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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:50 am
The Big Woman
A light breeze blew through Hanako’s hair and she realized that the pod was moving. Slow at first, but their speed was increasing steadily. When she looked around she noticed the ice at the back of the pod moving.
Saera! Incredible! She was using her abilities to bring the pod to the shore. It wasn’t too far, but there was still a whale-sized Hollow on their heels. But where was it? Did it follow them to the surface at all? She could still feel it’s presence…
Suddenly, almost faster than she could sense it, it’s presence got stronger. Only a fraction of a second later Hanako could see a white shape under water. At first it looked like a chunk of ice, but it became faster and faster as it rose.
Then it breached the surface. With a terrible roar it jumped a good 30 feet out of the water and over the pod, showing itself and it’s whole ghastly form. Hanako reacted instantly. She loosened her right hand just a bit, gave more chain and swung Bakumusha around in a wide arc. The roar of the Hollow changed into a shirek when the blade cut through the skin on the beasts belly and it fell back into the sea.
Hanako yanked on the chain to get Bakumusha back, resuming to swing it over her head. She knew that even a nice hit like that would do nothing to kill the Hollow. Even weak ones had to have their masks destroyed. And this one was everything but weak. She could definitely tell when it was this close now.
It didn’t leave Hanako any time to analyse the situation any more. Just a moment later she saw a red glow beneath the surface and knew instinctively that it was aimed at her.
“I think I made it angry.” she shouted.
Then she vanished from the pod in a flash step. If it was pissed at her, then at least she could direct the attack away from the pod.
Hanako reappeared to the side and a good deal above the pod. With might she swung Bakumusha around. At the same time she concentrated energy, sent it through the chain and into the blade and released it in the bright-blue crescent energy blade of the Second Form of Shigure Shinrin Ryu, just as the tip of Bakumusha slashed through the water.
At about the same moment a dark red cero was fired from under the water. It boiled were the stream of energy touched it.
With a throbbing sound it raced towards Hanako, but her attack must have had at least some effect, as it was poorly aimed and it would only graze her. She raised her armored left arm to block the rest.
The power was still more than she had expected. It was like a kick against her arm. She was flung away and crashed through the water's surface only a few meters away from the pod. her arm felt numb and for a moment she was desoriented...
Coding Altered From: [The Frost]
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:35 pm
Saera could barely spare the concentration to watch as the beast erupted from the water, the act of trying to make an ice structure complex enough to keep expanding like this one without a solid base to push against was much more than she was used to. Luckily Hanako knew what she was doing and landed a telling blow against the monster.
Saera couldn't help but snort at Hanako's remark though, "Y'all think? Beasy's right pissed Ah'd say."
Knowing that the hollow wouldn't be long in retaliating Saera pushed more of herself into moving them towards land, to the point she was beginning to feel the burn familiar burn of exertion. It rankled her that she wasn't fighting this thing with Hanako, but she knew that while her abilities might be suited to a fight on the water, she was also their best bet at keeping the humans alive and getting to land. Thankfully her efforts were quickly bearing fruit, they were moving extremely rapidly now, and would make land in just under a minute. Unluckily though, the beast's response was in the form of a rage fueled Cero, though Hanako managed to direct it away from them, injuring herself, though lightly, in the process.
Saera cursed and kept pushing as she called out, "Good work Hanako! Keep it's eye for just a bit longer an' Ah'll be able ta join in on the fun!"
Saera couldn't help but snort at Hanako's remark though, "Y'all think? Beasy's right pissed Ah'd say."
Knowing that the hollow wouldn't be long in retaliating Saera pushed more of herself into moving them towards land, to the point she was beginning to feel the burn familiar burn of exertion. It rankled her that she wasn't fighting this thing with Hanako, but she knew that while her abilities might be suited to a fight on the water, she was also their best bet at keeping the humans alive and getting to land. Thankfully her efforts were quickly bearing fruit, they were moving extremely rapidly now, and would make land in just under a minute. Unluckily though, the beast's response was in the form of a rage fueled Cero, though Hanako managed to direct it away from them, injuring herself, though lightly, in the process.
