Journal 27 - Entry 18

It's been sixteen days since the 7th Division launched our assault on the main Wandenreich stronghold at the Abyssal Scar. Not enough booze in the world to make me feel any better either. Not that Miyari'd let me. We were assigned by the Head Captain to take this position, but I needed to keep half the Division in reserve, so in the end the assault group consisted of the 1st and 3rd Brigades. Captain Kotetsu was generous enough to lend us the services of Aegis Company, around 200 men and women from the 4th Division to provide medical support.

The stonghold's official designation was "HVTE26", but we just referred to it as the anthill, 'cuz while it looks like a simple castle in the middle of a desert, there's a whole network of tunnels running beneath it, probably carved out by a worm hollow at some point.

We found that out the hard way a couple days ago, we finally managed a major breakthrough, and got through the gate, and it seemed to be empty. Just when we let our guard down, they ambushed us, coming out of nowhere. They had a Sternritter with them too. Me and Miyari covered our troops retreat out of the castle and back to our trenches, but we had heavy losses. Two battalions, about 2,000 men and women, were wiped out. Since then it's been a stalemate, they realize a charge across the open desert would be suicide, and while we have nearly 3 times the number of troops, we'd never be able to hold the castle.

So this battle has devolved into us hurling Kidō against their walls, and them pounding our trenches with their ballista.

As for the Sternritter, she matched up against us pretty evenly. High Captain level. I could probably match her with my Bankai, but that's exactly what the Sternritters want these days. Not because they steal Bankai, that was dealt with ages ago. Recently they've started using a specific tactic, that being drawing powerful Shinigami into one on one confrontations so an elite team or even another Sternritter can jump on the infantry. Even with my Lieutenant there, I didn't want to take that risk.

The Sternritter was a woman, or maybe closer to a girl, that had pitch black hair, bright green eyes, and horns?, if you can believe it. I swear the fashion sense of these Sternritter keep getting weirder and weirder. Her primary weapon was a huge Reishi scythe, and she was fast, so I had to keep light on my feet. What was most shocking to me, is the girl never said a word. The Sternritter I'd fought up to this point tended to love the sound of their own voices and an ego a mile wide. And that was what made her so dangerous.

Miyari jumped in to help, normally a Captain and Lieutenant together would make a Sternritter back off, but the girl just grinned. That was the first emotion the girl had shown through our clashes up to that point, and it put a pit in my stomach. I released Isonade and when the sand turned to liquid she plunged straight in. Miyari followed up with Mizumuchi for one of our deadliest combo attacks. Her water whip Zanpakutō held the girl under the liquid sand, with the goal to drown her.

Everything changed in a flash. Chains made of Reishi burst out of the liquid and threw us back, and when I looked up, the girl was directly in front of me with a burst of Hirenkyaku, scythe already swinging down. Miyari was just as quick, and managed to push me aside, but the girl adjusted herself mid-swing, twisting her body in a way where her scythe got under Miyari's guard, taking her arm off right below the elbow.

I saw red, and activated my Bankai. While Isonade's Shikai let's me turn a small area around me into a bottomless pool of liquid, it's Bankai turns a massive area around me into a roiling, stormy sea. The girl tried to jump above and stand on a reishi platform, but within this area even reishi becomes my water. But Miyari's groan cut through my bloodlust and I noticed just how much she was bleeding. She was already becoming pale. I knew I had to get her to the 4th Division medics back at base. I summoned a massive tidal wave and used it as cover to escape back to our lines. Luckily the Sternritter didn't deem it necessary to pursue.

I made it in time and the medics were able to stem the bleeding. She'd be out of action until we got back to Las Noches. Thankfully we had the godsend that was Orihime Inoue, so Miyari wouldn't be down for good. Though selfishly I do wish she would step down for a bit. My wife being out on the battlefield like this is so stressful, and I'm still a little shaken up with how close I came to losing her.

