"Hey, Kanna! Congratulations." Kanna looked over to see Karin yelling at her from across the practice field. The surrounding Shinigami immediately stopped training to stand in attention towards their superior officer.
"For what, exactly?" Kanna asked as she wiped a trail of sweat from her forehead.
"For making it to tenth seat already, obviously." Karin was impressed, once she recommended Kanna join in on her lessons with Toshiro said girl had improved a huge amount. It had only taken her two or three months to move up the ranks from an unseated member to a tenth seat.
Kanna blushed, slightly embarrassed at the genuine praise. "It's nothing compared to you, miss third seat. I still have a long way to go."
"Come on, you know I'm partly like this because of who my family is. My Dad and Ichi-nii have such huge spiritual pressure that I'd be impossible for me to be any different. Though I guess both of us pale in comparison to mister-youngest-captain-ever, right Toshiro?"
"I'd appreciate it if you avoided wording it like that." The surrounding Shinigami officers- who had already snapped to attention at Karin's presence- doubled their efforts when they noticed their captain.
Toshiro gave a slight sigh as he looked around, "How much time do you think we have to talk before the training head returns (1)? This isn't important enough to interrupt his work."
"Actually he shouldn't be back for a while." Kanna glanced over to an unseated officer who nodded in confirmation. "He said we needed to perfect the skill of being able to practice on our own- you know, like during missions when we have free time- so he wouldn't be interrupting us for a while. He wanted to see how much we could get done."
"I see," Toshiro shifted his attention from being singularly focused on Kanna to both Kanna and Karin, who looked at him expectantly. "In that case I would like to propose an offer to the two of you."
"What offer?" Karin interrupted, "you haven't explained why you want me over here in the first place. Some more information would be greatly appreciated."
"Both of you are similar in that you rose through the ranks quickly but you were able to for entirely different reasons. Karin is the best in our squad- aside from me and Matsumoto- at zanjutsu. Kanna is the best out of all the seated and unseated officers at kido. Previously, I've had the two of you train by fighting with each other but I would now like to try something different. I believe you two would also improve if you both fought together against a stronger opponent."
Both girls nodded along with what he was saying until the last part. Karin voiced their confusion, "And who are we fighting against? There aren't many stronger than us and even fewer who stand a chance against the both of us combined."
Toshiro nodded at he words, knowing they were true. He himself had worried about that before deciding he was willing to put some more work in than he would for most.
"For now if you agree you two would be fighting me or Matsumoto without sword releases. If none of us use sword releases you'll be able to learn from each other much more effectively."
Karin and Kanna smiled at the offer of a challenge they had never encountered before and readily agreed, "When do we start?"
"I have some free time after three, does it fit in with your schedules to start then?"
Kanna nodded and watched as Karin left the division's training field with her captain until they had moved too far out to see clearly.
"Thanks for this, Shiro." Toshiro turned his head slightly to make eye contact with his girlfriend, smiling slightly at her words.
"Don't worry about it. You seem to have started to get bored while you're doing work so I thought this would make it more fun for you." Karin gave him an over-exaggerated gasp before smirking, worrying Toshiro what would come next.
"Oh? You're giving me a present? I'm so touched, Shiro." Toshiro would have given a long-suffering sigh and rolled his eyes if he didn't already know her so well. Instead he sent her a slightly nostalgic smile while remembering the similar happiness she had when he offered her different ways to train with soccer.
"Are both of you ready?" Toshiro's question cut through the chilly air to the girls, causing both of them to tense up unconsciously. They had known what was about to happen but it hadn't entirely sunk in until that moment that they would actually have to fight Toshiro. A captain who should never be underestimated.
With how much time had passed since the Thousand Year Blood War Toshiro had improved by more leaps and bounds. He was steadily increasing his ability at even a slightly faster rate than Kyoraku had predicted he would due to his enourmous amount of dedication.
Taking a deep breath both girls were able to calm down and look at Toshiro, giving him their full concentration.
"We're ready." (2) Kanna answered after a moment's hesitation. Then Toshiro disappeared.
Barely moving out of the way in time the two were instantly made aware Toshiro had used shunpo to appear directly next to them. The slash through the air he made would have sliced their necks had they not dodged.
'Seems he's taking this pretty seriously', Karin thought as she and Kanna moved farther away from each other, 'An injury like that could have been fixed with kido but it would have ended the fight instantly.'
Kanna had similar thoughts before she realized Toshiro was once again coming after her. She brought up her own sword to defend but it was parried away.
In the next instant Karin was next to her, barely blocking the strike from hitting her neck. "I'll defend his sword, support me for now!"
