Still alive here people! Just had to go through exam season, so I didn't have any time to write...Thanks for your patience.
Published a story that I had written for a while already as well. It's called Orange and it's about Coyote Starrk (one of my favorites) and Lilynette Gingerbuck. You can find it if you go to my profile.
Chapter 036 - Time is Running Out! Gotei 13 vs Arturo, Part I
"NOOOOO!" The twins screamed in fear as they saw Arturo do to Seigen what he did to them, but in a much more serious way. Combining his enhanced Sonído with his La Negra, Arturo started to jump from position back and forth, while cutting through Seigen's skin with his energy saber. Right knee, left thigh, left cheek, right shoulder, left side of the hip, right pectoral, right arm, upper back, right shoulder again, left pectoral, right thigh…It took just five seconds for all those cuts to be made and Arturo still continued to swing his saber up and down on his bloodied opponent. "SEIGEN-SAMA!"
"Bakudō #73: Tozanshō!" Someone shouted the name of the defensive spell. A single point of blue energy appeared above Seigen and extended downwards in four different directions, creating a solid pyramid of Spiritual Energy that acted as a protective barrier for the Captain.
"What is this?" Arturo asked, as he stopped his Danza de la Muerte to stare into the barrier. "Is this your desperate attempt to keep yourself alive, Shinigami Captain?"
"I'm afraid that's my Vice-Captain's work." Rose stated, as he landed between Arturo and the Bakudō spell. Immediately after that, Chikane and Jin'emon landed by his side, with Love being the last one to arrive.
"So we are the first ones, huh?" Love stated, as he stared to both sides to see if there was someone else around. This action was interrupted when Rose drew his sword. "Calm down, Rose. You know you'll get in trouble if you let your emotions get the better of you."
"Don't ask me the impossible, Love." Rose told him, with a very upset expression on his face. The blond Captain's teeth were cringing and the hand that held his sword was visibly shaking.
"Idiot! It's not like you've experienced something like that before." Love started to scold his best friend. "I know you for a long time, so I know. You never let your emotions rule your judgment while in a battle, so…what makes you think it will go well on the first try? Instead of fueling you, that anger will lead you to your fall."
"You're underestimating me, Love. I would never fight someone like him without being in full control of myself." Rose answered, before positioning his sword in a specific position. "Play, Kinshara!"
"Don't tell me I didn't warn you…" Love said after a sigh, before he looked over his shoulder to the Vice-Captains. "Try to check on Suzunami-taichō's wounds, Chikane. Jin'emon, you're coming with us."
"Hai!" Both answered, before the Captains and Jin'emon stepped forward to face their enemy.
"Will the three of you be able to give me a challenge?" Arturo questioned. He then pointed to the defeated Captain of the 5th Division. "I know from experience that that guy is an above average Shinigami Captain. If you're weaker than him, you shouldn't bother to face me."
"H-Hurry up…Iba…" Seigen asked, while she opened one of the sides of the pyramidal barrier, so that she could join him. Her hands immediately started to glow green, as she used her Keikatsu spell. "Those three don't know what they're getting themselves into."
"Is he that strong?" She asked.
"Strength is a minor problem. If we combined our powers, we would surely have a chance to defeat him." Seigen told her with a very worried look on his face. "However...his speed won't allow us to hit him! He's just too fast while using those wings! He had me completely overwhelmed!"
"Rose-taichō and Aikawa-taichō are both slower than you…" Chikane reminded him and herself, causing him to nod slowly. "They…They won't stand a chance!"
"Bala." Arturo whispered as he unleashed a bullet of energy towards Jin'emon, after the latter failed to slash him. The move was too fast for him to avoid, but Rose moved his whip in front of the Vice-Captain to deflect the energy back into his owner, who simply sidestepped the attack. Rose then launched his whip towards the Arrancar who flew away from it, to avoid it time and time again, without noticing how the stretching whip was being disposed around the battlefield.
