Here's chapter 4. I really wish I had some reviews by now. If you've stayed with me this long, thank you, and I hope you enjoy the story.
The morning bath went as normal and afterwards was directed out to a courtyard. She recognized most of the captains that had come and visited her and only didn't know the names of the 3 that had not. There were several people there that she did not recognize. None of them were wearing the white jackets but they did each have an arm band. Her eyes eventually fell on Zaraki and the odd pink haired child sitting on his lap. What is a child doing here? Do they start them young here?
She was brought over to the center of the courtyard by the 2 division two subordinates and then they left. She still didn't know their names but didn't feel too bad about it. There was some murmuring and she assumed they were talking about the scars that were visible along her arms and what was visible of her back.
"You have been asked to give a demonstration of your fighting abilities. You will be fighting up to 13 of our top people. Some of them are captains and some are lieutenants. There are 12 weapon choices. We would also like to see your hand to hand abilities. Lieutenant Omaeda, step forward as the first opponent." Yamamoto called out.
A large man walked to the center of the courtyard in a cocky manner. He was much taller than Erin and perhaps he felt that because he had more spiritual pressure then her, that she was of no consequence. Erin immediately disliked the man.
"Choose your weapon, child." The head captain said kindly.
Erin looked over the weapons available. Her eyes fell on something she hadn't been expecting to be classified as a weapon. She began laughing wildly and eventually the old man asked, "What is it, child?"
Erin held up a yo-yo. "Sorry, Head Captain. This is a child's toy from China and later there are records of it in Greece. While I have used this as a weapon in the past, this is really a child's toy." She picked it up, wound it up and placed the middle finger of her left hand through the loop and began playing with the toy. It wasn't a standard plastic Duncan. Instead, it was made of metal. She had found it during her travels and had actually used it as a weapon at the shop it came from. Some thieves were trying to rob the place and she had used it to knock the men unconscious. The shop keeper had given it to her in gratitude.
"We can find a different weapon while you use something else in this fight."
"No. It's ok. I've actually gotten pretty good with this yo-yo. I have no problems using it in this fight." She caused the metal end to pause at the bottom and spin for a while before giving the tug with her hand to bring it back up.
Omaeda stepped towards her, expecting this to be a short fight. He didn't even feel the need to use his shikai. He swiped down and Erin's hand shot out, flinging the yo-yo at the man's head. It fell short, and she snapped it back into her palm. He tried to do an upward slash and she rolled to the side, and flung the yo-yo at the man's leg. When it wrapped, she pulled, causing the man to become unbalanced and fall forward into a split. As he tried to windmill and get out of it, Erin tugged the weapon free and did a "round the world" movement over her head and nailed him in the head. She was careful to not hit him in the temple which would have killed him, but did manage to knock him out.
"Do I need to make this a killing move, or is knocking him unconscious enough?" Erin looked around, asking anyone who knew the answer.
The fourth squad captain and her lieutenant pulled the unconscious man to the sidelines to see to any injuries other than to his pride. The captain called over her shoulder, "Oh, no. That's enough. Don't give me more work then you need to." She smiled and Erin got the feeling that her smile was misplaced. She shrugged it off and replaced the yo-yo with the other weapons and waited for the next opponent.
Kenpachi watched the fight with a critical eye. The squad 2 lieutenant was a waste of space. He was only in the group fighting the kid because if his family found out he wasn't chosen for this demonstration, the old man would have hell to pay. He liked that she had taken him out so easily with a child's toy. Maybe it would take his ego down a few pegs.
"Leutenant Iba. Step forward."
Another tall man strode forward; this one wearing sunglasses. Maybe he has sensitive eyes? Erin shrugged and went back to the table with the weapon choices. She grabbed the set of daggers. They were a little large for daggers with their blades both being about 10 inches long. They had a simple symmetrical shape to them and both edges were sharpened. She strode towards the man in front of her with the left dagger in a reverse grip and the right in a normal grip. She stopped several paces from the man and took a stance, waiting for him to make the first move.
