I own nothing of Bleach or it's characters. All characters belong to their respective owners and I make no profit off this whatsoever.
Starrk POV
After a quiet meal, Halibel and I went off to Urahara's to train. He greeted us with the same dreadful smirk that we learned meant bad things for us. He quickly ushered us into the underground training room. Once we had gotten out our bodies and headed down he immediately addressed us.
"Alright, Halibel, I'm going to have you train against Starrk. The goal is to get you two on par with each other. You two may start whenever you please. I ask that you stay unreleased, both for preservation of the training ground and so that Starrk isn't overwhelmed. I'll intervene when I think you've had enough or if you're beating Starrk too badly, since I'll still need to train him to try and get his resurrección back. Alright?"
"Fine," she said as she drew her sword. I instinctively grabbed the hilt of my blade and Urahara slowly walked back, a widening smirk present on his face.
Urahara POV
The two of them quickly went at each other in a flurry of slashes. Starrk had the upperhand, blocking and parrying every single attack and immediately going for a strikes afterwards. Halibel was already receiving small cuts and one or two slightly larger wounds. I heard Halibel shout, "Ola Azul!" and then saw her release a blinding yellow attack in the middle of their skirmish sending up a cloud of dust. Halibel frantically sonidoed the area, and immediately assumed a stance more suitable for defense. The attack she was waiting for never came though.
The dust cloud continued to clear and after a few minutes it had dissipated revealing Starrk calmly dusting himself off, completely unfazed. He had not a scratch on him. Halibel stood in shock for a moment before launching herself back at him. He started dodging her strikes as she started dancing around him in her almost desperate attempt to hit him. She would miss after lunging herself at him, then changing direction in mid air, and lunge back at him. She was tenacious to say the least. Starrk meanwhile was analyzing every movement, every twitch in her muscles and predicting what she was going to do.
"Seeing her base capabilities, eh Starrk? You may play the fool, but really there seems to be few the wiser when you fight. The question is… when are you going to start pushing her?" I thought as I felt my grin grow even more. Then just as I was about to zone out, a loud clang rang throughout the air leaving a startling silence. I focused again and saw that Starrk had finally decided to block one of her attacks. Halibel was frozen in midair, her sword trusted as far out as her arm could stretch. The tip of her blade was being blocked by Starrk's. He was using both hands and was struggling a bit. Halibel then lept back before he could land a counter and then sonidoed behind him. Just as he was about to turn around to counter, her blade had struck him in his tricep. She then sonidoed back in front of him and started to release a barrage of the attack she had dubbed "Ola Azul" and bala. Starrk then proceeded to sonido all over the training ground, leading her in a wild goose change.
After several minutes of this, Halibel stood in the sky above the field, panting relentlessly. Starrk then took that opportunity and flew up to her at a blinding speed and hit her in the back of her knee with the back of his blade, causing he to come crashing down from the sky. She hit the ground with a painful crash and slowly got up. Starrk, in turn, had used his sonido to come back down and was now standing several meters away from her. During her barrage he had taken some hits and was starting to show some mild exhaustion. They both took a second to catch their breath and then restarted their deadly dance.
They were moving a bit slower, though still at speeds too fast for the average human to see. They seemed to be on a bit more even ground, and were fighting with more effort, their reiatsu in a furious war, as I would see bright flashes of blue and gold when their blades collided. It was an enchanting sight from afar. But if you could keep up, it was far more grisly. Both were putting up a marvelous show, but Starrk was done scoping out Halibel's abilities. In their skirmish he was hardly holding back, as he would mercilessly strike her whenever possible. She would strike. He would block and then quickly sonido behind her and strike her with the back of his blade. He would strike her at her joints though, Forcing her arms up, or her shoulders down, adjusting the angle at which her knees were bent. "Sneakily adjusting her stance, eh?" I thought smugly. What was really surprising me, was that Halibel was catching on and adjusting her stance.
Slowly, but surely, she was adjusting her stance and technique. While it wasn't perfect, She was receiving less strikes from Starrk. If they kept up this kind of training, Halibel could be at his level in possibly a month. Starrk abruptly ended their bout and sonidoed several meters away with his sword sheathed. Halibel stopped mid strike and lowered her sword, and waited while Starrk walked towards her.
Halibel POV
I was breathing heavily after the fight and was a bit sore all over. I was a bit happy that we hadn't decided to use the sharpened edge of the blade or else I would've been in far worse shape. Sometimes, due to his laid back nature, people would forget how strong Starrk was. I too had forgotten. Not of his strength in his resurrección, that was something no one would forget. Rather how dangerous he could be when he wasn't using it. It could be pretty terrifying to see what he could do when he applied himself. When Starrk finally made his way over, he was slightly panting, and looking a bit worn down with several cuts in his clothing and dust and debris clinging to his face and hair.
"What now?" I asked, unsure of why he stopped.
"I know you noticed how I was adjusting your stance during the fight, which, by the way, was quite impressive. At any rate I'd like you to start practicing the stances. They should help eliminate some of the holes in your defenses. Once your technique improves then we'll start worrying on boosting your reiatsu up to my level. Sound good to you?" he asked. I nodded and assumed the first position. He quickly came over to me and adjusted me to his variant of the position. He started to walk off to go train with Urahara when I moved into the second stance. This prompted him to come back and adjust me once again. He then decided to stay as I moved through each stance and would either slightly move or bend certain limbs and joints, or just tell me what needed to be adjusted.
