Northwest Seireitei

[TherosAestas]

Cordelia braced herself as the crackle of energy filled the air. Her nails bit into the palms of her hands as the rods scattered about lit up with electricity. She’d been careful to give a wide enough berth when forming her portal to avoid the cage of energy, but just barely. With the flick of her wrist, she churned her waters below, decimating the rods that had landed in it. Her feet skidded against the rooftop she’d come to stand atop-her eyes trained on the violent kido converging upon her location as her bala peppered the division, taking out many of the barrier rods, breaking their chain reaction as inky fish swam across her vision.

She made a mental note of the late arrival of the red-headed figure wearing a haori. She couldn’t ignore his presence but he hadn’t made a move to attack. Yet. The image of a reaper looming over the man’s shoulder sent a giddy shiver through the peculiar woman. A promise of the fight to come. The oceanid opened her mouth wide in a defiant shriek aimed at the kido rushing her way, the sound bone chilling from one who barely spoke to those that weren’t her other half.

To the shinigami, Cordelia appeared as if she was going to tank the hit from the kido. The barracks lit up in a visual cacophony of colors and energy with her silhouetted figure in the epicenter. As the lightshow faded nothing remained. Not even a scrap of clothing.

The sound of static replaced the crackle of energy as both Cordelia and her cero appeared, the massive blast of energy racing at high speeds toward the mutt on the roof and the two now in the air that would have now been descending given they couldn’t remain airborne due to the Shakomaku barrier. It wasn’t an ordinary cero though. She was certain the purple haired snack would realize the kido spells hadn’t actually caused any devastation. The mass of pure energy headed their way was an amalgamation of their powerful spells and her own full raw power.

Few perfected the cero doble the way Cordelia did given her penchant for consuming anything and everything. Her cero doble when charged with lesser cero and on rare occasions lower level kido would be massively devastating in its own right, but this one? This one was earth shattering in its power. The blend of their attacks and hers only elevated it to the level of destruction on par with her gran rey cero while in her sealed form. Since she’d aimed at the rooftops, the blast would destroy two thirds of what had already remained of the barracks, leaving only their foundations standing albeit heavily damaged. The force of the blast sent water spraying out in every direction.

The edges of her painted lips were red with blackened marks reaching across her cheeks, but that was already healing. They’re attacks had admittedly been stronger than she’d expected but gods did she love a challenge. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth, running across her lips as if she’d just eaten the most delicious meal as she immediately plummeted to the ground, unnaturally fast. Her tendrils pulled at her skirts, ripping her out of the air as her waters rose up to catch her before sweeping her back into the opening she’d created with her earlier cero.

As she vanished into the ground, a flash of coral tinged with gold glinted in the light. She had to reassess. Another captain had entered her battlefield and she wasn’t certain she could handle all four at once. She’d noticed the smug red-head hadn’t actually attacked her yet or moved to aid anyone. Perhaps he’d simply wait his turn like a good little snack, but she couldn’t be sure. If she moved to attack the others again there was a chance this man would ambush her, but if she attacked him the others would most assuredly dog pile. Either way she couldn’t stay still while she assessed her next move. She inhaled deeply. The channel she was cradled in became a rushing current, pulling her around her spillways, her gentle fingers tracing the rough stone as she moved.

​

 

[Elk]

Hideo’s eyes narrowed at the golem in front of him. It had a slightly different Reiatsu signature, and as the Espada began to resize, then move, so did he. His movements were faster than the Espada’s as he gripped onto the back of Tomi’s collar, and as the fists were about to slam, both Hideo and Tomi’s images would disappear from sight.

They would appear several dozen meters away from the Espada’s current location. More importantly, he was faster than her movements. He had been used to fast opponents, be it his family or the Fengs; either way, he found that the Espada’s speeds were on par with some of them. His golden eyes watched closely as two golems made their appearance, before his teeth began to grate.



“That Espada has the lungs of the Soul King.”

“I am unsure if Lieutenant Oyuki’s attacks will be able to kill the Espada… Though I hope it’ll weaken it.”

