Safe at last? (open)

Zanshin walked trough the streets, why did he go here, something had attracted him to this city, it had a strange aura to that made him feel that he would be safe there.
The feeling of safety was a feeling he treasured, few times had he felt safe from harm, and when he did, the feeling was usually betrayed, and yet he kept seeking out places he could feel safe.
Chances of him finding a place he would feel safe in was small though, he trusted no one, and he expected everyone to betray him at some point, using him as bait, pawn or shield.

Maybe someone was luring him to this city by making the city fell safe, but then again could someone actually do that? He suspected that someone could do that, many things he did not believe before had changed since he reached the earth, monsters had attacked him, people with glowing bow and arrows had confronted him and humans had looked at him even though they should not be able to see him.
He continued walking around the city, looking for what was drawing him to this city.

Tatsu had been sent to a city, official buisiness for the Soul Society, traces of a shinigami who had escaped Seireitei's jurisdiction was leading here. Why would they choose him to track down people like he did, he was given authority over the matter as third seat of the second division, somewhere deep down he was hoping that this rogue he was sent to chase was far from here.


Walking through the streets of the spiritual city, the samurai reached the end of his short trip, at the entrance of a senkaimon gate that would lead him to the target city, where he would have to surely face an opponent that was following the path that Tatsu had fought so hard to avoid all his life. Shortly after the wide gate openned in the sky of the city, the samurai had never set foot here, he didn't know what to expect, it wasn't often that the second division sent lone dogs to hunt their prey.

Spreading his reiatsu around the perimeter to see if he could detect anything that would draw his attention. It was also a way to warn whoever was in the vicinity that he was there too, somewhere deep down he didn't want to harm anyone.

Zanshin turned around in an instant, he could feel the aura in the area, it was a shinigami, why was one of those here, they could not have learned of his existence could they?
He had kept a low profile, only fighting when it was needed, this shinigami was probably there on other business, that had to be it, but Zanshin still did not feel safe about the situation, it was probably best to keep an eye on the shinigami... From a safe distance of course.
Zanshin did his best to lower his own spiritual presence, he did not have any training in it, he simply went by intuition to learn new abilities and ways to do stuff, so the results was far from perfect, when he lowered his own presence, he lost any perception of energies around, making his hiding a double edged sword.
Before Zanshin was done lowering his presence, he felt hollows on the move, they must have taken notice to the shinigami because he spread his presence around.

Zanshin made it trough the streets, he finally made it to where he could feel the shinigami, seems the shinigami was still there, what was he waiting for there, was he waiting for something, or was this some sort of trap that was set up for Zanshin, he was going trough scenarios he could, it could also be to lure in those hollows.
Zanshin was confused as to what it was all about, all he knew about the situation, was that his hope of finding a safe place had once again been crushed.

"Sir." The young woman at the terminal said raising her voice even though there was barely any sound in the room. There were nearly a dozen people hunched over computers in the semi-lit around here. Only one or two looked up from there work as she spoke. The rest acted like they had blinders on and ignore her call. There was a man that approached behind her. Once he heard his footstep stop behind her did she begin to speak. "We just got a signal from the quadrant 7 - B."

"Put it on the screen." the man behind her said. Her fingers typed out the command and the room was now more lit than before. The reason was the large screen that made up the far wall was now displaying what was on the woman's monitor. A map of the city occupied the whole wall now. More people looked up from there work. "Can we get confirmation on those signals?" The man asked as he looked upon the two dots. "Get a Raven active." he commanded them without looking at anyone in particular.

"Confirming targets. Raven 7 is being rerouted." A man said not looking from his terminal. "Confirmation on targets." His face was illuminated by the activity of his monitor. A map similar to the one on the wall was on it. But there was also a picture of the planet and several dots around it like a solar system model. "Raven 7 active scan complete. Seems to be a category 3. Some interference in the scan, but due to residual energies." He continued to type as he reported the results to the man still standing by the young woman. The man standing there was wearing a black suit, must like the others, but the air about him was vastly different. He was an older man with a silver mane of hair framing his face and a small scar along his jaw line. He seemed of average build and only stood a few feet taller than the sitting woman. The grayed gentleman stroked his chin for a moment while he kept an eye on the map.

"Prepare for shortie." he said after a long pause. "Send out Sly and Claymore for intercept. Have Anvil set up a perimeter. Contact Section 2 and report. I want all eyes on these two until we make contact. Keep up secondary scans and radar." With that he walked away from the young lady's seat and moved toward the back of the room. There was another station here and two other personnel waiting for orders. Unlike the simple computers the others used, these terminals we much larger and had several displays. Each of them larger than a pool table and facing opposite sides of the room. "Call the Colonel." he stated as he took the only empty station with a very fancy leather chair. This one had fewer buttons and switches, and three monitors. One of those had the same view as the large one in the room. The other two were dark. He pressed a button and a panel opened. Inside were two phone receivers. One was black and the other one red. He picked up the black one and pressed several numbers.
"Systems ready, sir." One of the people working the larger terminal said. "Claymore and Sly have departed on Razors 1 and 3. Raven 7 locked on the target's position."

