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Kyo's question wasn't even answered before a new attacker suddenly appeared. Delivering attacks to everyone present in a matter of seconds. He watched as Tadashi was kicked then the assailant fired a Gran Rey Cero into a Garganta, the other end of which opened right in front of his very eyes. Acting more on reflex than anything else his left hand moved to his right side as if he were going to grab Zetsumeireiki's hilt while dashing backward. His family's martial art style being called a swordless sword style was no misnomer. It came about when his ancestors were no long allowed to carry their swords in public. Instead they adapted various strikes and movements of the hand to mimic that of a sword and the attack he was reflexively using now was based upon a basic Iaido strike. Time seemed to slow down and Kyo focused as much reiryoku as he could into his left hand while the cero encroached upon him. He knew there was no way he could block it fully, but that wasn't his intent. His intention was instead to use the blow to disrupt the energy flow of the cero and cause it to destabilize, thus releasing it's destructive force without hitting him directly.

Kyo's eyes narrowed. His muscles tightened. Time seemed almost at a standstill as he waited for the the cero to come into his reach. He only had one chance to do this right so his entire focus was needed. He watched as it inched closer to him in his heightened state of mind then finally it was there. His eyes widened and he swung his opened hand up as if he'd drawn a katana. His reiryoku enshrouded hand sliced through the cero. It paused for a moment before it's destabilized reiryoku burst out in all directions in a large explosion. The force of the blast sent Kyo flying backwards while the heat from it scorched his skin. He tumbled end over end only coming to a stop when he hit a tree, his Zanpakuto still clenched tightly in his right hand. The pain was intense, his skin felt like it was still on fire, his vision was blurred, his ears were ringing, and his back screamed. At least I know I'm still alive... Kyo thought as he struggled to make his way back to his feet. Once he was upright he locked his eyes on the attacker who was know taking in the damage he'd done from Captain Hakase's grave.

ɪςϦɪЪɑȵȶɑɪ ϨɑȵʂϵӃɪ

βʆɑʗӃ☆Ϩȶɑɽ

『 Black Star had once again gone out of character and wasn't doing very much besides being a bystander. He watched as Nanashi ended the fight and killed both Exaequare without a hint of remorse. His eyes didn't turn away, not once. "Black☆Star... is everything OK?" Tsubaki's voice rang in his cranium. Black Star was going to reply to Tsubaki, but when a sudden out burst from an unfamiliar voice behind him caused Black Star to shift positions. He wasn't familiar with the dude, so he merely gaze him a blank, slightly dumb, looking stare. Before Kyo's outburst, Black Star had been listening to Suzume's talk about Hei Hakase; asking someone if they were afraid of him. Black Star would have replied to this, if he felt like he needed to. But he didn't. It wasn't fear he felt toward Hei, it was envy of his stardom, everyone and their brother knew him. And when he was present somewhere, he was felt. This didn't cause hate to build nor want to be like. Just the fact that he was none to people made Black Star want to step up his own game.

When Nanashi started speaking and then after that, started harassing Suzume, Black Star changed his point of view. He thought Suzume was well enough to fend for herself. Ignoring Tadashi and Kwang-sun all together, he changed his sights to Eriko, who was congratulating Suzume. Black Star closed his eyes, "Yeah... sorry about that." Black Star said to Tsubaki.

The stench and the ominous presence he felt around him cause him to draw his eye lid open; which widened as he saw a someone attack Eriko, it was hard to see at first, the sheer speed this thing possessed was abundant. Next it attack Kwang-sun, which was a strong kick to his chest. The afterimage he left made Black Star realize it was an Arrancar, he pulled Tsubaki and she shifted into Kusarigami, "Let's surpass 'em all, Tsuba-" the now back flipping Arrancar was upon Black Star, his legs took root and his flung the right Kusarigami into the air, Shield☆Star made it up at the last second. The blast cause the chains to rattle. As soon as the Arrancar had took a step back and appeared on Hei's grave, Black Star canceled the technique and caught the other Kusarigami while not looking. Eriko started shouting at the Hollow, it was apparent she knew of him, since Black Star wasn't at the funeral. "Isn't it obvious, Jūbantai-Taichō, he is here to steal my stardom~!" Black Star gave Zenos a patronizing looking. "Ask questions later, we'll kick his butt back to where it came!" Black Star shouted to the other Shinigami. The fact that he didn't say just himself was going to attack him, meant that he was going to obey any sort of order given to him. With that said, Black Star shifted his fingers to a hand seal and formed a large shuriken which he grabbed hold of and threw it at Zenos, he figured that the Shuriken would make for a good diversion while the others made a break to attack. After all, Black Star was only a Third Seat and couldn't go into Bankai.

