I am the Wind of Change
Forever Blowing
Howling over Man and Beast
Soaring into Heaven, Infinite Range
A Predator Among Us
White Deicide V
Power Beyond Reason
Aaroniero walked into the darkness, treading with two figures behind him. Gin Ichimaru, Aizen's left hand and Coyote Starrk, the Primera Espada. The trio had moved through the precipice world for what seemed like hours, though it hadn't been that long.
Ever since leaving behind the defeated Gotei 13 and their allies behind, there had been a quiet descend upon them. Though the transcendent being emerged victorious, there had been a sour taste in her mouth about the ordeal. Even when she had evolved so much, she came very close to losing it all.
All because of Ichigo Kurosaki's seemingly limitless potential and inhuman growth. He has gotten close, far closer than even Captain Ukitake had been with his unique Bankai.
Not to mention Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka imposing its power over her. A sensation that defined description, as a legion of beings - both in her core and the Ouken itself - strained to be reborn apart from her being. In her strained desire, the fragmenting psyche had managed to pull it all back together thanks to the Hōgyoku.
She almost won. Her power almost unmade me!
Aaroniero grimaced, unseen by the other two traipsing behind her. She wished her death had been far more painful. If she could torture her, she would, but she felt she had wasted too much time playing around.
It's time I conquer the highest of Heaven, Aaroniero thought with a shadowy smile along her face.
"Starrk! Starrk!" Lilynette shouted, her voice echoing the darkness from the pistols holstered at the Primera's flank. Gin looked over, being his first time seeing it himself, all while Coyote irritatedly twitched.
"What is it, Lilynette?" He asked.
"Where are we going? I don't like it here," She answered, her voice shaking to emphasize her fear.
"We're going to Soul Society, I think," The Primera started, looking confusedly at Gin. "Are we?"
"We're following these creeps without knowing where we're going?! How dense are you?!"
"Pipe it down, and we might find out!" Starrk slapped his right pistol on the butt, earning an audible yelp.
"T-That hurt, Starrk…"
"Technically, that's just a pit stop," Gin answered, raising a finger and smiled as he explained to the fused pair. "Soul Society is merely the bottom layer of a large realm that expands outward for a vast distance. It makes up an enormous amount of spiritual land and is home to many souls that cross over, not all even live in the Rukonagi or the Seireitei."
"So, where's the next stop?"
"The Soul Palace," Aaroniero piped up, looking over a shoulder and explained while keeping an eye on her two colleagues. "Based on the memories of the Shinigami I devoured, it's up above the Seireitei. A very long ways up."
"Oh," Lilynette answered with Starrk. "So, like, a Super Heaven then?"
"Heh, in a matter of speaking, yes," She affirmed with a chuckle, still walking ahead into the darkness. "What makes it so hard to get there is that there's a specific method of getting there, and it's only by way of a special vehicular pillar called the Tenchuren the Zero Division use to go up and down from there. Lacking that, it becomes next to impossible to navigate the massive barrier filled path up to the Palace. You'd need an acute sense of direction, or lacking that a well crafted map."
"So, how do we get up there?" Starrk asked with a sigh. "Find ourselves a map? Sounds like a lot of effort."
"Oh, I already have a plan for that-"
VOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR!
A sudden, damning whoosh of momentum and pressure headed their way. There had been no reiatsu to sense, neither Reikaku or Pesquisa picked it up. Just a massive surge of light shining over the head of a enormous entity of blackish-purple substance that had been compromised of the same border walls making up the Dangai Precipice World.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAAAAAAAAAT?!"
Immediately, Lilynette - both pistols leaping out of Starrk's holsters - screamed out while firing independently at the enormous abnormal moving force. Ricocheting off without even fazing it, Starrk grabbed the pistols out of the air and began sprinting ahead with Gin joining them in a sprint.
"Whoops, guess the Cleaner is out today," Gin said comically in a wistful tone.
"The Hell is wrong with this place?! The fuck is a Cleaner?"
"It's actually a fascinating thing, really-"
"I don't want an explanation!"
"But you just asked," Gin's head tilted to the side.
"I get the feeling something bad happens if you touch it," Starrk yelled out amidst his run.
"Oh, yes, you definitely will!" Gin gleefully affirmed with a clap. "It's composed of a substance that erases reishi on contact. No matter the strength of the spiritual body, you are broken down and reduced to nothing, as if you never existed."
A long pause stretched as they ran, the oppressive sounds of the primordial train of erasure gaining on the three as they continued to run away from it.
