Swords And Fists Filled With Resolve [Erika, Shaoling]

Fortunately Erika's poker face was far better than most would give credit for, though in reality it was certainly her resting bitch face which was deign to move for most things and so the refreshing airflow disturbed her hair and even blew off that dumb cap. While her hair settled she sighed and felt her own pride recoil. Sui-Feng at least got to recognise a success like that, she had never seen the day where she was stronger than those she was chasing.

"Tell me Shaoling, why are you blaming yourself for the actions of that waste of a predecessor my captain had for the downfall of the onmitsukido? You make it sound like you ran it into the ground yourself but you didn't, did you? A shrewd move to defang the nobility - which you've already deduced were growing remarkably incompetent."

She said with no love lost towards the politician that ran the Gotei, no one with valour or integrity but someone that used others to do their dirty work. Someone like that belonged in the seats of Central 46, not leading the Gotei United in her feelings on the matter.

"If you feel like it was all in vain then I wonder what you'd do with another opportunity and no one's shadow to exist in."

Erika turned and couldn't help but smirk in a stupid grin, a little sheepish now that she'd actually said it. From someone like her spouting nonsense like this would've made the shinigami from a few years back scoff and berate her. Now here she was doing that. Talk about a 180.

"There's no doubt in my mind that I led the Onmitsukido ideally, until the very last day. But the Soul Society still saw no use for me. And now, I see no reason to return."

Shaoling's scowl only grew at the question Erika had dared to pose to her, as if she hadn't already thought about the answer. What would she do with another opportunity? If she were suddenly sent back, with everything she knew now?

She would certainly never have been so lenient to those she thought she ought to serve.

"You act as if it was only the previous Captain Commander, as if the Onmitsukido was anything other than an idle thought in the mind of the Gotei and the nobility alike. Called on like nothing more than a lapdog when a pest had grown too bothersome."

Her fist tightened all the more, enough to draw blood as she did so. She didn't much care about hiding her displeasure anymore, least of all on this topic. Her pride wouldn't allow for half-measures.

"You wonder what I would do if I had the Onmitsukido again? I would remind the nobility of what it's like to live with a blade at their throat."

"And what of your captaincy? Though you held the seat of onmitsukido you were also the captain of the second division for over a century. Would you do the same if you were captain again?"

She changed her angle, switching between her incumbent positions and while she could visualise the captain and vice-captain of the sixth jump with delight at Sui-Feng's invigorated attitude towards holding the nobility on a knife's edge she wasn't going to let that sway her.

Regardless, she wasn't satisfied with that answer and maybe it was her bias towards the Gotei that she had known rather than the one it had become before she was challenged by Murasaki on the matter. Was Sui-Feng really satisfied like this? How? It didn't feel like she had moved on, she was festering the longer this topic went on.

"I would. And I wouldn't let Vastime or the Quincy operate however they like without an eye on their every action. If I had those duties again, I would excel in every facet. But why would I want to go back?"

Shaoling still, on some level, was ready for a fight. She was fully prepared to send Erika limping back to Soul Society if she pushed her luck, but she'd yet to completely cross that line. Of course, it seemed like she knew that perfectly well, and was simply coming as close to it as she could.

"My accomplishments in Soul Society were for the sake of my family name, my predecessors, my teacher. I would never come back now, when all of those have proven themselves worthless. My pride is in myself, my student. I don't need you to validate my efforts."

She made a good point, why would she want to go back? Erika had the same thought when it was first presented to her by Murasaki. No one she cared about was there anymore, it was just a place of regret for her and yet she was in her position as vice-captain of the first division. A position that she might've aspired for in the years before though for awful reasons.

"Why not I guess."

It came off more blase than she had intended it to. A stupid reason to even suggest and yet that's what she came up with.

"If you think something's broken, fix it. If you think something's hard, overcome it. Not for those around you but yourself, I hated the Gotei for everything it had let itself become and all I had given to it and felt like nothing was left when it abandoned me."

She perked up a bit though, meeting Shaoling's own will to fight with her own and letting her reiatsu flare just a little bit. Pale against a captain's spiritual presence but she wasn't flexing her power here.

"I'm the vice-captain because I choose to be now. I'll accept all the pain it caused and raise my blade against it. If there's no path that I can take in my position to change that then I'll cleave one through and if my sword can't do that then I'll make one that can because that's the type of person I want to be and my struggles will temper it. So if Sui-Feng is gone. Let me see what Shaoling's like..."

Chatter wouldn't reach who Sui-Feng was the same way that Murasaki's words didn't reach her. She'd throw her resolve against this woman's, even if she failed and Shaoling maintained her current stance Erika wanted to challenge her.

Yeah, it was a little selfish but she did genuinely want to fight a captain herself and build her own character through facing this woman that was more like her than she wanted to admit.

"I Erika Koezuka, challenge your resolve Shaoling Feng."

Even to herself she knew that she probably looked dumb with the big grin on her face, the part of her that loved to fight and challenge things. She was probably going to limp back home by provoking her like this but it didn't matter.

