An External Work Out. Kyomei vs. Hokori. R NDE

Kyomei was used to training at odd hours of the day, due to the usual abuse he received at the hands of his adopted "family." Far too often he was subjected to demeaning looks, exclusion from all sorts of events, and even being spit upon. Training when other people shared the space became nightmarish, especially when he began to train in the Kuchiki combat styles and learning the Kuchiki Hana Specialty of Magic. For most of them, it was an insult for him to even know they exist, much less learn them. For that reason, Kyomei trained in silence and solitude.

At the current moment, Kyomei had set up a pole with rods attached to it at perpendicular angles. He could strike one of the rods and it would cause the pole to spin around. As the pole spun, some of the other rods would come around to strike at Kyomei. This was perfect practice for applying his skill in acrobatics to the Kuchiki art of the Floating Rose, for as the rods struck him Kyomei would use that momentum to let his body be pushed into a spin in order to strike at the exposed rods again and switch the direction of the pole's spin. It was grueling training, but it was working, mostly.

It would help Kyomei if he had an actually sentient partner with which to train, but Kyomei would never go out of his way to go ask one of the other Kuchiki for help. The other Kuchiki that he had met would never have helped him learn their graceful and honorable styles. Thus, Kyomei was reduced to sticks in order to help him learn. After a while, Kyomei began to feel like he was being watched. Most people had a sort of sixth sense, a paranoid thought that someone somewhere was watching them, however, Kyomei was not most people. Kyomei had an actual sixth sense in the form of an almost average energy sensory, and instincts greater than many wild animals.

Even with Hokori suppressing his reiatsu, at this short distance Kyomei would detect that there was something or someone there. Kyomei caught the rod coming out at him and spun around to face whatever was behind him. "You seem to be trying very hard, perhaps you could use another source of information. If it would suite you, I can show you how a "Kuchiki" should properly do it." Yet another Kuchiki who would mock Kyomei, put him down, treat him like an inferior dog. However, Kyomei needed an actually sentient being to train with, so he would have to do. Kyomei wordlessly got into a defensive pose in order to prepare for whatever his family member had in mind.

As Kyomei was preparing to train with the family member of his that he did not know the name of, the family member simply walked forwards and placed a sword on the table. Due to the elegance of the piece, as well as the lack of any other weaponry on his body, Kyomei assumed that it was his Zanpakutou. Kyomei had already set his weapons on that table, so now there were two swords and a silver tube resting on that one little table. So much danger and power resting on one simple table. It was funny, really, having such an elegant piece such as that Zanpakutou resting to such a common Uchigatana and Plasma Blade. They were so close that the "inferior" blades were almost touching the "superior" blade.

After resting his Zanpakutou on the table he walked forwards towards Kyomei, quite slowly in fact. Walking slow was simply a way of making yourself seem better than others, as if their time isn't worth taking advantage of. Time is a non-renewable resource, and this family member was seemingly trying to waste Kyomei's. As he trudged on, eating up valuable seconds that could have been spent training, he began to spout off words like a catalogue machine, without emotion or inflection. He simply listed a lot about Kyomei like the family member knew him, well Kyomei didn't know him.

He listed Kyomei's name, both current and past, well isn't that fascinating. Everyone in the building probably knew the names of the "intruders", and Kyomei was rarely referred to as with the Kuchiki surname by most of his adopted family, so this didn't surprise him. Then the family member proceeded to state Kyomei's age, height, and weight. Well isn't that interesting, he can do what most fairground part-time employees can do. Granted it is a bit harder to guess a Shinigami's age, but that doesn't make it impossible. So far, this family member had only said either completely obvious or observable qualities. His attempt at intimidating Kyomei was not working so far.

After detailing Kyomei's physical attributes, he detailed something that was easily known through whispered rumors. Yes, it was true that Kyomei did not have a Zanpakutou or any sort of release and that he excelled in the Arts of Kidou and Kidou Combination. However, having people know about what he excelled at did not prepare them for the sudden changes in what was normal, nor did it make for something that was highly secretive. No one could prepare for something that they had never seen before, especially if it hadn't been thought of until five seconds prior. This information being held out in the open didn't intimidate Kyomei either. His family member would have to try much harder to accomplish that.

