Just a heads-up: Rangiku will be applying her zanpakutō's power in a rather nasty way in this battle.
"You are holding back," Poww accused his enemy. "You cannot defeat me as you are, so you might as well show me what power you are hiding."
Out of habit and stubborn contrariness, Ikkaku almost denied the large Arrancar's words. But then he remembered Sasakibe, and how he had remained a lieutenant for centuries despite his possession of a second release. And so the shaven warrior concluded that at long last, he could fight without holding back at all. This was going to be fun.
"Well, if you want to see it so badly," the Third Seat replied, and his grin spread into maniacal levels as he shouted, "BANKAI!"
Despite the explosion of spiritual energy occurring, Poww stood unflinching at the second release.
"Ryūmon Hōzukimaru!"
Rejuvenated by the exponential increase of reiatsu, Ikkaku stood confident, despite the bruises that still lay scattered across his skin. However, unlike the last time he unleashed Bankai, his weapon was broken; the chains which connected the three blades were still severed from his final clash with Edrad, the central axe blade was cracked on one side. It seemed like a single hit could separate the guan dao from its handle. The only part of Ryūmon Hōzukimaru which seemed intact was the monk's spade. Despite the battered condition of his weapon, Ikkaku stood firm, his posture begging the behemoth to continue the fight.
"Is that it?" Poww asked, clearly unimpressed.
"That's it," Ikkaku grinned. "My Bankai."
"I'm disappointed," the Arrancar said. "I had expected this secret of yours to be more potent."
"It'll be enough to kill you," the battle-hungry bruiser boasted.
With that declaration, he leapt into the air and thrust his monk's spade forward. Poww calmly raised his fist to block the blade, but to his surprise, the Bankai cut into his hand between his two middle knuckles. His hierro prevented it from splitting his hand in two, but the damage was done nevertheless.
Poww quickly pulled his arm back before Ikkaku could deepen the cut, and examined his injury.
"So, you can finally cut through my hierro," the cetacean Arrancar noted calmly as he looked at the gushing wound on his fist. "Not bad."
"I'm just getting started," Ikkaku cackled, and charged forward once again with his oversized blades. Poww attempted to block each strike with his arms, as he had before the shinigami had gone Bankai, but to no avail; his skin no longer afforded him protection against the shinigami's sword, and his reliance on bulk and durability meant he could not dodge the assault.
With a great deal of effort, Poww jumped back long enough to give himself a breather. Ikkaku sensed that the fight was about to taken to the next level, and so honored the unwritten rules of a one-on-one fight and let him.
"Congratulations, Madarame Ikkaku," the Fraccion said. "I will employ my Resurreccion to defeat you."
From his sleeve, Poww pulled out a katana still sheathed in his scabbard; it seemed ludicrously Lilliputian in his Brobdingnagian hands. He drew the blade out and declared, "Breathe, Calderon."
Ikkaku's eyes bulged as he witnessed his enemy rapidly growing to a ridiculous size. When Poww had finally finished expanding his size, he looked like he could actually look down on Sōkyoku Hill.
The shaven fighter recovered with a grin and shouted loud enough for the kaiju to hear him, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"
Once again, Ikkaku launched into the air and thrust his oversized blade forward. His blow managed to connect somewhere on the behemoth's belly, and to his satisfaction, red stained his massive Bankai once again. He could still make the Arrancar bleed.
"How bothersome," a deep rumble more felt than heard reached Ikkaku's ears, and he looked up in panic to realize that proportionally, he had done about as much damage as a splinter. While Ryūmon Hōzukimaru still allowed him to slice through the titan's skin, the size difference between the two meant that even the deepest gash he could inflict was nothing more than a paper cut to Poww. But it would only take one hit from the monster to kill the Third Seat. Maybe if he started cutting at the Arrancar's ankles, and then worked his way up…
Ikkaku's thoughts were cut short as one of Poww's fists swung far too close for comfort. The punch missed the Third Seat by a narrow margin, but the wind picked up by the kaiju's blow still forced Ikkaku off his feet and sent him flying through the air, and a solid impact informed him that he had crashed into the pavement.