Shaoling would have been ready for any number of inane answers as to why she should care about the Gotei. Something about honor, duty, her responsibilities, all those things she could have easily disregarded. But 'why not?' That was something she wouldn't have been prepared for.

"You understand my position more than most, Koezuka. Seeing you come here now, throwing around a challenge like that and working under the Captain Commander..."

Her own will met Erika's, reiatsu perfectly matched rather than overbearing. Even in her perfection, her excellence, Shaoling had never been one for grand showings. That only became all the more true now, when she had no use for the praise of others.

"Either your resolve has grown, or the Captain Commander has crushed it. So be it. I want to see which it is for myself. I, Shaoling, accept your challenge."

Her scowl shifted into a confident smile, mocking and hostile in nature. This was no longer about duty or position, about her achievements. It was now a matter of pride, of resolve, of will. And in that, Shaoling refused to lose. But she wasn't so foolish as to think fighting in Karakura would end well for either of them.

"The mountains will stand up to our resolve far better than this city's people."

With a single flash step, she was gone. Of course, she could have prepared an ambush, readied to kill Erika before she even arrived. But that would have defeated the purpose of even accepting this bout to begin with.

Well, wasn't she every bit as ferocious as she was reputed to be? Erika was pleased by that, now that she'd got herself hyped up like this she would be disappointed for an anticlimactic response.

"Good idea."

The last thing she wanted was to owe Urahara for demolishing his shop and Erika kicked off towards chasing the woman shooting through the air as a hornet until she landed in the mountains with the impact cratering the ground at her feet.

"No Suzumebachi?"

She asked while drawing a plain looking sword from the air. Maybe it was to provoke her into thinking that she wasn't worth Erika's reputation as one who wielded an abundance of swords, maybe it was a deceptive tactic or maybe it was just her preferred sword to wield.

Erika didn't have a silver tongue but if there was one language she spoke then it was the universal tongue called a fight.

"Go on. Take your move first, I'm itching to attack you but if I can't handle your first attack then I don't deserve that much at all."

She jubilantly declared, it was no spar here. Erika got to go all out like the girl she began as did. Nothing but the opportunity to show off everything she was, it had been a long time since she had that. The part of her which only roused again after Murasaki stirred her up and this time it was all from the beginning.

"Suzumebachi is a weapon that only excels against idiots and the weak."

It was as much of a compliment as Shaoling would give to Erika in this situation, really. She was fully confident that she outclassed the vice captain in many ways, but it was not to such a degree that Suzumebachi would be particularly worthwhile. She doubted that her opponent would be so lacking as to be struck twice.

"Offering the first blow? How polite of you."

With a single flash step forward, Shaoling arrived dangerously close to Erika's person, ready to kill already. She was quick enough to easily make every angle of attack seem equally viable, and so which would it be? The elbow ready to dig into Erika's back? The palm ready to crush her solar plexus? The heel ready to rocket into her side?

Of course, all three was the answer. Shaoling knew that Erika was likely used to training against speed, given the current Captain Commander. But she doubted that a woman so soft would utilize it in the way that she did.

Very well, if she wanted a battle of infinite swords verses no sword it mattered little to Erika. She just stood completely still up until the moment when Shaoling had committed into her attack. Her flash step was difficult to match which is why she had to rely on instinct to anticipate the oncoming strike but in that instant of utter onslaught to her steadfast form the counterattack was in motion.

Shaoling had utterly battered her gigai. Antiquated as usage of them were Erika maintained the discipline of using them whenever she operated on Earth though conveniently they no longer needed to restrict her to a powerless human's status but in reality the gigai provided a convenient visage of casual outfits insisted upon by Murasaki whereas her soul was garbed as the shinigami - and vice-captain no less - ought to be.

The shinigami's spirit was a feet behind and with drawn sword she swung her blade to cleave through the gigai and strike at her opponent to sacrifice her gigai as a decoy in the process. Sadly she knew that it was a one time trick that couldn't be employed again. Shaoling was neither stupid enough to be tricked by it nor did she have the means to employ it again otherwise.

Sometimes the best way is to take the advantage is to have the element of surprise when you were the one that was playing from behind.

Destroying an empty gigai was even easier than destroying a weak opponent, and that was already a task Shaoling had no trouble accomplishing. However, the fact that it was empty in itself certainly impressed Shaoling, and her leg whipped toward the empty vessel, her heel launching it away as her body continued to turn toward Erika and her oncoming blade.

While she could typically have blocked a blade with her bare hands from most opponents, she wasn't so sure about that with Erika, not yet. However, Shaoling also didn't need to meet the blade head-on, and she had no intention of doing so. Her arm still shot out to meet the blade's path, but as it did so, the wind of Eikyuukaiten Shunko accelerated once more, her fist shooting past the sword and allowing the gale to push against the blade.

Of course, perhaps Erika would simply strike her regardless. But, if that was the case, Shaoling would be impressed enough not to be terribly bothered by the injury.