Los Niños de Izanami: Confirmación

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The Labs
As Daisuke noticed Sakura's nautious appearance, slightly worried about her, before he caught something out of the corner of his eye. What appeared to be the growing size of the police headquarters, Daisuke opened his eyes wide and gaped at the foreign sight.

"Its...its...huge!" Daisuke said exasperatedly as he leaned slightly to his right as they circled towards the HQ of the Police Headquarters.

It was indeed a massive place (and it was a wonder why Kenta complained). In a matter of fact, it was the third largest facility within Yūrei, only succeeded by the military headquarters and the king's castle. As the bird started its descent towards their destination towards the "garage", they could see it was a sort of massive pit where other birds were stationed at. There was a great deal of people regulating the birds, giving out instructions, following commands, and overall doing their jobs. It was a constant round of business and work. But the workers didn't mind - they liked their job, after all.

In an elegant manner, the bird swooped down in its own "parking place" and landed for its driver and riders to get off.

"This is larger than our Division's Barracks back in the Soul Society!" Daisuke exclaimed as he hopped off in a graceful, acrobatic manner, Kukkyona already getting off in his slow deliberate mannerism.

"This certainly is impressive," Kukkyona said with approval as he looked around the large headquarters where he saw just a few moments ago many birds, and people regulating them like humans would regulate aircraft on aircraft carrier.

Remaining silent, Sakura allowed herself to jump off of the bird and look around. The noise caused her to frown slightly, and the sound of many people talking was not appeasing to her, even if the area was massive enough for a comfortable effect. She placed a hand on her hip, her head turning around this way and that to look around. Based from what she heard, there were a slew of languages being spoken to each other in a considerably fluent manner, not all of them bothering to speaking with the same language. Some spoke English, some spoke Japanese, others spoke Spanish, and so on, and so on. Yet, they seemed to understand each other perfectly, adapting to each other's foreign vocal culture and exchanging it for their own.

Multilingualism at its best.

Kenta focused his attention on the aisle that separated both sides of the "hangar" to a set of double doors at the end. "I'll take you to the labs right away and contact the commander." He explained, making a gesture with his hand for them to follow him before walking down the aisle himself.

"Of course," Kukkyona said somberly, walking in sync with the young officer, leaving Daisuke to follow whom briefly turned around with a bright smile and beckoned Sakura to follow, urging her to stick close to them as he followed his own father in step towards where Kenta would be taking them.

Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, Sakura allowed herself to follow their trail, shifting her arms to fold them across her chest. Although her eyes were averted from Daisuke, her voice was clearly speaking to him. "You really shouldn't try and get so close to me." She said in disapproval, her tone solemn. "After all, we don't know each other that well."

As they continued to walk, Daisuke heard her voice, but simply responding cheerfully in kind, "Ah! But that is why we invented something called, 'socialization,' where we can understand each other by talking to each other and being friendly to one another. That is, after all, where the term, 'Friends' come from you know?"

The girl could've sworn she heard sarcasm within that tone of his. This made her narrow her eyes a little. "Well, the ones that invented that obviously never heard of the term sociopath, and apparently, neither have you." She retorted, a rather cold edge to her words. Inwardly, she was uncomfortable with the notion Daisuke was attempting to hand out to her. Instead of making her feel good, it was giving her the opposite effect, as if he was simply hurting her instead of helping her. But she had too much pride to allow him to see her discomfort. In her eyes, that would simply be discounted for as weakness.

"Oh I don't know about that...I'm pretty sure you've just been out of practice and you need someone to cheer you up, talk to you, and hear you vent," Daisuke said still cheerfully, looking back with a edge of concern in his voice, noticing she was mentioning the term sociopath, not exactly something people want to mention when meeting someone new.

Kukkyona noticed the areas were starting to get slightly more guarded and less authorized by the multingual core that made up most of the center of Yūrei's 'garage', and closer to the dimly lit sections, noticing a particulary odd shaped structure guarded with two distinguished guards in black cloaks, similar to the ones they met before.

"Is that the laboratory, Kenta?" Kukkyona asked in a low tone, not wanting to interrupt the current conversation Daisuke was having with the ex-cultist behind them.

"Yeah...." Sakura muttered, lowering her arms and placing a hand onto her hip. Her glare at Daiyaku did not subside, but it faded to something akin to annoyance. "Because I would just love to listen to a fuckin' chatterbox like you."

"Yep. Hold on a second...." Pressing a hand against the doors in order to lean on them, Kenta clicked on his earpiece and lowered his head. "This is Sonoda to Setsuko." He reported, a "commander" tone back within his voice.

"Setsuko here." Avaron's voice came once again on the other end of the frequency.

"Meet me at the labs, if you're not pre-occupied. The two Seireitei Shinigami and a green agent are within my company, and we're about to decode pieces of information concerning the status of this city. Containment procedures in danger of being nullified."

A pause on the other end. Then: "I understand. I'll be with you in a few minutes. Over and out."

"That sounds like Officer Avaron...or is she more like your superior officer, Kenta?" Kukkyona asked cooly as he heard the extent of the conversation, waiting to enter the laboratory with his son and the socially challenged girl behind him.

Daisuke just chuckled, scratching his chin as he sheepishly smiled, "Yeah, I guess I am kind of annoying to hang around at times. But," he added, looking truthfully at her, his eyes narrowing and his smile softened a bit, as he spoke softly, "I swore an oath to my friend...that I'd protect anyone that was precious to me, even if they didn't want to be protected," as he said this, his headband uncannyily shined a glimmer, showing the Kanji words 'Remember the Mourning,' before her eyes.

For a moment, her eyes widened, and the scowl faded from her face. The expression faded as her attention fell to the headband that he wore. It briefly distracted her from the words that he spoke. It was only three words, and yet it was such a meaningful phrase. To think that such complexity could come out of something so simple on the outside was a rather amazing trait within people, but it was a feat to think such things and be accurately right about them. Had it been another, it would've put a rack in the metallic walls that were built up within the conscience, the first step to opening up.

But she was not such a person.

She grit her teeth briefly, narrowing her eyes in what seemed like a display of anger. Her face flushed a moderate red, the feelings clear on her face. It lasted only for a brief second before she jerked her head away from Daisuke, closing her eyes. "Don't say wierd shit like that all of a sudden!" She scolded him.

After eyeing the two for a moment, Kenta once again set his sights on Kukkyona and smiled a little himself. "Naturally. She's the backbone of the police force, the highest power within law enforcement. I've had the luckiness of having her as a personal partner on missions. She may be a bit outward in nature.... but in the end, she gets the job done."

"She sounds like a remarkable woman. I'm glad she was the welcoming commitee we had when we entered, otherwise, things with your subordinates might've turned out for the worst for all of us," Kukkyona spoke plainly, first with respect and admiration, then with simple matter-of-fact tone in his voice.

Daisuke saw the change of reactions before his eyes, knowing she felt 'something' for people somewhere in herself, behind that very rocky and hardheaded exterior. However, it didn't seem like she would open up to him overnight, but he still felt a little bit sad she still didn't talk to him more openly. With a sigh, Daisuke turned around as he finished speaking, "you'll get used to it. I'm a true poet...at least that's how I was teased about," Daisuke added in a joking tone, turning his head back with a wide grin and winked at her, showing his mostly relaxed nature unfold to her.

Before Sakura could respond, however...

"Yeah, she sounds like a real peach, don't she?"

Avaron's voice sounded right behind the group, particularly behind Daisuke. Kenta's eyes widened slightly, and his body stiffened at the sight of her as she gave a friendly pat to Daisuke's back before folding her arms across her chest. Sakura herself gave a raise of the eyebrow at the other orange-haired woman's sudden appearance, but decided to remain silent and out of the conversation for the time being, now that her own personal talk with Daisuke was "broken" temporarily. "Sorry. When I said a few minutes.... I meant several seconds." She apologized, a small smirk on her face.

Kenta nodded in respect. "Glad you could make it." He turned back towards the door, bending over a little to look over a passcode lock on the door itself. Letting his fingers do the work, he typed in the code quickly, and Sakura couldn't help but notice how quickly his fingers were moving. It seemed to be a long passcode, but Kenta was able to enter it within seconds and opened the door, allowing them to step inside.

Daisuke felt himself stiffen, almost yelp at being surprised. He turned around, a slight blush on his face as he waved his arms and his mouth agape in ecstatic shock, "How-did-you-do-that?! I-didn't-see-you-com...I mean...," he said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck, chuckling as he corrected himself, "ahem...I mean, nice to see you, Avaron."

Kukkyona let out a mental roll of the eyes, issuing a low sigh of resignation, hearing Daisuke act his embarassing typical self, but his eyes followed the fast movements of Kenta's fingers pressing the codes into the console. Despite its fast movements, he was quickly able to memorize the code in case of future use if ever needing it later.

He entered behind him, ushering the others to follow without motioning or speaking, as his mere presence began to leave it was like a cloud letting the sun shine back onto the earth below...more or less it was to Daisuke, as he turned to follow, making sure to be nearly in sync to Avaron's steps, supressing the urge to stare at her dazzling face.

The First Moves of Chess
Avaron, meanwhile, had turned her attention to Kenta, as he was speaking to the group in general. "We have a scanner in the back, perfect for that little capsule of yours, elder." He explained, raising his hand to point in the direction he was going. "I can just set it up to identify the type of material you have, you can place it in and--"

"Stop right there." Avaron interrupted with a slightly stern tone, jerking a finger in front of his face in order to shut him up, earning a rather surprised look from him. "I am not putting you in a position to touch anything even remotely hooked up to the main network."

He cocked an eyebrow in confusion and shock. "Why?" He asked, his voice whispery from the disbelief he was feeling.

"After that little stunt you pulled with your boys? I think that's reason enough."

"Wha--" The young officer cut himself off, now in shock and displeasure at her choice of words. "Y....you said you wouldn't bring that up again...!" He hissed in complaint. However, Avaron looked over at him to pass a falsely sweet smile at him.

"Oh, right, I did...." She replied innocently. "But you forgot to make me pinky swear to it."

"Oh, for the love of...." Kenta slapped a hand to his face in exasperation, lowering his head in slight embarrassment.

Kukkyona looked left to Kenta's shocked and displeased face during the ordeal, and back to Avaron's stern, sarcastic appearance to his right. He then looked straight ahead as he was parallel to the two of them, Daisuke standing quite perplexed next to Avaron, wondering what she meant by, 'his boys,' knitting his brows down as he tried to think what it meant...or forget about it.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Kukkyona looked over to both Kenta and Avaron, wondering if this would impede their rate of finishing the decoding of his information capsule.

"....no." Kenta muttered, a bit sourly. "The captain's able to set up the system herself, pretty much any one who can understand computers can...."

"Then we leave at your word then, Captain Avaron," Kukkyona politely nodded his head towards Avaron with a sign of respect in his voice, also unintentionally cutting off anything else Kenta would have muttered under his breath.

It was here that they managed to stop in front of the machine serving as the scanner. It was considerably wide, its height a little over half the size of Kenta himself. It looked quite like a scanner one would find within the world of the living, except there were two major differences. One was the small "desk" that came out from the side which supported a laptop with a DOS window on it. On the other side, there was a sort of holder which looked like two metallic cup holders facing each other with a certain amount of space between them. What connected the holders was a beam of light connecting them. Avaron took her spot at the laptop, fingers moving to type in and begin the process. "All right...." She muttered. "All you have to do is slip in the capsule within that light holder. The light will act like a sort of tractor beam and hold it up while the scanning process begins."

Kukkyona produced the cereal sized capsule delicately in between his fingers, showing the intricately designed device between his thumb and forefinger, the stream of data passed the nearly microspopic digital display on the capsule. He moved his hand forward and slipped into the said light holder, watching suck it in, as said like a tractor beam, and the machine began scanning the data within the device...

Daisuke meanwhile looked over to Avaron, trying to see what she would do with the device next, watching her every movement as she preformed her work over the foreign modern-looking device with effortless control and understanding. He thought her soft hands looked nice moving so fast along all those controls and keys...

"Congratulations, Captain. You seem to have nagged yourself a fish."

Kenta was the first one to notice Daisuke's stare at Avaron. He closed his eyes and shook his head in a slight, sage manner. But he didn't allow himself to say anything, for it would've just embarrassed the poor man. He drifted his attention towards his superior officer as she watched the DOS window, typing occasionally and otherwise allowing data to appear within at a rapid rate.

Sakura also noticed. Cocking an eyebrow slightly, she put on a small smirk at Daisuke. His own feelings couldn't have been any more obvious at that moment, and it amused her greatly. But she too didn't say anything, placing a hand on her hip and idly standing.

As the data appeared, Daisuke turned his eyes away in order to keep himself from staring too long, but alas, someone already noticed his gaze. He turned around to strike up a conversation with Sakura, but noticed her what could be seen as a slight smirk with a sublte cocking of the eyebrow, causing him to upraise an eyebrow in return.

"What? Do I got something in my hair?" he joked, but was inwardly nervous, almost suspecting she saw him staring at Avaron...but that wasn't possiblely conceived in his thoughts. Or was it?

As the data began to be fully open, a stream of encrypted letters appeared over the numbers, a series of blanks over each paragraph of information with the cursor over the first of dozens, the information if written down, would've spanned at least 200 pages worth of detailed intel.

"Well, it looks like the 12th Division knew what they were doing when they made this...." Avaron said lightly, fingers once again moving over the keys and typing. "The security level placed on it's clearly the result of a professional." She looked over the scren carefully. "Now, set "Meanie" to 5, identify the program type...." The last bit of wording was to herself.

Sakura, deciding for his sake to keep her voice low, allowed her smirk to become more knowing. "Gee, I don't think that's for someone like me to tell you. Why don't you ask your little crush over there?" She asked tauntingly.

