A/N: Hey! It's been a week, that's the speed that works out for me now. Apparently the site login was down for a day or something, but I polished up the chapter just today, so... no delay detected. Here it is!
Reflex snapped Ichigo's arms up as a chunk of ice size of a small car hurtled towards him, even though he knew through and through that the action was pointless. Three feet from flattening him to an unrecognizable, bloody pulp, the mini-comet smashed into the invisible force field wall, shattered to a million tiny pieces and disappeared into thin air.
He flinched again a smaller chunk slammed into the same spot, cracking open haphazardly in two before shattering. He let out a frustrated groan.
Wide-eyed and grimacing, thoroughly annoyed at himself for failing to refrain from flinching every single time, he exclaimed at no one at particular,
"You're letting then go on like this? This is CRAZY!"
He flinched again as the ground quaked. Ice showered down onto him, clattering against the roof of the protection field.
At the beginning, the combat seemed to be in favor of Kladias. As soon as the whistle sounded, her face cracked open in two with her usual impossibly-wide grin. Zanpakuto in her right hand, she launched at Rukia, triggering a ferocious and fast-paced sparring match mix of hand-to-hand combat and swordwork. The two gradually rose up to hover about thirty feet above the ground, Rukia being driven farther and farther away from the spectators, frantically defending herself. Some fifteen minutes later the the two finally separated to a complete stop at the far edge of the field, the shorter figure of Rukia's was unsteady, shoulders heaving in attempt to catch her breath. The taller one of Kladias's stood absolutely still, unfazed. A word or two might have been exchanged.
The tide turned when Rukia leaped away and put herself to an offensive, firing bright and rapid blasts after blasts of various power-packed kido ranging from bolts of lightening to balls of fire at Kladias. The two zipped through the air with shunpo, the latter gradually driven back all the way back to the starting point. She managed to dodge or deflect most of the oncoming attacks but took damage from the rest she hadn't been able to. The upper part of her right arm had been singed shiny red, bottom left quarter of her hakama burnt away. The exposed leg was scarred black and so was her face.
With a blinding flash that lit up the scene, Rukia's next kido caught Kladias dead-center of the stomach, sending her hurtling over the group of shinigamis and down all the way to the other edge of the circular field. She plunged into the dark forest and a single, loud crash came seconds later.
Ichigo had been watching the fight in complete silence, cross-legged on the ground with his hands clenched to fists on his knees, body rigid with a sense of impending doom he couldn't drive off for the life of him. Of course he had expected Kladias to be aggressive in a fight, judging by her usual attitude and the fact the beast Kenpachi had actually had fun sparring the woman. That didn't stop him from being shocked, not to mention impressed, as the 3rd-seat officer rendered a vice-captain helpless.
He was no less impressed by Rukia's retaliation; the times back when he had seen her use kido, her spells had been weaker and were fired with only one at a time with incantation to result a narrower range of impact. Her skills now seemed to be at a whole different level; her kido spells were executed consecutively without incantations, range wider, and overall radiating awe-striking energy.
Ichigo turned his head and followed Kladias with his eyes as she sailed above him and disappeared into the dark green depth far off. Fight seemed to be over, and seemed like neither of the combatants had been killed nor fatally injured. He let out a sigh of relief, feeling his body loosening up. See? Worrying had been pointless.
Above the treetops he caught the sight of the Soukyoku hill, barren and desolate.
It then struck him that no way had he been the only one yearning for power the past year and a half. From how the other shinigamis congratulated Kira, it was obvious that the vice-captain's abilities had come far. He saw himself how Rukia's skills had completely transformed.
Actually, strictly speaking of her kido skills. Her swordwork was steamrollered by Kladias's. Ichigo let himself a smirk.
He felt a rare, genuine smile creep onto his face as he rose to his feet, turning back to face Rukia. He spotted her hovering far above ground, finishing sheathing her zanpakuto. He noticed with a jolt that the black material of her shihakusho was slashed open at the right shoulder, a narrow dark stain trailing down. There were more slashes on other parts of the material, but no more signs of blood. Her face was stained red from numerous cuts and hits she took on her cheeks.
Her face...
