[Seireitei] The Streets

[Bloodedge]

"You're not the first person to tell me that," Raizen said regarding Mōryōmaru's death threat. After hearing of the alleged perfection in Raizen's current form, Mōryōmaru had a mind to possess the younger Kumori outright. Raizen looked up as the Hollow hive encroached upon him. A deep exhale escaped him, and with it, he tossed the object in his left hand toward Benihime with good faith that she would be capable of making it useful. Then, the Hollows reached his body. Raizen got to have a first-hand experience of these Hollows aiming to take over one's body, but he did not seem worried at all, even as they incorporated themselves into him.

Meanwhile, the barracks below began to shake, and a certain sleeping Captain stirred. His raven-haired Vice-Captain had so recently approached the man with the intention of waking him, but it seemed to be the clash of powers overhead that did the job in the end. Kogara Satoshi opened a single eye, looking first toward the ceiling, then toward his Vice-Captain. He sensed a very familiar Reiatsu, but what he thought it to be was simply not possible. "Neh, Youmu-chan. It's not nice to jump into people's dreams like that."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Raizen's insolence came with a death threat from his grandfather. And soon enough the masked man was being swarmed by Hollows as the man known was Mōryōmaru tried to take over his grandson's body. Before this though, Raizen tossed the object in his left hand towards Benihime, and the redhead extended one hand to capture it. "Yare yare, I guess we're doing this now, huh?" she asked and soon after she allowed her hand to close around the orb in its casing. This would cause the casing to break and leave her with the tiny black pearl in her hand. This exchange would cause Mōryōmaru to look towards the girl. "This generation has no respect. That's fine though, I'll show you all when his power and body are mine," he said of Raizen handing over a family heirloom to the red head without any thought, as the Hollows worked to absorb and spread his powers around to each and every piece which belonged to this man through their shared connection. "Only a Kumori could use one of those, you can't escape either, girl." he said which only made Benihime scoff. "Yeah yeah, I'm not going anywhere, but if you think I can't use this... you really are out of your own time Jiijii," the girl said as her own Reiatsu finally pushed past her bandages and she used the small crystal as a focus. With this she began an incantation the skies around her darkening. "My right hand is the stone that bridges worlds. My left hand is the blade that binds reality." she started.

Meanwhile below the Vice-Captain apparently known as Youmu would be told it was rude to enter people's dreams. "Whine about it later. Seriously, Kogara-taichou, there is a problem outside, the whole Division will go under if you don't get up!" the girl finally said as she urged her Captain to get up. As if to confirm what this girl said, the pink haired Captain of the 12th Division finally caught up and found herself standing in the presence of this senior Captain. "She's quite right, Kogara-taichou, what's outside your division right now, is something only someone like you should be handling... I know you felt it." she said wondering if the man had decided to push away the sensation of that person's Reiatsu as an impossibility.

As this happened Benihime worked towards finishing her spell seemingly, unmoved by the fact that Raizen was being overtaken by Hollows. "The black-haired shepherd is hung from a chair. Stratus clouds come, and I strike down the ibis." as she finished this incantation a large stream of Reiryoku stretched out from either side of her person, and soon after it turned black, opening up into a Garganta like mouth but this wasn't any ordinary spell. No, instead of simply being portal it would open as a field which held in place all the Hollows which had tasted the Hollow Power of one Kumori Raizen, using Benihime and the crystal as a conduit.

[Bloodedge]

The field which began binding every Hollow in the vicinity was fated to claim Raizen as well. He found himself unable to move from his location, but he had to take a moment of experimentation to get a proper feel for this. Soon enough, he brought his right hand to the mask upon his face. Some of these Hollows were within him now, and he knew precisely what this meant. "Yare yare. This is going to hurt," he said, immediately ripping the mask from his face to have it dissolve into the wind. The nature of the pearl-borne field was interdimensional, and it bound only that which contained Raizen's Hollow Reiryoku. This caused Raizen himself to be ejected from it upon removing his mask, while the Hollows within him were ripped from his form to remain between this world, and whatever world the field was linked to. Nothing more than a grunt and a wince came from the 10th's Captain as this occurred; it did seem to be quite an unpleasant sensation. Of course, Raizen theorized that this would also affect the two fallen members of the 9th Division.

"Youmu-chan... Inuzuri's back. There's nothing I need to get up for anymore," Satoshi quipped. In a matter of moments, though, the Captain of the 12th Division appeared and spoke to him about this alleged danger. Satoshi's second eye opened, and both of his eyes narrowed as he looked toward the pink-haired woman. He truly thought there was nothing for him to worry about unless the Captain-Commander deemed such to be the case, but if there was one individual within the Gotei he expected to be right about something like this, it was the scientist standing before him. "Yare yare. I thought I'd never have to be the one to do this," he said as he rose. There seemed to be some form of sadness within this Captain; he knew what needed to be dealt with, and the thought alone left a bitter taste in his mouth. A few moments later, though, he begrudgingly emerged from the barracks to look upon the monstrous form of an old comrade. "Kumori-san... it's a shame we had to meet again."

