I'm here to see Kenpachi

[A Thousand Deaths - Immediate Music]

It seemed that Aramand was finally ready to cut the crap and start the fight in earnest. His spiritual pressure increased as a grin, strangely familiar and yet foreign, came across the tall man’s features. At some point he had re-sheathed his blade, which made for a dramatic release of his Zanpaku-tou, and the power was nothing to really sneeze at. Aramand’s released Reiatsu pressed down on the area, ripping up the ground around him with its power.

Three bells rang out over the din of the release.

Aramand was stronger than his position reflected, that was true. However, the sheer level of destruction he believed his attacks possessed. He was low captain level, and it was likely he had achieved his bankai from Zaraki’s assessment. His shikai would pack a wallop, no doubts there. As he released there was a large amount of energy that was pulled from the surroundings which would grant him more power than he actually held within himself alone, this also was true. The attack that was gathering above Aramand as his shikai took its form would be impressive for someone of his level. However, taking out a mile simply by releasing his Zanpaku-tou? He would have to be a much higher plane of power than he currently was to accomplish such a feat. Granted, that was irrelevant when all was said and done. Though his energy crushed down on the area, it hit a pressure that stopped it from completely destroying either the divisional barracks or the area around it.

To the more important point; Aramand’s attack gathered above him, an impressive display of power to be sure. The lightning crackled across the needlessly large blade as the strange storm of energy grew above Aramand. Zaraki didn’t budge from his position though as the energy grew above the Vice-Captain. There was a very good reason his release didn’t cause nearly the destruction that he had anticipated beyond the fact that he wasn’t at the level to have that kind of energy. The Eleventh Division, years back, had been reinforced to deal with the crushing spiritual pressure Zarkai had back then. It had maintained till now as well. Besides that though, Zaraki’s own spiritual pressure warred against the released energy; it wasn’t a reflex of the captain’s as much as his spiritual pressure. Aramand called out as he stepped forward and dropped the mass of stored energy down at Zaraki.

Zaraki watched the wave of pressure and energy accompany the swing and carom down towards him. He watched it for a moment before he brought up his blade and intercepted the attack. Now, the attack had nothing truly “physical” to be blocked by the piece of steel that was the Captain’s zanpaku-tou; what stopped the encroaching wave of destruction was the spiritual pressure that accompanied the blade and the man. The two energies clashed violently as sparks flew, and Zaraki’s blade shook slightly. Below Zaraki the ground cracked as he was pushed into the ground by the force of the blow, pieces of stone flying off as the floor buckled. Dust was kicked up as the energy clashed with Zaraki’s spiritual pressure, almost obscuring the man under it.

Zaraki Kenpachi smiled.

His stoic face split into a signature grin that Aramand had imitated whether voluntarily or otherwise. The muscles in the captain’s arm suddenly tensed, the blade ceased its tremor.

There was the ring of many bells.

There was an explosion.

Below Aramand’s onslaught there was a sudden surge, and golden reiatsu roared upwards. The ground around Zaraki tore itself to be away from him and the crushing energies. Make no mistake; the attack that Aramand had thrown was not a weak one for someone of his level of power, but it would have done little to Zaraki. So why had he stopped the blow? Well, this was his place, and the last thing he wanted was for one of his favorite napping spots to be destroyed…by anyone else. That is neither here nor there though; there was action to be worried about. Zaraki’s reiatsu flooded out, crashing into the electromagnetic energy that Aramand had sent at him. It flowed around Zaraki’s blade as he held the attack in place for another moment, the sheer pressure of his own spiritual pressure causing the bells on his hair to ring and most of those still in the area to retreat.

Then the captain let out a harsh bark of a laugh. ”Better.”

And with that Aramand had an attack of his own to worry about.

Zaraki brought his blade through Aramand’s attack, his reiatsu surged forward as he dissipated the energy with his own. Beyond that though Zaraki continued the motion, aiming the slash straight towards Aramand. His reiatsu rushed out into a shockwave of destructive energy, far more centralized than the wave of energy Aramand had thrown. As the shockwave rushed towards the vice-captain, it would tear up the ground below it. If it connected it would hit with the force of a freight train, possibly causing immense damage to who or what it hit.
“Keep it just like that. This is where the fun begins, Aramand!”
There was another pulse of reiatsu from the big captain as the golden energy surrounded him once more, threatening to crush any around him who were not ready for this kind of pressure. Throughout the fight that energy would be doing something far more sinister that few every realized was happening. It would be going to work on the joints and muscles of those nearby, grinding down and wearing on the reserves of stamina of those who were in the area to fend off the effect.