The samurai couldn't get a pinpoint on all the spiritual energies that were lurking in the area, he had no idea what was happening around here but there were hollow, and hollows had to be taken out for him to actually find his mark, using a shunpo to quickly close the gap with a nearby hollow, its brutish looks and monstrous look put Tatsu at ease actually, it wasn't one of those stronger foes he had faced with his current captain, or worse.

Unsheathing his sword the samurai focused all his spiritual energy upon himself, making Tatsu glow a faint dark blue. The monster turned, and more howled in the distance, their taste for shinigami had awakened, but they would meet their demise, they didn't stand a chance against the third seat of the second division.

Brute strength, sheer skill and spiritual pressure made the samurai tear through the hollow as if it was mince meat, many more closed by but they weren't very strong, something had drawn them to this city as they are drawn to his own spiritual energy.

The more hollow's died, the more the samurai tried to drag the fight towards what seemed to be his target, Tatsu was fast and strong, but he was also smart, if he could close the gap between his target and himself while keeping the fight on his heels maybe the rogue wouldn't notice that he was the target, this was a very subtle plan to try and avoid an all out fight between shinigami within a city.

The fight against hollow actually ended sooner than anticipated, little energy was needed to dispatch these grunts, alone in the middle of the streets the samurai tried to pin point his target once again.

Before long the shinigami was off, Zanshin was barely even able to follow where he was going, Zanshin made sure to keep his distance from the fighting the shinigami was doing, this was probably what he was here to take care of, and in that case Zanshin just had to keep low until he left.
Though the fighting was getting closer to his location, Zanshin had to choose a new spot soon or he would collide with the fighting, and he had no plans of fighting hollows, or be discovered by the shinigami.

He quickly moved back trough the alleys away from the fighting, yet he began getting a bad feeling in his gut, as if something really bad was about to happen. His gut was not always trustworthy, but when it came to danger, it was almost always right, and this time was probably no exception.

He did not move too far away in the end, even with his bad sensing abilities, the shinigamies energy was all over the place, so he could still vaguely sense him, further down the alley in the direction he had moved, he noticed something, people was setting something up in the distance, it was the way he had come from, and that street was pretty much abandoned earlier, why was people setting something up there now?
It really was a trap, the shinigami planned to draw him in, and close away his escape routes, but that was not going to stop him, he had escaped the shinigami before, they are more organized than the gangs of the slums, and the hollows, by there was always a crack he could get trough, a little oversight he could get trough, and with his time on earth, he had learned a few new tricks by observing quincy and shinigami.

Zanshin considered his plan, first it would be best to see if the shinigami knew where he was or not, if he knew where he was it would be a game of cat and mouse, but if he was still unnoticed, then this would be allot easier to get away from.
If the shinigami knew about him, then it would still be limited what they would send after him, so he would either have to outrun them or escape trough hidding in sewers or building, so far the sewers seemed like the best choice, sadly he did not know the sewer system here, so he might very well end up lost.

The twin motorcycles roared through the streets. It sounded like thunder. Although they looked like common vehicles there was nothing simple about them. These machines had power then some to spare. Their riders used it to the fullest as they effortlessly wove through traffic at top gear. Their forms hunched over the bikes made them blend in perfectly on the dark motorcycles. Even when they crossed in front of a car's light they were hard to see. The only thing people did see was the bright light at it's head and the red glow of the tail as it passed. Cars honked as they dangerously came close to being hit, but it never happened. The only way they would be hit is if they wanted to, even then there wouldn't be any harm to the riders. While it seemed dangerous, they were perfectly safe. They revved the engines higher and shot off like rockets as the motors screamed. Faster. They were blurs now, black shadows cutting through the city. True to their namesake the razors tore through the city. Claymore and Sly had no problem controlling the power and speed the bike gave. They had spent hours upon months training with them.
"Second signal is moving NNE." A voice spoke into helmets of their suits. "Projecting area map." Inside the helmets a holo screen came to life showing their current position and that of their target. They were close. Without speaking they separated Sly raced ahead while Claymore took on the side streets and wove his way behind where Zanshin was.

"Nice and easy" Claymore said as he started to decelerate his bike. He was now within a block of the target. Finally the motorcycle came to a stop and he dismounted.

Spoiler:

He took a moment to pull his rifle from his back and looked down the sight. His helmet gave him a digital feed with pin-point precision. He could probably hit a fly with the rifle. There was a build in camera allowing others at the base to see as well. His finger flicked off the safety and he made his way down the alley.
"I'm moving in." he said as the plasma rifle hummed to life in his hands. "Switching vision." the display shifted. Everything became almost blue in tint. He was seeing another range of the visible spectrum. Not just infrared, but electron frequencies. This allowed him to see what was previously only privy to those with spiritual powers. He could in fact see ghosts. The map in his visor continued to show the signal of the rogue shinigami. There was only an apartment building separating them. Less than 50ft. "Sly, where are you?"

