Chapter 21: Bankai Training Begins
As soon as I fall asleep, Mana pulls me into my Spirit World.
"Oy, kid, we got work to do." she says
"Geez!" I whine. "Can't get no rest. Where's the others?" I had been looking around for a while now, but no one is at their usual places. Shea isn't hanging out on the roof, Darius isn't over punching the punching back, and Trel isn't hovering around Mana as per usual.
"You're wearin' 'em." I notice that, for the first time, I have all my zanpakuto, with the exception of Mana, on me while I'm in my soul.
"OK, what gives?"
"I decided that it's time you worked on bankai. And what better time now that your material body's useless for a while?"
"OK, so how are we gonna do this?"
"You've heard about he method Kurosaki Ichigo used, right?" I have to dig in my memory banks a little, but I eventually remember he used a doll that'd imitate his zanpakuto and it gave him a task to complete. I only know this cause Ichigo told me himself while I was at the clinic one time.
"Yeah, but the was in the Soul Society. In the material world."
"Doesn't matter. While you were messin' around with Urahara that first day you were here, I noticed the thing and emulated it into you soul." I arrange my face into a "You crazy?" sorta look and judging by her reaction I had got it right. " So who's first?" she says instead of yelling like I thought she would. Without thought or hesitation I pulled Shea off my back.
"No fair! Why her?" Trel complains.
"She's the strongest. Doesn't it make sense for the strongest to reach the strongest position first?" I answer. That's a lie though. Shea and me were always the closest to one another due to our rivalry (I was second strongest and wanted to be first) and our matching love for combat of any sort. That's my reason for picking her. Darius and Trel's zanpakuto disappear and they show up in their usual positions with their bodies.
"Alright, Tage, stab me into the doll and let's get started." Shea commands. I thrust Shea into the doll's center and she and the doll disburse. When the smoke clears, Shea's standing there and lookin' ready for battle. Shea has grown up right along with me. She's not flat anymore, she's not average, but she's not Rangiku sized either. She's 5'0'' which, according to Mom's descriptions of him, is just barely shorter than Dad. She's kept her hair bottom of the neck length, though now she wears it down instead of in three pigtails. She has her usual combat attire on: a bandanna on her hair to prevent the opponent from grabbing it, a simple blue T-shirt no loose, but not tight either to increase mobility (she can't move too well if she's got something crushing her legs, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, or wrists), and a pair of black jeans like the shirt for the same reason, red Swisses just because it was her favorite shoe brand, and her customary black fingerless gloves. Now that I notice it, I'm wearing her gloves too.
"This should be fun." I smirk. It's been WAY too long since I spared with Shea. Let me tell ya. It makes Hollow fighting seem like child's play, at least back in the day in did.
I start with a cross for her face but she ducks it and gets an uppercut right to my shin. My head snaps up. Looks like it's still gonna be harder than Hollow fightin'. I cartwheel so it catches her in her chin and we both wheel back.
"Congrats, Tage, that really hurt." she said.
"Sorry, Shea, but that last one didn't. You can stop holding back now." That is what drives me so hard to get stronger; No matter how hard I tried, I always knew she was holding back and still won. And I'm sick of it.
"Alright!" she dashes at me and roundhouses at my head. I duck it, but was still taken off balance for a second due to ducking way too fast and the blood rushing to my head. She took that second and ax-kicked the top of my head into the ground. I bounced once and use the momentum to 360 and land an ax to her forehead to disorient her. I use her dizziness to get over my own. A kick into the ground is NOT FUN. I shake it off and sweep her feet, only to have her jump it and do a drop kick to my torso. I grab her feet after contact and slam her into the ground face first and kick her body into the air. She slides across it and shunpos at me. She must've been workin' on it in here cuz I can't follow for a second. Once I take into account her higher speed, I see her foot about an inch from my nose, much too close to do much of anything. I lean back to minimize damage, though she still got a pretty damn close to breaking my nose. While I lean, she bring both fists into my gut and I double over. Really stupid mistake as she tee-kicks my face and I begin lookin' at the sky. I use the momentum to get a really strong cartwheel to her chin and, when I get back on my feet, flying kick her gut. Now she's the idiot for doubling over. I jump on her head and position myself to slam her on the ground 20 feet below us (sorta like Sasuke did to Orochimaru and Naruto) and go down. We are about 2 inches from the ground when she does a complete 360 and I land on the back of her head. She gets off and I finish falling flat on my back. My vision's swimming, I see little pops in front of my eyes.
"Idiot." she comments and looks away as if she was expecting me to fade out. Instead I sit up, grab her leg, pick her up while picking myself up, and slam her into the ground so she makes an arch in the air and lands on the back of her head.
"You're the idiot. I've always had a hard head." I say. That is true, but not helping right now since my vision's still doing the breaststroke, but Shea's taunt at least kept me from blacking out. I'm shaking the pops out of my vision now. Shea brings herself to a shaky stand and I can see she;s in pretty much the same condition.
"Alright you two!" Mana calls. Shea turns back into a doll and her zanpakuto is on my back again. "You're done for the day. Any farther and I'm sure one of you have a concussion."
"Um, Mana..." Trel states. He doesn't get to finish on account of me slamming Mana into the ground and holding her neck.
"Mana, I don't know if any of my family told you," I growl as menacingly as possible, "But in the Kazumi family, all fights are until one side can't fight no more."
"Got it." she chokes. Darius then plies me off and hold my arms at the top of my head. At his height, which is still significantly taller than me, I'm off the floor.
"Sorry, Mana, but he's a staunch believer in that rule." he explains. "It'd be best if you let it play out 'til the end next time." Rubbing her neck, she nods and shoots me a dirty look. "And Montage," he snaps my arms a little so pain shoots through them, " I know you live and breath that rule but that's no reason to lash out at people. Calm your ass down." We sit there for who knows how long like that, my arms feeling more and more pain. Darius finally lets me go, probably because he deemed I wasn't gonna attack anyone else.
"So what do I do 'til tomorrow?" It's not like I can wake up in the MW right now." I say. I know my own body well enough and have determined it's so wrecked if the girls just leave it as it is, it'll take three days to straighten itself out and it'll reinstate consciousness. Shea disappears off my body and reappears in human form on the roof, sprawled out and snoring loudly. Mana appears on my hip.