Violet eyes narrowed, eyebrows furrowed, forehead creased in concentration. Lips pursed to a straight line, chin hard-set.
Arms tense, both hands still clutching the handle of her zanpakuto in... anticipation?
All of a sudden Rukia's eyes widened. She whipped her zanpakuto out of its scabbard in one quick move, held it out in front of her with one hand,
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki-"
A powerful ripple of reiatsu struck Ichigo from behind, lurching him forward. He yelped and steadied himself at the very last second, confused as to the direction the reiatsu came from-
A sharp thud shook the ground. His head snapped up see Rukia - gone?
No - he spotted her getting up to her feet right below where she had been hovering-
BAM! The entire field quaked. Dirt and grass exploded up from the exact spot Rukia was.
Ichigo lunged forward, only to be forced back again, cringing and snapping up his arms to shield his head as the debris showered down onto him. When he lowered them back, Rukia was nowhere to been seen near the small crater made by the explosion.
A thick pillar of brilliant white erupted towards the sky at the center of the field - one he right away recognized it as one of Rukia's shikai attacks. As he stared in mild surprise - also confusion, where was the threat? - a black figure crashed out the side of it, 50 feet above ground. He recognized the figure too.
Kladias?
His surprise wasn't so mild anymore. When'd she get out of the forest?
Kladias hopped back away from the pillar, and white glow from the ice glinted off something in - on? - her hands. She reset her footing, drew a fist back and lunged-
An ear-blasting cracking sound, and the entire of the column shattered apart. Pieces of ice spun down, disintegrating before they hit the ground. Ichigo jerked back slightly, frown back on his face; the stark brightness of the scene hurt his eyes.
Rukia appeared, landing from a shunpo, about thirty feet left to where her ice pillar used to stand, her snowy white zanpakuto held up to a defensive stance. Immediately, Kladias materialized three feet front of her, right hand drawn back, then went for a punch to the dead-center of Rukia's chest-
A piercing clang of metal-on-metal rang through the air.
Brief stillness - the flat side of Rukia's zanpakuto had blocked the tip of one of Kladias's blades.
Ichigo now knew what Kenpachi had meant.
Five blades, slightly curved downwards to a razor-sharp point at the tip, squared off at the base, rested on top of the lines of bones of Kladias's hand. Her hand was curled to a fist but the blades extended over the knuckles, a second set of fingers outstretched towards her of them about an inch in height at the base, the blade at the middle the longest with 8 inches back to front, others shorter, varying in length just as fingers of a hand would be. A thick, inch wide gun-metal band encased her wrist, connected to and backing the bases of all five blades.
Well, there it was, her shikai. Claws... A smirk crept on Ichigo's lips as images of Wolverine came to his mind. Who knew that a similar ability actually existed?
But then, just how much didn't the people in human world know? Just about nothing outside of their own world. A pang of responsibility weighed his chest down-
He returned his attention to the combat.
Rukia and Kladias had continued on with their sparring match, shunpo-ing in and out of sight all over the air. Rukia was back on defensive, Kladias rapidly slashing away and throwing quintuple-bladed punches. Ichigo noticed that Kladias's other hand was equipped with the same set of blades and wristband.
A drawling voice startled him, "Sit back down, Ichigo."
Ichigo snapped his head down towards Shinji, who was now cross-legged on the grass, hunched over with elbows on his knees.
The captain, eyes darting to follow the combatants, continued, "Looks like the real show's just starting." Then he straightened up, clasped his fingers in front of him and gave his arms a stretch forward. He switched to a louder, sing-songy voice that addressed the entire crowd,
"Now, a fun challenge for all of you! Brand new shikai in front of us, give me an analysis. Go to town!"
Ichigo groaned and heard a mix of "Yes, sir!" and complains from the others. Of course he was going to analyze her shikai, but hearing the exact order/request come out of his supposed superior's mouth just took the fun out of it.
He returned to observe the fight, nevertheless. Reverse psychology wasn't going to drive him off of a good chance to practice ability-reading.
Heading back to the present.
Ichigo hollered over the clatter of ice, "You heard me? Yo! Shinji, I'm talking to you! Seriously-"
The group had moved to the far edge of the field after being almost flattened by Rukia's ice wave Hakuren. Everyone had remained standing while they continued watching. In silence. Except for a few.
