Bleach Hereafter RPG

Called forth to approach the Hollow Queen herself, Irisa could tell from the beginning that this was a really bad idea. Right as Nezuel returned to her and instructed her to bow and walk forward, she went down to her knees and kowtowed - while, at the same time, whispering to him:

"When I said "close", I didn't mean this close..!"

But, there was no going back, and so Irisa had to rapidly think of a plan, how to both save her skin and to accomplish the mission she had set out to do here. If Nezuel were to squint, he might notice that as "Trueno" rose back to his feet and slowly walked towards the Hollow Queen, with hands folded behind his back, one of his fingers was twiddling, drawing a small circle in the air, over and over. The Reiatsu behind the Kido spell being cast was being concealed so incredibly well that it went unnoticed a mere few steps away from her.



The Queen was bored. It was one of those days that nothing truly exciting was taking place across anywhere in Hueco Mundo. Even frying an Adjucha for speaking out of turn only excited her for a brief instant, before the same dull monotone receded over Las Noches. At first glance, it did not seem like Nezuel and his progeny were going to provide anything interesting, either. Perhaps she could make the little Arrancar dance like a puppet, if this progeny doesn't show any potential. That could be amusing.

As "Trueno" approached, however, her glare at the man... changed. Briefly, the Hollow Queen squinted. This couldn't be right, could it? This wasn't a real Arrancar.

"Hm..." she briefly murmured, raising her cheek off her hand and staring at Irisa straight - then, having suddenly realized what was taking place, she rose to her feet. Fighting against all instincts to fight or flight, Irisa stopped in place, knowing that any wrong movements could get her plastered across the nearest wall. "Whaat are you doing here?"

The Queen booped "Trueno" on the nose - the guise shattered instantly, and Irisa's Arrancar form dissolved, revealing the short blonde Shinigami, to the shock, terror and fury of the entire Hollow court. Weapons were being drawn one after another, suppressed Reiatsu wells were being released, so dense that it was getting sickening.

For a second, Irisa stood there, dumbfounded. "Um..."

The air was sickeningly thick with Hollow Reiatsu. Numerous unbelievably powerful Arrancar, several of the Queen's Exequias, and even a few of the Espada were present, each one immediately going on guard at the sight of a Shinigami in the heart of Las Noches. Weaker Hollows and Arrancar immediately began to struggle against the pressure, and the more of them activated their auras, the more of the weaklings would collapse to the floor, some even unconscious.

Irisa remained standing, staring at the devilishly smirking Hollow Queen in shock, and only snapped out of it when Nezuel's voice suddenly reached her from the side. The little Arrancar was on the floor, crushed by the weight of the surrounding pressures, and yet managed to somehow pull himself to her side and forced out a story to try to cover for Irisa. The mention of entertainment briefly caught the Queen's attention, and she turned her eyes to the Shinigami, awaiting her explanation.

Against all odds, knowing that he was just as likely to get erased as that Adjucha a moment ago, Nezuel still covered for her, granting her an opportunity. For a Hollow, an inherently selfish race, that was quite brave. Irisa immediately took the opportunity and began with as much confidence as she could muster:

"I apologize for the intrusion, all-powerful ruler of the Hollows. My name is Irisa Ishiwara, and I am an unseated member of the First Division," Irisa would then make a bow. Quickly, her mind started crafting a believable story for her presence here. "My Captain has sent me here to gauge just how powerful your legions have gotten, and so I would like to offer you a challenge. If I, a common Shinigami, can defeat your strongest selected warriors, then you will allow me and Nezuel to depart without any harm."

All this time, Irisa worked off the assumption that the Hollow Queen would be childish and easy to attract with promises of bouts and challenges. For a second, however, it didn't seem like that was the case. The blue, multi-armed empress of Hueco Mundo stared at Irisa with a frown, her eyes boring into the Shinigami's soul. "...You have a lot of nerve breaking into Las Noches itself, where I have eyes and ears everywhere, approach me directly, and demand me a duel with my strongest warriors."

