"And that's our report on the enemy encampment sir" Torin finished, he and Aurora were in Captain Ukitake's office, telling him what had happened on their mission, for Torin's sake they left out the part about his past, he wasn't ready to tell that story again, not yet.
"I'm impressed Torin, destroying so many foes is no small feat, and then to subsequently defeat one of the daichiken..." Ukitake said
"I've been meaning to ask, what the heck is a Daichiken? The arrancar said that name like it was a status symbol or something" Torin asked
"The daichiken are pretty much the equivalent of Aizen's espada, they are the 100 arrancar that lead the enemy army, their rankings are based on strength, so if you fought the 60th, then there are 40 weaker than him, and 59 stronger" Ukitake explained. Torin shuddered a bit, the injuries he ad sustained in that battle had already been substantial, against a stronger opponent he might not even be able to win his fight, let alone survive it.
"I would like to ask one thing though, where's Rida?" Ukitake asked
Torn and Aurora's eyes went wide "Did we...?" Aurora asked
"Totally forget about him? Yeah, we did" Torin answered "he's gonna be so pissed..."
Ukitake chuckled, young people were always rushing into things without thinking them through "I'll send someone to retrieve him, Aurora, there is someone outside who has requested that I let you meet with them, please go talk with her, Torin and I had someplace we must go as well, so you don't need to return after you're done."
Aurora shot a glance at Torin, then bowed and left
"So Torin, are you ready?" Ukitake asked
"After one question sir, why did you send us on that mission?" Torin said
"what do you mean?" Ukitake asked, eyebrows raised in surprise
"You know exactly what I mean. That mission was far more dangerous than we should have been able to handle, we were nearly killed several times, its a miracle any of us survived, let alone all of us, So my question is, why did you send me, or more importantly, Rida and Aurora, into that death trap?" Torin asked, he was calm and respectful in his tone, but Ukitake could tell he was angry
Ukitake sighed "It was a test, Shunsui and Genyrusai-sensei wanted to see if your determination could push you to win against near impossible odds, an important quality for a captain to have, I was opposed, but I was overruled." he said
Torin took a deep breath "fine, but next time, leave my friends out of it, I don't care if I have to be put in harms way, but I DO care if you put them in harms way for no reason" he said "now we can go"
Ukitake nodded "That I will do for you, now then, let us be off." he said as he pulled out a bundle of blank papers and threw them in the air, as they fell Torin and Ukitake were enveloped in green light and vanished
-unknown location-
Torin blinked as the light faded and revealed his new surroundings, he was in a massive underground cavern filled with cliffs, streams, and other landscape features were scattered everywhere.
"Woah... talk about an extreme training room..." Torin said, clearly impressed
"So, you have finally arrived" a voice said from behind Torin, the sound of a cane slamming into the ground soon followed, making Torin jump and spin around
Head Captain Yammamoto stood on a cliff above Torin, by his side was Captain Ukitake.
"Are you ready to begin?" Yammamoto asked "this will not be easy training, you will get hurt, and you will be made stronger at an accelerated rate, there is no guarantee your body will withstand the strain, do you accept these risks?"
Torin nodded "I am aware, and I wouldn't ream of backing out now, I am ready to begin" he said confidently
"Very well!" Yammamoto said with what might have been a smile "Captain Shunsui!"
In an instant Shunsui appeared on a boulder above Torin "I'm up first am I Yama-ji?" he said in a lazy tone
Yammamoto nodded solemnly "the terms for this battle are as follows, Shunsui, you shall begin in shikai, Torin, you are forbidden from using your shikai, rely on your skills alone""
Shunsui eyed Yammamoto skeptically, then crossed his dual swords in front of him in a cross shape.
"Flower wind rage and flower god roar" Shunsui began "Heavenly wind rage and Heavenly demon sneer, Katen Kyokotsu"
with the release command spoken, Shunsui's swords turned black and became exceedingly curved Chinese scimitars with white edges, the tsuba and hilt were unchanged, but they now had long red tassels.
Torin frowned, even with shikai he was no match for a captain, and to make things worse most zanpakto shikais gave some hint as to their abilities, this one gave barely any clue whatsoever.
