This article, The Salvage, is property of Stylx |
This article, The Salvage, is property of Zf6hellion |
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The Hollow Hunters | The Final Mile | The Salvage |
Part 1[]
Masato, Kumiko and Ganju looked at the 3rd Division Captain, Junichi Kaneko, in horror, despite the victory they gained over the 3rd Division's Lieutenant previously, their relief was short lived.
"I'm impressed you managed to beat my Lieutenant, however it seems you only did so due to him losing his cool.", the Captain said quietly, rubbing his neck in a relaxed manner as the two Fullbringers anxiously observed the obstacle in front of them.
"I'm usually not one to do things quickly if I'm honest, y'know, I like to take my time if at all possible.", Junichi carried on, almost as if he was casually chatting to them as old friends.
"Don't bullshit us!", Kumiko abruptly shouted, Kaneko's lax demeanor angering her.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to harp on, honestly.", Junichi apologised, ironically angering the young Fullbringer further.
"Kumiko, don't get heated, we're in no state to fight someone of his power.", Masato whispered to her, while still annoyed, she stopped letting of steam and calmed down somewhat.
"Right, how can we get out of this though?", she asked, however, become Masato could reply, Junichi drew his Zanpakutō.
"Well as it seems you don't want to waste time, let us get this over and done with shall we?", Junichi calmly proclaimed.
A strong pulse of wind swept past the three combatants, however the blast wasn't created by any of them, but instead seemed to have been coming from a distance away. Ignoring it however, Junichi swiftly charged at Masato and Kumiko, splitting them apart with a horizontal slash. Kumiko jumped back, using her hand to flip herself into a upright standing position while Masato rolled out of the way, sliding to a halt kneeling.
"Beads of the Rosary.", Kumiko called out, once again releasing her Fullbring, she swung her rosary whip at Kaneko, who moved out of it's range by a mere centimetre before slanting and running at Kumiko while she was defenceless.
"No you don't!", Kumiko said, suddenly appearing behind Junichi, preparing to sweep the Captain's legs, before the Fullbringer could react though, Junichi's elbow slammed into Masato's face, causing him to falter and stumble back, allowing Junichi to swing around and kick him away, causing him to slam onto the ground hard.
Taking advantage of the Captain's momentary break of concentration, Kumiko swung her whip again in an attempt to constrict his arms, however before it reached him, Juinichi jumped back, dodging the attack, however the beads caught his sword. Kumiko forced the Zanpkutō away from Junichi's body, charging towards him with her fist pulled back ready.
"Too slow I'm afraid.", Junichi said quietly, he ducked, dodging Kumiko's punch before releasing his sword from her Fullbring's grip and punching her into one of the walls with his free hand. Before she could properly get up he traced a triange with his free hand, creating a triangle or yellow energy.
"Bakudō #30, Shitosu Sansen.", Junichi exclaimed, the Kidō went and fired off 3 yellow bolts of energy, pinning Kumiko to the wall from her arms and torso. After doing so the Captain turned to see Masato standing opposite to him, panting heavily.
"I must congratulate you on having enough stamina to go on.", Junichi said idly, Masato grimaced in response, he straightened up before getting into a fighting stance.
"....Fine, I'll finish you off if you're so adamant on fighting.", Junichi finished off, his voice more sinister in tone, he held his Zanapakutō horizontally to his chest, placing his free hand on the blade's flat edge, which start to glow.
"Allow me to show you my blade's true form.", Junichi murmured, pressing his hand down harder on his Zanpakutō. Power welled up around the Shinigami as his Zanpakutō slowly prepared to reveal its true form, it concentrated around him as a mist of energy that slowly gravitated... downward.
The stone beneath his feet had turned luminescent, emitting a powerful blue ray through the stone. Small cracks had formed in several places, water leaking through in an unnatural manner. They laced around like thick and fluid strings and had already wrapped themselves around the Captain's feet, preventing him from moving from his spot.
More cracks appeared directly beneath him before the entire area around him erupted into an ocean, the ground eradicated without warning and consuming him in its crushing waves. They were concentrated, clearly following a flow that pressured down on the Shinigami Captain continuously before suddenly freezing solid.
Masato was left untouched by the unexpected flood of sewage water, trapped on a small island of rock that remained precariously attached to the larger, more sturdy parts of the Seireitei's streets.
"We got here just in time", spoke a feminine voice, the clattering of heels on the earth not far behind as she entered into view. She seemed pretty average at first glance, not exceedingly tall or an immediately eye catching complexion, dressed up in a gray business suit with a button white collar shirt and her raven black hair tied up into a neat little bun at the back.
What made her stand out was the pendant hanging around her neck, ornate and probably worth a fortune, it shined with a light inside that projected an aura around it creating the image of a wisp, a floating light that one could picture just as clearly in the dead of night.
"Who are...", Masato was cut off by the ice trapping Junichi shattering, the Captain landed on the water gently, standing on it with not so much as a ripple emanating from the surface.
"Divide, Kaimetsu.", he said calmly, his Zanpakutō had it's form drastically changed, instead of a blade it seemed to be merely a handle and guard, while the handle was the same size as it was previously, the guard was extremely long, reaching about 10 inches in length. Instead of an actual blade, there were numerous metallic black wires protruding out from the hilt, all of them rhythmically waving about before suddenly being sucked back into the hilt, with the guard springing up to replace them.
"Phew, good thing my Shikai is good at piercing, or else that might've been checkmate.", Junichi said in a relaxed manner, scratching his head.
"That is a shame", she responded though the words hadn't been directed at her. She had barely reacted towards the fractured ice prison, as if she had been expecting her opponent to do so. Instead she sighed and glanced her ice blue eyes at him.
"I hoped to avoid too much violence, come, Shinigami, the next move is yours", The ambient sounds of the environment were drowned out as she spoke, the flooding rush of water bursting its way into the foreground with the bang of crumbling rock periodically jumping in. On either side of the Captain a gigantic torrent of water, spinning like a momentous whirlpool appeared, the end somehow projecting the form of a drill. They collided at the center in an attempt to spear the spiritual being, and failing that, simply crush him under the pressure, as the decomposing rocks that were caught within their wake had been doing.
Before they could do so however, Junichi used Shunpo to move out of the way of the charging water drills, appearing high above him, the only injury of note being a light cut on his shoulder.
"Hm, I guess my Shunpo needs improving a little.", he mused, he turned back towards his opponent and made a thrusting motion with his Zanpakutō, which once again opened up and launched the multiple spiked wires towards his opponent.
Meanwhile Masato had made his way towards Kumiko, who was still trapped by the Bakudō spell Junichi had cast, despite using all of his strength, he could destroy or even move the biding spell, even with his fullbring he was unable to make it budge.
"Why won't it move.", Masato growled, however a large bang made him stop and turn round to see Junichi's attack strike the ground, missing his target.
"I'm glad that woman showed up when she did.", he quietly whispered to Kumiko, who silently nodded in agreement.
"Hado #33, Sōkatsui!", Junichi shouted, firing a wave of pale blue fire at the female Fullbringer, it quickly cascading upon her, only to be immediately halted by the woman's pre-emptive measure.
A globule of water, formed and fired faster than the Captain's spell could be formed, stood right in the blue fire's path, causing them to collide. The water was evaporated immediately but the spell had exploded close to Junichi, which the female Fullbringer had hoped to have knocked him back as evidenced by the tendrils of water rising behind him, flooding together into the larger form of a large frozen spike.
