Central Seireitei

[Adonai]

---

The wanton destruction caused by Itaku could no longer be overlooked, especially not while Taro was making preparations to mitigate the damage he was going to do soon. The leaves of the Captain did nothing to stop the Cero’s from burning through them and destroying what is behind them. Taro thought to himself that it would just be easier if Kagi just let the Cero rip through his body instead, unfortunately those who are fleet of foot are harder to hit as they are equally incapable of protecting what is behind them. Taro senses approaching signatures, none of which would be particularly helpful for him, each one weaker than the last, each one to be more dust to scatter to the wind. Hinderence’s, the lot of them and they will all hold Kagi back as he will more than likely seek to protect them. Such a kind soul. Unfortunately for them Taro has no such kindness in his heart. If they cannot swim, they shall drown.

An opening presents itself, one for Kagi to exploit if he takes advantage of it or not matters little to Taro as he takes a single step off of the Koi fish he is riding upon and plummets to the ground below. He draws his blade and all eight fish dive towards the ground, meeting him at the exact spot where he lands in front of Kagi. The fish crash into the spot where the blade impaled the ground and whatever Kagi may shout at Taro is lost to the wind as the Captain of Eleventh Division talks over him.
​

”BANKAI…”​

Taro’s Bankai Theme

The ground rumbles, Taro’s Reiatsu spikes and then, from the crack in the ground where the blade is still impaled a geyser of black ink erupts, rapidly flooding First Division Barracks and the Central Forty-Six compound area. The waves of ink knock Shinigami down beneath the darkness, some swim to the surface in time to catch their breath, some struggle but make their way and others just outright drown. Swimming isn’t a skill normally taught in the Academy so it won’t be too strange to see some Shinigami drown, further more Taro is hoping Itaku drowns, just to give him a terrible and painful death. The massive gates that connect to the other Divisions in the Central Seireitei creak and groan as the ink pushes against it. Only time will tell if they hold.

Once the release of the Bankai is finished the Ink doesn’t appear to be no higher than three feet and yet it felt like an ocean had been released. There are also Shinigami swimming in said ink as well despite what can physically be seen. As he rises to his feet he withdraws his blade from the ink, its shape having changed to that of a Shichishitō (Eight-Branched Sword). A second odd thing can be witnessed, despite everyone else having to swim, Taro is the only one who can stand atop the ink. He looks at the surface of it, wondering if Itaku had been swept underneath or if he is clinging to a building somewhere.
​

”Yes, the buildings…”​

Taro thinks to himself, remembering the nature of Itaku’s Zanpakuto. No doubt he has spun string like a spider to hoist himself over the flowing ink, if not that he is using string to anchor himself and not get swept away. But why leave any of this to guess work when he can just look for the Abomination’s Reiatsu signature? And with one particularly unique ability of his Bankai he doesn’t have to move from the spot he is standing to strike at the Vizard freak. He points his blade in the direction of Itaku and swings in that direction. From those observing Taro, nothing seems to happen, but for Itaku panic should set in as a thin sliver of ink, no bigger than a blade, rises up in front of him seeking to strike him across his torso. This is Taro poking the bear with a stick to see how it will react and to flush the rat out of hiding as well. Taro looks behind him, assuming Kagi had fled to a rooftop during the release of his Bankai.
​

”Kill him, that's all you had to do. Instead you were trying to appeal to senses that have long left this freak.” He looks back in the direction of where he attacked Itaku. Even when he turned his head away for that brief moment he was still very much on guard. ”You should have used your Bankai and crushed him with it. Instead buildings are being destroyed and lives being lost. Worry not about the few I’ve drowned, had I let you continue without stepping in even more would have been lost.”​

Something stirs beneath the ink, something that makes a subtle ripple across the surface of it and enough to make those swimming in it shiver with the fear of the unknown. As he awaits Itaku’s return to center stage he casually glances out to the horizon of the Seireitei. He thinks about how freeing it is to be able to release his full power like this. This has truly been a wonderful day.

---

​

 

[Hyoroshi Iwamura]

​

---

Fur strands on the neck stood rigid; a brisk breeze tinged with foul Reiatsu rustled the rest. A mass of white and black and two dots of orange, Iwamura stood several rooftops from the blackened battlefield alone, though not unaccompanied. Reikaku and nostrils alike discerned the members of the Kido Corps through Taro Date's totalitarian spirit energy, preparing containment efforts around the epicenter--"three hundred ri on each axis", Iwamura had directed to the Corps group leader. Now, standing at the abyss's edge and peering down, watching the backs of a couple black-coated bodies bob and drift this way and that, a little limb of concern grasped at his coattails.

Concern for the practicality of the barrier and for who was present in the first place.

"There's blood in the water, Iwamura. Watch how it billows. Take in the smell."

He glanced down; Kibakigane, both scorching blades of its Shikai suspended in either palm, had donned a grin inside of his temple hall--a grin nonchalant though utterly betrayed by its gleaming eyes. Iwamura's eyes narrowed. Never before had his blade acknowledged him by name.

"Perhaps this Captain's Bankai will be us, one day..."

With another Shunpo Iwamura flitted to a rooftop overlooking the fight, his hands already starting to rotate his blades again, and began jogging from rooftop to rooftop. He scanned the vantablack ink, the Shinigami keeping themselves afloat, the Kido Corps members out of sight nearing a ready-state, Captain Senko, then Captain Date for an extended moment, and then searching for Itaku's Hollowfied Reiatsu.

