Chapter 8
The Battle for Shark Week
(Just a reminder; All Battles in this Fic have the Special Rule stated from the Prologues that the Akatsuki Members can touch the Arrancars without Zanpakutō, just in case anyone forgot, thank you ^_^ )
A new battle takes place on a wide horizon-filled beach-land with miles of ocean creeping back and forth from the sandy banks. Standing withing the many sun-filled grains of sand stood two competitors staring down at each other. From the East Side, representing the Akatsuki, is the Monster of the Hidden Mist; Kisame Hoshigaki.
He was once a Member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, a Group of Assassins that each carry a special sword passed down from generation to generation, and his Sword was no exception. The Sword was nearly as tall as he was, bandaged up as if it went through so many battles, and it was dubbed "Shark Skin", and he wouldn't be anywhere without it.
To the West from the Espadas stood Tia Harribel, who also had a Sword, a Zanpakutō on her back. It was not as tall as she was, in fact, it was about half her size, but seeing as how she survived so far, there was more to her weapon than meets the eye.
"Well, well," chuckled Kisame with a toothy smirk, "Looks like I get to take on a rather stunning beauty such as yourself, just don't think I'd go easy on you."
"I was planning to say the same thing," Replied Harribel, "Those who have fought against me have perished withing the jaws of my might." She drew her sword slowly by slipping the pointer finger in her right hand into one of the holes of her guard, revealing the blade to be hollow. She then flung the blade downward, only for the entire weapon to spin in mid-air. Once she caught it, she took a stance.
"Really?" laughed Kisame, "You're too much, Woman! I am the Monster of the Hidden Mist, Kisame Hoshigaki, and to obtain Peace, I will destroy you!" He too drew his sword, slamming it into the sand, scattering the many sun-bathed grains about. "But before we begin, may I ask your name? I already told you mine."
"Tia Harribel," She answered after a slight pause, "The Teresa Espada, the 3rd Strongest of us all, but I will be the first to survive between the two of us."
"3rd Strongest?" He chuckled, "Lucky me!"
"You hear that and yet you become eager to fight me?" She asked and raised an eyebrow.
"Fight you?" He chuckled, "I'm eager to kill you!"
The two sword-wielders charged at each other swinging their blades at their opponents' for a singular, first stroke. The blades collided with a sharp clash, the sword fight has begun! Both combatants were great sword fighters, neither side gave an inch as each one swung their sword only to be blocked by the other and vice-versa. Soon enough, both warriors locked blades. Tia was maintaining her cool while Kisame felt alive to be fighting someone else that owned a sword.
"Not bad for a woman," sneered Kisame with delight, "My Shark Skin will enjoy ripping you to ribbons!"
Tia glared, Kisame seemed to be the opposite to the passive-tempered Tia. "So you delight in battling and killing, no remorse or regret can radiate from someone like you, it seems."
"Funny you should state the obvious," Cackled Kisame as he started to slowly overpower her while their blades locked, "And here's another obvious thing to point out; You won't last long if you keep fiddling with me like this!" He soon pushed her away, causing Tia to back up carefully while Kisame brought his sword upward, and then, as he grinned, he swung downward. Tia had to quickly block, in which she did, though the sheer force of Kisames' might forced her onto one knee.
Kisame grinned as he gridded his blade against hers, causing the bandages to rip from one side, once Kisame pulled his blade away, apart of the real blade was revealed; Spiny Scales, deep in a Blueish Color. Tia seemed shocked to see such a unique sword, sharp and yet no metal can be seen.
Kisame swung again, though Tia instantly vanished, in which Shark Skin struck the sand, causing it to scatter and fly. Kisames' eyes widened as Tia stood behind him, striking her blade through his chest. Kisame flinched, coughing in pain. "It's pitiful, having to throw your life away so recklessly..." She said coldly.
Yet, blood wasn't dripping from Kisames' mouth, but water! "Don't cry yet." He chuckled as another Kisame appeared behind her with his sword sideways and at the ready. Tia seemed surprised as she quickly pulled her blade away with her left hand, in which the first Kisame she stabbed dispersed as a Water Clone. Tia was an agile fighter, able to once again block his strike. The two swords people clashed blades once again, Tia kept dodging with Sonido while Kisame avoided the most lethal blows with his Water Clones.
They locked their blades once again. "This is fun!" laughed Kisame, "This is the kind of battle that makes my blood boil! The kind of battle that will be worth ending once my sword tastes your flesh!"
Tia had grown tired of hearing this coming from, yet another, oppressive male fighter. The inside of her hollow sword glowed yellow as she quickly pushed Kisame back, who was surprised at the unexpected turn, landing on his feet several yards back.