“I’ll try and handle those golems and keep 'em off your back!”


His body would flicker and disappear, reappearing right onto the back of a golem, his fist raised up before it would come down to deliver several impacts with his gauntlets. Each one had his hand moving fast enough that it would look like multiple hands were hitting the back of the golem. Each impact delivered four more impacts across the back, with his hand moving to spread more impacts across the back.

He had spoken, but his voice seemed to be that of a whisper. All that would be heard was “Hado,” then his lips moving—his voice drowned by the sound of his punching. All the while, a cloud began to form high in the air.

Each punch was delivering significant force. Each punch created four more impacts from his Bankai. Each punch would trigger the old ones and set off new ones, each one with repeated force and speed, beginning to destroy the ice. Each impact would lower him further and further into the ice itself. The sound of metal clashing against ice was heard amongst all the combatants, then the cracking as the golem would fully crack, then break in front of everyone.

His next steps would have him Shunpo around the other golem. Each appearance he had made had him punch on the arms, legs, torso, back. Each punch still delivered the four other impacts. Again, the impacts across the body would activate—and again. He again appeared in front of the golem as one fist began to punch forward, so much so that his fists began to appear as if there were multiple once more. Each punch he delivered was swift, each one delivered power that would break ordinary Hollows with ease, yet he knew that the golem’s strength was one that wasn’t normal.

It’s why he made the hits across the body. With each punch, parts of the golem’s body would break down and shatter, each triggering the impact marks across it. Effectively, he was stun-locking the golem as his punches were harder than before—though a bit slower—but to the untrained eye, it would seem like it was just as fast.




Those vents…
I wonder what would happen if they’re blocked.

Judging by the sudden surge in power and speed, I’m starting to think her Ceros are in there—giving her a boost to her power… Best not get hit by those.

​

 

[TherosAestas]

Tomi merely gasped as she felt the slight pressure of her collar being grabbed before they vanished from sight. She had barely had a chance to realize what was happening before she was forcibly removed from her position by the Shihoin. The chains that connected Tomi to the Espada shifted, now tethering her to her blades.

As they reappeared, the first thing one might notice is that the two moons that were stationed to protect Hideo’s sides hadn’t followed her to her new location. Instead the two moons remained where they had been, colliding together where Ximena’s attack would land, absorbing the ceros that empowered her blows and any damage that would have ensued.

Tomi listened intently to what her companion had to say. He’d deduced which body part of the soul king Ximena harbored, and much like him, she wasn’t certain if her fellow Lieutenant’s attacks alone would finish this vermin off. Her head dipped in the faintest nod as she acknowledged that Hideo would take care of the golems to give Oyuki and herself the best fighting chance they could have.

The tips of Tsukuyomi glowed an aethereal purple as Tomi stabbed them into the ground. The light would slowly fade, yet her blades seemed to sink just a little bit further into the ground than normal. Though one would suspect that was due to her monstrous strength coupled with the power boost of her bankai that allowed her to sink her blades halfway into the ground. Every so often Tsukuyomi sank just a bit deeper, a shimmer of light could be seen glinting off of the metal.

”This is for Karakura!”

The instant Tomi’s metal clad feet bit into the frozen landscape as she immediately pushed off from the ground, barreling through the moons, her crescent moon blades embedded in the ground behind her. Her chain wrapped fists punched through the swirling light, they sent the stored power right back at the insectoid Espada in the form of shimmering purple-blue moonlight empowering the two-fisted strike of her sokotsu while utilizing her own meticulously cultivated monstrous strength. As her fists would connect with Ximena’s head, the combined energy of Ximena’s ceros and Tomi’s own reiryoku would create a blast with enough concussive force to punch a hole clean through her hierro and destroy her actual body.

As Tomi pulled on the chains, pulling herself back away from the Espada, her remaining three moons would move and follow Hideo as he moved to attack the golems. She wasn’t sure if he would need the protection but it wouldn’t hurt. As her feet touched back down on the icy ground, five more moons took the place of the two expended moons, swirling around her in tight patterns. The light of her bankai and barrier danced off of her eyes and skin, giving her an aethereal glow to match her blades.

