There Can Be Only One [Kanae, Arkin]

Kanae grew more and more frustrated as the battle continued. She had never known herself to be constantly forced on the back foot like this, and it left a detestable taste in her mouth. Not even Unohana could so thoroughly trounce her without even releasing. Then again...maybe that was the problem. Kanae considered what she knew of this man: His spiritual power and physical abilities were far greater than any regular Shinigami should be capable of. At the same time, his Zanpakuto was strange in form and ability as well. Could he have entered the challenge with his weapon already released?

She couldn't be sure of her theory, but it was looking more and more likely as Arkin formed ice on his weapon and lunged forward with it. True to his estimation, Kanae had no intention of taking the axe head-on. Instead, she quickly Flash Stepped to about eight feet from his left-hand side. There she proceeded to draw her Zanpakuto and swing it through the air, far enough away from Arkin to prevent even its tip from making contact with his skin. In lieu of directly cutting him, a spray of acid larger in concentration and corrosive power than before extended from her weapon and cleaved through the air and ground. This Dantōdai Koroshi would fly quickly at its target in a large arc.

Arkin's preparation for her dodge would prove worthwhile as Kanae noticed the flying axe and, in her attempt to block it, was knocked hard off her feet and sent flying into a nearby practice dummy. The strength of the axe was such that the practice dummy shattered and splintered from her body, and dust was sent up into the air. As she dragged herself to her feet Kanae could feel her facade cracking as her mind struggled immensely to keep things together and focused. Every fiber of her being was telling her to just give in and butcher this man any way she knows how. It didn't help her Zanpakuto was constantly whispering malevolent thoughts, urging her relentlessly to go wild.

"Bored...bored...you're bored...but...how could you be? Bloodying your axe is boring...? Ludicrous. Bankai, Yonaka Tosatsusha!" As she said this command a powerful swirl of energy and pressure surrounded her form. The sky seemed to darken as the chosen battleground was draped in false moonlight. Her putrid, vile Reiatsu flared out and matched Arkin's own as her powers were granted a 1,000% increase. As the energy disappeared around her Kanae was left physically unchanged, but it would be easy to guess she was nothing like before. She quickly demonstrated this by repeating her action from before. Kanae drew her Zanpakuto and slashed it through the air, which sent a wide horizontal arc of acid at Arkin with its speed and corrosive strength amplified even further. This Tengoku Taishokukan could burn cleanly through most materials, though Kanae figured her opponent wouldn't be so easily pierced.

Holding out his hand, Arkin quickly called his zanpakuto back to him, the axe flying toward him. His eye watched Kanae's release with a fairly indifferent expression, any sense of fun long gone by now. This wasn't the sort of person that he cared to fight with, but he'd see this bout through to the very end. That was the nature of his pride as a Captain of the Gotei, after all.

"Bloodying my fists and my axe is only fun when it's with a worthy foe."

Hefting his axe once more, Arkin threw it directly forward, lightning crashing down to empower it as it flew through the arc of acid and straight toward Kanae yet again. Most of the acid had remained intact, but Arkin sprinted through that opening he'd made, following after the path of the zanpakuto that was still flying straight for Kanae at an impressive speed. Even then, some of the acid still splashed onto him, and he could feel the golden ichor in his veins more aggressively struggling to combat the dissolving spiritual power.

Looked like he'd need to stay on top of her, then. He expected she'd evade again, but without his axe in hand, he wasn't in a position to prevent those flighty tactics from working. Ah well. He could feel his anger slowly rising as the bout went on, and with that rising anger, his strength too was growing. He'd just have to be ready for whatever she threw next.

"Hmph." Though annoyed by the battle, Kanae was unperturbed by Arkin's denigration of her. Worthiness is irrelevant. All that matters is living long enough to climb out of the repulsive, fetid masses by any means necessary. Fighting is not something to enjoy or relish, it is merely a tool to kill. Even as she struggled to keep her mind just barely glued together Kanae knew she needed to defeat this man, though she would find little joy in it.

Kanae once again took advantage of being able to see the flying axe coming and ducked down and to her right to avoid it as she Flash Stepped forward. Sandwiching herself between Arkin and his weapon, one which he could clearly control without touching it, may prove dangerous, but she wanted to inflict grievous injuries upon him as her brutal nature began taking over with her and Yonaka Tosatsusha synchronizing. Upon coming within about eight feet of Arkin, Kanae drew her blade and rapidly swung it in every direction between them. Her Bankai's increased speed allowed her to send forth a dozen arcs of acid in a blink of an eye. By using Tengoku Taishokukan this much and this rapidly, practically a half-sphere around her of acid was released, all meant to cover and caustically burn Arkin to his muscle.

