{for Vinny} I...HATE...everything about....YOU...

Byakuya said a quick incantation before a streak of white lightning shot from his index finger. For some that spell would be decently powerful, but for Byakuya who had spent a large amount of training in kidou as well as his large amount of spiritual pressure his spell wiped out a large amount of the hollows in front of them. That was a small enough gap for him, but when he followed that by his shikai, which was called calmly, the gap was large enough to give them space and time to work with to get to the hole.

He pushed off the ground to propel himself upwards ahead of his small group from his squad towards the hole in the sky while calling his zanpuktou back to himself to parry off one smaller hollow that tried to attack him. It was almost immediately disposed of and disintegrated while Byakuya passed through. Most of the hollows seemed smart enough to not attack someone of captain level or even vice-captain level like Renji, but there were some and most of those were coming in through the hole now. Byakuya was pretty sure he could spot some Menos Grande through the gap...those would be an issue and could cause a lot of damage...

Those ones that came through the hole were much stronger than those that were the earlier attackers, the stupid ones could not pick or choose their opponent. Renji had once before felt such strong hollow before. That time in the academy when he, Hinamori and Kira defended their student teacher from the ominous hollows that had taken two lives already. He hadn't been too keen on helping out there and he would have kept running had it not have for Hinamori to wished to protect. The stronger hollows avoided them now, scurrying past them for the weaker opponent that would be easier for them to take down. Renji growled to himself, thinking that they were just too weak.

Renji looked behind him, wondering if anyone was following them but he saw that no one was trying to keep up with them. Each of the soul reapers were too busy trying to protect themselves and others. He guessed that it was just him and Byakuya, who just zapped the shit out of the hollows before him. Renji looked on rather surprised, he knew that a captain had stupendous power but he never got to see it in action. He was glad that he was behind his Captain rather than in front of him, he thought that he might have been caught up in that line of fire. His train of thought was brought back down to him when he saw the ominous white masks of the Menos Grande as they peeped through the hole.

Oh shit.

Renji took a deep breath and shook his head quickly. A Menos Grande would be nothing for him and Byakuya, even if it was only one of them. They were just targets on a stick, easily taken care of. The Lieutenant wet his lips and tightened the grip on his zanpaktou. He chuckled slightly as he looked over to Byakuya. "Hey, Captain!" He called, waving one hand. "Let's have a little fun." He swung at one stupid hollow as it charged him head on, it vanished with a cry. "Let's see--" Another one, gone. "Let's see who can cut down the most." Seriously, when would Renji learn? Never, that was when. "I'll bet cha I'll win." He grinned over to his Captain.

Byakuya looked over at Renji just after slicing through another hollow. He appeared to be practically bored right now, but when did he ever look excited about anything? Or even any sign of any other emotion besides his expression of ‘I’m better than you’ that seemed to emanate from the man. At Renji’s proposal of what was obviously a game, Byakuya resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Really, did his lieutenant truly believe that he would stoop so low as to participating in a contest?

I’ll bet cha I’ll win.

One thing that Byakuya could not resist was a direct challenge. Kenpachi had learned that a while back, and whenever he wanted a sparring partner he would challenge Byakuya. It was a character flaw that he had worked on most of his life. He was very competitive with everything because he was a perfectionist and viewed his own losses as showing that he was lacking in some area of his life. He knew he would be showing this flaw to Renji, but at the moment his logical brain was not the dominant voice in his thoughts. His pride was.

This man…his Lieutenant …was challenging him. This could not continue. Byakuya decided that he would most likely have to show Renji that saying such a thing was very foolish, because Byakuya did not take it easy on people he viewed as weaker than himself. Oh no. He would most likely go overboard on this…

“Considering that I have already killed twenty-five more hollows than you before this point in time, I suppose you will want to have both of us start with zero?” Byakuya asked calmly. He wasn’t sure if he had killed twenty-five in his initial attack or not, but it would be close to that number. “I will give you a chance to recant your challenge to me now, if you wish. However, if not, I cannot stress enough that you will be the one with the fewer kills.”

"Got that right." Renji chuckled as both him and his Captain watched the long black bodies of the Menos Grandes seep through the holes. The hole was located closest to the Sixth Division, Renji guessed that others would not be coming any time soon. Well, they could but most likely Byakuya would have already done away with everything before they had a chance to call on their zanpaktou. Renji was just starting to feel the rush of battle as he saw the seemingly endless gathering of Menos Grande. That sweet rush had been lost when he went from the Eleventh Division to the Sixth. He twisted the hilt of Zabimaru and laid him out before him. With his other hand he brushed across the whole blade with the command for Zabimaru to awaken. The blade's pointed tip grew flat and much larger than the rest of the blade, juts of sharp metal sticking out at each segment of Zabimaru. He could feel the want to fight practically scream from Zabimaru as Renji told him to roar.

"Che! We'll just see about that won't we Captain?" Renji sneered the title as both hands went to the hilt of his zanpaktou. The blank faces of the Menos Grande looked like targets now and he smirked as Zabimaru roared in his hand. He left his spot beside Byakuya to rear up an attack and headed straight for the first Menos Grande he saw. He brought the jagged edge of Zabimaru across the mask and let it rip it apart. The enormous hollow vanished before his eyes and Renji let his smirk grow bigger.

"One."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at the tone that Renji used when speaking his title, but he said nothing about it. He realized in the past weeks that Renji nearly matched himself in stubbornness, so if he were to argue with Renji about the proper tone needed they two of them would most likely get into an argument that would last longer than this hollow conflict. He didn’t want to miss the fighting, so he let it slide this time. Byakuya watched Renji take off, and he now allowed himself to roll his eyes just a little at how straight forward Renji attacked the Menos Grande. Sure, these creatures were too slow to react to much of anything, but it was still an excuse for him to find fault in Renji.


Byakuya quickly counted how many Menos Grandes there were before he started forward as well. He would allow Renji to have a couple, he supposed, and then he would use his own shikai to finish off the group. It wouldn’t take long.



He stopped just below one Menos which made him look very small in comparison to the mammoth hollow, but he merely looked up a moment before propelling himself upwards and cut the hollow from bottom to top in one clean cut. Byakuya could see a couple of the others charging up ceros to try and blast them away, but he moved at a lightning fast pace to dispose of them before the ceros were even able to leave their gaping mouths. The two seemed to dissipate simultaneously as Byakuya had moved so fast. He turned to check where Renji was, and said a soft, “Three.” before turning to deliver a killing blow to a smaller hollow that had attacked him from behind.