Junichi was propelled backwards due to the impetus of his Kidō's explosion, as he did, he noticed the giant spike about to pierce through him, he flipped backwards so as to dodge the impending collision, managing to do so with just a small cut on his back. Landing on the spike, he jumped up and thrust his Zanpakutō at it, the wires attaching themselves to the spike, with one swift slash, Junichi managed to remove the spiked end of the ice before casting a non-verbal Hadō #1 at the rest of the formation, causing it to fall down to the ground. After he had also landed, he turned to the Fullbringer, resealing his sword in the process.
"My Zanpakutō's ability is handy, but I can't really attack well with it, oh well, I guess this will have to do.", he mumbled idly, he gripped his sword with both hand and got into a solid stance, ready to react to any movement.
The Fullbringer sighed heavily watching the Captain yet again escape what could have been a quick end to the fighting.
"You have nothing to gain here by continuing Shinigami", she started attempting to negotiate, her tone suggesting an obvious disinterest in the continued fighting.
"What could be so important as to require a Captain to hunt down two insignificant humans?"
"Personally nothing, if anything they seem like nice individuals.", Junichi replied, "However one has caused rather substantial damage to both the Seireitei's defences and Gotei 13's personnel, and one is under suspicious of being involved with a certain group, that's the reason why the Gotei 13 want these guys.", Junichi explained, straying off from the question asked.
"However, the reason why I'm here fighting them is because they beat my Lieutenant, it only seems just that I avenge my subordinate's defeat, am I wrong?", Junichi finished, his calm demeanor standing strong despite the fact he was almost given a hollow hole by his opponent's attack.
"So antiquated", she frowned in complete disapproval of the Captain's response.
"The fact that Reishi constructs are so easy to reconstitute aside, don't you old fashioned types preach something along the lines of letting a man stand on his own two feet?", her arm motioned empathetically as she spoke, seemingly trying to draw attention to the words as they were resounded in the air.
"Should it not be his job to fight his own battles, and if he lost as he did, his job to avenge his... honour, or whatever you dead men cling to?", she eyed the pair next to her, as if to blame them for this predicament despite her voluntary action in the matter.
I'm old fashioned? Ow, that hurts.", Junichi said in a sarcastically surprised manner.
Masato and Kumiko merely watched the two combatants arguing, still wondering who the hell it was who saved them and why she was arguing with her opponent instead of fighting him.
"Anyway, despite me loving a conversation it's best if we end this now.", Junichi conluded, with that, he used shunpo to move next to the Fullbringer, his sword ready to slash at her horizontally.
She had evaded at the last second, a glimmer of green light surrounding her legs as she leapt into the air and free from the arc of her opponents slash, though she was not unharmed. Her face scrunched into a pained grimace whilst the opposite arm waded over the side that had been attacked. Blood leaked from the wound on her arm, trickling over the fingers of the hand attempting to secure it.
In response, water from all around the area rose like snaking vines, surrounding Junichi before converging in on him, the vines became a massive, ever-expanding orb, once again trying to crush him under its pressure, but this time also to halt his ability to use Shunpo by slowing him down.
Next to her several tendrils had formed into spears and shot forth at the gigantic orb in an attempt to spear the Captain.
"Shit, Hadō #31, Shakkahō!", Junichi shouted, aiming his spell downwards.
The orb of water exploded outwards along with a plume of smoke, Junichi emerged from the top of the cloud, the bottom of his uniform singed and smoking, as he regained his composure he noticed the multitude of icicles crashing down onto him, despite his best attempts, the first spike sank deeply into the back of his right shoulder, the tip of the spike actually sticking out of the other end, he used Shunpo to dodge the rest of the spikes, albeit barely, he reappeared a small distance away, numerous streaks of blood flowing from the cuts painted on his head and upper body.
"Tch.", Junichi muttered, yanking the moderately large spike out of his shoulder, we winced in pain as the wound started bleeding heavily, he wiped the blood from the cut of his head out of his eyes and turned to face the Fullbringer yet again.
"Remember that I tried to dissuade you", rubbing salt in the wound as it were, the female Fullbringer was giving the Captain no chance to respond, trails flooded in from all directions, their edges flowing at intense speeds to form blades that looked like liquid chainsaws.
Despite his injured arm hanging limp at his side, Junichi instead directed his attention towards the water formations that were quickly descending upon him. Acting quickly, the Shinigami Captain faced downwards and used Shunpo to evade the blades of water, making the crash together to form what looked like a waterfall in the sky.
Before the now merged bodies of water landed on him, Junichi used Shunpo to make his way towards his opponent, holding his Zanpakutō horizontally across his chest. When he reached her, he violently slashed at her, a yellow streak of energy emenating from the blade as it approached her body.
"Ryōdan!", he shouted at the top of his voice.
Two rising waves blasted out from either side of the Fullbringer to intercept the oncoming attack. They intersected, the blade cutting right through them, though softening its eventual impact against the Human, whilst the paths of water had formed into spike tendrils that managed to pierce Junichi before dissipating.
She stepped back, a large vertical wound running right down the right side of her body, blood seeping right through her clothing into a small pool on the floor. She tripped on her heel but used the wall that stood behind her as support for a plodding descent to the ground.
"You two, get out of here, someone will be waiting for you at the Senkaimon gates, my friends will cover you on the way", she spoke, directing the two Fullbringers she had been assisting up till now.
Kumiko motioned herself in protest, however she was abruptly held back by Masato, she turned around angrily, however saw a out of character look on his face, he looked extremely tired and out of energy.
"We can't help her in our state, let's go.", he said wearily, hesitantly she nodded.
The two turned back towards the stairway, finding that Ganju had understandably ran away during the transpiring events, and was probably already safer than they were.
"Fine, let's go then.", Kumiko said, she grabbed Masato's arm and supported him on her shoulder before using Bringer Light to run from the vicinity of the battle.
Meanwhile Junichi was hunched over, grunting in pain as some blood seeped out from his new-found injuries, his Zanpakutō was sheathed and his functioning hand was pressed to his chest, emitting a glowing green light, which seemed to be slightly closing the wounds, however the spell was not enough to fully stop the blood from seeping out, causing the Captain to sigh slightly.
"My healing Kidō was always crap.", he said quietly.
The right side of the Fullbringer's body was bathed in a light film of liquid, its form glowing a celadon light in its reflection. The flow of blood had stopped and instead receded whilst her wounds slowly regenerated.
"Lucky for me then that the water isn't as careless", she spoke.
Part 2[]
8th Division Barracks, Seireitei.
Musei Hyouketsu was quietly waiting outside, standing quietly in the middle of his barracks, his division, like the other divisions, were given the order to move out and find the new Ryoka while their Captains supervised.
He looked around calmly, as if expecting someone to appear next to him at any passing moment. Finally he sighed and returned to looking straight ahead.
A fair distance away, atop the slate roofs of the Seireitei's buildings, stood Peter Leary, a somewhat short man with short brown hair and the makings of a goatee on his face. He dressed casually enough with a simple blue sweater and the neckline of a black t-shirt visible underneath, a pair of grey jeans beneath those. Held under his arm was a peculiar bamboo slip, currently wrapped up into a roll of sorts.
"Well, it seems our little pawns are moving along the board", he mused to himself, watching the similiarly named Fullbringer move from the most recent battlefield. f "Time for this bishop to make his move then", his gaze fell upon the barracks of the Eighth Division, visible from the roof he stood on, his view became a little more clear as he squinted his eyes.
At the same time, figures clad from head-to-toe in white steel made themselves known, ascending onto various points of elevation around the barracks before, rather unceremoniously, bursting through the wooden blocks on the building's windows.
They unsheathed their blades in unison, casting their sight upon Musei Hyouketsu. He was surrounded. Musei calmly looked around at the armoured foes who surrounded him both on his level and on the low roofs surround the barracks. Before any of the reached him, he used shunpo to get high up in the air, facing downwards the 8th Division Captain pointed his hand at the ground.
