13: A Hot Knife Through Aura - [Escalon]
"...That's a match!" Ms Goodwitch declared, chopping her hand down. The bell sounded, and she addressed the two students in the arena, one girl laid out on the floor, and another boy stood over her, weapon raised.
Ichigo sat up in the bleachers, the circular rows of alternating green and grey benches lining the arena that resembled the hall that Ruby and Weiss had destroyed at the beginning of the week.
This time, however, the seats were far more crowded, with the entire class of flamboyantly-dressed second years he'd been grouped into, for his final compulsory lesson of the week as part of his deal with Ozpin. After this, he wouldn't have to attend any other classes again. The few that he would stick with would be irregular combat classes, a few more sessions on dust, and a short weapon mechanics course. That last one was specifically for a little something he had in mind.
Other than that, there wasn't really a point to attending anything else. Remnant had its own equivalent of an internet too, and he was only aiming to find things out after all, not write essays on them or anything. There was also a library here, to boot. It wasn't as if Beacon truly had anything to offer him otherwise, not when he planned to go home as soon as he could.
Earlier that day, the morning after he performed a konsō on Amber, Ichigo had hit up the CCT tower about seeking an audience with the Headteacher. He'd been turned away, and told that Ozpin was 'occupied' for the foreseeable future. Well, he couldn't really be surprised, someone under Ozpin's care had just passed away. It made sense that he'd be busy.
As his amber-brown eyes tracked the fights below, he decided that he'd seen more than enough to gauge the level of second-year huntsmen. It was time for his own match. He held up a hand, grabbing the combat instructor's attention, and she flagged him down.
"Yes, Ichigo? Will you be the next volunteer?" she intoned.
Idly, Ichigo noticed she seemed quite tired today. Was she covering for Ozpin, too?
"Yep." he nodded, sitting up in his seat. "Can I pick who I fight?"
"I will allow it." she broached, "Though I would suggest a member of CFVY."
The best team combat-wise in the year group, and a yardstick to properly gauge the mysterious ginger's strength. That was what Ozpin had requested of her days before, when the new arrival's temporary timetable had been arranged between the two of them.
She gestured to a contrasting quartet, seated on the opposite side of the arena from Ichigo. The teenager who must've been their leader stood up, pinching her sunglasses under her beret as she bashfully uttered, "Want a round with me, mister?"
Ichigo blinked at her risqué pun. In front of a teacher, too? He checked the supervisor's reaction, but Ms Goodwitch just rolled her jade eyes behind her rimless glasses. She must've been used to it.
"Not... yet. I'll take the one next to you, thanks. With the ears. I did say I wanted to face you, remember?"
The rabbit-eared girl frowned, not because she didn't recognise him, but instead because it seemed that she very much did. She must've hoped that he wouldn't ask her. Well, too bad for her.
"Velvet Scarlatina? I see that you're already in your battle uniform, so if you could please make your way down to the arena?" Goodwitch asked.
"Okay..." she assented with a slight bob of her head, before standing up and making her way to the hidden stairwells down to the arena.
Second-years and above were allowed to arrive in their gear from the start of combat lessons, so they didn't have to change. It was a lucky break, since pulling clothes over his head became a lot more of a hassle with Ichigo's horn. He quickly vaulted over the barrier with a hop, and landed with a quiet tap of his bright orange trainers.
Technically, Ichigo was now wearing his 'huntsman''s outfit. It wasn't exactly as kitted out with gear as anyone else's in the room barring the teacher's, but it didn't need to be. In fact, he'd only swapped out a new reinforced jacket to replace his hoodie, and a new pair of jeans with some gloves.
The recently-bought open maroon jacket was long-sleeved with an upturned collar, and fell to his thighs, lined with white at the edges. There was a chain for his combat pass in the front-left chest pocket. It was worn over his usual white v-neck t-shirt, and the similar light-grey jeans, though no longer ripped. They were fastened with a brown double belt, with a half-loop on his left leg's side. His hands were covered by a pair of matching brown leather fingerless gloves, leaving his grip free and dextrous.
All in all, it was hardly as flamboyant as what some of the other people in Beacon sported, and that was fine by him. Seriously, some of them were so tacky. Did they really have to pick one colour and revolve their lives around it?
As Velvet entered the arena, he suddenly remembered what had been hidden under his seat.
"Yo, hey!" he called to the boy who had been sitting behind him. "Can you grab the thing under where I was sitting?"
"This?" the classmate lifted up a sealed white bucket by its handle.
"Yeah! Just throw it down here." Ichigo raised his hands, and caught the container. It was a few kilograms heavy, but that wasn't even noticeable by his standards.
"That bucket... is that one of your weapons, Kurosaki?" Ms Goodwitch hazarded.
Ichigo tilted his head at her, as he set the bucket down at the edge of the arena. Her expression was flat; -she really wasn't joking.
"What? How would I even fight with this? Why would you even think that?"
"I've taught at this school for years." she stated flatly, "I wouldn't be surprised. The leader you just spoke to, Coco Adel, wields a minigun-handbag as her weapon of choice."
"A handbag?" Ichigo glanced at the smiling girl in aviator sunglasses in the audience. "I guess it does suit her style..."
It was then that Velvet came into view at the opposite end of the amphitheatre's arena.
She was donned in her own huntress outfit, a cropped walnut-brown jacket closed with a thin gold zip, over a thin black top, matching her black tights. Over the tights she wore a pair of brown short shorts, with a decorated golden metal trim that matched the spaulders, cuffs, and belt as well as her heels and toes on her shoes. All of them were made out of the same Damascus-patterned shimmering golden metal. Her rabbit ears were tense, held straight upright and baring the pink innards, and an odd looking box was on the back of her belt, under her long waist-length brunette hair.
"I'm ready, Miss." she announced as she raised a hand to her chest.
"Thank you, Velvet. Synchronise your auras with the display, and we will begin." Ms Goodwitch instructed.
Ichigo rolled his shoulders, and stretched his ankles. He needed something to district himself for the moment, and this would be perfect. Obviously it wouldn't be a contest at all if he were to go all out, but that's exactly why he'd avoid drawing his combat pass. This way, it might actually prove a challenge; an opportunity to further hone his mind at rapidly assessing opponents as well as focus purely on developing his Quincy half. All that, and it'd be more enjoyable this way too.
"Ichigo? Your scroll. It still needs to be linked to the projectors." the Deputy Head broke off his thoughts, and Ichigo glanced down at his special-issue scroll, where it measured decidedly zero aura. Figures.
Whether it was a quirk of how the scrolls were only attuned to the Remnant-style of arranging reiatsu in an aura, or simply because he was transcendent, Ichigo did not register on his scroll's scanner at all. He had to figure something out quickly, because he really couldn't be all that bothered as to explaining why he wasn't showing up.
