Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): Nexus Earth - Chapter 5 Session 3a : Learning the Ancient Path

[Justin OOC]

Akina Lead Eiji, Kai, Lily, Valerie, and Georgi into the training room of the Archangel as the massive ship rested in Tokyo Bay. Masane was waiting there at the door and she follwed them inside.

"Computer Generate unrestricted environment, Class S shielding. Training Protocol Atsushi B13." The world around them came to vaguely resemble the mountain range of Ikaris where they fought Gilgamesh, overlooking a vast plain to the West.

The purpose for you being here is that you all have the potential or exhibited ability to access the ability known as Final Release, or Bankai. Those with it, shall learn to control it, those without shall gain access to it."

"Bankai can be summoned at first only in moments of extreme stress, or conversely, extreme calm. From what I heard about your's Lily, your Bankai was first done in first manner after watching Kai die. I know you used it again in the Cargo hold, so clearly you have developed some control over it.

"I will show you my Bankai, then you will perform yours Kai , then Lily. Eiji, Valerie, you shall go next, to see if you can manage this power." She looks to Georgi. I do not know that you can fuel Bankai with your spiritual power, but I would like to see. First I want you to observe the phenomena and then I will tell you what we shall try for you."

She walks several paces from them and smiles. She holds out her hands and begins. "Bankai." A circle of light appears around her and the transformation began. Her hair lengthened, her physical proportions enlarged essenitally as Akina grew up. Before Akina looked as if she were a young fourteen or fifteen. When she emerged in the Stark White and brilliant scarlett robes of a Miko, she looked older, easily as adult in physique as Amane and every bit as attractive. Her long white hair had spread out behind her as the light enveloped her and now fell lightly about her shoulders and down tot he small of her back. She drew the same Flaming sword she'd wielded earlier bto prove who she had been and Brilliant White-feathered wings spread from her shoulderblades.

"Miko no Kami, Akina Nanamura."

The Transformation was stunning and she radiated a pure and warming light, a quie confidence of pure power and serene grace.

She looks to Kai. "You're turn, Kai."

Kai nods. He walks away from the others and holds out Senbonzakura from him. He holds out the sword and then inverts it, so that the tip is pointing down and releases the sword. "Bankai." The sword vanishes straight into the ground as if he'd dropped it into a pool of water. The ripples travel throughout the area. The sky begins to darken and all of the world seems to fall away. On each side of him a blade appears, rising slowly, each further pair followed by another in a seemingly endless supply. Each sword blade is like a thirty foot pillar of steel, and he looks up, his gaze calm, collected and serene. "Scatter, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi." The Thousand blades shatter into a storm of small cherry blossom like blades that quickly move about and become virtually invisible until a boulder the size of a Mech literally explodes into dust.

Kai says the next words calmly. "A thousand blades rise from the ground, with their scattering Infinitely more blades Rise. It is impossible to know their numbers, impossible to follow their paths, much less avoid them. There is nothing to do but watch, as one watches the wind pass, and wait for the blades to pass through you. One can only wait, frozen and then be swept away from this world, This is My Bankai."

(OOC link for Kai's Bankai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frq7UjUPYHU )

[SalmonMax]

"Kai, that's amazing!" Lily blurts, rushing to his side when it seems like the special effects are over. "I've never seen you do anything like that before!"

Akina smiled, but just a little, and said, "Now you, Lily."

The Princess whirled to look at Akina as if startled, then nodded and stepped away from Kai to the middle of the room where she had some space.

"I'll try," she said with a deep breath. "I'm not sure I can just do it whenever I want. Before...both times...it happened because I was trying to protect someone, or...avenge them. It feels different now. Like there's a wall inside me."

[Justin OOC]

Akina smiles knowingly as she watches Kai's Bankai, then that smile fades as he gives his short speech. "You can take it further."

She looks to Lily and nods. "Bankai can be like that initally. If you truly require motivation, it can be arranged. This world is unrestricted, meaning any creatures created will have no limters within them Ostensibly even up to our level." There's almost a trace of malice in her words, and disdain, as though having done it twice there should be no excuse for not doing it now.

Kai on the otherhand simply placed a hand to Lily's cheek, allowing the wierd warming and empowering sensation to suffuse her. "I believe in the Power within you. If you cannot believe in yourself Lily, Believe in the Me that believes in you."

[Georgi]

All Georgi could do was watch. He had no idea how Kai was able to channel Bankai, much less himself. He knew the summoning required to bring forth Magnablast, because he knew the cant required to bring it forth. Bankai did not seem to have any verbal triggers. After watching Lily, he figured it was triggered emotionally. Akina said as much.

