Demonic Halo [Momo, Ranma]

... Oh no. He didn’t like that look on her face, it was scary. Narrowed. Unamused. He said something he shouldn’t have said, and he feared that he’d soon regret it. He could sense consequences coming his way from miles away…

“Uhm… if you insist, I guess,” he agreed with a drop of sweat falling off of his brow. He’d probably have to make a better barrier here and now…

He didn’t know just how powerful her next fireball would be, but from the previous one… yeah, he went quiet. The Reishi pouring out of his arms was akin to him trying to manifest a Dankū, but obviously, he wasn’t even chanting that Bakudō. There was something very different between making a Dankū and making a Barrier with a similar shape… but he looked like he’d gotten the hang of it by now. Visualization and focus, both very good skills that Hinamori-sensei had emphasized to him.

I’m not some troublemaker anymore… this level of Kidō doesn’t trouble me. I can go further…

… The heat slapped him in the face before the fireball did- it was that large! He closed his eyes from the heat, but he could feel it draw nearer. Yet, his palms were wide-open, pressed forward as he held the barrier strongly and proudly. A simple, defensive barrier-

He would never allow the likes of Komugi to be harmed through his defense again… he wouldn’t allow himself to be harmed like that again…

The fireball hit the barrier with a large burst of flames spreading over it, roaring and raging fires in all directions. It was a wild scene, but Ranma’s barrier had… broken. Completely. It couldn’t withstand such a powerful attack from Hinamori-sensei, in the end…

But his hands were unharmed, and so was his face. “… It broke… ffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck… I really thought I had it there- you're still holding back, aren't you?”

Momo hadn’t exactly gone easy on him and as she approached him, her previously annoyed look would somewhat give way to a smile as she patted him on the shoulder. “If I’m honest with you, my Kido spells are far more powerful than Tobiume’s fireballs but believe me when I say that I put a decent amount of effort behind my attack there. For a second cast, you did an excellent job and the fact you’re uninjured is a testament to your skill. You’ve improved a great deal and with practice, I believe that you’ll be able to master this spell quite easily.”

Thinking about how to proceed briefly, she’d then chuckle and ask. “How about you give it one more try and we’ll see if you can summon a barrier that can take a hit this time around? I’ll use something a little more interesting this time to give you a proper test and if you can keep your guard up then we’ll have a go at seals.”

Stepping back, she’d give him the time he needed to prepare, musing about what spell she was going to use.

Now, given Ranma’s expertise with Zanjutsu, it was still strange to hear that some Shinigamis were able to command much greater destructive abilities via Kidō than their own Zanpakutōs could unleash-

Okay, he had to remember that not every Zanpakutō even had a destructive, offensive capability – his very own was an example of that, at least by its fundamental ability. Then again, you had to remember that Ranma wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed… but he was a shark with Kidō now! That had to make him some sort of genius!

“Nice… only a matter of time before I surpass that white-haired brat over there,” he declared with a long, wavey index finger pointing towards the wooden dummy of one of Hinamori-sensei’s… past… ‘associates’. She never really disclosed her actual relations to that guy, but given she used his façade for target practice, their last time together must’ve been nasty. To think that such a guy could leave such an impression on her… ew.

And based on last time, he was still alive and about?! At some point, Ranma was destined to meet him… and if he wanted to give him a noggin’ for whatever made Hinamori-sensei dislike him to this degree, he’d have to get stronker…

I mean, stronger…

Ranma held his palms up again. It was fairly locked into his brain now – these barriers really were just a direct manipulation of his own Reiryoku pouring out as a solid mass. It… didn’t have to be a flat screen, right? If it was free manipulation of Reishi, then… nah, the easiest form he could imagine was a screen.

His Reishi poured out of his palms, lingering forward and flattening into a screen of spiritual energy that covered for most of his position. It looked like a pane with a lavender glow, but… focus, focus. He wanted it to last, to brace and not just break. It had to withstand as many spells as possible – he was tired of just having every object of defense break immediately! This time…

“I’m ready!”

