Ice particles swirled as Toshiro raised his reiatsu higher and higher.

Even in just its Shikai form his zanpakuto was powerful enough to cause some noticeable changes to the surroundings. Frost started coating the area around him and creeping outwards and ice crystals started growing where the crescent blade and chain attached to the hilt of his sword touched the ground.

Toshiro looked around the room stopping briefly on me and Gin before stopping on Aizen.

“Aizen, you’re alive after all.” he said coldly.

“Yes, I’d be surprised if miss Cross didn’t tell you that beforehand.” Aizen blandly replied before looking at his subordinate. “Although Gin, I do admit I’m surprised Captain Histugaya came back so quickly.”

Gin just bowed his head a little and shrugged, “Sorry, I overestimated how effective Izuru would be as a distraction.” He didn’t sound very upset by it.

Aizen hummed, “I suppose he did manage to split the enemies forces a bit. So it wasn’t a complete waste.”

Toshiro narrowed his eyes. “And it looks like she was telling the truth about your companions, if Ichimaru is here too.”

“I’m right here, you know?” I said, annoyed everyone was talking like I wasn’t present.

Toshiro glanced at me before looking back at Aizen. “Is she though? See Cross told us another interesting fact, Aizen. She told us the real ability of your Zanpakuto is hypnosis, so I can’t exactly trust what I see right now.”

For the first time Aizen actually seemed surprised.

“And how did you know that?” He asked, addressing me directly. “I don’t believe I’ve ever told anyone outside my companions that ability except from…” his eyes widened. “…oh I see. I didn’t realise any of that fossil’s work was still around. But I suppose that explains where you popped out from then.”

I was freaking out internally. Not only did I reveal I knew more than I should, I also had no idea what he was talking about. What fossil? Why did that explain anything about me being here?

To make matters worse Toshiro seemed to be having a slightly different conversation because he suddenly pointed his sword towards an empty space on Aizen’s right. He had also been speaking but I hadn’t paid attention to what he was saying, so I only caught the last bit.

“... I can’t be sure it’s you, then I just have to take you all down!”

Fuck, that was probably really important.

“BANKAI!”

Yep! Fuck, I really wished I had payed attention to him!

Ice exploded from the guard on his sword, flowing down his arm and wrapping around him like a living thing. His arms and legs were covered in clawlike ice armour and large crystalline wings extended from his shoulders. In addition to that three deep purple ice formations floated behind his back. Each formation was a segmented cross that somehow stayed in perfect position despite not being attached to anything at all.

Toshiro’s Reiatsu skyrocketed, and large chunks of ice also sprang up around him. The air turned frigid and mist began obscuring his feet as it rolled outward in thick wisps.

“Daiguren Hyorinmaru” he intoned.

I was getting a front row demonstration why Captains were considered unbeatable by rank-and-file Soul Reapers. Even with my pathetic sensory abilities I could clearly tell there was a qualitative change in his Reiryoku not only a quantitative one.

Not that I had a whole lot of time to examine what it felt like.

The moment Toshiro released his bankai Aizen frowned.

“Children are so impatient.” he sighed, “And I was looking forward to playing with him for a little longer.” he sighed again. “Oh well. Gin, kill him before he moves the other pieces out of place.”

“Of course, Captain Aizen.”

I bristled at the causal order. Aizen wanted him dead not because he was a threat, but because Toshiro releasing his bankai would eventually draw other captains over here. And if they were over here then they wouldn’t gather at Sokyoku hill for his declaration of war.

In other words, he wanted Toshiro dead to satisfy his need for theatrics.

With a burst of speed I leaped at Gin, my twin swords whistling through the air as I moved to stop him from attacking the hypnotized captain. The brief look I got of Toshiro before my blades crashed into Gin’s wakizashi. It looked like he was reacting to some invisible opponent as he sent blasts of ice at nothing.

Turning my attention back to the Squad 3 captain, I was just in time to notice Gin angle his blade towards my face.

“Shoot to kill, Shinso.”

