Revelations (Xav and Kuro)

Paris. The city of romance. Ryouta exited the Senkai gate accompanied by Kuro Akarui, his fellow Captain. They were here on a mission- reports of a dangerously powerful Hollow reiatsu had been received from this general area. So powerful that the Captain Commander had deemed it necessary for two Captains to subdue the threat. Ryouta had volunteered- it was rare that he got to stretch his legs in the Real World, and he relished the opportunity to do so. Kuro had his own reasons for volunteering, he supposed. It didn't matter. Right now, they had to focus on the task at hand.

"We have no significant information on the spiritual being we are in pursuit of other than that he is powerful, and his reiatsu is like a Hollow's. I think we should proceed with caution. Stealth is more your area of expertise than my own; perhaps you could go ahead and do some scouting? I will follow from a safe distance," suggested Ryouta to Kuro. He was treating this mission with an uncharacteristic professionalism. For once, Ryouta was uneasy. This nameless terror had stripped the city of all its collectible data; that is to say, all the spiritual denizens it once housed, Hollows and Shinigami alike. This was serious. Ryouta hoped Kuro would pick up on his uneasiness, considering just how uncharacteristic it was. Ryouta almost never acted on a hunch.

However...he could not shake the feeling that tonight would be life-changing.

Kuro knew of the seriousness of the situation, but it didn't stop him from cracking a smile at Ryouta's unusual behavior. It had to be something to do with research. A scientist was always worried about such things. Kuro himself had come on the mission for a change of scenery. He didn't get assigned to places other than Japan often, so this was a good opportunity for adventure. But he recognized the duty of the mission as well. Leaping up on top of a building, he started to get a better look of the city to begin his search.

"That's a good idea." he called back down. "I'll keep my presence hidden and try and locate the enemy. You used to be in second squad too, so you shouldn't have much trouble tailing me."

Without another word, Kuro took a deep breath while he got a hold on his spiritual signature. Once he was sure that it was under decent control, he began to shunpo along the tops of the buildings in the city. He didn't see much as his search began, and that was the odd part. Not as many souls or even hollows as one would expect in a city like this. Kuro stuck to the shadows as much as he could, trying to stay out of sight so that the enemy didn't find him before he found it.

OOC: He’s on the top of the Eifel tower in case you didn’t get that

Perched precariously atop the pinnacle height of this steel obelisk he stared into the night sky, the vastness of space outside this world was impossible to imagine; even more astounding was the diversity on this speck of sand in the universe.

So it was deep in thought atop his dream tower that he failed to notice the two men enter what he considered his city. The irony would have made him chuckle, that he kept this city clear all with a spiritual pressure shinigami or hollow yet these two powerful combatants slipped in unbeknown to him.

Ryouta followed Kuro swiftly and silently, about two or three flash steps at a time behind him. Kuro was right, of course. Ryouta was formerly of the 2nd Division, Vice-Captain, in fact, and so was quite proficient in remaining unseen. His flash steps always carried him into the shadows, not once did a limb appear in the light of the moon, stars, or streetlights. Nor did any sleeve, or hem of his robes and haori or his ridiculous bucket hat. He even took care to follow Kuro but using a different path, so that even if one of them was spotted, the other might not be.

It is unnaturally quiet, thought Ryouta. Is this uneasy feeling I have a result of sinister reiatsu? Or is it the calm before the storm?

And then, perhaps at the same time as Kuro, Ryouta felt the presence. It was awful and smothering, the most powerful Arrancar presence he had ever felt in his life. He halted in his tracks, obscured by shadow, and his gaze flicked to the source of the reiatsu presence. There, standing atop the highest structure in the city, was an Arrancar. Ryouta did not doubt that it was this Arrancar who had driven everything spiritual from the city. He also did not doubt that there was some reason for this that would be damaging to Soul Society as a whole, or the spiritual balance of the worlds.

