The Underdogs [R, NDE, Adventure]

[Marcus Cole]

Takehiko would be in for a surprise. He attempted to slice the icicle lance in half. After all, it wasn’t moving too quickly and he had more than enough time to do so. However, he didn’t appear to expect it to explode on contact. The Vice Captain would be subject to several shards of ice. However, none would do major damage, and the bleeding would be light. Takehiko would be able to walk it off for now. However, the ice would slowly begin to freeze his entire body. He would notice the effects after Kaen’s own attack, whether or not he dodged. But Kagami called out, “Ponytails, just continue fighting. Don't worry about the rocks.” As chunks from the ceiling rained down, threatening to fatally injure, Kagami set up a mirror above Takehiko’s head. He would also succeed in protecting the shieldman Takehiko targeted, but because that man had already raised his shield to block the falling debris. Takehiko wouldn’t have any trouble shattering the human’s exposed back while being protected by Kagami’s mirror. One more down, three left: two gunmen, one shield wielder.

The two gunmen that were disarmed recently would use movement in order to enhance their speed to evade the falling ceiling. They would succeed in doing so, though it would require them to move closer to the team of Vice Captains. In addition, the last shield wielder was protecting himself by raising his shield to block the debris, as did the man that was eliminated by Takehiko. After all, he would have a hard time dodging with that giant shield in his grasp. Two things happened simultaneously. That man got very unluck, and Ana got very lucky. After all, the kunai she threw at his head was balanced and flew in a straight line, driving itself into his neck. The only two enemy’s left were the gunmen, and they were weaponless and quite easy targets. It would be up to the Vice Captains to decide what to do now. Kagami rejoined Ana, studying the two targets. He decided to leave the decision of what to do with them up to Takehiko and Kaen. In the mean time, he’d responded to Ana. “I wouldn’t mind skipping a few steps after this mission is over. What do you say, beautiful?”

Reiatsu Remaining: 7800/8000 (-100 for four mirrors, since I forgot to deduct for the original three )

[Amagai Kuchiki]

As Takehiko heard the distant "thump" noise of Kaen hitting the ceiling, he noticed the wounds that the ice shard had opened. Mostly an array of small cuts on his lower arms and his chin, rips through his lovely black robes, and some slight bruising from where a blunt piece or two smacked him in the shoulder. He hadn't actually noticed the injuries prior, automatically suppressing the pain until a more opportune moment. Although most Shinigami who specialized in close quarters had high pain thresholds, Takehiko's ability to ignore pain was superhuman. Between a natural resistance to pain, and determination that verged on insanity, very few things actually stopped Takehiko in his tracks. So even though he noticed the wounds, after a delay, they didn't affect his combat actions in the slightest.

His sword slipped through the enemies back like a hot knife through butter, if the butter had bones and screamed when you cut it. As Takehiko withdrew the blade, he flicked the blood off of his sword, then quickly decapitated his foe, ending the man's pain swiftly. There was no point in letting the man suffer unduly, it wouldn't be right. Kaen's blow had brought down large chunks of rock, crushing most of their remaining enemies underneath. Takehiko himself was spared by Kagami's mirror, which displaced the rubble intended for his head elsewhere. He likely would have been able to quickly get out of the way in any case, but Kagami's quick thinking allowed him to remain focused in his combat. A quick reassessment of the situation revealed that the only two enemies remaining were the gunmen, and both of them were engaging in close quarters, which played to the strengths of the Vice Captains. Excellent. 

Since Kagami clearly wasn't going to take charge, Takehiko decided to. "Leave at least one of them alive, but incapacitated. I want to know the motivations behind these guys, and if they're connected to the Challenger. The more information we can get out of them, the better. Kaen, you take the one on the left. Kagami, if you can stop flirting with my cousin for a second and get your hands dirty, take out the other one. Kagami, lethal, Kaen, knock him out. I wish we'd brought a medic, I could use a quick once over." He paused for a moment. "Kagami, if you found an innuendo in that sentence, refrain from making it. Please." That just about covered everything.

[Deleted]

After her feigned innocence of throwing dangerously sharp objects, Anastasia dared to look at her intended target. She was a mix of amazement and slight horror when she saw the outcome. Well, she didn’t mean to kill the slimy cur. She was kind of hoping to achieve the same effect she’d gotten last time with the last foe she’d done that to. Obviously, her spirit wasn’t pleased. The main was a saint and although he was destructive in his own way, he disliked the whole gory aspect to the shinigami life. Anastasia didn’t like it very much either. It wasn’t that she couldn’t stomach it. It was something she just had to get used to. Especially since she was the lieutenant of a certain Kuchiki’s squad whose name spread like wildfire across the worlds. It came with the territory unfortunately.

She liked to keep her hands clean. Didn’t want any of that stuff on her soul. She was a thief, a gambler, a drunk and a flirt but certainly not murderous. Words were her own tools and if she could use them, she’d do it… Unless Sozen ordered her to do otherwise. Then whoever it was should probably just start saying their prayers. She raised a hand to lips and her eyes shifted, wondering if anyone else had seen what she did. By mysterious means and means of someone obviously wanting this to happen, there was a bloody KUNAI in. his. neck.. Oh. My. God. It wasn’t that she hadn’t killed before, she was more freaking out on the inside because it wasn’t her intention in the first place. “You aimed a WEAPON at his HEAD. What did you think would happen?” She played with her hair shyly, raking her fingers though it as she averted her gaze from the scene of the crime. “That it would miraculously bounce off…?” She was almost reluctant to answer him. The sad part was that that answer was 100% serious. “My head hurts.”

