Guess who's not quite dead, fothermuckers. I'll be slow and random at posting further chapters due to a multitude of reasons, but I assure you I refuse to entirely abandon this fic. Now, onward with my terrible writing. I also realize I'm absolutely god awful at fighting scenes especially so that's neat.
Turns out, if you're pissed enough, you don't need to find someone to fight. Flare your reiatsu enough from sheer frustration and the fight will come to you. She had already been in Los Noches for days, and she'd done more fucking and chatting than she had training and fighting. The air around her crackled sharply with her self-disgust and shame, her reiatsu visibly rippling in purple arcs along her skin. The farther she got from the main halls of the palace the less frequently she saw various Arrancar scurrying about. She wasn't sure if that was entirely because of how far away she was going as she flashed around another corner, or if her reiatsu was showing enough to frighten off the small fry. Either way, she needed to train, she needed to fight, and she needed to stop fuckin' thinking about how much of an effect Aizen was having on her. She came here with a purpose, and he had entirely derailed it moments after she arrived. She needed to get back on track if she were to ever have any hope of defeating the arrogant sod.
Luckily for her, one of said arrogant sod's Espada was someone who was the type to seek out a fight. Considering their last bout was interrupted by Aizen basically saving her fucking life. Her reiatsu flared harshly at the reminder, the floor beneath her crumbling before she was off with another flash-step. Fighting with Grimmjow had been a mostly even match, and that wasn't near enough. He was only the sixth most powerful Espada. If she had any hope of beating Aizen, she'd first need to be able to defeat Grimmjow without even breaking a sweat. The scowl slipped from her face as she felt a familiar flare of reiatsu towards her left. It was quite distinctly Grimmjow's, and more importantly, it was basically saying 'Come fight me, bitch.'
Her teeth-gritting scowl of frustration was swiftly exchanged for a shit-eating grin of excitement as she flared her own reiatsu in response to say 'I'm on my way, dickwad.' Her mad cackle echoed in the hallway as she took off at a greater speed. As she got closer she could almost feel Grimmjow's own reiatsu rippled excitedly, and she found herself wandering if it was on purpose or not. Either way, he was excited to fight her, and judging from the blood thirsty aura, he had no intentions of holding back.
She only hoped they weren't interrupted this time.
Grimmjow was an absolute savage. There was a vast difference between training with Yoruichi or Tessai where they had the goal of teaching you. The only thing Grimmjow seemed set on teaching her was what blood tasted like and the importance of dodging. Their blades had been clashing for either minutes or days, it was impossible to tell with the constant false daylight over them. Either way, she was reaching the end of her stamina pool, though it was obvious Grimmjow was also running on fumes. There seemed to have been an unspoken agreement between them to not release their Zanpakuto, which put Grimmjow at a major advantage at the beginning. The flexibility and range of Arashi's released form combined with the powers of her Godai heritage felt far more natural. But she couldn't start every battle by immediately jumping to those. In order to have a hope of defeating Aizen, she'd need to be able to defeat his subordinates without using all her powers. She supposed she could always shape shift and bite him in the ass, but somehow she doubted that would do anything. The asshole probably knew she had a second form anyway.
"Where the fuck are you looking?" Kana grit her teeth as she raised her blade to meet the downwards swing of Grimmjow's sword. Her arm quivered at the force of the blow, and teal eyes locked onto hers in a furious gaze. She grunted as Grimmjow's leg struck out, foot catching her gut and sending her flying into one of the pillars within the room. She tightened her reiatsu to her skin to soften the blow, but it still left her dazed. Her legs shook as she struggled to return to her feet, and the feeling of something warm and sticky rolling down the back of her neck told her her head was split open. Grimmjow remained standing where he had been previously, scowl in place and reiatsu flickering with annoyance. Keeping her eyes on him, she raised her left hand to the back of her head to apply a minor healing kido. She wasn't very good at them, so it wouldn't heal any internal damage to her head or stop any scarring, but she could at least knit herself together enough to stop herself from dying. Hopefully.
"Tch. Fightin' you isn't any fun if yer just gonna run away into your head." Grimmjow's words gave her pause. Dropping her hand from her head, she let it hang by her side as they stared at each other. Grimmjow's gaze was flat and mocking, almost disinterested in their fight. It was infuriating, it pissed her off, it really should have made her want to shock him into submission and carve his eyes out. Instead she felt disappointed in herself, damn near wallowing in the fact that in a fight with Aizen's sixth fucking Espada she was taking so much damage. It was absolutely pathetic.
Something on her face must have shown her thought process, because Grimmjow's eye twitched and his lips curled into a snarl, the very sound tearing from his throat.
"Why the fuck are you here!? I don't have time to waste on someone who's going to take pity on themselves for being hurt in a fight! If you want to be stronger, just fuckin' do it and stop fucking around and thinking about it!" Grimmjow's growled words echoed around Kana's head, and she narrowed her eyes slightly as she watched his expression grow slowly more frustrated until he snapped. His stance widened and he swung his blade around to point behind him, his left hand resting in a claw like formation neat the guard of his zanpakuto. The blade sheened and started to glow blue, Grimmjow's reiatsu rising and collecting into the blade. Eyes widening, Kana got lower and braced herself, her reiatsu splitting to focus on releasing Arashi if she needed to while also pooling at her feet to flash away. She was stuck in the middle of debating which would be needed when Grimmjow's reiatsu spiked again, drawing her focus.
"FINE! You'll have to get stronger here if you don't want to die! Grind, PANTERA!"
