A day in the field [Pvt]

When Ichika talked to Raiden, she had a feeling that he was interested in sparring. That was fine, since the Gotei Thirteen is a place with a lot of emphasis on martial skill. Exchanging pointers would then also be a very natural event, so it is not uncommon that there are people who come to like it. However, she mostly kept a low profile, telling others that her power was mostly insignificant. Few remember that she was the 20th seat, barring probably Raiden (because her transfer into the 20th seat was when they first met) and anyone else who looked at the roster. Had Raiden seen through her? She couldn't tell, but she decided it was worth the risk of injury sparring with him while holding back in order to instill the idea that she simply wasn't as powerful as he thought.

Walking over to the training grounds they agreed to meet at, she saw the Substitute Shinigami already there, armed with his gauntlet and overly large blade. Were large Zanpakutō the trademark of a Substitute Shinigami? She's heard talk and descriptions of Kurosaki Ichigo, who was also said to wield a large Zanpakutō. Was he as powerful?

Waving, the auburn-haired Shinigami called out to the Substitute Shinigami Representative as she approached him. "I'm sorry, did you wait long?" was the first thing besides his name that left her lips.

Following the substitute Shinigami, she stretched along with him as they set the scene for their spar. When he asked her how she wanted to fight, Ichika felt a bit of relief. After all, he just allowed her to dictate the fight.

The first rule she wanted to lay down was obvious. "To start off, I don't have shikai, so if you do want to swing your sword... that's a released zanpakutō isn't it? As long as you don't use your abilities, I suppose it can work out somehow. I'll mostly come at you with Hakuda and Kidō. Shunpō is allowed and Kidō will be limited to the 60's levels strongest. Is that fine?

As soon as she said that, Ichika was already making plans. If she were to use mostly incomplete techniques in the spar, then she'd naturally have many openings. This way, he'd get the upper hand on her quite fast and realize she isn't a very good match. This, and she was going to use the opportunity to study the usage of her Light Spring Style Fist Drawing Techniques. If the armor on his hand indicated anything, it meant he was very proficient at Hakuda himself and it would give her the chance to receive some tutelage from him as that was the area Ichika was lacking the most.

If anything went wrong, though, she had the Dimension Slash if she needed to get a bit heavy-handed.

Success, he got pushed back only to jump in again. He dedicated all of his body to the attack.

Perfect.

Raising her hand, she formed a single Bakudō. One she had practiced long enough to draw out the full power from even without using it's incantation.

「縛道の六十一・六杖光牢」
"Bakudo no Rokujūichi: Rikujōkōrō"

True to it's name, six rods of light were summoned straight into her opponent's waist. She knew it wouldn't hold him long, just barely enough to create an opportunity of attack.

She wouldn't waste that opportunity. She immediately moved to his left side and jumped.

Gathering spiritual energy into her legs, she created a boost of momentum that turned her into a wheel of death, her legs striking his shoulder armor four times in an instant. This was yet another new fist-draw technique: The Lunar Ring.

But, she wouldn't stop there. When it wore out, she compressed even more spiritual energy into her legs, creating the image of a katana blade's overlay in orange on her right leg. She could form the image clearly now that she used more spiritual energy compared to the last time she did; using her leg instead of a hand did not play a factor.

Below her left foot, a circular platform appeared, serving as foundation. She immediately used it to generate force and momentum, swinging her right leg straight at Raiden's neck, stopping short of actually striking him. If she could pull it off before he broke out, she would win the exchange. However, she believed that Raiden was more than capable of stopping her.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Techniques/CDs}T5+ Offensive: 3 posts
T5+ Binding: 2 posts
Union of Will and Spirit: Duration 3/5 max

Name: Bakudo #61 Rikujōkōrō (Six Rods Prison of Light) *
Tier: V
Range: Medium
Incantation: Carriage of Thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six!
Description: Summons six thin, but wide, beams of light that slam into a target's midsection, holding them in place.

Name: 泉光流抜拳術 (kōsenryū bakkenjutsu) [Light Spring Style Fist-Drawing Technique]
Type: Martial Arts Style
Range: N/A
Tier: I
Description: Amaori Ichika's theoretical development of a hand-to-hand fighting style. It borrows the principles of Iaidō, her own Shikai technique Seiōha and the Hadō #32. It focuses on concentrating and compressing Reiryoku into the limbs then unleashing a decisive attack/counterattack, sometimes outwards like a blast. All technique names are preceeded with "Bakken" (Fist-draw).

Name: 抜拳:精神統一 (bakken: seishintouitsu) [Fist-Draw: Union of Will and Spirit]
Class: Hakuda
Tier: IV
Type: Supplementary
Range: Self
Description: The base of the fighting style: the technique to gather reiryoku. Like how one readies oneself to unleash the sword from it's sheath in an instant, reiryoku is compressed into the four limbs. These limbs becomes the "sheathed blade": the ready position the "sheath" and the extending of the limb the "slash" of the sword. Strength and Speed will be increased 2x for 5 posts.

Name: 抜拳:月輪脚 (bakken: getsurinkyaku) [Fist-Draw: Lunar Ring]
Class: Hakuda
Type: Offensive
Range: Close
Tier: V-VI Tier VI used
Description: Using the speed and power granted by the compression of reiryoku into the leg to generate both the momentum and the initial backwards burst of speed required, a triple flying somersault kick is chained with an axe kick at 3x speed.

