[13th Division] 妹妹的武训练 - Mitsu's Combat Training Session

[Valaric]

Val took a single step backwards as he watched Mitsu change tactics, springing from side to side and he stopped watching with sharp distinction, letting his focus for clear sight and shifted to only tracking her movements. He raised his hands before him, hands levelled with his eyes as he locked down her motion in his eyes and waiting for only the singular moment to act as her sword came flashing in for his throat.

As it came flying in from the left, he stepped around in the opposite direction, raising his left arm and blocking her forearm which held the sword, the sword stopping a fraction from his face. His hand twisting into a claw, he let it slide down her arm, locking around her wrist in a vice-like grip. With another movement, he drove his right leg forward and placing it behind hers.

Drawing back his free hand, he drove it forward in a palm strike aimed for her sternum, simultaneously pushing backwards with his right leg to reap her legs out from underneath her.

[Mitsune05]

Mitsu noticed that Val stepped backwards only a little. A frown appeared on her face, knowing he didn't need more than that to come up with another attack and show her that she still had to work. When she was just about to slash him, Val caught her forearm which held the sword and dodged her attack. The female shinigami frowned again and narrowed her eyes, looking straight to Val. She was so close, but at the same time to far to get her attack done. For a second she thought she had no chance against him. Then, she tried to pull back from his grip, but the man already locked his fingers around her wrist, making it impossible. A second later she was already flying in the air, before she felt her back hitting the ground and her sword landing right next to her. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, before opening them again and seeing the sakura tree branches a few meters above her. Mitsu let out a sigh, before she placed her hands on the ground and got up, grabbing her katana too and getting her battle stance once again. She looked to her elder brother with a serious expression. The girl wasn't going to release her shikai too soon either. She was slightly ashamed that she couldn't do more than that either.

Mitsu thought for a moment what to do. It was almost impossible to trick him, since he was way stronger and faster than her. Using kidou wasn't a wise option either, since she could lose a lot of reiatsu in attacks that she would most likely waste. The young shinigami needed to come up with a good plan and try to catch her Gege with his guard down. Knowing his martial art skills, she knew it would be difficult, but she was going to give it a try anyway. Mitsu closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breathe, before she leaned a bit forward and rushed towards the other shinigami.

She kept calm the whole time. If she was going to fail, Mitsu would get up again and retry to get that done, even if it took her a century. She was holding her zanpakutou in her right hand, with her fingers locked around the hilt very tightly. She appeared right in front of Val, flexing her knees and turning her body facing left, but with her eyes still on him. She turned her right arm too, so the hilt of her sword would go under his guard and she would hit his stomach. In case that would work, Mitsu placed her right foot behind his, causing him to fall if he wasn't careful.

[Valaric]

Taking a few paces back, Val watched as Mitsu got back up and tried again, not letting her past failed attempts to hold her back and suppress her spirit. That was good. He could feel her focusing harder and that was what she'd need if they were to progress further with her training, with her spiritual growth. Whether she knew it or not, she was approaching the level by which she'd be able to unlock her zanpakutou's final release and that could only be achieved through battle.

She appeared before him, twisting her body as she thrust forward with her blade under his guard towards his gut. Springing off his back leg, he leapt in to the air, legs splitting wide out to either side while holding his zanpakutou horizontally before him, pressing down with both hands. His blade pushed her sword beneath him harmlessly and he landed lightly to the side as Mitsu attempted her follow up with a reap for his forward leg.

His weight remained on his back leg, allowing him to lift his left lightly, sweeping up with hers but allowing him to draw it back, chambering it for a kick and dropping it with a sharp tap to the side of her knee, powerful enough to temporarily hobble her rather than breaking the attacking leg.

[Mitsune05]

Mitsu kept missing hit after hit until that started to get on her nerves slightly. "Hmph." could be heard from her after every hit she was missing, but everytime she was trying harder. It seemed almost impossible though, since she couln't find any weakness in her Gege's battle style. As she hit, Val dodged and blocked the hilt of her sword. Her eyes narrowed, but it wasn't over yet. Trying to make him lose his balance didn't work at all. He remained on his feet. And not only that he managed that, but he also aimed to kick her.

