[BitPR2] Gaiden: Return of the F/Bonding with Fists

Soul Society, Combat Division Training Grounds


It is common knowledge that the Pack do not refuse anyone who's willing to come down to the grounds to better themselves. They're often helpful, eager even, to provide sparring partners. It breeds healthy competition and rivalry with the other divisions - though admittedly some are more inclined to visit than others.

It is also no secret that the Vice-Captain of Command Division spends a lot of free time here. Although his training methods are seemingly haphazard and he subscribes to no particular fighting school, few dare deny his strength to his face. For all the lack of elegance and method, and yet lack of sheer brutality, Koutarou has earned the respect of some of the Pack members. A necessary condition, given his position.

Today, he has come to visit one particular member.

"Thank you for accepting my invitation on such short notice, Masaru-kun. There are some flaws in my way to fight that need some straightening out, and I couldn't ask anyone else to be my sparring partner."

Masaru smiled and gave a slight bow from the waist.

"It is my pleasure, Vice-Captain Koutarou. I appreciate the chance to shake the dust off of my skills and reflexes after the last few months. Though, I must confess I'm not sure I'm the only person you could have gone to. Certainly I'm not the only sword expert in The Pack."

He went through a few stretches as they walked over to one of the "classic" sparring grounds; a simply flat area with some walls about it to keep damage from spilling over. Its comparatively pristine condition spoke to either excellent control on the part of its users, or relative disuse.

"Now, besides the obvious, what rules would you like to impose on our spar?"

"You're the only one besides Kiba I can absolutely trust not to kiss my ass and be objective about where I'm going wrong. And Kiba is a bit closer to my fighting style than I'd prefer.

As for rules... what say we start off with our swords sealed and move our way up to Shikai?"

Masaru nods, then smiles at the rules.

"I'll just kick your ass instead. Sir.

Anyways, that sound acceptable to both myself and Ancalagon. He's eager to...stretch...soon enough."

Masaru steps to one side of the arena, removing his hat and haori, folding the latter up neatly before placing the pile on the ground. He walked back to his previous location and drew his katana, holding it in his right hand, with his left tucked behind his back. His stance was a blend of Eastern and Western fencing, which was perhaps a bit odd, but Masaru had made a habit of consuming as many sword styles as he could over the years...

"Shall we begin?"

Koutarou, by his own admission, didn't have a style of his own. Therefore, his stance, if it could be called that, was little more than a way of holding a sword.

He drew his blade and held it low with both hands, resting it almost lazily to his side.

"I'll be sure not to make it easy.

Come at me anytime."

Masaru waits for about 30 seconds, simply watching Koutarou. Mostly his feet.

Then, in a whooshing blur of motion, he's suddenly right next to the Vice-Captain, his sword making a shining arc through the air as he makes a fast slash at the other man's left shoulder. Little strength was behind it, and it could likely be easily deflected if Koutarou tried.

The fact that Masaru almost immediately quick-stepped away from his opponent in a not-quite-Shunpo confirmed it had been a probing attack. There the Pack member waited, his stance light, almost...bouncy.

Koutarou's defense is sharp, if unorthodox - his right foot comes up and kicks towards Masaru's guard. Still with the same motion, he spins on his foot and uncoils his sword into a whip, shooting it in a couple of quick lashes towards his sparring partner.

Masaru will quickly realize the issue of dealing with such a weapon. The way the tip coils about makes it difficult to deflect properly - a simple sideways block risks the whip wrapping around the sword. Conversely, if he merely dodges, the second lash may well come from a different, harder-to-predict angle.

On the plus side, the tip of the whip holds the most force - the middle and base are likely to hold less leverage by comparison, which makes the weapon deadlier at long-range, but not so much at close and medium range.

As soon as the sword becomes a whip, Masaru's right eye twitches slightly.

For all that Koutarou lacks the graces of a man with a true style to his fighting, that blood sword is annoying. More than a few members of the Pack complained about how "cheap" it was. Usually a breath before saying how impressed they were with how it was used.

It was not the first time the man with two swords had faced this blade, or something similar. That was why he didn't try to block the strike at all.

Instead, he used the very tip of his sword to smack into the mid-point of the whip enough to get it totally off-course.

And then suddenly the hand holding Masaru's sword changes, and his stance shifts, and he's moving lower to the ground now. The blade goes in sweeping arcs aimed for the legs, not the shoulders, and its wielder ducks under a couple of return swings, all but crouching like a toad there.