"Begin!" Yammamoto commanded, then Shunsui leaped down towards Torin, slashing with his right blade.
Torin drew his sword, his sheath turning to crystal dust and disintegrating, then he brought the blade over his head to block. He was counting on his immense reiatsu and physical strength to stop the attack, he didn't plan for what came next.
"Takaioni" Shunsui said as he struck Torin's blade... and cut straight through it, cutting it in two and scoring a nasty hit on Torin's shoulder.
"Gah!" Torin gasped as he leaped away, blood sputed from his wound briefly before Torin's reiatsu stopped the bleeding "what happened?"
Shunsui flicked the blood of his blade, then spoke "my zanpakto has a playful spirit, she likes to play games with her foes, but her games are all a little sadistic, so I don't like to play with her, but Yama-ji ordered me too, so you're out of luck"
Torin sank to one knee with a curse "so that was one of her 'games?'" he grunted
Shunsui nodded "In Takaioni, the person with the high ground is stronger, which is part of the reason I cut through your blade with such ease. However, your reiatsu is so unfocused that I probably could've cut through it anyway."
Torin stood up and hefted the remains of his zanpakto "what's that supposed to mean?" he asked
"You have as much reiatsu as a captain, more than some, but you aren't controlling it, that blade is large, but with no focus it's body is weak and the edge is dull" Shunsui said "if you want to stop a captain's blade you must focus your reaitsu to a fine point, or it'll get split apart by anyone with reiatsu even close to yours."
Torin let this sink in, then closed his eyes "focus it huh?" he murmured, then he burst into a flare of white light as his reiatsu surged from his body. He seemed to be on fire as the reiatsu surged out and upwards. The aura slowly shrunk from a wall of flame to a thin pillar of light as Torin focused it into his sword. The broken blade slowly began to regenerate, until it was at its full size.
Torin opened his eyes and the light faded, but his eyes still blazed with reiatsu and both he and his blade were surrounded by a prismatic outline
Shunsu smiled "good, now can you hold it?" he said as he used shunpo
Torin completely lost track of Shunsui's movement, but vaugely sensed Shunsui pause behind him.
Torin spun and slashed, clashing with Shunsui's left sword, Torin struggled to hold the blade away as Shunsui steadily raised his own reiatsu, not only was Shunsui's power enormous, but Torin was caught in an awkward position, and leverage was on Shunsui's side.
Torin realized he was in big trouble, he had always had massive reiatsu compared to those he fought, but compared to Shunsui it was just average, this was captain level combat now, he couldn't rely on natural power as a crutch to support his sloppy moves. As Torin realized this Shunsui stabbed Torin's shadow with his right blade and said "Kagaioni"
Torin saw the tip of an enlarged version of Shunsui's sword erupt from his chest and looked back, sure enough the blade had erupted from his shadow, barely missing his heart and lungs.
Shunsui pulled his sword from the ground and the larger version of the sword receeded as well. Shunsui backed off as Torin sank to one knee again. "Damn... let me guess... in this game you step on your opponent's shadow to win, or in this case you attack it." he coughed, he was in bad shape now, but he forced himself to his feet with a grunt.
"Exactly" Shunsui said " are you sure you want to continue?" Maybe you should rest and heal now?"
"Not a chance, if I go down this fast I'd hardly be worth the time you're taking to train me, I'm going to push onward if it kills me!" Torin said with determination
"Yare yare, alright then..." Shunsui sighed
Torin used his own shunpo, appearing behind Shunsui with a slash, as Shunsui turned to block Torin vanished again, appearing above Shunsui and slashing downwards.
Shunsuo brought a blade up to block, but when the blades met Torin called "Takaioni" and overpowered the guard. His blade slammed into the ground and it erupted in an explosion of rock.
Shunsui leaped away, but when he landed his straw hat had a gash in it and blood was dripping from his face to the ground.
Torin looked up triumphantly "I was right, your games, you can lose them too" he said
Shunsui smiled, this one didn't look it, but he was smart, Ukitake had picked a good one, "you got it, all of my games are two sided, I have to be careful not to get caught by them too."