On the plus side, both Takehiko and Kaen seemed to be doing well… Though dearest cousin was getting cuts and all that but he kept going like Michael Meyers. She mental note to never get on his bad side. Like, ever. “I wouldn’t mind skipping a few steps after this mission is over. What do you say, beautiful?” Ah~ He was by her side once again. There was a blank look on face when she looked at him before she decided on doing something entertaining. She could say yes buuut… it's no fun if you just say ‘yes’. No. She wanted to make this as complicated as possible. Anastasia wanted to be a problem and dammit, she will! “Heh. Tell ya what.” She propped her arm on his shoulder, leaning her weight against his. “I’m going to steal every one of your kunai.” she boldly declared to him, she’d looked straight at him challengingly. “By the end of this mission, you’ll have none left. You probably have more than 8 in there? However, if you can some how prevent me from taking all of them I’m yours~ Right after this mission. Just like that.” Was she true to her word? Probably not. Maybe she was! It was hard to say. The blood of a pirate coursed through her veins and you know what they say. Never trust a pirate. But she liked games and she liked gambling even more. “Whaddya say?”

It was then Takehiko started to take charge. Ah. Smart. Keep someone around to make them sing like a canary. She hadn’t thought of that. ”Leave at least one of them alive, but incapacitated. I want to know the motivations behind these guys, and if they're connected to the Challenger. The more information we can get out of them, the better. Kaen, you take the one on the left. Kagami, if you can stop flirting with my cousin for a second and get your hands dirty, take out the other one. Kagami, lethal, Kaen, knock him out. I wish we'd brought a medic, I could use a quick once over.” She stepped away from Kagami and sniggered, biting her lip in an very bad attempt to stop herself from smiling. She was at least trying to compose herself and show some respect. ”Kagami, if you found an innuendo in that sentence, refrain from making it. Please.” That probably made it worse though. “Eheh. I’m no medic, but!” She pulled out her flask and offered it to him. Kinda like some kid sharing their cookies with someone else. Hey, rum always made her feel better and sharing was caring. Why not? “It’s rum~” , she said a little too happily, “You can have some! It’s good for you~! Makes you grow enough hair to strap yourself on to the back of a school of sea turtles~! Sun Tzu drank this once you know… That’s why he won so many wars~!” Loaded with bullshit as usual. On top of that, that last bit, was utter nonsense. Anastasia still tried to sell it to him. She wanted to help though. It was her strongest rum and guaranteed to have you questioning a lot of things when you woke up. It was certainly a doozie.

“Or you’ll just feel better~ It’s mostly that.”

[Kaen Youji]

Of course, at the conclusion of his attack, Kaen was still airborne. The chunks of ceiling would fall faster than Kaen himself afterall. Most of the guys had been taken out by now. Kaen just had to make a single minor adjustment.... And came crashing down on top of the gunman on the left, with a downward kick, which would almost certainly kill the individual on contact, not only breaking bones, as might have happened with a regular human, but practically cutting him in half! Yes. Kaen possessed such physical strength that he was capable of cutting a man in two with a kick. Which was exactly what would happen as he landed practically on top of the rightmost of the unfortunate individuals. His next blow was more cautious, but still devastating. Not even pausing for breath, Kaen's leg lashed out like a bolt of lightning-- or perhaps a typhoon might be more appropriate, hammering at the sternum of the second man, in the Mawashi Geri technique of Karate. This time, fortunately, Kaen checked the kick, so that it would not kill the man-- merely shatter all of his ribs on contact.

"That was disappointing." Remarked the Vice Captain. "If this is the best they have, then this was really overkill Kagami-san." He stated with disappointment. These guys hadn't even lasted a minute. Eight opponents dispatched in a matter of seconds. "If this is the caliber of opponent we're up against, we probably would have been fine with less than half our number." He added. Yes. He was aware that there were only four of them here, now that Kazuko had mysteriously vanished. He was being pretty clear about assuming that they would have been able to make due with only a single Vice Captain. MAYBE an unseated officer by that Vice Captain's side to sit on the sidelines and treat any scratches he received. Or she, if that Vice Captain was Anastasia.

[Douma]

“Heh. Tell ya what.”

Ana had Kagami’s attention. In fact, his focus was almost more on her than the mission, but not quite. No, he didn’t elect himself mission leader because of his amazing looks, personality, and power. It was because he was best suited for the position, being a military genius and quick thinker. Not to mention that he had been quietly offering support and defense for Takehiko and Kaen. But the mission was no reason to neglect Ana. In fact, what’s so wrong about teammates getting to know each other and bonding a bit? “I’m going to steal every one of your kunai. By the end of this mission, you’ll have none left. You probably have more than 8 in there? However, if you can some how prevent me from taking all of them I’m yours~ Right after this mission. Just like that.” Yep, just some good, old fashion bonding. “I’ll drop you off at your room first when we get back, give you a chance to freshen up and change into something nice. An hour later, expect me to take you somewhere nice. No spoilers.” Kagami was beginning to make small plans in his head for the evening to come. After all, despite Ana’s skill as a theif, he knew he wasn’t going to lose this challenge. Especially with ten kunai.

Kagami bent down by the corps of one of the shield men to pick up the gory knife Ana had killed him with. He wiped the blood on the dead man’s shirt and slipped it back into his kunai pouch, making sure that Ana wasn’t lingering nearby. She wasn’t going to steal a single blade, and he’d make sure that they would keep their hands to themselves. Well, until later tonight, at least. Then, it really didn’t matter who’s hands were where. Kagami looked back up to find Kaen crushing one of the two remaining enemies while Takehiko was giving orders. Ahem~ Takehiko, who’s the mission leader exactly? Kagami was a little irritated, but it was in the Kuchiki mindset to take control of everyone and anything. Oh well, it couldn’t have been avoided. “Hey, don’t worry Ponytails, I’ve got this.” Kagami had the intentions to trap the last gunman, and summoned three mirrors around the man in a closed triangle. It was unfortunate that the human selected that moment to release a second puff of poisonous gas that caused him to suffocate in the reflective prison. Kagami realized what occurred as soon as it did, but the man was already coughing fits of blood and rolling along the ground.

