In a burst of purple reiatsu, Apacci was swallowed in a plume of smoke, coughing and spluttering as she pounced backwards, attempting to regain her visual.
The spike in spiritual pressure was impressive-mainly because she found Chessebelle to be, as she said, embarrassing-and she didn't want to miss out on whatever abilities the soul reaper may have suddenly gained from this release of her zanpakuto.
She would give it to the woman; she had at least tried without releasing her zanpakuto, which was more than she could say for the two that were fighting Mila Rose and Sung-Sun.
Apacci made a note to let her sisters know she had chosen the strongest out of the three of them.
The wind stung Apacci's eyes, bringing her arms up to shield her face, she squinted ahead and waited for Chessebelle's emergence.
The white-haired shinigami stood across from Apacci now, her zanpakuto replaced with a large Japanese war fan, practically dwarfing Chessebelle as she let it splay out over her body. It sheened in the sunlight, the onyx metal a fierce blot against the clear blue sky. The inner ribs were a toxic purple that contrasted the gleaming black, running down each individual blade and coalescing together at the base with a hard leather cover over the bottom edge.
Chessebelle stood with renewed vigor, her spiritual pressure gnashing and tearing to unleash itself, the same purple glow from before now outlining her body rigidly. Her eyes were slits as they stared Apacci down, letting the arrancar witness her and truly see her as what she was: an opponent not to be underestimated.
Apacci was reckless, no doubt, but she wasn't an idiot. She waited for the shinigami to make her move, wanting to see what she had to offer with this new released form of her zanpakuto.
Feeling the arrancar's hesitance, Chessebelle couldn't help but feel slighted by this, that same ugly rage gripping her and shaking her to the core. Was she scared now? Where was the fire? Where was the taunting? The perceived cowardice was making her sick.
Before Apacci could blink, she was gone. Her breath caught in her throat as she heard the smile in Chessebelle's voice, her breath snaking its way up her neck.
"What's wrong? Nothing smart to say?"
Apacci whirled around, expecting to meet Chessebelle but seeing nothing yet again. Her chest tightened as she spun around, trying to find the shinigami. The arrancar hissed as a sharp pain surged up both her arms, looking down to find shallow cuts, staining the skin a crimson. Her wounds trickled blood slowly down her skin, Apacci looking at the angry-looking flesh, bewildered that her hierro had been broken.
"Quit hiding, if you're so confident, shinigami!" Curling her lip, the arrancar snarled as she looked for Chessebelle, the shinigami seemingly vanishing from the field.
At her request, Chessebelle suddenly appeared from nothing, her fan collapsing on itself into a thick bundle of metal in her hand. It was as if her fan had hidden her from the enemy within nothing, invisibility of sorts. The scientist was smiling, sick and sadistic, as she twirled her now closed fan in her hand fluidly, a flick of the wrist and catching it with her opposite hand, her other hand resting near the top like a baseball player might hold their bat.
"I'm not confident that I'm going to beat you, arrancar. I'm confident that I can outsmart you, over and over and over." Ever the realist, Chessebelle was flat in her delivery of the facts to Apacci. Chessebelle took a momentary glance at the other arrancar that had surrounded Rangiku and Momo, the two women holding their own but looking worse for wear. She was beginning to realize this was the war that everyone had been training for-this was the war to end all days, the war where only one side would be coming back alive.
And it was unfortunate to think that Aizen's side may be doing better than the Head Captain's.
Apacci's former arrogance returned, grinning at Chessebelle maliciously, licking her lips like a hyena. "I guess you're not as stupid as I thought. I already told you, though. You will not be leaving here alive." The fraccion used her sonido to fly over to the twelfth division member, her bala already charged and firing as soon as she got within inches of the other woman. Chessebelle was quick too, however, unfolding her fan about a quarter of its full length with a soft 'kashuk' and repelling the red bala right back into Apacci's face.
Apacci screamed in pain as the energy burned half of her face. She grabbed her chakrams and brought them down on Chessebelle's shoulder, dismayed as the scientist twirled with a dancer-like quality around her body with the fan now fully unraveled. The shinigami continued her steps, flowing around Apacci gracefully, bringing her fan up and slicing across the arrancar's exposed back as she gave a hop to put some distance between the two. Apacci was seething at this point as she growled and whipped around to meet Chessebelle once more, charging at her and hurling her chakrams at the woman.
The arrancar was too blinded by her rage to notice the anken formed from Chessebelle waving her fan in a circle around her, flying at a blinding speed and slicing into her hierro. Those wounds from before were irritated as more cuts appeared up and down her arms, some even finding their way to her face and slicing the soft skin of her cheeks and temples.
As Apacci met Chessebelle's fan with a shriek of metal on metal, she screamed in anger, pushing relentlessly on the shinigami in an attempt to get rid of her defense of this damn fan. Chessebelle held her ground, holding her shikai in front of her body and bending her knee to brace against the force of Apacci's pushing. Even with the defense, Apacci was able to push back Chessebelle with brute strength, the resistance to her attacks only making the fraccion angrier.
