Naruki City
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A limousine cruises through the streets of Naruki City, it's a rare enough sight to turn heads only for a brief moment. The fleeting question of who could be in it comes and goes like a brief gust of wind. The person on the inside sits in silence, staring out the window at the people on the side walk going on about their lives, ignorant to the greater inner workings of the world. She wishes she could be them, to live blind and ignorant, maybe then she wouldn’t be caught up in the mess she is in now…
Ten Years Ago…In Hueco Mundo
She roamed the sands for what felt like months, but in reality it was only a few days. She barely slept out of fear one of the masked monsters may find her in her sleep. Having been sent here by the more humanoid monsters she has no way of escaping, no way of going home. During her aimless wandering she felt a rumble in the sands, she looked in the direction of a building that looked like it was getting no closer to her despite the days of wandering. She saw a giant blue cross protruding from its rooftop and let out a sigh of desperation. There was fighting going on and she felt like it would spill out into the desert as well. She turns to run when a hand grabs her shoulder, a man clad in white wearing a mask tries to get her attention. She panics, and swings her opposite arm, activating her Fullbring in the same motion that sent the man sliding across the sand.
She bellows out, summoning the other arm of her Fullbring as she is slowly surrounded by these figures clad in white. She begins hyperventilating, a panic attack is well on its way. Before she fully succumbs to it another voice reaches out to her, although he wasn’t speaking directly to her.
She turns towards the source of the voice, still ready to fight and while she is still panicked she is no longer about to have a panic attack. The man speaking has his hands up, showing physically that he means no harm along with the others around her removing their masks to show they are not monsters.
Victoria remains shifty eyed as she doesn’t lower her guard, but she is calming down at the very least.
Adonai stares at her in silence, raising an eyebrow.
She raises an eyebrow of her own and looks at her fists, her eyes locking with the wedding rings of her deceased parents.
She is unsure why she is telling this man this, she hasn’t told anyone, but no one has never asked before. The man steps closer, non-threateningly, rubbing his chin as he looks at her. Her gaze narrows and she swings at him, prompting the other Quincy to suddenly have bows trained on her from all angles. Adonai is out of harm’s way, she didn’t even see him move to avoid the attack and if he did she couldn’t trace his speed.
Victoria’s eyes widened. She could be normal again? No more monsters, no more having to live in fear, no more- On second thought that would make her world that much worse. She knows no one else can see or hear the monsters and if she lost her powers she’d end up just like them with no way to defend herself. She takes a step back, defensively.
A Quincy places his mask back on and approaches Victoria, asking her to place a hand on his shoulder. She deactivates her Fullbring and obliges the order. She watches silently as Adonai converses with the other Quincy, laughing with them as the Shadow slowly takes her from Hueco Mundo to her front door in an instant. The Quincy bows to her and returns to the Shadow himself. She is left with many questions, all of which will be answered in the coming days…
Back to Present Day…
She plays with a trinket in the back seat, a symbol of a faction she now belongs to, a Starcross. In those following days she learned what Adonai was and what his people were. It was a lot to take in and understand but in time she absorbed the information. After spending so much time around other Quincy she began to pick up on their Reiatsu signatures, realizing that some of them have been attending her clubs for years, even someone who works for her was a Quincy this entire time. They were living ordinary lives right under her nose and perhaps under the noses of the other entities as well.
Victoria is the first Honorary Quincy, given a medallion that allows her to travel to the Wandenreich, a medallion that resonates with the Soul King fragment in her soul which allows it to activate. The past ten years haven’t meant much for her, ten years older and she still has a crippling phobia of Hollows. Perhaps this is why she sided with the Quincy, for safety and security. Security is also the reason why she is traveling today. She plans on meeting with Han Namari, founder and CEO of S.A.F.E. Agency. While she has done business with the agency itself she has never directly spoken with Han, as nothing but a club owner she has no reason to speak with the man himself. They have shared a space before, long enough for both of them to identify each other as Fullbringers, although Victoria wasn’t keen on making friends back then.
Adonai wanted to know about other Fullbringers that could be made into Honorary Quincy, he is hoping Victoria can bring more on board. Selling this to Han will be difficult, he is going to have a million questions and she is a woman whose patience runs thin very fast. She sighs, wishing things were just normal for her again, instead of recruiting people to join some spiritual faction with their own hidden kingdom. She envies the ignorant humans who live without knowing about any of this. The limo pulls up to the Agency, the driver steps out and opens the door for Victoria who stashes the medallion in her coat pocket before stepping out.
She looks up at the building, thinking about how frustrating this is about to be.
The man nods and returns to the limo, driving off. She enters the building, checks in with a desk clerk and sits down, waiting to be called up to meet with Han directly. She feels anxious, leg bouncing rapidly as she stares at the floor. She’d give anything to not be here right now.
