Karakura Town

[Itami]

Under the fading twilight, as the night crept in over Karakura Town, Jinnosuke’s senses caught the subtle shift in wind pressure and the panicked murmurs of humans below. Without pausing to address Omoni’s earlier remark, he barked over his shoulder,
“Oi, Omoni—help Tomi secure every last human, alright? We’ve got bigger fish to fry!”
In that instant, a massive building hurtled toward him like a weaponized projectile. With a defiant grin, Jinnosuke unleashed his shikai.

“Bureiku tenmei o, Asahi-Yūgure!” Jinnsouke roared, and his normally sealed zanpakuto exploded out. The bandages fell away to reveal a jagged cleaver bathed in violent purple and green energy that danced along its edge. In a second, the cleaver morphed into a colossal greatsword, its bulk emphasized by an infinitely long chain trailing from the pommel like a banner of his unstoppable might.

The thrown building, clearly a weapon in the enemy’s hands, brushed against the radiant edge of his shikai. Rather than an instantaneous obliteration, the structure split off from Jinnosuke’s aura and, upon contact, began to fracture. Piece by piece it unraveled into a cascade of dust and rubble, leaving nothing more than an annoying layer of dirt on the ground—a testament to his shikai’s ability to dismantle physical threats.

Barely catching his breath, Jinnosuke allowed himself a moment of egotistical satisfaction, a half-smirk tugging at his lips. “That’s how you make a clean cut, baby—nothing lasts when you’re built like this,” he quipped with a swagger that was both tough and irreverently charming. As he finished this remark a cero he didn’t detect or notice smashed into his cocky shit eating face. The cero exploding upon impact and singing the skin on his chin and cheeks. “ I’ll be damned!”

With his eyes scanning the chaos, he quickly spotted the source of the attack: Ximena, the arrancar/espada responsible for the thrown building. In a flash, he vanished in his flash step, his hulking greatsword trailing behind him in a whip-like arc of energy as he closed the gap. Landing in a blur of movement, he called out with a slick grin, “Hey, hollow clown—let’s see if your tricks can keep up with real power!”

Now engaged, Jinnosuke unleashed a ferocious barrage of zanjutsu strikes. His massive greatsword carved through the night with ruthless precision, each swing a testament to raw power honed by battle. But the true masterstroke lay in the infinitely long chain trailing from his pommel. With an almost sentient intent, the chain whipped through the darkness in tandem with his slashes—its movements deceptive and purposeful. As each powerful strike echoed across the battleground, the chain snaked around Ximena, coiling with lethal precision to box her in. It moved like a predatory serpent, closing in on every escape route and nullifying any chance of a counterattack.

“Don’t you dare run, sweetheart—this is how legends are forged!” Jinnosuke roared, his voice carrying the confident swagger of a seasoned warrior. His attack was anything but a spar; it was a decisive onslaught designed to end the battle swiftly. With each calculated blow, the combination of his cleaving sword and the relentless chain left Ximena trapped in a swirling net of steel and death, her defenses would buckling under the pressure. Any and every misstep or countermeasure she might employ would be met with the chain’s crushing embrace, ensuring that in this high-stakes confrontation, victory would be sealed in record time.

>>>>>Posting Order: Jinnosuke -> Omoni -> Ximnea -> Tomi <<<<<

 

[Hyoroshi Iwamura]

---

Amongst the sea of spiritual signatures that flooded Karakura Town, a second Senkaimon Gate faded into the physical plane. The Gate's soft shimmer illuminated a space of the night several hundred feet in the air near the center of the city. Its wooden doors rolled open with a gentle rumble, and out of the gleam a bestial giant of a wolf-man came to stand upon solid air.

Hyoroshi's eyes were idle when they adjusted to the scene before him, but he was not unseeing; his wet nose and perked ears were absorbing the unadulterated barrage of foreign stimuli, rifling through the smells and sounds and ascertaining the locations and situations of each spiritual being with bleeding-sharp focus. This was one of only a handful of trips Iwamura had made to the Human World, and the first in several years, yet Karakura Town was appearing more like Hueco Mundo by the minute.

Iwamura gazed upon Omoni, Jinnosuke and Ximena, by the far most immense concentration of Reiatsu in the area, then scanned the towering Gillian-class Hollows wreaking havoc upon the populace. He'd caught the scent of a third Shinigami, Tomi, somewhere down there, clearing the rank-and-file Hollows street by street. He exhaled.

'Wanting to show off, aren't you? You don't have to limit it to just those Hollows. The offer's still open.'

Yoake no Taii's voice quaked Hyoroshi's mind, once silent for the entire day and several days prior, snapping his focus for a moment. His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched around his own swelling, inarguable defiance. He muttered flatly:

"I am no beast."

The Third Seat vanished from his position with Shunpo, clearing the distance to the closest Menos Grande in the blink of an eye, laser-focused yet cognizant of his surroundings. He reappeared suspended in midair at the Menos's midsection, his left boot planted in front of him and his right anchored behind, his right fist reeled back past his torso. The jet engines of his Reiryoku thundered; those spiritually aware could sense a sort of nuclear reaction at Iwamura's position.

'Ikkotsu.'

Iwamura uppercut into the Menos's body, delivering all of his stored strength into a single point. To every seeing soul outside, the titanic Gillian was as a broken pencil, its bisected halves tossed weightlessly several dozen feet into the air. Both halves were already dissipating as the creature sailed into the air; the Menos had turned to dust before it could hit the ground. Hyoroshi stood still for a second. A searing heat prickled the knuckles on his right hand. He exhaled, then turned to the remaining Menos.

