The unfortunately essential addition of the Spell of Mind Blank to the proceedings effectively spoils quite a bit of the entertainment and educational value of observing the Knights at work, and while you do feel some temptation to have Ambrose try and look in on them regardless, it's a fleeting thing.

You content yourself with watching this detachment of Soldats try to cope with being under attack from three-

"WHAAAA-!"

-make that four separate imperceptible creatures, which are protected against their common attacks. The Quincy bear up admirably under the pressure of dealing with enemies they can't see, sense or hurt, but they're being pushed back, thrown around, dragged screaming into the walls - with cries that are as much of frustrated fury as they are fear - and just generally getting their butts handed to them.

By the end of the thirty-second mark, their numbers have been reduced by a fifth due to injury or Wallmastery, and you think it's only the presence and shouted commands of that one officer that are really holding the rest of the rank-and-file together.

As the end of the first minute draws close, with nearly half of the Soldats down or dragged off, and the aforementioned officer clawing desperately at the floor with crude, oversized "fingers" of condensed spiritual energy in a tug-of-war with what is probably one of the Wallmasters, you can see that your guess was right.

And then, without warning, something changes. One of the spirit-arrows that was fired in desperation at the invisible, invulnerable summoned monsters didn't shatter upon and splash across a layer of Spell Immunity like all the ones before it; instead, it's hanging there in mid-air, about a sixth of its length imperceptible due to being buried inside something perhaps twice the height of a human.

Also, from the way the Wandenreich troops are gaping not only at that arrow, but in other directions as well, you think they can SEE your Shadow's summons all of a sudden.

"What the-!"

"LESS TALK, MORE SHOOTING!" the officer bellows, even as he lets go of the floor with one spiritually-reinforced hand and slashes at his would-be captor with the claws of the other.

He's instantly dropped.

The Soldats respond to their officer's command instantly, and while you think the Wallmasters manage to scuttle away through the architecture - probably due to having been halfway inside to begin with - one of the elementals becomes momentarily visible as its conjured form collapses and disperses under the resulting weight of fire. The second rocky behemoth survives by mimicking the giant hands, but it's peppered and pierced by a dozen glowing projectiles as it melds into and through one of the walls.

There is a brief silence.

"What just happened?" one of the Soldats asks.

"I think your summoned self just disappeared, lad," Ambrose observes with a frown.

"Seems like," you agree with a scowl of your own. The question then becomes, did Summoned Alex manage to get dispersed by injury, or did the Spell of Summoning holding him there just time out? And if it was the latter... well, there are a bunch of other questions, which you can only hope you'll get a chance to ask Shadow Alex.

While you're pondering that, the Soldats are taking stock of their situation and checking in with their superiors via radio. The word comes down for them to hold their position, as reinforcements are inbound - but before you can see how that will play out, a chime goes off in mid-air next to Ambrose, and an image of his teleportation chamber appears in one of the mirrored panels lining the observatory. In it, you can see another Gate opening up, and Balthazar looking through.

"Ambrose, if Alex is on hand-"

"Lad-"

"Moving!" you say, doing so with a hit of ki-boosted speed.

You make it to and through the Gate with time to spare, and find the Knights there with your Shadow. Most of the summoned troops appear to have been written off, although Arthur Drake and Maddoc are still with the group - which gives you a brief feeling of deja vu as the less-mystical parts of your brain wrap themselves around the idea that Altria's father is present, even though you left him in the room down the hall just a moment ago.

Shaking that off, you turn to your own doppelganger - reflecting in passing that you don't have that sort of problem with him anymore, if you ever did, and wondering if the differences in his coloration and bearing compared to your own have anything to do with that fact.

What happened?" you ask.

"I'm not sure," Shadow Alex explains sourly. He quickly explains that, while he knew better than to use up Summoned Alex's expected "lifespan" with ritual magic, or to rely on the spells Summoned Alex cast persisting past his dismissal, he was caught off-guard by how quickly the Spell of Summoning that conjured this instance of you ran down this time.

Neither of you are sure why it happened, and to be fair, there's a lot of potential points of failure involved: using a ritual to boost a lesser spell to mimic a higher iteration of itself, rather than casting that advanced form as a properly mastered spell; using bombast and sheer force of presence to try and enhance the effect; having both effects rely on an instance of you that is technically only a quasi-real Illusion; and then there's the planar influences, both of the accelerated demiplane where the spell was first cast and of Silbern itself. And these are just issues you can think of off the top of your head; there are undoubtedly other possibilities.

But you can research the specifics later. Right now, you have a raid to get on with - and with that in mind, Shadow Alex dismisses himself, and you re-summon him.

That establishes the pattern for the next hour or so of real-world and Silbern time. Balthazar opens a Gate from the accelerated demiplane to Silbern, picking a different location each time; the Knights, Shadow Alex, and several summons storm in to raise havoc; when it looks like the Wandenreich are mounting a full response, Shadow Alex opens a Gate back to the demiplane for his main allies to ride out; and then Balthazar opens another Gate for you to come "renew" Shadow Alex and his depleted mana reserves, so that he can start summoning troops again and the whole business can start over.

It wears on everyone involved. Although Shadow Alex and Summoned Alex are effectively healed and have their energies topped off each time they reappear, the same cannot be said for the Knights, who are working on limited reserves that cannot be replenished - at least not in the time you have available. This inevitably erodes their performance, and while they came back from their first excursion with no outstanding new damage that you could discern, scratches, dents, and chips to their gear become more apparent with each successive trip. They never quite lose their cheer, but it is diminished compared to before, or perhaps more correctly, focused into the task at hand.

They are professionals, after all, and storming an enemy stronghold is just one of those parts of the job.

As for the Wandenreich, while Quincy on a spiritual plane may have effectively unlimited power to call upon to form weapons and ammunition, actually doing so still requires an act of will - and being mortal, their wills invariably weaken with constant exertion, to say nothing of the ongoing strain of having to respond to attacks that they cannot seem to predict, prevent, or properly intercept. In between Gate-trips, you watch through the Spellescope as the Quincies' eagerness for a fight and bewilderment at the existence of Wallmasters slowly turn into bitter frustration at their inability to really get to grips with the invaders, and resignation that yes, they're probably going to get pulled through a wall before all is said and done. And again, being the only truly "mortal" side in this fight, casualties both physical and mental start to mount up for them.

That's not to say you get everything your own way. By the third "wave" of today's raids, the Wandenreich troops are starting to carry some of those devices projecting Glitterdust-like fields with them as they move, which renders your Spells of Invisibility less than entirely effective. Moreover, somebody on their side gets creative, as the next time a semi-visible Wallmaster tries to grab a hostage, it's greeted not by blazing arrows or pseudo-lightsabers, but a literal explosion.

You're reminded in some measure of Bambietta's attack, which your Shadow witnessed through Foresight, but the young lady herself doesn't appear to be present, and this blast is not as bright or coherent as the one she would have set off - and it's certainly not as large.

That having been said, it still reduces that unfortunate Wallmaster to a few smoking fingertips and bits of hand, which prompts a ragged and rather vengeful cheer from the Soldats as the bits and pieces dissipate.

Of course, when Shadow Alex prepares for the FOURTH wave, he inherits your memory of this, and tweaks the Spell of Spell Immunity to try and compensate for the new trick, so that when the Soldats try to mass-fire the explosion trick-

"Oh, come on!"

-it doesn't work so well.

In spite of the sheer nuisance and injury you're causing them, the fight is ultimately probably going in the Wandenreich's favor. They have the numbers, the home court advantage, and centuries of preparation for waging a war against SOMEBODY, not to mention at least a few exceptionally dangerous combatants that your allies do have the bad luck to run into on one occasion, which leaves the lady knight missing an arm-

"Hey, Bedivere, can you lend me a hand?"

-cheerfully making bad jokes about it, and being hovered over by Gawain and the other knights that must be her brothers or cousins or something. Even Sir Mordred seems a little protective, in a snarly, "what were you thinking, you idiot!" sort of way.

It's just as well, then, that the Knights are ultimately just a distraction.

Since Summoned Alex isn't terribly reliable as a source of enhancement spells, Shadow Alex puts him to work another way. Invisible, Mind Blanked, and probably with a couple more protections besides, your Shadow teleports the two of them from each "landing zone" to a Gate Room - sometimes one that's nearby, sometimes one halfway across the fortress - at which point Summoned Alex cuts loose with whatever spells come to mind, wrecking another portal. And then they do it again.

By the fourth wave, all but three of the confirmed Gates of the Sun have been trashed or sealed, and you're noticing fewer Quincy in the fortress, or at least fewer of them that are showing up on Ambrose's scrying walls. When you speak with your Shadow again, he reports that he and Summoned Alex closed down one of the three remaining Gates, but found the other two to be full of Quincy making their way back to Earth in a hasty but organized fashion, along with one final load of whatever they could carry.

Not wanting to corner your opponents and force them to fight to the death, your Shadow opted to leave those two Rooms alone.

Your fifth raid encounters hardly any resistance at all, and when the sixth meets only empty halls, your Shadow whistles up some of the bird-like psychopomps he'd previously used for scouting and sends them out to take a look, while he scries on the relatively distant Gate Rooms, and the Knights keep a watchful eye on him and their immediate surroundings.

In due course, a Sending reaches you: "Scried the Gate Rooms, found them empty. Performed a Divination, asking if Silbern was empty; signs point to 'yes.'" There is the briefest of pauses, and then a bemused, "I think we won?"

You understand where your Shadow is coming from. "Hey, Briar?"

"Yeah?"

"Did we just ANNOY an army into giving up?"

"Annoy, badger, traumatize..." Your partner trails off with a shrug.

It's around three in the afternoon, Welsh time, or seven in the morning by Sunnydale clocks. What do you want to do?


You shake off your bemusement over the unusual circumstances of your victory, because there are more important things to be dealt with - namely, loot.

Mine.

"Ambrose," you say, turning to the wizard, "would you happen to have any Wands of Shrink Item?"

"Sorry, but no. Never really found much need for something like that."

Eh, no great loss; it'd be cheaper for your Shadow to mass-cast the spell anyway. "How about Bags of Holding, then?"

"Only a dozen or so-"

You frown at that reply, because that seems awfully limited for a man of Ambrose's age, means, and demonstrated willingness to pillage his enemies' domiciles.

"-I've found that Chests of Holding are more practical in the long run," the old man continues. "They're more difficult to damage, can generally take stronger wards more readily, and are more convenient to store." He makes a gesture, as of stacking things one on top of another.

Your frown doesn't quite turn upside-down, more levelling off. "And how many of those Chests could we borrow?"

"I try to always keep half a dozen empty, just in case situations like this come up," he answers. "I've also been going through the ones I was using for storage, to see if I could find room elsewhere for what they're holding or just bin the stuff, but that's been slightly slow going." Ambrose shrugs. "When you live the sort of life I have, you find your way into all kinds of fascinating keepsakes."

You know where he's coming from, even if it is a bit inconvenient for your current purposes.

You make a mental note to check with Balthazar.

"In any case, lad," the wizard says then, "before you get all gung-ho about pillaging the Quincy stronghold down to the bedrock, we should make sure that the Wandenreich can't start raiding US while we're trying to clear the place out, and also that they didn't leave any surprises behind."

That is... not terrible advice, you suppose.

Since your Magic Cellphone doesn't work across planes-

"It doesn't, right?" you check with Ambrose, just to be sure.

"I have yet to find a way to make modern or even vintage telecommunications devices compatible with inter-planar messaging," Ambrose admits. "It's their dependence on infrastructure, you see. Even if someone HAD found a reliable non-magical method to cross the planar boundaries, there's nothing on the other side to carry the signal; and the sympathetic resonance between mundane and mystical forms of long-range communication effectively entangles whatever spell you use with the technological signal, compromising the spell's usual range."

-and you had it in your pocket when you called up Shadow Alex anyway, you have to resort to other means. And while Ambrose does have a couple of the more "traditional" devices for contacting people on-hand, they're either unreliable due to your Shadow's use of Mind Blank, or unusable because he didn't take a partnered device with him.

In your defense, none of these devices are in any way "hands-free" models, and Shadow Alex already had a sword and spellcasting to manage.

This leaves you little choice but to fall back on the Spell of Sending.

As you perform the ritual, you reflect that if proxy planar explorations are going to become a thing for you, you're probably going to want to look into developing a less restrictive spell of communication - preferably one that doesn't take ten minutes to invoke every time, or limit you to twenty-five words per use.

