Part 4. Misunderstanding.
As soon as Ragna spoken this phrase, Rukia disappeared from her seat and using shunpo, appeared behind him. But Ragna, anticipating such a move, immediately dodge and her attack passed by. Dodging, he tried to stun her with a sword blow, but both swords knocked each other off.
Jumping back, Ragna saw how the little shinigami was going on the offensive again, not giving him a pass. Ragna tried to beat off every blow that flew in his direction, beating not only with his sword, but also with his right hand. In turn, Rukia was looking for gaps in the defense of the Grim Reaper and seeing how Ragna opened his stomach for a blow, she aimed her blade there. Realizing that he had accidentally opened up for an attack, Ragna changed the position of the handle in the palm of his hand, easily blocked the attack.
Unexpectedly for Rukia, Ragna began to go on the offensive, no longer repelling the attacks, but pushing her into a corner. Despite the transition to defense, Rukia managed to push away every attack. Suddenly, he sheathed his sword, quickly dodged and kicked, but guessing what he was going to do, Rukia blocked his attack from down. But that was her mistake. Immediately after the blow, Ragna jumps up sharply and forming a purple flame in his right hand, hits her opened head.
- Gaunlet Hades! - after which, turning over in the air, Ragna forms claws on his left leg and hitting the girl again, throws her into the air.
Landing on the ground, Ragna kicks the falling body and, continuing the attack with a sword strike, jumps up to her. After hitting the girl in the air several times, Ragna grabs his sword with both hands.
- Nightmare Edge! - and suddenly falls down with the sword, and after landing, he forms a head behind the sword going to the side, which throws Rukia away from Ragna.
Barely getting to her feet, shinigami felt dizzy and weak all over her body. She wasn't even holding the sword well in both hands anymore. But despite this, she jumped again to meet the enemy and made numerous lightning attacks and in the end, jumping away from Ragna, formed a powerful ice arc. Seeing this, the Grim Reaper tried to jump as far away as possible, but his legs and the hand holding the sword were still frozen.
"Pretty good. And she can be economical if she wants to!" thought Ragna, trying to get rid of the icing.
At the same moment, Rukia was already preparing her last attack.
Piercing the ground in front of her in four places, Rukia takes her zampakto in both hands and an ice circle forms around her.
"Damn, it's bad. If I don't get free, I'm screwed! And the ice is much stronger than the one that Jin created!" Ragna began to break the ice little by little and finally got out and saw that the girl was preparing her attack.
Grabbing the sword with his left hand, Ragna picks it up and slightly removes it to the side, stands in a fighting stance.
- Carnage... - jumping forward abruptly, Ragna flew with such speed that his shadows began to appear behind him.
- The second dance, White Ripples! - and with these words, a huge stream of snow and ice is formed from the sword, which, after passing through four holes in the ground, becomes even stronger.
- ... Scissors! - when suddenly, Ragna breaks through this stream, having slowed down slightly, strikes with a sword from above and, turning around, collects the seitr in his sword. Raising the sword up quickly, Ragna releases a powerful stream of energy, which sends Rukia flying again.
After falling to the ground, she is no longer had the strength to get up, as if all the energy had been sucked out of her, and the last thing she saw was a silhouette walking towards her.
~Some time later~
Today was a day off, so the Substitute Soul Reaper could spend it as he pleases. But in any case, the morning begins as always with...
- Wake up and sing, Ichigooooo!.. Aaagh! - Ishshin shouted at the top of his voice, rushing at Ichigo lying in bed, but instead of the usual attempt to wake up his son, he hits something hard with all his might and turning the bed around, it turns out... a punching bag. - Uhh, the rascal. Ran away from Dad's embrace! And where is he?
Ichigo himself has been awake for an hour trying to find Rukia. Last night, he sensed Rukia's presence in the world of the Living, but her reiatsu quickly disappeared and he thought she had gone back to the Society of Souls. But early this morning, he woke up feeling her reiatsu again, but quickly weakened and disappeared. Fearing for her, he didn't hesitate to go in search of her.
And now he was standing at the last place where she could be. Urahara's store. Entering the store, Ichigo felt an unfamiliar reiatsu that stretched from the basement.
- Kurosaki-san! I didn't expect to see you here! – said Urahara
- Urahara, is Rukia here? Why is her reiatsu so weak? - Ichigo interrupted him.
- Hmm, according to his words, she is sleeping now. You can go down and check on her.
Approaching the entrance to the basement, Ichigo wondered who Urahara was talking about.
"I'll find out when I see him."
~15 minutes ago~
Rukia woke up and abruptly got up, she felt pain all over her body. Looking around, she saw nothing but a huge sword standing next to her, which, despite small cracks and scuffs, stood majestically towering over her.
"Ah, I remember. I lost. Ahhh, naive. I thought to defeat the one who was one step ahead of me the whole battle,"
Scrolling through the battle in her head, she remembered how in the end he passed through her attack.
"How strong can he be?"
- I thought you would sleep longer.
Turning around, Rukia saw Ragna dressed in a red bomber jacket and black trousers.
- Has Urahara already made a gigai?
- Yes, he did. It feels rather strange. It's like it's not my body. - Ragna said, looking at his right hand, which looked like an ordinary hand.
- Don't be afraid, you'll get used to it. Wait, did he give you any pills in the form of animals?
