With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
The Shinigami on duty had run into trouble, yet again. Well okay, maybe more then just trouble, but it infuriated the man nonetheless.
Why were Shinigami on patrol so... damn inept? He swore, it was probably because they indulged themselves waaay too much in worldly pleasures. It's not like they could really be caught slacking. And when hollow weren't around, they were pretty much told to slack.
It was pathetic.
He imagined the men on duty having become lard-like and fat by the time they saw them again, perhaps even forgetting how to use their bodies outside their damn gigai's.
But that wasn't the real reason he was mad. He was mad simply because of all the people on earth to run into trouble. It was the men on patrol that was from the 2nd squad!
Of course, he would've guessed that the mistress cared about her subordinates, but to care enough to, first, be ordering him and a couple to earth, and second, to be coming along herself?
It made his mind mentally implode. Still, he was and would never be in any position to question mistress' orders.
With him were two others, not encluding the mistress herself. Both of them he neither knew, or recognized, as he guessed they were probably not in the same unit that he was.
"Taichou." One spoke up, it was a female, judging by the voice. With the standard uniform of the 2nd squad, it was sometimes hard to tell if they weren't... well, shapely. "We are closing in on the spike of reiastu."
Great. Kamair huffed mentally, as they pulled to a stop in speed. I guess it's time to put my blade to good use.
Soifon hated being around so many ill humans. Seeing so many old, weak, and feeble. She could feel some of them as they projected their germs at her... disgusting... It was as if all of these humans had a combined spiritual pressure made of illness.
She prayed she would never become weak, and helpless, and need a place like this. She couldn't stand the notion...
Of course she had Unohana to thank for this. She wasn't sure -why- she was there when squad 4 seemed more suited, and more sympathetic to the ailing humans.
"Good, we need to find this repugnant leech of a hollow, and deal with it before it gorges ant further on the souls here," she said bitterly, "Lets go." With that she dashed for the reiatsu spike eager to get out of this mess.
She knew that any souls she found here would need to be helped along, too, and that needed to be dealt with after the Hollow was taken down, or if they were in immediate danger.
"Good, we need to find this repugnant leech of a hollow, and deal with it before it gorges ant further on the souls here. Lets go."
"Yes, Taichou." They all responded as one.
Kamair bowed his head slightly as they took off again, moving about the halls of the 'far too white' building.
"This is gross," the female muttered under her breath, "why the hell are we here?"
Kamair waited for the other man to answer, but he did no such thing, apparently the other man agreed. He waited, and waited, for someone else to respond, but they didn't.
"We're here to do our duty." Kamair said quietly, his voice rather low and raspy from lack of use. Without another word, he continued to sprint on ahead.
"... well who went and stuck a rod up your a--..?" There was a roar that cut off the sound of the woman's voice, but Kamair got the jist of it.
"Our target." He stated, pointing out the source of the roar as opposed to answering her question. Using his sense of tracking that all members of the 2nd squad were trained with, he felt out the area and attempted to locate the hollow.
He concentrated for a moment, his mind opening his senses to find the source of reaistu. "Fifth floor, West wing."
With that, they simultaneously flash-stepped to the fifth floor, appearing at the entrance of the West Wing. It was silent, dead silent.
Letting out a huff, the woman put her hands on her hips. "Well, mister tracker, not so hot now h--?!"
Before anyone could react, a tentacle shot from the ground and immediately grabbed the unsuspecting shingami. Kamair jumped back as two or more tentacles errupted from the building floor. It seemed as if the hollow was a bit larger then they had initially thought.
"Kuso!" The lowly shinigami cursed as he looked for an opening to get to the other shinigami; however, there didn't seem to be one. Within a couple moments the girl let out a ear-splitting scream as he vertebrae was crushed by the pressure of the appendage.
Soifon darted at the tentacle that grabbed her subordinate with speed that wasn't likely followed by the eyes of the team. "Hado 4! Byakurai!" she said forcefully, then jabbed her finger at the tentacle which blew it off the woman before it could cause damage to her permanently.
Soifon grabbed her by the collar harshly, then threw her away from the hollow, and behind her team, "Let that be a lesson to be more alert than eager to taunt." She effectively put the woman on rear guard, and prolly humiliated her some in the process.
Would it have been kinder to let the woman get crushed than to deal with Soifon's harshness? Not much.
It didn't register to Soifon what she did in saving someone. All she wanted to do was make sure her team got out okay, and not let people die stupidly while she had the power to stop it.
Unfortunately he hollow's main body was hidden away, and, well, what would these people learn if she just obliterated the target outright?
This would be an exercise in restraint for the group as they couldn't mindlessly assault the Hollow and risk harming the humans.
Still, she remained keenly aware of the situation, and was ready to step in if things got too heated. Yeah, despite the danger, this was more hands on training than life or death, but heaven help the Shinigami that treated this without seriousness.
The first thing that flashed accross his eyes were not pride or mock, but admiration for the actions of his leader. It was only brief, however, as he had to take most of his attention to avoid the ever barraging tentacles.
Dealing with issues in the human world was always tricky without a memory modifier. By look of things, they already need to find a way to deal with the holes in the floor. Something that could easily take hours of work.
Growling slightly, he performed a short-ranged shunpou, allowing him to dodge a flying tentacle by a hairsbreath.