"Right!" Kanna moved back and formed one of her favorite kido in her hands. "Oh lord, mask of flesh and blood, all creat-"
Hearing Kanna beginning to chant Karin smirked. When they sparred Kanna very rarely used the incantations but Karin knew the times she did made the spell multiply in power. She ducked under another slice from Toshiro only to realize he wanted her to move out of the way. He was moving to Kanna now.
Gritting her teeth Karin moved directly in front of Toshiro and clashed blades with him. Her muscles began to strain under to force he pushed against her before Toshiro changed his attack pattern. He was running out of time to stop Kanna like this so he moved up the level of difficulty.
Until now he had been mostly using simple attacks that would be difficult to to the strength he put behind them but that wasn't his usual fighting strategy. In a second he switched from the one had been using to train them to his usual one.
Karin blinked as the force she had been defending against disappeared only for Hyorinmaru to come up from behind her.
"Bakudo no Dai(3), Hainawa!"
In the following second Karin's arm connected to a rope made of reishi and her balance was thrown off. Toshiro pulled her closer to him, aiming an attack at her chest she was barely able to dodge.
In the back of her mind she realized Toshiro was using the kido like the chain that came with his Shikai. He was making up for one limitation simply through his own creativity. He was as impressive as always.
"you who bears the name of man-"
Karin scowled slightly as she continued to defend against Toshiro. Kanna was speaking as fast as she could but Toshiro was unfortunately able to move fast enough that Kanna became pressed for time. He was switching styles and casting kido with expertise that could only come from experience, proving the unbelievable amount of hours he spent perfecting his technique.
Karin was panting now, adrenalin making her brain work on overdrive. A crazy idea formed in her mind that was almost instantly vetoed for the sheer insanity of it. Almost.
'Why not?' She thought, 'Not like i have anything to lose.'
"Hado no Ichi, Sho!" Kanna and Toshiro were both caught off guard by the fact that Karin was using kido in a fight. The energy pushed Toshiro away from Karin and caught him off guard long enough for Karin to switch to offencive.
'Okay, part one worked,' Karin thought, 'Time for part two.'
Bringing their battle higher into the air to give Kanna more time worked wonderfully. Kanna, not having to worry as much about Toshiro, was able to increase the speed of her chanting even more than before.
"Barrier surges, March on-"
This kido needed to hit Toshiro for Kanna and Karin to even consider doing any damage to him. As embarrassing as this idea was it was worth it to win.
Karin ducked under Toshiro's slash and moved right in front of him, fully aware she was leaving her back and legs wide open for an attack. Toshiro used that opening to deliver a slice to her leg and Karin knew it would be hard to dodge him until that attack was healed.
'Kurosaki's are known for their crazy and reckless ideas, I guess.' She consented as she leaned forward, pushing her lips onto his.
To Toshiro everything had been fine. The training was going well and Karin was using some interesting fighting strategies. Then Karin suddenly came closer to him.
The world had stopped.
Or, more accurately, his brain had decided in that instant to stop functioning. Sometimes he hated how comfortable Karin could be with showing affection in a physical manner but he supposed that was just part of what the world of the living was like in the present.
Regardless, with that move on Karin's part Toshiro was left almost completely incapable of defending himself from Kanna's attack.
"To the South! Shokatsui! (4)"
The powerful and tightly condensed attack was finally fired, forcing Toshiro's brain to start up again in order to dodge.
It did, however, still manage to hit his arm with enough power to leave a mark. The girls had gotten one hit in.
Toshiro glared at his arm in slight frustration but was able to use Karin's lack of mobility from her leg injury to attack her shoulder and make her back up.
Using his lack of opponent Toshiro reappeared in front of Kanna who looked slightly tired from pushing so much spirit energy into her attack. Kanna flinched and backed up but Toshiro swept her legs from under her, finishing by pointing Hyorinmaru at her neck.
"Y-yield." Kanna barely breathed out, panting slightly. Toshiro removed Hyorinmaru and went to go pick up Karin.
Once he found her he set both girls down against some trees and started using healing kido to repair them. When they woke up Karin looked over and saw Toshiro's still injured arm covered with a bandage and smirked.
"What?" Toshiro interrogated, "I would like to remind you that you didn't win." (5)
Karin leaned back as Toshiro continued to heal the two of them. "We knew from the beginning we wouldn't be able to win against you. Our only real goal was to see how much damage we could do against you and we got a hit."
"As good as that is you two seem… entirely too happy."
"That's only because you refuse to be even a little bit proud of yourself and never let yourself be happy. If you were normal like everyone else you would understand exactly why we're as happy as we are right now." Toshiro steedly ignored the slight barb against him and continued to heal the girls. When he was mostly done he sat back and gained their complete attention.
"How do the two of you feel right now? Are you in good enough condition to listen to me give you advice or do you need more time to rest first?" He watched as both girls stayed quiet, considering their options.
