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Head captain Yamamoto knew Aizen would sacrifice Karakura town and use the souls of its residents to create the Oken. As such he placed a powerful magic that would replace the town with a replica.
Said replica was maintained by five pillars, pillars that if were to be destroyed would cancel the spell and risk the lives of thousands of people. That is why the head captain assigned five capable fighters to guard the pillars.
To counter that, the espada known as Baraggan deployed five of his subordinates, his fracciones, to destroy both the pillars and its protectors.
Ise Nanao was standing on top of the pillar she was assigned to protect. She effortlessly eliminated a big yet weak hollow that attempted to attack it.
While she was on standby she felt a strong spiritual pressure heading her way. Whatever is coming is no mere hollow. An arrancar.
Arrancars. Those were the entities Soul Society has been fighting for quite a few days now. Hollows that breached the barrier between their existence and that of a soul reaper.
Although Nanao fought plenty of hollows, arrancars were a different matter. Stronger, faster, more intelligent and even have their own zanpakuto. Nanao started to feel anxious about her upcoming fight, and could anyone blame her? Arrancars were a recent development never before seen.
“Oh, what do we have here?” Nanao lifted her head to look toward the source of the voice.
The arrancar who reached her pillar stopped mid air, tens of meters away from her. The male looking arrancar had short brown hair, wore white pants and black sandals. He was topless, a muscular build covered in countless sword wounds and was over two meters long, maybe reaching 210 centimeters, and finally a sheathed sword, his signature zanpakuto.
“I take it you are the one guarding this pillar?” Nanao simply nodded and the arrancar continued. “Then you know what I’m here for. My name is Erizzo Aggudo, one of Baraggan’s fraccion. State your name, soul reaper.”
“Ise Nanao, eighth squad’s lieutenant.” Replied the woman matter-of-factly.
“Before we begin I have just one question, Ise Nanao.”
I’m not here for chit chat but I don’t know how strong he is and I could always buy some time. “What is it?”
“Where is your zanpakuto? I don’t see you carrying anything.”
Of course that is what everyone asks. “I don’t have a zanpakuto,” Nanao answered, earning an eyebrow raise from the arrancar. “More specifically I was given an asauchi like all soul reapers but I never was able to awaken it.”
“You never released your zanpakuto? How does someone like that even become a lieutenant and was given the task to guard one of the pillars?”
Usually as a squad member Nanao answered questions to the best she could, in a quick and efficient manner. But then again she did not have the same obligations for her enemies and for once she felt like taunting her opponent.
Nanao raised her arm slowly and pointed with her index finger in the arrancar’s direction. “Byakurai.”
A beam of light blue lighting beamed through the sky, the arrancar had barely any time to dodge, he was only able to tilt his head before the lighting passed by him. The heat of the attack was still felt on his right cheek.
“Does that answer your question?”
Erizzo never bothered to learn all the details about how soul reapers fight, he was more into pure physical fights, but he still knew the basics. That was a hado, one that was cast without the hado number nor the incantation, which meant this was as weak as those things could get and yet it was still that powerful . He smiled excitedly. “It seems I underestimated you, Ise Nanao.”
Erizzo drew his sword and said while smiling. “Still, I can’t help but laugh at the situation, a hollow with a zanpakuto facing a soul reaper without one. Quite ironic.”
Nanao however was not smiling when she replied. “You can say that again.”
The fight began with Erizzo closing the distance between him and his opponent. Nanao on the other hand tried to keep her distance as much as she could and used various kidos to do so.
After a minute of fighting the arrancar announced. “That’s enough warm-up.” Erizzo put his sword in front of him and flipped the blade so it was pointing toward his own stomach. “Sharpen, Cuchillas.” After saying the name of his zanpakuto Erizzo impaled himself. This was followed by the rising of his spiritual pressure and multiple blades appearing on his back, from the way Nanao looked at it, it felt like each one either burst out from his back like the first impale.
The same thing happened to his arms, small blades came out of his forearms and after a few seconds it looked like he was done transforming.
immediately after transforming, Erizzo closed the distance between him and Nanao. The latter looked shocked. He’s much faster! She was still able to dodge his attacks one after the other.
Nanao jumped back and casted, “Hado 31 : Shakkahou!” A giant red sphere of energy formed in front of her palms and launched toward the arrancar.