The yellow energy slowly overflowed from Tias' sword as she moved her sword into her right hand, slowly unzipping her jacket with the other, revealing her hidden "3" Tattoo, and her mask-remains in the form of teeth covering the lower half of her face, much like a sharks'.
"Well, well, seems that I'm not the only one affiliated with Sharks," Chuckled Kisame, "If I wasn't set on killing you, I would've tried flirting my way out instead, what a shame, really."
"I wouldn't be so keen on teasing me if I were you, now I'm serious..." The energy of her sword poured out more, in which Shark Skin shook with anticipation.
"Oh? Tasted a bit of her energy I see? Don't worry, you'll get more soon enough." Assured Kisame.
Tia glared as she jumped at Kisame with ferocity, the battle continued, clashing blades one time after another. Kisame smirked as he thrusted his blade at Tia, who blocked it with her sword, only to have her Zanpakutō...bitten! Tia seemed shocked as Shark Skin shrieked in delight, gnawing on her blade with teeth that were sharper than even Kisames'
"Excuse my Sword, he seems to love your energy so much that just a nibble won't quench him!" Laughed Kisame as he pulled her towards himself. Tia, stun by the shock of such a grotesque sword, was pulled in to be upper-cutted by Kisame, flying upward and letting go of her sword. The energy left the sword, forcing Shark Skin to spit it out. Kisame then jumped up with his sword pointed upward, hoping for a clean cut from above.
Tia regained her focus rather quickly and vanished the moment Kisame swung downward. Tia appeared by her sword, picking it up is it glowed yellow again, in which she then pointed it upward, launching multiple, yellow projectiles of spiritual energy known as "Ola Azul", the Blue Wave.
Kisame quickly blocked with Shark Skin, which shrieked in delight as if bathing in soothing warm water. Tia figured that using energy based attacks was useless, and also knew that Kisame has a certain affiliation with water from the Water Clones. Kisame landed and waited for the next move. "You want a true battle of Sharks? You'll have one." Stated Tia as she held her Zanpakutō in front of her with the blade pointed downward. "Destroy...Tiburon (Shark)..." She demanded as she became instantly engulfed in a heart-shaped vortex of water.
Kisame grinned, in which he knew she wasn't going all out before. The vortex soon dispersed once she cut through it. In this form, her clothes and Espada tattoo are gone. Her mask remnants become a collar, with extensions covering her nipples. She gained bone-like, spiny shoulder-pads on her shoulders, which bear a resemblance to shark fins, and two ribbon-like protrusions on her back. A thin, spine-like structure formed on her stomach, which spanned from her waist to the underside of her breasts. Harribel wore a mini-skirt which consisted of bones that surrounded a dark undergarment. She wore a pair of knee-length boots and elbow-length gloves. Her weapon took the form of a broad pata, which resembled an elongated shark tooth, which featured an unusual hilt with a hand guard which completely covered her hand. The sword possessed gill markings along both sides of the blade. Harribel lost her three braids, causing her hair to become messy, and gained two blue lightning bolt markings on both sides of her face in the place of her jaw-like mask that vanished within the transformation.
Kisame chuckled. "Well, what a sight for sore eyes, although I have to say, I liked the mask you had on earlier."
"My change in appearance is the least of your worries..." She said as she raised her blade. "The Queen of Sharks shall prevail over a Rogue like you..."
Kisame laughed. "We'll see, for the Queen shall see that she'll be dominated by the King of Sharks himself!" His mood changed when he found himself impaled, and bleeding this time. Tia took the time while he was talking and impaled him with her new blade through the abdomen. "You talk too much..." She scowled and pushed him away.
Kisame landed onto the sand, coughing up blood. "Don't think you'll get rid of me that easily..." He chuckled as Shark Skins' handle extended. The pammell, which took the shape of a small skull with no lower jaw, pierced his skin, in which the rather lethal wound inflicted on him started to expel red steam, healing rather quickly.
Tia glared, it's always something new with him, is there? She thought. Kisame got up, removed his ruined cloak and tossing it side. "Yes, let the true battle of Sharks commence!" He stabbed the sword into the ground and weaved multiple hand signs. "Water Style; Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" From the nearby ocean, multiple projectiles of water, taking the form of Sharks, flew right at Tia. Tia held out her weapon, making the Sharks stop withing inches of her space. This shocked Kisame.
"You plan to fight me with a source of water at hand? You should've figured that I can manipulate water just as freely as you can, maybe even better!" She waved her blade as the shark-projectiles flew right back at Kisame. Kisame clapped both hands together. "Water-Style, Exploding Shockwave!" The Ocean crept back from the beach before quickly flooding inward towards the competitors, dissipating the shark-projectiles and engulfing both fighters.
