Rubble rained down from the shattered arches overhead Kotori and Meninas, each collapse sending choking clouds of dust twisting through the sulfur-tinged air. Beyond the collapsed hallways, the distant roar of the war between Quincy and Soul Reaper filled the air. The clash of zanpakuto's and the explosions from the Quincy's magic echoed through Soul Society and the ruins and remains of the buildings. Every wall bled crimson fissures; every fallen column was smeared with blood.
Kotori panted, she prayed and prayed that someone would come to her aid. Her mind began to wonder at the possibility that Scarlet wouldn't regenerate in time, she pressed her trembling hand against a crumbling pillar. Her breathing was shallow and ragged. She knew she needed more time to get her spirit powers to recharge, but she knew deep down. Without Shido being there to help her, she was on her own. Flames wreathed her fingertips, flickering weakly like a dying candle against the encroaching gloom. Across the debris-strewn floor, Meninas advanced towards the spirit.
"Your flame is almost out, just give up and let me kill you." Meninas spoke in a whisper, her voice like a purr and one like that of a predator. She drew her bow as she pulled back on it, an arrow of sharpened reishi formed within the bow. "Time to snuff you out."
Kotori forced her legs to move, each step a battle against weakness. The heat of battle and the unholy stench of death and decay pressed in around them. She closed her eyes for a fraction of a second, reaching inward. Somewhere beneath the exhaustion, the spark still glowed. She remembered Shido's promise, the promise he made, not only to her. But to the other spirits as well. "I'll always be there when you need me." That promise echoed in Kotori's mind, the spirit still had a small spark of fire burning in her very core. But she needed to grasp it, to make it grow.
A tremor ran through the floor as another huge wave of spiritual energy filled the air. It seemed like Kenpachi's battle with As Nodt was still heating up, the spike in Kenpachi's spiritual pressure shook everything. Rocks and shattered wooden beams crashed around both Kotori and Meninas. Kotori staggered but refused to fall, she watched as Meninas had staggered as well. Quick on her feet, or at least as quickly as she could. Kotori scrambled deeper, the ceiling caved in behind Kotori. Separating her and the Quincy, buying Kotori some more time.
"I need all the time in the world to get my powers back up and running..." Kotori muttered to herself. "Dammit, what is taking you so long Scarlet?"
Just as the time was ticking for Kotori on trying to grasp that spark within her. A cold chill ran down her spin, she heard the footsteps of Meninas. Her steps sounded heavy, was she injured from when the ceiling caved in? No, that wouldn't be. Kotori would've heard Meninas in pain, but then the footsteps stopped.
Closing her eyes tightly, Kotori braced herself for whatever was going to happen. Meninas cocked her head, unimpressed. She fired her arrow at a rapid, inhuman pace. Bolts of pure white reishi screamed towards the area Kotori was at. The arrows pierced through the wood, Kotori's breath hitched in her throat. Her heart continued to beat like a drum against her rib-cage, she took steady breaths to calm her beating heart.
"Come on, think Kotori...there has to be a way to spark the fire in your belly...but how?" Kotori asked herself. "What can I do to get it to spark back to life....I'm a sitting duck right now..."
Kotori's pulse echoed in her ears louder than the impacts splintering the ruined building. Each arrow from Meninas tore into the wreckage with an uncanny precision — wood screamed, dust swirled into her lungs, and the air trembled under the force of compressed reishi.
She pressed her back against a fractured beam, one leg tucked defensively beneath her, the other ready to flee. Her breath was ragged, uneven, tasting of iron and ash.
~~~
Meninas' heavy footfalls grew clearer, purposeful. Not injured. Not slowed. She was stalking.
Another volley came — three arrows in the space of a heartbeat — lodging themselves inches from Kotori's position. Splinters bit into her cheek, stinging. She gasped, biting back a cry that might betray her. The building was a dying beast around her, crumbling under the relentless onslaught.
Her hand twitched toward where Camael would normally rest, but her mana was a hollow well, dry and echoing. That ember in her chest — the one that always blazed in battle — now flickered weakly, shivering against the cold.
"I'm a sitting duck." The words she spoke echoed in her mind, shaking her head. Kotori couldn't afford to be thinking about those words, she needed to focus. She shut her eyes for just a moment, trying to shut out the chaos, and his voice came to her. Shido's voice echoed in her mind. "I'll always be there for you Kotori." Those words stung her like a broken promise, not from Shido's perspective. But from hers, she knew she needed to realize she couldn't always rely on Shido being there to save her, or to save the other spirits. Her heart ached, she wanted to be that person who could prove they didn't always need saving. But, this was a matter of life or death for her.
