Chapter 20: Resourcefulness
The moment their surrounding changed around them, Ishida Uryu focused on his spiritual perception; he didn't even have to turn around to know that about half the people that had been in the park before had suddenly disappeared, while he was transported to a different copy of the location with only four other people, three of which were enemies. But even if he'd had only a few moments to examine everybody's signatures, he was fairly certain he'd been confined with the three weakest among their opponents; he'd won against superior numbers before, he just needed to maintain focus and play his cards straight - the greatest danger in a situation like this was underestimating your opponents. And he even had support this time.
"Where are we? Why did the park changed so much?"
Which he probably should try to reassure, somewhat.
"It's a pocket dimension, created to trap us so we cannot escape and they can fight us using all of their abilities. It is a spiritual battlefield, a copy of reality that reflects the world, but is not like it."
"But we didn't go through any mirror or wardrobe."
"No, but one of them used Kido, and I believe that our opponent here might have helped."
Uryu pointed to Yukio Voraben, the blonde teenager on the ground, fiddling with his console down on the ground; when he noticed Ishida and Orihime focusing on him, he looked up with a smirk as he said:
"Impressive, isn't it? My power was already pretty good, but mixing it with Shinigami magic made it that much more effective. Do you want to surrender? You treated me fair enough when I was your prisoner, I can promise you the same."
Uryu had to raise an eyebrow at that.
"They put you in charge?"
"Not really, but since you'd need to be housed in my pocket dimension, I'm the only one who can decide how you will be held; this is my domain, after all."
"Oh! This is another videogame world, like the one I was trapped into the other time! That's what you do, right? Make fake worlds to trap people into?"
The blonde boy seemed annoyed by Orihime's comment, as he turned to glare at her and commented:
"I can do much more than that, actually. Why don't I show you?"
Before he could do anything, however, one of the two people with him, the big black man with cornrows that Uryu identified as Jerome Guidbatt, placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, stopping him as he said, gaze focused on Uryu even as he addressed Voraben:
"Because if they surrender, there will be no need for that. Remember, the Captain wants to speak with them, to learn what Aizen plan really is - if they accept to be taken captive and answer some questions, there would be no need to fight."
Of course, Uryu had no intention to surrender, but he do wanted to see if he couldn't learn something about what was going on here, so he asked, lacing his voice with curiosity while making sure his actual emotions were shielded from outside perception.
"And what if we were unwilling to answer your questions after we had surrendered? How would your leader go about getting the answers he wants?"
The big man frowned, clearly annoyed by the question; Uryu wasn't sure if because the man didn't want to answer, or just was surprised that Uryu was even entertaining the possibility. He could probably get something out of him, but not easily; he'd have to tailor his needling carefully if he wanted to learn whatever it was that the Shinigami were hiding from him.
But before he could think of a good follow up, the third of their opponent, Gabrielle Bernis, the lanky woman with hair in two different colors, interrupted their conversation with an almost whiny tone.
"Come on, they aren't really going to surrender, everybody knows that! We should have just followed my plan, singling out one of their group to launched an all out attack on, and unleashed the hollows we have under control on them as well for good measure. Then we'd have the prisoner we need and all the time in the world to make them talk."
The other Shinigami frowned at that, while the young fullbringer looked annoyed, but it was Orihime who spoke next, and she sounded outraged.
"No, you shouldn't have done that at all! That could have hurt a lot of people! It would be wrong!"
Bernis looked up at Orihime as if seeing her for the first time, eyes wide with surprise.
"Are you for real, girl?"
"Of course I am! And we're not going to surrender, because you'll hurt people if we do! You surrender, and then nobody will get hurt at all!"
Uryu grimaced. He didn't disagree with Orihime's position, but he had hoped to be able to drag their enemies into a prolonged conversation and get some serious information out of them, under the pretense that he just might surrender after all. But to do it now would be impossible. He would just need to get his answer by needling them in battle, probably focusing on Voraben and Bernis rather than Guidbatt, since the first two seemed to be more easily goaded than the latter.
Meanwhile, their other opponents expressions hardened at Orihime's declaration, the male Visored letting go of the young boy even as he nodded to the woman; in a moment, the two charged upwards, running on air and heading straight for them.
Uryu found himself impressed by how quickly they'd switched to the offensive; that was some quick thinking. Still, they were no match for the speed of his Hirenkyaku, so he slid next to Orihime to ask, in a serious tone:
"Your healing ability can make them recover from anything short of death, right?"
When the girl nodded, he returned the gesture, then went on:
"Then I want you to use your barriers to keep the big guy busy and separate him from the others; I'll try to nail them down so they're immobilized, and you can heal them afterwards."
He didn't wait for an answer - the enemy was almost upon them - instead grabbing his Quincy cross and materializing his bow. in truth, he could create the weapon without it, it was one of the first thing any Quincy learned how to do, but the whole point of the pendant was that, once a reishi construct was formed, it could be anchored to it, so it'd maintain itself rather than needing the user's constant focus. And in a battle like this, he was going to concentrate on much more important things than keeping his bow going.
Uryu let out a few repeated shots, low in powers but capable of being fired faster, in a vertical pattern that forced the two incoming Visored to dodge in different directions; as soon as they were far enough away from one another, he slid backwards, nodding to himself as he saw that Orihime had blocked the man as he'd asked and thus he had only the woman to deal with right now. Just what he'd hoped for.
As the enemy charged and he continued to retreat, Uryu remarked, keeping his tone light:
"So, you said you wanted to unleash hollows on us, yet you're attacking on your own. What changed your mind?"
"It's not my decision to make, the Captain said so; we're still members of the third division, we follow the orders we are given. That's our duty."
"I was under the impression Soul Society considers you all to be criminals; I doubt they'd agree with what you just said."
"That's only because we were framed! We weren't able to control our inner hollows back then, so we went on a rampage after we were infected, but it wasn't of our own free will! We still consider ourselves members of the Gotei 13, and once we prove our innocence, we're all be reintegrated."
"And you will achieve that by helping the man who infected you? How does that work?"