"Kinshara Sōkyoku #7: Tsukinowa!" Rose shouted, immediately after the whip completed a wide, circular perimeter around Arturo. As the Captain unveiled the name of the technique, yellow energy flew from the whip towards the sky, creating a round barrier around the Arrancar. The only opening from which Soul Society's number one enemy could escape was above him, as the barrier only surrounded him according to Kinshara's perimeter and was left open on the top. Rose didn't give the Arrancar time to escape though. "Kinshara Sōkyoku #8: Kagenshō!"
"Closing the barrier to crush me?" Arturo asked to himself more than to the blond Shinigami, as he saw the golden whip constricting the energy barrier in his direction. However, a smirk appeared in Arturo's face. "Caja Cerrada Negación!"
"What?" The surprised Rose exclaimed, as he saw Arturo spreading both arms to the sides and generate a similar, dark-colored barrier around him that prevented Rose's to close on him. "You blocked my attack with a barrier of your own?"
"It's like a Gillian's Negación. You won't be able to break through it." Arturo warned his opponent. "I normally only use it to trap someone, but it can…"
"Hifuki no Koduchi!" Someone shouted, causing Arturo to stare upwards. Love held a large black kanabō covered with bladed protrusions, in a way that resembled a cactus, more than twice his height, which became quickly surrounded in flames. He brought it downwards, unleashing a huge fireball from the tip of the kanabō. "The idea was having Rose's barrier limiting your movements, so you couldn't escape my Hifuki no Koduchi…But you ended up limiting yourself even more!"
"If you think you have me defeated, you're seriously mistaken!" Arturo claimed, before he raised both palms to meet the incoming comet-like fireball. Love's attack, which had already entered Rose's column of energy, entered in Arturo's Caja Cerrada Negación and stopped on his hands. "See? I blocked the other Captain's lightning technique this way! Such a weak attack like this one is nothing to me!"
"Hifuki no Koduchi!" Love repeated, before unleashing a new fireball. The second wave of flames clashed with the first one, causing Arturo to have more difficulty in holding them off and his feet to deepen themselves on the ground. "You're right. My attack is weaker than Suzunami's Shiden Raikō. However, I can use mine as many times as I want to in a short amount of time."
"D-Damn you! Ce…" Arturo started to charge a Cero to blast the flames away from him, but something touched his right leg, causing him to instinctively stare down. The flower-resembling tip of Rose's golden whip had emerged from the ground and wrapped itself around his ankle.
"Third time's the charm! Hifuki no Koduchi!" Love unleashed a third fireball, while Rose tapped on his whip with his fingers.
"Kinshara Sōkyoku #11: Izayoi Bara!" Kinshara started to glow and make the sound of a strummed guitar string. The sound traveled up the length of the whip up to the flower tip and created a vortex of reverberating sound that acted as a powerful shockwave. That combined with the giant ball of flames that Arturo was holding off and the energy released by the previous attacks, caused a powerful explosion that destroyed everything within a considerable area of the blast. "Did we get him?"
"Normally, I would say yes." Love answered in the most sincere way, while he landed by his friend's side. "But today, I'm not sure…"
"They're actually doing a good job…" Seigen admitted his opinion, while Chikane stared proudly to the two Captains.
"People say Ukitake-taichō and Kyōraku-taichō are the best Shinigami duo in Soul Society, but I don't agree with that." Chikane started to say. "They are indeed the best in combining their Zanpakutō abilities, but Rose-taichō and Aikawa-taichō are far better overall. They don't even need to speak to know what to do."
"Not a bad analysis on your part." Seigen actually agreed, before their thoughts were broken by the sound of someone knocking on Chikane's barrier.
"What do you think, Kyōraku?" Ukitake questioned his partner, while they watched what happened from Jidanbō's shoulders.
"I guess with them here, we can run loose a bit and take care of all these Hollows. Don't you agree, Ukitake?" The Captain of the 8th Division didn't even wait for Ukitake's answer to draw both his swords and disposing them in a cross shape. "Flower Wind Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer…" After uttering the poem-like command, Kyōraku pulled the swords away from each other, generating a bright flash. When the flash cleared, Kyōraku's swords had become a pair of huge, heavily-curved, black Chinese scimitars with silver edges. The hilt and tsuba of each were still the same as they were in their sealed-form, but they now sported long red tassels dangling from the end. "Katen Kyōkotsu!"