Sly had little trouble getting ahead of Zanshin since he was on legs and she had a super charged motorcycle at her disposal. She zipped up the wrong way of a street, ignoring all the honks of protest. The tires screeched as she slid to a stop in a side street. In one smooth motion she got off and propped the machine against a dumpster.

Spoiler:

She clapped her hands together and popped her neck. After two rotations she pulled a pistol from the holster on her hip. The screen in her helmet had already shifted over. There were residual traces of other spiritual beings had passed here before.
"I'm in position." As she spoke her body started to flicker. In seconds she disappeared from view. The only trace that she had been in the street was the motorcycle sitting against the wall. "Moving in." Her voice didn't even come out from her helmet. No sounds and no trace of her passage as she advanced. Unlike Claymore she was abit further away. They would try to sandwich Zanshin between them. If seeing Claymore sent the shinigami running Sly would be in position to get him.

On a rooftop

Another man in a suit similar to the other two was observing Tatsu as he cut down all the hollows with ease. He was crouching down to hide his mammoth frame. The eight foot giant hugged against the wall.
"Control, I have visual confirmation on target." He said "Several category 1 are engaging." To his side was a very large weapon. It was almost as long as he was tall. It looked like a gattling gun, but the degree of sophistication said there was more to it.
"They're barely registering on our systems." The voice on the other end replied. "Didn't even see them on regular radar, they're almost like vapor." The only thing that stood out was the man among the monsters.
"Engage?" Anvil asked his hand resting on his weapon's trigger. He easily lifted the large gun ready to bring it to bear. He had the element of surprise. If he took advantage of the creatures attacking it would take so little to take the man down.
"Negative, first secure the second signal." came the quick reply. "Keep an eye on him."

Tatsu used little effort to cleanse the area of the remaining hollow, his strikes were swift and true, hitting their masks with a deadly technique that made them fall to their doom. He knew where his target was he could sense him with his spiritual pressure which was still sky rocketing at full flare. He was a lucky man, no restraints were put on him by his faction, which was probably the reason he was chosen for this mission, he was most likely the most potent unsealed member of seireitei.

Quickly when the enemies were taken care off, the shinigami shunpo'd away inside the building closer to his target, then he shunpo'd in again, and again, until all that remained was a wall between them, suddenly the samurai shut down all his spiritual energy and shunpo'd again  trying to get a visual on this rogue shinigami.

He didn't know which of them was faster, but people who were faster than the samurai weren't very common, and if his pressence was discovered he would rely on this advantage to try and slay this shinigami. First he had to learn how this man fought, which abilities he knew, could he shunpo? Worse yet, could he shikai, if this man could release his sword this would be another mind game.

Jumping high into the air and landing on a rooftop somewhere around the rogue shinigami, and from the top of his lungs he shouted. ''You! Rogue! Surrender and no harm shall be done to you, I know how you feel! To be scared, hunted! I was in the same situation, if you surrender now, you have a chance to rejoin soul society and end this life of misery you're suffering!''

The samurai took the sheath of his sword and drew it away from the blue sash that held it there dropping it in front of him on the ground. ''I mean you no harm, I can help!'' Waiting there a foot near his blade the samurai waited the responce, he was hoping this man would surrender or he would have to kill him on the spot.

It was too late, he had dozed off in his thoughts and time had run from him, he turned to look at the man that was shouting at him, Zanshins eyes widened, he had been right, he was hunted by the shinigami.
Zanshin hair was ruffled and dirty, his clothes were ragged, but it could be seen that some of the rags was from an old shinigami uniform, that he had stolen long ago.
He was not sure what to do now, the shinigami offered to let him off easily if he surrendered, but what if he was lying, the shinigami he meet back in Rukongai was not especially friendly, and he had seen them cut down people he had worked with before.
Zanshin considered the situation, escape would not be easy, but if he made use of some of those tricks he learned, he just might be able to pull off an escape.
He glanced to the right, he could feel someone approaching, he was not sure if it was a hunch or his spiritual awareness that made detect this person, but when he glanced to the left there was no one there yet he had a feeling someone was that way too, but he could not see anyone yet, so it was probably a trap set by the shinigami.
As soon as he would set off towards the free street, the trap would spring, but he could also head to the right, they would not expect him to charge right past them, and with if he tried to use shunpo, he could probably get the jump on them long enough to make a good distance between them.
No matter what scenario he thought up it was bad for him, in his his rush of thoughts he decided to do what seemed like the best, yet worst idea of them all, he made a run for it down the free street where he figured some kind of trap was waiting for him, he just had to get out to a bit more open area so he could use shunpo freely, without endangering himself.

This situation was the worst he could think of, the hollow he could outsmart and the quincy showed little interest in a rogue, but the shinigami themselves, what would they do to hunt him down, they were smart, and was probably faster and stronger than himself.
The thought only stayed with him for short while, quickly all he could think of was ways to escape, he began to fear that the shinigami might kill him for escaping rukongai.

