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Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Dec 22, 2012 23:09:27 GMT -5
The path up to the testing facility was a short one, however it felt as if it dragged on and on, each step a mile to travel. How short a time ago it was that the figure now striding forward was silently making his way through a throng of new students into the halls of the Shino Academy. The Academy had been just a short step up into the world of the Shinigami, and though Squad 6 had been his home for awhile, bigger and better things awaited him. There had been rumors passing through the Gotei 13, none of which the Captains had confirmed or denied. All they knew was that Hinnshi Niaga had suddenly disappeared, and that there was no gravestone for him. Hoping to take up the mantle of Kidou Corps Commander, Kyomei Kuchiki had requested and been approved to take the Captaincy exam. "For you, cousin, and for the honor of the Kuchiki."
"Ehhhh, yeesh. It's been a fuckin' longass time since I was summoned here to do this. The hell happened to ya guys just killin' each other ta' assume the position?" He was present quite on the dot. As soon as Kyomei had walked into the enormous double doors of the gigantic iron testing facility, they had slammed shut behind him. Lights had exploded into existence to reveal to him a gigantic room. It was a huge metal compound with binary code everywhere. Numbers were written on every centimeter in small white print of the silver floors, walls, and ceiling. The light was red, giving the room some sort of eerie glow. The speaker was sitting on a very misplaced rock on the opposing end from the room. Despite his distance from Kyomei, his voice was very clear when he spoke.
"Ah, well, let's begin." he said, standing up. As soon as he stood up, the rock that he had been sitting on turned blue, glowing. Then it shattered into what appeared to be three dimensional pixels from out of a computer screen. He started walking over to Kyomei. His walk was proud, fast, and strong. He seemed to have a "cut to the chase, get shit done, no bullshit" attitude. His hair was blond, but greased up into a very large pompadour. He was very tall, and quite thin. However, he was also muscular. Despite being thin, he was not lanky. His body had a sort of V shape to it, and he had toned arms, shoulders, and legs. He was taller than Kyomei by a good several inches. The outfit was difficult to identify. He wore a white shihakusho, and a black Captain's Haori. Colors were reversed for no good reason. He had a toothpick in his mouth.
Reaching Kyomei, he put his hand over Kyomei's head, and bent down a little so their eyes could match. In eye color, he was golden brown. "Listen up," he said, "It's been a longass time since the Central 46 called me up here to test someone. I'm the Gotei Thirteen's official testing proctor, but I fuckin' hate doin' the job. So let's cut the chit-chat and the bullshit, and just fuckin' start on your exam." What was that outfit? Better yet, who was this? The moment his hand made contact with Kyomei, Kyomei would be made aware of a reiatsu strength even greater than his own. It was subtle, however. This man knew how to hide it. And he could hide it perfectly, except during physical contact. Until he'd touched Kyomei, he'd exerted no more reiatsu outwardly than a non-spiritually aware human.
"Name's Kenban Tojiro. But ya' know what? Just call me Snuff. It's what my friends call me, n' all that jazz. Let's go'n get started now." He snapped his fingers. Immediately, the numbers in the room began to glow a faint blue. And next thing, Kyomei would find he could no longer see the walls. Or anything for that matter of the compound. He was in a forest. A very large forest. He was lost amid countless trees and grass. There was no sign of any wildlife besides plants, and the foliage above was thick enough that he could not see the sky. However, sunlight peaked in, gold in color, to illuminate the forest for his view. It was impressive, really. He'd also find something else. He couldn't sense Kenban. At all.
"This room's unique!" Kenban's voice echoed. "As its designer of course, I'm the only one who can control it. The borders don't exist anymore! The entirety of this room is its own self-contained virtual world. Here's the first part of the test. There're ten thousand trees here. Ya get two minutes. Every single tree here is hollow, and I'm hiding in one of them. I could be in one of the trees next to you, or I could be in the farthest border one. If ya can't find me in two minutes, ya fail the test. Ya need to visually see me to be able to say you've find me. You also don't get to ask any questions. So let's go. Find me and you've passed the first stage of the test. This'll be the shortest. Consider it a warm up. Stages two and three will fuckin' rock your socks."
OOC: You get 3 posts (3 of your posts) to solve this.
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Dec 23, 2012 2:01:58 GMT -5
The facility was absolutely huge. The giant iron doors, though not as aesthetically impressive as the Shino Academy's golden ones, were just as large, if not larger than the Academy's. The doors opened on their own and shut on their own, cliche, but could be effective to the faint of heart, of which Kyomei was not one. He was as calm as a rock as he entered the room, though it was impressive enough to warrant an approving whistle. The white numbers etched into the silver floors could be stared at for days and you would still see new and interesting patterns that may not be intentional, but were cool regardless. A seven digit palindrome here, a repeating, non-terminating decimal there, it was such an interesting room that the figure at the far end may have been ignored if he hadn't spoken up so soon, and in such a clear manner.
