God Yet Lives

*Binah half-turns.*

<What is it, Captain Issan?>
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*She stands up, turning around & firing a tranquilizer into the neck of the man peeing in the corner.*

<That. Anyway, what did you want?>
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"No comment."

*He takes his Zanpakuto out of the sand, whirls around, & stabs the clone with his Hollow hole.*

"Transdifferentiate, Irukandji!"

*Now released, he jabs the clone with all of his tentacles before fucking off. The clone stumbles slowly forward as the 2-handed copy disappears into a Garganta.*

"I was just wanting to ask you what's been going on" Kira explained, landing next to her, "I've felt some strong reiatsu's moving around. Some of them Arrancar. Know anything about this?"

Atsuko rounded a corner and nearly ran straight into Captain Binah.
"I'm sorry!" She stood up straight and bowed deeply, "I wasn't paying full attention to my path..."

"Huh, that works I guess." Mortal said.

--

Atae smiled a bit before extending the newspapers to her. "The Seireitei bulletin came in, and Captain Psyche wasn't here, so I figured I would pass them off to you instead."

*Taiyo swings her lance, sending a paw at the clone.*

Isane<...You really shouldn't be handling these. But thank you all the same.>
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<It's fine. Anyway, I'm told there have been stirrings in Hueco Mundo, but I don't know the specifics.>
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*The paw slashes a large gash into the clone.*

"You didn't feel their presence here in the Sereitei, though?" Kira asked, his eyes narrowing.

Noctis launched a lanza at him while Mortal launched a cero.

*The final clone collapses, dissolving into black Reishi.*

S"He left...that either means he couldn't defeat us...or, more likely, that he had a more pressing arrangement."

E"Excuse me, but what the Hell are you doing here?"

S"'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' as they say."

E"We are not friends."

S"Friends, acquaintances, does it really matter?"

E"Considering this is probably another plan to try to eat us? Yes. Yes it does."
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<I have not detected Senthose himself. Some of the other Arrancar were here, but they were accompanied by Captain Deluge, so I saw no reason to intervene.>

"He's using his garganta and caja negacion to manipulate the flow of space around him. That arrancar's on a whole other level. I'm surprised I was even able to hide my movement to this location. Shit. This is gonna be a fuckin' hassle" sometime between when the fighting commenced and when it ended Yue had managed to sonido and watch the battle observing and looking for weak points in the space/time arrancar's technique.

He didn't find any.

"He might be able to help us. Even if he is the biggest jerk ever."

S"I'm going to be the bigger man & not point out all of the ways your team screwed me over. Such as draining my powers. Or trying to eat me. No, all of that's behind us now. I bear you no ill will. You monsters. In any case, while the rest of you were ogling each other's girly parts, I actually did something useful, & figured out how the Arrancar's ability works."

"Good because I'm stumped. I've gotten the just down but in practice that ain't gonna help much." Yue floated down.

Mortal, Sab and Noctis looked up at Yue, assuming I read everything right. "Who invited this guy?" Mortal asked.

--

Atae shrugged, "I wasn't going to, I was trying to lead the courier to our Captain, but she was away, so the courier left them with me. I thought it best to bring them to you."

S"No one, but you know what, it doesn't matter right now. You know how a Garganta is a hole in space-time, correct? Well, his release allows him to travel through Garganta positioned just slightly apart in time. Hence, the copies. But it either takes a lot of energy or is very difficult to control, or else he would have swarmed us with an army of monuments to his ego. It is my belief that once any incarnation of himself is destroyed, the Reitsu returns to him, and can actually bypass wounds he received in the normal timeline. Such as regrowing an arm."

E"You...you got all of that...from one fight?"

S"Two, actually, but I wrote the book on strategy. Ever heard of a little-known cult classic called the Art of War?"

E"You wrote that?"

S"No. But I COULD have. And that's what really counts, isn't it?"
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Isane<It's fine. Thank you very much. Can I help you with anything else?>

"That's nice, I guess. But we're here about Hollows. Right?"

"No but that's what I thought of his ability too. There might be more than that but for now we can operate under the assumption that those are the parameters of his release. As for my being here, I'm a drifter, I'm here cause this is where the wind's blowin'."

Mortal shook her head, "We've got bigger fish to fry than some hollows. This guy is a danger to everyone, you must realize that."

Noct looked at Senthose, "Well this sucks, he can make three of himself, and if you kill the wrong two the current... real him just gets stronger because of it."

--

Atae shook her head, "No, that was all I had wanted to discuss. If you don't need me for anything I shall take my leave." She said bowing.

*Isane returns the bow.*
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S"No, you're misunderstanding it. They are ALL the original Arrancar, just from different vantage points."

E"Taiyo can report this all when she goes back, but about those Hollows--"

S"Oh, for the love of...the Hollows are all dead! They were after Aamon's samples--"

*He gestures to Euryale & Noctis.*

S"To help them become Arrancar, & so this guy killed them all. Now can we PLEASE move along?"

"Oh? That was easy enough."

"As in he's literally manipulatin' the concept of time and space around him. Kinda like... what do you people who live in the mortal world call it... a VCR. He's pausin', rewindin', fast forwardin', and playin' images of himself in different points creating what appears to be duplicates but are in fact all him in various points in time. Fuckin' tricky bastard..."

"Okay..."

"May I please be excused?" Atsuko asked.

"Yeah, sure" Kira nodded, "You can leave."

As Atsuko ran off back on the way to her barracks, Kira turned to Binah again.
"So where are you headed?"

Mortal looked up at Yue, "We've established this."

--

Atae excuses herself and returns to the squad four barracks to get some sleep.

E"No one uses VCRs any more, & why do you talk like you're from the Southwestern United States?"

S"Yes, yes, mission accomplished, now report back post-haste. The more people who know about this, the less likely he'll be tempted to come back & eliminate witnesses."
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<My office?>

"Its called kansai-ben, fucking shit" Yue floats up, "In any case I'll keep my eye out. Senthose knows how to find me and I can find him if something weird happens."

Noctis let out a small yawn, disinterested and a bit bored.

Mortal looked up at the arrancar, then at Senthose, "So, you guys are best friends now?" She asked with a smile.