A Thief's Downpour

Why couldn't I move forward? Why was I unable to take one simple step towards my goal? Did I not want to return home? Was being bound by the chains of those pulling seriously what I wanted?

No. It wasn't. Who would want such a thing?

If so, what was I doing? Messing around, playing with power beyond my understanding when I could finish things so much quicker. Simply slitting Tokinada's throat when I met him would have sufficed, so why didn't I?

"More lightning," Tokinada chuckled. "What a pity."

The power I'd withheld from using against Nelliel had failed, only destroying large chunks of the Soul-Society. I should have expected such a thing to happen. If I could maneuver my way through it with two people slumped over my shoulders, of course a trained Soul-Reaper like Tokinada could as well.

It was foolish of me to expect a weak attack like that to take him down.

If I wanted to beat this man. If I wanted to seize Enrakyōten, I needed to give in. I needed to accept myself—this twisted version of me, at least, and accept reality as it was.

Why couldn't I just give in? I'd been taking steps in a land of wishes and hope up until now, not the real world.

"That look… Your expression says it all," Tokinada jeered. "You've given up. Crushed by despair."

"Huelgo," I chuckled, a bolt of lightning striking down from above.

I'd released the barrage of attacks I'd released the moment I was pinned down. Its trajectory was uncertain, random. Controlling it while subdued was like trying to wrap a leash around a shark in water.

The sudden bolt of lightning caught Tokinada off guard, striking his back as he slumped to the floor. Smoke soon arose from where he lay, his Zanpakutō lying meters away from me.

Releasing my spiritual pressure again, it erupted from me, engulfing the area in a thick haze of lilac, the sky now growing more vivid with both my cloud and lilac darkening. The rods restraining me soon vanished.

I reached for the Zanpakutō, but quickly found my hands burning. A green-fire emanating from the blade as it shook on the ground.

"Seeping crest of turbidity… Arrogant vessel of lunacy. Boil forth and deny… Grow numb and flicker…" Tokinada sneered. "Disrupt sleep. Crawling queen of iron. Eternally self-destructing doll of mud! Unite. Repulse. Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!"

"W-what?!" I stuttered, dashing away as a box formed around me. These words he was chanting, they were all too familiar.

"Hadō Number 90: Kurohitsugi!"

Tokinada soon rose from the ground, his index and middle fingers pushed together as purple and black energy formed around them.

I hadn't planned for this. How could I have? Releasing a full-incantation for such a spell was nigh impossible. And, even after being struck by my lightning, Tokinada could still pull such a feat off.

The purple-square soon began forming around me, its enormous walls keeping me in place as gravity began crushing me.

"Despair, Arrancar. Draw your final breath as you're crushed by the will of the universe!"

The spell soon finished, its walls climbing towards the sky as it engulfed me in gravity.

There was nothing I could do to avoid this attack. Even with my training, the cards hidden up my sleeve couldn't do anything about this attack Tokinada had unleashed.

My body immediately tensed as I dropped to my knees, pressure crushing down on me as the ground splintered.

Was this the end?

No. It wasn't. It couldn't be. There was no way I could die. Not anymore. I wouldn't allow it, and neither would those watching me. I knew it, deep down. If I found myself in a potentially dangerous situation, someone or something would intervene. Thrusting me into a different universe would be pointless if they didn't.

There was a way out of this for me. But how?

A thought crossed my mind, a stray cat lost in the wind. It wasn't the best of ideas, but it was all that would coalesce into a thought. My mind was distraught, caught between trying to stay conscious and maintaining composure as gravity released its wrath on me.

I began taking it back. All my spiritual pressure I'd released into the atmosphere. I could feel the cloud disperse, my Zanpakutō falling from the sky as it reformed, sticking itself back together with the scattered pieces.

My spiritual pressure began flooding back into my body, condensing down into the smallest possible form. Pushing back into my body with the gravity crushing me as an amplifier. The box began pulsating with a faint light, lilac mixing in with the darkness.

