[5th/13th] Week 98: Ayuni vs. Roy, Masked date [Plot-related]

[YanLan]

~Masked Date~

Word Count - 8410

*Plot*
Note: The time setting for this is placed after the collab with Tero and Panda when Roy decides to take the long route home.

Takami Ayuni – YanLan
Kindred

A contemplative look came over her face, she compressing down her reiatsu level to fit in the others. She was among the shinigamis dressed in white, yet her clothes were of a little different from them all, a faint blue silk piece wrapped around her waist just below the tummy and laces at her the ends of her gi.

In one look they should know that she could not be one of them. However, the squad of Sine Qua Non members were rushing to the division of thirteen and Takami Ayuni trusted them, they not noticing her among them due to her blurring of figure because of her speed. She was able to camouflage into the surroundings but should not have followed them as the head of the squad was confused with the direction within the Seireitei, among the mazes that served to confuse him about which directions to take.

Ayuni might have laughed at the leader’s incompetence but her motive was to find Catherine and signature having disappeared only served to worry her. Now, Ayuni would not have admitted but with her time of isolation at an unknown village in Western Rukongai, she had changed.

No longer was she sarcastic, she was now sincere in her words and actions. With the complete disappearance of Reza’s reiatsu signature, she also knew in her gut that he might have died. And so apart from finding Catherine, she would also want to find him – Teshino Reza.

Ayuni did not know he was dead already.

‘Hmm… now there’s someone strong up in my direction… will you feel it, Incompetent-san?’ She thought, smirking at the corner of her lips with the numerous wrong turns he took with the squad following him. She had not been in Seireitei for long so she did not know how it had changed due to her knowledge that it had changed but not how.

But thinking about finding a person strong enough to fight, just made her heart beat faster in anticipation. In her isolation, she never came to fight Gotei 13 shinigamis and so this would be a good chance to gauge her strength against them.

Roy walked the lone barren street of Seireitei, his mind wasn't really in one piece at the moment. After having walked for so long, the boredom had started to kick in and now the only thing he could do was stare off into space. For the past three hours he had been listening to the spirit of his soul slayer, Suroto, rant on and on in what seemed to be an endless tangent about Greek philosophers. It was so bad that Roy had debated throwing the sword into the bottom of a well out of annoyance just to spite the spirit for lack of bringing up an interesting topic. The only true thing that kept him from doing so was the fact that Suroto was essential to being able to use shikai.

'I still don't know the distance I can be away from Suroto and still be able to release shikai. It's true that my soul slayer dematerializes and becomes one with my reiatsu, but I doubt it'll be as instantaneous at a certain range.' His eyes wandered off some more, lingering here and there to observe his surroundings precariously. 'Man.. I haven't found a fight in a while. If I don't get any training come my way any time soon I might have to go out and find an opponent to sharpen my skills.'
Something then caught his attention out of the blue. At first he didn't know what it was, but it had made the hair on the back on his neck crawl and his body tense up as if to prepare itself for an expected blow. “What's this feeling all of a sudden? It's like someone...�

Roy stopped at his realization and then grinned while clenching his fist, “So you're not hiding your spiritual energy either. Good; I'll be waiting for you right here then.�

Continuing in their quest, Ayuni was already scolding the incompetent leader vulgarities under her breath. And she had enough of it already. I got to her nerves already too. As they neared closer to a huge group of shinigamis that she had felt their presence from afar of, the corner of her mouth leapt upwards. And she deliberately stopped suppressing her reiatsu, her green aura flaring outwards with the shadow of a mask appearing at daylight above her.

The Sine Qua Non members all looked at her disapprovingly, their faces that of anger. But before they could react, they found themselves unable to move and before they knew it, they heard laughter ringing near their ears. None of them could lift their head up and she left hurriedly, leaving scores of laughter at her wake.

Who knew what their fate may be, with a huge group of shinigamis finding out their presence due to Ayuni’s outburst of reiatsu? But what would shock the shinigamis AND the SQN members would be the sign of a hollow mask at the clear sky and the ringing of someone’s laughter near them and softening to nothingness next.

Takani Ayuni showed others of her presence without them knowing who she was.

And she smirked. So long, SQN, for the not so satisfying experience with you while roaming Seireitei, she thought. And she purposely kept her reiatsu pouring out as she ran the opposite direction as them. The strong reiatsu of the someone who intrigued her were not a part of the huge group of shinigamis that were going to go to the unfortunate squad of SQN but had stayed in one position, waiting for her to go to him.

Now, what would the excitement be if she were to let him lead the game? Let her pull him to her then.

With that thought in mind, she dashed towards the direction of the shinigami academy, having finally realised that the layout of the Divisions indeed had changed. And in a pattern of even numbers at one side and the odd numbers at the other side. She was now in the area of the even number Divisions, going to the odd numbers ones next. To find Teshino Reza still.

