The Breaking Point [R, NDE]

[Tsubaki Shiba]

Thread Title: The Breaking Point
Participants: Kimiko Shihoin, Tsubaki Shiba
World: Human World
Death Setting: Non Death Enabled
Rating: R
Location: In an alleyway, outside of the Xcution lab where Tsubaki works (until she receives a replacement lab in the primary research and development facility).
Special Conditions: None
Circumstances: Tsubaki was exiting her workspace for the night, but in the alleyway outside she was set upon by a Shinigami, Kimiko, who was sent to deal with a Rogue Shinigami sighting. Luckily, Tsubaki's identity hasn't been revealed, but she still is being thrust into a fight for her life.

[Tsubaki Shiba]

This had been a very long day of work, and yet Tsubaki didn't feel drained. If anything, she felt more alive than ever. She felt like she was on the top of her game, capable of doing anything! Her assumption was likely wrong, but it still felt good. Finally, after months of trying to access it, she had awoken the parasite that the Kasumi'Oji family had helped surgically implant in her before she left Soul Society. Her Bakkoto was now online and available, and testing it's limits had proven to be very, very interesting.

As far as Bakkotos go, Tsubaki would be willing to bet that she possessed the second strongest Bakkoto in existence, second only to Lord Callus' Labyrinth Archangel. On the other hand, however, Lord Callus had peaked, he wasn't getting any stronger, and Tsubaki still had a lot more room to grow. In due time, she was going to be mighty enough that few Captains could stop her. And once she reached that point, she was going to speak to Satsujun about Xcution's position in the spiritual world.

However, admittedly, she still had time before that would occur. Time to research and reawaken her Kido prowess. Time to enhance her spiritual pressure and the strength of her reiatsu more, as well as recover her energy sensory, which had been lost when her memories were erased. And most of all, time to experiment. She had Hollows to dissect, Fullbringers to examine, Arrancars to investigate, and many more races to discover the secrets of. The more data she had, the more she knew, and the more dangerous she was.

But for now, Tsubaki was done with work. She had cleaned up the lab, so that it would be tidy for her when she returned the next day, and closed up shop. Beakers had been put away, surfaces had been cleared, notes had been organized and stacked on her workbench. And with that, she exited the lab into the alleyway that bordered her part of the building. It was a few hours after midnight, and there was hardly a human around, and yet Tsubaki felt uneasy, as if something was wrong.

[Kimiko Shihoin]

Such a dark dreary night that so far had little enjoyment throughout it. The young princess had been sent on a mission to gather intelligence on Xcution. She had been sent specifically for the science division of the human organization. The reason being for this assignment the princess had not been briefed on nor did she care. Science was not something for her and she wanted very little to do with learning how to make robots especially the ones that squad twelve made. Always pretty boy versions that they though past as members of the Kuchiki family when really they were just robots.

Kimiko had been squatting atop the ledge of a tall building across the street of the building that was supposedly the scientific research area for Xcutuion. It had been hours and Kimiko had noticed nearly nothing happen from the outside. Around an hour prior the princess had actually made her way over to the building and looked in through the windows only to see what she would expect to be a female scientist doing something with liquid. Honestly the princess had no clue, but thought it wiser to wait for the girl to leave the building before an action was deliver.

Right now though the princess was bored out of her mind and had though over nearly everything possible to keep her attention and attitude somewhat under control. "How long can someone actually do that kind of work." Kimiko was frustrated and actually had just extended her arms out towards the building across the street once again. It only occurred to the princess a few moments later how ironic what she had just said was in her own view. She was doing something others would think just as impossible and had little problem with it due to her training.

After a few more moments though of impatiently waiting atop another building's roof Kimiko saw that the lights inside of the scientific building were being shut off. That meant that the girl on the inside was finally getting ready to leave. Although Kimiko thought it entirely possible that the girl might actually be sleeping in that building with all the time she seemed to spend in there. Making her way over the roofs and then across the street Kimiko stopped atop the ledge of a building that made up the right half of the alleyway.

