Future Comrades: Shioshi vs. Bishamon! (Bishamon)

Shioshi, recent graduate of the Academy, certainly hadn't been expecting to be back so early. It wasn't for teaching, or for anything else like that. No, he was there to find a challenge, someone to spar with. Of course, he should have figured that the only people that would be there on the day he picked to come were Academy Students. With a sigh, he walked around the perimeter of the room, trying to see if any of the Students would be a good match for him, and seeing none that would be. With a great sigh, he paused and sat down at a bench, bored and wishing that he hadn't picked such a bad day to come to try and spar with someone. He'd been hoping that he would find Draylon here, just maybe, although he was sure by now that his friend was seated and would easily be able to beat him in a fight. He grinned at the thought.

With a resigned shrug and another sigh, he leaned back in the chair and shut his eyes for a moment, having nothing better to do. He stood after a few minutes of simply relaxing, and then once again began to walk the perimeter of the Sparring Grounds. He was determined to find someone to spar with, even if it was a Student. He paid no heed to anyone around him, though, unless it was one of the many already-sparring Students. However, even though he wasn't watching those around him, it wasn't hard for him to sense a familiar Reiatsu. He immediately turned, surveying the room to find the man he had felt. Bishamon was here, somewhere! Although Shioshi had never fought him before, he knew that if his fellow Shinigami was here, then he'd certainly be a good sparring partner for him. So he set off, searching the area for his friend.

The sparring grounds where such a good place to relax; of course you would have to avoid the occasional sparring challenge, however Bishamon was good at avoiding them, he closed his eyes trying to get some sleep, however he sensed a familiar presence approaching him, who is that? he opened one eye and looked, it was Shioshi, and he looked like he was looking for him, this is going to be a pain, he thought.

However despite his lack of ambition to fight, he did like to know about peoples skill level and he didn't really know about Shioshi combat skill, it was enough to peak his interest, Bishamon stood up and stretched his arms above his head, loosened up his neck by moving it side to side; it made a sickening cracking sound, okay i think im ready, he was about to wave Shioshi over, but then thought he might not want to fight, he might just be here to say hi; this was wishful thinking to say the least, not many people would travel to the sparring grounds just to say hello. Bishamon let out a slight chuckle at his optimism, and then waved over to Shioshi "hey Shioshi!" He then waited for him to give him to respond.

Shioshi spun to the right at the sound of Bishamon's voice, spying him not too far away... and him not too far away from one of the two designated 'resting areas'. With a grin, he jogged over to his friend, who seemed as eager to see Shioshi as Shioshi was to see him. He clapped Bishamon on the shoulder as he reached him, and then brought his arms down to rest at his sides. It had been a while since he'd seen the other Shinigami, and that had been before he'd graduated. "Bishamon, it's been awhile! The last time was saw each other was at that assembly. Remember? I graduated, as you can see, and I actually applied for the 7th Division! Er... have you been accepted yet?" asked Shioshi. However, realizing that that wasn't the point of why he was speaking to Bishamon, he immediately continued.

"Anyways, I realized that we've never sparred with each other. If we're to be in the same squad, working together often, then I think we should probably know one another's fighting style, don't you think?" he asked, grinning. He turned and barked an order at one of the Students, who immediately bowed and then headed away. "It truly is good to see you, my friend. I thought that maybe you'd been assigned somewhere in the real world, since I haven't seen you in the month that I've been graduated and waiting for an approval to join the 7th Division!" he continued, his smile still plastered on his features. The Student returned at that time, holding two wooden training blades. He picked one up, and held the other out towards Bishamon.

"We can talk while we walk, and while we spar, of you want," he said, still grinning, as he waited for Bishamon to respond to his many words and to the fact that he was already holding a training weapon out towards the other Shinigami. It occurred to him that Bishamon may have just wanted to talk, since he seemed like he enjoyed to simply relax, but he shook away the thoughts mentally, although not physically, since that would look odd and would be random, and continued to wait for a response.

