Clash at the Gate (W/Levi and Zettai)

Reparations to the castle had been going well. Most of the walls on the outer layers were intact again, the basic structure was once more stable. They had put in a lot of effort to rebuild the walls, the Fraccion and Numeros, as well as instruct the general hollow on civility so they could inhabit the castle freely without fear of a feeding frenzy breaking out. But most of all, they had had a door again. Had had. It came out of nowhere, stopping Zettai midstep as he traversed the lower corridors, looking for weak points in the interior of the building, and forced him to turn his head and stare in the direction the door would be above ground. Something was outside, and it was throwing around energy like a madman. Taking a deep breath, he swiveled his body and immediately took off in a low jog back toward the entrance. Pulling himself through the dimly-lit half-finished cavern, his hands brushing the wall in front of him to keep him on track, a sense of dread washed over him. He faltered for a moment, then redoubled his jog into a full sprint.

Hauling himself up the short set of stairs and through the door into the main hall of Las Noches, Zettai emerged from behind a secret panel. Closing it softly behind him, he stared down the inky corridor toward the estate's front doors. Light leaked in from that end, piercing the tunnel like a train in the tubes. His eye narrowed, the pit that was both a remainder of his other eye and his now-hollow-hole retaining it's usual shape. Something very not hollow was approaching. Hearing the tell-tale scraping sound of a sword being drawn, Zettai instinctively reached for Herramienta behind his head. As always, his intent to draw after firmly grasping the handle caused the sheath and strap that bound it to him to disintegrate and fade away into the air around them. It was clear to Zettai what was happening. The powerful surge of reiatsu he felt earlier combined with this foreign presence and their door literally busted off it's hinges only equated to one thing. There was an invader in their home.

"Any civil creature can knock." He spat, pulling his sword up to a proper hold. "Although it may be a bit presumptuous, I'm sure I know your purpose here, intruder. Allow me to distract you long enough for my superiors to gather vital intel they can use against you later." With a heave, he launched his sword straight up into the air, his body and zanpakuto simultaneously gathering an aura of emerald light. Repelling his zanpakuto with the Absolution Wave, it floated above them idly. Casting a light on his opponent, the arrancar surmised his earlier hunch was correct, and this was, indeed, a shinigami he was dealing with. Huh. He was pretty short to be strong enough to blow a hole through their compound. No matter. The line was drawn very clearly in the sand, the two individuals being representatives of opposite ends of the spectrum. When one walked into the other's hosue, they were to be treated with no mercy. Launching himself at the shinigami, Zettai's eyehole began to gether it's own reiryoka, a jade green layered beneath his Absolution Wave's cloaking. Almost immediately into his and his cero's charge, it burst from his face, stopping him still.

This was Zettai's personal cero variant. He had used it to demonstrate his versatility to Caz, and it would hopefully prove to be a surprise here. The Blind Cero was a gathering of all of his immediate frustrations and converting it into raw power for his cero. Although it lacked the usual range and beam-like shape of the cero, it traded it evenly for additional power and next to no charge time. Like a shotgun, it radiated into a large wave the length of his body and traveled a scant two meters. Regardless, if the shinigami did not move, it would engulf him in it's rage. Now for the final tactic. Flicking an open palm toward the ground, his body's aura morphed into a light, sea-foam green. The power of attraction engulfed his Zanpakuto, pulling it down from the sky toward Zettai. Most enemies, if they could dodge the blind cero, would naturally try to jump behind him. That would be their downfall here. Blade first, his Zanpakuto scraped down his back, eliciting sparks from his Hierro, before plunging into the concrete floor beneath his feet. As it quivered, Zettai reached down and pulled it from the stone. Hopefully, he managed to at least drive him further back up the hall with his trickery, and way from the Greater Hall. The longer his espada had to gather info, the more he was fulfilling his duty to them.

----

Wc: 804/804

Well. This was going well. Not even one hundred feet into the "Great" Hollow Night Castle, and he had run into what exactly? Yes, that's right, another arrancar. The humanoid beast walked out from behind one of the massive statues, or maybe a pillar: Kirito honestly didn't know where he came from. As the being skulked out from the surrounding darkness, Kirito began to try and get a look at it. It stood a good ways taller than he, and seemed to be male in terms of looks, though from past experiences with non-natural soul shapes, Kirito knew not to assume gender in an instant.

Christ, there must be some sort of record on the subject of running into vastly inferior beings that want nothing more than to kill you in a certain amount of time if places like this could exist.

Well, maybe not.

Regardless, never had Kirito found hollows of any kind in such close proximity to each other. He knew the castle was populated, but already, an enemy? The place really must have been packed to the absolute brim with the things if it took such a short time to find him. I mean, the building itself was like a city, the dome having a diameter of something like three miles or so, so the fact that a hollow was in the immediate vicinity of him was really quite outstanding. That, or the queen had sent him here to deal with him.

Unlucky for this little guy, Kirito was a bite that was a little more than he could chew. The hollow's spiritual pressure was several orders of magnitude smaller than his own, and from what Kirito could tell, didn't show any sign of getting bigger.

Then, as a surprise, the being started to talk. He rambled on about being civilized and the like (ironic, because this was coming from a hollow). Then, the arrancar began to speak of his superiors, and the gathering of information. This legitimately worried Kirito a little, but any superior to something this weak could be destroyed with ease: At least in Kazuto's book. He was sure he was overestimating his own abilities, but really, what else was he to do?

Wallow in despair as he stared at certain death behind the gargantuan doors?

No.

There was no chance of that.

An emerald light shone on Kirito, possibly to allow the enemy to see him from the short distance away that he was at the time. The light, funny enough, came from a floating sword. Possibly a special ability? Kirito couldn't tell for sure. However, when the being simply rushed him, Kirito knew something was up.

He noted a condensation of spiritual energy around the man's face as his sword flew back to his hand.

There were now two things to consider.

The first was that the hollow breed obviously had some sort of control over his blade, maybe through magnetism, or telekinesis of a kind. If that could affect Kirito as well, he knew he could be in trouble.

The second was that there was a shotgun wave of green Cero-ish energy approaching him at a vastly rapid rate.

He had under a second to react.

Then, like a cowboy, his blade flicked upwards, glowing blue and in an instant, firing a blazingly quick blast of electric energy from it's tip, the rapier now having transformed into an ornately colored katana. The smoke from the collision of the two blasts took a moment to fade as Kirito managed to get a reply in to the (literally) offensive gesture.

"If you jump into battle like that, then you won't get anywhere in a fight. Let your opponent make the first move and always assume you are weaker than them. That is, unless you aren't."

With that last bit, Kirito cracked a smirk, waiting for the man's next move. Whatever it was, he could promise the being that he had a counter for it.



Words:661

Concussive waves of energy radiated from the impact point of their two attacks. "That would be excellent advice, if this were actually a fight." In his free hand, jade reiryoka gathered rapidly, condensing into a needle akin to those used for knitting. Twirling it in his scarred fingers, he grinned in return at his enemy. This shinigami was a little slow on the uptake, it seemed. Or maybe he was just stupid. Even after being told he was being distracted, he wanted to see the fight through. It was a shame, because he may have had a chance if he would have just rushed through and caught the Espada off guard. But. Now that Zettai had been given this opportunity, and two opportunities at that, with Kirito not counterattacking, the shinigami's fate was all but sealed. Tossing the needle straight up into the air, both he and the needle acquired a cloak of green energy, thinly rising from their bodies on an opposing spectrum of green.

As the needle hauled Zettai into the air with a force of attraction, he kicked off from the air with his zanpakuto aimed for the shinigami's head. At the last moment before they would make impact, he winked and activated the Absolution Wave again to haul him away, simultaneously pulling the needle toward his body. Just before they struck, Zettai depowered the Absolution Wave and twirled out of the way of the needle. Keeping it's momentum, the reishi needle was now flying toward Kirito's chest. As he fell through the air toward the ground, Zettai began charging a regular cero in his hand. Firing it after the needle, the Absolution Wave pulled the cero along it's path even faster, urging the energy wave to consume the condensed reishi. It was this kind of juggling that had let Zettai make it this far. He wasn't a specialist in any field, and worked hard to make sure all of his skills were modern and up to date. even though this generally led to him being weaker on average than his peers, he was tighter in combat and truly versatile.

