-------
Seraphiel’s lips quirked in a small smile as she came out of meditation. Her Zanpakutō spirit was still playing hide and seek with her, but she could sense the spirit was getting curious. It was allowing her glimpses. Too short to tell any detail, but enough to know she was getting somewhere. This part of bonding with your spirit was always the most difficult. Once you got into contact, you would have to earn the spirit’s respect, and the bond would grow with shared experiences and by understanding yourself.
The Zanpakutō spirits were a reflection of their master's soul, and their abilities and appearance were a reflection of that. They shared most of their personality traits with their master, although it was typical that they embodied some particular portion of the master's personality. It was also not uncommon for them to take one of their master's weaknesses and take it to an extreme. For instance, Rangiku was a rather lazy person, and their Zanpakutō spirit Haineko was an epitome of that. Though the spirit's personality heavily depended on their master, they still possessed their own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and desires, which may differ from their master's to varying degrees.
She was somewhat anticipating what her new spirit would be like. She knew it wasn't the same as her old spirit, that much had been already made clear by the couple of glimpses she'd gotten of the spirit. Her new spirit seemed humanoid, while her old spirit could only have been described as an existence. A force of nature, perhaps. She'd also been a different person back then. She'd still been somewhat idealistic, and that life had been one among many that had helped her turn as jaded as she was now.
She was also curious about the powers. She wasn’t entirely sure what she even wanted those powers to be currently.
A knock sounded from the door. She knew what it was about. “I’m coming.” She called out, before picking up the few pieces of equipment that she’d laid down surrounding her. Most of it was still borrowed, but at least it fit her a little better than before.
She exited the largely ascetic room she’d been meditating in and nodded to the tournament official waiting outside. The official led her through the passages lined up with images of past tournament winners, before bringing her to an arena. This time they were not entering an array of any kind, and fighting for real instead. The arena had the basic shape of an amphitheater with rough sand covering the ground, but it had several features protruding from the ground as well. Those features included platforms that could be used for added mobility and high-ground advantage, as well as simpler things like large rocks and plants that could be utilized by certain Skills.
Evangeline had finally managed to enroll her in a solo competition with other academies, although this was also a public event that allowed people from outside the academies to participate. In fact, two of the remaining five contestants were such outsiders, her being one of the students of course.
A quick glimpse with the [Gift of Knowledge] revealed that they were all higher level than her, which wasn’t all that shocking, but even the highest level, one of the outsiders, was only 150 levels above her. One seemed like a mage type of some sort, one looked like she used some sort of ranged weapons, one she couldn’t really tell details on, but the Skill came back as Warrior, and the last one, the highest level, seemed to be…was that a Jedi?
Everyone applied any self-buffs they had before the start, and as the starting signal was given, a flurry of action happened straight away. The mage type, a Human male with rather handsome features, pulled out a magical wand and seemed to cast several spells, conjuring some sort of defenses, which turned out to be a good idea as the non-descript warrior Beastman suddenly disappeared and appeared right next to him. One of the conjured stone creatures took the attack instead of the caster, spoiling the advantage of surprise.
On the other side, the gorgeous Sylph with colorful wings took to the air while launching several devastating projectiles at the Jedi, who either side-stepped them easily or swiped them down with his lightsaber before leaping up on the platforms chasing the Sylph.
Seraphiel wasn’t sure if she should be amused or insulted at being ignored so blatantly. It made some sense. She was by far the lowest level of the bunch, and thus many would assume she was the least dangerous. She hadn’t been forced to show off too much during the previous rounds after all. Perhaps it was time to get some attention.
She appeared right next to the assassin haranguing the magic-user, or Wizard as she now classified him as, and slammed the Tiger-clan Beastman down with a smashing strike of her golden shield. The Wizard, now realizing a new threat launched several spells at her, but she expertly cleaved them down with her Shinmei-ryū granted abilities to cut through magic. These spells had actual physical weight behind them, showing just how much power had been used, but that wasn’t going to stop her.
The Assassin tried to use some sort of mind-affecting shadow ability, but that was easily negated by her [Bastion of Purity]. That was exactly the sort of thing the Skill was meant to defend against. Instead, she retaliated by gathering a mass of [Telekinetic] energy and smashing it into the torso of the Assassin, causing him to disappear in a puff of smoke. That was the failsafe activating and the tournament organizer teleporting the disqualified man to safety.
