Chapter 11
(Two days later)
At the training site, Ranko got there to meat Halibel, but there was also Apache, Mila-rose, and Sun-Sun there as well.
Ranko said confused "I thought you wanted me to come back 2 days later to continue our fight? Not that these girls aren't good company, but won't they get in the way?
Halibel answered "Not exactly. For today you will be training 1 on 3 against my fraccion."
Ranko looked surprised and a little skeptic, thinking "Sure they look strong, but only compared shampoo and my human self back on earth as a human."
She finally answered, "Those girls? They won't even be a good 5 minute practice." Quite honestly she didn't want to fight young woman, even though they were more like warriors then young martial artists.
Apache (twitch) "Why you-"
Sun-Sun said chastisingly, "She's just trying to tease you. Ranko-san underestimates how tough a three on one match would be."
Ranko grinned and countered "That's a bit of an assumption yourself isn't it? You so quickly assume I'm not an expert in fighting groups."
Mila-rose raised her eyebrows "Are you saying you are an expert at fighting multiple opponents?"
Ranko said confidently "We'll just wait and see, won't we?"
Halibel nodded off to the side "Perhaps you are stronger then them Ranko, but they will be allowed to use their released forms, if they can't defeat you without them. If you have to, you may use your release form as well, Ranko."
Something in Halibel's voice seemed to be hinting something. Ranko felt a little nervous over what she truly meant. "Did she figure out that I don't want to use my release form? That it could be dangerous?" she thought to herself.
Mila-rose shouted from a distance "Are you ready Ranko?"
Ranko put her mind of Halibel's comment and smiled and said "You kidding. I'm always ready."
Apache yelled "It's my turn first." Apache sped forward and delivered a powerful kick toward Ranko's face, which Ranko instantly blocked with her arm.
"Is that all you got?" Mila rose came from Ranko's left side and swung at her with her broadsword. With her free hand Ranko brought out her katana halfway out of it sheath and blocked it.
Then suddenly Sun-Sun appeared quickly right above Ranko and produced a three pronged sai from her sleeve, then swiftly brought it down toward her head. While surprised, right before it connected, Ranko used her kung fu skills to bring her leg up and catch the dull side of the sai between her toes, where the shoe material was the most flexible.
Apache "What?"
Mila rose also commented "Unreal."
Sun-sun exclaimed "Impossible."
Bringing down her leg she threw Sun-sun forward, then she grabbed Apache's arm With her hand and swung Apache into MIla-rose knocking them backwards.
Halibel thought to herself "She wasn't lying. Ranko is an expert in fighting groups, and using their individual assaults against each other."
"Damn you" Apache suddenly grabbed her two large wristbands, which suddenly separated and grew sharpened blades. She then threw them with incredible spinning speed at Ranko.
"So those are her zanpakuto's! Half Chakrams!" Ranko immediately sheathed her sword. Despite the force and speed, Ranko deftly caught them using her advanced hand dexterity.
Mila rose charged forward with a forward slash, but Ranko blocked her broadsword with Apache's weapons.
Mila-Rose smiled.
Wha-" Suddenly Apache's chakram's turned back into wristbands right onto Ranko's hands, and just as quickly Ranko started being propelled backwards somehow by the force of the bands. "Aaaaaaaaah!" Ranko let out a random girly scream by this unusual turn of events.
Suddenly a voice from behind her yelled "Idiot! Do you think an Arrancar would through her zanpakuto without a way of getting it back?"
Apache charged forward toward Ranko's behind with a strong bala in her hand, determined to send it straight into Ranko's back. But at the very last, Ranko twisted the bottom of her torso backwards so much that her legs grabbed onto Apache's approaching hand, lowered it straight between Ranko's firing the bala upwards right into the approaching Mila Rose and Sun-sun, making a small explosion.
Ranko sonido'd backwards, letting go of Apache.
Apache regrouped with the others, "Dammit, she's making us look like idiots."
Mila-rose sheathed her sword and cracked her knuckles stating "Then let's show her our combined power."
Apache started charging a red cero from her horn.
Mila rose started charging an orange cero from her left hand.
Sun-sun started charging a dark pink cero from her right hand sleeve.
Ranko's eyes widened "Oh boy!"
"Try to stop this, Ranko!" Apache screamed.
Suddenly all three fired their ceros at once. Apache's from her horn, Mila-rose from her right hand, and Apache's from her left hand.
(BOOOM)
A massive energy explosion hit where Ranko was.