"The Captain didn't infect us, he never would have! The revenge he wants is the same we want, we all were framed by Aizen, he's the one that infected us!"
Uryu had to admit, that sounded like a very interesting tale. While they'd known from the fullbringers' confession that Hirako Shinji had claimed that he'd been framed by Aizen and this was the reason for his actions, both Urahara and Shihoin had confirmed that Aizen had done no such thing, and they themselves had both seen proof of Hirako's treason and the man himself committing these acts he was accused of, as well as both having fought him personally. It was of course fully possible that the three were just conspiring together; Uryu had not enough information to tell, but of course, it would be silly to simply believe something an enemy had said in battle, especially if said thing was both to the enemy's advantage and the kind of thing that might make somebody turn on their allies.
Still, he found the new information interesting enough to keep retreating at just enough speed that his opponent couldn't close to melee range, the woman seemingly failing to realize that Uryu was only letting her tire herself, and he continued the conversation while letting curiosity into his voice.
"Is that so? You saw it happen?"
"What does that matter? I know it was him!"
"Do you now? If you didn't see it happen, you could be making an honest mistake; maybe if you surrender you could talk it out and find that things didn't go the way you think they did."
"As if! The Captain told us that he knew Aizen was guilty, and he would never lie to us!"
Uryu shook his head; that was a really silly amount of trust to put into anybody, but he supposed that for a group structured as strictly as Shinigami were, it was to be expected.
It also meant that he wasn't really going to get much else out of this conversation, however; whether Hirako had tricked his subordinates or Aizen had framed them, or the truth was something else entirely, he was not going to learn it here, and in any case, the woman specifically referenced using Hollows as weapons, and that was not something he would let stand. Exterminating hollows was a Quincy's duty, and forgiving anybody who worked with them was not something Uryu could ever do.
Speaking of which, it would probably be better to bait out those hollows now; the last thing it wanted was his opponents pulling them out as a surprise later in the battle.
"Is that why you're not sending your hollows against me, saving them for Aizen? You really could use them."
"I don't have them with me, the Captain is the one who has them! And besides, I'd need no help if you weren't a coward and just stopped to fight, instead of running away like you are!"
"I can help with that!"
Uryu looked down at Voraben, who for some reason hadn't taken to the air but had instead been following after them by running on the ground; he pressed a couple of buttons on the videogame controller in his hand, and suddenly, a massive brick wall appeared from nowhere just behind Uryu, completely blocking his path of retreat.
He managed to stop just in time to avoid slamming into it, his control of Hirenkyaku once again proving up to the task, but then Bernis finally closed the distance with a shout of "Got you!", and all he could do was drain as much reishi from the air straight into his blood as he could; even as his veins glowed blue under his skin, he knew that the slightly different setup of this pocket dimension was slowing the absorption, and thus he still had his wind knocked out of him and could feel bruises forming when the Visored's knee slammed into his abdomen and sent him crashing into the wall behind them.
The woman stabbed her zanpakuto into the wall to keep herself anchored while keeping him pinned with the knee, her other hand striking to grab his wrist that was holding the bow and pinning it to the wall as well, after which she showed off a victorious grin.
"Now let's see whether your body's endurance can match a soul's pure determination, Quincy!"
She pulled her head back, clearly aiming to headbutt him, and he would bet she planned to keep doing it until he was battered into submission; he knew only a little about the shinigami arts, but among the things he knew was that they could keep their defenses up for long periods of time, whereas keeping Blut up for too long, especially for him that wasn't very good at it, was akin to self-poisoning yourself to death. He wouldn't win this contest of endurance.
Luckily, he didn't have to. Even as his right hand was pinned to the wall and he didn't have his bow, his left was still free, so he twirled his wrist, letting one of the many small silver capsules he'd sewn in the inside of his sleeves fall into his hand. It was a thin but long one, not dissimilar from a pencil in size, and the moment he willed it, it suddenly released a long reishi blade from its tip that cut straight and deeply into his enemy's side, causing her to dart backwards in fear as she held her bleeding waist in disbelief.
"What is that?"
Uryu twirled the item into his hand, so that he was now holding it properly with the blade upwards just like a sword, and explained:
"This is a type of Ginto, a capsule that has been filled with reishi collected with a Quincy's power, which is then released in a specific pattern to achieve a certain effects. You can think of them as a Quincy's equivalent of Shinigami's kido; as long as care is taken with the release pattern, they can achieve quite a lot of different results. This specific one is sending the reishi collected within up and dragging it back, like a circuit, keeping it fixed in place. We call it a Seele Schneider."
Bernis seemed speechless, which left Uryu somewhat annoyed; clearly he wasn't going to be able to get anything else out of the woman, so he should perhaps drop the theatrics altogether and focus on simply taking her down. He was about to do just that, when a handcuff suddenly appeared around his right hand, pinning it to the wall behind him; he moved his left away just in time to stop it from being snared as well, although that resulted into his ankles being ensnared instead.
"Ah! I'd told you that my powers are much greater now than they ever were before! I used to need to program every world I created in advance, but now I can modify things on the fly! I'm invincible now!"
Uryu raised an eyebrow at Voraben's proclamation, then turned to watch Bernis, and was surprised to see that the woman had recovered almost entirely from her wound; his eyes narrowed at that. Shinigami weren't supposed to heal that fast normally, so he would guess that she had some sort of healing trick; he'd need to be on the lookout for that.
The visored herself, meanwhile, was looking down at the blonde boy in incredulity.
"Why did you said that?! Did nobody ever teach you not to tempt fate?"
The boy shrugged.
"Yeah, whatever; this isn't even the strong one, it's the girl who beat me last time. Just knock him out; he's trapped there."
Uryu shook his head at the duo's antics, then said, trying to inject his voice with as much contempt as he could manage:
"Am I now?"
Both turned to watch him at that, and with three slashes of his weapon, he cut apart all of the binding holding him in place, before using a quick dash forward with Hirenkyaku to avoid being ensnared again. Voraben looked shocked at that, and shouted:
"Those were supposed to be harder than steel! No blade should be able to cut that!"