HankMoody
New member
Great levels of noise could be heard within the mark less confines of the underground training facility within the S.A.F.E Agency building. A large tower that resides in the heart of Naruki City’s bustling business center, easily scraping the navy-blue canvas as it turns from night to day, signalling that a new dawn was upon them. Shinigami—the ones clad in black, they spent time tracking the movements and patterns of the foreign souls that invade the ambient urban setting, even slaying them as they enter their rather peaceful but complicated world. For the finite few who possessed great spiritual prowess and the innate abilities, they either shrouded themself in secret and even remained entrenched in darkness so as not to over expose their capabilities.
The Bulwark fell into the latter category. As a fullbringer, he largely chose to keep a low profile, and avoided making enormous spectacles of himself for his abilities. He has been able to operate in silence over the last long while without the eyes of prying entities interfering with his work. For much of the night, he had spent the last few hours throwing his body through rigorous training exercises, ranging from extreme external conditions, to anomalous spiritual output and finally leading down to the most rudimentary form of self-improvement…
He stood a whopping six foot six and weighed in at around two-hundred sixty-five pounds, and a man who hails from various parts of the world but he considers his home here—in the heart of the city. Armed with a shield—held tightly in his right hand, it slowly shrunk down into a dark ring that sat snugly on his index finger. Before him, bodies lay strewn across the floor in collapsed heaps. Some lay limp while others chose not to move out of the pure agony that their muscles and nervous system felt. This was always the price that they paid when helping the Sarge train or test a new device. He had the philosophy that if they were unable to fell him in one simple attack then the product would be deemed a failure and they must return back to the drawing board to reanalyze their results. Audible groans could be heard from across the room like eerie wind blowing through the skulls of those present.
“Tch…if they couldn’t handle this then we may just be wasting our time.” he thought to himself, feeling that he was on the cusp of certain errors.
He then raised his bare arm and made a gesture, one to signal the end of the experimental trials. High above in a mechanical canopy, a control center that observed the ongoing experiments and housed the scientists employed within the building. Multiple scientists scurried about trying to contextualize the collected data, while one echoed his voice over the training room PA system.
The dark skinned man on the ground didn’t reply and instead walked off from the center stage, signalling that his decision had already been made. He was covered in sweat, but that was only because his body had very active glands. He actually hadn’t truly broken his stamina, especially not on these lesser soldiers. He didn’t intend on wasting anymore time discussing it with anyone either as for him, the moment had already passed and he quickly became disinterested. He promptly made his exit from the training room, removing the tape that was previously applied to his hands and forearms, now frayed and unrecognizable from their original state—it was clear the trials were treacherous to the very core. He soon was lost within a high-tech elevator that seemingly opened up from a random point in the wall, untraceable until opened. He stepped in and quickly rose up towards the very top of the building—the illustrious thirty-second floor.
For civilians, there were a set of two elevators that only reached the sixteenth floor and then another than went higher up to the thirty-second floor, but the Bulwark had his own personal car built specifically so that he can get to one area of the building to another so that he would be more likely to finish business matters on time and and orderly. Also being particularly faster than the rest, he soon found himself on the level that was completely off the books of the public records of this building. The elevator doors slid open, revealing an open concept office, equipped with a very modern decor with a minimalist approach to the design. Various modern furniture pieces, and a set of large windows displaying the outlook of Naruki City. He moved towards his desk and clicked a pod that resembled a telephone with a small button as he walked the room to hear his missed messages or business calls. Hearing the usual rabble of appointments, charity events and things of that nature, he poured himself a small glass of bourbon and sat at his lounging couch as the last of his messages played.
Once they got to the end, he took a long swing of his drink, effectively finishing it and placing the cup on his black glass coffee table. Snapping his fingers, he turned on the ’digital office membrane’ (referred to as D.O.M.), an artificial intelligence assistant created and used by Han Namari himself.
However, the room would quickly come alive.
His eyebrow raised, as this had to have been suddenly added to his calendar without his knowledge because he was supposed to have the rest of the day cleared. Without missing a beat, a holographic screen appeared before him—a live security feed of the waiting room downstairs. A familiar woman with white hair and golden eyes, with a last name he quite rightly refused to pronounce, sat in a chair waiting for her meeting with Han. He sipped his bourbon and remembered back to where he first saw her, which was in her night club some months prior. Having shared certain rooms and holding similar acquaintances within the city, they ran within the same circles and thus, their names have been brought up to one another on more than one occasion. He wondered however what exactly brought her to him today.
Seemingly in seconds from her being placed within the waiting room, one of his many assistants approached the silver haired-fullbringer within the room, motioning for her to follow her towards the meeting.
She would wait until Victoria’s attention was on her before he made any move to lead her upstairs. Upon arriving at the sixteenth floor, she would enter an empty department with multiple offices and meeting rooms lettered from A-to-Z. Leading her to one, freshly stocked with the items requested by the CEO, she would leave her to enjoy the refreshments while she waited for Han to arrive.
