Episode 44: Art of the Blade
A strong breeze passed through the circular area between the buildings of the inn, removing several vibrant pink petals from the cherry blossom tree in the center garden. The petals wove and danced around Rarity and Blueblood as the two silently faced each other, blades held at the ready, both eyeing one another for any sign of weakness or lowered guard. The breeze stirred Rarity’s hair, several stray cherry blossoms clinging to her shining purple curls.
Blueblood didn’t blink, even as one blossom petal alighted upon his nose, making it twitch with an obvious need to sneeze.
However that twitch, that split second moment of sensory distraction, was all Rarity needed.
To anyone who had witnessed Rarity in action against the Soul Reapers of the Eleventh Division in the earlier battle might have called her fighting style graceful and flashy. The truth was that Rarity had been being careful during that fight. Restraining herself. She hadn’t wanted to unduly hurt anyone.
Now, she wasn’t restraining herself. Now, grace and flash transmuted into something altogether more lethal. In the span of half a breath a torrential rainfall of crystal weapons burst forth from the whirlpool of blood that hung suspended beside Rarity. Weapons of every description soared in at a surprised Blueblood, whirling axes, spinning scythes, piercing swords and daggers, a flood of death converging on the Captain.
Rarity didn’t even flinch as the fusillade of crystal weapons smashed into the location Blueblood had been standing in, hitting with the combined force of a cannon barrage. Her keen eyes weren’t distracted by the debris sent skyward from the impact of her weapons, but instead cast her gaze around with sharp glances. When she caught a swift brush of movement through the dust thrown up by her attack she moved with viper like speed, thrusting her glittering red rapier out while also directing the blood from her whirlpool to splash down in a crimson curtain at the spot immediately to the left of where she’d seen the motion.
Blueblood let out a short grunt of surprise as he found his path trying to circle around behind Rarity at high speed blocked by a crystal wall, while at the same moment her rapier went right for his neck. Despite being taken off guard Blueblood’s reflexes were not to be underestimated. He got his Zanpaktou up just in time to push Rarity’s rapier aside, the clash so close that the sparks from it bounced off his cheek. He then used the crystal wall blocking him to instead act as a stepping point to jump up and over Rarity’s head, landing behind her and send a slash flying for her back. Rarity flung herself forward while spinning around, feeling the cold bite of Blueblood’s Zanpaktou on her armored dress. A shallow cut burned hotly along her hip where she’d been struck, yet Rarity noticed the blood from the wound barely seeped.
Once more she and Blueblood squared off, and out of the corner of her eye Rarity saw that several residents of the inn fearfully peeking out of the windows. It gave her a stark reminder that any collateral damage could prove deadly to bystanders.
Blueblood was looking at her with a distinctly pinched expression of barely contained irritation, like he had brambles in his socks. His voice held a sharp, nasal edge.
“Surviving my first strike is laudable, but ultimately pointless. Soon enough you will fall to my-”
Rarity came at him in a white and red streak of speed, thrusting her rapier before his sentence was finished. Blueblood once more moved to parry, but was taken by surprise as Rarity’s blade transformed in a spreading growth of crystal into a long spear, ornately carved with rose petals. The sudden extra reach of the weapon let it slip right past Blueblood’s guard, who barely twisted his head away from the thrusting weapon. Rarity followed up her attack by instantly transforming the spear back into a rapier, setting Blueblood further off balance as she thrust low past his raised defense. Only the raw speed of a Captain-level Flash Step kept Rarity’s blade from piercing his gut.
He reappeared on the rooftop of the inn building that had been directly behind him, and with a marble white hand he reached up to touch the bleeding cheek wound that Rarity’s spear strike had marked him with. He looked at the blood on his fingers with what appeared to Rarity as almost childlike shock. His eyes stared accusatory at her.
“You cut me!”
Rarity cleared her throat politely, “I believe I told you I would. Were you not listening?”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t be able to actually do it!” he shouted, pointing at her like he was accusing her of committing some sort of crime. “You’re just a human! Creepy powers aside you shouldn’t even be able to keep up with my movements, let alone retaliate!”
Rarity tilted her head and cupped an ear, “Excuse me. I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of your childish whining. Is such whingeing a requirement to become a Soul Reaper Captain? Oh, wait, don’t tell me, this is your Zanpaktou’s power? Annoying your opponent to death?”
“Oh, you think yourself the clever one.” Blueblood said with a visible twitch in his eyebrow, “So clever you don’t realize what it means when a Soul Reaper points a finger at you.”
Rarity, admittedly, hadn’t realized the danger she was in until the bluish white energy sparked along Blueblood’s finger as he intoned the Kido. “Hado Number Four; Byakurai!”
She dodged backwards while making a quick gesture with her left hand, summoning forth a set of diamond shaped crystal shields that interlocked in front of her just in time. The bolt of lightning-like energy lanced down into her shields, and broke through them just as Rarity managed to get clear of the bolt’s destructive path. Even then, the bolt blasted a hole into the ground right at the base of one of the bridges crossing the inn’s pond, sending wood chips flying. Rarity shielded her face from the debris with a forearm, wincing as one sharp chip of wood cut her cheek.
Blueblood wasn’t done, his finger following her dodging movements as he intoned the same Kido rapidly, sending more bolts tearing down at Rarity. Aware of how easily any of those bolts might strike one of the people inside the inn Rarity was forced to dodge along a fairly linear path, leading the bolts away from the buildings. She kept ahead of them, just barely, but it was enough for her to concentrate on a counter attack consisting of ten or so whipping chain blades that extended out of her crimson whirlpool.