“Oops,” he muttered to himself, slightly disappointed but really uncaring. After all, now that their obstacles were dead or incapacitated in the case of the last man, they could clearly see the cave continue much further down. There was a small light visible as the tunnel turned a corner and evaded their vision. Kaen spoke up. "That was disappointing. If this is the best they have, then this was really overkill Kagami-san. If this is the caliber of opponent we're up against, we probably would have been fine with less than half our number.” It was at that very moment that several things happened at once. First, a stone blade pierced straight through the poisoned human’s chest, killing him and leaving him with a ghostly and surprised expression. Simultaneously, a seven foot tall swordsman appeared from the wall behind the group, targeting Ana with a sword stroke. Takehiko was subject to a similar attack coming from the wall nearest to him, while another stone fighter emerged in front of Kaen, starting with an backhand slash to distract from an overhand blow originating from a rock assailent hanging from the ceiling. Kagami quickly reacted to the sound of gravel as the new opponents emerged, and turned just in time to lock blades with a tall, concrete enemy. All of them looked identical, and all wielded no other weapons but katanas in their right hands. It was five on four, and the numbers weren’t in the Shinigamis’ favor. “Hold your own and regroup by the waterfall!” ordered Kagami, a serious sense of authority in his voice. However, his face lit with with a devilish grin. It’s showtime.

Kagami Reiatsu Remaining: 7725/8000 (-75 for three mirrors)

SPOILER: Click to show

{5 Stone Warriors}
Type – Class 2 Shadow (Rank 2)

Strength - [100] (50) Points

Speed - [400] (800) Points

Spiritual Pressure - [100] (60) Points

Reiatsu Strength - [400] (520) Points

Instinct - [150] (225) Points

Senses - [50] Points

Energy sensory - [0] Points

Healing Expertise - [0] Points


Total SP: 1200 Points

Combat Posts: 1/6
[/b]

[Amagai Kuchiki]

Kaen's crushing of one of the two remaining enemies made Takehiko wince slightly, the noise that the man made as his bones broke underneath Kaen's weight would likely be stuck in his head for a while. Not to mention the fact that he had asked the Vice Captain to take his foe alive. He hadn't really expected anyone to respect his authority, but it was still slightly disappointing. Combined with the sarcastic remark that he received from Kagami, he made a mental note to bring up the topic of who was combat shotcaller after this battle was resolved. After all, if Kagami was busy using his mouth to seduce Takehiko's cousin, he probably wasn't in a position to give tactical advice. At least Kagami seemed to pick up the slack that Kaen had left, and quickly trapped the last foe in mirrors. Good, they had someone to interrogate. Takehiko sighed slightly as the gunmen spat out another puff of poison, then subsequently inhaled the gas. Well, the man would probably be dead, or at least in no shape to answer questions. He began to turn to Kagami in order to make a sarcastic remark of some sort, but was interrupted by Kaen's comment.

Kaen raised a very valid point as to why Kagami had seen fit to bring so much firepower to the mission, and the point gave Takehiko pause. If this foe was capable of challenging the Soul Society's strongest, why was this the force that he could muster? He almost instinctively reacted to the question, and the burst of movement that shot out of the wall towards him. He blocked the stab with the side of his blade, his spiritual pressure dwarfing his foe. And yet, he was worried. This individual was faster than he was, which was far from a good sign. Takehiko prided himself in being quick, but this entity was clearly faster than him. He shoved the blade forward and out, turning his enemies sword aside and attempting to slash the stone man's throat, ideally decapitating his foe. At least he had superior strength, and it wouldn't be too surprising if he was able to cut through his foe's body, given his superior spiritual pressure and physical might.

However, Takehiko had more things to be concerned about than just his foe. His three allies were all being engaged, two of them attacking Kaen, and the other two each going after one of his companions. They were outnumbered once again, but this time Takehiko wasn't sure if they'd be able to blitz down their foes so easily. It's a gauntlet, he realized. Their enemy is weakening them so when the time comes, he's capable of fighting just about anyone. Of course, the foe miscalculated. Perhaps these encounters would be sufficiently difficult for a group of Vice Captains like Takehiko in his allies, but it would have been laughably easy for any of the actual Captains. Alexander would have waltzed through this room, destroying all foes that came within arms reach. Not to mention Sozen, who Takehiko was certain would have been able to clear these battles effortlessly. Especially given what was on the line. The honor of the Kuchiki, given that they made up half of the party, was certainly at stake. Which meant that Takehiko couldn't afford to screw around this mission.

"Two ambushes in a row, huh? Whoever our foe is, his sense of honor is lacking." Takehiko complained under his breath. Luckily, Kagami was taking charge, albeit with a smile on his face. Takehiko backed away from the stone warrior, holding a guard that would allow him to deflect future attacks. Although his foe was faster than him, Takehiko wouldn't try to block in the open, but instead hold close to his own body. He had the physical strength that he'd be able to stop the sword strike point blank, and turn it aside with relative ease. If his foe was cocky, he might even shatter his sword. But his primary goal was to follow Kagami's orders, and fight his way back to the waterfall. If the four of them could fight back to back, there was little doubt in Takehiko's mind that their foes would fall swiftly.


Reiatsu: 1950/2000

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen's leg struck a mirror, and he frowned. "That wasn't necessary." Kaen chided Kagami, stepping back as he saw the man inhale toxic gas. Hmph. Guess nothing would come of that. But the moment Kaen made his taunt he saw a blur of movement, as warriors of stone emerged from all over. Hmmm. These guys seem a little different from the others[/color] There were four of them? No... five! Kaen caught movement near Anastasia out of the corner of his eye. Fine then.

