Balance of Souls: Collapse

Part 1
, Wandenreich Headquarters. Evening.

The heart of was host to a great many scars and memories, all of them were new. Reflecting the great changes that the Seireitei had undergone, very little of its ancient and historic form remained present within the walls that surrounded the capital. It had all been replaced by the architecture of the Wandenreich, transported into its place by absorbing the that constructed the previous landmarks so that the new ones could rise into place, like a curtain rising to reveal a new stage.

"In hindsight, this might have been a bad idea", Roshan Bamshad mused to himself as he wandered the hallways of the Wandenreich HQ, every window he passed gave him an eerily beautiful view of ice encrusted stonework buildings, only for another window to present to him some part that had been eradicated or demolished during the battle with the. It had been only a month or so following the victory the forces had over the  and work on getting everything back under control was proceeding at a mess of paces, one minute everything was fine and exceeding expectations, the next, someone's hair was on fire and the logistics crews didn't have a clue.

The man ruffled his shaggy blonde hair, letting out a sigh as he turned into the corner. To make things worse, Roshan had been appointed as Regent, somebody had gotten it into their head that he would've been a great choice to lead an empire just because he happened to be really old. He wasn't sure whether to be flattered or insulted, though he decided to grin and bear it, for now at least. The job was as easy as had made it look. You'd spout off some philosophical crap and give anyone who got uppity a glare that just screamed "I'm gonna smite you", the idea of it made him chuckle if nothing else.

The man's attention was drawn from his thoughts when a couple of passing saluted him, he returned their motion with a simple nod of the head before either party carried on. It was one more turn in the series of corridors he'd been walking through that he then found himself at a change of scenery. A doorway, exiting out onto a bridge bathed in the orange glow of a setting sun.

On the other end of that bridge was a circular platform and a ramp that rose up towards the gap in a massive ring. Two figures, clad in white robes and adorning the fragments of masks on otherwise random parts of their faces, were present on the bridge.

"Oh good, you're already here", he spoke to the open air, letting his voice carry toward the while he bridged the distance between them. The two Arrancar turned to face the Quincy, one had his chin and jawline covered by his mask remnants, which consisted of a row of teeth and the other's left eye was replaced by his mask, the circular, empty eye hole staring into nothingness.

"Bamshad-sama, you grace us with your presence.", Cielo Nocturno stated, he did a slight bow while grinning at the floor, his voice carried a large amount of sarcasm in it, as to which his partner, Redención Mandíbula chuckled audibly. Despite the obvious mocking that was going on, Roshan merely smiled.

"I see you're as energetic as ever Cielo, Redención, if you were Quincies you'd be Ritters by now", he remarked, putting emphasis on the words Quincies and Stern Ritter, making sure the two absorbed his sentence. While they grimaced at Roshan's quote, they quickly recovered from it, as if it was a joke.

"So Roshan-sama, what do you want with us?", Cielo asked.

He threw up his hands in an exaggerated shrug, his cloaked rising up with it to reveal his immaculate uniform. He walked between the two humanoid Hollows, to stand on the first step of the ramp that fed into the two curved pillars; the Gate of the Sun.

"Ah, well, we shipped ol' back to  while we got things settled here in ", he'd began riffling through his pockets as he spoke, searching for something that he'd seemingly misplaced. "The logistics guys have been picking up something weird near our base there, so I thought I'd check it out".

He turned from the gateway to the two men, his hand climbing from one of his uniform's myriad compartments, before tossing either of them a small device. Upon inspection they appeared to be little more than earpiece radios, painted in the typical Quincy colours of white and blue. Roshan was quick to hook his own over his ear, letting it disappear into his golden locks of hair.

"As for you guys", he started up again, his voice a little less dry than before. "The Gate here is pretty good at sending people places, but I needed a valet or two to hitch a back here", he continued with a touch of amusement.

"Fine we'll go with ya to Hueco Mundo, was gettin' bored here anyway.", Mandíbula stated, yawning as he walked up towards Roshan, stretching his neck as he did so. Cielo followed suit, walking up next to the aging Quincy as they all approached the gate.

