Chapter 52

About a week after she woke up from her icy prison, Halibel got a personal visit from Yamamoto Sou taicho, as well as taicho's Soi Fon and Unohana.

"Former Tres espada Tia Halibel. It has come to my attention that your health is once again turning to normal. As such I wanted to make sure that you understand the consequences should you attempt any attack on any member of the gotei 13."

"I would not dream of it" Halibel said politely, giving a small bow to the man in front of her. "Neliel Sama has told me all about the war and the deal the shinigami and arrancars did, I will do nothing to disturb that agreement."

Yamamoto nodded, seeing that the woman was being sincere. He turned towards Soi Fon and Unohana.

"Soi Fon taicho, as per agreement with Neliel Tu Oderswank, Tia Halibel is to be allowed to train with her zanpakuto up until the tournament in a week, is that clear?"

"Hai Sou taicho, I will have Fuji get the sword from storage when needed."

Yamamoto nodded. "Unohana taicho your squad is still responsible for Tia Halibel's health, make sure she doesn't overdo it."

"Of course Sou taicho."

"Very well, I bid you farewell for now Tia Halibel, make sure to not overdo it."

Halibel bowed once again as all three taicho's left, Unohana being the only one who provided a smile. The moment the door closed behind the taicho's, Halibel let out a breath she didn't even realize she had been holding.

She could start training again.

"Quite impressive isn't he?"

Halibel looked at Kitty, who herself looked pretty shook up after the visit from the Sou taicho.

"I have met him before" Halibel said honestly. "I thought he had killed my fraccion."

"I'm guessing you dealt with that thought in the most rational way possible?"

"I threatened to kill him."

"Ouch" Kitty said smiling amused. "Come now, you need some fresh air, I'm sure Soi Fon taicho won't mind it if we borrow her training court."

Kitty had to smile. Halibel stood on the court before her, having a small training match with Fuji, her sword in her hand, looking positively ecstatic.

Soi Fon had kept her word and had handed over Tiburon the moment Halibel stepped out to train. Halibel had responded by asking if anyone wanted to help her train. Fuji stepped out, saying that she could use a new sparring partner.

Even with having been out of commission for kami knew how long, Halibel was doing pretty good, and would probably just continue to improve as the week went on. A small pat on the back made Kitty turn, seeing Haruka standing behind her.

"Unohana taicho sent me to tell you that you are wanted at the 12th for that pre tournament physics thingy" Nemu wanted to try out.

"All right" Kitty said smiling. "Halibel will probably need to stop in about 15 minutes, when that happens please ask Soi Fon on my behalf if needed to let Halibel borrow a shower."

"Of course Kitty, have fun at the 12th."

BLEACHBLEACH

Kitty walked in calmly to the 12th squad, smiling at Akon who stood behind a computer screen.

"Hi there Akon, congrats on the promotion."

Akon smiled. "Thanks Kitty, taicho is waiting for you."

Akon told Kitty where to go and Kitty soon found herself inside a large white room filled to the brim with strange stuff.

"Ah Kitty, how nice of you to come."

Kitty smiled to Nemu. "Well I heard this was obligatory for the contestants so not like I had much choice."

"Point taken" Nemu said. "Basically we will arrange some stats for all the participants, divided into 6 stages. We will start on stamina."

Kitty walked up on the treadmill Nemu pointed to, allowing some of her subordinates to attach patches and wires on her, to control stuff like her pulse and breathing pattern.

"This test is easy enough" Nemu said. "You keep running. Every minute the treadmill automatically goes up one speed. When you feel like you can no longer run you press that button that says stop and that will be it."

"Understood" Kitty said, smiling as the treadmill started in a slow tempo.

Kitty lasted for 45 minutes before she had to stop, breathing heavily and accepting a bottle of water from a nearby 12th squader.

"Right" Nemu said smiling as she led Kitty to a table. "As you calm down we can take test number 2, intelligence. It's in 2 parts, a written test and a practical test."