[Apollymi]

"Bakana!" Mōryōmaru's exclamation was heard by Benihime and it only caused her to smile. She quite enjoyed the idea that she'd surprised this old man by the usage of this crystal. "Keikaigi." was the name of the spell which cemented its use and left it open to hold this fallen Captain and all of its Hollow pieces in place. Much to the thoughts of both Raizen and Benihime, just like him being ejected from the field after removing his Hollow mask, the two hollows attached to Yayoi Tsubaki and Minami Setsuko came flying from where they were attached to the two young women and into the field. This would release them from those Hollows' hold and leave them mostly unharmed by their take over. Where they were both Hibiki and Ikaruga Noel would likely witness said Hollows being pulled away.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't think those two would have brought him here, if they could use either of the others," she said of the senior Captains. Though she didn't like being left out of the loop, Akiko did know enough of the intelligence of Raizen and Benihime to assume they wouldn't have led the fallen Captain here, if it didn't serve some greater part of their plan. And soon enough Satoshi was heading out to greet one Kumori Mōryōmaru who was now trying to figure out how to escape the field. "Kogara-san, that is no way to greet me. When I get out of here... I'll teach you some manners too," he said which only made Akiko's eyes widen as she looked around and noted the placement of her fifth seat she found herself standing near where Raizen had been catapulted and asked a simple question. "Am I right to assume, Beni-chan has managed holding him and all his little pieces in place for some reason?" she asked the question but this was mostly an assumption. The only reason they had to hold all of this man's pieces in place was to try and kill him all at once. Which would mean that they intended to use Satoshi for the raw power of the kill, for whatever reason.

[Bloodedge]

"I was right," Raizen said as he brushed off his torso from shoulder to abdomen. "That was painful." It seemed the time was now approaching. The arrival of Satoshi came with a greeting for Mōryōmaru, which the latter seemed to take exception to. "Neh, Kumori-taichou wouldn't be too appropriate anymore, don't you think? That would be rude to Kumori-taichou and Ayatsuki-taichou here." These words came from Satoshi as he looked up at the beast of a former Captain, seeming curious as to what sort of situation he'd gotten himself into after this return. When Raizen spoke his response to Akiko, he would also be addressing this potential concern. "Quick thinking as always, Ayatsuki-taichou. This is the reason I couldn't bring you with us earlier. It may or may not have been even before your time that the black pearl was used by Kumori. Once upon a time, they were created by members of the family to form bridges to Kyougoku. We needed to create one of them, but also alter it in a way that would create this stasis field between here, and the designated Kyougoku. As I'm sure you can figure, these pieces are not just bound simultaneously... They are also connected to the same subspace due to them all being infected with my Hollow Reiryoku in larger relative quantities than I am presently. On the negative side, Mōryōmaru's regeneration ability far exceeds our ability to destroy all the pieces together. That is where you come in, Kogara-taichou. If my theory about your Bankai is correct based on what I've seen of your Shikai, you alone have the destructive power to stagnate the regeneration, while also having an area-of-effect that would allow you to strike all segments simultaneously. Ojiisan... I'm sure you know what this means."

After hearing Raizen's speech, and specifically honing in on the segment addressing him, Satoshi looked toward the young Captain through the corner of his eye. He understood these implications, but he once again found himself bothered by this white-haired lad. His gaze eventually traveled toward Akiko, as if to gain some level of confirmation from her about this entire ordeal.

[Apollymi]

"That boy is barely old enough to walk, how he was made Captain is beyond me, brat deserves a beating, not respect," mentioned Mōryōmaru as he struggled against the stasis field which was rather sturdily in place. "I didn't expect him to be so talkative... Couldn't get other Hollows to answer questions but this one, talks enough for all of them," Benihime mentioned as she landed. All of his smaller pieces hadn't been very forthcoming as far as speech was concerned but it seemed the original man did enough talking for all the rest of them. Meanwhile, Raizen went on to explain the plan while Benihime allowed her elbow to rest on the hilt of her Zanpakuto. Mōryōmaru went on to scream in the background apparently still retaining enough of his brain to think the pair actually had a plan that might work based on the information Raizen had given, and his actual knowledge of Kogara Satoshi's abilities. "You can't do that to me... you simply can't! STOP!" he screamed orders but no one seemed to be paying the Hollow Captain much attention.