While you're getting in touch with your Shadow, Ambrose contacts Balthazar - who DID take one of the partnered communications devices - and lets him know about your victory. The Merlinean Master replies that he's going to head back to the Arcana Cabana to take a breather after all the Gate-opening and enhancement-casting he's been doing, and also to grab his own stash of Bags, Chests, and Other Containers of Holding, as well as "a few other things" he thinks will be useful.

Letting Shadow Alex know to take out the two remaining intact and unsealed Gates of the Sun won't take more than a few words. Telling him to sweep for traps and sabotage won't require much speaking, either, but there is the question of where you want him to focus those efforts - Silbern is FAR too large for you to have any hope of looting the entire place in the time you have remaining, so it would be best if your Shadow focused his efforts on the areas you're most interested in plundering.


A thought occurs, and in between lines of incantation, you manage to convey it to Briar.

While you and Ambrose are occupied, your partner zips over to the Spellescope controls, resumes human size-

"Need to borrow this for a second, Ambrose," she says.

"Just don't break it. ...no, not you, Balthazar; I was talking to the fairy. ...she's borrowing my Spellescope. ...oh, very funny."

-and starts trying to re-target the sensor onto that hall full of trophies you found in the Grandmaster's quarters-

"Come on, come on... gah, how do you make this thing move faster?"

"Don't break it! And stop laughing, Blake!"

-with some difficulty.

It doesn't help matters that Briar herself has not laid eyes on the location in question, whether in person or through the memories of her Shadow-self. After all, she isn't powerful enough to affect memories that way, and it didn't occur to you or your Shadow to transfer any of your partners' memories.

"I'm just as happy not to have to deal with that, actually," Briar replies, when you mention that.

You pause to consider her response, and then nod slowly. There have been signs that Briar doesn't get along with her Shadow quite as well as you do with yours, which would make downloading a portion of Shadow Briar's memories more uncomfortable for her. On top of that, there's that whole "too small for more than one thought at a time" thing to keep in mind, along with Briar's issues about growing up too fast - or at all. As long as it was just her thought(s) in her head, she was fine, and she's accepted the side-effects and mental "crowding" of having a familiar bond with you, but adding another set of thoughts on top of that might be asking too much.

There may also be a purely fey element to her feelings on the matter. Fairies are the ones that mess with other people's heads; they're not supposed to get their OWN memories messed with, unless it's by a greater Fey, or at least one that outwitted them.

In any case, Briar manages to find Jugram's trophy hall before you finish casting the Spell of Sending, and as you look into the mirrored wall of the observatory, you see that most of the stuff your Shadow, his summoned looters, and the Shinigami didn't grab the other day seems to still be present. Maybe not all of it - your inherited memories are still a little fuzzy, and there is a LOT of stuff in that one room to keep track of - but quite a bit nonetheless.

You take a minute to muse over how to frame your message as you complete your Spell more or less on autopilot.

"Seal remaining Gates, and sweep for traps, sabotage. Recommend summons loot Jugram's trophy hall, Prying Eyes search Silbern, and you hit the research area."

And that's all you have room for.

After a moment, Shadow Alex's reply arrives: "Understood. Will check in again in one hour, barring surprises."

...you definitely need to get a better long-range communication spell.

Anyway, you've got an hour. Was there anything you wanted to do with it?


Checking your mana reserve, you decide to down another dose of Night's Essence. It'll be your second of the day, and so still well within your safe tolerance, and the according boost to Shadow Alex's magic when you re-summon him will effectively double the benefits - almost triple them, if your Shadow were to call up Summoned Alex afterwards, but you're not sure if your Shadow will bother with that, after how brief his last summoning of "you" ended up being.

Really, it would just be more efficient for your Shadow to summon groups of creatures that could hang around for longer than two minutes at a time. Many hands make for light work, and all that.

In any case, you get out the potion and quaff it.

*Glug*
*Glug*
*Glug*

Used Night's Essence
Gained Glass Bottle

...

While no less effective from a pure recovery standpoint, the whole process feels different when there's not a crowd of people standing around cheering you on...

Shaking your head, you turn to discuss a few things with Ambrose and Arthur - but mostly Ambrose - to pass the time until Shadow Alex gets in touch.

Since it's directly relevant, you start by asking the wizard if he's familiar with the spell that you know as "the Ears of the City." It takes a minute and a bit of clarification, but Ambrose confirms that he has run into it before, and actually has it written down - somewhere.

"I don't customarily use it because I don't like how it leaves the caster vulnerable," he explains. "That, and I simply prefer talking to people face-to-face when it's practical."

Yeah, trolling is more fun when you can see their reactions.

In any case, you inquire of the old man if he thinks the aforementioned spell would be useful in tracking down loot within Silbern.

"Maybe for some of the more ordinary things," Ambrose replies after a moment's thought. "But if I'm remembering correctly, most of what the spell gathers is the equivalent of rumor and common knowledge. Any information that was limited to select groups, even just by dint of personal privacy, was much more difficult to acquire that way, and anything that was actively SECURED was basically unfindable."

...that does more or less track with your understanding of the spell, unfortunately. It doesn't make Ears of the City useless to you, by any means - you could certainly fill out your still fairly limited map of Silbern's interior just with the general knowledge of the residents - but finding military assets, secret treasures, or otherwise Really Interesting (and Valuable) Stuff that way probably isn't going to happen.

You make a mental note for the next instance of Shadow Alex to use Ears of the City.

Building on the topic of interesting Quincy intel, you bring up the deal you have with the Shinigami to exchange any such information you found in the books and files you looted from Silbern. While anything involving the reapers themselves or the Soul Society is off limits, as per the terms of your agreement, you're curious to know if Ambrose and Arthur would like to purchase copies of the rest of the data themselves-

"I might, depending on the topics in question," the wizard replies.

"Likewise," the knight agrees.

-or if there are any friendly third parties they know of who could make use of the information, and would accept it from them without asking too many questions about the source.

That has the pair trading glances.

"I can think of a few people who would be interested in just being able to put names and faces to members of the Wandenreich," Arthur observes in a neutral tones. "Especially its uppermost echelons. If they could get access to material holdings or financial records as well... well."

"I can also think of a few people who would be interested in information on modernized Quincy techniques and research projects," Ambrose says in a very similar voice. "Some of them could even be trusted to be responsible with it."

"Define 'responsible,' please," you say cautiously.

"Har-dee-har," Ambrose retorts dryly. "But fine. In context, 'responsible' would be people who WOULDN'T take the information and use it to help them hunt down fresh Quincy specimens or field-test anti-Quincy attacks and defenses, pass it along to fourth parties who'd be inclined to do similarly unpleasant things with it, or take any other action likely to further destabilize Quincy relations with anyone other than the Shinigami or Hollows." The wizard pauses, and then adds, "Mind you, they'd still make a point of watching for and possibly tracking our toxophilite friends-"

Toxo-what?"

"It means being fond of or proficient in archery."

Ah. Latin?

"From the Greek originally, but yes."

Gained Latin C (Plus)

"As I was saying," Ambrose continues, "the information would also definitely be used to develop and refine spells and effects aimed at neutralizing the Quincy, but the people I have in mind could be trusted not to USE such things offensively. At least not unless or until the Quincy had attacked them, first."

Moving on from Wandenreich-related subjects, you inquire if Ambrose would be interested in further spell trading, but he tells you to put any further deals on hold until you've finished up the ones you already have in progress - not just for the exchange of magical lore, but also all the loot that has and promises to continue to come out of Silbern.

"We really need to get that sorted out, so we know which of us owes the other what, and how much of it," he says.

Fair enough. Seeing as how that would probably cover your thoughts about discussing the uses of Rupees, you don't bring them up at this time.

Most of the rest of the hour passes uneventfully.


You do have some qualms about this decision. How could you not? It's a choice that will affect the lives and well-being of thousands of people at the very least, and even if they are nominally your enemies, your experience in making choices that affect the world on that scale is still very limited.

Maybe it's your current lack of willpower-boosting and fear-suppressing spells at work, or maybe you've just had enough time to digest the events of the last couple of days and start coming to terms with the implications. Either way, it's begun to dawn on you just how BIG a deal the entire Auswahlen Incident was, and what sort of an impact its outcome will have going forward.

An outcome that your involvement was very much central to, and which has earned you the hopefully not but probably eternal enmity of what is effectively a small nation, as well as the attention of at least one other, somewhat larger polity.

You feel that a certain amount of nervousness is natural and healthy.

Whatever your personal feelings, and however much of a prankster Ambrose may be in other regards, you trust him to know what he's talking about in his areas of expertise - and you have far fewer reservations about trusting Arthur Drake. If the two men believe the people they have in mind to receive your intel about the Wandenreich will make responsible use of it, you'll take them at their word.

Gained Filial Piety C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Wise King E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Young King B (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

You also float the idea of passing the mundane information to the Shuzens.

Arthur cautions you that, regardless of how the clan of vampires has treated you on a personal level, you can't expect that relationship to govern how they behave in their professional lives - and professionally speaking, the Shuzens are a mix of old money bloodline, corporate enterprise, and criminal fraternity. That's a rather dangerous combination, particularly when it comes to how they customarily deal with rivals and enemies, especially those in a perceived position of weakness.

"Fairy Tale's main area of influence is Japan, which I've gathered is effectively a No Man's Land to the Wandenreich, so any information you passed on probably wouldn't get used BY the organization or its members," Arthur admits. "But they have contacts all around the world, some of whom would be much better placed to make use of the intel, and rather more interested in doing so."

"In short," Ambrose sums up, "anything you tell the Shuzens in this matter, you should expect to make its way through the criminal grapevine in fairly short order."

You recall the teleconference with the Three Dark Lords of the Orient, and some of the hints that were dropped about Touhou Fuhai's "family business."

The subsequent idle conversation that you, the older gentlemen, and Briar lapse into is eventually interrupted by Shadow Alex's latest Spell of Sending.

"Gates neutralized. Found some traps; found MORE sabotage. Papers burnt, items wrecked. King recommends meeting, prep for plundering. Mana low. Gate to demiplane, or residence?"

Easy enough to follow. The Knights went in with a suit of combat enhancements, rather than being optimized for looting the place, and most of their buffs should have lapsed by now anyway, so Arturia's preference to pull out, "re-arm," and assemble a proper force of plunderers makes sense.

If Shadow Alex is running down on mana again, it makes sense that he'd want to know if Gating to the Drake residence was an option - there's only so much ambient mana to go around, and more importantly, the more time he's spending on rituals, the less time he's actually looting.

Still, you should definitely check with Ambrose and Arthur before you give the go-ahead for direct travel between Silbern and the manor - and since the Spell of Sending requires you to respond immediately or lose the opportunity, you tell your Shadow to take the "long way," as usual.

When the band of artificial adventurers makes their return some fourteen minutes later, it's with saddlebags and pockets both magical and mundane full of stuff - some of it shrunk, some not - and improvised bags slung over what shoulders can be spared. On top of that, you glimpse a veritable avalanche of Earth Elementals of varying sizes moving around on the accelerated demiplane, setting down pieces of furniture, rug-sacks, carpet-bags, statuary, and various other odds and ends.

Shadow Alex looks at you and says, "We're going to need a bigger demiplane."

Mine.


While Arthur isn't exactly an unbiased source where the Shuzens are concerned, you have to admit that he does have a point about the risks of passing information on the Wandenreich to them.

You can't speak much to how the criminal or corporate elements Kahlua's parents deal with would make use of such intel, but you can say with confidence that more than a few monsters or groups thereof would be inclined to hit potential enemies while they're disorganized and vulnerable, rather than giving them a chance to recover and start building up their strength again.

Whether out of a desire to avoid provoking (or at least spreading) a possible war, or simply because you don't want to risk having the deaths of a lot of civilians on your conscience, you decide to take Arthur's advice.

The sacking of Silbern proceeds apace over the next several days. Coordinating the effort from three different timezones spread across the Western hemisphere is something of a pain, particularly when you've only got the one Key to the Wandenreich's hidden realm to share between three spellcasters capable of opening Gates, and isn't helped any when it gets late enough in Wales that the Knights have to call it a day.

You'd had an inkling that Simulacra of beings which originally required food and rest would still need those things, but you'd kind of hoped that the proper Spell to Create a Simulacrum would be more forgiving in that respect than the Spell of the Dark Self. It wasn't, and the Knights' temporary absence seriously diminishes your manpower and security.

On a related note, Ambrose has stolen your Magnificent Mansion trick to house and feed his workforce. You can't begrudge him - and more to the point, you can't charge him for it, since providing convenient housing for a band of adventurers far from home is pretty much exactly what the spell was created for.

