An Unexpected Guest (Ceres/Kizomaru)

As soon as she had gotten the call from her captain, and lover, saying something about the deflection of the Fourth Division captain who had fled to the Human World after being injured by the Fifth Division captain; and that she was to take a team to the Human World to search for the traitor, she wasted no time gathering a small army and heading off as soon as it was possible. She led her team with haste through the Senkaimon, there would be no time to waste and striking an enemy while he is down is the best way to defeat them; not that she had the intention of killing her target, but it would be a hell of a lot easier fighting him while he was at low strength then at full.

Her and her team had been delayed from beginning their search, for as soon as they stepped foot in the World of the Living they encountered a Hollow swarm and naturally they had to take care of it; it was seemingly endless, almost as if the hollow were respawning as soon as they were destroyed, making it a tiring process to just take them down to a handful. Sadly the rush of trying to keep the swarm contained distracted the lieutenant from a real enemy she should have been fighting; in the shadows keeping her reiatsu hidden was an Arrancar, cloaked in a black cloth hood and face mask which hid her identity from anyone who might see her, her silver blue eyes set on a target only an idiot would miss.

While Kizomaru was distracted the Arrancar struck, firing a blow dart laced with a heavy duty tranquilizer straight at the girl's neck, it took a couple of minutes before Kizo went down and her team noticed, but that was all that was needed. The Arrancar woman fired off a bala in a random direction to draw the attention of the other shinigami, then while they weren't paying attention she silently scooped the violet haired girl up in her arms and sonidoed away from the small, dumbfounded group of what she would call morons; when far enough away she opened a garganta and exited to Hueco Mundo.

Kizomaru had awoke with a violent start to find herself surrounded by stone and metal bars, there was a group within the dungeon but she was too far away for any of them to have noticed right away that she was there which was fortunate for her; seeing as one of them must have been the one who had caught her off guard and taken her here. Her head hurt but she was otherwise unharmed, it even seemed like she had rested from her stint with the hollow swarm, but she couldn't remember anything beyond feeling a sharp, quick pain in her neck before she passed out.

She sat up slowly and looked around, her weapon wasn't directly on her person but it was close by in the cell; whoever had caught her must not have been worried about her escaping it seemed. She reached her blades and fixed them back on her hips before she drew her zanpakuto blades from her sheath and activated her Shikai, sure it was a stupid move but she was desperate and it seemed that no one even noticed the release, especially given the far stronger reiatsu which most likely snuffed hers out, making it easier to get away with what she was doing.

Almost as quickly as she had unsheathed her blades she had vanished into the shadows and escaped her cell, coming up to rest before repeating the process until she was far enough away from anyone who she could have attracted the attention of; she returned her swords to their sealed state before blasting a hole in the wall with Sōkatsui, the explosion was loud but she was so far off that perhaps no one had heard her; once the hole was made and the outside was visible she fled Los Noches.

Now here she was, trudging around in the sands with no way to get home, her cell phone/soul pager had since died because(of course today of all days) she had forgotten to charge it to a full battery the night before which left it with only half a charge today. She cursed herself out mentally and contemplated taking a small breather since there were no hollow, but just then she felt the presence of another and not just any other, it was an Arrancar. Just perfect, cause she really needed to deal with one of those right now.

She saw that the Arrancar was staring in her direction, had she been spotted or just simply sensed? It was hard to tell, the distance between them made it hard to ascertain whether or not Kizomaru had been seen or not, sadly she assumed that if she could see the Arrancar, and much less the direction it was looking in, then the opposite must be true. Lovely, she must have been in the others sites, however that didn't stop her from trying to escape just the same; lowering her reiatsu output to nothing, she used her shunpo to seem to completely vanish into thin air while really she had just vanished into the air. She would be about ten feet into the sky and three feet to the right of the Arrancar, she had hoped that there was an off chance she wasn't spotted and that this simple vanishing act would be enough to throw the other off; on the reishi she stood, watching the Arrancar with her reiatsu hidden, planning her next course of action should she have to engage in battle.

