Healing Hearts [Saiko/Mizu]

"Good, good."

Muttering to herself, Saiko looked at the onslaught of crystals heading her way. Knowing that their training session was now reaching its warm-up point, the right eye of the hybrid became drenched in an oceanic-hued fire. Once that blaze ignited, a wave of aqua-colored spiritual energy rushed out of Saiko's body and took the form of flames that sought to collide with Mizu.

For her sake? Saiko's power was comparable to her own at the moment. So, even if they hit, it wasn't as if Mizu would be vaporized into a paste. Of course, it would cause burns and push her backwards, but the woman had sense enough to restrict herself to the basics for the time being.

With that said, regardless of what happened, Saiko would seek to charge head first at Mizu through the fire and crystals to test her reflexes, speed, and strength. So, if she wasn't stopped, the hybrid sought to give her a firm kidney punch and sweep her off her feet to deliver a punch straight to her chest if nothing was done about it.

"How does it feel to be in sync with your Zanpukto? Keep fighting, deepen your bond and let's see what it can do."

For her opponent to respond not by trying to deal with the swarm of crystals, but to instead assault her directly, was a surprise to Mizu. Evidently either Saiko was entirely unconcerned about her level of power, which would be unsurprising given the miles-wide canyon between them, or she just did not care if she got hurt. Either way Mizu had to react quickly to the fire-like energy by pushing out her own spiritual pressure to the best of her ability, hoping to nullify the attack as her own violet aura took form. Despite Siako only using a fraction of her power Mizu still felt the pressure coming from the woman's energy and knew she must fight with her all.

With her now-heightened control over her Shikai, Mizu felt empowered to craft more complex objects with it's crystals. Seeing Saiko coming for her, she combined shards to form a barricade adorned with many razor sharp spikes in front of herself. At the same time she controlled the wave of crystal shards she had sent at Saiko by surrounding the woman with it in the hopes of sandwiching her between it and the wall. Mizu couldn't be sure if the spikes on the barricade could even harm her mentor, but she hoped it would prove threatening enough to prevent herself from being drawn into a fist fight. "It is freeing, Saiko-san!"

As Mizu unleashed her spiritual pressure, the flames that were once charging at her dissipated. Yet, that did not cease the assault of the hybrid. In battle, you learn to accept the ever-changing circumstances and set your eye on the target, adapt and figure out a way to overcome. By this line of logic, even as Mizu shielded herself, Saiko felt a hard thud as her fists collided with the cold crystals and knew she had to pivot.

With a glance behind her, Saiko's aura grew into a thick shield to melt away and deflect the crystals trying to sandwich her in. And as the hybrid smirked, she decided to flash step behind Mizu in order to try and deliver a dropkick to the head of Mizu to see how she would deal with the increased heat around her smothering them, the nimbleness of her movements and the kinetic strike which was the blunt force physical impact of her kick.

"No time for fear in a battle. You just have to keep moving ahead, Mizu!"

Mizu could sense her wave of crystal shards deflected from their target, though at least the wall managed to protect her from Saiko's fist. Still, in just a moment she managed to be put entirely on the defensive again as Mizu desperately pulled crystals from the wall to form a barrier behind her, though her opponent proved too quick for such a maneuver. She only had enough time to move enough crystal to create a small and thin barrier which would at least protect her from a direct hit, but Mizu would not be entirely saved from the forced of impact as she was knocked over by Saiko's falling leg.

Even as she felt pain on her head Mizu remained focused on the task at hand and leapt forward before doing a quick combat roll, during which she turned to face Saiko again. All the while she was waving her Zanpakuto's bladeless handle and commanding the crystals around them to form into a dozen simplistic spears, all surrounding and pointing directly at Saiko. Even as sweat poured off her from the increased temperature Mizu sought to fight back to the best of her ability, and with a wave of Shousenmaru she sent the crystalline spears into Saiko from every direction.

Without much time to think, Saiko soon found herself surrounded by the crystal spears that were heading her way. Understanding that her choices were to either form a shield or went on the offensive. So, she opted to hunker down and form a dense sphere of flames to try and melt the crystals from having an impact. And, for the most part, it worked. However, given she wasn't used to fighting at such a reduced strength, one of the spears managed to slip through and graze her arm as a slight streak of aqua blood leaked from her upper right arm and another from her cheek.

