Bleach: End of an Era ((Open 9/28/12))

[Silas Parrish]

"Is that so... Quincy?" Diego whispered, the grin never leaving his face. He stepped forward, his nose inches from Takeshi's. He still did not reach for his zanpakuto. "Well, what now? I can plainly see that we are not wanted here. However, that puts a damper on my plans for the day. So... what now?" His voice remained as cool as ever.

"Well, come on, then. Let's play!" Daisuke maintained a defensive stance, waiting for the girl.

"When do you plan on going?" Zero asked of the Arrancar captain. "Can you open the way yourself?  

[Ty Gwynnia]

"Ooooh-ho-ho-ho, big man, getting in my face like this," Takeshi chuckled under his breath, his eyes narrowing at the unspoken challenge being thrown out into the open. "You know, I really don't like your kind. You Arrancars make my blood boil." A crazed light lit in the jade depths and he smiled wickedly as he pushed his own face closer to Diego's soi that their noses touched, even going so far as to jab him hard in the chest with a finger. "And when my blood boils, fightin's the only way to stop it."

Maria nodded nervously and took up a defensive stance as well. There was no need to release her weapon, it was almost always in shikai form already. She'd been taught to never make the first move.

Kaizeloye smirked, his mouth drawing up at one corner. It made his entire face look more hostile when he did so. "Of course I can, how else would I get there?" He shook his head as if dispelling some leering insult, and the look fell off his face almost immediately. "I'm leaving right now, actually."  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"I am the King of Souls, the mysterious force that seems to keep all the worlds in balance. Some beings would call me 'God' but the truth is much less complicated. Inside of me flows the heart string known as reality. I act as an anchor weighing down all of existence. Without me Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and this place would all collapse and be no more. As for what we are in terms to ability we are fullbringers. We take the reishi stored in objects and turn it into power. For me," Reddo raises his left arms to reveal the golden bracelet with his old family insignia on it. "I use the energy stored in here to release my full bring." Suddenly Reddo noticed that he had uncovered a cracked open area of his arm where the skin had broken away like dry clay to reveal a solid blue mass of energy underneath. He quickly covered it up. "Now, what item do you have that is most dear to you, hmm?"

Meiso landed near the three of them, his sword drawn. "Both of you, stop it! His majesty has allowed them here as his guests. You should know that only he has the will to relinquish that offer, Takeshi." Meiso put his blade inbetween the pair's faces in order to break their eye contact. "As for you, Arrancar, I hope you understand that your stay would expire the moment you touched him or anyone else here. There is to be no fighting in Tana Hari. Not so long as it can be helped. Now, I was told to escort all of you to the main palace." Meiso got right up to both of their faces, trying to shift their attention to him. "Any objections? No? I didn't think so."  

[Ty Gwynnia]

Takeshi's eyes automatically focused on the sword blade suddenly between him and Diego, then his eyes flicked over to Meiso's face when it appeared. He glared daggers at the interferer. Surely Meiso knew, after all this time especially, that it was dangerous to stop him when he was itching for a fight. Compared to the Soul Reaper he wasn't nearly as hot tempered. Only when it came to battle did his manner change. And seeing the Arrancars revived his hatred for the one who'd killed most, or maybe all, of the Quincy. But he did not dare defy his lord's wishes. However, he didn't want to be denied this battle. "Meiso..." Came his angry growl. "You're making a bad move."  

[Orcus Fieres]

((Sort for the lag in reply, but it's the weekend now, so I'm free of work for the most part.))

Ossman took note of Diego's every word, but didn't try to express his anxiousness with the Quincy out in the open and listening so intently. "Yes, hermano. Whatever you're working on, just make sure you don't allow yourself to be too consumed by it." Ossman worried that Diego's Resureccion's apt for fighting to the death might overtake Diego's own personality at some point. That worried him.

Just as Takeshi brought himself around, Ossman noticed the shift in Diego's position and decided to take a step in turn toward Takeshi himself. Before he knew it, however, the two were at each others throats. Meiso's presence then entered the entanglement, sword in hand. "I could not agree with you more, Meiso." Ossman nodded in agreement with Meiso's wish to stop the possible fight. "But please do put your sword away." Ossman had quickly unsheathed his own blade, the thin epee sabre, Espina. "I don't think it helps your case to have a blade so near mi hermano."  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"If I wanted to fight you, I would have done so. Not come on, you're keeping his majesty waiting." Meiso sheathed his sword to appease Ossman and stood there, watching them over his shoulder. Making sure to keep a hand on his sword, not trusting Diego.  