Shadow Alex forges ahead with the assistance of his summons, making judicious use of the Spell to Shrink Items to make up for the limited availability of magically-expanded containers, but when dropping off one such load of loot on the accelerated demiplane, he confides to you that an empty Silbern can give Castle Shuzen a run for its money in terms of creepiness. The longer he's there, the closer together he ends up keeping his summons.

"It's not the most efficient way to loot a place," he admits, "but Spells of Mind Blank and Foresight or no, I keep getting the feeling that somebody is sizing up my back for a barrage of soul-destroying arrows."

You can't really blame your Shadow for being nervous, not when there actually ARE people out there who'd like to shoot him.

Your proxy pillaging spree was further complicated by your need to keep your mana level relatively high, as much for your Shadow's upcoming bout with Captain Zaraki as for the advantages in looting.

Aside from periodically re-summoning his helpers - a necessity minimized by extending the duration of individual Spells to Summon Monsters as far as possible - Shadow's biggest mana expenses were opening Gates and shrinking stuff. He had a go at using repair spells on some of the items the Quincy tried to destroy before pulling out of their fortress, but success was minimal. Burnt papers either couldn't be restored at all, or else came back as blank sheets or covered in gibberish.

You'd hoped that the objects that Shadow described as "wrecked" in his Sending might simply have been physically smashed or warped, and hence been recoverable - and for a few, that proved to be the case, but there were still plenty of objects that the Quincy had pulled apart molecule by spiritual molecule. Even the Greater Spell to Make Whole couldn't bring most of those back, and the few that it did manage to repair only had their physical forms restored, with any inherent special functions remaining lost.

Which isn't to say your small army of looters didn't find SOME magical items, just fewer than you might have liked.

On the subject of that match with the Eleventh Division Captain, while there is a part of you that is tempted to go full martial artist formal on this and send Zaraki a challenge letter - something you've heard Lu-sensei mention a few times - you reluctantly decide against it. Partly because Zaraki still has to submit paperwork for leave on his end, and the extra time for a physical challenge to get delivered would slow everything down, but mainly because you want to minimize the chances Soul Society has to track you down.

Handing the letter off to the Postman wouldn't really be a good idea.

As such, Shadow Alex takes the time on Sunday evening to assume adult guise and cast the Spell of Sending to get in touch with his opponent. You thought it over, and figured that June 21st was as good a day as any.

Shadow's short, straightforward message receives the following answer:

"Where the hell is that voice- oi, Shadow, is that you? Wednesday in Karakura? Yeah, I can try- oh, attackin' a man when he's-"

...

"I... think he was fighting somebody?" Shadow Briar offers.


Over the course of what you will later remember as the Days of Plunder, you gradually go through much of your existing stock of mana restoratives. You try to time things so that Shadow Alex is kept with the highest levels of mana possible each time you call him into existence, without wasting any of your consumable resources, but there is some unavoidable "loss" due to how potent even the least of your mana potions is.

It would have been a little easier to manage if you'd had more Potions of Spring Dew or Night's Essence, but Balthazar already said when he sold the latest batch of restoratives to you that he wasn't going to provide you with any more in the immediate future, due to concerns about you overdosing. You pop over to Gen's to see if he's feeling more generous, but alas, you cleared out your partner's available stock, and his suppliers haven't yet gotten the fresh goods to him.

Maybe you should look into learning how to measure out or "water down" your mana restoratives? A single potion that restores roughly half of your maximum mana is all well and good when your mana is low enough to require that much recovery, but if you could split it up into three doses that replenish a sixth or so of your power - or six doses worth a twelfth each - you'd have a lot more flexibility in their use. Even if the absolute amount of mana recovered was reduced in the process, it might be worth it.

Another potential benefit is that you'd be less likely to accidentally overdose an ally by sharing one of your mana potions. Altria could probably handle them as well as you do, considering how much mana she's got, but most of your other friends have more modest reserves.

Used Moondrop
Used Night's Essence
Used Smoke Water
Used Spring Dew
Gained Clay Bottle x2
Gained Glass Bottle x2

At one point after Shadow Alex returns on Sunday night, but before you send him back to while away a few more hours, you slip into your Mirror Hideaway and set up to perform the Ritual of Communion. Certain questions had occurred to you over the course of the day that you felt it better to ask now.

Ten minutes of chanting and burning incense later, you begin: "Is the Wandenreich aware of the existence of the accelerated demiplane I have been using?"

"No."

Okay, good. You've been relying on Navi's pocket planes pretty heavily throughout this whole affair, and will still be using them for most of the rest of the week. It would have sucked to have the Quincy show up uninvited.

Second question: "Are there any important items or information still intact within Silbern?"

"Yes."

Oooo-!

Third question: "Have we discovered all of the hidden rooms within Silbern containing such items?"

"No."

Oooo intensifies-!

"Are there less than ten hidden rooms containing such items within Silbern?"

"No."

You wince at that. While it's kind of good news, on account of there being more stuff to potentially take, the more rooms there are, the more time the plundering parties are going to have to spend looking for them, and the fewer they're likely to actually find before time runs out.

Since you've got a few questions to burn, you spend a few of them trying to narrow down the number of rooms you might be looking for.

"Are there less than twenty hidden rooms?"

"Warmer."

...seriously, Goddesses? But never mind, focus! "Less than fifty?"

"Warmer."

"Less than a hundred?" you ask, with growing trepidation.

"Warmer."

"Less than a THOUSAND?"

"Yes."

Oh, thank Din. You were starting to worry- but never mind, you have other questions.

"Would Grandmaster Haschwalth be able to see through the eyes of a Mind Blanked Simulacrum of himself?"

"DANGER," the Goddesses reply with an urgent emphasis.

Okay, creating a Simulacrum of Jugram is probably a bad idea. Maybe it's something specific to the Almighty, or maybe...

"Would Grandmaster Haschwalth be aware of the creation of any Quincy Simulacrum as it was created?" you try, seeking clarification.

"Potentially," comes the calmer response.

You were afraid of that. You'd already known that Jugram is going to be looking for Earthbound Quincy in the coming days and weeks, as he tries to sort out who might have been involved with the attack on Silbern and the death of Yhwach. While a Simulacrum starts out as an "object" as far as magic is concerned, the process of empowering it results in a "creature," even if only a limited and temporary one, and once it was fully animated, a Simulacrum of a Quincy would BE a Quincy for all intents and purposes, which would put them on the Almighty's radar. Worse, because your efforts would by necessity be focused on the ritual creation, you wouldn't be able to cast the Spell of Mind Blank on a Simulacrum until that end-point - but Jugram MIGHT be able to detect it earlier. As you haven't studied the proper spell, you're not really sure when that "creature-ness" would kick in enough to be an issue, but it WOULD be an issue.

And having a second spellcaster on hand to try and mask what you were doing wouldn't help. Throwing spells into incomplete rituals is a good way to ruin them, occasionally explosively.

You have a pretty good idea of what the answer to your next question is going to be, but just to be sure... "Is making a Simulacrum of Yhwach using his Blood likely to backfire?"

"YES," comes the once again emphatic response.

"Would making a Simulacrum of Link set off the Curse of Demise?"

"YES!"

Again, you had a feeling that would be the answer. The terms of the Curse specified the SOUL of the Hero as one of the targets, and while a Simulacrum doesn't have the soul of who- or whatever it's based on, the whole point of the magic is to create as close a duplicate of the original as possible. The Simulacrum's... animating force, you suppose, would be extremely similar to that of the Hero, which could "fool" the Curse into activating, whether partially or in its entirety.

Either way, it's not something you want to be messing around with.

Considering that you appear to have freaked out the Goddesses with some of your inquiries, you decide to finish your Communion with an apology: "Sorry if I spooked you, and thank you for your time."

"...you're welcome."

And then the spell ends.

You send Shadow Alex on his way with the knowledge that there are more hidden rooms to loot, but you're not holding out a whole lot of hope on that front. Silbern is HUGE, and from the sound of things, Jugram was far from the only resident to carve out a little secret area for himself and his most personal possessions.

Considering that the place has been inhabited by hundreds or thousands of people for a thousand years, most of whom would be able to carve out sections of the architecture more or less at will, it DOES make sense that there'd be SOME secret chambers - but an upper ceiling of a THOUSAND rooms? Good grief.

Beginning on the second day, you try to spend some time meditating on the accelerated demiplane, to see if the exotic environment improves your basic skill any - and also to experiment with the Environmental Adaptation technique.

The latter proves a complete failure, which you chalk up to the environment being TOO exotic for your current understanding of the technique to accomplish anything.

As for the meditation... you're not sure. You think you might feel something, but a few hours snatched over the course of a couple of days isn't enough to make much progress, particularly not when you've got people and things moving through every so often, such as a Shadow in need of periodic renewal, a band of Knights and their steeds, and a few spellcasters.

Because you DID offer to rent the accelerated demiplane out to Balthazar, and he's cashing in on that offer now to give Dave some lessons and pointers, not the least of which involve the proper assessment and disposal of wealth, be it hard-won, easily so, justly-earned, or ill-gotten.

"So. Much. Shiny," Dave mutters, as he stares into one Chest of Holding.

The good news is, you make some progress on clearing out that backlog of downloaded memories. You'd probably have made more if you weren't splitting your attention three or four ways...

In due course, Wednesday rolls around...


Once again, the difference in time zones makes things more complicated than you'd like, forcing you to pass most of a day waiting for it to be "Wednesday morning" in Japan - and by extension, the Soul Society - which is closer to dinner time in California. It's annoying, but there's little help for it if you want to avoid leaving too many clues for the Shinigami as to where your preferred stomping grounds are.

Shadow Alex spends most of the morning assisting the Knights in their ongoing looting campaign. After all, while YOU need to conserve mana so his later incarnation can give Zaraki the best fight possible, THIS Shadow is free to run himself to exhaustion.

You make a point of spending the small amount of mana necessary to summon him, though. You have time enough to recover that energy before traveling to Japan, and it will let you hold the daily charge of the Heart of Courage in reserve until then.

Towards lunch - California time - your Shadow makes his apologies and readies to depart. You'd taken the time over the last few days to ensure everyone else was aware of your prior committment, so there are no hard feelings at your proxy bowing out of your share of the day's work early.

There was, however, some interest among the Knights in the possibility of attending your match...

Your Shadow dismisses himself, and you sense the pulse from the Heart signifying its readiness to be used again. You hold off on doing that while you have lunch, and for a while afterwards before finally excusing yourself. Your family are aware that you have a meeting-

"Is this related to the peanut thing?" your father asked.

-with someone who was involved with the Peanut Incident, though this meeting is only related to the prior event because that's where the two of you met-

"Is this a DATE?" your mother wondered.

-and it is NOT a date, your Shadow just ran into somebody who wants to spar with him.

"Alex hath a da-ate! Alex hath a da-ate!"

Not sure if speech impediment or if Zelda is mimicking a cartoon character that speaks Ye Olde English, but either way, a little sister needs to be CHASED-!

Even with familial distractions, you left yourself plenty of time to take care of the necessary spell preparations. Due to the fuss raised by your previous spamming of Gates in Japan and the likelihood that the noise hasn't died down yet, you and Shadow Alex will be traveling to Japan via Greater Ritual of Teleportation, so as to avoid giving anybody still on the lookout for portals any warning about your return, so simply Gating from your Mirror Hideaway to Japan is not an option. That said, your little spellcasting chamber does see some use, because you're not about to send your Shadow into even a friendly match with a being like a Shinigami Captain without some preparation.

You and your Shadow both require Spells of Mind Blank and either the Spell of the Threefold Aspect or some other form of Transformation Magic capable of giving you an adult appearance. Those aside, you've got a free hand, two full tanks of mana, and enough time to handle whatever defensive and/or enhancement spells you feel are needed. On the other hand, you've got an opponent who wants a good fight, and didn't seem to particularly care for the overtly magical approach to things, so there's going to be a fine line to walk not only in your choice of spells, but who casts them.

After all, the more energy Shadow Alex uses preparing for the fight, the less he'll be able to call on in the match itself - yet if he UNDERprepares, or goes too far in the direction of "cheating with magic," he may not be able to give Captain Zaraki the sort of fight he wanted out of this. Which could be... unfortunate.


While you personally didn't object to the idea of bringing a few people along to watch your bout, it occurs to you that this is the sort of thing that should be discussed with your opponent ahead of time - and for preference, in a face-to-face meeting. Not that you got the impression Captain Zaraki cares much about etiquette or protocol, but there's a certain degree of respect implicit in taking the time out of your schedule to meet with someone, and the Spell of Sending is a poor substitute at best for that sort of thing, particularly at a time when you're trying to avoid spending mana unnecessarily.

