Letting Off Some Steam (Ranma, Armina)

It appeared that she was making progress and Armina dug as deeply as she could into the monster's enormous leg, punch after punch slamming to it. His ankle was changing colour, which she assumed was due to her efforts. That was all the motivation she needed to continue her barrage, each wicked shot trying to break the bones of the great big bastard. She was going to smash him to pieces, without the need of any fancy techniques or any of that shit. Her fists and raw Hakuda would do the job.

Eventually, his leg would start to move backwards and Armina, sending weakness, attempted to pursue. He was going to fall right on his ass and once he did, she’d be right there to beat him to a bloody pulp. He was just a fat load of shit, not even close to being worth her time. This would be the end.

“Fucking hell.” She uttered, just as the foot that had been pulled back suddenly came hurtling back towards her at a colossal pace. All she could do was bring her arms up to block the blow but it made little difference as she was forced backwards, crashing through the debris of a broken shack or two due to the force of the impact. It felt like she’d been by a tank but she hadn’t gone through her hellish training just to be killed by a kick. She was one tough bitch and once the Shinigami came to a halt, it wouldn’t be too long before she burst out of the rubble, even more pissed than before.

Looking down at her Shihakusho, Armina would tut, it’d taken a fair beating and her figure was almost completely laid bare for the world to see. She wouldn’t have minded if there were some hot chicks about but finding one in this District was almost impossible.

Annoyed, she’d soon enough Shunpo back to the fight, wanting to smash the ugly creature's face in even more.

”Holy shit… hey, you alright over there, Armina?! Big, ‘ole bastard turned you into a damn footba- a- a- a- a- ah, ehhh…” he uttered in light mockery, obviously driven by unreasonable desire to grind her gears just a little… but lo and behold, upon squinting his eyes, those orbs almost exploded upon the faint sight of her torn Shihakushō, swiftly averting his eyes away lest she aimed to kill him next. At this point, he had no desire to fight the big, swollen-up powerhouse – let Armina deal with that abomination for all that he cared.

The Arhat paid no mind to the sight – if anything, Armina’s visible ‘injuries’ prompted the giant to further his offense. However, Armina’s Shunpo took him aback, causing the giant fighter to step back a couple steps and panic, not understanding what Armina did to accelerate in such a fashion – none of her punches came at the same speed as that, after all… was she holding back? Against him? Now that was an offense!


Due to his lack of understanding such a core Shinigami skill, the Arhat swung his arms around in a strangely esoteric fashion, with enough force to cause strong winds to whip at the two Shinigami. Ranma hurriedly rose his arms up to brace for the visible blades of wind that tried to push him off the ground, while many curtains of air were rallying around Armina’s form in an attempt to hit her from all directions. All caused by the giant’s strange, rapid arm movements.

With his arms suffering cuts from the sharp winds, Ranma found himself… sort of amazed, really. It was a wonder to behold, given the circumstances that led to their very presence here and now. To think… that someone as big and imposing as this monster was just waltzing around the Rukongai without me knowing. No shot I would’ve survived had I fought you back then…

This, whatever the hell he was, seemed to have the innate ability in pissing the blue haired woman off. His wind attacks were annoying more than anything else and as he started launching his barrage of wind blades towards her, Armina moved her right hand towards her Zanpakuto and drew it. She’d had enough of just punching the fucker and had another plan in mind for just how to deal with him. His power of the wind may have been decent but could it match up to her own? She didn’t think so.

Her Zanpakuto changed shape, taking the form of a large two handed warhammer, with strange symbols decorating the handle, their meanings simply being ice and death, in the Nordic tongue. The hammer radiated with cold, enough that it could be felt from a fair distance away. This was Armina’s Shikai and what was more, she’d summoned it without calling its name. A sign of just how far her Zanjutsu had developed over the years. There was no need for her to call, as Hyokage Ryoshi already knew.

Gripping her weapon with both hands, Armina would start to swat away at the incoming wind blades, the head of her hammer turning to ice as she uttered the ability’s name out loud. “Freezing Blows.” Her tone of voice was as cold as her weapon and the eyes of the Shinigami could’ve frozen a man with their intensity. As it was, her hammer would do the job and as she made contact with the Asshat’s projectiles, they’d start to freeze solid, much to the pleasure of the 4th Seat. If she could do that to his spells then what could she do with him? That was the question that she sought to force into his mind.

She was starting to move forward again too, each swing of her weapon giving her extra momentum as she aggressively froze his blades. The air pressure he released was potent but it wouldn’t protect him for long, not against her.

Some more of the winds finally disappeared from Ranma’s position, insinuating that the Arhat was now fully focused on Armina for one reason or another… ohhhh, that was why. Ranma could tell from the change in pressure alone – the rising feeling of dread, the crushing Spiritual Pressure, and the cold… she had drawn her Zanpakutō. And this would serve as another lesson to Ranma for future reference – apparently, Zanpakutō weren’t limited to swords only… and hers just happened to take the form of a giant, fucking hammer! A giant one, that shit! Not at all subtle in its imposing size or fashion, not one bit!!!

