The next morning, Natalie had been up early and had gone to help Tessai in the kitchen to make breakfast. He had protested her helping out but she’d insisted as she was imposing upon them and it was the least she could do to thank them.
Kisuke, Renji, Edward, and Yuroichi wandered in shortly after. Natalie smiled at them all. “Good morning.”
Kisuke elbowed Edward jokingly. “She’ll make a good wife someday you know.”
Edward blushed and got clearly unnerved. “I know… hey wait! Shut up, it’s… that’s none of your business!”
Kisuke laughed. “Suit yourself, but such a pretty girl won’t wait around forever or worse if you don’t watch it someone might steal her away and it won’t matter how much you love her or how much she loves you.”
That was the wrong button to push. He knew that already, too well, and he didn’t like someone rubbing that in his face, aware they were or not. Edward got clearly angry but before he could say or do anything Kisuke had already walked away from him and was engaged in conversation with Yuroichi. How the hell did he do that?
Natalie and Tessai started putting things out on the table. The others started to take places on the cushions. When they were done, Natalie and Tessai too sat down.
Kisuke smiled at Natalie. “Impressive young lady, we really do appreciate your help.”
Natalie smiled back. “It’s the least I could do since you’re letting us stay here with you.”
“Speaking of, there is one thing I would like to ask of you two,” Kisuke said between bites of food.
“Oh? What’s that Kisuke?” Natalie asked.
“I’d like you two to train with Renji for a bit.”
Natalie’s jaw just dropped. “You want me and Edward… he’s a Captain Class officer, he’ll kill us!”
Kisuke laughed while Renji sat back with a smug look on his face. “You’re right, I could kill you easily, but that’s not the point. I told Kisuke about what we saw you two do yesterday in the shopping district. It’s unlike anything any of us have seen.”
“So you’re saying you’re curious about what we can really do?” Edward asked.
Kisuke nodded. “To put it bluntly, yes.”
Natalie lowered her head and closed her eyes. “No. I’m not going to fight Assistant Captain Abarai and neither is Ed. We’re not even close to a skill level that can rival a Captain Class, a regular seated officer maybe, but not him…”
“But why not?!” asked Edward. “It’ll be good to train for awhile with someone like him; if he’s as strong you say he is!”
Natalie sighed; she had a feeling she was going to lose this argument already. The look in Edward’s eyes, the determination, the excitement, she didn’t want to deny him that but Renji could easily tare him apart too. Zabimaru was a zanpakuto to be reckoned with and Renji wielded it nearly perfectly. He wouldn’t need to use his bankai.
“Renji won’t kill either of you, I wouldn’t let him even if he wanted to,” Kisuke said very calmly. “This is just a test, if you will.” Kisuke already had his answer though; he knew that these two weren’t here to get in their way. It seemed more like in the wrong place at the wrong time. What he wanted to know now was just how well they would be able handle themselves if they got caught up even more in the goings on.
“And let me guess, this little test would be to make sure we could take care of ourselves huh?” Natalie asked, her voice quiet.
“You‘re pretty sharp aren’t you?” Kisuke asked with a chuckle.
“I try,” she said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fine… we’ll do what you want.” Edward and Renji grinned at each other when she agreed. Natalie caught it and narrowed her eyes a bit at Edward. Why was she even surprised? She should have known they’d like the idea of this to begin with.
After finishing their breakfast, Kisuke took them into an expansive dessert like space under the shop. It looked as though this place were some sort of dimension of its own. Renji popped a Soul Candy and left his gigai. Edward took out the pactio card and transformed. They were ready for this, but Natalie hesitated.
“You OK?” Edward asked when he noticed.
“No but what choice do I have now?” she asked with a sigh. Setting her resolve she finally transformed as well. She hoped that the fact that the changes she and Edward had made to her costume would give her the same strength of heart that she’d had during the final event of the festival. She was actually glad they had stuck. Kisuke and Yuroichi sat up on one of the many high ledges to watch; Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu were nearby as well, ready in case anyone needed medical attention.
Natalie clapped her hands together and created a platform to stand on. Edward took his stance and transmuted the blade into the automail arm.