Still on the rooftop[i]

From his vantage point Anvil kept watch on Tatsu. Even when he vanished he had little trouble tracking him. Despite his diminished spiritual signal the shinigami left a trail as he moved like a jet fighter passing through a cloud. The large man jumped impossibly high into the sky. When he landed there wasn't so much sound as he landed on another rooftop overlooking the soul reaper. Thanks to his boots he made no noise walking across the gravel. He hid again, this time behind just as the man made his proclamation.
"You guys hear that?" the big man asked the others. "Seems he's chasing the other guy." Anvil's hand quickly went to his weapon and rested his hand on the trigger. "I'll handle him while you guys secure the other one."
"Roger" came the rely from Sly and Claymore in unison. Anvil nodded to himself then leveled his weapon towards the shinigami and pulled the trigger. There was only a small click and then barrel started to rotate. The cylinders became a blur as their speed increased. There came a hiss as the first bolt of energy shot from the chamber. It was quickly followed by another, and then another. Shot after shot of energy sprang from the weapon. The speed of the shots and the frequency made it look like Anvil was shooting a single beam of light. In truth he was shooting over 3 shots per second. His weapon was a force to be reckoned with. Not only did it gain energy from Anvil himself, but it gained power from the spinning of the barrel. The longer it shot the more energy it made. An almost unlimited supply of shots.

The hail of bullets rained down on Tatus' location. Shot after shot tore through the building. Nearly 5ft of concrete made up the wall, but it might as well been made of tissue paper. The plasma energy made holes as it burned through the material with ease. Smoke rose up from each miniature portal the bullets had created. Holes made in the the metal gutter burned crimson from touching the intense energy. He continued his assault without pause concentrating his fire upon the shinigami. A shower of deadly light upon his foe. He already knew a single shot might not hurt the man, the sheer number of attacks was enough to tear anyone to pieces.

[i]On the street

As soon as the firing started Claymore made his move. He quickly turned the corner his gun at the ready. It only a matter of milliseconds for him to lock onto the target in question. He was running, the motion gave him away. That was good. Claymore took aim and fired. A three round burst came from the rifle, but not a single shot hit the fleeing rogue. Instead the shots veered to the left of Zanshin. Claymore fired again and again. Shot after shot of energy sprang from his weapon and sprayed into the area to the left of the fleeing man. It wasn't that Claymore was a bad shot he was trying to guide the target. Shooting to his side and close to the left would force him to the right. No one would willingly run into the line of fire. They would stop and hide, or move out of the way. Making him go to the right would send him into Sly.

Tatsu was about to dash downwards on his target when he heard the sound of something spinning behind him, then a sudden bolt of pain followed by another and another it took about five hits for the shinigami to realize that someone was shooting alot of pain towards him. Spinning on his heel while lowering his body barely dodging a bullet that flew above him. The building below him crumbled to dust while Tatsu looked around for something that would cover him from direct hits for a brief moment. Looking around he vanished quickly hiding behind a rooftop entrance of a random building across the street.

''Can you hear me! This is Tatsu Chirako, third seat, second division! I have encountered unknown enemy Quincy possibility, please instruct!'' Not taking another chance knowing how fast these crumbled, Tatsu shunpo'd again waiting for a response from the people who were in charge. ''Your order still stands, capture or slay the target.''

God damn it Seireitei, could've atleast gave me some support! The samurai thought to himself, a determined look on his face he jumped real high in the sky to see what was happening in the surroundings. In an alleyway, his target was being shot at by a mediocre shot, unless he was doing it on purpose, nearing on his target was another unknown foe, and there was this guy shooting at him with something that put the P in pain.

Tatsu knew that this shinigami was no where near a problem to seireitei,he would be spotted again in the future, slain or captured another time, what seireitei didn't know, was who were these guys, judgement led the samurai to turn his sword against the unknown foe, the one who hadn't engaged to be precise.

Before Tatsu was a sitting duck he dashed forward lower into the building range, where firing a god damn gattling gun would be harder due to abundant cover. To an untrained eye, it seemed like he was plunging for cover, but to someone aware of a battle field, he was diving straight for the target who had engaged the shinigami, he was silent, quick and came in true. He was counting on the fact that he was unaware of him closing in as fast as he could. His sword aimed at hs helmet, his goal, slice him vertically as he ran towards his target. His sword drew a straight vertical line from his head to the ground if he wouldn't dodge, no mercy, no guilt...no hesitation. Of course, if he would dodge, Tatsu would leave a crackled mark in a 2 meter wide circle around his landing zone, sword in hand, between her and her target.

Standing back up he looked at him, still very aware that there was a giant running around with a gattling gun. ''Going somewhere? I hope you didn't have an appointment, because I am going to give you hell!'' Without another word Tatsu attempted close in the gap with him -with the idea in mind that these guys used ranged weapons - and give a very precise horizontal blow at his guts.

