A Kenpachi's Field's Trip!
By Demod20
Chapter 14
Massacre Melodies
Seireitei, 12th Division Barracks
Central Operations Center
Tricky.
That's how this entire situation felt. Monitoring the various ongoing conflicts going on outside and within Soul Society proved to be testing the limits of current staff. Between the deployed Zombie Squad 2 facing enemies in the wooded territory far away from Rukongai, and the Seireitei under siege, he wondered just how quickly the Captain and his own Zombie Squad can return to help reinforce the Captains in the field.
But Lieutenant Akon of the 12th Division, and Second in Command of R&D Department, had dealt with the Wandenreich. This situation may be certainly risky, but it paled in comparison to the direness of the Quincy Invasion.
"How is Zombie Squad 2?"
"It looks as if they're close to triumph. All of them have released their Resurrecion, and are making quick work of the enemy," A bulbous eyes researcher said. "They appear to be on the last ropes based on their Reiatsu."
"Alright," Akon nodded, a bit of relief in his voice as he looked to a female researcher to inquire. "How close is the Captain?"
"His ETA is undetermined," She replied, frantically examining the signals with a fly of her hands over keys at a board in front of her. "There's something obscuring his side on the Dangai Precipice World road he's on. He's slowed his approach to investigate."
"Dammit," He swore, looking at the screen over her shoulder. "That energy. It looks similar to what we saw appear in the World of the Living, back at the Saitama Prefecture."
"Sir, some of the other signatures are heading his way at a quick pace, and others right be-"
"Ichigo Kurosaki tailing the rest!" Akon exclaimed. "What's going on? Why is he involved?"
"Should we contact him? It appears he has the badge in hand," The female researcher asked with a statement.
"Go ahead," He intoned, standing by her as she typed in commands to establish a connection.
After a brief few moments, Ichigo's voice picked up over the speakers.
"Akon? You know I have a Soul Phone, right?" He dryly responded through the speakers.
"Nevermind that," Akon ignored, leaning towards the microphone next to the female researcher. "Listen, I don't know how much of the situation you're appraised of, but we're under attack."
"What?!" He cried loudly. "Is everyone okay? How strong are they? Who are they?!"
"Lower your voice," Akon grimaced, replying quickly. "Human based enemies infiltrated the Seireitei. Casualties are several hundred unseated Shinigami, four officers and two Captains so far. The rest are in pitched combat with the Captain Commander in the field."
"Which Captains and Lieutenants are hurt, and how bad?"
"They'll live, Kurosaki," Akon replied with irritation. "But I advise you to hurry. The energy ahead of you is about to collide into Mayuri's squad. And they're investigating a phenomena blocking the path."
"The guys ahead of me are going to help end the conflict. We have a different enemy to focus on instead of each other," Ichigo explained. "His name is Jadow, the Ragnarok Beast. Some kind of monster from these guys' world. It plans on destroying theirs and could possibly do the same to other places if given the chance."
Akon narrowed his eyes.
Jadow? An entity capable of world destruction? Not a threat one could discount. But, he needed more proof before sending an urgent message to the field.
"If you can get here and testify to the Captain Commander after the battle has been resolved, I think there's a potential for discussion," He cautiously advised.
"Whatever," Ichigo brusquely acknowledged. "I'll speed on ahead to see if I can't get these guys moving faster."
The message disconnected.
"Sir, the obstruction," The female officer said, eyes wide with alarm, "it's merging with the Dangai!"
"What the Hell?!" Akon exclaimed, his own eyes looking oblong at the screen. Of the blue signatures standing in the path, with green shapes racing behind and a yellow one indicating the Substitute Shinigami, the red one ahead merhed into the ethereal pathway and walls surrounding it. "This is bad! Get me in touch with the Captain, stat!"
Dangai Precipice World
Seireitei Senkaimon Path
Minutes ago…
Mayuri Kurotsuchi stopped at just a few minutes away from what looked to be an amalgam of spirit energy. Blackish energy akin to what is displayed back at the World of the Living pulses, shaped to appear a misshapened heart.
The short Nemuri looked at it curiously, yet Mayuri raised a hand to keep her from approaching.
The energy began to unravel, the walls of the Dangai slowing to stillness as the whole of the bleak atmosphere became a monochrome grayscale. A monstrous wave of power emitted from it, melding into the ground and the walls, swelling upward while spreading wings of a draconic shape while the head of a horned devilish fiend with pupiless white eyes and jagged teeth spread into a cruel grin.
"Shinigami, you shall go no further," It spoke, stretching oozing flesh in a disgusting twist of macabre flesh and overflowing energy. "I am Jorge Descardes, Son of the Ragnarok Beast! In this realm of chaos and darkness, I am at my strongest, and you are trapped with nowhere to go. Prepare to meet your end!"
"We can always go back out the gateway behind us," Nemuri pointed behind herself.
Jorge laughed, a wave of monochrome energy rippling beneath their feet and carrying far behind them. Before their turned gaze, a distant light blinked off, signaling that the rift behind them had shut.
"Nemuri, keep your mouth shut," Mayuri sighed with exasperation.
"Okay!" She cried out, placing her hands over her mouth.
"Number One and Three, destroy him," The Captain casually ordered.
Number One, aka Coyote Starrk, and Number Three, aka Tier Harribel, tore off their cloaks, unveiling scars across their bodies. Stitches could be seen over Starrk's chest where his upper torso's Hollow was placed; while Harribel had stitches over her chest and across her waist.
The pair released their Zanpakutō, an eruption of immense blue to yellow reiatsu flooded the air, briefly contrasting the black and white backdrop of their environment. Starrk wielded a pair of pistols, discharging a salvo of cobalt Cero, firing holes into the monstrous shadow before them. Harribel hefted her massive Pata, releasing a powerful cutting fissure of liquid infused reishi that cut into it.
The darkness pulled the walls inward, reforming the black winged devil, its horned viscous stretched smile grinning menacingly down at them.
"You cannot destroy me. In this place," He rang out, an enormous black claw surging out of the wall to their left, thrusting forth to crash into them, "I am God!"