The girl was now in the alleyway and Kimiko wasn't going to track her or anything like that which most members of her squad would think best and many of the officers would prefer. The princess's patience was already far past the limitation and she was going to get the information she needed right from the source one way or another. Dropping down from the ledge Kimiko would land in the alleyway a few feet from the girl. Kimiko was now in between the girl and the street preventing her from running in that direction. "Hello there I'm going to need to ask you some questions. If you answer right away we can both just go and get this night over with so what'd say just tell me about what you were working on in there."

[Tsubaki Shiba]

With a slight 'thump', a girl appeared in Tsubaki's view. No, not just any girl. Black robes. A shinigami, clearly. Although Tsubaki couldn't see any markings on her robes that would designate her division, it was clear she was an unseated officer. And actually, judging by the minimal noise that she made when landing from a tall height, the natural, unconscious muffling of sound made it possible that she was in Squad 2, or the Onmitsukido. But that was pure conjecture, not something that would be useful in a combat situation.

She was smart too. Or at least she wasn't stupid. She had landed in between Tsubaki and her escape route, although presently she stood a few feet away from her, maybe six or so? Distance that could be closed quickly, but not instantly. Well, depending on how fast the girl was at least. Tsubaki couldn't tell whether she was a physical brawler or a Kido user, not yet at least. She'd lean towards the first, the girl had a build that indicated some degree of physical training.

Her voice though, her voice bothered Tsubaki a great deal. There was something about it, an aspect of condescension, that reminded Tsubaki of how Aiko had become later in life, once she'd gotten cocky from all the idiotic praise that she received. And perhaps, admittedly, it reminded Tsubaki of how she once had spoken, back when she was the heir of the Shiba family. The natural 'demand' that always seemed to slip into her voice, as if everyone around her owed her something that she needed them to pay back.

And worse still, she was asking Tsubaki to share information. Ignoring the whole Soul Society/Xcution being vaguely in opposition to each other, ignoring the enraging insinuation that Tsubaki would be willing to break fundamental agreements she made when she joined Xcution's research division, this little bitch had the nerve to demand that Tsubaki divulge knowledge, knowledge that she worked hard to achieve. This was affront to everything that Tsubaki believed, and she was ready to break this insolent child.

"My apologies, Shinigami, I'm afraid that I cannot give out such information, even to people with the proper clearance level to know such a thing." She responded, her voice, cold and clinical. Tsubaki knew that her voice was unpleasant to hear sometimes, people claimed it sounded like a robot, monotonous. But it worked, and Tsubaki required little more than that. "However, I could point you in the direction of some resources, such as a library, if you wish to cultivate knowledge independently."

Tsubaki's control over her own emotions was limited, or at least her ability to express her emotions in particular. However, for this girl, Tsubaki made sure to load that last sentence with as much sickly sweet condescension as she could muster. This child couldn't hope to fight on even terms with her, Tsubaki knew that for certain, but it'd be fun to see how she ticked. Maybe Tsubaki would be lucky and be capable of taking her Zanpakutou, for research purposes.

SPOILER: Click to show

[Analysis] 1
[Combat Analysis] 1
[Street Fighting] 1
[Kido] 1
[Mental Incantation] 1
[Strength of Will] 1
[Focused Eye] 1

Strength -50 (30)
Speed -50 (75)
Reiatsu Strength - 75
Spiritual Pressure - 130 (260)
Instinct - 60 (45)
Senses -60 (45)
Energy Sensory -0
Healing Expertise -0
Dark Aura -100
Light Aura - 0

[Kimiko Shihoin]

"My apologies, Shinigami, I'm afraid that I cannot give out such information, even to people with the proper clearance level to know such a thing."

The princess of the Shihoin family looked down the alleyway at the female scientist and heard the voice. It just didn't seem right. This girl looked beautiful the long dark hair and cute face. Kimiko didn't even mind the glasses or anything, but that voice clearly revealed what she truly was. "How can a robot be attractive. Oh damn they're getting even better at hiding them. I guess to make them look prettier the voices have to be worse." Kimiko honestly at this point believed that the girl was a robot who had information that she ha been sent to gather.

"However, I could point you in the direction of some resources, such as a library, if you wish to cultivate knowledge independently."

