Post by Sozen Kuchiki on Jul 24, 2014 20:10:29 GMT -5
{This song first!}
Sozen did not lose focus. Instead, he closed his eyes while Kuroi appeared and began to attack him. Kuroi was trying to overwhelm him with those blades...That same hellish sword style that had left Sozen speechless in their last fight, and had probably killed so many others before him too. How could anyone have an answer to that? This was why they wanted Kuroi eliminated so badly. It took a lot of trouble and manpower to bring him down. It had been estimated that it would take up to three high level Captains simultaneously to defeat the Segunda Espada. Well, call Sozen ambitious, but he didn't really like the idea. He figured that one on one was adequate, if he was smart about it.
And he was about to be proven correct. It was true that Kuroi's sword style was possibly unmatched. Sozen certainly hadn't ever seen anything quite like it, and back when he had first encountered it, he'd been stumped. It had taken his all to defend it, and really all he'd done was use his tricky Shikai. That was the secret to Kuroi. Annoying powers, such as Sozen's Zanpakuto. Sozen didn't have that activated, though, and it would be too slow if he tried to. He had actually planned for this one anyway. Ever since Sozen had first encountered Kuroi's swords for the first time, he had been training to become stronger. And, not long ago, he'd figured something out.
"Mimic...Aoi?" Sozen asked aloud. The idea seemed ridiculous at the time that Kenpachi Shingai had first suggested it to Sozen, who had requested advice in combating the likes of the Segunda Espada. Aoi was a user of a long range weapon, the spear. Her Zanpakuto's base form was a spear, unlike Sozen's, which remained a katana. For that reason, she was a master in spear play. He had seen her in combat, and she was worth calling a monster even beyond Sozen, but how could he mimic that? He could not use a spear, and simply mimic her combat styles. "I...don't use a spear." Sozen was perplexed, but Shingai was patient enough with him to explain what it was that he meant.
"No, but you can move almost as quickly as she can," Shingai patiently replied. "And some of your techniques are faster than anything that she can produce. As I recall, you have some that also have a far greater reach than anything that Aoi can achieve as well, at least with melee weapons." Sozen thought about it, and realized that Shingai was correct. Sozen did possess faster cast spells than Aoi did, especially one in particular. He also did, with certain weapons, have a much longer reach than Aoi could ever have with her spear. Maybe the swordsman didn't always need to have the range disadvantage. Well, of course not. Thinking back, on it, Sozen realized Kuroi made up for that too.
He remembered had Kuroi's attack seemed infallible, and how short of something gimmicky, one couldn't actually defeat it. He also remembered that Kuroi seemed to have an impenetrable defense. So, if they were talking about pure swordsmanship, Kuroi had the strongest method of fighting. That wasn't exactly true, though. It was dawning on Sozen that he also had something to fight with. It was gimmicky in its own way, but it wasn't the same as just using Shikai to barely defend himself and escape with mild harm. This time, he would get out completely unharmed, and Kuroi would be the one to take some of the damage.
"Power isn't just in raw strength..." Sozen recalled from teachings of his childhood. "Power alone will lose to cunning and power put together...And even the greatest of powers fall to the might of the will of men..." At that point, he had also just quoted one of the great Captain Commanders, the mighty first of them all. Wise words came from a man who was supposedly well over 33,000 years old, and should hypothetically be dead, if not for the fact that according to Aoi and Shingai, they had actually met this man in the Royal Guard. Not that Sozen would know just yet. He had not yet earned the position of Royal Guard. But, he would soon. He just knew it. "Then...I know what to do..."
Stop music.
Aka...is it ready? Sozen asked. He needed wait only a split second for the response. It's ready. Sozen smiled as Kuroi's whirlwind of fire and bladework was incoming. Okay, so Kuroi had the superior swordsmanship, superior firepower, and probably even the superior energy reserves not only in reiatsu, but in stamina. Also, given that Kuroi could boost his own speed while negating Sozen's, Sozen probably couldn't be stated to even have any advantages. Except that, in fact, he did have an advantage. It wasn't a physical advantage. It was a spiritual one. It was Sozen's ingenuity. "Then...here we go...Kuroi..." Sozen said.
{Play this now!}
"Angel's Reach: Heavenly Spear."
Sozen started to spin around rapidly, and in fact even used Shunpo Karin on his spinning leg to massively increase the speed of his spin. As he did, many blades extended out of his fingernail metal claws, and out of his mask, and they all extended simultaneously. In a second of blurring speed, Sozen created his perfect defense. It was a whirlwind of blades of his own, a cyclone in fact, which from the center of Kuroi's grew larger because of the size. So many blades pierced out so instantaneously that all angles around Sozen were for a split second struck virtually simultaneously by Sozen's blades. This, for Kuroi, was the worst possible outcome.
While Kuroi's style was to be considered infallible, Sozen had realized that it wasn't ubiquitous. Kuroi's attack was so smooth and fluid as to seem perfect, but there was no way for his blades to be everywhere at once. It just crossed everywhere so quickly that it seemed to be everywhere at once. Sozen, however, whose cyclone was faster not only because of the instantaneous nature of his Soulbind, but the enhanced spin of Shunpo Karin, was able to occupy all of that space that Kuroi's blades left empty, even if only momentarily. This caused Kuroi's blades to be forced to intersect with Sozen's. It wouldn't stop them. Normally it would, and it would stop the customized one, which would halt and fly into the air, but it wouldn't stop Taiyou Ken, the cutting blade.
Instead, Sozen's blades would all be chopped up. However, that was the beauty of it. All of the released blades bore Sozen's red, and incidentally, as they were severed, they created dozens and dozens of red fragments everywhere, which Sozen took advantage of. In a burst of blue flames in that moment, Sozen's Soulbind was undone, and in its place, he held once again a red sheathe, and a sword with a red blade. Akai Birido, his Shikai, made a return. Though the blades from Soulbind were meant to fade, they had seconds before they would, leaving these red blades as Sozen's ultimate toys. All of this was so fast that Sozen himself was surprised he was not cut, but was not surprised at the same time, having managed to slow Kuroi's strike by half a heartbeat or more with this maneuver.
With that maneuver, Sozen suddenly disappeared using Red Teleport, allowing him to materialize outside of Kuroi's continuing cyclone, and for him to, with the dozens of floating blade fragments, attack from every single angle. All around, from three hundred sixty degrees as Sozen's foot touched down on the ground from teleporting to one of his blade shards, Kuroi would witness blades enclosing in on him like a cage, as if all coming to stab him and to kill him. The Segunda Espada was now trapped. It was so perfect that not even his own attack could save him. However, Sozen didn't finish there. Kuroi had to take some more damage.
So, with reiatsu suddenly glowing all around his body, Sozen aimed his left hand hard at Kuroi, who would be preoccupied with the attempt to defend against the attack. A cool smile broke onto Sozen's face, as at last, he held a clean advantage against the Segunda Espada. Now, with his blades coming in, and his perfect attack which reached all angles preparing to kill Kuroi, Sozen activated one of his most powerful techniques. With his arm glowing with reiatsu, and brightening up, Sozen's glinting red eyes gazed into Kuroi's. It was time, at last, to bring an end to the Segunda Espada. "Hado #96: Itto Kaso!"
Sixteen seconds is more than enough...
Sozen's Remaining Reiatsu: 1375/3000 Reiatsu
Shikai Post Count: 1/10