"You two were up to that... while you were gone. Okay, I've never even seen one of those, because I'm always doing mundane things while people are doing stuff like that," she said seeming to be somewhat disillusioned about the status of these two people on the cleverness scale as it related to the ability to fuse science and magic. So far as she was concerned, such entreaties were how you ended up with a man like the beast locked up right now, but there was one thing which didn't immediately make sense, 'Kogara-taichou, because stagnation, okay... seems fair but...' her eyes narrowed as Satoshi looked towards her and she in turn looked towards Benihime. She'd seen at least the baseline notes on the girl's research into regeneration but it didn't include the information which would make Satoshi a standout candidate for this killing in particular. "Ano, when you look at me like that it feels accusatory, Aya-tai. Yes, that fact was missing from my research papers, but considering how I got that information I figured you didn't want to be associated with my methods," the young woman said which made Akiko scoff as she turned her attention back towards Satoshi. She was silent for about four seconds, but knew the combined efforts of the pair had indeed manifested in what had to be the most strategically perfect plan for getting rid of their hidden Hollow problem."Yes, it's exactly as they say. My own quick thinking done with all the information you should be able to kill him and all his parts here and now if you used your Bankai to do so. And this is the most efficient and casualty free way to do so... Nice job, you two." she said frowning deeply. She didn't like this, these two reeked of the kind of clever she was, with only one of them having made this blatantly obvious before hand. And she didn't have fond memories of encountering other truly gifted individuals, who hid their abilities, especially ones with properly curious natures. "So are you going to take this one off my hands Kumori-taichou?" she asked of the man completely changing the subject back to that of the potential transfer of her fifth seat. Such a statement just made Benihime smile, as she was quite correct in the assumption the Captain of her division was trying to get rid of her.

[Bloodedge]

"Urusai," Raizen said calmly to his elder clansman. "We've already proved my superior ability when compared to the likes of you. Return to dust, Ojiisan." The words of Raizen warranted another glance from Satoshi. He hadn't been able to see whatever sort of battle occurred before his arrival, but the implications of Raizen would lead one to believe the young Captain was stronger than an old legend. The thought of this alone was disturbing, as Satoshi could recall the days he himself spent looking up to the Bakkoutou-possessed former Captain.

In the midst of the ongoing discussion, it seemed Akiko was keen on abruptly addressing a different subject. The matter she chose to speak on was a potential transfer of one Niwatoko Benihime from the 12th Division to his own. Though this all seemed very out of the blue, Raizen replied with a coy smile and a quick glance in her direction. "I was wondering when you'd finally get around to asking. My part of the paperwork has been signed. I left it on your desk when you weren't looking earlier. For now, though... Kogara-taichou?"

The purple-haired, extravagantly-dressed Captain sighed, taking the necessary steps toward Mōryōmaru. "Yare yare," he chanted. During his approach, he began unsheathing the strange scimitar of a Zanpakutou he wielded, having it immediately begin cackling with powerful electricity. "Bankai... Otsu." The lightning being emitted from his blade was absolutely erratic. It arced in a way that tore asunder the ground Satoshi walked on, and it very quickly spread, reaching far and wide. Raizen had the foresight to prematurely set up numerous Danku barriers between Satoshi, the others present, and the 8th Division's barracks nearby, donning his mask briefly enough to empower the spells further. The Bakudou held out well enough, but the streets and walls for quite the massive radius were absolutely decimated by the activation of Satoshi's Bankai, which did not stop gaining intensity until the man could no longer be seen. When the lightning lessened in quantity, Satoshi stood with a long, double-edged sword in hand. Armor with the likeness of dragon scales now covered his legs, arms, and back. He wore a crown of two horns, and brandished a long tail at his backside. The lightning previously stemming only from his sword now cackled around his armor as well, as if Satoshi himself had become the generator of his power. "Kandenshi Garyuu!" Now that his Bankai was active, Satoshi looked ahead and pointed the tip of his sword at Mōryōmaru. "Kumori-san, it pains me to be the one doing this. Maybe we'll be able to meet again in another life for one of us, and under different circumstances. I'll at least honor you by holding nothing back," he said, simultaneously beginning to levitate high into the sky. As he did this, the sky once again became cloudy this day, spawning an electrical storm of great magnitude. Once he was overhead, he raised his sword and conjured a massive seal which absorbed every speck of electricity from the surrounding storm clouds. For a single moment, the sound of innumerable simultaneous thunderclaps spread across the whole of the Soul Society. The channeled lightning remained within the circle as it shrank, decreasing the size of the coming assault. Satoshi's only remaining words would come as his Zanpakutou was slowly brought down. "Disappear with the thunder, Mōryōmaru. Raiken Shikiten Haizetsu," he said ever so calmly. The slow descent of his blade stopped when its tip pointed toward Mōryōmaru once more, and after a single second of delay, a wave comprised of one million lightning strikes crashed down upon Mōryōmaru's location. Even at its minimum size, this blast threatened to destroy a great chunk of the Seireitei around its location, leaving a wide area barren and desolate. Raizen, having foreseen such magnitude in the coming attack, continued the formation and reinforcement of barriers in a circle around the battle space. Even so, he was remiss to see them all shatter at the tail end of Satoshi's Bankai assault. His eyes widened nearly to their limit at this time. 'Bakana!'

