Julian Brant always had special morning training sessions with his officers, a way to steel, test their limits and perhaps push them further past their limits. He dodge the blow coming from the right; aimed at his chin. Simply sidestepping away to his left and then zooming into his attacker's safe zone to slam his knee into the man's midsection.

Ian groaned as the sharp pain was sent into every nerve of his body. He could feel the cheer force of the Jagdanführer's strength. "Enough!" Julian said. He waved his hand to dismiss the young lad ending their morning training for the day. The young man bowed showing a sign of Respect before leaving the dojo. Julian unfastened his clothes before heading to have a warm shower.

When he was done, he was now fully dressed in a white shirt, black suit and putting the blazers over the suit and a mask, which served as a limiter and also a key to unlocking his holy powers, for now he would be perceived as a lowly soldat. He would step out on what may prove to be a tiring Journey, if only he had known what was to come.

With her art supplies gathered in a neat pile, Tia watched as her two 15th seats situated themselves opposite each other. With legs crossed in a meditative stance, they appeared to be the perfect representation of ying and yang - Bella, with her loud, somewhat abrasive nature and Dimitri with his quiet, reserved way of approaching things. Neither had attained Shikai, and although Tia had taken the morning away from her duties to put thought and paint to easel, she couldn't quite pass up the request for these two members of her division in particular to accompany her. Hopefully, they would make full productive use of their time, instead of bickering.

"Remember, deep breathing will help you here." Tia sighed, uncapping a dark blue oil. It wasn't clear if she was talking entirely to her companions.

They didn't respond - a good sign, they had taken to their instructions with an unusual level of dedication. Perhaps today indeed would be the day they reached out and touched their Zanpakutou spirits?

With the morning breeze in her hair, Tia tied the strands back into a knot and reached for a thick brush with stiff bristles. The sea below crashed loudly against the rocks, but a fair distance away out on the water, everything seemed calm and quiet. A lone island could be clearly seen, with dense forests encroaching upon the white sands of the beach, and faintly, Tia could see a lone fishing boat bobbing on the waves. She wished she had been granted the opportunity to commune with her blade in such pleasant circumstances. 

It was all well and good so far, he had adjusted his location on the Sun gate before departure, putting on the coordinates that brought him to his exact destination in an instant. His location was chosen on a whim and it was with that whim he searched the island alone like a lost dog.

What had entered him to come to this place? What was he hopping to find? Maybe a hunt to clear his mind off things? Truthfully things had gone stale of late, his development hindered with lack of suitable opponents and motivation to even try. Julian squeezed his hands into a fist like he was almost crushing an invisible stone. With his abilities limited by his mask, he failed to have sensed something he should have sensed when he arrived, that would be a costly mistake on his part or so it would seem.

It was still Early, and Julian walked with confidence, the way he made his stride oozed out royalty from him, his demeanor screaming the absolute confidence he had in his abilities and that everyone else were below him and his limiter did nothing to change such mindset.

He was a predator, one to pick up lose trails from careless preys, and it was so that even without his ability to sense reiatsu, he was still able to pick up footprints from 3 people. "this belongs to a female, it is just the right size and the force. It looks like I'm not alone here." He thought as he placed his hands on a small, foot print he had spotted. His left hand felt the rough loamy soil, and he got up to follow where it would lead him to. Hopefully, something entertaining and someone to help him advance would appear. 

Just as Tia dipped the tip of her brush into a vibrant red color and was about to make her first stroke, the wind seemed to simply... stop. She blinked a few times rapidly, as though trying to dislodge a spec of dust from her eye. The feeling passed. She exhaled a breath she hadn't known she was holding. It was nothing.

Bella and Dimitri appeared to have noticed nothing, and simply sat as still as stones on the cliff. Their meditation was unusually deep, perhaps it was that which had made her feel uneasy?

