Sticks and Stones [Kizuna, Sola]

Yeah that made sense. He shouldn't have been exactly surprised that she'd retaliate by throwing something at him for that. Sola just didn't expect her stupid beam to turn into a volley. He had already commited too much to dodge more than one and he'd lose to much ground if he got hit badly or screwed around dodging them all.

"Screw it."

This next cero was supposed to be for her again to slow her down but it was his this time as he bit the bullet and aimed his finger down to create an explosion that sent him careening into the air a few metres higher than his own speed would carry him and have him roll through the sand with light burns.

At least his own cero was weaker than her's.

He rolled and stumbled until he got his feet again and went back to chasing her.

Now that was the kind of thing Kizuna liked to see! It was one thing to push yourself, to say you wanted something, but that degree of risk, pushing yourself in a way that was so immediately painful, that was the kind of thing that really got Kizuna going. Her grin had shifted in its manner just a faint bit, though it was mostly imperceptible at the distance between the two of them.

"Very clever, boy!"

Could she have rewarded him for that? Maybe. But he still had plenty to go before he got anything out of her, and Kizuna waved her hand before stretching out each of her fingers, five Spark Arrays firing out from her hand and once again splitting into countless smaller beams. At this point, she was barely even putting anything into them, hardly more energy than was necessary to even form the cero in the first place. But she still wanted to see if he could dodge it, what he would do to actually avoid it.

And, hey, she'd had to slow down to really focus on throwing those very simple cero out. How convenient for him, eh?

Boy. He was getting real sick of this boy shit. He was not some little kid and he'd make a point of that but he was digging it as well, he was really trying here to not just fall on his ass because he didn't have the best technique with the sonido or get burned by these cero or anything. He was struggling and that suited him just fine.

Well, he knew what to expect this time at least but how did he get through? He could guess that these smaller beams were weaker as a result of power being split. It's like when you threw a wild punch instead of a focused and intentional punch and as long as he got through just enough to sneak through the wall of cero it should be fine, right?

"Let's go!"

He formed his cero in his palm, finding it a lot easier than the finger to do because there was more space for him to concetrate on and it really made it pretty weak but he was just trying to throw it into the blockade to make a couple of them blow up. He'd let the explosion block her vision and then launch into a sonido through the cloud.

"Fuck you, sweetheart."

HIs other hand with a cero in it to throw at her footholds and give him his best shot to close the distance he could probably get here. Hurt like hell though to use his other hand which was with a broken wrist, he was really glad that he could express that pain in the form of banter.

Using his broken hand, too? Perfect, perfect. Naturally, Kizuna was all too capable of simply getting out of here. She was faster, certainly a more skilled Arrancar, but she'd wanted to see him put his back into it, show some guts. Was she just going to hand it to him, though? Of course not, she'd at least make him feel like he earned it a little. Taking one more step back, Kizuna made a point not to move quite as quickly as she could have, giving him just enough space to actually reach her and slam into her with that next step.

Of course, she didn't fall over or anything like that. She let him simply slam into her. If she'd fallen over, it would've been way too obvious. After a moment, Kizuna just laughed, boisterous and hearty that seemed at odds with the fact that she'd just lost.

"Well, boy! Looks to me like you've won your little prize. Hopefully you can handle it all, huh?"

It wasn't as if she'd simply roll over like some demure little thing, after all.

"Finally."

He muttered as he'd slammed into her and used her rack to cushion his blow. His whole body felt like it was on fire from the exertion, he was tired, singed and battered from this woman's little game but you know as he stood there using her for a bit of support he didn't mind because there was that dopamine. That rush of endorphins having succeeded against some absurd odds to make it work at the end of the day.

Sola pryed his face out of her to catch his breath. There wasn't much air in there, that was for certain. First things first though.

"You bet I can handle it all, and be careful saying dumb things like that. One day I'll be tough enough to be saying that to you. First things first though, you said a lift outta here as well. I'm sick of this sand, rocks and moon. The living world's gotta be full of all kinds of challenges."

The guy did expect to get some when they blew this joint but Sola's head was very clearly already thinking about who he could get into some fights with or what he could test himself with. Surely there was some really inhospital places there as well for him mess around with. Nothing here but boring old sand but he remembered stuff like snow and natural disasters you had to survive through in there. Now that was challenging.