After a pause, she struck an impish smile. "...I like that. You're brave." Murmurs broke out among the Hollow court assembled in the Hall - even if extremely muted. The Queen's decision was shocking and unexpected, and yet, none would dare to question her supreme authority.

She raised her hand and lifted its index finger. Chains would suddenly snap on Nezuel's arms and legs, forged out of the Queen's own Reiatsu and seeking to restrain him. The area around them suddenly changed. The hall stretched to the sides and a massive arena spawned in the center, Irisa stood there alone, while the hundreds of assembled Hollows became spectators, watching the ring from everywhich side.

It was the Negal Arena, generally reserved for challenges for Espada ranks.



"I will accept your challenge, Irisa Ishiwara. If you have come here to prove that Soul Society remains mightier than my Legions, then I shall grant you the opportunity," the Hollow Queen announced from her section - there, watching the arena from her throne, she was surrounded by the Exequias, Espada. Nezuel, once chained, would be held there as well. "But, if you lose, then you shall never escape Las Noches - your soul will be tortured here forever, and your traitor friend will be executed at once."

Irisa stood in the center of the arena, staring at the expanse above - the hundreds of judging eyes, watching her and waiting to see what spurred this Shinigami's confidence. Briefly considering the possible consequences and taking a breath to calm herself down, Irisa exclaimed:

"I accept these terms!"

"Primera, send the strongest of your Fracciónes."

The Primera Espada, Nakis Pardina, rose to his feet as soon as he heard his Queen's call. He had been watching the scene between Nezuel, Irisa and the Queen with a disinterested expression, and this hardly made him show more enthusiasm. He stepped forward in the Queen's lounge and raised his hand without a single word, immediately ordering several of his strongest subordinates to the ring.

One Arrancar leapt onto the ring, followed by a second, third and fourth. Brandishing their Zanpakutos, they surrounded Irisa from all four cardinal directions, each one keeping their distance for now, but waiting for any moment to strike.

Nakis briefly sighed. "Tell me, whelp..." he muttered and turned to Nezuel. "...how confident are you in her?"

Nezuel's sudden encouraging yell drowned out the chatter in the rest of the Arena, if briefly, and got the attention of numerous Arrancar and Hollows, even the Queen herself. Seeing his question be answered with such confidence, Nakis did not bother pressing the Privaron any further - he folded his arms and turned to the arena. A few of his Fracciones arrived next to him, standing guard.

Across the rest of the Arena, the encouragement to Irisa was followed with even more yells and howling. Seeing one of their kin encourage a Shinigami, the sworn enemy of Las Noches, got dozens to shout demands of beating her to a pulp and eviscerating her. Nakis' Fracciones briefly enjoyed the scene, before turning their attention back towards the diminutive Shinigami.

"Well, guess we can't put this off any longer. Time to beat down a little girl," one of the Fracciones, with golden hair and a rogue's hat, commented as she twirled the Zanpakuto in her hand. Her comrade with a gray slitted mask immediately interjected:

"Don't drop your guard down, however. The Shinigami are conniving and mischievous. She might be a portal for her superiors to travel to this dimension and surprise us."

"An unseated Shinigami?" the other Fraccion, with a robotic-like appearance, shot down his ally. "Those do not have the brain or guts for such strategies. We have killed Shinigami goons by the dozens, they are fragile. Pathetic, even."

"Yeah..." Irisa muttered, putting the conversation between the Arrancar to a pause. She reached behind her back, slowly pulling out her Nodachi and resting it in her hands. Much like she had guessed, these Fracciones could put even seated Shinigami to shame. The most powerful underlings of the most powerful Espada, they could individually give a Vice-Captain some serious trouble. "It's terrifying, for a lowly Shinigami, to meet one like you. Academies cannot possibly prepare you for a duel against the most elite of the elite of Las Noches... I would know. My first duel against the likes of you, so many centuries ago, might have been the last, had Sensei not convinced me to remain a Shinigami."

