(Davian's P.O.V)

Cheshire Cat's idea had more to do with his sadistic tendencies than actual help. You see I had to spar with him. Constantly and without rest.

What this would do was force me to a position where I had to exhaust my reserves over and over again without stop. My soul would then adapt to the increased difficulty each time I replenished the Reiryoku.

The plan was working. I felt a difference each time I woke up from my near death state. One thing I'd come to learn was that I was weak. Or rather, Cheshire Cat was powerful. And cunning.

Already my battle awareness was on a whole other level. The spars were enough to curb any growing pride over my win against Parallel Davian's Zanpakuto spirit. And that was because, even with my notable progress, I was still unskilled, and my Zanpakuto spirit had an uncanny ability to exploit those openings.

I knew how to shoot. I knew how to street fight and I had taken boxing lessons back in the day. But fighting with superpowers was a very different affair.

I lacked that fine tuned skill to chain attacks well. Not to mention, energy wasn't like throwing a punch. There wasn't a... physical heaviness. It was harder to control.

"Mind the face!"

I shouted as I leaned back, escaping a large paw with claws the size of daggers. Shunpo had been getting easier to perform. A burst of purple jet explosions propelled me away from the position, evading a sink hole created by spindly black vines. The black vines were tightly woven purple strings joined in huge and sharp tentacles.

The surroundings passed in a blur and my position changed to behind Cheshire Cat in almost an instant.

My foot slid on the sandy ground of the desert as I slashed out with Chesha Neko, a very basic attack but it was fast. The air literally screamed, the blade moving quickly towards the damn Cat's neck.

There was no resistance.

His body and head separated, the head popping to the sky.

"Oh look at that, you got me."

He stated with smile on his face. I mirrored the expression. A chance! Damn cat was being too smug.

"Getsuga Tensh..."

Boom!

His headless body exploded into a million threads flying across the desert in a whipping motion. Blood escaped multiple injuries across my chest and hands before a green bubble appeared around me for protection. I huddled and touched the sheath on my hip.

'That was too slow.'

I thought, crouching inside the dome, sharp threads slashing and failing to breach the shield.

A laugh bubbled out of me, at least I didn't lose a limb this time. Regrowing one took days. I opened and closed the palm of my left hand in quiet reminiscing. That had been close.

"Watch the ground."

Chase voice came from all around me.

Sharp strings exploded from the sand under my feet.

Push and Pull.

Almost instinctually, another Shunpo escaped my feet, the Shield around me disappearing as I was launched into the air. My trajectory was brought to a halt as a winding string managed to grasp my ankle, pulling me to the ground and ripping through my pants.

"Watch the sky."

Chase' smug voice this time rang from behind. I turned, deploying the shield when over a dozen flaming yarns of strings the size of a baseball smashed onto my body. The shield fizzled out as they blew right through my chest.

The world flipped around me, a sand dune appearing above, moving awfully fast as I clashed onto the ground. Hard.

Oh I forgot to mention, to make the training more efficient, I was only limited to Reiryoku manipulation and Physical skills. Chase on the other hand could use the Shikai and his own strange weird powers.

A groan escaped my lips as I woke up aboit a half hour later. My body felt sore, especially the neck.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"He got you again."

Gordon muttered, staring up at the moon above us. He looked better. His soul chain had stopped dissolving into the air. Chase had done something to slow down the erosion.

Gordon was also a big part of the reason I didn't want to give up. I had promised to save him. We had been doing this for over two weeks with only a hour a day to rest. Gordon occasionally watched from a far distance whenever he wasn't at his grave Stone. I was worried about his mind. He spent an awful lot of time there.

"You're like a racing horse."

He muttered, spitting on the ground as he chewed on a straw, a shadow cast over his eyes. His hands trembled ever so slightly.

"Hey are you okay?"

I questioned in concern, sitting up.

Gordon looked at his trembling hands and hid them inside his trench coat.

"Smoking addiction, guess it affects even the Spirit."

I sighed.

"Hey man, I never meant for any of this to go down the way it did. Just give me a couple of days and I'll get you out of here, okay?"

He looked at me and chuckled.

"It's okay. This is not my first Rodeo with superpowers, kid. You just do what you need to do."

I looked at the soft embers of a flame burning in between us, most likely Chase's work. The color of the fire was purple. I had an hour before that lunatic showed up.

"What did you mean when you said I was like a racing horse?"

I asked him, pulling Chesha Neko to me. I was trying to make meditating a daily habit. It was supposed to improve the connection between a Soul Reaper and his Zanpakuto.