The entirety of my spiritual pressure soon found itself confined to a small, enclosed space somewhere in my body, convulsing in and out as the gravity struggled to keep it at bay.

My spiritual pressure was without a doubt greater than Tokinada, but I couldn't exert it all whilst it was in the sky. Naturally, the stronger I became, the same went for the cloud above me. But, if I allowed it to sit and absorb reishi in the sky, I'd only end up dying.

My greatest power was also my greatest weakness.

I relaxed my body, allowing the gravity to completely take over as it crushed my body. Blood immediately poured out of my mouth, the liquid struggling to find anywhere to go with the force weighing down on it.

Then, everything went white. A bright, vibrant flash of lilac obstructed my view. The weight crushing me vanished, the darkness that engulfed me was annihilated by the sudden wave of reiatsu. Gravity itself had succumb to my spiritual pressure.

I could feel it with my Pesquisa. My spiritual pressure had blown everything around us like a hurricane, the entirety of the Aristocratic District demolished by one swift gust of reiatsu.

Flipping onto my back, it slowly began returning, though not nearly fast enough. My wounds weren't healing, blood still pouring out of my mouth as I coughed.

The sky above me was now a beautiful blue, clouds slowly entering my vision as it darkened.

"You…You fool," a frail, noxious voice spoke out. "Sip from the four seas…the heavenly sho—"

I cut Tokinada short as I whispered, "Gran Rey Cero: Fuego Rápido…"

With so much blood pouring from my mouth, casting such a cero was now possible. An attack like this was only possible on the brink of death, and fortunately for me, death was closing in.

A row of lilac appeared above me, balls of reishi materializing as my blood infused with them. This attack was similar to the variation Coyote Starrk had used, Cero Metralleta. I'd used this attack back on Hueco Mundo, but now it'd evolved to another level.

It wasn't as powerful as my resurrección, but it was the most I could muster in this sorry state.

They blasted forward, each cero firing rapidly one after another towards Tokinada's direction.

Tilting my head up, Tokinada was kneeling, still upright. His Zanpakutō was keeping him up as blood trickled from a wound in his chest, a wooden-pole sticking straight through his stomach.

"The… Heavenly shores entwine…"

He carried on, his voice weak as he continued a chant. My Cero hadn't done anything. They were erupting, blocking my vision for a short period, but he was never touched.

The wounds along my body soon closed, my spiritual pressure returning along with the strength to stand. It still wasn't much, but I had just enough to walk.

Glancing around, there was nothing. Most of the buildings had been entirely flattened, with smoke rising from the remains of what had; mostly rubble and debris, nothing noteworthy.

My cero were still firing, but nothing was happening. Tokinada was still alive.

Looking behind me, there was nothing. Only lone figures in the distance slowly approaching. Seinosuke and Takeko weren't anywhere to be seen.

"Where… What happened? Why are you alive?!"

Now facing Tokinada, the situation became far clearer. There was a barrier held up in front of him, an opaque wall of air. It'd negated much of the blast.

"I…My spiritual pressure…"

Tokinada's mouth contorted once again, twisting into a vile, sadistic smile as he began laughing, blood spitting from his mouth. "You've killed them! How amusing… A marvelous display of strength! This is the true meaning of life, Arrancar! You can pull at the strings of fate as much as you like, but fate will always pull and take something in return!"

He carried on, a gel-like substance emanating from his hands as his wound healed. "Despair, Arrancar… This is what you wanted..."

The intensity of my reiatsu had evaporated everything around me, including those in close proximity. This barrier had saved Tokinada, but Seinosuke and Takeko weren't conscious. They'd been instantly destroyed by the sudden wave of spiritual pressure.

This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Innocent people weren't supposed to die. I had a plan. Theories were being tested. Why didn't they work? Why wasn't my plan working? There wasn't supposed to be any way for me to loose here. What went wrong?

Tokinada stumbled forward, thrusting his Zanpakutō into the ground as the blade vanished, replaced by a sickly-green aura.

"Equally duplicate ten thousands and sharpen…. Enrakyōten!"