Canon 7: I NEED POWER! [Complete]

[Seikatsu Raito]

Raito watched as the panther jumped away from the zanpakutou sensing danger from Raito. He knew that the panther thought of him as a thread and that was bad. Because Raito noticed that bunch of reiatsu would flash in random places in the tunnel as the panther moved. It seemed they would have some kind of relation with one another. The male didn't know anything the panther could do, and was curious about any powers it might hold. If anything, the panther could be nothing more than just a bunch of conentrated reiatsu shaped like one. But that would also mean it would do damage if it striked or touched Raito, like a Cero would. But his Zanpakutou would be strong enough to cut through the reiatsu animal.

The Captain stepped forward and the panther had moved almost instantly setting off a trap. Something had swept the Captain off his feet, before he could move and he saw the panther move once again. The Captain was about to fall and if he didn't think fast, he would fall through the bottom of the tunnel to his death. But it wasn't Raito that had saved himself. The panther had attacked Raito, giving him a minor burn and sending him flying forward couple feet. He managed to land on his feet, due to the attack from the panther. "That's it you fucking feline, I'm going to kill you!" Raito said, looking at the burn on his arm before staring deep into the panther's eyes. It started to lunge forward and run towards Raito, and the Captain took a step to slice at his stomach.

[Zou ۞]

The panther was immediately cleaved in half when Raito slashed it. However, sparks flew out of the cleaving as the Panther burst back into Reiatsu. The sparks struck Raito's arms, and one stuck his belly button. Several first degree burns splattered onto him. The message was driven home. This tunnel is dangerous. How can you be so sure you'll survive our training? The pathway continued, but, up ahead, perhaps within a mile of walking, there was an open exit.

[Seikatsu Raito]

The male Captain only looked at the pantehr as he dispersed and he watched the panther burst into explosion. He should have known that there would've been such an obvious trap for killing such an easy being. Raito stood there letting his burns cooldown and feeling himself calm down. He needed to stay calm and aware in order to survive this part of the 'exercise'. Raito did not intend to look like a fool and die on only the first test of gaining 'strength' from what he heard training with the Zero Division could do. The Captain kept on walking towards an open exit he saw some quite ways away. He did not get excited though, he simply prepared himself. Raito was expecting many more traps on the way to the exit and especially at the exit. Raitio would not have been surprised if the whole tunnel would started collapsing and he would have to run up falling pieces of reiatsu.

[Zou ۞]

Suddenly, the tunnel began collapsing! There was still a bunch of pieces of Reiatsu 'floor' floating all around. Raito would have to go the next 3/4 mile by jumping the pieces as fast as he possibly could. He would probably have to use Shunpo more than once for this. It seemed that this was the final test. If he could jump all of these things, get to the exit, and leave, then Raito would easily be able to start his training!

[Seikatsu Raito]

Raito kept on running, as he dodged a barrage of arrows that shot out from beside him. He cursed under his breath, as he kept jumping from side to side, and running with caution. He wasn't sure what to expect, but then when the thought of this tunnel collapsing, the worst had happened. Parts othe reiatsu tunnel started to fall and break apart. There were still parts that floated in the ground, his instincts kicked in and the Captain instantly started jumping on the reiatsu pieces that were still floating. Raito jumped off on floating platform and as he used his flash step to instantly appear forwad and closer to the exit, more of them started to fall. He had to use his Shunpo to make it to the last exit in the next second or it would be the end of him. The male made it to the exit and wiped some sweat off his forehead, as he sighed. "Can't believe I got through this hell," he said looking back at the remaining pieces of debris of reiatsu.

[Zou ۞]

Instantly, the door opened, sucking him in. It closed behind him as it deposited him in the middle of a large courtyard training ground. It was enormous, easily half the size of Seireitei. There were various doorways, passageways, and obstacles all around, and shelves of items and some stairs and other things. So, people could take props, or just use the environment. More interesting training and sparring matches. Really, just incredible. "I've been waiting for you, Obi Wan." a voice said near Raito. A man stepped forward. His hair was gold, spiked. His eyes were silver in color, and he was tanned. He wore the traditional white Shinigami robe of The Zero Division, though it was unlikely that Raito would've known it was a normal part of their outfit, until he took a look around and saw that they were all wearing it. He also wore the black variation of a Captain's Haori, with the Kanji for "Zero" on the back of it.