Arhat was frightened. He’d never seen such a transformation before – even Armina’s demeanor had gone from cold to absolute! While he intensified his twisting winds, Armina smashed back at them with her Shikai, turning the wind blades into blocks of solid ice that crashed down with every step she took forward. The giant Rukon-guy instinctively realized that his constant wind attack – an esoteric art of some unknown or forgotten origin – wasn’t going to work against her Shikai… not like this.

Therefore, for a brief instance, he ceased the blasting winds in a flicking flash of thought. Her hammer… could freeze an entire limb of his. That was the power that it emitted, and the Arhat could safely assume so…


With both hands thrusted forward at the center, all of the twirling winds from earlier were sucked into a vortex, then launched in a straight line like a vacuum cannon towards Armina. It sacrificed range of effect with even more firepower, now strong enough to carve holes through multiple walls in one shot.

Meanwhile, Ranma had somehow found himself to a bucket of popcorn and some sake, laying on his side and leaning on an elbow while gobbling up some corns. He was enjoying the show like the typical minimum-effort worker he was, not seeing aaaaaaaaany point in jumping into Armina’s fight. “You go, girl~. Swing that over-sized hammer a little faster, he’s just a slow giga-roadblud. Watch out for the wind, I can almost see your badonkahonkas…!”

“Shut it!” Armina barked at the lazy bastard, who had apparently left it to her to deal with the monstrosity before them. It was exactly what she expected from him in truth, so she could hardly have been disappointed. That was the problem with the Gotei these days, too many Shinigami who were simply unwilling to put in the work and do what needed to be done. Once Asshat was dealt with, the blue haired woman was going to teach Ranma a thing or two as well.

The attack sent her way wasn’t anything to sneeze at though and as Armina brought her Zanpakuto up to defend herself from the attack, there would be a clash as the two forces met. It was quite a potent manoeuvre but rather than dodge the attack, the tall Shinigami would instead attempt to push forwards, closing the gap between herself and her opponent. The process was fairly slow but the 4th Seat had never been the quickest at anything in truth but slowly but surely, she managed to close him down, until she was able to pretty much force his attack right back at him from close range, resulting in a blast that briefly covered the battlefield in a blizzard, as the wind and ice converged.

Using it as cover, hardly seeming to be affected by the icy conditions, Armina would Shunpo for a third time, knowing that her lack of skill in the art would catch up with her soon enough. Still, as long as her opponent died first, it didn’t matter. She’d appear above the massive creature and soar down towards him, looking to smash his skull with her six foot hammer. It might not have looked like much against his enormous head but with the strength that Armina was packing, she was sure that it’d be enough to give him something to think about.

”Eeeep!!!”

Ranma quickly shot his mouth, spilling his popcorn all over the floor at the sight and sound of Armina’s spiking contempt towards him. It also brought him up to speed – Armina was closing up on the Arhat by walking up on his super-air attack, pushing back the winds in all directions! A big boom was about to go off, should Armina reach all the way up front-

“Oh shi-“

Leaping out of range, he barely got to move away from terrible colds as a large blast of cryo-temperature expanded itself over the battlefield, leaving icicles, frozen floors, cracks in the soil and windows at nearby sheds. While Ranma’s arms and legs, not to mention his behind, was stinging cold now, the Arhat’s entire front was freezing as well, slowing down his colossal movements.

F-Fuck, shit’s cooooooooold… b-b-b-b-but that guy, he’s so damn cool! All those wind blasts, his size- why’s he not a Shiniga- … THIS IS MY TIME TO SHINE!!!

Armina had performed Shunpo again, disappearing from the floor… so she leapt up! Upon realizing this, Ranma’s head jerked back to let him gaze at the sky where Armina was soaring down towards him, holding nothing in secret including her overwhelming intention to split his skull into a million pieces. Despite spotting her like an annoying fly, the Arhat’s frost detriment was slowing him down, holding him back from lifting his fist to counter.

“PAAAAAAAAAUSE!!!!”

A bluish crescent wave was aiming at Armina – a fully harmless wave, intending to bind her entire body and Zanpakutō in a lamination of slowed time. Should she not dash out of the way, he would propel himself up in the air with a boosting kiai – magically remembering some lessons in Hakuda back at Shin’o Academy, how convenient – and double-kick the Arhat forward to avoid the incoming ice hammer. “Aaaaaaaarhat, sorryforbuttingintoyourfight, but would you like to become a Shinigami?!”

One moment, she was diving down towards the ugly bastard and the next, she felt as though she was frozen in time, as a blue wave struck her from behind. The effect was instant and she couldn’t move at all, stuck where she was, while the world moved on without her. What in the blue fuck was going on? It was difficult for her to even get her thoughts together in those few moments but there was one word that seemed to get through to her and that was the name of her lazy Shinigami ally, if she could even call him that. That attack hadn’t come from the Asshat, so who else could it have come from?