Then the family member said something that wouldn't have been rumored as much, but still could have been passed in conversation. He simply detailed the Kuchiki Arts that Kyomei was working on learning, the Hana of Magic and the Floating Rose. The latter would be easy for him to know, as Kyomei was just now practicing it, however the former was a bit less widely known. Obviously this family member was well informed as to what Kyomei was, but not necessarily who he was. "Just now when you refused to speak, I would refrain from doing that to anyone." Kyomei found this comment to be highly amusing.

"You may know of me, but you don't know me. I don't know of you at all, so I don't know you either. This makes us equals in knowledge. You may have ten million facts about me, but that does not mean that you know who I am or what I stand for. I don't speak without having something to say, and before this, I had nothing to say, thus I didn't speak to you." Kyomei had no more to say at this point, so he just let the other Kuchiki continue his rant. It was another insanely captivating speech on the dangers of nobility and politics, which Kyomei had heard a thousand times over. It was an overdone speech and it wasn't garnering Kyomei's approval at all, however, it seemed as though the other Kuchiki was trying to test Kyomei, not the other way around.

"Prepare yourself." So the two were actually to train against each other, that was actually surprising to Kyomei. Most of his family had tried to hinder his growth in their Arts as well as any sort of training at all. Maybe this other family member could actually be of help in the coming times, with tensions rising everywhere. Despite his absence from politics, even Kyomei could see that there were growing stresses in the Soul Society, and something big could go down at any moment. "Let us see how well you handle fighting without the demon arts."

Nope, this family member was like all the rest of the Shinigami he'd met. None wanted to fight him in a Kidou battle, so most tried to bring some other sort of combat into the mix, like swordsmanship or hand to hand. Kyomei needed practice in these art forms, so he'd play by the family member's rules of the game, for now... Kyomei would forgo Kidou temporarily in order that he might improve in the Kuchiki Art of the Floating Rose, among other areas, possibly. Kyomei was already in a defensive pose, and the family member immediately rushed out to start this training off with an attack.

He was fast, much faster than Kyomei, and his body slightly blurred as he ran forwards. Kyomei estimated his speed to be almost double his own, meaning he'd land blows with ease even if Kyomei tried to perform a Floating Rose manuever. Kyomei just wasn't fast enough to keep up with that sort of speed, so he couldn't do much as he was suddenly under attack. His family member's arm was covered in a thick spinning reiatsu, probably to avoid the cutback effect. So he's worried about cutback, is he? Well his Zanpakutou being over there helps me a little for now because he can't release without it being present, so let's have a little fun. As the family member struck out, it was obvious that he was purposefully holding back, again as if to test Kyomei.

The reiatsu coated arm was directed towards Kyomei's arm, which was easy to apply the Floating Rose Art to a defense of sorts. He was purposefully holding back, which allowed Kyomei to use that arm strike to spin him around 180 degrees, so that he was now facing away from the attacker. It hurt as the reiatsu slammed into him, but it could have been worse if Kyomei hadn't reduced the impact to almost nothing. Then, he could sense the same form of reiatsu gathering much lower than before, such as in the feet and/or knee. At this range, and at that massive concentration of reiatsu, even not looking at it Kyomei would still be able to sense the gathering of reiatsu into another attack. Because Kyomei was facing in the opposite direction, the knee would hit him in the small of the back, not the ribs.

Again the attacker held back to a speed in which Kyomei could safely bring himself out of the way. As the knee came into contact with Kyomei's back, he used the momentum to perform a tight back flip. This would reduce the amount of time that the reiatsu fueled knee was in contact with his body, and thus reduce the damage caused by it. As an added bonus, one that Kyomei couldn't have foreseen, his family member had used his own momentum in the knee attack to deliver a full speed kick that would hit nothing but open air, as Kyomei was now far out of the way in the middle of his back flip. At this close range, Kyomei's back flip would cause him to land directly on the shoulders of his family member, feet first. From that position, he pushed off into another back flip which would force the other Kuchiki to stumble forwards.