‘It would be utmost interesting to see how that shinigami will act.’ Ayuni grinned, hopping from one rooftop to the other easily.

Roy remained stationary with his eyes closed shut. The person's reiatsu that he had felt before had suddenly grown stronger, so strong that it became painfully obvious that he or she intended to be found. It was approaching him at a good, but not alarming pace. Opening his eyes slowly, he peered into the empty ruins of what used to be a well built street of Seireitei. “Looks like that person decided to drastically change directions. But the strength of the reiatsu isn't going down one bit. Is this guy trying to lure me in?�

He didn't like being baited, especially when it seemed like this could have been an obvious trap. There were other things that needed to be done, and yet there was this strange lure about this particular reiatsu. It made him hesitate in deciding to forget about the whole ordeal. “This person’s power, it's different from the others... I don't know what, but for some reason I feel that I should go check it out. Even if it's a detour, I'm doing this to fight someone strong. To become stronger...�

That made up the decision for him. Roy knew that this chance came ever so often, as such, he wasn't going to ignore the perfect opportunity to do battle with someone around his level when it presented itself. Making an about-face, he headed off in the direction that the reiatsu being given off. Running up the wall to his right, Roy leaped off of it onto the roof directly antipodal to it. His feet hit the shingles and he was off again almost instantaneously. 'Alright then, I'm taking the bait. Don't decide to ditch me on our little date when I decided to come for you.'

The series roofs seemed to blur together into a single unified road with the speed Roy had decided to chase his new target with. With the difference in each other's pace, he knew that he'd be able to catch up eventually. His blood began to get excited at the chance of battling once again. “Looks like I'm getting pretty anxious. Now I can't wait to see who my opponent is. I'm so fired up I don't care if he's a fellow officer at this point.�

His lips curled back into a sinister grin as he bore his fanged teeth to the moment. He eyed the area madly for any possible signs of an opponent before redirecting his attention to the direction the reiatsu was being given off. “We're going to have a fight.�

Moving at a speed that was deadly familiar to her whenever she had missions to slay hollows but was definitely faster than now, Ayuni sped to the destination of a forest within the Soul Society’s Court of Pure Soul. She knew the forest was part of the shinigami academy, to train the academy students of battling a hollow in real life situations.

And so the forest was one of any normal settings. However, hollows were easily lured to this clearing whenever there were traces of reiatsu lingering in the area. And now is no different at all.

She walked into the mouth of the forest, entering the clearing before stepping into the area of trees. True to what the forest was meant to do, dozens of hollows suddenly appeared before her, circling around her then. These hollows were newly formed ones and had not been existing for long. Ayuni knew that because she felt their raw and fresh hollowic powers, unlike those experienced hollows where their powers would be much older to be felt.

The vaizard smirked and pulled out her 3 feet long sword, slashing it with outstretched hands horizontally and spinning on the ground. When the hilt was pushed at the same time with her spinning motion, and another blade that extended from the sword touched the masks of those hollows, none of their painful cries were heard as they melted suddenly onto the ground, their traces of hollowic powers dissipating in the cold air.

She burst in shuynpo and lied down on the ground beside a tree in the forest. She closed her eyes and traces of her reiatsu decreased substantially, disappearing after a while. But she still could feel the reiatsu of her opponent coming towards her. He had taken the bait and would be coming to fight.

“I so can’t wait to start fighting!�

Roy stopped just short of the thicket of trees that comprised the forest. He became very cautious now that his target had decided to hide their power from him. There had been faint traces of other power signatures before he had arrived, but they had vanished in an instant as soon as the strong signature of his opponent had reach the vicinity of that area. Which only meant two things to Roy. Either the stronger signature destroyed the other fainter ones or the fainter ones are hiding in wait to help ambush him. Whether it was one or the other didn't matter to him however. For all Roy had to do was conceal his own reiatsu and make his energy signature invisible as well.

'So it's a game of stealth then. Where the first one to give away their position will get ambushed. Normally this would be my field of expertise if I had my equipment from back in the day. I guess the better way to handle this situation is to be patient and wait. But maybe that's what the enemy wants me to do. If the person I was chasing after was injured, then of course they would hide to recover the damage they've taken and the energy lost. Though I doubt that's the case considering how much energy was being flaunted around at the time. Even worse, I also have to factor in the possibility that this might be a fellow officer and he has other shinigami with him. If that was the case then the whole point of coming out here for a fight would be a waste of my time. Although I'd enjoy the chance to pummel someone's face in since I've been deprived for so long, I'd also rather not be court martial and executed for letting my passion get ahead of me.'

