CHAPTER 59: HERYANNA'S RELEASE

Kiseida quickly dodged the debris that Heryanna sent flying at her. She noticed that the Heryanna she was facing seemed rather affected by the sudden entrance of Rukia and her. Deciding to try and use it to her greatest advantage, she jumped over the last of the flying debris and used it as a platform, kicking hard against the large rock and sending herself flying towards her opponent. While in the air, she placed her palm against the blade of her Zanpakutou and watched as it became engulfed in its pale blue flames.

"Raifuru moe, Hageshiku Moeru*!"

Kiseida's whole Zanpakutou transformed into a black rifle, with its blue flames burning brightly all over. The hilt of her Zanpakutou had shrunk to form the trigger of the rifle, which Kiseida gripped tightly. Though her rifle appeared rather heavy, she was able to handle its weight and held it with one hand only, instead of the usual two hands. Kiseida sighed as she remembered her early years with Tayomi in the Gotei 13, including the time when they had nearly been assassinated by Aizen's henchmen while away on the Special Training Program. Those times were really tough for them. Even though they had to focus on getting well and surviving in the Human world, there was simply no possibility of them forgetting to train at least once a day.

"Kiseida-chan! Is that your Bankai?" Tayomi beamed.

"No, of course not! As if I could achieve Bankai before you did!" Kiseida cheered. "I finally achieved my Shikai!"

"Eh... But wasn't it like, throwing balls of fire around and razing the ground?" Tayomi raised an eyebrow at her, before jumping onto the bed and peering at her best friend.

"That... it wasn't my true Shikai. I thought it was my Shikai at first... But right after a visit into my inner world, I realised that it was my half-achieved Shikai. Well, now that I've finally and truly completed my Shikai, I hope it'll be more powerful than before!"

"Yup!" Tayomi nodded eagerly. "That way, once we get back, we can protect everyone... And do it more effectively this time!"

"Aww... But you have someone to protect you!" Kiseida nudged her playfully.

"Ugh!" Tayomi cheekily slapped her on the back. "He might not even remember me when we return...IF we return. But I think we will!"

"It's alright! He'll remember for sure! Anyway, enough of all this talk, let's get back to training!"

"RIGHT!"

Quickly raising her rifle and aiming straight for Heryanna, Kiseida pulled the trigger quickly, sending out several blue blasts of fire from the mouth of her rifle. Heryanna grinned and quickly dodged the impending attacks from his new opponent. Ichimaru smiled. Kiseida had really improved and grown stronger over the years. Determined not to lose out in battle, Shinji dashed towards Heryanna, with his Zanpakutou aimed at his head. Heryanna slashed both Shinji and Kiseida with such speed, that both of them did not even notice that they had been injured by him until a few seconds later. Staring down at their wounds, they quickly retreated, landing beside Ichimaru. Heryanna merely had a small cut on his arm and his left shoulder.

"Well, how's that?" Heryanna smirked. "I'm currently in the midst of my Ressurreccion... Mine takes a little longer to be fully released. It's half-released now, enjoying it so far?"

What's with this guy? He's crazy! Kiseida grasped her arm as blood literally spilled from her wounds. She had sustained quite a deep cut and she knew that holding it there would not stop the bleeding. Slowly, she let go, exposing her wound to the air and her hand full of her own blood. Shinji glared at the cackling Heryanna, as blood poured from his left shoulder. Gripping his Zanpakutou even more tightly than before, he rushed towards Heryanna again, with Ichimaru following right behind him. Opening his eyes Ichimaru released Shinso and had it shoot straight out at top speed, heading straight for Heryanna's chest. However, he only managed to land a scrape on Heryanna's right arm, before he felt a sharp blade rip through his right arm. At that moment, he knew that it was too late. Heryanna's speed had increased drastically and his movements got quicker and quicker with every passing second. If they did not defeat him soon, trying to bring him down would be impossible. Racking his brains hard, Ichimaru tried to figure out the mechanism of Heryanna's him down would become more and more difficult, to the point that it could eve Ressurreccion. Surely there had to be some sort of trick to his attacks. There was no such thing as an 'undefeatable enemy'. Also, if they could not even defeat his underlings, there was no way they could defeat Aizen. No matter what, they had to get rid of Heryanna if they wanted a decent chance at defeating Aizen. Ichimaru started to contemplate using his Bankai and stared as his surroundings. The area they were fighting in were not exactly full of obstacles (which would have worked in his favour), but it was definitely large enough to create an impact on his opponent.

"Bankai." He grinned.

He watched as his blade underwent a transformation, turning into a short, dagger-like Zanpakutou. Fully aware of the abilities of his Bankai, as well as the psychological and physical impact it could have on Heryanna, Ichimaru was confident that perhaps, they could secure a win for this battle.