He shot forward with amazing speed and made a swipe at Erin's side as he passed. She only just blocked the hit as she spun around to face her opponent who was already swinging his blade down. She caught the blade on her left hand's dagger and slashed his upper, inner arm with the dagger in her right hand.
Retsu was watching the fight and looked around at the faces around her. No one had caught the significance of that hit. She watched as Erin worked to stay inside of Iba's reach and the lieutenant did his best to keep her at a distance so he could attack.
Erin made several more slash attacks on Iba and eventually even scored another hit to the other upper inner arm. It was a few minutes later when she finally maneuvered the right hand dagger to Iba's throat while using her left hand to push his sword out wide.
"I believe you are dead, Lieutenant." Unohana called out. The head captain grunted his agreement and called Lieutenant Kira to the center of the courtyard.
The slight blonde man strode forward. He had noticed that neither of the lieutenants had used shikai. He would do that as soon as the fight started.
Erin looked at the young man before her. He had the look of resolve in his eyes. Maybe this fight will be interesting. She looked over the weapons available. Hmmm….. These fights have been getting a little harder with each fight. Do I go hand to hand and get it over with or do I get the great sword out of the way? I wish they had chosen a different weapon. With my hand the way it is, this is not going to be the easiest weapon to control. She picked up the large weapon. It was only a little shorter then herself and was very wide for a sword. The lower hilt was very long and there was a second hilt towards the base of the blade. You could either keep both hands low if you were powerful enough, but you gave up control. For someone like her, she needed to have one hand on the hilt cut out in the base of the blade as well as one on the lower hilt.
She hefted the weapon and gave it a few practice swings, getting a feel for the weapon she used so rarely. She decided that she needed to be the one to start this fight. As she strode to the blonde man, he called out, "Raise your head, Wabisuke!" Erin was a little stunned when the weapon changed shapes. She shook off the feeling and immediately swung the great sword at the lieutenant. She knew that the trick of this weapon was going to be to keep it moving.
He took a step back and smacked the large weapon as it passed. Erin immediately noticed a change in weight and she struggled to keep the weapon in her hands against the centripetal force she was creating.
"Such a bulky weapon to use against Wabisuke. Every time it cuts your weapon, it will double in weight until you-"
She cut off his little speech as the second pass cleaved through his zampakuto and the extra weight was lifted from the blade. She altered the path of the great sword and thrust it towards his neck, stopping short. "A great sword was designed to cleave through plate armor. By adding still more weight to it, your sword never had a chance."
Kira bowed and retrieved the other half of his sword and stepped to the sidelines. She moved back to the weapons to replace the great sword and see who she would be fighting next.
The kid's not bad. I wasn't expecting her to be able to use that sword like that. It looked way too big for her. I wonder if her immunity to spiritual pressure is what allowed her to cut through his blade like that. Kenpachi mused while watching the latest match.
"Lieutenant Hisagi. You are next." Boomed the head captain.
A young man with a tattoo of the number 69 on his face strode forward. What a dumb tattoo. Is he advertising his favorite position or something? Erin thought. She picked up the halberd and gave it a few practice swings. Halberds were a general name for different types of pole arms. This particular halberd was taller than Erin by a good 2 feet, maybe more; she had never measured, and had a smallish ax at the end with a spike balancing it on the opposite side from the ax head and also had a spike at the very tip. The other end was capped in metal but was otherwise blunt. She walked towards the dark haired man and when he pulled his sword from it's sheath, she charged him with the spike pointed right at him. She was expecting him to move and when he did, she brought the weapon in a sweeping arc, but missed him completely. She turned just in time to catch his blade on the shaft of the weapon. He stayed in close to destroy her advantage of reach.
Well aware of what he was doing, she used the weapon more like a quarter staff and eventually used the blunt end on his foot. She felt it give and knew she had broken something in his foot, but he fought on, only grimacing at the pain and later favoring his other foot. With the gap between them opened briefly, she tried to entangle his legs with the length of the halberd, but he saw what she was doing and moved back.