After some moments, a black suited Han emerged from his personal elevator on the other side of the floor, passing the assistant. He nodded to her as he walked by her, which she giggled and smiled back.
He sauntered into the room and rounded the table, throwing down a file folder on the table in front of Victoria before seating himself in the chair directly across from her. He was still wearing his goggles, and they were so dark that she couldn’t tell if he was looking directly at her or straight through her. He sat in an awkward silence before pouring himself a glass of water while motioning towards the basket of treats, inviting her to help herself.
Victoria was shifty eyed as she was led to the meeting room. Every person she passed she wondered if they were secretly a Quincy, at the moment she wasn’t focused on sensing anything as her anxiety was spiking on how to tell Han what he needed to know and what could happen if he didn’t agree to it. Luckily the worst thing that could happen won’t be death but he may be reduced to being merely a human. But Han may be like her and not so willing to give up her powers. She still has them but at the cost of now being conscripted into their military. It seemed like the “gracious” Adonai wasn’t so keen on letting her go entirely free, whatever these “Soul King” fragments are, he wanted to keep a very close eye on them.
Once in the meeting room she took a seat, her anxiety becoming more obvious as she began tapping her foot repetitively. She kept checking her watch like she had somewhere else to be but in reality it was just a nervous tick, she didn’t know what else to do with her hands. She wished this Adonai person would have just come here and do it himself, it may go better than what is about to go down in a few moments. Han enters the room in a black suit and tosses a file down in front of her. She stares at it for a moment wondering what could be in it but she shakes her head and ignores it for the time being.
She looks at the treats, her face scrunching up as if she is offended by it.
She takes a deep breath for a moment and settles her nerves. She has been on edge since getting to this room and by merely being offered a snack she was set off in a negative direction. Once she collects herself she pulls out the medallion and shows it to Han. She keeps a firm grip on it, implying that she is not willing to let him see with his hands.
She slams the medallion down on the table, her eyes wide with hysteria as if she can barely believe her own words. She starts tapping the medallion with her index finger, not realizing that she is doing it while her knee is bouncing at the same time.
Her sentence trails off, she is clearly leaving something out as she briefly looks away from Han then back to him again. She tries to formulate her next sentence properly but she knows its going to come out wrong no matter what.
She knows this isn’t going to fly, she knows he’s going to have a million questions and that he might not even agree to join up with them. But she is leaving a detail out, something that she isn’t telling him because she knows it may cause hostility. In a perfect world he’d agree to check out Lichtreich so Adonai himself can talk to him, but this isn’t a perfect world, it’s far, far from that. She doesn’t want to be here doing this, if anything she’d rather be at home planning out a line of DJ’s for her club.
HankMoody
New member
He was busy filling the cup with water while he waited for her to begin explaining the nature of her visit. He was a relatively busy man and hated one-on-one meetings given the success he has garnered within the security industry over the past several years because he now had people to directly handle these things. He didn’t see her face scrunch at the sight of the refreshments, and he certainly did not anticipate the response he would get for even leaving them out for her access—and quickly regretted the gesture immediately when she opened her mouth.
As the water nearly reached the lip of his glass, his head slowly turned towards her as he slowly raised and lowered the pitcher down against the small furniture unit found within the room. He stood silently while she collected herself, covertly using his goggles to analyze her physical composition while she gathered her wits. He was able to not only see her base human stress levels, current health status and even infrared/heat signature; he also was able to visualize her latent reiatsu levels, her spiritual classification and even confirmed her Soul King fragment in the form of an 'unknown element’ found within her soul. With his previous concerns seemingly confirmed, it would appear that Han found another Fullbringer like himself.
He watches her take a series of deep breaths, quickly softening her nerves in a matter of moments and also monitored her fluctuating mental state—as he believed that there was a world that this meeting could turn sour at any given point. He watched her pull out a silver medallion with strange symbolism attached to a chain. While she gripped it tightly, he figured that it wouldn’t be so easy for it to leave her possession. Not that he had any intention of asking for an up close look, that's what his cameras were for.
She thrust the medallion down on the meeting table, her eyes wide, wild and hysterical—Han wasn’t sure if this was a mental patient or someone who has had far too many to drink…over the course of a period of days. His gaze never left hers, but she wouldn’t be able to know that. His light-blue eyes drifted down towards the medallion, but his posture never changed. The goggles once again did their thing by analyzing the composition of the metals and the spiritual power that emanated from it like heatwaves off of open flame. The readings were mostly ‘normal’ from his perspective, but there was definitely something strange and different about this particular item as opposed to the shinigami equipment and technologies he has researched for a number of years. The soul science regarding this alone piqued his interest and largely ignored her story about the Quincy themselves.
