One Final Test [Ika/Akane]

Akane found herself approaching the First Squad's training grounds once again, something that she had been seeing qwuite a lot of recently. Her training with Ika Mazi had started shortly after graduation, plucked from that years graduates specifically for training. At the time, she had been rather excited about the whole thing and at the same time very nervous about how things would progress. That Akane had long since passed however, and it her place came a much more confident Shinigami. Her skills honed and her growth seemingly without end. All the while never ending up as a seated member of the group. If anything, she felt like an outsider amongst the First Squad, often left out of meetings and planning sessions for the future of the Gotei.

The training itself had been hellish, Ika wasn't one to abide by weakness after all, and she had learned quickly that only perfection was going to be allowed. So today was no different than any other day, as far as she could tell, another lecture followed by a trouncing that could almost be considered 'training'. Little did she know that wouldn't be the case.

Striding through to the arena itself, she looked around curiously to see what awaited her today. There was no one to be seen, and it made her wonder exactly what might be on the cards for this session.

There was a lot of obligation that came with being the Captain Commander of the Gotei, chiefly Ika felt it was his duty to ensure that his army was performing at the peak of their powers, and there were few members if any with the raw potential and room to improve that was possessed by one Akane Makishima. Ika had been working with Akane for a while, she had started out under his fathers regime but Ika wasn't exactly interested in letting her progress at a normal rate, and this was exactly why he was sitting at the training grounds with his eyes focused towards her, today was going to be one of the hardest days of her life but at the end of it he hoped she'd have unlocked at least a bit more of her full potential. Ika snapped, rising up from the stands to announce his presence to Akane before Shunpoing down in front of her.

"So.. todays training is going to be a bit different than the usual, and significantly more difficult than what you're used to. You see, I think it's about time you were put in a high pressure situation so that I can see what's really lurking in that radiant soul of yours and I have a plan to drag it out of you.." Ika would at this point step in front of the young lady, grabbing ahold of her head as he slipped a leg behind hers. "Fight to survive.."

In an instant, Ika would sweep the girls legs out from under her and launch a card at her now prone body. She would need to get out of the way, otherwise she'd be dealing with a bum arm. Now to see how she'd respond..

The girl managed to notice the Captain Commander in his position in the stands, apparently being the only one around for now. Only to close the distance and appear before her to explain the meaning of his summons today. The explanation started as she would have expected really, though she wouldn't quite realize the meaning until he spoke his last words, managing to throw her back with surprise sweep to the legs to have her fall back. Barely giving her the time to compute exactly what was happening... 'Fight to survive' was a new one, and with how quickly things had gone bad, it might be a bit of a challenge.

Not that she would be down long, gathering her thoughts to quickly spring up and back to make some space, narrowly avoiding the card as she figured out what to do. Almost on instinct the girl would release her Bankai, surging her spiritual pressure further than it already did. No point waiting for the attacks to come after all, so she needed to provide a good offense to try and keep the commander at bay. Launching forwards again she would lash out with the invisible blade, first a horizontal cut aimed at his mid-section, with a second directly after moving diagonally down.

The combination didn't end there there, assuming that managed to push him back at all, the final stroke would come with a surge of energy with the blade tracing a line of golden reishi that burst forth at close range. The golden arc tore through the area, grinding the floor of the arena to pieces as it hurtled forward. It wasn't an ability that someone would want to take head on, but who knows what Ika might be capable of if he was going all out.

Techniques used:

So the girl was seemingly taken aback by Ika's less than ideal training methods. He couldn't blame her, it was pretty unorthodox for the Captain Commander to commit assault against a Captain but then again Ika wasn't exactly fitting any kind of normative mold. He was a bit of a loose cannon, a living refutation to most of the rules that defined the conduct most Shinigami were meant to exhibit while on the clock. Even still, he was a little surprised to see her avoid his card trick with such stunning ease. She went to her Bankai immediately, and per the usual Ika was taken aback almost immediately. It was an impressive display, her Reiatsu was grossly impressive and obscenely hard to contend with under normal circumstances. Even Ika, with all of his power was a bit taken aback by just how much raw Reiryoku this woman had inside of her. "What a freak.. not that it matters."

