Seree held her breath as Katsutoshi's sword descended towards Yaso's soul. Her blood froze when the impact made a crashing sound and raised a cloud of dust all around them. It felt like an eternity passed until the dust settled and she was able to see them again. And what she saw put new life in her heart, sending it racing and unfreezing her blood.
At first it merely looked like Yaso was kneeling down. She then noticed that his clothes were darker than the Shinigami Academy uniform he had been wearing. And they were, they were completely black, the black of the Shihakushō. Above his head, Yaso was holding a sheath and a half-drawn sword, blocking Katsutoshi's weapon.
She couldn't believe her eyes at first. But once the dust was gone, the image was too clear not to be true. The Zanpakutō, the uniform...
"Yaso!" She called, worried, hopeful, she didn't even know what to feel anymore.
Yaso suddenly sheathed his sword fully, catching the edge of Katsutoshi's weapon and, with a twist, pulling at him and making him lose his footing. With a fluid move, he unsheathed again, slashing at his enemy and giving him a wound on the upper left arm. Katsutoshi disappeared in a blur of shunpo, landing several meters away, right hand on his wounded arm and a look of bewilderment on his face.
As quick as he could, Yaso had taken his mortally wounded body and walked back towards Seree. He dropped his body, reached back, and grabbing the kidō binding Seree with his hand, shattered it with a strong pull.
"Seree, can you take care of this?"
"Y-Yaso... You're..."
"Yeah. We'll talk later."
Seree couldn't move her eyes from Yaso. There was no hesitation, no doubts in his eyes anymore. He had his gaze fixed on Katsutoshi, with his left hand on the hilt of his Zanpakutō.
I still can't feel any reiatsu from him at all.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a gasp, and she realized Chappy was having a pretty hard time inside Yaso's wounded body. Without hesitation, she grabbed him and, with a shunpo, landed next to Nemu.
"Don't worry Chappy, I'll have you healed in no time, hang in there! I wish I had my pack with me, I have no idea where it is..."
"Yer a friggin' Shinigami now?" Katsutoshi asked, as he readied himself for another attack, walking slowly towards Yaso.
"Funny thing, isn't it? I've been one for two years, and I didn't even know."
"Hadō thirty-one, Red Fire Cannon!"
Without a single warning, Katsutoshi shot a kidō at Yaso, and pushed forward with shunpo as soon as the spell had landed. His attack was deflected by Yaso when he first unsheathed, followed by a hit on his right arm with the green saya of his Zanpakutō. Yaso spun with the same movement he used to block, and as Katsutoshi ducked under the new attack, Yaso was forced to jump back to avoid the red blade of his opponent coming low at him.
Katsutoshi regarded him with curiosity for a few moments.
"That's yer Zanpakutō's ability, ain't it? It blocks yer reiatsu, and kidō, and everything else that don't work on ya."
"Who knows." Yaso replied nonchalantly.
He's right!
He recognized the voice inside his head immediately. There was no painful pulse this time.
"I know, Tonbo-chan. But there's no reason to give anything away." He whispered.
T-Tonbo-chan?
"What, you don't like it?"
"If that's yer Zanpakutō, there's gots to be a limit of what it cans do." Katsutoshi continued.
"Who knows."
Katsutoshi grinned, and pushed forward with shunpo. Seree snapped her head up when she felt the sudden surge of reiatsu, remembering Katsutoshi breaking the sword Urahara had made.
It's the same, what is he going to do?
"P-pyon..."
"Sorry Chappy!" Seree said, returning her attention to the injured body. "I got distracted for a moment, hang in there okay?"
She let herself be slightly distracted for another second, reaching out with her kidō to Nemu, who was laying next to Yaso's body. Still very weak, but stable. She marvelled at the Lieutenant's resilience.
Back at the combat, Yaso was having flashbacks of his near-death experience. Katsutoshi was pushing hard and fast, in an almost reckless fashion, and relying on his reflexes to get out of Yaso's counters. Finally, Yaso managed to narrowly dodge one of the attacks, finding an opening. He slashed down towards Katsutoshi's right arm, aiming at severing it at the elbow, but Katsutoshi responded as if he had been waiting for it, pushing back and attacking with all his might.
