Bleach Dark Dawn CH50, Clash of the Rivals

It wasn’t long before Torin found Rida in the squad 13 barracks. Rida was looking at his quarters in the male ward contemplatively, as if he knew he’d be moving out soon.

“Psychic now are we?” Torin commented as he leaned against the wall

Rida cracked a smile, but it quickly faded back into the serious look he had been wearing. “You came to bring me to captain’s exam right?” he asked

Torin nodded “yeah, we’re gonna do it today, the old man wants to get someone in charge of squad 9, you’re the only real candidate who fits the requirements” he said

Rida sighed “you know I’ve lived in these quarters for a long time now, ever since we graduated this small apartment has been mine. The roof leaks, the plumbing breaks more often than I can fix it, it’s freezing in winter and unbearable in the summer, and my neighbor is a drunken pain in the ass whose stench infects the place whenever he forgets which apartment is his and walks in. Yet despite it all, I’m gonna miss the place… Is that weird?”

Torin smiled slightly “not at all, I felt the same way leaving my apartment. Now drop the solemn look, it doesn’t suit you” he said “besides, don’t you think you should start missing the place AFTER you pass? You’ve always been horrible at tests”

Rida smiled briefly again “heh, I guess you’re right there, come on then.”

Torin and Rida walked out of the building and made their way back to the 1st division. Outside the door to Yammamoto’s office they met up with Lieutenant Sasakibe. Sasakibe was an older man, with gray hair, an angular face, and a perpetual scowl for an expression. He wore a traditional uniform with his lieutenant’s badge on his arm and a plain white haori over the uniform. Torin had seen the man many times, but he never seemed to make much of an impression, always fading into the background of any situation. His reiatsu was nothing to speak of, and Torin had never seen him fight, but he couldn’t make out why he was Yammamoto’s chosen lieutenant for the life of him.

“This way Captain Izanki, Rida Itazura” Sasakibe said as he led them down the hall toward a large set of double doors that neither Torin nor Rida had seen before.

Inside was a large open room with seats in the center. In the center Yammamoto was already seated, along with Shunsui to the left of the head captain. There was a third seat to the right, and one across from Yammamoto.

Torin walked Rida to the center of the room and had him sit down across from the head captain. “Well I suppose I’ll take my leave now” he said

“No, you are to be an examiner in this, Captain Izanki” Yammamoto said

“Me? I would think that unwise, I am obviously going to be biased” Torin said

“It is a captain’s duty to partake in these things kid” Shunsui said “think of it as a different kind of training.”

“It is also traditional for the one who recommended a candidate to participate in the exam. Only a friend of the candidate can bring out their true potential before the other captains” Yammamoto said

Torin thought this over “that makes sense, alright” he said as he took the seat to Yammamoto’s right.

“Rida Itazura, you appear before us today as an ordinary member of the gotei, your past accomplishments and skill have earned you the opportunity to be considered as a captain in the gotei 13. If you pass this exam, you will be put in charge of one of the existing divisions, you will have the right to lead the squad as you see fit, and you will be responsible for all of the duties entailed by the position. Do you understand?’ Yammamoto asked

Rida nodded “Yes Captain” he said. Torin was surprised by the determination in his voice, he’d never heard Rida this way before.

“The first test is one of reiatsu” Shunsui said “all captains must possess a certain level of reiatsu, without it, they cannot hope to fight on the same level as a captain-class opponent, now stand and display your reiatsu to us in full. This room is insulated, so you may do so without fear of injuring others in the building.”

Rida nodded and stood, then began to unleash his reiatsu. Rida was engulfed in a fiery red and black aura that expanded several feet away from him. In size the aura was nothing unusual for a captain, but Torin could feel it was different, not only was the reiatsu powerful, he could feel actual heat coming from it. The floor beneath Rida became charred as the reiatsu aura touched it

The reiatsu Rida put out grew hotter and hotter, until the floor actually began to catch fire and Torin began to sweat. Shunsui was sweating a bit himself, but Yammamoto was unfazed.

“First test, passed” Yammamoto said, and Rida let his reiatsu fall back to passive levels.
“The second test is one of intelligence and leadership” Yammamoto said “as a captain, you will be forced to face challenging problems and lead your division towards solving them, this written portion of the exam will serve to evaluate your capacity in that area.”
Rida paled a bit, and Torin felt a bit bad for him, Rida had always been bad in school when it came to written exams. Practical exams he did great in, good enough to carry his grades and excuse the bad grades on the other tests, but his short attention span rendered him next to useless in a written test.

