{PREQUEL} A Chance of a Lifetime

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[Pure Dead - Hellsing RAID OST]
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-{E N T E R}-
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How The Day Began

The Special Human Task Force was a buzz this morning with activity. Beyond the normal hustle and bustle of the division, such as filing reports on the previous night’s incidents (such as attacks, pulse purifications, and so on) and the introduction of the Division’s new Vice Captain (which was misleading as a rank, since she happened to be the former Eighth Division Captain, not unlike the founder), the Special Human Task Force was playing host to an important even this day; an emergency meeting of several major governmental bodies had been called for between those nations and the representatives of Soul Society in response to the events of Madrid, London, and Cairo. Thus, the Division was alive with activity as they prepared for the diplomats to arrive.

What all of that translated too in layman’s terms was that the countries of Earth were scared, angry, and looking for a scapegoat to pin the blame on. Hard to blame them; over the course of several months they had completely lost London, taken major hits to Italy and Cairo, and now Madrid had been invaded by Demons. All of this, and the organizations in charge of keeping these kinds of things from transpiring had been more or less powerless to stop any of it. That was enough to put anyone on edge; it certainly had the Commander of the SHTF there, which was obvious despite his best attempts to hide it.

Genpaku Arishima was tired, and it showed. The silver haired Shinigmai gave the faux body a roll of the shoulder as he walked down the hallway. There was a time when he would have dressed the body up properly for such an occasion; however, when the people asking for the meeting effectively called and were pounding in his front door demanding to know why he wasn’t omni-present and stopping every attack, robbery, and so on, one couldn’t expect him to really give a shit about what his gigai looked like. He had simply grabbed his normal gigai, dressed in the more modern and normal clothes complete with jeans and long black jacket, and had left the barracks accompanied by his friend and “new” Vice-Captain Solas Foiche. This would be the first time she had seen one of these kinds of diplomatic situations he guessed, and he hoped she could hold her tongue.
”It’s always something around here…” he muttered, but managed to crack a small grin all the same as they approached a pair of black doors. Said doors separated at their approach, revealing a simple elevator.

They rode the elevator up to the ground level building, which served as the ‘storefront’ of the SHTF base. Open to the public as being the security checkpoint for the barracks and rest of the base in general, it was a deceptively simple building. It was designed to keep out those that were unwelcomed with a variety of security measures to detect demonic energies, hollow energies, and so on. It also served to house the main meeting room, which was laid out to be similar to the United Nations with the addition of seats for representatives from Soul Society, the Yayjuu, The Vizard Corps, The Iramsha Clans, and the Suiguira Kingdom. When a full meeting was called, this was where everyone gathered; besides this room however, there were several smaller rooms that were used for when certain countries needed to convene separate of the larger congregation, or when smaller meetings were called; the meeting for today would take place in one such room.

Genpaku stepped out of the elevator and waved several division members out of their bowing as he continued on through the notably more modern hallways. They opened up into a spacious lobby, made mostly of black stone. This served as the receiving location for the general public as well as the reception area for dignitaries such as the ones that they were expecting. Speaking of those dignitaries, as Genpaku and Solas walked into the lobby, several non-descript black cars pulled to a stop outside of the lobby, the doors opening as men began to pile out of the cars.
”I get the feeling that is going to be a long day…” he muttered; granted, the sight coming towards them was not exactly what you would call pleasant. There were at least eight stone-faced dignitaries that had bothered to make the journey out here to talk in person. Though the motion continued in the lobby, one could feel the focus dragged towards the steps as the dignitaries entered.

Introductions were done briefly, and it was obvious that these men were not interested in pleasantries. However, at some point Genpaku seemed to have memorized these people’s names and made it a point to politely introduce himself and his Vice-Captain to each of them. He was far more polite than they had been, and probably more polite than they deserved in all honesty, but this was his secondary role when all things were said and done, since the secondary purpose of the SHTF served as the diplomatic medium between the “Spiritual Nations” as they were formally referred too, and he was the head diplomat to the nations of Earth from said nations. He led the way, and within five minutes everyone was seated in one of the meeting room chairs. Now it was time to get things underway.