"Hadō #28, Mizu Kasukēdo.", Musei exclaimed, as he did, a torrent of water burst forth from his palm, crashing down onto the attackers, however, they were hardly affected by the Captains Kidō. Once again pulling his arm back, Musei shot towards the ground purposefully, his hand glowing white.
"Bakudō #25, Toketsu.", Musei stated as he slammed into the ground, as he did, the water that was strewn over the barracks started to freeze, despite only freezing slowly at first it began to pick up speed, making its way towards the water drenched suits of armour.
They had been temporarily halted by the force of the water, though remained unharmed beneath the defense of their steel plating. They continued their approach, eyes set upon the airborne Captain as they waded through the now flooded barracks. They paid little heed to the actions of the Captains going so far as to entirely ignore the rapidly freezing water as it consumed them.
From above however, several of the white armoured knights smashed through the roofing, flinging themselves at Musei as he began to descend from his jump.
A safe distance away, Peter looked at the bamboo slip, now sprawled out in front of him and levitating in the air, generating an aura of faint reiatsu as it did so. Atop it ethereal blocks formed in the style that represented units of soldiers on a strategic table, the majority of them were blue, surrounding a lone red block that represented his knights and their opponent the Eighth Captain.
Pressing a finger atop one of the blue blocks caused it to glow and gain in size slightly. Within the barracks, one of the frozen knights consumed the ice around it as it transformed into a large Golem composed entirely of the same material. A single step shook the entire barracks, the lone warning before the air was ripped apart by a monsterous, spiked fist flew towards the Captain.
Musei turned his attention from the remaining, unfrozen enemies, quickly spinning on his heel to intercept the attack, drawing his Zanpakutō, he blocked the attack in mid draw, one of the numerous spikes of ice scratching his cheek, he slid back slightly, coming to a halt only a few metres away from the ice Golem as it once again reared for another attack, as it did, Musei drew his arm back, placing his free hand on his upper arm.
"Hōkai!", the Captain shouted, his arm sprang forward, causing his Zanpakutō to slam into the fist of the Golem. The blade sank moderately deep into the giant's fist, Musei, not taken aback at the Golem's durability, rotated his blade as it was impacting into his enemy, suddenly, the Golem's arm was forcibly ripped apart by what looked like a large shockwave, its arm now a stump.
"Tch, I wanted it to completely destroy it, I guess it's armour took the majority of the impact.", Musei mused to himself.
A hand wrenched free of the golem's interior, shards of ice scattering through the air like shrapnel as it moved. The hand stretched out and latched onto Musei's Zanpakutō and pulled it back with it into the chest cavity of the icy behemoth rapidly freezing over as soon as it could. The golem did not make another attempt at an attack, instead it retreated backwards as the remaining unfrozen white knights that had broken in from the roof surrounded the Shinigami once again.
Musei sighed as he glanced at the steel covered soldiers that were steadily approaching him, he then looked at the Golem, who was slowly retreating thanks to it's bulk and the ice it was running on, he raised his right foot as it started glowing red.
"Bakudō #21, Sekienton.", Musei stated as he stomped his foot to the ground, clouding the pursuing armoured foes in a red smoke. The Captain used Shunpo to once again shoot up into the air, looking at the Golem who was close to approaching the wall of the Barracks.
As he was about to once again use Shunpo, he was intercepted by a couple of the suits of armour that were blinded by his Kidō, they speedily charged at him, however Musei avoided their tackles by moving backwards, firing a silent Byakurai at one of the opponents, causing it to falter for a brief moment, using the break in formation, he used shunpo to speed past the armour and towards the Golem, his arm starting to glow orange as he did so.
"Hadō #25, Kokaki!", Musei exclaimed, the glow around his arm transitioned from orange to red before igniting into a fire, however it oddly didn't give the Captain any form of damage as he rocketed towards the Golem, his arm held in front of him.
The knights dashed out of the smoke with amazing speed for the forms they took, coming out in front of the moving Captain to stop his advance. His burning fist impacted against the plating of one of his interceptors, the steel turning bright orange with heat before turning into a metallic sludge as it melted, the man's hand was trapped in a burning cage that oozed atop his forearm to boil it, from behind yet more of the knights struck out of the intended distraction, swords raised for a downward stroke at the man's back.
They shadows of their blades lined atop him, becoming darker and darker as they closed in before abruptly fading from existence. The steel that had imprisoned his arm had faded also, leaving no trace behind but the burned and blistering flesh. The ice golem seemed defenseless for a moment, its retreat temporarily impeded by the wooden walls of the barracks. Then, a light shone in, a formation of Celtic runes imprinting on the floor before several more white knights manifested in front of the Shinigami Captain, these ones looked near identical to their previous kin with the exception of the massive shields they now carried. They were pulled to the front and lined up in a formation, a row of spears striking out from small spaces in the ranks to force Musei back.
From his perch, Peter looked onto his strategic scroll, his fingers atop a small block that's form had changed to include the symbol of a shield. His hand motioned away from that block, pressing down on the imagery of a roof that faced the Eighth Division barracks, a block formed atop it and so knights manifested into the world on that very location. These ones drew bows, blue light shining where the arrows would lay, creating an image similiar to the Quincy before they fired.
The arrows flew like rain towards the barracks, buffeting the building in an attempt to skewer Musei after pressing him back.
Musei observed his now burnt arm, only wincing in pain despite the severity of it, he then moved back using Shunpo to avoid the arcing attack that the bowmen launched, he then stood up, holding his uninjured hand in front of his face.
"Bakudō #26, Kyokkō.", Musei whispered, he slowly vanished from the pawns sight, completely melding with the light that shone upon the world and disappearing.
It didn't matter to the archers that their target had seemingly vanished without a trace, they continued their bombardment of the barracks, its brown wooden palleted quickly darkened with the addition of hundreds upon hundreds of soul-synthesized fletchets.
Using his Shunpo, Musei managed to dodge the barrage that the archers had unleashed upon him, he swept past his attackers in order to get to his sword, one of the rushing fletchets hitting him in the shoulder as he did so. He reappeared as he reached the Golem, who was starting to once again retreat from the battlefield, finally able to get close enough to the beast.
"Hadō #25, Kokkai.", Musei said, his arm bursting into flames as it seemingly touched the Golem.
Instead, the entirety of the Shinigami's front was wracked with pain as he collided not with the icy construct but a powerful barrier, behind which stood a collection of white knights and their massive shields. They pressed forward, sending the Captain back as they arced towards the ground, once again taking up their formation as soon as they made it onto the ground. They were ready to intercept again and again.
Managing to forcefully stop himself in mid-air, Musei regained his composure and purposefully retreated from the armoured soldiers, he moved to the far side of the barracks, closing his eyes as he scanned for whoever or whatever was controlling these aggrovating suits of steel.
"Found you.", Musei whispered in a restrained manner, despite trying to keep his cool, he was starting to show signs of aggravation.
The Captain used Shunpo before the oncoming suits of armour could properly reach him, speeding towards the conductor behind the steel soldiers, despite expecting being attacked, the soldiers merely ignored Musei, despite him heading straight for the Fullbringer that created them.
"Coming at me without your weapon? How exciting", Peter's gaze fell on the approaching Captain, already aware of his change in course. The Fullbringer merely waved his hands over the levitating bamboo slips in front of him, their wooden form began engraving depictions of terrain into their form beneath the blocks representing the forces at play. A torrential wind blasted at Musei, preventing further advance toward Peter who simply grinned at him.
"The conditions have changed, how will you fare mighty Captain?", he asked, trying his hardest to sound ominous through his light voice. The Captain was then sent flying backwards into a blackened void before the world around him began to shine with blue light and then transform. The Japanese feudal trappings of the Seireitei had vanished, now replaced by a field of grass enclosed by a massive forest. Peter stood above, the ice golem at his side on the lone, steep hill that ascended to the East.