Kaen's own body became a blur of motion. A silver and brown flash whirled through the air, right above Anastasia's head. The Esteemed Hammer that Kaen had worn on his belt. Propelled by Kaen's considerable strength, the hammer covered the space in the blink of an eye, smashing into the rock warrior's blade and shattering the weapon. Furthermore it would continue, headfirst at the warrior's shoulder, and undoubtedly shatter that into pieces as well when it hit, effectively disarming that one. As for the two attacking him, Kaen moved as well to evade. His peripheral vision and instincts were advanced enough to take note of the simultaneously attacks, and Kaen launched himself into a backwards roll, underneath both attacks, and away from them, feeling the blades slice through his clothing as he did so. He was unfortunately not able to compile a defense for Takehiko on top of this, but he saw that Takehiko had been able to avoid the attack.

Kaen's roll was executed with sheer perfection in terms of technique and he came up to his feet with no issues, hearing Kagami order them to stand their ground. "Hold ground? Screw that. We hold ground, we go nowhere. I'm calling this one, Kagami. You guys and girls are going on ahead. These guys are mine." Kaen felt he was the fastest out of the group here. These stone soldiers were also extremely fast. In fact, they seemed even faster than he was. But he had the technique to defend against them. And with his speed, he had the best chance at defeating them by himself.

Besides... the look on Kaen's face was not one of someone about to sacrifice themself. It was a look of excitement. Kaen was a fighter at heart. He had been earnestly disappointed by their first opponents. Now, he was fighting opponents that seemed of higher caliber. And he did not want to be robbed of this fight. Their opponents outnumbered them, true enough. But he also considered that their must outclass them considerably for them to attempt a 5 on 4 fight. And he didn't want this battle "spoiled" by letting the other three Vice Captains have all the fun. "I'll catch up later. This won't take long." He added to his prior statement, shifting into a neutral stance, to defend against an attack from any angle.

[Deleted]

He was already thinking of plans. How cute. Anastasia had a good mind to leave an I.O.U in his pocket. Something about that seemed funny. Then again, she could always honor the whole thing go ahead with his plans…. But when has anyone ever put the words “honor” and “pirate” together in the same sentence? They just didn’t coexist. Still, she had every intention of winning and every intention of sneaking it into either Kaen or Takehiko’s pockets. Maybe both. She felt like the confusion on their faces would be priceless. For now, she’d chill out and let things take its course. Hey, maybe she’ll do some actual work during this mission. It would get Shoku-chan off her back for a little at least.

Everyone seemed to have this uncanny ability to just straight up die and drop dead right in front of Anastasia. In one moment one of the gunmen was alive…and then he dun goofed and poisoned himself. What the hell. She pocketed her rum and sighed. Somehow, she felt as though she wasn’t going to get away squeaky clean from this mission. She’d like do this thing where she got a lot of rewards for very little work. It wasn’t that she was lazy…It was just that she was really fucking lazy. Not only that, but there wasn’t much she could do unless Takehiko, Kaen and Kagami had a death wish… and she liked all three of them very much. This tunnel was ridiculously inconvenient for her. A bloody fucking nuisance. If she could get out, well, that’d be dandy.

Kaen spoke about his muscles not getting enough of a chance to be flexed and, well, she couldn’t really blame him. These guys kind of were chumps. It was then she saw a single blade rise through the ground right where the poisoned human had been. Anastasia had already begun to back up. She knew where this was going. More them were rising and emerging from places like it was some kind of bad, low budget, zombie horror flick. She drew her nagamaki. Unfortunately for Ana, she wasn’t blessed by the muscle gods like Takehiko, Kaen and Kagami were. Not only that, but by looks of it, that one instance where the blade pierced the human, they were pretty fast. Far too much for Ana to keep up. She had to make moves first. Or Kaen could.

She saw something fly over her head and immediately spun around to see one of them behind her. One in particular emerged from the wall behind them and it seemed as though it took a special interest in her. She managed to turn around in time. Her instincts weren’t the greatest but they were above average. Well, that’s no good. How was she supposed to flirt and gamble if she was in a rocky relationship? (Don’t hurt me. Lol.) "Hold ground? Screw that. We hold ground, we go nowhere. I'm calling this one, Kagami. You guys and girls are going on ahead. These guys are mine." Hey. Didn’t have to tell her twice to get the fuck out of dodge. “Thanks, hot stuff~” It made sense. Literally. Kagami may have been team leader and all that but this tiny tunnel just wasn’t cutting it. Anastasia wasn’t a coward. She just knew how to pick her battles. This wasn’t it. “We must fight… to run away!”

She used a shunpo to speed away and around the stone warrior nearest to her. She watched her back, just in case more would pop out from the wall behind her and moved further down the tunnel a couple feet. At this point, she would be the furthest into the tunnel than anyone else She wasn’t terribly far from her group either though. Anastasia just liked to deal with things in the quickest way possible. She could use that kido…the stormy one… For her, that would be killing 5 birds with a shit storm. Maybe not made of literal shit but still a storm nonetheless. ”Not sure if it’s a good idea..” he was right. It probably wasn’t. “Aye. Y’know. My lack of honor tells me I kind of need to get the hell of out here..” Her nagamaki was still in her grip. The speed they moved at worried her the most. There was a certain urgency in her voice. She didn’t like to feel useless but in this particular fight, she was and she wasn’t about to have anyone go out of their way to protect her. Not only that, but after that one mission with Kaen, she already knew he was capable of going 5 on 1 with these guys. She’d just get in the way. The look he had on his face was something she wouldn’t rob him off… no matter how much she liked stealing.

Anastasia's Remaining Reiatsu: 4750/4800

[Douma]

“That wasn’t necessary.”

Kagami gave Kaen a look of surprise and distaste. Did the man really only care for smashing the enemy with his fists? Kagami had attempted to save one of their enemies to gain some more information about the threat, whether or not it was very threatening so far. Kaen’s mindset couldn’t expand beyond punch and kick, apparently. Oh, the Squad 1 Vice Captain wasn’t too pleased with one of his allies so far. Kaen was strong, but that’s the only trait that Kagami valued in him.