He released his shikai and Erin was again surprised at the odd shape his sword took. The scythes were not standard shape and were chained together. Why would you chain together a pair of perfectly good scythes? As she was thinking this, he threw one of them at her. I see. That's why they are chained together. She dodged and charged towards him again. She saw him tug on the chain and knowing that the weapon would be returning, she fell into a split and swiped at his legs as the weapon passed over her head. She caught him on the upper inner thigh and she quickly rolled to escape the falling scythe. She stabbed out as she rolled, catching him in his side, but not deeply enough to cause damage.
She rose as he checked his wound and he came at her with a double downward strike. She caught them on the shaft and rotated the weapon to trap both of his hands towards the right and swung the blade of the halberd up and to the man's neck. He didn't even have a chance to move away.
"Good try, Hisagi! Better luck next time." Shunsui called.
Erin moved away from the lieutenant and his sword changed back to its normal shape as he limped over to the squad 4 captain for treatment. Erin went back to the weapons and set the halberd with the other used weapons. Hisagi had cut her a couple times, but she had healed so quickly that she hadn't noticed them. She used some of the water at the weapons table to give her arm a quick scrub and took a long pull from the bottle.
Lieutenant Matsamoto was called out next. Hmmm I would probably do better with hand to hand against a female, but she's quite a bit taller than me. I'll chance waiting. What about that guy in the clown makeup? Will he be one of the people I fight today? I could easily take him in hand to hand. Her eyes fell on a bull whip. Nah, I think I'll use that on him if he's called up. So what do I use against this woman before me? She picked up the rapier on the table and strode out to meet her opponent.
Erin stood with sword up in a guard position and her right hand on her hip. She swung the rapier and the tall woman before her blocked. They traded blows back and forth as Erin tested the soul reaper's ability. She had good reflexes, but Erin could see why this woman was not a captain, though, of course, she hadn't actually fought against a captain yet. There was a hesitancy to this woman's thrusts and she hadn't noticed any such hesitancy when she had watched the tail end of Zaraki's fight with the bandits.
Erin stepped up the fighting a bit and started scoring several cuts. Bored with the fight, Erin put out a flurry of attacks that put slashes over each artery in the woman's limbs. On the defensive, Matsamoto pulled the only card she had up her sleeve. She released her shikai.
The sudden lack of blade surprised Erin, as did the ash or pebbles assaulting her. She ignored the cuts as they would heal quickly and charged the blonde, thrusting at her heart, but stopping short.
"Ha ha! Looks like you're dead too, Matsamoto!" Hisagi called out.
She smiled at Erin and flounced to the sidelines with Erin shaking her head at the odd woman. At the weapons table, Erin again cleaned off her arms and decided to give her face a quick scrub and waited for the next person to be called.
"Renji Abari, step forward." Yamamoto called out. The red haired man stepped forward and immediately released his shikai. Erin gave a little shudder at the shape of his blade and selected a set of narrow blades. They didn't have a cross guard and she usually wore them when she was all suited up. They stuck up on either side of her neck like a pair of handles. They were the length of a normal sword, and came to a point, but the blade, while sharpened on both edges, was only about two inches wide. She used them more as skewers then as swords.
They came together with a clash, trading slashes and stabs. The sound of metal on metal barely ended before it started again. Blood was splattered liberally on the flagstones and Renji's hair had come undone. Eventually, he pushed away and swung out his sword, letting it extend and swipe out at Erin. The sudden change was surprising, but she saw how the blades were connected and so used her skewer to stab in-between the blades, stopping the movement.
She quickly reversed her grip and drove the skewer into the ground to the handle, trapping the blade. To further trap the weapon. She ran up the length of it, causing Renji to eventually drop the hilt of his zampakuto. As the weapon started snapping back together, Erin jumped and landed in front of the redhead with the skewer pressing against his chest over his heart. They were both breathing heavily and they had both lost quite a bit of blood. While Erin's wounds had already healed, Renji's were still bleeding. He began to fall forward and she quickly tossed the skewer away and caught him before he fell. She had her shoulder under his, holding him up. He was barely conscious as Retsu and her lieutenant took him and his zampakuto back to the sidelines to treat him.
Erin collected the skewers and took them back to the weapons table. She scrubbed her arms and what she could get of where the red haired man had struck her.