The other Kuchiki obviously would recover easily from that maneuver, probably without even blinking an eye, and continued his assault. This time he was fighting at full speed, stabbing repeatedly at Kyomei, and Kyomei simply just couldn't keep up. Thankfully, as he was doing quick, low surface area jabs with his fingers, it wouldn't create a large bruise, just a small one in a large amount of places. As he attacked viciously, he began to lecture Kyomei again, this time about having a dull mind or something. However, Kyomei had a mind sharper than many wild animals, so his lecturing was simply prattle and not informative in the least. Finally the onslaught was over and he continued his lecture again.

"If you are to stand with us. You must be stronger, faster. Not everything can rely on your magic. Sometimes that will be robbed of you. You must be able to have the capacity to fight in any form. As a Kuchiki this is expected of you, not only for your worth to our house. But also as protection, the more powerful you seem. The less likely someone will try to kill you with assassination. Do you understand?" Kyomei couldn't hold his amusement inside himself any longer, he just burst out laughing. "Faster? Stronger? Yeah, I can do faster and stronger." With that, Kyomei punched his family member. The other guy might detect the buildup of reiatsu, but most likely not, because there was a mere fraction of a second in between the time that Kyomei had no reiatsu charged before his arm swung out at a stat speed of 2250, almost six times faster than his family member could move normally.

Kyomei had pushed his arm with reiatsu similar to a Shunpo using a technique known as Hakko Undo. This Shunpo variation wasn't as fast as a Shunpo, but in what small amount of speed it sacrificed it made up for in explosive power. At the speed Kyomei's arm was moving, and due to the fact that the reiatsu buildup was near instantaneous due to Kyomei's skill at Kidou, his family member would need instincts and senses far beyond wild animals in order to react accordingly. Kyomei had saturated his arm with only a little reiatsu, and the resulting wave of force as Kyomei struck his opponent in the chest would only be comparitive to a Sho. However, Kyomei's Sho were incredibly strong, and his opponent would fly backwards fast and far, probably hitting a wall or something in the process, and he wouldn't even have known what hit him. Kyomei could have done a much larger amount of damage, but that would cause damage to himself as well, and neither of those would let the training last very long at all.

As his opponent was recovering, it would be Kyomei's turn to speak. "I think it would behoove you to introduce yourself before speaking like you know me. You may not like my "intrusion" into this family, but I'm here, so let's at least pretend to be on the same side. Whatever may happen in the Soul Society, in the Land of the Living, heck, even in Las Noches, I will stand with or behind the Kuchiki, and I prefer to do both." Kyomei had spoken his mind, and he hoped that the other Shinigami would at least give his name, if not at least try to see things from Kyomei's perspective. Few people understood the pain of being alone, then given a hope of a sense of community and camaraderie which is quickly crushed as those who were supposed to welcome you shun you and hate you. Kyomei only wanted them to understand him before they judged him.

Remaining Reiatsu: 7150/7350

As Kyomei flipped backwards from the momentum of the kick to the small of his back, he cleared the spinning kick just in time. As a result, Hokori wouldn't have time to really finish his kick and then react to Kyomei not being there, and then jump forwards. For him to think he could would be overstepping his level of instincts for such a move that was so close quarters. However, it may be possibly that by sheer luck the amount of force he put into the kick caused Kyomei's flip to travel farther backwards than Hokori's shoulders, and the second back flip being off the ground instead of off them. Either way, Kyomei was out of the way of the full speed spinning kick and neither of them were harmed in the process.

As Kyomei laughed as to the absurdity of Hokori's jest against him, saying that he was inferior when they'd only just met, really, Hokori's eyes narrowed slightly. It was a look of "what. the. heck." as Hokori's noble blood probably felt insulted by Kyomei's "rude" behavior. However, it was just so funny that Hokori would feel as though Kyomei was inferior just by a minute of physical combat, even as he refused to fight without his reiatsu coating because he knew he'd only hurt himself. It was a mockery to act all tough but be hiding behind defenses because you know yourself to be too weak to handle without them. Call it tactics, call it cowardice, call it what you will, it is still amusing. Thus, Kyomei laughed.

