That Calming Forest [Bankai Training Thread]

[Senshi Odayakama (Crimson.)]

The Introduction


Senshi loved the Winter. It was something that reminded her of something distant, that made her feel alive in a way, even though she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it reminded her of something when she was alive. Perhaps the bitter cold allowed her to feel more alive for some other reason. It felt like a small eternity perhaps since she'd sequestered herself into her isolation. She had done administration, and paperwork, and she had occupied herself so that she wouldn't have to face her weakness. Her fears.

She had always been under the assumption that because she was weak, how couldn't she? She had lost most every battle she had been put up against. One might argue that one didn't need to be strong in order to be useful, and normally, the youthful looking redhead would agree with that. However, she had felt helpless, time and time again. What was the point of bravery, of training, of the will to protect, if one couldn't protect anything? She couldn't even protect herself...Never mind others it felt like.

However, then there came the visage of Kaen. He hugged her, she remembered, and told her that he wanted to be with her, if he could have afforded it, to comfort her, but that he could not. Then hit the news that it was because his heart already belonged to another, the Empress they called her. She envied that woman. She envied her because she had the heart of the man she held closer and more precious to her than any other. She remembered how when she first heard of it. Oh, how her cheeks flushed red with shame and embarrassment as the tears streamed down her cerulean eyes.

Was she a fool? Was she trying too hard for something that could be considered overzealous? She paused, and with it, she recalled the doubts, upon doubts, upon doubts, upon doubts that filled her heart and mind. It clouded her decisions, and with it, perhaps she had become self deprecating. Perhaps she had spat and lessened her accomplishments in life as opposed to celebrating them. Senshi looked out from her window upon the falling snow, and with it, she slowly looks upon her Zanpakutou, resting along the side of her smooth wood desk.

The five foot long blade could be considered impractical for such a small girl to wield. After all, it was about as tall as she was. She remembered. Her Shikai had told her the next time she had broken him, he would refuse to allow her to use him. She had broken him. Again, again, and again. Granted, she often did to survive, she had also fought in battles that were impossible, insane, and thus endangered herself unnecessarily. What she had done within the next moment was slowly raise her sword, holding it to her bosom, stroking her right hand along its length.

"I-I'm sorry..." She says this with a dry throat, her eyes distant, and yet pouring a tear as she takes a deep breath. "I'm so, so sorry..." She wasn't sure if she was saying this to Shonin Joka, or if she was saying this to herself, for abusing herself, for putting herself in this position. How she had come thus far, and with it, she had firmly closed her eyes then. "Please. Don't abandon me...I need you. Without you? I'm all alone...Shonin Joka!" 

The desperation in her tone was evident...Oh, so evident. She wasn't certain she'd get a response, if she ever would. Though it would take her into...a transition. The confliction, the inner strife. It was all leading her up to this general moment perhaps. Though, perhaps it was this desperation her Zanpakutou so wanted and craved from her. The validation was what Shonin Joka wanted most wasn't it? 

[Senshi Odayakama (Crimson.)]

The Transition:

"There's nothing to forgive. I suppose. Though you shouldn't cry. I can't stand it when you do. I've had enough of that." She slowly feels the splashing of water underneath her sandals, and with it, she finds a world of infinite black, one that slowly begins to fill as stage lights seemingly flare, and with it, dirt and soil seems to manifest about her before the passing of dark and twisted oak trees, amongst other things that would fill her inner world. Yet, these trees were lifeless with no leaves to nurture or comfort them. Instead, she would find them adorned with masks.

Masks, infinite masks that seemed to span in a forever. Senshi's eyes were widened, looking across the area with a general sense of wonderment. What was going on? She couldn't help but feel her arm shaking, and with it, it shakily grasps the sleeve of her long sleeve, looking on ahead as she views the inner world that she hadn't seen in so long. How long had it been. A year? Two? She wasn't even sure anymore. However, what she did know was she wanted to scream. She wanted him to hear. 

"S-Shonin Joka..." She calls, and with it, there was no evident response, and all she knew in that next moment was she wanted to call him. "Shonin Joka!" As she moves on about, she can see the trees with their various adorned masks. Some of them were demonic. Others were bestial, insectoid, or any other amalgamation of creature. "SHONIN JOKA!" She screams out, and with it, she declares something different.