"How much longer do you think you have here before someone else shows up? Why are you so patiently waiting for a blade to your throat?" Of course, Zettai knew why. The way the shinigami was waving his powers around, blowing holes in doors and treating every battle as an honest fight, meant that he had reached a new height, and was testing the waters of this new plateau. Perhaps he was over-confident. Still. Zettai was beginning to grow frustrated trying to understand this individual's purpose here. At what point in your growth do you decide to go rush the enemy's front gates? He had announced no purpose otherwise here, no ulterior motive. He wasn't looking for a kidnapped friend or trying to avenge a slain ally. He was just here, and he was fighting. The idea of it, of the supposed 'evolved pure soul' being so reckless, tickled a button that Zettai didn't previously know he had. "How much longer are you going to play games?"

He had never tried this technique before. He was told not to. But. He had watched Cazador perform it several times now, and he believed he understood the basic premise of it. Once more, green energy condensed in his scarred fingers, forming a reishi needle. This one was not for the enemy, but for himself. Using the tip of it to puncture the tip of his thumb, just beneath the nail, he let the blood ooze out and slide down his hand. Keeping his eye held tight on the shinigami before him, the familiar jade of his signature green filled his hand. As the blood mixed with it, he felt a serious tug on his fatigue, his energy levels plummeting as it was sucked from his body and into the cero. It wasn't perfect, a wobbly oval rather than a perfect circle, but it's pattern was unmistakable. The unstable core sizzled and crackled, spitting small blobs of green energy into the air. "Gran Rey Cero!" He roared, thrusting his hand forward as a beam of jade launched from his hand, the width of his entire body. It didn't hold a candle to Cazador's, and it wasn't too much stronger than his regular cero. Hopefully, he wouldn't get in too much trouble for using it within the castle. It could barely even be called a Gran Rey. But it was. And it was headed straight for Kirito.

----

Wc: 756/1560

The man seemed to get the impression that this was not a fight.

He was absolutely incorrect on the highest level.

Did this arrancar really believe that just because the purpose of the battle was to gather information and distraction, it wasn't truly a fight? No, they were locked in a clash, the loser likely going to end up dead. This was, under any normal man's circumstances, a fight. At least, the other man was fighting. Kirito wasn't so much. He could absolutely destroy the man with one sword stroke, but that wouldn't be much fun, would it?

Regardless, the idiocy behind the belief was stunning. The man was certainly treating it like a fight, even now. Kirito could feel the anticipation coming off of the man's body, his anger growing as Kirito simply didn't strike, easily countering his first, and possibly most powerful attack from what Kirito could infer. And this green aura? Was it adding magnetism, or a charge of some kind to the objects it enveloped? All questions for later.

He actually had to focus now.

The man had produced a small green needle, not unlike a knitting needle, and tossed it into the air. Then, the same green aura from before enveloped him, and as he kicked off of the ground, the arrancar seemed to be naturally attracted to the needle, like two opposing charges. Then, the man's reishi condensed around his palm as he began charging a Cero, this one appearing to be a normal version of the constantly modified attack.

Suddenly, as the green aura faded around the man, the needle flew forwards towards Kirito, directly on a crash course to impale him. However, it didn't land before the man also fired the Cero he had been charging earlier, the beam radiating with power as it coursed forwards along the same path that the needle was taking.

The exact same path.

The Cero itself was coated in the green aura that had so violently pulled itself towards the needle earlier. The blast was moving incredibly quickly, pulled along by the apparent attractive force of the aura, directly towards the needle, which as it so happened, was on a crash course with the obvious intended target.

Kazuto Kirigaya.

The combination of these different abilities was flawless, especially coming from a being with such... standard spiritual power. The synergy between attacks was very entertaining to watch, and quite the spectacle indeed from anybody's perspective. Of course, what the attacks had in flair, they lacked in power. With a simple side step to the right, no shunpo necessary, Kirito avoided the needle. It quickly flew past him and into the depths of the gargantuan hallway behind him, and along with it followed the cero. The beam of energy rushed right past Kirito on his left side at blazing speed, and he could feel the hairs singed on his arm after the near miss.

Then, the hollow pulled another surprise out of his ass. He was giving Kirito no time to react, or be coy in some sort of witty reply like he usually would.

The words "Gran Rey Cero" were the first thing to alert Kirito. The ball of energy was massive in the palm of the hollow's hand, but very unstable. It was caked in the green reiryoku, presumably the same aura that had given those prior assaults magnetic, or attractive properties. The blast was obviously not a true Gran Rey, as it didn't seem to be causing all that much spatial distortion, but it did have the title due to it's use of blood, something that had obviously empowered the blast.

Then, the attack was fired.

The beam was just as fast as the previous blast, even without a needle to be attracted to, but was even more powerful. He could smell the hydrogen in the air combusting due to the pressure put out by the attack, and felt all of the hairs on his body raise as the attack neared him faster and faster. Of course, Kirito had no intention of being close to the thing when it hit.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Kirito vanished in a flash of shunpo and blue energy, leaving a faint afterimage to be hit by the attack for just a moment, right before vanishing entirely. In an instant, he had moved behind the hollow, his sword flicking upwards in a ludicrously fast cut along the man's back, aimed straight for his right hip all the way up to his left shoulder. If the strike should hit, or even be attempted to be blocked, it would do absolutely body wrecking amounts of damage. Kirito's blade moved as he spoke briefly, hoping some of his earlier established questions could be answered, all while asking a few more at the same time.

"That's an interesting ability you have there. What is it called? How does it work? I have a faint idea, so if you can't get it out of you before you die, that's alright. But if you could at least grace me with your name, that would be nice. I don't like to dispatch of people who remain unnamed losers in my mind, you see."


Words:868
TWC:2279

Levi cursed as he exited the garganta and walked into his room, which he had equipped to double as a laboratory. Not that it would do him any good now. If he had more time to prepare he might have been able to come up with some way to counteract that bankai; some sort of rubber shield maybe, or copper lightning rods... or something that was actually smart. Even coming up with ideas took time he simply didn’t have though, and all that was in the lab at the moment was notes and scrap parts. Nothing that could be used at all, let alone against a bankai.

Levi took a deep breath as he opened his closet. He needed to think, and he needed a shirt. It was suicide to face the shinigami one on one at Levi’s level. It was also suicide for the shinigami to have attacked Las Noches itself. As he pulled a plain white t-shirt over his head, he thought about how many hollow and arrancar the shinigami could fight at once. With his speed and those storm powers his bankai gave him, he could probably mow down anything weaker than an adjuchas by the dozens. They could still distract him and wear him down however. Levi hadn’t been able to get a good read on his stamina, but he couldn’t imagine him throwing around more than a handful of those “Sorajin” techniques. Once he got tired, catching him off guard shouldn’t be too difficult. All it would take was two, maybe three hollows at Levi’s level, and a hundred or so grunts, to absolutely mop the floor with the shinigami. Simply beating him would require even less. Holding him off until the queen or Octavia arrived to finish him off? Levi could almost do it on his own. Not that he would take such a risk.

One way or another the shinigami was going to die and Levi was going to be there. He opened a garganta and walked out about a mile from the battlefield, close enough to assess the situation, not close enough to walk out in front of a sword. He had hoped for much more. The shinigami only had one opponent remaining, and that one was much weaker than Levi. In fact, it would take both of their powers put together to equal what the shinigami was putting out. Even so, both of them together could match him, and with the numbers advantage they would be able to hold their ground. Furthermore, Levi could make out the distant Reiatsu of the Primera and the queen. They were close enough to know what was going on. Defeating the shinigami was possible, holding him off for a few minutes should be easy. Intent on revenge, Levi disappeared in a flash of static.

