It's Been A While: A Dangerous Mission [Private]

the snake shot at Snopy, and he knew better than to be poisoned. Snopy had been poisoned in the past but hollow were different from actual animals. Most snakes, spiders, and other creatures had a venom nearly identical to each other, thus allowing one to develop immunity. However hollow poison could be a lot of things, so there was little chance for any immunity. He Shunpo'd to the side, the snakes fang only a centimeter off form sliding across Snopy's skin due to his motion. If that had happened, who knows. But Snopy appeared behind the snake and slammed his Zanpakutō down, cleaving off half the hollow's body. As the snake turned to attack Snopy raised his gun. Haha no. He pulled the trigger and launched out a large blast which shattered the Snake's mask. Without it's lower body it was disoriented and was unable to dodge. Snopy let out a slow "whew" sound as it faded away. Snakes, lots of fun.

He turned towards Kaminari to see how she was doing. She was fine as expected. Well, by my count there are two three, 11 hollow left. What do you want to do now? He casually placed his blade into the ground as he leaned on it a bit. He wasn't stupid, if anything even tried to come near him he could blast it in the face with his pistol, giving him enough time to respond properly. You could just jinx us again, that's always fun. He was teasing her a bit, since it did seem like a jinx. Either way, he waited for her to decide their next move.

Snopy was a little shocked at what he had heard. Kanna think's I'm a genius? Snopy blushed a little at the concept. That is quite flattering of her, but she must be exaggerating. I am by no means a genius. He said he wasn't a genius, but he really was. He could figure out just about anything and he noticed minuet details most wouldn't. However, not once in his life had he ever admitted he was a genius, nor did he have any plans on starting anytime soon. Either way, here is how I see it. The hollow are all running in the same direction. If you think you are fast enough, we could box them off. Like a sort of pincer if you would. You would go around them and attack them from the other side. Then the only choice the ones in the center could do is run off to the sides. Given that scenario, they wouldn't be able to move fast enough to avoid us in that case. Then we can just each take a side and work with it.

The problem is there is absolutely no way for us to stop them and stick together. Thankfully the closer ones are also the weaker ones, so I should be fine on my own. You can handle the others. He patted her back. If you have the speed then go for it. If not, we may as well kill what we can and then go home. So, you up for it? Snopy awaited an answer, which he figured would be a yes. Either way, his life would, as always, be difficult.

"There is no point in having power..." " I SAW THAT!" Kaminari immediately pointed at his face with a huge smile on her face. "You blushed. You can't deny it. Nope! I saw it. And usually if Kanna says something then it's true, but if that is what you wish to believe, then okay! Hahaha." Kaminari began kicking her legs back and forth over the cliff and continued looking outwards while she listened to Snopy. She thought about what he was saying and then stood up. "That doesn't sound too bad, but the bad thing is their numbers. There are eleven of them, and eleven against two is obviously in their favor. One mess up, we're dead." She picked up her Zanpakutō and held both of them tightly in her hands, the shorter in her left and the longer in their right. "Oh well..." Kaminari took in a deep breath and nodded to him, "I'll come around the front towards their left to push them into a group. Make sure that none of them escape, okay? You take the right." With that, she darted forward, shunpo'ing off to the left, moving through the forest at extremely high speeds. It was like she was almost flying through the forest, maneuvering herself through trees, bushes, and vines with ease. She made sure to keep her sense aware through out the entire thing, keeping herself alert to Snopy's location. If he remembered right, the first time they met she automatically had a protective nature of him, and that had not changed just because time had passed. She didn't want him to get hurt. "...if you have nothing to protect."

Snopy sighed as she darted off into the trees. That wasn't what you had in mind was it? Not exactly, but too late now. If we move correctly we can take out one at a time without them escaping. Too late now. Snopy began moving through the forest towards his destination. There was a single stray hollow far to the right as well, so he figured he could take it out before moving to contain the rest of the hollow.

