefly and exerted his reiatsu.
Garrett froze in-place!
"The hell is this reiatsu!? Christ! I hope its friendly."
"Garrett!"
He looked skywards to see Tiffany descending towards him. Like him she looked like she had seen better days. She was in her Shinigami form and her kimono-style clothing was ripped in more than one place, and in multiple places he spied blood. He must have looked the same to her. His white gi was likewise torn in multiple places and his left eye was swelled shut.
"Tiffany? Boy am I glad to see you safe."
"And I you. You sense that reiatsu?"
"Yeah, it's something else. Any idea who it belongs to?"
"I do."
The pair turned in-place to see none-other but Kenji standing! He was dressed in the white haori that symbolized his friendship with Van Satonaka, and was sporting a strange bracelet on his left arm.
"Go home. I've got this."
The pair didn't sense him exert his reiatsu but whatever Kenji did had an immediate effect. The various Hollow signatures in Grat vanished and the breech in the heavens crackled with electricity before vanishing!
"Give May my regards." Kenji declared before he too vanished.
"... He wasn't even trying." Garrett said in awe.
"Shinrei. Or is it Ries now?"
"Pops."
Father and son regarded one-another for a brief time before Kenji turned his attention towards the unconscious Randy and Lloyd.
"Did they see you?"
"Just my Gigai. They where unconscious when I broke out my Shinigami form."
"Good." Kenji remarked. "Keep an eye on them as you have been doing."
"Do me a favour and give this to Kay for me. She asked me to get her a souvenir."