Something in the Wind

Kuro was calmly walking through the Rukongai. He had nothing better to do today, so he was heading back to his training clearing to waste some time with some practice. He would've liked to bring Mika with him, but she was nowhere to be found today. In fact, she'd been disappearing quite often lately. Kuro had been worried at first, wondering if it had something to do with Raiden, but on the occasions he did run into Mika, she assured him that it was nothing to worry about. Instead of pressing further, he'd decided to leave her to her own devices. She was a tough enough girl who could take care of herself without needing his protection. He chuckled over that thought as he walked at a lazy pace, in no hurry to reach his destination on this calm and sunny day. As he reached the forest that housed the clearing, he thought he felt a slight signature of Reiatsu. He was surprised and began to calmly and quietly make his way into the woods so he could investigate. He got closer to the area of the clearing and began to realize that he knew this Reiatsu. It was none other than Mika's. Still keeping himself hidden, Kuro made his way closer to her location to check things out.

When he reached the clearing's edge, Kuro found a dense bush to peer through and observe the events happening inside. What his eyes caught sight of was mesmerizing. It was clearly self training, as proven by the fact that Mika had changed from her shinigami robes to the tight fitting black shirt with detached sleeves that she liked to wear in combat. But at the same time, it looked like Mika was simply enjoying herself. She moved through the tall grass of the clearing with a sweeping and twirling motion that looked just like she was dancing. Even her face seemed to convey that assumption's validity to Kuro. Her beautiful features were relaxed and harmonious, adding to the serenity of the clearing's atmosphere. Her long hair waved in the breeze as she continued moving with that same spinning movement. The sight was almost enough to make Kuro fall for her all over again. He watched in silence, curious as to the nature of this training. Mika continued to behave as she'd been doing, unaware of his presence. It amazed him that she could keep this up without growing dizzy with all the spinning that she was doing. But she was an amazing girl who was full of surprising successes. Kuro felt lucky to have such a woman in his life. The sun was reaching its highest point in the sky when Kuro decided to stop holding back. He stood up and lightly brushed himself off before shunpoing into the field right behind Mika and throwing his arms around her. "Found you." he whispered teasingly into her ear, watching her light skin immediately beginning to burn red hot from his appearance and closeness. She struggled in his grasp, trying to break away in clear embarrassment, but Kuro refused to loosen his grip. She relaxed and stopped fighting in a few moments, resting her back against him to catch a breather after her training. She was clearly enjoying this moment, which was half the reason Kuro hadn't let her go; the other being he just didn't want to.

"So this is where you've been sneaking off to." he said with a jokingly accusing tone, letting her go so she could turn and face him after several minutes. "It took me forever to track you down."

"Taich-..."

"Kuro." he cut in sharply. "How many times am I going to have to ask you to drop the formality?"

Mika looked troubled by this question, almost as if feeling guilty. But Kuro brought his hand down on top of her head and stroked her hair in a gentle manner.

"I'm kidding. I know that it'll take getting used to. Whatever you feel comfortable with at the moment is just fine."

Mika gave a sigh of relief and began to stretch so as to help avoid muscle soreness. While doing this, she explained her actions. "I've been working on something that I didn't want anyone to bother with until it was ready. I didn't want to impose on anyone's time by selfishly asking them to train with me while I experimented."

"Well I'm here now, without you going to the trouble of asking me for it. And besides..." Kuro reached forward, grabbed Mika's hand and brought her into a close embrace with a sharp pull on her arm, "...I would never consider it an imposition to spend time with you in any way, even training."

"Taichou..."

The two of them stood still for a while, silently resting in each other's arms. Kuro broke the silence and inquired about her experiments as she'd called her training. Mika blushed a bit as if self conscious about what she was presenting, but calmed down with a smile from Kuro showing that he would be supportive no matter what it was.

"I've been working on my own fighting style. I want to be more composed in battle instead of fighting with raw force and speed. I just felt the need to add some technique to my combat."

Kuro burst out laughing, again feeling lucky to have found this girl and fallen in love with her. "To think that you'd be the same as me in that sense too. It's amazing."

Mika seemed confused. "You have your own fighting style Taichou?"

Kuro looked at her still showing the amused look on his face in regards to their similarity. "Yes. I felt the same as you several years back and worked to design my own fighting style that I use whenever I feel I need an extra boost in my fighting that utilizes my traits. Using my speed and balance as a base, I created a fighting style that specializes in evading my opponent's attacks and makes use of openings to perform counterattacks. I call it Issui style, named for its likeness to a flowing current of water that is undisturbed by any physical strike.....why are you staring at me like that?" Mika looked as though stars where shining in her eyes. She was looking up at Kuro with a face of pure amazement and admiration...which he thought was overreacting a bit. He sighed and gave a sly grin as a new idea came to his mind. "If you're done with your experiments, how would you like to use your style against mine?"

Mika gave a short cry of excitement and hugged Kuro tightly, thanking him for offering his assistance with testing her strength and style against him. He shook her off and took position several feet away in the center of the clearing. "We'll do this without the use of zanpakutos." he said while taking his own blade out of his robes and setting it on the clearing floor. "We'll make this a proud hand-to-hand duel between second squad members."