The shockwave of energy was just a casual greeting however, a memo to him that he had now garnered Zarkai’s attention and interest in the fight. Without delay, Zaraki went on the offensive; he launched forward with a burst of speed that made him look like he had been standing still earlier, driven solely by his physical strength rather than the fancy movement techniques that most Shinigami used. As he closed on the Vice-Captain he brought the sword down, the pressure of his reiatsu and absurd strength behind this swing. There were multiple ways this could go:

1) Assuming Aramand had been hit by the initial shockwave attack and was stunned, he could move to block this follow-up attack with the huge, unwieldy blade. If that was the case he’d be directly on the receiving end of Zaraki’s brute strength, which ranked as one of the highest in existence. When people spoke of physical force, names like Zaraki Kenpachi and Radioactive were at the top of the list, and for good reason. To try and stand directly and take such a blow head on could result in the possibility of being crushed to the ground, or having your Zanpaku-tou shattered under the force; it had happened before. Even assuming that Aramand hadn’t taken a hit from the surprise shockwave attack, taking a blow like this head on was a horrible idea.

Assuming he did intercept the strike, after Zaraki bore down on his with his insane strength for a moment or two he’d go for a grab to latch onto Aramand’s blade, and suddenly stop applying pressure as he pulled both his blade and Aramand’s towards him, ideally aided by Aramand’s attempt to still push back on Zaraki’s blade. He pulled Aramand’s blade back and up as he maneuvered his own blade till it pointed at Aramand’s chest, then he’d thrust forward aiming to impale Aramand near the right shoulder.

2) Aramand could make a move to dodge the strike, and counter attack. There were several options for such a counter attack, ranging from mundane to highly destructive. For instance, he could attempt to bring another attack like the previous to bear and aim for a point-blank strike with the kind of force that would cause massive destruction. This time, Zaraki wouldn’t waste the time with stopping the blow first; he’d simply slice through the attack and continue after Aramand. Instead of that though, Aramand could aim for the more direct approach of going for a sword strike after Zaraki had missed and presumably was open for such a blow. If he went left for such a thing, he’d move to Zaraki’s open side. When the strike came in from that way he’d intercept it with his left hand and either bat the blade away or grab hold of it and use it as an anchor to pull the Vice-Captain to him.

Should Aramand go to the right so that Zaraki didn’t have the use of his free hand, the method of counter attack would be different depending on which style of attack Aramand aimed to use. A horizontal strike or stab would result in Zaraki ducking lower, under the arc of the blade, and move inside the swing range of the large blade to deliver a rising strike with the blade along Aramand’s torso. A vertical or diagonal strike would result in a very different counter, as Zaraki would swing his blade to intercept the oncoming strike. He wouldn’t just intercept it though in the sense of interposing his blade between himself and Aramand’s. Instead he’d swing horizontally and catch the blade with the back of his Zanpaku-tou, the aim to push the blade out of the way for a moment. From there he’d rush in and with the actual blade of his sword aim for a deep and powerful horizontal blow to open Aramand up across his chest, enough force behind the blow to possibly send him flying away.

There was also the possibility that Aramand could attempt a Kidō to either restrain to deal damage to Zaraki; however, to do that he’d need to put a great deal of power behind the Kidō to get through Zaraki’s spiritual pressure. This was the man who slapped aside a cero from the Fifth Espada four hundred years back, and it hadn’t so much as burnt his hand. If Aramand went for a destructive Kidō it was possible that Zaraki would catch the Kidō in much the same way he did when fighting the Fifth Espada and simply hurl it back into Aramand’s face. If it was a restraint Kidō, well, you try and restrain something that is effectively a fucking force of nature. He would need to put enough power into the Kidō to hold Zaraki down, which would likely leave little energy for an attack. Even if he did manage it, it was likely that mid counter attack Zaraki would break through the restraint Kidō and unleash a counter assault of his own.