"We will break for lunch. Erin, please follow Captain Sui Feng to the holding cell and lunch will be brought to you." Erin nodded to him and walked towards the diminutive captain.
"I think you're surprising everyone with your weapon skill." Feng conceded as they walked. "You've lost a lot of blood. Are you feeling weak at all?"
"No. I replenish my blood fairly quickly. I would appreciate some kind of juice to help with energy. I won't feel weak for a while, but I find it's always best to take care of possible problems before they do become problems."
"I will make sure it is added to your lunch."
They had arrived at the cell and Erin went in and sat on the bed. When lunch came, she ate what she could and drank all of the juice that was brought. She meditated to rest as much as possible before the second batch of fights began.
All too soon, Feng came to collect her and brought her back to the same courtyard. Most of the blood had been scrubbed away, Erin noticed. She moved over to the weapons and waited for her next opponent and was surprised when Captain Feng stepped forward. Erin made the snap decision to make this the fight that was hand to hand.
Seeing that Erin did not have any weapons in her hands, she removed her zampakuto and handed it to her lieutenant. They met at the middle of the courtyard.
"You may regret your decision to not use a weapon against me."
"Probably." Erin replied with a grin.
They circled each other, looking for an opening. Sui Feng used her speed to make the first strike, surprising Erin with her speed. After taking a few hits, she started to get used to the small woman's amazing speed and started to rely more on her instinct than her sight. The fight became a flurry of movement with both sides taking and giving hits. At one point, Erin caught Feng's arm and gave it a twist, breaking her wrist. Feng had no choice but to not use that hand. She got even, or so she thought, when she struck the girl in the knee causing it to break and dislocate. Erin simply wrenched everything into place, favored it for about a minute and continued on without issue.
The fight lasted two hours and in the end the fight was not won through superior fighting, but through healing factor and stamina. Feng watched as bruises she had given Erin formed and then faded in the middle of the fight while her own still throbbed.
They were both crouched down, catching their breath when Yamamoto called a halt. Feng nodded to her opponent with a small smile on her lips and went over to Retsu for healing. Erin took the opportunity to check on her knee. It still hurt and it shouldn't. After feeling around, she realized that the bone hadn't set properly. Shaking her head she went over to the weapons table, looked over what she could use and grabbed the halberd. Yamamoto went to tell her she couldn't use that weapon again when she quickly swung it around and slammed the metal end into her knee causing it to rebreak in the same spot. She tossed aside the halberd, sat down, and set her leg properly.
The courtyard was silent while she stayed seated and waited for her leg to heal. When it could support her again, she stood up, and drank some water and finally looked around, realizing it was so quiet.
Kenpachi was the first person who spoke up. "I think that was the most badass thing I've ever seen a human do."
"I could have healed you, Erin." Retsu finally got out.
"Let's get this over with. Who's next?" She replied. She saw juice had been added to the table and grabbed one of them to drink. She was going to need the extra energy.
"I am." Korosutchi called out as he strode forward. Sui Feng beat her up pretty good. This will be a nice easy fight. All I have to do is stab her with my shikai and this fight will be over.
Erin smiled widely and immediately grabbed the bull whip. She slowly walked forward, letting the whip snake behind her.
Insulant bitch! Was the scientist's thought. "When I beat you I'm going to take samples from you, girl. I'm going to enjoy listening to you scream."
"You are welcome to try, but you will not succeed." She swung the whip around expertly causing multiple cracks as she snapped her arm back and forth, causing the direction to change abruptly. He charged in to take away her distance advantage and she pressed a latch on the handle of the whip causing a metal spike to protrude from the end of the whip. It wasn't much, but it was at least something for close fighting. She parried his strike and jumped back to open the space between them. She swung out with the whip and struck him across the face and then swung again wrapping his leg and pulling back. He made a movement to cut the whip so she quickly loosened and pulled back to get the whip to unwrap.
He released his shikai and after getting close, stabbed her in the stomach. She could feel the poison immediately, but she could also feel her body fighting it.
"Ahhh, I've won the fight. The paralytic poison running through your veins makes it so you can't move, but…" He cut her again. "….leaves the pain receptors so you can feel every thrust."