"Shaddup!" Shinji snapped. The clatters stopped, bringing silence. "You were yelling at me so I did hear you. Both of them are doing fine, so stop quaking in your boots and get a grip."
The last words, along with the freaky, amused grin, pissed Ichigo off.
"I'm NOT quaking in my boots! Just how can either of them be doing fine when-"
His words were cut off when a wave of icy death thundered its way around and over the protection field, completely encasing the shinigamis in an small eerie dome of semi-darkness. Ichigo flinched yet again as he saw and heard a crack appear on the wall of the protection field.
A second later, all the ice around them shattered to countless blinding, brilliant white shards that promptly disappeared into thin air. A blur of black shot over them to stop twenty feet away - Kladias threw another clawed punch at Rukia, who blocked it and shunpo-ed out of range-
Isane trotted over to crack on the wall, waved a hand over it and the crack vanished.
"See - a single attack from one of them cracks what you said over and over again is a top-notch protection field. And they're doing fine? This is WAY over being competitive!" Ichigo pointed at the spot where the crack used to be, openly snarling at Shinji.
Clueless to his irritation, Matsumoto clasped a hand in front of her over-large bosom and chirped with the brightest grin on her face, "Rukia-chan's Hakuren sure have improved! Her attitude is so much stronger too. I'm soooo happy for her!"
Ichigo grimaced, a hand landing onto his forehead with a resounding slap. Leave it to her to be idiotically happy in any situation.
"Exactly my point - good practice. And Kladias's doing a nice job of fending Rukia off, so as far as I can see, this is a well-matched ongoing combat. Now zip it." said Shinji, sounding like a ticked-off boss of the crowd he actually was.
Ichigo hated being reasoned with - especially when that reason actually made sense - "I thought 3rd seats were supposed to tragically crumble in front of a vice-captain's! The hell-"
"Oy, Ichigo," Ikkaku cut him off from left to Shinji, "shut up! 3rd seat, 4th seat, 46th seat - as far as they go, they're titles. And our captain saw the Kurozachs chick as a capable opponent, so what'd you expect?"
Now it was a 2 on 1 debate. And Ikkaku had a fair point, one that he had thought of himself a while ago. Ichigo let out a growl and did shut up. If this thing escalated any more, he was going to jump in, fuck whoever else thought of. He had feeling about the whole thing.
What seemed like well over twentieth ice pillar erupted, this time on the far side of the field. Two tiny figures darted up, down and around it in a dangerous game of tag.
He thought back to the roundup of Kladias's shikai analysis the group of them came up with: the metal claws, which upon further observation, Kladias seemed to be able to freely protract and contract, well over a foot each at their longest and right above the base knuckles of the fingers at shortest. The gun-metal band on her wrists seemed to be made of some other material than metal since it flexed well with the movements. Slightly enhanced speed and strength along with sharpening and hardening of her reiatsu. Someone had brought up healing abilities, since Kladias's injuries seem to have disappeared.
Kladias hurtled down at Rukia to deliver a classic roundhouse kick - the latter's zanpakuto blocked it with a sharp clang, two inches from knocking the head and part of the shoulder clean off her body. Ichigo's heart clenched - that could've been a killing blow.
Did he mention the four blades that ran down one each on the fronts and backs of Kladias's lower legs? Her shikai consisted of freaking fourteen blades in total, all of which she wielded with deadly accuracy and power.
Wolverine / vegetable cutter. He wondered if snorted out loud at the image.
"Suits her well," Hisagi had commented as Kladias impressively fended off Rukia's Hakuren with a bout of spinning kicks and punches, "her swordsmanship is fairly strong, but hand-to-hand combat is her best attribute. Clip on the blades to her hands and legs, and she's weaponed up to excellence." a small frown, "Personality-wise, well... that should be self-explanatory. Undoubtedly destructive, as fourteen blades could be." Ichigo wondered for a moment if he heard a hint of bitterness in the voice but he waved it off, mind elsewhere. He had been leaning towards being worried for Rukia's well-being instead of Kladias's.
