Author's response to the unknown review:

To dia draco slayer of chapters 3 & 4:

Ummm, no. Ichigo isn't a Shiba…it's…complicated. As for setting them up for a date…well…not intentionally? They want them to get along and it happens to coincide with his job, though if actually feelings manifest between them, that's not really their business, but they encourage positive changes in Soifon.

To Guest from chapter 6:

Japanese, like a few other languages like Spanish, are very context sensitive. There are multiple ways to say a word but changed how it's meant. Example: In English we use our tone rather than a different word. Saying the phrase: 'Well, that was obvious'. The meaning changes quite a bit in context. Said sarcastically, it comes off meaning the opposite that something was difficult to figure out, said in sincerity and it means what it says, said in surprise it means that the person was overthinking the problem/situation, said derogatory and it's meant as a sign of another's mental incompetence. Like I said, it's all relative to the language.

To GenocideKhas from chapter 38:

Thank-you for your honesty and I'm glad that you decided to keep reading the story. I hope it continues to entertain you until it is done and I will try to enjoy life as much as I can, thank-you.

Blackout2010: Hello friends! It's been quite a while since the last update and I do apologize for that; however, I didn't have any time to write over the summer break because I was wearing my big brother hat and had work. I should be able to do more writing on the story now though it's going to take me a while to write each chapter (I am caught up, I'm afraid.)

Blackout2010: Anyway, this brings me to my more important announcement, which is in regards to how this would play out. I've come to the decision that I'm just going to follow Senna's path. Sadly, as much as I would have liked to include the many different fights that might have happened (and character deaths), it really would have eaten into the time slot of the story, which with my busy life, sadly probably won't happen, an unfortunate tragedy.

Blackout2010: Still, I will continue to plant my best foot forward and hope that you continue to enjoy the FF. See you around!


Chapter 39: Skies of Karakura: Raison d'être (1)

(Karakura town)

Stepping through the opening gargantua, Sosuke Aizen was greeted to the sight of the large city glistening in the sun. The man had a smile on his face as he brought a hand up, ignoring the enemy army just a little ways off from him, as he glanced up at the real sun, it's warmth beating of his skin. He looked at it for a minute, a small twinge of a smile creeping on his lips, before returning his gaze back across the skyline.

As he did so, the air around him warped more and more, as Arrancars began to flank him left and right, marking up their own battle formation. 'So…' the man thought to himself as he gave a sweeping glance at his opponents. 'What can we expect here?'

His piercing gaze fell over the various captain's he saw. Jushiro Ukitake and Shunsui Kyoraku were here, a formidable duo to be sure. Further away, flanked by a few Shinigami, was the wolfen-captain Sajin Komamura, Aizen felt there would be words exchanged between him and Tosen once he arrived.

On the far right hand side, he saw Captain Hitsugaya staring back at him and his arriving army, Hinamori and Matsumoto flanking him, hands on weapons. Scattered between the battle formations, he noticed some of the other lieutenants and third seats between the rank-and-file Shinigami, but what got his attention the most was the enemy commander.

Directly at the forefront of the enemy army was Yamamoto standing defiantly, hands on his cane as his cape billowed in the wind. Directly behind the Sotaichō was two lieutenants, Omaeda, Sasakibe, and 13th division third seat Sentaro kotsubaki.

The man's brow rose just a bit, when he saw the ryoka girl standing behind the trio of officers. She kept her gaze even, as she stared back at him, ready to do her all to prevent him from succeeding in his plans. 'Such a shame…' he thought to himself, yet another innocent individual made a casualty of his ambition.

Hearing the footsteps approaching behind him, the mastermind turned his head slightly and was greeted with Barragan walking towards him. The giant warrior raised his hand and clasped Aizen's shoulder, as he clenched his battle-ax Zanpaktou tightly ready for war. "Calm yourself, Sosuke. Victory comes with the swift and decisive. Do not lose sight of that, as we move ahead."

Briefly, the Hogyoku bearer smirked, "And where have I heard those words before my dear Barragan?" he asked, since he had repeated what he had told them back during their war in the sand.

The man gave a sideways glance as he looked away, "Well, you know, passing words of wisdom from the elderly, Niño…"

Sosuke rolled his eyes, "Uhuh."

Shrugging his shoulders, the Segundo Espada removed his hand from his lord and friend's shoulder. "I'll give you a moment to think while I shake them up." He said as he walked forward.

"Heh, after you." The man acceded

The man took a few steps forward, singling him out from his battle-line. His large ax was resting against his shoulder leisurely, he kept walking until he felt all eyes were firmly upon him. Once they were, the man lifted his Zanpaktou off his shoulder and swung it down to his side, his reiatsu flaring out intensively. "YOU ARE IN THE PRESCENCE OF THE KING OF THE ENDLESS NIGHT AND YOUR NEW GOD SOSUKE AIZEN!" the man's thundering voice bellowed, "GET ON YOUR GODDAMN KNEES PENDEJOS! SUBMIT IN FEAR OF HIS UNCONQUERABLE ARMY!"

An explosive roar of the man's massive spiritual pressure fell over the crowd, forcing as he demanded some to their knees, much to his satisfaction.

From the far right hand side of Sosuke's army, Lillinette huffed to herself. "Man, gramps sure is a show off…" she grumbled, only to yelp and cuddle her ear, after stark flicked it to keep her quiet.

Hopefully, if it intimidated them, they'd surrender and me less work for him after all.

The elderly warrior let his eyes wander over his foes. While he did see that some of them were sweating under his spiritual pressure, he was disappointed to see that those he wanted to break under his forcing didn't. "Very well." The man bellowed as he turned back towards his entourage. "Though you may deny the future we seek, I guarantee you will not live to see it!"

Returning back to his leader, the man muttered in a low tone, "So have you deciphered how to proceed, Sosuke?"

The man's eyes drifted back to Barragan, as the warrior took his place back by his side. "Their formation, they've set up something." His eyes glanced around to the far left hand side, where a white pillar stood tall. "We'll need to take care of those before we may proceed to our next venue."

The aged man followed his gaze and nodded after a second. "I'll see to it that it's dealt with."

As the man made a motion with his hand, beckoning one of fraccion forward to relay the message, Aizen continued. "Keep your attention focused on them." He warned, pointing towards where the Sotaichō and more specifically the ryoka girl and three seated-officers. "The old man is up to something, their formation is not a defensive grid protecting those pillars, so keep an eye out."

Barragan raised a brow, "You will not lead us?"

The man shook his head as he glanced downward, the pulsing of the Hogyoku resonating through his body. "No. I'll meet their leader and remove him from the equation." The man took a step towards the right, in the direction of another spire, a sly smile on his face as he noticed Yamamoto twitch his head, keeping a close eye on the man's movement. "I leave the acquiring of victory in your capable hands. Don't let the power go to your head."

The Espada let out a short barking laugh as their leader disappeared, tailed quickly by the enemy commander. Turning his gaze back around, he saw the eyes of his fellow compatriots fall unto him, understanding that they would be following his, the Hollow King's, lead.

(Sotaichō)

From across the sky, large rifts began to open. "Steady." The captain-commander ordered quickly. He knew that such a dramatic entrance was meant to agitate them and unnerve them before the battle began.

From beyond the portals a single man emerged from the void. His brown hair was swept back save for a single strand that ran over the bridge of his nose. His uniform was white, and his deadly Zanpaktou was sheathed at his side.

He strode confidently forward, each step behind him, quickly followed by another person emerging from the gargantua, flanking the next person behind them, until a large army at least equal to their own stood on the sky, looking back at the Shinigami.

"Senna." The gruff man barked to their trump card.

When no reply came back, he looked back momentarily, to see the young woman staring off in a different direction then the enemy in front of them. She mouthed something, much too quiet for him to hear, but her expression told him, that what she was looking at was affecting her.

The man gave a quick glance, following her gaze as best as he could, it landed on a plethora of Arrancars of different size and state, but the one that seemed to be the most distinguished amongst them was an older man.

His black hair was unkempt, and his white uniform seemed more like business clothing rather than the soldierish attire some of the Arrancar around him wore. His eyes and stance seemed quite reluctant as he stood their hands in his pockets fatalistically.

The man was sighing as he glanced away, a strange black circular marking on his cheek. 'An Espada?' Genryusai thought to himself, recalling the briefing of the Arrancar's leaders running the number 1-10, although apparently, there was a number that preceded that.

Still while he wondered why she was so entranced, she needed to wizen up and focus at the task at hand, such distraction would kill her in this battle, and they absolutely could not afford her death.

"Senna!" the man barked again, this time gaining the woman attention as she flubberly turned her focus back to the aged Shinigami.

"Y-yes!?" the flustered girl sputtered back.

"Focus! All our lives depend on you. Now is not the time to be lost in the clouds."

The girl grimaced at the reprisal, as she darted her gaze towards her feet. "Y-yes sir. I'm sorry." The Miko apologized as she brought her Shakujo at her side, knowing that probably hurt morale a bit for whoever saw.

"Sir. Movement." Hisagi reported to the Sotaichō

Turning back around, the captain commander tensed up as the warrior flanking the traitor began to walk towards them. The aged Shinigami could tell at a glance that this Arrancar was a true veteran of war. His muscular build, his commanding presence, his heralding gait, yes, he was a formidable foe.

Once the brown man wearing a crown stopped, he lifted his ax from its resting place and swung it down threateningly, his spiritual pressure, blasting outwards tauntingly. "YOU ARE IN THE PRESCENCE OF THE KING OF THE ENDLESS NIGHT AND YOUR NEW GOD SOSUKE AIZEN! GET ON YOUR GODDAMN KNEES PENDEJOS! SUBMIT IN FEAR OF HIS UNCONQUERABLE ARMY!"

The center most quartet had to brace themselves with their own spiritual pressure to fight against the sudden onslaught of power. Through their bracing the Sotaichō saw the number for two tattooed on the inside of his arm.

'Trying to demoralize us before the battle begins.' "Such foolish tactics" the man whispered to himself as he released more of his spiritual energy to provide some much needed relief for his forces.

Once the Espada realized that his grandstanding would produce no profit. The lumbering giant began to turn away. "Very well." He scoffed threateningly, "Though you may deny the future we seek, I guarantee you will not live to see it!"

As he began to return back to his place by his leader's side, Yamamoto reached for his communicator and relayed one last message to all those present. "This is Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai, Sotaichō of the Gotei 13, as of this moment we will begin battle. Everyone remember your places and orders. Captains, you will seek out and destroy the enemy Espada; however, should a pillar be in danger, disengage at once and fortify it. We must delay Aizen here as much as possible; every second gives our away team more time to return here to assist us. Lieutenants not protecting Senna or the Pillars will engage the Espada's fraccion. Do not delay in dispatching them, you are to finish them quickly and assist your captains in defeating their opponents. Those defending the pillars, defend them with your lives. Spare no expense using your powers, this is not the real Karakura town, do not hold back at all."

(Kyoraku and Ukitake)

"Well, that's some pretty serious demands from the old man, eh, Ukitake?" the scruffy captain in pink said as he looked at his friend.

"Yes…" the white haired man replied tersely, before he turned away, coughing violently into his sleeve.

"Hey you okay?" the captain replied as he placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, hoping to ease the flare up. After a few seconds, the ill captain nodded his head quickly.

"Y-yeah, sorry for worrying you." Jushiro apologized

"I thought you took your medicine."

"I did, but my affliction is always progressing. I've had to up my dosage, I barely feel it working nowadays." The man straightened his stance again as he turned towards the enemy. "Thanks for the concern old friend."

"Long as you don't overdo it."

(Toshiro)

'So these are the leaders. I can tell they're worlds apart than those other ones from before.' The boyish captain of ten thought to himself as he spared a glance at Momo and Matsumoto; while Momo seemed ready for battle, he could tell that it was a façade, due to hearing of the stories of those that survived the night against them. Rangiku seemed to be less concealing of her feelings; her chest was rising and falling a nervous rhythm, but she tried to keep herself focused on the task at hand.

"Rangiku, Momo." The captain said softly, getting the attention of the women behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he raised his fingers up, pointing lightly in the direction of some Arrancars. "I want you to follow my lead. We're going to engage those enemies over there."

Following his finger, the two lieutenants found it going straight towards a dark skinned woman with blond hair and teal eyes; the collar of her white uniform covered her mouth, running down toward just where her bust ended, revealing her stomach. Attached around her waist was a Zanpaktou.

Grouping around the woman more closely was a trio of Arrancar; while at first glance, it might have seemed as just battle formation, on closer look, their stance conveyed a protective line, which meant that was one of the enemy Espada.

"Roger Captain." Rangiku replied, understanding that they'd try to take out one of the enemy leaders right off the bat instead fighting wildly and tiring themselves out.

"Okay…" Momo muttered less confidently as her eyes drifted back to her former Captain, Sosuke Aizen. She closed her eyes and shook her head, a sigh escaping her. She wished that she didn't have to fight him, she knew that he was a good person deep down, but with the way things were. It was either lose her friends or lose her role model.

It was a harsh choice.

"Momo." Hitsugaya called back to the distracted second seat. When she looked back at him, his serious frosty demeanor loosened up to a friendly smile. "How about once this over…we have a barbeque?" he looked away sheepishly, "I mean we didn't get a chance to do it during the summer…"

The demure girl's expression lightened up, seeing that he was trying to comfort her. "Thanks Toshiro."