Erizzo countered with one of his own moves. “Cero!” A different yet similar red sphere of energy formed in his hand and shot forward to meet the hado in the middle, causing an explosion at collision covering the battlefield in flames and smoke.
Erizzo used the smoke to his advantage and teleported forward using Sonido to attack Nanao from her side.
In reaction to this Nanao quickly casted, “Enkousen!” A circular energy barrier appeared between her and Erizzo. The latter swung his arm full of blades and spikes, clashing with the bakudo. Upon impact Erizzo’s arm recoiled and Nanao used this to escape away and Attacked him from a distance.
Nanao kept the same pattern for a while : Dodged an attack from Erizzo and used shunpo to stay as far as possible from him, then she would use the small time frame between attacks to launch another hado at him. This repeated for a few times with no noticeable changes from the arrancar.
Erizzo was losing patience with this game of cat and mouse and he decided to change his tactics. He lunged forward like he did previously but this time as Nanao dodged him he immediately said. “Cero afilado.” The blades in Erizzo’s arms glew red and after a swift movement the arrancar launched multiple energy blades toward the soul reaper, leaving her no time to cast a hado nor escape.
Nanao had no time to escape and was hit by all the energy blades. Her body began from the sky when Erizzo noticed something strange : The soul reaper’s body faded into thin air like it was a mirage.
Erizzo had a bewildered look on his face, he was sure the attacks hit their target. “What was that?”
The answer to his question came behind him by the woman he thought he killed. “That was shiho number 3 : Utsusemi. A stealth force move that I don't use quite often.”
“Shiho? isn’t that the second squad’s specialty?”
“That is right, but for someone like me who doesn’t have zanpakuto to use, I have to compensate for that in other areas.” That was way too close for comfort. Nanao made a mental note to thank Soifon for training her in the arts of stealth.
Erizzo attempted to attack her but before he could do that, “Bakudo 61 : Rikujoukourou.” Upon saying those, six thin beams of light appeared around Erizzo and pierced him. The target of the attack found it hard to move with this restraining move and before he could even think of a way out he heard, “Bakudo 63 : Sajousabaku.” Now a chain made of light appeared out of the soul reaper’s hand and flew to the arranacar’s side and strangled him. Now shackled by both kidos the man could barely do anything to free himself.
He heard Nanao begin a chanting, which meant whatever came next was going to be much stronger than the others. Erizzo tried to shake the chain and rods from him, trying to cut them with his blade spikes but to no avail. Every second that passed the woman was getting closer to finishing her kido.
Before he knew it the woman finished the incantation and shouted. “Hado 78 : Zangerin!”
Erizzo saw a horizontal yellow light emitting from the soul reaper, and the next moment an energy blade came out, flew in his direction and cut him in half.
Erizzo’s upper body fell backward on the ground, while his lower body lost balance and fell on the side.
Strangely, Erizzo felt no blood coming out, for someone like him who knew war and countless battles he would know what a bleeding sensation felt like and yet there was nothing. Instead he felt his body was crumbling. “What was that?”
Nanao was breathing heavily after casting the kido. The battle was won, the arrancar was dying, the pillar was protected. And so she felt no reason to not answer his question. “A kido blade, the soul reaper’s first and foremost mission is to exorcise hollows, and in case someone broke his zanpakuto in battle and needed to finish his opponent these hados were made to serve that purpose. Zangerin is the best one I can muster so far.”
Erizzo was gazing in the sky, too injured to even try moving. He was quite surprised with the reasoning behind that. “Is that so?” Silence hit the battlefield before Erizzo continued. “Thank you.”
Nanao looked perplexed and although Eirzzo could not see her expression he felt he knew she was. “You’re probably wondering why I’m thanking a soul reaper. The answer is simple : Live and die by the blade. That is my way of living for as long as I remember and I’m glad I could… live up to my code a second time.”
Nanao didn’t know what to say. Usually, things a man’ honour and code were beyond her comprehension. And yet, as a soul reaper, she felt like she should reply to him. “I see. Well, if you ever got reincarnated in Soul Society, the thirteen court guards could use some new recruits. We have some vacant spots these days.”
The arrancar laughed weekly at the proposal considering the whole situation they were in. “I’ll think about it.” His body then vanished.
In the end, a smile curved up Nanao’s face, feeling happy she made someone pass away peacefully.