“Will you stop using this disturbing ability already!?” Blueblood cried in a vexed huff as he began to dodge and parry the lashing chain blades in a blazingly quick series of movements, his strikes even severing one or two chains entirely before he was forced to abandon the inn rooftop and leap away out of the whirlpool’s immediate reach. He landed on the island with the cherry blossom tree, and Rarity took advantage of the moment to close the distance once more, charging the island while making a gesture to direct the whirlpool to fly over the small island in the pond and disgorge a sleet of crystal spikes at Blueblood.
He managed to deflect the spikes with precision, but it just bought Rarity more valuable seconds to get close to him, leaping onto the island over the now ruined bridge. She then came directly at Blueblood, repeating her earlier thrust that transmuted from rapier to spear. Blueblood was ready for the change this time, stepping back further to evade the spear’s reach...
Only to find a spike of tall, sharp edged crystal erupting from the ground behind him. He changed trajectory in an instant with Flash Step, but the jagged edge of the crystal spike still cut a bloody line along one of his arms, causing him to give a short yelp of pain. This was followed by an explosive roar of anger and indignation.
“Stop that!”
“Stop what?” Rarity asked with an innocent flutter of her eyelashes.
“Using dirty little tricks! You only injure me when you pull out some weird fake-out maneuver out of nowhere with that icky blood power! That spike didn’t even come from the disgusting pool that you have flying around! Where did it even come from!?”
“Oh, are we sharing the secrets of our abilities now? I’ve seen this part of Rainbow Dash’s quaint Japanese cartoons. The characters do so love to talk about how their powers work in those shows. Sorry, darling, but I don’t think I want to tell you anything. Doesn’t strike me as a very smart thing to do. Of course if you want to tell me about your abilities, I’m all ears.”
In truth it wasn’t complicated. Her evolved Fullbring had increased versatility over her initial power, which only let her extend crystals from points she was in contact with. She’d projected crystals underground at times to make them appear at a distance, but the truth was that Rarity had always been the origin point in those situations. She’d experimented with projectiles, but they lacked punch back then. The whirlpool of blood was an extension of her Fullbring, capable of rapidly forming new crystalline constructs at high speed while the whirlpool itself could move wherever Rarity willed it. However she herself retained the ability to project the blood, and the crystal constructs formed thereof, from herself.
Blueblood of course didn’t know any of this. His lack of knowledge of her power combined with his obvious arrogance was what was keeping Rarity in the fight. She could already tell he was faster than her, and no doubt stronger. If he could land a solid hit on her she’d be in trouble. Thus far her saving grace had been the unpredictability of her attacks and the fact that Blueblood had yet to take the fight seriously, giving her multiple openings.
Sadly, none of those openings had allowed her to strike a telling blow, so as flustered as Blueblood was it was clear to Rarity the tide of the fight could turn at any second. Fortunately she was far from being out of tricks. She hadn’t been chatting with Blueblood simply for the sake of the banter. It had purchased her precious seconds to extend more crystals under the ground, like thin veins of blood, so that a spiderweb of them existed underneath the tiny island. As Blueblood opened his mouth to no doubt retort to her earlier, chiding words, more crystalline spikes shot out of the ground beneath his feet. He reacted quickly, snapping out of view with a Flash Step, but Rarity had already anticipated his evasion and had sent her whirlpool to fly above the island and spread out a an expanding dome of crystal to surround the island. In the same instant she herself jumped back, just narrowly getting outside of the dome before it closed around the island, with Blueblood still inside.
I do so detest violence, but I can hardly play fairly with this man. Rarity thought sourly. In truth she fully understood that this was no game at all, but a matter of life and death. Perhaps Blueblood didn’t understand that, given how nonchalantly he was treating the fight? He struck her as someone who didn’t take much of anything seriously, or otherwise expected the world to capitulate to his needs.
Which struck her as a terrible waste. It was clear, just from casual sensing his reiatsu, that Blueblood was remarkably strong and was all but bursting with potential. Not to mention as grating as his attitude was, it at least did come attached to a decently handsome face.
What an absolute waste to place such beauty and potential in the hands of such arrogance and laziness.
Placing her hand on the crystal dome, she could sense within it, using her spiritual energy to resonate with the dome and feel inside it, so she knew where Blueblood was. He’d landed atop the cherry blossom tree to avoid her spikes, and now was standing there, looking around the dome. She couldn’t sense his expression, but imagined he was looking even more irritated than before. Well, he was about to look a lot worse.
With precise and finely tuned bursts of her spirit energy she had the dome start to project spears of crystal, thrusting down at Blueblood in a rapidly enclosing storm of stabbing blades. To his credit he spun about with great elegance and force, either parrying our outright smashing many of the blades. However Rarity could sense an opening in his defenses, and sent one spear flying straight for his back, resolving herself to what must be done to protect her friends.
She didn’t sense the uptick in Blueblood’s spiritual pressure until the spear meant to run through his back hit a solid aura of spirit energy that exploded outward form the man.
Rarity, blinking, almost reflexively stepped back from the dome. The reiatsu flowing out of Blueblood easily eclipsed her own, reminding her that she was dealing with a Captain of the Gotei 13, even if he was supposedly the weakest. In seconds cracks appeared all over her red crystal dome, Blueblood’s spiritual pressure alone now pushing against the construct.