"All Waves, Rise Now and Become my Shield! Lightning, Strike Now and Become my Blade…" Ukitake grasped the sword with both hands, with the incantation causing it to slowly transform into two separate blades. As the blades peeled apart, a large red rope-like chain at the base of the hilt lengthened and silver metal square charms attached to the chain started to fall until all five presented themselves. The blades became somewhat thinner than the normal Zanpakutō and the cross guards extended up the blades for about 15 cm. Up 25 cm from where the cross guards were, there was a 45 degree cut on the inside of the each blade where a second blade jutted back down, while remaining parallel to the main blade. With the edge of the blades facing inward instead of outward, the Zanpakutō looked very artistic and rather difficult to handle. "Sōgyo no Kotowari!"
"I understand that you're worried about what's happening over there, but let's do what Ukitake-taichō and Kyōraku-taichō have started to do." Aizen told to the twins, who were unable to take their eyes of the place where Seigen had been fighting in. "Let's finish these Hollows now, so that we can go there to help them."
"H-Hai!" They hesitantly answered, before finally looking away from the pyramid made of blue energy.
"Taichō…" Jin'emon called Love in a surprisingly controlled tone of voice, before pointing upwards. All who were near them stared up to see Arturo looking down on them with a quite upset look on his face. His white jacket was now much shorter and nearly sleeveless, after being burned away by the explosion. Not only that, the jacket was now open, revealing the Hollow hole on Arturo's chest. Finally, and most importantly, Arturo's left arm had been severely scorched. "It seems you were able to injure him."
"With all the energy we put on those attacks, it would be quite impossible for the opposite to be true." Love told to his Vice-Captain, before frowning. "Let's just hope he isn't able to perform High-Speed Regeneration. Otherwise, it will be a real pain to finish him off."
"High-Speed Regeneration? Indeed, it would be nice to have that. Unfortunately, I lost that ability when I became an Arrancar." Arturo revealed, much to the relief of the Captains. However, he brought his right hand to his left arm and pressed his palm against it, causing his arm to twitch. "Dementia!"
"Dementia? What is that?" Rose demanded for an answer, as he saw Arturo's arm twist frenetically.
"A shockwave that will cause numbness to one's body part. It's the perfect way to fight without feeling any pain and a way of healing that is much faster than…" Arturo pointed to the pyramid where Seigen was, but his eyes widened as he didn't see the woman that had been healing him. Instead, a young man with long dark hair was taking care of the Captain of the 5th Division.
"Gochūtekkan!" Five giant steel pillars fell from the sky, all of them hitting Arturo by his stomach as he stared upwards. The weight of the pillars brought him down to the ground, but Arturo was still able to move out of the way before he could be crushed under them. The Arrancar flew back to the sky, while the earth shook due to the falling steel pillars hitting the ground, and locked eyes with Chikane, the one who casted the spell.
"I'm growing tired of all of you fleas!" Arturo furiously roared as he stared to the four that dared to defy him. The Arrancar opened his mouth as much as he could, generating a sphere of dark red energy in front of it.
"Wow! Wait a minute! Isn't that a bit too much, even for a Cero?" Love asked, as he felt way too much power on the Hollow technique. Rose however, didn't seem worried.
"Can you take care of it, Chikane dear?" He calmly asked to his Vice-Captain, who drew her Zanpakutō.
"I'm not sure if I can take all of it, but I'll try…Bring Over, Tokumaru!" Chikane let out the release command, causing her sword to glow bright blue, before it changed into the shape of a gourd that was half her size. It was brown-colored and had light green cloth around it, some of which passed over Chikane's right shoulder and under her left armpit, for transportation.
"Cero!" Arturo unleashed a beam of energy of enormous proportions, in an attempt to destroy everyone around him. Shockingly to him though, the energy beam was being sucked by Chikane's Tokumaru, with a red energy outline surrounding the gourd.
"I've never seen her Shikai before." Love admitted to his fellow Captain.
"Tokumaru absorbs Spiritual Pressure-based attacks, but that's not the only thing it does." Rose pointed to the gourd, so that Love could see the red outline changing into a light blue. "It stores that power and converts it into Chikane's frequency, so that she can use it later."
