3 months ago, just after the hollow attack in district 64
Rather than getting treated in Squad 4's barracks with everyone else, Hikone ended up in the care of Seinosuke Yamada, the general director of the Central Medical Institute. A man who was arguably the greatest living Kaido user of today, whose skills even surpass that of the current Squad 4 captain.
Hikone was seated on a bedside covered in bandages, while Seinosuke was still treating her.
"I told that Hisagi to never let you out of his sights, and now you end up in this condition? Does he not understand how valuable of a being you are?"
Hikone looked a little upset. He wanted to say something to defend him, but the words never came out of his mouth.
"Hikone, listen hear. The Ikomikidomoe was the thing that made up most of your hollow powers. Although a little bit of its Reiryoku is left inside you, its really weak and it's causing an imbalance in your spiritual pressure. I've applied several more seals to your Quincy powers to try balance that out, but I have no Idea how long they will last. Please don't fight like that again."
3 months later, just before Hikone would fight Kai
Hikone was walking down the hallway and was about to enter the arena. But before she could cross into the light, a single figure stood before her. It was Shūhei Hisagi himself.
"Hikone, it's been a while hasn't it? I haven't checked on you since you started attending. How are you doing?"
He quickly jumped into Shūhei, as he braced him for a warm hug with a smile on his face.
"I missed you! where did you go?"
"I got caught up in some stuff. This is our first time we're meeting like this in a long while, but I came to ask you to do me a favour."
Hikone looked up at Hisagi with a glow in her eyes. He trusted him the most so he would do it without question.
"Please don't use any of your Quincy or Hollow powers. Shido is already aware about them, but I'm not sure how your other friends at the school would react. The public isn't even aware about the captains hollowfication so there would be public distress if they found out about that side of you. And after what happened with the Quincy, that would just be a whole other mess."
He was disappointed to find out that he wouldn't be able to fight at his best. But nonetheless he was confident he could win. Even despite thar fact though, his enthusiasm started to disappear. Suddenly Hisagi patted him on the head as he said,
"Even if you hold back, I know you can win. So try your best anyway, okay?"
Current time
Nanao Ise backed off as she declared the start of the fight. Kai kept too himself in defensive stance, while Hikone started to release their Spiritual Pressure. He was being careful as to not break the seals on his power, but Kai could tell it was at a level which surpassed Yuki's.
"It looks like, that I might to get use that today.", Kai muttered to himself.
Hikone pointed one of her fingers to Kai and fired off a powerful concentrated bolt of lightning. Kai attempted to parry it with his sword, but was staggard back a little because of its power.
Kai shouted as he poured all his effort into deflecting the attack high into the sky, with it exploding in the air.
"No way? She didn't' even say the spells name, but it was that powerful? That must've been a level 20 or 30 Hadō at the least.", Is what kai thought.
He then shouted across the arena as he asked how Hikone which Hadō spell he used, and was shocked to find out it was only the level 4 Byakurai.
The crowd and even the small group of captains that were watching, began to whisper among each other at this revelation. Kai seeing that the spotlight was being stolen from him, started to run towards Hikone.
Hikone on the other-hand started to panic and fired off another Byakurai. Normally Hikone wouldn't mind a physical battle, however right now she couldn't use Blut or Hierro to defend herself. This was a situation in which she was the most uncomfortable in.
Kai easily barely dodged the second one, and was still making his way toward Hikone at a constant speed.
Once he finally reached her, Kai flipped his sword so the he would end up hitting Hikone with the blunt side. He performed a horizontal strike which Hikone tried to block with her own sword, but it was instantly deflected away.
He tried to raise his sword back up, but kai snickered as he drew his other shorter Zanpakutō and used it to completely disarm Hikone of his weapon.
Understanding that he had lost, Hikone fell onto his knee's.
Kai was declared the winner of that fight, and would go on to revive everyone's expectations for this tournament.
Despite the crowds cheers for him, Hikone was upset. She likely wouldn't be able to win the tournament and become a Soul Reaper after that performance.
"Cheer up kid. You were holding something back right? Although I still had a couple tricks myself. Let's fight again some other time okay? If you win I'll treat you too something."
He instantly cheered up at that thought. The two of them would leave the arena together as friends. After the end of their fight, the next couple competitors paled in comparison to them. There was only a 1 more day left, until the first years finished their own bracket.
Once Kai returned to the break room, Shido had an incredibly pale face. He looked as if all the life had been drained out of him, since he now owed Kai a decent sum of money.
"So 5 thousand... 6 months of pay... gone..."
Kai cheekily patted him on the shoulder as he jokingly said,
"It's fine. You can pay me the money back by acting as my slave."