After the robot girl talked to Kimiko in that way the princess's eyes squinted and Kimiko's patience was completely gone. Kimiko leaned forward pointing her right hand outwards at the robot bitch. "Hey what the hell? Isn't it in your programming to answer questions?" Kimiko was looking at the girl incredibly aggravated and not rage boiling from her wariness. "Fucking robot bitch." Kimiko whispered under her breathe as she began to walk towards the girl.

"Look I don't want to cause trouble for either of us. I just want to get what I was told to and go home so I can get some sleep. Can't you just give me a copy of whatever you were working on in there." Kimiko was now only about four feet from the girl when she stopped and looked into her eyes through the glasses. Out of nowhere Kimiko would give a dumb founded look like she was trying to communicate with the robot who wasn't answering her. "Bee boo bot . . hello! Did you turn yourself off?"

Kimiko honestly had no clue what the hell was going on and was at this point just hoping that the robot would give her information so she could return home and go to sleep. To make matters worse she had promised Kisala a training session in the morning so she knew she was going to wake up exhausted anyway. Right now she just starred t the robot her black Onmitsukido on other then the hood with her zanpakuto on her back.

[Tsubaki Shiba]

A pointed finger aimed at her, and an angry comment indicated a certain lack of control within the Shinigami that Tsubaki would keep in mind for future reference. The girl seemed to consider her a robot, which, although vaguely insulting, Tsubaki didn't bother to correct. She was clearly delusional, and Tsubaki had neither the time nor the patience to correct her. However, the girl was stupid enough to suggest that the research that Tsubaki had collected could and should be easily handed over.

Now, the girl was only four feet away from Tsubaki, and that made her uncomfortable. The two met eyes, only for a moment, and it felt like the shinigami was trying to establish a human connection of some sort. And then, breaking the silence, she made a comment concerning Tsubaki turning herself off, again continuing the robot delusion. Tsubaki shook her head slightly, and gave a sigh. "The information that you seek isn't something that I can give out. I ask that you depart immediately, or else I will be forced to move through the path that you are currently blocking, regardless of your desire to prevent me from doing so."

This wasn't a threat. It was a statement. She was giving the girl an option, and the rest was in her hands. Either the girl would realize that she was dealing with someone way outside of her league, and leave, or she would regret the choices that lead her life to this point. Now, however, Tsubaki was prepared for a fight, and although her senses weren't what they used to be, her ability to predict movements and behavior would allow her to circumvent that, even if her opponent was fast.

The real question was whether or not Tsubaki would be capable of testing out her Bakkoto or not. She was eager to do so, perhaps too eager, and right now her body was in a stable enough condition that she wouldn't suffer too many horrible consequences from tapping into the parasite's power. Her tests regarding the first too layers had shown her that few people below Vice Captain level would be capable of defeating her if she played smart. And playing smart was all but a guarantee.

[Kimiko Shihoin]

Kimiko starred at the female robot and awaited the response yet when the girl sighed Kimiko frowned. It was obvious that the robot hadn't shut itself off so why wasn't it answering her or giving her the information. This wouldn't do the princess was tired and just wanted to return to Soul Society so she could turn in the information then go to sleep. This female robot though jus wanted to make things more difficult though for whatever broken problem she had.

"The information that you seek isn't something that I can give out. I ask that you depart immediately, or else I will be forced to move through the path that you are currently blocking, regardless of your desire to prevent me from doing so."

Kimiko looked at the robot questioning the actual logic for saying such a thing. Whatever it was Kimiko didn't care after a moment which was made obvious by the grin that spread across her face. It wasn't a grin of pride yet one of joy and excitement. The princess loved to fight I was simply a fact and she had never fought against a robot before. Who knew maybe the robot would be stronger then her she didn't know, but the idea of breaking metal raised her excitement.

Kimiko all of a sudden began to drop to the ground while lowering herself. Her right leg extending outwards to deliver a kick aimed for the robot's shins. Kimiko knew that her leg would be able to sweep the legs out from under the rest of the body and when hat happened her left leg would follow up with a kick to the upper body as it fell. Kimiko although now excited and her mind taken off of wariness still wished she was asleep.

