Bankai

Outside of an onsen on the eastern continent, Shiro's face was shadowed by his bangs as he took heavy steps towards the woman's side of the onsen. With each step, the sound of feet dragging on the ground could be heard. Two clear lines in the ground was left behind as his student attempted to stop him from achieving heaven. Unfortunately Shiro's strength proved to be incredibly high as he was empowered by the burning determination to accomplish his goal.

"Don't try to stop me Syri! For this is a thing I must do as a true trash MC!" Shiro declared to the world as he would not be stopped.

"Our life isn't a story!" Syri immediately retorted as her heels were dragged through the ground leaving fissures in her attempt to hold him down.

"Nonsense! Life itself is a story! Some bored asshole is out there enjoying it!" he lectured in a philosophical tone as he didn't stop his march.

"Damnit, how are you so strong whenever these types of things come up!?" She yelled in confusion as she was supposed to have more physical strength than him.

"This is the power of a man's resolve Syri!" Shiro yelled back with pure manly intensity in his voice. "Burn this memory into your eyes! For today, your teacher shall achieve heaven!" He had finally made it to the entrance to the woman's side of the hot springs. The only thing between him and heaven was a single cloth blocking the view.

"THIS IS A CRIME!" Syri shouted in her futile attempt to stop him.

"HAHAHAHAHA! I SHIRO AVERSIS, HAVE BECOME LEGENDARY!" With that declaration, he reached his arm to banish the piece of cloth that divided the metaphorical world from his view of a man's romance. However the moment his digits were about to make contact with the cloth, a sword hymn resonated through the world. His vision fell towards the ground as his hopes and dreams were destroyed.

"MIYA!!! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!?!??!" Shiro cried out in despair as his upper body fell to the ground with his other half.

The Sword Empress's head popped through the two pieces of cloth as she stuck her tongue out at the bisected protagonist. Syri quietly dragged both of Shiro's halves to their room as he dug his fingers into the ground, leaving marks in the floor. On that day, Shiro had failed to achieve heaven.

Syri Falna had indeed burned the memory into her eyes that day.

∞

Shiro POV

"You coward! How could you take an innocent girl hostage! Where is your honor!" Venatick shouted at me as I continued to hold the girl hostage. Apparently she was his daughter, and now I'm groping her while using her as a meatshield. Huh. Now that I think about it, am I the bad guy here?

"I'm pretty sure honor is the last thing a bandit should be talking about!" I retorted giving him an odd look. "Also, innocent? She's a bandit too!"

"Shut up! Do you know how hard it is to instill good morals and character in an environment like this!" I just give him an incredulous look at the seriousness of his tone. Now that I think about it, she did give me a chance to walk away from this. I guess he's trying to be a decent dad?

"Well, what if you just let me off and we can go our separate ways? What do you say?" I asked him as I am at a massive disadvantage in a head on fight.

"Not a chance you bastard! You defiled my little angel! AND YOU HAVEN'T STOPPED!" he roared as it was true that I never stopped groping her breasts. Oh shit did it just get hotter?

Fire, I was never a big fan of fire. I mean, I have nothing against the element itself. It's just the heat that I don't like. Which reminds me, why the hell is ice weak to fire? This question plagues me as I can feel the ice in the area melt before evaporating.

If you think about it, shouldn't I also be able to put out the fire with extreme cold? Why are the flames still burning strong despite being assaulted by the cold? Hyorinmaru allows me the natural ability to use all forms of moisture as my weapon, so basically I can use any form of water in the atmosphere. Maybe it's because the ice that I use isn't actually empowered by magical or spiritual energy. It's just me using the natural forms of nature to my advantage.

But that shouldn't be the case for the ice that I personally release. I'm still capable of creating Ice directly from the zanpakuto without any water. Similar to my skills, the ice created lasts longer than the ice formed from the air. When Toshiro Hitsugaya was able to use his matured bankai, his flash freezing had the additional effect of negating and canceling any ability. I haven't reached that level of mastery yet.

But there is one thing I have to take into account, the fact that this sword isn't actually Hyorinmaru. I've noticed it lately, I don't actually need the sword to use all the Ice related abilities. It's more like, it's slowly guiding me through the method to do things similar to the original Hyorinmaru. I haven't asked the system about it yet as I wanted to make my own conjectures, but I am intrigued at what would happen after it finally finishes giving me all it's power.

"Shiro, just fight him already!" I turned my attention to the side as I heard a familiar voice using a megaphone. Oh cool, my backup is here.

"Oh cool, welcome back! I could use some help here!" I called out to the three, wait three? Platinum blonde, glasses, messy appearance that looks oddly sexy, E cups. I am sort of regretting not coming along now.

[Quinn: We are not here to help you, you will probably deserve everything he does to you.] Quinn seemed mad at me. What did I do!?

"Quinn! But why!? I thought we were bros!" I cried out to him feeling betrayed.

"Back on subject, go fight him already." Jack spoke loudly from the microphone with annoyance. The hell does he mean? He gives me a look before pointing at the lady who I'm assuming is our mechanic.

"She won't fix our ride if you don't fight." he explained as I glance at the newcomer. Godamnit, I'm gonna get my ass kicked today aren't I.

"Heya Ven! Fancy seeing you again." She shouted over as she waved to the bandit lord.

"You? I'm surprised you actually left your little hole." the flaming man glanced over to her in genuine astonishment.

"Fine!" I said as I threw the girl over to them.