Tier swung her Pata, unleashing a massive typhoon of water with a thuum. The hellish black claw tore through it, forcing her to evade with a Sonido, as the others leaped back to retreat away from other tendrils of black firmament.
"Captain, retreat!" He heard over his comm ear piece, hidden beneath his elaborate golden enamored headdress. "He's melded with the Dangai! He can use Reason to eradicate any reishi it comes in contact with!"
"I can see that," Mayuri hissed, leaping back with Shunpo, carrying Nemuri underarm as he did so. He observed as Zombies #1 and #2 fired at the wall of black arms, doing little to halt it's approaching momentum.
Halting behind them was a flying machine, filled with the Crime Sorciere Wizards.
"Balmunk! Something's bad ahead!" Cobra cried out, his eye finally seeing what his ears had been indicating. "One of those Darkness Slayers is doing something to the ground and walls. And the spooky guy and his goons are running from it!"
"I can barely fly this thing forward! Turning around is impossible!"
"Shit!" The 2nd Generation Slayer swore, realizing they were boxes in.
And then, a figure appeared in a flutter of swift movement. Cleaver in hand, he walked ahead slowly as Chad landed in front of the machine.
"You!" Mayuri spat, his run coming to a stop as Ichigo walked past him. "What are you doing?"
"Stand behind me," He intoned, his eyes staring at the monstrous wall of stretching arms of darkness.
And, in a flash of gold, a blinding flare of reiatsu erupted forth. The Dangai trembled, rippling out and back in a warped distension around him. The approaching arms evaporated, exploding in molten pus and unraveled back to the winged being ahead.
"I-Impossible!" He cried out, his voice trembling as his face contorted and eyes winced at seeing the bright light pushing against him. "That aura…what are you?!"
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami," Ichigo intoned calmly, raising his blade up above his head while golden ringed eyes glared ahead. "And you're in my way."
Getsuga Tenshō
In a single flash of light, the darkness became cut in two. Burning away in a haze of vapor, the great obstacle separating themselves from the open Senkaimon is removed.
"Come on," Ichigo coolly spoke, hefting the blade onto his back with a click. "Let's end this."
Mayuri huffed with annoyance while the whole entourage looked on awestruck. The awesome power on displayed was nothing short of mind bending. The only person that didn't look shocked by the show of force is Sado Yasutora.
I'm glad you're still on our side, Ichigo
Chad thought this as he continued onward ahead, with the Captain's unit and the Wizards following.
Out of the dark and into the light.
Richard felt terrible pain. Ever since the other spirits arrived, their battle went from being in their favor to a fight to just survive. They were strong, forcing Rustyrose to manage what he could to concoct properly made constructs while also keeping Azuma and Zancrow's manifested. Angel used up her magical energy too quick, and had been cut down quickly.
Leaving him open to being kicked repeatedly into the ground. A place he normally held dominion barely comforted him with every forceful impact. An effeminate man's foot crushed his head further, all while Rustyrose lied on the ground, bleeding out and Angel wrapped up in a powerful large tentacle.
"You lot proved more stubborn than you're worth," Luppi noted with a snobbishly bored voice. His pink eyes scanned the trio, a look of dull disgust painted across his delicate features. "Splitting up over here was a mistake. I just hope that Shinigami will find you interesting enough to not shock us again."
"That's enough, Luppi," Cirucci tried to cut in, her feathery head looking at him with disapproval. "Let's just take the bodies and get these worthless Ryoka back to the lab."
"Senor and Senora, I think you judge too harshly," Dordonii countered with erratic gestures. "They were strong opponents, for humans. They even had the ability to hold me off after I used my Resurrecion!"
"Yet, when I released my Zanpakutō, they got folded like laundry," Luppi countered with a sneer, squeezing Angel more tightly to earn a moaning cry from her. "This one here has potential, but she tried to shield the old man and glasses over there. Had she had proper sense, she would have focused on her enemy instead of getting so distracted."
"Of course, they're not of a caliber of warrior such as us," The ballet dancer dressed Arrancar enthused with a smug grin of his own, driving his heel into Richard's skull. "We are all esteemed fighters, bested in combat by respectful opponents! Oh wait," he paused, a smirking stare pointed at an annoyed Luppi. "You didn't fall in battle, did you, Luppi?"
A sudden immense reiatsu filled the air, making Dordonii and Cirucci instantly alarmed. Luppi's other arms rose up into the air, each one protruding a series of extended spikes from the tips; pointed down at the large beefcake Arrancar.
"Do you want to die, Charlotte Culhorn?" Luppi asked, his voice hissing in anger belied by the pretty sound his lips normally made. "I can arrange so that you can also die a disgrace a second time!"
Unbeknownst to them, Rustyrose wasn't unconscious from blood loss. Using Arc of Embodiment, he had feigned death at that last moment when it appeared as if he had been cut deep and his blood gushed out; whereas it was all a sham he put on to get them to not pay attention.
So when the ground beneath their feet erupted forth with an immense blaze of light, sweeping all four Arrancar off their feet from their spaces, did he rise up slowly and laugh.
"You underestimate the power of my magic, Arc of Embodiment!" He cried out, his smile spread savagely and he no longer composed himself. Gesturing a dirtied glove at them, he saw a rising tower with the four spirits embedded into it, staring at them with a glint of victory in his shade covered eyes. "Where you had cut myself, I had armored my skin and cast blood in the air to make you believe you got the better of me! But now, you're going to taste despair!"
Turning about his heels, he gestured outwards in presentation, the tower glowing a bright violet light.
Tower of Babel!
Exploding upwards in a voluminous discharge of energy, all could see from miles around; like a beacon of violet light, fireballs escaping from the tower, as smoldering silhouettes raced down to the ground.
Except one materialized behind Rustyrose, swinging eight tendrils down to crush the life out of this man. A massive crash of earth upheaved the land, rippling out in fragmenting bits of hardened dirt. A torn piece of purple fabric and a pair of cracked shades is all that emerged from the detris of smoke rising from the dark crater Luppi made.
