The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

He landed a kick! He got it! You can do it, Ranma! Follow up with a lightning-fast-

-Aaaaaaaaand she was already in front of him again. Damn, Shunpo was busted in the hands – or rather, feet – of an actual expert. But Ranny gave him his due gold stars for the Bakudō, proving that Hinamori-sensei’s and Morikawa-sensei’s teaching and ear-pinching had paid off! Even if only a little bit…

“See? See? I’m catching up to you and Noharu real soon, Ranny!” he declared with a waving spaghetti arm. They ought to watch their shoulders, or a shooting meteor-shaped enigma would ball right past them and smash into the nearest wall. He could already see the glorious day when they’d truly commend his-

“Ow, WHAT?! M-My handycraft’s no issue here, mind you,” Ranma protested with a pout, a vein, and another pout, “I’ll have you know, I just didn’t exert myself earlier! Yeah… I’m not struggling with Hakuda – observe…”

If she wanted to see his hand-to-hand combat at its peak, he’d grant her wish. The thing is… he’d been hyper-focused on Zanjutsu and Kidō, so obviously his Hakuda seemed weak. He was a one-track mind, no space for multitasking when the plot demanded it-

Forget that.

He needed to be better at multitasking, then! Hakuda was all about strengthening his body along with the Shinigamis’ traditional martial arts, but Ranma couldn’t just hit hard and harder. He couldn’t just strengthen his muscles in order to land harder hits-

He could do something like this… punching the air with a clenched fist when Ranny’s ash was approaching her, sending out a fast push of air from the sheer force of his Hakuda! While not as devastating as a large Shakka-whatever, this force was aiming to scatter her ashes once more, with Ranma darting straight forward afterwards! “ooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoOOOOOOOoooooo!”

His battle cry… could use some work, though.

He wasn’t sharp enough to pay attention to small details like that while full charging straight into-

“WAIT, MY ARM-“

Despite having spread her ashes away with his Hakuda technique, Ranny kind of saw him clearly rushing towards him linearly, grabbing his arm and using his own momentum against himself to swing him straight into the ground. The flip was rapid, super-fast, and made his eyes spin like spirals for a few seconds before he shook himself back awake.

“… Pfffff, t-too much ash- I yield…”

Yeah, he was starting to fiend for a break right about now. “Okay, fine! Maybe my Hakuda could need something a bit more… wait, FUCK THAT! It’s ‘cause I’m up against you – you’re already leagues above me…”

… Okay, fair point. He thought she wasn’t satisfied with his Hakuda, but it turned out that his boon was how he dealt with close-range combatants. He’d not relied as much on Bakudō as he should’ve, but… like, Hakuda was so swift and direct – unless he could actually manifest auric armor like that spell Morikawa-sensei had, then he almost found his cards a bit short. Especially since he was still catching up on chantless casting – which, by the way, was quite misleading! He still had to chant the name of the spell, after all – ain’t nobody needed chanting before throwing a punch!

“… Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- shit, good point,” he admitted with a thumb-up, soon using the same hand to grab hers as she offered to pull him back up on his feet. He was a little wobbly, with birds flying around his rocky skull, but other than that – he was okay. Ranma had kind of gotten a bit… too used to getting thrashed around at this point, but it was more tolerance than actual damn endurance.

Ranny was proud of him, regardless. Her slender fingers managed to ruffle up his rectangular hair strands quite a bit, making the averagely-sized adult feel like an embarrassed younger brother again. Ranny really was the big sister he never had… but uh, ew – thank the heavens that he got together with Erica. That would’ve been one hell of a sister complex… but it was Ranny we were talking about. Younger past versions of him were constantly tempted to plant their heads deep in between her cushions and shrug it off as ‘freak accidents’ or ‘I was scared, my bad’, but the more sisterly and nagging she became, the more Ranma moved on from that strange crush.

Besides, Erica had bangs over her. 1-0, Ranny, gg no re. Ez.

Pouting, he simply let her evaluate his efforts – she was on point, either way. “Hmpf! I’ll get all that down in no time, easy peasy. Got an awesome Vice-Captain to platonically hold my hand all the way to… hmh.”

His thoughts braked his words in their track, suddenly lifting Hōkamaru up and gazing at its new, less bent but more bent, khopesh-like form. Less waves… less doubt. Less something, alright. And because of that, his Zanpakutō had grown a little more. Hōkamaru wasn’t talking… but he sure was listening. That made Ranma really happy, deep inside.

“Gotta toast to that. I feel manlier by the second! I'll definitely unleash Hōkamaru's full power in no time, just watch.”