The Murder Trial [Private]

As a newly appointed seated member of the second division, his mission was simple: follow up on the mysterious woman he encountered who went by the moniker Serpent. As a mortal who displayed supernatural talents, it was necessary she be studied and understood.

This time he came to the living realm on official shinigami clothing and with his own soul pager, and while it wouldn’t locate the living woman he meant to observe, it would alert him to any lurking hollows nearby. This mission wasn’t about destroying them, that wasn’t important. If a hollow reared it’s head, his orders were to disengage and move on. Engaging them was someone else’s job, not his.

He set forth, using the power of his sword, Muragarasu, and bringing his murder of crows alongside. They would act as scouts, provide him leads, and keep an eye on things for him like little spiritual cameras. Close by, the white and black ravens conjured by his blade kept much closer to Shimazu, as he liked them to be.

Together with his little web of avian scouts he pressed through the city in search of any traces of that woman. It was a lonely and time consuming task, which gave him much time to reflect on the recent tragedy the head of Seireitei’s noble Suzumei family had committed. He reasoned that maybe it was better he was far away from him, lest Shimazu he tempted to expose or otherwise seek justice.

A few hours into his mission, his soul pager’s tone alerted. Nearby there was a hollow. No problem, they’d just adjust their position to avoid coming into conflict, and continue with their search. The tone sounded a few more times and each time Shimazu and his crows adjusted their course and moved, avoiding coming into contact with any hostile forces.

He was near the park where he originally became stranded in the world of the living as an academy student when his pager alerted him again. He scrunched his nose in confusion as he looked at the display. It displayed up ahead had several little red dots, the marker for hollows, all in a small area. He looked up from the display and in that direction.

He didn’t sense anything. Nor did he hear or see anything. No explosions, no crashes, booms, roars, or screams. He looked back down to the pager and groaned. He figured his was broken or otherwise glitching. He wouldn’t rely on it, obviously there couldn’t exist a mass of hollows that close together any way.

To prove it to himself, he’d send twelve of his crows toward that mass and he would see, with his own eyes, that there was no way that reading was accurate. He wouldn’t let his glitching pager stop him in his mission.

He became aware of the flock’s proximity only after it had come upon him. That is not to say he was without advanced warning, as his crows spotted the incoming adversary as they broke through the clouds, alerting Shimazu to their coming. He looked up to the sky and he squinted, wondering to himself, “Hmm, is that a crow?”

No, it was not a crow, but rather an entire mass of crows. His mind snapped back to his recent tenure in this cursed city whereupon he met a crow of the hollow variety. It had seemed so harmless, and had about it something remarkable. Unfortunately it revealed it’s true nature and attacked him, where he was then forced to dispatch the small thing. With his own eyes, he could now confirm it was just one out of many, many more.

He stopped in his tracks and considered a few things. The flock was upon him, and they came from the skies. Out maneuvering an enemy that had an aerial advantage would be perhaps too difficult to manage alone, or even with his much smaller murder of crows. He recalled his own birds, landing them in nearby trees where they would hopefully stay safe. The black and white ravens joined Shimazu much closer, and together they watched as the flock of crows descended upon them. The white raven vocalized, sounding an inquisitive hmm? as it eyed the approaching mass, and the black one pecked at it, making a small fuss.

Be ready, he advised his murder. His hand was cautiously already gripping the hilt of his sword, not that he was skilled in the art of its use, but more in preparation from the conflict he knew was coming. If they were aware of his presence, which he was almost positive they were, he would be forced to engage them despite the orders he was given considering the likelihood of a successful escape at this point. No, he had a different plan all together than simply running.

Well, his pager obviously wasn’t busted. As he thought to himself, he looked up to realize that he was no longer in Karakura Town, but in the dense forest in the domain of his zanpakuto. Thousands of birds perched on thick branches, they cried out to him, looking and sounding incredibly restless. Together, they kept from the trees and flew toward Shimazu. Before he realized it, he was back in reality, and his eyes trained on the sky as the hoard of hollow birds descended upon him.

“Oh man...” he groaned. He knew how vindictive these kinds of birds could be. He looked back to one of the trees where one of his own was situated, remembering the punishment it inflicted upon Shimazu from taking away a half eaten berry. He ran his hand over the spot on his arm where the bird had pinched him with its beak, gently rubbing it. Yeah, they remember those who wrong them, alright.