"If every Bankai is as weak as yours," Ikkaku heard Poww taunt, "then they will all be easily crushed under my feet."
He looked up and saw the gargantuan fist descending towards his broken body. But before the determined fighter could react, Komamura appeared in front of him and intercepted the blow. The fist was larger than the captain's entire body, yet he still stood his ground against the giant's punch.
As Ikkaku stared at Komamura's act of herculean strength, he felt himself grabbed by the back of his shihakusho. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Iba dragging him away from the two combatants.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Ikkaku protested. "I haven't won my fight yet!"
"You protected the pillar long enough for us to arrive and take your place," Iba told the Third Seat. "You can count that as a win."
"Oh, come on! I was just warming up! I could've beaten him!"
"If the amount of damage you inflicted on him is any indicator, then it would've taken several weeks, and our schedule says the battle must be won today."
Ikkaku finally twisted himself out of Iba's grip and faced him. "And you think you guys can beat that overgrown fatso by yourselves?"
"Not me," the Seventh's lieutenant responded calmly, and pointed towards the battle in question. "Komamura-taichō."
The second strongest man in the Eleventh glanced over and did a double take at the sight of Kojukō Tengen Myō-ō standing at eye level with the colossal Arrancar. It did not take even five minutes for the canine captain to dispose of the uppity giant.
"Komamura-taichō's Bankai is leagues beyond yours," Iba said.
"Okay, yeah fine, the battle finished faster that way," Ikkaku admitted with a grumble. "But for the record, I could have still beaten him… it just would've taken a little longer."
"Duly noted," the other man smiled wryly.
Rangiku and Hinamori stood side by side, their hands at their zanpakutō's handles, as they faced the three female Fraccion, each one glaring at the two lieutenants with varying levels of open hostility.
The elder woman shifted her eyes so she could see the Espada standing some distance away. She appeared to be content to observe the fight, but that did not mean she would not intervene if the tide of the battle turned against her underlings.
"Hinamori," Rangiku murmured to her friend. "I'll need to you to keep your distance for now."
"What do you mean?" the brunette asked.
"I can take care of these three by myself," the Third's lieutenant explained. "But I need you to watch my back, in case the Espada over there decides to take advantage of an opening."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Hinamori asked.
Rangiku nodded. "I just don't want to hit you accidentally; I told you about Haineko's abilities, didn't I?"
The Fifth's ranking officer stilled for the briefest moment, but quickly recovered and nodded in agreement at the other woman's words.
"Hey, are you two done whispering?" the heterochromatic Arrancar girl shouted.
Without bothering with a response, Hinamori disappeared in a buzz of shunpo. The two more active of the Fraccion snapped their heads around to discern the location of their missing opponent.
"There you are!" the woman yelled again as she caught sight of Hinamori standing far off. She was about to launch herself forward when she heard the shinigami who had remained behind declare, "Growl, Haineko!"
The three Fraccion turned their heads towards their more immediate opponent just in time to see a cloud of ash enclose upon them.
"She's mocking us," Rangiku heard a muffled growl from inside the cloud. "This sand can't hurt us any!"
An invitation if she ever heard one. The lieutenant gave a swing of her hilt, and there were two cries of surprise. Odds were that the cloud had scratched all three of them, but that one girl seemed too reticent to vocalize her pain over a few cuts. Well, those cuts were going to be the least of their worries within the next few minutes.
Rangiku flicked her left wrist once, and the cloud of ash spun itself into a tornado. The small particles of her blades accelerated to speeds exceeding a hundred kilometers an hour, which allowed the millions of tiny shards to easily slice through the Arrancars' hierro. This was proven by the louder and more definitive exclamations of pain coming from two of her opponents.
A rise of reiatsu and the changing color of her cyclone alerted Rangiku to three Ceros being formed by her adversaries. The lieutenant leapt out of the way in time to avoid the tricolor attack, and landed on a nearby roof. Just as she stood up, she saw that the Ceros had also managed to dissipate the cloud, and given the Fraccion an opportunity to escape.