Though the Fracciones surrounding her were more confused by her speech than anything, it didn't really matter to her, and she struck a smirk. "But that's in the past, and bygones are bygones. I've found peace with myself, and through this peace, I've found the strength I thought I'd never achieve. You... are the unlucky crew who will get to experience it."

"What is she-"

In one, sudden motion, Irisa raised her Zanpakuto upwards. "BANKAI!"

An enormous burst of Reiatsu crashed down like a thunder upon the Arena, forcing each of the four Fracciones back and bringing the spectators to complete silence. It caught Nakis' and even the Queen's attention, while the average Arrancar and Hollows were taken aback by the shocking, enormous release of power.



The Reiatsu burst settled, revealing Irisa's new, more ominous appearance. Her Zanpakuto, formerly a nodachi, assumed its true appearance - a witch's broom, held confidently with one hand. Her Shinigami uniform was replaced with a black dress, the hat omnipresent on her head no matter where she'd go was replaced with a sharp leather hat, no longer resembling a witch's apparel. A cloak ran from her shoulders, black leather from behind, partially transparent Reiatsu from the front, leaving a constant trail of particles around her.

"That pow-" the white-masked Fraccion was the first to begin speaking, and so the first to invite the released Irisa's offensive. Faster than even he could react, the Shinigami appeared in front of him with the butt end of the broom already struck into his chest. Hundreds of phantom strikes would follow, barraging the Arrancar and blasting him to the very corner of the arena.

"Heart Sigil: Shihobarai," Irisa invoked the name of her Bankai, and lowered her weapon, turning her eyes to the other three Arrancars. Having realized they were not dealing with the average Shinigami anymore, each of them began going all-out, activating their Resurreccions and so ditching their weapons. Yet again, bursts of Reiatsu roared to life around the battlefield - however, they did not frighten Irisa much. Colorful orbs of energy sprung to life around her, each one carrying stored Kido spells and ready to fire.

Infuriated by the Shinigami and her traitor friend's intrasingience at first, the Arrancars watching were growing excited for the fight - today was a slow court in the Queen's court and this battle was sure to provide some excellent entertainment. The Queen herself, though concerned at the fate of her Arena with so much power being thrown around, shared their sentiment, briefly giggling, folding her hands and awaiting any other techniques of interest this mysterious Shinigami could bring to the table.

Only Nakis did not seem to be enjoying himself. He and the rest of his Fracciones were still standing next to Nezuel, and, silently, the Espada's underlings would begin charging Ceros in front of their fingertips, clearly aimed at the ring.

(Purification of the Four Directions)

The three remaining Arrancar launched themselves at Irisa, each one unleashing their own unique powers - bursts of electricity, whips or fire, or simply enormous physical strength. The battle began on seemingly equal ground at first - Irisa would step back, blocking any incoming attacks with the broom in her hand, and unleash a salvo of spells from her floating orbs. Such a dance continued for a few rounds across the battlefield. From an outsider's perspective, it might even seem like Irisa was on the back foot - she had to back away from the Fracciones, only engaging them in brief clashes before leaping back and casting another spell. A trained eye would quickly tell that this was not the case, however. She was hardly exerting herself, which was not what could be said about her opponents.

Very quickly, in a matter of seconds, their movements began to slow. Several poisons and internal wounds seeped across their bloodstreams, their souls themselves were being eroded at by Kido that ate into their very being, sapping their strength and their will to fight. What was worse, however, was that this shift was completely insidious. All those weak blasts of Reishi that the Arrancars deflected away were far more than diversions...

"She's got a lot of power, but I'm guessing she's very fragile with how she keeps running away... How long... have we been fighting, now? Feels like we've been chasing after her the whole day..." the muscular, glass-wearing Arrancar gushed out, in between heavy breaths, firing off a Cero at Irisa, only to have it be deflected to the side by a broom slap.

