[center][h1][color=fff200]Rumble Hashira, Kousai Agatsuma[/color] v. [color=crimson]Former Upper Moon 2, Ryūnoko Keodis[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] After 30 minutes, Keodis and Kousai arrived at the Bamboo Forest, the beauty of the forest outdid anything man made, giving a dead calm that surrounded the two men. Kousai stared daggers into the demon, his mind running wild, his breathing staggered, and his balance off just a bit. A voice echoed through his mind, matching the voice of his deceased twin. [i][color=f7941d]”Brother please. You are not in your right mind. Don’t let your grief consume you.”[/color][/i] [color=fff200]”Too late.”[/color], Kousai whispered to himself as he placed his hand on the hilt of his Rumble nichirin katana. Without hesitation, his legs bent for just a moment before he placed all his strength into his legs, and shot forward. To the normal eye, he would have vanished, reaching his max speed before using any breathing form, the sake in his system affecting his movement with every step. A frontal assault was the plan, gauging just how Keodis would react, Kousai’s blade sliding from the sheath as he performed an iai slash. Block it, dodge it, or die to it, did not matter to Kousai. [color=crimson]”Bold. I’ll give you that.”[/color] Whipping his sheath to the side, Keodis lets the blade bite into the wooden sheath, the splintering of wood from the impact cracking the sheath clean in two. From within, the blade of sun metal gleams as the ruined sheath falls off of it. [color=crimson]”Unfortunately, boldness isn’t going to win the day for you. It didn’t with the last Stone Hashira, it didn’t with Guen, and it won’t with you.”[/color] Letting the bind rest at his side, a single hand holding the hilt of his nodachi, Keodis shakes his head. [color=crimson]”I probably won’t even kill you. You’re not who I’m pissed at. However, it’s going to be nice blowing some steam off while I shatter that stick of yours.”[/color] Breaking the bind with a quick blade-check, Keodis whips his sword upwards in the motion of Flame Breathing Form 2, noticeably without the hiss of Total Concentration Breathing. Kousai’s hand flew backward, Keodis’s demonic strength was an attribute that he couldn’t stalemate. Taking a step to the left, the rumble hashira narrowly avoided the attack resembling Flame Breathing Form 2, a technique Kousai was so used to seeing when his brother was alive. His mind could only think over and over why this demon knew Flame Breathing. [i][color=fff200]”Why does this demon know Flame Breathing? Can he? No. It’s just imitation…it has to be.”[/color][/i] [color=fff200]”Thunder Breathing: Thunder Swarm.”[/color] Activating Total Concentration Breathing was a bit harder to do in the state he was in, his thoughts shifting, the alcohol messing with his senses, with no time to purge himself but, he pressed on. Kousai began moving rapidly, circling around Keodis, slashing at the demon, lightning coalescing around the blade. Each lightning enhanced slash was followed by an afterimage, showcasing just a bit of why he was the fastest hashira. Letting one foot anchor on the ground, Keodis pivots slowly, letting Kousai slam into him over and over, sparks flickering off his blade, interdicting strikes one after the other. [color=crimson]”No real force… come on, you got to hit HARDER![/color][color=orange] Flame Breathing, Fourth Form. Blooming Flame Undulation.”[/color] The air seems to ignite, a disc of reddish orange flame appearing vertically, nearly 15 feet in diameter as Keodis rests in the center, spinning the nodachi in a circular slash. He looks up, his eyes tracking the erratic movements of Kousai, before narrowing slightly. [color=crimson]”Unless speed is the only thing you have to offer? If so…[url=https://youtu.be/CLpKbBgPNeQ?list=PLwyyUdV4sEKOnT3elPE5d_THK1TDQPnmQ&t=61] you’ve made a horrible mistake challenging me.[/url][/color][color=orange] Flame Breathing First Form Modified, Seeking the Unknowing Fire.”[/color] A puff of flame, and a burst of air. Suddenly, a blade swinging at neck height, a streamer of fire following its tip. The modification of the first form is built around chasing down fast opponents, boosting the attacks' already ludicrous closing speed with more movement control. The tradeoff is direct impact power, but it won’t take the power to derail a train to remove a human’s head. Kousai hesitated for just a moment as he watched a demon pull out a flame breathing technique. If this had been any other technique, maybe Kousai would have been fine, just maybe he wouldn’t have broken the calm that he was known for. His brother spent his life perfecting flame breathing to kill demons and now some demon is using it. It felt like a mockery. His eyes dilated as he entered an intense focus, perceptions speeding up, and the world around him slowing down. Every movement Keodis took slowed down to a crawl, every detail processing in the hashira's brain at once, thoughts gathering to figure out his next move. The timing of the attack was off just a bit, but not enough to confuse Kousai. He had seen this form before in its unmodified state, so the modification was easy enough to dissect, or so he thought as only with his ability could he figure it out before it cut his head clean from his shoulders. His foot touched the earth, his body ducked low right under the blade, his perception slowing giving the advantage to foresee attacks like this and process his next option. To Keodis, it would look like Kousai’s entire body just stopped, muscles tensing for a single second before relaxing. His hand already on his hilt, having sheathed it for the next attack. A hiss echoed from the man’s mouth, finally bringing out his fullest. [color=fff200]”I am the fastest under heaven. First Form: Thunderclap and Flash. Godlike Speed.”