Unfortunately for Georgi, as a soldier, his emotions needed to be kept in check. The two emotions he most experienced were extreme boredom and extreme terror. The former in large amounts and the latter in short bursts.

He had to ask Akina. "I am lost as to how I would even find my Bankai or even what it might be. Is ther a way to discover your Bankai? I haven't the faintest idea."

[Rorx]

Eiji just stands stunned at the revelation of his associates Bankai abilities.

"Wow! I've never seen anything like it."

He turns to Captain Akina, "And you think I could do something like that!"

[Justin OOC]

Masane steps forward and nods, answering for Akina. "Yes, All with Kage blood and enough training can perform Bankai, Eiji Tanaka. This I assure you."

"I am forbidden by the Law of the Amaha from doing so, however. Releasing the full power of my blade is something the Kage did only once, long before I became the bonded bearer of the Witchblade."

She looks to Kai. "A most Beautiful display master, and eloquent summation of its power.

Masane turns to Georgi. "You haven't got the power to perform Bankai as you are. There are ways to increase your power though."

Akina nods. "Indeed, there are, Georgi. Would you like to explore these Methods or would prefer to continue along more mundane means? I know Captain Kaunac would love to here you've mastered this skill, as Bankai is what inspired her to become a Satoshi officer."

[SalmonMax]

Lily closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn't know what it was like for Akina or Kai, but before with herself, it had started with her blood, with her heart. She focused her awareness now on her heart, on its beating, on the blood rushing through it. And yes, there was a feeling of tension, like an inflated balloon's skin. Something bound up, just out of reach, where it couldn't hurt anyone.

Thank you, she said in her mind to that barrier. Thank you for keeping me safe until I was ready to do this. Thank you for keeping this out of sight, so my enemies would not anticipate it. Thank you for not being too high or too thick for me to reach over when I needed it most.

Thank you...and goodbye.

Far from having to batter through the wall, Lily realized that all she had to do was let go of it. It had been something she'd made, or maybe that had been made for her. A tiny artifact of her own power turned on itself, like a bit of paper with one edge folded to make it rigid. But she didn't need it anymore. She could control it herself now.

"Bankai," the Princess said calmly. An invisible pulse of power seemed to rocket out from her, stirring dust and hair for a moment. "Avatar of Light!"

Her heart glowed with bright blue light, and she rose slowly into the air, head thrown back and eyes closed. Tendrils of light snaked out from her heart, following the courses of veins and arteries as if her blood itself were the source of that light...so bright that it was undimmed by muscle, bone, skin and clothes.

The blue aura of her force field pulsed and brightened...then flashed too brightly to look at! When the afterimages cleared, the Avatar stood where Lily had been, hovering with stately elegance just off the ground, surrounded by a halo of burning light...the figure of an armored humanoid woman in outline only, drawn in lines of azure light. At its heart was the glowing ball that carried Lily's silhouette inside it.

For a moment the avatar is still, moving its lambent eyes from one person to another. Then it settles its gaze on Akina. Its voices are doubled, both Lily's and someone else's speaking in precise unison.

"Everything looks so different now. I didn't have time to notice before."

[Justin OOC]

Kai looked up at Lily and smiled. "See I knew you could do it."

He reaches out and touches the corruscating energy shell before anyone can stop him. There's a jum of power, but there's the odd interplay of the energy refracting across a few dozen blades of senbonzakura.

"Complete battle shell type armor, likely completely immune to energy type damage. An Internal Bankai of immense power, with truly massive energy output potential. Very impressive Princess, obviously the Royal family of Dalaraan has some secrets left to teach us."

Masane smiles. "Reminds me of some of the old legends I heard from Lady Yuna growing up, and the Priestes before her, Lady Hikari. The both told tales of an ancient time where warriors of Light battled Steel Giants across the great sea, of the Giant's floating City, and the Warriors of Light's fantastic powers."

She looks at each of them. "Is it possible that The legends are true? Could this Circinus Federation and Dalaraan Empire have come to Earth millennia ago and waged war while Man watched?"

The idea is so far-fetched, so outlandish, and then Kai nods. "Didn't you say something about their having been a Colony for the Empire here once, and The Macross it's been here ten thousand years, but The Federation says it has only been missing a year."

Kai starts laughing, and doesn't stop. "It's so surreal it has to be true. One colonized Earth in the past, the other misjumped into prehistory and first me the other there. They waged war, and we get our basis for Atlantis mythology, and if their battles were bad enough every sort of disaster cof prehistory could be linked to it."

