"Bankai," he chanted calmly as he dropped his blade to the ground, the elegant zanpakuto slipping through the tiles that comprised the floor of his division.
"Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
Kuchiki Byakuya's slate-colored eyes calmly surveyed his surroundings as the double-row of gigantic blades began to rise behind him. Captain Madarame Ikkaku was lying prone to his left, possibly dead in a pool of his own blood – he would need to make sure his swarm of blades avoided that area of the courtyard. Several members of his division were strewn about the piazza, probably deceased – he would still attempt to steer clear of their bodies, but the likelihood of their vitality was extremely low.
And then there was the Espada in front of him.
With a mental command, the towering swords behind him shattered into thousands of deadly shards, their cloud causing the faintest of winds as they rushed past him and towards Tia Halibel. Byakuya had left his assigned division early on in favor of his own, the sixth, as he felt the battle raging between Ikkaku and this Arrancar. He'd arrived just in time to stop Halibel from impaling the fallen Shinigami upon her massive sword, the pink mass of his shikai causing her to retreat from his fellow captain's body.
Neither of them had spoken any words before he'd released his bankai;Byakuya despised the pointless exchange of words that most of his opponents insisted on having before they clashed swords. He never could understand when a victim of his would persist in pushing their beliefs upon him as he prepared to take their lives. Fortunately, it seemed as though his opponent was also a creature of few words; after a few seconds of calm silence, he'd unleashed his bankai.
Wordlessly did his wave of blades surge forward, the cascading wall of pink rushing towards the female Arrancar with a deadly force. Soon her form was completely eclipsed by the mass of blades, causing Byakuya to resort to sensing her reiatsu to replace his lack of visual aid. Fortunately, this split-second of blindness did not provide him with a hindrance; he had honed this technique of blind-targeting with immense training, almost crafting it into an art. He could easily carve a Hollow into ribbons without so much as opening an eye.
"Cero."
Byakuya leaped to the side, his body narrowly missing Halibel's unusually wide attack. His right hand swept out quickly, causing a scythe of floating blades to form and slice through the horde of its brethren. The pink cloud parted, allowing Byakuya to clearly see the woman he was attempting to kill, her body now directly in the path of his swift strike.
With a punching sound, she was suddenly behind him, her massive sword raised vertical above her head. A wall of pink rushed in and formed from surrounding the cloud, blocking her would-be fatal strike as it came crashing down towards Byakuya. The large blade sliced a perfect crescent down the middle of this barrier, revealing to Halibel that her Shinigami prey was gone. He gave her less than a second to ponder on his whereabouts as he whispered into existence behind her, both hands outstretched as a twin pair of horizontal minarets, each formed from the countless blades that surrounded the two of them, came barreling towards her. She quickly reacted pointing her sword at the incoming spires.
"La Gota."
A large bullet of water short forth from the tip of her blade, her attack causing Byakuya's to splinter and scatter into formlessness. He barely leaped away, the powerful attack punching a neat hole out of the corner of his white haori.With a short burst of shunpo,he removed himself from the massive ball of pink, the sphere dissipating and falling apart as he made his exit. He landed softly upon a nearby rooftop, his cold eyes regarding the calm Arrancar standing on the ground below.
Damn, he thought to himself. If I could use Goukei, I would be able to imprison her within its swirling dome and end this quickly. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to spare Captain Madarame without allowing her the chance to escape.
He knew that Halibel would most likely prevent him from casting a shield of kidou around Ikkaku, much less reaching him and removing his body from their arena. So Goukei was out of the question. He decided to alter his strategy.
"I see you prefer the use of your blade in combat, Hollow," Byakuya said calmly, finally breaking the conversational impasse that had held out between the two. Halibel said nothing, her eyes remaining fixed upon her Shinigami opponent.
"Fortunately," Byakuya continued, his hands making a single small gesture as he spoke, "I can also combat you with a blade: Senkei."
The swirling pink mass immediately spread out to encompass the entire courtyard in which they were standing, the randomly floating shards suddenly shaping themselves into a rectangular box of swords. Halibel flicked her eyes to the side in an attempt to understand the size of the prison in which she was currently encased in, her attention breaking from Byakuya for a single moment as she sized up her new – and possibly far more deadly – arena.
