Forging Bonds [Kimiko] [JT]

[Addy Kuchiki]

Her body was an engine, and her will was the smoldering coal powering it. She would turn her sparks into flames, and then the flames into an inferno. An enormous blaze that would devour anything in sight, leaving only ashes. Mana dodged downwards this time around, avoiding her upwards swipe. Expected. Her opponent tended to slither out of her blows often. Vexing, but it didn’t matter. Addy would pursue her regardless. If her blow failed, she would just strike again. Harder, faster, stronger. Until her blow finally landed. No matter how long it took.

A small cut now lined Mana’s forehead. Practically a kiss compared to the damage Addy had sustained from her. But that was fine, after all, there was more to come. And not just from her. She was practically touching the knife wielding woman now, a closeness that only benefited her opponent. As Mana aimed an uppercut towards her chin, Addy’s eyes sparkled at the precarious situation she found herself in. A glimmer of a rare opportunity had now appeared! And she would be amiss to not capitalize on it.

Her swords were an extension of her will, practically an extension of her body. Yet her whole body was a weapon as well. And just because she couldn’t swing her sword didn’t make her any less dangerous. Pushing her foot off the ground in a Shunpo, Addy slammed her body into Mana’s, with her aim to slam her into the oncoming wall. If Mana wanted to be close to her, so be it. She’d just make it so no one benefited from the situation.

With her Shunpo’s speed and her tilted head, the hilt blow should only do negligible damage at best. Enveloping Mana’s body with her arms, Addy would attempt to stop her from launching any retaliatory attacks by pressing their bodies closely together. If Mana wielded a sword, this feat would be easier, but unfortunately the woman wielded a small dagger. She only needed a small bit of space to attack, and only time would tell if the Kuchiki would have to deal with the consequences of her ongoing charge.

Regardless of Mana’s being able to attack her or not, Addy would continue her main goal of slamming the emerald-eyed woman into the wall. Any amount of dagger swipes would be worth this feat. After all, she didn’t know if an opportunity like this would come again. And the longer this fight went on, the worse she got. Addy would land this attack if it was the last thing she did.

-----------------
Reiatsu: 340/540
Combat:
- Shunpo charge with Mana towards the wall behind them at a speed of 540

[Nakajima Kimiko]

Mana believed that, by closing the distance between herself and her opponent, she would be in a position within which she could remain for the remainder of this fight. This wasn't an assumption that was born out of nothing, but rather out of multiple observations that she had accomplished over the course of her time as a student of Nijūkan. Out of every duel she had accomplished with her fellow students, every sparring session she had gone through and every lessons she had learned thus far, she ha understood that even though the majority of Shinigami had access to a few techniques that allowed them to be incredibly fast, these techniques were typically only used for dodging attacks or plain movement. They were not meant to be used in any other situation, for their intent was not really offensive, but rather plainly supportive unless one directly added an offensive flair to them like her master's techniques. In other words, their base form was not to be used in any other way.

This knowledge led her to believe that there was nothing that Addy could really do when she closed her distance. She was too close to move away from Mana with the aid of Shunpo, for she would have already been cut several times before she would have been capable of doing so. The lack of focus brought about by the pain of her new wounds would have also most likely broken her focus, something which was somewhat required for the execution of the high-velocity technique, and so she would have been more or less forced to simply run away. Moreover, again, Mana's position prevented her from using her sword correctly. Even if she somehow used a technique that allowed her to swing her sword a little bit faster like the one that her master used from time to time, there was no way she would be able to do anything reasonable in such a short amount of time. Such was a default of the two-sword style, after all: the closer your enemy is, the easier it becomes for the most brazen of them to render your swordsmanship obsolete. So what Addy did next left her almost completely speechless.

Suddenly, before Mana had any chance to unsheathe her dagger even once, the Kuchiki woman outright forsook her swordsmanship altogether. She abandoned it in the moment, ignoring the use of her sword as the hilt of Mana's dagger crashed against her chin, in order to instead use a Shunpo in a manner that completely baffled the acrobatic fighter. Rather than going backwards... she decided to go forward. Indeed, without any warning, she would slam her body straight into Mana's right as the dagger-wielder had began uppercutting her. The uppercut itself had done a moderate amount of damage at best, though it could have been stronger, as it had been interrupted by the forward Shunpo. In comparison, said forward Shunpo was almost catastrophic for Mana, as with widened eyes of complete astonishment, she would find herself not only hit by Addy's body out of the blue, which caused her to be somewhat stunned in the moment, but flung across the room with her body stuck against Addy's.