[Silas Parrish]

((Strider, it's not reishi that the Fullbringers pull on, it's the "soul," or the part of themselves that is in the object. =3 ))
Chouku frowned.
"I've never heard of such a being... a King of Souls. And what are Fullbringers? I've never heard that term, either. I thought maybe what I was using was a strange zanpakuto. It's this," she said, unchaining her medallion and holding it up. "It's a vial of quicksilver that my mother gave me. I used to be fascinated by mirrors as a baby, and when I first discovered quicksilver as a child, my mother taught me all about it, and explained how like a mirror it is. She gave me this right before the Hollows came, and attacked her." She gasped when she saw the King's cracked and broken flesh, with a bluish glow about the fissures.

"Your blood's boiling, eh?" Diego sneered. "Let me cool you off!" He exhaled sharply in the Quincy's too-close face, decorating Takeshi's nose, cheeks, and the hair framing his face with frost. Just then, Meiso arrived with weapon drawn, and Ossman drew his own in response. Diego turned to the Soul Reaper.
"You dare speak to me of fighting, when you are the first one to draw a weapon? You don't scare me, Meiso." Diego drew his zanpakuto then, and slapped the Soul Reaper's own up and away from its proximity to his face.
"I will see your King, and there is nothing to be done about that. I and my Fracción are but humble refugees, and the servants of our kind host have done nothing but antagonize us since we arrived! What would your King think, hmm?" He watched as the Soul Reaper sheathed his sword, and sheathed his own, motioning for Ossman to do the same. For now.
"He should thank whatever gods he prays to that we are not in our own domain," he whispered to Ossman as Meiso led them back to the Soul King.

"You are hesitant, but I sense no fear in you. Good! I do not believe in being the first to attack," Daisuke encouraged. "However, one of us must be the first, or this training session would go nowhere." He lunged forward, stabbing toward Maria with both hands on his zanpakuto.

"Very well," Zero answered with a nod. "Lead the way. Storm, Ken no Arashi!" He released his shikai, just to be safe, should the two meet hostility on the other side of the Garganta."
((I'm going to change the rules of this zanpakuto... Frog's idea was weirdly non-specific in his explanation. xd ))

Akihime found her brother, and borrowed from him the item in question. She locked it into a long, wooden case, and slung the case around her back with a leather strap, and bade Kenzo farewell as he traveled with Chron back to Coruscant to master the new power known as Fullbring. She hoped he would be alright in unfamiliar surroundings, with unfamiliar power at his command.

((Blue's not coming back, BTW. Since everyone's already taken on a good many characters, we'll just write the extras out for now.))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

((Aw, no, not Blue. D= I'll miss him.))

Kousuke sighed, but saw that the Arrancar had obviously thought this trip through many times. "Come back in one piece, alright?" He said this lightheartedly but deep down inside of him, he did want them to come back completely unharmed, and relatively soon. It was some unseated fear of his that he was quickly discovering existed.

"Yeah," Ryuusha agreed, punching Manaki in the arm playfully. "If you don't, I'll find some way to get to that Hueco Mundo place and demand your missing limbs back!"

"Oh, please don't say that." Kousuke rolled his eyes and groaned, but quickly ended it with a chuckle.

Kaizeloye nodded at Zero, and then smiled at the other two captains. "Don't worry, I know my way around the place more or less." Then he turned to the one who'd be coming with him, and watched him activate his zanpakuto's shikai. He knew that if things got bad enough, he'd take his Resurreccion form in tandem with the bankai in a heartbeat. "Alright, I'll open a Garganta outside of the city walls. People might start freaking out if I do it here." With a wave to Suzuki and Ryuusha, he sonido'd and waited for Zero to follow him.

Maria steeled her nerves, telling herself not to dart away in surprise, and raised her own blade up to deflect Daisuke's strike. As soon as she heard the sound of the clash, she knew that either that was the time to strike or block again. But that was when she heard it, not before.