"Dammit, Luppi!" Cirucci swore, rising from her fiery crater mostly unharmed thanks to her Hierro. Similarly the others also raised up, Dordonii dusting himself off while Charlotte strutted as if nothing happened.
"What? That insect was beginning to piss me off," Luppi stated with query, turning to look at the female Arrancar with annoyance.
"We needed him for Mayuri's research!" Cirucci exclaimed, her hands pulling at her violet bangs with frustration. "Akon is likely logging down his death. He'll know even if we lied."
"What good is one dead when we still have…wait," Luppi stopped, looking around the ruined meadow he blasted. "I don't see the other bodies. Where are they?"
"Looking for these?" A man's voice inquired behind them, causing all four of them to whirl around. Richard and Angel is held up over the man's back with one arm, with Rustyrose lying by his leg, a tall man with dark skin with brown hair with baggy pants and a purple vest over his chest.
"Who the Hell are you?!" Cirucci snapped angrily, while Luppi stared boredly at the hulking man.
"He looks strong," Dordonii said with a smile. "Senor! Your reiatsu has the feel of a Hollow, but you look like a human. Are you per chance in relations with Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"That's right, we're friends," Chad admitted, his one visible eye gazing back impassive. "He went on ahead to the Seireitei with the spooky Captain. These guys' friends are not far behind me to pick them up."
"Ohhhhh, that is good to hear!" Dordonii shouted, a smile stretching across his face.
Before any of his colleagues could say a thing, an explosion of reiatsu expanded from the Arrancar.
Twisting cyclones of reishi roared about, sending his comrades dashing out of the way with alarmed expressions. Avian masked tornadoes numbering up to six formed around him, kicking up the debris with a bluish flame of reiatsu venting from the Arrancar.
"Come on, Senor! Let us battle like demons to our hearts content!" He roared out, hands spread out with bloodthirsty exhilaration.
Chad sighed.
"I don't have time for this," He muttered under his breath.
A massive beaked tornado swooped down to lance into his head. Dropping Richard, he transformed his right arm in a slurry of blackish red, a shield shape with markings slammed into the front of the tornado; discharging in a massive pillar of reishi.
The others stretched out to intercept him, finding his foot kicking one aside and his left arm transforming to backhand another. A flicker of emerald light, and he moved in front of his adversary in an instant.
Dordonii tried to evade, a red arm lancing out to grab his beard. He yelled out, watching in horror as a red lined white fist rammed towards him; in his eyes appearing to be the fist of an infernal demon.
Stopping short an inch, a crackle flowed out and a thuum smashed into the Arrancar. His face jerked to the side, the outline of a fist denting his jaw as he flew backwards in a supersonic boom! All the twisters vanished, and so did the reiatsu of the excited Shinigamified Hollow.
"I held back so you wouldn't die," Chad said, eyes aglow of a reddish tint at the other three Arrancar. "Who's next?"
"Nope!" Charlotte swung his arms in an X over his chest, marching away. "I'm good!"
"I…don't want to take my chances," Cirucci said with bulging eyes.
"Tch! I'm tired of this," Luppi hissed, his body sealing back to normal in a glow of gold. Sheathing his Zanpakutō, he turned away, eyeing Chad with a glare. "Be grateful that the Captain didn't order us to capture you."
And, in a triage of sonic booms, the Zombie Squad left.
Chad huffed, grimacing as he raised his giant arms. It shook in place, a familiar sensation threatening to take over. He had to will it away, the shield folding and returning to it's subdued state. The fluid withdrew back within, both arms returning to normal.
That shroud, He thought with sweat crawling coldly down his scalp. It wants to envelop me. But, if I lose control here, the collateral damage could be much higher.
"Why not let it out?"
A voice spoke to him, echoing in his mind, and reverberated within his body. His eyes wide, feeling cold all over, chilled as if he stepped into a blizzard.
"If you don't, your precious Soul Society will fall."
"Ichigo's got this," He argued aloud, looking around, the environment having dulled into gray-scale, colorless and everything became muted but his own voice. "He doesn't need me making things worse."
"You've always been left behind, Sado Yasutora. Do you want to remain this way, always in his shadow?"
"I'm not in anyone's shadow!" Chad cried out, his hands balling up into fists angrily. "Show yourself, and I'll prove it to you!"
"Are you sure you want that?"
Chad suddenly heard a foot step behind him. Shakily looking over his shoulder, he gasped at what he saw.
Darkness had filled the sky, stretching down to eclipse all sight over the distant Soul Society. Walking out of the blackness came a man, his hair filled out to the canvas of lightless onyx behind him. Red eyes burned like coals with black backdrops, a sharp nose angled strongly with chiseled jawlines with peppered stubble of dark hair. Scaled armor wrapped about his body from the neck down, a massive cape flowing back into the dark background behind him.
Chad felt terror fill his mind, his body stood still, trembling. The sheer depths of power felt endless, eternal, as if he was staring into the eye of a black hole in the far reaches of outer space. Such power permeated in waves, each one persistently larger than the last.
His knees buckled upon his approach, the pressure pulling him down in what seemed to be a gravity well. Falling onto his knees, his hands stopped his face hitting the ground, heaving lungfulls of air while he felt the dark gnawing at his skin from the inside.
"You can't even lift your head to look me in the eyes you're so full of fear," He spoke to him, looming over him like a colossal tower of evil. "Admit it, you're desperate for power. You crave it. The very idea of being weak scares you more than anything."
Chad reeled from dizziness, nausea swirling inside of him. Every part of him felt like ice, chipping away at his insides. He couldn't even raise his head, the pressure overwhelming him completely.
It's always like this! He thought, remembering to saving the child's soul trapped within a bird. No, not him, Ichigo did. He fought phantoms he couldn't see and to no avail.
Whom did he actually protect?
He couldn't save Orihime from Yammy. He couldn't defeat an Espada. Xcution manipulated him against his own friends. The Wandenreich stormed Soul Society and nearly killed him, over and over again.
He doesn't want to be powerless.
Never again!
VMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
A swathe of darkness rose up in a spiral of blackness. Darkening the sky, Chad knelt down, within the sparking outburst of reiatsu he's venting.
His fingers rippled with darkness, his body rising with a wafting flame of blackness. His skin transformed, red lines wrapping around his muscles in detailed patterns, his left side becoming embroiled in a fiery mantle of onyx reishi. His face covered, hair folded over, a mask of black skin formed with only a pair of red eyes shining from behind them.
"Excellent," Jadow spoke, grinning behind him in a specter of his own shadow. "You have an amazing body, to attune to my power so well. I wish to see how you fair, against Soul Society."
Not far away, Cobra heard it. A voice speaking from the dark. As he and the others touched down to retrieve their fallen comrades, the same thing happened after the Zombie Squad left. An enormous aura akin to the Darkness Dragon Slayers.
"What happened? What's going on with the big guy?" Jesse asked, nervously eyeing the fizzling pillar of darkness fading from the sky, but the presence of magic still there.
"That bastard, Jadow!" Erik hissed, looking over at the gathered huddle in the shadow of a tree. "Chad's gone over to the enemy's side!"
"Oh dear!" Balmunk exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Damn, this complicates things," Racer intoned, grimly spreading his lips. "Given how strong he was back then, I don't think any of us stand a chance. We've gotta get back to Jellal and get him out of there, stat!"
"You're the only one fast enough to get there before he does," Cobra said, rising up to his feet and walking away.
"H-Hey, where are you going?!" Jesse cried out in alarm.
"I have to slow him down. I'm the only one here who can."
"You'll die!" She cried out, tears forming in her eyes.
"I don't plan on dying," Cobra spoke, smirking as he walked around the trees and into the clearing.
Right into Chad.
Shit! Erik inwardly swore, his body freezing up at seeing the blackish, red veined monster towering over him. His one eye looked up, the film stretched visage staring down, two red eyes narrowing like camera lenses.
Steam came from where the mouth should be, giving Cobra a chill sweeping his spine.
"Hey, big guy," Cobra muttered out, a bead of sweat sliding from his brow down to his chin as he took a step back. "Remember me? I'm the guy who saved your life. Wanna do me a solid and not fight me?"
The black giant groaned. An eerie exhale came from it's covered mouth, wafting over the sweating Slayer. He took a step forward, raising his head-
BZZZT!
-then disappeared in front of the Slayer, slipping past his senses and erasing his presence.
"He…just left," Erik thought out loud, falling onto his haunches with breath coming out rapidly. His heart thundered in his chest, his single eye dilated and cold sweat sloughed off his face down his neck.
"He could have killed me, but he didn't think I was worth it, huh?" He spoke bitterly to himself, looking up at the sky.
He sighed.
"Some distraction I turned out to be," Erik muttered.
Destruction is rampant across the Seireitei. A cacophony of thunderclaps sounded across the skyline about towering structures, some collapsing on impact or even proximity. Streaks of lightning followed, with faint outlines of rapidly moving figures.
Amidst those is the Living Incarnation of Master Zero. His sleeves torn, spotted animal pelt waving about his waist, his dark green uniform having splotches of blood trailing up his chest to his face, a dark smile stretched across his pale visage. Red eyes aglow with malicious glee, his hand holding the neck of Captain Tetsuzaemon while a boot planted on the head of Ikkaku Madarame; burying it further into the top of the broken tower's crumbling debris.
"I figured you guys for being strong, but you guys disappointed me," Zero said with a crackle, throwing the Captain at a distant tower, watching it crumble under the force of the Shinigami's body impacting it.
Looking down at Ikkaku, he took his boot off the Lieutenant, reaching down to grasp him by the collar. A bloody gash is visible across his bald head, cuts hissing off his face down kosode and staining his ripped hakama. A broken three-part stave held in each hand, his grip didn't falter even as he's lifted by his collar.
"And you call yourself death gods," Zero sneered with a grin. "You couldn't even kill kittens! What a waste of my time!"
A sudden barrage of tower debris is sent hurtling up at Zero, his left flickering to the sight of their rapid velocity of approach. Lifting a hand, he fired off a wave of Darkness Magic, reducing it all into dust.
A sudden stabbing sensation pierced Zero's arm, forcing him to let go. Turning, he saw Ikkaku drop down, stomping forth and thrusting the broken half of his Shikai at his chest. Hand chopping it away, he thrust a palm into the Lieutenant's chest, grinning at Ikkaku's pained face.
"Dark Velocity!" He intoned, launching the Shinigami with a blackish green pulse across the Seireitei, distantly crashing with a thunderous impact.
He twisted about, his boot heel catching the side of one 3rd Seat Yumichika. His own bloodied face construed into pain, gasping out as he took became flung away at high speeds far away from the incarnated evil.
"Weak! So very weak!" Zero crowed out, his arms spreading out over the burning, crumbling block of the city he wages battle in. "Is there none who can give me a truly good fight?! I came for the thrill of death, not the beating of children playing war!"
A sudden presence came from behind. He turned about, seeing a tall man, fit in his own right with a katana in hand. Long blonde locks fell over white coated shoulders, his face looking pointed and long with a pale complexion.
"Ah, so another Captain comes to challenge me?" He asked with incredulity. "I hope you're more of a challenge than that scar head I beat to a pulp."
"Forgive me, but I was busy before," He confessed, a smile playing at his lips but didn't reach the cold dispassionate glare he had aimed to Zero. "I was dealing with another brute couldn't stop running his mouth. Hearing your bellowing was making me remember how his audacity; so I came to silence the noise, so true music can be heard by all of your demise."
"Heh, is that so?!" He jeered, veins throbbing along his head and down his arms. Stomping around, he spread his arms with invitation as a mass of blackish green energy flared out with immense pressure that rattled the tower and shook the ground below. "Then show me what you got!"
"Bankai," Rose intoned with a widening grin, his blade transforming into a glow of a wand. Zero's eyes widened, seeing a row of a dozen yellow metal threaded mannequins standing on either side of him in presentation, blooming gold flowers of metal enamored on their faces. A wand held up, his hands raising like a conductor of an orchestra, he spoke out the name of his Zanpakutō. "Kinshara Butōdan!"
