Red Dill
New Member
Kansuke exited the Senkaimon and stepped lightly onto the ground. There was something about being back on earth that was both soothing and unnerving at the same time. The old man liked the traquility this realm often offered in it's less populated areas, but at the same time he couldn't help but remember the last time he has been to earth. It had been during the war with the Sine Qua Non. Several men and women were lost that night.
The swordsman took a deep breath of the somewhat thinner air. It's not that there was less oxygen here, but rather that there was less reishi in the air. He turned and watched as his student exited the Senkaimon behind him.
"Are you ready, Hayato?" the white haired old man asked.
The location was just as Kansuke had hoped for. A remote woods in the middle of a countryside somewhere. They were far enough away from a human settlement that their actions would not interfere with their everyday lives and they were certainly nowhere near Rukongai in Soul Society. They would have plenty of room to train in without being in anyone's way.
[ 193 ]
The forest was like many others in the area. Definitely a new growth forest, its floor was littered with rotting or wholly rotten logs, branches that had snapped but not fallen all the way to the ground, and prolific fern undergrowth. Noise from animals and birds filled the entire area, muffled by the assortment of tree trunks. The sky was visible through the upper boughs and the ground on which they stood was padded with half-rotted twigs, trampled plants, and several layers of mixed dirt and an assortment of decomposing plants.
Hayato ran a hand back through his hair, took a deep breath, and frowned slightly. Many people had told him at one time or another that there was nothing as pleasant as the smell of a forest, but he disagreed. It smelled paradoxical. The stench of rot, mold, and animals mixed strangely with the fresh scent of recycling air and pine. He had smelled worse, but he had also smelled much better. A good, clean city street with freshly-soaked pavement on a hot day … now that was a smell he loved. Just standing in the forest made him feel tense and unwelcome.
“Ready,” he responded, absently scanning the surroundings for a deeper impression. His conclusion was, “I don’t like it here.”
[ 213 ]
"Be that as it may," the old man said, "this will be the perfect spot for you to learn to be aware of your surroundings in."
The old man looked around at the uneven ground and trees growing in random spots. He was glad they were able to get this location and not one where the trees had been planted in rows and columns by men. While the trees weren't tight together they were certainly close enough that the young noblemen would have to be careful where he swung his sword. One misjudged slash and his blade might get stuck in the trunk of one of those trees.
"Let's start with something nice and simple," Kansuke said, noticing there were a few twigs that were still dry and brittle. "You have to walk before you can run."
The swordsman stepped into a shunpo and emerged a few yards away from the copper haired young man.
"Walk to me," the old man said. "Don't use shunpo, just walk normally. When you reach me we will move on."
What the white haired man did not tell the boy was that for every twig snapped underfoot he would change location and increase the distence. It was a simple exercise, Kansuke was sure the boy would catch on fairly quickly. With this he would be able to see how well aware the boy was of his environment already as well as how quickly he can catch on without being told what it is he is doing.
[ 252/445 ]
A simple request though it was, Hayato caught the note of deception. A brief perusal of the ground showed him … nothing of note, just a few dry twigs, some undergrowth, and a decade’s worth of padding from fallen leaves and needles. As far as he could tell, there were no traps lying in wait and no pitfalls waiting to be stepped into, but he was no forester. A curb and a staircase were his concept of terrain. A rooftop and a street were his idea of an environment. As of yet, he had never had a duty station outside Tokyo proper.
Rather than wait so long that everyone grew old while he lingered in indecision, Hayato glanced habitually to either flank to check his blind spots and took his first step forward to the sound of snapping twigs and crushing leaves.
[ 142/355 ]
Snap. Crunch. Just what the old man expected to hear. With a quick shunpo Kansuke was on the other side of the noblemen and a couple more yards away.
"Come on Hayato," Kansuke said, "I'm over here."
How long do you think it will take the boy to catch on Kansuke?
