Shinigami Tournament of Power Stadium

Uninterrupted, Ryohei sauntered over to his Zanpakutou and retrieved it. He turned to face Benihime after doing so, only to hear her claim of how much faith he apparently possessed to do such a thing. "Faith? I expected you to attack. Your mind might not be that of a swordsman, but you've got the heart of one at least," he said as the sword in his right hand was brought across his chest to be held at the left side of his body, as if he were preparing a mighty slash. "Buttegire..." With this word, Ryohei slashed the air with his katana, causing it to morph over the course of the movement into the large cleaver that was his Shikai. "Kubikiri Orochi. You've shown me honor, so I'll honor you by fighting with my full power."

Something about Ryohei's words struck a cord with Benihime. In fact, it seemed to make everything clear, about what was wrong currently between her and Daiki, and the problems she'd been having to adjusting to her life while she was in the Academy. It was like a light switch was turned in the girl's head and in those very intelligent eyes was a hint of the fire which had been in them before. She was also rewarded with the sight of the young man's Zanpakuto, something she hadn't really expected him to use, but given his line of thinking she understood completely.

"Sou ka, I think... you just fixed my relationship... arigatou gozaimasu~" Benihime said as she began to hop back and forth switching her body up and gaining a bit of flexibility as she did so. She'd not been using any form of combat to the full force of the ability she had, for a very long time, because she thought she owed it to everyone to give them a chance. But... that was a wrong way of thinking... people deserved to know where the bar was... how far they needed to reach. How to face a challenge head on. "I'm ready," the redhead said, her Reiatsu flared for exactly one second in a visible crimson burst before she took off. At her full speed utilizing Shunpo she'd appear at this young man's left hand side at a speed which most would think impossible and immediately following this movement she aimed to slash this young man thrice. Once in a diagonal up his left arm up to his shoulder, where she let go of her Zanpakuto allowing it one spin only to catch it with her right hand as she spun around his rear. Once there, she aimed a slash down from his left shoulder to his right hip before dropping her weapon into her left hand once more to aim a quick slash around his right side, having her weapon aligned with her forearm for whatever reason.

"... What." This was the only thing Ryohei could think to say when Benihime spoke of her apparent fixed relationship. He had no clue whatsoever what she could have meant by this, but that didn't really matter at the moment. In response to his release of Shikai, Benihime flared her Reiatsu for a minimal amount of time. What followed was an amount of speed he had yet to see, and had not expected to see, in the Seated Officer segment of this tournament. One could even call it more accurate to say he still didn't see such speed now, as he was incapable of following the redhead's movement to his left side. "What?" he said when a sudden slash mark appeared on his left arm. "What!?" he repeated as another cut reached his back. At this point, however, he was able to anticipate a pattern in these attacks. With that being the case, he slashed upward with the cleaver in his right hand, doing so just in time to intercept the third slash he couldn't see coming. Now that his blade was pressed against Benihime's, he looked in her direction and narrowed his eyes. "So, this is what you've got? I didn't expect you to be faster than Baiken, but..."

Ryohei's own Reiatsu suddenly climbed to its peak as his right arm tensed. He focused his strength and pushed against Benihime's sword with the intention of parrying it. If he managed this, his next aim would be to take advantage of the moment in which balance was typically lost due to this maneuver, by aiming to slash the left side of Benihime's fore, from left hip to left shoulder, with a swift upward movement of his cleaver. "It's exciting the hell out of me that you are!"

Benihime heard the word, 'what' exactly three times while she moved. She understood completely, he wouldn't understand the reference to the young man who was her boyfriend, after all they'd only just met. The other two however he seemed to understand well enough by virtue of his ability to meet the last strike she'd attempted to give him. Instead her blade met another and she found herself smiling at the young man before her. She wasn't surprised by this at all. In fact, she'd expected this, given what she'd understood of his abilities. "Sou ka, glad I can be a somewhat interesting opponent for you~" she said of the young man's apparent excitement at facing her. When he pushed back against her she didn't bother trying to block the movement, in fact she let her body go a bit limp, so that she could use the momentum to bend at her waist at the last possible second at the start of the slash, this would allow her to avoid the upward movement while transitioning herself into a trio of back flips which would end with the young woman several meters away. "Whew, that was pretty close, I like those instincts of yours though~" the young woman spoke her Reiatsu flaring, knowing that she was considerably faster than her opponent, at least on the surface she had a bit of a plan, even so it would only really work if she was in close proximity, and that would put her in a world of danger.

