Chapter 3: Shadow's Twilight, Cloud's Light
"This is your final dance unto Twilight, Ryouka Cloud…," Daisuke said before tilting his sword hilt forward directly at them. The black pillar suddenly launched a dark fireball at them both, five meters in width and length. Immediately upon reflex, Takashi pushed Cloud aside as released another light orb at the fire. The two collided and the light orb began discharging at the black fireball, pouring enormous amounts of light toward it. Daisuke smirked as he switched his sword position again, towards the ground. The shadow fireball morphed into black tendrils, streaking around the light beam at fast speeds towards the two. No time to come up with a plan, Cloud simply swung at the dark tendrils. The tendrils simply wrapped around his sword, like black cloth before reaching his body snaring him a dark shell. Takashi tried to attack the tendrils as well but ended up in the same snare as he was.
Daisuke then explained with cold confidence, "This is my Zanpaktou's power of my Bankai form, Gorou-Mai Rin, to turn all shadows around itself into any weapon, shield, or snare I choose it to be. There are seven steps to this dance, and I showed you only two of them and already you've been defeated." Back in the recesses of Cloud's mind he began to agree with his Soul Reaper nemesis, as his own vision began to blacken. The shadows around him gave no quarter, slowly compressing his body's and he assumed Takashi's as well into a tiny speck. He felt like he would have to go through death a second time, and wondered how hospitable would the next afterlife would be. He was tired of people taking every chance of happiness from him; tired of seeing people who cared about him die; and…
"I'M SICK OF IT! I'M FRIKKIN' SICK OF IT ALL!" Cloud shouted at the top of his lungs, gathering energy for an attack right into his sword. Daisuke turned to the Ryouka's black prison and saw turquoise cracks form around where his sword was and traveled vertically then horizontally both ways of the black cocoon. With a loud audible roar, an explosion of power and reiti ripped open the shadow's prison as well as shattered the hold on Takashi's prison.
Takashi was yelping in surprise as the turquoise reiti lit aflame on his tunic as he batted away his clothes from spreading fire. "Aiiiieee! Ooh, ah, oh, ah, hot, hot, hot! What's going on Clou…oooooh, that," Takashi stopped his pathetic pleas as he saw Cloud bathed in turquoise energy and his eyes aflame that he knew all too well as, 'the intent to kill gaze'.
With a sincerely serene voice, Cloud asked Takashi in an almost whisper, "Takashi?" When Takashi gave a brief exclamation, Cloud continued, "can you step back please? I don't know, if I can hold back, like this…" Takashi immediately separated himself up to fifty meters and saw Cloud nod, with his back still turned on him, with approval.
Daisuke on the other hand was sweating visibly from the intense mix of foreign power and reiti weighing down on him. The monstrosity of its violence and its serene control, and its power rivaled surely of his own.
Cloud still staring Daisuke down, Cloud suddenly clicked his sword and then something spun high in the air, covered in the hazy aura of his power. At that moment, Cloud shimmered from sight, too fast for even Daisuke to pin down. He suddenly reappeared from above, grabbing the high velocity spinning object and threw it down at blinding speed, looking no more then a bluish windmill of death barreling like a meteorite toward the Vice Captain. Daisuke twitched his hilt expertly, forming a black webbed barrier halting the incoming weapon. Unfortunately, it delayed only seconds before sawing through the barrier like paper. He twitched his hilt again in two positions. The cut barrier extended like snakes to grab the weapon while another square looking barrier came up to stop it. The shadow tendrils simply burned away and the blade sliced its way through the second barrier with only moments to spare.
Daisuke moved to move his hilt reinforce the barrier with more of the shadows from the pillar, then suddenly felt his heart stopped as felt something shimmer behind him, roaring with reiti hungry as hollows in a feeding frenzy.
Daisuke had no choice but raised his sixth step, his hilt forming a black shimmering blade, striking the powerfully reiti soaked sword. He felt the immense strength and was being pressed back against his barrier that was being torn through in seconds by the second weapon. Daisuke's normally impassive cold eyes flickered back in forth with fear as he watched himself get scissor between the two weapons. Daisuke then had only one card to play without destroying the Rukon District.
Suddenly, what was left of the giant shadow pillar surged as a swirling shield around Daisuke, constantly battling Cloud's awesome raw power that seemed to be increasing. No visible headway was made between the two weapons, barreling across a swirling shield. Cloud then exerted himself to the fullest he could muster, gave a mighty roar, and began cutting his way through the shield. Shadow
"A-A-Amazing strength!" Takashi exclaimed as he used an arm to shield his face from the oncoming wind the clashing powers produced. Suddenly, there was bright light that cut through the swirling nexus of darkness, resulting in an awesome explosion of white light, ripping buildings asunder underneath it crawling towards Takashi. Takashi then Flash-Stepped quickly until he was just outside the blast radius of the attack. When he looked back his eyes stung of blindness from the flare the blast created. As his eyes slowly readjusted, he saw the area around ground zero stretched a crater for at least three hundred meters! But then he saw from the smoke dissipating from the center, hovered two figures. Both were still and Takashi couldn't clearly get a gauge on who was who.
"Cloud!" he called, desperate to see if his friend was alright. Once the figures swayed in the breeze that suddenly blew by, giving the air a melancholy feel about it. Then the figure started drop, falling fast but not too fast for Takashi's Flash Step. Within a moment of shimmering from one point to the other, Takashi caught the falling figure. He his eyes shocked to see he was holding a nearly cut to ribbons Daisuke along his torso. He saw that he was barely breathing, wheezing and coughing up blood as he did so. Takashi, trembled as he looked up to see a terrifying sight. Cloud was swirling with the foreign energy and reiti, and the murderous intent had not left his eyes, gripping not one but two buster swords in a menacing way.
Takashi knew he had to snap him out of it, fast. "CLOUD! Snap out of it! It's over you won!"
"No," Cloud said matter-of-factly without a trace of the murderous aura he perspired but one of caution. "it's just begun." After he finished his sentence, Takashi flinched in fear as he felt an overwhelming amount of reiti hit him from all sides. Suddenly, the air around them was filled with Captains and their Vice Captains of the 13 Court Guard Squads. Captain Soi-Fon Flash Stepped behind Takashi before grabbing him and Flash Stepping away from the area until they were five hundred meters away.
Takashi trembled in fear as he lowered Daisuke to the ground safely as Squad Four members began healing him immediately, left alone with Captain Soi-Fon. Captain of Squad 2 aka the Stealth Force, had a cold accusatory look directed at him.
Takashi felt waves of guilt, shame, and resentment as he heard Soi-Fon speak, "Its been awhile since I last saw you. Eh, Takeshi?"
A/N: Almost forgot about putting a few notes in the last one, sorry about that! Anyways, I felt like since the next one was going to be so involved with storytelling of Takashi *aka Takeshi*'s past and Soi-Fon's relationship with him, and how he used to be part of the 13 Court Guard Squads' Stealth Force and 2nd Division. Also, this kind of wraps up the fight between the 2nd Division's Bad-ass Vice Captain and Cloud takes on some new opponents…xD
