Chapter 31: Fight All the Foes Before Thee
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Zanpakutō"
"Hollows/Vizard"
"[Reading/listening to a message/letter]"
"{Speaking a different language}"
AN: The next two chapters are already available on my Pay tree on. Username TheSinful, just like here.
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Aizen and his forces exited their various Garganta to be met by the strongest officers that Soul Society had to offer. Every captain, almost every lieutenant, and several seated officers were ready to face them. Though more importantly to Aizen was what he couldn't sense. There wasn't a single living soul within the city beneath their feet. It only took him a second to deduce what must have happened, "I see. So they created a fake Karakura and swapped it with the real one. That must mean the real Karakura is now within Soul Society somewhere." His assessment got no further. Yamamoto, standing at the front of the assembled Shinigami forces, drew his Zanpakutō, which instantly burst into flames. With a single swing of Ryujin Jakka, an immense wall of flames sprung into being in front of the three traitorous captains. Aizen calmly remarked, "Feel free to move. I'm content to wait here for now." As the flames grew into a great sphere of fire, Gin and Tosen both rushed outward with Shunpo, the pair barely making it outside of the fire before it closed entirely, trapping Aizen within.
Yamamoto snorted in irritation at seeing that he had only gotten one of his intended targets. "No matter. Even Aizen won't be able to get out of Jōkaku Enjō without a great deal of time and effort. We will deal with the others first without his interference." He barely got the words out before Zaraki, already bored with standing around, raced past at top speed, cackling like a mad man and holding his Zanpakutō high. The Head Captain wasn't even remotely surprised; Zaraki was very much the sort of weapon that you pointed in the general direction of an enemy and then worked around whatever happened.
Gin barely had time to bring his sword up and block Zaraki's wild attack. "Oh my my," He chuckled, "So frightening as always, Captain Zaraki." Despite his words, his constant grin didn't waver for a second even as he held back the much larger captain. The pair pressed against their locked Zanpakutō for a few seconds before Gin suddenly vanished backwards with Shunpo.
"Get back here and fight me!" Zaraki shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran after the former captain.
Rather than comply, Gin continued smiling as he used Shunpo after Shunpo to keep ahead of his slower enemy. "Why in the world would I do that? Just so you can hit me some more?" He paused to allow Kenpachi to almost reach him before holding up his wakizashi of a Zanpakutō, "Shoot to kill, Shinso." At his command, the blade of his Shikai extended at high speed straight for the larger man's chest. Zaraki grabbed the tip with his right hand and though the blade bit into his flesh, it failed to pierce through his hand. Instead, the extending blade pushed him backwards until he slammed into, and through, a water tower.
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As the fight between Ichimaru and Zaraki went on, one Espada, a short elderly man with a scar going through his closed right eye, a bushy mustache, and a mask fragment like a crown, harrumphed in annoyance. With a snap of his fingers, his fraccion conjured a throne for him to sit upon. "So, the boss got himself trapped. In that case, I am in charge now."
"You should watch how you speak of Aizen-sama," Tia Halibel reprimanded him.
Her response was an irritable glare. "You should watch how you speak to me, Halibel," He warned. Turning back to the matter at hand, he noticed large white stone pillars in each of the cardinal directions. "Hmf, why bother going to Soul Society to create the Ōken? Those pillars are almost certainly what's keeping the real Karakura in Soul Society. So all we have to do is destroy them." At his unspoken order, one of his fraccion, a man with long blonde hair and a smooth helmet-like mask fragment covering the entirety of his upper head, whistled. From near each of the pillars, a Garganta opened and a large Hollow sprung out, seeking to destroy them.
The Hollows barely even managed to touch the pillars before they were cut down almost simultaneously. Atop the pillars, a total of eight figures stood. On the northern pillar, Renji and Omaeda posed cockily. Atop the southern pillar, Rukia and Momo stood guard. Rangiku lounged almost casually near Hisagi on the western pillar. Finally, the eastern pillar was occupied by Iba and Kira. The Head Captain scoffed, "Did you really think we would leave such vital assets unguarded? They are protected by some of our finest warriors."
Glaring at Yamamoto, the elderly Espada simply stated, his voice tight with anger, "Finest warriors? Merely ants. I will crush them with dragons. Four of you, deal with them." His six fraccion glanced at each other for a second, not certain which of them he meant. "Well?" He demanded impatiently.
"Yes, Baraggan-sama!" All six replied and bowed before four of them each raced towards one of the pillars. The blonde man headed south, an extremely tall man with a plate on his chin took the north, an obese man with a snaggletooth went west, and the east was chosen by a slim, androgynous black-haired man.
