Game 2 - Chapter 1B

An attack? Sachi blinked as Akara rushed toward her.

This was interesting, she grinned. Adrenaline was kicking in and she was definately feeling it. Quickly she switched the sword to her left hand, balling the other one into a fist.

Let's see if he can dodge a punch in the teeth. She laughed bringing her arm up, for the Aggressive Attack

Rumiko put her zanpakutou up to block, and she easily fended off Matsuura's stinging attack, despite the fact that he'd managed to slip around behind her. "Nice try," she smirked, jumping back into position.

Matsuura dealt 0 WOUNDS to Rumiko

=======================================

Sachi was already starting to love this. She leapt at Akara, swinging wildly, disregarding her own safety. Akara knew it was dangerous, but he couldn't pass up Sachi's almost total lack of defense and managed to counterattack. This came with a price, though. Sachi twisted away at the last moment, ending up with nothing but a scratch on the cheek. Akara never saw the haymaker coming over his blindside. Sachi's fist connected with the boy's jaw and followed up with three rapid slashes to his arm, chest, and stomach before he could recover from the stunning smash. Akari flew halfway across the room and crumpled to the floor in a massive pool of blood.

Akara dealt 1 WOUND to Sachi
Sachi dealt 16 WOUNDS to Akara

Frowning, Ximenez wandered down the halls of the Academy with Hikari Kijou following close behind.

"This place is full of places to train," he snapped out loud. "You'd think one of them would be unoccupied," he sighed, wandering past yet another classroom filled with students. How many of them were there? Unnecessary, the lot of them. One Menos would probably be able to reduce the population of this school to a thousands of what it is now. What was the point in training weaklings to go off and die? There were things in the universe even more terrifying then the Menos.

What are you talking about, Cardinal? Ximenez smirked to himself. You're ONE of those terrifying things, remember?

Ximenez chuckled. "That's right, that's right," he said out loud.

Coming up was class 3-B's training hall. And sure enough, upon poking his head in, it was full too.

"Blast it," he sighed. "Come on, lets--"

WHAM! SLASH!

Ximenez looked on, just in time to see Sachi slice Akara a new one.

"Ouch," Ximenez winced. "That'll leave a stain."

But something looked odd about the boy's blood. Ximenez narrowed his eyes and looked more closely. If there was one thing Ximenez had an eye for, it was blood.

Akara, with some effort, pulled himself to his feet, and then Ximenez noticed it. The boy's blood was flowing the wrong way. Before Ximenez's eyes, his blood was flowing off the floor, up his body, up his arm, and back into his wounds. Ximenez watched in amazement.

=========================================
Akara healed 6 WOUNDS
=========================================

"Well," said Ximenez, "isn't that interesting." Forgetting about Hikari, he took a spot where he could observe the fight (and Akara's fascinating blood) without anyone from Class 3-B noticing him.

Akara jumped back as Sachi cut him, "Good slice, that hurt," Akara commented to Sachi, "Now I'll just heal a bit" Akara smirked as the blooded and wouds begain to slightly heal, "Lets go on."

"HA!" Sachi managed to blurt, before pausing to catch her breath. She smiled crookedly as Akara's body skidded across the floor. Oh yeah, it was good to be back in action. She quickly away at the drops of blood forming on her cheek with her sleeve before gripping her sword again. She figured she'd at least wait till Akara got up to knock'em down again.

She let her eyes drift to her left; if Rumiko and Matsura had seen her rather awesome attack than this moment would be perfect. Behind her there was a click as the door opened, which startled her enough to quickly snap her attention back to Akara, who as it happened was doing something very... wierd.

"Eeeh?! No freaking way. No, no, no." Sachi flinched, as the blood starting heading back towards Akara. "Y-you can't unbleed! It's...it's... cheating?" She said questioningly. Well whatever it was it wasn't normal, even by her standards.

"Grr. Fine! Use what ever creepy tatics you like! Let if you can fix yourself as fast as I can hack you apart." she grinned holding her sword baseball bat style as she prepared to aim a swing at Akara's head

Matsuura was greatly amused.

"Seems silly parlor tricks won't work on you. I'll have to get serious then." He stated, grinning lopsidedly, leaping back before charging again, sword at his side.

