Astraphobia (Solo Training)

It was the room of a squad vice captain. Nobody would ever be able to tell with the; mess of papers, the ashes, the deposits of tobacco, and the dense cloud of smoke hanging in the air, but it was most definitely a vice captain's room. Specifically it was Tatsuki Arashi's room, the vice captain of Squad 9. Now most people tended to avoid this room as it brought forth a bevy of unpleasant smells and usually unpleasant noises (Lt. Arashi tended to yell at his subordinates if they didn't perform adequately). A hand reached out of the smoke cloud and opened a window to allow ventilation, as the smoke cleared the man who owned this room seemed to materialize out of the smoke.

Despite all the smoking he did, Tatsuki's hair was still as a pure a white as the day he died. Bright and unkempt as usually, it was pretty obvious why this was the first thing people noticed about him. It stood up in long spikes on his head and the back cut off right at the nape of the neck. This pure color complemented the vibrant ice blue that were his eyes. They seemed to crackle with energy and depending on how he turned his head and where the light hit him, the irises varied from the lightest blue to the deepest and darkest indigo. Much as always there was a hand rolled cigarette hanging loosely from his lips and a rather stern look of determination as he stared at the blade that lay across his lap.

Tatsuki, or Iki has he preferred to go by, had been siting in a meditative stance with the blade across his legs for some time now. To most people it would appear that Iki was in the process of performing Jinzen, the communication ritual in order to speak and train with ones Zanpakutō. However the dirty look on his face and the free form movements he was making made it clear that he was trying, and failing to utilize Jinzen. It seemed that Denkouissen, Iki's blade, was not talking with him, a quarrel between master and blade. Of course the strong bond that these two shared made it pretty easy for Iki to figure out what was wrong.

"Denkou...bro, you know I didn't mean it. It just happens sometimes! ...Okay all of the time, but I can't help it!" Iki spoke to the blade. It was a tone of voice most people would never hear from him. The kind of voice a brother would have as he tried to apologize to an older brother he clearly just pissed off but still very much loved. That was the relationship between Tatsuki and Denkouissen, brothers. As if speaking the magic words, Iki's face glossed over and his body became motionless as his mind was drawn into the blade.

At first this place looked peaceful. It was an old wooden ship, a schooner if one knew their boating terms, floating in calm seas. A man with long white hair up in a ponytail was shirtless with intricate purple tattoos, a strange barbed sash, and bluish purple pants, sat on the edge of the boat with his feet hanging over. In his hand was a fishing pole and his face had this serene calm to it, he was at piece. Standing quietly behind him observing him fish was Iki, at first Iki looked calm as well but his eyes kept darting up, looking past the older man. What Iki was looking at were the huge black storm clouds swirling around like that of a hurricane. Within the clouds were countless flashes of lightning. There must have been a sound barrier because no crack of thunder could be heard. While these view may have started out peaceful, on a complete glance the two men were on a boat in the midst of the eye of the storm, a temporary calm in a hellish world.

"Every. Single. Time. You flinch whenever you use me. No matter if the lightning bolt is striking your enemies, charging you up, or if you simple just call upon me, you shy away in fear. How do you think that makes me feel? You say you love me like a brother, you say you enjoy having me around to help you, but at the end of the day you can't stand to be around me..." The older man said, his face turning to meet Iki's. This man, Denkouissen, now had the saddest, pained expression on his face. He wasn't made because Iki was pissing him off, or he did something to anger him. No, Denkouissen was mad at Iki because Tatsuki Arashi was afraid of his own Zanpakutō...

"That's not...That's not totally true! You know you're my Zanpakutō and I wouldn't be anything without you! It's just that, lightning brings out some bad memories ya know. It's..." Iki said in response as one hand rubbed the back of his neck and a sheepish look was on his face. He knew the excuse was time tailored and not really worth much. As if to drive home that point Denkouissen interrupted.

"...how you died, I know. It's a part of you and that's why it translated into me. Do you think I'd be a lightning based Zanpakutō if some part of your will didn't influence me. Hell I wouldn't be anything if some part of you didn't influence me." Denkou exclaimed out of exasperation. This was a timeless argument they had every few weeks. But today was the last time if Denkouissen had his way. It was time for some intense training.

"Well what do you want ME to do about it. It's all internal I can't just wish for it to stop and it happens. Do you know how much more easier it'd be if I could just lightning up and be unafraid. Untold destruction at my finger tips! I would love for that to happen!" Iki was completely unaware to what was about to befall him.

