[BITPR²] Kyuukyoku Gaiden: The Beachdown Apocalypse

[Frozen_Feet]

Since when was Koutarou under the impression that Senshi thinks he's dealing with an amateur?

When he's yanked back, Senshi imposes his sword between himself and the incoming punch. "Split the Sky!" If there was someone to watch from the side, it would look like the lightning bolt's hitting Senshi squarely in the chest... but not going through. From Koutarou's perspective, the energy is shooting into a black rift in space where Senshi's torso should be.

The blade of the Kenpachi swings and cuts the sash Koutarou's grabbing. Senshi jumps backward to gain some distance between himself and Koutarou.

[Kuroimaken]

It's kind of strange to try gaining space by jumping in the direction his opponent's hand is, but hey. Aside from Senshi potentially having some wardrobe malfunctions it's a perfectly valid choice for a move.

Kamen Rider Rei attempts to make use of what little contact he still has as the sash is cut. "Hadou #11: Tsuzuri Raiden!" The chanting is out of habit - the lightning is coming out before he finishes the sentence.

And between the Commander-General's unusual Kidou amplification and the fact he's especially gifted with lightning, well.

[Frozen_Feet]

The magic lightning archs and jumps after Senshi, but the sash quickly burns to ashes and the spell is left with no medium besides air to travel. This allows Senshi to resist it with his spiritual pressure, causing it to fizzle.

As for Senshi's clothes, fortunately, his hakama has its own side ties, so it's not dependant on the sash to keep it up. Mostly, Senshi's shirt end up flapping more loosely now.

"If I die..."

Senshi grips his sword with both hands.

"... my lieutenant takes my mantle and tomorrow, they send someone else after you."

"If you merely 'defeat' me, I go to recover and tomorrow, they send someone else after you."

Senshi's voice is exactly the same as it was at the start. There's no sign of exhaustion, frustration, or anything of the sort. Just the facts of the situation.

"Either way, you'll still be a criminal and alone. You're not fighting a war of attrition against me. You're fighting it against all of us. My loss here is not your victory, and your victory here is not my loss. Understand, Ishinomori?"

[Kuroimaken]

"So what you're saying is I just have to beat all of you at once? That sounds like an interesting challenge."

What's that sound?

[Frozen_Feet]

"That's the sound of you being full of yourself, Ishinomori", Senshi states. "But even if you succeeded... then what? Might does not make right. No-one has a reason to change what they're doing just because they lost to you once. You're one man. You don't have a jail to put us in. The most of what you can do, is kill us. If you're not willing to kill even me... it's a pointless pursuit. You'd be doing it for your own gratification and nothing else."

The Kenpachi's blade hovers next to Senshi. On the ground, the fallen swords are picked up by invisible hands. The snow billowing around sometimes seems to give white outlines to the phantasms as they raise their weapons as a challenge to Koutarou.

"This isn't a game. No-one gives a damn about your hi-score. And even if this was... those kinds of games have no win condition. They just keep getting harder untill you make a mistake or quit playing."

[Kuroimaken]

"What a silly notion. Why else does anyone do anything if not for their own satisfaction? Even that which is done out of duty or necessity is done for the 'satisfaction' of getting it out of their way.

You're correct in one thing, though. Might does not make right."

Seriously, WHAT'S THAT SOUND?!

"The righteous are powerful because they have justice on their side. Because they fight for something other than themselves.

Just think about what that means, if I get to beat all of you."

Kamen Rider Rei assumes a more aggressive stance, and quickly a number of lightning clones spreads out from him in every direction. Then, his own appearance changes to one of them, and they begin to rapidly change position.

"Shall we play a shell game?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"That's nonsense. Being right does not itself make anyone mighty" , Senshi responds. "But if it did... you think I'm not fighting for others? You think my comrades aren't? We're fighting for Amaterasu Naomi, our beloved Commander-General! We're fighting for laws of our society and balance of the world! For the right of humans to live their lives without spiritual interference, and for the right of spirits to be spared the fate of being turned into twisted mockeries of themselves! "

Senshi raises his blade. " You're the one fighting for nothing real! Justice? What you're doing now has nothing to do with justice except in your own imagination!"