The Dark Wizard looked around, feeling an uneasy feeling in the air. This felt familiar, like a spell his alternative persona - Brain - would have seen. But lacking the tactical patience of his more brilliant half, Zero simply retaliated in the only way he knew how.
With force.
"Dark Capricio!" Zero roared out, firing it straight at the Shinigami.
To his surprise, the spiraling drill of darkness didn't get far. Two of the flower mannequins closest to Rose spun in pirouettes, both of their hands waving in front of the beam; reflecting it back at him with a pulse of sound.
The Mage lurched to the side, feeling the beam nearly run him through as it cut past his jacket and shriek away into the distance. The other mannequins behind him also twirled around him, spinning about in a disturbing dance.
One that lit him aflame across his legs and up his chest in a seemingly spontaneous conflagration.
Zero grunted, swinging his arms around and batted the mannequins aside. His fists hurt on contact, a ringing sound heard as they only staggered back while halting their performance abruptly at his hands.
"What kind of magic is this?" He snarled, looking down at his sizzling jacket. "The flames stopped the moment I kicked those puppets away. Is that how your trick works?"
"Magic, you say? Do you not recognize art when you see it, Mage?" Rose spoke with a smile, his wand conducting the other mannequins to slide quickly around Zero. Spinning faster, and faster, Zero tried to punch them with a blackish pulse of energy, only to have himself swung about in a twister of water. Rising up past his neck, he thought he would drown, the vortex of water spinning to wild to attack the dolls.
Growling, he forced himself to throw both hands beneath the swirling water to the top of the tower.
"Dark Gravity!"
The tower crumbled, rupturing from a well of intense force caving it all upon itself. Free from the water as he fell with the detris, he leaped away, tearing off his ruined green jacket to reveal a black tight undershirt that revealed his muscular body.
By the time he landed, a dreary looking blonde man greeted him, a hooked blade in hand. Wishing him to get out of the way so he didn't have to stick around for the creepy puppet man, he simply swung an arm coated in darkness to bowl through him.
"I'm sorry," The Lieutenant said, sidestepping the blow swiftly while slashing his blade across his left arm and leg. "But I'm here to make sure you don't escape!"
Zero felt his limbs grow heavy, weighing him down. Knowing the sword must have placed a curse on them, Zero enveloped himself in a blackish-green aura and jettisoned himself away from the blonde man while firing off a Dark Capricio his way.
A rotating disc of ghostly blue appeared after the blonde muttered something, deflecting his spearing darkness with a simple gesture. He followed it up with a spin of his sword clockwise, catching it after the eight spin.
Then discharged a massive twisting gale of wind at Zero.
"Nnngh!" Zero grimaced, his arms raised to brace against the wind as he felt himself pushed backwards. His boots skid across the ground, his hair and animal pelt flapped wildly about his waist, cheeks rolling past the fierce force of air.
Erecting a massive plume of ethernano, his aura dispelling the Kidō as he glared ahead at the new foe he had.
Only to feel that same eerie feeling surrounding him.
"Our performance hasn't concluded yet, Mage," Rose proclaimed menacingly, his body unmarked by the collapsing structure Zero intended on burying him. As the albino turned to look around a wide circle of spinning, dancing puppets, he realized he couldn't run again. Raising his arms up, he began to turn and face his adversary, his smile returning as a horrid shrieking emerged from the darkness enveloping his body.
"So be it!" Zero shouted, his hands swinging about to throttle a wave of evil ghosts, all of them wailing and shrieking with skeletal oozing arms with skulls alight with purplish flames. "Be consumed by my power, Genesis Zero!"
The darkness howled forth, slipping past the ring of spinning mannequins and rising up as an all encompassing tidal wave of evil. But just as the light is about to vanish, Rose swung his conductor's wand up, making a verbose cry of his final technique.
"Final Act, Requiem!" Rose uttered out,
The darkness fizzled away, a horrible gong filling the air that reverbed from the faces of the puppets. A secondary gong is sounded, causing Zero's eyes to widen, feeling his body go numb. He felt his body slump to the ground, falling to his knees with his arms hanging at his sides and eyes wide.
A third gong and his skin began to melt off his body. His mouth opened to scream, howling at the horrible agony that he began to feel from the sound that cursed his body so. Even as puddled onto the ground, his interior being exposed in the process, the puppets sounded another pulse.
The fourth gong has his bones splinter, cracking violently out of his body past exposed muscle and expelling viscous ooze of blood and mucus. His screams turned at this, into maddening laughter. Looking up at Rose, his skinless, ruined face grinned at him.
A final gong and his body exploded, a grisly explosion of gore shooting outward. Rose looked on with a sullen expression, seeing the vast amount of remains covering the puppets as they became still, and silent once more.
The blood fizzled, transforming into darkness and rises up into a siphoning swirl to a puppet. Falling to the ground, Rose narrowed his eyes at it.
"I dread to think of what kind of monster he could have been if he fought me when he was alive," He murmured to himself. Swinging his wand to the side, the puppets vanishing in a swirl of golden reishi, returning to a sealed katana of golden flower guard in his hand.
"Lieutenant, please retrieve that for me, will you?" Rose asked, turning on his heels while sheathing his blade back into its hilt with a click. "I'm sure Captain Kurotsuchi will appreciate dissecting that puppet to see how it managed to give us so much grief and pain."
"Yes, Captain," Izuru replied, sheathing his own blade as he approached the doll. Even now, he could sense a great evil aura emanating from it.
Bending down, he reached out to grab it.
A sudden white boot stepped down onto it, preventing Izuru from grabbing it.
Izuru's eyes widened, his head raised up and saw a gloved hand stretched out.
SSSSSSHHHHHHOOOOOOOOM!
A massive crimson vortex of magical energy expelled in an instantly expanding manner. The street swept up with the Lieutenant, swallowing him up in its vacuum hold as he felt his body spiral back with crushing, twisting force. Throwing him backwards, with various structures twisting with it, he felt himself landed with a meaty crunch onto a distant lay of falling debris.
