King and the Conquerer

Act 1: Humpty Dumpty
"No no no that can't be right...."

Deep within the confides of his laboratory, Ivan Azgiaro read a rather large monitor screen showing various symbols and sentances, complete with the occasional line of numbers as well as a full skeletal view of a human appearing body. Several of the symbols and numbers were attached to this skeletal computerized view as if they were preliminary results of an experiment of some kind, pointing to several highlighted organs of the body.

"His Spiritual Pressure is still far too great to fully utilize, we can only hope that there is one strong enough to wear him down to where we can get an appropriate opening...."

The sound of marble footsteps rang through the lab, being followed by a sense of overbearing strength.

"Your little puppet falling apart, Ivan?"

The footsteps came to a close as a hooded and shadowed figure stood behind the mad scientist arrancar, contemplating over the large screen.

"It would appear as such, Dolo." Ivan said calmly, sighing slightly before hand as he folded his hands behind his back and looked at the monitor once more. "I don't know how or why, but it seems that Rushifa's spiritual energy is just too high for us to implant the appropriate software to initiate direct control."

He then stepped to the right and held out his hand in emphasis for the larger Arrancar to see for himself. "I think you'll find that, even for one of your calibur, Rushifa possesses innate levels of power." he said respectfully, fully acknowledging that Dolo was much stronger than himself, but retained a calm tone even in his prescence.

"Instead of exacting direct control, why not just change the "idiot's" allegiance that way he would be willing to follow us, and respect us." Dolo stepped closer to the screen, placing his hands into his jacket's pockets, his emotionless face lit up by the screen. " Erase his past, and have him believe to be tossed aside like trash, as the shinigami do us. It's much simpiler. Or..... you could put a limiter on him." He glares sideways at the shorter arrancar. "I know you have one Ivan, you can't hide it from me."

"I do have one, just not of the appropriate calibur." Ivan retaliated calmly, glancing over at Dolo once more. "Rushifa's power, at just half strength, could match that of a Captain's with little difficulty. As for simply switching him over to our cause, it's not so easy. Despite his power, he is the first of his kind, a true hybrid of Arrancar and Soul Reaper. His mind is capable of functioning in ways that not even I can fathom. Add to that, the agents sent to retrieve his body were foolish and reckless, activating it without the proper knowledge to do so without causing harm."

He sighed once more, looking back up at the screen that now revealed a full body image of a masked Rushifa, wandering down a mountain road in a monk like stance. "He loathes Arrancars, without knowing that they are part of him. Switching him over is nigh impossible at this point without proper equipment...."

"If he isn't able to be controlled, why is he deployed? " The forboding general asked.

Dolo turned his head to look at Ivan's laboratory to see if he would see something that would give him more information. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him from what he saw from his reports.

"Do you have any kind of failsafes in place in case he has some type of relaspe?"

Ivan also began to look through the laboratory, going through several advanced looking drawers as he did so. "There was a syringe that I had made in the case that Rushifa went haywire. It contained a special nurotoxin that would paralyze him indefinately until an antidote is supplemented." {C After looking through another case, he finally found what he was looking for. "Aha, here it is." he said, holding a small syringe full of a bubbling blue liquid. He then tossed it towards Dolo, knowing the imposing being would be able to catch it with little difficulty.

The man caught the syringe between two fingers. He then hooked his index finger into one of it's loops and started to swing it on there.

"So...you are expecting me, Dolo Indeasedo, the South Central General of Nikolai's army of arrancar, to go and retrieve your idiota puppet?"

"I expect you to do whatever you wish." Ivan said nonchatantly, putting on a slight grin as he turned to face his monitor once more. "I have no authority over you or your actions. You have interest in Rushifa, there's no doubt, but I suggest we wait for now."

The monitor then switched to footage of a battle between Rushifa and Shiro Morimoto, the 8th Division Captain, both with Shikai activated and at each other's throats. "Let us see if Rushifa's power can truly amount to what we desire."

"Fine, I will see what your toy can do." He stared at the monitor as a arrancar panther slinked behind him, and rested at his feet. "Hope he doesn't get destroyed. If so. I'll just bring back what's left."

"Now now, what's with all this late night talking and shit...."

From the hallway behind them, emerged the smaller form of Auron Giovanni, his white mask hiding all forms of expression and his hands in his pockets as he casually walked into the room with the two of them. "You two aren't like...making out or something, right?" he said in a bored and rather drowsy tone, as if he had just woken up.

"Ah, Mr. Giovanni. What a pleasant surprise...." Ivan said in a rather annoyed tone as he sideglanced him.

"Auron....I'm not in the mood for your antics. I'm here observing Ivan's puppet in action. " He cracked his neck, and grasped the syringe completely in his rock like fist. "Is there something you are in need of? SHouldn't you be running some type of joke on whatever district you run?"

Two shadowy bodyguards appeared side by side of the fully masked Arrancar, standing firmly as the man shrugged off the comment. "Oh yeah, the weird guy...wasn't he a hybrid or something?"

"You know very well what he is, Auron!" Ivan yelled at him comically, his eyes turning into white saucers with thick black outlines. "You were the one who went and stole his body from the Gotei 13's research barracks!"

"Oh yeah..."

Rubbing the back of his head, his simply yawned. "Yeah well, figured I'd do some wandering around, seeing what all was what and where all was who."

Dolo glared at Auron. "Leave....NOW! Your two little bodyguards wouldn't even keep me from ringing your neck if you continue to act like an idiot."

"Geez, calm down man...." Auron said quietly, waving a hand out in emphasis. "You're too serious, Dolo. You need to lighten up every once in a while."

He than cast his own dangerous glare in Dolo's direction. "And I don't take orders from you. If there's one irk about you that I always hate, it's that you always seem to forget who's in charge."

"Only one person in charge. When that person isn't giving orders, its the strongest on in charge. It's the way we've lived in this damned plane for eternity. " The panther, Sinamor, was now looking in the direction of Auron, while Dolo looked back to the monitor that now showed Rushifa firing a cero. "You see out there in the madlands, we call Hueco Mundo, what we use to do before Nikolai came, nothing but pure beasts. We now have more power but are still bound by those codes that are in our very fiber. We are still beasts at heart, and only beasts respect power. So by that logic, I am the one in charge here, until Nikolai shows his face, which is rare at all."

"...and the fact that he appointed me to keep you all on your leashes." Auron said plainly, holding out his left hand and looking at his elongated fingernails briefly. "Power alone doesn't make the strongest warrior, it takes a few things outside of your *coughs* "talents," ergo brawn and drive aren't enough around these parts. It's why we have guys like Ivan and Raven."

"But it is that brawn and drive that allows you pawns to live. It's people like me and Nikita that clear enough space for you to even do what you do." He said keeping his back to him.

Ivan then cleared his throat. "Are you two planning on keeping this argument up for long? Or would you please take it somewhere else?"

"Eh." Auron said quietly, turning around with a spin of his heel. "Was getting bored anyways." he then began to walk down the hallway with the two guards quickly following. "Now where did I put that q-tip...?" he muttered as he vanished from view.

Dolo paid no mind to Auron after Ivan's comment. He continued to stare at the screen, watching how the puppet fought and acted against the Captain-class shinigami.

"Annoying parasite...." he mumbled.

"A very powerful parasite, if we can get him to follow our command." Ivan commented. But then, a rather chilling sensation crept up his spine, as if something or someone had just entered the room that he really wish didn't.

"Still playing with toys, aren't we Ivan?" the voice came out, revealing itself to have been in the room with the two of them the entire time. He glanced over at Dolo briefly. "And I see that our neighborhood brute is still skulking around looking for thinks to kill."

"The princely brat." He thought to himself. "We have a little crow Sinamor. " His pet stood up and slinked into the shadows of the lab with an almost silent purr. "Now what brings our little prince down here?"

"The two little wannabes who think they can make a difference." the boy replied plainly, his hands in his pockets. "That's what draws my attention here."

"Is that so?" Dolo said emotionlessly. He never showed any emotion in any way towards any person. "It would take one to know one. Wouldn't you agree Ivan?"

"Indeed so." Ivan said, although a sweat drop could be seen going down his left eyebrow. He was standing in the same room as the one being who could match the king in terms of power. Raven could easily crush Ivan if he desired, and one wrong move could certainly cause such an incident.

To this comment, Raven merely chuckled. "The saying "Takes one to know one" doesn't really apply here, Dolo. A sparrow can tell a sparrow out of a large crowd of different birds...but so can a crow, of which is faster and more deadly than said sparrow. Unlike either of you, I have real pull in how this wasteland functions. If I desire either of you to be destroyed, then all it would take is a simply snap of my fingers."

"There's no need to go around abusing your power now, Raven." He turned to face the adolescent looking arrancar. "One doesn't bear their claws unless they are threatened." Dolo slowly strolled closer to the shorter arrancar. "Are you threatened by me little Raven? " He loomed over the prince and glared down at him from under his hood, his silver eyes glowing.

Raven simply smirked, unafraid and proving it as he inched closer to Dolo and glared him straight up in the eyes. Behind Raven's blue iris, one could see a strange and almost primal gaze. "I was about to ask you the very same thing, Dolo. If I felt threatened by your presence, you would be lying dead at my feet"

"I wouldn't think so. We are both unknowns to each other. Well, in some aspects to each other." He cracked his neck. "If you think I am weaker than you, you are kindly mistaken. But I know the extent of your powers. I just don't know how you use them. If you weren't still coddling yourself under your father's wing, I would be allowed to touch you and assess that for myself."

"How very contradictory of yourself, Dolo." Raven shot back quietly, still smirking. "You say we are both unknowns to each other, and yet you say that you can measure the extent of my powers yourself? Such a naive little animal that you are. My father claims that he took you in for your pride and potential, but really and truly, he only took you in out of sheer pity. A mindless and thoughtless brute such as yourself truly deserves no such quarter, but my father, unlike so many of us, actually possesses a concious."

Raven then turned around, walking down the hallway with his hands in his pockets. "I suggest that you bear that in mind the next time that you see him. And by the way, he has called all of the viceroys to his throneroom as of right now, so I suggest that you do something useful for once and actually get there on time."

Using a Sonido, the boy was gone, his presence all but undetectable.

"Pretensious prick." He sighed. "Sinamor." He called out, the predetory pet came slinking out of the shadows to his call. "Ivan, keep me posted on Rushifa. And have a garganta ready in case I have to retrieve him." He sauntered out of the laboratory and performed a shunpo before Ivan could say anything in response, making his suggestion more of an order.

Ivan simply sighed, turning around and continuing his monitor work. "Why oh why does everyone argue in my laboratory?"

"Man~"

Jigoku whined aloud as he reclined in his chair that was in front of the rather large table in Nikolai's throneroom, his hands behind his back and his seat on the table as he sighed with a bored expression on his face. "It's been fucking forever since we did shit besides sit here and listen to somebody talk. I'd love to actually do something..."

"...you've done plenty." Mael said back to him plainly, sitting directly across from him with a much more composed posture on his face. "The last time we set you loose, we nearly lost five platoons."

"It's cause' they didn't do what they were told!" Jigoku said back in an annoyed tone, sitting upright to look at his best friend directly.

"Or maybe you're just that bad at giving directions." Mael said back without changing tone or composure.

"Bah." the orange haired Arrancar said, leaning back once more.

Act 2 : All the King's Men
Dolo appeared out of shunpo just outside of the King's throne room. He walked through the large double doors with Sinamor in tow. He brushed pass Raven to take his spot next to Nikita.

"Whoa ho ho now, lookie at who showed up! Big man himself finally comes to the shibang!" Jigoku laughed aloud, clapping his hands once at the beginning of his statement.

"Welcome, Lord Dolo." Mael said plainly and respectfully as Dolo passed him, not caring if the larger man heard him or not.

Nikita was in a rather medative state at his seat, not moving or flinching as Dolo sat next to him as he was within a deep state of inner focus.

The tall arrancar sat in his seat and gave a nod to the other arrancar that acknowledged him. He kept his hood on and awaited for Nikolai to show himself.

Within a few minutes, Auron and his younger sister arrived and sat in their seats, of which were just a few seats lower than where Raven and his father would sit.

"Yo, Auron. What the hell took you so damn long huh?" Jigoku mused, retaining his relaxed state.

"I was stuck in imagionationland." Auron replied in a bored and drowsy voice. "There were all kind of freaky creatures, and I was almost attacked by rabid man eating squirrels."

Jigoku's face looked over at him in a deadpan style. "Jesus dude the crap that goes through your head..."

"Honestly, brother." Isabella said quietly, albeit repremandily. "Must you continue to act like a fool in front of the others? You're not just embarrasing yourself you know..."

"Ah c'mon sis." Auron said to her, laying his arms on the table and placing his heaad in it as if he was going to sleep. "Everyone around here is so damn serious all the time."

"It's because we deal with serious matters, Auron. Working for the stability and expansion of our God-King Nikolai's reign." Sinamor leapt up onto the table and was snarling over Auron's head. "Now I would advise you to raise your head and show some respect to our leader, or my pet may not be able to contain herself."