Name: 一歩逆転 (ippo gyakuten) [Single-Step Turnabout]
Class: Reiryoku Technique
Tier: II
Type: Supplementary
Range: Close (2m)
Description: Using spiritual power, a single circular platform 1 meter in diameter is created within 2 meter radius of the user for them to step off of.

Name: 抜拳:秋断 (bakken: akidachi) [Fist-Draw: Autumn Splitter]
Class: Hakuda
Tier: IV-V Tier V used
Type: Offensive
Description: By shaping the compressed reiryoku like a blade, the limb glows a faint orange and is able to deliver slashing attacks through knifehand strikes or sweeping kicks.

As she expected, her right leg did not reach Raiden's neck, slashing into bits of abandoned armor. With the energy from her Autumn Splitter expended, she could not resist her right leg being pushed to one side.

He was going to counter. In an attempt to mitigate the damage, she tried to circulate compressed spiritual energy through her body. This was a defensive technique she thought of using the base mechanics behind the rest of her fist-drawing techniques. Then, as Raiden pulled her down towards his head, she tried to use this energy to reinforce herself.

Tried. She couldn't really react fast enough to do all that in such a short time, considering Raiden was the one pulling a counterattack in such close proximity, even if she could start up the process first. Ichika would be a super-genius if she could perfectly activate a technique she only developed the theory, movement and processes for without practice and at such short notice.

The result was that she got knocked away, damage mitigated just enough that her nose was not broken. In less than a second she found herself downed on the hard ground.

Quickly, she scrambled to get up. "Thinking I'd win, that was too conceited of me."
She commented for the first time in their sparring session.

SPOILER: Click to show

Union of Will and Spirit: 4/5 max
T5+ Offensive: 2 posts
T5+ Binding: 1 post

Name: 抜拳:精神統一 (bakken: seishintouitsu) [Fist-Draw: Union of Will and Spirit]
Class: Hakuda
Tier: IV
Type: Supplementary
Range: Self
Description: The base of the fighting style: the technique to gather reiryoku. Like how one readies oneself to unleash the sword from it's sheath in an instant, reiryoku is compressed into the four limbs. These limbs becomes the "sheathed blade": the ready position the "sheath" and the extending of the limb the "slash" of the sword. Strength and Speed will be increased 2x for 5 posts.

Name: 抜拳:水映心 (bakken: suieishin) [Fist-Draw: Water Reflecting Spirit]
Class: Hakuda
Tier: I-VI (Fail?/T1)
Type: Defensive
Range: Close
Description: The single defensive technique of the Light Spring Style that teaches true patience before "drawing the fist" while also allowing the ability to parry. By circulating compressed reiryoku within their body, the user's body becomes reinforced, making all attacks of equal or lower advantage ineffective. This technique will defend against attacks by expending the bare minimum amount of energy to neutralize the attack. If the user has more advantages than the opponent (higher rank and mastery combined), then by expending an equal amount of energy instead of the bare minimum, the opponent's damage will be reflected back on them so long as it is not a projectile attack.

Ichika began to explain once she got onto her feet. "This is a spar, not a duel. I could've used that attack on your head, but that would be too heavy-handed. I could only go for your armor. Also, each of your attacks were more dangerous than mine, so I had to go all-out. If Kidō was banned, I'd probably be a goner."

She didn't want to know how Raiden would react if she told him the grand majority of what she pulled against him were actually new techniques. In that exchange, she actually used Raiden as a bit of a test dummy. She felt a bit guilty for that, but it also helped her understand the fighting style she was trying to develop.

"Yes, I'm going to need a break regardless of whether we're doing a round two or not." She answered when inquired. She understood that she expended a lot more spiritual power compared to him. This was the main drawback of the Fist-drawing techniques: She couldn't find any way to recycle her spiritual power, even if she only kept it's circulation within her body. There was the Shingitai, but it required her to convert her spiritual energy to Kidō to use, which she couldn't convert back.

She came to the conclusion that she would need to look a bit further into the Kidō energy substitution idea as she watched Raiden pick up the armor she destroyed, which was proof of the power of her Lunar Ring. "Yes, thank you too. Sorry about the armor though." She also felt a bit guilty about that, since repairing would be a hassle.

Oh dear, thought the girl once she found out about the armor. Yeah, it probably wasn't a very good idea to break that. Fortunately, he wasn't too offended by it.

"Well, I'll be cleaning in the evening, so we've got until then." She recounted her timetable off the top of her head. There was no way she was gonna miss duty, but there were enough hours for her to spend most of her day with Raiden if she had to.

"Well then, we've got one round out of the way. Is there anything in particular you want to work on? I'll be honest, what I showed you earlier is part of a martial art I was trying to develop, trying being the keyword, since I don't have enough proof of how far it can go and there's also the fact I'm simply not a master at hand to hand combat... And I'm quite sure that means it's far too early for me to take on such an ambition."

She was doing it anyway, though.

"The main problem is that it uses a lot of spiritual energy, so as you can tell, it's either we spend a short time, risk big injury and go big or we can go lighter and help each other in certain fields"

Taking Raiden's personality into account, chances were that he would probably opt for the former. Yes, Ichika wanted the latter, but her respect for him and his position acted as restraint from asking directly.