The Top of The Top [Shura/Kanae]

A trained hunter, Shura expected nothing less from Kanae. Destruction versus Malice, that was the clash that Shura focused on, it was almost like her Zanpakuto's malice grew as Shura's strength grew. She'd honestly never felt something like it before, and while she surely wasn't the strongest nor the most experienced... She'd never felt such level of malice even from a hollow before, what a curious thing. However just as before Kanae was able to follow her, their Zanpakuto's clashing once more. Shura had to admit that she hadn't expected her full strength to be held back by Kanae without even utilizing her Shikai, maybe... just maybe she had underestimated Kanae just a little bit. Maybe.

But that thought would be placed on hold when she was sent flying backwards, slamming and skipping across the ground like a pebble thrown into the water for at least fifteen meters before she managed to dig one of her axes into the ground to catch herself. However Shura was quick to kick herself back off the ground and ensure she landed with both feet planted firmly on the ground, and a large grin on her face. She tossed the axes above her slightly, grabbing the chains and spinning both in a similar manner to how she spun her Shikai before utilizing her Shunpo once more to close the distance.

Once she was roughly five meters away her Shunpo ended and she kicked herself into the air, bringing both of the axes together in an X formation "Shi no Kiba" As she spoke, the Reiatsu gathered at the edges of each blade were shot out in two back-to-back arcs directly down towards Kanae.

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Surprise? Anxiety? Anticipation? What word could explain how she felt in that instant... a question that would haunt Shura most assuredly for some time to come, malice unlike any before she felt from that Zanpakuto before its release. Hatred unlike anything she could've contemplated even in her wildest of dreams, a resentment unlike any other. But such emotions paled with comparison to that which she felt after she'd fired her attack off, like a slow motion tragedy that you couldn't take your eyes off of when those four words were uttered by Kanae, the words that Shura had demanded to hear when she initiated this spar... neigh, this fight.

She'd fought opponents that were powerful, Arrancarr and Hollows that had strength all their own... yet this was not mere power, it was not mere strength... It was something all-together different. The two bladed beams she'd sent out changed to an acidic green, but before she could focus on that she heard the tale-tell noise of a Shunpo. Even had it not been for the words she previously heard, the sickly green hued Zanpakuto that was now headed for her alone was proof that she'd gotten precisely what she demanded, Kanae's Released Zanpakuto. On raw instinct the two axes she held moved towards a defensive stance, yet even that instinct wasn't swift enough in response before she was sent screeching down from the skies and into the ground.

By the time she stopped the ground behind her had formed a miniature hill behind her, her arms trembling. Where before she'd managed to get away with just a slash across her chest... This second one was more of a deep gash across her chest.

"That Power... Shura, it is time. Challenge it with everything, hold nothing back against it!" Rare was it that Hakaishin spoke to Shura, even more rare was it that Shinmetsu Tei deigned her worthy of its words. Yet always when her Zanpakuto spoke to her was it words that she knew she should follow, words that felt less like her Zanpakuto speaking and more of her own thoughts speaking through another medium. Bloodthirsty, Shura was most definitely not... But Battle crazed and desperate for the ultimate challenge to her power she most definitely was!

So in spite of the rather severe wound that she now bore across her chest, she only had a wild grin on her face. "Yeah... Yeah that's exactly what I wanted..." Her arms fell to the ground before she pulled herself from the rubble "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED, NAGOSHI KANAE! TENBATSU!" While her Reiatsu didn't spike around her, this was because her blades themselves were directly infused with it. Thin strands that led and wrapped around the blades, siphoning her Reiatsu directly to empower them. Her eyes, as wild as they might've been before, were drenched with a type of crazy that few within the Gotei United had. No they were more reminiscent of a certain Kenpachi that once held a rather demonic position within the Gotei 13.