"Why...were you so excited to say that?" Lilynette asked from the guns.
Aaroniero abruptly stopped. The other two beings who valued life kept running past her, gawking at her stationary form. As she turned slowly to face the massive eldritch entity, Gin stopped with Starrk to look on.
"Aaroniero, I wouldn't recommend standing still-!"
The transcendent being's eyes glowed, a vibrant silver light escaping her purple irises.
KRRRAK-KOOOOOOM!
A flash of white followed by an enormous spine unveiled from eviscerated primordial flesh, organs exploding and showering the barrier world's floor and wall in a stretch of gore. The act looked impressive to the Primera, his other half included.
But to Gin Ichimaru, he had been rendered speechless.
"What is there to fear, Gin?" Aaroniero turned to smile over at the Shinigami, a grin curling about her face. "Those who cling to reason are the only ones who should fear those that cast it aside."
Turning away from the scene, Aaroniero walked ahead, having the pair join her on the other side as they exited the dimensional pathway. Exiting the other side, a forest clearing seemed to appear and the outskirts of the Seireitei we're noticed.
"Hm, it seems we're a bit farther away than I thought," Gin intoned, looking over with a smile poised to Aaroniero. "Guess destroying the Cleaner had messed up the gateway here, hm?"
"It doesn't matter," Aaroniero said. "I can course correct with ease from here."
Gin arched a brow, Starrk looking back and forth between them.
Looking upwards, Aaroniero surged her senses upward. Her Pesquisa stretched like a tether, higher and higher, soaring through a number of barrier walls and winding currents of treacherous reishi firmaments.
But sooner than anyone could predict, she saw it.
A vast mass of reishi, so impossibly large it had to be the place she's looking for.
"Found it," She said with a grin.
"How we getting up there?" Starrk asked, looking up himself, eye wincing at the Sun casting a glare over them. "Reishi is too dense for me to use Sonido upwards."
"We don't need to," Aaroniero proclaimed. The pair looked at her, suddenly feeling an orb of reishi flourish out from beneath her feet and encircle the three over their heads. "I had been thinking about it and it became simple. I shifted through old memories of Sado Yasutora and discovered they used a cannon ball device to help pierce the Sekkisekki that protects the Seireitei. With my Ouken resonating in my reiatsu, we should pass safely through all the barriers on our way up."
"Hm, how nifty," Gin said with an impressed hum.
"You sure this is stable?" Starrk asked dryly, tapping the sphere with a set of clicks.
"It's made up of my Reiatsu," Aaroniero turned and stuck her tongue out at the Primera. "So, of course it is!"
"I-It better!" Lilynette snapped.
"Lilynette, are you afraid of heights?" Starrk asked.
"Me? Afraid? No! Never! Why would you-"
And in a thunderclap, the ball of reiatsu streaked in a beam of light straight into the sky; with Lilynette screaming in terror.
"SSSSSSTOOOOOOOOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!"
"QUIET DOWN!" Starrk snapped out, unholstering a pistol and bashing it against his head.
"Ow! That hurt, Starrk!" She replied.
"Anything to get you to quiet down," Starrk rattled, placing the pistol down back in the holster.
As she settled down, she realized she couldn't make out anything beyond what's outside of their sphere. It just all blended together, a stream of rainbow light that seemed to surge up with them. The rush in a stomach didn't even register, as if anyone inside the ball didn't actually feel gravity or the defiance they actually put against the laws of Soul Society's realm.
Minutes passed by, soon becoming hours. Gin awkwardly looked back at Starrk, and he back at him. The two looked away, Gin scratching his chin and Starrk popping his lips.
A few more minutes later, and Gin raised a hand, finally speaking up.
"So, why the get-up?"
"Pardon?" Starrk replied bluntly.
"You know you got the look of something from the Material World," He mentioned, pointing to the pistols on his waist. "Especially those. I know Aizen didn't use the Hōgyoku on you, but, where did these come from?"
"Lilynette," He spoke up.
"Eh?"
As Gin let out a confused sound, Starrk became luminous, then separating back into two people. His uniform returned since before his released state and Lilynette returned to her sprite shaped body with a hop.
"Lilynette and I are natural Arrancar, but we hadn't developed a keen sense of what our combined state should be. We both took turns looking around the Living World, trying out different clothing and doing our best to be discreet in the process," Starrk began his explanation, gesturing with his gloved hands for emphasis. "We had those special devices that allowed stealth to be possible no matter the amount of our reiatsu. It proved essential for our Resurreccion's appearance."
