CH 89: BANKAI (1)
Looking at the vast army of hollows that seemed to extend without end, Soi Fon sighed inwardly while wondering how many she could take down before ultimately dying.
Death did not scare her, she had faced death for as long as she could remember. What really scared her was dying without accomplishing her mission at least.
'It's a shame that I will die without seeing Yoruichi-sama.'
Thinking of Yoruichi, she couldn't help but think about another irritating man, Shinji Hirako. The previous captain of the 5th division.
Even though she found his personality distasteful, she had to admit that his Bankai would have helped a great deal. At least, as long as they didn't fall accidentally in the zone of effect.
A Shikai that inverted all senses and a Bankai that inverted the concept of allies and enemies. Both of them being large scale.
Meanwhile, even though her Shikai brought the concept of absolute death, it was a single target ability and had many restrictions. Such as needing to stab the same place twice or the fact that the target couldn't be more powerful than herself.
Thankfully, since she was a captain, the number of people with an amount of Reiatsu far higher than her own could be counted. As for her Bankai...Just thinking about it made her mad.
"Gojo, how shall we proceed?"
She had decided to trust him when he asked her to send away all her subordinates. She could now only hope that she wasn't wrong in doing so.
Gojo, hearing her question, smiled.
Immediately, in his perception of the world, everything began to slow down to an incredible degree.
At the same time, even though the number of hollows seemed endless, it was just an illusion. He counted them and he could see about one thousand of them. 90% being Gillians and only about a hundred Adjuchas.
Well, 'only' 100 Adjuchas was still quite dangerous. After all, the power of an Adjuchas was at the level of a vice-captain at the very minimum and generally reached that of a low-level captain.
Even for him, dealing with such a big number was a stretch. At least, that would be the case if he was just using his Shikai.
'*Sigh* I really didn't want to use it.'
"Nemu."
"Yes?"
"Take care of my body."
"... Yes?"
"Soi Fon, I have one big move. But once I use it, I will be completely unable to move. You owe me one, right?"
"Indeed."
Soi Fon did not understand what he wanted to ask, but she decided to hear him out.
"Firstly, I need you to buy me some time. Secondly, Please, don't kill me after you see my technique.."
"...Yes?"
Soi Fon became as confused as Nemu. But, Gojo did not pay attention to them.
[Kogo, are you ready?]
[Are you sure? The side effects are still quite debilitating. Even if the damage should be lower since we are outside of the Soul Society, it will still be plenty.]
[Not like I have a choice. Gotta bring the big guns. Also do not forget. If Soi Fon tries to kill me later, just teleport me and Nemu out.]
[Understood.]
Deciding to stop thinking about his second request, Soi Fon began to focus on the situation. She didn’t know how much time Gojo needed, but she would give as much as possible.
Taking a deep breath, she observed the horde of hollow, then, gathering the wind under her feet, she moved.
Whoosh!
One instant she stood next to Gojo and Nemu, and the next she was already in front of the first wave.
She moved so fast it was as if she was teleporting.
What followed was a flurry of movements that seemed out of this world.
<<Speed Clones>>
The Shunpo was one of the most basic techniques for Shinigami. One that is learned from their very first year in the academy. But, like any basic technique, what made it terrifying was that there was no upper limit to what could be accomplished with it.
Soi Fon, as the captain of the secret force, was one of the fastest Shinigami alive, and this technique was one of her pride.
The instant she entered the fray, what attacked wasn’t one Soi Fon, but fifteen. In that same instant, black tattoos that looked like flowers could be seen blooming on dozens of hollows that were mindlessly advancing. This was followed by them vanishing into motes of light.
The clones did not stop there and began a true slaughter, attracting the attention of the others.
*Whistle*
Gojo, who was observing her attack, couldn't help but whistle in respect. Even though he could more or less observe her movements, this was what made her even more impressive.
Soi Fon did not just create after-image clones. She was simply so fast that it could be said that she was literally at fifteen places at the same moment.
Each time she attacked, she would immediately stack the attack, bringing an instant death sentence and purifying the Hollow.
‘Perhaps she is the most worthy of the title of Shinigami.’
He thought inwardly. After all, what is more fitting for a god of death than the ability to bring death?
‘Still, this isn’t looking good.’
Soi Fon was tearing apart Menos like they were nothing, but even then, the difference in numbers was simply too much. Even though she could be at 15 places at the same moment, if she went too deep, she would be surrounded and helpless.
At the same time, maintaining such a burst of speed for a long time was impossible. As an assassin, Soi Fon’s style of fighting was ill-suited for long drawn out battles against a large number of opponents like this time.