It seemed Benihime's reaction time was not sacrificed to create the raw speed he had witnessed. She had managed to lean away from his attack, but Ryohei would not allow the back-flips she performed afterwards to give her any breathing room. With his cleaver still overhead, and while Benihime was flipping away, Ryohei ran forward. By the end of the redhead's flip trio, Ryohei was standing right in front of her, bringing his weapon down. This slash started where its predecessor ended, but was performed diagonally to end with the cleaver being transferred to Ryohei's left hand. At such a moment, he would then aim to slash again from his left to his right, switching the weapon into his right hand for a final diagonal slash toward his upper left.

Benihime soon found she wouldn't be given enough real time to contemplate her next move. From this moment forward her movements would be based solely on her own instincts which would create an interesting reaction as she found the young man to be standing before her when she finished her series of back-flips. 'Shit.' the only thought she had as tossed her sword up to her right hand to fend off the coming attack, while this happened she formed a ball of crackling yellow energy in the same hand. She'd also subsequently follow around the young man's blade around through all of its strikes with the chime of metal heard in their wake, while she was steadily pushed back. A golden triangle of energy was created by the time she stopped the last strike. "Bakudo no Sanjuu: Shitozu Sansen!" this would send the arcs of energy forward into the young man, and since there were no nearby surfaces her hopes were that they'd simply carry him off at a distance which would leave her standing with both her hands meeting at the wrist her left hand atop holding her sword her right hand below pointed towards the ground. As she started a chant for a high powered Kidou of a very different variety than she'd been shown using.

Three slashes were made in total, and three times, Ryohei's sword clashed against metal. He immediately followed these parries by raising his Zanpakutou and pouring his Reiatsu into it. "Ikke-" Whatever he intended to say and do was cut short by the 5th Seat's binding spell. Golden triangles of Reiryoku crashed into each of his arms, as well as his midsection. Even though they could not bind him against anything, they forced him away from Benihime and halted his attack before it could properly begin. Even when he eventually stopped, his arms were still stuck in their outstretched position due to this spell. As such, he forced his Reiatsu to rise higher yet, and the bleeding from his wounds strangely began bleeding profusely. "Korikatamaru Kubikiri Orochi..."

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!" Benihime's chant got to this point and her opponent was taken off by her previous use of kidou. Such a thing caused a blue ball of energy to appear between the palms of her hand hovering out in front and it grew as she continued the chant noting the stop of her opponent as well as hearing his voice. "On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens," she finished the incantation as the man named one of his Zanpakuto abilities. She had no idea what it did, but she couldn't risk having to experience it at a closer range. "Hadou no Nanajuusan: Soren Sokatsui!" this caused the blue energy from her hand to explode outward in a twinned burst aiming to engulf the young man before her with massive burst of this energy that maintained enough force to have blown a hole in a solid building. Benihime paused her stance slightly defensive as she waited to see what became of her opponent.

The bindings upon Ryohei's limbs were beginning to budge as he forced his arms forward. He could feel the spell bending, breaking, albeit not soon enough. The incantation Benihime recited was that of a high-tier spell, which saw its launch as Ryohei was seeing signs of his success against the Bakudou. There was a shining moment of the Shitotsu Sansen shattering, but in the same moment Ryohei managed to free himself, he was consumed by twin waves of blue Reiryoku. Seconds passed, and eventually, the spell and debris both cleared. Ryohei stood hunched over in a crumbled segment of the arena floor; the male himself was covered from head to toe along his fore with ash and burns.

In spite of the most recent successful assault of Benihime, Ryohei rushed forward as if unhindered. His sword was pulled back, then immediately swung forward when he reached Benihime's location. On its downward path toward the redhead's torso, one might take notice of the difference in his cleaver's blade; it was now somewhat jagged, as if it had been worn down over numerous uses despite its perfect condition mere moments prior. At the same time, though, it could be noted that Ryohei's movements were quite a bit faster and more powerful than they were when his Zanpakutou was in better condition.

