BLEACH: The Dusk In Red

 It was night time in Sugishito city. It consisted of a busy urban intersection with multiple zebra crossings as well as significant pedestrian and vehicular traffic. It appeared to be a major city area with numerous crosswalks allowing pedestrians to move in various directions simultaneously, suggesting a pedestrian scramble. The surrounding buildings indicate a commercial district, highlighting the area's vibrant city life.

Above that intersection, traditional Japanese doors which remained invisible to the naked eye manifested and slid open. From it, Kai fell out while Kurenai quickly chased after him.

"HELP ME!"

Those were the last words he screamed as he landed on the floor face first. Yuki who was following him from behind, jumped out and landed on her feet. She was perplexed upon seeing Kai as he was able to make it to the other side without help. This curiosity would only increase, after noticing Kurenai sitting on top of him.

Before she could question the strange turn of events even more, she sensed the spiritual pressure of a hollow approaching the two.

She quickly kicked Kai in the stomach, forcing him awake.

"What the heck was that for?"

"There is a hollow coming, keep out of my way."

Kai quickly reasserted himself as he drew upon his Asauchi, declaring his will to fight.

"I'll fight too. I'm not running away from a hollow this time."

"You don't even have a Zanpakutō, you can't fight it."

The tremors from the Hollows steps grew louder and louder, signifying how close it was. At the same time, the crossing lights turned red, allowing for droves of people to begin crossing the street.

One of those people who were particularly smaller than all the rest and also wearing a noticeably pink scarf, bumped into Kai. They quickly apologised while making their way through.

"Sorry."

Kai didn't think much of it, but after thinking for a couple moments, he says,

"Did that kid just talk to me?"

Kai considered chasing them, but the thought quickly disappeared. As the hollows foot came into view. It was roughly the width of a car. Its body was humanoid, except for the fact that it was hunched back. Its height was roughly that of a medium sized office building.

Once Kai saw it, memories of his incident in the district 64, as well as his death began to flash in his mind. Paralysing him, as he kneeled to the floor. He dropped his blade to grab his heart, which was beating so loudly that even Yuki could hear it.

She looked at Kai with disgust and shame, before turning back to her opponent as she drew her own sword.

The hollow roared while Yuki kept her composure.

"Oversized big fish like you are sluggish. I will kill you in the next 5 seconds."

The hollow extended its right hand towards Yuki, which crashed against the side of a building. Even when the palm of its hand was wrapped around Yuki, she still maintained her cold gaze of constant boredom.

Kai who was watching this take place, watched as she got crushed in the Hollows grip, making him vomit.

"I'm-- next? I need to run. But that means everything up till now would've been for nothing. I need to fight!"

He grabbed his Asauchi, and rose to his two feet, with a new found resolve to kill the Hollow. But upon seeing it in it full size, he instantly fell into despair. He slowly turned around to start running, but then he caught a glimpse of multiple sword strikes flying in the air.

In an instant, the Hollows right hand exploded, revealing an unharmed Yuki.

"This isn't good enough."

She jumped on its arm, and started to run towards its mask. The Hollow tried to crush Yuki with its remaining hand, but it was instantly slashed into mince meat as well.

The Hollow roared one last time, as Yuki lands a vertical slash on its mask, splitting it in half.

"Strong.", Kai muttered to himself.

"If I was that strong, then would no one have died that day? Am I even fit to be a Soul Reaper?"

Yuki approached Kai as she looked down on him. Despite the short physical distance between the two, he could feel the immense gap between them.

"Get up. We need to look for that Soul Reaper. He should've been here by now, especially with that hollow being around. Yet even then he hasn't turned up."

Kai sheathed his Asauchi before pulling out his his Soul Pager. He tried to contact Soul Society for help, but something appeared to be blocking the signal of his Soul Pager.

"That's odd? My Soul Pager isn't working."

Yuki tried to use her own, but it was to no avail.

"We will have to find him the old fashioned way then."

She sat and crossed her legs as she meditated. She expanded the range of her Spiritual Pressure sensing capabilities to the diameter of the city, allowing her to sense the presence of every soul in Sugishito.

"He isn't here. That Shinigami isn't in this city."

"If he isn't here, then what are we supposed to do? Our Soul Pagers don't work so we can't call for help. Does that mean we're stranded here?"

Yuki pointed in a direction behind Kai.

"I sensed a strange spiritual pressure over there. It was like a hollows but it wasn't. Since we have nothing better to do, we should check it out."

Kai silently agreed. As he was now, he was of no help to Yuki, so all he could do was sit back and watch as the events unfolded.

Somewhere is Sugishito

It was midday with clear skies and sun. A field of nothing but grass and rolling hills expanded to the horizon infinitely. The only signs of civilization, was the tea table at the top of a green hill.

Around it, sat two people, a man, and a woman. There a second male however doing exercises next to the table..

One of them was a man with small stature but also lean and muscular. He had short black hair, and a rather pale complexion, however most of their mouth was covered by the collar of their trench coat.

The other male working out, was in very good shape. he was also lean and muscular, but with much more defined traits than the rest. He was good looking, and had light grey hair in a plain cut, with strand black strands poking out of it.

The woman had a very mature appearance. She was doing her make up at the table while staring deeply into her mirror.

"Do you ever stop working out, Melqart? You've been doing it since we caught that guy."

The short man, pointed towards a badly beaten unconscious Soul Reaper, laying in the grass.

"Oh leave him alone captain! A good man needs to stay in shape ya know!"

"He does it too much. He should be working with Bruno and Finger right now."

"Isn't the target a kid? It should be easy enough for them, right?"

Melqart got up from his last one handed set up and walked over to the tea table. He grabbed a bottle of water and a white towel.

"Have those two not found the target yet? This task should've been easy enough for them.", Melqart asked.

"This was to be expected," the captain said. "The target possesses fullbring abilities too, so finding them won't be easy. But when it comes to taking them out, the best combination are those two."

Melqart walked over to the near dead Soul Reaper, and picked him up. He began to use his limping body as a barbell to perform several back squats.