SPOILER: Click to show

Stats/Skills
Strength - 400 (600)
Speed - 75 (84)
Spiritual Pressure - 30 (15)
Reiatsu Strength - 25 (13)
Light Aura - 70
Dark Aura - 30
Instinct - 55
Senses - 50
Energy Sensory - 0
Healing Expertise - 0

Abilities
•[Martial Art: Hakudo] {1}
•[Martial Art: Capoeira] {1}
•[Martial Art: Pressure Points] {1}
•[Strength of Will] {1}
•[Battle Focus] {1}
•[Acrobatics] {1}
•[Stealth] {1}

[Tsubaki Shiba]

There is a slow push and pull to all fights. There is rarely a single clash, where both opponents are evenly matched, and even if there is one of those, it is almost never repeated. No, battle is about pushing your enemies beyond their limits, and pulling on them when they try to push you to your limits. One of the things that Tsubaki had been particularly good at, since her rescue from prison, was winning based off of pulling, rather than pushing. That is, she let her foes kill themselves when fighting her.

This Shinigami had made the mistake of her life, but Tsubaki wasn't surprised. After all, the child likely lacked any energy sensing capabilities. She couldn't have possibly known how significant the difference was between their spiritual pressure, and what a disastrous effect that would have on her and her body. Kimiko was fast, there was no doubt about it, and Tsubaki had difficulty tracking her movement. However, her analytical ability and ability to focus on things made it much easier.

Kimiko had dropped to the ground and gone for a leg sweep, that was obvious, but the follow up was also obvious: She wanted to strike Tsubaki while she was down. The natural reaction would've been to try and stop her, but that would've been pushing against a push. In this case, Tsubaki wanted to pull. So, the second Kimiko's foot connected with Tsubaki's shins, Tsubaki fell backwards, allowing Kimiko's follow up attack, which ended up being a kick to the upper body, to connect.

But why had she done this? Well, given the whole thing happened so fast, Kimiko likely wouldn't realize what was happening until it was too late. Although Kimiko's foot slammed into Tsubaki, she felt no pain, and no force was exerted upon her body. Although it would damage her life force, due to her Bakkoto rendering her body unstable, it wouldn't actually leave any lasting damage. And why was that? Quite simply, it was because of her spiritual pressure.

All attacks are, in their simplest form, reiatsu colliding. And when reiatsu collides, the stronger reiatsu subjugates and destroys the weaker one. Yes, Kimiko was stronger than Tsubaki physically, but that didn't matter. Didn't matter in the slightest. Because Tsubaki's spiritual pressure was greater than hers by practically 250. Simply put, Kimiko couldn't harm Tsubaki, not the way she had planned to, because of a cutback that occurredwhen she attempted to. But the Shinigami failing to hurt Tsubaki was the least of her problems.

As mentioned prior, when reiatsu clashes, the stronger subjugates the weaker. In this case, Kimiko was the weaker. This meant that not only did she fail to hurt Tsubaki, the sheer act of colliding with Tsubaki's reiatsu was enough to shred her skin. Instantly, major lacerations would erupt all up and down her legs, and although she could still walk, it would hurt, she'd be slower, and she'd be bleeding horribly. The lacerations would cut down to the muscle, or even the bone at points, and leave her with horrible scars up and down her lower body.

Tsubaki rolled backwards and stood up, the motion fluid and natural. She took up a neutral stance, and shook her head slightly. "You disappoint me, as a Shinigami. You've abandoned reiatsu arts in order to focus solely on physical expertise. What you have is not strength, it is brutishness. I won't prolong this fight, I won't let you suffer. Your end will be a simple one: quick, and clean." With that, she extended two fingers, almost casually, and shot a Byakurai, aimed directly at Kimiko's chest. Maybe she'd dodge, maybe she'd die. Tsubaki didn't care, at this point.

Reiatsu 2575/2600 (-25 Byakurai)
Life Force 2400/2600 (-200 for 2x Hits)

[Kimiko Shihoin]

The princess of the Shihoin family had made a massive mistake simply because she had no clue as to the effects that such a massive difference in spiritual pressure could inflict upon her. Kimiko hadn't been all that great at learning about the more spiritual side of being a Shinigami or even in how reiatsu worked so she hadn't paid it nearly as much attention as the training that she did to her own body. The foolishness of the princess had indeed come to bite her in the ass.

