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.
Kinden was panting heavily, the icy air stinging and burning his throat. Suichi was lying back on a couch across the room, his presence still hidden by the blind-side of Kinden's own single-mindedness. His bastard sword was speckled with tiny flakes of snow and ice that had frozen into its metal structure. This was not Suichi's doing, just the biting deadly cold making itself known to the berserk swordsman.
"Damn you, assassin" Kinden growled with a raspy voice. "You have evaded me well! I can't say I'm unimpressed, being that you are such a powerful warrior, but I never expected you to curse my own sword just to gain an advantage! Pretty sneaky, Suichi!"
"I'm over here" Suichi called, lounging back on the couch. Kinden's eyes glared angrily. He started slowly turning around and when he saw the snow-covered floor around Suichi he pouted his lips and began spitting words.
"HOW'D YOU DO THAAAAAT!?" he shouted. Suichi sighed and kicked himself onto the floor, landing in a very low crouch with his right hand on the floor to balance his body and his left hand up over his head with the chain wrapped menacingly around his arm. He raised his head up and glared at Kinden from across the room, the straightened himself into a stand and pointed his left arm and hand forward while his right hand came up to his chest in an open palm.
"Lead me to the mercenary captain" Suichi demanded "or face an unparalleled demise."
"HA!" Kinden laughed. "Even if I wanted you to kill him, which I do, but don't tell anyone that, I would never betray the trust of the lord of this sacred villa!"
"You're an idiot" Suichi bluntly said.
"WHAT!?" Kinden shouted. "Why you, I'm going to remember that!!!" Kinden swung his sword forward, swirling his energy all around, preparing for a release. Suichi's combat instincts came out at once and he threw his chain out in its loose, whip form. It sailed through the air and stabbed at Kinden's face. The guard dodged and Suichi yanked the chain back and down. The chain came back and hit the edge of the sword, wrapping metal around metal and gripping Kinden's blade tight.
"Now I'll just get rid of that" Suichi said, grabbing his chain with both hands. He pulled hard, but Kinden's determined grip wouldn't allow his sword to budge an inch away. "Come on! Disarm!"
"I don't think so!" Kinden said. He made a long straining grunt while he dug his feet into the slippery, snow and ice covered floor and used both his hands, one in a half-grip, to swing his sword up and over his head, crashing it into the ground behind him. Suichi's chain reached its maximum tension and ripped through his hands.
"Hrr!" Suichi grunted. His hands were cut from the frozen metal ripping through them at such speed. That's right. I'm in just as much danger as Kinden is. While my body is immune to the cold that I created Haganerensa isn't. It's still a metal chain and can freeze to my skin...
"Got it" Suichi said. He made his chain limp, disengaged its release and let the whole thing drag back into the shape of a short blade which he sheathed in the scabbard behind his waist. Then he clapped his hands together twice and crouched down to put his palms to the floor.
"What are you doing?" Kinden asked. The chill in the room suddenly lifted and a normal temperature was attained. The ice melted so quickly that all the wood was severely warped and some of the stones cracked under the pressure of instantaneous climate change. All the ice and snow congregated around Suichi and sank into his skin, making him look like a living ice sculpture, translucent and smooth.
"A contingency spell" Suichi began "that I came up with after training under cover in a kido academy far to the north. I honed most of my kido skills while on that job and haven't forgotten or gotten rid of a single one! Can you determine what your own aura is?" Suichi's question puzzled simple Kinden.
"Aura?" Kinden asked. "As in my personality? My projection of my character? Surely, my aura is classified as 'MAN' with big, bold letters!"
"I can see from here" Suichi said "that yours is 'Combat', so you were about half right."
"Combat?" Kinden asked.
"If you don't know what combat is" Suichi began "I feel sad for the citizens of this town under your care."
"I know what combat is!" Kinden shouted. "I'm the captain of the guard! This prestigious little hamlet of Xierd Leek was founded as a safe haven from bandits and roaming vigilantes, a place where noble and upright people can live without fear of war or the terror of wild monsters like Hollow! It is my own sworn duty to protect all those who dwell in this town with my very life!!!"
"My aura is the element of 'Ice'" Suichi said, ignoring Kinden's spiritual speech. "It attributes to my cold-hearted profession, my moral abandon when I'm on the job. I feel no regret or remorse killing any man from any angle, so long as I get paid. That chilling sense of self I have is what powers my kido magic, my assassin's heart is what pumps my frozen blood through my body! You aura is that of combat, meaning you can't use or keep up with kido like any other man can. You can just sit back and watch while men like me, who are proficient in kido, tear the lives of the average people apart!"
"What...?" Kinden said in shock. So...this man is really here to kill the people? He wants to kill off the mercenaries so he and his bandit hoards can invade! What a terrible assassin he is! "You bastard! I won't let you get away with this! HAAAAAH!!!" Kinden started running forward with his sword held tight in its half-grip. He made a daring, powerful swing for Suichi's neck and saw that the blade had connected.
