Hollowed Devices: A Fight Redone

[Firechild]

A lone figure walks through the wasteland known as Heuco Mundo. Or the White Desert. His armored cloak blowing lightly in the breeze. His eyes glowed faintly in the colorless world, as he wandered without a mission. A massive scythe blade attached to his right forearm, his skull like mask and his overall aura of shadows gave any passer by the inclination you do NOT want to be on his bad side. This was the Vasto Lorde Rakugosha. More commonly known among Hollows as Shirakarite. The White Reaper. Easily among the most powerful of the Menos Grande, most cringe in fear at the site of him. Even some Adjuchas shirk away in fright. Being one of the few to survive the onslaught of the Vasto Lorde known only as Z. Having actually defeated the beast, he was revered by a group of Adjuchas called the Reapers as their leader. Raku spent some time thinking it over, and finally decided to lead them. Together they were the most unstoppable force in all of Hueco Mundo aside from Las Noches itself.

The White Reaper stood still a moment glancing in the direction of the White Fortress. He saw a door made of green light open briefly before vanishing into the black sky. "It would seem...The White Sands of Hueco Mundo has visitors..." Spoke the Vasto Lorde with a relatively calm and cheerful tone. As a few spirit levels of near Espada strength entered his vision, along with several others, the Vasto Lorde blinked a few times. "I would guess these are Shinigami..." Memories of what they did to him and his town when he was still in the world of the living flashed through his mind and he made the decision to observe them. He couldn't take on all of them at once, but if he could get one of the stronger of them alone, he may have a chance to deal a heavy blow to the lords of Soul Society. "This shall be...interesting." The Hollow grinned to himself, finally a little payback was in order.

As Shirakarite grew closer he could make out roughly their numbers. There were a good 2 or 3 dozen of them. All spread out in a circle to protect some of the others it would seem. And yet...the ones inside the circle were for the most part stronger then the ones on the outside. Raku found this strange, yet interesting. He was close to the party now, and could make out three figures with white coats. 2 grown men and a small child. Yet they all had very high levels of reietsu not unlike the strength of the high numbered Espada. Smaller hollow were indeed attacking the party. Raku observed them as they reached the white wall of Las Noches, and after several moments finally pierced the barrier. As they did so another gate opened, thanks to one of the white clad Shinigami. Several more of the robed swordsman entered the White Desert; including a few more white clad Shinigami. Then...they entered the white fortress, and right as everyone save the one shinigami who opened the second gate was within the depth of the White Fortress, was when Raku finally revealed himself. "I would welcome you to Hueco Mundo shinigami...if you were welcome here. But unfortunately you are not...Not many people ARE welcome here for that matter eh?" This Captain would probably think him arrogant...his calm and confident tone would probably be tribute to that.

The Vasto Lorde stretched from side to side as he considered his soon to be opponent. The man was strong...that much was certain, but just HOW strong? Shirakarite was about to find out.. "I'm Shirakarite...leader of the Menos group the Reapers." Turning so he was facing the Soul Reaper, he slid into a peculiar fighting stance that seemed to have very little openings. The blade on his arm was held out in front of him at the level of his chest while the other arm was in front of his face, his fist clenched. "I shall be your first, and last opponent here in Las Noches oh mighty Death God." The White Reaper cocked his head as he waited for the Soul Reaper to make the first move.

[Galihan]

It was time to advance into the heart of Las Noches, following Nekomi and Yun as the they led a first wave into the fortress itself. Minoru was ordered to bring up the rear along with the forces of Squad One after Squads Ten and Eleven, so he decided he's stick to the rear flank and proceed onward after everyone else got inside to ward off any threats from behind. He knew that it wouldn't be awkward in situations like this for a lone attacker to pick off the weaker units one by one from behind the moment the larger army splits up, in fact he was expecting that there was something trying to stalk them after seeing how futile the efforts of the previous hollow were when their only strategy was to howl and charge like a pack of unorganized idiots, and there were brief moments that Minoru did sense there was someone watching them closely. As the last of the 1st Division's forces made it through the breached wall into Las Noches, Minoru looked back and stood still, alert as he felt that same fierce presence approach. The captain's hand reached for his zanpakuto the moment he heard it's voice address him directly, but he did not draw his blade just yet.

"I would welcome you to Hueco Mundo shinigami...if you were welcome here. But unfortunately you are not...Not many people ARE welcome here for that matter eh?"

Kind of an odd comment for a person to start a conversation one would have to admit, but he did have a valid point. Even among the hollow, few were actually permitted to inhabit the arrancar fortress, and surely these hostile shinigami would be seen as an outright threat to be killed on sight. At least this one had the courtesy, or at least the intelligence, to acknowledge that fact before attempting to kill whomever it lay it's eyes upon. This hollow seemed to be sizing him up, trying to judge his opponent to get a good guess of just how powerful this shinigami could possible be, and Minoru would be more than happy to show the hollow how powerful he really was if was going to persist in provoking him. It didn't surprise Minoru that the hollow was having trouble judging his power, as one of the layers of clothing that the Captain was wearing was a vest he had made to conceal his presence at a distance, so even if it was spying on them from afar, he would not have been able to clearly feel Minoru's presence despite being able to see him. Minoru eased his arm, letting it drop to his side and not even bother drawing his zanpakuto as of yet.

"I'm Shirakarite...leader of the menos group the Reapers. I shall be your first, and last opponent here in Las Noches oh mighty Death God."

While his initial comment about a shinigami being unwelcome in the home of their enemy was rather honestly a given, this introduction of himself started off rather refreshingly formal but quickly soiled as the end comment just reeked of outright arrogance. Minoru felt compelled to have to teach this Shirakarite a lesson he would never forget. He decided he'd best not give into anger, though, instead he was feeling compelled to coerce this menos into attacking first. If one can't prove himself a worthy adversary in a battle of wits, how could hope to survive an actual battle?

"Hmmm... The Reapers, eh?" Minoru began rather sheepishly, appearing to be lost in thought for a moment.

"Nope, never heard of them. Was I supposed to? I couldn't image so, given that I already know quite a bit according to what most people when they talk about me, not that you'd know any of that I suppose. I guess that makes us even then, right? I'm not welcome in Hueco Mundo, so I don't know about you and you're not welcome in Soul Society, so you don't know about me! Makes perfect sense, if you had any idea who I was, you'd never had challenged me like this, are you certain you really want to fight me? I warn you that I am quite the formidable adversary, and I've had quite a long time to perfect killing vermin like you down to a science."

While the bulk of that dialogue was spoken with an uncaring, aloof expression that could have been taken almost, and most likely so, mockingly, that last line was delivered with an especially sinister sounding cold tone. This was accompanied by the drawing of his chokuto-style zanpakuto from the bronze saya that dangled loosely from his left hip, and a sharp raise in his reiatsu that may have only been a small fraction of his total potential power output, yet definitely high enough to send a clear message that he was ready to spill the blood of his new enemy under the moon on this eternal night.