It wasn't a gentle recollection. It was sharp, cutting through the noise like a blade, rebounding in her mind with a stubborn rhythm. She could see Shido's face as vividly as if he was here in the dust beside her. That memory was something she had buried under exhaustion and hopelessness — but now, it pressed against her heart.
Another crack split the air — Meninas had moved closer, her silhouette sliding into the ruin's shadow. Her bow gleamed in the falling dust, taut and ready.
The ember inside her wavered again. Fear threatened to smother it completely. But fear was still heat, wasn't it? Heat that could feed fire — if she let it.
Kotori drew in a breath that scraped her throat raw. "No. This isn't where it ends. He said he'd be there… but I have to be here too."
The next arrow tore into the beam beside her, snapping the wood and sending her sprawling. Her shoulder slammed into stone, pain bursting through her like molten metal. The shock lit something deep inside — not the calm she'd been striving for, but a surge, wild and unrefined.
Her heartbeat steadied not into serenity, but into a drumbeat for war. She let the panic burn, let it feed the ember rather than snuff it out. Anger threaded itself into the fire, weaving with desperation. Then, it happened. The flame that was being threatened to be blown out, was grasped. The anger, the thought of Shido, everything that fell into Kotori's hands and the weight of it all on her shoulders, it pissed something off within her. A familiar feeling that tore through each spirit, well all expect for one.
Kotori's eyes shot opened, the familiar burning feeling of flames came to life, yeah sure, it was still a weak flame. But, it was enough to at least give her a fighting edge on things, or an escape...yes, she needed to escape, to recharge. Kotori had gone inverse, not like before when she fought Bambietta, she had only gone inverse for now. To get herself some distance between her and Meninas.
"You're only delaying the inevitable." Meninas spoke, her voice echoing in the collapsed hall beyond the wall and rubble that separated the two. The Shadows danced around her and Kotori, the distance sounds of war still raging on, filled the air. Meninas hadn't forgotten she could use the shadows to move to where she needed to, she was toying with Kotori. Waiting for the spirit to lose all hope, so she could snuff her out.
Kotori swallowed dryly but turned her gaze to the cracked and crumbling ceiling, which was being held up by a single pillar. Thinking quickly, Kotori erupted in a burst of flames, flew straight up, through the crumbling ceiling, and out of the building. This action had made more weight be pressed down upon the pillar. Breaking, the entire building caved in on itself. Falling on top of Meninas, but Kotori knew it wasn't over. For now, she needed to gain some distance.
Hovering down a few feet from the building, Kotori's inverse form vanished. She fell and tumbled onto a roof and slid down, before landing on the ground with a soft thud. Kotori's throat was sore and dry, her breathing was heavy, taking in the fresh air the best she could without taking in the scent of smoke and ash.
As the building caved in around Meninas and began to collapse onto her, the Quincy was quick to sink into the shadows, but didn't go unharmed. She had ended up with a few cuts on her, but by the time she emerged from the fallen building and its shadow. Meninas glanced around the surroundings, she couldn't tell where Kotori was at, not at first. But she had a feeling she knew where she may have gone.
Kotori's legs gave way as she stumbled through the rubble-strewn alleys of what used to be a Soul Reaper barracks. Every step felt heavier than the last — her inverse form had burned through more of her spiritual energy than she'd realized. The embers in her chest flickered faintly; too faint for her liking. If Meninas found her now, the fight would be short, and Kotori knew it.
She ducked into a leaning, half-collapsed structure, its walls scorched and sagging under the weight of smoke and debris. Inside, the air was stale, but it carried less of the acrid sting from the battlefield. Kotori pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe slowly despite the pounding in her ears. "Just a few minutes... I need a few minutes…"
But the war outside didn't care about minutes. Each distant explosion shuddered through the ruins, and somewhere — too close — came the faint creak of stone under shifting weight. Shadows pooled unnaturally in the corridor ahead, stretching along the cracked floor toward her hiding spot. Kotori froze.
Meninas was moving deliberately, her presence like a cold current beneath the surface. The Quincy's footfalls were silent, but the way the shadows warped felt like the pressure of a predator's gaze. Kotori reached instinctively for her flames — then stopped. There was barely enough to light a spark, and she couldn't waste it now.
The sound came again — a faint scrape of boot on stone — followed by silence. Meninas was searching. Testing. She didn't need to rush; she had the advantage.