"Fuyuhada" Suichi said, finally naming this curious skill of his. The sword that hit his neck did nothing but, staying impacted on the shining surface of his ice-covered skin. Kinden tried to pull away, but claws of ice came crawling form Suichi's neck and froze the blade to his icy armor. "Anything that touches me will get a deadly touch of winter." Kinden was frightened. This strange magic was something he had never seen before in his life, and now he had to fight a man who claims to have mastered it to protect the lives of the innocent people!
"Get off!" Kinden ordered. He finally pulled away from the still Suichi and slammed his blade to the ground to shatter the ice that bound it. The metal of his blade clacked within the handle, prompting Kinden to take a grave notice of the status his sword was in. The constant shifting in temperature was taking its toll as well, and Kinden could see the wearing marks forming on the tip of his blade. Soon his sword would begin to crack and then it would break, unless he could manage to avoid anymore contact with Suichi's strange magical barrier.
I need to plan Kinden thought, retreating from the frozen Suichi. I can't just chop away at him. Even if my sword could escape in time to avoid getting trapped in his icy grip, it won't do any damage! If only I could melt that strange armor of his off, I could perhaps find a weak spot and attack him there! Suichi, meanwhile, could barely move at all to keep from compromising the fragility of his light-blue skin.
He's lost Suichi told himself. This technique was designed for Imperial Guard duty. It has no weak spots. If he had a fire aura and access to some more dangerous kido he could break my armor, but then I would get to move more. Right now I need to trick him into touching me with his skin. He'll freeze instantly and then I can shatter him into pieces. In the silence of their planning the wood continued to creak violently and some pieces broke apart. Suichi listened well and form his plan of attack. Simultaneously, Kinden took in the noise and planned on using it to his advantage.
"I may have to get serious" Kinden said "and release my sword to defeat you."
"It'd only be fair" Suichi said. "I've already used my shikai, why wouldn't you do it too?"
"I don't know" Kinden said. "HEY! Don't distract me with questions! I'm going to blast through that armor of yours, then I'll kill you!"
"If you say so" Suichi apathetically said. He brought his arms up and crossed them at his chest. The sticky properties of his ice made his kido armor fused his arms together with his chest. Kinden rose his sword high over his head, gripping hard with his right hand and keeping the half-grip of his left hand loose and relaxed. He took a stomping step forward and swung his sword hard into the floor. Splintered wood and flooring shrapnel shot up into the air. Kinden yanked his body forward with his sword as a lever and found a particularly large piece of wood to shoulder into.
"Ugh!" Suichi grunted, his face wincing with pain very slowly. The wood hit right above his crossed arms right between his pecs. Kinden reeled forward and slammed his fist into the wood, punching Suichi indirectly.
Damn! Suichi thought as he felt the soft pain. I didn't count on him being this smart! That's the trouble with combat-type shinigami, they learn how to overcome their disadvantages quickly and aren't above tricky tactics! The punch wasn't hard, not through the armor, but the fact that Suichi felt it was worrying. There were pieces of furniture and other ornamental things on the wall that would easily crush Suichi's unguarded bones if thrown hard enough. It would only be a matter of time until his armor was destroyed and his body was vulnerable.
I've got him now! Kinden thought loudly. He's vulnerable to wood! At his astute observation the guard captain took his sword back in his grip and ran over to the wall where the majority of ornamental shields and decorative weapons were hung. He thrust his sword deep into the wood and wrenched a huge slab of warped lumber out of the stone framing of the wall. Suichi was openly grimacing and decided to attack rather than defend against an undefendable. His armor cracked and broke off at all his important joints for moving and he began running with his arms crossed in an X in front of his face.
One attack Suichi thought is all I need to land.
"Die, assassin!" Kinden shouted. He pushed the wood toward Suichi, who ran around it and dodged, then he swung at Suichi with his sword. Again the tip got stuck on the ice, but this time it was stuck in the palm of Suichi's hand. With a grin Suichi grabbed the blade and squeezed, hastening the freezing process. A sharp, pointed block of ice quickly formed in the shape of a lovely, ice-blue peony.
"Whatever I touch" Suichi reminded Kinden "gets a lethal dose of WINTER CHILL!!!" Suichi reached out while Kinden leaned as far back as he could. The only thing within Suichi's reach now was Kinden's beard, so he simply touched it with the tips of his fingers and the hairs froze solid. Frost worked its way up his beard and a numbing chill stung at his chin.
"Grrr!" Kinden growled. He abandoned his life-guarding defense and made a kick. Instinctively, but some miricle of blind accuracy, Kinden hit right where Suichi's armor was cracked and delivered a shock of startling pain through Suichi's knee. Suichi stopped for just a moment and loosened his grip on the sword just enough for the ice to break.