Ryouta flash stepped toward the Arrancar, still keeping in the shadows. His 2nd Division training was really paying off here- as far as he could tell, the Arrancar had not detected the presence of either him or Kuro. It took three separate flash steps, but Ryouta finally found a shadow within flash stepping distance of the Arrancar. Okay, Kuro will have my back, I'm sure, thought Ryouta. And with that, he flash stepped right in front of the Arrancar, sword flashing diagonally down to strike across from the Arrancar's right shoulder to his left hip.

Hopefully, Kuro would be fast enough to utilize this opportunity to make an assassin's strike at the Arrancar's back. Given that he was 2nd Division, and the Captain no less, Ryouta had little doubt he could count on him.

A flicker of movement caught his eye, and it was if he suddenly regained his senses as two powerful spirit pressures suddenly became detectable. How had he been so oblivious to such power entering his city that they would be able to sneak up on him unbeknownst to him?

He could feel that both were powerful enemies however he felt that in terms of raw reiatsu he dominated them both, but reiatsu didn’t speak for skill and judging from their stealthy approach and surprise attack both had skill in heaps.

The attack came diagonally towards his right shoulder with its path heading towards his left hip, he would normally have taken the blow on his Hierro due to his advantage in terms of spirit pressure and use the opportunity to draw his enemy in closer and finish it through a brute display of strength. However his companion was an unknown element and as such he wanted to distance himself to assess the situation and plan a few moves ahead.

He used Sonido to back away by about fifteen feet, charging a cero while he did. The cero was to occupy the shinigami who had initiated the attack with him giving him an opportunity to assess the other one.

Kuro felt the presence around the same time Ryouta did. He sped up and circled around to the opposite side of the tower as Ryouta moved towards the arrancar for a frontal attack. Following Ryouta's elevation, he ascended up the height of the tower keeping even with his fellow captain to make their attacks nearly coincide.

Kuro hung back near the top to let Ryouta distract the enemy's attention. The arrancar moved back away from Ryouta while charging a cero. Kuro felt like this was a good chance and shunpoed twice in quick succession. The first carried him to the arrancar's level on the tower, afterwhich he used the second to approach the arrancar's back and make a quick stab with his zanpakuto between his neck and shoulder.

"Ah ah ah, I don't think so...Weep, Reifujin Arashi," admonished Ryouta. He brandished his hilt at the Arrancar, sending a torrent of water directly at the Arrancar to stop the launch of the Cero. In the same movement, he brought his hand over the hilt and caused an ice blade to appear where the hilt had melted. The torrent of water was being sent out at enormous pressure; being hit by it would be like getting hit by several wrecking balls.

Normally, he would have expanded the torrent to its full capacity, but he did not want to risk Kuro, who had appeared behind the Arrancar. Ryouta did have confidence in Kuro's ability, but it never hurt to be safe. Under cover of his water attack, he began muttering, "The sun rised, the sun fell, the sun slew the shadows well, the sun rises, the sun falls, the sun banishes the shadows on the walls, the sun will rise, the sun will fall, you will die 'ere the shadows grow tall..." It was the incantation for a specific hado spell that was geared solely towards use against Hollows, or anything with Hollow like characteristics.

A Captain using it- and with a full incantation...it would be devastating to any Hollow it hit while being completely unharmful to Kuro. As things were, Ryouta thought it the wise course of action.

OOC: I took Kuro’s attack without it affecting me as I was informed by Marl that a difference greater than 20 in Spirit power resulted in you being unable to cut the person, and when coupled with an arrancars Hiero it seemed to make sense. However if you’re not happy with this get at Marl I suppose. Also Ryouta I have no idea what Kido that is, mind leaving a spoiler of the kido and it’s effects in your post if you’re using them.

IC: His opponent before him sent a great torrent of water before him, but he remained unfazed. He was willing to put his cero up against this mans attack. The blue water met his red cero in a great crash as the two powers came together and nullified each other.

He had used that cero to give him time to focus on the second combatant, but the counter attack had been unexpected and for an instant he gazer had wandered and now the man was gone. A blur passed him, too fast for him to keep track of or move away from and then he felt a hit to his back.

