Chapter 356 (Patreon)

A fake dead body? That’s fucking weird.

Seems like someone was playing some games for whatever reason.

Anyways, I focused back on my ‘opponent’. Always happen to lend Shunsui a hand, he’s been such a good person and helping me out. I couldn’t not return the favor when he was in trouble.

And judging by the amount of Reiatsu this would seemed to be radiating, she was pretty damn strong. However, as I said, I was perhaps her absolute worst matchup. Even considering that I could feel confident beating her in a straight up fight, my aspects were just an inherent counter to hers.

Izzy should be fine with whoever she chose to fight.

I’ll thank her later for that too. She said she isn’t really big on fighting, so it’s definitely kind on her part to lend a hand.

“And who the fuck are you supposed to be?” She looked down at me. More, literally in this case, as she was floating, err….standingin mid air.

I had…questions about that.

“Kurosaki Ichigo!” I happily introduced.

“Bullshit you aint.” She immediately countered.

“…..and you know that how?” Because she said that with some amount of confidence, like she knows who Ichigo is.

“You’re not a Shinigami, who the hell are you?’ She obviously avoided answering my question. Was it some sort of secret?

That kid is getting more and more confusing the more I learn.

“Not a Shinigami. Actually I was in the midst of my own Invasion and you intruded. Very rude of you.” I wagged my finger. “You can appease my anger by telling me how you’re standing in mid air.”

“What?” She looked confused. “I’m just makin a platform with my Reiryoku, dumbass.”

“Interesting.” I hadn’t considering that. Just a small difference in how Magical Energy compares to this Reiryoku that something like that was a viable method. “Anyways, very rude of you to intrude on someone elses invasion.”

“Like we’re fuckin here intentionally, you asshole!” She growled, lightning flaring around her. “That asshole over there just showed up out of nowhere and then dragged us here with him!” She jabbed her finger at the fake dead body.

“Huh.” I didn’t really know what to say to that.

“Fuck it, I’m done!” She seemed to finally lose her temper for some reason. “Just everyone can fuckin die and I can forget this shitty day!” She let out a roar that echoed to the skies, Lightning fell down like pillars into her hands once more. “Don’t know what you did before, but you can just turn to ash!” She threw it down like a javelin.

I let my own Lightning seep out from my core, laced with my Divinity.

My arms and legs became fully enveloped.

It had been awhile since I’ve used this and it felt good to feel against my skin again.

MY Authority over the storm welcomed this challenge.

The Lightning Javelin slammed into me and I raised my arm up to block. It erupted into another pillar of lightning arcing off and utterly disintegrating everything in the immediate vicinity. However, this was far from enough to reach me.

My Semblance was a good defensive measure. It allowed me to turn my body – or parts – into lightning at a whim. It drained my Aura at a staggering rate, but that was neither here nor there. It wasn’t inviolable by any means. Someone with Godly power, after seeing it once, could counter it with some effort, which is why I usually reserved it for very particular situations. It was best used to take an opponent by surprise or defend myself from something deadly.

In this rare situation though, I could just make liberal use of it due to the nature of my opponent’s powers.

My Semblance was fueled with my Aura as the Lightning surged throughout my body to combat this ‘attack’.

Once the girl’s lightning cleared up, I saw her shocked gaze.

It’s funny, I could sympathize with her. I remember when I used my Thor’s hammer against Susanoo and he just fucking shrugged it off.

It was a very similar situation, except I’m on the other side of the fence this time.

Her furious look from before hampered down, and she looked to be getting serious now. The lighting surged around her hands as she shot off multiple bolts of significant power at me.

I raised my hands, matching her in intensity. The collision of a similar element caused a strange phenomenon to erupt mid-air. The hostile, but kindred, element collided, causing bouts of lighting to arc off in every direction. However, in every encounter, it was becoming increasingly clear that I came out on top.

“How are you doing that!?” She screamed, unleashing a rather devastating blast, bigger than the others thus far.

I conjured a Magical Circle infront of my Lightning encased hand. “Thunderbolt.” A spell I picked up in Skyrim all those years ago that was just so handy.