​

 

[TherosAestas]

Carnage and destruction. That’s what awaited the members of Eighth Division as they descended upon the Northwest sector of the Seireitei. They kept to the fringes of Thirteenth, moving quick as shadows to snatch up the dead and injured. They didn’t wish to draw the ire of the oceanid that had made the division her stomping grounds nor that of Captain Date. A petite figure clad in black was the last to arrive as she’d taken a slight detour, slipping by the frigid battlefield her 3rd seat was engaged in. She hadn’t needed to get close enough to draw the attention of the arrancar occupied there. She’d needed only confirmation that all was still well for her mistress' interests.

Amaya joined her comrades at Thirteenth, her eyes drawn to a lone figure thrown far from the battle itself. She knelt beside him, checking to see if he still yet lived. Alas he did not. She gently lifted the body into her arms, clipping his zanpakuto to her waistband. In the blink of an eye, all the members of Eighth were gone, as if they’d never even been there. Some reappeared within the Twelfth Division’s walls, carrying bodies of dead arrancar to be studied. The rest made their way to Fourth with the injured and Eighth with the deceased.

​

 

[dem0nzlust]

In a fleeting second, Ximena saw the world around her coming to a standstill, not thinking about what she should do next, but an overwhelming thrill of battle. She exhibited no fear or hesitation in the moment, knowing she was going down against powerful foes if this was it. This is what it meant to fight prey at their strongest, as she grinned eagerly, although she was far from ready to surrender. Ximena was a beast of battle, and this is where she thrived the most with the stakes at their highest peak. Her eyes flickered, tracking all of the movements from them all, as Oyuki's dismay, where he expected to see a frozen statue, Ximena was still alive and kicking with the little bit of ice in her diminished to specs. When the two attacked in unison, she responded with precision, shrinking and growing back within the blink of an eye before attempting to catch them in consecutive explosions from the cero.

She now understood this male had equally fast movements like hers, but unlike the latter, he was not hindered by torn leg muscles. Enemy or not, she remained impressed by how they managed to escape even with their ally Bankai slowing and dulling their movements as well. From the way they moved, she could tell they had trained together before or had some close bond on how fluid they maneuvered together and the cohesion between their actions. On the other hand, the wielder of frost and ice seemed to come off more as a lone wolf from how he disregarded his allies earlier, turning them part of his frozen wasteland regardless. She examined every little crucial facet about them to find that one kink in their armor to turn a minuscule miscalculation into a massive one lead to their downfall. Although the female she encountered back in her Karakura Town was hit with something unexpected, like the cero she unleashed, absorbed into the moon, and suddenly felt a dangerous build-up of power coming forth from it. In that fleeting second, Ximena made her move with no hesitation or regret in her actions, meeting Tomi with that same unyielding resolve.

"This is for all the hollow you slaughtered!"

Even though the voices were muted, they both read each other's lips, and the emotions conveyed told it all. Within that fleeting second, Ximena made a decisive judgement call as the blast unleashed was shrunk down, and a sickening tear felt in her leg as she straffed to the side of the blast, focusing all of her energy into the left side, launching herself at Tomi. That is when Tomi would feel an excruciating pain herself as the dust settled, Ximena's hand plunged through her stomach with her fingers just grazing the kidney, causing it to enlarge until it burst, causing severe internal damage. However, if Tomi was lucky enough to remain conscious, she, along with the others, saw that Ximena had a large portion of her right side blown away, sacrificed to land the precise strike. Unfortunately, for Tomi and the others, this was not the end of what the titan had planned, because seconds after her hand plunged into Tomi's stomach, her body began to glow with intense azure energy warping space around her and straving off the frost from claiming her. Tomi and Hideo, who were the closest, had only a small fraction to act to prevent Tomi from sustaining any more damage from the distorted space, including her hand plunged into the shinigami as Ximena channeled Gran Rey Cero throughout her entire body and turned herself into a nuclear explosion. In a brilliant flash of blue light, Ximea exploded with the devastating expanding destruction of the Gren Rey Cero that even Oyuki's Bankai couldn't completely negate.