Bullets began flying to the left of him, Zanshin was not sure where they came from, but anything going by him in that speed was not something he would like to connect with. Zanshin followed his instincts and began running towards the Right, it was clear that it was the Right alley he was going to turn down soon, he just prayed that there would be a clear way ahead when he got there, so he could use shunpo to further increase the distance between him and everything.
He heard a building starting to collapse behind him, he did not turn to find out what was going on behind him, his plan was simply to escape from there, what was behind him did not matter, as long as he could get away from it.
The bullets suddenly stopped flying his way, it was a relief that he would not get hit by that anymore, but then the voice of the shinigami rang trough, he got a cold shiver down his spine, and his hearth began to beat faster. In no time, Zanshin increased the speed he was going at, he was at the point where anything in his path could potentially make him trip, yet he did not care, he just wanted to get to the next alleyway and find his escape route.

The element of surprise isn't something possible when you're wearing a helmet that give has radar. A radar specially calibrated to detect spiritual being. A satellite was locked onto their position. There was no way for either of the two to get a drop on their armed attackers. But where the radar stopped years of military and special training took over. They knew teamwork.
"Incoming." Anvil spoke onto the channel. He had stopped his weapon once Tatsu had moved under cover. He wanted to minimize the collateral damage. There were a multitude of holes in the building where his ammo had burned through leaving only smooth passage through the stone. His weapon could level the building and the surrounding neighborhood if needed, but he didn't want his allies caught up in the crossfire. "Changing positions." he continued as he moved to a new vantage point. After several long strides he cleared the gap separating the rooftops. It didn't take long for him to find a new angle. From this one he could lay down sufficient suppression fire.

Back on the ground

"Claymore, 3 o clock!" Sly shouted from her vantage point down the alleyway. She had taken Anvil's warning to heart watching not only the radar, but scanning the area for motion. Other than herself, the rogue, and Claymore there was no one in the area. She saw Tatsu streak down towards her comrade and thought it best to warn him. She thought of using her pistol to thwart the attack, but that would give away here position to Zanshin that was rushing towards her. Having done here duty in warning Claymore she saw fit to spring the trap they had set. The woman dropped down from the fire escape and turned off the optical cameo. There was no sound as she landed no more than 6 feet in front of the fleeing man. In her right hand she raised her pistol, while her left hung at her side. It was only inches from the large machete that rested on her hip. "Stop right there." She said. Her voice was transmitted from her mask was deep and metallic. One would doubt she was a human if not from the obvious. "Move and the next shot goes through your brain."

Towards the back of the alley

Claymore let his body go limp. Moving with gravity rather than opposing by jumping out of the way he went into a roll right before he hit the ground. The man snapped to his feet his rifle already bearing on the new target. He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Well something happened, but not the release of round after round of plasma into the shinigami's body. No there was a flash as sparks shot from the broken weapon in his hand. While Tatsu's attack had failed to connect with the man's body, it had managed to hit his weapon. Clicking his tongue in disgust he threw it to the ground and pulled the twin pistols from behind his back.
"Taking me to hell, eh?" Claymore said as he took aim." You first." His index fingers flexed and both weapons flared as bursts of energy fired at the shinigami.

Tatsu had no idea how his enemy could've dodged the whole attack he had dedicated to this man, butn one thing was for sure, he knew he wasn't the main enemy, he knew he wasn't the goal. The man seemed to follow the blast with his own weight dropping to the ground and rolling away as Tatsu came crashing down. The samurai knew he had hit something, but it wasn't anything vital, it seemed to be a weapon, nothing as big as that bullet spewer up there.

His stare glanced at what looked like a firearm, or what was a fire arm chopped in two by a brutal attack. The man had dodged the attack by letting his body go limp and rolling out of harms way, which seemed a bit weird for a non shinigami to pull off, maybe this man was a superhumaman. It didn't take long for the man to whoop out another pair of pistols and reply to his comment. The twin blasts made their way towards the samurai who knew his target to be running away. Quickly, thinking about making a flash step the samurai knew he wouldn't be fast enough. Taking both bullet hits to the chest the samurai shunpo'd right after, closing the gap between him and the gun man.

His arm streched out in an attempt for a grab attack, or atleast to grasp something on the man in front of him, it wasn't for duty anymore, the samurai took it personal. ''You're going to get it''

Zanshin was still going fast when the person jumped down in front of him, the person was also pointing a gun at him, he did not want to stop now, that would mean he was going to get captured, and that would be as bad as dying.
Zanshin decided to take a gamble that instant, he used shunpo to get behind the person in an instant, sadly he had bad control of the ability, he ended up going to far, and crashed into the wall at the end of the alley.
The gamble had not paid off in the end, he still had a way to go before he could use the shunpo freely, he had gotten better at it over the last few weeks, but without any formal training, it was still unreliable.
Zanshin was lying on the ground next to the wall now, he tried to get up again so he could keep running, but he was pretty sure it was too late now, with a setback like that, the shinigami and that other thing would be over him any second now, still he tried to get up and running again, he did not want to get captured.

