Arc 2: Canon 6: The Oldest Master [Complete]

[Manabu Brock]

"You may work together." Manabu realized he was going to be worthless against an adversary like this. The only option he had left was to use Shonen's collaboration technique. He pulled the trigger again and green flame erupted into Zanken. As the green burst dissipated, it revealed Manabu sans flamethrower, but Zanken now had on some ridiculous looking goggles. Rather, a ridiculous looking goggle.

This one was apparently Shonen's idea. This contraption covered only one eye with something that looked like a bug's eye made of glass. These were actually small cameras that rapidly took pictures and displayed some of them on a screen in front of the covered eye. This goggle was basically translating something happening beyond or at the edge of Zanken's visual threshold into something he could process. However, some of the image would have to be discarded to fit the general movements into a timespan suitable for him. This would allow Zanken to track movement better than he could normally, but the image would be jumpy, perhaps like seeing someone in a strobe light.

Shonen... where do you come up with this stuff?[/i]

[Zou ۞]

OOC: Post skipped.

[Xaifer Regneis]

Zanken felt that Manabu had transfered Shonen to him now, and also that it formed the goggle thing on his eye. Well this was helpful. With this, Zanken could see where the thing was coming from. As the dummy made its move, using Sonido, Zanken was actually able to see it coming! Zanken brought the white blade in the path of the strike, so that the dummy would hit the flat of the blade instead of him. A second before it hit, Zanken twisted the blade, angeling it so the blow would glance off and also igniting the blade with white fire. The black blade also burst into black ice. Since the dummy was just about to hit the blade, and it couldn't stop, its arm was about to catch on fire. Since Zanken now had superior Reitsu Strength, a Bala or Cero wouldn't really help at this range.

Remaining Reitsu: 325/2000 (-100 Reitsu for Powers)

Bankai Duration: 2/10

Powers Duration: 1/5

[Zou ۞]

No good. Seeing wasn't reacting. He could see, his mind could instinctively process. That was the power given to him by Shonen. But, this didn't make his body fast enough to keep up. The speed difference was massive. Maybe Zanken could've done SOMETHING if he'd tried a step technique. But in this case, it was useless. His movement was only an inch, barely enough to miss the heart. No, it would still hit slightly. The dummy's hand went straight into Zanken's chest, and ripped out soon after as it jumped back, quite easily evading the slashes. How foolish of him to assume that sight allowed him to move at the proper speed to keep up with an already faster enemy's shunpo! This left a damaged hole in his chest, with blood spewing out. Not only that, but it had touched against the heart lightly, which was just enough to immobilize him in pain for the moment. Zanken would in fact, be immobilized for several seconds.

Oh, that wasn't good. This was almost like a finishing wound. It was almost enough to completely end the fight. Technically, it WAS enough. If Zanken just lay there, he'd black out, and eventually bleed out. But, the dummy didn't seem to want to leave him there. It aimed its palm at both Zanken and Manabu. A Cero began charging. In an instant, the Cero flew out, straight towards the both of them. Zanken's wound tremendously weakened him. Even if he tried to attack with his powers, he wouldn't be able to muster enough force to break the Cero, assuming he tried it. Maybe cancel it, though it was likely some would still break through to inflict burns. But, beyond that, no luck. The dummy was proving to be strong. Could Manabu do something in this situation?

Dummy's Remaining Reiatsu: 2500 Reiatsu

[Manabu Brock]

Manabu was fairly confident at this point that he could not affect this opponent in any way directly. That was why he had sent Shonen over to Zanken. Now Zanken was injured and another Cero was coming. They couldn't really afford to take another Cero. They couldn't really afford to take the first one either, but that was in the past. If Manabu were stronger, he would move the arm in order to direct the Cero away. Since that wasn't an option as far as Manabu could determine, he would have to move the "away" in front of the arm. However, since redirecting a Cero is as easy as moving an arm, redirecting the Cero would be as easy as moving an arm. Therefore, a simple change of place wouldn't be enough. Manabu needed something else for the Cero to destroy. He grabbed whatever part of Zanken was closest and used a rather strenuous Shunpo. The two of them now had a cage with a Captain of the Gotei 13 between them and the dummy. Even if the cage couldn't handle the Cero, surely Hara Lucious could! Hopefully...

