Kapitel 46: Hadō #90

With a swift motion, Luna plunged his blade into Aizen's back. Blood dripped from the wound, staining the white captain's shinigami robes. Luna jumped back. His face had a small smirk of satisfaction.

Suddenly, Aizen's body shattered like glass. Luna's eyes widened in shock as he realised he'd been tricked. The real Aizen materialised behind him.

Luna attempted to escape, but Aizen's zanpakuto was faster. A sharp pain across Luna's chest as Kyōka Suigetsu found its mark in his chest. Gritting his teeth, Luna managed to sonido away, putting some distance between himself and Aizen.

Blood trickled down Luna's chest, but his face was filled with determination to fight Aizen on the command of Kiyota. He raised his arm, channelling his reiatsu into the palm.

"La Ruina!" Luna shouted, his voice echoing across the battlefield.

A rain of tiny purple ceros, concentrated into needle-like beams, erupted from his palm. Each glowing needle homed in on Aizen like a homing missile.

Aizen's eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the incoming attack. With graceful movements that seemed almost lazy, he began to dodge. Each needle exploded as it came near him, creating display of fireworks in the daylight. Yet, not a single one touched the captain. Aizen emerged from the barrage of ceros unscathed, his hair barely ruffled.

"An interesting technique," Aizen commented at Luna, his tone was easy and conversational despite the intensity of the battle. "But I'm afraid it's not enough to overcome the power of Kyōka Suigetsu."

Luna's chest heaved as he caught his breath, his instant regeneration was slowly patching up the wound. It would take a while.

'Luna is having a rough time...' Kiyota thought as he avoided the battlefield and went around to Rukia.

Kiyota was still invisible and he approached Rukia silently. She stayed there in white robes, a red leash around her neck, on the ground looking confused and frightened by the chaos of the battles around her. Without warning, Kiyota scooped her up and unfurled his massive wings to get ready to fly.

Rukia gasped and her eyes widening in shock as she felt herself being lifted by invisible, muscular hands. Her heart raced, realising it must be the hollow she had seen turn invisible moments ago. She struggled briefly, then froze as a familiar sensation washed over her.

'This reiatsu...' Rukia thought, her brow furrowing in confusion. 'It feels... familiar somehow. But how can that be?'

The hollow's grip was firm but not painful, and there was something about the way it moved that tickled at her memory.

'Why?' she wondered, her eyes darting around, trying to make sense of the situation. 'Why would a hollow come to Soul Society with subordinates, attack Aizen, and then... save me?'

"Seeping crest of turbidity. Arrogant vessel of lunacy. Boil forth and deny. Grow numb and flicker. Disrupt sleep. Crawling queen of iron. Eternally self-destructing doll of mud. Unite. Repulse. Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness!!" Aizen shouted while outstretching his arm and facing invisible Kiyota carrying Rukia.

"Hadō #90," Aizen's tone was impatient and almost angry, "Kurohitsugi."

Kiyota's instincts screamed danger as he heard the incantation. Kiyota's heart dropped. He knew the devastating power of this high-level Kidō spell. There was no time to dodge, not with Rukia in his arms.

'Shit... There's no time...' Kiyota thought.

A massive black box of black and purple reiatsu materialised around Kiyota and Rukia, Ichigo and the Ryoka. Spears of black reiatsu pierced through the construct from all angles and came towards them threatening to impale.

Inside the box, Rukia tightly held on to Kiyota, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. She could feel the immense pressure of Aizen's spell pressing against them.

Kiyota gritted his teeth. The spears of black reiatsu came in closer but slower and were inches away from Kiyota before it completely stopped. The moving black and purple reiatsu of the black box had also stopped. Everyone in the black box had frozen, with fear on their faces, except for Kiyota.

Siri's voice whispered urgently in Kiyota's mind. "Danger Stop activated. The attack was lethal enough to trigger it."

"I know," Kiyota said, his voice low and strained. "I have to hurry, I only have 25 seconds."

