Antebellum[Shio/Blod]

Blod was sat at her desk, taking her time to write beautifully with a calligraphy brush. Her mind was filled with turmoil. Soon enough she would meet with the Central 46, and she might have to answer for her crimes- of committing murder against other shinigami and humans, despite the cause it was for. Blodeuwen thought of herself as a soldier first and foremost. To her, despite her immense and unrivaled skill in the art, kido was a tool, a means to an end as opposed to an end itself. She had always been far too goal-oriented for her to see the artistry in her magick. Now she was at the top though... Was that still true? And if so had she not only sullied her duty by killing those people but had she soiled her art which on its own was so pure and wholesome? The people she lived amongst were godless, believing themselves elevated above mortal station and since cresting the wave of her talent Blodeuwen had felt that her artistry brought her closer to God.

She shook such thoughts from her head. What she had done had been necessary... No it had been absolutely essential. Those who had suffered wounds in the attacks would have succumbed to the worst fate possible- they would have become hollows. She had seen firsthand how even arrancars, those hollows who had regained reason, were corrupt, twisted versions of their old selves. Surely the government could understand that? Understand that she had been acting according to her initiative? Otherwise more would have died, and the damage might not have been containable. She finished writing her reports on new recruit training, her beautiful calligraphy having deteriorated somewhat due to her emotions by the end.

Before she could get up to deposit them in the correct box however, she felt a familiar fluttering. Jigokucho. She turned and the hell butterfly flapped towards her, and delivered its message- another hole. She was needed. Fast. Without having time to place her purple kido sochi robe over her shihakusho she left, dressed as a normal captain might be- in a black shinigami robe and a white haori. The haori had the kido corps emblem on its back, a bloated triangle containing a circle. She leapt out of her office and stepped, her shunpo taking her an enormous distance in a short space of time. She wondered what sort of situation she would face when she arrived? She was travelling so quickly that the shinigami sent to investigate wouldn't be able to feel her coming, especially as she made every effort to hide her reiatsu- she would unnecessarily disturb the seireitei otherwise. But it meant that the first response team would be on their own a little longer.

Blod exited her final step and gazed upon the supreme carnage that was before her. The number of menos had increased from three to seven- and three of the newcomers were adjuchas class menos. Hollows were swarming through the hole that lead to the dangai- she could barely see the garganta on the other side. She felt the rush of reiatsu as a menos grande produced a cero, bright red and deadly but a shinigami blocked it with bakudo number thirty-nine. He appeared to be defending his fellow. Blodeuwen read the story of the battle instantly, simply following the reiatsu. Despite there being four shinigami, and despite their competence they had arrived when the hollows had already gained a foothold. Three had headed forwards into the fray but had far overestimated their abilities. Judging by the shocked look of the one that had just had his behind saved from a cero, the last to join had only just done so. Unless she did something quickly they'd be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"Oi, a fab Duw! Gwae fi o'm genedigaeth. Da o ddwy ynys a ddiffeithwyd o'm hachos i." She said, reciting the incantation she had written, her hair turning midnight black as she did so. She selected five menos- the two adjuchas, and the three menos grande who were not near the one shinigami who seemed to be strong enough to stand a chance, as his enkosen had absorbed the cero before breaking though it had not gone through. Five starlings appeared around her, burning bright with magick. She waved her hand and they dispersed, each flying at incredible speeds towards its intended target. The gillians were too enormous and cumbersome to dodge the birds of magic, the adjuchas much quicker but none could avoid the Empress of Kido's power.

They struck, and the targets turned a muted shade of black, as if a veil obscured them. Blod swept her hand theatrically and bright blades of kido stabbed into each of the targets, her strength such that each died with a single cry. Perhaps, now, the other shinigami would notice. With fury she descended upon the armada of hollows beneath her. Her very presence was antipathy to them, the enormous crushing weight of her reiatsu simply blasted all of the lower level, unevolved hollows out of existence. The shinigami around her would more than likely find the weight totally stifling, the full force of Blodeuwen exerting her sweet, flowery but deadly reiatsu. Any shinigami who were of the unseated level would find themselves probably completely frozen. Even a captain-class shinigami would find themselves quailing before her supreme might. Blodeuwen was sick to death of these holes, was sick to death of this plague of hollows, was sick to death of everything. She cut a swathe through the hollows who simply disintegrated.

"Hadou 54- Haien!" she said, easily loosing the mid-level kido without an incantation, straight into the dangai, completely obliterating all of the hollows present there and around there. There were still many of them left- including the menos which would be completely paralyzed as well as three of the shinigami- though she felt the last one, who had surprised his friend with the enkosen, had a little more mettle and would likely be able to destroy the gillian, as Blod swept through the hollow, her usually pretty face curled into a terrible snarl.