"Find peace, lost congregations." Iwamura heard Yoake no Taii snicker in his head. Ignoring his blade, Iwamura took a step before sauntering on with Shunpo to the next closest Gillian to repeat the process.​

 

[Deleted member 65]

---

"Let's get this show started.~ Come shinigami let me see how strong you become!"

“TCH-”

A highly disgruntled Hageshi’s anxiety started to grow once the enemy began their text-book monologue. Patience not existing in any iota of Omoni’s construct, she couldn’t see anything grounded as she was, which made her disquiet worse. As far as she was concerned, she was missing out on all that good master battle banter and it was beginning to drive her up the wall. As Jinnosuke rose to meet the occasion, this dreading grew evermore in the matron’s heart. With a single fluid motion, Omoni propelled herself to the side, indirectly out of the way of the approaching Bala she’d neglected to clock, left behind by the Arrancar's initial attack and thrust the Cudgel she had grasped firmly into the ground as if to show her level of frustration with the current events.

"Why are you focusing on a city over there when your grave is right here? Now I have your undivided attention we can have some fun...My name is Ximena and I'll be your opponent!"

“Oi, Omoni—help Tomi secure every last human, alright? We’ve got bigger fish to fry!”

“Don’t tell ME what the FUCK ta'
do!”

Filled with defiance, Omoni’s roar lifted higher in volume and intensity than the chorus of carnage swallowing the environment around her. By her count, the ultimate clash she dreamed of was being stolen from her by Jinnosuke all because she’d not been within eyesight of the adversary. The tantrum brewing inside of her was comparable to that of a child who could not ride the roller coaster at a theme park because she was too short, sans the incredible amount of violence this ‘child’ was capable of.

Her spiritual power was nothing to look at at a glance, quite possibly another reason she missed out on being targeted by such a formidable foe, but now…as Omoni’s anger rose, her Reiryoku flashed ferally to life like the gleaming cerulean flames stoked around her ankles and escaping her open mouth with every heavy breath. Pieces of rubble started to lift, defying the laws of gravity in the process so that they floated haphazardly around her and the earth whined while the pressure from Hageshi’s rapidly rising power forced it to crack and quake. Those with keener vision than her would have had the opportunity to experience a reckless fluctuation of spiritual power that caused it to instantly transform from something mediocre into a monstrosity of rapturous energy that she was sure would give the enemy reason to reevaluate this misguided position that she was worthy of even a hint of their complacency.

It had become clear to her that she wasn’t considered a big enough problem for them to come at her the moment that they arrived, consequently, that served to further infuriate the grumbling Shingami and prompt her to prove them wrong. Having stated this, although Hageshi was heavily influenced by her rage this wasn’t to say that she was blinded by it. She wanted to follow instructions from Jinnosuke as much as she wanted to rip her own intestines out and play a game of jump rope with them but, as a member of the tenth division and with a duty to uphold, she also understood that with him entangled in battle that she was one of the only defenses left for the humans and for the city of Karakura. That, too, only made Omoni madder. All she wanted to do was fight a super powerful Arrancar and instead, she was stuck with someone she’d yet to meet who was named after a toe. The ridiculousness of it all confounded the giantess until finally, like in most cases concerning Hageshi, she gave up trying to understand the complexities of the situation and instead, she went to work.

“YA’ AINT MY BOSS!”

Namakizu’s tendrils ascended from the depths, encompassing the most populated span of Karakura. Like the jaws of a leviathan, they opened up and encased the city in their defenses when they clamped shut above the cityscape. For the enemy, the numbers of the invasive hollow were forcibly divided by cutting off those on the outside’s access to their human charcuterie board and to their fellow enemy. Those that retaliated within close to midrange of the shelter were promptly impaled by the dome’s countless malleable spikes poised and ready to strike any and all intrusive forces. Infamously, Omoni failed to notice the massive wolf man dealing obliteration out to a few of the array of Gillian still partially within the safety of their Garganta but they were part of the forces kept on the outside of her defenses, their Cero barreled forth in droves only to be batted back at them by spikes grown sizable enough to do so. The beams that were missed, would inevitably meet Namakizu’s masterful bastille and fail to pierce through their impenetrable fortress.

Those within were swallowed into a nightmare of a lack of natural light in the wake of an already disorienting time. Terror would fill the hearts of the humans left hiding in their broken city, with only their lights on their phones, and somewhat in the streets to help them know where they were going. This was a misfortunate by-product of the makeshift shield but realistically it mattered little in the grand scheme of the pros and cons of Namakizu’s improvisation. Hollows left inside were cut off from their commanders, at least directly, and were also impaled by spines in wait should they have gotten too close to the shell’s varying defense mechanisms alongside pairs of select tendrils that had been tasked with exploring the streets and alleyways. These spanned the entirety of the encased city aiming to skewer every Hollow they came into contact with.

For the Shinigami, Omoni’s intervention was a welcome relief from what had felt like an incessant wave of Hueco locals and triggered the expeditious decline of the number of adversaries they were meant to face. Although the Hollow scourge fought to create more of their own, the shinigami crusaded one hundred and ten times harder by cutting them down at a faster rate than they were able to regenerate or ‘create’. Without the threat of the Gillian’s horrendous cero or the uncontrollable mass that the enemy was coagulating, they knew they had been given a chance to gain the upperhand and as the heavily trained guard they were, they weren’t going to let it slip by them.

