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.
"Oh no" a guard said shakily, gripping his sword hard. "There's still one left!" Suichi stood tall, arms crossed and feet together, amidst a chaotic and brutal arrangement of bodies. The bandits and guards had killed each other spectacularly, and now only two guards were left to fight the one master mystery assassin.
"So?" the other guard shouted, voice quivering just as much. "There's two of us and one of him. We've obviously got him outnumbered!" Suichi smirked. He uncrossed his arms quickly, grabbing the tip of his chain as it passed over his hand, and let a good measure of his chain reel out in front of him. It floated and moved with snake-like slithering motions.
"Heh" Suichi huffed with amusement. He whipped his wrists and threw his chain down to the ground, still holding onto both ends to keep it tight. He kept one foot planted on the chain and then brought the other one into the chain near his left hand. He tightened the chain from between his two feet while bringing his left hand up, constantly drawing more metal out until both his hands met. "I haven't gotten a good chance to use this technique, mainly because I've never had a mission so out in the open for it."
"Kill him!" both guards shouted. The broke pose and pointed at each other with jutting jaws. "Are you ordering me around!?" they shouted in perfect harmony. Meanwhile, Suichi began cartwheeling rapidly in their direction. He fed the spiked end of the chain into his left hand where it locked in place, allowing his other hand to slip freely along the rest of the chain to make his acrobatics easier.
"Bousekirensa!" Suichi announced as he spun toward the guards. They panicked and charged, drifting apart as they ran. He clacked to the ground a few times before the force of his spin caused him to hover and drift slowly into a horizontal position that came closer to the guard on his right. "Split up if you want. I doubt it'll help you."
"He's lying!" the guard exclaimed. "he can't hit both of us! Just block him with your sword!"
"Quit saying obvious things!!!" the other guard demanded. Suichi neared his target, his sword helplessly up in defense. Suichi spun into the sword, grinding sparks out of the hard metal meeting metal, and after a few revolutions he slowed down with his attack until he was nearly stopped.
"Oh, how shallow of you" Suichi taunted. "This isn't the real attack." Suichi was stopped with his right palm pressing the chain that slipped just between his middle and index fingers, just meeting the blade the guard held. His legs slowly drifted down to the floor, the chain feeding itself around from between the creases his toes made in his sandals. "Kasui!" Suichi's left leg landed first, and with an axis made of his right arm leading down to his leg, he made a huge kick straight into the guard's unprotected throat and kept his foot there with the chain still somehow attached.
"I'm coming!" the other guard called. Suichi looked over with a grinning glare and opened his left hand. The spike end of his chain was gone, and only an endless coil of chain existed that circled around his form.
"This is the secret form" Suichi explained "of my shikai, I call it Hateshinairensa! Now, activate!!!" At his command his chain started moving. Sparks kicked up from the sword he gripped, the floor he stood on, the skin off his own palm that had a bulging protrusion of chain links along the bottom of his fingers where the whole circle started and then the armor of the guard who his foot stayed planted on in a frozen kick. Then the sparks left that place and blood came instead, and Suichi carried his kick through the guard's throat while the rapid rotation of the chain pulled him along the stone floor toward the other guard.
"Whaaaa!?" the guard shouted in quivering, shaking fear.
"KASUIIIIIII!!!" Suichi roared. He made a short jump with his propelled foot and delivered another rotating roundhouse to the guard's neck. When the attack was over Suichi was free to plant his foot back on the ground and roll along with his chain pulling him along. He hopped off his chain after a short distance was gained between him and his headless opponent, then snapped his left wrist and recalled his weapon into its sword form. "Well, that was fun" Suichi said, sheathing his sword into its scabbard. "I wonder, though, how Shin will fare against the captain of these guards. They certainly weren't pushovers for the bandits, and those bandits weren't just weaklings like we've always met..."
Suichi ended his thoughts prematurely when he felt a disturbing, pulsing resonating pressure coming his way. A powerful opponent, no doubt, was just about to round the corner.