Besides, while you don't have any strong objections to the idea of an audience, you aren't really interested in it, either, at least not this time around. Given the lack of personal investment in the notion on top of your other reasons, you're content to let it just be you, your Shadow, and your partners that go to this one.

Some of the Knights are a bit disappointed-

"Awww," the lady knight, whose name you've learned is Gareth, sulks.

-but they accept your reasoning and respect your wishes.

While you opted not to contact Captain Zaraki over the matter of an audience, you did consider getting in touch to ask him if he'd prefer to fight your Shadow while the latter was in human form, or in the form of a giant elemental.

Then you recalled what your Shadow said about needing practice at fighting people significantly smaller than yourself, and considered how that might scale up (so to speak) if you tried to fight a six-foot-seven Shinigami while in the form of a thirty-two foot-tall Air Elemental. To say nothing of the mass issue inherent to gaseous forms, which has tripped you up in combat in the past.

In short, you dismissed that idea as something for another time, after you've got more experience fighting "tiny" opponents, fighting while in a form that has limited mass, and of course, fighting "tiny" opponents while in a form that has limited mass.

With that settled, you enter your Mirror Hideaway, call up your Shadow, and get to work. Most of the spells you cast are done normally, as there's only a limited amount of ambient mana to work with inside your extra-dimensional spellcasting chamber, and your Shadow needs some of it to cast spells of his own - such as Foresight, which wouldn't be useful to him if you were the one to cast it - without burning any of the mana he's likely to need.

Since you make such extensive use of the "short form" of spellcasting, the whole process only takes about twenty-five minutes - but it eats almost half of your mana in exchange.

Trade-offs.

Regardless, once the Shadows are as well-prepared as you can manage - and as they'll allow, Shadow Briar having firmly and somewhat snarkily turned down the offer of the Spell of Ironskin-

"Hello? Fairy?"

-you use the remaining energy within the Hideaway to ritually open a Gate to Bali Ha'i, and from there, after briefly communing with Kahine-

Supportive volcanic rumbling intensifies.

-you teleport the rest of the way to Karakura.

It's around seven in the morning here, and the morning traffic is in full swing, which slows your progress to Urahara Shop somewhat.

Out of curiosity, what form(s) are you and Shadow Alex currently wearing?


While it was tempting to stick with what you know - and enjoy the spectacle of crowds of Japanese pedestrians trying to stare without being rude at a towering set of identical twins in their midst - you figured that a slightly more subtle approach might serve you better, at least initially.

After all, the whole point of the Spell of the Adjustable Polymorph is that it can be altered on the fly as needed.

On a side note, it's a good thing that polymorph spells can affect limited size-changes to your clothes and gear, because otherwise you might have been stuck going as Adult Alex (times two). You don't own any outfits that would normally fit the average salaryman - regardless of what side of the Pacific he's from - and showing up wearing the Spider-Silk Suit meant for Adult Alex, with your Shadow similarly attired, would probably have drawn almost as much attention as having a pair of oversized foreigners with auburn hair and golden brown eyes walking around, basically defeating the purpose.

As it is, the two of you get a nod of acknowledgement here, a polite "Good morning" there, and quite a number of startled, impressed, and/or envious glances at your suits, which are clearly a cut above the means of the typical office drone. But while there are some second glances, there is no staring and none of the usual "Yakuza/not Yakuza?" uneasiness that your usual appearance has inspired.

There might still have been some confusion if you'd just showed up wearing the suits, but that Carrying Case you got from the Shuzens a while back - and which was returned to you by your Hyrulean tutors after you'd handed it off to Navi with a load of Faerie Ore Samples - is once again carrying its weight.

"Am I the only one who finds it weird that we're NOT being stared at?" Shadow Alex murmurs at one point.

It IS a somewhat unusual feeling, isn't it? Still, you might use these forms again in the future, if only to avoid drawing attention to Urahara Shop-

!

-like that pair of Shinigami in black not-pajamas who just went bounding past along the rooftops.

"Don't look now," Briar sighs, "but we've got ghost ninjas."

"Bets they're going to try and follow-slash-spy on us during and after the bout with Zaraki?" you ask rhetorically.

"No bet," three voices chorus.

Regardless of the increased Shinigami activity in town, you experience no trouble while making your way to Urahara Shop. A quick glance around once inside turns up a lack of Shinigami who shouldn't be there, although there is a heaviness to the air that tells you the Captain of the Eleventh Division has already arrived, and is waiting in the back room.

You're quite sure he's not alone in there, and you're fairly certain that Urahara, Tessai, and Lieutenant Kusajishi are all present, but there might be another Shinigami or two besides. It's a little hard to tell even for your Spiritual Sense; Zaraki's aura is fairly overwhelming, and its current feeling of eager anticipation doesn't make it any easier to filter out.

The ringing of the door bell brings Tessai out of the back.

"Good morning, sirs," the big man greets you. "How may Urahara Shop be of service to you this fine day?"

"A quick run-down on anything you can tell us about the Shinigami deployment would be appreciated," Shadow Alex begins.

Behind his glasses, Tessai blinks.

"But after that," you continue smoothly, "we have a reservation for brief use of your basement."

The yen drops, and Tessai nods. "Welcome back, Sorcerer and Shadow, and my apologies for not greeting you properly."

"It's fine," you reply.

"It just means our security precautions are working," Shadow agrees.

Tessai quickly fills you in on the local situation.

Aside from the four-Shinigami patrol squad you spotted on your last visit, a double-handful of Onmitsukido ninja-types turned up the day after Auswahlen went down. From what Tessai knows, they arrived too late to do anything about the group of Ishidas that you dropped off in the park or their relatives that went with them. A few of the out-of-town Ishidas lingered in Karakura long enough that they were still here after the ninjas dropped in and Urahara made a quiet phonecall to Souken and Masaki. This has led to some involuntarily extended visits, but Karakura's Quincy population have been successfully keeping their heads down - they've gotten rather good at hiding from Shinigami over the last two centuries, and Soul Society doesn't appear to be looking for THEM too hard anyway.

Perhaps you should visit the Ishidas after this, and offer to teleport some people home...?


On second thought, maybe you should let the Ishidas handle things on their own. They have centuries' worth of experience at how to avoid drawing the attention of the Soul Society down upon themselves and their families, and of how to survive it when they can't avoid it, but you've seen repeated indications that a well-intentioned Goddess-Chosen sorcerer is NOT something they're really prepared to deal with, whether personally or culturally.

Granted, that may change going forward, but for the time being - and especially at THIS time, with ghost-ninjas running around town, yourself about to meet at least one Shinigami captain face-to-face, and the Quincy probably a little on-edge from stress of various kinds - it's likely for the best that you keep your nose out of their affairs and get yourself out of Karakura as quickly as possible.

You ARE the reason the Shinigami are out in force, after all, or at least a significant portion of it. The sooner your business today is done and you're on your way - and KNOWN to be gone, at that - the sooner the ghost-ninjas will leave and the Quincy can go about their business.

Besides, the Ishidas already owe you enough for your help shielding them from Auswahlen and the vengeful Wandenreich. It'd be kind of mean to put them even further in debt to you if it wasn't really necessary.

As Tessai speaks, you look around to make sure there's no witnesses in the store - there aren't - or passing by close enough to see inside the building - there aren't - before willing yourself into your adult form. Shadow Alex takes note and does likewise, and Tessai regards you both with frank interest as the Spell of the Adjustable Polymorph does its thing.

"You both look a bit different from usual," Tessai observes after the transformations are complete.

"How so?"

His brow furrows as he considers how to word it. "I would say... less, in various respects. Not quite so tall or broad across the shoulders, facial features a bit less even, lines less sharp and colors a bit muted, that sort of thing."

That makes sense. Previously, you and your Shadow have made use of the Spell of the Threefold Aspect to generate your adult guise, and that spell creates idealized forms, depicting you at your theoretical "best" at given stages of your life. In contrast, forms taken through Adjustable Polymorph are NOT idealized; they can and do have shortcomings, some of which arise from the limits of the caster's skill and creative vision, while others are due to the design of the spell itself.

"As long as we're still recognizable as 'us'," your Shadow says, looking you over, "it shouldn't be a problem."

It shouldn't, and when you examine him in kind, you find that while the differences Tessai mentioned are certainly there, they could be excused as the two of you not going out of your way to look your best for this meeting. Whether the Shinigami will chalk that up to cosmetics and/or magic...

Speaking of psychopomps, you ask Tessai which of them showed up. Because if one of the traitors decided to tag along to this thing- well, first of all, they're cheeky bastards, and second, you'd like to prepare for that "meeting," or perhaps just get the heck out of town.

"Fortunately, it is only Captain Kuchiki that accompanied Captain Zaraki and Lieutenant Kusajishi," Tessai replies evenly.

Not one of the captains your Shadow met, then. Explains why you were having some trouble identifying the spiritual signature.

Reassured that you aren't about to get ambushed, you follow Tessai into the back room, where you are greeted by a sight you suspect you will recall for years to come.

Three men sit around the table, with cups of Tessai's tea before them. Urahara is his usual sleepy-eyed and scruffy self, while Zaraki looks as fierce and half-wild as ever. The two of them make for sharp contrast with the unfamiliar Shinigami occupying one of the places between them, a slender, fairly young-looking man with almost excessively fine features, dark hair bound up in an ornament of some kind you can't immediately put a name to, and an air of stern, almost rigid dignity - and a sense of disapproval directed at the pink-haired little girl and the black cat chasing each other around the room.

"Gonna getcha, kitty!"

"Nope."

"Almost had you!"

"Still nope."

"This time for sure!"

"Keep trying, kiddo."

"Darn right I- oh, it's Mister Shadow! And the Shadow Lady! And... Mister Shadow and the Shadow Lady?" Yachiru blinks and looks between the lot of you, and then gets an intent look in her eyes. "...are you BOTH gonna fight Kenny?"

Zaraki grins. "That might be fun."

"No," you say firmly, as you point at Shadow. "HE'S going to fight Captain Zaraki. I'm just providing transport so nothing gets wrecked in the process."

"And thank you for that," Urahara says fervently, even as Zaraki huffs and Yachiru 'aw's in disappointment. "To the basement?"

"Surely," Captain Kuchiki interrupts with an impassive look that nonetheless carries the weight of a frown, "there is time to finish the tea and proper introductions?"

Zaraki sighs. "You and your tea, Kuchiki... not as bad as the Old Man, but still..."


"I think we have time for tea," you say, glancing at Shadow Alex.

He shrugs.

Zaraki sighs. "Do we gotta?"

Captain Kuchiki's expression hardly changes, yet you have the impression he approves of your decision-

"Look at it this way," your Shadow offers, as he takes a place at the table. "If you had to suffer through it, so should everybody else."

"...something about that doesn't seem right."

-and is disappointed by your counterpart's.

"As for the matter of introductions," you continue, while taking your own seat, "I should warn you that they'll be a little improper."

"Of course," Kuchiki says, inclining his head graciously. "A magician must never reveal his secrets."

"Sorcerer, actually, but a similar principle does apply."

"My apologies. If I may ask, what is the distinction?"

Well, before you get to that, you should make those introductions.

It takes only a few moments to name yourself "the Sorcerer," and your companions as "the Sorcerer's Shadow," "the Sorcerer's Familiar," and "either the Sorcerer's Shadow's Familiar or the Sorcerer's Familiar's Shadow." After that, you get into a conversation that lasts for the next quarter-hour and change, during which you and your Shadow trade off the speaker's post every few minutes, so that Tessai's tea doesn't go to waste. That would have been a real shame, too, because it seems to be a higher-quality blend than he's used on your past visits...

Speaking of, all these trips to Japan and Wales may be turning you into a junior tea snob. But if so, it's not entirely a bad thing; it's at least given you a foot in the door with types like Captain Kuchiki.

You're a little surprised that the apparently noble-born Shinigami doesn't try to press you for details about yourself, or even to sneakily lead the conversation around so that you end up giving things away. He seems entirely satisfied to let the discussion go where it will, which has a part of you wondering if he had orders not to pry, if he did and ignored them, or if he's playing the long game.

Kuchiki Byakuya doesn't strike you as the type for the second course of action. As for the other two possibilities, either could work, or there could be another that you haven't considered - maybe he just doesn't care to mix tea with business?

One thing Captain Kuchiki DOES ask for is some clarification on your Shadow's bout with Zaraki, mostly in the nature of where, how long, and whether or not the presence of a witness would be agreeable.