"We meet again at last, when I left you I was but the learner, now I am the Master." The man grinned. "Just kidding." he said. "Considering that you're a regular Gotei Thirteen Captain, I'm doubting you've ever been to the human world long enough to go see a movie like Star Wars." He hand both hands out. Closer inspection of the area showed that nobody ever put their hands in their pockets. They were all on close guard. The man held his hand out. "I'm Yu." he said. "Yukushi Talon. Just call me Yu for short." [Yukushi Talon, Royal Guard: MF Division, Class 1.] "And I already know all about you, Raito." Yu said. "You got recommended by Aryuu to be trained here for a bit. So, follow me."

He took Raito with him towards a large dome made of a transparent materiel. Inside of it, was a hollow. The hollow was humanoid, two arms, two legs. It was about six feet tall, and it was muscular. It had long, blue spiked hair, and black fur over it's elbows and ankles. The hollow's entire body was white, and there were occasional red tattoo type patterns across it. Being a hollow, it had no genitals, despite being naked. It's mask looked like an oni demon, and four enormous horns protruded from the head. The eye whites of the hollow were black, the iris gold. It roared as it saw Raito and Yu, and started banging against the prison it was stuck in.

"As you can see", Yu said, "We've captured a Vasto Lorde. This is only one of several we've captured. That Vasto Lorde up there can probably kill you in a matter of minutes." Yu said. "But to us, that thing is just a light training exercise. By the time we send you back to the Gotei, you'll be able to fight on par with that Vasto Lorde. It takes years to get you to our level, but it will only take days to get you to that thing's level. Once you reach that stage, you should be able to fight and defeat most Espada from numbers 5 down. 4-1 are the high tier, Vasto Lorde Arrancar. They're no match for us overall, but they'd still give some trouble for a while, and they would manage to inflict a few injuries."

[Seikatsu Raito]

Raito stood in front of the door as it open suddenly and pulled him into the gateway. He appeared in the middle of a mysterious place and saw that there were a lot of different things. It seemed to be an area to train, study, have fun, and just do anything. It wasn't bigger than Seireitei, but it was at least half the size of it. He could sense there were others than jsut the people around him right now and knew that this place, the 'Zero Division Barracks', must be a huge and powerful place. But the biggest thing that stood out to the Captain was the different in power that he saw in everyone. These were the people he wanted to be with, these were the people he needed to learn from. From what Raito could see was that everybody here was at the least of a Captain's level and it sent goosebumps all over his skin. It was almost like Heaven for Earth's Heaven (Soul Society). He wondered the many things he could learn from this place. The Captain also noticed that most of the clothing was inverted with the traditional colors of the Shinigami attire.

"Obi? He's waiting for me but doesn't even know my name?" he wondered to himself, as he took in the different aspects of the area. It was then he introduced himself. "Seikatsu Raito, Divison 3rd Captain," he introduced himself to Yu. He then followed behind Yu, as he instruced to follow him. Raito watched what was inside of the transparent dome that was presented to him. There was a Vasto Lorde in it, possibly a previous Espada, and he knew that he should not even try to fight it. But his instincts were telling him that he was an enemy and he should fight. Raito listened to the higher-ranking Shinigami and knew that he was right. Raito knew from his experience in the rebellion that his strength were not up to par with the Espada of Las Noches. And if this man was telling the truth, he could become one of the strongest Shinigami. But his mindset was starting to change, seeing more potential being in the Zero Division. But as a Captain he would have to fulfill his duties as one before he could try to proceed onto such a strong Division.

[Zou ۞]

The dome suddenly opened. "I'll show you", Yu said, "The kind of power we can give you." The dome closed behind him as he stepped into it. Immediately, the Vasto Lorde rushed at Yu. Yu hadn't even drawn his sword yet! "Too weak." he said. The Vasto Lorde was easily five times faster than Raito. This meant that it's average speed was about 160 MPH. And yet, Yu had dodged the first attack like it was nothing. In less than the blink of an eye, he'd gotten out of the way of a claw swipe that could have completely decimated half of his body. "Whoops..." he muttered as he noticed that the Vasto Lorde had aimed it's horns at him. "This might not be good..." A Cero immediately charged in it. But, it was a higher pitched sound than a regular Cero, and there were two colors in it, dark red and light red, massive amounts of steam also surrounding it. The Vasto Lorde's Cero was obviously very powerful.

