ICE HEART
xxiv. be
❝FLOWER WIND RAGE AND FLOWER GOD ROAR, HEAVENLY WIND RAGE AND HEAVENLY DEMON SNEER, KATEN KYŌKOTSU!❞

"Flower Wind Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer." Shunsui spoke before pulling his zanpakutō apart from each other, "Katen Kyōkotsu!"

"It's been a while since I've seen your shikai, Shunsui." Ayame smirked widely, remembering when the brown-haired male trained Ayame when she was younger and before she went to the Zero Squad.

"It hasn't been that long, has it?" He asked with a confused look on his face as he scratched his head and Ayame sweat dropped.

"Shunsui, it's been over a hundred years." The white-haired female informed him while gritting her teeth out of annoyance as she unsheathed her zanpakutō.

"IT'S BEEN THAT LONG?!" He shrieked, causing Toshiro and Jushiro to cover their ears and wince from the loud noise, "MY PRECIOUS AYA IS GR-!"

"SHUT UP!" Ayame snarled as she slashed his chest with her zanpakutō, interrupting his never-ending rambling, "We're meant to be training, not talking."

"Oh, so we're getting serious now?" He smirked, regaining his composure.

"I guess that you could say that." Ayame chuckled softly.

"Well, if we're getting serious, then you could at least use your shikai." He suggested, tilting his head to the side.

"I thought I told you already..." Ayame spoke as her blue eyes narrowed and she took a small pause, "I don't need it yet."

Ayame's blue orbs widened when she felt a familiar presence behind her and she quickly jumped into the air, narrowly dodging Shunsui's blade.

"So you remember Kageoni?" Shunsui grinned as he rose from his shadow.

"Yes, whoever gets their shadow stepped on loses." Ayame reminded him, not like he'd need a reminder when it's his own zanpakutō.

"What about... Takaoni?" He spoke as he flash stepped higher than Ayame, ready to strike her down.

The female smirked before flash stepping above him and clashing blades with him, "Takaoni - If I remember correctly - whoever is higher up wins."

Shunsui pulled black and the two of them were quite a distance away from each other as he spoke, "Correct."

"That's good. I'm glad to know that my memory isn't failing on me." Ayame smiled lightly, returning to the ground.

"But, you're forgetting one thing." Shunsui added, making the female tilt her head in confusion. "Kageoni."

The blonde's eyes widened and she quickly snapped her head back to see the familiar blade approaching her with great speed. She gritted her teeth and jumped into the air, using her spiritual pressure to allow her to stand in the air. Shunsui pulled the blade back, noticing that the blonde had moved from her previous position.

"Seeing as my shadow can't be stood on, it wouldn't be wise to stand on the ground." Ayame thought to herself as she charged towards Shunsui and clashed blades with him.

They added more force into their swords before pulling away and jumping away from each other to create more distance. However, they were still in the air so Shunsui couldn't step on Ayame's shadow and Ayame couldn't step on his. Shunsui charged towards the blonde, his sword ready to cut her and spill her blood. When Shunsui was close enough, The blonde grabbed a tight hold of his blade - stopping it from progressing towards her and potentially cutting her. Shunsui's face gained a face of shock before he pulled his blade away from Ayame's hand and back to his side.

"Takaoni." He called out before flash stepping above the blonde.

"That technique won't work on me anymore." She growled out before flash stepping above him and clashing blades with him once more, "Your Takaoni won't work on me anymore. It is quite simple to evade it, really. All I have to do is flash step above you, and seeing as my flash step is faster than yours - it is quite simple." The blonde sighed before flash stepping towards Shunsui with speed that even he couldn't comprehend and freezing him slightly with a very thin layer of ice that he could easily break out of.

"What's this little amount of ice meant to do?" Shunsui asked with a perplexed expression.

"I haven't been able to summon ice without releasing my shikai before, unless I was using certain tricks that I had trained with for most of my life, but that was only to give me some time to release my shikai." Ayame thought to herself.

The thin ice that covered Shunsui began to crack slightly before completely shattering into small smithereens. Like the blonde had expected, Shunsui had managed to get out of that small trap without any effort and without any injuries.

"Freeze the lands and surround your opponents in ice, Kōri No Joō." Ayame spoke as her zanpakutō changed into a pearly white shade.

The blonde-haired female flash stepped towards Shunsui and brushed passed his shoulder and almost immediately, thin ice covered the entirety of Shunsui's body. Ayame smirked lightly at the fact that she could freeze anything that touched her even slightly. She purposely only brushed him to make the ice thin so it wouldn't harm him too much - keep in mind that this was only training. The blonde flash stepped once again directly in front of Shunsui and clapped her hands together as light as possible.