He closed his eyes briefly, probing the crystallised physical reishi circuit that was meant to measure the user's aura in his scroll, and manipulated it with the most fundamental ability of all Quincies. Since his scroll was linked to the projector, as the bar on his device rose, so too did the hologram's, that steadily grew into a lengthy bar, longer than Velvet's, but not too long, just below his own projected portrait.
"That's a superb amount of aura you have there, Ichigo. Very impressive, for someone your age. I can see how you'd fuel that attack that took down an elder grimm." Ms Goodwitch commended, watching the false display.
She clapped her hands, and a barely-visible shield of reishi was projected all across the bounds of the amphitheatre, protecting the elevated stands and ceiling. Hard-light dust, Ichigo noted. This was the shield the Deputy Headteacher had been talking about, when she scolded Weiss and Ruby. Wish he'd known about that back then, but oh well. You live and you learn.
"Seeing that I've already gone over the rules at the start of this class, I do hope that I don't have to repeat myself?" she proffered.
Velvet gave a shy nod, and Ichigo ran his left hand over the back of his head, answering with a half-hearted, "I can promise I won't kill anybody. Or maim anyone, if that helps."
"I'll... pretend to be reassured by that." Ms Goodwitch sighed. Velvet paled, and dropped into a combat stance. Ichigo eyed her up and down.
Pure hand to hand? That'd be a first here. Even Ruby's blonde sister used those shotgun gauntlet things. Alright, if she's already prepping herself...
Ichigo held his right hand out, open in front of himself, and ribbons of glimmering cobalt light streamed into his open palm. They wound together, solidifying, and shifting from an ethereal bright azure to a metallic jet black within seconds. A hilt, black-bound with red diamonds peeking up either side of the handle, ended in a onyx chain that jangled as it crept up into his sleeve. The top of the handle developed into the form of a manji for the crossguard, and an ebony, keen-edged blade emerged from the handle...
...for about half a foot. It didn't have a point, either, with the end hazily fading into wisps of blue-black spiritual smoke.
"Dammit, seriously? I've been practising this for like a week!" Ichigo groused.
Three days for bankai, a week for a fullbring, and a month for his hollow mask. He'd had the entire day straight to focus on them as he learned however, compared to a few hours at a time he worked with on Remnant's schedule.
It was starting to seem that his self-taught Seiren training would be the longest out of all of them. The Quincy arts were the most complex, considering how they worked, so it was kinda understandable. It wasn't a case of just beating the Old Man and suddenly learning it all on the spot; he actually had to know how to use them. Ironically, it was the most conventional learning curve of his powersets in that way, but then again Ichigo wasn't a very conventional guy at all.
"Are you sure that you're prepared to fight with that, Ichigo? It seems that the bucket really would be a better weapon at this point." Goodwitch suggested helpfully. Ichigo would've preferred for her to just laugh instead. It would've bruised his pride less.
"Absolutely." Ichigo snapped, half out of an actual reason, and half out of just good old spite.
The 'actual reason' in question being that he had to practice this somehow, and this was the only way to refine his butterknife of a Heilig Klinge. As for the spite side... well he couldn't go and lose now, could he?
"In that case..." Ms Goodwitch raised her hand up, gripping the riding-crop. She checked both of the combatants one last time, before chopping her arm down.
"Begin!"
Ichigo was the first to attack.
Bringer-light's lime glow flickered luminously beneath his foot, pushing him across the arena in a single bound, right into Velvet's face. She jerked back, into a hop that opened up the space between them, with a kick from her right leg to give herself some breathing room. Ichigo blocked the blow aimed at his ribs with his left forearm, but she proceeded to use it as leverage to push herself away. With a huge leap, she flipped across the arena, resetting their positions.
Ichigo nodded, shaking off his left arm. "Not bad."
All in all, the opening exchange had taken five seconds at most. Cardin really was impressively brave, or just flat-out terrible at gauging an opponent, for him to mess with her. Velvet really was better than him, comparing his entire spar with the mace wielder to just a couple blows from her already made it clear. But, to be fair, she was a second year...
This time, Velvet charged in. True to her appearance, her jumps were fittingly acrobatic. In two steps, she'd crossed the arena, throwing a right cross that Ichigo moved to block again, once more with his left arm. Only this time, it wasn't a punch, but instead a grapple, as her hand opened up to grab at his forearm, yank it out of the way, and give her the leverage to whirl into a roundhouse kick with her right leg.
The blow connected, with a heavy thump into Ichigo's left shoulder and the crook of his neck, but he didn't topple. Blut vene's electric blue circuits glittered under his skin, minimising the flinch as he jabbed forward with his right and dragged his smoking reishi blade up Velvet's torso. She backstepped at the rough sensation over her aura, but countered with a swift open-palmed shove to get her opponent to shift out of range of his half-blade.
Once again, the two of them were separated, and Velvet gathered her stance once again. Ichigo, meanwhile, furrowed his brows as he stared at his pointless knife. That thrust would have been far more effective if he actually had a tip to it, but as it was, it hadn't so much stabbed her as just poked her really hard. Wait, now that he looked closer, it was slightly longer than before-
Velvet seemed to take his distraction as another opening, because she took the cue to run into a slide kick, aimed at his ankles. Ichigo hopped over her, throwing the knife down at her, jabbing it into her stomach as she rushed past underneath him. The counter lacked much momentum, and slid off of her aura, but hit her all the same. The chain slid past his fingers, until he grabbed it and tugged it back to catch the handle again. Landing from the jump, he spun on the spot to catch Velvet's next blow to his back, as she leapt up from the floor into another jab. He spoke up, as he continued to block a series of her punches, thrown straight at his shoulder.
"Don't you have a weapon?"
A quick duck, under her her high-kick, was followed up with a thrust of his blade to her plexus. She caught it, both hands wrapping around his to halt the short knife's force, but Ichigo took the chance to pull their hands down, and hop into a crane-kick to her chin, knocking her back.
Her hands were thrown off, but she only staggered a little, before her face as set in a soft frown. Ever so slightly, her demeanour had shifted over the course of the spar.
"Why do you want to know?"
Ichigo flicked his arm up, to spin his chained half-knife on his finger. It whipped up into a whirling circle over his shoulder.
"That box on your belt... what's it do? You brought it down here, after all."
Velvet glanced at her hip, at the gold-lined black box under her hair. "Anesidora?" She glanced at his weapon, spinning rapidly, and shook her head, waving her tall ears. "I don't really need it." She pointed to the aura meters, where it seemed that her aura had barely fallen down a tenth, whilst Ichigo's had fallen down a fifth.
What? It couldn't have been from getting hit, his 'aura' reading wasn't even linked to himself. It was completely fake. He eyed the Heilig Klinge in his hand, and how it was almost a third longer by now compared to when he'd first conjured it. It really was growing, albeit slowly but surely.
Was it due to his focus shifting? He scanned the reishi inside of his scroll once again, and resolved to keep the crystalline dust circuitry in the back of his mind for the rest of the fight. Maintaining the hoax reading, and preventing it from slipping any further would be perfect practice for multitasking and refining his control.