But he never got a chance to reply. The five stone soldiers appeared so suddenly that everyone’s focus was on their new assailants. Takehiko repeled a sword stroke successfully. However, in his attempt to decapitate his foe, the stone man seemed to glide backwards. His feet didn’t move at all, but he dodged the attack by sliding back, not stepping back. As suddenly as the man gave away a couple of feet to Takehiko, he dashed back at him at his maximum speed. He feinted an overhead slash, and, by using his wrist to redirect the blade, turned it into a forehand motion aimed at Takehiko’s ribs as the man was heading back to the opening of the cave.

In the meantime, Kagami did catch another admirable sight from Kaen. He was getting double teamed by two of their foes, but his first action was to defend Ana from a speedy attack from behind and then turned that motion into a rolling dodge. He had barely managed to avoid any severe damage from the swords, and only had a thin cut along the length of his back from one of them. However, it wouldn’t affect his combat at all. The blow with his hammer might have shattered the stone man’s blade, but it would find empty space where his shoulder once was. This gravel warrior had evaded the hammer in the same manner as Takehiko’s getting out of the way of the sword, by sliding back along the ground with some rock-related technique. And just as Kagami’s opinion of Kaen may have improved slightly- "Hold ground? Screw that. We hold ground, we go nowhere. I'm calling this one, Kagami. You guys and girls are going on ahead. These guys are mine.” Oh, hell no. Did he just...?

Ana took an interesting approach to the situation. She decided to listen to Kaen and continue down the cave alone. Smart move. “We must fight… to run away!” Ana successfully distanced herself from the battle with Shunpo and continued down the tunnel on her own. Takehiko was occupied and following Kagami’s orders, while Kagami was dealing with this own stone man. And it appeared that Kaen may have three foes to deal with, a challenge he could definitely overcome. The stone men appeared to know this too, and they changed tactics. Of the three enemies near Kaen, only one remained. He made no attempt to attack this time, though, and waited for Kaen to make a move. His only objective was to stop Kaen from pursuing his two allies.

In the meantime, the other two men disappeared back into the ground. However, they were far from gone. One of them almost immediately appeared directly in front of Ana, cutting her off from her escape. He had his sword ready to cut down the Shinigami if she made any reckless move towards him. Ana would also find that she couldn’t head back to her allies. One more stone man popped out of the cave floor from behind her. Although this one’s blade was destroyed by Kaen, he had sharpened his rock fists into points that were just as capable of piercing as any sword. The stone men appeared to be waiting on her to make the first move. What would Ana do?

In the meantime, Kagami had used his superior strength to push his foe’s blade back, releasing the blade-lock they held for a few seconds in order to allow him to use Shunpo to reappear not far from where Takehiko would soon be at the beginning of the cave. Kagami, noticing that Ana was in trouble, summoned a mirror to her side and a mirror at the start of the cave, linking them so that if Ana managed to get out of the stone men’s reach, she could use the mirror to return to the opening of the crypt. Any sudden movements would cause the stone men to slash at her at their uncanny speed, and they too noticed the mirror and immediately cut her off from using Shunpo to get through it. She was forced to fight this time.

Kagami Reiatsu Remaining: 7575/8000 (-50 for two mirrors, -50 for Image Link, -50 for Shunpo)


Combat Posts: 2/6

[Amagai Kuchiki]

Although Takehiko's block worked very well, his slash left quite a bit to be desired. As his sword passed through the air that the stone warrior used to occupy, he examined the entity's movements. It didn't move like a normal human, removing any doubt that it was simply a strange type of Fullbringer. Perhaps a type of Mod Soul? Takehiko's knowledge of the various dwellers of the human world was limited, given that his field experience was largely limited to Las Noches, the Menos Forest in particular. Of course, he'd been to the human world on occasion, his position in Squad 3 dictated that he do recon in each of the worlds on a somewhat frequent basis, but he largely ended up in densely populated areas, monitoring for Hollows. He had yet to run into any of the Fullbringers known as Xcution, nor had he run into any Bounts or Mod Souls of note. No, the last time he'd ended up in a combat situation in the Human World was a long time ago, and thinking of it brought back memories that he'd wish had stayed gone.

But as tempting as it was to slip back into memories of the past, the here and now seemed much more important. The stone man reengaged Takehiko with a high speed dash forward, and likely would have followed up with a heavy slash. But Takehiko had no interest in letting that occur, and the moment the man attempted max speed, once it was too late to pull back, Takehiko shupo'd forward, using the high speed movement to pass the man's right shoulder. It would be almost impossible to come to a stop and block, and even if the man did, he couldn't respond. Once the movement terminated, with Takehiko two steps behind the man's shoulder, he sheathed his sword, which been drawn during the motion. "Strike In Passing, a basic discipline of my style of fighting. I assume you don't, or can't, care, but I figured it was worth saying." It was a pity that the creature didn't bleed, because if it did there would be a fountain at the moment. At least there'd be a significant wound across the figure's chest. 

Kaen appeared to be tangling with multiple of the other stone men, and was asking the other Vice Captains to leave him behind. Although Takehiko didn't personally want to, he knew that Kaen was more than capable of handling his own, and expediting their movements would be a wise idea. Besides, Kaen was fast and would likely catch up easily once he'd cleaned house. Ana seemed to take the suggestion to heart, and started to run down the tunnel. But then a foe practically materialized in front of her. Takehiko began to move forward, before noticing that a mirror had appeared behind her. One of Kagami's. He turned around towards the other Vice Captain, and rushed towards him. With a fluid motion, he leapt forward through the mirror, appearing behind Ana. "Down." The order was simple and direct, and he knew that Ana would be capable of reacting quickly.

