Hunting Trip [closed | Nagato]

He threw the briefing down on the table and sighed. Yuudai hadn’t shown up for the informal pre-mission briefing that Nagato had organised. So, instead, Nagato was left sitting in the conference room on his own glaring at the documents laid out in front of them. Breathing heavily in and out of his nose the Second Division member tried to calm himself. You would think he would be used to his useless partner after nearly two decades of nearly continuous partnership in the Gotei. He let out a shuddering breath. It was alright. He was over it. He was calm.

A thump rang echoed through the empty room as his fist crashed onto the conference table.

Mostly calm.

Hitting things had always been therapeutic and he was feeling significantly better now. Oh he was still angry, no point telling himself otherwise, but he could pretend to be calm.

Pushing himself to his feet the man gathered up the paperwork. It was a simple case of Hollow purification with the added caveat that this was a bit of a rush job. There had been reports of Quincy in the area who had taken it upon themselves to deal with the soul eating predators. Unfortunately the ignorant mortals were doing more harm than good. They were a headache that Nagato was going to have to look into more in the future. For now he had his own duties to think of.

Throwing the casework off at the Second Division’s administrative office he headed directly out of the compound and directly headed across the Seireitei towards the Jigokuchō keepers’ offices to request one for his passage through the Dangai before pausing and requesting a second Hell Butterfly predicting that Yuudai had not done so. After this he walked in the direction of the Senkaimon, the dimensional gateway between this world and the one of the living, hoping that his partner would be there already.

Of course he wasn’t.

Sighing the Second Division member crossed his arms and waited in impatient silent for the other man to appear. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes and then half an hour. This was worse than usual. What the Hell was Yuudai thinking? Nagato glanced towards the rising sun before transferring his gaze to the filling courtyard in front of him. In the past 30 minutes it had gone from relatively barren to a growing buzz of activity as various Shinigami were beginning to start their daily duties. As usual a few who got too close shot questioning gazes at Nagato. It was odd to see a Soul Reaper about to go on a mission without any visible Zanpakutō. One of the few benefits of his weapon such a small sealed form was that people who didn’t know him often made the mistake of assuming he was unarmed.

By the time Yuudai appeared Nagato was staring coldly in his direction having sensed the familiar man’s Spiritual Energy shortly before he came into sight. The elder partner was standing with one finger held out from which two Hell Butterflies were perched upon. His spare hand slapped out to knock the box from Yuudai’s hand.

“You’re late.” he responded calmly despite the anger in his eyes. “Here.” he added causing one of the Jigokuchō to fly off towards the other Shinigami.

“Lets go.” he added stepping through the Senkaimon and into the portal.

--------------------------------
WC: 564
Total WC: 564

Yuudai could only watch as the box was knocked out of his hand and fell to the floor shattering and spreading the contents over the floor, “That was mean.” He left his hand outstretched to catch the hell butterfly that was floating over to him. “What’s eating you today? You seem grouchier than usual.” He followed Nagato through the portal shaking his head, “Well, this is going to be a fun day.” He muttered to himself.

As the pair entered the Dangai he shuddered, ‘This place always creeps me out. Does it really have to look like they are walking through some giant monsters insides? Can’t someone make it look a little nicer?’ Yuudai’s eyes locked onto his partner, “You think there is a particular reason why this place looks so disgusting?” He quickened his step until he was walking by his partners side, “So anything special about this outing? Strong Hollow? Lots of Hollow? A bunch of those Blue Bastards?” Yuudai had run into the Quincy a couple of times before and they always butted in and stopped him from doing his job properly. “If there are some of those evil assholes around can we kill them? We’d be doing the whole world some good.”

Yuudai chuckled and a wicked grin crossed his lips at the thought of being able to kill one or two of the monsters that were trying to disrupt The Balance and destroy all of the worlds. Hollow were only animals following their instincts after all, the Quincy though, they were ‘clever’, they were fully aware of their actions and their consequences. This is what made them evil and dangerous. The shinigami’s hands closed into fists as the anger grew inside of him, now all he needed was a target to release all this frustration onto.