When her eyes moved forward again, Byakuya was reappearing from the nothingness of shunpo, his right arm raised and its hand equipped with a glowing pink blade. Halibel had no choice but to take the attack, the powerful sword opening a slice down her belly. The gash ran down along her flat stomach, the centermost of the row of white denticles now missing. Her hierro proved strong enough to render the wound non-fatal, but her blood still stained the ground beneath her feet as she continued her leap backwards.
"Impressive, Shinigami," Halibel said, touching a gloved finger to the blood that was now trickling down her stomach. "That strike was quite powerful. Would I be wrong in assuming that that blade of yours is comprised of densely concentrated reiatsu?"
"Not quite," Byakuya replied, pointing the sword at her. "The thousands of swirling blades you saw earlier have now condensed themselves into these few dozen katana. This action simply increases their destructive potential; one strike from this zanpakuto is equivalent to fifty slashes from a normal sword."
"I see," Halibel said slowly, her spiritual pressure rising within the pink prison. "Cascada."
A massive wall of water suddenly crashed through the back wall of the Senkei, causing Byakuya to take his attention off of Halibel and shunpo out of the way of her tsunami-like attack. As he appeared again, he found the Espada directly across from him, her sword pointed at his chest as she trapped him between the wall of water and her deadly weapon. Water began to swell along the edges of her zanpakuto and a small smirk crossed her face.
"La Gota."
The aquatic bullet launched forth, its piecing tip aimed directly for Byakuya's head.
"Bankai!" came a strong feminine voice, accompanied by a ribbon of snow that swiftly wrapped itself around Halibel's La Gota, freezing it solid. The bullet plummeted to the ground before crashing upon it, the thick icicle shattering into a thousand shards as it slammed harmlessly into the tiles below.
"Karakkaze Itegumo!"
Byakuya dropped to the ground, his eyes trained on Captain Kotetsu Isane. She stood between himself and Halibel, the Arrancar now regarding the woman coldly. Her bankai,a veritable blanket of snowflakes that swirled around her like a shield, whipped through the courtyard in a manic wind, slowly freezing every last inch of the Espada's water.
"Captain Kuchiki," the silver-haired woman spoke over her shoulder, her large eyes glaring forward at her opponent. "Please retreat from this battle."
"Captain Kotetsu!" Byakuya began, his mouth hanging open as he took a step forward. "I—"
"Do not argue, Byakuya!" she snapped, her unusually aggressive tone – and the use of his first name - silencing him almost immediately. "Other divisions are suffering greatly at the hands of these Arrancar – allow me to dispatch this one while you put your abilities to use elsewhere."
Byakuya stood silent for a moment before sheathing his zanpakuto.
"Thank you," he said quietly, "Isane."
He was gone with a whisper.
Isane turned her attention back to Halibel, the female Espada's teal eyes narrowing at her new opponent.
"Do you think that was such a good idea," Halibel asked, "letting him run off like that? Certainly the two of you would have had a far better chance of defeating me."
"I am a healer," Isane began, disregarding the threat of her opponent. "I can taste whenever there is death and pain in the air. I can feel the losses we have already suffered at your hands today, Espada. I allowed Captain Kuchiki to leave so that he could help prevent the spreading of your destruction."
"And yet you prefer to face me unassisted," Halibel inquired, her eyes narrowing. "Why?"
"Quite simply, because I can freeze your water-based attacks," Isane replied. "You cannot pierce my shield of snow. And once I have disposed of you, I will heal Captain Madarame behind you and we shall begin our counter attack on your remaining forces."
"Is that so?"
"It is."
Halibel vanished suddenly, her body vanishing in a buzz of white and brown and blonde. She swiftly appeared behind her Shinigami opponent and fired off a twin pair of Gota,the two missiles screaming through the air towards the Captain's turned back. Without even turning around, the whirlwind that was surrounding Isane stopped the duo of water bullets instantly, the both of them freezing solid within a second. The Shinigami turned around and lifted her hands, causing the snowy force-field that surrounded her to grab onto the two chunks of ice like an infant wound grasp at a bottle.