Within that very second, both of Auron's shadowy, black armored bodyguards appeared on both sides of him, extending their arms into morphed black blades that pointed directly at the panther like creature. "Yeah and I really don't like animals, cats especially. Would you please get that thing the hell away from me before one of these guys turns it into a....I dunno how you say it. Well they'll stab it to death and I don't want blood on the table really."

Sinamor turned around, putting her butt in the direction of Auron. As the panther started to walk away, she sprayed Auron with a yellow mist from her backside, and hopped off the table leaving the room.

"It seems she doesn't like you very much eithier. That was the spray she saves for those she hate...and her prey." Dolo said in a blah-like manner.

"Eew." Auron said, not even bothering to lift up his head after the cat sprayed him. "That's exactly why I hate cats. They smell like freaking....I don't even know...."

Isabella retained a normal pose in her seat, though she pinched her nose to keep the smell from making her throw up.

"Jesus dude, what has that thing been drinking!?" Jigoku asked comically as he held his mouth with both hands as his face became blue and his eyes squinted shut.

"Well it seems from everyone's reaction, it was Sinamors death scent. I don't really know what that means for you, but you should watch yourself." Dolo added, immune to the stench.

From the end of the table, emerged a subtle chuckle, revealing itself to be the ghostly appearing Nikolai Dragovich.

"Ah, how I do love these family reunions of ours...."

Immediatley, all of the other Arrancar present sat straight up and looked forward. "Lord Dragovich."

With a simple pass of his hand, they all relaxed once more, Jigoku and Isabella sighing with slight relief that they weren't apprehended or noticed too much.

Raven on the other hand retained his pose from the beginning of his father's appearance, demonstrating his higher rank and blood relation to his father allowed him to speak and act in a much more casual manner.

Dolo removed his hood, showing off his warlord like face. A strong face with stitches and darkened eyes, with long oilly hair slinking down his shoulders. He relaxed back into his chair and crossed his legs casually. He stayed silent and watched Nikolai. His eyes glanced over to Auron, and a small sneer almost came acros his face but he soon shifted his eyes over to Isabella, who reminded him of one of his favorite Cabellos. He stared at her for an extra second and looked back at Nikolai, without turning his head at the slightest.

"Now then....what say you all? Hm? Is there anything of interest outside of the norm that you would like to discuss?" Nikolai began, his masked face giving a calm and casual smile before all of them as he rested his elbow on the seat of his chair, while holding his head up with the respective arm.

"Nada." Auron said casually, placing his head back in his arms as if he were about to sleep. "Though I did find a penny today outside of my room." he finished, holding a finger up in emphasis.

"Always searching for something of value I see. No surprise there." the King responded casually and still in a friendly manner.

"Eh, I may have burned a few of my guys by accident..." Jigoku also said casually, returning to the stance that he was in earlier. "But they did give a look towards this chick that I've had my eyes on, so it's all chill your highness."

"How very character of you, Jigoku." Nikolai chuckled, seemingly not caring at the loss.

"Nothing to report, m'lord." Mael said plainly, earning a nod from the king.

"And what of you, Dolo? Has anything of interest come across your travels in our absence?" he asked the other Arrancar in the same casual manner.

"Nothing on the Southern front. But if it is at all holding any significance, Ivan's puppet, Rushifa has been let loose within the Soul Society and is in combat right now. Ivan has me on hold for retrieval of it." Dolo said as casually and smoothly as Nikolai did.

At hearing the name, a good majority of the Arrancar all looked in Dolo's directions with varied expressions of surprise and annoyance at the name Rushifa.

"I see...."

Nikolai himself retained his pose, his expression of amusement hidden behind his mask. "I'm glad that you brought that up. I was about to provide my own take on the boy myself."

He then sat up and placed his palms together to make a single clapping noise. "So then, opinions? Thoughts? Comments? Who thinks Rushifa is an asset or a liability?"

"I personally believe that if he can be tamed, Rushifa will make a vital source of strength on our part." Mael said plainly.

"Bullshit." Jigoku said with a calm scowl on his face. "As long as that freak breathes, everyones at risk. I say we blow the bastard straight to hell and back."

"I don't really care." Auron mused, still in his arms. "Either we make him join us, or we kill him. Either way, we still have an edge over Soul Society."

"In my honest opinion based on what Ivan has told me. Rushifa will need some more time under the knife to become a full asset. He needs convincing that the wretched shinigami have abandoned him. "

Dolo sat up in his seat, placing his his right hand on the table, underneath his palm was the syringe filled with the blue serum Ivan gave.

"That thing right there will be our ticket to do so. The arrancar is there in him, we need to pull it to the surface. Auron's tatics on his original capture caused some irrepairable damage to the boy. With this thing, we can bring him down under our control."

"Hey now, there were people trying to kill me, and I'm pretty sure I was stoned out of my mind when I went there." Auron defended himself without looking up. This earned a face palm from both his sister and from Jigoku. Mael simply sighed in annoyance, a sweat drop appearing on the back of his head.

Nikolai remained casual. "That would work nicely...though there is one other option that comes to mind."

He then waved his hand and in the center of the table emerged a hologram of a young woman walking down a city sidewalk with a purse in tow, wearing a blue sweater and black jeans as she passed by other bystanders with a casual face.

"Oooooh shit...." Jigoku said with a sudden interest, leaning forward to look closer at the girl. "Who is that pretty little thing? I really wanna ask her out all of a sudden!"

"Seen it." Auron said, lifting his hand up and pointing at the hologram.

"Mael, would you kindly?" Nikolai asked the red haired Arrancar casually.

"I believe that her name is Naomi Fuyumine, a resident of Yamato city and the former lover of Rushifa Sureiya before he was kidnapped by Soul Society." Mael responded.

"A bargaining chip then? Well then. Send me and Nikita to snatch her up, since we wouldn't cause as much damage as Auron and Jigoku. You should let the care of your new tool..." Dolo slid the syringe down the table towards Raven, causing the scraping sound of glass, metal, and ivory to ring out. "...in the capable hands of your son."

When the syringe came within six feet of Raven, it suddenly hopped into the air and stopped just in front of Raven's bored face, revealing he was using telekinesis to keep it afloat. "How primitive...."

"Oh no, Dolo. We are not savages." Nikolai commented, retaining his pose. "We don't blackmail or kidnap, but she will be our means to get Rushifa to choose his side."

"If my information is correct, Ms. Fuyumine is the only thing that Rushifa can remember from his previous life, and it is she that he is searching for." Mael continued calmly. "What I had in mind is that we keep her under survaillance and slowly draw Rushifa's attention to her through small pocket strikes on the town. This way, we won't draw a great amount of attention from the Court Guard Squads, and it will allow us to monitor Rushifa's behavior more elaboratley."

"And if he does find her, then what?" Jigoku asked somewhat annoyed.

"We play things out and make it seem like the Soul Society was responsible for any harm that comes to her." Mael replied. "How, we aren't sure. But plans are in motion."

"Then let me be in charge of that. I'm sure my tatics will be able to play Rushifa right into our hands and get the Shinigami the blame. My minions seem to be more suited for a job like this." Dolo said.

"You and Mael shall be the ones to do so. Dolo, you will carry out this operation. Mael, you will give me status updates on his progress at a regular basis." Nikolai said firmly but casually at the same time.

"Yes, m'lord." Mael replied.

"Well at least it is someone that can follow orders. " Dolo said. "Are there any other buisness on the table, my king? I would like to get to work on this right away." Dolo asked standing halfway.

Nikolai looked over at him for several seconds, before speaking. "No, you may go as you please. But understand this, Dolo and Mael, I do not want any incidents to occur at this moment. Keep her and the rest of Yamato City under close watch for a couple of weeks and find it's strengths and weaknesses, inhabitants, and how much of a hold that Soul Society has on it. Is this understood?"

"Yes, you highness." Mael replied.

"We will have the infomation of possible threats to you as soon as possible. For now we will take our leave. Mael." Dolo stood and bowed slightly to the group before walking out of the room, replacing his hood as he did so.

Mael then calmly stood up from the chair, revealing his unique outfit with grey fur trim on his mane, wrists and waist as he followed Dolo out of the room. "I've done several preliminary reports on the town's capabilities." he said plainly as he walked alongside the taller Arrancar with his hands in his pockets. "As of right now, there are at least three notable Fullbringers residing within it, along with a Quincy and a new Substitute Soul Reaper to replace Rushifa after his disappearance. So if we are somehow discovered, we should have little difficulty quelling any hostilities."

"I'll make sure we aren't found....well Ivan will. I have a little birdy showing me that he has something similiar to what the shinigami use to walk around the humans. He must have reverse-engineered them from Rushifa's old body. It'll help us from sticking out in town."

Dolo had his hands in his pocket similiar to to Mael. They were almost like twins, with their pale skin and long hair, and obscure markings adorning their face. Yet the illusion was quite broken from their diffence in height. Dolo's left eye was glowing brightly as he was now seeing what Sinamor was seeing, who was inside of Ivan's laboratory once again, being undected due to a lack of reiatsu. Sinamor's left eye glowed slightly as she hid in the darkness, staring at the invention's Dolo was just talking about. Her vision then shifted over to Ivan who still was at the monitor, keeping tabs on Rushifa's bout.

"I doubt we will need any of our subordinates for the time being, but I'll keep mine in close contact should the need arise." Mael went on, his pose not changing as they neared the end of the hallway.

"I agree." Dolo answered as they rounded the corner and entered into Ivan's laborotory. "Ivan, my intelligent underappreciated friend. You have something to help us with our work. " Dolo placed his left hand on Ivan's shoulder.

"Indeed I do." Ivan said without moving, taking his right hand and pressing several buttons to his left while he continued typing on his other work with his left hand. To the left of them emerged two gigal bodies for the two Arrancar. "There you are. Now please make haste, Ms. Isabella has left several samples for me to analyze and I have so little time to do so.

Mael simply walked over to his respective Gigai and pressed several buttons on it's console to the capsule's left. The body was then compressed into a small tablet and then let out of the container, which allowed the Arrancar to take it and place it in his pocket for appropriate use at the right time.

"Thank you Ivan. May I inquire on what Isabella left for you? It has to be quite interesting to have her ask for your help and input." Dolo said as he did the same as Mael, recovering a gigai.

A sweat drop appeared on the back of Ivan's head and his expression became rather sheepish. "Um....her hair strands. That's what she's wanting me to study."

Mael's face became comically deadpan like as he looked over to Ivan. "Why do you have her hair? Are you sure she left them for you or did you find them?"

"She left them! She wants me to analyze them and see if they show any signs of being grey. I would initially turn her down due to Rushifa, but she gave me that evil glare of hers. You both know that no one says no to her, not even her brother!" Ivan pleaded.

"Rushifa did....and she hasn't asked me for anything so I haven't gotten a chance to turn her down. But analyzing hair to see if its turning grey, doesn't sound like Isabella at all." Dolo stated in an almost deadpan way.

"You'd be surprised what she acts like when no one else is around, if I might say in Ivan's defense." Mael commented, having known the girl since they were both young.

"Indeed. This was a rare occurance for her." Ivan said, looking back to the monitor. "But again, I'm not one to turn a blind eye to her and expect to walk out in one piece."

"Fine. We will be on our way. Oh and Raven is now in charge of recovering Rushifa when the time comes." He started walking to the garganta creating machine, Ivan had. He activated fairly easy, setting the destination with a few button presses. Sinamor walked u behind him and nuzzled his leg. "We will stay in contact." The Garganta cracked open in its usual way, with a zip and a whirlwind of pressure.

Mael casually followed into the portal. Now alone, Ivan turned his attention back to the monitor, observing as a Bankai enabled Rushifa and Shiro neared the closing of their battle.

Act 3: A Glance at Reality, Calm nights and Rainy Streets
It was night time.

Within the intermost part of the crowded city of Yamato, in a small and casual street, was a rather small classic appearing diner. Several booths lined up against the windows, and spinning seats rested on the edge of the main table in the building's center, splitting the work area from the consumer section. There were a small number of customers, most of them in the booths as they conversed with each other, read newspapers, or simply looking out into the golden city lights that contrasted with the night covered city.

Behind the main table was Naomi Fuyumine, wearing a black sweater, blue jeans, and a waitress appron on her front. A pen was in her mouth as she looked over a notepad in her hands. She couldn't help but sway her hips slightly as she listened and hummed to the gentle and classy tune playing on the radio. Her gentle humming to the tune was able to soothe any tension in the building, and everyone seemed rather happier with hearing it along with the song, of which gave the entire city the impression that it was in a fifties movie.

SItting in one of the booths were three high school age looking people. One was fair skinned, with a black greaser like haircut. He wore a black sleeveless muscle shirt with a red collar and blue jeans. He sat back drinking a milkshake, chocolate in flavor. He sat across from the other two at his booth.