As Snopy moved he did so along the ground. He saw absolutely no point in doing anything fancy like moving through the treetops. Mostly because that was a sheer waste of energy. As he navigated the forest, he sensed he was approaching the outermost hollow. It didn't feel overwhelmingly powerful, it seemed about on par with him. As long as he kept his wits about him it shouldn't be too difficult. He wasn't one to easily succumb to one of equal level. Suddenly he stopped, skidding across the ground to a stop. He heard the hollow's cry, which was quite loud. He stopped and listened. Snopy could hear the hollow moving around, and it was no longer running. In fact, two of the other nearby hollow seemed to be coming straight for him. Obviously they wanted the two to split up, and though Snopy had taken into account this very possibility, he separated from Kaminari none the less. He kept his spiritual output as low as possible as he felt out the situation. All three were of Vice Captain level. Due to the slight vibrations in the ground, he could tell that the one that was currently near was large in stature. The others were too far away for a reading.

He took in a deep breath. He was unsure of their speed, so running might make things worse. His best bet was to take out the nearest one before it's backup arrived. Though, he was unsure of why the nearest of the three seemed to be the only one clueless of his location. Maybe it wasn't that. Maybe because he was masking his energy the hollow knew he was near, just not exactly sure of where. He had suppressed his Shikai to the point that the usual energy on the blade was no longer there. The moment he attacked it would return though. As he came up with a plan, he wondered how Kaminari was doing.

Snopy had devised a plan of action in his head that he felt would get the desired results. He completely hid his presence, to the point he even resealed his Zanpakutō. It just wasted unneeded energy if he just left it released like that. To top it off, the nature of his Shikai made it hard to completely mask his presence when he wanted. It was an energy-type Zanpakutō, and as such gave off a lot of energy. It didn't help that the blade was constantly enveloped in it either. With it sealed, he could lower his energy to near-undetectable levels, at least for hollow such as this. Obviously these hollow didn't have the detection skills an Arrancar or Shinigami would have.

Now was the harder part, he had to be quieter than a mouse. If he could sneak up on the hollow he would be at a distinct advantage. This would allow him a first strike, if not one-hit kill. If he is able to get an advantage early on, he can finish off the hollow before his friends arrive. If he can kill the hollow in one hit, he may have time to blend back into the forest as he waited for the other 2 to arrive at the scene. He stepped over various objects. Vines, bushes, and various other things. A wind blew through his hair, which reassured him a bit. The sound of the wind through the leaves should mask any screw ups excellently.

As he slipped behind a tree he saw the hollow in a clearing. Actually the term clearing is being used loosely. The area in which the hollow stood was simply a mass of fallen trees and stumps. Why the hollow did what it did Snopy was unsure of. However, for some reason he thought a squirrel had to do with it, even though they weren't really something you found in a forest like this. Either way, the lack of sunlight was still sufficient enough. He crept up on the hollow. His movements were slow, even his breathing was brought down. Tightening the grip on his blades, he aimed for one spot. The back of the neck.

As a rather large gust of wind picked up Snopy jumped. The whistling sound of the wind through the leaves indeed masked his jump. Somehow, this hollow was completely unaware of his presence until it was far too late. Snopy's Zanpakutō both dug down into its neck, one piercing through its spinal chord. All motor functions past the neck stopped completely. It had absolutely no ability to control those parts of its body anymore. The hollow cried out as it collapsed, slowly fading out of existence.

Snopy let out a quick sigh, how he had just done that so easily was a mystery. Even with all those factors, he would have expected it to notice something. Its inability to keep watch on all flanks, had doomed it to oblivion. These very actions however, had alerted the other 2 hollow. Snopy preferred to not fight 2 hollow directly, so decided to hide. The hollow would take a bit to arrive, so Snopy debated hiding places. He decided against hiding among the fallen trees, because if one fell on him, it would be bad. Instead, he simply went behind a rather large tree. Bakudo #26, Kyokko. With these words light bent around his body. He was no longer part of the visible spectrum, to top it off he also had his Reiatsu completely masked. Now he waited for the hollow. He would only get 1 sneak attack before the fight became direct, he wanted to make it count.

