One Plus Two Equals Three [Erika, Mizu]

What was this move born out of desperation? Two high-level kido simultaneously? Even someone rated in the fifth spirit class was bold to attempt something after having cast so many kido thus far. She'd been keeping track of the uses of destruction and healing, and while she could burn no small amount of her own stamina to use one of her sword techniques to attempt to cancel it out, that was risky.

More risky than dodging before following up with an offence, so she complied with her opponent's whims and flickered again. The silhouette of Erika appeared in the sky before entering a timed freefall to have her land after the spell should have passed.

If she wouldn't use her bankai then Erika decided she'd end this. Forsake defence and utilise all of her countless styles for the single purpose of obliterating her foe. A single stance is all she needed to end the duel in a golden flash like the vice-captain before her.

Keep dodging, Masamune-san! Lets see who missteps first!

With a deep breath and then a heave mighty enough to move even the Titanic, Mizu tightened the Five Pillars around the electric blast and used them to forcefully change the spell's direction so that it now began chasing Erika through the air and back down to the ground where the Vice Captain stood preparing for an attack of her own. Though she hadn't pumped either spell so full of power so as to immediately exhaust herself, Mizu could tell she was running out of fuel. Did that matter? No! Not one iota! The real struggle was maintaining control over the duo of massively powerful spells, and there was only solution that came to her mind...but doing it would put her in danger of mental and physical collapse.

"Oh well."



The crystals at Mizu's feet enveloped her in an amethyst sphere before shattering, revealing her now, barely standing, clad in black, pink, and red raiment. She noticed an immediate improvement in her ability to dictate how the spells move, as well as their speed, but could also feel the dread of total exhaustion threatening to end this fight prematurely. Wanting to conserve what little Rieryoku she had remaining, Mizu released her control over the Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō and had it explode wherever Erika was last, opting to instead have the Five Pillars chase her down should the elusive woman continue to evade them.

Mizu's breathing was ragged. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire, and her fingers and toes had grown somewhat numb. Her head hurt. Her side had torn open and was bleeding once again. Pain still emanated from the lacerations Erika had dealt to her leg and shoulder.

But would she give in?

No.

She should cleave it if it was going to chase her rather than entertain it, especially falling towards it like this but she was already in the midst of establishing an offence and she was not a woman that changed her mind after it had been set. She used her katanakaji sparingly but for this she'd make an exception. She made an exception for Rio as well and the vice-captains were proving more capable than she'd initially given them credit for.

Murasaki was correct in her statement of making a stronger Gotei than what Yamamoto had done.

So conjuring the comically large sword below her feet, it was little more than a foothold to allow for her to take up a quick stance as the kido followed her.

Her spiritual pressure vanished for a moment as it all became concentrated through her stance and in her body. The sword her feet were on exploded into particles while cutting through the air above the spells. In a straight line her reiatsu was focused at the tip of her blade to puncture everything in front of her so that the air between Mizu and Erika disappeared.

"Zettou: Issen [絶刀・一閃, Absolute Sword: Flash]."

Her speed was at its peak, perfectly optimised by the technique. However, Issen was not a perfect technique. It had too much pressure on her body and the technique had not been refined. It was much easier to defend than it was to attack with absolutely everything that she had at her disposal. For the normal observer there was nothing but flashes of light around Mizu which made it difficult to tell where one started and another began.

A flurry that meant to cover her doppelganger with innumerable wounds all performed as quickly as possible by using all "ten thousand styles" at once but she'd be lucky to achieve half her intended attack before she fell out of the technique and tumbled away in a coughing fit from the pressure on her body on top of the unstable foothold.

Everything would come down to this final clash, Mizu was certain she wouldn't last beyond it. There was a chance, thin as it was, she could knock Erika out using an unorthodox attack she had used many times before, it was just a matter of actually landing it and whether Mizu herself would survive it. Still, this wasn't a battle to the death...but Mizu couldn't stand the thought of disappointing Captain Kuchiki, or of poorly representing the Second Division as a whole. So she clenched her teeth and waited.

The Five Pillars nearly reached their mark as Erika hovered for half a second above Mizu, but as the former's Reiatsu vanished so too did the Hadō. If it had managed to hit it's target she would've been grateful, but the Vice Captain was also fine using it as a last second feint. The Reishi dispersed just before Mizu felt searing pain, which quickly spread across almost her entire body as more and more lacerations checkered her skin...but this was alright. Even as strength, fleeting as it was, left her, Mizu dug deep into the corners of her soul to strike back with everything she had left.

As Erika's sword tore into her, Mizu squeezed her Zanpakuto tight and poured every ounce of her strength into commanding every single one of the thousands of crystal shards surrounding her to fly through the air like an explosion of glass. Everything within a dozen or more feet would be slashed innumerable times, including Mizu herself who didn't still have the control to prevent them from reaching her. This suicidal attack was the culmination of all the times she had blown herself up with Kidō to land a decisive attack upon her enemies, only this time Shōsenmaru was aiding her.

The aftermath of Mizu's kamikaze was apparent as she only lasted another second or two before collapsing to the ground in a bloody heap. All the crystals vanished and her black and pink dress disappeared as well, replaced by a torn-to-shreds Shihakushō and an expanding puddle of blood that surrounded the fallen Vice Captain. Both Mizu's breathing and heart rate slowed to a crawl as unconsciousness overtook her.

She coughed and heaved until the blood covered her cut up palm. The frostbitten arm didn't bleed us much but it had turned pale with blue and purple splotches amongst its many cuts. Her shihakusho was battle-damaged and showed cuts all over her pale skin under the tears, the crystal shards still embedded in her body to make the very act of standing cut through more muscle, nerves, and scratch against bones.

It made her collapse from the first attempt onto all fours from the pain through her body telling her that she was going to collapse, blood loss, and grievous wounds demanded her to rest. It wanted to give up but that was unacceptable to lay here and expect someone else to clean up this mess.

Leaving her opponent in the ground until someone else helped her? How pathetic of a vice captain and the subordinate of the Captain Commander if she did that.

So she grabbed her finger and snapped it to fill her body with a sudden flare of pain that momentarily took over the rest of it. A fresh burst of adrenaline that helped her stand up and fumble over to grab Morikawa to try and take her the small walk to the infirmary that might as well have been a mile due to every step making fresh blood come out of her wounds.