"I have only tried this once or twice before in Shikai, so let's hope it goes well this time." Ayame thought to herself before speaking aloud, "Wave One, Shi Ni Kurappu."

Everybody's eyes - except from Ayame's - widened drastically as several swords surrounded Shunsui's frozen form. After a few seconds, all of the swords flew into the ice and the blonde hoped that's as far as it went.

"AYAME, ARE YOU INSANE?!" Jushiro screeched, standing up from his place on the rock.

"QUIET DOWN, JUSHIRO!" Ayame yelled back, before adding on in a normal voice. "I know what I'm doing. The swords that you just presume stabbed Shunsui, only just managed to get through the ice, I would be surprised if it even cut him. Wave One is an ability in my Bankai, however I have used it during my shikai a few times. It allows the user to moderate how much force the swords stab the opponent with. The user moderates this by how harsh or light their clap was."

"That's an impressive technique you used there, Ayame." Shunsui replied as he broke free from the ice with only a few scratches on him, as Ayame had presumed.

The blonde threw her hand out towards him and sent another attack from her bankai - a flurry of ice shards - out to attack him as he raised both his blades and faced them in opposite directions, making the blonde's eyes widen as she remembered another one of his attacks that could easily repel such weak ice shards.

"Bushōgoma." Shunsui called out as a large gust of wind threw the ice shards back at the petite female.

The blonde quickly made an ice wall in front of her to stop the ice shards from progressing, which worked amazingly. However, the next word she heard made Ayame's eyes widen as she saw her shadow on the ice that she had made.

"Kageoni!" Shunsui cried out as his blade was a few seconds away from stabbing her. "Leaving your shadow on the ice is quite dangerous right now, Aya~."

The blonde quickly jumped into the air - dodging his blade - followed by Shunsui, before he spoke, "Takaoni!"

Shunsui almost immediately flash stepped above Ayame, not allowing the female to have time to flash step above him to dodge his attack and they clashed blades - seeing as he was the person who was higher, he had an advantage. The blonde used the only thing that she could really rely on in this type of situation - her strength - and pushed him back. The small female jumped to the ground and quickly realised her mistake as a sword approached her from behind. She had no time to dodge so she did the only thing that she could've done in that situation - even though it would be life-threatening.

"Wave Two, Furīzu." Ayame spoke, using yet another technique from her bankai. However, this technique couldn't be used in shikai without tiring her tremendously.

The blonde could feel her body temperature lowering drastically and she could see her skin turning to a pale blue shade. Toshiro's and Jushiro's eyes widened out of concern and Ayame could see them both ready to flash step towards her if anything happened. Shunsui's blade made contact with the blonde's back, but the blade didn't go any further as ice began to form on the blade - stopping it from progressing any further. Shunsui's eyes widened and the blonde lowered her body temperature and began to pant, the effect of using that technique taking place immediately.

"Irooni. White!" Shunsui announced, catching Ayame off guard.

Ayame snapped her head up before she felt a stinging pain on her back as Shunsui cut her back which was covered by her white haori. Almost immediately, the blonde felt something trickling down her back and she soon soon identified that as blood. She gritted her teeth before locking eyes with Shunsui.

"Black." She called out, before flash stepping towards him and slashing him across his chest, where his black shihakushō was.

Blood squirted out of Shunsui's wound, some of the red liquid landing on Ayame's cheek. The taller, brown-haired male fell down to his knees with his hand resting on his chest as he began panting heavily. The pair of them both dismissed their zanpakuto, noting that the training was over. Ayame hurriedly ran over to Shunsui and knelt down beside him, a look of apology on her face. Jushiro and Toshiro helped me take the male to the Fourth Division where they easily healed him using some type of Kido.

As the blonde was approaching the Fifth Division barracks, she felt a hand tap her shoulder and she snapped her head back to see Toshiro behind her with a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Wait. Toshiro never blushes, so why is he blushing now?" Ayame thought to herself as she eyed the white-haired Captain.

"Ayame, I have something to tell you." He announced as butterflies swarmed Ayame's stomach.

"O-Okay, we'll talk in my office." She replied with a slight smile as they both walked towards the Fifth Division office.

The blonde slid the door open and sat down on the sofa, motioning for Toshiro to take a seat next to her. He sat down beside the small female and squirmed around before looking her in the eyes with his beautiful, turquoise orbs. Ayame could feel the heat rising to her cheeks and he stared at her with love taking over his stunning eyes.

"I don't exactly know how to say this, b-but I'm going to say it anyways. Ayame, I-I lo-." He began, but was cut off by two hell butterflies entering the office and landing on their hands.

"This is a message directly from the Head Captain to everybody involved in the war with Sosuke Aizen. The war is about to commence, please come to the First Division Meeting Hall immediately."

"It's time."