"Fine by me." she answered, her lovey dovey attitude subsiding and revealing her hard working and competitive nature. Kuro watched as she took a deep breath and relaxed her body. He took a stance and braced himself as Mika started towards him with a swift approach. When she was about to enter striking range, she began to spin her body around like a dancing ballerina, twirling closer and closer. Kuro leaned back as her fist stuck out from her center and swung around with the spinning motion of her body and swatted at him from the side. He decided to launch a quick counter at this point, jabbing at her stomach area. He was surprised as his strike replied with little rebound and even seemed to just glance off of her body. He was immediately attacked by both of her fists as she spun past him and the spinning attacks struck towards his front and side. He ducked to avoid the attack to his face, and pulled his arm back to absorb the strike to his side. Mika stopped spinning on the other side of him. He turned to face her and a silent moment began as both of them watched and wondered how they should continue. Kuro thought to himself that it had only been seconds since their spar began, and he was already becoming impressed with Mika's creation.

Their standoff continued for several moments, each hesitating to rush right in. Kuro was facing a fighting style that he knew little to nothing about and Mika was facing her captain. This made both unwilling to attack recklessly. But such hesitation couldn't last forever. Kuro could see the impatience in Mika's eyes. Her feet kept inching more and more forward. He swayed to the side as she darted forward again and began spinning. It seemed that was a central part to this style of hers. Kuro ducked under her fist as it swung out at him again and tried to counter once more. But again, his attack got displaced by the spinning motion of her body. He realized that this style of hers was excellent for defending herself, as well as useful for fighting multiple opponents. The spinning motion threw an enemy's blows off when they made contact and minimized the damage, and her extended limbs when launching an attack swung full circle around her, creating an opportunity to strike all that surrounded her. Kuro could only imagine how deadly such a style would be when she had a weapon in her hand.

But even with it's strengths, Mika's style did have some weaknesses that Kuro was starting to pick up on as he continued to hang back and observe her attacks. For starters, she was going to have to work on her timing with launching her attacks. Right now she was doing it too early and making it completely obvious when they were coming. Kuro showed this to her by sticking out his arm and blocking her attack as it came at him again. This led to the second weakness: if anything disrupted her spinning and stopped her dead cold, her style would lose most of its usefulness. Kuro demonstrated by striking out at her mid chest, which was much more effective now that her movement had been stopped. Mika flew back and crashed to the ground. Kuro followed her movement and leapt at her fallen figure with his fist pulled back. Mika's eyes widened in terror, knowing that she'd been overcome and defeated. As Kuro came down at her, she shut her eyes in fear. Next thing she knew, a small thud sounded right next to her head. Opening one eye, she saw Kuro's fist partially embedded in the ground beside her and him kneeling over her with a huge grin on his face.

"Scared you there."

Mika scowled at his indifference to the situation, having just been fighting a second earlier. And his grin was too smug for her taste. She had to trip him up a bit. Reaching out, she chopped at the elbow of his arm that had punched the ground. This threw him off balance. Before he could use his other arm to steady himself, Mika reached up and grabbed a hold of his face, pulling him down closer and kissing him without warning. Kuro felt his own face blushing this time, but stopped resisting fast and just went along with what she wanted. He stood up when she released him and helped pull her to her feet.

"That was a sneaky move Mika. You're a true member of squad 2. As for your fighting style, I like it. But we'll have to work on its flaws that I noticed. I'm willing to help you with that if you'll let me."

Mika turned away in shyness, smiling at Kuro's kindness and assistance. She composed herself and turned back with an embarrassed look on her face again. Choked up with her feelings of gratitude, all she could manage was a happy nod. Kuro smiled back and turned to start walking into the forest. Mika looked surprised and sprinted after him. "Where are you going?"

Kuro looked over his shoulder. "I'm going to find some firewood. We're going to be here for a while working on this. So we may as well set up a simple camp."

Kuro made good on his declaration to help Mika with her training. The two of them spent the next several days engaging in countless spars and exercises. Kuro kept up his observation of her work and grogress throughout this time and made mental notes of things to bring up during their breaks. Between the spars, they kept up with maintaining a simple camp life, foraging for food in the forest around them and sleeping under the stars in the clearing. On the fifth day, Kuro decided that Mika's style had been tweaked enough for one last test run.