When faced with such an onslaught of acid, and from a former captain in bankai, no less, it would have been the smartest decision to attempt to evade it. But Arkin was not a man who stepped aside for a woman such as this, and as ice formed a layer over his bare hands, he simply tackled through the acid. The pain of such intense acid certainly exacerbated his anger, and he could feel his berserker nature beginning to truly come to the forefront now. As the ichor under his skin was brought to the surface, the viscous golden fluid went alight, and Arkin could feel it battling with the extreme injury being inflicted by acid of such intensity.

But it didn't matter. The feeling of pain was already nearly gone from Arkin's senses, and he simply outstretched his hand as his axe indeed flew back toward him exceptionally quickly, fully prepared to strike Kanae from behind. However, if she wished to evade, this time he certainly wouldn't let her, as he brought both hands forward in a mighty clap, intense enough to shatter glass. The ice that had coated his hands exploded outward, countless shards shooting forward alongside the shockwave of the sound itself.

She would have to stand and answer such a blow, or attempt to evade even as creeping, slowing frost and the disorienting sound of thunder were upon her. Arkin was many things, but a man of half-measures was not one of them.

When Kanae rushed forward she knew in advance this strategy would likely put her in an extremely difficult situation, but she remained focused and unperturbed by Arkin's actions. She had no doubt she was about to suffer some type of injury, but it would all be in the name of victory. Though, the threat of death was still very real and Kanae had to figure out some way to avoid being crushed on both sides.

The first thing Kanae knew she had to deal with was the axe barreling straight for her. Turning from Arkin, she rushed toward the flying axe and, at the very last second, sidestepped and slashed her weapon downwards with all her strength, aiming to slam her foe's Zanpakuto into ground below. Then she turned again, this time aiming to meet Arkin's next attack head-on as well. She responded to the sound shock wave with another Tengoku Taishokukan, which she sent to clash with it by swinging vertically. This was merely meant as a feint however as Kanae Flash Stepped past Arkin to deliver her true attack: A sideways slash straight through the back of his left heel and calf meant to cripple his leg. If it lands, her Zanpakuto would cleave through his Achilles, connected muscles, and potentially even his bone.

After hopping a short distance away Kanae took a moment to take stock of her injuries. She could feel blood seeping through her clothing and turned to look at where it was coming from. She was met with the brutal sight of dozens of glass-shard-shaped pieces of ice buried on her left side from shoulder to foot. It had been through sheer willpower Kanae had managed to ignore these wounds just long enough to attempt her last attack, but now the pain and blood loss were both apparent to her. Unlike some other Shinigami, getting wounded didn't cause any amount of joy or excitement in her; she did not live to fight. She lived to kill. The pain enveloping half of her body simply caused her hatred for Arkin to grow even more.

The axe certainly moved downward as Kanae swung her blade into it, but it hardly waited long, the blade moving with the very same strength that Arkin had thrown it with. As Kanae stepped past to cut through his leg, the wound immediately went alight, the acid of her blade fighting with the ichor that oozed through his veins. Arkin normally might have stumbled from such a wound, but his Berserk state had already begun to keep him from feeling much in the way of pain.

Catching his zanpakuto as it flew back to him, Arkin turned and simply dashed for Kanae again, burning ichor leaking from his leg as he stepped. A damning wound, certainly, but not quite as terrible as it could have been. Rather than throwing the axe again, Arkin tensed his body, ice forming over the blade of his zanpakuto and began to swing wildly, high speed strikes all with more than sufficient strength to send further shards flying at the woman, a booming sound like thunder accompanying each swing. Even one of those could certainly have cut a normal shinigami in two like butter, but Arkin was completely finished fighting half-assedly.

With herself and Arkin bloodied in battle, Kanae was finding it more and more difficult to keep herself together. The burning stench of seared skin filled the air, reminding her of the last time she experienced such a scene a thousand years ago. Such memories would prove only to heighten her anger and blood lust and make Tosatsusha even more eager to cut Arkin down.

Kanae found her sense of restraint slipping away as she met the Captain head-on. Though she had not exactly taken things easily until now, the wild ferocity with which she swung her Zanpakuto rose higher and higher. Her Bankai was managing to bridge the divide between their strength somewhat, allowing Kanae to meet him blow for blow without being crumpled like an old plastic bottle. However, as they continued clashing Kanae could feel pain rocketing through her wrist and sword arm, and she knew between getting closer to being overwhelmed by Arkin and the injuries she'd sustained already she had to make a move.

As their weapons met over and over Kanae continued releasing sprays of acid from her Zanpakuto to deal with the ice shards and injure Arkin further. Unfortunately, she still felt the occasional sting of razor blade-like ice fragments piercing her body, with one lodging itself into her left shoulder and another in her right hip. She continued on nonetheless, waiting for just the right moment to strike...There! As Arkin brought his arm up in a swing of his axe Kanae ducked down, placed Tosatsusha in its holder, and Flash Stepped past him. As she did Kanae attempted to slash across and through much of his torso with her weapon in a decisive iaido strike. With blood seeping through and staining her Shihakushō, her left arm hanging near-uselessly at her side, and Tosatsusha's grip painted crimson as well, Kanae knew if this continued for much longer she might not survive.

