Chapter 37: Slipstream
Zabimaru ripped through the air, towards the female Sternritter. Dientelyn Deiweiber (Sternritter U) leaned out of the way, not once breaking eye contact with Renji. Her white frilly dress billowed in the wind, matching the movement of her long blonde hair.
The woman moved in an unpredictable manner, swaying in an out of the path of his attacks. Once Renji became accustomed to her rhythm, she would suddenly stop and change her pacing; almost as if she had become distracted and decided to venture down a different route.
Gritting his teeth, Renji tightened his grip on the hilt of his Zanpakuto. He needed to finish the fight quickly. If he didn't, he would soon be mobbed by more of the enemies.
"BAN-!"
Another arrow caught him in the chest, stopping him mid-release.
Di chased after him, as he was propelled by the explosion, all the while launching more arrows at the Lieutenant.
Raising his head, Renji registered the girl charging him. He lifted Zabimaru to take a slash at her, however she moved so fast that by the time he had initiated the attack, she was already inside his range.
Di reared up her right arm for an attack-
And slapped him across the face.
Renji broke into a dazed and bemused expression. "Did you just-?"
He never got to finish his statement. Reversing the motion of her body, almost as if moving in a figure of eight, Di slammed her left fist into the side of the Lieutenant's face. Taken completely by surprise, he was whipped off on his feet by the force and his head cracked into the ground beneath him.
Jumping back, she dusted off her lacey dress and broke into a bright smile. Her pink eyes gleamed out from her face. "I don't think I'm doing too bad!" she exclaimed. "And Lenny said that you beat Asuma... I thought you'd be stronger." Tilting her head to the side, she pouted.
Staggaring to his feet, Renji glared at the girl through his dazed vision. She had hit him harder than he thought. Once more, his trembling hand tightened its grip on the hilt of Zabimaru.
Placing her finger onto her lips, Di sighed. "We were told not to let anyone use their Bankai if we could help it... But this is boring."
Renji retreated backwards one step. Unease filled his body.
"Use your Bankai!" Di said, breaking into a wide smile, and pointing at her opponent. Her rose eyes began to glitter. "It's going to be much more fun if you use it, and I won't be as bored."
"Are you crazy?" the red-haired Shinigami asked, his eyes opening wide.
"I just don't want you to suffer," she replied, strangely sympathetic. "And while it will be more fun for me, it would also mean that you'd suffer less... Maybe."
Renji looked stunned. Never did he imagine an enemy prompting him to use his Bankai. He was weighing his options. The girl didn't appear to be as physically strong as Asuma, but that didn't mean she was any less dangerous. Her strange movements meant that she was landing a lot more hits on him; and that wasn't even taking into account what her power could be.
"What letter are you?" Renji suddenly shouted at her.
Di pulled a curious face. "I didn't think you'd ask me that. Just my letter? Don't you even want to know my name?"
"Okay then," Renji grunted. "What's your name?"
"My name is Dientelyn Deiweiber," she beamed. "And my letter is the letter U! But I don't think I should tell you what it means. Lenny might get mad at me if I do."
Renji's mind whirled in an attempt to think of every work he knew that began with a U. It didn't help that he didn't know very many of them.
He soon gave up trying to figure out what her ability could be. "To hell with it... BANKAI! Sou'ou Zabimaru!"
"So why are we running again?" Yachiru Kusajishi asked Rukia, looking up at her comrade as they sped between buildings and over rubble.
"Because there are four enemies," Rukia said, hurriedly. "How could we possibly take on that many of them at once?"
"Well if Kenny were here, he would say that we should just hack our way through them!" Yachiru laughed in response.
"As much as I'd love to be able to do that," Rukia replied. "We are nowhere near strong enough to do that with enemies like this."
"We won't know unless we try!"
Rukia pulled an annoyed expression. "I'd forgotten how lousy you were at sening Reiatsu..."
Yachiru turned around. "Lets charge in and take a wild swing."
The Thirteenth Division Lieutenant grabbed the back of Yachiru's Shihakusho and lifted her off of the floor. "No."
Flailing around, the pink-haired girl began to cry out. "Come on, let me go! I can take care of them!"
A bright red flash seared through the sky, as Renji released his Bankai.
"See!" Yachiru cried, pointing over the buildings. "Renji-chan knows how it's done! All guns blazing!"
An arrow flew past them and detonated at the end of the street, engulfing it in blue reishi fire.
Glancing over her shoulder, Rukia placed the form of a young woman chasing them. She had bright blue hair and wore a pair of white short shorts and blue stockings.
Adelaid Gotshock (Sternritter X) let loose another arrow towards them.
Dropping the small girl, Rukia unsheathed her sword and swung it towards the arrow. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!" Upon contact with her blade, the arrow was frozen solid; falling to the ground and shattering into numerous shards.
