[BiTPR2] Renewed Revolution: Spirit World IV

[strawberryman]

[Soul Society]
(Command)

Momoka does not move when requested. "There is little point. She is gone." She's speaking factually, not emotionally. When Nanashi speaks up, there is nary a twitch in her expression, but she approaches slowly. "How very unfortunate."

"Haien." The bolt of fire is fast, possibly unexpected, and flies almost point-blank towards Nanashi's head.

[Kuroimaken]

[Commander-General's office]
The officer Momoka addressed couldn't have known that. He's not intimately familiar with modsouls.

Koutarou grits his teeth. Another death he didn't avoid. He'll have the time to beat himself up for it later.

He just hopes Lily was smart enough to provide herself with regular backups, or notes of her work. Whatever she was here for sounded important.

Kokuden-ou hugs his waist almost as an afterthought. No fanfarre, no posing. The words coming out of his mouth are as hurried as they are spoken in anger.

"Henshin."

[Elsewhere]

"Well... that was mildly unexpected." Setsurou notes as he kicks off away from the center of the explosion. The suicide route wasn't exactly something he was unfamiliar with in the spy business.

"Surveillance team. Report and assist MedLog with potential injured."

[TherianTheorist]

Kaoru is stilled by a pang of guilt as he arrives late to the scene and begins to build context for the situation at hand. His expression soon settles between disappointment and resignation. It really was a somewhat predictable outcome, and he really should have known better. He probably did, on some level, but he had let his selfish desires take precedent at the time. Something about causing a spike in the background chaos to help keep things moving, but this certainly wasn't the chaos he wished for, and now he had to help clean it up before he had any more tragedies to blame himself for, or that anyone else could.

"This is too far as it is, isn't it? You looked so promising before, why did you have to disappoint me now?" He said it in the same tone one would greet a friend, but his actions weren't the kind of thing you'd do if you saw one.

"Uncoil, Kuchinawa no Kane." The whole event appears to be a single, fluid motion; As he speaks the release command, his right hand reaches for his sword, while three small knives slide from his sleeve into his left hand, a faint chime rings out as he partially draws and re-sheathes his blade, which brushes lightly along the tip of each knife, staining them with his zanpakuto's poisonous properties.

[Frozen_Feet]

[Soul Society]
Seireitei - Vice-Commander's Office

The purple blast of energy hits Little Nanashi squarely in the face, shattering its mask and throwing it down from the table it was sitting on. It collides against the office wall and falls to the floor with a loud crash. As the flames spread from its face to its clothes, it crawls to a kneeling position, turning to look at Kaoru. For a while, he can see the solemn face of a young woman looking at him with color-inverted snake eyes. As the flames start to peel away her skin, she speaks, her voice interspersed with sizzling of burning flesh:

"A farmer was - shhh - walking through the cold woods. He came - shhh - across a snake frozen by the cold. Feeling compassion, the farmer took the snake home and - shhh - cradled it close to his chest before the fireplace."

"Revived by the warmth, the - shhh - snake resumed its natural way and bit the farmer. Dying on the floor from the venom, the farmer asked with grief: 'I sheltered you from - shhh - the cold and cradled you like my own child is this how you repay me'?"

"And the snake... replied... 'You fool. You should've known from the start... that I... was... a viper..."

Little Nanashi crumbles into ash and the now useless Kido bindings clatter on the floor. The only thing of concern for the four people present is to watch that nothing else catches fire.

---

Elsewhere in Soul Society

No material harm was caused by the other member of the hivemind vanishing. The only collateral damage on the scene is that caused by the crescent of crimson energy - having missed Setsurou, it cleaved a nearby building in two. Thankfully, no casualties were caused by this incident.

That was the good news. The bad news is that surveillance can still see all the other members of the hivemind making their merry ways to God-knows-where. The five heading towards the city center have just entered the forested region surrounding Sokyoku hill and are no longer visible on the cameras, though their general area can be extrapolated with reasonable accuracy.

Twenty-five members remain on-camera. There are still six unexamined Garganta sites and total of twenty-two unaccounted Hollows.

---

[Hueco Mundo]
Battlefield around Las Noches

Demetrio saw Torahiko's orange blast breaking through the dome from across the battlefied. The exhausted Arrancar-Quincy has limped towards the dome ever since to help his friend. "Comrade Tachibana! Are you all right?", Demetrio shouts as he nears his target, ready to drag Torahiko's unconscious or dead body with him is no answer is heard.

[Kuroimaken]

[Elsewhere in Seireitei]

Only a fool trusts stupid cameras when he's got the manpower with the skills to track them down.

Nanashi couldn't have known that Setsurou was too much of an old-timer to trust their fancy-pants security system. And ever since the Koutetsu insisted it was not IntSec's job to go after the Rebellion(tm), he had a lot of spare manpower. Therefore, the ones unaccounted for were only so by the cameras.