[/color] What most knew about Thunder Breathing is that the user’s legs were powerful, allowing for bursts or extended usage of high level speed. Most didn’t realize that it was not just the legs that were augmented, but their arms needed to match to generate the types of attacks produced by Thunder Breathing. For years Kousai cultivated the level of speed necessary to surpass his grandfather, not only in his legs but within his arms. As Keodis’ blade passed overhead, lightning would shoot outward from the tsuba as the rumble hashira initiated his first form. The attack would happen the very moment that blade passed, striking within the split second before the demon could retreat his arm back for a continued offense or defend himself. Kousai pulled the blade outward from its sheath, lightning surging outward into the air, aimed for Keodis’s elbow. He knew as a demon, being a high level one, that this type of injury would be healed in moments, but the attack would flow into the next bit of offense he had planned. Using the momentum gained from first form, he spun his body around, raising his right leg upward to chamber it. The soryu training from the other day raced through his mind, his leg tingling from the addition of the scarlet in his blood, before throwing that leg forward aimed at the demon’s stomach. Even if he managed to blade, there was enough force from that kick to move a grown man several feet, and if he used his body to block then he would have to deal with the fact the kick was based in Soryu. [color=crimson]”Ah… there you are, Hashira.”[/color] Lifting the stump of his right arm, Keodis looks back to his blade, stuck tip down in the ground behind him. Dealing with Thunder users is always a question of stamina. Provoking an attack like… that, is a big win, even if you lose a few pieces in the process. Now, the leg, on the other hand, was a much more interesting prospect. It seems that Kenzo’s style has proliferated a bit further than expected. [color=crimson]”Good trick with the Soryu, too. Had fun learning from Kenzy? I remember when he first sprang that fun little tidbit on us. Good times… of course, you aren’t nearly as good as him, but, you take what you can get.”[/color] Brushing off his chest, which doesn’t seem to have taken damage beyond a displaced collar line on his undershirt, Keodis smiles while his right arm erupts back into shape. He shrugs slightly while turning to retrieve his blade. While it looks casual, Keodis’ left hand rests slightly behind, not swinging while he walks. If Kousai makes a move, the hand will dart to intercept and divert. [color=crimson]”That being said, I can’t quite match you on even ground using Flame Breathing alone. Well, nothing to it, let’s see if there’s something new I can show you.”[/color] Lifting the blade with near contemptuous ease, he sets it in a high back guard, and smiles. [color=crimson]”I wonder if you’ve seen this one before.[/color][color=orange]Flame Breath, 9th Form.”[/color] He sets his other hand on the hilt, and digs in his back foot. Ephemeral flames swirl around his feet, and a maniacal grin stretches across his face, as scale patterns ripple across the flames. [center][color=orange]”Rengoku.”[/color][/center] A wave of force, a blistering wind. Force personified, in a single forward vector that moves at a comparable speed to the Thunder style. One single strike, in a diagonal downward cleave that carries the roar of a dragon and the force of hundreds of Flame users. [i][color=f7941d]”BROTHER! DON’T! USE MINE!”[/color][/i] The visage of his brother screamed at him, his brain telling him to take the smart option. Unfortunately Kousai allowed himself to fall to his anger, something so uncharacteristic that no one would believe it. The anger that boiled inside him watching a demon perform that penultimate technique of flame breathing, a technique his brother never got to learn. Instead of playing it safe or fighting back with a technique of similar level, Kousai enacted the first form of thunder breathing enhanced with godlike speed. The sound of a clash, blades touching at the point of impact, Kousai sliding backward with blade stuck into the earth. The clash broke in two the nichirin blade, never meant to clash with techniques like 9th form, a mistake that Kousai knew but ignored. Broken in the middle, the top half sat in the dirt before him. His breath was labored, his right hand reached across his chest to grab his shoulder, blood spewing from the wound, only narrowly avoiding major damage to his body. [color=fff200]”Damn it.”[/color] His eyes moved downward to his brother’s nichirin blade sitting at his hip, wondering if he should use it. He may be wounded but it didn't mean he was down and out. The problem being that Kousai had practiced only a few times with it, having not adjusted for its weight and length. What a fool he had been, and he almost felt the need to prove himself. He allowed him to be upstaged by a demon but maybe there was still a chance to win this. Maybe. [color=crimson]”Tsk, tsk, tsk. No good, huh?”[/color] Keodis stands up from the low ending position of the 9th Form, blade swinging forward to rest on his shoulder. He looks at the shattered blade, before smirking slightly [color=crimson]”Well, I guess that’s that. Now, I’m going to be a bit… saccharine, if you will. Consider this the dregs of my sympathy for you. Leave. Now. Run away, and come back with something that’ll actually give me a warm-up. Like four of you. Clutch that little memento of yours, burn this day into your memory, and always remember.”[/color] A pressure bursts into existence. The world tastes like copper. There is no moon. Only [color=crimson]HIM[/color], standing there, wearing the smile of a fox who’s snuck into a hen coop. The spectre of bat-like wings rest behind him, and it hurts to tell if they’re really there, or a figment of imagination. [color=crimson]”You live because I let you. I have not really tried once today, and you are kneeling before me, blade shattered.”[/color] He turns around, and walks away. The pressure disappears, and the world comes back into color. [color=crimson]”What a disappointment of a Hashira. Didn’t even get good practice in. I hope Guen at least makes me try.”[/color] [color=fff200]”Next time, I’ll cut your neck.”[/color] His head hung low as he spoke, his body wanting to continue, fight through the pain like he’s done so many times before, but his mind told him to stop. He needed a restart, to ease his own grief before he could fight Keodis again. To bring out your best, one needed to know who they were, a statement that the Rumble Hashira once held close to his heart. Turning his back to his opponent, he began walking back to town. Next time, he’d bring not only his own strength, but his brother’s.