Challenge the Shock Spear (Draylontis)

Offered Unknown Respects - Simple Intellectual Nonsense - Yearning Optimistic Ubiquity

He held his breath, nervous for what he had to do next. Yagatsu had told him that perhaps this man would be best to talk to about getting somewhere with his zanjutsu, or otherwise learning something else valuable. Yagatsu had chuckled when he mentioned the man's name, like there was some joke he didn't quite get. But after his sever thrashing the day before from Janet Gravelle, the woman whom had wielded the Scythe upon him. He had learned enough.

The woman, only in her eighth year of the academy, was more than he had expected. At first he thought her to be someone with a similar last name when Yagatsu had finally formally introduced them at the end of the class. After some questioning, he learned that they were related. She was his aunt, whom had passed away in a tragic accident long before he was even born. The odds of meeting each other in the Soul Society, let alone that both would be in the Academy, was simply astounding, and almost impossible. He wondered if perhaps he'd one day meet his brother and sister here too. Or even his wife, his father or mother. He was too young when he had died, and perhaps they still lived on in the world elsewhere, not yet having died.

His knuckles hesitated before rapping soundly on the door to the Barracks of twelfth division. Someone answered quickly. He looked up at the tall, mantis-like man.

"I'm looking for someone called Keros." He stuttered slightly in the face of the man.

"Follow me." The thin giant answered, his voice soft and not as menacing as one would have thought.

The Giant walked down a hallway the walls made completely of glass except for the occasional doors inside the rooms were many shinigami doing everything from filling beakers to reading papers, and the rooms were filled with all the standard scientific equipment and many custom made machines as well, basically a giant scientific laboratory. The man walked past all of these and kept going turning onto a side hall and walked about 30 feet down it and stopped at a large metal door with hydraulics seals and no window with a sign saying "Draylon Karosu" and below it was written 8th seat. The large man pushed a small button which buzzed and said, "Visitor to see you Karosu, Sir."


Draylon was working diligently in his lab wearing his normal clothes rather than his shinigami robes, he considered them far more comfortable for what he was doing. He looked up from his work, he was currently trying to figure out a way to enhance physical attributes with equipment for fun trying to reduce it down to something akin to a skinsuit that would make the wearer stronger and faster. He looked around his lab, it was pretty clean with his papers in neat stacks and the books he was reading over against the wall, standard machines and even some custom machines he had built himself, he even had a little side room for dangerous experiments and a little testing zone with a few of his experiments nearby. He hit a button and said, "Okay, I'll unlock it in a minute." He quickly began filing away sensitive documents and materials in a safe and went over to the door to begin unlocking it.



The big man nodded and said to the guest, "Wait for him here." And walked off down where they had come from.


Dray placed his hand into the scanner and entered the password to unlock the door, the large hydraulics sliding and shifting out of the way and slowly the half ton metal door slowly opened into the hallway.

He followed the giant down and through the barracks, looking at the wonders inside. He had only been there once, briefly, upon the explanation of how his pistol worked. But that had been years ago, and the place had changed a bit since then. They passed through a hallway with transparent walls. He could see inside of some of the rooms that various Soul Reapers were standing around tables and desks, mixing fluids and chemicals, or reading papers, either to themselves or aloud. The panes were soundproof, so he couldn't hear what was said. Doors were here and there, allowing for those inside to exit into the hallway if they needed. Inside of a few he saw bodies, likely gigai, being worked upon. In a couple of them, there were strange creatures with white masks, Hollows, being subjugated to tests. All of the rooms were at the same time different yet the same. Terminals, tables, desks, Soul Reapers.

They turned eventually, and came down a hallway with a few doors, but no transparent walls, only intercoms beside each door. There also appeared to be vents above the doors that sounded with a low buzz, likely to let air in and out, as necessary.

The giant stretched a long thin finger and pushed the button, speaking clearly into the intercom before standing back.

"Wait for him here." The giant said before leaving.

Waiting patiently, nervously, he stood at the door and shoved his hands into his pockets. He had opted for actual pants today, though the only thing he had at the moment were these tight-waisted things that he had to wear low around his hips to keep from leaving marks on himself. They were black, and patterned to match his bedouin coat. He had bound them off at the ankle, leaving them baggy except for two inches above, the ankle. His feet were bare, exposed to reveal the long, wide and flat things that extended a full fourteen inches in length, as well as the long toes attached. They were almost prehensile too, as he could move his big toes individually to the rest, and could frequently grab and lift things up off the ground without the need to bend over. Today, he wore his white Obi over his coat, and his Zanpakto's saya attatched to it. His coat and pants had yellow floral designs on them, front and back, and he even wore his pendant of worship today around his neck, a symbol to a long forgotten god by many others.

The door eventually opened, and behind it he saw who he assumed would be Karos. The man wore very different clothes from the typicals around here. He had instead a giant black scarf that covered his shoulders and neck like a mantle. He even wore shoulder-length black gloves, though he couldn't tell whether the shirt was sleeveless or not by the scarf's bulk. He had on a light blue Obi around his waist, and a regular belt around his hips. His pants were black as well. And slung across his back was a spear.