"Um... your weapon... isn't really worth it right now."
At those words, Ichigo felt his brow twitch. "Not worth it? We'll see about that-"
He flickered with bringer-light, punctuating his words with an overhead right-handed chop. It was blocked by her, but he'd used the strike to sling his knife on a chain into a follow-up, like a flail.
Her brown eyes traced the incoming weapon, and widened. The first chop was only meant to occupy her before it hit, she realised now. Stepping back, she moved to dodge it, only to reflexively jump at the blur of a sweep-kick to her feet from a low smirking Ichigo. Gotcha.
She shot her hand up, focusing aura into the open palm, to hastily generate a small golden shield. The translucent projection of her aura held firm against the onyx chained blade, which she noticed had grown to almost a foot in length by now. She landed on Ichigo's still-crouched back, and pushed off of it to leap into a head-over-heels backflip to the centre of the arena.
Another exchange that had only lasted a few seconds, and it was back to neutral. Ichigo slowly stalked along the side of the arena, eyeing Velvet side on, as she warily reached behind her waist, but then drew her hands back forward and balled them into fists.
He raised an eyebrow at her cautious skirting, before he probed, "Aren't you gonna use it?"
Velvet pouted. "You're just waiting for me to use it! I won't give you that opening!"
Ichigo waved her concerns off dismissively, "Nah, knock yourself out. I wouldn't do that, promise."
"R-really?" her voice wavered hopefully, as she reached behind her waist to pop open her... camera?
"Are you sure Ichigo?" Miss Goodwitch cut in from the sidelines. He'd almost forgotten she was there, actually. "This might only be a class match, but it would be best for the both of you if you were to treat this as an actual duel. Allowing your opponent to properly equip themselves before a fight... would you say the same on a battlefield?"
Ichigo eyed Velvet, and slowly edged his vision towards the blonde teacher before he answered her truthfully with a deadpan tone. "...Probably. It depends, really."
"...Unbelievable." she sighed, cupping her face.
"Thanks!" Velvet chirped, raising her camera to her face. Eh, at least she was happy about this. A circular golden dish had popped out from the top, and an antique-style round lens extended from the front. "Can I take a photo of your weapon, please?"
"Sure, but what'll it do?" he questioned first, tugging his jacket in front of his sword to hide it. "I'd... prefer not to break any of my weapons again."
"Nonono, it'll just copy it." she shook her head, holding up a free hand placatingly, "It won't affect it at all."
"Copy it?" Ichigo checked the foot-long knife in his hand, and kissed his teeth. "Hold on, let me give you something better to copy."
He reached into the chest pocket of his red jacket, and drew his combat pass. Instead of white, it flared black, his fullbring seeping across his skin, until under the clothes of his huntsman outfit was a jet black suit, and the white armour had melded with the clothes he was wearing rather than replace them. It fused with his outfit, leaving his orange trainers and trousers still showing under sparse, more compact white protection, and the upper half of the armour was completely underneath his red jacket. The only part worn over it was a cross strap with red scaled pauldrons identical to his Ōken armour, and across his face was the white line of spiritual porcelain stretching across the bridge of his nose.
Glancing down at his hands, he found the still-pointless Quincy blade smoking away in his right hand, and his fullbring in his left. Pressing them together came naturally, the blue-black reishi construct washing over his short solid pentagon dagger, until the two were merged. The resulting daitō was full in length, as long as his original false bankai, with three scallops at the back, and black as night. A jagged, sharp manji made the crossguard, and the handle was decorated with red diamonds, ending in a long ebony chain that fed up his sleeve.
In all, it was identical in appearance to his Fullbring Tensa-Zangetsu, though only as strong as his crappy Heilig Kilnge combined with his fullbring in power. Nothing too out-there by Remnant standards, hopefully then.
His eyes rose to meet Velvet's again, and she stepped back. "I'm ready now. Go ahead."
She swallowed, then took the picture. He closed his eyes for the flash, and opened them to see a neon-blue wire frame get projected in the shape of his Quincy-fullbring blade, as she holstered the still-projecting camera to her back.
"It's hard-light dust." she supplied.
"I... guessed so. You got anything else you need to do?" he suggested.
"I think you've given her enough of a set-up, Kurosaki." Goodwitch nudged. "But... well, if you're already this far in, ask her about her Photographic Memory."
"Photographic...?" he turned back to his opponent, eyeing the camera device on her hip. "Hey, I get it."
"My semblance allows me to copy anyone else's movements." Velvet elaborated. "I've... been trying on you, but you don't really have a set style... I can only copy your individual moves."
"Huh... sounds cool." Ichigo held a hand to his chin. "It's probably 'cause I don't really follow a martial art, I just follow my instincts in the moment, I guess... Try copying these."
"Copying what-" Velvet was cut off, almost literally, by the black sword swiping at her face.
She brought her own sword up to block, almost clumsily. Ichigo pulled back at the sight and allowed her to take a swing at him, trying to show her the proper blocking technique, holding his daitō so that hers slid off. Deflecting her with a flourish, he forced her blade to the side, allowing him a clean swipe at her exposed side as she staggered to the right. A swift punish was dealt, knocking her down from the sheer force of the vertical slash.
"W-what the..." she groaned from the floor. He's... so much faster...? Velvet had been a close match in speed before, and comfortably edged him out in hand-to-hand, but now...
Instead of capitalising, he allowed her to get back up, taking a purposefully similar swing as before, and Ichigo actually smiled at the sight of her suddenly-perfect blocking technique with the hard-light blade. The test was a success. Let's see what else you've got.
He led in with a jumping slash, and when she predictably blocked, then countered with a low kick once he landed, he tried testing her reaction to him simply taking the sweep kick and not budging with blut over his ankles. He grinned smugly at the frustration blossoming on her face, before she hooked her foot around them and pulled them out from under him. He caught himself with his left hand on an invisible bar of reishi, preventing his fall, but Velvet was already thrusting in with a copy of what he'd attempted with just his reishi blade.
Pushing his palm off against reishi in the air, allowed Ichigo to gain and shift momentum where it would otherwise be impossible. He changed his half-fall into a legs-first slide at Velvet's feet... only for her to hop over him and whip her sword down at him as he slid, just as Ichigo had done earlier. Only this time, with her blade being much longer than his knife prior, she actually scored a hard scratch all along Ichigo's torso as he passed, from his stomach to his left shoulder.
He grunted, and grit his teeth as he flipped back upright, and eyed the reading in the projection. He made sure to let them fall a touch, seeing as she landed a hit, since it was only fair. Ironically enough, the aura meters protected his opponent more than himself, since with his fake bar even if he was about to get impaled it wouldn't register at all. It also meant, he realised, that he couldn't afford to bleed at all, or else it would be taken as his immediate loss from a 'broken aura'. Looks like that was his lose condition, then.
Velvet beamed at the heavy blow she landed, before her eyes widened and she entered a swift duck. A cobalt blue blur blazed over her, as her head bent back far enough for her brown hair to touch the stone floor. She righted herself again, to see Ichigo cocking back his arm to toss another glowing dagger at her from his free hand.