"The conspiracy buffs were right, Aliens did shape humanity, just not in the same way they mean."

Masane nods. "It is kind of funny Master." She chuckles and looks at him. "But it doesn't change anything ."

Kai looks to Lily. "How do you mean different, and what do you think of these little revelations?"

[SalmonMax]

The Avatar was quiet for a moment as Lily absorbed the implications of Kai and Masane's conversation. Then it shakes its head slowly.

"It's hard to explain. I can feel the universe around me, and it feels so thin and fragile, as if I could tear through it if I wasn't careful. But even so, I can't quite...touch it."

The massive epaulets slip up and down when she shrugs.

"Anyway, I knew about the Dalaraan colony on Earth. It was a very old one, sent before human beings had started their own civilization. We never did find out what happened to it. To think they came up against a modern day Circinus battleship."

Her voice softens with sorrow.

"They must have been slaughtered."

[Justin OOC]

Akina and Masane nod. "Not to a man however. Enough were left or hid to continue on here in Japan." Akina looks to Lily. "So do you want to see how strong you are? I'd love to test my Bankai. I can create some things to fight if you wish."

She turns her gaze to Valerie and Eiji and Georgi. "Though if any of you would like to try it I would very much like to see you do it."

[Rorx]

Eiji bows to her, "I'd like to try since you think I may be capable of such a feat, although I don't know if I will succeed or not. Any suggestion on how I should attempt it?"

[Justin OOC]

"Release your Zanpukto, and focus all your power through it, Focus on the source of your power and will it into being."

[Rorx]

Eiji draws his sword and hold it blade uppermost with the hilt at eye level as he closes his eyes and focusses on pouring all of his energy into the channel to his soul embodied within the katana 'Inazuma'.

Something started to happen, as with most things it started small and easily overlooked, Eiji's eyes sparkled with blue electricity. This was followed by a rapidly spreading aura of electricty that ran down from his head until his whole body is covered in jumping sparks of electricity and Inazuma seems to be nothing but a rod of barely contained lightning. The glow intensifies and concentrates at his feet until a sparking outline of a dragon climbs coiling around Eiji's body until it looks out over his head with it's foreclaws upon his shoulders. As it starts to unfurl it's wings with it's legs tensed to leap upwards Eiji's eyes roll back in their sockets and he falls backwards to lie sprawled on the ground, all sign of the manifestation gone.

[Justin OOC]

Both Masane and Akina nod as Eiji falls over unconscious. "He was so close, and for someone who only recently became an officer, he shows great promise."

Masane turns to Valerie. "What about you Valerie? I know you're human, thus have the potential for Bankai. I'd be interested to see if your Bankai is as wondrous as Lily's or Akina."

Kai looks on and walks over to Eiji and kneels down. He lays a hand on the Satoshi Lieutenant's head and Eiji's eyes open as cosciousness returns to him.

"You did will Eiji, I saw how amazing your Zanpukto's spirit form is. With a little more training you will do it."

[Rorx]

Eiji shakes his head groggily at first but is soon sitting up, "Thank you Kai, I will seek to reach that potential quickly to improve the groups effectiveness."

He quickly recovers his energy and is soon back on his feet and eager to see what Valerie can do.

[Georgi]

For the first time in his life, Georgi was intimidated. The powers they were dealing with were beyone his comprehension. He was not sure he wanted to know what sort of 'spirit' manifests within him. His life..his world was one of war, blood, pain and death. What kind of thing would come out of that? Would the others be safe from him if such a creation took hold of him.

He continued to watch the others.

[Valerie]

Valerie looked up at Lily, her Bankai had turned her into a truly beautiful and intimidating warrior, a creature dwarfing her in stature and power and felt inadequate, her own powers being a mere fraction of what theirs were and being un widely enough to be deemed useless from time to time.

She listened to all this conversations about Bankai, the touching of the maximum potential the soul has over the physical manifestation and felt insider of her that her own maximum potential had been capped a long time ago, feeling literally useless to her friends. Gripping her weapon, the SdZ she could feel it absorbing copious amounts of energy from the environment in preparation, nagging on her mind that this is yet another way in which she will fail to achieve bankai.

Just like before the feeling of a surge of energy ran through her body, at first a dim pinkish aura enveloped her like a second skin, like the energy force field she generates during battle but this one began to warp immediately, the energy drain was palpable on the ambiance as the energy from the nearby bankais was slowly chipped at in infinitely minuscule amounts, the warping began extending the aura farther from her skin extending in an even pattern all around her as it formed into a perfect set of hexagons intersecting with each other in a bubble around her, inside of it a maelstrom of pink energy swirled like mist obscuring view completely, the containment field started to vibrate and energy started seeping from the interconnecting axis, small beams of light shot out of them going into the air, the ones pointing down literally drilled into the virtual ground and made smoking craters when they moved on.

