A Lesson Learned...

Sunlight streamed in through the open doors of the temple dojo as the sounds of nature filled the air. A flurry of cherry blossoms could be seen wafting through the air as the wind carried them aloft; it was a true scene of utter piece and tranquility. The reason behind today’s meeting however was not so peaceful, which was why this neutral location had been chosen. Having heard some distressing reports from some of his friends about the state of readiness his sister and her commander currently held as leaders of the Seireitei’s 2nd Division, Chevalier had taken it upon himself to test their skills and possibly even teach them a thing or two about how things were done.

He was currently sitting just inside the doorway of the dojo, his back leaned up against the wall as he cradled Shinoyuki against his shoulder, his eyes closed in silent meditation. He had arrived at the preselected location almost an hour previous to scout things out and ensure that the area was suited to his purposes, thus avoiding potential civilian casualties. He didn’t want his guests to feel constrained by their environment so an isolated area was best. Now he just had to sit back and wait for his companions to arrive and then see how things proceeded from there.

Kueshi received a summons to show up at a temple dojo with his Lieutenant in order to test his mettle and to possibly teach him something or another about strategy. He knew something about the person, Chevalier was the man's name. Kueshi took a sip of whiskey from the flask he kept on his belt as he approached where the temple was supposed to be, the monks inside obviously wouldn't let him drink.

Before entering the building, Kueshi casts Bakudo #26 Kyokko on himself with the incantation. He quietly enters the building, then the room and stands to the side of the doorway seeing if Chevalier noticed his presence. The former vice captain of the seventh squad may be testing him and his lieutenant, but Kueshi wants to make sure that his sparring partner hasn't gotten too rusty while he was out of Egypt. If he isn't in good shape there is no point to a meeting like this. Kueshi waits until Reyne entered the room to fully reveal his presence.

Reyne re-read the summons she had received and was still surprised that it came from her brother and that he wanted to test her. Reyne strolled along the way to the dojo, not wanting to be late, but also not wanting to be there and have to prove herself yet again. She slid the shoji door open and said " Ani-san? captain? you guys here?" Reyne slid off her shoes and walked into the room, with the aura of being tired.....

Chevalier looked up as his sister entered and smiled, it was always good to see her. If for no other reason then she was one of the few people who was in his same height class and she also didn’t seem to mind his “abnormalities.” Her arrival also signaled the high probability that Kueshi had also already arrived, however since he was nowhere to be seen he was most likely conducting a test of his own, and who was he to disappoint his guests.

“Hello Reyne, how was the trip?” He then glanced over sideways at the area by the doorway and smirked, “Sessha would also ask the same question of you Kueshi… assuming you’re willing to join us that is?” It was a gamble on his part but a reasonable one. Had he been in the other man’s shoes he most likely would not have slipped much past the doorway either for fear of accidentally betraying his presence somehow. Best to remain close but clear of the main traffic lanes.

Kueshi releases the Bakudo and claps. "Very good Chevalier, im glad to see your sense of perception is ship shape." Kueshi approaches the pair of them, remaining standing. "I would like to be forward and to the point Chevalier. I understand that you have brought me here for some sort of test? do you not think me and my squad mate capable of heading the second squad?" Kueshi is somewhat annoyed by the idea, but Kueshi was young for a shinigami now a days so he understands just fine. "I suppose if i were in a position such as yours i may be questioning too. How would you have me prove my worth to you?" Kueshi stares at Chevalier in an attempt to read his eyes.

Reyne grinned, happy to see her brother "decent enough ani, but still why the test?" Reyne added the look of "i know but im asking anyways," "Anyways ani, im glad to see you and your cute ears" Reyne giggled softly. She then looked over at her captain with slight surprise of how silly her was being over this thing, she thought the whole honor thing of being challenged had long past in the era.

Reyne then moved to stand next to Chev and rested her head on his shoulder in the sisterly way. Reyne then began to nibble on small bag of skittles.

Chevalier smirked a little at Kueshi’s comment and then stood up, “This One doubts nothing lest he be unfortunately surprised later.” Ignoring Reyne’s comment about his ears except for an almost imperceptible blush he continued, “Sessha merely wished to confirm for himself the skills you currently possess. It is always a good idea to learn what you can from those more experienced then yourself so why not take this opportunity to do so?” Locking his gaze with the commander’s he finished, “Do you not agree?”

It was a simple enough question but there was obviously a slight degree of friendly challenge behind it. He had meant every word of what he had said but the two of them were going to have to be willing before he continued on with the test. After what he had been through recently he had gained a pretty good feel for what little trials like what he had in mind could do for a person and he really did wish to share that experience with these two, but he wasn’t going to force them into anything they couldn’t handle. That just wasn’t his style.