The man nodded as he turned back to the now approaching enemy.

(Sajin)

A heavy sigh escaped the anthromorphic captain's lips as he stared across the sky towards his once friend and trusted confidant Kaname Tosen. He could see it in his stance, the conviction he had towards his cause. It was a conviction matched only by his own.

As the days had drifted by, the outcast of a Shinigami thought back to his earlier days with him, and in them did he finally understand why Tosen was fighting against them, against the spirit king. It was for his fallen friend, Aoshi Natsumi (2), though Tosen affectionately called her 'Kat' for her devil-may-care nature. The woman had understood Tosen and seemed to appreciate his struggles easing his burden long before Sajin had the chance to meet him, the same woman whose husband got away with murdering her without so much as a reprimand after he downed one too many booze after she told him to stop.

That memory of them on Sokyoku hill, when Tosen told him about her, the way he spoke about the details, recanting every account in a cold practiced tone about how the husband got off the hook, 'because the loss of another respectable officer so soon after the Quincy war would be too devastating', how he intended to become justice for her, to bring justice to her dreams and hopes, Sajin felt the darkness within his friend fester.

He didn't just want justice, he wanted vengeance.

He wanted there to be a world where the righteous prevailed, the wicked reprised, and the innocent protected.

In this yearning, he found his innermost desire manifested in Aizen's vision.

Sajin closed his eyes tiredly; as a captain he knew that his duty was to defend Soul Society and maintain the balance of life and death at all costs. But…ever so slightly, he pondered 'what if'. What if he had been in Tosen place watching the murder of a close friend walk away scot-free, what if Aizen had been the one to recognize him before Yamamoto had and offered him a place to be accepted in? Would he be standing shoulder to shoulder with Tosen right now?

Roaring on the frontlines, crying out for change, in an indifferent world.

"Sir." A voice called out, breaking the captain of his revue. Sparing a glance to his right, he saw Iba Tetsuzaimon, looking at him worriedly.

"It's nothing." Sajin lied as he steeled himself for the battle ahead. "Keep an eye on those pillars. Don't let them get close."

"Yes, sir." The sun-glasses wearing man answered back as he began to make his way towards the nearest one.

As the man went off the, Sajin sighed to himself once again, as some of the enemies began moving towards his position. 'Kaname…'

(Yamamoto)

Having finished giving his general standing orders. The ancient Shinigami returned his attention back to the enemy commander. The man felt a twinge of regret deep within him. That such a man of promise would do all of this to create a world where he ruled over all instead of giving to the whole and trying to achieve as a collective. "You fool…" he muttered bitterly under his breath as he began to watch his adversaries' movement.

He wouldn't have to wait for long before, the man slowly began moving towards his right, his cold gaze focused on him, taunting him as he flash stepped away from sight.

The Sotaichō responded in kind, leaving both armies commanderless.

(Aizen)

Reappearing on the far side of town, well away from his army, but still within line of sight, the infamous traitor skidded to a halt as he turned back around. Just a few yards away from him, the greatest obstacle in this campaign appeared, hands on his cane, while his solemn demeanor glared at him hatefully.

Slowly raising his hand up, Sosuke swept some of his hair back flippantly, further goading the old man in to his trap. As he predicted, the man's eyes narrowed even further at such blatant disregard for the situation they were in. "I don't suppose you'll surrender quietly?" The man asked the aged Shinigami.

"Presumptuous whelp!" the man balked at the traitor's arrogance. "You think to usurp the natural order of the world and get away with it!?"

The man raised his hand up, seemingly considering his words before saying. "Well…yeah." He replied with a small shrug of his shoulder. "If you put it that way, sure."

The elder Shinigami flared out his spiritual energy in response to his conceited answer. Removing his hand from his cane, he uttered the words. "Reduce all creation to ash, Ryujin Jakku!"

The binding around his cane blade slowly undid themselves, as they pulled away, replaced by a blazing light strong enough to put the sun itself to shame. Grabbing hold of it's handle, the Sotaichō lifted it up, and swung it, lighting the very air around them on fire.

Despite the proverbial and literal heat, Sosuke kept his cool as he inhaled deeply, his façade of control not fading as he silently consulted the Hogyoku for more power. Soon, his own spiritual energy began to coat his form rising to match his enemy's tremendous power. "Before we begin, Yamamoto, let me ask you something."

The narrowing of eyes, was the only answer he received, so he continued on. "Do you believe in miracles?"

When the old man furrowed his brow, obviously confused by his words, Sosuke continued with his thought. "I do. I've always been fascinated when the unfathomable occurs, when moments that defy all reason and circumstance allow the unachievable to be the result despite everything going against it."

"Is there a point or are you just stalling?"

"So impatient." He replied curtly, head shaking with disappointment. "Very well, I'll be frank. You believe with your power and authority that you can crush me and my army…" the man trailed off, a small smile curving on his lips, "But…what if a miracle occurred that allowed me to defeat you?" (3)

"I'd say show me your so-called 'Miracle' now, before I run you through!" the man barked as he took his stance, sword raised back behind him, burning hot for the finishing strike.

Sosuke's eerie smile grew wider. "It's already inside of you." He replied back as he lifted his weapon up. "In your head actually." Closing his eyes, the man gripped his Zanpaktou tightly and whispered. "Bankai."

At his words, the air around the reapers began to warp and contort. The city skyline and surrounding buildings were slowly engulfed in a blinding white, forcing Yamamoto to squint to adjust to the intense glare.

As his body began to fade into the white void around him, Sosuke opened his mouth before he disappeared. "Let us see you overcome yourself."

Gripping his sword tightly for whatever tricks, his enemy might have, Yamamoto heard the encompassing area resonate with Aizen's voice. "Omoide no hōru, Kyoka Suigetsu (Hall of memories, mirror flower, reflected moon.)"

The white backdrop slowly increased in intensity forcing Yamamoto to shut his eyes or risk them being permanently blinded by the glare. He half expected to be cut apart for his momentary distraction, but felt nary a nick across his body. Opening his eyes back, he felt his heart race at what he saw.

The area around him had changed. No longer was he entrapped in the white dome that Aizen's Bankai had enclosed them in, instead he was in a place he was most familiar with. It was the captain's hall where the captain's gathered to relay reports and messages to him.

'What trickery is this?' the aged Shinigami thought to himself as he diverted his attention to the nearby walls and tapestry adorning them. It was a perfect replication, everything was as it should have been. "Is this all? I must say you disappoint me. I was expecting more." The man bellowed, unimpressed by the supposed powers of Kyoka Suigetsu.

His tirade was halted before it could get going, when a soft voice, one he'd never mistake responded to him. "I see. So that is your answer."

Looking towards one of the columns wreathed in shadow, he saw Masaki Kurosaki leaning against it. Her expression was solemn and sorrowful, in her hand was a most curious item. It was her Taichō's Haori; the one she wore during her tenure. 'But that's impossible…' the man thought to himself, knowing that the woman was dead, yet there she was. "So is that your power? Guilt?" he murmured to himself.

Masaki sighed as she gazed at her beloved Yama-chan, she shook her head as she slinked out of the shadows, like a child forced to endure a parents scolding. But she knew deep in her heart she couldn't waver. She continued walking under his vigil until she was in the center of the hallway, then she removed her hand from her waist and threw down the coat the old man had personally given to her several centuries ago. "I came to find out why you'd order such a thing on the Quincy…" her shimmering fearful eyes, glanced to the release state of Ryujin Jakku briefly. "But it seems I already have my answer."

Yamamoto felt himself taken aback by her words. He felt like he'd seen this happen before. His stance weakened as he stopped and pondered whether this had happened. Slowly realization dawned on him as all the pieces fell into place as he stared back at the woman he'd raised like a daughter. This was…

"I just came to tell you that I'm resigning." She continued softly, tossing the Haori down on ground in front of her.

"No…" the man muttered, his voice barely catching her ear. "You're not real."

The woman's face contorted with a mix of disgust, sadness and confusion at what she heard. "Not real?" she replied back, incredulous. "Are you saying you don't care…?"

Biting her lips, she fought the urge to break down and cry after hearing him say that to her, after everything they'd been through.

Yamamoto looked on trepidly, mildly stunned with fear. This trick of Aizen's was so…surreal. It felt like he was reliving it, almost word for word, the encounter between them; although, he recalled it hadn't quite gone down this path, but still. No one had intruded on this situation. There were no witnesses to this event save the two of them.

So how did Aizen conjure this situation?

A dull chuckle escaped the orange haired woman's throat, her listless expression mirroring her hollow tone. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised…how stupid of me…" her eyes drifted down to the firebrand in his hand. "You've really lost your way."

The Shinigami's heart clenched tightly in his chest, as the bone-chillingly cold words from the past echoed once again. "What makes you think I'd just let you leave?" the man repeated, the same words he had said himself in prior conversation. "Soul Society needs you."

Just as he had remembered, the horrified woman quickly re-readied her gaze and glared at him scornfully. "Soul society? SOUL SOCIETY!?" she yelled, stamping her foot in indignation. "We don't fight for Soul Society, we fight for the souls of humanity!" she pointed accusingly at him, "That's the reason you were given power in the first place! The reason I was created for, the reason you instilled upon me!"

The woman bared her teeth, a pure unmatched fury coursing through her veins, burning stronger and hotter than at any other point in her life. "A hero is not someone blessed by fame or power; it's a person that sees the need to act for the greater good and does so! Those were the words you told me when I was child! Words I helped pass on to others, who desperately needed something to believe in!"

"The Quincies." Yamamoto intoned, knowing that this was the memory of the night that Masaki Kurosaki, walked out of Soul Society. Of the day that after drowning in regret for a week, he did everything in his power to protect her: from arguing with bureaucrats in the central 46 for a solid century about how she wasn't a looming threat to the soul society safety to erasing her from the pages of Seireitei's history to let her live amongst her people.

"We massacred the Quincies!" she shrieked, hands shaking at her side, as tear poured down her eyes. Slowly her shoulder slumped, as she lowered gaze to the floor, her voice wavering. "I…I killed them….I killed them when I was supposed to save them…" she cried, tears crashing against the floor.

For the first time in a long time, the Sotaichō truly felt his age, the very energy draining out of his body replaced by depressive melancholy. Had he become so desensitized that the orders to execute them rolled off the tongue so easily? The disturbance at first had been troubling and tension continued to mount until conflict broke out. He'd ordered more than a fair share of Shinigami to infiltrate the colonies and small towns of the Quincy, causing disturbance which got them accused of witchcraft and killed.

The outcry of Masaki when she called for them to at least talk with the few surviving Quincies, trying to appease to her colleagues humanity. It was all in vain. "You've always worn your heart on your sleeve. You are the sole person I know that would truly consider sacrificing the balance of the world…if it meant saving the one life in front of you."

The man's words had an immediate effect on the woman. As she glanced back up at him, disgust on her face at his attempt to criticize her when, if she recalled correctly, she didn't have to even stand by his side for all his trials and tribulations. She stayed because she cared and loved him; was willing to die for him, much as any of her fellow Shinigami and souls.

He denounced her for the sole connection they'd inseparably had with one another from the beginning, the one they had sought the most in life.

Family.

Closing her mouth, Captain Kurosaki swallowed the lump in her throat as she took in a breath. Her brows parting and eyes hardening as she mentally and physically prepared herself. "I see." She then turned around, her back towards him rudely. "Then there is nothing more to be said."

She took one-step, before the old man barked at her full of authority. "Don't you dare walk away from me young lady! We are not done speaking!"

"…a…" a small whisper barely audible rang in his ear.

When she looked over her shoulder back him, seeing his confused expression. She turned back around to him, hand on her weapon at it was pulled from it's sheath. "I said 'I am' Genryusai-dono." She repeated with cold hate. Her eyes were narrowed and her scowl told she was going to hurt him, a visage alien to the gentle one he knew she wore. "You can go to hell, old man. You and your stupid society!"

Slowly her sword shifted from it's Asauchi state into it's Shikai form. As it did so, Yamamoto was becoming more and more perplexed by this turn of event. This didn't happen, he remember how it had went. She walked out his hall telling him basically 'I'm going to walk out the Seireitei's front door and, if you or any other casualty wants to stop me, you are welcome to try.' But this…no, the man couldn't believe what was happening before him.

This one was much more volatile in her reactions and yet…her words, her movements, her very soul. They were hers, this was no coercion, no artificial construct; he could feel himself talking to her in the same way as that night.

This was Masaki Kurosaki.

"I was going to give you a chance to just let me leave." She said in an unnervingly tranquil state. "But I don't think that's going happen. The least I could do for you, is lay to rest the man I once adored."

The woman's Zanpaktou radiated a blinding light, sensing its mistresses will. "Make your peace, Genryusai-dono. Bankai: Sōdaina sōzō, shinsei fukkatsu (Grand creation, sacred rebirth)."

Shaking his head in disbelief of who he was fighting, the aged man could only mutter to himself. "Why was this happening…?"

(Senna)

Kneeling down to save her energy and gain a better grasp of the situation, Senna remained vigilant in spying any enemies that were trying to sneak up on her and her seal. Her three bodyguards ended up engaging some of the Arrancar seemingly commanded by the large man with the battle-ax, who seemed to be hanging back himself, keeping watch over the ebb and flow of the battle. Though she could tell that he too, was keeping a healthy eye on her, much like his boss Aizen had.