"That's when we saw it!" Lilynette exclaimed, her eye wide with sparkles and her hands clasped in front of herself as she reimagined the image. "This beautiful poster, a picture of a guy staring into the horizon in a furred coat with handguns! He looked so badass, I knew we had to make it look like that!"
"So, that's the long and short of it, really," Starrk shrugged with a sigh. "Learning to shoot Cero like that was a pain, but it became easier with more practice. It's second nature now."
"It just occurred to me that most Espada's released forms are just a resemblance of their previous Hollow states," Gin admitted, putting his hands into his thick sleeves with a pleased smile. "But you two are natural Arrancar, not even aware of what your previous form even is. It makes sense you have to give yourself an image to attach to in order to form something you can call upon at Will."
"You make it sound like a big deal, but it's just a drawback of not knowing our origins," Starrk graveled out, scratching his head as he did. "We're two people, but at our core, we're Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck. It's as simple as it gets for Arrancar."
"And what's your deal?" Lilynette asked, pointing a finger at Gin.
"My deal?" He inquired with a head tilt.
"Yeah, you seem way too chill with the fact your boss died. Even more suspicious is that you're following us Arrancar around. What's your agenda?" She asked, her pink eye glaring at the silvery gray haired man.
"Hmm," Gin cupped his chin, looking up as he looked pensive. Then he leaned down, his face shoving too close for the Arrancar's liking.
"Maybe I have no plan, and I simply am tagging along to see where this is all going?" He inquired cheekily.
"T-That's not an answer!" She replied in irritation.
"Or maybe I actually wanted Aizen dead?" He spoke softly, his smile retained yet it had no warmth at all. Cold, as long as she or Starrk had known him.
"Well, if that was your plan, then I guess you got nowhere else to go," Starrk surmised with a gesture.
"Nowhere but up!" Gin jabbed a finger at the sphere ceiling with a sing-song tone.
"Heh," Lilynette cracked a slight smile at that.
After some more time passes, the four soon came to a halt. A long immaculate pathway is seen, paved tiles of sleek marble tile that led past an array of hanging curtains from floating cylindrical pillars. An empty blue sky filled the canopy of the enormous expanse, the heavenly vista petering off to a variety of enormous floating dish shaped platforms.
Above them all, hanging in the air, is a large cylindrical obelisk, one that emanates an ominous presence. One that the likes of even Starrk and Gin could see is likely the Reio - the Soul King's throne.
"Amazing," Gin awes, his blue eyes fixated at the crucible set before his gaze. "I can see why Aizen wanted to reach this place. I'm trembling with excitement, all this reishi in the air is giving me the goosebumps."
"It feels different here," Starrk noted, his head turning left and right, eyes narrowing. "Although, isn't it kind of empty up here? I expected guards, or something."
"Yeah," Lilynette nodded, squinting her eye around to try and pick up anything. "I think they're waiting to see what we're up to before making a move."
"Maybe," The Primera hummed.
"Could they're all asleep," Gin chimes in with a smile, "or using the little Shinigami's room all at the same time?"
"Not likely," Starrk dryly dismissed.
"This Soul Palace is quite underwhelming," Aaroniero finally spoke, turning to face the trio with a stoic expression. "But that may be what they wish us to think. If this Royal Guard is as formidable as the legends say, we might be walking into a trap. So stay nearby, just in case."
They nodded to her, and she turned around.
Facing with a sneering visage of a sharp featured man with a even sharper pompadour.
"Eep!" Lilynette squeaked cutely out, eye bulging and body paling.
"He's fast…!" Starrk gasped, his body already moving between his other half and the stranger.
Gin himself looked unfazed, keeping his hands sleeves together while raising a brow.
Aaroniero had kept her composure but inwardly recoiled. The man, no, Shinigami had completely slipped past her Pesquisa. She hadn't met any soul, let alone an Arrancar, who could do such a thing, yet here he did.
"My my my," The lanky, tall and muscled man said, his pompadour nearly touching Aaroniero's head as his face leered closely at her. A long pipe sticking out from his teeth, he blew out smoke out into the transcendent being's face while rubbing his chin pensively. "A strange one has come all the way up here, and with a little entourage no less?"
"And you are?" She dryly asked, not the least bit bothered as far as anyone could tell by his brusqueness.