Stood where Namakizu stood, the irate Sentinel brutalized whatever Hollow came near her until they decided it’d have been safer to take their chances with some of the other Shinigami in the area.

“ STUPID. FUCK. STAIN. HOLLOW. GONNA. BEAT. EVERY STINKIN’ ONE A’ YA’S STINKIN FUCK FACES INTA’ THA’ FUCKIN’"

Being able to see well didn’t matter to Omoni Hageshi, she could barely see well with light much less without and she wasn’t worried about her comrades maneuvering their way around Karakura’s dark twists and turns. She’d yet to meet anyone as directionally or ocularly challenged as she was so she knew they had a keener understanding of their reikaku than she did and would be putting those superior senses of theirs to the test this day. In doing this, Hageshi was fully aware she had left Yamazaki to his own devices but she was also certain that was just what that attention-hog would have wanted which honestly just pissed her off more.

In the meanwhile, her place was as the shield that would act steadfastly against the Hollow foe and lie in wait for those that dared to breach her stronghold.

---

Posting Order: Posting Order: Jinnosuke -> Omoni -> Ximena -> Tomi​

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[Elk]

Heavy steps pounded against the concrete sidewalk, his breathing growing heavier as his pace quickened. The moment he heard the Shinigami woman’s steps gaining on him, he pushed himself faster, turning the corner as quickly as he could—just before a shadow engulfed his body entirely, erasing every trace of his presence. Yet, he chose not to retreat to the Quincy dimension; instead, he remained in Karakura Town. No one, not even with pinnacle of sensing capabilities, could detect Fred’s reiatsu signature due to the very nature of the shadow’s ability to make it completely vanish. His hand reached into his pocket once more, pulling out his phone to record the events unfolding beneath him.

He ascended into the sky, watching as the woman—now identified as Omoni—interacted with an unknown male Shinigami. Then, in that moment, someone—no, an Arrancar—began to scream out to the world, her voice demanding they show her their strength. Almost instantly, she appeared beside another Shinigami off in the distance, attempting to attack the woman. Fred listened as the male Shinigami urged them to help Tomi. Now, he had two names. At the same time, two Shikai were unleashed.

“They’re certainly making it easy for us to gather information on them. Releasing Shikai… from Omoni and that other guy. Say… didn’t I have a nightmare about that woman? No, can’t be. The woman was much older looking… and that thing isn’t real.”

He shook his head for a moment before sighing in relief, pushing the memory of that nightmare aside, blaming it on too much drinking. He continued to observe until his head turned in the direction of another Shinigami. Their reiatsu flared, but their appearance was anything but human—more like a dog. Fred blinked.

“Ich wusste nicht, dass sie Werwölfe hatten.”

​

 

[dem0nzlust]

The second Ximena went on her assault with every action serving a purpose, and what she gathered from the encounters. At the end of the day, hollow followed their instincts, which allowed for Ximena to get where she was today. One thing all hollows knew was that Shinigami Zanpakuto possessed unique, versatile powers, and all she needed to do was bait them in to showcase them along with what skills they possessed. The attack on Tomi gave her a lot of information on her reaction time, and strength from the counter attack, although to Tomi's dismay, the attack that landed on Ximena didn't cause her to budge an inch. While her attack was quite strong, unfortunately, when put up against her hierro and superhuman durability it felt like she clashed against an impenetrable wall.

Something Tomi and Jinnosuke were about to learn was Ximena happened to be a special case compared to other hollows. When Gillian hollow managed to evolve into an arrancar, they actively chose to forsake regenerative healing or hierro. In Ximena's case, upon her evolving into an arrancar, she happened to choose neither, besides forsaking her energy into different styles of techniques or some fancy cero, but concentrated solely into her natural abilities. Her choice of constantly using her reiryoku compressed inside, boasting her body to titanic levels, caused for her extremely dense and durable hierro to be a by product of that instinctual choice. With Tomi taking off away from her, she expressed an annoyed scowl on her face, about to fire off cero in pursuit when she took notice of the structure thrown reduced to dust in an instant. Her attention seemed to shift with the scowl turning into an eager grin, sensing Jinnosuke on the move.

"A true man after my heart I see.~"

As Jinnosuke decided to blitz her with a fury of zanjutsu slashes, she honed in on one of his movements, doing partial transformation, drawing out some of her insect physiology more to the surface. The entire time she kept that eager grin with her body entering into a relaxed state, fighters and athletes know as they flow zone. From the start she could tell he was no joke, but was not going to let that clown remark slide as she weaved and maneuvered through his attacks with a focused precision, the sound of booming static sound from Sonido accompanied every movement she made. Assuming a southpaw stance, she kept her fighting form tight, unsure what abilities the Zanpakuto may possess but witnessing how it rendered that building into dust from some strange effect or technique remained unknown to her. However, she didn't plan on being on the defense either, as she weaved through his attacks, countered rapidly with her unique use of bala fired out from her tongue with each one aimed for head shots with high-speed jabs thrown at him. This also allows for him to be the first to come to a sudden realization that she was no ordinary arrancar, but Espada Tres with the three seen clearly on her tongue.

"I wouldn't dare run you are right where I want you, I can't wait to drag my new mate back home, but maybe you should keep your friend temper in check!"