The hyper active shinigami quickly introduced himself whilst quickly telling him everything that had happened over the past month, he did like to talk this guy, but i it’s kind of nice, he smiled and took the wooden sword off Shioshi, well i guess he did want to fight, Bishamon picked up another training sword on the ground next to him, and grinned "i use two swords when i fight" he then tried to process everything Shioshi said to him, right ok what did he say again? damn it he talks so fast, Bishamon looked at him "well congratulations first of all, and i look forward working with you in squad seven, but i haven't officially been accepted yet, however the captain has given me a verbal guarantee he just has a load of paper work to get through at the moment" Bishamon started walking in search for a suitable location for the spar.

"Your right it would be a good idea for us to get to know each other’s fighting style in case we go on any missions" this wasn’t a total lie, he did think that would be beneficial, however he wanted to know more for himself. They found an empty space in the grounds, somewhere completely isolated; no one was anywhere near to watch, Bishamon done this because he knew Shioshi had been embarrassed in front of a lot of people from the fight with Dray, and also Bishamon wasn't keen on getting embarrassed by Shioshi if the fight were to go in his favour. "So anything else you want to tell me, or do you want to go right now" Bishamon smiled at him "you make the first move when you’re ready.

Shioshi gave a sly grin when Bishamon told him that he could have the first move. What could he do to make his friend regret those words? Shioshi brought one foot back, and brought his wooden blade up, bringing it to an offensive ready position. "Demons Below Limit the One Before Me in Your Arts! Bakudo No. 2, Hanko-Nensho!" he cried suddenly, and then he aimed two fingers in Bishamon's direction. Immediately, he felt something shift in the other Shinigami's Reiatsu, and he grinned. He had severely limited Bishamon's ability to use Kidou! "Now then, lets see how you do while I have an advantage, Bishamon. I've been meaning to practice this strategy on someone, just so I'll be able to know it works alright, for the next time I face Draylon. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention! We're friends now. I still want to fight him again, of course, but no longer out of revenge," he said to his friend, his voice challenging at first.

Since Bishamon would now have no choice but to fight up close, and since that was Shioshi's strength anyways, he sprinted forward, his blade coming back and then snapping around, coming about in an arcing slash, punctuated by his elbow, which was brought up to slam into the other Shinigami's chest and cause him to stagger for the next part of his attack. Although this strategy had been created more to face Draylon, since he relied so much upon Kidou, it could work against others as well. Shioshi came to a stop just before finishing his slash, brought his arm down, reversed his direction, and then spun around Bishamon, ending with himself facing the other Shinigami's back. With a grin, he brought his blade down in an overhand chop aiming for one of his friend's shoulder, which was supposed to make him drop one of his two weapons. Since he was accustomed to fighting with two, if he could manage to take out one of the swords...

Bishamon instantly felt a change in his spiritual pressure, i take it he wants’ to use this on Dray? seems like a suitable technique seeming he likes using kidou so much, he watched closely as Shioshi, closed the distance, Bishamon gave a cheeky smirk, close combat suit me fine.

He got his sword in position to block the first strike, but it was a feint, Shioshi he quickly managed to get behind Bishamon, aiming for one of his shoulders, crap, Bishamon quickly rolled forward and evaded the blow, he quickly got to his feet and turned to face Shioshi "i take it you prepared that combo for Dray? But remember my fighting style is nothing like Dray's!" Bishamon dashed forward and swung with a wide left, aiming for the right side of his neck, whilst also aiming his right sword for the left side of his mid section.

"Yeah, that was for Draylon alright. Don't worry, though, I'll come up with new stuff for you once I get a feel for how you fight!" cried Shioshi, grinning, and then he came forward, meeting Bishamon head on. "It'll take more than this to beat me, Bisha, my friend!" he continued, taunting a bit, as he quickly snapped his weapon through the air from his right hand to his left, brought his blade up and to the right, and redirected Bishamon's attack from the left so that it intercepted his other attack. He then kicked the two crossing sword just to force Bishamon back for a moment, and then skipped back a step himself as well. Just from that one little exchanging of attacks, he had gotten a nice feel of his opponent's fighting style, although he was sure that Bishamon had as well. He nodded to himself, and then prepared his next few attacks.

