The Bird and the Worm [Closed]

Mako felt the new presence enter the training fields, his eyes briefly moving over in the direction of the man, examining him carefully- sensing his spiritual pressure, his body language, the brief surface emotions that swirled around the man's mind. Every detail of the man was an important piece of data to input into his memory- especially the small fraction of his reiatsu that was within the bird that quickly took to the sky. An oddity, to be sure- one that caused him to tilt his head slightly to the side. He's never seen anyone that had their reiatsu specifically separated from their body, even in such a minor way- the sensation was vaguely similar to that of a Zanpaktou- a weak, but obvious bond and connection.

It was worth his interest at the very least. Slowly, his gaze would slide upward to examine it briefly as the creature flew into the sky before his gaze slowly lowered when the man seemed to notice he was examining him actively- focusing on him and heading in his direction. Mako would remain where he was, his eyes not following him directly- instead, keeping an accurate focus on the man's reiatsu and surface emotions. Initially, his first reaction would appear to be anxiety of some sort, the man stepping forward and introducing himself before quickly asking him for a match- ah. So he wished to spar with him? Considering his current dilemma this was a bit of an uncertainty, should he actually spar, or simply do as he had been doing and barely put forth any effort?

However, the man, Takashi as he would introduce himself, would comment that he could be a supervisor- causing his eyes to blink once, slowly behind the glasses. It would seem that he had been so focused on observing others that due to his body language, and obvious suppression of his energy- he had instinctively suppressed himself to effectively become non-existent spiritually- that he was making it seem as though he was much stronger than he'd initially desired to appear. If his "cover" was already blown so to speak, then he had little reason to hold himself back. If he was going to do this, he supposed he should go all out.

A brief sigh passed through his lips, not directed at the man, simply at his own lack of care- he'd been so focused in not being noticed that he'd become obvious. It was a habit of his, it would appear- as he'd done the same thing while in the Academy. Perfectly average scores no matter what in everything, consistently without any effort on his part had caught the attention of his supervisors many times. This would appear to be the same issue and habit rearings its head once more, though instead of an instructor noticing it was his peers. His posture remained the same, stoic and calm with his hands clasped behind his back as he would turn and fully face the man.

"I'm a simple unseated member," he would clarify simply, before inclining his head slightly, a standard, polite, if a bit restricted greeting would then form on his lips- voice deep, monotone, and void of emotion and presence just like his energy. "Fujita, Mako, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Mister Sakuma," he would state simply- before he would motion for them to move a bit from the other partners. Stepping forward on long legs until they were a safe distance away, he would turn and face the man calmly- his eyes remaining heavy-lidded, without the glare of the sun their dead grey hue and deep bags that rested underneath them were apparent. Though despite his obvious sleepless nights, he didn't appear to have lost any focus in the slightest, on the contrary, his eyes would narrow on the young man similar to a hawk watching its prey.

"What rules would you prefer to follow for the bout?" the statement was calm and simple, the usual when it came to spars. The usual rulings were things such as "no maiming or killing", and "no underhanded attacks", but this was the second division- usually such rules were ignored as long as medical staff from the third division were nearby. Instead, he was looking for anything specific such as "no kidou", or anything similar- of course, if the man had no limitations or preferences, then that was just fine as well.

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Mako would watch as the man would obviously be on-guard against him, the clarification of "standard rules" would cause a single nod from his head before he would allow his hands to remain calmly at his sides, taking no visible combat stance as he instead watched the man patiently. Usually, Mako would attack first without warning, ruthless, but at the moment he was still debating how far he wanted to go with this. Instead, Takashi ended up giving him the go-ahead, causing him to once again be forced into making a decision immediately. After a few brief moments, he would let out a slow breath before his hand slowly lifted- if he was going to do this, he may as well go all the way.

He had little to gain from this, however, he could offer the man some guidance, and that could look good on his record. Without warning, suddenly the air around Takashi would shift, before it slammed down around him, "Geki," he stated bluntly, the red glow overflowing instantly to cover and paralyze the man. However, what the spell granted for instantly hitting and activating on the opponent, it lacked in any other usage. It could be broken by raw spiritual pressure with enough force released, and he wasn't entirely certain how long the spell would hold the man, but that wasn't the point.

"Sho," his finger lowered- and without hesitation he sent an explosive blast of raw spiritual energy aiming to slam into the paralyzed man, this would, of course, shatter the bakudou on contact, but it also wouldn't feel very good to be hit full-force by the hadou, even if it was the weakest one in Mako's arsenal, being smashed by a wall of high pressured air when you had no way to properly guard wasn't a sensation he imagined anyone particularly enjoyed. If he wanted to bout, then Mako would teach him the down side of fighting against a kidoust, the same way he had taught Yuuta in his youth when the idiot had thought to take him on using nothing but Hakuda.