"Nice reflexes. Now try this."
He threw another azure dagger of sparkling reishi at her right, forcing her to dodge left, and in a single spark of bringer-light he was swinging at her left leg in a pincer. Her light-sword was pulled left, in a downwards-pointing block, her luminous crossguard high, and Ichigo saw his chance. Ironically, it was his turn to copy Velvet's previous manoeuvre.
Her block was angled in a way that the furthest place from her guard was her right shoulder.
So, at the last moment before contact, he switched from a swing to a thrust, and needled the point of his sword behind Velvet's and wrenched it outwards.
The moment his jet-black blade touched her ethereal-blue, he whirled forward, turning his momentum from the leftwards clash into a spinning jump.
A spinning jump that unfurled into a high, heavy, raw, roundhouse kick right to the crook of her neck and base of her unprotected shoulder, from his hard white-plated shoe.
Velvet crumpled under the blow, her stance broken and she almost face-planted before she broke her fall with both her hands. Her projected copy-sword clattered from her grasp and dissipated, and she lost track of it as her head swam. Ichigo, still in the flow, actually took the chance to follow through, and dug his foot into her back, holding his sword to her prone form-
"-And that's the match by submission hold!"
Miss Goodwitch called, with a whip of her crop. A resounding series of cheers rung out from the crowd of students in the stands.
-Oh, right, there were rules in this fight. He wasn't very used to that being the case. Ichigo pulled his foot from her back immediately, and switched his daitō out for an open hand reaching down to her.
Already? He hadn't meant to wrap it up so soon, in truth he'd intended to try and draw out more of Velvet's techniques and see how much she could really copy. Since when were submission holds in the rules, anyway?
"Sorry about that," he muttered as she grasped his hand from the floor shakily, "I got carried away at the end there."
Velvet looked a mix of fearful and in awe. "Were you... holding back from the start?"
Ichigo smiled assuringly, lowering his voice so that only she could hear. "Does it matter? A hit is a hit." He pulled her up to her feet, and she wobbled slightly. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "By the way, from what I've seen, you're way stronger than the guy who was messing with you on Wednesday. Seriously, you don't need to worry. You can just bust him up yourself."
"I could... but..." she took a shallow breath, eyeing his horn on his left temple, "I was thinking... after all the recent news this week about the crime wave... beating him like that would just justify what they think, wouldn't it? The White Fang think the same way, and they're..." A disgrace.
She'd mulled it over, after that day, but the growing White Fang activity had truly soured the thought of just responding with violence in her mind. Surely, Ichigo would understan-
"What? That doesn't make any sense. Why should random criminals have anything to do with hitting back at someone for messing with you?"
"It's not about them, but justifying their message-" Ichigo held up a hand to her face.
"You know what, forget it. I couldn't care less about political crap. I hardly keep up with the news, anyway." He pulled his left hand back, and rubbed it over his amber-brown eyes. "Just try not to take it the next time someone chats crap, if you're not a total lost cause, that is. Just do it if they deserve it."
Velvet gloomed, as though she wanted to say more, but held off as she turned away and walked out from the arena.
Seriously, he couldn't understand people like that at all. Orihime might've avoided fighting, but she never pretended to be a combatant at all- unlike, say, a student at a freaking combat school.
In fact, Orihime still had his back against Yhwach, fully knowing they were looking to kill the guy. Velvet, meanwhile, saw getting trampled on almost as a virtue, since she didn't want to be associated with some next-up revolutionary organisation. As if that was the first connection people would make over a little schoolyard roughousing. The fact that this was the conclusion she came to after thinking it over for a few days, too... It was kind of gross, actually.
"Ichigo?" Miss Goodwitch intoned, breaking him out of his thoughts. "You may leave the arena now."
"Oh, right." He rounded on her. "Can I fight more than once, or...?"
"That..." her eyes flicked up to his aura reading, still comfortably in the green. "...won't be an issue. Do you have a next opponent in mind?"
Ichigo rove his eyes over the rest of the audience, hand on his chin, and slowed down as his gaze scanned over the other three members of CFVY. Then, he turned back to the teacher, after thinking it over.
"Can I fight you?"
She sputtered, "What? What's brought this on? I'll have you know, your aura's no longer even full. You should temper that overconfidence, Kurosaki."
Ichigo just outright rolled his eyes at her. "Whatever. Look, can I challenge you or not?"
Glynda glowered at his nonchalance. "I'll need to see more of your skill against your own age range, first. I've been busy today, and will be for long afterwards. I can't afford to tire myself right now, or deal with any injuries I may cause you."
She didn't have the patience for this today, after what she had to deal with last night. She couldn't trust herself to perfectly hold back, and avoid gripping organs and the like.
"Aw, no dice, huh?" Ichigo kicked his feet. She really had no clue, if she was afraid of hurting him. "How about you just throw the rest of CVFY at me, then? Then afterwards we'll go for it."
"CFVY." she corrected, then straightened her glasses. "Fine, then. Would Fox Alistair come down to the arena?"
"Uh, Miss? We've got a problem here." Coco spoke up from the stands.
"Yeah uh... I... I can't see him, Miss." the copper-haired boy to her left admitted, uneasily. Looking closer, Ichigo realised what the blankness of his eyes meant. Oh. If he relied on aura to see, and Ichigo was transcendent...
"Sorry, uh, that's... just how I am." Ichigo broached.
"Can't you treat him as you do the grimm, Fox?" the taller boy sat next to him asked.
"That's the thing. It's not just him, but an entire space around him just isn't there." he admitted. "He's not just a silhouette, more like a cloud."
Gauging the growing awkwardness, and before anyone could ask him why his aura was untraceable, Ichigo spoke up.
"-It's fine, no problem." he pointed to the tallest one in the stands. "Yo, the big guy with the sword and the chick with the shades." he gestured with his thumb to the ring. "Come on, I'll take you both at once."
The young man gripped the railing in front of him and swung his legs over, landing in a heavy crouch.
Even compared to Ichigo, he was tall, a touch over two metres in height, and solidly built. His hair was cut short, with dark eyes and fair skin. He wore a black muscle shirt and brown trousers, under a green robe with a single short right sleeve. Over the sleeveless left side, was metallic copper-green layered armour all along his left arm, held with brown leather straps across his chest, matching his belt. The gauntlets and gloves on his wrists in turn, matched his armour. His feet were protected by black heavy-duty boots with silver shin plates.
"Greetings, I am Yatsuhashi Daichi. I'm sorry, but I can't promise I won't hurt you..." he warned, as he drew his greatsword.
It was copper-coloured and similar in size to Zangetsu, from first glance. The handle grip was red, and there was no guard. Another point of similarity, there, followed by the single edge. The only part different, really, was the reverse-hook on the back of its point, which wasn't really enough to make Ichigo stop seeing it as an off-coloured knock-off.