“I am not grouchy.” Nagato replied icily. “However I am now behind schedule.”

He walked through the Dangai still feeling annoyed although he largely managed to mask his feelings aside from the clenched fists at his side. His Hell Butterfly fluttered just ahead guiding the man along the dangerous path. He wondered what they would find at the other side of the unique corridor. Unfortunately due to the Quincy interference the Gotei had been forced to issue the orders without any intelligence gathering. Their targets could be anything from base Hollow right up to Menos class, if they were very unlucky it’d be a Gillian and if the fates hated them it could be an Adjuchas. Well in reality that was overly pessimistic considering the rarity of such beings. Hearing Yuudai speak pulled the senior Shinigami from his musing.

“What?” he asked blinking in surprise before the question filtered through his confusion. “Oh. I don’t think there’s a lot we can do about changing the aesthetic of a dimension separated from space and time.” he pointed out drily.
Nagato sighed but this time more from exasperation than actual anger. He was too used to Yuudai to remain pissed off at his friend for long. “You know what might have been useful Yuudai? Attending the briefing.” he said with a shake of his head “Reported Hollow activity. Unknown type and quantity. Usually there might be more time given to try and learn a bit more before sending in agents but unfortunately with all the Quincy activity lately they’ve rushed this one.”

The man shook his head again “Foolish mortals. They’ve no idea the damage they’re causing with their bullshit.” he growled. “Aside from trying to throw the entire Balance out of it’s natural flow the idiots are also making our lives harder. Who knows how many fucking Shinigami have had to throw themselves into immediate and careless actions just to preempt those fanatics.”

Nagato considered the question about killing the Quincy before answering. “As of now the issued orders specifically dictate we may only detain or destroy Quincy that we witness destroying souls.” he noted. He was nothing if not a stickler for the rules. “Of course if we do see any doing such a thing then we might as well send them onto the next life. It’ll be easier than dragging the wannabe marksmen back to HQ.”

Nagato certainly didn’t like the Quincy. They were grave threats although he still had no idea whether or not it was malice or ignorance although at the end of the day their intent was irrelevant. All Quincy had to either be destroyed, imprisoned or spiritually neutered. The Gotei simply couldn’t risk letting them do whatever they wanted regardless of the consequences.

Eventually they reached the end of the Dangai and a doorway began to slide open in front of them showing a star filled sky at the other side.

“Huh…it’s night time.” he noted softly. “I’ll never get used to the irregular time flow in here.”

Stepping into the human world, the portal having opened high in the sky above the human city below, Nagato swiftly gathered Reishi beneath his feet so he could stand on the air.

“Well let’s get to work.”

------------------------
WC: 541
Total WC: 1105

Yuudai smiled awkwardly at his friend, “Sorry, i lost track of time. I’ll make it to the next meeting, promise.” He shook his head at the mention of the Quincy, “What are they up to? Why has their activity suddenly increased recently? Hmmm…” The younger shinigami seemed to disappear into though for a moment before his ears perked up at his partner’s suggestion, “You make a good point dear Nagato, it would indeed be easier to kill them rather than haul their worthless ass back to the Seireitei.”

The door to Earth opened right in front of them, it was a clear night. He chuckled at Nagato’s comment, “At least the moonlight will help us see anywhere not lit by streetlights. And there won’t be too many humans around at this time of day that may get injured.” As he stepped out into the sky he summoned reishi beneath his feet to stop himself from falling. “Agreed, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can go back to our peaceful home.”

Yuudai stretched out his perception to try and detect any enemies in the area, he couldn’t feel anything. “Either there’s nothing nearby or they are good at hiding themselves. You got anything buddy? Or should move further into town?”

“No.” he responded as his spiritual senses folded back into his body. “I can’t sense anything but it’s a big city and all the lives down there make it hard to focus at this distance. Come on if we get closer it’ll be easier to find the Hollow.”

