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 Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:12 pm
The setting: a field of flowers, blood red, the place where Yuki departed from. There are skeletal black trees here and there, providing the only cover in the expanse. The large area is a circle fenced by a waist-high outcropping. The sky is gray, overcast, and there's a good chance it will rain.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:41 pm
Fefnir made his approach to the place slowly, gently, almost floating. He could barely feel his own footfalls, heavy as they were, drudging him toward a place he swore he'd never return to. Of course, when he'd thought about it, there could be no other place for what he was doing. There was nowhere more fitting, save for maybe Squad 2, but it had long since been remodeled, and it would be a miracle to find any of the places he'd trained with her before now. Instead, he would settle for this area, this field stained red, for his battle. His empty red eyes scanned the area with lackadaisical pace, fully confident that he would find no adversary there, but trained to treat every situation as worst case. A short leap dropped him down into the bowl, and he glided to the center at a sort of half-jog, half-float.
Kneeling, he ran his hands through the loose soil in a particular spot. Still there... he thought, finding a small strip of metal that glowed white hot in his hand before placing it gingerly back in its place, That's where she left from. Yuki... I hope you can see this, whatever you're doing... Can you feel me like I can feel you? As if in response, there was a definite pang of pain in his chest, right in the middle, where one of several scars was. Fefnir had no idea if it was a sign or not, but if anything, it meant 'Hurry up and get this done!'
He'd oblige, just as soon as Ryan showed up.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:59 pm
Ryan had meant to get within a reasonable distance of Fefnir, but the sight of the red flowers made him stop almost in shock. Kneeling at the edge of the field, his eyes were drawn to some of them, with wide red petals and black seeds at the centre. "How fitting..." he mused to himself before using another shunpo to take him about ten feet away from Fefnir - and the sight of more such flowers made it so that he couldn't help but recite:
"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, bravely singing, do fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below."
Raising his rifle, which was in his right hand, Ryan pulled a magazine from somewhere inside his shihakusho and loaded it, holding the gun ready for combat. "I do not know what happened here, but this place is special to you; I find it oddly coincidential that there are poppies here, though. As if this were some sort of memorial..."
He pulled the bolt, loading one bullet into the chamber and hoping that the modifications worked. "You can explain when you feel comfortable...shall we begin?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:36 pm
Fefnir only half turned toward Ryan, who was behind him, and it wasn't a glance of acknowledgment he gave as he rose, but of dulled remembrance and hazy realization. The poem was rather perfect, all things considered, and it followed that he should explain, but not now. "Quid pro quo, Ryan. Information is valuable, especially to a tactician, and all valuable things have a price. So let me ask you a question..." he said, pulling his dual zanpokuto out of their sheathes, right hand removing the one from his back and left taking the one on his right hip. The redish tinge of his left blade, the phoenix, did its part to blend the metal into the background, and the other, the dragon, gleaming bright silver, gave the menacing appearance it always had before. Then, with a quick motion, he flipped the swords in his hand, reversing them as he turned fully toward his opponent, Reiatsu leaking out around his legs before quickly snapping back in around his feet, visible at first before disappearing completely from sight. His eyes, too, showed reiatsu as it streamed from his irises. "...Have you ever had someone who was so close to you that not only would you die for them, but you would LIVE for them, too?"
The phoenix and the dragon suddenly put forth a shower of sparks, the left glowing with a silver aura tinged with black, and the right one of gold interspersed with red. Fefnir flipped them around to be held properly again before finishing his statement.
"Let's begin."
Like a flash, Fefnir was gone. One Step Shukuchi was the maximum he could manage with both blades drawn, and so there were seemingly small explosions of stone marking the path of the red shinigami's assault. With speed superior to shunpo, he charged his opponent, weapons held perpendicularly to his body, and just as he was reaching Ryan, he gave a slight push with his right foot to turn his body sideways and allow the momentum to carry him. At the same time, he tucked his left arm across his chest before unleashing a swing of his phoenix upward across Ryan's torso. In the same motion, he followed it with the dragon, a much more solid swing given that Fefnir is a righty, along the same line.
