Once In a Bloody Moon (Ichigo X Arcelia) [OPEN]

Ichigo held the Adjuchas underneath her foot, the night sky shining brilliantly with a bright full moon. She growled as she held the hapless Hollow down tightly. "So... Tell me what you know of the Espada..." The Hollow then begins to laugh darkly, making Ichigo frown. "Kill me, then! They'll get you back eventually! You're no less a beast than we Hollow! You've no right to judge!" Ichigo grimaced and sighed. "I pity your lack of vision..." "Wait! I can tell you how you're going to die!" She then crushed the Hollow's throat, stabbing through it's mask and silencing the beast for good.

Stepping away from the corpse as it faded into the darkness, Ichigo's golden armored sleeves in her Shikai glowed faintly, but beautifully. Her black hakama rendered her legs nearly invisible in the darkness, but her red haori would be a giveaway. She sighed softly, thinking of Shinku, and just how Izaya would approach her, hoping he didn't scare the living daylights out of her. Holding her sword as more roars echoed out, she grinned darkly. "I'm going to be pulling an all-nighter tonight, it seems... And it's only 1AM..." She walks along the riverside, stalking the noises to eliminate their sources.

Ichigo dashed forward, putting her knee into another Hollow's mask, shattering it with the powerful blow. Sighing softly, her golden gauntlets gleamed gently as the Hollow faded into the darkness. "Geez... It's getting too late for this...I need to find a place to lay down..." She rubbed her forehead and groaned. There weren't anymore Hollows around her, making her thankful, but there was something else... Something much more powerful...

She lowered her stance and drew one of her two golden blades in her Shikai, holding it forward. She wasn't stupid. She knew there was something big around here, and she also figured it was trying to get a point of attack on her, from how it wasn't coming out. Too bad Ichigo couldn't really pinpoint exactly where reiatsu was coming from, only that it was there. She stands up straight, not dropping her guard, and shouts. "Hey! Whatever you are, just come out! You're not going to fool me like this!" She looked around for any sign of a creature, just in case she was misreading the energy. She could handle most Hollow no problem, but this felt different, and yet, the very same.

Ichigo growled softly, feeling the reiatsu drop even further. She really needed to get better at reading spiritual pressure, because simply stank of an ambush. Maybe if she hadn't shouted out first, the being wouldn't have hidden so quickly. Whatever the case, she wasn't going to be caught off guard easily. She crossed her arms, unsheathing both blades and holding them on both sides of her face. Then... She closed her eyes, cutting off her vision to better concentrate on hearing. She simply stood there, waiting for something to happen.

Then Arcelia moved to slash at Ichigo, the woman not moving an inch until Arcelia's blade broke her skin and began the slash. Her armored hand quickly thrusted down and disrupted the blade, knocking it away from her as Arcelia dodged back. "Fast..." Ichigo marveled at the Espada's speed. Then the dive forward by Arcelia made Ichigo grin. With a quick movement, she thrusted her sword in the ground and used it to lift herself into the air, pivoting on her hand to bring her leg down in a powerful overhead strike, which missed as Arcelia saw her attack would miss.

Ichigo looked to Arcelia, placing a hand on the fresh wound upon her leg. "Huh... You're good at hiding... And you're quick..." She looked to the blood on her hand and smiled. "To what do I owe the pleasure of such a random encounter? You couldn't have simply come out here for a pleasant chat..."

Ichigo held her swords defensively, staring down her would-be predator. "Orders? You're a soldier, then?" Ichigo then hummed, her eyes slitting sharply. Maybe this is what the Quincy was talking about. Maybe whoever this Arrancar worked for was what she was supposed to be getting information on. She then grinned darkly, eyeing Arcelia like a cat would a mouse. "Well... It seems your random picking a fight works in my favor... Because it seems I've been looking for you, anyways..."