Rida took the test and got to work, focusing as hard as he could, but seeming to relax somewhat soon after. Torin watched with a mixture of concern and confusion, he figured Rida would be more stressed about the test, but when the test was returned and Torin read it he saw why. The questions weren’t arbitrary right or wrong ones like on normal tests, instead they proposed open-ended scenarios and pushed Rida to come up with his own unique solutions. It was in essence a practical application exam, Rida’s lack of attention span was evident in many areas, but overall he’d come up with intuitive and effective solutions.

Once he and the other examiners had read it, Torin looked to Yammamoto “The third test, it’s combat right?” he asked “and I’m guessing you want me to be his opponent

Yammamoto nodded “stand, Rida Itazura, it is time to face the third portion of your captaincy exam.”

Rida stood up quickly, happy to be moving again after sitting through the written exam. He looked around and frowned.

Torin frowned as well “Head captain, this location…”

“I am aware” Yammamoto said as he tapped the ground with his cane. The walls of the room glowed with blinding light, and when they faded, they were in a large expansive room with sparsely distributed trees, rock formations, and even small rivers and pools of water.

“We hold the exam in this room for a reason, you didn’t honestly think we had only used one room for captain’s exams the past 1000 years on a whim?” Shunsui chuckled as he and Yammamoto stood

Torin looked away in embarrassment “of course not” he said, feeling a bit stupid.

“We will be observing the battle from afar, good luck, Rida Itazura” Yammamoto said, then he and Shunsui vanished.

Torin stood and stretched, he hadn’t been expecting to fight today, but he still had his zanpakto on him in case of an enemy attack “Are you ready for this Rida?” he asked

Rida took a ready stance “We both are, we both knew this fight would come eventually, where one of us would test the other to make them a captain”

Torin reached for the hilt of the massive blade on his back “I think you’ve got something wrong Rida, I’m not here to make you a captain”

Rida frowned as Torin drew his blade, the atmosphere in the room changed instantly into one oozing with tension, and Torin hadn’t even spiked his reiatsu yet.

“I’m the obstacle here to STOP you from becoming captain, you’re here to become one despite me” Torin said as his reiatsu shot up. Torin’s aura was one of blinding white, the ground around him cracked apart and small rocks floated into the air, carried by the updraft the reiatsu was creating as it shot up into the sky. Rida squinted, but all he could see of Torin through the aura was a dark silhouette of a man with glowing white eyes.

Rida felt himself break out in a sweat “this… this power…” he murmured in awe, there was no holding back here, Torin had never used his full reiatsu against him before, and now he could see why. There was an ocean of energy stored in his friend, one barely kept in check after many years of practice, Rida’s reiatsu was above average even for a captain, but he couldn’t even fathom what he was up against.

Rida swallowed hard, then put on a nervous smile “heh, I always knew you were something else Torin, anyone could tell just by looking at you now, you’re strong… probably stronger than me” he said “I can feel your power weighing me down, pressuring me, almost crushing my will to fight, crushing my will to do anything other than avert my eyes and simply kneel before it…”

Rida’s reiatsu shot up to the level it had been at back in the first test “but even so, I’m not going to let you stop me from passing this exam!” he said, his fists clenching as he glared through the blinding white and locked eyes with Torin.

Torin’s aura dissipated, revealing Torin fully. Torin smiled “come on then” he said as he hefted his sword

Rida’s aura vanished as well, but in his case he was channeling it throughout his body, circulating it through his veins so that he didn’t expend any. It was an advanced hakuda technique he had picked up from the vizards during training, called “Kōsei shatai” or steel body. So long as he could keep it up, it would simulate an arrancar’s hierro in a way, hardening his body so that he could fight swordsmen with his bare hands and not get cut.
Rida ran sideways, circling Torin, he knew his body could withstand sword swings so long as he used Kōsei shatai, but with Torin’s immense physical strength he doubted he could take a direct hit like he could from a normal swordsman. Even if he could, there was the risk of internal organs being ruptured from the impact itself, though that would also be reduced by the technique.

Torin was watching Rida carefully, they hadn’t seen each other fight since training, and so while they knew each other well, neither of them could know for sure what tricks the other had up their sleeve.

Rida slid to a stop behind Torin, who turned to face the martial artist with a sword swing. Rida hadn’t moved in, so the swing confused him, but then the shockwave of air hit him… and everything else in front of Torin for a good 40 yards. Rida let the force knock him into a backflip, but was still dazed from the sudden and painful hit.

“Since when can he do that?” Rida thought as he landed “he’s always been strong, but seriously! What the hell was that?”

