The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 45: Surrender? Never

WARNING: Violence, Gore, and Swearing 

A/N: a rematch between Paulo and Kera. I feel that the calibre of my writing isn't as smooth as it was in other fight scenes but I liked the way it worked out (since I lost all my other great notes on this chapter somewhere in my computer or my ten million notebooks). ALL THOUGHTS APPRECIATED! 

------------

A low growl left my lips, the fury bubbling up in my veins. A faint, blue sheen covered my skin. "Don't insult my captain."

"Oh? Your captain? I thought you were banished, Kera. Surprised you even made it back in but they must have let you in cause you're weak enough for a student to topple."

My reiatsu spiked and the air around me crackled with energy.

"Kera, step back! Kenpachi's going to blast a hole – wait, what's going on?" Ikkaku called.

"Don't break down that wall, Zaraki!" I shouted back, glaring at Paulo. He widened his stance to attack, left hand squeezing into a fist. The teeth in my lower leg sunk deeper still, muscle giving way beneath it. It took every ounce of control I possessed not to scream when I opened my mouth next. "I have a little matter to exterminate. Continue without me."

'We can't leave without you," Orihime proclaimed.

"You don't have a choice!" My voice cracked and Paulo's lips peeled back into a sadistic grin. 

"No, I'm not leaving."

"Get her out of here, Zaraki!" This was my fight and no one was getting in the way of this. 

"Can you beat him?" Ikkaku asked. 

"It'll be easier than beating you," I replied which earned me a few choice words. "The others need you more. Now get going! I'll catch up before you even realise I was missing."

There was a scuffle but I dared not break eye contact with Paulo. He raised an eyebrow at me. The sting in my leg was like I'd stepped into a fire, ebbing in waves that had me shuddering on the spot. Hollowfied liquid coated my calf but it couldn't heal around the thorns.

"This time I won't just break your nose. I'll tear you to pieces," I threatened. "Chiya, are you there?"

I was met with silence from the dragon. Well wasn't that just peachy? I ran through my options: I was low on power so Kido was out of the question, Dorangoháto was nowhere to be found, Chiya wasn't answering me.

All that left were my fists. Again. Really wished I'd brought another weapon on this trip.

Paulo raked his blade along the wall of the alley and the prongs came back wicked sharp, glinting in the sun. "I really don't see how," he said, tutting. "Can't you feel the difference in our abilities? You'd barely rank in another squad while I'm seat ten in the fifth highest division."

I stayed silent, eyes roaming our surroundings. Space enough to move but those flowers covered the ground haphazardly. I had a feeling that standing on another would trigger the same reaction and I wasn't in the mood to fall for the same trick twice.

Considering I had no way of getting out of the first one. I gave a surreptitious tug and sent a bout of roaring fire all the way to my hip. Brute force was out of the question.

"I thought Squad Five's motto had something to do with 'humility'. Funny how they let scum like you in," I said, mind whirring for ideas.

"Ah, Aizen did preach about something like that but it's really so simple these days to fake humility. Kind of like how you're trying to fake how little it hurts being in my trap."