Shinigami Tournament of Power Stadium

[Bloodedge]

When the announcer declared the beginning of battle and vanished, neither opponent made any immediate moves. Silence fell upon the arena, and a gentle wind blew. After a matter of seconds, Raizen broke the silence with his words. "You waited through the other two fights, choosing to face me. Interesting. What is it you wish to learn?" he asked. One would note that during this stand-off, Raizen's Reiatsu seemed to decrease drastically. By the time it stopped doing so, it seemed a far cry from that which would be expected of a Vice-Captain, instead seeming to belong to any run-of-the-mill seated officer. "Could it be that you're curious to know why someone else in this tournament refrains from using their Shikai? Iie... that could be a reason, but it's far from reason enough to choose this fight. Go on, then. I'm curious too."

[Apollymi]

Benihime stood still that hand still hovering over her blade, and much like she'd noticed prior to this moment, the amount of Reiatsu this man seemed to have, adjusted quite a bit before the start of their battle. 'Oh, that's really interesting~' she thought enjoying this, but it seemed that Kumori Raizen was quite clever beyond what most would have as their expectations. Her eyes widened just a tad at the mention of her hidden Shikai, but she'd already figured out that her Zanpakuto looked far too unique for most not to think she possessed a Shikai. "That, is an intense amount of power suppression, I wonder how and why, you do that?" she questioned of what he'd done, she still hadn't moved though the breeze around her shifted crimson locks around her face, showing the scar across her left eye. His questions were very valid ones, and quite spot on, as such she decided to answer him. "I think we're a bit similar, Kumori-fukutaichou. If I was trying to win one, just to make a point, I would have faced off against the 11th Division's Vice-Captain, I could have pulled a win against her." she said in a rather matter of fact way. "I didn't want to face, the 6th Division's Vice-Captain, because he only sees the end of things. If I have to lose, I should get something out of it. At this point, he ends things so quickly no one knows what's going on... well, mostly anyways. And yes I realize the 6th Division's Vice-Captain hasn't fought today yet, but... given what he's done, I don't see the girl from the Ninth Division actually topping that one~" she said of her two other options for potential opponents.

She was quite sure, that her reasoning was becoming clear, if it wasn't already. He was the most similar to her, so she was most likely to learn something from him in a fight, even if she didn't win. Beyond this, their potential likeness spawned a bit of curiosity in her and this was an easy way to sate that. She couldn't help but close her left hand around the hilt of her blade, preparing for battle properly. "And normally I'd be curious about why you don't use your Zanpakuto, but there could be a few of reasons for that. You could be used to fighting without its abilities, and find it hindering in some way," she said. "It could be impossible to use properly within the parameters of this tournament, trying not to kill with certain things can be unnecessarily challenging~" she theorized. "Or... you don't want anyone to figure out what it does yet," she finished with a cheeky smile. "I respect all of those reasons... or whatever other reason you might have, should you feel inclined to share it~" her Reiatsu flared momentarily as she finally drew the ebony blade at her side straight up into the air where it gleamed in the sun, allowing it a half second spin before her hand closed fully around the hilt in a backward grip and she aimed to appear at the man's left side within a second swinging the blade upward in a quick fashion in the space created by his hand resting on the hilt of his blade, as if her intent was to cut his arm clean off at the shoulder.

[Bloodedge]

"Sou ka. You can sense it," he observed. He recalled a particular amount of skill by way of Kidou when this one was present for his special class in the academy, but the ability to quickly determine the recession of his Reiatsu was a different matter entirely. Benihime went on to explain why she chose this fight above the others, even going so far as to draw conclusions about the battle that had yet to occur. "A seeker of knowledge, then. I had you figured for a scholar of sorts," he said, shifting his gaze to the redhead's lower left side as her hand gripped the hilt of her weapon. "You didn't have that scar on your face last time, and you have a much better look in your eye now. Because of that, I'm willing to wager we're even more alike than you think." Benihime also shared her thoughts on why Raizen may have been concealing his Shikai, but mentioned nothing about her own not being revealed. Of course, the way she spoke gave Raizen some insight as to her own reason nonetheless. "Those..." he said during the young woman's movement to his left side. When she appeared there, Raizen would already be looking over his shoulder in her direction. A flick of his left wrist moved his hand in a way that allowed him to tap the side of her blade as it rose, shifting it off its path enough that it would fall shy of cutting him. While this occurred, he continued speaking. "... are a lot of reasons for you to hide that Shikai of yours. If you find your Shikai to be a hindrance, you are insecure about your own natural abilities. If you believe you cannot utilize it with restraint, then you must have a habit of holding yourself back due to the final reason... You don't want anyone to figure out its abilities because even you are in awe of its power."