With that Nagato dropped from the sky at extreme speed. A few seconds before crashing into the roof of a skyscraper he kicked off a burst of Reiryoku under his feet which completely arrested his motion. Another slight shift of the spiritual energy beneath him and he landed lightly on the rooftop. Striding across the rooftop he glanced out at the busy city below and whistled through his teeth.

“Say what you will about mortals but they certainly are an industrious people.” he commented. Lights lit up the streets far below as cars drove around the roads and the many lamps lit up the streets. He couldn’t help but be impressed by it all. Perhaps it was their short lived nature that made humanity advance with such breath taking speed. Still for all that there was so much wasted energy. This city must contain millions of souls yet they all lack a true higher purpose. Somewhere down there at least one Hollow stalked the populace preying on those who could not defend themselves. How so very unfortunate.

Closing his eyes he sent his senses hurtling outwards as far as he could. Off in the distance, far, far off he could sense them. Mortals with power. Quincy perhaps. It made sense that a population centre this huge would contain a few. However he still couldn’t find the Hollow.

‘Where are we anyway?’ he thought to himself.

Taking a black flip phone from his pocket he tapped on the buttons of his Denreishinki. Reading the information on the screen he made a hmmm sound as he considered the data displayed there.

“The City of Chicago, approximately 2.7 million souls, United States of America.” he read out to Yuudai before snapping the phone shut “What a dense hunting grounds.” noted softly “It might not be as easy to find the Hollow here as we’d like.”

Turning away from the eye drawing sight of the City he looked to his partner. “Any ideas?” he asked.

He paused and scratched at his chin. “A City of this size has got to suffer a lot of death…what if we locate a Plus Soul and stake it out?” he wondered. “Find the one with the most Spiritual Power and use it as bait?”

------------------------
WC: 425
Total WC: 1530

Yuudai watched his partner fall from the sky for a moment before following in a more controlled fashion. Landing next to his partner he glanced at him, “Show off.” He chuckled before looking out over the cityscape, “They are indeed. Humans are somewhat of a paradox. They expend copious amounts of time and effort to make things that will allow them to not expend copious amount of time and effort. They fight laziness to embrace laziness. To be honest I don’t understand it, but I can still appreciate the effects of this bizarre behaviour.”

The younger Shinigami spread his senses out to see if he could find anything Nagato might have missed. “Are those Quincy? Or those, er, what are they called? Spirit people?” Other than those few blips, there was nothing of significance. “Maybe one of those blips found the Hollow first and blipped it?” He grinned at his partner, he knew it was stupid, but he was going to make his partner at least crack a bit of a smile at some point.

As the older Shinigami took out the phone to check their location Yuudai looked out over the city, “We seem to be in some sort of farm. By the looks of it a technologically advanced one, designed to birth, grow and slaughter mortals. It seems to run on some form of electricity.” When Nagato read the actual location and statistics to him, “See. Man I’m good.”

Yuudai considered his partner’s idea, “We could do that, or do the same for those spirit blips. Or we could be the bait? Exert our reiatsu a bit, become nice juicy…” He was cut off by the phone beeping, “Or maybe someone else did get it before us and it’s time to go home?” He sighed clearly not happy with that option.

"They’re too controlled to be Hollow and don’t have the usual sharpness of trained Shinigami. I would guess they are Quincy or another type of mortal Spiritualist but my spiritual senses aren’t honed enough to determine what race they are.” he noted with a shrug.

Frowning he glanced at Yuudai. “Blippied it?” he repeated sounding confused before shaking his head slightly. Probably just his partner being silly again. He ignored the other man as he rambled on about some sort of farm or something. He’d probably been watching those entertainment videos that human’s made...ah...movies. Yes movies. He was guessing it was a reference from that. Nagato just hoped that he hadn’t been watching another Horror film, he didn’t need the other man freaking out in the middle of the night over imagined monsters.

Yuudai proceeded his stupid statements with an actual decent point however Nagato opened his mouth to argue that their own Reiatsu would only scare Hollow away when the device in his hand began beeping, something his partner was quick to comment on. Flipping the phone-like device open again he glanced at the screen.