At the same time, Ximena and Tomi exchanged their blows, the ice golems launched at Hideo and Oyuki from multiple angles, moving unhindered by the ice field and speed. Their sole purpose was not to kill but immobilize the two, aiming to grapple and impale them or lock into a clash, even if it was just to delay them a little from the massive explosion encompassing the ice field. As Ximena's life force diminished, the oldest artificial soul made sure not to let its master's final send-off go to waste. Quickly, it melded into the Gran Rey Cero explosion as the amorphous energy took shape into a massive golem made of pure energy, striking at the others with a crushing fist, where any physical contact with this golem would be equivalent to getting hit by Gran Rey Cero point-blank. Even in death, Ximena made sure to go out with a bang, choosing to sacrifice her right side, all to protect the side where the Soul King's lung was located, to let her golems persist just for a little longer after her death, because amid war, every second counted. Just before the golem's body started to deteriorate, it aimed its sight toward the 12th Division barracks, where the intelligence stood following Ximena's one final command, and fired a massive blast of energy, distorting and warping the air, headed directly to annihilate the brains of the Gotei 13 as the golem fully dispersed ending the rampage of the titan but making sure she gave the Espada who remained a better chance of victory.

We will meet again...

 

[GhoulBunny]

The combined spellwork of Ren’s Raikōhō and Gyōja’s Sōren Sōkatsui left nothing but smoke in the space where the blue-haired Espada had last been. The blast had been massive and now, all that followed was a deep, suffocating silence.



And above it all—hovering in the sky on coils of crackling blades—was Ren.


Her eyes were wide in disbelief, chest rising and falling with rapid, uneven breaths. Her mouth hung open, comically so, as she jabbed a finger toward the smoldering crater below.



“HOLY SHITTT!! I THINK WE FUCKIN’ GOT A BULLSEYE!!”


She laughed—a short, breathless bark. It wasn’t funny, not really. It was relief. Cathartic and raw and maybe a little manic. Even if it wasn’t a kill shot, it had to have hit. And if it hit then she would be injured.


And for the first time in this nightmare, something in her chest felt warm. Not fear. Pride. But the moment didn’t last.Her eye caught movement—Gyōja plummeting, his form slicing toward the ruins below.


“SHIT!”


Without hesitation, two of Amanozako’s segmented blades whipped away from her formation, twisting through the air beneath Gyōja’s feet. They caught him, halted his fall, and lifted him up beside her in the sky.


Her grin returned, crooked and satisfied.



“YOOO, PURPLE HEAD!! LOOKS LIKE I SAVED YA ASS!”



So what if it sounded childish? Hell, she was childish sometimes. Thats how she handled fear. With the panic she felt. If she didn’t joke, she’d probably lose her mind.



But then came a low static sound, crawling up her spine. She didn’t need to see it. She felt it. The cero. A strong one.


Yup. Celebration was over.


There was no way she was going to die here—not to this watery freak.


Ren, who had been balanced atop her blades, was suddenly gone. The blades that had once carried her scattered, streaking outward in jagged arcs of electric-blue light just as the espada’s Cero Doble tore through the air where she had been.


Moments later, two of those blades shot back through the haze, catching Ren midair as she reappeared in a sharp flash. She landed hard, one boot scraping across the steel. The remaining segments came snapping into place around her in a disciplined cyclone, lightning crackling between each, the ring closing like a living shield.



She allowed herself maybe three seconds of panic.


Gyōja could handle himself she was sure, he had when the last blast had occurred. But of the dog guy—the wolf-man from earlier—she hadn’t seen him since the plan was executed. Was he alright? Had he been caught in that hellblast?



And then Something new entered the battlefield. A surge of unfamiliar Reiatsu. Her head whipped around, eyes scanning—and then her jaw dropped.



The fish came first.