Kotori's mind raced. Running would give her away, but staying meant risking being cornered. Her body screamed for rest, but her instincts told her to move. She turned toward the back of the building, where a jagged breach in the wall led out into a narrow passage between two ruined towers. She slipped through, each movement careful to avoid loose debris.
The passage was tight and strewn with fallen beams, but it offered something valuable — cover. Kotori crouched low, ears straining, and heard the faint displacement of air behind her. Meninas wasn't walking anymore; she was letting the shadows pull her forward. Hunting her from below.
She knows. Kotori had to act quickly, if Meninas was anything or at least close to that of Kurumi, using the shadows to her advantage was bad for her. One wrong move and it lights out for her.
Kotori reached the end of the passage and found herself at a collapsed courtyard. Broken flagstones lay scattered like teeth, and the skeletal remains of cherry blossom trees stood blackened against the smoke-choked sky. She moved toward one of the trees, ducking beneath its gnarled branches. A memory flickered — festivals in the Soul Society, petals drifting in the wind. That was before.
~~~
Meninas rose from the darkness like a wraith, her eyes sharp, mouth curling into something between amusement and hunger. "You run well," she said, her voice low but carrying. "But even flames burn out."
Kotori gritted her teeth. "Maybe," she rasped, voice raw, "but ash can still choke you."
Without warning she kicked up a burst of dust and splintered wood from the courtyard floor — not flames, but enough to obscure Meninas's vision for a heartbeat. Using the moment, Kotori darted toward a fragmented stairway leading higher into the ruins.
Meninas stepped through the settling debris, her cuts glinting faintly with moisture, smile fading into something colder. Kotori's maneuver had bought her seconds, no more.
The stairway groaned under her weight, but Kotori hauled herself up, ignoring the fire in her lungs. She reached the upper level — an open platform overlooking the wreckage of the district — and dropped to her knees near the edge. From here she could see the distant flicker of ongoing battles, silhouettes of figures clashing beneath burning skies. The chaos might hide her if she could make it there.
Then, something unthinkable happened. The sound of approaching footsteps, no...not a normal slow and steady pace, fast...these footsteps were fast, running almost. Kotori couldn't tell who it belonged to, she bit her lower lip. Hoping it wasn't any Quincy, she tried to see who. but all the rising black smoke from the fallen buildings made it hard for her to see who.
The wind shifted, carrying the scent of scorched wood and something colder. Down below. Meninas was silent, the eerie silence filled the air. Kotori didn't like this, she began to wonder what the Quincy was planning, but she didn't want to know. But she still needed time to recover and have her powers recharge.
Suddenly, the air had grown colder. Kotori glanced down, trying to see what was happening. Her eyes widened, not in terror or horror. But in surprise and a small sigh of relief escaped her lips, she saw her. Scarlet, was there, standing behind Meninas. "Scarlet!" Her voice came out dry and scratchy.
Meninas heard Kotori from above, the Quincy looking up, a smirk played at her lips. She didn't believe what Kotori was saying. But she didn't know that, the words the spirit spoke were true. "You seriously want me to buy that? Ha! News flash, Liltotto had your friend as a mid battle snack, or did that thought and scene make you realize she's dead."
Scarlet, who was standing behind her, let out a dark chuckle. "Is that so?"
Kotori heard the chuckle, not thinking much of it. Was silently cheering, she was saved. But something in the pit of her stomach told her, something was off. She ignored that feeling. Meninas slowly turned around, before the Quincy could fire an arrow from her bow. Or even activate her Vollstandig to fly back or away....Scarlet swiped her nails across her face.
At first, it seemed like nothing happened, but then. Meninas' head soon split in half, her head had been split. Meninas' upper head slid off from the lower half of her head. "H-How....when did?" Those were the last words that came from her mouth, her body fell forward as blood gushed out.
The Quincy's blood sprayed all over Scarlet, Kotori slowly got up to her feet as she descended down from where she was. The more she descended, the more that uneasy feeling in her stomach grew.
Scarlet stood there, bathed head to toe in red crimson blood. Her ears perked at the sound of Kotori's footsteps, and the panting from the spirit. Turning her head slowly to the side, Scarlet grinned at the sight of the tired and worn out Kotori. "So....you've finally left yourself open....good." A small flash and a twinkle of murder was seen her eyes. Kotori had no idea this wasn't Scarlet, Scarlet was no longer in control of her body. Not anymore.