Oh damn Suichi thought. I need to get somewhere advantageous according to my own abilities. If I fight on a professional fighter's level I'm doomed. I can't even stand up to Shin's pressure for more than a minute! Suichi scanned his surrounding sand saw that the hallway did split where the end of the body pile seemed to be. He jumped over the majority of the corpses and then started running down the hall. Just as he left some new presence wandered into the scene of battle and became horrified.
"Great graciousness!" the captain of the militia guards shouted. He reeled back from the scene and began the motions to retreat, but stopped half-way when he saw the freshly decapitated bodies of two of his guards. "Wait a moment...these bodies are fresh. Most of them are, but these two exceptionally so." He walked in to inspect the bodies closer and looked them over. "I've never seen a wound like that. It's unprecedented. Very well. I suppose it is up to me to stop this killer before more havoc is wreaked!" With his adamant resolve the captain of the loyalist guard started running down the hall, carefully and fearfully stepping over the bodies as he went.
"GYAHA!!!!" the captain shouted as he threw open the door to a random room. No one was there, just a stock of lovely furniture and unused ornaments for the main rooms of the royal palace. "Not in here" he said. He shut the door, walked down the calming-colored carpeted hallway, and tried the next one. "GYAHA-...ah, it's frigid in here..." The captain now entered a room of stone walls, no carpets and strange furnishing. It seemed to be a study of sorts with a myriad of ornamental weapons strewn about the walls on exquisitely carved wooden racks.
"Not in here, I suppose" the captain said. "Ah, misfortune. I thought I left you for good. Well, I could use a break from my searching. I can't be winded when I finally find the culprit behind this mass slaughter!" The captain thusly made his way to a rather long couch and sat down on its with his hands folded in his lap like a proper old man. "Although, I don't know what this man looks like. That's right, I'm just running around with no clue at all. Hmm." With an oddly content smile on his face he began to relax and slouch back into his chair. Then the door slammed shut and a cold breeze kicked up.
"Wonder no more" Suichi said from parts of the room unknown. "I'm here now! Those bandits killed those men just now, as led by me!" The captain instantly rose up from his seat and placed a steady, waiting hand on the handle of his sheathed sword. He looked around intently, keeping on the toes of his metal boots, and waited for his enemy to speak again. Nothing.
"Who are you?" the captain demanded.
"Now, now" Suichi said condescendingly. "Upon my entrance I found the air in this room to be disgustingly stale. I assumed that since it had been abandoned for so long I could claim it as my own. I've never owned a home before, you know. I think I can make do with the space but the furnishing is far too flashy for my style..."
"...EH!?" the captain exclaimed. "What kind of cursed non-sequitor are you going on?"
"This is my home!" Suichi shouted, vice echoing from nowhere at all. "You are a guest, and a guest should introduce himself before demanding things from his host."
"Ah, I agree!" the captain said. He didn't relax his pose at all but at least bothered to put on a smile in his rough beard to appear more friendly. "My name is Kinden Shinbo, the Militia Captain of Xierd Leek! What am I to call you, may I ask?"
"Fair enough" Suichi complied. From far above, on the ceiling where an assassin would be comfortable, Suichi appeared out of a gathered tuft of mist that he summoned with his natural aural power to cling to him. He spun on his heels just before decent and pushed off the high-vaulted rafters as he drew out his sword with wide eyes. He had a quick death on his mind. Kinden, however, had the will and the strength to prevent that death. In a motion swifter than wind, their swords met. Suichi held his short stabbing sword with both hands and led it down with his feet. Kinden held his bastard sword up to block.
"I'm Suichi" Suichi said pleasently, admiring the strange new shape of the sword like those the guards carried.
"No family name?" Kinden asked. He suddenly pressed up and swung in an ascending arc, throwing Suichi across the room but not with such force that he couldn't recover. Suichi managed to land and held his sword in his right hand for defense.
"I don't really have a family" Suichi explained. "I'm just Suichi...the assassin."