The loud clanging of metal on flesh rang throughout the battlefield as the large samurai armor created by the wolf-like captain grappled with an enormous multi-legged Arrancar. "Wow…" the young woman whispered to herself as she saw the large construct lift the bellowing monster up over its shoulder, before suplex-slamming it into one of the large apartment complexes behind it. 'Really glad the barrier's holding up; otherwise, I'd be really worried.'

Turning her attention away from the grudge match, she looked to the far side of the skyline and saw the remains of one of the broken towers. The culprit was a very pale Espada with black hair and a strange helmet shaped mask. He used his fraccion the giant brown behemoth of a man that was currently engaged with captain Komamura as a distraction while he moved to engage.

She couldn't really tell what had happened, but Ukitake and Kyoraku went to engage and after what she assumed was an intense fight, the leader of eight's spiritual pressure spiked up before engulfing the area around the pillar…and then all that was left was rubble. She couldn't sense anyone or anything in that direction anymore.

Ffffssshhh!

Diving out of the way at the sound of roaring water, the Shinigami barely dodged the high-pressure water blast from the blonde haired Espada engaging the captain that Ichigo had told her was Toshiro Hitsugaya. Glancing behind her, she saw a streak cut into the buildings, water floating idly in the rooms, an ominous reminder how that had almost been her just a second ago.

Letting out a held tense breath, she glanced back in the direction Aizen and the Sotaichō had gone. A large white cocoon was encasing the sky; she couldn't see into or tell anyone's spiritual energy in it. She was flying in the dark, but despite her misgivings, she was really pulling for the old man, hoping that the stories about him being the strongest were true.

"Hehe, looks like I got here first boys." A cool confident voice called out from behind Senna.

Turning around, the priestess saw a trio of Arrancar walking towards her, a swagger in their step. In the middle, the one who had obviously been talking judging by his slight backwards crooning, was a guy that reminded her greatly of Soifon. He was relatively short in stature and had long hair done in a braid, his uniform was relatively different from the others although it was probably because he maintained his human appearance for the most part. Attached to his arms were two white blades, that swayed as he walked, mimicking the tiger-fang mask fragments sitting near his head.

To the man's left looking relatively peeved about something was an extremely tall man with tan skin and a beak shaped helmet. He wore no shirt, leaving his entire upper body exposed showing the rippling muscles and red tattoo marking on his flesh. "Oh, dame un respire Ggio! You totally got the weakest of the three AND you used your ressurreccion!"

"Exacta!" replied the masked blonde haired one, obviously agreeing with the tattooed warrior. "I spent more time running after my enemy than actually fighting him."

"Didn't he get away?" the one called Ggio lobbed a seemingly loaded question back.

The masked warrior seemed to puff up indignantly at the question. "Temporarily escaped!" he defended

"Temporalmente escapado?" the tattooed warrior replied with an obvious smirk, "He was as big as Pow or Nirrgue! How'd you lose him, crab boy?"

"No importanta, Bird brain!" the soldier replied back, as he shot his gaze back at Senna. "Focus! Barragan-sama said to take down this group because Aizen-sama felt they were important for something. Let's not screw it up here."

"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha/Three of us against her? Not even fair."

Eyes flickering between the three approaching enemies, she glanced down at the seal below her feet, before kneeling down and concentrating her spiritual energy. Brushing both her hands past her legs, long thin white armor formed around her thighs extending over her sandals. "Grieves, equipped." She said as she rose back to her feet; Shakujo at the ready as the trio looked on curiously.

The masked blonde haired man tilted his head curiously at the sight. "That armor?" he said softly, just loud enough to be heard by his friends. "Is that a hierro? Are you an Arrancar?"

When the woman merely glared at them in response, the men took it as all the answer they'd need.

Death to the traitor.

Having already been in released state, Ggio rushed towards her, while the other two released their full power. Ignoring the other two, Senna brought her Shakujo around knocking away the sword-encrusted arm of the Arrancar.

While slightly knocked off balance by the heaviness of the staff, Ggio quickly recovered and brought his other hand around. Seeing the second sword arm, Senna raised the other half of her weapon up, breaking open his guard, before striking him in the chest with rings of her weapon, forcing him back.

The tiny window of her assault was slammed shut in front of her, when she was forced to jump back and create a small wind blast to repel a flurry of red feathers darting at her over Ggio's head.

As she focused all her efforts in front of her, it was only thanks to her Pesquisa that she felt the approaching of another. Removing one of her hands from her Zanpaktou, she brought it behind her blindingly before evoking some of her power. "Shakō (light-shield)"

A small magic circle of light constructed against her hand, hardening up as it braced itself against the large marble crab-claw hitting into it. The woman grunted under the pressure of the uncomfortable position as the two other Arrancar, one a gleaming red bird, were soaring towards her pinned form.

Looking over her shoulder at the blonde Arrancar, she charged some spiritual energy through her arm into the seal. "Disappear!" she cried as the circle between them gleamed with light.

Findor was thankful he was still wearing his mask, when the spell went off, as a large blinding spray of light enveloped him, giving him some protection. His relief was short lived when the woman turned around, slammed her foot into his stomach.

The Arrancar nearly felt himself throw up at the sheer strength behind the strike as he flew through the air, tumbling towards the painful earth below.

With a large crash, Senna smiled to herself when she saw that she had at least dealt with one of them in the meantime, before turning back to the other two. Taking a step back she narrowly dodged the short tiger-esque Arrancar's blades, as she started to pull her sword from within it's golden sheath.

She got the blade about half way up, when it suddenly hitched to a stop. Looking up she saw the towering red eagle Arrancar standing over her gripping her forearm. Looking back at Ggio, she saw the tiger grinning maniacally, as he brought his left back around, ready to run her through with his blades.

Releasing her grip on the Shakujo, a purple light enveloped her hand, much to the shock of the two Arrancar. "Cero!" she yelled as the ball of destructive energy hovered dangerously close to Abirama's chest.

The weaponized light exploded immediately, scattering the combatants from each other. Senna, free falling weaponless down towards one of the rooftops, while Ggio and Redder blasted back through the skyline.

After getting his second wind, Findor finally pulled himself out of the hole he inadvertently created. Looking back up, he saw a cloud of smoke and his two comrades careening back from an attack of some kind. "Ah dios mio. Here I come to save your asses. Again."

Gathering his spiritual energy quickly, the Arrancar leapt into the air, grabbing both of them with minimal trouble.

"T-took you long enough." Ggio piped up; despite the pain he was feeling. "Taking a nap or something?"

"I'm going to drop you both on your heads, if I don't get some gratitude." The blonde Arrancar replied curtly.

"Thanks, bro." Redder appeased, causing the man to smirk deviously.

"That's one who knows his place." The crab said as he released his friends to stand on their own. Once they were sure they were okay to fight, his face became solemn. "That's a strange Arrancar we're fighting. I'd don't think I've seen her before in Las Noche and she's too strong to be just a numero."

"Is she even an Arrancar?" Ggio asked cautiously, "I mean she's using a Zanpaktou like the Shinigami, not us."

"Yeah, you're right." The red eagle replied unusually quiet. Turning to Findor he asked, "You think she's a lab-rat from that one division Aizen-sama mentioned?"

"Maybe." The man muttered as he touched his abdomen, the spot where he received that unexpectedly powerful kick. "That armor of hers was definitely a hierro, no doubt about it. But I've never seen it physically manifested like that. It's usually an imperceptible action." Raising his crab-claw, in expectation, the man slowly began moving towards the roof their enemy had fallen. "We don't know what else she can do, so let's keep our heads about us and not get carried away."

(Senna)

Laying spread eagle on the rooftop, the Shinigami from Karakura breathed in and out at an even pace. Her body was undamaged despite the close proximity to her cero's explosion radius; in fact, she could have gotten up at any time. The only reason she hadn't was due to who she saw out of the far corner of her eye.

"Dad…" the word spilled out of her mouth longingly.

She'd spotted him a long time ago, after Aizen and his army came into the world. He had also sensed her too, but made no motion to approach her, most likely due to the fact that he didn't want to have to fight the Shinigami that would misunderstand the situation between them.

Still despite keeping his distance and having to fend off some of the Shinigami that came his way, Senna could feel her father's eyes on her this entire time. It was both disconcerting at how willing he was to let her fight and reassuring that if something were to happen to her, he'd most likely step in and save her.

She was his beloved daughter after all.

Taking in another breath, the girl slowly bent her arms and pushed herself up a bit. Giving a slight glance around she noticed her Zanpaktou was missing. "Must have dropped it." Closing her eyes, she felt out for her spiritual pressure and located it down below her position, likely on the street.

A small hum escaped her throat as she thought about her situation. Her eyes glancing down to her arms, expectantly. After a few seconds, she frowned. "Come on, hurry it up. I can't go get my weapon with them around." She ordered

A few more seconds passed, before she felt a swirling of her spiritual energy, once again warping her power. "Good." She muttered with no small amount of relief. Closing her hand into a fist, she focused her reiatsu until another splay of white material began to coat her forearms, armor reminiscent to a matching pair of war gauntlets, the siblings of her armored grieves. "Gloves on. About half-way powered up now."

Pushing herself off the graphite, Senna glanced down at her armored grieves and tapped them lightly one at a time. Again, her spiritual energy shifted in response to the new addition. Looking up into the sky above her, the three Arrancars loomed over her defensively. "Guess they noticed my lack of weapon." She muttered to herself, "Hopefully, I can stall them."

Back stepping for room, she jumped up into the sky, finding her footing, she quickly glanced down spying her weapon, before turning her attention to the three Arrancar. "I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't leave now, you won't be leave at all."

The bird Arrancar let out a piercing cry in defiance, as he crossed his arms over his massive chest. "Silencio bruha! If you think that we'd-"

"Shut up, bird beak!" the tiger-helmeted Arrancar interrupted. Returning the disdainful glare back at his companion, Ggio turned back to regard their enemy. "Your powers aren't like theirs." He stated matter-of-factly, "So why are you helping them? You should be working with us, your brethren."

"I already have a brother and you aren't him."

Now it was the shorter ones turn to get hostile, as he reared his head back and launched the sharp fangs attached to his helmet at her.

Acting on instinct, Senna diverted her spiritual energy from her feet and fell backwards. However instead of falling down towards the ground, she merely clung to her spot, hanging upside down as she arched her back, to look back at the trio.

It was at that display that third one seemed to comprehend what was going on. "You are just like those two." The blonde Arrancar spoke, a hint of surprise in his tone. "You are a Shinigami that has crossed the barrier." He then eyed her armored shoes and arms, carefully. "But it seems your transformation makes you more like us." The man braced his stance as he brought a hand up over his mask and clipped off half of it, exposing his face for the others to see. "And that means you are too dangerous to leave alive."

To Senna's surprise his spiritual energy immediately shot through the roof. 'He can get even stronger after ressurreccion? Damn, I'm not ready to pass the threshold yet.'

Pointing his armored-blade arm forward he muttered a single command. "Kill."

Using the air as her inverted platform, Senna shot towards the ground at a blistering pace, aiming straight for her staff. Zipping forward, her first obstacle in the way was the swift-footed tiger-fanged Arrancar. He reared back blade arms ready to pierce her, when she did something that surprised even him.

She flipped her body over to free-fall feet first and before colliding into him, totally stopped her body's descent, kicked off in another direction, before streaking back at damn near the same speed towards her weapon.

Jerking his body around, Ggio quickly yelled, "She's a squirrelly one watch out!" and gave chase after the dive-bomber.

"Gotcha!" Abirama replied, as he braced his stance, wings spread wide as he aimed for the ground below. "Devorar Pluma!"

Hitting down towards the street, Senna kept even pace as she sprinted forward, catching the shadows of an incoming assault from the ground. Hardening her legs, Senna started skidding across the tar as she turned towards a nearby car and streaked over to it.

Grabbing it by the side mirror, an overwhelming surge of strength coursed through her arms, thanks to her gloves. "Rrraaagh!"

Hurling the mid-sized four door as a shield against the feathers and weapon against the master. Redder watched as his strike pulverized the glass and side of the car, but did absolutely nothing with stopping it from coming at him. Shoving his arms in front of him, the bird warrior formed a Cero to desperately avoid a head on collision with the human vehicle. A loud howl of pain echoed over the battlefield as the surviving shrapnel of the car impaled itself in Redderman's chest, the bird warrior crashing downwards to the ground, his partner Ggio diving towards him to cushion his fall and give assistance.

'Got one.' Senna thought to herself with no small amount of relief.

As if to continue her good fortune, another flux of her spiritual energy pooled around her stomach in a knot before shooting outward through the rest of her body. "It's ready." The elated girl whispered to herself.

Placing her hand on her hips, the Miko closed her eyes and exhaled in relaxation. Slowly and seductively, she ran her hands over her hips and chest, a thin layer of white coating over her black uniform. Small u-shaped indentions began to form over the armor resembling the torso of a bird. "Mmm…I see haaa…why she likes it…ahah…" the girl panted out, a heavy blush on her face for the…tingly sensation currently coursing through her body. "A..armor…com…" her faced heated up again unintentional of what she meant versus what she heard. "com…haaah…!"

Closing her eyes, the woman wrapped her arms around her sides, trying to fight off the pleasure threatening to send her to her knees.