Seeing him moving his leg, Mitsu sdenly jumped backward on her arms, then back on her knees, keeping a safe distance from her brother. She looked to him and narrowed her eyes more, before she sighed slightly and whispered.

"Enough. Nagarere, Seikon!" she shouted wind burst around her and her weapon transformed into a katana fan. Without saying any word, the girl slashed her fan from up to down, sending a sharp blast of air towards the captain of 13th division.

[Valaric]

The ground shook a fraction as Val's foot stamped down, leaving a faint imprint of his sandal as Mitsu slipped away from him, evading his crippling strike and retreating out of harms way. He dragged his foot back, returning to a neutral standing stance while observing her carefully through his spiritual vision. He could track her movements without even facing her but she needed to get used to facing a normal opponent before being able to fight less conventional opponents. His zanpakutou was clutched lightly in his grasp as he watched her ready her own sword, a momentary build up of reiatsu giving him a prewarning of her next actions just as she released her shikai.

Her familiar katana-fan emerged from where her single blade had been moments before and she wasted no time unleashing its power, slashing downwards with her zanpakutou and casting a blast of air towards him. It cut through the air, crossing the distance between them in a flash, coming close enough to ruffle his close-cropped hair before he was gone, a step back followed by a flash step carrying him backwards away from the attack. His blade was held in his right hand and with a lateral cut, he slashed the wind attack apart with the edge of his weapon.

Still flying backwards through the air, he pressed a hand to the metal of his zanpakutou, the cold edge seeming to become chillier still as it resonated with his spirit, the blade in perfect synchrony with his being. It began to darken, the silvery steel taking on a shadowy tinge as he released his zanpakutou, an explosion of darkness escaping from all around him as he whispered the command;

"Kage o Yobiyosere, Hikari o Zansure, Kokuten Hisetsu..."

Shadows crept in all around them, washing through the trees as their whole environment seemed to rapidly descend into darkness. His awareness of his surroundings was magnified in an instant and he raised a hand, his consciousness picking out countless molecules of water in the air as easily as he might pick up a grain of sand between his fingers. With a clenched fist, they merged together, hundreds of shards of ice forming around him as he drew back his hand.

"Prepare yourself, Meimei... Your proper training begins here..."

In the blink of an eye, he cast his hand forward, the freezing projectiles he'd creating exploding forward with blinding speed towards her, distributed with a two metre radius spread to engulf her if she didn't act fast enough, powered with enough force to lacerate his younger sister from head to toe should her guard remain down.

[Mitsune05]

Mitsu's eyes opened widely as she saw how easy Val managed to stop her attack. Of course, she didn't expect her blast of air to harm him, but it made her look so weak. She jumped back a few meters, to keep a safe distance between them. She knew that once she released her shikai, her older brother was going to increase the strength of his attacks too, and she knew that it wasn't going to be easy at all. The girl heard him whispering something and opened her eyes widely as the area surrounding them was suddenly dark. Mitsu looked around and tried to see if she had a way to escape; but no exit. Then she looked again to Val and frowned slightly, ready to get, block or dodge any attack, now matter how risky it was.

She took a deep breathe as Val said that her proper training was about to begin. The young shinigami needed to relax and concentrate on what she had to do, instead of running away. She frowned slightly, before she nodded and spoke, more to herself than to her Gege

"Okay, let's get this done... no need to rush."

After she whispered those words, she watched Val's shikai. The blade went black, and all around him were shards of ice. She had a weird feeling that he was going to do something with them. They looked so sharp and dangerous, that if they were stabbing her body, she was going to have a big pain. She watched his hand carefully, beore she moved her eyes to the shards. Seeing that they were following her hand movement, Mitsu decided to keep her guard up and jump whenever he would send them towards her.

And he did so. But they were way too many, and the young shinigami had no idea what to do. Dodging would be risky, and taking the hit wasn't wise. She needed all the energy she could use, and wasting it wasn't the wisest thing she could do. The only way to make everything a bit easier was to use Bakudo. Mitsu placed her katana-fan in front of her, before she shouted aloud.

"Bakudo no San Juu Kyu: Enkosen!"

A shield of condensed reiatsu appeared in front of her, blocking the shards on their way. After she made sure no more shards were coming towards her, Mitsu looked around, before she jumped from where she was and vanished in a shunpo, re-appearing behind her older brother and sending another blast of air towards him, keeping a closer distance than last time though.