“If you won’t press the offense then I will” Torin said from behind Rida, his sword raised and preparing to descend

“Shit!” Rida cursed as he shunpoed away. Torin’s slash connected with the rock Rida had been standing on, obliterating it and a good portion of the surrounding area. “Should’ve seen that one coming at least” he scolded himself as he landed, then sprung back in.
The dust cloud from Torin’s slash was still settling when Rida burst through it and threw a punch. Torin easily sidestepped and spun into a counter at Rida’s midsection, but Rida jumped up and over the strike, then extended his feet and landed on the blade itself, riding it as the slash slowed, and then planting a low kick in Torin’s face.

Torin was quite understandably shocked, the timing required to land on a blade that was only a foot wide in the first place and moving at the speeds he swung at was inhuman. The kick hurt too, as Torin felt Rida’s significant physical power score a direct hit. Rida wasn’t as strong as Torin physically, few were, but Torin could tell that he was stronger than the average captain as he flew across the field and into a rock formation, cracking the stone as he collided.

Torin stumbled forward and wiped the blood from his jaw as Rida closed in again with shunpo, this time ducking inside his guard and going for an uppercut. Deprived of any real options by the wall behind him and the extreme close range of the attack, Torin had no choice but to jump slightly upwards as the attack connected, minimizing the damage. Even so Torin was sent skyward and slightly dazed, followed shortly by Rida leaping after him.
Torin tried to recover, but wasn’t given the time as Rida appeared before him, fists glowing with reaitsu. Torin’s eyes widened as he realized what was coming, but there was little he could do about it from this position.

Rida unleashed a blindingly fast flurry of reiatsu and shunpo enhanced punches, each one hitting Torin in the chest or gut. Rida nailed Torin 30 times, then finished with a powerful kick, smashing the captain through a large plateau-like formation.

Rida smiled, he’d done exactly as he hoped and ended the fight before Torin could get serious, he knew that he could exploit Torin’s unwieldy blade and use it to his advantage until Torin released shikai. Once that release came the dynamic of the fight changed entirely, which is why Rida had done all he could to deliver a decisive blow while they were both sealed. Not even Torin could take a beating like that and still…

“What the… how? Even you…!” Rida gasped, face pale in shock and horror.

The dust settled from the destroyed plateau as Torin stood, he had taken a beating that would’ve killed most men outright, but as Rida watched, Torin stood up straight and dusted himself off like nothing had happened.

“That hurt” Torin said “but do you think that’s enough to be a captain? Time to grow up Rida, that’s kid stuff now. This is the big leagues, law of combat number 5, never assume your opponent is beaten until you see their unconscious or dead body with your own eyes, and even then, be wary. We were both taught that in the academy Rida, everyone was.”

Torin lifted his sword and pointed at Rida “letting up the pressure because you thought you’d finished me was an amateur mistake, you’re trying to become a captain and making stupid mistakes like that? Don’t make me laugh”

Rida gritted his teeth in anger and fear. Did he have time to close in again before Torin released? He knew it was coming now, and he also knew he was too far away to do anything about it. Torin was right, he’d gotten cocky, assumed his barrage was enough to take his friend down like it used to before they’d trained. Now he was gonna pay the price for it.

“Grow!” Torin roared, his blade shone with a brilliant light as it expanded into the 8 foot long, 2 foot wide blade of glowing blue crystals that was his shikai “Kessho Satsujinsha.”

Rida drew his own zanpakto, a steel body wasn’t enough for this fight anymore “Erupt! Kazen no ken!” he called. Rida’s blade melted, the familiar lava quickly coating Rida’s entire arms and forming the gauntlets and armor that was his shikai. It was interesting to note that his entire arm was armored now, rather than just the forearm. It was something Rida had never really noticed, but he was grateful for the extra protection it provided.

Torin viciously slashed the ground in front of him, crystallizing the ground rapidly in a path way leading straight to the ground beneath where Rida stood in the air and expanding from there just as fast.

Not wanting to let himself get caged in like the daichiken Zasshu had, Rida charged in with a shunpo, transitioning from a shunpo to a punch as he appeared in front of Torin, but a wall of crystal rapidly appeared to intercept him. Rida’s gauntlets unleased their trademark explosion, shattering the top half of the wall, but not even singing Torin.

Rida backflipped away from Torin’s counterattack before it even started, somersaulting backwards and sliding to a stop, only to have to rapidly jump to avoid pincer-like spikes of crystal impaling him from both sides.