"That was rather brutal of you." The Wizard commented with a cocky grin, just as a pair of stone constructs leaped at her.
Her golden wings appeared, and she spun around, easily cleaving the summons into ribbons with the edges of her wings. “Hardly. I’m not fond of assassins, but I used just enough force to trigger the failsafe.” She retorted, while at the same time using her wing to bat aside a ‘stray’ shot from the Sylph that was still being chased around by the Jedi.
The Wizard sent a few more spells her way, which didn’t fare any better than those he’d used earlier. “This doesn’t look too good for me.” The man said, his cocky grin becoming a little strained.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"No. No, it doesn't." She replied, and made a quick grasping gesture, using her [Telekinesis] to yank the wand out of his hand. As she did that, the man sent a nasty-looking green spell wandlessly her way, trying to slip through her defenses. The spell hit a barrier she erected, destroying the barrier but getting deflected off to the side. "Wizards don't really do well against dedicated mage-hunter types." She revealed as a slight explanation.
“And I would’ve done so well against the Jedi too.” The Wizard stated wistfully, before disappearing in a puff of smoke, the referee deciding that punching the man out was unnecessary.
Just as she turned around to face the remaining two fighters, a hail of arrows came her way from the Sylph, forcing her to once again defend herself with her wing. Now that she was no longer hiding them, the wings of a Celestial were their greatest defense. Her [Precognition] warned her, and she dodged to the side as the Jedi’s lightsaber swished through the spot she’d just been in. The Jedi had used the Sylph’s attack as cover.
Her Witchblade intercepted the Jedi’s next attack, the two weapons locking together. A Witchblade was more than capable of withstanding attacks from lightsabers. “Seems you dropped your charade.” She stated, turning to keep the Jedi between herself and the Sylph.
The bearded Human man smiled a little at her words. “What gave us away?” He asked calmly.
"You not being able to catch her. Jedi have many flaws, but the inability to strike at flying opponents is not among those. Not unless you're an incompetent Jedi, and you wouldn't be here if you were that." Seraphiel explained as the two finally moved away, the Sylph immediately firing shots at her.
She could sense these shots were using powerful Skills to increase their penetrative powers, so she didn't feel any obligation to block them, instead simply moving out of the way. The great thing about [Precognition] was the ability to easily dodge ranged attacks. The Jedi used a hand gesture to send a large rock hurtling towards her, but she simply stopped it in mid-air. "Two can play this game." Seraphiel grinned and sent the rock back at the Jedi. As the Jedi also had the power of perceiving ahead, he dodged as well, but unfortunately, the Sylph behind him didn't have that ability.
The smack of the rock hitting the rather frail spiritual being made both Seraphiel and the Jedi grimace a bit, but Seraphiel knew that alone wasn’t enough to take down the Sylph, even if it was enough to drop her on the ground.
"The problem with ad-hoc team-ups." Seraphiel gestured towards the injured Sylph. "Lack of teamwork."
“It seems we have similar Skills.” The Jedi commented, still fairly confident in his level advantage.
“To an extent.” Seraphiel allowed. “Interestingly, I also have something similar to your darker cousins.” Lightning jumped from her fingertips at the Jedi.
Despite having his own precognition Skill, part of the attack caught the Jedi by surprise. Not the lightning itself. Seraphiel knew that proper Jedi knew how to use Tutamnis, an ability to absorb the energy from attacks. What the Jedi didn't expect was the [Slayer of Titans and Gods] adding a holy element into the attack, and the holy smite striking him like a hammer blow, sending him reeling. That moment of distraction was enough for Seraphiel to suddenly appear next to the Sylph who was trying to rise up from the ground and tap her on the neck with her blade, sending her off the arena with another puff of smoke.
Now having lost his ally, the Jedi came at her with surprising ferocity for a member of an order that valued serenity. Perhaps there was more going on between the man and the Sylph? Seraphiel didn’t know and didn’t care.
A fight between two people with precognitive abilities was odd, to say the least. Both were making attacks that they knew wouldn't work, but they went through the motions anyway. The Jedi was good with the blade. Not among the best she’d seen, but quite good. His stats were relatively high as well, enough to allow him to keep up with her for a while. Eventually though, she started pushing him back, simply overwhelming him, as sweat dripped down his forehead while he struggled just to keep up.
“Well, this has been fun, but I think it’s time to put an end to it.” Seraphiel declared.