Senshi swings his blade around in a circle.

"Blood Full Moon!"

As before, the movement of Senshi's blade creates an arch of spiritual energy, but this time, each such arch traces a full circle around him. In but a few slashes, he begins to look like the old atomic model, with himself as the nucleus and the archs of destructive energy tracing the orbits of electrons.

It's not a directional attack, but neither is it blindly flailing about. It is a methodical way of destroying everything in a radius of 70 meters. If Koutarou lets this go for long enough, the energy from the continued attacks will momentarily create a perfect sphere around Senshi.

[Kuroimaken]

"You wanna bet on that?

Out of everything you're talking about, the only thing I can mildly agree on is the relief of Hollows from their suffering. You speak of the balance as if maintaining it requires everything to be dammed up on one side. And yet mortal mediums continue to be born. There will be a time where, whether by internal collusion of your forces or by the action of those selfsame mediums, that dam will break.

And then the mortal world will be flooded by the spiritual world. Every last remnant of peace will snap like a twig as the ascension of much-too-powerful mortals gives way to chaos.

You could prevent this. Ease the mortals into acceptance of the spiritual as will eventually happen, whether you like it or not, in a manner that such a change contributes to their society rather than disrupting it. Yet you prefer to control the mortals while at the same time claiming that it is their right to not be bothered by spiritual matters!

That is mere shadow puppetry! Not true justice!"

Even as he speaks, his voice coming from nowhere and everywhere, the clones surround Senshi and launch themselves at him like veritable spears. One would expect the continued assault to diminish their numbers as they eventually miss their mark or break themselves against Senshi's "barrier". But it doesn't take long to realize that's not the case. Apparently Kamen Rider Rei is replenishing them as fast as they are destroyed.

[Frozen_Feet]

"The very purpose of the balance is to keep the worlds separate! Always was!"

Slash, slash, slash.

"Those with spiritual powers in the afterlife are balanced by the billions of living people and animals on Earth! Those in Soul Society die in time, and those in Hell finish their sentences, being reborn on Earth! The cycle of souls has never stopped or even slowed down as result of our actions! "

Slash, slash, slash, slash.

"The dam you claim to exist is not there! The apocalypse you claim is inevitable is exactly what we continuously work to prevent!"

Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash.

"What you call 'puppetry' isn't! Everyone dies one day! Everyone will thus get to see the spiritual world and experience it themselves! We may not allow spiritual powers on Earth, but in Soul Society, it's normal! People with powers have all the same rights as others there! Many of them have themselves become Shinigami and work to uphold the world with us! "

In the midst of all these attacks, Senshi cuts himself. He is way too good of a swordsman to do that on accident, so what gives? There must be some plan behind this.

"What you say is but the oxymoronic claim that by being good at our task, we are somehow failing it! You claim it's not just? You're just like the Quincies then! Acting in a way that harms the world because you think you alone can make it better!"

Senshi's blood mixes with his Reiatsu and it turns from purple into angry, electric blue. Koutarou might notice, if he can still keep track of all the clones, that despite their endless numbers, they are not making any headway.

"You ask me if I want to bet on that? Every soldier in Gotei bets their lives for the system the moment they sign up! Maybe one day, that bet will cost us our lives, but so what? Dying or failing is not what makes an action unjust, Ishinomori! It's not what makes an act immoral! Dying to exterminate great evil, that is the spirit of Gotei 13!"

What is this? Senshi is actually getting faster with his slashes?

"So even if it's the last thing I'll ever do, I'll cut through all of these false images, cut through all of these lies, all of these delusions of yours! Because Truth is a continuous cutting motion!"

"ROYAL! FULL! MOON!"

The space warps under the weight and power of all this Reiatsu being thrown around a single point. The sphere contracts, drawing in the army of lightning clones, and then expands and explodes outwards, reaching far past the initial 70 meters. Where Senshi is not high enough above the ground, the mountainside is cleaved into tiny pieces, a concave crater forming where natural terrain used to be.

[Kuroimaken]

"Yeah, about that... the death of those on the line of duty is not what gives your actions legitimacy either."