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Rukia and Momo had their Zanpakutō held at the ready as their foe appeared before them. To their confusion, he felt oddly… weak. They had heard the reports on how powerful the Arrancar that previously attacked Karakura were, with most of the defenders losing handily until their limiters were released. How then was someone on equal footing with those Arrancar putting out less than half as much Reiatsu as either of them? "Greetings, Shinigami. I am Findorr Calius, the strongest of His Majesty, Baraggan Luisenbairn's, fraccion," The blonde man greeted them. Both women shared a look at his boast. He was supposed to be the strongest?
"Kuchiki Rukia, 10th Seat, 13th Division," Rukia offered, her gaze fixed firmly on the Arrancar.
"Hinamori Momo, Lieutenant of 5th Division."
Findorr turned his attention towards Momo at her introduction. "Oh ho? You must be Aizen-sama's former subordinate." Unnoticed by him, Momo's muscles tensed at his comment. "I wonder, does it hurt more that Aizen-sama turned his back on Soul Society, or that he turned his back on you?" To his amusement, he could see Momo's hands shaking as she muttered to herself. "I suppose I touched a nerve. Still, I suppose we should fight. Unless you intended to mumble me to death."
Momo finally stopped muttering, but it was to thrust her left palm towards him as it shined with yellow energy, "- The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hadō 63, Raikōhō!"
A blast akin to a lightning strike shot towards Findorr. Though surprised, he nonetheless moved to dodge, only to hear the other woman, whom he had put out of his mind upon hearing her low rank, cry out, "- Divide this into six! Bakudō 61, Rikujōkōrō!" Six beams of light slammed into his midsection and froze him in place. A moment later, the Hadō engulfed him in an explosion.
Before the smoke even cleared, Rukia turned her Zanpakutō in a circle. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki." With her Shikai released, Rukia swung her sword towards the smoke cloud, "San no Mai, Shirafune!" Her pure white sword tripled in length as ice formed along the tip of the blade, creating a sword of unbelievable cold. Though she couldn't see what she struck, Rukia nonetheless felt her blade cut into the Arrancar's flesh. "Now, Hinamori!" She shouted.
"Snap, Tobiume!" Momo's blade straightened and grew prongs as fire flowed down the blade. With a mighty swing of her Zanpakutō, the fire coalesced into a single sphere on the tip of her blade before launching itself towards the cloud. The searing heat burnt away the smoke cloud, revealing the frozen form of Findorr, his face forever locked in a pained grimace. The fireball struck with a thunderous crash and exploded, shattering the ice and ending the Fraccion's life. With a glare towards the flames hiding her former captain away, Momo muttered, "You're next."
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At the northern pillar, Renji already had his Shikai released as he waited for their opponent to arrive. Nearby, Ōmaeda was almost trembling at the coming battle. "Hey, there's someone really strong heading this way!" He shouted at Renji, who paid him no mind, "Aren't you worried?! What if he crushes us?!"
Giving him a sideways look, the redhead replied, "And? What if my aunt had a mustache? She'd be my uncle. What ifs are pointless. A true warrior doesn't fear death!" With that last declaration, Renji swung Zabimaru forward, the whip sword extending to race towards the incoming arrancar. As the blade approached, the giant of a man smacked it aside with one hand. Another swing brought Zabimaru around to grab his leg. Ōmaeda snapped out of fear and released his own Shikai before swinging his flail at the Arrancar's face. The spiked ball slammed into the side of the Arrancar's head as he was distracted by Zabimaru… to no effect.
Within moments, the giant Arrancar was free and standing before them. "I'm afraid that won't be enough," He stated in a deep calm voice. "I am one of His Majesty's, Baraggan-sama's Arrancar, Choe Neng Poww. His Majesty has tasked me with destroying this pillar and the two of you aren't nearly enough to defeat me."
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From where he stood a distance from anyone, Ulquiorra looked over at the southern pillar as a large block of ice form then exploded, signifying Findorr Calius's death. The other battles were still ongoing but he had no particular interest in them or even in Findorr's failure. What did interest him was a question. 'Will the real Karakura return if one of the pillars is still standing? Or will it start returning the moment any of them is destroyed?' He pondered before he elected to test his ideas. The pale man took one hand out of his pocket and pointed a single finger towards the pillar. A small green cero formed at his fingertip and near instantly grew to the size of his head, only to grow into a massive beam of energy as he fired it.