Lowering his hand, after the combination was used- however effective it may be on the other man, Mako would keep one hand placed behind his back, the other raised in a neutral open palm at waist level, waiting to react to whatever may come his way.

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The man utilized his reiryoku in a blast to shatter the Kidou-- as one should in his position. However it was a bit too slow and the impact of his hadou caused the man to skid backward quite a distance, though, to his credit he managed to remain to stand and quickly countered, impressive in its own right. Mako remained calmly in position-- he felt the ripples in the man's reiatsu-- he could sense the threads, feel the minute pulses as he channeled his reiryoku into the spell that was so familiar to him, his very surface emotions. Feints didn't work on someone that had his level of skill in reading the ripples in his opponent's patterns and raw reiryoku. The moment that the Kidou was let loose, Mako calmly disappeared to the side landing lightly on his foot.

The kidou flashed by without contact-- and placed Mako to the side, forcing the man to close the distance with his Shunpo as well. He flickered toward him, raising his blade to slash forward from below- aiming to cut him from hip, the shoulder. Mako's eyes barely moved, watching him the entire time until the man was within moments of reaching him before he stated bluntly.

"Enkosen," the moment he did so, a barrier of golden energy spun into existence from his fingertip- causing the blade to smash into the energy like a stick bouncing off a dome of steel. The moment the spell had finished blocking the strike, he changed the flow of the energy itself while the man was still in point-blank range against him.

"Shitotsu Sansen." His fingers spread into forming three points behind the barrier of golden energy- his thumb, and then two fingers each forming a point. The next moment the barrier that had been used to block the attack morphed and fired point-blank. Transforming into three beams of golden energy aimed to slam into the man's stomach, and arms at the biceps. At its most effective, it would slam the man into the ground and pin him to it full-body.

Depending on how he tried to avoid, or counter it this could be minimized. No matter what, Mako expected the man to at least open up for him to continue his assault-- the man seemed to want to dance with him in close combat. That was fine, it made things that much easier for him. Keeping his actions limited and smooth, he would retain his blank, calm expression as his body remained motionless. Focusing entirely on keeping his own movements as impossible to read as possible, while using his exemplary sensory to read through as much of what Taka was doing as possible.

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The man showed admirable ability to delay or weaken his kidou-- honestly, he was relatively impressed. For his level of power he was doing quite well-- the fact that he was able to delay, and then shatter the kidou meant he was wide open, but Mako didn't act during that time. Remaining in his neutral stance as he remained in his natural state before the man would clearly be uncertain on something-- he debating abusing that. But he felt that those watching would find it a bit disrespectful of him to attack the man when he was clearly thinking of a way to deal with him. So, for now, he would remain in his neutral state-- waiting, watching.

The man acted quickly enough-- his blade glinting in the light as he summoned up the spiritual pressure of yet another familiar spell, Mako watched the rippling of his reiryoku calmly, knowing how the spell itself worked he would make a mental note of the man's apparent preference toward rope-based bakudou, before the man dashed at him once more. The rope, just as before flying to the side as his blade lashed toward him-- the blade itself acting as the medium as he used the rope as the base. The rope snapped out, aiming to wrap around Mako, however he didn't appear to mind, in fact, he was closing in on close range once more-- something that Mako wanted-- as he once more had his hand raised, waiting until the mans rope landed, binding his ankles, forcing his feet together as the blade stabbed into the earth to anchor the binding. A wise move considering his weakness in it.

Mako's hand raised as if moving to block the blade with his bare hand when instead the reality of the situation became overwhelming clear with a single word combination.

"Enkousen, Shakkahou," instantly, the barrier manifested covering most of his body beyond his raised hand in which the orb of boiling flames manifested in his palm-- and fired right as the man closed in on him. The explosion of fire and heat wasn't an especially deadly attack, but compared to the previously used Sho, it was certainly a difference. Mako used the force of the explosion to block the attack, destroy the flimsy-- by comparison-- ropes that bound him, as well as likely send the man flying backward coated in burns-- but it was entirely up to how he reacted.

Mako was fully aware the man could manage to minimize the damage, deflect it, or even try to take the hit head on to counter him. That was what the Enkosen was for-- absorbing any counter-attack the man may have, as well as protecting him from the backlash of his own point-blank shakkahou, though thanks to his control there was practically none of that to begin with.

