Chapter 17: Tough Training, Remarkable Results

"Counter again!" Ellita called out, for what seemed to Tairos, the millionth time. She once again loosed a blast of White Lightning from her fingertips, sending the beam straight towards her student's forehead.

Tairos was so weakened he barely had the energy to curse her name. They had been at this for almost six hours now, and it seemed he was getting nowhere. Half the time he was able to weaken to blast by focusing reiatsu against it, but the other half he either narrowly dodged or took the hit head on, resulting in a body covered by wounds.

"Come on, this is one of the lowest level techniques! If you can't even counter it more than eighty percent of the time, you've got little hope of learning Kodou Geigeki." Ellita sneered as she watched Tairos lose several inches of his hair to her kidou as he whipped sideways before the energy could sear his skin and possibly strike his skull.

Tairos muttered something unintelligible as the beam of reiatsu struck him in the chest and knocked him from his feet, sending him through the field, kicking up clumps of grass and clots of soil.

"What was that you said?" Ellita called haughtily, cupping her hand to her ear in a sarcastic and purposefully insulting motion.

"Fuck...you..." Tairos managed to gasp. "I...don't...care...if...I am...struggling...I...won't...stop..."

Ellita started laughing, "If I don't goad you on, you will eventually give up. I want you to hate me, that way you can strive to make me shut up. But, as you are now, you suck to much to even make me consider letting up even a little bit."

"Bitch..." Tairos rasped, pulling himself into a ready position, wiping congealed blood from his matted hair. "I didn't say stop! Attack me again!"

"Whatever you want," Ellita shrugged, "but if I kill you, don't be mad, ok? Way of Destruction Number Four, White Lightning!" As the energy sped towards Tairos, he closed his eyes and reached deep, probing the recesses of his mind and body for some form of latent energy, some way to awaken the necessary skill.

Tairos screamed as he felt the focused reiatsu slam into his chest, yet, unlike past attacks, this one felt somewhat weaker. He looked down to see a glowing ball of pure silver energy resonating inches from where Ellita's attack had struck him.

"I guess you are learning something," Ellita declared, snidely. "It took you long enough to master the bare basics. Maybe now I can move up to a stronger spell."

"Not now...bitch..." Tairos moaned. "I...need...to...rest..." And without another word Tairos collapsed and began to snore, causing Ellita to shake her head.

Why did Gramps have to stick me with this guy?

--

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, that was an awesome match!" Baiten said as he and Jaice strode away from the arena where they had just witnessed the semi-final match between Shindou and Arashi. "It's a shame Tairos had to miss it."

"Oh well, his loss," Jaice stated. "It just gives us another thing to gloat about next time we see him. Where the hell is he anyway?"

"I assume he'd be at the medical tent for his assigned arena or if not there he might've gone home," Baiten offered. "We're closer to the former, I say we head there first."

--

"What do you mean dragged off?" Baiten yelled at the 4th Squad nurse, waking several of the patients on the cots scattered around the medical tent.

"Just what I said, sir," she replied, the last word venomous. "I would like it if you had the courtesy to keep your voice down my our patients are trying to recover."

"S...sorry," Baiten blurted out, hastily bowing. "I was just shocked."

"Yeah, and why would you just let one of your patients get carried away by some random girl?" Jaice asked.

"I do believe that's none of your business," the nurse replied, her face twisting into a scowl, "but if you must know she is no simple girl; Ellita is a highly valued Shinigami despite her age."

"Fine, well can you tell us where we can find our friend?" Jaice inquired.

"She told me she was taking him to a field on the southern outskirts of Seireitei. Now, if you don't mind could you be on your way? I can't stand around talking with all these injured people about." The nurse finished, turning away.

"Thanks for your help!" Baiten called as he and Jaice rushed out of the tent, his cry inadvertantly waking four additional patients.

--

Ellita shook her head as she turned another page of The Complete Guide to Kidou: Volume 3; she had only been a hundred pages into the massive volume when Tairos first lost consciousness but now he had been asleep for two hours and she was nearly halfway done with the monstrous tome. Maybe I was too hard on him, she started to think before giggling coyly to herself. No, he was just too weak. What a shame, I guess I'll be stuck with him for longer than I'd like.

"Tairos you idiot, wake up!" Ellita turned to see the source of the sound and noticed two Shinigami, one average height with black hair and another slightly taller man with brown hair; it appeared that the second man was the one who shouted, as he was currently shaking Tairos's limp body which was slowly coming to.

"Jaice what the hell, man? Can't you see I'm trying to rest!" Tairos roared as he regained composure, punching the man shaking him. Jaice stumbled backwards, knocking Baiten's back, slamming his head into a nearby tree.

"You bastard!" Baiten roared, aiming a kick at Jaice's back. Jaice jumped to one side, causing the blow meant for him to ram into Tairos's stomach. In seconds the once friendly meeting had devolved into a crude fist-fight, with punches, kicks, and curses flying backwards and forwards as these friends tried to claim vengeance for damages caused seconds before.