As soon as she saw the light of the cero she quickly released her shikai with a quick shout of 'vanish', and she seemed to do just that; the instant her swords changed from their normal state to being blades of what appeared to be shadowy fire she completely vanished from vision, of course not without verbalizing the name of her attack. "Kage no Shoshitsu!" The only thing heard before the girl melded into the shadows beneath her feet, her reiatsu hidden away so she could not be sensed, her disappearance was quick enough to allow her to completely avoid the cero and, the attacks that then followed after; this obviously might have confused her opponent since it might appear that she had run away, but in truth she was just planning her next course of action. She had to do it quickly however, because the energy she had used to escape Las Noches had limited how long she could stay hidden away.

Rising up from the shadow the girl was casting on the ground beneath her feet, while keeping her reiatsu level low so it would be hard to be sensed, Kizomaru began to put her plan in motion; she was approximately three feet behind the Arrancar after fully resurfacing which left little room to put much power into an attack but hopefully it also meant less room for her opponent to react. She cocked one of her blades back in a diagonal manner in an angle of about seventy degrees, and swung forward aiming from the other girls left shoulder and hopping to cut down to her right hip, her other blade was drawn back horizontally and then swung to attempt a cut across her lower back.

Regardless of if those two cuts landed or not Kizomaru would shunpo away to stand about five feet in front of the girl and hold one of her blades so that it aimed down towards the ground, quickly she would slam the blade down into one of the many shadows by her feet while calling out; "Shadou Supaiku!" Which would then cause the shadows to stir and spring from the ground in sharp spikes which rose from an area close to being directly under the girl, fortunately the spikes did take sime time to form so it would not be hard to dodge, but depending on how things went with her first attempted attack the ability to evade the spikes might be more difficult.

The attacks she had attempted to land had left her no time to appropriately block and so she ended up taking the punch, and bala, full on; however as she was sent skidding back from the blast she used her Shadow Warp ability and vanished so as to prevent herself from taking any more sever damage by crashing into something.

When she reappeared she stood five feet in front of the other woman, her clothes burned from the blast of the bala which revealed the bandage wraps she wore to keep her breasts in place; her swords held tightly in her hands as her arms hung at her sides."Look, I'm not out to do anything else but get home! You attacked first, this is all a means of defense.." Kizomaru retorted in a frustrated yell, it was true that she did not even think of trying to attack the Arrancar, her main focus was getting back home to her family..

After she spoke she took on a defensive position, she knew the woman was not going to give up until she was either defeated or she defeated the Arrancar; her blades held in an X position in front of her, preparing for what the other woman was planing on throwing her way. She had no idea how long she could continue to keep fighting since she had burned a good portion of her energy getting out of Los Noches, but she didn't plan on stopping until she collapsed.

Kizomaru had been about to reply even though she knew it would likely mean little to nothing to the Arrancar, and even less since exactly how she wound up there was hazy at best on her part; all she could remember before blacking out was she was in the living world fighting hollow, then she woke here in a strange room. She had a feeling it must have been either an Arrancar or hollow that brought her here but that much was obvious, it was just a question of who and for what purpose.

Before she could even open her mouth she heard that static noise which told her the other woman had vanished; sonido, well didn't that just make things all the better? Narrowing her eyes Kizomaru searched around her immediate area to see if she could spot the girl but with no luck, she felt like she had wasted time, especially when she felt the presence return directly above her. She saw the yellow, thin beam of light, and even took in it's reiatsu output and was taken aback by how weak it felt; still she did not let this throw her off however, and prepared herself for it just like it were a typical cero.

She contorted her body so that she was facing the woman and the beam head on, and with precision timing she rose her blades in front of her head and focused her reiatsu."Hado number thirty eight! Enkosen!" Just as the words left her mouth a shield of glowing yellow reiatsu formed in front of her and took the impact of the cero for her, protecting her from the damage and possibly any effects it might have had on her.

"I was brought here, I don't know by who or why, but I was captured and brought here against my will! I only just escaped not too long ago, then ran into you..I didn't even want to attack you but you forced me to engage you in combat." Kizomaru explained finally, while she was speaking her body began glowing a deep purple color and her reiatsu spiked; she did not wish to do this, but it seemed as though she would need the boost sooner rather than later.

