The chain strained under the weight of my copied sword. The links groaning lightly as I added more pressure. Natsumi growled at me as her eyes jumped between the blade and my face, making sure that the sword really was the same one she thought it was but taking care to be on guard in case I tried something.

“How do you have that sword.” She demanded as I pushed the blade another inch forward. Her arms began to tremble slightly but she held my sword back just the same.

“Well, that one Liuetenant kept throwing fireballs at me. So I decided I wanted one of my own.” I replied. “Yours looked fun too.”

I held up the weapon in my right hand, surprisingly Natsumi hadn’t noticed how similar it was to her own until now. Her eyes widen as recognition hits her.

“How is th- “

A black chain burst out of the surrounding branches and coiled around Natsumi’s leg. I gave a harsh tug on my end that pulled her leg out from under her. With her balance destroyed, she was unable to prevent the copy of Tobiume from continuing forward, biting deep into her right shoulder. Natsumi recovered quickly as she fell away from my sword. Despite the probably incredibly painful wound in her shoulder, she snapped up her hand and with a now familiar cry caused a fireball to rush towards my face.

Shakkahō!

The crimson orb didn’t have far to travel so I was only just able to cover my face before I was engulfed in the explosion. I flashed mana through my body, reinforcing it as much as I could to lower the damage dealt. While the heat and force vanished in a painful instant, smoke surrounded my upper body in a thick haze blocking everything from view.

I hastily jumped back, swishing my hands through the smoke to clear my vision. As I did, I noticed that I had lost focus trying to resist the fireball and both my weapons had broken as a result. Tobiume had snapped roughly in half while Kusarihebi was reduced to just the handle, both the sickle blade and chain having been destroyed. With barely a thought I dismissed the broken blades.

Landing on a different branch I quickly traced my twin swords again and looked around for Natsumi. I didn’t see her but I did spot her own chain whipping towards me. Dodging was impossible so I merely brought both blades up in preparation to block.

Natsumi clearly had other ideas. There was another flash of red light from a different direction and I suddenly found the branch I was on disconnected from the main trunk. Just in time for the chain to slam into me.

Unable to brace against anything I was swatted out of the air and sent crashing through some of the smaller branches before cratering on the forest floor. I wasn’t really injured by either the attack or the crash, even if they did hurt, but the sudden flight had left me disoriented and Natsumi was now thoroughly hidden in the trees.

Shit, that isn’t good.

I slowly made my way back to my feet, eyes darting to every twitching branch expecting to see another attack. Ready to react to anything I saw coming my way.

Nothing.

“Are we playing hide-n-seek now?” I called out.

Natsumi’s voice echoed out of the surroundings. I wasn’t sure if it was just the forest or if she did something but I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.

“Apologies Ryoka, but the time for games passed when we found a Captain assassinated earlier today. Now I will simply do my duty, capture you, and find out everything you know about Captain Aizen’s death.”

Okay, looks like they found Aizen’s fake body. That was good and bad for me. Good because Aizen hadn’t changed the broad strokes of his plan even with my interference and that the Soul Reapers would definitely have to pay attention to my traitor warning. Well provided anyone other than Natsumi and Soifon knew I had warned them. Bad because Central 46 was certainly dead now and Aizen was running the government.

“So I proved you had a traitor and you still want to fight me? Why not work with me rather than fight?” I asked.

“Because we do not have any proof it wasn’t your group anyway.” I turned in a circle, slowly making my way back to the treeline. “You told us a Captain was a target. You’ve said nothing to convince me that it wasn’t your group trying to shift the blame to in internal issue, it wouldn’t be the first time someone tried that.” I jumped back towards the center of the clearing as a blue flash exploded in front of me. Just to duck as the weighted end of a chain slashed through the air where my chest had been a second earlier.

I slashed at the chain as it passed over my head and pinned it to the ground using both blades to catch the chain in an ‘X’ and stabbing it as far into the ground as I could. Once that was done I followed the chain with a Haste. Only to stop when I saw it twist into the trees and out of sight.

Wasn’t going to walk into that trap.

Still no reason not to punish her leaving her weapon vulnerable. A quick trace later I had a sai in my hand and stabbed it deep into the tree, pinning the chain to the wood.