"Lieutenant Kira!" The Captain cried out, his eyes barely having time to process the sudden arrival of a new enemy. No, not new, someone who had been fighting other Captains and Officers on the other side of the Seireitei. How did he get here so quickly?
"You broke father," Midnight spoke quietly, bending down to pick up the doll, rubbing his fingers over it. "I didn't think anyone has the capacity to do so. You must be strong."
Rose didn't bother with theatrics, swinging his arm out with sword already drawn as he Shunpo his way over the head of Macbeth. Though as he tried to hit him, the air just above him twisted, his sword bending around with it and striking the ground next to the effeminate man.
"You must have not seen my Magic first-hand," He said calmly, turning to stare a red eye past his wavy bangs at Rose with a dark lipped grin. "Against people like you, none of you have the capacity to harm me."
Rose flash stepped back. Rising up to his full height he examined his new foe. He had flamboyant clothes, a billowing set of robes with a black cloak placed over his shoulders with a hood lying beneath ankle long wavy black hair. A white boa lied over his neck like an exotic scarf, softly pressed over the folds of his robes and undershirt. Elbow long white gloves lied at his sides while his knee length matching boots allowed him to stand at a height similar to the Captain. He had a soft face, feminine, black colored lips and eyelashes stared at him with black eyes full of confidence and self assurance.
If he's here, this is either a double, or he's defeated them already. Either way this one is much more dangerous than the puppet he used…
As Rose fathomed this, Midnight seemed to appear in front of him between blinks of the eye. Rose stepped back, swinging his blade at the man's neck.
Midnight raised a single gloved finger, parrying it with a spark of pulsing blackness. Rose's eyes stretched wide, seeing the effeminate man walk closer till his face is inches away.
"Are you afraid, Captain?" He asked, his breath washing over the pale faced Shinigami. "It's natural to be afraid of something you can't understand. But, even if you could, that's when something truly frightening emerges. Do you know what that is?"
Macbeth's sparked red, and Rose felt himself fall. The ground of Soul Society crumbled beneath him, the sky turning red as the void swallowed him whole. As he stretched a hand up, trying to reach for the man, he felt hands grasp his ankles, his coat and his arms. Looking down, he saw a horde of dead, each one wearing Shihakushou, the ones on top closest to him were his own officers.
The men who perished to the Wandenreich ten years ago.
Rose's eyes teared up, his face contorting in sorrowful remembrance as he felt dragged down into their clawing embrace. Clenching his eyes shut, feeling himself pulled into this Hell he became ensnared in
At that point, he heard a distant voice echo mockingly into his ears.
"Terror, is a true nightmare you know isn't real, and can't escape from!"
The Captain felt a glimmer of hope past his despair. His foe slipped up, and revealed this to be an elaborate illusion. It all felt real, right down to the smell, touch and sound of the ghosts of his past he saw with his own eyes.
No matter how powerful one is, he knew deep down, death is an absolute. None could escape it's clutches once it sunk it's fangs into you.
Rose muttered under his breath, feeling his subordinates' clawing hands all over him, "Forgive me, everyone, for not protecting you. I failed as your Captain, and as your confidant. But," his eyes opened, staring forward into the darkness, swinging his blade in an arc in front of him, "I can't afford to be trapped in this place!"
He heard a hiss on the outside, an assurance his blade had struck true. Though he couldn't see, the illusion didn't prevent him from using Reikaku. Ever so faintly, he could make out a presence, the aura of the Mage and had struck out at it.
"It seems your illusion twists the senses, confusing them enough to make me feel as if I'm falling, feeling and even hearing things that aren't there," He deduced, his body visibly tugged and clenched at by the mound of ghosts surrounding him. "But we Shinigami who have risen to the rank of Captain have ways to fight past illusions such as this. And compared to a Shinigami I had the displeasure of facing long ago, your illusion is far from a Complete Hypnosis."
The blackness twisted around him, the illusion fading for the reality of the battle scarred Seireitei street he had been standing on. Midnight stood there, having backed away, a cut now bleeding his cheek down his chin. Black eyes stared coldly at him, lips pursed with displeasure at how his spell didn't work.
He saw it drop scores of the Shinigami before. How did this one maintain such composure in the face of his worst fears, he didn't know. Worse, his injury, however minor, broke the invincible front he sported up till now.
"I see you can't attack and defend with that spiral spell of yours," Rose observed, his eyes narrowing at Macbeth's wound as he spoke. "It will come down to who can land a fatal blow, doesn't it?"
"You presume you can get past my defenses a second time," Midnight said, his aura flaring up with a monstrous pressure of blackish green spreading out in a mass of darkness that crawled across the block of the cityscape surrounding him. The air and earth of Soul Society began to tear away, spiraling around him in a rapid orbit around him as he stood still; obscured by the momentum of their twisting motions.
He's created a field of defense around him so I can't get close, Rose observed, gripping his sword in both hands upright, the flat of the parallel to his right cheek. I'll have to strike the moment he attacks, and do so quickly!
"Prepare to get crushed, Shinigami!" Macbeth said with a snarl, raising a gloved hand up to point at him. "Dark Velocity!"
Using his father's spell in tandem with his own, a slew of detris flew with immense force and speed at the Captain. Using Shunpo, the Captain maneuvered instantly past the hail of destructive discharge that tore apart a large stretch of the Seireitei.
A streak of movement, he swung his blade down in an arc of greyish-white, carving through Midnight down the shoulder past the pelvis. A shower of blood, a look of disbelief crossing his face, and Rose looked solemnly at his falling body.
Gloved fingers pressing into his back caused the Shinigami to freeze up. The falling body disappeared in a spiral of red, revealing him to have been a substitute. He didn't sense him move, let alone change places; or know he could even do such a thing!
"Checkmate, Shinigami!" He hissed, his hand pulsing with a spiraling wave of crimson.
One he halted as he eyed a flash of yellow energy soaring towards his hand. Swinging it around, he deflect it, backpedaling away as Rose tried to counter slash his body.