"Touketsuhai," Isane said quietly as she re-fired the two missiles, now as thick as glaciers, back at the Arrancar. Halibel leapt backwards, her body spinning in the air as the pair of ice spears flew underneath her body harmlessly.
"So," Halibel said sternly as her armored feet touched the ground once more. "My ranged attacks are futile against you. That problem is easily avoidable."
With a buzzing shock, Halibel was directly in front of Isane, her massive blade crashing into the snowy shield that encompassed the captain. The sword struck, but the snow thickened instantly against the sword's edge, causing the female Arrancar to repel back forcefully. As she retreated, however, an arm of snow remained attached, connecting her sword to the area of the Shinigami's frozen armor like a frigid tether.
"Kawayatsume," Isane said confidently as the serpent-like ice began to completely solidify upon the Espada's weapon. "Now your blade – and your arm – belong to me, Arrancar."
"Tch," Halibel scoffed as she swung her arm down forcefully. "Hirviendo!"
As her strike flew downward, the frozen bridge that was connecting her to her Shinigami opponent instantly evaporated into steam. The sublimation effect continued along the ice until it reached the actual swirling shield that enveloped Isane's whole body, where it then destroyed the icy armor itself. Isane's eyes widened at the destruction of her bankai, her shock too much to overcome as the Arrancar appeared directly in front of her.
Halibel quickly plunged the tip of her sword into the Shinigami's gut, the white blade turning red as it tore through the skin and muscles of Isane's stomach. The captain gasped slightly, her opponent staring blankly into her eyes, before she crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap.
"I was only going to take one prisoner…" Halibel said as she flicked the blood off her zanpakuto, her teal eyes glancing over at Ikkaku's prone body across the courtyard.
"But I suppose I can return with the both of you."
Hisagi leapt away, the bottoms of his feet just barely avoiding the swing from Allon's massive fist. The chimera's blow instead struck one of the numerous boulders that littered the subterranean arena, the large rock shattering into a thousand pebbles beneath the force of the attack. Hisagi swung downwards with scythe in his right hand, the blade spinning in a vicious arc before opening a deep gash upon the top of the monster's hand. A fountain of blood quickly erupted outwards from the slash, covering the smaller Shinigami in crimson and staining his white haori a deep scarlet. Hisagi quickly tugged on the chain that connected his hand to the airborne sickle, the weapon spinning back to his waiting hand.
With a bellowing roar, the fresh wound upon Allon's hand closed as it swung its left hand forward. The open-palm slap almost connected with Hisagi, but he managed to flash-step out of the way, reappearing in time to lash out again with his shikai and carve a deep canyon through the flesh of Allon's forearm. Hisagi quickly vanished once more, this time deciding to put some distance between himself and the beast that he was fighting. His eyes darted over to the Espada, narrowing as he looked upon the female Arrancar that was standing to the side of the battle, completely out of harm's way. She noticed his look and tittered slightly.
"What's wrong, Shinigami?" she asked with a snicker. "Are you starting to have flashbacks from the last time you faced my pet?"
Hisagi scoffed. "Hardly."
He vanished suddenly in a bust of shunpo, reappearing almost immediately in front of Apache, the left blade of Kazeshini spinning directly for her head. As the deadly strike neared her, however, a wave of reiatsu erupted from Allon, causing the scythe's course to alter dramatically and miss its target completely. Hisagi's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he retracted the chain and leapt away, once more placing a sizeable distance between himself and the pair of Hollow.
"Don't look so confused," Apache sneered, her lips curving upwards devilishly. "While I may be able to control Allon without Sun-sun or Mila Rose, I wind up being completely defenseless while I concentrate on it. Fortunately, Allon doesn't want to see another one of its masters get hurt; it'll protect me until it dies."
"Oh yeah?" Hisagi quipped back. "Then I guess I should just focus all of my attention on him from now on?"
"Yeah," Apache said with an evil chuckle, her index finger pointing over Hisagi's shoulder. "Maybe you should start doin' that."
Hisagi hadn't even heard Allon approaching from his rear; his eyes had barely made it over his shoulder when the enormous beast came crashing forward at him. Hisagi jumped as high as he could, but his right ankle was caught in the monster's fist. He let out a cry of pain as he felt all of the bones beneath his shin crumple. Allon swiftly turned and whipped the Shinigami across the cavernous training room, Hisagi's limp body crashing into a rock outcropping with a sickening thud.