Setsurou told Nanashi they could give him a job. Not that they explicitly trusted him.

"Commander-General, this is Hishikawa. Please come in."

[Commander-General's office]

Koutarou sighs. He mumbles something half to himself and half to the decaying Nanashi.

"I prefer the frog and the scorpion, myself. At least then its treachery costs its life."

But there isn't much that can reach it.

Then he reaches for his Reiphone.

"Report, Captain."

The following are words the rest of the room can't hear. Because he's on a phone.

"Pass their locations on to the other divisions. Alert them about the possibility of their self-destruction. Since we don't know if they all trigger it at death, the copies are to be captured ALIVE whenever possible, and led away from casualties if not. Protocol Shoukatsuryou.

Give me... three of the locations next to the forested area. I can take that many out."

Shifting seamlessly into a different form of armor, Koutarou charges his fingertip with a crackle of lightning. It envelops his body shortly before six copies of pure lightning spring forth from his form and dash across the skies with a peal of thunder. And then he turns to Momoka.

"Kobayashi-kun. Your report."

[strawberryman]

[Soul Society]
(Command)

Momoka incants a simple kido to quench the flames with a pulse of energy before breathing, adjusting her glasses, and turning to Koutarou. She even gives her usual calm smile.

"As expected, Commander. Though you may be loath to believe it, at this period in time Erscheinung Von Geister has no further intent to assault Seireitei in any manner of speaking. With the small condition that he harbors a lasting grudge against you, but only as far as it would come to blows, or as he called it, 'the hunt', if he were to catch wind of you on the mortal realm. I believe if you were to keep this in mind then we would be able to gather information in peace without him acting against us."

"Naturally, you are free to disbelieve this. But I consider myself quite the skeptic, and I did not find mistruth in his words."

[Kuroimaken]

[Commander-General's office]

Koutarou raises an eyebrow - oh wait, he's still released so she can't see that.

"I have no reason to mistrust you, Kobayashi-kun, but I'll have to ask you for more details."

[Dorizzit]

The wolf's brown eyes meet Jehoel's blue ones for a brief moment. Then, the wolf apparently gets bored, turns its head to the side and starts pacing away slowly, lowering its head close to the ground and sniffing the wet sand. It looks a bit lost and confused.

[Las Noches]
The Wastes

Jehoel, thoroughly bemused by the entire affair, simply looks after the wolf for a few seconds more.

"I suppose it would be inconsiderate to just leave you here."

Lifting the wolf by the scruff of its neck, Jehoel opens a Garganta to earth and steps through.

Spoiler

Show

Jehoel is just going to drop him off somewhere that naturally supports wolves, I'm assuming that doesn't any unusual response.

The Battlefield

Jehoel steps onto the battlefield through an exceptionally large Garganta, arriving near Turiel.

"Eat."

Dragging a massive vehicle behind him through the portal, Jehoel casually heaves the machine in front of Turiel, where it breaks and rolls before coming to a halt. Not bothering to see the results of the action, Jehoel jumps into the air. Soaring up until he comes to a halt just below the clouds, Jehoel folds his legs into a sitting position and waits.

[KnightDisciple]

[Las Noches]
The Wastes

Jehoel, thoroughly bemused by the entire affair, simply looks after the wolf for a few seconds more.

"I suppose it would be inconsiderate to just leave you here."

Lifting the wolf by the scruff of its neck, Jehoel opens a Garganta to earth and steps through.

Spoiler

Show

Jehoel is just going to drop him off somewhere that naturally supports wolves, I'm assuming that doesn't any unusual response.

The Battlefield

Jehoel steps onto the battlefield through an exceptionally large Garganta, arriving near Turiel.

"Eat."

Dragging a massive vehicle behind him through the portal, Jehoel casually heaves the machine in front of Turiel, where it breaks and rolls before coming to a halt. Not bothering to see the results of the action, Jehoel jumps into the air. Soaring up until he comes to a halt just below the clouds, Jehoel folds his legs into a sitting position and waits.

[Las Noches]
The Battlefield

Turiel, having barely managed to focus enough energies to first shift back to his multi-legged dragon form, and second to curl up in the healing protectiveness of Armor forjado's "lockdown", recognizes Jehoel's voice. Of course, he's still struggling to control the bleeding; he managed to stop the burning with judicious application of molten gold at the edges of the wound, but it was a near thing. Now, his head and legs slowly extricate themselves from his shell. His eyes blink unsteadily as he stares at the half-mangled car in front of him...

Then instinct takes over as he leaps on it with a roar and begins eating the blasted thing, tires, glass, and all. It's really quite a sight.

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]

Ryouma Tatsuya wandered the streets of Rukongai as he'd done for the past few days since Soul Society's last clash with the Cult, where, he hitched a ride back through a Senkaimon.

And he was bored out of his skull.