"Tch!" The man clicked his tongue as he leaned back to full height, tapping what looked like an oar over his right shoulder. Now that Aaroniero got a better look at him, she could see he easily looked taller than most Shinigami or Arrancar she had encountered. He easily stood over three plus meters in height with well defined muscles despite looking wiry for a person his size. His pectoral muscles down to his abs are visible, his black kosode parted down to a white rope belt traded for a traditional obi, and his legs were wrapped in baggy black pants with a white kama skirt covering the flanks and back of where he stood; a pair of platform clogs fitted below bare feet of where he stood.
"You're a long way from home to be waltzing up here, Hollow," He intoned, his right hand clenching over the pole handle of the oar while his other hand grasped his pipe and removed it from his mouth. "Oshou gave a clear word of advice for me to pass along: Go back to Hueco Mundo, while you still can."
"If you know what I am, then that should make things simple," She said with a smirk. "Your boss should know what I'm capable of. And if you haven't seen it yourself then a demonstration is in order."
The tall guard sneered, a vein throbbing over his brow as he placed the pipe back in his mouth.
A pipe he suddenly realized is missing the tip along with half of its mass. His eyes looked over to Aaroniero's raised index finger, curled over a perfectly intact pipe with a clean severed point. It has been so quick that smoke still puffed from the stem she retrieved.
"Why you-!" He snarled, swinging the oar around to connect with Aaroniero in a strong one handed swing. A massive thuum of force followed by the floor cracking and expelling a surge of dust straight into the sky. Starrk peered through the cloud of smoke while Lilynette coughed, waving away the cloud while Gin smiles undeterred by what happened.
The air settled, unveiling Aaroniero completely still and unmoved from the strike. The pompadour man had a dark expression over bulging eyes and pursed lips, his arm throbbing in tension even as the head of the oar cracked against the top of Aaroniero's flower collared shoulder.
"What's wrong? Did I upset you?" She asked coyly at the visibly irritated guard.
Lifting the oar back up, the large man swung it around in a swift blur, it visibly evaporating before Lilynette's gaze. It struck across Aaroniero's face in a thunderous crack, echoing the sky and shaking the ground below them.
The transcended Arrancar grinned cheekily.
"That tickled," She giggled.
"In that case," He brusquely snarled, leaping up - leaving his clogs behind - and notched his big toe around the cracked head of the oar.
Pulling it off to reveal the head of a naginata steel blade.
"Shine," He proclaimed, the blade whirring out with a bright golden-white shine. "Kinpika!"
Descending in a luminous streak, the pompadour man struck the air with a pure white line of searing heat. A line that curved around her, bending away and piercing the ground with a severing stroke that blasted the floor to dust.
"What?!" He yelled out, dropping to the floor with a tap of his feet.
"A Zanpakutō that draws out the user's reiatsu and emits light for offensive attacks," Aaroniero noted, tilting her head to the side with a blink and an impassive thin lipped expression. "Is that all you can do?"
"Of course not!" The guard yelled out, spinning the spear around and leaping up again, disappearing from view. Aaroniero's eyes looked around, trying to lock onto his signature using Reikaku instead.
Shimmering above her, the guard thrust his spear, a shrill scream filling the air as a beam of light ran straight towards her head. Just as before, it arched away, this time piercing a hole to her left down far below in a bright flare in the empty canopy.
"Your Shunpo is seeming to be more impressive than your Zanpakutō," Aaroniero derisively mocked, turning to look up at one of the pillars the guard landed aside. His spear held in hand, he had a grimace on his face, an expression that told her he could make out how outmatched he seemed to be.
Holding up the pipe head her finger had been wrapped around this whole time, she raised it up with emphasis.
"Let me return this to you," She offered, flicking her finger.
The guard widened his eyes, seeing it for it was and physically displaced at the last instant-
KOOOOOM!
A loud eruption of impact followed the pipe head touching the floating pillar, blasting it apart into powder and smoke that shook the pillars nearby. Aaroniero turned her head expectantly ahead where the path led, seeing a trickle of blood patter the floor.
Coming straight from a slash across the pompadour man's cheek across his ear, a stream of blood flowing down his jaw off his chin onto the ground. If he had felt pain, he showed no signs of it; only surprise at the being he now faced.
"Seeing as I got your attention," The Apex Predator announced with a flourish of her arms, taking one step forward as she said with embellished ego, "I'd like that name of yours."
"Why would you want to know?" The pompadour man asked with a raised brow.
"I like knowing the name of the final obstacle between me and Godhood," She said, her eyes gleaming with vibrant hunger. "After all, your the first challenge I had since I've evolved into this form you see now. So come now, don't be shy!"
