Cut your strings, puppet
(Destroyed Soul Society, outside of metal bunker)
“Bahamut…You’ll pay for all you’ve done!” The armored man screamed, punching the air twice more as he bombarded Aleph with balls of intense energy.
“Hehehe…” Aleph giggled, a crooked smile upon his face as the energy balls approached him at high speeds. With inhuman reflexes, he dodged them without getting hit once. His body bent backwards such that his head hit the ground as he went underneath the beginning of the onslaught, and he jumped high into the air to get himself into safety. “You can’t defeat me” Water began rushing around him, coating his body in water. Every movement was mimicked by his water armor-practically causing him to become larger.
“Soulgain, Unlock limiters. Code: EG-X.” The man’s armor suddenly grew around him-until a suit of armor about 1.5 times the size of Aleph’s water armor had formed. The armor was clearly very strong and now a helmet lie where his head usually was. His speed was insane, at the limits of the human body. The two grappled with each other, a reiatsu-enchanced surface tension causing the water and armor to strike each other as if the water was solid.
“Seiryurin!” He put his hands back, the armor around him following the movement, as energy gathered in his armor’s hands. The energy glowed a bright blue before he thrusted forwards, energy coming out in the form of an energy beam (Think Turtle Wave.) Aleph easily jumped to the side as the beam didn’t even skid the water.
“Genbu Goudan!” This time his blades began spinning around his arm again at high speeds, He punched forwards but now the energy was behind the fist rather than jetting out in front of. He fired the gauntlet of his armor off using the gathered energy as propulsion. The water-covered Aleph barrel-rolled to the side as the fist skidded across his water-armor-which quickly regained the small loss of form.
They moved at a speed far past the normal capabilities of the human body, while Aleph was moving with ease; the other man clearly was past his limit as he fought. His body was taking damage in itself, yet he never gave up. “Die, Bahamut. Mai Suzaku!” He shouted as he punched forward, his arm-blade spinning rapidly as energy pierced through the water. With insane power, he punched straight through Aleph-rushing past the water-covered foe anime-style. He panted and smiled at his victory. Aleph cackled madly as his wound regenerated itself. It was horrid. His Zanpakutou could not possibly have healed such a serious wound so quickly. Yet Aleph was standing already with no wound.
Then, his body began to morph, muscles becoming defined, limbs stretching beyond their normal length, his face remained cackling with insanity as his body changed into a monstrous being. Parts of his skin were discoloured, his entire body became a work of fiction along the lines of Frankenstein and other monsters. But the worst was his facial expression. As his face slowly became beyond recognizable, he was cackling with insanity, his eyes full of bloodlust.
Somewhere in this, the other figure thought he heard Aleph’s voice somehow
“So long…Good…Bye.”
______
(Beginning of meeting about Chii)
The captains gathered in the Meeting Hall, an emergency meeting having to do with Kida’s return, was all Hell Butterflies told them. But the Meeting was a class A, so everyone arrived uniformly on time.
“Now at this point we all know that Kida has returned from her leave following the war with Magnus and his other allies?” Everyone nodded in agreement to Golde’s opening. “Now, everyone remembers the actual war, the final battle with the enemy, Codename Operation Artingent (Made-up words are fun.)” This time almost everyone hesitated before agreeing.
______
(Operation Artingent Briefing)
“Operation Artingent will be carried out in Three Phases. Phase one will be lead by Rotrum and Furash (As Jin said, Just Flash with a heavy Japanese accent), who will rush Magnus’ base from each side with an eighth of the shinigami forces on each side. After the initial assault they’ll retreat and surround the base long enough to drive out the enemy forces. At this point Phase Two begins, lead by Jordan and myself. We will first be hiding some distance from the base from all directions in several groups. These groups will make up another quarter of our forces altogether and will provide an aerial assault. Another quarter of our troops will participate in Phase Three. Lead by Aleph, the troops will provide support to the ongoing battles and attempt to break through the structure. After that is all improvisation based on how the battle is going.” Ryuu explained the plan he had laid out, which was followed by an animation of the base getting attacked, surrounded, attacked aerially, and invaded. Little avatars represented each captain as well as Magnus and his known allies.
______
(Partway through meeting about Chii)
“Good. You all recall what happened as we first began to gain the advantage?”
“Lilith appeared” someone called out from the lined up captains.
