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.
Into the woods these fighters ran, avoiding the open air and the deathly clouds that loomed so high overhead, black and cackling skulls that flew slowly through the sky. Jin and Senshi fought less and less the deeper into the dark woods they ran. Senshi eventually lost sight of the menacing man and found himself surrounded by darkness as the clouds drained the last light from the sky and the rain began.
Egads! Senshi thought. He's taken me straight into a trap! The brush behind him rustled with the flight of some large creature. Senshi did not start or turn, but his eyes did drift into their narrowed corners and his hand sought the hilt of his blade. I shall not let this miscreant warrior best me in a match of might of will! I am a fearless soldier, bound to sacred oath and pact, sworn to-
Jin grabbed Senshi's ankle from the cover of the brush and yanked him into the darkness. Senshi let out a squeal not unlike a woman shrieking for a moment. Jin rose up to his full height and threw Senshi with all the whipping force and torque in his arm and thick, powerful chest into a tree which dented against his pressure of impact. Jin growled as Senshi fell down to the ground and roared in the dark. Senshi pushed himself up to his feet and turned around. Jin was already upon him with his blade held high up. Senshi flash-stepped away and let Jin cleave the injured tree in half down the middle.
"GAAAHH!!!" Jin roared. He whipped his head around and searched for Senshi, stomping into the darkness and sinking down to crawl around with long pulls of his arms and pushes of his legs, like a demonic serpent searching blindly for a rodent to devour. "Where....are you?" he hissed. Senshi had taken to the boughs of a tree and watched Jin move across the dim, shadowy ground from a safe distance.
He's absolutely mad Senshi thought. His spiritual pressure proves that. There isn't a thing right about that boy which I'd claim to know. However, his madness seems to be an attribute of his strength, or perhaps the other way around. And his body, it is permeable in the strangest way! As long as it is within his mind, nothing can harm him. Therefore, I must attack outside his mind! I must initiate the release of my sword post-haste! Senshi stood up on the branch and jumped away, giving the tree only the quietest creaking and rustle as he fled. Within a moment Jin had rammed the tree and was shaking it madly. When he realized his prey wasn't there he rushed off into the brush to continue his search, listening intently to his surroundings.
Where is he? Jin wondered. Is he still here? Did he vanish into the rain? Jin wandered into a clearing and saw Senshi standing with his sword out, clutched in one hand with the palm of his other hand pressed against the blunt edge of the blade. Jin brought himself into view and stilled himself. He waited for his prey to notice him, for any trace of a visual cue, and then he would pounce before the rush of flight completely overcame his haughty animal foe. Jin took another crawling length forward, pulling himself with his arm and grabbing the wet grass in a tight not. Senshi looked upon him and smiled.
"Checkmate, lad!" Senshi said. Jin pulled his legs up underneath his belly and pounced into the air. Senshi sidestepped him and let him crash into a tree behind him. Jin splintered and split the tree with his weight, then casually stepped off of it and walked the rest of the way to Senshi who stood with both hands ready on the hilt of his sword. Jin smiled madly and wound his sword up across his chest. Then he swung. A powerful, mighty blow that shook the rain from the grass and carved a clean, brown slice of earth from the ground around the steadfast Senshi. His eyes widened at the shaking pain in his arms from blocking such a mighty blow, and almost immediately his arms went numb. Jin, with his arm still swung wide to the side, stepped in and kicked Senshi square in his chest, throwing him back against a tree.
"Uff!" Senshi groaned. He settled onto the ground and was stomped in place by Jin's powerful foot. Jin ground him down, stomping his foot down onto his waist and laughing lightly.
"Checkmate?" Jin said. "What's that? Sounds stupid. You're stupid! Hehehe!" Jin pressed down harder and harder until he heard something in Senshi snap. Then the blond man gave a mute gasp of pain and collapsed against the ground. Jin continued laughing evilly, his bangs limp before his face and his eyes angled with a deep furrow of his brow, as he crushed Senshi's body beneath his heel.