"Shall we?", Roshan asked with rhetoric, the gate bursting to life behind him as if on cue. The space between its pillars filled with a bright line that shone down on the three men, engulfing them in its magnificence. To their eyes, the world around them disolved into millions of dust particles and then washed away into a wide ocean of colours. Then the process would repeat in the opposite direction, the ocean swirling into constituent particles and taking shape, as the unending desert of Hueco Mundo.

They were greeted by a cold but stale air, the empty lifeless sands, and a constant nightfall, their only light brought about by the Moon sitting far above their heads. The only thing of note before them was the pearly white walls of, once the headquarters of and his , it was now an outpost of the Wandenreich and the cage for Tier Harribel.

The group had nary taken a step before they felt a tremor rush under their feet, the sand above rippled like a wave of the sea, kicking at the balance of the three men as it moved.

"Hey, do ya see that?", Redención spoke, his eyes focused on a massive pillar of light that descended upon the roof tops of Las Noches. Then, it exploded. Cracks appeared on every visible portion of its pristine form only for every piece to simultaneously shoot out in every direction. A second tremor rippled beneath them, this one far more powerful, easily knocking them off balance. They all raised their heads in response to a massive shadow beneath their feet only to find a mile high tower of sand looming above.

"Aw, crap", they bemoaned in remarkable unison before they were buried under its mass.

Part 2
, . Afternoon.

Walking the streets of the large city, hidden in the crowd of common people was an uncommon young woman. Aileen McFarlane, known to some as Stern Ritter D - The Dirge, was wearing a perfectly casual clothing, walking in a casual pace and casually listening to rock music from her MP3 player. Somewhat weary, she was going down the street with her head slanted and her palms placed in the pockets of her jeans skirt.

The World of the Living was incredibly boring.

Even though born here, she was brought up as an elite Quincy. The splendour of this ancient organisation and the thrill of battle were the only things that could cause her excitement. The symphony of destruction she had played during the Wandenreich's invasion on the Soul Society was still reverberating deep within her psyche. However, now that the war was over, she felt unbearable emptiness.

What now?

The Shinigami had been defeated, though at a great cost. Nevertheless, after a thousand years of preparation the Wandenreich swiftly accomplished its mission, and there was little else to do. That is true, she heard something about the importance of fixing the balance of Souls, but she could not care less about such mundane matters. The Great Enemy had been vanquished, the Hollows subjugated.

With no enemy to fight, what was she going to do?

In the end, she was sent here, her hometown, to act as a sentry. But from whom was she to defend the city? What possible danger could threaten it now? Ever since the final battle she had been leading careless life devoid of happiness, excitement or meaning, for that matter.

What a pain, she thought as she kicked a can laying on the pavement. Unbeknownst to the young Quincy, a massive pillar of light came down to the ground, blocked from most people's view due to the numerous buildings in their way. Then as it touched the floor, a massive earthquake suddenly erupted, causing the city to go into a state of alarm.

What the... an earthquake, here?!, Aileen mused as she ran out into a more open area, as she did, she saw the massive pillar of light that was emanating from a fair distance away. Using, Aileen started to make her way towards the epicentre of the distruption, as she did she could feel the tremors get substantially more powerful while she was moving, actually destroying some of the more frail buildings around her.

Just as Aileen reached the area where the pillar of light originated from a massive shockwave came forth from it, blasting her backwards onto her back. As she got up she turned to see the immediate area devastated, that paired with seemingly more devastation and the screams of innocents caused Aileen to once again turn to the cause of the disturbance. The pillar of light faded as she turned back towards it.

This might be interesting, she thought, a wry smile suddenly outstretched on her face.

She reached into the neckline of her shirt and pulled, breaking her necklace. Then, she held it in her right palm, a small silver cross dangling from between her fingers. With her Reiatsu suppressed, she began approaching the site of the incident in a cautious pace, scanning the entire area with her heightened Quincy sense.

As she did, thunderclouds began to form above her, raining down upon the city, as Alieen paused to look at the growing storm, the clouds expanded at an impossible rate, as they did, a sprite occurred, causing the whole area to become drowned in a powerful light and oddly enough, reiatsu.

"My, my", Aileen quietly said as a bolt of lighting crashed down where the pillar of light was standing before. As Aileen uncovered her eyes from the light, she saw a female figure standing where the lighting bolt struck, her hair was black and tied into a high ponytail, she was wearing a hakama under a distinctive black Jeonbok. The odd clothed individual yawned and stretched as Aileen observed.