"Relax, buddy. I've fought bigger." Ichigo brushed off unflinchingly.
"Yatsuhashi, I didn't say yet whether you could..." Goodwitch rubbed at her forehead. "Never mind. Coco, will you be joining in? I can't say this is very fair, but he is quite literally asking for it..."
Coco, the leader, flipped over the the railing in a fashion that seemed to be for maximum flamboyance.
Her attire was a cocoa-brown expensive-looking jumper, with vertical seams and a frilly collar, worn under a lot of things that were sable black. A beret, aviator sunglasses, a single-strapped cincher at her waist, jeans, gloves without an index finger, a handbag, calf-high boots, a silken scarf and three thin loose beaded necklaces, all of them were dark black. The other colours were a earthen-brown leather belt, clasped with a golden crosshair for a buckle, and the bandoleers stacked with golden-jacketed bullets, matching the gold zips and seams of her outfit.
"Enter Coco Adel!" she struck a pose, holding a hand over her face and pumping the other in the air, as she bent her knees.
"Right." Ichigo nodded, unfazed by the display. He was practically numb to eccentrics, by now. "Can we get this going?"
"Just- ah, begin!" Miss Goodwitch hollered. She cut her crop down, and the two-on-one commenced.
The sound of whirring and clicking caught Ichigo's attention as he turned to see Coco's handbag unfurling and transforming into whatever its mecha-shift form was supposed to be- oh right.
"A minigun, wasn't it?" Ichigo recalled what Miss Goodwitch had told him offhandedly earlier.
"Technically, Gianduja is a rotary machine-gun, but that hardly matters. You'll be shredded either way." Yatsuhashi supplied.
"Oh really?" Ichigo eyed the spooling threads, held by an eager Coco, and leant forwards slightly. "And how're you gonna hit me? She's a sitting duck."
Ichigo broke into a jump, right to ̷h̷e̷r̷ ̷s̷i̷d̷e̷, but was cut off by the horizontal swipe of a heavy copper blade.
"-That's where I come in." Yatsuhashi declared. "This is a team battle, after all."
"Of course." Ichigo grunted out, blocking his strike head on. The force of the clash whipped up a gale behind him, and Ichigo could tell from the slight widening of his hulking opponent's eyes that he was used to others dodging his blows, not trying to outright take him on blow-for-blow. Hey, there's a first time for everything...
He knew the machine gun was about to fire, so he broke off form the clash and stepped back, to give himself some space. If the big guy wasn't going to let him dodge, then how about...
"You ready?" It started slow, Ichigo standing out alone at a far edge of the circular arena, Yatsuhashi approaching but not making any outright moves, as he kept a close watch on the spooling gun. In turn, Ichigo began to whirl his Heilig Klinge from the chain in his right hand. Coco frowned curiously, but as his Quincy-fulllbring sword began to pick up the pace, she grinned as it dawned on her what he was about to attempt.
"Are you really about to try what I think you are? Be my guest, 'cause seriously I gotta see this. 'Hashi, don't interrupt him!"
The sound of a dust-round machine gun was very loud.
Even louder, was the metallic crackle of the bullets getting deflected by a hypersonic sword only a dozen or so metres away.
A series of murmurs erupted from the audience at the sight of Ichigo's blade, spun from its chained hilt, reaching the speed of the chamber, and rebounding the first bullet.
As more dust rounds came, Ichigo picked up the pace, pushing his blade's rotor-like revolutions to even greater heights, and once the RPM was in the tens of thousands, it was clear that no normal bullet could reach him past the black circle of a blender in front of him.
His eyes switched to the sight of Yatsuhashi dashing forwards, but a quick shift of his stance allowed a brief smattering of dust rounds to be deflected in his general direction. Nothing too accurate, but a deterrent nonetheless. At this the man looked over at his teammate and made a hand gesture, to which she nodded and something soon changed.
Ichigo noticed his hand being pushed back, as if the dust was somehow just that much more impactful than before. Slowly but surely, he was losing ground. That needs fixing, fast.
It would be more taxing, to spread his attention across maintaining his blade, his spoofed aura reading, and blut vene, but it was necessary what with the steadily growing pushback he was facing. Taxing himself was the whole point of him even showing up to the class, after all. Electric circuits sprung along his arm, wrist and right hand, reinforcing him back to a comfortable setting. Slowly, he began to make his approach towards his only opponent.
"The hell!?" Coco growled at her opponent's steady steps, in spite of her semblance strengthening the rounds, but held on. "What even is this guy?"
On a whim, she switched the feed of rounds into her weapon. If firepower doesn't work...
Ichigo faltered, at the sudden weight on his blade. It was quickly shrugged off, but as it grew and grew, his eyebrows rose at the sight of jagged grey stone growing along the edge of his daitō. Knitting his brow, he decided to try and approach from the side, seeing as ̷h̷e̷ ̷h̷a̷d̷n̷'̷t̷ ̷t̷r̷i̷e̷d̷ ̷i̷t̷ ̷y̷e̷t̷. Breaking off from the stream of elemental gunfire, he was about to flicker towards Coco when-
"What?-" Ichigo spat as he sidestepped a vertical slash, coming straight at his horned head. The copper sword carved a deep gouge right into the solid rock of the arena floor. To keep it there, he stomped a foot into the back of the surprise blade.
"Hey! Teach! Since when was this guy here?" he complained. "I'll fight him, sure, but you could've said something first!"
Giggles broke out across the stands to Ichigo's annoyance, as Miss Goodwitch seemed to be trying really hard to not join them. "Sorry, sorry Ichigo." she swallowed her amusement. "I can't tell you about ̸Y̸a̸t̸s̸u̸h̸a̸s̸h̸i̸'s ̸s̸e̸m̸b̸l̸a̸n̸c̸e̸. It wouldn't be fair."
"So I am meant to fight... two people?" Ichigo ground out, as he jumped off of the sword in the floor and used it to slash upwards, breaking off the rock from his blade and scoring a cut across... the big guy's olive-green aura. His ears picked up Coco's deluge of bullets, and fell into a roll to avoid a pass of white dust rounds. Ice?
Momentarily, he considered just air-walking over to her, but he dropped the idea. It'd feel too cheap. A memory of the shield of aura Velvet generated in her palm came to mind. Could he try that, with reishi? It was worth a shot, he just needed to-
"Again!?" Another slash out of nowhere, from a presence that alluded his mind. Ichigo back-stepped, the side-swipe, then stepped forwards to get ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷b̷i̷g̷ ̷g̷u̷y̷'s body in the way between him and Coco. Seriously, the guy gave Kenpachi a run for his money in the height department. He could tell, from his senses, that there had been one extra guy in the arena, but nobody had mentioned a thing about him. But nobody was reacting, either, so was he meant to fight this guy?
"Are you messing with my head?" he snapped at his opponent, as they locked blades once more, night-black sparking against dawn-copper.