Kitty blinked as Nemu put down a board in front of her, sitting down opposite Kitty. "Chess? Really?"

"It's remarkable how much you can learn about the way people play chess" Nemu said smiling.

"Fine" Kitty said, taking another sip of water. "But be gentle with me, I'm not that good at this game."

True enough Kitty lasted no longer than 10 minutes against Nemu's superior intellect in chess, and after that and a not so fun written test later Kitty was ready to move again.

Nemu put her through acrobatic tests to check her movement, had her display her talents for both attacking and defending and finally at showing how much reiatsu Kitty could produce.

As Kitty finished up she bid Nemu farewell, and Nemu herself wished Kitty luck in the tournament that was no more than a week away.

BLEACHBLEACHBLEACH

It was finally here. Kitty took a deep breath as she and Kin stood in the familiar line in the huge coliseum that the gotei 13 used for the tournament.

All around them people cheered, and in front of her stood Neliel, Grimmjow, Apache, Mila Rose, Sun Sun and a finally completely healthy Halibel, dressed up in her arrancar uniform.

Neliel bowed to the taicho's box, before raising her hand to make the cheering crowd quiet down. Thanks to some creative work from the 12th squad, the entire place now consisted of a large tenteikura field, so Nemu could speak clearly and be heard to all the corners of everyone listening in without her having to raise her voice.

"Welcome everyone to yet another shinigami tournament."

Another cheer was heard. "We all know how this works" Neliel said smiling mysteriously. "A one on one fight against 2 shinigami. The one with a disadvantage in rank can ask his or her opponent to not use one of his talents. The one left standing wins."

Everyone cheered again. "HOWEVER" Neliel said raising her voice, making everyone calm down. "This year we will throw in a twist."

Kitty frowned, looking towards Kin who looked as confused as her. "First of all let us meet all the contestants."

Neliel pointed her hand to a screen where all the contestant's pictures and stats stared back.

Kitty smiled to see her stats. Terrible in intellect, pleasable scores in reiatsu and defence, great scores in attack, stamina and mobility.

Kin beat her in intelligence and reiatsu but had worse scores in mobility and stamina. However Kitty frowned as she realized that next to all the pictures and stats were a bunch of numbers. At the moment everyone had a 1000, written up next to their stats.

"This year the taicho's and fuku taicho's of the gotei 13 decided to raise the stakes a little" Neliel said with a smile.

"As of now all of you have 1000 points. Each round you win you automatically get a thousand more points. Before a match start you can bet any number of points you have already saved up, if you win the match you get double the amount of points back as well as the 1000 points."

Down the line Rikichi from the 6th squad spoke up. "What's the point of the numbers?"

Neliel smiled. "Well I'm getting there. When you get knocked out of the tournament the amount of points you have will be locked inn. And once the entire tournament is finished you can use your points for one single opportunity if you wish to have it. A chance to beat one of these guys."

Once again Neliel pointed to the board and all the contestants and their stats disappeared, and was replaced by all the taicho's and fuku taicho's, with the exception of Yamamoto and Sasakibe, all with their stats. Next to them they also had numbers.

"Have enough points, and you can fight one of them, and they have to follow the same rule as you guys, you can decide how they fight" Neliel said with a smile.

Kitty whistled. Looking up her eyes fell on Soi Fon, who's stats showed top scores in stamina and mobility, and pretty decent scores in everything else. Next to her the number 4600 stood glaring back at her.

"What do you think" she said turning to Kin.

Kin was looking at the board too. "That I think I'd like to get over 5000 points" she said with a smile.

Kitty looked on the board and saw many taicho's with over 5k in points, but she had a feeling she knew who Kin wanted to fight.

"All right everyone" Neliel said with a smile, the crowd cheering like mad again at the thought of seeing their own taicho's and fuku taicho's in action.

"Let's get this show on the road."