"I want to know your name! I want you to be with me! I want you to be with me forever! Shonin Joka! Please! Please..." It was within those next moments that there was a direness, a silence that seemed to reverberate within her inner being before the familiar voice calls out followed by the clacking of prayer beads. "You want to know me?...You want to know who I am, and for me to be with you forever? What a touching love confession. Shame we aren't underneath the Cherry Blossom Trees for it. Hahahaha..." He laughed.

He laughed melodiously at his own sense of humor, and with it, she stands firm. "I want to know you. I do...Please. Give me the chance. Let me endure it. I've shouldered so much. I can endure anything, knowing I have you by my side again! You're all I've ever needed. Please..." Though with it, there seemed to be a shaking and wavering of those trees then. "The last time I had you trained, to use me, I had you face every single Hollow who's energy I had ever absorbed. Every last foe in a swarm of death. To take my burden. Would you do so again?" For the first time, Senshi could say something with certainty.

"I would...I will." She didn't need to wait very long then, for with it, she could tell there was some sort of metamorphosis happening then. Senshi could feel the very world itself seemingly shake and begin to metamorphose into some twisted world. Something was happening. It felt familiar and foreign at the same time, and with this revelation, it was clear. The trial was beginning anew. "So be it then."

[Senshi Odayakama (Crimson.)]

The Trial

it was within the next particular moments that the trees grew upwards, extended into the sky, growing ferociously as they gained mass, began untwisting, and with sickening crunches, and spews of vomit, white masks formed upon their heads. Menos Grande. From their shoulders, masks would fall forth onto the floor, growing bodies, and with it, she had realized how much of a burden it must have been for Shonin Joka. To have suffered under this, ever more, ever growing trees. He dealt with them alone. Just as how she felt she had been dealing with her problems alone.

"Extend above the heavens and fly. Shonin Joka." She'd draw forth her blade, and with a twisting whiplash of wind, she stood there with her blade glowing red, shrinking forth into a smaller, more manageable blade, and with it, she couldn't help but feel something...was off. How couldn't she? How could she have let him stand before all of these foes alone. How could she have?...How? Did it matter?

Never Meant To Belong.

She didn't say anything as she dashed forth into the first wave of them, her splitting blade as the sword split down the middle, rippling out into the first lines as shrapnel flew from her blade into the hordes, and with it, as they faded into darkness, she fought for what seemed to be a forever. The small cuts she received here, the burn there, the rippling ache of a Bala slamming into her back. The blur she was forced to move in when the gigantic Cero came rippling indiscriminately towards the ground, swallowing Hollow and the ground alike in a beam of red purity.

As she exits her Shunpo, she notices then the Menos that looks down upon her, and with a ferocious speed, throws itself into the ground, shattering stone and rock, the mouth swallowing her in a brilliant vibrance, the inside an inner black mass of hands and teeth that wished to rip her limb from limb. "AHAAGH!" She lashes forth with her blade, the Shakkaho blowing a hole through the back of its head as she stands forth, stumbling as bits and pieces of the monster lands about her. She leans on a knee for the moment as the Menos seems to fade about herself, and with it, she could only find herself flinching as she feels the singed skin.

Still. After so many dead, as she looked out, she could still see an infinite horde of white masks and bodies that hungrily sought to devour their quarry, to take vengeance upon their warden. She felt hopeless for the momentary, but determined to continue, and yet, she slowly looked down to her blade, feeling comforted with it in her hand, lightly nudging and wiping at a bit of blood that was coming from the right side of her cheek as she whips her arm out, flicking the blood from the blade onto the ground...

[Senshi Odayakama (Crimson.)]

The Name and Revelation.

How many minutes, hours, days has it been? How long has her blade been slashing as trees sprout in an infinite hell scape? What brief moments of rest and respite she had, she used it to catch a breath. Her motions became more precise and concise. Her swing of the blade while tiresome would leave her with just a bit more energy. Just a bit more. It strengthened her resolve also, to allow her to keep swinging. Just a few more? Just a few more, and then there would be none. Yet, that seemed to be far away from the truth.

The Hollows howled, danced, and with it, as she danced with her blade, continued to fight and resist them, the more wounds she'd gradually accumulate. Yet, the pain they offered her was paltry compared to the accumulation of misery and pain she had experienced through an afterlife. Even with a sharp rod sticking from her shoulder, or the slashmarks, or the fact her leg bled freely, she could stand and fight however long it would take.