When she finally realized what was happening, the emerald-eyed warrior - who was more experienced than Addy in every way - would find herself almost panicking. All it took was yet another assumption, yet another supposition that was wrong on her part, for her advantage in this battle to be completely destroyed. Her previous position, the one that she had put so much faith into, had been utterly deconstructed. Once one where she had control over it all, she was now instead at a massive disadvantage with her right arm awkwardly stuck against Addy's chest. Her small frame prevented her left hand from properly reaching said right arm to unsheathe the dagger at all, and so now, she was almost at the complete mercy of the Kuchiki woman right up against the wall. In other words, to summarize everything that was said in the moment... every single advantage that she previously has was destroyed. In terms of positioning, she was beaten.

Upon realizing this, the dagger-wielder immediately attempted to forcibly get away by kicking Addy with her legs with a Strength of 30. Unfortunately, as to be expected from such power, such a thing wouldn't really get her anywhere; in fact, Addy would almost barely feel them. So, after a few kicks, Mana would instead attempt to push herself by bringing her feet to the wall. In any other circumstances, this would have probably been a successful endeavor; after all, even though Addy was holding onto her, even her own Strength was limited. The problem was that, right as she attempted to do so, Addy... simply slammed her into the wall. Multiple times, in fact. They were not particularly impressive slams, but their repetition was enough to cause Mana to let out quiet yelps as she felt them again and again on her back, breaking her focus and, therefore, her legs' attempts to climb onto wall so as to push her away from it. This was it. She couldn't do anything at all.

Slam. Slam. Slam. Mana's calm and hypnotic gaze eventually turned into something that was more frantic and panicked. She was not used to such aggressive recruits in the slightest, and it showed. She almost appeared akin to a cat stuck in-between furniture, a creature that desperately wanted to get out of this horrible, terrible, no-good situation. Fortunately for Addy, it could be said that it was at this moment that she truly won this little spar. Unfortunately, however, it would be then that something would suddenly click in Mana's gaze. In a split-second, the fear that was in her eyes would be gone, instead replaced with a frigid, focused glare as she considered her option. Then, suddenly, her right hand would suddenly find itself spinning the dagger's sheath in-between its fingers to dislodge the weapon of its scabbard before grabbing hold of its hilt and pointing its blade straight down right towards the top of Addy's head. 

In a moment's notice, she was holding the dagger with the blade down in a stabbing motion, right before she launched it straight towards its target.

This was all done at a Speed of 400. In short, Addy would've been unable to see this coming. It was purely an instinctual maneuver, a response from her true skills as an experienced warrior that felt like they needed to do something to defend themselves as soon as possible. Thankfully, before Mana's blade would even reach Addy's head, the duelists would hear a metallic noise ring in the air right before both the dagger-wielder's weapon as well as its scabbard were sent flying across the room and right into the opposite wall. Then, almost like someone appeared from out of nowhere by her side, the Kuchiki woman would feel a hand on her shoulder. The moment she would turn her head towards her left, she would find herself staring at Kimiko who was smiling brightly her with that fuming mouth of hers. "Alright, I think that's enough! I'm calling an end to this fight!" The Captain would declare then, hoping that this would be enough for the two fighters to stop.

The swordswoman would wait for both Addy and Mana to separate from one another, standing quietly as she did so with that signature shine of hers. At a glance, she didn't look particularly threatening, but the dagger-wielder appeared almost shocked, like she wasn't quite sure of what had just happened. Her Captain didn't even seem as though she had unsheathed her weapon at all, and yet... she had hit her dagger. It was evident: there was absolutely nobody else in the room who could have done something like that. Moreover, she was shocked in what she had almost done, enough so that she would remain silent as Kimiko would look at the both of them and laugh. "Man, wow! You two were really going at it! Absolutely excellent performance from you both!" She would congratulate both fighters with a bright smile on her face, happy, satisfied. Then, her gaze would turn towards Addy. "What you just did there? That was ballsy. Real ballsy! I've never seen a Shinigami do something like that in a very long time."

[Addy Kuchiki]

Her unorthodox attack was successful, at the price of her chin. An equivalent exchange? Only time would tell. Yet another source of pain to add to the list. Wound upon wound. Injuries she could’ve avoided if she was stronger. Quicker. Smarter. More experienced. But it would be fine. As long as her opponent suffered just as much as she was.

Using her size to her advantage wasn’t new knowledge to Addy, but she rarely fought people smaller than her. So being able to hinder Mana thanks to just her size was quite the experience. One she was finding herself starting to enjoy. Gripping Mana as if her life depended on it, the Kuchiki began slamming the woman into the wall. The more kicks she received, the more she repeated her actions. This exchange would be the deciding factor in this fight, and she wouldn’t let it slip away.

Mana’s retaliatory dagger attack happened so fast that Addy could barely comprehend what occurred. All she saw was a small blur before a loud clang overwhelmed her senses. Turning her eyes to the source of the noise, the Kuchiki was just in time to see her opponent’s scabbard smack the wall. A deflected attack. One she had no part of. A firm hand on her shoulder brought Addy out of her musing as she turned towards its owner. It seemed the fight was over. Kimiko had seen enough.