Now, the three women were standing in the air above and around her, in a triangular position surrounding her. They were not unscathed by the attacks of the ash tornado; they all sported torn clothes and abrasions over their bodies which stood testimony that Haineko's claws had indeed reached them.
"Did you really think that would kill us?" the Amazonian warrior asked arrogantly.
"Any last words?" the horned woman jeered with a haughty smirk.
Despite being surrounded three to one, Rangiku was unperturbed.
"You are all already dead," she informed them somberly.
"What kind of big talk is that?" the deer-like Arrancar demanded, her smirk instantly gone.
"My zanpakutō, Haineko, dissolves into a cloud of ash once she's released," Rangiku explained. "Do you truly understand that statement?"
"Yeah, you got a fluffy cloud as your weapon," the leonine woman sneered. "We are completely terrified."
The lieutenant ignored the taunt and continued, "An ash cloud is normally produced by a volcano upon eruption, and is made of small particles of exploded rock too small to be seen."
"You claim that your zanpakutō has the power of a volcano?" The green-haired Fraccion asked skeptically. "How arrogant."
"In a way, I suppose you could say that's true," Rangiku gave a brief, mirthless smirk. "Obviously, my cloud of ash is made of metal instead of rock, but you don't really seem to grasp the significance yet: the cloud of ash, which is under my control, surrounded the three of you for several seconds. Each individual particle of my sword is too tiny to be seen, so you obviously didn't realize that while I was attacking you, you were also inhaling my zanpakutō."
The three Fraccion froze in terror.
"No way!" the odd-eyed woman shouted in panic as she held a hand to her chest. "You're bluffing! If that's true, then why didn't you kill us before?!"
"If you had not hesitated to attack while surrounding me, I would have," Rangiku replied. "But since you were nice enough to let me have 'last words,' I thought it only decent to let you know what killed you."
She flicked her wrist, and with the same command that had summoned the ash tornado, she ordered the small pockets of tiny blades stored in the lungs of her three opponents to move into action.
From her position some distance away, Hinamori went green at the sight of three ash clouds shredding the Hollows' chests from the inside out. While she was combat experienced, she was not battle hardened to the point where she could dismiss such bloody sights out of hand.
Firmly commanding her stomach to quarantine its contents, Hinamori forced her eyes away from the macabre scene to check on how the Espada was doing.
In one glance, the sight of three Arrancar girls being eviscerated seemed a more comforting scene by comparison.
The Espada was unnaturally still, her eyes wide as she witnessed the deaths of her subordinates. Even from this distance, Hinamori recognized the pain in the enemy woman's expression; it was the pain she herself had felt when she saw Aizen's body impaled on the wall in the Seireitei. Even though these enemies were Arrancar, evolved Hollows, it seemed this woman genuinely cared about her Fraccion. And Rangiku had just killed all three of them in a cold and brutal manner. The Espada was no longer considering this as an impersonal battle; it was now a vendetta.
Rangiku was in deep trouble.
Unlike her husband, Rangiku was not unaffected by the battlefield's gore. She managed to school her expression, but she still felt nauseated by the fruit of her actions. She was thankful that the three corpses dissolved into spiritual particles soon after they died, so she would not be forced to see their bloodied, hollowed out chests any longer than she had to. This was why using Haineko to attack from inside the enemy's body was never her favorite tactic, but she had trained with Gin enough to realize that it was the most efficient option available. The less amount of energy expended on the lower ranks like Fraccion, the more energy she had to spare on the Espada and the traitor captains.
Speaking of which…
Rangiku looked over her shoulder to check on the Espada's position. The woman was still standing there, although now there were waves of rage radiating off her body. Then she disappeared.
With a slight pop, the Espada appeared in front of her. Rangiku brought her ash cloud around herself in preparation for the next attack.
"You shinigami are stronger than I thought you would be," the Espada told her opponent, that calm voice contrasted with the stormy seas within her eyes. "You killed my Fraccion in one move."
"There's this lesson we teach at the Third Division," Rangiku replied. "War is ugly and horrific, and so we should seek to end it as soon as possible."
"Indeed," the Espada agreed, and raised her right hand. She extended her index finger and hooked it through a ring on the hilt of her sword. "It seems I will need my blade to end this fight quickly."