The other two were tanned, one was female, the other male. The female had long black and brown hair, that framed her face. The female wore a grey crop top, and a white skirt, showing her midsection and a piercing through her belly button. She had a burger in front of her ;half-eaten, playing with the belly button ring.

"Why did you have us stop and get you that thing?" The dark-haired boy next to her said. His hair was shoulder length with two large bangs that shape his face and spikes back. He was drinking a cup of coffee and wore a grey V-necked T-shirt with long sleeves and a golden watch worn on his right wrist which happens to be a gift from the girl sitting next to him. His lower attire consisted of a pair of light blue denim jeans with deep pockets and a chain dangling from the hip pocket on the right-hand side and another from the left pocket. The tails of his shirt hung over his jeans.

"The same reason I got you that watch, because I can. We should at least enjoy ourselves while we are here." The girl said. "Besides I don't hear any complaints about it, Captain." She sneered at him.

"Daite...why?" Satomaru said simply as he waved his hand in the general direction of Ayako. "Because she needs the action Leiutenant. Would you rather the other one?" Daite said in response as Satomaru grimaced and went back to drinking his milkshake. Daite sipped his coffee, solemly.

"It's only been a few hours since Captian Morimoto was attacked by that Rushifa character. We are here to see why he's back since our records show him dead." He glanced over to Ayako, who was still messing with her fresh piercing. "You're gonna get it infected if you keep doing that." He sipped his coffee and looked over to Naomi.

Naomi instinctivley looked over to the small group and gave them a casual smile. "Is there anything else I can get you all?" she asked them politely.

Daite nodded, with a slight smile. "I could have another cup of coffee."

Ayako spoke rather quickly. "Could I get a banana split?"

"You haven't even finished what you got there, yet." Satomaru said, as he was kicked under the table by Daite. "Ow."

"Let her get what she wants. " Daite stated as his LT grumbled.

Writing down the requests on the notepad, she smiled and nodded. "I'll get that out for you in just a minute." And then she went into the back of the kitchen. Unbeknowest to the group, Naomi was working two shifts. Not only was she having to work as the sole waitress, but she was also managing the cash register. Having been doing this essentially all day, she showed no signs of wearing down.

However, just to the booth behind Daite's seat, sat a youthful appearing young man with long blonde hair that extended down to just below his neck. He wore a white sweater with a pair of dark blue jeans along with white sneakers. A coffee cup was in his hand as he secretly listened into the group's conversation.

Satomaru let out a loud slurping sound as he reached the bottom of his milkshake. "So we start where then?" Daite looked at him, in a deadpan way. " We talk to his known associates like the waitress. She knows what he was but is not spiritually aware. " Ayako put down her burger. "If she isn't spiritually aware, how will she know what happened?" Daite scratched his temple as he twirled his finger around the ring of his empty cup, in an irritated way. "Noone reads. The incident was a large spiritual analmoly that allowed usually non spiritually aware people around Rushifa to be able to view spirits for a brief time, due to the fact that Rushifa's spiritual energy affected them in very minimal way. If they were exposed to him longer, they would have developed the ability to see spirits themselves."

The man listened in closer, having heard the name Rushifa before and then realizing that the group were indeed members of the Gotei 13. He pulled out what appeared to be a cell phone and typed several keys on it casually to decrease suspicion, as if he were sending information to another source.

Naomi then returned with a large plate in hand with the group's order and sat it down for them to use. "Let me know if there is anything else I can get you." she said calmly and politely, turning around and heading back into the kitchen to prep another order.

"So when do we talk to her?" Ayako asked with a large smile, as she started to dig into a banana split the size of her head. "When things start to close up. Wouldn't you agree my blond friend?" Daite said looking back at the rear of the blond's head. "Why don't you come join us? Since we are involved in the same things. We are not here to fight; only here for information." He smiled.

Smiling slightly at the thought of himself being discovered so easily, the blonde man simply spoke to them without looking. "My my, I certainly was reckless to have been discovered so quickly."

"You think we wouldn't be aware of someone with your skill, power, and origin? We had you pegged when you entered the city limits. Since the Purgatory Expedition, the Seireitei has kept tabs on Quincy. Of course we aren't taking the steps we are suppose to mostly because.." "We feel bad about it, case and point." Satomaru said finishing Daite's sentence. "Pretty much." Ayako said. "Besides none of the shinigami that were in power at that time are even alive anymore."

"You would be wise to keep us in check." the man replied, pressing a few more buttons on his phone before placing it back in his pocket. "After all, the last thing your Soul Society needs is a Quincy rebellion. We haven't just sat idly and done nothing after your kind purged ours, but I digress...Since you were keeping tabs on me, I would assume you know who I am, but I'd prefer to keep things civil."

He then turned to where half of his face could be seen, smiling in a sly manner. "Anders Fyodor, at your service. What do you wish to know?"

"Rushifa Sureiya. I want to know how he disappeared, in the first place, and why he's back attacking Soul society, and hanging around arrancar." Daite turned his head in a similiar fashion, holding his coffee in his right hand. "Just a civil discussion between two factions with a common enemy. If we don't pick at each other's nerves that's all. I am Captain of the Tenth Division, Daite Onigokua. My leuitenant here is Satomaru Morimoto, and my fourth seat, Ayako Sendo." Satomaru non-chalantly waved his hand at Anders. Ayako wiped her face of ice cream. "Hey." She said as she went back to devouring her ice cream. "Are you eatting for two or something?" The vice-captain said. Ayako glared at him with eyes that could cut diamonds.

"Ah Rushifa Sureiya. There's a name that's flying around both my office and several of my cohert's." Anders replied plainly. He turned himself to where his legs were slightly in the hall, but not enough to where one would trip over his feet. "His disappearance is still a bit of a mystery, though my sources say that your 12th Division had something to do with it to begin with. I mean, clearly he was experimented on. You don't just disappear like that and come out with scars and stitches and a messed up hair do like that and say you were in an accident. Which also brings the topic of the break in to the 12th Division barracks that your people were quick to cover up. Word on the street is that a higher level Arrancar, Auron Giovanni, stole a high value object from the laboratory there. Seeing as how Rushifa is attacking Soul Society, his original employer, my guess would be that Giovanni stole Rushifa's body before it's experimentation process was complete, and is now using him to attack Soul Society itself."

"The twelfth division is known to do that. It likes seperating itself off from the rest of the gotei." Satomaru stated coldly. "But is the captain there that crazy to start expirements on dead shinigami?"

"We aren't looking into that Sato-kun. We got other things to worry about worse than the ideas of the 12th division." Daite stated. "We did find out that it were the arrancar that infiltrated the Seireitei that day, and they recovered Rushifa's body. But I doubt it was the twelfth division that gave him the powers of an arrancar. They had to do that to him, as I heard there was hardly enough pieces to have a functioning body like Captain Morimoto faced."

"That would explain his Hollow powers." Anders replied to them all plainly, looking up at the ceiling in idle thought. "This means that something happened during Rushifa's time as a substitute that ultimatley caused his demise, and then his body was recovered by the 12th Division to experiment on, then Giovanni steals it and they implement their own experiments into him."

"That's terrible." Ayako said. "No one deserves to go through that." She swallowed the cherry whole and then pulled out a knotted cherry stem, placing it in the empty ice cream bowl. Satomaru just stared at her, a little flustered.

"We want to know what caused his demise. There's no way we can get information from the Twelfth without sacrificing something. We will have to face the arrancar to get an idea of what they did to him." Daite stated as he sipped his coffee, black as always. " Now my quincy accomplice. What can we give you in return?"

Anders then pulled out two dollar bills from his pocket and set it on his table to pay for his coffee. He then stood up and placed his hands in his pockets. "I'm simply giving a favor, I don't need anything in return. But.....You can go easy on the girl." he said to them, referring to Naomi, who was at the register returning change to a customer. "Her and Rushifa were very close from what my sources recollect. If you're here to get some more information out of her, then approach it in a way where you won't make her have a nervous breakdown."

"We'll try our best." Ayako said as the three watched as ANders made his way out of the diner. When he was clear Satomaru spoke. "We should keep an eye on him. He seems wily."

"You have a nice day, alright?" Naomi said to both Anders and the other man that left the store. Not looking over at the group but for just a split second, she began to file through the recipts and put them in their right order before she clocked out for the night.

The group sat there for abit, watching Daite drink his coffee, and Ayako finishing off her burger. Satomaru inclined his head toward Naomi, and let out a shrill whistle. "Hey sweety, can I ask you a few questions?" He said with a smile. Daite stared at Satomaru up from his cup, still drinking. His eyes shifted over to Naomi to see her reaction.

"Hm?" Naomi mused, looking over at Satomaru briefly before smiling slightly and nodding her head briefly. "Of course. Give me just one second...." she said as she finished placing the last recipt on the needle next to the register.

She then walked over to the group casually as she spoke to them in a polite tone. "Did you find everything alright?"

"Yes! It was amazing." Ayako stated with a smile.

"So how much is this all going to be?" Satomaru asked reaching into his backpocket. Daite did the same drinking his tall cup of coffee still. Satomaru and Daite both pulled out badges, shinigami badges, Satomaru's a smaller version of his leuiteinant's badge, Daite's looked similiar to the substitue badge but with the tenth division seal surrounded by the division's flower. "How much for some information?" Daite asked.

Naomi's eyes widenend in what would normally be described as fear. She could recognize the shape and design of the badges from anywhere...thanks to her old boyfriend.

"You're...you're Soul reapers?" she asked, with a slight bead of sweat going down her right eye brow.

"Yeah we are." Satomaru said. Ayako nodded her head. "4th seat of the 10th Division, Ayako Sendo. " She struck a pose while saying it in a playful cat-like position with one hand up, curled like a paw. "Leiuteinant of Squad Ten, Satomaru Morimoto, sweety. But you can call me whatever you like." The Vice captain said as he leaned toward her. Ayako rolled her eyes at Satomaru's comment.

"And I'm the Tenth Division Captain, Daite Hattori Onigokua. " The young man said putting his coffee on the table. "We are here to talk to you about a sensitive subject, seeing if you are up to it. We will not push it more than you want to go with it, but its important to the security of the Gotei 13."

"You're a Captain?" Naomi asked in an honestly duped manner. "But...from what I heard, Captains were usually pretty old...."

"Yeah and?" Daite said casually.

"Well it's just...." she placed her hand on the back of her head as she looked at him rather sheepishly. "...you do seem kind of young to be a Captain, at least to me."

"Well I can't say if I'm offended or flattered by this. " His eyebrow raised slightly as he was confused. "What would give you the impression that I would be old?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm sorry, I tend to get distracted rather easily." she said in an embarrased manner, a sweat drop appearing on the back of her head and her eyes becoming sheepish upside down u shapes.

She then cleared her throat and regained her posture, her expression becoming more serious. "These questions you wanted to ask me, they're about him. They're about....Rushifa, right"

"They are." Daite paused. "They are about his... how to put this, lightly. His disappearance." Daite calmed himself.

She let out a reluctant sigh, holding her forehead with her hand briefly while tilting it up to the ceiling. It was becoming clear that she wasn't looking forward to what lie ahead.

"I'm surprised you didn't come sooner." she said, crossing her arms. "It's been nearly a year since he left."

"Well, we thought we would follow up on things, as what we thought happened isn't as it seems." Satomaru said

"He's been seen again. Though I'm unsure if it is even him or not. Rushifa, a couple of hours ago, made an appearance at Soul Society. He attacked a captain. As he is dead in our records, we are going back over information to get an idae of how he would pop back up and why." Daite explained.

Her eyes widened in shock at hearing the report, the shock could even be interpreted as disbelief as she began looking below at the floor, her eyes twitching slightly as she contemplated what had just been said. "That...that doesn't sound like Rushifa at all. I mean, he had it rough growing up...but to attack a Captain after being gone for nearly a year...I can hardly believe it."

She then looked back at Daite. "And you're positive that it was him?"

"We are not one hundred percent sure but we are claiming that it is Rushifa due to his refering to his name, his battle style, as we've kept visual records of how he fights, and his zanpakuto. The zanpakuto played a big factor in the decision, as it is rare for a zanpakuto to have two partners." Daite stated. "Ayako-chan." At the statement of her name, Ayako pulled an image of what would be the suspected Rushifa's silouhette with a small glimpse of the face. "Would you be able to tell us if this is him?" The captain stated.

Naomi peered at the image closely, and then she let out yet another sigh. "I...I don't think so. That's not what he looked like before. His hair was kind of spikey, not swept down to one side, and his eyes were blue, not yellow...That can't be Rushifa."

Daite nodded at her description. "Well were you there when Rushifa left?"

"No." she began. "He was with me in my apartment, and then he said that he could feel a strange energy a few miles out of town. He said that he was going to go investigate it, despite my protest, and he promised that he would return...but he never did."

"I'm sorry. I know that must have been hard." The captain stated.

"It was...hard, to have him just leave like that and never get back in contact with me." she went on, her expression now one of sadness. "And then...they sent me the message that he was....killed in action..." she then placed a hand to her mouth as she fought the urge to cry. "I swear...I couldn't do anything for days, it was all so much..."