Kukkyona slightly upraised his brow at the term 'meanie' she just used, but shrugged it off mentally, producing a single sheet of passwords both in numerical nature and as well as in different phrases, words, even poems, "Captain Kaze Sasayaki is known for his unique sense of encrypting. No one in his entire Division, not even the Stealth Force, can fully grasp the method behind the madness of his codes and passwords," Kukkyona explained as Avaron would read the strange list of passwords and pass-phrases.

Daisuke did almost full-on blush as she mentioned 'crush', then looked back at Avaron to see she hadn't heard, sighing lowly with relief, then turning back, a look of desperation and caution crossed his face as he raised his left hand to make a 'quiet' gesture to his lips, "Don't say a word of this and I won't tease you about your boyish appearance, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah...."

Sakura rolled her eyes in exasperation, looking back over towards Avaron as she spoke with Kukkyōna. "No kidding...." The female officer muttered. "Attempting to hack this manually would be next to impossible, and it would probably kill somebody if they stressed themselves thinking about it. However, it was a good thing the boys I managed to prepare for this way ahead of time." Smacking the enter key with her index finger, she turned her attention to the light holding the capsule within. It turned from a light blue to a bright green, with a series of holographic numbers running through the light. She raised herself up from the screen, placing her hands on her hips and looking on in a content look. "In a minute or two, our information will be decoded and processed, courtesy of my personal program. The only problem is that afterwhich....."

The content look faded, and she let out an aggravated sigh - in conjunction with Kenta's own.

"....the military's going to be involved in this case." Kenta summarized dejectedly.

"Yep."

The depressed manner in which Avaron and Kenta was hanging her head was comical, a sweatdrop forming on the back of their heads.

Kukkyona looked at Avaron, then back at Kenta over his shoulder, before returning his gaze, answering in a almost tone, "You and the military still have a tense relationship I see..."

"Will this cause you problems?" Daisuke asked, trying to distract himself from Sakura's teasing of his own emotional predicament with Avaron, as he too looked back and forth from the two, sweatdropping himself at seeing them act in such a comical fashion that was so unlike their previously shown professional mannerism.

Avaron sighed, once again focusing her eyes onto the screen. "Well, no..." She admitted. "Matter of fact, this will benefit us more than anything else. It's just..."

"The soldiers under the military have a habit of belittling law enforcement, ever since the beginning of the old General's rule." Kenta explained, walking past Kukkyōna in order to stand beside her and get a better view of the screen. "They shoot, in a matter of speaking, we shoot back, and we've got ourselves competition in order to gain His Majesty's respect."

"Damian Seken?! I've heard of him...his skill has made him infamous to the Soul Society's Soul Reapers, a tactician of amazing skill and power, his prowess is often the topic of folklore for the more novice Soul Reapers," Kukkyona stated with a hint of surprise and admiration, though he contained his cool composure as he explained the knowledge of his exploits in the Soul Society.

"Why do you loathe the competition? Its a great way to improve your own skills while building up a healthy relationship with your divisions, or moreover, that's how the 13 Court Guard Squads work anyways," Daisuke said with a confused, yet enthusiastic tone, smiling at both Avaron and Kenta, curious why they dreaded the whole competitive predicament they were in, he even winked back at Sakura, forgetting the whole earlier near-embarassment with his musings.

"Healthy?" Avaron turned her gaze towards him with a look of astonishment. "As if....the closest thing to healthy would be us pointing our guns at each other and not pulling the trigger. That.... or pulling the trigger and happening to have empty clips."

Sakura merely huffed, turning away from Daisuke. However, as Avaron turned back towards the screen, she turned her head back towards him with a cocked eyebrow. "So...." She stated casually, the smirk returning. She still made sure to keep her voice low in order for Avaron to not hear them. "When you plan on telling her?"

"As I expected," Kukkyona said solemnly, expecting the tense relationship to still be harbored even after the infamous Damian Seken's death. He looked over to inspect the screen, expecting her acclaimed 'state-of-the-art' scanner to be finished by now...

Daisuke looked over and whispered harshly, "Tell her what, pra tell?! I just think she's an attractive woman...err, I mean charismatically, yes, yes that's what I mean. What's it to you anyways? I thought you didn't care about my feelings?" He said, trying to derail her line of questioning as he looked back at her from what used to be a flushed nervous expression, to a humored smirking expression, wondering why she would bother trying to goad or tease him in this way.

"Because I find it to be funny, seeing people getting all flustered just because they find someone attractive...." Sakura answered smoothly, raising one of her hands up briefly. Then, she lightly smacked him in the center of his chest with the back of her hand. "So lighten up, shit-face. It was a joke."

Sure enough...

The numbers faded away from the light, and the green light turned back to its light blue color. "And~ we are done!" Avaron said confidently, once again leaning over the table to display the results. "Even with Meanie, cracking this particular set of codes proved to be a nuisance, but it's done. All of the data's decoded, but..." She paused for a moment. "There's a ridiculous amount of information here, a little over two hundred pages worth. Not exactly a printer-friendly amount...."

"Only downside of this particular device is that it records information of the particular observer's or partaker of the capsule if you will, into specific detail as well over the last 72 hours, which was the gap of time we lost contact with them as they exited out of contact. Its relatively a new device that's only been regulated within the Deep Cover Ops for about 6 months, they're still working out the kinks in its practicality," Kukkyona explained matter-of-factly, not really deterred or annoyed about the length of information they have to decode, considering he'd had to endure more than often predicaments involving patience. It came at the price of being the head of a Noble Family, and all the many crisises or drama he has to endure on a near day to day basis, even moreso including his Captain duties.

"Thanks...I'm glad you have a sense of humor after all," Daisuke said with a slightly sarcastic attitude, before rolling his eyes at her after sticking his tongue out at her, turning his back on her as he crossed his arms, now feeling quite irked by the irritating girl.

"Over two hundred pages and we have to read through all of them...." Avaron slowly lowered her head, letting out a tired breath. "I can already feel the headaches." She raised her head, a contemplative look on her features. "Well, I guess we're going to have a lot of reading to do for the next few days, might as well start as soon as possible. Every second counts concerning the situation...." She turned her body, straightening up to face the group in entire, save for Kenta. "In the meantime, why don't you two head back and go about with your regular activities? I'm sure waiting here for possibly up to a week would be out of your conscience."

"I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. Is there quarters that you may allow use for myself or my son, if he wishes it? I want to be on site, and nearby in the slightest change of the information that you uncover," Kukkyona stated plainly and seriously, putting his arms across each other as he looked Avaron dead in the eyes to wait for an answer.

Daisuke held his head in a downcast manner, muttering, "I really liked that suite," before he raised his head, saying, "I'm staying wherever my father is staying. It would be unfitting as a future Noble Head to lounge around while the current Head resides in less acommadating of retire."

Avaron's frown turned slightly sympathetic, as with her raise of the eyebrow. "Sorry, but that can't be done...." She answered, emphasizing with a shake of her head. "HQ only permits the ones on-duty to stay on base. You can find a hotel close to here if you want, but that's the best I can give you."

However, this sympathetic look immediately turned to one of slightly exasperated and questioning look when Sakura spoke up. "Yeah, give the police some space to work...." She said in annoyance. "Can't exactly concentrate with you people breathing down their fucking necks all the time...."

"I can tell how much you want them to be as far away from YOU as possible," Daisuke quipped, knowing she did cause a crisis just only less than an hour ago with the police, and he could imagine if she didn't like being in a police station.

"That is fine," Kukkyona stated, not in the least perturbed for being rejected to stay, unfolding his arms, before he said, "but I'd like a form of communication for updates on your progress. It IS Seireitei information you're holding onto, despite your connection in it, so I'd appreciate some cooperation between us, if possible."

"Yūrei and the Soul Society of Japan didn't make that treaty just to keep each other in the dark." Avaron reminded him, putting on an assuring smile. "We do the best we can as the situation allows it. Don't worry - we'll keep you updated." Taking a few steps aside from the scanner, she stood in front of a cabinet and pulled open one of its drawers. She reached inside, pulling out and tossing something small to Kukkyōna. It was a communicator, the same one that the police officers themselves used. "Just make sure to keep that with you at all times, and we'll be just fine."

After nodding to her statements, he deftly caught it with his left hand, slightly rubbing his thumb over the communication device thrown to him. He looked back Avaron, bowing his head reverantly before he spoke calmly, "I wish for the speed to finish this matter and leave it behind us. Daisuke, Sakura, come," Kukkyona said in a swift, commanding voice, though it wasn't terse or rough, just to the point.

Daisuke looked up, and nodded to his father, before nodding to Sakura saying, "Let's go. I'm pretty sure you don't have a place as nice as ours to stay for the night, so I'd suggest coming with," he said with a smile, reassuring her that as much as their relationship was rocky, he wanted to invite her with a decent place to stay.

"Just a moment."

Before Sakura could open up her mouth to retort to the statement, Kenta allowed himself to speak up and walk towards the group in general. "Sakura will meet up with you later. I need to speak to her in private." It was a rather firm tone, one that was not interested in any say otherwise. Sakura got the idea quickly, scowling and shaking her head in disapproval. But she turned around and walked off towards the exit, Kenta right behind her. Avaron herself could only stare in slight surprise at the sudden move Kenta had made, but said nothing as the two walked off and exited the room.

"Uh okay...later I guess," he said towards Sakura and Kenta as they walked off, furrowing his brows in a perplexed expression, turning towards Avaron smiling softly back, saying, "see you later, Avaron," before leaving in sync with his father, who was not in the least deterred from the situation, taking everything in stride as they departed from the labs they entered.

"What do you think that was about? Do you think Kenta is actually going to interrogate her?" Daisuke asked his father worriedly, often thinking his father perceived everything the clearest out of anybody he knew.

Kukkyōna just stayed silent for awhile as they reentered the 'garage' of parked birds, heading towards the area where the Japanese-speaking people were, ordering someone to get a 'transport' for them quickly back to the hotel, before he got a understanding nod and went to secure one for them. He turned over, crossing his arms as he looked at his son with a unreadable expression on his face, too calm to be seen anything other than utter peace.

"You worry about the girl for nothing. She is in the hands of a honest and skilled young man of high ranking status in this city. Not to mention his superior happens to be one of the few people outside the Seireitei I respect for good reason, so you need not to worry about her," he said, totally understanding despite any denying his son was about to do.

"I am not worried about her! She's totally unreasonable, not to mention she hit me when I tried to ask-, okay so I did grab her and she did tell me to colorfully to leave her alone...and I tried to be nice to her this entire time...and, ugh! Forget it," Daisuke fumed and sighed, his face hot and flushed and his arms crossed over each other, and his brows knit as he kept fussing over her. He'd rather think about the firm, commanding, yet beautiful and graceful Avaron, but his mind and heart consistantly dragged back to Sakura. Why, he asked himself, '''why do I care about some ex-cultist who wouldn't give the time of day for me helping her up from the ground she tripped on when a perfectly fine looking and commanding woman would be better to spend time with? Ugh my head'',' Daisuke caressed his temples as he thought about it too hard, a bird now suddenly brought to bear besides the two Hayates.

Kukkyōna took a agile leap up to the nearest part of the back, then Daisuke vaulted up as well, knowing he'd have to wait for an answer again as the bird took off as fast as when they first rode it, but this time, a much bumpier ride was under way for them.

Clash of Beliefs
It was within the late night that Sakura returned.

It was easy to find them, considering their unique spiritual pressure that she was capable of sensing. After Kenta had released her from questioning, she headed straight for the building they were located in. Of course, she had to put on a "nice lady" act for the attendant at the desk and explain what was going on so that she could see them without qualms. After that, she headed straight up to their rooms, walked down the hallway, and was now standing right in front of the door with a somewhat defeated look on her face. She was holding a moderately sized bag in one of her hands. Based from the heat coming from the bag, as well as the smell of chicken in the air, it could be safely assumed that Sakura had stopped by a shop in order to purchase the goods.

Not having the key on her, she steadily knocked on the door and waited patiently.

"Enter, Sakura," said Kukkyona from a writing desk not too far from the extravagant beds nearby, pen and ink jar in hand, he was writing something down on paper, Daisuke was outside, slightly looking over his shoulder to see that Kukkyona was speaking to someone, someone at the door.

"Could that guy be any more pushy....?"

Deciding to disregard the sentence, Sakura grasped the door handle and opened it. She stepped inside, her high-heel boots making a muffled thumping against the carpeted the floor. Shutting it behind her, she raised the bag up to their view. "I.... brought something, in case you guys were hungry." She said dryly, somewhat wearily. "At the very least, the shit's something to snack on."

Kukkyona looked up from his writing, giving a once-over at her appearance then the sack she carried, pointing over to the small table round table with 3 tables seated around it, apparently it was rented recently as if someone drew near, the new smell would permeate their nostrils for a few moments, "You can set it over there. I appreciate your efforts."

"What he means is," Daisuke began to say as he quickly crossed the large room, slightly looking over his shoulder with a terse look at his father as he went back to his writing, he turned back to her with a smile, saying, "you didn't have to go through the trouble, but I have to admit, I am a little hungry. How about we take the seats over here and you can take a load off...you look worn out," he said with a empathetic tone, leading his arms towards it as he walked nearby, but gave her breathing room to walk by herself. One could also notice he was wearing a black overcoat over his casual attire, completely obscuring everything he was wearing, even his Zanpakuto, the high collar covering his neck only leaving his face unobscured.

"With everything that happened, I think I'm ready to pass out on the floor...." Sakura grumbled, moving over to set it on the table. "Do you mind if I lay on the bed, or do I have to suffer a bit longer?"

Daisuke opened his eyes wide, hearing this pleading tugged his heart strings as he sighed with a sense of joy she wasn't going to rage about anything now. "Of course you may, Sakura. Just lay on my bed over there," he said, pointing to the bed to the left-most of the two beds across from the table, already neatly made and untouched.

"I can just eat what you got me, and then sleep on the cot I rented out on the balcony," he said, pointing the large balcony outside the suite, in the open air and overseeing the night sky of the city.

"....thanks...."

