I'm here to see Kenpachi

The Eleventh Division grounds were crowded upon Aramand’s arrival, members of the division in the process of training, leaving for one form or another of duty, or watching. When he arrived, several of them turned to look at him. Even after his proclamation, only a handful had actually taken notice of him. The man Aramand was looking for was not present, however. One of the members slipped off towards the Captain’s quarters.

Aramand’s target was busy taking a nap at this moment, mostly out of boredom. The towering man lay sprawled out on the floor, near an open window. He was enjoying the pleasant air if nothing else. This place had become rather boring as of late; it wasn’t often he had much reason to leave lately either. Things, in the general sense, had become boring. There wasn’t much of anyone around that felt like a “friendly spar” either. Granted, boring spars like that did very little to get his blood going.

“Zaraki-taicho! You’ve got someone lookin’ for you out front,”[/color] someone called. Zaraki Kenpachi’s one showing eye opened as he looked at the door.
“Oh? What do they want?”
“No clue,”
Eh, what better did he have to do? He sat up, grabbed his Zanpaku-tou, and stood up. The division member ran off ahead of him, leaving Zaraki to walk outside alone for once; Yachiru had ran off to get some candy or see Kuchiki or something. It was only a minute or so until he reached the training grounds, and spied the man that had apparently come looking for him. He raised his eyebrow; this guy was looking for him? Wasn’t he the Vice-captain to one of the other divisions? Seventh maybe? Eh, he couldn’t remember and didn’t really care. Small fry.

He started across the grounds, grabbing the attention of those in the area. Most of the members present had been here for a decent length of time, so they had grown somewhat accustom to the spiritual pressure that rolled off of him subconsciously. There was one or two new members who weren’t used to it though, and they instantly felt the effects of him just being in the area. Weaker Shinigami would have been paralyzed, and maybe even passed out. And this was just the stuff he put out without thinking about it.
“So, what do you want?”
His tone was a strange mix of gruff and bored as he approached the man. It was a strange occurrence however; it wasn’t often that he met someone who was actually taller than himself.

Zaraki sized the man up in a glance; he was taller and had more weight on him. If strength was determined by only the size of your muscles he might have been stronger than him. He was a combatant. But he wasn’t putting out all that much spiritual pressure. Roughly Vice-Captain level alright. While he waited for his answer, he dug into his ear with his pinky finger, seemingly as bored here as he had been before. Granted, it would not have seemed strange to the other members of the Division if he had laid down right there and decided to take his nap outdoors for once.

[Invasion - Bleach OST]

Well at least this guy wasn’t one to waste time, unlike many other members of the Gotei. He was here to fight, plain and simple. He suddenly tensed, gripped his Zanpaku-tou, and released far more energy than Zaraki had originally estimated. To be sure it was impressive, and those that hadn’t been paying attention when Zaraki had entered were now paying attention to the display of power. There was a strange quality to this man; he had no fear, which was not the strange part. His manner of acting was subtly off compared to the other Shinigami that Zaraki had met, and he had met a lot of them. To top that off, he had become rather good at sizing opponents up as well; the fearlessness of it was nice though, as the Aramand drew his blade against the man who had forcibly taken the title of Kenpachi so many years ago, who had gone through so many battles and still lived.

There was no real warning to the strike. Most of those present in the yard at that moment hadn’t been able to keep up with the step as Aramand covered the twenty meters, and as he appeared for the swing there was an explosion of sound where he had left. To accompany the sound there was a literal explosion of flames from the air as he shot forward, and those flames washed over the form of the towering captain as Aramand reached his destination. The blade flew out and went for the crushing blow. It was a strong attack. There was little doubt that it would have done some serious damage against many enemies. Taken lightly, it would have probably been a rather devastating blow against those of Aramand’s level as well; Vice Captain and even some of the weaker Captains would have been hurting after something like that.

But Aramand’s target wasn’t a Vice Captain, or a different Captain.

His target was Zaraki Fucking Kenpachi.

The blade hit Zaraki’s shoulder, and stopped cold. That does not mean the motion ceased; the blade crashed down with Aramand’s strength, and the ground below Zaraki cracked. Force, raw and angry, whipped about the pair of them and pushed several members who were closer away from them. Granted, they needed little prompting; it was well know what fate awaited those that remained in the line of fire when Zaraki got into a fight. The area around the two was rapidly becoming scarce.

Zaraki’s eyes hadn’t left the man as he had charged; even if he hadn’t been able to actually see such a movement(which make no mistake, he had) his senses and reflexes were on a different level from your average Shinigami. It was those reflexes, those senses that had kept him alive and fighting all these years, that had allowed him to fight even when the only sense left to him was that of touch against an opponent that could see, hear, and the rest.

And that was over 400 years ago.