The clash of sword on sword was almost deafening, and there was a high pith note of something metallic cracking. For a moment they looked at each other, and Yaso noticed Katsutoshi's eyes on his sword.
He looked down, there was a noticeable crack on the blade.
"Man, and I thoughts I could getcha with the same trick twice in a row, it would've been a riot!" Katsutoshi said, grinning.
What's with the worried look?
"Are you okay, Tonbo-chan?"
Of course I am. That's just an empty blade. You still haven't called my name, what are you waiting for?
Katsutoshi pushed forward once more, and his powerful lunge was dodged by Yaso only by a fraction of an inch. He slashed up with his chipped blade, letting it be deflected by Katsutoshi when his counter tried to break it again.
Don't hesitate. Don't doubt. Believe in yourself. You heard it when you took me in your hands, call my name!
The blade finally shattered when Katsutoshi blocked Yaso's downwards slash. The sudden shower of shrapnel made both of them cover their faces and retreat from each other. Katsutoshi looked at Yaso and saw him raising his broken blade to his right, horizontal at shoulder length.
"Shine your guiding light..." Yaso started chanting, as the remains of the blade shone and disappeared, leaving only an empty handle. "Katsumushimiko!"
A flash of light in the shape of a blade appeared, and as it dimmed down, it left behind a completely transparent curved blade, about 70 cm in length. It had a false double-edged tip, and a subtle, constantly swirling blue tint along the edge. It was so clear it would have been invisible, if it weren't reflecting the few lights present around them.
"Hm, so that's yer Zanpakutō's release."
Yaso didn't answer. He looked at the blade, and made a couple of short movements before sheathing it again.
"You're very light, Tonbo-chan."
Will that be a problem?
"I'll manage. Can we cut him?"
If you're asking for permission, then yes. If you're wondering whether we're capable, then hell yes!
Yaso smirked. Katsutoshi misunderstood it as a provocation, and a moment later he jumped away with shunpo, appearing to Yaso's left with an even faster movement than any he had used so far. As he slashed down, Yaso pivoted back on his right foot and unsheathed.
A moment later, Katsutoshi started to fall back, his sword sliced in half and with a deep wound going across his chest, With a fluid motion, Yaso grasped the tsuka with both hands as he sliced down again, giving Katsutoshi a second and mortal wound.
Seree watched the combat completely awestruck. She was working on autopilot, after having closed the wound on Yaso's body, so she could watch the combat. She didn't understand how it happened, she didn't see where the power could possibly have come from. She knew full well how strong Katsutoshi was, and he had been sliced through together with his Zanpakutō with incredible ease.
I still can't feel any reiatsu! Where is that power coming from?
Making a slash through the air to remove the blood, Yaso sheathed and turned to walk towards Seree, looking at her and smiling. Seree smiled at first, but her smile froze in her face when her gaze became fixed behind Yaso. He turned, and saw Katsutoshi's body contorting on the ground. He couldn't feel the strange fluctuations of reiatsu that had scared Seree like that.
"What the..."
A white fluid seemed to ooze out of the two wounds Yaso had given Katsutoshi, and with a scream of pain, it suddenly started bubbling and solidifying.
"Yaso! Watch out!"
Yaso took a few prudent steps back after Seree's warning.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know!" She shouted. "But it feels very strange! And dangerous!"
Yaso assumed his ready stance and waited. Before long the screaming had finished, and Katsutoshi stood up again. Yaso thought his eyes looked strange, like black flecks were dancing inside the eyeballs, and they seemed almost bloodshot. He was too far to really make out the details. But more importantly, the wounds appeared to be closed.
"Well nuts, what does it take to kill this guy?"
"Aaaah, that really hurts." Katsutoshi said, moving his head around and pulling at the neck muscles, until he seemed comfortable enough. "And lookit this."
He raised his Zanpakutō and looked at it. The blade was less than 20 inches long, sliced in half by Yaso. It started oozing the same white liquid from the end, and as it suddenly bubbled out, the blade was reformed.
"That's a nice trick." Yaso said, with a raised eyebrow.
"Ain't it? Ahhh, but now it all makes sense." Katsutoshi pointed at Yaso with his red Zanpakutō. "Now I knows why you's so hard to feel reiatsu for."