』

┏──────────────┓
xxΖenos Λthanasius
xx[Immortal Stranger]
xxxxαπό το έδαφος
┗──────────────┛




Though he heard Eriko yelling at him in a rather annoying way, he certainly didn't acknowledge her, as he yawned during her statements and casually looked in another direction. He didn't intend to tell them that he was only around to test the strength of the Lieutenants and to hold off on killing them. That was all; he was under orders, but they would probably never know this. Without budging an inch, Zenos lifted his left leg high into the air and brought it crashing down upon the Shuriken's closest blade, burying it in the ground at an angle in the process. He didn't even cast Black Star a glance, having just determined that he wasn't any longer worth his time, and would ignore him for the time being.

Stepping forward, he suddenly appeared in four places at once, courtesy of Gemelos Sonído, each body being in front of one of the Shinigami (excluding Black Star), and only one being real, though impossible to distinguish by feeling them out since Zenos had his Reiryoku suppressed. This time around, only the body in front of Kyo was actually Zenos himself. Removing his hands from his pockets, Zenos proceeded to snap his fist towards Kyo's neck, using his overwhelming strength and speed to his advantage as he then proceeded to drop lower to the ground and deliver a second strike to his stomach, only this time with a bala-infused fist. Just as Zenos made his first move onto Kyo, his afterimages moved to thrust their hands through the hearts of their respective opponents, only to not affect them since they were not real.

Reforming as one body, Zenos then split again, repeating the same process as the real one appeared in front of Kwang-Sun, only to deliver a Gran Rey Cero to his face at point-blank range and drop kick him in the stomach as, once more, the afterimages moved to stab their opponents through the heart. For the third time, Zenos reformed and stepped forward and appeared in four different places at once, this time his real body being in front of Tadashi. As soon as he had appeared, he was holding his dagger and his coat was opened. Thrusting forward, he aimed a stab right to the Shinigami's gut, where if a cut was made, the wound would turn to stone. Naturally, as this occurred, the other images appeared to stab their opponents through the heart with their hands.

Once more, Zenos reformed, and then split off, only this time and true to his deceptive nature, his physical body did not appear in front of any of them, but instead they were all afterimages, still retaining the same amount of Reiryoku, while Zenos hid elsewhere, suppressing his Reiryoku. The afterimage in front of Eriko would lift his foot, and attempt to drive it into her chest while the others, once again, aimed to stab their respective opponents through the heart from the front. By the time Eriko would find that it was an image, it would be too late, as Zenos' real self would appear to her back left and drive his flattened and towards her lower back, to pierce her all the way through. Basically he had set up a pattern in which he attacked with a real one from the front three times, only to deviate from his pattern on the last and turn out to be behind her in the end, finally utilizing the 5 afterimages he was capable of.

[Confused? Don't be~ This chart should make things more clear.]




►Translations◄

'If you do not want to die, I suggest thinking over your next move carefully, ' stated Tenma.

Tadashi took this advice to heart and reconsidered trying to mount a feeble counterattack. The best course of action, obviously, was fleeing. The arrancar was leagues above the Exaequare in power and skill, and he had the feeling that Zenos was playing a sick game of cat and mouse with a few Lieutenants and a green Captain.