The situation had become a little irritating at the moment. There were so many possibilities that Roy had to take into account and it was beginning to make things even more complicated. He surveyed the area for a slight period of time before deciding to take refuge in a nearby tree. Once up there, Roy had a much better view of the entire place due to being at a higher point looking down.

'This may be a little risky if there are other lookouts doing what I'm doing, but at this height I should be able to spot anyone trying to lay down in a bunch of tall grass and such. My opponent just made it to this place, so I doubt he or she will have had enough time to create an elaborate hiding place.'

Feeling someone on top of her and standing on the tree near her, Ayuni smirked. She did not need to feel that person’s reiatsu to know if he was that person; it was just her instinct at work, anyways. The person whom she had been tracking of had his reiatsu decreasing as time went by as well, so there was the high chance of him being the one standing on the tree right now.

‘Is this simply coincidence? Now is the test.’ She thought in excitement and simply stood up slowly, not minding if the person had already spotted her. The fact that he was able to stand on top of a tree spoke volumes of his ability to move stealthily.

Ayuni whipped out her zanpakutou, swinging it towards the tree where the person was standing on. Her swinging motion was quick and furious. But what went faster was her body figure speeding up into the sky with the 3-feet sword pointing upwards while the tree was split into half by Ayuni’s cutting of the tree.

The vaizard had no intention to show her mask yet and so her shinigami powers was released fully, without her shikai or bankai though… just simply her.

The tree shook violently prior to it splitting into two halves. Roy's balance was maintained only because he had taken hold of a nearby branch to support him prior to this turn of events. Shifting his weight, he created an opportunity to jump from where he was to another tree. Flipping through the air, he looked down and took note of how many enemies were present. To his surprise there was just one and it was a female at that. Landing with both feet on the branch, he turned around and knelt into a crouch. “Be careful down there, you could have knocked me down.�

Roy wasn't going to go to the ground from his position, instead he stayed crouched looking down at the attractive female that harbored enough strength to split a tree into two. His excitement was still growing, but not as much as it would have been had his opponent not been a woman. Instead he waited for when the need to jump to yet another tree would arrive. 'From this height I can see her cleavage... Okay I gotta stop thinking perverted thoughts for now and concentrate. She's clearly a strong opponent and getting distracted by those two melons would be enough to do me in.'

“So I take it you're the one who's been running around flaunting your power. Never expected it to be someone like you though. All of the rogues I come across were all rogues, in fact this is the first time I've seen a female Sin Qua Non rogue in the ranks. You must be hella strong to keep those perverts from molesting you. Or maybe you're the type who likes molests them instead.�

He started his usually first step by patronizing the enemy into getting upset and wanting to attack him. It was a simple move that made things a lot easier for a speedy fighter like himself. All he had to do was keep on moving until the enemy tired out from exerting massive amounts of energy just to keep up. “Sorry lady, but I'm not that kind of guy if you know what I mean. Being dominated by a woman just seems rather strange and I don't prefer bending over for nobody.�

Ayuni kicked off another tree before she flipped up into the air. Under her white hakama, pools of whirlwind could be seen supporting her feet and when she landed beside Roy, she looked at him from sideways.

“If you think you can agitate me by being this pervasive… I’ll say you are stupid. Not all girls like pervasive guys, ya know?� She spoke, rolling the eyes at the same time. “And you’ve admitted to me that I am stronger than ya, because you have been ‘dominated by a woman’ who is me.� Ayuni retorted, using his own words against him. It did not matter if she had taken things out of context.

He was obviously trying to force her to take her first step in attacking him and trying to waste her stamina just by keeping up his speed? Then he must be good in Hohou then, Ayuni analysed, all her years of battle experience helping her in analysing Roy’s battle strength. She’s met someone as good as Roy, or even better. The strength of his reiatsu told her so.

Keeping a calm and rational mind against this type of fighter would be an advantage.

“You wanna fight?� She asked, her cleavage showing through the opening of her gi as she bent forward to reach out for Roy. “I do not have all the time in the world, ya know?�

Roy's checks blushed as he moved a little away from the seductive female. “Are you sure you can keep up with me? I'm not exactly that easy to hold down. Especially when it's someone who's already thinking of doing weird things.�

He leaned back and fell down towards the ground. Twisting his body, Roy flipped around to land on his two feet with little to any trouble at all. “If you really want me, then you're going to have to work hard to get me. But judging from you attitude towards this, you seem to be the type that likes it rough.�

Tapping his right foot on the ground for a bit, Roy then entered a fighting pose. His arms were bent and held close to his body as he jumped up and down on the balls of his feet to keep up on his toes. Even though he wore a sword on his back, he didn't make any intention of unsheathing it. “I'm ready whenever you are. Don't worry, I don't intend to use a weapon against an attractive woman such as you. Since you and I are here for a little fun, there's no point in cutting each other up and ruining our fighting potential. Of course I doubt you'll see it this way, but that's fine with me as well.�

“Come at me whenever you're ready.� He beckoned her with his right hand as he continued to somewhat hop up and down.