With the criminal element of Soul Society mostly gone thanks to the Yin Family up and leaving (seriously, what the hell was that), he had a shortage of fights. With much of the forest area around Rukon gone (or as he called it, HIS forest) he didn't have a quiet home to get back to or game he could hunt. For a while, he tried to get by partially reintegrating himself into society, acting as a bouncer for the local taverns. That didn't last long - he ended up scaring too many customers just by standing there.

Between the loss of sake and worthy fights, Ryouma had practically lost the will to live.

Wandering the more badly damaged outskirts of Rukon, where the Shinigami had told people to evacuate, he had a vacant stare and a bit of drool hanging from his mouth.

And then... his ridiculously giant ahoge perked up and started to buzz.

"Muh?"

Looking up from his bored stupor, Ryouma blinked a few times as he felt the releases of power at multiple places throughout Seireitei.

"My Kenka-dar* is tingling.

...

..."

And then there had been that massive explosion. He could see the column of fire even from where he was. His eyes widened like saucers and a manic grin spread across his face.

"IT'S A FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!"

Dashing off into the horizon and jumping up, aiming to arrive at the closest source of clashing energies, Ryouma felt his heart beat more intensely again.

[Wherever he happened to land]

There's a loud explosion and a lot of dust shoots up, as if the place had just been hit by an artillery shell.

"KIZU NO RYOUMA IS HERE!"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Yes, Ryouma has a radar for detecting brawls. Kenka is a very impolite way to describe a fight/brawl/tussle. It's what a delinquent might call an exchange of fists.

[strawberryman]

[Soul Society]
(Command)

Momoka gives a noncommital shrug for once. "His plans are rooted in the Mortal World. He means to incite spiritual growth overall and entrench a space for him and his family. Is this a necessarily pure goal that will lead to no harm? No. But I simply see naught we can do at this point in time. Quite so given our other distractions right now."

[Kuroimaken]

[Commander-General's Office]

Koutarou Kamen Rider Rei's sigh is audible even through the mask, and so is the slump of his shoulders.

"Central is bound not to see it that way. Especially with the recent movements on the Himmel's part. And I'm fairly sure what mortal spiritually empowered organizations there are aside from the Quincy and the Kuzunoha won't see it that way either.

Von Geister can probably tell as much. Even if for some reason he is unaware of Central's intentions, he won't be so foolish as to assume we will do nothing. At the least, he'll be prepared. We've been on the offensive so far, but with relatively little to show for it. And then there is Haven. And the general implications of letting him empower Mortals at his whim.

His grudge with me notwithstanding, I cannot stomach brokering a deal with Von Geister. And defective as they may seem to many, Central won't bow to his whims either. They could only barely accept our peace treaty with Las Noches as it is - which no doubt will have them gunning for Hishikawa's head from this latest fiasco with Nanashi, or asking for Las Noches to take responsibility in some way.

I suppose it's a good thing he's been delayed in delivering Central's message so far. He'll be away from all this when the time to give the reports comes around."

[KnightDisciple]

[Soul Society]
[Forest Around Sokyoku Hill]

Forests are dark, dangerous, chaotic places. Beings born from a Gillian from the under-forests of Hueco Mundo know this, of course. Shinigami, perhaps not so much, thanks to their blurring of their mortal memories, and the fact that this forest had never been a place of danger.

Until now.

Of course, for these Nanashi, they are dangerous being themselves, and they have been loosed to cause what mischief they wish. What have they to fear for quite a while now?

And then a barrier of kido erupts out of nowhere in front of them, its soft glow doing little to wipe away the deep shadows surrounding them. Four more barriers appear in rapid succession, the near-transparent walls of Danku keeping the nameless Arrancar in place. At least for a few moments. But then, that's all that's needed.

The air around them grew heavy. The colors seemed to fade. Brief flashes of movement seem to occur at the edges of their vision (regardless of how many eyes they have). Not that they have time to really think through these phenomenon.

"Blot out the sun and drink up the stars. Crush the mountains. Burn the sky and boil the sea. Ancalagon."

The speaker remains unseen. The words are said calmly, almost emotionlessly, and yet there is an undeniable edge to them. Not a threat.

A promise.

"Once upon a time, your numbers would have been a challenge. Now? They are merely a footnote."

The shadows of the Nanashi erupt upwards, binding their ankles and wrists with thick ribbons, and a hood of shadow wrapping over their heads and necks, quickly becoming tight, and then beginning to cut off air supplies and crush skulls, while the limb bindings pull them into awkward, wrenched postures.

"You were a threat to Soul Society. Now, you are once more part of the Cycle."

Before they can try to say or do anything, their heads have been parted from their bodies by heavy blades that could cut hairs in half. Their bodies are turning to motes of dark light before the shadow bindings can even collapse fully.