Ink-black. One. Then two. Then more—swimming through the sky like predators.


And standing atop one of them—A red-haired man.Blade in hand. Poised like judgment incarnate. His eyes didn’t even glance at her. Every ounce of his judgement was focused on the Espada.


Her gaze dropped to the haori Her shoulders eased just slightly.They’d lost their own Captain—Kasu—to this monster. Seeing another Captain here, sword drawn, changed something in her chest.


Ren scanned the battlefield, body still poised, blades circling tightly in anticipation. No sign of the Espada. No blue hair. Her brows furrowed.


“…Where the hell did she go?”​

 

[LucianRedgrave]

The silent embrace of winter was something Oyuki always cherished and now so did the mongrel born from sand and sin. Where Ximena found herself at the mercy of its chilling touch she would now find its grip deafening. Their collective motions are nothing but a crawl even the very beings she summon forged from the very substance Oyuki called his own. They found themselves reaching out to cause undue harm to the shinigami who assaulted her very frame and yet when she had done so bone and sinew alike became stiff. Their motions halted and more importantly her body was a catalyst for Oyuki’s will. His bankai wasn’t as simple as a blanket statement for bringing the enemy to its knees. Oyuki turned the battlefield into a chess board with every piece on it under his command and his opponent nothing more than the one his mind created for himself. A few things took place in Ximena’s final moments. The internals of her body would drop to below zero. Her bones a brittle composition of its former glory, her shrunken wounds nothing more than folly in the eyes of her enemy. When she plunged her arm into Tomi's abdomen what she would find in exchange for her actions was that her arm had indeed gone through but rather than be met with the exhilarating thrill of enlarging her prays kidney she could find her limb immobile severed at the joint. Had she looked closer she could find that even muscle within herself had become nothing more than a brittle rubbery material crumbling to dust just the same. The subsequent warping of the environment from the use of her own spiritual pressure in hopes of eradicating the very fabric of their opponent with the use of a gran rey cero in turn resulted in her body crumbling internally. Before the explosion itself could become manifest her body would become nothing more than a puff of frost result in nothing being left behind but a power beyond even Oyuki’s reach, the soul kings lungs.

While the golem’s in question would find themselves lusting after their prey with the drive bestowed upon them by Ximena’s intention they too would find themselves under the might of his zanpakuto. Like a raging river carving through a mountain pass these golems could find their forms being met with blades of ice all the same. Their bodies were met with a precision rivaled only by surgeons. Oyuki was sure Hideo could handle his own problems and as a result dispatched the golem that found itself pursuing Oyuki with unbridled ferocity. It would sound as if someone had thrown a boulder through a window as the golem met with the blade of ice forged from the battlefield Oyuki had so gracefully crafted throughout the entirety of this battle. In exchange however once their forces collided with one another the entirety of the battle would subside. The golems body even amidst its demise could be seen being cleaved clean down the middle parting like a fork in the road before dissipating as its creator had met its end. The death throes of a now defeated foe left nothing to behold but a frozen hellscape. Ximena had effectively attempted to turn herself into a bomb and in doing so had gone on to destroy her body from within. The thing that made Oyuki stand out amongst his predecessors and even his captain’s own sense of merit for the battered soul was his ability to see the bigger picture regardless of the scale. The machinations of her plan led to nothing but folly as her body was reduced to nothing but frost ridden dust.

Oyuki’s demeanor however had not changed since the very beginning of the battle in question. Despite so openly dispatching his foe he still seemed to be in mourning for the loss of life. He wasn’t sympathetic to the worm that now lay in a pile of frost. His cerulean eye looking over the aftermath of the battle and realizing that not everyone involved was going to leave it in one piece let alone walk away unscathed. He was glad that Hideo and Tomi both had come to assist him despite knowing he had it under control from the moment the battle started. Their arrival was merely another piece added to the chessboard he so masterfully navigated as a weapon of war. In the end the machinations of Ximena’s mind were just that, a fruitless thought. The last thing she would remember was impaling Tomi with her arm before her body gave way to nothingness. In Oyuki’s eyes she was a worthy opponent for anyone other than himself proving that there was a reason he had gone to Hueco Mundo to be rid of the traitors of his own division and as a result now he was being rid of the filth that came from that very same place. In the end Oyuki knew that their was still a battle to be had elsewhere by his captain’s side. He could only hope that Hideo would tend to Tomi’s wound amidst the settling dust as he began to head towards his next venture, captain Shizukana. His image would become nothing more than a blur as he took his leave gone in a single step.

