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This article, Into the Fire: Shinrei's Sacrifice, 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. Shinrei Hiroshi, under the alias Ries Nohr, serves as the POV character, with Rōjin as the primary antagonist. Lloyd and Randy Jones serve as supporting characters.
Shinrei had been content enough to watch matters unfold. After all what harm could a few unguided Hollow cause? That had been his thinking when he had first sensed their approach. Unfortunately he had also sensed something else: these Hollow where not unguided, and where in fact being controlled by something that had far from good intentions.
So he had mobilised, even though doing so would likely reveal his true identity to Garrett and the others, and put his father's plans at risk.
"The old man will understand." Shinrei reasoned as he looked towards the horizon.
Various battles where already coming to a close throughout the city. Garrett had just defeated a particularly powerful individual, though the effort had drained him to the point that he'd be exceptionally lucky if he was involved in any of the events that would unfold from now on. Tiffany, on the other hand, had not only defeated her opposition, but also discovered the means by which Kenji had earlier closed the so-called "gateways", and was now closing them at length. Even Randy Jones and Lloyd had managed a spectacular victory; Shinrei had recognised their opponent as the source of the Hollow summoning. He would have marked that man as his primary concern had he not sensed someone far more dangerous controlling things.
"I guess that just leaves you."
The man whom Shinrei directed this comment to soon became visible; it was as if he had been bending light around his limbs in some manner to render himself invisible to the naked eye. And he did not appear to be happy that he was discovered. As his lanky frame came into view Shinrei narrowed his eyes in genuine surprise: he knew this man!
"Rōjin? You're looking remarkably well for someone whose supposed to be dead."
Rōjin was tall, lean-built, with a head of spiked blond hair. His carefree expression, kind blue eyes, and general attitude masked his true self; Rōjin was perhaps the best pupil and Onmitsukidō operative trained by the late Anika Shihōin sans Kenji and Kusaka themselves. He was once regarded as the best assassin loyal to the Gotei 13.
"I'm doubly surprised a mere Human can detect my presence and known my identity. Who are you?" Asked Rōjin.
"You'll have to try harder to learn my secrets." Shinrei answered. "That said, why are you in league with the Imawashī and Kikkashō?"
"You can hardly expect me to answer a question when you won't do the same."
"... Then I guess I have little choice, my old friend. I'll put you down right now!"
Even limited as he was by his specialised Gigai, Shinrei held the slight upper-hand. As the two fought through the clouds Rōjin's guard was breached more times than Shinrei's was, to the point Rōjin attempted a smart retreat.
"Not happening."
Shinrei, however, was the one caught unawares. Rōjin flash-stepped so swiftly that he appeared to be in three seperate places at once and Shinrei defended hiimself against the wrong one; he was smashed solidly in the jaw as Rōjin looked on satisfied.
"I cannot place your fighting style. But I've definitely fought you before." Rōjin stated. "There aren't many who have fought me and lived to tell the tale, so I'll soon figure it out."
"I could kill you before you ever realised." Shinrei, with full confidence of that, stated. "But I guess its only a matter of times regardless. Ah, well. Sorry pops, but I've little choice at this point."
Shinrei swallowed a green pill which forcibly expelled him from his Gigai and in that instance Rōjin's face drained of colour as realisation donned on him. Shinrei stood in all his glory as a Shinigami; power emanated off him in powerful waves, before culminating in a vast cylindrical display that scattered the very clouds for miles around.
"Recognise me now Rōjin?" Shinrei asked. "And just an FYI? I'm a lot stronger than I was that time I thought I killed you."
Shinrei unleashed a master-class! He leveraged every conceivable advantage and skill he possessed to thoroughly crush his opponent. When Rōjin attempted to flee Shinrei merely outpaced him and proceeded to pummel him with his hands and feet. When Rōjin finally resorted to the use of his Zanpakutō, Shinrei did the same and the result was as one-sided as before: Rōjin very nearly had his head cleaved in two, and escaped with a cut above his right eye instead. Rōjin even attempted to fight at range; this Shinrei answered by hurling Kidō of various levels at Rōjin, to the point the latter realised he would never triumph like that.