"Other than Lieutenant Kusajishi," he clarifies, glancing at the pink-haired girl, who is currently sitting upside-down against one of the walls, humming and kicking her feet in the air.

"Huh?" she asks, looking... up. "Did you say something, Byakushi?"

Once all tea-drinking protocol has been properly observed, a relieved Urahara leads the way into the basement. Where you, your Shadow, and Captain Kuchiki join him on the elevator, Zaraki and Yachiru just jump straight down the shaft as soon as the platform gets low enough for that to be an option.

"There is such a thing as patience, Zaraki," the Sixth Division Captain observes.

"Yeah, and I waited patiently through half a week AND a double-dose of tea for this," the Captain of the Eleventh returns, before he and his shoulder-passenger go over the edge.

"Wheeee~!"

Kuchiki just sighs.

You use the ride down to get started on the ritual to open the Gate.


After rejecting that inquiry the King and her Knights made about watching the bout, it doesn't really feel right to let another person - a complete stranger, at that - attend.

Captain Kuchiki accepts your reply with a nod, and says nothing more on the matter.

You picked the timeless demiplane for three reasons.

First of all, nobody's currently using it. You worked out ahead of time that it would be late enough in Wales for the Simulacra to have called a halt to their ongoing pillaging, but still some time before sunset in New York, meaning Balthazar might have wanted to use some of that time he "rented" from you on the accelerated demiplane - and when you checked with him, that was the case.

Second, there's a non-zero chance that Zaraki and your Shadow will end up doing permanent damage to whichever demiplane they fight on. If that's the case, you'd prefer it NOT to be the one you and your allies have been making regular use of for the last several days, and mean to keep using for a few more.

Finally, the timeless demiplane will prevent all those buffs you spent so much mana placing on your Shadow, his blade, and his fairy partner from running down prematurely. This isn't really a big deal, as even with the time spent on walking to Urahara Shop, chatting over tea, and relocating to the demiplane, you'll still have plenty of time for the fight you expect - but it had been a possible issue when you were planning everything out.

As you focus on the Ritual to Open a Gate, Zaraki fishes a device out of some hidden pocket in his haori. It looks an awful lot like an older model cellphone.

"Please don't release your seal until you and your sparring partner are completely through the portal, Captain Zaraki," Urahara asks.

...that's a pager? It's a brick!

The big man grins. "What, worried about your little bunker getting broken?"

"That, and the distinct possibility that the wards on my shop won't hold up," the scientist admits easily. He points his cane at you. "This one's already managed to burn it out partially by himself, I have no doubts you could do a similar amount of damage, and my repair budget is still a little tight."

"Eh, fair."

Captain Kuchiki quirks an eyebrow at his contemporary.

"Don't give me that look, Kuchiki. Manners ain't just about tea and crap, a man's got a right to set some rules in his own house."

"...indeed."

"Besides," Zaraki continues, giving his pager-phone-thing a wave, "Mayuri's STILL giving me grief over the last time I broke one of these flimsy pieces of junk. I don't need whatever annoyances THIS one would come up with on top of that for trashing his place."

Urahara smirks and adjusts his hat. "Back to the subject of removing the limiter," he says, tactfully not commenting on matters of property damage and scientific vengeance, "there's a pretty good chance the Soul Pager either won't be able to reach Soul Society once you're through the Gate and it's closed, or that it won't have a stable signal, so you'll want to call for the release while the portal is still open."

Zaraki doesn't quite get to the point of tapping his foot impatiently as he waits for you to open the Gate, but he does huff, "Finally," when you finally open the portal.

"Yay!" Yachiru cheers, as she charges through, the fairies zipping along with her. "Kenny's gonna fight, gonna fi- oooh, pretty flowers!"

At that, Zaraki pauses just inside the Gate to give the plant-life that Navi filled the demiplane with a suspicious look. The fact that the "pretty flowers" are limited to a few scattered blossoms, as opposed to an entire field or something, appears to mollify him, as the warrior looks around at the rest of the environment.

"Place feels kind of weird," he says. "But there's nothing to get in the way, so that's a plus." He looks down at his pager, and then turns about to bring it in line with the portal. "...there we go. This is Zaraki, calling for a limiter release."

A slightly staticky voice replies: "Request for limiter release on Captain Zaraki acknowledged, at coordinates... what the hell?"

As you and your Shadow move through the Gate, you idly wonder what sort of readings Soul Society's technical division is getting through Urahara's wards, and what it looks like to them. Because from the sound of things, it's at least inducing confusion.

Good.

Confusion to your enemies!

They're not his enemies, Farore.

Well, no, but it sounds better than something like, 'Confusion to your only slightly trusted associates!'

That's fair.

Even with the issues they're having, the Shinigami do manage to cancel the limiter keeping Captain Zaraki's spiritual energy in check before the portal closes.

You have to brace yourself against the resulting surge, but it passes quickly, as Zaraki's spiritual pressure levels off, leaving only a... well, it's still a crushing sense of presence, but it's nothing you can't deal with.

Gained Spiritual Power C (Plus) (Plus)

Captain Zaraki tosses his pager-phone to Yachiru-

"Got it! Oh, lookie! It didn't break! Clownface might actually be happy for once!"

-limbers up a bit, and grins. "Hope that tea doesn't slow you down, Shadow."

"You drank more of it than I did," your counterpart replies, glowing slightly as he finishes applying the ki techniques you'd decided on before coming to Karakura. "Worry more about yourself."

"Heh. Got all your little magic tricks in place, then?"

"Magic, and a few other things," Shadow acknowledges. "Though on that note, would you be interested in anything of the sort?"

Zaraki frowns. "Hell no."

"That's what I thought you'd say, but I figured I should make sure. Also, when I kick your ass, no complaining!"

That brings the man's scary, scary grin back in full. "Same to you."

While the two of them are engaged in the traditional pre-fight banter, you and Briar make a point of moving off a bit-

"Good luck," Briar wishes her Shadow.

"Thanks. Farore knows, I'm gonna need it..."

You can do it, Shadow Briar! Probably!

Does it still count as Courage when she knows she can't really die?

Well, actually...

-so as not to get caught up in the impending mayhem.


As the Originals move to a (presumably) safe distance, you take a moment to apply one last buff, sending a healthy dose of spiritual power rushing along and through your blade.

Although Shinigami aren't ghosts, they do have a similar degree of incorporeality, and while even the most humble of magic weapons can hit such targets, they don't do so with the same degree of force they would a corporeal form - not unless they've been specifically enhanced to do so, which is an effect that you and your Original can't casually replicate, unfortunately. The Greater Spell of the Magic Weapon offset only a small portion of the difference, so it just makes sense for you to reinforce your blade further.

Gained Spiritual Overload E (Plus)

Zaraki eyes the glow of your Spiritual Overload, particularly as it clings to your sword in the aftermath of the technique.

"Oooh, shiny!" Yachiru says with admiration.

"That supposed to do something besides glow?" the captain inquires.

"It's to help me hit you properly," you reply.

"What, really?" He blinks. "Well, in that case, glow all you want."

...you will?

"On that note," your partner says, as she comes to a stop above you and your opponent, "are the fighters ready?"

"Yep."

"Ready," you say, as you take your opening stance.

"Audience ready?" Briar asks then.

"As we'll ever be!" her Original calls from the sidelines.

"What she said!" your Original adds.

"Okay, then. You may begin in three..."

Zaraki carves up the air with a few quick warm-up slices, and then... doesn't really assume a stance at all, he just kind of stands there with his notched zanpakuto in one hand, anticipation marking his face and radiating out through his aura.

GOD OF DEATH (SEALED): ZARAKI KENPACHI

"...two..."

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Yachiru hunkering down on one of the seat-like tree roots, wearing a smaller version of her captain's expression.

"...one..."

You breathe in-

"...FIGHT!"

-and then, calling on the ki and magic wrapped around and through you, you surge forward. You have a plan in mind, but it'll take you a few seconds to gather the magical energy you need, so you'll need to buy yourself that time-!

*Gash!*

There is a wet slicing sound as your Shadow Blade and the black trail of the Spell of the Umbral Weapon cast upon it cut a single line across Zaraki's chest, and what the hell he didn't even TRY to block or-

Through your Spell of Foresight, you perceive the Shinigami grinning as he says, "I felt that," and then brings his weapon down.

-DODGE!

You hastily side-step the overhand arc of Zaraki's zanpakuto, which cleaves through the plants and earth and sends out a brief, shredding surge of uncontrolled spiritual power at the moment of impact. As you move, you ready another strike, the close confines causing you to choose to bring your sword back up in a hilt-first hammer-blow-

*Thock*

-which once again connects squarely, though it's rather like hitting a cross between a side of beef and a brick wall-

"That, too," Zaraki grunts, as he pulls his sword through a rising diagonal cut that drags a spray of dirt and greenery along with it. "But not as much."

-and the jarring to your hands makes it tricky to get your blade in position to guard-

*Clang-SCREEEE*

-but you manage to parry the blow so that, rather than catching you straight on, the ragged edge of the katana-like soul-cutter slides up and along your own blade, sailing over your head with an ear-piercing squeal of steel upon steel and a spray of yellow particles.

You had to crouch to pull that off, and even so, you still got tapped at the moment of impact, as some of Zaraki's seething energy splashed off his blade, around yours, and into your side. Your various enhancements ensure that it doesn't hurt, but you feel the hit all the same.

In passing, you also note that the cut of your opening attack doesn't seem to be bleeding as much as you would have expected for such a large injury.

Well, no matter. You've gathered your mana-

!

-and you... can't get enough of it?

You'd planned to use the Spellstrike technique to deliver the Spell to Create Waves of Fatigue directly to - and hopefully, into - Zaraki's body, but because you cobbled the move together from scratch, it imposes a massive increase in the cost of the spells involved. Previously, that's never been a problem, but it suddenly occurs to you that you've only ever used low-level spells this way, whether in your intermittent practice sessions or in live combat - and in fact, thinking back, you've only used Spellstrike under genuine battlefield conditions half a dozen times at best.

It appears that fifth-circle magic - or at least a fifth-circle Spell of Necromancy - may be too much for you to manage.

Problematic, you reflect, as you rise from the ground with explosive force, bodyslamming Zaraki-

Letting out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cough, the Captain throws a punch with his empty hand!

-but not insurmountable, you conclude, turning to let your opponent's fist go sailing past your face.

Channeling mana through your Blessed Blade-

"Again with the light-show?" Zaraki wonders, as motes of dark white and bolts of grey ride along the weapon's edge.

-you stab forward, and instead of Sword-Waves of Fatigue, cast Sword-Ray of Exhaustion!

Gained Spellstrike E (Plus)

*Squelch*

Once again, your blade pierces Zaraki's flesh, having no trouble connecting but not going as deep as it would on any normal opponent. It's not his flesh itself that's turning the blade like this - the Spell of the Heart of the Metal allows your weapon to cut through any less resilient than the legendary adamantine with minimal difficulty - but rather his spiritual energy, which is so thick and aggressive that it acts like a second skin of supernatural armor, and even radiates outwards to further buffer Zaraki against attacks.

What's particularly annoying here is that, while you can see your Spellstrike connecting, the Shinigami officer doesn't seem the least bit affected.

"Was that supposed to do something?" he wonders, looking down at the sword-point stuck in his chest.


Before you realize it, you've already said, "I'm sorry, that's never happened to me before."

You are answered by a dead silence.

"...don't make it weird," Zaraki says gruffly.

Off to one side, you hear Yachiru give a "Huh?" of puzzlement. Though you don't turn to look, you can almost see her head tilted to one side, red eyes blinking in perplexity.

Probably because you share the sentiment.

"Never mind." Shrugging off your blade - although 'shrugging out' might be more correct - Zaraki takes a fairly telegraphed swing, which you avoid.

You're starting to get the measure of how this man fights. The martial artist's instincts you've inherited from your Original, and which were in turn built upon the half-remembered warrior's instincts carried over from Ganondorf, are tempting you to turn up your nose at the technique on display, because there's hardly anything of the sort to be seen. Zaraki fights without stance or form, simply hacking and slashing away with only the bare basics of swordsmanship, and not a care given to his defense.

Granted, this is largely because he hardly needs such things. The man's physical specs are so high that he could overwhelm many opponents with strength and speed alone, to say nothing of his enhanced resilience or those ragged, undirected bursts of spiritual power backing up his strikes - and you know from others' warnings that this is Zaraki when he's fighting with a handicap, thanks to that power-eating eyepatch...

...and that gives you an idea.