Swearing under her breath, Rarity jumped away, just in time to avoid the dome blasting apart in a shower of crystal shards that smacked all over the inn like shrapnel. The inn residents had all ducked out of sight, fortunately, but Rarity had needed to summon a quick shield of crystal to keep herself from getting injured by the explosion of shards.
Still standing atop the cherry blossom tree, Blueblood radiated a fierce white aura of spirit energy, like the violent coils of writhing snakes. He was breathing in panting gasps, not so much from strain as from clearly rising emotions.
“Well, dear lady, if you are so keenly interested in the power of my Zanpaktou, I can provide an intimate demonstration for you.”
He made a sharp throwing gesture, sending his sword spinning into the air above his head. As he did so the blade started to gleam with a bright, reflective light. Rarity had to shield her eyes at the radiance filling the air above the inn, while Blueblood’s voice rang out in a prideful baritone.
”Look upon the world’s treasures; Mezurashi Kokei!” (Uncommon Vision)
The gleaming light from above shattered like pieces of glass, with a clamour of sound to match. Rarity felt a press upon her spiritual senses that was as widespread as it was heavy, Blueblood’s reiatsu coating the air in a thick layer that, while not as explosively impressive as Hurricane’s had been, was still intimidating. Rarity stood tensely upon a raw edge of adrenaline fueled alertness, waiting to see what shape Blueblood’s power would take.
She was confused, not seeing any sign of a blade. Blueblood remained where he was, looking at her now with self assured smugness, his smile lopsided as he crossed his arms over his chest. The shining light was gone, and Rarity saw nothing of where Blueblood’s Zanpaktou had gone. Even more worrisome was that while his spiritual pressure blanketed the area, she couldn’t sense any concentration of it.
When Hurricane had released Tetsukaze into its Shikai form Rarity had been able to sense the Zanpaktou like a thick pool of Hurricane’s reiatsu. But now, with Blueblood having activated his Shikai, she couldn’t sense any such presence.
Where had his Zanpaktou gone?
Nearly the moment she thought that Rarity felt a horrible pain rip across her left leg, just above the knee. She bit back a scream at the deep laceration, and instantly dodged aside, expecting a follow up attack as she cast about looking for the source of the attack. Her sharp eyesight caught a glimpse of light glinting off of something flying away from her, and she saw a slim coating of blood on an object that in all respects appeared entirely transparent.
Before she could gauge what that object was she felt another ripping line of pain tear across her arm, causing her to clench her teeth as she dashed aside again. This time she knew what to look for and saw the object more clearly as it flew by her. It was a slim blade, like a long dagger, and utterly transparent due to the fact that it was made from glass. Or at least something clear as glass. Rarity didn’t doubt in terms of sharpness and durability the blade she saw was as deadly as any steel. Blades, actually, as from the faint glints of light reflecting at various points around her she realized Blueblood’s Zanpaktou had transformed into quite a few of these nearly invisible, flying glass daggers.
And she was right in the middle of them.
Rarity banished any extraneous thoughts, kicking her senses and instincts into overdrive. Now that she knew what she was looking for she instantly snapped her fingers and summoned down a flying mass of her own weaponry while at the same time she threw herself headlong into the task of evasion, quickly leaping from spot to spot as Blueblood’s Mezurashi Kokei unleashed its deadly fury upon her.
She couldn’t easily count how many of the glass daggers there were. Everything was happening too fast at that moment for trying to count the numbers. All she could do was dodge and parry, her rapier flashing in crimson streaks. Her flurry of summoned weapon constructs flew about her in a fierce storm. In the span of mere seconds dozens of clashes occurred around her, red crystal sparking off of clear glass. Her mind narrowed its focus to the span of the ten feet around her, her body moving constantly as she flitted about the area, dodging around one side of the inn to the other.
All the while Blueblood remained where he was, poised atop the cherry blossom tree, smiling.
“Do you like it? My Mezurashi Kokei is quite the beauty, when I let her shine. Of course she’s just as capable of being an unseen killer when I wish it. You seem to be having trouble keeping up with her. Shall I make her blades dance faster?”
His words were punctuated with a sudden and vicious increase to the speed of the daggers assaulting Rarity. One slipped through the guard of her own zipping blades, nearly stabbing through her shoulder, but she hardened the crystal forged armor around that part of her dress to deflect the blow. Mostly. The glass was indeed sharper than any normal blade could be, still cutting a nasty gouge despite the reinforced armor. Rarity’s eyes narrowed, glittering with a incensed light.
A dance? I shall show you a dance, darling. I will not fall to a pompus fop who doesn’t even strive to realize his own potential!
She spun on her heels and sprinted away with the kind of speed that would’ve made Rainbow Dash proud. The pain from her leg wound shot through her with needles of anguish, yet Rarity didn’t dare let herself be distracted or slow down. Around her the glass daggers flew in, seeking her flesh, only to be intercepted by a flock of her own conjured weapons. They clashed around her in a ringing cacophony, showering her with sparks as she ran, legs all but giving her wings as she rushed away from the confines of the inn’s courtyard area and burst out onto the wider front garden area. A short path wove through a lawn of short grass, marked by tastefully placed arrangements of flower bushes and small trees. The area was enclosed with a short wall and gate, which stood open. Beyond the gate Rarity could see the streets that would lead to the nearby Twelfth Division headquarters. She hoped Sunset and Ditzy Doo would manage to reach and infiltrate the place safely.