Rukia locked eyes with the girl facing her. Adelaid's face remained flat.
"Ow! That wasn't very nice!" Yachiru cried, lifting her head. After Rukia had dropped her, he had landed face first into the ground. She pointed up at her comrade. "That really hurt."
Adelaid eyed her, with a bemused expression on her face. "She's..."
Rukia glanced away from Yachiru, back to the Sternritter. Something strange was happening. The young woman was beginning to tremble; her hair turning bright crimson red.
"She's adorable!" Adelaid leapt through the air, towards the two girls.
Zeit Mehre (Sternritter O) formed a sword from reishi and lunged at Tsukishima. The blade of the Fullbring sliced clean through the reishi weapon. Digging his feet into the ground, Zeit stopped his advance just in time to avoid being cut.
Landing behind the boy, Ginjo took a swing with his oversized sword. Zeit bowed forwards, allowing the blade to fly over his head, towards Tsukishima.
Jumping back, Tsukishima avoided his friend's swipe. Slashing downwards with Book of the End, as opposed to attacking the Quincy, he cut the ground beneath him.
Zeit noted the movement, from his bowed position, and squinted his black eyes. Dipping and stepping to the side, he moved out of range of the two men, turning so that he was facing the both of them.
"There goes our two-front advantage," Ginjo sighed.
"All his movements are calculated," Tsukishima said. "He doesn't even move a finger out of place... We haven't so much as knicked him since this started."
Ginjo broke into a smirk. "How about I shake him up a bit." Pulling out his Substitute Shinigami Combat Pass, he slammed it into the guard of his sword. Purple light flashed outwards.
Zeit cautiously took a step back and formed two swords from airborne reishi into his hands.
Emerging from the light, Ginjo was clad in a suit of black and white bone-like armour. The guard of his blade held the visage of a skull, glaring out from the structure. Lifting the large sword, purple energy began to gather around it.
"Getsuga..."
The white-haired Sternritter's eyes opened wide.
Ginjo swung the blade downwards, launching a violet blast of spiritual energy. "Tensho!"
Zeit hurriedly crossed his two blades, blocking the attack. Exploding violently, the blast dwarfed the area in a veil of smoke.
Emerging from the haze, Zeit lunged at Ginjo. The sword in his right hand came down from above, only to be blocked by the Fullbringer's claymore. The Quincy's other sword came at him from the side, in an attempted slash at the man's face. Ginjo's right hand left the hilt of his sword, to block the attack with the guard fixed to his forearm.
Zeit's foot swung up and slammed into the Fullbringer's stomach. While the majority of the impact was absorbed by the armour, the force was still enough to take him off of his feet and send him flying.
Tsukishima appeared behind the young man, green Bringer Light flashing under his feet. His sword slashed downwards, in an attempt to strike Zeit across his back.
The Sternritter turned his feet inwards and, almost as if he knew his foe was behind him, span on the spot. His two blades shot up, in a cross position, wedging Book of the End between them.
He's already figured out that my Fullbring can cut through anything?
Zeit swung his arms to the right, dragging Tsukishima's sword down and out of the way. De-materialising the sword in his left hand, he pulled the appendage back up, so that it was pointing at his enemy's face and formed a bow.
Tsukishima ducked, allowing the arrow to fly over his head. The shot collided with a nearby building and exploded, levelling the entire structure.
Ginjo appeared again, behind the white-haired young man. His blade was wrought with green light, in the shape of an even larger sword. The blast cracked downwards, eclipsing Zeit's form in light, as Tsukishima leapt backwards.
The Sternritter leapt out of the blast and landed on the top of a low house. His clothes were slightly singed and his hair tussled, but little else seemed out of place.
All of a sudden, the roof caved beneath him.
Falling into the rubble, he was once again dwarfed in smoke and debris.
This obscured his vision just long enough for Ginjo to launch another attack. Leaping into the air, he swung Cross of Scaffold down in a wide arc. Purple spirit energy trailed in its wake as he did so. "Getsuga Tensho!"
Another violent explosion rocked the area.
Touching down next to Tsukishima, Ginjo peered into the smoke of the ruined building. "Good call inserting yourself into the past of this environment."
"I thought it would be best to plan ahead..." He quickly glanced sideways at his friend before returning his attention to the wreckage and holding his stance. "Likewise with the Getsuga."
"I figured that he wouldn't expect Kurosaki's technique," he replied, lowering his brows. "Did you notice it?"
"Yes," replied the taller man. "So it wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me."
Zeit emerged from the smoke and dusted off his poncho. He was taller than he was before and his jawline more defined. Emerging from the bottoms of his sleeves, his hands were larger and more muscular.