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Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:06 am
(( Blue text = Ryan's uncle. ))
Always be ready, Ryan. Even out here, the animals can come out of nowhere - and some of 'em are more desperate than others. Someday, I'll take you out to the forests of British Columbia like my father took me...out there, you really have to keep on your toes.
Simple. The opening is always simple. A simple, elegant dance...move for move, piece for piece.
He was cool, he was quiet, but his mind was always active. He knew Fefnir was fast, so the first strike would obviously go to him. It was just a matter of being ready and timing his moves correctly - if he could anticipate what Fefnir would do in advance, he could counteract the speed disadvantage slightly. Jump. Defend. Shoot. It would be tight, at least, no matter how fast he was. "Bakudo 39 -- Enkosen." Ryan almost spat the title out as he jumped, focusing the personal shield under his feet and pushing off it as a platform. It blocked most of the strike, but Ryan felt the blades cut into the soles of his boots - he was glad that he had decided on sturdy footwear.
His arms hadn't been inactive, either. Already, his rifle was up and pointing at Fefnir's right shoulder. His voice spoke out once, focused and emotionless, in response to Fefnir's question.
"One that you know about."
At that, his fingers jerked in an all-too-familiar motion, but it was different. Different from practice, different from shooting the emaciated animals that wandered onto his property. This was combat.
Somehow, it feels like what I was being trained to do, Ryan thought as the report broke the peace of the flower garden, echoing amongst the poppies and bringing to them once again the sounds of battle.
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Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:40 am
Fefnir felt himself cut through the barrier with some resistance, but not enough to stop his upward momentum. His upward strike lifted him into the air, and using the turning motion of his body, he turned and turned, shifting his center of gravity enough to tuck into something reminiscent of a diver's trick, legs straight and body spinning and rotating rapidly. His head swiveled along with his lithe form, and with the addition of his One Step Ocular, he kept track of Ryan, albeit with some difficulty. Gravity did the rest. The bullet of the master marksman only barely missed, even with the spinning dodge, grazing the side of his shoulder on the right. From there, he fell quickly, and when he'd evened out to face his foe, Fefnir broke the movement and struck from the air, bearing down with his right hand to land a strike as he hit the ground. It was short, however, and intentionally so. The attack broke loose the ground where Ryan had just landed, bringing forth a spray of earth and poppies to hopefully blind him, just for a second. Fefnir shot a kick with his right leg through the debris to where he'd last seen Ryan's midsection, at the hip, using the dragon, firmly lodged in the ground, as an anchor to push the kick forward with some power. This, on top of his One Step Shukuchi's forceful energy, would create quite a painful combo.
"Mine left from here," He said simply through gritted teeth as the sidelong strike swung in toward Ryan's side.
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:11 pm
Almost instantly after he fired the first shot, the rifle was out of his left hand, which reached toward his hip for his second gun - the Colt pistol. Time was a commodity and each split second was precious - he'd kept six shots loaded this time, ready for battle.
The one thing he hadn't been quite prepared for was the blinding attack. He hated firing blind, but his reflexes screamed back - and so he jumped back, the Colt letting out two reports as he fired twice into the screen before Fefnir's kick came in. It didn't connect (if it had it probably would have torn him in half), but it was close, and its speed caused not only a noticeable slipstream but a good amount of heat. The burning across his midsection was certainly enough to remind him that before now he had never seen anyone with a kick like that.
And if that kind of kick hit him, he wouldn't see another. Ryan took the opportunity to use a shunpo and drop back about ten feet, the spent casings from his Colt dropping to the ground as he moved. When he reappeared he was loading the gun, and without a look he loaded two more rounds. To Fefnir, they would look no different than his standard rounds, but there was a good reason why he spun the cylinder to put one under the hammer - these were two of his twelve exploding .45 rounds (he also had six exploding shots for his rifle), and he'd have to use those wisely.
Replacing his Colt in its holster for now, Ryan pulled the bolt on his rifle and loaded the second shot, musing: "As I had thought, a place with some significance. The place they left me had no flowers, and yet mine laid to rest amongst flowers such as these."