Koutarou knows better than to keep Kokudenou in whip form when his opponent is right on his face. Shifting between forms isn't instantaneous, however, so he's forced to try and dodge Masaru's strikes as best as he can to create an opening for it.

At one point, he kicks downward, stepping on the blade and performing a quick, sideways somersault from that angle. It delays Masaru's next attack just long enough that he manages to reform the blade, and attempts a slash towards his torso while upside-down.

Masaru frowned. Just a fraction of an inch, but it happened. He didn't like people stepping on his sword. Still, it gives him time to start rolling away from Koutarou before the counter-attack begins.

It isn't enough to escape unscathed, but it avoids actual injury. The whip-sword's tip tears the outer part of Masaru's garments, not quite reaching his skin but still marking him first.

When the Pack Officer comes to a stop a couple dozen feet away and stands, he nods at Koutarou and gives him a quick salute with the blade, his other arm still tucked behind his back, his wakizashi still sheathed.

It's clear that, to Masaru, this is...if not a game, then at least still a fun, friendly spar, and not one that's turned more serious yet.

He stands in place, his sword held loosely in front of his body, clearly waiting for Koutarou to attack.

Koutarou seemed a little less sure of how Masaru was seeing this. This was the second time he'd seen the Pack member's expression turn sour.

Deciding not to have to risk creating another opening to shift his sword back, Koutarou lunged forward. No feints, no tricks. He took a swing at Masaru's sword arm, aiming to nick the upper part of his arm with a shallow thrust. He exposed himself tremendously to counter-attack, basically trusting his outstretched arm to be faster than a potential riposte. Clearly he was not familiar with western fencing technique.

Masaru's posture and demeanor had relaxed again; Koutarou was likely intelligent enough to suss out that the frown had been because Koutarou had stepped on his sword, and not that he'd gotten hit or anything like that.

Masaru did tend to get a bit OCD about his weaponized soul fragment swords.

For a lot of Pack members, the quick, shallow thrust may have landed fairly easily. While everyone worked hard on their sword forms, most seemed to stick solely to Eastern styles, almost universally Japanese styles (with the occasional Chinese, Korean, etc influences).

Masaru was a weirdo who liked all the styles. So he recognized the unconscious imitation in the attack, and already had a counter for it.

Most men would still have taken at least a light scratch on their arm. But then, most of them couldn't easily and quickly switch their sword arm and sidestep while parrying, enough that, once again, it was only fabric that took damage. Considering Koutarou hadn't taken even that much, it spoke well of his...unique...styling, though.

Masaru just smirked. And then he was suddenly behind Koutarou, aiming a quick slash that would likely leave the Vice-Captain with some tears in his shirt as well.

At this rate they were going to end up putting on a show for the Shinigami Women's Association, but then that's why they were in a remote training field that basically no one used.

Koutarou tried, best as he could, to use his forward momentum and turn it into a spin as Masaru countered. The idea backfired - Masaru's slash had been more precise and from a blind spot, plus his timing was nothing if not perfect. Instead of a minor rip to the back, Koutarou ended with a large gash to his uniform from shoulder to waist.

His skin underneath was still untouched, however.

(It should be noted that Chinese styles included more acrobatics and precision strikes than Japanese - at least, the faster Kung Fu varieties did - which placed stark contrast with the more mechanical and focused slashing varieties of Japanese styles, but the martial arts geek in me digresses.)

As he spun, Koutarou crouched a bit. His leg shot for a sweep in an attempt to use Masaru's forward momentum against him. Springing forward by shifting his weight forward from his support leg, the Vice-Captain followed that sweep with an attempt to elbow Masaru's midsection, using the reduced range between them to either prevent a counter from his katana or force him to draw the wakizashi to ward off attack.

Masaru's grin is fractionally wider. He's clearly getting into the swing of things now.

Koutarou's leg sweep isn't really an unexpected move; while not the only counter from this situation, it's certainly a logical one. So Masaru propelled himself into the air over the sweep, his feet just barely clearing the arc of Koutarou's attack.

This did leave him in a bit of a pickle with the elbow, though. He had no leverage of his own for those precious seconds in the air. And while it wouldn't draw blood, elbows bloody well stung when they hit you in the gut.