"Oh, excuse me!" said little Sarah Yadoumaru as she rushed into the classroom past the two 3-A people who were standing at the door. "Sorry I'm late!" she said to everyone, bowing deeply from apology. But no one seemed to notice. Matsuura and Rumiko were fighting as usual, Akara and Sachi were fighting too. Byouko was reading, of course, and Kazu was... off doing whatever it was that Kazu did. And Omaeda sensei was sprawled out on the floor ignoring everything. Sarah sighed. Another class with nothing to do. Humming to herself, she went around and noticed the signup sheet for the tournament. Yes! A chance to prove myself! she said to herself as she put her name down. Then she went and flopped down on the floor next to Byouko. "Hey," Sarah said, a little excited for the tournament now, she prodded Byouko in the side. "Hey, I'm bored, you wanna spar a little?"

Clang! went Sachi's sword against Akara's as the boy took a defensive posture. He swung back at her, not taking his eyes off her blade, and she parried his counterattack easily. Blood continued to flow back into Akara's body, and it was clear that he was just buying time until his wounds were healed.

"Buy this!" snapped Sachi as she let down her defense and went after her opponent more aggressively, catching him with a vicious slash to the shoulder. But that wound too began closing up before Sachi's eyes. "Careful," Akara smiled. "That one almost hurt a little."

Sachi clenched her teeth and slashed back in frustration. A slight cut on the arm, a slight cut to the eye. Sachi was getting upset, and Akara was capitalizing on this easily, blocking each blow to the best of his ability. He was definitely a lot more focused on defense than Sachi was.

Sachi was out of breath. Damn, she said to herself. Maybe I do need to quit smoking.

Nearly all the blood that had left Akara's body had flowed back in, and he was smiling. That was what did it, not the annoying unbleeding ability, that damn smile. Sachi lifted her sword and, with a loud war shriek, went straight for Akara's neck.

Her blade nearly severed his jugular completely, sending a gusher of blood right for--

It stopped.

Like some sort of bizarre sculpture, the torrent of Akara's blood froze solid in midair for a few brief moments before also beginning to flow backwards. Sachi's jaw dropped in amazement, then she felt a sting in her side. She jerked back and looked. While she had been staring at the midair blood, Akara had managed to get to her blindside and cut her back.

Angrily, she lifted her sword back towards him. After all that, he hardly looked any worse for wear. Sachi knew she was stronger, but... She put a hand to her side to stop her own blood. Even little scratches like this would add up if she couldn't get a handle on this fight.


ROUND 1:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Normal Attack for 0 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 2:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Aggressive Attack for 13 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 3:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Aggressive Attack for 3 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 4:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Aggressive Attack for 6 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 5:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 4 wounds
Sachi makes All-Out Attack for 18 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

Byouko's mind barely registered that anyone else had entered the room. She was used to distractions, and she was used to tuning them out. Her eyes remained focused on the words in front of her. She turned a page. She didn't even really notice when the other girl sat down next to her.

"Hey."

But even Byouko had a tough time tuning it out when the girl next to her began poking her. Slowly, Byouko turned her head to face her.

"Hey, I'm bored, you wanna spar a little?"

Byouko blinked. She slowly processed what the other girl was proposing. And then:

"No thank you," Byouko said, quietly and politely, before turning her head slowly back down to her book.

"Come on!" Hikari said, pulling on Ximenez's robe. "What are you staring at? Are you going to train me or arn't you?" She looked into the 3-b classroom but didn't see anything that interested her at all. Just a bunch of people fighting who weren't even in her class. What was the big deal? "Lets go, we dont have alot of time!" She sighed loudly and impatently.

Akara was frustrated, no matter how hard he tried to block the hits they kept getting through, he was going to be down in no time. Akara was also not able to hit Sachi hard enough with his defense rose, but he had to keep going, it was in his blood to keep fighting, and his blood never left for that long. Akara glared at Sachi, "Your winning it seems," he said lowering his sword for a second and taking a breath, "But it's not over," he huffed re raising his sword.

Akara was ready to continue as long as his blood kept flowing, he jumped back getting his defense ready then his back on the table be hide him. Akara , with a huff, dashed forward and dashed forward blade beside him, ready to his arm cut off or cut someone’s off, doubting that arms would fly, just really using a metaphor.