With that word, Sakura moved over to the bed and fell on it, rolling on her back. Her muscles and bones immediately relaxed upon feeling the soft bed beneath them, their movements finally allowed to cease. Her expression still held that weary look, but her eyes were slightly narrowed. "A few questions, my ass..." She muttered in irritation. "Felt like I was taking a survey or an interview. Guy just couldn't shut up...."

"What did he want to know? Your childhood? I thought he just wanted to know your old connections to the Red Sun or something like that, right?" Daisuke queried as he took out what looked like a sandwitch, taking a bite into it, he slightly moaned at the good taste, and began to chew thoughtfully as he looked over at the reclined Sakura, watching her breathe a bit more relaxed, even if facially she was a bit irked.

"It was...." Sakura confirmed, arms out and spread from her side. Her knees were slightly bent, with one higher than the other. "But you'd think that from one subject, there wouldn't be so many questions. Apparently, the guy was ready all of his life to question an ex-member of some fucked up cult."

Chewing thoughtfully over what happened and what she said, he swallowed before a few moments pause came, only the sounds of the pen scratching into the paper, leaving a number of eloquently written letters that formed words, unknown in nature due to the far-off distance of the paper and pen, though the sounds were still there.

Daisuke finally broke the silence, asking what was sitting in the back of his mind, "Why did you leave them? The Red Suns I mean...cults are kind of brainwashed groupies right? So what made you want to leave them?"

Sakura didn't speak right away. She closed her eyes, letting the question sink into her brain and stew for a moment. Her mouth was concentrated in a thoughtful frown, her fingers slightly clenching and unclenching with the smallest of movements. "Of course, people like you would hold that sort of mentality. Allow me to explain something...." She opened her eyes to a half-lidded position. "Tell me... do you have a religion of your own that you believe in? Are you one with Shinto?"

"The Soul Society doesn't really have a 'religion' we believe in," Daisuke began to explain, biting his lower lip deciding on how to explain it. He then turned to look at her half-lidded eyes, saying, "we really believe in the will of the Soul King, and everything that is handed down from him is Divine Law, and the rights given to him is Divine Rights. We don't worship him per say...but we moreover acknowledge his omnipotence keeps the Soul Society intact, and without him, the World of the Living would descend into chaos," he paused for a few long moments before he said with a soft smile, "but to answer your question, our Noble Family does pay its respects on a monthly basis to each of our resting family members for either their courage as a Soul Reaper or the honor of bearing our Family name, or both really."

"It's different for people like me...." Sakura said, shifting her arms to place her hands behind her head. One leg crossed over the other. "For the few that are able to retain their memories after crossing over to Soul Society, their religion and beliefs cling with them. My own belief was in the legend of Izanami's children, the ones who dedicate themselves to a life of monitoring existence." She allowed her eyes to drift over towards Daisuke. "Contrary to what the rest of the crowd has been saying to you... Red Sun isn't some sort of cult. It's the name for this group of deities born from the flesh of Izanami-no-Mikoto, the true goddess of death and creation. Many people focus on the ones that follow the traditions of Red Sun to the point of radical extremism. That causes discrimination towards believers like me and dismisses them as occult and destructive."

She shifted one hand out from underneath her, extending it towards the ceiling with her fingers outstretched from the palm. "The reason I left? It's normal for someone to be of the same religion and still disagree over what's right and what's wrong..." She explained. "The cult I was in had a habit of being particularly masochistic and almost insane in their views of Red Sun. Their members usually self-mutilated themselves in various, gruesome ways in order to pay for the sin of being of "mortal mind". They even had others inflict their own form of pain and torture just to add insult to their own injuries..."

Her voice seemed to trail off at that point. She narrowed her eyes, clenching her teeth slightly and balling her extended hand into a fist. Then, she closed them once more, lowering her arm back down to the bed.

Daisuke put down his sandwitch, a solemn look crossed his face as he let what she said soak in, feeling almost mortified to the point of paling, but...instead he just thought for a long while. Thinking on how to comprehend on what she just told him would even make sense. The Red Suns were actually gods that exist, but the majority of their followers were so radical, it was almost parallelism to the extremist Catholics in the World of the Living or the Muslim religion.

He then looked over, a look of understanding and empathy was in his eyes but his face didn't show any other emotion as he spoke, "So...they did that to themselves huh? I understand now...why you don't like people touching you or getting close to you..., did you used to get...injured in that way, or was it forced on you? I won't pry if you don't want to answer," Daisuke turned his face slightly away from her contorted, closed eyes to look back at his half-eaten sandwitch, mulling over the depressing thoughts now threatening to cloud his mind.

"There wasn't any exceptions in who got slapped and who didn't." Sakura answered bluntly. She shifted her gaze back to the ceiling, staring in an almost blank manner. "Women like me were subject to various kinds of abuse, even moreso than the men. Torture, rape, you name it, it happened to me. It wasn't because they saw us as inferior. But rather, it was they revered us, seeing pain as the only way to keep the mind aware of how corrupt the world truly is. It was a twisted brand of honor, and the sad thing is...." She allowed herself to smile bitterly. "....there wasn't any resistance to it. We fucking loved it, treating it as the drug that kept us alive. The very thing that should've drove us away was keeping us within."

"So that's what it was like," Daisuke said lowly as he heard every word Sakura said, now facing his chair towards her, clasping his hands together and folding them on his lap as he leaned forward to give her his absolute undivided attention. His concerned gaze did not leave her face, that bitter smile, the show of honest cruelty that they subjected to themselves, came from expressions...and Daisuke could only grasp how it really felt.

"I've never been through that kind of ordeal...raised to be revered for the morbid practices they worshipped of a cult. But I have seen war...and war is certainly terrible when you have to cut down your friends and comrades in order to stop it," Daisuke said solemnly, a plain look of sadness and hardened resolve crossed his eyes, the two emotions clashed and his eyes became a little spaced...as if he was reliving that particular rainy dark day, where many good comrades and friends died...so the Soul Society could live.

"War.... is just another product of the corruption that is within the spiritual and physical world." Sakura said, her words switching from that of explanation to that of her own thoughts. "Everyone who engages in war is guilty and deserves to be punished, no matter who they are, no matter what the reasons. In that sense.... the three of us aren't so different. We've fought.... we've felt the pain.... and we've taken lives. We all take part in the dance of death, and we can never stop. Not now.... not ever." Her words seemed to chill even her own lips as she spoke the words of nihilism.

Daisuke felt his teeth grind, as he looked downwards, balling his fistst up before he responded in a honest, passionate tone, "I don't kill like a monster because I love the thrill of taking a life! I fight to protect, I kill Hollows to cleanse them, I'd give my life to protect those I see as precious, whether they don't want to be saved or not," he looked up at her, despite her uncaring morbid speech, he meant those words to hang in the air, to let her how honest he felt about his duty as a Soul Reaper and as a comrade to others.

A silence.

Sakura's eyes widened, the words striking her body like a hammer. Her entire body seemed to freeze up. A shiver went through her very nerves, her mind registering every part of what Daisuke had said. She closed her eyes, allowing the silence to sink between the two of them like a fog. Her fists slowly clenched, and she took in an audible breath.

First, there was a giggle.

Then, a chuckle.

And then finally, a laugh. It was a laugh not only filled with the humor, elation, and amusement, as if his words were a joke. But it also held spite, disappointment, and her malevolence within the containing sounds. It was the very emotion she was feeling challenged into what would've otherwise been the typical display of happiness. A simple-minded person would've deemed her insane, out of her mind with the sounds she made. But the men in her company were far from simple-minded, their understanding beyond that of the norm. Therefore, they could understand faster than anyone ever could at that point in time.

She shifted her body to face him, keeping herself prostrate on the bed. "All right, then...." She spoke, a smile clear on her face. Her eyes were squinted at him, similar to that of how a cat narrows its eyes before it strikes at its prey. "When you die for that cause.... to protect who or what you value in its purest term.... then I'll make sure to weave the silk on your grave myself." This expression, combined with her words, would make her aura all the more eerie and somewhat terrifying.

Daisuke's eyes widened at the string of wierd sounds coming from the girl after the long few moments of silence, sweatdropping at the scene of her hysteria, knowing she found something amusing about it, though Daisuke wouldn't call it insanity. He knew he had his days where something made him almost bust a gut because of a obscure joke.

Then her eyes opened and narrowed in a feline-predator kind of way, as she spoke in a kind of creepy way, but one Daisuke interperted differently. He actually chuckled a nearly quirky laugh of his own, suddenly saying with a wink, "I hope its very pretty, and I appreciate the thought. However, I don't plan on dying until I outlive my old man," he thumbed over to Kukkyona, who absorbed the entire dialouge while not skipping a beat in his writing on the paper with his pen.

"Right...." With the smile still on her face, Sakura turned away from him, her back facing him. She closed her eyes, taking in another deep breath. "I'm going to sleep. Make too much noise, and I'll wake up and cut your nuts off."

"Noted," Daisuke said with a chuckle, already her aggressive nature was starting to rub off on him, as he took the chicken tender sandwitch with him outside, before he whispered, "sleep peacefully, Sakura."

The First Strike
As he walked pass his father, Kukkyona spoke in a low tone as he paused in his writing, "Be careful of your feelings with her. She's a dangerous one, and we have no idea the depth of her powers either."

Daisuke whirled around, his face reddened hotly at the mention of feelings for Sakura, whispering heatedly, "What feelings?! I don't know what you're talking about!"

"I won't pry, and I won't confide to her, seeing as she would, as she eloquently put it, 'cut my nuts off.'"

Daisuke sweatdropped, asking rhetorically, "How much did you hear of that conversation?"

"In all seriousness though," Kukkyona said turning his left eye to sideglance seriously at him, saying lowly, "she's a entity I've not sensed before. She's not a Soul Reaper or a Hollow, so she's an unknown element we're not aware of, her potential in strength could be greater than mine. Watch yourself." The elder left it at that, even as Daisuke raised a hand to interrupt, he went back to writing on the paper, already on the 3rd page, the entire prior two pages written in eloquent Kanji letters.

Daisuke sighed, leaving him to walk outside to the cot he set up on the large overhanging balcony, flopping onto it, rolling over to rest on his back, as he stared up at the stars over the city, mulling over the things that Sakura, and his father have said. He couldn't be more confused right now, and the last thing he needed was more confusion entering his mind. He wanted to sort this thing out...now, but he didn't know how.

Sometime later...

Kukkyona had finally finished his writing, falling asleep on the bed opposite of Sakura's, resting peacefully with a simple deep inhale and exhale. Daisuke outside, tossed and turned in a restless sleep, only able to half-sleep, his body refusing to drift into a deep slumber with the thoughts clouding his mind.

The thing that would bring him out of his slumber was a lone, repeating sound.

''BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!''

It was the communicator Avaron had gave him. It gave a constant set of beeping noises, enough to penetrate the thick fog of sleep surrounding his mind and alert him back to the outside world.

A soft sigh vented through the parted lips of Kukkyona, as he reached for his communicator, sitting upright on his bed as he responded in a weary tone, "Yes...any news on the intel we gathered?"

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!

What answered him was the sounds of gunfire and explosions going off in the background. Avaron's tense voice managed to come through, despite the high volume of the effects. "Kukkyōna-taichō?" Her voice managed to speak clear and true to his ears. "Sorry about the wake-up call, but is this a good time to string you a long for a bit of direct assistance?"

After that was said, there were constant cries, shouting for backup, alerting friendlies to enemy troops approaching their position. It was clear that some sort of engagement was taking place at the coasthead between the police and some unknown force.

Kukkyona steadily began to dress, having set down the communicator and turned a 'speaker-phone' setting, so he could talk while he dressed appropiately, "What's the casuality list, and what's the threat? Rioters, Hollows, or is it the Red Sun cultist agents?" As he finished the list off of questions, he picked up each Zanpakuto and fastened them within his sash, wrapped around his waist, the red cloth hung around what looked like a more darker choice of clothin, his white scarf was being wrapped around his neck with his other hand as he continued to prepare himself for confrontation.

Daisuke however, had sensed unusual presences from afar, following with his unprompted wake-up by the beeping within the suite. He used Flash Step, shimmering from one point to the other, his overcoat fluttered around his neck, legs, and arms as he flew from one rooftop to another as he saw a rising smolder of smoke in the distance, as well as the sound of weapon fire being exchanged.

"Adjuchas-level Arrancar, a multitude of them, are attacking the coasthead outskirts!" Avaron reported, hiding behind cover of a manually erected blockade. Beside her, police officers were firing their guns at white-coated, hooded figures that were charging at them. There was a mix of bullets being blocked, swords being swung, and bodies getting ripped apart by bullet fire. Bala and the occasional Cero were being fired as well, and some unfortunate officers managed to get caught in the crossfire. "Casualty status is unknown, and the threat level is at yellow!"

This was followed by her rising up from her cover and leveling her own pistol at the attacking and fighting figures. She opened fire, every bullet hitting their mark and several of their enemies going down.

Meanwhile, as Daisuke was heading towards the area....

"Planning to leave without me....?"

The presence of Sakura had graced him. She was jumping from building rooftop to rooftop, a small distance behind as she pursued Daisuke. The night wind whipped at her clothing, and chills were running down her spine at the feel of that as well as the sight of the smoke.

"Any idea who's leading the enemy," Kukkyona finished fastening his clothes together, his scarlet hair draped along his shoulders, just touching the white scarf that was wrapped snugly around his neck that draped down to the small of his back, the rest of his attire now fitted and ready, his Zanpakuto now apparent in their display, and was now wearing a black cloak in the similar size of his Captain's Haori, but bore no insignia of any kind.

Daisuke looked over his shoulder as she joined his leaping from roof top to roof top, her own clothing whipped around her lithe body in the chilling night air, giving her a almost predatorial look. Daisuke chuckled, winking at her as he responded confidently, "Not at all. If you were feeling as restless as I was, there was no way you could sleep through Avaron's communicator device ringing. Despite that fact, I saw smoke and fire long before I sensed the presence of so many Hollows, I think you'd be aching to get in on some of the action," he finished with a enthusiastic tone.