So instead of fighting the elbow strike, he used it. Masaru's free hand placed itself between his midsection and the elbow. As soon as their limbs touched, Masaru began pushing back. This left him in a position where he could not give a counter-strike, but he was perfectly capable of using this clash of muscle to push himself further into the air, this time at an angle to land several feet away.

When he stops, he takes a moment to roll his free arm's shoulder and shake out the hand a bit. Then he cracked his neck to the side and let that hand fall to his belt, to rest on the hilt of his wakizashi...

And suddenly he was moving at Koutarou with speed, the short blade being quick-drawn in a reverse grip slash that would take it almost horizontal across his collarbone area. The katana flashed out to swat the Vice-Captain's sword further away, leaving him more open and requiring him to either take the slash or back away.

Masaru's counter had been clever. Not only did he avoid damage to himself, he gained enough space to create acceleration for another assault.

When his hand rested on the wakizashi's hilt, however, he gave away his plan.

Masaru hadn't been the first fighter to wield two weapons that Koutarou had faced, and he wouldn't be the last. Opening up your opponent's guard with one weapon to attack with the other was a basic maneuver, if one that could take on multiple variations.

Masaru had been dominating the rhythm of this battle from the start. It was about time Koutarou broke that rhythm.

He doesn't resist the opening to his sword-arm any more than necessary to retain hold. But as the wakizashi gleams its way out of its sheath, Koutarou bends his body backwards as he shoots a fast kick to his face, right in the space between that swat and the slash. This ends with the arm curling around Koutarou's leg, and while the Vice-Captain can't fully evade the slash, there's only a graze to his upper arm, compared to what it would have been if he had taken the attack full-on.

In this fashion, he hopes to use his attacker's momentum against him.

If it hits, Koutarou begins a series of kicks against Masaru, trying to use the relatively shorter reach to his advantage to keep the katana neutralized. First comes a quick, short kick to the side of his leg, followed by another towards his shoulder, then a roundhouse kick to his waistline, and finally a rolling kick towards the top of his head. With the exception of the last, each kick carries a lighter impact by comparison; using them in quick succession is meant to disorient and build-up to the last strike.

Many members of the Pack take after their Vice-Captain, and use their own body as a weapon at least as often, if not more so, than their swords. So Koutarou kicking at Masaru doesn't really shock the swordsman.

That said, he's still impressed by the quick reflexes and flexibility involved in the maneuver. So it is indeed only a slash to the arm for Koutarou, and a kick to the side of the face for Masaru, who tilted his head to one side at the last moment.

The barrage of kicks has mixed success. The leg and shoulder strikes just graze Masaru, who is desperately trying to step and bend around the flurry of blows. The kick to his waist connects and begins spinning him around, which means that the kick to his head goes off course, and is stopped by the crossed forearms of Masaru.
Who probably could have used his swords there, but didn't want to maim a superior officer.
Still, even intercepted like that it's enough to drive him to his knees, and cause micro-fractures around him on the ground. Certainly a dramatic lesson in the power of a Shinigami's body if trained correctly.

But now what to do?

Masaru grunts and shoves his crossed arms up, driving Koutarou's leg away. Anticipating a kick from the other leg, he does a sloppy Shunpo a few feet away, finding his feet again and standing tall. He grins as he shakes his arms a bit to loosen them up. There's a fire in his eyes now, a desire to keep going. To test himself.

So that's why he waited, both swords now held in a traditional grip, the shorter one kept a bit closer to his body, while the longer is kept up in a guarding position.

Perhaps he actually wants to give Koutarou time to get out the whip again?

"This just about enough for warmup, Masaru-kun? If this weren't a spar I'd probably have lost a leg there."

Koutarou reached out with his sword as it went into its whip-like state, and idly motioned in a light spin, signaling he was ready for Shikai if his partner was.

Masaru considers the words of the Vice-Captain of the Command Division for several moments.

Then a smile threatens to split his face in twain.

"Heh. Heh heh hehehehahahahahaha HAHAHAHA! YES! FINALLY! I can feel Ancalagon all but slamming himself against the insides of my blade, screaming to be free! I do believe the warmup is done indeed, Vice-Captain!"

Reiatsu began to swirl around Masaru, like thick tendrils of shadow coming to life, before suddenly roaring all about him like some dark mockery of fire.

"It's time for you to see what I discovered in my weeks of training! What I found when I looked within my soul!"

He held his katana directly in front of him, perpendicular to the ground, and then formed a "+" with the wakizashi held parallel to the ground.