"Whatever, just try to keep ensnaring him while I attack, he can't both cut himself free and fight me at once!"
Uryu raised an eyebrow at that.
"I can't?"
Bernis charged at him rather than answer; he could have dodged or evaded, but not without losing sight of Voraben, so instead he counter-charged, his blade of energy smashing into the woman's sword, pushing her backward; she glanced at the blade with a frown, looking at the place where the weapons had met, and where her blade had been chipped, before returning an accusatory glare at him.
"That's no ordinary blade! Normal reishi can't arm a zanpakuto."
Just as Uryu was about to answer, the boy underneath pressed a couple buttons on his device again, and rotating steel platforms appeared around him, with chains springing from one to the other to trap him in; he slashed all around himself, severing the chains as they appeared, as he spoke back, keeping the visored in sight:
"The Seele Schneider creates a flow of reishi constantly vibrating as it moves back and forth; if one were to consider how it actually works, a chainsaw would be the best comparison. Even at the lower frequencies, a single second of contact is the equivalent of a thousand strikes; the best examples can reach up to a few millions. Zanpakuto might well be the sturdiest construct of reishi ever devised, but they're not indestructible, not even in the hands of a master. And you, Bernis, haven't even unlocked your Shikai yet, the data we were given on your group was clear about that."
He raised the weapon in front of himself as the chains finally stopped spawning, Yukio apparently flummoxed at the ease he was being countered with, and Uryu concluded, pointing the Seele Schneider at the visored:
"We Quincy created these weapons specifically to counter your kind. Give up; you can't beat me."
The woman answered with a roar and charged forward; he parried the first attack, leaving another nick in the sword, then started to use Hirenkyaku to slide around her, parrying when she managed to slash at him in time, thrusting and leaving small wounds on her when she didn't. Her zanpakuto didn't break as he'd hoped - it seemed that, even if she wasn't a master, she knew how to make the blade self-repair, if only slowly so - and her swordsmanship form wasn't bad, although Uryu thought it worse than his own, and he was no master swordsman. But even with that, it was clear she was not used to dueling with somebody who outclassed her in speed as much as he did.
He was running rings around her, while actually tiring himself next to nothing since the benefit of Hirenkyaku was that he could slide at incredible speeds without needing to move a single muscle, and she was clearly having trouble keeping up; whatever she'd used to patch herself up had clearly not been enough, as the wound at her waist was still bleeding, if only a small bit and only occasionally, and that was without counting the number of wounds he'd inflicted on her since. He would win this on endurance alone, that much was clear; the Visored was not an opponent on his same level.
Bernis seemed to realize it as well, as she stopped trying to hit him and stood still in midair; Uryu did the same, moving to a relaxed guard position as he said, no emotion in his voice:
"You can surrender at any time; you can see you're outmatched, there's no need to go any further."
She chuckled, and it was a dark sound; yet Uryu narrowed his eyes and refocused his attention, for he was certain that her attitude was not that of one ready to give up, rather quite the opposite.
"I suppose it was foolish to think we could take down a strike team Aizen put together specifically to take down us all without going all out. I hate that I have to resort to this, but you'll regret it more, mark my words. I only hope you don't die because of it."
Then, suddenly, the reading of her soul changed, her form enveloped in a whirlpool of furious reiatsu that appeared so suddenly it could be compared to an explosion in the power and speed it manifested itself at. A mask of white bone formed over her face, diamond shaped and with no visible eye sockets or mouth, only a cross-shaped hole in its middle. Yet Uryu could sense that the mask was only the most visible of changes; attached to the mask, if practically invisible, was a paper-thin forcefield that covered Bernis' entire body. One might have called it skintight, but Uryu realized it was more than that - it was fused to her skin, much like the mask itself was to her skull.
But that was only the external change; what mattered most was the power. It was almost as if her soul was now producing twice the amount of reiatsu all of a sudden, perhaps even a bit more than that, and given that the density of a soul was what determined its physical abilities, he was willing to bet this meant his enemy just gained a considerable increase in power, in addition to the simple fact that, since Shinigami used reiatsu to fuel their many different abilities, she likely was going to be able to do become much more effective on that front as well.
And indeed, a heartbeat later, Bernis dashed forward, sword held in both hands, and when Uryu went for a parry, the hit was so strong he was forced into a block instead, and would probably have been pushed out of his Hirenkyaku platform if his control of it hadn't been good enough to make it slide it backwards as he himself did.
The one satisfaction he got from it was that, when his opponent pulled her sword back, there was a much larger, more visible nick where the blades had smacked into each other; she might be physically stronger than him now, but her weapon hadn't gotten any better than before. Or so he thought, at least, until he felt a huge amount of reiatsu erupting from the mask and rushing along the skintight forcefield she had on, and whenever the energy reached one of her wounds, if filled them, causing them to heal in a sudden burst of regeneration, while the portion of it that reached her hands filled the sword and repaired it to perfect condition instantly. And suddenly what was going on became very clear to him.
"You're using the hollow trapped inside of you as an energy source, stealing their reiatsu and power for yourself. Is this what being a Visored means?"
She chuckled, and her answer was delivered in a gravelly voice that was threatening without needing to try.
"Not just that. I can access the hollow's abilities as well, by changing my reiryoku to let it match what it has. And I can also use the reiatsu itself in new ways, since my body is different now. Like this."
Uryu had a split second to feel the build up of reiatsu in Bernis' legs, before he felt a sudden rip open in her skintight forcefield, the reiatsu exploding out of it in a burst that pushed her forward at a speed unlike any she'd used before; in fact, Uryu realized as he tried to dodge out of it, a speed greater than his own.