He turned around and continued to brag, but Erin tuned him out. She moved her head and clenched and unclenched her fingers. She lifted a leg experimentally and realized most of the poison had already worked its way through her system. She was very glad that her healing ability worked on all manner of poisons too. The really strong ones would still make her very sick for a few days, but wouldn't kill her. She found that out the hard way only a couple years ago. Damn two step! She again mentally cursed the snake often nicknamed the two step for it's venom that can kill a person before they took two steps.
She knew she might be a little slow for the next minute or so, so decided to act fast. She swung out with the whip, causing it to wrap around Myori's throat. She pulled it tight and quickly kicked him forward on all fours. She shoved her foot into his back while tightening her grip on the whip.
"For a man who claims to be a scientist, you don't listen too well or see too good. I heal quickly." She held him there as he struggled for breath until he passed out and then she unwound the whip from his neck and walked back to the weapons table, tossing the whip on the used table and then leaning forward on it, shaking her head at the stupid man.
She pulled up her shirt and looked at the wound on her stomach. It hadn't healed all the way yet and was still tender. She poured some water on it and scrubbed away some of the blood. She scrubbed away at the other cut he made on her. When she was done, she grabbed a bottle of juice and drank while she waited for the next person to be called forward.
She's pissed. She at least gave almost everyone else a fair fight, but she actually choked him out. I can see why Zaraki likes her. Shunsui mused.
"I am your next opponent, little one. Have you finished healing?" Komomora asked gently.
Erin looked up into the kindly eyes of the wolf faced captain standing next to her. He had been quiet. It wasn't often someone could sneak up on her.
"Almost finished. It can heal while we fight."
"You have been taking longer to heal lately."
"It's the price of a long battle. The poison may have some effect that make healing take longer. Or my body could have healed the poison first and then worked on the wounds."
"Do you want Unohana to look at it? I don't want to begin our fight while you are still wounded."
"No need. Come on. I still have four more should I defeat you and it will be a long day." She picked up a pair of battle fans and walked to the middle of the courtyard, waiting for the captain to follow her.
Komomora turned to the head captain. "Head Captain, haven't we seen enough? Do we really need to continue this? She's clearly tired and are we being any better than those who have tortured her in the past? It's just a different kind."
"I agree with Captain Komomora. I think this has gone on long enough." Unohana spoke up.
"Really Head Captain, We all felt this was too many fights when we originally discussed this. Even you should be able to tell she's standing by pure spite at this point." Jushiro spoke up.
"The fights will continue. You are up, Captain Komomora."
"I will not. I concede the fight." He strode back to the sidelines.
"I also concede my fight." Hitsuguya stated.
"As do I." Shunsui added.
"Hell, I'll fight her. Let's see how far she can go." Zaraki grinned and strode forward. "But not with those sissy fans. Grab the scimitars that are still up there."
Erin obligingly went back to the weapons table and set down the fans, picked up the scimitars and strode back to the center of the courtyard.
Yamamoto harrump'ed, but let the fight stand.
Zaraki started by testing her reactions and movements and Erin did the same. Satisfied by what they saw, the fight really began. They picked up speed and intensity and cuts were both given and taken on both sides. Zaraki had a hard time keeping up with both of her swords, while she had difficulty in being able to block his strong strikes. Each one made her knees want to buckle beneath her. The fight was another long one, lasting several hours. Erin had scored 3 of her artery slashes but was breathing heavily. Zaraki was enjoying every minute of the fight. He had to hold back from accidently killing her, but felt she would make a good sparring partner.
She had left herself open in her tiredness and Zaraki took it, plunging his sword in just under her left breast. He was careful to not hit her heart, but did pierce her lung. The shock of the hit stopped her movements cold and she slid off the end of his blade, falling to the ground as her swords fell from suddenly numb fingers.
She rolled over, put her right hand to the wound and lifted herself off the ground with her other three limbs. She began coughing and frequently spit out blood.
*Cough, Cough. Spit* "I suppose" *cough* "if I can" *cough spit* "kill you three times in this fight" *cough, cough, cough spit* "then you can kill me once." *cough*
"Kill me?"
Erin passed out and Retsu hurried over.