�Chey.� Ayuni frowned and pouted, turning around to fan herself on top of the tree as the male shinigami landed on the ground with little trouble. “I am right!� She exclaimed to herself. “And I hate to go around chasing my opponent.� She mumbled.

Roy was on the ground below Ayuni while the latter was still on a tree. She did not move to react anyhow yet the air in the forest gradually came to a standstill, the winds getting weaker and weaker as they blew. Ayuni knew that by hopping up and down, he would be prepared to dodge whatever projectiles or attacks she would inflict on him. But could he avoid any Hadou spells targeting a huge area? She would find out.

Ayuni stood up from the branch, hands on the bark of the tree; she looked down coldly, the previous animated expressions on her face gone to be replaced by one void of emotions – her usual serious ice blue eyes.

“I am ready. Hadou number 57, Reaving Wind!� Ayuni roared, kicking off from the branch, speeding downwards with her legs facing the ground. When she spoke the incantation of the Hadou spell, the winds in the forest blew so strongly that even the skin at her cheeks were flipping in the wind.

With the release of this spell, even more ferocious winds blew towards Roy and then circled him. He was trapped while the winds changed into a colour of red. Could he possibly evade this spell altogether?

Roy quickly disappeared behind yet another tree as the spell was cast. Without him in vision the kidou would have a harder time following him. He however knew better than to just stand around and wait for something to happen. When he fought against a shinigami from the second division, that person used a spell that attacked him from below. To escape such a possible similar fate, he ran up the side of the tree and jumped off of it to another and then another. For some reason the red spirals of wind began to follow after him. Then a section of the tree he was on was suddenly blown apart by what he could only describe as a red sickle of wind.

'So it's that kind of kidou.' Roy thought to himself as he quickly maneuvered himself to next tree. He moved about, jumping from here to there as he escaped the streaks of wind that chased after him. One of the sickles of wind managed to get ahead of him, but Roy just twisted his body and flipped backwards so that the compacted element would barely miss him as it soared above him. Landing on the ground, he swiftly spun around yet another thick tree, seeking refuge against the few sickles that had followed him. 'These things are starting to become a pain to dodge. From the looks of it, it's a single body of wind that's sending out compacted attacks to strike at me. That's good, cause all I have to do then is destroy the main body and it'll disrupt the attacks.'

Looks like I'm going to be using double cast for the rest of this battle. Yukiko, being in your division sure has turned out to be a life saver. The trunk of the tree took on the brunt of yet a few more sickles as Roy knelt down and picked up two rock. Charging energy into his fingertips, he then displaced the small portion into the two stone that he held in each palm. “Divine fire, judge the unworthy. By your hand their fate is decided. Bakudou #15, Time Bomb.�

Leaving the sanctuary of the safe haven presented by the tree, Roy rushed out into the open towards the red body of wind. Yet another streak emerged from the wind, but he was already anticipating the attack. Diving forwards he threw the first pebble into the center of the body and snapped his fingers as he dived under the sickle. The explosion that followed was on a grand scale that not only destroyed the mass of wind, but set some of the tree tops on fire as well. 'Now that these things been taken care I should concentrate on fighting that rogue.'

‘Quick. Decisive. Kidou usage. Let him unable to move then.’ Ayuni contemplated, watching as Roy barely evaded the many wind attacks by her Reaving Wind.

Seeing the forest on fire, Ayuni felt just so pitiful for the innocent plants. She thought she should act quickly though before he could ever shuynpo out of his current position. She smirked. “Bakudou number 37, Yusuru.�

An invisible wave of concentrated energy wiped across the ground under Roy with the activation of her Yusuru spell, creating a field of electromagnetic energy under his legs. Simultaneously, she shot back from the ground, stretching one palm out with the thumb, index and middle finger pointing up and the remaining fingers closed while the other hand stayed by her waist. Her expertise in Kidou allowed her to throw out two spells consecutively.

“Hadou number 39. Wind Master!� Ayuni’s eyes grew serious and four streams of wind rushed in on her from four directions (North, South, East, West), encircling her. And once she saw Roy unable to move from the effects of Yusuru, Ayuni declared her target. As a result, the winds encircling her shot upwards in an arc, crushing down onto the form of Roy in a single surge of compressed air…

Roy's legs started to feel strangely tinglingly under the effects of the electromagnetic energy. It wasn't that he couldn't move, but it felt as if he was being slightly weighted down. 'She must have caught me in a kidou when I was busy fighting that creation of wind earlier. From the looks of it, I'd say some kind of bakudou that binds me and restricts movement. Good, I'll let this work against her. Since I still have one more bomb already charged to the max, I'll just wait for her to show herself and attack. When she does that, I'll surprise her by attacking first.'