Saera cursed and kept pushing as she called out, "Good work Hanako! Keep it's eye for just a bit longer an' Ah'll be able ta join in on the fun!"
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Mon Jul 05, 2021 4:52 am
The Big Woman
It didn’t take Hanako long to recover from her disorientation. Hastily she swam back to the surface, where she reeled Bakumusha back in. It was just in time to hear Saera’s call and see the pod accelerating towards the land.
Join in on the fun...that would imply that avoiding being eaten by a giant Hollow-wale was fun. Well, if Hanako was honest, she didn’t exactly resent the fight per se. But she could do without the water.
Hanako had, not surprisingly, no witty remark on hand, with which she could answer Saera. The two women were quite busy anyway, each with her own set of problems. Saera’s problem, the saving of the escape pod and the humans inside, was far from trivial but at least it seemed to literally move along nicely. Hanako’s problem was neither trivial, nor coming along as well. She was definitely at a disadvantage here.
She created a platform of reishi on which she could stand shortly above the water surface. It was odd...why didn’t the Hollow attack her again. Especially when she was under water. Why didn’t it?
A moment later Hanako knew. She could sense it moving away. The pod was now moving at a considerable speed, quickly closing the distance to the shoreline. However, it was also causing a considerable bow wave. The Hollow realised that the majority of its prey was escaping!
Water splashed when she moved away with the fastest flash step she could manage. The world flew by, reduced to blurred streaks on the edges of her field of vision.
She reappeared on top of the pod, already glowing in an icy-blue aura of concentrated energy. Once again she channeled into her sword and swung the giant blade just in the moment she saw a shadow beneath the surface. The bright blue crescent flew forward and into the water, cutting through the surface and the body that was directly beneath it.
The giant monster wriggled a moment in pain and reared it’s terrifying featureless head over the surface. A scream that made the metal of the pod vibrate blasted over the ocean. Now it was definitely angry at Hanako.
“Sorry.” she said over her shoulder to the others, then pushed off with enough force to make the pod sway heavily.
She flew towards the Hollow, swinging her blade in a mighty downwards slash, missing it’s head only by an inch and cutting into it’s neck and shoulder. It was as if she had tried to slash half-set concrete.
With a fast flash step she catapulted herself up into the air, releasing her sword and swinging it on her chain. In a wide arch she brought it down on the beast.
To her surprise and grief it showed itself to be more than just a mindless monster. Having obviously realised that Hanako’s weapon could do a lot of damage and cause pain, but not enough to instantly overcome all it’s defenses, it reached out with one of its malformed hands. It caught the blade mid swing, letting it burrow deep into its flesh, but gripping it tight. Then it yanked hard on the chain, pulling Hanako down, while it catapulted itself out of the water.
A mighty swing from its other arm sent Hanako flying. It also tore Bakumusha free and cut off the majority of its one hand in the process, but it didn’t seem to notice at all.
In the last possible instant Hanako reeled Bakumusha back in and transported herself back to the pod with a flash step.
Drops of blood fell onto the metal surface of the pod. The armor on her left arm had visible scratches on its surface. Her Shihakusho was torn apart in several places and on her abdomen, her chest and her right arm bloody and scratched skin could be seen. Hanako’s face, however, wouldn’t betray any pain. An expression of determination and growing anger was on it. She wouldn’t let the pain hinder her. She would power through it, take it with her and make it into additional strength.
Coding Altered From: [The Frost]
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Tue Jul 06, 2021 10:42 pm
Saera grit her teeth to keep from swearing as the pod was knocked about by the waves made by the monstrous whale hollow attempting to fight Hanako. The latest one, just before Hanako had flash stepped back onto the pod, had tossed the hulking metal craft in the water enough to break it off of the ice flow she'd been using, and it cost her precious seconds to reform the latticework of ice that allowed her to actually push the pod along instead of just pushing the ice further back. Soon enough, thankfully, she was able to get them moving again, and Hanako returned to clashing with the Hollow.
If Saera was being completely honest with herself it was eating her up inside that Hanako was fighting this thing alone. She knew what she was doing was important, just as much if not more so than what Hanako was doing by keeping the thing busy, and she even knew that the stupid monster outclassed the two of them, but not by enough that they wouldn't at least be able to drive it off. The issue was, something inside of Saera hated seeing other people fighting without her, other people protecting her, it brought up bad memories of the day she found her father on deaths door.
