Yoruichi took two steps towards Yaso, but he remained motionless. His eyes seemed out of focus, like they weren't really following her.
She knew better, though.
On the third step, her reiatsu pulsed as she launched forward with shunpo. Yaso reacted almost instantly, grabbing his katana, and unsheathing with a swipe aimed at her neck. That attack was too high, and Yoruichi easy dove under it. She had to dodge a second time when Yaso made a swipe with the saya using his left hand, turning until she was nearly on the floor and facing up. She put her own arm around Yaso's left, and at that instant Yaso reacted by pulling upright with all his strength, dragging Yoruichi with him.
Oh you sneaky little...
Yoruichi tapped the floor with her left foot just an instant before she lost all footing, giving herself extra momentum to throw Yaso off balance. As she jumped up, she spun along his back, and at the end they both rolled on the ground, Yoruichi ending under his back and holding his arm and neck in an excellent lock.
"Very good!" She praised him, releasing him and giving him a push to get his heavy body off.
When he stood up, he turned to Yoruichi with what appeared to be a greatly shocked expression.
"What is it?" She asked, dusting herself off as she stood up.
"How on Earth did you do that?"
"Don't tell me you didn't follow."
"No, I did, and it's impossible." He eyed Yoruichi up and down. "It just..."
"The idea was good, if you had managed to lift me off the ground I'd have had no leverage, and you're heavier than I am. So I pushed in the same direction you were lifting me to throw you off balance. Rather simple."
"Like hell. You... How could you give yourself such a hugeass push with just a small flex of your foot?" He looked at Yoruichi's legs, in a manner that Suì-Fēng would have only approved for herself. "You can't possibly be that strong."
"Ah? I guess you could say there's more to me that meets the eye, right?" She smirked mischievously.
"Obviously." Yaso practically spat out the word. "That's the bloody problem, isn't it."
"Problem?"
"Like you don't know." Yaso answered, adopting a stance with his sword held low.
Yoruichi raised an eyebrow but said nothing, and merely resumed the combat.
"Ah, Abarai-kun, good of you to join us!" Urahara called happily, waving at Renji with his fan.
"Well I've done all the bloody chores, figured I'd come down here and watch something fun. Is he getting beaten up again?" Renji smirked, gaining himself a rather cross look from Seree.
"No, no, Yoruichi-san's being quite careful today."
"Really. What a shame, it was a good show yesterday." Renji sat down on the same rock the other two were, and shook his head. "What a town."
"Eh? You told Kurosaki the same before, what do you mean Lieutenant?" Seree asked, losing her annoyed expression.
"I mean just that." He scratched his head as he spoke. "There's Ichigo and his gang, and all the other weirdos that can see us, and have their own weird abilities, and now this guy, all in this town. Is there something in the water or what?"
"Funny, isn't it? Great spot to have a shop like mine." Urahara answered, smiling happily.
"You mean there's more people like...?" Seree asked in an amazed tone.
"Yeah. The only reason they aren't all over this place is because most of them are on school holidays. And that's the other thing, most of them are just kids, at least this guy looks old enough to shave."
"Well, I haven't seen him shave so far, so..."
Urahara and Renji looked at her, and she clammed up double quick, blushing.
Eep! Too much information!
Back on the combat, Yoruichi was helping Yaso up, after having sneaked with a fast spinning move past his lunge at her and knocked him down with a low kick.
"Are you finally starting to see my movements?"
"Heck no."
"Hm? Are you... sensing me then?"
Her voice had sounded somehow hopeful, but Yaso didn't quite catch the tone, much less what she might have been hopeful for.
"Not really." He sighed. "It's... hard to describe."
He looked at Yoruichi, standing in front of him with crossed arms, and without a single move her golden eyes invited him to continue. His gaze turned down, he sheathed his katana, and walked slowly to a nearby rock, sitting down.
"I have been doing iaidō for a number of years." He finally spoke, without looking up, in a tone that sounded as if it was meant as much for himself as it was for Yoruichi. "The primary focus of iaidō is the presence of oneself, and from there the secondary is drawing and responding to an attack as fast as possible."
Yoruichi nodded, not saying a word. She was quite familiar with the discipline.
