Viva La Puella Magia (Arc)

She wasn't dust of course, the trajectory of the spears were adjusted so that she would only be in the peripheral of the explosion. However, all Kano could do now was to lie in a pathetic heap on the ground as blood oozed freely out of the two holes the man had made in her abdomen. Her hair was disheveled and her ribbons long gone. Her shinigami uniform was tattered and scorched. Pathetic, indeed.

Batted and worn, as well as having no more reiatsu to spare, the mysterious man had won this fight, if he survived that is. There was not much of a resistance left in her anymore to go against him.

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"Que maravilla...un Capitan tan joven tiene tanto poder."

Kano felt her insides grow cold. So he survived after all. It would seem that Division Nine is doomed to fall this very day.

What splendor, the young Captain was still in one piece...albeit bleeding heavily. As he walks towards her, his grin turns to a smile. "My, my. Look at you. Poor thing. Tell me, what's your name? Well...if you can still speak."

"Ka- no...Uyu..."

She could not finish. She was too messed up for that and it was painful to even breathe.

All she could manage was to look up at the man with her eyes. Oh, what a pathetic sight for sore eyes she is currently. If Fuda and Kinon were to see her like this from wherever they are in heaven, they would most certainly laugh.

Well, she was about to join them anyway, so she will be able to know.

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"Ka- no...Uyu..."

He smiles. "Kano, huh? Un nombre bello." (A beautiful name.) He looks at his surroundings, nothing of concern catching his attention. He looks back down and sheathes his blade. His orders were to kill any on sight. Well, fuck orders. He did what he wanted. He kneels and picks up the deathly Captain. She would be his and no one else would stop him. But she needed mending...he calls out "Ghosink." A telepathic connection between him and Inirisu Garen opens. "Hey kiddo, meet me there as soon as possible."

And then he was gone in flash step, taking Kano with him.

Ennremmen had detected the spikes in reiatsu at that place from some distance away, the level of smiting that was going on distracting him from his relatively plodding shunpo and causing him to break into his top speed, which considering that shunpo is one of the skills he focuses on, is quite fast. He doesn't really like going all out as far as speed goes, but considering that it seems that the kidou captain was fighting someone at kidou and losing? not good at all. He arrives at the scene only moments after the pair depart, biting his lip for a moment and considering his options. One wounded, but their squadmates were already moving to find out what it is. Newly appointed fukutaicho, strategic worth low enough... the captain is worth more. He turns, kicking off from the ground and taking off after the fleeing figure. Whether he or another pursuer would catch up first is unknown, but he would make the attempt anyway.

"OI!"

"YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!!!"

A spectacled girl stepped out from the rubble, picking dust off herself. Erika is just covered in dirt, but otherwise okay. She was however looking at the back of the captain that was running away with a very pissed off look on her face.

"YOU SEE A GROUP OF PEOPLE INJURED AND RUN AWAY?" Erika pointed to the unconscious girl besides her. Who is that, by the way? Big... boobies...

"YOU CALL YOURSELF A CAPTAIN?"

He's about to leave, until he gets yelled at by some girl... Pissed at him for leaving the Leutenant there. He stops, looking her up and down levelly. "Shinigami, I am merely following the most logical course of action. That lieutenant has plenty of other shinigami around who would be able to help him, and I have very little ability to heal myself. The captain who was just kidnapped here, on the other hand, can claim no such thing, and is more tactically valuable than the lieutenant. Though now, since your interruption, there seems to be a large reiatsu source which should intercept it soon enough, so my intervention is no longer necessary. And yes, yes I do, because I am capable of making decisions exactly like that one."

She's disrespecting you, L. You should punish her for that.
Mao, when I want your advice, I'll ask. For now, shut up. I'm not going to attack a fellow shinigami just to feed you a bit.
You need to show her her place. She has no right to speak down to you like that.
True as that might be, she has a point, emotionally speaking.

"The captain who was just kidnapped here..." Erika repeated, not exactly getting what Ennremmen was saying. "Who?"

"And judging people via their tactical value is bull! How would you feel if you are cannon fodder and people leave you to rot?" She argued. "At least you have a better shunpo than me to bring her to the 4th squad."

His eyebrow raises a fraction of a centimeter at her words, before he speaks quietly, looking at her. "We are a military. That is exactly what we are supposed to do in situations like this. And if that happened, then I would be dead, and there would be no reason to be thinking about anything. And the captain would be Taicho Kano Uyusei, by her reiatsu signiture. I'm surprised you can't sense it, there's enough in the air around here..."

"That is because I was buried under rock and am so pissed of at you!" Erika shrieked at the captain. "Wait... what?"

"Uyusei taicho? Kidnapped?" Her voice is full of disbelief.

The man was right, the air is full of reiatsu residue from the female kido captain. How could she have not notice it before? And she just prevented this guy from going after the perpetrator because she was all worked up.

The horror.

"Oh my god... I'm... sorry."

He looks down at her then, shrugging. "Eh, fuck it. They'll be able to take care of him. And probably get her together better than me, I basically have to rely on standard methods... eh. So I'll help with your passed out giga-tits. and the... the rubble. the RUBBLE. Hell... well, at least we'll have something to do... Alright. Guess first part would be cleaning up the rubble... see if anyone else is trapped. Stand back, 'cuz I wouldn't want to hit you with any of this."
He silently draws his zanpakuto, holding it blade down in front of him. "Itame, Maō." The sword moves in his hand, changing until he is holding its scythe form. This he plants into the ground, and begins to manipulate its power, creating hands and tendrils of reiatsu to collect and manipulate the rubble to move it out of the way, attempting to free up anyone pinned under it. "Get to work finding the ones still alive while I stitch up those that need it..." holding back the crazy while in shikai is pretty hard, so his voice sounds a bit strained. Nothing like when he's in bankai though. then he's just nuckin' futz.