He arrived just in time to witness a brief exchange between the shinigami and his opponent, a brunette arrancar with a big sword and apparently, a touch of creative talent with cero. Levi was relatively certain this was Zettai, a man whom he knew only through rumor and the occasional passing in the hallways. Those rumors included some sort of magnetic abilities, something Levi was sure he could use if the two could communicate properly. But first, he had to communicate his utter disbelief with the shinigami’s statement. As always, Levi would choose his words carefully.

“Bullshit.” He said as he walked forward, positioning himself so that the three of them formed a triangle. His Manos Fantasmales was already fully manifested, reaching out in virtually all directions. “It wasn’t ten minutes ago you said we arrancar didn’t deserve names, and now you’re suddenly curious? Or am I just special like that?” slowly one of his limbs creeped over to Zettai and started charging a cero. If the man was quick-witted, and the shinigami was focused enough on Levi’s words, then Zettai might be able to use that trick he used on his needles on Levi’s bala. Levi could only guess about how his ability worked, but he was willing to bet that it was possible for the cero to travel much, much faster that way. At the very least, when he shot that bala in a few seconds, he would find out if Zettai’s ability would work on his bala at all.

“I think before you get his name, we should get yours. It’s only fair.” Levi said with a smile.

WC:740

Damn. It wasn't anywhere close to where he wanted it to be. Zettai's False Gray Rey was far too slow to strike his speedster opponent. What was worse was that it still sucked him of all the energy he had. When the shinigami appeared behind him with a strike, the arrancar wasn't able to respond in time. A line appeared on his back, white-hot pain coursing through his back as blood began to well up along his wound. Maybe if he didn't move, he would be able to prolong his death as long as possible. Maybe if he... No. It was too late. The zanpakuto had punctured his liver, tore through his gall-bladder, cleaved his diaphragm in two, shaved a lung, and then exited just above his shoulder. The damage was incredible. Perhaps he wasn't such a child after all. That sort of power came from dedication to the blade, something that Zettai did not scoff at. He wondered just how far his journey would go before he was slaughtered at the hands of his superiors. Was Zettai the first denizen of Las Noches this shinigami had killed, or were there others?

Each breath came slower than the last, every inhale another jolt of agony, every jostle a rekindling of the flaming heat that washed over him. How had he let this happen? Eyes crossing, Zettai coughed up blood, fighting it as he stiffened his body against the tremor. The False Gran Rey was used too soon. Knowing this now, he hoped that he would be able to use that knowledge some day. This wasn't fair. He was in his own home. How could he be slashed down like this? His skin crawled as his muscles began to twitch at him. This. Wasn't. Fair. Struggling to keep himself together, he knew he couldn't afford to submit to the frustration right now. He had to keep himself together. As the vision in his eye began to dim, he refused it. He refused death. Opening his eye as wide as he could, Zettai released a great and mighty roar. His body erupted in a harsh glow of dual-greens, separated at the line of his wound. He had a way to keep going. The shinigami had made a mistake. His wound was very precise, and very clean. Too clean. By using the Absolution Wave on himself, he could attract the top to the bottom and literally hold himself together.

It would not due for him to die now, before he had fulfilled one great dude for his people. Protecting his home, the only true place of civilization in the great desert, was as close as he had come to finding such a purpose, and he wouldn't let it end now. As frustration boiled his blood, the smell of burned iron leaked from his body as his spiritually energy poured out. Just as Zettai contemplated something drastic, a third presence joined them. Another member of his tribe, another person from his home. That was the ticket. Now there was absolutely no way in the universe he was going to lose. Relaxing his body as the Absolution Wave condensed itself to a dual-band around his shoulder, chest, back, and hip as a bandage, he turned to face his enemy. "I think you misunderstood your intentions coming here today." He wheezed. The Absolution Wave was good, but there was still some serious damage in his body. This wouldn't hold forever, but hopefully, it would hold long enough. "I recognize that look on your face. I wear that face every day." The second hollowbreed began taunting the shinigami, and Zettai was hoping the distraction would work.

It appeared the hollow was familiar with Zettai. As a sneaky hand slid through the air, bringing a charging cero to him, the arrancar clued in that he was offering him a weapon. He smiled at Levi from across the room. That would have been very useful, but unfortunately, the Absolution Wave didn't quite work that way. It had to be Zettai's mistake it corrected, and couldn't be used on anyone else's constructs. But. The shinigami didn't know that. Quickly forming a needle in his hand, Zettai tossed it into the air just in front of the cero. Motioning at Levi to fire it with a simple jerk of his chin, he hoped his comrade would get the message. The moment the cero was fired, it would engulf the needle and destroy it with ease. However, Zettai planned on following the head with a sonido, parallel to it in the hopes that the Shinigami would think he were bound to it with the Absolution Wave. When the shinigami moved to dodge them both, Zettai would follow. In that last possible moment, he'd strike the ground and kick off to follow Kirito, using a Blind Cero to catch the shinigami off-guard and provide Levi with an opportunity to strike.

----

Wc: 817/2377

Well then. If there was anybody he expected to see within the next and last hour, it sure as hell wasn't Levi Grisha. The man had entered after Kirito's exchange of blows with the first arrancar, not in time to stop his cut from running the man through. It didn't take him long to start throwing his snarky asshole attitude around with a question as to Kirito's identity. Funny, he could swear there wasn't any point in giving his name to a dead man, but regardless: the arrancar had insisted.

The other hollow was not so fortune to have recovered from Kirito's last blow, despite Levi having bounced back far faster than Kirito had thought he could. Surprisingly, though maybe not as much as it should have been, the brunette arrancar hadn't been cleaved in two immediately. Well, he had been: it was just that silly green aura ability the hollow possessed that was keeping him alive.

Kirito's cut had been too perfect, just enough so that the arrancar could actually hold himself together using whatever this power he had was. Really it was quite impressive, his ability. Anybody who was versatile earned Kirito's respect and this man had it in the bag. Kirito was no master of versatility himself, following a very simple slash and dash style of fighting that incorporated shunpo as both a distraction measure and mobility enhancer. However, Kirito had mastered that style to avoid becoming a jack of all trades. Truly, he feared only the man who practiced ten thousand strikes once, and never the opposite.

As the man began to speak, Kirito could hear the pain in his voice, a subtle reminder to Kirito that his remedy had been very ghetto and not perfect in any sense of the word. It did what it needed to, he supposed, and the hollow couldn't ask for more. Then, the questions, or statements, rather, hit Kirito head on.

Maybe you don't know why you're really here.

Why ARE you here?

How did you even get this far?

When did you start fighting for the sake of blood?

Who exactly are you?

And then, an all too familiar set of friends popped into Kirito's consciousness.

"Sup, buddy? You have some questions you need answered? I'm sure Hana and I can help."

"Hey, I'm just here for the ride, kay' Reviere? Don't drag me into this stuff, I'm his zanpakuto spirit, you're the human negativity guy."

Brilliant, just brilliant. His... what could he call him... a reflection? Refraction? Inner hollow? No, he wasn't a hollow spirit. Damn, what did you call the condensation of your negativity and human life? Not exactly a common question: Maybe he would just go with the being's name; Reviere. A fitting name for what could be perceived by a bystander as Kirito's literal opposite. Of course, it was surprising to hear his voice after having absorbed him fully into his soul and attaining bankai, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. The guy probably could help a little if he wanted to. The question was, did he want to?

"All questions will be answered, friend. But first, why do you think you're here?"

The answer was simple.

So I can redeem the lost honor of the girl who I fell in love with on a fateful day in the summer of 2016. Why else?

The answer to his question was far less so.

"Is that really why? Have you come this far for the sake of yourself, or another? Did you come to Hueco Mundo to redeem the honor of Chie Kira, a girl who is now what we call a "Vaizard" in some respect? Or did you come here to quench some other thirst? Even more so, is this a matter of honor, or revenge?"

Though mere seconds passed, it felt like he took years to reply to Reviere's question. But, when the answer finally slipped out, it wasn't what Kirito thought it was.

