New Challenges [Private]

The early morning sunlight had peaked through the room of the classy shinigami, Merrick Hunai Iwasaki, waking him from a serene slumber. The first few thoughts that entered his mind were how thankful he was to God that he had lived to see another day, never knowing if he would wake up the next morning. But now that he was indeed alive and well today, he was ready and willing to take on new challenges and opportunities that he would be presented. He slowly rose out of his rack, stretching a little bit and then proceeded to his personal shower room. Merrick needed to feel a sudden sensation to wake him up even more than when he first opened his eyes, so he turned the water in the shower to cold just before he got in. As the cold unforgiving shower hit his slightly muscular body, he jumped with shock, alarm, and a rush of energy. Not too long after feeling the water wake him up, his body began to adjust and feel good as he finished up and shut off the faucet. He dried off, got dressed in his shinigami attire and had a moment for spiritual devotions before he walked out of the barracks to see the bright morning sun illuminating the Seireitei.

Merrick walked through the main bridge of the Seireitei looking at the scenery he had earned the right to see through the academy, holding now the proper title of shinigami of the 13 Court Guard Squads. His specific squad assignment was to the Kidoshu, where he could practice the Magical Arts in a way most shinigami desire all their life in the Gotei 13. Merrick made it his goal to be as proficient as possible in both Hado and Bakudo spells in order to better serve the Soul Society. As he continued walking through the great white bridge of the Seireitei, he began to feel a dark, strange spiritual pressure not too far from where he was at the moment. Curiosity was getting the better of him, knowing that having just got out of the academy, he was a little anxious to test his newfound powers against a threat in the Soul Society. Merrick quickly used shunpo to take him to the source of this possible threat, not even stopping to consider the consequences but full of confidence that he could subdue or even eliminate the threat. The wind passing through his long, silky jet black hair as he hurried along to the trail of reiatsu he was sensing that got stronger in a northwestern direction.

He reached the outskirts of the training center where the reiatsu was strongest to see a half-dozen shinigami in a row laying facedown on the grassy terrain, badly injured with one man with red hair and slender build standing in the middle with blood all over his clothes facing away from Merrick. The raven-haired Soul Reaper was truly blown away to behold such a horrific situation laid before him, never expecting something of this magnitude to be pressed on him soon after becoming a full-fledged shinigami. Merrick looked at the Soul Reaper in the middle and with a bit of righteous indignation, he called out to the blood-drenched man, “What is the meaning of this? Identify yourself, you murderous filth!” The blood-stained shinigami looked up to the sky and then slowly turned around for Merrick to see that this man had a hollow appearance over most of his face and torso.. Taken aback by this sight, he quickly drew his dual zanpakuto knowing that this situation would not end peacefully today.

Merrick studied the shinigami’s appearance, taking note that not only did almost all of his face have a hollow-like appearance, but also his right arm was looking similar to a monster claw. He also noticed there was something familiar about the unmasked face of this hollow-possessed shinigami, but Merrick could not tell too well at moment. He was wondering what on God’s green earth was this beast standing before him, and he recalled learning about something like this in the academy, “If I’m not mistaken, you’re either a shinigami who has been possessed by a hollow or a Vizard whose lost control of his inner hollow. Either way, it looks like I will have to end you today for the good of the Soul Society.” Just as Merrick spoke such words to the hollow-possessed shinigami, the creature had roared loudly and speedily launched at the black-haired shinigami with such frightening speed and force that Merrick stumbled for a split second trying to defend himself. He caught his footing just in time to defend properly against him with both swords crossed in front of him, and pushed the creature far enough to take a firm stance, sheathe his right-handed sword and call out a kido, “Hado #33-Sokatsui!” Merrick gathered a handful of reiatsu for the Hado in his right hand, formed a bright blue orb of energy, and fired it with some strength. As it made contact with the hollow’s torso, an explosion occurred knocking the creature further back and cutting it in the torso as it roared in pain. Just as Merrick witnessed the monster step back some, the bleeding wound on it’s torso had suddenly been healed by a blob of a white substance. The black-haired shinigami was surprised at how this beast was able to heal so rapidly from a wound, but then recalled learning about something like this in the academy about hollows, “I see, instant regeneration. The fate of all Vizards possessed by their inner hollows, ‘tis for that very reason that I am certain this will be an easy fight.”