Turning he saw the man he had lost track of and it was evident he had tried to stab him with his zanpakuto but his Hierro had stopped the blow. This evident that in terms of raw power Yummei outclassed him, but the speed with which he moved and his evident skill made him nothing to be taken lightly.

‘‘Kuroi Tsubusa’’

Black wings of reiatsu grew out of his back, he curled them around himself and then pushed outwards hoping to catch the man with a blow of off them.

Using the momentum of the attack with his wings he flew backwards and turned to face his second opponent. And was struck by a searing pain as a bright ball of light filled his vision with burning rays. He’d never ran into this type of kido before and this confirmed that he was dealing with some tough characters, he was no coward but maybe the two of them together was a bit more than he could handle. That aside he had to do something about this destructive light.
Tearing his zanpakuto out of its sheath he aimed the tip directly at this ball of light and fired a ‘‘Kuroi Kiba’’ right at it.

ooc: kuroi kiba does "a moderate amount of damage" where sunburst (the kido i'm using) is supposed to be "devastating", which is why i'm thinking it'd probably best the kuroi kiba in power, especially since the entire incantation was said, and by a captain

The ball of light that erupted from Ryouta's finger was enormous; by far the most powerful kido spell Ryouta had used in quite some time. The rolling sphere probably had a diameter of roughly five times Ryouta's height and was traveling at an intensely quick speed. Ryouta saw the Arrancar fire a dark bolt of energy directly at his Sunburst spell. They met with an intense crackling noise, and it seemed as if the dark energy was blistering away at contact with the spell- still, it seemed as if the spell was losing some momentum as a result. Ultimately, Sunburst won out, but Ryouta was highly concerned. He had had to recite the entire incantation to produce the spell, and this Arrancar was capable of slowing it and lowering its power seemingly without effort. He was a far tougher opponent than Ryouta expected. But he would not use Bankai yet...

Instead, Ryouta sent a wave of water to follow the ball of light. If Sunburst made contact with the Arrancar, he had little doubt it would do some form of significant damage. Ryouta had to ensure that that happened. The wave of water followed the ball and overtook it and the Arrancar, then swirled around in giant ball in the air to enclose both the still moving ball and the Arrancar (and possibly Kuro. Ryouta was finding it difficult to keep his eye on him). Ryouta made the water molecules come closer together to make the water unthinkably dense to prevent escape. With luck, this would be sufficient to give the Arrancar at least a wound to consider troubling.

Hopefully, Ryouta would not come to regret possibly enclosing Kuro with the Arrancar. But hopefully, Sunburst would prove a sufficient distraction in addition to attack.

Kuro was taken aback as his zanpakuto met the arrancar's shoulder unopposed, but inflicted no damage to him. He had sensed a difference in their power levels, but hadn't suspected the difference to be to the exent where his zanpakuto couldn't hurt him. He immediately shunpoed back from the enemy to reassess his options, and was surprised again as black wings of energy burst out of the arrancar's back and swept at the spot where Kuro had just been standing. This foe was going to be annoying.

Kuro was grateful that Ryouta had cast the kido he did. The threat it posed to the arrancar seemed to take his attention off of Kuro for the moment. Kuro took this time to focus his energy for his next attack. Glancing at his zanpakuto, he decided that it had been quite pompous to try and hurt an arrancar with it sealed in the first place. Gripping it tightly with a feeling of conviction, he fiercely called its release phrase, "Concentrate, Seishou-Sejin!"

With a flash of light, Kuro's blade transformed into a black and gold ninja gauntlet. A red jewel strapped to his palm began to shine with intense light as his reiatsu was diminished and his power concentrated in his shikai. Kuro briefly thought of using a blade of energy from his gauntlet to attack the arrancar again, but was unsure of whether his power would be able to pierce the hierro any better concentrated than it had before. He decided to go with a brute force attack instead. Shunpoing to the arrancar on its sword arm side, he threw his fist at the side of its torso while amplifying his physical strength with his Kibaku Hirate ability. He hoped that this attack would have more of an effect than his previous attempt.