Aramand was aware of Zaraki’s strength to a degree; his feats during the events of Aizen’s rebellion and the Winter War were still told in the bars of Seireitei, and if you calmed yourself and paid attention you could feel the barest hint of his reiatsu from nearly anywhere in Seireitei. In many respects, Zaraki held an almost legendary status in terms of combat and power. Aramand wasn’t the type to go hunting after something like that because he wanted to crush that; he just wanted to see where he measured up.

The only problem was that the stories were, for the most part, outdated by hundreds of years. And Zaraki’s strength wasn’t.

Many of people’s favorite stories were from the Winter War or from Ender’s invasion. And to be sure, Zaraki did much during those. There were tails of his training and combat with the shark beast Radioactive as well. But there was an important note that was left out of many stories, many resports.

Zaraki had gotten stronger.

There was another part of this, however. Not to belittle Aramand’s strength because it was certainly impressive, but he was lacking a great deal with this strike. Over 400 years ago, Zaraki Kenpachi first met Kurosaki Ichigo; in their first encounter Zaraki invited Ichigo to strike him. Ichigo had a permanently released Shikai, the power roughly higher than a skilled and experience vice-captain, and the kind of reckless abandon that comes with those still learning the true face of real combat. All of that, and his first strike had resulted in Ichigo getting a wound on his hand because of Zaraki’s passive power.

Again, that was four hundred years ago.

“That all?” the Captain’s voice asked, louder at this close distance. His left hand came up to rest against the blade, and he began to push it away.
“If it’s a fight you want, you better bring more than!” he shouted, and in that moment he lashed out with a powerful front kick aimed at the man’s sternum. Did Zaraki care that this man was a fellow Shinigami? No. Did he care that he was a vice-captain of a different division? No. Aramand had approached him and challenged him, even made the first swing.

Zaraki was strong; his physical strength had only grown from the time when he kicked a fellow Captain through a building, and accomplished many other feats. If the kick landed, there was an extremely high likelihood that it would cause massive damage to Aramand’s sternum including internal injury from broken ribs and so on. This wasn’t counting the impact of being flung across the yard to the wall and most likely through it. The strike came with far more speed than you would expect from a man of Zaraki’s size.

Of course, Aramand might dodge him all the same; if that was the case Zaraki would make a grab with his thus far motionless right hand, aimed at the head or the sword arm assuming that Aramand dragged the blade away from his grip. With either hold, he’d manually throw the Vice-Captain to the ground. After that; well Zaraki would have to wait and see what Aramand did in response to that.

To anyone who was accustom to watching Zaraki fight, one thing would have become apparent; he was expending more time on this man than he normally did considering the Vice-Captain hadn’t drawn blood. Why, you ask? Because this Vice-Captain was strong, and the blow had demonstrated a great deal of strength behind it. If this guy bothered to release his sword then Zaraki may legitimately get a warm-up out of this. If nothing else, it would provide a short bit of entertainment to break up the boredom that surrounded Zaraki’s existence at the moment. Strangely, it was this boredom that would work against Aramand in many way; primarily, because there was little that Zaraki was called in to take care of there weren’t many reports or stories of recent fights. Because of that, Zaraki’s true strength was an unknown factor anymore; he had been strong before, but had grown stronger during the 400 years. He just didn’t get a chance to use his new strength much.

Even with the amplified eye-patch he was wearing. That was a little known fact as well. Zaraki’s eye-patch was a little more ornate than the one that many remembered him wearing. This was because it was an amplified version he had requested after he had grown stronger; one again, he had ran into the problem of finding few that he could really enjoy fighting, so he had found a way to drag his power back down. That said, he was still at a degree of power higher than when he had found Ichigo the first time with his patch on. Ichigo would have been able to tell you that. But Ichigo didn’t come around here much. Couldn’t tell ya why.

[Battle Ignition - Shiro Sagisu]

A bell rang out as the two men clashed.

Aramand had been programmed with talents of specific captains in mind. He had been given captains were speculated at, and experimental data from the Twelfth Division to inform them. To be sure, the sheer amount of data that Aramand had at his disposal was impressive, and would give an edge in most conflicts. Yet, it was all useless if he did not understand one important thing. It was a lesson that he should have learned by this point, but he was about to learn it to on a vastly different scale.

That lesson was the different between knowing something end experiencing it. A good example would be this; the difference between knowing what a gunshot feels like and actually being shot, or the difference of knowing how much force was behind the blow of a baseball bat swing traveling at 100 miles max speed and actually being struck with said bat. Knowing how hard a gun would kick, and actually experiencing it. The practical application and experience of that knowledge was a valuable asset. The lack of that practical experience made the numbers just that; numbers.