"Think that got her?" Apache said, unsure.
When the smoke faded, Ranko was standing their smiling, her hand outstretched smoking from where it blocked all three ceros.
Mila rose was incredibly surprised "No way, she didn't dodge at all, how'd she stop that without being knocked out?"
Sun-sun proposed "Perhaps it was that two of our group failed at producing a strong cero.
Apache was pissed at the comment, "(twitch) The hell, it was. It was your fault.
Mila-rose was too "(twitch) That's right, it was your lack of intensity that caused our attack to fail.
Sun-sun retorted "So I'm the only one to blame for the failed attack. Aren't you pressing your own failures onto me!
Ranko thought to herself, scratching her head "Geez don't these women ever stop arguing? They're worse than Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyo on a 'fight for me the fiance' day."
Ranko started getting impatient and yelled "Oy! Jeez will you three just stop, I've had enough of this nonsense." She then started to explain her success "None of you failed to produce a powerful cero. Not to say it wasn't impressive, it just wasn't in my league. However," she showed her hand, which had some black spots on the skin "I still got a nasty burn. I messed up."
Apache's eyes widened "What? But-"
Ranko smiled "I'm not only good against fighting groups, I'm also an expert at telling people's attack patterns based on their fighting ability. From the start, I realized that Apache could produce the best cero, Mila-rose was the strongest physically, and Sun-sun was the sneakiest."
Sun-sun commented jokingly, "My my, I was wrong about her. She's a lot smarter then you Apache."
Apache said angrily, "Why you-"
Ranko interrupted them, "But what I didn't expect was that you, Mila-rose, and you, Sun-sun, would charge your cero in one hand and fire it with the other hand. By letting your charged cero move from one hand, through your arms and torso, and fire it like a projectile from a longer shaft, you enhanced the energy to equal Apache's powerful cero, synchronizing the power perfectly.
Mila-rose eyes widened "Impossible. You saw through our attack in once go?"
Ranko smiled "Had I known that from the very beginning, I would have used my sword to block or deflect."
Apache grinded her teeth in frustration, "Damn she's good."
"But not your special ability," Sun-sun interjected.
"Huh?" Ranko turned to Sun-sun, who spoke up "When you were fighting Grimmjow, you only really got strong as you created an aura of energy around your hands. Similar to Halibel-sama and her sword in that respect, although not nearly in her power range."
Apache clenched her teeth "Damn even with her going easy on us, all three of our ceros didn't do much at all."
Sun-sun commented, "Well she is trained by Halibel personally."
Mila-rose looked toward the others "It's time we did this full force." She then turned toward Ranko, and said respectively but aggressively, "Ranko Saotome, we recognize your strength. Therefore, don't expect any mercy from us."
Apache crossed her arms together with her chakrams in her hand.
Sun-sun drew her sai and put it in front of her mouth.
Mila Rose pointed her broadsword forward.
Apache yelled "Thrust, Cierva!"
Mila-rose yelled "Devour, Liona!"
Sun-sun stated "Strangle to Death, Anaconda."
Three fairly large explosions of energy absorbed the women. Each with the same color as their ceros.
"What the-?"
When the energy cleared, their stood the girls.
Apache was now covered from neck to toes in fur, and two doe like antlers appeared over head.
Sun-sun's legs disappeared and were now replaced by the lower half of a giant snake.
Mila-rose took on a more beast tribesman outfit, as well as sharpened teeth. She was practically naked except a piece around her crotch and two bone claws holding her breast like a bra.
Apache yelled as she launched herself at Ranko. "Let's see you match this Ranko!"
Apache strength and speed was a lot more powerful than before, launching a flurry of punches and kicks toward Ranko.
Ranko thought quickly "Damn, so this is a release's power. And this isn't even an Espada's!"
Apache found an opening smashed her hooved foot into Ranko's stomach. Spit flew out of her mouth from the hard impact. Apache tried to follow up with a roundhouse kick, but Ranko sonido'd away and fired a high powered Bala to knock Apache away.
"Yaaaaaa!" Ranko heard a yell and saw Mila-rose from above coming down at Ranko with her massive sword. Ranko whipped out her katana and blocked it just in time. It was a heavy blow, but it didn't overpower Ranko.
Mila rose smiled and said "That won't work. LION CRUSH!"
"What?"
Suddenly the kinetic energy of her blade seemed to somehow triple, pushing Ranko downward, forcing Ranko to continuously allocate strength to parry the blade and keep her balance while falling.