I... I don't know. Right now I need to focus on the fight, so please, don't interrupt like this again. If I have to make a choice that determines which of the two options you gave me , then I guess we'll get our answer.

Now he was making sense.

Back in reality, Kirito snapped out of his momentary daze. A conversation in his inner world was under a second in the real one. His eyes snapping back upwards, his back straightening and his trademark smile returning, Kirito decided it would be best to answer Levi's question, maybe humor the both of them before he delivered them each a swift demise.

"Well, I suppose you do deserve an answer. The name is Kazuto Kirigaya, and you, Levi Grisha, if you are wondering, happened to kidnap my girlfriend during the invasion. Hence my unrequited hatred for you. As for any chance you think you have after recovering... well, let's say this. The man you fought two hours ago is not the man you're looking at right now. He was half the being I am, so I hope you've come with funeral plans made."

As the words finished flowing from Kirito's mouth, he glared in the direction of Levi, his eyes piercing the hollow's fractured soul as he began to release his reiatsu in great quantities. On his feet, Kirito prepared himself for the next assault, waiting en lieu for the evidently coming assault.

Words: 900

Luckily Kazuto let himself be distracted and answer the question. Typical shinigami, weighed down by honor and pride. If he had attacked immediately Levi probably would have lost, and Zettai definitely couldn’t have been saved. He had also probably assumed that he was so much more powerful than them that it didn’t matter, which would have been entirely true if they had been the strongest hollow around. In fact, it might be true anyway if they were careless.

“Ah, Chie was your girlfriend? Let me guess, she realized you couldn’t protect her and dumped you, right? And you came here to prove that you can protect her so that she’ll take you back. Am I close?” Levi stared back into the hateful maelstrom of Kazuto’s eyes. He couldn’t deny that he felt some satisfaction in hurting the shinigami, but that was hardly worth jeopardizing his life over. No, this taunt was a calculated risk aimed at achieving a tactical advantage. First and foremost, if the shinigami’s rage had him focused on Levi, he wasn’t looking toward Zettai and the combination they were preparing. Second, Kazuto had shown himself to be a swordsman first and foremost. A master swordsman to be sure, but a swordsman largely limited by the length of his blades. His strongest attribute was his speed, but at this distance Levi was confident that he could react in time to stave off an assault at least long enough to give his partner an opening. The only other threat was his ranged attack that had broken through the castle walls. Assuming he had gauged its power accurately, Levi was still confident that he could stop it if he shot two or three ceros at the center.

Judging by the feel of Kazuto’s reiatsu though, that was big if. His threat held merit, he was much more powerful than he had been in the desert. How wat that possible though? Had he been holding back? No, that didn’t fit with what he had said or how he had acted. The only thing Levi could think of was that it had something to do with his bankai, but even that didn’t make sense. Unless... perhaps if it was his first time using it? Even then the idea seemed far-fetched. That was a puzzle for later though. Origins aside, Kazuto’s new-found power was a problem they had to deal with.

The real challenge would be landing a hit on Kazuto. In a one-on-one bout, Levi was certain he would never leave a mark on the shinigami, and Zettai certainly wouldn’t. If they could divide his attention though, hit him with a flurry of attacks too quick for him to effectively react to, they might be able to injure him. Unfortunately, that carried its own risk. If they managed to corner him too quickly he would release his bankai and the duel would be over. Levi could probably escape again, especially if he used Zettai as a meat-shield, but then he wouldn’t be around for the shinigami’s inevitable defeat. If Levi’s theory was correct however, Kazuto probably couldn’t keep the bankai active for very long, and therefore would probably save it for more difficult fights. They would simply have to bank on that. They had no alternative.

Levi looked over at his coincidental ally. Zettai was badly injured. He wasn’t bleeding, but the green glow, the crack in his voice, the way he stood, and the way his reiatsu quivered all pointed to the fact that his life was being preserved only through his powers, and would last only as long as his stamina. If Levi had completed his regeneration serum he could have gotten him back to full strength, but it would have only killed him in its current state. Zettai was now as much a liability as an asset. Unfortunately, he was a critical asset. If Zettai died before reinforcements arrived, Levi’s outlook was equally grim. He would have to protect him.

At least he was competent. As soon as Zettai threw his needle Levi fired his cero. The dark yellow light engulfed and obliterated the needle, which Levi hadn’t expected. Clearly Zettai had a plan of his own. Levi would just have to watch, and react as the situation evolved.

WC: 710
TWC: 1,450

Every word coming from Levi's mouth was just another individual way of saying "please kill me" in Kirito's mind. Each and every word was an invitation to a blood stained party in which this pair of diversions were the most prominent attraction. The smaller hollow had been dealt with for the most part, and even together, the duo weren't really a threat to Kirito. Yet still, Levi, and Levi alone did certainly have a way of getting under Kirito's skin, his words oozing with venom, their tendrils sneaking into his mind and attacking his rather teenage nerves. Then, of course, as the answer to Levi's first question slipped from Kirito's mouth, he managed to catch the weaker hollow preparing another one of his green needles out of the corner of his eye, though at the time, the action seemed like nothing but a minor irritation to Kazuto.

Kirito was pissed, and now, he had bigger fish to fry.

Why you ask?

Because Levi, the dumb shit, had just put the nail in his own coffin. He'd not only brought up Chie, but the breakup involved. He didn't know about it really, of course, but the statement still stung no matter how asinine it was. A quizzical, and slowly angering look spread across Kirito's brow, his head twitching, his body itching to spring into action.

Looking away from the other arrancar, Kirito's gaze drifted back to Levi as the blonde haired hollow let the words hang in the air for a moment as Kirito gave a dissapointed, very annoyed stare in the man's direction. His mouth opened, releasing all the words he needed too, just before both parties moved into action. Kirito was absolutely tired of listening to this man's bullshit, especially when all the man seemed to be able to do was make flat out wrong interpretations of a situation. You know, like the one where he thought he stood a goddamn chance.

"No, actually, Mr. Grisha, that isn't why I'm here. You see, I have a little issue with bullies. The strong, to which you, to Chie, certainly were at the time of her kidnapping, should not pick on the weak. It is our job to protect the innocent, and if otherwise is done, I feel that we should have the right to take personal retribution upon whoever has done such a grievous wrongdoing. Now, though the soul society may disagree with me on this issue, that didn't stop me from coming here to kill you and wipe out your entire goddamn race, did it? So now, I warn you, one more word from your snappy mouth, and you die right this fucking instant, not one moment later, am I clear?"

Eyebrows furrow.

Ears ring.

The sight of energy buildup, filling Kirito's eyes, all centered on Levi. Dammit! Had he not been focusing on combat so much that he'd forgotten to watch out for coordination between the two hollow brethren? In an instant, Kirito readied himself to move as Levi fire a massive Cero in his direction, likely in coordination with the other arrancar and his magnetic powers. As the cero approached him, the heat of the blast moving ever closer, Kirito stared onward at the yellow mass of power. Finally, the suspense broke, as the blast reached Kirito's body-

And moved straight through it.

The image of Kirito faded into the light, a mere mirage used to disguise Kirito's true position. The real Kazuto was dashing alongside the beam as it traveled onward, mere milliseconds passing as Kirito moved at what he thought to be a normal speed towards Levi. In his wake, pebbles and tiny pieces of rubble flew off the ground, following the trail of wind Kirito was leaving behind in this burst of speed, each piece simply seeming to float in the air for the brief split seconds that Kirito was in motion.

However, alongside the other end of the beam was a second energy poised in wait... an energy none other than that of the other arrancar. Of course Kirito had known not to make the same mistake he had made a few seconds ago by turning off his senses in battle! Did they think he was an idiot of some kind?

Kirito may not have been as smart as Chie, but there was no doubt about the fact that Kirito was rather brilliant when it came to combat. So, like any good strategist would do with less than a hundredth of a second remaining before he collided with his opponent, Kirito's mind stopped to think! If the other arrancar was waiting, could he have been planning some kind of sneak attack? Yes, that did make sense. So... why not use his own tactic against him.