The other teen didn't respond, instead steeling his expression, not giving anything away. To be honest, Ichigo didn't need him to confirm it. His instincts were screaming at him something was amiss. Before breaking the lock, he focused on his sword's manji crossguard, shifting the reishi to brand white Japanese kanji into its side; his native language would make it even more noticeable.
He didn't let up from the clash, not allowing his opponent to break it off. He couldn't take his eyes off the guy, repeating in his mind over and over what he was writing on his daitō in white.
"Two opponents, don't forget big guy with sword,"
"Two opponents, don't forget big guy with sword,"
'2 OPPS - DON'T 4GET BIG GUY W/SWORD' - there!
Once it was abbreviated on his guard, he broke off the clash to find... ̷n̷o̷ ̷o̷n̷e̷?̷
Was there... a quick glance at his blade, refreshed his mind to the vague threat. He was mildly confused, but figured that it was probably someone who could make him somehow forget he was even there. A semblance? He'd have to constantly be erasing his memory passively, if he was preventing him from even remembering sensing his pressure... there! In the corner of the arena, out of sight behind himself. Coco, currently reloading, was probably just bait. But did bait still count as bait if you knew what you were walking into?
Miss Goodwitch watched as Ichigo stared at what mostly resembled white Mistralian characters inscribed on the side of his sword hilt. She couldn't read them, but presumed it was a way of recording Yatsuhashi's presence, even when he was actively wiping the memories from his mind. His semblance, as much as he disliked using it, was truly special. Coaxing the seven-foot boy to use it for minor things over the course of a few minutes was important to his development, and the reactions were always enlightening to watch on a side note. Now, to see how Ichigo reacted...
Ichigo seemed to consider something for a short while, before he snapped his fingers and donned a toothy, almost inhuman grin. She almost winced at the sight. It just felt unsettling, as if it wasn't the expression of a human teenager -or faunus, for that matter. Ichigo pivoted on his feet, and trooped over to the cheap bucket he'd brought into the arena. He pulled off the flexible airtight lid, and then dipped his sword inside of it. Stirring it around, he made sure to coat the blade fully. What could be inside of- what!?
"What in the gods' name!?" Goodwitch shrieked. "What on Remnant are you doing!? How long did you keep a pail full of dust in a godsdamn plastic bucket!?"
Ichigo had the gall to look at her almost guiltily, as he pulled his sword out. It was completely coated in red dust, to the point that the blade was completely obscured. Strangely enough, it looked to be beyond just a simple coating, because the dust along it was smooth, almost as if it had been compacted and concentrated, or even fused with the metal itself.
"Yes? Sorry, I didn't really have anything else to put it in, I had to share it after all. Jaune got to keep the proper box it came in, blame him."
"Just- just be careful, and put your sword down this instant because-"
Ichigo tightened his grip, and narrowed his eyes on his sword, before it sparked, flared and burst into flames with a roaring crackle. He tested his swings, moving through an overhead strike, then a left and rightwards slash, before flashing it at Coco and putting on a gruff voice, "All things in the universe, turn to ash!"
"Ichigo!" the teacher yelled, stamping her feet. She levitated the bucket of open-air fire dust to her hand, and caught the lid to seal it back up immediately.
His eyes switched back to her, almost sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry, I was just messing around. What's got you flipping out, anyhow? And I paid for that dust by the way, I better get that back."
"You, -you- are what's got me flipping out!" she yelled with a shrill voice. "Your hand! How is it not burning off!? You just rubbed raw dust all over a bare sword and set it off!"
"Oh, uh... my... semblance?" Ichigo shrugged. He pulled back the sleeve of his right arm with his left hand, revealing the glimmering circuitry of blut vene at work under his skin. It extended up his neck, and to the right side of his face, under the white strip of his fullbring and opposite his horn. "Seriously, check out my aura, it's fine. You're overreacting."
Ms Goodwitch turned to the projector, to clearly see Ichigo's aura at the halfway point, firmly in the yellow. Yellow? Was it because of how thin his attention had been spread, that it had fallen so far? He renewed his grip over the false reading, only to feel his blut and the intensity of the white-yellow dust flames weaken in turn. Dammit, it was a trade-off. He'd have to wrap things up quick.
"It's still not perfect... but... I guess it shouldn't be too bad. The moment your gauge turns red, I'll be extinguishing that sword however. Do you even have a way to turn it off?" she demanded.
Ichigo side-eyed her. "...Yes?"
"You don't, then." she huffed with a resigned tone. "Just... don't lose any limbs please."
"Oh come on, I'll figure it out. Watch-" Bringer-light bloomed under his feet, and he exploded forth.
Coco, who had since already reloaded, squeezed the trigger as soon as he moved, but he wasn't aiming for her. Predictably, the guy who he couldn't recognise at all, with a massive sword and green half-armour showed up to defend her in a 'surprise' attack. Of course, Ichigo wasn't familiar with how he fought, wasn't familiar with his abilities, and didn't know a thing about him other than ̷h̷e̷ ̷e̷x̷i̷s̷t̷e̷d̷, and was 'a big guy with a sword', but that didn't matter.
Ichigo didn't bother trying to remember his patterns, which side he favoured, or even what he looked like; all of that would've been forgotten anyway. Instead he would treat every clash as a new encounter, and simply rely on outplaying him on first sight every time they fought.
From Yatsuhashi's perspective, it was bizarre.
From his first strike at Ichigo's -insane- blazing sword, the orange-haired man met his overhead strike with a high block, then kicked at his chest. The strangeness of finally finding someone who actually took his blows head-on and blocked, rather than dodged, was still fresh, and he disengaged, but not before Ichigo followed his backstep with a slash at his chest. Staggering back, he wiped the last few seconds from his opponent's mind.
The second strike, he feinted an overhead, trying to bait out the high-block he'd expected, only for Ichigo to go for a thrust instead, which he barely parried, only for it to allow him to throw a strange, glowing blue dagger into his side. The heat of his foe's firesword was so great, it hurt Yatsuhashi to even lock blades with him. Another wipe followed, as he retreated to re-assess once more.
The third strike, after Ichigo dodged Coco's deluge of dust-rounds once again by jumping into the air, was an upwards diagonal swing with his bronze greatsword, Fulcrum. Somehow, Ichigo caught the sword with his own, in midair, and used the momentum to vault over him and strike at his back. The flaming blade burned, and he almost fell over from the sheer force of his counter-slash. A hasty wipe removed his opponent's attention from his prone form, letting him gather himself whilst Coco warded Ichigo off.
Again, Ichigo was forced into the air, and for his fourth strike Yatsuhashi took no chances; he reached into a pouch of his belt and just straight lobbed a grenade at him. A wind dust-grenade, to be precise. Begrudgingly, he had to admit, Ichigo was simply better than him with a sword, to the point where he would best him every single time thus far, even if it was a 'first time' every clash for him. Hopefully, just outright avoiding his sword was the best choi- ah.
