A Reintroduction

Fukaku jumps out of the way, entirely surprised by the attack. "Fast..." Fukaku thinks to himself, feeling a small burn on his legs as he can't entirely evade the attack. Jumping upwards, he turns as he feels Rizu's shunpo, already ready with his schneider. "No more than you can suppress the feel of your shunpo, Yukino-san." Fukaku retorts.

*Rizu chuckles softly and shunpos once more, down to the ground and several feet behind Fukaku.* Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh; all creation. Flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of the blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens. *She holds her hands out towards him, palms outward.* Hado #73. Soren Sokatsui! *As she speaks, two powerful blasts of blue kido energy hurtle towards Fukaku.*

"shit, what's she - an incantation??" Fukaku realizes, getting out a silver capsule. "It won't be enough, but it should slow it down... until...". Fukaku mentally trails off, as he grins. Throwing the capsule, a black aura glows from his hand. "Maho Teishi!" Fukaku yells, a square, silvery transparent barrier appears in front of Fukaku, with a white cross. The hado breaks through the barrier, at which point Fukaku thrusts his hand outward. "Shumatsu taiho!" Fukaku yells, as a black blast shot out from his own hand, destroying the kido with it's own strike. "Sorry, but... I'm the last guy you want to be using so much Kido against."

*As Fukaku repels the kido with his own blast, Rizu smiles and whispers quietly.* Ban...kai. *As she speaks, her zanpakuto dissipates in a flurry of snow surrounding her. As it clears, she appears wearing a bright white, knee-length kimono with the scarred mark on her chest visible and glowing white; she no longer possesses a zanpakuto. She takes a couple steps forward, looking at Fukaku with a crooked smile.* You don't say.

"So, you finally used it, huh?" Fukaku says, smirking. "If that's the case." Fukaku says, appearing nearly entirely black for a second, before emitting a huge pulse of black energy into the ground. the energy moves in a line in six different directions, before stopping, forming a perfect haxagon with their stopping points, as each changes, becoming black and solid. Growing in a matter of seconds, six black pillars outstretch from the earth, giving off a cold and unnatural feel, and seemingly bound with black chains around them. Fukaku's aura becomes as black and demonlike as it appeared during the demon arc, as he materialized his bow. "If you go easy, you will die." Fukaku tells Rizu simply.

*Rizu nods understandingly and the mark on her chest glows brightly.* I wouldn't insult you in such a way, Nayamasa-san. Dai...konran. *As she speaks, she gestures towards Fukaku gently, smiling. She snaps her fingers and beneath him a vicious whirlpool of freezing cold waters and shards of ice opens in the ground with the intent of swallowing him and violently thrashing him around before spitting him back up.*

Fukaku regards the whirlpool, before simply saying "Interesting. Not Reishi, but simply... elemental." Fukaku says, throwing a capsule down into the whirlpool "Verstreuten blitz" Fukaku utters simply, as the capsule explodes in a blast of black lightning, incinerating what it hit with the strength of a lightning strike.
Fukaku hirenkyaku's towards Rize, holding a small black charge in his hand. "Toketsuken!" Fukaku says, a coating of Ice empowering and increasing the strength of the punch Fukaku throws at Rizu.

Reito kaien. *As she speaks, Rizu goes up in icy, white hot flames surrounding her entirely. She thrusts her hands forward and Fukaku's punch is met by a shield of freezing flames. Smiling, she holds her hand palm-upward in front of her face, taking a quick breath out, sending a stream of flames towards him.*

Fukaku flips out of the way of the strike, just barely getting out of the way of the flames in time. Manifesting his bow, he fired from directly above her as he finished his flip, letting off a stream of arrows towards Rizu. Landing to the side of her, he continued this assault, firing enough arrows to put the world's best minigun to shame.

*Rizu spins herself around rapidly, creating a high speed barrier with the icy flames in a circle around her to deflect as best she can, a few arrows having grazed her arms and her sides. While the barrier is still spinning, Rizu drops to the ground and slams her hands palms-downward, freezing the battlefield around them. As she does, she slams her left fist into the frozen floor, raising a frozen solid barrier around her. Placing her palms on the inside of the barrier, she presses gently, the barrier going up in icy flames. She presses again, causing flares to expel and shoot towards Fukaku.*

Fukaku felt the landscape change, freezing as it was changed by the shinigami. He knew, dressed as he was, he should have felt like he was freezing to death, the cold too much for a human. Strangely though, Fukaku felt no colder. "It really is as though the blood in my veins has been replaced with wicked ice..." Fukaku thinks to himself. The fact he really didn't care about this either occured to him. Breaking out of his reverie, Fukaku uses hirenkyaku to flit between the flares, dodging as best he could. As he did so, he took out another capsule, applying it to an arrow as soon as he stopped, and watched it turn a silvery color. "Ginto arrow." Fukaku said, firing it at the barrier.

Bakudo #81. Danku. *As she speaks, a translucent barrier appears in front of her fiery ice dome to protect from the arrow. She dispels her ice barrier and, still kneeling on the ground, slams her palms to the ground once more.* Kori no yosai! *A large fortress of ice begins to quickly build around the battlefield and she stands up slowly, icy flames still burning strong all over her body.*

Fukaku smiled, as one of his pillars seemed to shrink and change, before heading towards Fukaku. in a second, Fukaku had a black spear firmly in his grasp. "Yami no yari." Fukaku says, firing the black spear from his bow towards the Danku, which it broke through easily, becoming larger as a result. moving at a fast speed, it aimed to spear Rizu like a fish. Fukaku grimaced, wondering what it would take to beat this shinigami. "I just need to take my time and plan...." Fukaku thought to himself.

