Chapter 10: Orders to Kill

Todd watched as the bald man hacked, tossed, and stabbed the logs in the area. In an hour, there was a receding treeline and a lot more seats. Except he didn't leave them as just two half logs, instead he chopped them from there. But not by actual chops, but by impaling them. Sometimes he missed and Todd laughed at him for it. After Mario had reached about 10 feet further back, Todd decide he should give it a try too. He was feeling pretty confident given everything that he'd seen and all he knew he could already do.

But once he began drawing his blade, Mario was instantly at his side—Shunpo—with his sword at Todd's throat. "Try it." It was a challenge Todd almost took. Mario really riled him up, but Todd put it away.

"Come on, what am I going to do? You really think you can beat me, then just let me train with you. Whose gonna care?" Todd kept talking as his watchman drew the sword away. Todd's throat had a little speck of blood dribbling down it. "Scared?"

Mario just about swung the sword back around to chop Todd's head off, but all he did was stare down Todd. Todd met the gaze. He met it twice as hard, then started pulling his sword out again. His opponent's eyes darted to the sword for an instant but he didn't stop Todd again. "I warned you."
Charging at him, Todd had his sword up and at the ready. It was awkward in his hand and Mario poked it away. It clanged against the log, but Todd snatched it back up and ran. He wasn't use to using a regular sword. He wasn't even use to his ring blade, but he didn't dare release it again. Not after what had happened before. With Mira, he was safe, but this guy might really kill him, so he ran at full speed, ready to stab at Mario, but Mario attacked first and Todd was quick to block the overhand strike, only to realize how strong this guy really was. Todd couldn't hold the sword straight and he fell to one knee and his other hand was supporting the blade. All the battle experience he had was against that hollow that knocked him around and against Kikorokokou in his dream. Mario drew the blade back and Todd started standing when the man's blade came back down. Todd's left hand was no longer holding the blade and Mario's blade slid off to the side, so Todd took the opportunity to try attacking again. He swung it like a baseball bat at the brick wall, but he wasn't there any more. Shunpo. Dammit. This time Mario was behind him and Todd turned to see the blade headed right at his head.

But it missed. Todd felt the cool blade against his temple. The flat edge slid smoothly as Mario took care not to slice his ear. "Told you."He said. He was about to return it to the sheath, when Todd let himself get angry and he started swinging again. It was pretty clumsy at first and Mario was so off guard he could only dodge it and Todd's swings became a little more consistent, comfortable even. They were mostly diagnonal swings, but also vertical and horizontal, until he tripped. Todd tripped over one of those heaps of woods and fell flat on his face. "You crazy, pip?" Mario stepped on Kikorokokou and Todd was too embarrassed to get up. "Swinging like a madman won't get you anywhere." He was leaning in an shouting in Todd's ear. God, his face hurt. Stepping off the blade, Mario put his own away.

With a few grunts, Mario hefted all the wood out of the way so that they had a ten foot circle. Todd was still lying down when he started but stood up now. "Pip, this is for your own good." And that was how pip learned the basics of sword play. For three days, they dueled. Todd had a few cuts on him that healed by the time morning came, but he was feeling pretty good about using the sealed sword. He still longed for the ring blade, but he didn't bother asking Mario about using it. Even though Mario kept being nasty to him and telling him he was talentless and all that, Todd was quickly learning to block, to swing, to even maneuver. The unspoken agreement seemed to prevent Mario from using Shunpo and his shikai. Maybe even his bankai, if he had one. Apparently Mario had no other duties right now other than watching Todd, so he took advantage of it to train with Mario. He was pretty big too, but not nearly as strong as Todd orginally thought. Todd even broke his guard a few times. And he was smart enough to catch on to Mario's pattern. He stabbed a lot, but also had a lot of vertical slices. His confidence in his precision seemed to make him prefer heavy damage attacks rather than wide-ranged ones. Todd was the opposite, he discovered. He did a lot of horizontal slices and diagonal ones too, but not too many stabs. He couldn't get it down for one and Mario was so good with his own, he even met one of Todd's stabs with pinpoint precision so it was down to a power struggle, which Mario won.

Even though he had a pattern, he was pretty inconsistent on somethings. Like when Todd broke his guard, it seemed really easy sometimes, and other times, Mario had such a strong guard, Todd couldn't even throw him off-kilter. It was the darndest thing. They took regular breaks because though he wouldn't admit it, Mario needed them from time to time. Todd had a pretty raw reiatsu that he was unaware of that diminished Mario's.

When they were on a break, Mario went to grab some water and food. When he got back, Mario threw the bottle to Todd who drank it gratefully and then ate at his mysterious meal. Mario drank in peace and didn't eat anything. Something about not needing food until the training was over. Fasting or something. He even showed a softer side on this break. There was this really strange butterfly, it was black, that Mario held a finger out for. It landed on the perch and stayed there for a few minutes. He stopped his drinking and walked over to Todd, very slowly. Mario then held out his sword in front of him and slowly pulled the sheath off. "Pin him down," Todd had no idea what was going, but he knew this wasn't for practice anymore. He tossed the water bottle aside and drew his sword. He was so panicked he couldn't focus straight and couldn't remember what he did before to release his own shikai. "Dai Hiroki!"(Dai – Vast Hiroki – Abundant Strength).