Imagine Sly's surprise that her target vanished. Only pure reflex she fired her pistol at the location that Zanshin's head had once occupied. Seconds later the map showed that her quarry had popped up behind her. She was slightly impressed he had managed to get by her so quickly. Not to mention shocked he didn't try to attack her back. It would seem he was more concerned with getting away. If not from her, then from the man pursuing him. With Claymore and Anvil keeping the man occupied he was the least of Zanshin's worries. Instead he had to deal her first. She spun on her heels to begin chasing the man. The chase didn't last long as the man had impacted with the wall. A few quick stride and the small gap the man had gained was lost.
"I said stop." Sly growled leveling her weapon once again at the man's head. "Unless you want a new breathing whole I'd suggest you listen." She slowly approached the man as he rose to his feet after his unforeseen mishap. The hand not holding the weapon flexed and then electricity arced across her gauntlet. "It's time for you to take a nap."

The other end of the alley

Claymore was having his own surprise as shinigami rather than dodging rushed him. Most people with faces with a firearm try for distance. This man did the opposite. It wasn't a bad strategy. Giving someone with a ranged weapon more space wasn't the wisest decision. A good marksmen could keep you at bay and kill you at his leisure. Claymore had seen his shots land before the man had vanished. He had hoped things wouldn't end quickly, it would seem he had gotten his wish. His job was to help capture the other target. Anvil was supposed to intercept the other target. It would seem he would get to see some action after all. The man tried to latch onto him, his hand grabbed at his armor. His suits design was for protection, he doubted the hand would find much purchase. He grinned beneath is mask and shifted the pistols. Getting close did have a draw back; as it meant it was harder for the other man to dodge. It was time to see how much punishment he could take. One pistol aimed at Tatsu's sword arm with the other his chest. Claymore fired simultaneously. He spun clockwise and stepped away trying to pull out of the man's range. He fired again shooting at the man's legs. Shot after shot rang out from his guns as he concentrated his fire on the shinigami.

(Sorry, I didn't post in the right order)

Zanshin got up standing, his gambit has ended up a failure, but he still had things up his sleeve, the gun was a real problem, even if he began to run, she could shot at him, he did not feel like crashing into another wall, so for now shunpo was out of the question.
Zanshin began muttering under his breath, while shunpo was something new he learned, he had a long time ago learned the art of kido, and right now that was going to save him, but he had to decide, either he ran, and hoped not to get shot in the back, or he disarmed the woman, that way he would be able to run away without having to run and duck all the time.
While Zanshin was a coward, he was not stupid, he knew his options were limited, he made his choice and decided to get aggressive, he lifted up his right hand up at the woman, like saying stop with his hand.
Suddendly his scared expression changed to a grin, and he released the kido he had prepared, he cast out senko, a bright flash of reitsu shot out from his hand, attempting to blind the woman in front of him, in the confusion he drew his sword with his left hand.
He quickly closed the gap between them, his attack went directly for the weapon, or more specifically the gun arm, all he cared about was removing her ability to attack him, he did not want to kill her, just pacify her.

Tatsy wasn't stuck by surprise when the man decided not to move. Tatsu attempted to move the man aside using brute strength. He knew that the two following his would hurt. He could not evade the dual shot fired at him from this range. Concentrating his spiritual pressure on himself the samurai did lower the damage even though a grunt of pain escaped him.

He did not focus his energy for nothing, when a single word slipped through his lips in a slight tone of anger he said. "Awaken" the spiritual strength of the samurai sky rocketed as he proceeded to spin quickly on himself with his massive blade to cut the guy clean in half and whatever part of the building came with him. This was a moment that Tatsu thanked his rogue experience at killing humanoid beings. The slash was straight and horizontal, a perfect crecent moon drawn to kill anything in its range, the power used to slice the man in two was tremendous.

At this point the samurai's energy was sky rocketing, a dark blue hue surrounded him compressing his spiritual pressure, taking a step back and raising his hand, the samurai readied an incantation for the Bakudo art. He knew a counter attack would be soon, and he had just the power in mind to counter the counter attack before it was even launched.

OOC: You did post in order Taka. No need to delete, but I see you edited your post as well.

While Zanshin's kido spell went off without a hitch, his plan failed horribly. The person before him was a soldier like no other. She had performed numerous missions, years of experience, and intensive training. But it wasn't the training the foiled the rogue's attempt to blind her it was the fact she wasn't using the normal spectrum. The mask she wore not only guarded her face from attack, but had many other features. One of which was the ability to allow a normal human to perceive the spiritual beings. Science had overcome the barrier of the mystic world. It was a combination of echolocation and thermal imaging that provided them with sight beyond the normal human's comprehension. It took much time to complete the process of filtering out the minute reishi particles found in nature. At first there was only a bright light as it picked up even the energy in the very air, buildings, floors, etc. Since they weren't seeing in the natural wavelength filtering their energy complete would have left them blind. Instead they limited the input allowing them to see normal objects. In the case of Zanshin's ploy to blind her proved ineffective due to her inability to perceive all of the light spectrum. The light, even as bright as it was, barely registered on her display. She saw him draw his weapon and rush forward. The technology had helped without her knowing, but she had noticed a change of color in Zanshin's energy. It would seem he was getting serious. Sly met his charge head on. She maneuvered her gun arm intercept the man's weapon. More specifically her armored forearm to block the possible strike. The other hand stretched out for Zanshin himself. It was good that he had decided to attack her. It put him within range of the powerful taser built into her gauntlet. The electrified hand reached for the rogue ready to send thousands of  volts through his body. It would be much easier to transport a comatose body back to their base.

