[Seireitei] The Streets

[Bloodedge]

"Not at all," said Minato the moment he retrieved his Zanpakutou. Now that he was airborne, he used his active Shunko to carry himself through the sky toward additional Hollows, one by one in a zigzag pattern to fell them individually.

Even with the speed at which these Gillian were being dispersed, the sheer number remaining continued to plague the whole of the Seireitei. Various other Shinigami were facing them, but only where Captains and Vice-Captains could be found were they falling at any reasonable pace en masse. An intervention from a great number of Kidou Corps members would see every last Menos bound by copies of the same powerful spell. Raizen diverted his attention from the pink-haired Captain to view this, having made no contributions himself quite yet. "Hmm... Sou ka."

About this time, Benihime would be joined by a particular member of the Kidou Corps; the very same one she'd faced during the Tournament of Power. He'd located her, in spite of her hidden Reiatsu, by instead following the Reiatsu of her Zanpakutou which was almost exactly the same as hers. His own Reiatsu became perceivable when he became visible after dispersing a shroud of bent light from around himself. "So, that's what it looks like," he spoke to the redhead.

[Apollymi]

"That's what I thought," mentioned Juri as she also began to move about at rapid pace, using distance and lightning enhanced strikes to hit multiple targets in similar fashion to Minato's movements. The pair of Captains went out of their way to help dwindle numbers but that didn't seem to be occurring, not until the interference of the Kidou Corps which allowed for a much easier way to handle the numerous Gillans than simple physical combat.

Tamamura seemed only to take advantage of the fact that all targets nearby had stopped moving and used it swing her blade multiple times slashing down a great number of these beasts without any real damage to herself. "Kidou Squad, is at least good for damage control, there is still the matter of Kenpachi-taichou which I assume they won't actually be able to help us with..." said the woman who knew that the better of her energy probably needed to be reserved for something much more taxing than this.

Meanwhile Benihime carried out her experiment having captured one particular Menos she was content to see how long it took for its shadow to be completely infected. As her sword touched the ground she was greeted by a familiar voice and soon after a familiar Reiatsu as a lad dressed in garbs she'd only seen him in once made an introductory statement about the nature of her Zanpakuto. "I did offer to show you sometime..." she said peeking over her shoulder. "Also sneaking around isn't really like you~" she said to him offering a small smile. As she did this, the mask on this Hollow, began to shatter, it had taken several moments but it seemed to be devoured by the darkening shadow which emitted from her blade but also from the shadow which appeared darker under its extended nose. 'Sou ka... that's kind of a long time...' she thought as the beast was felled. But she also knew for a fact that smaller things with smaller shadows died quicker. This ability of hers was likely influenced by the size of the shadow needing to be conquered. Even so, once this was done and the beast disappeared her own dark shadow returned to its original size around her. "So did they let you out to play, or did you break out to do something fun?" she asked seeming to have already made a few assumptions about this boy, his general disappearance and rather sudden reappearance in her life.

[Bloodedge]

At Benihime's location, the Kidou Corps member made an effort to remove the garbs which covered his head and face. A long, black braid fell over his shoulder when he did this, and it was joined by many loose locks of hair cascading down his back. This sapphire-eyed male walked closer to the redhead, watching as the Gillian she targeted was consumed by darkness. "Not exactly the way I was hoping," he said about her previous promise to showcase her Shikai. "We were deployed to detain the Menos so they don't do too much damage before they are dealt with. I thought I'd take this one opportunity to come find you. I know my disappearance may have been a bit sudden, but I had no control over it."

[Apollymi]

Soon enough the young man made an effort to remove the garb over his head, showing her the face she'd come used to seeing in her daily life while at the Academy. He was quite the attractive one, and the appearance of his face brought a smile to hers. "Oh, I'd almost forgotten what you looked like, Dai-kun~" the girl teased, though this was far from the actual case. As for this not being the way he'd hoped to find out about her Shikai she could only shrug, "She isn't really made for friendly combat," she said of her Zanpakuto, as if that fact wasn't obvious by the fact that she hadn't actually needed to move to kill the giant Hollow the pair of them had once run from. As they moved on in the conversation, it seemed he thought to explain his rather sudden disappearance along with why he was presently standing before her. "Ah, so they let you out then," she said. Benihime was clever enough to have figured out what happened to him, even before he made an appearance in the Tournament of Power. Even so, she knew she was at least partly to blame for the weirdness at their rather sudden parting. "Iie, I knew what happened and figured we'd be able to meet up eventually. I know you wouldn't just bail on me for no reason," she said. "Also, sumimasen, I should have explained better why I wasn't up for using my Zanpakuto and met you properly while we fought," the girl said offering her apology, something she'd been wanting to do properly since she'd faced the Fourth Seat of the 11th Division.