Zaraki likes to debuff himself? Well, how about you take that even further?

Taking one hand off of your sword-

"Oho?" Zaraki wonders. "Now what's this?"

-you sidestep a thrust and begin to shape a spell.

"Gettin' sloppy there, Shadow," the Shinigami observes. He's not wrong - you can fight equally well with one or two hands on your weapon, but when you start mixing in magic like this, your concentration is split far enough to have a serious impact on your offense. Your defense doesn't suffer, though, and you never really expected mundane offense to do the job against Zaraki, so it's fine, isn't it?

"Still working on spellcasting in melee," you admit-

*Clang-scree!*

-parrying another swipe from that jagged and beaten blade.

"And on that note," you continue, raising your voice, "MAY THE TUSKS OF THE BOAR REND THE HIDE OF MY FOE!"

Within your shadowed soul, something grunts-

"What boar?" Zaraki wonders.

-and as you cast the Spell to Splinter Spell Resistance, it rumbles-

"Oh."

-while the magic covers your blade.

"I don't suppose you're about to bring whatever THAT was out," Zaraki asks hopefully, even as he presses his attack on you-

*Clang!*

-nearly knocking the Shadow of the Blessed Blade from your grasp.

The Boar snorts, stomping a hoof in what you're quite certain ISN'T an objection to the idea.

"Maybe later," you reply, even as you spin around, turning the momentum imparted on you by your opponent's last strike-

*POW!*

-into a roundhouse kick. As you recover from that, you immediately resume your two-handed grip, because you'd REALLY rather not lose your sword. "For right now, you'll just have to make do with ME!"

That statement is punctuated by a surge of ki along your blade, as you ready a Sword Beam-

Gained Sword Beam C (Plus)

-and strike anew.

*Slice!*

This time, your blade bites deep enough for Zaraki to bleed in a quantity actually worth mentioning.

His grin just keeps getting wider, like an amused shark.

"Gotta say," the Eleventh Division Captain rumbles-

*Whoosh-SMASH!*

-as he destroys another piece of Navi's landscaping, "I don't usually think much of guys-"

*CLANG!*

"-that use magic in fights. But most of them aren't this much fun!"

"Well, first of all-"

*Sli-!*

"-I AM a Sorcerer's Shadow," you say, frowning slightly at how that last blow didn't connect quite as hard. Was it a bad angle, or is he starting to ramp up that passive shielding or something? "It'd be weird if I DIDN'T use magic in a fight."

"Fair enough."

*Clang-scree!*

"Second, you're welcome."

"Heh."

"And third," you continue, falling into your Spell Combat stance again, "that spell from before?"

"The one that-"

*Whoo-BOOM!*

"-didn't work?"

"Yeah. Well, it's supposed to do THIS!"

And with the Heightened Ray of Exhaustion readied-

Gained Heighten Spell

-you strike!

Zaraki grunts, eye widening in surprise, but that doesn't stop him from taking another swing at you in exchange-

!

-a slower swing, you realize, as you intercept it-

*Clang!*

-and weaker, too, given you're actually able to BLOCK it this time. Not enough for you to think the spell had its full potential effect, but enough that-

"Damn," Zaraki says with surprise. "I can actually feel THAT, too."

-what he said.


"Don't make it weird!" your partner calls down.

"Forget I said that," Zaraki acknowledges, before taking a step towards you - and almost immediately stopping in surprise, barely stopping himself from looking down. "What the-"

You take the opening and go on the offensive, hoping that Zaraki's sudden bout of spell-induced fatigue will slow him and dull his reflexes enough to make up for the accuracy YOU lose when in Spell Combat.

*Clang!*
*Clang!*
*Clang-screee!*

It doesn't work out quite as well as you'd hoped. Having had it proven that your sword can not only draw his blood, but also actively weaken him, Zaraki actually starts blocking your attacks. Like the rest of his "style," the defense is rudimentary; he's simply putting his blade in the path of yours and taking the hits straight on, leveraging his strength, mass, and momentum against yours.

If you were up against any remotely normal opponent, that wouldn't be enough to stop you, but Zaraki is FAR from normal.

*Clang-hiss!*

If you weren't trying to cast another Ray of Exhaustion right now, you think the extra focus and superior control of a two-handed grip might have been enough to let you score a clean hit even so. But since you ARE casting, and you ARE up against a total monster-

*Clang!*

Shifting your grip, you punch your sword-hand forward, driving Zaraki's zanpakuto aside as you seek to introduce his GOOD eye to your Goddess-blessed guard!

*Pow!*

-you're going to have to push harder!

Zaraki actually backs up a step from that last hit, shaking his head once. "Right," he mutters, "Western sword. Also, GOOD HIT!"

*CLANG!*

Fatigue or no, he smashes your next blow aside, extends his own huge, empty fist-

*POW!*

-and repays you in kind for the punch!

As you stagger back - more than one step, despite your best effort to the contrary - part of you reflects that you're rather glad of your multi-layered defenses. Another, larger part focuses on defending against the follow-up flurry of slashes-

*Ca-clang!*
*Clang-clang-clang!*
*Clang-SCREEEE!*

-while a third portion refuses to lose your current spell. You can't complete it just yet, you need to score one more hit on Zaraki with your actual BLADE, to cut his magic resistance back down a notch, THEN channel Ray of Exhaustion through your weapon and hit him AGAIN.

Given the issues you're having, this seems like a good time-

*Flicker*

-for that.

Rather alarmingly, Zaraki not only tracks you through the Staggered Flicker, but turns to follow you as you try circling around him. You know, of course, that this version of the Body Flicker sacrifices much of its speed for the pre-loading and multiple-use aspects, but you think this may be the first time an opponent has legitimately managed to keep up with you at even these speeds. And for it to be an opponent like THIS verges on terrifying.

Are YOU even remotely this scary when you start blurring around a sparring ring at ki-boosted speeds? Because if so, Original Alex may want to apologize to all the smaller people he's beaten over the last year and change.

As fast as his reflexes are, Zaraki can't quite keep up with you. Maybe it's the magical fatigue, maybe it's a genuine lack of capability - to which you think, Ha! at the corner of your mind that came up with that thought - but regardless, you manage to outpace him-

*Slice*

-and score another hit, this time on his previously white-coated back.

"You are- definitely-"

*Whoosh-sizzle!*

"-making me- work for this!" Zaraki huffs.

"Is that so? Then get ready to WORK HARDER!"

Spell completed, sword readied-

*Blip*

-and Flicker Staggered, you STRIKE-

*Sli-!*

-and Zaraki actually DODGES this one, or tries to. The blow is glancing at best and may not even have drawn blood, but even so, it only takes a touch to deliver a Spellstrike.

Gained Spell Combat E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spellstrike E (Plus) (Plus)

Zaraki grunts, and visibly slows. "Ah, hell."

"On the up side?" you offer, dodging his next swing. "It doesn't get any worse than what you're feeling right now."

"And the down side?"

You don't resist a grin. "I have MORE spells."

Indeed, your mana just finishing cycling, leaving you ready to prepare the Spell of Enervation.

"That a fact?" Zaraki says almost conversationally. "Guess it's time for MY magic, then."

Wait, he knows-

The Shinigami Captain reaches for his eyepatch.

-NOPE.

You execute a Strike Flicker to disable or at least divert Zaraki's hand-

*Clang-scree-slice!*

-but while the state of advanced weariness you've artificially imposed on the warrior has sapped his strength and reactions to the point where he can't actually stop or even fully parry your ki-acclerated blow, he's still able to absorb enough of the force so that, instead of his arm getting smacked away from his face, he just ends up with another cut.

Fingers grasping the eyepatch, the Kenpachi smirks. "Abracadabra."

Cheeky bastard.

As the material comes away from his face, Zaraki's aura EXPLODES.

Bracing yourself and shielding your eyes against the eruption of spiritual pressure, you once again wonder if your Original might owe some people an apology...


The eruption of Captain Zaraki's unleashed power floods the demiplane with bright yellow light, a crushing sense of "weight," and more than a bit of dust as the plants and soil beneath his feet are rent apart by nothing more and nothing less than the raw, unchecked force of his soul.

Gained Spiritual Armor E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

As crackling energy and flying detritus washes over your multiply-warded self-

"Whooooaaaa!" your partner screams, as she's dragged away by the blast. "This HAS to be SOME kind of FOUUUULLLLLLLL-!"

-you swear you can see a leering skull within the blast wave, grinning.

After a long moment, the initial spiritual shockwave passes, leaving you to reflect that without the layered protection offered by the Spells of Mind Blank, Greater Heroism, and General Augmentation, you might have passed out just now, purely from the force of Zaraki's presence.

At that thought, you risk a glance over your shoulder, to where the Original Alex and Briar were standing.

Well, they're still conscious, but your Original looks like he's regretting not having more mental-slash-spiritual protections up-

Gained Enchantment B
Gained Spiritual Overload E (Plus) (Plus)

-though he also looks like he's had an epiphany of some sort.

What's that about? you wonder, as you quickly bring your attention back to your opponent.

Both eyes clear and glowing the same ominous hue as his aura, Zaraki smirks. "I always do feel better when I take that thing off," he says, rolling his shoulders, "but this time it feels a little more obvious than usual."

You frown at that and call up your Mage Sight, squinting against the intense glare of Zaraki's power, bleeding across most of the Necromantic spectrum in a wild storm of life- and death-energies.

Zaraki takes a moment to swing his blade to his right-

*WHOO-BOOM!*

-blowing a trench into the ground just from the casual motion and the sheer mass of power that came with it.

Glancing sidelong at the damage for a moment, Zaraki's eyes turn back to you. "I think your spells just wore off, Shadow."

"I think you're right," you confirm slowly.

Zaraki's blazing aura makes it hard to pick out specifics, particularly when you're looking for two Spells of Necromancy against a background of Necromantically-aligned energy, but your Mage Sight is keen enough that "hard" is still well within the category of "doable" - and you don't see the auras of shaped mana that SHOULD be there.

That sudden, immense upwelling of spiritual energy appears to have dispelled or disrupted the Spellstruck Rays of Exhaustion. It's not really surprising, objectively speaking, but on a personal level, it's annoyingly inconvenient. And while you don't think it will happen to any spells you cast after this - Zaraki's aura isn't exactly calming down, but it IS evening out after that initial pulse - said spells are probably going to have a much harder time punching through in the first place, even with your Spell to Splinter Spell Resistance taken into account.

To test that, you fire off your readied Spell of Enervation in its unmodified form.

The black beam streaks forth, and almost immediately begins to crawl with blazing motes and crackling tongues of yellow energy. When it hits the unmoving Zaraki almost dead-center in the chest, the already-frayed beam kind of splashes in all directions, washing over the Shinigami's frame in a manner that is downright pitiful just to see.

Zaraki looks down at himself, then back up, completely unbothered. "Got anything better?"

There is ONE thing that comes to mind, but brings with it the question of whether or not you want to use it...

Use it! Use it! Use it!

...why are you both like this? Just... why?


"Well," you say, "if I can't count on you being weakened, I suppose I'll just have to make myself stronger."

"Please do. It'd suck to end things here."

And Zaraki even gives you the time you need to power up.

What a guy.

Taking a breath, you prepare yourself - and look within.

The Boar spares you a grunt of inquiry.

"You want in?"

The Boar bellows in eagerness.

"Alright. Let's do this."

Returning your attention to the real world, you raise your sword to the foggy sky.

Magic in one hand, ki in the other.

Bring them together.

"In the Name of the Goddesses!"

There is a flash like lightning as your Power flares to life.

The Boar THUNDERS.

A golden glow floods the demiplane, pushing back the light and "weight" of Zaraki's own aura.

"I HAVE THE POWER!"

Gained Power Overload F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Power Word F (Plus) (Plus)

As you lower your blade to a guard position, you see Zaraki looking on with an eager eye. It takes you a moment to realize that he's not looking directly at you, but rather at the point where your auras collide and clash against one another.

You aren't winning that particular struggle, but you're not losing, either. At least not yet.

"Now THIS looks promising," the Shinigami says. "You all set, Shadow?"

"Almost," you say, as you finish bringing a portion of your blazing aura under greater control, compressing it along and within your body to form Power Armor. After another moment for your energies to cycle, you send another surge of energy along - and through - your Blessed Blade, which sings in response to the added energy, but does not shiver or keen as it once did.

Slashing the burning weapon through the air a couple of times, you look up to Zaraki. "All set. And thank you for waiting."

"Always willing to wait a minute for a good fight," Zaraki replies, setting one foot-

*BOOM*

-and leaping towards you with a roared, "SO DON'T YOU DARE DISAPPOINT ME!"