While observing the fight, Halibel's eyes narrowed "While my girls are certainly strong in their release forms, they still can't truly compare to Grimmjow, and Ranko has definitely improved since then. She is holding back way too much. Is it because she believes hurting other women is beneath her? Sort of like myself, I can understand. But if it's just for the sake of sparing...is it something else?"
When Ranko's feet finally hit the ground, Ranko finally managed to push Mila-rose's massive sword backwards.
Mila-rose got her footing and swung her sword down again "Your mine!"
Ranko looked serious "I don't think so."
Ranko focused a large amount of spiritual power, remembering Ashido's katana training in her mind, and swung into her sword with massive power, knocking Mila-rose backwards with such force it sent her reeling 30 feet backwards.
Suddenly before Ranko could gain control of her bearings, an large snake tail wrapped around her arms and chest.
"What the-?" She turned to see it was Sun-sun.
Sun-sun mocked "Oh my, you seem to have left yourself wide open. Even with your strength, don't expect to get out of this mess."
Ranko replied with her voice strained from the constriction of her tail "Why...am I getting...a sense of deja vu...here...Did you ever...possess...a bra... or something?"
Sun-sun looked surprised "You know my sister Yang Gui-fei!"
Ranko grinned "Funny how... afterlife works like that."
Suddenly she heard a yell from above "Your mine now Ranko!" Ranko looked up and saw Apache way above was charging down at Ranko at incredible speed.
"Yeeeeaaaaa!" Ranko looked behind her to see Mila-rose charging at her as well from the ground.
Ranko then turned to Sun-sun and smiled "Guess there's only one way out of this one."
Sun-sun suggested "Surrender perhaps? You've put up an admirable fight."
Ranko smiled "Nope." Ranko then opened her free right hand and started charging a powerful white cero directly toward the ground."
Sun-sun looked shocked "You wouldn't!"
"I've done crazier stunts."
Sun-sun loosened her grip just as Ranko fired the cero. The resulting explosion sent Sun-sun and the approaching Mila-rose backwards sprawling, and sent Ranko skyward. All of them got burned pretty badly by the explosion, but Ranko ignored the pain as she soared upward.
Apache's looked surprised at Ranko's sudden liftoff, but Apache stubbornly accelerated forward to try and smash Ranma with her fist.
When Apache threw her downward fist, Ranko skillfully blocked the punch with her left arm, the decided to end this and knock her out with her other fist. "Sorry about this." Ranko thought to herself as she threw her punch.
Ranko's reaction time far exceeded Apache's. As Ranko's fist slowly approached Apache's face, Ranko could see her face slowly transform from anger to shock and fear. As the anger left Apache's face, Ranko took a look at her and realized in shock that Apache had the face of a fairly nice girl, but just surrounded by anger. Ranko frowned thinking "Dammit!"
At the last second, after seeing her young scared face, Ranko swerved her punch to the side, missing Apache's face by a hair.
Halibel's eyes widened in shock, thinking quickly, "She abides by male chivalry! At least to a psychological degree, she refuses to directly and physically hurt a normal girl. Apache might have a lot of anger in her, but deep down she is one of the most naturally selfless Arrancar I know, with the exception of perhaps Hisana and Neliel. Did Ranko realize that in a second and refuse to do damage? Does she identify completely as male?"
Both Ranko and Apache righted themselves in midair and stared at each other.
Apache looked pissed but conflicted not knowing whether to feel grateful or feel insulted or just confused. However she quickly lost her temper, "don't... Don't take me lightly! Inferno Rush!" Suddenly the antlers on top of her head were surrounded by fire.
Before Ranko could react, Apache accelerated into Ranko's stomach, launching both of them backwards, knocking the wind out of Ranko.
Apache then stopped in the air and let inertia take its force. As Ranko was being sent flying backwards from the fiery enhanced blow to the gut, Ranko saw a pillar and tried to land on it, but suddenly Sun-sun sonido'd next to her mid fall and lashed out with her cloaked arm. "You'll pay for that last 'stunt' Ranko!" she said in a humph.
Ranko expected to get assaulted by a Sai, but instead several small snakes flew out of her arm. Two wrapped around her wrists, and two wrapped around her legs.
"This isn't going well!" She crash landed on the pillar, rolling on the ground, trying to get some traction. Then suddenly she started feeling extreme pain coming from where the snakes were. "yeeeeeooooww!"
