Redwood Highlands [Arena]

Takeshima slowed as he began to reach the edge of the forest. He stared forward, among the trees and waited, listening for echoes of reishi. Repeatedly he inhaled through his nose. Nothing. “Someone’s waiting.” He said. He knew it. There’s no way they weren’t in there. It was an ambush waiting to happen. He wasn’t going to fall for it, wasn’t going to let himself fall victim to whatever was inside.

“If you think I’m coming in there, you’re on something that I bet I couldn’t afford.” Takeshima joked as he pulled out a cigarette and his disposable lighter. “Well, I guess I’ll wait him out for a second.” He said as he lit his cigarette and walked away from the forest, standing amidst the grass. After a few inhales he knew there was no way the other contestant was coming out without reason and so Takeshima moved his left hand forward and slowly, from his hand out, a black steel bow began to form from reishi.

“Well, lemme show you where I am.” He said as he raised the bow and fired up. Inside the forest, if the visored would look up, streaks of blue would race across the sky violently. Some would skim the trees, tearing leaves, raining down twigs and shredded foliage. After about ten shots, Shima spit out the butt in his mouth and retrieved and lit another cigarette and stood, waiting for something. His eyes scanned the forest line quickly, and he made sure he was at least fifty yards away, able to see it all. And he waited.

Takeshima was waiting with bow in hand when he felt it. A deathly cold presence behind him. He wasted no time. His left hand moved down and back, so that his bow was up, and it blocked a bit of the swing, and even helped Shima to spin around, since he was no where near strong enough to stop it. As he spun, he saw the cape lifting up. He shifted back slightly, and only the edge of the last blade was close, skimming his shirt and tearing a slight hole in it. As Raziel vanished Shima’s right hand slid into his vest, and gripped something. He was still spinning, and when he stopped, the Visored had appeared in front of him.

The visored was opening up his body for an attack. Takeshima knew he wasn’t faster, and so he probably couldn’t run, but he was betting he was betting his hand would be quick enough for this. His body lowered half an inch, preparing to take the brunt of the blow. Takeshima’s cigarette was spit from his mouth, as well as smoke, right at Raziel’s face. It was mostly just a distraction as the right hand came out. Takeshima came across his body, low, with a silver tube.

There was no time for the Seele schneider. to suck up reishi and attack, so Shima forced Reiryoku into the blade violently. He was mostly through his swing however, which means Raziel would only notice the shift in soul energy with fractions of a second to deal with it.

With Raziel’s forward momentum, it’d be hard for him to shunpo backwards, or even to the sides with how he had committed his body. And if he did nothing, or went through with his elbow, Takeshima’s blade would pass through his side. Cutting above the hip, through the kidney, possibly the liver, and a little of Raziel’s bowels. Takeshima, since he had dropped, would just take a heavy hit to his rib cage, possibly enough to crack them, maybe even break one or two, but he’d be able to keep fighting through that. Evisceration on the other hand, was much harder to make it through.

Takeshima felt his sword blocked and he cursed. Internally because of the lump in his throat that stopped his speech. The elbow grazed up his vest and the dress shirt beneath. He could’ve ended it, it was so close with the schneider. As the man spun back Takeshima lifted his bow a little, although with no plan to attack. Instead it glowed and began to shrink in size, until it was a short recurve bow instead, still keeping it’s black steel coloration. They would be to close for anything else to be effective.

Takeshima screamed out inside, “Reiraku. If I can’t sense him, I’ll just follow his spirit ribbon.” He focused and then began to spin his head. Right before Raziel’s shunpo there was a slight shift, Raziel was heading right, to Takeshima’s left. He knew it’d be nearly impossible to hide that, as it’s visibility isn’t connected to reiatsu at all. As the four Shurikens-like projectiles were released Takeshima was airborne, crouched in between all four. The seele schneider was fired, and traveling faster than the shurikens. The schneider would reach at the same time as the shurikens reached him. Takeshima didn’t know what that cape had been through, but he knew that there was no way it could block the schneider. Possibly an arrow, but the enhanced strength of the schneider, and the, it’s chainsaw like cutting, and it’s penetrative ability would allow it to pierce through. Takeshima felt the tips of his shoulders grazed by the weapons, and his feet untouched. after they passed Takeshima he straightened, letting his feet touch down.

If Raziel had been hit, Takeshima would follow up without hesitation, firing spirit arrows at him, legs first to impede movement, moving up to the chest for fatal and crippling shots.