Unable to avoid the attack, he barely managed to call on his Blut ability fast enough to keep the sheer impact from being fatal, but it was still powerful enough to smack into him, sending him smashing into the ground. He got up quickly enough, and reformed his Hirenkyaku slid, then frowned as he noticed that Bernis was closing on him at a much slower speed, using her normal Shinigami air-walk rather than the ability she'd used before. Going on a hunch, he flipped the Seele Schneider around so he had his top two fingers free, then created a bow and sent a quick hail of low powered arrows at her; she was troubled in avoiding them all, in fact a couple even hit her, although she immediately answered by triggering her regeneration to negate the damage. But when he focused, taking the time to charge up an actually powerful arrow and let that one fly, Bernis used that ability once more - he could tell from the sudden buildup and release of reiatsu - which pushed her out of the way of the attack easily... but then had her stop a brief distance away, and even with the mask hiding her features, she clearly looked winded by the effort. Uryu smirked at the sight.
"Well, that's interesting. It seems like your little trick only works in small bursts, isn't it? I don't think that's gonna be enough to defeat me, now that I know its weakness."
And, while he didn't reveal it, he was sure it was more than that; he would bet that not only was the ability only good for short bursts of acceleration, but it also lacked any ability to change direction mid-push. Overall, it was a powerful ability, but far less reliable than the Shinigami's equivalent, and certainly no match for Hirenkyaku, especially if he were willing to shoulder the cost required to use it at full power, instead of how he'd been thus far keeping to what he could do indefinitely. He was considering if his enemy's new power was worth taking that kind of risk, when she spoke, clearly annoyed that he'd figured out her ability so quickly.
"Well, if that's so easy for you to deal with, then maybe it's time I show you this hollow's unique power; let's see if you can keep up with that as well!"
Then, before Uryu knew what was happening, a deafening sound filled the air, a screech of terrifying intensity and pitch that almost had him retching; as it was, he fell to his knees over his reishi platform, and almost instinctively had it lead him away at top speed. A moment later, the field in the point he'd been standing at exploded as a sonic blast slammed into it, leaving a crater behind.
Uryu got shakily to his feet, looking upward at the sky where Bernis had removed her mask; clearly the exertion had left her in need of recuperating, but with his head still ringing and his sense of balance not yet recovered, the young Quincy had no way of taking advantage of the opening that offered. He needed a way to counter her sonic attack if he was to win, but before he could figure that out, Orihime's voice suddenly cut through his thoughts.
"Uryu, they've trapped me! Help!"
Uryu turned to where Orihime was standing with her feet tied to the ground by heavy iron shackles; she was using one of her shields to push back the repeated attacks of Guidbatt, who was now also wearing a mask of white bone, this one completely flat and with six slit holes, three for side, as well as several bands of bones wrapped around the man's head; he was pushing back Orihime's shield with each of his brutally powerful punches, and while she kept forcing the shield forward, it was clear he was slowly gaining ground, whereas Orihime could not retreat.
Which was, of course, the fault of Voraben; Uryu chastised himself for having lost sight of the small fullbringer while he faced the hollowified Bernis. The boy was being attacked by Orihime's other three fairies, but he was pressing buttons on his toy as fast as he could, creating traps and walls, cages and obstacles, keeping them at bay while also stopping them from going to free Orihime.
Uryu mustered his focus, glancing at where Bernis was clearly recovered and closing in, likely preparing to reactivate her hollow mask when she was close enough to make it count. The mask had almost made the woman his equal; he was confident he could figure her out, but if the other one was similarly powerful, and with Voraben's support, he worried of their possibilities.
Still, freeing Orihime came first, and then he could go all out. Without wasting any more time, he charged for the girl, even as he called out to her:
"Orihime, keep your attacks up on the blonde boy, don't give him time to use his power if you can!"
She nodded, and Uryu saw with his peripheral vision that the three fairies' attacks intensified; they didn't really managed to do much to overcome Voraben's constant creation of new obstacles, but did keep him focused on themselves, which was all he needed.
Just as he was about to reach Orihime, he turned on himself, even as the slid continued to carry him toward his friend on its own, and he let out a Regenlicht at minimum power; the arrow fragmented into barely a hundred, and all low powered ones, but the attack was still enough to force Bernis, who had activated her mask and just about ready to use her burst ability to smash into his back, to stop and use it to dodge instead, giving Ishida just enough time to cut Orihime's shackles with the Seele Schneider and drag her along his slid with him, before he had the platform raise upward in an almost vertical ascent, allowing them to raise above Orihime's shield so he could fire down at Guidbatt, forcing him to retreat so that his friend could recall the shield to them.
Uryu looked at where Orihime was recovering her breath, but also smiling in gratitude, and he focused his eyes back on Bernis as he asked:
"Does your opponent has any special power that you saw?"
"I think he creates small earthquakes with his punches? It felt like his attacks where hitting the whole shield at once instead of just one point, that's why it was so easy for him to push it back."
Uryu nodded; a close-combat power was something he could handle.
"Alright then, the woman behind has can use sound blasts and ultrasounds; try to stop those with your shield, I'll take down the other guy."
"No, you won't!"
Uryu turned in the direction of Voraben, who had suddenly appeared next to them; he struck with the blade in his hands immediately, and instead of leaving a wound, the figure shattered in a number of glowing shards of light, even as another one appeared and shouted:
"Let's see how well you can hold up against something unstoppable!"
And then, above them, a meteorite formed, suddenly falling out of the sky. Uryu's eyes widened at that, and as he fired an arrow at it, it smashed into the giant rock while barely causing any damage. He frowned, which caused Voraben to smile in triumph as he said:
"Ah, you see? Here, I am completely invincible!"
"That's not it; I'm just annoyed with myself that I only brought a single Seele Schneider."
"What do you think your little sword can do against something like that?"
Ishida didn't pay the boy much attention; the fact he'd have to sacrifice what was the best option for close combat he had in his arsenals at the moment wasn't pleasant, but he couldn't see another option here. He would really need to focus for this one, but before he did, he felt the need to correct Voraben's misconception; much as he tried not to do it when in combat, in this case there was no harm in it, and precision was a virtue after all, something to strive for.
"This isn't a sword. Don't you know? The weapons of Quincy are bow and arrows."
Then he placed the blade across his bow, focusing as much as he could; Heilig Pfeil was the one of the six Quincy arts in which he was by far less skilled, he was nowhere near being able to replicate the Seele Schneider on his own in a non-Ginto form, much less combine it with another - even doing it like this was to the limit of what he'd ever tried, but he had no alternative.