"Here it comes..." Yu muttered. Immediately, the Cero was blasted out. It was huge! Easily the size of an entire squad's barracks. Yu, however, countered the Cero with what appeared to be some sort of blast attack of his own. The Cero was blown away, and burns inflicted themselves on the Vasto Lorde. "Enjoy your time in Soul Society." Yu said as he jumped back. Instantly, 117 violet colored spears made of Reiatsu erupted out of his palms, directly into the Vasto Lorde, which was impaled by all of them with a ferocious scream. They all exploded all over it, completely incinerating the Vasto Lorde. Yu pulled out what appeared to be a syringe, and shoved it into his arm. He grinned as he tossed the syringe away, and stepped out of the dome. "And that's about it." he said. "On average, one of us can face up to 4 Vasto Lorde without drawing our Zanpakutou out. It'd take years to get you that strong, so we'll get you to the next best thing. By the end of this, you should be able to defeat The Quinta Espada, or anyone weaker, which is to say, handle up to two Vasto Lorde at once."

Yu quickly pulled Raito towards another area, which was a large dueling circle. "Please note, in Seireitei it's forbidden to use these techniques. You're only allowed to use them outside of Soul Society." He quickly shoved a tome into Raito's hands. "Pick five of these, and I'll teach you." he said.

Yu's Remaining Reiatsu: 3000 Reiatsu

[Jin Yamada]

Jin looked out of the corner of his eyes at the lightning and reiatsu surging all around him. He wondered just what kind of ritual this was when suddenly, he felt an immense pain. He then saw his dolls materialize on their own before him. First was Kanki Ushio in his humanoid form and then was Melodie. Finally, a third doll formed in front of him. It was a large wheel made of lightning. He hadn't even been able to form this doll yet. He had been told that he had a third doll. He even had dreams of it's power, but these were only flashes. Quick images that had gone through his head. He saw them combine together while he stood there, enduring the pain. It was so intense, he could barely keep himself from fainting. Then he looked at himself and saw that all of his clothes had ripped off and felt even more pain as a large gash formed on his back. His clothes reformed themselves as the wound closed up, but he could still feel it. The pain from it like a thousand hot swords piercing into his back. Then finally, it was over. He fell to the ground exhausted and out of breathe.

He remained on his hands and knees, staring at the ground as he tried to catch his breathe. Then he looked up and it was then that he saw it. There was no mistaking that this new doll was his, a combination of his previous three dolls. This new doll had the upper body of Kanki Ushio, but instead of being a misty blue, it was a dark blue color with black lines running from the back, over the shoulders and from the sides towards the front to form the Bount crest. Black spikes protruded from each elbow, blue lines visible on those as well, forming a small Bount crest on the side of each spike. The body of the new doll lacked legs, and simply hovered in the air. The waist of the upper body fanned out slightly at the bottom to form black and dark blue colored projections which looked like they helped the body to levitate. The head of the doll was that of Kanki Ushio's with the same featureless face and dark blue glowing eyes. The head was also a dark blue color like the rest of the body. Black lines ran down from the eyes, to make it seem as if the doll was crying. Protruding from the back, attached to each shoulder bone, was a large pair of metal black wings. The wings were those of Melodie's and had the same light blue lines running along each wing as Melodie did. Jin then noticed something strange. On each wrist of the new doll were golden semicircles with spokes protruding from each semi circle to keep it attached to the wrist. These were weird to him. It seemed that these were part of his lightning doll, which would have been named Blitzrad. The golden semicircles looked as if they could form a mighty shield made of lightning once put together. There were small holes on the top of each semi circle, signifying that it was there that the lightning could spew out from.

Jin stood up, or at least tried to. He could barely move from the pain at this moment. He continued staring in awe at the new doll before him. It gave off an aura of power, of destruction. The only thing it was missing was a name. Jin couldn't think of what to name it. It was made of a doll that could command water, one that could command sound, and one that could command lightning. These were all components of nature. When they formed together, they became a thunderstorm. The water was the rain, the sound was the thunder, and of course the lightning would be the flashes of lightning that crashed down upon the earth. This was a fitting name for it. "Sturm." Jin whispered to the doll. It seemed to like this name as it's eyes flashed. "It is nice to meet you master Jin." the doll's booming voice said as it bowed. It could talk?! This was weird for Jin because none of his dolls before could talk. Nonetheless, this one was an improvement, and he liked it. This was evident by the smirk that formed on his face. Now, he would just have to train his doll to use it well and learn to use the attacks together and separately. Then he also had to train the new techniques that had filled his mind. He envisioned each and the necessary preparations for them. He would begin by training those and then move to training with his doll. A strong doll was only as strong as its master. so first he had to improve his own abilities.