Momo and Rukia barely had time to realize their certain death was approaching before a barrier interposed in front of the cero. "Bakudō #81, Dankū." Ulquiorra's cero struck the transparent barrier and stopped… for all of three seconds. The Kidō cracked then shattered as the blast kept coming. But the barrier did its job in slowing the attack. Shunsui appeared before them faster than they could see and faced down the cero. With one hand, glowing with Reiryoku, Shunsui grabbed the reduced cero and deflected it to the side. The attack splashed harmlessly against the barrier between the fake city and the rest of the living world. His palm smoking slightly but otherwise unharmed, Shunsui gave an easy smile to the Fourth Espada from under his straw hat. "Well now. That wasn't very nice of you, attacking these young ladies like that," He chided.
Ulquiorra appeared in front of Shunsui, one hand already spearing towards his chest. To his surprise, Shunsui grabbed him by the wrist and stopped his attack cold. "Interesting," Ulquiorra murmured, "So deflecting my cero wasn't a fluke or due to your barrier."
Shunsui didn't lessen his grip in the slightest as he told the Espada, "I'm afraid I'll have to insist we move this fight elsewhere." So saying, he dragged Ulquiorra away from the two junior Shinigami and (more importantly if he was honest) the pillar they were guarding.
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"Two on one, huh? I'm not entirely sure this is fair. Maybe you should ask a couple friends to back you up," Ggio Vega tauntingly suggested as he pulled his Zanpakutō from his back. Unlike most, his was a double-edged straight blade with no tip.
His tanto in his right hand, Iba adjusted his sunglasses with his left. "You've got a lot of guts to be saying something like that. I like a tough guy attitude, but," He exclaimed. In the middle of his sentence, he used a burst of Shunpo to place himself directly in front of the Arrancar. With one hand on the handle of his Zanpakutō and the other pushing against the hilt, Iba thrust towards Ggio's stomach, "You should make sure you can back it up!"
Ggio blocked the attack with the flat of his blade, a cocky grin on his face. Said grin turned into a look of surprise as Iba grabbed his wrist with his left hand. A moment later, he sensed Kira attacking from behind, his Shikai raised in a classic downward slash. With his sword arm trapped, Ggio twisted his body as he kicked backwards, flipping himself up and catching the blade on the bottom of his sandal. Even though the attack was blocked, he found himself noting with confusion that his sandal felt odd. He couldn't immediately pinpoint the difference though, so he put it out of his mind to focus on the battle.
With his new position, Iba's grip was loosened and Ggio punched him away with his left hand before swinging his Zanpakutō at the other lieutenant. The blonde's bizarre hook-shaped blade blocked his initial slice as well as his four follow up attacks. After that brief exchange, he leapt backwards and frowned at his Zanpakutō. It was far heavier than it should be. While far from unwieldable, he could tell it would throw off his attacks if he didn't compensate.
"You've noticed, haven't you?" Kira asked rhetorically. When Ggio looked at him, he elaborated, "Anything struck by my Zanpakutō has its weight doubled, and each strike doubles it again. How many more times until you can't even lift your sword anymore?"
Ggio didn't get a moment to answer as a red sphere of Reiryoku slammed into him from behind. As he moved forward, Kira swung at him once again. On reflex, Ggio brought his Zanpakutō up to block his attack, only to realize his mistake as his Zanpakutō's weight doubled once again, now weighing over sixty times what it originally had. From his right side, he heard a call of, "Claw, Tsume!" Before Iba's falchion-like Shikai swung towards him.
Before the yakuza-esque lieutenant reached him, Ggio rocketed downwards to avoid his attack. "Tch. You damn Shinigami. I'll show you. Bite off, Tigre Estoque!" His Zanpakutō disintegrated in a flash of red light, which faded away to reveal his resurreccion. His clothing was now striped black and white and skintight except for a broad loincloth, with blonde fur at his elbows and knees. Attached to each wrist was a long squared off blade and a third hung from his much thicker and longer braid, itself now striped black and blonde. Finally, small red stripes adorned his cheeks.
Iba shot down towards Ggio and Izuru went to strike the feline Arrancar with his Shikai again. The shorter man kicked Iba away and dodged to the side. "You won't get a chance to do that again, Shinigami!" He boasted. With a flick of his head, the fangs of his helmet launched out and impaled Izuru in his thigh and abdomen. Izuru gave a pained cry and quickly brought his hand down to heal his injuries with Kaidō. With one of his opponents temporarily out of the action, Ggio launched himself towards the other, blades poised to cut the Shinigami down.
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Rangiku and Hisagi stared unimpressed at their foe, Nirgge Parduoc, from up above. His resurreccion had made him significantly larger and physically stronger, fitting given that he resembled a green humanoid mammoth, but he was also considerably slower than before. "I'll be honest, this is a little sad," Rangiku admitted. "Just, go away or something. It's not like you can even touch us anymore. Go on, shoo." The strawberry blonde made a shooing motion with her left hand as she spoke just to drive the point home of how little of a threat she found him.