“Hadou number 39. Wind Master!�

'Gotcha!' Roy thought to himself before he threw the stone in his left hand at Ayuni as the four winds began to gather. As a side effect to having rushing winds being pulled towards the user, the winds create a minor vacuum that pulls minor objects towards them as well. A stone just so happened to be a minor object, but Roy had no clue about any of that. All he knew was that Ayuni was getting ready to cast yet another kidou and that would mean that she was open. The stone was picked up by currents and drawn within close proximity of her.

At that point in time Roy snapped his fingers and released the explosion to not only disrupt the kidou, but to also damage Ayuni in one strategical attack. A thick blanket of black smoke from the blast covered the ten feet area between both Roy and Ayuni, deterring any vision to actually estimate the amount of damage he had caused. He moved his leg up and down to check how well they could actually function from the effects of the kidou casted on him. 'Good, it seems that the spell is wearing off in general. I better shunpo and get some distance.'

Roy gather energy into his legs to allow him to perform the instant step technique, but when he actually tried to displace it for the extra boost in speed nothing had happened. Rather than sticking around in the same place to try to find out why, he simply took a jump back to the right so that he could be out of range for any other random kidou his adversary might have decided to throw at him.

'Hmm... That's what she was doing. Since I'm already so much faster than her, she opted use this binding kidou to stop me from manipulating my energy for shunpo. That's very dangerous for me, I can already tell by trying to use shunpo for the first time in this battle that somethings wrapped around the reiatsu near my legs. Which would explain the weird tingling sensation. I need to be more careful around her, there's no telling what other kind of spells she has in store for me.'

Landing softly on the grounds, he ducked down once more and picked up a handful of pebbles for each hand. 'After seeing me use that bomb on her, she'll probably be on guard for the same move twice. That's good cause then I can fake her out and trick her into making a move for an opening. Her energy has been decreasing throughout this battle more than mine. Fortunately I'm specialized in using bakudou kidou, so the energy drain on me isn't that bad. Not to mention double cast lets me use two of the same type of kidou for the price of one. Which means I've only used a small fraction of my energy as opposed to her. I'm rather sure that she couldn't evade that blast either, so she had to have used her reiatsu to take the attack head on.'

He stayed low to the ground as he took a few steps to the right. His eyes remained fastened on the place where Ayuni had been when the explosion had gone off. Eventually he eased his way to yet another tree and took refuge behind it. Once hidden, Roy checked himself for any possible signs of damage. After concluding that there was very little to none, he began to message his legs to try and get them to relax a little. 'Which means she might have to release her shikai or even bankai soon. In that case I'll make sure to release my own when the time comes. But for now I need to keep silent and continue to hide my presence until I can get the jump on her.'

Ayuni sighed. She knew this would happen. But if he thought she would be tired out after using two kidou spells in consecutive fashion, he was wrong. Other than feeling the light headedness of the effects, her energy level is fine. She still could fight him for hours if he so wished. However, a nagging feeling told her to throw off this battle and just go to find Teshino Reza and get out of Seireitei fast. With the current headache the Court of Pure Souls was having, the presence of a vaizard in their midst would just make them angrier and she might be forced to fight a horde of shinigamis right at her.

However, when Roy’s counter attack caused a strategic blast to injure her, Ayuni’s instinct came into foreplay. An explosion occurred right beside her and she merely raised one eyebrow. In fact, though, her second nature was the one who did so.

So… Ayuni-chan! I need to protect you… You are to me as precious as a diamond stone is… A high-pitched voice strung out from inside her eardrums, the brain feeling the intent of killing coming to her rather strongly.

“No.� Ayuni retorted emotionlessly, willing the intent of killing to just bypass her brain as per normal. She had trained enough to be able to control the hollow within her and still be sane at the same time. But she also knew the ego of this hollow, surpassing that of Voldemort’s even. “I will fight alongside you and borrow your power.�

Ayuni ordered inwardly and she smirked, a mask slowly falling onto her face and healing the various cuts suffered from the explosion. While a thick blanket of smoke covered the area between herself and Roy, the mask became whole gradually. When it had fully grown, Ayuni’s skin was smooth again, not riddled with scars or cuts but shining in the dim forest light too. When the smoke cleared, the mask was gone but obviously a sudden change had occurred to her as her skin was paler than before, yet smoother and even shining in the forest too.

“Simple Bakudou cannot stop you, isn’t it, boy?� Ayuni spoke, not in a voice of her own but that of a deep resounding tone. She could not see him anywhere at all. “So you have hidden yourself eh?� She asked herself in a whisper.