It's hard to tell exactly how effective that last attack was. Parts of the plate on Kamen Rider Rei's armor are missing, but no flesh is exposed and no blood is visible. The clones are gone, at least for the moment.

"Funny you should bring up the Quincy, because from where I'm standing, the one who thinks the most like one of them is you."

Another form change.

Drive Gattai
Metallica
Judas
Gattai Complete: Megadeth!

"I don't know how you dealt with the Quincy here, but where I'm from, after we presumed them extinct, they came back as an army bent on the destruction of every nonliving spiritual entity there was. 'To protect humanity from the meddlings of Shinigami and Hollow alike', more or less.

They failed, of course. Their first target was the city of Las Noches - a city full of Arrancar organizing themselves as a society. They threw their lives at its walls and, strong though they might have been, they failed on their quest. Most of them are now prisoners we seek to somehow rehabilitate."

His staff begins to glow. Three spheres of black and golden lightning start orbiting the tip in line.

"By your metric, their sacrifice makes their final objective just. You'd never admit to it, but the fact remains you have a lot more in common with them than I possibly could."

The spheres start spinning quicker.

"Both of you arrived at the same conclusion. 'I alone must retain control over the spiritual power of the world'. The difference is, they wanted that power on their side of the wall, not yours. Nevermind we had been working with some of them in order to make their skills non-disruptive to the balance. Nevermind that we outnumbered them by a laughable margin, even before we take into account they had to take on the entire Hueco Mundo ecosystem in order to make their vision of the world true. 'Because blood was spilled, we are just'.

By that metric, you would call my every comrade's commitment to the balance into question. Their deaths and sacrifices as well. Not only those of Shinigami but mortals everywhere that got involved in our world.

It probably never occurred to you that the balance you speak of - if we consider spiritual power to have weight - is lopsided at best."

By now the three spheres are spinning so fast they make consecutive halos all their own.

"Senshi-kun. I don't doubt your strength or your commitment. You've shown them plenty. But your justice is found lacking.

I once fought a man in a similar situation. He was a member of the Royal Guard. In the name of his 'justice', he summarily executed the Chamber of Forty-Six and attempted to displace Soul Society using a spell that would have brought it closer to the Royal Realm. He had the power and the authority to do that. When we fought, he used his unseen blade to cut at everything he could see as a 'pillar' that sustained my heart."

He points the staff at Senshi.

"RIDER GOD BOLT MISSILE!"

The three spheres zip past Senshi, missing his face by a hair as they fly off into the horizon. Senshi can see the shadow of the bright light the detonation produces, a dull roar accompanied by a dreadful gust of wind at his back.

There's nothing in that direction, thankfully. That doesn't mean the attack would have been unnoticed - a detonation of spiritual power that massive would have caused a number of phenomena that even normal humans could detect.

Not that that's a problem. After all, this is most likely Soul Society.

"Do you know what's the one thing I thought to myself after our duel?"

"You already possess that power! You're a thrice-damned Shinigami! Y-you... You!!"

"It was, 'Thank goodness it was not me instead of him. The damage would have been so much worse'."

[Frozen_Feet]

When Senshi realizes no more clones are coming, he brings his blade to a halt. The Royal Full Moon wanes, becomes a half moon, then a crescent, and then fades entirely. Senshi's clothes are drenched in sweat and blood drips along his wounded arm and blade, but his aura remains unwavering.

"What the Hell are you even talking about?!?" , he shouts amidst Koutarou's speech. "We defeated the last of the Quincy over a century ago and the last Menos fourty-five years ago! There has never been any kind of an Arrancar city in Hueco Mundo!"

He lets go of his sword with his injured hand and points accusingly at Koutarou. "You aren't even listening to what I say! I didn't say dying or failing itself makes an act just! I just said it doesn't make it un-...!"

That's when Koutarou's missile flies past Senshi and what he was going to say is cut off by the shockwave of the explosion hitting them some seconds later.