The clamouring of footsteps and rattling steel could be heard from all around the Captain who now stood in the center of the field, an armada of white knights appearing from within the treeline.
"This is the power of my Art of War", remarked Peter to himself with obvious glee.
Musei didn't respond to Peter's jests, he merely stood quietly as the soldiers surrounded him, despite covering it with one of his hands, which he placed in front of him, Musei was clearly uttering a sentence.
"-Let your sacred tears purify their sins and cleanse the world from the impure. Make their evil dissolve into nothingness! Hadō, #86, Shinsei Namida.", Musei stated sharply, the Captain swiftly vanished as a giant bullet of blue energy cascaded down on the steel soldiers, enveloping them in a giant explosion, Musei reappeared, out of the explosions reach as he rocketed towards both Peter and the Ice Golem.
As he forced his way up the mountain, Musei could make out what appeared to be tufts of hair cropping out of its top behind the dominating figures of the Fullbringer and his icy statue of an ally. Peter raised his hand and the tufts began to sway from side to side, the rustling of metal began again as a series of black armoured troops came into view, several of them flinging themselves over the mountain side to launch themselves at the fast moving Captain.
The first few wielded tower shields in front of themselves, a red aura of light in front of them making them appear to be more like comets than steel-clad knights. Musei's whole body started undulating rapidly, and suddenly numerous Musei's split off from the original and with the Captain, charged towards the knights furiously, as the knights and clones clashed, most of the knights blew through the clones, allowing the real Musei to proceed further towards the Fullbringer with the few clones that survived the initial onslaught, however, despite making it past the first wave of pawns, another wave shortly replaced them, a singular knight flew out before them, this one different from its peers, wielding a massive, long spear instead of the tower shield, it also donned noticeably different armour, lighter in design and with missing plates instead covered by darkened chainmail.
The wave charged along with the spear wielding knight, crashing into the Musei's violently, as the numerous shielded knights dispersed the last of the speed clones, Musei was intercepted from the side by the spear knight after seemingly making it past the wave, it's spear pierced Musei through his torso as the Captain slanted to the side. However, despite the spear seemingly going straight through Musei, the only thing that the spear had gotten was his Captain's haori.
"Way of Onmitsu, Utsusemi", Musei muttered through his teeth a short distance away from the knight, he turned around on his heel and continued making his way toward Peter.
Musei found the ground beneath him shrouded in darkness, a black wave hovering over him, left behind by the spear wielding knight that was now ahead of him, a singular red eye shone from its helmet, looking down on the Captain whilst its spear spun overhead, generating a powerful repulsive force below it as it spun like the rotors atop a helicopter.
When at last it stopped, the spear was brought down with amazing force and power behind it such that the air exploded upon Musei, launching him away from the mountain. As soon as he regained himself, the spear knight was upon him again, its mighty polearm thrusted forth like a drill in an attempt to impale him. At either side of the knight, two others appeared, most of their armour discarded and replaced by bulky and ornate robes in the same dark colour, though they were embroidered with golden ceremonial symbols of Gaelic print. Large and weathered tomes rested in their hands, the pages of which opened furiously as they closed in on Musei's flank. A purple luminescense emerged from the books before two powerful beams attempted to incinerate him.
Musei dodged the beams using shunpo, however despite his timely dodge, his arm was caught within the beams before he fully disappeared, he reappeared a small distance away, his arm smouldering and burnt. Letting his arm trail behind him, Musei ignored the two bulky knights and shot straight towards Peter yet again, however, he had only made a small amount of distance before the spear knight was yet again in front of him, in the middle of a slashing attack, before the attack made contact with Musei though, the Captain drew his sheath, blocking the attack, he pushed the spear away before making a horizontal slash himself, which was accompanied by a yellow hue.
"Ryōdan!", Musei shouted, the sheath hit the knight, causing a sizable shockwave, causing the knight to be forced back, the sheath itself exploded due to the force of the blow. Taking the opportunity that his technique gave him, Musei dashed full speed past the knight, leaving the three knights in the dust as he approached the Fullbringer and Ice Golem.
The spear knight looked over its wounds, a large gaping slash had carved through its upper armour, leaving the edges open and broken as if they had faced the wrong end of a shredder. It continued on after observing the damage, ignoring it entirely as its body became a shroud of red and black.
Though it was fast, the knight was incapable of catching up to the Captain, but it quickly found itself with a declining need to do so.
From atop the cliff, two knights standing next to Peter, both wielding large, wide bodied swords, and donning large and lengthy tails from the back of their helmets, launched off, quickly intercepting Musei, the first slashed at the Captain with the back of its blade, a quick, almost invisible motion that forced a reflexive defense from the Shinigami by way of blocking with his arms. The other knight did nothing more than draw into a stance, ready to immediately counter whatever the Captain could attempt.
From behind the spear knight appeared, bringing down the back of the polearm like a powerful bludgeon to crush Musei's skull. Musei reacted by grabbing the end of the pole before it smashed into him fully, however, due to the damage dealt by the sword knight's blunt end of it's blade, Musei was easily swung about by the spear knight.
"Tōketsu", Musei groaned, the end of the spear, was coated in ice, which quickly started making it way towards the spear knight, however, the knight managed to shake off the injured Captain before the Kidō could completely freeze the knight's weapon.
"Tch, you're the first opponent in a good while who has annoyed me to this degree before.", Musei said, his voice holding back the obvious anger dwelling inside him as he faced the three knights that blocked the way to Peter and his Zanpakutō.
"What!?", yelled Peter from the back, feigning an inability to hear the other man at that distance. Meanwhile the sword knight threw its sword to the formerly spear wielding knight before manifesting a new blade for itself, the three closed in once more on the Captain, delivering an attack that flew in three directions in complete synch, giving Musei very little options in how to evade.
In a fruitless attempt to avoid the attack, Musei dived downwards, however, despite his attempt, the knights moved their blades downward to attack Musei regardless. In an act of desperation, Musei just barely grabbed the end of the falling spear that the knight dropped and used it to parry against the blades, however, the end of the spear shattered when one of the blades hit it, slicing right through it, causing Musei to slide back a considerable distance, one of his arms was dripping with blood, a long cut painted on it while his other hand held onto the broken spear. Lifting his spear wielding hand with the weapon being horizontal to him, Musei pointed it at the three knights.
"Hadō #32, Ōkasen!", Musei stated, yellow energy flowed into the spear before it was to be released at the knights, however it suddenly dissipated and the man found himself keeling forward as a pulse of intense pain shuddered through him. He clutched at his chest, the seeming cause, only to hear the clatter of metal and the cold of steel on his body. Pulling back, he found his arm engulfed in the black steel that covered the knights he had been fighting, Musei attempted to shake off the metal spear that seemingly caused his metamorphosis, however, despite trying to do so, it only revealed that the spear had fused to his now metal arm, he stood up with some difficulty and fired a non verbal Ōkasen at the knights right before once again going full speed at Peter.
The knights had been relatively unfazed by the weakened spell, but failed to catch the Captain as he arced under them, they were left to watch as the air became filled with the sound of clapping.
"Congratulations, Captain, it looks like we'll be going to my favourite place now", spoke the Fullbringer towards the poor Shinigami, who had been once again stalled as he attempted to close the distance between himself and his opponent. The world around them collapsed into an inky pool, Musei's mind temporarily went blank, before he found himself resting on a small wooden seat at the hard of a Japanese-style war camp. Before him sat a set of tables that had been pooled together whilst a large tapestry sat atop it, its surface covered in geographical information and wooden blocks that denoted field units of an army.
