Chapter 36: Catastrophic Clash
Renji Abarai and Shuhei Hisagi arrived at the location of Byakuya's final stand. The morning sunlight shone down upon the crimson lake, throwing light over the shimmering surface. A chilling wind blew through the area.
Overlooking the pool of blood, the duo looked over the scene, in an attempt to discern what had happened.
"What do you think caused this?" Shuhei asked, hesitantly.
"It must have been Captain Kuchiki..." Renji muttered. "But... I don't see him anywhere..."
"He's dead..." suddenly came a voice from behind the pair. Rukia Kuchiki stepped forwards, her head hanging down. Her eyes were puffed up from where she had been crying.
"Rukia!" Renji gasped, turning towards her. He grabbed her by the shoulders."What do you mean, he's dead? What happened?!" Distress held his face like a vice.
"The enemy could control insects..." Rukia said, looking up into her friends eyes and trembling. "If Nii-Sama didn't do what he did... Everyone could have been killed... He- He sacrificed himself to kill all of them."
"No!" Renji shouted. "That's not true! He can't be dead! He can't be!"
"Renji, I-"
Gritting his teeth, the red-haired Lieutenant closed his eyes and bowed his head. "He can't be dead..."
"I'm sorry..." Rukia whispered, reaching up and cupping the side of her friend's face.
Behind her, Yachiru Kusajishi lowered her head and stood in silence, out of respect. Her pink hair hung around her face and fluttered in the wind.
All around the group, everything settled into silence. Comforting calm clung to the air and enveloped them all as they came to terms with their Captain's demise.
"Well well well!" called out a voice, echoing across the destruction.
The Shinigami's heads all shot up, in an attempt to place its origin. Stood on the top of a nearby spire was a woman. Her hair was long and toned purple and red; the sides shaved close to her scalp. Billowing behind her was a deep red cloak.
Lenora Poultery (Sternritter C) lifted her arms to her sides and began to laugh. "I thought I might be able to catch one or two stragglers, that came to investigate... But four? Today must be my lucky day."
"By which she means, we do all the work and she gets all the credit," said another feminine voice.
Stepping out onto the roofs flanking Lenora's spire, no less than six more Sternritter revealed themselves.
"I'm not in the mood for your insubordination, Clarlonde!" Lenora spat out, drawing her sword. "You follow my orders!"
"Whatever you say, Miss," Clarlonde Emcell (Sternritter T) replied, saluting in a mocking fashion. The white military cap that she wore slipped down the side of her white and black hair.
"Don't you think four verses seven is a little unfair?" Dientlynne Deiweiber (Sternritter U) asked, with a dazed look on her face. She lifted one finger to her lips and tilted her head to the side.
"If you think that, I'd be happy to sit this one out..." Snow (The Yuki-Oni) muttered, scratching the side of his head and yawning.
"If he gets a free pass, then so do I," Clarlonde interjected.
Lenora leapt down from the top of the tower and landed in the midst of the group. "This is an order from His Majesty, Yhwach, himself. No one is to be sitting back. If there are more of us than them, then all the better to wipe them out quickly."
Basilisk Jones (The Dimension) glanced at her, sideways. As usual, the small amount of his face that was exposed, was gripped by unwavering melancholy. "She has got a point."
Stood at the back of the group, Adelaid Gotshock (Sternritter X) said nothing. Lowering her head, she attempted to hide her face behind her bright blue fringe.
"So..." Di said, stretching out the word and gazing off into space, through jaded pink eyes. "Is anyone going to stop them escaping?"
The Sternritter team suddenly realised that, in their bickering, they had given the Shinigami Lieutenants ample opportunity to make their getaway.
"Oh, I don't think so," Lenora hissed, pulling up one bright red lip and exposing her teeth. Tensing the muscles in her neck, she snapped her fingers.
The ground underfoot suddenly began to shake. A mere fraction of a second later, a gigantic white wall shot up out of the ground, completely encasing the area inside a massive circle. Hundreds of feet high, it easily blocked off the Soul Reapers' escape route.
Digging their feet into the ground, Rukia and Shuhei stopped short of the wall. Yachiru, who was gripping onto the back of Rukia's Shihakusho, also managed to stop in time. Renji, unfortunately, was not so lucky. Spurred on by the speed boost he had gained after training in the Royal Palace, he slammed face first into the structure.
Falling backwards, he grasped at his face and cried out in pain, just as the blood began to trickle down from his forehead.
"At least you're good for something, besides running your mouth," Eric Koertig (Sternritter R) said, stepping forwards and talking over the sound of Renji's screaming. Billowing up behind him, his long white trench coat caught the wind.
"You dare-"
"Do you really think it's a good idea continuing to argue like this?" Eric cut in, stopping Lenora short. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to finish this quick."
Kicking off from the ground, Eric rocketed through the air in the direction of the Shinigami. Forming from the ambient reishi in the air, a huge scythe appeared in his hands. Lunging forwards, he took a swing at the gathered Lietenants.