Yet, Senshi does not fret. He doesn't even flinch. Why? Because throughout this fight, Koutarou has made it clear he doesn't wish to kill Senshi. Certainly, had that attack hit, it would've obliterated Senshi, and probably Koutarou himself as well. But precisely because of that, he could not land that shot. Senshi knew Koutarou was going to miss from the moment he began charging his attack.

"Am I supposed to be impressed, Ishinomori?" , he shouts angrily after the roar has died down. "You think I didn't know you were this powerfull? You think I haven't seen this kind of power of before? Amaterasu-soutaichou's Bankai can split the atom! She has all the power you do and then some! But you know what's the difference? Unlike you, she would never use it for crass intimidation like this! She would rather die than use her powers for this kind of destruction!"

The Kenpachi's blade floats from Senshi's back and into his injured hand. Senshi crosses his blades before him and for a moment, Osuma's image seems to be superimposed on him. "That's why it comes down to her lessers, like me, to stop you! That's why I will never let you duel her! Certainly, Amaterasu-soutaichou would rather throw herself at your blade than risk collateral damage to Soul Society! But even if she would give up, we do not wish to give her up! She is a better, more compassionate, more just person than you could ever be! If she was in your position, she would admit her error and submit to her trial!"

Koutarou should know that's true... because it's what happened, in the past of the world he remembers. One day, for no clear reason and against everyone's expectation, Amaterasu Naomi defected to destroy her ancestral Zanpakuto, Zanzetsuken. Then, she turned herself in and pleaded guilty to all charges. For her crimes, she was sentenced to death, and she faced her own execution with a smile on her face.

What if Naomi had chosen differently? What if she hadn't defected? She was the very model of a Shinigami. If she'd lived, certainly she would've become the next Commander-General, not Izanami-no-Mikoto, not Zheng Li Lin, not Ishinomori Koutarou.

Without her death, maybe Koutarou would've never eclipsed her. Maybe, he would've become her Vice-Commander. Maybe, that's what his alternate self is in this world. If Senshi fails, will Koutarou face himself next? Will Koutarou find his own justice lacking then?

Maybe, things didn't need to go the way they did in the history Koutarou knows. Maybe, if someone had acted just a bit differently, his world would've been as different as this. Maybe, the things he thinks are inevitable... aren't. Maybe he, the man who does not believe anyone should have the power to see the future, relies too much on the future he has seen and the futures he predicts to judge this world.

[Kuroimaken]

"That's not my Bankai." Kamen Rider Rei notes. "And I didn't even use a lot to create that explosion. More like... ten percent." Even Senshi should know what that means. If his strength could not stop Amaterasu at full power, then he has no hope of defeating the man before him. The difference in power is too great, especially considering he has been holding back.

"I'm guessing they didn't tell you everything, either. For a bunch that's using some kind of future-viewing tool to control the spiritual environment, they keep that kind of detail buried pretty deep, don't they?

Here's one more thing you don't know about me. My final form's blade has the ability to 'purify and erase everything that goes against what I believe in'. You certainly understand what that means."

He'd been holding back against Senshi, among other things, because he didn't want to risk brainwashing.

"I don't know how it happened, but it's pretty clear to me you're living with some kind of Hollow half. It's hard enough to hold back at full force, let alone if I don't know what's going to happen if I kill it."

He extends a hand aimed at Senshi.

"Bakudou #63: Sajou Sabaku."

Unlike his hadou, the Commander-General's Bakudou does not suffer from excess. It takes exactly as much Reiatsu to cast as anything else and has exactly the kind of effect one would expect of a spell cast by someone who could do it without the chant. That doesn't mean it's as easy to avoid.

"In my reality, we too thought the Menos and the Quincy extinct. The result was a bloody massacre. When Las Noches came knocking, we couldn't do much other than accept their demands. But it seems things are accelerating here - you might not have five years to get ready.

Or the time to waste fighting me.

While my reality may not come to pass, trust me when I say its effects would be significantly worse if it does the way things are set up here. That's BESIDE everything else I find objectionable with it."

[Frozen_Feet]

Senshi's airwalking ability fails when the spell wraps around him, causing him to fall down to the ground, his blades trapped against his body.

"You keep peddling nonsense!"