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The man was good-- he had to admit such fully. The fact he realized he couldn't dodge, and that his best chance at winning was taking the hit and swinging, said plenty of his character. It also proved that Mako had read him correctly-- if he had been a lesser opponent the man likely would have been the victor. But the difference was too great, and his foreplanning was too solid-- the Enkosen guarded him as the blade smashed into it the entire way across, before he slid past him. The shield fading as the smoke danced around him slowly, but the damage in retrospect was actually quite minimal all things considered, Mako would give the first real expression he had given thus far.

His eyebrow rose.

"I'm impressed," he stated simply-- before his hand would rise, and finally, he would raise both hands upward-- it was clear the man was nearing his limit. But he was not lying, the man had truly impressed him, considering their difference in power, using his reiatsu to lessen the damage of the kidou, as well as constantly fighting as best as he could against them, spoke quite a bit of the man's room to grow. If nothing else, he was certainly worth keeping an eye on-- and perhaps helping him grow into a useful sparring partner with the correct nudging. Should he finish this smoothly?

Or should he let him struggle a bit longer? The call was a difficult one to make-- before he would release a slow breath, and narrow his eyes on the man-- the injuries were minor, he was being careful now, let's see how long he could push the young man. Clenching his hands for a single moment, before the words filled the air calmly.

"Bakudou number sixty-two, Hyapporankan," required to properly speak the number and name of the kidou due to its number, he would decide on his goal-- let the man flounder on the defensive side as much as he could. The moment he finished speaking, he fired a single pole of purple energy from his raised palm-- which traveled half the distance to the man before exploding into a barrage of purple poles designed to slam into the man, causing blunt damage as well as intertwine into a pincushion of bindings to slam him into the ground due to the angle. As if not content with the storm of poles, he would continue speaking the moment the first was fired.

"Oukasen," he stated bluntly- the moment the bars fired and barraged toward Taka, the cero-like beam of raw golden energy burst forward aiming to slam into the man while he was either busy dodging, or after he was already bound to the ground. Either way, he figured asking the man to surrender would be insulting-- the longer he gave him, the more room the man would have to grow and build ideas to counter the kidou that he was currently obviously lacking in having a solution for.

There was no better teacher than experience, he knew that quite well thanks to his life.

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Mako watched as his barrage of kidou bombarded the man, he did well, dancing around the rods of energy as best as he could while struggling to regain his footing until he was pinned to the ground by one rod-- he nearly lost his sword to another but managed to regain himself. The blast of the hadou, however, was met with a bakudou-- a solid attempt at defense but it wasn't quite enough as the impact smashed into the man and sent him flying. Then, he disappeared-- the man blurring into a rapid usage of shunpou as Mako's reiatsu sensory calmly kept up with the man, feeling the shifting in the pulses of reiatsu-- until he felt the attack.

Fast-- aiming almost desperately, a final attack then? Mako remained calmly standing in place as the man launched toward him-- feeling the shifts of the reiatsu as his body smoothly moved to the side. The attack would have slid harmlessly past him-- however, instead, he felt a shift. For a brief moment-- he felt killing intent, and his defenses instantly rose. He'd felt it too many times, endured such pain too often-- and used it too often to not notice the predatory shift in the man's emotional state. The man's blade slammed into his shoulder, for a brief moment pain appeared on Mako's face before he blurred.

Takashi slammed through the black cloth that had been left behind from Mako's advanced shunpou technique-- appearing behind the man as his pupils shrank, his hand raised, clearly ready to attack the man seriously suddenly with a kidou that actually could harm the man seriously-- before he noticed the shift had ended as quickly as it had taken part. Slowly, Mako lowered his hand instead as he watched the man, allowing him to get up as needed, now wearing only the white shitagi now as he slowly released a breath.

"It would appear you lack precise control of yourself or your zanpakutou," Mako would state simply as he watched the man-- he wasn't quite sure which it was, but he knew what he had felt. There had been a sudden shift, and the man had clearly been ready to bite into his body with the last minute shift, it would have impaled him through his chest-- possibly his chest-- if he had been slower. Slowly he would place his hand behind his back as he watched him briefly for a moment before closing his eyes, and bowing his head slightly.

"Thank you for the spar. I think this is a good place to end it, you're damaged enough as is-- and I would hate to have you lose control again." Whether the man was suppressing some violent bloodlust as Mako was-- or if he was simply unable to control an aspect of his soul properly in the shape of his zanpaktou-- it didn't matter. Either way Mako doubted the man wanted such information flashing around, and it was better if they halted now anyway, he was starting to run the risk of seriously injuring the man, and he could only use so many non-lethal kidou.

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