Kuro sensed the power of an additional attack behind Ryouta's hado and shunpoed away from his and the arrancar's current position immediately after throwing his punch, aiming for a coordinated hit and run tactic between himself and Ryouta. It was most fitting for a shinigami like him whose main strength was his speed.

A blur of movement and then the fast shinigami appeared to his left, he instinctively brought his Kuroi wing around to protect himself and it worked well in taking most of the force out of a powerful blow but he still felt the damage that the punch did to his side.

He swung his zanpakuto in retaliation but met nothing but and was surprised to see the shinigami had retreated amasingly fast as soon as he had landed his blow. His problems were growing worse by the second as that ball of light slowed down but not destroyed by his kuroi kiba was damaging him and a cascade of water was rapidly enclosing him in with the burning light for company.

He tried to move through the water but found that it had solidified and gain quite some density. He was in trouble, he needed to get out of here and away from this ball or at least destroy this ball properly so he wasn’t sustaining damage.

‘‘Kuroi Hunoo’’

A raging cascade of black flames poured out of his mouth engulfing and destroying the Kido ball of light that was so doggedly burning him and evaporating the water on one side of his prison. He entered the open again with a Sonido.
He maintained his kuroi hunoo attack but used the laser like beams that his eyes produced for their speed so as to occupy the fast captain while he charged a cero.

Raising the tip of his sword the palm of his hand he aimed it at the one who had both trapped him and produced the kido.

‘‘Kuroi kiba’’

He mixed his black reiatsu with cero he had gathered in his palm and released the black.

Had it worked? The light was too bright for Ryouta to see clearly behind or around it. Note to self: create an eyeball that will solve this problem, he thought to himself. However, any further thought on the matter was interrupted when Ryouta saw, with considerable disappointment, that the spell had in fact, not worked. This was especially disturbing since he had given the full incantation. And then...oh dear, he was being targeted. A black Cero. His lips moved slightly, but over the sound of the Cero, it was difficult to hear- VMMMM BOOM!

Huge clouds of dust wafted up from where the Cero had apparently hit Ryouta and smashed into the ground. As it began to slowly clear, a figure stood up amidst the rubble; a figure encased in icy blue armor. It was Ryouta; apparently he had activated his Bankai to minimize damage taken. His armor was cracked in several places, but he seemed to have little difficulty standing. "Let's see how you handle this..." Ryouta raised a hand and a towering wall of water appeared out of seemingly nowhere at his command; to be more specific, 6,000,000 gallons of water.

With a gesture, he broke the water into four chunks and sent them hurling at the Arrancar in four different directions. As the water surrounded the Arrancar, Ryouta began spinning in around in a hurricane like formation that quickly became a spinning sphere of water. And then, he utilized his atomic control over the water by breaking apart the bonds to form bolts of pure electricity. Anyone or anything within the deadly sphere would be subjected to random bolts of lethal lightning flying around inside it. The sheer volume of water would be difficult to push away, Ryouta knew, and he thought he had seen Kuro flash step away, so he felt no guilt in using this encompassing tactic.

His cero had hit, or at least he believed that it had hit, however the damage it had done had been minimised by the release of the captains bankai. He was garbed now in an armour strange armour presumably of water as that was what he seemed to control.

It was then that he saw the power of this captain in its full, a monstrous amount of water was created or pulled out of the atmosphere Yummei knew not which it was. The water then came down at him in four pillar like torrents.

There was no dodging it, as the water began to swirl in a typhoon like manner and circle him. It would be a battle of power, death was waiting if he couldn’t win.

Gathering his reiatsu he poured it into his black wings enlarging them still further until they could both rap once around his body forming a double protective layer and making them denser at the same time. He was prepared for the cascade of the water and felt he would be able to survive the weight of it.

And then his body was alive with pain. He felt as if every part of him was in fire and jerking out of his control. A hoarse scream let out of his lips as he fried in a massive torrent of electricity. He was hurting bad, bad enough to die possibly; but he couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t be taken by two random schmucks.