Rida landed on a reiatsu platform and looked down in dismay. This was what he needed to avoid, he could handle Torin’s increased reach, he could handle the increased power, and even the kurisutarubimu attack. What he couldn’t handle were the crystals. For a close range fighter like him, those crystals were the bane of his existence. The moment they came into the picture Torin gained complete control of the terrain. While he was busy smashing wall after wall, Torin had an endless array of angles and ways to attack him.

Torin looked up at Rida, he understood the situation now as well as Rida did, and he knew Rida was down to two options, either attempt to fight him using the flames his gauntlet could produce, or release bankai. He considered pressuring Rida with his crystals, but decided to conserve his reiatsu, the odds of him hitting someone that high up were slim regardless.

Rida mulled over his options, his flames were hot enough to melt stone, so he could best Torin’s crystals in a fair contest, but by nature the contest wasn’t fair. The crystals could regenerate even as they melted, and there would always be more. Rida would run out of reiatsu long before he made any significant dent in Torin’s defenses. That left him no other choice, Rida dropped to the ground, shouting as he fell “Bankai!”

As Rida fell, engulfed by his own personal fire tornado, he threw a punch to break up the crystals beneath him. The ground broke into several large pieces that were picked up and thrown away by the fire tornado with great force. One even shot towards Torin, but was shattered into dust by a dismissive wave of a hand and a mental command from the buster sword wielder.

The flame tornado slowly faded, revealing the massive lava golem and it’s nightmarish skeletal visage. It stood at 100 feet tall this time, somewhat larger than last time. Rida stood at the base of the golem, in a circle of uncrystalized ground that his tornado had created for him “Kazen no Akuma” he said

Torin looked at the golem analytically, but couldn’t suppress a slight feeling of awe and fear of the monstrosity. It towered above him and all of the rock formations and trees, and being made of lava it emitted an eerie red glow and an almost unbearable heat. Simply standing before it was unnerving. Torin wasn’t one to let himself be intimidated though, and quickly noted some weaknesses. For one, the golem was made of a liquid, which meant it wasn’t going to be as durable as something of its size normally would be. But the liquid was also very dense and heavy, meaning the golem would probably move rather slowly. Torin doubted something of that size could land a hit on someone like him, so long as he didn’t meet it in direct combat he would be fine.

Torin shifted his attention to what he deemed the real threat, Rida himself. Rida was now completely armored, which at the very least meant it would be harder to injure him. He also probably had the ability to use explosions in all of his attacks now, as well as unleash flames from anywhere on his body. Torin also noted that his crystals weren’t expanding to reclaim the territory around Rida for some reason, normally they would’ve done so automatically, but something was stopping them.

Rida was planning his next attack now, he knew his golem wasn’t fast enough to catch Torin, even when he manually directed it’s movements it could only go so fast with all that mass. With a speed focused captain like Torin as a foe, there was no chance of catching him with the main body, unless of course he was distracted.

Rida raised a hand and pointed towards Torin, and his golem responded by lifting its massive arm over Torin. Large globs of lava dripped from the outstretched hand and landed all around Torin, there were 20 in all, distributed evenly around Torin.

Torin looked around and frowned as the globs of lava rose up, forming into smaller versions of the large golem. “Hmm, interesting” he said as the golem spawn charged. The smaller golems were much faster than the large one, moving as fast as Lieutenants or 3rd seats at least. Regardless, they weren’t even in Torin’s league.

Torin spun and slashed as the first group of golems reached him, three of them were cut cleanly in two by the strike, their forms lost their shape and turned into puddles of lava that then quickly hardened into stone. Torin noted this and sidestepped another, making a spike of crystal impale it as he slashed and destroyed 3 more with the shockwave. “7 down” Torin thought, as  he rolled away from two more and cut them down, only for another to jump over its comrades and throw a punch. “Sho!” Torin said, firing the weak hado to destroy the thing’s arm while he recovered and slashed.

Torin frowned, he far outmatched these things, but their very touch would destroy him if they hit, and with so many, it was time to step it up. “Kurisutrarubimu!” Torin roared as he turned and slashed, unleashing the arc of cutting energy and taking down another seven of the spawn. Torin shot a byakurai through the head of another to kill it, and easily cut down the last one.

Torin went to turn to Rida, but caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of his eye and dodged with shunpo as a much larger spawn smashed the ground where he had been. He appeared behind the spawn and realized that his spike from earlier was still lodged in it,
regenerating at the same rate the spawn was melting it. The molten crystals were giving the spawn more mass, making it larger by the second. “Well that’s a surprise” Torin said as he fired a kurisutarubimu at the spawn to dispatch it.

