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From out of the vast, barren wasteland came the figure of Xeion. The captain, who had been missing from his squad along with most of his squad members, had finally shown up after some time. He wore his casual clothes and was carrying with him a bag big enough to fit something special in. Elena and Azumi, his two zanpakuto swords, hung on his left and right waists as they rocked back and forth following Xeion's stride. As always, Xeion brandished his casual smile, but there was something different about him now. While he may have looked the same, the Xeion walking towards Evie-chan was something like a totally different person. He had changed in some ways, but nobody could be certain as to what parts of him had changed.

"It's nice of you to come, Evie-chan," the familar voice greeted his long-time friend whom he had not seen for quite some time. While he himself wanted to greet him and spend a bit of time with her, he had more important things to do. The reason why he came here was all contained in the bag that he had brought with him. As soon as Evie-chan would see it, she would know the reason of their meeting. It may be hard for both him and Evie-chan, but it had to be done. At least, in Xeion's head, that was the thing he constantly repeated to himself. "Haha, you still look as fine as always. How have you been these past few days?"

"Doing good as well, Evie-chan!" Xeion replied cheerfully, putting his bag down in front of her, but his voice toned down a little when he continued what he was saying. "However, Evie-chan, because of that, I've come to give you this."

Xeion smiled at her once again and knelt down to open the bag, revealing Xeion's captain's cloak, finely washed, cleaned, and pressed. It looked as if the article was just made and came fresh from the tailors, not showing any sign of old age considering that it was something passed down from captain to captain through the generations. "Since you were the one who gave this to me, I felt it appropriate to give it back to you as well. I will not be needing it to the place where I'm going," he said and stood up once more. This was about the time he revealed to her what he was planning to do.

"Evie-chan, I am going to betray the Seireitei. I have gotten my memories back and I know what I should do from now on. I just want to give back this symbol of captaincy. If I were to betray the thing I love wearing this, then it would once again bring shame upon the squad and I have no intention of doing that."

Even after Xeion had revealed his plans, he was still smiling. He showed neither remorse nor regret for what he was going to do and that was one thing that Evie-chan would probably recognize -- his utmost trust and honesty to the people he cared about the most. While some may think that it would be stupid to blurt out your plans to someone who might kick your butt for it, but that was Xeion. He had did not want to lie.

"I know, Evie-chan," Xeion replied in a gentle voice, "but it is a necessary step for the greater good. If not for this, then all you know -- we know -- is going to disappear. If it is for protecting that, then I do not mind being labeled as the biggest traitor in the history of the Seireitei."

Xeion leaned in and patted his good friend on her head like a person would to a faithful pet and companion. He knew that by doing so, it would signify that Xeion wanted Evie-chan to accept that he was going to do this and he did not take it against her if he were to do whatever it is she wanted to do. It was her choice and if she wanted to do it, then who was Xeion to stop her? It was like telling the wind to stop blowing or the waters to stop flowing. He did not want to do that nor even think of doing that. She was her own person and he was happy that she was the one of the first few people who got to hear it.

"Give me all you got, throw it is that you have. I can take it -- I can hack it. It's because I'm not only doing this for myself, but for everyone as well. You'll see what I mean soon enough, Evie-chan. Until then -- ," Xeion whispered and covered his friend's eye's and gave Evie-chan a small peck on her forehead before he disappeared via dimensional distortion. Before he did, he left her with his last words.

"Stay safe."

Over the past few days Maikeru had been steadily getting more and more accurate on his assumptions about mettallic objects. He could distinguish boulders from cubes, pyramids from spears, spheres from sheets, and trees from dogs. But he was still having an issue with devining the shape of amorphous blobs of metal. Sometimes one would be shaped like a mass of spikes, another would be several wires tangled together, none were the same. Maikeru's ability to visualize things was helping him along but there was something he was missing...

Ahh There! I'm done!

Uhhhhh with what? He thought at the floating blade.