They stared each other down from opposite sides of the clearing. A sharp gust of wind blew through the area, rustling the tall grass and acted like a sort of signal to begin. Mika charged straight at him, taking the initiative. Of course Kuro had never intended to deny her that chance. It was time to see if she could put into practice the modifications they'd agreed on. Mika's approach was swift and direct. That much hadn't changed from her prototype of the style. But instead of going into an unneeded premature spin, she maintained her full speed charge and approached without interrution. Kuro did what any opponent would and struck out with a fist to disturb her approach. Mika reacted to this attack, throwing her body into a rapid spin that let her roll past the attack and sweep in closer to Kuro's body. Now inside his range, she struck with a quick jab at his side. With her this close, Kuro could not do much more than tighten his core and try and minimize the damage from her attack. They both jumped back for more space, and Kuro immediately began to mentally review her feat. Instead of using a bunch of exaggerated spinning, the two of them had decided that the spins could be adapted into a defensive mechanism for Mika to weave her way past opponents' attacks and close in for a quick attack. She had performed this exceptionally well. And another added feature was that by holding back on her attack until she was next to her foe, the danger of her attack being parried and stopping her movement was almost eliminated. Kuro watched as Mika charged in again, knowing what she intended to do this time. With enough thought, he might've been able to come up with a way to stop it, but he wanted to give her the chance to practice this new technique. When he struck at her advancing form like before, she spun off the attack again. This time, after avoiding his blow, she stuck out her arm like she had in their first spar earlier that week and swung it around with a horizontal hammer fist strike that had the momentum of the circular force behind it. Kuro took this attack to the side of the head, still not recovered from his missed attack at her approach. The blow caused his vision to swim a little until he shook himself back to his senses. Mika's style was more counter-like in nature now, just like his own. Like he had his swaying motion to help avoid attacks, she used her spins. And after their movements helped them find an opening, they struck.

Mika was already back in position, starting another attack again. Kuro decided against attacking first this time, leaving Mika to take the initiative. He waited for the attack, but none came. Mika just ran at him and caught him offguard with a leaping tackle, pushing him to the clearing floor with a cry of pride and happiness. The two of them both burst out laughing together from the mood change of the whole deal and set about congratulating each other for the work they had put into this success. Their happiness was interrupted however, when sounds could be heard from the forest around them. Their attitudes underwent an immediate 180 as they picked themselves up off the ground and looked towards the direction the disturbance had come from.

"Look what we have here boys. A couple of snobby shinigami lovers who think they can go wherever they please without the consent of the inhabitents."

A gruff voice broke through the brush of the clearing's edge as a group of ten ragged looking men noisily pushed their way through the growth and into the open space. Bandits. Kuro had dealt with their type many times when coming into the Rukongai and even further back when he was not far from what they were himself. The biggest difference was that he wasn't a bully. These men were definitely not harboring good intentions. Kuro and Mika both raised their fists as readied themselves for a fight.

"Well, aren't you both arrogant? I guess they're still teaching you all up there in that fancy Seireitei that you're better than us common folks down in the slums. We don't appreciate you lot coming into our home acting like you can lord over us."

Kuro let out a sigh at the same time that Mika gave an audible growl. These men were no better than the factions within the noble families who felt that they were superior to the Rukongai dwellers. Both sides just refused to see each other as the equal beings that they were. It was a sore subject for both Kuro and Mika, who had both come from humble beginnings in the Rukongai. These men seemed stupid as well however. They had failed to notice Kuro's haori folded up near the area were the campfire was crackling its embers. It was not wise of them to mess with a captain.

As if ordered by some unseen signal, most of the men began charging forward with their fists raised. Again, their stupidity knew no limits. Attacking shinigami unarmed was just as good as asking for your death. They were only lucky that Kuro and Mika's zanpakutos were with his haori near the fire. "Guess you get some real practice now Mika." Kuro commented as the two darted at their attackers. The first nine men went down without much effort, failing to land a single blow as Kuro's and Mika's speed and skill kept them out of their foes' grasps. Instead of disheartening him, his allies demise only seemed to infuriate the leader who had challenged Kuro and Mika before. He lunged forward and punched with a strength that surprised the two of them, making them both jump back to think about their next move. Suddenly an idea occured to Kuro. Bending down, he whispered something in Mika's ear. The leader looked curious as Mika's face quickly bloomed into a sneaky, happy grin. Their strategy decided, Kuro and Mika rushed forward again. Their movement was extremely close; Kuro trailed behind her right side at not even the distance of a single step. One wrong move from him or hesitation from her could send both of them sprawling to the ground. When the bandit leader tried to strike her and halt her advance, Mika did her new style's trademark spin and rolled past his arm and danced behind him. As she spun, her fist was swung around in a blow at the back of the man's head. In the same movement, Kuro sped up and passed the other side of the man's outstretched arm, throwing his palm's heel at his face. Their movement was in perfect synch and their attacks struck the opposite sides of the man's head simaltaneously. Knocked out immediately, he fell to the ground in a heap. Kuro turned to Mika and put both of his hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes.

"We have succeeded Mika. Our work has brought your new style into existance. You are as graceful and deadly as a tornado, beautifully removing all in your path. That is what I see in your style, and I can think of no name better for it than Tatsumaki." (twister)

Mika jumped for joy at the naming of her new style. After retrieving their things, the two of them decided to leave the clearing before their enemies came back to conciousness. Their last move on the leader had been something impulsive, but would remain in Kuro's mind for quite a while, leading him to think that they could use that combo in future battles. Just as he and Mika were a pair. Their fighting styles now had a unity that he would call Uzu no Mizu. (Vortex of Water; Waterspout)