He slumped to the floor as the towering behemoth stomped towards him, the ambling beast taking its time as his prey struggled to stand. Hisagi struggled to stand, his right foot refusing to straighten out, forcing him to use his left leg alone. He timidly put weight on his right foot, only to grit his teeth and hiss in pain.
Shit, he thought as he looked at the twisted flesh that stuck out above his sandal. Looks like I have no choice, then.
Hisagi stuck both of his scythes forward, each of the blades shimmering as a white light began surrounding them and his reiatsusurged. Allon stopped for a moment, its empty eyes surveying its opponent for a moment, its head tilting to the side like a confused puppy. Then, with a bellowing roar, Allon's enormous maw split open from under its filthy mane and it rushed forward with a blinding speed in an attempt to crush its opponent.
"Bankai!" Hisagi roared as the monstrous Hollow barreled down upon him. "Kurotatsumaki Kazeshini!"
A wave of black wind, backed by an equally dark reiatsu surged forward, halting the enormous leviathan in its tracks. As the opaque gales subsided, Hisagi was left standing solitary among the rocks of Urahara's basement, the black khopeshof his second bankai gripped tightly within his fists. Apache stood stoic as Hisagi's spiritual energy swelled within the room.
"I was hesitant to use this bankai," he said as he looked from her to the behemoth in front of him. "I usually can't call it out this quickly and control it. But it seems as though he's going to cooperate with me today."
Allon took a moment to register his opponent's newfound strength before resuming its tearing course across the stones, its colossal maw reopening as saliva dripped from its teeth in viscous strands. Hisagi shook his head slightly and stepped back, crossing both of the hand-held sickles over his chest as the beast charged him.
"Arashi no Senmon!" he yelled as he threw both blades forward and out of his grasp, the two khopesh twirling around one another, each of the black weapons dancing through the air as the flew at the giant Hollow. They soon formed a spear of wind, looking like a tornado that had been turned upon its side, the tip of the funnel pointing at Allon's chest.
With a gut-wrenching tear, the twin sickles drilled through and ripped apart the beast's abdomen. The forward momentum of Allon's sprint caused its top half to separate completely from its legs, the spine snapping audibly as the colossal torso flung itself forward and onto the ground. The legs continued to kick and thrash futilely against the rocky floor of the cavern as blood sprayed and pooled along the earth.
"So," Hisagi said calmly as he limped forward, his eyes glaring into Apache's as he moved. "Now that your pet is dead, what can you do?"
"Don't count us out just yet," Apache clicked her tongue slightly as her lip curled up into another snarl. "Shinigami!"
She raised her severed arm up once more, a new fountain of blood spurting from the stump and towards Allon. Hisagi stopped suddenly, his eyes going wide as the bifurcated monster at his feet began revive itself, the blood from its master gluing its separate halves together again. The Shinigami hadn't expected Allon to be resurrected and hadn't taken any precautions concerning his proximity to it; Hisagi was practically right next to the beast when it rose up and lashed out at him, an enormous fist closing upon his body.
Hisagi cursed his carelessness as Allon stood and began to squeeze him with its right hand. He should have stayed more alert; he'd already witnessed this Arrancar's ability to rise from the dead. His mind quickly became hazy as he felt one of his ribs splinter within his chest as the vice-grip like fist tightened upon him. His vision was fading around the edges, a dark blanket encroaching inwards from his peripheral sights. He heard a pop – probably his shoulder tearing from the socket – but he could hardly feel anything. His head was spinning. The only thing he could see was Allon's enormous teeth before his face.
"Ardiente Cuchilla!"
He was suddenly falling, but he could breathe again. His vision quickly began to return, the pain of his near-fatal compression arriving with it and causing an immense throbbing to tear though his body. He struggled to remain conscious as the pain of his crushed torso threatened to overwhelm him. He looked up at Allon and his eyes widened at what he saw.
