A few minutes later another of those androgynous-ly beautiful elves came in and announced that it was time for my first single-match. I walked out onto the field to face a tall knight in armor who was as slim as a rapier and looked just as tough. I didn't make the mistake of equating skinny and pretty with weak however... my Captain was Byakuya Kuchiki after all, and no-one who'd ever fought with him or seen him fight would ever again equate pretty boy with defenseless.
We bowed to each other and the queen called the beginning of the match.
The guy was fast I'd give him that, I barely even sensed him move before his sword was almost on me. I blocked by reflex and then turned and blocked again. Unlike with my Captain I didn't even have the slight advantage of having studied all of his movements and pauses, I was pretty much flying blind here. I didn't want to access Snakeys speed just yet though, I wanted to see how far I could make it on my own strength before I went to my sword for help. I vaguely sensed a wave of approval from Babs for the thought even as I dodged and swerved out of the way of his blade. The elf himself was nothing but a blur of movement. A blur and a pause as the blade drove in, that pause was just enough to give me time to block his strike. I couldn't even get a fix on him, so trying to fire off a Denkou-hou was out of the question.
:Maybe I can herd him?: I thought.
It was worth a shot, I could only move this form of Zabimaru in one direction right then so if I used a Hado spell to make him move one way I could have my blade waiting for him. I was terrible at Kido but there it was...
I concentrated a small collection of my power in my minds eye, feeling within me a ball of power gather in at my central chakra waiting for me. Unlike before, when Zabimaru had had to put bindings on me, this collection of reiatsu was not flickering and struggling and trying to go everywhere at once like a monkey trying to escape its cage. This ball of power was more controlled and regulated, the energy in it concentrating and shielding itself after only a little bit of effort on my part, waiting for me to do with it what I willed. Maybe this time... maybe this time there was an actual chance that the spell wouldn't backfire on me! I carefully poured a little bit more power into it than I normally did and the orb expanded, but didn't start to struggle against me!
"Oh ruler, mask of flesh and blood." I chanted under my breath, beginning to weave the collected reiatsu into the opening lines of the spell.
"All Creations of the Universe, fluttering wings."
To my near shock I moved into the second movement of the spell without even having to gloss over the bits that I usually missed because my reiatsu was jumping out everywhere. This could actually work.
"You who bears the name of man! Scorching heat, take steps to the South!"
I felt the energy gathering in, coiling tight, like a snake about to spring, with the final movements of the spell. I released with a shout of
"War Cannon!"
A flaming ball of red shot out from my hand and I couldn't contain a grin of exultation as, for once, the spell didn't backlash on me! I took a visceral delight in the explosion that happened a moment later when the ball, though missing the living target, hit the ground behind him. I flashed to the side that the knight reflexively dodged to, knocked at his shoulder with the flat of Zabimaru even as I grabbed his wrist, and used his momentum to send him flying over my bent back. The Knight made a choked-off noise of surprise when he (or maybe it was a she) hit the turf. I wasted no time in bringing Zabimaru around to bear on him (or her). He blocked with his blade of course, but I had him at a disadvantage and I meant to keep him there, so I kept striking and didn't let up. He rolled to the side, trying to regain his feet and that was when I decided to do it.
I poured power down into my blade letting it glow with a blue white light like the heart of a star, lightning frissioned off from its edge, even as I gathered more power and the wind kicked up around me. I flashed in and struck multiple times, the knight just barely managing to keep his guard up though each consecutive strike caused him some damage. I pulled strength from the blade and knocked him high into the air.
Haah! I called as power and lightning whirled around me, gathering in at the tip of the diamond-head of my blade in a halo of diamond light.
"Denkou-hou!" I yelled, releasing the power at his still air-borne form.
It struck perfectly. The form went limp and fell to the ground in a heap. I gingerly went over and nudged it with the toe of my boot, worried that I'd done more serious damage than I had intended. The form groaned and a pair of elves wearing matching mint-green robes came out bearing what looked like an elaborate stretcher. Nice to see that they were prepared.
