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  Chapter 19: The Unknown I

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  Akashi had only taken a few steps beyond the Creed’s headquarters when his instincts screamed at him to stop.

  Leaping back, Akashi nded lightly on a rooftop, his sharp eyes scanning the streets below.

  He could feel it; an unfamiliar and overwhelming sense of malice that seemed to creep into the air like poison, the malice feeling clearer than ever to him due to Kurayami.

  "Who?" Akashi muttered under his breath, his voice calm despite the tension gripping his muscles.

  From the shadows of the alley below emerged a figure. Dressed in the standard bck Shinigami uniform, the man wore a white porcein mask, featureless except for a pair of slits for eyes.

  The mask reflected the dim light, giving him an eerie, almost spectral appearance.

  The man exuded killing intent, his spiritual pressure oppressive and sharp like a bde pressed against Akashi's throat.

  "Akashi," The masked Shinigami said, his voice cold and devoid of emotion, "You will follow me. Now."

  Akashi tilted his head slightly, his inky bck eyes narrowing, "And who exactly? Do I know you?"

  The masked man didn’t respond immediately, but his silence was ced with disdain.

  When he finally spoke, it was with the arrogance of someone who expected obedience without question, "You don’t need to know who I am. Just follow. Or die."

  Akashi didn’t move. He remained perched on the rooftop, his hand resting on the hilt of his Zanpakuto.

  His posture was mild, almost rexed, but his mind was racing.

  Who sent him? Could it be Aizen? No… this is too crude for his methods. But maybe It's him? I don't really understand him... Why?

  Akashi was genuinely confused. How is he attracting so much attention without doing much? He isn't even very talented.

  "Why are you so rude?" Akashi asked, his tone that of puzzlement, "You leave me no choice but to decline."

  The masked man took a step forward, his spiritual pressure fring dangerously, "I wasn’t asking. I’m giving you one st chance. Come with me, or you’ll regret it."

  Akashi chuckled, a smile emerging on his face, "So foolish. I might regret disobeying you, but I know I'll regret listening to someone reeking so much darkness, especially someone so rude for no reason."

  The man’s patience snapped. With a flicker of movement, he was gone, reappearing in front of Akashi with his bde already drawn, sshing downward.

  Akashi barely managed to block, Kurayami’s edge catching the strike at an awkward angle.

  The force of the blow sent him sliding backward across the rooftop, his feet digging into the tiles to steady himself.

  Fast. Very Fast.

  The masked man wasted no time, pressing the attack with a series of rapid, precise strikes.

  Akashi deflected and dodged, his movements just barely keeping pace with the onsught.

  His opponent’s Zanjutsu was undeniably better, much better, and so was his fsh step or shunpo.

  The masked man was experienced and had likely been a Shinigami for a significant time, while Akashi had yet to even graduate.

  Akashi ducked under a horizontal ssh, pivoting on his heel to create distance.

  Akashi lunged forward again, his movements wild and unpredictable. He swung Kurayami in a wide arc, aiming for the man’s neck.

  The masked Shinigami blocked the strike effortlessly, but Akashi was already moving, driving his knee into the man’s stomach.

  The blow nded, but the man barely reacted, grabbing Akashi’s wrist and twisting it painfully.

  Akashi grunted in pain, but instead of pulling away, he twisted with the motion, smming his head into the man’s mask.

  The crack echoed through the alley as both fighters staggered back.

  Akashi’s forehead bled profusely, the skin split open from the force of the impact.

  But the masked Shinigami’s helmet now bore a spiderweb fracture, a testament to Akashi’s merciless fighting style.

  Akashi followed quickly by raising his free hand, muttering under his breath, "Bakudo #9: Geki."

  A red light enveloped the masked man, paralyzing him for a split second. The fact that the man was still dazed from the previous csh helped, but a spell of such level wouldn't do much against him.

  Thus why Akashi acted fast as a split second was all the time he needed. He lunged forward, sshing at the man’s thigh. The bde cut deep, drawing a pained grunt from the Shinigami.

  The paralysis broke almost immediately, and the man retaliated with a vicious backhand that sent Akashi flying back, the tter not doing much to stop it, using its force to retreat.