I would occasionally look at his eyes to see if he was ogling me. The last thing I wanted was even Starrk to start staring at me as if I were a hunk of meat. I was cautions due to all my coworkers and my previous encounters with sexual harassment in Hueco Mundo. The last thing I wanted was for Starrk to start doing that as well. But when I looked at his eyes, they were sharp and focused on the task at hand. He wasn't just fixing my stances, but also trying to stay in a razor-sharp battle mindset so that he would be ready for round two with Urahara. Complete focus on what he needed to do. There was no apprehension in his eyes. Just a kind of focus only a person of his caliber could achieve. Once he felt he was done fixing my stances and felt that I could practice on my own, he sonidoed away to have his second crack at Urahara. I smirked. He seemed to be developing a sort of rivalry with the man.
"Kick his ass, Starrk," I whispered, grinning as I prepared to start going through the poses again.
Starrk POV
I sonidoed back over to Urahara only to find him doing some sort of meditation with his sword pulled out and lain across his lap with one hand resting on top of the hilt and the other on top of the edge of the blade. I was surprised to see that he didn't have his usual smug grin during his meditation. I stood waiting for a couple of minutes, but when he still didn't get up I sat down, waiting for him to address me. It was another ten minutes before he finally stood up.
"Did I keep you waiting long Starrk?" he asked as he started stretching.
"Only fifteen minutes," I growled.
"Sorry 'bout that. As much as enjoyed watching your fight, I felt I needed to get ready for mine," he said.
"So any particular rules you're going to have with our fights?" I asked.
"None in particular. I've been pouring over your test results and I'm still try to understand what I was seeing because while Arrancar have many similarities to Shinigami, they also have many differences. I think it will be clearer if we just fight as best we can. I'll be pushing you as hard as I can out there until you show me that power you lost, even if it means using techniques that could possibly kill you. I'll ask you this once: are you ready?" he said as all aloofness and smugness left, leaving only a keen killing edge.
"Let's go."
"Awaken, Benihime," he said the second I let go of the last syllable. He really wasn't going to be holding anything back. He lashed out at me in the blink of an eye. I quickly guarded and was forced on the defensive. He was vicious and swift. I only saw a mere glimpse of this strength when we sparred the last time. I blocked and parried, but he just counter or dodge. Just as I was about to let my guard down to attack, a shrill scream cut through the air as a red blast of reiatsu came at me in the blink of an eye. On instinct, I shot a bala at it, just barely managing to deflect it. I didn't stop with just the one because I knew that Urahara would be quick to follow up on his assault. Just as my balas were about to hit, he used shunpo to dodge. I did a 180° turn to find Urahara just about to slash me. I quickly brought up my sword and parried his strike. I then lept back, while charging a cero and launched it at him.
It hit and released a large cloud of dust. As it cleared I could see Urahara standing perfectly fine. He must've used some trick his zanpakuto had in order to block it. He then started to launch a volley of red energy blast at me from his sword. I used my sonido and slowly dodged my way past each one as I made my way towards him. With one final push I sonidoed behind him and got a solid hit on him across his back. He staggered and turned to face me with a look of shock on his face. He slowly shook his head as a grin once again found its way onto his face. As he was about to open his mouth to say something, I charged and launched a cero at him. As Urahara stepped out of the resulting cloud, I saw that his clothes were singed and he had a few burns. This proved my theory that he did use an ability of his zanpakuto's in order to block my previou cero. Urahara then sat down on the ground and invited me over to do the same. Warily, I walked over.
"I think that was a good session to start out with," he said as I sat down, "I think tomorrow I'll Yoruichi fight with in order to give me some time to heal. Besides I can't have you getting used to fighting one kind of opponent. That'll be all for tonight, you and Halibel can go home now if you wish," he said as he got up, slightly wincing as he straightened his back. I was about to get up and walk back over to Halibel when I remembered what I needed to discuss with Urahara.
"Hey, Urahara," I called out. He stopped walking away and turned around.
"What is it, Starrk?"
"Something weird happened to me earlier today and I wanted to see what you thought about it."
"What happened?"
"Well I had this dream… at least I think it was a dream-"
"You think?... Sorry go on," he said.
"I question that it was a dream because it was as if I was awake. I had all five senses in it, which isn't something that normally happens when I sleep. At any rate I saw a girl in it, a girl who used to be apart of my soul, and I'm not talking figuratively. She and I were once the same being. She had died in the winter war and she used to be the key to unlocking my resurrección. I saw her in there and she was quite cryptic. However, she said that she had secrets and that what I was experiencing might not have been a dream. What do you think?" I asked. At first Urahara was in deep thought as he processed the information and then I saw his eyes widen ever so slightly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well it could be nothing but an unusually vivid dream or, and don't get your hopes up on this, I might have figured out how to give you back your powers," he said.
What is that I spy? Could it be... a new chapter?! And plot development?! What maddness is this? Sorry for not posting sooner, but I had some issues to sort out... like David Bowie's death. Y'all may not have known this, but I'm a massive David Bowie fan and I was extatic when his new album got released. Then on Monday morning, as I woke up and turned on the news, the first thing I saw was that David Bowie had died. That Monday was one of the worst days of my life. David Bowie had been one of my few idols. I never really had them, but he was almost a god to me. So after spending a few days in mourning I finally started writing again. I loved David Bowie and had always aspired to try and be myself more because of his example. He was a Renaissance man and we are unlikely to find a person as unique, trend-setting, and game-changing as he was. Rest in peace, Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, The Man Who Sold The World, Aladdin Sane, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Pierrot, The Goblin King; Jareth, The Regular Dude, The Outsider, The Elder Statesman, Meta-Bowie, and David Jones. Your work is done. Thank you so much! And thank you readers for all the support you've given to this little story of mine. If you want to, I highly encourage you to listen to Bowie's music if you haven't yet. Thank you and may you all have a wonderful week and good luck to any students who still have yet to take their finals!