However her distraction left her wide open for Findor, who was all too happy to take advantage of it. She only heard the faint echoes of Sonido and the split-second glimpse of the crab-sword coming at her chest before she was shot back violently.

Her body flew back from impact, tumbling and skidding back against the concrete before crashing into a nearby streetlight and into a street divider. Swiveling her head to re-orient herself, a sudden, but expected wave of pleasure and shame came over Senna. Pleasure, from her spiritual energy fluxing around her chest and her enhanced endorphins shooting through her body, leaving a slightly warm yet prickly sensation running up and down her skin, and embarrassed about how -happy- she was to get hit, a heartfelt thank-you nearly spilling from her mouth.

Glancing down the street, she came with an obvious blush she saw the blonde Arrancar looking at her incredulously. "You don't even look phased!" he muttered angrily.

His frustration slowly morphed into confusion as she slowly crawled towards him, jaw trembling, lips quivering, eyes closed as if to hold something fearsome back. Raising his weapon defensively in front of him, he almost missed the words that spilled out of her mouth.

"P-please…" the woman opened her eyes, looking at him seductively, hungrily, PREDATORIALLY. Licking her lips, she panted out "Would you kindly…" she gulped down the lump in her throat "hit me harder than that?" she pleaded, barely able to restrain herself

Findor took a half-step back fearfully, as she got to her feet. The armor encasing her body, releasing a spray of hot steam from it's joints in conjunction with her words, an aura-like spiritual energy turning the bony white gear she wore a sandy-golden hue. "It felt soooo nice! My mind totally went blank!"

Flicking a strand of hair, the blushing woman tilted her head imploringly, her skin marred by a layer of moisture and tingled excitement. "Please…p-punish me more. Give me your pain! Give me your love! Com…complete me."

"Q-que!?" Findor balked, mind reeling at what she was asking of him. Was this some kind of trap, some ludicrous insanity that he'd never -not in a million years- compute as a path to victory. Frozen in terror, he watched the girl stare pleadingly for a few seconds, before her inviting visage slowly morphed into minor annoyance at his hesitation.

"You won't give me what I want?" she stated flatly, the lids of her eyes closing halfway into an unamused glare. But before the Arrancar could formulate some kind of plan to deal with this more serious enemy, he was thrown off again as her demeanor changed back to a seemingly playful. A rather mischievously dark giggle escaped her lips as she cocked her head to the side tauntingly, her hands closing into tight balls at her side while her spiritual energy suddenly exploded outwards menacingly, destroying the very concrete beneath her feet and disintegrating the fallen light post in seconds. "Then I'll make you give me satisfaction!" she yelled with a predatorial smile

Disappearing in a flash step, the woman reappeared, fist aimed at the encased arm of Findor.

Crack!

A loud shriek of pain escaped Findor's lips as he felt the nerves in his arm explode in pain as he flew backward from the force of the strike. His ressurreccion, the pride of his power was riddled with cracks and fragmentation. Skidding to a halt, the man couldn't even move before the woman was back on him, another heavy blow coming at him, aimed at his head.

A wad of saliva, blood and broken mask fragments hurled through the air as the megaton strike smashed into the near vacant eyed Findor. For a moment he actually didn't feel anything beside the cool air around him; even the pain that he knew was there didn't register, he just felt an uneven lightness as his body staggered sideways.

Watching the man fall waywardly, the woman wasted no time shooting past him towards her discarded Zanpaktou. Senna briefly caught her other two adversaries heading over to their friend out of the corner of her eye. Jumping over a parked car, the woman skidded to a halt as she grabbed her weapon off the ground. Looking back towards her enemy, she nearly had a heart attack when she saw three oncoming ceros coming at her.

Clutching her weapon tight, she utilized her flash step to get out of there, letting the destructive beams of light collide into a nearby building.

Safely in the air, Senna had to quietly ignore the sound of the falling building behind her as it collided against the streets below. Sparing a small glance back, she was quite thankful that the barriers were still up otherwise…

Turning away from those thoughts she brought her Shakujo around as the three Arrancar took to the air in front of her, the one she sucker punched leaning against the red bird hollows shoulder.

"Let's put an end to this!" the short black haired one muttered as his spiritual energy began to swirl around him. Flipping the blades on his arms up, he cried out "Tiger estoque: El sable!"

All at once, the slim man's body began to bulge outward, as large rippling muscles began to form all over his body, making the once short Arrancar tower over his compatriots. His white skin became much darker and his fangs became more pronounced as the fang-like swords on his arms grew in length. With his transformation into battle-mode complete, he let out a deafening roar, forcing Senna to cover her extremely sensitive ears.

"Hmph, I won't let you beat her before me." The blonde Arrancar cried out as he pushed himself back to his feet. "I need to pay her back for that sneak attack."

Reaching up to his slightly fractured mask, the man pulled off a portion of it as he muttered the words. "Afinar."

The sky around the men darkened considerably as the man's spiritual pressure began to saturate the area. Running a hand through his long golden hair, the man let out a breezy sigh of relief. "Muuuch better."

'There's a second stage to ressurreccion!? I thought it would be just one and done.' The girl thought grimly to herself, 'I guess that's their Bankai mode then…?'

Glancing down at the seal hidden from their line of sight, Senna briefly wondered if it would be worth it to use it against the three of them. Sure, it would have to be recharged, but at least she'd be alive to do so.

Slowly bending her knees to touch the seal and activate, she stopped halfway when she felt the swirling of her spiritual pressure spread throughout her body once again. "Finally!" she whispered excitedly, as she got back up to her full height, forgoing her original plan for her other one.

Raising her hand over her mouth, the priestess closed her eyes and concentrated her energy to form the final part of her. After a few seconds, she felt the smooth chilly white skin of her hollow-self form. Bringing her hand away, she was pleased to see that the enemy was at least startled to see the beak-like respirator on her face. "Whew!" the woman breathed out, obviously relieved. "I've really missed the taste of real air!" she said filling up her lungs to max capacity, allowing the purification features of her beak-mask to purge her body of all contaminants.

Taking in another gulp of air to clear her head, the woman exhaled slowly as she placed her hand over her heart. "Mirokumaru…" the woman whispered to the fragments of her dark side that still resided deep within the recesses of her heart and mind, "Answer me. Give me your gift."

After giving her plea, the woman waited a few seconds in absolute silence giving all her attention to the enemies in front of her until she heard a seductive cooing echo in her ears. 'Enslave them…or destroy them…Dominate them…and the choice becomes yours…Honor your master…show him…that the bird of paradise has become the angel of death…' the sultry voice whispered back, a primal rush of raw ferocity awakening to the beckoning of her other self.

An explosion of spiritual energy shot out of the woman's body, shattering the glass of multiple windowsills lining up and down the street as a pair of large angelic wings formed from the back of her white breastplate.

However, she didn't hear a sound. The world around her was engulfed in a vacuum of silence; the clashing of swords ceased, the battle cries of others ended, even the ruffling of her wings quelled, the only noise that registered to her—that mattered-was the calm rhythmic beating of her heart.

Taking a small glance at her wings that folded closer to her body, the young Miko saw one of her feathers slowly darkening in color, morphing from it's radiant pearly white to an all-consuming black. As the feather next to it began to grey succumbing to the same darkness as it's neighbor, the Miko's eyes changed from innocent amber to entrancing gold. "Pray for death."

And then disappeared in a burst of speed.

(Arrancar)

The three Arrancar were awestruck by that…freak of nature Shinigami they were fighting. First: she goes putting on what looks to be hierro-like armor and now she looked like she was tapping into ressurreccion!

The trio were even warier of her now, since they assumed that if that transformation were anything similar to theirs, they would have to deal with a more predatorial side of the girl. Though to their fortune, they could see it was rather avian in nature, so Findor and Ggio turned to their aerial expert.

"Hey it seems she's a bird." The huge muscle-bound tiger grunted to his friend, "Any suggestions?"

The red eagle tilted his head to the side, eyeing up the girl's every detail, before sighing heavily. "I don't know. Most Arrancar of the bird class are very quick and fragile, but…"

"That armor she's been putting on during the fight is basically negating that obvious weakness." Findor finished for him, annoyed by this troublesome opponent.

"Let's clip her wings." Redman suggested quickly, "That armor must be too heavy for her human form."

Ggio smirked getting his friend's idea, "I getcha. If she transforms and we get them, she can't fly-"

" 3fh5&81ECb(08&3mmsut54)-=+?!*&/]" (4) a loud shrilling noise pierced the air, creating spider-like cracks in the glass of the buildings in the vicinity, practically making the men cover their ears, lest they blowout their hearing from the sheer mind-splittingly intense volume. "W^8220xDwl/:kOp09*.rEgh #$&^1ohtupdeZ?"

"W-what!? What the hell is she doing!?" Ggio shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to have his voice heard over the head splitting sound.

"Aggghh! She said something!" the bird hollow shouted back, eyes closed tightly from the pain, "I can barely hear her, she's talking too fast! Raaghh, fucking noise goddamn it!" the man clutched his hands even tighter against his head.

Findor was only doing moderately better than his friends were, as his mask was still covering portions around his ears. From what he could see, he'd have to be the one to shut that damn girl up, if they wanted to maintain their sanity let alone win. Bring his arm up in front of him; he consolidated his remaining spiritual pressure to fuse some of the broken cracks of his weapon together.

As he did this, he took note of something around the woman. The glass around her that hadn't shattered instantaneously during her transformation was vibrating aggressively, pounding hard against the pane's frame. The fragile glass looked ready to explode outward at the slightest hint of force and it was then that he noticed something peculiar about the bird-Shinigami.

Her body was vibrating, pulsating rapidly at a high frequency, as if she was barely able to contain herself from just taking off in a sudden flurry of violence and destruction. The woman's golden pair of eyes were vaguely focused on him, flickering rapidly in an adrenaline-fueled haste between himself and each of his friends, as if she was taking in the whole of everything all at once, her senses enveloping but unable to remain fixated on a single point for too long.

Glancing away, he saw his Espada engaging elsewhere, giving out orders to Harribel's fraccion as they dealt with some woman with a book using a strange weapon that shot out arcs of lightning. Barragan gave a brief glance in their direction to see how they were doing; his normal stern confident face filled with concern for them, as he tried to open his mouth.

Findor didn't catch a word of what his Espada said, instead he felt something slam into him. Eyes drifting back, the golden haired soldier saw the enemy he had given a momentary distraction to slam her fist into him, body leaned forward indicating her full tilt charge at him. For the briefest of seconds he felt absolutely nothing, save the air shooting out of his lungs and the sound of his desperate gasping wheeze, then a plethora of pain along his lower abdomen screamed out to the nerves in his brain.

By the time his head started to tilt back, the pressure pressed against him disappeared, as the enemy inexplicably vanished in a flash of speed. The only indication that he and his fellows had that they were under attack was when a spray of blood splashed across the faces of Calius and Redman from the missing forearm of Ggio Vega.

Looking down at the stump of an arm in muted horror, the man barely had time to think about screaming in pain when the winged-woman reappeared again, her fist slamming into his jaw from below, forcing his mouth shut, before she flipped around quickly, slamming her feet into his chest, shooting the Arrancar down to the streets below.

Abirama was about to move to go help his friend, when an enormous gust of wind slammed into the both of them, damn near knocking the both of them off their feet, if they hadn't immediately braced themselves after the first blast of wind.

"F-fuck! What the fuck is going on!?" the red eagle yelled hysterically, frightened and confused about this enemy that was moving faster than even he could possibly spot.

"This is the gift that Mirokumaru left me." The disembodied voice of their enemy called out to them. Quickly scanning the skies, the two searched frantically trying to find where she was speaking from, but from what they could hear, each syllable seemed to come from a different spot, shifting rapidly before their eyes could land on the spot that it came from.

"W-what gift?" Findor replied as he clutched his stomach, a queasy churning rumble echoed from underneath his flesh, probably from the internal damage he suffered from the ramming attack he just endured.

"The ability to manifest my hollow self and infuse it into my body." She answered them, "Her hatred became my arms so that I could kill with them." The two hollows recalled the white gauntlets that she was wearing earlier. "Her insatiable desire became my legs so that I could always reach what I want." The two heard a quick step behind them, but when they turned around they saw nothing, only the voice of the woman continuing. "Her greedy concern for my life became armor to protect me and everything in my dominion. Her words became my mask, so that I could focus my mind and thrive when there is no air to breathe, to poison the minds of others."

"And those wings?" Abirama probed curiously, wondering if this 'other sentience' that she was speaking of was something only this laboratory abomination could understand.

"Once all the pieces are set and I awaken my hollow instincts, I can unleash the power of my gale-force."

"La fuerza del vendaval?" Findor stammered with a shake of his head, trying to fight off the wave of nausea coming over him.

"The angel that falls head first into battle…stains her wings under war's hellish sky." The woman replied cryptically, the only reminder of her presence for the two was the sudden fluttering of black feathers scattering down all around them, each hanging ominously in the air before dissolving into ash. "So long as I embrace war, my speed and strength will continue to grow until nothing is left."

Another buffering blast of wind slammed into the weary pair and for a brief moment, the two saw the woman swoop in between them, her normal screeching voice, soft but threatening. "No rest. No mercy. No matter what." (5)

As the wind sank down, Abirama and Findor barely had a chance to catch their breath, before the shadow of a large bird flew over their heads, trailed by a stream of some kind of small dust-like particles and black feathers. Once the shadow sank out of sight, a flurry of noise assaulted the men's ears, as they heard the sound of shattered glass, crunching bone and the god-awful wailing from earlier.