She pushed the stiff bristles of her brush to the canvas, putting the thought from her mind. She had wanted to paint the island before anything else, but the little fishing boa-

There it was again. Silence. A freezing wave of panic.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, one by one, until she could ignore it no longer. They weren't alone but... something wasn't right. It didn't feel like a hollow. At all.

"Bella! Dimitri!"

The unusually sharp tone of their Taichou pulled them both to reality immediately. Sweat beaded on their foreheads as they blinked blearily against the bright sun. "Taichou...?"

"Brace yourselves. We are not alone here."

He had tracked them to where they were all clustered up like a hen ready for slaughter. They showed little caution for danger, well all except the one holding a paint brush.

Julian hid on one of the largest tree with many branches, he thought he kept a safe distance away from them, for he could see and a 100m distance was not long enough to put a strain on his eye sight. 

"it seems the Captain has noticed my presence. Does she know my exact location? It doesn't appear to be that way.... Then is it..."

He thought wearily as he observed the sudden movement they made after being alerted by their leader. His eyes furrowed behind his mask and he knew he had already been discovered. Now the question was, how to make a grand entrance.

Right now he could barely manifest his bow and so he was as useless as a recruit. Maybe, an idea crept in and so he made his move to reveal himself. The leaves rustled and moved as a being approached silently and soon Julian revealed himself before the party.

"Hey, I think I'm lost. My ship washed up on this Island and I am glad to know I am not alone." He said in a relief. His eyes behind the mask trailed, he looked at each and everyone of them. Aside the Captain, the rest were of low seat, possessing weak stance as they were not properly on their guards. He took a step forward and said "I know my mask may seem untrustworthy to you but there is a reason why I wear it, and I would urge you not to remove it." He paused to take another step closer before continuing. "If I told you I just happened to be on the Island it would be a stretch wouldn't it? I think I just stumbled upon something interesting. So what would you do now?" He said and two Soul cutters revealed itself on both hands and he raised them pointing at the Captain.

"Come at me like your life depends on it."

"Taichou!!"

It was Bella's voice, urgency tinting her tone with fear and a little panic. She had drawn her zanpakutou, an unremarkable thing, and moved to stand in front of her captain. Her hand shook a little as she tried to keep her blade steady, but her sheer inexperience was as blatant as the intent of the unknown figure that appeared before them.

Dimitri, on the other hand, seemed silent in his apprehension. He too had drawn his zanpakutou and moved to Bella's side as quickly as he could given his sandals felt as though they were made of lead.

"Bella! Dimitri! Behind me!" Tia yelled, casting her brushes and paints aside to flutter down the cliff at her back. There was something terribly wrong with their sudden opponent, and though he seemed to be a simple soldat, she knew even the youngest and least experienced of the Wandenreich would know better than to approach a Captain and her subordinates alone - for indeed, that is what this man was. Quincy. And she didn't buy into his helpless ploy for even a second.

The two 15th Seats paused for a second, unnerved by their Captain's tone. It took a little too long for Tia's tastes - with her zanpakutou still sheathed she held the whole mass of it forwards and elbowed between the two of them. "Back down stranger! You should know better than to approach recklessly!"

And yet somehow... she didn't get the impression he WAS approaching recklessly at all.

"Taichou, he's just a Soldat I think! The Soutaicho gave us all orders to eliminate any incursion on sight!" Dimitri whispered in her ear, his eyes never leaving the Quincy.

"We should attack right away!" Bella agreed. Behind Tia, to her left where the young Shinigami stood, the captain could feel a light crackle of energy and knew the 15th seat prepared an equally low-level kidou.

"Wait for my order!" Tia replied harshly. She then lowered her voice and muttered "Do not provoke him. All is not as it seems."

His head turned to face the one who cried out that he was just a Soldat and although they could not see his face through his mask, Julian smiled. 