3) There was also the possibility that because of the sudden increase in power that instead of going for the counter attack Aramand would make an attempt to get first-hand knowledge of Zaraki’s abilities and fighting style rather than fall back on the information he had been given before. Or maybe he’d retreat from the attack for a completely different reason. It didn’t much matter in all honesty; should Aramand make the attempt to retreat from the blow Zaraki would pursue him aiming for more slashes at the man. Aramand had come looking for a fight with Zaraki Kenpachi, and he wasn’t going to get anything less now that he had woken Zaraki from the metaphorical slumber he had been in from the lack of battles.

It was possible that in retreating Aramand would be attempting to maneuver Zaraki into a more advantageous position with witch to unleash any of the attacks listed above from a position where he wasn’t under so much pressure. That was a sound plan, but it wouldn’t change a damn thing; should Aramand aim to land an attack similar to his previous one Zaraki would simply crash through the attack surrounded in a corona of golden energy that would turn him into an almost literal cannonball of destructive power that would be hurtling straight at Aramand.

4) Should Aramand employ the use of Hoho techniques such as Shunpo to attempt to get to a more advantageous position from which to strike him, he’d find a practical application of the instincts Zaraki possessed as he’d move his blade without turning to actually see the strike coming in and block it. Beyond the fact that Zaraki’s senses were far better than most expected (many thought they could take him out by approaching him on the side of his eye patch, and many had ended up dead because of the false assumption). It was almost as if Zaraki possessed a sixth sense for the flow of combat and the actions of those around him. That wasn’t quite the case; he couldn’t explain it to you unfortunately, because it was simply his reflexes working in tandem with his instincts to keep him alive and fighting. The fact that he enjoyed battle, and thus sought out ever stronger opponents had only sharpened these instincts and reflexes further.

Somewhere during this, something strange would end up happening. A single black butterfly would fly into the area, landing softly on Zaraki’s shoulder. Hell’s Butterflies were strange creatures in that they seemed unaffected by most changes in reiatsu, and were used mainly for the transmitting messages between members of the Gotei. This one though, had a very important message from a very strange source.
“My regards, Zaraki-taicho. Please pass them along to the young man before you; he thinks he can rival Old Man Yama in terms of destructive power, but the dead don’t lie.”
The voice, and the message were enough to draw Zaraki back for a moment from his onslaught. He recognized the voice; anyone should have though he was the only one to have heard it since the message was aimed at him. Jenna Jade Waters was dead, and it was not some kind of pre-recorded message that would have made sense out of context anywhere else.

Zaraki’s smile had not faltered during this, and he added a laugh after it as the momentary reprieve ended and he shot forward again towards the Vice Captain.
“Jenna Jade Waters sends her regards, and says you don’t have near the destructive potential of the Old Man, which you seems to think you do. I don’t care; keep this interesting for me. I haven’t had a chance to get a warm-up in a while,” he called as he rushed forward again to cover whatever distance was between the two combatants at that point. If there hadn’t been then instead of simply rushing towards him he’d pressure back again, aiming to drive Aramand back and off balance as he lashed out with another series of vicious blows.

While the blows held tremendous strength and destructive potential on a personal level, none of the blows were aimed for vital areas, and the killing intent that usually pervaded Zaraki’s reiatsu during a true fight to the death was not entirely present. It was there in part, but it was a small part. The captain’s reiatsu continued to crush down on the area as he pursued his opponent.

There were things here that some would point out were working against the captain; Aramand’s weapon had a longer reach than his own, and his arms were a tad longer by virtue of him being a few inches taller than the captain. That said, Zaraki had fought against opponents who had such reach advantages against him before and it had mattered little to him in the long run. Beyond that though, Aramand faced a notable disadvantage with his weapon as it was. It was certain to be unwieldy to some degree; a sword eleven feet long and wide as some children are tall are not balanced correctly. I’m not talking about how much the blade weighs, since everyone knows that Zanpaku-tou are always light in the hands of their owners. More, the point at which the blade is balanced would be moved up as well as the point of percussion. In this case, the point would be moved farther up along the blade. This would lend the blade to more devastation blows when they landed due to the increased mass, but it held a flaw well. The point of percussion on an object like a sword or bat is the point at which striking something feels “right”. It results in the fewest vibrations feeding back into the user’s hands, in the case of the sword often translated to the deepest cuts when it was that point that made contact with the target.