The two tried their best to ignore all the distractions the girl was making and keep an eye out for the enemy, but it proved too much for Findor, as the man sank to his knees and threw up a mixture of blood and vomit of his mouth.

After another uneasy gurgling, the bile threatening to come up settled down as the crab Arrancar blinked his eyes a few times to settle down the vertigo that had suddenly overtaken him. Steadying his breath, the man saw his arm shaking uncontrollably, as another wave of nausea threatened to overtake him again. It was in that moment that he felt a chill run through his body, as some foreign sonar-like pulse washed over him.

Feeling a nervous sweat run down his neck, Abirama reached his arm out to give his friend a hand when, just as he touched his shoulder, he disappeared, right before his eyes. It was only a second later that he heard Calius' voice loudly screaming in pain from behind him.

Turning around quickly, the horrified Arrancar could only gape as he saw his friend hovering limply in the air as a cage-like white vortex swirled around him. It was only thanks to his eagle-like eyesight that the man could catch a glimpse of the woman swooping around in a tight predatorial pattern, coming in and out to dive bomb him with her sword; slowly riddling his body with lacerations and blood as she kept him aloft in her death circuit.

Finally after what most have been the near thousandth aerial arc in the loop, the woman immediately halted in the air at the zenith of her circle, above the helpless Findor, before streaking downward, fist at the ready.

The powerful blow collided into the man's stomach, sending out a rippling shockwave through the air as it catapulted him down towards the street faster than any of them could have hoped to imagine traveling. The dust and concrete storm that shot up, blotted out the image of the woman, but the eagle soldier could faintly see the glowing golden eyes purposely slow turning away from the broken ground and over to his paralyzed form, it's intended message all too clear to him.

You're next.

The man swallowed the lump in his throat with all the strength he could muster. It was the first time in a long time, where he the proud soldier of the sky actually felt like prey to another.

When the figure's eyes swiveled to the side before it –and the rest of her body- shot out of the smoke, full tilt coming at him, the red soldier flared out his spiritual energy. The red wings stood at attention while his talon ran across his chest, drawing blood, "Devorar erupcion." He muttered fearfully, trying to keep his voice as even as possible.

A red aura surrounded Redman as a secondary pair of wings shot out of his back. Once they were set, the man braced himself as the enemy flier streaked towards him. Crossing his arms in front of him in an X fashion, he had to fight off the urge to hiss in pain as the woman slammed into him, sword driving through his arms and partially into his chest as they both catapulted back due to the velocity behind her charge.

Streaking into a nearby building, the two collided into the side of it rattling the foundation. Fighting through the pain coursing through his body, he grabbed hold of the woman's arm that was holding unto the pommel of her weapon. "Die, abomination!" the man hissed hatefully as his wings glowed a red light, awaiting his command.

The golden eyes of the woman narrowed as they drifted from his arms to his wings then back to his face. "Devorar pluma!"

The feathers lining the wings shined brightly momentarily before firing off point-blank at incredible velocity. The man was sure that the woman -no matter how powerful she was- was going to be cut to ribbons.

Instead, the man was given a front row seat to manifesting horror.

The bird Shinigami didn't bother raising an arm up to defend herself, in fact she kept her arm firmly held to the hilt of her weapon, but her body was vibrating at ultra-high frequency, swinging left and right at near imperceptible speed, dodging the fletching storm of the Arrancar.

His heart was racing faster and faster as he felt his spiritual energy beginning to decrease under the strain of holding up his attack and still she just looked at him with a critical eye, counting down the inevitable end to his futile struggle.

And come it did.

The man's wings finally gave out, crumpling down exhaustedly, as the ever-shifting form of the Vizard came to a halt, hand still gripping the sword buried in him tightly. With a sudden and powerful lurch back by the woman, the two were pulled from the side of the building, left to hang in the air for a moment.

Leaning backwards, the woman whirled about in a semi-circle as she flung the man back towards the ground, using her Zanpaktou as jettisoning slingshot. The wounded eagle could do nothing against the force of the momentum except take it; his body soared through the air as the pressure of the wind pressed against his body until he slammed into the ground, knocking away broken debris that had been there to not-so softly cushion his fall.

"Ugggh…ehh…" a low pained grunt escaped the throat of Abirama as his vision slowly refocused. Moving his arm underneath him, the man tried to push himself up only to let out a gasp of pain as he collapsed back against the concrete and dirt. "haa…haaa…d-damn it…" he cursed as rolled his body to his shoulder to try and use his knee as a crutch.

Closing one eye from the pain, he slowly lifted his body up, stopping only when he saw the bodies of Ggio and Findor laying facedown against the ground a few feet in front of him. Working up his voice the man yelled at them as loud as he could to rouse them for another round. "Hey! Get up!"

The man buckled under the strain his body was under and collapsed against the ground shoulder first. When he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him, of the enemy that was going to kill them, he let out a tired sigh as he leaned his body to the side, flipping himself over to let him look into the face of his killer.

To die as a warrior.

Just as he expected, the business end of her Zanpaktou was hovering dangerously close, barely an inch from his nose. The man stared down the length of the blade unflinchingly, breathing shallowly against the woman ready to kill him. "Do it already." He finally grunted out, wanting to get it over with.

After a few seconds, the golden-eyed monster moved her sword away and sheathed it back into staff form. The twisted gray-and-black wings fluttering behind her back scattered apart; the dispersing feathers dissolving into the air around them as she slowly kneeled down, eyes turning back into their amber hue as the thin cloth covering her mouth peeled away.

The woman shook her head gingerly, pityingly. "No." she said somberly, barely loud enough for him to hear.

Then before he could move, the man felt a powerful blow collide into his forehead, snapping his neck back and into the concrete behind him.

Pulling her fist back, the girl let out a well-deserved sigh of relief as she pushed herself off her knees. "I'm glad I was able to control myself as well as I did." She muttered to herself, at once point wary that she'd fall into her more instinctive and bestial nature that was grafted into her DNA when she embraced her Arrancar form for combat.

The Mirokumaru-the Senna of domination and war.

Feeling a presence behind her, Senna glanced over her shoulder. Seeing no one, she turned her gaze upward and saw her father standing on the ledge of a nearby rooftop. Her still enhanced vision could make out that he was smiling at her in approval, which was enforced by the short but powerful nod she received.

A smile of her own graced her lips, "Thanks dad."

The girl was going to turn around to go to him and try to find out why he was helping Aizen, when she saw that his eyes narrowed considerably. He then made a short nod in the direction in front of both of them.

Activating her Pesquisa, the Miko felt an incredibly strong spiritual pressure hovering in the air ahead of her that was slowly descending down to the ground. Giving a small nod to her dad to thank him for his assistance, she turned forward and came face to face with leader of the three men Senna had just defeated.

The man had graying hair and an elderly face, which stood in clear contrast to the rest of his more youthful body. Large bulging muscles on his arms hefted the enormous battle-ax resting on his shoulders, while rock hard abs could be seen through the blood stained vest he wore.

The man definitely looked like a veteran warrior if Senna ever had to identify one and if what she saw earlier with him giving orders to other Arrancar, he was probably one of the higher up Espada.

'Great.' She thought darkly, as she snuck a quick glance back at her father only to find him gone. 'Well, he wouldn't let me fight if I couldn't handle him.'

The unknown warrior let out a ponderous humming as he looked over the young Vizard, his eyes looking her up and down appraisingly, before turning away and kneeling down towards his fallen fraccion. "Así que todavía estás vivo…" the man whispered to himself, shooting a small glance back at the young woman. "Supongo que debería darle las gracias...y darle la oportunidad de vivir."

Standing back up, the mammoth of a man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black gemstone. Turning towards her, the man began to walk back to her as he carelessly tossed it over his shoulder.

A quick rush of wind blew past the pair as a large black void expanded in a spherical pattern before shrinking back down and disappearing from sight, the bodies of the Arrancar Senna had defeated gone along with it.

'Well, that's a one hit kill if I ever saw one…' the girl thought sardonically. 'I guess he's not one for failure.'

Taking a few more steps the man stopped, barely five feet away from the girl, weapon still slung against his shoulder as he stared at the girl, who widened her stance, Shakujo ready to split apart again.

Scratching his beard for a moment, the man then opened his mouth and spoke. "Your eyes…" the man rumbled calmly, "They seem so familiar. Almost…like Senora Primera. So full of hope, so full of love."

That caught Senna of guard with the sudden…compliment? "What do you mean by that?" she asked warily

The man shook his head, "You are no warrior. Your stance, your attitude." the man rolled his head back to back and to the side, "the way you left my men alive. And your eyes…"

A frown appeared on his face seemingly sadden by something. "You've never been in a war." He stated clear as day, "You don't want to hurt anyone, if you can. And your powers…you can't be a regular Shinigami, no, no, you must be like us. One that has crossed the border of power…yet different. What exactly are you, chica? A traitorous Arrancar? A wayward Shinigami experiment? An abomination?"

"Human." Senna said quietly, the words slipping from her mouth without a second thought.

The man furrowed his brow as he scrutinized her, trying to work out her seemingly cryptic answer. His eyes seemed to shift in uncertainty until realization finally dawned on him for the simple truth standing before him. "Human," he muttered, repeating the words she spoke, head bobbing in understanding "you must be that special girl; your name mija: you are 'Senna', si?"

"How do you know my name? Did Aizen tell you?" the woman asked, feeling quite uncomfortable with how the man seemed to understand these subtle truths about her that her enemies so far had not picked up.

"Si, Sosuke told me a bit of a human that got dragged into all of this." The man acceded as his muscled body shifted slightly; his piercing eyes once again roaming over her body, evaluating her this time on a different criteria. "It all makes sense now, if you really are as young as you look then…?" a low ponderous hum echoed from the man's throat as he narrowed his eyes on the girl, making her brace herself for an attack.

Instead of a blow what came next was a question, "You must be what? Quince? Sixteen? Surely, no more than twenty!" the man probed. When he received a silent but apprehensive sideways glance from the girl, the man bore his teeth, trying to fight down the rage that was threatening to overcome him. "So…" the Segundo Espada growled, "the spirit king and his forces would send a child to defend his reign!? TO DIE FOR HIS PATHETIC LIFE!?"

To Senna's shock the man removed his ax from his shoulder and slammed it into the ground beside him, as he looked up towards the sky spiting mad. "Maldito cobarde! Se podría enviar a sus hijos a morir en su nombre! Escupo en tu puta de la tumba de una madre! Mira bien desde tu trono, yo te mostraré lo que es un hombre de verdad es que tragona puta!"

"W-wha…?" the girl stammered, ears burning red for some reason, as the man continued to rant and rave, presumably hurling insult after insult towards the heavens. After a near solid minute of the man yelling loudly, the pair heard a booming crackle of thunder overhead.

A ray of light pierced through the grey clouds, surrounding them in an offsetting glow. Senna felt the hair on her head stand up from the crippling chills running up and down her spine, her heart pounded in her chest as her skin grew colder and clammier with each passing second in this incredibly intense atmosphere that had overcame them. To her astonishment, the large man was unfazed in the slightest. He simple continued to look up towards the parting where the light was raining down, his once furious visage now devoid of emotion, just a blank unamused stony glare looking straight ahead.

Another rumble echoed overhead, before a single bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky, following the path of light to where the pair was.

Senna was so caught off guard by the bolt that she barely saw the veteran warrior grab his trust Zanpaktou and raise it overhead. Attracted to the metal, the streak of lightning crashed against the giant's ax, arcing around the upper half of the pole arm fighting against the man's power for dominance.

Barragan merely narrowed his eyes and let out an unamused grunt as he placed his other hand on the weapon's handle. Once his grip was set, the man let out a loud roar as he brought the lightning charged ax crashing down, shooting out the electricity all through the ground around them, cracking the tar up and down the road and side alleys.

As the violent display finally ended, a single rolling thunder echoing overhead, the man spoke calmer than before, but despite not knowing what he said, Senna could hear the venom in his tone. "Poder de Dios? Más como el poder de una pequeña puta." Slowly removed his off hand from his weapon, before turning his head and spitting on the ground. "Eso era para su madre, Spirit King." (6)

Senna sweat dropped at the violent display, "Whoa…someone's got anger issues." Senna muttered, a mix of trepidation and awe seeping through her body. 'And a lot of power…no wonder he's an Espada.'

Catching her words, the man leaned back in posture, catching her uneasy stare at him, a pang of shame piercing him since she saw him have his little episode. "I apologize chica. My…emotions got the better of me."

Taking in a breath to recompose himself, the man re-firmed his grip on his ax as he waved her off with his left. "Go." He ordered nonchalantly, "This battle is between us and the spirit king. Go home and return to your family. Spend your life in the peace you deserve; far away from the bloody horrors of war."

Now it was Senna's turn to sigh, as she knew it was only a matter of time before she came up against someone very similar to Ichigo on the other side. "I can't do that." She replied, "There…" her voice hitched for a minute before she continued, "there are things that only I can do, things that can only succeed because I chose to stand up, things much bigger than just me or you! But…you are right Arrancar-san. I don't want to kill anyone, I wish we didn't have to fight each other, but…" taking in another deep breath, she steeled herself and her conviction. "But there are people I want to protect, a world I want to believe in, and it's not Aizen's world."