Amid their encounter, the other shinigami Omoni happened to let her temper explode in a powerful display of reiatsu bursting forth. The true irony came from the most least tempered out of the Espada and probably arrancar themselves and the two of them had more in common than they realized or could have been friends in different circumstances. Unfortunately, the shinigami showed their true colors and that slight against them couldn't go unchecked, but the one thing she could account on was how quick shinigami were to rely on their zanpakuto. Even a recent contender who joined in the fray recently chose to call upon his Shikai, then relying on his natural strength. With the death of one out of the twelve menos grande, she didn't worry but simply chuckled, even sensing the multiple losses of hollow as they got caged up in Omoni shikai didn't phase her because their time to make the shinigami hurt was now and she made it that much more easier for them. The second they all were encompassed in the pitch darkness, she acted with the repeated use of Sonido creating its booming sound and making sure to keep Jinnosuke as she inhaled in, then released out a point blank Vagido that thundered outward shattering his ear drums and sending him reeling back along with his chain flailing wildly off course.

The Vagido sent out a rippling shock wave throughout the city of Karakura, causing mass destruction near any spike created from the Shikai in her vicinity and buildings collapsing down on unsuspecting victims in the dark. The shinigami, and unfortunately the hollow are trapped in being left stunned temporarily, while the hollow who managed to survive Omoni's initial attack, suffering any cracks in their hollow mask be shattered. Although, one thing the shinigami forgot was that hollows are attracted to strong spiritual presence, namely shinigami's.

"You shinigami came in believing you were in control, but you failed to grasp you were never in control from the start. My bad, you probably can't even hear me."

She allowed no break for Jinnosuke, who decided to challenge her alone and went back onto the offensive to test a theory against his zanpakuto. All the shinigami caught up in the darkness were forced to quickly adjust, but for hollows like her who were born in perpetual nighttime, they were used to the darkness and lack of light. Depending on Jinnosuke's ability to track reiatsu, he had no issue sensing her since she was one to rarely hide it, as both her fist illuminated with charged blue cero in the pitch darkness. In that same instance, the illuminating energy streaked rapidly toward Jinnosuke with an onslaught of her own, sending out a series of cero empowering punches aiming to pulverize him into mush. Because of Ximena's unique fighting style with cero, even just dodging her cero encased fist wasn't strongly advised, for she could detonate energy at any point, only adding to the deadliest of her attacks, with the explosions being the true threats of a cero.
​

---

Tomi, who was the first to engage Ximena, had decided on hit and run tactics to prioritize lives, almost got interrupted until Jinnosuke stepped in. Although she managed to put distance between herself and Ximena, she was nowhere out of danger because the Tres Espada wasn't the only one who lurked observing. The second Ximena's Vagido concluded Tomi cast into the darkness, suddenly sensed one hollow signature appear, which quickly multiplied to six, and didn't seem to let up as the snarls and growls of now a dozen hollows managed to surround both her and the little girl she sent off now alone in the dark afraid. While Tomi was forced to contemplate what to do next, one of the eleven remaining menos grande had disappeared back into the garganta it came from. This would be the first warning for the shinigami, something wasn't right. How did so many hollow gather so fast? Why did Ximena remain so calm even at the loss of her kind? The answer was simple, the shinigami fell directly into an ambush, which Omoni made it easier to cause discord amongst their ranks. As Ximena's main focus was to draw the attention of them, which she succeeded in doing, the adjucha in waiting helped the demi-hollow return safely to Hueco Mundo while gathering as many willing hollow to attack within the garganta ready for the call of feeding frenzy. Within a matter of seconds, Tomi's allies were swarmed by countless hollows with the sounds of their agonizing slaughter filling the air all around her, and still a child cast into his worst nightmare. Who would Tomi prioritize now? Sadly, there was no time for her to fully decide as the sound of something shattering could be heard followed by the gigantic claw of menos grande slamming down attempting to crush her. Then the terrifying second realization hit them.

"Help...me...help...me...HELP ME!"

The menos grande fully stepping out from the garganta it created began to speak. The menos grande mimicked the pleas of the terrified victims and shinigami, as it opened its mouth, now bathing the darkness of the city in its crimson light with a cero charged seconds away from engulfing her as the hollow swarmed from all sides.

​

---

Just like Tomi, not even minutes after she trapped a portion of the city, the sounds of ravenous hollows flooded the area, but an even larger amount, with her reiatsu increasing, making her stand out like a beacon in the darkness. With the shinigami recovering from the Vagido as the hollow burst forth, very few were able to fend their attackers off in time and those who did found themselves being overwhelmed by numbers. One thing Omoni failed to grasp was Ximena didn't underestimate her, nor any of the others, why this has now become their graveyard. She saw them as threats to be eliminated because of the potential they harbored and what was once a diversion plan now became an incursion attack to weaken the shinigami forces as much as possible. With Ximena locked in battle, the adjucha who remained faithful to the Espada decided to deal with the threat of Omoni personally herself.

In a flash, Omoni and the others sensed countless shinigami spiritual energies disappear with the sound of their zanpakuto shattering as their headless corpses collapsed to the ground. Slowly stepping out of the shadows in the sight of Omoni was a single female adjucha with a blank hollow mask. Flicking both of her arms, scattering the blood of her fallen comrades off her bladed arms. She tilted her head in a ticking, eerie way like a broken toy setting her sights onto the shinigami Omoni and released her spiritual power. The adjucha who stood before her held spiritual power on par with an Lt. and if she was allowed to evolve into arrancar, the chances were high she even surpassed it being personally groomed and trained by Ximena herself. In terms of ranking, she was the closest thing to Fraccion for the Tres Espada, and it was not without reason because she was on the precipice of evolving into an arrancar.

"Die you filthy shinigami."