*Rizu lifts her right hand to bring a thick wall of ice up from the ground in an attempt to stop the arrow's momentum. When it fails, she makes a hasty attempt to dodge, the arrow grazing her right arm, leaving a ragged gash. Wincing slightly, she places her hand on top of the gash and freezes the bloodflow.* I'm impressed, Nayamasa-san. *Lifting her left hand, she seemingly pulls mid-sized shards of ice from the ground and directs the palm of her hand towards Fukaku. As she does, the barrage of shards flies towards him from left, right, above and in front of him.*

Fukaku jumps back, dodging most of the ice, as he readies his bow. Firing arrows, he managed to negate the ice shards with his own heavy bolts. "Bakuhatsu Raito!" Fukaku says, as one of his arrows, white rather than black, explodes like a flashbang in a burst of light and sound, while Fukaku closes his eyes and puts his hands over his ears.

*Rizu brings up another wall of ice to defend against the blast, doubling it this time. The barrier cracks and begins to crumble from the intensity of the explosion, though it served its purpose, her ears ringing from the sound.* -Damn...- *As the light from the explosion fades, Rizu shunpos directly behind Fukaku within inches of his back, raising her hand above her head.* Dai konran! *She tenses up in anticipation as the maelstrom she had once opened up beneath Fukaku decends upon them both quickly from above their heads to engulf them.*

Fukaku notes Rizu's shunpo, feeling where it would end, and instantly turns using hirenkyaku to boost his own movement, slashing outwards with his schneider at her nearest shoulder. noting the descending maelstrom, he begins to glow bright white, thinking of his last ace in the hole...

*Rizu moves her body away from the slash, it grazing against her shoulder. She thrusts her left hand forward to grab Fukaku's arm, her hand engulfed by the subzero flames with the intent to keep him in place as the maelstrom begins to swirl around them.*

"Urghhh..." Fukaku exclaims, trying but failing to pull away from Rizu's grip. Glowing even whiter, he was almost painful to look at, radiating such light. "It sounds funny from this position, lieutenant, but... it seems I win, lieutenant." Fukaku said, as the maelstrom came closer.

*Rizu closes her eyes tightly and tightens her grip, causing the freezing flames to grow. Clenching her jaw, she braces herself as Fukaku's aura becomes eradic.* It's Captain now, Nayamasa-san.

"Forgive me for that slight, then, Yukino-san, but it doesn't change the fact." Fukaku says, planting his feet. "Haku Ryu Kami." Fukaku says silently, as the white energy disperses from him and moves upwards, before forming into two pristine, snow-white dragons, entangled around eachother. "Hurk!" Fukaku says, using his body weight to pull his hand back, before striking upwards as if punching the air, in order to get out of rizu's grab. As soon as he does, he uses hirenkyaku to move back, as the white dragon's turn. Moving at a rapid pace, while still being wrapped around one another, the white dragon's moved towards Rizu at top speed, As they opened their jaws. On their strike into the earth, a huge, white explosion appeared where they hit, a powerful, quickly expanding blast. Fukaku used hirenkyaku to get out of the way as quickly as he could, and, even knowing where the dragon would strike, just barely made it away from the blast. "Huff... huff..." Fukaku panted, his reishi affected by the use of such a powerful technique. "I'm still doing better than the first time..." Fukaku thought to himself, and indeed, he still had enough reishi left to fight to some capacity. regardless, the drain was still quite large on his reserves, and he wondered what he'd do if Rizu managed to dodge without an issue.

*As Fukaku escaped her grip, Rizu drops to her knees and slams her fists to the ground, summoning a small, egg-shaped dome around her as she reinforces it with her reiatsu, closing her eyes as she braces for the blast. As the blazing white dragons explode into the ground, she and her barrier are engulfed by blinding light. As the explosion of light, ice, rock and dust clears, Rizu appears; her barrier long since shattered, covered in contusions, cuts and dirt laying on the ground.*

-Come on...move...you're not done yet!- Nngh... *Gritting her teeth, she lifts herself up to her knees with her hands.*

"Do you yield, Captain Yukio." Fukaku asked, using her formal title for this question, as he hirenkyaku'd in front of her. "You took a lot of damage from that attack - and I took comparatively little. You're in no condition to fight me any longer." Fukaku notes, regarding her. "You fought well, Yukino-san." Fukaku simply noted. Inside himself, he felt some confliction, acting so freindlily to a group who had been his opponents for so long.
This wasn't a group, this was an individual. Fukaku felt the realization of this fact click inside him. His hypocrisy, remembering how he himself had acted towards hollows that were friendly, cut him like a knife. Wasn't it he who had always resolved to treat them as they acted, not as they were. And yet, he judged shinigami as "cut of the same cloth" regardless.
...perhaps some reevaluation was in order...

*Rizu smiles, her hair covering her eyes as her arms shake, holding her up.* Heh... *She brings her left leg up and slowly staggers to her feet, taking a deep breath in and then out.* Call me unreasonable Nayamasa-san...but I'm afraid I haven't quite finished. I don't quit easily. *Glowing a faint white, Rizu steadies herself a moment before launching towards Fukaku, shunpoing last second directly in front of him in a crouching position, she sends a powerful punch towards his gut.* Ikkotsu!

Fukaku moves out of the way, but feels the bare edge of the punch nonetheless, and a sharp and familiar stab of pain was felt in his gut. "she already figured out a way to better counter Hakkatekkenkidzuku..." Fukaku thought to himself, surprised by how quickly she had adapted against the technique. Moving back with hirenkyaku, he fired another, steady stream of arrows at Rizu, keeping the burst wide, and thus, difficult to evade.