Kirito smiled at the idea, his brain illuminating a metaphorical light bulb at the thought.

Of course, that was the optimal situation. The smaller arrancar had failed to live up to Kirito's expectations, only managing to warrant a sigh of morbid disappointment. The arrancar had done what Kirito had thought a lowly warrior would do: which did make sense, but really, it was still disappointing. So, what was it that disappointed Kirito so much? Well, I suppose we can find out:

So, onward Kirito moved towards Levi, his sword now at the ready. As this happened, the other hollow, who had set his counterattack into motion, had moved behind Kirito's afterimage from before, probably unable to keep up with the whole situation, therefore believing the shade of Kirito to still be where it had been. Energy condensing in his eye, possibly in the same move he had used earlier, the arrancar triumphantly fired what appeared to be the last of his energy at a mere afterimage in the form of that "shotgun" cero he had used before. 

As you could imagine, the man was probably as disappointed as Kirito was if not more, after realizing that he had used his one last ditch effort up just like that.

Finally, Kirito moved in front of Levi, his katana at his side, and with great speed and strength, his arm flew upwards in a diagonal slash which should have cleaved the hollow in two.

Should have. When the seemingly fatal sword stroke appeared to hit, it simply phased right through Levi, dealing no damage, and along with this, Kirito's body disappeared, his real self being back-faced to the ground, flying backwards through the air, having leaped backwards with the power of a swift shunpo. 

Yet, the whole ordeal wasn't finished. Pointing his katana forwards as he flew backwards, Kirito mimicked the attack he had used once against his own inner negativity, and of course, now he was using it against somebody else's negativity. Just physically personified into something they called "hollows".

Blue energy gathered around the blade's tip, and then burst forwards in a cascade of blue lightning and rampant energy. The blast tore through the ground beneath it as it surged forwards, on a collision course with the already mildly screwed Levi. As the blast coursed towards it's target, Kirito flew over the injured arrancar's head, stopping himself in middair as soon as he passed him by. A grin on his face, Kirito let his words strike both the possibly injured Levi with surprise.

"If you could fight like you talk shit, Grisha, then maybe you'd land so much as a hit on me."


Words:1235


Note: I did not control anybody's character here. I only allow what Zettai said his character would do to happen, and use it to my advantage. Thanks for understanding (:

Zettai was walking a psychic tightrope, caught on a thin line between sympathy and hatred for his enemy. On one hand, he could empathize with the frustration that coursed through him and understood what it felt like to act under a rash impulse. But on the other, this shinigami was pitting an entire race at fault for a single action that affected a singular individual (who ended up making it, it seems), and judging himself as the personal executor. Their crime, in fact, only affected this shinigami's personal love interest. As he swelled with rage, frustration bubbling through his veins with a pulsing heat, he could feel his movements becoming lighter. Barely registering in his conscious mind that he was still moving, still putting his body at risk, and inching closer to death with every second, he pushed on. A second wave of frustration added to the first when he realized the Kirito he had been chasing was an afterimage, and he had been far too slow to even see him dash off, let alone properly aim, Zettai released a roar of anger that bellowed within the corridor. As the energy of his blind cero came closer to it's maximum range, he threw a cloak of emerald green over it. Immediately punching the air as many times as he could, the sheer effort from each shadow punch drawing sweat in a matter of moments, he created an artillery of tiny, puff-ball bala that were spat out in every conceivable direction.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" He screamed, spittle ejecting from his mouth in his agitation. "HOW DARE YOU COME INTO OUR HOUSE, BREAK DOWN OUR FUCKING DOOR, AND DEMAND EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN ONE OF OUR HEADS BECAUSE YOU ALMOST, BUT DIDN'T QUITE, LOSE YOUR GIRLFRIEND?! WHAT KIND OF FUCKING JACKASS THINKS THAT'S OKAY?!" The moment Kirito had no choice but to stop his mindless bouncing and stand still to deflect a bala or get struck, he would have his Blind Cero home in on it thanks to the Absolution Wave. Even if he dodged that one, Zettai would just redirect to the next closest bala and try again. Even as he roared he threw an occasional set of punches to keep the corridor full of his energy. "I was once told that I was the bad guy, and the shinigami were the good guys. I can see now that's total fucking bullshit. We're all the same god damn thing in a different outfit running around, trying to kill each other with hand-me-down rules and the assumption we're right." Zettai's hair whipped wildly as his reiatsu began to build from beneath him. A small pillar of jade green energy began to surround him, pulling and tugging at any loose fabric, stone, or hair that it could as it evaporated into the sky. The ease at which he was drawing it scared Zettai. Was this going to be it? Were these his death throes? "But the purpose you're given isn't the purpose you take, is it? We're all individuals just trying to fulfill our own agenda the best we can, and sometimes, that means accepting a responsibility you wouldn't have otherwise, doesn't it?"

"BUT ONCE YOU ACCEPT THAT RESPONSIBILITY, YOU CAN'T TURN YOUR FUCKING BACK ON IT!" And then, like a tv stream suddenly interrupted, his flare of reiatsu was gone. Dropping to his knees, he convulsed once before vomiting in front of him. Wrapping his arms around his body, blood leaked from his wound on all sides. Levi and Kirito were engaged before him, but he could barely make out the details of their bodies. The sounds of their voices was fading with every few seconds that passed, and he felt a chill run down his spine unlike anything he had ever felt before. His time was coming, but he couldn't accept that. Not while this shinigami was still here. Not until he had found a purpose. Not until he changed the world. Tightening his hold, his Absolution Wave duct-tape sprang back at full force as the last of the light dimmed his eyes. He had no choice. He had to shut down every non-vital function if he wanted to live. He had to stay awake, and he had to focus. Everything else was in the way. The last thing Zettai saw before his vision faded completely was Kirito's backward strike on Levi, an energy familiar to him somehow (it cost too much energy to remember, so he opted not to) coursing through the air at his ally. 'You can do it, Levi. Don't let me die here.' After thinking his last thought, everything went black as he entered a comatose-like state to keep himself alive until help arrived.

----

Wc: 787/3164

Consider this an exit until the later points when he gets healed (so plz don't kill smol sleepy Zetti)

Kirito was so predictable. He just couldn’t help himself; sputtering out that pathetic justification. He was here because he hated bullies? What utter nonsense. He probably believed it too. But if it was out of principle, why had he come all the way here to commit genocide against anyone of the same race of a particular bully? There were plenty of bullies in the soul society. At best, the brat was there for revenge. If he had been focused on fighting instead of preaching, he might have gotten it too.

Levi knew better than to get excited as his cero approached Kirito. He had already measured his speed, and as soon as he saw the shinigami’s head turn toward his surprise attack, Levi calculated that he would dodge it. So, what was he waiting for?

Levi figured it out just in time. Utsusemi. An afterimage. He brought out his Manos Fantasmales to protect himself. He saw Kirito coming, but still only barely had time to react. Thirteen ghastly fists shot toward the swordsman just as he swung his blade. The sword disappeared as it swung through Levi’s hip, and the body disappeared as the fists went through it. Another Utsusemi. That one, Levi had to admit, was quite brilliant.

Luckily, Levi already had his Manos Fantasmales in front of him. All it took was a flick of the spiritual wrist to have the hands catch Zettai’s signature cero. Zettai himself, seemed to be throwing a very effective temper tantrum. He threw bala in every direction, too small to do serious damage, but to numerous and tightly packed to simply be dodged. If he made it out of this, Levi was going to have to learn to do that. The cero that Levi was holding ended up making a very effective shield against the virtual rainstorm of bala, until he felt Zettai’s power pulling it away. Levi offered no resistance.

All of this happened in an instant, and in the next Levi saw a lightning bolt racing toward him through the ground. In that moment, Levi decided to do something incredibly stupid. An experiment, in the middle of battle. Outside Kirito had turned Levi’s attack back on him. Now Levi, hopefully would do the same.