"Reap, Kazeshini!" Shuhei clashed against the Sternritter in a blaze of sparks.
Eric peered through the eyeholes of his skull mask, his face flat. "Interesting... Your Zanpakuto is a lot like my weapon."
Shuhei forced him back and leapt after him. Locking weapons with the Quincy again, she shouted over his shoulder at his comrades. "Scale the wall! Quick!"
Jumping into the air, the remaining trio attempted to escape. Even with Renji's increase in strength, to take on seven enemy soldiers would have been suicide.
As they climbed, spikes shot out from the surface. Leaping back, to avoid injury, they landed atop a building, the tiles cracking beneath their feet.
No sooner had they landed, spiritual arrows began to lash towards them. Flashes of blue and white flashed through the air, before exploding against buildings and walls, as the Shinigami dodged. The six other Sternritter all stood, firing upon the group, in an attempt to end the fight quickly.
"Damn it!" Renji hissed, releasing his Shikai and slashing at the arrows, to defend himself.
Shuhei, still engaged in furious combat with Eric, shouted over his shoulder. "Why aren't you running?!"
"Spikes on the wall!" Renji answered, still deflecting the shots. "I don't know how they're doing it, but we can't get out!"
"Shit..." Shuhei flicked his Zanpakuto upwards, deflecting Eric's scythe, and leapt back. Throwing one of his own twin scythes, Shuhei pulled on the connecting chain, sending it spinning through the air and controlling its path.
Eric knocked the attack aside, with the flat of his weapon and broke into a slight smirk.
"Don't let up on them!" Lenora shouted, ordering her fellows to continue the barrage of Heilig Pfeil. "Force them into a corner!"
"We know," Snow groaned, glancing at the Soldat Grand Mistress out of the corner of his pale eyes. Every so often, he would lazily shoot another arrow. "You don't need to remind us how to do our jobs. It was our idea in the first place."
"Lenny, I'm bored..." Di whined, lolling her head to the side and pouting as she shot. "Do I have to help you with this?"
"I told you not to call me that!" Lenora snipped, swinging her sword threateningly. "That there is Renji Abarai! He's the one that trained in the Soul Palace and killed Asuma. If we can kill him here, this war is going to go a lot more smoothly!"
"Ohhhh okay!" Di said, as if coming to a sudden realisation. Dispersing her bow, she leapt into the air and began to charge through the hail of arrows, towards Renji. Around her body, her long curly blonde hair whipped up in a frenzy.
"What are you doing?!" Lenora shouted after her.
Di glanced over her shoulder. "Well if he's such a problem, I'm going to kill him," she said in an innocently matter-of-fact manner.
Watching her comrade charge forwards, Clarlonde sighed in an amused fashion as she continued to launch bolts from her reishi crossbow. "She's such an airhead... No use reasoning with her now."
Ahead of the group of Sternritter, Renji continued to deflect the shots with Zabimaru's Shikai. Heilig Pfeil rebounded and flew away from him, along numerous different angles, before exploding against buildings.
Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on the hilt. His eyes strained. It was all he could do to keep up with the numerous different arrows screaming towards them. Unfortunately, this meant that he was distracted from any other form of attack.
"Hey there!"
Suddenly popping up in front of Renji, Di smiled widely. One of her hands shot out and grabbed hold of Zabimaru, holding it in place. As she did so, her free hand manifested a bow and railed an arrow into Renji's chest, point blank.
Flung back by the force of the blast, Renji slammed into the side of a building, cracking the white bricks beneath his back. The blonde Sternritter loosened her grip and released the Zanpakuto, allowing it to follow behind him.
"I'll be damned," Snow muttered, lifting one hand to his head, to shield his eyes from the sun. "She actually got him!"
"It's because she's so unpredictable," Basilisk replied, dispersing his bow and stuffing his hands into his pockets. "He probably didn't think that anyone would charge him through that swarm of arrows."
Still, Adelaid said nothing. Her eyes lingered on the floor and her bright blue hair fluttered around her face.
Clarlonde de-materialised her own bow and folded her arms across her chest, leaning forwards and squinting her purple eyes. "Eric's doing pretty well as well. That weapon of his looks pretty awkward to use, but the other guy is wielding something similar..."
Pointing to Adelaid, Lenora shouted: "You! I want you to go after the two girls. You're the fastest here. They've taken to the streets; find them! Do not let them escape!"
Adelaid merely nodded. Jumping from the roof on which they were stood, she landed on the road. Activating Hirenkyaku, she vashished from sight.
"This is chaos..." Lenora hissed through her teeth. "This isn't what I wanted to happen. We were supposed to finish this quickly!"
"But where is the fun in that?" chuckled a voice, from behind Lenora. "I quite enjoy a dash of chaos!"
The group of four Sternritter all turned and leapt back, gaining distance between themselves and the new arrival. Assaulting their eyes, the instant they turned, was a bright white glare.