“That won’t work”

The only warning I had was the slight sound of feet kicking off bark somewhere above my head. I turned quickly to see Natsumi appear out of a sudden Shunpo and raised the rapier that appeared in my hands to ward off the sudden attack.

I turned away the first slash of her sickle but the following kick landed on my wounded hip, causing me to wince in pain. Natsumi took advantage of the opening, ducking under a retaliatory slash and swiping upwards.

Pain erupted on my right arm before I lost all sensation below my elbow. A quick glance confirmed despite the freely bleeding wound I still had my arm, but she must have severed the nerves or something since I couldn’t move it at all. Unwilling to let her get a second attack in, I tried to ward her off while falling further back.

In a spray of splinters, the previously pinned chain whipped around Natsumi to defend against the attack. The tough metal was barely scratched by the enchanted blade but it was enough for me to deter her from following after me for a second.

The two of us eyed each other warily. Neither one willing to make a move just yet.

Natsumi was the first to break the silence.

“I just cannot seem to make sense of you.” she said. “You have excellent combat skills and body control. In fact I think you would be a match for a captain in some places. Yet at the same time, -” she vanished with a shunpo.

I glanced up to see her hanging midair chanting under her breath. Too far away to hear what she was saying, the first hint of what she was doing was when fist sized balls of fire started raining down in front of me.

I blanched at the sheer amount of fire raining down and turned to escape with a quick hast- Natsumi had shifted the fire directly in front of where I was facing. I turned in the opposite direction, only for the fire to rain down there too.

Then I was out of time and the majority of the fire swept over me and… didn’t really hurt? Hundreds of the tiny balls of fire hit me, but they felt like firecrackers. Sure they stung a bit but even thousands of these wouldn’t do much more than maybe give me a light burn.

Natsumi appeared behind me with another Shunpo, but this time I reacted faster and she was forced to block my rapier. The heavy blow lifted the smaller woman off her feet and threw her skidding back over the grassy clearing.

“- your movement skills are far below par.” Natsumi continued, as if the whole exchange never happened. “It’s obvious you don’t use Hohō. Some kind of derivative. Yet the Shunpo equivalent is inferior. You can only move forward with that technique, can’t you?” It didn’t seem like my input was needed since she continued almost immediately anyway. “Thought as much. Then I will just need to disable a leg now and your defeat is certain.”

“You think it will be that easy?” I asked. “Even if you can move faster, I think I’m keeping up alright.”

Natsumi’s eyes widened as a line of blood burst from a straight cut going from shoulder to shoulder across her chest. It was clear she had no idea how I did it, and I wasn’t going to tell her.

’Still, glad the wind-cutter enchantment on the rapier worked. Would have been awkward if I messed up the timing there.’

Other thoughts raced through my mind as well. Natsumi was far more mobile than I was with just the basic shunpo technique. She was able to bleed me slowly with hit-and-run tactics and if I didn’t change something soon I might not be able to get away even if I beat her.

I needed a quick way to take her down without getting myself killed so I either needed to cripple her own mobility or find a way to knock her uncon-, ‘that could work’.

The rapier burst into light and my hand went behind my back as I tried to get everything in place with one hand. It was doable, but difficult. I would need a sec before everything was ready.

Best way to buy time? Get the enemy talking.

Good thing that was pretty easy here.

“Nothing to say to that Natsumi? Why the sudden silent treatment?”

She scowled at me, “I don’t suppose you’ve noticed, Ryoka. You are more injured than I am. Even if you are stronger with a blade, all I need to do is wait and eventually you will fall. How well do you think you can defend with an arm in that condition?”

Just a little more…

“I think I’ll be fine. You’re also feeling the strain, aren’t you? That last Kido was impressive, but it had no force behind it. You probably can’t repeat it if you had to either. I think if it comes down to stamina I’m better off than you.”

“That may be the case Ryoka, but I merely need to hinder you and signal for reinforcements. You are required to win our fight. I can settle for a draw if need be.”

Finished.

“I don’t think I need to win. Honestly I’m just going to run away the first chance I get.”

“And that’s why you need to be a little less mobile.” She replied before kicking off the ground and charging towards me. I wanted to fall back and give myself more time to work with but I felt something coil around my leg and realized Natsumi was buying time as well.