“What do you-“ The Jedi tried to ask, before the full force of Seraphiel’s [Reiatsu] hit him, forcing him on his knees. “You could’ve done that the entire time?” The man managed to ask.
"Sure, but it wouldn't have been as interesting," Seraphiel said with a bright smile, before tapping him too on the neck, leaving her the only one standing in the arena.
The organizers came to congratulate her, with all the accompanying pomp and jubilation, though to her it felt a little boring. Stomping on those weaker than her wasn't really her idea of a good time, but it was something she owed to Eva, and the vampire had wanted her to make it really obvious as she crushed the opposition.
After all the ceremony, she finally got back to Eva, who was rubbing her victory in the faces of the other headmasters. “Nicely done Seraphiel. You took out all four opponents by yourself. Just enough showiness without going overboard.” Evangeline grinned.
“So, did you earn enough to consider us square?” Seraphiel asked.
Eva nodded. “This was enough. It was easy to get everyone betting when they saw your level.” She glanced at the other headmasters with a slightly mocking look. “They should know not to judge a book by its level by now, but…”
“Where did you find someone like this?” Another headmaster asked.
Seraphiel tuned out the chatter at that point. It was mostly meaningless for her anyway. The only time she paid attention was when some of the headmasters commented on her being an Angel, but even that was rather bland and without any malice. You couldn't really become a headmaster of an academy while looking down on other races. And while Angels were not exactly the most popular race, no one really could look down on their capabilities, just their past actions.
A sudden smile bloomed on her face as she sensed someone approaching very quickly. “Headmaster. I need to step out.” She whispered to Eva, who tilted her head a bit, before sensing something as well and nodding.
Seraphiel barely managed to exit the room with the headmasters, before a quickly moving missile rammed into her, picked her up, and transported both of them elsewhere. In the blink of an eye, she went from inside the arena to outside, being held in a classic ‘princess carry’ by a slender yet athletically fit and well-endowed woman of average height. Yoruichi had dark skin, golden feline irises, and purple hair tied back into a ponytail with chin-length bangs framing her attractive face.
Seraphiel returned Yoruichi's smile, not bothered by still being held up. "Yoruichi. It seems you're fast as ever."
Yoruichi had been known as the Flash Goddess thanks to her speed. In fact, she was widely recognized as the best user of Hohō ever in all of Soul Society. Notably, she was also unique among the Shinigami because she didn’t carry a Zanpakutō. She had one, and a requirement of becoming a Captain was to achieve a Bankai, but she never used the weapon.
"You've grown slower," Yoruichi said with a playful tone, before finally letting her down.
“Rangiku didn’t explain?” Seraphiel asked. “Or did you not stick around to listen to the explanation?” The slight blush on Yoruichi’s face was all the confirmation she needed. “You didn’t! Hah!”
“You should be happy I didn’t wait. Kenpachi also ran off right after me.” Yoruichi muttered while looking away a little bashfully, which was rare as usually Yoruichi was the one doing the teasing.
“Pfft. We both know he got lost on the way. That man has no sense of direction." She countered immediately but softened her words by placing a hand on Yoruichi's shoulder. "So how have you been?"
Yoruichi seemed to struggle for a moment before speaking. “It’s not been easy. I know you told me beforehand that you would disappear, but it was still hard to see. I tried to keep the Soul Society together and from backsliding too much, but that’s mostly been just to keep me busy.”
She moved the hand from Yoruichi’s shoulder to her cheek. “I know it’s not easy. It never is.”
"I hope you realize that now that I've found you again, I'm not leaving," Yoruichi said forcefully, before grabbing Seraphiel's lapels and pulling her in for a passionate kiss.
After the kiss ended, they rested their foreheads together. “You haven’t lost your touch.” Seraphiel teased a bit.
“Well, who says I haven’t been practicing?” Yoruichi teased back.
"I sincerely hope you have," Seraphiel responded and meant every word.
"I might have found some trouble when going out drinking with Rangiku," Yoruichi admitted freely.
“So, just like old days.” Seraphiel smiled fondly. They’d often gotten into such trouble as a trio in the past.
“Seriously though. Kenpachi will sooner or later find you, and you better be prepared. He’s been grumpy ever since you disappeared as well.” Yoruichi got a bit more serious. “And he’s not going to take things easy after all those times you kicked him around.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She promised. “Now, tell me all about what’s happened since I’ve been gone!”