I wrenched my head to the side just in time for the blade to shoot over my shoulder. Judging by the hot line on my cheek I wasn’t quite fast enough. Following my momentum, I turned the dodge into a cartwheel as Gin danced backward trying to get me out of his personal space. I refused to give him that time, the second my hands hit the floor I twisted to the side, foot lashing out and catching him in the side I sent Gin skidding back over the floor.

I wanted to follow him but Toshiro’s imaginary duel got in the way. I had to quickly raise Bakuya to deflect his sword from cutting me in half, then throw it away before the ice growing on the blade covered my hand. A quick Haste spell let me dodge past him, but Toshiro spun in a tight circle to slash at the space between me and Gin. A wave of ice followed the move forced me to stop or risk getting encased in ice, and I felt something cold and hard slam into my thigh and stagger me.

Toshiro had a goddamn tail made of ice! Worse, I think that hit was accidental too!

There was no time to complain as I threw Kanshou to deflect Gin’s extending blade. The thrown sword managed to knock the thrust off target enough to turn into another near miss that would have skewered Toshiro otherwise.

I traced my bow and fired off several shots to force Gin to either block or move. Anything to stop him from simply slashing at Toshiro and taking him off guard. The second I saw him leap backwards to dodge, I traced and modified an arrow with the most powerful fire enchantment I was capable of and Reinforced it as much as I dared. Silently praying it wouldn’t explode in my face I spun towards Aizen, took aim, and fired.

There was no chance such a hastily thrown together attack would actually hurt an opponent on Aizen’s level so as soon as the arrow was a few feet in front of him, I forcefully destabilized the projection and allowed it to blow up.

Smoke and fire consumed the area Aizen was standing in, but I doubted he was phased all that much. Kusarihebi appeared in my right hand and I hurled the weighted end into the smoke where Aizen had been standing. If I read him right, Aizen wouldn’t have bothered to move wanting to show that my attack did nothing.

True enough I felt Kusarihebi brush against something in the smoke and manipulated the chain to wrap around it like a snake before forcing it to stab into the ground, hopefully anchoring it in place. I pulled the chain on my end tight as well and jammed the sickle into the tiles by my feet.

It wouldn’t hold for long but hopefully it would delay Aizen enough for me to think of a way out of this mess.

I used Haste to close in with Gin once again now that he had recovered from my last attack, discarding my bow as Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in my hands once again. This time Gin reacted faster, deflecting my double overhead strike with his blade before kicking me away. I think he might have broken a rib.

The unexpected kick sent me skidding across the floor before I was able to force a hand under me and vault back to my feet. Panting heavily, I took the time to quickly scan the surrounding area. Gin was still focused on me, Toshiro was looking at the two of us confused, and the smoke around Aizen was beginning to clear.

As expected Aizen was completely wrapped up by Kusarihebi’s chain, but he looked completely comfortable despite them being as tight as I was able to make them.

“Gin, you’re taking too much time.” he chided. “We do have a schedule to keep.”

Gin straightened up and looked at his boss. “Apologies Captain, but ya’ have to admit she is a clever one.”

Aizen nodded at Gin’s words. “Miss Cross is quite a bit more talented than we believed. Unfortunately-”

The chains suddenly snapped like they were made of paper and Aizen vanished before appearing behind Toshiro with his sword raised.

“-we are on a schedule, and we can’t spend any more time here.”

He brought his sword down, it effortlessly sheared through the ice wings and armour around Toshiro before continuing through his shoulder. Blood burst from the cut and Toshiro fell to the ground, unconscious or dead. In that one attack Aizen had crushed the smaller captain and completely took him out of the fight.

I cursed out loud and prepared to rush Aizen when every instinct I had screamed at me to move backwards. Swords up in a reflexive X-block, I retreated as fast as I could. Aizen appeared a few feet from my previous position but made no attempt to chase me.

Instead he just looked at me with an amused smile. “You truly are much more skilled than I initially believed. I thought I used enough power to end this painlessly, but now it seems you will have to suffer some.”