There wouldn't have been a "tell" so obvious that Hokori knew how Kyomei was going to attack. Maybe Kyomei's statement had been enough to let Hokori know that an attack was coming in some form, but there was absolutely no way that Hokori could know that the attack was coming from Kyomei's arm in the form of a punch. For him to know that would have to involve Kyomei moving much slower, or some sort of energy sensory that would pick up on gathering reiatsu, neither of which were present in the situation. However, it is possible that Hokori could react to the coming attack with his Shunpo, seeing as the Shunpo would cause him to move almost four times faster than Kyomei's arm was thrusting forwards. Either way, Kyomei missed with his attack, hitting nothing, though it was not because of Hokori's ability to see his attack coming before it even started to be formed.

Hokori's Shunpo would be fast, yes, however it would not affect Kyomei at all. Shockwaves made by breaking the sound barrier are caused by the object dragging through the air at a certain velocity. This causes the shockwave to be formed out and away from the motion of the object. Because of their proximity, Kyomei wouldn't be in the path of this cone because Hokori barely moved any and also came closer to Kyomei anyways. The shockwave wouldn't hit Kyomei at all, he wouldn't even hear it as it was travelling away from his ears. With Kyomei's hand still outstretched, he'd barely see Hokori appear next to him, since he was moving at such a blurring speed, which would probably cause Hokori some trouble later on if he tried to use it for too long and couldn't see clearly.

Kyomei's arm was still outstretched from his punch that never connected, still filled with all that unreleased reiatsu he had saturated his body with. Hokori was moving too fast, Kyomei just couldn't react to it all. His body a complete blur, Hokori struck out at Kyomei's open, undefended arm. Now normally this would do nothing, as Kyomei's reiatsu wouldn't be triggered by the swirling reiatsu that Hokori was using dispersed to cause damage instead of making a physical impact. However, Hokori let go of his swirling reiatsu as he struck at Kyomei. This was not going to end well.

Whether it was from hubris, from oversight, or just plain ignorance, Hokori had taken away his key defense in this situation. Without the reiatsu to cause the impact, as soon as Hokori touched Kyomei's reiatsu charged arm, the force equal to a Sho ripped through the air. Hokori's arm would be sent pinwheeling backwards, with a bruise at the minimum and a possible strained muscle from the massively sudden change in direction. Unbeknownst to Kyomei, Hokori's speed boost would be disrupted, leading to a return to the normal speed which was still much faster than Kyomei was capable of reaching. After this, Kyomei simply lowered his arm and listened to Hokori's long winded speech.

Now Hokori was starting to wear down on Kyomei's patience. "I am not, hear me, not an intrusion. To be an intrusion, I would have had to push myself into this family, not been brought in. And as to the nature of your "spies" that's just plain wrong. If that is what being nobility is, then nobility sucks! The privileged should be of the people, not above them. Who are you to watch people like they're your enemies?" Kyomei was really getting worked up now, and there was little that could calm him down once he got into a seemingly pious fury. He felt disgusted as to the actions of the ones who had so much, and did not serve others with their gifts. Maybe he was being hypocritical, but none of that mattered inside his self-righteous anger.

"You may have a million facts about me, what I am physically, what I like, what I dislike, but you will never know who I am through those methods. A million billion statistics on my type of combatant or my interests will never prepare you enough for what is to come. You. Don't. Know. Me." With the final words almost spit like venom, Kyomei had finally spouted off all he was going to say. He stood up straight, smoothed down his robe, and simply nodded curtly. Then he took a deep breath and was finished with his rant, a blank expression now on his face like nothing had occurred. It was true that Kyomei was proper at most times, like Hokori had said, however Hokori had been purposefully goading Kyomei to invoke a reaction, and he was going to receive one if he had wanted it that bad.

Moving still fast enough to cause a blur, but not as fast as he was moving previously, Hokori quickly closed the distance between them, and dropped to the ground. Kyomei noticed the lack of extreme speed of before that had been caused by the release of energy from the Hakko Undo into Hokori's arm. For some reason, he was holding back when he said that he wouldn't, or he was no longer capable of reaching those same speeds. Then it clicked for Kyomei. Hokori must have been using some of the Speed Hana, something Kyomei had read about but not seen firsthand. This was quite interesting, as now Kyomei knew of himself as a Magic Hana wielder, Hokori as a Speed Hana user, and Sozen as a Destruction Hana master. Maybe in the future they would make a seriously awesome trio, but for now the two were training, not working together.