Out of nowhere, Zenos appeared without any warning whatsoever and struck at Tadashi's chest. There wasn't even any time to flash-step, and he knew it too. For some reason, however, the attack didn't connect. He watched in awe as the seemingly phantom copy of Zenos phased away after the 'attack'. Snapping out of his shocked state, Tadashi flash-stepped away just as a second Zenos appeared in place and repeated the process of stabbing forward apparently into someone's torso. Gathering himself mentally, Tadashi figured whatever was happening was, of course, an illusion. However, as he felt and heard something that resembled an extremely powerful Hado spell, he also noticed the very same afterimage near another of the Shinigami that disappeared at the same time as Tadashi's second afterimage did. Putting the bits and pieces of information together as quickly as he could, Tadashi realized that the illusions were to confound the opponents and cover up deadly attacks like the Gran Ray Cero. Just as he surmised this, it occured to him that he might be next on the list.

He was correct - Zenos appeared and thrust forward with something in hand that Tadashi didn't quite see, because before Zenos could reach him with the weapon, he'd already flash-stepped away. He ended up directly ahead from Zenos's immediate strike range (as in he had basically backed away), and also upwards so that he was air walking. Tadashi's next reaction was purely automatic - to cast a Seki barrier just in case Zenos's attack continued at him.

Instead of a continued version of that one direct attack, however, Zenos appeared again in the same way as the first two illusions, thrusting for the Lieutenant's heart. The hand made it as far as phasing past Tadashi's Seki before he'd stepped to the left. He had been correct in his assumption that the fourth attack was another fake like the first two, but he hadn't wanted to risk being killed just for a guess.

The arrancar was no doubt at a superior level of power, but there was no way he'd run, and he was sure no one else would either. He put himself back into his battle mindset and took a quick look at the damage Zenos had caused. Tadashi, with some horror, saw Eriko being the subject of a unique attack - meaning the real Zenos had saved her for last. He called out Eriko's name, but couldn't do anything else other than ready Tenma to attack the arrancar with Kage Ketsugo the very next place he showed up.

Black Star's outlandish claim that the Arrancar was here to steal his stardom of all things made her question if he was being silly or unfortunately, serious. His subsequent offensive approach to Zenos did not help to clarify this for her but did let her know that this abnormal stranger was still on the offense and was not about to give any of them answers anytime soon. She took note of the buried oversized shuriken for a second before Zenos was literally in her immediate circle of personal space, already pulling back his arm to strike her seemingly in the heart. Her hand had pulled her normal kodachi to block the attack upon this realization but it was not fast enough and so went through the arm. However, her chest had not been affected and Eriko's blade was simply dangling where hand was fading. When it vanished completely, Zenos appeared and attempted the exact offense only to reveal itself as yet another copy. She was not even aware of what was happening to others but from what she could tell with what was happening to her, Zenos was playing with them obviously.

This happened in the same way once more. Her senses had been raised. Her body was covered in hardened reiatsu. The consistent attacks had put her into a form of complete alert mode. She saw him for the fourth time in a row but this time, his foot was coming down to strike her chest while the real Zenos attempted to impale her from behind. She dodged the kick to her chest by crouching low to the ground while shifting herself in a rightward motion. Unfortunately, it had not been enough to save her from both simultaneous attacks as the thrusting arm of Zenos managed to rip her skin by the left shoulder. She tumbled away from him to stand up and right her mind again. During that last attempt on her life, Eriko had heard two voices trying to call out to her as well as saw a Lieutenant try to attack the fourth of the clones. She would have to thank them later for their help.

Presently, the young Taicho looked down at her injured arm. It was oozing blood by the second and was much deeper than the one that Sakamoto had received. Without thinking, she continued the rip of the already torn sleeve and wrapped it artfully around the wound so as to halt the loss of blood. Of course, this was not a time for discussions anymore since Zenos had made that perfectly clear with that previous attack on all of them. However, she did not know much about these Lieutenants except Sakamoto and still that was not enough. Ignoring the flowers, Eriko looked out at the scene before her and realized that Kyo was the only one who was not making an offense on the Arrancar. Didn't the others know that they would have to work together for this even to work in their favour? There was Black Star but apparently, Zenos had left him unscathed. Maybe that was a good thing for the Sanseki but she would have to find a way to use that information to their advantage. Currently, she wanted to stop Kwang and Sakamoto from probably killing themselves but it would cost them valuable time for her to do that. The Yobantai-Fukutaicho seemed to be going for a sword attack from the back while Sakamoto had released Temna. Which would he use? Would it be the binding or hallucination approach? Either way, they had to make this work and survive.