Then the man vanished in a puff of smoke and Jin's foot smashed into the ground. Jin was confused.
"Looking for me?" Senshi asked, his voice coming from behind. Jin turned around and saw the man, the very same man with his sword still held and his body still in a perfect, muscular, manly condition staring him down with one eyebrow raised. "Bet you didn't see this coming at all, did you?" Senshi spun his sword around his body, stepped back and posed with an open palm flared out by the tip of his blade. His arm was fully extended along the blade of his sword and the arm that wielded it was tensed back with the power charged to stab.
"Gemini Thrust!" Senshi stepped forward and stabbed his sword forward. Jin's flesh rippled away from a small, powerful puncture point and burst open like the soft, muddy clay it imitated. His inner body was exposed and dripping down with wet, thick patches of flesh-colored mud-like skin flowing from him. He coughed and winced as he fell to his knees. Senshi brought his sword in both hands up by his shoulder and held it steady, waiting for his animal foe to recover, as he knew he would. Jin grabbed at the running muddy remains of his blown-away flesh and reeled his head up with a roar.
"UUURAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Jin's emotions ran red with fury and rage...
Suichi's metal chain whip crashed and slashed across the blade of brave and errant Horoshi rapidly, throwing his weight with each tug that his sword gave. He hopped to and fro, guided by the frantic energy of combat. His young body was still so unadjusted to the reality of combat that he let Suichi guide the fight, and he guided it in the ideal way for an assassin to fight. He was luring his defenses away while maintaining his low presence, biding his time for the ideal moment when he would strike.
Horoshi was furious, driven to fight and swing and defend with a powerful rage. Despite his better instincts against throwing his weight into each swing he did, powering through the whips of Suichi's chain with the sheer force of his driven rage.
He's a bit uncontrolled Suichi thought. With his left hand assailing and his right hand free he breathed out a concentrated, frozen breath and began to gather his energies. I can finish this now...
"Koori Kumo!" At Suichi's call the forest path was covered with haze. His chain slithered into the shadows of the trees as he retreated, leaving Horoshi alone to defend against the encroaching cold that surrounded him. His rage kept him warm as he searched for the movement of a shadow in the cold, icy mist as it billowed and blew in the rainy winds.
"Where are you?" Horoshi growled. "I'll find you! You aren't the only one with Kido!" Horoshi stabbed his blade into the ground and clapped his hands together. Lights emanated from his fingertips and he threw those lights into the air above him. The lights flickered and sparkled brightly in the thick, shivering fog. He clapped his hands together again and formed a bright ball of light as his palms parted. He took that ball of light in his hand and threw it higher than the other lights above him where it stayed suspended above. Then, with his hands clasped together and fingers netted across each other, he incanted.
"Reunite the lost and the wandering, the distant and the strange, with this Earth, the next, and one yet undiscovered. Bring forth a revelation to the skies and to the flowers on the ground as both dance with the lights of heaven's blessing. Seven heavens, seven hells! Year after year! Hikoboshi Keiro!!!" The lights that hung above him exploded into bright, white, celestial orbs that spread out over the forest and illuminated all the scenery in a glistening silver hue. Horoshi picked up his sword and looked up to the blinding light. He was entranced by the light as it shined and brightened the area.
Some kind of revealing spell? Suichi wondered. Whatever. My fog is dying. I have to act fast... Suichi appeared from the treeline opposite where he entered, across the road, with his sword in its regular form, held in a reverse grip. He came in low, close to the ground, and crawled up behind Horoshi. He stepped up to his full height and rose up his blade, aimed for the boy's back. Horoshi glared and spun around with an attack. Suichi blocked and slid away at its power. He reset himself for battle and dodged Horoshi's incoming stab. Suichi landed nearby and attacked again, releasing his sword silently into a chain around his right arm for defense.
"Don't try to screw with me" Horoshi demanded, his voice booming through the bright air, amplified by the light of the stars. "I may be a kid, but as you can see, I'm a lot stronger than I look!"