Senshi rolls and jumps to his feet. He flexes his muscles, straining against his bonds. "You think you saw my full power? I only got a few thousand blades in here before you broke my ring. My inner world has tens of thousands!"

Slowly, the links are being stretched. Senshi may be tired already, but this level of spell will not hold him for long. This strength, it must be from his Hollow side, since a Shinigami breaking a Bakudo above level 60 with just raw strength happens once in a blue moon.

"I think that works out to... Ten percent, maybe twenty if I'm generous! You got lucky and made the right call to end my technique early, but don't let that fool you into thinking you're so far above us all as to be untouchable! I'm only the best swordsman in Gotei! I'm not the most powerfull, nor the only who could do combat with you! "

On the other hand... using a counter-spell would be vastly easier. If Senshi's breaking out with just raw strength, that means he probably doesn't know this. So while this Senshi might be a lot stronger than the one Koutarou knew... his Kido might still be as bad as ever.

There's plenty of time to cast another spell.

[Kuroimaken]

"Walls of iron sand, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end. Bakudou #75: Gochuutekkan."

Five giant pillars compound on Senshi's immobilized form and pin him to the ground.

"Don't flatter yourself. You're only the best swordsman in this reality. The honor of Gotei's best swordsman falls to Hirako Masaru. He can fight me to a draw with one arm, a prosthetic and two swords better than you did so far with both your arms, a Hollow graft and tens of thousands of blades."

Kamen Rider Rei sighs. Koutarou actually seems content enough with undoing his transformation, but he keeps his belt around his waist. He doesn't look any worse for the wear than when he started - his clothes are a bit scuffed, and that's it.

"No one who'd call themselves the best swordsmen would attribute their defeat to luck. Strength is about victory in the face of adversity. That is why the righteous are truly mighty - because they succeed where others have failed.

Every defeat I ever suffered, I can attribute to my own decisions and no one else's. Because I allowed myself to stray from a righteous course. And my every victory will come from a righteous heart. If it should not, I will be strong enough to face my own inadequacies.

Now then."

He claps his hands together as if to shake dust from them.

"Let's see which way I feel the strongest spiritual pressure from."

[Frozen_Feet]

Senshi manages to break the earlier binding just as Koutarou finishes his spell. Not that it does him any good, as he's pinned down to the ground by the second one immediately after. There's a clattering sound around Koutarou as the blades held by invisible hands falls down to the ground. On some level, binding Senshi binds them as well.

"A battle... always has... at least two people acting! A fight against... an unknown opponent... always has an element of chance to it!"

Oh, he can still speak? The iron towers sway dangerously as Senshi tries to crawl up, but he's too tired to rise more than a few inches off the ground. "Even if I'm not supposed to admit it... as a member of the Pack... strength never is and never was everything. Victories don't always go to those who deserve them..."

Koutarou's search proves fruitless. Now that the fight is winding down, the snowfall is resuming just as bad as it was before. Even visually, despite being high up, he can see just white haze. The only people he can sense spiritually are Senshi and himself.

"Ishinomori... I can make no comment on other realities... but I can tell you don't know much of this one. Hiraku Masaru... is my 3rd Seat and my old squad mate. He'll make a splendid Lieutenant once Kiba takes over... and maybe Captain, some day."

Looks like Koutarou was wrong. Either they never left Earth, or this mountain marks some liminal space between realms. He can be fairly sure that once this blizzard ends, he will find himself facing mundane tundra in some far-off corner of the world, or perhaps transported to yet another place again.

"He has... had all the same training as me... if not for a chance event, he could be here in my place. If you keep on this path... you will cross swords with him as well..."

Koutarou might realize that once again, Senshi is speaking the truth. In the past he knew, just a year ago, Masaru was just a seated officer in the Combat Division. Many things had to happen... many things had to go wrong before Masaru rose to his position.

First, Kenpachi Osuma died fighting Jehoel Yurius - not due to lack of strength, but because he sacrificed himself to protect a stray child. Then, Kiba - Osuma's protege - defected. Because Kiba could not stand the idea of Zheng Li Lin accepting Jehoel's offer, not after the damage the Arrancars did to the Pack.