The rock that was his seat was definitely out of place in the room coated with numbers. As the figure seated upon it stood up, it glowed blue and exploded into small, pixel-like cubes. It was akin to a computer pixel, though not limited to just a screen, as if the room that they were inside was a giant computer, which would explain the many numbers everywhere. The Kuchiki didn't have a huge amount of time to contemplate that, as the Shinigami in front of him began to stride forward, very confidently. For seemingly no reason at all, he wore a white shihakusho and a black Haori, which was reversed from the norm, and it was the Haori of a Captain as well. This was not a Captain that Kyomei knew of, and he knew of all the Captains, except that he had never seen Enma, the Lord of Hades. Was this he?
"Name's Kenban Tojiro. But ya' know what? Just call me Snuff. It's what my friends call me, n' all that jazz. Let's go'n get started now." Nope, it wasn't Enma, it was the official testing proctor of the Gotei 13, a member, or employee, of the Central 46 itself! Even though he hated the job, it was a high ranking position, clearly evident by his Captain's Haori. Just as Kyomei began to speak, "Nice to meet..." Tojiro snapped his fingers and the once white numbers shone blue, like the stone from before. In an instant, the room had been replaced with a forest. It didn't feel like teleportation, and there had been no movement that Kyomei had been forced into, so the most logical conclusion was that the room that had been the testing hall was no more, and the forest had been generated.
Tojiro was no longer standing in front of the Soul Reaper, and even more curiously, his presence was unable to be sensed. This could either mean that he was masking his reiatsu signature, that he was too far away, or that the computer program that they were inside merely deleted it from existence. Regardless of whether or not he could be sensed, the forest was indeed beautiful. Golden sunlight peaked through gaps in the canopy overhead, but though it was beautiful, the sounds of the forest were absent. There were no animals to see, or hear for that matter. The only sounds were of the proctor, instructing Kyomei on the nature of the first test, of three.
"All I need to do is find him? Two minutes isn't much, but still, can't be that hard with a little bit of Kidou. Hadou 11: Tsuzuri Raiden. Hadou 88 Hiryugekizokushintenraiho." Kyomei had a theory about the world that he had been placed in. He had seen the rock glow blue, then explode into pixels. That meant that objects that were inside this constructed realm were not necessarily physical, though they could be interacted with. As a computer construct, they could be destroyed. Whether it was from blowing them up, or a command from Kenban, they were able to be destroyed in such a way that they no longer existed, not just that their parts were turned to rubble, like in the real world. As a computer was based upon circuits and electrical signals, Kyomei theorized that it could be overloaded. This is what he planned to capitalize on.
Tsuzuri Raiden had the ability to arc electricity through anything that Kyomei touched. Hado 88 was a metric ass ton of electricity. As both of their names were stated, Kyomei was able to use their Innate Electrical Auras to the full potential, increasing this electrical effect beyond the enormous potential that 1200 RS had. Alone, Kyomei's reiatsu strength probably could have torn down the forest with the Hado 88, but with the electrical effect increased even more so, this would be one hell of an amount of energy. For added effect, and to keep himself safe in the attack, Kyomei performed a front hand spring, standing on his hands and keeping the rest of his body in the air.
By fusing the form of Tsuzuri Raiden and the Effect of Hiryugekisokushintenraiho, the Technique Master was going to send all of that electricity into the ground via the Tsuzuri Raiden's ability. Contrary to popular belief, the ground is, in fact, very conductive to electricity. Electrical currents are made safe by grounding them, which allows the electron rich source to flow into the massively electron deficient ground. The ground, therefore, is one of the most electrically conductive sources, though usually there is a large enough quantity of the earth so that the tiny amounts of electrons don't do jack squat. However, in this constructed world, it was more than likely that the ground wasn't made to be large enough to absorb the immense electricity that was pouring into it. The energy would, therefore, carry far and wide across the "thin" ground and crash into the trees. The trees would most likely, like the rock, be overloaded and burst into pixels, which would therefore make it a cinch to see Tojiro.
There he stood, amid the smoke and rubble, with a whistle. It was a low whistle of impressment. He had certainly been impressed with Kyomei's performance. Amid the smoke and rubble, Kyomei would see something quite shocking, however. His proctor was completely unharmed. In every way. Not a scratch on him. Not even dust on his clothing. The trees that had been destroyed were all shattered into digitalized blue pixels like the rock had been. And as for the proctor himself, amid that torrent of pixels and smoke and debris, he stood there unharmed. He was surrounded by some sort of white reiatsu that had loosely extended from his left hand, like a snake. It had deflected and destroyed the lightning from hitting him. Residual, and remaining sparks of the attack leaped up at him, and shattered against his defense.
Then, the white reiatsu snaked back, slithering back into his hand, and spiraling. It proceeded to disappear. "Well godamn," Kenban said. "That's a pretty impressive thing ya just did there. I didn't expect you to get creative with such a big shot Hado. Fuck, you almost got dirt on my socks." He grinned. He stepped forwards to take a look at Kyomei. The proctor of the exam was not a man who was by any means or stretch of the imagination a wimp, that much had been made clear. He was experienced and he was powerful. And he certainly was not Enma. He could have been, that was a valid guess. But, if one were to take a second guess, he appeared as if he might just be even stronger than Enma. He might be more powerful than any Captain.