Nonetheless, Ayuni closed her eyes, willing herself to find the Reiraku of her shinigami opponent. When she saw one of a crimson red hiding behind a tree, Ayuni grinned.

‘You hid well.’ She could use another simple spell to lure him out. He must be trying to force her to take her first move, if not he would not have hidden himself. Ayuni grinned once more. “Bakudou number 21, Clay.� She spoke softly, not letting her opponent hear her at all.

She moved forward.

The ground below Roy quickly became soft and muddy, easing up his lower body with little warning. Once again another surprise had taken him and it was starting to become increasingly tedious not to ration his energy. 'Not another stupid bakudo spell, this one seems to be more problematic than the first. Even with my strength it seems impossible to pull myself out. I didn't want to resort to spending too much of my energy for kidou, but it looks like I have no choice unless I want to become a sitting duck.'

Extending his hand on top of the growing clay, Roy concentrate a larger portion of energy and displaced it into the clay created by Ayuni's kidou. He forced his energy to spread throughout the clay and to overwhelm the energies of the spell by colliding his own against it. “The captured begs for freedom, selling their souls for a chance to escape. The cornered man forcing his last hand. Bougyoudo #28, Banshiissei.�

With the bakudou dispelled the clay became loose and feel back to the ground as dirt once more. Allowing him the freedom of movement once more. Taking a few steps forward, he went around the tree to confront Ayuni face to face. “It looks like you're too skilled to be hiding from. Let's cut to the chase and take it up to the next level.�

A grayish silver reiatsu emerged from his body, bringing with it all the power he had held back and a strong downward spiritual pressure that showed his true strength. The nature of the strange reiatsu made Roy's hair turn into a similar steely silver coloration as it seemingly flowed upwards from his feet to his head. “Yurei; Suroto�

The final two words made his soul slayer vanish into thin air as the reiatsu became even stronger, causing Roy's hair to spike up and his eyes to become a crimson hue for a few seconds. After the power up came to a relaxed state of equilibrium, he eyed Ayuni while his spiky hair moved up and down in a wavy motion, almost to attribute life to it. “I didn't ask earlier before, but I'm curious about the name of my opponent. Before we continue any further, I wanted to at least get introductions between you and myself over with. My name is Roy Karosiji, but some of the people who know me call me by my nickname; the Fuujin of Ryukyu.�

“You may or may not remember my name. But my name is Takani Ayuni, Roy. Remember it. And I take that you are from Division Five? That explains your strength in Kidou.� Ayuni spoke calmly, her eyes training on his newly formed zanpakutou. A two-handed Japanese katana? Interesting.

And apart from the interesting weapon, Roy was surrounded by a silver cloak, letting her unable to predict what that cloak was without testing it out

‘Time is running out.’ Ayuni thought, looking up at the sky. ‘I definitely do not wish to waste time here. She frowned.

Seeing her Clay being taken out by the male shinigami though, allowed her to spark a fire from within her soul – the fire to fight. And she narrowed the eyes, turning from a greenish hue to one of silver. At the same time, she spoke, “Melt down the ones before us, Voldemort.�

With the mention of her soul slayer’s name, she flipped her 3 foot blade to hold it in its centre that became covered with black pieces of cloth, the hilt of the unsealed zanpakutou revealing its hidden blade. Finally her blade’s released state was revealed. It was a two sided weapon with pieces of black cloth wrapped around her arms and the middle of the blade and blades at either end. By looking carefully, one would be able to see droplets of green liquid scattered over one end of the blade that was previously non-existent.

Without speaking another word after her Shikai incantation, Ayuni slashed in a battousai-style that end of the blade with droplets of liquid, her right feet stepped forward and body gravity lowered with her back bent down, sending the droplets of green liquid at Roy at a wide spectrum of target area.

In the meantime, a large sphere of water formed over her head with her chanting of a spell. “Hadou number 67, Flash Freeze.�

'What the hell is that stuff? It's looks like green goop or something, but I don't want to take the chance of getting hit by it. From what she's been doing throughout this battle, that green stuff might just be the precursor to some kind of binding attack that I'm not aware of. Best keep my distance until I can figure out what's what.'

Jumping back far enough so that he was just out of range of the spray of green liquid, Roy noticed an elephantine ball of water forming over Ayuni's head. 'I have no idea what she's planning, but that thing really doesn't look welcoming at all. And I have a pretty good guess is that she intends to use that huge thing on me. Well if that's the case, then I better get out of the way as fast as possible.'

Once the moisture in the surroundings had been gathered into that one place in the middle of the air, the ball of water just dropped down like a horribly over sized rain droplet. Upon impact with the ground, a vast and gigantic wave of water emerged forth towards Roy. 'Shimmata! Got to get up as quick as possible! My body is going to get slammed into a lot of trees if that thing manages to get a hold of me.'