"Blot out the sun and drink up the stars!"

Wait, that's odd. Koutarou had likely sparred with Masaru before his time on the Hellpath, and would know that previously only the first four words were used to release his sword. What was going on and was he-

" Crush the mountains! Burn the sky and boil the sea! Ancalagon!"

He swung the swords out to the side and for a moment, he was totally obscured by a rush of shadowy reiatsu. When it subsided, he was clutching the familiar curved broadswords of his Shikai.

But while before the physical transformation had been the extent of his power, now...now it was clear there was something more going on.

"I can feel your enthusiasm, Masaru-kun! Something tells me this will be our most fun spar yet.

I should meet you in kind!"

Snapping the whip around his waist like a belt, Koutarou utters the phrase that makes the blood of every creature with a circulatory system within earshot rise by at least five degrees Celsius.

"Heeeeeeeeeenn...

...SHIN!"

(Necessary posing about skipped in the interest of fun.)

"Kamen Rider! Rei!"

Indeed, Masaru's existing excitement was ratcheted up another notch as Koutarou released his shikai.

"Haha! Yes! Now it's a real fight!"

And suddenly his swords were wrapped in shadows that formed grossly over-sized blades. Two and a half times their normal size over-sized, to be precise. With a wordless cry, Masaru flung himself at Koutarou, the swords swirling in a deadly figure 8 pattern.

Kamen Rider couldn't pretend he wasn't impressed - Masaru effectively held the equivalent to a cavalry lance in each hand.

Fortunately, he had a mask on.

Also fortunately for him, Masaru's choice of attack pattern had one major flaw - regardless of the rhythm and method used, that figure-eight pattern would always end with one arm over the torso or one arm over the other.

Kamen Rider Rei thus avoided the attack to the best of his ability, and then lunged forward in Shunpo, aiming a kick at whichever arm crossed over Masaru's chest in an attempt to break his balance and rhythm.

In most cases, that would be a very viable tactic. After all, giant swords can be a pain to quickly move around up close.

When the majority of the blades can suddenly be rendered ethereal shadows, it shifts the game around a bit.

Kamen Rider Rei does indeed avoid the attack, but will suddenly find that the extra blade size is dispersing into wispy shadows even as Masaru twisted away from the kick and swung the flat of one of his blades at the Rider to swat him away.

If Rei landed on the ground, he would quickly find that his feet were oddly reluctant to move. Probably because his own shadow was rising up and trying to tie down his feet.

Probably Masaru's doing, with that expression that was a combination of concentration and amusement.

Kamen Rider Rei didn't hesitate to ride the momentum of that defense, but he wasn't intent on letting up too soon either - thus, he flipped back in midair, and shot towards Masaru once more.

He couldn't claim to completely understand how Masaru's new power worked, but there were a lot of clues involved already.

The most basic strategy behind facing a new characteristic is "don't let it touch you". Luckily, he was in a good form for mid-range combat.

Curving his trajectory slightly, the Vice-Captain "bounced" off a Reiatsu platform just as he was getting within swing range, and shunpo'd directly above Masaru, uncoiling his whip in a series of quick lashes. These, unlike the last few, all carried a lightning charge, intent on testing the resillience of this "shadowstuff" Masaru waved around - he did not think for a second that his lashing would get through at this distance or even from this angle.

As Koutarou began swinging his lightning whip at Masaru, the Officer responded in kind with his own element.

The shadow blades were smaller, but then, they weren't staying attached anyways. Masaru conjured up a flurry of small, quick blades of shadow, and just as quickly flung them away from himself. They didn't last very long...but they lasted long enough to keep the whip's electrified length from getting close to the metal blades Masaru was wielding.

While this was happening, something odd occurred with the shadow Koutarou was casting on the ground. At first it was a rough human outline. Then it seemed to compress, and actually drew in a few scattered shadows nearby.

Then it moved over and merged with Masaru's shadow for a moment, before the whole mass twisted up into a spear of shadow that lanced upward directly at Koutarou. While the Vice-Captain was dealing with the sudden attack, Masaru conjured two of those over-sized shadow-blades, and threw those at Koutarou.

All the while, wisps of his shadowy reiatsu swirled around the man, his whole demeanor showing how much he enjoyed the proceedings.

Oh SH...

While he manages to dodge the bigger lance, the (relatively) smaller shadow swords managed to strike him square in the chest, shattering in the process thanks to the protection of the Rider suit.