"Victory! To the mortal!"
There were gasps of surprise and shock and a number of them didn't look happy about it. I wondered breifly if I shouldn't have maybe thrown the match or something, this was after all, their Realm. Then I realized the reason why so many were unhappy a moment later as I saw silk purses exchanging hands rapidly.
:I guess some things are universal,: I thought with amusement.
Betting on the victors in sparring matches was one way that no-ranks liked to spend their time and paychecks in Seireitei too.
Isana gave out a cheer and a loud, shrill whistle from her fingers. Were we at a sporting event?
The next contestant, a knight in green walked out onto the field. I brought my sword around eagerly. We bowed. We began...
I'd love to say I won all of my matches, but as hard as I fought in all of them, that simply might not have been possible. many of those fighters I sensed, had been around for centuries and had had probably forgotten more than I had had the opportunity to learn.
Zabimaru seemed to have quite a bit for me to learn by the end of the day however, and we made strides in our working together and my utilization of his skills and full potential. He concentrated mainly on refining my technique and speed with the Denkou Hou, the Raikou Enjin, and the borrowing of snakeyt's super-speed. He was looking at the matches more as training opportunities, and when you train with a new set of skills, since you are in fact learning, it is impossible to be a victor at all times. Ya gotta loose some ta make gains, it was just the way it was. The elves in the stands didn't seem entirely displeased when one of their own lost to a mortal Soul Reaper some of them even cheered for me, part of that I was betting, was because they had vendetta's against the particular knights I'd been fighting at the time. I'd never been in a tourney before so it was kinda neat when they threw flowers. Some even threw what looked like coins and the inevitable handkercheif. I knew better than to pick those up, knowing my luck it'd be some kind of elven betrothal ritual or something.
Still, I won the majority of the matches which seemed to be enough to have them all declare me the winner and I was awarded the prizes. Well, I was awarded prizes in Isana's name. She got an elvensteed, which it turns out wasn't actually a flesh and blood horse at all, but rather a construct made out of magic. That had been that dragon-looking thing i'd seen earlier. It turned out that it could change to suit the rider's will and could fold itself up onto its little heartstone gem and ride along in a pocket. Handy that. Maybe that whole magic thing wasn't so bad after all. We were also gifted with a set of armor, well the armor had originally been for me but I'd asked if I could trade it for one that Isana could wear... after all, it would be a lot easier for me to protect her if she had something on her that would help her protect herself. I'd felt that armor, it was light stuff... she shouldn't have a problem with it, especially seeing as she had something to ride around on (and I wasn't going to have to carry her anymore). The elves seemed pleased to oblige me for some reason. (I found out later that it was because they're all crazy hobbyists and simply lived to do whatever craft it was they'd devoted themselves to). The cloaks had a spell on them to hide reiatsu and camouflage in with whatever background they came across as long as it wasn't thin air. Cool.
The sun was set by the time we got done with the accolade stuff and in the meantime the elves had spread out a huge open-air feast, and after a workout like that I was all for a little food and rest. The elves made a big fuss when Isana offered to play music for them for some unknown reason. I took it that, living in this isolated little world of theirs, they never got much of an opportunity to hear new things. They weren't certain at first what to make of Isana's violin-versions of popular rock songs, but she had a nice voice at least, and after a while they seemed to take a liking to them, especially the love songs. Some of them I'd even heard, the ones from the seventies especially, I'd just been starting as a Reaper back then and I'd been as curious as Rukia about all the strange new things in the Mortal Realm. A pity I didn't have my guitar with me, I might've joined in. Then again, maybe not.
