Tara was slightly annoyed, she didn't get the thrill she was seeking so far in Tokyo and didn't want to overstep her capabilities by going and picking a fight with whatever massive power was near her boss Lazarus. It felt like a Quincy, but Tara was so far away from Lazarus right now that she wasn't entirely sure.

The small female arrancar played with her cat-styled headphones and looked around before noticing she was being followed. It wasn't a human, it certainly wasn't a quincy, so by reasonable deduction it must be a shinigami again.

She was getting tired of Shinigami already, they tasted weird and always put up a big fight before she ate them. Humans were at least easier to pick off because the general public wasn't all super powered freaks. At least not yet. Turning the corner she walked down an alleyway and into a backstreet to get away from the crowds before turning and seeing if her would be stalker was going to show themselves or if she would have to smoke them out herself.

Tara didn't really feel like taking big risks, especially since her esteemed leader wasn't around to save her skin, but surely one shinigami wouldn't be that big of a problem. Right? Anyone strong enough to deal with Lazarus would be.. ya know.. heading towards Lazarus. Leaving only small fry and those on Tara's level left to skirmish with.

At least that was her current theory of the situation.

Sumoki wasn't particularly thrilled to be in Tokyo in the midst of the current large-scale destruction that had befallen the city. The skies were orange and grey with haze, and that was seemingly a bat signal for his favorite Zan Spirit to start lecturing him on fire safety and what this could mean for the woodland creatures the world around. "Yeah I know the Hollows are causing a mess, will you shut the fuck up about it I'm trying to do my job here Kuma."

Now, Sumoki wasn't an expert or a genius on any level but he suspected that the Hollow stopping in an alleyway was probably because she'd become fully aware that she was being tailed. The backstreets were probably a more favorable venue for any combat that was to follow, and it was the easiest way to ensure she was in fact being followed. Unfortunately for Sumoki, he wasn't exactly interested in proving her wrong so he barreled ahead, headstrong and stupid as ever as a small puff of smoke left his lungs and entered the air in front of him.

"Alright Hollow, are we going to continue this ridiculous game of hide and go seek or should we just get on with fighting to determine who gets to continue on with their day?"

Tara was right, it was another shinigami for sure, great.. He didn't waste any time either as once he realized he was noticed he offered to immediately start fighting rather than play games and waste time. This caused the small female to pout a bit, as playing was her favorite, but if the food wanted to die horribly all on it's own.. she was game.

She pulled out an odd golden dagger with a hand guard that fully encased her hand and waggled it around threateningly at the man with a small smile on her face, "I guess if you don't want to play I don't mind.. but I'll have you know that I'm going already full and don't intend to eat you. Maybe I'll feed you to my pet and let him shit you back out."

Considering the guy had already offered to start the fighting. She began doing that very thing by sonido'ing to be in front of him. As far as she could immediately tell, his reiatsu was weaker than it should be, similar to how Tara was, but that only put her on guard moreso because she figured that if, like her, he compensated for the lower spirit pressure by other means then he could still pose a threat.

She didn't like taking big risks so she stabbed at his chest first rather than his head, giving her more area to try and injure if he didn't parry her quickly enough.

While she did this however two long dirks, one white and one black, seemed to become visible and attempt to cross slash his back. While her effective range with these two new weapons was limited, her control over them was not. As soon as they hit the ground from trying to cross cut him across the back they'd spin around and try to stab him in both butt cheeks.

She did nothing else beyond keeping her guard up and staying in front of him with an almost creepy smile.. Despite the fact she was told she couldn't play and waste time, it was her personality and she was going to do so anyways because this guy wasn't her boss. That was Lazarus. Besides if she crushed him before she even knew what he could do then how was she supposed to brag about killing him later. It would be a boring story instead of an exciting one.

God this lady talked too fucking much. Why all Hollows were obsessed with the whole eating and shitting and all that went into it was beyond Sumoki, but he'd heard similar comments long enough to let it roll off without incident. As the girl appeared at his front, he would parry her blade aside with his own. The two blades circling behind him was an interesting wrinkle, but he would be sure to get out of the way by using Shunpo to the right, then back a bit to create some distance between the two. A trickle of blood would announce that she had secured first blood, a rather shallow cut on his upper right shoulder had landed and done enough damage to catch his attention, but had succeeded in accomplishing very little else.

"Not bad, I guess I shouldn't waste time then.. Choke, Smoke of the Bear."