The two of them sped from the roof tops towards the spot of confrontation, the explosions were much louder, the smell of smoke was now becoming vaguely aware, and the shouts of combatants falling in battle, fighting with their might, was alarmingly close.

"None at all! The only thing I could go by is guesses, and even those are too damn vague at best!"

Sakura turned her gaze to look up at him, a smirk of her own gracing her features. "Who am I to pass up a good time to cut loose?" She answered back, quickly turning her gaze back towards the front. "Especially when the lot of 'em's a bunch of sitting ducks ready to get popped...." Her boots collided with the brick of the roof, and she skidded to a stop. "Hold right here!" This command was followed by a wave of her hand. "Get over here and crouch out of sight."

Bending over, she looked down at the ground several stories below them to see a squad of foot mobiles with blades drawn and their movements scourying every bit of the alley they were walking through. "Ahijados soldiers...." She muttered, mostly to herself but loud enough for Daisuke to hear. "They must've gotten tired of waiting around...."

Kukkyona picked up the radio transmitter, switching the toggle from 'speaker-phone' feature to the 'normal-talk', holding it a mere foot away from his own mouth as he walked at a calm pace, his scarf flowed gently across his shoulders and back with his scarlet hair, his face becoming more and more illuminated from the darkness as the moon shined dimly on his serious solemn features, "What's your position, Captain Avaron? I can be there garunteed within 2 minutes..."

Daisuke stopped in sync with her movements, slightly unnnerved at how attuned she was to combat, though from her past as a cultist member of the Red Suns, and a true believer, he had no idea currently what she could be capable of.

Thanks to his Spiritual Veil Overcoat, he was able to passively block his Spiritual Pressure, allowing his hidden perch with Sakura to remain hidden, although he didn't know how Sakura was able to effectively do the same, but he remained quiet of his queries, watching the Ahijados soldiers, garnered in white cloaks and their Zanpakuto drawn.

"Alright...I think I can take the front two without being noticed if the rear is taken out. Think you can handle that?" Daisuke asked as he motioned towards the rear two Arrancar, as he readied his left hand on the space below his Zanpakuto's hilt, thumbing the blade unlocked, ready for a quick draw at a given notice as his eyes carefully trailed the stray soldiers.

"Handle it? Please..."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the hidden implication of his words. She leaned forward a little, her legs tensing up and ready to spring at the given moment. She waited patiently as the Ahijados soldiers continued to move slowly and cautiously. However, they seemed to be relying more on their first five senses rather than their sixth. She, as well as he, was in a perfect position to take them out within a good amount of seconds.

Then, she boosted herself up, performing an elegant front-flip before beginning a bold descent downwards. An anticipating grin was on her face, and her eyes flashed with an eagerness that only her desire for battle and blood could drive her to. Within the silhouette of the moon, she looked like a bird of prey swooping down to capture the helpless mice that happened to be scurrying through the grass. It was a perfect way to describe the situation at hand.

She descended.

SLICE!

She wasted no time in shifting her hand, a sword seemingly materializing from her palm within a millisecond of the wrist twist. The first target didn't have time to even look when her blade sliced cleanly through his neck. His body froze up, all body functions stopping as the nerve center was disconnected from its controller. Then, as the head fell off, blood sprayed towards the sky in the form of a crimson geyser. The body fell to the cold ground, the red liquid staining the ground underneath their feet.

At the same time this was happening, Sakura was performing a ballerina spin. Her second hapless target had time to attempt to raise his blades up in an effort to defend himself and escape death's grasp a moment longer. However, his efforts came far too late, and cold steel tore cleanly through his midsection. His weapons escaped his hands, and his own body froze for a millisecond before it followed its partner. His two halves collapsed like rocks, leaving the killer to stand in front of what would be Daisuke's own victims. They immediately spun around, their swords flashing and raised in an effort to kill her. Yet she did not allow herself to raise in defense, a malicious smile gracing her beautiful features.

She knew what was coming.

Daisuke could only blink for a second at how fast she was, the grace she employed against her enemies and how quickly, not to mention easily she slayed them. She left him his targets like she said, the three turning on her, leaving him room only for a second as he descended soundlessly, his cloak fluttered around his body as the only inclination of his descent, dropping his right hand to the already unlatched Zanpakuto sword, preforming a Iaido style slice with expert poise and grace upon the enemy.

As his sandals hit the pavement, his sword already clicked back into the sheathe, blood spurt from the first Ahijado's neck spurted blood like a leaking faucet, he tried to clutch it as he gurgled and choked on his own blood, falling to his knees before falling in spasms onto the ground. But not before the arm of the approaching Ahijados soldier suddenly sliced open from the second cut-through of the attack, his arm falling slump onto the ground while his own stump discharged blood, causing him to shout a feral cry as he charged towards Daisuke to slash towards his brow.

Daisuke twirled expertly with the ball of his foot, side-stepping around the slash, landing a powerful Hakuda strike on the Ahijado's temple, a loud snapping sound was heard as his neck was lodged out of joint, and soon from the crackling sound of force, his body flew in a pinwheel motion, soaring through the alley-way to land like a rag doll further out of the dark, bloody battlefield they've carved.

The last Ahijados lunged, stabbing his own sword towards his chest, to which Daisuke uttered lowly as he crouched low and slapped both hands expertly onto the incoming blade, halting it, "Hado #11, Tsuzuri Raiden," a sudden bright yellow glow of electric energy traveled from the palms of his hands, up the blade into the Ahijados soldier, causing him to spasm and scream soundlessly as his vocals were burned out and his skin charred and crackling from the violent energy crawling in and out his nervous system. His body suddenly spasmed, eyes rolled to the back of his head, and then Daisuke let go of his sword, a slight cut formed on the bottom sides of his hands, letting the dead soldier fall to the ground onto his side.

Daisuke looked over, figruing he was not nearly as impressive as Sakura's entry and execution, but at least he got the job done, letting out a crooked smile, "Didn't expect you to jump so soon. You fight like a natural."

Kukkyona meanwhile was using Flash Step at a far more accelerated pace, moving from one roof top, to another, suddenly appearing onto the battle lines within a mere minute forty seconds, startling a couple of officers as they raised their weapons they saw he wasn't a Ahijados, then recognized him from before.

"C-Captain Kukkyona?!" One of them called out surprised, but Kukkyona halted anything else he might've said, raising a hand, asking,

"Where is Captain Avaron? I'm here to reinforce your defenses," Kukkyona said with calm and collect that only a combatant of centuries of experience would have.

Sakura closed her eyes and smiled cockily at the praise. "Don't flatter me just yet." She chided coolly, opening her eyes to look over at him. The sound of more gunfire could be heard within the distance, meaning that there was still fighting going on. "We've got a long ways to go before we've shown each other the full extent of our abilities."

One of the officers managed to step up, a somewhat nervous look on his face. "She headed a few blocks left of us in order to scout out more of their numbers. She went with Sergeant Sonoda and his squad and told us to keep watch down here, b-but we also saw a mass of foot mobiles follow their path soon after. We haven't heard from them since!"

"Agreed...," he tapped the hilt of his Zanpakuto, smiling humored while saying, "Kyoi Abata is getting anxious for battle. He's already making wagers on how many of them we'd get in the first strike. He's so reckless like that, I often try to keep from releasing him straight away," he admonished before straightening his face into a hardened serious expression as he heard more gunfire.

"C'mon...let's get moving," Daisuke ushered with a nod, jogging past her, before initiating a Flash Step, moving at accelerated paces to head towards the enemy line once again.

Kukkyona narrowed his eyes, looking towards the alley where the frigthened officer pointed, making a few steps towards that direction. The wind blew by their position, his scarf and hair flew around him and his dark cloak, his hands remained at his sides as he said, "Hold the line here, officer. I'll be back with Captain Avaron shortly," he said in a smooth, confident voice, immediately of disappearing via Flash Step afterwards, the slight sound of a sword grinding on stone was heard in its aftermath as he left.

He moved swiftly and quickly, trying to see if he could sense the enemy, hoping he would find the Captain fighting for her life as well.

That being said, Sakura twisted around and allowed herself to follow close behind, her own speed technique causing her to vanish with a ghost-like VOOM. She kept on his tail, her eyes searching around for any more threats.

On Kukkyona's side, in the area where he was approaching, a battle was taking place.

Avaron was huddled against a building alleyway, bruised and with minor injuries. However, her eyes were concentrated and narrowed, her body alert and ready to react at the slightest happening. Her situation was looking rather bad, to be honest. After she had split up from Kenta and his own squad so that they could hold another part of the town, she had been abruptly cut off by a multitude of Ahijados. She managed to fight them off, but had been pressed to retreat several blocks. Now, the survivors of the duel were converging on her position and ready to tear her apart.

Of course, she was no helpless victim. She closed her eyes, bringing the back of her Kidō pistol to her face as if in prayer for good luck. She took a discceet breath, waiting patiently as the six Arrancar came closer and closer. It would take skill and patience in order to survive what was to come, and had it been a lesser woman, she would've been victimized and killed quite easily. The cult members were no joke, having taken out a considerable amount of her forces. If she made one slip-up, she would die and all of her squadron's hopes would be taken down with her.

The first time had to count.

She made her move.

Instantly, she rushed from cover and rushed at the team, unleashing a volley of shots in their direction. Her lethal accuracy as well as the sudden change of pace had caught them off-guard. Within seconds, three were downed and dropped. The other three took this time to rush at her, forcing her to re-coil and take aim quickly on one of them. Pulling the trigger, she first shot at his hand, and then swerved the barrel to fire at his head. The first bullet managed to tear through the target's fingers, and the second hit dead in the center to end his life permanently.

The two managed to close the distance.

The nearest one raised his blade and unleashed a flurry of swipes. Avaron's eyes widened in shock, and she broke out of her ironsight stance in order to avoid being cut down. Swipe after swipe, the blade was nearing her person, and it would be only a matter of time before the second managed to trap her. Thinking quickly, she dodged under one more swipe and moved underneath his guard. Her free arm reached out andwrapped around his, and she turned her body to twist his arm in a painful lock. He let out a howl, dropping his sword in pain and trying to shove her off.

The second charged in, his own blade raised. However, Avaron was ready. Swinging a leg up, she landed a hard kick right in his chest to stun him and force him to the ground before suddenly releasing her captive. She angled her gun to point off to her side, shooting the newly freed enemy and killing him before he could make a move. Then, with deadly reflexes, she swung her gun towards the final enemy--

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!

--and promptly extinguished his life forever.

After the final gunshot, Avaron waited for a moment to catch her breath. She was panting, sweat falling down her face. However, she was smiling a little at her victory, twirling her gun around her finger as a means to show-off a little. It was all right - she had just faced horrifying odds and came out like a professional. There was still more to go, but now with those six Arrancar dead, she could breathe a little easier....

"Captain Avaron," Kukkyona spoke as she breathed easier from her exceptional execution of the 6 Arrancar, witnessing it all firsthand, but supressed the urge to intervene, truly wanting to witness the skills of a Non-Soul Reaper against Spiritually empowered beings like Arrancars. After what he just witnessed, it would truly take a great number of the cultists to bring even one of the officers down, if they were anything like their commander.

"I saw the battle firsthand...impressive footwork and marksmanship," he said a cool collect voice as always, looking over the Arrancars bleeding, smoking corpses, not bothering to examine them to see if they were dead, clearly from the marks, they'd wish not to live through it. "I came to reinforce your forces, but I see they're spread pretty thin...where would you have me go first?"

Daisuke halted ontop another rooftop, Sakura was nearby he knew, his cloak billowed around him as he took his right foot and pressed it on the edge of the building and looked down, seeing a barrage of gunfire exchanged by a few squads of officers and what looked like 3 times their number of Ahijados coming towards them, some batting away the yellow streams of gunfire with expert timing, others blurred away, while the others were less fortunate, their bodies' sprayed with blood and gore as the rounds ripped them apart effectively, leaving them to bleed out in the streets they were rushin in from.

Daisuke did not even need to debate this, seeing as a time for action rather than planning, he used a Flash Step, reappearing deftly with the sound of a spark being set off as his signature tell-tale sign, startling some of the officers but halted as they saw his attire and features were most certainly not of the Ahijados.

"Stand back and reinforce the city farther inwards. Ahijados are infiltrating further into the city and you need to get the city reinforced while you can," Daisuke commanded as he unsheathed his Zanpakuto with a loud scraping sound, humming in the air as his Spiritual Pressure gradually began to climb.

"You think you can take them by yourself?! Kid...let us do our jo-" he was cut off as Daisuke's Spiritual Pressure skyrocketed, a bright red aura surrounded himself and his Zanpakuto, his eyes glowed red of his resolve to kill his enemies, anyone with Spiritual Energy would've felt a nearly burning choking feeling from his Spiritual Pressure being so close and flaring.

"Get out of here....now...before you get caught in the crossfire!" Daisuke yelled out, further encouraging the weary officers to run back, already 3 Ahijados reached their lines, leaping towards them with swords slashing towards them. However, within burst of three Flash Steps, Daisuke slashed each and every of the Ahijados soldiers through their abdomens, causing them to scream in pain as they fell effectively defeated and now bleeding themselves in the streets as Daisuke's Zanpakuto bled and began to ignite.

"Now...Blaze Eternally...Kyoi Abata!" Daisuke's Zanpakuto suddenly changed shape slightly, two hooks extended from the near edge of his Zanpakuto's blade, curving forward like horns, and flames suddenly crawled the whole length of his Zanpakuto and blazed brightly around himself, his cloak billowed around him in a violent and dramatic fashion as he gazed at the chargin onslaught of enemies.