Part 3[]
"Alright, how is everything going out there?", asked Arthur of the young woman standing next to him. She turned her head, her right eyebrows slowly rising as she gave him a confused look.
"You can't tell?", she replied with a question of her own, a hand moving to rest on her waist as her expression continued to inquire of him.
"Oh come on Fiona, you know my spiritual senses suck, I couldn't find a pigeon if it was staring me in the face", he replied with a bemused expression, his shoulder drooping dramatically to further express his point. The young woman lips immediately burst into a grin before she started to laugh.
"Heheh, I know, but I like to hear you say it", her eyes closed after her words left the air, focusing on those senses attuned to her spiritual power. She could feel the souls of a great many things within the Seireitei, and for quite a large distance too, stretching all the way from their position at the Senkaimon portals to the Western gate of Soul Society's capital. She could trace the people within, differentiate and identify them, going so far as to know just what kind of state they were in.
"Tch, what am I going to do with you...", Arthur moaned before straightening himself up.
"It looks okay out there, Peter's holding his own, and Maeve's turned up to help Eva, those kids are on their way here from the looks of it", she explained with a straight and dry response.
"Alright kiddo, why don't you go expedite their arrival for us? The sooner we leave, the better", Arthur requested of his companion with a smile, assuming a lack of danger near the Fullbringers they had set out to rescue.
"Sure, back in a bit!", a green ring formed under the girl a moment before she leaped off of the stone floor, vanishing into a blur of motion that was difficult to follow.
A short while passed as Arthur waited quietly for his ally's return, however the silence was interrupted by a small undulating sound coming from behind the Fullbringer.
"You weren't kidding when you said you suck at sensing spiritual power, were you?", a disembodied voice jeered.
"Nope, I'm as honest as can be", the Human smirked, rustling a hand through his hair as if embarrassed.
"But its nice to meet you, Iwao Fujioka", his voice turned almost ominous with his continuance, he had turned as he spoke, half facing the Captain that had seemingly just appeared.
Iwao smirked as he got up from his crouching position, easily towering Arthur as he smirked almost mockingly.
"A pleasure to meet you too, Arthur Callaghan.", Iwao replied, "I wish I could one up you more by revealing some secret of yours, but sadly, your name is all I know.", he explained, "However that shall be changing soon.", he finished his sentence with a wide grin as he looked down onto the Fullbringer.
"Now, enough with the formalities, I took the time to meet you personally, the least you can do is be kind enough to give me a description of your powers.", Iwao said in a matter of fact tone of voice.
"...You expect me to just explain to you what my powers do?", replied Arthur as his face contorted in confusion.
"That was what I said wasn't it?", Iwao answered the Fullbringer's question, an annoyed look on his face, "At this point in time at the very least I want to hear what your abilities do, practical assessments can wait until a later time.", Iwao explained, putting his large hands in the pockets stitched on his over-sized Haori.
"Uh, sure why not, my Fullbring has the power to cleanly chop loafs of bread into the thinnest slices you've ever seen", he replied nonchalantly, not truly willing to give away the power of his weapon unless it was done by bifurcating the Captain in front of him.
A vein popped up on Iwao's forehead as he angrily removed his hands from his Haori.
"As interesting as it would be to research such a worthless ability I highly doubt that you would be able to assemble a group like you have with such a insignificant power, now, if you're not going to reveal your powers willingly, tell me, so we can proceed to my contingency plan.", Iwao said angrily, placing one of his hands on his overly large Nōdachi.
"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?", Arthur chided at the Captain's reaction.
"Its the principle behind my explanation that matters", he continued.
"Shut it!", Iwao shotued, he drew his Zanpakutō surprisingly quickly, causing the blade to create a large gash in the ground, spewing up dust as his blade seemingly connected with Arthur.
"I don't give a shit about what you say, if you're not going to show your abilities, I'll make you show them!", the giant Captain bellowed, he started glowing yellow as the immediate surroundings became discoloured, the Captain's reiatsu pressing down upon everything in Iwao's direct vicinity.
There was a flash of green amongst the settling dust, as Arthur appeared to have evaded the previously oncoming strike, though he stood still a few meters away, acting as if he'd never moved at all.
"Man, you have a really short temper", Arthur noted to no one in particular, though he didn't keep his voice down, allowing the Captain to hear those same notations. He slowly raised his right hand towards his face, his eyes focusing on the ring set around his finger. The Fullbringer shortly contemplated the possibility of stalling the Captain for as long as possible, like watching a kettle boil water before a nice cup of tea. But he didn't really want to waste the time in waiting.
"Bad parenting? Too much alcohol?", he continued to muse whilst the ring began to glow and then finally explode into a series of tendrils made up of spiritual energy that flew off in many different directions before converging once again just out of the reach of Arthur's hand.
The man adjusted, his fist opening and the fingers wrapped around an invisible object that materialized into place under his grip. A massive hulking broadsword with an unusual quadrilateral blade. Despite its size, the weapon didn't appear to be heavy, that or it was a hallmark of the Human's strength, who held it in the open air with one hand. Despite the overwhelmingly strong anger visibly seeping out from Iwao's being, he calmed down somewhat as he regained his posture.
"Odd, regardless of strength you should've been affected by my reiatsu there.", the Captain mused, "Tell me what you did now!", he stated, getting into a battle ready stance.
The man's only response was to shrug at the Captain, unsure of what he was even going on about.
"I didn't do anything", he said straightly.
Iwao's eyes narrowed as he straightened up, he momentarily disappeared from sight before reappearing behind Arthur, his hand placed on the Fullbringer's shoulder.
"Kaizō Kidō Number Fifte-", the man's words were interrupted immediately as he was jostled back from the Human, who'd turned to him with a ferocious motion and the swing of his massive sword. Its blade had opened, the hilt suddenly getting longer and a wave of energy had launched itself at Iwao. Despite the haste of the attack, the wave itself was surprisingly large and quickly attempted to consume the Captain who stood in its path.
"Fuck!", Iwao shouted over the sound of Arthur's attack, he performed an abrupt upwards slash in an attempt to displace the wave of energy, causing the attack to partially explode in his face, the Captain returned the ground, his entire body lightly burnt and his Shihakushō and Haori singed.
"So, you can release energy waves from your blade then, but seemingly only when the blade morphs into a new form.", Iwao said to himself, brushing himself off as he said so.
"Something like that", Arthur half-grinned while an amused huff escaped his nostrils.
"I drew the short end of the straw on the power lottery amongst Fullbringers, but even so, it's got enough juice to take out someone like you no problem", Arthur went on, all the while energy seeped out from the large glowing rod in the center of his sword. It flowed out constantly, growing out and past the sword before he once again motioned to swing it at the Captain.
This time the wave was much larger, a cascading tidal wave that trampled over itself continuously, again it sought to consume the Captain, the distance of the shadow it cast made it clear that avoiding it would be a roll of the dice at best. Depsite the near impossibility of avoiding Arthur's attack without injury Iwao started using Shunpo to dodge it regarless, while doing so holding up his free hand at the tidal wave of energy.
"Kaizō Kidō #39, Totsumen Enkōsen!", Iwao declared, as he did so, a large, spiralling yellow shield of energy shaped in a convex shape divided the 12th Division Captain from the wave of energy just before it collided with the Kidō spell, causing some of the energy to bounce off and flow with the excess energy that wasn't connecting with Iwao. However, despite the shield seemingly holding out, numerous cracks began to appear in the shield, finally shattering and allowing the yellow-green wave of energy to finally collide with Iwao, causing the entire attack to violently erupt in a massive explosion. Out of the side of the cloud that now occupied the explosion's place, Iwao flew out of it, using his free hand to connect with the ground as he was forced from the cloud of dust, his haori partially destroyed, the right arm of his Shihakushō obliterated and a rather large burn mark replacing it.