- No, nothing like that. He made some kind of special gigai.
Standing in place, his clothes began to disappear, and instead his trademark jacket with a black hakama began to appear.
- I wanted to ask. Why did I feel weak all over my body during the battle and it became harder for me to concentrate reiatsu?
- This is the effect of drive.
- ?
- Drive is an ability possessed by Grimoire. My drive is a Soul Eater.
- Wait, what? Are you saying that you almost killed me?!
- The effect of it isn't so strong. Every time I use it, I take quite a bit of the life force from my opponent. Apparently, you have a weak vitality. It's strange, it seems like I didn't use it so much during the fight... Ragna said seriously.
- I finally found you! - a loud voice suddenly said.
Turning around, Ragna and Rukia saw a red-haired guy in a white shirt, black jacket and blue jeans approaching them. Ragna could feel the high reiatsu coming from the guy.
- I-Ichigo! What are you doing here? - Rukia exclaimed at the sight of the approaching guy.
- I'm here because I felt your reiatsu weakening in the early morning! What happened? And who is this old man?!
- Hey! I am 24 years old! I'm not white-haired because of old age!
- We had a fight. And I lost. And this is the result... - Rukia said, showing the torn shinigami uniform and bandages on the wounds.
After the phrase she said, Ragna had a bad feeling.
"There will be a blow... FROM ABOVE!" thought Ragna and thrusting his right hand forward, he repelled the blow of a huge blade that could cut him in half.
- You idiot! - Ragna said and abruptly pulled out his sword, threw it with his left hand, and after grabbing it with both hands, he called a small head from the back, thereby repelling several more subsequent attacks.
Having managed to jump back, Ragna saw Ichigo in a shinigami uniform similar to Rukia's. In both hands, Ichigo held a huge sword, which was slightly larger in size than Ragna's Aramasa.
Not having time to reflect a few more blows, Ragna had to dodge the next very fast attacks.
- Getsuga Tensho! - Ichigo shouted and having accumulated a huge amount of reiatsu in the blade, released a large wave towards Ragna.
From this attack, Ragna didn't have time to dodge and took the whole blow, flew into the wall.
- You're going to pay for the fact that she almost died! – said Ichigo and flying at full speed to Ragna hit him again.
- Inferno Overload! - before Ichigo could do damage, a green shell formed around Ragna, which threw Ichigo away.
Coming out of the hole in the wall, Ragna shook off the dust and dirt, and wiping the blood from his forehead, went to meet the rising shinigami.
- You're really getting on my nerves! - Ragna said angrily. - First listen to what they tell you, and then hit. Damn it! How strong are you?
- I'm strong enough to kick your ass!
- Yes? Okay. Then what do you say to that? - Ragna said, pointing at Ichigo's shoulder. Turning around, the guy gets a powerful blow in the face and falls.
- When I talk to you, listen to me, Ichigo! - Rukia said, looking at the confused Ichigo. - When you also trained to the point where your reiatsu was greatly weakened, I didn't rush at the one with whom the duel was taking place! And this one duel showed me my mistakes! Now, if you don't mind, apologize to him!
Looking at how the little shinigami scolds the guy who is two times stronger than her, Ragna said:
- God, you're like a married couple who are fighting once again.
- WE ARE NOT A MARRIED COUPLE! - Ichigo and Rukia answered in one voice.
After a while, Ichigo approached Ragna.
- I apologize for promiscuously attacking you. She explained to me how it was. Excuse me.
- It's okay. The main thing is that no one else was injured. Although probably a month ago, I wouldn't have left a wet spot from you. - Ragna said calmly.
After returning to his body, Ichigo began to observe Rukia and Ragna's training. When she was done, Rukia announced that she was being sent back to the Soul Society and she left to clean up. Ragna sat down next to Ichigo and suddenly the latter started a conversation:
- When I came here, you were discussing something. What were you talking about? - Substitute Soul Reaper said with a worried face.
Taking a deep breath , Ragna began:
- She has a weak vitality. Her reiatsu, or whatever you call it, compensates for this with its strength and quantity. What are her ice attacks worth! But even though she manages her powers well, she spends too much energy using them.
- And you're trying to teach her to save reiatsu? But reiatsu is used for many tasks! Shunpo, Kido, Shikai and Bankai! All this use reiatsu!
- She has already shown me that she can minimize costs. She needs to rely not only on her powers, but also on her physical abilities. Do physical activities also waste reiatsu? - Ragna asked suddenly.
- Yes, but unlike using everything else, the costs are not the same… Wait. Do you want her to fight with fists?!
- I meant that she used a sword only as a SWORD. At the same time, he will learn to think faster during the fight. I was one step ahead of her the whole time. - Ragna said, and when he saw Rukia and Urahara coming towards them, he got to his feet.
- I think it's time to return to the Soul Society. I will be expected to report on what happened in the world of the Living. - shinigami said calmly.
- Good luck. Come back soon so we can continue your training.
- Who says I'm going alone? You're coming with me – after which, surprised expressions appeared on Ichigo and Ragna's face. – Most likely, they, like me, already know that you are here. And they're waiting for me to report the incident. So, get ready.
Rukia pulled out her sword, uttered the opening code of the Senkaimon gate and, as if sticking the sword into the air, the doors opened. With displeasure, Ragna trudged after Rukia.
- I hope it won't be long. - Ragna said as he entered the gate.