AN: Ok, a few things to note. Yammy is the arrancar that is usually found with Uliquorra. He is big, and looks dumb. He was the one that sucked out everyone's spirit force when they appeared, and then Ichigo fought him (for a short while). Also, I couldn't be bothered writing in Ichimaru's accent in for every thing he says, so just imagine it in your head.
I've finished school! Forever and ever! Lets pop out the FANFICTION!
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
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A Summer Job: Battlecalm (Part I)
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The dirt tasted like shit. This was similar to a situation he had been before, back when he challenged Byakuya. He didn't want to admit it, but that time he was totally, and utterly wasted by the great sixth division captain. And now, he was in the same position.
He gritted his teeth. At least he wasn't shaking now.
"Why the fuck did you come, Gin?" Renji spat out. He knew it was useless, and even if he was in his best form, he probably didn't stand a chance against the former third division captain. He had no idea the guy was that strong.
The man opposite him stretched, balancing his sword on his finger. "Oh, you know, I missed you guys," he said, flashing his malicious grin that would make anyone doubt his words. "Oh well, at least it seems you guys have gotten a bit stronger since I've left," he continued, looking at the fallen bodies of Yumichika and Ikkaku.
Even Ikkaku didn't stand a chance. If this is how strong they were, then Soul Society was doomed.
Renji propped himself up on one elbow and looked around him. Ikkaku lay in a pool of blood; his fight was longer than the others, but he inevitably was beaten. And since he wouldn't stop fighting, Renji had seen Ikkaku skewered in front of his very eyes. Yumichika fought bravely, like a true eleventh division member, and fell, just like the others. And now the bastard, Gin, was prancing around in front of them.
Dammit.
"Shut up. Tell me why you came."
He hated being weak.
"Touchy…" The other shinigami walked back a few paces, before speaking in his heavy accent. "If you really want to know, Aizen sent me here to ensure there was no problems in our little surprise that we have for this carnival."
Surprise?
"This carnival, Renji, is one that nearly everyone in Karakura attends."
Renji's eyes opened wide. "You wouldn't…"
The other shinigami grinned. "Indeed. I wouldn't. But you know, when my friend comes over to do his dirty deed, well, I wouldn't want you guys interfering and all."
Renji spat. "I'll kill you, Gin."
He said it with such malice, but in reality his body couldn't move one bit.
"My, how scary. Well, I'm afraid my time here is up. Bye, bye!" The former third division captain waved in a disgustingly sweet manner, before ascending into the night sky. The atmosphere seemed to distort, and as Gin walked into the gaping opening, another being stepped out.
Shit.
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Tatsuki was never good at waiting. When she was younger, she was extremely impatient, and hot-tempered, so it usually meant she got what she wanted. Now that she was older, and after doing years of karate, her self control had gradually built up, and she had learnt to control her impatient nature. Most of the time. Now was not one of the times. Besides, Renji had been gone for too long, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she was worried.
Worried because, well, he was her friend. The past month he had been with her, she had set up a relationship with him that was similar to her relationship with Ichigo. Both were the same, had the same hot-headed personality, and maybe it was her fate to have friends that were like that. Except for Inoue anyway. She was as opposite to hot-headed as one could be.
Besides, after Renji had gone she felt alone, and she kept, well, noticing certain things in the back of her mind. Like invisible hands were compressing her together, and then leaving. Like the pressure in the atmosphere was rising, and then falling. There were too many ups and downs in this thing she had called 'pressure', but she wasn't sure she liked it. When the 'pressure' got to high, it had a nasty feeling, like an opponent she had faced in karate at one stage.
Killing intent.
Or something close to that.
"Uh, excuse me miss, are you here alone?"
And directly after, "Want to hang out with us?"
She looked up, taken out of her thoughts. A group of guys, probably good looking by a normal girl's standards, stood in front of her. She forced herself to smile, but she really didn't know what to do. Usually Inoue was the one who was constantly being hit on, and she was the one who was constantly protecting her.
She opened her mouth to respond, and say that she was waiting for someone, but something above their heads caught her attention.
"No way…" she said to herself, not knowing she had said it out loud.
The group looked stunned. Obviously they hadn't met a girl that wouldn't hang out with them before, but before they could protest or make excuses, Tatsuki had already barged through the group, running to the centre of the carnival.
The sight there, confirmed her worst fears. Renji lay in a pool of his own blood, and next to him were two other shinigamis, she presumed.
She knelt down in front of Renji, taking his head in her hands. She should've known that he would have gone off to fight. By himself too, because he had probably thought she was too weak.
"Renji?"
No answer. He was out cold.
"Tatsuki?"
She looked up, and saw the scared faces of Keigo and Mizuro. They were standing behind Renji's fallen body, and looked like they had seen a ghost.
"Y-you guys! What happened?" she exclaimed.
"We came with those two," Keigo started, pointing at the other two next to Renji. Before he could continue, he was suddenly thrown violently to the ground, a few feet back. Seconds later, Mizuro's body followed.
"These souls aren't even enough to fill me up. All of you are trash."
Tatsuki didn't turn around, but closed her eyes, thinking back to where she had heard that voice. There were two of them, she remembered, in that strange day in the park. One was huge, and the other one was a stick. The huge one had done something to her, and the rest of the people around her that had made them lose all energy.
But this time, she could feel that there was only one of them, and the 'pressure' she had felt earlier had come back. Looking across at the bodies of her friends, she felt something inside of her move. If they were…she couldn't bring herself to say it. She felt that familiar frustration when she couldn't do anything.
