Dango

The next day

The sun was blazing early in the morning, making the weather extremely hot and humid. Under the rising temperatures, the large box of ice stood defiantly without losing a single drop of moisture. The white haired shinigami sat as still as his cage.

Suddenly opening his eyes, he gripped his blade and stood up relaxed.

"Haaaah" he let out a deep breath as the prison of ice began to melt around him.

[Congratulating Host on releasing yourself] the system rang out

"Thanks, surprisingly just manipulating the moisture in the area didn't take much from me" he said amazed as he checked his reserves

From the information Ray jammed into his head, he could spread out his spiritual energy to get a feel for the moisture in the area. Then he would manipulate it using a bit of mana which didn't drain much from his reserves.

Shiro felt like he should get a better feel at what he could do at the moment with his current capacity of mana.

Lowering his stance he held his blade forward

"Sit upon the frozen heavens... HYORINMARU!" the temperature in the surrounding area immediately dropped as the skies darkened with clouds

His body seemed to know what to do as frost spewed out from his blade, he guided his blade until the released ice shaped itself into a serpentine dragon. Shiro continued to move his sword as he sent the ice dragon crashing into the ground near him. A cold explosion was released while a large shard of ice was left on the ground.

Shiro whistled at the sight before him

"Well that's pretty damn impressive!" he grinned as he took in the towering shard of ice

While the attack looked impressive, Shiro noticed a glaring issue. It took up about 1/5 of his reserves. Which means he can only use that move 5 times at most.

Shiro looked down in thought, then swung his blade towards a tree causing a gust of frost to envelop and freeze it solid.

Just manipulating a simple frost attack like that, without the dragon costed him roughly 1/20 of his current capacity. He really needed to get to the so-called first awakening if he wanted to properly spam these attacks.

Shiro then turned his gaze towards the dark clouds above. Just releasing Hyorinmaru seemed to have darkened the sky. "System, will that happen every time I release shikai? I thought controlling the weather like that was a skill" He remembered the squad 10 captain calling it 'Tenso Jurin' or something

[If Host specifically says 'Sit upon the frozen heavens' then yes. However if Host just calls out 'Hyorinmaru', then host does not have to worry] Shiro listened to it's explanation and nodded

Suddenly an idea came to him. Thinking out 'Clone', an ice clone formed next to him.

"Can you do it?" the original asked

The clone positioned himself as it called out "Hyorinmaru!" a crack immediately appeared on the clone's face stunning him as he fell to pieces.

"What just happened?" Shiro asked confused

[The clone attempted using Shikai without enough mana, causing it to be unable to keep itself materialized. Originally the skill did not allow the clone to use spells, however it looks like Host's sword does not count as a spell. If host injects more mana into a clone, theoretically it should be possible for the clone to be able to use shikai] the system gave it's analysis

"Sigh, the amount of mana it costs to make a normal clone is pretty high to begin with, adding more would be seriously draining." Shiro concluded. It seemed having his clones throw around ice dragons would have to wait until he had enough mana to throw around

∞

The dock town of West Lazuli resided a few miles off the trade city. Generally goods are received and shipped there. If one wanted to move continents they would have to find a dock town.

"I just realized I'm broke..."

Shiro sighed as he checked his funds. He had nothing, all his remaining money was lost when he got sent flying away. He was lucky there wasn't any fees for visiting.

"So what will you do?" a feminine voice asked beside him

"Not sure, I'll probably just have to sneak my way into one of the boats as a stowaway." Shiro replied absentmindedly as he checked out the sea and air ships that were in his vicinity.

The airships surprised him at first since they looked pretty futuristic for a fantasy world. But then again if there are guns, why can't there be airships right? Oddly enough, when he was in Midin, he noticed that there were actual flatscreens to watch in the residential rooms. He truly wondered how far the technology of this world had advanced.