While the readings themselves scanned and prodded from afar, most of the data that returned to him was inconclusive, not that it was entirely a concern as he would get to the bottom of it eventually in time. He did however pay attention to the bit about the Soul King and its fragments. He heard this name or title before but he had no direct information on it regarding what it could mean for his spiritual contemporaries, or even himself. But according to her, he also held a piece of ‘it’ within him and that is where his powers derive from. He was silent all throughout her excited soliloquy, and even sipped his water as she continued on to explain her meeting with the one she referred to as ‘Adonai’.
He stood in the room, unmoved from his position from either his own physical posture or the words she spoke to him. He sipped his water again, pursing his lips in deep thought and looking up at the fluorescent lighting within his meeting room. He had every reason to believe what she said was true. In his line of work, no one had this much detail about the nature of life after death, unless they themselves were entrenched within the life themselves. Viability of truth wouldn’t be her concern when trying to recruit the Super Soldier—it was the reason and the direct need** for him to do so was where they may find themselves at a crossroads.
He set his glass down on the table and began to open the file he had brought in with him before the meeting had begun to take place. She may have wondered what exactly was within them for him to carry into this particular meeting. He threw photos of her and other known Fullbringers fighting the ‘monsters’ that they called the Hollows, and even some photo evidence of their disappearance in that same battle. He sat down on the chair directly across from her and sighed heavily as he settled into his seat.
A question he already knew the answer to, he was just mostly showing Victoria that he was in fact not an uninformed fool, but a rather cautious one.
He made it his business to know about who he could potentially be getting into business with, or even end up doing battle against. He knew most of the Fullbringers currently residing in Naruki either by name or face through the use of his reconnaissance division. From the moment he opened his business within Naruki, he began compiling data regarding the situation surrounding all soul-related phenomena that took place within the city in the last twenty years. Through word of mouth or through his own or shared experiences with his employees, Han was one of the most spiritually aware humans who lived in this city. He shared this with Victoria not in an attempt to frighten her or cause her discomfort, but to remind her of who she was dealing with, in case she wasn’t aware.
After all, first impressions were important.
He had never heard of them either, but he also found it strange that this Adonai welcomed her so freely into his ranks if he was the ‘son of the Soul King’ and held a certain level of vengeance for those who wielded his fathers power without the divine permission of the God himself. Han still found difficulty wrapping his head around the entire situation as not only was he a non-believer of the religions that already existed within the World of the Living. Placing his belief and trust in Victoria, and a figure that he has never met nor even worshiped seemed like the start to every horrible story gone wrong he had ever heard throughout history. This hearkens back to words his commanding officer would tell him back in the military: ‘Be careful of men with agendas. When agendas change, so will they. Trust only the mission in front of you, and your ability to complete it’...
He set the file down and closed it, interlocking his fingers with one another as he rested them on the desk looking directly into the golden gaze of the fullbringer before him.
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Victoria’s eye twitches slightly as she listens to him, she knows she is a bad saleswoman, it's why she has a team for stuff like this. But that's not the only thing Han was right about, keeping his distance was smart as well, something she doesn’t do. She has associated with other Fullbringers in the past, the thought of strength in numbers makes her feel safer. This could be why Han wasn’t wrapped up in anything that was happening ten years ago, though his help could have been appreciated. Then again, he could have been caught by the Arrancar just like she was.
She rolled her eyes as he opened the file, throwing her arms into the air before letting them fall back down onto the arm rest. She sighs loudly to show her annoyance if her exaggerated body language wasn’t enough.
She wasn’t the biggest fan of someone having a whole file on her along with photographs of her, even going as far as to figure out what her Fullbring item was. At the moment all she can picture herself doing is punching him in the face. Han might be able to pick up on her growing hostility as she just stared a hole through him, her hands gripping the armrests of the chair rather tightly.
She remains quiet, still thinking about knocking his jaw out of place. Han has a good level of information on her but doesn’t seem to realize he is dealing with a psychopath. Victoria has killed people for less, bodies lay in the rivers around Naruki that have still gone undiscovered, more shipped off on shipping containers via boat, individuals flown off to secluded mountains and gunned down for disrespecting her. Han now sits here, making jokes, laughing in her face, despite her obviously not wanting to do this.
Her body relaxes, she is still staring a hole through him but she is no longer tense. For most people this would be a good sign, but Han is not most people, he should be able to assess she is becoming even more hostile in her silence. She is ready to hurt him and it’s not a matter of if but when and how. The when is not in the far flung future, more so minutes from now if the tone of the conversation does not shift to something more favorable. Her interaction with Han, thus far, has eliminated any trace of anxiety she was feeling, her senses reverting back to a razor’s edge.
She closes her eyes and inhales then exhales slowly before opening them and looking at Han once again, that hostile gaze still lingering in her pupils.