”So, gentlemen, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” he said in surprisingly fluent English, the majority of his national accent subdued. Given a hundred years, it wasn’t hard to learn most languages.
”Our Leaders are demanding an explanation for the events surrounding London and Madrid, and for your actions in Cairo,” a gray haired man from America spoke up, giving Genpaku a cold, hard look.
Genpaku gave a small sigh; how he hated being right some days. He leaned forward in his chair, fixing the diplomats with a stare of his own.
”We have already released a statement concern-“ he began.
”Your statement, while a moving apology, failed to give our leaders an adequate explanation for why these events were allowed to transpire in the first place,” another interrupted, with a murmur of consent going up from the diplomats.
”Right. London was a result of a coordinated assault on four distinct locations at once, effectively splitting the forces of Soul Society and the Special Human Task Force. You know of three of the locations here on Earth; London, Cairo, and Italy, which I noted you failed to mention in your little spiel there. The fourth location was the Soul Society itself. My Division was forced to split and cover more ground, a large detachment being sent to London; we managed to evacuate roughly 50,000 residents before we were forced to retreat for fear of being locked off. We made every attempt to prevent and end the events in London; I personally was there attempting to stop it.”
”And what a magnificent job you did on that, Mr. Arishima.”

Genpaku’s eyes narrowed, under the table his fist clenched, and there was a small, momentary spike in his reiatsu. He held his temper though. The meeting continued on, running roughly the same course for nearly an hour. That was how this day started out.

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[Sesshoku - Darker Than Black OST]
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-{N O T - Y E T}-
-{W E - A R E - J U S T}-
-{G E T T I N G - S T A R T E D}-

Seizing The Chance

Genpaku’s hand came to his face as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
”Gentlemen. We have ran this course for nearly an hour. You speak as though you have another offer; as though this were a simple war between men. You drastically underestimate our enemies. We are not dealing with men with guns or sword, bombs or lasers; we are dealing with demons and worse,” he said, silencing the room as he pulled his hand away from his face to glare at them with cold, serious eyes.
”Contrary to what your leaders seem to be thinking anymore, we are doing everything we can to protect the Earth.”
One of them began to speak up when the door was thrown open. A division member stood there, and spoke without hesitation despite the meeting he knew he had just interrupted; that was what caught Genpaku’s attention most forcibly.
”Arishima-taicho! A strong demonic presence had been detected within the confines of the Sukai dome, roughly a mile from headquarters! A member of the Yayjuu has already been deployed to attempt to deal with the situation. The Yuudeshi Network is going crazy currently with reports of the demon as well as reports from the Wastes sent by one Zin Yuudeshi reporting on some kind of strange uprising.” the man said.

Genpaku was already on his feet; just one of those days.
”Get eyes on that situation in the wastes immediately, but spare as little as you can to do it. Mobilize the majority of the division and reserves to check the turbine stations as well as the back-up system for anything out of the ordinary. Inform the rest of Karakura to be on the lookout in case something goes wrong up here. We will handle the demon situation,” he gave the orders with no hesitation. One of the men looked like he was about to argue.
”Get these men out of here and safely back out of Sukai Karakura. I have watched one city be devoured in darkness, its citizens silenced in a moment of destruction. I will be damned before I do that again.”
That was all that the Head of the Special Human Task Force had to say about the situation; he stepped out of his faux body as it kneeled down. He looked to the division member once more.
”Mobilize the reserves and inform the Yayjuu and Vizard Corps to run a perimeter check on the Karakura Dome. Be ready for anything.”

“We are going Solas,” he said as the other division member ran off to relay the orders into the Yuudeshi Network and the division as a whole. Genpaku jumped, slipping through the roof of the building and landing on top for a moment while he waited for his Vice-Captain to catch up. He reached out with his senses, pinpointing the enemy in question a little ways away; there was another energy signature there as well, but it seemed to be somewhat faint. That didn’t bode well.
”Seems like we’re in for a hell of a day. Keep up,” he said with mock light-heartedness. It was easy to see in his eyes that he was serious about this, and that he was somewhat concerned. The power he felt wasn’t just your run of the mill demon. With a step, he vanished as Shunpo carried him off and to the destination.