Clear hatred and disdain were heard in her words. Giving Omoni a toothy grin, she took a few steps back, sinking back into the darkness. Not long after she began her attack on Omoni, leaping out from the darkness, moving at such a speed she found herself assaulted from several directions simultaneously, aiming to end this fight as quickly as possible. With her bladed arms strong enough to cut cleanly through the unseated shinigami Zanpakuto, she lashed out with an intense hunger to see how someone of this caliber, a Zanpakuto, would hold up against her. Every slash she made toward Omoni was made with precision toward a vital spot on her: heart, head, throat, tendons, and joints all found themselves the focus of lethal slashes or impaling thrust while occasionally slinking back into the darkness fighting much like an assassin.

​

---

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Karakura Town, where a sole shinigami battled the menos grande that ran rampant on the streets. The eager beast of shinigami wasted no time jumping into the fray upon arrival and locked sight on one of the menos grande. Just like most shinigami, he rushed to dismantle their sworn enemy, jumping straight into combat. And just like the others, he acted on the strange ruse, these were ordinary hollows they were dealing with. Ximena always found it quite amusing that if they were able to adapt over the times in battle strategy, what stopped the hollow from doing the same. Misguided arrogance. At this point, the shinigami learned the final realization after the first menos grande was destroyed, the remaining ten all stopped what they were doing, then directed their attention directly at Hyoroshi. Isolated from the rest of the shinigami encased in Omoni's Shikai, all of the menos grande charged up cero except for three of them. They all fired simultaneously on Hyoroshi, threatening to engulf him in multi-directional cero all coalescing into one massive explosion where he once stood. The other three menos grande did something abnormal with two of them suddenly bursting into a sprint, charging where he was last seen before the explosion encompassed the area, trampling through the city. However, the third one looked to the skies and took a posture similar to that of a jogger dashing before completely crushing a tower as he used it to leap high up in the air while calling out in a disgruntled voice.

"I...am...not...a...beast."

After the large crater remained from the aftermath, 100 ft above it opened a massive garganta immediately followed by an overwhelming sense of death. Breaking the darkness of the garganta, at first a single ominous eye, before a Hooleer breached through and vomited out numerous more menos grande down into the worn-out streets of the outskirts. Just like that, the remaining others rushed in to start feasting on these newly created menos grande with the Hooleer who answered its master's Vagido disappearing away once again.

Now the shinigami fully realized, the forces Ximena brought with her were all on the verge of evolution and the shinigami were their offering.​

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Posting Order: Posting Order: Jinnosuke -> Omoni -> Ximena -> Tomi​

 

[Nobody]

Hell, that was what had become of Karakura Town, a place once bustling with life had become a living hellscape. The Shinigami that gathered worked arduously to defend against the Hollow threat, Tomi and those with her strove to prioritize the life of the Humans, ignorant of the invisible dangers to their lives, Jinnosuke saw fit to face against the Arrancar, the orchestrator of this chaos. Omoni utilize her zanpakuto to act as a bunker, a protective ward against the hollows who have stormed and rampaged through the city. Hyoroshi who had only recently entered the fray demolished one towering hollow after the next, only to find himself now accosted on many fronts.

Everything seemed to be descending further and further out of control. What was the aim of the Arrancar? So much destruction, so much death...to what end?

Within the darkness that blanketed the City, one brightened only by the light of the enemies' cero, comes another familiar light piercing through the streets of Karakura. A Senkaimon opens, and from it spill those come to restore the balance; Shinigami from the Thirteenth Division.

Gyōja steps out at the forefront of the group, eyes narrowed as he glances around, best he can in this hellscape. Squads of Shinigami branch off, given instructions on the way by the Kuchiki that, by themselves would be impossible to pull off on their own. However, together they might just be capable of pulling off...only if they followed his instructions to the letter. Incoherent chanting, sounding almost like muttering and murmurings could barely be made out and then, multiple barriers taking the form of an inverted pyramid from the ground up surrounded a multitude of structures and those within it, these barriers emitting a light blue energy. Various other Shinigami rushed to the sides of fallen humans, those still clinging to life, tending to their injuries best they can. While tending to these helpless humans, the Kikanshinki was used repeatedly, removing the memories of this event for those who had gotten so close to the edge they were able to peer into the spiritual world. Those left worked to defend the others against the Hollows stampeding through the city.

Gyōja's Reikaku passes over the city. He can perceive those of his fellow Shinigami, many of them pitted against some type of Hollow threat. However, the Kuchiki was seeking out a specific Shinigami, that of their Squad's Third Seat Tomi.

'Found you.'

He propels himself into the air, his hand gripping firmly to Aojūkiri. While in the air, he unsheathes his blade. Having dealt with a number of Shinigami up to this point, one might have expected the man to also release the seal on his Zanpakuto. Instead, Gyōja unsheathes the blade, glowing with a radiant purple energy, performing a multitude of slashes. With each slash a torrent of energy is blasted out, passing through a multitude of lumbering Menos Grande, this energy traveling in the directions of the Hollows surrounding those he came with and those in the direction of his path of travel. The power of this energy is such that it can easily obliterate buildings, ironic given the size of Menos Grande by nature. Every step propels Gyōja further, a single step transposing the man several dozens of feet over towards Tomi's location.

With their timely arrival, Gyōja and his comrades are spared the effects of the Vagido. As almost helpless as the situation may appear, Gyōja needed to rendezvous with Tomi before they could be of any true help to the others. They needed a strategy, a plan of attack. They needed to be coordinated with one another. Ideally, once he met up with Tomi they could then go towards one of the others, preferably the direction of the one in the outskirts of the city. He could only try and pray things went as he had hoped.