Focus. Kamair thought to himself, shifting his leg from one leg to the other. You need to focus.
Flashstepping to the left and narrowly avoiding another attack, the lowly Shinigami pulled out his blade, slicing downward in a quick fashion and severing most of the tendons with one swing. However; since his blade was short, he did not reach the entire width of the tentacle.
Without so much as a blink, the man flashstepped again, reappearing on the other side of the tentacle and performing another attack, easily severing the remaining tendons.
There was a howl of pain, that allowed a slither of pride creep into his system, but it quickly faded as he mentally berated himself for losing focus. Afterall, the battle was only just beginning.
Feeling a spike of reiastu, the young shinigami immediately jumped back, narrowly avoiding another appendage as it burst throught the ground.
Soifon frowned a bit as only one Shinigami seemed to step into the fight. "You, help him out," she barked at the other male Shinigami.
She glanced back at the female shinigami as if she anticipated her request for orders, but simply gave a silent stare that made her shrink back to rear guard out of both fear, and silent communication that it might be necessary.
Just because her squad was filled with the antisocial lot, something Soifon pondered the meaning behind now and then, but damned if they couldn't work together as a squad. It's why they were sent out as a team, damnit!
Soifon spread her awareness out over the area, and felt the need to know the enemies location, but she didn't offer any help in finding it. The sharp frown on her face reminded anyone that looked at her that they'd better not screw this up. If she had to step in, everyone here would likely regret it.
Right now the hollow wasn't at the point where her team couldn't handle it, but if they dawdled too long, that would change what with the humans dying here. Right now it was natural causes, but if the collateral damage built up that would change.
"MOVE IT! Find the source! Defeat the hollow! Time isn't on your side here!!" Soifon barked.
He nodded curtly, immediately flashstepping forward. Without a word between each other, the other Shinigami shot forward, both weaving in and out of the tentacles that were begginning to grow in number.
Focus, Kamair berated himself, There's a souce to this hollow, the tentacles are simply a distraction.
Expanding his senses and focusing on strong points of reiastu, the lowly Shinigami was able to derive the general area of where the body may be. It was a floor down, and apparently not too far from his current position. However, he would most likely need help getting there.
His eyes darting about, he attempted to find the other Shinigami, but... to no avail. He couldn't even sense the other man, let alone see him through the density of the tentacles.
Cursing mentally, he flashstepped a floor beneath him, almost immediately getting taken out by the a tentacle. After severing the tentacle, he saw it. It was diffinetly larger then he had thought it would be initially, and what was worse was that it was eating souls both left and right.
It, having saw him, immediately roared in his directed before opening it mouth and sending a barrage of thin tentacles in his direction. He flashstepped once, twice, three times to avoid them but they seemed to follow him as if they were locked onto his spiritual energy.
Growling, the lowly Shinigami raised his weapon to his face. "Consume, Zen Mao."
With a flash his Zanpaktou obeyed, binding it's steel to his arm and extending blades from his knuckles.
Soifon frowned as the tentacles obscured her vision, then calmly used a hand signal to the female shinigami to follow as she hopped down to the floor below. "Hado 8, Seki!" she said for force, yet calm as she created a barrier at her palm as she held out her arm that deflected the tentacles that shot out at her as the female shinigami used her speed to dodge, and move to back up her squad mate.
With the density of tentacles, however, she had to fight her way towards the source, and once focused on the task was decent at it, but she wasn't in a position to take the spotlight yet.
In the background Soifon watched calmly. She was in a position to annihilate the Hollow, but she was only there to keep things from getting out of hand.
With Omaeda out of commission permanently, and a vacuum of sociable trainers she found she needed to step in more, and more to keep the quality of her team consistent from the bottom right to the top. She simply could not just ignore them anymore.
With the help of several blades as opposed to one, the lowly Shingami easily sliced through the thin tentacles as if they were butter. The hollow roared in pain and recoiled ever so slightly, giving him a moment to breathe.
Reaching into his garment, the young Shinigami pulled out a small vial with clear liquid, quickly opening it up and filling it into his Shikai. The gauntlet glowed for a single moment, allowing his red reiastu to glow ever so slightly.
The moment he dropped the empty vial, he flipped to the left, narrowly avoiding an oncoming tentacle from a rather angry hollow. Grimacing, he knew that the particular poison he used didn't have much time before it dried, but should probally get the job done.
Flashstepping to the side of the hall, he set himself on sure footing and aimed his fist with speed and presicion.
"A Thousand Apologies." He muttered, allowing the chamber exit points to open in between the blades of his gauntlet. Letting out three consecutive shots, he quickly had to move before seeing if he had hit his target.
When he got the chance to look, he turned as saw that three tentacles had moved in the way to protect the hollow's main form, but the tentacles now lay limp and useless on the floor.
Soifon assessed the combat moves of everyone in the battle, and noticed the use of Shikai immediately.
She batted away a tentacle that came after her with no effort, and continued to watch the fight.
The female Shinigami cleaved her way to find the male, and they worked as a team to work their way through the tentacles, and weakened the Hollow some with it's loss of mass, then began to interrupt it's flow of souls so it couldn't regenerate.
They hastily used konso to send the plusses away in an unplanned bout of teamwork to help the shikai user get to the main Hollow body.
Soifon's frown lessened a bit as she watched this go on.