[Apollymi]

"Yes," the young woman seemed a tad apprehensive in this moment. It was rather strange for her to be making observations about a person while they were also making observations about her, the entirety of this experience was a bit surreal to be honest. "Scholar? Hmm, can't say I've ever heard that before..." she said of this apparent descriptor as a seeker of knowledge which she obviously couldn't deny. She did like knowing things, and figured the knowledge possessed by Raizen could be used by someone like her. Beyond this it seemed he'd noticed the physical changes to her appearance despite only seeing her a total of twice before this. When he mentioned that she had a better look in her eye now, and that they were similar because of it. Her right brow rose, in question of this statement. "I can't say I know what you mean by that..." Benihime said genuinely. It was a strange thing to say and she had no idea what it meant, but something about it made her heart skip a beat. 'What the hell was that?' she thought distractedly before continuing on with her attack only to be further surprised as Raizen's eyes met her own giving her more than reasonable idea of the base amount of speed he possessed. Her sword strike was me with his bare hand shifting it out of the way of himself before assigning her potential reasoning to her with a rather astute bit of accuracy.

She couldn't hide the surprise in her widened eyes as the man completed his clause and deflected her incoming attack. After the moment of shock wore off the young woman withdrew standing back several meters and tossing her blade back and forth between her right and left hands a smirk replacing her previous shock. "Alright, ya' got me. I didn't expect that," she said seeming to gather herself back to the face she normally wore. "Those reasons are very easily applied to me, though I didn't expect such an instant application. Obviously, I've been missing out on clever conversation~" she chimed. It was obvious that Raizen was perfectly capable of keeping up with her, she knew he had an advantage in kidou, and he was probably a bit better in all other skills too. Their match was one which was definitely not weighted in her own favor, but... something about that was exciting for her, for the first time... in a long time, it was obvious to her she couldn't win.

[Bloodedge]

"Don't you?" he questioned further, choosing to focus on the mentioned similarities between the two, and his own assertion of the expression Benihime held now compared to her earlier self. Her latter clause would not be met with any form of retort. While Raizen made the decision that he should be at least a little active during this chat, he also chose to clarify his meaning from earlier. "Your eyes say you're alone," he said. In that moment, the image of Raizen where he stood flickered and faded, as Raizen himself sprung forward at an incredible speed with his gloved right hand open and reaching out for the redhead's face. With this, he intended to grip her by the face and drag her through the air, covering only her left eye as to look into her right eye during the movement. "The only place you can call home now is your inner world, and even that gets lonely. You keep trying to fill the void inside yourself, but you don't even know where to start looking. That's what I see when I look at you now," he said. With that out of the way, and if his grip connected and remained, he would push his arm forward in an effort to launch Benihime the rest of the way across the stadium.

[Apollymi]

Benihime found this conversation to be a bit beyond what she expected. Battle banter wasn't usually so distressing. In fact, this man rather accurately put together the young woman's mental state, and the general state of her being without seeming to need much effort to do so. The statement that her eyes said she was alone made them widen, and for multiple reasons as the man's visage flickered out of existence. 'Shit!' her eyes immediately moved, trying to figure out where he'd gone, but before she could process the answer to this Raizen was already before her gripping her by the face and moving her body through the air as he did so. While looking her in her right eye the man went on to explain what he meant by his statement, if she had any immediate thought to retaliate her body wouldn't allow it. In fact, what Raizen had said in these moments was the most perfect description of her feelings since the day her entire family was slaughtered that she could have ever imagined existing.

"Sou ka..." there was an intense amount of understanding in this young woman in this moment. Because she realized in order for him to understand that much, he had to know what it was like, to lose everything that could have mattered. She realized that this point he must have been an orphan too. So, similar to his own logic she figured they were much more alike in the way they understood the world now, than the normal person would ever understand. She didn't get much of a chance to express this though, as she was soon launched off of him in the opposing direction. A small smile coming to her face as she was quite relieved that someone else understood without her having to try and explain it. As she flew backwards she found it in her body to right herself before she would have crashed into the side of the stadium, meeting it instead with both of her feet and bending her knees to absorb the impact which was still jarring enough. She kept a tight grip on the sword in her right hand and took a deep breath, if she was going to try anything it would have to be in a single moment of perfect timing, which would require her to find it.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai. It takes strength to wear that face every day." After launching Benihime toward the wall, Raizen continued gliding forward at a slowing pace, slipping his hands into the pockets of his specially-designed hakama. He vanished while moving, employing Shunpo to carry himself around to Benihime's left side when she stopped herself. He whipped his own body around counterclockwise a single time, ending with his right leg stretching outward to kick the redhead back toward the ring floor at a downward angle. "So then... what does this Zanpakutou of yours do?" he asked. Benihime may have begun using her sealed blade, but Raizen's curiosity was toward the power hidden within the weapon. "Surely you've come up with some way to use it without exposing all of its secrets by now."