"No!" Suichi exclaimed. Kinden wrenched his sword out of Suichi's grip and looked down at him with a glaring grin. "Shi-!" Suichi began, but was unable to finish. Kinden took his sword to Suichi's protected throat and lunged forward in a long jump. Suichi was pushed across the room and into the opposite wall. His armor was cracked and steam from the ice hissed out from the bare spot that was his entire head and upper chest. "I underestimated him...I seem to do that a lot..."
"Looks like my options are dried up" Suichi said as he staggered up, leaning against the wall. Kinden started rushing in with his sword drawn at his side. Suichi decided to make the best of what was left of his armor and loosened all his joints for maximum movement. He leaped over the first swing and made a kick for Kinden's face. The old man nimbly jumped back with his sword dragging across the rippled wood. He dug the sword into the wood again and launched splinters of it into the air. Suichi skid to a stop with several pieces of wood hitting his body. Kinden dropped his sword and punched and kicked each piece of wood until it broke apart. Then he back-flipped, taking his sword back into his hands, and watched the cracks form into solid white dents in the ice.
"Dammit" Suichi sighed. "This isn't getting me anywhere!" Suichi drew out his blade and attempted to release it, but Kinden was swiftly upon him with his blade. Suichi remembered the wall behind him and jumped high onto it, sticking to the warped wood with his icy feet.
"Now, Coil endlessly, Haganerensa!" Suichi quickly said. His sword was released into his right hand and he jumped off the wall, leaving behind some of the ice from the soles of his feet. He landed just as Kinden rushed in, took his chain in both hands, and stopped a head-slicing slash right above his skull. The pressure of the sword was great. He tightened the chain and pushed the sword away with a bounce. Kinden's leg lifted up by an inch off the floor. Suichi noticed and took advantage of his off-balance by stabbing with the spike of his chain. He connected and shattered Kinden's breastplate in an instant.
"What!?" Kinden shouted.
"The rocks are all cracked" Suichi began, "the wood is all warped, even your sword is showing wear from the cold. Did you think your armor was immune to that kind of climate shift?"
"Yes!" Kinden said in utter surprise. The weight of his sword dragged him down. He started falling backwards, an advantage Suichi took by connecting a punch with Kinden's hairy chest. The hair and some of the skin stuck to Suichi's ice as he withdrew his fist. "YAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Kinden roared in pain. He could feel hot blood coming form his freezing cold wounds. Suichi retreated as Kinden made a final sweeping strike with his blade just before contacting the floor with his back.
"That was lucky for me" Suichi said, breathing hard. He clutched his hand and melted the ice where the skin and hair was stuck. "I think I'm just about done with this armor, though. It was useful to a point...but all the water in my body has either perspired and frozen into the suit or has just plain frozen inside me. I'm nearly dead as it is..." Suichi crossed his arms and crunched his abs as Kinden rose up to his feet once again, wondering what his magical adversary was up to now.
"RAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!!" Suichi roared. He shot his arms out and chest up, and his armor exploded in a mystifying cloud of white snowy mist. With the wave of his hand the collective ice shrapnel was thrown onto the wall, creating a clear wall of ice that encased long scrolls and pearl-handled spears that were hung so carefully in the dangerously splintered wood. Suichi's skin was blue all over in blotted patches. Most of it was pale and tender looking. The skin on his forehead, particularly the area around his major veins, had broken and he was now bleeding a small crown of blood.
"Shall we continue?" Suichi asked, raising up his chained right hand and opening the palm towards Kinden. "I've still got enough life in me to use my shikai."
"Very well" Kinden said, "so do I!"
Here it comes Suichi thought. If you have any tricks you want to show me, Haganerensa, I'd be glad to see them. Kinden's stance wasn't markedly different. He stood with his sword held in both hands as much as they would both hold, squaring his legs against Suichi and pointing his blade at his face.
"Impossible Grip!" Kinden shouted. He stepped forward and made a theatric swing, which an off-white and gray-bordered aura followed. "The weight of a true man's heart!" Another step, another swing, and now he stepped in a short circle patter while spinning his blade overhead. "Swing Forth! DREIHANDER!!!" With his incantation haiku over, he stood in his stance, his right leg forward and left leg squared off to the side. The sword had lengthened and grown wide, becoming seemingly impossibly heavy for a single-hand grip or in Suichi's case any sort of grip. The handle was much longer as well, this time so long that it required a third hand to hold properly. The blade pointed forward, directly at Suichi, with Kinden's right hand gripping just below the long, broad silver-studded metal guard and his left gripping near the pommel end of the hilt.
"Now we shall test true steel against steel!" Kinden growled.
"I guess we will" Suichi said. He too a pose, keeping his right hand forward with fingers pointed at Kinden, head down to the level of his hand, left hand drawn back and fingers curled, legs spread apart and set parallel to his arms. I'm seriously screwed unless you decide to help me for once! Suichi thought to his partner, the spirit in his sword.
Fuyuhada: Winter Skin
Dreihander: German for 'Three-Handed Sword'.
