Fenice contro Fenice

Spouting an aura from the spiritual power jets on her back, 'Vittoria' rushed towards Kurenai! "Now, this'll be easy…It's all part of my plan." However, Kurenai easily avoided and dodged Gai's tackle!

Gai regained her balance in mid-air and dived again at Kurenai who had just dodged. She extended a white sword from her gauntlet and unleashed an attack with her unskilled weapon. However, she couldn't manage to land a single hit with only her mere swinging slashes on Kurenai as she dodged with light movements.

"Kurenai, that sword carries phoenix-slaying powers. If it hits just once, you'll undeniably receive great damage." A familiar voice rang in Gai's mind.

"Is that so, Seikyo. But there's no meaning if it doesn't hit!" Kurenai grinned.

Gai lamented, "…Dammit, Seikyo! Double-crossing bastard! But son of a…Every time I use this, my stamina or spiritual power will be consumed. The doubling ability will proportionally take away stamina to how high it is. That's the ability of Juggernaut Overdrive. All because I'm in this body…dammit! I need power, not legs and tits! Every time I use it in this body, the time for using Juggernaut Overdrive will decrease."

As Kurenai continued attacking, she resumed her irritating tone. "Your attacks are also dull. You just plunge in. It's meaningless in that case. What a waste of a treasure. Your use of your power is also unskillful."

Gai growled, "Ah, is that so? Bitch please; I've got more skill in my pinky than you have in your entire body!"

"At this rate, I'll have Gai—" Before Kurenai could finish talking, Gai made spiritual power suddenly spout from the jets on her back and plunged into a barrage of Kurenai's blasts. The spiritual blasts entirely struck various places on her body. Gai strongly clutched her left hand. Power on just this single point here was enough. Even so, her armour was destroyed little by little. Gai's face area was also hit and the mask part was also shattered.

"So you're charging? She that knows little really does often repeat it. Something like that—" Kurenai deployed what seemed to be a shield of light in front of her and tried to defend, but—

"Transfer!" A surge of massive power flowed into Gai's left arm. After all, Gai was a pure brawler, not a swordsman. In that case, she could only lodge the power into her fist while the sword was still stored in her gauntlet.

WHAM! Gai's fist destroyed Kurenai's shield of light with no trouble as Gai made Kurenai's soft face eat a fierce blow.

"Kyaaaaaah!" Whether it was because she received an unexpected blow or not, Kurenai's posture was violently bent. Cracks spread from the edges of the mask on her armour's helmet and part of Kurenai's face peeked through the crumbling portion.

"IKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY…!" Gai grasped her hand around the base of Kurenai's wings of light that gushed out excess power in Bankai.

"You forget, Kurenai, dear. The effect of Chōetsu Gaikaōtori comes from the wings. So…Transfer." Gai transferred her power to Chōetsu Gaikaōtori before it was in excess. At that instant, Gai was struck by the feeling that power had suddenly been removed from her body. So it consumed a fair amount of stamina and spiritual power, though Gai shrugged it off.

"I'll raise the power you absorb and the power you emit all at once, to the extent that you can't deal with it!" All of the jewels on the Bankai started to nonsensically glow white, red, blue and yellow over and over again. As it did so, the spiritual power that Gai had felt from her body, to the extent of being absurd, vanished.

Gai had forced her to activate the special ability of her Zanpakutō. Her Bankai stole the opponent's power and used it as her own fuel. However, since the limit of the power she added was already decided, it depended on Kurenai's capacity. Power that went beyond the limit was gushed out from her wings of light and disposed of.

Then, what happened if Gai accelerated her stealing power and gushing-out power at the same time? Kurenai stole so much power that she couldn't process it, and at the same time she spat out power by the time it was excess. As a result, Kurenai's Bankai began to break down. Realizing she was defenseless, Kurenai tried to defend by crossing her arms, but—

BAM! Gai closed her left fist that was filled with the G-Exes power and easily destroyed Kurenai's defenses including the gauntlets of both her arms, and thrust a blow to her abdomen. The armour of the Bankai was not enough and shattered—the phoenix-slaying power went through her armour as if it were made of paper.