‘‘Split’’

His reiatsu expanded about him. Black. Thick. Raging.

It dispelled the electricity and around his body and transformed him as he stood. Gone were the clothes and sword. Back was the all black monster he had been. This fight had gotten serious.

Kuro felt a great response from his fist as he slammed it into the arrancar's side. The damage had been reduced by the arrancar's quick reflexes with his wings, but Kuro was sure that his blow had worked. He also escaped the retaliation with little effort since he'd been retreating after his attack anyway. As Ryouta's attacks continued to encompass and damage the arrancar, Kuro allowed himself some feelings of satisfaction and belief that they were gaining the upper hand in this fight. Such bright thoughts were short lived.

The arrancar used an incredible display of flames to completely destroy Ryouta's nagging spell and break free of the prison of water he'd been trapped in. The laser-like beams he fired from his eyes upon emerging grazed Kuro on the side since he'd let his guard down for a moment. The wound was small, but it hurt with an agonizing pain that caused Kuro's face to distort in silent agony as he sped up again to dodge the beams. He tried to get closer as the arrancar began charging a cero, but was deterred by the annoying eye attack which proved faster and far more annoying than any speed the arrancar himself could possibly move. The attack kept Kuro at bay until the arrancar turned his attention towards Ryouta again and released his cero. Knowing that at his current strength he couldn't help at this distance, Kuro was forced to trust Ryouta to survive the attack on his own.

It turned out that Kuro's faith was well placed as Ryouta emerged from the cero's explosion clad in his bankai (which Kuro was seeing for the first time now) and sent another massive, restricting attack at their enemy. The arrancar was engulfed in a sphere of water and began to cry out shortly after as bright bolts of electricity surged through it. Kuro wasn't willing to get ahead of himself again and believe the fight was over like before. His side was still stinging from the lucky shot the arrancar had grazed him with. The arrancar's reiatsu suddenly surged with a greater intensity than before and he released his true form which appeared to Kuro like a black beast that belonged in a nightmare. This fight was only getting started and shikai wasn't going to be enough to win. Kuro clenched his gauntlet fist tightly and focused again.

"Ban-kai."

An instantaneous flash lit the sky for a split second, fading to reveal Kuro now dressed in a black and gold ninja outfit. To the others, Kuro's reiatsu would appear to have completely vanished as his power was concentrated inward in his body. Both his hands and feet were now garbed by gauntlets and boots concentrating his power like his shikai had. Kuro kept his distance for now and concentrated hard in order to light up the bottom most circle on a sash that ran down his torso decorated with seven hollow circles. As much as he wanted to get back in the fight, he had to play it safe and wait for an opportune moment.

Incredible...his release had been sufficient to blow away Ryouta's Bankai; in addition, his Ressurecion appeared to have healed any wounds that Ryouta's Bankai might have inflicted. We're in trouble, thought Ryouta worriedly. For an instant, he felt despair- but then he felt Kuro's reiatsu vanish. So Kuro's had to use his Bankai too...Ryouta knew quite a bit about every Captain's powers because of the extensive surveillance systems secretly installed all around Soul Society. He would have to buy Kuro enough time so that his Bankai would be at maximum power.

I have to keep him where he is, and not give him a chance to attack us...all right...

Ryouta raised a gauntlet and clenched it into a fist. At this gesture, the water that had scattered as a result of the Arrancar's release split into two large flat sections, perhaps the size of a World Cup stadium each, of water that were above and below the Arrancar, with the Arrancar between the two in the center. Then, spears of water began firing from both planes of water. As they flew through the air, they froze into deadly thin javelins of death.

Essentially, the Arrancar was facing icy spears coming at him from both above and below; if/when the spears missed and hit the water plane opposite their starting point, they would simply be absorbed into the water and again fired out as a spear. The spears came at high velocity and at incredible rate; at any given moment, there were probably hundreds if not thousands of spears in the air. In this way, Ryouta hoped to not only hurt the Arrancar, but keep him where he was.