"And so it shall. Because today and many days after I'm going to train it out of you. Any. Way. Possible." And with that Denkouissen pointed a finger at Iki and lightning sprang forth electrocuting the surprised Vice Captain. Iki wasn't preparing himself for a fight and therefore had no time to react. However his natural Transistor ability went into effect and he absorbed the attack. This lightning strike was far weaker than anything Denkouissen could actually put out so the entirety of the attack was absorbed.

"What. The. Fuck!" Iki yelled out as his body rippled with energy, his already unkempt white hair stood up even more and his eyes became a brighter more vibrant blue. His bodies natural talent at absorbing lightning based attacks and turning them into energy was a great skill Iki often employed and usually self-inflicted. It was extremely easy to blast himself with his own lightning attack especially when he knew the strength of it beforehand.

"Oh shrug it off. But did you notice anything? You didn't flinch, you didn't shy away in fear. Instead you got angry and you turned that anger into an outlet. Your reflexes have already thrown your hand out in order to fire the energy right back. You see? You're only afraid of the lightning when you think about it too much." Denkouissen explained. And he was right, Iki's hand was already in the perfect position for a Byakurai.

"So your idea of training is to blast me with lightning until I become completely unfazed by it? Genious." Iki said while rolling his eyes. Denkouissen only smiled as he began firing bolt after bolt. It was going to be a very, very, long day for Tatsuki Arashi.

An hour later Iki looked ragged as hell. His hair was starting to singe, his clothes as well. Denkouissen just had a solid grin on his face because for him at least, he was having the time of his life. Iki however looked more than just ragged, there was a solid difference about him. His hair was no longer white but a very light blue and his eyes seemed almost electric in hue. His Transistor ability was nearly at its limit. Pretty soon Tatsuki would need to fire a lightning attack or suffer from a power overload, which would literally cause him to explode. But still he held off, his mind was back to thinking about the bolt he would unleash, fear crept back ever so slowly.

"Tatsuki....you can't hold on to that energy forever. I may like you but I'm not going to hold back just because you might explode. You need to make the choice to fire that energy, you need to let it all go or risk the consequences. I might give you a chance, but your enemy would take advantage of this state. What will you do?" His sword asked. Tatsuki of course did what he probably shouldn't and really, really thought about it.

Why? Why was he so afraid? It was stupid the more he thought on it. Yeah lightning killed him, it's also an uncontrollable force of nature. He was right to be afraid, but he wasn't right to be frozen in fear. He trained his hardest to control this energy, he should be proud. Tatsuki thought harder and figured that this shouldn't be a badge of shame but one of honor that he can wield something so many before him have been shocked by. Raising his hand he fired that Byakurai as hard as he could with as much stored energy as he could.

The bolt exploded out of his hand, the sheer brightness of it caused Iki to turn away. Even Denkouissen had to dodge the attack rather than harness the energy himself. Shyly, Tatsuki looked up. There wasn't a real target to show the damage he produced, but he did manage to see the storm clouds close up over the huge hole he had formed. His reactions were to slow and Denkouissen was able to blast him once again with lightning.

"Close. That was better, you fired the attack and you didn't duck and run like you might have. But you also waited to see how much damage you did instead of assuming you hit or miss and followed up. You lost concentration and I was able to attack once more. It was good for your first real trial of overcoming this fear, but you've made progress." Denkouissen said, his smile this time showing pride in his student instead of amusement of his pain. "Now, Again!" He shouted out as more strikes began to fall.

This time Tatsuki was ready, and he was able to dodge without flinching. He realized that by expecting the force the bolts would strike with he could continue unfazed when they whizzed by him. He felt almost stupid when he realized how much more damage he could have been doing if he didn't slow down every time he struck out or got struck.

"I don't know if it's because I feel stupid, or if it's because what you're trying to say has finally sunk in, but I feel like I can use this to my advantage." He said as he stood firm and let a bolt of lighting strike him. Without skipping a beat he fired off a Byakurai that was supercharged with the lightning that had just struck him. His movements were so fast and unexpected that the strike was actually able to land on Denkouissen before he could dodge them.

"Yes! Yes! That was exactly what I wanted you to do. Good. We've gotten through at least one trial. Being able to turn minor lightning attacks into boosts for your Byakurai. Now, let's try something a little more heavy handed. Take out your shikai." A weird request by Denkouissen, Tatsuki thought as he drew his sword.

Throwing it into the air he called out, "Strike Twice, Denkouissen!" A humongous bolt of lightning, twice the size of the ones they had been throwing around, struck down near Tatsuki and in it was his newly formed weapon. A trident with currents of electricity jumping between the prongs. The initial bolt of lighting caused a split second hesitation, and with that hesitation Denkouissen had put an exact copy of the trident on Tatsuki's chest close enough that if Iki had moved forward just slightly he would have been pierced and electrocuted.