"H-hai!" Erika saluted, before scrambling back across the rubble to do with exactly what the thirteenth captain had ordered.

However, her heart was not into it. Her beloved taicho, captured in the hands of sinister people, how could she concentrate when her idol is suffering? Kicking a rock in frustration, Erika resigned herself to the fate that she would never be strong enough to mount a rescue all on her own.

The knight in shining armor will have to be someone else. Judging from what Ennrenmen had said, there seemed to be exactly someone else doing the rescuing...

"Hey, relax, she'll be fine. Have faith in your fellow shinigami, eh?" He places the rubble off in an open space, sorting it by size and such nearly automatically before striding into where it hand fallen and getting to work. He'd start with the Fukutaicho. Her wounds were pretty severe, and it's a wonder she managed to keep in combat long enough to get all of them. He crouches down next to her, gripping his scythe. "Alright..." Threads of strange matter begin to form around him, weaving themselves through Fuuna's wounds. If she'd been concious, it would have hurt like a bitch. Lucky she isn't. It would keep the bleeding down and if the fourth took long enough it might heal enough to scar over, but... it wouldn't heal as well as an actual healing technique. He stands, turning again to walk to the next, and the next, helping where he's needed to stabilize those that most need it.

"So who the hell are you?"

Time to take names, and stalk them. This captain seems quite new. He would make a good target to observe for a full day one day, if they could both survive this war.

That is currently in motion. Erika could detect a convoluted mess of shitload of reiatsu pulsing from the fifth division that she did not even want to think about what is going on there. Deaths probably, fights probably, perhaps even mindless slaughter of the division's cannon fodder like her.

"Why are you not... there?" She finally managed to bring herself to ask.

He looks over at her from above the current unlucky bastard getting himself stitched up. "Thirteenth Division Taicho Ennremmen. No last name, can't remember it. That one's actually a nickname, don't remember the first one either." He could sense it as well as her, the fights going on across the seireitei, and takes a few minutes to get his thoughts together before he answers her second question, letting out a small breath. "Because as things were, I was unsure which side would be more in line with my own beliefs, and thus abstained from fighting. It's odd though, something strange seems to have happened, though I can't tell what."

"You don't say." Erika spoke with a flat tone, just in time as a giant blast of reiatsu the size of an atomic bomb blew up the entirety of the fifth. As a strong gale of after-wind swept her hair backwards in the explosion's wake Erika turned back to Enn.

"I can't stay here and do nothing anymore. I will go get help." Which of course, the captain himself shunpoing to the fourth and grabbing some fourth division members would do the job just nicely, but since he doesn't seems to want to (or occupied) Erika guess she will have to do things herself.

Indeed, depending on oneself is always the most reliable course of action.

Just as she decides to run off, Enn finishes doing what he can about the rest of the downed Shinigami. They'd last until help could get here. "Wait up, girlie. You stay here and keep an eye on them. I'll go to the fourth, I can get there faster now that everyone's stabilized. The stitches should hold while I get over there and get us a healer. See what you can do for those who are relatively less wounded, okay?" He makes sure she heard him, and then sets off himself at top speed toward the fourth division, the fact that he moves in the fastest way possible to reach it causing him to only see the periphery of the fifth division business... he'd have to head over there in earnest later, even if he could only actually help through some ridiculous streak of luck. Upon arriving at the fourth division, he'd get together some healers to get their asses to the ninth and help out, as well as make sure that people are on standby for those who will unavoidably become injured.

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"Wait up, girlie. You stay here and keep an eye on them. I'll go to the fourth, I can get there faster now that everyone's stabilized. The stitches should hold while I get over there and get us ahealer. See what you can do for those who are relatively less wounded, okay?"

Huh?
Oh.

So in the end, even her wish to help is useless. Maybe the captain was right after all, tactical worth really is all that matters in a war. And her tactical worth should be near zero if it is not already.

Erika sighed, kicking another rock in frustration. Her hand unconsciously moved to rest itself at her zanpakuto's hilt.

"How many ordinary people must die so that those of power could get their blood-lust fill?"

Petty struggles, pointless wars, inconsequential conflicts. In the end, nobody wins, not the one who started it for their misguided beliefs. Not the one who valiantly defend their wounded ego, nor the one seeking an endless cycle of childish vengeance.

Erika stood still for a whole full minute before she ran off, disregarding the orders of the captain. They don't need her here. She is much better off offering her meagre help elsewhere.

"Too many."

The words would be offered before he left, a small consolation, a gesture toward her that he did, in face, have a heart, despite the appearance of earlier. She'd not be here when he returns, so he would not be able to speak to her again, though he could find her if he really wanted... maybe some other time, when he's less tired.

Only a scarce few minutes later, Enn would return, using a bit of kidou to tow a group of fourth squadders behind him, immediately setting them to gathering the injured, getting them readied to move, and then carrying them off to the fourth division for more intensive treatment. Enn then begins heading out of the division, looking for somewhere he can help... unless he reaches the thirteenth division first. Some time later, he would sense the explosions, and the battle starting, and head toward one in particular...