Well, his guess proved to be correct, as while he was training—you know, the usual, just firing dozens of shots at targets that he created—he could feel his control growing, and his Reiryoku level seemed to be increasing by the day. However, he didn't mind it at all.
This was helping him. He had never really trained this hard in his life before. Sure, he did casual training, but training from the earliest ray of sunshine all the way to when the last ray disappeared? That was a whole new level.
He worked his body to the bone. If what the girl had told him had any hint of truth within it, there were people in Soul Society who could one-shot him if need be.
Sure, he could beat any Third Seat, even Lieutenant-level fighters quite easily, but his power could only help him up to the mid-Captain tier.
Anything above that kind of smoked him. Even with his adaptation, he didn't think he could beat that old man.
From what he gathered, the old man had a fire ability, so just in case Sora ever had to face him—which he hoped to whatever god was out there would never happen—he started burning himself.
Yes, he would activate his wheel and burn himself. One, to build some slight resistance to fire, and two, using his wheel, he could adapt to it, thus making fire-based damage ineffective against him.
And even if his adapted self was now immune to fire, Sora was willing to bet he was only immune to fire... not the old man's fire. There was a difference. One of them was empowered by Reiryoku, while the other wasn't.
So even if the old man's fire did no damage to him, the force behind the fire would still hurt him. Not the fire itself, but just the sheer force behind it.
Call him an overthinker—he didn't care. In case he had to fight the old man, he had prepared a lot of safety nets.
His biggest safety net was the fact that he spent nearly 80% of his time training and reinforcing his Blut Vene.
You may be asking why. The answer was simple.
If he could get his defense high enough, maybe he could survive long enough to either escape or adapt and escape faster.
Beating the old man never even crossed Sora's mind. From the way he was described, this man was basically the peak of Soul Reaper power.
For Sora to barge into Soul Society—16 years old and all—and manage to beat the 2,000-year-old menace would be nothing but BS, a fantasy, really. He was overpowered, but he wasn't that overpowering. Plus, his goal was to rescue his girlfriend.
The only reason he was training so hard was just in case he had to face the worst-case scenario, which, in his mind, was old man Yama. He wanted to be strong enough to tank a few blows as his friend escaped.
Then, he'd use Blut Arterie, overcharge it, and Hirenkyaku far away from the old man.
That was the worst-case scenario.
Best case? He fought no one, snuck in, took her away, and dipped out of there like there was no tomorrow.
"I won't hold back just because you're a kid," Kensei's voice could be heard saying. The man had his Hollow mask on as he stared at Sora, ready to pound on the kid.
{Pause}
No Shikai, no Bankai, just straight hands.
Sora rushed toward Kensei, and the two combatants began throwing hands. Sora threw two punches, which Kensei blocked.
Kensei threw an overhead kick, which Sora flipped backward to dodge. Kensei rushed in, throwing a couple of punches and kicks that Sora masterfully parried.
Sora tried to sweep the man's leg, but Kensei jumped over the kick. While in the air, the man launched a kick at Sora's head, which Sora masterfully blocked.
No special reinforcement, nada, just hands. Not even a Cero was thrown.
"Let's turn this up a notch," the man said.
The very next second, the man pulled out his Zanpakutō before saying,
"Blow it away, Tachikaze."
As the sword release command was uttered, air currents swirled around Kensei before enveloping his blade. Tachikaze transformed into a combat knife with a bronze guard, light purple hilt-wrapping in the center of the hilt, a gray leather grip, and a small ring on the guard's blunt side.
The very next second, air blades were launched at Sora.
Sora, making sure to use Blut Vene just in case, started dodging and weaving between each blow.
Getting close to the man, he formed a sword and clashed with the man's fist.
Kensei, using his blade, launched several pressurized air bullets at Sora.
Sora kicked off Kensei, and while in the air, he followed the attack with his eyes. Opening his mouth, he released three pressurized Cero/Reishi balls.
As the balls made contact with the attack, an explosion the size of a small apartment building could be seen. Sora, using the smoke screen, launched three Gintō at Kensei.
The man dodged each and every single one of them.
"Is that all you got?" the man's voice practically roared out.
Sora grinned.
Kensei's eyes widened. Before he could turn around, the three Gintō, which made a perfect triangle around him, began glowing.
The very next second, chains erupted from each of them, wrapping around Kensei.
Upon making contact with his skin, the man realized that all of his Reiryoku was being used to strengthen the chains.
The more he tried to brute-force his way out of them, the stronger the chains became.
"Well, guess I won," Sora muttered as he landed.
"AH."
The fuck was this pressure?
The man's Hollow mask was still there, but something else was off.
"Bankai."
However, before the man could use his Bankai, the chains binding him sapped away all remaining spiritual power.
"...Brute forcing it isn't going to work," Sora said with a smile on his face.
"Time's up, Kensei. It's my turn now."
"My 30 minutes are up... already?" the man said, removing his Hollow mask.
The short girl with an attitude didn't seem to care.
"I'm your opponent now, you little squirt," her voice sounded hella rude, but oh well.
"Hoh? Did you have a change of heart? You wanna help me rescue her?" Sora said with a smile.
"Shut it. I'm just doing this to let off some steam. And what better way than by beating your ass?"
Wasn't she just a violent and lovely girl?
"Don't rough him up too much," a voice could be heard saying from the side.
"Shut up, Shinji," she retorted.
"You sure are a lovely girl," Sora said with a smile.
"I'm going to enjoy breaking your bones."
As those words finally left her mouth, she made a downward motion with her hand over her face. As she did so, her Hollow mask appeared.
Her Hollow mask was skeletal in appearance. It sported a prominent horn centered on the forehead and a row of diamond-shaped markings over the eyebrows. Upon donning her mask, the sclera of her eyes turned black, though her irises remained brown.
Upon donning her mask, the sclera of her eyes turned black, though her irises remained brown.
....
A/N.....All I got to say, just pay close attention to some stuff, they make sense later