Torin nodded, then vanished again, this time appearing right in front of Shunsui with a horizontal slash that knocked his swords away, then he stepped forward and slashed up diagonally, Shunsui stepped away, but then saw that Torin's blade was really going for his shadow and jumped backwards. Shunsui spun around and swung both blades "Bushogoma" he said as a circle of two razor sharp currents of wind were released towards Torin.
Torin used shunpo again appearing slightly above Shunsui with another slash "Takai..." he began, But Shunsui formed a reiatsu platform and sprung away, landing on the side of a cliff.
Torin wasn't done yet though, he used shunpo again, coming directly at Shunsui from a slightly higher angle. Shunsui sidestepped, then his eyes widened as he saw where the light was casting his shadow.
"Kagaioni" Torin said as he struck Shunsui's shadow, a larger version of his sword erupted from the shadow and stabbed Shunsui through the heart.
"ha, got ya" Torin said, then he gasped as Shunsui vanished, leaving only his pink haori on Torin's blade.
"Inu oni, white!" Shunsui said as he slashed Torin's white Shihakushō, now Shunsui was wearing his white Haori, and his straw hat had been discrarded.
Blood exploded as a fien mist from Torin's back as if water from a fountain. "...!" Torin screamed silently as he fell from the cliff and crashed into the ground.
Shunsui appeared by Torin's fallen body "I think I went too far Yama-ji, we should heal him now before he died" he said as he looked down. Torin lay at his feet, twitching slightly, it wasn't a pretty sight.
Yammamoto nodded "very well, Captain Unohana, heal him" he said
Unohana appeared by Torin as well and stretched out a hand. A green cube appeared around Torin and his wounds rapidly closed.
After the healing Torin sat up and coughed up some blood that had gotten in his lungs. " Captain Unohana too? Alright something's not right here, I am DEFINATELY not worthy of being trained by all of the senior captains at once, hell I'd be honored to be trained by even one of you!"
Torin stood up "you guys have to have some other reason to train me, I can ALMOST believe Ukitake saying I have captain potential, but I'm not the only one at my level, so why train me and not them?"
"There are several reasons Torin" Ukitake said " but actually though there are multiple shinigami with the potential to achieve captain level strength, none of their personalities are well suited for the position, we could bring them to the required level, but they would still be unprepared for the role. We need captains who are ready to act, in this war we need to be at full strength, and that means we need captains to fill the spots emptied by recent betrayals to be filled, and you;re the only one who can fill a position immediately."
Torin frowned at this, he couldn't quite believe that he was the ONLY one who could fill a captain's spot. "That makes sense... I suppose... Alright, lets continue, what do I do now?" he asked
Yammamoto grunted his approval "Very well, Shunsui, did Torin display enough skill to move to his next opponent?" he asked
Shunsui bowed his head in thought " his shunpo could use some work, but he adapted incredibly well to my abilities, if we had done speed training before this he may have seriously injured me, I'd say he passed the adaptability training with flying colors." he said after a bit.
Yammamoto nodded "very well, Captain Ukiate, now it is your turn, the conditions are the same as before, but Torin, after a certain amount of time I will tell you that you may use your shikai, now begin!"
Ukitake nodded and used shunpo to get down to Torin as Shunsui and Unohana went up to Yammamoto's side
"Waves, rise up and become my shield, Lightning, strike down and become my blade!" Ukitake said "Sōgyo no Kotowari"
Ukitake's blades split into two blades connected by a red cord with several mirrors on it, each blade was pretty much a standard katana, only each of them had a prong coming out and pointing back towards the hilt.
"So Captain Ukitake, if my last fight was a test of my adaptability, what do you intend to train?" Torin asked as he hefted his zanpakto
Ukitake said nothing, he simply took a ready stance and waited.
Torin sighed "I suppose telling me would be a bad idea, since then I would focus solely on that to the exclusion of all else, alright then, here I come!"
Torin broke into a run and swung his sword at Ukitake in a wide horizontal slash
"Baukdo 9, Seki" ukitake said, causing a small disc of semi-transparent blue energy to appear next to one of his blades as he blocked.