"I never said otherwise, did I?" Suichi said, his voice just as loud in the clear, silver air as Horoshi's. Horoshi turned and aimed his sword at the assassin with a snarl.
"The Tenshioni" he began "does not accept weaklings. The warriors at our summit are selected through painstaking searching and consideration by an unseen power. Our body is governed only by the strongest of our members, and under his shadow only the most privileged men may follow! I am one such man! Netami is our strongest leader, our strongest warrior, the strongest shinigami in the land of the Seireitei!! I won't disgrace him so swiftly by losing to an honorless man like you!!!"
"Honor is always an abstract concept with me" Suichi said "but not because I don't understand it. It's because I'm an assassin, so you think I simply don't have it. Isn't honor something one can learn just as well as combat?" Suichi grabbed the chain as it extended off of his finger and wrapped it around his hand. He held the chain at the length of his arm and straightened with the command "Hold!" The chain in his hand was solid and firm. Horoshi charged in and attacked Suichi's chain, expecting it to bend under the weight of his powerful swing, but it didn't move. Not even the link which Horoshi's blade pressed against shifted from its position. Suichi grinned and pushed Horoshi away.
"RAGH!" Horoshi roared. He stepped in and swung rapidly, powerfully, in broad strokes left and right, over his head and down while Suichi blocked with his singe arm with the solid chain saber in his hand.
"Haganerensa has only the form of a chain" Suichi explained. "How that form is used is up to me and my mind. The possibilities for attacking with this weapon are as limitless as they are deadly. It suits me as an assassin and as a warrior perfectly, wouldn't you say?"
"Shut up!" Horoshi growled. He took both hands to his sword and managed to pull Suichi's arm to the side. He ground his foot against the dirt with a twist and kicked Suichi in his lower abdomen, forcing him back. Suichi regained his bearings just as Horoshi came in with a deep swing coming over his shoulder. Suichi blocked it, extended his middle finger in his free hand and jabbed it with a punch up into Horoshi's gut. His skin buckled and his stomach was pushed from outside. He shouted and charged ahead again, this time with a short headbutt into Suichi's chest. Suichi was stunned by the absurdity of the attack so much that he didn't notice how low Horoshi was holding his sword, parallel to the ground and ready to coast up into a stab.
Oh damn Suichi cursed. "Damn!" Horoshi stabbed through him, withdrew his blade and kicked Suichi's body back. He staggered across the dirt and backed into a tree standing in the bright, ethereal pathway clearing. Horoshi brushed the hair from his face and sneered at Suichi.
"Come one, you back-stabber" he taunted, provoking Suichi to descend his face in anger. "Let's see what honor you've learned...." Suichi pushed himself away from the tree and gripped his chain sword tight. He wiped the blood from his mouth and straightened himself out to fight again, ignoring the pain of the wound in his gut...
"Interesting!" Kakugari exclaimed as Hoji's claws swept and slashed and ripped across his blocking blade. "Very interesting! You fight with the ferocity of an animal!"
"Tch!" Hoji scoffed. He kicked the blade away, slid into range in a spiraling motion across the wet grass and backhanded Kakugari in his floating rib. "But I have the intelligence of a goddamn MAN!" Hoji stabbed his fingers skin-deep into Kakugari's stomach and was kicked away. He looked up at the dark-skinned man, a full head taller than he, with a hissing, scathing growl. "Tch! What's the fun of fighting without experimentation?"
"I agree!" Kakugari proclaimed. He made a sweeping strike with his sword, running it across the ground and slicing it straight up from the mud and grass. The rain flew up from the ground in an arc of droplets and flew at Hoji. He vanished and the wave of energy fractured the bark of the trees behind him as Kakugari's powerful attack flew through the air. Kakugari set his sights up through the trees and jumped, right into Hoji's attack. He was punched square in his nose and thrown through the air along the canopy of leaves. He focused his energy in his feet and caught the leaves as a continuous, solid surface, standing on top of them without wavering in the wind that shook them.