The Gods be damned. He thought to himself. Does everyone need to have unleashed their shikai? Or have to have a bigger Zanpakto than I? He clenched his fists before letting an uneasy grin spread across his lips.

"I hope you are Instructor Karos?" He said. "Instructor Yagatsu told me you could help me with a problem I have."

Just beyond the man, he could see various things that he couldn't identify inside of the room.

Draylon looked over the man in front of him before responding , "Its Karosu not Karos, and come on in and take a seat." Dray walked over to a contraption and activated it, it started humming, buzzing and mixing things, eventually coming out a nozzle at the end into two cups, filling them up with a dark liquid. Dray took one of the cups and and passed it to the new man and took one himself and drank out of it, it was his own personal concoction something with quite a bit of caffeine and the taste was pretty hard to describe something sweet and tangy and it was just one of those drinks where it was easy to chug and enjoy, he hadn't named it yet.

He took another swig of the mug and started putting some more of the raw materials into the machine, since it had been running low anyways. He glanced over then turned back to what he was doing and said, "So what does old Man Yagatsu want me to help you with? It must be unusual for him to send you to me." And it would have to be Instructor Yagatsu from the academy never sent students to him, sometimes others did but not him.

"Karosuh...Karoseh...Kar-kar-kar-roshu...Ka-ka...." He hemmed and hawed lowly, trying to manage the name. ".....Ka.....roshu....Hm....KaRoSu......Karosene....Karosee......Ka-karosu........Kara....KarOsu." Finding his tongue getting there, he became emboldened and repeated it silently several more times. "Karosu. Karosu. Karosu."

By the time he had gotten the name right, he was standing before a large machine with the man with the spear and had been handed a cup of...slew. It smelled...strange... He took a sip and swirled it into his mouth. The taste was...[i]different.[i]. He tilted his head while the man wasn't looking and let the stuff fall to the back of his throat before swallowing and holding back a shudder of distaste.

He smiled politely and held his cup away from his face, so that the smell wasn't so close.

"Yagatsu and I are....sort of friends perhaps?" He said hesitantly. "I've been in his class for about six years now. He told me that perhaps you could help me graduate the Academy this year. It's been...oh, say a life time since I've been there."

He spied around for a place to put the drink, and when he couldn't think of one, he sighed and brought the cup up to his face and gulped the rest of the drink. He shuddered violently at the taste, his grip on the cup sending a crack down its lip.

"Personally, I'm more of a Coacoa man. Never liked Coffee or Tea, or...whatever that was. Thank you for the refreshment though."

He remembered that this man had introduced himself, and he had yet to as well.

"I'm Gravelle, Remington Gravelle." He said, finally introducing himself. He thought about whether or not to include his usual epithet, and decided against doing so. the 'Forty-year Student' title wasn't really something to be proud of.

"Yagatsu sent me for to get help in the areas of which I lack; Zanjutsu and Kido. I was hoping that perhaps you could teach me one or the other, though I'd like to learn how to wield my Zanpakto better, and even maybe achieve shikai with it. If that's possible for you to teach." He was staring at the spear on Karosu's back. "May I see your Zanpakto? It looks...very big."

Subtle hints of envy in his voice at the size difference between the two of them. His Zanpakto, though not capable of speaking to him, gave the feeling of an angered growling at the indignity he showed it.

Dray turned around after he had finished loading the raw materials into the device and turned around to face the man known as Gravelle. It had been quite some time since he had last seen instructor Yagatsu, and the man didn't like him that much, Dray hadn't been very good with his zanpakuto is combat and still wasn't that awesome in melee combat. He had ended up developing his own unorthodox style of combat that fit him better than any of the traditional roles. The best what to summarize his style would be something along the lines of kido-based aggressive skirmishing. Yagatsu started to respect him a little after that and now they were decent friends. Obviously this boy either had little motivation or maybe very little skill or just didn't know how to use his powers in tandem.

Then the boy asked if he could unlock his shikai for him and Dray burst out in laughter, it was a ridiculous idea that someone else could teach you how to unlock shikai, but there were some studies out there that showed the more in danger you were the more likely you are to connect with your Zanpakuto. Then the man asked if he could see his zanpakuto, Dray thought about it for a moment.

He then waked over to a little stand he had made so he didn't have to wear it in his lab and it stored the excess electricity to power devices around his lab, it allowed him to go beyond the normal limits if electricity for his lab, he had a bit of custom work done to be able to contain and control it. "Take a look if you like but don't touch it." Dray walked over to his comfy chair and sat down in it relaxing and said, "ahhh, where to start. First, no I can't really teach you how to achieve shikai, I know a few proven methods to increase your connection faster but they can be very dangerous, and if Yagatsu sent you to me it means you aren't taking to his lessons, probably because what he teaches doesn't fit your skill sets. I was the same way, I developed my own style of combat, so what he wants me to do is either teach you my style or help you develop your own. Now the the real question I have for you is how much effort are you willing to give me?"