Lifting up her hand to show her Hierro covered arm, the woman continued to speak as her beak-like respirator reformed. "As a human…and as a fellow Hollow, I sympathize with you and your people, being forced to live the lives you've had to for centuries on end with no end in sight, it's soul crushing. I wouldn't wish it on anyone and I wish there was some way to end it but…but as a Shinigami and more importantly as another person, that doesn't give you the right to take the lives of others just to go back to being humans! Your entire plan is hinging on the hope that you can bring them back and if you can't are you going to own up? Are you going to apologize to the families you committed genocide to!?"

As the man gave a slow silent nod to indicate he was still listening, the woman slide her blade out from under her staff, "I'm sorry for this. I truly wish we didn't have to do this, but I'm going to protect my home and everyone in it even if I have to kill my fellow Hollows!"

"Te escucho." The man replied with an understanding nod. "It seems that this is your exalted moment of destiny, a battle for your future. I understand now why you fight." Bringing his ax around, the large Espada gripped it tightly in front of him, a heavy defensive stance. "You remind me of my nieto, it's almost scary." A light chuckle escaped him, a whimsy smile on his lips. "I think you would have made a good wife for him."

The battle scarred man laughed even harder when the young woman tensed up, obviously embarrassed by his words. "S-sorry old man," she answered back hastily, cheeks flaring red. "but, tell your nieto, I already have a boyfriend."

The man's smile slowly disappeared as he returned to a sterner look. "A shame to hear, still I appreciate your honesty and for humoring an old man." the man raised his ax above his head, "I take no pleasure in returning such kindness with spite, but I must fight for my people and punish the spirit king. Señorita, I promise you, that when you die, you will not suffer. Your face, I will remember it for all eternity, as a pillar of what we have lost for our freedom and must strive to continue to protect!"

Bringing the ax down, Senna jumped into the air avoiding the powerful swing that sent shockwaves into the earth. Steadying her stance in the air, the woman watched as the man pulled out his weapon and with a quick twirl brought it back to his hand as he leapt into the air after her.

"Gale-force." The woman quietly invoked, her body resurging with renewed energy from her primal half.

Pulling his ax back to garner his strength, the man didn't have time to react when giant immaculate wings emerged from the girl's back, overshadowing him in her glory, before she vanished into thin air.

Throwing his foot forward to halt himself, the aged soldier flinched when he felt the stinging of steel rend into his back, a thin line of blood pouring from deep cut. 'So it's that rushing blitz again.' The man reminded himself, having observed it briefly during the battle between his fraccion and her. Bracing his stance, the man exhaled slowly calming himself as he readied himself for a few more bruises.

The man stared forward unblinkingly as he waited for the attack, using his past battle experience against such enemies to his advantage. Ignoring the stinging pain as he felt a cut on his upper shoulder, the man kept looking straight ahead, until he saw it.

In a trance-like haze, he saw the mirage of the woman circling around him, sword trailing behind her as she kept circling him. The woman continued to strafe to his left until finally she turned on heel, angle changing as she charged right at him, wings spread wide and sword gripped in both hands, as the beaked woman shot towards him.

Taking in a quick intake of air, the man released his right hand from its spot on his ax as he reached forward, the woman's golden eyes widening in terror at the realization that not only could he see her, but she couldn't stop herself, legs shooting upward in the air by the sudden stop in his hand.

Strengthening her grip against the top of her breastplate, the giant of a man back stepped and sonido'd down to the street below with his captive. "Hhhhhrrrragghhh!" the guttural battle cry escaped the man's throat as he wheeled around, slamming the white Vizard into the ground.

"Egggghh!" the pained grunt escaped the throat of the girl, letting the man know he was at least able to hurt her.

'Forgive me, chica.' The man said to himself as he stomped his foot against the girl's face, pinning her down beneath his weight as he lifted his battle ax over his head.

Putting both hands on his hefty weapon, the man brought it down hard, slamming it into the white hierro armor on the girl's torso, the white coating shattering and splitting in half against the heavy blow.

The towering man all too clearly heard the sound of a chocked gasping come from the girl. No doubt, the wind knocked out of her at the very least.

Blinking her eyes rapidly to re-center herself after the tremendous blow, Senna's chest was rising and falling rapidly as she tried to breath in after the shattering blow and the intense pain she felt radiating from her chest after losing her hierro. Flexing her fingers, the woman clutched them into a ball as she concentrated her spiritual energy, knowing that if she didn't get this man off her now, she was a goner in the next hit.

Feeling the cloth over her lips evaporate as she diverted the last of her energy to the golden Cero, the woman raised her arm up towards his exposed chest. "Cero!" Senna cried as the flashing light released from her hands into the caught off guard Espada.

A loud roar of pain echoed from Barragan's throat as his body was sent flying backwards from the force of the attack. His back slammed into the concrete street as his ax crashed against the ground beside him. "Urrggghhh!" the man grunted to himself, gingerly touching the burn center of his chest. "D-damn!" 'I underestimated the power of a Shinigami who has crossed the barrier.'

Taking in a few quick breathes to soothe the pain, the commander of the Arrancar army pushed himself up off the ground, reaching for his fallen ax as he got to his knees. "Seems I'm not the only one hurting after that desperate hit." Barragan muttered to himself, as he saw the woman leaning against a nearby guardrail trying to prop herself back up to her feet. From the heavy panting, he was seeing her do, she probably was much worse for wear then he after the attack.

His battle-honed instincts told him now was the time to capitalize on this moment of weakness. Working his anger up to push through, the hot-blooded man let out a ferocious war cry as he hefted his ax up in hand. The man feet led him into a head on charge, as the girl desperately tried to push herself up to defend herself. Jumping high into the air, the man brought his ax down, trying to take the Vizard's life in one stroke.

Pulling herself closer to the metal railing, the girl placed her foot against it and with all the strength she could muster kicked off it right as the giant executioner ax came down.

The resulting shockwave of power as the weapon barely missed the girl was still more than strong enough to send her flying through the air as chunks of debris split apart and flew into the sky. Bracing herself as best as she could, Senna's limp body skid and flipped over the street several times, breaking off pieces of her Hakama and skin, before she collided into a pile of cement and wood, likely the remains of one of the several buildings destroyed throughout the fight for Karakura.

The girl sat there motionless for a few seconds, before her head started to stir, eyes flickering open and close, barely catching the glimpse of her enemy walking towards her, battle ax hefted over his shoulders like he was on a well-practiced march. "Uggghh…" Senna voice reverberated, the pain of her body practically throbbing at this point.

Closing her eyes, she tried to lift her body up and out of the crater only for her body to protest and fall back against it. Huffing to herself, the girl stopped trying and decided to just catch her breath as best as she could. She stayed like that for a few seconds, eyes barely flickering open so that she could keep a small eye on the man, part of her hoped that the man would think her dead and ignore her, but as he kept his steady gait, her hopes started to dwindle. 'Ichigo…shaolin…dad…mom…' the girl thought to herself, trying to work up the power to keep fighting. 'Everyone, please…give me strength.'

"Mmmmmrrrghh!" Closing her eyes tighter as she concentrated on her task, the woman pulled hard for a few seconds, before she popped out of the debris, body stumbling forward before she collapsed against the ground. "(Pant)…(pant)…finally…"

The woman then heard the sound of someone giving her a sincere ovation. Pushing her body up, the woman saw her adversary standing less than 20 feet from her, applauding her with a stony face.

"Magnífico." The man praised as he continued to clap, amused and partially inspired by the young woman, as she used her Shakujo as crutch to get back to her feet. "You may lack the presence and experience of a warrior, but it seems your heart and tenacity are where they should be."

Bringing his hand back down to his side, the battle scarred Espada gripped his battle-ax and raised it effortlessly with one hand. "For a child living all her life in peace, you truly possess commendable conviction."

"I…told you." The woman huffed as she pushed herself back up, golden staff raised in a defensive guard. "I can't lose. Too many people are counting on me!" she shouted back, her spiritual energy swirling around her like a vortex.

The giant of a man watched her with a curious expression as the broken white armor on her chest began to stir and crackle before it both halves started to reach towards one another, desperately closing up the gap in her defense. As the girl's eyes began to relight with the eerie golden light from before, the man sighed beside himself.

Never before had he met someone so perplexing, so idealistic, so convicted…so like Sosuke…

"Such a shame, mija." The man grumbled softly, "If only it never came to this, you are the ones that we fight for-to give a future to!" With a shake of his head, he steeled his conviction once again as he released his own spiritual energy. It was time to keep his promise. "You will enter the next life as I promised you." Raising his ax up, the world around them began to shake. "Painless. Rot, Arrogante!"

Around the man's body, his spiritual pressure transformed into a thick black aura that blasted outwards, forcing the young Vizard to put her forearm in the way, to keep her eyes on the enemy in front of her.

Part of her wished she had allowed herself to be blinded by the wind.

The man's body, his flesh, seemed to peel off his body, leaving an exoskeleton covered red muscles and tissue. Then the man's exposed muscles were covered over by a large purple coat that sucked the tendrils and squishy bits towards the center of his chest, covering it in an impenetrable darkness when his coat swayed closed.

Atop the man's now skull faced head, a golden jewel-encrusted crown came into existence as a large skeletal hand clutched his battle-ax. The once grey and white weapon morphed into a more malevolent version of itself, seeping into a dark black as its length increased, the head of the double sided ax curving longer almost like a pair of demonic horns tethered by a golden chain.

The girl stood damn near stock still as she watched in horror at the skeletal figure loom over her. The primordial fear of staring into what her mind rationalized an ancient Shinigami, Death—the grim reaper himself, would have looked like when it came for her, paralyzed her with an uncontrollable dread.

Senna could only stare at the skull-faced monstrosity; the sensation of her teeth chattering, hand and legs shaking, the chill running down her spine didn't even begin to register in her mind. 'M…ma...mamo…move…' "Move…move…move…" the girl told herself as she tried to re-focus on the dangerous situation she found herself in.

The ancient faceless monster belayed its natural usage of power opting to just stare at her silently, listening intently to her broken self-rambling, before taking a single step towards her, the ground beneath his feet rotting and crumbling into dust with each step. He kept walking closer towards his foe, one silent skeletal step after another, the barest wretches of his power distorting and rotting until he stood directly in front of her, the slightest stray breath away from turning her to dust. (7)

Barragan had to look down at the woman, since she herself was still shaking, whispering the word 'move' to herself over and over again tears streaming down her face, not even vaguely aware that she was staring into the void in his chest, a black hole darker and deeper than any night she could have possibly fathomed.

The mighty image of death incarnate felt a small ache in his ancient heart as he lifted his bony hand up; it would be nothing just the slightest tap and his respire would do the rest, the ending of yet another life. "Such a shame." The monster whispered, as he brought his hand over her forehead, his pointer coming down right where her brain was.

Fssh…

The man stood unmoving for a second as he stared at the spot where the young girl had just been standing. Lifting his gaze up, he saw the girl kneeling on top of a nearby car hyperventilating to herself, her lips opening and closing as she continued to repeat the same words she had earlier.

Returning his hand back at his side, Barragan felt a skip in his heart as he gazed at the woman, who after wiping her eyes, got off the car and walked, albeit with a noticeably shake in her leg, towards the middle of the street, her staff gripped tightly with conviction that wasn't there a moment ago.

The warmness he felt soon turned into a twinge of a smirk, as he continued to silently watch the girl, ready to re-engage the enemy. 'Sosuke…' Raising his black ax on his shoulder the skeleton barked, "Impressive, you overcame your fear of death, but do not think it will change a thing!"

"I swear I'll defeat you!" Senna yelled back, her hollow mask re-appearing over her mouth. Pulling out her sword from within her staff, she ran at him, her wings emerging from the back of her armor and accenting her speed as she charged at him, ready to run him through.

Raising a hand over his mouth, he felt the corrosive gas cloud bubbling in his chest rise up into his throat. Once he felt his cheeks puff up, the man moved his hand away and shot out a large black stream of respire right at the girl.

Undeterred and uninformed the woman flew head first towards it, her sword raised up to cut through the smokescreen and to the skeleton.

Just as the two were about to collide against one another, Barragan caught sight of a man in white with black hair appear in between his cloud and her body, the girl seemingly not noticing it due to how fleeting he had appeared.

Then a second later, the two were gone, leaving his Respira to fall over the street unchallenged. The cloud overtook the family car the Shinigami abomination had been on, quickly stripping the paint off the car before turning it into a pile of rotting sludge, the same with the guardrails while the black asphalt street became broken dirt and pebbles.

Feeling the slightest bit of irritation, Barragan wondered who that idiot of an Arrancar was. Everyone knew that his Respira was indiscriminant, anyone caught in it was dead; so, why then would he appear and take her away at that moment. For some personal glory?

"Grrr…" a growl of heated anger escaped his throat at the thought. He certainly hoped not; that woman's life did not deserve an ignoble end as someone else's sport. No, quick and painless. That was what she deserved.

Calming his anger, the man let out a sigh, a small part of him, optimistically hoping that maybe perhaps the person had taken her somewhere else to knock her out and spare her a death altogether. He doubted it, but…part of him did hope.

Still, with no way of knowing and no way ability to confirm, the man jumped into the sky, to locate them. He needed to know that she was neutralized before continuing the campaign, Aizen was wary of her and the Shinigami's plan and he wasn't going to let it slip through his fingers now that she had just been on the ropes. "I will find you, Chica…and if I don't approve what that Punta did, I'll kill him…slowly."

