At the Gates [OPEN]

[Hibiki Shimizu]

Dodging Makoto's attacks became as natural to Hibiki as breathing, huge swipes of the brute's axe raining down upon the Captain coupled with the ringing echoes of a barbed chain soaring through the air. "Stand still shinigami filth!" the large brute of a man bellowed as he continued to dish out a staggering flurry of attacks with his giant, double-edged axe. The weapon flew through the air at an astounding speed, but nothing that the Eighth Division Captain couldn't keep up with. In fact, Hibiki hadn't even drawn one of his weapons yet, to which he was surprised to learn that Makoto Sayomi wasn't as strong as he previously had thought. For a pack of normal souls living in the Rukongai, Makoto and his gang of thugs did have an above average amount of spiritual energy. That much was certain to the Captain. But why am I sensing there's something more to this? Hibiki ducked under the next swing of the axe and replied with a strong elbow thrust up into Makoto's chest. The brute grunted but didn't lose any of his fury, soon lurching down with one of his massive arms in an attempt to grab hold of Hibiki. But once again, the prowess of the Captain proved the better, as Hibiki used shunpo to deftly appear just behind the Sayomi leader in midair as he released a powerful kick. Stumbling forward, Makoto nearly toppled over his own feet, but he somehow managed to both keep his balance and throw out the barbed chain, that was attacked to the end of axe, behind himself and at Hibiki.

A large ringing of metal sounded in the following instant, the Captain landing on the ground with his hand near his waist. "Your fast. That's commendable for a warrior of your stature. But its still nothing close to a shinigami's, let alone a Captain's," Hibiki commented, relaxing his thumb as the hilt of the sword he had grabbed slid the weapon back into its sheath. The Captain had deflected the chain just barely with the end of his blade. Makoto turned around, that vile grin still shining upon his face. "Heheh! I'm just getting started!" The Sayomi leader lashed out as he threw the barbed chain towards Hibiki once more. "Hmph," Hibiki kept his hand at his waist, ready to quickly draw his zanpakutou at a moment's notice when a considerably powerful reiatsu caught him off guard. WHAT?! The barbed chain connected with Hibiki's awe-struck form, digging into his right shoulder and tearing into part of his upper torso. Except, Hibiki couldn't even register the pain when he sensed this new explosion of power. "Impossible. That power is...tremendous..." Hibiki stammered, looking off to his side towards the east. Is it that woman from before? No, she headed south. I can't be one of the Triad members...could it? The Captain returned his focus on Makoto, whom he noticed was fairly elated with his single successful strike.

Elsewhere, at the Southern Gate, the remnants of Hinonori's forces were now scattering to the winds. If they hadn't been caught in the skirmish with the shinigami from before, destroyed by the huge energy beam, or just outright suffocated from the immense presence of those strangers that miraculously arrived just moments before, they now all had plans to run far, far away. Soldiers abandoned their siege machines, dropped their weapons and swarmed out of the area of the Rukongai that was so close to the Southern Gate. Inexplicable titanic forces were now about to do battle, and none of them wanted to be in the area after seeing the demise of their commander.

As the Cero Espada would approach the Eastern Gate, hundreds and hundreds of teal-clad armored soldiers would be standing at attention. Mysteriously enough, only the battering ram at the army's front was causing any real commotion, the soldiers all being deathly silent. Sure, the obedient and ever-loyal mercenaries under the command of the elderly Ryouji had been trained to stay in their perfect formations, and to not let out cries of anger and bloodlust while in the field of battle, and to stay fully alert at all times. But it one were to pay attention to the horde of soldiers, they would notice an awkward noiselessness about the entire army. Ryouji didn't make a single movement either, but remained quiet and expressionless as the Cero appeared on the scene, commenting about how little resistance that particular group of thugs had met while laying siege to the Seireitei's outer gate. The mysterious entity went on to mention how much more effective his other friend, the one high in the skies above the gate, would prove against such a barrier. Still, Ryouji and his soldiers made no movements.