“Shit! It’s an emergency alert.” he said glancing at his friend “One of the other team’s has encountered the Hollow and are in danger.”

He clicked on the buttons moving the map around on the screen before shutting the device and shoving it into his pocket.

“Come on we have to go before they get themselves killed.” he snapped.

A swift Flash Step caused Nagato to dart off the roof top towards the direction of the alert. He pushed himself as swiftly as he could, knowing it would mean he’d outpace his partner, but he trusted Yuudai’s ability to track him via his reiatsu perceptive abilities. He had to make haste or else their comrades could be dead before they got there.

Finally Nagato came to a halt seeing one Soul Reaper lying still, unmoving, on the ground while a second stood breathing heavily. The one still on his feet was a brute of a man, several inches taller than even Yuudai who already towered over Nagato. More so he ridiculously broad with a huge scruffy beard and a wild mane of dark hair. His Zanpakutō was some sort of huge ōdachi. However the most eye catching thing about the man was his missing left arm, a bloody stump the only remaining part of the limb. His pitch black Shihakusho was stained crimson from a dozen other lesser wounds. It was a miracle that he still remained standing at all.

The Hollow however was Nagato’s main focus. The beast was a huge three-headed black hound with a serpent for a tail, the monstrous creature standing nearly 12 feet tall. Each canine head had glowing crimson eyes shining from behind it’s stark white Hollow Mask. As they snarled fangs longer than short swords were revealed, each dripping with a maroon liquid which scorched the earth where it fell. As they expelled air through their monstrous maws they would breath out red mist which give off an acidic smell that Nagato could pick up even from this distance. Dark Reiatsu emanated from the Hollow giving it the appearance of standing in the void itself.

It was times like this that Nagato really wished he had some skill in Hadō. Sighing the man drew the trench knife from his pocket. It was time to begin.

The beast raised a clawed paw and lashed out at one-armed Soul Reaper. A flickering Flash-Step put Nagato between man and monster. His dagger slashed across the creature’s leg causing it to withdraw with a surprised yelp.

Glancing over his shoulder he looked at the injured Shinigami. “Fall back. Take the other man and get out of here. We’ll take care of this.” he hissed. He had no idea if the non-moving form was simply unconscious or a corpse.

The huge man glared down at the shorter man. “The Fifth never run!” he roared.

'Moronic pride.'

With an internal sigh Nagato spun around throwing a kick straight into the injured warrior’s chest. He was sent hurtling away to hit the ground several feet away. With a shake of his head Nagato turned back to the Hollow.

“Get out of here. You’ll only get in our way.” he spat as he dropped into a fighting stance, spinning the knife around so that he held it in an icepick grip.

------------------------------
WC: 736
Total WC: 2266

"Well shit. Lets move it. Where are they?" Yuudai blinked slightly as his partner leapt into action and sped off. He followed him best he could but Nagato was a lot faster than him, it wasn't long before he had to rely on his spiritual senses to track the other Shinigami. After a minute the power of the third Shinigami, and then another appeared. Yuudai shuddered as the horrible feeling of the Hollow's reistu ran through him, it felt disgusting. He was going to have to do something to try and feel clean again.

Yuudai finally caught up to his partner just in time to see him kick the injured Shinigami on his ass, "He's right, you're too injured to be of any use." A smile crept across his lips, "Time to deal with you beast. How do you want to do this Nagato?" His smile widened, and his voice began to crack slightly as he draw his sword, "I agree."

Yuudai was chuckling by the time he was stood next to his friend, "Do you want to go first? Or shall I? You sure? Thanks, you're a real friend." The younger shinigami charged forward, ducking underneath the Hollow's heads and with a flash of his sword sliced into the front of the creatures hind legs. Yuudai span around as he came out from under it and quickly slashed at the back of the hind legs. It wasn't enough to bring the Hollow down but it did release a scream as the final slashes were made. "If you struggle this is just going to hurt even more. So please, do continue."