Then, Izanami-no-Mikoto herself, Zheng Li Lin's predecessor, defected as well, out of some mad loyalty to Reene Lucaster, the Queen of Hollows. She cut off Masaru's arm and out of some sick fixation with the man, possessed the stump and gave him a twisted arm of shadow.

Only after training in the deepest level of the underground prison, under superivision and tutoring of Kobayashi Momoka, in a field of accelerated time for subjective years, did Masaru achieve Bankai and shake off his mad ancestor. Even then, the experience left him estranged from Zheng Li Lin. So many things, in so little time.

In this world, none of that has happened, simply because it is four and half years too early.

"So before that happens... I implore you. Think of what you actually know... seek the truth and maybe... you'll find in yourself enough reason to stop before you ruin... what we've worked so hard... to achieve..."

Senshi's whole body is shaking. He's not getting out from under those pillars untill he takes time to rest.

Koutarou could finish him off. Or he could walk away. Whatever he chooses, this battle, at least, is over.

[Kuroimaken]

"Senshi-kun, the battle to convince each other of the reality of this world was over before it started. I'm not going to convince you of what should be anymore than you're going to convince me.

But this place doesn't seem real to me, and there are things in it that irritate me to my very core. I can't stay inactive in face of such transgressions.

I know this isn't going to change your mind, but I'm not here to simply destroy what I perceive to be wrong. I'm here to take over and fight back against what's wrong with this place. I know full well it is only so from my point of view, but if I doubt the way I think simply from viewing how another reality could be, then what would I have been fighting for all along?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"Wrong... question...", Senshi says through gritted teeth, then finally collapses against the ground. The pillars sway from side to side, but the chain linking them together keeps them falling.

"What you should ask yourself... is if what you fight for... really needs you to fight against us? I don't want you to take over. But... I also don't believe you need to take over to..."

Senshi's voice fades into static. If Koutarou looks, his image has lost color, becoming a grayscale version itself - and though it might not be obvious due to weather, so has the rest of the world within line of sight. The snow is falling in repeating patterns again, as if the world Koutarou's seeing is a glitched video stuck on a loop.

Sitting on the edge of the crater Senshi made, swinging her legs back and forth, is the girl with magenta hair, dressed in a black Shihakusho once more. She sticks out like a sore thumb, being the only other thing in bright colours in addition to Koutarou.

[Kuroimaken]

"Have you come to convince me of the futility of my efforts again?" Koutarou says with sarcasm so thick it can't even DRIP from his tone anymore.

[Frozen_Feet]

The girl sighs, then makes a megaphone of her hands. "No, I'm here to fix the damage you did! But if you want to talk..."

She hops down from the ledge, slides down the slope of the crater, and walks closer, looking up at Koutarou. "... it's rude to shout from the other side of the battlefield."

She looks and points at the direction where Koutarou's missile went off. "Didn't you once try to stop the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? How does that go together with throwing attacks like that just to show off?" She sighs and shrugs. "Or was that another you? Maybe you're right and I am mixing up realities. But still, I have to wonder... would your other selves approve of your actions? Or would they think you've become just like the Americans they once wanted to stop?"

[Kuroimaken]

"Yes, I did. There are a few differences between what I did just now and what the Americans did, though.

No one died as a result of my attack, and no one ever will afterwards. Despite the potency of the explosion, my attack leaves no radiation. I made it a point to aim high enough that it would've hit only air. Wasn't all that hard since I was already pretty high up.

If I remember correctly, the Americans tried to use the detonations of the bombs as a means to win through demoralization. Their original targets would have been Kyoto and Nara, and both would have been terrible humanitarian losses both in terms of civilian kill count and historical value. One of the bombs was actually dropped on the wrong target as a result of poor weather and lack of fuel.

The ultimate goal of the Americans was to end a war. Mine was to try and keep a smaller one from even getting started with a zero casualty count. You're welcome to argue that the method itself was inefficient at best, but there was an actual point behind such a demonstration of power that apparently went well beyond and above yours and Senshi's heads."

[Frozen_Feet]

"Oh, I see. Is that what you think?" , the girl ask curiously. "Then I must say you were as bad at listening to Senshi-kun as you are at listening to me. You didn't prevent a war. You proclaimed one."

