It started out as just another normal day for the Division Zero members living up in the royal palace.
Five of the Division members were up in Hikifune's food palace, having their breakfast for the day. Tenjiro was lounging lazily into his chair, picking at his food and almost falling asleep despite it being a whole half an hour after waking up. Nimaiya was chattering excitedly about a brand new zanpakuto idea he had, blissfully ignorant of the fact that nobody really cared. Senjumaru was trying to get Yoriichi to eat more food after having his usual bento box-sized breakfast with the latter silently refusing to. Hikifune was just humming to herself as she dug into her own breakfast.
What was different with this particular morning was that the Division chief, Ichibei Hyosube, wasn't anywhere to be found. However, the Division members just chalked it up to him being too busy with his duties considering that it wasn't the first time he would be missing breakfast.
However, none of them were expecting what would happen on that particular morning.
"Good morning you all!" the monk suddenly greets, barging into the food palace with a loud bang.
Tenjiro jumps out of his chair, now fully awake. Senjumaru yelps slightly in surprise and Nimaiya turns to greet the monk with a hearty wave. Hikifune waves as well while Yoriichi just acknowledges the monk's presence with a slight bow of his head.
"So, I've got good news and bad news!" Ichibei exclaims. "The good news is that we're excused from our duties for today!"
"Wait, really?" Senjumaru asks, instantly on guard.
"And the bad news is the reason for that day off!" Ichibei exclaims. "We've got intruders in the royal palace!"
For a second, the five Division members just stared at their commander in complete silence.
Then they all suddenly stood up from their seats and shunpo'd out of the palace so fast that all there was left of their existence was a slight breeze of wind, billowing against Ichibei's cloak.
"Wow, that got them excited," he mutters. "Are they really that eager for a day off?"
"Intruders!" Tenjiro exclaims as the Division members rush to their battle stations. "How the hell did intruders get into the royal palace?!"
"Did the quincies somehow find a way to break through the 72 barriers?!" Senjumaru asks.
"...The clothing you gave those boys…weren't they made from your bones?" Yoriichi asks.
For the next few seconds, the Division members were silent.
"You're right," Hikifune says. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."
"No kidding," Senjumaru says. "Anyways, let's reprimand ourselves over this later after we deal with this. Yorii, you're coming with me. I'll brief you over our formation. As for everyone else, gear up for battle."
The Division members all nod before eventually splitting away.
"This royal palace is not the real royal palace. It is just a fake one we used to lure you over here."
Senjumaru turns her head to face the Sternritter standing behind her. They immediately change positions so that their king, Yhwach, was standing behind them, well protected as the sashes of the fake landscape rise up into the air. Standing at her side was Yoriichi, hands at his sides and his expression betraying nothing.
Lille Barro, more popularly known as the "Sternritter X," turns his sniper rifle to the two Division members and fires. However, large wooden pillars suddenly grow out of the ground, blocking the shot. Yhwach and the Sternritter watch as the wooden branches grow further up into the sky and cage them in.
"Hehehe, I can't believe I managed to do it!" they hear Hikifune say, looking up to see the fat lady perched on a branch high above them. "After all, it's been a while since I had to make such a big confinement. It was quite the hurdle."
"Eheh, what the hell is all this…?" Askin Nakk Le Vaar, more popularly known as "Sternritter D," sheepishly says, taking a look around as a drop of sweat rolls down his forehead.
"You all and your weird tricks!" Gerard Valkyrie, more popularly known as "Sternritter M," exclaims.
The Sternritter X doesn't give his own verbal response. Instead, he aims his sniper rifle up at the bars of the cage and open fires. Large bangs go off where his shots land, but the cage doesn't budge. When he tries to shoot in between the gaps, branches grow out of the pillars to block the bullets.
"Huh," the Sternritter says, bringing down his sniper rifle. "None of them are going through!"
"Handling food is the same as handling life," Hikifune explains. "I cook to create life…and I produce the ingredients from inside my own body! This Cage of Life, infused with my reiatsu, has a life of its own, greedily absorbing free floating reiatsu from the air in order to rapidly grow. Your bullets, which are made from highly-concentrated reiatsu, are just food for this Cage.
"You can attack to your heart's content, but it will be to no avail. You will never escape my Cage of Life!"
Suddenly, a loud thud sounds, alerting the Sternritter and their king. They all turn to see a very thin man with a flashy hair cut striking a pose in front of a glass box with some kind of light blue, slushy-like liquid inside of it. There was a sword floating around in the box, it's handle sticking out of the box while its blade was completely submerged in it.