Two of his phantom limbs twisted around each other, charged bala, and slammed through the ground. Electricity was a unique form of energy. It didn’t radiate in the same way that fire, or even reiatsu did. Electricity followed a path. It needed something to conduct. And when it found a path, it would follow it. Always. Magic like kido had the ability to bend the rules a bit, basically by using reiatsu as a conductor. Bala were made of reiatsu.

The two hands fired a Vórtice bala underground. It tore through the stone floor, and when it met Kirito’s electricity, both bala acted as conductors. Thus, the lightning started jumping between them as they flew up and out of the floor. The result was an electrified Vórtice bala flying straight at Kirito. If he blocked this, he would surely be electrocuted by his own power. If he dodged Levi would have to try an even more desperate move, and expand the disk. He would probably lose control of it, but hopefully the Kirito would be caught in the middle and be stunned by the electricity.

Whatever happened, this would be Levi’s last move. He realized that Zettai was down, and with him, all hope of victory. Levi’s only hope of survival was either an extremely lucky hit here and now, retreat, or a combination of the two. Zettai was on his own.

WC: 608
TWC: 2,058

Excellent. Everything was going great for Kazuto, all of his attacks going off as planned, even better than Kirito had thought that they would! Of course, he hadn't hit Levi quite yet, but the weaker hollow was nearly down for the count, and Levi was on the ropes. You could see it in his eyes: the light bulb slowing dimming as it was beginning to run out of ideas to fuel it. Every attack Kirito made pushed Levi further and further towards his absolute limits, and eventually, Kirito would force Levi to either break those limits or just stand still and take the damn hit. However, before Kirito finished his little conquest by ending Levi's life, he had to deal with the remnant of the other hollow, who's name he had yet to learn.

Why did he have to deal with the nigh-corpse of the persistent "diversion" of a hollow? Because the man was now spraying weak bala out in numbers only Levi could match to Kirito's knowledge. The spray was wild and fired balls about without much control. A few aimed in Kirito's direction, and as each of them neared him, a faint image of a sword strike could be seen, followed by the bala simply shattering. The rest of the spray impacted on the columns and walls of the hall, a light amount of debris creating lining the hallway after the hollow's burst of power. Not just that, but the hollow had used his magnetic powers on the ocular cero he had made earlier: the result was a bouncing ball of death and destruction, ripping a path through the air.

Luckily for Kirito, there was no real rhyme or reason to said path, and as the Cero seemed to move towards him, he flicked his head backwards, the blast zooming past his face. Finally, the blast met with Levi. For a moment Kirito thought that this could have been the end: Levi defeated by his own ally, but no. He used his sort of... "ghost hands" to catch the blast, and before long, it was recalled to the hollow who fired it. Finally, the hollow calmed down, and with that, fell into what appeared to be an unconscious sleep, if not death. The only clue that kept Kirito believing the being was alive was that he was still held together in one piece.

It was both fitting, and admirable. Somebody who treasured their own life so much may have been dishonorable, or maybe even selfish... yet, the man had fallen into his rest with peace, accepting his fate. Doglike in a manner, yet an act of pure determination and grit. A desire that could only be matched by the man's tenacious fighting spirit. The hollow, despite being just that, a hollow, was an honorable fighter, and had fought well, even at a gross disadvantage. This was something Kirito respected greatly. So, it was then Kirito made the decision not to kill the little hollow that day. He had earned the right to live.

Not only that, but the man expressed a desire to represent his race in a better light: maybe hollows weren't so bad after all? No, that wouldn't change Kirito's mind, but it did certainly shed some light on the personalities of the beasts of hueco mundo. They weren't all... bad to the core. This man held the same sense of justice Kirito did, just directed in an opposite manner.

Levi, on the other hand...

The man was pure evil. There was nothing but self desire and a need to act powerful behind both his words and actions. The man obviously didn't care about the fallen hollow in any regard except as a tool. He was a set of powers with a body: there was no need to associate a name with him. That was all Kirito could tell. Maybe it was just a hero-like fallacy, or possibly even his hatred for the man founded in his kidnapping of Chie Kira: Kirito didn't give a damn. This hollow was falling to his sword here and now, no questions asked. If Kirito had his way, the man's head should have been paraded around the Seireitei on top of a stick for his crimes against the shinigami race, and his own kind: Kirito had seen the cages filled with hollows as he had walked through his first battle site with Levi.

As Kirito landed on his feet, skidding backwards, heat bouncing on his heals and across his forehead as he raced through his set of actions, he kept his sword upright, gazing at Levi. The man was doing something odd. He had overpowered Kirito's blast, not surprising considering it wasn't all that powerful, but really, it was still a decent feat for a man so below Kirito in terms of raw power. Then, Levi fired the same "vortice" spiral-like blast Kirito had deflected in their first match against each other. The attack was powerful, but Kirito had been able to reflect it in his bankai state back then. Now? He was even more powerful than he had been in bankai, and this was merely shikai.

However, there was an aspect to the blast that was not there before. Crackling lightning flew around the little vortex blast: a quick spiritual energy check and Kirito knew it was a bit of his own. Just residue from Kirito's first blast, of course, but still, his own electricity nonetheless. Did Levi think that he would end up shocking himself if he blocked it? Here's a hint: He was wrong.

Swinging his katana in a downwards arc from above the bala, sparks briefly flew for a moment as the two strikes collided, when finally, Kirito's sword crushed it's way through the bala, cleaving it into two pieces, shattering it instantly. A shock ran up the metal of Kirito's blade, onto his hilt... and then vanished. Kirito looked at Levi with a sick smile on his face as he replied to him with smug attitude.

"If giving me a little shock was supposed to hurt me, you were wrong. I can't be effected by my own electricity whatsoever, or the natural stuff. Now, Levi Grisha, with your options exhausted, I feel it's a good time to end this duel."

And with that, Kirito phased out of reality, or at least sight, for a brief moment, reappearing an instant of an instant later right in front of Levi. Knees bent, sword held in a two hand stabbing grip on his lower right hip, Kirito rose upwards, surging forwards along with his blade in an attempt to blast his blade straight through Levi's heart.


Words:1108

What a stupid mistake. Of course the shinigami’s own power wouldn’t hurt him. It was HIS power. Levi never should have counted on that working. Then again, the whole idea had been conceived out of sheer desperation.

Levi decided it was time to leave, open a garganta and escape as he had done before.

He never had a chance.

Before he could even snap his fingers, Kirito was half way to him. That speed. Even after battling it for so long, it was unreal. The blade closed in. There was no time to think. Barely time to act. Out of sheer instinct Levi moved his hands to stop the blade, all fifteen of them. The steel sliced through the flesh of his palms, and the thirteen ethereal hands clasped down on the swordsman’s arms; his wrists, his fingers, his elbows, whatever they reached first. Far too late. The blade slid through, piercing the front of Levi’s shirt, all the way through the back.

Levi looked down. He stared at the sword going straight through the center of his chest, right through the heart.

Then he laughed.

“You idiot.” He said as his grip intensified, all fifteen hands squeezing as hard as they could, the full power of his adrenaline fueled physical and spiritual strength holding the swordsman in place. “Did you forget? I DON’T HAVE A HEART!”

Kirito had stabbed straight through his hollow hole. He had never touched flesh. He would though, and Levi knew it. The second his grip loosened, the very instant any one of his hands lost strength, Kirito would slice him in half. But he had a few seconds before that happened. He had to act quickly. But what to do? What could he use that would even have a chance at taking the shinigami out? Without using any of his hands? The only option was bala, and even that, in any traditional sense, wouldn’t work. But he had an idea. An epiphany, brought on by his own failure. Kirito’s energy was his. He had complete control over it.

Was Levi any different?

“You think you’re the big hero, and I’m the evil villain, don’t you?” He whispered, as bala started bubbling out from every inch of his body. Not shooting as bala were supposed to, but floating in the air as Levi wanted them to.

“Well you’re half right. I am a selfish, evil, bitter little bastard. But you’re lying to yourself.” The bala floated around them, more and more and more forming a sphere, a virtual barrier around them both. He even sent some underground to make sure there were no easy escapes.