It collided with her own haphazard attack and tore right through it, her body reeled back as the spell closed in on her.

It was enough that she fell from the sky and slammed into the ground below. She wasn’t that hurt, but I could see her push herself out of the small crater in the ground and slightly roughed up from it.

Oh boy did she look pissed.

“Who the hell are you!?” She roared again. “How the hell are you stopping my lightning!?”

“Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg.” I introduced myself proper. “And to answer your second question –” I kicked off the ground, moving with a burst of my bastardized Shunpo. “—Come back and talk to me when your Lightning can reach a God.” I said softly, just enough for her to hear as I was nearly right up in her face.

My Aura gathered on my hand and intertwined with my Lightning already coating me. It all discharged as I threw my palm at her stomach with a loud thunderclap, her body when hurling off to the side.

I could see blood spit out of her mouth, and she went tumbling across the ground, tearing it up before coming to a stop. She quickly returned to her feat, a deviant fury still ever present in her eyes.

Despite everything, she is pretty durable. That last blow should have been a hefty one.

Strangely, there was this weird pattern that lit up under her skin where I had hit her, it looked striking similar to Magic Circuits in appearance. I had thought I hit her harder than what damage she took, but perhaps she used some method to offset it?

Interesting.

She slammed the weird heart-shaped emblem at her side. I noticed it before, but I just assumed it was just a taste in accessory, but I was obviously wrong as a heart flew out and landed into her hand, forming a small bow.

“…that’s kinda cute.”

“Fuck off!” She let out another roar as an arrow of lightning coalesced with the string drawn back.

And once more, I’ll admit that there was a significant amount of power build up. Enough that if I wasn’t dealing with Lightning of all things that I would be taking it much more seriously. It wasn’t outwardly expressive as it gathered lightning and compressed itself, remaining small and within the size of an arrow for that small bow she wielded.

“Take this, 5 Gigajoule blast!” She shouted, letting loose the Arrow.

I did just that.

I reached out, and grabbed it.

The sheer power in it was enough that my footing shifted. Within my hands, the thing fought mercilessly. If I wasn’t attuned to the element on such a level, I was sure I would have been reduced to ash if I tried this so flippantly.

My Divinity seeped out into my own Lightning and I twisted, shattering her construct. The accumulated Lightning erupted outwards, forcibly discharged away from myself.

I expected her to say something else, but she was no longer in the same spot. I jerked my head to the side to see her figure appear behind me.

Very fast.

Her bow lit up again, but this time there was no Lightning. No, it reminded me of Uryū’s arrow from before. With a single pluck of the string, an uncountable number of arrows were loose.

I reached out into the air, grabbing Mirage from my Ring and responded appropriately, firing off my own Sword Phantoms to meet them.

She didn’t even stop or pause at my display, instead, she kept moving.

I did notice one thing. “That’s not Shunpo.”

“Don’t compare our movement technique to that trash! Ours is called Hirenkyaku, you can remember it when I send you to hell!” She shouted, above me, dozens of feet into the sky with her bow string bulled back.

“I heard they have a good amusement park there.” I answered casually. I could see the confusion on her face at my remark, so I took the opportunity to summon my other swords. They all shot up, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

I expected her to use her movement technique again, I admit I was very curious about it, at first glance, it was obviously slightly different than Shunpo.

However, he body seemed to somewhat shift into lightning and at the same time, she moved. She perfectly maneuvered around my swords in a very meticulous way, avoiding their lethal edges as she slid to the ground, bow still knocked.

I was stunned.

Enough that I just kicked off the ground and Shunpo’d out of harms way for that attack.

She combined her ability to wield lightning with her movement technique. She had literally turned into lightning for a moment and still moved similarly.

That gave me ideas.

I was lost in thought for a moment, enough that she slipped through my perception a tad. She was behind my back again, getting ready to let loose another barrage.

“Alright, I’m tired of this nonsense.” I grumbled, tightening my grip around Mirage. I pivoted and then planted my foot, thrusting forward.

Her arrows tore through me, but I was no longer there on the world-axis.

My Sword pierced through her back.

Swallow Returns.