As the two separated, both fighters delved deeper into their thoughts. Taking another glance at Mana’s weapon, Addy deepened her gaze in thought. If Kimiko hadn’t interrupted, she would have lost the fight no? While she had fought through Mana’s previous attacks, she had a feeling that the last one had been a bit different. Stronger. Faster. Yet even that description was false. Mainly because her opponent had been holding back. The last attack wouldn’t have been Mana’s strongest. It would have just been an attack at her actual strength. Something that Addy couldn’t withstand at her current level.

Sheathing her weapons, Addy listened to Kimiko speak as all the pain her body went through came surging back. Everything hurt with the notable areas being the top of her head, her chin, and her muscles. She was sure her face was a beet red sweaty mess, but there was no preventing that. She had given 200% in this spar, and it showed. Giving her teacher a tired smile, Addy took a deep breath before responding. “Thank you. I didn’t have a lot of options, so I decided to go for something more unorthodox. I had to do whatever I could thanks to Mana’s strength.”

While she would have preferred to beat Mana with pure swordplay, such a thing wasn’t happening. Her opponent was more experienced than her. And by quite a bit. Addy would have had to get lucky in order to strike her down with just her blades. And she wasn’t a fan of relying on luck. Her loss stung a bit, but what loss didn’t? She had learned tremendously from this exchange. Things she wouldn’t have known without this spar, so she was thankful for the experience. And this was only the start. Many more such experiences awaited her here. And she could hardly wait.

[Nakajima Kimiko]

This was an excellent spar. Well, at least it had been in the eyes of the teacher who had coordinated it. For its entire duration, from its very beginning to its very end, Kimiko quite enjoyed what she had seen. There was excitement to be had, worry and suspense to be felt in droves, and an overwhelming amount of spirit to experience to its absolute fullest, all of which were emotions that the dojo master could only normally feel in the heat of battle. Together, these emotions formed something that she could not at all describe as being anything else but positive, which was something that she admittedly couldn't often say about these introductory spars. After all, more often than not, those who come to this school for the very first time in hopes of entering its roster tend to show glaring weaknesses in just about everything that composed their fighting style, and in so doing, they would either lose in a spectacular fashion or quite simply surrender before their more-experienced opponent could deliver onto them the finishing blow.

When she found herself stopping the fight in order to gaze upon the duelists, her scarlet eyes stared into the both of their gazes, all the while her grin continued to expel steam from in-between her teeth. As to be expected, the fight had left the two of them in a somewhat-bad shape. Addy was the one who had taken the greatest amount of hits in comparison to Mana, and it showed. There was still blood dripping from the top of her head where her opponent kicked her and a red patch had been left on her chin, leaving her face looking like a swollen tomato. Meanwhile, the dagger-wielding acrobat had only received a cut to the forehead, which was nothing in comparison to the damage she had dealt to Addy. At least, when it came to the more obvious wounds, that is, for she had received several blunter blows during the spar. There was no doubt about it: they will have to go the infirmary after all of this is said and done. It should be rather empty by now, considering the time of day.

But in spite of her being very clearly the most wounded of the two, the Kuchiki woman barely looked defeated. She was unsurprisingly exhausted, yes, but there was nothing that suggested that she had even been considering the mere idea of surrendering to Mana throughout the entirety of this fight, even throughout the times during which the acrobat had proven to her that her skills far outmatched hers. She was also respectful and considerate of those very skills, clearly thinking of Mana as a superior fighter, though not in a negative light. All of those things were qualities that Kimiko thoroughly appreciated. Added onto the observations she had made prior throughout both their stay at Hikashi's Terakawa and their journey to Nijūkan, it all made for a result that profoundly impressed the Captain. Again, this is what she wanted to see from the recruits. She wanted strength in every sense of the word, not just from the body, but also the mind and soul.

Strength from the mind and soul, however, were not what she had seen from Mana. In fact... the dagger-wielder had disappointed her today. Yet she did not show this disappointment of hers right away. Instead, she would focus onto Addy and give her an affirming nod. "And that was a good decision! Shin'ō Academy teaches good lessons when it comes to Zanjutsu. Hell, if you ask me, our first lessons are pretty much on par with theirs!" A hearty chuckle would then come from her in that moment before she would then let out a sigh, expelling a fair amount of steam in the process, then smile again, "But, those lessons often lead people to only stick to what they know. It's what happens when they try to make you learn a whole bunch of stuff at the same time without letting their students focus on just one thing. Some of our students tend to showcase that problem too, but Shinigami recruits tend to have that problem a little bit more often than most."