What rank was it that befitted him? This was uncertain. Was he a part of the Central 46? Or was he belonging to a completely different level entirely? Who was he? What was he? Well, that hardly mattered. Kenban, towering over Kyomei, put his hand on Kyomei's head again. Once again, Kyomei would feel the incredible reiatsu which dwarfed even his in power. The reiatsu which was so strong that he himself might never reach it in level. Kenban grinned. He spat his toothpick onto the ground, and it shattered into pixels. Even his toothpick had just been pixels! He snapped his fingers, and a new one appeared in his mouth. Then, he exhaled. He was seemingly the type that was rather a bit lazy. And he did not want to continue this for much longer.
"Ah, well. Good of ya not to use up a shitton of reiatsu there. Yer' gonna need it in this next part. Exam 2 starts up right now. Crazy survival mode, ya see?" He snapped his fingers. Instantly, the ground under Kyomei shattered, and he would find himself falling. In a split second, he was hurtling down some sort of chasm. It was huge, infinite, black. There was no bottom in sight. Up above, he was already hundreds of feet away from the place from which he'd fallen. He was falling constantly, accelerating too. Faster, faster, faster. There were two walls, spread apart by roughly fifty meters, it appeared. Kyomei was falling. He was falling fast. Was there an end? Was there a bottom? If so, there would be trouble for him.
"Yer gonna die in three minutes!" Kenban's voice echoed. "That's when ya reach the bottom. You go splat! Ya've gotta find a way not just to stop falling, but to project yourself all the way back up to the top! Once you get to the top, you'll begin survival examination part two. Yer gonna see the true difficulty behind this exam. Stage 2 of this exam is a total of twenty minutes. Which means ya can expect several more challenges coming yer way from this."
OOC: 4 posts. If within 4 posts a way up isn't found, there is failure.
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Dec 28, 2012 0:29:08 GMT -5
With a massive surge of electricity, the trees popped like balloons, Kyomei's hypothesis being revealed to be true. All of the many thousands of trees just burst into a mass of blue pixels, and as the smoke and pixels cleared, Kenban just stood in front of Kyomei, whistling all the while. He was clearly impressed by the show of force that the Kuchiki had demonstrated. Some sort of white reiatsu, like a snake, was stretching from his hand and had intercepted and destroyed all of the lightning that could have harmed him. Obviously he was extremely powerful to laugh off that level of power, of which there were very few in the Gotei 13 could even try and come close to. "You're not of the Gotei 13 and I doubt of the Central 46... who are you?"
Kyomei would probably not even have enough time to get an answer as the second exam started. A survival challenge, it would seem. Survival was easy, especially with the amount of reiatsu that Kyomei had access to, lasting a long time would not be too much of a problem. With a snap of his fingers, Kenban suddenly made the ground disappear beneath the Kuchiki's feet. Normally, when he thought of survival mode, a pit wasn't his first thought. He thought that he'd be facing waves of enemies for awhile, so immediately plunging downwards was a sudden surprise. Not only was he falling, but he seemed to be accelerating beyond normal gravitational speeds. Instinctively, Kyomei reacted. "Bakudo #39: Enkosen"
A disk of yellow energy appeared underneath Kyomei and he landed, albeit abruptly. With his proficiency in acrobatics he'd be able to cushion the fall a bit, but it still might hurt a bit as he was moving a bit faster than a normal fall. Standing up, the Soul Reaper would dust himself off a little bit before holding his hands outwards. Looking upwards, he'd find that the entrance was far above him. "Too far for a Shunpo, probably. The walls are too far apart to realistically bounce off of them with a Wind Aura, I guess the most logical method is to just carry myself up there. Hand raised towards the sky, an orange tendril with a looping yellow band emerged from it, wrapping gently around Kyomei's torso. The Kidou used, Horin, was able to move the ensnared target after it had captured it, and in this case, Kyomei was both the captor and the captured, dragging himself upwards with considerable speed due to his powerful reiatsu strength.
"You've done well!" Kenban's voice exclaimed, echoing throughout the world that surrounded Kyomei. "Congratulations on making it ta' stage 2." As Kyomei rose up to the top, he'd find his instructor sitting on another conveniently placed rock while waiting for him. His instructor did not stand as he arrived, and only watched him for a brief moment. The instructor appeared to be meddling with some sort of odd wrist watch that he was wearing. Whatever it was, Kyomei would not understand. It wasn't like anything he'd probably seen before. But, more to the point, he was about to find himself in a bit of a predicament. "Ya did well to get here with such minimal reiatsu loss. You've been very conservative. Very good." Kenban complimented.
"Yer' control's doing well. But there's another thing a Captain needs. Instinct. You've probably got some. And I'll bet that to get here, you've been through some tough battles. 20 minutes, now. Ya get 20 minutes of this test. This'll be an enemy stronger than anything ya've ever faced and ever will face. And even then my simulation ain't good enough ta do justice ta the real thing's level." Kenban snapped his fingers. His rock shattered. He started to shatter. And as he shattered, he said one last thing. "Survive. That's it. Ya gotta live through 20 minutes. If ya can't survive, yer not fit to be Captain. A Captain could at least hold out a little bit here." Kenban shattered completely, leaving nothing behind. The forest suddenly rematerialized around Kyomei as the giant chasm behind him closed up, making even ground again.
