Part 11

There was a big explosion. When the dust cleared you could see Ichibe falling to the ground.

The Ancient One was impressed. Ichibe had handled this like a champ. He seemed to have an answer to almost all the things she threw at him.

Admittedly she did not give everything she had, but it was still impressive. Apart from his physical prowess, he had a lot going for him. What's more, he was not giving his all either.

Not even close. She knew that he had spells that he called 'Kido'. Those were not magic as she could tell. It was his spirit energy used in very creative ways.

He was very gifted to be able to form and use his energy that way. And they were dangerous too. She had been surprised time again when he used another one.

But now he only used his Zanpakuto. So that was very impressive.

She got some idea of how his Zanpakuto worked. At first, she thought he could simply 'brush' away the true names of the attacks. But then the effects seemed to differ.

And when he got affected by the blast, she was sure that it was not that. The explosion should otherwise not have gone off. So she was unsure, but the power had been halved each time he used his brush.

So maybe he halved the power of the true name of the attack. It had to work that way somehow.

But that did not explain what he wrote in the air.

When he was in the air he used his brush to write something before the weapons hit him.

There was still some time for her to try other things to be sure.

The Ancient One was very close in her assumption. And if she told Ichibe her guess, he would be very impressed. That was quite the deductive reasoning she had.

But of course, it was not that surprising as he told her what his power was long before. And as the Sorcerer Supreme and a magician in general she knew the power of names.

Ichibe landed on the ground again. He was satisfied with the way the fight went up to this point. He made a mistake in the way he used the sealed form of Ichimonji but that was just as useful for him.

Battle was the best teacher in his opinion.

So it was time to move to the last thing he wanted to test. In a burst of speed, Ichibe approached the Ancient One.

She was ready for it as she had never let down her guard. She had hundreds of years of experience. There was no way she would underestimate her enemy. Especially someone like Ichibe.

He was beyond just powerful. His full potential was pretty much limitless and he was a VERY fast learner. His mind worked fast and he never made a mistake more than once.

His talent was also there but he did not think much of it himself. He was a core believer in hard work. And that showed as he put himself through torture every day in physical workouts.

When she said that it might be counterproductive to work out that hard every day, he thought about it for a moment and agreed with her. But then he said that he was a special case and his muscles told him that it was what they needed to get stronger.

And my goodness it seemed to work out for him. His physical strength was at or even higher than strong Asgardians already. And it did not show any sign of reaching a peak.

Ichibe swung Ichimonji in an overhead arc. The Ancient One blocked with an eldritch shield. Immediately she conjured another one. And just like she expected the shield broke apart.

She created a sword and attacked Ichibe. He blocked with the handle of Ichimonji.

He moved his hands to the side and again used the momentum to attack.

His attack was again met with a shield. The Ancient One was constantly creating new things to defend and attack, while Ichibe was simply blocking and attacking straightforwardly.

So it was not surprising that Ichibe managed to get a hit on her. He got through her defence and hit her left hand. Her hand turned from hand into ha …

And with that its power got halved. The sorceress got surprised for a second. She hadn't thought about him affecting her body directly. That was her mistake.

Ichibe used this moment to attack again immediately. With one swift circular movement, he turned himself 360° and brought Ichimonji around.

Time slowed down. The brush was just about to hit the Ancient One. But in the last millisecond, she was able to bend her upper body backwards and dodge it.

With her feet, she had conjured another spell and kicked her right leg upwards, as she was bent backwards.

The spell, which was a repulsion spell, hit Ichibe in his abdomen and sent him flying.

It was a beautiful display of both magic and agility. She was truly a master of her craft and at the top of her game.

Ichibe flew back a distance. He was able to turn his body mid-flight and land on his feet again. He had a smile on his face. This was an amazing fight.

He was not using his full physical strength. That would be stupid. He was competing with his teacher in skill, not overall power. And in that, she was still better than him.

That was of course if he only used Ichimonji in his sealed state.

Time for one last test.

Time to turn up the heat.

"Blacken: … Ichimonji"

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Author Note:

For those unhappy with how the spar is going and who think that he should clap her within seconds, I say: You are right.

But it was not Ichibe's intention to assert dominance but to test out Ichimonji. So he has to kinda use similar power as the Ancient One uses.

He is making it a fight of skill instead of raw power and hax.

Another thing is that Ichibe is not a Shinigami as we know them in Bleach. He is something else, so scaling him to his version in Bleach won't really work.

Cheers