Twilight of the Gods

Astarte followed after Lilith.

Mortal was going to chase after him as well, then stopped, "First off, fuck these trees, they can grow back. Secondly, I wasn't going to in the first place." She then flew down after him as well.

Noct popped out of a tree, and launched a lanza at Ginjo.

"These trees have souls, loving souls that give you oxygen!"

*Ginjo narrowly dodges the lanza & fired a copylanza into the ground, angled towards Mortal, to take advantage of the explosion. His feet sink into the ground & Euryale crashes down next to him, punching a hole in his armor. Lilith slashes downward with her Zanpakuto from his other side.*

Astarte stood in the air at the level of Ginjo's head and used Sonido to fly over him, swinging her scythe down to cut into his head.

Mortal tanks the explosion, bleeding from a cut in her scalp, and runs Ginjo through with her zan. Noct joins in on the gangstab by popping out up to her waist from between Euryale's legs, and stabbing into his gut with a lanza.

*Ginjo pries his feet out of the ground & ducks under Astarte's slash. Mortal's Zanpakuto scrapes into his ribs, he growls, slashes down at her shoulder &, clearly not giving a damn about the trees, fires an Aliento Rugir del Fuego del Gran Lagarto Cero. His wings flicker, becoming elongated, zig-zagged, & frayed. The purple gas from his Zanpakuto builds up behind him. Lilith fires a Cero into him from behind, which blows off his armor & causes the wings to dissolve.*

Astarte dropped down to the ground and span around to face Ginjo once again, firing lightning from her hands, wings and eyes towards him.

Noct fires a cero at his face, while Mortal brings her sword up to block the blade. She then surrounded herself in scales, to tank the blast. When the dust settles and the scales fall away she is regrowing her left arm, and swinging down at Ginjo with an Aliento Rugir del Fuego del Gran Lagarto Cero of her own, mighty mad.

*Ginjo staggers back, a gash down his cheek, a few large gashes on his chest & torso, & burns accompanying each. His wounds are resealing, but slowly. When he slashes with his own fancypantscero to block Mortal's, his blade snaps. Roaring, he sends pulses of red lightning out of his body in all directions, grabs the sword by its central hilt & steps forward, trying to jam the hilt spike into Mortal's neck.*

Astarte used Sonido to dash towards Ginjo with the intention to stop him. Her own lightning was insufficient to block all of Ginjo's attacks, however, and she was struck several times. She had almost fallen and had dropped her scythe by the time she reached Ginjo and was now aiming to simply fly into him and send him staggering.

Mortal hefted her blade and swung horizontally, intending to knock his blade aside, as well as cleave his shoulders up from the rest of his body. Noct had bringer lighted into the air, trying to avoid getting zapped to shit like Astarte was.

OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJ91H4mraU

<Why?>

*What's left of Ginjo's sword goes spinning off into the bushes. Euryale joins Noctis, & Ginjo glances upwards at them.*

<I wanted to kill all of the Soul Reapers who betrayed me. I expected you to argue that it was wrong. But you aren't even doing that. Why won't you?>

*Astarte's blind dash causes Ginjo to fall onto Mortal's blade.*

<Is it because you want revenge on me?>

*Ginjo peels himself off. After slapping away Mortal's blade with an electrified hand, he grabs her throat, weakly trying to choke her.*

<For what?! It was Hollows who killed your families! Your Captains! And you, Hollows! It's Soul Reapers who hunt you like animals! I have nothing against any of you! So why do you work together, as if to spite me?! Why don't you tear each other apart?! Why...do you not want revenge at all?>

*He then falls to his knees. Trying to get up, he falls on his back. He stares blankly at Noctale as the Hollowfication fades from his eyes.*

<...If you had...been first, would you have...turned out like me? If...if you had come first...do you think...that we would have...been...?>

*He coughs up blood & speaks no more. Mortal hears someone running towards her. Should she turn around, she'll find that Atae is behind her, with no idea of how she got there. Her chest momentarily opens like a door, spitting out Riruka, who takes a slash to the clavicle by Tsukishima. Tsukishima's breathing is ragged, his chest & mouth bleeding profusely.*

Riruka<You moron! This isn't the kind of cut that modifies people's pasts! It's the kind that kills people!>

*Tsukishima pulls his blade out of her, grabs her shoulder, & tosses her aside. He barrels past Mortal, leaving Riruka crumpled on the ground.*