On her face a white mask started to form, taking the form of a japanese wolf mask, purple flare marks accentuated her black sclera and sinister looking crystal blue eyes, a long purple stripe ending in a matching color wide circle ran up the center and in the middle of that sat a black crescent moon; the mask ended in a black nose and had silver swirl designs in the ears and on the flared cheeks.

With a super bust of speed Kizomaru vanished from the girls sites completely, the over all set of current actions may have stunned the woman and that was precisely what she was counting on, for while she was hidden away by the power of her speed Kizomaru had been charging a cero at the tip of her mask. When she reappeared once more she was three feet to the right side of the woman, a purple orb with a black outline was now completely charged; without so much as a second thought she released the blast directly at the woman. The close range may make it hard for her to dodge, but it would not be impossible, and there was also the option of using one of her own cero and Kizo was prepared for such an event, ready to dodge should she need to.

She could sense it, the spike in the other woman's reiatsu signaled something big about to happen, she figured given the intensity of the spike that it must be the other girl beginning to enter her resureccion form; if that was the case than she knew what she had to do. As if it were a timed response Kizomaru's reiatsu spiked once more as well, yet it was different from when she drew down her hollow mask, but still a threatening spike none the less; perhaps the intensity of her own spike was something that was meant to try and intimidate the Arrancar.

Bringing her zanpakuto together, holding both hilts pommel to pommel so that the two wakizashi were held vertical in both hands; each tip of each blade pointing towards the sky or ground respectively, and an intense burst of violet reiatsu made the ground shake, of course this could also have been due to both girls releasing their most powerful forms at almost the same time. The violet reiatsu encased Kizo in a sort of shell, not a protective one, it was for show mostly; once the reiatsu faded she stood holding a bishamon yari. The central blade is pitch black while the two crescent moon shaped blades on either side of the central blade are silver, the tachiuchi is solid black, the shaft is colored deep purple and is four feet long; at the end of the shaft of the bishamon yari is a jet black ishizuki, tied at the end is a long deep purple cloth, which flowed in the residual breeze left over from her reiatsu burst.

Her shihakusho outfit changed into a purple kimono style dress which held the same basic appearance as her uniform, but rather than the basic black and white color scheme her bankai outfit had one more complicated; the base color was royal purple and had intricate black and silver designs covering the entirety of the surface, the outfit looking like one an empress would wear as it had a very regal aura about it. Purple knee high tabi over which are worn black geta with silver V shaped thongs of cloth on each geta, also she sports a black choker with a silver crescent moon pendant dangling from it.

Now, with her transformation complete Kizomaru sped forward, kicking up a massive dust cloud as she hurled herself towards her opponent who by now was surely finished with her transformation; her bishamon yari held straight out in front of her as she was attempting to pierce through the other girls stomach. The sharp tip of the central blade would easily penetrate normal skin like a hot knife through butter and leave a gaping wound, however it would require additional strength to pierce through the hierro the Arrancar possessed, there for against her opponent she would be lucky if it got so far as three inches.

If she missed with this attack she would quickly pull back her weapon and shunpo out of sight only to appear again behind the woman with her bishamon yari drawn back, aiming one of the crescent blades at the girl's right shoulder with the intent to tear through the appendage, however given hierro it would most likely just leave a deep cut if the blade made contact with the Arrancar.

If this series of events was avoided Kizomaru would draw her bishamon yari into a position where she would be able to try and defend from a possible counter attack, especially since she rushed into the battle without so much a seeing what her opponent could and would do now that they had released their zanpakuto; a reckless move on her part but she was desperate to end the battle as quickly as she could, even if it meant taking greater risks in the end.

Her first attempted assault almost went through smoothly, but when the shock wave of sand came straight at her she was forced to stop dead in her tracks, and unfortunately some had found its way into her eyes which further left her open to a counter, which seemed to follow right after the miniature sandstorm. Her eyes blinked rapidly with little succession in removing the invasion which just plagued them; yet despite this irritant she could see, albeit in blurry shapes at the moment. Though unable to see well Kizomaru could still sense the incoming attack and, although clumsily and possibly through sheer will power and luck, managed to swing with her bishamon yari and bat away a couple of the tendrils that were aiming for more vital areas on her body, and *she attempted to dodge but that just put her in the way of more of the tendrils; having been cut in multiple places with a couple of minor stab wounds through each shoulder.