[Valaric]

His pale white eyes glowed with faint, ethereal light as they took in everything, immediately reading the world around him in spectrums far beyond that of normal sight. He could picture the entire terrain for miles around, a kaleidoscope of whirling lights and pulses of life intertwined with each other. He could see Mitsu before him, pick out each and every opening in her stance and guard, track the hundreds of possible movements that she might use to protect or evade against the thousands of potential attacks he could bring to bear, each course of future playing themselves out in his mind in an instant.

The blast of ice shards he sent at Mitsu crashed and shattered against a shield of condensed reiatsu she’d raised between them and even as she disappeared, using her flashstep to evade and appear behind him, coming around on a blindside that didn’t exist for him, and proceeded to launch another blast of wind at him, faster and released at closer range than the first one. Still hovering in the air, the 13th captain whipped around to meet the threat, acting entirely on instinct.

Val charged. There was no hesitation in the captain’s movements as his first foot step slammed down onto the earth, propelling him forward in a sudden of burst of speed to follow on after his first initial attack. He let his own body control his movements, the muscles remembering such actions carried out hundreds if not thousands of times over. For a shinigami who had been fighting wars since before most of the current Gotei 13 had even been alive, combat was as natural as breathing and there was barely a need to rely on conscious thought to dictate exactly where his weapon would next fall, how to slide around an opponent’s guard and pierce their heart.

His hands slid along the length of his zanpakutou, the weapon lengthening as it took on its fully released appearance; a naginata with both blade and haft as black as midnight. Stabbing forward, the blade with an edge sharp enough to cleave lightning, blazing with his own reiatsu, tore the attack an half. It drew back as Val kept coming, continuing his full speed charge where any lesser enemy may have been slowed, raising his free left hand as it flickered with rapidly expanding flames.

“Hadou no San Juu San: Soukatsui…”

Less than a dozen metres away, he hurled the spell towards his younger sister, a roar of blue flames exploding from the palm of his hand in a rapidly expanding cloud of searing heat, its burning core aimed for the centre of her chest.

[Mitsune05]

Her attempts were failing one by one, making Mitsu feel almost totally unable to improve. She was trying hard - maybe not as hard as she really could though - but it seemed like she didn't have any way to improve. But at that moment she was safe, although it was for short term. Every second that she could use to rest a bit mattered. And every move that ended up to be more or less successful was a good way to keep her moral up. But at that moment it wasn't time for silly games and simple attacks. She had to think of a strategy, but she had nothing in mind. The instinct was the one acting for her. Although her instinct was right most of the times, there were cases when it was wrong, so her brain had to come up with strategies. So far, she didn't see any weak points for Val, because everything she tried failed and she returned back where she began from. Nothing.

As he turned to her, a frown appeared on Mitsu's mind. His moevements were smooth and fast, quite hard to keep up with for someone who was her level. Seeing this, the girl stepped backwards again and watched the weapon going fully released. She watched with amazement how his new, black bladed sword broke her attack in two pieces as nothing happened. But her guard remained up, knowing for sure that it wasn't over yet. Where it was an attack, there was a contra-attack too. Mitsu's eyes opened widely as Val whispered the chant for a kidou. She heard which one he would use, but it was too late to run away, not to mention that blocking the kidou was quite useless. Anything that would block her would finally break and let the flames burn her.

"You idiot..."

Mitsu opened her eyes widely again as the flames were approaching, hearing clearly a female voice. She could recognize it from one thousand voices: it was Seikon, her second soul. But why would she speak to Mitsu like that in a fight. She had a weird feeling about that, but the time wasn't enough to worry about that. The girl suddenly jumped to the right and tried to avoid the flames. She closed her eyes tightly, before she leaned her head down, as she was looking to the ground and whispered softly an incantation for another kidou.

"Hado no 73: Tozanshō!"

A pyramid formed around Mitsu and protected her against the blue flames. She kept her eyes closed and let them run around the pyramid, until she made sure that she could get out and prepare for another attack. She felt again as she felt in her shikai training. But the feelng was more intense and it felt like it put pressure on her chest. The young shinigami could feel her breathe heavier than usual, but she took a deep breathe of fresh air, before she shook her head and tried to get back to normal.