And then, he'd hear it. Breathing. Rasping. Digitized, it began to appear. It was black in color, a black hooded specter. The robe of black was ragged, the hood was up. The inside of the hood contained only blackness. The monster that had been summoned had skeletal black hands, rotting, bony, thin. Legs could not be seen, for the robe covered what should be legs. And when it moved, it seemed to glide. When it breathed, it rasped. Its breaths were like a rattle, or a sort of slow motion suction. As if it were sucking more than just air. As if it breathed the very essence of life itself. In its presence, Kyomei would feel many things all at once. Despair, hopelessness, pain, sadness, misery. All of his happiness and positive emotions were suppressed. All his memories of joy began to vanish away from his mind. His memories of pain and misery, all negative memories, began to surface as if fresh in his life.
The monster started edging closer to Kyomei. Ever closer. It was moving slowly at first, as if biding its time. It was as if the thing knew that it had its victim beaten. And as it approached, the temperature seemed to drop. It would feel as if the temperature had dropped twenty degrees to Kyomei. Just what was this monstrosity?
OOC: Survive for 20 posts. My next post is post 1.
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Jan 13, 2013 22:02:17 GMT -5
The pit was conquered. The Kuchiki flew out of the gaping maw and landed on solid ground again, well, computer generated solid ground. Kenban just sat there on another stone throne as before, fiddling with some sort of wrist watch looking thing. Am I being timed or something? Or is he just that impatient to get out of here? It may not even be a real wrist watch, and was something else entirely, but it didn't matter one way or another. Kyomei was given some compliments on his ability to conserve his strength for the tougher portions of the test, which was nice to hear, but really only meant that there were going to be much harder times ahead of him. While Kenban talked, the Shinigami released the Kidou that he was using to move himself and rested one knee on the ground in order that he could get a nice quick breather.
"Yer' control's doing well. But there's another thing a Captain needs. Instinct. You've probably got some. And I'll bet that to get here, you've been through some tough battles. 20 minutes, now. Ya get 20 minutes of this test. This'll be an enemy stronger than anything ya've ever faced and ever will face. And even then my simulation ain't good enough ta do justice ta the real thing's level. Survive. That's it. Ya gotta live through 20 minutes. If ya can't survive, yer not fit to be Captain. A Captain could at least hold out a little bit here." The Kuchiki nodded, and Kenban disappeared in the now familiar digital deconstruction. Kyomei had just a few moments to try and ponder what Kenban had said. From what the Soul Reaper had seen, this was a pretty legit set up, this simulation. Anything that was so powerful that the simulation couldn't do it justice, well, that was something better avoided.
However, avoid it was something that Kyomei just couldn't do. He was in a position where he could prove himself to be at the level of a Captain, and take up the responsibility of maintaining the Kidou Corps. Instead, the Shinigami would have to face it like a man. It was once he had made up his mind to do so that the simulation kicked in. A ghostly, wheezing voice preceded the formation of the specter. It had skeletal arms, a face of nothing but literal darkness, and an aura all too familiar to the Kuchiki. There was no preparation possible for the effect that this thing had on Kyomei. Despair, pure untainted despair swept over him. "Luci-" the Kuchiki cut himself off before he finished speaking the dreaded name, fearing that the pain that happened the first time would once again surface.
In Kyomei's mind, this could only be a denizen of Hell, meaning he'd want to get as far away from it as he could. But he needed to become the Commander, he just needed to be. The Hellbeast inched its way closer, dramatically taking each step slowly with purpose. It was confident, it was a destructive force that would tear through the Shinigami and leave him needing intensive care, if there was anything left of him, that is. As it got closer and closer, the temperature started to decrease, as if the creature was hogging all of the warmth and joy in the entire area. Maybe it was just consuming it, causing the heat to be gone, but in any case the Hell-thing might be too hot to touch from the sudden drop in temperature.
Kyomei lifted his hand and then quickly clasped his shoulder, sending a wave of reiatsu into his body. He was merging two Kidou, Shakaho and Tsuzuri Raiden, in order to conduct heat across his body. That would hopefully stave off the cold for a moment, and then Kyomei would take the fused Kidou that he had made to activate a small Aura of Fire, which was an attempt to produce a source of heat for the enemy to steal from, instead of the Shinigami himself feeling the full effect of the cold. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he sent a Byakurai flying at the Hellspawn's face, to test it's strength. He had no clue how strong it was, especially since the simulation had robbed him of his Energy Sensory. This was going to be difficult, he knew, but he had to survive if he was going to become the Kidou Corps Commander, that was for sure. The real problem, however, was how Kyomei was going to put up mentally with the long exposure of his most painful memories...
The Byakurai, though strong, erupted toward the monstrous figure, and found its effects to no avail. As soon as the Byakurai arrived, managing to get within range of the thing, it dispersed. The Byakurai struck the monster straight on in the head, and yet all that happened was the reiatsu sputtered out and dissipated upon contact. The monstrosity continued its low breathing sound. A horror incarnate, it seemed puzzled at being attacked. Was it not used to being attacked? In this case, it could only mean one thing. The monster was used to its enemies running away. And in that event, how strong of an enemy was known to run from such a creature? It began to approach Kyomei. Slowly, but surely. It seemed to feel taking its time was fine.