  Blood poured from a gash on his cheek where the man’s knuckles had split the skin, and his head ached like hell, but Akashi didn’t stop.

  He couldn't, not when the angry man fshed to him, his aura sinister as if he sought to boil him alive.

  Therefore, Akashi quickly Rolled to his feet, scooped up a handful of dirt, and hurled it into the quickly approaching man’s face.

  The masked Shinigami flinched, momentarily blinded, and Akashi capitalized, sshing toward the man's neck.

  Only, much like the dirt blinded him for a split second, the ssh only left a slight wound on the masked man's arm as the tter reacted quickly and guarded his neck with his arm.

  It was mostly a battle of Reiatsu, and Akashi was losing for his opponent was just that much stronger than him.

  If your Reiatsu is overwhelmingly stronger than your opponent, then you just stand there, and most things they do would be futile.

  Fortunately for Akashi, the man wasn't that much stronger than him, thus the man's reaction to his arm bleeding, "Fight fair, you coward!" The man roared, wiping the dirt from his eyes.

  Akashi ignored his shouts, not responding at all, too busy catching his breath for fairness was never something he agreed to.

  The battle devolved into a brutal, bloody exchange. Akashi fought like a cornered animal, every movement calcuted to exploit his opponent’s weaknesses.

  He used every dirty trick he could think of; feigned injuries, surprise attacks, even tearing shards of wood from the broken rooftop and throwing them like makeshift daggers.

  The masked Shinigami was relentless, his strikes carving deep gouges into Akashi’s flesh.

  But Akashi didn’t falter. Pain was nothing to him; seemingly treating his body as merely a tool, a vessel to achieve victory.

  He used it ruthlessly, uncaring of the damage it sustained, as long as he stood tall at the end.

  Yet even Akashi's desperate struggle did little as eventually, the man’s bde sshed across Akashi’s chest, leaving a deep, bleeding wound.

  Akashi, however, was able to react, or rather, he allowed the ssh to happen, knowing that it wouldn't end him, using the momentum of the strike to spin around and drive his elbow into the man’s ribs.

  The force of the spin allowed him to revolve just a little bit more so as to allow his bde to barely ssh the man's face, the tter having reacted fast enough to leap back.

  The ssh wasn't fatal, but it was more than enough to not only completely split open his fractured mask, but also leave a line of blood on his face.

  The man leaped back, his hand holding onto his face, feeling the blood trickling down his skin... Rage and anger ensued.

  Akashi’s vision blurred, the blood loss and pain taking their toll. Yet his mind remained sharp, and he could acutely capture the man's expression.

  The man seemed to be in shock but also enraged, and hesitant. There seemed to be killing intent in his eyes, but something else was holding it back.

  Indeed, despite the maliciousness clearly surrounding him, Akashi never really felt like the man wanted to kill him, but more so catch him and take him somewhere.

  It seemed that finally, exhaustion had caught up to him as Akashi staggered back, his breathing growing ragged and his posture slumped. The Shinigami took the bait, seeking to release his anger as he rushed forward, his strike more ruthless than before with the intention of putting Akashi to his st breath.

  At the st second, however, Akashi dropped to one knee, raising his free hand, "Hado #33: Sokatsui!"

  The bst of blue fire caught the man off guard, striking him square in the chest and sending him flying back.

  The Kido spell is the highest Akashi knows, not because he mastered all the ones before it, but simply because it appealed to him, thus he tried to master it despite the difficulty... It paid off.

  The masked crashed into a wall, his breathing bored, stunned yet again.

  It seemingly perplexed him how someone so much weaker could leave him in such a state.

  No, he knows why. The man before him is a beast, a monster with no honor nor limits for what he would do. Dirty Tricks seemed to be his middle name.

  "I... I have never wanted to kill someone more, but no, you'll live, and I'll take my time making you wish for death!" The man growled, pushing himself to his feet.

  Akashi caught his breath, feeling blood running down every part of his body, and discerning the sticky touch of his inky hair, now painted red.

  Akashi blinked, hearing the man's words, then eyeing him strangely, and simply said, "Idiot."

  He knew exactly how to push the man's buttons, driving the person so enraged that the Shinigami held his bde tighter and roared, "Shikai!"