Katsutoshi smiled, but Yaso didn't say anything.
"I tolds ya, when two spirits fight, who's gots more reiatsu wins. Yer reiatsu ain't that strong, but the reason I can't feel it it's because it's all in yer Zanpakutō. By concentrating all reiatsu at the edge of the blade, you cans cut through mine. Even if I'm strongest."
He's smarter than he looks.
"So he can't stop you?" Yaso whispered.
We can run him through whenever we want.
"But you see..." Katsutoshi raised his blade, snapping Yaso into attention in an instant. "Even if you's got a sharp blade, that's all you's got. You gots no shunpo. You gots no kidō."
"Should be plenty." Yaso replied.
"Oh really?"
Katsutoshi lunged forward, stopping just inside Yaso's reach and slicing down with his Zanpakutō. Yaso responded with a wide slash, cutting through the red blade with virtually no resistance, at a speed he could only achieve because of the nearly weightless blade. Katsutoshi didn't seem to mind, and with the same move he merely pushed forward. He couldn't pierce Yaso with a flat ended blade, but he still managed to give him a very unexpected cut on his chest, deep enough to touch his ribs. Yaso responded with a downwards slice, and Katsutoshi let him cut another piece of is Zanpakutō, forcing Yaso to dodge back awkwardly to avoid a cut across his face. On the third attack, Yaso used the Saya instead to hit Katsutoshi on the arm to avert the much shorter blade, and his subsequent attack found only empty air.
From a distance, Katsutoshi smiled and, as he concentrated, the white bubbling fluid started pouring from the broken end of his Zanpakutō. Seree looked at him, trying to figure out what was going on while keeping her healing going strong.
That's not a Shinigami ability. That feels like a hollow's high speed regeneration.
Her kidō wavered for a moment. Both Chappy and Nemu were in serious condition, but they were stable enough. She should be helping Yaso instead. He was looking at Katsutoshi, holding a hand the chest wound he had given him.
"This is going to be a problem, Tonbo-chan."
You can avoid him.
"Maybe, but I'm too used to block and counter. Say, what would happen if I block with your back?"
I'll probably break. All our reiatsu is concentrated in the edge, just like he said.
"I see. How much of the edge?"
What are you thinking?
"I'm thinking a change of rhythm. You remember my fencing? Parry and riposte?"
Of course I do.
"Something like that. Let's do it."
"Whatcha mumbling about?" Katsutoshi asked, raising his newly reformed Zanpakutō.
"Just having a little talk." Yaso tucked the saya under his sash, and raised his Zanpakutō, pointing at Katsutoshi with the edge facing up. "Ready for the second round?"
For an answer, Katsutoshi rushed forward and appeared above Yaso's head. As he sliced down, Yaso raised his blade to block. There was a metallic note as both swords met. Katsutoshi's face showed his surprise when his Zanpakutō wasn't cut, Yaso had met the blade with his own's edge at an angle. It didn't cut through, but the reiatsu was still there to block. As Katsutoshi fell down preparing to land, Yaso pushed up with his Zanpakutō and, as soon as he had the space, made a slash forward with all his might. He gave his foe a deep cut across his belly, but didn't manage to cut through completely.
Ignoring his wound, Katsutoshi attempted an attack as soon as his feet touched the ground, aiming to slice at Yaso's exposed midsection. He spun his blade to point down, blocking it at an angle again. For a second time he pushed Katsutoshi's Zanpakutō away, and in the subsequent move gave him a deep cut up through the left shoulder.
Katsutoshi jumped away a considerable distance. Yaso saw white fluid coming out of the wounds.
"That didn't feel as sharp as before, you okay Tonbo-chan?"
Yes. I dispersed our reiatsu along my blade some when I saw you trying to block like that. I'll try to sharpen up when you do the attacks, but following what you're doing is hard to do on my own.
"I think you and I are going to have to practice together a lot when we're done here."
I'd like that.
Katsutoshi had barely recovered before rushing forward again. His next attack was once again blocked by Yaso, but Katsutoshi was the fastest on the next step. He pushed down at his sword until the edges were right against each other, and pushed hard, cutting his own Zanpakutō on Katsumushimiko's and with the impulse giving Yaso's left arm a deep cut. Yaso pulled back slicing down, but his retreat had been too hasty, leaving him open for an attack.