With a raise of his newly transformed Zanpakuto, he yelled out with declaration his Zanpakuto's attack as he swung downwards, "Kasai no kushiyaki, Kyoi Abata!" A sudden large stream of flames sprayed from his sword, enveloping a whole line of enemies in its fiery embrace, causing a good 8 of the Ahijados soldiers to be caught immediately, being too close to dodge, as their bodies were consumed in fiery embrace and thrashed violently on the ground before their charred corpses laid still.

Upon the rooftops, Sakura was watching the battle with astonishment. Her face was illuminated by the fires that enveloped their enemies with a merciless intent. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, inhaling the scent of their charred bodies as they were incinerated. Her ears picked up the screams - music to her tainted ears. A shiver ran down her spine at the newfound feelings, and she couldn't help but laugh in a moment of ecstasy. "Yeah!!" She shouted, raising her sword in the air in a battle cheer.

Upon hearing Kukkyōna's voice, Avaron snapped her head upwards, eyes widening slightly at the sight of the elder. However, she broke into a small smile, holstering her gun upwards. "Nice to know someone out there appreciates the talents of the police...." She said lightly. However, she was quick to take on a more serious tone, turning her gaze towards the road ahead of them. She lifted her gun in order to point down the road. "This attack claimed a lot of good lives, but we were able to push them back. Right now, they're regrouping for one final defense and falling back as we speak. I've managed to radio in vehicle support, but I couldn't relay the coordinates to attack due to a weak signal. If you can get me on the rooftop of one of the buildings nearby the beach, I should be able to radio them in, and we can corner them all."

Daisuke's conentration blocked off any retorts he would've thrown at Sakura's battle cheer, but the effect was not lost to him. He felt invigorated by the encouragement, even if it wasn't directed for him, he felt it none-the-less, his body blazing in a thick, sparking red aura as his eyes vehemently looked upon the oncoming cultist soldiers, their bodies curled through the standing flames before their white, slightly charred cloaks came into view as they crouched low to the ground as they charged towards him, intent on using their pure numbers to overpower him.

Daisuke was counting on that. As they closed in on him, he used Flash Step, disappearing for a split second before reappearing above them, a fiery sphere gathered around the 'horn' spikes of his Zanpakuto before he growled out, "Kami kizu o moyashi, Kyoi Abata!" letting loose a condensed, fireball towards the gathered group below, two managed to whiz away before it impacted, but by then it was too late for the 5 others, as a large explosion rocked the street below, completely ripping apart the two in its blast radius before launching the others in a screaming, pinwheeling, charred projectiles across the battlefield, their bodies crashing into various parts of the street or into nearby buildings, spreading small fires around the area.

Daisuke landed back amongst the aftermath of his technique, his black cloak emanated a few fires from his own technique, but gave him a menacing appearance as he reappeared on the other side, red eyes glowing with killing intent, it almost made him look like a demon to the eyes of the Ahijados soldiers.

"If you continue...I assure you, you will die here!" Daisuke roared out in a menacing guttural voice, his eyes gazing brightly upon the remaining dozen Ahijados, the others have retreated to fight in another battle less lethal to their lives.

The lead Ahijados soldier simplly cocked his neck to one side, then the other, making audilbe cracking sounds, before he charged forward, the other Ahijados charged with him with battle cries, their swords shining brightly in the wake of the fiery light and the moonlight above, their white forms raced across the streets towards him like a pack of wild animals.

Daisuke then moved his Zanpakuto to be parallel to his body, holding his other palm to rest at the back of the burning blade, surprisingly not harming his palm due to the heightened attunement with his Zanpakuto and himself, waiting for a few seconds as they approached he uttered lowly the beginning of a Kido spell, "Hado #32, Okasen," suddenly a sphere of gathering yellow energy formed at the middle of the parallel set Zanpakuto, then discharged in a wide arc, claiming the first 6 of the mindlessly charging Ahijados, slicing them and incinerating their bodies in its violent wake.

As the others leapt into the air to avoid it, they descended with blades singing into the air, meeting a burning hooked sword, sparks and clangs of swords erupted as Daisuke began to simultaneously exchange parries with 6 Ahijados soldiers, forcing them back with amazing strength so he could clash swords with the other 3 coming at him.

He then stepped around a thrust of one Ahijados, severing his torso in a incerating slice, causing him to slightly gurgle before spasming, his halves arleady seared shut by his hot blazing Zanpakuto, before vaulting over another, slicing into another Ahijados soldiers shoulder and past his heart, causing near instaneous death as his body was lit aflame by the Zanpakuto's aura.

As another Ahijados thrust forward, he palmed the wrist of the sword hand before twisting around his Zanpakuto so the pommel smashed into his throat, crushing it, and causing him to choke and die a horrible death as Daisuke repelled another enemy, his eyes glowing back into the faceless soldier, feeling the fear radiate from him despite his undying resolve in attacking him. He then lit his Zanpakuto aflame, uttering, "Kyoi Abata," and discharged a large, potent amount of flames as he shoved him back, enveloping him in red hot fire, causing him to scream backwards as he cartwheeled into a building, smashing into it violently, before falling limply to the ground.

Then two at once attacked him from behind, to which Daisuke responded by using Flash Step once more, moving only a few feet forward, missing their sword strikes completely before turning around and extending his hand, uttering another incantation, "Bakudo #4, Hainawa," a rope of yellow binding energy was thrown from his palm, tying both of the Ahijados soldiers' Zanpakuto together, slightly stunning them at their predicament. Daisuke then rushed at them, moving in several bounds, the two desperately tried to break the spell, but were a second too late, as Daisuke grinded the edge of his Zanpakuto along the street, enveloping it into flames before throwing a wave of fire at them, causing a pyrotechnic explosion, blasting their screaming forms into ashes instantly, their weapons flew backwards, razor hot projectiles as they flew into the opposite building with a crash, causing another small fire amongts the battlefield.

Daisuke held his Zanpakuto in the stance he left it in his execution, his eyes began to dim and the enemy was defeated here. He stood up straight and tall, not so much as a scratch on himself, as he flaked his sword outwards, depositing a few flakes of ashes and blood off his Zanpakuto while reverting it into its sealed form, and sheathed his Zanpakuto with a audible click amongst the crackling and burning flames around him.

"One battle down...," he said lowly, a somber look was shown on him, showing he had no enjoyment for cutting loose in this manner, slaying the Ahijados, but felt a sense of relief that he stopped their mayhem here.

Kukkyona quickly grabbed a hold of her shoulder, saying, "Brace yourself," before taking her with him in whizzing motion, a sound of his Flash Step emanated in the sound of a sword grinding before it was gone as suddenly as it arrived.

His body and Avaron's rushed over ground in a very swift fashion, moving from one building top to another, before they arrived within less than a couple minutes, within enough time to here violent explosions and plumes of flame emanate in the distance, sounding off Daisuke's own battle, but did not distract Kukkyona as he stopped on one of the building tops where she desired, releasing her swiftly as he halted, looking at her expectantly.

"This is close enough," he proclaimed calmly, knowing that he calculated correctly.

"Ugh...."

Unfortunately, Avaron was not used to such travel. She blinked a few times, stepping forth a little and shaking her head in order to clear out her head. Fortunately, it only took seconds for her to recover her bear. She pressed a button to her earpiece, contacting her desired reinforcements. "This is Setsuko to Vehicle Team Foxtrot, do you copy? Over!"'' She called out, walking towards the edge of the roof to look down. She could clearly see Ahijados moving through the street at a rapid pace.''

However, her luck couldn't have been better.

'''BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!'''

Her eyes widened as she witnessed three pulses of Kidō energy hit the multitude head-on, blowing their numbers and bodies apart. ''"We read you five by five, Captain...."' The low, gruff voice of what presumed to be the leader of the vehicle unit said. At the base of the building, a convoy of jeeps and trucks mounted with heavy Kidō cannons were driving on the road, stopping in front of the building they were on. ''"Looked like you could use the help...."

A relieved grin broke out on Avaron's face. "You damn bastard.... showing up late and taking all the credit! We'll meet you at ground level. Out." With that, she cut the connection and turned towards the other captain, sheathing the gun on her waist. "This might be where we'll have to split paths, unless you want to come along..." She explained, taking a few steps towards him. "I'll be directing the convoy from their point of view in order to keep it effective as possible. Reports told me that your son had showed up beforehand with that woman in tow. Might want to meet up with him and see how things are on his end....right.....?"

There was a reason her voice trailed off.

For within the end of her words, her ears picked up the sound of flute playing, loud and clear. The tune was haunting, its slow and deliberate rhythm sending a chill down her spine. It was strange enough to hear that alone.... but it seemed as if it was being broadcasted over the city. Below her, the escorts of the convoy unit stopped, expressions of confusion and wonder as they looked around for the source. "What in the hell.....?" She muttered in disbelief.

Kukkyona looked around, suddenly hearing the strange flute sound being broadcasted...or the impression of being broadcasted around the city, its tune eery...and almost like a calling card.

"The attack on the city was a ruse, Captain Avaron," Kukkyona said with affirmation, feeling a strange omnicience approaching their position, "the real fight is about to begin..."

Ruses and Revelations
Daisuke looked over at Sakura's position, waving her down, saying, "You going to gawk at me all day, or are we going to keep moving?" He chuckled after what he said, smiling brightly again to encourage her to continue on, but suddenly heard the strange flute sound abound their location, echoing through the city in its eery sound.

"The hell...is that music?" Daisuke muttered aloud as he looked around in disbelief, wondering where on earth that could be coming from.

However, instead of disbelief, Sakura's face contorted to one of apprehension. Out of the mass, she would be the one to recognize where such music came from, as it was within the scriptures of Red Sun. Immediately, she gritted her teeth, eyes narrowed at Daisuke in urgency. "Hayate!!!" She called out. "Get your ass up here and follow me!! We're taking a little detour!!!" She sheathed her sword and turned her back, not bothering to check if Daisuke was following her. The commanding and urgent tone she had taken would ensure that he would.

Out of the corner of her eye, Avaron spotted something standing on a building on the opposite side of the road. He looked like a homeless man, with a red hood covering his head, a trenchcoat covering his torso, bandages covering his hands, and slightly tattered blue jeans and sneakers covering his legs and feet. However, what had gotten her attention was the way he stood - like a commander overlooking the progress of a battle between his soldiers and the enemy. It was all too clear from the aura he was emanating from his person that he was one of the leaders of the assault.

She raised her finger to point. "Over the--!" cc However, she couldn't finish the rest of her sentence.

A terrible aura swept over her, pressurizing around her entire body. Her face immediately changed to that of horror, and she collapsed on her knees, her body shivering and shaking in an involuntary manner. Her skin had gone pale, and the life in her eyes had instantly vanished. Despair.... depression.... it was washing over her like bad water, and all she could do was quiver in terror at the newfound feelings....

"S-Sakura!" He started to say as she commanded him, quickly using Flash Step to catch up to her, his cloak billowed around his arms, neck, and legs as he leaped from one building top to another, managing to keep a reasonable pace, he began to yell over to her, "the hell is this music?! Do you know what it means?!"

Kukkyona himself widened his eyes as he saw the figure, and the exuding aura that was filling his own body with foreign feelings to the composed and collected Noble. After a few moments of feeling it, he narrowed his eyes at the man standing across from him, suddenly grabbing Avaron by her shoulder and brought her to stand behind him, now flaring Spiritual Pressure of his own, drowning out the foreign emotions with pure resolve and will, his body glowed a dark red as his eyes reflected his resolve to stand firm in the wake of the powerful aura.

"Stand behind me, Captain. My own Spiritual Pressure should drown out this wave of emotions he seems to be exuding," he knew she wouldn't like it, but his massive Spiritual Pressure would also keep her down inadverdantly because of its dense feeling in the air, though he tried to direct it in the wave the hooded man's exuding will-breaking aura.

His voice carried with a commanding tone, calling out to him over the great expanse, "I know you're the leader of these Arrancar, and also a conspirator of the Red Sun cult operating here. But what I want to know, is your name, stranger!"

Her orange hair whipping across her face as she continued to fly across the rooftops, Sakura could only look back over her shoulder. "At the moment, it means only two things. One.... we've all been duped into thinking that this was a victory. Two.... there is at least one being of Red Sun that we're going to be meeting as of this very moment if we keep going the way we are...." She turned her head back, eyes searching around and her senses active.

Behind Kukkyōna, Avaron had fallen on her hands and knees, breathing hard and a distraught look on her face. "M... Oh, K-kami...." She managed to sputter weakly, now that Kukkyōna's energy was protecting her from the horrifying aura that had permeated her just moments before. She looked over her shoulder at him. "I owe you my life on that one, Hayate....."

On the opposite building, the figure remained silent at the commanding tone. If he reacted at all to the demanding words, he was not showing it and was truly a master at hiding the emotions underneath. He raised a hand, slowly and deliberately towards the Shinigami Captain to point a lone finger. Then, he flicked that finger slightly in the air, indicating a gunshot being fired. In that same slow and deliberate manner, he lowered his arm back down, and the depression-induced aura faded from their minds and bodies completely. He continued to stare at them a moment more, not moving an inch.

Then, he turned away, vanishing in a cloud of black smoke.

The music stopped.

"Hold on a minute! The Red Sun are REAL?!" Daisuke croaked out in a unbelieving sputter, not meaning to be rude, but he thought deities are usually either overwhelming beings holding the fabric of chaos and order together, or near-non-existant, at one point in time they did but left humanity and the passed away souls to their own devices.

He just gawked at her as he kept up his speed and movements with hers, trying to figure out how she knew all this...and how the hell she knew it was a Red Sun they were about to meet.

"Hold it!" Kukkyona yelled out angrily, after arching his brow at the 'gun shot' the hooded man imitated. He then preformed a Flash Step so fast, he was on the rooftop the hooded man was on less than a second, reaching his hand into the smoke, trying to sense him before he got too far away.

However, he was completely gone. There was no trace of the man left, nothing left to sense. He had simply vanished into thin air, as if he had never been there in the first place. Avaron slowly allowed herself to get up, the sweat still prominent on her face as she stared at the opposite rooftop with apprehension and fear. "....a hundred and something years old....." She muttered softly, the wind chilling her bones far than she ever thought it could. "....and I have never experienced something like that. What in the hell was that thing....?"