"Nice timing," Rose said with a nervous gleam of sweat crawling down his face. "I thought I was a goner for sure there."
"Hey, what kind of guy would I be to abandon a comrade in need?" A cheeky voice said, a white coated man staring down with a steaming hand responsible for the stream of Kidō fired. His irregular bangs swayed in the breeze, eyeing the man known as Macbeth, then glancing away at the ruined stretch of Seireitei going far off into the distance of uprooted street and collapsed structures. "This guy seems seriously strong. I wondered how he got all the way over here. The young two Captains were supposed to be fighting him closer to the east district."
"He can cast illusions and twist the fabric of space with his magic," Rose explained, turning to look back at Midnight. "He's also demonstrated to teleport and swap places with other imitations of himself. He's also the one responsible for that deranged puppet that took down Tetsuzaemon, Ikkaku and Yumichika."
Shinji blew a whistle, grabbing his chin to stroke while observing the man who simply glared back at him, "This guy might be the most troubling one."
"I already dispatched the other big one, but this seems to go beyond conventional means of besting him," Rose spoke, gripping his sword tight in his hands. "But, he's made this personal by playing with my head, and harming my Lieutenant. I need to take him down to rectify that!"
"I get what you mean," Shinji coolly responded. "But I'm going to make sure he doesn't weasel his way out of here."
"Can you?"
The overbite Captain widened his eyes, suddenly hearing the voice beside him. Reaching for his sword, Midnight's hand already swung around; unleashing an arc of twisting energy that blew the Shinigami away along with the top of the building.
Rose flash stepped behind, slashing at his neck from the back. Twisting around without even touching his head, Macbeth turned on his heels palming towards a vanishing Captain. Shinji returned, swinging a blade down, whiffing the air as he vanished in a flicker of light.
Turning around he slashed at the materializing Macbeth, simultaneously as Rose appeared behind to do the same from behind. He had both blades bend and contort around him, raising either gloved hand as they attacked.
SSSSSSHHHHHHOOOOOOOOM!
Discharging two expansive waves of crimson light, twisting and tearing the building apart in a flurry of swiftly blowing movement, bulldozing several other structures adjacent to it nearby. With only a wall left to stand on, the man lowered his hands and stood upright.
Macbeth's hair, boa and cloak waved in the wind, his eyes looking around.
"This is growing tiresome," He sighed out loud. "Can't you two just die already?"
Shinji and Rose emerged with Shunpo, standing amidst the ruined wall at either side. Their cloaks and uniforms look torn, but apart from a few abrasions and bruises, they didn't look as harmed as they should be.
"Whew," Shinjj exhaled out with exasperation and relief. "That was a close one. Had we dodged an instant later, our bodies would be across the Seireitei," he turned to glance at Rose, the long featured man's visage stoic. "I can see why you've been having trouble with this one. None of my attacks are sticking."
"Which is why I haven't used Kinshara yet," He murmured quietly. "If he can deflect and twist anything composed of reishi, it may do more harm than good."
"And if I used Sakanade, it may not even take effect with him twisting the air so much," He whispered back. "And given how easily he shatters Kidō, I can't think of a way for us to get past him to land a meaningful hit."
"It's unfortunate some of our best is away retrieving Kenpachi, otherwise this one wouldn't be having such a time walking over us," Rose mentioned bitterly.
But as they were strategizing, Macbeth looked distracted by something.
Midnight grimaced, looking up at a distance to the taller levels of the Seireitei. He heard a message, being relayed, but he didn't show any pleasure from it.
"You two are lucky, I'm needed elsewhere," He spoke, his body spiraling away in a rainbow of colors before their eyes. And then, his signature is gone.
"What the Hell? He just left?" Shinji asked with incredulity.
"It seems his leader may have ordered him elsewhere," Rose noted, frowning as he tried to comprehend it.
At that moment, an immense reiatsu filled the air, crossing about the Seireitei. The two knew it intimately, and a smile played across their faces.
"That's-"
"-Ichigo!" Shinji finished what Rose is saying.
"What a mess," Ichigo growled out, his body soaring across the sky of the Seireitei. He surveyed the damage, seeing large chunks of it torn apart, burning or in the process of being crumbled by the severity of the battles going on.
In part, it felt like a grin reminder of the last time Soul Society had a crisis.
Doing a sweep, he could sense most of the Shinigami's reiatsu hadn't been in danger of fading. There were some casualties but nothing of a great travesty.
Sighing with relief, he honed in on the worst fights. The highest reiatsu felt like closer to the procession hall, a row of towers leading to the prison tower Rukia had once been held at.
Evaporating in place in a burst of swift movement, he touched down on the ground, seeing two figures in pitched combat.
One with dark blue hair, arms bloodied with torn sleeves and several other wounds spotted across his legs and chest, embroiled in a fierce pulsing light covering his body. He had an italic tattoo over one eye, both dark orbs glaring angrily with bared teeth in that split instant of him touching down.
The other he knew well. Currently Captain Commander Shunsui Kyoraku, he only had his white Haori over his uniform, signs of burns and bloodied injuries marking him but nothing severe. He had his Shikai out in both hands, a calm smile on his face as his working eye is affixed to seeing the enemy ahead.
Stepping between them, Ichigo raised a bandaged wrapped blade and a hand of his, stopping blades and fist on contact, his reiatsu releasing in an immense wave over the two.
"Who-?!" Jellal Fernandes cried out, shoved back by a strong hand, almost stumbling off balance.
"Ichigo!" Shunsui said aloud in surprise, his swords held back by the bandaged weapon he knew to be Ichigo's Bankai. He settled down a bit, feeling uneasy about such strong pressure put out against. With a disarming smile, he met one of Ichigo's eyes with his own. "What brings you here? You've caught me at a bad time to socialize."
"I came to warn you about a new problem that I need help dealing with," Ichigo said, coolly looking over at the wounded man standing wearily across from them. "But I can see you and the rest of Soul Society have been busy with this guy."
