Darkness

Chapter Nine

The alarm screamed throughout Seireitei even as the explosion in the distance continued to rumble. Toushiro and Matsumoto immediately stood up, knowing that something terrible had happened.

"Matsumoto, organize the division, I'm going to go find out whats going on!" Toushiro yelled.

"Wait sir, we have a message!" Matsumoto said, pointing as a hell butterfly flew in and landed on her outstretched figure. It flapped its wings several times before flying off again.

"What did it say? What happened?" Toushiro asked urgently.

"A portion of the wall surrounding Seireitei has collapsed sir! Several hundred hollow including at least ten Menos Grande have been sighted entering through the gap!"

"What? That's impossible! The wall cannot be broken, it is physically impossible!" Toushiro said in shock.

"Well we can ask questions later, we have to go stop them now!" Matsumoto said. Toushiro nodded.

"Divide the shinigami in our division into two groups! Have one stay to guard the division grounds and the other join the fight! I'll go on ahead, get moving!" Toushiro yelled, running out to join the battle.

--

Nelani gave squeak of surprise upon hearing the explosion, dropping the paperwork she was carrying all over the floor. She ran to the nearest window, and looked out to see a huge cloud of smoke coming from the closest portion of the wall surrounding Seireitei. Moments later an alarm went off, blaring throughout the building and making Nelani cover her ears. She knew that alarm, it sounded when Seireitei was under immediate attack. A hell butterfly fluttered in and landed on her finger. Nelani's eyes widened as she listened to the message.

As her mind attempted to comprehend what was going on, Nelani's feet took her running throughout the Fifth Division. She instinctively gave orders to the Shinigami in the division, telling some to guard the division and others to go to the battle zone. Although she voiced herself in a confident manner, inside she was confused and unsure of what to do. Vice-captain Hinamori had told her that she had urgent business to take care of, and left the division in Nelani's care. She couldn't have chosen a worse time.

Nelani wished that Momo were here. She was a far stronger, braver, and smarter person than Nelani was. Momo had greatly helped Nelani to gain confidence and become stronger, but she still felt helpless and weak in these situations. She was afraid that she would mess things up and hurt the division. She worried that she herself might get hurt. But most of all, she was afraid of dissapointing her Vice-captain. Momo had entrusted her with the care of the division, and if she allowed something to happen to it in her absence, she would surely be dissapointed in her. Nelani idolized Momo, and the thought of letting her down was too much to bear. She hoped that Momo would come back soon, but knew that she had to take command of things herself quickly before they got out of hand.

Nelani had no idea what to do. Should she devote her troops to defending the Division grounds, or should she send them all into battle? She tried to split the troops into groups to perform each task, but that led to the Division being under-guarded and the force to enter the battle undermanned. Knowing that this was the best she could do on her own, Nelani led the Shinigami towards the battle that she knew was about to take place.

--

Toushiro shunpoed to the site of the collapsed wall. The dust was beginning to settle, revealing the Hollows that were behind it. From the distance, he could see that there were several menos grande, as well as huge hollows that were the height of buildings. He could see Shinigami pouring into the battle zone, preparing to fight the hollows. They might be able to stop some of the smaller hollows, but it would take seated officers to defeat the menos.

Leaping from building to building, he finally reached the battle. The menos let out roars as they slowly lumbered in. The smaller hollows meanwhile surged in, overwhelming the shinigami who were fighting them. Toushiro ran into battle, drawing Hyourinmaru. He leapt off a building towards a huge hollow that was fighting several Shinigami.

"Set upon the frosted heavens, Hyourin-" He suddenly stopped in mid-air, blocked by an invisible force. Moments later, he felt a powerful shock go through his body, throwing him back onto one of the nearby buildings. He shakily stood up, still feeling the effects of the shock. What on earth had happened? He extended his finger.

"Hado number four, White Lightning," he said. An intense blast of lighting came from his fingertip. Once it reached the point where he had been repelled, the lighting suddenly stopped, as if hitting an invisible wall. Toushiro's eyes narrowed. What the hell was going on? There were other Shinigami that were going past the point that he had been blocked, why was he unable to get through?

Toushiro leapt to the ground and walked to where the barrier was. He cautiously put his hand up to where the barrier was. Upon touching it, a powerful shock went through his hand and he hurriedly withdrew it. He went back to the top of the building to observe the battle. There were numerous shinigami, but no captains or lieutenants. The Menos were beginning to use cero blasts, and the Shinigami were becoming unable to hold back the advance.

"Captain, what are you doing? Why are you just standing there?"

Toushiro looked around to see Matsumoto standing behind him.

"There's a barrier, I can't get in," Toushiro explained.

"What? But there are lots of others shinigami fighting!" Matsumoto said.

"Well I can't get through, the barrier must only repel shinigami with high reiatsu," Toushiro said.

"Let me try," Matsumoto said, jumping towards the barrier. As soon as she reached it, she was stopped in mid-air and given a powerful shock, throwing her backwards.

"Okay, I believe you," Matsumoto said as she shakily stood up, "But what do we do? The lower ranked troops can't handle those things on their own!"

"I don't know. This doesn't make any sense. How was that wall destroyed? How is this barrier here? What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know Captain, but we need to figure something out soon or all the Shinigami down there are dead meat!"

"Captain Hitsugaya! Vice-captain Matsumoto!" a voice called behind them . They turned around to see Nelani running towards them, a panicked look on her face.