She is able to speak clearly right now only because there is a fiery rage boiling beneath the surface. She can see the contents of her own mind very clearly and pull on the information she needs right now at this moment. But in her rage she is blunt and holds nothing back and decides to tell him something that may alarm him.
She stands up and puts her hands flat on the table and stares at him, it wasn’t a matter of if only when and that time is now.
The air in the room shifts and her arms illuminate with a golden shine before she shoves the table in his direction hoping to break his ribs and crush some organs in the process. The papers and photos from the file go flying all over the room, the skidding of the table sounds like nails on a chalk board as it is forced to move against its will by her strength. Han seemed to have plenty of data on her but failed to gather data on her personality, had he done that he would have spoken to her differently to avoid what is happening now. Right now, this has nothing to do with the Quincy, or recruiting him. It has everything to do with respect.
HankMoody
New member
Straightening out his cufflinks, then fixing his tie to be aligned properly once more, he assumed that the meeting would end as abruptly as he had found out about it. He quickly became disinterested once he learned that this wasn’t a business meeting, and became even less interested once it was brought to his attention that an unknown ‘deity’ sought autonomy over his movements as a Fullbringer. In another world, he would have agreed if the proposition was presented correctly—by the correct person. However, this Adonai would have to find another way to appeal to Han’s interests rather than simply saving the life of a mentally fragile woman who was transported to a different world. It was clear by the readings he was getting from his goggles that the words he spoke upset her further than when she had originally arrived, which still wasn't a concern of his by any means whatsoever. Even after her slight declaration to “beat him up”, cutting herself off before truly becoming unruly.
The line caught his attention, even stopping in the middle of fixing his tie to formally allow his gaze to return to her as she began to calm herself down enough to not incoherently blurt out a sentence. She then returned a very hostile gaze towards the ebony-skinned CEO, with every inch of her golden hues flashing with gilded fire.
He didn’t care for her clear growing mental instability, and had no desire to cater to it if she was going to behave petulantly. He had only exchanged less than two-hundred words with her and already had very little reason to like her, while she asserted his choice in staying away from the other Fullbringers. She now became the sole reason he wouldn’t seek any others out. It was clear her rage, and lack of information fueled her decisions, largely all made out of the survival that she was all too familiar with. It was only this fact that allowed him to feel a modicum of sympathy for her. But ultimately, he wished to have nothing to do with whatever she appeared to be caught up in.
However…She said something that did catch his immediate attention.
He paused before he answered. Finishing adjusting his suit, he thought about the fact that he could take powers way. Could he actually do that? Was he that powerful? This made him wonder what else Quincy may have been capable of. Destructive or otherwise. The news didn’t ease him at all, nor did it frighten him—but he was curious, however not enough to start belieiving in "God". He watched her rise from the seat and place both of her hands on the table. By this time, he felt the slight shift of the atmosphere take hold, with air changing direction and her body beginning to illuminate with a golden color that nearly matched her eyes. Han stared at the development blankly, but not without raising his own spiritual pressure, albeit far more subtle than Victoria, with opaque and formless reiatsu quickly forming around his immediate body then outstretching around the walls of the room, matching that of a suit, giving him a white highlighted outline around his own body.
“This is probably the worst meeting I’ve ever had…” he thought.
He responded within seconds—and in those seconds before Victoria shoved the table towards Han, D.O.M. placed the entire building under a level six lockdown. Metal shutters shut over the windows and exposed doors. All exits within the building were mag-locked and the fluorescent lighting within all the rooms were dimmed as the backup generator was now running the entire building as the main power source was also shut down. The floor that they were currently on, was also locked off from the rest of the building. The CEO hoped to keep whatever would come next contained within the floor but even he knew that was only merely a goal, and not an expectation.
As the lights cut, the table sent the papers, documents and photos he had brought with him at the beginning flying in the air, getting caught up in the whirlwind of spiritual pressure that clashed amongst the two fullbringers. The furniture loudly skidded across the room with an unyielding and piercing sound that matched nails on a chalkboard. He however would have no time to allow that to affect him, as the aimed table was meant to be shoved into his ribcage with the intent to cause major internal bodily harm. As it approached with certain speed, he placed his arms in his pockets and then allowed his reiatsu to thrust outward, meeting the table and slowing its momentum down drastically. While it still nearly reached Han, it was surely stopped by the sheer force of his spiritual abilities, combined with his understanding of the fullbring he possesses. As difficult as it was to place, or visualize for her—there was a wall now between them, starting at where the table ended its travel, and completely surrounding her in a box. This was one of his defensive walls, except mixed in with his reiatsu. He leaned against it shaking his head.
He continued to allow his reiatsu permeate through the room, and played with his “dormant” ring, however he knew that the de-escalation of this situation would require more…expertise or ‘je ne sais quoi’. Which Han was willing to oblige if necessary.