Kenban's voice echoed throughout the simulation. "That thing's called a Zoushuwwai!" he announced to Kyomei. "A little background information for ya. It's tha' strongest monster type in Hell. The final form of all monsters n' demons. Zoushuwwai devour their enemies whole, even other demons. Nothing's stronger. Remember how Hollows group together to form Gillian? Takes hundreds'a'thousands'a demons ta'gether ta' get a Zoushuwwai. Hit it with the strongest thing ya've got. See what happens." He had literally just told Kyomei that the thing was the strongest demon form in Hell. In which case, Kyomei had essentially just learned that it was more powerful than the Ogatago that he'd once encountered, Ka-Ek, the Demon that represented Death.
More powerful? Powerful enough to DEVOUR? This did not bode well in the least. What kind of monster would possess that kind of power? It slowly edged forwards. As it neared Kyomei, he'd find not that his reiatsu coursing across his body sputtered out, but that the feeling of warmth which he gained from it sputtered out. The thing did not lower temperatures, but took away that comforting feeling of heat. It was not making it so that Kyomei would suffer negative effects of the cold. It was merely making him feel cold to inflict a sense of misery onto his physical form. As it reached Kyomei, it reached outwards. It reached towards his throat, as if attempting to grasp at it. The sickly black hand reached ever closer, the rotting bones emerging toward the victim.
And as it neared Kyomei, he'd hear screams. Not from the monster itself, but from within his own mind. The screams of all those he had ever seen die. Every scream he had ever heard, regardless of context, began to fill his head. Slowly, his memories of happiness sputtered out like dying flames. He could not call upon them to give himself joy. Even the joy of finally achieving the ambition to become a Captain and take this test sputtered out. And in its place, all that was left was dread. Misery. Fear. It was not as Lucifer had done. Not so strong, nor so crippling. It was rather subtle. A subtle attack on his mental strength. A subtle attack from a monster which knew no boundaries. As it neared Kyomei, the sound of its breathing grew louder.
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Jan 20, 2013 16:08:21 GMT -5
The bolt of lightning jumped out of the Shinigami's hand towards the dark figure in front of him, but nothing happened. The Byakurai simply fizzled out as it got too close to it. Kyomei might have been mistaken, but it seemed as if the monster hesitated, as if confused as to why an attack attempted to strike it. It might have been a slight pause, but nonetheless it stopped before once again meandering menacingly towards the Soul Reaper. Yeah, Byakurai was one of the weakest of the Kidou, barely more than a pinprick coming from less powerful Shinigami, however the Kuchiki boasted an impressive strength of reiatsu that few in the Soul Society could match, which he had gained at the cost of being able to commune with his Soul. To have the power to literally breathe in his attack was unnerving, to say the least.
As the beast slowly closed the gap between the two, Kenban's voice could be heard echoing through the simulated area. "That thing's called a Zoushuwwai! A little background information for ya. It's tha' strongest monster type in Hell. The final form of all monsters n' demons. Zoushuwwai devour their enemies whole, even other demons. Nothing's stronger. Remember how Hollows group together to form Gillian? Takes hundreds'a'thousands'a demons ta'gether ta' get a Zoushuwwai. Hit it with the strongest thing ya've got. See what happens." Devouring... that was a scary ability... This Zoushuwwai could become immune to Kyomei's attacks by simply breaking down and absorbing the reiatsu, or something. It just devoured things whole.
The Zoushuwwai got closer, and though his Aura didn't dissipate, Kyomei still felt miserable from the temperature. It wasn't that there was no heat, it was that there was no feeling of heat, and that made him start to lose all sorts of happy feelings. There was no joy, no peace, no memories of anything good. Thoughts of his friends and family, gone, thoughts of safety, gone, thoughts of comrades, gone, thoughts of love and hope, gone. No more was there ambition of being on top or of doing something for the good of the Soul Society, for the good of the multiverse. Not even Ka-Ek, the crazed demon that the Kuchiki had met not so long ago in the depths of the Ogatago base, not even he had evoked such misery and fear. All that was inside the Soul Reaper's mind was screaming and agony. Not even his mastery over his mind, in staying calm, was enough to fully drown out those screams, though hopefully he'd be able to ignore them for a few moments.
Hope truly did feel lost as the Zoushuwwai crept closer to the Shinigami. Out of the fear and the screams and the cold, Kyomei resorted to one of his most powerful defenses to try and keep the creature at bay. While trying to move backwards to let the gap between them not close any farther, Kyomei held his arms out in front of him, his left hand over top of his right elbow, and his right hand underneath his left elbow. Activating a Kidou that he was proficient in, Tetsu Supaiku, four spikes that were four inches in length emerged from his arms, two from the left and two from the right. Immediately there was a great amount of pain as not only did the spikes cut through the skin on their way out, but the spikes from the right arm cut into the left arm. Blood was on the spikes as they were pulled from the arm that they had slightly impaled, stopping just before hitting the bone.