Standing behind the box and its owner was another man, more regularly sized this time. He was wearing burgundy red garments and had equally burgundy red hair tied up to a ponytail. On his face were red, flame-like marks creeping from the left side of his head accompanied by a plain expression that revealed absolutely nothing at all. His katana was sheathed at his side, but his arms were at his sides, as if not wary of the fact that there were intruders in front of him.
"Yoooooo! It is I!" the thin man greets very loudly. "Not the number ten, nor the number nine, nor the number eight, number seven, number six, number five, number four, number three, nor even the number two, but the number one zanpakuto creator, Oetsu Nimaiya!"
The Sternritter weren't exactly sure how to react to that. So they opted to just stare at the zanpakuto creator.
"No reaction, huh? What a boring bunch! Now!"
Oetsu reaches for the katana handle in the glass container behind him. He pulls it out, revealing a long, dark-bladed katana.
"Why don't you all come at me at once so we can get started with the real battle started?"
Nimaiya slashes his sword to the side, clearing it of the blood that coated its blade.
The exchange lasted little more than just an instant. All of the Sternritter that were originally standing protectively around Yhwach all lay dead on the ground, not having been given the opportunity to even fight back in the slightest, all having been killed with a single cut. Even the king himself looked shocked for a moment, surprised at how easily his Sternritter were disposed of.
"With this test, I've concluded," Nimaiya says, his cheerful voice creating a creepy contrast to the bloody scene all around him. "After failing against a superior opponent a countless number of times, Sayafushi has been refined to such an extent that it is without flaws. It is sharp, but not so sharp as to let blood remain on the blade. It is light, but durable with no flexibility. It can fit in any sheath, making it perfect for carrying around. Sayafushi itself is now a perfect zanpakuto."
He then turns to Yhwach, pointing Sayafushi's blade at him.
"Now it's your turn, YH."
If Yhwach was at all perturbed by the threat, he didn't show any sign of it.
Instead, he just spreads his arms. Bright, light blue energy materializes from his hands, surrounding them. Nimaiya instantly brings up his guard up, anticipating an attack from the Quincy king.
I don't know whether his attack will reach me from there or if I'll even be able to deflect it in time. We don't have much info at all on this guy. Well, in that case…
Just to be safe, I'll slice off his arms and work my way down from there.
Bright, light blue light suddenly shoots outwards from the Cage of Life in a large ring. Nimaiya brings up Sayafushi defensively, but the light passes right through him harmlessly.
Then the same light bathes the bodies of the dead Sternritter all around him.
"My comrades, you're all my comrades," he says, as if answering a question Nimaiya and Yoriichi couldn't hear. "And comrades help each other out."
Then the light envelop the dead bodies of the Sternritter all around him. Then to his surprise, they all start getting off the ground.
"What the-" is all Nimaiya could say before he suddenly feels someone roughly shove him to the side.
Then he suddenly feels a sharp pain as two holes are blown right through his shoulder.
Nimaiya regains his footing, looking back up to in front of him, a shocked expression on his face.
All the Sternritter he had just killed were all standing in front of Yhwach as if they were never killed in the first place. Not a wound could be seen on their bodies. Even the blood from their injuries had disappeared. Sternritter X was standing at the front, his sniper rifle smoking and still aimed where Nimaiya was just standing.
"Idiot," he hears Senjumaru hiss. He turns to see Yoriichi and Senjumaru standing side by side in front of him. The latter was crouching in front of him, inspecting what was left of his shoulder while the former was standing in front of them protectively, his crimson red katana in his hand. He hadn't even noticed the two moving in front of him. "If Yoriichi hadn't seen the Sternritter being revived beforehand, it wouldn't have been your shoulder that would get blown out, it would've been your head."
"Ah, my bad!" Nimaiya exclaims. "But damn, whadda hell's up with that guy? Did he gain some new power or somethin'? That must be why his bullets can now penetrate through me."
"No, he never gained a new power," Yoriichi says. "Rather, he's now using a power he never got the opportunity to use before. Also, that thing that went through your shoulder, it wasn't a bullet. That's why-"
Yoriichi suddenly grabs Nimaiya's and Senjumaru's shoulders. The two Division members suddenly find themselves a few feet to the side from where they were before in less than an instant. Half a second later, a large bang goes off right on the wooden pillar behind where they were just an instant before.
"We can't block it," Yoriichi finishes. "Not with anything."
"It seems that you somehow know of my power," Sternritter X says, hoisting his sniper rifle. "But yes, you are correct. This is my power, 'X-Axis.' Since there are no bullets, it just pierces through everything between it and its target.