Once the tendrils stopped she finally had a chance to attempt another attack on the woman, however when she got just close enough she began to feel a searing pain, that coupled with the pain of her wounds should have been enough to incapacitate her right then and there, but thanks to her mask she was able to pretty much ignore the wounds that littered her body, almost as if she had some super form of pain tolerance, which was one of the perks of having her mask she was grateful for. The new pain however was something she could not easily ignore, but for the sake of her freedom and survival she pushed through. Once she was able to get with in three feet of the woman she cocked her bishamon yari back in a horizontal arc and swung forward, aiming the sharp crescent shaped blade points for a potential cut along the Arrancar's chest, if this was not blocked or dodged it would leave two wounds instead of one; there was enough power behind the swing to make the cuts deep and painful, but no where near enough to cause any debilitating damage.

While she swung her weapon one would notice a faint glowing violet light at the tip of her mask, she had begun charging yet another cero; even if the woman were to counter or block she would launch the cero from an almost point blank distance, and if she dodged she would simply aim the cero in the closest possible direction to where the woman would appear once she had moved, able to do it only by sensing the moving presence of the Arrancar. The cero would be launched regardless of how exactly Ceres handled the attack, the main question was just how much damage she would take based on where she took the damage from; if she dodged the first attack only to have the cero fired at her she could, and most likely would, just dodge it completely and avoid damage altogether.

Now the only other difference would be how Kizo handled the series of events; if Ceres just blocked Kizomaru would fire the cero and shunpo away to a distance of ten feet, if she attempted to counter the attack Kizo would meld into the shadows after launching the cero to try her best to avoid more damage herself and if Ceres dodged Kizo would stay put after firing the cero and ready herself by falling into a defensive position to be ready to protect herself from whatever the other female did in retaliation.

Now the cero itself would be weak, having not had much time charge to a full strength, if it was indeed fired from an almost point blank range; meaning that not much damage would be caused by it if it made contact with Ceres, and even if it was fired so closely there was still the chance of just moving out of the way completely; with the speed the Arrancar must possess now that she had released her resureccion it would not be difficult for her to avoid the entire assault altogether. If this is what happened Kizomaru would begin thinking on the different types of Kido at her disposal, and planning just how to use them in her current battle.

Kizomaru herself was pushing her own limits, no where near ready to just fall in battle due to exhaustion just yet,but she had spent a good portion of her energy just escaping from Las Noches, which of course put her in more of a weakened state during her battle; now the use of both her hollow mask and bankai was surely a draining feat, but thanks to the Reiryoku boost her mask gave her she could hold out. However if the situation got too desperate, Kizomaru might have to rely on a last ditch effort to save herself, and even then with what it would do, there was no guarantee that Kizo would even be conscious after using it;, especially given her cero usage; however she vowed to herself at the start of the battle, that she would not collapse until she had given everything, everything in her power, to try and defeat her enemy so she could get home to see her family once more. However, there was a high chance that she could fall without subduing her opponent, and that could mean utter doom for the young lieutenant.

Of course it wasn't until now that she noticed a change in the Arrancar, though she did not associate the change with her release and just figured that was how she behaved during a fight; given the situation she did not have much time to ponder personality changes in the enemy as she was focused more on saving herself. Now there was the matter of her next series of events, since her opponent dodged her first attack and launched with one of their own.

She wasn't expecting Ceres to attempt to grab her weapon, but as soon as she reached for it Kizomaru jerked it back; depending on where exactly the other woman was trying to grab her weapon there was the chance of getting grazed by one of the crescent blades as she pulled the weapon back away from grabbing hands; the attempted grab of the weapon also caused her to loose focus on charging the cero and thus it became nothing more than a faded light surrounding the muzzle of her mask.