Well, the old man replied, that's what I plan on finding out.
[ 62/507 ]
The younger man kept walking, stepped behind a tree, and turned his body so that it would be invisible from the angle his trainer would be viewing him. After a moment of consideration, he sighed and looked at his surroundings again. Something told him that executing a shunpō of his own would do no good. The older Shinigami was most likely more experienced with flash steps than Hayato, who stood behind the tree and weighed his options.
If it was a game of tag, he could never win if his opponent was using instant steps like that … and Kansuke would know it. The object of the game was most likely not speed, then – something else. The shunpō had been executed in time with his footfall, which meant that something he had done had triggered it, some unspoken rule of the game. The snapping twigs were his first guess, but that was too blatant. No, the older Shinigami would be subtler than that – or would he?
The copper-blond turned around the corner, careful to avoid the dry branches on the ground, just in case, and placed his footfalls carefully out of sight from the white-haired Shinigami as he approached. It had to be a sight or a sound trick, and avoiding branches seemed too simple.
[ 215/570 ]
The old man smiled slightly as the young man seemed to be understanding the exercise fairly quickly. Kansuke stayed put, watching carefully and listening. The second he heard another snapping twig he would move again. If he heard nothing he would stay put, for now.
What do you have for him next? Supposing he really has caught on to this that is.
You will see, Byakko, the duelist replied.
"Don't take all day, Hayato," Kansuke called out. "I'm old enough as it is, I don't need to grow older."
[ 89/596 ]
“You couldn’t get any older if you tried.”
Hayato flashed a grin at the old mentor and came to a stop near enough to touch the old man, but off to the side a little bit. The prankster in him wanted to turn the tables, execute a precise two-step flash step, and put the older man off-guard, but he resisted the urge. He was here to learn, not have fun. They had gotten special permission for this, which meant that the two of them might have to submit official reports to the acting-captain.
He did not want it on the record that he was being childish and not taking the opportunity to learn from his companion. He tapped Kansuke on the shoulder and said, “Tag.”
[ 125/695 ]
"No I suppose I couldn't," the old man laughed as his young friend tagged him on the shoulder.
Kansuke looked at the nobleman for a second. He certainly seemed as though he had caught on. The younger man had managed not to snap any twigs underfoot the rest of the exercise. The duelist wasn't one-hundred percent convinced that the full lesson had been learned though.
"Alright, you seem to have done well," he began again. "This time, keep the unspoken rule from the last lesson in mind and I want you to dodge and block anything and everything that comes your way."
The old man drew his Zanapkutou, the scabbard dissipating into the wind, and entered into another shunpo. This time he put himself out of sight of the young man but still within earshot.
"Like before," the old man called out, "any time you do something wrong I will change distance and location."
This time the white haired duelist did not mention that he would also increase the speed and strength of the attacks. Nor did he tell the boy to avoid hitting any trees. And the old man hoped that it should go without saying that the boy should avoid losing his footing on the uneven ground.
"Bring peace on the western wind, Byakko," the white haired shinigami whispered. The Zanapkutou took on the shape of an uchigatana and the blade became ethereal in appearance while the hilt turned white. Right from the start Kansuke began letting Byakko store a small amount of his Reiatsu in the blade. He could use that to up the strength of an attack if he had to.
"I'll start you off simple," Kansuke called out. His voice returned to a whisper and the old man put swung his zanpakutou with his right hand while aiming his left at his student, "Tora Tsume. Hadou Thirty, Big Bang."
The three constantly compressing waves of air launched at the noblemen as the Kidou energy came barreling in behind them.
[ 334/930 ]
The kidou was familiar enough to him that he knew its destructive power as well as he knew his own elbow, but the winds were an unknown factor. He narrowed his eyes and side-stepped into his furthest shunpō, landing a bit heavily and without grace on the nearest fallen log, where he teetered for a moment before he gained enough balance to draw out his sword. It occurred to him that he had never put a large amount of training into footwork, but he could deal with that by restricting his own movements. As long as he remained on solid surfaces, he would be fine.