"Just because he's slow doesn't mean we should underestimate him, Rangiku," Hisagi warned her. Like Rangiku, he hadn't yet released his Shikai. Whereas before, he might have refused to do so out of reluctance to use his power at all, now it would be more accurate to say it didn't seem necessary.
Nirgge growled angrily and held up one hand as he charged turquoise cero in his palm. Once he felt it was fully charged, he leapt up at them with a surprising amount of speed. The cero he fired at Hisagi while extending his trunk to attack Rangiku. Hisagi went flying as the blast hit him dead on while the 10th Division lieutenant quickly maneuvered to dodge the trunk aimed for her. "No, no, no. I am not letting someone hit me with his nose of all things," She insisted as she twisted and turned away from the offending appendage.
"I don't know, I bet we could have a lot of fun," Nirgge suggested, amused.
"And you made it go from gross to disgusting," Rangiku sneered as she placed her left hand atop her right on her sword's handle. "Growl, Haineko!" At her command, the blade of her Zanpakutō dissolved into a rapidly expanding cloud of ash.
The elephantine Arrancar laughed at her Shikai, "Really? You expect to defeat me with dust?!" With a deep belly laugh, he shouted, "You might as well give up now, woman! It'll be a lot more pleasant, I prom- ughk!"
With the chain of his Shikai wrapped around the Arrancar's throat, Hisagi remarked, "You really do talk too much. Hadō #11, Tsuzuri Raiden." Electricity flowed through his Zanpakutō and into Nirgge's body, causing him to shake and spasm as he shouted in pain. His torment wouldn't last long though. While he was distracted, Haineko's ash flowed up his trunk before expanding outward in a whirlwind of volcanic ash. Hisagi cut the Reiryoku he was feeding into his Kidō as the other man's head exploded in a fountain of gore.
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Poww stared indifferently down at the battered forms of his enemies. Neither was in great shape; Ōmaeda's Shikai had been shattered along with his arm while Renji was nursing several broken ribs and missing at least four teeth. "Is that all the two of you can do?" Poww questioned. Though defeating them and destroying the pillar they guarded was his mission, he found himself disappointed in their abilities.
Renji forced himself to his feet, chuckling wetly. "Don't count us out just yet, big guy. I'm just getting warmed up." Despite his bravado, he was using Zabimaru as a crutch to keep himself steady. Meanwhile, Ōmaeda wasn't moving and seemed to be unconscious.
The towering Arrancar gave them both a glance that spoke volumes of how little he believed the redhead. After a moment, he shrugged and reached into his left sleeve, drawing out a wakizashi that looked absurdly tiny in his massive hands. "Then I will show you the ultimate punch," He replied calmly, "Breathe, Calderón." Poww's head suddenly massively inflated as though he was a balloon, followed by the rest of his body. His chest and arms expanded more than the rest of him, especially his comparatively small legs. When his transformation was complete, Poww resembled a humanoid whale more than anything. His voice was much deeper and echoing than before as he sighed, "Crushing you is such a pain."
Renji grinned cockily as he held Zabimaru aloft, forcing himself to stay on his feet. "Is that so? Sorry but it's about to get a lot worse! Bankai!" His release engulfed him in smoke as Poww punched downwards, only for his fist to be stopped well short of striking Renji. From out of the smoke came a skeletal serpent with a large crimson mane of fur just behind its head, Poww's fist pressed against one of its segments. "Hihiō Zabimaru!" Renji roared as he whipped his Bankai forward.
Poww attempted to punch the incoming snake aside but its head jerked to the side and bit down on his fist. With a grunt of pain, he punched the skull with his other hand. The skeletal construct barely moved though its teeth tore into his flesh a little bit more. As Poww opened his mouth wide, a green cero building within, Renji swung his Bankai once more. The snake lifted higher into the air, pulling Poww up with it, before slamming him back into the ground. The Arrancar's cero fizzled out as he lost concentration from the impact. Looking up, he saw the gaps between the bone fragments begin glowing with Reiryoku. The serpent's mouth opened wide as Renji called, "Hikotsu Taihō!" From within the mouth, a concentrated orb of Reiryoku formed, not unlike a cero, before it fired directly at Poww's upper body. The blast struck him dead on, the resulting explosion quickly consumed his body and most of the city block as well.