Reiatsu: 250/500

[Zou ۞]

OOC: Post skipped. Let's see what else may happen.

[Xaifer Regneis]

All Zanken could really do was wait for something to happen. He really screwed up, big time. Bla... blast it... I need to.. think before I do.. something like that ag.. ain.. ... I need to stop acting like an idiot... part of being a... Vice Captain.. is about being smart... and thats something... I need to work on... I could be strong.. so much stronger than I am right now... if I could use my powers better... smarter... than I am.. right now.. ... ugh I hate this so much... Zanken bleekly thought.

Even though Zanken was in great pain, he wouldn't let that stop him from destroying the Cero if necessary. If the Dummy decided to redirect the Cero, Zanken would destroy it if he could. On another note, the cage behind them held captive one of their allies. Perhaps the Cero could destroy it and free him to join the battle. That was another option. Zanken was farily sure he could move fast enough to get out of the way of the blast. Then again he was badly injured and would probably have to rely on Manabu for support. If this really was a training session, perhaps it would allow them to heal when it ended? Then again probably not.

Bankai Duration: 3/10

Powers Duration: 2/5

[Zou ۞]

The cero suddenly faded, and the numbers disappeared from the dummy. Training session failed. Access to hidden corridors: Denied. What?! That was what the training had been about? To see if they were strong enough to access the treasure to begin with? Well, that was just great. They'd just been defeated by the Kuroi dummy. The Cero had obviously been powerful enough to destroy the cage and Hara, and then take out Zanken and Manabu at the same time. The dummies didn't seem to make miscalculations, and so it'd known that there was no way they would have survived that. All in all, the training session was over, and they were not going to be able to get Wang's secret. A huge explosion of smoke and other stuff, and SOMETHING propelled them out. One second they were there, next, all three flew out of the room, landing on the pavement outside of Wang's house. Failure. Oh, how it weighed down on them.

[Manabu Brock]

Manabu walked back up and rang the doorbell again. The door opened. "I'm sorry to bother you again, but I have someone hurt here. Can you help us heal him?"

The house had a fair amount of automation. Manabu was hoping it would have some automatic response that would be respond to that type of audio input. He stepped inside and kept alert for any indications.

Reiatsu: 250/500

Shikai duration: 4/10

[Zou ۞]

Flesh began regenerating around Zanken's wound, while reiatsu began pumping into both Manabu and Zanken. Their wounds were sealed, their blades were sealed, their reiatsu was restored. The house did all these things, but something was horrifically wrong with that. It was proof that they'd failed. As soon as the healing was done, they were kicked out again. This time, some kind of white reiatsu flared in front of the house once, almost as if it was a signal. It was locked. There would be no getting in again. So, what would they do? They'd failed their objective. Would they have to return to Seireitei as failures? Or would they meet another enemy, and, by some divine mercy, face death instead of having to face their shame?

[Xaifer Regneis]

"What the!?" Zanken said once again. They got blasted out of the house AGAIN. Ugh. How many times would it see fit to blast them out like that?! Then the door locked. Ohh great. It looked like there was no way back in this time. Zanken however, got up off the ground and walked back up the steps. It was pointless but he pressed the button again. Absolutely nothing happened. Zanken tried knocking on the door. Same result. Blast it there had to be another way in! If Wang was here, he would probably know how to get into his own house! A spare key, a back door, anything! Zanken then pounded on the door with his fist and said in a low voice, "Blast it all... blast it all... if we don't get in here.. blast it we need the treasure, power, whatever it is! We need it badly.. if we can't get it, someone else will, someone who might not be a Shinigami. Someone from the Bount, Arrancar, or even Quincy could come in and get it, hell even a Vizard could..." Zanken then turned around and slumped down onto the ground direcly in front of the door. Zanken looked at his hand and clenched it tightly. "Blast it... if we can't get this, we can't avenge Wang.. I don't care if you wont let us in. We'll find some way to obtain this treasure. I don't care if it costs me another limb. I won't let Wang's sacrifice go to waste all because of one enemy, one locked house. If I let that stop me i'd truly be a failure."