"GUH!" Kinden shouted. He felt himself falter, his balance fell apart and his mind sank down into his chest for a moment. He nearly fell over, but he caught himself with a stomp. "An assassin!?" he said, his voice quaking oddly. "I thought...such people...that they had all died out with the times..."
"What?" Suichi asked quietly. "Well, the world is currently at turmoil with war, so of course there would be people like me in it who are willing to kill."
"So you're a mercenary?" Kinden asked, becoming strangely hopeful at his own suggestion.
"Most certainly not" Suichi said with a harsh hiss. Kinden started falling into his marked depression once more. Wait a minute, why does any of that matter? Why am I making small talk when I could be shoving my sword through this guy's skull!? "Aren't you going to try and stop me!?"
"Of course I'll try" Kinden said hopelessly, "but against a man who has been trained from birth to do nothing but kill and kill, what chance do I have!?!?!?"
He's hysterical Suichi thought. No, this is more like ignorant. "Tell you what. I won't kill you, even if I win, if you can do me a favor."
"I don't need your sympathy!" Kinden suddenly roared with anger. He took his sword, a hexagonal blade with a thick handle and a wide blade that ended in an angled point, and aimed it with one arm holding it out at Suichi's face. "Listen to me well! I do not know what tricks you magical warriors posses but they will do no good against me! I am a master with this blade, and its released form is nearly twice as deadly!"
"Really?" Suichi asked, feeling the blood pool in his head. "Then why don't you show it to me? This shikai of yours?"
"Not quite yet" Kinden growled. "I want to see if its normal form can win yet...so far I haven't had to rely on its released form as much, but why spoil a good thing? Now come, you magical, maniacal murderer! Come and fight me on equal terms!!!"
What does he think an assassin is? Suichi asked himself, squinting judgmentally at his foe. Regardless to his belief, Suichi blasted off from the ground in an explosive dash that stopped just short of Kinden's armored chest and shifted into defense when Kinden started swinging.
His style was just sloppy enough that Suichi could block his sword and move from side to side with ease. He would swing hard with one hand then make quick, sweeping strikes with both, switching off intermittently. With both hands the strikes were just as hard but quicker, and with only one hand Suichi found himself shaken by the startling amount of movement that Kinden threw out when swinging. He put all of himself, perhaps more, into each slice and stab he made and pushed Suichi around the large room as he fought.
I may have misjudged this guy Suichi thought, taking his shorter sword in both hands and leaping away to land in a defensive crouch. His power is something else. I can't find an opening to attack, either.
"HHRAH!" Kinden roared. He raised his sword high over his head and held it with both hands. Suichi's perception of his surroundings told him that there was a wall behind him and even that was within the swinging distance of this man's sword. To each side he saw beams of wood jutting just slightly from the wall.
I'm boxed in! Suichi realized. I have no choice! It's either that...or death!
"Die, assassin!!!" Kinden shouted. His sword flew down. Suichi could see death coming his way. The sword hit his skull, just a tap...
and he shattered into sparkling, icy dust!
"WHAT!?" Kinden shouted. "So this is you magical ability? Turning to ice, eh? I will still defeat you! I will defeat you even if I have to break apart all these shards! Huh!" With a manly grunt he raised his sword up and took it in both hands, the butt end gripped midway in his other hand as the handle was just too short for him to use in both hands fully, and started swinging with amazing speed.
So that's his secret Suichi thought. It has a strange design. He can't use it like a two-handed sword because the handle is too long but as a one-handed sword the overall structure is too heavy and unbalanced. He can increase his speed and accuracy with that half-grip... Suichi had used a difficult technique to instantly transmit himself to another point while leaving behind his own aura, concentrated down into its basic elemental structure. In his case, an ice sculpture. While Kinden hacked away at the broken fake, Suichi rested on the couch and gathered his inner strength to resupply his aura.
"HRAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Kinden roared, spinning and slashing with amazing verve but little intellect. What will the result of this foolish battle be? Most likely....
Bousekirensa: Spinning Chain
Kasui: Spike
Hateshinairensa: Endless Chain