Tsukishima<Get out of the way! Ginjo! We can't let Ginjo die! Don't die, Ginjo! Don't-->

Riruka<You can't save him! He's...already dead.>

*Tsukishima stops dead in his tracks & drops Book of the End, which reverts back to a bookmark. Abandoning all sense of dignity, he falls to his knees in front of Ginjo, starts tearing into his own hair, & sobs like a baby.*

Tsukishima<No! Nooo! You weren't supposed to die! What am I supposed to do without you?! You didn't...you never leaf any instructions, on what to do if you ever died!>

Astarte had fallen to the ground and was now sitting up on her knees and watching Tsukishima mourn. Since he had not yet been eliminated from her past, she still felt some pain for him and took a ragged breath.
"I'm sorry," She whispered in a voice which only she could hear. Her intent to kill was spent.

Noct looks at Euryale and holds her hand, letting out a sigh of relief. "We're done... Finally."

Mortal looked at Tsuki and balled her fist, but even still, she couldn't bring herself to attack. He was pitiable, and it stayed Mortal's hand. She looked skyward then let out a long sigh, feeling herself relax. Bringing her sight back down to ground level she rushed towards Astarte, and dropped out of her release. She dropped to her knees, and wrapped her arms around her, "It is over, everything is going to be alright now."

Astarte seemed shocked for a moment before relaxing into the hug and returning it. She too reverted to her sealed form, but even this could not suppress how relieved and happy she felt.

Moe<Yeah, like they said, Mr. Tsukishima. Don't sweat it!>

*Tsukishima looks shocked to see him coming through the bushes, a smug grin on his face.*

Tsukishima<Shishi...what are you?>

Moe<I thought about it a lot, but you know, I just couldn't leave you behind! You are the greatest, after all! It's a shame about what happened to Mr. Ginjo, though.>

*Tsukishima is still bewildered as Moe helps him onto his back & begins hiking off into the sunset. Lilith appears next to Noctale, & Senthose appears beside Mortal. Senthose rouses Atae.*

S"(You'll have a soul to reap in about five minutes. Call it a working vacation. Head into the woods, so you don't lose track of him.)"

*Lilith looks at Ginjo's body, then the expression on Euryale's face.*

L"We should probably head back to your house. There's a lot to talk about. I'm sure he told you."

*Binah quietly exits the scene while no one is looking, beaming with maternal pride.*

Mortal simply returns the hug.

Atae looks at Senthose, then nods, "Oh, uh, okay." She then buggered off into the woods.

Noctis looked at Lilith and nodded, then at Euryale, "Come on, we should go."

Astarte remained as she was but rested her head on Mortal's shoulder.

*The scattered group gradually recollects outside of Euryale's house. Noctale reluctantly lets them inside, not wanting to be seen talking to themselves on the lawn. Somehow, snuck into their number was an albino girl that no one but Atae & Senthose seemed to recognize.*

Noct quickly brings her up, "Who is she?"

"Oh, that is Chesed," Atae said.

"That doesn't really answer..." Noct let out a sigh, "What are you doing here?"

Mortal would have probably been hovering around Astarte the entire time, looking like she really wanted to say something, but kept stopping herself.

Astarte had been pained by her back since she broke her hug with Mortal, but was ignoring the pain and seemed quite preoccupied with herself.

S"This is the one who taught Tsukishima how to make those Arrancar. She infiltrated the Soul Society, under the directives of Keter & Gevurah. After they died & she escaped, Ginjo must have found her. Her FullBring modifies information. It was no trouble at all for her to fabricate her history as a Squad 12 member, & then delete it all."

E"That all makes sense, but I just have one question: Who is Tsukishima?"

*Riruka, laying on a tarp & having her shoulder healed by Lilith, tries to hide the fact that she is now crying.*

Astarte flicked her eyes up to Euryale and then to Senthose. She realized that she did not know who this Tsukishima was, either.

Noct shrugged, "Don't worry about him. He was just some asshole we had to deal with for a bit. Everything is alright now."

Mortal was about to say something to Astarte again, but then stopped, looked at Sab and Aroma and said, "Hey, can I talk to you two for a second?"

Sab nodded, "Sure."

"I have a question," Astarte said, looking at Senthose and inclining her head slightly. "What happened to Hector and Eduj? I thought that they would be here."