Running out into the gardens with Blueblood’s Zanpaktou daggers hot on her heels, Rarity glanced around to ensure that the inn didn’t have any unfortunate garden tenders out and about and that the area was indeed empty. Seeing that it was clear, she changed directions, heading towards the north end of the garden. Within seconds she was out of Blueblood’s line of sight, and the moment that happened she noticed the assault of daggers slackened, the gleaming blades flying upwards in a high arc but not descending back down to attack her.
Rarity’s eyes flashed with understanding. Blueblood could only direct those daggers towards targets he could see. That seemed like an obvious statement, but when it came to the powers of those using spirit energy it was an important distinction. After all, Rarity had been able to direct the spears from her crystal dome earlier just by sensing Blueblood’s reiatsu. Yet the reverse didn’t seem to be true. Was that a specific flaw of his Zanpaktou, or simply that Blueblood lacked skill in sensing reiatsu as clearly as Rarity could?
Either way, it set another facet into her plan.
Blueblood appeared atop the inn once again, now looking down on her in the front garden. He still held a wide smile glazed heavily with smug confidence plastered on his face.
“Running away already, my lady? Or do you believe retreating to an open area might give you an advantage?”
Rarity returned his smile with a thin one of her own. “Actually I only wanted to ensure the poor folks of the inn were out of the crossfire. It's such a lovely inn, it’s a terrible shame to be damaging it or its proprietors.”
She’d expected him to play off her words dismissively, but to her slight surprise Blueblood looked a tad taken aback and he gave her a small nod. “That is an excellent point. This establishment is among my favorites and produces the finest tea in Seireitei. Of course, since you’ve gone and removed yourself from the immediate vicinity of the inn-”
He made a sweeping gesture at her, and a set of four daggers suddenly gleamed with intense white light, marking their location but at the same time filling them with what felt to Rarity like deadly amounts of unstable spirit energy.
“-I can use this technique without concern. Shiroi Hoshizora!” (White Starfall)
Like streaking, falling stars the shining daggers flew down at Rarity, leaving white trails of light in their wake. She raised her hand in a defensive gesture, conjuring a concave wall of crystal in front of her as she jumped back. The blazing daggers pierced through the wall, but stuck fast. However Rarity sensed the unstable reiatsu inside the daggers going out of control and used her spirit energy to Fullbring the air beneath her feet to send herself leaping high into the air.
Among her friends who used Fullbring only Rarity had really gained finely honed skill in Fullbringing things other than themselves, especially the air itself so one could literally walk upon or leap off the air as if it were solid ground. Of course Rainbow Dash and Applejack both had ways to fly on their own, but Rarity suspected there were advantages to being able to Fullbring more mundane objects than mere flight, which was why she’d spent more time than her friends practicing the technique. There was a slight green gleam of what Discord had called “Bringer Light” when her feet pushed off the air, sending her soaring into the sky just as the gleaming glass daggers exploded.
Massive spheres of light burst out of each dagger that’d been stuck in her crystal wall. The wall was disintegrated in an instant, along with several large, perfectly spherical chunks of the garden. Rarity gulped. Those weren’t mere explosions, but rather potent and concentrated instances of exactly spherical globes of spirit energy that looked as if they atomized whatever they touched. Worse, she saw the attack didn’t destroy the daggers, as all four glowing glass weapon remained after the spheres of light vanished.
Still, she pushed down her fear. This didn’t change her plan. Still suspended in mid-air, she used “Bringer Light” to accelerate to the left, circling around the garden. Another useful aspect this use of Fullbring was that it allowed for faster movement, which she needed here. Her blood whirlpool kept pace with her, flying at her side as it shot out a series of ornate crystal arrows in a focused barrage at Blueblood... and at the ground.
Blueblood, focused entirely on the attacks coming his way, gestured with his hand and a number of daggers started to spin and whirl about his body, deflecting the arrows coming his way. Rarity carefully counted, including the four daggers still glowing with faint light. She noticed those four daggers seemed drained, as if recovering from the attack Blueblood had used. Another note on his powers she mentally filed away. She kept accelerating around the garden, arrows striking the ground almost as often as they flew at Blueblood, arcing in from different angles at Rarity’s direction.
Sixteen... seventeen... two more there... nineteen... Rarity kept counting, gauging the number of Blueblood’s daggers.
He wasn’t purely on the defensive, and Rarity’s sharp senses felt a set of daggers rush in at her from behind. She almost smiled. So he was trying to catch her by surprise now? Cute. A quick spin and gesture formed a wide shield behind her, catching eight daggers in its crimson wall. Then those daggers suddenly glowed bright white and Rarity grimaced. So he could activate that dangerous power in any of his daggers, not just four at a time? It occurred to her he must have intentionally limited that first attack specifically to try and catch her off guard with this new one.
So there was a brain somewhere underneath all that arrogant pomp? Good for him.
She threw herself at full speed towards the ground, just barely avoiding the series of light spheres that blasted out of the daggers. Landing on the ground hard, Rarity winced as her wounded leg nearly buckled. Her distraction also halted her torrent of arrows, and Blueblood chuckled.
“Nearly had you there, my lady. Once again your reflexes impress me.”