 

[Elk]

His gauntlets continued to pound away through the golems before they would crumble away. A puff of white mist could be seen pushing out from his mouth before his head and body turned. His pupils retracted as he saw Tomi getting stabbed clean through by the Arrancar.

Time almost seemed to be at a standstill before his body would flicker and disappear. His next appearance was above both the Arrancar and Tomi, with his foot coming down on the arm with such a force that it would help break it, with the multiple impacts and combination of the 5th Lieutenant's power. Yet he was not done, as his arms wrapped around Tomi before he would flicker and disappear with her.

Where they appeared next was at the northern line, both hands holding onto Tomi before one would move up to his mouth, followed up by a high-pitched whistle. Two members of the Shihōin clan appeared, both with one hand curled, knuckles pressing against the tiles of the roof they stood on, and one knee fully resting on said tiles and the other leg lifted.

“Bring her to Fourth Division. She requires immediate medical attention!”

“There is another matter I must attend to!”

He would hand over Tomi to the Shihōin members before all of them would flicker out, with Tomi being sent away to Fourth Division while he himself would appear back at the battlefield. His eyes shifting over every little bit of detail around the area, the cold icy fields had his breath showing. Each step was careful as he made his way towards the former Arrancar’s area where she was last seen. Amidst the field of snow and ice sat what he had feared.

“These Arrancar… Where did they get these parts from???”

A grating sound could be heard, as his jaw slid side to side, his hand pressing and pushing up against it for a few seconds.

His head shifted over towards the central part of the Seireitei, looking over at the large cocoon before lowering himself down to grab onto the lungs. A slight pulse coursed through him before he would drop it. His hands reached to undo his Shihakushō top and wrap the organ in it.

In a flicker, he would again disappear—this time moving at his fastest—and in doing so, he had made sure no one would be able to follow him to his next destination.

------ To the unknown!------>
​

 

[TherosAestas]

Shattering.

That was all Tomi Yume heard; the shattering of her faith in her abilities as her shimmering barrier splintered under the impact of Ximena’s fist before giving way. Tomi let out a strangled cry as the arrancar’s hand pierced into her torso and her blood blossomed across the dark material of her uniform. Excruciating pain spread through her core as Ximena’s hand dug deep, reaching its mark. Within an instant, Tomi’s kidney ruptured and her vision began to dim as a ringing filled her ears.

Emotions swam within her lilac gaze: fear, disbelief, and something akin to acceptance. She had been ready and willing to die here so long as she took Ximena out with her, but she wasn’t certain she could handle the pain and finish the job. Her grip on her chains grew slack but since she’d wrapped them around her arms she maintained the tether to zanpakuto. As her gaze turned distant and her vision blurred, the crunch and tearing of Ximena’s flesh barely registered for her. She didn’t even realize that Hideo had severed her from her attacker, her mind was so muddled with the pain of one of her internal organs rupturing.

All Tomi knew was that she was slipping away from the Espada until a pair of arms engulfed her. She and her savior were there one second, gone the next. Her zanpakuto, ripped from the ground, was now dangling from her limp arms. She couldn’t focus on who had grabbed her or where they had taken her because the ringing in her ears grew unbearably louder.

Tomi.

Her consciousness teetered upon the edge of awake and the dark void beckoning to her as a soft voice whispered on the wind, mingling with the ringing. She knew it wasn’t real. The owner of that voice was long since dead, but still she took comfort in the sound of her name in its familiar timbre, a whisper of the souls who will never leave her even after they are gone. She wanted to revel in that dream; the warm embrace she would never feel from the only sister she’d ever had.