The Head Captain was certainly hesitant when it came to letting my wife be my Lieutenant, but for how soft-spoken she typically is, Miyari can get hard-headed when it comes to some things. She proved her strength, and the Head Captain really had no grounds to deny her, and if she was going to be a Lieutenant, I'd rather it be with me rather on the front lines on the other side of Hueco Mundo.

This brings us to a couple days ago. I was still fuming, both about Miyari, and all the other Shinigami in my Division that had died trying to take this castle, only for us to make no ground at all. Then, we received the worst news of all. An Onmitsukidō infiltrator sent us intel that another Sternritter would be arriving at the anthill in a day's time.

This siege needed to end, and end now. I had two options, an all-out assault with all my remaining men, or I could use the other option. Every Captain had access to it, but the Head Captain endlessly stresses how desperate the situation needs to be for it to be used. But now, with all these lives at stake, I felt it was an appropriate time. If the Head Captain wants to strip me of my Captaincy then so be it. We had a special line set up. It was essentially a one way Tenteikūra directly to Kisuke Urahara, who was the one who managed the system. I activated the Kidō. It had been so long since I'd trained it, I actually had to look up the exact vernacular, so I'll write it out here.

"This is Captain of the 7th Division Tetsuzaemon Iba, I'm requesting the initiation of a Base Delta Zero at Hotel-Victor-Tango-Echo-Two-Six, I repeat, initiate Base Delta Zero at Hotel-Victor-Tango-Echo-Two-Six"

Base Delta Zero is the code used for one thing, absolute annihilation, and there are only a few things we have capable of that. About five minutes after I made the call, a sentry called me over and handed me binoculars. I could just barely make it out. A garganta opened about 500 meters above the anthill, and a single dark figure fell out. A few seconds passed, then it hit, like running into a brick wall. Every Shinigami below 4th seat level fell to the ground gasping for air. I had to brace myself against the pillar of the lookout station. It was something I hadn't felt in years, but still could never forget.

The all-consuming, nearly divine Reiatsu of Sosuke Aizen. As I watched through the binoculars, it was as sickening as it was awe-inspiring. The Quincy's would try to run but they would simply explode. Pop, like when you step on a bug. I saw the Sternritter girl, fully in Vollständig, rocketing towards Aizen with her scythe raised. The fact she was even capable of doing that was impressive. Aizen simply raised his hand, and the scythe exploded into Reishi particles. He reached out with his other hand, grabbed her by the throat, and squeezed. She flailed briefly before falling limp in his arms.

With that it was over. He dropped her body, and turned to look directly at me, we were well over a kilometer away, yet he knew exactly where I was. A garganta opened beside him, he stepped through, and was gone, just like that. It lasted just barely over 10 minutes. I led a Battalion up to the anthill, and as we walked through the gates, it was eerie. Dead silent, and then we noticed the… well they couldn't really be called bodies. It was just piles of clothing in the middle of red puddles. Every Quincy in the base, from the ones on top of the walls, to the deepest part of the tunnels had been turned into a red paste. The only body that was still intact was that of the Sternritter girl. At this point my hatred had turned… well definitely not to sympathy, but a level of respect for trying to face down Aizen rather than flee.

Well, I need to get a stiff drink, and prepare to meet with the Head Captain. We'll just have to wait and see how badly I'm punished for making them let Aizen out of containment.

.

CPT Tetsuzaemon Iba

7th Division

May 4, 2006

Author's Notes:

So, I lied. Another idea for a chapter came to me and I had to write it. For the time being, I'm just going to roll with whatever ideas I get, idk how long this will last.

Lots of fun stuff in this chapter, Iba's zanpakuto, and he's also married. Miyari is not my OC btw, if you google Miyari Fumetsugawa you'll get a whole wiki page on her. No credit to me for that. Also got a long awaited look at Aizen in action, though it was brief. If you're familiar with Chainsaw Man, what Aizen's reiatsu did to the Quincys is basically the same thing that Makima's power does. If you haven't seen Chainsaw Man, don't care about spoilers, and just want to see it, it's episode 9, timestamp 14:20. Oh, and if you know what Base Delta Zero is from, you get a cookie.

Thanks for reading!