Fresh blood flew out from Kurenai's mouth. She stepped back unsteadily while holding her abdomen as blood poured down from the edge of her mouth. "…Damn, you…! You're not Vittoria Giovanna, who are you—"

SLAM! Gai's merciless straight entered into her face, who grinned, "…I made it reach and hit you. You're the only one I won't be satisfied with if my fist can't hit you."

Kurenai's armour once again returned to its previous state. Gai muttered, "Sadly, the battle doesn't end until one of us is made incapable of fighting. It'll be a pain in the arse to defeat you within the limited time of the control unit." At that instant, an idea appeared in Gai's mind…"Of course, Phoenix-type Zanpakutō respond to our feelings."

Gai picked up the thing lying at her feet—a jewel of Chōetsu Gaikaōtori. Earlier, when Gai struck Kurenai, her armour was damaged and this thing flew out. Her body's armour seemed to have restored the destroyed section including the jewel, though. As far as Kurenai was concerned, this jewel would turn to trash as time passed, so it was inconsequential. However, there should be at least a little of her power lodged in it. "So, I'm gonna try it."

Gai grinned. "Sorry honey, I'll be taking your power. Vittoria here needs a new weapon." Gai smashed the Overdrive jewel that was on the back of her right hand into pieces, and drove into it the Gaikaōtori jewel that she picked up before! "—Your power of vanishing—when combined with the remains of Kinkeiken, I can make a new Zanpakutō."

While fighting, she had remembered a scene within her mind—dark memories. It was Mitsuru's battle with Jun Kazu. In that battle, Mitsuru had achieved the so-called impossible fusion of holy and demonic—the Eisha Shūrai. A silver aura sprang forth from her right hand and wrapped around the right side of her body. A phenomenon from the jewel? Something throbbed inside her, just as a difficult-to-describe pain circulated throughout her body from her jewel-implanted right hand in an instant.

"—! You intend to take in my power?" Realizing what she was trying to do, Kurenai showed a shocked expression. "…What a reckless thing to do. We are existences that oppose each other. That is nothing more than an act of self-destruction. —Do you intend to annihilate yourself by doing such a thing? Even if our other powers are different, the way we fight is the same. You raise power, I steal power. The side that skillfully uses the wave of holy light deals the finishing blow and it ends. This is how it always has been, and always will be."

Gai smirked and gave a fearless laugh at Kurenai's words. "Hehe…Anything is possible with determined stupidity! Stupidity is fine! If I can't win with ability anyway, I'll excel through stupidity! I'm the Unlosing Rising Phoenix! I can do anything! So, yatte yaruze, this new Zanpakutō!" Her right hand was wrapped in a dazzling white light! A pure white aura surrounded her right arm! Then—the remains became something completely new.

Everything changed. What Gai held in her hand was uniquely-shaped broadsword with a blue blade and a golden edge. The sword had a semicircular guard on the left side of the handle that extended to the bottom just above the pommel, with a small extension on the right side of the handle. Standing from the tip of the blade, the sword was nearly as tall as Vittoria, surpassing the latter's height by just a few centimeters. "…Hehehe, so this is Hōōtenku?" Gai smirked.

"Still…I can't believe it…" Kurenai let out an astonished voice.

"No, it's only little, but it's possible. Mitsuru fused together holy and demonic, and produced things like the Eisha Shūrai. It seems it was possible to achieve it because balance has collapsed from the non-existence of the Soul King. Well, if I borrow the words of Kazuma, it is a state where there are things like system errors or program bugs? I just utilized it a little." Gai continued.

"…So you mean you nudged the imperfections of how a Zanpakutō is manifested and achieved this? No, but such a thing is…Even if you think of that, to actually do it is just foolish. No one knows what will happen with the fusion of opposing powers. When that is something concerning phoenixes, you might die, you know? No, it would be natural for you to die."

Kurenai still couldn't seem to believe it. Well, to be honest though, Gai was also desperate. "Yeah, it was reckless. —But, I survived."