The rain was falling freely. Hoji ran through the air with his claws pulling him along, like a tiger sprinting after its prey, and stopped in front of Kakugari's drawn blade. He threw an open palm with bladed finger claws at the blade and grabbed it. Then he pulled himself around to the other side of the sword and kicked Kakugari in his stone-hard neck. Kakugari took his free hand and grabbed Hoji's leg to slam him down through the trees they fought on.
"Like hell!" Hoji shouted. He let go and wound his gauntlets around each other, summoning a sudden gust of wind that knocked Kakugari off his balance and opened a hole in his footing. His leg was thrust down through the hole in the leaves and his balance was lost, but his arrogant grin remained and his guard was steady. Hoji punched into his sword blocks as he fell, drifting down to the ground and leaving the current battle for the more static and steady dirt below while Hoji assaulted his retreat.
"In physical combat" Hoji said "I'm without rival.....except Shin, and only if we're both completely disarmed and his spirit-pressure is part of the battle...but otherwise, you're ass is mine!" Hoji dove down through the leaves and smashed into the ground with an upthrust of dirt and debris around him as his fist made a crater at his feet. Kakugari waited for him to be up again and attacked. His long sword swung in powerful, sweeping strikes but remained controlled and precise. His blade didn't swing too far from its mark in the forest and it didn't dare to harm the trees everywhere. His only target was Hoji and his attacks relentlessly followed the manic fighter as he blocked and leaped around the swings. Hoji planted his feet and wound his arm down past his hips and whipped it upright to his side to block Kakugari's sword with a loud blast of metal-on-metal and a gust of wind. He scowled and grabbed the sword, jerking it and stabbing it into the ground. He took a running step forward, hopped onto the sword as Kakugari abandoned it and took up his arms, and Hoji delivered a flying kick to his blocking, thick arms.
"What vigor!" Kakugari proclaimed. "And what grace! You fight like a dancer, or are you dancing like a fighter? The winds are your subject audience to the swaying emotions of your brilliant form!"
"Shut up!" Hoji demanded. He jabbed with his fingers pressed together in a flat, bladed palm and a blade of air hit Kakugari's exposed side. Hoji drew both arms back and planted his feet firmly to the dirt. He rapidly, blurringly jabbed and stabbed his clawed hands into the air, pushing spear after spear of wind into Kakugari in an unending assault, roaring the whole time. "HHHRARARARARARARARARA!!!!"
I was complimenting him Kakugari noted as he blocked the blades of air with the rippling, dark flesh of his powerful arms. Does he not follow my poetic language? Perhaps I should tone down my combative vernacular...
"TCH!" Hoji exclaimed. His final punch blew Kakugari against a tree, stunning him and his grin for just the moment Hoji needed. He picked Kakugari's sword up from the ground and threw it pommel-first at the man's body. Kakugari caught it and wound it back in the same motion, preparing to attack the moment Hoji would charge in. Hoji did not charge in, however. He stayed standing, his fists tensed and his muscles tightly flexed all over, with a heinous glare on his face.
"Is that all you have in you?" Kakugari asked as he pushed himself forward from the tree. "A lot of sound and fury to signify some defiant struggle against a greater power? You really are an animal, aren't you? Bearing your fangs when trouble corners you and your claws and teeth cannot help you escape it. Maybe not a tiger, but perhaps some feeble prey animal!"
"Shut up" Hoji lowed. He closed his eyes, clasped his palms together and twisted his wrists around to net his fingers together as his arms were spiraled around each other. Hoji took a measured breath and blew it into his knotted fists. The winds began spinning around his fists between the spaced where his arms parted and the open air. Kakugari gazed at Hoji's ritual and saw the winds whipping as the rain formed a spinning wheel around his fists. Hoji kept blowing his breaths into the wheel, spinning it faster and faster, gathering the power of the winds around his fists.
Then the forest became quiet. The rain fell silently and the winds vanished. All of them had gathered into Hoji's air-tight grip between the coiled palms of his hands. Hoji opened his eyes with a glare of gold. Fierce and flashing animal eyes shot through the dark and stunned Kakugari in his place.
