Killer Circus [Ichigo, Rose]

Ichigo was, put plainly, not doing particularly well. His bout with Komamura had put even his seemingly endless reserves of power to the test, and his wounds hadn't exactly healed, merely been patched over here and there by hierro. His missing arm still left a trail of blood as he walked; he dragged his blade exhaustedly across the ground, unwilling to engage with any further fights unless he needed to.

Instead, he simply walked forward. Those few shinigami who had the tenacity to stand in his way were cut down as if they were little more than paper, staining the ground below. Just more sacrifices that hadn't been truly necessary, but Ichigo could not ever dare to stop.

No matter who, or what, got in his way.

Soul Society had already lost so much today, enough that it might have brought Rose to tears were the bloodletting already over, but the curtain call for this dark day still remained out of sight. He had been preparing for this day ever since his return to the Gotei, the secret goal of the Division that he had been offered at the Captain Commander's behest, but even the best-laid plans could not have prepared anyone for this. Their leadership structure had been shattered, the First bereft of both their senior officers, the Third missing too, the Seventh away on Earthly duties, and the Sixth already silenced. They would have likely collapsed already were it not for other heroes' desperate heroics, but now the momentum of that initial shock was finally beginning to subside.

The golden rope of Kinshara ripped through lesser invaders and greater ones alike as Rose darted across the battlefield that had once been the heart of the Seireitei, his movements as graceful as the finest of dancers whilst he created a melody of vengeful destruction with each strike. His face was contorted into a dry grimace, any sense of his usually relaxed self now long replaced with a grim sense of determination. The target was ahead, and approaching almost leisurely, it made Rose sick to his stomach to think that someone could be so carefree at a time like this. But this was not the person he had once known, he had told himself that a thousand times over, just another beast to be put down. So, to perform this final mercy, he could not hesitate.

His weapon spoke before he did, even as the long beak of his Vizard mask formed to mask those pained features. Kinshara darted forward as soon as the orange-haired Arrancar came into view, energy surging from the flower at the tip of the weapon as it shot forth a beam into them before continuing onward to barrel into him at full force. The Captain himself soon followed in his weapon's wake, bursting onto the scene with a dramatic flair as a pair of beady lilac eyes peered across at the monster that had once been Ichigo Kurosaki.

"That was the First Kiss at Midnight, a bittersweet moment shared between dear friends torn apart by war. I pity what you have become, Ichigo, so allow me now to put you to rest."

With a single, purposeful tap of his finger upon the handle of Kinshara, another chord resonated along the length of the weapon to add to its ongoing melody before suddenly detonating in a powerful shockwave right where that tip was. If nothing else, Rose was holding little back in this assault.

This wasn't good at all. Even if this foe wasn't at the same level as the previous, Ichigo himself wasn't exactly in his best shape. He might have evaded the initial attack, but the following explosion wasn't what he'd been expecting, and so he had little choice but to simply stand and take it, far from ideal. His eyes narrowed, grip tightening around Zangetsu once more as he threw himself toward Rose with practiced speed, his approach wild and animalistic.

"I can't rest yet."

Blood trailed through the air as Ichigo moved, but he hardly even seemed to notice, as he entered into his resurreccion in the brief window of that step. His blade was raised high, and cut downward with the intent to simply cleave Rose in two before there was any chance for this battle to drag on. His opponent wasn't holding back, and neither was he.

Ichigo moved with a speed so blistering that it might have caught even his fellow Captains off guard, but Rose was not unfamiliar with his tactics. He had studied the reports from his previous appearances, done his due diligence, and even still it was only by a hair's breadth that Kinshara twisted in time to intercept Zangetsu before it split him in twain. There was a discordant clang as the two weapons crashed, shattering the previous melody as Rose was unceremoniously blasted backwards by the power contained in that one swing.

But he was not so easily silenced, one bad note did not bring the performance to an end, and so he flicked his wrist out even as he was still flying backwards. Kinshara responded silently to his command, thrashing wildly as it made to wrap around Ichigo's waist from behind and bind him. Limiting his movements was an unlikely thing, but just being able to sense the Arrancar's movements an instant before he made them might be all the difference between life and death.

"Can't or won't?" His blonde hair fluttered wildly behind him as his heels dug into the ground to bring him to a stop, that bird-like mask pointing intently in Ichigo's direction. "It matters not. A villain like you will never achieve their goals, I can already hear your demise upon the wind."

Another tap on the handle of his weapon, another sudden blast of disorientating sound in Ichigo's near vicinity. The same tune played again, though the pitch had changed from a whistle to a drumbeat. He wanted to have Ichigo's full attention, drawing him in once more so that there was no chance of failure. There would be only one chance to succeed, one moment that he had been afforded by the blood his comrades had already spilt, and he would not waste it.