"Finally, we get let out, must be the only time I've really wanted to get out in my....hmm?", the woman stopped absent mindlessly talking to herself as she took notice of Aileen.

"The heck are you!?", asked the Stern Ritter, pointing at her accusingly. "You've got some nerve to make such a commotion!"

"Sorry bout that, but the Yüshítou are old technology, each one is connected to our fate so mine tends to make a ruckus even more so than the others.", explained the woman. "Naoko Murakami, Marshal of the East and leader of the Observation Corps of the Balancers of Souls. May I ask your name?", Naoko finished, asking Aileen for her name.

"Balancer of Souls?", retorted the Quincy with a question, narrowing her eyes. "Aren't you a Shinigami?"

Something changed in her stance, which now signified her readiness to spring into combat at the slightest notice. Naoko on the other hand changed her lighthearted expression to a darker look.

"I'm not associated with a group that claims to be better than other yet isn't anything of the sort, I am a Balancer of Souls, one of the predecessors to the Gotei 13", Naoko scowled, she put emphasis on the words Gotei 13, making sure to get her point across. After she said so, Naoko drew her blade, pointing it at Aileen, who lowered herself slightly, ready to attack.

"Lets go then."

"Predecessor", muttered McFarlane. "Well, real deal or not, you've already pissed me off, so don't take that personally but..."

She then lifted her right hand with an abrupt motion and the cross she had been holding emitted a flash of light. Suddenly, it assumed a solid shape, taking the form of what looked like the love child of a trumpet and shotgun. Aileen grabbed the weapon with both hands and swiftly aimed its barrel, adorned with the image of a screaming face, at the Balancer.

"Clamour!", she exclaimed.

Subsequently, a circular wave of energy erupted from the weapon with a loud hum. Miniscule at first, it rapidly expanded and carved a long ditch in the ground as it was approaching Naoko with great speed. Naoko took a glace at the attack before she disappeared from the Quincy's line of sight, slightly surprised at her opponents abrupt movement, Aileen faltered slightly as Naoko reappeared right behind her, the Balancer's sword against her neck. Aileen used Hirenkyaku to gain some distance from her opponent.

"You're quick.", Naoko said, the lighthearted tone she initially wore was back. "You still haven't told me your name, but I can guess you're a soul are you not?", she asked, as she did, Naoko used, appearing right in front of a mildly bewildered Aileen, who instinctively raised her arms in front of her face to intercept a kick from Naoko just in time. Despite blocking the attack, Aileen flew backwards, having to correct herself before crashing.

"I'm no Soul", she replied, a smug smile present on her face. "I'm a Quincy!"

Then, she cocked her spiritual weapon and pulled the trigger. The eyes and mouth of the stylised barrel shone brightly with energy as they unleashed a potent sonic shockwave. Once again Naoko disappeared via the use of shunpo, dodging the shockwave with slight difficulty, she reappeared a small distance away behind Aileen, scratching her head.

"Quincy, Quincy...", Naoko quietly murmured. "Ah! High-spec humans capable of manipulating surrounding reishi in order to destroy spiritual beings. Am I right?", Naoko asked, ignoring the Balancer's comment, Aileen once again shot off another sonic shockwave, however, unlike before Naoko merely raised her blade, electricity forming around it, crackling.

"Then that means...."

A bolt of lightning struck the area between the two combatants, erasing any sign of Aileen's attack and creating a huge crater in the ground.

"I must eliminate you, before you unbalance the flow of souls completely.", Naoko finished, her voice sounded deathly serious as she emerged from the dust cloud from the lightning strike. Aileen once again fired her spirit weapon, the attack aimed at the Balancer, before it reached her Naoko dodged the attack, her Jeonbok being the only thing damaged by the attack, she appeared above Aileen, her blade once again crackling with electricity.

"Let's go....Shǎndiàn.", Naoko said ominously.

But Aileen had already vanished.

"You're annoying!", she exclaimed as she was reappearing a large distance away.