Something was going very wrong with the Bankai as the containment field cracked under pressure and the energy storm inside became wild, the energy far exceeded regular output and soon, with the sound between crystal shattering and the quiet rumble of a crashing wave the top of the containment field broke and a tremendous wave of energy exploded upwards a blinding light show rivaling Lily's own light and almost darkening the rest of the room, a big wave of dust was lifted and Valeries silhouette could be dimly seen among the smoke and dust.

She was down on the ground, on her knees sustaining herself with her arms to avoid collapsing face first into the ground, breathing raggedly she held in one hand the Stock in it's sealed form, the other one she had literally dug into the dirt and both held a white knuckle grip, her face was filled with tears from her failure today.

Before anybody could react to offer her any kind of help Valerie rose from her position, looking directly at Masane, wiping the tears from her face before speaking with her. "If this is a training room, do you have a way to create virtual opponents? It's obvious that I need much more work." Valerie spoke with confidence, saying thing like a fact instead of a request to a captain "Will you please give me access to the Database? There is somebody specific that I want to train against." Valerie's form looked much more depleted than before, starting up Bankai must have taken up a lot of her energy.

[Justin OOC]

Masane nods after looking to Akina. "As you wish." A small terminal appears next to Valerie. "Input the data for your combatant there. Keep in mind that the power level has no limit, and that all safety controls have been released. What you fight here can kill you."

Kai looks on and walks over to Valerie he reaches out and laid a hand on her shoulder. He whispers to her softly. "For someone who didn't really believe in it, Valerie you did well. I look forward to seeing you acheive the greatness Akina has told me lies within you."

[Rorx]

"May I ask who this combatant is that you seek to face here Valerie?" Eiji looks curiously towards the console, his colour rapidly returning to normal following his Bankai attempt.

[Valerie]

"Just somebody from the past." Valerie immediatly interfaced with the console without even having to touch the terminal, the console screen flashing millions of data inputs per second before it comes to rest on a black screen with a blinking cursos.

"Computer, Enemy Input: Kenpachi Zaraki, remove limiter, terrain plains on pocket dimension." the computer answered with a input noise, and just like that Valerie dissapeared from sight.

[Justin OOC]

Kai nods once and whispers "Good luck Valerie, and take him down."

[SalmonMax]

Lily's Avatar seems nonplussed as it looks around, then focuses on those still present.

"Do I need to stay like this? Or...? I guess it might be good to see how long I can maintain it..."

[Justin OOC]

Akina and Kai both look to Lily. "Let's see how long it lasts."

What follows next is series of battles against progressively tougher opponents, each time the three using Bankai and Eiji winning bu enormous margins.

After the confidence building excercise and getting used to their powers a little, Akina Programs in Captain's Hitsugaya, and Ishiyama, and Lieutenant Nagi with safety protocols engaged. Eiji squeaked out a victory over Souichiro, and then gets "elimanated" by Raisho.

Lily and Kai fair well enough against the two Captains in Shikai, but when Raisho assumes his Aradian form and Toshiro uses Hyouinmaru's Bankai, the tide quickly turns against them. Raisho proved unkillable even with their combined might, and teaming up on him allowed them to team up first on Kai, the weaker link and elimanate him and then defeat Lily and knock her unconscious a minute later.

Kai sits on the ground panting. "Ok so note to self, I am nowhere near as powerful as the Captains."

He looks over to Lily. "You did great though, taking them on after they took me down and making them work for it."

Akina nods. "He has the right of it Princess." Akina had since returned to her normal form and had already tended to the injuries of her new Lieutenant.

She looked over to Eiji. "Excellent job with SOuichiro. beating him in melee combat is something few can do, but it was the right choice. You'd have been hardpressed to defend against a ranged tanshinkou, so taking that away from him helped you win."

[Georgi]

After watching the others, Georgi knew he didn't have what the others did. The object with which to focus his energies was external, not internal. Part of it was his own training as an elite soldier and therefore necessary. The required psychological distance was needed to survive: His own life meant less to him than that of his comrads. Inside himself though, he knew his nightmares locked away damage to his psyche. As long as the doorway of amnesia remained closed, he was safe.

For him to pursue Bankai, was a non-starter. He excused himself from the group and headed towards his cabin. He needed to think and process what he witnessed. As always, Amane was present in his thoughts.