Iwao had not escaped the full brunt of the attack as easily as he might have thought, with the explosion releasing an immense amount of energy in the form of a shockwave that rippled across the Seireitei landscape. Arthur had weathered for it ahead of time, pressing down on his pommel to close up the sword before hammering it into the ground as a tether. The force rippled past him ripping up the earth as if entirely ignoring his meager attempt to steady him.
"Tch", his teeth clicked, a green light shining around him before he made a jump from his place, the ground having been launched into the air as several pieces of rubble, he used them as platforms to keep himself from being sent flying too far from the current battlefield.
Despite being stunned from the actual attack itself, Iwao managed to regain his composure enough to dodge the brunt of the aftershock that followed, he used Shunpo to retreat into the air, avoiding the chunks of rock that were flying at him, however, the Captain was unable to resist the pressure of the wind that was being emitted from the explosion, pushing him back as he attempted to resist it. When the aftershocks ended and the resulting smoke cleared, the towering structure of the Senkaimon gateways had largely collapsed on its Western side with the damage extending across the rest of it.
Arthur landed nearby, his body marked by small cuts and large portions of dust after it all. Iwao landed on one of the nearby roofs, observing his burn injuries before turning to the Fullbringer on the floor a small distance away, the Captain swiftly sheathed his Zanpakutō and aimed his less injured arm at Arthur, his palm outstretched.
"Hadō #30,Shakkahō!", Iwao shouted, firing a large red ball of energy directly at Arthur. He reacted quickly in response, with almost no lapse in judgement, he flew through the air, dodging past the red orb shapped ball of destruction to fly at his target.
"I really did get stuck with the worst Captain, huh", he spoke aloud his sword closing the last vestiges of distance in his stead with a powerful downward slash. Despite his injury, Iwao parried Arthur's attack by redrawing his Zanpakutō with his burnt arm, Iwao, despite using his charred limb, didn't show any signs of outward pain.
"I really did get stuck with the most easily deceivable Fullbringer, didn't I!", Iwao, angrily retorted, fully drawing his Zanpakutō while also attempting to push him back at the same time.
A small orb followed Arthur's slash, sitting atop the flat top of his Fullbring's blade, when the weapon smashed against the Shinigami's Zanpakutō it exploded, creating a massive pillar of energy that sat just over Arthur's head, the 12th Division Captain once again caught in the Fullbringer's range.
"I think that too, might be the other way around!", yelled Arthur over the roar of his attack. However, oddly enough, Arthur was yelling at only half of Iwao, who gave a toothy half grin before he completely melted away from sight.
"I wasn't expecting to use that so soon!", Iwao yelled from behind one of the many piles of rubble that Arthur's previous attack created, the Captain clambered out from the rubble, absent mindedlessly tossing a rock that was blocking him from fully standing up.
"Thankfully that other attack of yours didn't harm my invention, what luck", Iwao stated in an uncharacteristically joyous manner.
"It's a reshi teleporter of sorts, it swaps out the reshi that I was previously made up from with the reishi that is directly over it, which will explain the pile of rubble you're next to now.", Iwao explained, idly pointing at the small pile of rocks and wood that was now lying next to Arthur.
"It's risky though, for all I knew it could've swapped my leg with a plank of wood or something, I got lucky though, so that's good", Iwao said, seemingly talking to himself more than his opponent as he started to approach Arthur again.
"Its flawed then", stated the Fullbringer.
"I could attack it in order that I might go after you uninterrupted, or I could continue to attack you in hopes that its flaws come to the fore and hinder you", he explained to the open air, his ideas on this mysterious device. Though he was unsure of where it hid, he knew it had to be nearby given the rubble.
"I guess, I'll take the third option", he smiled, his blade opening once again as he dragged out the pommel, however, before he could release his attack Iwao motioned him to stop.
"There's no need Arthur Callaghan, this thing is practically useless now for another, hm, I would say hour, it is experimental after all", Iwao explained, throwing his arms in the air, he used shunpo to move closer to Arthur, but didn't attack the Fullbringer, merely waiting with his Zanpakuō held loosely at his side. Noticing Arthur's still opened blade, Iwao rubbed his forhead, a slightly annoyed expression on his face.
"Come on, it's useless, and those things are an absolute pain to build.", he tried barganing with the Fullbringer, before Arthur could respond though, Iwao rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a bar of candy.
"I'll give you this candy if you don't destroy it.", Iwao goofily proposed, holding out the candy in front of him, however, Arthur cut off Iwao's pleads by directing his now charged attack at the general area Iwao emerged from, the giant greenish yellow wave of energy crashed down on the area, causing a massive explosion and leaving but a sizable crater behind.
"You...I...you...", Iwao faltered, comically dropping the piece of candy in shock of Arhur's actions, after a small while he stood up fully, his head hung low.
"Fine then, you want to be a dick, fine, I've lost interest in you, now I'll focus my efforts on killing you like the miserable piece of shit you are!", Iwao bellowed, he used Shunpo to move in on Arthur, placing his hand on his blade while doing so.
"Hadō #32, Ōkasen!", Iwao shouted, his large blade became immersed in a yellow energy before firing off in a wide beam directly at Arthur. The Fullbringer had wasted no time making his next move, or avoiding his opponent's attack, he stood right in front of the large Shinigami Captain, his arm swinging through the beam of golden light. When it finished, his sleeve had been incinerated and underneath was a mess of burns and sizzling flesh, but it did little to impeded the man's powerful arm and the golden light was soon replaced by a lime assault in the opposite direction. At point blank the wave easily encapsulated Iwao's body, the wave of energy folding over him and increasing the density of what was soon to be an intense explosion. Arthur was quick to make his leave, though not before he scooped up the lost bar of candy.
From his perch a short distance away, he switched the hand that wielded his Fullbring, letting the burned one droop to his side, lifeless and defeated. Meanwhile, his teeth clenched onto the procured sweet goods, wating as the explosion from his attack rocked the area once again, however, instead of merely escaping the explosion like he did last time, Iwao, who had once again attained a more tattered uniform along with numerous burns to his face, torso and arms, rocketed out of the explosion, heading straight for Arthur, an expression of pure rage on his face. Once he reached the Fullbringer he raised his Zanpakutō high in preperation for an attack while also pointing using his other hand to point at Arthur, his finger crackling with electricity.
"Byakurai", Iwao seethed.
Arthur reclined, he had made a predicted motion with his sword, but caught on early enough that he could retreat. His weapon did not meet Iwao's nor did his body suffer the wrath of the Kidō spell.
At a distance his predicted motion continued, a wave of green energy following right after, yet another attempt to swallow the Shinigami Captain in a sea of Reiryoku. Iwao reacted also immediately, using Shunpo to move above the mass of energy careening towards him, the wave however, managed to reach him just as he was at the top of it, forcing the Captain to prematurely trigger the explosion Arthur's wave caused, seemingly engulfing him in a massive chain explosion. However the 12th Division Captain appeared behind Arthur, sitting on some rubble and resting his arms on his over-sized Zanpakutō, his face, while still showing a perpetually rage filled face, strained somewhat as the Captain tried to force a sense of cool headiness onto himself.
"Got used to it.", he said abruptly, cutting off his sentence as quickly as he started it, he pushed himself up using his sword before using Shunpo to reach Arthur, preparing to launch another attack.
The Fullbringer was one step ahead, having already closed the gap, his large broadsword clashing with the Shinigami's Zanpakutō.
"Your sword's got no weight behind it, no real strength in those swings of yours", remarked Arthur above the clashing of their weapons.