His eyes almost bugged out, at the sight of the grenade coming right back at him. In a spilt-second reflex, he batted the wind bomb upwards with Fulcrum, causing it to blow over his head. This was enough to avoid the worst of the blast, but not enough to avoid getting battered and buffeted by the gale-force winds of his own creation.
On Ichigo's end, when he suddenly caught sight of an oncoming metallic orb, with a green LED embedded into it and what looked like a pulled pin, he could tell it wasn't anything good. He didn't now what it was exactly gonna do, but just that it probably wasn't safe to be around. In the corner of his eye, he noticed from the air that it had been thrown by a big guy with a big sword. A big guy? A big sword? ̷W̷h̷e̷r̷e̷ ̷d̷i̷d̷ ̷h̷e̷- oh, right. The message scrawled on his crossguard made sense now.
In all, this thought process took a fraction of a second, and Ichigo still had the time in mid-air to pluck the grenade out of the air, roll with its momentum, and belt it right back to its sender when he flipped back round. By the time the explosion happened, he'd already lost track of the ̸g̸u̸y̸, but that didn't matter. Coco was reloading again.
"Oh, come on 'Hashi!" He could just hear the eye-roll in her voice. "Still, Ichigo? That... was sick. I gotta admit."
Ichigo clicked his tongue, and threw a dagger of reishi at her. They were practically his proto-Pfeils. Maybe literally, now that he thought about it. "Tch. Quit stalling."
"Hey!" she cried at his pot-shot.
"I know you're just buying time to reload. Hurry up already." He backed up his hand, to throw another dagger, when-
He sidestepped, to find a mystery-sword embedded in the stonework where he hand been standing moments prior. It impacted hard enough to cause a spider-web of cracks in the tiles. He smirked at ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷l̷a̷r̷g̷e̷ ̷m̷a̷n̷- the big guy with a sword- over his shoulder. "That's school property you know."
"You are one to talk!"
Ichigo's neck craned in the direction of Ms Goodwitch's voice. "That wasn't me though! You were there!" he growled.
The other boy yanked his huge sword back, trying to snag Ichigo with his hook on the back of the copper-bronze point, so he stepped clear as soon as he saw his arms pull back. Whilst he was still lifting it, Ichigo struck with a leftwards swing, only for the other boy to swap from lifting his blade to just holding it up perpendicular against the stonework, causing his daitō to clash against the backside- the hookside. Damn.
The greatsword was lifted, two meters clear off the ground, and Ichigo's burning blade was raised with it, with his arm pointed well over his head. He could hear Coco's machine gun spooling up. The hook made sense now; they wanted to prevent him from deflecting them all again. He had about a second to come up with something, so he settled for what made the most sense.
Ichigo noticed how far the swords were held from the big student's body, whether because he was wary of getting shot by Coco, or of Ichigo's fire dust. The reasons didn't matter; he wouldn't have to worry about him being in arm's reach for what he was about to do.
Ichigo jumped high, three meters off of the ground, and lined up his Heilig Klinge with the hook on the back of the tall teen's greatsword.
With a strong thrust, the flaming jet-black daitō threaded through the narrow curve like a needle, and stabbed right into his opponent's aura. The dust-infused reishi blade scorched at his chest, and Ichigo whipped it to the side in mid-air, out through the back of the hook whilst swiping the burning point across his upper body.
"Ack!" The huge huntsman stumbled back, clasping a hand to his chest as his aura sparked an olive green. It flickered, clearly on the fritz now and Ichigo moved to capitalise-
"Yatsuhashi's out! Please step out of the arena, your aura is now in the red."
Ichigo turned about to face Goodwitch's declaration, taking stock of the aura readings. His own had slipped again; his concentration spread thin enough to allow the fake reading of the reishi he manipulated in his scroll to drop to just over a third remaining. His opponent, the big guy -Yatsuhashi apparently-, had plummeted well into the red, though Coco's was still in mid-green.
A dejected Yatsuhashi left the ring, but not before he clapped a hand on his shoulder on the way out. "Your tactics... they're positively deranged, but well fought."
"I'm fine with that. You're... okay." He weighed up his flaming daitō in his hands, giving it a quick whirling flourish. Looks like this is more than just for looking good.
It was kinda like his dad's shikai that he'd mentioned, Engetsu, now that he thought about it, but far less intense. Ichigo was using it to dunk on schoolkids in his human body, whilst Engetsu was capable of chopping up Vasto Lordes. Still, a firesword was a firesword, wasn't it? It was fun to mess around with, for one. Maybe next time he could try electricit-
A bang caught his attention, and Ichigo felt a sharp, searing impact in his right side. It was followed by a second, causing him to stumble, then a third before he could blink. ̷S̷i̷n̷c̷e̷ ̷w̷h̷e̷n̷-
On instinct, he back-stepped, out of the path of a stream of of roaring gunfire. "What the hell!?"
His head snapped to a ̷g̷i̷r̷l̷ ̷i̷n̷ ̷a̷ ̷b̷e̷r̷e̷t, sweeping a rotary machine gun's rolling muzzle towards him with a focused, tight expression. "Confused? I gotta admit I am. How the heck are you still standing after eating fifty-calibre bullets?"
Ichigo didn't deem her with a response, though he knew it was thanks to the constant blut vene running along the right side of his body. That staved off the knockback enough to dodge. Right, two opponents. If one could make him forget himself, then he could forget the other one, too. Taking a deep breath, he met her sunglassed gaze head-on and strode right into her line of fire.
Each bullet followed a similar path; he just had to avoid the one aimed at his face, with a quick duck underneath it. The next was lower; she was shifting her aim downwards. He yanked his sword up to block, but was caught off guard from the steam that erupted when his sword's edge met the dust bullet. Steam? Fire plus...
So she was using water dust, then? Or was it ice, and she was trying to freeze him but his sword was too hot? Either way, it would mean that if he blocked too much, he'd lose sight of her, making it harder to avoid her gunfire. Smart. The solution, however, was simple. He could take advantage of it too.
Ichigo began spinning his Heilig Klinge, the swirling ring of fire deflecting round after round as bullets were broken with every revolution. A massive cloud of steam was kicked up, the skin of the combatants protected from the scalding temperatures by their aura and reiatsu respectively. It wasn't long before the roiling billows of white engulfed Ichigo's form completely, and his opponent took her chance.
Coco had taken advantage of the last action of Yatsuhashi, to erase her presence from Ichigo's memories, to just try and mow him down. When that didn't work, because he somehow just ate a burst of heavy bullets to the chest like nothing, she had to come up with a back-up plan on the spot. Since he'd forgotten how her elemental dust drove him out of deflecting last time, she decided to try it again, but with a twist courtesy of her semblance.
By creating a undulating cloud of vapour over him, Coco knew just how to take him out. Flicking a dial on Gianduja to switch cartridges, a burst of yellow muzzle flashes clued in the audience to her ploy. The electric rounds pierced the bank of artificial cloud, transforming it into a miniature, localised thunderstorm, amped by her dust-enchancing semblance.