"Perhaps it will. As woeful as that thought is."

Each landing onto the next rooftop brought additional chanking of metal against shingle at multiple points; from each rooftop dangled multiple sizzling black chains, and throughout it all, Iwamura's swinging persisted.

"Need to be of some use for if--"

Captain Date's swing sliced the thought in twain. The ink below sloshed and lazed as it had been. Iwamura gazed at Taro, then returned to his search of Itaku without missing a beat in his movement or his swinging of swords against rooftops.

"He probably can attack anything the ink touches, similar to my chains. Perhaps he's trying to find Itaku, too?"​

 

[Amaya Munetoshi]

Was he really so weak of allowing that thing to control him? was a thought in fuyuko's head as she stood on a near by rooftop, staying out of the fray. Her eyes watched every movement, every breath in, every breath out. every muscle movement that came to her senses. Yet those thoughts still came.

Itaku was never a captain that seemed troubled or struggling from what she remembered. maybe it was just how well he was at hiding behind the bright facade he carried.

"Captain Itaku..Keep fighting it.. get out of your own head and fight it."

She spoke under her breath. Even she had doubts he could resurface. maybe she was foolish but just like her, he survived the civil war ages ago, this surely cant be his fate, or maybe it was. To allow the inner monster out and allow it to die. to giving an image of him other then what they knew. Surely this was not what he wanted.

She watched as Taro decided to join the fray. The date was definately someone she would not stand a chance infront of. Nor would she get in the way. She has heard the stories from her siblings and those who has dealt with the dates. they are monsters in their own rights so it seemed only fitting for a monster to take out another monster.

Her hand instinctly went to her blade as she flicked it open slightly in silence prepation. She had no worry of kagi being in the way of the ink flooded streets of that bankai. No it was instinct of preparing for the Hollowfied captain that even Captain Taro was looking for from where he stood on the ink flooded enviroment. Her eyes darted around from where she was. There was no way she was going to enter and not be in the way. She felt a tug to her left side as she turned catching the sense of others joining, one being the well known rising star of a wolf man. one she wasnt too familiar with.

" Iwamura..."

She spoke to herself keeping note of all the players coming into the fray.

Their new commander was vastly different from the ones she had known and followed. it was time to see how he took control of the venomous parasite that had infected one of their own. the game was set the pieces were aligning, now was the show to see what was to come about at a end result. she free hand moved subtly at her side as she took in the sight before her.

Don't divert your gaze. watch out of respect, learn and survive.

She heard in the back of her mind in many voices one only her own, one of her zanpackuto and of those who have spoken such from her family.​

 

[Nobody]

"Ohh the big fish coming to-"

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”BANKAI…”​

Seeing the spectating Captain descend the Hollowfied Itaku initially appears elated, eager for more games and amusement. That is, until things change with the utterance of a single word. Reiatsu rocks the foundations and announces the Captain's power, zanpakuto stabbed into the ground the area is soon swept up in a flood of black. It is not water that sweeps through the area but rather...ink? There were some, those afar off victims in their own rights from the chaos of the hollowfied Captain and Kagi's battle, become victims to the Bankai of Captain Date, at the very least to its initial release. While others panic, some attempting to free themselves, others lost to their fates the thing they all have in common is the struggle to rise above the darkness. Captain Date suffers from no such issue, standing afloat on the dark inky surface.

Those of the First Division remain spectators still to all that transpires. The man with the visage of the beast coordinate to have the area isolated via barrier, entrusting this task to those more versed in the Demon Arts than he. Another stares from a distance, watching all that transpires best she can, yet all that she perceives is not all that has happened, nor is everything as it appears to be. While distance grants a certain perspective and vantage point, it also denies her and the others of the hidden truths that Kagi faces, things his perspective of being up close provides him.

What of Kagi? Had he too been swept up in the darkness of the Captain's bankai? But, more importantly, what of Itaku?

"YOU BASTARD! HAHA! FINE, LETS PLAY!"

With a swing of the blade, beyond his visual scope Itaku is revealed, airborne having propelled himself into the air, the thin black length of ink slicing at him, the thin red wisp aiding to whip him through the air. At the same time the blade of the hollow swings towards the Date. Where before he had been toying with Kagi, playing with Cero here and there along with his Shikai, the creature now changes tactics.

There is no red glow from a cero being launched as it had been before, instead it is a glow of blue followed almost immediately by a frigid wave of energy. Black ink had swept through the area from the Captain's Bankai release, and now a massive wave of ice sweeps through attempting to overwhelm and freeze all within its path and those caught within it. This is no Hollow technique, rather a Kidō spell from the hosts repertoire of spells. It is a spell capable of destroying a group of Menos Grande and even eventually overwhelming and breaking through Dankū, a powerful bakudo capable of defending against any destructive spell comparable to level 89 on down, a testament to its defensive capabilities.

It is an act that reveals that the Hollow not only possessed access to Itaku's shikai, but also all spells and techniques that are at his disposal. This further implied that there was a strong likelihood that he also could perform Bankai. The only questions were, why hadn't he done so yet, would he use it and if so...when? The wave of ice as it crashes through like a tsunami serves to also obstruct the view of Itaku from not only Captain Date, but even those distant spectators as well. One had to wonder, should the spell crash against the barrier being erected around the area...how long could it hold out for?