"I think we're ready, captain." Kanna answered, "I want to know how to get stronger." Karin nodded enthusiastically, showing her complete support.
Toshiro gave a small sigh and looked both of them in the eye. "Alright. Part of the problem is that I just have much more experience than you and a lot more power to go with that. That's not something you can change by anything other than spending more time training but… would I be right to assume that's not the answer you're looking for?"
"Obviously." Karin scowled, for a brief moment reminding Toshiro of her brother. "I didn't ask for your help for you to tell me something like that."
"I would like to remind you that I am still your captain."
"If I don't treat you like this you might think I'm not the most amazing person in the world and I'm afraid that just won't do."
Toshiro and Karin shared a smile and Toshiro raised an eyebrow but made no objection. Kanna blinked as she watched the two of them and remembered what Karin did to momentarily stop Toshiro during the fight.
"Wow, this and the kiss from earlier? It's almost like you two are dating." Toshiro scowled and blushed when he noticed the teasing side of Kanna come out but to her great surprise he made no objection to what she said.
"Ah, yeah… see, remember how we went to the festival together?" Kanna nodded to Karin but looked highly confused.
"I do, Matsumoto-fukutaicho pulled me away from you two, right? What happened while I was gone, is anything wrong?"
"No, no, no, no." Karin took a deep breath then looked over to Toshiro. The two of them made eye contact for a fraction of a second while Toshiro sent her a rare but supporting smile. Through that Karin's hesitation drifted into the air and disappeared, getting smaller by the second like a balloon vanishing in the sky.
Kanna blinked at the confusing scene between the two and waited for them to answer her. Karin finally worked up the motivation to speak and turned to Kanna. "At the festival during the fireworks show Toshiro asked me out so… we're dating now!"
Kanna's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
We're dating now.
Had Karin really just said that? She hadn't thought… she had known Toshiro and Karin were close but she had no idea they were close enough that their relationship could change into this so suddenly. She hadn't been aware they had even been considering that.
"...Kanna?" Her captain's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she realized she had been distracted.
It only took a fraction of a second for Kanna to slip on a well practiced mask and deny the mix of shock and maybe even some jealousy.
"SERIOUSLY?! No way! Does Matsumoto know- no wait, stupid question, of course she does, but I can't believe this is the first time I've heard about this! How has this not already started circling around the rumor mill? This should have been enough time for me to have found out about it a long time ago-"
""Kanna?"" Karin and Toshiro simultaneously asked, equally concerned over their friend's reaction to the news.
"-though I guess I haven't been paying any attention to rumors lately, I've been spending all my time with you. Speaking of which, why did it take you so long to tell me?!"
Toshiro flinched back slightly, having been completely unprepared for such an energized reaction. He sat in slight shock for a half second with Karin acting similarly to his side. Eventually he was able to take a deep breath and answer Kanna's question.
"We didn't really see the point… it's not like it changes anything about the relationship the three of us have and it seemed like something we should keep hidden." Neither of the two noticed how Kanna pursed her lips at the first part but they did see her roll her eyes at the second.
"Sure, just keep it hidden from one of your best friends, makes perfect sense. Honestly, what's wrong with you two?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Toshiro inquired to which both Kanna and Karin sent him an unimpressed glare.
""Obviously.""
Kanna, looked down at the table, only taking a few seconds to think over her emotions regarding this conversation.
"Doesn't matter, though I will be getting payback for this later. Anyways, captain, could you please continue our lesson?"
Toshiro's experience as a captain gave him a slight edge over Karin in this specific instance. He knew Kanna was deflecting away from the conversation but he couldn't figure out why. Hesitating too long would seem suspicious so he simply nodded and thought over what advice he could give to the two girls.
"Right, in that case I have some suggestions for both of you but this is mostly what I think would be your best options given your fighting styles. No one knows your styles better than you so it's up to you whether or not you decide to follow my advice."
"We know, Shiro." Karin reassured, "Just get to the interesting part already."
"I would also like to hear what your opinion is, if you wouldn't mind." Kanna's agreement allowed the conversation to be completely redirected to the new topic, much to her relief.
"Alright, then. The two of you seem to have a pretty good understanding of how your fighting styles work on their own. You both know them far better than I do and can ask other people for assistance in your one on one fighting. What I'm going to advise you on is the fighting you did when you were together."
"Is that really any different?" Karin asked, "I mean, as long as we're good by ourselves and don't get in each other's way I don't see why it would matter."
Toshiro, to her great surprise, nodded in agreement. "You're right, it might not matter. If I was weaker than the two of you combined then the current strategy you used would be perfectly acceptable. It would actually probably work on several strong hollows if you went on a mission together. The problem is that I'm already stronger than both of you together."
"Doesn't that just mean we're not capable of beating you?" Kanna frowned as she began to doubt her own ability.
