The anchored dimension was no more than a bed of chaos as both groups of powerful souls fought fiercely for the vanquishing of the other.
Shinigami and Hollow – The two races that were more familiar with death than any other. It was akin to a close acquaintance to both, a part of their being that they carried with them till their last days when the light of their souls are extinguished. On this day however, in this dimension that was cut off and tethered to the pathway void, the peak of both races pushed their relationship with death even deeper. From the familiarity of passing acquaintances, to the taboo tresses of intimacy.
Ideals, ambitions, goals, visions, morals, answers, dreams, duty. Everything was put on the table and fought over, one side in defence and the other in defiance. It wasn't about who lost and who won, but instead about who loss less.
In the face of conflict, conviction and duty was second to not dying. The essence of war, away from ideals, ambitions or reason, simplified into nothing more than plain murder. No honeyed words or heart-tugging speech. In the battered plains, it came back to who killed who.
So in this instance, where little mattered but the enemy in front of them, Shinigami and Hollow became no different from the other.
....
Kisuke cursed under his breath as he watched the battle from afar, knowing just as he had Aizen in his sights, Aizen had him in his. Still he fiddled with the device held in the flaps of his robe.
Something was keeping Itachi and the others from coming over to this side, he knew that, as he had also done something that kept the Head Captain from coming. Luckily for them, the other Captains had come to the town shortly after Itachi and the others left. Yamamoto would be the last to leave in case Aizen planned something against the Soul Society when they were away.
So now with the very force needed to easily overwhelm Aizen unaccounted for, Kisuke cursed his luck – the perk of being friends with a black cat – and after sparing another glance at Aizen, made himself scarce.
It was better for him to let Aizen predict and anticipate his move with a neck of caution than to leave himself in the man's view and unknowingly be pulled into his games.
"Captain Unohana, how is she?" Kisuke asked offhandedly.
"I'm right here y'know." Yoruichi wiggled her feet in his direction with a twitching eye. "Or you can come closer so I can punch you so you can see for yourself."
"I'm tempted but I'll pass for now." He said lightly and turned serious right after. "We don't have much time. Aizen is only standing back to see the outcome. We need Itachi to battle the effects of his Zanpakutō."
Even as smart as he was, he couldn't figure out a way to escape Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu. As much as he prided himself as a man of veritable solutions, answers weren't easy to come by. And some questions bordered on the edges of impossibility.
If it was as easy as thinking up a solution to perfect hypnosis then forget Aizen, he would have thought up counters and nullifiers to every Zanpakutō in Soul Society, including the Sacred Relics because why not?
"Is there no way we can get to them?" Unohana asked calmly, a soft curiosity being the only thing one could infer from her words.
"It's not that easy. If it were, it wouldn't be a trap for Aizen. Entering is the easier part. To leave we have to weaken the keys around the borders and we can't do that for obvious reasons." Well they could if they wanted to give Aizen an easy tap out.
That was one problem, another was the method Aizen used to prevent any entry from Soul Society.
Kisuke suspected he must have moved the anchor point in the Dangai or must have hidden it. He knew Mayuri would have an easier time figuring it out from an outside view but time was the one thing they had so little of.
"Don't worry about it too much." Yoruichi got up from her sitting position and started flexing her joints. "Itachi is there with them so I doubt they'll be there for long. All we have to do in the meantime is hold down our part of the bridge."
She released a satisfied sigh and looked at Unohana with a gleam in her eyes. "Good as new. I owe you one, Unohana."
Unohana gave a lighthearted laugh and waved off her words. "There's no need. I'm just doing my part."
Kisuke and Yoruichi gave her a nod and left. Kisuke went to make extra preparations while Yoruichi stalked around the battlefield and observed every battle with cold golden eyes.
Her eyes lingered on a specific fight, watching as her former disciple and retainer fought against a former Shinigami. As much as she would have liked to pick and poke at every mistake Soi Fon made, she couldn't when she realized that she was not watching her former student fighting, but instead was watching a budding master bloom her craft.
It almost broke her cold mask when she recognized bits of herself and Itachi in how Soi Fon fought. But both traits were secondary and supplementary to a flair of cold stinging precision that was entirely Soi Fon.
Her little bee had grown up.
She tore her eyes from that fight and directed her attention towards where Rangiku and Lisa were being cornered by three female Hollows. They were either playing with the two of them or weren't too invested in the hating stocks their companions seemed to have bought. That was good. It meant Rangiku and Lisa would survive for a little longer.
The battle between Shinji, Rōjūrō and Hachigen and the three lower Espada were in the Visoreds favor. Shinji far eclipsed the cat but his persistence was admirable (annoying).
Hachigen, even with only one arm, had no time dealing with Eyes. His gimmick was too easy to counter. Eyes' luck took a nosedive for him choosing to fight none other than the Kidō Corps Vice-Chief, a barrier specialist. Turning away from the boring fight, she turned towards the most concerning one.
Rōjūrō faced Szayelaporro Granz, a rickety and spring Hollow, and Rōjūrō was losing badly.
Her eyes slanted needle thin when she saw how increasingly ineffective Rōjūrō's attacks became the longer the fight went on. It was like he was studying Rōjūrō's attacks. He was understanding them to the point where he was nearly immune to them.
While Rōjūrō wasn't the most skilled Captain, his Zanpakutō's ability was very straightforward and the nature of whatever Szayelaporro's ability entails made Rōjūrō the worst person to face him. Like Hachigen against Eyes, Rōjūrō had the worst compatibility against his opponent.
'Hmm. That one has to go.' She turned towards Shinji, glad that he was done with the blue cat and immediately came to Rōjūrō's aid.
Now the compatibility issue has turned.
As someone who has experienced her fair dose of illusory-type Zanpakutō, it was an unending bag of tricks in the hands of a skilled user, making it more dangerous to face than almost any other type of Zanpakutō. As it would turn out, the three people she knew who had illusory-type Zanpakutō were absolute menaces with it.
Shinji was a difficult opponent to fight in any setting, and sure enough, the battle changed tempo.
Moving on, she observed the new Captain, Sajin Komamura, fight Tier Harribel and he was not her opponent. He was holding on but that wouldn't be for long.
As for the last two, Kyōraku was fighting Baraggan while Jūshirō was fighting Itachi's twin, Ulquiorra. Neither of both fights were going anywhere, in fact Jūshirō was having a harder time keeping up with the spry Ulquiorra than Kyōraku who couldn't even draw close enough to Baraggan to do any type of damage.
'They should switch.' She thought to herself and seeing the deeply frustrated look on Kyōraku's face, she knew he was thinking the same thing but unfortunately, so was their opponents who made sure that neither succeeded.
Finally, her eyes draw itself towards the sole perpetrator of every major misfortune she and the others had suffered through for over half a century.
The smug bastard had a smug smirk on his bastard face and as much as she wanted to run in bash his head against the ground, she knew that was the heightened senses in her talking.
She wasn't afraid to say Aizen was stronger than her, it was true, so attacking him alone in any fashion was dooming herself. She'd wait for Kisuke… for now at least. She wasn't going to sacrifice any of her comrades for a chance.
Rather, she'd die if that meant a better chance of killing Aizen.
'Come on, you bastard. What's taking you so long?' She shoved the anxiety in her heart into a deeper crevice and continued her role of stalking the battlefield, until she sensed a shrouded and well hidden figure doing the same. She smiled inwardly.
'Of course he'd do something like this.' She licked her lips in dark anticipation.