In an instant, Sumoki would throw down a ball of smoke and let it conceal him. His body was both obscured and amplified by it's presence, and it would follow him wherever he went until it was dispersed. He Shunpo'd forward, forcing the woman to be in range of the smoke to see how she handled inhaling it. "Welcome to my domain Arrancar, take a nice deep breath.."

His spiritual pressure spiked and Tara knew what that meant, he was using that zanpaktou power of his into his first state or she assumed since she would have thought that if he had used Bankai his power would have jumped more...drastically. That meant a myriad of unique and annoying powers were about to be headed her way though and she quickly decided what to do about it.

A moment later he started coming at her while exuding some kind of smoke screen he seemed to have some kind of control over or use for since he dared her to be inside it. Whether the smoke was poisonous or not didn't really matter, Tara was a cautious one and wasn't about to breath it in for any reason as long as she could avoid it. however with him seeming to be on par with her speed, she wasn't going to be able to stay out of the smoke very long unless she did big flashy tricks to force him to back off on his own.

To that end she fired a cero at him from her mouth.

One of the unique advantages Sumoki was afforded by his smoke screen was the amplification of his physical speed. He put this advantage to the test immediately, Shunpoing away to avoid the cero which had been launched into his smoke. A small smirk would part Sumoki's lips, as he was able to manipulate the smoke in such a way that it continued to follow his physical form, and he used this to stay on top of the Arrancar so that he could muster a sneak attack. "Bakudo 1, Sai".

Provided this had worked even slightly, Sumoki would Shunpo forward with his twin daggers already drawn and he would make two sweeping horizontal slashes at the Arrancars chest, hoping that he could dispatch her from a relatively close range. Even if this just succeeded in putting her on the back foot, he'd be pretty thrilled to have found an advantage this early in the fight.

He dodged the cero. Course he did. They were similar in speed after all if the little spat they've had so far told Tara anything about the shinigami. The smoke was more annoying than harmful though, sure it wasn't pleasant or anything but other than making her slightly regenerate from the heat of it.. she wasn't really caring. He closed the distance and attacked her with two daggers after binding her arms behind her back with some of that shinigami magical voodoo crap she had heard about from other hollow.

While that was annoying, it was far from detrimental to Tara, despite not being able to break free of the Bakudo like some of the more spiritually powered arrancar would have, she was not helpless in the least, and she reminded her opponent of that fact mere seconds later as both of his daggers were both blocked by her flying dirks from earlier, as the weapons always remained within a certain distance of Tara and she could control flawlessly them with a thought.

Having finallly broken the bakudo spell placed upon her by now she had the dirks "push" backwards to disengage Sumoki ever so slightly, giving her room to raise a hand, snap her fingers, and create a shockwave strong enough that if it hit him it would do so with the force of a Bala. Essentially hitting him with a nigh-invisible loud noise that hurt like a Bala would have.

She didn't have as many options at her disposal as a shinigami, but Tara was sure that if it came down to an all out close combat offense she'd win. She thought this even with the clear indications that the shinigami thought the same thing and sonido'd at him to try and stab her golden dagger at his face at higher than normal speed like a ballista straight and true.

Without shenanigans he'd have a had time getting past her defenses physically, Tara knew this because of her past experience dealing with shinigami in general, but she also knew that anything could happen on the battlefield and decided to play a little more loosely instead of being mostly defensive.

To that end she fired a normal bala at him once he had dealt with her initial high speed stab attack, aiming for his left knee. If she could cripple him even temporarily, since some shinigami could use healing abilities and "magic", since she didn't know it was called Kidou, she believed she could possibly blitz him before he could recover.

Hopeful as her plan was, she didn't expect it to work. Aiming for a guesstimation of where he would be once he dodged her bala, she'd once more apply Sonido to her speed and move to get crouched in front of him, upon doing so she would attempt to tackle grab one of his legs, and should this actually happen, she would then breath out another Cero point-blank upon his leg from the knee downward.

If she had aimed lethally for his upper body, there wouldn't be anything to leave for her pet dog. She had threatened to use him as puppy chow after all. Had to keep to that at least.

The dirks were going to be annoying and irritating to navigate, but they weren't putting Sumoki in a horrible position just yet. He tanked the shot to his chest and tried to ride the shockwave, letting the shockwave and the momentum of his own backwards Shunpo move him out of range. He could feel his heart beating in his ears, and something resembling tinnitus had struck him following the blast. It was like someone had set off a concussive grenade in his ear, whatever it was he'd need to be on the lookout for sure.