A successful attack came from Benihime's high usage of Kidou, even so, her opponent didn't appear to be terribly phased by it. In face, he seemed even more ready to battle with a boost in speed and power that she'd not thought he had left within his person. She had to give him much credit, because she didn't assume most would get up after a fully powered up level seventies spell. 'Damn, I should have gone for the eighties...' she thought as she brought her weapon above her head to stop the downward swing of the large clever she found herself taking a deep breath to steady a momentary double vision. He was still way more powerful than she thought he'd be at this point."Your sword... looks... like it's been through hell," she noted as she held out her unoccupied right hand already glowing crimson. "Shakkaho," at this distance the spell aimed towards the center of the young man's chest would cause him burns, though given her close proximity, if he didn't back up she'd also be caught in it as well. She didn't seem to mind this however, a gentle smile appeared on her face as she fully found her bearings and wondered how much more of this ridiculousness the boy could put forth.

"Maybe it has," he replied. In the face of Benihime's next spell, Ryohei did not even consider moving away. In fact, he continued to push forward in spite of the flames consuming his torso. His cleaver pushed harder against Benihime's katana, causing the former to be split in half by the latter. However, his movement continued in an effort to slash down Benihime's torso with what remained of his Zanpakutou. If he succeeded in this, there would be an immediate follow-up along the inverted path of the previous slash. The difference in the second strike would be that the cleaver would have returned to its previous length after drawing blood; this would allow an easy attempt of deepening the wound and returning the cleaver to the way it had been even earlier, without the jagged blade.

Ryohei's response was to keep his place and take the burns which came from the young woman's rather speedily cast, Kidou. Beyond this he snapped his blade clean in half trying to push past it which it did, causing a slice to appear on the girl's abdomen which immediately caused her to shift to the right of the blade. Though it drew blood she avoided the deepening stab and got to watch as the blade reformed itself. "Sugei, your Zanpakuto uses blood to heal itself... with the iron?" she asked seeming to find it strange that one had abilities like this but still managed to use them while not killing people. Still there was a very strange thing that had happened and it made her wonder...

She spun her blade around twice, with the blade pointed towards the young man and aimed to stab it into his right side, whether it made contact with flesh or blade, her follow up would be to cast a small Kidou spell. "Tsuzuri Raiden!" this would cause an electrical charge to spread from her weapon, either directly into his person or into his weapon and thus channeled into him.

Ryohei's initial slash drew blood, allowing his Zanpakutou to regenerate its broken blade immediately. The second, however, did not make impact. As such, the cleaver remained in the worn state it had been in since Ryohei showed an increase in his physical ability. "You noticed," he said as Benihime's katana spun. He accepted the blade to his side without a care, taking it as a point of leverage to ensure an attack of his own. Once the sword buried itself in his flesh, his own sword began sweeping through the air toward Benihime. Ryohei could see his victory taking place in this moment; however, the great deal of tensity that occurred due to the sudden electrical surge sent through his body caused his arm, and everything else, to stop moving. "Hrngh... guah!" he muttered as he underwent a much stronger form of electrocution than what the spell normally produced. Prior to this battle, Ryohei had yet to encounter a large weak point in his Zanpakutou's abilities, but he was now thinking he'd found one worth being mindful of.

"Of course," Benihime said. Her observation skills were pretty good, if she had to say so herself. Beyond this point her sword soon found its home in the young man's side, but he didn't initially seem to realize how much of a hardship he'd suffer because of it. His body was a fairly good conductor of electricity with the extra iron running through it, and as such he experienced even the weaker version of the Tsuzuri Raiden spell a heightened amount. Soon enough his entire body stiffened thus saving Benihime from what would have been a very grievous wound and a rather humiliating defeat. "You're a scary guy..." she muttered, "But a totally worthy opponent," she sighed, knowing it would do no good unless she aimed to utterly dismantle this young man where he stood. She withdrew her sword in a single deft stroke with her left hand she'd subsequently spin the blade around in her hands as she remained before her opponent. The final blows of their battle she tried as a series of strikes issued by the young woman in sequence. Tossing her blade up into the air as as she aimed to deliver a quick palm strike with her left hand into his right side further exacerbating his wound, then a flat palm to the underside of his chin with enough force to completely jar him. Her final strike would be a sweeping kick with her right leg aiming to send him crashing to the ground, in the time it took her to catch her blade.

Soon enough, Ryohei was subjected to the sensation of the sword being pulled from his side, only to have the open wound exacerbated by a palm strike immediately afterward. This occurred just as the feeling was beginning to return to his body, making things a bit worse as the combination of strikes followed. The blow to his chin raised his head, as well as his body. Widened eyes stared into the open sky above the arena before things began to move by his vision due to a kick which send him hurdling into, and across, the arena floor. Numerous rolls ensued to end in Ryohei dropping his Zanpakutou upon losing consciousness. By the end of everything, Ryohei was at the very edge of the arena, slowly rolling the rest of the way off the ring.

