Journal 10 - Entry 83

Damn, I'm glad to finally be back at base. It's been a couple months since I last had some time, so I guess I'll run through everything that's happened. For my own sanity if nothing else. I'm still a little shaken up from the battle today, it was one of the most brutal we've had since the start of the war, and it's honestly a miracle so many of us made it back alive. But I'll get to that a bit later.

I guess the last time I wrote was when we had just taken the North 71st district. We had gotten reinforcements and a resupply after that battle, and were able to successfully establish supply lines back to the Nest. We already knew pushing into the more developed 70th district (also known as would be a slog, so after much petitioning to the Head Captain I was able to secure the transfer of the 3rd Division out of their current defensive posting in Hueco Mundo to the front with us. It was good to fight along Matsumoto again… I guess I should be calling her Captain Matsumoto, but I honestly have trouble bringing myself to do it. I'll never get used to seeing that white haori on her, even though it's been almost six months since her promotion.

We were making fast progress early on, but our advance was halted after the Quincy retaliated by deploying five Sternritter to our front. The numbers advantage meant that we had to play defense when it came to covering our troops, but it helped that only two of them were captain level, so we were pretty evenly matched on that front. The real issue was that the other three were lieutenant level, meaning we were outnumbered three-to-two in that aspect. I had full faith in Lieutenant Tomioka. He had been the 3rd seat of the 3rd Division before the Fall, and led the resistance in the Jerall Mountains that later became known as the Lost Division. His skill and experience were why he had been placed as Matsumoto's lieutenant. (As well as his ability to handle Matsumoto's… eccentricities).

On the other hand, my lieutenant was new to the role. We had just promoted her due to the skill she had shown in the prior battle for the 71st district, as well as during Operation Hornet. My previous lieutenant, Nouzen, was one of the many casualties of the operation. He was a good soldier and a good man, his loss was a blow to the entire squad. But we had to keep moving, and I chose to promote my 4th seat, Kaie Taniya to the role. She's been with the 10th for over two years now, since Operation Continuing Promise. She then served with distinction during Operation Arrowhead at the Second Battle of Yōsai.

Our first run-in with the Sternritter squad occurred about a week into the battle, and they were being led by a woman I recognized. The Wandenreich traditionally favors a quantity-over-quality approach, as a schrift can just be passed along to a new Sternritter when one is killed. It's rare for a Sternritter that is not a member of the Schutzstaffel to hold a schrift for long. Yet this psycho has managed to do so. Any reason why she hasn't been promoted to the Schutzstaffel after so long is anyone's guess.

I first encountered her in the World of the Living where she had been trying to capture Kurosaki's sisters. Sternritter F, the Flash, Lianna Yuki. She had been a constant thorn in the Gotei's side for nearly four years now. Her ability still isn't fully understood. It was first assumed to simply be a more powerful version of any other movement technique like Shunpo, Sonido, or Hirenkyaku. However this was debunked when she had a run-in with the Head Captain. She managed to not only hold her own, but kill the 1st Division's lieutenant and escape alive. All we know is that unlike the standard movement techniques, it's not physical movement accelerated by Reiryoku or Reishi. It is more akin to the spatial displacement displayed by the forbidden Kidō spell Kūkanten'i. During peacetime, the use of Kūkanten'i warranted a life sentence in the Central Great Underground Prison. She had only used her ability on herself, appearing unable to transport other people or objects, which did differentiate her technique from the more powerful area-of-effect style of Kūkanten'i.

When the battle began, we timed our clash with the Sternritter to match the advance of our ground forces. Both sides had been forced by circumstance to follow the combat doctrine of the higher level combatants facing off away from the main combat zone to prevent them from single handedly overwhelming one side. Me and Matsumoto went after Flash and another woman with her, while our lieutenants broke off to take the weaker ones, Lieutenant Taniya taking one, and Lieutenant Tomioka taking the last two.

It was good to fight side-by-side with Matsumoto again. We were quick to fall in step with one another, despite the time apart, the natural chemistry of our fighting styles was enough to keep up with Flash. Despite her constant irritating taunts, we were able to barely keep up defensively with ice and ash. However, that was only due to me needing to activate my Bankai. Unfortunately Matsumoto's Bankai was off the table. She needs to sit immobile for a period of time to channel it, making a fast opponent like the Flash a horrible matchup.