Something else distracted her from her thoughts, a whooshing sound, like a giant block was being thrown through the air. It was coming towards her extremely fast and thanks to years of training, she whirled around, instinctively holding up one hand to block the giant fist that had just been sent her way.
It was just like before, that time she had kicked Renji. She felt like a sudden electric charge had just built up inside of her and had worked its way violently outside of her hands. With that, that fist that had been sure to crush her was just like a normal punch. It was as if she had cancelled out the effect.
She looked up slowly, into the mildly surprised face of that guy. The guy who had said a few words and all people around him died. The guy who had drained her of her energy. His smaller friend had called him by the name…Yammy.
He was big, and brute-looking, not someone that you would like to meet in a dark alleyway, but Tatsuki could care less about looks now. Her friends were smashed up, Renji was nearly dead, and she felt that she owed this guy something. The paper had explained that a violent windstorm had hit the park in Karakura, hence accounting for all the deaths that day. They had explained that it was an extremely localised, concentrated, new type of storm – in other words, complete bullshit, and Tatsuki knew it. Because she was the only survivor.
She stood up slowly, not letting her eyes leave the other's face. This was just going to be another fight, but it was like all barriers inside her had broken.
"Oh? What's this? There is someone here that could actually block my punch?"
"Who are you?" Tatsuki responded slowly but dangerously.
"I should be the one asking that," the thing called Yammy replied. "I was just sent here to clear up all these pieces of trash, since they all came together in one small area for me."
As soon as the words 'clear up all these pieces of trash' came out of his mouth, Tatsuki's eyes widened. It was going to be a repeat of that time in the park. Except this time, on a much larger scale. More than half of Karakura would be wiped out.
She closed her fists, and assumed a fighting stance without bothering to clear her mind like she did before every fight. Outwardly, she looked calm, but inwardly, something was whirring violently inside her, something that wanted to come out. And she wanted to let it.
"It seems like I'll have to deal with you first," said Yammy. "It's ok, one should always have an entrée before the main course."
She ignored him, but the thing that Renji had called 'spirit power' was growing inside of her. And it felt good.
"Bring it."
Yammy's face twisted angrily. This mere human's spirit power was rising, and she was talking as if she could actually beat him – him, the tenth Espada. Anyone knew that was ridiculous, but there was something slightly worrying about her increasing spirit pressure. It was slowly rising. He would put a stop to that.
She could see his punch coming from miles away. Instinctively she threw up her hand to block it, releasing some of that strange spiritual power in order to cancel out the velocity. Jumping back, she assessed her situation. She had been extremely angry when their fight had started, but now, once it had started she could feel the instinctive calm that always came during her fights with anyone. Her sensei had told her that the 'calm' she possessed was the reason why she was always winning fights. Because she took control of her power. Oh, sure, everyone did, to some extent, but her old karate teacher had said that she possessed a fighting calm that was at a much higher level than anyone else.
Deep down, Tatsuki knew why. It was because she desired to control her temper, her hot-headedness, so she took great mental strains in order to stop herself from giving into these outbursts. So, she had constructed a 'calm' that surrounded her inner self, and controlled her violence. In karate, she controlled her anger in order to gain greater control and manoeuvrability. Thus, she had named this skill she had, her 'calm'.
But this wasn't the same calm as before, like when she was fighting with Renji. It was like the tranquillity she possessed had jumped up to a whole new level. She still had her 'calm', but it was like instead of having the skill to control a small plane, she now had the skill to control a huge jumbo jet. And she liked it. Even though Renji had told her that she must get rid of her calm way of fighting in order to release this 'spiritual power', she knew that she couldn't have. It was a living, breathing, part inside of her, and it seemed like the spiritual power inside her agreed. So, instead of getting rid of the calmness she had been building up all these years, her body simply adapted it, and made it much bigger. Larger. Stronger.
Another punch was coming her way, most likely heavy with power, but she could see it, dodge it, without interrupting her thoughts.
In karate, she had narrowed her opponents down to two types – ones who were fast, and ones who were strong. Generally speaking, the ones who were fast didn't hold much strength, and the ones who were strong were usually very slow. With this guy's weight and muscle, she could definitely see that in the latter group. With those that were in the 'strong and slow' group, it was much, much easier to fight them using their own power.
"How long are you going to just stand there and dodge?"
Tatsuki looked up at the arrancar. "Do you know stupid that sounded?"
That earned a snarl from the arrancar, and sure enough another punch came her way. Tatsuki was sure that if any of those punches hit her, she'd be gone. Even on this massive power high she was having, she could still feel that there was something more dangerous behind those punches, than just a normal big punch. The fact that she had to release some of the power that was building up in her arms, just to cancel it out, was testament to the fact that they were strong.
But that was ok, since the technique in fighting strong guys was just to use their own power against them. It was a general rule, and as the punch came to her, she clamped her hands around his larger arm, and pulled as hard as she could, feeling her muscles strain, and involuntarily releasing some of the built-up power inside of her, just to cope with the extra weight. However, the arrancar's momentum helped her carry him over her shoulder and into the ground.
She jumped back, still grasping onto the power inside of her.
Tatsuki: 1
Yammy: 0
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AN: Sorry if it wasn't good. Haven't been writing for a while, so yeah, that's my excuse. But honestly, I have so much ideas for Tatsuki and her powers. She is becoming a cooler and cooler character with every new Bleach chapter. Can't wait to see what Kubo's got in store for her. Any, review if you like it, though I know that not much people like these fighting scenes (well, as opposed to fluffy scenes) but it is Bleach, so we should acknowledge fighting, eh?
Cya around!