"So you're saying it's like Ukitake's?" Love questioned, but Rose quickly shook his head.
"Ukitake's sword amplifies and redirects an opponent's attack on the spot." Rose reminded him, while he watched Chikane absorbing the last bits of Arturo's Cero. "Her power is a bit more restrained. Chikane can only store the power she absorbs and use it in a certain kind of way afterwards."
"I won't be able to absorb anymore of it, so…" Chikane focused the power inside her gourd and unleashed some of it to counter what remained of Arturo's Cero. "Tenran!"
"Kidō?" Love asked, with Rose nodding to answer, while they saw the wind tornado blowing away what remained of Arturo's energy blast.
"You dare to use my own power against me, woman?" Arturo asked with anger all over his face, before firing a new Cero. Chikane once again used Tokumaru to absorb the blast, but after a short while she backed away, with what remained of the Hollow technique generating a not too powerful explosion. "Ah, I see…Such a simple trick."
"What is he doing?" Love questioned, while he watched Arturo slowly descending from the sky, until he landed on one of the Gochūtekkan pillars.
"Trying to draw us to close combat, I believe." Rose proposed the hypothesis, before trading a quick look with his fellow Captain, who nodded. The blond Shinigami extended his whip, which swirled around the steel pillar where Arturo was standing.
"Trying to trap me in another barrier? Like I'll let that happen!" Arturo laughed as he jumped from one pillar to the next, just when the flower tip of Kinshara was about to touch him. He then fired a Bala, which exploded right on that same tip. "I noticed how your Zanpakutō works, Shinigami! The tip is the only part of the whip that has Reiatsu, since it's from there that your techniques start. For you to perform one or to stretch the whip, the tip spreads that Reiatsu throughout the rest of the weapon. The less Reiatsu the tip has, the more vulnerable it becomes. That's your weapon's weak spot!"
"Oh! You found out how to deregulate my Kinshara's movements? You're smart!" Rose wryly praised the Arrancar for the discovery he made. "But are you smart enough?"
"Once again, a Shinigami underestimates me." Arturo stated, before silently generating La Negra. He quickly turned around, just in time to block Love's Tengumaru, as the Captain of the 7th Division brought it down from above. "Two, I should say."
"Not! I was just trying my luck!" Love answered with a smirk, which made Arturo's eyes widen. As he looked over his shoulder, he saw Kinshara coming for him once again.
"I think I know my own weak points a little better than you. At least I know enough to be able to quickly recover from that kind of attacks." Rose informed the white-clad Hollow, who parried Tengumaru with his energy saber, before hitting a spinning heel kick on the tip of Kinshara, knocking it away from him. "Tsk! I hate to admit it, but he's actually pretty good."
"Expiación!" Arturo gathered La Negra's energy into a sphere in his right hand, before firing it in a cross-shaped blast towards Love. The Arrancar's movements were so fast that the blast quickly reached the afro-styled Shinigami, while he was still recovering from having his giant kanabō parried away.
"Tengumaru!" Love loudly called for his weapon, before using it as a shield to block the dark blast, which was strong enough to knock him of the pillar they were in. The Captain was somehow able to land on his feet, while his kanabō released a small amount of smoke from the place Expiación had connected with.
"What will it be your next…" Arturo started to question, before Jin'emon appeared right in front of him and wrapped the Arrancar's arms under his own. "…trick?"
"DO IT NOW, IBA!" Jin'emon shouted, just before Chikane appeared behind the Arrancar, whose eyes widened greatly.
"Sōren Sōkatsui!" Chikane generated blue spiritual energy at the mouth of her gourd, before firing it as a concentrated blast at her target, a blast much stronger than the original Sōkatsui spell.
"Chikane is putting all the energy she absorbed into that spell. This Sōren Sōkatsui will be almost as strong as that first Cero Arturo fired. And at that distance, he will…" Rose's thoughts were broken, as he saw the last blue flame extinguishing. "Oh no…"
"That...that can't be!" Chikane started in disbelief to the green wings in Arturo's back, which were now much larger than before.