With that declaration, the blonde Arrancar drew her sword and pointed it at Rangiku.
The Third Division's lieutenant readied her ash cloud, and subtly moved her eyes around to discern Hinamori's whereabouts.
"Your comrade is gone," the Espada said, taking note of Rangiku's glances. "She fled when she saw that I was approaching."
Rangiku narrowed her eyes at her opponent. She knew that Hinamori had not really abandoned her, but if the Arrancar assumed that she was only facing one opponent, then Rangiku did not see any reason to disillusion her. Besides, there was a more appropriate response to Halibel's words.
A swing of her hilt, and Haineko pounced upon the Espada.
The cloud surrounded the blonde woman, and repeated the assault that had been laid on the Fraccion just minutes before.
And just like before, the ash cloud was blown away, this time by a single golden Cero.
Rangiku grimaced at the sight before her. While the Espada's clothes had been shredded in places, and the skin lying underneath was a lighter shade from the scourging, but it remained unbroken. But what was even more unfortunate was that now that jacket had been torn away, she could see that the lower half of the woman's face was shielded by the remnants of her Hollow Mask.
"Well, that's not fair," the lieutenant remarked calmly. With the bony structure protecting her nose and mouth, Rangiku did not have a way to get an easy victory like she had with the three Fraccion.
"I suppose it is only courteous that I tell you my name," the Espada said. "I am Tier Halibel, the Tres Espada. What is your name, you who slew my Fraccion?"
"Ichimaru Rangiku, the lieutenant of the Third Division," she replied.
"Prepare yourself, Ichimaru-fukutaichō."
With her warning declared, the empty space within the Espada's blade glowed gold with reiatsu. Rangiku immediately called Haineko to act as a shield against whatever Halibel's next move would be, and just in time; the instant after the ash cloud had come to her side, the Espada appeared in front of her with her blade ready to slash.
With only a millisecond to react, Rangiku flash-stepped away from the impending attack. She reappeared several meters away to Halibel's left, and Rangiku continued to fly backwards to gain some distance between her and the stronger opponent.
The shark-woman immediately turned towards the lieutenant's position and rocketed towards her target sword first.
Rangiku swung her hilt, and sent Haineko at the approaching Espada. Her view of her enemy was briefly obscured as the cloud enveloped Halibel, but a yellow vertical line signaled that the enemy woman had slashed her sword down the middle of the cloud, giving her a clear shot at the lieutenant once more.
In that moment when the Espada's blade was down, Rangiku pounced. She reversed her momentum, and flew directly at her opponent. Sea-green eyes widened at the sight of her target changing directions so suddenly, which gave Rangiku her opening. A call to Haineko summoned a small puff of ash to her hand, and just as she reached the Espada, she shoved that small cloud into her enemy's face. While Halibel's nose and mouth were protected by the mask, her eyes were not.
The Espada released a hiss of pain as the tiny particles of metal assaulted her eyes, and she squeezed her eyelids shut. But like getting sand caught in one's eyes, the ash was not so easily evicted.
Rangiku was about to exploit her opening when Halibel's left arm snapped out and grabbed her right wrist in an adamantine grip. She let out her own pained hiss as the other woman's grip tightened and instinctively twisted her arm so that it pushed against Halibel's thumb, the weakest part of the hand. In most cases, the strength of the arm was enough to push back the thumb and to allow the captive freedom.
Not so here; since Halibel was fighting blind now, she was determined to keep her grip on her enemy. Not wasting her opportunity, she twisted her right wrist so that her blade now faced upwards, and swung it up at her captive.
"Rikujōkōrō!"
Six beams of light slammed into the Espada's waist, preventing her from gutting Rangiku, and both combatants searched for the caster, one by sight, the other by Pesquisa.
Coming in from Rangiku's right side, Hinamori charged with Tobiume already released and raised high.
Still blind, the Arrancar managed to react nevertheless. Since her reiatsu levels were so much higher than the brunette's Halibel was able to overcome the paralysis induced by the Rikujōkōrō enough to point her sword at the incoming girl, and declared, "Ola Azul."
