Behind The Masks
Chronicles
Chapter 4
The princess and the thorns
It is very nice to meet you, my name is Loren Roselin. I am the Vice-Captain of squad 2, under Captain Lahara Matsuo. This is my chronicle.
It began on a day like any other, the sun shone brightly in between the few clouds up on the sky. Lahara, Cindy and I were at the clothes shop. Finally doing some well deserved shopping, but still worried about what was going on with the appearances of the Arrancar that were supposed to be dead. Worried as we were, we still couldn't let it rule our lives, so we took a day off, all three of us, to go shopping like we had planned.
"Ugh, this does not look good on me. Unless it's a small accessory, I can never wear anything pink and have it look nice. Here try this Loren." Lahara said as she handed me a dress from over the wall that divided her and my dresser.
"Wow, the design is so pretty… but it would look a lot better in green. Here Cindy, check it out." I said as I passed it on to Cindy the same way.
"Eww, green? Black looks so much better on me." Cindy commented
"Me too." Lahara added
"Now this, this is nice. Check it out." Cindy said as she passed me a black blouse.
"Wow… it's so pretty. Still, green is so my color." I said and passed it on to Lahara
"You're spending way too much time with your Zanpaktou." Cindy joked from her side
"Totally. Wow it is nice." Lahara added
"Well, Chris said we should… isn't he like our Head Captain?" I asked
"Hmhmm… he is my Head Captain!" Lahara answered
"Ooooh, somebody's in love." Cindy commented
"Oh, you have no idea. He's the perfectly ultimate Prince Charming… and those muscles! O.M.G.!" she answered in high pitch tone.
"Really? I always thought of him as a skinny guy." Cindy said
"Well you obviously haven't seen him without a shirt." Lahara added
"I've never really seen anything attractive in him." I said "Finally a good green blouse!"
"Okay now I'm curious… what's he like?" Cindy asked
"Well… it's like Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds put together!" she answered
"Wow, that is hot! Ooh nice skirt." Cindy said
"And mine, all mine!" Lahara added
"Don't worry about it girl, he's not my type." Cindy high pitcher
"And what is your ty-*gasp*"
"*gasp*"
"*gasp*"
"You felt that too right?" Cindy asked
"Yeah… two signatures…" Lahara added
"We can shop later… can we go?" I asked
"Quick, let's move!" Lahara said
We quickly put everything back and left the store as fast as we could. There were two strong signals of spirit energy coming from close by. One of them was significantly stronger than the other. Lahara seems to have gotten some of Chris's traits; she quickly went all leader on us, which was good since both Cindy and I were totally lost about what to do.
"Cindy… can you take care of the signal far east?" She asked
"It doesn't seem too strong… Yea I can take it." Cindy responded
"I'm sure you can, you're one of my strongest girls. Loren and I will take this other signal." she added
"It feels so dense." I said
"We can take it." she said with a smile, and we parted ways.
We changed into our soul forms and went onwards to battle. We took the skies and searched around for our target. From far away we could see the silhouette of someone floating there as if nothing were happening. We approached the figure. A tall, dark skinned woman with long, platinum blonde hair. Her strange shirt covered her breasts and her mouth, but her entire abdomen and hips were completely exposed. She wore long white pants and black boots with white lines. Tied to her back was a sword, apparently her Zanpaktou. She seemed a familiar to me, as if I had seen her before.
"Tia Harribel…" Lahara said under her breath
"What?" I asked
"Be careful Loren, she's no pushover."
"Finally someone to kill… are you ready to die?" she asked us
"The only one who's going to die here is you, Arrancar. But before you do… would you mind telling us why you're here?" Lahara asked her
"We have been reborn… but only I will rule. No more questions… DIE!!" she disappeared
She reappeared right on front of Lahara, both blades clashed. They both used their flash techniques and flashed about the sky at high speeds, blocking each other's blades in every encounter. One of them was going to give in sooner or later, and I had to make sure Lahara wasn't it. I unsheathed my Zanpaktou, a sleek short sword with a dark green handle and a flower shaped guard. I pointed the blade downwards and called her name.
"Lash… Midorihime." (Green Princess)
The blade turned into a long, green whip with several thorns, the tip of the whip was bright red like a rose. I waited for a moment in which both blades met so I could whip at Harribel successfully. I saw the blades meet and lashed the whip forward, snaring Harribels leg. I pulled her downward towards me, and then let her go mid swing. Midorihime's whip extends and retracts at will, so by drawing several circles with the handle I can make the whip extend into multiple circles. Once the whip had surrounded the still falling Harribel a few times, I pulled back, causing the whip to trap her completely. The tip of the whip became a bright red rose, which upon contact with Harribel, exploded, leaving a cloud of bright red dust.