Those are dangerous. Guardian is too slow to deal with them, and Metallica and Sabbath are too risky.

In that case...!

As he recovered from the impact, Kamen Rider fiddled with his belt in brisk movements, and finally stood up as he was sheathed in lightning, which parted to reveal a different form.

"Henkai! Judas!"

Spinning his staff around, Kamen Rider Rei charged it with electricity, shooting a pair of lightning bolts towards Masaru.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"

Masaru unconsciously gave a nod of approval at the form change. It was a good decision, and would give the Pack member more of a challenge.

He dodged one of the lightning bolts, but the other managed to graze his side. He twitched, his left sword jerking around for a few moments involuntarily. It was under control before too long, though.

In the meantime, Kamen Rider's shadow (which was back now, yay!) suddenly swarmed up around him in chain-like shapes, trying to bind him in place (not so much yay).

Masaru himself simply conjured another couple of giant shadow-swords and surged forward in Flash Step, clearly preparing to strike once more.

"Nice try.

HOWEVER!"

As the shadows began to envelop him, Kamen Rider Rei hit the tip of the staff against the ground. It made a thunderous noise as a bolt surged through him and struck down the chains.

It made some sense. Despite the strange form it took on, Kokudenou was still very much an elemental Zanpakutou - it stood to reason it could withstand its own electricity.

"HHHHHHHOOOOOOOOORRRYYYYYAAAAAAAH!!"

Surging forward himself, the tips of the staff gleamed as Kamen Rider shot a few quick jabs and swipes. Despite his foe's superiority in reach, speed was something they were still fairly matched on at this point. With a double weapon, it was also easier to match his opponent's ripostes and strikes. Rei wasn't so much probing for an opening as he was for an angle to shoot a quick bolt point-blank.

Masaru just grinned as Rei moved forward. It was boring if things were easy, at least when it was a friendly spar. Some part of his newfound power was being intentionally restrained, solely because Koutarou was a friend he was exercising with. Not a Hollow that he needed to purify. Not an enemy he needed to kill.

His shadow swords swirled in defense, shifting from "hard as steel" to "ethereal shadow" with nary but a thought as he weaved them in patters one simply couldn't achieve with traditional swords.

This left the two of them at a stalemate; Kamen Rider had no good openings for his bolts, due to the size of the shadow-swords and their apparent lack of conductivity, but Masaru was left entirely on the defensive to avoid an unpleasant shock.

Kamen Rider Rei could tell that his friend was holding back, if nothing else from the very nature of that power, as far as he observed - Masaru could have attacked a dozen times over from dead angles and blind spots when he rushed forth. Conversely, if he didn't try his best to win, he would have been dishonest with his friend.

A stalemate based rigorously on attack and defense hinged on stamina, and stamina hinged partly on familiarity with one's weapon. Masaru had the advantage here - Kamen Rider had to use a half-dozen weapons at more or less the same level of efficiency, whereas his opponent had been studying the same weapon for a very, very long time. In other words, to keep up with Masaru, he had to spend twice as much energy to force this situation. He couldn't simply attack harder or faster, because that risked exhausting himself uselessly. A disarm was out of the question, particularly with the way Masaru handled those blades.

His best bet was to push Reiatsu against Reiatsu.

While he couldn't fire a bolt or two directly at Masaru, every now and then Kamen Rider Rei would attempt to shoot a bolt directly at the weapons themselves during certain defenses. In this fashion, he hoped to force Masaru to reform them. In doing so, he was trying to exhaust his opponent before himself.

Not that this strategy didn't carry dangers of its own. If Masaru caught on to what he was really trying to do, he might try to change the rhythm of the battle in his favor again.

"Haha! This is fantastic! Been too long since I had this kind of fun in a spar, Kamen Rider Rei!"

Masaru was of course holding back some. So was Kamen Rider. Neither was seeking the deaht of the other. Or the maiming, really.

The various small attacks were often blocked, but some were allowed to pass through, as they weren't going to be hitting him anyways. Still, it was slowly, very slowly, wearing him down.

Then for some reason, Masaru tossed up a shaky Bakudo barrier with a single word and retreated a bit. Was he going to try controlling Kamen Rider's shadow again? Why was he lifting his sword up like that?

The answer came as the sword was stabbed down into Masaru's own shadow...and the massive shadow-blade erupted from Koutarou's in an attack that would have it gouging all along the armored warrior of justice's back.