You've been having an issue with random nonsensical 'shapes' so I designed something to help you. Remember when I made you jump off of a tower to learn to Push? Well Preservation and I have constructed a maze made of one complete piece of steel. It will be utter darkness inside and so your only sense for navigating will be to learn the structure and shape of the maze with your own special 'sight'. Now step off the edge of this platform and guide yourself into the opening below you.

Maikeru had never had a fear of the dark before, he'd been a cat burgler, no reason or rhyme to be scared of what saved him. But this? This frightened him for some reason. Shrugging off the feelings of discomfort and fright as best he could he swiped Vin from where she floated and calmly stepped off the edge, plummeting straight down towards the ground. Seeing a hole to the right of him, he nudged a large metallic boulder, adjusting his trajectory to carry him into the hole. Right as he reached to entrance he Pushed hard beneath him slowing his descent, landing as if he was just hopping the last few stairs at the end of a long staircase.

Maikeru looked around or rather tried to there was barely any light...What the F***?!?
He spun in place staring in astonishment at the small cirlce of light that was shrinking, the metals around it flowing to seemlessly cover the hole he had just entered through.

Not getting out that way I guess.

Maikeru touched Vin's hilt, You aren't going to help me are you?
Well, no, not really I didn't plan to, of course if the feral metal elementals get to you I may have to.

Maikeru audibly gulped, Feral elementals you say? How about we avoid them?
Vin shrugged, damn. Someday he'd remember to ask how she did that. If you like it is quite easy, simply learn the layout of the maze and avoid any metallic signatures you sense other then that of the maze and you should be fine.

Maikeru flared his senses, oriented himself to walk down the path instead of into a wall, he could only sense the maze for about a fifty foot radius at the time. Uhhh hey Vin? You know...I can't sense that well yet!!!

Duh. Of course you can't, I decided to put you in this situation so your safety and continued survival depends on you developing this skill. Now be quiet and focus I will not speak to you again until you can sense the entirety of this complex.[/i]

Maikeru felt Vin's presence fade slightly from his mind, she was still there, could still see and hear everything he did, but she just wasn't there in the same way...

As always Maikeru shrugged it off trying to think of a joke and focused on expanding the range at which he could sense the walls of this maze.

Take a left...another left... right... forwards... left... right... right... left... left... backpedal! backpedal! we don't want to run into that!... right... left... right... straight... right... straight... left... left... right... straight...

Every step he took he understood more of the maze, he was slowly piecing together what it looked like, even more amazing was how fast his range was growing, it was at nearly a hundred yards now...and there it was, at one-hundred and growing again. He couldn't beleive it, Vin was right, make it so if he doesn't learn the new ability he dies and Maikeru will learn it faster than could be previously beleived. It was amazing! It was...S***!!!

Maikeru threw himself to the side against the wall as something shot past him.

Maikeru quickly refocused bringing the lines back into his sight, yes, one was pointing ahead of him as he thought. Maikeru focused bringing its shape into his mind along with the maze's layout.

It was large, and shaped vaguely like a gorilla only instead of normal gorrilla things like skin, fur, and muscle. It had several tons of sharp wires covering its shiny(or would be if there was light) hide and thick cables of moving muscle beneath its 'skin'. Oddly enough it had huge eyebrows, it was a curiousity, they were of absolutely no combat worth and there is no way they could be pleasing aesthetically...hunh.

Maikeru calmly waited for it's next move, he thought as it is shaped like a dumb animal, it likely acts like a dumb animal.
He waited as the arm it had extended several yards longer than should have been possible reeled back in. He heard it roar in frustration then pull its fist back for another punch.

The air roared as the fist shot forward, nearly as big as Maikeru on its own, Maikeru sidestepped, Pulling on the wall to speed the process and whipped Vin up and around, into and through the arm, completely severing its hand from the body.