He arrived just in time to witness Berry’s final attack set, landing the blow as the strange blue coloration appeared on the demon. He also witnessed the breaking of Berry’s Zanpaku-tou because of the spear; few demonic weapons held that property, and only one of them that he could remember was a spear. He had not been present when Vohlis had made his introduction originally, nor did it really matter to Genpaku at this point. The demonic energies rolling off the woman was all he needed, and the weapon was all the warning he’d need as well.
”Bakudo #61, Rikujoukourou,” he stated simply as the eight pillars of light shot in at the demoness. He started forward, not bothering to draw his zanpaku-tous but instead rolling his sleeves back slightly.
”I see you’ve met the welcoming committee, Demon. You have stepped into the wrong place. Though I am quite curious as to why you are here,” he called out. His eyes were cold emeralds and locked on the demon. Berry would need medical attention and quickly, but the demon was an issue that needed to be taken care of and quickly.

Judging solely by the power rolling off the girl, and the state Berry was in, this was no run of the mill demon. He was not going to allow it to remain
”Sorry, but I’m going to cut the introductions. Gentei Kaijo,” he said as the insignia of the Special Human Task Force appeared under his Hakama and Haori, a brilliant green coloration. The seal was released, but Genpaku had already begun moving before it fully had; he doubted that his Kidou would hold the demon, and while he knew that given enough time whatever Berry had set in motion would come to pass, he wasn’t to make sure this demon was flattened before it had a chance to wreak havoc. While it appeared that Shunpo carried him above the creature, this was actually Sattou Semi, a variation on the Utsusemi technique that he had created that mimicked the movement of the user as a mean of throwing the opponent off.

The copy of Genpaku appeared above Vohlis, hands grasped onto the hilts of his Zanpaku-tous as though he was about to draw the blades in an attempt to draw and cleave the demon. After a second, the copy would vanish, however. The real Genpaku had appeared behind Vohlis, still unarmed as he lashed out with a strong right open-palmed strike aimed for the shoulder whose arm currently clutched the spear; this was not so simple either, however. Genpaku had lashed out with the intent to use a focused Narusho(Echoing Palm). If the attack landed, he would attempt to funnel his reiatsu into the demon’s shoulder to try and disrupt the flow of energy into that shoulder, and hopefully deal a good deal of damage to the muscles as well. The spear was dangerous, and was the first thing that needed to be taken care of.

Genpaku seriously doubted that the Bakudo would hold the demon for long, however, and fully expected some kind of counter attack should his strike be unsuccessful; if the demon broke the bakudo before his strike had landed, he would instead redirect the punch to the demon’s forearm in an attempt to halt its motion, and aim to strike the demon with a roundhouse kick to the side of its head. If the first open-palmed strike had managed to land and the demon broke the bakudo and swung then, he would jump and dissolve the reiatsu platform he had been standing on, and aim to grab onto the man’s should and turn with him as he pivoted for the strike. From there, he would aim to strike him with a Hekisho roughly equivalent to a level 5 hadou in explosive power before attempting to gain distance and reassess his options.

Genpaku was unfortunate in his timing that he had not been able to witness either Vohlis’ introduction so he knew who he was dealing with, or the fact that Vohlis had access to several unique abilities from different people. He had no idea that Inoue Orihime’s barriers could be brought to bear, or that Kurosaki Ichigo’s Getsuga Tenshou could be launched. In some ways, he had rushed headlong into this battle without waiting to find out more, but there wasn’t much of a choice. For now, the stage was set above Sukai Karakura for the scene. Only 1 player had yet to appear, but it wouldn’t be long before he did. Solas would only be a moment behind Genapaku, and if he had thought he had the time he would have waited to ask her to help Berry. She may well do that anyway; he didn’t know. For now, it was time to see the opening acts.

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-{B R E A K - I N}-
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[Mighty Wind - Fate/Stay Night OST]
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-{T H E}-
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He had been right then; as he struck out with the palm, the demon released a burst of energy and shattered the Bakudo before just barely dodging the strike. Genpaku had been prepared to dodge back if the demon lashed out, and yet it didn’t; instead it teleported away, taking a look at him and presumably Solas who had arrived after he had already launched his opening attack. Genpaku prepared himself for whatever the demon did next.
”Scatter, Sebonzakura.”
The display immediately following the demon’s words lent credence that this was no joke as the petals appeared. They began to float out and away, taking up a wider arc that you ever saw Byakuya use. This was going to be something of an issue; as they spread out they became harder to see, which made them more dangerous. He knew what his answer to this was though, his hand already drawing one of his Zanpaku-tous.