Eriko faded out of sight to reappear at Kyo's side, her eyes still on Zenos. Her tone was hushed as she spoke to him. "Thank you for trying to save me just now, Fukutaicho." The title sounded funny to her ears but her shyness delayed her request for people's names always. She switched her still sealed Zanpakuto from her left to her right hand so that it was away from him. "I'm thinking that all four of us can work together in order to defeat him but I'm not sure how and it won't be that far-fetched of an idea that he can hear me whispering right now. That doesn't matter. We just have to win." She did not tell him about her thoughts on using Black Star in the plan since the details of that were still unknown to her. For now, all they needed Zenos to think was that they were his opponents and not Black Star. "Setsumei, Cho." The blade obtained its wavy nature without her doing the usual motion against it. Her left hand was of little use to her right now but that would not be a problem because of her training for Mudana Doku with Cho not too long ago. "So, what do you think? We can use Sakamoto and that other man's attack as diversions."

xxx

┏──────────────┓
xxΖenos Λthanasius
xx[Immortal Stranger]
xxxxαπό το έδαφος
┗──────────────┛




Zenos blinked and turned his attention towards Kwang-Sun as he shouted at him, and looked behind him before he was even there. Kwang's blade would hit him, as he made no move to dodge it, and would cut him across the back, drawing a fair amount of blood. Watching Kwang move away, he then lifted his hand, drew a Garganta and disappeared inside as it shut. The purpose of this was to illustrate that none of them had the ability to detain him in this world, no matter how they tried, thus making Kwang's statement no more than an empty threat and an amusing one at that. A few seconds later, and a large garganta opened above them causing a huge volley of Bala to rain down from the tunnel. Thirty-six seconds passed and a vertical Garganta opened behind Kyo. Zenos gripped the edges and literally pulled himself out of the tunnel, pocketing his hands once he touched ground and the Garganta slammed shut, creating a seamless sky. The most notable difference in his appeareance was that his jacket had been discarded, baring his muscular torso and the gash on his back. The second difference, which was not so noticeable, was that he had removed his Zanpakutō's sheath from his jacket, sheathed the weapon, and had put it in his back pocket, weaving the pocket around the protrusions so that they were outside of the pocket in order to keep it in place.

Treating Kyo as though he weren't important, he sauntered right past him as monocrystalline whiskers began to weave themselves over his wound, closing it up as they took the place of the damaged tissue and flesh. Once this process was complete, the wound was gone, but a streak of gray replaced it. He stopped suddenly, caught by something he had not bothered to avoid; Tadashi's Kage Ketsugo. After glancing down at his right foot which was still trying to step down, he turned to look at Tadashi with a blank stare before parting his lips to speak for the first time in an eerily calm voice. "Trapped. Attack. Hurry." Though his sentences were horribly broken due to his extreme dislike for conversation, he was basically telling them to do their best to kill him while he was unable to move, or he would certainly hurt them again. In fact, he had thoughts about assassinating Tadashi for using such a move. Even when fighting, Zenos was a complete enigma who was well known for creating for patterns during a fight, only to break them on a whim or to fool his opponents. Even during this fight, he had overused his speed to trick them into thinking that was how he fought all the time, or the only way he was capable of fighting, when in reality, he could even attack while bound.




►Translations◄

Kwang-Sun 4th Division Lieutenant





Kwang saw that Zenos was trapped for the time being and he didn't want to waste anytime. Kwang stuck his hand in the ground pulling out the rose that he planted in the dirt before. By doing this all the other roses faded away.Kwang placed the rose in the inside of his kimono. Kwang then shunpoed right in front of Zenos. He was close enough to see the evil in his eyes and the calm look that was on his face with every detail. Kwang placed his index finger followed by his pointing finger into Zenos chest. Hadō #4: Byakurai (白雷, White Lightning). A bolt of lighting shot from Kwangs finger. Kwang hoped that this attack would end Zenos for good since it was at such a close range. Kwang didn't want to waste anytime with Zenos because he had other things to attend to today.

[mind was not working,sorry for it being so short XP]