The mist shrouding Asa and her Reigai counterpart cleared up, revealing their Bankai form each with the giant gold ring of hiltless daggers rotating along it. Each of them detached a dagger from the ring, and it transformed into a Zanpakutou. They resumed the fight with their blades clashing one another. When the blades clashed, they pushed their swords up against each other as much as they could, and during this time, Asa noticed a change in scenery. The Reigai had conjured up an illusion of a dark open field with a bright full moon hanging in the night sky.
After a short while, they pushed their swords and skidded back. Asa blinked once and the next thing she knew, the Reigai was gone, prompting her to look around in alert. "Hado #4 Byakurai!" came a voice from behind her. Asa managed to glance over her shoulder to see the Reigai pointing at her with her index finger and generate as much as energy as she could. The moment Asa move away with Flash Step, a ferocious bolt of lighting shot out from the concentrated point. At that note, Asa moved to the Reigai's behind and attempted to attack her, only to have her Zanpakutou go through the Reigai, which turned out to be a holograph. But this didn't faze her, because she knew that Reigai-Asa was behind her preparing to attack with another Kidou spell.
"Hado #33 Sokatsui!" The latter aimed her palm at Asa and generated a torrent of blue energy before firing it at her. Asa quickly reached up to grab another dagger and sent it hurling towards the huge blast of energy, managing to split it into two and at that moment, the scene changed into one of a plateau surrounded by rocky mountains, causing the energy to hit the mountain walls behind. She then used Flash Step to get to the Reigai and slashed her across the chest.
However, Asa received the same attack from an unknown force despite the Reigai bleeding in front of her, and to her surprise, the Reigai she'd attacked turned out to be a mirage. The real Reigai, unharmed, was revealed to be standing behind it after it disappeared, with her Zanpakutou blade coated in her blood.
'That mirage merely acts as a mirror.' thought Asa after forcing herself to get back. 'I thought I had got her, but when my blade attacks her, I'll receive the same damage by the real Reigai behind the mirage. I didn't think I would fall for something I'd invented with Kage Odoriko. Looks like whatever attacks I've been using commonly cannot defeat her.' A thought went through her mind and she chuckled lowly. 'It's funny how Kage Odoriko's Bankai is not the only one I try not to use during fights.'
Taking a deep breath, Asa reached behind to grab another dagger and threw it to the front before it glowed, conjuring another illusion. This time, they were in the middle of an open field with nothing but thick mist obscuring their view. Reigai-Asa stood still and glanced around, trying to locate her enemy by picking up her reiatsu, which she successfully did. Using Flash Step, she moved towards her five o'clock with another dagger in her hand, and when she reached her target, the weapon transformed into her Zanpakutou which she thrust forward, finally hitting her target.
However, Reigai-Asa was not convinced that she had won. She may heard the sound of her enemy's flesh being pierced, as well as the smell of her blood spilled from her wounds, but she thought that this victory was too easy. And she knew that the original wouldn't be defeated so easily even though she was the most wounded one among them. With her free hand, she grabbed the dagger and it transformed into her sheathed Zanpakutou again. She then levitated it to her side and lightly hit one of its ends, causing it to spin before the speed gradually increased. "Hado #58 Tenran!" Using the same hand, she stopped the rotation by grabbing the hilt of her Zanpakutou, creating a widening tornado-like blast that blew away the mist and cleared up their surrounding.
When the Reigai was able to see clearly, she was stunned by the sight in front of her. The Zanpakutou didn't pierce any part of her torso, and instead, her real counterpart allowed it to stab through her left palm, causing blood to flow out tremendously with some staining the sleeve of her blue robe. The Reigai was very confused. Why would Asa do such a thing? But it didn't take long for the answer to reach her, because the moment Asa gripped the Zanpakutou and pulled back slightly to let her blood coat the blade more, she knew what she was up to; and this would be the result of the battle.
"Dai san-ji, Owaru. (Third Stage, End)." At the command, the blood on the Zanpakutou solidified into thorny vines rapidly growing around the weapon as they made their way towards her Reigai counterpart. It happened so fast that the latter wasn't able to release her Zanpakutou, for the vines had already trapped it before they grew further until they brutally grew through her body.