“I’m almost impressed with you as well, Captain Blueblood.” Rarity said, still grimacing slightly from the pain in her leg, which had been made worse by her rough landing. “Why, if you keep this pace up I might consider you as being more than a waste of potential.”
“What did you just say!? Waste of potential!?” Blueblood clenched his fists. “I am the Captain of the Ninth Division! I am one of the Soul Reaper elite!”
“And I am honestly baffled as to how you garnered such a position.” said Rarity flatly. “How much effort have you put into the honing of your skills? Because I can sense the potential of your spirit energy and honestly, darling, if you put a fraction of the time into developing yourself as you do blowing hot air then this fight would have been over with the first blow. As it stands, a mere ‘human’ girl has fought you to a standstill.”
Blueblood’s eyes reflected his anger, but also a wounded light. It was clear to Rarity she’d hit the mark and struck a potent nerve within him. She’d done so intentionally, hoping it’d make him more reckless. Of course there was always the chance this would backfire and make him realize he needed to take this fight seriously. Lucky her, she saw him huff out a dismissive breath and flip his hair again. She could see him rebuilding his walls of self-deluded superiority, the wounded doubt being buried deep.
“Hmph, preposterous. You’ve only lasted this long because I’ve been generously polite to you as a lady. I am at the prime of my prowess, and for all your dancing about you’re already slowing down. This battle is all but over.”
That much is true. Rarity thought with hard focus as she snapped her fingers and enacted the next phase of her plan.
The arrows she’d rained down on the garden while Blueblood had been busy with the ones attack him now all glowed bright red as they expanded and grew upwards. Rarity’s Fullbring has previously only been able to really conjure crystals in a raw form, only creating finer details when applied to her rapier or armored dress. Now, however, she could create more complex constructs and control them with fine precision. More than that, it was easier to do this when she already had plenty of construct material already present on the battlefield, like say... a bunch of arrows stuck into the ground, which were really just crystals waiting to be transmuted into something else.
In mere seconds tall, winding brambles forged of red crystal thrust upwards from each arrow. Much like a massive thorn bush patch, a thick forest of twisting branches covered in sharp blades flew up, the branches writhing like living things.
While Blueblood stared at this in surprise Rarity directed the mass of brambles to snatch at his daggers, which she’d counted up in their entirety. Thirty two. The exact number of points on a compass rose, oddly enough. Rarity was fairly certain of the number, having carefully counted them. More than that, during their defense of Blueblood, Rarity had carefully let certain arrows transmute from crystal to small bursts of blood. Blood that coated each dagger except the ones recovering from their light energy attacks. So it was possible for Rarity to mark each dagger and entrap it in a thick, grasping mass of thorny vines that wrapped around the daggers and held them fast. Each and every single one.
Blueblood was still blinking at this remarkable feat in utter shock when Rarity, flying up on a trail of Bringer Light, appeared behind him.
“Checkmate, darling.”
Her words were matched by the rapier she set against his throat, its edge pressing up against his chin. With her sword wrapped around him from behind and right against his neck, and all of his weapons immobilized, it didn’t appear as if Blueblood had any other options left to attack or defend with.
Still, Rarity was alert, just in case.
Blueblood for his part glanced at her over his shoulder, not daring to turn his head very far lest he cut himself upon her blade.
“Check...mate? Heh... hahaha!” he started to laugh. “You think you have me beaten?”
“Captain Blueblood, I have a sword at your throat, and your Zanpaktou is immobile. I’m well aware you Captains have access to that nasty Bankai ability, but do you really think I’d let you activate it without putting you down?”
“You haven’t the stomach for that.” Blueblood said, although there was an uneasy look in his eyes as he said it. Rarity responded with a harsh, frozen gleam in her eyes and a harder press of her sword against his neck, drawing a tiny line of blood.
“Are you willing to bet your life on that supposition, dear Captain?”
“You don’t look like a killer to me.” he said, gulping.
“Perhaps I don’t. Perhaps I even loathe the very notion.” Rarity said, then her voice dropped several, cold octaves. “Perhaps I’ve been forced to grow up very quickly, given my friends have decided to put their lives on the line to do what they feel is right. If I must sacrifice my morals to protect them then I ask you this, Captain Blueblood; do I look like a woman who would hesitate?”
A very long, uneasy silence stretched between them. Then Blueblood carefully and slowly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender as he asked, “May I be allowed to deactivate my Zanpaktou, my lady? Without having my throat slit on impulse?”
“As long as the words ‘Ban’, or ‘Kai’ don’t leave that pretty throat, by all means.” said Rarity.
Blueblood, sweat trickling down his brow, lowered his reiatsu, the spiritual pressure lifting off the field of battle. His glass daggers each started to turn into a smoky white dust which then slowly flowed out of Rarity’s bramble patch and form into the shape of Mezurashi Kokei’s sealed form, laying at Blueblood’s feet.
After a moment Blueblood asked, “What then do we do now? I might point out that you can hardly hold me hostage here forever. Others would have noticed the reiatsu of our battle and would be on their way.”
There was fear in his voice, clearly indicating that he fully expected to have his throat cut anyway. Rarity frowned as if tasting something sour. As if she’d sink to such a low as to execute a surrendered man. She wasn’t certain just how far she’d go or give of herself to protect her friends, but she wasn’t that desperate yet.