Katsutoshi's attack, however, didn't find his target. Before he could cut Yaso, it was blocked by another blade.
"Seree!"
Holding fast with one hand on the tsuka and another on the back of Yaezakura, Seree was blocking Katsutoshi's powerful blow. His surprise gave Yaso an opening, and he was within an ace of severing Katsutoshi's left arm. For an instant their eyes met, and Yaso thought Katsutoshi's eyes were looking very strange. They were nearly completely black, and if he had to put a word to it, he'd say they looked like he was staring into madness.
Katsutoshi once again pulled back, and Seree assumed her ready stance in front of Yaso.
"Seree?"
"I'm fine. Chappy's fine too, at least for now." She glanced at Yaso over her shoulder. "If you can't block his attacks, let me be the one to do it, Yaso."
"Are you sure? We haven't done much fighting together since the last time we whooped his butt." Yaso said, gesturing with his head towards Katsutoshi.
"I'm sure." She grasped her sword firmly, looking forward. "Trust me."
They were interrupted when Katsutoshi suddenly started laughing. It wasn't even a soft laugh, he laughed with the abandon of someone whose sanity is about to disappear. Yaso and Seree looked at him, and saw a strange white reiatsu dancing around his body.
"What's going on?" Yaso asked.
"I don't know. I've been feeling this weird reiatsu since you two started fighting, but I still don't know what it is."
Katsutoshi kept laughing, trying to talk in between laughs.
"Damn you Daruma! You... You really gots me..." He had to stop talking for a few more moments. "I didn't wants to... Do this. You damn hollow. I can'ts hold it back nomore."
He grinned wickedly when he looked at his two opponents, and Seree gulped as Katsutoshi's reiatsu suddenly started climbing out of control. She could feel the increased reiatsu pummelling at her from the walls of the dimensional barriers. Behind her, Yaso couldn't feel a thing, all he could see were the eyes of Katsutoshi, moving as if he had lost all control of them.
Finally, Katsutoshi lifted his Zanpakutō and, throwing it in the air, grabbed the blade with both hands.
"BANKAI!"
Translation Notes:
Katsumushimiko (勝虫美子): Beautiful Child of the Dragonfly. Katsumushi (勝虫) is one of the ancient names for the dragonfly, which means "invincible insect". The modern name of the dragonfly is Tonbo (トンボ, or 蜻蛉), hence Tonbo-chan. Miko (美子) just plainly means beautiful child (you'll see 美 often at the end of Japanese names ending with -mi, which means beautiful, and 子 in names ending in -ko, which means child; do a quick Google search for "Sakurako" or "Kumiko" and you'll see what I mean). Miko could also be written 巫女, which, while it means "shaman woman", is generally translated as the more common "Shrine Maiden".
While I'm translating:
Yaso (八十): Eight-ten (um... Eighty :D), as explained in the text, the idea is that the word for nine (Kyū, or Ku) sounds similar to the word for suffering, so this name "skips" the nine, and so suffering should "skip" the child. Nine is considered unlucky, much like four.
Yaezakura (八重桜): This is more straightforward, it's a "double cherry blossom", a variety of cherry blossom that has more than the standard five petals (usually as doubles: ten, twenty, etc..., that has to do with the way genetic duplication works, so you get multiples of five in a 2^n series). It is sometimes considered to be too pretentious, lacking the elegance and simplicity of regular five-petal cherry blossoms.
Katsutoshi (勝俊): "To win cleverly". Kachi (勝) means win (or rather, wins).
Gundan (軍団): Corps (as in army corps). No, it's not Gungan, that was OpenOffice autocomplete messing up (or rather, me messing up with autocomplete) and me not noticing it – that's what happens when you've written a lot more Star Wars fanfic than Bleach *Facepalm*. So I've gone and corrected all the wrong entries.
Daruma (達磨): It's a round, hollow, traditional Japanese doll. A quick image search will likely let you recognize it immediately if you haven't recognized the name already; it's everywhere in Anime/Manga, because it's everywhere in Japan :)
And this is where someone who speaks good Japanese (i.e., someone who, unlike me, doesn't have to stop to look at the dictionary every other word) comes and corrects me!