Ika stepped back as the invisible form found it's range, lightly slicing through his shirt as he was forced to retreat. The next slice came with a line of golden reiatsu that leapt towards him with deadly intent. Ika threw up a card, it transformed and ate the attack before exploding on it's own, releasing with it wafts of smoke that would slowly but surely penetrate the nose of the incumbent captain. "I'm afraid if we're going to unlock your powers young lady.. we're going to have to go.. on a trip"

At about this time, provided she had huffed the shit as he was hoping she'd probably see 8 Ika's surrounding her with his cards drawn, ready for action. He was curious to see how she'd react, fully intending to punish her next inevitable overstep.

Akane was too busy trying her best to keep her opponent at bay to notice any petty sleights about her power, as freakish as it was. She understood that it wasn't a normal thing of course, and if someone like Ika noticed it then there was certainly a chance it meant that she might be even less normal than she first thought. The offensive stance she had taken from the start seemed to be working at the very least, forcing the Captain Commander to step back and even making contact with her first strike. Though whatever oppertunity she might have had was quickly snuffed out when Ika countered using one of his cards, the smoke quickly causing her to step back into a more defensive position. It wasn't the first time she had to deal with the hallucinations, but she never really had to do so when it came to a life and death struggle.

Surrounded almost right away by visions of the captain commander. Their faces seemingly morphing between forms and visages that didn't help her try and sort out the real one. The young shinigami felt her glance darting left and right to think up some sort of strategy to deal with this. Only one was going to be real. It was a good sign in her growth that she wasn't freaking out or at the very least getting visibly worried about the new situation. In fact, she would respond with potentially a little bit of overkill.

"Your tricks are getting old" The girl hissed, turning her weapon downwards to stab the ground. Channeling her power through the zanpakuto's blade into a new torrential explosion of power with her at the epicenter. The roiling maelstrom of energy expanding swiftly outwards. She had solved the problem of needing to figure out which one was real at least, though with the difference in power it was likely something that he could avoid. A desperate attempt, and had they been in any other arena she might have just leveled the entire building. For the First Division, the entire training area was constructed with excess power in mind at least. For the time being, she needed to wait to see how effective this was, and what she might be able to do to stave off the effects of this smoke.

Techniques Used:

The girl seemed to be handling the situation well enough, hell she had even learned to make cute quips in the heat of battle so that was more than enough improvement as far as Ika could be concerned. He watched from afar, having long since Shunpo'd away from the woman while her little explosion did it's work. The visages would, as far as she was probably concerned, disappear. The ground though reinforced wasn't strong enough to withstand the blast, and a crater about 25 feet wide would appear where Akane stood. "Well that's no good.."

Ika quickly cast Bakudo 26, sneaking back to her position before reemerging directly in front of her. "Well.. that certainly seems like an overreaction doesn't it..?"

As he said this, he quickly threw a card in her direction, intentionally aiming past her to set the ground ablaze before recalling it to his hand. "All I've gotta do is wait for you to overreact to every little thing I do, you aren't used to the perils of attrition and you've got no good way to deal with them other than unique and prodigious talent. But what do you do when facing someone with that same prodigious status, and roughly 1000 more years of experience?.."

Ika plucked a cigarette from his pocket and tossed it into his mouth, he used a spark from his finger to light it and immediately returned his attention to Akane. "Let's just hope you don't fold.."

The girl just watched the dust settle around her, standing in a crater of her own making. Perhaps the facility wasn't quite as strong as she had expected. It was a surprise to both of them at this stage, every moment they faught her power seemed to be growing in response. Though with this lull in combat it had plateaud for now. Getting a quick breather in as Ika went about trying to critizise her 'overreaction'.

"You should know better than anyone that was just a reaction" She responded, underplaying just how destructive she could be when push came to shove. Barely reacting to the card as it flew on past her to burst into flames, causing her to hop backwards out of the crater somewhere safe, putting distance between them both. "Besides, if this was a real fight the answer would be to run. And failing that, make sure my opponent doesn't get out unscathed. So lets stop messing around"

From her words, it looked as though she had called his bluff. It wasn't as though she had been in any mortal danger just yet so it was hardly going to push her over the limit for new power. For that he would really need to show her how much one thousand years of experience could really make.