As Ryohei rolled towards the end of the arena the fans came to a standstill. And soon enough, the announcer was back, finishing up the last of the announcements. "There we have it folks. The end to a rather stunning match," she said as she stood beside Benihime as the young woman sheathed the Zanpakuto she'd just caught. "Our winner in the Seated Officers round of the Tournament of Power, Niwatoko Benihime!" and just like that the young redhead was acknowledged by the crowd as the winner of the tournament of seated officers. "Come back tomorrow as we start the Vice-Captains and Captains rounds of the Tournament!~" the blonde haired woman said as she practically dismissed the crowd.

The next day a full set of crowds were gathered to watch the starting rounds between both the Vice-Captains and the Captains. All seated officers from multiple divisions were apparently present and betting on their 'chosen' people to win. There was an excitement among the crowd which caused the entire stadium to buzz with energy. This was a good day. Beyond the first few fights, there was now a fight taking place, which involved the Vice-Captain of the Seventh Division, a young woman named Kyoyama Michi and the Tenth Division Vice-Captain, Kumori Raizen. "Alright folks, it seems like this fight is starting to get serious!~" the announcer chimed as the entirety of the Gotei gathered to watch this battle. The blonde haired young woman stood with a hand on her hip, her eyes narrowed at her opponent. "Kaitou... Juzuichiren," the long nodachi she carried along with its sheath transformed into a set of rosary beads with numerous individual beads connected by a red tassel which she kept near her right hand.

The next day, Kumori Raizen stood before the 7th Division's Vice-Captain in the first round of the Vice-Captains' bracket. The fight had progressed a fair bit already, though Raizen himself had pulled off nothing more than low-level spells and Hakuda combat up to this point. Now, he observed the release of his opponent, Michi's, Shikai. He greeted this release with a smile while casually standing with his hands against his hips. "Shikai, huh? Those beads suit you, Kyoyama-fukutaichou. Sumimasen... I can't show you my Shikai just yet," he said, raising his right hand to wave it about for emphasis. "Surely, though, there's something I can do to make it up to you. Dinner later?"

Michi couldn't help but have a bit of a chuckle. This was one of the freshest Vice-Captains in the Gotei presently. Only displaced by the addition of the 12th Division's new Vice-Captain. Even so, he didn't really seem to be putting too much strain on himself at present and beyond that, still had it in him to flirt. "You can't show me your Shikai, but you're offering to take me out to dinner? Something about that seems off, Kumori-fukutaichou," she said as she lifted her fore and middle fingers causing the double strand of beads to surge forward in an attempt to slash Raizen from right to left across his chest. "Shouldn't go out to dinner with sketchy men, my mom taught me that~" she said, with a small smirk, even so it didn't seem to matter to her that she wouldn't be seeing Raizen's Shikai. As far as she was concerned this simply increased her chances at victory as those who didn't use their Shikai tended to over estimate and over exert themselves.

"Of course. I just feel it's a bit disrespectful to withhold my Shikai, so in exchange, I'll buy you a meal. Besides, shouldn't a pair of Vice-Captains get to know each other after a fate encounter in the first round of a tournament?" he asked. With that, he brought his right hand forward, flicking his wrist to silently cast the ninth Bakudou spell, Hourin. This caused an orange-hued tendril of Reiryoku to whip outward from his hand and wrap around the coming beads to keep them from his person. In conjunction with this, he made use of another unspoken spell: the twelfth Hadou, Fushibi. This spell produced a flame which rapidly spread down Raizen's tendril, threatening to spread along Michi's Zanpakutou and engulf her as well. This was Raizen's answer to Michi's Shikai; since he would not release his own, he would instead step his own game up - so to speak - by utilizing spells without even speaking their names, something which he had developed during the previous year when he was in the Shinou Academy. "Sketchy? I feel like I should take a bit of offense to that. Don't worry, though; I'm still up for dinner."