"Your right, it ain't over, cause your still standing, right?" Sachi was trying to put a lot of bravado into that statement, however he eyes keep being drawn to thefront of Akara's uniform where a drop of blood seemed to be extracting it self gingerly before heading to one of Akara's wounds. She was torn between uneasyness, repulsion and a morbid observation as to how convienent it would be for blood just to unstain clothes.

Somewhere behind her she could hear voices. One of them seem vaguely familiar. The teacher was still loafing around like a beached whale eating potato chips. All in all this was definately one of the more surreal battles she had ever fought.

Akara decided to drop his more defensive tatics and charge. She should really defend...

A grin split her face, and she darted forwards as well, sword waving wildly in front of her. Just gotta make him take as much damage as possible. I can do this

Rumiko and Matsuura stared each other down, swords at the ready. "Seems silly parlor tricks won't work on you. I'll have to get serious then," he stated, grinning lopsidedly, leaping back before charging again, sword at his side.

Rumiko smiled. "Your shoe's untied."

"Nice try, I'm wearing san--" A sudden shift in reiatsu cut Matsuura off in the middle of his snappy comeback. It was only for a split second, but Rumiko's reiatsu was suddenly behind him while her image was still in front of him. Her sword slashed down for his midsection.

But her sword cut through air, as Matsuura, too, suddenly just wasn't there anymore. Rumiko whirled around, her sword blocking Matsuura's from behind, almost by instinct. A few sparks flew as their swords clashed, then they both jumped back, readying themselves for the other's next move.

"Here I come!" Matsuura laughed, charging again. Rumiko kept her eyes on his movements as long as she could before dodging to the left and blocking his thrust. She made a counterattack, which Matsuura blocked. He shifted to the left a bit, looking off balance, and Rumiko seized on this opportunity. "You're mine!" she grinned, putting all her force behind her attack.

Matsuura smiled at her at the last moment, and shifted to the right, something Rumiko hadn't expected. Shunk went Rumiko's sword into Matsuura's upper arm instead of his chest. He hadn't really been off balance at all. It was just a feint. Rumiko's eyes shot wide open as Matsuura made a few hand motions and began to chant, finishing it by placing his hand completely over Rumiko's face. She pulled at her sword, trying to get it out of Matsuura's arm, but...

"Way of Destruction, Number Four, White Lightning!"

BLAM! Rumiko took Matsuura's kidou spell point blank, right in the face. She flew across the room, leaving behind a trail of smoke as she crashed into the wall and crumpled to the floor.

"Heh heh heh," Matsuura chuckled as he pulled Rumiko's sword out of his arm and casually tossed it to her. It clanked loudly on the ground. Rumiko put her hand on the hilt as she struggled to her feet. Matsuura licked his thumb and stroked the wound on his arm. It was bleeding, but it wasn't nearly as bad as Rumiko now looked. "Ready to give up?" he smirked.

Rumiko grinned. "As if." She leapt to her feet and dodged back and forth, trying to get behind Matsuura, but he remained calm and unharried by her fast movements, and he blocked every strike she made at him as he drove her closer to the wall.

Suddenly, she jumped backwards, touching her feet to the wall, bending her knees... Matsuura jumped back in response as she launched herself toward him at bullet speed. He spent a split second thinking. She was a sitting duck at this point for a kidou spell, but would he have enough time to cast it? No time to think. He put his hand up and began chanting again. "Way of Destruction, Number Four, Wh--"

Slash! Rumiko's blade caught Matsuura in the midsection before he could fire off the spell. Blood sprayed, following Rumiko's sword in an arc. Matsuura grit his teeth as Rumiko flew over his shoulder and past him. Trying to ignore the pain, he turned and pointed his palm to her again.

"Wh... White Lightning!"

Another arc of kidou blasted Rumiko out of the air, but this time, Matsuura also fell to one knee. He put a hand over the gaping wound in his chest, gasping for breath. Rumiko smiled. She was more hurt than he was, she knew that. But she couldn't help but appreciate her handiwork whenever she made someone bleed, especially that much.


