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This article, Clash over Grat, is the sixth chapter of The Rising arc, which is part of Bleach: Cataclysm. This chapter imposes a three-week time-skip since the events shown in Birth of the Grat cell. Garrett Sheppard and Tiffany Henderson, joined by the members of the emerging Grat cell, serve as the main characters.
Garrett, with his new Bakkōtō in-hand, cut a rough swath through what he could only describe as shambling corpses, though Tiffany insisted they had a name: the Soulless. Over the last three weeks these things had invaded Grat's derelict factory district, which had long been the sight of many of Garrett's battles with Hollow over the years. So far he and his friends had managed to keep the creatures confined to the derelict areas, but the fact remained they could not keep this up forever.
"We need a solution." Garrett voiced aloud. What he left unsaid was that he thought they where being watched. "You feel that?"
"I'm open to suggestions, oh wise leader." Ries quipped. He nevertheless understood Garrett's sidelong look. "I do."
"Lop their limbs off till Tiffany pinpoints them?" Garrett suggested.
And so the two went about their work. Garrett's Bakkōtō served him well when it came to lopping off the arms and legs of the Soulless. Ries, meanwhile, was hacking through them with a lightning aura surrounding his hands. The edge of his makeshift weapon was as keen as Garrett's Bakkōtō and very soon the two where surrounded by shrieking corpses who had been reduced to flailing helplessly on their stomachs.
"Have to admit: I do good work." Ries stated.
"You make it sound like you did that all yourself." Garrett pointed out.
"I suppose I did. What you gonna do about it?" Ries even waved him on.
It didn't take much to spark a confrontation between Garrett and Ries these days. Garrett couldn't explain why. When he was fighting with Ries it felt like he was fighting with Kenji again, and maybe that was why he lot himself be baited so easily? He always learned something new fighting Ries. And it seemed the same was true for Ries when he fought Garrett. The guy could barely remember who he was, yet when it came to fighting, it was a very different story. Ries's body remembered even if his mind didn't.
"This time I'm gonna give you more than a black-eye." Garrett vowed.
Tiffany monitored the rough perimeter she and Garrett had agreed on between the populated areas of Grat and the currently derelict old factory district. If any of the Soulless attempted to pass that point Tiffany struck them with a surge of electricity from Raikōisan that was so potent it caused them to burst into flames! In the last hour she had stopped just over ten of these Soulless already.
"Another approaching,"
May, despite still recuperating, had insisted that she could help in this small way. Her sensory abilities had always been exceptional; well beyond her peers. May even outstripped the spiritually-sensitive Quincy sense that Lloyd possessed. And when Tiffany sat beside her with her hand on her shoulder she found that May could extend her sensory range as well. Combined with Raikōisan's lightning abilities this allowed Tiffany to execute pinpoint lightning-based Kidō attacks.
A single bolt flew from Tiffany's Raikōisan, arced through the heavens, before falling on a fast-moving Soulless. Its shrill shriek was heard above the thunderclap for a brief time before silence.
"You really make this too easy." Tiffany, squeezing May's shoulder, said.
"I know." She smiled warmly. "But Garrett and Ries are at it again, I'm afraid."
"... Of course they are."
Randy, in much the same vein as May, refused to sit on the sidelines and recuperate, even though that was exactly what his medically-inclined parents had insisted that he do. With no small amount of help from Anko he was at least fit to fight these shambling Soulless things. Besides he had his wing-man, Lloyd, at his side. And the two where racking up the numbers like it was going out of fashion.
Randy hit one Soulless so hard that it flew through the air and straight through the wall of a derelict store. By the time it came to a sudden halt his Fullbring took effect and the Soulless exploded!
"Watch the fireworks!" Lloyd reprimanded. "Do we really need our battles here to be reported in the news as terrorist attacks again?"
"Oh, come on!" Randy snapped back. "That happened once and you guys have never let me forget about it!"
Randy was so busy reprimanding Lloyd that he failed to notice a shambling Soulless approach his back. But, as Randy had expected, Lloyd had his friends back. He skated in on his personal high-speed movement technique and executed a series of quick one-handed movements with his right arm. The Soulless was pinned to the nearest wall by several swift arrows before being hit solidly by Randy, who backed away before it exploded.
"Again with the fireworks!!"
Garrett and Ries had, effectively, forgot completely about the Soulless as they lost themselves in the rhythm of combat. The two clashed in the skies above Grat's derelict factory district. They connected one-another with an explosive punch on the cheek and where soon exchanging blistering sequences of punches and kicks. It was like something straight out of anime! Electricity flashed along their limbs, the smiles never left their faces, and the sounds of their fists colliding echoed loudly.
"Got him," Garrett whispered.
Ries tensed his body.
The duo cast their senses out, their focus at its peak, as they prepared the final stage of their ruse. They kicked it up a notch! The intensity of their fight escalated when, suddenly, the two broke away from their close engagement almost as quickly as when they first engaged. Garrett's Bakkōtō flashed from its sheath and whizzed over the ducking Ries's skull to solidly collide with the blade of a Zanpakutō! With his free hand Garrett seized the attacker's hand and, by proximity, the hilt of his Zanpakutō. In the same breathe Ries, as he ducked low to avoid Garrett's blade, spun himself around and stabbed his lightning-wreathed hand clean through the mysterious attackers stomach! Shock, confusion, and pure disbelief all registered on the man's face as Ries pulled his hand free.
"... How... did... you...?"
"Instinct." Garrett claimed.
"Then there was your stealth." Ries interjected. "It was good, I'll certainly give you that. If you'd been dealing with the others you likely wouldn't have been detected at all."
"But you weren't dealing with the others. You where dealing with us."
The man, who was dressed in similar black garb to some of the Kikkashō agents had worn during the Second Battle of Grat, fell to the floor below. He was dead before he hit the ground and the second his life was snuffed out a peculiar event befell the flailing Soulless earlier rendered limbless by Garrett and Ries. They all ceased moving, their shrieking stilled suddenly, with silence returning.
"Okay... that happened." Ries noted with confusion.
"Yeah, that's new." Garrett agreed. "Is it strange I miss dealing with Hollow?"
"Not at all."