"If you insist," He hefted his spear around, leaning it down while reverse gripping it near the back. A vibrant flash of light extended all the way across the wooden pole, flourishing majestically over the tip of the spear, undulating with mighty reiatsu that rumbled across the pathway leading to the Soul Palace.
"My name is Tenjirō Kirinji, the one who's going to stop you," He said, a bright smile spreading as his body shimmered with the radiant shine of his Zanpakutō.
Starrk raised a hand to cover his eyes, Gin himself thinly glared ahead and Lilynette looked away from the bright shine.
Aaroniero lowered her hands to her sides, seemingly providing no signs of defense to her foe. Closing her eyes, she allowed her enemy to come to her. Quieting her senses, withdrawing her Pesquisa till it shrank to a sphere of a mere three meters, she readied for a reaction from her adversary.
Twisting on his heels, Kirinji spun around like a top spraying beams of light all around the highway of heaven. The bright blue expanse dimmed as the incandescent being continued to brighten further. Whirring louder and louder, an enormous ball of spiraling light is visible for miles, comparable to that of a twinkling star in the dimming vista of paradise.
"Kiseiyari!" Kirinji howled, thrusting a massive spear of luminous light. It cracked out like the clap of thunder, shaking palace entrance all the way to the floating cities in the far horizon.
Kirinji stared ahead, seeing a miasma of heat rose off cooked tiles of marble. They bubbled and popped, with no trace of his adversary nor the consort behind her.
A painful thrust through his chest came with a single blade of pure white, bathed red in his own blood. The pompadour guard regurgitated blood, feeling his back and chest freeze on contact with the blade that had passed through him.
That is, it seemed so, before it all dissolved in rays of brilliant colors that dimmed in front of Aaroniero.
"I had a feeling something was off about your big finisher," She proclaimed, looking left and right, attempting to locate him. "So your fancy glowstick can manufacture identical copies of yourself? Is that why your Shunpo is impossible to detect?"
"Better question is, how did avoid Kiseiyari?" A voice echoed around, with no clear point of origin on sound alone for her to locate him. "My Zanpakutō accelerates light beyond anything Hollow or Shinigami could hope to avoid. It's literally an unavoidable attack!"
"Avoid? You act like your reiatsu could even scratch me," Aaroniero scoffed, hefting her blade onto her shoulder as she looked at a particular pillar, eyeing a shade of blue that wasn't quite right to her keen eyes. "And anyone worth the salt can avoid light. That's the entire precedent of swift movement techniques like Shunpo and Sonido are formed."
Kirinji flickered away, trying to gauge a better space to outmaneuver Aaroniero. Problem he saw, her eyes now trailed after him, even though Kinpika made him invisible on the visual spectrum.
A sudden piercing sensation slashed his side, ripping him out of invisibility with a flourish of golden-white. His face blanched, eyes looking over to see Gin Ichimaru standing atop one of the pillars, an extended blade held in hand.
"He saw me through Hikari no bēru?!" He cried out, performing a Shunpo away-
-directly into a glaring Starrk.
"GAH!" Kirinji yelled out, his own chest slashed open in a diagonal stroke across his pectoral down his side. A spray of blood followed a stream of light, his body quickly shifting to a space into the ground with a grim expression on his face.
"Hey, bird head!" Kirinji blanched at the childish shout, rearing around to see her dropping behind him with a curved scimitar in two hands held back. "Your aim sucks!"
The Royal Guard spun his spear around to hit her as her sword arced at him. Yet, it came short, his body freezing in place; enabling the curved blade to cut another, shallower cut down his chest in a less than impressive cut over the man's torso.
Tumbling forward from the force of her own attack, she somersaulted in a one handed spring and flipped to a wobbly landing. Clearing her throat, she grinned and flashed a pair fingers over at a pillar standing Starrk.
The latter of which sighed and gave a sloppy smile with a pair of fingers raised in return.
"Why can't I move?" Kirinji asked, his teeth grinding against each other with strained effort. His muscles bulged, throbbing with veins as he tried to exert himself. Even his reiatsu felt suppressed, flickering about him but not escaping this tight grips over his whole body.
"You can thank the Modified Arrancar, Angelle Cooney," Aaroniero explained, walking closer to the wounded Royal Guard as she kept a clawed hand stretched in front of her. "In exchange for physical strength or regenerative abilities, her mind had been altered to such a degree that she had complete mastery over her own reishi and reiatsu. Stretching it out to tether on any substance, be it reishi or spiritual bodies, she can have full control over their movements."