The demon simply stood there, behind what was effectively a wall of small blades that could be moved at the mind’s smallest command. How the hell had this Demon managed to get a hold of Byakuya’s shikai abilities? Was it an illusion? That may well have been the case, but it was better to act under the assumption that it wasn’t for the moment, rather than assume it was and get cut to ribbons. He couldn’t stall here too long though. He was lucky in that Vohlis didn’t want him to wait around, and have him more than adequate reason to make a decision; he heard a cry, and as he looked to the side he saw several of the blades assaulted Solas. Now either the demon knew that this was one of Genpaku’s particular ‘berserker buttons’ or just figured it would work. Either way, he was certainly right.

Genpaku’s eyes had left the demon for a fraction of a second; long enough to see what was happening to Solas. Now, many would assume his next course of action would be to jump straight for her to try and defend her from the blades. He knew her better than that; something like this wouldn’t be enough to take her out yet. So instead, he’d go straight of the source. A heavy weight suddenly crushed down on the area as Genpaku looked back at the demon.
”Wrong move,” he said, and activated Kyoumei.

Kyoumei was the technique that Genpaku had developed and mastered to quite a degree that allowed him to make use of the specific advantage he had been ‘born’ with, namely the two separate sets of Shinigami powers. His ancestors had passed down a set of powers to protect the family line, and he had somehow managed to attain his own Shinigami powers. Usually though, these two powers were distinct enough that they were in conflict, incapable of being utilized at the same time. However, Genpaku had experimented with this issue, and through a process of trial and error that had on more than one occasion nearly killed him, had discovered a way of synchronizing his reiatsu signature with those of his Zanpaku-tous, the physical manifestation of his Shinigami powers, allowing him access to both sets of powers.

And this was the first time his full power was felt, the feeling of a summer storm as Genpaku’s reiatsu changed from an ‘airy’ feel to a combination of air and electricity. While he had trained with this power often, he had not revealed it to enemies yet as he was unsure about the full effects of its use. He had concluded, however, after the events in London that he could not simply hide this kind of power when he should have been putting it to use. The first level of this was Kyoumei no Omoi, or Resonance of the Mind. This stage allowed him access to both sets of reiatsu at once. He didn’t stop there though; he ascended to the second level of Kyoumei, Kyouemi no San Kokoro. This level allowed him the unique ability to unreleased both of his Zanpaku-tous to the Shikai level. He would make full use of it here; as he did so, he wordlessly released Fujin.

He spent no more than half a second releasing this drastic increase in power (bringing him from the equivalent of a 1-1+ to a full 0-2+) before he launched forward towards the demon. He knew it had to be a trap, so as he shot forward he swung the now released Zanpaku-tou, sending a AoriShini (Reaping Gust) ahead of him. This attack was a blast of scything winds in a cone ahead of him that extended out to 40 feet, scattering the Sebonzakura petals in its wake as the attack rushed forward. However, the attack only pushed out to 60 feet, nowhere near where the Demon now stood. Yet Genpaku seemed to continue forward, pushing towards the Demon.

I say seemed because in reality Genpaku had already attempted to close the distance. Genpaku was one of the most proficient users in Shunpo and its variants around, and he had made user of one of the variants he had discovered now, one of the same ones he had used already. Sattou Semi was an Utsuemi variant that mimicked the movement of the user and continued in the same direction for four seconds after its initial use; that was the being that foolishly shot towards the demon through the wall of blades. It fit the trap perfectly too; here the reckless young captain seemed to have walked right into the trap and was about to be diced into pieces. Hopefully, it would seem as though he had forgotten his predicament in a fit of rage and rushed in instead of making his real move.

Two Mure no Utsusemi clones appeared above Vohlis as the first continued towards him. The one of the left held Fujin aloft, ready to bring the wind blade down onto the demon and lash him with the scarring wind blade. The second, over his right corner held a released Raiden and was stabbing forward attempting to stab him in the center with the blade. The question was which one was the real one? The simple answer was neither; Genpaku was below the demon, and already mid swing with his twin released Zanpaku-tous. He had activated Raiden’s Hiraishin, which coated the blade in electricity after having wordlessly released Raiden to Shikai as well. As he swung, he released a second burst of Aorishini in addition to a blast of Raiden’s Denko ability, which sent a wave of electrified reiatsu at the enemy. The two attacks mixed, resulting in a wave of scything, electrified blades being launched a mere ten feet from where the demon stood.