The zanpakutō glowed yellow, and fired off a bullet of reiatsu not dissimilar to a Bala. Hinamori just managed to sidestep the attack, but her momentum had been lost. Before the aquatic fighter could form another attack, Rangiku grabbed the Espada's right hand and pulled upwards. Taken off guard, Halibel was no longer able to counter the new girl's charge.
Hinamori finally appeared beside the two combatants, and prepared to bring her zanpakutō down on the Arrancar's left arm, in order to free her friend from the enemy's grip.
Some instinct served to warn the Espada of her peril. To prevent amputation, Halibel quickly released Rangiku's wrist and blindly slammed her forearm into Hinamori's solar plexus. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her and sent her flying backwards several meters.
The instant she felt her sword hand free, Rangiku brought up her legs and planted a kick into her adversary's gut, using the momentum to fly away from the Espada.
Righting herself after stopping at a safe distance from her opponent, Rangiku grimaced as she tried to use Haineko's hilt; the Espada's grip had sprained her right wrist badly. She took the zanpakutō into her left hand and gave it a couple of experimental swings. They were not as refined or controlled as when she used her right hand, but it would have to do for now.
She looked over at Hinamori's position to see her regaining her footing. A glance at the Espada showed that she had just finished breaking the bakudō restraining her, and so was ready to enter the fight once more.
Halibel glanced in the direction of the new arrival, and Rangiku feared that she would go after the weaker girl first. But then the Espada's gaze returned to her first target, and Rangiku knew that the Arrancar woman still wished vengeance for the death of her Fraccion.
Rangiku brought her hilt up in preparation for the inevitable attack. Just as expected, Halibel pushed off and sped towards her prey.
And then she just stopped.
Rangiku blinked in surprise at her opponent's sudden lack of movement. A moment later, red wires appeared around the Espada, revealing that they had snared her within their web.
Before either woman could react, Hinamori flash-stepped next to Rangiku, and swept out Tobiume to one side. The pronged blade struck something solid, a moment later shown to be a red wire attached to the brunette's arm badge. The wire ignited, and it continued to burn up the rest of the web which Halibel was trapped in.
Rangiku only had a moment to admire Hinamori's handiwork before the latter pulled her down and instructed, "Brace yourself!"
An instant later, a massive explosion erupted behind them, and nearly knocked them off their spiritually solidified air platforms, and rendered Rangiku nearly deaf.
After the initial shockwave had passed, Hinamori once again pulled at Rangiku's arm, and spoke quickly, "Okay there's no way this killed her so we need to get some distance because you know she's going to use smoke as cover for when she comes to attack us…"
"Slow down!" Rangiku interrupted, but followed the instruction to ensure there was plenty of empty room between themselves and the smoke cloud. "You're talking too fast!"
Hinamori inhaled and exhaled between steps.
"So what did you do?" Rangiku asked.
"While you were fighting, I built a kidō net and set it to explode when the Espada was inside it," the spell mistress explained at a slightly slower speed.
"How'd you know where we'd end up?"
"Erm…"
Rangiku stopped in her running, and since Hinamori was still gripping her arm, she also stopped jerkily in her tracks.
"You set up a trap and didn't know if we'd go through it?" Rangiku asked in disbelief.
"Well, at first, I had planned on showing up and luring her into the net," Hinamori said defensively. "But then she was about to kill you, so I had to stop working and save you-!"
"Wait, you mean that explosion was caused by an incomplete kidō net?"
"Of course! If I had finished, it would have been more powerful and included some other explosions following the first one."
The older lieutenant stared at Hinamori for a moment before she commented, "Well, I guess you did do a lot of training while Gin and I were gone."
Before Hinamori could reply, they both felt reiatsu levels rise at their backs. The two lieutenants returned to battle-ready stances and faced the direction of their enemy.
An instant later, Halibel shot out of the cloud, smoking all over and singed in several places, but still in perfectly good condition to fight.
Hinamori raised her hand at the rapidly approaching Espada and declared, "Shakkahō!"
Without losing her momentum, Halibel twisted around and avoided the crimson fireball. She rapidly closed the remaining distance to the spellcaster and swung her sword in an attempt to bisect both women. Hinamori reflexively twisted Tobiume into a guard position, and just managed to block the powerful strike from connecting.