“You say you’re here to fight bullies? Out of principle? Liar. There are plenty of bullies in the Seireitei. So why did you come here? Why come after me first? Simple. Because I hurt YOU.” He was running out of time. He could feel it. With every passing millisecond the pain of fatigue intensified. Soon, he would weaken. But first, he needed more. Dozens upon dozens of bala floated around them, and it wasn’t enough.

“You’re here because you want to get something out of this fight. Maybe you want her back, or maybe you just want to avenge her. Fight for her. Don’t you get it, though? That’s exactly what she wanted out of you. And when she realized she couldn’t get it, you weren’t valuable to her anymore. That’s all love is. An excuse to use each other. And fools like you throw your lives away for it. You know you’re going to die, right? Even if you take me, I’m nothing compared to the Primera. And the queen? Everyone in Las Noches right now, counting you, couldn’t take her out together.”

At last, there were so many bala around the two that they couldn’t be counted. It would be like trying to count stars on a clear night. Even a fly would be hard pressed to maneuver between them It was enough. It would have to be, because Levi’s grip was finally about to give.

“Enjoy your martyrdom. I’m sure Chie will cherish your memory.” And with that the bala shot inward. Only the ones directly behind Levi stayed still, forming a wall instead of turning Levi to swiss cheese. Hopefully Kirito’s body would shield him from the rest.

They moved inward like shooting stars, or a meteor shower. Maybe that’s what he would call this technique, he idly thought as exhaustion started to cloud his vision. lluvia de meteoritos. Meteor shower.

WC: 755
TWC: 2,813

Pain followed by more pain, failure followed by more failure...life seemed to have it's way of reminding Kirito of all of his past mishaps and the mashup of fuck ups that were littered across his life, much like the shit stains a cat would leave by wiping it's dirty ass across a white carpet.

Sporadic, inconsistent, and a great big migraine to clean up. He hated being reminded of his failures, something shared by the majority of anybody with some humanity about them. Who liked remembering the low points of their lives? Most people just dwell on the one or two awesome "wow" moments in their lives and live based entirely off of those very few moments. It was a way for them to forget how terrible life really can be. Now, the only reason any of this mattered to the situation at hand was because Levi was reminding him of his failures... again. Maybe the guy was book-smart (though even that was doubtful at this point), but he appeared to have little to no filter on his voice and acted without regard for anybody's physical or mental well being.

So what was Kazuto to do? His sword had penetrated the very place where Levi's heart should have been... only for Kirito to receive a brutal reminder that Levi had no such thing. The man was literally heartless: a very poetic form of the universe giving the arrancar's personality it's own little name tag.

"Hi, I'm a stone cold son of a bitch who kidnaps innocent young women and give zero damns for whatever any of your concerns are!"

Try finding that on some guy at Walmart.

Regardless of the connotations of the man's lack of a heart, Kirito was still in slightly more trouble than he was before. If he didn't do something, he could be injured. Of course, that was unlikely, and death even more so, but still, it was a risk that he needed to consider. So, after three seconds, a monologue from Levi, and a rather stunning display of skill with bala, Kirito had his plan set up, all things considered. However, before he got to the chase and started moving, Kirito had to think about some of the words the man had used to describe both himself and what he thought of Kirito's escapades.

It was sickening.

Through stone cold eyes, Kirito stared at Levi, his sword still wrenched inside of the arrancar's chest, and spoke, making sure each and every word sounded like a fact, and not a simple statement of opinion.

"You're wrong."

He paused for a moment as the words hung on the open air.

"You're wrong for so many reasons, it almost makes me want to vomit. A least the other arrancar who fought me went out with some honor. He attacked me, and did so with his race's honor and integrity in mind. It doesn't matter the outcome of what he did. You just don't understand, so let me make it simple for you. When you see a boy being kicked while he's on the blacktop of the playground by the boys two years older than him, you join in with the kicking, because it makes you feel like the strong one in the situation. When I see that same boy, I throw myself at the three older boys, and I make damn sure they don't ever touch the kid again: even if it means I get beaten half to death in the process."

A blink and a breath, a look of understanding, all of these things passed between Kirito and Levi, and the train of speech then resumed.

"You say there are bullies in the seireitei: you're damn right. But, they aren't the bullies who punched and kicked the kid on the floor; you are. They might be there, but if they didn't do anything, then so be it. Whatever thing causes a boy to lose his best friend to a hollow attack because one of them was born different from the other, whenever a woman shields her newborn baby from a stray cero... that's when I care. Ever since I was a little kid, all I've been able to think about was how "I couldn't do anything to stop it" and "I'm not good enough" were the two phrases running through my head as I watched my friends and family die around me. So now that I have the power to stop that from happening to others, you can be damned I'll do it. The war against whatever kills that little boy's best friend, and the newborn babe's mother... that's a cause that's worth dying for. So I don't give two damns what you say about me dying at the hands of the queen or the primera... they'll all fall to me, or maybe somebody else. What matters is that the people who die in the process die for the sake of saving other people's lives. Isn't that how heroes are supposed to go out?"

And, with that, the bala that had begun to surround the duo closed in, an Kirito sprang into action. His sword flew out of Levi's torso in an instant, landing itself back into the open air, held in a two hand grip. Kazuto, now freed from the locked grasp created by his own attack, moved upwards, shunpo propelling him away from the majority of the bala that were closing in upon him and Levi in an instant. The first of the thread had been evaded, but more flew upon him from above and around him in the sky. Taking a deep breath in, he spoke a single word, a command that resonated through his blade.

"Spring."

The words caused the crackling blue aura surrounding his blade to spring to life, the aura expanding outwards into a massive sphere of negating lightning. The couple dozen or so bala that enclosed him met with the field, and then collapsed, exploding into smoke and then vanishing entirely. Then, wordlessly, Kirito dropped to the ground, cracking his neck and looking onwards at the arrancar who had tried so desperately to kill him in his quest to prove Kazuto's ideals wrong.


Words: 1033

Levi couldn’t help but growl through his broken smirk as Kirito went on and on with his nonsensical, arrogant, self-righteous lies. Did he actually believe what he was saying? Did he actually believe that it his words carried any weight? Levi was the one beating up the kid? Just a spin on the fact that Kirito went after the one that hurt him personally. The bullies in the Seireitei hadn’t done anything? What kind of self-centered stupidity was that? If they were bullies, then obviously they did what bullies did. Yet because Kirito hadn’t seen them, or been affected by them, their bullying didn’t exist to him? Selfish. Arrogant. Absolutely stupid.

But so strong.

The bala moved slower from their motionless state of course, but even so it only took them a couple of seconds to reach Kirito. In that time he freed himself, jumped up and toward the weakest concentration of bala, and activated some kind of barrier. Not a single bala got through it.

More importantly, that left several bala shooting toward Levi himself. Had he planned this? Or was it just an unlucky coincidence? Did it matter? Levi had made it through their entire fight without a single lasting injury, only a couple of scratches that had long since healed. Now was he about to lose the fight to his own bala? His own power?

“NO!” He roared, and the bala obeyed. They were his as much as his own arms. Under his absolute command. He would die be killed by the equivalent of punching himself in the face! All of the bala that remained, several dozen, floated in the air around Levi as he stood panting in their midst. He was reaching his limit. In the past three hours Levi had used literally all of his most powerful abilities, including this new one which was proving to be quite taxing. He didn’t have a mark on him yet, but he was getting tired. Had that been Kirito’s game all along? Play defense until his opponents just passed out from trying to hit him? It didn’t matter. The point remained that Levi, and Zettai, had thrown everything at Kirito, literally used up all of their power, with absolutely no results. It was infuriating.

“How?” Levi spat, desperation and rage obvious in his voice. “How can you be this damned strong?” The bala moved as he spoke, though slowly. It was incredibly difficult in his current state, and with so many of them. But he had exactly one trick left, exactly one chance left, to hurt Kirito. “What drives you to this? And don’t give me any of that justice and duty shit, I mean what REALLY drives you? Is it hatred? Is that it? You lost so much to hollows that your hatred drives you like this!?”