"Ru-r-runnn..." the elderly commander moaned in a somewhat hoarse voice, his body beginning to tremble. Ryouji's body then jolted into movement and he took his sword up, a halfhearted arcing slash moving right towards the Cero beside him. Whether his blade connected or not, Ryouji said nothing else, and his body began to awkwardly jump into fast-paced jittery movements again. His limp body rose up his sword and slashed wildly at the mysterious entity. "...he's...h-here..." All of the soldiers from Ryouji's troop began to march forward, slowly encircling the Cero Espada.

[Fate T. Harlaown]

Fate did not answer the young looking espada with her statement she didn't have time to....she had to finish this quickly and Fate could already sense Bardiche being ready to face off.

Fate would have attacked there and then if it wern't for the sudden apperance of others and what looked to be other Arrancar. Fate watched as two arrancar's landed near herself and the espada she was due to fight. Fate watched as a few of them spoke to Furiko after some time she was spoked to by the masked man that had appeared, Fate mostly ignored it she both wanted and needed to get this over with...she had other things to do and listening to arrancars wasn't one of them. By the time this masked man and his friend disappear another one of them appeared near Furiko.

Fate raised an eyebrow at the man's comment...so he had seen all of the battle? Watching the man disappear she could sense him a way aways behind her...near the Gate....Great....she thought that was all she needed right now...shutting her thought off for the moment she then saw Furiko turning to face her again and listening to her speak, Fate then spoke herself towards Furiko.

"Shall we get started then?"

Fate stood ready in her normal Haduka stance.

[Jachimaru]

As the old man seemed to move awkwardly and slash at the masked man, he sidestepped the blade easily. The Espada ignored the man's wordss for the moment, not caring much of who "he" was, and figured "he" would show up if he simply killed the old man. "It seems you don't wish for peace like I do. I suppose there's no helping it." he said as he drew the tanto from his back to block the attacks coming at him as the soldiers encircled him. "I didn't come here to fight, but if you insist on fighting me, you will have to deal with the consequences. Become, Quintaesencia!" he called out as an enormous burst of spiritual pressure erupted from the masked man's body. The resulting burst was large enough for anyone within Soul Society to immediately notice, more than likely knocking the old man to the ground from the sheer force of it. Many of the soldiers surrounding him would be able to feel the pressure pinning them to the ground and cracking their bones. The figure that appeared after the burst of energy looked like a dark, faceless warrior, and his small tanto had changed into a fairly large and broad sword.

"If you wish to continue with your rash actions, then you may come at me. I will not go easy on you, however." he said as he held his blade out, waiting for the man to attack once more. If he did attempt to attack the Cero Espada would disappear before reappearing above the man; sending a normal, full-powered, cero at the old man. Regardless of if the technique was dodged, it would leave a fairly wide pit in the ground, the cero having shot straight through whatever the Espada leader's opponent was standing on.

[vilmentevendados]

It was all an intricate game. No, maybe it was more of a very simplistic game that was conflict. For centuries Vilmente had been scheming and observing, watching the slightest behaviors and mannerisms from afar. From humans, animals, shinigami, hollows, arrancar. This was the observant nature that embodied every fiber of the arrancar currently known as the Segunda Espada. Conflict was easy to implement into any situation, the Segunda knew this well, but on such a grand scale like the battle playing out before Soul Society Vilmente couldn't help but revel at his own masterful skill. What little interjection he had given those many months ago and now grown into this - a momentous rebellion.