Gai went back on topic. "…Enough fucking around. Let's end this."

Kurenai clapped her hands at Gai. "Interesting. Then, I'll also get a bit serious! If I excel, I'll halve all of you and everything that surrounds you with my Bankai's power!" Kurenai floated into the air and opened her arms wide. Her wings of light also grew huge. "Half Dimension!" Surrounded by a dazzling aura along with a voice from her jewel, Kurenai pointed her hand at the trees spread out below her. The thickness of the trees was halved in an instant as more of the surrounding trees were compressed and halved.

Voices from jewels on various places of Gai's armour repeatedly resounded. "I don't want to waste any more time playing around with you, honey-bun. Sorry, but it ends here!" [BoostBoostBoostBoostBoost] Gai's surroundings flew off. The ground she was standing on was also greatly gouged out and changed into a crater. The windows of the skyscraper completely cracked, and the outer wall was collapsing. Her whole body was wrapped in the greatest mass of aura it had ever had.

Gai thrust her sword at Kurenai. The far-off trees in the background were blown away from the force of the aftershock of the single motion of the blade, as Vittoria snapped, "All according to plan!" The clouds in the sky were broken apart from her exclamation. The sun which had been hidden appeared.

Kurenai flew out at Gai—who didn't feel slow. She got away from that spot and kicked Kurenai in the side as she flew. "…How did you surpass me in speed!?" Like how could Gai know—she was relishing the moment of surprising Kurenai, catching up with Kurenai who was moving at the speed of light with no trouble.

"It's easy. I am the Unlosing Rising Phoenix. Now, yatte yaruze!" A hit to Kurenai's abdomen with her right fist. At the same time Gai activated the dividing power and felt the aura covering Kurenai decrease sharply. Kurenai spat out bile from her mouth as Gai continued attacking like that without interference. A hit to the face! Gai completely broke her helmet. The jets on her back from which her wings of light originated were destroyed effortlessly by Gai's hands. Gai vigorously kicked Kurenai high into the air, before tackling Kurenai with extreme speed. Kurenai vomited blood from such an extreme tackle.

With that, Kurenai impacted against the ground. Gai's anger hadn't calmed down as she approached her. Maybe…Should she hit her one more time!? In contrast to Gai who had gotten angry, Kurenai just gave a seemingly happy smile. It was sickening.

"…Interesting. Truly interesting. But I can handle your power. I'm not afraid of you…with this." Kurenai began to glow in black spiritual energy. "I, who am about to awaken, in supreme justice—"

Gai growled, "…Goddammit, that's…Ruination Break." Gai shot up to her at the same time she was to fly away and grabbed her arm. Gai had unbelievable speed—that was Kōshinho, a speed that even Kurenai couldn't react to. The arm Gai grabbed was unreliable and slim and made her look weak as she pulled her arm towards herself, refusing to let go. "I'm not gonna let you use the Power of Destruction, sorry."

"I'm superior…!" Kurenai hissed.

"I'm sorry, but now you'll have to return to heaven, my angel." Gai's eyes met Kurenai's; they weren't Vittoria's usual colour, but a powerful magenta within blue. It all clicked together in Kurenai's mind.

"—Gai, is that—!" Kurenai stuttered; eyes wide.

"Rakka Rouzeki!"

Gai's gauntlet released all of its energy. All the strength gathered in Gai's left arm concentrated in her fist. Gai slammed her fist straight into Kurenai's face. WHAM! The impact made a very hard sound. Gai's fist hit her face right at the point, and she pushed it away even further! Kurenai was sent flying backwards with Gai's punch.

BANG!!

Kurenai crashed through the pavement, tearing up the asphalt as she slid. There was a massive hole where she landed as dust started spreading everywhere. When the dust disappeared, there was nothing in the direction Gai punched Kurenai towards. She wasn't moving. Gai couldn't tell if she was dead but she wouldn't move for a while. Gai had a remorseful expression as she muttered, "I really am sorry…Kurenai."