Daite stood up towering over Naomi, who only was at the base of his neck as the tanned captain hugged her, slowly stroking the hair on the back of her head. "It's okay. You're a strong woman, and I'll help you get some closure. When we find out more information about Rushifa, I'll tell you."

She couldn't help it. Her arms wrapped around his back and her face gently touched his chest as she sobbed quietly, remembering all the times that she had with Rushifa, and how it was all taken away within a day.

After a few seconds, she gently pulled herself off of him, tears stained her eyes slightly, but her expression became more relaxed than before. "Th-Thank you...please, whenever you find something, please tell me. Every bit of news I can get would...help."

"No problem. Don't worry. I'll make sure I'll deliver the information to you directly." Daite stted with a slight smile. He bowed slightly. Satomaru hopped out of his seat while Ayako paid Naomi for the meal with a huge tip. "We'll see you again sometime." The fourth seat said pushing the door open. "Hopefully not in a dangerous situat-"

CRAAAAAASSSHHHHH!!!!!!

Satomaru was cut off by a tackling Ayako as a SUV slammed into the front door effectively blocking the entrance. All three of the shinigami's pockets lit up like the sun, going crazy with lights and sounds.

"Looks like something tracked us here." Daite stated

Of course, Naomi was utterly taken by surprise.

"Wah!" She yelled as she fell on the floor to shield herself from the sudden entrance. She lifted herself back up to see what was the problem with the vehicle, and why it all of a sudden slammed through her work place.

Act 4: Victory to the Tenth Degree
The captain cracked his neck as he dug into his pocket and pulled out his badge. It lit up and an automated voice came through.

"Alert. Hollows detected. Class: B ; Total: Three. Class: Menos - Adjucha ; Total: One. Orders: Exterminate."

"You guys heard it. Let's move." Ayako and Satomaru got to their feet as Daite fixed his sleeves. All three pulled out what looked like a piece of candy, possibly a gumball. They all each ate their respective candy and a visible electric surge bounced over their bodies as their shinigami forms came lurching forth from their bodies. The physical fit team stood in formation around their captian as Daite's gigai slumped forward while the other ones stood straight.

"Dotan..." Daite's gigai looked up at him. "...straighten up, and make sure you, Sakon and Flan keep Naomi safe." Dotan rolled his eyes and spoke in a drowsy voice. "Fiiiine"

What happened next was what frightened Naomi the most.

A large, wolf like Hollow stood in the center of the rainy street. It was silver in shade, with black feet and claws. It stood up on it's hind legs and it wore a kitsune shaped mask on it's face. The creature itself resembled a large silver werewolf of sorts.

"RRRRRRAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!!!" The creature roared out as the Soul Reapers made their presence known to the beast as the other three Menos class Hollows creeped out of the alley to do battle.

The glass of the windows shattered at the howl of the beast now closer than last time. Satomaru rolled his shoulders, as Ayako did some toe touches. "I call the big one!!" THey both said at the same time. The two glared at each other. "No! I called it first!. No you didn't!! You're so annoying!!!" The said in unison pissing each other off even more until Daite made his haori make a snapping sound as he adjusted his zanpakuto hanging from his waist. "You both can take him. I'll take care of the Menos. Can you two do that?"

The two looked at each other. "Yes we can Daite-taichou." Ayako said. "As you command." Satomaru said as he swooped away in a shunpo, appearing over the wolf hollow, drawing his zanpakuto from his blade. "GATSU-NO-ODA!!!" As he swung his blade a wave of red reiatsu surged from the blades tip and crashed into the wolf hollow. "Hey!! he said both of us!" Ayako said as she joined the battle, drawing her blade and thrusted forward to pierce the beast's hide.

Daite let out a sigh. "I see why you would think we would be old. The stress of working with people like that will cause anyone to acquire stress wrinkles." He smiled at Naomi. He then disappeared in an instant and cut off the other three menos. They weren't quite Gillian in state, but they were in size. Possibly off-spring of the adjucha class one. But they seemed off to Daite, as they all looked similiar to each other but were much smaller and feral looking than the Alpha.

Instinctivley, the large wolf Hollow crossed it's arms to block the attack, but it was strong enough to force the creature to skid down the street at a gradual rate before finally stopping nearly 10 meters from where it was. It's arms now scarred, the creature then got on all fours and charged at Satomaru, before leaping up with it's right claw positioned to come down upon him in great force.

Ayako intercepted the claw with her her zanpakuto, striking her blade into the wrist of the hollow. Her great strength was just enough to stave the attack off. Satomaru landed and started running in to capitalize on the save Ayako gave. "I guess I have to say thanks." He said as went to dropkick the hollow in its chest.

The captain was surrounded by the three betas, all pouncing after him. Daite was in mid-air, standing on thin air. One of the betas came from above, claws first, Daite reacted quickly flipping over the wolf quickly and pointed his right index finger at the mask of the hollow as it slid under him. "Hado #4: Byakurai." A bolt of pale blue lightning erupted from his finger piercing the hollow's mask. It deterioated into spirit particles. He landed about five meters from the kill shot and still didn't draw his blade. The other two betas became more enraged as they made their claws enlongate. "KILLLLLLl!" They howled.

It's wrist cut by the girl's Zanpakuto, the wolf hollow hopped back several feet, before seeing Satomaru's foot headed straight for it's chest. In a split second reaction, the creature swiped it's left arm to it's left, throwing the Morimoto's foot to a similar direction, before his right hand came around to slam him into the building to it's left.

A grunt was heard when Satomaru smashed into the wall of the building. He laid there embedded in the wall, cintemplating on what just occured. Ayako tapped into her Hakusui (Soul Sleep)0 and empoweried her legs, arms and her blade. Doing this, Ayako skirted across the battlefield a short distance to stab and thrust her blade throughly into the Alpha. The blade's cutting power was increased through the Hakusui usage and is accompanied with a wave of pressure that should send the target flying off the blade at the end of the technique.

Back inside the diner, their gigai were escorting Naomi out through the back of the building. A locked door impeded their way in the back of the kitchen, that lead straight into a hallway that lead to the back door, which is locked as well. "You have the key?" Dotan asked the waitress.

A screech of pain escaped the monster's mouth as it was impaled by the blade and then flung down the city street, rolling around before flipping over a car and landing back on all fours. It glared at Ayako with a hate filled yellow glare before it emited another howl. It crouched down, scratched the street under it's feet as if it were about to charge, and then...

BRWWOOOOSH!!!!

A small white sphere formed at the tip of the creature's nose, growing in size before it was unleashed in the form of a mighty silver Cero that threatened to engulf both Ayako and the diner behind her.

Naomi in the meantime, realized that the door was locked. Instead of going back into her manager's office to get the key, however....

SLAM!!!

She slammed her foot into the front of the door. It was strong enough to where the door's hinges snapped off and fell to the ground. "Let's go!" she hurried.

The three gigai blinked at each other and rushed through the hallway. Sakon, who was inside Satomaru's gigai cocked his arm back and punched the door, sending it flying off the hinges. They started to wal out when another Beta drop out of the sky and roared. It charged at them as they all turn tailed and ranback to the kitchen where Sakon lifted a stove and chucked it at the hollow, bashing it in the face.

Outside Ayako freaked, her eyes becoming like large white saucers. She put her zanpakuto sideways, after realizing that the moon was behind her, giving the shadow of the building enclipsing her. She smiled as she started to release her zanpakuto. "Swallow the world into enternal darkness, Ryūei." A large black serpentine dragon rose from Ayako's shadow about the same size as the Alpha. The dragon wrapped around Ayako, making a protective dome for her. The cero deflected off into the opposite direction off of the dragon's scales. It protected Ayako and the diner from harm. The dragon then uncoiled itself and sat at the ready, waiting for Ayako's command.

"Doubt equals death; Forfeit means failure; Focus your resolve, Haganeu." broke out from Satomaru's voice followed by a large phatom fist performing a hook to the hollows face, sending it flying down the street. Satomaru came walking into view standing where the Alpha use to. He cracked his knuckles which were now covered by silver and black gauntlets with small-cleaver like segments similar to Zangetsu's Shikai blade attached to Satomaru's knuckles and goes up his forearms in a fin like fashion. A white tang is wrapped around the rest of his arms, reaching up to his elbows. A light aura of reiatsu flames flowing from his wrists. "Payback, fido..." He waited for the hollow to regain its composure.

The sounds off battle came from the alley, with howling being the loudest as it sounded like more and more of the werewolf like hollows were appearing.

The creature, now somewhat bruised and bloodied, stood back up and released another loud screeching noise, of which caused several windows from the buildings around him to shatter. Upon doing that, the creature began to glow with a spiritual white fire like aura, of which began to split into several energy tendons that stretched onto the ground and formed several ghost like wolves that were all snarling and howling.

Releasing another roar, the Alpha hollow raised it's hand and commanded the ghost wolves to attack the duo.

Ayako was now standing next to Satomaru, her zanpakuto's release in tow, resting behind the duo. "Buy me some time." The vice-captain said as Satomaru's arms begin to show markings that are simply lines that run along the entirety of the arm and a bright glowing ring around his wrists. The ring then gives off thinner lines that run up towards the tips of his fingers like the branches of a tree, the branches of energy reach all around his hand. They glowed brighter and brighter as he started to gather energy into a purple orb in front of his hands.

Ayako swung her blade horizontally. The dragon then went into flight toward the new enemies, attempting to fill up the street at the halfway point between them, to become an obstacle to the wolves. The dragon started biting into the wolves as they tried to trample over him and attacked. Others that tried to go around were swatted back with its tail, and others were coiled around by its body. "I don't think he will be able to hold them off Satomaru!"

"Just give me a little more time." A pair of phantom arms slowly become more and more noticeable as he focused his energy into his palms. Its long hand is very large and looks like it would crush someone just by its size, it followed Satomaru's hand movements almost perfectly as a ball of reiatsu appeared visually in the palm of his hand. Bright purple in color, with a single ring around the orb, similar to Saturn.

Back inside the diner, the beta wolf finally ripped into the kitchen as the gigai nad Naomi were heading back into the front. It thrashed through the kitchen reaching and clawing for Naomi. Flan, who occupied Ayako's gigai spoke, having a cutesy voice. "We have to go out the front door. It's the only way. " "AND head into more of those things?" Sakon said in a gruff voice. "What a drag..." Dotan said slouching. The beta then stuck its head through the order window and charged a cero.

The creature then sprung it's own trap.

Leaping over the massive dragon and letting it's spectral wolves become devoured, it dropped down and prepared to deliver a powerful elbow slam upon Satomaru and Ayako, apparently oblivious to their own power.

Back at the diner, Naomi yelped at seeing the Hollow try to break in and attack her. Only with her incredible athletic prowess did she avoid taking any serious blows by the beast. However, she could do nothing once she saw that the creature was preparing a Cero to unleash upon them up close.

Then...

SNAP!!!!

The creature yelped in pain, before it's head and form was suddenly dragged out of the window. A sickening crack noise could be heard as the creature was thrown to the side just in front of the door for the 4 of them to see. It's neck twisted in an irregular manner as it lay there dead.

"Geez...." a familar voice emerged, appearing in the opening for them to see. "...can't even have a good night out for some monsters coming in to crash the party, hm?" Anders said in a rather calm yet bored tone.

The three gigai formed up around Naomi. "Who are you?" asked Dotan.

Back outside, Ayako was helpless and Satomaru was still charging. The beast was coming down on them fast when...

SSKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSTT!!!!

The sound of blood rung out, raining down on the duo. To their sides laid the forearms of the Alpha wolf. In front of them, with a swirl of black energy, stood their captain his sealed blade out to his side clean as the day it was forged. The Alpha stood with its amputated arms up in the air. It looked up at its fresh wounds and let out a shrill whine. "I will end this." Daite lifted his blade up above his head, and with one hand brought the blade downin a vertical slash. His blade didn't make contact, but the pressure produced by his swing was enough to bifuricate the adjucha right down the middle. It started to fade away into spirit particles. Another howl rung out. The three shinigami looked to the diner. Atop the building stood a similiar hollow like before, but this one was white in color and had different markings on its mask. "I think we just killed one half of a pair." Daite said. Satomaru looked at his badge. "They totally need to do some more bug testing of this thing."

Falling to the ground and now split in half, the first wolf Hollow was now out of commision, leaving it's partner to handle the three Soul Reapers.

"Someone who just saved your lives." Anders replied to the Gigai in a rather blunt manner, glancing up at the other wolf Hollow. "...or perhaps postponed your own deaths. One way to find out I suppose."

"You're a Soul Reaper too?" Naomi asked him, rather dumbfounded at how easily he killed the Hollow.

"Please~" Anders replied in a snarky manner. "Me? A Soul Reaper? I think i'd rather dig my own grave."

"Quincy." Sakon said. The four looked up at where the howling came from. "We'll just sit right here. You can go outside and help out the shinigami." Dotan said uninterested as he picked his ear.