“I need not hold you hostage at all. I think you’re going to stay put right here.” she said, and in a few second time a growth of crystal emerged around Blueblood’s Zanpaktou, encasing the blade in a thick prison of crimson. Seconds later a similar growth of crystal rose up around Blueblood, encasing his legs, then his chest. Chains emerged, wrapping around his hands and pulling them down to bind them behind his back. Within moments he was bound up to his neck in a pillar of crystal, his Zanpaktou similarly imprisoned at his feet.
“Oh, well, this would do it.” he said, letting out a heavy sigh. “How undignified.”
“Better than death, isn’t it darling? Do cheer up, you only lost for two reasons.”
“And what reasons are those?” Blueblood asked, seeming to deflate in on himself. It was a rather unpleasant sight to Rarity. Not that she sympathized that much, but it was clear that this loss had popped some sort of fragile bubble of self image the Captain had had of himself and his entire posture, what little of it there was to be seen with just his neck and head left mobile, was slumped in a depressive funk that... well honestly Rarity had felt the exact same funk on more than one occasion when faced with frustrating projects that weren’t coming out right.
Well, no one can improve without constructive criticism. Has anyone ever actually forced this man to face his own faults and encourage him to improve?
Keeping her rapier carefully pointed at his throat, as he could still try to activate his Bankai and Rarity wasn’t dropping her guard, she circled around to the front of him and offered him a faint smile.
“For one darling, it is as I said. You clearly haven’t tried to bring out your real potential. You’re talented, I shall grant you that. Perhaps that talent has gotten you this far. But without effort, without striving daily to hone that talent, you’ll only ever be a shadow of how brightly you could shine.”
Her eyes gained less sympathy, glittering with a radiant anger for a moment as her voice grew hard. ”And secondly, you didn’t respect me. You could have ended the fight several times if you hadn’t treated this like a game. Battle is no game, Captain Blueblood. No game at all. I’ve come to respect this blade I carry. The art of using it is as important and serious as any instance of pursuing my artistic passions. You, however, lack that respect. For either yourself, the blade you carry, or the battles you fight.”
She snapped her fingers again and a smoother chain of crystal emerged around Blueblood’s head, pulling around his mouth to gag him, so he couldn’t shout for help, or intone his Bankai. As she did so he grimaced and said, “Wait, just one more thing my lady.”
“Yes?”
Blueblood looked at her with a hint of his dandy spark dancing in his blue eyes. “Would you be interested in getting dinner some fine evening?”
“...You cannot be serious.”
“I have never been more serious.”
Rarity sighed, almost smiling, but instead just shook her head and gestured for the chain gag to finish binding Blueblood’s mouth. She heard him mumble something that might have been ‘Is that a maybe?’ but she wasn’t going to ungag him to find out. Taking the point of her rapier from his throat and offered him a polite, fencer’s salute with it.
“Sorry, darling, but I have a strict policy against dating men who have tried to kill me, however irritatingly handsome they might be.”
Gaged or not, Blueblood made a hopeful noise and quirked his eyerow up. Rarity rolled her eyes.
“Work on your attitude, then we’ll talk. For you, that means a lot of work. Now then, I’m sure someone will be along eventually to release you, but I must be off. Places to go, friends to rescue.”
She left him there, imprisoned atop the inn. A noisome package to unwrap for whichever unforunate Soul Reapers discovered him. And they would, Rarity had no doubt. Their battle had not been a long one, a matter of minutes, but it had been long enough that the released spirit energy from it would be a beacon to the numerous alert Soul Reapers on patrol. Certainly many were already on their way, but Rarity would be long gone by the time they arrived.
She went to ground amid the narrow streets of the buildings north of the inn, gradually making her way towards the large, rocky plateau in the center of the Seireitei where the Gotei 13’s tall, pale fortress towers and walls soared high. Tall green forest clumped along the base of that plateau, and somewhere in there was the hideout that Ditzy Doo had told Rarity about. Occasionally she saw a Soul Reaper patrol rush by a street corner, and she kept quiet and out of sight, even if this slowed her progress.
Her leg was aching fiercely. Most of her wounds were light, but that cut had been deep and even with the unusual nature of her Fullbring seeming to stop the actual bleeding, the injury itself was deeply unpleasant and made moving an exercise in pain tolerance. It’d been so much easier to deal with when adrenaline and battle focus had kept the pain at bay.
“Oh, and my clothes are a ruin. Such a nice outfit, but there’s no getting bloodstains out.” she murmured halfheartedly. If anything she was a bit glad for the pain. It was a good distraction from her more troubled thoughts.
She’d already dismissed her rapier, but she could almost feel its cold crystalline grip still in her hand. She could feel the tremble in her hand, the faint shaking that matched the disquiet inside her.
Would I have actually carried out my threat? It was a disturbing question that floated in an uncomfortable, cold mote in her head.
It seemed like such a ridiculous thought. Rarity was a refined girl who found violence to be a barbarous thing. At times necessary, but still no less detestable for the fact. And certainly if inflicting violence on others was, at best, distasteful then surely the act of taking a life, especially that of a helpless foe, no matter how irritating he might be, should simply be beyond the pall!
Right?
So why was it that when Rarity had made her threat to slice Blueblood’s throat there was a cold feeling inside her that she hadn’t actually been bluffing? It was not at all a comforting realization, because even if Rarity and the other girls managed to free Celestia and Luna and quiet the chaos in Soul Society without a single real casualty, there would always be more battles. More blood. More sacrifices. Adagio had already paid such a high price. Only the naive would assume there wouldn’t be others.