"What idiots," Ellita said, turning back to her book after she saw Baiten hip-throw Jaice onto the ground a second before Tairos punched Baiten twice in the jaw. "Acting like such children, I can see why none of them made it too far into the tournament."

"You still don't understand how masculine friendship works, Ellita," a voice caught the female Shinigami off guard. She looked to her left and saw the figure of her grandfather, Crowe, smiling and carrying a rucksack over his shoulder.

Ellita snorted at his comment before offering her own opinion. "Those idiots should spend less time goofing around and more time training. I agree that they all have potential, but they are also all too flawed to make use of it."

"You can know so much from training with one of them briefly and seeing the other for less than a few hours?" Crowe questioned. "Don't you think you're jumping to conclusions?"

"I can sense their reiatsu quite easily and this little brawl has told me more than enough about their fighting styles," Ellita retorted. "Tairos is a bum, Baiten is a weakling, and Jaice is brash as hell."

Crowe chuckled at this comment and walked over to his granddaughter, laying the rucksack down at her feet. "There's more to everyone than first impressions and what lies on the surface. Anyway, I thought I'd bring some food in case you and your trainee were hungry."

"Aren't you supposed to take over from here?" Ellita asked.

"As much as I'd like to, I have some important business to attend. I have a meeting in an hour that I cannot afford to miss. After that I will return and we can switch out."

"Thank heaven," Ellita sighed, "this whole endeavor is driving me insane!"

"You're too uptight, Ellita, you'll never get ahead in the world if you let small things like this get to you," Crowe declared.

Always like an elder to push 'wisdom' on me, Ellita thought scornfully. "Anyway, what took you so long?"

"What do you think?" Crowe said, smiling as he produced a miniature bronze-colored sculpture of a Shinigami wielding a katana.

--

"You're damn good, old man," the younger Shinigami rasped, sweat dripping from his matted furrows of hair.

"You're pretty good too," Crowe replied calmly, no worse for wear but having long learned to endure intense pain. "But I'm your senior in both age and ability; you can't win this fight, please give up before I really hurt you."

"Screw you, if I win I'm a hero, if I lose I'm a piece of shit, but if I surrender I'm a cowardly piece of shit. I'll take option one!" Without another word, the younger warrior charged forward, his broadsword sweeping across Crowe's chest. The elder Shinigami gritted his teeth and headbutted his opponent before slamming Hiroki into the youth's face, sending the lad spiraling through the air to land face first on the arena floor.

The crowd gasped as Crowe's blow finished and the younger Shinigami let out a low groan. His entire face was covered in a mask of blood and it appeared that his jaw was fractured by the look of his bone structure.

"I'm sorry," whispered Crowe. "I warned you; luckily for you I've got great self-control, otherwise you'd be missing your skull."

The referee stepped into the arena carrying the tournament trophy towards Crowe. "Congratulations, Crowe, you are hereby declared the win..."

Before the man could finish speaking, the crowd gasped in awe as they saw the youth rise to his feet, copious amounts of blood dripping from his damaged face. "Bas...tard, fight me like a man! No holding...back!" He managed to blurt out.

"Son, if we continue fighting you may die, and I don't another death on my hands," Crowe replied.

"Besides, it's against the tournament rules," the referee interdicted. "Killing your opponent is strictly forbidden and if I let you two continue fighting now you will surely leave in a body bag."

"Don't patronize me you old pricks!" The youth roared, seeming to draw courage and energy from deep within his heart. "If I fail now, what am I? Secomd-best is the same as second-rate in my book! Isn't it obvious that I'd rather die than have a life riddled with failure? Now come on, gramps, show me some more of your skills!" The boy staggered forward, somehow able to still move despite his damaged body and confused mind. He approached Crowe, sword at the ready. "Ha..."

Before the boy could finish uttering the command, the referee jumped in the way and began to chant, causing spiraling tendrils of reiatsu to reach out and engulf the young Shinigami, causing his eyes to close and his body to fall limply to the arena floor.

"I'm sorry for the mess," Crowe said, "I never thought I'd have to use such excessive force, but the boy certainly was persistent."

"Think nothing of it," the referee whispered. "We've been watching him for some time now. He is...somewhat unstable as you can tell. This will merely go on his file."

"And you'd trust me with such confidential information?" Crowe replied, his voice also low.

"I know who you are, Grey Scar; I know your history and I know your present. I don't my boss would want me to be rude to an old friend of his," the referee answered.

"Heh, just as I thought. Now anyway, we should stop being so rude, these people are anxious to see me crowned winner."

--

"Congratulations, grandpa," Ellita said, bowing in an odd show of respect causing Crowe to raise an eyebrow.