Even though her thoughts were beginning to stray towards the past, Saera's focus was entirely on the present, so when she felt the shuddering impact of the pod hitting the sandy beach and sliding up onto it just after a now bloody Hanako had again returned to the craft, she was able to react immediately.
"Get those humans out an' runnin', then get back here an' we'll cover their retreat. Ah'm gonna get mahself mah pound o' flesh."
Saera turned back to face the water, and the Hollow that was just beginning to surface again. With a feral grin she raised one hand up to the sky and spoke as a brilliant spear of crackling electricity took shape in her hand.
"Hadō number Four, Byakurai!" With a shout Saera flung her hand forwards just as red energy began to form in the mouth of the Hollow, throwing her spear at breakneck speeds towards the beast.
Normally Byakurai wasn't very powerful, but with Saera's level of skill a Hadō of such a low level could be easily overpumped with energy, not to mention a cero from a hollow as powerful as this one would easily overwhelm it extra power or not, but when the Cero hadn't completely formed? That was a different situation, as evidenced by the resulting explosion when the bolt of energy impacted the forming orb of Cero energy just before it could be launched, destabilizing it and causing it to erupt inside of the mouth of the Hollow that let out another shriek before diving back under water, no doubt getting ready to make another attack of some kind.
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:23 am
The Big Woman
Finally they reached the beach. It felt like an eternity but thanks to Saera’s efforts they had made landfall in a possibly record-breaking time. As soon as the other woman jumped from the pod and turned towards the water, Hanako jumped down as well and opened the hatch on the side with a quick strike of her sword. She pulled the hatch open with one hand. Inside was total chaos by now. Especially the humans that weren’t spiritually aware were in total panic, but even Harry, who had held himself together pretty well most of the time, was shaking.
Hanako reached her arm inside and pulled Harry out. At the same moment Saera fired her kido. In an instinctual reaction Hanako pressed the human to her body, turned away from the water and shielded him with her body when the cero exploded. When she released him just a few moments later some of her blood was smeared all over him.
“Get the others and go.” Hanako said, with her hand on Harry’s shoulder to keep his attention. “Run inland and find some cover. We’ll take care of the Hollow and find you afterwards.”
He stared at her blankly for a moment, then he opened his mouth.
“You will...that thing…”
“RUN!”
Hanako’s voice thundered over the beach and was like a slap in the human’s face. Enough so to make him move and begin to get the others out of the pod.
Convinced that the proceedings here wouldn’t need any more of her attention, Hanako stood up and joined Saera, her sword in both hands. A lot of flower buds had formed all over the giant weapon.
She had only enough time to give Saera a nod before the water surface exploded again and the giant nightmarish body of the Hollow catapulted itself out of the water and halfway onto the beach. Hanako instantly jumped to the side, hoping Saera would be doing the same in the other direction, just before the heavy upper body crashed into the ground. That bastard had just tried to squash them like insects! Hanako would show him how this insect could sting.
With only one or two swings she threw Bakumusha straight forward, aiming for the Hollow’s head. At the same time she channelled her energy through the chain and into the blade. In the last possible moment, she couldn’t tell if it was coincident or not, the Hollow moved his body to the other side and lifted his arm. Hanako’s blade impacted into the side of his chest, firing off the first form of Shigure Shinrin Ryu, doubling the reach of the blade and stabbing deep into the body of the beast. He cried out in pain. But although Hanako couldn’t deny a certain satisfaction at this sound, it wasn’t enough to kill a Hollow. And this bugger moved so damned fast.
With a yank on the chain, Bakumusha flew back to her the same instant the monster turned his eye-less face towards her. Fast and definitely not coincidental his clawed hand flew towards her and she lifted the sword with both hands, parrying at the last moment. The impact was brutal and sent a short but intense wave of pain through her arms, shoulders and back. When it pulled its claw back, Hanako saw it’s long tail emerge from the water and fly right towards her. She tried to dodge...but thanks to the impact from before she had sunk into the soft and loose sand almost to her knees and couldn’t get free.