And am I becoming the kind of person who is willing to kill a defenseless man so that those I care about don’t have to make the same sacrifice? How much is all this fighting changing me?
She took a deep, steadying breath, and brushed her hair from her face in a calming gesture. “Stop worrying before you give yourself grey hairs, Rarity. You wouldn't have gone through with it.”
However the words held a distinct note of doubt, even to her own ears.
----------
Sunset might have been the first to admit that she had a bit of a temper. She’d gotten pretty good at managing it over the past year, but every now and then something really got under her skin and hacked her off. It was easy to feel the old burn of anger, like hugging a friend from out of town. If that friend was made out flaming, explosive rage.
“Why did you do that!?” she roared at Ditzy Doo, eyes simmering pools of bubbling rancor.
Ditzy’s strike had knocked her out cold and when Sunset had come to she’d found herself situated in some sort of underground cavern. It reminded her of the training area beneath Discord’s shop, only with a clear stone ceiling and more confined spaces; with rocky crags filling an uneven area that appeared roughly the size of a few football fields. Apparently Ditzy had managed to sneak into the Twelfth Division and get into the secret entrance to this hidden training area without trouble, while Sunset had been unconscious.
Not that she cared. She was royally pissed off and was going to give Ditzy Doo a piece of her mind! Ditzy Doo was lazily sitting upon a stone outcropping, twiddling a finger through her hair as she looked at Sunset with disinterested, passive eyes. Which only pissed off Sunset more!
“You left Rarity there to fight a Captain by herself! She could be dead by now! We should have stayed there to fight together! Between the three of us we could have had a better chance to win, you dumb, crazy, idiotic cat!”
She’d all but gotten into Ditzy’s face, looming over the placid looking woman. Sunset was breathing heavily, her mind whirling with images of Rarity laying bloody on the ground, a laughing Blueblood standing over her body.
“Why did you stop me from helping her!? I could have-”
As Sunset had been yelling Ditzy calmly stood and in the same motion was instantly behind Sunset, twisting Sunset’s injured arm up and around in a hold that would’ve been painful enough if the arm hadn’t been badly wounded. Now the agony of the hold stole all of Sunset’s words and made her drop to her knees in seconds.
Ditzy released the hold a moment later, and stepped back from Sunset while crossing her arms under her ample chest.
“Strip.” Dtizy commanded.
“W-what?” Sunset stammered, more in confusion and residual pain than from any embarrassment.
“Strip. Take of your clothes. Get naked. Do I need to make it clearer with visual aides?” Ditzy’s words dripped with heavy snark, and little amusement.
Sunset, her anger put off just barely by her bafflement, asked. “Why?”
“Your arm is useless right now. It, along with the rest of your body, needs a lot more healing.” Ditzy said, and pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “There’s a hot spring here. It’s rich in soothing reishi that will help my healing Kido work better. Not to mention we both need time to rest and recover. So hop to it, hot head, and strip so we can soak and cool our heads.”
Sunset frowned, nearly scowled, “You want me to take a damn bath while Rarity might be bleeding out as we speak?”
Ditzy hacked out a snort, smirking. “I’m sure your friends would be honored to hear how much faith you have in them.”
Sunset’s face became coated in a cherry red flush, equal parts anger and embarrassment. “I...they... but that was a Captain! We barely faced one of them together. How is Rarity supposed to take that Blueblood guy on by herself?”
“Like I already told you, Blueblood might be a Captain, but he’s not exactly the Gotei 13’s best and brightest.” Ditzy knelt in front of Sunset, eyes slowly softening. “I get that you wanted to stand by your friend’s side, but Rarity knows what she’s doing, and you shouldn’t sell her abilities short. She’ll be fine. The best thing for you to do is stop making your injuries worse with this pointless tantrum and hop in the damn bath.”
“I... I wasn’t throwing a tantrum.” Sunset said, perturbed.
At Ditzy Doo’s raised eyebrow, she hung her head and sighed. “Okay, maybe I was.”
“Good girl. Now c’mon, its naked time!”
“You’re entirely too eager about this.” Sunset said suspiciously as she started to disrobe. Ditzy Doo started to do the same, kicking off her socks as she led Sunset around another set of rock outcroppings.
“Hey, most people get all weird and uncomfortable without clothes, but I’m a lot more relaxed without them. You’re probably the only person I know who might understand. Or should I say, the only pony?”
Sunset chuckled, letting some of her anger and tension fade. She was still worried about Rarity, but Ditzy Doo had made her point. Sunset was too wounded to do any of her friends much good. The best thing to do was to heal up, and then train. If she attained her Bankai, then that would make a lot more difference to her friends than just getting more hurt by pushing herself too far.
Besides, a bath sounded wonderful right about now. She was completely naked, her Soul Reaper robes slung over her shoulder, as she joined Ditzy around the edge of a wide pool of clear, steaming water fed by a small waterfall that was situated against a short rock cliff. Ditzy was also sans clothes now, having tossed them into pile at the edge of the hot spring. Sunset did likewise, stretching as best she could despite her injuries. Ditzy looked on with a grin.
“You adapted pretty well to having a human body. You ever miss your pony one?”
Sunset blinked, looking down at herself, then shrugged, followed by a pained wince as the motion sent aches all over her body.