"Come at me! I'm bout to wreck your shi-!" My taunt was cut off as I felt myself get launched through the air.

∞

Miles away from Harlem, pillars of flames rose to the dark sky. The ground became scorched, steam was released from the collision of fire and ice. The roar of a lion shook the sky as Shiro found himself wishing he had a familiar.

"How is this fair! It's 2v1! Where the hell is your honor!" Shiro complained out loud as he narrowly avoided the searing jaws from burning him alive. His one golden eye flared out above him as he felt suppressed by the bandit lord's four.

"What did you expect! I'm a bandit!" Venatick's laugh roared from above a cliff as he continued to spew flames from his custom-made flamethrower.

Shiro continued to evade the pursuing flame lion while getting scorched from time to time. His clothes were burning faster than they could repair themselves. The fight looked like he was being completely overwhelmed.

"Roar!" With a bestial roar, the flame lion pounced towards him again. Shiro watched with complete focus, ignoring the flames scorching his skin. He could feel the searing hot teeth just inches away from him as he used his conical blue hat as a shield to slide around the burning jaw.

Using the flame lion's face as a backboard, he launched himself towards Venatick who was keeping his distance the whole fight. His thought process was that the bandit lord only seemed to have a super powered flame thrower on him, he didn't see any indication of a melee weapon. Which means he might have a better chance up close.

Venatick watched the white haired swordsman leap towards him in a great burst of speed from behind his sunglasses. He immediately realized what Shiro was trying to do, he began to sneer as his flamethrower shifted with the press of a button. The mechanism went to work and the moment Shiro reached his opponent, he released an upward slash from below.

"Lightsaber!" Shiro yelled out in disbelief as his blade was stopped by a flaming light sword. He didn't think the flamethrower also counted as a melee weapon, he noticed his sword didn't immediately cancel out the blade which meant it wasn't completely made of pure magic.

"Nice try kid, but you're out of your league here!" Venatick grinned as his muscles contracted, Shiro found himself being forced down the cliff. Turning his head, he noticed he was heading towards the burning jaws of the flame lion again.

∞

"Interesting, are you sure he hasn't awakened yet?" Kri asked as the trio continued to watch the battle from afar. They were sitting on the wrecked vehicle that Shiro had hidden under a layer of ice.

"Yes, we're actually on our way to the caves right now." Jack responded as he tapped his foot in concern.

"It's amazing that he can fight someone like Ven, he's not exactly a pushover. How did he get his endurance and resistance this high? He should have burned alive by now. Or perhaps he's an actual dragon and has scales." She was actually the one who created Venatick's flamethrower back then, it was the price for him to have his support in Harlem despite him just being the bandit lord of the outskirts.

Since she personally made the weapon, she knew how powerful it was in Venatick's hands. Normally, people wouldn't focus on raising their endurance and resistance due to a multitude of reasons. Besides the fact that you could get extremely strong armor like Quinn. In most cases, people would eventually be able to do so much damage that it makes endurance and resistance useless later on.

Not only that, it can be dangerous to do such a thing before the second awakening. It was due to the fact that once you reached the second awakening, you would create a completely new physical body for yourself. To do so, your original body would be destroyed by the emergence of the new body from within your soul. However if your endurance and resistance are too high, it would make the whole process much more difficult and increase the chance of failure.

"I considered warning him of the dangers, but it's not like everyone can just get to the second awakening." Jack commented as each awakening was a truly difficult process. Failure could result in death or being crippled for life.

[Quinn: We need to help him.] Quinn was incredibly nervous as Shiro had been on the defense the entire fight.

Jack glanced at Kri as he silently communicated with her in hopes that it was enough for her.

"Hmm, I don't think he needs help." She commented as her mechanical left eye seemed to zoom in onto the fight. She had noticed that Shiro had never looked completely worried. He looked mostly annoyed, but never truly panicked.

"You made him a light saber!?" Jack asked incredulously at the fact that a bandit has a light saber.

[Quinn: Not good!] Quinn noticed Shiro getting forced back towards the flame lion.

The mechanic continued to watch closely at Shiro's expression as he noticed he was falling towards the flaming jaws. He narrowed his eyes and his mouth moved to voice out words loud enough to reach them.

"BAN-KAI!"

∞

As Shiro was about to reach the lion's jaws, he realized that he couldn't evade it this time. He subconsciously narrowed his eyes at the mouth that was clamping down on him.

"BAN-KAI!" The ensuing cold explosion released wasn't enough to force the flame lion away.

Venatick stood firm as he looked on with interest at the sight before him. His familiar's mouth was wide open, hanging in the air as they were stuck in ice.

"Daiguren Hyorinmaru." He heard the voice of his opponent who seemed to be floating in the air now. Behind him was the flame lion who's teeth seemed to be stuck in the ice wings as it hanged from him in the air.

The pressure from Shiro seemed to change as the spiritual pressure rose again. Venatick felt cold sweat form on his face at the shinigami's glowing turquoise eyes. Despite having more mind's eyes than Shiro, he felt a pressure directly crushing his soul.

"What are you?" He voiced out without his usual grin.

"Sorry, I don't have a lot of time." Shiro calmly spoke as the air got colder from his words. "Ryusenka." In the bandit lord's eyes, his world turned to ice.

∞

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! IT'S REAL, IT'S ACTUALLY REAL!" Kri laughed loudly with a maniacal gleam in her eyes. " IT'S AN ICE DRAGON!"

Jack and Quinn seemed to slowly step away from the crazy former Helios scientist.