As soon as his feet touched the ground from when he initially jumped back away from the spray of liquid, Roy jolted back a series of times to gain a bit of distance before gathering energy into his feet and launching himself straight up next to a tree. Grabbing hold of a branch, he swung up onto it and jumped up once more to the very top of the tree to hold onto so that he wouldn't be submerged in the great tidal wave. The rushing waters hit the trees and enveloped the smaller ones as it rushed through the forest. Roy hugged the tree and raised his feet up a little more as the wave went by and the water was just a few inches from touching his bottom.

In the aftermath of the devastating kidou, the muddied ground and anything else soaked in the torrents of water began to slowly freeze over. Everything underneath Roy was covered in a heavy layer of ice, making it look like quite the winter wonderland. 'Is it just me or did the temperature just drop a few ten degrees? That technique is absurdly powerful. I'm lucky I wasn't in the midst of that attack. I'd probably would have been a rag doll or at least helpless to defend myself. Only problem now is getting down without slipping and landing flat on my butt. That'd be something to “strike terror� into my opponent, the graceful and agile Fuujin getting up with a sore rump for the rest of the fight. Hopefully that doesn't happen...'

“Well here goes nothing.� Roy said as he dropped down from the tree and landed on the ground with both feet. But as he feared, the floor was rather slippery. However, rather than falling flat on his bottom, he literally slid uncontrollably on a direct crash course to Ayuni. “Crap!�

Ayuni narrowed her eyes, watching as her opponent barely escaped the floods… but still… he was not injured in the way she wanted him to be. However, the kidou that she had just sent out had its advantages – to let him unable to move like he would most probably be good at.

As she held on to her zanpakutou and the green liquid dropped onto the ground, a sizzling sound was heard and the ground was seen melting, a crater forming. There was no more sight of the green liquid, only remnants of translucent silver liquid.

‘These trees are a real bother.’ Ayuni thought in annoyance, seeing as how Roy was able to use those trees as a shield for her long range attacks… if only their battleground was without the trees.

“But with trees lying on the ground and your wind helping you to float, you can use that Kidou.� Voldemort’s shrill voice pounded her head. And it was then that a body slammed onto her. It was Roy.

A tinge of red entering her cheeks, Ayuni screeched, “Pervertzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!ââ⠀šÂ¬Ã‚Â� And with her reiatsu collected at her fist naturally, she threw a punch at Roy’s face and flipped back she did, then somersaulting backwards while pointing her whole hand forward. “Hadou number 75, Black Wind.â€ÂÂ�

At the end of that incantation, the clouds in the sky above started to rage. Heavy, hot winds swept off from the ground, melting the ice field made from her previous kidou. Amazingly, the mixture of hot and cold air from the ground did not wait for cold frosty air to shoot down from the sky and a massive tornado was already formed. Hence when the cold air descended from the sky, an even bigger tornado formed.

Winds blew in a dark color, hinting at bad fortune to come at those targeted by the winds, including the trees and Roy. Ayuni did not see how Roy could sneak away from the winds as the huge tornado started to rage out violently, destroying everything in its path for about 30 seconds.

Soon a bright light was seen above the tornado, it becoming a bolt of powerful lightning crashing into the centre of the massive tornado and spreading the furious wind across the forest with massive force.

The deadly powerful winds even threw Ayuni back from her current position, unable to stand strongly on the ground.

The punch left a huge red mark on Roy's face as he felt embarrassed for landing on his female opponent. Even worse, what broke his fall was the two nice pair of cushions on Ayuni's chest. For a moment his head was literally engulfed by them by them, and for a moment Roy had almost blacked out. In fact, if Ayuni hadn't punched him in the face, he would have been out for the rest of the battle. Luckily Ayuni did punch him and the pain had barely saved him from an arguable ill-fate. Ayuni pushed him back onto the dirt covered ground as she retreated a mild distance to begin readying yet another kidou.

'What are you doing Roy? Don't let this opportunity slip by. You're in close proximity of your opponent, if you don't act now you're chance will quickly disappear.' The voice of the spirit within his soul slayer echoed in the back of his mind. Knowing that Suroto was right, Roy rushed forward charging energy into both his hands for his own set of kidou. “The body burns hot, the soul’s evil engulfed in the purifying flame. Judgment Absolute.�

"Hadou number 75, Black Wind."

The clouds in the skies started to swirl about to form dark colored wind as a tornado began to quickly form. Soon it was going to be upon him to take him up in their currents. 'Crap, she's using another wind type kidou. Too late now to stop, even if I get hit with this thing, I'm going to catch her in my chains!'

