It wasn't enough. The meager power flowing through her veins could never defeat Kariya.
Feeling the pulse of energy trembling in her body, Soma Yoshino muttered under her breath. To challenge Kariya, she had resolved to go against every principle she once held sacred to steal life itself from the living. But even now, after taking in the souls of several humans, the strength she gained was a pale shadow of what she needed.
"So this is all…" she whispered. "It's still not enough to reach him."
Her thoughts fractured when a firm voice cut through the narrow alley.
"What are you doing?"
Kurosaki Ichigo landed beside her, the black Shihakushō on his shoulders still rippling from the flash step. Zangetsu rested across his back, and Lilin clung to his shoulder in her bird form, eyes sharp.
Ichigo's gaze fell to the crumpled body on the ground the woman reduced to nothing but discarded clothing and faint spiritual residue. His pupils narrowed.
"Lilin… what is this?"
"That," Lilin said quietly, "is what's left when a Soulhunter drains a living soul."
"Damn it!" Ichigo clenched his fists, his face twisting with anger. "I was still too late!"
Yoshino slowly turned toward him, her expression calm but guarded. "Shinigami?"
"I'm just a substitute," Ichigo said coldly. "But it doesn't matter. You sucked a living person's soul, didn't you? You're a Soulhunter, right?"
He couldn't hide the disgust in his voice. Watching someone's soul get ripped from their body it twisted something inside him.
"Since you're just a substitute Shinigami," Yoshino replied, eyes narrowing, "why come after me?"
"Because I can't let you do this again!" Ichigo barked. "Why are you killing people? Why take their souls?"
"Why?" Yoshino's voice hardened. "I have no reason to explain myself. Just don't stand in my way."
"I can't hear you!" Ichigo's voice roared as he gripped Zangetsu and surged forward.
Yoshino moved like wind in the next instant, she was gone, her body leaping effortlessly to a rooftop above.
"Where?" Ichigo's eyes darted around, trying to sense her Reiatsu, but her energy was alien hollow, unstable, neither human nor Shinigami.
"Over there, you dull idiot!" Lilin tugged at his hair and pointed sharply.
Ichigo nodded and chased after her, his form blurring through the alley.
Moments later, he cornered Yoshino between two walls, Zangetsu drawn and gleaming.
"Why are you doing this?" he demanded. "What's your purpose?"
"My purpose?" Yoshino gave a soft, bitter laugh. "You wouldn't understand. It's wasted breath explaining to someone like you."
"Try me," Ichigo shot back, eyes burning. "If you don't convince me, I'm not letting you go."
"I told you, I don't want to fight." She sighed and raised her right wrist, the strange bracelet glinting faintly in the moonlight. The nails of her left hand brushed against it, the two spiritual tools resonating in unison.
"Lilin," Ichigo murmured, "what's she doing?"
"No clue. But be careful Urahara said every Soulhunter has a unique ability."
"Show yourself Goth."
Her whisper ignited the air. A pulse of heat erupted from the bracelet, and fire spilled into form a humanoid creature, its body sculpted from molten flame and molten rage.
Ichigo took a step back, eyes widening. "What the hell is that?!"
"My doll," Yoshino said softly, leaning against the wall with a faint, sad smile.
"Doll?" Ichigo repeated.
"Yoshino," the fiery being rumbled, its voice like molten stone. "Did you call me?"
"Goth," she said gently, pointing toward Ichigo, "that one's annoying. Get rid of him."
"As you wish."
Goth raised his arms. Fireballs burst from his hands, dozens of them, hurtling toward Ichigo like comets.
Ichigo darted through the barrage, dodging most the explosions behind him tore the alley apart, one after another. A single fireball clipped his shoulder, but he swung Zangetsu, cleaving the blast in two. Sparks rained across the cracked pavement.
"Damn!" He charged through the fire and slashed across Goth's chest only for the creature to split apart, its molten body rejoining instantly. Every cut healed before Ichigo could blink.
He gasped, frustration mounting. "No matter how many times I cut you, you just!"
"Burn," Goth thundered, both palms surging forward. A pillar of flame exploded, slamming into Ichigo's chest and hurling him backward through an abandoned building. Concrete split, rebar bent, and dust filled the air.
Ichigo's body hit the rubble hard. Steel beams pinned his limbs, trapping him beneath the debris.
"End it," Yoshino commanded coldly.
"As you wish," Goth rumbled again, gathering twin orbs of fire, each the size of a man's torso.
The fireballs roared toward Ichigo
"Roar, Zabimaru!"
The twin fireballs shattered midair as a segmented blade tore through them, scattering sparks. Renji Abarai landed beside Ichigo, Zanpakutō coiled in his grip, smirking.
"Yo, Ichigo. You look like hell."
"Renji!" Ichigo coughed, eyes widening.
"Save the talk," Renji said, stepping forward. "Let's crush these two first."
But before he could move, something slithered across his body a swarm of glowing serpents, yellow and alive, coiling tightly around his arms and chest.
"What?!" Renji struggled, but the more he fought, the tighter they constricted.
"Tch. Ms. Yoshino," a smooth voice called from above, "running off alone and drawing the Shinigami's attention again?"
A man landed gracefully on the pavement. His sharp features were framed by a black-and-white suit, and a thin mustache curved beneath his nose.
Udagawa Ryō, the Soulhunter who manipulated serpents.
"Ryō," Yoshino hissed.
He ignored her, turning his cold gaze toward Ichigo and Renji. "So these are the famed Shinigami? Pathetic. You're weaker than Ichinose ever claimed. How disappointing."
Ichigo glared at him, forcing himself up from the debris.
"Oh?" A calm, dangerous voice cut through the air. "You think the Shinigami are weak?"
In the next instant, the world rippled.
Shiraha and Yoruichi appeared in the alley, the air itself bending around their arrival.
"That," Shiraha said coldly, his Zanpakutō gleaming in the dying flames, "is your illusion."