Han activated some sort of emergency system that locked down the entire building effectively trapping the two of them inside of a metal box together. This will help with keeping things from spilling to other floors, or worse yet outside of the building. Han plans on keeping damage to a minimum as best he can, good qualities of a hero. He expertly managed to slow the tables advance, had that been the cause of injury for him Victoria would have been upset, luckily this is not the case. Han is a smart man it seems, quick wits and plans laid in place for the eventual possibilities, however, his wits may be a little too quick and maybe relying on premade plans is a bit too much forethought as there is room for oversight, such as what is about to transpire in the metal room.
Miscalculations
He’d feel it now, a loss of breath, a gut punch of what feels like exhaustion hitting him out of nowhere while Victoria watches from this invisible box he believes he has trapped her in. The shifting of air wasn’t her raising her Reiatsu, she never once raised it, it would be a waste to flex her power when it could be used on other things. No, the air was shifting because she was pulling on it with the natural ability all Fullbringers possess. She pulled the air away from his side of the room and onto her side. With the air shifting positions it was thinned out just enough to allow him a few more breaths, breaths that he wasted on trying to lecture her. Then there was this box he believed he had trapped her in. While that thin white outline on his body was from his Reiatsu, the golden one climbing up her arms was no such thing, it was her Fullbring, Rings of Saturn.
The interesting thing about her Fullbring is that the spectral arms she creates can appear at any size she wills them to, that includes them hugging her arms like a second layer of steel skin, akin to an Arrancar’s Hierro. While he is gasping for air she places a hand on the box that he so graciously made aware to her by leaning on it. The manifestation of her Fullbring, the golden arms, is just that, it is not the actual ability of said Fullbring. Some of their kind can manifest a sword or even guns, it is limited by the user's imagination. The ability she uses on this box is aptly named Saturn’s Scythe which allows her to “reap” any spiritually made construct, typically it is attacks but anything solid such as a Kido, Cero, Quincy Arrow, or even this box will have its form reaped from the air only to reform in her palm as a ball of whatever form of energy it is made out of.
She holds it in her left palm and stares at the suffocating Han as she pulls on the air a bit more, drawing it closer to her head and away from him. She lets her left hand dangle at her side, swaying ever so slightly through the air being saturated by his Reiatsu. In return she vented a bit of her own Reiatsu, not too much but just enough to contest with his. The only reason why she hasn’t fired this energy at him is because she isn’t trying to kill him, or even injure him in any major way. So until she can let the energy fly off into the sky she will hold onto it, unless Han pushes the issue further.
She lets the air flow return to normal in the room, making him suffocate for a bit was enough for her, so long as he doesn’t try and push the issue. That said she obviously doesn’t disengage her Fullbring, letting it continue to hug her arms. It flickers around her bicep area, as if it is being throttled, like a car at the starting line of a race.
She falls silent, waiting on Han to lift the lockdown, sure she could use her Fullbring to bust out of here but there is no need for that. He had his fill of berating her and she got him back for it, far as she sees it they are even, for now.
Desperation At Best
Frantic, that is the only descriptor that can be used to explain Antonio’s current movements. He managed to open a Garganta and slip into the World of the Living without resistance. Perhaps the Quincy have begun to get lazy or maybe it's a trap. Whatever the case, his mission remains the same: find a Shinigami and alert them to the presence of the Quincy. He figures it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one, his Reiatsu is unmistakable and he assumes that they have been on the lookout for his reemergence as well. Over the past ten years he has had to become more of a thinker, more of a strategist all in the name of survival. Without Valiosa at his side having to adapt to this way of thinking has been rough for him, but he is catching on. He was able to take down a Captain and attack a Lieutenant through his planning.
Due to his more cautious nature his plans were more fool proof than his sisters and had he been the one planning the demise of the Soul Society then the Shinigami may have been the ones living in hiding right now. That aside he has had no real way to plan against the Quincy because they have only done one thing, block his access to the Garganta by appearing anytime he opens one. Throughout the years the numbers of his “Resistance” have dwindled, some of his most prized assets have been eliminated by them, which leads us to this current gambit although the plan has gone askew. With little to no assets left his final bet is to use the Shinigami to fight his enemy for him. The plan was to have him open a Garganta, which would have alerted the Quincy to him. As he fought them another team of Arrancar would have been the ones to come to the World of the Living to alert the Shinigami, who seem ignorant to the presence of the Quincy.
But something strange has happened, after standing in front of an open Garganta for over a minute no one arrived. His sense of caution forces him to make a move, not wanting his plan to go to waste. He doesn’t realize he is being out maneuvered, not just in this moment, but for the past ten years he has been allowed to live all so the Quincy can slowly kill off his allies. Not a single thing went past their notice, any moves he made in “secret” were well known to them, he was able to make those moves because they allowed him to do so. Any base change, any new recruitment, scouting parties to the Human World, across Hueco Mundo, etc. All of it was done because the Quincy allowed it. Today marks the end of Antonio’s usefulness.