Kueshi decided for himself that Chevalier had nothing but the sincerest of intentions. "Very well, i will take this opportunity to learn from you. You say you want to see my skills. Do you mean you would like to spar?" Kueshi smiled slightly, he enjoyed nothing more than a good fight. "And if so, what kind of ground rules are we establishing if any?" Kueshi took the last swig of whiskey from the small flask on his belt. It was barely enough to give the ex lieutenant a chance against Kueshi, but it would have to do as a handicap.

Reyne glared at her captain, how dare he give a handicap to her brother, for it was like putting one towards her, and that just wasnt acceptable. She then put away her skittles and looked at her brother. "I dont care what my captain thinks or wanta at the moment, but i'd love to learn what you've learned while you've been away" Reyne then smiled at her brother.

Reyne walked over to the other side of the room and took of her messenger bag and shoes, for that was her favorite way to fight.

Chevalier nodded in satisfaction, “Good… the ground rules are this: two on one match, no killing or permanent crippling… anything else goes. You are free to attack me with any technique you have at your disposal, including bankai… just be aware that if you escalate the situation Sessha will do the same. Should you require a time out or wish to withdraw feel free to say so, however you will be taken at your word and if you attempt to use my generosity as an opening then things will escalate automatically and with extreme prejudice. During the match Sessha will be grading your performance, offering criticism and advice as needed.” His expression softened slightly as his face shifted into a very catlike and mischievous grin, “Are we clear?”

"Clear as vodka." Kueshi said before he pulled out his sealed zanpakuto. He readied himself in a defensive position ready to block or dodge an attack from Chevalier if he decided to do so. In an attempt to knock Chevalier off balance he held his off hand out and yelled "Shakkaho!" A red fireball about a food in diameter went flying from his hand towards Chevalier's torso. He knew Chevalier would be able to dodge it, but doing so would truly begin to turn this into a fight, and Kueshi was willing to use everything in his disposal to take down his opponent short of killing him.

Reyne pulled out her zan and got into her usual fighting stance and grinned mischievously and said " All clear brother, though i will say i'm a bit rusty sadly."

She then flipped her sword, holding it more like a knife and bended her knees slightly looking at both of them with her keen eyes. "Are we forgetting me captain? I know were fighting my brother, but i mean it's no fun if oyu don't include me" she giggled. With that she did a fast kick right to his back and then slapped him in the head, mainly because she was curious what he'd do. once she did that she moved over to her brother and tapped him on the shoulder playfully, with a huge grin on her shoulder.

‘So predictable Kueshi… never lead with kido, too easily evaded and leaves you wide open for countering,’ Chevalier thought to himself as he watched the 2nd Division commander’s hand come up.

Not even bothering to wait and allow the hado to form he kicked off the ground into a shunpo, causing the shakkaho to pass through empty air as he reappeared on the wall off of Kueshi’s left flank. Pushing away from the wall, he twisted his hips so that his body flew through the air in a spiraling motion and then drew his blade in a flawlessly executed iaijutsu stike aimed at his opponent’s backs. His intent being to use the combination of his push-off and the spiral to carry him past his targets while at the same time allowing him to strike Kueshi with his sword and Reyne with the sheath. It was a truly dazzling display that few outside of the Hollow race had seen, he sincerely hoped that the two of them would appreciate the effort he was putting into this little lesson because it wasn’t often that he put this level of technique into a simple training session.

However he had promised to play fair and so he offered them a slight handicap on the first play by calling out as he flew towards them, "Over here!"

As Kueshi saw Chevalier no more than dissapear, he readied himself to dodge an oncomin attack by jumping into the air. He also noticed Reyne's position shifting towards him in his peripheral. When he heard Chevalier yell "Over here!" he left the ground using shunpo. He moved simmilarly to chevalier in that he twisted in the air landing his feet against the roof instead of the wall. A handicap had been given to him, but he didn't feel the need to give his opponent the same opportunity. As second squad captain, Kueshi was used to aiming to kill, but he knew that was clearly against the rules they had set forth.

Kueshi uses the advantage of being above the opponent and the element of surprise to shoot another fire bolt at the enemies. he whispers under his breath "shakkaho." The fire bolt shoots out of the air from above aimed at Chevalier's back. Kueshi places a hand against the scaffolding hanging from the roof to keep himself balanced in his current position, keeping his other hand on his katana.

Reyne sighed this is becoming a boys fight, she then blocked her brothers blow with her sheath, she grinned and kicked him aiming towards the wall. doubt it will work, but maybe she then launched herself towards him sword aimed for an attack.

‘Foolish move taicho... evasion possible... side effect, possible injury of Reyne... best course, minimize damage,’ Chevalier thought to himself as he sensed Kueshi reappear above him and fire off another kido blast. Not even bothering to evade, he allowed his speed and inertia to carry him to what would get him clear of the threat zone, using the counter force gained from Reyne’s parry to roll with her kick. Minimizing the damage taken from her attack to only a minor bruising and using it to reorient his flight path towards the sliding door on the opposite end of the room and away from Kueshi’s fireball.