"Oh no..." Basilisk muttered, through his half-mask, pulling his hood down to shield his eyes.
"What on earth is that?" Lenora asked, lifting her forearm to block her eyes from the light.
"Lets see..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi grinned, laughing from within his glowing costume. "One, two, three, four. Four! Hmm... That may be one too many, but I guess I can adapt. One of you will just have to die before we start."
Even as far away as they were, the group of Lieutenants and Captain Hirako could see the enormous wall rising up from the ground.
"Now that's ominous..." Shinji muttered, stopping to look at the structure.
"That's definitely a Sternritter's ability," Nanao said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "With that and all those bugs heading in the same direction, a while ago, I think we know where the majority of people are going to be heading..."
"Which means that it's the perfect opportunity for us to move, without being spotted!" Izuru cut in.
"Exactly," Nanao confirmed.
Taking to the sky, the group leapt from building to building. They had figured out where the Research and Development Institute would have been, using the sun as a reference. At the pace they had been previously moving at, it would have taken them several hours to get there. However, now that they had a distraction, they could move much faster.
They all moved quickly and precisely. In spite of the distraction, they made as little noise as possible. The last thing that they needed was to become careless and run into an enemy.
That was when they felt it. Spiritual pressure.
So crushing and heavy that it almost ceased to feel like spiritual pressure. It felt as if there were an ocean in the sky, and every drop was pushing down on them at once.
"What the hell?!" Shinji cried, his legs trembling beneath him. Beads of sweat formed on his face, before dripping upwards.
Around him every single one of the Lieutenants' legs gave way beneath them. Their eyes opened wide, their pupils pin-pricking from the sheer stress.
This is insane... Shinji thought. I haven't felt anything like this since old man Yama! Where the hell is it coming from?!
His eyes narrowed as he attempted to discern the location of the massive Reiatsu. Shinji's teeth began to chatter and the chilling sweat clung to his robes.
Sat on the top of an overlooking tower, was a boy. He sat with one leg crossed over the other and his chin cupped in one hand. At a guess, he appeared not much older than sixteen. His hair was white and flared up from his head, like whisps of soft flame. On the right side of his head, trailing upwards, were several jets of black hair, matching his flat eyes. Over his clothes, he wore a large poncho, trimmed with red.
Zeit Mehre (Sternritter O) broke into a silent smile, his lips curling in amusement.
This Reiatsu is way too strong! Shinji's mind screamed. We knew that there were some enemies that were stronger than the average Captain, from the first invasion... But there was nothing anywhere near close to this! It feels like I'm swimming in tar!
The Sternritter dropped from the sky and landed in the midst of the group of six. The instant he touched ground, they all locked up; frozen in fear. Standing up straight he leaned back and gazed, casually over one shoulder at Shinji. He smiled softly-
And punched him in the chest.
Zeit moved so fast that none of them even registered it. Shinji's sternum was crushed instantly. Blood spewed from the Captain's mouth, trailing in his wake as he flew through the air.
Reacting to the attack, Ikkaku and Yumichika both released their Shikais.
Zeit turned to his left, rolling along the shaft of Hozukimaru. His left elbow slammed into Ikkaku's ribs, breaking several of them. As the Third Seat was catapulted through the air, the Quincy pulled his Zanpakuto from his hands. In one swift movement, he completed another turn and struck Yumichika around the face with the blunt end. He was knocked out in one strike.
Dropping the Zanpakuto, Zeit lifted his left arm and grabbed Izuru's blade, as it was brought down on him from above. Orange sparks shot out from his fist, contrasting with the luminous blue of his Blut-enhanced veins.
Wrenching the sword towards him, he slammed his right fist into the side of Izuru's face. Knocked out, he span through the air and landed in a heap.
Nanao found herself unconsciously stepping back. Her eyes were glazed and sweat gripped her face. Her shoes dragged through the ground; her body so wound up that she couldn't even lift her feet.
Zeit stopped his fluid movement and stood, with his hands on his hips. Leaning forward, he looked into Nanao's eyes. He tilted his head and, as if to apologise, squinted his coal black eyes.
Standing up straight again, Zeit lifted his right arm and formed a small white bow from reishi.
"Cross of Scaffold!"
A luminous green blast cracked down from the sky, landing between the two and exploding.
The Sternritter jumped backwards, to defend himself, and dispersed his bow.
"Looks like we found ourselves a strong one!" shouted the man that had launched the attack. He wore a leather jacket and his hair was slicked back, out of his face.
"I'd usually accuse you of over exaggerating, Ginjo," another man said, touching down on the ground beside Nanao. He had long black hair and a scar across the left side of his forehead. Over his white shirt, he wore a pair of suspenders. "But I think you're right... Probably one of the strongest."
"So what do you say, Tsukishima?" chuckled Ginjo Kujo, slinging his gigantic sword over his shoulder and pointing down at Zeit. "You think we can take him?"
"I think we could give it a pretty good try," Shūkurō Tsukishima replied, smirking.