However, it was at some point that she'd come to that realization, as she looks to her blade time and time again. "I'm not bearing this burden on my lonesome. I'm not..." She notes as she slashes a Hollow down with an effortless cleave of her hand. "I've always had you by my side. You've always been there for me. Even now. You're helping me fight this burden. This challenge." She notes such with a pause as the split blades of Shonin Joka whip about and embedd themselves into the ground. The Cero that clashed against them splitting and deflecting across the field, smaller laser like beams of energy that collide and ripple through the Hollows that surround them.

"We stand amongst ten thousand foes, and through faith and confidence, you and I still stand through the trials and tribulations..." She felt oddly satisfied and content with this realization, as Shonin Joka's blades lift from the soil and she stands firmly again, and with it, she rises onto her two feet, her heart feeling lighter then. Not so burdened with the past and failures she had received. "Of course you never were alone. You're pretty foolish..."

"I know...but at least you're guiding me. Thank you. However partner. I need you. No. Not partner..." She stands firmly, and with it, she closes her eyes as she flares her spiritual energy. Slowly at first, as the wisps of energy at her feet begins to spiral and twist like rivulets of silk that flow in the air and then through the watery pond at her feet. The creatures before her tilt and freeze, looking across the area, and with it, Senshi felt entirely and utterly calm as she feels her gravity increasing as she feels more in sync and connected to her spirit than ever before.

"Bankai." A burst of rippling energy and wind rips out, with such a fierce intensity that the Hollows before her physically stop, and with it, her blade stops just short of the average katana, but a greater curve, and with it, a red satin ribbon hangs from its hilt as she then calls out. "Shonin Joka. Shimazu." They were bonded. "I've always sought for heaven my entire life. Now I know. You've taken me to Eden." 

[Senshi Odayakama (Crimson.)]

Her Conclusion.

As she whips the blade forth, she couldn't feel much was different at first glance. All she knew at first was she felt more...powerful in a sense. This was the pinnacle of release, and yet, she wasn't sure what made it more so. The energy that seemed to spur out, the release and output, its aura was rippling forth. Within the next moment, she knew. As she funneled Reiatsu into her sword, she could feel it was far easier then. She could feel the blade was sharper. "...This is Bankai..."

As the Hollows gaze ahead, intimidated by this display, she takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes, and with it, her blades segment and spread, and with it, bursts out in a greater potential of Split. A gigantic spreading segmentations of rooted blades as they elongate and burst through foes in a twisted maze of steel, further splitting and rooting as the Reiatsu funnels and spreads through the blade back to Senshi.

She could feel the power. The spread of the blade as she feels the reiatsu funneling into her body, allowing her to stand, feel invigorated, and with it, she slowly looks up into the seemingly night sky. The dark spread as a light shines down upon her. "I feel like I'm looking at the moon..." She felt as if she was in Hueco Mundo again, the infinite night, but in a forest of Hollows? Yes, and with it?

She steps forth, releases her blade and lets the branches suckle and rip inwards, standing firmly as she proceeds to move forward. The battle was over, but at the same time, could she do it? What would she do with this power if she gained it and it was over? She thought of her old goals and ideals. She thought about the heart she had tossed around and mangled and stitched. She knew what she wanted to do.

"I'm glad to know your name. Though I need to know you further. More..." Resting within this fickle plane of life and death, she wanted to reach that goal. She was still green, still new to this. However, she was resolute. She would press for the captaincy of the Eighth Division once she had a proper hold of this power, and she would look to present herself before the Gotei Thirteen's current remaining members. That said, she knew the potential was there.

Making the change was the next step. To end this corruption was a next step. To stand with confidence of where she was was the next step. "A-Ah..." As the adrenaline came to a rest, she no longer was within a world of her own making, but instead in a seemingly odd reality of fluttered papers, messed up files, and cracked wood and wooden frames. Senshi found herself torn and tattered, and with it, strangely never felt more fulfilled and at peace before. She needed to get medical attention, and after that, hurry up and get the next quarterly files in order before training further.

She was going to need it. 

[Col Arana]

So, whether this is fine as a Bankai Training or not has no bearing on the fact it's still a solo training and therefore you're entitled to TP regardless.

This is thirty paragraphs so I will be awarding the standard 150 TP for solo training.

Now, as to whether it can qualify for a Bankai training post, as established by the Bankai requirements...


I would say yes, it does, albeit I find the sudden transition in attitude at the end a little bit rushed. As such when going through your actual Bankai application thread I will be looking closely for events that will sow the seeds for the transition at the end. If I recall correctly, you were missing one last thread for your Bankai training besides this one, so I'd look to start laying the seeds for it in that one.