"Sir, a barrier has been detected repelling everyone of high reiatsu," she said quickly, "The other captains and Vice-captains are all here and none of them can get in except for Omaeda, and he ran out immediately."

"We already figured that out, but have the other captains figured out something that we can actually do?" Toushiro asked.

"N-no sir, the barrier is extremely well made. A team from the Kido-Corps is trying to break through, but they have had little luck."

"Wait a minute, that's it!" Matsumoto exclaimed, "Nelani, your zanpakuto is Kido-based, right?"

"Right…" Nelani said nervously.

"Well if you focused enough Kido energy through your zanpakuto, you might be able to break through the barrier!" Matsumoto said.

"But ma'am, I'm not strong enough! I can't do something that big, it's beyond my level!"

Toushiro walked over to face Nelani. She was only a few inches taller than him, so he was able to look her directly in the eye.

"Nelani, you trained directly under Momo Hinamori, one of the greatest Kido masters in Seireitei. You greatly underestimate yourself. I'm not saying that you'll definitely be able to take down the barrier, but you need to at least try," he said. Nelani froze for a second before nodding. She jumped down to the ground level so that she was right in front of the barrier. She put a hand to it, quickly withdrawing it after getting a shock from it. She drew her zanpakuto and held it in front of her, taking a deep breath.

"Squeak, Kanashii Seijaku!" Nelani said. Her zanpakuto glowed blue for a second before giving off a bright flash. When the light subsided, Nelani's zanpakuto was revealed.

It was now in the form of two thin katanas side by side, blades facing away from eachother. There was a gap of just under an inch between them. They were connected at the bottom for the first several inches, as well as an area near the top about four inches from the tip. This gave it the appearance of having a hollowed out center.

The gap in the center began filling with soft blue light as Nelani charged it with energy. She thrust it forward, releasing the energy into the barrier. She felt immediate resistance from it, but kept focusing the energy, knowing that the battle was lost if she was unable to break this barrier. She could feel the energy from the barrier trying to shock her and push her back, but she held her ground. She concentrated as hard as she could, forcing energy against the barrier.

Finally, just as she thought she could go on no more, there was a loud cracking sound. A break formed in the barrier. For a moment, the entire barrier lit up in a flash of golden light, only to wink out moments later.

"She did it!" Matsumoto cried, rushing forward to join the battle. Toushiro ran forward as well, going into the rubble of the destroyed buildings. There were cheers as the captains joined the battle. Nelani shakily stood up and watched as the captains went in to fight.

Toushiro quickly defeated several huge hollows without even releasing his zanpakuto. Byakuya Kuchiki released Senbonzakura, using the petal-blades to wipe out dozens of hollows in an instant. Kenpachi Zaraki was rapidly cutting through hollows, a manic grin on his face. Komamura slashed through the waves of hollow, his large zanpakuto often taking out several hollow in one swing. Ukitake and Kyouraku fought together, fighting with their twin blades and mowing through the hollows.

Nelani watched in awe as the captains began defeating the hollows one after another. They had even begun taking out the menos with relative ease. As she thought this, a shadow loomed over her. She looked up to see a huge hollow standing above her. Nelani gave a squeak of fright upon seeing the massive hollow, but she immediately raised her zanpakuto to fight. A ball of energy formed in the gap at the tip of the blade, and moments later an energy beam was released, shearing the hollow in two as she swung her blade upwards. She breathed a sigh of relief and saw that thanks to the captains the hollows were nearly all defeated, with only a few individuals left to be defeated.

Noticing that the captains were all standing near the wall had collapsed, Nelani immediately went there. Upon arriving, she was surprised to see that there was no rubble from the wall. Indeed, the wall itself was fine except for a portion of it that was missing. What was going on? She knew that the wall kept up as a defense, and that it could be taken down at times, but she'd never heard of a single section of wall coming down. Perhaps there had been a malfunction in the system that raised and lowered the walls. But then how did the hollows suddenly attack all at once? How had all of this happened?

As the captains were talking they suddenly stopped and looked up into the sky. Nelani looked over in the direction they were facing but didn't see anything. She felt a strange sense of foreboding.

"Scatter!" Toushiro suddenly yelled. The captains jumped away just as a blast of energy hit the place that they had been standing. Nelani covered her eyes to block out the dust from the explosion. Suddenly there was another explosion behind her, this one knocking her to the ground. There then another explosion, this one further away. Another went off, and another. There were shouts of panic, shinigami ran away. Captains issued frantic orders, Nelani shakily stood up.

She then saw the cause of the explosions. Blasts of red energy were coming from one of the tall towers at the center of Seireitei. Nelani immediately recognized it as Kido, but she didn't have time to think of the implications of it as a blast of the white lightning Kido spell suddenly hit near her. She ran from the spell as it strafed the battlefield, catching several shinigami in its path. There were more blasts of red energy, occasionally interspersed by shots of white lightning. Nelani ran and took cover near a partially broken building.

Suddenly there was a massive rush of yello light that hit the a short distance away from her, creating a massive blast that leveled several buildings and threw Nelani against the one she was hiding under. Groaning, she soon passed out.

Thanks for reading! Thank you to shortchannel4, Plushietiger, Merciless Ruby, Assault Godzilla, Ryo Muang, Momo21, Siroi Lily, SunsetRainbow, and Fourpeg! Tell me what you thought of Nelani's zanpakuto. Please review!