With that point on the sword being moved up, it meant that Aramand could strike with the “Sweet spot” of his sword from a longer distance, which was certainly an advantage. Zaraki knew this from looking at the weapon, and his instincts took over from there. When Aramand would swing at him, he’d purposefully strike to counter the blade with his own low of where the point should be, resulting in a sonic feedback into Aramand’s hands. He may not notice it right away, but repeated strikes would begin to have a result on his hands to the extent of possibly making them go numb. Beyond Zarkai’s impressive physical strength and durability, it was his instincts that guided him through battles. It was those instincts in tandem with his physical capabilities that had allowed him to fight two captains at the same time, to fight one them while deprived of all senses except touch. His instincts, his reaction time, his physical prowess; these were the true weapons of Zaraki Kenpachi, the sword merely an instrument of delivering all of this into a focused package to his opponents.

This was the man that Aramand was fighting, and the hidden intellect of a combat genius that most assumed to be a brawler. As they fought, that same borderline psychotic grin remained on Zaraki’s features as he enjoyed every moment of this beautiful distraction from his otherwise boring as shit day. The fight had now begun, and he hoped it woulnd’t end too quickly.[/i]


* Permission for the use of Jenna Jade Waters provided by UHCM aka Hanako.

[THEFROST] wrote:

This Template is for Shinji Character

Looks down at the combat scene as the energy grew substantially from either side of the combat, and then feels the rumble as Armand awakens his weapon unleashing a massive amount of energy, which seems to get swallowed by Kenpachi, He kneels down again and draws out his sword as he watches the growing energy above the other indivdual he didnt know why he was sticking around, but he would need his own shikai to protect himself against what was coming, he was sure he would so he whispered "Ten-te ga watashi o mamoru" which roughly translated to 'Heavens Hand Protect Me'. His weapon would enlarge and become more dense but nothing else would be apparent. He stood up and continued to watch again, the spirit inside of his sword had its hackles rising due to the increased spiritual pressure from the two of these individuals. Matching them for the moment, but when he watched the explosion happen and Captain Kenpachi's Spiritual pressure peaked massively to swallow it, so did his own spirits power and pressure spike to match Kenpachi's, to stop him from collapsing or falling unconcious. Most likely it would be noticable to the other two that a third Spiritual presence was very close to their fight zone and seemed to be matching spiritual pressure with Kenpachi at that exact moment. He watched as the explosion was redirected straight up by the captain, and his jaw dropped in awe of the mans shere power and strength. He remained on the roof top and did not interfer however.

Posting Template By: [THEFROST]

[Super Strength - Two Steps From Hell]

Aramand had made one dangerous assumption; namely, that Zaraki gave a shit about him generating the energy for the attack overhead.

While the shockwave was being absorbed by the attack (meaning that the attack was still in the process of being completed) Zaraki had already begun his movement. He most certainly took note of the shifting of energies; though his skills at energy detection were probably some of the lowest within Soul Society it didn’t take much skill at all to notice the shift in his own attack. Beyond that it didn’t take a genius to notice the giant ball of energy that was steadily growing overhead the two combatants; at that point in time there were two options open to Zaraki. He could either rush forward to make a preemptive strike or he could allow the attack to complete and see where the battle went from there.

Zaraki has never been a very patient individual, now has he?

So Zaraki rushed forward, and there was a drastic change in the captain as he rushed. Specifically, the killing intent that had been absent had rushed back into the Captain’s reiatsu. The reasons for its appearance were rather simple; primarily, the presence of that much raw power was enough to trigger the “serious” side of Zaraki so that rather than be at least a little bit mindful of how much power he used he just went for it. Secondly, that much power would destroy the Eleventh Division barracks when it landed; not only would that destroy one of his favorite napping spots, but it would also catch many of the division members in the blast. This was a battle between himself and Aramand; dragging others who had made a conscious effort to remain out of Zaraki’s way was not alright with him. Granted, this was a very small piece of the puzzle; for the most part, Zaraki just didn’t want to have to deal with the reconstruction of the Division barracks and all of the people complaining about it.