 

[TherosAestas]

---

A chill ran down Tomi’s spine as the shockwave of the Vegido subsided. Her eyes widened with realization, the moonlight reflected off of them giving them the appearance that they were glowing. She’d let herself be played for a fool by a damned arrancar. She gritted her teeth as the number of hollows around her multiplied. Her fingers tightened around Tsukuyomi’s hilt, her claw-like nails digging into her palm.

Breathe, darling. Don’t let her get to you.

Breathe she did. To those around her, Tomi appeared to still be grappling with her realization. In reality she sped through the hollows that separated her from the child she’d just sent off into the night, and she made quick work of dispatching them, slicing each to shreds before they could even react to her movement past them. Her eyes scanned the night, finding the girl in mere seconds. ”Eclipse the stars, Tsukuyomi!” Her reiryoku spiked as Tsukuyomi split into two crescent blades, and Tomi reached out for the frightened child. As her arms closed around her and her blades overlapped in an X in front of the girl, her voice was only loud enough for the two of them to hear, especially since the commotion of a menos grande’s claw slamming into the ground where she’d once stood filled the night.

”Tsukigaki.”

A bubble shaped barrier blossomed around them both just in time to block a hollow that was reaching out to grab the girl. The girl looked up at the glimmering lavender that protected them with eyes full of wonder. Tomi’s chest tightened as her eyes drifted down to her, but her gaze didn’t linger long. While the barrier was more than capable of withstanding these hollows for a long while, she had to get to fighting. She was uncertain how long it would be until the rest of 13th arrived, if they even did. She had no clue what their captain had even wanted to say to everyone, and she was certain Keniro hadn’t even seen the alert given he was prone to never having his Denreishinki on him. She’d felt the vibration of an incoming message but now wasn’t the time to check it. She’d sensed a Senkaimon opening but recognized that the shinigami who’d arrived at the fray wasn’t one of her squadmates.

”Hello again, dear. Would you mind holding on tight?” The girl looked up at her, her eyes still wide but nodded. Tomi dropped down to her knees allowing the girl to climb onto her back. As she stood, she felt the little arms wrap around her neck loosely enough not to hurt her but tight enough to keep the child from falling. ”Now be sure not to let go.”

As Tomi was about to take the girl away from the hollows around them, an eerie voice drew her attention to the garganta the menos grande was stepping out of.

"Help...me...help...me...HELP ME!"

Tomi let out an exasperated sigh as the menos grande unleashed its cero. She’d taken too long to get moving again. Her grip on her blades tightened as she swung in quick succession, bringing one down and the other across as they unleashed two arcs of pale lavender light that sliced cleanly through the cero. The arcs followed the cero’s path up to the menos itself, first cleaving it in half vertically then horizontally. Though the remnants of the cero didn’t fizzle out, she’d greatly reduced the damage they would inflict on the city. Tomi’s attention quickly snapped back to the hollows that still surrounded her and the child, her barrier still intact though a few had attempted to shatter it.

Sensing the arrival of another shinigami, her eyes shifted only slightly in their direction. With a singular slash of her blade, Tomi decapitated the hollows that surrounded her. As she glanced around to make sure she’d taken care of all the pests a blast of energy raced toward them. Pushing off from the ground, the blast narrowly missed Tomi. She was certain that it had been intended for the hollows. Tomi chuckled softly and rolled her eyes. ”Show off.”
​

---

 

[Hyoroshi Iwamura]

'I knew they'd come swinging...'

Landing upon a rubble-strewn rooftop, Iwamura chided himself and dropped to one knee with a wince. He had just dispatched the second Menos with an unbridled Kagamibiraki, tearing the towering creature in half height-way, when the Vagido clapped through him; the insulation of Omoni's Shikai and the sheer distance mattered not to his protesting ears that rang and muffled his suroundings. Hyoroshi brushed an ear and felt no blood, so he returned to his feet and turned--coming face to face with several incoming Cero and two charging Gillian.

"Tch."

With another blink of Shunpo Hyoroshi soared over the Menos' heads, watching as their barrage engulfed his previous position and half the city block in a fiery fulmination. He hadn't the time to think, let alone entertain the bemused chortling of his Zanpakutō--off a pad of solid air he ricocheted himself back towards the earth and drove the heel of his steel boot into one of the Gillian chargers. Then with his hand thrust out at the second, his foot still caving in the head of the first, his ears only now starting to hear again:

"Hado Thirty Three--Sōkatsui!"

A torrent of blue flames, rippling high above the rooftops, stormed from Iwamura's hand and shredded through the second Menos from the neck up, prying the front of its head away from the back. He jumped off and landed upon another rooftop as the slain Menos collapsed to the streets below and began their dissolution.

"I...am...not...a...beast."

A spasm of recognition shot down Iwamura's spine that widened his eyes. His gaze lifted up, up towards the Menos that had spoken, watching the Hooleers behind it upchuck the black sludge of dozens more Menos Grande.

"There's the result of your selflessness, Dog. The consequences of giving others high expectations."

Within the husk of a destroyed East Asian temple Yoake no Taii sat on a priceless, gleaming throne, watching the show with a smirk; his hand propping up his head at the cheek.

"You've flied in again, wanting to take on the world, ready to throw yourself into the inferno to show everyone how much of a good doggy you are, and now look what's happened. Again. Here you are, watching--hah, no, waiting for!--the Hollows to level this place, just like with what happened to your Division buddies in Hueco Mundo. Even now, you're glad you have me, I can--"

"That's enough."