This time, rather than unleash another sonic attack, she fired a burst of regular Heilige Pfeile at her enemy. The cluster of bright blue arrows crashed down on Naoko, covering the area with a cloud of dust. However as it settled an ball of electricity made itself apparent, as it dispersed, Naoko jumped out of it, she reached Aileen, engaging her in close range, forcing the Quincy to dodge and weave past Naoko's attacks. This kept up for some time, however as it dragged on, Aileen started to receive small cuts.

"I see, you're skilled enough to hold your own against my swordmanship skill, very well.", Naoko muttered, she broke from Aileen, moving back a small distance, she raised her electrified blade, stabbing it into the already destroyed ground, as she did, the battlefield started to tremor, causing Aileen to stumble slightly as she landed on the ground. In a millisecond, the earth suddenly exploded, releasing a vast amount of lightning from underneath it, causing Aileen to get blasted backwards due to the impetus of the explosion.

Once she landed on the ground, the Quincy glanced briefly at herself.

"You've torn my clothes", she said in an angry tone. "And... you've broken my MP3 player!", she added as she took the damaged device into her left palm. "You bitch."

The moment she cursed a gleaming pattern covered her body with a network of energy, and a bedazzling shine emanated from the barrel of her spiritual weapon: Blut Arterie. Then, a powerful continuous wave of sonic energy erupted from the weapon and shattered the ground in front of her immediately, approaching Naoko with the speed of sound.

"Tch.", Naoko tutted as she made a slashing maneuver with her blade, causing a stream of electricity to shoot out and instantly collide with the sonic blast, causing a violent explosion, taking the opportunity, Naoko jumped into the air, as she hurriedly sheathed her sword as she positioned both of her hands in front of her chest, vertically parallel to each other, she suddenly made a horizontal slashing maneuver with both of her arms, subsequently bringing them in front of her again, aiming in the vague direction of Aileen.

"Denki Tetsudō.", Naoko shouted, electricity burst from the gap in between her hands as it shot towards Aileen, the beam of lighting making a distinct screeching sound as it did so.

Without hesitation and still glowing with the power of Blut Arterie, McFarlane adjusted a couple of switches on the side of Clamour and promptly launched her own attack, sending ground-shaking vibrations across the entire area. The two attacks violently collided, causing a shockwave to tremor through the battlefield, Naoko, using the time given to her from Aileen's attack, moved once again towards the Quincy, she stopped a close distance away, raising her electrified sword as thunder clouds once again began to populate the area.

Surprised, Aileen had little time to react. Seeing the lifted blade wrapped in electric currents, she instinctively shielded herself with her own spiritual weapon, and the pattern of gleaming blood vessels on her body changed noticeably.

"Go!", Naoko shouted, as she did, a lightning bolt came crashing down to the two combatants, the bolt struck down only a few metres from them, it's power forcibly exploding outwards, creating a blinding flash of light and an extremely loud bang. Naoko, who had to shield her eyes from the light, removed her arm away from her eyes, searching to see any signs of her opponent.

Did it work?, she thought to herself, more electricity flowed through the Balancer's blade as she slowly approached the crater that her attack created.

Part 3
Inaba City,. Night.

The moon had only recently taken its place on stage, illuminating the skies over. Atop a hill overlooking Inaba city there was a shrine, and in the center of that shrine there was a sword. Raised high and embedded in a small pile of stones, it had been a landmark for the city, its very own story, for no one could ever remove the sword from its place, despite how loosely it appeared to be held in place. Overt attempts to remove the rocks or the sword had not worked either, making it a rather popular mystery among the locals and a tourist attraction for outsiders. Tonight, that was to change.

The weapon began to rustle and vibrate, its corners lit up with purple light, and then a plume of dark smoke burst from every hole in the gathered pile of stones. It clouded the small shrine, its smog-like form spilling out onto the ground outside the shrine, its form so thick that the wind could not dissipate or direct its flow. A beam shot forth from the Heavens, crashing down upon the shrine, obliterating the small building in the process. A pulse launched outward from the impact, racing below and above the tree covered hill, uprooting and destroying many of the great wooden towers as it raced outward. It blew through the city, its initial impact destroying weaker partitions of concrete and shattering many glass windows, though its ferocity died down the further it flew it still caused such a reaction as to knock out every light in the city.