Bernis clearly had no intention of letting him do so, as he felt the buildup of her sonic blast, but he trusted Orihime to catch it with her shield, and let out his arrow, whispering "Regenlicht" just as he initiated the chain reaction at its full power. This time, the arrow didn't stop at a mere hundred, multiplying into several thousands as the reishi split and split and split again, yet with every arrow retaining both the power and, most importantly, the constantly reishi-cycling effect of the Seele Schneider.
When the attack reached the meteorite, the number of arrows was enough to cover a whole quarter of its surface but, most importantly, they went through the huge rock with ease, the sawing movement increasing the penetration power of the attack, cutting every part of it into ever smaller pieces, robbing them of their momentum so that many fell to the ground well before they could reach them, while the rest smashed into each other, sending themselves off course reciprocally.
Everybody else stared at the results of the attacks with wide eyes and slaw-jacked expressions, as the remains of the meteor fell around them while leaving Uryu and Orihime completely untouched. Uryu himself stood still and straight backed, projecting the image of absolute confidence, while hiding how tired he was feeling because, if he didn't, he'd be on his knees and trembling in exhaustion. That was the largest charge-reaction he'd ever initiated for a Regenlicht before, and the strain he'd put on his body to manipulate so much reishi at once, even if only for the brief second of initiation, would normally be enough for him to consider a few hours of bed rest; yet they had more work to do, so he'd need to push himself - he was nearing his limit already after such a feat, but it was clear that to win this, he'd need to go past it.
"That was so cool! Uryu, you're awesome!"
"No! No, that should have been impossible! How did you stop it? You weren't supposed to be able to stop it!"
"You little madman, what do you mean he shouldn't have stopped it? That could have killed us all!"
Bernis seemed ready to tear into the fullbringer some more, while for his own the kid seemed ready to argue back, but the third of their opponent, who was no longer wearing his hollow mask right now, interrupted them before they could go any further.
"That's enough. Gab, we can't wear kid gloves anymore. Let's go all out."
"Ugh, I hate doing that."
"We've no alternative. If he used an attack like that against us in sealed form, we'd be done for."
Bernis nodded, and then both of them wore their masks - except this time, Uryu felt as all of their reiatsu suddenly transformed, much more quickly and completely than it had before; and their bodies both transformed, with Guidbatt turning into a metal creature, all slick lines and square corners, with bolts popping out of the places where joints should have been. Yet, for all that it looked made of metal, the color was the same bone-white as its slit mask; like some sort of twisted combination of hollow and robot. Bernis, meanwhile, had her body replaced with a black skeleton, with fur clinging to the bones without any flesh in between, except that where arms would have been where large, leathery wings instead.
They charged, with Guidbatt punching the ground to cause an earthquake that cut open wide chasms and raised spires of stones from the ground, which he then proceeded to punch in their direction with power comparable to cannonballs, while Bernis above unleashed a continuous, uninterrupted and much more powerful screech than before, making Orihime collapse on his moving platform with a cry of pain. Uryu himself only managed to avoid the same fate by having used Blut on just his ears, reducing the sound to bearable levels, although it was only a temporary measure.
Still, he placed a hand on Orihime, which to an external observer would look like he was reassuring her, but in truth was to keep himself standing straight, which she obviously realized, if the suddenly scared look she shot him was anything to go by. Still, he kept her from asking question by offering one of his own, using a tone that made him sound in absolute control.
"Your other fairies, are they still attacking the fullbringer?"
"Yes, why?"
"They never took their eyes away from him, did they?"
"I don't think so, no. Uryu, what you're planning?"
"Too long to explain, just call two of them back, but make sure the third remains next to him and keeps an eye on him the whole time - but without attacking anymore, I need him to think they are all gone."
Orihime clearly didn't understood, but she nodded, closing her eyes as she focused. Meanwhile, Uryu turned to the enemies closing in, even as he dropped all of the Ginto he had prepared into his hands; he would need them all, because with how tired he was and how much focus what he was going to do next would need, using his bow wouldn't be an option he could afford.
First thing first, he threw one upward, just along Bernis' path, triggering it to activate just in front of her; the sudden release of light and sound that resulted from that would have been confusing enough on its own, but more than that, the Ginto released also a burst of chaotic reiatsu that would confuse the spiritual perception of most creatures, and especially hollows.
Whit one opponent distracted and Orihime's shield protecting them from the attacks coming from below, he used his full focus to use Hirenkyaku to the fullest, creating multiple paths, ones that intersected each other, huge curves, sudden drops, multiple sleds affixed to each one, areas of the paths that could be moved at will, and more structure that would look like a labyrinth to any who studied it, although these paths he made so thin that they would be practically invisible if one wasn't looking for them. He had to keep the whole map of the place in mind, for forgetting even a piece would see that piece disappear from the actual construction.
The trick to Hirenkyaku was that it manipulated the reishi already present in the surroundings reflexively, rather than actively like Heilig Pfeil would - instead of conscious control, it operated on reaction times and predetermined responses to events. And for a true master like Uryu knew he was, it was possible to create multiple interconnected reactions that worked autonomously, so long as concentration was maintained and focus wasn't lost.
Uryu felt Orihime's fairies arriving to their location, and before they even spoke, he used Rasotengai to create a single reishi string, tying one end to his wrist while giving the other end to one of them as he said, tone direct and preventing any interruption:
"Hold this string and go back to where your friend stayed behind, then wait there."
He let the fairy go, then knelt next to Orihime, whispering to her:
"Dismiss your shield, keep your fairies close, and hold onto me; no matter what, never let go."