[Apollymi]

Mōryōmaru the once great Captain was now bound and being kept for his execution, at the hands of his own grandson and people he'd once called comrade no less. If not for the situation, he probably would have admitted the superiority of the boy's ability, but he was well past the state of normal reasoning. Of course, there was a great deal of irony in this, considering what he'd been trying to do in the first place, but still he didn't not expect this level of methodical treachery. Why hadn't he seen it coming? How had they managed to slip such a huge plan by him? Didn't these accursed brats understand, one day... they'd be shown up by the massive power of the next generation and have to grasp at straws to retain their relevancy? His questions would remain unanswered as his executioner let himself be known in the shape of rolling thunder.

Meanwhile, Akiko found herself staring at the Captain of the 10th Division. Finding it strange that he already knew she was going to hand over her fifth seat somewhere, and that he'd been proactive enough about it to leave paperwork already completed for her transfer. "This is how old people become ornery isn't it?" she asked rhetorically. "Hai!" Benihime replied seemingly happily as she began to watch was was slated to be a good show. Still the young woman didn't seem at all phased, but managed to gain the widest of wide eyes as she witnessed the Bankai of Kogara Satoshi. "Sugei!" she said knowing that Raizen had cast a great number of spells to protect the lot of them and the area, she still couldn't quite believe the amount of sheer power possessed by one of the oldest of the Captains the Gotei had to offer. The words spoken by the man to Mōryōmaru reached him, but that didn't stop him. "You'd kill me? You can't... You can't... " it seemed his cries fell on deaf ears as the power of a million lightning strikes rained down upon him. All of his individual hollow pieces were struck, stopped from regenerating and even beyond that... his whole being melted away under the pressure of this powerful Reiryoku based in electricity. Nothing could be done as all his pieces seemed to heat up and evaporate, the former Captain of the 12th Division becoming nothing but literal dust on the wind, with no possibility of regeneration. Still the power wasn't done yet, as barriers set up around the area exploded and shattered under the power of the lightning strikes, Benihime and Akiko were stunned enough to end up on their bottoms on the ground. "Okay, I've seen him do stuff before, but even I find that surprising. I see why he sleeps all the time, he definitely deserves it." said Akiko, only to have the redhead nod her agreement.

"Hai. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's even tempered or I doubt anyone would bother waking him up," she said still all but dumbfounded. At the end of the endeavor, the large stasis field which had been opened to hold the Hollows in place, disappeared with the last traces of Kumori Mōryōmaru. She could only imagine the responses of the others within the Seireitei, and she didn't envy either her current or future Captain having to explain this situation to the rest of them.

[Bloodedge]

Raizen looked onward, almost in awe of the power wielded by this particular Captain. He knew of the man's status among the senior Captains, but if this was any proper indication of the group's power, he'd narrowly escaped a personal execution at the hands of one Tamamura Tamao during the Shinigami Tournament of Power. The disintegration of Mōryōmaru was followed by the descent of Satoshi, and the sealing of his Zanpakutou. This was accompanied by the falling of the black pearl, which Raizen personally could not touch, lest he be bound in the same way Mōryōmaru previously had been. It was Satoshi who picked it up and stared at it curiously. The purple-haired male shifted his gaze toward Akiko, eyes narrowed, and he used the moment in which no other would be looking to store the pearl. Meanwhile, Raizen looked toward the disappearing clouds. "Yare yare. I have a long way to go," he mused. This resulted in a scoff from Satoshi, who slipped his arms into his sleeves as he walked toward his Division's barracks. "Che! Don't get too cocky, kid. Your kind has a history of going down the wrong road when they get cocky."

[Apollymi]

Soon enough the descent of the Captain of the 8th Division marked the end of the battle at hand. And though the black pearl had fallen during the aftermath, Benihime hadn't seen where given she was presently speaking with her current Captain. Akiko's eyes on the other hand seemed to travel from time to time to Satoshi, she knew he had something he didn't want anyone else seeing and as such she soon stood back up dusting off her bottom. "Ano, I think we're about done here, arigatou gozaimasu, Kogara-taichou. Pleasant dreams," she said to the man as she figured he'd be going back to sleep soon. Benihime soon got up as well, heading over to the Captain of the 10th Division whom she'd arrived with. "That kind of commentary makes me wonder, what did you do to him, Kumori-taichou?" she asked Raizen of the commentary provided by the Captain of the 8th, making the assumption the white haired young man had done something to him besides reveal the treachery of his grandfather to garner such commentary about his attitude. Beyond that, she wondered if the pearl created for this moment had been consumed by its usage, she hadn't seen it fall.