“What’s with people here and constantly attacking from the back.” I grumbled again, pulling my blade free and flicking away the blood.

Mayuri tried that same shit multiple times and I was starting to get annoyed with it since everyone here can move at such ridiculous speeds.

She looked back at me, trembling with blood seeping from her mouth, but the words couldn’t form and the bow dropped from her grasp, her body soon following.

I did pick up her bow out of curiosity. I would examine it later. I did see some interesting things from her, which is why I wanted to see what she could do, but I was starting to get annoyed.

Well, I wonder how Izzy is doing.

@***@

Izanami POV

“I guess we will be fighting.”

This one was not born under my daughter’s sun. I wonder where he came from? He was a living being still, not like these Shinigami. Was he and the others living inside that shadow space from before?

He tilted his head in an unnatural way and his eyes rotated oddly as he stared at me.

“I can’t sense your fear?” He stated.

“…okay.” I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to him.

“Impossible.” His eyes practically bore into me. “Every being has fears, and all will succumb to them eventually. I was given ‘F’ for The Fear.” He held his arms out as some thorn-like constructs manifested as the ambient Spiritual matter was drawn and condensed at his beckoning.

He had quite a bit of power, same with these other children around here. Not quite as much as the Shinigami I put in time out…..which someone tried to make a fake body out of. But it was still an impressive amount for a mortal.

However, there was something certainly strange about him. And not just his mannerisms or his voice as he apparently attempted to sound intimidating and incite fear.

I could guess his schtick from the obvious insinuations. No….his soul was odd, and I was curious as to why.

My idle muse was brought to an end as his little thorn weapon was fired off at me.

I flicked it away.

“Foolish, just touching it is enough. I will bring out your worst fears.” He cackled ominously.

“Okay.” I waited.

It wasn’t very often I indulged in a ‘fight’ and I did not wish to bully this child, so I would allow him his chance.

Something did try to assault me though. I would almost call it similar to the way that Shinigami attempted to assault my senses. It was as if something tried to crawl into my heart and pull out some very personal feelings and emotions.

The Power was strange. It was almost as if…..it had the very faintest hint of divinity to it, but so muddled and clouded that I couldn’t really tell. I touched it, metaphysically speaking, to understand what it was. The easiest way to describe it was a distilled aspect of ‘fear’ made manifest. Weaponized by this man infront of me.

I admit I allowed it to affect me a single iota, opening myself up for it to freely flow for a singular moment,  just to understand it and it brought out something I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

It in no way influenced me, but it did make me vividly recall certain things I would much rather forget as many things from my past.

What was I afraid of? It was very simple, really. I was scared that I would turn back to who I was many years ago. How would Wilhelm look at me if he saw what I used to be?

The idea genuinely made me uneasy.

And now I was annoyed at this thought that was in my heart.

“….you’re unaffected.” He said quietly.

“You are much too young to try and instill fear into me, child.” I kindly informed him. “Do you have anything else to show, or are you done?”

“Impossible.” He stiffened. “My power was given by his Majesty, there’s no way you’re not affected!” He started losing his composure. I don’t think he’s ever had someone deny his power before. He spread his arms wide and many more of those thorns form behind him.

I stopped counting after twenty and they continued to fill the area behind him.

They were all unleashed towards me and I merely raised my hand. Hands of shadows emerged from the shadows, knocking them away.

I didn’t believe them the slightest threat, but I felt it would be embarrassing for them to just hit me all over.

I reached down, picking one up. “Would you like this back?” I offered.

“….just touching them should induce limitless fear in you….” He took a step backwards. “How….”

“Allow me to return this.” I took a step forward to mimic him and he looked a little hesitant.

“You….what are you, why are you not afraid!?”

“Child, I am Death.” I clenched my hand the shadows around him swirled and grabbed hold.

Perhaps I was feeling petty, but I was still annoyed, so I stabbed his little thorn into him as he struggled helplessly.

I believe it would be more beneficial to leave him alive. I think Wilhelm would appreciate it. Though, that doesn’t mean I can’t take out my annoyance beforehand.

I –

Wait, a moment.