Given the fact that Aramand was of Vice Captain level and still growing, it would be unrealistic to expect him to have dealt with anything that put out near the sheer force that Zaraki put out. But it wasn’t the force that would have been the factor missing from the reports on Zaraki. It was most likely all laid out there for anyone to see, though the lack of experience in receiving that much force may well play against Aramand in this case. What was missing was something that most people believed Zarkai didn’t possess in the first place: skill. To the members of the Twelfth Division, and particularly the captain of the Twelfth Division, Zaraki was a giant bruiser who knew nothing but how to apply overwhelming force in a particular direction. They believed Zaraki nothing above a brute or berserker.

To be fair, they were partially correct. Zaraki’s normal combat style was to rush in and apply overwhelming and direct force to the problem till said problem was no longer an issue. This was because the number of beings that could put out the amount of force that he was capable of putting out was so few in number that they could be counted on a hand, maybe two. The number of beings capable of taking that force was even fewer. It was these two facts that made Zaraki wear his eye-patch in the first place. Pure physical force was not the only thing about Zaraki Kenpachi, however. It was not only his destructive and absurd strength that had made him who he was.

He possessed skill, he possessed instinct, and he had hardened and sharpened them like a second blade. It was this skill that had made some call him a genius when it came to physical combat and the combination of his skill and instinct that had brought him victory over the previous Kenpachi. Many said it was his “un-paralleled” strength and monstrous spiritual power that had brought him victory against the previous Kenpachi and most of his Captain level opponents since. Over four hundred years ago Zaraki had fought two Captain level opponents at once and come out the victor; that was not a result of his spiritual pressure and strength, though they had played major parts.

There was one other thing to factor into all of this; Aramand had made an unconscious mistake. It wasn’t something he could control; something he could have even thought would really be a factor yet. He had piqued Zaraki’s interest. Four hundred years ago, Kurosaki Ichigo had come up against Zaraki and in the initial moments of their meeting Ichigo came under a very specific feeling; the crushing strength of Zaraki’s spiritual pressure that had made the young Shinigami feel like he had been running through quicksand, like someone was holding a blade to his throat. That same spiritual pressure had made the fourth seat of the Fourth Division collapse and lapse into unconsciousness. To be fair, this was not the average spiritual pressure that came off of Zaraki; at that time he had been excited for the possibility of someone he could fight seriously. He had possessed a killing intent at that time, which had sharpened the feelings.

Aramand’s mistake? He had landed a blow on Zaraki and not taken damage from the backlash. He stood there in the midst of the spiritual pressure unconsciously rolling off the towering captain, and he had adapted to the sudden attack in a moment. He didn’t get Zaraki’s blood boiling, didn’t rouse that same killing instinct. What he had done was garner Zaraki’s full and undivided attention. This meant that, quite suddenly, the easy going manner of Zaraki’s movements thus far would suddenly disappear. And the pressure being exerted by the Captain would suddenly increase; not the level that had grounded Kurosaki Ichigo for a short time, but closer to it.

And Aramand thought it would be so simple to catch his kick? To stop the kick? To throw him through a building?

Whatever he was smoking, it was good shit.

Assuming the Vice-Captain’s arm wasn’t wrenched from the socket from the impact of the kick, and that he had managed to catch the kick, Zaraki’s response was immediate and similarly direct. As Aramand’s grasp closed Zaraki suddenly shifted his weight forward, pivoted his hips down and right, and dragged the leg down in a sudden axe kick. The impact of said kick broke the tiled ground where it impacted; broke is the wrong word. Cratered would be more specific; a crater roughly two feet across formed where Zaraki’s heel landed. If Aramand didn’t release his hold on Zaraki’s foot he was certain to cause some damage to the arm from the force of the change, and rather substantial damage to the hand after having been crushed into the ground at the end of all that force.

Of course the smart thing to do on Aramand’s end was to let go of the foot. Zaraki was not complete with only the kick to throw off the hold; the motion of the hip pivot would turn Zaraki so that he was facing the young Vice-Captain, and the shifting of the weight put him into a set-up for a launch. His left hand shot out as he suddenly bolted forward in the short space, his hand aiming for the side of Aramand’s head. Zaraki’s bulk and monstrous strength would overwhelm the Vice-Captain if he was caught, but Zaraki had no plans to drag him very far; the movement was just to pull the man off his feet before Zaraki would fling him, unceremoniously, back at the wall surrounding the Eleventh Division compound.

Zaraki’s title was Kenpachi, given to the leader of Eleventh Division and usually the “Strongest Shinigami Alive.” Additionally, the Eleventh Division was the division for close combat specialists; Zaraki was the head of it, and thus the Close Combat Specialist of the Gotei 13. If you think he was not capable of adapting to a situation in a fraction of a second then you were seriously underestimating the sheer capability of this man, and that was a deadly mistake.