Nagato practically rolled his eyes as Yuudai blabbered on to himself. He always did this, asking questions and then answering them himself. He liked to believe his partner was just talking to the spirit dwelling in his sword or maybe he was just insane, even that might be preferable to just considering how much of a twit the man liked to act. In truth however the taller man was fully aware of how this game and dance went. He engaged first, usually, because he was simply tougher. He could take hits in ways that would lay Nagato out cold. Once Yuudai moved so did Nagato.

As Yuudai went in, cutting at the legs Nagato used a flash step to appear in the sky above the beast’s heads letting his partner act as the decoy. Spinning his trench knife he gritted his teeth. Unfortunately the blade was too small to do any damage against something this size in it’s current state so he just needed to go bigger.

“Focus on the Moment, Kako to Mirai!” he yelled. An overly long release phrase and the true one was even longer. The downside of having a dual Zanpakutō Spirit. Silver light poured over the 1943 M3 Fighting Knife. The light lengthened and changed shape as the weapon transformed into something else. Within only a few breaths he was holding a Filipino Dahong Palay, a sword of almost 28 inches in length and with a blade just over 21 inches in length. The one handed sword was still slightly smaller than most Shinigami’s sealed Zanpakutō but it would do the job. Unusually there was no release of energy, no explosion of spiritual power that accompanied the Shikai release. Something that had confused Nagato himself for years until he worked it out.

The Hollow roared and snarled as it swung it’s heavy paw straight into the Shinigami. The kick was powerful, as powerful as one might expect from a 12 foot tall monster made of rippling muscle but Nagato didn’t have the time to worry about his friend.

The senior Soul Reaper dropped from the sky straight onto the huge canine shaped head, the middle one, and as soon as his feet struck the Hollow’s flesh Nagato felt a wave of nausea sweep over him. Ignoring it he drove the dull blade straight into the Hollow’s skull. With a twist he ripped his sword free in a splurt of blood even as the light died out the beast’s eyes. Although that still left the other two heads to deal with. The head to his right snapped at him, almost taking his arm off but the man used Shunpo to return to the ground, breathing heavily as he did so.

That trick wouldn’t work twice.

“You alright Yuudai?” he shouted towards his partner.

------------------------
WC:
467
Total WC: 2733

As Yuudai took a step forward to swing at the Hollow again it kicked back, catching him slightly by surprise. He managed to block at the last instant but the force still knocked him back a few feet, "Oh, you're going to regret that." The shinigmai jumped forward and to the right slightly, swinging his sword at the beast's hind leg. He smiled at the satifying gushing sound as blood spirted from the now severed limb. The man adjusted his grip on his sword and swung at the front right leg of the Hollow, the howl the monster made as the sword buried itself halfway through the leg sent shivers down Yuudai's spine.

Yuudai hopped forward to avoid the now falling Hollow. As the head nearest to him fell past, it snarled and tried the bite him, "Hey now, that's not very nice." The young Shinigami clenched his fist and thrust it into the snout of the head in question. The mask made a beautiful sound as the cracks traveled from one end to the other. As the cracks reached the eye holes, the light inside them grew dimmer and slowly flickered out. He turned to face nagato, "Honestly, some beings just need to learn some manners. And yes, I'm fine thank you." Yuudai was still grinning from ear to ear and was now splattered with blood, but either hadn't noticed or didn't care.

A groan from the side attracted Yuudais attention, he turn to investigate. It was the injured Shinigami from when they first arrived, "What are you still doing here? I didn't we tell you to leave?" The injured man laughed, "The fifth never ru..." Yuudai didn't let him finish, "You're almost dead, you're friend probably is dead. From a base Hollow. So here's what you're going to do." He grabbed the injured Shinigami's uniform and pulled him close. So close that there foreheads and noses were touching, "You're going to grab your friend and go back to Seireitei. When you get there you're going to report what happened here, and do you know what the report is going to say? I'll tell you. It will say that two of the sneaky bastards from the second proved that they are better at combat than the mucleheads in fifth. You get me?" The Injured Shinigami nodded, "Good. Now get gone weakling." He threw the man back over to his probably dead partner and shook his head as he looked back to Nagato, "You can finish it. He's just ruined the mood." His smile had shrunk but it was still there, just visable on the edge of his lips.

