It Feels Like it's Been so Long... [Private: Sofia Montero]

The training had started rather oddly. Her grenade, a specifically designed technique based on her passion to create ingenuity from the ginto had been blocked with more ease than she had expected. Beyond that, Toshiko didn’t seem to have used anything more than trivial and flimsy bonds of reishi to accomplish it. Frankly, it didn’t make sense at all. But it didn’t matter all that much. Further into the battle, Sofia would make sure to test her grenades again to ensure they weren’t malfunctioning. If her future plans were to be seen through, her beloved friend would required calculated defensive measures to avoid the explosions or otherwise risk an untimely and rather unfortunate set of injuries.

The grenade had accomplished something however. The most subtle of cuts had managed to draw just a streak of blood. It wasn’t anything serious however. And, even if it had been, following the battle, both of them possessed the means to deal with and recuperate from injuries. And so, there was simply no need to hold back in battle. Save for injuries that were grievous and fatal in nature, they should be able to be looked at and healed in due time from anything below that threshold. Nevertheless, the damage still paled in comparison to what she had expected. She wasn’t planning on killing her friend, but she was intent on letting her know she would if she didn’t give her all in battle. After all, beyond their own individual prodigious skill, they had gotten as strong as they were by continuously pushing each other to move forward.

Her thoughts would be redirected to something else entirely however. As soon as the gatling gun came out, the musical prodigy knew her friend meant business. Having stopped momentarily at a corner, she watched as her childhood friend managed to fire upon her. And, rather than seem stressed or flustered, the same calm stillness that was peculiar of her seemed to accompany a rather subtle grin as it took over her expression. Switching the ginto so she held one on each hand for some ulterior motive, she would go ahead and summon her geigenbogen in the hand opposite from the seele. The length of the geigenbogen would be harden with its reishi construct to be used as a sword, as both the handle and the frog portion of the bow extended slightly to form a small hand guard.

”I really do hope you’re enjoying yourself.”

After she spoke, Sofia could see what looked like a multitude of after images. Thankfully for her, her own speed and hirenkyaku seemed to be just the slightest bit above her dear friend. While she was fast on her own regard, the Quincy prodigy was still able to follow her movements with sufficiently predictive nature. And though she seemed to delegate enough reishi around the after images to be somewhat confusing, it didn’t fool her. Toshiko, just like Sofia were experts of reishi manipulation. For the musical prodigy, the latter had been the means through which she created most of the techniques she possessed. As such, though it was clear the after images possessed traces of reishi and spiritual energy, the vast amount of dense, orderly and coordinated concentrations surrounded only one of them: the real one.

In a rash but calculated movement, Sofia would rush the reishi bullets almost seeming as though she was willing to be hit. At the last moment however should lean back and slide forward on her lower legs. The move was particularly similar to a famous movie she had once seen in a movie; The Matrix, was it? Regardless it allowed her to slide under the reach of the bullets. Unfortunately for her, the explosion of the shots caught her momentarily off guard. Unfortunately for Toshiko however, Sofia was known as The Melody, and she dictated the rhythm and pace of the battle.

With a quick smack on the ground from her geigenbogen, a surge of musical waves that sounded like a rich violin melody hit, push, and wrapped around the reishi explosion from the bullets with sufficient strength and momentum to push them up and away from Sofia. At that moment, both her geigenbogen and her seele would be coated with strong and dense amounts of reishi. Using both her blades to hit the ground and push her into a squatting position, she would slash forward twice. The slashes would create four extremely large crescent reishi strikes with very particular properties, Heiling Hieb. There were two slashes at top, and two at the bottom, that started out spread and closed in an almost square like formation with a near deadly view that looked not much different than the lines of a tic tac toe table. Two of the slashes would carry with them the seele’s own ability, making it easier to loosen bonds, whether it be Toshiko’s or the defense of her choosing. As such, it should be able to strike strongly in number, and debilitate whatever she had chosen to try and halt it. As for the two crescent strikes from her geigenbogen, the weapon’s own unique ability was to literally push reishi bonds away from it, making it easier to cut through most constructs. So even on their own, the geigenbogen’s crescent reishi slashes would be difficult to contend to. However, with the effect of the two slashes debilitating constructs and two that were meant to effortlessly slice through, her beloved friend would find herself in a tough and perilous situation.

Though the spot Sofia had placed her friend on was a difficult one, she was sure if anyone could survive, it was her. That didn’t mean she would make it out injury free, but that was a gamble they were both probably aware of. Strength and power after all did not come without its own share of pain and injuries. The most difficult part out of the nature of the spread out and encroaching slashes however was that, the most difficult thing would be outrunning it or dodging it. It would be fascinating to see what her friend would use to try and tackle the attack. Nevertheless, the musical prodigy was far from done. From her standing position, she would dart forward and against her fellow Captain. Knowing fully well her partner would be far too preoccupied with the incoming attack, her own surge forward would be difficult to discern, let alone do anything about, especially with how fast Sofia was. When she was on range however, the two ginto she was holding would be dropped before her.

”Arde y paraliza, Rech Blitz.”

From the ginto, a surge of reiryoku would be created using her own energy as a conduit. It would result in an extremely powerful surge of electricity that despite its short range, traveled extremely fast. However, close as she had gotten, range wasn’t a problem, and in the perilous situation she had placed Toshiko in with her attacks, escape and time were a luxury her friend simply could not afford. If it landed, Rech Blitz would send painful electrical shocks through her friends body that would leave most of her extremities numb. More importantly however, the high voltage electrical shock should have been able to not only momentarily halt the use of the gatling gun, but Toshiko would find herself paralyzed during the next post.

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