"He's been getting older since we started fighting him..." Tsukishima said, completing the pair's train of thought.
"Mayuri Kurotsuchi..." Lenora Poultery (Sternritter C) hissed between her teeth.
"The one and only," Mayuri cackled in response.
"I thought you were sent to kill him," Snow (The Yuki-Oni) whispered to Basilisk Jones (The Dimension). "Why isn't he dead?"
"He was more well-prepared than we anticipated," Basilisk replied. "So I moved for a tactical retreat."
"So you ran away," Lenora spat out, not once taking her eyes off of the glowing form of the Captain.
"An apt decision," Mayuri chuckled. "And I haven't even shown you a fraction of what I have up my sleeves."
"He's got the higher ground..." Basilisk muttered under his breath, to Lenora.
"Not for long," she replied, smirking.
Stomping her foot down hard, Lenora emitted a shockwave that rippled across the surroundings. The building on which Maryuri stood shrank and flattened into the ground, along with several others close to him. The group of four Sternritter simultaneously rose up atop a large podium.
Leaping from the platform, Clarlonde Emcell took to the air. Pointing down towards Mayuri with her index finger, she began to fire thin blasts of light at him.
Dodging the shots, Mayuri noted the ground beneath where they had struck. They left shiny poc-marks, as if they had melted the surface.
"Nemu," he said, jumping into the sky, to avoid another blast.
"How long?" Nemu replied, jumping in unison and pulling out several ball-like objects.
"Three seconds."
Nemu tossed the spheres down at Clarlonde, as the Quincy landed. Lifting her head, the Sternritter fired several more blasts from her finger at the balls, completely running them through. Two of the penetrating shots hit Mayuri in the arm, burning clean through his flesh and bone.
"Those things you're shooting aren't reishi," Mayuri hissed, smiling and touching down on the ground, with his Lieutenant at his back.
Clarlonde ignored him and lifted her other hand, sending a barrage of beams towards him.
As he ducked and dodged, the Captain's ostentatious suit began to slowly luminesce less and less. The glow flickered and dimmed.
Mayuri again began to laugh. "You're stealing the light energy from my suit!"
One of the shots seared into him, burning a hole cleanly through his right shoulder.
"A photon cannon," he mused, ignoring the melted flesh of his wound. "Absolutely fascinating. I had thought my research of Quincys was complete, but the more this war drags on, the more I find things piquing my interest. Splendid. Splendid!" He dodged another of the laser blasts. "However, this just won't do. I can't have you using my invention to fuel your attacks."
The glowing suit that surrounded him burst, like a giant balloon. Beneath it, he was revealed to be naked. His body bore numerous scars and bolts from his many thousands of self-modifications. Limp blue hair hung down from a small patch atop his mostly shaved head.
"Nemu, yours too," he said, as his daughter's own glowing outfit exploded. "Though a tactical retreat may be in order, to obtain more clothes..."
"Don't think you're getting away," Snow muttered, appearing behind him. Sprouting from his forehead were a pair of long thin horns. All around him, a blizzard was whipped up.
"Hmpf," Mayuri scoffed. "If you believe this is enough to freeze me, you're sorely mistaken. I've already modified my body to withstand temperatures much colder than this."
A pair of spikes, formed from the concrete of the street shot up from the ground and pierced the Captain's torso. Watching, through the snowstorm, Lenora broke into a smirk.
"Too bad, so sad," Mayuri sighed apathetically, spitting out blood from between his teeth. "I've already removed and replaced all of my internal organs." His yellow eyes narrowed. "However, I'm getting tired of this..."
Clarlonde shot another beam of white hot light through his torso. The spikes retracted back into the ground, allowing him to bleed out onto the ground.
Mayuri barely reacted. Instead he staggered to the side, his face blank. Reaching up with his left hand, he cracked his neck and casually spat out more blood from between his teeth.
"Do you people ever listen?" he grunted, glaring at the group of Sternritter. "As much as I enjoy observing you, doing so up close is just too tiresome. I'd much rather do so from a distance..." He glanced over his shoulder and past Snow, at something on the far reaches of his vision.
"You're awfully confident," Lenora said, raising one eyebrow. "I know you're well prepared, but do you really think you're going to be able to survive a fight against all four of us?"
"Of course not," Mayuri chuckled. "Which is precisely why I will no longer be fighting you."
Three figures appeared, wading through the blizzard. Dressed in tattered white uniforms, their faces were set solid and stoic. Fragments of bone-like mask were fixed either on or around their faces. Strange scars, like the kind from extensive surgeries, were present all over their bodies, covering almost every part of their exposed skin.
"Arrancar... Do be dears and clean up this mess for me." Mayuri broke into a psychotic grin.