Before she knew it, the strange sensation faded away and Armina found herself falling towards the ground rather than her opponent. Angrily, she landed hard on the ground, with enough force that the area around her shook. Armina was frustrated beyond belief and for one second, the woman moved her axe as though she was going to activate her Bankai right there and then. She wasn’t even angry with Asshat at that point, knowing that it wasn’t him who’d cast that fucking spell. In the end, she didn’t but what she did instead was twirl her hammer, calling out the name of an ability. “Freezing Chains.”

From the head of her hammer would spawn precisely what her ability claimed, a group of icy chains that would fly towards the Squad 8 Shinigami, with the intention of wrapping him like a christmas present. If he wished to team up with the big bastard then he was as much an enemy as the other scumbag was.

This entire bout between Armina and the Arhat had fully sold Ranma on the idea that this gigantic fucker was actually prime Shinigami material… and could be saved from these quarters! He could live with the rest back near the Seireitei and serve the Soul Society as an all-powerful Shinigami – how bloody awesome would that be?! “Hey, Arhat! Uh… your name’s not even a real name, though, you ought to have a better name than that of a priest- a-anyway! Hey, you held your own pretty well against a Seated member of Squad 4, don’t you know? If you ask me, you’d be more than appreciated back at the G-OLY FUCK!!!”

Stinging cold enveloped his form with the chains tying him up like a wrapped burrito, immediately realizing that he angered a member of the same Squad Shura came from. Shura fought for giggles, aaaaaand here I am, not learning from my mistakes… Erica, I’m so sorry – I’ll be on my way to Squad 2 real soon. he reprimanded himself, trying to worm his way across the floor where he landed. The Arhat was trying his best to shake off the snowflakes that had cut into his skin, cracking off the laminated layers of ice that Armina had assaulted him with.

“Gee, Armina! R-R-R-R-Relax, y-y-y-you- f-fuck these chains, man – I didn’t even hurt ya!”

What Hadō could get me out of this pickle, now? I could’ve sworn there was some sort of escape art taught back at the Shin’o… wait, would that even work?

Oh well, worth a try. Clenching his fists underneath the chains of ice, waiting for Armina to approach him, he’d summon a couple of orbs above his wrists that’d impact with the ice chains and cause a shockwave, with the intent of pushing the chains off of him with quite the explosive fashion! Bakudō 8, Seki!

“Shut the hell up!” Armina barked, approaching the bound Shinigami with her hammer in full view. She was absolutely fuming and the ground around her seemed to freeze around her with each step. It appeared as though she truly wanted to kill him right then and there, with the woman’s hands tightly wrapped around her weapon. She could even hear the voice of her Zanpakuto in her mind, egging her onwards and stirring the pot. If looks could kill, there wouldn’t be any need for her hammer at all but as it was, the best she could do with her gaze was stare a hole through him. “You draw your weapon on me and expect me to stand here and take it? You fool. No wonder you get beat up wherever you go.”

All of a sudden, he would summon a rather weak Kido that would clash against her chains, causing them to loosen somewhat. She felt it through the chains and Armina’s scowl deepened, thoroughly unimpressed by his effort. Seki was a weak spell and there was no way that a standard user would be able to dent her binding chains. Still, it had done something and the chains would loosen and travel back towards Armina, vanishing back into her weapon and disappearing. She could use them again if necessary although for now, the blue haired woman was more tempted to just smash him to pieces.

Glancing briefly up at the still struggling Asshat, she’d then look back towards Ranma. “What the fuck are you trying to do anyway? He charges out of nowhere, attacks me and you take his side? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t beat you to fucking death right now.”

His skin felt awfully cold from those chains, aching in deep pain… but he persevered, his dense body great to protect him from the elements to some limited extent. At first, he even thought that his Kidō had freed him as he felt the chains loosening from the impact of his Seki, but watching the chains return to Armina’s hammer made him think that it was merely her getting tired of him… but he was free now, so he immediately got back up on his feet!

The cold stung his skin badly… while keeping his posture, his arms were stinging, aching and wet. Arhat probably felt much worse right now, as it appeared that the adversary was taking Ranma’s side against the personification of kill-first-ask-later that was Armina. “P-P-P-Please, are you gonna kill everyone who poses a challenge? Every single one? Besides, look at him! Your exchange of blows seemed to calm him down – he doesn’t talk much, but I’m sure he knows…” Ranma defended, patting the large leg belonging to Arhat, “I mean, imagine if he joined the Gotei? I’ve never met a Shinigami his size, that’d be the stuff of legends!”

Seriously, it was one adversary, and Armina didn’t appear like the type of person who despised conflict, confrontation, battle and throwing hands for a damn laugh! Why on earth did she of all people have a problem right now? Ranma betted that they punched each other for a greeting back in Squad 4’s quarters, or something! I mean, her entire demeanor basically spewed that!

“Listen, I’m thinking about the future of the Gotei just as much as the next cunt, okay?! You’re the one- I can’t think like this, gimme a moment…” he interrupted himself by pulling up his gourd and dumping its contents down his throat.