She taps her head. "Everyone already knew you were capable of such destruction. But that isn't a reason for anyone to just fall down and let you walk over them. The other side is just as capable of throwing big explosions around as you are. You know that. Or you should've known that."

She walks along the bottom of the crater, examining the five iron pillars, finally stopping and sitting next to Senshi's immobilized form.

"Nuclear deterrence, or whatever analogue of it you're trying to invoke here, relies on mutually assured destruction. If one party makes use of their weapons, the other will retaliate in kind. It can be thought of as a kind of iterated prisoner's dilemma, where the winning strategy is tit-for-tat. Each party would benefit from defecting if the others will co-operate, but since that would lead to no-one co-operating and everyone suffering, it is in best long term interests of everyone to keep co-operating."

The girls pets Senshi's spiky hair affectionately. "The only thing you've demonstrated here... is that you can't co-operate. Your entire strategy banks on the other side continuing to play by the rules despite of that, so that only they will suffer and you will get away scot-free. And... it's not completely implausible. Like Senshi-kun said, Naomi-chan is a big softie. But that just highlights your unacknowledged double-think. You started this fight because you think the other side is horribly unjust and will fall to tyranny... but your ultimate success hinges on them being nice people who will play nice despite you obviously acting in bad faith. If the current Commander-General is already a nice person, then this fight was completely unnecessary. You could've made your case while standing trial."

She sighs. "But that's not the whole of the story. Naomi-chan can veto any decision to use extreme force against you, but she can't deny that you are a criminal who is flaunting his power and acting against laws of Soul Society. Any non-extreme force is still on the table. Today it was Senshi-kun, tomorrow it's maybe Onmitsukidou while you sleep, the day after that Kido Corps or whoever. From this point on, you will be a fugitive and a non-person. No-one will let you into Soul Society and no Shinigami will ever help you. Those who lack the power to arrest you will simply ignore you. What will your 'God Bolt Missile' achieve against that? Throwing them in the air is ultimately just fancy fireworks. You seem to have forgotten: any weapon you bring to a fight that you can't or will not use, belongs to your enemy. Never point a gun at someone if you aren't willing to shoot them."

"Get it? The Americans won not just because they had a weapon the Japanese didn't, they won because they showed themselves able to use it against a soft, living target. If you keep walking this path you've chosen... you'll have to do the same, or all your power amounts to just a big bluff. And Senshi-kun already called it."

[Kuroimaken]

"Perhaps I won't listen, but your logic is faulty on at least two assumptions. The first one being that I would willingly stand trial under a system that I consider unjust in the first place and expect said trial to be fair.

The second one being that I know what everyone is like in the power structure. I don't. This Hoshigaki Senshi," he says pointing to the "prisoner", "is very unlike the Hoshigaki Senshi I know. In my reality, Hoshigaki Senshi is not Captain and likely will not have the power for it for perhaps a century. The likes of Amaterasu Naomi, for all I know, is as much of a 'big softie' as you were an actual child."

It's clear that the incident with Lily still stings. He was fond of her for, perhaps, being something of a reminder of Zheng Li Lin's guidance.

"So you'll have to forgive me if I fail to take what you say at face value.

You also have it wrong on at least one account. I did not unleash my power like that in order to invoke a MAD scenario. I did it to point out exactly how useless it is to send someone who cannot match that power against me.

Do you remember what I told Senshi about my ultimate form?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"That it cuts through what you find intolerable? That makes no real difference. Even without it, fighting this Gotei's Shinigami one by one, you could always seal their powers, without killing them. The specifics if your powers are ultimately... Oh!"

As they've been talking, color has bled back into Senshi's crown of fire. He nudges.

"What you should ask yourself... is if what you fight for... really needs you to fight against us? I don't want you to take over. But... I also don't believe you need to take over to... wait. I already said that. What... what is happening?"

A wistfull smile spreads on the face of the girl as she plays with Senshi's hair. "Oh, hi, Senshi-kun. It's a pleasant surprise you can see me. I thought you'd forgotten, along with everyone else."