So that's why my attacks weren't landing earlier?!
"...is probably what you're thinking," She presumed rightly, causing Kirinji's face to redden in anger. "What amuses me is that all I did was detect your attack and spread it out just enough to give my comrades all the time they need to escape your sight. Your greatest weakness is that your big technique obscured your sight as much as ours; not that I need to see you to track you down."
"Heh, and I let my guard down because your weakest member had guts enough to call me out before attacking," Kirinji said, grinning despite his circumstances. "I'm no better. I came here to stop a renegade Hollow that Sōsuke Aizen made, which gave the Gotei so much grief. I'm getting the feeling of how dangerous you really are."
"Now you're beginning to understand," Aaroniero gleefully agreed with an unseen nod. "Don't worry. When I devour you, you'll be of more use to me than you were ever were in life."
Aaroniero's hand reached out to touch the man's back. Her fingers touched it, feeling through the finely made Haori over the icon of the Zero Division. His muscular back resonated a strong reiatsu, struggling to burst through her own even as she held him in place.
Such a skilled, old soul shall do well in my hands! She envisioned, eyes wide and lips pulled into a demented grin.
"That's close enough," Kirinji muttered.
"Pardon?" She asked, not quite making out his words.
"What I said is," Kirinji uttered, raising his spear and clanking it on the ground in defiance of her reiatsu.
"Bankai, Kagayakashī Tengoku no Kin'iro no Heya!"
Ichibe Hyosube stood at the precipice. In the highest of heights he saw all that happened in the Soul Palace. Even further, he held away in realm of Soul Society and for ages since the beginning of the Seireitei. If he didn't exist, the world as they knew it wouldn't be here today.
But in preparation for a potential incursion by one Sōsuke Aizen, he made some preparations in the event the unthinkable could transpire. Watching the war with keen interest, he saw Shinigami and Hollow wage a war that hadn't been seen in an age. When the mastermind unveiled himself, a curiosity emerged in the form of Ichigo Kurosaki and his gathering of friends.
Yet something had been amiss, for the one bearing the name Rukia Kuchiki had long since been possessed by a clever Arrancar. Keeping watch, he soon realized the real threat had amidst them all along.
Even now, as he sent Kirinji to scout out this threat, it revealed itself not of reckless power and brawn but of a slippery sort. To approach without care is likely to end in disaster, as he noticed his colleague is finding out himself.
"How long has it been since I've seen your Bankai, Kirinji?" He asked aloud to himself, rising to his feet and walking to the edge of the tiled platform he stood upon. A luminous gold beacon shining like a star in the distance, becoming like the Sun so much that he squinted at its presence. "This foe is beyond anything you faced. If by chance you somehow make a difference, I fear the worse is about to pass."
He sighed, pulling on his beard as he pondered on his next course of action.
"Perhaps coordination is in order?" He bemused to himself.
Ouetsu Nimaiya adjusted his glasses, his padded vest rustling by the intense wind blowing past him from the brilliant rays echoing from the entrance of the palace. Looking over his shoulder, a pair of slender women carried a glass case, the smallest of gyrations stirred a floating sword within its container. Followed on by a number of women of varying appearance, he marched on towards the beacon of light.
"Kagayakashī Tengoku no Kin'iro no Heya, I remember you well. You're still dazzling even facing this new Hell," He spoke giddily, gesturing about as his grin dimmed and his movements slowed. "If Kirinji's activated you, then he knows how much of a threat this guy is. I hope you make it through, but I don't think I'm going to make it."
Blinding.
The sheer radiance of this massive reiatsu peered through shut eyes and made her gnash her teeth. She remembered how vile the Sun was, being a creature originally from the darkness of Hueco Mundo. Had she not evolved through a Shinigami body, she feared that her just seeing this Bankai could reduce her to a frail shape.
Yet, despite it, she willed back the light by sheer force of her spirit energy. The whole chamber dimmed to a manageable level and its design became known to her.
It appeared to be a massive crystaline chamber, adorned in golden gilded frames about glass mirrors that shined and glittered around in a mass of repetitive arrangement. Everything radiated this nauseating radiance, sickening her with how it seemed to cover every space in its shine.
Standing away from her hand is the man she had been fighting, only now adorned in a raiment of golden-white. His wooden spear now looked to be a pure golden halberd, radiating a melodic hum of coursing energy that now overflowed with stellar power.