Dinner was full of strange tastes and textures but all of it was good and none of it was spicy so I had a good time. I let Isana take over the show so I could concentrate on my food and she was her usual gracious self. She told jokes and amusing stories to keep them laughing, and explained strange facets of modern life in the Mortal Realm. Many of the elves shook their heads over how much things had changed since they'd bailed from the Mortal Realm, a lot of them, I was sure, were glad that they had gotten out when they did. Mortal Life was complicated in this day and age, it made me glad I was just a Soul Reaper.
Isana offered to show them her ability to Summon abilities and I sat up straighter to pay attention because it was something I hadn't seen either. She walked down aisle between the tables to the open dais at the foot of the main table and climbed up onto it. She closed her eyes and gestured, I could sense her reiatsu gather in around her, she was stronger than she looked. She actually had a pool of reiatsu that was comparable to one of the higher level seated officers in a squad.
Once her reiatsu was drawn and centered it dispersed outward in a flash and one of those intricate circles with the sigils and the glyphs written on it wrote itself in light around her feet. One of the charms on the bracelet at her left wrist started to glow with an emerald green light. She gestured and the flat disk suddenly started to spin on its side in the air before her then it expanded in her hands until it became a sizable flat mirror that glowed from within with a greenish-white light. Out of the pond-like surface of that mirror flew the little aqua-colored critter with the pinkish gemstone eyes. It gave one little squeaking noise, stood up on its hind feel like a ferret, bowed to all of us once and hopped its furry little behind back through the mirror. Next out came the enormous stone dog Bruiser who sat pretty with his tongue lolling ridicuously out of his mouth and jumped back into the realm afterwards. The pentacle shrunk back down to normal size and attached as a charm on her wrist.
The audience around the table applauded enthusiastically. It was quite a sight, actually. Urged on, the woman tried another one.
Isana gathered up more power and poured it out again, another diagram writing itself in lines of reddish-coppery colored light, the same shade as an ember in a fire, at her feet. One of the other charms, a staff about the size of a three quarter staff expanded out to full size with harmless flames licking up and down along the length that didn't seem to bother her any. She whirled the staff about and the pattern at her feet flared up and when she ended with a circle in the dance that she sent her staff into it made a hoop of fire and out of that hoop stepped Djinn, the fire Guardian Spirit I'd fought earlier. Fortunately, Isana decided against demonstrating his abilities right then, probably in the interests of not setting the clearing on fire.
The applause was just as enthusiastic the second time as it had been the first, if nothing people were even more amazed. I was glad she was getting a chance to shine, and consequently taking the attention off me. I liked a good fight but once the fight was over I preferred not to have to deal with blow by blow analysis of how it had went. I did enough of that on my own as it was.
Fair Mortals," the elven king said once Isana sat down.
I noted absently that the mortal looked a little tired when she did. I wondered how big a toll it took on her to summon up those Guardian Spirits and keep them in this plane took on her.
"I have sent a hunt on ahead to see where the Shadow's trail leads. For providing us with entertainment enough that we will be able to talk of it for some time, we shall help you to catch up to your quarry. The Hunt will return by morning, so then you may safely rest and enjoy this vale until then."
Isana looked relieved and overjoyed on the outside as I felt on the inside. The fact that we were so far behind that Shadow had been a worry of mine since this little trip had started.
After I was done eating I requested permission of my gracious hosts to walk around their settlement a bit before I retired. They graciously dismissed me to go where I would. I noted that there was a silent shadow that detached from the rest of the company when I did and stayed near me as I walked down the trail from the field to the village.
"Can I help ya?" I inquired of the evening air once we were out of earshot of everyone else.
"Rude Mortal, you have taught me the shame of defeat this day," said a lilting voice I didn't recognize.
"All those who fight know the shame of defeat sooner 'r later," I replied casually. "Don't let it getcha down."
The elf stepped out into the moonlight where I could see him. The slightly more delicate rounding of his chin and the smaller stature clued me in that this elven knight might actually be a girl. I'd been polite about introducing myself to the assholes before I tried to beat the stuffing out of them, as a courtesy one warrior to another, but none of them had returned the favor.