The other end of the alley

Claymore too noted a change in his opponent's color as the energy built up and increased. He had seen such a thing before. The man withstood the shots from his gun with ease. Not small feat, but it mean he had some measure of power. Exciting as that was for the soldier it also meant the man was that much more dangerous. His instincts told him to get away. True enough the man brought his newly forged weapon to bear. Claymore had jumped back, but he had yet to clear the weapon's elongated range. His body was still in the blade's path. He swung out his hand flipping his gun in his hand like a tonfa. Claymore punched the sword with his gun, it was a way to cushion the blow if not divert the force. Unfortunately it was that easy. His weapon was made of less sturdy stuff than his armor. Maybe not completely a weak substance it wasn't much good against the empowered weapon. The gun was crushed by the opposing force, what followed was a very large detonation as it's fuel cells ruptured. The blast was effective in knocking Claymore to the side, but it send it headlong to the ground. After rolling to a stop the man slowly got to his knees. Where his left hand had been there was only a smoking stump. Still he managed to raise his pistol at his opponent. He didn't have time to fire as bolt after bolt rained down on Tatsu from behind. From his perch Anvil unloaded his weapon. With Claymore out of the way he had a better shot at the shinigami. Already the main chamber had began to charge it's cannon. The barrel was only a blur as shot after shot pumped forth.

The sneak attack failed, his attack was blocked with ease, and now the woman had him within reach, this was bad, if he did not get away she would be able to get hold of him, if she got hold of him he would most likely get captured.
"let me handle it" he heard in his head, he ignored it for now, but knew what it meant, he had to get away and it had to be now, but with the gun still intact he would get shot in the back.
He could try another sneak attack, maybe she would not expect another trick out of him so fast, but if he did not get rid of then it would all be the same.
He made up him mind, he had to take her out, she had the advantage, but if he went all out, then maybe, just maybe he could pull it off.
He quickly retrieved a knife from inside his clothes and stabbed out towards the womans hand that was going towards her.
He then opened his other hand, still holding on to his sword with his thumb "The Fires of hell, scrap of your power, another damned soul!" Zanshin yelled out and a ball of red reitsu would come shootng from his hand, at such a range he hoped to do some serious damage
His face was showing a dead serious expression now, he was scared to death of what might happen if he failed in escaping from this, so he had to do everything he could to escape.

The samurai had already begun his motion, he had attempted to raise his sword and bring it down in the most direct vertical arc to clear the man in half. It wasn't that easy, it never is. The motion stopped quickly enough when a bullet grazed the side of his hand, then another smashed against his back, followed by a few more. Tatsu couldn't soak them and a grince appeared on his face as the 4th one touched his back, if he wanted to get out, he had to find a solution, and he also had to bring this man in front of him down, no letting any wounded survivors behind. Using Shunpo to quickly get behind the wounded man Tatsu attmpted to grab his arm and bring it up into a look, if it would suceed, the samurai would be using Claymore as a human shield agaisnt Anvil.

He didn't mind how much strength he used so he just went as strong as possible, not minding if the arm broke. Not far from there, he heard the incantation to Shakaho, which meant that they were more than two and that another person like this was after the younger shinigami. He didn't know what their goal was, but it wasn't that clean it seemed, picking off stranded shinigami.

The female soldier was fully committed to her attack making dodging the counter nearly impossible. From Zanshin's hand the bold collided right into Sly's face. There was a small explosion as the ball hit and fire engulfed her. Despite her training she flinched. Taking an attack pointblank wasn't something one did often. Other than the jarring impact she was fine. The fire clung to her suit, but found no purchase. There was no flesh to burn, scorch, or melt. Her suit kept her safe from the intense heat. The same couldn't be said for Zanshin. Releasing a fireball at such close range wasn't without some risk. Bits of flame shot back the way it had come after detonating with Sly. At the same time he was in for quite the surprise when he stabbed his dagger at her electrified hand. Metal was quite the conductor. The blade didn't pierce her armor, but the current quickly dove into the weapon. Zanshin would be in for a real shock. Sly felt the impact, slightly blinded by the burst of fire, and tried to grab more of the target. Her vision clearing she brought up her right leg and kicked at the sword in his other hand to free up her own weapon. Without hesitating she took aim and fired two shots at Zanshin's chest.

On the roof

A cloud of smoke arose from the spot the shinigami had occupied. Shell after shell saturated the spot. The concrete was in tatters and chunks of stone went flying. Anvil's gun sang and destruction followed.  To have escaped the shower of bullets was amazing. The large man had taken the time to attack when the opponent was both unaware and had his back turned. In most battles that would spell disaster, but the shinigami had managed to get away unharmed. He quickly stopped when he noticed that his Tatsu had moved. The man had taken up position by comrade. Anvil only smiled. It was rare to see anyone foolish enough to get close to the man called Claymore. The large man himself had wondered about that name. At first he thought it was in reference to the sword, but it was actually the mine from which he got his namesake. A horrible device capable of destroying anything in it's path. Much like his weapon Claymore wasn't to be taken lightly. The cannon hummed in Anvil's hands as the charge for it's main weapon completed. He quickly went on the move while Claymore handled the situation below.