However, the Young Captain seemed ever so cautious, was she always like that? Second guessing and full of doubts? He turned his attention towards her and his smile faded as he responded to her words. "Reckless? Sorry but I fail to understand what you mean, does it look like I am in a difficult situation?" He asked and his voice as casual as ever without a hint of fear and then he moved.

His slow godstep brought him right before the Shinigami who prepared her Kidoū, he appeared at her left and whipped his soul cutter as sluggish as a low ranked Zanjutsu practitioner could, he aimed for her jugular. Hoping to server the veins and let loose a pool of blood should his attack make contact.

He had judged her to be distracted, putting more focus on maintaining a hold of the kidoū she planned to use, and her inexperienced mind trembled at his presence, which meant that aside from the Captain, every one them had no real combat experience. He had hoped to exploit that weakness and attack when she would least expect it and also attack the person they would least expect to be attacked. He hoped that the lady would be too fear stroke that her nerves would freeze in place and would give Julian the opening that he needs.

It was a 50/50 shot, true and true. Bella? Or Dimitri? There was no way to tell, so she hedged her bets and prepared for the plunge.

The moment Julian even thought of gathering reishi, she stepped backwards between her 15th seats, all the way off the cliff into pure freefall. She grabbed the collars of her subordinates and yanked, hearing their cries as they were caught by surprise and plummeted in terror. The jagged rocks below beckoned, promising a quick, agonizing end - just as they went over the edge, she watched as the Quincy was suddenly a mere breath away, blade arcing in the air. A moment longer... that's all it would have taken. Bella would have met her end.

Swallowing roughly as her 15th seats screamed, she broke into a shunpo and raced towards the island, Bella and Dimitri pulled along with her. As they came to a stop on the sand, she wiped Bella's tears away with her thumb and ruffled her hair.

"That was a close one, but you won't survive if you just cry and shake my dear."

The sokatsui Bella had started to prepare earlier still pulsed in her fist, and there was a faint burning smell. The 15th seat shook her head, coming to her senses, and let it dissipate. Burnt fingers were left in its wake. Dimitri coughed, the unsteadiness of his legs leaving patterns in the sand - where Bella had bounced back relatively quickly, he was far more shaken.

"We don't have time for this." Tia said, shaking him. She knew the quincy would likely be on them any second. "You have to run, both of you!"

"No!!" Bella yelled, her burnt fingers gripping the handle of her zanpakutou stubbornly. "We can't just leave you!"

"You must! Run in different directions, both of you, and summon a senkaimon when it's safe!"

"No Captain, we're not leaving you here!" Dimitri whispered, his blade quivering violently.

"I can't protect you both!" Tia yelled at them, pushing them away. "Go!"

"No!" Bella and Dimitri both yelled, and immediately, Tia regretted coddling them so much. If they wouldn't go, they would just be a burden and they were both too stubborn to realize it.

"Get back" Tia yelled again. "Rise, Asa no Tenshi!"

He missed! Julian could not believe his eyes when the Captain yanked her subordinates down the cliff, a devil's gamble he thought and one that had paid her well for if she was a second late; the low ranked female Shinigami would be no more.

Julian did not immediately follow, they ran away from him and thus creating a distance between them. Well, for an Archer, it would not be wise to create a distance. With a deep breath, he took off his mask. His Great reiatsu roared like a dam that had been let loose, his abilities returned to him, he felt more alive once more and the sea breeze was now more pleasant. The birds, the crickets, everything within a Kilometer was within his range. 

He could now connect to the reishi, he could feel his connection with the surrounding reishi once more and so, he formed a golden bow as large as a full grown man. From the top, he could see the captain and her subordinates had just landed, Julian would ready about 50 arrows, which he would let loose.

His focus was on the lower ranked Shinigami, both the male and the female. His arrows would move as fast as a combatant who was an expert in Shunpo. The strength of the arrows was powerful enough to rival a released Shikai, this was because Julian had coated each arrows with his Reiatsu.

The Leader of the Sternrritters would make his way down to meet whatever was left of his prey.