The hollows now, were all attempting to flee back through the dangai. They had effectively been routed and Blod loosed the terrifying grip upon them that her reiatsu held. She had ensured that her wrath had "accidentally" killed any plus souls in the area who would otherwise have been undergoing the hollowfication process. She noticed that the single remaining menos had not been killed- the shinigami, of course, had not been able to destroy it. Blod pointed at it, and a Byakurai shot straight through its head, which exploded violently.

As the last of the hollows went back through the dangai- a horribly gruesome sight, as many were caught in the spiritual flow and stuck, before being effectively sandblasted into gory pulp by the stampede of their bretherin over them- Blodeuwen cast one final kido- this time a bakudo.

"White demon, black demon. Guardian of north, east, south, west. Pillar of Light, Spears of Darkness. Protection of Heaven, wish of the Desert. Treasure of the Heavens, Curse of the Earth. Four items, five creators of light. Band, disband, form. Unite, shape the ultimate shield. Earth obeys my orders, Heaven guards my soul." She said, and an enormous green barrier came into existence around the hole. She just prayed to God that the kotetsu wouldn't come through again as that thing messed with her kido rather a lot.

She dropped to the ground, somewhat weary, indicating the three shinigami spread about the place come and join her. The fourth was splayed out below her, the many wounds upon his body- perhaps sustained as the hollows fled, began to fester with opaque white ooze. Blod looked at him sullenly before casting one final kido for the day- "Old Gods, new keys, bring the six pointed key into the lock and turn!" she said, and a crystal formed around the dying, hollowfying shinigami, rendering him frozen, as if within the slightly clouded crystal, time had stopped. She made the material of the crystal more opaque than usual such that none of the shinigami who had arrived would be able to see what awful fate had befallen their comrade. Her black butterfly finally caught up with her and she murmured for it to fetch the holers- those members of the kidoshu adept at stitching together such holes in space. Blod used her reiatsu to help her lift the crystal but it wasn't all that heavy- it wouldn't last forever but now she was out of combat and didn't have to worry about the cacophany around her, she could at least sustain it until she got to the 12th division headquarters.

"Tell me exactly what happened here." Blod commanded the approaching shinigami, her face now soft with sadness and her ocean blue eyes glistening. She had placed the tall crystal containing their comrade down next to her. Sustaining both barriers, she suddenly realized, would be no mean feat. And as such she sat down, cross-legged in order to concentrate until the holers could arrive.

One of Blodeuwen's eyebrows arched as she heard what seemed to be a complaint about a lack of numbers. For soldiers these shinigami didn't seem to be particularly diligent, the four of them together ought to have had much less trouble, and perhaps their friend had paid the price for that. Her face fell into a frown.

"I would appreciate if you would refrain from cussing." her words were polite but her tone was frosty. "I am disappointed. Four shiniami of your strength ought to have held your own a little longer than this. I shall have to let your taicho know to drill more discipline into you. Your friend," she paused for a moment to tap the person-sized giant crystal before her, "has paid the price for your incompetence. He is suspended and I shall see if he can be healed, though I very much doubt it. If I release him from this prison, a fate far worse than death awaits." her tone was ominous. Apart from anything else, Blod needed a body, evidence that her actions in killing the others were justified such that she would be let off. Her actions had been taken to bring balance to soul society.

One of the shinigami made an astute observation. It was good to know that shinigami these days were at least moderately educated. There was an enormous clanging noise and Blod looked up. Beyond the bright green pyamid was a hollow. It looked deadly strong but she knew her barrier could hold no matter what it did. Her eyes shut as she held concentration, maintaining the incredibly strong barrier around the hole as well as the one that all but stopped time in her crystal.

"The shinigami who will be able to look at the senkaimon records approach even as we speak. But the hollow through there is an adjuchas class menos, a strong one at that. I can make the barrier open to let you in- please kill it. I can't realistically use any more spells while maintaining these two, and the holers won't be able to fix anything if there's a monster trying to eat them."
She had said please but her tone implied it wasn't a question. After that, she settled down into implacable calm, feeling the hollowfication of the shinigami in the crystal getting more potent ever so slowly. Not even she could completely stop it without using forbidden techniques- which had gotten one of her predecessors kicked out of soul society.

Her eyes flashed open as soon as he began shouting. The more she heard, the higher a single blonde eyebrow rose, oceanic eyes turning gradually more frigid. Yet still the shinigami continued. She wasn't sure if he had a death wish, or was merely incredibly dense. Perhaps he considered it better to die by her hand than to be eaten by a hollow- not unreasonable. But Blod would kill none of these shinigami herself. She did not approve of such things and she had enough blood on her hands already anyway, no. Genryuusai would know about this and could punish his subordinates accordingly. Blodeuwen felt that incurring the Captain-Commander's wrath would be punishment enough given how disrespectful the hotheaded shinigami had been and how old fashioned old man Yama could be.