Sun-sun sounded happy standing over Ranko "You like my snakes? In my release form, I can summon snakes from my arms that will absorb your spiritual energy quite quickly. And restrain you as an added bonus."
"Making things much easier for me!"
Mila-rose then appeared with her gigantic sword and started attacking Ranko, who rolled to the side several times to avoid getting hacked up until her sword hit her leg snakes, allowing Ranko to jump up to her feet and break the snakes on her arms, which dissipated into spiritual energy.
Mila-rose looked surprised, "Shit!"
Sun-sun chastised to her "You buffoon!"
Ranko back flipped several times out of the way as Apache regrouped with the others.
Ranko was starting to lose her breath, "Damn, these girls surely aren't pushovers. It looks like if I want finish this without brutalizing them, I'll have to get them to come to me, all at once. It would be easier if I could use THAT technique, but I'm not sure if I can. However, I think I know how I can pull this off."
Ranko started fighting on the defensive. Between Apache's physical attacks, Mila-rose's large sword attacks, and Sun-sun's tail, it was hard to avoid every blow.
However, fighting defensively for long isn't very practical in a three on one match. After about a minute, Mila-rose and Apache were successfully pushing Ranko back when Suddenly Sun-sun appeared right behind her.
Apache's screamed as they all attacked at once "It's over!"
Mila-rose's sword, Apache's fist, and Sun-Sun's tail came down and hit...
Nothing. Just empty air.
"What?" They all exclaimed.
Ranko appeared 30 feet behind and above Sun-Sun and the rest of them, grinning down at them. She said pridefully, "I don't believe I've actually shown you my real speed yet!"
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken Bala!"
Focusing everything she had on her arms, she suddenly shot out her fist at incredible speeds, each one firing a good sized white bala, hundreds upon hundreds filled the air, hammering all three of them to the earth below.
When the smoke cleared, Ranko saw that Apache, Mila-rose, and Sun-sun were all heavely bruised, but not seriously injured.
Ranko smiled "It looks like that's that."
Mila-rose retorted angrily "Not quite."
She turned toward Halibel, who hesitantly nodded her head.
All three of them nodded in agreement.
They each brought put there right arm on a section of their left arm.
Ranko looked completely weirded out "What the hell are you doing?"
Apache grinned at Ranko, even though she looked tired "Heh...you'll see."
"Quimera Parca!", all three of them yelled.
Suddenly, a red energy seemed to flow from all their left arms. The energy went down like a laser and all three merged at a single spot. Their left hands had now disappeared.
"What the-?
Suddenly, the gathered energy started to take form. It grew larger and larger until it grew into a monster at least 50 feet tall. It was enormous, had fur all over its body, had massive arms and legs, a large snake tail, and the oddest part, had no face.
Ranko's eyes shrank as she observed the monstrosity. Not only was it bigger than any adjuchas or menos she had ever seen but...she felt closed in by the aura this creature was giving off. As if she was facing a monster that was made of complete killing intent and nothing else.
Apache yelled "Get her, Allon!"
Suddenly an enormous eye came out of the creature's fur.
"What!" Ranko exclaimed in shock.
(FLAASHHHH). Suddenly, an enormous red blast suddenly came out of the eye aimed right at Ranko. She immediately summoned Kintora's power to block it, but the blast drilled Ranko into the ground for nearly 100 feet.
Ranko got out of the ground and thought to herself "What the heck kinda power does this monster have? Like the girls alone weren't enough, now I have to face this monstrosity?"
Suddenly an enormous fist shot out, Ranko moving her head to side, missing being smashed by mere inches.
"Shit!" she thought. "That could have smashed my head in! It looks like I don't have time to go easy."
She rushed forward Allon's fist was drawn back completely, Ranko's hand was surrounded by yellow energy, releasing Kintora from its 'sheath', as it were, and charged an enormous bright yellow energy into her right fist.
"Tora Kurasshu Daun!" The enormous yellow blast blasted into the beast's stomach and went straight through."
Ranko said excited, "Yes! I knew that would work."
But instead of falling down, it just stood there. Silent.
Ranko thought with fear in her eye "Isn't it done?"
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRR!" Suddenly an enormous mouth from out of and an enormous scream came from the monstrosity. The hole then immediately closed back up.
"Aaaaaaa!" seeing all that horrible imagery at once freaked her out a little, screaming with more than a little femininity. As a second fist came, Ranko sonido'd out of the way and pushed herself backwards through the air.