[Zou ۞]

OOC: Your part of the story is nearing completion. You need to post 1/4 training for each technique that was given to you. You also need to post a bit of practice with your new doll.

[Seikatsu Raito]

The Captain watched with wide eyes as the Zero Division Shinigami annihilated the Vasto Lorde. He went in there and with almost no sweat, dodged a dangerous blow and countered a dangerous looking cero. The way he had countered the Cero was obvious to the Captain seeing that the Shinigami did not even draw his Zanpakutou. Raito's usual smirk left his face as a serious look entered the Captain's expression. His expression didn't change as he watched the Kidou destroy the Arrancar. He watched the Shinigami do something with a syringe before leaving the dome. He assumed it was some kind of enhancing drug or mechanism. Raito would ask the Shinigami soon, but he listened to the man as he informed him. It was exactly what he wanted, power. But he did not want to be able to defeat anybody with Cero. Raito did not like Kidou and never bothered to even learn it. "What was that syringe?" he asked the stronger Shinigami.

The Captain then received a tome from Yu. He looked through the tome and saw that there were a lot of powerful abilities. But his face was still serious as he shook his head. "Sorry, I don't do Kidous, don't you have any exercises that will give me more speed and strength?" he asked seriously. Raito believed as long as he had those two aspects in battle and could hone them beyond anyone else's, he would win. The Shinigami handed the book back to Yu and his eyes stared at him. There must have been another form of training then using a Kidou to simply obliterate an Arrancar. Besides, Raito enjoyed battle and would rather have fun with it.

[Zou ۞]

OOC: Can't make a post for Jin until that training is done. In the mean time, lets get back to Raito.

IC:

Do you like what you see? A cold, raspy, merciless voice spoke inside of Raito's head. There were voices in his head. Great. But, there was something to it, that said it wasn't insanity. Just, someone was speaking inside of his mind. It was similar to what would happen with an inner hollow. But, this definitely was not an inner hollow. Do these ex captains live up to your expectations, little ferret? The voice was like steel claws scraping slowly across a blackboard. Each and every syllable was like this, each and every tiny sound to be uttered by this voice. Why do you not answer me, little ferret? I can hear your thoughts. Answer me!

Meanwhile, Yu responded to what Raito said. "Whaaaaaat? A Captain that doesn't like Kidou? Man, you're weird. Well, that syringe was to restore my Reiatsu. It restores a full third of my Reiatsu with one injection. We've all got items like that, because some of the operations we undergo require it." He took the tome away from Raito, and handed him several small, glowing blue, and constantly pulsing wrist and ankle bands. "Put those on." he said. "We're gonna do a series of exercises with them." As soon as he helped Raito put them on, he grinned. "Look out, Captain." he said. "You're gonna notice what kind of attachments you just got as soon as you try to move. Those weights exert a sense of spiritual pressure three to four times greater than yours while you move, crushing down on you. They also weigh 4000 pounds when you try to move, and they restrict all of your Reiatsu, forcing it back." He pointed to a lake. "Run over there." It was 100 meters away.

[Seikatsu Raito]

Raito waited or an answer from Yu. He waited and he heard an answer, but this voice wasn't from Yu. It was from his head? What the hell? Raito knew this wasn't his own voice, or head talking. It sure didn't sound like some kind of God or what not. He simply kept listening trying to figure out if it was a reiatsu based ability or what not. The Captain decided to answer it with his thoughts, since the voice said it could hear his thought. "Hmm, who the hell are you?!" he asked the voice. "Well, these ex-captains are pretty strong, I can gain much power from them," he told the voice. Raito wasn't sure what the voice was trying to get at. He returned to the world around him and looked at Yu,