In the midst of the now-gone barriers and the patches of disturbed ground pattered with a few drops of dark Hollow blood stands a man wearing a dark blue, almost black haori (whose inside occasionally gives glimpses of a scattered field of stars) and a dark brown conical hat. His head is bowed, hiding his face and eyes from observers. His hands hold twin black falchions which he gives a single flourish to before they are held to his sides with shadows. His left arm comes up in front of him, and the sleeve is pushed back to reveal metal beneath. Panels fold back at the press of his right fingers against a couple of subtle buttons, and a small holographic screen comes up. Instead of a face it displays a generic black screen; it is in "wide broadcast" mode.

"Combat Division, commence suppression operations. Goal one is protection of life. Goal two is protection of property. Strike swiftly, and strike to kill. Captain Masaru out."

The panel folded away....and then the man was gone in a swirl of cloth and shadow, the space between trees soon returning to its previous tranquility.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

@Frozen_feet, please speak up if that was too much. Just trying to get back in the swing of things with Masaru.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Hueco Mundo]
[Sky Above Battlefield]

It is only a few minutes after Jehoel has "seated" himself in the sky before there is another presence there.

A rather ragged looking Turiel, having sealed his power fully, and sporting a red, raw-looking, barely-closed wound on his torso, folds his own legs and sits not too far from Jehoel, now alternating his gnawing between some strange sort of energy/protein bar, and a rod of wrought iron. He eats quietly for a couple of minutes before speaking.

"Thanks. For the meal, that is. B**** was tricky. And I was rusty and overconfident. Looks like we're rolling over them now. That hairy guy give you any sort of spiel about what they were even doing here besides 'trying to kill more Hollows'?"

[Kuroimaken]

[The woods near Soukyoku Hill]

It is probably no surprise to Masaru to see that the Hollows he had just assaulted were being followed by members of Internal Security. Setsurou's ninjas.

Most of them dash about towards their colleagues, trying to help them track down more of Nanashi. One stays behind and kneels before the Combat Division Captain.

"Sir! We bring intel. Captain Hishikawa has noted that--"

And then he's gone before he can finish. Dangit.

A communication kidou will have to do... assuming Masaru is receptive to it.

[Dorizzit]

Spoiler

Show

[Hueco Mundo]
[Sky Above Battlefield]

It is only a few minutes after Jehoel has "seated" himself in the sky before there is another presence there.

A rather ragged looking Turiel, having sealed his power fully, and sporting a red, raw-looking, barely-closed wound on his torso, folds his own legs and sits not too far from Jehoel, now alternating his gnawing between some strange sort of energy/protein bar, and a rod of wrought iron. He eats quietly for a couple of minutes before speaking.

"Thanks. For the meal, that is. B**** was tricky. And I was rusty and overconfident. Looks like we're rolling over them now. That hairy guy give you any sort of spiel about what they were even doing here besides 'trying to kill more Hollows'?"

[Hueco Mundo]
On High

Jehoel shakes his head, eyes still fixed on the battle below.

"He had little interest in engaging me. I do not believe that this was truly a cause he cared about. More a place for one without one to fit in. I would guess Hein Weisweide's second in command, filling the role after his predecessor's death due more to default than anything else. Either way, he ended the battle as a, as far as I was able to determine, mundane wolf. It was interesting."

High praise.

[TherianTheorist]

[Hueco Mundo]
Battlefield around Las Noches

Demetrio saw Torahiko's orange blast breaking through the dome from across the battlefied. The exhausted Arrancar-Quincy has limped towards the dome ever since to help his friend. "Comrade Tachibana! Are you all right?", Demetrio shouts as he nears his target, ready to drag Torahiko's unconscious or dead body with him is no answer is heard.

Torahiko finally stumbles his way outside the dome using his rifle as a sort of improvised crutch to compensate for the lack of anything else to lean against.

"Was that... really me?" He's on the verge of collapse, unable to do much other feel disbelief at the results of his attack. Not bad for a first attempt with any technique, let alone one cobbled together by instinct from secondhand knowledge. Unfortunately, it was also much more draining than he would have expected, definitely more than all his earlier stunts put together, and far too much to do it again anytime soon.

"Demetrio? I'm- I'll be-" And then the misplaced student finally collapsed.

[Frozen_Feet]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise

[Wherever he happened to land]

There's a loud explosion and a lot of dust shoots up, as if the place had just been hit by an artillery shell.

"KIZU NO RYOUMA IS HERE!"

Moments before Ryouma arrived, Bulk from the Combat squad AKA "the Pack" was having difficulties fighting against one of the Hollows running clockwise around Seireitei. Then, his good friend Skull arrived to save the day, swinging his giant Kanabo and sending the Hollow flying into a nearby building. The force of the blow made the wall crack and the Hollow fell down limply.

"Hah! Take that, sucker!", Skull proclaimed victoriously.