"That energy you used was my own, so why are you surprised? I knew the maximum amount of power you could put on that spell, so I just had to increase the Reiatsu on my wings to an even higher level to block it." Arturo quickly explained, while both wings of energy returned to their usual size. He then slowly moved his head to meet the man who was still holding him. "As for you…"
"GET OUT OF THERE, KOTSUBAKI!" Chikane screeched desperately, but it was too late. Arturo drove his left knee into the Vice-Captain's abdominal region, causing the latter to release him. Having one of his opponents stunned right in front of him, Arturo swiftly waved his right hand, easily cutting through Jin'emon's sunglasses with it.
"AAARRRGGGHH!" A horrible scream of pain came out of Jin'emon's mouth, as he covered the right side of his face with both hands. Blood quickly covered his face, neck and chest, while the screaming continued.
"Jin'emon…" Love mumbled, before he was consumed in a blind rage. As he was about to rush towards the pillar from which he had fallen earlier, Arturo's words stopped him for a moment.
"So annoying…Fleas shouldn't be so loud." Arturo stated and then drove his right hand through Jin'emon's stomach, immediately causing him to cough a lot of blood. Chikane quickly rushed to help her friend, but the Arrancar grabbed him by his throat and threw him in her direction, causing both to fall of the pillar.
"I can't…I can't see. I can't…see…at all…" Jin'emon breathed the words, while Chikane held him with one arm as they continued to fall. Arturo's blow had cut through his only remaining good eye, stripping him out of his vision. Chikane furiously looked upwards, being able to see Arturo coming near the edge of the pillar.
"Cero." Arturo fired a new blast of energy towards the falling Vice-Captain duo, to which Chikane responded by putting her gourd in front of her with her free arm. "I realized your weak point too, woman. There's a maximum amount of energy you can absorb. That's why you blew off what remained of my first Cero with that tornado and dodged the second. But I wonder now…What will you do in that position?"
"Sō… Sōren Sōkatsui!" Chikane tried to use the spell again, once the gourd was filled with Arturo's Cero, but the original Hollow blast didn't stop, as Arturo continued to pour more and more power into it. The first few blue flames were pushed back into the gourd by his Cero and Tokomaru was forced to continue to absorb the Arrancar's Reiatsu. From the ground, Rose noticed that the gourd was starting to crack.
"Things are getting out of hand…Go, Kinshara!" Rose launched his extending whip once again, this time aiming for the Vice-Captains. It was their luck. The Cero destroyed Tokomaru into thousands of pieces, but wasn't able to harm them as Rose wrapped them both with Kinshara and pulled the away from the blast.
"I'll kill you, Arrancar!" Love furiously roared, as he came in range to strike his opponent down with Tengumaru, but the Arrancar kicked him away. Arturo then finally decided to draw his Fénix and used it to slash the pillar he had been standing on top until that moment. The heavy chunks of steel crumbled down, right on top of Arturo's three other opponents.
"I can't use Shunpo now that I'm pulling them! If I do, they'll be left behind!" Rose realized, while he pulled the Vice-Captains as hard as he could, until he understood it was useless. In a last attempt to save their seconds-in-command, both Rose and Love used Shunpo to appear between them and the falling steel pieces, using their own bodies to protect them.
"Damn it!" Seigen shouted, as he saw a cloud of smoke being raised after the steel chunks connected with the ground. "How much long will you take, Yamada?"
"I'm almost finished, sir! Just a little bit more!" Seinosuke told him, while he did his best to not look away from his Keikatsu spell, as he had the urge to see if the others were alright.
"Taichō! Taichō, wake up!" Chikane pleaded to her Captain, after she was able to get out from under Rose's dead weight. The blond Captain was unconscious, since a piece of steel hit his head and cracked it open. Jin'emon was also out, but because of all the blood he had lost.
"Crap…How could we have been so careless?" Love asked to himself more than anyone else, while he was unable to even get to his hands and knees. The biggest chunk of steel had struck his back and had probably broken one or two of his vertebrae.
"Why? Why did you?" Chikane asked him, while on the verge of tears. "You could've let us and attack him while he had his attention on us!"
"What's the point…of a victory that tastes like defeat?" He countered with a question of his own, before losing consciousness as well. Above them, Arturo flew with his now crimson wings, as he had just released Fénix.