"I think... it's still been less than a minute..." his comrade, the blonde lady, answered him, getting him to yell:

"What?!" Furious, he roared, letting out a Reishi burst, and charged right at Irisa with full force. "That's bullshit!"

This time, Irisa remained standing in place, and moved to a simple defensive posture. He's been weakened enough. One of the star orbs surrounding her began to glow, casting one of the most powerful Kido spells she had stored in advance. Time itself began to slow, before coming to a full halt for everyone except for Irisa - and moments before the massive charging Arrancar crashed into her. So, she thrust her broom forward, and struck.

From the perspective of the arena, it would seem like the Fraccion suddenly halted, barraged by a thousand strikes that came out of nowhere, and then collapsed to the ground, lifeless. And Irisa did not even need to move an inch to take him down.

With a faint smirk, she rest her broom on her shoulder, then glanced over to the remaining trio. The robotic-looking Fraccion was to first to get the hint that maaaybe they bit more than they can chew, weakly stepping back and dropping his guard. Irisa's eyes focused on him.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I hate doing this. The more I read into the knowledge of Soul Society, mundane or obscure, acceptable or forbidden, the more I learned to cherish the simple life I lived in the past. I want to be the harmless academy teacher, a sensei to a generation of Shinigami better than her, in awe at the accomplishments of her students... I don't want to be the one who goes out and fights her pupils' battles. This is the first time I've had to use my Bankai in... many years, and even then, it is my last resort."

"That's... that's cowardly of you..." the stone-faced Arrancar gushed out, with a slightly trembling voice. This got Irisa to turn straight to him, staring him down with a blank expression. "To be afraid of using your strength... and yet you came here claiming to be a superior warrior to us?"

Around this time, to Irisa's ignorance, the remaining Fracciones of the Primera Espada began charging their Ceros, ready to surprise her with an attack she would have no time to avoid, and so fry her in the middle of battle. The Shinigami herself was focused on something else.

Suddenly, the Arrancar in front of her clutched to his heart and collapsed to his knee, surprising not only the audience, but his remaining comrades.

"Heart Sigil, my Zanpakuto, grants me the ability to store Kido spells in orbs around my body, preparing them for future use and ensuring I come prepared for any battle," Irisa began explaining with a blank stare, watching the Arrancar grunt and yell in pain. "Shihobarai, Purification of the Four Directions, allows me to do that too... but goes a step beyond. Kido, in a way, is merely a specific configuration of Reishi particles, accomplishing some purpose... and my Bankai allows me store my Reishi anywhere. Even breach your skin and enter your body, against your will. And the truth about bodies is that they're weak, frail. Store too much Reishi in them, without giving it a path to vent out... and you will be burned from the inside out."

Right on cue, light was starting to filter out from inside of the Arrancar's body, through his mouth, eyes and pores.

"In brief. I can induce your death. In a way that you can't even fight against. That is what I'm afraid of. That is why I want to be a mere, ordinary, friendly Kido teacher. Because I don't want to be someone known for doing this."

She did not get a chance to finish off her technique, however. Suddenly, her grip over the Fraccion ceased, and light stopped filtering from within his body. With shock, Irisa turned to the spectator lounges. Nezuel had made himself known, using a last resort spell to divert several Ceros from targeting her, and lunged right into the path of the last one, getting blasted by the powerful technique and falling down.

"Nez!" She yelled for her peer. The Queen was cheating? Briefly, Irisa considered calling this out, and demanding the match be paused, even though she immediately realized that this was going to be a fool's bargain. The Queen does whatever she wants in Las Noches, and if giving her warriors outside help amuses her, she wasn't going to back down from it. And yet, even then, it was already too late.

Because even a second of hesitation was enough for the remaining Fracciones to deal the blow they needed.

"DIE!" the blonde Arrancar cried out as soon as she got over the terror of witnessing Irisa's Bankai's signature technique, and swung down a summoned sword at the Shinigami.

It sliced right through her, rather brutally cleaving her torso in half, from the right shoulder to left hip.