Bella and Dimitri watched as their Captain released her Shikai in awe - it was the first time they had both seen it in person, and it was enough to ground them both. Dimitri pulled himself together and sighed deeply, a slight smile overwriting the pale terror that had shook him to the core. Bella smiled too - if their Captain was willing to release her blade, there was no way they would loose. That soldat would pay, for sure.

A blast of unleashed Reiatsu made their grins freeze in a terrible rictus as the blood drained from their faces. The only one who didn't immediately loose all will to live was Tia, who slapped the two 15th seats solidly across their faces with her free hand to make them snap out of it. In her other hand, she held out a beautiful bow made of energy. Bella laughed hysterically at the image - her very own Captain looked more Quincy than the monster than hunted them.

"C-captain..." Bella stuttered, pulling on Dimitri's sleeve. "We can't possible fight th-"

"I told you to run, stupid girl!" Tia replied, drawing her bow. Far, far on the horizon, she could see the enemy high on the cliff, watching them as though the distance meant nothing. He was too far away to target, but she drew an arrow wreathed in flame, ready for his approach.

"Captain, before, I managed to speak with my Zanpakutou..." Dimitri said, voice devoid of all emotion at the hopelessness of the situation.

"Me too!" Bella chimed, hysteria ebbing slowly. "But how can we... possibly!? He's no Soldat, Taichou how did you know?"

"You MUST leave! Both of you! I can't go with you, he's too much of a danger!" Tia stressed, frowning as she felt the spike of energy from her enemy stabilize. The sands shifted beneath her sandals as she set her stance and drew the 'string' of her bow back as far as she could - too far, he was simply too far.

"If we can both now use Shikai we have to stay and protect you!" Dimitri whispered harshly. Together, as if as one, both 15th seats held out their blades -

"Cry-"

"Cascade-"

Both release calls were immediately silenced in their tracks by a barrage of arrows, each as tall as they were and rippled with destructive force enough to tear a man in two. Which is precisely what they did. Buffeted by the blast, Tia launched herself to the side as sand was thrown up all around her. She covered her face with the sleeve of her haori, but even through the deluge of energy, she felt the life force of her subordinates... or rather, the lack of.

Everything settled. The wind and sea became audible once more. Shiroshiki Tia, Captain of the 7th Division, looked down over the lip of the crater that had been battered into the beach to see the bodies of Bella and Dimitri, still upright and held there by the arrows that pinned them in that unnatural position.

She bit her lip until it bled - there wasn't much of the two of them left, and whatever did remain, so cloaked in blood as to make the two of them indistinguishable from one another, disintegrated in the wind. Tia slowly got to her feet, sand sheering from her clothes with a 'woosh' just as final as the deaths of her officers.

She nocked an arrow. And another. And another. Another. From the top of her bow to the very bottom, flaming arrows ready for flying true were prepared - a breath - Tia was gone, the speed of her shunpo exploding behind her as she launched herself upwards into the sky. It didn't matter that the monster she faced was so far away anymore.

She fired the arrows true, with the sun at her back as to limit the Quincy's ability to see clearly, and each one launched silently through the air with impressive speed. Blood ran down her chin as she held her breath.

This time his targets were hit. He had hoped to use the lower seated soldiers to draw the captain to the open, to make her defend and maybe take a hit or two, but she didn't do much.

His eyes could see the lower seated Shinigami pinned at a place, blood flowed, the forest now had blood on her soil and that wouldn't be the end.

The Captain by the name Tia which he had overhead her dead colleagues call her, leaped with a burst of shunpo, he could already sense her intent from the reiatsu fluctuations she was unable to hide. At the moment, she became an open book for her intent was laid bare before him. 

At one glance, he had locked on her, he didn't need a second look, in fact it was totally unnecessary to for she was as she had made herself an open target. Julian would let loose another 50 arrows which was also cloaked with his reiatsu, his aim perfect with precision.