The Reigai had blood trickled from the corner of her lips, but despite that, she smiled at her real counterpart and said, "You're strong. I'm glad to know that you're able to continue fighting." Her body soon turned into that of a doll and it disintegrated into dust, leaving only the clothes and a red pill behind.
The illusions then disappeared and everything returned to normal, as well as the heavily injured Asa, who was catching her breath while on her hands and knees. Although she had won, things could be said differently about her body. The illusionary poisoning took place quicker than usual, as she felt a throbbing pain in her head and was facing shortness of breath. As if that wasn't enough, she was losing a lot of blood, especially after pulling that last move. But she couldn't just find a hiding spot and rest up. She needed to join Byakuya in their sole mission - to find Inaba Kageroza and exterminate him before the problem could become worse. Mustering her remaining strength, she got on her two feet and made her way towards where she last saw Byakuya.
"Gokei, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." The injured Byakuya was holding the Reigai-Hitsugaya's blade with blood seeping from the injury, as the petals formed around them in a sphere, leaving the Reigai no room for escape. The sphere then imploded, destroying the surrounding area, and a plume of smoke rose into the air. As the explosion receded, the Reigai was gone, and a red pill clattered to the ground. "There is one thing I share with you." he said while staring at his wounded hand. "I will use any means to protect my pride."
Before he took a step forward, he picked up a weak reaitsu from behind, prompting him to snap to face to person, and to his horror, an injured Asa was walking towards him. She had deep gashes across her chest, on her waist and shoulders, and blood was oozing out of the wound on her left hand. He took note of her agonising expression and realised that she'd used her Bankai. Just like him, she was in a mess, but the only difference was that the illusionary poisoning was taking a toll on her.
"Asa!" he called before using Flash Step to reach her, and at that moment, her knees buckled. He managed to catch her in time, with one arm wrapped around her waist while allowing her upper body to fall into his chest, preventing her from hitting the ground.
The said woman weakly tilted her head up and the first thing she saw was his worried expression. "Byakuya." she rasped with relief, which immediately faltered when she saw his condition. "You're injured."
"Don't use your healing Kidou on me." he instructed. "Save your reiatsu for later. You need it more than me." When he helped her to stand on her feet, he crouched low and gave her a piggy-back ride, causing her face to flush.
"O-Okay." she responded, giving in because she knew it was pointless to argue with him. With each step he took, blood continued to drip onto the ground, not sure which they belong to. However, he suddenly stopped, which prompted Asa to peep over his shoulder. She let out a soft gasp when they found their path blocked by his Reigai counterpart.
"I knew we would face one another in battle sooner or later." he said.
"You're wounded." noted the Reigai.
"Not an issue." he assured.
"I suppose not." agreed the Reigai. "I would never run, no matter what my situation."
Byakuya glanced at Asa for a short while before crouching low enough for her to get down. "Byakuya." she called with concern.
"I'm going on ahead." he said while facing the Reigai with his thumb unsheathing his Zanpakutou. "Step back from this, Asa." As if he knew that she would question him next, he added, "You won't have enough reiatsu to fight Kageroza. It's best you use your remaining strength to look for your grandfather and stay with him."
Asa knew why he wanted her to step out of the battle; the next battle with Inaba, actually. While their mission was to stop him, that wasn't Asa's. Byakuya knew that Asa joined him and the other Captains in returning to Soul Society was because of her grandfather. Even when they were temporarily staying at Tadashi's home, the first thing that came to her mind was him. Whether she didn't care about the latter or she believed her friends would stop him, he wouldn't know. All he knew was that she was more concerned about the Captain-Commander than what Inaba would do.
Without questioning him, she responded with an "okay" and went to the opposite direction, leaving Byakuya to fight his Reigai doppelganger.
She didn't have enough reiatsu to use Flash Step so she ended up having to carefully run around Seireitei as she didn't want to worsen her condition. But it didn't take long for her to know her grandfather's whereabouts all thanks to several immense pillars of flame, which spark familiarity in her.