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:40 am
With how awkward the movement was, it wasn't surprising to the red shinigami that the shots were inaccurate. Had he simply missed the downward slash, the bullets would have been in either leg, but the way the kick had been delivered had shifted him out of harms way, for the most part. Fefnir swiftly pulled the dragon from the ground, and with with a twitch of the arm, flung any remaining debris off the glowing blade before returning it to his side. "Men of honor, I'm sure. Their sacrifice for your freedom. Of course, I'm Japanese, so..." He gave a weak smile, turning his head right to face Ryan, blank stare and menacing streams of red energy emanating from them backed by a stormy sky. It lent itself to demonic connotations, frankly, and though there wouldn't be much of an intimidation factor for Ryan, he suspected, it wasn't exactly inspiring of confidence in most. Aesthetics were useful, despite the apparent lack of effect, as a subconscious deterrent, and any help he could get would be used to its fullest extent.
He turned to fully face his foe again, pushing himself lightly up on his toes as he stood there and bending his legs almost imperceptibly to ready himself for another charge. He added, with a little bit of friendly snark, "Am I not good enough for regular zanpokuto battle? Or is it that I'm TOO good for one? Either way, unless you'd like to buy new firearms, I suggest you put them away," Fefnir bent his knees deep, and leaned forward, allowing himself to fall to almost parallel to the ground before thrusting himself forward at Ryan again, left hand crossed over his chest, ready to strike, and the right angled with the cutting edge outward, prepared to follow the first at a different angle. He was off like a shot, flying through the air, and was on Ryan's position in the blink of an eye, striking first with the telegraphed left across the torso from Ryan's left shoulder to just under his rib cage on the right. Using the momentum and the caused rotation, he twisted and swung the right upward from Ryan's left hip toward his right shoulder.
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:43 pm
"Indeed, Japanese honor was well-renowned...the so-called honor of all sides save Germany was, and yet we blind ourselves to our own atrocities. Yet those sacrifices were not always made by choice - there are always those who did not want to make that sacrifice. There will never be a society more horrific than Nazi Germany...but it is even less likely that we will find one more arrogant than the United States."
Ryan readied himself to jump back yet again as he saw Fefnir move, but the speed advantage was still too much - even as Ryan jumped back and twisted to minimize the strike he received deep cuts on his left side, for he had twisted his right side away from the strikes in order to protect his right arm and his rifle. His blood was invisible against the flowers, but the torn areas of his haori were stained a darker crimson than the darkest of the flowers. "My drawing my zanpakuto is no measure of your abilities. I will fight as I see fit, using the weapons I see fit when I see fit to use them. I cannot help but wonder if that impressive display of yours is but a show, for it is a sign of weakness when one complains about their opponent's tactics - you should be thankful that you chose a battle ground where it is impossible for me to...'camp', as I see it so often put."
With an almost-casual flick of his right hand, Ryan tossed his rifle off into the field, noting where it indented the flowers. He intended to keep the battle away from that area until he wished to use the gun again. "That being said...I cannot run forever." As he spoke, Ryan shifted, drawing his zanpakuto and moving from his shooting stance to one moreso meant for sword combat. "I ask you, though, since I believe it is your turn...has anyone ever betrayed you?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:23 pm
Fefnir ignored Ryan's barb, and instead answered his question, turning himself slowly and deliberately toward the fellow captain. He spoke gently, without the jaded tone his words normally took, and took soft, soundless steps among the knee-high poppies in a circle around his opponent. "My father and mother..." he orated, "I was put up for adoption when I was eight years old, just after they divorced. My younger sister was five at the time, and it was up to me to care for her. Some of the people I considered to be decent, upstanding, took my sister and raped her, then killed her. No one bothered to look besides me when she was missing. She was the one with the real future out of us. Mizuki... she had a gift for painting. She was going to be great, and it was all taken away from us, in an instant. I was alone then..."
