This chapter contains material that I do not own, they are the property of one of the following: Akira Toriyama, Yoshihiro Togashi, Rumiko Takahashi, Tite Kubo, Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, and Yuji Naka. Please support these excellent artists.
I eyed down my new opponent. His left eye was gone, I could keep to that side easily. However the way he held his sword, he was a true master. I will be killed if I take him lightly. I gripped my badge, hoping some of the Fullbring would work. Even in it's final form, it wasn't very useful; however it was the only chance I had at regaining my powers.
He motioned for me to attack. Taking my cue I tried to cut through his stance with speed. A second later the world was spinning, and I felt my back land heavily against the wall. It wasn't until a pushed myself up that I felt the cut, so fine, running in a perfect cross from my left shoulder to my right hip.
How, it had been his left eye, but this was so accurate. I was lucky it wasn't very deep; I heard rather than felt my blood land on the floor. My head was getting fuzzy, this was just what I needed. One more charge.
As I faced down death, I saw the arc of his sword, and reacted. Holding my badge out to stop the blow. Immediately I felt a warm sensation run down my arm. His blade had gone straight through the badge, and through my hand. I felt the badge fall into two pieces, heard them land separately on the floor. He slid the blade out, and swung again. I felt another slice run across me, right to left. I felt to the floor bleeding heavily.
“Ichigo.” I heard a voice, so familiar.
“Zangestu?” I was inside myself. The familiar world, filled with skyscrapers, whose shimmering surface was the one we walked on. Before me was a familiar face, rugged, and cloaked in black.
“Yes, I see you wish to talk with me?”
“Why can't I draw you out?” He seemed to consider for a minute.
“Ichigo, as a piece of your soul, I can only manifest when there is no conflict within your body. When you are in your soul form, there is no conflict, so I may manifest. Think, how did Ginjo manifest his Zanpakuto while retaining his human form?”
“I thought it was through Fullbring.”
“That was one method, but it is impossible if the soul and body reject each other. Even when you activated your Fullbring you didn't bring out my power.”
“So why doesn't the badge work?”
“This world.”
“What?”
“This world has different rules. The other Shinigami are going to have the same troubles, this world does not allow a soul to be separate from a body.”
“So I have to bring my body and soul together?”
“Yes. However only you know the conflict of your heart.” I thought for a while, I had no idea how time passed while I was here, but I assumed Zoro wasn't going to just kill me, Rukia was probably even patching me up. Such a weak body. I felt my power lessen just thinking about it.
“Wait.” Zangetsu was smiling down at me. “That's it isn't it. I look down on my human body because I think it's weak.”
“That would be enough, at least for now.”
“But...”
“It's impressive that you held up. Even holding back, that swordsman has a tremendous amount of power. Possibly more than you. Yet your body took those blows, and is still well enough to fight.” I felt something click in my mind, power was surging through my veins. I felt my consciousness flowing back to my body.
My eyes flickered open, Rukia jumped backwards, cutting off the roll of surgical tape. Power was flowing out of me. Zoro watched me carefully as I held my hand out, instinctively.
“Piasu ten Zangetsu!” The words just came to me, and as I said them I felt a familiar weight take form in my hand. My blade, to an outsider it would look like a sheer hunk of metal, there was no protective hilt, just a cloth wrapping around the thin part of the sword. The blade was almost as long as I was tall, and the cutting edge had a sterling silver glimmer. I stood tall, my energy sealing my wounds. Rukia backed even further away. Zoro just grinned at me.
“I'm ready for the next round.” I called out to him. Rukia looked like she wanted to stop me, but didn't. Zoro just kept the same look on his face and drew two blades. This time he attacked. I saw him coming though and stopped both blades. Despite that he still began pushing me back, his power was enormous.
I found footing and pushed back, breaking the lock and grazing his cheek. He looked like he was about to laugh.
“I think we should get a serious workout. I'm interested to see what you can do.” He had sheathed his blades again, but was still guarded. I watched as he reached into a pocket, drawing out an old weathered green cloth. He gently, calmly tied it over his head, just above his eyes. Then with the same grace he took out one of his blades, pure white like snow; and gripped in in his mouth before drawing his other two swords. He was ready, and the pressure he was giving off was enormous. I knew it was my turn; I was curious as to how far I could push myself. So I held my blade out again.
“Bankai.” I said, calling out the depths of power from within. It enveloped me, around my shoulders a tattered black cloak fell. My blade's form changed, becoming a pure black. This one had a hilt, and was roughly the proper length for a katana. Rukia had pretty much left the room at this point. We hesitated for a moment, before moving as one.
He moved at an incalculable speed. Even with my own speed enhanced, it was all I could manage to block and dodge his rapid and deadly attacks. Finally I felt our blades lock, and almost immediately he used the pressure to bounce backwards. Immediately he began spinning his blades rapidly.
“Kokujo... O Tatsumaki!” I heard him call his attack, but was more concerned with the enormous whirlwind that had been formed. I could tell the winds would slice through just about anything they collided with, so I prepared my own move, feeling power rush into my blade.
“Getsuga Tensho!” I launched the energy in mass at the center of the whirlwind. The two powers exploded into each other, shaking the room before dispersing. Zoro was smiling, two of his blades were held straight behind his back. On instinct I placed my hand to my face, gathering more energy.
“Rengoku Oni Giri!” His next strike was blindingly fast, and left a cross-shaped scar in the diamond wall behind me. Fortunately, my hollow mask had worked perfectly, and I had crossed the room. Despite that a chunk of the mask fell off as the dust settled. I saw where I had managed to graze his robe. There was a little blood seeping out of the cut. He turned and sheathed his blades. I pulled off my mask, and lowered my sword.
“You're a strong opponent, stronger than the man who taught me.” He gave me a slight bow. “I'd enjoy sparring with you again, when you can use all of your power.” He left, I realized if he hadn't held back I probably would have lost my head. Still it was interesting that my body could even handle activating my hollow mask. I let my sword revert and was surprised when it returned to it's very first form. A plain buster sword, which was taller than I was. I also quickly realized I was still in my tee and jeans, the black cloak had faded with my Bankai; so I used an old trick with my energy to hook the blade to my back before heading out to find Rukia to tell her what I had learned.
Comments:
The first of the bonus chapters, usually taking from a characters point of view during a climatic scene or changing event. Either that or really cool fights, and if I run out of things to do backstory if always good.
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