Raito grinned slightly at the reaction from the Shinigami. The syringe gave him part of his reiatsu back from battling the Vasto Lorde. Interesting... it seemed the Zero Division had much more advanced technology. He wondered what other secrets that almost no Seireitei Shinigami knew of. This Zero Division sure was a mysterious group and he wanted to learn from them. "Now this is what I'm talking about," Raito said eagerly. He put the bands on with the hep of Yu. He stood still to feel the effect of the bands, it was very different. Raito felt very weak, almost as if he was a human... powerless. He nodded to the Shinigami, as he looked at the lake. So he had to go about a hundred meters with the bands. Raito didn't think he could be that hard, but that was when he tried to take his first step. It felt like he was trying to push against something on his leg as he moved forward. His body felt like gravity was trying to suck him to the core of the earth. These bands were no joke, "What the hell's the trick?" Raito asked, making his first step and breathing out. He cracked his necks feeling the press from the bands around his clawed forearm guards.

[Zou ۞]

Pleased to meet you. the voice said in side of Raito's head, though of course the source was actually not in his head, but elsewhere, simply projecting thoughts into his head. That was the kind of feeling that came with it. My name is Husk. The voice at least told who he was, that was a start. But, in the meantime, Yu was grinning at Raito. "Whacha talkin' about?" he asked. "Those are our easiest restraints. A lot of us spar with those things on, and four to eight of them at once." He continued grinning as he watched Raito struggle, and then he grew serious. "Sure, your stats are gonna grow if you train with these, but even growing stats won't save you. You'll never become physically strong enough to defy these things. The trick is the same thing that's required in the tunnel to get here. All of us can walk it without setting off enemies or traps, or without the floor shattering."

"This thing is actually responding to your spiritual pressure and your reiatsu. Your goal is to minimize them, no not minimize, but completely mask their signature, without putting any of it away. It's like an invisible flame. It's burning, but you can't see or sense it, and the only way to really understand it's location is to walk into it and burn. All of us here can focus our Reiatsu well enough to keep those weights from weighing on us. It still weighs on most of us pretty hard, but we can dull it to the point where we can move at a relatively normal pace." Yu pulled out more of the restraints, and put four of them on himself. He started dancing around, and sprinted over to the lake and back again. He made sure to make his Reiatsu as obvious as possible, so that he could allow Raito to get a feel for how this was done. "Your Reiatsu right now is like a slumbering dragon, one of those from northern myth. Your Reiatsu needs to become a chinese fireball type, a serpentine dragon that can smoothly speed along."

[Seikatsu Raito]

The captain stood there as the voice responded. He now noticed that this was an outside voice and he would speak to find out who it was. "Yea, I'm Raito...so Husk why are you talking to me through my head..?"[/i][/color] the Captain asked inside his head. "Husk...?"/ Raito muttered barely audible to Yu. Raito wondered who that person could be, but then focused at the matter on hand when Yu started informing him about the bands. He understood what Yu was talking about when masking his reiatsu signature, but at the same time being present. It wasn't an odd task to do and he never really did it before, though he understood what to do. Raito watched the demonstration given by the Zero Division Shinigami. It seemed that he had mastered the bands and if someone else could do it, Raito could do it. He was confident, and started to feel his reiatsu. He went with the fluctuation of the reiatsu and had a felt for it. He closed his eyes and a serious face covered his face. He looked like he was calmly concentrating on a puzzle.

Raito concentrated his reiatsu and started to mask it slowly. Not wanting to look weak or incapable, Raito would try hard. He masked most of it and took a couple of steps. The first steps were very slow and it seemed he was an old man with a disability. It seemed he wasn't masking all of his reiatsu and not the correct way. So there was still some pressure from the bands on him. Raito stopped to concentrate again and took another step. He felt lighter, but couldn't help to feel like there was a baggage on him. He tried to use Shunpo, but it simply looked like he lunged forward about a feet. Raito murmered and growled as he failed to use his Shunpo. The captain stood in place concnetrating. His eyes were closed, his hands by his side and his feet place shoulder length apart. His reiatsu started to disappear and masked, but it was still there. All of it could be sensed if close enough, his whole spiritual pressure and strength. It was strong enough to bring down a seat-officer with ease. The Shinigami then suddenly used the flash step appeared at the lake and stopped, then started to start walking back. These were tricky bands, but he had found out how to master it. He wondered where the voice was now. It was after a few more steps that Ratio used his flash step to appear back where he was next to Yu. "Hmmm... how come you guys don't share your technology with Seireitei, or the Science Branch?" Raito wondered, not that he cared but he would think that the would be in mutual trading alliance crap.