Her planned assault had worked just the way that she ad envisioned when it came to her legs actually hitting the sections of this girl's body. However, that was when everything seemed to just shift into the opposite direction. Immediately Kimiko felt her legs get torn apart by what felt like dozens of knives. It was as if her own attack had been transferred back upon her own body. As that happened Kimiko bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself from screaming out in pain.

The female robot didn't really move though even from the might of the Shihoin princess. Kimiko wouldn't fall to the ground against some robot though so as her legs began to cover themselves in her blood and the leggings of her uniform were ripped to shreds Kimiko bent backwards placing her hands on the surface of the alley and executed a backwards handstand. The princess would land on her feet with her hands holding up the majority of her weight yet even that caused blood to flow faster and her to feel incredible pain.

Kimiko looked up at the robot girl and gave a look of pain filled enjoyment. "So she can reflect damage." Kimiko held no knowledge of spiritual pressure truly and believed that whatever power this robot had it must be what had just reflected her own attack back on her limbs. Standing up as the robot Kimiko moved to the side of the alley and leaned against the brick wall. It was then that Kimiko saw the same position of the robot's hand that had been done to her so often since she became a Shinigami.

Kimiko immediately knew based on the way that the robot held it's hand that some type of attack was going to come at her, but she had a feeling that it would be that damned lightning kido again. Yet that didn't seem right how could a robot use kido. Kimiko shrugged off that though due to her knowledge that the Kuchiki were robots and that the glowing man had used kido. As the lightning came at her Kimiko moved her right hand forward palm forward and clashed with the kido.

The lightning would actually shatter from the immense strength that the princess possessed, but the palm of the princess would suffer from a rather painful burn leaving her palm smoking and bright red. The left hand then moved towards her body and then struck the wall of the alleyway. The side of the building would be crushed from Kimiko's strength causing a massive deal of sound and dust to cover the alley. In the next moments though the robot would find that the bricks were being thrown right towards her with the immense strength right behind them.

[Tsubaki Shiba]

Hmm. The girl refused to fall. Her stubbornness wasn't actually particularly endearing, no matter what she might think. In fact, it was actually rather worrisome, given the damage that it would cause. Although she landed on her hands originally, the sudden action of landing on her feet afterwards would send shocks through her legs. Quite honestly, Tsubaki was surprised that the girl was even standing right now. Her legs were likely at the edge of being unusable, due to the heavy muscle damage they received. 

And the girl punched away the spell that Tsubaki shot at her. Not entirely surprising, the strength of Tsubaki's reiatsu was not nearly what it used to be. Luckily, the girl received some minor burns on her hand. It wasn't a lot, but on the other hand Tsubaki didn't use a lot of reiatsu, or effort, to launch the attack in the first place. Little by little, wound by wound, she would etch out a victory. Death by a thousand cuts. This did not seem like a difficult proposition, given the girl's current skill.

Then, the girl did something slightly more drastic. She lashed out at the wall near her, smashing it and causing bricks to begin to fall, as well as a large amount of dust and other debris, creating a smokescreen of sorts. She was attempting to conceal an action, but the question is what action. She didn't seem like the type to run, nor was she capable of high speed movement at this point, to attempt to strike Tsubaki. Besides, she was likely capable of basic pattern recognition: she'd have to be an idiot to attack Tsubaki again. 

Then what was she doing? It clicked just in time, and Tsubaki raised a hand as the first few bricks came flying out of the cloud. The bricks were moving fast, and carrying a great deal of force behind them, given the person who threw them. However, they would not touch Tsubaki. And why was that? Well, it was mostly because of the wall of stone that appeared between the bricks and Tsubaki. The wall was massive, ten feet high and blocking off the entire alleyway lengthwise. It was two feet thick, and had on it engraved numerous pictures of Kings and Queens, sitting on thrones of gold, drinking out of goblets encrusted in gemstones, and waited on by a horde of servants.

This was the first level of Tsubaki's Bakkoto: Heretical Fortress. The one that Tsubaki conjured was a single wall, a Pride Wall as she called it. It possessed a durability of 400, and although it would crumble to the Shinigami's might, it would not do so in one strike. The strength needed to crush it in one blow was 800, so although the bricks would damage the wall, sending cracks along its surface, they would not instantly break it. The wall would block this assault, and prevent the next one as well. 