"Now that we're alone, allow me to introduce myself properly," Kirinji began, turning around with his weapon held in hand. "My name's Lightning Kirinji, the fastest Shinigami in the history of Soul Society. This Bankai of mine is emblematic of that reputation. Care for a test run?"
Aaroniero looked left, then right. She couldn't see any exit, nor where his entourage is. They likely needed to be closer to be sucked into this world created by Kirinji's Bankai. Moving past this elaborate display of power and arrogance could be easily rectified.
But since when have I rushed anything? She thought as a smile broke her stoic visage. What's the phrase? All good things comes to those who waits. So let's see what this Royal Guard can do at his best.
"What's the smile for?" Kirinji asked with annoyance.
"I just find it funny, is all," She answered, gesturing with a whimsical spread of her hands. "For someone who had been sent as a messenger, you're certainly doing your best to stop me. All on your own. This means you're either the strongest or the weakest of this Zero Division of yours.
"The real question is," She lowered her voice, violet eyes shining and her body darkening with a wave of violet-black reiatsu and burning about her black fatigued person, "Which one are you?"
The pompadour guard spat, gesturing his halberd in swing to the right.
A flash of golden reishi slashed across Aaroniero's chest, producing a splash of blood to land wetly onto the ground below. Her eyes wide and her mouth parted with a gasp, looking down at her torso where a hissing wave of steam emitted from her fabric that been slashed into. Touching the blood, she looked at it, and then smiled back at Kirinji.
"Point proven," She said, taking a step forward, appearing in front of him faster than he could see.
"Gran Rey Cero," She whispered, unleashing a jagged lightning blast of purple reishi into the chest of Kirinji's body. The Royal Guard couldn't even scream, his body erased in a flash of gold overlapped by purple, the Cero viciously reducing him into oblivion.
Another flash of gold struck Aaroniero's back, producing a gout of red to spurt from her flank; causing her to blink with a moment's confusion.
A Clone? Or an illusion? She wondered, turning to look over her shoulder at the mirrors where she swore this came from. A flicker of movement came from them, but moved quickly, the image of Kirinji himself chasing from one reflection to another across this massive amphitheater of glass and gold.
"Oh, I see," She mouthed out, smiling as eyes narrowed as she closed them. "Your Bankai accelerates you through the reflections of the mirrors, and the gold amplifies the gleam which you use to move. It's why my Pesquisa didn't pick it up, otherwise my reiatsu would have doubtlessly repelled it."
"Nice theory, monster!" Kirinji shouted, his voice reverberating around the massive chamber. "But even if you can see through it, you're not nearly fast enough to-!"
His speech paused short, witnessing Aaroniero appearing right where he was. A hand reached out, grasping his face and slamming him into the glass with a powerful thrust. Blood splattered, and Kirinji evaporated into light, slashing through Aaroniero.
Only to see her appear past the point of his strike, a fist slamming into his face.
"El Directo!" Aaroniero yelled out, a mighty thuum shaking the hall of golden-framed glass. The pillar of light washed over the mirrors, cracking dozens of them while burning away the gold frames. Turning on her heels, she was slashed by another stroke of light, and several more images of her all swung Sode no Shirayuki blades at a surprised Kirinji.
Backing away in a streak of light, he felt himself caught in mid dash, pulled back into a physical shape. Eyes wide, he looked over his shoulder in shock, seeing a deranged grin and violet eyes of Aaroniero.
Allowing him to get hit on all sides by Aaroniero.
KOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A stellar eruption of light throttled the Sonido clones of the possessed Shinigami, each one crashing to the ground with quaking impact. Kirinji hovered in the air, emblazoned by an aura of gold as his coat flourished and spear shining white with pure reishi.
"Did I forget to mention I control any light inside this Bankai?" He asked coyly, grinning down at his rising opponent from her particular crater.
Looking up, she dryly dusted herself off, a smile playing at her lips. Clapping her hands, a sudden rush of pressure shuddered the entire chamber, the crystaline cocoon trembling behind the plethora of golden framed mirrors.
Suddenly, each mirror is cracked, torn off forcefully by invisible tethers all around Kirinji. The Royal Guard gaped, eyes wide at seeing his Bankai dismantled in a matter of seconds.
"M-My Bankai…!" He stammered out, seeing it crumble to pieces, light fading around him until a familiar empty blue canvas surrounded him. "You broke it!"
"If you think a chamber of mirrors is all that could defeat a transcendent being like me, you seriously overestimated your abilities, Royal Guard," Aaroniero stated derisively, a sneering grin present on her face. "And your Bankai is hardly what I call threatening if it could be dismantled so easily."