Hokori's kick was fast, but it wasn't utterly surprising. From the position he had put himself in, Kyomei could see that he was squatting for some sort of upward attack, such as an uppercut or a kick. The obvious place to aim would be the underside of the chin, where Kyomei knew all too well what happens when you hit that. Kyomei was proficient in the arts of Street fighting. He may be good at Kidou, but that doesn't mean he hadn't trained his body for physical combat as well. Any street fighter that's worth their salt knows that hitting the underside of the chin can easily cause a concussion. Thus, Kyomei tucked his chin to his collarbone and leaned forward.

Kyomei didn't have the time to do anything really but brace for impact. A Shunpo might help, but Kyomei had other plans and he knew the kick wouldn't be lethal, just painful. By instinctively leaning forwards, Kyomei was presenting his hard, protected sternum as a target rather than his easily damageable head. Hokori's blow would raise Kyomei off the ground a little by the chest, and it would hurt, but it wouldn't be life threatening. From this raised position, Kyomei had the open target of Hokori's exposed stomach, which he took advantage of by kicking, hard. Hokori was in a terrible position to try and avoid this blow, because he had put his leg up and wouldn't have the ability to form enough traction to take a step in any direction for a Shunpo.

Kyomei extricated himself from Hokori and began talking as he made his way over to the small table in the corner, whilst rubbing his now bruised sternum. "Why not a bit of fun? We've both demonstrated the ability to land blows physically, even if I needed to use a little reiatsu to do so, or take a hit to do so. You obviously don't want to get into a Kidou battle with me, so why don't we choose swordsmanship a little? I could use a little technique refining. I will warn you, however, that my blades tend to have other blades break upon them." Kyomei retrieved his own two weapons regardless of Hokori's answer, ignoring the Zanpakutou on the table. It would only serve to anger the Spirit within as well as Hokori if Kyomei were to handle it, most likely. Kyomei drew the Uchigatana from it's scabbard but left the silver tube in his obi, for now...

Kyomei was moving more than fast enough to bend his body like he did. Hokori was now moving at a slower stat speed of 360 due to the disruption of his Speed Hana, something that Kyomei hadn't planned for but would help him none the less. Hokori wasn't even blurring with his motion any more, and had Kyomei tried to Shunpo he'd have more than enough speed to do so, however he hadn't tried to do that so it didn't matter. Hokori had chosen to close the gap in between the two by running and not by using a Shunpo. Because of this, he wasn't travelling near fast enough to catch Kyomei off guard. Kyomei was quite proficient in both street fighting and acrobatics, and had plenty of instincts to be ready for the situation he was in.

The skill in street fighting combined with his instincts would have allowed him to understand the attack that was coming was directed upwards do to Hokori's ducking movements, as well as allow him to react to this in plenty of time. Kyomei's skill in acrobatics let him have the flexibility to bend the small distance with ease with a fluid motion. Kyomei would be able to bend the distance in plenty of time to avoid getting kicked in the chin, however that didn't stop him from taking the blow to the chest which would cause a bit of bruising and could maybe cause a lack of breath for a few moments as well. What Kyomei hadn't been expecting was Hokori's other arm to come out and catch his kick.

Hokori may have been incredibly imbalanced, however he obviously was skilled enough at acrobatics to maintain some sort of balance as he caught Kyomei's leg and pushed it with some sort of reiatsu. It seemed unnecessarily wasteful, but Kyomei felt himself spinning through the air regardless. Maybe Hokori wasn't strong enough physically to accomplish this amount of rotational force without the extra added reiatsu? Whatever the reason for it, Kyomei was stuck in an uncontrolled spin. However, this did take him plenty away from that reiatsu on Hokori's foot so that was a significant plus. Kyomei wouldn't hit the ground too hard because he had more than enough skill in acrobatics and street fighting to know how to take a fall.