And then, they were off, as the slid they were on accelerated to the maximum velocity it could reach; Bernis had recovered and was flying after them now, and Guidbatt's projectiles were no longer being intercepted, but at the speed they were going now, it didn't matter any more. They left the flying visored behind, even her sudden burst of acceleration barely letting her regain a bit of ground before they left her behind once more, and then they reached the first intersection of paths, where Uryu's sled slid straight under a different one that immediately started to move in the opposite direction, with Uryu grabbing Orihime and making the smallest of hops so that they landed on the newly moving one while the old one continued in the other direction; to an unaware observer, it seemed as if they'd just taken a sudden ninety degree turn not only without slowing down, but actually accelerating even further.
And that was but the beginning, as Uryu's labyrinth of slides soon had him letting his two opponents fully confused on which direction they should go, while he moved at a speed they would have trouble following with their eyes. And while their ranged attacks had now no change of ever hitting, and their ability to close in melee was denied by the sled's constant movement, Uryu himself was prepared for it; whenever their path would lead them close enough to one of the two visored to make it feasible, he would drop a Ginto right next to them - some simply erupted in devastating explosions of reishi, others released hails of spikes, one caused a palisade to grow for the flying one to slam into, another released a sudden wind push that sent the other to the ground, and overall the effect was that they were being harassed, wounded and left disoriented without pause as the offensive went on.
Of course, Uryu knew that he had a pretty small amount of Ginto to use - he really hadn't had the time to prepare many, and then he'd had to split them among the group - but that didn't really matter; this whole thing only served the one goal he had, to leave the Visored unable to pursue as he reached Voraben. The boy saw him coming, and just as Uryu had expected, he created a multitude of copies of himself, but Uryu ignored them all, even closing his eyes to avoid being distracted, focusing only on the string at his wrist that led him to where the boy was.
When he realized he couldn't fool him, Voraben desperately created a dome around himself, but Uryu simply reached out, his hand disintegrating over half of the dome as he touched it, leaving Voraben struck with surprise just long enough for that same hand to close around his neck.
The boy's eyes were wide as he looked at Uryu like one would a demon.
"H-How?! How did you..."
"Do you not know that the power of Quincy is to manipulate Reishi? This dimension you're so proud of, that you trapped us into, it is all made of it. And thus, everything in it, I can do with as I will."
That was, of course, a vast exaggeration. The fifth of the Quincy arts, Kirchenlied, was focused on using the ability of gathering reishi to create stable constructs of the material; after all, all souls, and everything in the afterlife, was made of reishi stacked together, the pieces connected in much the same way atoms would be. Which meant, of course, that assembling anything out of it, much less a specific item or something else equally detailed and complex, was about as difficult as building a house by hand; possible, but hugely time consuming and requiring extensive knowledge of what you were trying to build. At its most basic, the ability of Quincy to create weapons out of Reishi was really just another expression of Kirchenlied, just simplified by the use of a focus item to anchor the construct to.
Which meant that Uryu's ability to influence anything was really quite limited, especially since he was only middling at using the skill and needed to be touching what he was building to make it work. But breaking apart something like a dome of earth, which really only required moving some of the earth to the sides and letting it slide down? That much he'd knew he could do, and seeing the way Voraben kept creating simple structures made of simple materials, he'd been willing to bet that, when panicked, he'd have defended himself with something he could break through.
And now it worked, which meant he just needed to complete the last step of the plan.
"You're just faster at it, but that's the only advantage you have, and this close, it won't matter. Now, create a canal from the lake to our position, and a pillar right where I tell you, and maybe I won't turn your little dreamland into a nightmare."
"Where to..."
"There."
He threw one of his last three remaining Ginto - and one of only two that'd actually be useful here - and the boy did as he'd told; just as Uryu had planned, the pillar rose to stop Bernis' new attempt to dive at him now that he was finally standing still, forcing her to move upwards. And that was when he activated his device, seven pillars of vibrating reishi sprouting from it to surround the woman before uniting together around her to form a cage; then, he turned, and just as the charging Guidbatt stepped into the water, he threw the other Ginto at him, triggering it the moment it smacked into his chest and releasing a surge of electricity that, thanks to the water underneath his target, saw its power amplified by many times, causing the visored to collapse into the water as a smoking mess.
"Jerome! I'm - agh!"
Uryu looked at where Bernis had retreated her wing from the bar of her cage, and while she started at the cut on it, he explained for her benefit:
"The bars of that cage are made following the same principles as the Seele Schneider; you can't get through them without being sliced to pieces. Just sit tight; your friend isn't dead, and anything else he has, we can cure him from."
The visored nodded, and her hollow form slowly receded, along with the mask, leaving her back to her human form; in the stream, Guidbatt was doing the same, although that was likely an involuntary reaction, since he was unconscious.
Uryu took the controller from Voraben's hands, handing it over to Orihime as he said:
"Please don't give this back to him; I'll take it back in a minute, I just need to rest a bit first."
That said, he laid down to the ground, breathing deeply; yet he couldn't help but be satisfied with himself at the victory, no matter how tired achieving it had left him.
****
Much as he wanted to, Ichigo had no choice but to continue retreating in front of Hirako's implacable advance; the man wasn't even hurrying himself, merely keeping pace with Ichigo's speed easily since his own was far greater, and merely ensuring Ichigo couldn't mount any serious counterattack simply by the sheer threat coming from his unblockable sword.
This is not going to work, Ichigo - we need to change tactics here. If you keep this up, he'll wear down in a few minutes at most.
Ichigo didn't disagree with Sode No Shirayuki's assessment, but he couldn't see any way that an attack wouldn't result into him getting the worse of it; still, keeping up the current pattern wouldn't lead anywhere good, so Ichigo grit his teeth and charged forward at the Captain, attempting a counterattack for the first time since realizing how dangerous their opponent's swordsmanship was.
Hirako seemed amused by that, grinning - which with his prominent front teeth looked somewhat lopsided.
"Found your courage, have you? At least I'll get some fun out of it."
Ichigo had expected the slash coming from the left, if not quite so fast, and so he unleashed the power of Sode No Shirayuki out of the entire left side of his waist, creating a huge and constantly growing armor; it ruined his balance, and badly so, but having expected it Ichigo was able to compensate for it, while Hirako was caught by surprise for a moment as the armor grew in the way of his strike at a pace just fast enough to keep the blade at bay - even if the resistance offered to the ice was next to nothing, the blade still needed to cut through it physically regardless.
