章 13: Part 12

"Blacken: Ichimonji"

Ichimonji changed. The brush transformed into a form of a somewhat short glaive, with the top portion taking the form of a short, single-edged blade reminiscent of a tip of a chokutō, attached to the long brush handle.

"Oh, you can change the shape of your Zanpakuto?"

"Indeed. This is the final test teacher."

The Ancient One was curious. Was he going to start doing real damage? Before the brush had not done any physical damage but it had weakened her hand.

Once again Ichibe was a treasure trove of surprises. You could never fully figure him out. Whenever she thought that she understood him, he used something new and surprised her again.

He was quite sure about this change in his Zanpakuto. There had to be more to it than just the change in appearance.

Ichibe waited for the Ancient One to act. His primary goal had been to get experience with his Zanpakuto and use it a bit. He was not fighting her for real.

And while he did attack her before, that was to try and find out how the sealed form of Ichimonji worked on the body. Now he knew. So it was time to test the last thing he wanted.

The Ancient One attacked once again. Ichibe could see the name of the spell and knew that there was more than just one spell involved. She managed to hide two spells underneath the one she chanted.

Truly amazing. He learned a lot from her. That was the last reason why he wanted to test out his Zanpakuto. It was to see and learn new tricks and spells that the Ancient One knew.

Ichibe liked to learn new things, but he was not a fan of learning only from books. He wanted real battle experience and his teacher was the best one to get it from.

He was especially interested in those little tricks she used. The way she utilized her strengths and covered her weaknesses against someone that was faster and stronger than herself was wonderful.

That was the thing he was looking for.

The spells approached him. At least one of them did. The other two approached him from the sides. Without waiting for the result the Ancient One prepared more spells.

Two elemental spells were sent out.

Ichibe stood without moving and closed his eyes. He could feel the energy coming towards him from the front and both sides.

Then he swung Ichimonji from his left all the way to his right in a half circle.

As he swung Ichimonji, a lot of ink flew out and fell on all three attacks. And then something happened that deeply shocked the Ancient One. All attacks disappeared.

They disappeared like they were never there, to begin with. It was not like before when their strength was halved or anything. NO, they completely disappeared.

That should be impossible. You could not destroy energy. Physics told us that. Newton was turning around in his grave.

What happened? What on earth happened? That was not something simple like a stone that disappeared. It was magical energy.

All the magical energy disappeared.

In all her long life, she had never seen something like this. Never ever had she heard something like this. And no book she ever read said anything about this either.

The Ancient One was freaking out.

Out of pure muscle memory, she finished the spells she had prepared and sent them to their demise.

Ichibe waited until they were close enough and then swung Ichimonji once again in an arc. A big arc of ink splashed against the fire and ice spells.

And just like before they completely vanished. Never to be seen again. Like they never existed in the first place.

"Teach, let's try to go one last time with more power. Show me a big one."

The Ancient One came out of her stupor and nodded at him. It seems he noticed her state and decided to end it in one final attack. And she was all for it. The quicker they can wrap this up the better for her sanity.

She started chanting. This time she tried to go big, just like Ichibe wanted. Let's see what that darkness truly could nullify.

Multiple spells were prepared. A big circle formed underneath the Ancient One. The mirror dimension started to deform and seemed to bend to her will.

Above her head, a humongous thundercloud formed and roared in displeasure. Then about 8 eldritch circles were formed by the elderly woman and rearranged themselves above Ichibe and the Ancient One.

Ichibe was not sure what she was trying to do.

The thundercloud got bigger, and the lighting inside took on different colours. The charge inside that cloud might decimate New York in one fell swoop should this ever be used outside the mirror dimension.

The magic circles. Started to change slightly and looked like something he had seen before. Ichibe was unsure where though.

Then everything clicked in his head. Oh no. This wasn't good.

The magic circles started to look like lenses and rearranged themselves between the thundercloud and Ichibe.

This was supposed to act as a booster. This woman knew physics darn it!

And then the attack launched. The cloud spat out a monster of a lightning strike. My goodness, that was a big one.

It travelled towards him and then it reached the lenses. These lenses acted like amplifiers inside a telescope. Ichibe almost didn't want to look at the size of that thing.

"HAHAHAHAHA", like a madman Ichibe started to laugh. And when he stopped, he got serious.

Ichibe took a battle stance. His right foot was placed back and his left to the front. He bent his knees deep.

Ichimonji was in his right hand like a spear. Very slowly he pulled his right arm backwards. As his hand reached the farthest it could, the ink started to spill out from the blade.

This ink began to rotate around Ichimonji, creating something akin to a dark knight's lance that was rotating and getting bigger.

The surroundings were getting affected as well and then Ichibe thrust his right hand forward.

At unbelievable speeds, the ink spear met with the humongous lightning.

*BOOOOOOOOoooooo...*

When both attacks met, a really loud bang was heard. But only for the fraction of a second.

And then:

Silence … … …

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Author Note:

That was the spar. Next chapter is going to be something else. Something that some of you suggested and I have already planned since the beginning of the story.

There will be more fights in the future and he will of course use his 'Bankai' but not in a spar with the Ancient One. That would be overkill.