Witnessing the execution of Irisa on the stage, the Primera Espada folded his arms behind his back, sighed and turned towards his Queen. "My apologies, my Queen, it appears that my Fracciones did not comprehend the full extent of their power," he explained, searching for a way to reason how this Bankai-wielding Shinigami was slain in one blow. That did not quite make sense to him, and while Nakis did suspect that something was amiss, he did not have enough proof to be certain of what happened for sure.

He expected the Queen to be furious, for the death of a Shinigami she was expecting to turn into a vessel for torture. Perhaps he would not receive an execution for this, but his underlings would certainly have to answer for going too far. To Nakis' surprise, however, the Hollow Queen did not seem affected.

Her hands were still folded together, and she was watching the arena intently. Once addressed, she briefly glanced towards her strongest Espada, smirked, and answered:

"Oh, the battle is not over, little boy. Wait and see."

The Fracciones in the arena, meanwhile, were witnessing the appearance of something... worrying. Irisa's apparent death sparked something in Nezuel, and a figure arose from the blood stained sand, bearing a Reiatsu similar to the Arrancar, yet seemingly more powerful. After deriding the corpse at its feet, the creature turned to the other Arrancars - it was yearning for battle, apparently using the original Nezuel as a remote vessel, summoned by him. A burst of unbelievable destruction followed. Spears of blood constructs fired, easily cutting down the Fracciones and tearing them apart - even dodging the attacks and trying to escape wasn't going to help, a construct of blood trapped the fleeing blonde woman and spears cut her apart with ease.

Not content with just eliminating the Fracciones, the creature turned to the rest of the arena, unleashing a Cero salvo which struck the lounges of the spectators, forcing the numerous Hollows to step back, or activate their own transformations. A dome summoned around the arena made sure that no one was able to just escape, aside from teleportation - not uncommon among the Arrancar ranks, but also not universal

"Eheh, what a beautiful show!" The Hollow Queen was ecstatic - it was rare for her to witness an Arrancar once deemed worthless reveal the full extent of their powers. The pleasant surprise even got her to extend a brief kindness to Nezuel - at the flick of her fingers, the restraints on his limbs snapped off and disintegrated, setting him free. After the initial amusement, her face soured again. "Nakis, kill the traitor."

The Espada did not say anything, merely leapt down to the arena, past the whizzing Cero blasts which were tearing through the spectators. One of the Ceros actually almost struck him in the shoulder, only to instantly whizzle to nothingness from Nakis' Reiatsu pressure alone.

"I should inform you that the Queen doesn't like it when her property is being destroyed," the Espada spoke in a calm, emotionless voice, then clenched his fist - with a single Reishi burst, the blood dome surrounding the arena cracked and broke apart. And that was before Nakis had even drawn his Zanpakuto - to no one's surprise, the greatest of the Espada was an unbelievably powerful force. And he was about to put that force to full use.



Everything suddenly took a tint of gray. The numerous Hollows and Arrancars froze in place, even the Espada was still locked in the same fist-clenching stance he made when breaking the blood construct dome apart. It was a time stop technique, and though it could only last a few seconds, it was more than enough to bring an end to the fight.

Someone swiped Nezuel by the collar, and grabbed the creature spawned from his blood, as well. With both of them in tow, it vanished into nothingness, before finally allowing time to pass as normal again.

In the blink of an eye, the arena within Las Noches was replaced by a pleasant, colorful meadow somewhere in the World of the Living, where the Arrancar would immediately be released to.

"...so, then," Irisa's voice suddenly called out from behind Nez and the creature, she was still in her Bankai, and in one piece. "Mind explaining to me what you were saying about me back there?"

The fact that Nezuel cared so deeply about Irisa that he even broke through the limits of his power in grief of her may have been a little touching, if this wasn't what the Arrancar created in the aftermath. A loud-mouthed, cocky creature with venomous speech, lacking any filter while he described how she gaslit and manipulated him into working for her, and how humiliating, though effective it was.