"A...Quincy?" Naomi began in slight confusion, having never heard the term before.

Anders stepped back a few feet, looking up at the Hollow and whistling. "Hey~ Come on down, I don't feel like moving too much tonight." His voice then got somewhat quiter as he spoke to himself. "Ooh that's what she said, hehe."

Daite put his index and thumb to his lips and let out a shrill whistle, to get the attention of the hollow. Satomaru clapped and stepped in front of his captain. "Hey Hey. C'mon. Wanna go for a walk?" He taunted Ayako stood there as her zanpakuto came around the corner and hovered above them.

The wolf hollow slammed its fists on the roof of the diner, cracking it. On the inside of the diner, the roof was slowly starting to collapse. "MOVE IT!" Dotan said loudly, slightly drawing out each syllable. The mod soul filled gigai hurried Naomi out of the fron of the diner, thinking the Quincy could take care of himself.

"Ah gee, no need to be like that..."

WAA-SIIIIING!!!!!

Anders began to speak to the Hollow, but within an instant, he vanished from his spot and appeared behind the wolf Hollow. The creature would find a massive cut across it's chest that was rather large, but not dire enough to be completley fatal.

"...you can run away now, if you wish. I won't mind." The sly Quincy said to the beast casually with a slight smile."

"Isn't that the quincy we met earlier?" asked the fourth seat. "Yep. I won't ever forget that girly haired twerp." Satomaru answered.

The hollow growled with anger quickly spinning over itself to slam its claw into Anders body, and get a grip on the man.

TANG!!!!

When the Hollow's claw slammed into Ander's body, it would be the equivalent of hitting a massive wall of pure steel.

"Confused?" Anders said casually, not even looking at the beast. "I would be too. If I were a Soul Reaper, it's likely I would be split in half, and normally a Quincy would also be easily killed with such a move...."

CHITOW!!!!!

The Quincy then twirled around an pulled out a bluish silver tinted pistol with a rather long barrell, and then discharged a powerful bolt of energy into the beast's right shoulder, before continuing. "It's a Quincy technique called "Blut," or "blood" in your tongue. Allowing me to increase my defensive properties at the cost of my offensive ones not being in use, but that's why I have this here gun you see..."

The hollow, became even more enraged. "NOOOOO DAMNED HUMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAN! CAN KILLLLL MEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" It charged a silver cero just like before and prepared to release it at point blank range. "DIE!!!!"

One last shot was all it took.

CHITOW!!!!!

...straight into the still charging Cero,

GLURCH!!!!!

...and into the creature's mouth out through his head.

The hollow slumped over falling dead, its cero disapating as its spiritual energy dropped, It hit the ground hard and just disappeared.

Anders simply holstered his gun back in the sheathe on his left hip. Hopping off of the barely intact roof and down to the mod soul occupied gigais and Naomi. "I assume you four are all unharmed?" he asked casually.

"I'm...alright. Though this is a hell of a way to turn in for the night." Naomi joked without smiling.

"Without a doubt." he replied.

"I don't approve but it was effective." Daite said as the group of shinigami walked over.

"Hey, all I did was shoot the Hollow and cut it. He's the one who totaled the roof." Anders defended himself in a casual manner, twirling his Quincy cross around his fingers in an oblivious manner.

"I know. I was there. It was your killing it, that I am not approving of. You should have let one of us deliver the killing blow. You could have just destroyed your grandchild." Daite said.

"It was either wait for one of you to come over and end it, or our little sweet and her workplace comes crashing down." Anders said, this time his tone a little more serious. "Your "balance" won't be harmed by one mere Hollow. If my kind truly intended to do it harm, then we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"True. But one becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes sixteen, and so on and so on. Even if your kills are pretty sparsed, it does add up. But that is not why we are here. We've completed our job here, but I would feel like things will be wrapped up nicely if we took over from here, and escort the young miss home." The captain said casually, trying to keep things calm.

"As you wish. My duty here is done as well." Anders replied, turning around and walking back down the rainy street with his hand waving at them lowly. "I'll keep in touch."

And within a few more seconds, he was gone, completley out of vision.

"....geez what a night."

Naomi held her forehead with her left hand and massaged it smoothly as if she had a headache. "Everything that I know changes in one day. I have a feeling there's going to be alot more to this later on."

The three shinigami assummed their gigai once again. "Well, I'm sure this won't be the last of them." Ayakp stated. Daite cracked his back, from Dotan's constant slouching. "We'll walk you home to make sure you're okay. When we leave I'll do my best to get you some type of protection."

"Thank you." She replied, sighing. "I....would appreciate that."

Act 5: Bitter Memories, Time to Move On?
Naomi returned to her apartment, the highest room on the top floor with a great view of the city. Yawning as she walked inside, she flipped on a lamp light to the right of the door to brighten the room a little more.

"Sindi?" she asked out drowsily. "Sindi, I'm home."

The television was on flashing with lights and gruesome death scenes, a cliche hack and slash thriller on in the late night. In front of it was a lazy chair, fully extended, with a young girl sprawled across it, in a white t-shirt and small black shorts, still wide awake with an open tub of rocky road ice cream sitting on her stomach with the spoon sticking straight up out of it. Sindi Fuyumine was up past her curfew once again. "Idiot. Everyone knows not to check the closet." She looked over the chair behind her in a lazy way to see her older sister coming in. "Hey. " She then noticed the state of Naomi's clothes. "Rough night at work?"

"Ugh." Naomi groaned, setting her purse on the table and sprawling out on the sofa to the right of Sindi's chair as if she was about to go to sleep. "It was incredibly rough. I don't think I ever want to go back."

"Then you won't be able to fully pay off college. Why don't you just get a promotion? That damned cheapskate whore, Himeko should have been made you Manager of the diner. " She blatantly said without turning from her movie. "Bloody hell. Why do they fall everytime?" She then stuffed her mouth with a big scoop of ice cream.

"Hey, don't speak about her like that." Naomi said in a slight stern tone. "She's been good to us. The joint isn't exactly doing that good right now, I would probably get layed off anyway within the next month."

"Well we don't have to worry about the apartment with ma and da's insurance pay out. But I wish I could have stayed over in England. But noooooooo....they will had to have me come back her and stay with you. Still not use to the time's here." She said. "Well, get to looking for another job then."

"I have been. I've been to at least six other places and only two of them are considering me." Naomi replied, sitting herself back up and looking over at her sister with a slight smile. "Quit being so gloom and doom on me all the time. It wouldn't kill you to be a little positive about something.

"I'm not gloom and doom. I'm realistic. You need to get up and do what you have to do to get what you need and want." She snapped back.

Naomi huffed. "If only you actually did anything to help. I mean, look at this place!" she said, holding her hand out and pointing out how big of a mess the apartment was in. Clothes were lying all over the floor, the kitchen was messy from Sindi's cooking, and it was all and all undesirable. "I ask you to clean this place up a little bit while i'm gone, something that you could do in just a few minutes, and I come back to see it exactly the way it was before, and even worse!"

"Hey! I'm only in charge of what's mine. That's how it was at school and that's how it is going to be. I've cleaned up after myself. If you aren't capable of cleaning up after yourself, you deserve to live in filth." Sindi said. "He's right behind you you stupid harlot."

"Right~" Naomi said with sarcasm, standing up and briefly going to her room. "Don't worry, little Naomi the maid will get it for you." she continued as she passed by.

When she came out of her room, she was wearing a blue t-shirt and white pajama pants with teddy bear faces on it. She set into picking up all of the clothes that lay in the floor and putting them in the washing machine that was in a small room next to the kitchen. After about five minutes of doing that, she went to clean up the kitchen, using clorox wipes to rid the white counter and table of food remnants and stains, and then started putting the dishes in the dish washer, not bothering to clean them as she was too tired already.

When this was all done, Naomi went back to the sofa and exhaled slightly. She felt rather angry at her sister for not helping, and only cleaning what was hers (ironically most of what Naomi cleaned was Sindi's), but she didn't want to start anything, so she decided to be nice about it.

"So, how was your day? Anything interesting happen?" she asked with a smile.

"Well my day was quite promising if I do say so myself. I passed my Algebra exam this morning. In PE I was able to skip out successfully with a forged note with your signature, and after school I broke my personal record in the archery club. I'm only so far from breaking the school record." She said making a guess and suggestion of distance with her thumb and index finger. She went back to watching her movie.

She then looked over at her sister. "So anything interesting happen at -" As the killer on screen slammed his axe into the door, there was a loud knock at the door, that made Sindi jump cutting her off. "What in bloody hell was that?"

At first, Naomi's head fumed at hearing that her sister had forged a note to get out of PE, but she decided to go see who was at the door. She looked though the see hole to see who it was.

Standing on the otherside of the door, with his back to the door was Daite, in his gigai. His hands were in his pocket and was staring at the picture on the wall, it showed the building after it was first built. "I remember that," Daite said to himself.

"Oh!" Naomi said, quickly unlocking the door and opening it, greeting Daite with a smile. "Daite-san. What are you doing here?"

Sindi looked over her chair to get a peek at who was at the door. She raised an eyebrow gettin a view of Daite as he turned around to greet her with a smile.

Daite quickly bowed. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting you or anything, but I rather have given you this now then later. It would make me feel better if you had this." Daite pulled out a white cell phone. It had the mark of the shinigami in hardly noticable places, like the make company and serial number. It even had a small charm latch on for customizing it. "It's called a Denreishinki. It will allow you to get in contact with me no matter where you are." He smiled.

Sindi all the while snuck her way up to the door trying to stay out of view. But Daite easily spotted her with his hawk-like eyes. "Hey." He waved. "Your sister?" He asked Naomi.

"Oh, thank you. I appreciate it." Naomi said, still smiling. She glanced back at Sindi before looking back at Daite. "Yes, this is my sister Sindi. Why don't you come in and sit a while?" she offered kindly.

"Oh I couldn't do that to you. " Daite said waving his hands. Sindi grabbed his hand and pulled him in. "Oh don't be like that. Come in, have a seat, take a load off." She pushed him to take a seat on the sofa. Daite looking dumbfounded all the way at Naomi. Sindi hopped back into her seat, going back to her carton of ice cream. "So what's your name?"

Naomi quietly walked over and sat next to Daite on the sofa, still smiling, but waited for him to speak to Sindi before she said anything else.

"My name's Daite. Daite Onigokua." He said uneasily.

"Can I get you anything, Daite-san?" Naomi asked politely. "We have plenty of things here, well, at least what Sindi hasn't already eaten." she joked playfully.

Sindi stuck her chocolate and caramel colored tongue out at her sister. "Well I could go for a glass of orange juice." Daite said with a smile towards Naomi.

"Of course." Naomi went to the kitchen and took the carton of juice, filling a glass with it and bringing it back to the man. "Here you are."

The captain took the glass from Naomi. "Thank you." He started to drink from the glass when Sindi asked, "So are you two dating? Because it seems you seem smitten with my sister." Daite almost spit back the juice into the cup. He swallowed it with a blushing face and looked at Sindi and Naomi. "It's all right. She is a great looking girl. Of course guys will fall for her."

This caused a sweat drop to go down the back of Naomi's head, her cheeks becoming red as fire as she glanced at Daite. "Oh! Y-you're too kind Daite-san."

She then looked back at Sindi, comically pouting while still blushing. "I am not dating anyone."

Sindi rolled her eyes. "Sure you are." She said sarcasticly. "So Daite, what do you do as a job?"

Naomi resumed her sitting stance, waiting for Daite's explanation with a bit of humerous excitement.

Daite whispered to Naomi. "Does she know what Rushifa was?" Sindi raised an eyebrow. "Do you even have a job? I mean really Naomi do you just look for a pretty face?" She said.

"Kind of. She is more spiritually aware than I am, but doesn't believe in any of it. It's hard to explain." she whispered back.

"Oh I do have a job. I'm in the military. A captain, in fact." He smiled. Sindi perked up. "Military!. Naomi, you have to date him. He is an amazing catch. I mean look at him. He's cute, he has a job, you can tell that he's in shape, from being in the military, he's well mannered, I mean he's too good to be true. He's pratically marriage material Naomi!" Daite just blinked and stared at Sindi with slightly rosed cheeks.

Naomi's cheeks became red as fire once more, her face becoming rather sheepish and nervous at the same time. "W-what?! I-I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment!" she whined, quickly looking back at Daite and speaking in a fast and nervous tone. "Don't mind her. She's silly and she thinks of things like this on a whim. It's probably because she's up so late, which probably means she should go to bed right now." she finished and looked back at Sindi with comically infuriated eyes and speaking through her teeth.

"Fine. But I'm serious. Don't let him slip by Naomi." She grabbed her carton of ice cream and slithered her way into her room, closing the door behind her. "Well that was interesting. " Daite said with a sheepish smile.

Naomi let out a sigh, her face relaxing once more. When she looked back at Daite, her face became rather embarrased. "I'm really sorry. She's a little too cynical for her own good, and it can lead to some really uncomfortable moments."