The fact that she pulled her weapon away from Ceres meant that she sacrificed the chance to dodge the first attack, being slammed into the ground harshly and quite possibly fracturing something in the fall, she did not have time to assess herself though as there was another attack coming right for her; rather than take it or attempt to dodge she simply called out "Kage no Shoshitsu!" and with that she phased into the shadows and successfully dodged the second attack. When she reappeared she was ten feet from the other woman, she coughed as a delayed reaction to the force behind Ceres' attack and ascertained that there was indeed something wounded, but she had no clue what.

Now she had to think fast, there was no way to safely assume that her opponent would wait for her to recover and so she had to hurry along her next assault. She began by focusing her reiatsu, pouring her Reiyoku into an attack, specifically a kido; when Ceres got close, approximately within four feet of her, Kizomaru released the attack she had been focusing on so hard."Hado #14, Tsunami!" She called out, with the words would come a massive tidal wave which would be barreling towards her enemy with the speed of a cero, the wave stayed high but for a moment, blinking would mean missing the fall of the wide wave; it was not impossible to dodge but given it's width it would be hard.

The next step in her attack came shortly after and was not aimed at Ceres, but at the wave instead, she focused more energy on yet another kido but this one would be weaker in comparison."Hado #4, Byakurai!" Extending her index finger, she fired the pale blue bolt of lightning straight at the wave, thus giving it the ability to possibly do electrical damage to the Arrancar, now granted the damage would not be much, but it would feel like more given the conductive property of the water. If the wave hit, it would do moderate damage, if the Arrancar just dodged the onslaught her energy had been wasted, but that did not mean she was without a plan.

While her combined attacks were heading towards Ceres Kizomaru got into a defensive position, holding her long spear in front of her in a slightly diagonal position, then, she took a deep breath and called out."Nigiri no Kage!" As soon as the words left her lips the shadows all around and underneath Ceres began moving, coming at her like long thin tentacles, aiming to take her within their shadowy hold and render her immobile. Of course if Ceres spiked her reiatsu she could fend them off,or if she was quick enough she could simply dodge, but they were fast, so she would have to be faster if she hoped to simply sonido away from the attack.

It was satisfying to Kizomaru to see that not all of her efforts were in vain, despite their not doing much it gave her a renewed sense of hope, made her more confident she could win this; when Ceres was swallowed by the wave Kizomaru grinned victoriously beneath her mask, when the shadow tendrils she had summoned to imprison the Arrancar grabbed them with the burning resolve to keep her in place one could swear there was a distorted chuckle heard, one of victory? Perhaps, the demonic sound echoed through the silence that had befallen the battlefield, spooking any lesser beings who so happened to hear the darkness lurking within the voice which uttered that noise. At the moment she felt the tide of battle shift slightly in her favor Kizomaru felt highly confident she would end this with the next set of attacks she had in her arsenal, sadly however her elation was shortly lived.

Her hollowfied eyes widened when she saw Ceres break free of her binding, of course she expected it to happen, but that did not make it all the easier to accept that the vital part in her grand plan had failed; granted it took the other woman some time to get free, but in the end that did not matter. She felt foolish now for giving into that feeling so soon, for assuming victory when she should have known better, but there was no point in dwelling in the feeling now, now was the time to focus only on the counter she knew was coming. She watched Ceres as she became engulfed in what looked like flames, Kizomaru had no idea that it was her Reiryoku that had bathed her, however she knew that fact mattered little right now, what did matter was the thick intent to kill that lingered in the air.

A voice snarled in her head, it echoed throughout the occupied space and interrupted Kizomaru's thoughts and she froze in place, something which would surely confuse her opponent, and also give them the upper hand."Tch....Yer pathetic, lettin' this bitch kick yer ass...This is why ya should let me handle things from here..." It was Niveous, of course, because the situation needed worsening. She certainly did not need the hollow's remarks right now."Yer gonna get us killed if ya don' give me some control.."

Not long after Niveous spoke was there another, less threatening voice which soon echoed after"Oi..Leave her be, she can handle this Niveous...She doesn't need you bothering her right now.." Of course it was Ankoku, the zanpakuto never missed a chance to step in where Kizo could not when dealing with the hollow. However she didn't need this bickering either, rather than let it continue, like she knew it would, she stepped in before it got that bad.