“Sometimes. Mostly I miss my horn. Magic was such a innate part of me, you know? I still sometimes catch myself trying to lift things with a horn that isn’t there, like when I’m still tired in the morning and forget I can’t lift the milk out of the fridge with magic and just end up starring at it for a second, not knowing why the carton isn't floating at my command.”
They both entered the hot spring, slowly settling down into the pleasantly warm water. For a moment Sunset could only let out a soft gasp as the warmth of the clear water literally soaked away her aches in a manner so swift yet soothing that she knew it couldn’t be natural. She felt fairly certain she could prune up in this stuff all day and feel perfectly justified in doing so.
Ditzy kicked back, arms up and relaxing along the edge of the spring while she lazily swung her feet, splashing the water lightly.
“Anything else you miss? Food only ponies can eat? Games only ponies can play?”
“Why the sudden interest?” asked Sunset, genuinely curious.
Ditzy tilted her head back, starring up at the ceiling in a ponderous manner. “You’re an oddity, Sunset. And oddities interest me. Its why I get along so well with Discy. He’s odd too. Your a drifter from another reality. You gave up an entirely different life to live this one, as a human. You turned your back on everything you knew, even your own species, to take on a new challenge. That’s a rare kind of choice, and I’m curious what kept you here when you had the chance to go back to everything that was safe and familiar.”
Sunset smiled, but it was a slow, small one as she looked into the water, at her own human reflection. Was it strange that the flat face with the pudgy nose and smooth chin were features she now recognized as more her own than the pony face she vaguely remembered from years ago? Was it odd that maybe, somewhere inside herself, she felt more... human, than pony now?
“I don’t really know, myself. I didn’t really have friends, back in Equestria. Wasn’t the ‘friend making’ type. I may have had magic, but I didn’t have the connections that really make that magic worthwhile.”
She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them with her one good arm. “I think that because I was able to finally make those connections, make friends, here in the human world... well, it feels more like a home to me than Equestria ever did. Whatever I left behind, it doesn’t equal what I have here, with the girls. I wouldn’t give them up for all the magic in the world. This one or Equestria.”
Ditzy was silent for a few brief seconds, then cracked a mischievous grin. “So which is better, going into heat, or dealing with that time of the month?”
Sunset almost wished she’d been drinking something, just so she could do a proper spit take. “WHAT!?”
“C’mon, I’m curious. Which is more of a pain in the ass to deal with, going into heat or dealing with the human equivalent? I mean, what was that even like, to discover?”
Sunset ran a hand over her face, chuckling. “You’re freaking insane, Ditzy. Who asks something like that!?”
“Aww, so you’re not gonna tell me? I’m just curious. Besides, you looked like you needed a laugh.”
Feeling the tension inside her slip away a little, Sunset realized she really could do with something to laugh about. Ditzy Doo had a strange way of thinking, but ultimately she seemed eager to help, in her way. Sunset leveled an even stare at Ditzy, smiling in a dry manner.
"Uh-huh, alright weirdo, I’ll play along. Honestly? Periods are more of a pain. The first time it happened freaked me out so badly I went to the hospital. You should’ve seen the look on the nurse's face when I tried to explain what was wrong.”
At Ditzy Doo’s burst of laughter Sunset cried, “Hey, it wasn’t funny! I was seriously scared. Then extremely embarrassed. I hit up the library the very next day and spent the whole week studying up on human biology. I didn’t want to get caught off guard again. Good thing too because that’s how I learned humans couldn’t eat hay. And I’d been wondering why none of the restaurants in town had any.”
She smiled, laughing herself at the memories of her awkward first month in the human world. “Anyway, its not just because the first time seriously freaked me out, but because it’s damned monthly. Heat comes a few times a year, but they’re predictable, don’t last long, and its not that hard to spend a week at home just... dealing with it. No stallions around.”
“No stallions, but perhaps a few mares around to help out?” Ditzy said, wagging her eyebrows suggestively. Sunset responded with a scoffing laugh and splashed Ditzy in the face with a kick of her feet.
“Cool off, airhead. Hate to burst any bubbles but I actually don’t swing that way.”
Ditzy laughed and sputtered at the water splashing her face, grinning even wider. “Oh really? I’ll keep that in mind. But you never even experimented?”
Sunset felt her face heat up as she glanced away, “I didn’t say that.” She coughed politely and quickly said, “So, Bankai! Training. Super interesting. Let’s talk about that now.”
Ditzy made a face, sticking her tongue out. “Spoilsport. Okay, okay, I’ll move on to the more comfortable and infinitely less interesting subject of training. The equipment I need for it is all right here. Getting you started is going to be the easy part. Hate to say it but there really isn’t much I can do to help out once the process starts. It’s all going to be between you and Hokori.”
“Between us how, exactly? I mean, what do we need to do?”
Ditzy’s eyes took on a more dangerous gleam in their golden depths. “You and her are going to have to fight.”
Sunset tilted her head, then shrugged. “Well, okay, we kind of already did that a bit when I learned Shikai-”
Ditzy cut her off, “That was child’s play. I mean a real fight. Bankai training involves physically manifesting one’s Zanpaktou spirit, then facing them in a no-holds barred fight to force them to submit to you. And because Hokori will be manifested, that means you won’t have her to use as a weapon. You’ll have to rely on your own strength to make her submit to your will. And in the meantime...”
Ditzy made a cutting gesture across her neck. “Hokori will be doing everything in her power to kill you.”