From his new perch, not more than two or three meters off the ground, he could just barely make out his compatriot from behind one of the trees nearby. He was about to hop off the log and approach when his phone rang.
[ 148/843 ]
Kansuke was about to send another volley at the man when he noticed his fancy newfangled spirit phone was going off. He looked back over at the young nobleman and noticed he too was receiving a message. The old man stepped into a shunpo and came out next to the copper haired man.
"It seems we might have to put a rain check on the rest of this," Kansuke said, pulling out his phone and looking at the orders.
It didn't seem like anything too major. There was a Hollow nearby and the only reason they probably got these orders is because they where the closest to it. The old man had to wonder for a moment if it might in fact be their presence that attracted the Hollow. After all, chances were it wasn't after a spiritually aware squirrel.
A Menos Grande? the swordsman thought to himself as he read the orders. There is no way this thing is after the wild life here. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come here.
A Menos Grande might not be a bad thing. We both know it wouldn't hurt for you to shake away the cobwebs. Not to mention the boy could use a good real fight. It might help with this part of the training.
"Code name is Aerteas," Kansuke said, reading the orders aloud. "Gillian level. Up for a workout?"
[ 233/1163 ]
Water dripped off drab stalactites, echoing as they splashed against the hard, unnatural stone surface of a deep, seemingly infinite cavern. Huge shadowy shapes lumbered about in silence as they had for centuries and would for centuries to come. These caverns, in the dreary white stone, pillars reaching the ceiling, was the Menos Forest; home to the Menos Grande, and many other Hollows that sought the solitude of the caverns, away from the always night sky of Hueco Mundo above them. Here, a lone Gillian, the lowest of the Menos class Hollow save for the Menos Grande, slept. Aerteas is what the others called it. Names did not matter though, for this amalgamation of lesser Hollows cared only for leisure and food. Hooded by a strange, misshapen mask with a single eye, and garbed in a leathery loincloth, Aerteas began to stir from its slumber.
The giant of a Hollow, standing at a good fifteen feet when fully erect, let out a stiffening yawn, its already large mouth unhinging to become even larger as the yawn bellowed through the caverns. Its single eye began to show slow signs of consciousness as the red glow within deepened. In a clumsy manner, the Gillian slowly began to right itself as it worked to push itself up, out of its sleepy daze. Bulbous stomach churned and growled as Aerteas scratched at the loincloth where any other creature’s unmentionable might have been.
The large Hollow slowly looked around, purveying its personal cave it had created for itself in a nook of the Menos Forest. The Gillian turned to a blank wall as it rubbed its mask, “Hmmm, belly empty…..Need filling with yummy yummy souls. Time to go Earth and pick up breakfast….” In his broken grammar, Aerteas struck his finger forward at the wall, but instead of grasping rock, the fingers ripped into nothingness. As Aerteas ripped against the air, a giant gate opened into the void, a separate dimensional path which would lead him to Earth and his next meal.
[ 337 ]
Hayato was still reading the briefing text sent in from the Ninth Division. The Hollow, Aerteas, was one of the few who had lived long enough for him to have actually met it. The thing had been involved in one of his first assignments, a real shrimp of a thing back in the day. If it had become a Gillian, it was obviously less of a shrimp now than it had been when it left that fight. The young nobleman’s lips pressed into a firm line.
It took too much death and suffering to make a Gillian. It took a conglomeration of more than a dozen Hollows to make just one of those monstrosities. A Gillian, though, was the dominant personality. It was the one that survived, the one that had come out on top in the massive inner scramble for control. The dominant personality was the one that asserted itself. Even if it was something else, it was still itself, down at its core. It felt the same.
The young nobleman raised implacably cold, too-pale blue eyes to his companion, mouth splitting in a ferocious grin as he replied, “I don’t think we have a choice, Kansuke. It’s already here.”
