Chapter 11: Intermission

"Me? I'm just your average human," I said with a smile.

"Oh, are you now?" Gin replied, his voice laced with a hint of sarcasm, but his enigmatic fox-like smile made it hard to discern his true feelings.

Letting go of his zanpakutō it reeled in like a measuring tape, returning to its original size.

"Oh, and I thought you were going to keep it," he remarked, still smiling at me.

"Naw, I don't need to use such cheap tricks to beat you since you're not very strong," I retorted in a mocking tone.

Looking at Gin I tried to see if he would react to my statement but to my disappointment, he remained unfazed, that same inscrutable smile firmly in place.

"Hey big guy" I said, pointing at Jidanbō "close the gate."

Jidanbō seemed momentarily stunned before casting a fearful glance my way. In a respectful tone, he asked, "What about you, sir?"

"Don't worry about me just close the gate," I replied impatiently.

"Yes sir" and Jidanbō proceeded to close the gate.

"See you when you make it over," I said with a smile while waving my hand towards Ichigo and the gang on the other side of the gate.

"Wai-" Ichigo began, but before he could finish, the gate closed.

Turning back to Gin, I refocused my attention. "Now that their gone we have no more distractions."

"It seems so" Gin replied before suddenly disappearing from his spot and reappearing next to me, swinging his blade at me.

As the blade cut through me, my body turned to Jello.

Gin looked surprised and scanned the area to find me watching him from several dozen feet away.

"Hey, would you look at that, you do have some emotions in there," I quipped in response to his astonishment.

His smile seemed to dim slightly, but he swiftly returned to his original stance, the same one he used for his initial attack. He thrust his sword toward me.

Noticing his stance, I teleported in front of him trying to intercept his attack but to my surprise he said "Hadō #31: Shakkahō" and in his open hand a red ball of reiatsu formed aimed directly at me.

And bright red beam of reiatsu was then shot forth.

Caught off guard, I scrambled to think of a counter, but my imagination couldn't keep up, and I was struck by a massive explosion, sending me hurtling a couple of hundred feet away.

Gin looked in my direction, that fox-like smile still on his face, seemingly waiting for me to get up.

I slowly got up with a burnt upper body and part of my Quincy coat gone.

I quickly healed my injuries and fixed my clothes before looking at Gin with a smile "Nice move".

'I'm really lacking in battle experience compared to beings who've lived for hundreds of years,' I thought, glancing at Gin.

"I've done my job, now it's time to leave," said Gin, reverting his zanpakutō to its normal form and turning to walk away.

"Wait where are you going, we just got started," I said, a tinge of frustration in my voice as my opponent left in the midst of our battle.

"I don't need to fight you anymore plus you wouldn't want to face all the captains headed towards this area, would you?" Gin replied without looking back.

Hearing his words, I extended my senses, detecting the powerful captain-level riatsus approaching our location. With a sigh, I realized, 'I can't face all of them with my current strength.'

I glanced toward Gin, who was steadily walking away, and said, "I guess you're right. But that doesn't mean we're finished. Next time, we're settling this."

He simply waved his hand at me without turning around.

Accepting his response, I vanished from my current position, completely concealing my presence.

[Gin POV]

Finally stopping and turning around to look at his previous opponent's position Gin said, "interesting It seems he does have a very versatile ability just like Aizen said" turning back around he thought 'I wonder what it is'.

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Sorry for the really long wait and short chapter. A lot has happened to me in a span of a couple weeks making me really busy but I'm releasing this chapter as a way to say I'm not dropping this just really busy at the moment.