The bakudo spell easily stopped Torin's blade in its tracks, then it repelled it, causing Torin to stumble backward. Torin frantically brought up his guard to try and stop a counterattack, but none came,
"Is that all Torin?" Ukitake said "If you want to beat me you'll need to do far better than that..."
Torin scowled, kido was by far his weakest skill, even his hakuda was better, to overcome a kido user he usually relied on his shikai abilitiesm but that wasn't an option right now.
Torin slashed down at Ukitake, but was repelled again by a Seki spell.
Torin grew increasingly frustrated as he repeatedly attacked and was repeatedly repelled. eventually he decided enough was enough, he needed a different approach, using shunpo he appeared behind Ukitake, slashing across again, but as Ukitake turned to block with another Seki buffed blade Torin used shunpo again, this time coming from Ukitake's blind spot with an upward slash, Torin focused a large amount of reiatsu into his blade to increase the striking force, he wanted to absolutely crush Ukitake's defenses until they were nothing but dust.
Ukitake couldn't turn to face Torin and use Seki, so he used a different spell "Bakudo 39, enkonsen"
A spinning disc of yellow light appeared to stop Torin's attack, it was much larger than Seki, but it shattered with almost no resistance at all as Torin's blow tore through it, only buying enough time for Ukitake to leap away.
Torin, sensing he had an advantage now, leaped after Ukitake. He slashed downward, but Ukitake placed both sword over his head in an X and caught Torin's blade, then he followed with a vicious kick to the stomach that sent Torin crashing to the ground.
Torin got back up, gasping for breath "almost... had him..." he wheezed
Ukitake landed on top of a boulder and took a defensive stance.
"Torin, you are now permitted to use your shikai" Yammamoto said
"About damn time" Torin said "Grow! Kessho Satsujinsha!"
Torin's shikai release was just as dramatic as ever, but it ended quickly as Torin burst from the cloud of dust around him, his sword blazing with reiatu
"Block this! Kurisutarubimu!" Torin roared as he slashed and sent the crescent shaped arc of energy at Ukitake.
Ukitake pointed one of his swords at the attack and the other at Torin. The cord between the blades glowed as Torin's attack was absorbed, and then Ukitake fired it right back at Torin.
Torin's eyes went wide as he saw what had happened, and he desperately put his swordf in front of him to try and stop his own attack. The beam slammed into Torin and pushed him back quite some distance, but eventually it weakened and Torin was able to push it back, dispersing it.
Torin was now a good distance away, panting with exhaustion as he held his blade in one hand to the side, he had never had to block his own attack like that, and he was surprised at how much power it had, even if he used it without the name it would be a good attack, which gave him an idea.
Torin used shunpo to get back into range and swung his sword releasing a kurisutarubimu without the name, it was drastically weaker, but it was going to get absorbed anyway so it hardly mattered.
Ukitake frowned, he knew Torin could be hard-headed, but this was outright stupidity, he began to absorb the attack when he sensed Torin behind him, arm across his body holding his sword ready to slash. "Kurisutarubimu!" Torin said as he released the full-power attack at point blank range.
Ukitake was engulfed in an explosion of crystallized rock and energy, Torin was knocked away by the explosion, but easily regained his footing on a reiatsu platform.
"I expected no less from my captain" Torin said "using my first attack to detonate my second in my face, only he could think of that so quickly."
The smoke from the explosion cleared to reveal Ukitake, badly burned and bruised, but relatively unharmed, most importantly, he hadn't been cut at all by the attacks, which with Torin's ability to crystallize anything he cut was a key factor.
"Good job Torin, you passed this training" Ukitake said "Your offensive capabilities were able to injure me despite my being entirely on the defensive, so the offense portion of your training is passed"
Torin dropped down to the ground "good thing, I was about to run out of reiatsu using that attack so many times in succession"
Unohana appeared by Torin an he was engulfed in green light again, his energy soon returned and the pain from Ukitake's kick faded.
"So Head Captain Yammamoto, who am I to face next?" Torin asked.