Kukkyona let a disconcerted expression cross his face, as the being simply vanished, without a trace of its presence or unusual aura.

"Never in all my years have I felt a being that...frightening," Kukkyona voiced aloud, looking straight in the direction he saw that figure eerily disappeared. He turned around, and swiftly returned to a traumatized Avaron, reaching a hand down to help her onto her feet, asking, "Are you alright, Captain Avaron?"

Daisuke suddenly turned his head about as they were still in motion, saying aloud, "I-It stopped?!"

"Down here!"

Sakura suddenly jumped down from the building in order to land expertly in a crouched position on the ground, standing back up with her sword lowered, but ready. She was narrowing her eyes at the structure before them. It was a mausoleum building, one heavily damaged due to the attack. "I'm sensing a hell of a spiritual energy within that building. We're at the right place...." She reported, walking up to the closed doors and placing her hand on it, waiting for Daisuke to take up the position behind her for support.

Avaron nodded quickly, waving her hand in order to empahsize. "For all that it's worth, I'm fine on my end!" She managed to say, her lack of breath hindering her speech somewhat.

Kukkyona looked back at where the man stood, wondering where to go from here. He whisked around back to her, asking quickly, "What's the status of the city?! I'm sure he didn't just retreat to fight another day, they put way too much manpower into this battle to this be a defeat."

Daisuke landed down in a crouch as well, soundlessly dropping due to some well-placed Spiritual energy at the soles of his feet. He backed her up, walking nearby, hand unsheathing his sword quietly, ready to fight on a given moment's notice.

"Ready, Sakura," he said in a low voice, momentarily watching her with a concerned expression before eyeing the door she would enter with him behind her.

WHAM!!!

Sakura immediately kicked open the door, the high-heeled boot smashing through the material and blowing the doors off of their hinges. She quickly stormed inside, sword leveled at what was in front of what appeared to be a manmade coffin. In front of it were two fingers that were on their knees, seemingly in prayer. However, on top of the coffin, a young boy with pale skin, long hair, and yellow eyes was sitting casually on it, occasionally swinging his legs. In his hands was a flute - the indication that he had been the one playing the music.

When the door was blasted open, none of them flinched from their actions. Instead, the boy raised his head up to look at them for a moment. Then, he smiled and gave a slight nod before disappearing without a sound. The two remaining allowed themselves to stand up, turning slowly to face them. One was a blonde male, and another was a black-haired female. However, both of them could be recognized as Arrancar, and their type of clothing marked them as significant to the Red Sun cause.

"And so, the infidels come to corner us...." The blonde male said, a rather arrogant smirk across his features as his grey eyes cast themselves upon the two.

"Maybe that's what they want us to think...." Avaron stated gravely, looking down at the dead Ahijados. "As much as their numbers are, it just doesn't feel right.... this is way too much manpower just to be striking at the beachhead like this. If they had such strength, they might as well should've overwhelmed this particular city...."

Daisuke blinked as the young boy disappeared, smiling before he left, leaving a pair of individuals before them, one was a arrogant blonde man, his facial features initially seen as a handsome man with long blonde hair, his gray eyes shined of cocky nature. The other, seemed more composed, and simply glanced at them...she made Daisuke unnerved.

He focused back at the boasting blonde man, clearly both of them were Arrancar from their unusual Spiritual Pressure and their mask fragments on their faces, gripping his Zanpakuto tightly, he then held up the sword towards the cocky one, putting on a grin of his own, saying, "That's right! Now why don't you give me your names and surrender yourselves, eh? My name is Daisuke Hayate, Lieutenant of Squad 9!"

Kukkyona suddenly blinked, looking around, he felt almost an ominous feeling, saying, "Is...that possible? What are their motives? What are they trying to accomplish?"

"Hell if I know...." Avaron allowed her eyes to look over the city, even as she lifted a finger to her earpiece. "But I just hope that whatever it is, it's revealed in those codes you gave us." She clicked on the earpiece, eyes attentative. "Sorry about the delay, Disciple. Move your unit forward towards the east and clear out any remaining Ahijados forces."

"Roger that!"

That being said, the convoy began to move slowly, their gunners trained on the buildings. The commander allowed herself to look on as they departed, before letting out somewhat of a tired sigh. "I'm going to have a lot of paperwork to do once all of this is over...."

As if issued a challenge, the male Arrancar stood in a more confident stance, but not drawing his sword. "Findor Carias...." He spoke with a rather elegant tone, but still holding cockiness. "Second-in-command of this little operation."

The female had her arms folded across her chest, eyes simply analyzing the two. Her stance was more relaxed, and she did not seem to mind the fact that there were two spiritual entities with weapons raised at her. "Cortez Selestino." She answered simply. "Sorry, though..... we don't plan on surrendering any time soon. Not when things are moving accordingly....."

Sakura gave a scoff. "You're fucking kidding me. We just got done blowing the hell out of your little assault. Right now, you're probably the only ones that are still alive and on their side. Just make it less painful for yourself and give up!" To emphasize, she held her blade out at the composed Arrancar, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Kukkyona stared over the open space, now pocketed with various smoldering clouds of smoke from various skirmishes within the city.

"Captain...how much longer on that data. I have a dreadful feeling that something is about to occur worse than the initial invasion," Kukkyona said in a worried voice, the first time he's ever showed any sort of negative emotion since meeting her.

Daisuke smirked, talking over to Findor, seeing that the other Arrancar had no desire to talk, deciding to get the other one worked up, "You must have a lot of guts starting a war with this city. Did you really think you Arrancars could escape the notice of the Gotei 13? How pathetically naive of you," pushed his foot behind himself, moving into a crouch, holding his sword with both hands and looking with a mocking smile saying, "I'm guessing you're the one behind the planning of your so-called 'invasion'. I see your leader over there is the smarter of the two of you, and she wanted to make fun of you by letting YOU attack the city, am I right?"

To a certain extent, Findor seemed to take the bait. He scoffed, teeth gritting slightly and eyes positioned in a somewhat indignant manner. "Tch! Such is the talk of a Shinigami, talking like professionals but always ignorant to the real picture!" He declared, pausing for a moment. A slow smile once again came across his face. "But, then again, you are a mere Lieutenant, so I wouldn't expect you to understand intelligent minds like us...."

"At the moment.... three days tops." Avaron answered grimly, a disdainful frown on her face as she turned her head towards him. "And that's time we don't have, considering the circumstances." The night air continued to blow, and the apprehension within the battlefield seemed to be brought along with it. "In any case, we'll need to get the military's attention right away so they can start preparations for placement and evacuation."

"I wouldn't get cocky...Findor Carias," Daisuke said with a smile, scraping the ground behind him as he lunged forward, slashing in a diagonal uppercut swing, aiming to move along the underside of one's ribcage and up in between his right shoulder past his torso, "for Lieutenants are the right hand of their Captains...for a good reason!"

The sudden action almost caught Findor off-guard. His visible eye widened in surprise, and he instinctively took a step back. The blade raced by his front, and the tip of the teeth scraping his clothing. However, within that motion, his smile turned into a grin enhanced by the excitement that only fighting could bring. "Well then, Lieutenant...." He spun on the ball of his foot, drawing his sword and swinging in an expertly performed Iaido slash. "Let's see how effective of a right hand you really are!"

The sudden counterattack was expected, Daisuke promptly planted his foot where he stood and leaned back, the rush of the blade cut through his Spiritual Veil Overcoat, revealing some of his formal wear underneath, before he outstretched his hand in a follow-up motion, uttering sternly, "Okasen!" issuing a brief sphere of yellow energy to form at his left palm, then expanding in length as it discharges towards Findor, cutting along the expanse of the nearby wall on Findor's left, perfectly sliding through it as a testament of the Kido spell's strength as it bore upon the Fraccion.

"We don't have that kind of time," Kukkyona said plainly, looking over at Avaron, his eyes full of worry and urgency, as he finished, "the enemy is still in the city. We have to find out what their plan is now before its too late!"

"Well, unless you have someone that's willing to tell us directly, or happen to have another idea...." Avaron answered simply, folding her arms across her chest and furrowing her eyebrows. "We don't have much choice. The police will do whatever it takes to quell the threat, but we can only go so far by ourselves...."

It was apparent that a duel was now taking place.

Both Sakura and Cortez seemed to recognize this, but decided not to interfere. With the former smiling a little at Daisuke's desire to fight, both of the women stepped out of the way. In the case of the male Arrancar, he performed a backflip onto the tomb, then a Sonido to vanish out of the beam's path. Now unguided and unhindered, it continued on...

BOOM!

...to cut through the wall and blowing open a hole that had been behind him. He re-appeared at the energy's disappearance, leaping out through the smoke and debris in order to bring the fight to the outside.

Kukkyona felt something familar, what felt like an explosion, caused by a Kido spell. It came from his 11 o'clock, and his gaze drifted to a small cloud of smoke rising in the distance.

"Captain...how long ago was there any word of your force clearing that area?" Kukkyona was going by hunch alone, but he only knew of two individuals who wielded Kido spells, not guns. Himself and his son. He hoped that this was an isolated fight, but if it was the conspirators behind this attack, they had to waste no time to intervene as soon as possible.

"I'm not letting you leave!" Daisuke yelled after him, using a Flash Step to follow his Sonido, appearing outside, leaving a 'hole' gust through the cloud of smoke the Kido created, seeing the Kido had crashed into the opposite building across, as well as patter the street with rubble.

"Wha--"

Avaron turned her head around to face the area, immediately recognizing it. "That's the Mausoleum of the old King!" She exclaimed, a slight expression of confusion crossing her face. "My forces cleared that place long ago, why would there be fighting now of all times?"

This time, Findor was right over his head and descending, his sword raised for a split second before swinging at his opponent's neck in an effort to decapitate the Shinigami. His blade seemed to cut the very air as it moved, and even his simple movements were of a very acrobatic quality. The smoke and debris was used as a means to cover his advance and provide a well-placed ambush.

Cortez faced the hole with her arms folded across her chest, Sakura standing a few ways off behind her. "It's a shame that such a valiant effort will be put to waste once the prophecy concerning this city is complete...." She spoke to the other woman, not bothering to face her in any way. "The effort of such mortal minds won't be enough to stop Red Sun from fulfilling its century-long legacy."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and scowled, promptly sheathing her own blade. "We're not mere mortals like the humans." She said in annoyance, resting one hand on her sheath out of an idle position. "You sure have your shit far off, comparing us to the likes of them."

Cortez smiled a little. "Do I?"

Daisuke gritted his teeth, as he raised his sword over his shoulder, taking the brunt of the decisive violent strike, stopping it with a loud clash of metal and metal, sparks flaring from the slash that would've taken off his head. But while he had him in the sword lock he uttered lowly, "Tsuzuri Raiden," his sword lit up with yellow electricity, and if still connected with Findor's sword, it would crawl up the length and shock the Fraccion violently, hoping to stun him long enough to give himself some space to counter-attack.

Kukkyona narrowed his eyes at the Mausoleum she said was to be there, walking briskly to the edge of the rooftop, looking towards it, his senses indicated a Arrancar fighting another opponent, his own Spiritual Pressure was cloaked, and he knew it was due to the Spiritual Veil Overcoat he wore.

"Daisuke," he briefly spoke as he looked towards the area, before speaking aloud to Avaron, saying, "deploy any spare troops you have into that region and secure a perimeter as soon as you can. Once they are in position, I'll personally see to it, any enemies within the perimiter are destroyed," he looked back at her, his commanding presence was back, and his eyes showed a cool confident manner only a Captain would possess.

Giving only a brief nod, Avaron clicked her communication earpiece. "Disciple! We've got a change of plans!" She barked. "Re-direct the convoy in order to secure a perimeter around the mausoleum., but only engage on my mark!" Her own expression was fierce and commanding, the experience now sending forth a spark of resolve within her person. "For the enemy forces that attempt to intercept you on the way there, I want them dead!!!"

"Affirmative! Rules of engagement indiscriminatory. Out!"

Within the swordlock, Findor immediately ripped his blade away before the lightning could spread, his boots hitting the ground. As soon as he landed, he crouched low and started to thrust his legs forward, a series of ferocious lunge stabs directed in a wide target range at Daisuke's body. A chuckle, borderlining on the class of mania, escaped his lips as he executed his malignant but elegant strikes.

Daisuke spun on the ball of his feet, catching the lunges and stabs expertly, backing up only due to the ferocity of the manic laughing Arrancar, matching blow for blow, ducking weaving expertly around each and every slash and lunge strike. Once he struck once more, he added a bit of his own, incredible strength, batting away the sword completely away to the Arrancar's right, still in his grip however, but allowed him to follow up with another jab towards the Arrancar's shoulder, hoping to deal a blow to the seemingly mad opponent.

A duck, and Findor had avoided contact.

With a swift, fluid motion, he dropped the sword tip to the ground and swung it upwards, spraying dirt and debris into Daisuke's face. At the tip of that motion, he turned the blade and swung back down, this time aiming to cut through the Lieutenant's chest.

"--I'm getting really sick of listening to you talk. Maybe it's time you put that mouth away...."

Abruptly, Sakura unsheathed her sword, drawing it outwards towards the seemingly stoic Cortez. "....and trade it for your sword instead!!" She finished, punctuating this with a thrust of her legs. She gripped her hilt tightly in both hands, swinging in a diagonal uppercut once she was close enough. The other Arrancar didn't move, which was more of a reason to drive in the idea that she would simply die where she stood. A malicious grin appeared on Sakura's face at the thought, even as she executed the action to end her enemy's life.

