Post by Fulfillment on Dec 17, 2013 18:23:14 GMT -5
Kiriko looked at the blade in her hands, the soft press of cloth inbetween her fingers sliding smooth against the mulled iron. She carefully and tenderly rubbed the cloth over the folded metal, rubbing tallow in to reduce the scratches from her latest combative spell. This blade, and the person it represented, were her true soul. Her older sister, Aneue, the spirit that had come and rescued her from the folly of her earlier years. Kiriko owed everything to her Zanpakutou. Their bond was growing so deep, each day it seemed to bloom like a rose in water, and yet the blood red petals and the prick of thorns set off a strange reaction inside her.
Setting the sword on her desk Kiriko leaned back in her chair, studying the physical manifestation of her soul. The utterly black saya and the undecorated tsuba. This was supposed to be her, what she was deep inside. Everyone knew that the Zanpakutou was your inner self, your real self. And yet Kiriko could not help but be disturbed at times, by the extent to which Aneue seemed... broken. That eerie cackling and the unending desire for blood was something she was not wholly comfortable with, even though Kiriko did her best to follow along with Aneue's wishes. The blade knew best after all.
But that therein was the sticking point. Aneue said that all the time. That she knew best. That Kiriko was so weak without her that it was laughable. That without her Shikai she was useless. And as good as Aneue made her feel normally, those comments couldn't be ignored. There was something prickly and arrogant that just didn't slide down right. Something that made Kiriko want to rebel and cry out her own worth. Because... Aneue was the second half of her soul, but her half was still good! They were both fifty percent, not lopsided! And she couldn't shake the feeling that she was slipping down a slope where she kept losing control of what they were doing.
That Quincy had been one thing, but the things she had done now far surpassed torturing one human. The people she had turned into skeletons... Well, it wasn't as if she really regretted it... Kiriko only felt... disturbed. That it was all happening so quickly. That sometimes it felt as if it wasn't even her choice to do those things, that Aneue was overwhelming her senses. That was why she had to do something, and maybe it was drastic but Kiriko needed the reassurance now.
So she carefully slid the blade into her desk and got up, stepping away from the table as if she had just slapped her Mother in the face. To leave her Zanpakutou like this, it felt like abandonment, and not just on her side of things. But she had to weaken the bond, just long enough so that Kiriko could actually get some things done on her own. On her own. Because in the end it was her she had to rely on, with the help of Aneue. But if the sword was right and she really was that weak by herself, then it was a weakness she would have to cut out of herself just like all the rest. Kiriko was a new woman now, she had to be strong in all senses of the word. It wasn't a game anymore. One day Tsukimiya-taichou would come home from wherever he was, and when that happened she had to be ready to show him her improvements. She had to be ready for his approval. Worthy of it.
Slipping from her office she padded through the Annex until she made it outside into the cold crisp air of winter. It was night and the whole of the Second Division was cloaked in silence and the heavy blanket of snow. Her footsteps were muffled in the white powder and Kiriko made it unnoticed past several guards until she was standing in the center of the training dojo. All of her time she had thrown herself into training, into battle, into thinking. But Kiriko had resisted this. The silence. The emptiness. The loneliness.
She didn't want to be alone, to work in the absence of people. Each day she had been so happy to confront a target, to launch an attack, but never to stand and contemplate by herself what needed to be done. Because Kiriko wasn't sure if she was alone how she would view herself. Without the input of Aneue, how she could look back at her actions and believe them to be great.
She was supposed to be new now, starting over again. A perfect person. The best. And yet nothing was meeting up at the end. Kiriko moved in the stark silence, her body flowing across the floorboards without even a creak. She had never been fast enough, never been strong enough. That had always hurt her, kept her back, and Kiriko had tried every day to get better. To be better. But today she was realizing there was something inherently good about herself. Her way of fighting, it might not be the same as others, but that is what had brought her to realizing Shunko. That is what had turned her from an average fighter into a master. An innovator. She strove so hard for perfection, but in the end what Kiriko really should have been working on was the things she was already good at.
Her mobility, her spiritual power, her ability to read an opponent and know what they were going to do, and most importantly her development of Shunko. It was an amazing power never before seen in these days and ages, and perhaps it was high time that she focus on the good instead of trying to bolster the bad. Kiriko might never be powerful enough to break stone, or fast enough to run circles around people. But she did have a few things going for her, and they were incredible enough when put together into a full package. This was her namesake now, not traditional fighting but something a bit unorthodox. Something all of her own.
What had Sakamoto said? That it was beautiful?
It really was, wasn't it? Her creation...