(Senna)

Senna found herself hanging in the air for the briefest of seconds as the weight pulling against the back of her collar held firm. She watched as her legs rose up higher and higher, higher than eye level, before she felt the absolute pull of gravity take over and send her plummeting to the ground, back first, then head colliding against the rough ground. "Owww! Ow! Ow! Ow!" the girl cried out as she clutched the back of her head, rolling from side to side to stave off the pain. "That…that REALLY hurt!" the girl said, tears forming at the edge of her eyes.

Faintly hearing the sound of shoes scraping against the floor from behind her, the young Vizard stopped her rolling and looked back behind her. "D-dad!?" she shouted, half surprised to see him standing there and presumably taken her somewhere else.

The white business suited man nodded gravely, as he stretched his hand out to help her to her feet. Taking the gesture, Senna pushed herself up with a slight wince, before dusting herself off. Once she finished, allowing herself time to think she looked up at him and asked, "Why did you grab me? I was alright for the most part."

Isshin shook his head, eyes locked on to his daughter. "Actually no. You were going to die." When he received a questioning look, he elaborated. "That man, Barragan, has a very special power while his Zanpaktou is released."

"Special power?"

"Yeah, a black mist called Respira coats his body, anything that touches it…well…" he looked away briefly to think how to put it without being too gruesome. "Let's just say that transformation you saw him do, that's what'll happen to you if you touch him."

Like he expected the color drained out of the poor girl face at being told what would have happened to her if he hadn't pulled her out at the last second. "And that cloud…?" she pressed.

"No different than touching his skin." Isshin replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Mmm." The girl grunted defeatedly

"Does Soul Society have a plan to deal with this kind of threat?"

Senna closed her eyes thinking hard about the question. Given the current situation, she assumed that if Kisuke or some kind of back-up plan was to be implemented then her communicator would have been beeping like crazy for her to pick, so, since it wasn't, that probably meant either they didn't have something yet or they wouldn't have anything at all, both option weren't good.

Yamamoto the Sotaichō was busy fighting against Aizen, so that was definitely out, and most of the other captains were engaging the other Espada, which just left Dad and her to deal with the problem. "Well, we do have a seal I created." The woman said, looking back at her dad to gauge his reaction.

Raising a brow, he asked the obvious question. "What is this seal exactly?"

"It's a seal designed to imprison and destroy everything in its radius when it's activated." Scratching her cheek sheepishly, she continued, "It was designed to be used against Aizen…"

"Is it re-usable?" Isshin asked quickly, since both of them knew that the seal would be worthless to hold on to if Barragan defeated the Shinigami before Aizen even returned.

"Errrr…kinda…?" she replied with a cringe, "If I can get enough time to refocus then I can redo the major chant portions since the seal is already placed."

"So it's not a matter of ability, but time?"

Senna nodded, "Yeah, I might be really banged up, but I could probably do it twice before I'll be too drained to even walk."

"So all we need to do is lure him back into the seals radius and that's it? He done?"

"We'll have to get him near me in the center of the seal, otherwise he might try to get away and there goes our only chance to beat him."

'Have to let him get close to you…' the man thought to himself darkly, the unshakable feeling of worry about letting his daughter get within Respira range heavy on his mind. Taking in a deep breath, Isshin tilted his head back as he gazed upward, before exhaling, a resolute look in his eyes. "Just focus on activating the seal, Senna. Leave him to me."

Tilting her head to the side, momentarily confused, she wondered what got into him all of a sudden. "Well, okay, but you'll still need to clear the radius too dad. Otherwise…" she trailed off

To her surprise, her father turned his back on her, "Don't worry about me, worry about yourself!" he ordered, his voice unusually harsh.

Taking a small glance over his shoulder and seeing her cowed, he turned ahead, about to head off to get Barragan's attention, when he heard the voice of his daughter bark back at him, in the lowest most biting tone he'd ever heard.

"You've really changed, dad."

Turning back around at her, the man looked at her incredulously, "What did you say?" Isshin replied hotly. To his satisfaction, he was glad to see that she flinched like any teenager would when reprimanded by their parent, at least her time away from him and in war hadn't changed her too much.

Standing though slowly shrinking under his glare, the young woman was having trouble trying to speak, an unexpected lump forming in her throat. Pursing her lips she half considered letting the subject go until the mental of image of Ichigo and Shaolin appeared in her mind. "I...I…" raising her gaze back at her dad, she summoned up all the resolve she could muster. "I said you've really changed." Wrapping her arms around herself protectively, she continued, "Is this because you went with Aizen?"

"Because I went with Aizen?" he repeated, his look hardening, "Listen Senna, now isn't the time for stupid questi-"

"THEN GIVE ME SOME FUCKING ANSWERS DAD!" she yelled, silencing her hollow father mid-sentence. Looking down at her shoes, Senna felt her hands shake and her heart quicken in pace. She took in another breathe, before lifting her head up just a bit to meet her dad's sight. "I'm sorry dad." She apologized sheepishly, "It's just…i…I've been really worried about you dad."

Clasping her hands together, she turned away. "For a really long time I thought you were dead; after soul society, when I couldn't find you…"

"Senna…" the man placed a hand against his forehead and sighed, "I'm sorry I worried you." Peering through his fingers, he added, "I…had a lot I was going through…I didn't want to involve you in it."

"…" the girl looked back at her apologetic father, before nodding solemnly, "Is that why you tried to cover up who we were dad? Were you ashamed of your past? That…" she inhaled deeply knowing this was going to do a number on him, "Mom's –Masaki's- death was your fault and that seeing brother would mean everything was okay?"

As expected, the hidden stare left her as his eyes drifted over head towards the sky, Isshin looking like he wanted to say something to someone she couldn't see, before he walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulder. His expression was neutral and hard, but it didn't take a genius to know that he was feeling some amount of regret for what he did to her with his actions. "Something like that."

Removing his hands of her shoulder, he bent down and sat against the rooftop graphite, his arms dangling over his knees before extending the invitation to her to, which she quietly accept. Once she was sitting down and in his opinion ready to ascertain the truth, he spoke. "I did think that I lost Ichigo and your mother during that fire so many years ago. I found you sleeping in that inferno, but the other two were nowhere to be found; I tried to sense for their spiritual pressure in the hopes that they got out but…"

"I heard a lot of Shinigami were dispatched." Senna finished for him, explaining why the spiritual pressure was so saturated that he couldn't find them.

The man nodded, "Yeah, but I wasn't thinking straight." He growled lowly, "I thought maybe I was found out and decided then and there to get away from Soul Society. I damn near lost everyone to that wretched world; I wasn't going to lose you too. I wanted you to live a normal –happy- life as a human."

"So that's why you left Soul Society." The dark haired girl affirmed as she pressed her pointer finger against her lips, contemplating something. "But then why did you go back when we had to rescue Rukia? If you wanted to protect me, you could have just forbidden me to go."

A bemused scoff escaped the man's lips, "Be honest: You would have left the moment I turned my back. You're either too curious or too nosey." When the girl turned red at the embarrassing jab, a hearty laugh escaped his throat.

Coming down from his high, the man gave his head a small shake as he returned back to his more serious tone. "The reason I went back with you was because I thought if Ichigo had survived then Masaki must have as well."

Senna brow furrowed in confusion, "So that's why you left Kukaku-san's home, but why go to the Seireitei? You knew we were attacking it."

"I needed to find the Hollow Grand fisher, Masaki's previous murderer, but to do that I needed to find it's master: Aizen." the man's eyes narrowed as his mouth hung open for a second, "And…" the man cringed at what he was going to admit next. "And in order to find Aizen, the Spirit King led me to him."

Sure enough as he expected, his daughters inquisitive look gave way, eyes widening as big as dinner plates at what he said. "T-the spirit king?" she whispered excitedly, her breath getting heavier by the second. "He's helping you!? Helping us?"

"No." came the stoic response, flat out knocking the enthusiasm out of her system. The dull stare Isshin gave her only further cemented that what she heard was true. "That entitled bastard is just watching things for his own enjoyment. As much as I hate Aizen, he does have a valid justification for his crusade."

Recoiling back, Senna let her father's word sink in as she silently wondered, if they had made the wrong choice in joining Soul Societies side, after all, if Isshin had said that then it meant… "You've met the spirit king?"

"Yeah, at the creation of the new world." The man admitted. When he saw her looking back at him clearly confused, he decided to provoke her thought. "Tell me Senna, how old do you think the earth is?"

"Ummm…old?" she said, nearly causing the man to sigh with its sheer uncertainty.

"…you are passing your high school science class right, Senna?"

Placing her hands on her hips, Senna scowled at her dad. "I'm doing okay. Thanks for asking dad." The girl replied sardonically. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Shaking his head in bemusement, he continued. "If you asked today's scientists they'd say: 'According to radiometric dating, the earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old.' (8) But I'm older than that." Raising his hand up, he asked the obvious question on her mind. "If I'm older than the earth itself, how could I exist, is what you are probably thinking right now." He then swept his hand out around them. "Well the answer is simple: the earth that we inhabit is not the original earth." (9)

Senna just stared at him dumbfounded for a few seconds. She could not –would not- bring herself to admit that all of reality that she knew was some kind of lie. She pressed her hands against her face, trying to keep calm about the whole matter and fight off the urge to just yell at her dad 'you've lost your mind!'.

"I take it it's hard to accept." Isshin replied, gauging the look on her face and of course, the typical reaction of a sensible person. "I'm sure at this point you've come to accept Shinigami, gods and other outlandish things into your life, but this, being told everything you've ever known isn't truly what it appears is quite the shock."

Senna said nothing, only silently nodding her head in response. "That's part of the reason I didn't tell you about yourself. Knowledge is a dangerous thing, if you pull on a single thread of truth, you eventually must unravel all the yarn of the mystery. But somethings are best left alone and learning about yourself is one of them, not everyone can stand looking at themselves in the mirror when they realize the person they truly are on the inside."

"Are you saying…I'm not real? This city…everything?" the girl squeaked trying to wrap her mind around this. She sat their watching him, waiting for an answer, until he got up and placed a hand on top of her head, a smile on his lips.

"You might not have been existed during my first life, but you do in this one and here you are my daughter. I think Karin and Yuzu would look up to you as much as they did Ichigo."

Removing his hand, he sat back down and let out a breezy sigh as he saw Senna calm down a bit at the reassurance. "The reason I am older than the world is because of the timeline of the world. Like I just said with you: I never met you before, but now you are my child, much is the same but there are key differences."

Placing her hand over her mouth, the young Vizard decided to ask the one thing that had been nagging at her for a while since this whole conversation really started. "What caused the creation of this 'second' earth?"

Now it was Isshin's turn to lose his smile, "The creation of the second earth was ushered in when the Spirit king unleashed the apocalypse on the earth when Aizen defeated Soul Society."

"WHAT!? Aizen won!?"

A silencing hand told her to wait so he could explain. "No, it wasn't Aizen winning this war that caused it. It was my past son, Ichigo, losing his powers to Mugetsu, the final Getsuga Tenshō, that's what caused it." When he received a nod indicating that she was listening closely, he continued. "Aizen enhanced by the Hogyoku was invincible; however, using Mugetsu, Ichigo was able to temporarily defeat Aizen and allow his capture and imprisonment."

"Imprisonment? Seriously!?" came the inevitable shout of disbelief from Senna. Leaning back, she looked towards the heavens for a sign or something, before turning back to her dad. "I know he was immortal, but couldn't they have just buried him in the moon or something? Or just dig a hole beneath the Seireitei hundreds of miles deep and just toss him in and cover the hole? They just threw him in jail and hoped for the best?"

"You have quite the imagination Senna." Isshin replied, a twinge of amusement in his voice despite the grave situation.

The daughter of the pair wasn't sharing his amusement. "Let me guess: he broke out."

"Yes, and his first order of business was to kill the one that defeated him so that no could oppose him."

"Ichigo."

"Yeah and with that began Aizen's counter attack. Unfortunately for us, the Spirit King was intrigued by this turn of events and simply sat back and watch in earnest as the mad man killed and enslaved those he defeated until he created the king's key from their souls."

"Oh my god…" the girl whispered to herself, horrified that someone could actually go through with the ritual; although, considering what Aizen had become and had nothing to lose, she shouldn't have been.

"In the war torn dystopia that remained after the destruction of Soul Society, only me, Urahara and Kukaku-san remained to try and stop him, and Aizen was closing in on our location fast. In desperation, Kisuke created an invention to send me to the palace of the Spirit King to get his help in ending this nightmare."

"So that's how you met the spirit king." The girl nodded her head slowly, understanding the situation a bit more, but that lead to the next question. "But then why did he destroy the world in the first place?"

Closing his eyes to steel himself for this part of the story, Isshin continued. "After I arrived before the Spirit King, I told him everything about our situation, begging him for his help and he simply looked at me before saying: 'I've lost interest in this ending, as have the others.'"

Bringing his hand in between them, he placed his thumb against his middle finger and snapped audibly. "Just like that. He snapped his finger and the palace shook, I could barely stand as the rumbling grew stronger, but he…he looked as unaffected as ever. Then finally, once the shaking stopped, he said to me: 'It's done. The world is unmade'."