I retracted the whip, feeling good that I had done something, but I noticed Lahara was still uneasy, she knew something was up. I felt a large amount of energy charge from Harribel's position. As soon as I felt it release I used shunpo to escape, but I wasn't as fast as I thought and ended up with a partly singed kimono. Upon looking down at Harribel I noticed her skin hadn't been pierced by the thorns of my whip, like it would Ushuaia to a normal enemy.
"You okay?" Lahara asked me
"Yeah, just a scratch." I answered
"Be careful…" she added and began her release
"Spin… Tatsumakimaru!" (Tornado Ring)
Harribel flew towards her, blade in hand. Lahara blocked her blade with one of her fans, then with a swift spin slashed with the other. She followed up with a double back flip, both of which were blocked. I lashed my whip forward, the tip turned into a rose again and exploded upon contact. Using the smoke from the blast as cover I used one of Midorihime's abilities called flying thorn. I flicked the handle, releasing all of the thorns from the whips body. They flew towards Harribel causing small explosions on contact. New thorns grew on the whip after the explosions.
Lahara took a chance and spun towards Harribel, building up enough momentum to create a tornado around her body. Upon contact with Harribel, not only did she manage to cut her multiple times, but the winds from the tornado blew Harribel backwards some distance. It would have carried her even further, had it not been for what she did.
"Attack… Tiburon!" (Shark)
The blast from her release form's reiatsu was enough to knock off Lahara's tornado.
"Loren... Can you hold her off for a minute? I need to gain enough momentum for this next move if we stand any hope of winning this." she said, a tone of concern in her voice
"No problem." (Yeah right! she's an espada, I'm a vice-captain!) I thought
"You can do it… I know you can." I heard Midorihime speak to me
Suddenly I found myself in the center of a rose garden; a soft breeze caressed my hair and face. The garden seemed to expand forever in every direction. In front of me a lady with red hair and a dress made of different colored rose petals.
"Do you really think I should use it?" I asked her
"It would be my honor if you would let my rose bud bloom once again." she said
"You like it when I use it don't you?" I asked once again
"It's just so much fun!" she answered
"Alright, I'll do it."
Instantly my vision returned to where I was before. Harribel came close enough for me to be able to clearly see her release form. It was a simple dress, short skirt and boots, long gloves and a bra. On her hand a large sword shaped like a sharks tooth.
"Prepare for your death." she said as she raised her blade
"I'm not even going to waste my breath on you." I waited until I heard Lahara begin to speak so I could shout loud enough to cover her voice.
BANKAI
A strong glow was released from my whip, circling around me. The thorns on the whip released from its body and grew into large red roses, about the size of pillows, and circled slowly around me. Countless, beautiful red roses floating close to me.
"Midorihime no oujou rozu" (Green Princess's Death Rose)
At the same time I called my bankai's full name, I heard Lahara called hers.
"Jipushi Hidenka Tatsumakimaru" (Gypsy Princess Tornado Ring)
"Tell me, Tia Harribel… are you ready to die?" I asked
"Death isn't so bad… I've been dead before." she answered
"Then you won't mind when I do this."
I summoned one of Midorihime's Bankai's abilities: the death rose. I sent my whip forward, it moved much faster now, and wrapped it around Harribel's arm. I pulled her towards me, and then sent forward ten of my roses. The rose's petals separated and flew towards her individually. Each petal exploded upon contact, even when she tried to block them. The explosions were enough to send her skidding backwards. The remaining pieces of the petals joined together and reformed back to me in the shape of normal sized roses. I felt a sudden burst of icy cold pressure that came along with a blue light from afar. I ignored it and kept my focus.
The smoke cleared allowing a clear view of Harribel's explosion burns, including the burn on her arm from when the whip trapped her. Just then Lahara sent me a reishi signal so I would get ready. A reishi signal is something Lahara invented. It's a small jolt of spirit energy that travels at high speed in a straight line. We use it to send each other signals for multiple different purposes in mid-battle without having to speak out loud. I followed her signal, it felt like it said 'trap', so I flew forward, dodged her blade with shunpo, and wrapped her in my whip.
The whip began heating up, as she tried to escape. She was just about to break free when Lahara came spinning at an almost invisible speed, with three massive tornadoes surrounding her. The instant I felt her I called all of the remaining roses back to me, let go of the whip and got out of the way. Lahara combined the three tornadoes into one massive death whirlwind, her fans spinning inside it. My roses were sucked in along with the tornado, separating into a curtain of petals. They all began exploding, leaving red dust behind. The tornado contained the explosions inside, which caused more damage.
A sharp scream of pain echoed through the sky as a final explosion dissipated every last trace of spirit energy. The blue light that came from afar shone once again. We turned towards where it came from.
"You think she's ok?" I asked
"I'm sure she is." she responded