Too bad for her my plan worked just fine even if I couldn’t move.

I pulled one of my last spell pistols and fired. The soul reaper must have been expecting the move since she ducked lower allowing the golden beam to pass harmlessly over her head. The pistol was useless now, the matrix would have overheated and warped from the mana flowing through it, but Natsumi wouldn’t know that. I adjusted my aim like I was going to take a second shot, and felt her weapon unwrap form my leg and smack into my wrist forcing my arm off to the side.

I let it and felt the spell pistol fly out of my hand into the surrounding woods. Natsumi was now too close to avoid. Instead of trying to retreat, I projected a shortsword and using my right hand brought it straight down in a vertical chop.

Natsumi automatically responded to the incoming attack by sweeping her sickle upwards, easily tearing the blade from my still nerveless fingers. By the way her eyes widened she also realised her mistake but was unable to do anything about being baited as my left hand slammed into her torso.

’I win.’

Natsumi was sent tumbling off in one direction. I sighed in relief as everything worked out, only to collapse when my right leg suddenly gave out. Dammit, Natsumi got another hit in even with the feint.

“He he he”

The sound of laughter snapped my attention back to the Soul Reaper. Natsumi had gotten back to her feet, clutching her right side. With a sharp jerk she pulled something out of her torso and held it up to her face.

“A punch dagger?” Natsumi asked. “You tricked me into thinking you regained the use of your arm and the best you could do with that opening was a punch dagger?” She shook her head. “No matter, with your leg in that condition you can no longer escape before someone else shows up. I don’t even need to fight you anymore, simply watching from the sur- huh?”

Natsumi took a shaky step forward and immediately collapsed to her hands and knees. All strength fleeing from her.

“What’s wrong Natsumi?” I smirked “Feeling a bit weak?”

“W-what did y-you do?” She was glaring at me but considering she looked like a gentle wind would knock her over at this point really lessened the impact.

“Hollow dagger filled with this.” I replied, holding up a near empty vial of green liquid. “Swiped some off a squad four member and figured out some uses for it. It was an interesting conversation.”

The vial was something I swiped off Hanataro while we were treating Ichigo after his duel with Renji. I vaguely remembered it being something that acted as a fast-acting tranquilizer for people with low Reiatsu. When I asked him more about he told me it eventually worked for stronger people but you would need a huge amount to get past the natural barrier anyone with high Reiatsu had. Even then it tended to just reduce body control not actually knock the person out.

I pointed out that you could just inject it or coat a weapon with it to get past that if need be, but apparently the liquid evaporated rapidly outside of the sealed containers they were stored in and apparently poison was not something Soul Reapers used outside of Zanpakuto abilities.

That I was able to actually inject enough to make a difference was due to a much larger amount of luck than I would have liked, but it had worked.

Natsumi’s face was a picture of shock. “Shinten? H-how did you-”

“-stop it from evaporating while in the dagger?” I interrupted, “Easy, while we both were talking I was filling the blade. It wasn’t out of the container for more than a few seconds. You were just unlucky.”

“D-damn, guess it's a draw then. I can’t continue, and you aren’t going anywhere on that leg.” Natsumi complained. “So now what.”

“Now I heal up and get on with my day.” I scoffed. I limped to the closest tree I could and sat down leaning my back on the trunk. Almost immediately after that a yellow circle appeared in my left hand as I began to heal the various wounds I had.

“You k-know Kaidō. O-of course you know Kaidō. Dammit.” Natsumi said bitterly. Then she slumped to her side, unconscious I assume.

Some time later, I had patched myself up enough I was confident I could make it to the cave Yoruichi had gone without being completely helpless or collapsing on the way. I was also nice enough to fix Natsumi up so she wouldn’t bleed out in the forest. Now I was almost at my destination and was really looking forward to a nap.

I was making my way down a stupidly long ladder when my arm gave out again. While I had managed to restore some feeling to it, I definitely was not fully healed and that was ignoring the several other injuries I had.

Luckily I was near the bottom of the ladder when I fell off, maybe only a few feet, so I wasn’t further hurt by the fall.

I was also content just to lay in a heap on the ground.

Eventually two feet entered my vision and I heard Yoruichi’s voice.

“What the hell happened to you?!”