A pulse of Hollow reiatsu shot through the area, almost exactly in time with his prediction.
[ 217/1060 ]
The swordsman took a deep breath of the somewhat thinner air. It's not that there was less oxygen here, but rather that there was less reishi in the air. He turned and watched as his student exited the Senkaimon behind him.
"Are you ready, Hayato?" the white haired old man asked.
The location was just as Kansuke had hoped for. A remote woods in the middle of a countryside somewhere. They were far enough away from a human settlement that their actions would not interfere with their everyday lives and they were certainly nowhere near Rukongai in Soul Society. They would have plenty of room to train in without being in anyone's way.
[ 193 ]
The forest was like many others in the area. Definitely a new growth forest, its floor was littered with rotting or wholly rotten logs, branches that had snapped but not fallen all the way to the ground, and prolific fern undergrowth. Noise from animals and birds filled the entire area, muffled by the assortment of tree trunks. The sky was visible through the upper boughs and the ground on which they stood was padded with half-rotted twigs, trampled plants, and several layers of mixed dirt and an assortment of decomposing plants.
Hayato ran a hand back through his hair, took a deep breath, and frowned slightly. Many people had told him at one time or another that there was nothing as pleasant as the smell of a forest, but he disagreed. It smelled paradoxical. The stench of rot, mold, and animals mixed strangely with the fresh scent of recycling air and pine. He had smelled worse, but he had also smelled much better. A good, clean city street with freshly-soaked pavement on a hot day … now that was a smell he loved. Just standing in the forest made him feel tense and unwelcome.
“Ready,” he responded, absently scanning the surroundings for a deeper impression. His conclusion was, “I don’t like it here.”
[ 213 ]
"Be that as it may," the old man said, "this will be the perfect spot for you to learn to be aware of your surroundings in."
The old man looked around at the uneven ground and trees growing in random spots. He was glad they were able to get this location and not one where the trees had been planted in rows and columns by men. While the trees weren't tight together they were certainly close enough that the young noblemen would have to be careful where he swung his sword. One misjudged slash and his blade might get stuck in the trunk of one of those trees.
"Let's start with something nice and simple," Kansuke said, noticing there were a few twigs that were still dry and brittle. "You have to walk before you can run."
The swordsman stepped into a shunpo and emerged a few yards away from the copper haired young man.
"Walk to me," the old man said. "Don't use shunpo, just walk normally. When you reach me we will move on."
What the white haired man did not tell the boy was that for every twig snapped underfoot he would change location and increase the distence. It was a simple exercise, Kansuke was sure the boy would catch on fairly quickly. With this he would be able to see how well aware the boy was of his environment already as well as how quickly he can catch on without being told what it is he is doing.
[ 252/445 ]
A simple request though it was, Hayato caught the note of deception. A brief perusal of the ground showed him … nothing of note, just a few dry twigs, some undergrowth, and a decade’s worth of padding from fallen leaves and needles. As far as he could tell, there were no traps lying in wait and no pitfalls waiting to be stepped into, but he was no forester. A curb and a staircase were his concept of terrain. A rooftop and a street were his idea of an environment. As of yet, he had never had a duty station outside Tokyo proper.
Rather than wait so long that everyone grew old while he lingered in indecision, Hayato glanced habitually to either flank to check his blind spots and took his first step forward to the sound of snapping twigs and crushing leaves.
[ 142/355 ]
Snap. Crunch. Just what the old man expected to hear. With a quick shunpo Kansuke was on the other side of the noblemen and a couple more yards away.
"Come on Hayato," Kansuke said, "I'm over here."
How long do you think it will take the boy to catch on Kansuke?
Well, the old man replied, that's what I plan on finding out.