The woman seemed to close the distance in the smoke in an instant and lobbed a rather wild stab towards Sumoki's face. It was fast and pointed, yet Sumoki was able to side-step well enough though the trickle of blood down the right side of his cheek served as a pretty poignant reminder that he was now partaking in a death match. The bala would graze his calf, but do little to deter his mobility. The dive for his legs was an interesting choice, certainly not one he would have made but an interesting one. The Sonido made it harder to avoid, but he was able to roll over the top of her having properly sprawled, and a quick pivot of the hips was enough to have him wheeling backwards and away from her as a now dense and hot stream of ash and smoke left his lungs, and aimed directly for the Arrancar.

This was a big offensive, if it hit she'd be dealt Gran Rey levels of damage and 2nd degree burns. Thankfully given her prone position, he suspected the large cloud would at least succeed somewhat.

Here's to hoping.

She wasn't anywhere near as effective as she was hoping to be, but it didn't matter to her really, when he dodged her attempt to grab his leg and pushed her down she grabbed the ground and dug in her fingers, yanking herself into a roll so she could get back on her feet while her two flying daggers slashed after him for as long as he remained within their short range, which wasn't that long at all as he started backpedaling to release an attack at Tara.

While she had at least gotten to her feet and spun to face his direction, there was a limit to speed, and she threw her arms up just in time to get pounded by the billowing smoke attack he had launched. You'd think smoke wasn't something to be inherently dangerous on it's own, but for some reason this hit Tara more akin to a fireball and dealt far more damage to her than she expected.

However Tara was nothing if not resilient. Pain was an old friend after all. Still, the clothes she had went through so much trouble to acquire were tattered and slightly burnt in places despite her reiatsu mostly protecting them during the blast. She was still smoking and had several small burns around her skin which were sizzling as her regeneration attempted to slowly mend them.

And she was absolutely livid.

"I pray for.. Ilimitadas Cuchilla Trabaja" Tara said firmly as she stabbed her dagger against her chest though not to wound herself, turning it like a key in the process of touching her skin, and releasing a massive amount of reiatsu as she entered her resurrección causing her skin to turn a dark dark tan almost more grey in color and her eyes to go from brown to red. Her gold dagger disappeared being replaced with a more mundane looking rapier in the process as well, for the weapon in her hand was no longer her true zanpaktou but a facsimile to replace it now that she was released. Outwardly, not much changed beyond her skin, eyes and clothing. As she was no longer in school girl clothing and looked more like a battle skirt of sorts.

She put the new weapon against her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Sumoki as she essentially waited for him to use his bankai. Though she didn't tell him as much, and should he not be capable of it she would be sorely upset, considering she was forced into release so early. If he took too long to catch her intent himself, or if he continued forward without it active, she would open three small holes in the air in space itself, creating essentially small portals to her armory, from which she would fire two spears and a giant ballista arrow at his position.

If he did use his bankai immediately however, she would just wait. There was no point in rushing at him without forcing him to show what he was able to do first. She had already screwed up and gotten burned for it once now. She was not about to allow it to happen a second time.

The dancing daggers that followed him away from her prone body were particularly troublesome, and nearly stopped him from being able to start his ash based offensive as the one dug into his left shoulder and cleaved flesh away in a more unfortunate quantity than Sumoki had hoped for. A wound that measured 1.5 inches deep wasn't exactly something he could just ignore, but he could hardly let it sway this fight. He was thankful the Arrancar came out worse for wear, but unfortunately it seemed his great offensive's biggest success was in pissing her off and creating new and exciting problems for himself going forward. As she entered her own released state, Sumoki immediately came to the conclusion that he wouldn't exactly be able to get cute and wait to enter his own.

It was a shame really, he hated how silly and nonsensical his Bankai callout truly was, and so he usually tried to avoid using it in combat. Unfortunately for him, avoiding it here was almost certainly going to result in that puppy chow idea she'd mentioned. A deep sigh would leave his lips, and then a small grumble. "Only you.. can prevent wildfires."

The giggling presence of the bear in his ears was hardly reassuring in this particular moment, but this was the first real reprieve he'd had since the fight started. From out of the smoke the bear would appear, trying to latch onto the woman and inflict 2nd degree burns with the smoldering ashes composing it's body, and it's teeth were aimed directly at her skull. Not to be outdone, Sumoki would Shunpo in and prod at her with a slash aimed at her center-mass, though he'd quickly retreat back into the smoke if he was able to. No need to overdo it, a head up fight was not his friend.