"I guess you finally learn some manners when you're reminded of where the genes for your own amazing skills come from," Crowe said, a hint of comedy tenderizing his words. "Excuse me a moment, perhaps it is time for me to intervene and prevent my employee and his friends from killing each other." He laid the trophy on the ground and seemed to disappear momentarily, only to rematerialize in the middle of the brawling trio. As he appeared, Crowe immediately blocked Baiten's fist with his right hand, deflected a kick from Tairos with his left leg, and grabbed Jaice around the throat to prevent him from body slamming the other two.

"B...boss!" Tairos stammered, stepping backwards and bowing several times in short successions. "I'm very sorry, we were just messing around!"

"Yeah, I apologize too," Baiten said, hastily joining Tairos. "Sorry we had to meet like this, Crowe-san, Tairos has told us tons of great things about you!"

"Hey kiss-asses, any help for me?" Jaice moaned as he struggled against Crowe's vice grip.

"Think nothing of it," Crowe replied, letting Jaice go and causing him to hit the ground with a muffled thud. "I'm switching out with Ellita, at least for now. Tairos, you and I have some training to do."

"What about us?" Jaice asked. "We just have to sit around and wait for him to finish? Or are we going to the privilege of joining in?"

"Jaice, we hardly know him! It's rude of us to butt in like that!" Baiten stammered. "I'm very sorry sir..."

Crowe laughed as he walked a circle around the Shinigami. "You're friends certainly are characters, Tairos, exactly like you've told me. And no, I apologize, my training is only suited for one student at a time. If you'd like I can have Ellita work with you two," as he turned to his granddaughter some yards off, he saw her vigorously shake her head 'no'. "Oh well, in that case perhaps you can go visit a friend of mine. Here's is his address," almost miraculously, Crowe produced a small piece of parchment from inside the folds of his right sleeve and handed it to Jaice.

"Thanks," Baiten and Jaice said simultaneously as they started to walk off, Baiten still hastily making apologies and thanks, Jaice continuing to rant about Crowe's rudeness.

"No that they are out of our hair we can begin," Crowe said. "First, I'll need you to show me what Ellita has taught you so far."

"May I ask a question before we start?" Tairos inquired, raising his left hand slightly as if in a mock classroom. "What exactly was that earlier? I mean, how exactly did you get over here so quickly?"

"That, my boy, is shunpo, also called Flash Step," Crowe replied. "I'm sure Ellita mentioned it to you, but I guess this was your first time seeing the move in action."

"If it's not too much trouble, do you think we could start with that instead?" Tairos asked. "My close combat skills are very poor, and I think this would be a good method of escape or a way to gain distance to safely use my kidou."

"Heh, that's funny," Crowe chuckled, "normally Shinigami use shunpo to get closer to their opponents or to set up better angles of attack at close range, though it isn't unheard of to use the method you speak of. I guess we can start with hoho (foot techniques) if you'd like."

"Yes, please," Tairos said.

"Good, then I hope you're prepared, this is worse than anything Ellita taught you and will take quite awhile to get the hang of. First things first, I want you to run 20 miles; come back when you're done." Tairos groaned, but did as he was told. As he passed Ellita he could swear she winked at him...

--

"What a damn asshole!" The youth cursed, pacing across the room for the eightieth time and flinging his hands in the air.

"Which one? The referee or your competitor?" A deep, yet somewhat calm, voice replied.

"Both of them! If I'd just had another shot I would've won and we'd be closer to completing our plan!" The youth yelled back, kicking over a chair in his rage.

"Hey, no reason to go on destroying property, I work hard to maintain this place, you know?" Another voice cried, clearly masculine but having a lighter, slightly feminine ring to the words.

"Screw off, I didn't ask the help for opinions," the youth answered.

"Mind your tongue, you still can't do whatever you want," the deep voice declared. "Today another aspect of our master machinations failed, but luckily I'm always creating contingencies in case our attempts fall through. You're lucky that I even bother to keep you lot around after I have to clean up your messes."

"Sorry, sir!" The two voices answered in unison. "We will not fail you next time. Dispatch us where you will and we shall carry out your orders without hindrance!"

"Magnifico," the owner of the gruff voice declared. "Now I'd like you two to gather the following associates and go on a little errand for me. The next stage begins now; are you both up to the challenge?"

"Yes, sir!" They shouted and left the room hastily leaving the man with the gruff voice alone to contemplate the recent events

There is always a back up plan so long as I have pieces, he thought, surveying the chessboard in front of him. Each piece stood erect and stolid, awaiting his hand, his guidance, his ultimate strategy. If only my subordinates could be as reliable. If it comes to it, I may have to sacrifice a few pieces in order to complete my goal. Whatever the case I will achieve the ultimate victory I desire. And with that thought in mind he silently moved his Queen's Rook's Pawn forward, his interest in both games continuing to rise.

HES: Sorry once again for the late update guys! As usual, I am busy as heck! I recently got a new job which is taking most of my time, but I am still going to do my best to update regularly! A new arc is about to begin, one which I've been excited about since I first started planning this fic! In that vein, I should be more inspired and more likely to update! Thanks for staying loyal, my readers, please review if you can; as always I highly value your input!