Takeshi growled again and his fingernails dug painfully deep gouges into the palms of his hands. As warmth began to pool in the two centers, his angry gaze alternated between the backs of both Diego's and Meiso's head, and sometimes Ossman's, while they walked farther away from him. Every muscle of his body cried out to grab his 'Schneiders and dart over them, swinging the swords with deadly ease, force them to fight for their lives as he fought for his sanity...No, not that. Now it was called his better judgement. That period of his life was over. Now his better judgement stopped him from doing idiotic things, like going against the orders of Reddo. Still, he longed to fall into the familiar rhythms of fighting. With a frustrated sigh, he brought his hands up and brushed away the specks of frost clinging to his face, leaving bloody smears in their place. Then he followed after the trio ahead of him, absently unhooking the Quincy bangle from his belt and shoving it far up his right arm to clamp tightly around the bicep. That relieved much of the pent up energy he felt.  

[Strider Wolfheart]

"I am sorry for what happened but all things have a purpose, even death and hardship, such as my own. The strain of being the Soul King is heavy. It is also an arbitrary one. I expect that I won't live to see the next year. So, before then, I must find someone to carry on this cruel tradition. If not then everyone and everything would come to an end. But I will talk with you more when the time is right. I have business to attend to." Reddo could feel that the group of men were coming so he would need to wrap things up for now with Chouku.

"Neither do you scare me. I am under the protection of his majesty and the sword was more for Takeshi then you, though another threat like that and I may reconsider." Meiso came up to the first door leading into the castle that had Hueco Mundo-like architecture. He ran a finger down the door and it shuttered open on its own revealing a sprawling atrium with fountains and golden statues of great beasts and sitting at the center a large silver statue of a great battle, a single man bearing a banner in the middle holding the others back. "Now you too are under the care of his majesty, whether you know it or not, so I feel a few rules must be made apparent to you when speaking with the king. One: You will not speak unless you have permission to, and in order to speak an opinion you must request permission. Two: No violence or fighting in this world. Three: If you speak out of line you shall be held accountable for whatever it is you say, don't say I didn't warn you. You are guests here so I should hope that you show respect but i'll leave that to your own discretion, but it would benefit you to simply follow the rules. I don't know what would happen to you if you didn't." After walking for a bit more through some corridors they finally reached a large door bearing Reedo's crest on it. "Any question before we enter?"  

[Silas Parrish]

Diego used his Sonido to stand beside Takeshi for a moment.
"Don't worry... you and I will get to play very soon," he whispered from behind a wicked grin. He then moved back toward Ossman, and followed Meiso back to the domicile of the King.
"No questions, Soul Reaper," Diego said in his usual manner, through a grin and sharp eyes. "After we have concluded our business with your King, we will take our young charge and be gone. And as for my remarks before... I do not make threats. Remember that when next we meet." He flashed one more wicked smile.

Zero nodded his agreement, and went with the Arrancar captain, a trail of static electricity arcing from his weapon and his limbs as he sailed through the air on his Flash-Step.

Daisuke withdrew his weapon in an instant, striking out with a palm, and preparing a spinning slash attack. He flicked his wrist as he began to rotate, causing Yamato to become flexible and whip-like once again. The curling blue blade came down from the girl's right, somewhere above her shoulder.

"You're seeking a replacement," she half-whispered in surprise. "Is that why you came to Soul Society? To test our mettle!" She sensed two Hollow-like presences, a hated Soul Reaper, and someone that might have been a Quincy approaching, and realized that the King's servants had returned with the other guests. She also realized then that she regretted having gone with them in the first place, but her options had been limited. She thought herself safer with Arrancar than with Soul Reapers.  

[Orcus Fieres]

Ossman sheathed his sword as Diego commanded and stood erect in accordance as he spoke with Meiso. As the party moved forward with Meiso leading, Ossman's head began to wander. Thoughts of having to actually start a fight rushed through his thoughts after Diego whispered angrily at him. "Relajate hermano. Don't let your Resureccion get the better of you now." As the group continued Ossman noticed the Quincy's bloodied hands rub his face, leaving it the same colour. Ossman materialized a crisp white rag from a pocket within his robes and handed it to Takeshi. "A gentleman should carry something to keep himself clean, I think."  

[Silas Parrish]

((There we go! Sorry for the delay, guys. mrgreen ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

Kousuke waved goodbye at the two setting off even though they'd already gone. Then he went into his office with Ryuusha following him. While he busied himself with finding the right drawer in his desk that contained his notes the other captain looked around in dazed amazement.