The second she dropped down, he engaged forward against her new foe. He knew that it was fast, but he had raw strength advantage, by a significant amount. Time to see it's limits. As he slashed quickly in succession, three horizontal cuts that would lie parallel to each other, he also shot his foot out, seeking to stomp the stone man's. Takehiko's significantly superior strength would likely allow him to shatter the entity's foot, if his connected. So the entity would logically have to back off, giving it no room to parry Takehiko's cuts. And yet, Takehiko was thinking an entire step ahead of his opponent. Although the entity had show great speed, a large portion of that seemed to be from how it interacted with the ground around it. If Takehiko had that ability, he'd use it to hide defensively. So Takehiko prepared for the creature to merge with the ground, in order to be able to block Takehiko's cuts and avoid his stomp. If the creature did so, Takehiko would use the downwards thrust of the stomp to leap upwards, and then kick out at the figure. Since the figure would likely be trying to block Takehiko's cuts, it wouldn't be able to react to the high speed and high force kick. Victory was almost assured.

Reaitsu: 1850/2000 (-50 Shunpo)

[Deleted]

It was times like these being a no good, selfish pirate got you into some deep shit.

She really just… wanted to get this shit over with. If it could kill her and it couldn’t talk, Ana wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn’t like she could flirt her way out of it. Bait them with gifts. ‘A Kuchiki never forgets’ or something stupid like that. Or was it ‘A Kuchiki always pays their debts’…Nah. Anastasia never paid her debts and could afford to live for century after century without it. Anastasia held her nagamaki in reverse grip. Blade pointed backwards and hilt forwards. Just as she’d feared, there was one coming right after her and then Kagami’s mirror appeared. She wanted to move and get away from all these guys but one suddenly appeared right in front of her, blocking her access to the mirror. She’d seen Kagami use those things earlier on and she wasn’t aware of the ones behind her but, she figured doing something with it would help her… somehow. Anastasia stood completely still. Did they react to movement or something? They seemed to be waiting on her to do something.

”Down.”

Hey, you didn’t need to tell her twice. Down meant get the fuck down and she was perfectly fine obeying that command. He’d come to her aid just in time. Just as Takehiko instructed, Anastasia dropped to a crouching position, allowing Takehiko to move on to the offensive. However, she wouldn’t bother staring at his attack like a dope. Her eyes focused on something else of importance; the mirror. Mirror, mirror, on the wall…Who’s the fairest of them all? Shit. No one. Oh well. There were two enemies to take care of and Takehiko took care of one. Dropping to the position she was in now was all she really needed to do. She was primed and ready for her own attack and it required minimal movement. Anastasia, unfortunately, had to do her part. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help him. She just wanted to fight as little as possible. But hey, if someone wants to force her, she’ll be the little torrent of mass destruction she is.

Just don’t get too caught up in it..

Anastasia could react solely from the mirror Kagami had provided. It was still within her sights and she was using it to her advantage. Instead of escaping, she was using it to see her opponent who was behind herself and her cousin. “Get behind me.” Her voice was stern. it was a simple command and that was as the only warning she’d give. She sure as hell wasn’t going to repeat herself and if they didn’t hear it? Oh well. Anastasia was reckless at times. Unfortunately, she really didn’t have much of a choice. She just wanted to move ahead but, she couldn’t. Her nagamaki was already pointed in the right direction, towards the golem behind the pair and still in reverse grip. Not only that, but it was already extended past Takehiko’s legs, keeping him safe from what Anastasia was going to do next. She barely moved, her arm now extended and weapon still pointed at everything behind the pair. This included the golems, Kaen and Kagami.

“Hado #83. Sekkenkooriboufuu”

Not even an incantation. Just the spell and very little time for Kagami and Kaen to get out of the way. She extended her arm backwards as she fired her kido. It was almost like she was stabbing backwards and Elsa blew her nose or something. You know, Elsa the Ice Witch from that one psychological thriller movie "The Raid" (Don't kill me Nagi. plsLol.). With the way she cast it, it was in the direction of the entrance they’d walked through previously. From the tip of her blade, a nasty flood of ice and frost was shot forward (or backwards in Anastasia’s case), threatening to consume the tunnel. She was going to submerge this place and turn it into an arctic wasteland….tunnel land? Whatever. If successful, it would not only plug the entrance to the tunnel, but effectively destroy the remaining golems and freeze over the walls, the floor and the ceiling of the tunnel. Everything behind Anastasia would remain the same (The one golem Takehiko was fighting, Takehiko and herself). It was the direction in which her weapon was pointed. The golems could escape to the walls but that would freeze over quickly. It was a truly destructive kido that was capable of killing her foes within seconds and in a place like this teensy-weensy tunnel, it would do more than she’d bargained for. All she needed was for her other two comrades to get the fuck out.

Couldn’t they manage that with the mirror connected to the other side or something? Shit, she hoped so. Was that what it did? Deductive reasoning was beautiful sometimes. It kinda made sense. Basically, everything behind Anastasia and Takehiko was about to freeze over. There was also that mirror that connected to the one behind the golem. That would also be the only golem out of the way of Anastasia’s kido. It didn’t matter though. Takehiko was taking care of it. Her job was to take care of what was behind him and, well, she did.

Anastasia's Remaining Reiatsu: 4150/4800 (-600 for Sekkenkooriboufuu)

[Kaen Youji]

Only knew how to talk with his fists? That wasn't.... ENTIRELY true. But yes, in battle, Kaen quickly evolved into a bloodlust. He got a thrill from fighting, in much the same way someone else might get one from being on a roller coaster. And the more intense the battle, the more enjoyment he got out of it. Like an infinite conductive loop. It was that part of him that wanted to take on all of these rock guys that were coming out of the woodwork. His hammer blow had shielded Anastasia, and broken the rock man's weapon, but they seemed a part of the earth and were using that to their advantage. Furthermore they seemed intent on stopping the group's advance. Which was also annoying. In the rush of battle, Kaen didn't even notice the thin cut on his back, he was already rallying for the next exchange. Kaen kicked back to the back of the cave first, using one foot to flip his Esteemed hammer into the air and catch it by the handle, and then allowed his hand to slide down to the leather loop at the end, whirling it in circles with practiced ease, despite the weight of the weapon.