Tomi?

Tsukuyomi’s voice cut through the ringing, sweet and somber like an echo from the past. Her grasp on consciousness was slipping away like water between her fingertips. Tsukuyomi’s face came into focus, his eyes glowing softly behind his mask. Her hands weakly reached out for him as his metal clawed hands closed around them. He gazed down at her, a soft chuckle on his lips.

Now, now, you and I both know it’s not your time to go. Rest. Trust in those you’ve closed yourself off to.

As her hands cupped Tsukuyomi’s face and Hideo passed her off to another shinigami, her hold on the waking world finally broke. The chains keeping her connected to her crescent moon blades disappeared and her blades returned to one katana that clattered against the rooftop.

Her unconscious body slumped against the chest of the person holding her while the other retrieved her blade, before stepping off of the rooftop and heading toward Fourth Division.

—------TO FOURTH DIVISION!--------->
​

 

[Nobody]

Propelled by the Kidō cast Gyōja's eyes narrow as he studies the spot the Espada was at. 'Something isn't right...' He thought to himself, as the light began to fade. Without being able to utilize reishi to create any sort of proper footing, there is relief in the presence of his allies. The blades of Ren's shikai turned into foot stools for him, a heavy cloud of mist that had been raising towards him reaching and embracing him and his surroundings immediately. The area the spell had struck was absent of the Espada. Gyōja was no fool, the combined spell was powerful yes but, not that powerful. The others may not have noticed but he could tell, some of the rods he had fired had been destroyed earlier, thus weakening the cage.

It wasn't long for his concerns to be confirmed. Where the crackling of electricity had filled the air previously, instead there was a violent noise of static. Though elevated in the air atop the blades of Ren's shikai, Gyōja himself was incapable of guiding or controlling them in any way. The enemy fired her attack, the destructive cero tearing through the air, and structures alike, landing like a thunder clap. Ren who was already airborne, riding her floating blades that she controlled was a nimble one. There was little doubt she'd be able to at least get away. What of the other one?

The light faded revealing the aftermath. Ren stood suspended in the air a distance away from the initial blast area, guarded by her shikai that now orbited her. Hyoroshi and Gyōja's fates were less secured. The Kuchiki's form couldn't be seen, the blades he had been standing on now absent of their rider. One might assume he had fallen, felled at the hands of the enemy...that is, if it weren't for the mist that still lingered in the air spread out like a looming overcast. The water below splashes, the Espada having retreated in its safety. Tracing and scanning the field of mist a silhouette could be faintly made out in the distance.

"Hah..hah...hah.."

The Kuchiki's breathing is heavy, his dominant hand still clutching tightly to his bladeless sword, the glow from the other hand having yet faded. More peculiar was the fact that he was no falling from the air, no rather he was dangling. His head turns towards Captain Date who stands there atop a inky black fish, his own eyes shifting up towards the beast, or rather its head born of mist holding him up by the collar of his shihakusho. During the course of the Cero's blas he had propelled himself away into a shunpo, a beast of mist forming and biting down on his uniform to drag him further through the air, spreading his mist in the process as the distance between him and the blast area was widened considerably, diluting what little reiatsu it could that breached the mist field.

He looks around, for both signs of the enemy, and any sign of Hyoroshi. 'That cero...it was-' His eyes narrow, teeth bit along his inner cheek. This got that much harder and dangerous. He once more looks towards the Captain, and while this would normally be a sign of relief for those who have struggled to survive up to this point, Gyōja knows better. The Captain has been here for some time now, and has yet to do anything against the enemy. The Kuchiki knew from this alone, this man had not come to save or help them.

Still surrounded and being held up by his mist he turns his head towards the direction he had detected Ren from. He had to at least make sure Ren made it, to this end he delayed approaching her. So long as she stayed up there at a distance, she'd be safe. He'd buy some time, or distract the enemy if need be. He also needed to watch his back around this Captain. He had an idea, but only chance would help ensure the gamble worked.