"I tried talking to him, but he's worked himself into a frenzy against us for what Kenpachi did in his world," Shunsui remarked, standing himself upward and pointing his blades to the ground. "They barged in, and began fighting us. They're not going to relent, and I see no other way than to eliminate them."
"What a pain!" Ichigo growled out, scratching his head as he looked over at Jellal. "Hey, you! Get your people to stop fighting! We got a bigger issue to deal with and it's coming from your world!"
"What do you mean?" Jellal asked with a furrowed brows.
"A Dragon called Jadow sent minions to my home and killed a lot of people, hurting one of my friends in the process," Ichigo stated, turning to look over at Shunsui. "They even tried to stop me from getting here. He's a monster and I don't know if I can stop him if he's that much stronger than his thugs are."
"A dragon, huh?" Shunsui asked, visibly skeptical. "Are we being literal, or is that a title?"
"Dragon?" Jellal asked, his eyes wide with sudden panic. "You said it came to your world? When did this happen?"
"Barely over an hour," Ichigo replied.
"Not good," He uttered, wincing as he placed hands over his wounds. Pulsing light flowed over them, sealing them closed and further demonstrating how talented his magic is. Raising a pair of fingers to his temple,
All Crime Sorciere, we have a new development. Regroup on me!
Lowering his fingers, he waited for their arrival, speaking to the two Shinigami, "I'll call for a truce, for the moment. If this is a true threat to both of our worlds, we may need to coordinate our efforts in defeating this monster."
"I can agree to those terms," Shunsui nodded, sealing his swords in a flicker of reishi and sheathing both weapons back into their scabbards. "But after this is over, I'll decide what to do about your little invasion into the Seireitei. Retaliation or not, the people will want retribution. I can't turn blind eye away from that."
Ichigo dryly stared at him.
Shunsui chuckled, realizing the irony in his statement as he touched his eye patch.
"Nanao," Shunsui spoke out, causing a bespectacled Shinigami to appear in a body flicker. Turning to her, he smiled sweetly at her as he spoke to her. "You've been listening, yes? Convey this new directive to the rest of the Gotei 13 with Tenteikura. I want them all to understand our new priorities."
"Yessir," She acknowledged, painting black paint on her hands and arms. After speaking the invocation under her breath, she pressed on a floating black square that glowed brightly; instantly conveying the message to every Shinigami in the Seireitei.
Moments later, Macbeth shimmered into being, with Meredy hauling up an unconscious, bloodied Bluenote over her shoulders with visible strain.
"We're declaring a truce," Jellal announced, gravely staring at the two awake members of his guild. "We have a common enemy, one that I fear may have been the unique energy I sent Erik and the others to trace."
"Really?" Meredy asked, placing Bluenote to the ground and placing him on the ground, applying a salve of healing light onto him while maintaining eye contact with him. "What's this about?"
"A Dragon," He intoned, both Midnight and Meredy looked shocked as he explained. "And this one calls himself Jadow. He's already struck their world and likely ours. He's making moves to undermine us, and I don't know how much time we have before this escalates."
"Sir, we have a message from the Research and Development Department!" Nanao said, her hand holding a Soul Phone up to her ears and eyes looking at the Head Captain. "There's a new reiatsu heading towards Seireitei. ETA thirty seconds from the east gate!"
Ichigo looked in that direction and he felt his blood go cold. A massive wave of darkness charged towards the Seireitei, in the shape of a draconic figure with wings outstretched and head charging forth. Seconds later, it tore through the gate with a loud shredding impact, a blackish wind billowing out as the whole of Soul Society delved into a darkness that dimmed the light and surrounded the heart of the Spirit Realm.
Ichigo took a step forward, his sword unraveling the bandages as he held his weapon at the ready. Shunsui looked in amazement, Nanao visibly trembled as Meredy did, with Midnight staring in awe and Jellal looking with horror at what stood before them.
"Well well," A voice ebbed from a massive black humanoid shape. A black pair of wings spread from the back, red eyes staring past a film of black tissue that covered the whole of a man's muscular physique. Red veins outlined every detail, though the left arm became a pure black draconic limb. Twisted, the reiatsu felt cold and endless, but Ichigo recognized who it was with visible anger. "I see I came here just in time. Would you like to see, just how strong your friend has become?"
"You bastard!" Ichigo snarled out, lunging forth with a swing of his blade onto a raised hand, sparking and burning out with a mass of darkness. "What have you done with Chad?!"
"He's free from your shadow," He declared with a disturbing stretch of the mask of flesh contorting into a grin beneath. "And wrapped in mine!"
In the moment of indecision, Ichigo saw the swelling darkness lance out, throttling him across across the Seireitei at intense speed. Shunsui turned, flash stepping and intercepted the darkness with a severing slash, while Jellal braced Ichigo from behind.
"T-Thanks!" He said to the two, grimacing as he raised an arm shakily as it wafted with shadowy energy.
"He's possessed your friend using his magic," Jellal deduced, looking worriedly back at the distant procession platform heading to the untouched prison tower. "This may be trickier than I thought. His power is beyond anything I could have anticipated!"
"We really will have to work together on this," Shunsui intoned with a nod, his swords returned to their Shikai state. "Let's go back and deal with this."
Ichigo wondered just how powerful Jadow was if he could make Chad this strong?
He worried, hoping no one else is going to get hurt by this menace.
As he charges back with his two new allies, a wave of darkness ascended in greeting to them, stemmed from Chad's body.
"Let's play for awhile, Soul Society!"
A/N: And here we are! The next chapter. I hope it turned out to your liking. I wanted this story to merge into a drama/action story now that I crafted a new villain. So far I feel pretty proud of what I got done.
Rose is a Character I feel doesn't get as much attention as he should. Apart from the Turn Back the Pendulum Arc, Rose only really has two moments that show him in a good way. The first is Fake Karakura where he participated the most, and then the Final Arc where his Bankai just *fails* because the author likes to troll his audience with bs villains. So I wanted to show his character growth, along with some nice teamwork with Izuru and then also Shinji.
Chad's been going through a rough patch having done very little despite being stupid strong for a human. By giving him some attention, I hope to show how formidable he can be under the right circumstances.