Tia crossed her arms, embracing the impact of the entire ocean against her being. Kisame grinned as the handle of his sword began to merge with his hand, then the remaining bandages were torn off due to the expanding scales of the sword as the rest of the blade merged with Kisames' being. Kisame' shark-like appearance was soon expanded as he grew gills, fins, and a tail. Tias' skill over water allowed her to form a pocket of air for her, as she looked around, it would seem that they were engulfed by gigantic sphere of water, this could be any ones' guess now.
Kisame grinned delightfully as he quickly swam to her with ferocity. Tias' sword glowed yellow as she pointed it at Kisame, firing more Ola Azul projectiles at Kisame, who effortlessly evaded them while trending through the watery territory he made himself. Tia was not planning to lose this fight and aimed her sword upward, glowing yellow more ferociously than ever and swiped downward, unleashing a wide-ranged Cero of her spirits' color at Kisame.
Kisame saw this devastating looking blast and wove several hand signs, with the idea on how to counter it. "Water Style; Super Shark Bomb Jutsu!" He shouted. The water around him started spinning around, forming a gigantic shark with many teeth. The gigantic projectile flew straight towards the blast, clashing into it at first until it started to grow, in which the Cero started to shrink. This surprised Tia, but there was no time to get shocked anymore, the even larger than ever shark projectile was flying at her.
She thrusted her sword into it just as it clashed, resulting in an explosion great enough to disperse the entire gigantic water sphere they were trapped in. The explosion of steam was massive, covering the entire beach-scape with the remaining water pouring down like a showering rain. Tia was on one knee, panting softly. She, at the last minute, had used her power to dissipate the gigantic projectile just as it was about to hit her. She seemed to have won, with no sign of her opponent...or so she thought…
Something grabbed her and bear-hugged her from behind, identified as Kisame in his alternate form as he jumped from the ground, grinning. "Were you expecting me to be blown to bits from the explosion?" Cackled Kisame, "I escaped underground just as you blew up my Super Shark Bomb!"
Tia tried to break free, but felt that she was running out of juice, how?! She then realized; The Sword, it was granting him the power to drain her even when fused. Kisames' forceps and biceps were getting bigger as he slowly started to crush her body. Tia gasped, and coughed up blood.
"Too bad," Said Kisame, "To think that you'd be a great Queen for this King of Sharks." He pulled both curved arms away from each other just as his grip tightened on her, ripping her in two from the waist, throwing both peaces on opposite ends. "Huh...Maybe I went too far..." Said Kisame, concluding his battle with a sadistic, satisfied grin.
(Whoo! THAT took a bite out of my time! Puns aside, this was a VERY hard Battle to determine who the Winner would be, like if Wonder Woman and Wolverine fought against each other; Both Fighters were incredibly capable sword-users, and both were great with water-based attacks, while making and manipulating the very water they use for both offense and defense. But the two aspects that they share would cancel each other out, leading to the other skills each fighter would have aside from the first two each. Tia, aside from the sword and water, is a great warrior, earning her place as the 3rd Strongest of the Espadas, capable of taking on two Ex-Vice-Captain-Class Visards and 1 Captain-Class Child Prodigy. But Kisames' connection with his sword, Sharkskin, and his natural, assassination tactics and physical prowess, along with his mastery of other elemental techniques (Being Earth, Wind, and Fire) outlasted Tias Speed, Tactics, and Long-Range techniques. As explained in the last fic, I theorized that Chakra is made up of half physical (Body) and half spiritual (Soul), making it to where Shark Skin would be able to absorb spiritual energy emitting from the Teresa Espada since Spiritual Energy makes up for HALF of ones' Chakra. Along with the capabilities to break through Wood-Style Bonds made to hold Jinchuuriki and Tailed Beasts into place and the ability to steal energy from the opponents gave Kisame more than enough juice to, not only outlast the Espada, but eliminate her completely, leaving her drained from both the battle and absorption. "Hey Faneko, couldn't she have just sonido'ed away from the death-hug from behind? Yes, but no, see, she'd usually be able to, but a strenuous battle could cause her to falter in judgment, much like Aizen attacking her from the front and betraying her after her battle against 3 Soul Reapers, causing her to loose her cool and focus, be easily fooled by Aizens' illusion Zanpakutō, and getting hind-sighted again. The same concept could be used in this battle, even if she broke free and struck him, there's no doubt in my mind that, with the water falling and steam going on, that he'd figured to fool her with another Water Clone. The Winner of Shark Week is Kisame Hoshigaki. Please don't kill me Fan-Boys, this is just research done to the best of my capabilities.)(Dejavuu huh? In terms of how long it took with the new Chapter that is, sorry! XwX; A New Battle will be along the way, wanna know who? Well stick around to find out when the new Chapter comes! Review if desired, and follow if needed! For those that have began from the very beginning and onward, thank you for your support so far! Peace!)