"...don't touch it."

The words rang through his head like the promise of candy. Don't touch it? Why wouldn't he touch it? It was obviously much more fascinating than his own Zanpakto. He listened intently to Karosu, and was disheartened when he laughed at his request to teach him to achieve his Shikai. Then he told him about why Yagatsu had likely directed him to this man, Karosu.

"So perhaps you can teach me a style all my own then?" He casually included, not sure if he was to be ignored or not.

Karosu ended his short speech, with a sort of ultimatum. He was to respond as to whether or not he was willing to give it his all for this training. It was a tough question. He wanted badly to graduate, and maybe achieve great enough strength to unlock his shikai, but first and foremost, he just wanted to graduate. He had to weigh the options. And while he did so, he approached the place that the spear was mounted. It looked like some, or many of the machines in the room, were attached to the platform, possibly to analyze and extract information from the weapon. Curious. He ignored the request and reached out to it.

His arm twitched at the proximity, a jolt of current extended from the spear and connected to his fingers, making him draw back unexpectedly.

"Eheh...what a toy." he muttered under his breath, in a hiss.

His arm extended again, this time not moving as the proximity brought arcs from it to his hand. His body stiffened up. A good jolt helped to revitalize. His other hand reached out and grabbed for something grounded. The shock was small, but the machine he grabbed completed the circuit. He smiled at the flow of energy. He hadn't felt this since...since his class with Wells, when he was alive. To show the students about electricity, he had brought out a taser and run through labs with them. He himself had volunteered to be a subject for the tests, and for that, he had electrical scars on the backs of his hands and the tips of a couple fingers. In later years, before his death, he had learned of how much voltage he could take without damage. He used himself as an experiment, and tested his limits. This jolt that the weapon produced was nothing at the moment.

"Weak. This shock is nothing new to me." He said with ease. "You're equipment needs work. It's got a damaged fuse or something. You're Zanpakto radiates electrical current. You should look into grounding your equipment to reduce the chances of severe shock. No one wants you to accidentally electrocute yourself because you didn't invest in better safety." He paused. "If I could perhaps just....touch it..."

He pushed further, ignoring the strengthening of the current and the increase in arcs towards his hand. When he finally touched a finger, he found himself shaking and spun away from the weapon, but still grounded.

"Ah.........." He mused, "That was fun."

His arm, the one that had tried to grab the weapon, still shook violently, though the rest of him was fine. It appeared that the jolt had sent up an old injury to resume its course.

"I haven't had a shock like that since.......I think that's been the best since the one that killed me." he adjusted himself and turned to face Karosu. "I will be your pupil. I want to learn to be better." His arm was still jerking violently. "I think I just needed to recharge my batteries. I haven't felt this alive since....Since I had a plan so long ago. I haven't felt this alive since...since...." his mood began to sully. "....since I was alive."

He shook his head and tried to step towards Karosu. His foot faltered and he smashed to his knees. He lay on all fours now, before Karosu, a wicked grin on his face. He remembered something he had long forgotten. The feeling of ecstasy, of knowing there was a plan ahead for him. He had the rush of a plot, and something told him that perhaps it was time for another excursion into the land of the living, to retrieve some papers he had never collected.

"I would....I would cripple myself if it meant you could make me stronger."

Dray had brought his cup to his lips and paused as the man reached out to touch his zanpakuto, watching as the man learned his lesson, then stared in amazement as the man reached out once more, and shoved his way in to touch the zanpakuto directly then got shoved out of the way by his zanpakuto and spun around the man started mumbling to himself and to Dray agreeing to be trained. The man was obviously unstable right now, but at least he was willing to be trained, perhaps too willing to be trained. Dray decided that the best course of option was for them do to the training tomorrow at an isolated location.

Dray quickly decided that near the forest on the edge of SS. He looked at the man on all fours in front of him and got up and said, "I'll teach you." He then walked over to one of his counters and pulled out a large map of SS and the surrounding area, "Come over here and look at this map." Dray took out a pen and marked a location near the edge of the forest, one side plains one side forest. He gave the map to the man and said, "Take this map, meet me at the marked location tomorrow morning at 8 am, take this time to calm down a little bit and get ready to train, i have a few things i need to take care of so I'll see you tomorrow morning. K?"

Wobbly from the electrical shock, he eased himself up and made his way towards Karosu, his arm still jerking until he raised his other hand and dug the fingers down into his shoulder and beneath the shoulderblade; his arm shudderred lightly before limping itself, and he removed his other hand from its place.

He listened to Karosu's words and then looked to the map, holding it open before himself to figure it out.

"Meet you at eight in the morning. Got it. I'll see you then. I'm going to have to get something together for then too." He acknowledged, eagerly.

((OOC: End of this thread. Unless Dray says otherwise.))