Nagato flickered out of sight and vanished to reappear a dozen feet away as the beast fell and smashed into the ground where the Shinigami had been standing a few moments before. He watched Yuudai wound the Hollow before dispatching one of it’s heads. Lazily spinning the sword in his hand the man watched as his partner dealt with the injured soldier from the Fifth. Nagato was thankful he didn’t have to deal with the annoying man himself.

After Yuudai came over to speak with him his partner nodded and walked over to the remaining beast’s head. Raising his sword he drove it into the mask eliciting a howl of anguish and fury. The cracks spread outwards from where the blade pierced the strange white material until it shattered completely. Nagato released his Shikai, knife still in hand, as he turned back to Yuudai and nodded to his partner while the Hollow disintegrated behind him.

“Well that’s dealt with. We should scout the area to make sure there aren’t any other Ho-" he cut off as a crushing Spiritual Pressure smashed down over them. It was so strong that Nagato was nearly driven to his knees.

‘What?’ he thought to himself in alarm as he spun around.

A monstrous sight filled his vision as a 10 foot humanoid figure stared down at the Shinigami. The Hollow was huge, both in height and broad, while having two sword-like blades at the end of it’s arms.

The beast opened it’s maw and red light began to spill out, the sight of wish caused Nagato’s stomach to drop.

“Yuudai run!” he yelled grabbing his partner by the arm. Pulling his partner along with him he used Shunpo to narrowly avoid the Cero that tore through the air from the enemy’s mouth. The injured and unmoving Soul Reapers of the Fifth were much less lucky. The Cero disintegrated them on impact. Dust and debris filled the air causing Nagato to cough as he let go of his partner, momentarily save while hiding in the debris field. Forcing his Reiatsu as low as he was able he hoped Yuudai was smart enough to follow, hiding and strike just as the Second taught. There was no honour in battle.

Holding his dagger out to the side he knew there was no time for indecision as he held his dagger with both hands.

“Look Back while Gazing Forward Kako to Mirai.” he murmured softly. Burning silver energy ripped over the blade, consuming it in glowing light which he split by pulling his hands to either side. A bar of silver light filled each hand which faded away until Nagato was holding two identical 28” rattan bastons. Unlike with his first release there was a release of power, a significant one, as Nagato’s own spiritual pressure caused the dust around him to be blown outwards.

This was not time to be playing around. This Hollow was strong, stronger than either of the Second Division members and Nagato wouldn’t be surprised if it was only one step away from evolving into a Menos.

“Lets go.” he said to Yuudai before using Flash Step to vanish out of sight. He came to a stop on a nearby rooftop, waiting quietly. He fell back on his usual strategy. Let Yuudai make the first strike and Nagato would make the second, more cunning, attack.

---------------------------------
WC: 562
Total WC: 3295

Yuudai yanked his sword from the now dissolving Hollow corpse, "That wasn't so bad Nagato. Apart from those Fifth asshaAAHHH." He was suddenly pulled sideways and then dropped onto the floor. As the Shinigami regained his senses he felt his partners power drop and followed suit. As the dust cloud began to settle Yuudai saw that the pair of Fifth Shinigami had been obliterated by the Cero, "Now the Fifth won't know how much better than them we are."

Yuudai's smile returned as Nagato released his shikai, "Not running? It's a pretty big one." His partner jumped back and waited calmly, "Ok then, here we go." The young man held his sword horizontally in front of him and placed his left hand on the back of his right, "Shatter and burn." The sword began to glow a bright red as it started to liquify and transform into molten lava. The lava slowly roledl up over his hands, cooling as it came into contact with his skin. Even though the rock protected his hands from most of the heat some of it still got through. He found this sensation only added to his excitement, as it only happened when he was about to get into a big fight.