"Renji Abarai, Sixth Squadron Lieutenant," she or he said formally to me. "I request that we shall engage in combat once more, singly, with no honor on the line but our own."
"Sounds good ta me," I said agreeably. "When an' where?"
"Here and now, you shall be defeated by me."
"That's great but... how about a name. It's considered a courtesy, where I come from, for warriors to exchange names first if they truly intend to defeat one another."
"Ah, I see. Then this warrior that you face is Malkirien of the House Tolomadea."
"Right then," I smiled bowing quickly in unison with him and charged in for another swing.
The fun thing about having a second go-round with someone was that they already knew your moves from the first, so it forced you to get creative. I loved the flow of a battle, the give and take of a good conversation between blades. The world seemed so much easier to understand when you only had the enemy in front of you to defeat. In this fight it wasn't anything but a battle. There were no lofty goals waiting for me in the background, no real need to concentrate my energy on refining my skills or picking up a new one, it was just him and me, seeing which of the two of us had the stronger edge. As a result, this battle seemed clearer and more sharply defined than any of the ones I had fought in a good long time. The ring of steel on steel was like a subtle sort of music to me, the feel of my body and my blade matching blocking, outwitting the enemy before me was satisfying in a way that I hadn't felt in a while.
It ended in a draw. By mutual consent we'd kept our respective magical abilities out of the fight, just wanting a purely physical contest, the fighter wasn't a power-house but he was pretty fast and clever so he kept me on my toes. Zabimaru told me, when our blades met, that the knight was still young and untried, trying to make a name for himself and master the art of the blade, in that way he or she reminded me of myself.
"It was a good match," Malkirien said, sounding satisfied.
A draw wasn't quite a win, but it was enough to redeem a person in their own eyes. I hadn't given ground, but neither had he (or she).
I nodded agreement and turned to continue my evening constitutional. He followed along behind me, probably ordered to keep an eye on me. The houses were more recognizable in the evening, mainly because the lights from inside of them delineated the cleverly placed doors and windows. The elven city, or village, or whatever it was, was just as busy in the night time as it had been in the day, there were lanterns made of many shapes and sizes, each different and each seeming to fit perfectly with all of the others that lit the night. There was an open little glen surrounded on one side by a stream with a natural bridge of a fallen log that was simply too artful to be an accident and a small copse of rocks on the other side that made a natural open square. Elves wearing fine clothing in unpredictable shades and makes, all of them carrying that otherworldly grace that seemed to define them, glided this way and that in front of natural rock tables and tree stump booths that were spread with all manner of things.
:It's a market square,: I realized with some surprise.
It didn't look like any market square that I was accustomed to seeing of course, but I had cased, tricked, conned and robbed enough merchants as a young child to know what one was when i saw one, no matter how weird it looked.
I suddenly remembered the coins I had had tossed at me after the duels jangling in my pocket and the thought occurred to me that they probably wouldn't be worth anything anywhere else, so I should just "smoke 'em while ya got 'em" as the Mortals would say. I could get gifts or souvenirs for people, I hadn't done that yet, and while I wasn't exactly on vacation here I'd bet they'd at least appreciate the thought. I wasn't much of a shopper but Momo, at least, would appreciate the thought if nothing else. There was bound to be something in this place that even the Kuchiki didn't have two of. They were Elves after all.
:It sure looks like they have a lot of things I've never seen or heard of before,: I thought after a glance.