This was immediately followed by Bulk dopeslapping him. "Dumbass! You weren't supposed to kill it!"

Skull looked confused. "But the boss just called in and said strike to kill!"

Bulk dopeslapped him again. "Yeah, but the bigger boss said to capture them alive. Now we have to get ano-"

Bulk was cut midsentence by Ryouma making his dynamite dynamic entry. The two immediately adopt fighting stances, startled by the explosion.

When Ryouma proclaims himself, the two relax a bit. "Oh, it's one of us", Skull notes.

"Of course it's one of us, Captain Obvious!", Bulk snarks. Then he gives Ryouma a second glance. "Anyways, who the Hell are you? Should we know you or s-"

At this point, the "dead" Hollow bashes heads of the Pack member together. It used the distraction Ryouma caused to sneak upon them. With a disgusting crack, the two flunkies fall down unconscious. Two color-inverted snake eyes glare at Ryouma from behind a horned skull mask.

---

Forest near Sokyoku hill

The Hollows in the forest probably could see and hear the lightning constructs from miles away. Not that it mattered - Masaru took care of the five hiding in the woods before they got there. Now, Koutarou's constructs have to pick another target.

---

[Hueco Mundo]
From the wastes to some forested part of Earth

Jehoel, thoroughly bemused by the entire affair, simply looks after the wolf for a few seconds more.

"I suppose it would be inconsiderate to just leave you here."

Lifting the wolf by the scruff of its neck, Jehoel opens a Garganta to earth and steps through.

The wolf doesn't struggle during the journey, apparently instinctively aware of futility of such actions. Once it's set down on the ground on the other side, it sniffs around a bit, then glances at Jehoel one more time before fleeing into the woods.

---

Battlefield

Torahiko finally stumbles his way outside the dome using his rifle as a sort of improvised crutch to compensate for the lack of anything else to lean against.

"Was that... really me?" He's on the verge of collapse, unable to do much other feel disbelief at the results of his attack. Not bad for a first attempt with any technique, let alone one cobbled together by instinct from secondhand knowledge. Unfortunately, it was also much more draining than he would have expected, definitely more than all his earlier stunts put together, and far too much to do it again anytime soon.

"Demetrio? I'm- I'll be-" And then the misplaced student finally collapsed.

Demetrio captures his fallen comrade and hoist him on his shoulder. For a moment, his instincts conflict with his programming - should he surrender and return to Las Noches, the closest thing he's ever had to a home? Or should he continue fighting - no, that's not an option. As he looks around, he sees the human Quincies, his lords and masters, give up one by one. Yet, part of him simply cannot accept this defeat - you see, the Arrancar Quincy's indoctrination did not account for the possibility that the ZHE might lose. The only options he was taught were to fight untill victory, or die fighting.

Tears running down his cheeks, Demetrio takes a third option - he flees while carrying Torahiko, back into the shadows, back towards Silbern.

---

The Battlefield and Las Noches - overview of the situation

As Turiel noted, the Armada has indeed turned the tide of battle permanently in its favor. Most of the Quincies are surrendering, while the Belenus clan is rallying around Caeyrn and waiting for some kind of sign. Now it's mostly a matter of rounding up the survivors and deciding what to do with them, and maybe chasing after those who fled.

While the structure of the dome above Las Noches took heavy damage in the initial barrage, the inside of the city is intact, save for one district - Jehoel's. It's probably still in flames, what with the white phosphorous and all. The dangerous Hollows who resided there have scattered or died in the mayhem.

Still, it's not all happiness and sunshine, if those things can be said to exist in Hueco Mundo in the first place. Tinja Corva, 5th Espada, has been frozen to death. Kyoki, 4th Espada, is missing, last seen fighting with the Kummerows. Valentina, 6th Espada, is likewise missing, last seen fighting against resurrected Nachfolger. Armada, the cutting edge of Las Noches military, has suffered heavy casualties. Quantatively, recovering those losses will be a piece of cake as the Arrancars can round up Hollows from Earth and make them into new soldiers, but qualitatively, the destruction of so many Menos-class Arrancars is not something that can be ignored. Historically speaking, this is the greatest slaughtering of Menos-class Hollows since the failed attack against Soul Society some seventy years ago.

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise



Moments before Ryouma arrived, Bulk from the Combat squad AKA "the Pack" was having difficulties fighting against one of the Hollows running clockwise around Seireitei. Then, his good friend Skull arrived to save the day, swinging his giant Kanabo and sending the Hollow flying into a nearby building. The force of the blow made the wall crack and the Hollow fell down limply.

"Hah! Take that, sucker!", Skull proclaimed victoriously.

This was immediately followed by Bulk dopeslapping him. "Dumbass! You weren't supposed to kill it!"

Skull looked confused. "But the boss just called in and said strike to kill!"