"A bit disrespectful, not to bear the embodiment of your soul to a perfect stranger? Not really... I'm a pretty transparent person, but I also understand not everyone can be that way," the Seventh Division Vice-Captain said. She could understand why some chose to keep their Shikai to themselves, she wasn't at all offended by the idea, so long as the person who took such a practice didn't have a problem making up for their short comings. But beyond this there was now a mass of fire crawling towards the blonde woman up the beads of her stopped zanpakuto connected to an orange rope which she recognized as a combination of two lower level Kidou spells. Her eyes widened at this new development, seemingly stunned that anyone could accomplish such a thing, "Zenki! Goki!" she stated, this caused two large Ogres to appear from the flaming beads and stopped the spells ability to further push up her weapon. In doing so she lost a great number of the beads which normally made up the length of her weapon, but she was fine with this as she gained something else entirely. "Yare yare, I was hoping not to have to do that... also... What? You use Kidou without speaking?!" she seemed utterly surprised by this. She didn't shun the use of kidou herself, but she only knew of the original ways to shorten Kidou and gain effectiveness. 'No wonder he made Vice-Captain straight out of the Academy, this guy is ridiculous.' she thought. This was something entirely different, even as she stood with two large ogres at her size, one blue and one red both easily double the size of a large human being with demonic looking faces, she wrapped the rest of the beads around her fingers and pointed towards Raizen. "Take offense or not, it's okay. Additionally if you wanted to get to know any Vice-Captain, including the ones you have fated match ups with, I'd suggest attending the Vice-Captain's meetings~" she commented as the shield wielding blue ogre and the battleaxe wielding red ogre both let out a harrowing cry.

"It's not that I mean to be opaque... I can't use my Shikai because I'd like to enjoy this experience. We're not allowed to kill, but I don't want to break anyone either," was his response to the matter of his hidden Shikai. While his flames made their way along Michi's Zanpakutou, two beasts produced by the latter stopped the former's progress. Raizen raised a brow when this occurred, as the ability this young woman's Zanpakutou possessed was proving to be intriguing already. "Hai. Well... some spells. I find myself struggling to cast higher levels at full power without a name. This one, for example," he said as his left hand rose. It seemed that, one way or another, he would soon have to be dealing with these ogres. So... he chose to do so right away. "Souren Soukatsui!" With a single hand, Raizen cast two large and extensive waves of blue energy, perfectly separating them in such a way as to attempt engulfing the ogres simultaneously. "I never said any Vice-Captain. I'd rather be a bit more selective than that."

"Sou ka, I guess that reasoning is pretty sound. Arrogant, but sound," said the Seventh Division's Vice-Captain. It was amazing to her that the young man thought himself incapable of enjoying the fights he had lined up if he had to use his Shikai. Of course, he was presently holding her off without much of a problem and given that it seemed that she couldn't really talk too much smack about the young man's ideals. Soon enough the young man was exemplifying his ability to cast Kidou Spells by using one she hadn't thought anyone would use with such blatant disregard. Specifically it engulfed her two ogres, both of them seeming to catch fire and explode in the face of his spell, but she apparently didn't seem too worried about this. Both of them seemed to fall to the ground in a spray of beads which cased the young woman's left hand to begin to spin, as it did the beads gathered adding themselves to the ones which were presently wrapped around the fingers of her right hand. "Selective? Vice-Captains are already rather selective. There are only 12 who aren't you~" she jested as the beads finished coming together and seemed to hover around her person. Now she had to contend with fighting without her ogres and it would be a few moments before they could be remade. Even so the beads floated in chains about her person as she aimed another attack at the other Vice-Captain. She allowed her Reiatsu to flare about her person in a teal cloud as she pulled on the tassel end of her beads causing them to whip about in a seemingly ridiculous manner, several dozen slashes were aimed at Raizen's fore, as she flooded her Zanpakuto with her own Reiatsu to enforce the strength of the hits.

"Yep. And only one of those twelve is you, so stop beating around the bush and have dinner with me!" he said in a state of mock deject. Michi went on to attack again, in spite of her ogres being destroyed so soon after their creation. Raizen didn't seem all too worried about the increase in her Reiatsu, nor the quantity of things attacking him. In fact, he rather calmly clapped his hands together. "Hyapporankan," he said. As his hands separated, a rod of white Reiryoku formed within them. Raizen held said rod as if it were a polearm, spinning it in front of him and using it as a catalyst for another spell. "Enkousen!" The spinning of the rod created a golden shield upon reaching a high velocity. This repelled Michi's beads as they came, but Raizen then triggered the true ability of his first spell. The single spinning rod split into one hundred, resulting in a gigantic wall of rotating shields. Raizen seemed to have mounted an incredible defense in doing this, but his true intentions would be revealed when the shields faded, and the rods kept spinning. A wide grin was upon the white-haired man's face as he spoke the name of yet another spell. "... Tenran." With this, he once again used the rods as a catalyst. Each of their rotations caused the production of a widening tornado, threatening to tear asunder the fighting ring in front of Raizen, and even threatening the arena's bleachers and the individuals placed within them.