If it had just walked away, Irisa may have just considered letting it go. For a little while, at least. The rest of the Gotei 13 would love hearing about an Arrancar they can purify, wandering in the World of the Living, after all. But her demeanor changed when the creature described his plans in detail. Having yearned to escape and take control for so long, now, it was not going to miss the opportunity for a rampage - the Arrancars and Hollows in Las Noches who got pulverized did not satiate his thirst, apparently, so he wanted to lash out against innocent humans, too.

So, that put him on an immediate track of conflict with her, and the creature knew that. While Irisa was still watching the speech he had concoted from the bottom of his heart, he summoned a blade from his own blood and swung down at the Shinigami. He's swung the first strike. Now, it was simple self-defense.

"I see, now," Irisa muttered. The index and middle fingers of her left hand suddenly caught the edge of the blade, holding it tightly. The strength with which she was clasping the weapon was comparable to a Shinigami Captain, if not more. "This friendship has led to more complications than I could have assumed from the beginning."

She sighed. A brief gust of wind picked up across the meadow. Several flower petals gently flew past them. Irisa's eyes suddenly locked straight at "Nezuel's".

"There are two ways we can resolve this, and as you are clearly now a free man, unbeholden to anyone, you have the freedom to choose," Irisa continued. Her tone changed to a cold-blooded monotone. "You can immediately surrender, return back to where you came from and allow Nezuel control over his body again, with no illusions, trickery or shenanigans. Or..." Since this creature clearly held Nezuel's memories, he must also be aware of what Irisa had been teaching the unfortunate Fracciones of the Primera Espada a minute prior to her "death". And he must still be able to tell that Irisa was still in her Bankai. "...I can inflict you with far more than just impaling and heartbreak. A thousand deaths, all at once, with a technique that ensures there is no afterlife, there is no paradise, no resurrection. You cease existing, but not after the worst torture imaginable."



"The choice is yours."

The threat of death inducement did not appear to frighten the transformation that had taken over Nezuel - he was certain that his own abilities and the thousands of souls stored in his body would be able to cancel the technique. In fact, he was confident enough that victory appeared certain to him. He will take the body of this poor Arrancar, and wield it to defeat a Bankai.

Irisa sighed, and lowered the hand with which she had caught the sword of blood moments prior. She couldn't lie - the Resurreccion was definitely powerful. It put Nezuel in a far different league from what he originally was, and if this was still not the limit of his strength, then it was quite impressive. Perhaps, in not even that long of a time, he could become a really powerful Arrancar in his own right.

Still, this did not shake the Shinigami's discipline.

"Well, then I suppose I will have to beat you fair and square," Irisa responded to the confidence, spreading her arms out and making a brief shrug.

However, it was not Irisa who finally managed to subdue this creature. Working from the inside out, Nezuel subverted him and, suddenly, forced him to attack himself. The Cero which was intended to fire at Irisa suddenly struck him himself, and the blade in his hands pierced into his chest. Once he collapsed to the ground, the blood constructs began to vanish, and the small, harmless looking Nezuel from before was left lying on the ground.

So... a happy ending. At least.

Irisa looked down upon the Arrancar on the ground, her eyes glaring at him while he was crying and apologizing for what happened.

"Don't be. You have done nothing wrong," she spoke up after Nezuel affirmed that he was sorry, several times. "You helped me until the very end of the match, you killed Arrancars - who deserve that fate - and you managed to regain control when you realized that you might be going too far. There is nothing for you to be sorry about."

That was her image of the events, at least. Still with her expressionless glare, Irisa turned around and stepped away.

"One of the two spells I cast while approaching the Hollow Queen remotely mapped the entire internal structure of Las Noches to Seireitei. Now, the Gotei 13 will have a way to always know what is happening inside the fortress, at any given time. That was the mission handed to me by my Captain, and it's been fulfilled," She turned her eyes towards Nezuel, over her shoulder, still expressionless. "I have nothing more I need from you."