Lilinette was attacking it, her resurrección's flames slicing through the monster's massive forearm like a flaming sword. The burning blade soon severed the gigantic limb, forcing Hisagi to quickly crawl out of the way as it landed next to him. The smaller Septíma Espada landed in front of him, her lithe body standing rigid between his injured form and the raging Hollow.
"What…" Hisagi began, as he continued to struggle for air. "What are you—?"
"Repaying you for the sushi," Lilinette said sharply and sarcastically, immediately halting the conversation there. "Besides, this bitch and I have a score to settle."
"You're goddamned right we do!" Apache hollered from across the room, her bloodied stump continuing to leak and revive Allon. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, you fucking fake."
Lilinette seethed silently, her jaw clenching against the insult that her fellow Espada hurled at her. Apache smirked and continued.
"That's right," she said snarkily. "The hogyouku might have given you a resurrección of your own, but you still ain't a real Arrancar. You're a freak, a monster." She paused as the bloody fountain at the end of her half-arm halted once more and Allon's arm grew back in full. "And if it weren't for Lady Halibel, you'd be nothing!"
Allon suddenly reached out and grabbed Lilinette, both of his massive hands gripping her and squeezing her small body mercilessly.
"That's right, you little brat," Apache called out as Allon continued to constrict her opponent. "That Espada tattoo does you little justice. You didn't earn it like I did; yours was a goddamned gift. And now, I'm going to take it from you."
Lilinette suddenly breathed in deeply, her mouth bringing in far more air than her asphyxiating captor should have allowed. Her pink irises glared up at Allon for a split second before she exhaled a pair of deadly words.
"Caja Torácica."
Allon immediately dropped Lilinette to the ground, its enormous mouth tearing open and emitting a blood-curdling howl. It began to wave its giant hands around in the air as though something hot was burning the flesh of its palms. The ten fingers quickly began to deform, each digit snapping and breaking to bend into horrifically abnormal angles. Lilinette stood from the floor and walked up to Allon, a row of spikes now protruding from each side of her ribcage. They slowly slipped back into her ivory armor, leaving a row of bleeding holes along each side of her body.
"I see you can feel the pain of my poison," she said as Allon whimpered on the floor in front of her, its massive eyeball rolling in agony as it attempted to focus on the petite Espada in front of him. She calmly stuck her arm out to the large orb, her hand vanishing as it was replaced by a small ball of flame.
"Lanzallama."
The flamethrower roared forward and into Allon's eye. The beast screamed painfully as the fires spread throughout its skull, its massive body rolling on the floor in a vain attempt to put them out. Lilinette glanced up at Apache, her pink eyes dancing in joy slightly at the worried look on her fellow Espada's face. The one-armed girl looked from Allon to Lilinette, a wicked snarl spreading over her face.
"You think he can't recover from that?" She yelled as she brought her stubbed arm up, another river of blood beginning to flow from the end of it. "As long as I stand, Allon is invici-"
Lilinette was standing directly in front of Apache, the buzz of sonído doing little to warn the Novena that her opponent had moved. Blood began to fall from her lips as Lilinette removed her fist from Apache's chest, leaving a large and dark hole where her sternum had once been. Her eyes widened in surprise as she struggled for breath, her lips parting uselessly as more blood began to fill her mouth and spill.
"Don't think for a second," Lilinette growled as she leveled her arm at Apache's face, the flamethrower within it sputtering to life once more. "That I am undeserving of the rank of Septíma."
With a hiss, another stream of fire exploded outwards from her wrist and engulfing Apache's torso. Lilinette ceased the stream of flames and lowered her arm as the dead Arrancar fell to the ground in a scorched and mangled heap. The smaller girl stood still for a moment as she looked at her fallen rival, her eyes narrowing in hatred before she turned around and walked to the fallen body of Hisagi.
Her resurrección slipped off of her body as she slowly walked towards Hisagi, the self-inflicted puncture wounds along her ribcage bleeding more as the white armor of her released state vanished. She began to stagger slightly as she walked, the stumbling growing worse until she collapsed in front of Hisagi. The battered Shinigami struggled to move towards her, but she quickly held up a hand to stop him.
"I'm fine," she said with a small wheeze, "this happens every time I use Caja Torácica."