Renji just grinned at them and made the first move. Edward went to meet him and the sound of blades clashing echoed off of every rock wall. The two traded blow for blow. Natalie watched knowing she couldn’t use her Spatial Rift, not when they were close like this. She would be just as likely to hit Edward as she would Renji. Even to use it on a wall and bring rock down wasn’t an option for the same reason. She felt really useless right now.
“You’re good kid,” Renji said with a smirk. “I think I might actually have to release Zabimaru against you.”
Edward just stared at Renji, grinning like a kid who just got exactly what he wanted from Santa Clause. “You’re not bad yourself.”
“But what would you do if I do this!” Renji yelled as he released his sword. “Roar Zabimaru!” The sword became a large, segmented blade and as he swung it, it cut through the platform that Natalie was standing on.
“Natalie!” He yelled as he ran to try and catch her before she fell to the ground.
Renji saw him running and noticed that he’d taken his attention from him. “Dumb move kid!” He swung his sword a second time, knocking Edward over just as he caught Natalie.
“Damn you!!!!” He yelled as he got up and charged at Renji.
“Wait Ed! Not yet!!!!” Natalie yelled using her alchemy to create a wall between Edward and Renji.
“What did you do that for?!” Edward yelled at her.
“Zabimaru attacks in threes then has to reset in that release. When it does it gives you a larger window to attack him. It’s not much larger but it’s larger none the less. If you tried to attack him now you’d take one hell of a hit and it would be one that you wouldn’t likely recover from.” Natalie took up her staff and pointed it at the rock wall. Now was as good a time as any to use the Spatial Rift. Doing so caused an explosive rock slide on the other side of the wall she’d created. She heard Renji yell and knew that she had at least hit him.
A moment later, the end of Zabimaru came crashing through the rock wall that Natalie had made. Natalie ducked to avoid the flying stones; Edward on the other hand used this to his advantage and managed to take a page from Major Armstrong’s book. As the rocks flew by he used his automail arm to hit them and in the instant they hit transmute them into projectiles that would fly back at Renji. The action painfully reminded Edward that the automail wasn’t true automail though. Each stone stung as it hit his fist. He was still thankful for it, if wasn’t there he would have certainly shattered every bone in his hand and probably his arm trying to do this.
As the dust settled, Renji walked through the rock towards Edward and Natalie. Edward stood there glaring at Renji ready to strike at him again; Natalie was kneeling on the ground behind him.
Renji stopped staring Edward straight in the eyes. “You’re dumb kid. You can’t fight like you do and expect to live. You can only fight all out as long as someone attacks you but the second that person attacks someone you love you fall apart and though you’re good, your emotions slow you down.”
Edward lowered his head a bit. Greed had said something like that to him once upon a time. “You’re wrong,” he said through gritted teeth, his hands clenching into fists. Natalie could only watch, she had no idea what they were doing but she was interested in what they were saying.
“I’m wrong huh? Then prove you’re not soft,” Renji said starting to look a bit angry.
Edward looked up and grinned at Renji, looking almost evil. When he did he drew Renji’s attention to his eyes leaving him not paying attention while Edward put his hands together. “Fine, let’s see how you like this!” Edward put his hands on Zabimaru causing it to blow into hundreds of pieces.
“What the hell was that?!” Renji said jumping back. “You little bastard!”
“I think that’s enough,” Kisuke said as he jumped down from his ledge and landed between them. “I’ve seen more than enough.”
“But Kisuke!” protested Renji.
“No buts Renji. These two are pretty tough.”
“Well at least the runt boy is, the girl though…”
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RUNT!?!?” Edward yelled trying to get up into Renji’s face. Kisuke grabbed Edward by the collar of his coat and pulled him back away from Renji. Natalie grabbed a hold of him at that point to keep him from trying again.
“She couldn’t do much Renji or she would have killed you or did you miss that explosive rock slide that knocked you over?”
Renji just looked away from Kisuke and grunted. If Natalie didn’t know better she would think he was pouting. At least it was good know she’d actually done more than just hit him with that move.
“If Miss Natalie had hit you directly you wouldn’t be standing here now, you’d be all over the ground in pieces just like these stones,” Kisuke said as he lightly kicked a few of them to Renji’s feet. He then turned to Natalie and Edward. “Go get cleaned up, we’re going to be having company this afternoon.”
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