Two of the stone men had disengaged and were attempting to cut off the pursuit. Well, that was just disappointing. Kaen had hoped to fight all of them at once. Takehiko had seemed to have successfully adapted to his enemy, and had delivered a frightful cut to the chest of his foe. As Kaen advanced to re-engage his own adversary, he noticed Anastasia preparing something. And then cast a kido. With a grunt of frustration at being denied this fight, Kaen abandoned his retreat. That move was liable to catch him in friendly fire. Kaen did the only thing he could do in this circumstance. He leaped out of the cave.

His retreat to retrieve the thrown hammer had brought him near the cave entrance, and so it was barely even a leap to fling himself back out of the cave, through the waterfall, and clear of Anastasia's kido, which would engulf the cavern. It might, now that he thought of it, also might freeze the waterfall that concealed the cavern, and that could be a problem. But, while Kaen was capable of constructing strategies, and playing the long game, for the most part, he was very much a "in the moment" sort of guy, that would deal with that problem when it came up.

[Douma]

The group of Vice Captain’s wasn’t too shabby. For the most part, they had all succeeded. Takehiko exposed a gap in the stone man’s defense, and his use of Shunpo had allowed him to pass right beside it while doing damage. However, the golem was far from done. Takehiko’s blade cut diagonally across its chest and severed its left arm. However, it was still fully capable of fighting with its right, where it held its blade. The Gargoyle spun around, and began pursuing Takehiko, gliding on the ground as he rushed towards the mirror. However, Kagami, of course, did not allow the stone man to pass through, so he ended up smashing his nose to rubble after colliding face-first into the reflective glass. It was dazed, and had to take a few seconds before collecting itself and resuming its attack. By then, it would be too late for the creature to do anything.

“Down.” Maybe Takehiko shouldn’t have given such an obvious warning, because not only did Ana pick up on his plan but so did the stone soldiers. They moved back several meters to avoid Takehiko’s assault. However, rather than rushing, they instead acted as barriers to prevent the Shinigami from returning to Kaen and Kagami, who were each engaged with their own golem. It was a stand off, and Ana broke it with two words and a number. “Hado #83. Sekkenkooriboufuu” The rock warriors slipped back into the ground to avoid a tidal wave of ice that flooded the tunnel, freezing over the waterfall at the opening. Kaen would easily get out in time, but it would take several minutes for the Kido to fade, allowing him to reenter the cave.

Kagami still had the mirrors that Takehiko used active, so all he had to do was leap through those and ta-dah! He was safe. He let both his mirrors fade after making sure he was out of harm’s way, seeing that Kaen had other means of avoiding Ana’s Kido. He had prepared to attack the last stone man, which Takehiko may have already taken care of by then, but, for some reason, it crumbled to pebbles right before them. “Wasn’t that exciting,” he stated a little too cheerfully. Ana saved him the trouble of having to get revenge on Kaen for directly disobeying one of his orders. Of course, Ana did choose to follow Kaen, but she was gorgeous, so she was off the hook. Takehiko hadn’t done anything to piss of Kagami, either, but even if he did, the fact that he looked half-decent in a dress (for a guy) didn’t hurt. Of course Kaen would catch up soon, but Kagami wasn’t in the mood to wait. “Let’s keeping going, Brawns can catch up.”

Now that they were in the cave, the Shinigami would be able to use energy sensory to verify that the golems had frozen over and perished, even those that sunk to the ground, where they obviously weren’t safe. However, they wouldn’t be able to reach out their energy sensory past the waterfall at the entrance, even though it was frozen over. Until Kaen returned, they would have no knowledge of his wellbeing. If any of the Vice Captains attempted to use energy sensory to get an idea of what they might be facing past the turns and curves of the cave system, they wouldn’t detect anything, which either means that nothing is there or something doesn’t want to be discovered. After all, the tunnel was dimly lit so their vision wouldn’t do them much good. They would have just enough lighting to see up to the next turn of the tunnel.

Kagami would walk slowly, giving Kaen any extra time he might need for the waterfall to defrost or weaken until he can punch through it and rejoin them. Unless he doesn’t, which wouldn’t surprise Kagami, but it would piss him off a bit. After a good fifteen minutes of following what appeared to be a pointless, endless path, the cave would eventually break into a well-lit room with 13 doors. Six were lined up on each side of a smooth, polished doorway, and a final door stood at the very end. Each door had a different name above it belonging to a different Captain of each Gotei squad. They were numbered alternating walls, so that door one was across from door two, door three was next to door one and across from door four, ect. The door at the end of the corridor was labeled 13 - Shade Kawada written in bold over it, just as the names of all other Captains were written according to their door numbers.

Each door was shut, and had a simple, round doorknob to open them with from the outside. If anyone tried opening one, they would find that it is unlocked and swung open freely. The Vice Captains may now decided how they would like to proceed, but before any can speak, Kagami dashed next to the first door labeled 1 – Kyosou Ningen. “Looks like this one’s mine,” he stated a little cheerfully. He wasn’t going to give any commands on how they should continue, but rather see what his allies were more comfortable with. Split up, stick together? It’d all be up to them, and, for once, he was just going to go with the flow.

But if they split into pairs, he had dibs on some alone time with Ana.


OOC: Your next posts should just be about deciding how to proceed. Just discuss staying together or selecting different doorways and continuing individually, things like that. We'll get into the fun stuff after that is figured out.

[Amagai Kuchiki]

Takehiko let slip a slight sigh of frustration when his foe melted into the ground. He had thought a few steps ahead, but hadn't considered that the golem would be cowardly enough to simply disengage completely. He didn't have long to complain however, before Ana barked a command, ordering Takehiko to get behind her. He did so unquestioningly, for following orders from other Kuchiki was more or less second nature by this point. And when he did, he was glad he had. Although her Kido erupted from a place that he'd already have been safe from it, with Kido expertise such that Ana had, he really had no interest in taking chances. The small mountain of ice that burst forth from the tip of her weapon was straight up chilling, and if Takehiko was a less composed individual, it'd have been jaw dropping. He never knew that his cousin was so cool.