"Time to finally feed on some Captains, my dear." Arturo spoke to his blade, before coming down from the sky like a bird of prey. To his great shock however, he found nothing when his sword hit the ground. Looking over his shoulder, he found six Shinigami behind him, from which only three still stood: Chikane, who was holding Rose, with his arm over her shoulders; Seinosuke Yamada, who was carrying the bloodied Jin'emon; and Seigen, who was some steps in front of Love, who the redhead didn't want to risk lifting. "How did you take them away from me? Answer!"
"What? We haven't moved from the same place." The surprised Chikane stated, without realizing the motive of the Arrancar's question. Seigen made a click sound with his tongue, before smirking, as he realized what happened and was probably the only one.
"I could waste some time to explain it to you, but I don't feel like it." Someone spoke from behind Arturo, after the latter turned around to face the last remaining Shinigami. Staring over his shoulder once again, Arturo's eyes locked on a Shinigami with long blond hair and large teeth, and who wore a regular Shihakushō. He was wielding a strange looking Zanpakutō, with a large ring instead of a pommel that rotated around the Shinigami's hand without him actually gripping any part of the sword. The first few inches of the blade were covered by an extension of the cross guard, while the blade itself was straight and slim, with the tip ending in a slanted razor-like edge instead of being tapered to a point. There were also five holes along the sword's length.
"Who are you?" Arturo demanded to know, while the stranger's Zanpakutō returned back to its sealed state. In this form, it resembled a normal katana, with a red hilt and an hourglass-shaped guard.
"This Reiatsu…" Aizen suddenly felt a greatly familiar spiritual power, before staring to Arturo's battlefield, many meters away from his own. Instantly, he recognized the arriving Shinigami. "That is…"
"Shinji Hirako, former Captain of the 5th Division and…" Shinji introduced himself to the Arrancar, while showing his usual wide smile that disappeared midway through his sentence. "…former member of the Royal Guard."
"Royal Guard?" Arturo seemed genuinely surprised for a while, before an evil smirk appeared on his face. "I heard some things about the Royal Guard in the past. Finally, someone worthy of my Fénix's touch has appeared. Would you mind to release your Zanpakutō once again, former Royal Guard?"
"Not interested…" Shinji said with a bored look, before stretching his right hand in Arturo's direction. "Bakudō #51: Katsujumei!"
"What is this?" Arturo demanded to know, as Shinji generated a thick cloud of a sickening-green smoke that quickly surrounded the Arrancar. The blond Shinigami immediately made use of a Shunpo to join his former Captain.
"Long time no see, Suzunami-taichō!" Shinji greeted him, as soon as his feet touched the ground.
"Eh, I told you you weren't the kind of guy to join the Royal Guard, but you never listen to me, do you?" Seigen asked, causing Shinji to slit his eyes in annoyance. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"It depends on what you ask." Shinji answered, while he stretched his hands to both sides of his body. Then, they felt a slight increase in Arturo's reiatsu, causing them to turn in his direction. He had blown off the smoke with his spiritual power, not letting it take its true effect. "Oh man… At least he could've inhaled some of the poison."
"Help Iba and Yamada in taking these three back to Seireitei." Seigen instructed, without acknowledging Shinji's complaints. "Be especially careful with Love. His back injury may be severe."
"What about you?" The blond asked, with a serious look on his face to match the one on Seigen's. "You're stronger than I am, sure…but I know you've been taking a beating up until now. Sure you can handle him?"
"I'll manage. Besides…" A smirk then appeared on Seigen's face. "It seems I won't be alone."
"Bankai!" Someone shouted from behind Arturo, immediately getting everyone's attention. An explosion of wind erupted around the silver-haired Captain and, when it ended, he held a pair of large knuckle blades, one in each hand. Both blades had a curved silver edge, which tapered off to an outward point on either side. Segmented purple bands wrapped around the entirety of his arms, much like armor, while a thicker purple band arched behind him, over his head, with its ends protruding from under his shoulders. Kensei Muguruma was ready to face Arturo. "Tekken Tachikaze!
"I hope you haven't forgotten about something, Muguruma…" Kenpachi Kiganjō reminded his nemesis, after landing by his side. "I'm going first!"
