Chapter 53
The tournament started strong as usual. Kitty and Kin winched and whooped with the rest of the crowd as each match flowed, watching both Fuji and Rannessea beat their match. As Hitomi came walking back up having won her first battle Kitty smiled.
"You are on fire today Hitomi, good job."
"Thanks, I'm looking forward to see what you got in store too."
Kitty grinned. "Oh if you only knew" she said with a teasing smirk, turning as a new fight was decided.
Looking out she whistled. 2 men's faces looked back at her, one a smaller purple haired boy with glasses, the other one a good 6 feet tall with half his face hidden by a tribal tattoo in the shape of a lion.
"Anro and Umar" Kin muttered, as both men walked down to the stage. "This will be interesting."
Kitty nodded agreeing. Through the years she had gotten to know both the men, both through the tournament and through her work in the 4th squad.
Umar Izamu was the 10th seat of the 7th squad. He held his ground in hakuda but his main strength was Hoho, being so quick that it was rumored that he once had beaten Yoruichi in a game of tag. However he never really thought things through before he did them, which often resulted in him going in a berserker rage if in a tough spot.
Anro Satoru was the 12th squad's 5th seat. He was just like any standard 12th squader, calm, meticulous and smart. He never excelled in one subject, but was more of an all rounder, being just as good in hakuda as he was in kidou, hoho and swordsmanship.
Rannessea grinned. "The berserker versus the jack of all trades huh? This can get interesting."
Down at the field Satoru nodded his agreement to not use any form of hakuda, the two men shaking each other's hand.
"And then… on your marks… get set… GO."
Izamu reached down and grabbed his zanpakuto. "Scratch, Kinneko."
On the opposite side of the field, Satoru did the same.
"Pelt them down, Yanchako."
Over Izamu's hands, his zanpakuto dissolved into a pair of brass knuckles, the knuckles themselves forming out three sharp claws, like the ones on a cat. Anro's sword shrunk down, and soon he held a silvery gun with a golden hilt. And then chaos started.
Izamu went into his usual flurry of shunpoo jumps, now and then clawing at Satoru's face. Satoru on his end dodged and fired of bullet after bullet, never slowing down.
Everything stood at a standstill for almost 5 minutes before Satoru had enough and raised his gun, firing a bullet… straight into the ground. The moment the bullet was shot, a thick layer of smoke lay over the two contestants. Then out of the smoke came Satoru, pointing his gun at the smoke and fired off round after round of bullets.
When the smoke cleared, Izamu lay groaning on the ground, making Neliel raise her hand.
"Winner of the match is Anro Satoru."
Anro smiled and bowed at the applause, deactivating his zanpakuto and walked up to the others.
"Not bad Anro" Fuji said as he came up. "I take it that was your electrical charged bullets and not the led ones?"
"Of course" Satoru said with a mischievous smile. "I'd never do anything to a fellow shinigami."
Kitty smiled but looked out as the board started going through the contestants once again. Once the board finally had up two new faces Kitty smiled.
"Well, well, would you look at that?"
Fuji looked out. Kitty's face glanced back at them… as did Kiyone's.
Up in the taicho box Unohana and Soi Fon almost spoke simultaneously.
"100 Ryo on Petro winning."
"I'm not taking that bet" Ichigo said huffing.
"Hey Kiyone has grown strong this last year, she might surprise you" Ukitake said.
"Oh yes and Kitty has probably been using all her free time slouching on a couch" Soi Fon said with a huff.
"No offence Ukitake but 3rd seat Kotetsu won't win this."
"What makes you so sure Kiyone hasn't trained as hard as Kitty?" Rukia asked.
Soi Fon grinned and turned to Rukia. "Have you noticed how her own sister isn't disagreeing with me?"
Rukia blinked but looked at Isane who looked worried down on the ground.
Down on the ground Kitty and Kiyone looked at each other.
"Two 3rd seats" Neliel said smiling at them. "Which means nobody of you get's a disadvantage."
Kiyone laughed hollowly. "Don't be like that Kiyone, you're hurting my feelings… By the way Neliel I'll bet all my points I can beat her" Kitty said with a small kind smile.