Bankai was pretty far away into the future for me, but it didn't hurt to begin meditation.

"You put the blinkers on." Gordon answered, chain links ringing as he stocked the flames with a stick.

"If you focus too much on what's happening before you, you lose sight of your blindspots and then the enemy, strikes. Like a racing horse, you have your eyes firmly stuck on the finish line."

"Ah."

I pulled a leg towards my chest, placing a hand on the knee. I guess I could sort of understand what he meant.

"And with you too focused on the enemy, you don't give yourself space to react to sudden ambush. Basically, you're thinking too much."

I but my lip, pulling onto my Reiryoku.

"I wonder it I can use Reikaku like Observation Haki?"

Reikaku only helped when the opponent could manipulate Spirit Energy as well. Otherwise, just about everyone else was blind to me.

Pesquisa had a more general use but I was yet to master any Hollow skill besides Hiero which was a thin layer of compressed Reiryoku that protected hollow skin from getting injured. Mine was more a crude application of my Reiryoku than actual skill in the ability.

"What?"

Gordon called out.

I shook my head.

"Nothing. It's just an idea I have."

"Mmmh." Gordon hummed.

"You know, one thing I've realized over a long career of fighting bad guys, your body reacts. You forget the moves."

He looked up.

"Trust in your gut."

He raised a hand, his finger's shaping themselves into a gun, aimed at my forehead.

"Don't hesitate. Hesitating gets you killed in Gotham. You have to match the ferocity of the other guy or you will lose."

I frowned. Don't hesitate? I breathed out. Okay.

"I was wondering about something Commissioner..."

The words dried up in my mouth.

I could sense something. Evil Chi aimed at...not exactly me but the area around me?

Chase popped up just as I got to my feet, a serious expression on my face.

"What is going on?"

Gordon asked nervously, looking in between us.

"You can feel it then?"

Chase enquired, floating about in the air. I fastened my Zanpakuto then stared at him, brown eyes meeting torquoise globes as I stood in defiance.

"I need to wake up."

"Stubbornness. Humanity's most annoying attribute."

Chase clicked his tongue.

"Wake up?"

Gordon got to his feet, his face lighting up with hope. I smiled slightly, one hand on my hip while the other snaked out to capture Chase by the neck as he popped behind me.

The cat growled in annoyance while I brought his face closer to mine.

"Put. Me. Down."

He snarled.

"Not until you listen."

I shook him slightly.

"How do I get out of here, Chase?"

He phased through my hand, blinking over to Gordon's shoulders. The Police Commissioner stiffened as Chase glared at me.

"You owe me an eye."

He stated, reminding me of the promise he had made.

"And you can get it after I save my friend."

I was a fool. I should have foreseen this happening. With so many people after me, it made sense that no matter where we hid, they would find us. This was DC after all.

I only hoped Raven was okay. The teen didn't deserve any of this, she already had a lot on her plate.

I grabbed the handle of Chesha Neko and unsheathed it.

"Come on Chase, don't you want to see the results of your labor? Don't you want to see how strong I've become?"

"Fool." He shook his head.

"You push yourself too far and your Spirit pressure will stun, if not kill anyone around you. You are not ready."

He insisted.

"Then make me ready!"

I could feel it. They needed my help.

Chase and I stared at each other for a few more seconds before his owlish eyes blinked.

"Perhaps..."

He stated.

"Perhaps what?"

I asked jumping into his line of thought.

Cheshire Cat smiled.

"It's going to hurt..."

(Later)

I underestimated the pain.

My body felt like locking up as I unhooked the medical devices on my body.

Gordon's spirit hang next to me like a long shadow, still invisible to anyone else's eyes.

"It actually worked. You look bigger."

He told me as I sat up, hand gripping Chesha Neko.

The feedback from all my sensory organs hitting me at once became almost too overwhelming. My body felt sluggish. But that was quickly changing. With a burning sensation inside the veins in my body, I could feel a surge of power.

Chase' idea was to create a grid of small treads along my veins that would actively shovel excess Reiryoku to my flesh, organs, blood and bones. Feeding them energy directly.

Hence the size upgrade. I got up, looking around at the strange room. Then...I felt it.

A ball of negative energy approaching...Raven!

My body moved, two steps pushing me through the window and out into a yard of some sort. My body smashed down onto the ground, in-between Raven and someone else.

A Getsuga Tensho left my blade, the energy slamming onto a humanoid snake mutant that was approaching the two.

What the fuck was going on?