Round 1:
Rumiko makes Aggressive Attack for 0 wounds
Matsuura makes Aggressive Attack for 0 wounds

Round 2:
Rumiko makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Matsuura makes Aggressive Attack for 0 wounds

Round 3:
Rumiko makes All-Out Attack for 3 wounds
Matsuura casts Destruction 4: White Lightning for 14 wounds

Round 4:
Rumiko makes Normal Attack for 0 wounds
Matsuura makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds

Round 5:
Rumiko makes Aggressive Attack for 9 wounds
Matsuura casts Destruction 4: White Lightning for 9 wounds

"You're right, it ain't over, cause you're still standing, right?" Akara decided to drop his more defensive tatics and charge. I should really defend..., she thought for a moment. A grin split her face, and she darted forwards as well, sword waving wildly in front of her. Just gotta make him take as much damage as possible. I can do this.

Akara looked alarmed at the force of Sachi's attack and pulled back at the last minute, putting up his sword to block. Sachi's blade hit his with such force that Akara thought his arm would shatter from the vibration. But his defense managed to hold, and more of his blood seeped up off his uniform and off the floor back into his body.

Sachi attacked again, but Akara was back up to his normal pattern of defending, dodging, and letting himself unbleed. She made a cut to his arm, a stab to the shoulder, but no matter how much Sachi cut him, she couldn't wound him faster than he could heal himself. Akara made a quick and unexpected thrust at Sachi's chest, which she managed to block before counterattacking and cutting him again, this time severing a vein in his forearm. But it still wasn't too serious, and by the time Akara hit the ground, the cut had almost disappeared completely.

"This... isn't getting us anywhere," Akara sighed as more blood lifted itself off his clothes. He turned to smile at her. "What do you say... we do this ninja style? One charge, one leap, one cut, one chance."

"Fine with me," snarled a frustrated Sachi, pumping her arm into the air. "Just tell me when you're ready to--"

"Now!" he interrupted her, charging.

"Wh... now?!" Sachi's eyes shot open, unprepared, but only for a moment. She set her jaw, put her sword to her side, and charged back at Akara.

Their feet pounded the ground from opposite ends of the gym, both opponents eyeing the other closely, the patterns on the walls and ceiling speeding by like lines through the window of a space ship. They got closer and closer. Twenty meters apart. Fifteen meters apart. Ten meters apart. Eight meters.

And then they jumped.

"Just die already!" Sachi yelled, bringing her sword down.

Akara kept his eyes open and swung his blade sidearm.

There was a flash of blood as the two combatants passed each other in the air. And then they both hit the ground on one foot.

"Gack!" Sachi coughed up a lungful of blood. She looked down. Her belly had been practically carved open, and the entire front of her uniform was stained deep red. Shaking, practically numb from her wound, she turned to see what kind of shape Akara was in.

She laughed, despite her injury.

Akara had been sliced brutally from shoulder to thigh, and the amount of blood pouring out of him was more then he could soak back up. It'd take him a while to heal that up.

"Heh," he chuckled. "We're both still alive? That didn't really go as according to plan as I thought it would."


ROUND 1:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes All Out Attack for 0 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 2:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Normal Attack for 5 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 3:
Akara makes Defensive Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Aggressive Attack for 2 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 4:
Akara makes Normal Attack for 0 wounds
Sachi makes Aggressive Attack for 7 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

ROUND 5:
Akara makes Aggressive Attack for 18 wounds
Sachi makes All-Out Attack for 21 wounds
Akara healed 6 wounds

"Hey," Omaeda growled, waving one hand and not looking away from the TV once. "Alright, that's it. Go on, class is over. Go get something to eat or something."

"But the bell doesn't ring for another--," one student piped up.

"I'm lettin' you go early!" he snapped, reaching behind himself to scratch his back side. "Go on, you've had enough for today."

With a general murmur of discontent, class 3-B, shuffled out of the class into the hall.

The room was quiet. Omaeda peered over his shoulder. And sighed.

"You too!" he grumbled at Byouko, who was still sitting against the wall, nose in book. She looked up, blinked, and then got up and left the room silently. Omaeda hauled himself up off the ground with some difficulty, followed her to the door and shut it behind her. And locked it.

Smirking, he went back to his spot in front of the TV and flopped down. He rubbed his hands together with glee, reached for one of the planks in the floor, and lifted it up.

Underneath were magazines. Dozens of them.

Omaeda cast a furtive glance over his left shoulder, then over his right, and pulled one of the magazines out.

The title was Beauties of the 27th District. "Sweet, Sexy, and Under Sixty!" promised the cover.