Vilmente smiled under the thick, ragged folds of his bandages, his ever observant gaze constantly darting from figure to figure from face to face from eye to eye. I wonder why the Cero has chosen to make his appearance now? the Segunda pondered as he continued to observe whatever the two female combatants went about doing. As he picked at the question continually the Segunda's consciousness slipped into a semi-aware state as he activated one of his more conspicuous abilities. Unbeknownst to every shinigami, soldier of the Triad, and perhaps even his fellow Espada, the Segunda was watching every battle from every perspective. The smallest bits of cloth fluttered around every gate entrance and on nearby buildings, indiscernable from the debris or litter that already crowded the Rukon's streets. Even some soldiers, both shinigami and mercenary, had fragments of the cloth strapped to some obscure part of their clothing or body.

From this perspective, all is clear. Vilmente thought cleverly to himself, able to see from many hundreds, if not thousands, of angles of all the battles going on in the Soul Society. For a moment he looked up at towards the sky and felt a familiar spiritual pressure - the Cero's. It was powerful enough to be felt even from that great distance away, and it potency was no less than Vilmente would've guessed. The Segunda Espada let out a quiet chuckle and went back to his observing studies on the sidelines of Furiko and Fate's brewing battle.

OOC: Hope nobody minds that I posted next. I just assumed that Koga was still hitting the barrier and wouldn't have anything else to do unless somebody confronted him or if the Cero wanted him to do something.

[Kusubanasan]

"Shall we get started then?"

Even despite the amount of reishi that both the Cero Espada and Primera Espada had displayed, the captain before her seemed eager to engage in battle. Flipping the shaft of her naginata in her hands, the Espada calmly got into stance, preparing herself for the battle that was to come. Brilliant emerald eyes met the luminescent ones of the captain as Furiko would exhale deeply out of exhaustion from blocking the previous technique. But she wouldn't resort to showing her hand just yet; there was no point.

"Mhm. Are you sure you want to be preoccupied with me while my boss and superiors are knocking down your walls?" She asked, her reiatsu beginning to pour into the air and affect the very surroundings, which were beginning to get absorbed within Furiko's body. A light pink glow emit from her body as the Espada would begin to hum a chilling aria, and then disappear from Fate's visual perception.

What came next was a hail of Cero from directly above, followed by Furiko appearing again from the side, swinging her polearm about in an attempt to attack Fate before disappearing again and resuming the action from the other side. Despite the injuries that were very clearly present upon the Espada's body, the song and the energy she was absorbing were proving to energize her enough for her to maintain the speed that is so deadly within Hueco Mundo.

"I don't want to fight; to kill. But you shinigami give me no choice."

[Hibiki Shimizu]

"HAHAHAHA! You stupid bastard! I gotcha!" Makoto growled in glee as he pulled the barbed chain out and returned it to his grasp. But the chain didn't leave its hold on Hibiki. A stalwart resistance held the object to the Captain as if it were glued to his shoulder. Under any normal circumstances the weapon should've shred right through one's shoulder, ripping through bone and flesh alike with ease. Though such was not a normal circumstance. Hibiki had grasped the metal links of chain tightly in his free hand, turning his attention back to the Sayomi leader with a scowl. "You should learn when to be quiet. Your disrupting my concentration," Hibiki calmly replied, bringing up his zanpakutou as he sliced the barbed chain in twine with one simple slash.

The metal clanged loudly on the ground as it landed, bringing a few awed gasps from the crowd of soldiers nearby. Hibiki sheathed his blade once more and moved to take off his Captain's haori, which was now partially in tatters. "These cost quite a bit of pretty penny, you know? I would appreciate it if you don't wreck my clothes with your next attack," Hibiki stated as he removed the cloak and folded it neatly on the ground, pushing it lightly to the side with his foot. His body was very much uninjured from the strike that he had sustained from the barbed weapon, primarily because of a simple rule of battling shinigami. Those with a high spiritual pressure cannot be effected by those of a substantially lower one. Makoto all the while was boiling in anger, his face turning red from all his suppressed wrath. Who was this Captain to make so light of his abilities? The Sayomi leader burst out in a bellowing roar and charged forward with his axe, perhaps the most suicidal tactic he had tried yet. "Once again, I commend you on your straightforward attitude. But," Hibiki paused, thumb at the ready to push up the hilt of his blade in defense.