“Bakudou #20, Chains of Misery!� Rather than releasing one spell, Roy had double casted the same one to send out a set of chains from each hand. The chains both came at a distinct and separate angle to ensure a higher success rate at getting ahold of her. “If I'm getting pulled into this thing, then I'm taking you with me!�

Before Ayuni released the ‘Black Wind’, her heightened sense of hearing caught his voice speaking the spell incantation of ‘Chains of Misery’. She did not need to hear him speak the name of the spell; just the starting part of the incantation was enough for her to know what the spell was used. If she, as a former Kidou instructor in the shinigami academy was to not identify the incantation quickly, her job would have been for show.

Ayuni grinned, “I would not let you bring me in.� She became ready before the words “Judgement Absolute� were even spoken.

“Bakudou #20, Chains of Misery!�

Immediately, a faint green mask formed on her face, she not bothering to take it off or hide it from Roy’s sight. When it finalized its form, one would be mesmerized by it. It glowed a greenish hue of colour, countless black lines stripped diagonally on it. And the rest of the mask was in white.

At the same time, two fiery translucent chains came right at her, attempting to wrap around her hands. Before it could touch her skin though, Ayuni had already spoken.

“Bougyoudo number 55, Black Tide.� A huge burst of black wind that had shot out from Ayuni’s body in all directions had forcefully ejected Roy and his ‘Chains of Misery’ away from her.

Ayuni also shuynpoed backwards and kicking off from the ground, she flipped upright into the sky and caught one branch of a tree behind her. She might have levelled a huge part of the forest, but it was part of the forest in front of her, not touching the forest that was at her back. Hence she was able to ‘escape’ from her own ‘Black Wind’ using the trees behind.

Making use of the branch that she had caught onto, Ayuni swung up onto it and jumped backwards to another tree, pulling her distance away from the tornado that continued to ravage the forest but its time coming to an end.

The continuous use of kidou forced her to breathe harder but she hardly got her guard down at all, the hollow mask still covering her face. “Shimmata, my true identity is revealed.� Ayuni struck her forehead. “I better disappear.�

And with that, Ayuni fled, the tornado leaving its presence in the forest.

The fierce winds of the tornado pulled Roy up into the midst of the chaos. Trees, shards of ice, and dirt mingled about in the form of debris within the swirling twister. He felt his body being thrashed about from all angles as he was first slammed into the broken trunk of a tree before being “anointed� in a shower of icy clear crystals that shredded his shinigami outfit and sections of the clothing underneath. The chains from his kidou latched onto the branch of yet another tree, pulling his along for the ride against his will.

'Dam*it! If this keeps up I'm going to be turned into pulp! I didn't want to do this until she was low on energy, but I have no choice now. I'm going to have to go to the next level and stop this blasted tornado before it crushes me!'

He closed his eyes and began to concentrate; his silver reiatsu extended outwards and became thick. Opening his eyes once more, the coloration had shifted to a crimson red as he began to tap into the depths of his power. “Ban.... Kai!�

The spiritual pressure alone caused some of the nearby contents within the tornado to fly out as the black shade's cloak began to manifests itself around Roy; draping him in the translucent many holed black cloth that naturally moved and waved about in the fierce winds as if it had a life of its own. Finally ending the transformation with a light grayish silver aura extended outwards from the silver reiatsu.

Roy began immediately by extending his energies to create an equal and opposite frequency to disrupt the flow of reiatsu used to maintain the strength of the kidou. Following that he began to rotate the second layer of reiatsu that was born from releasing his bankai in the exact opposite direction the tornado's winds were spinning. “Kami no Kaizai!�

The speed of the winds slowly began to deter until it came to a complete stop with the tornado disappearing into thin-air from the intense high speeds of his bankai attack. As it did so, Roy then descended to the ground and landed firmly onto the ground. Looking about the area of destruction, it became painfully clear that his adversary had taken the chance presented by the kidou attack to escape. 'Why did she run away? Was it because of that weird mask thing that was forming on her? It looked strangely like a radical mature form of Lok's psychotic side. I don't know what that means, but it's a good memento to say the least.'

'Takani Ayuni... Something tells me that we'll meet again.' He closed his eyes and smiled before disengaging his kai, returning it once again to its sealed state. The traditional Japanese two-hander materialized within Roy's right hand and the sheath in his left. He drew the blade along the end of the sheath and placed the tip of the blade in, following through until completely sealed within the confines of the scabbard. Taking the soul slayer in hand, he made an about face and ventured back on the course to the fifth division. “That was one strange woman... but I have to admit, she was pretty fun for a one time only date.�

He slung the soul slayer over his back, holding it only by the long scarlet rope that was tied to the sheath just beneath the hilt and began to whistle happily as he walked away. Pleased with memories of such a thrilling battle.