"Yeah uncomfortable is an understatement." He rubbed his neck. "Well I should get going then. I mean I do have a team to monitor." He stood up. "Don't let him leave Naomi. Put on the charm." Sindi said cracking her door open.

This time, Naomi's eyes glared back at Sindi with a comical fury that even the most menacing of creatures would flee in terror of seeing. But it quickly turned back to Daite, being more relaxed this time. "Are you sure? We don't mind you staying if you want to."

"Well do you want me to?" Daite asked her. "Stay Mr. Military!!" Sindi chimed in again.

"Well it does get a little lonely when she's in the bed...Oh! Not that I want you to stay in that way- I mean, not that I would...Oh boy..." Naomi stuttered. She could barely speak without becoming embarrassed.

"Well..." Daite kind of looked away. "I don't think I should. I mean we did just introduced ourselves to each other just today."

"Oh...well, you're...you're welcome to stay. I mean, if you want to, we can....get to know each other better tomorrow maybe?" she said. At first, her voice was rather sad at hearing him suddenly decide to leave, but she became rather hopeful as she said her offer.

"Yeah we can. I'm staying at the temple with the rest of the people I brought. You can meet me there, and we'll see where it goes." He offered.

"Of course!" she said with her face brightening up. "And please, keep me in the loop about Rushifa, alright?"

"I sure will Naomi-chan." He smiled as he made his way toward the door.

When the door closed, Naomi sighed with relief. She was still nervous, but she was also excited at the same time. Walking over to Sindi's room and cracking the door open, she said with a hint of joy in her voice. "We're going out tomorrow!"

Sindi was laying in her bed, the empy ice cream carton on the ground next to her bed. "Took you long enough, gosh." she said rolling over, showing some joy in her voice. "So where did you meet him?"

Naomi walked over to the bed and sat on it near Sindi's feet without touching them, looking over at her little sister with a smile. "At the diner, under some...strange circumstances to say the least."

"Work huh? So he's seen you at your worst and he's still interested. He's a keeper Naomi. It's time for you to move on and Daite is a great way to do so. I mean he seems way better than that other bloke you dated. Look he disappeared, and left you in a depressed state for a good two months." Sindi stated. "Worst two months of my life."

Naomi's eyes widened, and her face became depressed upon her mentioning of Rushifa. "Please Sindi, don't speak about him, especially in that manner, okay? Rushifa didn't leave me...he wouldn't have done that. Something...something happened to him that shouldn't have, and that's why he has been gone..."

Sindi's eyes tightened. "But to go this long without a call, or a police investigation. Nothing's been done. It's almost as if he ran away on purpose. With his luck and how he always was ducking out on your dates and such because of "work", he must have had some organized criminals after him. I'm suprise no shady figures popped up here." She said.

A tear welled up in Naomi's right eye, remembering the day a Soul Reaper delivered a report on the incident.

"He was murdered Sindi. Rushifa is dead..." she said wearily, the tears began to stream down her eyes.

Sindi's eyes widened in shock. "He w-was murdered? W-why didn't you tell me?! I've been mad at him for all this time because I thought he just up and left us ... I mean --" Her eyes started to well up with tears.

"I...I didn't...I didn't want you..." she said, struggling to speak due to the tears. "I didn't want you to feel....like I did...when I found out..." she covered her hands with her face, sobbing to herself quietly. Even after all this time, the memory of her old boyfriend and childhood best friend still haunted her.

Sindi hugged and held her sister where she started to let the tears flow from her eyes and buried her face into her sister's chest.

It was all Naomi could do to wrap her arms around her sister gently, sniffing some as the tears from her eyes slowly ceased, but still stained her face. "Shh...shh...it's alright...it's okay..." she cooed, brushing her red hair lovingly and nuzzling the top of her head.

Within her mind however, Naomi could not help but grimace over what may lie ahead for the two of them, as well as their hometown. What would the future hold...now that Rushifa may still be very well alive..."

Act 6: Good Present, Greater Memories, Better Future
It was morning on the mountain, dew and fog covered everything in sight. On the mountain was a large expansive temple built into its side. It was a traditional japanese temple with tiger statutes allocated at entrances in pairs. It had a very long staircase that led down the mountain as well as a cable car. Daite stood in the middle of the temple grounds at a well. Today, he had on silver colored jeans with a white tank top on showing all of his muscles as he pulled water from the well. Folded over the side of the well was his red dress shirt that he was going to wear.

"How pretty." Naomi said to herself quietly as she walked up the steps to the large temple, quietly marveling at the beauty and structure of the building. It was almost as if she was stepping into feudal Japan...

Daite looked up from what he was doing. "Why hello there Naomi." He beamed at her. He lifted the bucket and rested it on the edge of the well. "Good morning, and how are you doing?" He greeted her as the sounds of steps came from behind him. "MORNING!!! DAI-DAI!!!" slamming into him with a hug was his old friend, Mei Sunnatori, who happened to work there at the temple. She started to smother him with her endowed chest. Daite scrambled and spoke through muffled flesh, knocking over the bucket of water back down into the well.

"Why i'm going good, Daite-san. I see you've been-" she was cut off when Daite's friend suddenly began to smother him, her face at first a little dumbfounded, but it shifted to one of humor. "...busy..." she finished with a slight giggle.

Mei then released him after noticing they weren't alone. "Why good morning young lady. Welcome to the Byakko Temple." She bowed and fixed her glasses. "I'm Mei Sunnatori. How may I help you today." She smiled. Daite recovered holding his neck. "Don't worry Mei. She's here for me." The endowed handmaiden looked at Daite really crossed. "Oh really? You're going to leave and you haven't even eating breakfast yet. " She then turned to Naomi. "You are welcome to join us if you like..."

"Oh, i'm fine. I grabbed something on my way over here, but thank you for offering." the woman replied back with a cheery expression.

"Oh c'mon. I'm sure you had to work up some type of appetite from walking up all those stairs. Let us treat you." She beamed. "She said she was okay Mei. Besides I can go eat in town." Daite said as he grabbed his shirt and put it on. "No I insist on the two of you eating here." Mei said through a forceful smile at Daite.

"It doesn't matter to me, although the town is looking rather nice today..." Naomi cut in in a sheepish way.

"Yeah. I'm just going to go to town Mei. It's no big deal." Daite said as he took hold of Naomi's hand and started down the stairs with her. "It is a big deal Daite" Mei says to herself sadly.

"She seems rather adorable, if I do say so myself." Naomi said to him kindly, blushing at feeling his strong hand take ahold of her smaller and much more pale appearing one, but she felt very content in doing so.

"Yeah. Mei is a character." He said. They had hit the first landing and Daite delicately guided her over to the right where the cable car station was. "Let's take the car down." He opened the cab and allowed for her to enter.

"Oh I love cable cars!" Naomi beamed, having always loved to see the wilderness of their home county from above.

"Best way to get up and down the mountain." He laughed.

"Not if you like walking." she said with a smile as they neared the cable car. "Of course, I did just walk all the way up here, so going back down while not standing would be just fine."

"You did? All that waitressing built some strong legs for ya" He joked as he closed the cab behind them, and took a seat as their cable car started to move down.

"Ugh, that and all the running I have to do back at campus." she said, still smiling as she sat in a seat next to Daite. "I swear it's like the only education that i'm getting is how to stay on my feet."

"Oh it just going to take some time. You are learning about your self during that time as well so that's something" Daite said with a smile. "I'm sure things will get better."

"Yeah yeah." Naomi said in a jocular manner, waving her hand in emphasis. "So what about you, hm? What keeps you occupied when you're not, well...you know?"

"To keep myself busy? When I'm not slaying hollows, training subordinates, doing paperwork, or attending meetings." He laughed. "I'm usually eithier writting or I'm knitting. Yes I knitt. I have a lot of time with my hands so it was just something to do. But I'm really good at it. If you look at my clothes, none of them have tags marking them as being manufactured." Daite smiled proudly.

"You knit?" Naomi said, leaning over and smiling. "Aww that's so cute!"

"Yeah. It's calming. " He smiled at her. "As you noticed my job can be quite stressful, especially with those two."

"The two back at the diner?" she asked. "They seemed pretty relaxed to me. But then again, I don't spend alot of time with them so I wouldn't know." she giggled.

Daite laughed. "They argue and bicker like a married couple. It gets annoying sometimes. And that's only two people out of 200 people under my command. And that's not including some of the other captains and the students coming in from the academy. I have to deal with a lot of different personalities." He looked out the window of the cab seeing the morning skyline of Yamato City, contrast against the trees that flowed up the mountain. Some birds flew from the trees and towards the city. "It feels good to be back here. It's weird. I use to live here for a bit and hated every moment of it. But now... now I feel at ease. I'm actually happy to be back here."

"I feel the same." she replied warmly. "Yamato City is just so peaceful looking in the mornings. When I was little, my friends and I would sneak out of school just to go hiking up these mountains. We never got caught, but we did fail alot of assignments." she finished with a chuckle.

"I can do you one better. I lived in these mountains. Did you ever hear about those rumors of evil spirits in the mountain forests?" He turned to her. " The ones that marked trees and supposedly howled out through the night?"

"My grandma would tell me about them sometimes." Naomi mused, looking at him curiously. "What do you know about them?"

He chuckled. "Everything, because that was me. " He smiled. " And my aunt and mother. But it was mostly me. The markings in the trees and their falling was my doing. I was cutting them down practicing with my zanpakuto. And the howling was the death cries of hollows I found in the forest . Didn't your grandma and the town find it weird that they disappeared and a temple was erected a short time later? It was all us. We lived in the forest because we had no gigai to interact with people with."

"Well well, you certainly were a mysterious lot." she giggled, before looking out the window and sighing. "I miss it. I miss being able to see the things that you could see when around Rushifa. It made everything in this world so much more interesting and...beautiful."

"Seen what? Spirits? Why would you want to see that? A lot of them made me sad as they were stuck here, not wanting to let go. That mentality for a spirit will eventually turn them into a hollow." He turned to her. "You seem to be spiritually aware to some degree, to see hollows, and our badges. " The cable car reached the bottom of the mountain and unlocked. Daite opened the door for Naomi to step down.

As she did so, she smiled. "I mean, I like the mystery of it all. If there really are spirits here, wouldn't it just be amazing to hear what all stories they have to tell? What their lives were like and all?"

"You'll find a lot of them are similiar, focusing on how they died or some object of their affection. Most spirits are able to stay sane. Usually children. But others fall to become like beasts becoming single minded, well until they evolve." Daite kept discussing and giving a more indepth look into spirits for Naomi, pouring his wealth of knowledge from his job out to someone. To him it was a nice change of pace, as they walked down the street.

"Rushifa always said that those who become monsters are called Hollows." she continued in her little pursuit of knowledge. "But whenever he would kill one, he would tell me that he isn't killing it, but that he's purifying it. What did he mean?"

"He meant what he said. Shinigami purify souls. When we slay a hollow with our zanpakuto they are purified of what keeps them here and are to be reborn in Soul Society. I can perform a similiar thing to normal spirits but its less bloodshed more peaceful. The Shinigami's job is to keep a balance of souls between the human world and soul society. If theses two worlds were to become unbalanced. It wouldn't be pretty. So to kep balance we recycle souls by guiding them to Soul society and when they live out their time there they come back to the human world reborn once again." Daite explained with hand gestures and othe visual aids he could come up with.

"It's almost like the Buddhist reincarnation cycle, at least that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about it." she smiled. "But I get the feeling that there's more to it than that, right? Like that Anders guy that we met last night, what was he exactly?"

"Anders. That's a whole nother variable to the equation." He held his head. "Anders is a Quincy. A race of humans who develop spiritual powers to combat hollows. It would sound really good, but they actually do more harm than they think. When a Quincy defeats a hollow, they actually destroy and kill the spirit, which can upset the balance of things, when hundreds of hollows are killed. We shinigami warned them of their powers and tried to act peacefully with them, but the Quincy were stubborn and that led to what we call the Purgatory Expedition." Daite cleared his throat for the next thing he was going to say. "The shinigami slaughtered and hunted down the quincy, attempting to kill every last one of them and remove them from existance. Don't worry. I wasn't apart of that. I wasn't even born then, and I'm only in my six hundreds. But my father was the one in charge of the assault though under orders from Central 46." When he mentioned his father, Daite's voice became solemn and almost grief striken.

"That's....that's horrible..." Naomi said, her eyes widening in shock at hearing what happened to the Quincy race. "Now I understand why he was so resentful towards you all. It really says something about him that he bothered to help you earlier."

She then looked over to Daite with concern. "Hey, are you alright?"

Daite shook off the feeling, putting his hand through his hair. "I'm fine. It's nothing. " He smiled. " I don't know what it says about his character, but I know it says that we can work together, to some extent."

"He comes to the diner alot, at least three times a week. Orders the same thing, coffee and a newspaper each and everytime." she giggled. "All and all, he seems pretty nice, but given his status, I doubt that all Quincies are like that, no?"