[Apollymi]

She couldn't argue with Raizen's initial statement. It took most of what she had to keep moving feeling the way she did most of the time. Even so, it was a tiny bit comforting to know someone else knew this struggle was like. Moving right along, by the time she'd recovered the strength necessary to move her legs, she'd already lost sight of the Vice-Captain once more. This wasn't really something she was used to at all, and it made her close her eyes and take a deep breath, taking a page from the Fourth Seat of the 11th Division and not looking for him, and instead relying solely on her own instinct to shift her person left to lessen the impact of the kick which would send her flying back towards the center of the ring as she blocked with both her arms behind her sword.

Even so the momentum of his turn caused her to fly back and downwards near the center of the arena, but given her ability to block she managed to catch herself flipping off her right hand as she brought both feet to the floor. "Kumori-fukutaichou, I didn't expect you to be so curious~" she mentioned as she reversed her grip on her blade in her left hand. Her right hand curved around the outer edge of the blade as if she meant to hide it. "Of course I have figured it out now. Not like I had anything better to do in the last week, and it will get Ayatsuki-taichou to leave me alone. So, I'll show you~" her own Reiatsu flared at this moment as she drug it across her blade with her hand shadowing the whole thing. "Tenchikaimei..." as the action was completed the blade grew by several inches and seemed to hollow out. Its hilt turning the crimson of her Reiatsu as it gained a dark purplish black energy about it. And if one was truly observant they'd notice the smallest of shifts in the young woman's own shadow, like a single second of expansion before it settled. "Yakouboku~" as she was finished she leaped forward towards, Raizen her sword moving upward in a slashing motion from his right hip towards his left shoulder. But at the last possible moment, she utilized a Shunpo would would lead her to his rear, switching her own stance so that she was instead plunging the blade forward with both hands on the hilt, as if she intended to bury it within the left side of his lower back and have it emerge just below his ribs. One would find, even if this maneuver was blocked somehow that the blade itself would still be trying to move forward, like it was trying to disintegrate that which it made contact with by no force or exertion of Benihime's own will.

[Bloodedge]

"What a coincidence; I didn't expect to become so curious," he replied. Even with her defense being prepared in time, Raizen managed to launch Benihime toward the ring once more. Afterwards, he followed suit. The next act of Benihime was the highly-anticipated release of her Shikai. Raizen stopped in his tracks to view the unveiling of Benihime's Zanpakutou, and he found its appearance to be just as intriguing as he'd hoped. Though most were likely to miss a few notable things about this release, Raizen grinned as he came to realize something about this weapon. "Hoh? That's interesting," he commented. Immediately following this release, Benihime launched herself at him. Raizen's left hand emerged from his pocket to draw his own katana with a backwards grip, but it seemed her initial slash was not to be regardless of her approach. 'Ah... of course,' he thought. Without bothering to follow Benihime's movements, Raizen then turned 180 degrees, resulting in him facing Benihime just as she emerged from her Shunpo. With his eyes on her sword, he dragged his own across his torso with its tip pointing down, clashing it against Benihime's and continuing his turn ever so slightly so his body slipped between Benihime and her outstretched weapon. At this time, he came to another realization. "I have to admit, I'm surprised. You don't actually control the darkness at all, do you?"

[Apollymi]

The Vice-Captain of the 10th Division seemed to have a funny reply to the idea that he had become curious. A small giggle escaped the young woman, "Kukukuku~" in response to his statement. Raizen also seemed content enough to watch the release of her sword without doing anything to stop her from taking the action. Her attack launched, she even managed not to be terribly surprised when he was soon enough found facing her even though she'd moved behind him. "Ya' know, I am really not used to people being faster than me. It's kinda shocking~" she said though she generally expected Captains and the like to have obvious advantages over her, but, for someone who'd graduated a mere year before her, it was a bit outlandish to say the least. Beyond this, the young Vice-Captain, even managed to completely figure out the nature of her Zanpakuto, without her having to explain it in anyway, the girl's eyes widened just a bit. "Kumori-fukutaichou, you're outrageously clever~" the young woman stated in appreciation of him as a person, before going on to confirm that which he'd already figured out, not even bothering to ask for his confidence in this matter figuring they were enough alike that he wouldn't spill the beans on her. "Iie, I don't control the darkness. But that makes sense when you think about it, people aren't scared of the dark, they're afraid of what's in the dark~" she said, having their swords meet was an interesting shift of two colors which seemed to be distinctly contradictory, even so with Raizen standing so close by, she'd be crazy not to keep up her offensive. As such she drew her blade back and moved into a slashing motion as if she intended to leave a deep cut across his chest drawing her blade downward once more from his right shoulder to his left hip, the shadows on her blade seeming to dance around as this happened teeming with energy which wanted to disintegrate what it made contact with. Though even more accurately than that, they were hungry and wanted to eat.