"What was that?" Hisagi asked as his rescuer sat down to catch her breath. All he'd seen was Allon suddenly drop her and go completely wild with hadn't seen her do anything besides sit there helplessly before she'd reduced a once ferocious monster into a whimpering ball.
"If anything grabs hold of me, I can jab my ribs through my skin and inject it with poison," she replied as her breath began to even out slowly. "It hurts the shit out of me, but it makes whoever I stab feel like they're on fire."
Hisagi leaned back and placed his head against the stone floor, his eyes looking up at the artificial sky that hung above them as a moment of awkward silence. Eventually he turned his face to hers and spoke.
"Thanks for saving me," he said softly as he looked at her.
"Hey," she said with a jovial smile, "I was just returnin' the favor."
The corner of his mouth curved up slightly in the presence of such a joyous grin; he couldn't help himself but smile when faced with someone as indefatigably perky as this small Arrancar. She chuckled slightly before laying down next to him, their eyes still locked together.
"I guess it was a good idea to keep me around," she said with a snicker, "huh, Shuuhei?"
Hisagi didn't get to respond.
A massive cero suddenly ripped through the ceiling, completely demolishing the fake blue skies above them, sending a wall of rock and stone plummeting from above. Within seconds, the entire cavern was left in darkness as the ground above fell inwards and buried everything inside.
Kurotsuchi Nemu burst out of the halls of the fourth division, her deep green eyes squinting against the harsh afternoon sunlight.
She had wanted to stay within the medical ward as long as she possibly could; when the wounded began to roll in, she wanted to be there to immediately asses any and all of the situations at hand. After all, Captain Kotetsu – despite great opposition – had left her in charge of the division, so she wanted to ensure that she was doing an acceptable job.
But the battles had been raging outside for a while now, and not a single injured Shinigami had made their way into the fourth's clinics. It was starting to become painfully clear to Nemu that the attacking Arrancar had no intention of leaving a lot of people alive. It was logical to assume that if these Espada were going to take prisoners, they would only be captives of captain-level ability; to assume that they would leave someone of a weaker seat alive was simply obtuse. Nemu could easily deduce that the wards of the fourth division wouldn't be overflowing anytime soon.
She stopped and concentrated, her abnormally apt ability to sense spiritual signatures spreading out over the Soul Society. She was only half relieved when she felt Kira's reiatsu; she knew that if he found himself in a life threatening situation, his bankai would be more than enough to allow him a swift victory. She knew she never had to worry about Kira.
The rest of Seireitei was not faring so well, however. She could feel the fading presence of several lower-ranked Shinigami around her immediate area, as well as Captain Ikkaku and Captain Kotetsu's low reiatsu in the sixth division. The fact that both of them were unconscious was enough evidence to lend further credit to her theory of captain-level prisoners. Otherwise why would the two of them be…?
Nemu stopped searching suddenly as an oddly familiar presence made itself known. She turned slowly, her keen senses pointing her in the exact spot that the Arrancar would appear. She quickly pulled her zanpakuto out from its scabbard and blocked the still unseen strike, the Espada emerging out of sonído exactly where she'd predicted, his blade crashing into hers with a powerful force. Her eyes went wide at the sight of her opponent.
"Y-you!" she stammered as the pink-haired Arrancar smirked at her.
"Hello, Nemu," Szayel-Aporro Granz said with a wicked smirk. "How wonderful it is to see you again."
He slashed forward against her block, sending her skidding backwards along her heels and further into the center of the courtyard. He quickly closed the distance between them, leaning in with a cruel lunge, his zanpakuto jabbing forward at her abdomen. She quickly blocked with a downward slash, running her blade up and along his in an attempt to slice his unguarded fingers. He quickly reacted, spinning to the left so his body was inside of her strike-zone while bringing himself closer to her at the same time. He struck down and connected, her left shoulder opening up in a fountain of scarlet blood.
"You look surprised to see me," he teased as she staggered backwards, his left middle finger coming up to touch the center of his glasses.
"I am surprised," Nemu remarked as her arm dangled slightly in the wake of his attack. "But it's not illogical to see you in your natural state once more. Captain Kurotsuchi and I had always suspected that you would be able to resurrect yourself, even after prolonged states of time. My only question," she continued as she struggled to bring her wounded arm back to its regular stature, "is where you found a suitable place for your rebirth?"