"True. Some quincy attack us on sight and won't even listen to what we say." Daite stated.

"In a way, based on what you've told me, I find it hard to blame them, but it's also hard to sympathize with them. They did bring this upon themselves." she commented. "So, what would you like to do first?" she asked cheerfully.

He chuckled at her question. "Honestly, I was about to ask you the same thing." He turned red and sheepish as he held the back of his head.

"Hmm...." she thought to herself, putting a finger on her lips and smiling playfully. "...you know what? I'm having the time of my life just walking through this city with you." she said happily, holding onto his hand as she looked up at him with a smile and her eyes in upside down U shapes.

"I honestly feel the same way. " He laughed.

"I'm glad you approve." she smiled still.

After a few more minutes, she sighed. "I remember the first time that Rushifa and I did this. He had no earthly idea how exactly he wanted things to work out." she laughed.

Daite looked at Naomi. He unknowningly was blushing at the time. "You miss him don't you?"

"More than I can bear." she said regrettably, her face saddening as she looked down. "He was so lonely, so rejected by everyone, even his parents. I was all that he had as a friend, and I loved him, just like he loved me. For him to just be murdered like that..." she wasn't able to go on. However, no tears came from her face and she did not cry, rather than retain the same saddened expression.

Daite held her hand tighter to console her.

...and she in turn gently grabbed Daite's arm with her left hand, while holding his hand with her right, resting her head on his arm warmly. "Thank you, for understanding..."

"I can only do so because I've felt the same." Daite said warmly. He rested against her as they walked. "I know what it feels like to have things ripped from you."

"It hurts, only if you have no one else." Naomi said, nuzzling against his strong arm in content. "Sindi...wasn't ready for it at the time, and I had to live with the thought of him being gone alone. It's...it's a horrible feeling. I hope I never have to feel it again."

"Well I've been alone for a very long time. It feels good to have someone who knows how it feels. Someone to talk to."

"It makes it more bearable." she went on, only to stop herself to realize that since they had walked so far without paying attention really to where they were going, they were now at the beginning of a mountain trail for hikers.

"Huh, how did I not see that...?" she asked herself with a chuckle.

"You want to take it? It may be fun." he suggested when they stopped at the start of the trail. "We've gone long way." He said looking back behind them.

"Sure. No point in stopping now." she beamed, taking ahold of his arm and following the trail through the mountains. "At least we'll get some exercise, not that you would need it, i'm just saying...."

Daite laughed and blushed. "Let's go. Lead the way."

As they did so, Naomi couldn't help but marvel at how lush and beautiful the forest was at this time in the day. The only colors she could see were green and blue, with all sorts of plant life variants spread around the small dirt trail that they both walked.

"Ah..." she exhaled happily. "It's times like this I just forget about everything that's wrong with the world."

"Everyone needs that sometimes. It's amazing how much the small things matter." He said.

"Which reminds me..." she began, glancing up at him. "What do you and your team plan to do, about Rushifa I mean? If it really is him and he is actually attacking your allies..."

The young man stopped walking the trail. "Do you really want to know that?"

"I don't like surprises all that much." she said plainly, looking over at him. "If it really is him, I want to know why he's doing it, why he had a change of heart all of a sudden. I wouldn't be able to do that if he was killed on sight."

"My mission is not to kill him. I'm to capture him and bring him to Soul Society, for trial. After that point, I don't know what they'll do. If I do capture him. I promise that I'll let you see him before I take him in." Daite looked at Naomi seriously. "I'll do my best to make sure you have closure."

The woman smiled, reached up, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, before resting her head on his arm while holding it too. "Thank you, Daite-san..."

"Your welcome, Naomi-chan.." The man held her close as he blushed.

She held him close as they continued their walk together.

Later that night...

After a long day of lollygagging and sight seeing, the two of them were now walking down the night street together, back to Naomi's apartment.

"Gosh, what a day..." a tired and yet excited Naomi said.

"I know right?" It was followed by a yawn from a gracious Daite. "It feels great to slack off." He chuckled.

She giggled some as they went up the elevator to her room. Once on the same floor, she held his hand as they walked. "I had alot of fun today. Thank you for taking the time to be around." she said with a smile.

He beamed a smile at her. "It was my pleasure. Besides its easy to do so with such a beautiful woman like yourself. " They stopped at her door. "Well, here you are." He said. Then the door to her apartment opened to show Sindi. "Where have you been?" The young girl said before noticing Daite. "Oh. I thought you two weren't dating. Well, go ahead. Kiss him already." The annoying little sister said with her hand on her hip.

Naomi blushed, both at Daite's comment, and even moreso at hearing her sister demand that they kiss. "W-what!? It's a little soon for that! What are you doing out of bed anyway?!" she asked in a quick and comically annoyed fashion.

"What you think? I'm waiting for you to get in. But I see. I shouldn't have waited up for you. " She eyed up Daite. "Next time, bring her in earlier." Sindi, closed the door on them, she then opened it back up to comically get the last word. "Still say, kiss him."

"Ugh..." Naomi sighed, rubbing her tendons on her head and closing her eyes, her cheeks still red. "Again, sorry about that. She can be really rude at some times..."

"I see." Daite laughed. "She just interested in seeing you happy I think."

"I'll bet she gets quite the kick out of it." she giggled, before turning to him and holding both of his hands. "And again, thank you for everything. I am going to see you again tomorrow, right?"

Daite blushed. "If you keep asking me out like that. I won't be able to leave."

She smiled a little more, giggling too. "You make that sound like a bad thing." she joked.

"Nothing bad can happen when I'm with you." He smiled.

"Flatterer." she commented, before she gently reached up, and gave him a soft kiss on his lips, and then hugged him tightly. "Thank you again, Daite-san."

She then opened the door, winked at him, and then entered her apartment room.

Daite stood there in amazed disbelief before he started stumbling down the hall in a daze and a big smile on his face.

Act 7: Danger lies ahead, The Source of All of Our Problems...
The evening forest of the distant Rukongai forest, gave off a...chilling feel.

The masked man walked throught a dirty trail in a rather flat like area, a large meadow surrounded by the mountains specifically. The grey, storm like skies above him made him blend into the area in a frightening fashion. A large weapon wrapped in a grey cloth was on his back.

So many thoughts were racing through his mind...and yet there was only one particular thought that stuck with him...

North of that, two beings of dramatic differences walked through the lush forest. One was a tall, rock of a man that obviously seen many a battle. He carried his katana on his shoulder with a large smile on his face. "You know we shouldn't be out here Seji. We are suppose to be securing the rukongai." The small delicate looking one said with a voice that sounded like sugar sweet enough to rot your teeth. She was quite small compared to the large man, with her scarf and goggles making her seem even cuter. A hearty voice came from the man. "What's wrong with wha t we are doing? We are in the rukongai aren't we? We're doing our job Shioko." Seijuro laughed. Shioko looked up at him with a smile and hopped up to his shoulder. "Well let's get to searching and securing." She giggled.

Rushifa inhaled, looking up at the sky while folding his hands behind his head in a relaxed state, his white mask hiding any of his expressions as his mind continued to be lost in thought.

The forest filled with a deep laugh from Seijuro as Shioko told him jokes. "Then the first guy says I achieved bankai. The second one says When? The other guy responds, ''Last Friday night...with your sister." ''Seijuro laughed loud and hard again, the two of them not the very stealthy at the least. "That one was very good"

Rushifa then tensed himself up and vanished from plain view, his back against a tree as he glanced out to see who the two people were, at least when they come out of the forest.

The two did exit out the forest, captain and leuteinant. Seijuro was now tossing Shioko into the air and catching her, the two laughing with joy. "Uppsy daisy!" Seijuro called out each time he shot her up with one arm, keeping his zanpakuto resting on the other shoulder.

Rushifa glanced out to see who they were. As of right now, they didn't seem to be a bad bunch. Maybe he could simply keep passing on without worry of hostilities...

...no. He needed to wait and see more. For all he knew, it could be a trap.

Then the two froze up, Shioko still in mid-air as they both looked in direction of where Rushifa was hiding.A wave of seriousness washed over the two in that breif extent of time, as the large man didn't attempt to catch his subordinate, who landed safely on her feet in masterful fashion. "You heard that right?" The captain said. "The twig snap? or the brushel of leaves?" The little girl inquired. " Both. I'll check it out. Stay here." The male captain ran in the general direction of Rushifa's hiding place, passing mere inches by him and kept going. Shioko flopped down and started braiding some flowers together into a crown, humming to her self.

When he started running, Rushifa froze in place and held his breath. He didn't know who the guy was, but he was massive, probably big enough to where if Rushifa was in his way, he would more than likely get trampled. Thankfully, the man kept running past him, not noticing him apparantley and leaving the other girl by herself.

He then slowly started to slide deeper into the woods, an attempt to hopefully get out of their general area without being noticed...

"You can come out now. I know you there. And I'm not talking to the doe withier." She giggled.

"...crap."

Rushifa then slipped out into plain view, holding his hands up in a lazy surrendering manner. "Alright alright, i'm out. Please for the love of god don't kill me."

"Who says I want to kill you? I just want to play." Shioko giggled as she held up a finished flower tiara offering it to Rushifa. "Here." She smiled her eyes becoming similiar to an upside down U.

"Huh..." he said, reaching out and taking the little tiara gently, looking at it for a few seconds and then looking back at her in slight amasement. "You...you're just giving this to me?"

"Yeah. I can always make more. Try it on." A cute giggle came from once again. "What's your name?" Shioko asked as she went back to making another tiara.

Rushifa then placed it on his head, out of fun, and it fit perfectly. "God I feel like one of those little things you see in a barbie movie or something..." he muttered to himself quietly. "Uh, my name's Rushifa. What's yours?" he asked.

She giggled again. "I'm Shioko Eien. Leuteinant of the 11th Division." She then pointed up to the sky through her oversized sleeves. "And he's Captain Seji." Out of the sky with a falling downward slashing attacks to Rushifa's blindspot. The large burly man's attack would cause an upheaval of smoke, with his laugh filling the clearing.

"Waitwhat?!" Rushifa said aloud when he glanced up at seeing the larger man come down upon him with a series of attacks.

Quickly leaping out of the way and a few meters to the right of the two of them, he grabbed the blue katana handle of his large weapon on his back cautiously. "Okay, that's cool. Go from being a nice little girl to a trap for some guy to kill me. Awesome. Original. Fuck you." he said in a comically deadpan voice.

The smoke started clearing showing Seijuro with a big grin on his face. "It's amazing that we found ya! Ha! You are going to be fun I can tell" He took his zanpakuto and slowly started to point it at Rushifa. It then transformed into an overly sized blade as large as the man himself, who easily carried it with one arm. The hilt shaped like a cross between a manji and a rectangle. His reiatsu smoldered off of his body in a smoke like fashion. "Especially if you put Captain Morimoto through his paces." His smile got bigger causing his scars on his face to bend and contort. "Have at thee." Seijuro charged with the large blade impressively fast for his size, barreling in like a tank of power.

TANG!!!

The wrapping around his blade swirled off, revealing it to be a large cleaver like weapon with a pike near it's base. He then swung it down to clash with the other man's blade, creating a large swarm of sparks. After grinding the blade upwards, Rushifa slammed his palm towards the man's chest in a move to send him back and to get some distance, that is if it connected.

The captain shrugged off the palm strike as it hardly pushed the forboding captain back. "Oh I'm so right about you." He swung the large sword one handed in a horizontal fashion. The swing was quite fast and powerful spinning himself along with using the force of Rushifa's strike to give some extra torque. "Captain Seji's spinning like a top." Shioko chimed in with her usual perky voice.

Rushifa squinted his hidden eyes in annoyance, bringing his blade back down and using the flat end of it to take the brunt of the attack first. This caused him to spin a little ways and skid on the ground for a few feet. When he stopped, he used his own powerful swing, aiming in a swift upper cut to sever the man in half from his hip up to his left shoulder.

The Captain laughed as he dug his foot into the ground to stop his spin and slammed his sword's broadside down to divert and parry Rushifa's strike. "YOU"RE OPEN!!!" He then flattened the blade against the claymore that now pierced the ground, and ran it along the length of his opponent's weapon to decapitate him in one slash. Of course that's if the attack was to be unaffected.

Swerving his head back to avoid the oncoming strike, the large blade only cutting off a few of his supposid hair strands. Within that very movement, his head then rammed forward and slammed into the Captain's head as hard as he could at the level he was in currently.

Seijuro blinked in a daze. He let out an almost crazed laugh. "I like your style !!!" He returned the headbutt with the same amount of force as Rushifa did, laughing the whole time. "Seji!!! Don't get too carried away." Shioko chimed in from her seat in the middle of flowers. She had at this point had an entire set of flower jewelry and was working on a secpter. "He seems scrawny, and you tend to break your scrawny toys." A distracted Seijuro turned his head toward his subordinate. "I don't always. Don't worry so much."