Using a short shunpo to get himself clear of Reyne’s reach, he pulled in his limbs, curling himself into an airborne ball and smashing into the doors, sending them flying out into the gardens beyond. Once clear of the building he uncurled and rotated his hips so that he would turn around in mid-air to face back towards his opponents. Planting his feet on the ground he came skidding to a stop and brought both of his hands up, one in front of the other, “Hado 63, Sōren Sōkatsui!”

Aiming one blast at each of his opponent’s he let his attack fly with deadly accuracy, although hitting them was not his true goal. If he did that would be fine, but what he was really aiming for was the weak walls behind them. The hado 63 should be more then sufficient to completely obliterate the ancient wooden walls of the dojo, and in the process bring the building down on his opponent’s heads… assuming they weren’t careful or paying attention anyway.

Waiting to see what their response would be he called out, “That last move wasn’t very thought out Ku… had Sessha evaded your attack you stood a good chance of accidentally hitting your partner. You need to be just a tad more mindful of your surroundings while maintaining focus on your target.”

Kueshi smirked at Chevalier's remark. 'Im glad im dealing with somebody who can think tactically' Kueshi noticed that he was balancing himself against a key structural point of the building and even if he dodged the building would collapse. He shouted: "REYNE OUT OF THE BUILDING" and then darted through a window curled up in a ball letting his jacket take any of the broken glass. The building was about to collapse, he hoped that Reyne could get out in time. Kueshi jumped over the building and towards Chevalier with his sword out rolling and taking a hit with the back of his sword towards Chevalier's stomach.

Renye just barely dodged her brothers attack and used shunpo to escape the falling building, then watching her captain and brother she got to the side and slashing towards Chevs front and softly says "Tsuzuri Raiden" hopefully sending painful electric currents through his sword. "Brother we already know the both of oyu are stronger then me, at least for the moment, i fully dont intend for that to last long..Reyne smiled and watched the scene makeing sure if her broterh moved she could not hit Kueshi or be able to blaock his attack.

'Got to give them credit, they're persistent,' Chevalier thought to himself as he watched the two 2nd Division commanders coming at him in an attempted pincer-like attack. 'Not necessarily very quick on the uptake though, they're still only thinking one move ahead... options: evade, parry, counter... best chance of ending this quickly, counter... but they wouldn't learn much that way... evasion it is then.'

Holding back his response to the last possible second, he launched himself into the sky, using Kueshi's blade as a springboard to gain a bit of additional height as he flipped himself around in mid-air. Now hanging upside down he aimed his palm at the spot he had been standing a moment before and launched his counterstrike on his theoretically unsuspecting targets, “Hado 1, Sho.” Using the additional speed and altitude to buy himself a bit of breathing room, Chevalier then reoriented himself so that he was standing upright again and then landed gently on the branch of a nearby tree.

“Not bad... you have to be careful with close-quarters pincer movements though, while they can be used to overwhelm a target, if your opponent is skilled enough they can very quickly be turned against you.”

"Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Kueshi smashed his sword into the oncoming hado sending it flying off to the side. "I'm starting to get bored with all of this sealed sword sparring stuff, any real combat lessons are learned with slightly more serious motives." Kueshi held his sword off to his side and said: "Nensho Fu: Rippingu to Kogasu" His sword started splitting from the end into several razor thin wires attatched to the sheath of his sword, a whip of sorts. It grew to about eight feet in length and glowed red hot. Kueshi held out his off hand and motioned towards Chevalier thinking 'bring it in close to me rogue boy. I will be sure to bring you close to your gods... but not kill you because that's against our rule set here...' Kueshi snapped his whip against the ground provocatively, spreading the fibres slightly so that at the end the furthest were about two feet appart.

Reyne sighed and wasn't fully sure what to do at this point in the match. Her captain had gotten to shikai and her brother would most likely follow suite. ~"Honestly i am begging to become bored, i might as well pull mine out and join the party~ Reyne took a deep breath and called out her swords name softly "Hikaru" Her shikai flaming and glowing this bright light, she then shifted into her fighting stance, bending her knees slightly, so she could move quickly if need be. "Alright gentlemen, i guess the next stage has been started, shall we engage?"She said with a small smile. ~Now if i can actually get a hit in on my brother or get my captain to be abit more team friendly or to show me singals or something.....~

Chevalier shook his head slightly as Reyne and Kueshi summoned forth their shikais. It was obvious the commander of the Second Division was getting impatient, and in the process was beginning to get sloppy. And with Reyne following along quietly for the ride things could truly get dicey indeed if he wasn't careful. Now that they had upped the ante however he had to follow suit, that was the rule he'd laid down at the beginning after all. He did find it interesting though that both of his opponent's were using fire type zanpakutos, he was well aware of the capabilities of his sister's weapon but he'd only had limited experience with Kueshi's... it would be interesting to see just what that “whip” of his was capable of.