"Your reiatsu is running out," Siri said. "Get out of here."

Kiyota gently placed the frozen Rukia on the ground. He began charging a massive cero, the white cero was greedily consuming his reiatsu as it grew. Without hesitation Kiyota bit into his arm, infusing his blood into it. The cero transformed, becoming a gran rey cero. But kiyota wasn't finished. Kiyota focused intently, condensing the cero down to the size of a needle.

'I gotta thank Luna for the inspiration, 'La Ruina.' I hope he doesn't file for copyright.' Kiyota joked, even though he was stressed.

With precision born of desperation, Kiyota aimed the concentrated cero at the top corner of the black box that imprisoned them. The cero pierced through, shattering a small hole making their escape route.

Moving swiftly, Kiyota gathered up Rukia, Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, Sado, and Ganju.

As he lifted Sado, he couldn't help but grunt, "Damn, you're heavy!"

His giant wings unfurled, and with a powerful beat, Kiyota took to the air. He soared through the small opening, carrying them to safety. Landing several hundred meters away, he gently set them down on the ground.

But flew back up. Kiyota's eyes darted back to the battlefield, where Yuzuki remained frozen, her blade mere inches from Gin's face and Gin's sword about to slash her. Yuzuki looked more tired and wounded than Gin. With a burst of speed, he swoop down to snatch Yuzuki from her frozen state.

'This is much better... I would rather carry her than Sado.' Kiyota thought.

"What does that mean?" Siri said in an annoyed tone.

'I- what? I meant... She's much lighter than Chad.' Kiyota said defensively, as he flew towards Luna.

Luna was frozen behind Aizen, and was planning a sneak attack.

'Knowing Aizen, he probably has Luna still under hypnosis. I can see the trajectory of where Luna is aiming to go, but he would have missed Aizen by a good meter.'

"5..." Siri said.

'Shit! There's only five seconds left.'

Kiyota dove down and grabbed Luna and hoisted him up.

'I better take care of Aizen...'

"4..."

Kiyota fired a cero at Aizen, but the cero beam also froze in midair.

"You can't attack people directly while in Danger Stop Mode... Didn't I tell you?" Siri said.

"What! No you didn't" Kiyota shouted.

"Oopsie." Siri said, sounding hurt because kiyota shouted at her.

Kiyota took off again with Yuzuki and Luna in his arms.

Kiyota took off again with Luna and Yuzuki in his arms. His wings beat powerfully as he flew towards where Kain and Tōsen were fighting. As they approached, Kiyota saw that Tōsen's Bankai had dissipated and Kain stood victorious.

"3..."

Kain was frozen in place, a stupid grin plastered on his face, his zanpakutō was pointed at Tōsen who was bleeding on the ground. Kiyota landed softly, his mind racing with thoughts.

"So I can't kill people directly when in danger stop mode. Makes sense, otherwise it would be a broken ability. But that doesn't mean there isn't a way around it," Kiyota thought to himself.

He began charging up a cero, the white reiatsu condensing in front of him. "It's better to do this to Tōsen. If I tried it on Aizen, he'd survive, and it would only waste time."

"2..."

"Sorry, Kain, but I've got to use you for this," Kiyota thought, a twinge of guilt.

Kiyota bit into his arm, infusing his blood with the cero, and it transformed, becoming a Gran Rey Cero. He aimed it at Kain and fired. As expected, the beam stopped halfway, frozen in time like everything else.

He moved quickly, picking up Tōsen's injured body from the ground. Very carefully he positioned the blind captain directly in front of the frozen cero.

"1..."

Kiyota's stepped back with Kain, Luna and Yuzuki. He knew what would happen when time resumed, but he pushed the thought aside. This was necessary, he told himself. A means to an end.

"I can't believe... I'm gonna kill a man..." Kiyota muttered under his breath, as he stared at Tosen.

"...Time is resuming." Siri whispered in Kiyota's ear.