In any case, luckily it appeared that there hadn't been much in the way of collateral damage. Kagami stepped out from the mirror that Takehiko had used originally, and Kaen had exited the cave through the waterfall. However, it was less than certain if they would have time to wait for him to break through the now frozen waterfall, and Kagami seemed more interested in proceeding quickly than hanging around. Given that Kagami was effectively the team leader, Takehiko differed to his judgement and followed the Squad One Vice Captain. As the path twisted this way and that way, Takehiko remained on his guard, just in case another set of golems showed themselves. He hadn't exerted himself particularly hard during the fight, he still had a fair amount left in him.

And then they came to the doors, each of them labelled for a Captain. He felt his heart pounding in his chest as he looked down the line of them, considering. Of course, duty said that he should take the one labelled number 3, the one for Alexander Kuma-Hebi. And yet, instead he strode towards Squad 6's door, the one with Sozen Kuchiki written boldly on it. He turned towards his allies. "I'll be taking on this door. It's my job to address the threats that Sozen might have to face, regardless of whether or not he is present. If Anatasia wishes to join me, she may, but I'm afraid Kagami cannot. This is Kuchiki business, and Kuchiki business it shall remain until otherwise dictated. I do not need assistance particularly, I'm fine approaching this task on my own, but I do agree that wandering off like a lone wolf might be unwise." He waited for the words to sink in, but no matter what they would say, he'd enter the door.

[Deleted]

Anastasia hadn’t turned around just yet, but she already knew the tunnel was going to look like the inside of a snow globe. She could feel the frosty air against her exposed arms and the goosebumps that came from it. The golem in front of the Kuchiki pair crumbled and while she thought it was going to be a problem, she didn’t see it come back. It was gone. Poof. Nowhere to be seen. That’s one positive. Another was that she saw Kagami come out through the mirror. So he made it out… but where was Kaen? She turned her head to catch a glimpse of someone hopping out of the cave and out of the way of her icy blast. He just barely made it by the looks of it.

He’ll find his way back in. Anastasia was way more acquainted with his powers. More than anyone else here. He probably didn’t even need to punch his way through. Kaen would probably find his way back into the cave. Easily. She knew that. Anastasia slowly stood up straight and fully turned around to look at the entrance to get a last look, just to see if there were any survivors about. There shouldn’t be. The chilling blast was so devastating that it killed in seconds. They would be frozen and gone for good. She sighed, fully satisfied with the results. Kagami had then ordered for them to move on ahead and started off. Anastasia was the last to leave, a little concerned to see if her favorite fiery comrade was going to catch up with them or know where they were going. Ah, but he was capable. He’ll know, right?

She sheathed her blade and began walking behind the group, eventually catching up to the two as they made it down the tunnel. However, she hovered behind Kagami and slipped her hand into his kunai pouch to snag three kunai and backed off as she quickly pocketed it. Hopefully that worked out. Eventually they made it to a room with thirteen doors. She saw Shade’s name, Raion’s name…More names she knew quite well. The Captain’s names. Her eyes were immediately drawn to Sozen’s door before she slowly moved toward it. ”Looks like this one’s mine,” she looked at Kagami and then at the door. The Captain Commander’s door. Affectionately nicknamed Nin-chan. Or Ninny-chan. She liked the latter but due to a slight fear of being executed, she figured she’d keep that one to herself. She shifted her weight to one leg, folding her arms and scanning the doors. She caught the sight of Hokori’s door and she had one hell of a look. Well not really, it was blank but she felt utter disdain. It was brief but she quickly returned to her normal demeanor. “I don’t suppose we can do 12 doors and leave Squad 5’s alone right~?” she asked them sheepishly. It seemed like she was joking but she was quite serious. She really didn’t like the man. He was family and while she’d help him if needed, she wouldn’t enjoy it.

"I'll be taking on this door. It's my job to address the threats that Sozen might have to face, regardless of whether or not he is present. If Anatasia wishes to join me, she may, but I'm afraid Kagami cannot. This is Kuchiki business, and Kuchiki business it shall remain until otherwise dictated. I do not need assistance particularly, I'm fine approaching this task on my own, but I do agree that wandering off like a lone wolf might be unwise." She looked at Takehiko who was by her side. She mulled over her options for a few moments. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t torn. It would’ve been fun to pair up with Kagami but Takehiko was driven by duty which, honestly, inspired her to some degree to follow after. Not only that, but Sozen was a demon in every right. One hell of a butler demon that shouldn’t be dealt with alone. Whoever was in there was capable of handling him and there was just no way she was going to let her favorite cousin go at it. As capable as Takehiko was, she figured he might need it.

Anastasia pulled out her flask and started to drink as she stared at Sozen’s name on the door, taking a few gulps of her rum before pulling it away from her lips and closing it. Liquid courage was always important. Especially with the decision she was about to make. “I don’t think we should go alone for some of these. Especially not for So-chan’s door.” She motioned her head at the door looking at Takehiko briefly. “I’m all for pairing up and not going lone wolf.” Emphasis on the not. Going alone seemed like a stupid idea anyways. “Though, I would like to have the chance to pair up you..” ,she smirked slyly, pointing at Kagami. “I’m gonna go with Take-chan. Blood’s thicker than water, after all. Save a door for us, kay handsome~?” She winked at him before turning to Sozen’s door. Excitedly, she placed her hands on her cousin’s shoulders and lightly pushed him towards the door. “Okay buddy~ You ready? I’m ready but that’s cause I just had rum. Now, you get to see how cool your cousin really is!... Or isn't.” she grinned, feeling quite happy to be paired up with him. Though, she would be happy to be paired up with anyone. She liked all of them. ”Does that mean you’re going to—” she cut him off. “Yeah. Excited.?” she could hear him chuckle, which was a little odd for the priest but his reply made her happy.

“You have no idea.”