Shioshi came forward as soon as Bishamon had recovered, his blade snapping forward in a few simple jabs. Following this, Shioshi snapped his arm back and then up, the blade aimed down. He spun like this, and then brought his weapon down in a powerful slash, aimed for Bishamon's neck. While he brought his blade down with that slash, he also brought his free fist forward, aimed for the other Shinigami's stomach to disrupt his center of balance so that he would have a hard time of managing to keep the balance a warrior needed in the midst of combat. Shioshi knew he was best when it came to one-on-one combat, knew that that was where he excelled. He knew, too, that Bishamon was a skilled opponent that he couldn't afford to take lightly. He grinned at his friend, the exhilaration of the match starting to pump adrenaline through him. He would only enter his world of inner calm if he needed to, although he surely did wish for Bishamon to see him at the height of his skill.

Bishamon took a few steps back as his attack was diverted with some ease, good, this wouldn't be interesting if he got hit that easily; Bishamon's eyes lit up as he started to get the feel for battle, he wasn't one to go out of his way to fight but when he was fighting he did rather enjoy it. His attention was solely on Shioshi as he was forced back by some of his quick jabs with his sword until he swung down with his right and aimed for his body with a punch.

Bishamon raised his left knee as he blocked the punch with his knee and managed to stop the sword by crossing his two swords and catching it in-between the crossover. He quickly kicked back and then took a breath and dashed forward again and kicked his right sandal off of his foot, it floated in the air in front of Shioshi face; hoping it would obscure his vision Bishamon quickly took two wide swings with both swords and aimed for each side of his mid section.

Shioshi smiled as Bishamon blocked both of his attacks. His fist hurt a little bit, but it was just the tiniest of wounds, and would easily be ignored. Shioshi stepped back as his opponent launched his next attack, a flying sandal launched at his face. Surprised, Shioshi ducked under it, the sandal skimming his hair. He came up in time to see two swords flying in at him from either side... A move that Shioshi happened to know of, although he hadn't seen it before, since he'd never fought an opponent who used two blades. It was called a double-thrust low, or something much like that. He'd practiced counters for foes that would wield two weapons before, but never one for this move. Now he'd have to improvise. Shioshi remembered something then, back during a tournament at the Academy out on the Sparring Grounds, when three other Students had teamed up against him during a match that was supposed to be a free-for-all. They'd come in at him in formation, one on either side and then one in the center.

The two on the side had come in with slashes from the side, and... Shioshi skipped back a few steps, barely able to move fast enough and stumbling at one point, although he caught himself before he fell. He was out of reach of the attack, so he came flying forward as the two swords crossed over each other, forming an X in the air. His own blade came in from the side, knocking the two blades to the side. He then brought his right foot up in a kick aimed for Bishamon's hip, a somewhat perfect counter, although someone with only one weapon couldn't exactly do much better. He hoped that his kick would connect and at least do some damage, because if it didn't, he'd be off-balance and unable to protect himself from a strike. Of course, Bishamon would still have to recover from Shioshi's powerful parry, but that didn't mean Shioshi would be able to recover before him. He could only hope.

Bishamon was impressed by his reactions to dodge the sandal and then parry his attack, he saw the kick aiming for his leg, the counter seemed to be timed perfectly, it was going to hit, Bishamon braced his legs and gritted his teeth, the fact that he knew the kick was going to connect allowed him to ignore it at then focus on a follow up on a counter strike, he brought both of his swords in keeping them parallel and only about a centimetre apart aiming for the side of Shioshi's neck with both blades.

As the kick connected and hit Bishamon's hip, hard, he groaned and his attack jerked somewhat which redirected the aim to Shioshi's arm, also some of the power had been taken out of the blow, but there was still enough power for it to hurt. The kick was surprisingly hard, and it gave Bishamon a sufficient amount of pain, but something he learnt a while ago; if you know something is going to hit it won't hurt half as much, so it hurt but he could handle it.