Daisuke gasped as the dirt and debris hit his face, making him blink and obscuring his vision, but had enough to see the impending blade coming, knowing he did not have enough time to repel it with his own sword, he charged spiritual energy rapidly with his left middle finger before flicking it outwards, sending a silent Kido Spell, Hado #1 Sho, towards the blade, pushing it away in the opposite direction to keep himself from being cut. Following up with that, he swung down angrily towards the Arrancar's shoulder downwards, intending on sending a powerful slash across his body, hoping it would at least distance himself from the hyperactive opponent.

FING! HISSSSSSSS!

That was the sound of a Spiritual energy in a condensed form meeting the metal of Sakura's own katana. A dark hood, black cloaked, crimson armored being, his eyes glowed yellow malvolently and murderously silent, a hilt was extended in a left metalic handle, extending the spiritual energy blade from it, its glow was that of a violet hue, perfectly halting it with his own perfect timing and strength, creating sparks from the locked weapons, dropping them like dancing fireflies in a symphony of the deadly confrontation.

He then silently 'unsheathed' his other energy blade, this one red, thrusting it perfectly towards her abdomen to drive it through the offending woman's chest, to drive it away from his master.

"What the he--"

The new development was, needless to say, unexpected.

So of course, she could not react fast enough.

New pain filled her vision, and her expression contorted to one of horrified shock. Her cheeks puffed up for a split second, only for her mouth to exude a good amount of blood to drip downwards and cover the bulk of her chin. She bent over, eyes looking downwards at the blade sticking through her chest. "G...gah....?!!" She managed to sputter, unconsciously dropping her own sword in the process as a result to the critical blow delivered to her person.

"Fighting you would've been a pain in the ass...." Cortez said coolly, turning around to face the two. "But of course, that is where he came in. I'm glad I brought him along for the ride, wouldn't you agree?"

Immediately, Findor launched into another backflip, allowing him to evade his enemy's cutting edge. His flip landed him a small distance away, where he readied his sword once more. "I see that the Lieutenants of the Gotei 13 have not lost their luster while I was gone from their presence. Your skills are quite....interesting...." He commented, his polite manner of speaking having returned to him. But now, it held somewhat of a sadistic nature to it, intimidating in factor.

"Glad you speak so highly of us. I'm surprised your alive, since you speak out of experience rather than observation," Daisuke growled out as he wiped away the rest of the dirt from his eyes, before glaring at him, not exactly charmed by his speech or his expressions towards him, "not like I'm curious, how did you survive against a Lieutenant the first time?"

Swiftly pulling out the blade in a straight line, and lowering the blade away from his master's space, he launched a powerful kick at her wounded chest, aiming to send her across the room, for daring to raise a hand against the Primera, silently glaring daggers at her for the attempt.

WHUMPF!

The kick indeed send her flying, the strength enough to force her back out of the room. She let out a pained yell as she slammed onto her back, her vision blacking out for a split second. When it clicked back on, her vision had faded from clear to hazy. Unconsciously, she gripped around her neck, fingers clenching for a brief second. Then, she let out a defeated sight, closing her eyes. She had managed to step quickly enough for the blow to be a non-lethal one... but she was out of the fight, for now. Her body allowed itself to go limp, and her mind slowly drifted away.

"Don't die on me yet, Hayate...." Was her last thought, before her world became black.

"Oh! Now why would I bother telling someone who isn't curious?" Findor inquired, cocking an eyebrow in amusement. "Regardless, it shouldn't be any of your concern. The simple fact of the matter is that I am still alive and breathing, and that I am also your opponent." With that, he readied his sword once more before swinging. However, a steady stream of Bala was unleashed upon each swing like a blaze of gunfire, attempting to catch his opponent within its web. "Take this!"

The wordless man 'sheathed' his weapons, defusing them before strapping them to his belt, turning to face his master, kneeling and bowing his head reverantly, a wordless act of requesting anymore duties he's needed of before returning to his 'post', now that he swiftly and thoroughly dealt with the opponent.

"SHI-," Daisuke opened his eyes wide as the spray of Balas were emitted, slightly swearing as he began to rapidly employing Flash Step, appearing to and fro via blurred visages of himself, angling his body in between every 'step', trying to elude them all. He then directed one of his last Flash Steps upwards, into the sky above about 15 meters, disengaging from the evasion of the wide spread amount of Balas, leaving a tandem of destruction down the street, ripping it apart by the ferocity it created as well as rip the faces off of houses nearby.

Daisuke managed to outstretch his left hand, gathering blue energy in his palm before shouting out, "Hado #33, Sokatsui!" sending a wide blast of blue destructive energy at Findor below, aiming to catch him off guard by his rapid retreat and reappearnce above.

"I'll see you later, Captain Avaron," Kukkyona said as he leaped off the edge of the building, landing on a plane created by spiritual energy in the air, before he called back, "call me on the radio for status updates. I fear we don't have much time," before he left, via Flash Step, his form disappearing from view as he moved swiftly towards the area of the battle, witnessing a massive array of explosions thundering in the distance, showing the ferocity of the attack even from afar.

Avaron could only watch him go and disappear. She stood on that rooftop for a moment more, looking at the spot in where he had left. Then, with a somewhat disheartened look, she walked off through the door that led down to ground level. Now that everything was stable, there was only one thing to do. Her sergeant had not reported in since the beginning of the attack, and she could guess what he was doing. As she walked down, she clicked a hand to her earpiece and set the frequency. "Setsuko to Sonoda. Do you read?"

"Hah!"

Findor crowed triumphantly, pointing his sword directly at his opponent and the blue lightning closing the distance between itself and him. A purple orb of energy formed, illuminating its face as well as the ground near him. Then, it extended forth in the form of a beam to collide with the attack - a Cero. The indigo light extended, illuminating the entire area with its size, length, and width.

Kukkyona saw the indigo blast from afar, doubling his efforts to reach the area in time, hoping Daisuke could hold out a little longer against his foe as his sandals leaped from one rooftop to another, stopping the use of Flash Step halfway in the case of meeting a powerful enemy soon, conserving all his strength for the confrontation.

Daisuke saw the Cero light up in such a wide girth, it totally overtook the level 30 Hado with ease, and stormed towards Daisuke's position. "Blaze Eternally," he spoke under his breath as his Zanpakuto began to be lit in a familiar red aura as he stabbed it into the wide energy wave, his feet sliding against the plane he created to slow down, "Kyoi Abata!" the Zanpakuto then extended two spikes on the sides, igniting brightly and discharging a large amount of flames through the center of the Cero, disregarding the rest of the energy wave passing on the other sides of himself, plummeting through it until it dissipated, stopping to flare up 10 feet in front of Findor's position, Daisuke now sighed as he held the blazing Zanpakuto in both hands.

"You had to go and make me use this...Kyoi's pissed at me for losing the bet. We both wanted to see your Ressurecion first before we went all out," he said with a tinge of disappointment, though there was a teasing smile as he glanced at his blazing hot Zanpakuto, hissing slightly to prove his point before he looked down at Findor.

The Stand Off
"!!!!"

Immediately, Cortez's head perked up, and she turned towards the assassin in her company. "We have company.... in the form of their civil guard and one soul reaper...." She said firmly, placing a hand on her hip. "Stay within the shadows. But intervene only when Findor is attacked by these new reinforcements. We'll be leaving soon...." With that, she moved forward, walking through the hole and to the outside in order to observe the upcoming events.

"Don't underestimate me, Lieutenant!" Findor declared, twisting his blade around. "Your kind might have struck me down before, but I am far stronger than what I was. Prepare to die!" That being said, he boosted himself in the air with Sonido, re-appearing right behind his enemy with a newfound excitement within his eyes. He allowed one arm to swing his sword in an effort to cut his enemy's back.

The enigmatic servant bowed, disappearing in a burst of Sonido, masking his Spiritual Pressure and his presence as he snuck into the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike, as his master instructed.

"Bakudo #8, Seki," Daisuke uttered lowly, a small, oval-shaped barrier appeared on his left wrist, repelling the strike as he predicted the event on what Findor was doing, seeing as he played dirty and unfair rather than straight on fighting. He then uttered loudly, swinging his sword in front of him, flames jutting out violently, "Kasai no kushiyaki, Kyoi Abata!" A violent, expanding stream of flames blasted towards Findor, encompasing the area he stood on, covering a great area of the sky, seen from afar as a 'spontaneous combustion' more than an explosion.

Kukkyona caught wind that Daisuke had released his Zanpakuto, and appeared to be holding his own pretty well, as he landed deftly onto the edge of a rooftop, catching a glance of their current confrontation. He however, was not here to aide his son, insulting himself as a Noble Head and a Captain to not trust his own blood and a Lieutenant to handle his own battle. He looked down to see their battleground, scarred houses and decimated streetside showed the effects of their skirmish, but had narrowed his eyes on the particular buidling Avaron spoke of.

He quickly employed Flash Step, appearing at the entrance, his form standing before Cortez, narrowing his eyes as he saw she was an Arrancar. Before he spoke, he saw Sakura's limp form, bleeding across the room form her, seeing that she was definitely unconscious, but it didn't seem Cortez had any exertion in her defeat, thus he assumed that she had the other Arrancar outside defeat him, for the moment.

"I assume your one of the conspirators behind this attack," Kukkyona said plainly, not showing any particular emotion, keeping himself composed, unlike what Daisuke would've done, had he known of her defeat. His hands had remained on his side, his composure remained stoic, and his eyes told that of years of experience and the air of nobility, something that Daisuke had yet to carry.

Slowly, Cortez allowed herself to shift away from the fight, even as Findor was blown away, burn marks visible on his body. His Hierro had allowed him to hold somewhat against it, but it was clear that from the furious expression on his face that he had sustained considerable injury. He pointed his sword in the air. "Engrave the surface of the water... Pinza Aguda!!!" He screamed, immediately becoming enveloped in a pillar of indigo spiritual energy. Beside him, the occean's waters shook and ripped violently under the power - a testament to what was to come.

However, the Primera's gaze was towards the one who had addressed her. Her eyes analyzed him thoroughly. It was clear that he was a much more composed professional, a logical thinker, a gifted genius. If he attacked now, there would be no indication of his movements that she would easily be able to pick up. As they faced each other, she narrowed her eyes at him. "I am." She said simply, her tone matching the restraint of emotion that Kukkyōna had placed within his own.

Daisuke put up his left arm, his sleeve buckling in the wind that was created by the large release of the Arrancar combatant, as well as his spiky hair and Overcoat collar and the bottom of it, his eyes opened wide with surprise how much power was behind the release, "He's...still got more strength left?!" he remarked aghast how powerful his opponent was, despite matching him blow for blow.

Kukkyōna closed his eyes, slightly exhaling at this, before opening them again, saying briefly, "I see...how unfortunate for you," his words trailed off as he Flash Stepped, the sound of sword grinding excessed briefly as he blurred out of view, then appeared past Cortez, his sword drawn in his right hand, a slight humming emanated from it as he is at her back, his own back facing hers. She would notice, during the Flash Step, that he unsheated his sword and preformed an Iaido, attempting to cut her left arm off, before reappearing behind her.

For a brief moment, Cortez's eyes widened, and she stood stock still, unable to move a muscle as the blade sliced cleanly through her.

But alas. It was not her - but an after-image.

Her actual figure appeared several feet away, a rather unhappy look on what would have been an apathetic face. "Oh, come now, put that sword away." She insisted, lowering her head in somewhat of a pleading motion. "There's no need for it, considering reinforcements on your side are coming anyway...." However, one of her hands were placed on her sheath, ready to unsheathe her own blade and fight if he attempted to attack again.

Meanwhile, Findor's pillar of reiatsu blew away, and his released form was revealed to his enemy. A sadistic grin was decked across his face once more. "And now, Lieutenant...." He spoke boldly, pointing his massive claw at the man. "I will show you what I've learned, and what will be your demise!" Following this statement, a massive jet of pressurized water sprayed from the maw of the opened pincer and racing at high speeds towards Daisuke.

"Try again! Kami kizu o moyashi!" He shouted out, throwing a condensed fireball from his sword in a high-speed swing, colliding with the high-pressurized water, causing a steaming explosion, causing a brief cloud obscuring both his and Findor's vision from each other. Daisuke however followed up with another slash across, sending another condensed fireball through the mist cloud, as it would appear on the other side towards Findor, threatening to impact him, causing a pyrotechnic explosion.

Kukkyōna rather remained silent, or rather, his 'form' remaiend silent as he also appeared behind Cortez, slashing at her neck, moving at high speeds intending on beheading her, the action happened just as the afterimage in front of her began to fade away from her sight.

Cortez was ready.

With a simple duck of the head, she defly avoided the attempt to slice her head off. She spun around, her sword grasped and swung in an iaido swing of her own. Notably, one hand was on the blade itself as it directed a diagonal uppercut towards Kukkyōna's chest, the other placed in a casual position on her hip. Her eyebrows were furrowed slightly, the pleading look now gone. However, her frown was rather disdainful at Kukkyōna's decision to engage her.

Instinctively, Findor leaped higher into the air to gain altitude over the blast, avoiding it as it collided into the grounds below her. Aiming his claw at the now visible Daisuke, he unleashed a barrage of pressurized bursts like a machine gun, one blast after another steadily moving towards their desired targets. It was a rather contrasting nature - despite being subordinate and leader, the dominating one was not willing to resort to violence, while the lesser was.

Kukkyōna spun his sword to stand-off in a diagonal arc, countering his opponent's own Iaido, the blades clashed in a high-ringing sound, sparks flew from the force behind them, and now Kukkyōna's eyes narrowed as he saw her abilities first hand, and now backpedaled away from her, holding his sword by his side as he resumed a more neutral stance.

"I'm guessing from the way you compose yourself, that the Ahijados isn't your only force at your disposal, is it? You probably are one of the high-ranking Espada Afilado the Stealth Force has confirmed to be residing in a pocket of power in Hueco Mundo. By just clashing blades with you, I sensed a bit of your dormant Spiritual Pressure, and by seeing your skill in evasion and counter-attack, I see you're a even more gifted fighter. I'm willing to say that you're...either the Segundo...or the Primera Espada Afilado," he finished, staring her down with sure confidence and calm, his supply of information and just by exchanging blows in such a brief time, he was able to gauge her position, leadership, and who she was with.