Regardless of how hard he hit the ground, Hokori rushed forwards and tapped Kyomei on the shoulder. This was still a game to him, as if Kyomei was inferior. Well maybe Kyomei wasn't as fast or as skilled, but he was not going to take this for long. Switching to blades gave him some advantages as Hokori's spinning reiatsu wouldn't be able to be used with a blade, probably. That would lead to cutback becoming an issue, as well as the fact that Kyomei could probably cut straight through his Zanpakutou due to his strength of reiatsu. Kyomei retrieved his blades and Hokori did the same with his Zanpakutou.

It was clear what Hokori was doing in order to prevent his Zanpakutou becoming cut to pieces. Kyomei could feel the compressing of his reiryoku, leading to a sharper reiatsu strength. Kyomei wouldn't be able to cut his Zanpakutou any more, probably, but he would still have a large cutback effect. Kyomei was now so massively superior in Spiritual Pressure that any attempt to cut him would lead in a serious wound on Hokori instead. Kyomei would have to be wary, because Hokori would need to release soon in order to combat the cutback effect and he would also be immune to the Zanpakutou cutting at the current moment. Kyomei could be a dick and sharpen his own reiatsu higher than Hokori could, but for now that wasn't necessary.

Hokori gestured to Kyomei that it was his turn to make the first move. Kyomei wouldn't use Kidou for now, but if Hokori released then Kyomei would use his form of release, being superior Kidou. Kyomei knew he wasn't fast enough to out speed Hokori, and he didn't have any exceptional skill with the blade so he couldn't out finesse Hokori, but he did have two blades to Hokori's one blade, so he might have a greater chance of keeping himself protected if he used them both. Kyomei drew the silver tube from his side and pressed the green button which powered up the yellow beam of plasma energy. Holding them both out to the opposite sides in order to keep himself protected, Kyomei executed a Shunpo to get right next to Hokori.

The first stab was with the Uchigatana going straight for the stomach, with the plasma blade curving around the other side to try and hit the arm. Kyomei expected both to be blocked, and if they were deflected he would use the momentum to execute a spin to strike again from the opposite side. It was probably a pitiful attempt in the eyes of Hokori, as Kyomei wasn't too fast in comparison nor was he any better with blades than the average grunt. However, Kyomei had instincts and those could be used to his advantage to react to quite a lot. With Hokori's speed reduced, maybe he would have a chance to land a single blow before this turned into a Release/Kidou battle. Though Kyomei would enjoy the Kidou and Release fighting, practicing in some other areas were very important as well.

Remaining Reiatsu: 7125/7350

Kyomei's attacks were blocked, as he had assumed they would have been. Hokori was still a bit faster than Kyomei and his skill with a blade had been more than enough to hit the parts of the blade that he needed to come in contact with just right. However, his boredom is what Kyomei had also expected, and when he went on the counter offensive Kyomei did absolutely nothing. As Hokori stabbed him, there would be no pain on Kyomei's end, no blood staining his clothes, no cut. Instead, Hokori would take a cut to the chest for every stab that he tried to inflict on Kyomei because of the massive disparity of Spiritual Pressure. Hokori may have been able to avoid his blade being severed, but now he was suffering even more from cutback.

Kyomei simply walked backwards until there was five meters between them. Hokori had balanced one of the spiritual effects, his Zanpakutou being cut, but he had sacrificed his ability to cut Kyomei by doing that. There was, however, still a solution to overcome the fact that he couldn't cut Kyomei. "Stop holding back, cousin, just release. I shall use Kidou, and you shall use your release, this time of the spar was inevitable, and I believe that you know it." Kyomei pressed the red button on his Plasma Blade, powering down the blade and placing it back on his belt. He might want an open hand for certain Kidou, so he was sacrificing his sword ability in order to prepare for Kidou. With a nod, he urged Hokori to release once more, it would be better for them both.