Zanken got up from the floor by the door. Zanken walked off the porch and then around the house, to see if it did have a back door. If it did Zanken tried it, though it would most likely be locked. If that didn't work, Zanken went around to go around and look for another door. If that didn't work, Zanken looked to see if there was another way in, like a window or something like that was left unlocked, and tried them all. If that didn't work, Zanken looked for a key, usually everyone had a spare key to their house, and if the key could be found, they might be able to get in. Whatever the case, Zanken wasn't letting up.

[Zou ۞]

Everything failed. No doors unlocked, there weren't even windows to begin with, and the house was sturdy enough that no attacks damaged it. No spare key, no hope. That was it. Zanken and Manabu had officially failed the mission. "It's useless." A voice said as someone stepped forwards. There he was. The man that had killed Wang was here. Of course, Zouma Santeku looked impressive and strong. It was unfortunate that he'd arrived, though more unfortunate that Zanken and Manabu both had ended up failing this mission. "Once you've been defeated by the Simulation, you can't get the treasure. Only the worthy can get it. You weren't worthy." Zouma stepped past Zanken and Manabu, proceeding to ignore them completely. What? Was he going to try for it? No! He couldn't be allowed to get the treasure! And yet, he couldn't be stopped. He'd just kill Zanken and Manabu. What should they do?

Old Lightning had died against Zouma, Wang had died against Zouma. Zouma had slaughtered the whole Central 46. Everyone was counting on missions like this, plenty of people had been killed by the Vizard Leader. Was it all for nothing? Were the Shinigami really that powerless against this guy? If so, that was too bad.

[Manabu Brock]

Manabu immediately released Shonen quietly and asked him to get his yellow folder. The zanpakuto turned into green reiatsu and flowed into Manabu's eyes. Those actions would probably be beneath Zouma's notice, and he would certainly consider them beneath his consideration. This was an incredible opportunity for Manabu. He would get to see the inner workings of a Vizard! Possibly without dying!

Meanwhile, he had to do something. Anything. He certainly couldn't do anything to this monster, but he might be able to slow him down long enough to think of something to distract him while he thinks of something that might possibly be able to stop him.

"Zouma Santeku. How do you know about the Simulation? Furthermore, how do you know about the treasure? Finally, what could the man who killed Old Lightning possibly need from an old man's basement?"

Reiatsu: 300/500

Shikai duration: 1/10

[Zou ۞]

What Manabu saw wasn't up to expectations. It was nothing but blackness. A complete and utter blackness, and a bottomless void. That was all that was inside Zouma. His reiatsu couldn't be seen, his workings couldn't be seen. Not even his Zanpakuto Spirit or his Inner Hollow could be seen. No...wait. There was something inside of the blackness, at the very bottom, buried deeply. It was...horrifying. One flash, and Manabu's use of Shonen shattered. Inside of Zouma was some kind of monster, some kind of Hellish thing that couldn't even be visualized mentally, without being seen.

Of course, he'd seen the inside of Zouma's heart. This clearly had consumed Zouma's entire soul. Everything inside of him had been consumed by the beast. Well, that clearly wasn't good. It meant that he was hellbent on hatred, on destruction and evil. He was the epiphany of an avenger, and of hate. Nothing could truly stop him now.

He also spoke to Manabu, but kept walking. "None of your concern, Shinigami. You have bigger problems." He rang the doorbell, which opened the door. He entered, and it closed behind him. The white reiatsu flared again to ensure that Zanken and Manabu couldn't get in.

[Xaifer Regneis]

Zanken just stared blankly at Zouma as he appeared. Of. Freaking. Course. The guy seemed to be where no one wanted him all the time. As Zouma walked into the house, and the white Reitsu flashed once more, Zanken ran up to the door and began to throw himself at it, as if trying to break it down. As he did this, Zanken said, "YOU (BASH) STUPID (BASH) HOUSE!! (BASH) YOU (BASH) JUST (BASH) LET (BASH) WANG'S (BASH) KILLER (BASH) IN!!" Zanken proceeded to do this till he got blasted off the porch again. Blast it all! Even if Zouma DID fail, unlikely in the highest degree, he could probably just blow the house up with his Tenkai. "Blast it blast it! Theres gotta be some way to get the treasure! I mean, its not like he would just hand it to us and say it was a waste of his time to get it or something!! We could always try to take it, but it might have some sort of fail safe or it might only let the person who got it get out. Plus hes strong, he would catch us in an instant. Blast it! There has to be some sort of way.." Zanken said while he lay on the ground.