"As much as your remark pisses me off I do concede I'm not that great with swords.", Iwao growled, he pushed off Arthur's blade and used Shunpo to move back a fair distance, sheathing the large blade before once again rummaging through his pockets, pulling out what looked like an odd double sided syringe, the side of the container having a weird box on it, taking off one of the two plastic needle caps, the Captain jabbed it into his arm, collecting a rather substantial amount of blood before putting the needle cap back on and placing it in his pocket.
"Now.", Iwao quietly said, drawing his sword once again. The motion was impeded though by another crashing wave of energy, Arthur having given the man no chance to pull off whatever scheme he had in mind. Iwao, while initially surprised, held out his sword horizontally as it started to glow yellow.
"Hadō #32, Ōkasen!", he shouted, the wide arc of yellow energy sprang forth in an attempt to detonate the wave early before using Shunpo to avoid it, however the Kidō spell merely melded with the wave, proving itself to weak to impede it's advance. A couple of seconds later the wave of energy caused yet another massive explosion, throwing Iwao backwards into the massive barrier wall of the Seireitei, despite being fully caught in the explosion the Captain regained his composure and proceeded to charge at Arthur once again, despite the new burn marks he had received from the Fullbringer's attack.
Arthur's sword had already plunged into the stone beneath his feet, its form opened to carve through the rock before energy seeped deeper in. As Iwao drew close he was met by flooding walls of green Reiryoku that burst out of the ground around him and attempted to crush him between them.
"Fuck it!", Iwao shouted, thrusting his Zanpakutō into the energy in front of him, causing it to once again explode prematurely with him in it, the Captain shot out of it as both of the walls of energy exploded, causing the Captain to be thrust forward due to the explosion's impetus, soaring past Arthur and landing behind the Fullbringer on his hands and knees.
"Should be done by now.", Iwao muttered, his entire body was scorched and battered due to his mindless rage blinding him, however, the Captain managed to reach into his thankfully still intact but singed pocket and pull out the same syringe he used on himself before, the liquid now blue instead of red, Iwao jabbed the other syringe into him, and after a few seconds the Captain managed to get up with some difficulty.
"Another prototype, gives energy, heheh.", Iwao explained jaggedly, despite his supposed energy boost he was still feeling the effects of Arthur's previous attack, however as soon as he said it the Shinigami used Shunpo to attack the Fullbringer once again, his blade already in a downward motion as he reappeared.
His sword swung through a green flicker of light, Arthur having already moved out of his reach, though only barely.
"You pause too long between attacks", he remarked his unwieldy Fullbring held in front of him as a barrier. It wasn't in him to give advice to his opponents, at least not advice that could be meaningfully applied, but he wasn't above a helpful word or two. His stance settled in, a reverse grip on the massive blade he wielded to offer a defense across his entire front, his senses were directed more to his flanks, prepared for the Shinigami's penchant for side strokes. But his eyes widened when he felt another presence enter his limited spiritual radius.
"All in the Wrist!", yelled a feminine voice from above, she had flown through the air only to descend on Iwao, a steel gauntlet forming over her forearm which lit up red with energy. She crashed into the ground and an unsurprisingly large explosion rung through out the area.
Iwao flew out of the smoke raised by the other Fullbringer's attack, he landed heavily on his back a fair distance away, sliding a few meteres before stopping, finally letting go of his Zanpakutō he somehow managed to keep a hold of during the attack. Iwao attempted to get up to react to his new opponent, however he quickly realised that his body wasn't responding, he gritted his teeth angrily as he gave up his attempts to move.
"Didn't know I was this badly injured, fucking hell.", he muttered, sighing as he did so.
The girl drew her hand out of the ground, giving a dismissive chuckle towards Iwao before her Fullbring returned from its form as a gauntlet to a set of bangles that jangled along her wrist before settling into place.
"You had trouble with this beefcake?", she jeered as Arthur approached, his own Fullbring once again becoming his ring.
"Tch, he's surprisingly spry", Arthur didn't retaliate as he usually would, instead offering up a meek observation. The expression on his face was one of deflation, seemingly upset that his victory was stolen from him and by a comrade no less.
"So, is that them?", his unburned arm raised and pointed past him to the two young adults that entered into his view.
"Duh, who else would it be?", she answered with rhetoric causing Arthur's brow to furrow with bemusement. "Just call the others back, would you?", he ordered with a complaining tone.
The girl's bangles lit up before turning into a steel glove once more, this time when she swung it didn't light up but instead shout out a sphere of energy that blasted off into the sky, resulting in an impressive explosion. It shone like a beacon, or a firework and within moments the members of Xodus appeared behind the two young Fullbringers, causing both of them to falter out of shock at the number of unfamiliar individuals suddenly appearing behind them.
Part 4[]
"Okay, first question, who are you all? Second question, admittedly out of pure curiosity, why the hell did you have to shock us like that just then!?", Kumiko asked angrily, despite being worn out, her anger still burst through as she shouted at the group of Fullbringers, forgetting how they had saved both her and Masato from the Gotei 13.
"She means thank you very much.", Masato interjected, he had managed to regain enough strength to move on his own, however his appearance was still worn out and beaten.
"Don't worry about it", stated Arthur, adopting a cheery disposition towards the two young Fullbringers that they'd been assisting up to now. "We didn't want anyone else getting caught up in our fights, if that means breaking you out ourselves, so beat it", he continued.
"I don't mean to be rude", said Eva, butting in. "But Fiona's beacon is going to alert more than us, we should probably leave", the woman assessed through pained breath given the wounds she still bore from her previous battle.
"Already taken care of", an exaggerated voice uttered ahead of the group. Ewen Dineen, his hair unnaturally long and weaving like snakes had somehow forced upon the Senkaimon.
"Yeah.", Kumiko agreed, she gave a sidewards glace towards Masato before beginning to walk into the large doorway, however Masato, hesitant, looked towards Ewen as Kumiko realised her partner's lack of presence.
"Are we going to be chased by that odd being in the tunnel we're running through?", Masato asked warily, remembering his less than joyous previous journey through the Dangai.
Without an answer Maeve had grabbed both of the similiarly named Fullbringers by the necks of their shirts and rose them into the air over her shoulders.
"We got that part covered too, don'cha worry", remarked Fiona as she passed by Masato, flashing him a wink at the same time.
The group surrounded the Senkaimon, the green flash of Bringer Light emerging around them all before they shot through the spiritual gateway and into the Dangai.
Seireitei, 9th Division Barracks exterior.
A small group of Shinigami suddenly appeared a small distance away from the barracks and prison of the 9th Division, the leading Shinigami, who was wearing the easily recognisable Lieutenant badge, started to briskly approach the now ruined remains of the Division's prison before his attention was pulled by two voices behind him.
"Sadao-san!", Kuroda shouted, he and Atsuko Shimizu were running towards the 4th Division Lieutenant, a number of unconscious 9th Division Squad members behind them, sighing slightly, he fully turned toward his two colleagues as they stopped running towards him.
"How many are injured and out of the injurued, who is seriously injured?", Sadao asked in a matter of fact tone, motioning a small group of the medical team toward the group behind the two Lieutenants.
"The group of Shinigami behind us aren't heavily injured, but Ganjou-san and Captain Junichi fought our enemy, Ganjou-san lost and I fear Captain Junichi fell in battle also.", Atsuko explained.
"Right...me and the rest of my recovery squad will assist Captain Kaneko and Lieutenant Mizuumi, you two head back to your Divisions.", Sadao finished, however despite his two peers agreeance he abruptly turned back towards them before they disappeared.
"Oh and Hasegawa-san.", Sadao called out, causing the 8th Division Lieutenant to pause and turn back towards Sadao.