"Shinkuuken ARASHI!!!!!" Hoji opened his palms with his arms straight up and straight down. A silent boom ripped through the darkness and a flurry of invisible, airless blades roared from the opening Hoji's hands made. Kakugari brought up his blade to block in no given direction and against no single attack, but in the abstract hope that it would intercept more of the attacks than it would guide into him. The winds curled around his sharp sword and blasted into him, carving bloody cuts all over his body, from his head down to his feet, as the vacuum-blade explosion tore apart the trees and ripped apart the ground all in Hoji's wake.
"Tch" Hoji scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What kind of man gets blown over by the wind?" Kakugari was silent. He stood with his sword still out, the shining blade the only part of him that wasn't wet with blood and rain and mud. He gathered his energies to move again, though his grin had faded with the pain that was brought....
Finally, they stopped at the crest of a hill, and parted their blades. Shin stepped back with a swing of his sword down to cast off the rain that had gathered on it. Netami swung his sword out and blew a breeze down the hill with its force. The warriors stared each other down with a building, silent fury boiling just under their skin. Netami was eager to fight, but Shin showed his apathy. He slung his sword over his shoulder and loosened his stance with a yawn.
"Let's introduce ourselves" Shin said "before one of us dies, alright?" Netami did not falter. His face was covered on one side by his long, curtain of black hair and shaded on the other by dark, evil shadows. "I'm Shin Kenpachi, warrior and general badass man. I hail from Seireitei originally, the Zaraki district if my memory serves me well, and my only current quest is to fight you." Shin waited in the rain and darkness, eventually shifting his feet and offering the floor to Netami with a wave of his hand. "Now it's your turn."
"I have nothing to say" Netami said, ignoring the irony that made Shin smirk. He took his sword in his left hand and gripped it low on the hilt with his right. Shin realized then that he was left handed and matched his mental preparations for strategy accordingly. Shin lowered his sword and stepped forward, profiling his body to Netami's with his sword lazily aimed forward. Netami drew himself back in a liquid body movement and his sword up high, the blade level and flat so that the rain was sliced as it dripped onto it. He held it poised at his shoulder level and glared at Shin with his burning, orange eyes. Shin rolled his shoulders and whipped his head back to adjust his wet bangs. He was ready, as hard as it was to believe.
A crash of thunder and lightning lit the plains around them. The grass glistened with the rain for a moment and the distant forest seemed illuminated with a strange and foreign light. Shin waited for the first move to be made. Then, seeing no movement, he made it with a dash and a quick chop for Netami's exposed side. Netami blocked the blade high by by turning his sword in his hands. Shin continued the attack and powered through Netami's block by sliding his sword off from his and kicked him with a knee. Netami slid away from the knee, spun around and swung his sword just away from Shin's body, just out of reach. Shin furrowed his brow and leaped away as the ground he stood on was cut apart. He had avoided the attack. Netami took his sword in his left hand, curled his left arm and swung it down straight so the blade barely met the grassy ground. All the grass around him fell.
What is he just that powerful Shin thought or is it his sword? Shin looked up at Netami's glaring eyes. He found no emotion in them but unrequitted hatred. He's not going to tell me, obviously, so I'll just avoid it as best I can. Netami turned the blade at Shin and swung up, a very improper and taunting swing. Shin read into the move and saw the rain in front of him sliced into droplets as it fell. He dodged to the side and felt the air move with violent speed. Netami flash-stepped ahead and intercepted Shin. They traveled down the hill, exchanging short blows, Shin with his one lazy arm swinging powerful, mocking blows into Netami's quick two-handed guard. They reached a flat length of ground at the base of the hill and Netami stopped them with a step forward and an overhead pressing swing of his blade. Shin held his defense and dodged to the side, blocking another attack by Netami's sword aimed low and a spinning attack that went from shoulder to hip.