A sudden flash of vertigo - Ichigo let out a small yelp, hands shooting up to his forehead. He hunched forward slightly and fought to stay on his own two feet as the world spun to black. Several seconds later when he could see the daylight again, he straightened up, hoping no one had noticed. Fat chance. Many of the shinigami had their eyes fixed onto him. Shinji's pair of golden eyes flitted back to the combatants when Ichigo's shot them a questioning look.
Hinamori started, "Are you all right, Kurosaki-san? There is a possibility that Kira-kun's kido-"
A shift of reiatsu from the combatants-
Ichigo didn't hear Hinamori finish; he noticed a strange sense of familiarity around the altered reiatsu, and he didn't like it. He narrowed his eyes, trying to remember from where, from where...
Kladias and Rukia were in the middle of another game of tag around yet another ice pillar, seemingly unaware of the shift.
He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, and some sure had. He was certain that some of their expressions mirrored the one he had. Even Ragiku-san had crinkled her face up in concentration instead of bursting to squeals of joy about whatever ridiculous reason she could find.
Behind him, Ichigo felt Zangetsu's spurt out a pulse of reiatsu and turned around just in time to watch it lurch itself off the ground, jumping half a foot into the air before landing back with a thud. Ichigo stared at it, incredulous - was it usual for zanpakutos to hop up all on its own?
He wondered if he was starting to hallucinate for no reason at all.
"Her eyes turned blue." Hisagi's statement turned his attention back.
Ichigo blurted, "How blue?" wha- where'd that come from? "Hold on a sec - huge-ass reiatsu shift and all you notice is that Rukia's eyes look blue? Violet, blue, close enough."
Hisagi eyed him suspiciously, "A reiatsu shift? What are you talking about, Kurosaki-san?"
"What happened?" Kira piped in.
Renji beat Ichigo to the retort, "One right now, Hisagi-senpai, Kira. You didn't feel it?" The redhead seemed incredibly awake and alert now, which was impressive considering he had been dead to the world when others dragged him into the protection field as the combat escalated.
"-the hell you two talking about? What weird feeling?" Tetsuzaemon was barking at Ikkaku and Yumichika-
"-what's wrong, Matsumoto-san?" Isane was asking Rangiku. Nanao and Hinamori had clueless looks about them too-
Ichigo was utterly baffled(and pissed), "WHAT THE HELL-" is going on here? Before he finished, he spotted Shinji alone at the edge of the protection field, completely still with arms lowered to his sides. Observing the fight as if no strange phenomenon(or lack thereof) threw his subordinates into chaos behind his back.
Ichigo yelled over, "Shinji! You know something we don't?"
Shinji's head whipped back towards him as if shocked out of a reverie. Ichigo gasped at the eyes - entirely black sclera, grey irises-
Hollowification? Why? What for? Did that cause the shift?
Before Ichigo could vocalize any of his questions, a sickening crunch rang out nearby. He caught a look of oh-shit in Shinji's eyes split second before both of them snapped their heads towards the sound.
The first oddity Ichigo noticed was that the two combatants had come to a stop in front of the protection shield, twenty feet away from it and thirty feet above the ground.
The second: Kladias. Her light blue animalistic eye, to be completely accurate. There was no mistaking from her profile, not even from this distance, that her usual dark-red iris glowed azure as a psychotic pearly-white grin reached to her ear.
Then as the whole picture came into his sight, the world froze. Ichigo's breath caught in his chest, heart deadening and every single nerve of body lighting up as if electrocuted awake from a thousand years of sleep.
The expression on Rukia's face was one of terrified disbelief. Snowy white Sode no Shirayuki still clasped in one hand, her body doubled over the width of Kladias's... forearm.
The upturned forearm disappeared into right below the center of Rukia's ribs. The wrist and the hand reappeared out the other side. The five fingers huddled close to the center finger, the tips of the five blades coming together to form a haphazard single point. Crimson chunk of something and surprising amount of dark cherry-red liquid clung to the hand, the fingers and the metal.
A competitive combat, the dangerous game of tag had finally come to a halt, in a rather unexpectedly.
Gravity kicked into gear and the clinging blood began to sag.
O_O