As he brought up her former friend, she’d chuckle and add. “His name is Toshiro Hitsuguya if you want to know. Former Captain of Squad 10 and a guy who stopped growing at about age 8. If you’re able to fight him evenly one day then I’d say you’d definitely be good enough to fight any high levelled opposition. We may have had a falling out but he wasn’t a weakling, just rather arrogant about his own powers and a little too headstrong. Learn from his mistakes.”

When he was ready for her attack, Momo would simply raise a hand towards him, channelling her spiritual energy. “Hadō #73. Sōren Sōkatsui.”

A powerful blast of concentrated energy would erupt from her form and travel towards him, blue in colour and hardly lacking in strength. Usually, it would simply attack him in one single strike but Momo would tweak the spell and rather than just one, the energy would split into four and move around Ranma to try and attack him from four different directions. She wished to test the entire barrier this time, which should have been shielding his entire form. If he could defend from this, then he’d be in a good spot.

He didn’t expect her Hadō to actually split like that, though it was definitely something easy by her capabilities! But at the same time, his barrier was feeling a little thin when it surrounded him like this…

Guess he had to try it out again. That technique… it was Barrier Kidō armor, after all – still technically a barrier.

“O', Lord of Heaven, Adorn me in your Grace and Defend your Arbiter…”

The barrier surrounding him contracted itself, leaning onto his form directly… and the dividing blasts from Hinamori-sensei’s Sōren Sōkatsui made contact with him, white-bluish fires blasting in all directions. It might’ve been a source for panic, since his barrier contracted onto Ranma’s skin right before the Hadō hit him…

But he was fine. In fact, the previous lavender barrier had turned into crimson, translucent armor resembling that of old samurai, floating just an inch-

Aaaaaaaaand after a few more seconds, it broke again… slowly. It cracked down, just as his focus dissipated over a period of a few dozen seconds. It revealed to be the mere time limit that caused its deterioration rather than Hinamori-sensei’s spell itself. "Bakudō #55: Seikotsu Sōkō. Barrier Kidō armor - Morikawa-sensei invented it. I've tried to make it work for so long… I just remembered the 'barrier' part of it, heh."

“You didn’t tell me that you already had experience with barriers.” The Kido expert would answer, smiling once more as she wandered over. “I must say that I was expecting you to have another go at the barrier we were working on but I commend you for trying out something else. You certainly cast that well and did a fine job blocking my spell. I believe that with both my spell and the one you’ve been taught already, you probably have enough to be getting along with now in terms of barriers. Congratulations, you’re on your way to mastering a whole new form of Kido.”

Beckoning him to follow her, Momo would then lead him over to her target practice area, where the familiar human and hollow looking targets would be. “Since your next lesson is going to involve the use of a moving object, we can use the target dummies for this.”

Once they reached them, the dark haired woman would come to a stop and turn to Ranma. “We’re now going to move onto seals, a higher level of bakudo that not only stops a target from moving but can lock them away into a different space entirely when used properly. When an opponent is too dangerous to be allowed to move freely, we use these spells to imprison them for incredibly long periods of time.”

Damn, she was actually impressed by Morikawa-sensei’s Bakudō! But it was a Bakudō… but it implemented the whole barrier technique thing… so were Barriers by proxy just a different branch of Bakudō? Such deep, complex questions running in his skull… ah, fair. Similar things. Barrier, Bakudō, they even started with the same letter – B. B for blocking. Barrier-ing…

His brain was going off the rail. Back to normal.

Oh, guess he overdid himself, ‘cuz Hinamori-sensei concluded that he’d gotten the basics of Barrier down to a T. Ranma leapt up in the air with fists reaching for the blue sky in jubilation, joyous over picking up more and more Kidō tricks like this. “Yubeeeeeeeeeeee! Barrier’s down, baby!”