As she heard him complete his final paragraph, she realized that he was just plain stupid and not really fit for field work- let them stick him on janitorial duty or something. If he made it out of this alive, that was. In the mean time, she remained seated, not feeling the least bit vulnerable facing the three standing shinigami.

"If you're quite done." she said flatly- there was no point in raising her voice and lowering herself. The dry, almost sardonic drawl of her voice seemed to inspire far more terror anyway. "It is possible for shinigami to tell a lot about the strength of another simply by examining them. For example he," she indicated at Shio with a tilt of the head, "is the strongest amongst you, the level of a seated shinigami in a fairly low-numbered seat. You both are weaker but from your spiritual pressure alone not considerably so. In fact... Yes- you all are strong enough that you are undoubtedly possessed of the shikai release of your zanpakuto." she said matter-of-factly. "Yes, you are all at the level of seated-strength shinigami. The hollow up there is an adjuchas class menos. It is the level of a weak lieutenant. The three of you could defeat a lieutenant class opponent if you teamed up and used your full strength." she continued, brusquely. "Furthermore, if I go to fight this opponent, the barrier will break and more will flood into the rukon districts. You did an insufficient job due to not utilising your full strength against your opponents- many people have died as a result. Your friend is currently frozen- should you obey my commands we will have him stabilized and potentially healed. Your duty of soldiers of the gotei 13 is to protect the soul society no matter the cost to yourselves. You give one hundred percent and succeed, or you give one hundred per cent and you die. There is no middle-ground. The captain-commander will be hearing about your insubordination." This sentence sounded particularly icy, almost a hint of venom crept into her tone. "He will not be particularly pleased. Now go." there would be very little scope for ignoring that command without committing what amounted to high treason. In fact, Blod could tell that the three, if they were even the least bit co-ordinated would have the adjuchas out-matched on raw power alone, and all three had trained as soldiers- it had no such luxury. Her eyes closed once more.

They didn't go. She was starting to find it kind of hard to concentrate, realistically. She could feel the adjuchas bouncing off of her barrier, as well as the ever so slowly increasing hollowfication of the shinigami inside the chrysalis-like bakudo. Did these idiots not realize that when the holers arrived- which they would in a moment or two, Blodeuwen could feel them approaching- that unless that adjuchas was gone they wouldn't be able to perform their duty? Every second the life of their comrade slipped away further- if the hollow infection could not be expunged before manifesting in his inner world, he would be executed for acquiring illegal hollow powers, his life forfeit either way. But before the man facing her could speak so much as another word, he was felled. The decomission of the next shinigami was quick, though all three of them moved achingly slowly compared to Blodeuwen herself. She almost considered apprehending him there but keeping three high level kido operating at once would be difficult to say the least- especially since the two she had in operation were already a number 99 and a number 76 spell.

She said nothing at Shio's next remark however, neither accepting his wishes nor denying them. Her mind was spinning- what on earth was he talking about? Not about them? Who the hell did he think he was, what was this attitude he had. She threw her mind back- what could he have done to deserve court martial? Was it that he had held back at the start of the battle? That was possibly it but Blod appreciated that it wasn't a totally stupid move. She assumed that it was some combination of that and something she couldn't work out. If he tried to go after the adjuchas alone, however, she would revive his comrades- that would be stupid despite how strong he was. Why refuse back-up? She understood knocking out the blonde shinigami who had given her lip- he would definitely be getting a demotion, but the other? Was this just some bravado arrogance thing? Some kind of 'I work alone' edgelord mentality? She turned it over and over in her head, wondering what to do.

As the prey approached the barrier that entrapped it the beast settles down on all fours in the center of the barrier, tail angrily whipping back and forth. Embers of red could be seen spilling over the sides of its maw as it waited for the opportune moment to strike, a moment that came soon enough when a hole formed in the barrier to let the prey inside.

The beast wasted no time. The very moment it spotted the barrier start to open the beast let loose the Cero it was charging up in its mouth aimed straight down the opening. Before the beast could see what effect his attack had what looked like green paper burned into existence around him, blocking his view. A more inexperienced fighter might have been taken aback by its sudden appearance, but long desperate existence on the fields of Hueco Mundo have taught the beast that stillness in a battle is death. It was already in movement the moment the energy was released, spiraling upwards with a powerful sweep of its wings. Luckily it had done so, as no sooner had the paper lantern been constructed then its insides erupted into a bright conflagration. Even moving as fast as the beast did, the embers of the fire still licked at its tail.