Michi chuckled just a bit... "Wow... that's a bit extreme. You seem kinda set on this... sure." she said as her barrage took place. Of course, this was met by more Kidou which initially didn't seem so bad. "What?" she asked seeming to find the combination of spells to be a bit outlandish. Even more so than that, she was soon bombarded by a myriad of tornadoes multiplied by the number of rods created by the initial spell. Her eyes widened as she immediately called all beads back to herself and wrapped them in a dome around her person, sealing herself in for the duration of this rather intense attack. 'This is utterly ridiculous, how did I get stuck with this crappy match up first?' she questioned herself mentally. Noting to herself to be extremely cross and vocal at the next Women's association meeting.

Meanwhile the audience seemed to be scrambling to protect itself from the coming barrage. Various high level barrier spells went up at intervals about the entire stadium. But the only person who didn't seem too flustered was the young 5th seat of the 12th Division. She was sitting right on the edge of the banister over looking the entire fight with wide eyes. And upon seeing carnage coming her way had taken it upon herself to cast a barrier for her own protection which didn't require her to move. "Bakudo no Nanajuusan: Tozansho." she said creating a giant inverted crystal barrier around herself so she could stay seated and keep watching. Her mind already aflutter with the excitement of this match. 'Sugei! That's the coolest thing ever! I wanna do stuff like that!~' she thought to herself as the match progressed.

"You won't regret it," the male spoke of the apparent agreement to his offer. It was then that his spell barrage took place, being defended against by Michi's efforts using her Zanpakutou as a spherical barrier. Seeing this, Raizen pointed in her direction with his right fore and middle fingers. "Is that going to be enough? Daichi Tenyou!" This spell of Raizen's caused the levitation of the broken stadium, as well as previously unbroken segments beneath and around Raizen himself at the time. They were all launched forward telekinetically by the spell itself, but they were also accelerated greatly by the preexisting tornadoes. "How long will that shield hold?"

Michi was now barricaded within her Zanpakuto having a conversation with the 10th Division's Vice-Captain, who was apparently pleased at the idea that she'd agreed to his proposed dinner date. "Mm-huh, whatever you say." said the young woman. As they continued the barrage had extra pieces added to it by way of a new spell which picked up debris and added them to the tornadoes making them fly even faster. At the question of if her barricade could withstand it she only smiled. "It will last as long as I need it to~" she said with a slight upward inflection. Of course, she fully intended to try not to keep such a barrage, and holding out against it wasn't suiting her Zanpakuto either. "Zenki, Goki!" she said once more as the ogres both reformed the shielded one appeared in front and began moving forward, while the one with the battleaxe stayed behind and batted debris away from the young woman, soon enough her fingers were laced in between her remaining beads once more and she launched herself forward making use of Shunpo. Upon coming to a stop just meters before the young man, Michi named a kidou spell which would cause dozens of her beads to glow. "Hadou no Sanjuuni: Okasen!" this caused several dozen of the beads to glow with the yellow energy which would further explode into individual large arcs aiming to engulf the young man before her in multiple sources of the energy and threatening to completely engulf his person.

"Will it? Good; I'd hate to actually pummel you with these rocks," Raizen said. Michi would then go on to summon her pair of ogres once more, and use them to push against his combination of spells. 'Sou ka,' he thought upon seeing their second summon. It was not long before Michi freed herself from his assault and appeared before him with one of her own. Raizen's eyes widened when it became apparent that she, too, was using multiple points of focus to channel her spell. He dashed back as the blasts began, holding out his hand toward Michi. "Danku!" he said, though nothing appeared between him and the blasts. Raizen was consumed by the onslaught, but his spell had a greater purpose; it had been triple cast, with one tall barrier formed behind Michi, and two others connecting to it on either side to create a box open only at the front and top.

Raizen soon emerged above the waves shot by the 7th's Vice-Captain, having his limbs tucked into his torso as a way of lessening the impact the spell had on him. His right arm, however, was free of this tuck, and that hand held a sphere of golden electrical Reiryoku. At the height of his jump, he cleared his vision and pointed this sphere toward Michi. "Raikouhou!" With this, an electrical blast would emerge and threaten to consume the blonde, with Raizen having set up the trio of barriers as a way of sealing her range of movement.