[ 62/507 ]
The younger man kept walking, stepped behind a tree, and turned his body so that it would be invisible from the angle his trainer would be viewing him. After a moment of consideration, he sighed and looked at his surroundings again. Something told him that executing a shunpō of his own would do no good. The older Shinigami was most likely more experienced with flash steps than Hayato, who stood behind the tree and weighed his options.
If it was a game of tag, he could never win if his opponent was using instant steps like that … and Kansuke would know it. The object of the game was most likely not speed, then – something else. The shunpō had been executed in time with his footfall, which meant that something he had done had triggered it, some unspoken rule of the game. The snapping twigs were his first guess, but that was too blatant. No, the older Shinigami would be subtler than that – or would he?
The copper-blond turned around the corner, careful to avoid the dry branches on the ground, just in case, and placed his footfalls carefully out of sight from the white-haired Shinigami as he approached. It had to be a sight or a sound trick, and avoiding branches seemed too simple.
[ 215/570 ]
The old man smiled slightly as the young man seemed to be understanding the exercise fairly quickly. Kansuke stayed put, watching carefully and listening. The second he heard another snapping twig he would move again. If he heard nothing he would stay put, for now.
What do you have for him next? Supposing he really has caught on to this that is.
You will see, Byakko, the duelist replied.
"Don't take all day, Hayato," Kansuke called out. "I'm old enough as it is, I don't need to grow older."
[ 89/596 ]
“You couldn’t get any older if you tried.”
Hayato flashed a grin at the old mentor and came to a stop near enough to touch the old man, but off to the side a little bit. The prankster in him wanted to turn the tables, execute a precise two-step flash step, and put the older man off-guard, but he resisted the urge. He was here to learn, not have fun. They had gotten special permission for this, which meant that the two of them might have to submit official reports to the acting-captain.
He did not want it on the record that he was being childish and not taking the opportunity to learn from his companion. He tapped Kansuke on the shoulder and said, “Tag.”
[ 125/695 ]
"No I suppose I couldn't," the old man laughed as his young friend tagged him on the shoulder.
Kansuke looked at the nobleman for a second. He certainly seemed as though he had caught on. The younger man had managed not to snap any twigs underfoot the rest of the exercise. The duelist wasn't one-hundred percent convinced that the full lesson had been learned though.
"Alright, you seem to have done well," he began again. "This time, keep the unspoken rule from the last lesson in mind and I want you to dodge and block anything and everything that comes your way."
The old man drew his Zanapkutou, the scabbard dissipating into the wind, and entered into another shunpo. This time he put himself out of sight of the young man but still within earshot.
"Like before," the old man called out, "any time you do something wrong I will change distance and location."
This time the white haired duelist did not mention that he would also increase the speed and strength of the attacks. Nor did he tell the boy to avoid hitting any trees. And the old man hoped that it should go without saying that the boy should avoid losing his footing on the uneven ground.
"Bring peace on the western wind, Byakko," the white haired shinigami whispered. The Zanapkutou took on the shape of an uchigatana and the blade became ethereal in appearance while the hilt turned white. Right from the start Kansuke began letting Byakko store a small amount of his Reiatsu in the blade. He could use that to up the strength of an attack if he had to.
"I'll start you off simple," Kansuke called out. His voice returned to a whisper and the old man put swung his zanpakutou with his right hand while aiming his left at his student, "Tora Tsume. Hadou Thirty, Big Bang."
The three constantly compressing waves of air launched at the noblemen as the Kidou energy came barreling in behind them.
[ 334/930 ]
The kidou was familiar enough to him that he knew its destructive power as well as he knew his own elbow, but the winds were an unknown factor. He narrowed his eyes and side-stepped into his furthest shunpō, landing a bit heavily and without grace on the nearest fallen log, where he teetered for a moment before he gained enough balance to draw out his sword. It occurred to him that he had never put a large amount of training into footwork, but he could deal with that by restricting his own movements. As long as he remained on solid surfaces, he would be fine.