Apache yelled "You can't beat it Saotome! To keep our own arms from being lost without help, Allon literally can't be killed. It will regenerate any blow, and only Halibel could defeat it without killing. "
Ranko thought to herself "Dammit it, that just makes it more difficult for me doesn't it? This thing is absurdly strong and it regenerates almost instantly. And if I destroy it, I turn three girls into amputees. Guess there's only one option left.." Ranko rushed forward again at the monster.
Ranko narrowly dodged the first incoming fist, but the second fist had no time for escape completely. Relying on the instincts hammered into her, Ranko parried the massive fist and arm with her left hand, nearly braking under the pressure, got in close to the beast and shouted,
"Hiryu Shoten H-!"
The punch connected with the beast's chest, but all that did was cause it to recoil from the force for the few seconds.
"Shit it didn't work! Damn-"
(Smash)
An enormous back handed fist from below and smashed into Ranko's stomach. She coughed blood as the powerful blow nearly sent her a quarter mile away.
Apache's eyes widened "What the hell? Why isn't she releasing her sword? Is she nuts?"
Sun-sun interjected "She isn't the first arrancar to dislike her old form."
Halibel interjected this time "There is a fine line between dislike and insanity driven hate! That creature is formidable, does she not think that she will die if she doesn't fight at full power?"
Ranko managed to get back up on her feet, but at least one of her ribs was broken. The enormous monster was charging at her as she thought "Why didn't it work? The Hiryu Shoten Ha doesn't need a source of ki, it just needs any aura, no matter how strong or different. Why-?"
Then suddenly she had a flashback.
(Flashback sequence)
Cologne speaks in Ranma's memory, "The Hiryu Shoten Ha isn't magic. It's the natural convection of the battle aura's heat, mixed with the cold of a true martial artist's heart."
(end of flashback)
"Of course! It's not that I can't use the Hiryu Shoten Ha, it's that the current is wrong. Spiritual energy must create different convection currents then ki, battle aura does. I've used the Hiryu Shoten Ha so much that I can create the spiral of ki with just my fist. But if I can't sense the currents of spirit-"
Interrupting her line of thought, Allon rushed forward and smashed down at Ranko with his fist. But Ranko was prepared this time, both with her speed and skill training from Ashido, and her strength and reflex training with Halibel. Ranko drew her sword and with several lighting slashes,
"Yaaaaaaa!" She yelled as she swung her sword several times instantly on the attacking beast, cut off several of its fingers.
The beast roared in pain but the fingers regenerated after about ten seconds.
Ranko then started using sonido away from the creature hoping to gain some time.
Sun-sun commented "Humph, she's running scared. There's no way she can win this."
Allon charged after her and rained down enormous blows as fast as it could. But with Ranko's concentration entirely on speed, she sonido'd away from every punch with enormous rapid movement. Only Halibel was able to keep up with how fast she was moving with her eyes.
Ranko thought to herself, "I've got to keep my distance from it until I'm prepared. But how? I have to find a way to see the... wait that's it! If I can focus my Pesquisa hard enough, I might be able to see the currents of his heated spiritual energy. Pesquisa!"
But all she could was the center of Allon spiritual energy.
"C'mon. The current, the current! I have to see the current of the energy. But my normal spiritual senses aren't nearly accurate enough for that. I have enhance my Pesquisa to compensate to make it work."
"Pesquisa!" Again, this time just Allon's spiritual fire.
Allon was getting closer.
Ranko tried again "C'mon." Still not clear enough, just some vague aura's around Allon.
Allon was pulling back his fist.
Again "C'mon!" Again still not clear enough, just some vague lines.
The beast opened its gigantic maw. *ROOOOOAARR*
AGAIN! This time instinctively closing her eyes, she then suddenly unleashed a powerful ultrasonic shockwave from her body with all the concentration she had left.
Then suddenly Ranko could see the spiritual currents around Allon and all their different movements. She saw the spiral "Yes!"
Ranko suddenly stopped running back, landed on the ground, and readied everything she had toward the beast. As it came barreling down on her to eat her, Ranko raised her right fist and yelled with all her might,
"HIRYU SHOTEN HAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Suddenly an absolutely gigantic dragon made of wind was unleashed from her hand. It soaring at Allon and soared right into its chest.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ranko drove the blow to the utterly enormous creature home, releasing the final full attack.
As the Hiryu Shoten Ha overcame the beast's spiritual energy, the wind dragon transformed into an absolutely enormous tornado of incredible size and power. The sheer amount of force was more than the beast could comprehend as the tornado soared Allon high into the artificial skies, then slowly turned over in an enormous arc in the sky, and the tornado smashed Allon down with incredible speed and force into the desert floor.
*SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH*
A gigantic shockwave of force and wind caused Apache, Mila-rose, Sun-Sun and even Halibel to cover their eyes with their arms.
When they opened their eyes, Allon was flat on its back all of its numerous eyes hanging open, and not moving an inch.
Halibel with her eyes wide open said "Impossible!"
Apache yelled "Allon's...unconscious!"
Sun-sun exclaimed "How?"
Ranko sonido'd in front of the three girls, looking very tired and heavily bruised from some of Allon's hits, but otherwise okay. "So...(breath)...are you ready to give up?" Truth be told, her stamina was pretty much spent by that. Ranko thought she had enough reserves to use the full power version of the Hiryu Shoten Ha without straining herself, but she realized that the Hiryu Shoten Ha was far easier for her male half then herself, since she wasn't as good at simulating a soul of ice.
Mila-rose eyed Ranko werrily "And if we don't?"
Ranko didn't like making threats but he didn't want to fight these girls any more then she needed too, especially after beating their absurdly powerful trump card. "Then I'll put all my power into my Tora Kurasshu Daun technique and destroy your Allon. I'm pretty sure you need it intact if you want to repair your arms, and quite frankly, I think this has gone way too long."
Apache and the others looked at Halibel hesitantly for advice. Halibel only nodded and said "The match has ended."
Mila-rose nodded and all three turned their stubs toward the unconscious monster. Slowly but surely the energy dissipated and returned to their arms which were now intact. There forms released back into their respective weapons. All of them looked exhausted and beaten.
Apache consented in frustration "Jeez Ranko, your damn powerful. I know you were able to one up Grimmjow, but to knock Allon unconscious is just incredible."
Mila rose agreed "Definitely. I have no idea how you did it."
Even Sun-Sun was curious "Indeed. How did you accomplish that?
Halibel broke in the conversation "Allon was hoisted by its own petard."
"Huh?" all of her fraccion asked confused.
Halibel explained "Allon is a golem, created from the synchronized fused energies contained in each of your arms. It is a manner of creature designed to withstand almost all conventional attacks, unless it is completely obliterated. I would say only Espada's at full release power of Numuro 6 or up would be able to accomplish that feat. Ranko is still a while always from that sort of power right now. However, if it is attacked with force equal and equivalent to its own, and it could be knocked out. It is a creature of pure attack and regeneration, but not defense. No matter how stubborn the being is, if every part of its consciousness, what could count as a brain, is rattled all at once, it will fall."
Apache exclaimed "How the hell did she manage to pull that off?
"She just sent it all right back. Unless I'm mistaken, she somehow used Allon's energy that it was releasing instead of her own in order to power the attack."
Apache tried to contemplate this "So it's like Judo...but it hits you with ALL of your own energy...and you don't even need to touch the opponent!
Sun-sun could barely keep her composure after hearing that. "An attack that uses the opponents energy instead of your own! Impossible. How could such an attack exist?"
Ranko grinned as she mused to herself in her head "It never would of worked on you directly, Sun-sun. Your way of fighting is way too reserved. Unlike Apache and Mila rose I would have never been able to pull 100% direct energy from you."
Mila-rose then thought out loud "For some reason, now that I think about it, that kind of attack does sound familiar. How did you learn that?"
Ranko smiled "That's for me to know...and for you to...find out..." She then fell on her face on the ground, not moving.
Sun-sun asked "Is she...?
(SNORE, SNORE) Ranko was snoring of the floor of the ground.
"(sigh)" Halibel sighed. Not only because someone needed to carry her again, but this entire fight answered one question, but raised another. She turned to Mila-rose "Mila-rose can you?"
Mila-rose said annoyed "Fiiine."
Apache suddenly said "Wait. I'll do it."
Mila-rose, "Huh? Okay."
Apache picked up the light red head in one arm and walked off. Mila-rose didn't know why she suddenly offered. Maybe she admired her a little.
As they left Halibel was deep in thought. "She didn't use her release even of the most dire of circumstances. Whatever that technique she used was, it looked like her last desperation move. But why? Surely she knows how to release her sword. It's literally impossible for one not to. An Arrancar can feel the weapon's call and its power from within it at any time, even if she doesn't have much memories as a normal hollow. But maybe...that is the key."
Halibel looked down, her messy golden locks flowing down her eyes. "Am I going to have to do that?"