Ichigo watched the glow, growling softly. She did immediately think Cero, and as such prepared for that, but was surprised when instead of a Cero, multiple Bala came from her fists. The first one hit her in the chest, making her stumble back slightly, but after that, she began punching forward, knocking away the Bala with her gauntlets. The golden armor rejected outward reiatsu easily, knocking it safely away from her. However, as the slashes came, Ichigo wasn't exactly prepared for it, the first slash connecting and cutting her deep. However, both golden blades came up and blocked the second one, catching Arcelia's blade between them. "Ahhh... You're not bad..." She grinned and snapped her blades sideways, resulting in a sprained wrist os disarming of Arcelia if she wasn't quick enough. Then she used the same attack on Arcelia, except instead of to slashes with one blde, it was a sumultaneous slash with both of her blades.

Ichigo widens her eyes in the split second when Arcelia dislodged her blade and stepped back, not expecting it to go with such ease. She then watched as she only stabbed into an after-image and cursed mentally. 'What? Why is this happening? I've been training my speed for years... I should be able to see this...' Then, as Arcelia's blade sank into her shoulder, she immediately moved forward to minimize damage. This was going south very quickly, and she needed to turn it around. She quickly sheathed her swords and hummed as her reiatsu rose. "Ban..." Feeling behind her that a Cero was being fired at nearly point-blank range, she needed to hurry it up to even hope of surviving it. "... KAI!"

Then the Cero engulfed her as her reiatsu skyrocketed, Ichigo not being able to move out of the way and maintain her reiatsu growth. At first glance, it would appear as the Cero hit on target and vaporized her. However, the reiatsu would prove any notion of an easy victory wrong, as Ichigo emerged from the blast. A pained shout echoed from the Visored, her body burned where the armor didn't cover. Mainly, her back, since her armor did not cover it. She stumbled forward a bit, holding one golden blade with three sheathed on her hips. All she could do for a moment was pant raggedly, her burns very bad on her back and legs. Slowly, however, she stood and shook herself, as if she would be able to get rid of her pain that way.

"Shinjinbukai Eien no De~yuerisuto..." The Visored painfully worded out as her Bankai was now active. "Geez... That fucking hurts..." She faces Arcelia and shakes her head. "You're actually trying to kill me, aren't you? When did this escalate like that? If we're aiming to kill one another..." She places her palm on her forehead and looks coldly to the Espada, showing no enjoyment in what she was thinking. "... I'll have to fight you like I do most Hollow..." Then, without a single notion of warning, Ichigo used her speed to rocket forward, aiming the hilt of her sword into Arcelia's gut to knock the wind out of her, rather than go for a kill move. The blow would certainly be powerful enough to push Arcelia back a bit and give her pained breathing for a couple minutes, but nothing more. Of course, due to the recoil of her Blitz Strike, she would be stuck in that position for a couple minutes. Hopefully the blow was enough to addle Arcelia long enough for Ichigo to recover. She really disliked killing anything other than an errant Hollow, and this Espada was far from the aforementioned beast.

Just watching, Taito could tell Arcelia was in a rush to finish up what she had started. Firing a Cero so quickly and and such a close range could mean nothing more than that. Maybe she wanted to see him? He felt a fluttering in his chest at such a thought, no matter how ridiculous it sounded to even him. Still though he couldn't help how it suddenly made his features a bit warmer. He wanted to tell her about what he had done, how he had helped her by picking off some weakling that wasn't worth her time. She'd be so pleased!

However those softer features Taito had gained were now twisting a bit. His lips curled up and his brows arched, giving him a much more crazed look. When that cero had hit whoever that woman was, he was halfway sure it had erased her completely from existance, even if they had been told to take in live prisoners. It wasn't a bad idea. Taito already didn't like her. His master hadn't even looked his way since his arrival and it was entirely her fault. A good killing is what was coming to her.

Much to his slight dismay though she had survived it. He made a bit of a disgusted face but his eyes still held pleasure. She was wounded and that pained cry that rang in his ears almost made his eyes roll to the back of his head. Had he been a bit less in plain sight that ice pick of his would be making another new scar somewhere on his body. For now though he could only imagine what that girl was going through. Arcelia's Cero had hit with all its might and from where he stood on the hill he could tell her exposed flesh was burnt buy the blast. So she wasn't dead but Arcelia was doing his punishing for him, making her experience the kind of pain she was in now. She understood him so well. She was perfect! With the wounds the Visored had now, Taito hoped it wouldn't be long, long before his master would finish this up so he could praise her at her feet.