"No no no no! This is exactly what I was trying to train out of you. I've noticed this when you call me down, you hesitate before grabbing me. You wait till the lightning has dissipated and then wield me. In those short moments your life could be over. What you need to do is jump up and grab me at the same time the bolt strikes. That way you automatically get a charge of lightning that you can instantly fire from the trident without having to wait for a good charge." Denkouissen explained.

Realization dawned on Tatsuki as he discovered he was using his shikai release in exactly the wrong way. He was missing out on a quick release attack and exposing a weakness. Grabbing the trident harder he used the technique that called a lightning bolt down on the weapon, electrocuting it and himself. He did this several times just so he could get used to the feeling of the extra large bolt. This time it only took 3 blasts before he was over half way charged. It only took two blasts before he stopped auto flinching.

"Good, at least that part is over with. Now on to some more practical training..." Denkouissen said. Tatsuki let out a small groan as he figured that this was going to be one of the longest days of his entire life.

This time it wasn't just a simple hour that had past, it had been multiple hours. Tatsuki looked like he was read to fall apart, his uniform was in taters, his hair was singed, his body burned. Denkouissen looked as if nothing phased him. It was his world after all, he could appear to Tatsuki however he liked, uninjured was just another way of motivating him to fight harder and harder. With a slight wave of his hands Tatsuki looked as fresh as he did entering this world, if not better. "Let's take a break, I may have made you look much better but your wounds and pain still haven't passed." Denkouissen said.

Tatsuki only slightly looked up with an electrical glint in his eyes. His body was aching all over, everything was telling him to quit, but he couldn't, wouldn't stop now. He was on the verge of something powerful, he could feel it, he knew he was about achieve the next level of something! He just couldn't tell what, stopping now might set him back further than he might be able to get back too. "No...I can't stop... not now. So...close." He said in stressed breathes.

"Ah so you've noticed it, you're close to achieving something powerful. I'll clue you in. This wasn't just a get over your fear training. This is and has always been your bankai training, but I figured why spoil the fun, I was hoping you might just luck into the ability. Wishful thinking. Well if you're not done, try, just TRY to beat me. Maybe then I'll give you another clue." Denkouissen said, positively ecstatic. His master and pupil was so close to growing up he could just scream with joy, but he was far from going to make this easy on him.

In his mind Tatsuki was thinking that he KNEW it was something like this, there would be no other reason to do such an in depth training session for a stupid phobia. Even now he was noticing that the lightning didn't bother him, at all. In fact if he hadn't have just thought of it now, he probably wouldn't have for the rest of the fight. Raising his trident up he began to call on another bolt of lighting to charge himself with. As he said the words... nothing happened.

"Ha, ha, hahahahaha! You think I would just give you the tools you'd need to beat me? Now that you know what you're here for this is going to be a whole knew type of battle!" Denkouissen laughed. He then zoomed at Tatsuki and began a close quarters combat, each striking and defending with their tridents, not a single shot of lightning between them. It was a tough fight, especially without his little power boost. "Where is your lightning now!" Denkouissen goaded as they fought.

That's when he saw it. The flash of lightning all around him. A smirk was on his face as he released that Denkouissen had forgotten his entire world was surrounded by storm clouds. Breaking away from his opponent he dashed into the storm leaping off the air as if it were ground all along. He could faintly hear a "no" yelled as Denkouissen noticed his mistake. Reaching the cloud and raising his trident up lightning began to crash around him in tremendous frequency.

Little too late did Tatsuki release the "no" was not out of fear of defeat but a warning that he wasn't ready for this energy. In only two strikes was he at the limit of exploding. He couldn't take another hit without blowing up, but he was stuck in a storm cloud with a giant lightning rod. Thinking quickly, he began expending energy from his body. He noticed then that he could turn this into a boost of speed when shot from his feet. Rocketing out of the cloud his body picked up and expended energy at an alarming rate. He was slowly becoming the lightning bolt itself as he flew out of the clouds and hurtled at Denkouissen, trident extended.

Had Denkouissen not been made of lightning, he would have been completely pierced through as Tatsuki charged into him and exploded out the other side. Turning to look at his pupil, his grin was as big as the sea beneath them. Tatsuki had just learned the signature move of his bankai, and sure enough when Denkouissen spotted him again, he was wearing it in all of its majesty.

Tatsuki looked at himself real hard. He was now wearing several different pieces of glinting armor. His hair was longer, bluer, and his eyes crackled with energy. He could feel the fully charged pieces of armor and knew he could draw on them for strength and storage. He instinctively knew that this, this was his bankai.

"Congratulations on achieving Denkouissen Raijin..."