"You must make haste, your Captain was one of the Captains that were caught badly in the fighting.", Sadao said, "My Captain should be at the Barracks now but you're needed as soon as possible in order to maintain calm.", the Lieutenant explained, despite Kuroda's surprise on the news Sadao had just spoke, he gritted his teeth before nodding and disappearing with Shunpo.
"Sir, we have found both Captain Kaneko and Lieutenant Mizuumi!", one of the 4th Division members called out, grabbing Sadao's attention, causing him to hurry towards the aforementioned squad member.
"Their conditions?", Sadao asked calmly.
"Lieutenant Mizuumi has attained minor to semi-serious wounds, Captain Kaneko's wounds are more serious but have been healed somewhat by himself.", the Division member explained, Sadao sighed in what could be mistaken as great relief before turning to the Divison member.
"Right, you keep tending to Mizzumi-san, I shall tend to Captain Kaneko myself.", he confirmed, causing the young Division member to salute spryly and return to his peers while Sadao approached Junichi, who had stopped healing in an attempt to conserve energy.
"Ah, Sadao-san, I get the pleasure to be healed by you, how nice.", Junichi jovially said, despite his wounds he was still somehow maintaining his relaxed and overtly happy attitude as Sadao knelt down and started to heal him.
"How are the others doing, I hope they didn't stumble upon my bad luck.", he asked, chuckling slightly at his own misfortune, Sadao, while not reciprocating Junichi's high level of mood, looked up towards the 3rd Division Captain.
"Apart from you and Lieutenant Mizuumi Captain, both Captains Fujioka and Hyouketsu have fought and lost against the enemy.", Sadao explained, a somewhat sullen look on his face.
"Ah, Iwao-san and Musei-san then?", Junichi mused, a wry smile replacing his usual wide one, "I can see how Iwao-san lost, what with that temper of his but Musei-san too?", he said quietly.
"Captain Hyouketsu's condition is in a serious state, my Captain herself went to assist him.", Sadao continued on, his eyes back on Junichi's wounds as the 3rd Division Captain himself widened his usually half open eyes.
"He was beaten so badly?", he asked shocked, Sadao didn't respond, the 4th Division Lieutenant knowing as much as the 3rd Division Captain did. Silence permiated through the destroyed Division before movement from below indicated Ganjou's presence along with the numerous 4th Division members who had healed him.
"Captain Kaneko!", Ganjou exclaimed, kneeling down carefully besides Junichi as the latter chuckled.
"I'm guessing you're alright then Ganjou-san?", Junichi asked happily, the Lieutenant responded with a stuff nod while Sadao stood up.
"I'm done.", he confirmed, motioning the 3rd Division Captain into standing up, sighing slightly, Junichi responded to Sadao and slowly stood up, stretching slightly after doing so.
"I was wanting to have a nice sit down for a little longer but it seems we need to do something about this then.", Junichi said, clapping his hands as he started to walk away with Sadao, however Ganjou hesitated slightly in following his Captain.
"Do we know where the Ryoka are?", the 3rd Division Lieutenant asked, his curiosity overriding his sense of judgement, Junichi merely turned his head towards his Lieutenant with a wry smile on his face.
"I don't know, but I can't feel the Reiatsu of the Fullbringer I fought, we must suggest the worst though and the possibility that they somehow escaped.", Junichi explained, watching the face of his Lieutenant clench in anger as he started to walk towards his Captain, who had subsquently started walking again also.
Part 5[]
Karakura Town, the outskirts of the town was quiet, with few if any people being in the area as a large circular gate of light appeared out of thin air, opening to unveil a number of figures as they leaped out of the interior of the gate and into the sky of the human world, using their Bringer Light to stay suspended in the air safely, one of them, Kumiko, who was unaware of what they just experienced, wore a look of bemusement and mild shock while Kumiko wiped his brow slightly, glad the horror he ran from the last time he traversed worlds was nowhere to be seen this time.
"Good job guys", echoed Arthur's voice dry and uninspired as he clapped his hands in congratulations. His lackluster performance gained no reaction from his comrades, they were clearly used to it.
"Its good to see our trainin' paid off", said Maeve her arms resting behind her head as she started to relax.
"Hah! They were nothing more than uncouth barbarians, they stood no chance against my superior martial quality", Ewan was almost dancing through his words, a gratuituous display of body language as he spoke finished off with a flashy wave of his golden locks. Eva, a hand still clutched to her side did little more than roll her eyes.
"It was a rather exciting venture, I have to say", Peter had retrieved a notepad that was slowly becoming overloaded with scribbles as he attempted to jot down all of his findings from the day's events.
"Tch, I didn't even get to fight", Fiona sulked, her shoulders drooping low.
"So now what do we do? I don't think the Shinigami are gonna be too happy with us, what if they try and hunt us down again?", Kumiko asked in a concerned tone, she looked at the group of Fullrbingers that saved them before turning to Masato who returned her worried look back at her.
"I dunno, we can't really run, they would just sense us or something.", Masato mused, unsure of what to even do next as they all sat in the fake safety of the real world.
"Hm?", Eva turned to regard the two for a moment before removing a pair of white slips from an internal coat pocket, handing them to the young Fullbringers. "Here, they'll ward off the Gotei 13's ability to locate you", she stated flatly. The slips were little more thn paper talismans, made out of cheap copy paper that had been emblazoned with the Mū (無, Non-existence) character. The scent from it made it clear that it was drawn with a cheap black ink marker available in most any 100-yen shop.
"Well, we'll be seeing ya", said Arthur, the majority of the group already walking away, Eva and himself slowly catching up. Then he stopped for a moment, his hand drawing something from his back pocket which was quickly tossed in the Fuji-duos direction. "For when the rain hits", he said rather ambiguously.
The card looked to be little more than a playing card, but the ease with which it was thrown made it clear that it wasn't a typical flimsy printed cutout. Masato caught it, checking out what was basically an odd calling card of sorts, Kumiko also observed it before looking up at her partner.
"A calling card...and two pieces of copy-paper.", she said in a blank, but confused voice, bemused at how the still mysterious group just treated them.
"Well I guess they're something, I mean the paper might work, weirder stuff has happened.", Masata pointed out optimistically, "The calling card however I don't know about, what did that guy mean when he for when the rain hits?", he added, his smile morphing into a look of concentration as he tried to figure out Arthur's clue. Kumiko took a look at the card before something clicked in her head.
"Hey, do you mind if I take a closer look at that?", she asked, her head cocked, obviously interested in the small card.
"Sure, I have no idea what to do with it anyway.", Masato admitted, handing over the card to Kumiko, turning his attention to the small slip of paper he was also given while his partner started examining the card for a small while, she looked at it and checked it's texture before tossing it up and down casually, after a small while she straightened up, beaming.
"Ah, I think I've found out what that guy meant, I think...", she said gleefully, however, despite her happiness, there was a certain amount of uncertainty in her voice, revealing that she wasn't completely sure of her conclusion.
"Really?", Masato jumped up, shocked, he had long since grown bored and had resorted to playing with his jacket's zip jumped up excitedly, "Go on then, tell me!", he asked, a wide grin on his face, Kumiko merely grinned as she turned to him.
"No.", she answered, pocketing the card as she said so.
"Aw, why not?", he asked, exaggerating a saddened expression so as to try and win over Kumiko, which horribly failed.
"Because if you want to know you should find out by yourself.", Kumiko replied, sticking her tongue out at the disappointed Masato, who eventually just shrugged and turned around.
"Well, we better head back home, we've had enough excitement for now I think.", he chimed before walking off, Kumiko finally following suit after pausing for a brief moment.
"Yeah.", she said quietly, following Masato as she smiled slightly.