Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


Shin and Mann stood far apart, catching their own breath after the destructive clashing battles. IN a mutual agreement that the warriors understood, the rest would continue until they were both at optimal fighting strength once more. During this break, however, the sounds of battle around the city continued to sound clearly, all the way from the opposite side where Suichi was fighting.

This guy Shin thought, analyzing his enemy, is strong...but not much else. In a contest of pure strength he could beat me, but not in skill or speed. That's where I have to take this fight; into the realm of Death that I control. The main problem is getting this berserk bastard to follow me there. If he is unaware of what I'm doing, then dragging him into a new realm of fighting will be all the more difficult. If he picks up on it, he'll augment his style and use his strength to keep up with, or worse, surpass me. It's a real double-standard decision, but I don't have a choice. I can't hope for a miracle to save me now!

Shin, now adamant with his resolve and faithful in his plan, stood up. He wiped away the blood on his face and discarded his outer robes, as they were far to tattered to be of use now. Mann grinned a mean grin and took off his shades, crushing them in his fist.

"He's got a plan" Mann lowed to himself. "I don't care what it is, he won't get to do it. I'll just power through him with everything I've got!" Mann held his sword up with both hands and invoked a dangerous energy. Shin glared at him from his position, feeling the energy of shikai manifesting around him. "Let's dance, little man" Mann said threateningly. "Slice the Heavens and Drown the Stars: Habahioriken!!!"

The destructive wind blew dust and rocks everywhere as the sword explosively changed form. None of that wind dared to come near Shin, whose pressure was so great that the air was pushed down into the ground with horrid force. The sword Mann held had become longer, wider, and much more aggressive looking. He seemed to be holding a huge paddle made of brownish, rusty-looking metal with an equally dilapidated hilt and handle. It was a weapon that had seen the abuse of many battles, one that fit the reckless fashion of Mann himself.

"You've lost, shinigami!" Mann said, sticking his tongue out. Shin grabbed it, his tongue, and pressed down hard with his fingers, forcing Mann to wince and stumble in pain.

"I've killed plenty of men with their shikai active" Shin explained. Then, for laughs, Shin reeled up his leg and kicked Mann in the face. He didn't roll back, but his back did bend in response to the hit. Shin wasted no time and used the force of his stomping foot to bring his sword around using his entire body's energy. Mann looked down over his nose and, angrily, brought his huge weapon up in a flash to block Shin's sword. The swing was powerful enough to gust up the remaining dust on the ground, which Shin then flashed through.

"Yeah" Mann growled into the dust, aware that Shin had retreated. "Are you gloating about that?"

"No" Shin said from no distinguishable place. "You shouldn't trust in yourself based on past battles when fighting someone new, is all. I'm not counting on anything but what's happening right now."

"That's pretty reckless" Mann pointed out. Shin laughed at the irony as the dust faded away. Shin was nowhere. Mann suddenly felt a huge buildup of pressure coming down on him. Instinctively, Mann swung his paddle overhead, catching Shin's drop-stab and giving him a platform with which to continually press down from above on.

"I disagree" Shin said. "You're the reckless one here. You only trust your sword to fight for you, rather than trusting in your own skill and strength. It's a troublesome habit that you've formed." Mann, tired of Shin's preaching, rebelled against the pressure and pushes his sword up, shooting Shin up like a piston. While he was impressed, Shin kept himself on guard. Mann shook off the pressure, roared with a berserk, twisted face and started to swing his sword at the air-borne Shin.

Hell no! Shin thought. He can't be that reckless! But he was. Mann yelled as he twirled the massive weapon overhead, building speed, and tossed it at Shin. Shin dodged by darting downward, then took the chance and dashed forward with his sword in a thrusting position.

"HaaaaAAAAH!!!" Shin bellowed. Mann took a stumble backwards and let Shin pierce him. His sword loudly continued to whoosh through the air. "You're pretty tricky for a mindless moron" Shin said. He pulled out his sword and crouched down.

"Thanks" Mann said. Shin jumped up just as the huge sword came ripping through the air into Mann's hand again. It's weight destroyed the ground where Mann let it hit, and Shin landed far away with his sword pointed forward and his other hand ready to clutch it. "Oh?" Mann grunted, tilting his head back over his shoulder, glaring Shin down with the corner of his eye. "So now you're going to be serious with me?"

"...possibly..." Shin replied.

"Kehehehe" Mann laughed, turning around. He had a dying look on his face that was expertly covered by his manic smile and wide eyes that he kept skyward, staring Shin down under his nose. "With two arms, your strength will skyrocket, right? Is that what you do instead of release your sword? You just fight two-handed? How entertaining! This will be quite the spectacle!"

"You've never been cut like that before, have you?" Shin asked. Mann chuckled and lowered his head, bringing his own sword up with only one hand high over his head.

"Come at me with as many hands as you like, Shin...Kenpachi was it?" Mann offered.

"How nice" Shin said, gripping his sword at the top of the handle with his right hand and setting it pointing up near his hip level. "I'll stick with two..."