Once her explanation was finished, she would get another good look at Addy, then another at Mana. She could see that the dagger-wielder appeared to be somewhat remorseful. No words were coming out of her mouth and she appeared to be fidgeting in place, looking away from her master with what appeared to be shame. Needless to say, her current mood wasn't particularly subtle. Good. This shame will be useful for later. For now, she would recenter her focus onto the Kuchiki woman and give her a bright wide smile. "Anyway, you did a really good job! There were a few mistakes here and there. You allowed your opponent to get too close to you, and after a while, your swordsmanship started becoming predictable," she would first criticize before she would then smirk, "but that is something we're going to correct together in due time! Kuchiki Addy, from this point on, you shall now be known as a Shichidan of Nijūkan! I look forward to what we're going to accomplish together!"

The teacher's shining enthusiasm was both blinding and infectious. It beamed out of her as she spoke, bouncing against the wall of the entire room and hitting Addy and Mana at a rate that was almost impossible to understand in the moment. Even Mana, discouraged as she was by what she had done, would found herself standing there in shock as the words of her master coursed throughout her mind, body and soul all at once. It made her almost completely forget about her shame, almost give her the courage to move on from her mistake. But that wasn't what allowed her to move her forward. Instead, it was the gaze of her teacher as she welcomed Addy in the fold. From an outsider's perspective, it almost seemed as though they were strictly focused onto Addy, but Mana knew that they weren't just directed at her. No, they were directed at both the new student and she. They were welcoming and piercing, empowering while also being critical.

In that moment, the girl didn't need to be told that she needed to do better. Not in the slightest, for she already knew that. What she needed was a push, and her teacher's energy accomplished that. She wasn't sure of where this ordeal with Addy was going to go, but she had a feeling that, for all it was worth, the girl was going to at least accept the apologies that she was going to give her once they are going to leave this room. She seems like that kind of person, after all, and so Mana somewhat doubted she would outright refuse her. In the end, perhaps that will be enough. The both of them will be able to proceed with their lessons, or whatever it is that Kimiko has planned for her, and she will be able to return to her schedule.

At this point... maybe it's best that she stick to it for a while.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Technique Used}
Technique Name: Akuma no Ishi (剃るかんめき, "Demon's Will")

Technique Type: Other | Strength of Will Buff

Technique Element: None

Usable by: All races

Class: 3

Technique Reiatsu Cost: N/A

Technique Description and Effects

The projection of one's own will to empower the hearts of others. The user channels the strength of their very soul within themselves before shouting it out, most typically either in a short inspirational speech or a motivational war cry. By accomplishing this, the user is capable of bringing forth the Strength of Will skill of all of their surrounding allies by one point for the next three posts, inspiring them to go further beyond towards victory even if such a thing may cost their lives. A master of this skill is said to have such a powerful will that they are able to instead bring the aforementioned skill of their allies up by two points.


Drawbacks & Weaknesses

As saddening as this may be to those who may be interested in learning this technique, not everyone is born with a powerful will. That is simply a natural, uncontested fact that cannot be refuted even by the greatest minds there is in this world. In so doing, it is not difficult to imagine that this technique will not always show any kind of positive effect onto the people surrounding them, especially if they are used by naturally-uninspiring individuals. In order to guarantee this technique's proper success, the user must possess a 2 in at least one of the following skills: Acting, Charisma, or Strength of Will. This technique can be executed by those who have a lesser version of these skills if they so will it; however, upon execution, there will be a 50% chance of this skill failing to provide any kind of inspiration to allies altogether.


Made by: Nakajima Kimiko

Reserved? : No

[Addy Kuchiki]

Beaming back at her Captain, Addy met Kimiko’s enthusiasm with a wave of her own. Her smile threatened to stretch her face in half, but the Kuchiki was satisfied. She had tried her hardest, and now she was being rewarded for it. She was now a Shichidan of Nijūkan! Her journey towards becoming a master of the sword had finally officially started. Her adventure would only get harder from here, and she was prepared for it. For she would gain strength every step of the way.

“Thank you. I am honored and look forward to our future together.” Giving Kimiko and Mana a bow, Addy gave the two a dazed smile as her mind wandered. There was a tremendous amount of things she needed to think about now, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Her future from now on would be even busier. But she’d be busy doing things she enjoyed. Time well spent. She was accomplishing her dreams one step at a time. She desired nothing else.

Although her motivation had now skyrocketed even more thanks to Kimiko’s words, her next stop would be the same regardless of the fact. The infirmary had her name on it, and she couldn’t bypass that fact. As she sought aid, her journey would be interrupted by an apology from Mana. One she took without second thought. Addy wasn’t one to hold grudges, plus the two were now sisters in arms. Live and let live. They would be stronger together. And from what Addy could see, with allies like these, the future only looked brighter. The things they all could accomplish would truly be a sight to behold.

[Shizuka Sanamizu ✮]

268 paragraphs = 1340 TP for all participants