Chessebelle wasn't surprised that she was still struggling against the arrancar, seeing as Rangiku and Momo were both haggard at this point. If she didn't figure something out soon, she was going to wear herself out trying to stay on the defense against Apacci.
The twelfth division member jumped from her spot as Apacci lifted her chakrams to attack once more, stumbling when she realized Chessebelle had disappeared yet again.
"You worthless mutt!" Apacci roared, whirling around, her eyes crazed as she looked for her opponent once more. Without warning, she started firing balas in every direction, trying to force Chessebelle out of hiding behind her fan within the sky.
Sucking in a breath, Chessebelle tried to rein in her anger and think as she hid behind a nearby building that hadn't yet collapsed. She looked at the other fights being waged between fraccion, espada, captains, and vice captains. Captain Hitsugaya had already released his Bankai, Captain Soi-Fon was in her shikai, and based on the spiritual pressure vibrating the air, it seemed as if everyone was already being pushed to a limit they hadn't realized they would be put in already.
It was only for a moment, but Chessebelle felt despair grip her bones harshly.
The white-haired shinigami put her fan in between her feet, folded up into it's thick accordion-like shape, and closed her eyes. Attempting to center herself, Chessebelle focused, trying to figure out what to do. But in doing so, something else distracted her.
She could feel him struggling. Dragging himself through rubble and trying to pick himself back up. Fight was the only thing he had left in him. And it would kill him.
Tears began forming, Chessebelle choking them back the best she could, berating herself for even letting her think of anything but the enemy in front of her-even if the only thing she had been thinking of the whole time was Ikkaku Madarame.
"Apacci! We're summoning him."
Chessebelle's eyes were wide, the bags under them making her eyes look sunken. Summoning who?
The balas stopped being fired, one whizzing right past the corner of the building she was behind, breaking off a chunk and exposing Chessebelle's head.
The two women locked eyes, Apacci manic with an excitement that sent a shiver up Chessebelle's spine.
She watched in horror, frozen with a fear so fierce that her breath caught in her throat, slate hues following Apacci as she joined her sisters by Momo and Rangiku, all three fraccion suddenly performing resurreccion.
The lion, the deer, and the snake. They all stood intimidatingly above the soul reapers, their wounds healed and their strength restored. It was a nightmare that only got multiplied as the women gripped their left arms and with a horrendous sound of ripping of tendons and crushing of bones, tore their very own limbs off and threw them into a pile together.
"T-They're monsters.." Chessebelle whispered under her breath as she walked forward with a morbid curiosity of the process they were performing, their arms suddenly morphing together with an odd black energy emanating from it.
In a burst of spiritual pressure, all the buildings in the surrounding area were blown up, the power too much as a behemoth stood before Chessebelle, Rangiku, and Momo.
It was a hideous creature to behold, a mishmash of parts from its summoners that amalgamated into this freak of nature. The chest and arms of a man with smooth brown hair of a deer, with the legs and hooves to match. A slithering snake tail that was as thick as gnarled tree trunks. And a flowing mane of a lion to crown the top of its head, its mask adorned with long horns of a buck.
It was silent, making no sound as it stared ahead vacantly, no eyes to be found within its skull.
Apacci was the first to speak as she looked at Chessebelle, her only hand now on her hip as she looked down at the soul reaper like the insect she was.
"Do you like our pet?" She paused for a moment, flourishing her hand towards Ayon with a grin that spread across her face. "Its name is Ayon. It loves to have new toys."
As if on cue, Ayon moved with a speed that surprised all three of the women from the Gotei 13. Its hand was on Rangiku before anyone could react.
Chessebelle gasped, the sharp intake of breath nearly paining her as she watched Ayon rip Matsumoto's side from her body. It looked as if the entire right side of her ribs was gone, a bloody mess of her insides visible for everyone to see.
Apacci let out a shrill laugh as she looked down at Chessebelle using her flash step to join Momo and Rangiku in an attempt to help her comrades. The white-haired shinigami stood between Ayon and Momo as Rangiku fell through the air like a lead weight.
"Help her!" Chessebelle shrieked at Momo, the young lieutenant pulling herself from her own fear and giving a tiny nod of acknowledgement, rushing to Rangiku's side, performing a kido to catch them in a net.
Ayon's head tilted as it looked at Chessebelle, no sign of anything within the holes in its mask.
Again, he moved with a speed she wouldn't expect from such a large creature, but she was quick in unfolding her fan in front of her body as her only line of defense.
The twelfth division member didn't know what had happened, a blink of an eye and her fan was shattered. The metal clinked to the ground, exposed to Ayon as she held the shambles of what was left of her shikai.
Soft noises of disbelief left her mouth, sputtering to find any words for what just happened, her hands shaking as she brought it up to her face to examine closer.
"AhhhHHHGGHHHHH!"
Chessebelle's scream rang through the battlefield along with Apacci's laughter as Ayon grabbed the small scientist within his fist and squeezed.
A long, loud, hopeless sound filled with an excruciating pain she had never even thought was possible.