An awkward and abrupt silence filled the room. Everything was still. Hitsugaya and Ichigo stood rooted to the ground and stopped everything they were doing, their heads turned in the direction of the noise. Even Viquierra stood still and simply stared, with his typical blank gaze. Hitsugaya could feel cold beads of sweat running down the side of his face and his body freeze, unable to move an inch. That deafening crash... It came from her. His heart started to beat loudly and quickly, just like the numerous hooves of wild horses beating the ground. As much as he was curious to find out what had happened to her, inside, fear was creeping into his heart as well. What if things had taken a turn for the worse?

"Inazuma... Arashi."

Hitsugaya sighed and Ichigo heaved a sigh of relief. Tayomi stood in a distant corner, relatively far away from them, but still within their sight. A bright yellow orb of lightning surrounded her, protecting her from harm and keeping the green lances at bay. With a swing of her Zanpakutou, the orb let out a strong bolt of lightning, shattering the green lances into pieces. Ignoring her injuries completely, Tayomi had activated her Bankai. It was worrying, since Tayomi herself was not sure how long she could hold out. I'll just have to play a little with my luck then... And take some chances! Hitsugaya shook his head. It was just like her to put her own life on the line in order to protect others.

With the shattered bits of the green lance on the ground, Tayomi diverted her full attention to Viquierra and dashed towards him, her lightning blade raised above her head. Hitsugaya proceeded with setting up his Sennen Hyoro, while Ichigo joined Tayomi and sent Getsuga Tenshou flying right at Viquierra. With two attacks aimed right at him, Viquierra quickly sped away using Sonido, narrowly escaping the black blast of energy and the rope of lightning. Biting her lip, she realised that Viquierra's speed had been increasing by the second and feared that if they did not get the job done quickly enough, the whole area would be reduced to rubble. With all of their Bankais out, there was nothing much to do except to fight hard and pray that everything went smoothly and the way they wanted it to be. However, Viquierra had been consistently dodging all of their attacks. Their only hope now was for Hitsugaya to set up his Sennen Hyoro as quickly as possible to end the brutal battle.

"Sennen Hyoro!"

Numerous towers of ice formed a circle around Viquierra, before snapping themselves tight on him, trapping and encasing him in the ice. Just when they thought they had to wait for a while before determining their success, the ice cracked immediately. The ice shattered into pieces, flying outwards with force as Viquierra emerged, completely unharmed. His eyes were glowing red and he had all sorts of blood red daggers raised above his head. With a wave of his hand, the daggers flew towards Tayomi, Hitsugaya and Ichigo at an incredibly inhuman speed. All three of them quickly used Shunpo to dodge, using all of their energy to prevent themselves from getting anymore injuries. Tayomi's injuries were starting to sting really badly and she could feel a surge of pain run through her whole body, almost consuming it in the process. Gritting her teeth, she continued dodging until all the daggers had run out and were trapped in the rubble. She lifted up her sleeve briefly and stared at the emblem of a tulip marked on her skin, glowing a pale fiery orange. No... I can't use it now. It's supposed to be saved for the final battle. I have to keep myself alive with my own basic abilities now.

"Hado 91, Senju Koten Taiho!"

She lined her entire blade with the Hado spell and combined it with the power from the lightning bolts enveloping her Zanpakutou. With a wave of her blade, she sent the bright yellow blast of energy flying at Viquierra. Spotting the incoming attack, he quickly dodged, not realising that Ichigo had gotten right behind him, directly hitting him with a Getsuga Tenshou, dealing a considerable amount of damage. Blood spurted out from Viquierra's back and Hitsugaya used Ryuusenka on his shocked opponent. Viquierra readied his daggers and his lances, sending them towards both Hitsugaya and Ichigo. He sent a homing lance towards Tayomi, as he was unable to track her down.

All of a sudden, he heard a strange fizzing noise. He turned around and his eyes widened at the sight of his green lance crumbling, right as it came into contact with the lightning orb surround Tayomi. Brushing her hand against her sharpened blade, her eyes began to glow pale purple and her yellow reiatsu began to leak. Hitsugaya and Ichigo stared at her, hoping that her attack would deal enough damage to weaken Viquierra greatly and ensure that the battle would work against his flow, allowing them to emerge victorious more easily and end the battle for once and for all.

"Dageki, Inazuma Arashi."

TRANSLATION:

*Burn wildly, Blazing rifle!

Author's Note:
OMG this came out so late... Sorry for the late updates, school had been getting really crazy these few weeks T.T
But at least it's finally done! :D After a few weeks...
I'm going to focus on Heryanna's battle for the next chapter and do a quick check on Aizen XD
Thanks for reading! Please review :D Stay tuned ^.^