"You bastard!" Kirinji howled, his body bristling with a majestic yellow aura. Leaping down, he thrust his halberd out to stab her between the eyes-
Cling!
The Royal Guard's eyes widened, his weapon stopped. A single hand grabbed the blade of luminous white, fingers effortlessly catching it. Violet eyes looked his way, and a stoic expression turned to one of smug victory.
"Let me show you how its done," She declared, raising a snow white blade, shifting its shape to that of an elegant rapier.
"Bankai, Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū!"
Kirinji paled, seeing her vile reiatsu brighten into a violet star, shooting upwards to cover the empty sky of Soul Palace. An enormous dome of purple electricity drew in energy, clouds forming a black firmament over the horizon, with tendrils snapping about with chaotic fervor.
Over a dozen tendrils ornated themselves behind her, creating a palace of extreme pulsing light about her black robes person. Eyes glowed violet as the Bankai cast an eerie shadow of bright flashes over her.
Running him through in a flicker of swift movement, Kirinji took a final gasp before feeling the hit.
Genzen Jukei!
Kirinji felt his whole body engulfed in a massive surge of lightning, his chest pierced by a blade and the whole chamber ablaze in blinding purple electricity. What little of his Bankai that suspended in the air was shattered, melting away and turning to glittering dust like snow as it drifted down around the pair.
Withdrawing her sword from his chest, she flicked the blood away, dispelling her Bankai and returning its shape to Side no Shirayuki once more. Eyeing the tall man, charred flesh revealing bone, muscle and organs, his eyes all but empty sockets.
Dropping his wooden spear to the ground, Kirinji fell to his knees and then onto his face with a meaty crunch. By her Reikaku and Pesquisa sense, his once impressive reiatsu had vanished.
The Royal Guard Kirinji is dead.
"My my, color me impressed!" Gin applauded, clapping his hands together. Aaroniero looked his way, seeing the white coated Shinigami ahead of the Primera duo, both looking surprised at her victory; not that she could blame them, this foe has been strong enough in the end to draw blood from her.
"Keep being impressed, Gin," Aaroniero insisted, turning her head to look up at the imposing obelisk she knew the Soul King presided upon. "I'm only going to keep being a spectacle, for none alive have achieved what I'll have."
Turning to the corpse of Kirinji, Aaroniero walked over, left hand outstretching. To devour a Royal Guard gave her goosebumps, knowing a wealth of knowledge and power lied beneath the haughty exterior.
A white blur emerged before her Pesquisa could, a large figure stomping between her and the dead Zero Division Captain. Emerging from a crouched position stood a purple haired, dark lipped woman, whose eyes glared down at him past a false smile.
"You must be Aaroniero Arrururerie," She spoke presumptuously, her squinting eyes opening to stare down at her. "You weren't about to do something unsavory to my comrade's body, were you?"
"What, you don't eat enough yourself?" Aaroniero wryly remarked. "Get lost, before I tear off a ton from your blubbering body."
"That isn't happening," Another voice said from behind. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a short man with darker skin, sunglasses and a sleeveless vest. He held a sword in hand, a playful smile resting on his face. "We're putting an end to your mad ambitions, Hollow."
"That's right," A quiet feminine voice said to her left, a taller woman in an elaborate dress with a Sun hairpin stood imposingly close by. "It's the Will of the Soul King that you fall this day."
Each of them then released enormous wellsprings of reiatsu. Coyote Starrk gasped, feeling such strength felt unreal, especially all in one place. Gin Ichimaru smirked, his coat flourishing by the gale being kicked up, catching Lilynette as she was nearly blown away by the sheer force of their threatening power.
Aaroniero, however, began to laugh.
A deep, unsettling laughter as her violet reiatsu rose up around her long black haired visage. Her crimson flower collar rustled, a blade held up in hand and a Hōgyoku brandished hand swinging about with a gleeful display.
"I'm going to enjoy feasting on you all, Royal Guards!" She howled out.
A/N: Now this is a delight. I'm glad my story hasn't been abandoned by me, or my audience after so long. Cutting to the chase, I liked designing Kirinji's Bankai and having the gang help Aaroniero out even though she really doesn't need it. I'm enjoying having them as an entourage, gives more humor and levity to the whole dark journey Aaroniero is undergoing. Expect these next bit of chapters to be the same, with Aaroniero battling the Royal Guard and getting closer to her goal.
The Question is: will she get what she's looking for?