Daisuke weaved in and out, dodging the blows with grace and poise of the skilled sword figher he is, slashing his flaming sword every other water burst, extinguishing them into a steaming cloud, until a large cloud of steam formed around him, only using his pure instinct to keep slashing the incoming bursts, knowing their had to be an end to them sometime or another, of how many bursts he could fire.

Thankful that Kukkyōna was satisfied for the time being, Cortez lowered her blade and leveled her own stare back at Kukkyōna, her stare lightening. "Just from that one blow....?" She asked softly, allowing a slight bit of astonishment to come within her voice. "I'm impressed. Not many are able to just exchange a simple blow and just guess correctly right off the bat. From that point, I can safely say you're not simply a Captain.... but of noble blood. Only they would hold themselves in such a calm and calculative manner...."

The blasts abruptly stopped.

This time, it was Findor's turn to attack. Using the mist for cover, he rocketed through the resulting smoke at Daisuke, claw raised and swung in a thrusting lunge. The speed he was moving at was equivalent to that of a missile racing towards its designated target.

"You must have introduced yourself to the other Soul Reaper who is currently engaged in combat with your Fraccion, but I'd like you to introduce yourself to me, for I will repay the favor now. Since you already know I'm a noble, I shall clarify to which Noble Family I belong to. I am Kukkyōna Hayate, Noble Head of the Hayate Family, been in existance since the Kuchiki Family," Kukkyōna said this with a proud, proclamation, his tone as cool as his entry into the Mausoleum had been, still not moving an inch but his blade was still drawn and at his side.

Daisuke slammed the pommel of his Zanpakuto with his right hand in a sideways maneuver, while in mid-side step avoiding the lunge, sending the claw past his body. In doing so, he moved his forefingers at Findor's less-chitinious armored section, uttering lowly, "Hado #4, Byakurai!" sending a nearly instaneous bolt of blue lightning spiritual energy, aiming for his left shoulder, intending to injure him or cause him to backpedal away, giving him some space.

Gritting his teeth and narrowing his eyes, Findor whirled his body around in a pivot, barely managing to avoid the blast of blue lightning as it tore past him. He continued his pivot, his massive claw swung in a backhand position and in a retaliatory manner towards his opponent in an effort to smash through his bones. It was very clear to the Arrancar what the Shinigami was attempting to do, and as such he was determined not to give him the right-of-way...

Cortez nodded, closing her eyes for a brief moment. "The name's Cortez Selestino." She answered back to him.

Meanwhile, outside the mausoleum, Sakura was waking up from her slumber. Her eyes wearily opened, and she could see the full extent of the midnight sky. However, it was only a second later that she shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, hand instinctively grasping the spot where she had been stabbed. A gasp escaped her mouth, followed by heavy panting. With her senses awakened, she struggled to push herself up onto her feet. Upon doing so, she discovered that the wound had caused blood to soak the entirety of her clothing, although the injury itself had healed somewhat. However, she knew that it would be a major hindrance if she attempted to fight again. She could do nothing but sit back and watch for the time being.

With that knowledge, she moaned softly as she stumbled towards the mausoleum entrance, bending over and grabbing her katana as she did so.

Daisuke tried to counter the blow with his own Zanpakuto, but the force of the backhand sent him flying straight backwards a dozen meters, before his heels slid across a plane of spiritual energy he created, slowing him to a halt in mid-air, before he threw his Zanpakuto in a horizontal slash, sending another condensed fireball at his opponent, moving like a bullet to create a impending explosion of pyrotechnic dislplay in the sky once more.

"Interesting...I thought you would have a more feminine name," Kukkyōna Hayate said with a slight feint interest, before he looked over at Sakura outside, knowing while Cortez's eyes were shut, she had no real impending threat that he could sense at the moment.

"Stay down, Sakura. You've taken a injury that disallows you from doing battle now. I'll deal with the Primera," he said with a confident, composed certainty, his words not terse but commanding, hoping Sakura knew better then to reenter the fight.

"Gack...!!! Y...you bastard...." Sakura, however, was focused on the fact that she was still heavily wounded. "Were you trying to let me die?!! My body was right fucking there and you didn't even take a step towards it!! Ugh...some fucking ally you are...!!!" She was forced to slump into a sitting position again, leaning against the wall for support.

It was here that Cortez opened her eyes to glance over at the wounded female, a slight smile on her face. "With a mouth like that? I wouldn't be surprised...." She stated cooly, cocking an eyebrow slightly. However, her senses were also on something else. Clearly, the civil guard were on their way, and from the way they were moving, they were surrounding the entire perimeter. It would only be a matter of time....

Immediately, Findor lowered himself near the ground, the attack once again missing him. But he was quick to launch himself like a missile at Daisuke once again, clearly intending to force his enemy into a constant state of close-quarters.

"You're not a normal soul, nor a Soul Reaper. I was confident you could survive. Don't mistake me as cruel for having faith in your own will to survive," Kukkyōna said briskly, closing his eyes as if it was a nuisance trying to explain to the incapacitated girl that she couldn't fight.

He then turned his eyes back at the Primera, speaking aloud to her, "You feel them don't you? They have the entire perimeter surrounded, and this particular part of the city is evacuated. I swore to destroy anything within this perimeter that was an enemy target. Unfortunately," Kukkyōna Hayate, then moved within a Flash Step, slash towards her neck as he reappeared, while preforming an Iaido slash with his left Zanpakuto blade, hoping to force her on the defensive.

Daisuke closed his eyes briefly before opening them, lighting up in a bright red irises in killing intent and resolve, holding his Zanpakuto up as it flared brightly and violently as Findor bore down on him inevitably, knowing it would be too late once he started this technique to dodge his enemy's attack, but would make Findor nearly impossible dodge as well. "Time to end this...Jigoku no Hashira!" suddenly, the area where he was pointing his blade suddenly expanded in a wide girth of flames, expanding till it saw no end to either combatant, then a huge pillar of flames consumed the very air and space before Daisuke, his eyes glared coldly at his foe as the huge pillar of fire flew violently quick across the sky into the ground 4 blocks away from Kukkyōna's location, but caused a tremendous shockwave following a large mushroom cloud of pyrotechnic fury, spreading across nearly the entire city block high into the air nearby, blasting the area to ashes and rubble, blackening the earth where it stood.

Had Cortez not been preoccupied at that given time, she would've turned an eye towards the firey display.

As it was...

SWIPE!

Kukkyona's strike was the one that would begin the dance of death. She jerked her head to the side in a deft move, evading decapitation once more. Because of the power he had placed within the attack, she could practically feel the heat singing her enhanced skin as it swept by her head. Fueled by the sudden rush of adreanline that had spurred upon the danger of getting cut, she twirled her body around. Her free hand kept on her hip, she raised her arm and started her own vicious attack on him. Though her gait was still calm and composed, her strikes were fast, ferocious, and lethal. Such a combination was similiarity to that of a fencer - elegant.... but ever so deadly.

''CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!''

The last move Daisuke had made ultimately saved his own life.

"AAAAAAGH!!!!!"

The blast had made quick work of Findor, his berserk attack patterns effectively disrupted. Pain had overcome his mind as fire ripped across his body. He was sent into an involuntary descent, burn marks once again over his body. His eyes were shut, expression contorted to one of severe pain. Black smoke drifted towards his body as gravity took over, and he could barely right himself just in time to land in a crouched position. He breathed heavily, letting out ragged gasps as he glared angrily at the airborne Shinigami. "D....damn you--"

His world would be filled with even more shock.

'BANG! BANG!'

He let out a startled yell as his vision was overcame with the sands erupting all around him, courtesy of a few Kido blasts directed his way. A few meters away was a jeep, its mounted gun pointed directly at Findor and clearly the one who had shot first.

The officer, had shouted bloody murder as he saw Daisuke's fire stream across the sky and take an entire neighbourhood with it, seeing the fiery plume funnel towards the sky following a large amount of wind from the shockwave that rocked a good 1/4 of the city, causign them to cover their faces, even as Findor landing onto the ground and causing his fellow officer to open fire near his position, causing a yellow flare of energy to ignite, directing the Arrancar's attention over to him.

"Move it 30 degrees to the left!" He yelled up to the gunner, calculating on how the next round would hit dead on the spot where the Arrancar was if he didn't move.

Daisuke gasped, heaving heavy breaths, speaking to himself, "I never like using that technique in a populated area...too much damage...but I guess it did the trick, eh, Kyoi Abata?" He asked his Zanpakuto to which he rumbled in agreement in his hand, however his hand was slightly scalded itself, due to the ferocity of the blast he sustained injury himself.

He looked over to see the Arrancar below, about to be devestated by the incoming fire of a far-off jeep, seeing that he launched him pretty far using that technique. He kept watch, not wanting to interfere just yet.

Kukkyōna knew that the technique released was Daisuke's, the building itself rumbled and shook from the mighty force of the explosion far off. He began spinning his blades in a deadly dance with hers, matching her moves of a fencer to that of a skilled form branching from Kendo and martial arts, using a few acrobatic leaps and vaults to keep her on the defensive.

His scarf and hair flowed around him as he engaged in the deadly duet of potential doom, sparks flying like fireflies in symphony of their violence, their eyes meeting in equal calm and calculating glances, nearly mirroring each other in their stoic attitude in their battle, a near inverted type of battle compared to the violent, emotional filled battle that was filled in Findor's and Daisuke's battle.

Her mind was focused on combat.

The guard has opened fire on Findor.

Her blade continued to clash viciously against his own, her feet moving her in a naturally steady manner against his moves. Her eyes were narrowed, a concentrating frown on her face as she stood down a practical mirror of herself. Even as the sparks continued to fly, they still moved as naturally as the wind blew, their actions against each ther nothing more than actions made out of necessity rather than emotions. Although Cortez resented fighting, she understood that this man was here to kill her and thus had a right to defend herself. She kept herself on a leash, making sure to go as far she could without slipping over the edge.

Her mind was focused on combat.... but her thoughts were directed towards the one who had critically wounded Sakura.

It's time to begin our escape.

Even as she fought, she was sending her thoughts directly towards the guard.... and he would understand what he had to do.

''Destroy their cage. Kill them all....''

As the cannon fired again, the yellow blast barreled towards Findor, mere meters away before it suddenly exploded without warning, via another red energy projectile some place away. The officers didn't see if Findor was caught in the blast, but they did see a figure coming out of the shadows...a dark cloaked, crimson armored figure, who they assumed was another Ahijados, but Daisuke felt differently about him.

"I can't feel his Spiritual Pressure! I couldn't have seen him coming if he attacked me," Daisuke gasped in alarm, as he saw the dark cloaked figure now stand in between Findor and the gun-mounted jeep, determined to keep his master's subordinate alive for future use, despite his loss at the hands of the Soul Reaper.

Kukkyōna kept fighting, his moves in sync with the Primera's, their deadly steps seemed to flow around the entiriety of the room. Leaping from wall to wall, Flash Step to Sonido, kick to backhanding motion, they seemed to be evenly matched in their mirroed dual wielding sword fight.

Eventually Kukkyōna clashed in another clash of blades, sparks flying everywhere before leaping backwards away from each other, landing on opposite end from Cortez, his breaths small and unnoticed, no real fatigue had swept over the Captain, but had noticed that his cloak was quite flustered from all his acrobatic and stylized swordplay, his eyes stared almost admirably as he locked orbs with the Primera.

"Truly...I haven't fought a swordsman outside the Soul Society who would be a even match with me, Primera Cortez Selestino," Kukkyōna said with his steady cool, stoic voice, matching his gaze that locked onto hers in almost eery way.

"Really....?"

As Cortez stood straight once again, narrowed eyes studying and analyzing him. "I didn't know you would get comfortable so quickly, Captain.... quite unlike a noble." She commented. "But, if anything, I suppose this would lessen the odds in my favor." She paused for a moment, lowering her sword back to her side in an idle stance. "But I'm afraid now isn't the time in order to settle this. There are things bigger than you and I, and we have our own separate roles to attend to. In a few moments, those events will prove this fight to be meaningless." That would be the indication for 666 to unleash the attack.

"Urgh....."

Findor struggled to stand up, his wounded pride making him glare at the assassin's back. However, he remained silent and grateful, knowing that attempts to defend himself in this situation would be futile. With difficulty, he surrendered and sealed his released form back within his sword. Then, with a flourish, he sheathed his blade, the hilt clicking as it connected with the sheath.

666 then felt an almost mental command as he faintly heard his master's voice, instinctively moving a near backhanded manner, launching a Bala like a cannon ball, hurtling towards the jeep, demolishing it and making the Kido mount useless, the men barely survived the blast.

As Daisuke used Flash Step to intervene, 666 blurred out of view, silently escaping a possible conflict with Daisuke, also signaling Findor to make his own escape, for he didn't have the time to defend Findor twice.

As Kukkyōna raised a brow at what she meant, he suddenly felt a Sonido, and heard the sound in just enough time for himself to twirl around in a complete 180 degree spin, clashing his swords in a cross-clash, sparks hissed as they met glowing energy blades held from the unorthodox hilts from 666's hands. His yellow eyes glowed brightly of killing intent, hissing slightly at the Captain, as he equaled his strength to the Captain's as he held his ground against him, before backpedaling a few steps before violently corkscrewing towards him, causing Kukkyōna to be drawn into the defense, preoccupying him while Cortez could move more freely, his master now free of her burden to fight in such a...constricted manner.

Findor quickly got the message - especially considering with Cortez in the air instead of on the ground.

"Carias, it's time to leave." She mentally told him, raising a finger and flicking her wrist. In that notion, a Garganta slowly began to open up within the atmosphere, revealing an entrance into Hueco Mundo. ''"666, make sure to cover your escape and join us. The Garganta will close when you go through." ''That being said, she moved quickly into the portal, her second-in-command following suit.