So her ill-fated partner decided to act. Good. His attempt worked better than the Hainawa, in terms of diversion. The titan did not notice the light stepped warrior landing over its shoulder, until her blade sunk in. The shiny steel was half buried in the Hollow’s shoulder muscles, diagonally. Still, Hinome did not let got of the zanpakutou’s hilt; she gripped it firmly, with both hands. She stood over that broad shoulder like an agile cat, rooting her feet firmly. There was a smirk on her lips. The monster’s huge hand rushed at her; its masked head turned in her direction.
The end...
Mere seconds before the gigantic claws plunged over her, Hinome pulled her sword out, using the impulse of her legs and the monster’s sturdy muscles’ resistance as the additional momentum to empower her dashing cut. Teal eyes were locked on the ivory mask of thorns. Before the slug titan could process, the voracious blade struck against its mask in a powerful, incredibly fast oblique downward slash. Point blank. Too close to dodge, too quick to react. The titan could be ironclad, but a Hollow mask was still a Hollow mask. Splinters of thorns and ivory fragments soaked in dark blood were spilled apart as dark gash bisected the mask in two.
The hollow let out a loud roar-- its loudest and its last roar before dissipating into thin air.
The whole place was still filled with the noise of people shrieking in terror, of people frantically running around in a wild frenzy. Only those who were spiritually aware knew that the unseen human menace had been eradicated, to nothing but an innocuous nothingness that filled the air. There was a loud clang as the shinigami's bent sword fell straight to the cold, concrete ground; and the nippy breeze swept through the whole area as if it heralded the continuation of peace that Skullbrusher so happily destroyed.
Hinome landed on the cracked asphalt heavily, falling on her knees. She panted heavily, with shivers running all over her shaky body. Her heart drummed so fast that it hurt on her chest. Drops of cold sweat dripped in the black surface. She made it.
"I did it...” she panted, staring at her hands and her blade that rested on the ground. "I did it...”
The young rookie could barely believe that she had succeed; that they had succeeded. Raising her head, she looked at the battered young man that fought alongside her. Well, if she could say ‘alongside’... The battle against that gigantic Hollow ended up being a mess of events that turned out to a good ending, luckily. She addressed him a bright, yet tired, smile. Pining her blade on the asphalt for support, Hinome brought herself up to her feet.
The girl’s eyes scoped the surroundings. Broken glass, a battered façade here and there, fallen lampposts, smashed vehicles... A mess.
"Phew! That was harsh!” she commented jovially, walking towards her nameless partner. Her eyes settled in the gnarled zanpakutou lying on the floor, on her way. It was his. She picked it and gave him with a worried smile. "Erm... Sorry about your zanpakutou...”
She handed it to him. That young man didn’t seem to be one of many words, but, man, wasn’t him cute?
"By the way, It’s Miyamori Hinome!” she said, friendly. "Eleventh Division...”
He regarded her with softer silver eyes, none of the harshness that was present before. For a moment, there was something of him that seemed otherworldly- perhaps it had been his lack of concern, or perhaps it had been his silence while chaos surged around him. Knowing his manners, however, Celly did extend a hand.
"Celly Rhodes, Tenth Division," was his soft-stated reply.
He regarded the zanpakutou with little more than sadness. "It will regenerate. I hope." Still, he took the blade back, feeling all of his injuries suffuse his body in the warmth of inflammation and systemic muscle pain.
"Good fight," he mentioned absentmindedly, before turning around. Now that the excitement had died down, Celly returned to his normal habits of thinking and ignoring the world around him. A twist of his ankles, and he was gone again, humming to himself as the light spied only devastation beneath his feet.
Hinome smiled complacently as she watched that peculiar young man walk away. He definitely wasn’t one of many words. He seemed to be too introverted in his own word to understand that she meant to offer him a hand. She simply sighed.
"See you again sometime... Rhodes-san...”
The ginger haired valkyria would usually tag along with her partner, pushing her sunny humour over him whether he wanted or not. But that time, there was somewhere she needed to go...
//
The sky was already inked in sanguine colors when she reached that tall building’s roof. A chilly gust foretold cold night. From far, thousands of cicadas hummed the Angelus, waiting for the nightfall. The building’s huge aerial was trashed, bent over a thick concrete wall. There was no mistake that was the place where he fell; where he was killed by the azure devil she just vanquished.
"Takeshi-san...”
Hinome wasn’t specially close to Ito Takeshi. They didn’t share a history that would bond them together as dear friends. If she could count, they met only a few times, during the division’s routines. Nevertheless, being a fellow shinigami, a member of her division, was enough to make her go all that way to pay her respects.
"...so it was here.”
She stood near the edge of the building’s roof, where the remains of a shihakusho were pinned in the façade’s ornaments, flapping in the wind. Nearby, abandoned on the floor, a zanpakutou with a broken blade sparkled under the last rays of the dying sun. Hinome picked it with solemn care, holding it tight. She noticed that the once saffron hilt was covered in dry blood.
A sentiment of sadness creeped from her heart. Her eyes started to itch and her mouth was wobbling. He died there, alone. Would that be an honorable end to a valiant warrior?
A violent gust blew the black rags from the façade, scattering them in the lurid sky. Hinome followed them with her moist eyes, watching the cloth pieces dance with wind as they flew away, towards the sunset horizon.
