[PM][C/10th] Week 233: Trembling Earth

[Redfin]

With one arm holding the tiger back, Picca rammed her elbow into its jaw, knocking it back. She already knew that others were setting upon her but there were too many to effectively maneuver. Crouching down, one leapt overhead only for her to get rammed from the side. Even having braced for the impact, she was knocked down. Grabbing on to its fur, Picca took it along for a spin.

"Deep abyss, grasp my enemies. Hold fast and dae not let them escape yer cold embrace. Lock them in yer grip and draw them deep into yer abyssal maw. The eighty fifth way of binding, Event Horizon."

A swirling mass of darkness appeared right in the middle of all the tigers. Taking the one on her, she kicked it back into the others and then flipped backwards outside of the range of the kidou. A powerful, inescapable gravity pulled everything within towards the center.

Picca was about to attack for real now. The advent human was no friend of any sort. But a sudden burst of high level kidou drew her attention. Wait. Before all this had started, they were trying something. Something. The one legged shinigami suddenly gasped. Instead of attacking, she quickly drew out her ink well and started drawing symbols on her arm. While doing so, she shifted her position so the tigers were in between her and the gun toting human.

"Hexatwist, the seventy seventh way of binding, Heavenly Rickshaws in Silken Air." Briefly, she raised her arm towards the five metal pillars and all five of them vanished. Then, her hand plunged towards the ground.

[997]

 

[Nekomata]

Ilsa could see the attacks coming, the shifts in Mouko’s stance, the twitch of muscles. But there were too many to avoid all of them. She twisted around, bringing Hinometori to line up with her shoulder and knee. Bullets impacted against the crystal, the crack of explosions mixing with the ring of crystal and the shriek of a raptor. Bits of shrapnel flew everywhere, scoring her hands and face with lines and dots of red.

The bullet meant for her hip hit.

Bits of cloth, flesh and blood exploded in a gory display of uniquely human violence. Ilsa gasped, more out of shock than pain; she had shut down most of her sense of touch two battles ago. She could feel the wound even with Tenrai Chikaku, a sort of burning ache, which meant that she would be in for a world of hurt once she was forced to reseal her zanpakutou.

A voice came from the silver chain dangling from one ear, clear as a bell despite the lingering effect of the gunshots. 'Spin and dance in the maddening gyre...' Crystal eyes widened. The vice-captain of the Arcanists had studied for hours upon hours when she was first appointed as an officer to memorize kidou incantations. She leapt back from her opponent just in time for a howling maelstrom of rocks and dust to erupt.

“Thanks, Kamenashi!” Ilsa could still hear the two men fighting. “Arashi, Reijuu, break it off or so help me I will make both your lives a living hell when we get back to Soul Society!” Her eyes never wavered from the human she had called friend.

“Futatsu.” Her mitsudomoe lit up once more as Ilsa reached out with her left hand and made a grasping motion. An invisible fist grabbed hold of Mouko’s rifle, yanking it down as the shinigami’s arm went down. “I trusted you, Mouko-chan. I put my life and freedom on the line to rescue you. Why have you betrayed my trust?”

331/2388​

Division Item

Chomei - "Clarity"

Chomei is a thin silver chain made to be worn behind the ear. Optionally, it may be hung as an earring. The trinket is designed to detect and amplify audible incantations within a thirty-foot radius, allowing the user to clearly pick out the words of a kidou spell even if the caster is whispering or otherwise trying to hide the incantation.

It is still up to the user to recognize the spell, and Chomei cannot help against Eishouhaki ("Revocation of the Recited Poem").

Futatsu!

Shouaku - Bakudou #15, 100 Kidou

Description: The user casts out a hand and can reach out invisibly to grab and then manipulate any item in immediate sight, within about twenty yards. The strength depends on the strength of the caster's own arm.

The kidou can't form a grip on living reiatsu. Shouaku also requires the caster to manipulate the kidou's grip with one of their own hands. It is not precise enough to wield a weapon in combat, but can perform acts of brute force, such as throwing, pulling, or lifting.