Emotions mattered not anymore, they had no place within a battle like this. Pain all but vanished, for good or ill, within Shura's body as she focused her attention solely on Kanae now. Her Tenbatsu was something she rarely ever used, but Kanae was worth it. Scarce was her time with it, and so without any hesitation she launched herself directly at Kanae, utilizing the chain that connected her two Axes to whip them into a whirlwind of blades, throwing one at her before reeling it back and throwing the other, all the while using each moment she could to spin them faster and faster.

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Yeah this was better than good, this was great! She was gaining ground now against Kanae, each attack elicited an active response from her Captain, which told Shura that she needed to keep pushing and she would force another kind of response... A response that would maybe, just maybe, make her entire body tremble with a kind of excitement she'd never had before.

Of course that was until she actually strike Kanae, which only elicited another almost slow motion-esque reaction. While she'd expected to at least graze her, and maybe actually reach her... never did Shura expect anyone, even Kanae, to grab her Zanpakuto. By its very design the only one that should've been able to grab it without injury was Shura herself, the spikes on it were designed that way. But even more during her Tenbatsu they were even more dangerous due to the influx of Reiatsu, yet here she was watching it be grabbed with little to no effect.

Then as suddenly as that realization came upon her she felt a sharp pull and just as she realized what was happening felt the hard impact of the ground once more. Sure the pain of it all might not have been immediately felt, but that didn't stop her from coughing out blood as she bounced against the hard ground. But what kind of warrior simply lays down and gives up? Especially when they could still move. Kanae might've had one end of her weapon, but that only meant that Shura had a clear target this time.

It took her a moment to finally turn back over and slowly begin to push herself back onto her feet, blood slowly dripping from both her torso and now her head and mouth. "Heh... eheheheh..." As she got back to her feet she wrapped the chain several times around her arm "Yeah, Yeah this is still exactly what we wanted. A real challenge." She slammed one foot into the ground and yanked on the chain with all of her strength, intent on either ripping Kanae towards her, or bringing herself to Kanae. Either way her other axe was being spun around in a circle in anticipation for when the two got close enough to each other... No more trickery. She'd give Kanae a single swing forward of the axe still in her own clutches towards Kanae.

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The simple blink of an eye, That was all it took to miss details in a battle such as this. That one simple act was all it took for a sharp pain to spike through her entire form, like a single electrical pulse powerful enough to disrupt the nerves of a body and lock the entire thing in a single frame for what could feel like an eternity. "So this... is her strength..." Shura thought to herself in the brief moments she hung loose in the air, before she felt herself grabbed like a rag doll out of the air.

The next blow caused the Kurata to cough out blood, the secondary sharp blow to her abdomen rocking her entire form with yet another surge of that sharp electrical pain before she was rather unceremoniously thrown to the ground. Yeah, this fight had been one-sided... right from the start. Part of Shura knew it would be, it was the reason she didn't actually challenge her for the Captaincy. But still... She had expected more of herself. She didn't try to pull herself back up, at least not at first. There was much to consider, much to contemplate.

She surely didn't have a death wish, of that she knew at least. However she had to admit, there wasn't a single hollow that had ever challenged her even remotely close to this in a very long time, far before she had even attained her Bankai. If she stood back up, then that meant she wanted this to continue... but what would be the point? There would be none. So instead she dismissed her Bankai, and then began to slowly and very painfully pull herself from the ground she was buried within.

"No... You're right. I knew this going into it." Shura couldn't help herself though as a grin formed across her face "But now... I know your strength... first hand..." Slowly she pulled her head up to look at Kanae who remained airborne, loftily held above them all. "Useless? Pathetic? Maybe in a fight against you... But mark my words, I won't... remain..." Truth be told sheer tenacity had kept her conscious for this long, but tenacity alone could only do so much to staunch the pain that coursed and pulsed through her and that was to say nothing of the blood loss.

No as much as she might've wanted to finish her statement, it was cut short as the Kurata fell to the ground... unconscious.

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