"There is no point in having power..." Kaminari sensed that one of the Hollow was defeated rather quickly and smirked. She knew Snopy had done this because right after that his presence completely disappeared. At the same time this made her worry. At first there was eleven, three had been killed, and now eight more to go. The direction she was currently heading in, only a single Hollow resided, which was odd because she could have sworn that she sensed two. With the Hollows splitting up to avoid them, it was become more and more troublesome to just get rid of these nuisances. The fact that a Hollow sort of just vanished had her wary. "It has to be around here somewhere..." she thought as she got closer and closer to the Hollow that she could still sense. Finally she came into the area that the Hollow she could sense was and it seemed to be running away still. She sped up a bit and looked around to find it. She was now running on the side of a small cliff and looked down to see that it was below her on a lower level of this area. She brought up her blade and pushed herself as hard as she could from the side of the cliff and jumped over to try and land on this Hollow's head. At this exact moment, the other Hollow appeared in mid air, swinging a very large tail at her. Her eyes widened. She had no way of avoiding this, not at this close of range and it's speed combined. She barely brought her right arm down between the tail and herself to block any immense damage it could do to her torso area. Her body was sent flying forward and slammed into the wall of a mountain. The one Hollow stopped running, while another stepped out of a portal of sorts, both laughing at her. "A tasty soul! They were right... It is a Shinigami too!" Kaminari jumped back to her feet. She was all right. Her right arm was badly bruised, but she was unable to tell whether it was broken or not. She didn't care. She forced herself to continue using it anyway. Opening and closed her fist a few times, she knew she would be all right as long as she didn't take a second hit like that. "You know..." she said as she stared at her right arm, "It isn't nice to sneak up on someone like that... Although, I was about to do it to you, so I guess it's okay!" Her voice sounded just as sweet and sincere as it always did. "Well, I'm going to kill you now!" she brought up both of her swords and a more serious look came onto her face. She was ready to battle now. And seeing the look of these two Hollow, they might actually be a slight problem for her without her Shikai. The one that had been running was like a larger version of the one that hit her. They reminded her of the pictures of dinosaurs she used to look at in the library. One was the size of a raptor, but looked no different than a T-Rex. The other... Well it WAS a T-Rex. "Hehehe. I get to fight dinosaurs..... Roar!!" she thought playfully in her mind as the two began to charge. "...if you have nothing to protect."

Snopy stood and waited for the hollow to inevitably arrive. He played with all the factors, possibilities, and outcomes in his head. Once piecing everything together, he determined he had a 64.7% chance of coming out of this fight without taking any "real" damage. Soon enough, they arrived. They were both simian-like in nature, but rather large. He actually heard monkey-like noises coming from them. He said nothing out loud, but he did have a lot to say if he did. Monkeys. Giant monkeys. Snopy took a deep breath and waited for the nearest one to look in his general direction. This gave him a clean shot at its mask.

Snopy bent his knees and propelled himself with a rather powerful jump. The cloaking disappeared as he jumped, giving a bit of a window for the simian to jump out of the way. It did this very action, causing Snopy's blade to only slice into its arm. Shit. The other one used its agility and charged over, attempting to punch Snopy. Snopy jumped over the large fist, landing to the side a bit. He turned back towards them. Hadō #31, Shakkaho. He charged and launched the fireball at the nearest one, slamming it into them.

Tan'itsu no Hogo. He raised a shield as the second attempted to attack him. As he lowered it he drove his sword forward into its mask, killing it. There was no time to rest as the one that had been hit by the fireball did not die. It came in again, weaving around back and forth. This was meant to make it hard to hit, but Snopy's aim was still nothing to be laughed at. Hadō #4, Byakurai. He fired the beam, which pierced straight through the hollow's head, killing it too. Phew, that's another two down.

Stealth is impressive isn't it, especially when you've lied in wait since the beginning. Snopy's eyes widened as a fist slammed into his back and sent him into a tree. There was no way he would have missed it if the hollow had sneaked up on him. The only possible way would be if it had been there since they arrived. Sitting motionless with its energy cloaked. As Snopy got back up, there was a sharp pain in his back. However, he switched personality modes in an instant and all emotion just left his face. A good strategy to be sure. However, your greatest mistake will be not killing me with such an attack. I assure you, this mistake will be your last. His personality was calm, calculating, and disturbingly cold. Though he was not a fan of this personality, it gave him a boost to his ability to keep up with every last possibility in a battle. It would be rather hard to fool him, and with his intelligence, even this captain level hollow would have problems defeating him. Snopy figured he would be fine as long as this hollow wasn't too intelligent himself. The fact was, the hollow should have finished off Snopy sooner for its own sake.