Hokori had slashed himself ragged, and finally gave up trying to slash at Kyomei and just stepped back, drips of blood streaking down his hands. His sword would start to grow uncomfortable in his hand as it rubbed against the wounds with every slight motion. Hokori jumped back away from Kyomei and dramatically raised his arm with his Zanpakutou into the air. Before he could do anything else, something seemingly harmless but still important took place. The arm that wasn't outstretched was hanging at his side, and the wounds had gathered enough blood and let loose a single drop of blood. This drop of blood fell with all the overly dramatic wiggles and wobbles that a non-sentient blob could muster, slamming into the ground and staining the carpet. It was the first drop of blood shed in this fight, and it was definitely not going to be the last.

After the blood of Hokori had fallen to the ground, his eyes started to change. His reiatsu had filled his eyes with a bright green light, not unlike a thick acid. If the eyes were truly the windows to the soul, then Hokori possessed a very sickening power to his Zanpakutou, quite possibly an impairment of some form. As Kyomei was making analytical assumptions, he wasn't bothering with flexing his reiatsu, for he didn't assume there to be a massive threat just yet. However, Kyomei would quickly be forced to flex his reiatsu as waves of nausea hit him hard. The reiatsu pooling at Hokori's feet was a sickening, nasty, garbage of reiatsu. "How unrefined and barbaric, for a noble..." Kyomei simply exerted his pressure and felt fine, however the disgust he felt at his adopted cousin's hypocrisy didn't go away so easily.

"Now you'll learn, to fear me. Inscribe, Wan Shi Tong." Was he joking? It sounded like a joke to Kyomei. His hypocritic cousin wanted Kyomei to fear him with a flashy show of force, a Shikai release that wasn't even spectacular compared to some, but regardless was just a Shikai release. Having no Zanpakutou to call his own, Kyomei more and more had felt that they were more a hindrance than an assistance. In the case of Kyomei's friend, Kubi, his Zanpakutou spirit consumed him during release and made him rage more like a beast than a being of sanity and sentience. It could be argued that Hokori had already been arrogant before releasing, but backed by his release, he felt invincible, though it was clear already that without it he was inferior, for he was the bleeding one, not Kyomei.

Hokori's release wasn't even that interesting, maybe it had power but that still remained to be seen. The elegant blade had slimmed to have a shallow divot in the sides and the guard had lengthened to cover the hand. Obviously there was some reason why the guard covered the hand, probably to protect against itself rather than outside attack. The nature of the poison Kyomei had seen in Hokori's eyes was clearly evident as green ooze started to bubble out of the Zanpakutou blade. There was something about it that made Hokori want to avoid it spilling onto his hand. The ooze fell onto the carpet, further staining it but not seeming at all to harm it in any other way. A true acid would have caused the carpet fibers to shrivel with the high acidity, which wasn't present. So obviously what was coming out of the blade wasn't a physically corrosive acid, so that would be helpful to know, as it wouldn't be able to burn through reiatsu, probably.

"I'll soon show you what it means to lose your mind." Ah, Kyomei just loved it when other people in their hubris revealed things that would have better been kept as surprises. This was an acid of sorts, but corroded the mind instead of the body, clearly evident by Hokori's words. Kyomei would pick up on this fact with his proficiency in battle analysis, and would be ready to try and counter the blobs as they were used. From the position of the divots, the liquid would be free to slosh out at the slightest motion, so it would be easy to fling out the liquid in waves or simply let an opponent disturb it by blocking or counter attacking. That would leave blade arts at a disadvantage, especially since Kyomei didn't have a significant skill in the area of the sword.

Instead of blade arts, because Hokori was using his release, Kyomei felt perfectly fine in using his own form of release, Kidou and Kidou combination. The part of Hokori's release that was more spectacular and hinted at the arcane might have a defense against this, however Kyomei was pretty content in his ability to power through some things. The large book that floated over Hokori's hand didn't seem like an offensive threat, however it wasn't a good idea to underestimate any part of a release. Rarely, if ever, was anything for no reason but ornament. Hokori seemed like he was going to again play the defender, so Kyomei was forced to push forwards and attack, and push he did.