What was more worrying was the other Sternritter. She was a short woman with multi-colored hair and heterochromatic eyes to match, and was holding a pink umbrella in her hand. She had just been sitting back observing the fight since it began, meaning we had to try and keep an eye on her while defending from the constant rapier thrusts. Then Matsumoto made a brilliant observation. The Flash had been teleporting between set points the entire time. After focusing on clusters of Reishi nearby, we put together that she needed to mark locations and was only able to teleport to these marks. I fired spikes of ice from Daiguren Hyōrinmaru's wings at all the nearby marks, and Matsumoto did the same with Haineko's ash. We managed to destroy every mark in an instant, finally able to wipe the obnoxious smirk off the woman's face. I immediately flew forward and thrusted Hyōrinmaru at her chest.

Then something happened. Something I hadn't seen in years, except within my nightmares. The Sternritter shattered into shards of glass, my blade passing through the air she had just occupied. My heart dropped when I realized what we were up against. An illusion based ability, just like Aizen's. Both women stood about 20 meters further back, with vicious looks on their faces. As we realized that, Lieutenant Tomioka appeared beside us. He is one of the strongest Lieutenants we had, so him quickly dispatching two weaker Sternritter wasn't really a surprise.

Matsumoto had already begun casting Tenteikūra. I didn't even need to guess who she was calling for. That was obvious. I looked back towards the Sternritter just in time to see the signature pillar of light associated with Vollständig. The light broke showing Flash with bright orange wings of light for just a moment before she vanished. We had been fighting for long enough, I was moving before she even disappeared, knowing she would go for my heart. Matsumoto had also jumped back, yelling that the Tenteikūra was failing. This was another recent development by the Quincy. They'd managed to create a technique that jams Tenteikūra and cuts off all communication. The technique requires concentration at least, so you can stop it by finding the Quincy performing the technique and interrupt them.

We were too tied down in this fight to do anything about it at the moment, it was taking everything we had for the three of us to balance the speed and illusions of the two Sternritter. I would swing Hyōrinmaru in the general direction just trying to flash freeze everything, but they would always shatter and disappear. It didn't help that I was constantly second guessing myself. What if I committed the same sin I did against Aizen, and attacked one of my allies because of an illusion. Moments after thinking that, a blade cleaved through one of the wings of my Bankai, narrowly missing my shoulder, and I quickly realized the attack had come from Lieutenant Tomioka. He'd fallen prey to that exact scenario. Luckily my guard was up from the constant teleporting attacks, and I managed to dodge it.

A split second later, our luck ran out. Flash appeared right beside me when the lieutenant slashed, driving towards him with her rapier. He unleashed his Zanpakutō, Nagi, causing everyone on the battlefield to freeze in place. He calmly walked forward and severed the Flash's head. It didn't shatter, and fell to the ground. He let his guard down for a moment, but that was all it took. The world shattered yet again, and a thin, needle-like blade in the hands of the illusionist was pierced straight through his throat. She pulled it out with an obnoxious flourish and sheathed it back into her parasol. Matsumoto screamed and jumped forward only to have her blade intercepted by the now very alive Sternritter F, whose taunts now grating.

But finally, our luck turned around. Lieutenant Taniya appeared on a roof nearby and yelled to us that she'd cleared the jamming and made the call. Immediately, a garganta opened up behind us, and as much as I complain about the nickname, I've never been happier to hear "Shiro-chan" than I was at that moment. Unfortunately after she stepped through, she immediately lunged towards Matsumoto who now looked like the heterochromatic Sternritter. I was able to jump forward and deflect her strike, the illusion shattering into shards of glass.

When we first arrived, Lieutenant Taniya had broken off to fight her opponent before we realized one was an illusionist. So she couldn't relay that when she called for Hinamori. When Hinamori realized what was going on I saw many emotions flash across her face, until it finally settled on one. Pure, unbridled rage. She silently turned towards the two Sternritter, harshly stabbed Tobiume into the ground, and growled out four words.