"This..." Ryuusha began slowly, shuffling in circles around Kousuke. "This is your office...right?"

"Mhm." Kousuke hummed, and grabbed a stray candy rolling around in one of the drawers. It quickly went into his mouth. "I decided that the mess was getting out of control, so I finished everything within the last week. Can you believe that at least half of the reports were about stray pets?"

"Uh-huh..." Ryuusha rounded the corner of the desk again and looked down at something by his feet. "Is that why your lieutenant's facedown on the floor over here?"

"Mistubishi's still passed out?!" The captain exclaimed, a little shocked. "Um...yes. I'm afraid that being able to see the walls had that effect on her...Ah, here we go~!" The fact that he'd forgotten where his notes were confused Kousuke, but then again, he hadn't went through them in a while. He carefully took out the first small stack, no bigger than the end of his thumb, and began to scan the list of names and dates, starting from the end. "If I can find the most recent "Takeshis' " I'll be able to pin whoever that Quincy is down, hopefully."

"Alright, let's hope that once you come through nobody notices," Kaizeloye said to Zero as he appeared near him. "If they do...well, maybe me being more powerful than most of the Hollows around there will help! If not, I'll make sure my presence covers yours." Without further ado he set to work opening a Garganta. As the tear hung in the air, gaping open like a crude mouth, the Arrancar paused with his hand outstretched before him and his arm bent as if to hold it close to his chest. "Are you sure you want to come with me? I'm not just asking just because I'm curious but...to be honest, I'm really hungry...and I think you know what I mean by hungry." ((I assume that Arrancars still like to/can eat other Hollows but if not, I can edit this. =D ))

Maria lost her nerve and backed away from Daisuke's hand, although it was significantly less dangerous than his strange sword. However she was at a loss when it extended, a property that still confused her. Who knew that some zanpakuto could do that? But maybe she could use that to her advantage. Following the line with her eyes she realized it would hit her shoulder if she didn't do something quick. She sidestepped and swung Tsukiakari far away from her face and upwards to meet Yamato, hoping that it would act like the whip it seemed and wrap around.

Takeshi's scowling features brightened automatically at the quiet hint. A smile even found its way back to his face for a moment, until Ossman offered him a piece of cloth. He looked down at his hands and realized he must have smeared blood from the tiny cuts on them all over his face. He hadn't noticed. "Oh, okay." The Quincy took the proffered rag and cleaned his face as best he could, then did the same with his hands. "You know, kindness is pretty strange for someone like you..." He held the dirty cloth out to Ossman to take back, jangling it in the air a bit. " 'Could get you killed."  

[Silas Parrish]

Zero gulped.
"I can imagine," he said softly. "And I will still go with you. Your former allies will not think kindly of you for going back after leaving them to be rounded up by Daisuke and Coruscant's shock troops." Zero felt a strange twinge in his gut upon entering the Garganta. He sensed a great many powerful Hollows... and a few Arrancar. He was not overly familiar with the feeling brought on by the ones with broken masks, but he knew they would be similar in nature to Kaizeloye. These presences were much less friendly.

The flexible energy blade wrapped around Maria's zanpakuto. The moment it went taut, Daisuke tugged on it, trying to draw her in to him. He prepared a concussive blast with his free hand, and waited for the chance to use it.

((Need one more from Strider for the Soul King. :XP ))  

[Ty Gwynnia]

As Kousuke drew a finger down the list he hummed to himself. There was a great deal of Quincies with the same name but thankfully not as much as he feared. In little time he was able to narrow it down to five, and after checking the reference pages for each of them, rifled through the other stacks still in the drawer. At least three of them were thin, insignificant reports he'd gathered. The other two were definitely more like lead material.

"Just because they don't like me doesn't mean they don't still want to live!" Kaizeloye called cheerfully to Zero and followed after him. The Garaganta closed as if it had eaten them as soon as he stepped through. He let the captain lead the way ahead of him and focused and figuring out where they'd emerge from. Normally he wouldn't mind, but with Manaki with him the whole trip seemed just that more dangerous.

Maria let herself be pulled forward, her feet pounding against the ground to keep her balance. Letting go of her sword would be a very bad move, so she improvised. "Bakudo number 8, Seki!" She muttered under her breath. Then she grabbed twisted her sword so that her right wrist faced Daisuke as he pulled her towards him.