So I looked around. Kira collected artwork I knew, and there was certainly a fair amount of that. All of it was, even to my very uneducated eye, very beautiful. At a loss for what would suit him, I just started eliminating the options by what he didn't like. He didn't do flowers, still life wasn't meaningful to him, and despite my teasing he didn't go in for pictures of beautiful women. Landscapes maybe? There were gardens and ponds, scenes of moonlit nights over deserts, forest glens... the list went on. A painting of a mountaintop caught my eye but then the thingy standing up next to it was even more fascinating. It was a scene with a delicate little pagoda and cranes and trees carved out of different colors of jade it looked like sandwiched in between two peices of glass and set into a stand like looking into a painting that was it's own little world. My brow furrowed in surprise as I looked more closely down into it and saw tiny illusory little birds flitter about the branches, and the surface of the pond had a small fish jump up out of it. Was it real? I couldn't tell, I scented magic on it, but it might be just and illusion.
I indicated an interest to the seller and we haggled good naturedly. He didn't seem terribly interested in the coins, instead, he asked me about the person I planned to give the gift to. Gamely, I told him a little about Kira and how he collected art and also how hard it was for me to actually find art for him because he was picky. The artist seemed pleased with my description as he wrapped up the present for me. I was both relieved and a little disappointed to note that the water in the pool did not slosh around or flow sideways when he tilted it on its side. Just an illusion then.
The curiosity of the shop attendants when I bought presents for people from them was actually a running theme, as I discovered when I found a strange little music box shaped like a peach that played music when I opened it was a haunting little melody on the flute and I couldn't resist the pun on Momo's name. The vendor seemed to take the coins as more of a formality than because he actually wanted them, he too was more intrigued by the person I intended to give the gift to. He seemed most satisfied when I told them about the peach and Momo's name.
It was like that as well when I saw an artistically carved calligraphy set in a box made with a theme of cherry blossoms. I figured that, even if Kuchiki already had half a dozen, he'd take it just to avoid being rude. The seller demonstrated what made his set so unique; the brushes in it did not require constant re-dipping, when one applied ones reiatsu to the delicately carved brushes, ink magically filled the bristles. (Of course, he cautioned me not to apply too much spiritual power or the ink would come out in a flood, but that wouldn't be a problem for Captain who had superb control over his spiritual pressure).
I found other things too, some of them very strange indeed. Plates that had weird figures painted on them that moved around in funny little dances, little cat statues that performed noh theatre, Glass paper-weights that had illusory flowers in them blooming and closing back up over and over again. I picked up some of the smallest and most harmless-looking trinkets to pass out as visiting gifts to friends. There was one strange thing that I saw and wanted for myself. It looked strange; there was an empty, sphere-shaped chamber made out of intricately twisted wire that opened into two halves on a hinge. To the fore of that chamber was a small, short tube with a lens-shaped piece of crystal on one end and off to one side was another tube with what looked like an eye-piece. The shopkeeper demonstrated that one put clear spheres of glass or crystal (he added that they could be other shapes too, but spheres were what he liked to work with) into the center chamber, pointed the eyepeice at something and activated the device by pushing in a little power and the device would record whatever was in front of it!
:Wow!: I thought, instantly wanting it.
We haggled over it a bit and he threw in some blank spheres and it was a done deal.
I had hoped to find something for Rukia there too, but so far nothing had really seemed quite right. I was about to turn and head back the way I came, when my eye caught on a glint from a booth I hadn't noticed before. It was being manned by an older elf-woman who looked half asleep, most of her wares were beads or baubles of some kind, jewelry or hairpins. Rukia probably already had a billion of them, but the thing that my eye had fallen on was a faintly familiar shape to me, which made me draw closer.
It was a flower made out of silver wire as fine as a spider-web, woven delicately as silk into petals and fronds. But it wasn't just any flower... it was that flower. It was the flower that Rukia had picked up from the river that evening so long ago when we'd been fishing for food when we were kids. The memory of that time that had made my heart seem to both stop and beat faster as I looked at her, surrounded in the muck and filth of the Rukon District she'd glowed in the light of the suns. It had been then that I'd first understood it, this feeling that would carve the rest of my life out.