"Oh? Is that Kiganjō? Damn…He's even fatter than I remember him to be!" Shinji stated, while he locked his eyes on the Captain of the 11th Division. By then, a bald Shinigami wearing a white coat landed by his side. "That you, Kasaki?"
"Hirako-tai…uh, Hirako-uh…good to see you back, sir." The 3rd Seat of the 9th Division greeted the former Captain, before walking in Love's direction. "Muguruma-taichō sent me to help you on the transportation of the injured."
"Fine. We'll just try to decide on who will go with you." Shinji told him, before he turned back to his former superior. "Can you still use your Bankai?"
"I'm afraid not. I took too much damage to be able to use it effectively." Seigen admitted with a frown on his face. "But if you're suggesting that you should stay because you can use yours, forget it! No one is able to fight properly while your Bankai is active! Not even you!"
"Eh…Fine, you win." Shinji finally conceded, before he walked to Love's side. Chikane and Seinosuke had already left back to Seireitei, during the small argument between the two friends. Kasaki lifted Love's upper body, while Shinji took care of his legs. "I want to see you back in Seireitei. We have much to talk about."
"Sure." Seigen agreed, before drawing his sword from its sheath. With a worried look in his eyes, Shinji nodded to Kasaki and both left with Love on their arms.
Kensei delivered multiple punch-like blade strikes at an extremely fast pace, but Arturo continued to dodge time and time again, seemingly with no effort. A hard roundhouse kick from the right side followed, with Arturo blocking by raising his left forearm, which seemed to work fine despite the numbness he himself caused earlier. Kensei then tried a spinning kick with his left leg, followed by a second roundhouse kick, this time from the left side. Arturo blocked both kicks with his right forearm and then aimed a sword slash at the Captain, who quickly backed away to Kiganjō's side.
"What's wrong with you? Tired already?" Kiganjō, who already had some blood dripping from the right side of his face, asked in his usual provocative tone.
"If you were able to even touch him, you would notice how hard his skin is." Kensei countered, while he seemed to be favoring his left leg.
"No time to argue, guys." Seigen advised both rival Captains, while he landed between them with his Shiden already released. "I take it that this form is his most powerful one. His strength seems to have increased greatly when his wings turned red."
"He was able to defeat you, Love and Rose without being this strong?" Kensei asked, before whistling in appreciation. "Man, we're up to a hard fight, aren't we?"
"Not that I enjoy to fight alongside others, but we really have to take him down, so I'll open an exception today." Kiganjō spoke, before raising his claymore above his head. "Let's hit him with everything we have!"
"His speed hasn't increased significantly, so we still may have a shot to nail him." Seigen pondered aloud, before swinging his sword in Arturo's direction. "Hit Fast and Hard, Shiden!"
"Reigiri!" Kiganjō gathered a large amount of his purple Reiatsu around his claymore and brought it down, unleashing a massive energy arc towards his opponent. At the same time, Kensei joined both his hands together and generated a large sphere of light-blue energy around the blades they were holding.
"Ryūsei Gekido!" Kensei slightly pulled his hands back, before thrusting them forward, discharging a massive light-blue beam of energy towards his opponent. The three attacks combined into a single, gigantic wave of slate blue energy, which was easily cut through by Arturo's Fénix. "Great… Any more ideas?"
"I got one…Get out of the way!" Seigen shouted, before he disappeared in a Shunpo. The two other Captains stared in Arturo's direction, only to realize what he meant.
"Sōgyo no Kotowari!" Ukitake shouted as he absorbed the wave of energy through his left sword, directing the attack through the connecting rope. With the gathered energy now being stronger and faster than it originally was, Ukitake fired it from the right sword, towards Arturo. The Arrancar again cut through the technique, but this time he found that something considerably more difficult to do than before. "It seems we arrived just in time."
"Yeah, your timing couldn't have been better…guys!" Seigen agreed with Ukitake's words, as soon as he and the other two that had been fighting alongside him landed by the side of not only the white-haired Captain, but every other high-ranking officer available in Seireitei. The list included illustrious names like Shunsui Kyōraku, Ginrei Kuchiki, Yoruichi Shihōin and even the Captain-Commander, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.