The 'gorilla' froze in surprise, it didn't feel pain, it wasn't that kind of creature, it just couldn't imagine something so small(comparitively) doing so much damage. Before it could recover Maikeru braced himself by Pushing and Pulling on the walls, ceiling and floors, and then PUSHED As hard as he could on the gorilla. It shuddered for a moment and then flew backwards, flailing arm and legs denting the walls. Then it stopped and Maikeru stopped Pushing before he was crushed to death. It had been driven head first into a wall far ahead, all the trauma and surprise it had suffered caused it too lose focus and it could no longer maintain its form. The various metals making it up were slowly melting and pooling into a small puddle. It could take anywhere from several weeks to several hundred years for that fury to regain its form.

Maikeru took a deep breath and slapped Vin to his back before starting off again, he could sense the maze now, it was no trouble after mapping out a metallic fury's body.

That was well done.

Pshh some help you were.

I warned you of it's initial surprise attack did I not?

That was you? Thanks. Maikeru smiled.

Lets see... left... left... right... straight ahead for fifty meters... left... left... left... right... right... left... left... aaaand Right!

Maikeru looked up and Pushed, rising off the ground and into the sunlight once more.

Maikeru alighted onto the platform silently, he was surprised, Vin was surprised, hell, even the silence was surprised that he wasn't talking. But then, of course, he did have a mouthful of cherry flavored Jello, so he did have a good reason for such a change in character.


Maikeru sighed in satisfaction, nothing was better than Jello, nothing. He released Vin, after releasing her so often he was getting the hang of doing it without the big flashy explosion of mist, he still had to use the release phrase and name but he was improving. He sank down to meditate, releasing Vin so she could float calmly just as before.

So I take it you have rested sufficiently?

I sure hope so, I slept for several days and ate several times my own weight in Jello soooo...yeah, yeah I think so.

Good, today, and for the next several days as well, you will be learning to divine. Crap, its gonna be more stuff with the blue lines isn't it?

You will be learning to divine things such as special properties of the object, what metal it is made of, structual weaknesses, and other such things.

...Fine but I'm not going to enjoy this.

Now focus, you have learned to read shape, weight, size, and distance from the lines, learning these next attributes is much more trying.

Maikeru chose what he thought he recognized as the big boulder from his first session with Vin.

...Yeah I can't get anything else out of it.

Look deeper, to learn of structural weaknesses all you need do is focus in the same way you did to learn in shape. Only look deeper, much deeper.

Same way...well it hasn't cracked yet, but there is a spiderweb of cracks running from a point near the base, its...its like the metal didn't bond as well together there, is that where it'll break if I hit hard enough?

Yes, very good, now look again, but I want mroe detail, give me more. Much more.

Maikeru sighed and picked another, damn, but she got annoying sometimes.

It had been a long while since he had returned here, to this elemental wasteland. However it had always been one of his favorite places among the realms. It held the extremes of all weather, and Maikeru loved the extremes. He sat down in the middle of the area, where all the elements clashed and intertwined to form an absolutely balanced section of land. Neither fire, water, wind, earth, wood, or metal held any sway over the others. Of course move a few feet in any direction and that would soon change. He smiled as he slid his katana out of it's sheath and layed it across his lap, his legs crossed underneath him.

What's up Vin?

You finally find time to speak to me again do you?

Kyo entered the wastelands slowly, his eyes closed so that his stronger senses were at work. His zanpakutou was strapped at his waist, as he strolled through the lightning that rained down around him. This was where his power was at its best. It was here where he could fight while only using a small amount of reiatsu to guide the weather. This place made him feel invincible, though he knew very much he wasn't. he had more strength to find, he knew it.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Raitenshou spoke as he appeared within Kyo's mind. The tiger cub had grown a bit since Kyo had attained shikai.

"Yes i am, are you not enjoying this?" Kyo asked as he continued to walk.

"This place is peaceful, but we should be training. our power is still weak, it needs improvement." The tiger spoke with a growl.