"It... No, things seemed to make sense when I was doing it. I don't know why. It just felt right, the response part just flowed very naturally. I was very good at it."
"Was?" Yoruichi asked. She had meant it as a small compliment to Yaso, but immediately regretted having interrupted his train of thought.
"Yeah, well, I stopped." He finished abruptly, as if he was mentioning something trivial anyone should know, and stood up. "I can't believe I'm making myself do this all over again."
"Seeing is believing." Yoruichi replied with a smirk.
"Not really, no."
What?
"There's something I don't understand, Urahara-san." Seree asked, after fruitlessly trying to guess what Yaso and Yoruichi were talking about.
"What is it?"
"That's an artificial Zanpakutō, right?"
"Not exactly, but I guess you could call it that."
"Right. What I mean is that it can be used to cut through spiritual things, like us."
"Yes?"
"Well, Itou-san doesn't seem too happy about it, does he really need it? I mean, he already fought with this Katsutoshi guy, and he even hurt him, does he really need it?"
"Ara, that was quite lucky!" Urahara replied, raising his hand with a finger pointing up.
"Lucky?"
"Yes! How did Itou-san hurt him?"
"He... Right, he hit him with his elbow on the mouth. Made him quite annoyed too." She smirked.
"Exactly! Katsutoshi was probably quite confused over that, which was lucky. If he had been hit with the saber, it would have had no effect, and the confused one would have been Itou-san."
"But he stopped his Zanpakutō many times with that sword."
"So?"
"Shouldn't the Zanpakutō just gone through Itou-san's sword and hit him?"
"Sure. Have you ever tried?"
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"Simple!" He exclaimed, standing up and taking his hat off. He put it in front of Seree's face. "Go ahead and get your arm through this, it's a solid object so it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Ah! One second..." She gulped her soul candy and, once in soul form, she plunged her arm inside the hat, making it go through with no problem.
"Good! Now..." Urahara picked a rock and held it with his other hand just above the hat. "Get your arm through the hat and grab this rock as it falls. Ready?"
"Sure!"
"There goes!" He called, letting go of the rock.
To her surprise, Seree punched the hat and snatched it from Urahara's hand, hitting the rock with it and all.
"See?"
"How... What?"
"You were thinking of grabbing the rock, which is a solid object, correct?"
"Yes."
"And before, you were thinking of not touching the hat."
"Uh-huh."
"You can do both, but changing from one to another so quickly is very hard!" Urahara explained in a festive voice, putting his hat back on. "More so if you're in battle. If you're thinking of hitting something solid with your Zanpakutō, and not a hollow or a plus, then you need to concentrate on, well, hitting it! It's hard to go through an object to hit another while in the middle of combat."
"I see..."
"You know." Renji interrupted them, while looking at Yaso. "He's not as bad as I thought after seeing him yesterday."
"Of course he isn't!" Seree replied in a peppery tone. "He's got a cabinet full of fencing trophies! Why, he's even got one for kendo..."
She suddenly put both hands on her mouth, which piqued the interest of the others more than if she had only gone through it nonchalantly.
Stupid, stupid big mouth!
"Why are you doing that, Seree-chan?" Urahara asked mischievously.
"N-Nothing! No reason!"
"Aaaaah, very suspicious." Renji replied, smirking evilly.
"Seree-chan has been snooping around Itou-san's place, I bet." Urahara grinned, then hid his mouth behind his fan.
She turned as red as anyone could possibly turn without having their head explode, looking down to the ground.
You evil man! I hate you!
She had never been more grateful in her life for an interruption, and the beeping of her cellphone was just that. She shot up then jumped straight into her gigai, almost choking on the soul candy while searching her pockets for the damnable contraption.
"H- *cough* Hello? Lieutenant Kotetsu! Yes. Yes. What? Oh, hold on."
She pressed one of the buttons, and the device switched to loudspeaker mode.
"Who am I talking to?" Isane asked from the other end of the line.
"Me, Lieutenant Abarai, and Urahara-san."
"Great. I have just finished talking with Hisagi-san, and I thought you need to hear this as soon as possible."
"Is this about this morning's attack?" Seree interrupted.
"Yes. Please listen carefully..."