Bulk dopeslapped him again. "Yeah, but the bigger boss said to capture them alive. Now we have to get ano-"

Bulk was cut midsentence by Ryouma making his dynamite dynamic entry. The two immediately adopt fighting stances, startled by the explosion.

When Ryouma proclaims himself, the two relax a bit. "Oh, it's one of us", Skull notes.

"Of course it's one of us, Captain Obvious!", Bulk snarks. Then he gives Ryouma a second glance. "Anyways, who the Hell are you? Should we know you or s-"

At this point, the "dead" Hollow bashes heads of the Pack member together. It used the distraction Ryouma caused to sneak upon them. With a disgusting crack, the two flunkies fall down unconscious. Two color-inverted snake eyes glare at Ryouma from behind a horned skull mask.

---

Forest near Sokyoku hill

The Hollows in the forest probably could see and hear the lightning constructs from miles away. Not that it mattered - Masaru took care of the five hiding in the woods before they got there. Now, Koutarou's constructs have to pick another target.

---

[Soul Society, Circling Clockwise]

"Wow. They don't make 'em Combat mooks like they used to, huh?

Oh well. More fightin' for me!" Ryouma dashes forward before his lumbering fist shoots towards the Hollow's chest.

By comparison with most Shinigami of his weight class, he's a slow man. But his punches carry a lot of destructive power. No doubt getting struck by one could prove disastrous.

__________________

[The forest near Soukyoku Hill]

Masaru's intervention does cause Koutarou to lose his targets, but that's just a quick communiqué to Internal Security away from changing. He is, after all, controlling his constructs remotely.

[Frozen_Feet]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise

Ryouma's slowness turns out to be his Achilles' heel this time. As he lumbers towards the horned Hollow, it throws up its left hand and changes the topology of the space between them. Ryouma's punch stops as if it'd hit a wall, sending a shockwave through ground and air yet leaving everything immediately before him and five meters to each side undisturbed.

The yellow shimmer is a dead giveaway. This trick is similar to Negacion that Menos Grande use. But unlike normal, it doesn't surround the Hollow completely. Rather, it's just a wall, ten meters wide and five tall. Quite likely, half of it is underground.

The Hollow looks at Ryouma through the barrier, waiting his next move.

---

Over communications

Koutarou gets to know that in addition to the five Hollows Masaru dispatched, the clockwise-circling group has been intercepted by Pack and IntSec members, and a fight has broken out in the city. There seems to be some confusion of orders among the Shinigami. One Hollow has stoppes running, being preoccupied by Ryoma.

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]

The wall is coated with a thin sheath of icy condensation as Tatsuya's fist strikes, owing to his poor control of Reiatsu. He rolls his eyes at the projection.

"Ah, you're one of those guys. And here I thought I was gonna fight man-to-man!"

Creaking his neck to either side, Ryouma suddenly bursts into Shunpou upwards and forward. He doesn't need the speed to overcome the barrier - it is, after all, shorter than he is by at least three and a half feet. Instead, he accelerates to grab the edge of the wall and vault over it at high speed with a kick aimed to his chest.

[KnightDisciple]

[Soul Society]
[Somewhere Inside the Seireitei]

[The woods near Soukyoku Hill]

It is probably no surprise to Masaru to see that the Hollows he had just assaulted were being followed by members of Internal Security. Setsurou's ninjas.

Most of them dash about towards their colleagues, trying to help them track down more of Nanashi. One stays behind and kneels before the Combat Division Captain.

"Sir! We bring intel. Captain Hishikawa has noted that--"

And then he's gone before he can finish. Dangit.

A communication kidou will have to do... assuming Masaru is receptive to it.

He is!

"This is Captain Masaru. Please speak."

Short and efficient, but not rude, really.
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[Hueco Mundo]
On High

[Hueco Mundo]
On High

Jehoel shakes his head, eyes still fixed on the battle below.

"He had little interest in engaging me. I do not believe that this was truly a cause he cared about. More a place for one without one to fit in. I would guess Hein Weisweide's second in command, filling the role after his predecessor's death due more to default than anything else. Either way, he ended the battle as a, as far as I was able to determine, mundane wolf. It was interesting."

High praise.

Turiel almost starts talking, but then the "turned into a regular wolf" thing processed in his brain. His mouth clicked shut, and he blinked.

"Well ****, that's big, coming from you.

...But...a wolf? That's just...huh. Though, I guess it means we're kind of lucky; man who goes into battle just wanting a fight 'cause he's lost, that's a man who won't do so well commanding. Us, we had a bit more at stake against these arrow-flingers."

Spoiler

Show

The Battlefield and Las Noches - overview of the situation

As Turiel noted, the Armada has indeed turned the tide of battle permanently in its favor. Most of the Quincies are surrendering, while the Belenus clan is rallying around Caeyrn and waiting for some kind of sign. Now it's mostly a matter of rounding up the survivors and deciding what to do with them, and maybe chasing after those who fled.