Kiriko released the shunko aura with the soft fluttering exhalation of her breath. It came so easily now, not even a thought had to be mustered to bring out the brilliant glow of dark purple reiatsu. It floated and ghosted around her body, light and dancing like there was a breeze to ruffle the flames. This manifestation of her inner energy was perfect in all ways, she had long ago realized that it didn't even tire her out anymore to maintain this aura like this. But Kiriko had grown complacent in more then one way, if she really wanted to make a name for herself with her own unique traits then she had to be better then just good. Better then just perfect. Kiriko had to be amazing.
Shunko was mostly conceptual. The aura itself, that crackling energy, it had to be maintained in the mind in order to have any effect. Kiriko had experimented to the best of her ability in the past, learning to use a Bakudo in conjunction with her Shunko for a powerful barrier or to create blades out of this energy to deal untoward damage. But what Shunko really was at its core was the direct expression of her. Of her spiritual energy, of her reiatsu. Of her soul. This was the fifty percent that Kiriko represented, and it honestly was beautiful. Somewhere deep inside she knew that this was herself, that the refinement and allure of Shunko meant that Kiriko too was good. Was worthy of praise and attention. Just like she had always wanted, it wasn't true that Aneue was her only good quality. Today Kiriko would prove that Shunko, her own creation, would be her legacy in this world.
She had long thought about a certain concept, that this energy that wreathed her body so visibly should be able to be internalized and turned towards greater strength or speed. It was after all her own reiatsu, merely honed to a sharp edge that gave her strikes explosive power. Logically this made sense, but physically? Kiriko closed her eyes and blew out a deep breath through her nose as she dropped down into a wide legged stance.
And the silence descended in on her, the quite and the rankling of her heart. Why would she be able to do this? The unimaginable? Kiriko was nothing more then a hyped up child. Or at least, that was how she felt sometimes. When the melancholy set in and she realized the direction she was heading in. Without her Zanpakutou, did she really amount to anything? Was Aneue right about it all?
Thoughts circled and bit at her skull, filling her with doubts. Kiriko exhaled again, trying to bring her attention down to one thin point in her body. Focusing and concentrating on that tiny point, she collected all of her thoughts and threw them away. Worries like that were pointless, only results would tell the truth. All she could do was attempt this and see what happened.
Focusing internally she felt for the energy that flowed in a circuit around her body. The reiatsu glowed in her mind's eye, bright and robust like a crashing river. It came from the center of her body, her hara, where all energy was created. And Kiriko followed that flow upward through her veins and down her limbs until it exited her pores and coated her skin in that familiar coalescing that she called Shunko's aura. Kiriko had never realized the complexity of this system before, but concentrating as she was she could feel it all shifting.
For a moment she simply stood there, breathing in and out with her heart beat and feeling her energy respond in kind to each life signal. This awareness, it had never been there before. She had simply called for the energy to rise up when she needed it. But after using Shunko so many times it had slowly but surely revealed itself, the inner workings of her body. Then Kiriko tweaked the light pouring out of her body, turning some of it back in on herself. Back through her skin into the muscles of her exterior body. One false breath here and she would cause untold damage, ripping apart her body from the inside out. But the energy was happy to flow backwards, to fill her skin up like liquid in a container. Her entire body began to glow with a burnished light as the aura shifted and sunk down.
Kiriko opened her eyes and the entire world seemed darkened and dull. Raising her arms she saw her body alight with converted reiatsu. The simple shift in movement was like she weighed nothing but feathers and Kiriko slid through the steps of a complex kata as she realized she had succeeded! Shunko energy could be brought inward to strengthen the body! It was possible! Lunging forward she moved swifter then she had ever before as Kiriko pulled back before she hit the opposing wall. The importance of this discovery was unimaginable, but what was more important was the fact that she had found success instead of failure.
Full control over her aura was now possible. It was no longer simply a construct of her reiatsu but another extension of her soul. This aura was Kiriko and she was finally complete. The realization that she was worth something was deeper and harder to come to, but it could not be ignored. Tova had told her, hadn't he? And Kyousuke was relying on her. It had only been Kiriko who was holding herself back, her own doubts. Likely Aneue was just playing devil's advocate, bringing all that up to test her. Well now she had been tested and come out the other side! Wouldn't her sword be happy to know that Kiriko could hold up her half of this duo? That she had really finally gripped her invented ability by the horns. If she could control what her aura did, there was no stopping her now. If Kiriko could do this with Shunko, what could she not do? The possibilities were endless!
WC: 2056 | GP: 27 | Total GP: 27