Should Aramand make an attempt to counter by making a grab of his own, he would find that he was outclassed when it came to physical strength; this was no boast, but a cold hard fact. Another attempt at a trip would result in a bone-shattering kick aimed at the shin of whichever leg was closer. Most other attempted strikes would result in a simple shoulder tackle or push to force the young man away. Why would Zaraki want to push the Vice-Captain away? Well, he had words to say mostly. That was the point of the throw in the first place, but any method would work. Besides, people seemed to appreciate a certain amount of distance from him. And since this little scuffle was still in its warm-up phase, there was no need to rush things. There was time for some enjoyment here. A small smirk had replaced Zaraki’s bland expression.

He let out a small chuckle.
“Not too bad for a Vice-Captain. And you haven’t even released your shikai yet huh? Alright, since the introductions are done, how about you release your sword and we get down to have some real fun? Otherwise, quit wasting my time,” the Eleventh Division called out to the Vice-Captain. There was no hint of mocking in the man’s voice; he wanted this to be more fun, and it wasn’t going to be at this level. He could tell that, and Aramand should have been able to as well from one simple fact; up until this point, Zaraki’s blade hadn’t left its sheath.

That was to change, provided the pair had separated through one means or another by this point. Zaraki’s hand would wrap around the hilt of the blade, and he would slowly draw the pocked and seemingly damaged blade; even in that state though, the blade was still deadly sharp. Those members of the Eleventh Division who wanted to see this had moved far back, to the edges of the training grounds where the chances of being involved in the fight were lower. Not much, but some. It wasn’t often that Zaraki fought though, so missing this wasn’t an option.

[Battle Ignition - Shiro Sagisu]

Apparently project Trinity never existed in Aramand’s records. It was not the only thing either.

Aramand’s shunpo was good; he had the stable footing and all that, and he slipped past Zaraki’s grab. The vice-captain brought the blade down, and it connected with a great deal of force. The fabric of the Captain’s haori split beneath the edge of the blade, and sparks flew up from the impact. Then the VC vaulted back away from Zaraki; he’d find his blade bone dry. The big man turned to face Aramand as he opened his mouth in response to the challenge about the Shikai, already having drawn the blade.

"I could stay on you constantly...Bully you even. You wouldn't get a chance to draw your sword. But then i'd rob myself of fighting you at your best. So Draw it. Might wanna snatch that eye patch off while you're at it, I assure you, as you are now the gap between our strength isn't as great as you think....."

Zaraki’s previous grin faded, replaced by a strangely calm expression.

Aramand took up a stance again, his blade held at the ready to the right as he continued to speak. "Im sure I haven't even scratched the surface of your power.....that's fine. Because you haven't seen an Iota of mine..."

Zaraki stood as still as stone, his showing eye narrowed. Was this kid serious? Could he really not tell? He let the Vice Captain’s challenge hang in the air for a few moments, the silence heavy like the air before a rain storm. It shattered at Zaraki’s words.
“Tch, you serious?” the Eleventh Division Captain asked. It was a rhetorical question. Beyond that though, there was a strange quality that had seeped into the man’s voice. More than hard, it had an edge to it like a piece of slate that had been broken. He slowly lifted his blade, till it rested contently against his shoulder, his eye still focused on Aramand.

“I already told you. Release your Zanpaku-tou. And come at me with everything you’ve got. As though your life depends on it,” the Captain said. Aramand had started out as being an interesting fellow, a challenge from a fresh face. He had shown some skill, good strength and speed. He had shown potential. But he was overconfident in his information and programming. Zaraki had seen men like him before; they had some power, and immediately thought they were a match for one Captain or another. It was just rare that one of them thought they could take him. Especially to the degree this one thought.

Now, Zaraki knew nothing of this supposed program to create a super-weapon. Considering the fact that Aramand was only slightly above Vice-Captain level though, it seemed to still be in the works. It made no difference really.

While Zaraki made no aggressive move as he waited for Aramand to get up to speed with whatever tricks his Zanpaku-tou possessed, it did not mean that he did nothing. Zaraki was annoyed to a small degree and it was reflected, in a sense, in his reiatsu. Kenpachi’s spiritual pressure suddenly increased, and pressed down on the area. Aramand may not have felt any effects of Zaraki’s spiritual pressure up until now, he’d feel this in much the same way as Kurosaki Ichigo did all those years ago. As though he was moving through quicksand, tightness in his chest, and the distinct feeling of a blade pressed to his neck.

Why would Aramand feel this? Because EVERYONE in the immediate area felt it. Those members of the Eleventh Division who had remained to watch where hit by the pressure, and many of them immediately decided that it would be best view from a greater distance away. Everyone within a half mile of the Captain would be feeling these effects, or at least the pressure provided they were Captain level. Beyond that half mile range they would simply feel Zaraki; throughout most of Seireitei and the places close to the Eleventh Division within Rukongai. It had been Aramand’s want to get Zaraki’s attention for a fight; he most certainly had it now.
“Oi, what are you waiting for? Come on!”