The pain from impaling himself only added to the mental torture that the Zoushuwwai was exuding. Blood was slowly dripping down his arms from where the spikes had originally emerged, and was coming out at a more rapid pace where the spikes had impaled Kyomei's left arm. He dabbed the inside of his arm against his clothing, however he didn't have any idea how to stop the bleeding, being inept at healing. Instead, he'd just have to deal with it. He had slightly picked up some tolerance to bleeding, which meant that it would take a little bit longer for any loss of blood to start to effect him. The initial spike wounds were small enough that they'd stop bleeding after too long, however the bigger wound would continue to drip.
What was the point in all of this self-masochism anyways? The Kidou that he had used, Tetsu Supaiku, was of the element of metal. By stabbing himself with it, he harnessed that element and replaced his former, useless, fire aura with one of metal, creating a barrier of reiatsu around himself. As this was a Class 4 Kidou, the barrier was of medium size, meaning that it required an RS of 2400 to pierce. This, however, was a demon from hell, and probably was going to have some way around the defense. This simply was an act of fear on the part of the Kuchiki, wanting to put something in between himself and the monster that was threatening him. He kept moving backwards the whole time, trying to just get away from the skeletal hand that was reaching out towards him. How effective he would be in trying to escape was a mystery to the Shinigami, but he wasn't too rational at this point in time, with all the screaming in his head and the screaming of his left arm that he let fall to his side in order to not aggravate the wound.
A hand erupted forth through Kyomei's defenses. It was clear then what was happening. It was ghosting through the defenses. Perhaps it had not in fact breathed in Kyomei's Byakurai. Perhaps it simply had not been possible for it to be hit. The Zoushuwwai continued onward, moving through Kyomei's defenses. It was a horrifying monster to face. If that physical defense did not work, then would a reiatsu barrier? This remained to be seen. Likewise, there were other questions. Would a Bakudo work? Or a stronger reiatsu based attack? There were many things to try. So far, Kyomei was going to find that attempting to use low cost reiatsu techniques would not work on the Zoushuwwai. There was no guarantee of a high cost working either, of course.
Then it happened. As it closed in on him, finally appearing to be within a meter of Kyomei, its hand so close it could legitimately touch him if he did not escape, he'd see his nightmares. As it neared within a meter of him, the sky turned black to his view. And in the sky, a gruesome looking yellow crescent moon was visible. Blood leaked from a grinning mouth on the moon, and bloodshot eyes could be seen. A moon with a face. A terrifying moon with a terrifying face. Black smoke could be seen forming in the air as well as the sky became this sort of nightmarish variation of night. And as the Zoushuwwai grew to be that close, the temperature would feel as if it dropped to below zero. It did not actually. But it felt like it.
Black snakes began to materialize out of nowhere and crawl at Kyomei's feet. Hissing sounds could be heard, and bats began to surround Kyomei by flapping their wings around him. The snakes began to crawl up his legs, and spiders suddenly began to crawl out of his mouth and ears. Black spiders, small as a penny, began crawling out of his ears, nose, and mouth. The snakes on the ground began to slither up his body. Across his skin. Through his clothing. The bats simply chirped as they surrounded him, and the moon beamed down at him. The Zoushuwwai's hand was within a couple of inches of his neck, and it finally began to close its fingers. It was a faster, smoother action than given credit for. It was at a speed equal to Kyomei's at that time.
How would Kyomei ever possibly escape? It soon became far more difficult, for behind him, there appeared to suddenly be a black stone wall. It was tall to his view. In fact, so tall that he could not see where it ended. When had that gotten there? How? Why? From the looks of things, it was wide and tall infinitely. If there was no ending border to it, then he had nowhere to go but forwards. Into the grasp of the Zoushuwwai. But that wall had not been there mere moments before. How did that happen? If this was how it was, he was trapped. If this was it, then escape was impossible and he would die. But surely there must be a way out. What would Kyomei do then, boxed in it seemed by such a monstrous and powerful enemy?
It was not nightmare, but rather it was monstrosity. Kyomei would continue to feel the dread from earlier, the despair. There was fear. There was hopelessness. And there were all the other little things tormenting him. There was a woman's scream in the back of his mind, soon followed by all the screams of pain that he had ever heard. There was a vision, almost as if it were a memory, of all his comrades and those whom he cared about being killed by the Zoushuwwai. And as it approached, he'd feel its cloth cloak brush against his skin. It felt like death had been incarnated into a solid entity. No adjectives in any language could be made to describe the dread of touching that cloak. As those thin fingers began to wrap toward Kyomei's neck, he'd have to discover a way out. What would he do?
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Mar 26, 2013 10:38:01 GMT -5
The barrier of reiatsu that was supposed to protect Kyomei did nothing as the Zoushuwwai simply ignored it while coming forwards all the more. As Kyomei continued to back up, it continued accelerating its glide forward until they were matched in speed, approximately. Before Kyomei knew it, the monster was within a meter of him and the full force of Hell was pounding at his psyche. The tree canopy seemed to melt away into a black sky, with a massive stone wall blocking his retreat. It felt extremely cold, even more so to Kyomei now that there was such a celestial evil over top of him, the moon.
