The Reluctant Tournament

(Fighting skill please. Thank you judges)

Sighing Kaito waited for the men of his squad to come out since the captain had asked him to improve his skill with a blade in order to better qualify for the lieutenant exam, but he wasn't enthusiastic about the method that had been chosen to help him. All the seats starting from 20 all the way up to the 4th seat lined up in front of him, but the 5th and 8th seats weren't present because they were still recovering with their run in with Kaito although he wasn't proud of the way things had turned out. Rolling the blowpipe in his mouth Kaito began to think of what the captain had sent to him in a message about the training that was about to take place, "I can't believe this is really happening...that guy want's me to fight 14 guys? I think I might take a dive on some fights..." he contemplated. One of the unranked shinigami stepped forward, "Sir, by the captain's orders specifically, you are to engage in combat with the 20th seat in exactly 8 minutes." the shinigami said in a rigid tone that told Kaito everything he needed to know about the man's originality. The 20th seat of the squad stepped out of the group of lounging shinigami with a glare on his face as he attempted to intimidate Kaito, but the young shinigami didn't bother looking at him.

After 8 minutes Kaito leaped from the porch step that he had been resting upon and walked towards the clearing where he and the 20th seat of the squad would have their match, but then the unranked shinigami from before walked towards Kaito with something in his hand. "Sir...this is a temporary seal that I am going to place upon your arm so that your reiatsu doesn't play a factor into this fight...again this is all captain's orders..." the shinigami added shakily now that he was talking to Kaito up close which was apparently very intimidating. Looking into the sky, Kaito waited for the shinigami to put the arm band on him that would seal away his reiatsu so that he could only rely upon the ability to use a sword in his fights, "Damn...captain always trying to kill me..." he morbidly thought. The unranked shinigami stepped out of the way and raised his hand into the air as the third seat walked to a spot a couple of paces away from Kaito, "This is the beginning of Kaito-sama's training, Round 1...Ready...Go!" the shinigami's voice cracked as it signaled for the fight to start. Kaito looked down from his focus from the sky, but he didn't draw his blade when he had seen the 20th seat draw his blade, "Well even though Gai-sensei hasn't taught me anything more than just the basic flow of hakuda style fighting now would be a good time to see what I have got so far..." he decided.

Staring daggers at Kaito, the 20th seat officer began to circle the young third seat whose eyes were dead more than they were focused; it was as if Kaito was sleeping as he was still standing there, "What is this guy's problem?...he hasn't stopped glaring at me since he first saw me..." Kaito observed. Then without much warning the shinigami came running at him with his blade raised in the air poised for attack, but Kaito still didn't move as he continued to observe the other shinigami's fight technique. By the time the 20th seat had closed the gap, Kaito was sure that this fight would last no more than 3 minutes because from what he could tell the officer's fighting technique had many openings for him to take advantage of; now all there was to do was to take advantage of them. Grunting the shinigami swung downward aiming for Kaito's chest area, but Kaito expertly used the back of his hand to swat away the officers sword hand and then quickly took advantage of the poor 20th seat's being off balance and landed an elbow strike to his mid section. The officer grunted once more as he slid backward leaving trails of grass flying in the air, "Oi...let's quit wasting time and you forfeit...or I'll forfeit...whichever one..." Kaito suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

The unranked shinigami that had apparently taken on the role of refferee of the fight raised his hand in the air and shakily began to speak, "K-Kaito-sama...the captain said under no circumstances should you be allowed to quit any of the fights...sorry..." the shinigami stammered. As if the explanation was a sign to continued the battle the 20th seat rushed him once more, but this time he held his sword in one hand using the other one to throw a punch at Kaito in order to shift the young shinigami's attention to the fist. Kaito's eyes narrowed a bit as he easily swayed just out of the reach from the punch that the man tried to throw, but then the shinigami brought his sword slashing downward at Kaito once again as an afterthought. Kaito tutted as he grabbed the man's wrist and then quickly shifted his feet so that his center of gravity was balanced, "Seriously...I told you that you should just give up, but seeing how neither you nor I are in a position to do so..." he started, "I'll just end things here..." he sighed as he thrust his palm at the underside of the shinigami's chin. A mixture of spit flew from the 20th seat's mouth as his feet left the ground and his eyes popped wide open before he landed on his back a couple feet away from Kaito who was scratching his head, "Sorry about that...damn captain really left me no choice..." he said as he walked began to walk back to the spot he had started at.

"Bastard!..." the voice behind him said shakily and Kaito stopped as he half turned his head to see the 20th seat trying to rise once more; once the man finally made it to his feet he was still breathing heavily and he also didn't look like he could take much more beating. Without exchanging another word the shinigami let out a warrior cry as he held his blade on his shoulder and Kaito's only response was to shake his head in disbelief that the shinigami were actually taking this thing seriously. In one quick move Kaito bound over to the 20th seat who was surprised by his speed and placed his right hand on the back of the 20th seat's head while at the same time he swept the shinigami's feet from underneath his body. Then Kaito moved his left hand expertly to the man's chest as he used the shinigami's initial momentum from the attack against him to flip him over in mid air, "Look at the poor guy's shocked look...this is ridiculous...the captain's really taking this whole training thing too far..." he thought. Although he thought these things in his head he didn't hesitate at all when he slammed the shinigami to the floor causing the man to blackout while he walked back to his spot at the porch.

+2 Fighting Skill