"One of your fellow lieutenants acted as my 'mother' today," he said, an evil gleam showing in his eyes. "A small girl with brown hair."
"Lieutenant Hinamori," Nemu said, her still face showing no emotion at the loss of her colleague. "Then I am to assume Captain Hitsugaya has been killed as well? I cannot see him allowing her to die while he still breathed."
"That's the Nemu I've missed," he said with a snicker, ignoring her question. "It has been awfully lonely since you left the division; you were the only one who ever tried to study me. Your wretched father stopped his studies the moment you transferred, you know."
"That is only logical," Nemu said, an atypical timbre of venom lining her words. "His final experiment on you was to see how long you could survive without any sort of assistance."
Szayel-Aporro's grin faded, quickly being replaced by a slight grimace.
Nemu continued, undisturbed. "By our calculations, for you to have made it this long, you must have entered some form of living hypostasis to maintain any sort of bodily function. Would this be a correct assumption?"
His frown strengthened as a growl rose up in the bottom of his throat. Nemu smirked – ever so slightly – and continued.
"It must have been this way. Surely no other explanation exists for your apparent survival. I'm positive that Captain Kurotsuchi refrained from nourishing you; his final study on you was, after all, to see how long you could live without a source of sustenance."
"You whore!" Szayel-Aporro spat as he lunged forward at her, his zanpakuto clashing with hers once more. "You left me to die and you make jokes?"
He forced her down with a surprising amount of strength, her knees buckling under the force of the weight and hitting the ground. She gasped as he continued to apply pressure, his amber colored eyes growing wild and crazed at the sight of his strained former captor.
"Sip," he growled, forgoing his normal showboating ritual so that he could keep her pinned. "Fornicarás!"
He exploded around her, a deep purple slime covering the majority of the courtyard as it splattered forward. The viscous goo quickly began returning to its point of origin, a pile of it forming a man-shaped mass. The last of the oil sloughed off of her body as it finished sculpting the released form of Szayel-Aporro Granz.
He looked down at Nemu and his confident smile quickly faded. In her place was a grass-colored chrysalis, its shiny shell standing where the lieutenant once had been. It soon cracked and split along the middle, Nemu emerging from the small sarcophagus with a double-edged trident.
"Spin and protect," she said calmly, "Imomushi."
"What is this?" Szayel-Aporro hissed as his new body began to automatically create clones of her body, the slime of his resurrección having already touched her cocoon.
"This is my zanpakuto," Nemu said calmly as she pointed one end of the trident at her opponent. "It lacks any sort of critical attack power, but its defensive capabilities are unrivalled in all of Soul Society."
"What are you tal—?" the Arrancar began as he noticed that his would-be army of clones were all limp and dead copies of Nemu, each one misshapen and deformed beyond life. A few of the poor creatures had managed to suck in breath, and spent what energy they possessed moaning and writhing in agony upon the ground.
"Even your special abilities are nothing compared to my shield. However," Nemu said calmly as she whispered into invisibility, her thin frame reappearing directly in front of Szayel-Aporro. "I do have one attack:
"Mayuwokakeru,"She said softly as she spun the trident in front of her, a thin strand of silk-like material extending from both ends.
Szayel-Aporro's hand quickly broke through her weapon, splitting it in half as his fist clenched around her throat. Her eyes widened in surprise as his grip on her trachea tightened, his grin growing deadly as he glared into her eyes.
"You're too slow for an Espada," he hissed as he brought his other hand up, his fingers forming into a spear, "girl."
A streak of blue light suddenly flew between them, tearing a chunk out of the Espada's arm. Szayel-Aporro released his grip on Nemu as blood began to flow from his newly formed wound. He turned around to see the owner of the attack, his eyes widening in surprise as his mouth split upwards into a grin.
"So," he said with a laugh, "the Quincy is alive, too?"
Ishida Uryuu stood tall against a backdrop of broken concrete, the bandages that covered his injured torso eclipsed by the armor of the Quincy's Letzter Stil. The cross-adorned breast-plate that covered his chest shone brightly in the afternoon sunlight, the solar luminosity outshined only by the massive blue flame that jetted from his right shoulder. Ishida glared steadily at Szayel-Aporro, his energy bow already pulled back and ready to fire once more.