Leaping from building to building, Antonio moves across the Naruki skyline, wanting to keep the horizon in view and only the sky above his head. While moving, via Sonido, he spots a Shinigami who was simply moving into place to visibly confirm that it was indeed Antonio who arrived in Naruki. Sadly, nothing gets past his Pesquisa. Before the man could draw his Zanpakuto Antonio grabs him by his collar and they both descend from the sky to a sky scraper rooftop. Antonio speaks, his stutter completely gone. Ten years of constant pressure and stress has kept it at bay.
Five shadows race across the rooftops, closing in on Antonio’s position as he frantically tries to tell this Shinigami what is happening.
He lets go of the Shinigami who scrambles backwards, opening his Denreishinki and putting in an alert for Antonio. This alert would go directly to the Captain Commander and his Captain, Jushiro Izanagi. A war criminal has emerged from Hueco Mundo. Considering his role in the War and serving as Valiosa’s right hand man, they may want him alive, or maybe they’d rather have him dead. Sadly, by the time the Shinigami arrive, it will be too late
With that said Antonio relocated to the street level awaiting his assailants, and he didn’t have to wait long.
The Rangers Have Arrived
Five silhouettes stand on five separate buildings looking down at Antonio. Sunlight then envelopes them revealing who they are, five people clad in white, each sporting a unique helmet and color. Antonio clenches his fists tightly, ready for their usual barrage of attacks, a flurry of ranged abilities to keep him at bay. But today is different, he doesn’t realize that they have orders to just put him down, for good.
Antonio braces himself as the Red Ranger summons his bow and fires a barrage of arrows at him, he leaps back, not noticing how the street, which was full of humans, is becoming quieter by the second. He doesn’t notice this because out of the smoke made by the impact of the arrows comes the Blue Ranger, charging in like a bull which catches Antonio off guard completely. Blue throws a punch towards the Arrancar’s face which Antonio uses both arms to block, a bad choice as his forearms are shattered from the weight and strength of the punch. He tumbles back and begins healing his arms when he suddenly hears rushing water behind him, he looks back to see the Green Ranger launching a torrent of water in his direction. Without thinking he leaps back towards Blue who ragdolls him with a lariat.
Catching on quickly he looks up towards Red, whom he expects to launch arrows at him, however, Red is standing in the air, hand on his hip and a grin on his face, he had no intention on shooting. Antonio’s mind races, the Rangers don’t fight like this, they haven’t fought like this in the ten years he has been battling them. What Red told him must be true, they are no longer playing around. He decides to counter attack, launching a Cero up at Red only to feel something hit his arm just enough to cause the Cero to miss. He looks around as he is constantly hit by something or someone he can’t quite keep track of. Focusing his senses he catches on and grabs the Pink Ranger by her cape as she zips by.
A sound of complete dejection, there is no feeling or care in her tone whatsoever. She kicks off the air and flips behind Antonio who now only sees the white of her cape. He looks backwards just in time to catch a kick to the side of his head, sending him tumbling across the street. Pink adjusts her cape and vanishes from sight once again. Antonio sits up screaming, clearly frustrated by what is happening to him when Blue descends from the sky, both feet landing on the Arrancar’s stomach. Blue trampolines off of Antonio and slides back on the street, creating room for the Green Ranger to work. A pillar of water cascades down from above into the small crater made by Blue stomping on Antonio but he recovers and moves out of the crater. Meanwhile, the Yellow Ranger finally summons his own weapon, watching from a distance he tracks the movements of the Rangers and nods to himself. He communicates to his team via their helmets.
It was as if he was reading a book with the way he called out Antonio’s next move. This wasn’t foresight, it was experience, experience they have gained fighting Arrancar for the past ten years. When pushed to a certain point they always use their Zanpakuto, each one has a different threshold but the tell tale signs are always there, for Yellow at least. Antonio draws his blade and holds it up above him
Before he can utter the name of his Zanpakuto a singular arrow flies in and takes his arm off at the elbow and before the blade could hit the ground it is snatched up by Pink using her brilliant speed. Antonio is in shock and is then hit by his own hand which was thrown back at him by Pink. She twirls his blade, taunting him with it. He rages and charges at her only to be hit by a small torrent of water, which flows in from behind Pink, to the stomach which knocks the wind out of him. Red, who is still up above, playing his role as suppressing fire and sniper looks rather disgusted, given the fact his grin has turned upside down.
Red looks at Green who shrugs followed by looking at Blue who waves his hands and shakes his head, basically telling Red not to look at him, he doesn’t know anything. Pink lets out a condescending chuckle. Their casual conversation happening right in his face sends Antonio over the edge causing him to yell at them.