"Both of you need to zip it if you want me to focus...Rather than bicker, how about we work together and save all of our asses?" Kizo's voice rang loud and clear in her mind, breaking the two up and setting them both on the same track Kizomaru had been thinking; there had been one other time where the three of them were all working together, and right now she needed that to complete her plan. The other two remained quite, as if this was their way of showing they agreed with their host/master, and they all prepared for what would be Kizomaru's final attack.

Finally she was able to see reality again, not that she hadn't been seeing it before during her little conversation, but now it did not look like someone pressed the pause button on the world before her. Seeing that Ceres was closing in on the ten feet range Kizomaru took a leap back of about three feet, then dug the bottom of her spear into the ground and focused her energy."Kage Souzou! Kizomaru's mixed, hollowfied voice called out, and with that spoken phrase came what appeared to be another wave; however this one was not for damage, it was simply a blanket. The attack looked as though someone took a pitch black picnic cloth and stretched laid it out ten feet in front of the violet haired woman, she had used a good portion of her Reiryoku to create for herself a shadow field, one that would be put to good use.

Of course this was not the last step, it was only just the beginning to the massive drain on her energy in which Kizomaru store any and all hope of winning this battle, now her own intent to kill mingled with the Arrancar's., she didn't much care for killing her enemies, but she would need to if she were to survive; for after this, the girl would quite literally have nothing left and would be completely helpless against her enemy, meaning that the vast desert that is Hueco Mundo could very well be her final resting place. With a wheezed breath Kizomaru steadied herself, her nerves which were starting to get the better of her, and began focus on what was next to come.

While her spear was still planted into the ground she placed her left hand flat against the back of the central blade and focused, pouring all her reiatsu into the final attack combo she hopped would save her from her demise, her whole body began to glow a deep purple color, making it hard to notice the cero charging on the muzzle of her mask."Shadou Tsuki no Burasuto!" Kizomaru called, the words spoken almost as a shout of defiance against her defeat. What followed was a black blast that glowed a violet color in the outline the blast appeared to be a weak three feet in length but that would change as it moved, it was then followed by a fully charged glowing orb which seemed to melt into the first blast fired; of course this orb was a cero, but it was different as it just seemed to vanish as soon as it was fired, was it because she had already used a substantial amount of her energy in her last two attacks, and the cero was actually weak?

What had actually happened was her cero was fired directly into the shadow she had laid before her, and her first attack had absorbed it along with the portion of the shadows into which it had been fired, but it would be hard to know this unless one witnessed the series of events from behind. For the secret of Shadou Tsuki no Burasuto, was that as it hurled at the enemy it gathered the surrounding shadows before it would reach its intended target.

Speaking of, the super charged blast was barreling right for Ceres at almost it's maximum width, the shadows which Kizomaru had created appeared to peel off the ground as the blast moved toward the Arrancar and, by the time it would reach her, almost all of that blanket of shadows would be gone. Uncovering the sand which laid in wait beneath, in wait to catch the body or bodies which would fall as a result of this battle.

If this attack actually hit it's intended target there was no doubt the blast would do a massive amount of damage to Ceres, though whether or not that damage would be fatal was unknown, but it would certainly be enough to bring her down at the very least, it had to be, because the shear force of launching the attack had spent the lieutenant.

Kizomaru watched the attack through blurred vision, she had fallen to her knees and her zanpakuto had been forced into it's sealed state, laying beside her in the sands. Her mask had broken as well, the sclera of her eyes returned to that milky white color, the crystal blue eyes which drooped so much from her exhaustion tried to stay open to witness the outcome. With a ragged breath she coughed hard, spewing blood which coated the sand below her, not an awful lot, but enough to know that there was something wrong. Maybe she should hope this woman to not die and take pity on her, otherwise she might die anyway, with that as her final conscious thought she fell face first into the sand, eyes closed and breathing labored. She was unconscious now, and left completely at the mercy of a killer.