misplacedfaith02: godfall

Time slowed for Hinaai. Her hands opened, flexed, closed, then opened again. A lump formed in her throat and her heart began to beat just a little bit faster. 

“Koshitsu...Taichou…” Her sentence came to an end when she saw his hand resting on the hilt of his zanpakutou. 

“I . . . I see . . .” 

Hinaai breathed out once and turned to fully face him. Yuu’s appearance, or lack of, told the Soutaichou all that she needed to know. Suddenly everything made sense; Kenpachi’s disappearance, the framing of King despite his promotion, and the reason for this meeting. 

“It was wise to come without your haori,” Hinaai said, her right hand grasping the air, “because you’ve made your intentions clear to me, Koshitsu Sojiro.” 

The Soutaichou’s eyes narrowed and a thick killing intent filled the room. Sojiro was the type of man whose conviction was unyielding. It pained her to lose one of the strongest captains under her employ, but rooting out this conspiracy overcame any personal feelings. 

“I’ll give you to the count of three to kneel, Sojiro.” 

“Ah,” Hinaai said. 

She reached up, grabbed the cuff of her haori, and pulled the moment the clone dashed at her. A sudden force rammed the doppelganger off course and sent it flying through the walls and barracks of the Ichibantai. The lightning bolt itself pierce the haori but was stopped by something underneath it. 

The fabric fell to the floor with a whisper, and the edge of Hinaai’s katana smoked. Sojiro’s clone had been obliterated by something, though what that something was he could only guess. 

Sojiro’s release into shikai did not escape the Soutaichou’s notice, but she didn’t care. His blade in its initial form had little offensive power. Ashigakugeki was something to distort opponents with, so that its master could get an easy kill on an off-kilter opponent. Sadly, Hinaai was not someone who could be thrown off kilter. 

“You should use your bankai, Sojiro,” Hinaai mocked. Using it in this small a space was impossible, she knew. “Or maybe I should use mine?” 

Despite talking, Hinaai was a woman who had seen a million battles more than the traitor standing before her. Should he attack mid sentence she’d parry through whatever means were necessary. There was no catching her off guard in a duel. 

At the threat of unleashing her swords full power, the moonlight jumped up from the window and danced along the length Hinaai’s soul-forged steel. While Sojiro’s red aura pounded against the walls and floor of her office, hers merely existed. Its reach went far beyond the small walls of the Seireitei; every soul in the Soul Society could certainly feel that something was wrong. 

---

Sojiro was fast and impossibly skilled. Out of all twelve captains, with the exception of Kariya, he was by far the most skilled. And even when compared to Ryuugamine, he probably exceeded him if everything was matched up. But skill could only take one so far when facing the goddess of death herself. When the illusions manifested, Hinaai closed her eyes. She knew Sojiro’s technique and how vicious it was against the unguarded mind. But illusions were just dreams brought into reality, and they had no effect against wisdom as ancient as hers. 

“Tell me the story of the Wisdom Kings--” 

The vibrating fangs were just above her, layered on top of one another and ready to strip flesh from bone. 

“--Sanzensekai no Kiken!” 

Hinaai became a supernova of green light. The air blades were destroyed by the raw pressure of Hinaai’s initial release, which roared with the power of an entire dimension. If the captain wasn’t careful he’d be caught within the vortex as well; a vortex that stretched outwards and annihilated the office. 

When the light died down and the dust settled, Hinaai was revealed to be standing there unharmed. Her blonde hair was undone. It fell about the Soutaichou’s shoulders and was picked up and tousled iby the wind. The solar and roof were blown away, allowing the moonlight and chilled air to invade. Wooden debris littered the ground, along with papers and broken glasses. Most noticeable of all was the katana in Hinaai’s grip. Its slender blade burned with a vicious green light that caused the shadows to dance along the broken walls. 

In the distance, Hinaai heard alarms going off. She ignored them and kept her attention on Sojiro. The Soutaichou raised her released zanpakuotu vertically in front of her and twisted it in the air. In response, all of Soul Society seemed to pulse, as if this blade was its beating heart. 

Without even looking, Hinaai’s zanpakutou blocked the strike. When it did, the green light lashed out hungrily. The moment it left the blade it turned into a blazing inferno. Within the span of a single breath the Soutaichou had grasped the hilt of her katana in both hands and was turning while dragging the bruning edge along the back of Sojiro’s turning fork. 

“That’s Captan-Commander,” she corrected. If her strike hit, the flames of her blade were like to completely immolate Sojiro, leaving nothing but a smoldering skeleton. If it failed to hit, which she didn’t doubt, then the force along was still capable of sending him flying. 

Sojiro’s fingers grazed her skin as his shield shattered like a window pane against her sword. Hinaai retreated as he did, allowing the flames to fade away. The burning green light remained, however. As it moved through the air, fireflies danced around the Soutaichou, born from her soul. 

The laughing of one of her greatest captains disappointed Hinaai. She had watched Sojiro rise from the bottom, becoming a shinigami of devastating power and political importance. He, along with Itada and Kariya, were one of the three candidates originally supposed to succeed her if she ever died. 

“Such a shame, Koshitsu,” Hinaai whispered. 

The incoming slashes of sound were met with a single stroke of the Soutaichou’s own. The green light manifested this time in the form of wind. As sound was just vibrations in the air, the ability was rendered useless as the atmosphere it needed to travel through was cast upwards into oblivion. “Is this really all you can do, Koshtsu? You mean to be Soutaichou with this meager amount of strength?!” 

Hinaai spat to the ground. Her scar ached. “Disappointing.”