"Yeah, yeah, I did say that and you'll get your taxi out of here. Don't you worry about all that."

Tearing open a garganta for Sola, leading the way right toward one of her favorite little spots in the wasteland, Kizuna led the way forward. She let out a relaxed sigh as she stepped out of the garganta into the small, fairly dilapidated shack she kept out here, small and a bit run down. It wasn't much, but she didn't exactly need much when she was out here.

"Well, boy, I sure do look forward to seeing if you can actually keep up with all that big talk of yours. Be nice to see someone actually walk that walk! But right now, you're not there yet, so don't go getting all cocky."

Slipping her top off remarkably casually, with no particular sense of sensuality or appeal, Kizuna then turned to Sola with that wide, smug grin still squarely on her face.

"So? How's this for a view?"

He really didn't know what prize he liked more. Sure Hueco Mundo was great and all, one big fighting pit you know? Though there were way more ways to test yourself than just punching and fighting things, a whole environment could change the tides of battle. If they'd been fighting on ice then it would be harder for them to have used their sonido so well. Man, that'd have been really cool to try and do. He'll do some training and then challenge her again but pick a different venue.

Honestly as he was following along the guy seemed a little dazed by her remark that he wasn't there yet. Eh? What was she talking about? He'd been a bit too caught up in his head of how much he wanted to do here and his expression looking like a doe caught in headlights really conveyed the simpleness about him.

"Huh?"

Oh right. Yeah, this part. Well she asked what he thought and frankly if she'd have just given them to him he'd have told her to fuck off and that she was a cheap whore but because he had to fight for them? Yeah, they were pretty nice.

"Damn. How much do those weigh? I bet you get some real gains in the back muscles carrying those around all the time. Imagine how much extra my back would be getting if I had things that big to lug around."

He was definitely staring and he had to get his focus back together. He didn't answer her question at all. She asked him if he was enjoying the view and he'd gone off this stupid spiel.

"I mean, uh yeah they're huge. You're real hot.... What's your name? Ah, fuck. Where's my manners, I'm Sola."

To really drive home how stupid he felt about not doing something as simple as saying his name or getting her's he waltzed on over to this woman with her tits out just to offer a fistbump - handshakes were lame - as a form of proper greeting. How the hell was he supposed to spread the word of his growth and upcoming victories if no one knew his god damn name. He was so stupid!

There was something about the expression on Sola's face, combined with the analysis he'd come up with as his answer, that left Kizuna with little recourse but to laugh boisterously. She couldn't help it, it had just been extremely funny.

"How about you give 'em a lift and find out for yourself? But I like to think my back's pretty well-developed, so they're sure not light."

His fist offered for a bump was almost endearing, really, such an earnest gesture in a situation where it was so wholly out of place. Kizuna found that amusing, and she returned the gesture without being too forceful. He'd done good, it'd be against her principles if she didn't indulge him now.

"Think so? You're not too bad yourself, Sola. Name's Kizuna."

Well of course he took up her offer after she'd hit up his fist bump. The arrancar spending a bit longer than you'd expect just trying to guesstimate the weight here, what else had he lifted recently to compare? A boulder? Yeah, well obviously they weren't as dense or heavy as a damn rock but he did conclude that they must be pretty heavy for what they were.

Wasn't like there were many arrancar chicks that just went 'oh hey stranger, you want to weigh these?" Who knows, maybe he ought to hit up that shark chick everyone talks about and see if she'll let him get a comparison or something. Hey, that sounded like a challenging thing to do. Keep that one in the back of his mind.

"Yeah? I guess I look pretty alright. Look better than that ugly thing I was before I got that mask off, though I guess being able to travel between realms was nice back then. Ah whatever, it's more fun to have to try to get outta that place at the end of the day."

Sola's little estimate was certainly a longer affair than Kizuna would have expected, but she was pretty fine with letting him take however much time he wanted. Wasn't like she'd have let him touch if they weren't about to do a whole lot more than that, anyway.

"Never worth just staying some plain Hollow for long. That's a shitty existence, way I see it. Gotta climb higher than that if you actually wanna get things done."

Her hand reached out to touch Sola's face, a finger trailing over his jawline before moving briefly to his lips. She liked this one. Would that remain the case? Kizuna certainly didn't know the answer to that one. She'd have to see how he responded to positive reinforcement.

"Get the feeling you'll try and aim for the very top, won't ya?"