"But before we get to wiping out all you scrubs…Pernida, if you may do the honors?"
In the back of the group, the only Sternritter whose appearance was hidden by its hood, suddenly makes a weird, animal-like noise. Its head widens through its hood.
Then the branches that composed the Cage of Life all snapped in unison with a cacophony of noise.
In the distance, sitting at the steps of the royal palace, Ichibei Hyosube's eyes widen as he watches the large cage fall apart.
So he was able to even break free from the Cage of Life, the monk thinks to himself.
A gust of wind blows through as a large, dark mass suddenly appears in front of him.
"Well then, will you let me pass…Ichibei Hyosube?" Yhwach asks, looking down at the monk sitting on the ground in front of him.
Ichibei looks up to Yhwach from his place on the ground. Then just grins.
"You shouldn't say my name so nonchalantly like that…"
The monk pushes himself off the ground and reaches over his shoulder for the large brush strapped to his back.
"You might just get your throat crushed."
Yhwach stares at him for a moment, then he bursts into loud, raucous laughter.
"Do you really think you can defeat me, Ichibei Hyosube?" the king asks. "Maybe centuries ago, yes, but now, you don't stand a choice against me alone!"
"But I'm not alone."
"I hope ya didn't forget about me."
Yhwach turns around to see Tenjiro and Hikifune standing behind him, their respective weapons in their hands.
"Oh, so you think this is so much better?" Yhwach asks.
"Don't forget who we are," Ichibei simply says. "We are the strongest Division in the Soul Society."
"Even so, it won't be enough to stop me," Yhwach says. "Your whole Division fighting me together couldn't stop me. And since you two are here, what happened to your other two Division members? By abandoning them to my Sternritter, do you really think they will buy you enough time to put me down?"
"Don't take this the wrong way king man, we don't need to kill ya," Tenjiro says. "And we didn't abandon them to your Sternritter to buy us some private buddy-buddy time. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
"We're not buyin' time so that we could kill you. We're buyin' time so they could get over here after killin' your Sternritter."
"You're foolish if you think just those two are enough to even stand a chance against the Sternritter."
"We'll see if I am foolish or not," Ichibei says.
"Now then, come, Yhwach."
"Such a flimsy blade, it couldn't possibly hold its own against a blade blessed by his Majesty," Sternritter M says, launching himself at Yoriichi.
The Sternritter swings his large sword at the slayer's blade, aiming to snap it in two with a single swing. The slayer doesn't seem to move at all from his position. But then as the blade comes down, Yoriichi suddenly disappears.
The next thing he knows, he feels a sharp pain as his sword arm falls to the ground with a thud.
To any normal enemy, such a wound might have made an impact on the battle. However, to Gerard Valkyrie, "The Miracle," losing a limb meant nothing. With his power, anything that he has lost can be brought back in even better condition.
Gerard's arm grows right back, notably more muscular than before. Leaving his sword on the ground, he swings a fist at Yoriichi. To his slight confusion, the slayer doesn't dodge the hit. Just as his fist reaches him, his fist passes right through massless, orange flames instead of a human body, revealing the Division woman from before standing behind him.
"Senjumaru," he hears the man call from behind.
"I got it," she drawls, puppet arms emerging from under her cloak.
Before he could even process it, Gerard found himself bound by bundles of thin, golden string.
"W-What the hell's this?!" he exclaims, trying to struggle out of the bonds to no avail.
"Remember this, Sternritter," Senjumaru says, not acknowledging the valkyrie. "As long as your opponent is Yoriichi, not a single of your attacks will touch us. Everything you throw at him will be seen through and avoided. Like this Sternritter M here, whose ability to recover from any injury inflicted upon him and grow stronger from it."
"H-how the hell did you-?!"
"Now, are you all ready…for Phase 2 of the battle against the Zero Division?"
Royal guards suddenly surround the broken Cage of Life, hopping into the small area through its large branches. More puppet arms appear from under Senjumaru's cloaks, all of them holding large, sharp sewing needles.
But they all stand aside as Yoriichi gets into a combative stance. White air visibly hisses out of his nose as he holds his katana in the air beside him with both hands.
Breath of the Sun: Dragon Sun Halo Dance
A large dragon made of bright, orange flames rises up into the air and roars at the Sternritter as he dashes forward.
A/N: Altered dialogue and a possibly not-so-well-written chapter. Some parts of the battle itself has been altered to how I think the Zero Division would fight it out with Yoriichi to add as a factor. Also, I'm going to be starting again on another fic I was working on before on my very first account on this site so feel free to check that out any time. Se y'all in the next one!