Though usually it was the full moon that put him off for seeming to be a giant eye looking at him, this creepy crescent moon was literally looking at the Shinigami with eyes full of blood and blood dripping from his mouth. I mean, what the heck, a moon with eyes and blood? It's like something just crawled out of his fears and dislikes to accost him. Snakes and bats started to come up out of the ground to distract him even more, and for some reason he had trouble hearing and breathing, which the cause was found out to be spiders spewing from all his facial orifices. In the moments of distraction caused by the bats chirping at him, the snakes squirming over his body, and the spiders still flowing out of him, the Zoushuwwai was upon him, its hand stretching out to grasp him by the neck.
Kyomei was nearing his limits. He was a master of keeping calm, which would give him some sort of moment of clarity to act coherently, however facing Hell itself, even if simulated, was going to be difficult. How powerful really was this simulation to force him to feel the dread of death in such a potent manner. As blood continued to trickle down his arm onto the spike, some of it was given a special Kuchiki technique that may or may not come in handy at this moment. As Kai was applied to the blood, the Tetsu Supaiku spikes became much more dangerous, though the Zoushuwwai probably wouldn't care. In a moment of blind fear, Kyomei swung his bloody arm at the Zoushuwwai while activating two techniques close together.
The first was using Kai, which allowed any blood lost by the Kuchiki to emit any Kidou at any time. The Zoushuwwai had demonstrated that it could walk through defenses and absorb attacks, so attacking it directly wouldn't do anything. Instead, as the spikes went to slice into its body, it would probably either ghost through them or absorb them. If it obtained its seeming invincibility by either of these methods, then the blood that was on the spike, laced with Kai, would be technically inside the creature for a short moment. If it absorbed attacks then what was about to happen would probably be easier to land, but if it ghosted through things than it would still maybe be susceptible to the next attack.
As the blood covered spike was positioned correctly, Kyomei fired off the Kidou, which sent Hado 88 out of the blood and, hopefully, generate it inside of the Zoushuwwai making it unable to be absorbed. That was the blind hope, however, Kyomei wasn't counting on it to kill the monster, though it would be cool. It would hopefully keep it busy while he fired off the next Kidou near immediately afterwards, Surasutoeria, which wasn't an attempt to throw the beast backwards, but send Kyomei upwards well out of the way of the creature, travelling at a stat speed of 2400 upwards. The wall prevented him from going back, but going up would give him enough of a chance to gain some altitude, from where he could kick off the wall in a shunpo to get behind the Zoushuwwai by as far as he could get.
Kyomei moved quickly, and did not get a chance to see his handiwork against the Zoushuwwai, and whether or not it worked. Given the pure reiatsu strength that Kyomei exhibited, and the enormous amount of power behind a spell as strong as Hado #88, the explosion could be counted on as enormous. It was enough to cause huge, surging and roaring fires. It was enough to decimate trees all around, and create a giant crater of blighted dryland in the dead center of where there should actually really be forest. And then there was smoke. The smoke was a thick one, and Kyomei would not be able to breathe at all without wheezing horribly if he breathed in it. He of course managed to make distance between himself and the smoke as well, meaning he had free room to breathe.
"Well shit!" Kenban's voice sounded over the speakers. "I've gotta hand it to ya'! That Kido was fuckin' giant! Last guy like you with that kinda' reiatsu strength wasn't even that powerful. Ya've got good things coming yer' way." Was the battle over? Kyomei had just heard Kenban's voice announcing and complimenting. Did this mean that he had passed stage 2? If only it were that simple. If only. As the smoke began to clear, he would see something to truly horrify him. In truth, Kyomei had done himself no favors with that Hado. As the smoke began to fade, there was a rasping sound. A deep, booming rasp, like the dryers at a carwash. It was loud, it was omipresent. It surrounded the entire area. Everywhere, the sound could be heard.
And then, Kyomei would see it as the smoke faded away. A monster unlike any other. It had a gray body, tall, and with tendrils for legs, and tendrils protruding from many areas of its body. There were dozens of lengthy or thick tendrils. Some were like the tentacles of an octopus, others like vines. Some were like Anacondas, others like mere twigs. However, there were many. To top it off, the monster had two human-like arms with bony, skeletal hands. It had no eyes, only many mouths. It had mouths all over its torso, dozens on its back and chest of varying sizes. Its head was blank, devoid of features, except for a single mouth which resembled a black hole. Until the mouth changed. The mouth distorted into a grin shape, and sharp fangs protruded forth, erupting into existence. On cue, eight more mouths all over the face and the rest of the head, identical to the transfigured first, erupted into place before Kyomei's very eyes.
The monster had many mouths, indeed. At its side, it still held some kind of sheathed sword. The monstrous Zoushuwwai, as it turned out, as a phantasm of a being, and phased through attacks. Its cloak, it seemed, was not so lucky. Whatever the cloak was made out of, it had not been protected from Kyomei's internal blast attack. The monster appeared to have been slowed down, or perhaps intentionally reduced. But either way, it had lost its cloak which hid its hideous form, and now Kyomei paid the price for this. He saw it then, the Zoushuwwai at its most horrible, in its worst form. It slowly began to move towards him, all mouths grinning, all mouths hungry. As it approached, even within thirty meters, it felt as if the world would never again see even the smallest hint of happiness. The most meager and thin light of joy or hope.