Ichigo didn't have any desire to keep up further conversation. Of course, it was dangerous to fight one of those he'd trained with, even if it had been a century ago; he knew Ichigo's approach better than most. The crashing impact of Kinshara's drumming would have made Ichigo scowl if his features still allowed for it, but instead, he simply allowed the full weight of his reiatsu to pour outward, intent on overwhelming the assault with sheer force.

At the same time, however, blood red energy pooled between his horns, and he once more shot toward Rose with his blade outstretched. This time, however, his assault was far more than mere physical attack, a cero bursting forward as Zangetsu quickly wreathed itself in black. With one swing, a Getsuga Tenshou flew forward, prepared to overwhelm the Captain if he had no answer to it.

He couldn't afford to waste any time.

Rose felt Ichigo surge forward even before he saw it, that feeling of drowning in an impossibly deep pool, and it threatened to consume him for a moment. But this was not a battle he would win with strength alone, it never had been, so it was time to do what needed to be done. His own reiatsu spiked, a drop against this raging ocean but one that didn't falter, as the world around the pair began to warp and shift. The strands of golden thread that had once been Kinshara now spiralled outwards into a sea of vast constructs.

"Bankai. Kinshara Butōdan."

Zangetsu slammed into a giant golden hand, the shock of the blow ringing out in another shockwave that sent reverberations across the Seireitei, the cero caught by another as both attack and hand were consumed in blinding golden light before they dispersed in a brilliant melody of destruction that levelled the surrounding area. With his conductor's baton in hand, Rose had endured that brutal assault and somehow remained standing. His army of giant dancers swarmed around them, bringing with them the melodic sounds of an orchestra coming to life with Rose and Ichigo taking centre stage.

"Now, let your funeral dirge begin. Tempestates!"

The baton flicked skyward, as the now-fully-formed dancers all cast their blank faces upwards in perfect harmony. Then, with a rip and a tear, the sky itself was sundered as the bounty of heaven rained down upon Ichigo. Bolts of lightning forged into bars of energy that embedded themselves into the ground and each other, latticing together to form a cage within which even a monster like him might find himself restricted. Zapping at anything that came too close and allowing only more bolts to fall even as they were in turn consumed.

Bankai was hardly something Ichigo was afraid of. He had faced many before, and undoubtedly, this would be one more that he could barrel through with adamant will. But it quickly became apparent that this was not like many of the bankai he had faced before. Its scope seemed larger; he had trouble placing exactly how large. Nevertheless, Ichigo wasn't going to wait around and find out by just trying to study it.

Raising his zanpakuto upward, reiryoku swirling around it, Ichigo swung it to the side in a wide arc, another Getsuga Tenshou attempting to cut through the cage of lightning that was keeping him in place. Whether it succeeded or failed, however, he shot toward the edge of the cage of lightning, energy once again condensing around Zangetsu as he gripped it tighter.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

Whipping the blade upward, Ichigo only released the energy from his weapon as it impacted the cage, intent on crushing through that boundary with sheer spiritual force.

Sense and sensibility would soon fade away when it came to dealing with Kinshara Butodan, for it was not a Bankai that one could simply rationalise. But it was quite the sight to see, Ichigo raging against this cage with every fibre of his being so committed to its destruction. His vicious swings did destroy one bar or two, but more simply rained down upon him to fill in that which was broken. But perhaps he believed there would be an end to this tide of electric irritation, so Rose would simply have to take that away from him too.

"Another verse. Sea Drift!"

He had not been on the receiving end of a Getsuga Tenshou before, though, and had little intention of making this his first experience. So, with another deft command, six of the vast dancing figures moved in to surround the cage just as Ichigo unleashed his devastating attack. A pair of them were engulfed by the attack as it burst free from the lightning cage, withering and crumbling into little more than golden strands charred black, but the rest were able to get in formation. They began to swirl around him, water forming in their hands and spilling forth from their bodies until the entire cage had begun an electric whirlpool of constant unrelenting destruction. It was an assault upon his body on both a mental and physical level, set to disorientate him and debilitate him until there was nothing left.

Unbeknownst to Ichigo, his desperate struggle was certainly devastating the surrounding area, but such was the nature of Rose's Bankai. It was not one that could be used against an opponent such as this without an understanding that the destruction would be unparalleled, for when a beast was cornered then it had nowhere left to go but to expend itself in one final blazing spark. Such was the danger when you dabbled with the mind, as Rose continued to lead and command as the mask around his face began to crack and split.

"My Kinshara will tear you to pieces, burn you to ashes, drown you in sorrow, and cast you into nothingness. So play your part and make your final plea, the height of our performance is approaching!"