>>5331420"You're just gonna be using that one sword only?" You ask, a wonderful idea springing into being and bringing a smile to your lips. "Well, if you're not gonna show off your collection of magic swords, then how about I show off mine!?"
As one, you and your Joyous scream to the heavens; “Hexagon Style, Bankai Release!”
“Wha-, that isn’t one of the fifty-two forms!” Cheruem protests as you and your clones raise your swords above your heads as a unit, their lethal tips aimed at the heart of the world. “We haven’t practiced it, we don’t know its-!“
Sensei’s warning is drowned out by the thunderous crack of calcite as ten sets of identical blades plunge into the ground, and a thousand more blossom across the polished field in a violent eruption of bone and steel.
“Unlimited!”
More blades, more chaos as the Vagrant takes a step back.
“Blade!”
He’s surrounded, his confident offense shifting to a wary guard.
“WORKS!”
…You stand in a field of gleaming calcite, countless blades shining like a field of rubies as they reflect the red skies above. The Vagrant breathes in, you realize with a start that it’s a gasp of surprise. Of something almost like awe. He meets your challenging gaze with dark eyes are wide, shining like black suns above a grinning horizon.
He’s smiling, and so are you…it hits you, then.
The Vagrant is just as completely, utterly thrilled as you are.
But you’ve only just begun.
He lunges, and you jet back with another violent burst of Oxygenic Artillery, baiting a cat-and-mouse chase to give your Joyous enough time to multiply. You’re dancing on a razor’s edge—it’s taking everything you’ve got to just stay at the tip of the Vagrant’s blade for the four seconds it takes before your nine original Many spring to your aid, their successors already chanting from your shared Lexicon, a murmur of mismatched phrases and utterances inaudible against the jackhammering of your heart in your ears. Yet another three of your mirror-images are cut down by a single, decisive stroke of your foe’s blade, but the other six form a relentless vanguard as you hang back, darting around as you wait for your opening…
…but not to strike.
(Keep Smiling)