And thus, Ichigo managed to just barely stab the very tip of his zanpakuto in Hirako's tight; the captain backpedaled out of range far faster that Ichigo thought possible, but it didn't matter, because the moment he'd had the blade inside of him, Ichigo had frozen all of the blood he could reach in that spot, resulting in a sudden explosion of ice that left a gaping hole in Hirako's leg, even if a small one no larger than a finger.
But small or not, Hirako stopped to watch it, and said in a very annoyed tone, even as the wound started to knot itself together very slowly:
"I don't know what you were planning to accomplish; you won't take me down with hits like these."
Ichigo hadn't really had any serious plan, he'd just wanted to change the pace of the battle and score at least one meaningful hit, but before he could answer, his eyes were drawn to Hirako's sword, which seemed lesser, somehow.
You can see it, can't you? You realize what that means?
It took him just a moment longer than it had for Sode No Shirayuki, but then he understood, his eyes widening in surprise for a moment before he turned a self-assured grin toward Hirako.
"Really? Because from what I can see, to heal yourself you need to draw reiatsu away from the sword, so that it's not as strong as otherwise would have been. Which means that if you try to maintain that advantage, I can take you down with a thousand cuts, and if you don't, then I can fight this on even footing. What I see is that you're not as strong as you pretend you are."
The visored frowned at that comment.
"You know, you really are talented; you pick up on things quite fast, and are very adaptable. If you're sure that you've found the way to win, then come at me, why don't you? Let's see if you your sword can be as cutting as your words."
Ichigo charged ahead once again, hoping to take advantage of Hirako's weakness as his wound was still mid-healing; however, as he went for a strike, the captain merely raised his sword in a block position, and while the sword didn't change at all, Ichigo had to abort his attack as a sudden sense of doom filled him, as if he'd been a hair from death; he watched warily and asked, trying to understand why he was feeling so terrified:
"What... what's going on?"
"You're lacking conviction, that's what."
Ichigo was left confused at that, and Hirako explained, making a lazy slash with his sword:
"A Zanpakuto isn't just a weapon, it's an extension of yourself; sharing your reiatsu with it is one aspect of zanjutsu, talking with the spirit is another, learning from it is a third, and in addition to all that, you can charge your reiatsu as well. It's similar to Hakuda; the sword will respond to your intention and will, and do what you want it to do."
He took a step forward, tapping the blade to a nearby rock; he didn't even push it through, only touching the edge to it, and yet the stone broke into two piece as if perfectly cut, while he commented:
"If you strike with the intent to cut through, then your determination and emotions will empower the sword; however, instead of merely taking the properties of the emotion, since a zanpakuto shares the link with your soul, what it does is take your desires, your will, and make them manifest. If you wish to cut through, then the blade will become sharper, to better bring your will into reality. Wish it to stop your enemy, it'll become an unyielding obstacle."
"That doesn't explain how you did... whatever it is you did there; you manipulated my feeling so I couldn't strike, or something like that!"
Hirako shook his head.
"I did nothing of the sort; the fault is your own. You are fighting to survive, trying to keep me busy and avoid being hit. Your sword, your body, your every movement, even as you control your surface emotions, deep down everything is being held back by your fear. I simply willed my sword to be ready to cut through and kill any who dared strike me; your senses could feel it, how the weakness of your will would be unable to stand up to my intent to kill, and you backed down on reflex."
It all sounded unbelievable to Ichigo, but Hirako didn't seem to care, letting out a long breath; and Ichigo realized that, while he was talking, the man's wound had recovered completely.
"You pick up things quickly, I'll give you that; but your zanjutsu can't match mine, and nor can any of the other Shinigami arts you know. Give up, and spare yourself the pain."
Ichigo, of course, wasn't going to do that; he gritted his teeth, and decided that, if his enemy was right, he might as well try and copy what he just did. From what he'd heard, it didn't seem that complicated - he just needed to truly want something, and his blade would refine itself to suit his purpose, like the living tool it actually was - but before he could, Sode No Shirayuki's voice echoed in his mind.
Don't do it! He's trying to lure you into trying, it's a trap.
Ichigo didn't even have the time to process the idea, as his sword didn't let him, going on in a urgent tone:
It doesn't matter even if you can suddenly manage to do what he's explained, he's had centuries to perfect the technique; I bet that, if two people with an equal will to cut through clash, the one with the stronger sword will win. And if not that, he'll have some other way to circumvent it. He wants you to overextend, don't fall for it.
Ichigo nodded grimly; even if Sode No Shirayuki might be wrong, it was too real and too big a risk to take it right now. Still, that left him with no ability to affect the battle; as Hirako had said, he was his superior in each of the Shinigami arts, so whatever he tried, the man likely had some counter for.
Then don't try for them; surprise him instead. You remember how you earned my support, right? You hid what you could do, and used the trick your friend had taught you at just the right moment to catch me off guard; and you've been discussing with him how his powers work now, have seen them in use. You've been using the sensing methods from three different schools for a while now; surely you can combine more stuff? And then there are the weapons your Quincy friend left you, which he won't be expecting. He wants you to face him on his battlefield; don't do that, drag him on yours.
Ichigo's eyes widened at the idea, and then he grinned; this, he could do. It didn't matter if he managed to win or not, so long as he could keep the Captain on the backfoot and force him to face things he'd not experienced before, he had a chance.
Hirako clearly noticed as Ichigo steeled his resolve, and seemed about to say something, but Ichigo didn't let him, darting forward with Shunpo once more. The captain scoffed at that, raising his weapon in a defense position, and once more, Ichigo could feel the dread coming from it, but he didn't let that deter him - he wasn't going to let himself get cut down.
Instead, just as he was about to strike, he used the Fullbringer step, making the air bounce him laterally at the last moment; he didn't have the focus or practice for more than one such step at a time, reverting to Shunpo immediately afterward, but he achieved what he wanted, Hirako's counter-strike going wide as he struck down with his sword, willing to cut through with all of his willpower.