That's when Rangiku entered the fray again by sending Haineko at Halibel's head, who quickly shut her eyes in response. While the ash cloud could not infiltrate the nose and mouth, it still managed to scrape at the exposed skin, but not enough to draw blood. Rangiku felt a small bit of satisfaction at the sight of bright yellow hair drifting away from their owner as if she was shedding.
Halibel retaliated by shoving Hinamori away and aimed her zanpakutō where she felt Rangiku's reiatsu source, and fired a golden energy attack with, "Ola Azul."
The buxom blonde sped out of the way of the incoming missile. At that same moment, Hinamori recovered from being pushed away, and ignited her zanpakutō with a mental command. She pointed the tip at her enemy, and let the fireball fly. Since the attack was wordless, Halibel's only warning was a sudden rise of reiatsu from the petite girl. Caught by surprise, the flaming sphere connected directly on her stomach. The hierro on her exposed abdomen sizzled and smoked, but did not seem to do much more damage.
"Enough."
That single word signaled the eruption of power as the Tres Espada flexed her reiatsu. Haineko was scattered as winds picked up, and Rangiku looked at Hinamori.
"Regroup!" the older lieutenant ordered.
"You will not get away," Halibel promised, and raised her blade at the woman who had killed her Fraccion.
But before she could release any attack, Hinamori interrupted her by incanting boldly, "Raikōhō!"
A stream of lightning erupted from the kidō mistress' palm, and Halibel was forced to evade the higher level kidō spell with a step of her sonido. But when she rematerialized, it was to find that both her opponents were absent from the battlefield.
The two shinigami reappeared in a small alley, and paused to catch their breath.
"We need to think of a strategy, and fast," Rangiku said. "Even blind, she's tough. I think we can take her, but we need a plan."
"Rangiku-san, can you do a Rikujōkōrō?" Hinamori asked.
"Yes, but you know she'll break out of it."
"I'll cast one first, and then you reinforce mine with one of yours," her compatriot explained. "I know it won't hold her long, but hopefully it'll be long enough."
"Long enough for what?"
"I can cast a higher level hadō spell, but I need time to say the full incantation."
Rangiku almost asked for more details, but realized that there was not enough time; she would just have to trust Hinamori's judgment.
"Okay, I'll be ready when you are," she agreed.
Just then the hostile reiatsu of the Tres Espada landed at the end of the alleyway, her blade pointed at them with the declaration of, "Ola Azul."
Rangiku snapped her arm around Hinamori's shoulders and flash-stepped to the top of the building they had been leaning against. Just in time. From their new altitude, the two lieutenants saw that their previous position had been destroyed, leaving behind only a cloud of smoke.
A moment later, Halibel appeared again with a sonic boom, her sword pointed at them in clear evidence of her intent.
"Rikujōkōrō!" Hinamori declared before the enemy could perform her attack, and six beams of golden light slammed into the Espada's midsection.
Before the Third Espada could free herself, Rangiku followed up with her own casting of, "Rikujōkōrō!"
Another set of glowing rods rammed into Halibel's waist, reinforcing the first which had been cast. While Rangiku's kidō skills were nowhere near as refined as Hinamori's, she did have more raw power on her side, which was enough to support both Rikujōkōrō spells laid upon the Espada.
"Seeping crest of turbidity!" Hinamori began to chant quickly.
Rangiku did not recognize the incantation to this spell, but if it was high enough that Hinamori had to say it, then it truly must be a big one.
"Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker!"
Sweat was already breaking out on Hinamori's face and she was panting heavily, but she still managed to force out each word of the incantation. Rangiku was experiencing fatigue as well from keeping Halibel under the Rikujōkōrō spell; the bakudō only kept its prisoner paralyzed if they were exerting less reiatsu than the caster. Since the Espada had captain-class power, even a reinforced spell could not prevent the spiritual shark from grasping one of the glowing beams and attempting to crush it in her hands. The spell remained in place only because of the lieutenants' joint efforts, but that would not last for long. Now, it was a contest to see who had more reiatsu, and Rangiku was steadily losing ground. She just hoped that she could hold out long enough for Hinamori to pull off whatever hadō she was building up.
"Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud!"
Rangiku blinked as a large outline of a dark box began to build. She knew the shape, but had trouble believing that Hinamori was actually constructing it.
"Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!"
Hinamori paused and took a deep breath, and at that moment, Halibel made a final push which shattered the Rikujōkōrō into shards, and then the kidō mistress screamed the final part which would complete the entrapment.
"HADŌ NUMBER NINETY: KUROHITSUGI!"
Hitsugaya hated the heat. He knew it was cliché, for his icy nature to despise the effects of fire, but he couldn't help it. He could take standing still and being imprisoned during the battle in fake Karakura, but did have to be so hot?
His attention was suddenly diverted as he felt the drastic rise of reiatsu familiar to him, and the equally dramatic drop moments later.
"Fascinating," Aizen commented out loud casually.
"What is it, Aizen-sama?" Tōsen asked.
"Hinamori-kun just cast a level ninety kidō," Aizen explained. "She passed out immediately afterwards, but that growth is impressive for her. Perhaps we should have taken her with us after all. What do you think, Tōshirō?"
"You know the reason why we did not as well as I," Hitsugaya replied.
Aizen appeared to give the statement a brief consideration before agreeing, "Indeed."
Tōsen idly wondered what reason they were referring to, but did not ask out loud. He knew that the topic of Hinamori was a private one between the two men. He bore them no will ill for keeping this from him; after all he did not share with Hitsugaya his feelings on Hisagi and Komamura with Hitsugaya.
Rangiku shook her head in frustration as she caught Hinamori in her arms. After that massive expenditure in spiritual power, the petite girl would be unconscious for quite a while.
She took a look at the box which was void of light, and now deconstructing itself.
Rangiku gasped as she saw that Halibel was still standing. She was heavily injured, and there was blood dripping from numerous deep wounds, but the Espada remained still alive, and despite her missing eyes, she was giving them a very stern look.
"No…" Rangiku whispered.
Halibel raised her sword in front of her in a reverse grip with the blade pointed downward, and declared, "Destroy, Tiburon!"
An explosion of reiatsu and water later, the Espada showed her true form.
The bad news was that all of Halibel's wounds, even her eyes, were now healed, and she was now far stronger than she was before. The good news, to Rangiku, was that her nose and mouth were now uncovered, and so vulnerable to Haineko's most gruesome attack.
"Do not delude yourself," the Espada spoke. "I know that you think that since my lower face is now unprotected, you can use your ash cloud to fill my lungs and kill me from the inside. I will not let you have that chance."
She raised her blade-like right arm, and then water began to form at its tip. Within moments, a puddle became a pool, and that pool grew into a veritable tsunami, ready to drop down on two helpless lieutenants.
With Hinamori in her arms, Rangiku took a leap of shunpo out of range of the wave. Just as she reappeared, she was forced to flash-step again as another deluge was launched by the shark-like Arrancar.
Rangiku could not counterattack while holding Hinamori; if she could have just a moment, she could shift her unconscious friend to her right arm and attempt an attack, but Halibel refused to allow that respite. The aquatic carnivore was hunting them down with typical predatory persistence.
Rangiku managed to dodge several more watery attacks, but she knew she could not keep this up forever.
After a particularly close call, she was forced to stop on one roof to catch her breath.
"Cascada."
The Espada's calm declaration made Rangiku look up to see nothing but a dark ocean above her. Halibel had completely cut off any way of escape by sending out enough water to completely surround her prey.
Rangiku lifted her zanpakutō hilt up and yelled, "Bankai!"
Of course, she did not have the second release, and she did not expect to suddenly gain new powers just because she was on the brink of death, but that was not her goal. A shinigami's reiatsu was a potent weapon, if utilized correctly. Rangiku once saw Gin slice a Gillian's Cero in half just by focusing his spiritual power in front of him. She did not have his level of skill or strength, but hopefully she had enough to pull off a similar stunt now. Yelling "Bankai" was an admittedly desperate move on her part; while she had only attained materialization the day before, and was still nowhere near gaining the second release, she hoped that it was enough to get at least a little bit of a boost in strength. She would need every ounce she could get.