Mitsu placed her hands in front of her, holding the sword horizontally, then she quickly turned to Val's direction, narrowing her eyes and preparing to use another kidou. Her heart was beating fast, like crazy. She was nervous for the following attack, but although her body was shaking slightly, she whispered the words that would send the kidou to her older brother.

"Hado no 32: Ōkasen!"

An arc of yellow energy was sent towards her older brother. She really hoped it would work, but it wasn't likely to do so. She jumped in a tree and sent another blast of energy towards him, the last that she was going to use. But the young shinigami attempted one last time to use it, combining it with a kidou to make things more difficult for her Gege.

[Valaric]

The air grew hot around him, becoming supercharged with flames as his spell connected with a suddenly expanding pyramid shield of energy that Mitsu managed to raise just in time before the blue fire engulfed her. For a moment he thought she’d frozen and a flicker of doubt crossed his mind as he drew closer and closer to her. He felt the wind flowing through his lungs become thinner as he drew closer to her, his naginata carving a spinning web of darkness around him as he came on, unwilling to give her even a moment’s respite before pressing the attack once more. His mind rose to a higher level of consciousness that was reserved only for battle, commitment to the single purpose of defeating an opponent.

His internal senses picked out the surge of energy as his meimei prepared her next attack, a kidou spell and the counter-spell was on his lips even as he saw hers moving to utter the incantation to direct her power towards him. A stream of blazing yellow energy tore through the air towards him, but he met it head on, reaching out with his free hand once more and drawing on his own considerable spiritual force to redirect the spell. “Bakudou no Hachi: Seki…”

Instead of catching and attempting to contain the spell directly, he tilted his hand, altering the trajectory to take the force of the spell, holding it for a split-second before casting the hand away, diverting the power of the kidou away from him off at thirty degree angle like a mirror reflecting light. Not breaking stride, he kept moving, a blur of motion as he stabbed his zanpakutou down and used its shaft to vault skywards, letting the next blast of energy flash harmlessly underneath him. Flipping over in the air, he aimed down the length of his naginata, channelling his spell down it for greater accuracy.

“Bakudou no San Juu: Shitotsu Sansen…”

The binding spell shot from the end of his zanpakutou, three talons of light racing down to pin his younger sister down even as he began his descent, dropping from the skies with his naginata thrusting downwards in a powerful piercing technique aimed for her chest.

[Mitsune05]

Suddenly the girl woke up somewhere. She was pretty sure she was in that place before, but she couldn’t tell when. Mitsu blinked a few times, while laying on the cold earth, that was making her body freeze. Feeling shivers up her spine, the shinigami got up and tightened her shihakusho around her, before wrapping her arms around her body. She noticed that there was no zanpakutou attached to her hip, although she was pretty sure that she took it before she left from her room in barracks. Mitsu looked around, but she couldn’t spot it. A bit afraid of anything that could happen, she started to desperately search for her katana, but it seemed to be nowhere.

“Tch… are you looking for this, Mitsu?”

When she heard that voice, the female shinigami turned her body and spotted a silhouette, somewhere at twenty meters away from her. She couldn’t tell who it was, because the fog was too thick and the view wasn’t clear. But Mitsu could tell that the person who was holding a katana in the right hand. Assuming it was her sword, she growled and frowned slightly. She couldn’t imagine how the other woman dared to steal her zanpakutou. She either wasn’t brave or she either felt like having some fun and mess with the shinigami. But the young girl didn’t have time for silly games, she had a training to finish. What she didn’t know though, was that the place and the other person from there were also a part of her training.

“Who are you? That’s my sword, give it back!”

Mitsu rushed to the other woman, without waiting for any answer, trying to grab her katana and get it back. But all the other woman did was to simply step aside and let Mitsu fall on the ground, remaining completely defenseless in front of her opponent. The girl rubbed her head for a couple of seconds, before she turned to the other person and narrowed her eyes. After a few seconds, she could already see the face of the person. Her green eyes opened widely again when she realized that Seikon was the one who wanted to annoy Mitsu. And that was the inner world. The fog, the forest – she was indeed in Seikon’s world. Seikon grinned and placed the sword on her right shoulder, before walking away and shouting to the shinigami.