Hirako had expected that, just as Sode No Shirayuki suspected, and managed to dodge out of the way, but Ichigo didn't stop there, creating a crescent of ice with his sword swing - except that, just a moment before moving his blade away, he pushed his own reiatsu inside it, hardening and toughening it up the same way Chad had taught him to do for his skin, before using an Hakuda kick to send the blade forward.
And even as Hirako's sword cut it in two, the two parts kept moving onward, maintaining their form and momentum thanks to the way Ichigo had reinforced them, embedding themselves into Hirako's body; the Captain stumbled back, surprised at having been hit, and Ichigo pressed his advantage, darting forward once more.
Hirako's wild swing with his sword forced him to about the charge, but Ichigo had been expecting it, so he threw a handful of the Ginto spheres that Uryu had given him; unlike Uryu, Ichigo had no ability to activating them at will, so he'd been given simpler ones that activated upon hitting a target and immediately releasing the reishi within - which in this case manifested into a set of explosions.
His enemy only looked a bit singed by that, much like the wounds from the ice spikes he'd been hit by had only been superficial, but Ichigo didn't care, slashing his sword twice to create two ice walls which he hardened and then pushed forward with a single slap of his hand, forcing Hirako to dodge for once, rather than letting him simply cut down anything he didn't want to be it by, which set the man on the collision course with the path of another group of Ginto.
The man managed to avoid most of them, catching the last one in an extended fist; Ichigo could see the reiatsu around that hand hardening as it did, clearly planning to contain the explosion within to minimize damage, which was why he grinned when the silver capsuled unleashed a torrent of electricity on Hirako.
Despite being hit with however much power the electrical discharge had, Hirako was far from defeated, even as he looked decidedly singed and wounded now; he caught himself in midair from his previous fall, in a brilliant show of reflexes that Ichigo hadn't been expecting, but he was still reeling, if only slightly, so Ichigo went on the offensive once more, this time feinting with his sword only to slam a fist straight into Hirako's face.
Of course, the man's face was hard as steel, something Ichigo couldn't match with Hakuda alone, but by combining it with Chad's body reinforcing trick, Ichigo's hand also didn't break; then, in a sudden moment of inspiration as his punch rebounded back from Hirako's undamaged face, he created a similar area of distorted air as he would for the fullbringer jumping technique, except this time behind his elbow, so that the punch bounced straight back into Hirako's face, so fast and quick that he'd delivered five in succession, in the process managing to leave a bruise despite the hardened reiatsu there, before he had to disengage due to Hirako's latest attempt to cut him in two with his sword.
Just as he left, however, Ichigo dropped another Ginto to the ground, then used the barest of Hakuda pushes from the top of his feet to have it slide just the short distance necessary to be under Hirako's raised feet; and the moment the Visored stepped on it, a set of seven bars of glowing, vibrating reishi surrounded him, like a sort of birdcage made of energy.
Ichigo was left winded and breathing heavily by the exchange, but then grinned at the sight of the Captain caught behind bars and shouted back:
"So, who is it who doesn't know how to fight now?"
Hirako didn't answer at first, instead massaging his bruised cheek for a few moments, before slowly turning on himself, examining the cage that was holding him; once done with that, he refocused his gaze onto Ichigo, delivering his answer in a tone that sounded almost pleased.
"I will admit that you're full of surprises; I think that, if given a century or two, you could grow to become a serious contender. The quick wits would certainly help. In respect of the determination you showed, I'm willing to give you another chance to surrender; I promise I won't hurt you if you do, I just need to be told all you know of Aizen and then I'll even let you go."
Ichigo watched the man with incredulity before shouting back:
"What are you talking about? You're caught and trapped, I've won!"
"No, boy, you've really not. It was a valiant effort, to be sure, but to defeat a Captain of the Gotei 13 will take more than what you've shown me so far."
Then, the man raised his sword above his head, eyes closed in concentration; and Ichigo saw that a few wounds that had seemed to be slowly regenerating stopped doing so immediately, a few of the closed ones even losing a few droplets of blood as if about to reopen. Meanwhile, Hirako's sword started to become a magnet for all of his attention, looking more real than anything he'd even seen before, while the sense of doom he'd felt before started to reach him where he was, even if now he was several meters away from Hirako's position, instead of the few centimeters he'd been at when the man had last used the attack.
And suddenly, Hirako struck, the blade going through the bars like they weren't even there, only for a sudden blast of repulsive reiatsu charged with disdain sent a portion of them flying away before they dissolved into glowing blue dust, while Hirako stepped out of the opening he'd just made in his supposedly inescapable cage with the least amount of care in the world. The man raised an eyebrow at Ichigo, as if mocking his surprise, before adding:
"I've faced Quincy before; the trick to defeating those blades of theirs is to struck in between the vibrations, in that split-second when the reishi is standing still. These ones didn't even a high enough frequency to make it challenging; looked like a shoddy job put together in a couple days, if you ask me."
Then he pointed his sword at Ichigo, all the humor vanishing from his voice as he continued:
"Now surrender, or else I'll start getting angry."
Rather than comply, Ichigo threw all of his remaining Ginto at once, smashing them all into the ground; eight of them were hollow-bait, while the other three turned into large smoke curtains that covered the battlefield - and with the baits there, it'd take time for Hirako to determine his real position.
Which didn't change the fact that Ichigo was seriously considering just trying to see if there was a way to just escape this dimensional prison on his own at this point; he'd used everything he had and could think of, and while he'd struck a couple of good blows, the man seemed barely fazed by it all. And he had nothing else left now.
No; there is one more thing we could try.
Ichigo was left speechless by those words, and then Sode No Shirayuki added, sounding grimly determined:
I'll explain in your inner world, but be quick now - we need to get this done before he finds the real you, we've only a few minutes at most.
As if to punctuate the warning, Ichigo felt one of the hollow baits disappear, and so gripped his blade tightly in front of his face and closed his eyes to force himself into a meditative space, hoping desperately that, whatever his zanpakuto spirit was planning, it'd be able to actually help.