That thought was validated as the tsunami crashed down on her. Rangiku had tried to shape her reiatsu as a sharp dome, so as to reduce the actual amount of force need to protect herself from the weight of the water. Even with that precaution, she buckled under the strength of the Espada's attack. Her knees impacted on the concrete roof of the building she stood on, but compared to the strain of holding back millions of tons of water, it was nothing.
After what seemed like an eternity, sunlight fell on her face again, and Rangiku fell forward onto her good hand and gasped desperately for breath. It had taken every bit of strength she had to prevent that tidal wave from killing her and Hinamori, and she was now exhausted.
"A valiant effort, but a futile one."
The Espada was still there, quite ready to bring down another ocean on her. And this time, Rangiku only had just enough strength to lift her head and glare defiantly at her enemy.
Halibel returned the favor with a hostile look of her own, but the cold hatred within her eyes now seemed tempered by reluctant respect. And then the shark released her aquatic fury once more down on the pair of helpless shinigami. Rangiku tried to force herself to stand up and attempt another run, but she knew she would never make it, even if she did not have Hinamori to worry about.
As a cataract of oceanic rage came down to kill them, a familiar white haori appeared in front of her and Hinamori.
Author's Note: Fact: the greatest threat from a volcanic eruption is not the initial blast, but the resulting ash fall. If you don't believe me, then look up how volcanoes like Vesuvius, Krakatoa, or Toba ended the lives of their victims. That's why I think that in canon, Haineko is one of the most underutilized zanpakutō. Even if she doesn't use it to kill from the inside, Haineko is a zanpakutō that works on the same principle as Senbonzakura: Death by a Thousand Cuts.
And yes, I did have Hinamori Take A Level In Badass. And yes, I am thumbing my nose at all the Hinamori haters in Bleach Fandom. Any other questions?
Seriously, I don't think it's too incredulous to believe she could pull this off. Hinamori is an established master of kidō, on par with Kira (who has been seen casting spells in the seventies without incantation). We only saw Kurohitsugi twice in the series, both times by Aizen. Based on the first time, when Aizen (someone who is about twice as powerful as the average captain) cast it without incantation, he managed to get it at one-third its intended power and still incapacitate Komamura. From this encounter, I theorized that the power level for a lieutenant (approximately twenty times less powerful than Aizen, assuming an average captain is ten times stronger than the average lieutenant) skilled in kidō could cast it with full incantation, but knock him or herself out in the process because of the raw amount of power required.
I know that officially, it's Tier Harribel, but according to the Bleach wiki, "Halibel" is an acceptable spelling as well (not to mention far more sensible).
Thanks for the reviews, TykkiMikk, Juliedoo, Nnix Ame, Von Remington, Raven's Shadow, and anonymous guests.
Omake: Shinigami Illustrated Guide
"Today, we'll be talkin' 'bout Ikkaku's Bankai," Gin greeted as he tapped his pointer in his palm twice.
Images of the Third Seat's battle with Poww appeared on the viewscreen behind him, and he turned to the side to point at visual aids.
"It's called Ryūmon Hōzukimaru," the jovial teacher continued, "an' as ya can see, it's still all banged up from his fight with Edrad. That's 'cause whenever a Bankai gets broken, it stays broken. An exception to that rule is Komamura, 'cause his bond with his Bankai is so tight that it'll heal exactly the same way Komamura will."
"Gin, what are you doing?" Rangiku asked with a frown as she walked onto the set.
"Jus' explainin' to everyone 'bout Ikkaku's fight," he answered.
"I thought I told you no more Arrancar Encyclopedia."
"It ain't," he protested. "I'm in my shinigami uniform, I'm talkin' 'bout shinigami, an' yer right here beside me."
Rangiku narrowed her eyes skeptically, but finally relented, "Fine. You've got my permission."
"Thanks, Rangiku," Gin said. "Hitsugaya didn't wanna do any instructin', so I had to take matters into my own hands. It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it."