What was he talking about, he didn’t do anyth-

Kanshou and Bakuya suddenly snapped in half. The clean break through the middle of each blade told me Aizen cut them, but was he really that fast? I tossed the broken swords to the side and prepared to trace another pair. I would need to push my senses to the limit if I wanted to keep up, but there was no other choice.

“Are you going to continue even in that condition?” Aizen asked.

Condition? I was mostly fine though.

Of course as soon as I thought that I noticed a wet feeling on my chest and a gentle dripping sound. Looking down, I saw a fairly deep cut running diagonally, collarbone to hip, and bleeding pretty profusely.

Guess I didn’t dodge Aizen’s attack after all.

Oddly, the pain seemed delayed. I was either subconsciously ignoring it, or was on such an adrenaline high that it simply didn’t register. My guess was the latter though.

Still the sudden injury and ongoing blood loss made me abandon my ongoing strategy. I couldn’t keep relying on stalling tactics and hoping for reinforcements or a way out. At this rate I was going to weaken and make a mistake soon. And going up against two Captain level opponents meant that would likely be fatal.

So I was going to have to take a risk.

Even if my connection to the UBW had deepened since coming to the Soul Society, I had been unable to trace anything on the level of a Noble Phantasm besides Kanshou and Bakuya. Even then I had a feeling they were exceptions due to how strongly they were attached to my Archer soul fragment.

I doubted I would be able to force a trace of one without killing myself in the process even now. But what about something that skirted the line? Something strong enough to be on that level without being a Noble Phantasm on its own?

I formed the image in my mind. Making it as clear as possible, despite the exhaustion now creeping up on me.

“Trace On.”

An absurdly long katana formed in my hand. Easily around 4 feet long, the sword had no guard. Instead it had a simple bronze collar that gave way to a purple hilt with two purple tassels hanging from the end.

Monohoshi Zao. The blade of an unnamed assassin from the fifth holy grail war.

It was a relief I was able to actually trace the blade, but I could have gone without the side effects. The instant the blade solidified in my hand all the pain that was mysteriously missing from the cut on my chest made its presence known. On top of that the strain from pouring that much mana into one construct all at once made it feel like every nerve I had was dipped in acid.

Ignoring the feeling as best I could I brought the katana up, the hilt resting next to my face as the blade pointed out towards Aizen.

He seemed amused by my actions. Calmly walking towards me even as blood slowly dripped off the end of his own sword, whether it was Toshiro’s or my own was unknown.

“Interesting. I’ve seen reports of you copying the Zanpakuto of several Soul Reapers, but I don’t recognise this one. What can this one do?” he asked.

“Wait a second and find out!” I growled, trying to ignore how much pain I was in and forcing out even more mana.

I launched myself towards Aizen, moving perhaps the fastest I even had as I began my attack.

Hiken: Tsubame-!

A piercing pain erupted in my chest as I slammed to a halt. I looked incomprehensibly at the hilt protruding out between my breasts. The Monohoshi Zao slipped out of my nerveless fingers, clattering to the ground before dispersing into motes of mana.

I slowly brought my eyes up to look at Aizen’s face. He looked just as surprised as I did that he suddenly attacked.

With a quick tug he removed his sword from my chest and I collapsed heavily onto all fours. A burning sensation appeared in the back of my throat and I tried to clear it away with a cough.

Instead I ended up vomiting up a large amount of blood.

“Congratulations Alexandria Cross. I actually felt threatened by your attack. Enough so that I unintentionally counterattacked seriously.”

Aizen was saying something, but everything sounded like it was underwater. Black was slowly devouring my vision, and I felt really cold.

“It seems like this is the end for you. A shame, you were one of the more interesting things around here at the moment. Oh well.”

Distant footsteps made me drag my fading vision off the floor. A blurry white shape was slowly moving away from me.

“Gin, prepare for us to leave. It seems like we're going to receive more visitors shortly.”

“Yes, Captain Aizen.”

My arms finally gave out and I pitched forward into a growing puddle of my own blood.

And then, everything went dark.