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[chokuto]

UN: 火
𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓 / 𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐎 / 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 / 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 / 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖
𝟖♣ ( 𝑬𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝑳𝑼𝑩𝑺 )

Comments

[chokuto]

[Blut Vene. Sasuke watches, attention rapt with the sort of focus curiosity toward another's abilities tends to inspire in him — and someone as powerful as Ichigo seems to be especially so — falling quiet at that demonstration. A knife to skin, no injury. The shimmering color of blue is strangely beautiful; he can feel it, the echo of something like a fluctuation of energy that remains foreign all the way through.

Thoughtfully, Sasuke shakes his head.]

I wouldn't say the stone held any special meaning. It was black and veined with purple. The latter, I guess — it's the color that my chakra takes on when it becomes visible.

[And the black stone, perhaps because of his connection to darkness. How desperately he'd tried to live in it.]

Was it an innate ability, or were you taught? Blut Vene.

[zangetsu]

Do you remember what I told you about the Quincy? My mom was one of them. It's a power they have.

（ 'they', a clear demarcation between himself and the quincy. even now that he knows the genesis of his heritage and the reason he ended up as he did, a patchwork of interwoven souls that should have been mortal enemies, he has a hard time claiming the quincy side. the love he holds for his mother is the only reason he's offered it any acceptance at all — but the memory of yhwach putting a hand on his head and calling him son taints it into a horrific pall over his life.

he can sympathize with the genocide of the quincy at the hands of the shinigami, and still hate what yhwach did with every part of himself. ）

It's innate, but only if you're powerful enough. I don't have a lot of control over it.

[chokuto]

[A small nod, showing that he does remember — and particularly that Ichigo had mentioned a divide between shinigami and quincy. It's surprising to learn Ichigo is somewhere between, if his mother's heritage is quincy.]

I thought you were powerful.

[This isn't stated in a way as to be sarcastic, or condescending, or even critical. It's flat and direct, in question of how someone like Ichigo, who does boast so much physical strength, would struggle with this.]

What would it take to learn to control it?

[zangetsu]

I am.

（ just like sasuke's statement, it's quietly, calmly neutral. there's no real sense of arrogance to it. maybe once, but now he's just solemnly respectful of his own strength. it's been hard-won. ）

I think it's a mental block more than anything. My last enemies were the Quincy, after all. So... I think I just need to make peace with that.

（ it's just that his shinigami powers come to him that much more naturally. ）

[chokuto]

[Hm.]

If you train against me with those powers, it could help you overcome that block. But only if it's something you want to do.

[zangetsu]

Sure.

（ when would ichigo ever say no to a training arc, actually??? ）

You're probably just about the only guy that could that I've met here.