"I do not know how you are still alive, Espada," the Quincy said with detestation, the light reflecting off of his glasses obscuring his eyes, "but I do not care. I am here to finally eradicate you."
"Is that so?" Szayel-Aporro retorted, his attention all but turned away from Nemu as he left the female Shinigami to gasp for breath on the ground.
With a wordless flash, Ishida appeared above the Espada, his hirenkyaku carrying his feet as fast as any Shinigami's shunpo ever could. Szayel-Aporro looked up in complete astonishment, his amber eyes stretching as he looked into the cold blue eyes of the Quincy. Ishida smirked and let fly his arrow, blowing himself several meters into the air as the blast demolished the ground surrounding the Arrancar.
Ishida landed nimbly upon the ground, the blue flame on his shoulder cutting through the darkness that the soot and dust in the air caused. With a snap of his wrist, the Letzter Stil vanished, causing the Quincy warrior to slump slightly as he attempted to catch his breath. Slowly, he staggered towards Nemu, a small grin on his face.
"Lieutenant Kurotsuchi," he said almost jovially, "are you alright?"
"Yes," Nemu responded as she stood, her hand rubbing delicately at her neck. "No major pain was inflicted; I believe that the Espada's attack on my throat was merely a means to restrain me until a more fatal blow could be administered."
"That's good," he said mildly. "We'll need all the strength we can gather to eliminate the rest of the Espada in Soul Society."
Ishida smiled once more at his old ally, glad to see that she was okay. Nemu returned the smile, although faintly, as she looked at her odd savior. While she had never held much of an opinion on the Quincy race – mainly due to her father's inhumane treatment of them – she'd always found this one to be a splendid specimen. She'd forever think it was a shame that he'd never consented to Soul Society studying him further.
Ishida's chest suddenly exploded, bits of bone and lung splashing upon Nemu's face as the purple and white arm that jutted through the man's torso wriggled. The Quincy gasped for breath as Szayel-Aporro's face slithered through the debris in the air and stopped next to his own, the Espada's wide and inhuman grin spreading white next to the crimson the dripped from Ishida's lips.
"Do you think I forgot about you, Quincy?" Szayel-Aporro hissed into his ear, his long tongue slipping out and lapping at the choking man's cheek. He reached his right hand up to Ishida's neck, the violet fingers closing on his throat. "Just because you've gotten stronger doesn't mean I've lost my data on your attack capabilities."
The Espada slid his free hand up from Ishida's neck until his palm cupped the Quincy's chin, his thumb and forefingers framing the angular jaw-line of his victim. With a quick and vicious twist of the Arrancar's wrist, Ishida's neck snapped and his head fell forward, lolling lazily as his body remained upright from the hand that was thrust through his torso. Szayel-Aporro chuckled and slid his arm back through the fissure he'd created in the dead man's chest, leaving Ishida to fall to the ground.
"And now," the Arrancar said gleefully as he looked at Nemu, the female Shinigami bringing her zanpakuto up in defense as his deadly wings stretched out to envelop her. "It's time I finally taste a little bit of revenge."
His right pair of wings suddenly fell to the ground, the two of them pinned to the already shattered tiles below. His amber eyes snapped towards them in confused irritation as he struggled to stand up straight once more. He grimaced and tugged against the invisible weight that seemed to be holding him to the floor. A sudden whisper of shunpo brought his attention back to the Shinigami that had been in front of him. He was no longer looking at the female lieutenant; between himself and Nemu was a blonde man in a captain's haori.
"Do you have any final words," Captain Kira Izuru asked stoically as he turned the odd blade of Wabisuke upside down, "Arrancar?"
author's note
so hopefully the tides are turning, right?
big shout out to everyone that has reviewed thus far:jazz, mordecai, mats, lib, del, and the rest.if i forgot to mention you, please forgive me; i am rather drunk right now.
anyhoo, i hope you enjoyed the chapter. the home-stretch is coming up, so feel free to review and spur me on to get there sooner!
YES!
jta!~
sysyphus (part II) - pink floyd