Chapter 36: Dream Time Again
Ania collapsed into her bed completely exhausted from all the work she had completed today. It had been flat out with her constantly on her feet racing throughout Seireitei helping various people whenever they needed it, first it had been Matsumoto who needed help doing all the paperwork she had left piled up from slacking off for over a month which took hours.
Next was heading straight down into Rukongai the outer districts in Seireitei known for being slums usually where she had to dispel a brawl that had broken outside of a pub. The men drunk off their faces didn't take to kindly to some woman interfering and decided to fight her instead. "Bastards" Ania grumbled touching the slightly purple mark from one of the stray hits they had managed to land, though the men involved wound up in far more pain than she had as a result.
No sooner had she arrived back at Seireitei did she find out the 9th squad needed her assistance in driving off some hollow's that had been harassing another district in Rukongai for some time now. "Dear lord could my bankai training be any harder than all of this work" Ania groaned rolling over in her bed staring at the ceiling before her stomach grumbled "I haven't even stopped to eat for the entire day". Rolling out of bed she dragged herself off towards the bar to see if it was hopefully still open and she could have anything to eat.
"Ah great where am I now?" Tom yelled as he opened his eyes to find himself standing in the middle of an oval, looking around he spotted familiar buildings as it suddenly clicked to him that this was his school and he was standing on the top oval. "Focus your eyes over here Tom" a dark wolf like voice called out as Tom turned around to find Mitch with his vizard mask on red eyes ablaze and serious killing intent emanating from him.
"Tell me have you hardened your resolve on killing someone? If you don't kill me I'll kill you" Mitch growled "You want me to kill you but why?" Tom said a look of sheer horror on his face that his friend could even suggest that. Raising Ashura high into the air an explosion of fire erupted around him as his voice bellowed "Because when you fight intending to kill you'll always win" he charged towards Tom hacking at his head as Tom parried the blow away "This is why I want you to try and kill me as we fight because I am most certainly going to try and kill you!".
Jumping back from another violent swipe Tom went on the defensive watching Mitch's movements and deflecting each of his strikes. "There has to be another option to defeat an opponent besides killing them, I refuse to fight that way" Tom said while Mitch howled with laughter "Such naivety will get you killed on the battlefield, so if all you're going to do is stand there spouting your pathetic values then I'll cut you down where you stand right now!"
Shunpoing forward Mitch moved faster than Tom could react slamming his shoulder into his stomach as Tom was sent violently crashing into a brick wall behind him. By sheer reflex Tom raised Tamashii Seigei up blocking Ashura centimeters away from slicing his jugular vein "So answer me this if you're not willing to kill me then how are you going to stop me from cutting your throat? ANSWER ME!" Mitch snarled as Tom pushed him back and leapt down from the wall.
"I'm still waiting" Mitch's patience finally being worn thin as he swung Ashura down a fireball hurtling towards Tom who rolled to the right avoiding it but as he stood back up only to find Mitch standing directly in front of him. Looking down he watched Ashura expecting a sword strike but instead Mitch grabbed him by the throat with his other hand and leapt forward throwing Tom into a giant mulch pile. "Time to make me a bonfire and burn something" Ashura flung a fireball directly into the pile setting it ablaze as Mitch stood there watching it burn.
"Not bad I didn't see you escape" Mitch's eyes looked across towards a tree where Tom was perched high above looking down and assessing just what he could do to stop Mitch's rampage without killing him. "Wait I've got it!" he said out loud the answer to Tamashii Seigei's riddle suddenly coming to him "To defeat a man without killing him I simply need to be stronger than he is that way he won't be able to defeat me" "Alright I've had it up to here with your ramblings" Mitch said as two black orbs appeared in either hand crackling with electricity. "TIME FOR YOU TO DIE, DUAL CERO!" slamming both hands together a huge dual black cero blast came racing towards Tom who was suddenly aware of it but by then it was too late as the blast consumed him and the tree completely obliterating him into thousands of pieces all the while Tom screamed in pain.
"AHHHHHHH" Tom's entire body jerked up as he continued screaming and clutching his body still thinking he was in extreme pain. "Tom are you okay!" Mitch came racing over as Tom looked up at him recalling those red eyes from his dream as he took a step back before remembering it was all a dream "Umm nothing just had a bad dream that was all" "Right…."
As Mitch went walking back to where Yoruichi was Tom sat back down on his bed his mind reeling with the weird dream that had just happened. "I finally have the answer to the riddle and all that is left is to put it into practice and defeat Tamashii Seigei" Tom thought to himself reenergized as he felt with confidence that he'd master his bankai training by the end of today.