>>1560
Tessa fought alongside Uryuu and Rukia against the horde of Hollows-Rukia managing to hold her own surprisingly well, thanks to her absurdly refined Focus and Essence Materia which gave her an abundance of spiritual might which she could control with remarkable skill. The trickiest part of the whole battle for Tessa wasn't preventing casualties-but /holding back/ so she didn't give the game away. The Gillian Menos near the end nearly pushed her into using enough power to seriously alert Soul Society, but Tessa figured out a trick using Soul Menace to focus her Reiatsu to a fine point and cut the Menos down without actually using much power. After that whole debacle Tessa would've loved to have some downtime to relax...but a much chubbier Rukia was sneaking out of her bakery that very night to go and turn herself in to Soul Society, and Tessa couldn't allow that.
Tessa confronted Rukia, Renji, and Byakuya as Rukia tried to turn herself in and claimed that Rukia hadn't broken any of Soul Society's laws...because it was not illegal for a Shinigami to share her powers with another Shinigami. She revealed that she was, in fact, the Deathwitch-banished from Soul Society hundreds of years ago and living amongst humanity, having hidden this fact even from Rukia herself with masterful Spirit Control. She even utilized Soul Separation to purge Rukia's energy from her own soul and send it back to Rukia...with a small tracer of her own spirit so that she could detect and influence Rukia's soul even across worlds. Byakuya tried to intervene at this point and strike Tessa down, but Tessa was more than powerful enough and skilled enough to bat her around like a toy-especially when Byakuya's powers were sealed to 20% in the living world while she could happily access her full might. Rukia felt somewhat betrayed, but Tessa asserted that their relationship was true even if the idea that she was a human was false. Eventually Byakuya was forced to retreat, taking Rukia with her.
But obviously, Aizen still pulled bullshit charges through Central 46 to get Rukia executed-fraternizing with a Traitor to Soul Society was a reasonable sounding one, even though Rukia herself hadn't known this until the last moment. So Tessa invaded Soul Society WITHOUT the assistance of the rest of the Karakura squad. They volunteered to help, but she had asked them to stay behind and protect Karakura; this was her own business to take care of, and unlike them she was a grown-ass woman who could deal with it. Yoruichi still joined her on the trip, though her and Tessa mutually kept the facade of not acknowledging the fact that they both knew who the other was. As Tessa passed through the Dangai she briefly considered undergoing an explosive training period; it wouldn't be too difficult for her to figure out a method for calming the Dangai and even establishing a safe spot free of the Kototsu. But for now, she decided she didn't need that.
Tessa invaded Soul Society as a one-woman army, shattering the walls of the Seireitei in utter defiance of all logic and reason using mystical arts that nobody in this world had ever seen before. Despite that, it was merely expected of her as the Lady Deathwitch to be capable of such things; even when she was fairly weak spiritually in her background, such was her mystical skill that she was more than qualified to join the Zero Squad, and at this point she was far from spiritually weak. It was expected that the Shinigami would fight to the death against their enemies, but few of the unseated or even lesser Seated officers were willing to so much as stand in her way as she casually walked straight through Soul Society. Such was the simple might, respect, and fear that the title of Lady Deathwitch commanded. She made no secret of her coming, made no effort to hide her actions or even rush herself. She didn't need to.
The (universally female) Captains of the Gotei 13 assembled in force to stand in her way, thirteen of the most powerful souls amongst all the local realms. Standing against them was a single woman-short, chubby, but endlessly confident-with a black cat sitting on her shoulder. Tessa noted that she was merely here to prevent a wrongful execution. Yamamoto declared that as a traitor to Soul Society she was to be executed herself. She declared that Soul Society had betrayed her first, but it was more than expected of them to rewrite history to suit their own narrative. Still, that was neither here nor there; she had but one objective today, and that was to prevent a pointless tragedy. NOT to overthrow Soul Society, or take revenge or anything like that. Yamamoto noted that Central 46's rulings were clear: Tessa was to be exxecuted, and all who associated with her-knowingly or not-would be put to the sword. Tessa simply asked how Central 46 could come to such a ruling if they were all dead.
Aizen's murder and replacement of Central 46 was revealed all at once, and instead of the carefully laid plan she crafted Aizen was forced to reveal herself early, scramble to get to Rukia, and rip out the Hogyoku while Soul Society was still strong and organized. Tousen and Gin did what they could to spread chaos, and Aizen even called forth a few of her Espada to help, but it was still nowhere near the betrayal she had planned. She still managed to get away with the Hogyoku in the end, but lost Tousen and a few of her Espada in the trade...or so she thought at least, until she investigated the Hogyoku more closely after she settled into Las Noches. What she thought was the Hogyoku was, in fact, a fake that Tessa had crafted via her sheer skill with crystals and Materia. Aizen had no way of knowing that Tessa had used her own spiritual arts to quietly extract the Hogyoku from Rukia months ago and replace it with a fake, but she could guess. Well, there went a good couple hundred years of planning...she'd have to think of something to even the scales.
A tense sort of alliance was established between Tessa and Soul Society, neither of them exactly happy with the other but willing to work together until the greater threat of Aizen and her army was dealt with. That said, Tessa did hold strong to the fact that Soul Society couldn't exactly /restrain/ her or even inconvenience her very much. She'd researched the Descorrer and Kumon of Hollows and developed Kido that allowed her to do the same-as well as Materia which she could grant her friends and allies to allow them similar mobility. She and her allies could simply pass through worlds as she pleased regardless of what barriers Soul Society tried to establish. That wasn't even mentioning the Kido equivalent of Shadow Clones that she also invented, which made it all the more difficult for Soul Society to do anything about her; she could simply choose to send clones out and interact with others that way and they could never really know if she was the original or not. That and her sheer audacity to simply ignore Soul Society's threats and throw around her own overwhelming might for her whimms let Tessa get away with some truly silly bullshit.
Tessa was able to re-establish her relationship and even further seduce Rukia thanks to this tenuous alliance, and even made a few friends amongst the various Shinigami-such as Rangiku and Yachiru. The fact that Tessa was theoretically an enemy of Soul Society didn't stop her from joining the Shinigami Woman's Association, though it did mean that Soi Fon made a few attempts to assassinate her every now and again-failing each time as Tessa was able to use her own intellect and mystical skills to predict and prepare for such attempts while making it look utterly effortless. Tessa didn't give up her human life either-casually moving between Soul Society and Earth with just a wave of her hand and a flex of her spirit. She happily worked in her little bakery, spent time with the Karakura Squad, jumped back and forth between Earth and Soul Society, and enjoyed her life to the fullest despite the very frequent Hollow attacks, occasional assassination attempts, and storm of utter bullshit that consistently sought to drag her in.
Message too long. Click
here
to view full text.