The rumble of indoor thunder was heard for the second time that week, in an identical room no less, and many of the students present shielded their eyes from the blinding flashes of forked sheet lightning, followed by a deep vibration of thunder that reverberated in their bones. The shocks kept coming, and Coco relaxed her arms a little, ceasing her hailstorm of lead.
Warily, she glanced at the aura gauges, and froze. "What the-"
Right then, a huge, angular shape of pure orange-yellow flames, similar to the shape of Ichigo's odd crossguard but flying though the air right at her erupted from the cloud, drawing a trail of steam in its wake.
Reflexively, she dropped her bulky machine gun, and dived to the floor. The cartwheeling fireblast sailed over her head, and exploded against the hard-light barrier behind her. The shape unfurled into a roaring inferno, but extinguished itself after a few seconds. Right, fire dust.
Slowly, Coco pushed herself up from the stone ground, and rose to her knees. Looking into the now-dissipating cloud, she'd lost track of the orange-haired faunus. Where-
She flinched at the emanating heat of dark metal held over her shoulder from behind, the hot blade inches away from the side of her face. From its closeness, she could pick out the gnarls and roughness of its newly-marred surface like a spent matchstick.
"...And that's a wrap."
She sighed, and raised both her hands up to her head's height. "I give."
Ichigo stood over the girl from behind, the one he apparently forgot the name of. "You good?" He drew back his sword from her shoulder, the fire from it gone with the manji-shaped shot of his fullbring.
So that's how it works with dust. He could feel the weapon was weaker now, even compared to before he infused it with flames. From the subtle cracks across its charred surface, the daitō would have broken with his next swing, leaving him with just his fullbring's shortsword.
"Incredibly impressive work, Ichigo." Glynda Goodwitch praised with a clap of her hands. "Surprising, too. I must ask, how did you defend yourself from the lightning?"
Ichigo dispelled his sword's reishi, letting it return to just the normal appearance of his fullbring, and he reverted that, as well. The white armour and black suit retracted into the combat pass in his palm. Absentmindedly, he answered her.
"Lightning? I just didn't get hit, and my gloves have rubber in them too, maybe? So I just blocked it a bit, I guess?" He scratched at his cheek. "Why're you asking?"
Glynda and the girl on the floor just stared at him. He flitted between their incredulous gazes blankly.
"What?"
"Dodging lightning?" The girl repeated with a shake. "How fast is- I thought your semblance was solidifying that blue aura of yours or something?"
"Yes?" Internally, Ichigo wrote that down. Solidifying aura; another obviously bogus excuse to add to his low-effort arsenal. "I'm just fast, I guess."
"I... see."
Ms Goodwitch was careful not to belie her suspicion, but damn it, the young man wasn't making it very easy. He was hardly even trying to pretend, and he knew it. He knew they knew it, too. It was as if he didn't really care whether the scope of his true abilities were called into question or not.
She knew he was fast, but to the point that he was fast enough to outclass most full-fledged hunters? They had nothing to gauge his feat in the Emerald forest against, without any recordings they couldn't tell whether that beam had drained him or was just mildly taxing, or even where it came from.
But here, from what she saw today, Glynda knew that Ichigo Kurosaki was truly strong; frighteningly so at that.
"So, can I fight you now?"
"W-what?" Her train of thought was derailed by his challenge. A quick check of the aura gauges had her answer right away.
"Absolutely not. Your aura is borderline red. Rest up, and maybe I'll consider it another day."
Ichigo huffed, realising that the last blast had made him completely slip his control over the fake reading, all the way down to a deep amber. The teacher, of course, would take it as a sign that he was tired out. He wasn't. "Oh come on. I'm fine. This was practically a warm-up. Just try me."
"For the last time, no, Kurosaki, not today." she put her foot down. "You may leave the arena, and return to the stands. I set your bucket down in the stairwell. Make it your first priority to get that dust into a proper container, as soon as possible."
"Alright, fine." Ichigo groaned, stretching up. Next to him, the girl finally found her feet.
"I'm Coco, in case you forgot. Don't worry, Yatsuhashi can clear up his Mindwipe semblance, he'll do it for you now." she lowered her voice, conspiratorially. "It makes him feel guilty if he doesn't. So make sure you see him, alright?"
"Will do." Ichigo waved her off. The guy better have been able to clear it. His eyes were still on the teacher. This was a nice distraction, and really raised his mood, but he still had something to do.
"Hey Miss? Is the Headteacher free?"
She paused, considering for a moment. Then she nodded.
"After school today, he should be. But you should try and catch him quickly if you want to speak with him. I imagine he's probably quite tired after last night. What do you need to ask?"
Ichigo looked up to the sky, through the transparent glass ceiling. A few fluffy clouds interspersed the late Autumn sky. It would be noon, soon.
"Nothing much, I just wanna speak with him about my time here, that's all." He lied.
He pivoted on his feet, and casually strolled out from the arena, grabbing the plastic bucket as he left.
NEXT: 14 - UNLIKELY PROOF - [Orihime's Line]
Author's notes:
Yes, it's been a while I know. Seriously, screw computer science. I hate it so much it's unreal. I'm so glad I didn't choose it for university. Next month is when final exams start, so things'll be annoying for a while. I threw this chapter together over the course of two days because I really needed to take my mind off it for a bit. That's probably why it's just one big fight. I know I dropped like 50 plot threads last chapter but I just needed to turn my brain off for a while. You understand, right? Next chapter will be more story-driven though, I promise.
The main points for this chapter are just further establishing things for the future, introductions and showing how some things work. CFVY sure has some interesting semblances, which I had fun playing around with. If it felt like Velvet's fight ended abruptly, that was the point. This is basically just Ichigo messing around to take his mind off of things and brighten his mood, so it boils down to him trying to beat huntsmen out of pure skill rather than just oneshotting them with a look.
Ichigo's base stats in his Fullbring are RWBY-verse tier IMO, so it's a bit more fair... as much as winning a 2v1 right after another match are. The idea of a fake aura meter means he can't afford to lose even a single drop of blood, or the jig is up, so that's where the tension lies. That and the fact that he has to keep maintaining the fake reading. The "...probably." bit is a reference to the Fullbringer arc.
For Ichigo's huntsman outfit, imagine [wwwDOTpngitemDOWcom/middle/mJxhbR_mine-my-edit-bleach-transparent-ichigo-kurosaki-ichigo/]
-but the top underneath is white, and it has a brown leather version of Grimmjow's TYBW belt. The Fullbring version has the black part show up under the rest of his clothes, with the white armour melding to the clothes in a vague way that suits it, with everything hidden under the jacket except for the Ōken armour-styled cross pauldrons. This'll be his main human outfit for now.
Something important to note is that this was not Ichigo's 'test'. That'll be explained next chapter, and it'll be outside of Beacon entirely. It won't be as straightforward as 'fight this guy', either. That's all I'll say.
Thanks for 850+ favourites, 1159 follows and 340 reviews!