If the man had somehow managed to ignore Takeshima’s shot somehow, Takeshima would look left and then right, eyes scanning wildly. It only took a second for Takeshima’s trained eyes to spot the man. Takeshima didn’t turn his body much. Instead he would wait. His eyes just watched the spirit ribbon, watching it sway, waiting for the movement to tell him what direction it would go.

Takeshima was still facing left. His eyes were focused on Raziel’s ribbon. Slowly they began to shift down. His eyes caught the slight hand gesture, and in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think of how similar that looked to a quincy technique. There was a slight pause before Takeshima twisted his head and heard the whistling. He spun hard right, so he was facing them, spinning still. His bow swung hard.

One flew straight past his left from his spin. His bow raised catching two of them. They spun against it as one found it’s way into his left shoulder and one graze his neck, letting blood trickle down his collarbone. Takeshima swiped the bow to the side so the two others flew back to Raziel. Cursing internally he slowly began to reach for the shuriken in his shoulder but stopped. Suddenly, Raziel had flipped to be in front of Takeshima, and the removal of the shuriken was not gentle. Takeshima took a step back, holding his bow. He couldn’t raise his arm above him, and he would need aid for himself to do that. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Takeshima listened to the confident man who praised his combat ability before threatening that Takeshima would die unless he gave up. With a small sigh Takeshima’s bow vanished, and his left hand reached down into his pocket and lifted a small metal tube. His right hand came over and touched it, before it moved down, a crystallized blade forming. It was about two feet long, three counting the handle. It needed to be short, since Takeshima would need all of his strength with every strike. Takeshima took it in his right hand and took another step back, and nodded.

The bow reformed, and it would act as his shield. He waited then. Since the man had allowed him the opportunity, Takeshima would let the man act first, and if he truly wanted to activate his bankai; Takeshima would have to think hard about his next acts. He would even consider booking it for the forest if he saw something he couldn’t handle. He would need distance too, and the second something started...

The blade in his hand rotated, so the blade was facing the ground. His pinky and his ring finger held onto the blade and he was ready to fire at Raziel the second he attempted to activate his bankai.

He needed his words. He needed to be able to begin to use his other ginto techniques.

Takeshima watched. That’s all he could do. Watch, wait, and step back. Then the second Raziel moved, Takeshima tracked him, seeing the ribbon move, his eyes tuning to the speed of the man. He saw it, the black, moving. He followed it to his right, spying the man appearing. As the shadow rakes were thrown, there was the sound of glass hitting glass as the arrow Takeshima pulled back crystallized.

It was a simple mistake, but an easy one to make. Raziel made it seem that even though Takeshima was slower, he couldn’t move still. Reishi suddenly swept him away, and out of range of the Shadowrakes even before they had been pulled back. As Takeshima reappeared he fired his crystal arrow for Raziel’s stomach. This arrow wouldn’t be as strong as a seele schneider, but it’s piercing power would be just as great, with it’s point as sharp as a jagged diamond edge. Takeshima moved again, keeping his speed and movement. His sword was next to be fired, which would be stronger than the arrow, more dense and focused, just as strong as a seele schneider. And he fired it, the shot aimed for Raziel’s side, which it would enter and pierce through the bottom of his lungs, and possibly ruin the arteries below the heart.

If those hit, then he would continue his assault, but in preparation for that he continued on his hirenkyaku.

If they didn’t do enough damage to stop him, and Takeshima spotted the change in his form from the bankai, he shot backwards, pulling back three arrows of crystal when suddenly Raziel was upon him. it seemed this would be it for either one or both of them. Takeshima was tired for the moment, and avoiding a head on attack wasn’t really an option anymore. His momentum was all shifting back. His energy was sweeping him away just to slow to avoid the strike, and his fatigue from drawing three crystal arrows and moving as he was was great.

Takeshima’s hirenkyaku lifted him precious inches as Raziel’s arm went back. Everything seemed as though it was going in slow. Takeshima released as Raziel’s arm shot forward. Takeshima’s arrows would pierce right through the divot between Raziel’s two collarbones, unavoidable with just shifting his head. The other one would travel right above Raziel’s sword and pierce Raziel’s heart and most likely destroy his lungs because of the size of the arrow. The third would fire and hit Raziel’s sword. All this would do is push Raziel’s sword down slowly, which would serve the same purpose as his hirenkyaku lifting him an inch, to cause the blade to pierce his stomach instead. Which was far more ideal than his chest.

The only thing that could stop that was if Raziel shot away, and that couldn’t be done without at least getting grazed in the side at this distance. There was no chance of getting out of this without taking some sort of hit.