However, Raiden and Denko held a much more dangerous secret than the simply electricity abilities suggested. Raiden’s most dangerous ability was Sekkai, a powerful electrical effect with disrupted the nervous system and its connection to the brain. Effectively, as the electricity affected the target their reflexes would deteriorate. Hiraishin accelerated this process, but it was irrelevant for the Denko attack. The first application would drag the demon’s reaction time down to the normal human level, meaning that it would take .215 seconds between his eyes seeing something and his brain being able to react to it and move the body to deal with said situation. Each strike from Raiden beyond that would increase that time by 25%. With Hiraishin, however, that increase would be bolstered to a 50% increase. Raiden’s purpose had always been to protect Genpaku, and it had accomplished this by slowing the opponent down to the point that they could no longer keep up with his movements.

There were several ways around this effect, however. Should Vohlis move to a higher stage of power the stacks of Sekkai would be reset. Also, since only one stack would be applied from the Denko attack if Vohlis managed to not get struck for another 3 posts the stack would drop off on its own. Genpaku’s combination of attacks had been aimed to do more than just hit Vohlis, however. Denko has an effective range out to 100 feet while Aorishini had an effective damaging range out to 40 feet before turning into a simple wall of wind for another 20 feet. The wave of electricity would seek out the blade pieces, and should hinder their movement for a few moments. Meanwhile, the gust of wind should push the blade-petals away from him and Vohlis.

Having just moved into close quarters with a demon who was using a spear and controlling either some form of Sebonzakura, Genpaku was in what might have been an advantageous location at the moment. However, he wasn’t worried about that. He was counting on the rather drastic increase in his own power and the speed at which his attacks were coming to keep the demon off balance. Genpaku released another ability of Raiden shortly after the Denko; Banrai was the thunder to the pervious’ lightning. And exactly that happened; a crack of thunder sounded, amplified within an area of 20 feet around Genpaku which at the time of the attack being launch the demon should still have been in. The sonic blast was strong enough to shatter hollow masks and rupture ear drums, and Genpaku was hoping for something similar on the demon. Additionally, he was hoping that the sound wave would disrupt any incoming blade-petals that the demon attempted to use against him as a counter attack.

Genpaku’s next move would depend on how the demon reacted. Should Vohlis attempt to run away, he would make an attempt to intercept him by out-speeding him with a shunpo, and swing with Raiden to attempt to put another stack of Sekkai onto Vohlis to further hinder him while the effect of Berry’s Shikai continued to work. In this model Genpaku would hold Fujin back for the defensive; he held one of the most effective weapons for dealing with projectile-like attacks such as Sebonzakura while he held Fujin, though how Vohlis would know that who knows. Should Vohlis attempt to surround him after the follow up with the petals, he would attempt to activate Tokuteikiatsu(Cyclone Shield), which would bring up a spinning shield of reiatsu enhanced scything winds that should throw off the projectiles as well as cause some damage should Vohlis come into contact with it.

If instead the Demon attempted to strike out at him with the lance, he would make an attempt to parry the attack with Raiden and send a course of lightning up the lance into Vohlis’ arm to attempt to apply another stack of Sekkai, and would activate Tokuteikiatsu there, attempting to catch the demon in the shell of the air shield, and hopefully use the air shield to deal some real damage to the demon.

Of course, this was assuming the demon reacted in the ways he was expecting. Thus far the demon had proven to be strange and resourceful. There was no way of knowing that the demon wouldn’t pull another ability out of that lance and using it to lash out against Genpaku. Meanwhile, part of Genpaku’s mind was becoming accustom to the feel of the combined Reiatus. If he was lucky, this assault would bring the demon down long enough for whatever Berry did to fully affect the demon. Hopefully, he would have to go no further in his Kyoumei releases. But if it came to that, he would.

He also had to keep an eye on Solas; there was no telling when she’d release some torrent of Kidou’s at the demon. If she did, he’d move. She should have more than known that, by now, he could move out of the way of those Kidou. Now that part of him thought about it, this may well have been the first time he had released his full power in her presence. This was the first battle where they had been on the same battlefield and required real power that he could remember. Maybe he’d get to see her pull something out she hadn’t bothered to show him yet too. For now, that thought didn’t occupy the forefront of his mind; he was focused on the demon, his enemy, and how his assault had managed.

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