Regardless, the result was the same. Aramand seemed to have been too preoccupied with generating the attack and the shield to keep him from the ensuing explosion. He shouted out the explanation as he started to launch the attack; that was when Zaraki hit him. An overhead, vertical strike that crashed into his left shoulder It didn’t stop there though; Zaraki’s absurd strength pressed down, and a moment later he had literally cut the Vice-Captain in half! There was an explosion of energy as the strike hit, reiatsu that had followed Kenpachi’s blade through the swing and his opponent; the ground for several meters around the pair shattered and was ripped away from the force. Thus was the end of the Vice-Captain Aramand Armageddus.

Aramand’s legacy, however, fell straight for its target. As the Vice-Captain had said, the attack would follow Zaraki wherever he went. The Captain looked up, taking no time to relish the end of the fight. He jumped out of the small crater that now existed near one of the corners of the training plaza, and proceed to keep moving while the attack followed him. An attack like this…it was a pain. It would deal a great deal of collateral damage when it hit, and because of the expansion of Rukongai there wasn’t much of anywhere he could really take this. Maybe he could take it over to the Sixth Division as a present. Or he could try running it into the barrier around Seireitei. Granted, since it was partially made of his own spiritual pressure apparently, it might just break the barrier and cause more destruction.

Wait a minute…now there was an idea.

Zaraki ran for another ten seconds, clearing the training area of the divisional barracks and entering what amounted to a common area for travel. He jumped, landing heavily on one of the roofs of the nearby buildings, and vaulted into the air so the attack would follow him up. When he landed in a mostly empty passage way, he figured it was as good a place as any. He turned to face the oncoming attack as he rocketed down after him. He reached up with his left hand, taking hold of the eye patch that was as much a symbol of the man as the destruction he wrought. With one swift motion, he pulled said eye patch free.

There was an explosion of reiatsu, the walls around him buckling and exploding outwards. For a brief moment, it looked like Zaraki was just going to take the attack head on, and probably decimate the surrounding area. As the attack closed however, he reached out his left hand and slammed the eye patch into the oncoming attack. His own reiatsu held the attack back; since the attack was partially made of his own spiritual pressure the creature that was the eye patch took too it immediately and began absorbing the attack.

It took ten seconds, maybe fifteen, and the attack was completely devoured. Zaraki’s spiritual pressure hammered down on the area, the walkways immediately around him cracking under the force of the fully unfettered captain. The buildings around him began to be forcefully shattered, the bonds between the spiritual particles unable to hold against the tremendous force being put out by the captain. A pillar of golden energy had erupted into the sky and for a moment Zaraki stood there wreathed in golden light, almost enjoying the feeling of letting loose. The he replaced the eye patch and walked back into the Divisional Barracks.

There wasn’t much left of the metallic body that was Aramand. Normally when a Shinigami died there body would break down into spiritual particles and fade away. However, Aramand wasn’t a normal shinigmai and thus he did not fade away. That said, there wasn’t a great deal left of the mechanical creation; not only had it been split mostly in half (his head had been left intact) but it had been blasted by a shockwave-style strike at near point blank range. While the head had not been struck directly, the attack had separated the head from the body since the neck had been obliterated by the combination of spiritual and physical force. The body had been partially crushed by both of those while he was cut down the middle.

Zaraki stood there for a few moments, viewing his handy work. He hadn’t exactly set out to do that, but apparently he had overestimated the amount of force he could actually put out against this opponent. He had gotten too excited since he had been bored for so long. He shouldered his blade as he stood there.
“That’s it huh?”
Silence answered the captain.
“Tch.”
Zaraki Kenpachi turned to look at the group of onlookers who had gathered. He stood there, now a silent figure over a scarred battlefield, and waited to see if he was clear to go nap again, or he was going to be rewarded with a further warm-up and maybe even some real fighting. Or maybe he’d just have to listen to people complain about how the grounds were in a bit of a wrecked state now.

Zaraki Kenpachi didn’t give a fuck about that anyway.

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