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Ggio Vega had had enough. The pair he was fighting kept interfering whenever he tried to finish one of them off. In fact, he had only made a single notable injury so far, and the blonde one had already healed it! Clearly, it was time to use his true power. "You haven't seen anything yet, Shinigami," He taunted as he held his right blade aloft, "Tigre Estoque El Sable!" A bright red glow engulfed him as his veins bulged. The man's muscles outright exploded in size, leaving him easily thrice his previous mass, as the white parts of his clothing darkened to brown. The blades on Ggio's wrists grew to envelope his hands completely and turned into elongated spikes. When his transformation completed, he was no longer lithe and deadly but a hulking mass of muscle and violence.
Unbeknownst to any of them, but the transformation earned a brief curious glance from Ulquiorra before he dismissed it as irrelevant and returned to his fight. It was a form change, but it was clearly not Segunda Etapa like he had momentarily thought.
"This is the true battle form of Tigre Estoque! Now you have no chance against me!"
His words were immediately put to the test as both lieutenants attacked him simultaneously. Both came in for an overhead slash. Iba's slash was blocked by an arm spike but to Ggio's surprise, the blade cut into his limb. The sunglasses-wearing lieutenant sliced his Zanpakutō across the limb and the spike on his blade bit deeply into the Arrancar. With a roar of pain and frustration, Ggio blasted him with a bala. At the same time, he charged a cero with his other claw to hit Kira, but he overestimated how much time he had. Even as the orb formed at the tip of his limb, Kira smacked the claw aside with his Zanpakutō. Then, hooking his Shikai around the limb, Kira used an effective if unorthodox move of simply rattling his Shikai back and forth. Within moments, Ggio found himself weighing over five hundred times as much as before. Izuru unhooked his Shikai and pointed a single palm at his enemy as he incanted, "Hadō #58, Tenran!"
With his body as heavy as it was, Ggio couldn't fight back when Kira's tornado blasted him out of the sky. He fell towards the earth like a meteor, picking up evermore speed as he went. Facing up towards the sky, he couldn't even see the coming danger as he rocketed towards Iba below. The sunglasses wearing lieutenant held his Shikai out to the side with one arm. The spike on Tsume's blade glinted in the sunlight just before the back of Ggio Vega's skull crashed into it, forcing it deep into his brain and killing him instantly.
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Atop his throne, Baraggan crushed one of the armrests in his fury as he felt his underlings perish one by one. If he were honest, he wasn't sure what enraged him more: That his best underlings (of those whom Aizen hadn't slaughtered years ago) had failed him or that those mere ants had slain them. In the end, it didn't truly matter. He would kill them all either way. He was the king of Hueco Mundo. The god. It was time to show these ants what happened when they tried to fight a god.
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AN: Here we see Shinigami remembering that they outnumber their opponents and generally not going for a bunch of 1v1 duels. Except the 11th, but that's just how they roll. As I've mentioned before, outside of fights involving Aizen, there will be almost no canon fights in this arc. Currently, there's one and a half because one had too much weight to not happen and the other was me avoiding "Designated chick fight". Despite being a captain, Iba still doesn't even have a canon name for his Shikai, but he's not terribly interesting so he got a lazy Shikai name from me.
Findorr went out like a bitch because the heroes weren't playing around nearly so much and thus he didn't get a chance to slowly break off pieces of his mask while bragging about how strong he was becoming. I had initially intended to do something like having Rukia freezing the water coming out of his claw to completely disarm him before he was finished off, then I considered how he fights and who he's facing, and decided he was just gonna die because he held back too much. Poww once again required a Jobber's Bankai to be defeated. Nirgge at least didn't get killed on accident this time (that might be the most ignoble death in canon), though his was the hardest fight to write due to him having such a nothing fight against Ōmaeda in canon. And Ggio still didn't get to show off his super mode he's so proud of.
Before anyone tries to be a pretentious snob and insist I don't know about "Renji's true Bankai which was just recently revealed", I read the manga. I've known about Sōō Zabimaru for over nine years; I don't care. As interesting as it was to see someone besides Ichigo get a never once foreshadowed bullshit power-up, I prefer to use Hihiō Zabimaru for two reasons. First, it fits more with Zabimaru thematically. Sōō Zabimaru is vastly different in appearance and function. To use that old meme, Hihiō Zabimaru is a pokemon style evolution of Zabimaru; Sōō Zabimaru is a digivolution that's at least two stages ahead of Zabimaru. Secondly, not every Bankai is going to be amazing. Some are absolutely broken as hell like Rukia's, Yamamoto's, or Shunsui's. Then some are comparatively mediocre, like Shinji's and Hisagi's.
Next time on Vow of the King: Wait, grass is strong against flying now? Did yall seriously never play Pokémon before?