It was almost as if he'd come out of a fog, a moment afterward. This was the first time he'd ever told anyone about his life as a human, much less about his sister, and it was a long time since he'd actually thought about them. He hadn't forgotten; far from it, he could never forget no matter how hard he tried. It was just a bit strange. He'd learned from Yuki that emotions just make you hurt more in the end, and he'd tried to block out all that pain and resentment, but it always stuck him like a thorn in the heart.
Every. Last. Time.
He swallowed, shook his head, and used the back of his right hand to wipe his eyes a little, to clear his mind. "I'm here to fight you, not reminisce, Ryan..." he called, regaining his usual acidic tone, "You'd better be prepared, because I won't hold back. You'd better give it your all too, or you'll end up dead out here, period. We have no room among our ranks for someone who doesn't give their all. Let's go..."
Fssh! Fefnir was off like a shot, taking fairly long strides with great lateral distance between them. The tiny explosions of earth were popping up seemingly randomly around Ryan, some venturing closer than others, until suddenly, Fefnir swept in from the front of his foe in a slide-tackle style slide, a kick at Ryan's left leg. Again, he aimed himself to miss, erring to the outside of the other captain's limb, and when he'd cleared him by enough, Fefnir pushed his feet down into the dirt and pushed in the opposite direction as he turned his body over, thrusting himself forward at what was presumably Ryan's back, or where his back had been, the dragon in his right hand making a diagonal stripe from shoulder to hip on his foe, should the attack be on-target.
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:25 am
If I was less intelligent, I would be dead long ago. I have to stop him going so damn fast. Ryan would have indeed been helpless if he hadn't been ready for just about anything, and he could hardly see. All he could do was simply try a headlong tackle, perhaps knocking Fefnir off balance...
The good thing was it probably saved his spine. The bad thing was that as he dove, Fefnir's blade bit into the back of his calf, and his left leg felt shaky as he got up and turned, almost stumbling and losing command of his sword's path. He didn't like doing this so soon, but...only one real way to slow him down. "Focus -- Maikokorozashi!" He could hear and almost feel the low hum that came from his now-white blade as he brought it around, letting it extend and curl towards Fefnir in an attempt to strike or perhaps lasso him. "My mother died. My father left. I was lucky in that sense, I had my uncle to teach me what I know - about farming, guns...and the war, and the Germans." Ryan spoke as he put more weight on his right leg. "You would never understand..."
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:04 pm
ENEMY,
you may think,_____
but never VILLAIN…__________
v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v "Is this all?!"
It was as if the whip-like release of Ryan's zanpokuto was traveling in slow motion toward Fefnir, extending itself in an arc around him but allowing plenty of time and space to simply get out of the way. Still being fairly close to Ryan, the red captain made little effort in actually doing so, however, because it took little effort to avoid the rope-like weapon. He heaved a sigh as he leaped up and over the attack in a maneuver all great pilots were familiar with; Fefnir did a barrel roll to the left, utilizing his powerful legs aided by Shukuchi to propel himself forward as soon as he touched the ground again. Within a fraction of a second, there was a sword at Ryan's throat from behind, aimed not for attack, but as a warning.
"Yuki taught me everything I know today." He said, trying to keep what amounted to disappointment and frustration out of his voice, and failing. "She was like a mother to me, and my master. What we were went deeper than just man and woman, master and student, friend and ally. We were two parts of the same whole, two soldiers impeccably attuned to one another. For ten years, we lived and died together!" He pulled his sword back, the dragon, and finished, "And I would never understand? Ryan, you are DYING here. You can't stop me, period, with your leg hit. Now, you are either going to release your bankai, or I am going to slowly and mercilessly take this frustration out on you and find someone who can manage to touch me with an attack. You're a tactician and this is what you have to show for it? FIND A WAY TO ******** HIT ME BEFORE I END YOU HERE!"
He took a swift swing of the sword in his left, the phoenix, toward Ryan's well-exposed back. Or, he would have, had he been less piteous. Just before the strike would have landed, Fefnir launched himself back around thirty yards, electing to wait and see if Ryan would actually release again and hurt him some, or if he'd keep the lackluster assault up even longer to the same effect.v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v
FOOL,
_____you may think,
__________but never SINNER...
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