The hollow-possessed Vizard roared with anger and charged up a blue Cero beam in its claw. Merry responded quickly by drawing his other zanpakuto and called out loud, “Bend all of nature around me...Doteki-Ryoku!” As the monster fired the beam with such a force at Merrick, the shinigami crosses his dual swords in front his face as they were glowing white and then released a powerful telekinetic force field in order to protect the shinigami. The Cero hit the white force field that Merrick held with such power that it nearly broke through as it caused an explosion, but Merrick kept it firm with enough focus. The smoke cleared, revealing the righteous shinigami with a few burns and scratches on his wrists from the blast. The hollow screeched and launched at Merrick with it’s zanpakuto and Merry responded by raising his left sword in defense. The two swords clashed, causing a spark between the opposing forces. There was something familiar about the sword that the hollow was using and it’s zanjutsu, but Merry could not put his finger on what it was. Merrick then swung his right sword across the hollow’s midsection to try and seriously injure it. As his sword cut deep into its chest cavity and stomach, the hollow cried out in searing pain and jumped away a couple yards to land on its knees bleeding out on the grassy plain.

Merrick flash-stepped over to land in front of the hollow and swing his left sword down with a vengeance, but just as he was about to cut its head, the beast caught his hand and formed a bright blue Cero in its mouth and fired it right at the jet black-haired shinigami’s face. At such a close-range and being in a state of surprise of such a dangerous tactic, Merrick had only a split second to react. So he quickly formed a force field strong enough to at least try to damper the possible destruction from the blast, but knew he would still take quite a bit of damage from it. As the Cero made contact with Merrick, it cause an explosion, knocking him back about 20 yards. He landed hard on the ground as the hollow was roaring and trying to heal fast enough from being cut by the shinigami. As the pain of the attack seized his body, he managed to get up and feel that his face and neck was burned and cut, some of his shinigami attire was incinerated and his chest was badly bruised. Merry was grunting and groaning in pain as he watched the possessed Vizard instantly heal from its cut, pissing him off a little. Merry angrily muttered, “Shinigami like myself never had the luxury of instant regeneration for the sake of fighting against evil creatures, but this demon gets to instantly recover from it injuries like it’s nothing! Blast!”

Merrick took a few deep breaths and got up off the ground, taking a firm stance, getting ready to fight once again stating firmly, “The time has come for me to end this instead of playing around with this thing.” He then used shunpo to appear about 10 feet before the hollow and used his Under Pressure attack trapping the creature in the telekinetic force field. Merrick then crossed his swords once again and charged them up with his reiatsu, making them glow pure white as the hollow/shinigami was trying to get out. The swords were finally completely charged up and ready as the creature launched another Cero beam; but because it was trapped in telekinetic energy, it did break through some of the force field, but the rest of the blast blew up on the hollow, damaging it’s arm and torso. It fell to one knee bleeding and screeching in pain from the blast. But while it was healing, in a split second, two glowing blades protruded through the face of the hollow from the back of it’s head, causing blood to spray out. The glowing white energy in the blades moved from the blades into the hollow’s face and body, and once it was finished transferring, the blades were retracted back out of it’s head spreading even more blood on the ground and on the blades themselves.

As the hollow fell face down to the ground, Merrick Iwasaki was shown to be standing behind it with his blood-soaked swords down by his side. The mask on the hollow was shattered, revealing the face of the shinigami who was buried deep within the beast. Merrick walked over to him as the white energy continued to spread like a virus all over his body, trying to see who it was. Studying his face, Merrick was shocked to see it was his old classmate, Shinori Hanata or Shin to Merrick. He remembered how they would spar from time to time in the academy in order to keep each other prepared for any type of opponent, never knowing what they will encounter out there. As the energy began spread and cause Shin’s body to glow brightly, Merrick remembered that the energy will either be detonated by him or self-detonate. So he reluctantly flash-stepped away a safe distance, and with a wave of his hand, the white energy present in his old colleague’s body detonated causing an explosion of telekinetic energy. The body of said classmate of Merrick was consumed by the energy released in the explosion and was reduced to ashes and atoms as the jet black-haired shinigami sheathed his swords. Merrick then shed a tear for Shin, knowing that his death had to come by the hands of his old acquaintance because he was unfortunately possessed by a hollow. Merrick then clenched his left hand as he said slightly choked up, “Your death will not be in vain, Shin. The hollows will not take another soul on my watch, you have my word.” Merrick then dried his eye, looked to the bright afternoon sun and called for help to come and take the hurt and injured shinigami to the infirmary. A number of shinigami from the fourth squad arrived not long after to attend to the injured shinigami and Merrick was properly taken care of as well before he left to get rest up and be ready to make good on his promise to his classmate.