The walls had a powerful compulsion, built into them. Anyone who witnessed them, who sought to defeat Tsubaki, would have their pride pushed to the point where they would see the walls as a direct challenge, and this Shinigami seemed to possess plenty of pride, and insufficient willpower to resist. So what would the Pride Wall force her to do? It's simple, it would force her to charge. It would force her to attempt to break it down with her bare hands, to burrow through it in order to get at Tsubaki who was beyond.

Of course, given how damaged the wall was, the Shinigami could likely break through it in one more punch. But running at the wall, that would prove to be a costly mistake. A costly mistake that she had no choice but to make, for her mind was Tsubaki's plaything, and the sin of Pride would be more than capable of killing her. This fight was over, Tsubaki had won, it was clear to her at the very least. And once the girl was dealt with, once her body was casually discarded, then Tsubaki could go home and rest, finally.

Tsubaki's body clearly did not take the activation of the Bakkoto well, but she disregarded that for now. The pain of having the Bakkoto's external part, the bone that lay on the base of her spine, wiggle into her body had been at the edge of being tolerable, but luckily she'd been able to ignore it. The eye of the Bakkoto moved through her body, slowly emerging from her now outstretched hand, glancing around, taking everything in. And her skin, her skin was now translucent, allowing anyone who saw her to see the green blood that the Bakkoto had given her. She was a monster now, and she would act like it.


Bakkoto Level 1: 1/3 Posts
Reiatsu: 2300/2600 (-200 Bakkoto Level 7, -75 Pride Wall)

[Kimiko Shihoin]

Kimiko had thrown brick after brick right towards the robot girl through the dust. She was angry that someone had the power to reflect damage especially a robot. She still had no idea how in the hell the robot had managed to turn her own damage back on her legs right as they had hit her, but it had happened and she had to deal with it for now in order to still come out on top. In truth Kimiko wasn't sure she'd be able to move that swiftly or even preform Shunpo now with the amount of pain rushing through her legs.

Then the sounds of the bricks shattered against something very tough rang through Kimiko's head. She looked down the alley and immediately saw a massive wall that just brought up her inner most need to break it down. It was as if Okami was standing there right where the wall was waving her on. Kimiko's hands clenched into fists and she could feel herself losing control. She looked to the sides swiftly yet saw nothing bigger then the bricks to throw.

The Shihoin then lost herself in the need to prove herself strong enough. Charging forwards right towards the wall Kimiko didn't realize how much damage her legs were taking with each step that sent blood squirting out onto the alley floor. Jumping at the wall Kimiko was four feet off the ground now and simply punched the massive wall with her right hand. She would watch it break and see the robot on the other side.

Kimiko would be falling right towards her now, but the princess knew that punching her again would most likely only cause further damage to her body. She had to do some kind of damage that wasn't so blunt that it could be transferred back onto her own body. That was when Kimiko got the idea now that her mind was no longer flooded with pride. Moving down towards the robot Kimiko would turn her body around so her face was towards the ground and her legs up. In that position Kimiko would wrap her legs around the neck of the robot and then pull. Her hands would be on the ground and she would slam the robot onto the floor of the alley behind her where her wall had just been.

[Tsubaki Shiba]

The Pride cometh before the fall. Always. Especially for a haughty princess like the Shinigami that Tsubaki was fighting. It was strange, Tsubaki could see quite a bit of herself in the girl, but she also saw a great deal of Aiko. Neither of those things was pleasant in any sense of the word. But the girl was young, and untrained, and although she possessed incredible bodily strength, she lacked the tactics or the focus to be a threat yet. She clearly deserved the spot of unseated officer.

And there was the matter of her spiritual pressure. When they had clashed, the girl had burst upon smashing against Tsubaki's spiritual pressure, almost dying within two blows. That lack of spiritual pressure had not gone unnoticed to Tsubaki, and had lead her to plan this follow up attack. Spiritual Pressure governed something else that was highly important for Shinigami: the amount of reiatsu that they had to work with at any given point in time. Lower spiritual pressure meant less reiatsu, and an inability to win battles of attrition.