The arrows moved so fast that it blurred, some collided with Tia's, the others moved to Tia. The ones that came towards him, Julian reacted with bullet speed to side step away, to cut down with his soul cutter. Soul cutters are capable of cutting through reiatsu based abilities and reiatsu with ease, and Tia's arrows had her reiatsu signature on them.

Tia shot forwards through the air, her shunpo propelling her through the barrage of arrows Julian had fired. They were fast to be sure, impressively so, but there wasn't a battlefield in existence that she took to like the skies themselves. Arrows flew past her, one after the other - not a single one hit its mark, and though she wasn't one to be boastful or overly prideful, she felt a measure of satisfaction as the distance between them closed. 100 meters. In range of her Shikai. 70 meters. Enough to be confident. 50 meters. Time to strike back.

The clouds above were darkening, signalling a storm on the horizon. Drawing back her bow, Tia unleashed a barrage of her own straight above - arrows ablaze with fire shot on upwards to pierce the storm clouds. The change in air pressure brought forth what started as a light pitter-patter of rain - her battlefield was set.

She shot forwards and to the right, bringing her even closer to her target - he was apparently keen to show off the reishi cutting abilities of his Seele Schneider, and she was just as eager to laugh it down for what it was; a pathetic mimicry of her own Asa no Tenshi's ability to pierce through anything with even the slightest amount of reishi the closer she got to her mark.

She drew her bow again and sent 50 of her own arrows zipping towards Julian. Each glowed a frighting yellow and crackled with electricity - each amplified by the sudden rainfall. If he wanted a serious fight, she was more than happy to accommodate.  

The Shinigami was skillful enough to evade all his arrows. It was a shot that was released with pure perfection and precision and yet not a single one grazed her skin. She must be lucky he thought, but luck had nothing to do with this and Julian knew well enough to believe in that.

The Tia released another set of arrows, but this time she was within 50 meters of him. He ignored the arrows she had shot in the sky and focused on the arrows heading towards him.

He had seen her use that against him previously and so he hoped to avoid making contact with them, and so it was when the arrows was almost upon him that something strange happened. They tore apart[1], broke, cushed. The arrows that we're headed towards him started to shrink, breaking up into smaller pieces as they became crushed, not a single arrow from Tia reached him. Julian stood firm, unscathed, unscarred and unbroken. His face remained emotionless, passive like he had expected it to happen.

He would activate the second ability of his Seele Schneider, the Anhäufer[2], which would absorb the surrounding reishi and reiatsu of his opponents abilities; should she release another arrow. He intended to completely deny her of her ability to use reiatsu and reishi based abilities when he had not permitted her to. She was in his palm, and she ought to dance properly to his tune.

"Now, what would you do next?" He questioned.

At first, Tia thought that her barrage of arrows simply vanished into nothingness by virtue of Julian's Seele Schneider, but she had fought Quincy before and had never encountered one that could be used without movement. Where it was true she wasn't the most experienced Captain in terms of pure combat ability, she was renown as a keen strategist and during wartime, was often kept in the reserves directing subordinates effectively from afar.

Narrowing her eyes, she nocked another set of arrows until ten lined her bow. Raising her bow in front of her, she began to mutter a rapid-fire string of words until a bright yellow orb appeared. It widened and flattened itself until it encapsulated her weapon.

"Hadō #32. Ōkasen!"

The beam fired with an audible sizzle, a gunshot crack left in its wake. She had her suspicions about Julian's abilities. As soon as the wide arc fired, she let loose her arrows and immediately nocked another ten - those joined the first with eye-watering swiftness. Both sets crackled with the similar yellow aura as the arc she fired, creating a blurred wave of projectiles - in the rain especially, she counted on them appearing as one, and was interested to see if her enemy could differentiate between them - arc, first wave of lightning arrows, second wave of lightning arrows, all with a mere fraction of a second between them.