"T-That's Ojii-sama's Ennetsu Jigoku!" she gasped. Without wasting anymore time, she rushed towards it, hoping that her grandfather would be there; and luck was by her side this time. By the time she arrived there, the flames had cleared up, and the Reigai battling him were gone, leaving the injured Captain-Commander behind. Asa rushed towards him and called, "Ojii-sama!"
The said man heard her voice and looked, surprised to see his granddaughter, who was more injured than him, running towards him. "Asa." he said. Suddenly, there was a huge surge of reiatsu emanating from the Reigai, followed by an explosion in a building. The Captain-Commander realised that the rest of the Gotei 13 Captains were overwhelmed when he sensed that their reiatsu depleted drastically, and was about to advance but his granddaughter stopped him.
"Please wait, Ojii-sama!" she urged. "It's dangerous to go there in your condition now. If we lose you, Gotei 13 is bound to fall apart."
"Asa-san is right, sir." agreed Unohana, who just arrived at the scene. "We must fall back and regroup for the time being."
Reluctant, Yamamoto listened to them and was taken to a temple, where both him and his granddaughter received treatment, with the latter going first due to her critical condition. In the time being, she sat next to him in an Easy Pose and charged up her reiatsu while Unohana tended to his wounds.
Just then, Tamako emerged from the walls and stood across them as he prepared to report what he had seen. Shutting his left eye, he placed two fingers on it and muttered, "Chime (The Eye of Knowing)." Beneath the lid, his eye had a dark purple glow for a moment before he conjured an image of what he'd seen through his own eyes in their minds. He showed the events that had happened; from the injured Captains and Yoruichi battling the Reigai before Kurotsuchi revealed himself to everyone by stabbing Inaba's back with his Zanpakutou in Shikai form, to finding out that Inaba was the one who developed the Mod-Souls and resuming the research by retrieving information on the Precipice World from the Cleaner despite the termination of the Spearhead Project, to the Reigai, including those that had already been defeated, battling the Captains inside the building in full power.
The visions vanished, leaving the three Shinigami stunned, and Tamako removed his fingers from his eye before opening it. Asa recovered quickly and reached into her sleeve, taking out a candy for the Ghost Child before he returned into her Zanpakutou. Not long, Renji arrived from the World of the Living and knelt before the Captain-Commander, who asked what was the situation despite being fully aware of what was going on.
"Sir." began the Lieutenant. "We've lost all contact with the Captains. However, it's very hard to believe that all the Captains have been defeated so easily. And the transmission Urahara Kisuke received may not be complete."
"There's no need to comfort me." said Yamamoto. "In any event, right now, other than my granddaughter and the Lieutenants in the World of the Living, the only battle-ready people are Kurosaki Ichigo and his group. We need to prepare for an assault by the invasion force as soon as possible."
"We understand." responded Renji.
Unohana then noted, "I've noticed Hollows appearing in large numbers."
"Now that the power balance between the World of the Living and Soul Society is disrupted, it's inevitable that more Hollows would appear." explained the Captain-Commander. "Our fears have now become reality."
"We'll deal with them with the fighting forces we have left." said the Lieutenant determinedly.
"Defending the World of the Living from Hollows is certainly important, but be very careful not to give Kageroza's invasion force an opening." reminded Yamamoto.
"Yes, sir." said Renji, who proceeded to stand with his Zanpakutou in hand and left.
Few seconds later, Unohana turned to Yamamoto, who told her she did not have to say what was on her mind, and relented. The latter then took note of his granddaughter's expression, commenting, "I see that you're worried about the others."
Asa tilted her head to look at him out of respect. "Yes, I am." she said with a curt nod.
He hummed for a short while before saying, "If that is the case, then I will let you go to the World of the Living once you have healed completely."
His granddaughter's eyes widened with surprise, for she did not expect him to allow her to do so. A smile flickered across her face and she bowed at him. "Thank you, Ojii-sama!" she said gratefully before looking at the door, feeling anxious about her friends in their own battle, as well as relieved that she was allowed to join them.