He couldn’t have the entire mass of birds descend upon him, so as they approached he instructed the white and black ravens to take flight. They possessed larger bodies that were more agile and maneuverable than an ordinary crow. He would have them split up and try to grab the attention of as many of the hollow crows as would give chase. After, he would recall his two dozen crows to join him in close combat against what remained of the attacking flock. That was his plan, and he was sticking to it.

His ravens flew about the scene, hollow crows in hot pursuit behind either of them. The rest of the flock spread itself thin across the sky, blocking all or most escape routes Shimazu would otherwise have access to before descending upon him with both beak and talon.

He was quick to begin evasive maneuvers, ducking and weaving as the onslaught began and doing his level best to avoid the punishing fury of the enemy flock. As he spun out of a dodge, his attention was caught by an incoming hollow crow with exposed talons. It soared through the space and was poised to pluck eye from socket, before one of his own crows intercepted the attacking bird with fury all its own. It crashed into the creature, raking at it with its talons as it passed, knocking it off course.

He took the briefest of moments to look around at the scenario: two flocks engaged in furious flighted combat, an almost indistinguishable mass of opalescent blackness while two larger ravens shepherded the stragglers away from the struggle. He shuddered as he thought back to his orders which forbade him from including himself in any hollow hunting activities. He was distressed; his hands were tied. If he perished, it would be all his fault. A spectacle that would be remembered simply as another noble doing as they pleased, not following orders. So why, then, did he feel some degree of obligation to be here? To do this?

His soul pager rang with another alert; one after the other. How could there be so many? Where were all the hollows coming from?

His lack of physical strength and less than ideal skill with blades combat spelled it out plainly for him: were he to be effective in this combat, he would have to rely almost exclusively on non-melee combat. It was his only option, and doing so would require exceptional trust in his own murder’s ability to protect him while he remained vulnerable. He brought his hands to his chest and began molding the necessary hand seals to facilitate the casting of Kido.

“Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Bakudo 9, Geki!” He tried to take command of the lower leveled binding spell and alter the physical expression of power the spell represented; whereas normally the spell was designed to completely envelop a target in a restrictive red shroud, his intended use of the spell would see the effect laid out before him more like a great, red pane of glass. As the crows passed through the field, they would effectively wrap themselves in the binding spell before falling helplessly to the ground, inert but very much alive. With his sword, he would see to it those halted and rendered useless by this spell would be quickly, and permanently, dispatched.

One after the other, stroke by stroke, his blade cut through the paralyzed crow forms. Thanks to his binding spell, a large number had made themselves easy targets. Muragarasu was more than happy to take them in, however, and with every casualty, a bird was added to Shimazu’s own murder; his forces grew as the enemy’s lessened. As their presence grew, the tide began to shift in their favor, and with more crows on his side to protect him from the hollow crows, he was able to exert less and less energy to dodge the mass of talons that stormed above his head.

Apparently sensing the danger the unit as a whole was in, the entity managed to command the attention of those who broke off to chase after the white and black ravens. They broke off the chase and made an abrupt turn with great aerial agility and raced straight to Shimazu. Three separate masses, in three separate directions were coming his way: the one he was fighting, and the two his ravens were distracting.

He set his fear aside and rallied his courage. Loudly, defiantly, he recited the incantation to the strongest hado he could reliably cast, his arm rigid and his palm pointed more or less at the mass that charged upon him. His two ravens touched consciousnesses with Shimazu, and seemed to grab his attention in a way. As he recited his spell, he saw through their eyes the flock as it retreated. With all three visual feeds in focus, he shouted the name of the spell, “Hado 33, Sokatsui!”

In an instant, that one spell pulled more energy from his body than it ever had in the past. At first, he wasn’t sure why. The blue flames erupted from his palm and chased at the space between him and the coming flock. Through the eyes of his ravens, though, he saw that somehow, they had mimicked the spell and from their mouths had spat blue flames also. Was this something they could reliably do? Had they intentionally grabbed his attention so that they could show him what they could do? He would absolutely have to try this again! His stomach growled loudly and he mused he might have to eat before pulling something like that off again.

His field of vision was lit up in a fantastic display of glowing blue flames. He wondered whether this was enough to consume the flock in its entirety, or if at any moment a mass of birds would break through the flames and pluck his eyes out. He planted his feet firmly into the ground, and kept a defensive posture.