Torin turned to face Rida, only to see a large block of rock barreling towards him at high speed. “Hmph” Torin said as he cut through it “nice tr…” Torin’s eyes widened as he saw that behind the first block was another just like it, and Torin wasn’t in a position to cut it. Without the option of blocking, Torin shunpod into the air.

Torin watched the block pass through where he’d been, then sensed someone behind him. Torin turned to see Rida in mid-kick and turned to meet the kick with a slash. He thought he was going to make it for a second, but then an explosion of flame from Rida’s heel accelerated the kick into Torin’s side. The moment the kick had hit, another explosion erupted from the point of impact, blasting Torin to the ground.

Torin got to his knees shakily, his ribs on his left side were broken, and he’d suffered severe burns on that side of his body. “Ngh… that packs a punch” He groaned, then a shadow passed over him and he looked up in a panic. The golem’s fist descended towards him, moving deceptively fast for its size. With gravity on its side now the golem could actually punch rather quickly, Torin didn’t have time to dodge or form a effective barrier.

“Bankai!” Torin called, vanishing in an cloud of reiatsu as the fist smashed into where he’d been standing.

Rida looked down at the ground, face pale “Oh shit… did I just kill Torin?” he said in horror

“Unlikely” Torin said from behind him as he punched Rida to the ground. Torin was in the crystal suit of armor that was his bankai, having utilized the speed boost it gave him to dodge the golem and go on the attack. The armor was also helping manage the pain from his burns and broken bones by crystallizing the injured skin and making a makeshift cast.

Rida got to his feet as Torin dropped to the ground. The two combatants stared each other down, evaluating the situation. Rida could see that when it came to damage, Torin was in rough shape, his blast kick earlier had dished out serious damage that even the tank-like captain couldn’t shake off. But he also knew that was going to change before long. He was fast enough to fight Torin when they were sealed or in shikai, but bankai was a different story altogether. Rida had seen that when they were heading towards the arch, or rather, he HADN’T seen. Torin’s speed was in a different class now, even as captains went.

Rida sighed, he had really wanted to finish things before it came to a contest of bankais, and he knew how it would play out now. Still, he commanded his golem to summon hundreds of spawn, their sizes varied from human sized to that of a large hollow. The army of spawn charged Torin while Rida charged up a dual flame wave with both fists, he needed to put everything he had in a last stand here. If he prolonged things at all Torin’s speed would end it.

Torin’s body flickered out as he charged the spawn army, tearing through their ranks and cutting down dozens every moment. As each spawn fell, the larger golem seemed to shrink slightly, it was much smaller now, though it was still colossal.

The spawn army fighting Torin was a sight to see, the demonic figures looked like hell’s own personal army, and the figure in the center of the army was the white crystal –clad Torin, who looked like he was dancing through the army leaving destruction in his wake. His movements were flawless, ducking, countering, attacking, sidestepping, and countering again. Nothing the spawn did ever came close to touching Torin, and in moments there were only a couple left. The golem looked like it was on the verge of collapse, having lost far too much mass to sustain itself any longer.

“Eat this!” Rida said as he fired both waves of fire from his hands, and a third from his mouth.

Torin donned his hollow mask and charged energy in his fist. “Kurisutarubumu!: he roared, firing his attack to tear through the last few spawn and meet Rida’s head on. The attacks clashed brilliantly, then exploded, cancelling each other out.

Rida fell to his knees, gasping for breath. His armor cracked apart and broke off as the golem, now having lost the last of its spawn, collapsed behind him, becoming a mound of solid rock. “I… lose…” he wheezed as Torin emerged from the smoke in front of him.

Yammamoto and Shunsui appeared on either side of Torin. “Rida Itazura” Yammamoto said “you have lost this fight”

Rida hung his head “yes head captain”

“However, given your excellent performance in the battle itself, it is up to a vote from the examiners to determine if you pass or fail this exam. Captain Izanki?” Yammamoto continued

Torin sealed his zanpakto and clutched his side “I vote yes” he said with a grimace “he may have lost, but he pressured me into bankai, and severely injured me.”

Shunsui stepped forward “I vote yes as well, your useage of your abilities and understanding of your foes were both superb, worthy of a captain”

Yammamoto nodded and stepped forward “then it is decided, you pass, Captain Itazura”
Yammamoto pulled out a haori and put it around Rida’s shoulders. “Congratulations”

Torin smiled, then winced, happy for his friend, but also still in pain. Shunsui smiled as well and patted Torin on the shoulder “your friend is pretty good too huh?” Shunsui glanced over when her heard a thud “Oh, I hit your burn didn’t I, sorry”

“nnnngh” Torin groaned from the ground.