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This article, Return of the Soulless, is the ninth chapter of The Rising, which is part of Bleach: Cataclysm. Garrett Sheppard and friends remain the primary characters, whilst the Soulless commanded by Dastan Shiba and Arata serve as antagonists.
Lloyd, with Jenna on the back of his motorcycle, had taken to the dirt roads roughly twenty miles outside Grat, and from there he proceeded into a forested area. He continued to drive inwards until he finally skidded to a halt near an old and gnarled oak tree.
"We're here." He said this as he dismounted.
"And where is here exactly?" Jenna asked. As she removed her helmet she revealed a concerned look. "I swear, if there's an old beat-up trailer here, I'm bolting in the opposite direction."
"You'll see what's here soon enough."
Lloyd approached the oak tree and felt around the bark for a short time. Whilst Jenna cautiously followed him, the foliage muffling the sound of her footsteps, she heard the sound of a metal bar turning, and suddenly the ground beneath their feet shook for the briefest of moments. Lloyd proceeded to reach down. With an effort he heaved a large metal door upwards, revealing a set of stairs descending downwards.
"... Why isn't the air stale?" She asked.
"I said I'd train you." Lloyd said gently. "I can't do that in Grat; not if you want me to train you properly." He gestured down towards the stairs. "This is an old facility that's been used by my family members in this part of the world for decades. I sent word ahead that I'd be using it for a while, and my family had it restocked and made ready."
They completed the descent in silence from there. The stairs eventually opened up into a sizeable space with plain white walls. Some of the surfaces where elevated; in other places there where depressions in the ground, almost like a pit, but she could clearly see the bottom. Towards the back of the large space was a door and when she asked what lay beyond it Lloyd informed her that it was the facility's living quarters.
"I suggest you prepare for a fight." He said. "Because you have until the time the Hollow gather to prepare."
With that said he crushed a piece of Hollow bait between his thumb and index finger.
Already she heard a bestial roar as a centipede-like Hollow emerged from a blackened gateway...
"This is fucking ridiculous!!"
Randy was determined to voice his disdain for the predicament that he and Garrett currently found themselves in. Not that Garrett didn't agree, mind you. But you could understand his anger and frustration: here he was fighting against the so-called Soulless when, not a week ago, he had very nearly been killed by one. He smashed his fist into the face of the closest shambling corpse-like entity and, with a surging motion, sent it flying through the air to collide with several of its fellows. As this happened a smile broke Randy's face in two as the first Soulless, coming into contact with the others, violently exploded. It hadn't taken him long to combine his own Fullbring with that of Hitoshi and Kusaka.
"Are you still complaining?" Garrett asked.
He had just finished dealing with his own group of Soulless through Onigiri when the group Randy had been fighting exploded violently. Garrett's own group found their limbs severed by his Bakkōtō and their bodies subsequently vaporised by his Reīssen.
"You do realise that the media don't think too highly of you? I believe they called you 'The Grat Bomber' last night." Garrett sheathed his blade. "You need to learn restraint, my friend."
"You're just jealous! Besides, it sounds better than 'Raijin's Fist'." Randy countered, screwing his face up in mockery of the name. "Your title sounds like the name of a cheap porno."
As the two bickered in the streets below they failed to notice the two individuals watching them from the roof of the building directly above their heads. Arata carefully entered information into a handheld tablet computer whilst his superior, Dastan Shiba, silently watched events unfold.
"You said you made this batch stronger." Dastan said at last.
Arata looked up from his tablet and adjusted his glasses. He looked mildly irritated that he had been interrupted.
"I did. It is not my fault that the information given to me was incomplete." He deposited the tablet safely within the pocket of his white lab coat. "Shinzō was the one who created the Soulless, with direction from a Tenjin I might add. We do not have that luxury. This will take time and patience."
"I want results, not more miserable excuses." Dastan hissed. "Need I remind you that Kenji is now active again. We need our immortal legion! And we needed it yesterday."
In the midst of their argument the two whom Dastan had been watching suddenly vanished in a flash of purest white light! On the opposite building stood Kusaka Kori. All he did was raise his left-hand and all throughout Grat the Reīssen flashed brightly and intensely and with such focus and precision that the Soulless he targeted where instantly vaporised, with the Human population none the wiser for it.
"Those kids did good keeping those Soulless contained to the derelict sections of the city." He thought briefly before turning his gaze towards Dastan and Arata. "Now, how to play this? I can't fight them here and contain the damage at the same time, and Dastan knows that. Then there's also Arata. Little genius probably has something up his sleeve."
Thankfully Dastan took the matter out of Kusaka's hands by retreating through a recently opened Garganta.
"Before you run with your tails tucked," Kusaka shouted across the gap, "tell me something. Kireina and Sojiro are dead. Did you have a hand in The Collapse?"
Dastan merely smiled. "No. Till we meet again, Kusaka."
"The fuck just happened!?"
It was Randy who asked the question but Garrett wanted to know that very thing as well. One minute he and Randy where just about to brawl and the next they where engulfed in a white light and whisked away to God only knows where! It was only when they recognised the room to be Garrett's living room that they calmed down.
"Wait, do you sense that?" Garrett asked suddenly.
"Yeah, that's Kusaka." Answered Randy, who visibly relaxed. "I guess that answers how we got here. Question is why: we had things handled."
"Did we?" Garrett said aloud. "Kusaka's an ass, sure, but he doesn't do anything without a reason."
Ries didn't know why he had ditched Tiffany and May and went off on his own. All he knew was that something was driving him on, and he couldn't quite explain what it was. He'd walked through Grat countless times since being told by his friends that his name was Ries but something seemed off to him.
"That is because you do not belong here amongst these Humans."
He looked around suddenly but there wasn't a person near him for several feet. He calmed himself down, reminding himself he was suffering from amnesia and not madness, but the moment he did so he heard the voice again. Only this time Ries felt himself falling. When the sensation ceased he wasn't standing on a sidewalk in Grat's shopping centre, but rather he was standing in ankle-deep water whilst thunder roared and lightning flashed overhead. Rain fell in torrential downpours that left him thoroughly soaked through in mere moments.
"This thunder and lightning, this depressing rain, is a reflection of your heart. It stems from your inability to hear my name." The voice echoed all around him now. "There are chains around your memory and power. You need only break them!"
"Who are you!?" Ries shouted.
The figure before Ries.
As if in answer Ries saw a figure materialise from the water. This figure was male and 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 what Ries thought was a Zanpakutō, and why he suddenly thought of Tiffany when he saw that blade was lost on him. The figure cast aside a pair of blackened shades and turned to look at Ries with brown-coloured eyes.
"I... know you, don't I?" Ries acknowledged.
"Soon you will again."
When Ries suddenly snapped awake he saw two paramedics staring at him with shocked expressions.