"I think she was getting delirious. She said she killed me three times."
Retsu pointed to the three slashes she had made over arteries. "I noticed that she made these cuts on many of the people she fought. These cuts are made over arteries. Had she cut any deeper, you would have bled out from any one of these." The courtyard had fallen silent when Zaraki's blade had pierced the ryoka girl. Retsu's voice was loud enough for everyone to hear and those who had received those cuts which were now all healed, unconsciously touched where they had been cut, realizing that their fights had ended much sooner and she had said nothing.
Zaraki looked at the girl with a little more respect in his eyes. He had thought they had been desperate hits that lacked any real strength behind them, but instead, she had cut him with precision.
Retsu used a healing kido on the kid and gasped in surprise.
"What is it, Unuhana?" Asked Shunsui, who had walked up to the two other captains.
"The kido….it just….slid around her."
"What?"
"Watch." She did another healing kido while the two men watched closely and even to Zaraki's untrained eye, he could tell that it slid over Erin.
"What about other kido?" Shunsui did a simple binding kido that would only put her hands behind her back and it slid off her as well. It was like it met a barrier and slid off the surface.
"Her coughing has lessened, so at least it sounds like she's healing herself." Kenpachi noticed.
"Pick her up, Zaraki and let's bring her back to the squad 2 holding cell. I'll at least bind her wounds and get her cleaned up there."
"No. If she's going to be my responsibility, we can take her to the squad 11 compound. I think I saw a bed in one of her pouches. We can set it up in the lieutenant's quarters. I had one of my new recruits clean out the place and air it out last night." He lifted her up and Yachiru jumped up to his shoulder.
"Kenny, do you think she'll get better? You were having so much fun with her."
"She'll be fine, squirt."
He carried her to his own quarters and set her down on his bed. "You can treat her here. I'll find her bed and I can move her there when you're finished." Retsu nodded and when the large man left with his young charge, she stripped the girl, cleansed her wounds, and bound them up. She also took the time to see to the rest of the blood on her body. She wrapped Zaraki's sheets around her when she was finished and waited for the large man to return. He came back a half hour later, saw that she had been wrapped in his sheets, and just picked her up and carried her to the lieutenant's quarters which, like his own, were separate from the rest of the barracks and they each had their own small courtyards; the Captain's courtyard being larger than the Lieutenant's courtyard.
No one had used these quarters for years and the neglect of the grounds showed with weeds coming up through the flagstones and the definite lean to the small building. He'd have to see about getting someone over to make the repairs. He added it to his mental checklist. The building was sound though. Unohana held the door open for him as he carried her through the entrance and into the bedroom. He laid her down and Unohana shooed him out of the room while she removed Zaraki's sheets and snugged her into her own bedding.
"Here are your sheets. I need to go get her some clothing she can be comfortable in while she heals. Come, let me take a look at you. She got you pretty good too." She handed him his sheet.
"I'm fine. No need to fuss with me."
Unohana smiled and said, "I really think it would be beneficial if you would let me take a look at your wounds."
Zaraki paled slightly and finally replied with, "Fine." Unohana let him back to his own quarters and had him remove his captain's jacket and his uniform top and cleaned him up.
While his wounds were being seen to, Sui Feng stopped by with the items from the girl's cell along with some of the juice Erin seemed to favor, and the pouches holding her clothing. He added the pouches to the main pouch and when Unohana was done with him, went over to Erin's quarters, added the juice to the fridge and dropped off her pouches on the kitchen counter. He checked in on her and saw that Retsu had propped her up in bed. Probably in case she still had any blood in her lungs. She had blood on her chin so he went to the bathroom, grabbed one of the wash cloths he had the guys supply the place with along with other toiletries and used it to wipe off the blood.
The rest of the room was bare. He decided to check that furniture bag for a couch or something. He did eventually find one and set it opposite the bed. He knew he didn't need to keep a watch on her while she was sleeping, but without knowing how long she would be unconscious, he would have to set up some of the guys to watch her during the day. It was getting late, so after setting up the couch and replacing the pouch, he collected Yachiru and after putting her to bed, went to bed himself.