"Shoot!" Suichi ordered. "Haganerensa!" The chain shot out like lightning at Odo, but in the end missed its target. The creepy, lanky assassin was too fast for Suichi to hit. Many rooftops were now in shambled ruin over their fighting which they refused to let drop to the ground.

"Pathetic!" Odo mocked. "You'll be no match for me once I release my-" Suichi flash-stepped behind him, arm reeled back.

"Shoot!" Suichi shouted. Again he missed, though much more narrowly this time. Odo couldn't flash away that time, and had to simply flip out of the way to the side. Suichi's face had no signs of disappointment at all. No fear and no anger from missing. "Catch!" The chain on his arm had curved at its end to a hook and reeled in as quick as it shot. Suichi caught Odo with the chain, let him get close enough, then abandoned using his sword further, placing his feet on Odo's stomach and falling backwards. Suichi waited for his back to contact a solid surface, then let the gravity wrap the idle chain around Odo.

"Mizuashinami!" Suichi incanted. With Odo tethered to him and his full weight pointed floor-ward, Suichi;s legs initiated a blinding kick sequence. Odo's body twitched wildly at each light-speed kick that Suichi delivered. The attack progressed only until Suichi became even more apathetic than when the attack started and he delivered one final double-leg kick that arched him up onto his shoulders and sent Odo flying from his chain grip. Suichi picked himself up.

"As an assassin" Suichi lectured, "your most important mental aspect must be your 'what if' discernibility." Odo finally came crashing into and through a house roof. Suichi kept preaching, knowing full well that the disturbed man could hear him. "For example, what if I must kill a man in public. More specifically, what if he's an accomplished fighter? The obvious response is to duel him, but not with ones sword. Not knowing a man's spiritual limit in a sword fight is dangerous. Therefore, a hand-to-hand fight would be necessary. Then what? Break his neck? No. An assassination must always look like an accident, even if it is in secret. The life of an assassin is one devoted to absolute secrecy in movement and life..."

"You say that" Odo growled loudly, knowing Suichi's hearing wasn't as good as his, "and yet you arrived here with two other men. Are they your comrades? Should an assassin not live a life of secrecy like you say? Does secrecy not include solitude and total aloneness?"

"Of course not" Suichi answered. His answer had struck a deep-rooted nerve with the creepy phantom that faced him down. "My friends have no idea how much power I really have, nor how much knowledge I actually can teach them. That's how we work together. What I keep from them is what they find out on their own in time, and even then I'll grow stronger with them without them knowing. Living in secret while also living publicly, that is the truest challenge that separates the novices from the artisans of assassination!"

Suddenly, not taking any chance to let his opponent catch his breath, Suichi flashed forward. His arm was drawn far back with the stabbing point out and firm from his middle finger. As his arm came swooping in for the killing blow, Odo caught it and laxly tossed him across the street. Suichi landed fine and looked back. Odo sighed a heavy sigh and held up his sword. The air became uneasy.

He's releasing! Suichi realized.

"...it seems we were destined to meet, fellow assassin" Odo said, gazing at his sword. He analytically turned it about, looking at all its sides and edges carefully. "Should either of us escape this encounter, I believe we have some valuable things to learn. I have my entire life to reconcile and make up...and you will learn a new 'what if' scenario."

"What would that be?" Suichi asked.

"What if I am about to die...?" Odo responded. Suichi could feel the killing intent from across the street, the pressure that pierced through him like millions of needles. "Deliver me to the world of silk and slime...Biancorango" Odo opened a flap in his black mask through which he ate his sword. With the sword now inside his body, the energy released in a horrible way.


In the Golden Age of Shinigami power, there are many different kinds of releases for swords. They can range from the mundane and almost impractical to the complex and godlike. Some are mere augmentations like that of Mann, some are purely different forms like Suichi's. But Odo is a special case, for in this period of time before the great escalation of Hollow powers, there are shinigami who have access to the rarest and most dangerous form of shikai. The 'Transformation' type, allowing them access to an entirely new physical form.

Only as a shikai, Odo's release was monstrous. His lanky arms elongated twice the length of his own body, and all his black wrapping became bleach-white. Gnarled teeth grew out from where Suichi had seen his mouth and an acrid-looking tongue whipped about, spreading venomous saliva around the air. Two hideous extensions that came from Odo's ribs jutted out, equal in length to his augmented arms, only these bony growths ended in spikes instead of hands. His abdomen elongated as well and his legs, for the most part, were absorbed into the rest of his body. Suichi was looking now not at an assassin or even a shinigami, but some kind of horrible monster.

"Scared, assassin?" Odo growled in a voice recognizably his but distantly alien in speech. Suichi shook off the shock and adapted his tired, jaded expression once more.

"Nope" Suichi responded. "Shin and Hoji are the only ones right now that scare me..."


Habahioriken: Big Steel Paddle

Mizuashinami: Water Step (Ashi also means 'leg' and nami means 'wave'. "Water Leg Wave"...Water Step is better.)

Biancorango: Italian for 'White Spider'