Behind the wall, as Kimiko charged at it, Tsubaki would unleash the next layer of her Bakkoto, her veins turning a slightly darker shade of grey. Abandoning her Pride Fortress, Tsubaki shifted to her Level 6 release, which was called Gluttony Fortress. Of course, the changing of layers wouldn't cause the Pride Wall to vanish, and generally speaking nothing significant would happen that would inform Kimiko, given her lack of energy sensory. And the switching layers would give Tsubaki the victory.

Lifting her hand once again, Tsubaki created another wall behind the Pride Wall, totally unbeknownst to Kimiko. This wall was special to this layer of her Bakkoto, which was the layer of Gluttony. The wall was decorated with lavish feasts, although Tsubaki knew that with time, the food would rot, until it looked vile and inedible. Such was the nature of her release. Regardless, the wall was placed directly behind the Pride wall, with no room inbetween the two.

As Kimiko struck through the Pride Wall, already weakened by the bricks, her hand would rip through it directly. Kimiko didn't know how thick the wall was, so logically she would just follow through as much as she could. However, doing so would be a mistake. Her hand broke the Pride Wall, but struck the Gluttony Wall which was now behind it. She couldn't stop the motion, she didn't have enough control of her body or the reaction time to do so.

The Gluttony Wall would crack from her blow, but it wouldn't break. It had a durability of 500, and already a lot of her force had been expended breaking the Pride Wall. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, as Kimiko could simply strike the Gluttony Wall another few times and shatter it, in order to get Tsubaki who was behind it. Or even go around it, given that it didn't have the same compulsion that the Pride Wall had. But right now, that wasn't an option. Why?

Because as Kimiko's hand touched the Gluttony Wall, even for half a second, she would notice energy leaving her body. The Gluttony walls were ravenous, and the thing they fed on most was reiatsu. Quincys who were near them couldn't gather reiatsu, and reiatsu attacks were limited in their effectiveness against the walls. But worst of all, anyone who touched them instantaneously lost 200 reiatsu, it being drained away from their bodies in a flash.

For most people, such a thing would allow Tsubaki to quickly win wars of attrition. But with this shinigami, she didn't have 200 reiatsu to spare. She had 150, that was it. All of her reiatsu would be drained from her body, leaving her empty. And since reiatsu was tied directly to stamina, she would likely pass out. At the very least, she would be unable to move, collapsing on the ground and waiting for a Coup De Grace. Such was the fate of those who opposed Tsubaki Shiba in combat. There was no mercy, there was no quarter. There was only defeat, and suffering.

If Kimiko had nothing left to do, if she collapsed on the ground, then Tsubaki would cancel her Bakkoto, and walk by her, heading home. Tsubaki had no reason to kill the Shinigami, and she figured that this would be sufficient humiliation to teach the girl a lesson. If the girl was able to stand, Tsubaki would continue to fight, of course. There was no reason to deactivate her release prematurely. But in this case, she doubted that that would be an issue in the slightest.

Bakkoto Level 6: 1/3 Posts
Reiatsu: 2000/2600 (-200 Bakkoto Level 6, -100 Gluttony Wall)

[Kimiko Shihoin]

Kimiko rushed down the alleyway right towards the wall and punched right at it. She could feel the material of the wall break from her strength. The sound of it crumbling and breaking apart right in front of her face. It was then though that Kimiko saw a difference in he color of the wall. The young princess could tell that she had played into some type of trap yet held no knowledge of what to do and on top of that due to her legs being heavily damaged she wasn't able to use Shunpo to get away in time.

The princess was powerless to stop her own hand from moving forward and touching the surface of the new wall. Upon touching the surface though it felt as if all of her energy had just been zapped away. The princess just felt as if everything was going dark and dropped to the ground. From that point though Kimiko struggled to even raise her head. Everything was getting dark around her and then the princess just couldn't control to do anything.

She lay there in the alley unconscious until the following morning when she would awake. From that point onward though Kimiko would be in a state of spite and pain. She would return to Soul Society and go right to the fourth division so that her legs could be looked at. After a few hours there getting healed she would go to the second division and report what had happen. She just really didn't want to actually report that she failed for once and deal with all the yelling.

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

+480 TP to Tsubaki
+250 TP to Kimiko