“Yes, the battle quickly turned into their favor against her onslaught of kidou and raw energy-no one could touch her due to her powerful barrier, the same barrier we had found to be nearly unbreakable when we attempted to penetrate the base. Around that time Luppi, Gibull, and Jin appeared, and soon after the tide of battle changed. After destroying her barrier the resulting explosion took out the entire enemy base and good portion of our forces, but we had finally claimed victory.”
“…So why are you bringing it up?” A questioning voice came from the audience of captains and test teams.
“Lilith, no, Chii was Kida’s sister.”
And then, for a while, utter silence.
______
(Present-Time)
Ryuu heard the signal. It was time.
“Just one, Golde-Soutaichou…” said Twelfth Captain Ryuu Schiffer. The other captains looked at him in a mixture of confusion and apprehension about what he could possibly say. Suddenly he was in Bankai before anyone could blink, and his reiatsu pressure came crashing through the room. The entire Meeting Hall exploded outwards as the Captains found themselves frozen in time. “Your decision will be invalidated.”
“A coup!?” questioned Jordan angrily, unable to move most of his body at a significant speed. “Weren’t you our friend!?”
“Never. I was sent here as a scout. Now stop trying to over power my time paralysis or I will self-destruct, taking all of you as well as the entire center of the Sereitei out.” Ryuu said uniformly, his entire body straightened until he may as well have been a talking statue.
Three figures in Captain’s Haoris suddenly descended on the paralyzed shinigami. An imposing man with long green hair, followed by a beautiful woman with long pink hair and another woman with long emerald-colored hair, stood in the middle of the Captain’s Hall. Ryuu nodded to them and shunpo’d until he was using Golde as a wall to lean back against.
“Shinigami. My name is Mauser Vindel, leader of the Shadow-Mirrors. We seek to create the perfect world” The Green-haired man, apparently named Vindel, said solemnly, looking at Golde’s undisturbed eyes with an equally emotionless visage.
“Everyone has a different opinion of what the perfect world is” Noted Kusari skeptically.
“My perfect world…Is a world of constant turmoil, where conflict is a part of daily life. That is the only way to kept the world from growing stagnant, to spur progress.” Vindel answered calmly, entertaining the bound captains.
Horror was strewn across the Captain’s faces, the only part of them that could move-apparently. “That’s insane, a world of constant struggle!?” Aleph cried out, angered by the thought due to his peaceful nature.
“How is it progress, you’ll destroy the world!” Jordan lashed out, bitter from his lack of mobility.
“To those who like to fight, like you and I, that might just be an ideal world, but to those who don’t, it’s HELL!” Cameron said, a bit of anger in his voice.
“I.L.P. add gravity binds to these arguing fools.” Vindel commanded, and soon the captains were weighed to the ground-unable to move at all.
“Ugh…I.L.P., is that what they call you!?” Cameron yelled with a burning passion.
“…Why Ryuu...” Muttered Chii, who was simply against the ground-staring at the situation with tears in her eyes.
“Destruction renews the world and keeps it from growing stagnant. The strong survive and live on to eliminate the weak. From the destruction is new birth. Look at how quickly the EWX team progressed-to a level that years decades to reach normally-in such a short time because there was a threat. Destruction spurs growth that Humanity need to survive.” Vindel responded, justifying his viewpoint while maintaining a steady composure.
“…That is true. Turmoil and chaos create destruction, and from Destruction comes new technologies and innovations that were spurred by threat of annihilation. But…” Rotrum admitted.
“Yes…But the losses that come from a war far outweigh any benefits that could possibly come out of it.” Golde finally chipped into the argument.
Ryuu looked stunned at their arguments, he wasn’t programmed to think, he needed to complete the mission and that was all. And yet, these people he knew for so long, these people he’d befriended…Even in the Human World, If this was to happen…He shook his head.
“Yes…The losses of a war will always outweigh any benefits presented.” Ryuu looked up as the captains suddenly found themselves able to move again. He shunpo’d behind Vindel rapidly, “We…never should have come to this world” He said, teary-eyed, as he grabbed Vindel and began to fly upwards with his bankai’s wings.
“What are you doing!?” Shrieked Cameron and the Pink-haired woman at the same time.
Their question was quickly answered as Vindel struggled against Ryuu, heavily damaging the cyborg. But Ryuu was adamant as they flew skyward-until they were barely even a dot in the sky.
“Initiate Code: ATA. Ash To Ash.”
The explosion filled the air, easily smashing through the barrier around the Sereitei, despite having been so far away from the ground. The entire sky became dark with the smoke and fire rained from the sky-some of it putting itself out in the trip. A single body fell to the ground.