Hikari Kijou wrote:

"Come on!" Hikari said, pulling on Ximenez's robe. "What are you staring at? Are you going to train me or arn't you?" She looked into the 3-b classroom but didn't see anything that interested her at all. Just a bunch of people fighting who weren't even in her class. What was the big deal? "Lets go, we dont have alot of time!" She sighed loudly and impatently.

"Oh, would you shut up?" Ximenez hissed. He peered back into the room. That one boy with the grey hair had talent with Kidou, but the girl he was fighting apparently had talent with her mouth and nothing else. Just like some other class representative we all know, he smirked.

But still most fascinating at all was the other boy and his backwards-flowing blood. The girl he was fighting, with the baseball cap... Ximenez could sense some fairly fierce reiatsu coming from her. But slash and slash again, her might was overpowered by that mysterious blood. Even the midair duel the boy suggested left her significantly more wounded than it left him. Ximenez grinned. He couldn't wait for an opportunity just to see exactly how much blood that boy could lose.

But, alas, it seemed as if class was winding up. And Ximenez didn't feel like talking to anybody else. "Alright, come on," he said, seizing hold of one of Hikari's pigtails and leading her down the hall as if it was a leash.

Experience has been awarded to Class 3-B:

Rumiko Adachi: +45
Kazu Arikosu: +20
Izarou Bukowski: +25
Akara Daichi: +55
Byouko Kuroda: +40
Sachi Oyashio: +60
Matsuura Ryou: +55
Sarah Yadoumaru: +30

Matsuura sat blankly on the cot as a member of 4th division tended to the wounds he had sustained sparring with Rumiko. She had gotten better, started using some of his own tricks against him. Parlor tricks, yes, but effective nonetheless if used properly. His mind replayed the fight over and over again, as he systematically studied her new additions to her fighting style.

"Alright, you're all done, you're lucky you know. Some of the students from 3A almost died today in their training." The girl stated. Matsuura simply got up, nodding his thanks and turned to leave, his mind still storing the information. He wandered the halls aimlessly, not sure what to do with his new found free time as their instructor most likely lazed about watching television.

Memories slowly started to drift their way into his thoughts, his mind replacing Rumiko with him. The fight was fairly similar, different weapons of course, ordinary denizens didn't have access to zanpakutou. That fight had been a draw too, albeit for different circumstances. Anger and pain swept across Matsuura's features, as his hand's reflexively clenched. Retribution had evaded him, but then again that's why he came here. Funny how things can go full circle like that. Matsuura suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Wait...they almost killed each other?" His brain finally getting to processing the information the medic had told him. "And I was stupid enough to sign up to fight those mental idiots?" His rambling catching the attention of a lone passerby who stopped to answer him in their own confusion.

"Um...I suppose so?"

"Yes... I suppose you would I mean it does seem a bit...wait what?!" Matsuura quickly turned to look at the fellow student, who only shrugged at him in response. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Its a hallway, I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to be here to get to class, would be a bit strange if they said we couldn't use the hallways. I suppose we could climb in through the windows, but I'd feel sorry for anyone who has class on the top floor..."

"No, no I mean.." Matsuura shook his head as he placed a hand over it. "No, you know what? Forget it."

"Forget what?" The student asked, looking at Matsuura even more confused than before.

"Exactly." Matsuura responded, walking away quickly, only to have the student follow behind. He slouched slightly and walked faster, the student going faster themselves to keep up. Matsuura quickly turned a corner, sliding a door open, turning to face the student and shouted "I gotta go, this is my class. You'd best get to yours or you're going to be late." He slid the door shut, letting out a sigh.

"Seriously, what is with the crazy people in this place?" He mumbled turning to around only to notice the classroom was in fact not empty. His face quickly turned beet red, as the instructor glared at him and the students laughed. "Musta walked into the wrong class." He stated sheepishly before quickly ducking out. He let out a sigh as he leaned against a wall in the hallway, berating himself mentally for being so stupid.

"I need a smoke... that should help calm the nerves.." He fumbled around in his coat, only to realize his pack was gone. "The fuck?!" He franctically searched his other pockets only for it to dawn on him. His mind flashing back to the end of class when Sachi "bumped" into him.

"Damn bitch..." He grumbled, his day now thoroughly ruined, his reputation tarnished, intelligence called into question, and his mood quite sour. He stalked off to the cafeteria, figuring he should at least fill his stomach and glean one positive out of this overall shitty day.