While standing still, Out of his empty hand came a push from Sho with a wide arc in a cone-like shape to intercept any loose drops of the liquid as well as push Hokori back. Kyomei was shifting the basic form of the Sho in order to suit his needs, because he wanted a bit of distance. At the current moment, Hokori appeared to need a close ranged battle in order to deliver his corrosion, so Kyomei wanted to force him to fight at a range for now, quickly sending him away just for the fun of it. Kyomei expected Hokori to either dodge or counter with a quick Shunpo, so he had a Kidou ready in case Hokori tried to attack him with his sword or ooze. Being a user of the Speed Hana, he could expected to attempt to bring down an enemy quickly with blitzing motions, so Kyomei wouldn't let him do so, he'd force it into a drawn out battle that Kyomei would easily win. Kyomei could last longer than most with his vast stores of reiatsu, so he didn't need to worry so much about fighting conservatively when others did.

Remaining Reiatsu: 7100/7350 (-25 Sho)

Kyomei's Sho worked, but it wasn't very effective in the sense of knock back. Hokori simply brought up his arm and let the Sho carry him and his ink backwards approximately two feet. It wasn't very far, but it did still have a purpose. First of all, that nasty green ink was kept away from Kyomei, and second the ink splashed on Hokori. Immediately Kyomei saw the ink fade in color with no visible effect on Hokori, revealing that Hokori need not worry about his own ink for it could not affect him at all. So Kyomei couldn't use that to his advantage, that was unfortunate, but there'd be other opportunities for Kyomei to take advantage of his opponent, that much was for certain in his mind.

Kyomei didn't have the large amount of distance that he wanted, but he did still have plenty of distance to react to the incoming sword attack. Kyomei simply put up the Kidou that he had been readying, Seki, and watched as Hokori literally bounced off the small invisible orb. He wouldn't have the energy sensory required to sense it in time because it was so small and Kyomei was releasing it quite late in the sword swing. Hokori's sword arm would be repelled, as well as his entire body would be paralyzed because of Kyomei's high reiatsu strength. This would, at first, seem like a flawless defense to Kyomei, who didn't fully understand the physics of Hokori's ink, but it would turn out to be one of the worst things that he could have tried to do.

Due to the divot in the sword that allowed the ink to flow quite freely, as the arm was repelled the ink would maintain its velocity with a splash of droplets. These droplets would splash on Kyomei's clothes and immediately sink in and Kyomei would suddenly feel the clouding of his mind effect start to take over. It would be slight, as the ink would have only splashed on his clothes from the angle of the sword swing being thrown back, but it would be noticeable for someone who knew the very minute inner workings of his mind. "What sickening poison is this, how can this be noble in the least? Doesn't your release make you feel sick to your own stomach with how common and dirty it is? Look at how stained the carpet is with your filth..."

Kyomei decided to have a little bit of fun with Hokori, especially because he didn't want to get any more of that ink on himself. It was a technique that Kyomei had worked out and used against Akeru Kurohi while they were yet Academy Students. As Hokori was yet paralyzed, a brilliant light started to shine from all around Kyomei. With all his data and information on Kyomei, Hokori might actually understand what was going on, especially since Kyomei had used this Kidou Combination before. The Bakudo Enkosen was usually a linear shield, but when the effect of Kyakko's bending properties was applied to it, it could be bent into any shape, including a full body suit of armor.

The Enkosen could be seen through and seen out of, and moved with Kyomei's body due to the lingering aspect of the Kyakko. It would come with a constant reiatsu drain, but for now Kyomei was plenty fine to churn out the reiatsu for such a flawless defense such as this. Now, there wouldn't be any more ink touching him for awhile. However, there was one annoying drawback to having a bubble of energy surrounding you at all times. Either Kyomei would have to let there be a hole in which Hokori could get ink into his hands, or he would have to only use his sword as a blunt object. Kyomei chose to have the defensive capabilities over the offensive ones, so the entirety of his sword was included in the suit of energy. With the empty hand, Kyomei bent his fingers back in a taunt at the recovering Hokori, interested to see how he would react to the flawless defense.

New Instinct: 172.5

Remaining Reiatsu: 6925/7350 (-25 Seki, -100 Enkosen, -50 Kyakko)
((Because of changes to Kyakko, the Armor will not have a post limit like before but a constant reiatsu drain due to the Kyakko component))