There was a burst of reiatsu that shuddered and then locked steady, a gust of wind blowing Kana's hair back and she was lucky to have decided to dodge before anything when a black clawed hand sliced through the air where her face had been milliseconds before.
Long fingers traced the rim of a teacup, gaze heavy on a flickering screen across the room, eyes following Kana's movement.
"Aizen-sama, should we stop them now that he's released?" Gin's tone was light and playful as per usual, tilted his head to grin up at Aizen in question. Tosen remained near the door, always ready for an order. There was a beat or two of silence as he took his time considering, not answering until Gin shifted ever so slightly in his seat.
"No. She will either die here, or grow to stand a chance when the time comes." Gin's focus remained on him for a few moments more before shrugging and spinning in his seat to return to viewing the monitor.
"Ah well. She's yer woman, it's yer decision."
Aizen's lips curled up in a small, satisfied smile and he send a pulse of reiatsu as a dare to fail down the thread that seemed to always connect him and that who was his.
If she wanted to stand atop the world by his side, she would need to stop holding herself back. She wasn't the first to try to wedge herself into his plans, but she was most assuredly the only one who had made it so far. The one who had made him consider adjusted his plans the most. It depended on her, however, to see if she would be able to handle what was coming.
He ignored the little feeling that told him he wanted her to be able to handle it.
She wasn't sure how long they had been fighting, though admittedly, she had spent a great deal of the time sparring just doing her best to dodge a majority of his attacks. Her limbs felt weak and shaky, and it took every once of strength she had to not collapse where she stood. Her entire body felt sticky and warm with blood and sweat and her left eye was sealed thanks to a claw having raked across her eye when she underestimated Grimmjow's speed in his new catlike form.
The difference between their powers currently was disgusting. Since releasing, Kana wasn't able to come even close to landing a blow to Grimmjow. Arashi's hilt was covered with so much blood it was surprising she was even still able to keep her a grip on it. She had been upset with the difference in their power levels before, but now she felt incredibly like a helpless little field mouse trying to avoid being eaten by a wild cat.
It was disgusting. Her eyes blazed with fury. At herself, at Grimmjow, at Aizen, at the situation. She shouldn't fucking feel like this. She was a wolf dammit.
'Finally, you start to come to your senses.'
Arashi's voice was borderline mocking, sparking another note of frustration in the teen's soul as she dodged another barrage of slashes, tips of claw-like talons catching the highest point of her cheekbone and causing her opponent to grin like the cat that got the canary before Grimmjow lunged back to spring on the balls of his feet, taking the time to brush his mane like hair from his face in a large show of how effortless this spar was for him.
Naturally, this just made Kana want to slice his hair, and head, clean off. With a roar and a flash, Kana flared her reiatsu, focusing hard on pulling it into shape. Grimmjow shifted back onto his haunches, crouched and ready to pounce as he watched Kana morph into her wolfish form, lightning crackling around her paws as she dropped them to the ground, flickering her tail behind her, baring her teeth, ears flicking as she ensured her transformation was complete.
"Oooh, fun trick. Too bad it won't help you." Kana's ears flickered as Grimmmjow's mocking tone rolled across her, and with a burst of pressure the air around her crackled and condensed, a thick purple aura surrounding her paws and neck, lightning sparking out warningly in intervals. Grimmjow's arms and head knocked back as he cackled, his tail whipping in a mix of amusement and aggravation.
'He's mocking us...tear his throat open.'
Arashi's voice curled in her mind and Kana pounced without hesitation. Her paws made a thud as they connected with Grimmjow's chest, and they went tumbling across the room before slamming into a wall, the debris crumbling around them. Pieces might of hit her, but she was too distracted trying to tear into Grimmjow's jugular while also dodging claws as Grimmjow tried to use what little movement he had pinned underneath her to slice her face open. Eventually she gave up trying to go for the throat and finally managed to clamp her teeth around Grimmjow's forearm, his bones making a satisfying crunching sound as she felt them give way under her jaw, the bitterly metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. Giving into her instincts, she shook her head hard to cause as much damage as possible before the claws of Grimmjow's other hand connected with her snout causing her to release her bite with a yelp and recoil. Grimmjow took his chance to leap to his feet, bitter scowl in place as he surveyed his now useless arm.
"You fucking cunt, I just got this arm back!" Grimmjow howled, and Kana let out a laugh like bark as she shook the blood from her muzzle. With a strange hissing sound, Grimmjow launched himself at her, injured arm held to his chest to block any attacks to that area, Kana swiping with a heavy paw, lightning following the path and sparking in Grimmjow's eyes to cause him to turn his head, allowing Kana to lunge forward and manage to tear a chunk of his ear off. Grimmjow shouted in pain, his leg coming up and connecting hard with her side and sending her flying into a pillar. She was quick to scramble to her paws as Grimmjow came forwards, his knee connecting with her jaw. Her neck snapped to the side and she allowed the weight of it to bring her down, her tail whipping as it sparked to lash at Grimmjow and land a few stripes of burn wounds.
"Bitch." Kana huffed in mock laughter as Grimmjow grinned at her, one of his eyes squinting as a burn mark landed across his eyebrow. The two stared at each other for a second and Grimmjow shook his mane out before, with a flash of his reiatsu, reverting back to his usual form, sheathing Pantera at his hip and scowling at his arm. Kana waiting a second before pulling in her own reiatsu and rubbing at her jaw as she shifted back to her human form, shaking her hair back in the same way Grimmjow did his mane, the ribbon holding her ponytail together long gone.
"Yer a lot more entertaining when yer not wallowing in self pity. It's good ya got in touch with your animalistic side, although that was fuckin' sloppy. Now, about fighting as an animal..."