The Knight and The Strawberry

chapter 9

Mountain top, 4 miles north of Magnolia. 1:35 am

Ichigo was taking deep, gasping breaths as he leant on his sword for support. His body was covered in uncountable bruises and cuts. Every muscle screamed out in protest when he tried to stand up but he grit his teeth and did his best to ignore it. He had been at this for hours and the end seemed no closer than we he began. To make matters worse, Zangetsu had started steadily losing his patience.

Shattered swords littered the battlefield. Zangetsu walked closer to Ichigo, crunching the fragments underfoot. "I grow tired of you wasting time Ichigo. If you will not grasp the will to wield this power, then I will drag it out of you!"

The angry sword spirit charged Ichigo, who was only barely able to get the mock blade up in time. The force of the impact threw him backwards several yards before he was able to skid to a stop. When Zangetsu rushed him again, he swung back at the man with all his strength. Zangetsu simply batted the sword away with the back of his hand. Ichigo lost his grip and the sword flew out of his hands, promptly shattering against the cliff face. Zangetsu used the opening and delivered a devastating palm strike to Ichigo's chest causing the teen to once again shoot backwards.

Ichigo coughed up a mouthful of blood as he dragged himself to his feet. Looking up he could see Zangetsu glaring at him in disappointment. His anger and frustration boiling over, Ichigo couldn't stop his sudden outburst.

"God damn it! I'm giving this all that I've got! I'm doing my best!" He roared.

Zangetsu didn't falter and brought his sword back and threw it at speeds that Ichigo was only barely able to dodge. The sword embedded itself into the stone inches to the side of Ichigo's head. It was at this point that Ichigo lost sight of his foe for a split second before he reappeared just in front of Ichigo with one hand on the hilt of his discarded weapon, and the other cocked back ready to deliver a punch at Ichigo's head.

"Your best isn't good enough!" The spirit shouted in an uncharacteristic display of anger.

The stone exploded outward from the force behind the punch. As the dust cloud settled over the area and hid the combatants from view. After a moment, Ichigo jumped out from the cloud holding a new blade. He focused all of his attention on the cloud, waiting for the spirit to reveal himself. He did not have to wait long.

Zangetsu came rocketing at him and began the assault in earnest.

Ichigo could only do his best to keep his focus sharp and his blade between himself and the relentless slashes seeking to cut him to ribbon.

"Time and time again you refuse to realize your power of your own volition!"

A vicious swipe from the left threw Ichigo off balance and sent him stumbling to the side.

"Always relying on others to drag your strength from you."

Ichigo spun as fast as he could to block the incoming uppercut slash.

"Laxus! Shiro! ERZA! You refuse to reach your own potential until someone else forces you to! And I will not tolerate this anymore!"

Zangetsu brought a powerful slash down on top of Ichigo's sword and locked their blades together. Ichigo held his ground and used the brief lag in combat to catch his breath.

"So what! What do you expect me to do? I've been fighting you like this for months now and you keep telling me that there's something I'm not getting! Yet you refuse to tell me what it is that I'm failing at!"

Zangetsu was quiet and thoughtful for a moment before speaking with a very solemn tone. "You are failing to understand what is at stake Ichigo." The spirit backed off and let his sword rest at his side. "Make good use of this break to recover while I attempt to put this into perspective for you."