Michi scoffed as the young man mentioned that he didn't want to pummel her with rocks, and couldn't help but think that if that wasn't something he wanted to do, he probably shouldn't be doing it. Regardless of this point in semantics it seemed that she'd had at least some success her barrage eventually leading the young man into a forced movement but not without taking the hit. This would have lead to happiness except... 'Where's the barrier?' she mentally questioned as she moved back into it, only to look above and seen the gathering electrical energy. Her eyes widened as she realized he'd only taken the hit to have an opportunity to trap her movements and almost guarantee an attack. 'Crap!' she called both ogres back to herself as she was engulfed in a Raikouhou. She'd be stuck in this blast for the duration of it, surrounded by a dangerous electrical charge until Raizen stopped it. And once he did and the smoke cleared the girl would be seen, having taking only mild damage unto herself, but having used her entire Shikai to defend herself, she was left with a broken nodachi for her troubles. Soon enough she stood and sheathed what was left of it, which was only a tiny bit of blade and the handle dusting herself off. "You broke my sword." she said, knowing this match was decided, if she couldn't take this young Vice-Captain with her Shikai, she had no hope of taking him otherwise.

Raizen's blast connected without worry of going out of control, thanks mostly to the trio of barriers he put in place. When he landed in what was left of the arena, Raizen saw the emergence of Michi from the electrical explosion. He watched as she sheathed her broken nodachi, and once that was done, he placed his hands against his sides again. She thought to note the fact that he'd broken her sword with his attack, causing the white-haired male to chuckle. "So... dessert's on me, then?" was his response.

Michi seemed to think about it for a second. "I'm not into sweets. But whatever makes you feel better..." said the young woman. She looked to the announcer and gave a nod. "And that's it folks, the winner of this round is Kumori Raizen!~" and with that this particular round was finished. It would take a little time for the crew to come in and repair the arena floor, but soon enough that would be done, and a new battle would be taking place. The announcer stood at the ready, announcing a different kind of battle.

"The next round will be a face off between the new Vice-Captain of the 12th Division, Tatsuya and the Ninth Division's more veteran Vice-Captain, Minami Setsuko!" she said announcing the next two fighters with the same amount of gusto she'd managed to show through the entire first rounds.

Later that day, one of two combatants standing within the new combat ring was another white-haired individual. The young male worked his arms out of over-sized sleeves to reveal a black headband, which he proceeded to tie around his head. "Ohayou gozaimasu, Minami-fuku~" he said to his opponent while standing erect. This boy wore no Zanpakutou on his person; he seemed more geared toward Hakuda-based combat due to the long, padded, fingerless gloves he wore beneath the sleeves which normally covered his entire arms.

"Ohayou, Tatsuya-fukutaicho~ That title is like a week old or less yeah? But you were one of those Academy prodigies... I'm sure you're up to it~" said the Ninth Division's Vice-Captain. She was used to mobilizing at a single moment's notice. In fact, she tended to take everything at the absolute head on most method she could do it. In fact, as proof of this she was carrying her entire sheathed Zanpakuto in one hand as she approached. The pure white sheath with its white hilt and double pronged guard. "Alright you know the rules~ Fight!" this came from the announcer who soon disappeared. After Tatsuya's preparations were made the respectful Vice-Captain of the Ninth Division gave a bow, then drew her weapon. She had no intention of holding anything back here. "GAISU!~" she said causing her sword and sheath to transform into a large double edged scythe like knife which had a large handle wrapped in the white which was previously her sheath complete with blue runes and three large spikes at the handle. "Bakuzan!" and just like that the young woman launched herself forward at tremendous speeds aiming to slash the young Vice-Captain across his fore from his left shoulder to his right hip in a single deft motion.

"Hai. About a week," the boy replied. He was prepared to begin this battle after waiting for so long, and it seemed his opponent was keen on starting the fight without the restrictions of a sealed Zanpakutou. When she approached with her released blade drawn, Tatsuya bent at the waist and twisted to his left before rising again, allowing him to curve around the swinging weapon. Once his posture was back to its natural standing state, his left arm softened and extended with the intention of coiling around and binding Setsuko from the bottom up. If he managed this, he would immediately follow with a discharge of electricity from his arm to inflict damage upon his opponent.