He skipped along her towards the target practice area, waving at the practice dummies that he remembered from last time. After Barriers were Seals… and from what she described it as, it sounded like a lot of the movement-impeding Bakudōs, but with much more potency. This shouldn’t be an issue, Bakudō’s already my shtick…

… Huh?

“Different… so, like, you could lock someone in a Kyokkō-like place? Like some sort of dimension prison?!”

“Sure. You can think of it that way.” Momo replied with a chuckle. “It’s basically another level of Bakudo where you remove a foe from the playing field completely. Incredibly useful but similar to barriers, you generally need to come up with your own ideas. There aren’t many basic ones and the academy doesn’t teach them generally because they’re an advanced field of study. I can show you one to get you going though and the rest will be up to you.”

Turning to the targets, she’d focus her attention onto the Toshiro shaped one and utter, taking a casting stance. “Ume no ki no inkan.” She then said in a clear and firm voice.

From her hands would burst forth a group of ten plum shaped balls of fire, similar to Tobiume’s Shikai ability but far smaller. Moving forward, they’d spin around the target, increasing in speed until finally Momo gave one loud clap of her hands, causing the target to become completely engulfed. All that was left behind was a single Kido plum, which Momo was then able to pick up safely and toss into Ranma’s hands.

“I always wanted to try it on the real him but never got the chance.” She joked.

These seals sounded so hella extra, but so hella useful too- WHY THE FUCK WASN’T THE ACADEMY TEACHING THEM THIS SHIT?! Do you have any idea how useful they could’ve been against the likes of Armina?! Shura?! THE ARRANCARS?!?!?!?! He could’ve sealed that bitch up real quick back then if-

Or maybe not… she was probably going to Cero her way out of the seal, somehow.

But it was also a sort of ‘sandbox’ kind of skill that required him to come up with his own. No blueprints or manuals here – just make his own and go from there. Well, if he could make a simple barrier, then surely, he could make a simple seal too.

…

She made a plum. A Kidō-Reishi-Plum. He sensed a theme going on here, it was kinda adorable- also, she sealed away the midget-dummy completely inside of that plum?!?!?!

Ranma’s hands managed to catch the Kidō plum, glaring at its surface to try and see if he could check its contents. It was bright and saturated with Hinamori-sensei’s Reiryoku, though, but it sure looked like an actual plum – round and purplish, a bit tempting to the tongue… he lowkey wanted to take a bite off it. “It looks a bit tasty.”

… Oh yeah, he should try it too. “Hmh…” he ruminated on the method – the way Hinamori-sensei went about was to first manifest a number of orbs, and each would help weave the seal around the target. Reaching his free hand out, he’d focus on releasing… say, 5 orbs. 5 burning orbs of his Reishi, each flying towards-

Oh, he accidently slammed them into the target dummy with the glasses. “N-Noooo, don’t- weave around, aroooouuund,” he begged, trying to make the orbs spin around the target instead of bumping into it like confused toddlers, “Hnnnnnnnnnnnng…”

He’d struggle with it for a while. This was definitely a much more fundamentally different Bakudō technique, nothing he could just pick up rapidly. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmbwaaaaaaaaah, the plum’s making me a little hungry.”

Tilting her head as she watched Ranma take it upon himself to have a go at the spell, Momo would look a little baffled. While she appreciated his eagerness to try out the sealing technique, he’d made quite the obvious error. One that she felt was necessary to bring up. “You didn’t state the spell’s name. You’re not going to have any chance of mastering the spell if you don’t do that. I have to say that you did pretty well to get as far as you did.”

Chuckling, she’d fold her arms across her chest and continue after a moment. “Try again but this time make sure that you use the correct name as well. I’d also advise against trying to eat it as you may end up finding your mouth on fire. Funnily enough, I’ve always preferred peaches to plums. Figures my zanpakuto means plum, huh?”

Giving him plenty of space in case he had another accident, she’d finally say. “All yours, Ranma. Aim for whatever target you want and have at it.”