The tide of this battle was very quickly turning, and in a way Arkin wasn't fond of. In terms of sheer physical might, he certainly surpassed this woman. But it was clear that her bankai was beyond his own, and the strength of both her blade and her acid was beginning to eat away at even his own profoundly durable body. This woman was dangerous, and there was one thing Arkin still knew even now, with much of his reason lost in favor of ignoring pain. Losing here might have been possible, but dying here was not.

Gripping his axe tight, Arkin threw it upward into the air, his swings having charged the blade with each thunderclap. Ichor burned over his chest, but the man had no concern for his own pain or injuries. Whether or not the woman survived this blow, the battle was over after it was made. All at once, lightning crackled around the airborne weapon, and shot down toward Kanae with a bolt that could have split mountains.

At the same time, however, he made one final dash toward the woman, unconcerned with the severity of injury he was subjecting himself to with such an intense burst of speed. Hands coated in ice, Arkin went to crush the woman into the ground with one final swing of his arm, a haymaker that sent more shards of ice flying toward Kanae simply from the shockwave of the blow itself. Even if Arkin was struck by the lightning bolt himself, that was acceptable. But this battle would be a loss if he tried to match her bankai for any long span of time, and he wouldn't give her that advantage.

This bastard won't go down! Kanae considered the various oddities about Arkin. His physiological strangeness involving golden "blood" that seemed to evaporate and his apparent ignoring of pain were both concerning her. At first, she thought maybe he just had great willpower and was just another Soul Society freak, but it was becoming apparent these traits may be indicative of something else, something like an actual power that prevents him from feeling pain.

In Bankai, her Zanpakuto's increased aggressiveness was constantly nagging at her mind as Yonaka Tosatsusha asked her to use it to stab Arkin through his skull, among other things. Her hatred for this man for injuring her repeatedly and deeply was bubbling over, causing Kanae to seriously consider her other half's suggestions. At a minimum, Kanae thought, she would not allow herself to lose. Everything would depend on this next clash.

Having no intention to get hit by whatever Arkin's axe was going to do, Kanae opted to deal with him directly instead. The fiendish malevolence of her spiritual presence rose to sinister new heights as she steeled herself for her final attack and rushed Arkin head-on. Even as Kanae felt the immense pressure of the Captain's punch long before reaching him, as well as a few more shards digging into her body, she powered through with both herself and Yonaka Tosatsusha outputting their maximum potential.

Kanae knew it was now or never. Either she dodges and lands a blow that's enough to injure him, but not put him flat on his back, or she accepts more abuse to ensure Arkin takes the greatest amount of damage possible. Easy choice! she screamed to herself as she raised her acid-soaked Zanpakuto and slashed down across Arkin's chest from shoulder to hip. As she did, Kanae felt the man's fist brutally collide with her shoulder, instantly sending searing pain through her upper body and mind. A sickening crack also rang in her ears as she felt her collarbone break cleanly before she was sent flying from her adversary and sent skidding across the ground repeatedly.

As she struggled with one arm to pull herself up from the ground, Kanae spat out a bit of blood and shook her head to stop seeing double. For just a moment she sat kneeling, trying to collect herself. Now she was really reminded of her bouts with that wretched Unohana, those being the only other times she could remember being this bloody and beaten. Back then those fights preceded her being forced into a Captaincy position she didn't want and even reviled. Now, she fought for that very same position. For the first time in a while, and after returning to a standing position with her Zanpakuto slightly raised, Kanae spoke to Arkin "Stand Captain of the Fourth, or forfeit your rank."

It wasn't remotely surprising that such a blow from her had dug so deeply into his body, even with the ichor pushing back against Kanae's blade and burning up as it touched the acid she brought to bear. Though Arkin knew he could continue fighting, it would almost certainly end in his death. So the man spat onto the ground, golden ichor where there should have been blood in his mouth, and simply chuckled to himself as he indeed stood, hostility gone from his expression.

"It looks like it's yours, lass."

Every wound in his body was ready to end him, but Arkin wasn't willing to further strain himself. He didn't keep much of anything in the captain's office, so there wasn't concern that Kanae would find anything sensitive there. Removing the tattered haori, scorched and soaked in blood, Arkin threw it toward Kanae, eyes still locked on her with an intensity that seemed at odds with his now-relaxed demeanor.

"Damn shame, but I always was an old relic in this new Gotei. Now if you need me, I'll be gettin' a drink."

He'd need to talk to medical first, admittedly, and he turned to simply leave without another word, his stride confident in spite of his wounds. But after that was handled, he'd certainly be going for a bit of sake with the Captain Commander.