Momentum, Velocity, Speed, different words sharing one meaning:
Unstoppable Force. As the Shinigami showed with their actions, the only way to beat force is with force. Or so they thought.
With the Kototsu barrelling towards the Seireitei unhindered, safely confined below ground it became not only unstoppable, not only untouchable, but unreachable. Unreachable to all but the most flexible, the most versatile of opponents. Enter: Captain Kojima.
Known as the most versatile of the Captains, it was only Maho’s Zanpakuto that could find its way slithering through the cracks of the underground tunnels. The liquid metal oozing through any crack and crevice, moving through gaps ranging from the size of a fist to no larger than a quarter. The free-flowing zanpakuto moving on its own to keep up with the Kototsu. While above ground, the Captain pushes every once of his body to catch up. He accelerates, exceeding his physical limits and then some. Through will alone, he presses on. The burning fire of his soul hotter than the searing pain he feels. Soon,
The Dragon catches aflame, and in a miracle of speed, catches up.
Then, he disappears.
In his place, the black-metal of his Zanpakuto.
Now it is Captain Kojima who stands below ground. Having used his unique ability to switch places with his Zanpakuto. Fortunately for Maho, he did so in a cavern large enough for him to stand, previously carved out by his malleable blade. For just a moment, the rumbling seems distant, for just a moment there is peace. Then Maho’s entire world becomes disorienting. The insane speed at which the Kototsu rushes overhead causes a massive eruption of noise and wind, like a train flying past as a man stands on its platform. However, despite all his shortcomings, Maho Kojima is still a Captain of the Gotei Thirteen. His resolve stays strong, his will unquenchable, as his body smolders and burns, he looks on with determination.
Standing perpendicular to the Kototsu, Captain Kojima matches force with force. If the enormous mass of tendrils cannot have its momentum stopped, then perhaps it can have it altered. A gamble, to be sure, but one that proved true as Captain Kojima’s hands of black extend and spiral, creating a whirlwind of pressure that forces the Kototsu upwards. It crashes through stone and sand, unable to absorb the earth as quickly as it is forced against it. Its body is berated with blunt force as it smacks against the roof of its underground refuge. Until finally, it breaches the earth, its position just a couple feet from the walls of the Seireitei.
As the Kototsu’s body erupts from the soil, all reishi in the immediate area goes wild, flailing in the air, caught up in the whirlwind surrounding it. The area around the massive slug-like creature becomes distorted in what can only be described as a vortex of time. Caught in the torrent of time, the walls of the Seireitei crack, then repair, rapidly aging then de-aging. The damage caused by the Captain Commander is rendered nonexistent, before the walls glamorous white fades to yellow, and cracks again. This process causes a crater all the way up the wall’s surface, and directly in the path of one Captain Kagayaki, as the Kototsu is launched upwards through the air.
Where once the Kototsu increased in size and speed, now the only thing that seems to increase is its distance from the ground. Higher and higher it soars, propelled by Captain Kojima’s impressive display of power. Until finally, the power of wind and flame exceeds the power of the Captain’s will, and he collapses. For a moment, the Kototsu lulls in the air, not yet descending so much as hovering. Then, right at the moment that it may begin to fall, the Kototsu is barraged by another gust of wind, this time from a powerful kido. The torrent of force causes the Kototsu to spiral, a victim to the quick action of one Tenzen Oda. At first, the Kototsu does not raise any higher, the weight of its body being caught by the kido before it can be thrown by it.
This affords some time for another shinigami to act, the brave Lieutenant Nibui Ueki. Using the roots of his blood thirsty Bankai, the Lieutenant issues a ground assault. Launching stone, rock, earth, and rubble, these twisted tendrils assail the Kototsu mid air. They crash against the beast’s already bruised and battered body, quick to be absorbed. However, like the assault of the Captain, like the Kido of the Third Seat, like the very being of the Kototsu, the Lieutenants attacks are relentless. Again, the Kototsu cannot absorb the Reishi of the projectiles as quickly as they are launched, and so, as the assault continues, it slowly becomes more and more encased in stone.
Nibui’s barrage only ends once Tenzen’s Kido has propelled the Kototsu out of range. It soars higher and higher into the air, above the clouds, and into the infinite blue of the Soul Societies endless sky. Until its height reaches a point too far out of range for any shinigami to reach, and the whirlwind kido fades away.
The quick thinking of Captain Maho had worked. There the Kototsu turned mass of stone hovers above the clouds, now three hundred feet wide by six hundred feet long. It is too far removed from any soul to cause damage, too distant from any object to increase in size, and has no footing to increase its speed. Its momentum was halted, its velocity ceased. Well.
Forwards at least.
Encased in stone, titanic in size, the Kototsu begins to plummet downwards. An asteroid of catastrophic proportions. As it descends it mimics that of Captain Kojima. Its speed increases so rapidly that the stone surrounding it begins to glow red hot. The friction of the air grinding against it like sandpaper until suddenly an intense blaze of flame erupts around it, encasing it in fire. It plummets towards the soul society, an omen of death and destruction. Should it hit the ground, the impact would be enough to destroy the entirety the Seiretei, and perhaps the entirety of the Soul Society itself. An extinction event, an existence wide destructive apocalypse that might mean the end of every Shinigami and Soul not trapped in the Human World.
Its momentum unhindered, its velocity at its maximum, its speed unparalleled, the Kototsu has truly become, and Unstoppable Force.