“If you wanna stay there all day long, then it’s none of my business. I guess you don’t really wish to achieve bankai, otherwise you’d be excited right now. Am I right?”

With a confused look on her face, Mitsu got up from the ground and looked around. She let the air blow through her long, brown hair and closed her eyes, feeling the cool, slightly cold weather. She understood everything. She knew how she got there before.

“This place…” she whispered and opened her eyes again, smiling to Seikon. But the blue haired girl had a rather bored expression on her face, looking at Mitsu with her eyes narrowed. She wondered for a second if the shinigami wanted or not to achieve the dream of her life. Seikon sighed slightly, before she scratched the back of her head and shouted again.

“Do NOT tell me you’re gonna go so emotional in a moment like this, Mitsu. We don’t have time for that. Out there you’re about to be fried and you think about philosophical stuff? Please, give me a break; you’re here either to fight, either to have a vacantion. And from what I know, you just had one, so better move your lazy body and do some work.”

Mitsu felt slightly offended and growled slightly. She was used with the rudeness of Seikon, but that was something usual. Seikon never wanted to admit Mitsu was the dearst person to her, although she knew it.

“Tch… rude as always.” She paused and sighed, then continued to speak. “I can’t do much about it. Now that you insist so much, what exactly do you want me to do?”

Seikon smirked slightly and stuck the sword in the ground, before she turned to Mitsu and whispered, enough for the shinigami to hear.

“Ahahaha, well it seems it will be my way, eh? Well… what about a fight. One versus one, no weapons or dirty tricks. Since you’re as good in hakuda as you pretend, maybe you can amaze me with your skills. You have skills: prove them.”

“So I get you doubt about me? How can I be sure I’ll win this fight? I mean, we’ve met before, but I’m not sure how it would be to fight against you.”

“Are you afraid of me?” Seikon asked, her smirk getting wider and her arms folding in front of her chest, feeling somehow good that Mitsu looked so weak in front of her. She knew that a shinigami wasn’t the same without their zanpakutou. “You’re practically fighting against your own power. Is that so scary?”

Not sure about what to reply, Mitsu looked away and sighed slightly. Indeed, she was afraid. What if she wasn’t going to achieve bankai? She knew that any training was a good opportunity to improve, but she knew that the opportunity to use bankai was rare compared to trainings. Missing that chance would be such a waste for her. And Seikon knew how to put pressure on her and make her feel like she had no choice but fight. She looked again to the blue haired girl and frowned.

“So what’s your answer? You let all those years while you worked hard to get here and all the trainings waste? You’re gonna disappoint your gege and show him how incapable and pathetic you are? What about your division? They’ll surely consider you their weak point.”

“No… of course not, why would I let them waste?”

“Because you hesitate. I can’t help you if you’re not determined and confident? You have to go in a fight thinking you’ll gonna win, not that you’re gonna fight. You have to keep your moral up, no matter what. The battle is already lost if you say you can’t win fron the beginning.”

“I want this more than anything right now! Indeed, I worked hard, but you’re not helping me at this moment.”

“Prove me you’re worth my help. I can’t let my power go in the possession of someone who can’t handle it. You see, it’s not easy to control your attacks.”

The shinigami started to think again. Was she capable to fight Seikon and show her she was indeed worth the power? Her mind told her she was, but he body was shaking nervously, and it was hard to give an answer right away. The zanpakutou spirit kept smiling, before she closed her eyes and whispered softly:

“The choice is yours.”

Mitsu clenched her fist tightly, before she started to run and scream, trying to catch Seikon with her guard off. It was her way to say ‘yes’ to the training. The spirit opened her eyes widely and raised an eyebrow, before she dodged, simply by stepping aside and let Mitsu’s fist hit a tree. The punch was so powerful and out of control, that it made a hole in the tree. The shinigami frowned, while her eyes changed their colour from green to bright red. Seeing this, Seikon seemed a little surprised, but then everything went back to normal and Mitsu’s eyes went back to their initial colour.

The young shinigami turned slowly, with her face looking to the ground and with her arms kept near her body. Seikon sighed and placed her hand on her forehead, before she spoke again to Mitsu.