Rushifa recoiled backwards, letting a grunt of pain come out of his mouth as his mask/wig flew off of his head and into the distance, revealing a youthful appearing man with black, gothic style hair that concealed his left eye, and with a golden right eye as well as a scar that went across his face. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he saw his opening.

"Getsuga...."

WWROOOM!!!!!!

He then brought his blade up in a horizontal fashion and swung it at Seijuro with a great amount of force, releasing a large, condensed wave of energy upon the Captain within a relitavley close distance.

"Tensho!!!!"

Seijuro was sent flying through the clearing and through three trees, toppling them over and embedded himself in the side of another. He gave a chuckle as he peeled himself from the tree, gripping his blade.

"Nichi..."

CCCHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Seijuro brought the blade up to a readied position to swing it in a wide horizontal arc. His blade began to glow bright white as the feel of his reiatsu began to spike, condensing around and inside the blade. He swung with impressive force releasing a highly condensed wave, still impressively large of his reiatsu and pressure wave through the forest creating a wide arc that cut through multiple trees.

"Kurōreizā!!!"

Rushifa's left eye shined with a red light, similar to a camera flash as he analyzed the attack that the man was preparing. If he was judging on appearance alone, it would seem that this man knew the Getsuga technique as well, but the name was different. Was this attack different in some way?

But by that time, the man had swung his blade and released his attack. Rushifa's first and only reaction was to throw another attack at him. Swinging his blade in a horizontal direction, albeit opposite side from last time, he released another blue wave of energy to collide with the oncoming attack, hoping that something either good or neutral would happen as a result...

The two attacks collided and neutralized creating a blinding explosion. The only person able to see whats going on, Shioko, as she now pulled down her goggles. "Ooooooo pretty." She said witnessing the pretty display of light. When the lights stopped only dust was there, and then a large shadow, breaking the cloud to Seijuro launching another Nichi Kuroreiza in a vertical fashion.

But by the time that Seijiro had lept out of the explosion, Rushifa had already used what could only be recognized as Sonido to appear directly above the explosion, and above the 11th Division Captain. Pointing his blade down at the man's back, Rushifa sprung down towards him at great speeds, intent on stabbing him through the back and into the ground below.

"Seji. Above you!!" Shioko warned as the captain turned his head to see the diving boy. "Sneaky bas-" He was caught off with Rushifa's claymore slaming into him and pinning him to the ground. It looked as if it pierced through him but actually, Seijuro caught the blade with hand preventing it from piercing through him, but wounding his left hand quite severely. "Impressive. HA! Let's get serious." He then used impressive strength to push back against Rushifa's blade, gripping onto it. "You'd want to see this." The burly man said as he took to his knee and held out his zanpakuto to his side. "Cause the Sky to light up with the hellish anguish of my enemies,Taiyosakuse. "

His zanpakuto glowed and transformed. The blade transformed into a large double ended naginata. Both heads were similar to the look of it's previous state. The blades were now a black with a crimson tinge to them. The entire zanpakuto was ten feet in length from blade end to blade end.

"Now we going to party" He said as he stood up as he kept a firm grip on the other's zanpakuto. A smile creeped across his face as he quickly pulled Rushifa in with his wounded hand and kicked him in the chest hard enough to send him a ways back, releasing the latter's zanpakuto.

"Nrgh!!" Rushifa grunted as he felt the man's foot slam into his chest, flipping around backwards several times before skidding along the ground. Grasping his chest with his left hand, it was only because of his somewhat Hierro enhanced skin that he managed to avoid the full brunt of the attack. If he hadn't done so, it's likely that this fight would be over.

BRWOOOSH!!!

He then pointed his blade at Seijuro, letting it's tip gather a sphere of deep blue energy, before releasing it in the form of a massive blue Cero that threatened to engulf the Captain and his Vice Captain.

"Nichi Kuroreiza" He said as the captain spun his naginata weapon in front of him skillfully to create a shield of protection for him and his vice captain. "Seji...can I get a turn?" She asked as the smoke started to clear. "Awww but I was getting started." He said back. "You always get to go first, and never leave any for me." SHioko said standing as her flower attire fell off her to the ground. "Tag out. Seji." SHe said walking past Seijuro as the large man walked to her former spot with his zanpakuto resting on his shoulders.

"Oh boy, i've seen this movie before." Rushifa said with a deadpan face and tone. "I may as well quit. This is going to be like one of those "Don't judge me because of my size." kinda things where i'm going to underestimate you due to your apparant age and then i'm going to get the shit slapped out of me. Don't tell me that's not how it will work, cause' I know it will." he said, waving his finger in a no fashion.

"Shut up. We about to resume play. " She gripped the sword on her back and drew the normal sized blade that was oversized for her. "You ready?"

"Why don't you just make me?!" Rushifa yelled out comically, his teeth becoming monster like and his eyes changing into giant white saucers. "Or you can take one of those little flower things and shove it up your ass!" he finished, holding his blade out defensivley.

She giggled and smiled as she was quickly on Rushifa, becoming a spining ball of blade slashes as she spun and flipped at him.

He simply raised his blade up, and delivered a powerful vertical strike on her spinning form, aiming to both do as much damage to her as possible as well as prevent her from hitting him.

Shioko's blade grinded against Rushifa's as she let her blade make contact, quickly changing her tiny body's direction to appear above the man, to perform a falling slash.

It was here that Rushifa demonstrated his use of Hierro. The blade fell upon his right shoulder and slammed into it as if it were solid metal, though one could see that there was a blue tinted aura in that spot. With that, he quickly spun around, moving his blade around to cut her head clean in half horizontally, or so it would appear...

Yes...it would appear as if the girl's head was bisected in half, but the remnants quickly faded away. Utsuemi, an advanced shunpo technique, the girl mastered young. She reappeared behind Rushifa thrusting her blade to pierce through his back and out the front of his chest.

He was then forced to lift his blade up and use the flat end to block the strike, it's strength surprisingly high enough to force him to skid along the ground ahead of him. However, he twisted around and released a massive Getsuga Tensho upon the girl, showing his annoyance with how this fight was turning out.

The attack connected and sent her reeling back but she easily recovered and landed. "Well that's going to be annoying." Shioko giggled. The vice captain held her sword out front. "Strike 'em with a stab! Raikōken!" The blade became engulfed with electricity and caused the blade to shrink down to the size of a tanto. " Ready?"

"Geez, I try going out for a simple walk without looking for trouble, and I end up running into a homicidal pair of maniacs. I freaking love my life." Rushifa comically complained.

Shioko smiled as she pointed the sword at Rushifa. "I'll take that as a yes." Then electricity sparked around the blade and shot forth drom it to thrust through Rushifa's chest. Her zanpakuto had just became a stretching blade of lightning that was going skewer the rogue if he didn't move fast enough.

Swerving himself to the left, the lightning bolt flew by and had only cut into his right arm, leaving the lighting to trail off to whereever it would go. Wasting no time, his blade began to glow with a bright blue light, before he twirled around and released a torrent of nearly twelve deep blue Balas at the girl.

The blade's lightning quickly retracted back, in which she braced herself holding the blade at chest level and let it extend and retract 13 times in rapid succuession to cut through the balas and attack Rushifa once again.

Rushifa used a well placed Flash step to appear right above her, avoiding her counterattack as he brought his blade down upon her head in an attempt to split her in half.

TANG!!!!!

Rushifa's blade was stopped by Seijuro's shikai. "You forget about me?" He said as Shioko giggled and released another thrust of lightning poised to pierce through Rushifa's abdomin.

Thanks to the distraction, it did just that.

"GRUK!!" he grunted at feeling the blade run through his gut, his right eye beginning to glow with a bright red light as he scowled at Seijuro's sudden intervention. Blood could already be seen coming out of his mouth and from the impact spot.

Slamming his right arm into Seijuro's face, and quickly pulling himself off of Shioko's blade, Rushifa landed in the ground next to them, grasping his wound with his left hand.

"No fair..." he said. "I thought you tagged out?"

"Don't you ever watch wrestling?" The big man said after working his jaw for a bit. "It's quite rare for the partner to just sit by while the other is about to be defeated?" He laughed. "But you did put up a good fight. You were able to dodge Shioko's Raioken at half speed. Quite impressive."

Rushifa sneered, pointing his blade at them both. "No, I freaking hate wrestling. It's so gay looking."

BRWOOOOSH!!!!!

He then held his sword with both hands, lifting it up from the air and letting it gather a mighty torrent of deep blue energy. "Getsuga, TENSHO!!!!" he yelled out, releasing a massive wave of energy at the absolute most fullest power that he could muster while in this form.

Seijuro brow furreled. "Wrestling....Is....Not......GAY!!" He yelled as he used Nichi Kureiza without naming it, which collided with the getsuga. Through the blast anothe bolt thrust its way through, obviously from Shioko's height, heading towards Rushifa's stomach again.

However, it was here that Rushifa's Getsuga Tensho was revealed to be nothing but a distraction. As soon as the two attacks collided...

"Rise...Ragnarok!!!!!"

BOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rushifa's voice was heard behind the collision of attacks, and a massive pillar of black and blue energy shot out into the skies and darkened the area as if night were coming already. Shioko would find that her blade would be deflected by the sheer exertion of power itself.

The duo readied themselves for what was going to happen next. "I think things have just got serious. I LOVE IT!!!!" Seijuro yelled.

Once the pillar dissipated, all hell broke loose.

Just as soon as the giant column of Spiritual pressure began to fade, Rushifa, now garbed in a black shikahusho with a black bone like brace around his torso, flew at the duo with amazing speeds, much greater than that used before. A stoic and emotionless gaze on his expression, he unleashed a violent flurry of strikes from his new weapon: a black claymore with a long handle and a blue gem just between the handle and the blade.

Seijuro took the lead, using his naginata to keep Rushifa at a considerable distance, clashing blades frequently. Behind his big frame, Shioko counter attacked by hopping around and poking her zanpakuto through the holes of Seijuro's stance, realising the thrusts of lightning from her tanto, at a much higher speed than before.

After clashing their weapons a few more times, Rushifa ducked under a horizontal strike from Seijuro, his back landing on the ground as he then slammed both of his feet into the man's exposed torso. Once there, a considerable amount of Spiritual energy was used to augment the kicks and do considerable damage to him.

Using that opprotunity of a breathing moment, Rushifa also deftly avoided some of Shioko's strikes by Flash Stepping out of their range, and then reappearing above her, releasing a much faster and more powerful strike upon her.

Seijuro was sent onto his back with a grunt, and a spurt of blood coming from his mouth. Shioko picked up the pace of her strikes as she kicked them up to full speed. When she noticed Rushifa coming from above, she quickly pulled down her goggles and laid on her back pointing the blade upward aiming her zanpakuto at the base of his neck, and let a full powered bolt of blinding lightning loose to obliterate its way through Rushifa's neck.

Rushifa grinned at seeing her action. Twisting his blade to the right side, he clashed his blade with her extending one. While hers kept going, Rushifa continued to come down upon her, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than before.

That gave enough time for the captain to recooperate and react. Before Rushifa could reach Shioko, Seijuro's armored left hand gripped around the former's throat and proceeded to slam him into the ground and slide him across the ground into a tree, if unhindered.

BRWOOOSH!!!!

Although unaffected by the grab, Rushifa's form skidded along the ground for a few feet before he quickly regained his pose. Once back on his feet, he released a black and blue version of his Cero upon Seijuro's airborne form, aiming to shoot him out of the sky.

Seijuro quickly chucked his zanpakuto with all his might after a quick charge of Nichi Kuroeiza. A rather unique way of using it for Seijuro as the large naginata cut through the attack as he yelled its name. The large man landed on both feet and one arm, then a dark figure came from off his back, Shioko. The vice-captain ran up her captain's back and into the air, allowing her zanpakuto to launch itself a torrent of lightning.

The Cero and the Nichi Kuroeiza cancelled each other out due to such power being exerted. However, Rushifa wasn't expecting Shioko to come up from behind him. It was only thanks to his augmented speed that he managed to bat away the girl's blade and land on the ground in front of the duo, pointing his blade at them as he prepared his next move.

"Gotta say, I'm liking how this fight it turning out." he replied with a wry smile.

Seijuro smiled. "You took the words right out of my mouth." He said as he charged Rushifa with armored arm first.

Rushifa had other plans in mind.

Letting his blade gather black and blue spiritual energy, Rushifa slammed his blade into the man's fist. The collision created a large gust of wind that spread out several directions. Rushifa then placed his left hand on his blade's side that was facing him.

"Hakai Getsuga."

BOOOM!!!!!

The full force of a Getsuga Tensho was slammed into the man at close range, creating a large blue explosion that itself created a large crater underneath the two of them.

Behind the smoke, the duo would find that Rushifa was no longer there...

Seijuro stood in the crater with his fist extended, smoldering and missing paint. Shioko then was on his shoulder staring at it. "Wow Seji!!!! You made him explode with your fist!!!" The captain opened his hand slowly, the armor creaking as he reset his hand. "I did didin't I"