"It could. You both currently have no advantages over me. I'm more experienced, have more power than both of you combined, have a better understanding of the theory behind fighting, am more balanced and I know how you two fight already. But even with that said it doesn't mean there's no way for you to beat me."
"That's sure what it sounds like to me." Karin protested in a doubtful voice. Kanna's scowl increased but she agreed with what Karin said.
"You didn't have any advantages over me in our last battle but you can train yourself to. You did a little bit of this before and that's why you were able to land a hit on me. Your advantage is that there's two of you. Normally that would mean you had a major advantage but because of who I am it doesn't. Because of this, what matters is how much you can use this advantage of your's to succeed against me."
Kanna nodded along with his words to show her understanding. "So, you're saying we have one advantage you don't and we need to learn how we can exploit that to it's fullest capacity? That we need to perfect that if we want to do better against you."
"Essentially, yes."
"Makes sense." Karin leaned back slightly against the tree she had been sat down against in thought. She had no experience working on something like this. The academy had taught her just the basics of working together in a team and she suspected Kanna was the same way. This was so far out of her comfort zone she had no choice but to leave it all to Toshiro.
Motivation sparked in Kanna's eyes and she turned to Toshiro with a burning desire to improve. "And what advice can you give us about working together like that?"
Toshiro stood up and caught their complete attention.
"Once again, this is just what I think you'll do best in. I have much more experience than both of you but I have no way of being sure that my advice will always work as I don't fight in a pair either."
"Who should we talk to if we want help on that?" Kanna interjected. Toshiro paused for a moment in thought before responding.
"Kyoraku-soutaicho is probably the best person. He was skilled at working together with captain Ukitake Jushiro before the Thousand Year Blood War."
Karin nodded while Kanna looked thoughtful, both considering the prices and benefited of asking the captain commander for help.
"Anyways, I'll give advice to you individually. Karin, you did well in keeping me occupied but you need to be sure that if you're defending someone you completely block them. There were several times when I was closer to Kanna or when I could have fired a kido attack that would hit her. Kanna, it would have been easier for Karin to continue defending you if you healed her. While it was not a bad plan to focus on a big attack it could be dangerous if you miss your one shot. Also, what I said about being able to aim kido back at you still applies. You should have hid your spiritual pressure like I taught you and found some cover to hide behind."
"Even though I had you occupied?" Karin asked, then reconsidered her question with a scowl, "though I guess I did give you a few too many chances to attack her. Alright, is there anything else?"
"I suppose…" Toshiro trailed off and he felt a light pink blush climbing the pale skin on his neck. "Karin, while it's good you were able to change your fighting style to match a weakness of your opponent please remember that last distraction of yours will not work on everyone."
Karin and Kanna also blushed as they remembered the kiss Karin had given him just a minute ago. Karin looked away and gave an unusually quiet mumble of understanding and Toshiro looked away.
Karin's cheeks were a bright cherry red that looked beautiful next to her short obsidian hair. Toshiro decided he liked how she looked when she was covered in red.
He sighed and recollected himself, covering his face with a metaphorical mask he used when he first became a captain.
"That's all for today, both of you are free to go."
Kanna and Karin gave him a respectful bow and a friendly nod before walking away. Toshiro smiled one of his rare real smiles and watched them walk away while gossiping. He was glad Karin had someone she was friends with.
I'm talking about the guy who appears after Toshiro lost his bankai in the manga. When Toshiro says he wants to train again starting from the bottom with his subordinates going through the sword strikes there's someone leading them but I don't know who.
So to be perfectly honest I usually skip over or skim fight scenes in things I'm reading. It should be fine for you to do that here and just skim over it to get a basic idea of what happens in it if you want to. I have this section here partly because I wanted to try writing one of these scenes, partly because this is a battle manga and it makes sense for the characters to do this and partly because I thought it was the easiest/ most entertaining way for me to show what I wanted to.
I'm not actually sure what number this one corresponds to so I just looked on google translate for 'fourth' and went with that. Sorry, it's my best guess.
I don't actually know how long it would take someone to finish chanting that. I figure even if you knew all the words by heart it would still take a while and the Bleach characters are able to move at crazy fast speed so who knows how much they'd be able to do in that time. I realize I'm probably stretching your suspension of belief but as far as I can tell they'd be able to do something like this.
Sorry to anyone who disagrees with me but yeah, I feel like Toshiro should have enough power that he can win against them any day. I mean he's a captain who trained for years after the Thousand Year Blood War, even just around one year after the Winter War he was so much stronger that this just makes sense to me. He gets stronger at such a fast rate that it would seem silly to me if he lost to them (and they've only been training for a few years, two decades at most) regardless of the circumstances.
THANKS FOR READING!