But alas that moment of clashing steel never came. Instead, Hibiki gasped in surprise, quickly followed by similar responses from the encircling Sayomi ranks. "W-what is this?" the Eighth Division Captain gawked as he took a step back, his eyes still wide and his mouth slightly ajar. Makoto didn't have the time to strike out at his opponent. Makoto didn't have the slightest chance of landing a strike at all. Despite all that, the brute was standing very still, blood dripping from his mouth and a slender blade embedded directly in his chest. "Who?" Hibiki whispered harshly, his eyes shifting from side to side of the awestruck crowd around him. And then the figure revealed itself, appearing between the Captain and the brutish warrior - dark skinned, with a clever smile and a wicked gleam in his eye. "S-suguru...you...you traitorous scum," Makoto spat as he fell to one knee.

"R...r-runn...fool!" Ryouji continued to moan as he faced off against the incredible might of the Cero Espada. When the arrancar leader transformed the shockwave of energy was immensely powerful, sending more than a few scores of the sluggish, teal-clad soldiers reeling back and falling on their behinds. But strangely enough most of them seemed unhindered by the initial shockwave. "You...you must run!" The elderly general groaned as he prepared his blade in attack, not hearing the Cero's warning for a tough fight ahead if they choose to do so. Once more Ryouji jolted out with a fair burst of speed, slashing out with his broadsword only to hit the empty air as the Espada appeared above him. Casting a bloodshot glare over his shoulder, Ryouji didn't move a muscle as the blast of energy seemed to strike him directly in a flash of bright light.

As the dust would clear, a mass of figures would emerge from the smoldering crater that the cero had resulted in. About a dozen or so of the soldiers walked out, little more than charred skeletons, as their bodies crumbled to ash after a few steps forward. The only seemingly unaffected survivor from the blast was Ryouji, whom was standing in the middle of the small crater, blade at his side laxly. "Crasshhh," he groaned as he lifted his broadsword high in the air and a dim teal spiritual energy surrounded the weapon. Then, with blinding speed for both his age and his skill, Ryouji appeared just to the side of the Cero, lunging out with a powerful sword attack. The lunge would be amplified with own spiritual pressure to create an explosive effect upon meeting any other surface.

Of course, even at his level of power, Ryouji would seem little more than an inconvenience to the Cero Espada's true might.

[Fate T. Harlaown]

"Mhm. Are you sure you want to be preoccupied with me while my boss and superiors are knocking down your walls?"

Fate heard Furiko speak, Fate just shook her head. "As you know there is not only just myself fighting so I'm sure we'll be fine." Fate knew she was in for a hard fight, but this Furiko didn't seem like the type of person to finish fights...so Fate guessed she would either do one of two things. Try and finish the fight with her or run off, either way Fate was fine with it, she just needed to do some damage was all. As Fate started to raise her own reaitsu slightly as a light gold glow formed around Fate.

Looking forward Furiko vanished from her vision, Fate looked around very quickly, looking up to see many cero's hailing towards her. Fate's eye's widened as she managed to flash step away to avoid the blast, as she got clear of the cero's raining down on her, mid-flash step Fate never saw Furiko to the side of her until the last second, scraping past the sharp end of the polearm, but still getting hit and sent flying backwords right back into the blast. Dammit! Fate thought this wasn't good......as she was flying towards the area near the cero barrage Furiko appeared again but this time Fate was ready for her half-flash stepping and half-jumping Fate went straight over Furiko as she shouted. "Bardiche!" With that her shikai became in use, Bardiche changing and once called going straight into Knuckle Form. Still above Furiko at this point she heard Bardiche speak. "Lightning Barrage." Pushing downwards Fate began a flurry of attacks, hoping they would be quick enough to catch Furiko off guard as Fate slowly but surely began to increase her reatisu output.