"Give it up, Rōjin. I could have killed you six times over by now."
"And that is to your downfall. Even you -- or daddy dearest -- can't stop what is coming."
"Do you ever shut up? No? Then allow me to shut you up! Bankai, Raiden!"
A single bolt of lightning struck Rōjin dead!
"The hell is that!?" Randy exclaimed.
As he spoke a massive storm-front appeared out of nowhere. Rain fell in sheets that soaked everyone to their nickers in seconds, thunder boomed loudly like massive drums in the deep, and a single bolt of lightning illuminated the sudden darkness.
Lloyd was awestruck.
"I'm a Quincy, Randy." Lloyd remarked, barely keeping his cool. "I'm a lot more sensitive to spiritual energy than the rest of you. What I'm sensing right now doesn't even feel like spiritual pressure!"
"Okay, I think we'll stay clear of that mess, then." Randy opined.
"I don't think we have a choice!"
Suddenly lightning fell with sudden frequency and with lethal results. All the remaining Hollow throughout Grat where struck dead in one instance of brutal power; the likes of which Lloyd and Randy had never seen before, or where like to again. It was as if the heavens themselves had opened to vent their rage.
"... Holy fuck." Randy said.
And it wasn't the spiritual energy then felt that Randy referenced. The sky parted suddenly and a massive wave of sheer power flew towards the ground.
"We're fucked." Lloyd said disbelievingly.
Shinrei looked at the sizzling corpse of his old friend and sighed dejectedly.
"It was easier the last time," he mused.
He and Rōjin had been thick as thieves at one time. Most of Shinrei's own skills as a spy where owed to Rōjin. But then the fool had threw his lot in with Kagura; one of two individuals responsible for Shinrei's early imprisonment and Hollowfication. Suffice to say that that had soured the relationship a little and Shinrei had taken matters into his own hands, resulting in what he had thought to be Rōjin's demise.
He was swiftly broken from his musings however.
"... What is that?"
Shinrei had no words to describe what he now felt, nor had he words to describe the outpouring of energy that was now flinging itself towards Grat. Destruction; pure and simple, nothing more and nothing less. The only time he had ever felt anything like it was when Oda Kōhai had tried to-
"Oh, shit. Kurokawa went and did it...!"
Shinrei focused all his considerable power within himself and then flung it outwards in the form of a massive Kidō barrier! The force that suddenly struck it rocked him back on his heels and threatened to destroy his wards, but he strengthened them with a delayed incantation before layering the barrier with the power of his Bankai.
"Damn it! Only merging the realms could unleash this much power. If I don't stop this Grat will be...!"
With a roar of utter defiance Shinrei flung everything he had at this completely destructive force. All his power, all his love; everything he had, right now! He felt his body burn: you'd have thought he was standing in the presence of old Yamamoto in the middle of a fight. He stood like a rock before the coming storm and in his mind's eye he pictured one thing above all others: Kay Hiroshi.
He endured it all and in that instance Shinrei was stronger than even Kusaka.
And when he finally repulsed that destructive power, ensuring Grat's protection and the survival of everyone who lived there, he felt himself falling, but something cradled him, and he found himself back in his Gigai. But even that memory soon faded away. When Shinrei next awoke he did so surrounded by unknown faces, himself lying in a soft bed.
"Where am I?" He asked.
"We found you lying in the street." A woman answered. "We thought you where dead."
"We where so happy you weren't!" Another woman said.
"Who are you people!?" Shinrei asked.
"Eh!?" A dark-haired male answered. "We're your friends, Ries!"
"Ries? Whose that?"
"Its your name: Ries Nohr!"
"Never heard of him."
In that instance Shinrei ceased to be. Ironically he had feigned amnesia to get close to Garrett and his friends in order to protect them, but now he had truly forgotten. Shinrei Kurosaki was no more: he was Ries Nohr in name and deed from then on.