Iwamura's voice was low, guttural; he was on the verge of physically growling. He stood still for a couple seconds. Yoake no Taii said nothing further. Hyoroshi did the same, for he knew continuing would admit to his own guilt. At this thought, Yoake snickered again.

Hyoroshi shut his eyes, inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. Lowering his head he scanned his surroundings, assessing the current situation with Reikaku and sensual data alike, noting it all--and then yet another rush of spirit energy entered into the fray of the city. A small grin lifted his expression somewhat, figuring out the newcomers almost immediately.

"Better late than never, Thirteenth."

Iwamura set off into bounding leaps from rooftop to rooftop, glancing first at the dome-like cocoon that shielded the center of the city. Common sense was keeping him from trying to pass through Omoni's creation, but he couldn't shake his trepidations; something within him had surmised that the female Arrancar in there dwarfed everything happening out here, and by a large margin at that. As long as the duo could hang on...

He glanced out in the opposite direction. Tomi's signature was just joined by the largest of those from the Thirteenth that'd arrived, and they had begun to work through the army of Hollows. Hyoroshi stopped, huffed and, after silently picking out the largest count of Menos that led him to Tomi and Gyōja, unsheathed his Zanpakutō.

Leaping into the air Hyoroshi set off on his miniature campaign, starting to cleave and wallop down Gillian after Gillian on his way to his comrades.​

 

[GhoulBunny]

[Traveling From: Central]
The Senkaimon split open with a violent flash of white light and again, the World of the Living received another visitor from beyond. Ren stepped through, boots hitting solid pavement, and for a moment, she just… stood there.


Karakura was not how she remembered it.


Back in the academy, the human world had been nothing but a curiosity to her—strange, bright, and full of things that made no sense. She had walked these same streets during supervised patrols, her instructors keeping her and her fellow students in check as they observed the human world from a safe, detached perspective. Back then, she thought it had been quiet. Safe. Even a little fun.



She remembered how she had stared at vending machines for way too long, fascinated by the idea that humans trapped their food in little metal boxes and paid to free it. She had tried human food for the first time—sipped on that fizzy, weirdly addicting drink called soda. She had even wandered a bit too far once, watching from a rooftop as a group of human kids played some sport she didn’t understand, their laughter ringing in the air like something distant, untouchable.


Back then, the human world had seemed so… normal to her.


How ignorant she was.



This was not normal.



Her ignorance skewed her perception of the world, made her remember it to have been calm, a place where the spiritual presence of the occasional Hollow was nothing more than a blip in the background of everyday life.


Now?


Now, the air hummed with tension. Something thick, suffocating, pressing down on her skin like a storm she hadn’t seen coming.



Even without seeing the chaos, she felt it—the way spiritual energy churned violently in the distance, reiatsu clashing in bursts of raw power. There were battles happening all across the city, invisible to human eyes, but she could sense them. And the sheer weight of it all made her stomach twist.



This wasn’t a simple patrol.



This wasn’t even a normal mission.


This was a battlefield.



And she?




She was a goddamn idiot for agreeing to this.



Her fingers twitched at her sides, a nervous habit she had never been able to break. The overwhelming wrongness of the situation sank deeper into her bones, and for the first time since stepping through the Senkaimon, she seriously considered turning around.



Except… there was no turning around.



Because if she did…. She was sure she was going to face a fate that that prison woman had gotten. Death.



She had hesitated.



For a brief second, her fear almost made her say no. And yet, despite that hesitation, she had still agreed.



Because at the end of the day, she had wanted this.



She wanted to prove herself. She wanted to show that she could be more than just a loudmouth, a reckless idiot who never finished what she started.



And now?



Now she was standing in the middle of Karakura, drowning in a situation she wasn’t prepared for, and it hit her—



Captain Kagi had given her this assignment because he believed in her. He had given it to her to see if she would survive it.



Her stomach churned.



Her throat felt dry.



How crazy that was.



She could feel the beginning of something horrible creeping up her spine, an anxiety she hadn’t felt since she was a kid, alone in the Rukongai, faced with something bigger than her that she didn’t know how to handle.



But before that feeling could settle—



Something shifted. Something massive. Ren’s head snapped up And her blood ran cold.



Menos Grande.



Not just one—multiple.



They loomed in the distance, towering, unnatural, their massive, hunched forms casting impossible shadows over the city.



Their masks—long, sharp, grinning things—stared blankly ahead, empty sockets peering into nothingness. Their cloaks of darkness rippled like smoke, and as they moved, the air itself seemed to groan under the weight of their presence.



Ren froze, Her limbs locked up. She had read about them. She knew what they were. But reading about something and seeing it in real life were two very different things. Sure, she was a good distance away—far enough that she wasn’t immediately in danger.



But she could see them clearly, despite the darkness.



Could feel them.



And for the first time since stepping into Karakura, something real settled into her chest.


Fear.


A deep, crawling dread that sent ice through her veins, a reminder of how small she was compared to the things that roamed this world.


She didn’t know what to do.


Her body acted before her mind did.


Her hand snapped to her hip, gripping the hilt of her Zanpakutō—Amanozako. The metal was warm beneath her fingers. A faint hum pulsed from the blade, barely perceptible, like the distant rumble of thunder on the horizon.


Then—


A sharp jolt of electricity shot through her palm.


It wasn’t painful.

It wasn’t overwhelming.

It was Amanozako comforting her.

She clung to that feeling.


Took a breath.

It wasn’t enough.


Then, because she still had no idea what else to do—

She panicked.