"Do you always resort to breaking the law?" the female voice was heard again

"Only for small stuff, I'm not a psychopath or anything. But I'm definitely not above thievery, of course I wouldn't steal from small-time shops or anything, that would just be in bad taste." He explained as he nodded to himself

Then he snapped open his eyes and just realized he was talking to a random person. He turned his head to see a woman in a short-blue obi. Her silver hair was tied up, but the main thing that unsettled Shiro was her eyes. Her piercing silver-blue eyes made him feel like she could see through him. Her face seemed focused as she was bent over while scrutinizing him closely as her eyebrows twitched questionably. Another thing that freaked him out was that she sort of looked like Miyamoto Musashi from Fate Grand Order

"Are you a god?" she asked

"Eh?" he said dumbly as last time he checked, he was human.

She straightened herself back up as she grinned "Oh, where are my manners. Name's Miya Sushi"

"That's the dumbest last name I've ever heard of" was his instant retort

[System detects she is in the stage of 2nd awakening which is at least level 300]

"I mean that is the greatest name ever!" he changed his tune as he got cold sweat

Meanwhile the female swordswoman seemed to be wondering if he was bi-polar

Before she could respond he just blurted out

"So do you like sushi?" he attempted to change the subject and not die

Her eyes lit up. "I do! it's my second favorite dish!" she exclaimed as she placed her hands on her hips to fist bump the air

"By any chance is your first dango?" Shiro asked

"No it's udon, what's dango?" it seemed dangos weren't a thing in this world

He immediately spawned in a stick of multi-colored dango stuck on it.

"Sweets" he replied as he held up his peace-offering

Either it was stupidity or just not caring if it were poisoned or not, she took the stick and eyed it closely. After a moment she took her first bite. Her eyes seemed to glow even brighter than before as she gobbled the rest. She then grabbed the shinigami's shoulders and declared.

"Delicious! From now on you can call me big sis Miya!" Shiro was unsure of how it developed to this point but at least he didn't have to worry about dying anytime soon.

"By the way, is your name Shiro?" She asked with a smile as she didn't let him go

"How do you know my name?" He was freaking out, is she some kinda mercenary here to hunt his head!? He was technically a wanted man after all!

"Little Mirrah told me about you! She wanted to say you're welcome to visit her if you were ever in the mainlands. Also Lolz says he's sorry, don't hold it against him. He's just protective of Mirrah" She finally let him go

"Oh, so you're not here to hunt me down for some grand reward?" he dumbly asked

"PFTWAAHAHAHAHA. Grand reward? All you did was rob a commoner's barracks." Shiro was beginning to get embarrassed. What do you mean commoner's barracks? This dude had to work hard to infiltrate that place!

"Sigh, well nice to meet you I guess. Anyway if you'll excuse me I need to figure out how to get to the north continent" he said as he turned his attention back to the ships

"Yosh, let big sis here help you out!" She gave a wide grin as she patted his shoulder

"If you want to get to the north, there aren't any ships here that will take you there" Miya explained

"What? But why!?"

If there weren't any ships heading to the north, how would he get there?

"Most of these ships are mainly fishing boats that don't go too far due the chaos tides. If you want to head north, you should find a ship headed to Empyrea first before finding a ship to the north."

"Sigh, well I guess I'm not in a rush anyway." he facepalmed himself as he thought of how long it would take just to go form one continent to another.

"Cheer up, I'm headed to Empyrea for some business anyway. So I can let you tag along." She gave a side hug with one arm

"Really!?" Shiro eyed her with interest. if he could get a free ride, it would save him a lot of trouble

"Sure, but on two conditions." Miya nodded her head as she held out two fingers.

"First, spar with me. I want to see how you survived after taking a hit from little Mirrah's guards." Shiro felt a drop of cold sweat go down as he felt like he was going to get his ass kicked.

"Second, you show me more of that dango stuff!" She said still grinning

∞

"Uh, so just to be clear. this is just a spar right?" Shiro asked as he moved a distance from Miya

"Mmhmm, don't worry I'll just use this." She took out a short dagger hidden underneath her obi

"Any rules?"