Senshi's head perks towards the girl next to him, and he gets agitated. Color bleeds back into the five iron pillars and they tremble as he struggles to get out from under them.

"You...! This isn't possible! I... I saw you vanish! You can't exist in this world! H-how!?!"

The girl lets out a little laugh and reaches to grab the edge of Senshi's mask. "Oh, don't be silly. I don't exist here. I'm sorry, but I'm talking to someone else. Here, let me borrow this..."

She peels the mask off of Senshi's face and puts it on her own. Senshi's crown of fire fades and color flees his body again, the towers ceasing to tremble. The girl stands up.

"What I was saying again? Oh, right! The particulars of your powers, they do not matter. And there is no flaw in my logic. Only in your knowledge."

She taps her head again. "You see, I understand you don't know the people on the other side. But that reveals another paradox in your thought: accusing a system of being unjust and unfair is a statement of positive knowledge. You don't have enough evidence to truly make that call, you simply choose to approach the system as if it harbors ill will towards you before ever seeing it or experiencing it."

A pink flame sparks above the girl's head and forms into an infinity symbol... or is that... a snake, biting its own tail?

"However, in an iterated prisoner's dilemma, using the best strategy of tit-for-tat, such a priori assumption of ill will towards another player using said strategy will doom both parties into never-ending cycle of revenge. Hence, to avoid such unfortunate outcome, if you don't know who the other party is, the best option is to always start by co-operating. Normal people have words for such behaviour: Trust. Generosity. Acting in good faith. That girl who was here with you, was so wrapped in her own bad experiences that she nearly couldn't trust anybody. But you? Assuming ill will out of other Shinigami? I'd say it's tragic."

The girl shrugs. "I suppose it's ironic for me to stand here telling you this. After all, a past me did betray you. There is so, so much more I could tell you, but you will find it all out on your own. You will see there is no Las Noches. No Quincies left on Earth. No notable cliques of Fullbringers or other mediums. No ghosts and goblins of folklore. The only person who is rebelling against the system, the only person who could rally the humans against the Shinigami, the only person who could start the all-ending war you think is inevitable and bring the system crashing down... "

The girl beckons towards Koutarou. "... the only such person who exists in this world, is you, Koutarou-kun."

[Kuroimaken]

Koutarou smiles. A simple, but enigmatic smile.

"Thank you.

You just confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that my strategy will succeed."

[Frozen_Feet]

The girl lets her hand down. "Oh, it will... in the sense that you will get your war, cause untold loss of lives and bring the spiritual and material world crashing down on each other. People will flock under your banner and call you their saviour even as you march them to their doom like sheep to the altar of sacrifice."

She puts her hands behind her back and shrugs. "But will there be a better world after that? I dunno. This is not the end. This is the beginning. All I know is that within recesses of your soul, Shen Yi's memory must be having a ball. Once more, you're giving him exactly what he wants, by finally turning around and taking a hammer to the system he once so hated."

"Life's not a comicbook story... but if it was, I'd say you make a splendid villain protagonist. Whoever put you here must be enjoying themselves. So, enjoy your dream, Koutarou-kun. But know that if you ever wish to wake up... I'll be there."

And just like that, she's gone.

The five iron pillars are gone.

Senshi is gone, as is the entire crater. Koutarou is standing on firm ground, the cliff and the hiking trail around him in the shape they were before the fight occurred. The piles of stone are present, but the swords are gone.

It's like that time at the car crash. Or the time at the beach, when it felt like he dozed off and snapped awake, only to find he was not where he thought he was.

The snowfall normalizes and Koutarou can see the sun peeking from behind the clouds. He's undoubtedly on Earth now.

Alone.

Alone and free.

Free to do what he wills.

[Kuroimaken]

And that is how a side story about a beach party ended up with Koutarou reforming an alternate reality with pretty much zero bloodshed, because he was just THAT awesome.

No, seriously. The only bad part about the story ending here is that no one gets to read about him walking up to Seireitei with his belt on with a cool song in the background looking totally badass.

And maaaaaaaaaaaybe taking Naomi as his wife, because that'd be fun to picture, too.