And when Ren Mikazuchi panicked, she acted out.



“OH, COME ON!”



Her voice exploded into the night, absolutely shattering the tension in the worst possible way.



“I KNEW THIS WAS A MISSION, BUT I DIDN’T REALIZE IT WAS A GODDAMN DEATH SENTENCE!”


Her breath hitched, her eyes darting back to the Menos towering in the distance.


She whirled around, gesturing wildly at everything around her.


“WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?! WHO DID I PISS OFF?! I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE WRITTEN MY OWN OBITUARY BEFORE STEPPING THROUGH THAT DAMN DOOR!”


Somewhere, in the distance, a car honked.


Ren froze.


Then, as if suddenly remembering that stealth was supposed to be a key skill in her division—


She slapped both hands over her mouth, her golden eyes wide, her entire body crouching slightly like that would somehow erase her from existence.



The seated officer she had dragged into this mess simply stared at her, visibly regretting everything.


Earlier.


“Help a young gal out!”


Ren had latched onto the first seated officer she saw, both hands gripping the poor soul’s sleeve, her golden eye shining with fake desperation. “I need backup! Just one person! A single competent Shinigami to make sure I don’t die horribly in the human world!”


The officer stared at her. “I don’t even know who you are.”



“Details, details,” she waved a hand, grinning. “Think of it this way—you get to go on an adventure! What’s better than that?”


The officer continued to stare.


Ren wiggled her eyebrows. “C’moooon. Just this once. You don’t want me to go alone, do you?”



The officer exhaled slowly. “I feel like I’ll regret this.”


Ren clasped her hands together in mock prayer. “I already do! Now let’s go!”


present


She turned to look at them, still crouched slightly.


“I shouldn’t have brought you here.”


The officer folded their arms. “Then why—”



“You’re not gonna help me at all, are you?”


The officer blinked. “Excuse me?”


Ren groaned, dragging a hand down her face.


Then—


Movement.


A flicker of motion from the corner of her eye.



A Shinigami, cutting through the chaos like he belonged in it.



His purple hair whipped behind him as he moved, blade flashing in streaks of sharp, precise destruction, erasing entire Menos Grande in seconds.


Ren immediately threw herself behind the nearest structure.


“OH, THANK GOD,” she exhaled, pressing herself against the wall, peeking just enough to watch.


New plan.



Stick to the competent people.
​

 

[Kasu Shinka]

For her, it had been terribly too long since the soles of her sandals touched the air of Karakura. So long since she had the privilege to breathe the same air that the humans take advantage of. Since her last encounter, her Zanpakuto is able to taste combat once again, but before she could partake, her responsibilities armed her with the first attack against the odds. Hollows rampage, and as their chaos intensifies, can Squad 13 find a solution to push back these wicked forces?

A beam of light exits the Senkaimon, allowing for Captain Shinka to exit swiftly. Concurrently to her arrival, her right hand removes her Zanpakuto and in such quick succession her sealed zan transformed into a brush, bringing her Shikai into the world. Beneath her position, others who joined her departure from the Soul Society, move into action lending aid to the few and many that had already had a foot-hold in this invasion.

From the Senkaimon, more Shinigami spill in to defend the helpless, to release the souls of this world and send them to the next. They had their orders, splitting into groups of twos and threes. Covering each other's backs, as they attempt to secure an area and push back all forms of hollow. Many if not all of her subordinates released their swords in order to better combat and aid those who are needed. Whether the tides will turn in their favor or not, Kasu remained at a height that placed her miles above the city, her spiritual presence can be felt by those who are capable enough and comprehensive.

“ Ban-“

Raising her brush, her shikai that she called forth with no name or phrase, a show of mastery of her Zanpakuto, a skill that thankfully did not perish. Her own spiritual energy intensified so fast and fiercely that the air began to shiver violently, shockwaves forming as they blasted from her position outward in all directions.

“ Kai.”

The brush in her disappears from her grasp as her spiritual energy is seemingly given a physical form. Her hands laced in paint that begin to profusely pour upward and outward into the very sky. The black liquid moves in droves, mimicking the rush of a tsunami in every direction towards the city. In mere moments the sky, the clouds, the very scenery that made this world so beautiful was covered by her Bankai…

And then…

Nothing?

Everything has returned to normal, as if Kasu had not released a Shinigami’s most powerful technique in their arsenal. The spirit energy she emitted did not change however, and no longer did Kasu carry any weapons upon her person. Her magenta orbs glared towards every monstrosity that trespassed into this world. The raised hand that once held her Shikai began to move in a clockwise circle. As if she was stirring a pot, she seemingly stirred the very sky into a makeshift storm. Her creative nature allows her to utilize her Bankai and create a storm from seemingly nothing. In layman's terms, she seem to simply hold dominion over the sky.

The violently crackling of thunder sounds immediately, ruptures of light carry through the clouds she had created with just the motion of a single hand. Everything she had done became real, vivid, and powerful. With the descending of her hand, she brings it down and highly concentrated bolts of lighting move at tremendous levels of speed, a speed that would surpass the natural speed of lighting striking the ground. The thunderous sound of a strike occurring only seconds after each bolt of electricity would make contact. Every hollow and Menos alike would be a victim to each of these lighting bolts as they hail from the sky to strike them down. With precision, their mask and their body are the focus, aiming to deal a fatal blow in one shot.

Kasu’s Bankai took over the very sky of Karakura, quickly becoming a support system for her comrades in order to turn the tide. However, Captain Shinka remains ready to defend herself, if need be.