“By that statement alone commander you proven that you still have much to learn, but if you insist on accelerating things then Sessha will indulge you for the moment.” Swinging his arm out to the side, he held his sword out perpendicular to his body and with the flat of the blade pointed towards the ground, “Chill all those foes who would stand before me, Shinoyuki...” As soon as he finished speaking there was a loud crackling sound as the air around his zanpakuto began to freeze. Ice began forming along the surface of the blade, sheathing it in a thick protective layer of permafrost as the sword's surface temperature dropped to almost absolute zero. The weapon almost seemed to glow as the light passed through it and as Chevalier brought the blade up in front of his face in a quick saluting action a thin fog-like vapor could be seen following in it's wake, “Now we shall see if your skill is as keen as your tongue.”

Bringing Shinoyuki down in a diagonal crosscut he remained on his perch and said almost casually, “Shimobashira.” On command 300 four-inch long needle-like icicles formed along the path of his swing and were sent flying towards his two opponents. Due to his target's relatively close proximity to each other there was little need for him to use the full arc available to him for his attack, this meant that the needles were reasonably close together as they approached and would have a very nice grouping upon impact... not that he actually expected to hit them with it. After all, if they couldn't avoid such an obviously telegraphed attack as this then the pair of them were more then clearly unfit for their current posts.

Kueshi looked over to Reyne, his eyes saying 'you hit him, i'll hold him down.' Kueshi burst into a run, dodged the flurry of ice crystals, moving towards his own left side and turning to face Chevalier. He ran towards Chevalier and let out a mighty battle cry in an attempt to distract him: "AAAHHHHHHHH!" Kueshi then jumped over top of Chevalier and whispered under his breath "Bakudo 63: Sajo Sabaku." holding his hands towards what was now Chevalier's left forearm. A golden rope flew from his hands towards Chevalier pacing and roping it's way towards his arms from only two sword's lengths away. It was a much stronger version of Bakudo 4: Hainawa, it's goal to restrain Chevalier by tying his hands behind his back. Kueshi hit the ground rolling and looked towards his partner, waiting for her to attack her brother in some way.

Reyne jumped and hovered in the air looking at the two me on the ground.She then sighed and closed her eyes, taking her stance which meant she was getting bored, but was going to continue the fight anyways. ~~Now which attack to use.....hmmm lets see I dont think brother or captain has seen this form of Hikaru yet, so....I'll play with it some~~ Her sword then immediately changed shape into a huge pure fire bow, that was also extremely bright with it's flames. She pulled back the firey string to her archers point and shot off about ten arrows aimming at different directions. They were aimed so they would surround her brother, but not kill him, one was aimed at his arm.However she was careful not to hit her captain or to hurt her brother too.....badly. ~~I wonder what brother will do with this attack and I hope he wont be disappointed in me, after all this is my new toy....

Chevalier smirked as he caught the subtle exchange between Reyne and Kueshi, 'Teamwork, good... now what will you come up with?' He didn't have to wait long to find out though, as almost simultaneously Ku began to charge him while yelling at the top of his lungs and Reyne leapt into the air to gain a better vantage point.

'Overly telegraphed charge, most likely a feint... open distance then reevaluate,' mentally rolling his eyes as the Second Division commander charged him, he swung his sword in a downward arc, cutting the branch he was standing on away from the tree and allowing gravity to open the distance between him and his opponent as he waited to see the next step in the shinigami's plan. Watching as Kueshi extended his hand in what was obviously intended as a kido gesture Chevalier's eyes narrowed slightly, 'Kido... most likely some form of restraining technique, though not necessarily... best choice, evasion,' leaning backwards he allowed himself to fall clear of the branch before rotating into a backwards flip and kicking the branch upwards into the bakudo's path. Not waiting to confirm the success of his technique he vanished in a flash of shunpo, reappearing behind his sister just as she released a hail of flaming arrows towards his previous position.

'Flame arrows, those are new.' Deciding to test his twin's perception skills while he was back there he raised his hand up towards her exposed back and utilizing the Eishohaki technique to cast silently fired off a Sōkatsui. Considering he wasn't as good at this particular technique as someone of his estimated power level usually was, and combining that with the fact that silent casting drastically weakened a kido anyway, he seriously doubted that a hit would do severe damage but it would definitely keep the duo on their toes if they knew such an ability was in his repertoire. And since that was really all he was trying to do with this little exercise he saw it as a win-win situation.