Still, despite that, Saiko kept moving ahead and just waited in silence as her right eye continued to be devoured by that ominous aqua flame. More and more power started brewing in the air, yet she remained in place as a slight raise of the hybrid's eyebrow came, and she motioned for Mizu to continue attacking and coming at her.

"Will you charge, stay or go on the defense?"

Giving her time to consider her options, Saiko smirked and just played her cards to herself as she wanted to see how Mizu would encounter a random variable in combat.

At this point Mizu did not have any expectations of her attacks actually proving successful. As confident as she can be, and with Saiko's training she certainly felt confident, she also understood the gap between herself and her opponent. For this reason, though she resented injuring her, when some of her spears did manage to cut her up a bit she felt elated with herself. Still, she thought, this was nothing to celebrate just yet. She would have to accomplish much more to prove herself to Saiko, and to herself.

With a wave of Shousenmaru's handle Mizu reformed all her crystal weapons into a wave of shards again and brought them closer to herself. "I did not go through all that training just to hide in a corner, Saiko-san!" With that Mizu waved her Zanpakuto around rapidly as she combined much of her crystals into a large car-sized arrowhead. Though a solid construct, every square inch was covered in razor sharp crystal shards and though heavy, she could maneuver it without great effort. With a flourish Mizu sent the giant arrowhead at Saiko as if she had loosed it from a mighty bow.

Saiko did not waste time forming a shield compromised of her energy with her right arm. It was no bigger than the typical gear used by riot police to protect themselves from blunt objects, giving some slight hints about what would go down.

With her eyes set on the massive spear heading her way, Saiko's right eye became drenched in flame before releasing her own spear of boiling hot fire straight at Mizu's projectile. As these pairs of massive powers came to a head, an explosion of fire, debris, and crystals scattered everywhere. It produced a mini explosion that rumbled the next half city block over, and the hybrid was more than prepared for it.

As her shield remained active, Saiko held it to her face to protect her as it stopped the debris from hitting her, as she leaped up in the air and surveyed the results of the collision to see if Mizu got caught in the fallout.

Though one of her strongest attacks, Mizu was not surprised by it being handled with ease by Saiko. The resulting explosion, however, did surprise her. At the last moment she managed to use the remaining crystals around her to form a half sphere barrier in front of her. However, the concussive force and excessive heat cracked this wall and burnt up Mizu's arms raised in front of her turned-aside face. After the blast calmed, Mizu allowed the barrier to collapse into a heap of crystal shards in front of her.

Now panting heavily, it was clear to Mizu just how lopsided this bout was. With another flourish of her Zanpakuto all the scattered crystal shards began moving and returned to her before settling across the ground around her. "Ah...Saiko-san...I must admit, that was my strongest attack!" Still panting, Mizu reformed Shousenmaru's blade and piled the remaining half of her Shikai's crystals behind her. She was not sure what else she could muster against Saiko, but did not want to admit defeat to her mentor. If she could do anything to make her mettle clear, she would.

There was a zest behind the smile of Saiko when she saw that Mizu was still wanting to engage despite the harshness of the training. It meant that there was still more potential to be had when you are being pushed to your limits but have the willingness to accept it to see marginal growth. This is why Saiko placed her hand out in a stop sign as if to have a ceasefire for the time being.

"Hey, Mizu, don't sound so defeated. You are kicking ass right now. You are going beyond what your body is capable of and training to do better. That's all I can really ask, and that's what makes this session worthwhile."

After nodding along to those words of encouragement, Saiko continued.

"Look, we can end it here or keep going and see how far your body can go in its current state. The choice is yours!"

For the briefest of fleeting moments, Mizu seriously contemplated accepting Saiko's offer to call it quits. But as quickly as it had arrived, that moment passed. To Mizu, she had not passed this test yet. Nor would she unless she could push herself to and past her limits. She wasn't just out to prove herself to Saiko, she wanted to prove herself period. With this in mind, she grasped her reformed Zanpakuto tightly with both hands and lifted it in front of her, making her answer to Saiko's question apparent.

With renewed vigor, Mizu rushed forward and swung her Zanpakuto across Saiko's chest. Right before it would make contact, however, the blade would split into a hundred tiny crystal shards meant to strike the woman across a much wider surface than a single sword ever could. Immediately after, she followed up with another swing as the shards reformed her Zanpakuto's blade, except this time it remained solid as the sword sought to strike Saiko across her waist.