GOD OF DEATH (UNSEALED): ZARAKI KENPACHI

"BACK AT YOU!" you bellow, as you rush to meet the charge.

Auras surge.

Blades cross.

*CLA-*

And it happens again.

Before you stands your opponent, a towering figure shrouded in a perpetual storm of bloody violence. He is surrounded by countless shattered swords and other weapons, some fallen to the scarlet ground, others still clutched by their owners, whose bodies lie broken themselves, forming a carpet of carnage. Many of the formerly armed appear to be human - though at least one wears the robes of a Shinigami, and seems to be smiling in approval and satisfaction despite the death-wound across his chest - while others are definitely youkai, non-Japanese monsters, and perhaps even demons. And then there are the Hollows, monstrously deformed and menacingly masked, cut down in such numbers as to form a great hill of gore- no, a MOUNTAIN of massacre beneath the field of battles that the Kenpachi actually CARES about.

And atop all of that stands Zaraki, face split in that shark-like grin of brutal, bloodthirsty joy - and he is not alone.

A short distance behind him are recognizeable faces from the Eleventh Division - the bald guy and the one with the fancy hair most noticeable, and closest - as well as other Shinigami, some of whom you recognize from the staging area and assault on Silbern, while others are quite unfamiliar. Far, far in the back, stands the figure of a woman with long black hair, a captain's haori, and in one hand a slender zanpakuto so wrapped with the essence of battle and death that it challenges the entire soulscape before you for sheer horrific weight. You can't quite make out the lady captain's face...

There is one other presence of note, a woman who stands to Zaraki's right and slightly behind him, though closer than any of the others. Perhaps in her early twenties, she's tall enough for the top of her head to be just about level with Zaraki's shoulder, has the build of one well-accustomed to the use of a sword, and is dressed much like a Shinigami. She's also quite beautiful, or would be, if not for the blood spattered all over her person - dark uniform, pale face, and long pink hair alike - or the gaping look of surprise she's directing straight at you.

"What the-"

Her words are cut off as the army at your back and the Raging Boar - no, the BEAST - above you voice their eagerness for the struggle.

*-NG!*

And then all thought and introspection is set aside. There are only you, your opponent, and your swords.

Seconds pass like ages of time that last only instants.

Then, after an all-too finite eternity, a minute ticks by.

And then another.

In due course, the five minute mark approaches.

Zaraki doesn't stop laughing the entire time-

*WHAM!*

-even when, after more exchanges than you can or care to count leave even your Power-reinforced arms feeling numb and clumsy, you fail to get your sword into position to block, and take a tremendous blow to the midsection.

Your blazing aura of Power cancels out the explosive force of Zaraki's strike, your multilayered shields dull the edge of his ill-maintained but still lethally sharp zanpakuto, and your internal bodily reinforcements counteract at least SOME of the Shinigami's supernatural strength.

So instead of being split in two at the stomach, you "merely" take the equivalent of a steel pipe wielded by an absolute cackling madman to the ribs.

Taken by itself, even that blow might not have been enough to topple you - or at least not enough to keep you down.

Combined with several INTENSE minutes' worth of high-speed combat, bone-jarring, muscle- and tendon-straining parries and blocks, and the occasional bruising and even bleeding hit where Zaraki's strength, experience, and sheer violent enthusiasm got through your defenses?

Down you go.

Gained Ki Aura E
Gained Mage Sense A (Plus)
Gained Sword Specialization (Hylian Sword) D
Gained Weapon Defense B

As you're laying there on the burned and shredded grass and soil, Zaraki leans into your field of view. "You dead, dying, or just done?"


"Actually, if you'll give me a minute, one of my spells will heal me up."

Zaraki considers that. "Would you need the WHOLE minute, or...?"

"A bit longer, actually," you admit. Unless you cast a different spell, of course-

The Shinigami sighs. "Yeah, no. If it were just for a couple of seconds, then sure, but if we've got to stop for you to patch yourself up every time I land a clean hit..."

Yeah, it kind of kills the rhythm you had going.

"Sorry about that," you concede, as you let your Power start to fade - slowly, so as not to knock yourself out when Zaraki's spiritual pressure suddenly has nothing pushing it back.

"Eh, don't feel too bad about it," Zaraki replies. "Most people and things I knock down don't get back up under their own power, if they ever do." He pauses to accept his eyepatch from Yachiru as she comes bounding up. "At least YOU'RE still conscious," the Kenpachi continues. "And for a living human, or a guy that's working with the same limits as one, that's pretty impressive."

Zaraki is briefly distracted from further conversation then, as he replaces his eyepatch-

!

-which appears to be capable of moving on its own, as it sort of... wriggles... back into place, the patch proper expanding and flattening to cover Zaraki's closed right eye, while the straps stretch out along the right side and over the top of his head. As it does so, there is a strange sound, as of several tiny mouths GNAWING at something - and at the same time, the crushing weight of the captain's aura begins to diminish.

Your attention is drawn away from that creepy spectacle by a sense of intense focus. Glancing down, you find Yachiru all but glaring at you, face set in an expression of deep suspicion, and one hand resting on the hilt of her sword.

Her lips move, soundlessly: "You. Saw. Nothing."

...

You mouth back, "Okay," as you pick yourself up.

As you get back on your feet, you note that most of your shortest-duration buffs have burnt out - mostly the ki, psychic, and spiritual enhancements, although the Spell to Splinter Spell Resistance is also gone from your Blessed Blade's batch of boosters. Everything else has been seriously diminished, an hour and more of potential operation used up in a few minutes of fighting; most of the remaining effects will lapse within the next ten minutes or so, with only the Spells of Adjustable Polymorph and Mind Blank - and the Spell of Hardening on your sword - lasting beyond that.

Since you're not really planning on sticking around much longer, that's fine.

"There we go," Zaraki declares, shaking his head as his presence finally settles back to merely alarming. "Damn, I always forget how weird that feels... so, Shadow," he continues, absently picking Yachiru up off the ground and settling her onto his back, "what the hell was up with that vision? Because I gotta tell you, I've fought a lot of things over the years, and this is the first time I've ever started seeing stuff that wasn't there without getting hit over the head or going up against one of those wimps who like to throw illusions, poisons, and other crap around and call it 'fighting smart'."

His tone makes it clear what he thinks of THAT claim.

Meanwhile, Yachiru's suspicious glare ratchets up a notch.

"That was a side-effect of the technique I used," you explain. "If my Original or I call on that aura of Power when we're fighting someone that's using a similar level of their power... well, you saw what happens. We're still not sure WHY, but so far it only seems to occur once with any given person. It hasn't really interfered with any of our fights so far, and we weren't really sure I'd get far enough to have a chance to use it, so we didn't think to bring it up."

With the friendly match concluded and the demiplane no worse than battered and burnt in the exchange, your Original opens the Gate back to Urahara's basement. There's no sign of the two resident Shinigami or their guest, but you do find a note hanging off the controls of the mini-elevator by the ladder, saying they've gone back upstairs.

While you're riding the little platform back to the surface, Zaraki asks if future matches like this might be possible, and also whether or not getting a fight with some - or all - of the knights would be on the table.

"For the former, maybe," you reply. "Not that I object, but he might-"

You gesture at your Original.

He gestures back.

"-and more urgently, the demiplane we used is only a temporary one. Unless or until we can make other arrangements, it'll sort of... unravel itself a few days from now. And then we'd have to find somewhere else besides the Soul Society to fight."

"As to the latter," Original Alex begins, "the knights were definitely interested when we mentioned Shadow was going to fight you. That said, they took a fair bit of damage and used up a lot of energy raiding Silbern, and the Wizard hasn't had time to repair and recharge them."


Yachiru's glare diminishes slightly at your question, more because she glances at Zaraki with a look of curiosity than for any other reason.

"The biggest damn battlefield I think I've ever seen," Zaraki replies. There is something respectful in his tone. "Which is SAYIN' something, let me tell you. But that was only about half of it, and the other half was kind of fuzzy, like... I don't know, like I was looking out a window at night, in the middle of a storm or something. Made it hard to pick out the details, but I definitely heard an army on the move, and there was a pretty clear image of a guy that kind of looked like you, only with WAY more hair, fancy armor, and kind of greenish skin. There was a kid in front of him, looking a lot more like you, some kind of pig-faced giant with a trident behind the both of them-"

That sounds about right.

"-and front and center," the captain continues, "there was this lump of darkness coming out of the shadow of the other three guys in the line-up. It was person-shaped, but sort of... stretched, in places." Zaraki looks at you. "I'm guessing that was you, Shadow, which would make YOU" - and he turns to your Original here - "one of the other three guys. And you definitely don't look like a giant pig."

"Boar," Alex corrects absently.

"Whatever."

Well, you DID ask. And it's interesting to note that you, the Shadow-Self of Alex Harris, have your own version of the mind- or soulscape that is revealed in these Power visions, even if it basically is Original Alex's with an extra subject in the foreground. Though you do wonder if "you" will show up the next time he triggers one of these things...

"So what did YOU see?" Zaraki asks then.

That's Yachiru's cue to go resume glaring at you.

"Like you said, a battlefield."

You leave off there, and Zaraki nods.

"Still too busy robbing the Quincy blind, right?"

"What makes you say that?" you ask mildly.

"Oh, nothing much," the Shinigami returns in much the same tone. "Just that you and the Wizard were able to get a small army in and out of the place without too much trouble, you personally whistled up a smaller army with just a few minutes' work, and between you, you cleaned out the best stuff in maybe a dozen rooms in, what, half an hour or so?" Zaraki shrugs. "It just seems to me that a pair of guys capable of all of that, and with some extra backup of their own, might have a go at grabbing more stuff once all the Shinigami were safely out of the way - not that I'm saying that's what you did or anything."

"Good to know," your Original replies. "Because we're not saying anything, either."

"Good, 'cause if you did, I might have to say something official about keeping the worlds apart and preserving the balance and blah-blah-blah, and that'd just be a pain all around."

There is a pause.

"Speaking of stuff I'm not officially talking about," Zaraki adds then, frowning up at the approaching ceiling, and the shop above it, "that weirdo Mayuri is up to something."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, there was a full Captains' meeting right after we got back from the raid, and he made another big argument about how we needed to grab Silbern and study it to figure out everything the Quincy had been up to - and when the Old Man shut him down and said we were going to use the Kido Cannon to get rid of it, end of discussion, Mayuri went back to his Division, called a meeting of his seated officers, and basically locked the doors behind them. At least, nobody's been in or out for the last couple of days."

Oh, dear.

Bets that the Shinigami Captain in charge of research and development has been trying to find a way into Silbern, anyone?

You'd better let Ambrose know before he sends the Knights in again...

You left Urahara Shop as quickly as could politely be managed, waiting just long enough to see Captain Kuchiki wrangling Zaraki and Yachiru back through the Senkaimon before teleporting away. You had enough mana left to make immediate self-dismissal a waste; instead, while your Original rested to regain power, you performed a few Divination rituals to try and locate particularly valuable hidden caches within Silbern.

The results were not what you might have hoped for. Yhwach is technically a minor Power, and while he's currently at least mostly dead, Silbern is still his domain; more importantly, it's attached to the territory of a greater Power in the form of the Soul King, who is... probably not dead, exactly, even with his Heart having gone walkabout.

As Ganondorf's memories and the legends of Hyrule show, even minor divinities can be remarkably resilient, and they only get more so as their personal power increases.

Regardless, the Goddesses can only see so much within Silbern, particularly when you or your Original aren't there in person, exploring it via summoned minions and scrying spells, or otherwise providing some form of connection for them to exploit.

Which isn't to say they don't lead you to ANYTHING...

Zaraki's "unspoken" warning proves timely, as late on Thursday morning (Welsh time), Shinigami of the Twelfth Division start arriving in Silbern and going through the abandoned, partially-destroyed, and somewhat-looted contents of the place.

The good news is that, between the heads-up you were given, the invisible nosoi scouts you had deployed to watch for new arrivals, Ambrose being warned to use the Spellescope and a few Divination spells for the same purpose, and the simple SIZE of the hidden fortress, you're well away from the areas where the late-arriving looters turn up - which is to say, the labs.

Even better, you managed to make a pretty thorough raid of that one workshop area you'd already located, so when the Shinigami find it largely barren of anything except useless junk, there is general dismay in their ranks, and a lot of frustrated shouting from someone on the other end of their cellphone-pager-radio things.

On a related note, Ambrose makes good use of the audio-video recording function of his Spellescope.