Yuudai began to chuckle to himself, "Let's see how this goes, shall we?" He looked over the new Hollow as he ran towards it. It was too tall for him to be able to jump up and hit it in the mask, he was going to have to bring it into punching range. 'Legs it is!' The Shinigami charged at the humanoid Hollow and aimed for it's right leg. As his molten gauntlet collided with the beasts flesh it hissed and the Hollow let out a roar of agony. Bending its leg at the knee it pulled its foot back, "Sorry, did that sting?" The Shinigami's smugness didn't last long as the foot came forward again and smashed into his torso sending him flying backwards into the living room of a nearby house. "Son of a bitch, that's gunna leave a mark." As he stood up and strightened himself up he glanced to his left, some couple were watching First Contact. "I haven't watched those films for a while. I think I'll rewatch them when we get back."

Yuudai walked out through the front window of the room to rejoin the fight, "Nagato, this is a tough one. We're going to have to reduce his mobilty." His smirk returned as he felt the exilaration grow inside him, "Stick him in his joints until he drops." The dim red glow of the gauntlets became brighter and changed to a light orange colour as he once again dash forward to meet their foe.

Kneeling at the edge of the rooftop the senior Shinigami watched his partner through narrowed eyes as Yuudai made his assault on the powerful Hollow. Straightening up he saw the other man released his own Shikai, the burning gauntlets of rock forming over his hands and he leapt forward to strike their enemy. Nagato silently waited to see the results of his ally’s attack but the blow didn’t do any permanent damage, instead the Hollow seemed momentarily phased before it retaliated flinging straight into a build behind them.

Nagato stepped off the side of the building in a flicker as he rushed the flank of their opponent and slammed one of his sticks into the back of the creatures head. The blow was many times stronger than any mortal could ever manage and the cracking sound which echoed out after the impact should have shattered the wooden baston but the Shikai was utterly unmarked hinting towards their true nature. Knowing the attack wasn’t enough to stop his target and realising that a counter was inevitable he kicked off the back of the beast’s neck and flipped away from the Hollow just as it’s bladed arm flashed through the air, narrowly managing to avoid it. Landing a few meters away he turned slightly as Yuudai approached although he was careful to keep his gaze on the approaching Hollow.

“As you say.” he answered agreeing with his comrade’s assessment of the situation. “Same as usual.” he added in reference to their frequently used tactics. With a soft whoosh Nagato darted off to one side even as the smirking Yuudai charged his opponent.

As the Hollow focused on the larger man Nagato darted to the creatures side and give a mighty swing of one of the kali sticks, slamming it into the side of the beast’s knee, before darting towards the front and immediately thrusting the short stick into the joint. A crack followed after as the Soul Reaper automatically returned to a guarded stance to prepare for any retaliatory strikes.

-------------
WC: 338
Total WC: 3633

Yuudai's smirk grew wider as he got within punching range of the Hollow. He slammed his magma covered fists into one of the beasts knees releasing a loud snapping sound swiftly followed by that all so familiar howl. The attack was timed perfectly as Nagato hit the other knee causing the beast to stumble but not completely fall. The man shook his arms as the magma gaunlets orange hue became even brighter starting to tend towards white, the motion caused several globs of the fluid to splatter onto the floor around him, "Hey, when we knock you down, do us the curtesy of actually falling all the way down, please."

Yuudai bounced on his feet as he threw his fists into what he was assuming was the creatures hip. His attacks were short lived however as the creature swung one if its bladed arms wide. Yuudai manged to duck under the swipe and the side stepped so he was behind the Hollow. He had no doubt Nagato would easily dodge or block the attack and so felt he didn't have to worry about him as he renewed his molten assault on the Hollows body. His attacks seemed to hurt the monster more now that he has increased the temperature of his gaunets, but unfortunately it seemed his attacks still needed more power behind them to be able to do any kind of significant damage. Hopefully Nagato's precision strikes would be more effective.