“Why is there something stitched onto your soul?” I asked the strange child that was frantically trying to escape. He didn’t give me an answer, but it was no matter. “I will find out then.”

I reached for it.

@***@

Wilhelm POV

“Hey there, Shunsui, need a hand?”

A large condensed beam of fire shot through the air as Shunsui narrowly dodged, the ends of his Haori getting singed.

“A hand would be appreciated.” He chuckled awkwardly. “He wasn’t just blowing hot air when he said his flames could match the Old Mans. Thankfully, I have experience in that department.”

I glanced to the side to see the other Shinigami captain, someone I hadn’t met before until now. She was fighting the other guy with a cool claw on his hand. Her Zanpakutō was in the form of a gauntlet claw, nail poker thing. And the guy she was fighting had these weird butterfly marks all over his body.

They seemed about pretty even, perhaps she was on the back foot with some minor wounds, but I turned my attention back to Shunsui.

The guy Shunsui had been fighting landed to the side, flames dancing between his fingers and he looked a bit more together than Shunsui.

“Why don’t you release your Zanpakutō?” I asked.

“It’s not good when fighting together with others.” He said sheepishly.

“Huh, oh well. Thought it’d be interesting to see.”

“Unfortunately, my girl’s a bit temperamental, she also doesn’t like sparing either. If she comes out, it’s on her own terms.”

“She? A random question….is your Zanpakutō spirit….hot?”

“What – “ He didn’t fully answer as we both flung to the sides, another wave of fire tore through where we were a moment ago.

“Fucking ignoring me.” The dude with the Mohawk glowered. “One, two, doesn’t matter. Come and get it.” He taunted.

Well, he feels a tad more dangerous than the girl I fought. Like, replace lightning with Fire and suddenly, there’s an actual threat infront of my face that I have to pay attention to.

“We can make it three, if you prefer.” Izzy casually strode over, throwing the comatose body of the one she ‘fought’ to the ground.

“Nodt lost?” The Mohawk guy blinked in confusion. “Haha, that asshole always so fucking cocky about his power. Look at him now.”

“Speaking of power, he had something strange attached to his soul. I believe it is the source of his power and they appear to have something similar.” Izzy informed us.

“Oh? How curious.” Shunsui hummed. “That’ll be something we can look into later.”

“Yeah right.” Mohawk scoffed. “I’ll just –“ He paused because the shadow, his shadow, jerked. No, it grabbed hold of him and began pulling him into itself. “Shit, looks like we’re out of time. Count yourselves lucky. Next time we meet, I’ll kill every one of ya.”

It wasn’t just him, I glanced to the side to see the other Captain having the same issue with her opponent. And that girl I fought and left on the ground was also sinking into the shadows. And lastly, so was the twitching body that Izzy brought back.

“Ara, then I guess I should make sure that doesn’t happen now.” Shunsui smiled, raising his blade and moved with a burst of Shunpo, slicing at the mohawk guy.

The guy didn’t even move, the part that was cut just freely passed through him, like he wasn’t even there. In fact, even the odd buildings started to descend back into the shadows all around us.

“Dumbass, his Majesty’s Shadow isn’t something you can mess with.” He laughed, mockingly as his form all but became submerged.

“Is that so?” Izzy responded, and she reached down into the shadow, completely pulling out the person she fought with. The shadows resisted, if it could be called that. But like a naughty child, her own chastised them until they relented, and the person was pulled free and tossed back onto the ground.

“….” The Mohawk guy just stared, awkwardly, and in silence for the last couple moments as he finally disappeared.

“Would you like this?” Izzy offered, talking about the body still on the ground.

“…..that would be very helpful, ma’am.” Shunsui said, rather respectfully.

@***@

A/N

Probably a Quincy POV next chapter as we see things from their perspective and how much canon is kind of destroyed. Originally was going to do some POV from the Shunsui and Sui-feng for their fights but….it didn’t really seem all that important? The fights weren’t very long, they weren’t meant to be as the Quincy weren’t there intentionally. The Quincy are sorta on a time limit when they pop out without doing some drastic measures, will be explained more next chapter.