The bad news, of course, is that the presence of a rival force of looters complicates your plans. Not that you're considering giving up on plundering the place - after all, you were here first - but getting into fights with the Twelfth Division over the loot would be counter-productive on several levels. You don't need to make an enemy out of their Captain, and time spent arguing or actively combatting them would be time NOT spent grabbing everything that wasn't already reduced to ashes, scrap, and free-floating spiritual particles, before the whole place gets blown to kingdom come.

With that in mind, you...


Mindful of Yachiru's warning, and not wanting to give away any of your Original's secrets that you don't have to, you limit yourself to describing most of what you perceived on Zaraki's half of the vision - leaving out the mysterious pink-haired woman that reacted to your attention. You also tell the captain that you think the reason why you got a "clear" view of him while his view of you was relatively "foggy" was probably due to your Spell of Mind Blank.

The fact that he saw ANYTHING with that spell in place is a bit of a concern, if not a complete surprise; you managed to get into "vision space" while fighting Gerard Valkyrie, even though you were only using your Power Blade at the time, and you had Mind Blank running then, too.

You suppose it does make sense. Mind Blank would be a lot riskier to use if it shut down the TARGET's ability to use Divination Magic in exchange for blocking external probes - the initial Silbern Raid wouldn't have gone nearly so well if you'd been unable to use the Spell of Foresight, for example. Bambietta would have blindsided you, and Sir Accutrone almost managed to kill you as it was.

"So you got to peek into my head, and I only got a quick snapshot of yours?" Zaraki huffs. "That hardly seems fair."

"On the bright side, from everything we know, it'll never happen again." You pause, and then point at your Original. "Unless you fight him. Maybe."

The captain gives your counterpart a suspicious, contemplative look, visibly weighing the value of another fight against a possible invasion of privacy.

"I'm in no hurry," Alex replies.

While Zaraki's attention is elsewhere, you glance at Yachiru.

She points two fingers at her eyes, and then jabs one finger at you, but appears content to let the matter go.

Taking this was a no-brainer. The Crown of the Quincy King would have been valuable enough to start with, just from its pure material worth or as a means of tracking Yhwach, but after you killed the King, banished his people from their stronghold, and sacked the place, its symbolic value as a trophy of your conquest will only have increased.

Gained Crown of the Quincy King

For once, you are grateful NOT to have a true continuity of consciousness between your various incarnations, as there are some things are better left forgotten - and the contents of that lab qualified in SPADES.

Several of the KNIGHTS took one look and marched out, refusing to go any further, while Sir Mordred advocated for setting the whole damn place on fire, garnering a fair bit of support. They probably wouldn't have wasted time talking about it if you hadn't spoken up in favor of grabbing the files first, if only so as to figure out what the hell the Wandenreich were trying to DO, and whether or not additional measures needed to be taken because of it - such as hunting down the researchers and setting THEM on fire, too.

There might have been more that you could have grabbed from that facility, but honestly, you were just as happy to let it burn.

Gained Wandenreich Hollow Files

Fortunately, not all of the Quincy research facilities were horror shows. Most of the ones you saw were devoted to more mechanical forms of experimentation, including one that reminded you rather of your Uncle Rory's garage. You kind of regret leaving behind the half-complete car you found there, but the thing was supernatural enough to resist your attempts to shrink it, and big enough that you weren't sure if you could levitate or tow it through a Gate without issues arising. Once the engine proved not to work, you reluctantly wrote it off and moved on in favor of looting other items, rather than wasting too much time.

Another of the workshops rewarded you for that with a kind of medallion that almost looks like it could be a mold for making Quincy Crosses, having the shape of the five-armed "cross" carved out from its otherwise solid, hand-sized shape. You have your doubts that the pendant's purpose was anything so prosaic, however, because someone or something shattered it into rough thirds - and a fair few lesser fragments besides - and the broken edges expose internal workings of remarkable complexity. Combined with the lingering aura of overwhelming spiritual energy, and the fact that you fished the pieces out of a storage chamber that looked to have been half-disintegrated by a Quincy in a hurry to disassemble everything they could... well, it hints that the medallion's purpose was rather more significant than just being a tool to aid in producing one of the Wandenreich's most basic pieces of kit.

Gained Wandenreich Medallion

You opted to stay out of the Shinigami's way, leveraging Silbern's size, your knowledge of their location(s), and some periodic uses of magic to prevent any accidental contact.

That said...

"I'm telling you, there's something here!" a Shinigami with short black hair hisses, as his dark, bloodshot eyes flick back and forth, nervously watching the walls.

The other members of the four-man patrol sigh.

"Sadao," one of them says, as he adjusts his hold on a stack of files, "the scanners say we're alone-"

"Machines can be wrong!"

"-and nobody's sensed any other presences-"

"They're hiding!"

"For a whole DAY?" a third interrupts in disbelief.

"Sadao has a point, guys," the last member of the unit says thoughtfully. "This place IS kind of enormous, there's not even a hundred of us here, and Captain Mayuri has us focusing pretty hard on looking for labs, workshops, and libraries. We COULD be missing something, or someone..."

"We are!" Sadao insists. "I've heard them laughing at us! Like mocking birds... and I can FEEL them watching us right now!"

...as you look on through a Spell of Scrying, you are tempted-

"Wanna prank 'em?" your partner asks.

-to mischief.


It is with great reluctance that you tell your partner you won't be terrorizing pranking the Shinigami today.

"Awww, come on, Alex," Briar complains. "Why not?"

In part, because it would be courting trouble. You currently have a reasonably good working relationship with the Soul Society, and it doesn't make sense to risk that for a few minutes' amusement. Furthermore, since you're aware of the existence of a certain treacherous element within the Thirteen Divisions, you'd prefer to keep as many of your cards close to your chest as possible; anything you reveal to the other Divisions has the potential to make its way back to Aizen's little faction, whether via word of mouth or after-action reports, so it's best not to show off any more than you already have.

"That makes sense," your partner grudgingly agrees.

"Besides," you add, "the more time and energy I spend on messing with those guys, the less I'm spending on looting. And we are up against a deadline, here."

"...forget I said anything," Briar replies quickly. "On with the looting!"

Onward!

mine

When you venture to Silbern on Friday morning (Welsh time), you immediately notice a faint feeling of distant dread that wasn't present before: something real enough to ping your inherent danger sense, your awareness as a trained magic-user and Divination/Summoning specialist, and even the Spell of Foresight you have running; but not something immediate enough to bring on an actual vision of peril.

When you mention this to your fellow looters, most of the Knight-Simulacra reply that they don't sense anything, but Briar does, and Arturia, Mordred, and Galahad admit to noticing it as well. The word of those three quickly convinces the other Knights that something is amiss, and it's generally agreed that your time is running out.

You're not sure if Soul Society finished their preparations early, or if you're just picking up the violent collapse of an entire pocket dimension as it echoes back in time, but either way, it's with a particular tension wearing at your nerves that you go about the last day's plundering.

It doesn't help much that, when you look in on the members of the Twelfth Division sacking other parts of the fortress, there is an air of nervous haste to their movements and conversations which wasn't present the previous day.

And that's BEFORE you overhear a couple of them having a guard conversation about whether or not Captain Mayuri is going to force them to work to the last possible second.

"Don't be any more idiotic than you absolutely have to be," an unfamiliar voice interrupts. It's coming from the Soul Pager hanging off of the belt of one of those reapers, and from the way they look down at the device with dawning horror, you think the voice must belong to the aforementioned Captain. "Of COURSE you're going to work as long as possible! This is a unique opportunity to acquire information on an enemy faction and how they've developed over a thousand years of seclusion; we will NOT allow it to simply slip away! Now quit wasting time and get back to work, before I decide to make you my new lab assistants!"

"Yes, Captain!" the two Shinigami bark in unison, before hurrying off.

"Why is good help SO hard to find..." the voice on the pager complains, before the line switches off.

He sounds... charming.

As the hours tick by, your feeling of encroaching doom grows, until at last you can bear it no longer and call a halt to the proceedings. Knights and summons alike do not argue with you, instead grabbing whatever is within reach that they still have room to carry, and hauling assets through your Gate to the accelerated demiplane. Once your summons have dropped off their final loads of loot, you thank them for their assistance, dismiss them, and accompany the Knights through another Gate to Ambrose's travel-closet.

The wizard has spent a good part of the day setting up a major ritual within his observatory, linking the array he set up on the floor to his Spellescope and the Key to the Gate of the Sun loaded into it. There are significant elements of Illusion Magic worked into the primarily Divination-based matrix, and when Ambrose activates the thing - with you and Balthazar having joined him in the middle of the chamber - the result is the room around you "disappearing," overlaid by an image that seems to recreate the frozen demiplane where Silbern is located.

Idly, you try to recall if you ever got the proper name for this place - and when it doesn't come to mind, you wonder if it was written down in any of the books and records your looting party grabbed.

Hours pass, during which you, your fellow arcanists, and your re-summoned Shadow trade off monitoring the scene, with Ambrose taking the opportunity to get a nap.

As it happens, Shadow Alex is the one "on-duty" when the Shinigami fire the Kido Cannon that Captain Zaraki mentioned in passing, so you end up getting to view the results through his memories and then again via Ambrose's recording. How the Shinigami weapon works, you have no idea, but the result is a ravening beam of barely-coherent destructive power that punches through the wintry "sky" of Yhwach's enclosed realm, shattering the planar barrier like it was a great glass ball. The blazing pillar of energy seems to sunder itself in the process, the singular blast splitting apart into a dozen tongues of flame the size of skyscrapers, which rain down on the Wandenreich and burn their way across and then through wide swathes of the surface.

Such is the heat that ice vaporizes before the raging firestorm even reaches it.

The frozen-over buildings of the abandoned city don't last much longer when directly hit, and even near-misses tend to leave slagged ruins rather than burned ones.

Several of the descending strikes "splash" as they touch down, causing rivers of fire to flood the empty streets and wash over many of the structures; you swear you can see the shapes of animals moving within the dancing flames, one second a running wolf, the next a falcon in flight, and then a shark - dozens at once, from more species and biomes than you can easily track.

Silbern takes a direct hit from the largest of the secondary beams, and while the fortress actually withstands the strike, it's shorn of its arctic coverage and left with an enormous burn scar across its front, over the roof, and possibly down the far side as well. The blackened area actually bubbles in places, and you don't doubt that most of the exterior wards were either forced down or blown out entirely.

For all of that, the real damage was done before any of the buildings were so much as warmed. The Cannon's initial impact sent cracks spiderwebbing across the sky, and those haven't stopped spreading the entire time. As the runaway breaches spread and grow, arcs of black lightning crawl across the face of the planar barrier, while the upper atmosphere of Yhwach's domain starts blowing into the silvery void on the other side, fragments of the broken barrier either getting swept along by the current or overcoming it to fall into the spreading sea of steam and flame below.

Before long, you can see the demiplane beginning to shake in a manner that has your Southern Californian instincts blaring an alarm - because that's NOT an earthquake you're seeing. Earthquakes STOP. This? It just keeps building, until the ground starts to crack and split and heave in a mirror of the broken sky above it, as the demiplane slowly but surely rips itself apart.

Once again, Silbern withstands the spreading devastation. Even as the surrounding cityscape literally falls to pieces and plunges into the endless expanse of the Astral Plane - some sections burning to ash, others dissolving into spiritual particles, and some just drifting away as they are - the fortress holds. It's not without effort or cost: cracks spread out around the vast structure and run up its sides; the half-melted damaged areas fall away from the main body entirely; and you can hardly imagine how much damage there must be mounting up on the inside; yet the bulk of the Wandenreich stronghold endures - for a time.

Air, water, and flame form enormous whirlwinds, tearing at the fortress and flinging loose debris from the collapsing plane into its walls, even as they themselves are inexorably sucked screaming into the void. Pieces of the shattered sky plunge into Silbern from above and to the sides, and you can only presume that giant knives of broken earth are jabbing into the structure from below as the ground gives way. The dark lightning is increasing in frequency and intensity, the way things are floating, falling, or flying about suggests that gravity is going haywire, and perhaps most alarming of all are the optical distortions you can see in places, as things bend and twist as space itself is stressed.

That is what finally proves too much for Silbern. Several seams of space-time running over, around, and probably under the fortress as well strain its surviving wards past the breaking point, causing a visible flare as the defenses give out en masse - a flash that is almost instantly followed by a lightning-like stroke of darkness, as a spatial rift opens up right THROUGH the final refuge of the Quincy King.

For a moment, Silbern stands there, like a warrior stabbed through the heart.

And then, it shatters.