While the structure of the dome above Las Noches took heavy damage in the initial barrage, the inside of the city is intact, save for one district - Jehoel's. It's probably still in flames, what with the white phosphorous and all. The dangerous Hollows who resided there have scattered or died in the mayhem.

Still, it's not all happiness and sunshine, if those things can be said to exist in Hueco Mundo in the first place. Tinja Corva, 5th Espada, has been frozen to death. Kyoki, 4th Espada, is missing, last seen fighting with the Kummerows. Valentina, 6th Espada, is likewise missing, last seen fighting against resurrected Nachfolger. Armada, the cutting edge of Las Noches military, has suffered heavy casualties. Quantatively, recovering those losses will be a piece of cake as the Arrancars can round up Hollows from Earth and make them into new soldiers, but qualitatively, the destruction of so many Menos-class Arrancars is not something that can be ignored. Historically speaking, this is the greatest slaughtering of Menos-class Hollows since the failed attack against Soul Society some seventy years ago.

A somewhat bitter look crossed his face as his senses took in at least some measure of the true damage that had happened.

"Not that it matters that much. We're down 3 Espada and a bunch of soldiers. If the Psychopomps weren't strung out and dumped out they'd probably come knocking. Then again, with Old Tentacle Butt running around, maybe not."

Turiel's lack of respect for Von Geister is not exactly a secret. Well, lack of respect for the dignity of his "position"; Turiel respects his power plenty well enough.

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]

Ah, good, he got through.

"Masaru-taichou, Hishikawa-taichou relayed to us that there is a very distinct possibility of dead-man-trigger bombings if the copies are damaged with lethal force. He suggested nonlethal capture methods, or relocating the fights proper to minimize collateral damage. There's no telling if they can trigger voluntarily as well. Safe hunting, sir."

[Frozen_Feet]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise

The kick hits the Hollow squarely in the chest, Ryouma's Reiatsu coating it with a layer of rime. It is sent flying througg the same building it was knocked against a minute ago, causing the supports to fail and two lowest floors of the building to collapse on the Hollow. The barrier winks out of existence.

A moment later, the Hollow digs itself out of the rubble, shaking frost and concrete dust off its clothes.

[Dorizzit]

[spoiler][Hueco Mundo]
On High

Turiel almost starts talking, but then the "turned into a regular wolf" thing processed in his brain. His mouth clicked shut, and he blinked.

"Well ****, that's big, coming from you.

...But...a wolf? That's just...huh. Though, I guess it means we're kind of lucky; man who goes into battle just wanting a fight 'cause he's lost, that's a man who won't do so well commanding. Us, we had a bit more at stake against these arrow-flingers."

A somewhat bitter look crossed his face as his senses took in at least some measure of the true damage that had happened.

"Not that it matters that much. We're down 3 Espada and a bunch of soldiers. If the Psychopomps weren't strung out and dumped out they'd probably come knocking. Then again, with Old Tentacle Butt running around, maybe not."

Turiel's lack of respect for Von Geister is not exactly a secret. Well, lack of respect for the dignity of his "position"; Turiel respects his power plenty well enough.

Jehoel, conversely, respects neither.

"I am uninjured. Our position is secure."

Jehoel's proclamation is given with no more emphasis than any other sentence. It is a statement of outrageous arrogance, without doubt, but there is a degree of truth in his words. Even a force powerful enough to defeat Jehoel would not do so without catastrophic losses. The only victory to be had against Las Noches remains a pyrrhic one without removing Jehoel. The ancient Hollow surveys the battlefield, eyes rapidly darting from place to place in an unmoving skull.

"We will endure."

He reaches into a pocket, withdrawing his phone.

"Serraada. Give the green light for Project Jonah. Tell them to give first priority to veterans of this battle."

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise

The kick hits the Hollow squarely in the chest, Ryouma's Reiatsu coating it with a layer of rime. It is sent flying througg the same building it was knocked against a minute ago, causing the supports to fail and two lowest floors of the building to collapse on the Hollow. The barrier winks out of existence.

A moment later, the Hollow digs itself out of the rubble, shaking frost and concrete dust off its clothes.

Tatsuya was never one to wait for people to pick themselves up when they pissed him off. So the moment its head pokes out of the rubble, he is already pressing for another assault from above. Between the acceleration from a burst of Shunpou at the apex of his jump, his weight, his sheer striking power and the unconscious release of Reiatsu associated with his excitement and rage, this punch has significantly more impact behind it than the one he'd struck that wall with.

On a miss, we're talking about a 50-foot crater here.

[Frozen_Feet]

[Soul Society]
Circling clockwise

And here, the Hollow though it could clean itself up, stretch a little and maybe strike a pose. Ryouma's punch sends it flying again, making it crash through the wall of the next building.