Back of the alley

Claymore managed to get one shot off the shinigami vanished. His shot joined Anvil's in missing their mark. He had seen this happen before. It wasn't teleportation merely movement so fast they weren't able to track normally.
"Behind you!" was shouted into his earpiece. He rose just as he was grabbed from behind by the suddenly reappearing shinigami. There was a sickening crack as he weapon hand was twisted by the other man. Claymore's weapon fell from his grasp due to the sharp jerk he received. Still there was no scream or cry of pain from his lips. Instead his fingers flexed and a hole opened in the palm of his hand. His supposedly broke arm snaked it's way around Tatsu's. The stub left from the explosion of his gun fell away from the other hand with a metallic thud. Rather than bone and muscle there was only smooth metal and a hole similar to the one in his undamaged hand. It too turned to point behind him. A burst of energy erupted from both openings and the alleyway lit up.The twin energy waves engulfed everything behind the man in a wide arc.
High on the rooftop Anvil smiled again as he finished shifting position. The large weapon he carried was only a prototype for the weapons Claymore wielded. Cybernetic arms with built in weaponry making the other man a walking arsenal. At close range it was nearly impossible for the shinigami to dodge or withstand two simultaneous shots. He worried that Claymore might be hurt from the assault, but assured himself that the man was made of sturdier stuff. Almost on cue the man was seen flying through the air. His armor manged to keep him safe, but the shock-wave was too for him to remain standing.

Zanshin felt a giant shock go trough his body, and quickly disengaged his opponent, jumping backwards, he had avoided the worst of his own kido, he had been reckless and gotten himself hurt, and given his opponent a too big window of opportunity.
It was clear his opponents armor was too strong for him to go trough if he did not concentrate his attacks, however before he could come up with a plan a gun was aimed at him, he was able to move slightly out of the way, so only one of the bullets hit him, however he lost his footing due to it and connected with the wall once more.
He was sitting down up against the wall now looking at the one in armor, he was at the end of his rope, his counter attack failed, his chances of running away was gone and fighting her head on alone was not going to make much of a difference.
"come on just let go, call my name and let me fight!" he heard the voice in his head or maybe from somewhere else, but he was not sure how or what to do, he had pretty much given up by now.
He sat there feeling his strength and conscious fade away from him, the day he feared, that one time he decided to fight back was the moment he lost today.
Zanshin began to make a slow laughter as he sat there, he quickly got up standing again, the look in his eye was empty, he looked neither scared or determined anymore, he laughed even higher.
He looked to the woman "uh you sure look interesting" he took a step forward towards the woman, an out of nothing he made use of shunpo, he reappeared behind the woman and send his sword swinging down towards the woman with both hands, there was no hesitation in his movement, he was no longer holding his blade back to look for an opening to run away, his blade swung with a sole purpose of cutting down what was in front of him.

The samurai didn't react fast enough, he had no clue how to react fast enough, he couldn't move away, the enemy had his own arm wrapped around his. A strike of fear appeared in the face of the samurai when he understood what was going to happen, he would die there if he didn't do something very stupid. And do something very stupid was going to do.

Without a word, using his free left hand the samurai let go of his sword with his right hand, weilding the massive blade with only one hand, the weight of the sword didn't seem to affect him in the slightest, after all it was his own. He began his arc motion in front of him, as the sword moved in the arc a water shield seemed to form after the path of the blade. There was something in the way of his blade, himself, his own arm, being tugged away by his opponent.

The blade cut through him as if he wasn't there, chopping through his own arm to escape the explosion. All this happened in the time the arm snaked around him and the palm opened to let loose an infernal explosion. Tatsu cut himself right below the elbow and took a slight step back as the shield took the most of the explosion, the samurai's face was marked with pain but he wanted to connect this since the start of the fight, up to now it was his only solution at winning. ''Kami no Houfoku!!'' Were the words that escaped the mouth of the samurai.

From a skyward point of view, it would look like a first explosion occured and then it was followed by another, the second one was marked with blue energy and proceeded to shatter every window in the alley, sending a wave of energy throughout the area. Tatsu could still feel the energy of the other shinigami, he was alive. He didn't know how he would succeed his mission with these two on top of him, specially as wounded as he was at the current time and place.

Not waiting for the dust to settle the samurai shunpo'd out of the way and started making a straight line through the buildings towards the target. The walls were ripped through with a massive strike of his blade the approach was noisy, going at full speed with little care for the living world at the current time the samurai ripped through the final wall between them, at first he didn't try to kill the renegade, he saw him sit there without hope, so he blatantly threw his sword at the armored foe. The sight of a flying sword headed straight for your rib cage had to be something. With his now sole free hand the samurai tried to grab the opposing shinigami by his collar and shunpo away with him.