Standing next to Gojo, Nemu wanted to enter the fray and help Soi Fon. She knew that she was far from the level of captain, but her body was strong enough to support such a fight. She could lessen a little of the pressure if necessary.
But, Gojo stopped her. How could he tell her that he was already ready to use his move?
The only reason he was still waiting was that he wished to see Soi Fon’s full power and also hoped to tire her out. It would be even better if she was a little wounded. After all, it didn’t hurt to have more assurance.
---
On the battlefield, Soi Fon was doing her best to avoid staying too long in one place. From the moment this fight began, it didn’t take long to understand that even though all those hollows were moving together, this was in no way a coordinated attack.
There was a stark difference between a thousand-strong army and a mob of thousands hastily gathered together.
Standing in front of a Gillian, she suddenly moved aside and avoided a cero launched by another one. The result was clear as the Gillian that was behind her was the one hit. Once hit, like a mad beast, that Gillian immediately ignored her and rushed toward its assaillant.
This wasn’t the first time she had used that tactic. Sometimes she killed them, sometimes she brought them to fight against each other. Some other times she would simply wound them enough to heavily weaken them, and those wounded would be devoured by the others.
Like this, as if she was a maestro, she managed to control the battlefield for a few short moments.
Sadly, what she faced weren’t just mindless Gillians.
Feeling a chill on her back, she instinctively used a Bakudo to form a shield behind her and turned around to see the source of the attack.
“A panther?”
“Oh? Woman, you are pretty strong.”
‘Tch. An adjuchas.’
Soi Fon clicked her tongues. Hollows’ power and style could sometimes be easily understood just by observing what they looked like.
For such a small hollow and with his form, it was clear that it was one that focused on speed.
Had this been a one on one fight she would have trashed that brazen hollow but now she couldn’t let herself be tied down.
Still, even though she did her best to lose him, that Adjucha was rather persistent and soon it wasn’t just him.
The Adjuchas weren’t stupid. They didn’t know what exactly had attracted them here, but it was clear that this shinigami wouldn’t let them go. As such they couldn’t let her eliminate all the Gillians.
The difficulty of the fight immediately increased by a factor of ten. Small scratches and wounds accumulated.
The fight had already lasted for about ten minutes, but rather than decreasing, the number of hollows were constantly expanding.
Some of the hollows even tried to go past her and attack Gojo and Nemu, but Soi Fon would do her best to eliminate those stragglers. The others would use this chance to wound her even more.
---
“Seems like she is about to lose. Still, she was very impressive.”
Soi Fon had lasted far longer than he thought she would. It seemed that he had been somewhat underestimating her.
At the same time, he could see that no more hollows were coming. Whatever had attracted them here must have stopped functioning.
Soi Fon alone had wiped out more than one-third of the previous thousand, sadly, those had been replaced by nearly a thousand more hollows.
“What a vicious trap.”
Gojo’s eyes glinted. He refused to believe that such a huge number of hollows had attacked this place without reason. Clearly, someone had been plotting.
This reminded him of the case with the irregular hollows.
‘Does this mean that I am the target?’
He chuckled. Initially, even though he was somewhat curious, he didn’t wish to meddle in whatever that mastermind was doing. But, now…
‘Now it’s personal.’
Taking a step forward, he immediately appeared next to Soi Fon and swatted aside one of the hollows that had tried to bite her.
“Thanks for holding on for so long. Now leave it to me.”
Giving her a reassuring smile, he walked in front of her and began to murmure,
“You wanted to know what my trump card is, right? Then, let me show you.”
A smirk formed on his lips and one word escaped them.
“Bankai.”
(AN: So, Soi Fon’s ability is really a pain. Her ability is to grant death after stabbing the exact same place two times. This effect should have been absolute. But during the fight against Aizen. He didn't die. So this gave birth to many debates and theories that can be basically summarized in. A) Soi Fon’s ability only works against those whose Reiatsu are weaker, equal, or only slightly stronger. We already know how a big difference in Reiatsu can make a fight meaningless I.e: Ichigo VS Zaraki.
B) Soi Fon's ability isn't restricted by Reiatsu but Aizen was simply never struck. I honestly believe more in Theory A. So that's what I will use. Also some people say her power is poison, but that is Bullshit. If it was poison, she could just sting once and flee or sting many times in different places to let the poison do the job. Like against Yoruichi. She stung her more than five times in different places. The condition of stinging in the same place two times would be meaningless.)