That's the good news. The slightly less good news is that the shockwave causes the rest of the first building to collapse, this time on Ryouma.

---

In the air

The patrol of lightning constructs doesn't have easy targets at the moment. Another fight has broken out, this time between five Hollows and the gate guards. The constructs probably don't want to get that close to the wall, what with it being basically a giant magnet.

The second closest bunch of targets is the group going counter-clockwise. They can see the constructs coming from miles away and start shooting crimson Balas at them as an improvised anti-air tactic.

[Kuroimaken]

[Soul Society]
((Clockwise))

On a guy his size, the building mostly counts as an inconvenience. It'd actually count as 'cozy' if he were in the mood for a nap.

It does make him temporarily lose track of his prey, though. But then, all he has to do is pay attention to next building. This time, he wants to see what his punching bag opponent can dish out.

__________________

((Counter-Clockwise))

It's an interesting, albeit fruitless idea. The lightning constructs in question originate in part from Kamen Rider Rei's "Speed" mode, so that's their foremost attribute. The distance proves to be just the edge they need to dodge in time, striking the ground with a boom of thunder and erratically flowing towards the copies themselves.

[Frozen_Feet]

Going Clockwise

The Hollow is embedded to one of the supporting walls of the building ahead, coated in thin layer of ice. Before the dust has settled, the ice begins to thaw, then evaporate. The Hollow stirs, steam rising from its skin, then suddenly opens its mouth, spitting out a Cero. It turns into a cone of energy large enough to swallow Ryouma and ruins of the building he just wrecked.

---

Going counter-clockwise

Seeing that small attacks have a hard time hitting, the Hollows switch to ones with wider area. While running amidst the buildings, they draw their swords and spin around, sending crescents of crimson energy flying in the general direction of the constructs. They start out sharp, but grow wider and thicker the further they get before fading out, creating what's best described as a tsunami of expensive collateral damage.

[Kuroimaken]

[Clockwise]

Ryouma either doesn't have time to dodge or is too stupid to consider the option. The resulting explosion vaporizes a good deal of the rubble, the hulk of a man hard to spot over all the smoke.

"Yeah, that's more like it."

He's barely even scratched. His clothes seem to have taken the brunt of the damage, which isn't all that much.

'That's how a brawl's gotta be."

Another leap, and another swing downwards against the Hollow.

[Counter-clockwise]

The first couple of expanding blades quickly direct the lightning strikers' next course of action. Following random patterns, they speed in to close the space between themselves and their targets.

They have the advantage of terrain, at least in theory. So their maneuver isn't entirely chaotic - it ends with two of them working to corner one of the Nanashis as it turns into a street. A rapid shower of lightning bolts follows from both ends.

[KnightDisciple]

[Soul Society]
[Somewhere Inside the Seireitei]

[Soul Society]

Ah, good, he got through.

"Masaru-taichou, Hishikawa-taichou relayed to us that there is a very distinct possibility of dead-man-trigger bombings if the copies are damaged with lethal force. He suggested nonlethal capture methods, or relocating the fights proper to minimize collateral damage. There's no telling if they can trigger voluntarily as well. Safe hunting, sir."

Masaru has enough self control not to curse. But only just.

"Thank you for clarification. I was attemtping to respond swiftly and efficiently, and perhaps let my temper get the best of me. I will relay orders to my men and women."

The artificial arm comes up and the communications device activates.

"Combat Division, this is your Captain. I am revising my orders based on new information. If possible, seek to disable, not kill, focus on binding and barrier options. Failing that, draw these attackers to areas where possible dead-man trigger explosions will do little damage. Beware possible suicide attacks and plan accordingly."

He angles off a bit, searching for a good target.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Hueco Mundo]
[On High]

Jehoel, conversely, respects neither.

"I am uninjured. Our position is secure."

Jehoel's proclamation is given with no more emphasis than any other sentence. It is a statement of outrageous arrogance, without doubt, but there is a degree of truth in his words. Even a force powerful enough to defeat Jehoel would not do so without catastrophic losses. The only victory to be had against Las Noches remains a pyrrhic one without removing Jehoel. The ancient Hollow surveys the battlefield, eyes rapidly darting from place to place in an unmoving skull.

"We will endure."

He reaches into a pocket, withdrawing his phone.

"Serraada. Give the green light for Project Jonah. Tell them to give first priority to veterans of this battle."

Turiel laughs a little, then winces and holds his side.

"Ow. Laughing still hurts, you egotistical old eel."

Turiel's probably one of the few who would dare speak to Jehoel that way.

"We will at that...I guess me and Quidel mean it'd be a cakewalk no matter what, right?"

Neither the Segunda nor the Tercera can match the Primera, but neither are they slouches, especially the old Tarrasque. He raises a brow at the out-of-context order.

"Any chance you'll share what this Project Jonah is with a humble blacksmith? I hope it doesn't involve you eating people."