Shouaku's effect lasts for two turns, but the caster can pay the reiatsu cost again to keep the kidou active.

Breaking this one means either Fuubi or the equivalent of arm-wrestling Ilsa...

 

[Nutella]

How did she even do that?! Yuurei thought in disbelief as the human effortlessly hurtled through all their attacks, Mouko's actions obscured by the presence of the sandstorm. She would have tried to rationalize how a human can escape a simultaneous attack from her feet and a high-level kidou from her head, but that didn't matter.

Form dissolving into the air, the small mystic found herself moving away from a strong vortex of energy pulling her, closer and closer to the void created by Picca's kidou. Event Horizon? Right. With nary a concern of where in the far distance she'd appear, the woman found it appropriate to move away until it stopped pulling her. But it proved itself futile. She couldn't move away, her speed simply proved to be too meager to escape it. It seemed like she didn't have any other choice then.

"Carriage of thunder." Yuurei tapped the air with her zanpakutou, and a circle of emerald energy appeared around it, from the wraith of faint emerald to a large circle of pulsating energy.

"Divide this light and let it tear away the darkness." Little spots of flaring pale green appeared near the center of the circle, spreading out from their origin.

"Hadou no yonjuukyu, Gaki Rekkou!" Within a moment after they reached the edge, green circles of energy shot out malevolently like lances or energy to Event Horizon, straight to the spot where Mouko stood. Even though her aim faltered due to her unstable footing, she found it somehow reassuring that all of the green spires of energy hurtled faster to the vortex... faster than the rate at which Yuurei was drawn into it.

2266​

Pllt

Gaki Rekkou (Raging Light Fang) - Hadou #49, 800 Kidou

Description: The user taps the air with their hand or zanpakuto, making a green circle of energy one meter in diameter before firing numerous piercing beams of the same green light from its center, spread in a cage-like formation.

Incantation: Carriage of thunder. Gap of the spinning wheel. Divide this light and let it tear away the darkness. Hadou #49, Gaki Rekkou.

​

 

[Shun]

The pull from Picca's kidou was powerful. Had they been any closer, it would have been impossible to move properly. Although both he and Kyuketsu could still continue fighting one another though without any restrictions, the wear and tear of both fatigue and accumulated pain settled in.

"I'm afraid I'll have to be target practice for the First again," Ryoujin said, the only closest thing to an apology he could possibly offer to Ilsa. By the time she had even made the threat, it was far too late. Driven by Kyuketsu’s provoking words, his blade was already careening towards the Eleventh's Commander. Although there was no possible way he could emulate such a high level kidou again, he did have something else in mind all along. A strike that in all honesty would require breaking a tier that was beyond what he was normally capable of.

In an instantaneous blur, Kazeoni came down on Kyuketsu once more, its form becoming almost indistinguishable at the rate that it was traveling. It carried with it a deathly air that forewarned the Acting Captain that he would have to do something more than just try and combat it with normal means. At that moment, both zanpakutou and wielder revealed the core of their training: Ei Wo Toru, the ultimate expression of a swordsman’s rigorous training in Zankensoki.​

[ 2634 ]​

 

[Wayne]

Outside voices became mute, blocked off by the iron curtain forged in the crucible of their pandemonium. Kyuketsu watched with predatory eyes as his target drew closer... and closer... and closer. He was a buzzard soaring through the thundering skies, waiting patiently, carefully, for the opportune moment to strike... and kill. The Acting Captain knew Ryoujin wasn’t easily provoked, but perhaps he too was already drowned in the madness feeding their sword-laden banquet. As the Third Seater at last pounced, a flash erupted from the swordmaster’s cutter. The swirling lunacy run rampant through Kyuketsu’s steel bearing one sole purpose: victory.

Mere inches before their weapons could collide, fleeting nanoseconds before their strengths could be tested and judged, a whisper came to be. From Kyuketsu’s lips, his words were almost inaudible, yet the message was clear.

Rapid dominance. An overwhelming display of power that would crush not just the foe’s resolve, but their entire being most of all. Shock and awe... that’s what you wanted, right?