Setsuko's eyes widened at the blatant show of flexibility used by the youngest Vice-Captain. "Nani?!" the woman seemed to be legitimately surprised by what came next, which was the extension of Tatsuya's arm and the subsequent wrapping of it around her person. Restricting her movements in a fairly strange way she was soon shocked and stunned enough that she couldn't immediately move. She would be at the mercy of this technique for at least a few seconds, until she could build up the Reiatsu to overpower her muscles and force herself into movement again.

Tatsuya's arm continued its electrical surge on Setsuko, and he intended to continue having it do so until his victory was sealed. However, the female Vice-Captain proved strong enough to break free of his grasp, much to Tatsuya's dismay. His arm returned to its natural state and disappeared into the large sleeve which housed it when this occurred. His expression at the time was not quite related to the occurrence; instead, it looked as if he were receiving an answer to some question that hadn't been verbally asked. "You can do that? Sugoi. Why isn't she using it?"

"Who are you talking to?" asked the Vice-Captain of the Ninth Division. To be honest, she didn't know the young lad had that much reach on his abilities, given that it was already time to change tactics, before he could spring anything else upon her which might jeopardize her chance at winning. Still she wasn't willing to wait too long to find out the extra information, once she fully had all feeling back in her limbs she leaned forward, slamming the base end of her sword against the ground specifically in her own shadow. "Rengoku!" she stated. When she did this, and pulled her weapon back up, a set of chain links were attaching to each other as she pulled them out of her shadow. Eventually the chain was wrapping around her multiple times and once there were several cycles around her she began to spin her weapon around by the chain. "Alright again then," she said tossing the spinning weapon at high velocity towards Tatsuya as if she intended to pierce his chest with it, her fingers splayed along the chain that she might shift the direction of the weapon at a moment's notice.

"Bakuzan," was Tatsuya's single answer to the woman's question. Setsuko went on to make use of her Shikai's special ability, causing Tatsuya to grin. "There it is!" he said. As the sword came his way, Tatsuya raised his right arm. Six white snakes suddenly emerged from his sleeve, boasting greater size than the norm as they extended forward. Three of these snakes bared their fangs to bite Setsuko's sword and stop its progress toward their master, as well as any ability to immediately retract it without significant effort. The other three continued stretching toward the woman herself. When their mouths opened, double edged jian-style blades emerged, coated in a poisonous substance and threatening to pierce Setsuko's left shoulder, right shoulder, and left side simultaneously.

"Bakuzan? You're talking to my Zanpakuto?" Setsuko seemed stunned. Such a thing seemed to be well outside the realm of normal possibilities. Surely the lad was kidding, it wasn't actually possible for him to speak with another person's Zanpakuto. Beyond this her weapon was stopped by a strange usage of snakes, which seemed to come out of nowhere, causing the young woman's eyes to widen quite a bit. Three of them seemed content just to stop her weapon's progress and keep the young woman from retracting her blade, while the others seemed content to try and injure her at various points on her body. Unlike most, this didn't seem to worry the young woman at all, with the special ability of her Zanpakuto active, she could easily defend herself from the coming poisonous blades. Her left and right shoulders, as well as her left side, were all protected at the last moment by the lengthening mass of chains which wrapped around to entangle blades and stop them from further encroaching upon her person. "Alright... you're going to have to explain... I'm so confused," she said having seemingly reached a stalemate.

"Hai," he said. The snakes Tatsuya produced continued to grip Setsuko's blade, but the remaining three seemed to have been stopped by the shadow chain she had around her. A slight twitch occurred in the boy's arm, as if he were adding his own strength to all of the serpents in attempts to push harder using them. During this time, a discussion between the two competitors would apparently begin. "Explain what? Why are you confused?"

"Okay, don't know if you know this... but it's really unusual for someone to say they are talking to someone else's Zanpakuto. They talk to each other from time to time, but usually not their wielders," the young woman said. It would be more than obvious by this young woman's speech that she had no understanding at all for the kind of being Tatsuya was. In fact, she was very straight forward in her way, so she didn't even stop to think that something might be wrong here. Soon enough though, the young man flexed seeming to add strength to the push against her chains, but she could do that as well, her reiatsu glowing around herself and reinforcing the chains so that they would not give to physical strength alone. She also took the opportunity to apply a firm yank backwards in order to try and pull her blade free.