Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
With the force that can stop the world from spinning, cracking the steely sound that breaks the clouds in the sky, Shin's sword connected to Ryoko's in a violent way. His swing was so precise and wide, all the rubble was blown away in the resulting blast of wind. A few seconds later and he still hung sideways in the air until he crouched down onto her sword and pushed off, knocking her to the ground at last. Shin stood in the street, a sadistic shadow on his face that let his emotionless eyes shine through while his opponent threw herself up and ditched her broken glasses.
"You're..." she started with heavy breath, "no ordinary swordsman, are you?" Shin smirked under his dark cover and tilted his head to make his mouth seem straighter.
"Who knows?" he said, tilting his head in a full circle. "I'm a monster, remember?" He dashed ahead again, sweeping the barely prepared Ryoko down the adjacent street and into another building by tapping swords with the force he made. He could feel the blood in his muscles burning his skin from his over-powered swings, so he switched hands. Ryoko took a bit more time to recover from such a shocking blow, but she did.
"He's strong" she reminded herself, readying for another terrible burst of power. Shin started running with his sword off to the side in his left hand. "I'll have to even things out if I want to survive..." She closed her eyes, missing Shin jump up and nearly teleport over to her. He was about to swing when the pressure started to impressively climb in the area immediately around her. He was dropped to his feet, shoulders down but sword still up. "There" She uttered confidently. "Now you should-" he swung. It wasn't with as much insane power, but it did nick off some of her hair. Shin's feet sank through the wood of the broken walls and into the stone street as he stepped forward, swinging. Ryoko was able to block now without getting thrown around, but it was still taxing to keep up with this kind of strength.
"That's amazing" Suichi awed from the rooftop. He watched Shin fighting in a visibly dense area of spirit energy. Hoji, of course, was still toying around by dashing around on all fours with his sword still in his mouth.
"CAM AN!!" Hoji slurred ravenously, making another predatory dash forward. Shigu sidestepped out of the way, stepping in the direction opposite where Hoji's sword pointed, but Hoji just clawed at the ground and spun around, making Shigu have to leap back into a cart and lose his footing from the blade spinning at him. Hoji stopped himself on all fours, then started to get up on his legs again. As Shigu rubbed his head, Hoji spat out his sword back into his hand.
"Alright," Hoji started, "enough of that. It's killing time." Shigu became shocked at the degree of casualness Hoji addressed the term 'killing time' and shot up.
"Don't joke around anymore, dammit!" Shigu shouted. Hoji glared over at him. "Just because you think you're hot, doesn't mean you is."
"Dude," Hoji started, "you need to back to school."
"I'm a top swordsman around here for a reason, son" Shigu started again, using his uneducated sounding dialect. "And I'mma show you that reason right nah"
"Okay" Hoji said, gripping the skin between his eyes. "You just massacred that sentence, so I believe you're a killer to some degree. However," and now Hoji posed his sword by standing perfectly straight, tilting his head up for maximum effect, and pointing it right between Shigu's eyes, "I'm still a much better swordsman than you are."
"Yeah?" Shigu asked, readying his sword, "how do you figure?"
"Because" Hoji started, keeping his killer facade until the last second, "I'm a real shinigami and you're just a cheap knockoff!" His face grew an awkward smile when he said that and his inflection on shinigami made him seem like he was talking to a child.
"I'mma MESS YOU UP, son!" Shigu shouted again. "Let's end this! Prick through the bone, WESPNAALD!" The sword transformed into a thin estoc with a guard that had two finger-sized holes just below where the blade started. Shigu put his index and middle fingers through the holes and slashed his blade which made a curious, sharp 'zing' sound.
"Wespnaald?" Hoji questioned. "What the hell does that even mean? Is that even the right language?" Hoji started laughing, putting his free hand on his forehead to keep his head from falling completely over. Shigu watched him with growing animosity.
"What are you laughing at!?" Shigu shouted. "Well, let's see your sword then?" Hoji's laughter died down, but the joviality from it didn't.
"I don't really know my sword's name yet" Hoji admitted, wiping his eyes. "That doesn't mean I can't kill you."
"Psh" Shigu scoffed. "Yeah it does."
"Tch." Hoji snarled. "You want to see me fight? Alright!" All at once, Hoji vanished. A few black lines replaced him for a half-second, but they vanished too. Shigu couldn't track his movements because from what he saw there were none. Then, a powerful flying kick to the head sent Shigu tumbling into a stone wall. "If you can't even see me like that, how can you win?" Shigu growled and got up. He extended his arm and aimed at Hoji. Then he ran forward, arm behind him and ready to sweep, with Hoji running the same way. They swung at the same time, but Hoji's sword was knocked a little farther away than Shigu's was. The blades stayed connected, but it still gave Hoji reason to scowl.
Hoji decided to draw back and swing again, as did Shigu. Each swing they took, their blades hit and Hoji's was always the one that edged off even the slightest bit. With the anger working inside him, Hoji increased the speed of his furious swings and stabs. Shigu matched him hit per hit, hitting away stabs and otherwise deflecting his power cuts. Hoji wasn't using his off hand, though, he just let it dangle at his side. Shigu's was palm-up behind him. Soon the blades just looked like flashes of light that went off rapidly between the two men, their swords traveling faster than either one could see.