“Ban Kai.”​

To the very core of matter, to the innermost constructs of the subatomic world, atoms burned and shattered against the Templar Commander’s release. His blade flew in an arch, its edge reaping the winds with a grand tempest of eternal black flames. The midnight tide of raw power coursed forward, its direction adjusted ever so carefully that it would utterly consume and devour its mark’s entire right arm.

The stygian destroyer’s journey came not to a halt, however, as it pushed forward further still. The stream of holocaustic fires strode before the others gathered there, forging a wall of blaze and heat to come between the other warring soldiers. It came as more of a declaration than a warning—a testimony of blood and life aimed not to Kyuketsu’s peers and the human agent, but to Raifuku himself. The river at last shot upwards, flying into the heavens as it brought forth a final scar to immortalize its master’s exposition. The stormy clouds ceased to exist, purged and erased from the skies by a resounding flare brought about by Tenzansatsu’s fury. The rumblings of thunder and the distant lightning became nonexistent, leaving only the shrill excess of cold, absolute... silence.​

2,895​

BK laser + Martyr's Reckoning btw
Also, because he's a dick, the laser barely missed everyone else

 

[Shun]

There was no scream, no cry of anguish. In one fell swoop, he had victory within his grasp, but Kyuketsu never ceased to surprise him. A knowing smirk washed over his features as the gap between them finally appeared in the form of a soul slayer's final release. Tenzansatsu's ethereal rays struck him at point black range coupled with his friend's very own Martyr's Reckoning that amplified his already deadly swordsmanship by practically ten times its normal strength. It was enough to get past the armor assigned to him that had finally shattered. Launched back from the devastasting combination, the pink-haired soul reaper couldn't find the strength to possibly cushion his landing.

As he crashed into a slab of earth, his vision began swimming. A blow like that could have in all honesty killed him outright, and as he lay in his own pool of blood, he tried to adjust his sight, realizing Kyuketsu's intention. Even if it was from a very close range, the precision of the attack was flawless, aimed and timed perfectly so that he would merely incapacitate him.

While you were consumed in the madness of battle, Kyuketsu was in the same boat, but he still had an ounce of restraint and control over his actions. That's the difference between you two...

Remember when I asked you why you were so unmotivated? When I said you could achieve the Ban kai release, I meant it. Will this be a lesson enough for you to learn though? Kazeoni resonated within his thoughts.

Without responding, Ryoujin clenched his teeth as the other end of the battle began wrapping up as well.​

[ 2907 Final ]​

 

[K3]

The rifle struck the earth, digging its chipped blade deep into the bedrock. To their credit, the massive attack hardly phased her or Ilsa. Their focus was elsewhere, in a distant place and a distant time. A place of dimly lit corridors where grinding machinery grated on sanity and bones alike. Her altered, amber eyes met Ilsa’s solid blue, and in that instant Mouko knew the shinigami still couldn’t comprehend the vast wrongness with what was going on.

She could feel the heat, the crackling energy of lightning and hellfire being thrown at her. Her form compacted with energy once more, words carrying past the roaring powers. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

The energy struck her solidly, its numerous forms lancing every which way as they consumed her form utterly in their power. The earth below her spit and crackled, charring under the arcanic might.

Then it ceased.​

Form smoking, but unharmed, Mouko’s eyes met Ilsa’s with some distant sorrow, a pity mixed with a nostalgic air that she couldn’t quite place to any specific time. Then she was moving, her hands abandoning the rifle that now sat fused to the bedrock by the kidou. Mercy came from its holster, the teen’s off-hand slipping into her back pocket to retrieve a single instrument:

Plan X, the only gift she’d ever received from Masato.

The hefty knife came forward in time to meet the blunted end of Ilsa’s glaive, Yuurei’s hand stayed by the proximity of her comrade to this ally-turned-foe. As Mouko’s inhuman strength gave her a distinct foothold, she couldn’t help it. Even as Ilsa met her sorrowful gaze with one of betrayal and veiled anger, her own words echoed past the clashing, screeching steel.

“You are the only one I can trust.”