He charges at them once again causing the other rangers to fan out leaving Blue alone against Antonio’s fury. The static of Sonido echoes in the empty area of the city, Antonio reappears behind Blue, punching him in the back with all his might. Blue goes flying down the street, scraping his foot along the ground once, then twice, causing his body to rotate so that he can use his hands to bring himself to a screeching halt before crashing into a building. Blue looks up and uses Hirenkyaku to close the distance between himself and Antonio, sadly, Blue isn’t the fastest so the Arrancar is able to easily see him coming and avoid the punch that follows. But there is someone fast enough, Pink, and Antonio hears her before seeing her, or rather feeling her kick across his head.
The kick sends him tumbling across the street and crashing into a lamp post, making it collapse to the ground. He shakes off his grogginess and takes a step forward before dropping to a knee, he quickly stands back to his feet and finds it hard to stand upright. That unsuspecting kick has his brain pinballing around in his head, throwing off his equilibrium and senses. But being stunned like that left him open for another surprise attack from a different Ranger. As he fights off symptoms of a concussion he staggers back to his feet, charging a Cero in his right hand. He doesn’t have a target in mind, he’s willing to hit whatever he can even if it means decimating a large part of the city in the process. The lack of target is due to groggy vision so even if he did have one he more than likely wouldn’t hit it. The right hand rises up only to be gripped by Blue who forces him to aim it up to the sky. An orange Cero flies off into the sky and fizzles out as Antonio looks at Blue who has his other hand cocked back, fist ready. Even though Blue cannot speak, it is as if the Arrancar can hear his next words: “Quincy Punch!” He grits his teeth as he is punched hard in the gut and if Blue wasn’t holding onto his other arm he surely would have flown away.
Arrogant and determined he continues to fight while pushing the thought of the pain to the back of his mind, firing off a volley of Bala in Blue’s face until he surrenders his other arm, letting him escape and create some distance. His head is pounding, his organs are a mess after that vicious punch and without his Zanpakuto he cannot use his release to even the odds of this fight. He touches his left eye, trying to feel if there are any vestiges of power left in it, something he can draw upon, something he can use to at least get his blade back. But things do not work like that concerning the Soul King Fragments, once it is removed from the body the power it grants is lost forever unless said part is regained once again. He staggers back, silently admitting defeat due to the numbers and coordination these five have. He never realized just how much they have been holding back these past ten years, they always did just enough to thin the numbers of his supporters. But now, he realizes that they could have put him and his supporters down at any time.
Antonio turns to look behind him upon hearing the voice of the Yellow Ranger. In his defeated and self reflecting state he didn’t sense Yellow’s approach at all. He sees Yellow, blade in hand, alight with yellow flames that sparks with embers that match the colors of the Rangers, ready to swing.
He is then cut deeply across the torso, from left hip to right shoulder. He coughs up blood and his wound explodes with fire, causing more internal and external damage. Unable to repair his organs Antonio lays on his back, staring at the sky as the Rangers gather around him. Pink tosses his Zanpakuto away like it was nothing but trash, he reaches his hand out to it in desperation, despite it being so far he has delusional hope that he can grab it. That hand is stomped on and broken by Blue.
Final Words
Each Ranger pulls out a Seele Schnider, activates it and stabs them into the ground around Antonio, forming a pentagon. Only now does the Arrancar notice the quiet and severe lack of humans in the area.
Antonio lays on the ground in silence, acceptance washes over him as he realizes he can finally rest, after ten long years of running and fighting, he can finally stop and speak from the heart. He begins sobbing, tears rolling down his face. The Rangers are unphased and unmoved by the waterworks.
Red opens a Ginto vial and pours a drop onto the Seele Schnider in front of him, triggering the spell. A pillar of energy erupts within its borders, the contained explosion sends Antonio into oblivion. Elsewhere, in Lichtreich, Valiosa is marching around gleefully but stops and looks out a window. She feels a twinge in her own heart, like she just lost something but can’t quite put her finger on what it is. She looks away from the window and towards the ground and realizes that she suddenly feels like crying. Back in Naruki City, once the aftermath of the explosion settles, the Rangers reholster their Seele Schnider and make their way to a rooftop where they shall await the arrival of the Shinigami to introduce themselves.
Yellow sits in silence for a moment, pondering the question.
The Rangers remain quiet after that, all of them, except Pink, feeling a twinge of guilt for killing him the way they did. They are heroes of justice and to kill someone as they cry over a family member doesn’t feel like justice. Yellow thinks about how he could have brought him in and asked His Majesty to convert him so the siblings could be together again, it is a form of death but more peaceful and less tragic. However, Yellow cannot see the future so he couldn’t have anticipated such a sad ending to this mission.
She turns her head away from them prompting the group to laugh, it lightens the mood a bit before they have to get serious once again.