Chapter 25: War part II

"What the hell is going on?!" Kukaku yelled out as she had tried and failed for what seemed like the thousandth time to crack the dark dome, they were all stuck in.

"I have no idea," Kaien spoke up, stopping his little sister by grabbing her arm, "but it doesn't look like that'll do anything, so that's enough Kukaku."

She relented as her brother was right about her attempts not working. No matter how hard she tried to destroy the dome, it had not even a scratch on it from her attempts. From what they could tell, the entire Shiba compound had been encapsulated by this dome of energy. They couldn't see anything outside nor was there any light being shined in. They had to rely on kido and lanterns to see properly. Kaien quickly took control of the situation once people began to panic since Isshin was not here for this. He was able to calm them all down in the main courtyard and said that the ones outside would find some way to free them eventually. This had the intended effect as they all later realized that they still had running water and their food was still well preserved. They all began to relax and wait for a time, completely unaware of the ensuing chaos going on outside the dome.

All throughout the Seireitei, battles were commencing everywhere. The soul reapers were caught completely off guard by the sudden and systematic attack by these hollows that were completely different than what most were used to. Though most captains, the ones not either immobilized by the domes or absent, recognized them as arrancar and let their squads know the danger of such hollows. The destruction of the department of research and development was a huge blow as they had now lost their science division and would have to do this the old fashion way.

The massive tear in reality was still very much open and more and more arrancar were coming at a rapid rate. It was shocking to the soul reapers just how organized these supposed 'mindless beasts' were to have a full-on assault on their stronghold.

Over near squad seven, Aka and Misuto were battling Komamura and a few of the seated officers of said squad. The two were making short work of the seated officers as they were not a challenge to the two espada, but Komamura was a different story. While the tall, masked man was indeed strong, what really stood out was the fact that his shikai was a large, disembodied arm holding a massive sword. The damage that could bring would be dangerous to the two espada, so they decided to come up with a new strategy.

Komamura was the captain of squad seven and from what he was seeing, these two worked together well. He saw that they were starting to keep their distance from him as he had used his shikai earlier to even the odds a bit. As the two espadas were farther away, Komamura looked to his squad members and was surprised when he saw that none were killed like he had presumed them to be. Heavily injured yes, but not dead. The tall captain had no idea what to think of this as the two espadas once again reappeared at the squad seven barracks. Komamura wanted to know who they were and why they were attacking like this, but the two were having none of it.

Misuto stood back while Aka used his impressive speed to close the distance between himself and Komamura. He went for a vertical slash that was quickly blocked by the captain's forearm guard. While the guard was broken, it did its job of stopping the attack from doing more damage than intended.

Komamura forced the young espada off of him and went for a forward slash of his own. Aka blocked the blow, but the force of it all sent him flying into a building. Komamura did not waste time in sending a crushing shockwave from his swing towards the red headed arrancar. Aka dodged in time, leaping high into the air, to avoid being sliced in half like the building was. He fired a bala at the captain that was swatted away before using sonido to close the distance between them once more.

Komamura blocked several slashes sent his way and could tell that this opponent was indeed stronger than most hollows. Aka then did something that caught the captain off guard. As they clashed once more, Aka's body began to become less corporeal, and he phased through Komamura's blade.

Komamura, seeing this and seeing the arrancar's blade becoming tangible enough to do damage, used shunpo to escape with only a cut on his left shoulder. He grunted in frustration as Aka became tangible once again and stood at the ready for another clash.

"Before we continue," Komamura started as he stood up fully, "tell me, why haven't you killed any of my men?"

"We're under orders to only kill certain people." Aka answered him as he began to notice the subtle mist creeping along the ground.

"Orders?" Komamura raised a brow under his mask. "Whose orders?"

"Sorry. Can't tell you that." Misuto spoke from her perch high above.

Komamura noticed that she was exuding some kind of smoke or gas from her hands and that was when he noticed the mist at his feet. Thinking quickly and not wanting to know what this does, Komamura decided to end this quickly. Raising his sword high into the air, he shouted out.

"Bankai! Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō!"

A large samurai in black armor appeared behind him and toward over everything around the three. While Komamura was ready to fight, something wasn't right. He could feel his power slowly starting to leave him. His vision under his mask was beginning to distort and he began to sway back and forth, thus in turn causing the large samurai to do the same.

"What is this?" He said more to himself than to the two.

"It's taking effect." Misuto started from her perched position.

"What is?"

"Don't worry," Aka started as he sheathed his blade. "The poison is only meant to knock you out after sealing a large portion of your energy, captain Komamura."

Komamura went wide eyed as he tried to stay on his feet. "When did you even-" He stopped himself when he looked to the cut on his left shoulder and the mist around them. He looked back to the red headed arrancar with wide eyes under his mask.

"This mist is a poison that's only effective in the blood of someone, not the lungs." He explained as Misuto sonidoed next to him. "Don't worry captain Komamura, when you wake up, you and your squad will feel much better afterwards."

"H-how do y-y-you know m-my-" Komamura's consciousness began to fade away as did his energy.

Once he fell to the ground, so did his Bankai. It vanished quickly afterwards as the two nodded to one another.

"One down, six more to go." Misuto stated.

"Let's hope that the others have just as easy of a time as we did." Aka stated as he smiled to Misuto.

Nice. In all honesty, I was really wondering how to start this chapter as I knew that would be important. The next chapter will have another fight scene to it as well as seeing the rest of the Seireitei and what's going on with certain individuals.

You guys are awesome, and as always...

PEACE!