"Nah, you're free to use anything you want. Just impress me" She said as she relaxed instead of getting into a stance

Shiro unsheathed his blade from his back as the sheathe disappeared. He lowered his stance while keeping his eyes on the female swordswoman. It would be a lie to say he wasn't excited to see what someone above 300 could do. This was also a chance to test some moves out. Letting out a small breath he tightened his grip.

On one hand, it probably wouldn't be smart to reveal everything that he was capable of. On the other hand, his instinct told him that she was the sincere and honest type. If he didn't impress her, then she may really just leave him here.

A clang of steel was heard as the Shiro disappeared from view as he flash-stepped next to Miya. His eyes widened as she effortlessly blocked the quick attack. He could feel her eyes never leaving him as he looked into those piercing eyes.

He backed off for a moment before charging back. After Ray stuffed his head with info on how to use his blade, he also learned the 10th squad captain's swordplay. Shiro unleashed a flurry of quick stabs only to be dumbfounded.

Miya stood in the same spot, never retreating. Her arms blurred out of view as she deflected every single stab. The smirk on her face never left her. However she was momentarily surprised to notice a chain coiling around her dagger.

"Surprise!" Shiro yelled out as he thrusted towards her while she was essentially disarmed.

"Surprise" She retorted with a smile as she didn't let go of the dagger. Instead she gripped it even tighter and swung her arm around, dragging the shinigami with the chain.

"The fuck!?" he cried out as he was smashed to the ground like a flail.

"I don't get it, your swordplay is great. But it's like you've never gotten into a fight before." Miya said with a questioning tilt of her head

It was true, while he did have the 10th squad captain's swordplay. His moves felt stiff to the experienced swordswoman.

"Give me a break" he whined as he let go of his sword and jumped back

"Are you sure about abandoning your weapon?" she asked in a teasing manner

Shiro smirked as the sword appeared back in his hands startling his opponent. Miya watched as 4 ice clones formed around the turquoise eyed shinigami.

"Good skill" She praised as she stood her ground against the 4 ice clones.

She immediately noticed the dagger was unable to pierce the skins of the clones. She raised a brow and gave a kick towards a clone. Seeing the Kick made the original drop his jaw. As if the sound barrier was broken, the clone was sent flying back. Cracks were apparent over the clone stunning the rest of the clones.

"Jeez, how much endurance do you have?" She asked as if she was complaining

All the clones were feeling annoyed. 'The hell are you complaining for!? We have 530 Endurance without blessings! Weapons bounce off us and a single kick from you was enough to put one of us down!'

The rest of the clones were quickly kicked away leaving only the original.

"Screw it" Shiro sighed as he lowered his stance

Miya immediately had a strange feeling as she focused her attention towards the original with great interest.

From beneath his conical hat, his sharp turquoise eyes sent a shiver down her spine.

"Sit upon the frozen heavens... HYORINMARU!"

Miya witnessed the skies darken around them as an ice dragon coiled around the shinigami. She instinctively felt like the dragon itself was looking down on her, which made her a little excited.

The dragon began to move with the blade as it flew towards the swordswoman. A blast of cold air rang out as the familiar towering ice shard was formed.

Shiro let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he stabbed his sword to the ground for support. He wasn't sure how much damage that actually did to her. But he found out the next moment as cracks began to spread on the ice.

The ice shard shattered, leaving Shiro in awe as he looked towards two giant ethereal swords floating in the air.

As the spirit swords were hovering in the air, Shiro felt the same piercing gaze from before. Except this time it was much more noticeable. He kept his eyes on the woman who was loosely gripping two handles on both sides. The blades of clear blue light formed giving it the look of two nodachis. In any other time, Shiro would probably be having a nerdgasm. But right now he couldn't keep his eyes off her silver-blue eyes. He could feel a terrifying sense of hunger from those eyes. He wasn't sure what that meant, but he felt like a dear caught in headlights.

For a moment he couldn't feel his lower body. Most likely due to his upper and lower body being separated from each other.