"Bankai: Gensō Goroshi Tobiume" (Flying Plum Tree that Kills Illusions)

Every Shinigami's Bankai has their own quirks and they can develop along two paths. The first is an extension of the Zanpakutō's type in its Shikai. Mine is an ice-type, therefore my Bankai ended up being an extension of my ice abilities. Matsumoto's Bankai expanded her ash-based abilities. But in some cases, there is a secondary path that a Bankai can develop along. Unlocking Bankai means accepting a part of yourself, and it's possible that in cases where it is extremely difficult for a person to do so because of mental blocks or emotional damage, a Bankai can manifest differently. This was the case with Hinamori's Bankai.

In its Shikai, Tobiume is a fire-type Zanpakutō. However her Bankai has almost nothing to do with fire beyond some cosmetic effects. She attained Bankai by overcoming the trauma inflicted on her by Aizen. Trauma caused by betrayal that led to a deep-seeded distrust of everything. Her Bankai is not only her will to trust again given form, it is also her determination to never be fooled by lies, deceit, falsehood, or illusion ever again. Her gaining it was also the catalyst that led to her being officially named captain of the 5th Division.

When she activated her Bankai, pink flames spread out from the sword engulfing a huge area around all of us, along with a swirl of ethereal plum blossoms. Within this field any kind of illusion based ability will simply not work. It is also impossible to tell lies, half-truths, or do anything with the intention to deceive another. Put simply, within Hinamori's Bankai, deception on a conceptual level is impossible. We even tested it against Aizen, and when it successfully dispelled even his illusions, it was clear to see Hinamori had managed to overcome her demons. I'll never forget the look on Aizen's face. It was brief, almost imperceptible, but Hinamori's Bankai wiped that eternally smug look off his face.

But back to the battle. The activation of the Bankai is instantly followed by the sound of shattering glass. The Sternritter were now standing in a different place further back, and the heterochromatic woman looked visibly shaken.

The Flash then started talking about how the other Sternritter was useless and that she was just going to leave her to die, before turning towards us with a confused look on her face. It seemed like the Bankai's effect of forcing the victims to only be able to speak the truth had caused her to reveal how much of a scumbag she really was. That was enough for me and Matsumoto though, we swiftly moved to attack the illusionist, and while she tried to use Vollständig, it didn't seem to change what she was doing, meaning it was likely also illusion based and therefore useless in Hinamori's Bankai.

Flash did what she always does when situations start to turn against her and vanished, so unfortunately we'll still have to deal with her another time. After a short clash with the illusionist, I hit her with a wave of cold that flash-froze her, and Matsumoto swiftly delivered the killing blow.

I didn't have much time to speak with Hinamori, beyond a quick thanks. Having three captains in one place is not something we want to do for long. I think that I've gone over everything now... Oh, we have to return to Yōsai to hold a funeral for Lieutenant Tomioka. The front has finally stabilized, so I should be going back within the next few days. I'll be leaving Lieutenant Taniya here to hold down the fort while I'm gone. She's shown herself to be more and more competent by the day, I hope she makes it to the end of the war, I wouldn't mind keeping her as my lieutenant for a long time.

Hopefully Kurosaki is there too, Karin I mean. It's been a while since we had a chance to talk, and I know she's been deployed as part of the 13th. They were still bogged down in the 73rd district last I heard. I guess I'll just have to get an overall summary of the war effort from the Head Captain when I get back to Yōsai.

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CPT Tōshirō Hitsugaya

10th Division

March 8, 2008

Author's Notes:

I'm back after another 3 month disappearance. Honestly that seems to have become the standard at this point. But hey, at least I brought a long chapter with me this time. This whole chapter was basically built around my idea for Momo's bankai. I just wanted to showcase it. Plus I hadn't done a Toshiro POV yet. I also Highly recommend to go back and read chapter 17 again, as I've made significant additions to events there.

I don't know what to do next though. I have ideas of ideas but nothing concrete. Like, I could do a Karin chapter, but idk what specifically to do or when I'd set it (just arrived [2003] , in training [2005, on the battlefield [2007, etc)

So I'm sorry for being so inconsistent and you guys that've been around since the beginning are amazing. At this point it's just a vibes based story I'm jumping in and out of when I feel like it.

I could end it at any point by just saying time ran out for the nameless Shinigami from the prologue that's actually reading these (that's been the plan from the beginning), but I still want to try and get to a reasonable place before I do that. We'll see.

Thanks again guys!

(Captain Momo art by CourtneyLuv7)