Then the blade was removed, her knife slipping downwards before lancing sideways, sending the blunted pommel of the zanpakuto careening to the side. Mercy came up, levelling with Ilsa’s head for but an instant.

Ilsa was a warrior at heart, one ruled by instinct and passion even as she tempered it with discipline and restraint. Only one movement would afford her the victory, and in that moment she resigned herself to it.

The glaive’s blade came across with a wide swing, the lower half of its edge sinking heavily into Mouko’s side. With a single flourish the swing was completed, the top half of the edge lancing across Mouko’s hip and down to her waist. There was no gory display, no vivid nightmare that would spill out before the shinigami’s eyes as her human friend fell silently.

No utterance of death danced from her lips, no desperate plea...save one. A simple plea, not for herself, but for the others Mouko had dedicated her life to. The one she risked her life for day after day. She spoke plainly, bluntly, as the life of her eyes left her, the amber fires behind her scarred body and soul dying.

“Don’t let the fire it, Ilsa.”​

FINAL [ 500 / 3290 ]

 

[Wayne]

As quickly as his Ban Kai emerged, it was resealed without a moment’s notice. Victory in his grasp, Kyuketsu watched as Ryoujin struggled before him, breathing in pain yet still very much alive. Though his doubts on the realm’s legitimacy remained intact, he nonetheless couldn’t bring himself to simply kill Ryoujin. Incapacitate him, most definitely, but to end his life on a gamble? He wasn’t that much of a monster.

The Acting shook his head, and without another word, turned and slid his crimson-stained blade back into its scabbard. He began walking away from the rest of them, from the Third Seat and from the female soldiers, distancing himself away from their presence. His eyes sharpened as he gazed upwards into the uncaring skies, his face bearing a semblance of both restlessness and utter discontent. Kyuketsu clenched both his hands, oblivious, if not outright ignoring the throbbing pain still scarring his wounds. He gnashed his teeth, and as he stood before a cliff facing a downward spiral into oblivion, he roared out.

“I grow tired of your games, human!!” Kyuketsu called out to Raifuku, placing a heavy, even degrading emphasis on the word ‘human.’ “I’ve carved a path of blood behind me, leaving a trail of corpses all over this goddamned realm. No more Hollows, no more resurrected warriors... no more bullshit. It’s just you, or nobody at all.”

He gave one last glance to the other soul reapers, and silently, as if he were a wraith amidst the shadows, the Acting Captain began to vanish, advancing forward by himself and with no one else.

“I’m done with this.”​

3,164 - FINAL​

 

[Nekomata]

Ilsa stared at the body of her friend, frozen. How had Mouko known exactly what combination of moves would force her to use her blade, force her to strike a lethal blow instead of trying to knock her out? If it hadn’t all been so fast, she might have figured out a different way. But multiple attacks with that kind of speed brought combat reflexes to the fore, muscle memory and relentless training under a teacher who drilled her to stop holding back.

“Why didn’t you tell me...?”

Blood dripped from Hinometori’s crystal blade, joining the pool of hot, iron-smelling crimson soaking into the dirt. If she just told me she wanted to give me her kanji, I would have knocked her over the head and we could have avoided this! Lifeless eyes stared up at her from a body sliced nearly in half, a sight that would haunt her dreams for years.

But what if Raifuku had changed the rules even further when he appeared? What if knocking her friend out hadn’t been enough? Ilsa couldn’t bring herself to let defeated strangers die; she would never have been able to stab Mouko when she lay unconscious.

She had attacked because she knew that was the only way Ilsa would fight her.

The smell of blood and ruptured organs was sickening, overwhelming with her Tenrai Chikaku. Taking a shaky breath, Ilsa dulled her sense of smell and stepped away from the corpse. She really should close Mouko’s eyes, but she couldn’t bring herself to get any closer.

This might still be an illusion. It’s got to be an illusion. But was death an illusion in this house of mirrors?

“I will bring you down for this, Raifuku. If Prometheus itself was the only hope to defeat you, I would join it for what you’ve made us do, and laugh as it fed on your soul.”

Finis 315/2703​