"Yeah well… we all know you are capable of beating anyone here" Kiyone said with a huff as Neliel made sure that the scoreboard showed Kitty's 1000 points go down to zero.
"Not true" Kitty said. "There are a few here I hope to not meet to be honest. Now then, let's have a good fight shall we?"
Kiyone nodded. "Of course."
"All right" Neliel said with a smile. "Let's have a clean fight shall we?"
Both girls nodded and bowed to each other. "Get ready… set… GO."
Kitty wasted no time and jumped back bringing out her zanpakuto. Even as she drew it the sword transformed and without as much as a breath she stood in her shikai gear. There was a hushed murmur around the grounds, and up in the taicho box Komamura spoke up.
"She just summoned shikai without calling its name… when did she learn to do that?"
Down in the arena, Kiyone too wondered about the same thing, but held her distance, gripping her own zanpakuto tight.
Kitty smiled. "Thinking of staying out of my watery grasp are you Kiyone?"
Kiyone smiled. Yeah, "I know how you like to fight, so for now I'll keep my distance."
"Smart choice" Kitty said with a nod. "If… I was fighting in my old style."
Kitty dragged out some water, stranding it between her claws, an arm's length from one end to the other. Smiling gently she let her tail rise up and quickly tapped the water wall with its tip.
The result was a quick water bullet shooting at Kiyone, who quickly dodged it. Kiyone looked at Kitty in shock, as Kitty again tapped the water with her tail. Soon Kiyone did all she could to avoid the barrage of water blasts that shot at her and she realized that she had to get closer.
Quickly she ran into a shunpoo, charging at Kitty and lashed down with her zanpakuto. She grimaced as she was met with ice. As she tried to jump back she realized something… her zanpakuto was stuck.
She looked up to see Kitty, who smiled with her left arm having a large icy padding.
"Glacier thick ice" she said with a smile. "Think you can get your zanpakuto loose?"
Kiyone looked down on Kitty's right hand, seeing that Kitty formed 3 spiral cones of water over her fingers, and then froze them, turning them into icy claws. Kiyone let go of her zanpakuto a second too late and yelped in pain holding her cheek that managed to both burn and be cold at the same time.
Up in the contestant box, a dark haired woman frowned. "That's not Petro's way of fighting" she muttered.
Fuji too looked down surprised. "What's up with Kitty's fighting style Tochigi?"
Kin smiled sadly. "She got tired of taking all the crap."
"What crap?" Rannessea asked. "Petro has never taking crap from anyone."
"Yes she has."
The girls turned to see Igana who had spoken up, looking down on Kitty who had let Kiyone's zanpakuto loose from the ice, throwing it away from Kiyone's position.
"How many times hasn't she stood up for all the other pansy's in their pansy division? She's tired of having to hold back because that's what the pansy healers are supposed to do… am I right?"
Kin didn't speak, Igana huffing. "Yeah I thought as much. Besides it's not like she hasn't been violent before, she just went from the passive aggressive approach to the basic aggressive approach."
"Happy about that are you?"
The disapproving tone in Hitomi's voice made Igana laugh.
"Amused is more correct I suppose… I always knew she would crack in that place… I just wondered how long it would take."
"Igana that's enough."
Igana turned scowling at Yumichika. Y"ou are not being very beautiful right now."
Igana rolled her eyes. "Whatever… for now I suppose I should enjoy the show."
Down in the arena Kitty's attack was relentless throwing out punches and kicks and special moves, until Kiyone held up her hands.
"I give up" she said simply. "You win."
Kitty looked to Apache who was the closest one of the arrancars. She held up her arm to Neliel.
"3rd seat Petro wins" Neliel said with a smile, the crowd going wild.
"Nice match" Kitty said smiling. "Let me fix that for you."
She laid her hand over the three streaks on Kiyone's cheek where she had managed to hit her. "Sheesh Kitty you really have upped your game, what's the next, bankai?"
Kitty's eyes met with Kiyone's and she smiled a small knowing smile.
Kiyone's eyes went wide. "I was kidding… you're kidding right?"
Kitty said nothing, simply winked and walked away as Kiyone's cheek was healed.
Halibel came over to Kiyone holding her sword, Kiyone taking it and walked to the stands where she would continue to watch the tournament.
Something told her it was going to be a good one.