"Nice follow-through" Shin said as the ground was split open and dirt flew out from under the grass. Shin stepped in and began to fight seriously. He stabbed and gripped his sword with his left hand. Another stab and Netami dodged. Shin's sword was close enough to make a shallow cut so he pushed with his back and shoulders to carry the tip of the sword down. Netami read the move and blocked with his blade pointed down, still held in both hands curled to the right side of his body. From that pose Netami crouched down, brought his blade to his right side, and held it like he was about to draw it out. Shin read his move. It was undodgable, but not unblockable, and he brought the strength of both his hands to his sword to block the attack.
"HYAH!" Netami roared. He lunged forward and swung his blade in a flashing crescent slice which lingered in the air as a glimmer of light around his body. Netami lowered his sword and stood up again. He turned his head to the left, the direction his attack carried trough, and saw Shin still traveling across the ground. He had blocked the attack and was thrown by the sword up the hill along the ground. His feet kicked up all the cut grass and dirt and mud that Netami's blade had made. Netami grinned and chased after him with his blade held in its formal style near his right shoulder.
My arms are numb Shin realized. That attack was too brutal. I shouldn't have tried to block it so bluntly!
Then you could die spoke Shikei form within and not worry about the difficulties of fighting anymore... Shin snarled. He stopped himself with a stomp and swung his blade off to the side. The feeling in his arms returned once more, just in time to engage Netami's charge and retaliate with a kick. Netami blocked his foot with his knee and pushed his blade to the ground, pinning it with his in his right hand. Shin followed his left hand, which was open before him, and saw a dark gathering of energy around it.
"Makai Myaku" At his low incant, a silent, invisible blast echoed from his hand and shook Shin from within. His organs were hit with a spiritual wave and stunned him off his guard. Netami took his blade up casually and kicked his foot into Shin. It sank into his stomach and he picked him up with a straight leg. Shin curled up over his leg and coughed on the ground to the side of his pantleg.
"Scuse me" Shin groaned. Netami whipped his leg around and threw Shin back down to the flat plain where he rolled and dropped his sword to better get a hold of the ground and groan in pain. "Feels like I took a punch to the lungs...and heart!" Shin coughed again and looked up. Netami was slowly returning to the field, a grim smile across his face. Shin took up his sword and held it tight and forward, ready to fight.
You're holding it wrong Shikei said. Shin looked down at his hands, right over left, both close together but with enough space to manipulate leverage, primary hand guarded by the round guard shaped like a flattened skull.
No I'm not Shin argued.
Summon your strength, Shin Shikei commanded. There is no reason to fight without it now... Shin was silent. Netami's foot hit the flat plain and he stopped, taking sudden notice to Shin's new pose. His sword was held with the hilt in his left and and by the blade in his right.
"Reaping time" Shin called, "Shikei!" His sword transformed in a morphing spiral of black, hollow energy into a mighty, silver-bladed scythe. Shin spun it over his head in a powerful circle and swung it down into position, blade pointed forward, shaft diagonal from the ground running past his left hip and over his lowest right rib. One hand low and to the left, the other high and held off to the right. Shin's hair changed as well. It was no longer weighted by the rain but freely standing and moving in a silken trail after his head whichever way it went. "It's just getting good, you know" Shin said. Netami grinned and presented his right palm that swirled with the same hellish gathering of dark energy as his left did before.
"Of course..." he said with a smug, dark grin. "Men like us refuse to die easily. That's why we're hated."
"Don't speak for me, man" Shin said. "I'm a celebrity to most bandits." Netami charged in. Shin charged as well. Their weapons met with a crash, muted by the blast of thunder and lighting which streaked the black sky!
Koori Kumo: Ice Cloud
Hikoboshi Keiro: (Hikoboshi is the Japanese name for the star Altair in the Summer Triangle Constelation and is celebrated during Tanabata to honor a myth of the Milky Way. Keiro means path.)
Shinkuuken Arashi: Vacuum Blade Storm
Makai Myaku: Hell Pulse (Makai, Jigoku, Naraku are all names for Hell)