From his new perch, not more than two or three meters off the ground, he could just barely make out his compatriot from behind one of the trees nearby. He was about to hop off the log and approach when his phone rang.
[ 148/843 ]
Kansuke was about to send another volley at the man when he noticed his fancy newfangled spirit phone was going off. He looked back over at the young nobleman and noticed he too was receiving a message. The old man stepped into a shunpo and came out next to the copper haired man.
"It seems we might have to put a rain check on the rest of this," Kansuke said, pulling out his phone and looking at the orders.
It didn't seem like anything too major. There was a Hollow nearby and the only reason they probably got these orders is because they where the closest to it. The old man had to wonder for a moment if it might in fact be their presence that attracted the Hollow. After all, chances were it wasn't after a spiritually aware squirrel.
A Menos Grande? the swordsman thought to himself as he read the orders. There is no way this thing is after the wild life here. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come here.
A Menos Grande might not be a bad thing. We both know it wouldn't hurt for you to shake away the cobwebs. Not to mention the boy could use a good real fight. It might help with this part of the training.
"Code name is Aerteas," Kansuke said, reading the orders aloud. "Gillian level. Up for a workout?"
[ 233/1163 ]
Water dripped off drab stalactites, echoing as they splashed against the hard, unnatural stone surface of a deep, seemingly infinite cavern. Huge shadowy shapes lumbered about in silence as they had for centuries and would for centuries to come. These caverns, in the dreary white stone, pillars reaching the ceiling, was the Menos Forest; home to the Menos Grande, and many other Hollows that sought the solitude of the caverns, away from the always night sky of Hueco Mundo above them. Here, a lone Gillian, the lowest of the Menos class Hollow save for the Menos Grande, slept. Aerteas is what the others called it. Names did not matter though, for this amalgamation of lesser Hollows cared only for leisure and food. Hooded by a strange, misshapen mask with a single eye, and garbed in a leathery loincloth, Aerteas began to stir from its slumber.
The giant of a Hollow, standing at a good fifteen feet when fully erect, let out a stiffening yawn, its already large mouth unhinging to become even larger as the yawn bellowed through the caverns. Its single eye began to show slow signs of consciousness as the red glow within deepened. In a clumsy manner, the Gillian slowly began to right itself as it worked to push itself up, out of its sleepy daze. Bulbous stomach churned and growled as Aerteas scratched at the loincloth where any other creature’s unmentionable might have been.
The large Hollow slowly looked around, purveying its personal cave it had created for itself in a nook of the Menos Forest. The Gillian turned to a blank wall as it rubbed its mask, “Hmmm, belly empty…..Need filling with yummy yummy souls. Time to go Earth and pick up breakfast….” In his broken grammar, Aerteas struck his finger forward at the wall, but instead of grasping rock, the fingers ripped into nothingness. As Aerteas ripped against the air, a giant gate opened into the void, a separate dimensional path which would lead him to Earth and his next meal.
[ 337 ]
Hayato was still reading the briefing text sent in from the Ninth Division. The Hollow, Aerteas, was one of the few who had lived long enough for him to have actually met it. The thing had been involved in one of his first assignments, a real shrimp of a thing back in the day. If it had become a Gillian, it was obviously less of a shrimp now than it had been when it left that fight. The young nobleman’s lips pressed into a firm line.
It took too much death and suffering to make a Gillian. It took a conglomeration of more than a dozen Hollows to make just one of those monstrosities. A Gillian, though, was the dominant personality. It was the one that survived, the one that had come out on top in the massive inner scramble for control. The dominant personality was the one that asserted itself. Even if it was something else, it was still itself, down at its core. It felt the same.
The young nobleman raised implacably cold, too-pale blue eyes to his companion, mouth splitting in a ferocious grin as he replied, “I don’t think we have a choice, Kansuke. It’s already here.”
A pulse of Hollow reiatsu shot through the area, almost exactly in time with his prediction.
[ 217/1060 ]