The Seireitei Invasion (8)

"They should be far enough from one another now. Although even if they weren't, I doubt they have the time to worry about other captains." Shen had been carefully observing the Seireitei from afar, keeping track of everyone's whereabouts as best as he could. Due to his sensing relying on people's interference with the sphere of Ki, he emits he has roughly known where each captain is though it is hard to keep track with so many Soul Reapers.

"I really do need a better way of sensing people. In any case, the closest captain to me would be." Looking over the Seireitei Shen's slowly moved from right to left before stopping as his eyes locked onto a specified location. Standing in the sky, Shen bent down as if he was going to jump in mid-air. The next second the only thing that could be seen was shockwave indicating something broke the sound barrier.

Meanwhile, Shen's target on the ground was busy trying to defend himself. Floating in the air, Hitsugaya flash stepped to the right as beam of energy flew right threw the sky him hitting another part of the Seireitei in the distance. After a bright flash, a massive explosion appeared, creating a small mushroom cloud.

"At this rate, the Seireitei will be destroyed before we destroy these things." Turning his eyes away from the explosion, Hitsugaya had been held up due to the orbs Shen created. No matter how many times the captains would destroy them, they would grow back, taking a little mass from the main body to repair themselves. And if they tried to attack the main body directly, they would cause more destruction to the Seireitei.

"Alright enough games." Raising Hyorinmaru to the sky, a massive amount of Spiritual Pressure began to gather as the sky above Hitsugaya started to turn black with storm clouds. It felt as though the entire area's temperature dropped a large amount of ice shot of Hitsugaya's blade. All of the ice began to combine as it rose into the sky, forming five different Chinese dragons made of ice.

Directing those dragons with his sword, Hitsugaya aimed the appendage of the Ki orb. Spinning while gliding along the surface of the tentacle-like Ki appendage, the dragons froze everything they touched, including the Ki itself. Incasing the Ki like a shell, they followed the path they were given all the way back to the main body. As they touched the main body, they exploded outwards, engulfing half of the sphere in ice.

Floating in front of the frozen appendage Hitsugaya turned his Zanpakuto around facing the flat edge downwards. In a gentle matter, Hitsugaya tapped Hyurimaru against the ice, causing a small crack. After a few moments, the crack began to spread wherever there was ice back to the main body, and the cracks covered the surface. The ice shattered, bringing half of the orb of Ki with it.

"Well, that's half of one done. Now we just have to deal with the other half, and that's one down." Feeling slightly out of breath after that stunt, Hitsugaya landed on the ground, steadying his breathing. However, the moment he touched foot on the ground, creatures were already trying to swarm him. "Oh, right, these things are still here." Readying himself to be plunged into another fight, the creatures that were about to attack Hitsugaya stopped.

After standing there a couple of seconds, the creatures quickly turned away and began clearing the area. 'What? Did they give up? No matter how many of those things I killed, they never gave up before why now.' Just then, something came crashing out of the sky like a rocket landing on the ground, causing it to shake as if it was made of water. As the ground, Hitsugaya heard someone's voice.

"Sorry to drop in like this I know you must be tired." Walking out, the crater Shen was in full view in front of Hitsugaya, who immediately reacted to his presence by gaining distance backing away quickly. "Why are you here you haven't shown yourself since you let those monsters in." Keeping his distance from Shen, Hitsugaya tried to figure out his reason for coming here.

"Hehe. Would you believe me if I told you I was bored?" Listening to Shen Hitsugaya's expression became even more severe. "Alright, fine, the truth. I already have you captains exactly where I want you after all." As Shen spoke to Hitsugaya, he began to walk closer to Hitsugaya slowly. "And what do you mean by that?"

Although Shen did have them in a bad situation, Hitsugaya had his doubts that this was the situation he was talking about. "You were always one of the brightest among the captains. You see, as fun, as it would be to fight all of you at once, I needed you all... Separated."

It was at that moment Hitsugaya began to catch on to what Shen was trying to say. "So, the reason we were getting stretched so thin wasn't an accident."

"Bingo. Now that you're all separated, no matter how much trouble I cause, you all will be too busy to help one another, especially with my little toys keeping you all busy. And if you guys really do somehow leave those positions, you're all trapped in, and then my army would simply spread even further into the Seireitei, making it even harder to stop them."

As Shen got closer and closer, Hitsugaya began to take more and more steps back. "After all, the Soul Society isn't just captains and lieutenants. If all the Soul Reapers die it then the Seireitei and in extension, the Soul Society will fall." Hearing Shen's plan, Hitsugaya knew he was right. Soul Reapers kept the balance no matter how strong the captains were. They couldn't be everywhere at once.

It's the Soul Reapers that Shen's creatures have been killing that keep the human world free of hollows and keep the order with the captains of the Gotei 13 being pillars keeping everything afloat in case of emergency. "I get it now, so that's why you attacked so openly instead of secretly. You wanted us to gather together."

Looking at Shen Hitsugaya had a new outtake on him. Hitsugaya hadn't met Shen before or even talked to him, so he couldn't understand his personality just from the reports he read. But now it was different. He saw Shen as more of a threat than he ever did before even when he was at their front gate.

"There's only one last thing I want to know. Why did you tell me all of this? You could have kept this to yourself, and your plan would have never been noticed until it was too late, so why risk it?" After all of this, that was the only question that truly mattered left on Hitsugaya's mind. Hearing Hitsugaya's question, Shen finally stopped walking forward.

"Why? Well, that's simple." Suddenly the world around Hitsugaya and Shen began to change and warp as Shen's eyes transformed. Piece by piece, the Seireitei around Hitsugaya started to turn into a dark endless void as he began looking left and right.

"Because you won't be around to tell anyone."