Shioshi felt his foot connect solidly with Bishamon's hip, and grinned... until he saw the two blades shooting towards his neck. He manged to bring his weapon back around in time to redirect the attack, but, as he was still rebalancing after the attack, they still caught him in the ribs. There was a painful sounding crack, and Shioshi knew that something was damaged. He hopped back out of reach of Bishamon's attacks and then felt his ribs. He winced in pain; noting was broken, but he had at least one cracked rib, maybe two. He could continue, of course, but not without pain. He'd just pay a visit to the 4th Division afterwards, or the Academy Clinic, if he felt like a trip down memory lane. He looked up at Bishamon again, gave a pained smile, and then stood in position, ready to continue.

Shioshi and Bishamon were both wounded somewhat, although Shioshi believed he was wounded a bit more, but he knew that if he went into his place of inner calm, he could possibly pull out a win. Now he'd show Bishamon what he could really do. Shioshi closed his eyes and focused, felt his burning emotions. He felt one, stronger than the others; calm. He reached to it, and used it to smother all of the others, used it to block them out completely. His eyes snapped open, and the fires of his calm and focus shone in his eyes. Then, something happened that had never happened before when he entered his state of calm; he seemed to connect with his Zanpakutou. He didn't hear any voices, or anything else like that, but he seemed to feel... something, coming from the blade. A calm like his own, he realized. His eyes fell upon Bishamon, and he readied himself. Whether he won or lost didn't matter. He'd show his friend what he could do.

He came forward then, felt a lance of pain shoot through him from his ribs, and gritted his teeth through the pain. He came onto Bishamon, with a slight limp in the side where his cracked ribs were, and brought his weapon around in a series of slashes, an over-hand chop, a left-right slash followed by another, a diagonal one from the lower right to the upper left, and then a stab aimed for Bishamon's chest. That wasn't the real attack, though; the real attack was a headbutt aimed for Bishamon's face. He brought his head forward, hard, as he ended his barrage, and closed his eyes, ready for whatever was about to happen.

Good, a connection, it felt pretty solid, but due to the wooden swords he couldn't really tell what sort of damage he caused, he grinned as he jumped back, he then saw Shioshi gently touch his ribs were the strike landed, and then watched him cringe in pain, so they are hurting? Possibly a couple of cracked ribs, his grin grew bigger, this is where the experience factor came into play "you know you should never let your enemy know where your injuries are." He continued to watch as he then closed his eyes, what is he doing? Taunting me? No he isn’t that stupid is he?

Before he had much more time to think, he saw his eyes open again, ok so what are you going to do? He dashed at him Bishamon readied himself as Shioshi released a flurry of attacks, he managed to dodge all of them, however they looked odd, they where all feints, crap! he saw Shioshi's head fly towards him, crap!, Bishamon's reactions forced him to lean back slightly which was a mistake as Shioshi's head smashed into Bishamon's nose; it was defiantly broken, blood poured out of his nostrils, he turned away in pain before quickly, holding both of his swords out straight and spun around, using momentum as he aimed for Shioshi's ribs.

Shioshi came back, a calm expression on his face, and reached up to his forehead, where blood from Bishamon's nose trailed down his face. With a jerk, he wiped it off, sending a slight spray to the ground. He held his weapon before him as the two weapons moved to strike him in the ribs once more. He ducked down and took both of them on his arm, causing him to flinch and to definitely gain a painful bruise, external and internal, both forming almost immediately. He then stood and moved back to ready for the next pass between the two of them, his blade held before him, his expression serene as his Reiatsu resonated with his Zanpakutou, not making him stronger or anything, but adding to his calm. He eyed Bishamon, and took stock of the situation; both of them were wounded, but not in ways that could bring a decisive ending to the fight too soon. He had cracked ribs, Bishamon had a broken nose. He had a bruised arm, Bishamon had a wounded hip. Their wounds were equal in damage.