"I believe my orders were to not engage Arturo directly, Suzunami, Muguruma and Kiganjō. You'll suffer the consequences after he is dealt with." Yamamoto scolded the three Captains, who didn't dare to answer back. The oldest Shinigami then turned in Arturo's direction. "I believe it's time to end this once and for all, Arturo!"
"Yes, it seems like it. For all of you to come out here must mean that you have resigned yourselves to die and feed my Fénix." Arturo pointed his sword to the small Shinigami army, before chuckling. "Seriously, what can you do against me?"
"Oh! They haven't started yet!" Someone spoke from behind the Shinigami group. Everyone started to spread to the sides, so that they could allow Kisuke Urahara to pass. "It seems we have arrived just in time."
"Hai." The person who came along with Urahara agreed with his words, while she followed him. The red-haired woman and the mirror-like artifact that she was holding in both her hands became visible to everyone.
"Konoka-sama?" The shocked Kudō twins shouted, as their hearts fell to the floor.
"Konoka?" Seigen asked, as confused as his children were. His sister's presence in the battlefield couldn't mean anything good. Indeed, that would be proved to be true…
Next Chapter: Time is Running Out! Gotei 13 vs Arturo, Part II
Author's Note: Okay, there were a lot of new techniques in this chapter, so I'll list them here for you:
- Kinshara Sokyoku #7: Tsukinowa - Tsukinowa (ツキノワ) means "Ring Around the Moon"; after performing a circular perimeter with Kinshara, Rose raises a yellow energy barrier to trap his opponent. The barrier is open on top, which is the only way for those who are trapped to escape.
- Kinshara Sokyoku #8: Kagenshō - Kagenshō (don't remember the kanji right now...) means "Last Quarter"; Rose basically forces Tsukinowa to close on the opponent, crushing him between the generated yellow energy.
- Caja Cerrada Negación - means "Closed Negation Box"; A more battle-oriented version of the Negación technique used by the Gillian. Arturo can summon a powerful circular shaped spatial prison of black energy to trap his opponents. It's as resistant as the original Negación and can also be used as a shield. The technique comes from "Bleach: Shattered Blade".
- Dementia - probably a translation mistake of the staff that made "Bleach: The 3rd Phantom", as the correct spanish word is "Demencia", but I'll go with what they gave us... The way I have to explain Dementia's ability to cure all stat ailments is that it consists on a shockwave that will cause numbness to one's body part. That way the user won't feel anything on that body part and can continue to use it in his fight. However, the arm will continue to suffer the effects of burns, electrical shocks, poison, etc. and may reach a point where the user may not be able to use it anymore, even though he doesn't feel anything.
- Bring Over, Tokumaru - Yobiyoseru, Tokumaru (呼び寄せる, 徳丸) means "Bring Over, The Virtuous"; It is based on Kohaku no Johei, one of the Five Treasures of Great King Kinkaku and Great King Ginkaku from "Journey to the West". In that story, Kohaku no Johei trapped the user's enemy and transformed it into sake. Chikane traps the user's energy and transforms it into her own.
- Expiación - means "Atonement"; I believe I never explained it before, so I'll do it now. This is the cross-shaped blast that Arturo uses in both "Bleach: The 3rd Phantom" and "Bleach: Shattered Blade". It was named in 3rd Phantom, as one of the moves of Ulquiorra.
- Mano de Hierro - means "Iron Hand"; The simple move where Arrancars use their hands as blades after hardening them with their Hierro. Just thought I could give that a name...
- Bakudo #51: Katsujumei - don't have a clue about what it means, it was named in "Bleach: The 3rd Phantom"; It's basically a poisonous version of #21 Sekienton.
- Reigiri - (霊斬り) means "Spiritual Slash"; it's another move we've seen throughout the series, where someone unleashes an arc of reiatsu by swinging his sword. Notable users include Kenpachi Zaraki (mostly), Shinji Hirako and Muramasa.
- Ryūsei Gekido - (流星激怒) means "Raging Meteor"; It's an improved version of Bakudantsuki, which Kensei uses in his Shikai. This one is meant to look like a light-blue version of Vegeta's Final Flash.