There was limited room to maneuver in the green, pyramid shaped barrier and less all the time as a new star sparked to life within the barrier to join the three others already twinkling away inside the barrier. Still, though, flight was the beast's best recourse. By taking a sinuous, winding path through the air and ducking behind and around the stars it would make itself a difficult target to hit with any retaliatory strikes from the prey.

The fight begins.

Blodeuwen had expanded her Kinjitou no Tenshimune that was keeping the hollow inside and isolating the hole into the dangai, in order to include Shio as soon as he had approached it. It would be no mean feat for him to escape it now, as she couldn't risk letting a hollow free while she maintained the link- a vasto lorde class opponent or even an arrancar would easily be able to break into soul society if she had to stop her pyramid-shaped barrier. No- Shio would be in there until the adjuchas died or fled. In the meantime, she set to work reviving the others. It was virtually impossible to simply knock unconscious a person who didn't already have brain issues, and so she had little trouble in fixing the severe winding and concussions both had suffered, restoring their reiryoku a little as she did so.

It would take a few moments more before they were back on their feet and so Blodeuwen was content to sit and watch the battle. Realistically, if Shio died it would be of little consequence in the grand scheme- if Blodeuwen could hold her barrier open until a shinigami strong enough to ensure the holers' safety while they underwent their work, that was all that mattered. But not all shinigami achieved their shikai, and so it would be wasteful. The faster she could return his squadmates to the fray, the higher his chances for survival. As soon as she'd let him in the hollow had attacked with a powerful cero, the blast smashing him in the side before he managed to flash step away. He responded with his own kido, which was performed fairly well but for which the incantation had been used. She was a touch disappointed that he had used it as it cost him valuable time. She turned to the chrysalis beside her, able to see through the crystal to the shinigami with thick white ooze in his wounds which moved ever so slowly.

Shio's eyes widened ever so slightly as he watched the adjuchas avoid his attack, by an ever-so-narrow margin. There were only a few explanations for why it would've avoided by such a small amount, when it could've taken a much safer, much wider margin. Either it was remarkably meticulous, or it was very very reckless and simply had luck and reflexes on its side. The two could end in remarkably different ways, and there was nothing but his own gut to go off of. But no hollow this powerful and this old lasted on sheer luck. Clearly, its own battle instincts had been well-honed, as evidenced by the fact that it hadn't thrown up some hasty defense when it saw him flinging a mass of wax towards the roof.  Shio could only surmise that this hollow was as careful as any shinigami would've been.

That was good.  Shio was quite confident any careful, meticulous shinigami would write him off as a non-issue almost immediately.  There wasn't any real benefit to being in the spotlight, to getting dragged into the public eye.  Captains weren't a threat for their intimidation status, captains weren't meant to be some kind of...idol, some symbol of virtue and power.  No matter what anyone said, a captain didn't need the position to do what they did.  A captain led men, and a captain solved problems.  Plain and simple, that was all; Shio would do his job, would do what needed to be done, and he needed no one else to tell him what his job was, what he needed to do.

He noticed, just a second too late, that this...thing was already preparing a counterattack.  Projectiles, hundreds of them, seemed to be firing out from the area towards him, through the enormous cloud of blazing heat.  The first handful went wide, missing him entirely...but as it continued to move, Shio noticed the attacks were moving in a perfect line, no doubt following its own motions.  He allowed the platform of reishi beneath his feet to weaken, forcing him to fall for nearly a dozen feet before he solidified once more, pushing off and diving forward into a roll, speaking in a deep, resonant tone with remarkable poise and speed.  He rose a hand, causing a golden spray of light to flash outwards, dispersing the few smattered blasts left that were coming towards him.

"The skies blacken and your foul deeds are for naught. Oh dark and tremulous being, be undone."

This adjuchas was his responsibility.  Those lives, their blood...all of it was on his hands.  No one could wash that away, and no sort of recognition would change what had happened.  He inhaled slowly, closing his eyes...and as he did, the world seemed to shrink, everything outside of the barrier falling away.  His hand grasped at the wick of his zanpakuto, hands almost whitening from the force of his squeezing.  He yanked back on the corded wire, causing his weapon to return to himself.  As his other hand lowered to his side, grasping the burning end of his release, and feeling as much as seeing as he could've felt his own hand or his leg.  He reached a hand out, eyes widening ever so slightly, nearly blinded by the remarkable light displays around himself, the heat shimmer surrounding the enemy.  And as he extended a hand, he began to incant, ever so slowly.

"The crest of turbidity.  Oozing...no.  No.  Seeping.  The crest of turbidity, seeping out.  An insolent vessel of madness..."

His mind raced, words flowing past at the speed of thought, leaving him incredibly distracted, trying his best to remember, to whip his own soul into a proper frenzy...he stared in silence, simply hoping beyond hope that he could find something new to capitalize on here before it killed him.

Death alone wouldn't be proper atonement for what he'd done.