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Apr 7, 2013 13:40:51 GMT -5
What... just what was that monster? The Zoushuwwai had transformed from a cloaked, rasping specter to a beast of epic proportions. It had a mass amount of tentacles, no eyes, and mouths littering its body. Obviously it had a great deal of energy sensory to be able to keep up with the Kuchiki so flawlessly, so it finally started to dawn on Kyomei that this was not an enemy that was to be defeated, but rather to be avoided. Survival was the test, not raw power, and he wouldn't be able to last the twenty minutes or any following tests if he spent too much stamina and reiatsu trying to take down a creature that could phase through any and all attacks. Like with the pit, a tendril of Horin wrapped around the Shinigami's body in order to whisk him up and away towards the ceiling.
It had dawned on Kyomei not too long ago, that the black wall that had suddenly appeared must have been the outer edge of the simulation, and if there was an outer edge, then there must be an upper edge. Hopefully the ceiling was high enough that the Technique Master would be out of the way of the Zoushuwwai's clutches, but that was probably too much to hope for. Kyomei flew towards the ceiling at a stat speed of 1200 as he propelled himself forwards, hoping to distance himself from the creature that was behind him, threatening to devour him and leave no trace. Survival... it would be difficult to last forever against an unstoppable force, but the fourth seat would definitely try to do so.
Remaining Reiatsu: 9975/12000 (-25 Horin)
1x Class 1 Spiritual Steel Staff 1x Class 1 Spiritual Steel Dagger/Scabbard
The monster looked around, observing the area surrounding. Its breathing grew deeper. Deeper and deeper, like the blackest hole in space. Like a vacuum that took in all life, matter, and existence. That was a Zoushuwwai. And it appeared to be getting steadily hungrier. Tongues erupted forth from the mouths, and began licking the lips of the mouths. The mouths then grinned. The monster focused on Kyomei. It had spotted him. Or perhaps, more accurately, it had smelled him. Perhaps it did not see. It seemed quite like the monster that would breathe in the essence of its victims to detect them. To find them. It hunted them by the smell of their fear. This was possibility. Why would such a demon not? After all, it came from a sightless place. A place of complete blackness.
The Zoushuwwai did not levitate. It appeared that this was a flaw in its design. Or perhaps in the simulation, it could not. Perhaps based on Kenban's experience, the thing could not move into the air. It stayed grounded, but had moved to be beneath Kyomei. It was not leaving the ground. However, the tendrils were. They began to extend, snaking out and become lengthy as they suddenly jotted out at incredible speed. They accelerated on their way up, getting faster and faster, sharpening at the tips. At last, they reached Kyomei, snaking towards him and shooting toward every part of his body within reach. It seemed that in moments, they would impale him. What would be his escape? What would it be?
Post by Kyomei Kuchiki on Apr 11, 2013 3:07:24 GMT -5
The tentacled monster started to move as Kyomei steadily climbed towards the ceiling. Before the Kuchiki could get there, the Zoushuwwai had already reached his relative location and sent incredibly fast tentacles towards him. Kyomei needed to move fast, and a Shunpo wasn't possible at the current moment seeing as he was up in the air and air ground didn't exist outside of the Land of the Living. So, the Shinigami would have to do something else to get out of the way quickly. "Enkosen" Quickly he put up a shield to his right. Obviously the monster had demostrated the ability to phase through attacks and defenses, so it would be pointless to try and block them. Instead, it was placed there for his dodging purposes, strangely enough. By calling out the name of the Kidou quickly, the Soul Reaper had also called upon the hidden strength inside it, raising its Reiatsu Strength by 50%.
Now the technique had a higher defensive ability than the Technique Master was able to muster up at base level, which would help him due to one of the properties of another technique he knew. Surasutoeria, the Area Thrust Kidou, rebounded off anything of higher strength or reiatsu strength than it, so when Kyomei fired off that technique, first the Horin tendril was released, and second the wave of force rebounded off the Enkosen shield to strike the Shinigami and send him moving away at a sharply horizontal direction at a stat speed of 2400. This wasn't as fast as a Shunpo, but it would help him get started moving away from the tendrils. Hopefully the attack of the Zoushuwwai wasn't in its intangible mode, because if the vines were at present able to be moved then the Surasutoeria would also strike them and send them flying back towards the beast, if not be temporarily destroyed.
With all of the fear that the Hell demon had been causing, not to mention the feelings of raw dread and hopelessness, Kyomei had long lost track of the time that he'd been avoiding this thing. How much longer was it necessary to keep on running, avoiding Hell until Kenban released the simulation and the Exam furthered on? No matter the amount of time left, the Kuchiki would have to force his way onward. Before he could slow down and have the Zoushuwwai overtake him again, the Soul Reaper placed another Enkosen underneath his feet like he had done with the pit in order to propel himself upwards with a Shunpo. Maybe then he could actually reach the ceiling. As he carried himself once more with a Horin, he started to sharpen his reiatsu strength to be ready for more challenges.
90 SpPr --> 90 RS New SpPr [310 (x3)] 930 New RS [490 (x3)] 1470