Shioshi came to realize then that the match could end up coming down to stamina, in the end. They were opposites in the world of close-ranged combat; where Shioshi focused on strength and technique, Bishamon focused on speed and his odd weapon style, with his twin blades. Him with his calm, and Bishamon with whatever he had to combat it. Shioshi knew all of this, and so he knew that something needed to happen, and soon, if he didn't want this to drag out all day long. He dug his feet in, ready to spring, and brought his blade to the ready. Then he exploded into action, shooting forward, as best he could with his wounds, to strike at Bishamon. He brought his weapon around in an arc, and then brought it in from the right in a vicious slash aimed for Bishamon's neck. He stopped that abruptly, though, and bent down, bringing his foot out in a sweeping kick to take his opponent's legs out from beneath him.

His nose hurt, the blood was clogging it up which made it difficult to breath, he only managed to connect with Shioshi's arm; a small hit, but it would still diminish his speed of his swing somewhat, this friendly spar had the feel of a death match to it now. Bishamon knew that they were pretty much equal's in this fight; Bishamon would have to rely on his experience to win.

Bishamon saw Shioshi coming at him and watched his moves carefully, he was about too perform a counter until, he used another feint, another one!? He then saw Shioshi's leg, try to sweep his own, Bishamon quickly reacted, he managed to do a small hop over it to evade the strike, he then tried to stomp on Shioshi's foot, in hopes to break it or do some sort of damage.

Shioshi flinched as Bishamon's foot slammed down on his own, and he took the pain as he felt his bones grind together beneath the pressure. He brought his fist around into the side of Bishamon's leg, but turned it into a simple push to get his leg off of him, forceful enough to get the job done. He then came back to his feet, limping worse than before, since the damaged foot was on the same side that his cracked ribs were on. He moved back to ready for the next pass, but he couldn't help but admit that the last wound he'd taken had hurt. He closed his eyes again, calming himself down. If he allowed the pain to control his emotions at this moment, then he had already lost. He wasn't ready to be defeated quite yet. He opened his eyes again, and then stared at Bishamon. The silence stretched on for a minute, Shioshi weighing his best options. Then he struck.

He came forward, blade leading the way with a series of slashes to gouge Bishamon's current readiness. Then he came forward with a sudden stab followed by a slash from left-to-right. As he ended, he spun and brought his elbow around, aiming for the side of Bishamon's head while bringing his blade in from the other side towards his opponent's legs to entangle his feet, an act that would hopefully work and, as a result, keep Bishamon from dodging his elbow. He could only hope, of course, and so hope he did, although it was a simple spark in an ocean of calm. He waited to feel either the crunch of his elbow striking Bishamon's head, or to feel his arm simply whoosh through empty air.

Bishamon felt his stomp connect, they both quickly backed off; he saw Shioshi limping somewhat, it's never easy fighting with an injured foot, it makes it hard to shift your weight during an attack which will lower the destructive power of his blow's, plus his broken ribs will have the same effect, Bishamon attacks did seem rash and random, but he was picking away at vital parts any warrior needs to fight, however they wouldn't guarantee him a victory, it would give him a small advantage, but his hip was injured which diminished his speed, and his broken nose which made it more difficult to breath which would lower his stamina; so there injuries were about even, although Bishamon thought he had the slight advantage.

He analysed Shioshi, the responsible thing to do would be to stop this fight, he gritted his teeth, "ok i think that's enou..." Shioshi quickly closed the gap between them and started an attack, Bishamon really should have just stopped it there and then, but he was having a considerable amount of fun, so it can wait. Before he had much time to tell what Shioshi was doing, he threw a few feints again, which he managed to avoid, and then he saw, his sword coming in low, he kicked it away, and then prepared for a counter strike, until he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head, Bishamon stumbled away from Shioshi, he was stunned; he wasn't concentrating as his elbow crashed into the side of Bishamon's head, he started going in and out of consciousness, he managed to plant his feet firmly on the ground to stay balanced, and then slowly shook it off, the pain was still there, but he couldn't let Shioshi win that easily.