[Bloodedge]

"Looks like it," was his responsive commentary about this one's Zanpakutou. He had to say he was impressed, but more importantly than this matter, was the fact that he could only converse with her for a certain amount of time here. As such, when she offered her apology, he shook his head. "That bothered me for some time, but... I don't have the luxury of caring anymore. Listen... I want to keep this going; us, I mean. I just... the Kidou Corps is a very strict place. I haven't had the freedom to see you, and I don't see any future where any opportunities aside from ones like this will present themselves. That doesn't sound like much of a future."

[Apollymi]

It seemed at least Daiki understood why the girl's reluctance had been at the level it was when they'd previously met up. Of course, there were matters of much more importance than this, mostly his apparent ties to the Kidou Corps, which made him feel like they wouldn't work out as a couple. A sigh escaped Benihime, as she'd had the same feeling herself, especially seeing how long it took for this meeting to take place. "I've had a lot free time to consider that, and have done a considerable amount of research about the Kidou Squad. I know you're right... " she said taking a single step forward she reach out for the left side of his face with her right hand. "At least, I got to see that adorable face of yours again. Arigatou gozaimasu, Dai-kun," she said popping up on tip toes to offer him a single parting kiss, she'd then revert her blade to its normal form and step away from him as she sheathed it. "Ja ne~"

[Bloodedge]

Though he'd rather have avoided this outcome, Benihime also understood the situation at hand. When the lass rose to kiss him, Daiki placed his hand upon her face as well, savoring the moment as best he could for lack of surety to experience another. Her farewell was met by a few backwards steps by the raven-haired male, along with a parting query. "You'll wait for me, right? I'll take over the corps one day. I can change things then."

[Apollymi]

Benihime felt the feeling in this moment that she hadn't felt in a few months. The burst of sensation that made her feel a tiny bit less alone in the world as if her soul wasn't merely empty. It was quite shameful that this would likely be the last time she experienced such a thing. And as such she also enjoyed this singular moment of closeness, before the feeling of despair welled up again. She wanted to lie to him, to convince herself that it was possible to escape the fate she knew to be her own now, but, when she looked at those sapphire eyes, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I don't doubt you'll change things. You'll do it for all the other people around you because that's the kind of man you are," she said rather suddenly very empty inside. "Chances are... I won't live long enough to see it," she said, knowing her own situation, she'd gathered that there would be something she couldn't avoid. And the looming gaze of destiny was on her shoulder, it'd already showed itself once, and lost the young woman her entire family, she had no doubt her fate would eventually swallow her up as well. Instead of dwelling on it, or allowing this young man to feel pity for her, she immediately began to move. "Live your life Daiki and have some fun for me~" she said as she aimed to disappear from this place making use of Shunpo.

[Bloodedge]

Suddenly, the air around the pair of young Shinigami shifted. What Benihime had to say regarding her personal future was dark; incredibly so. She went on to tell the lad to live his life and have fun in her stead, but he had no earthly clue where any of this was coming from so suddenly. Daiki stopped backtracking, choosing instead to step forward and reach out for the woman. "That's not... What do you..." He was struggling to form a complete sentence at this point, but before he could reach her and finalize a query, she was gone. Daiki stood alone then, having nothing but questions in his mind. 'Kuso...' he thought as he stood within a crowd of Menos.

In the meantime, though, the Menos in the Seireitei were falling at a much greater pace than they had previously, due to the efforts of multiple Captains and the binding spells of the Kidou Corps.

[Apollymi]

While the disappearance of Benihime was probably marked with a great deal of confusion for Daiki, Juri was busy having killed a great number of Hollows with her old partner in crime at her disposal. "Sheesh, this is getting bothersome, has anyone taken care of Nijo yet?" she asked seeming to find their constant killing of Hollows to be somewhat mundane especially when they knew there was a much greater threat looming on the horizon. Tamamura was also a bit anxious, she didn't remember Nijo's Bankai taking this long to start up, and she had been certain she would have felt the bust of his Reiatsu by now. 'This doesn't bode well for us, but at least the Hollows are falling at a more reasonable pace now...' she said taking note that the combined efforts of the Gotei into killing these beasts. Surprisingly one person who many would have expected to be in this place hadn't shown up yet. "Himotoya-taichou is late to this event, Sato-kun did you pass your tardiness off to the younger generation today?" asked Tamamura cheekily.