"Not bad" Hoji said, not letting his voice drift off and give away that he was in trouble. "If you had some muscles under all that pale skin I might try a bit." Shigu fell for the feint and got angry. He pushed Hoji away and started rushing him with wide, drawn back swings that came much slower that his quick flurry of stabs and cuts. Hoji had the better hand in this fight now, as he easily hopped and strafed away from his furious opponent who kept swinging wildly and following through on every stroke.
And now that he's good and distracted by anger Hoji planned, gathering energy in his hand, I've got him.
"Senkou no..." Hoji started. Shigu backed off and jumped over Hoji, landing behind him just outside of his range. Hoji spun around quickly and finished his spell, "SHIKYO!", firing a blast of red lightning just past Shigu and through the house that Suichi was on top. His concentrated blast only made a hole through the walls instead of capsizing the entire structure. There was a brief pause while Hoji gathered if he had killed anyone uninvolved by peering through the hole and Shigu trying to snap his spine back into alignment from dodging at the last second.
"SUICHI!" Hoji shouted. "Did I kill anyone accidentally?" Suichi flashed down to the street and checked. There was a scared family huddled in the corner, but they were all alive and the lightning curved up and skimmed another house's roof before it dissipated in the distance.
"No" Suichi reported, "you're good." Hoji nodded. He heard Shigu hit the ground with a crack and looked down to make sure he didn't accidentally kill himself somehow. He was fine, but still in shock, so Hoji stomped on his chest and pointed his sword at his throat.
"You fail" Hoji lowed, keeping his eyes up and glowing white. Shigu refused his defeat and bashed Hoji's leg away with his arm, then rolled up. His feet just settled on his weight again and Hoji was already there, sword at throat, eyes white and head tilted down.
"No, guy" Shigu started, moving his free hand slowly to grasp his armed forearm, "you fail." with the strength of both his arms, he swung straight up, sending Hoji's sword pointing to the sky and leaving him open. Everything slowed down as Hoji's inner warrior clicked into the battle. He watched Shigu start to take a step in to thrust, so he let the inertia carry his arm in a full circle. Hoji flipped over the sword and settled gracefully on its tip. Time resumed with Hoji pointing now between Shigu's eyes, keeping his arm drawn slightly back so his sword was just barely against his skin.
"No, you do" Hoji shot back. Everything seemed over now, until Shin and Ryoko came crashing through a nearby house, sending a wave of crushing energy at the other two fighters. Shigu was struck with it full force and fell backwards, but Hoji raised his arms up to his face to block and got away without being blasted away. Instead, he flashed back a distance and looked into moving cloud of dust. There stood Shin, sword pointed and back arched at Ryoko, who had lost her outer robe and was wearing a scorch-marked and dirty white top with her broadsword aimed and ready to sweep again.
"Oi!" Shin shouted, not moving anything but his mouth. "You good over here?" Hoji assumed the question was his and responded.
"Yeah, pretty much" was his answer. He could have been more honest, but to admit struggle against someone so weak compared to what Shin was dealing with seemed arrogant.
Shigu was stunned and stuck to the ground from the massive spiritual force the two shinigami were emitting. He couldn't bring himself to raise his arm, let alone his whole body. "Ryoko, ma'am" he strained out. Ryoko didn't let her eyes leave Shin's. "I can't...move..." Ryoko sighed.
"Let's relocate" Ryoko suggested. As soon as she did, Shin assisted her with a flash-step speed knee to the face. While still in mid air, Shin spun around, as if he kicked off of the air, and dashed over the ground across the square, skidding and hopping to make the sharp turn into the street where Ryoko had flown. Hoji saw him leap away as the manic girl made a berserk rush at him with her sword held up high. He couldn't help but snicker. Shigu wiped away his smile by using his arm-in-arm style to try and cleave open his head. Hoji was ready, though, and caught the sword with his own in a reversed grip.
"You must've forgot" Shigu started, panting, "because you were talking to your boyfriend, but we're fighting here cuz!"
"Hey now" Hoji started casually, even bored, "Shin and me are bros, not butt-bros." Shigu almost cracked a smile, which did break his concentration enough for Hoji to swing his sword arm away. With his sword's kinetic energy, he let his grip set back to normal in mid-swing and swung again, repeating to get another reverse grip. Shigu avoided the first one but got cut across the chest on the second.
"You piece of--" Shigu nearly insulted. 'Nearly' because Hoji wouldn't let up his offense, and because Hoji's offense now involved using his sword as a vault and drop-kicking Shigu in the face. When Shigu went flying away, Hoji slashed his sword out of the stone road and relaxed himself. His sword still in reverse grip and behind his back, Hoji stared down Shigu, who just kept getting up for more and more punishment, and a wild grin came to his face.
"Admit it now while you can still talk" Hoji demanded. Shigu looked at him through his one good, not-swollen-from-getting-kicked-really-damn-hard eye and furrowed his brow. "Just say how much stronger and better at ass-kicking I am, and I'll let you die with dignity."
"Yeah?" Shigu now slurred through his busted lip. "Or what? How else will you kill me?" Hoji slowly raised his sword up sideways, then set his grip back to normal and twisted it so Shigu stared down the razor edge of the blade.
"I'll castrate you!" Hoji answered back with an evil grin. Shigu's eyes went wide. Suichi rolled his eyes, having heard this bizarre ultimatum, and buried his face in his hand from the nearest still-intact house in the square.
Wespnaald: Wasp Needle in Dutch. Not every region uses Japanese in this world, just the cool ones.