I picked up the delicate seeming metal bud, only to have to blossom out when I touched it. My eyes widened in wonder as I saw it light up at the touch of my reiatsu, the heart of it and the tips of its pistons were little colored pinpricks of light that looked like captured stars. They wavered and glowed in different colors and I watched it for a moment, a little entranced by the display. A delicate floral scent wafted out from it, sweet and slightly spicy, and a soft, slightly melancholy tune belled out into the air. I knew right then that, no matter what it cost, I had to get it for her.
"Ah, one of my finer pieces, mortal," the old woman woke from her nap.
First rule of haggling was not to show too much interest in the thing you want to buy.
"It is nice," I said casually.
I looked around at some of the other things in her booth, a jeweled haircomb like the one to the left of the flower wouldn't look bad on Rukia either, I picked it up and looked at it more closely then put it back.
"Nice stuff you have here, how much is that?" I pointed to a tiny figure of a woman in a kimono carved out of a single piece of rose quartz.
She named a price and I shrugged, still pretending to look over her wares, then I oh-so-casually picked up the flower that I wanted to buy for Rukia.
"And this was?" I asked, pretending that she'd mentioned a price earlier and I'd just forgotten.
The old elf woman gave me a direct look out of ancient-looking eyes that suggested that she knew exactly what I was doing but gamely named a sum. It was a more than fair price for the item.
"You intend this as a gift to someone?" the old woman asked curiously as I handed the last of my coins over to pay for Rukia's present.
I flushed, and tried not to look embarrassed.
"Ah, yeah. Y'know, it's be rude if I went somewhere and didn't bring anything back for my friends," I said, my throat feeling dry. "I saw this and..."
"A present for a friend?" she pressed adroitly as she wrapped the white-gold flower in a "box" made of brightly colored folded paper that was actually shaped to look like a flower bud.
I looked down. I could feel my face getting redder.
"Yeah, uh, just a friend," I said quickly. "She..."
I couldn't come out and say the kind of special meaning that this flower would have between the two of us.
"You feel that she will enjoy the present?" the elf asked curiously. "My people live a long time you know, and now that we are in effect exiled to Underhill, time grows longer. The days stretch on and on with nothing to fill them but our chosen crafts. A person who puts so much effort into the perfection of their crafts likes to hear that the things they make will bring joy to others."
I grinned genuinely at her and said
"It's... perfect for her. I've never seen another present that'll remind her of the bond we share as much as this one will. Thank-you for making it."
I kinda wanted to hang myself for being a sap, but she deserved to carry the praise of a job well done so that she could continue to have pride in her profession. The elf beamed at me and handed the package over.
I thanked her again and turned back toward the temporary quarters that had been given to me and Isana. Who knew when I'd have an opportunity to sleep in a real bed and enjoy a real bath again. I hoped that the hunt the elf-kind had sent ahead to track that Shadow came back with some good news, like that they'd found the damn thing.
:I sure hope she likes it,: I thought with that strange nervous flutter I always got when I contemplated giving her gifts.
Giving presents or trinkets to Rukia had always been a little hit or miss for me. There were times when a perfectly innocuous gift, like a basket of apples I'd picked or a new shirt, would cause her to scream at me and chuck it at my head. Other times the presents would be met with approval. Most times she looked perplexed, or worse, treated it as her due and compared them with other presents. Maybe sending her off to Kuchiki was not the best idea I'd ever had, it had certainly made finding presents for her into an Odyssey. Still, I had always been more stubborn and detirmined than was probably good for me, and I'd take whatever excuse I could find to give her something that might make her smile.
Awww... I haz a waffy. I sort of envisioned the flower looking like those ridiculously expensive fiber-optic flowers that light up pretty this... (um, just remove the little parentheses and spaces.
http:/www.( )/images/( )FOF_Lily_Sm_with_White_led.( )jpg
I was set to post this update about two days ago, but I had another story to edit, and then my internet screwed up so it for involuntarily postponed. As always, I hope you enjoyed the interlude and please read and reveiw.