The bala were all in front of him now, forming a massive wall between him and Kirito’s smug, calm, stupid face. Then that wall started to spin. “Or is it pride? You want to feel like the hero, right? Is that what you think about as you waste your life away training? Fighting for people who will never give a damn about you, probably wouldn’t bring flowers to your funeral?” He was ranting now, but he was too enraged to notice, or to care. Kirito was the very embodiment of the arrogance, self-righteousness, idealism, and deceit that Levi had become a hollow to escape from. To destroy. And THAT was beating him like he was nothing. He could not accept that. He could not accept that someone like that, someone who meant what Kirito had said, could be stronger than him. “WHAT DO YOU REALLY FIGHT FOR KAZUTO KIRIGAYA!?”

Levi dropped to one knee as his last attack was finally prepared. All of the bala in the wall before him were spinning almost as fast as a bala was meant to travel when shot outright. And then the shot forward as well. The outermost circle shot first, and the next mere inches behind it, and the same with the next and so on. The result was essentially an enormous Vórtice bala. He doubted even Kirito could dodge the entire thing, and if he was caught in it one layer would knock him down to the next and he would be caught in a virtual whirlpool of bala that would grind him to dust.

Or else it would be the last thing that Levi did. The attack was the last thing Levi saw, and Kirito’s answer the last thing he heard. And then Levi simply passed out from exhaustion.

WC: 768
TWC: 3,581

Levi Grisha was no longer a man, no longer an arrancar, not even a husk of anything that a sane person could consider anything but a mad beast, driven insane with rage, triggered by dissatisfaction with Kazuto’s morals and plagued with a lack of understanding that he so desperately needed to function properly. Of course what else was Kirito to expect?

He had outlined the fact before, and twice over: This Arrancar was the actual embodiment of evil itself. If there was a devil, it would be outfitted with Levi’s relaxed looks and criminally disinterested attitude. Of course, the devil would obviously be a little stronger, but regardless, he had the basics of a Satan imitation down pat. In fact, it was worth it to list out all of the things that Levi shared with the devil.

List of the Levi:
-He was a massive asshole.


...Yeah, maybe that was enough.


The only downside was that Levi wasn’t trying to play the part on purpose: it came far too naturally to him for it to be anything other than his real personality. If you could call the false interpretations of life that Levi possessed “ideals” then they would probably match up with those of Adolf Hitler, minus the racial and religious biases, replacing it with sheer lack of care for anybody except himself. In fact, all Levi had shown himself to be capable of doing during the couple of hours was shield himself. Every last attack, every single word, each action had it’s own way of serving Levi personally, with no action taken to help anybody else.

The smaller arrancar, who was dying or even more likely dead, had sacrificed himself, giving every last drop of his energy in the pursuit of Kirito’s life… no, rather in the defense entire race. Levi, on the other hand, decided to run away or fear for his own life, abusing the other fighter’s abilities to serve his own purposes and fuel his own methods for escape.

It was obvious how much of a disgustingly disturbed being this beast was to Kazuto.

So, it shouldn’t have surprised Kirito when the man started blindly rambling, calling out to every source he could in fright and anger, left with nowhere else to turn. He couldn’t believe that Kirito was doing something for anybody but himself: A true fallacy driven by narcissism and hatred for the rest of the world, clearly.

How wrong he was.

Yet, Kirito no longer had enough time to worry about the mental intricacies of his opponent in this great heat, all put on by the force of the battle at hand. You see, the desperate beast had begun to gather it’s remaining bala, the tiny fragments of it’s dwindling power, and had started to combine them. What had started as what you could call a “big” bala had become something forty or more feet tall. It was literally as wide as the average intercontinental ballistic missile was tall.

Yeah, kind of an insane image, right?

Of course, as any great and powerful assault did, this attack was taking time to build itself up, growing with every passing second. As Levi’s rambling came to a halt, Kirito could feel the tension in the air building, so much so that he had to break it with a speech to counter Levi’s own logic. Maybe it was a desperate attempt to show the man the light of truth, the real situation and why everything was happening. If so, it was done out of sheer despair for the man’s situation: Kazuto knew he was far beyond the reach of words.

“...Levi Grisha, you fail to see the truth of the matter. I fight not for hatred of you or any hollow, but for the lost honor of Chie Kira… no… my lost honor. I couldn’t save her, and now she’s plagued with an inner beast, one which turns an innocent, beautiful woman into a murderous wraith with no respect for its host’s true body. Yet, now as I stand before you, as you dip into madness, I cannot say I do not hate you. You are everything I hate in the world, and that includes a little bit of myself. I know what it’s like to be alone… to not respect anybody or anything else because you think that you are the king of the planet, the strongest around, to live life as an arrogant husk of what I could be… and now look where I am, those days long behind me. As much as I wish I could instill the same changes in you, you have committed crimes against both me and a person whom I love dearly, and I cannot allow these travesties to pass unpunished. In the name of justice, I will allow my sword to put you to rest!”

It was in that instant that the tension that had been broken, Kirito springing into action as the wall of energy Levi had formed had begun to fly towards him. Blade at his side, Kirito swung upwards intercepting what he could of the mass.

In that instant, sparks began to fly, an aura of lightning surrounding Kirito as if representing his combat spirit. Sweat drained from his forehead, the sharp sparks created from the grinding of metal against spiral energy burning and cutting into Kirito’s arms. However, despite the even nature of the struggle, Kirito was losing ground, his arms being pushed back so as to evade being engulfed by the ever moving bala, if it could still be called that.

I can’t fight it… I’ll need to use bankai.

However, despite the thought, before Kirito could activate the trademark ability of a shinigami, he was greeted by a beautiful woman none other than his zanpakuto spirit, Kiri-Hana.

Do you really want to? Is that really the right choice?

It took a moment of pondering, a moment Kirito shouldn’t have been able to spare for him to answer.

I have too, don’t I? This is about winning the battle for Chie, so I need to win for her, right?

...No.

This time the voice came from another place, the face of Kirito himself as he looked as a human.

Reviere, he thought to himself.

However, the spirit wouldn’t let up: he had to get the point across.

Damn right. Kazuto… you need to beat him, but not for Chie. What makes you think that?

The answer was simple, wasn’t it?

I came here to slay the hollow who took her and the hollow who took away her freedom, implanting that horrid being into her… so I could redeem my lost honor, the honor I lost when I failed to protect her!

No, wrong again. You’re fighting for your lost honor, not hers, are you not? You aren’t fighting for her Kazuto, you’re fighting for yourself! To prove that you’ve become strong, and to prove that you can protect people, regardless of your strength or weakness! This isn’t about Chie anymore, that ship has sailed! It’s about your failures, confronting them, and breaking their damn noses! If you want to beat this guy, do it yourself, prove to yourself that you can protect people, yourself included without borrowing somebody’s power! I may not like you too much, but this is my body too, and everything you go through goes through me first! I know how you feel, so stand up, and CHANGE IT YOURSELF!

A moment passed in thought. Then Kirito realized: Reviere was right! He wasn’t winning for Chie’s sake. He was winning for himself. What man who sought to protect others ran to the policeman and said, “Look officer, I came from a mile away! There’s a robbery!”. No, you got out there and you stopped that robbery, your life was on the line and nobody else's.

Wasn’t that what a real hero, a real man of justice did?

Then the pause ended, and Kirito’s eyes narrowed with determination, a flame burning within.

You’re goddamn right.

The battle was over after that. It had to be, didn't it? Roaring with fierce passion, Kazuto’s blade surged forwards, cleaving the bala in two, shallow cuts letting blood out from along his arms. However, the sheer force of the blast not only threw Kirito backwards and onto the floor from out of the air, but the explosion of spiritual pressure released by the collision had caused a slicing shockwave after the destruction of the bala, a blade of air coursing forwards towards Levi’s chest, powerful enough to cleave him nearly straight through.

As he landed, Kirito let out a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second, reaffirming his own existence before snapping back to the reality at hand.


Words:1454