A cold chill ran down the daughter's spine at the obviousness of the intent and sheer callousness behind it. "Yeah, I was just as surprised. So, when I asked him if he really killed everyone in the world, he just looked at me with a straight face and said: 'Yeah, I did. What did you think I did?'"

The man closed his eyes as the images of Yuzu and Karin resurfaced in his mind, just as it had last time, when he heard their innocent laughter echoing in his mind before fading into oblivion because of that bastard. "I tried to kill the spirit king." He admitted quietly, his voice low, but a solemn fury just beneath the surface. "I fought him for three whole day, using every technique I had to avenge the world I knew."

"Dad…"

(Flash back)

"Eeeaggh!"

Isshin's near broken body collided against the red carpet on the floor, rolling end over end before finally settling on his back. The man lay there panting from pure exhaustion, his vision was partially clouded as he slipped in and out of consciousness and right when he was about to let himself go, he heard that insufferable bastards voice intone.

"To think that you were able to put up such a struggle." The king said, brushing off some dust that had gotten on his clothing from battling with his guest. "I must say, it was quite…amusing."

With a low painful grunt, the Shinigami turned himself over as he glared at the on looking spirit king. Pressing his hands down to push himself up, he ignored the pain of the metal shards of Engetsu embedded in his hand as he struggled to his feet. The spirit king simply looked on with moderate interest as Isshin, thrusted his hand on his kneecap, a stepping-stone necessary to get himself back on his feet.

"My, that was impressive." A more feminine voice echoed from across the throne room.

"Fuck…yooo-Mhm!" the man bent down spitting up blood from his mouth, his hand slipping off his knee and pressing against the floor, to steady himself again.

"You're cleaning that up later." The spirit king deadpanned, as it turned away and walked back to its throne.

Sitting down upon it, the creature rested its cheek against its fist, waiting for his 'guest' to stop puking blood all over his floor. After a few more steady breathing, a whimsical smile appeared on his face as he re-evaluated the stubborn Shinigami's earlier notions. "Isshin Kurosaki, I must say, you verily entertained me." Seeing the deathly glare, his smile just widened further. "This must be the 'power of the human spirit' as you people so call it."

Flickering out of existence, the king of the spiritual world re-appeared sitting on the foot of the stairwell, his appearance changed once again. "How about I make you a deal." The womanly voice of the spirit king inquired, "There were a few 'details' that escaped me when I was scribing the events of history and perhaps the world can do with a few editings."

"Editings?" Isshin managed to wince out

The brown haired woman flicked a strand of hair out of her eyes, "Yes. Editings. I've already obliterated that world out of existence, yet your cry for justice and actions does move me." The woman closed her eyes and nodded to herself, "So I will start again with some modifications. A new life for your people, if you would."

"What's the uggh catch?" Isshin replied, fighting down the urge to spit up some blood.

The woman raised an eyebrow, before disappearing once again. Barely a second later, a pair of burly hands wrapped around Isshin, healing energy flowing from them into his body. "The catch is one: You stop dying on me and two: you become my opposite." A very low rumbling voice whispered behind him.

"His opposite?" Senna asked her dad

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Isshin explained it as tersely as he could. "If he's god and a Shinigami, then obviously accepting the position of his opposite would make me the devil and a Hollow."

"…oh." Came the intelligent and confused squeak.

"That is my offer." The spirit king stated to the now healed man, "Become my opposite for the new world and I will allow you mostly free reign." The silver haired man walked around Isshin, hands in the air as he shrugged, "Well, as long as you don't disrupt the changes I've made." He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "IE Do something drastic that alters the timeline, like killing Aizen or something."

Feeling the spiritual energy of the renewed man swirling behind him, the spirit king turned fully towards him as the hateful Kurosaki spat at him. "Why the fuck would I agree to you!? It's Aizen's fault this all happens and then you won't let me kill him!?" the resonating black reiatsu swirling around Isshin's body became more and more solid as his anger grew stronger. "Why don't I just use this power and finished what he started!?"

Through a bored cold-hearted expression, the king shook his head dismissively, swaying silver looks turning a bright orange in the light. "Because your family would be restored, Isshin-san."

As the master of the domain had expected, the menacing spiritual energy incasing the man's form began to die out, as a broken confusion etched itself on Isshin's face. The man stared at the king, fist clenched tightly ready to attack, if the man thought better of it. When the golden haired man saw his words might just go ignored he quickly added, "You can have your life with Masaki back." Raising a hand up, as a gesture of offering, he also said, "Your son returned back to your side, and if you want, you can kill Grand Fisher before he ever interferes in your life again."

Listening to his words, Isshin felt his hands unclench as the anger drained from him. His mind taking in the thoughts of his promises. He could see his beloved wife again and this time protect her, like he swore he would when they were married. His son, he could better raise him, tell him about his heritage and guide him like he wished he could have. He could undo the mistakes he made at crucial points in his life and maybe, just maybe, find the redemption…and happiness he wanted.

Seeing the man's hands fall to their side, the spirit king felt a smile on his lips, as creativity, madness and inspiration whirled in his mind. Oh, the possibilities. "I take it you are at least willing to listen?"

Isshin snorted off-handedly, "…stop acting so smug asshole."

The spirit king's smirk however only continued to grow. "I'll get to work on it immediately. In the meantime, let us begin by stripping you of your Shinigami powers. An easy feat, since your Zanpaktou Engetsu is broken across my floor."

With a snap of his fingers, the Shinigami's body felt his body sinking into the floor, as black tendrils shot out grabbing him and dragging him down further. The god walked up the stairwell ignoring the sounds of struggle behind him, until he sat down on his chair, a welcome fleeting glance of his opposite given to him for his timeliness. "Don't worry; you'll have all the time you need to formulate a plan. Now go away, I have guests to entertain."

A bemused chuckle escaped him. Oh, yes, the possibilities indeed.

(Flash back end)

"What happened next?" the enraptured girl asked

"Next? You don't even need to ask." He looked towards some of the surrounding buildings of his hometown. "The answer is all around us."

A powerful silence fell over the pair, the mere rustling of wind the only noise between them as meaning behind his story sank into the girl. 'Dad…I never realized how broken you were on the inside…No wonder you barely approved of me hanging out with Don Kannoji. You hate everything about the spirit world.'

"Were you wandering the world, this entire time?" Senna spoke, the words spilling out of her mouth before she could even think about it. "Surviving through the centuries alone…until you met mom?"

The weary Shinigami nodded his head, "Yeah, the so-called 'time' the Spirit king gave to me to plan my actions for the future. I was there when the very earth was but one continent and the legend of my existence, both my fame and infamy, spread throughout all of humanity. I was just searching for Masaki and Grand Fisher, but, when spiritual aware people saw my Arrancar form fighting against Shinigami and Hollows, people started to consider me as a hunter of souls, an avatar of death."

Raising his hand and waving it up and down, in reference to her body, he said, "I worked on creating 4 Gigais that were completely and utterly indistinguishable from humans for Masaki and our children. I wanted to make sure that you would always be protected by my power and wash all your hands of the spiritual world if it was too dangerous."

Now Senna understood what had happened, "But the fire in Rukongai separated us before you could bring all of us to the human world right? That's why you only took me."

"Yeah…I only found you, that's why I left the other two Gigais in a secret storage facility I created, located beyond the Rukongai districts. A place where no soul would travel or Shinigami have business."

Letting out of hum in understanding his plan so far and its intricacy, she decided to turn to the one part of her parent's story that always bothered her. "How did you get separated though? We all lived in the same house right? Shouldn't we have been together when the fire happened?"

It was here that Senna saw her father lose quite a bit of his spirit. "That…" he sighed, she was really too curious for her own good. "Masaki and I had a fight about…what I kept hidden from her for years. My hollow heritage, a parting gift from the spirit king before he threw me into this world."

Senna fell silent at that. She herself had a hard time believing and accepting what her dad had told her, the spirit king, the world ending, just everything he said and she'd been actively looking for the truth. It didn't take much for her to see that trying to explain that to her mother, since it was a pre-requisite to explain his current state, probably would have failed ridiculously, but avoiding the subject would have only fuel her suspicions and subsequent hurt.

It was a no-win situation, especially since they were in Soul Society.

Seeing the disparaging look on her face, Isshin had to shake his head to remove the image of his beloved superimposed beside his daughter. He was about to cheer her up, before he felt the approaching spiritual pressure of Barragan, it seemed he'd found them at last.

"Forget what I said, Senna; now isn't the time to be living in the past." He barked, pushing himself off the ground; his eyes falling on the sitting girl. "We need to defeat that Arrancar and stop that bastard Aizen; otherwise, who knows what the spirit king will do next."

Grabbing her Shakujo, Senna stood up as well, a determined look in her eyes. "Right." Closing her eyes to contemplate the matter, she re-visited the current issue: Barragan. "If we use the seal, we can win, but we're still not sure it's going to work on him."

Isshin paused for a second, his eyes etching the face of his daughter into his mind, before saying. "I'll make it work." When she looked at him, he furrowed his brow and spoke commandingly. "Just focus on activating it when I give the signal."

The girl looked more relieved now that he seemed to have a plan. "Okay."

Turning to get the plan underway, Isshin stopped when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Looking back, he saw the young woman clutching it. "Dad?" she called softly, taking a second to make sure he was listening to her. "Umm, I know you must have been sad and angry at the world…and lonely too. But…" Taking a deep breath, she did her best in offering the man the brightest smile she could possibly give. "But I'm glad you never gave up. Even when everything went wrong…" her cheeks flared red out of embarrassment, as she looked away. "You still kept trying to protect me, mom and brother…so, thanks dad. You're the best and we really love you."

The man stood there motionless for a few seconds processing what she said, before he felt a hot liquid fall from his eye. Senna's expression changed to one of concern, before she was lurched forward with a yank, her head colliding against her dad's chest as his arms wrapped around her.

Isshin just stared into the purple hair of his daughter, his fingers nuzzling her cheek affectionately. As the girl raised her head up, a concerned whisper of 'Dad?' leaving her lips, he felt a genuine happy smile, long forgotten underneath the millenniums of torment, return.

"Senna…" the tear-stricken man mumbled, just low enough where no one, not even the spirit king, only her, could hear. "Thank you…for being my light in hell."

The girl's heart skipped a beat for a second, before she leaned in against his chest, returning the embrace he'd long sought from his family.

They stayed like that for several minutes until they felt the ominous spiritual energy of the enemy hovering above them. Pulling away, the pair looked up into the sky and saw the crowned skeleton looking down at them. His battle stance forgotten, as he seemed more opt to observe the exchange, rather than interrupt it.

Bringing her Shakujo around in front of her, she gave a quick glance at her dad, who returned it with a nod, before the pair disappeared in a Sonido.

The Segundo Espada didn't even have time to react when he felt the crackling of the spiritual energy behind him, let alone the two ceros those two Vizards-Shinigami-hollow-things launched at him. The colliding blast coated him a thick covering of dust and, though he was glad his ressurreccion state prevented it from harming him, obscured his vision.

As the cloud dissipated, the man caught sight of them hanging in the middle of the air, just a little ways to the west of the white dome Sosuke was in. 'Sosuke..' the hollow king thought to himself worriedly, "Hurry up and return to us, mijo."

The hollow king then turned away and gave chase, his eyes missing the wavering of the fortress of light, heralding the return of Sosuke.


(End of chapter)

Blackout2010: So that's all for this chapter, I thank you all for reading and enjoying, sorry for no pre or post fic banter this time around. Just didn't have the creative juices flowing my way this time around. If you have any questions, comments and/or concerns feel free to leave a review or message me directly, however please note that those that don't leave an actual account will have to wait till the next chapters release for response. Hope it helps! See ya later!

Guidepost to the soul:

1. Raison d'être means the reason for one's existence, their reason for being.

2. As far as I know, Tosen's friend from his flashbacks was never once named, nor her husband. So to humanize it a bit, I decided to name her after three different female friends I knew. Aoshi Yukino, Masaki Natsumi and Ohmgitskat.

3. I couldn't resist using the Golden sun reference. It was just begging to be used especially since Masaki was already designated as the Miracle Worker in-fic.

4. This is the difference of perception. While we were in Senna's POV earlier we could hear and understand her, but when it switched over the Arrancar's POV, they, unable to keep up with how fast or higher frequency Senna was speaking, heard only a high pitched screeching. This is due to 'Ressuerreccion' which is more intone with her Hollow half then just donning the Mask like a Vizard.

5. Akroma reference that I couldn't help but use. Thanks Wizards of the Coast for that inspiration.

6. Sooo…for those of you who understand Spanish (or at least get the general idea of what Barragan said), you'll understand why the spirit king was less than amused and decided to strike him a bolt of lightning. Being the opportunist that I am, I decided to avert the usual end result by having Barragan swat it away like it was nothing. You're welcome.

7. I might have been doing a bit of a stretch with Barragan's power. But from what I've seen and understand, as long as you don't make Skin to…vapor (?) contact with him, you can get as close as you can to him and not just turn into a skeleton by principle. But again, I don't know for certain, if it's an unconscious thing or if he has control over hill powers entirely.

8. Scientific fact as of this point.

9. Remember how I said this story was kinda AU/AT at the beginning of the story (back in chapter 1)? Well now you know why. It's basically a reset timeline with some alteration, but Isshin is the sole survivor of the world prior to it's recreation; hence why Norn, Shinjiro and Subaru acted the way they did, that was a further hint to this.