He then threw his right sword like a spear aiming for Shioshi's chest and quickly followed it up by dashing towards him, as he tried a wide swing with his left aiming for the side of his mid section, half way through his swing he flicked his wrist and released his sword, then caught it with his right and quickly swung for the side of his left knee; this was one of the advantages of two handed fighters.

Shioshi was startled by Bishamon's next attack, where he threw his weapon like a spear. Caught of guard, he only barely managed to dodge so that the attack missed its intended target. However, it still connected with his shoulder, and he staggered backwards, cursing. He saw Bishamon's feint for what it was, and brought his weapon up to protect himself from the next attack, but his leg failed him at that time, and he collapsed. Using that to his advantage, though, he brought his fist forward and connected squarely with his opponent's stomach. Bishamon's sword, though, struck him in the side of his head, and as it was an attack meant for a sturdier part of his body, he very nearly fell unconscious then and there. He wasn't planning and losing against his friend.

He hit the ground with a thud, but as he did, he brought his blade up for one last attack against Bishamon. The weapon struck the same hip that he'd hit earlier. Breathing heavily and in great pain, he allowed the blade to fall from his grasp after that, but still continued to force himself from falling unconscious, wanting to know if in his last desperate attacks if he'd managed to at least make the match a draw. "Heh... You're certainly good, Bishamon..." he gasped, his throat burning as he inhaled large amounts of air. He turned his head to watch his friend to see if he would fall to unconsciousness as well, of if his last attacks hadn't been enough after all. He wouldn't be able to keep himself from unconsciousness for much longer, that he knew as fact.

Shioshi punch felt like it pushed all of the air out of Bishamon's lungs, he staggered backwards, not sure if his attack hit due to Shioshi's attack however he saw him fall so he must of hit. But Bishamon's legs buckled and his back arced over, as he gasped for breath, but he managed to stay on his feet, he looked over to Shioshi, looking at his lips move, but couldn't understand what he was saying, due to a ringing sound in his head probably from the elbow striking his head from earlier, he saw as Shioshi readied himself for what appeared to be a final strike.

Bishamon raised his sword in the air, and then let go of it as it clattered to the ground, he then smiled at Shioshi "i think that will do" he staggered over to Shioshi and placed his hand gently on his shoulder "the point of a spar isn't to find a victor; it is to improve our skills as fighters" he walked on passed Shioshi to pick up his other sword and headed back to the rest area to return the swords, he then turned around and smiled at Shioshi "good fight, you certainly are strong, but i think you know how it would have turned out" truthfully he had no idea who would win the fight, it was pretty much fifty fifty, however he did get some pleasure in teasing him, and without giving him much chance to respond he was gone.

Shioshi lay there for a while, thinking over all that had transpired during that match. He and Bishamon were of like mind, he realized, and although their techniques focused on different areas of it, both of them specialized in close combat, which also spoke quite a bit about a person's personality. His training blade still lay where it had fallen as the rain began to fall, and yet he still lay there, his mind wandering. Then his thoughts fell upon his Zanpakutou, and how his calm had seemed to resonate with his blade. He allowed a thin smile to spread across his features, and then he reached back and drew his real weapon, holding it over him, allowing him to examine it in all of its beauty. Even though he'd been wielding a training blade, not his actual Zanpakutou, his calm had still resonated with it.

That meant that he and his Zanpakutou were of a like mind, in a way. Thunder boomed overhead, and rain pelted the Shinigami, but he remained there, staring up at his Zanpakutou, for a long while. Finally, much later on, when Shioshi realized that night had long since fallen, he forced himself to his feet and sheathed his Zanpakutou, retrieving the training blade he'd used against Bishamon. Moving as quickly as he could with his wounds, he returned the practice blade and then headed off, needing a trip to the 4th Division Barracks before he went to bed. His thoughts continued to linger on his calm resonance with his Zanpakutou, though, and what that mean for his future. For surely that was a good sign.