The tail took care of that. With unholy strength the hit sent her flying again, crashing into a sand dune several meters away.
Coding Altered From: [The Frost]
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Fri Jul 09, 2021 10:48 pm
Saera desperately threw herself out of the way of the bulk of the great beast as it attempted to crush them, not that that stopped her, or Hanako who had already begun striking out at the beast again. Seeing it distracted also gave Saera an idea of how to finish this, though it made her grimace in distaste. She was the kind of person to face things head on, and her plan reeked of underhandedness, at least to her, but at the same time taking this thing out was more important than her pride.
Using the opportunity created by Hanako distracting the Hollow Saera used shunpo to position herself roughly forty feet above the creatures back. Her technique was shaky to say the least, but she was good enough for the short burst she needed. Gritting her teeth Saera allowed herself to tip over, and began plummeting towards the Hollow head first, Tsuki no Ryu held out in front of her, then to add speed she kicked off of the rapidly fading spiritual platform she had created, and just as Hanako was sent crashing into a dune she slammed into the back of the beast, the force of her decent ramming her blade even deeper into it's hide than normal, and the nature of her Zanpakutou's inevitable frost meant that even after the blade had passed it's flesh it couldn't heal with it's oh so impressive hollow regeneration.
The monster roared out in pain, but before it's thrashing could dislodge her Saera exerted her will, causing massive spikes to shoot out of the water just behind them, impaling the monster's tail and torso, and as it screamed she formed two more large daggers of ice, and sent them slamming into the thing's hands, pinning it completely.
Turning towards where she last saw Hanako Saera shouted, "Kill it! It ain't gonna be stopped for long!"
Using the opportunity created by Hanako distracting the Hollow Saera used shunpo to position herself roughly forty feet above the creatures back. Her technique was shaky to say the least, but she was good enough for the short burst she needed. Gritting her teeth Saera allowed herself to tip over, and began plummeting towards the Hollow head first, Tsuki no Ryu held out in front of her, then to add speed she kicked off of the rapidly fading spiritual platform she had created, and just as Hanako was sent crashing into a dune she slammed into the back of the beast, the force of her decent ramming her blade even deeper into it's hide than normal, and the nature of her Zanpakutou's inevitable frost meant that even after the blade had passed it's flesh it couldn't heal with it's oh so impressive hollow regeneration.
The monster roared out in pain, but before it's thrashing could dislodge her Saera exerted her will, causing massive spikes to shoot out of the water just behind them, impaling the monster's tail and torso, and as it screamed she formed two more large daggers of ice, and sent them slamming into the thing's hands, pinning it completely.
Turning towards where she last saw Hanako Saera shouted, "Kill it! It ain't gonna be stopped for long!"
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Sat Jul 10, 2021 8:06 am
The Big Woman
A thundering roar, that made the whole beach vibrate, rolled over the land. Louder and filled with more pain than ever before. Hanako picked herself up off the loose sand under which she had been half buried and looked towards the source of the titanic cry. It was Saera, standing on the monster’s back, her Tsuki no Ryu buried deep into its flesh. Giant spikes of ice impaled the Hollow, immobilizing it.
"Kill it! It ain't gonna be stopped for long!" Saera shouted. This was it, this was the chance.
Hanako gave her sword a quick glance. Bakumusha was covered in small green flower-buds. It was ready. Hanako would make sure that this attack was the final one. This time it wouldn’t get out of it at the last moment.
She started running. Faster and faster, straight towards the ugly head of the monster. her sword was next to her body, held with both hands, tip pointed forward like a lance. It was crying out in pain and desperation, trying to get itself free.
Shortly before she reached it Hanako jumped and flash-stepped at the same time, a furious cry on her lips. With a force that almost knocked herself out she slammed into the bone-hard mask on the Hollow’s face and buried her sword deep inside it.
“Get away from it!” Hanako shouted. Then she pushed herself off, leaving the sword where it was, only connected to it through the lengthening chain. The world seemed to slow down around her, when her body made a final push, flooding her system with adrenaline, in preparation for the final blow.
Hanako’s gaze was fixed on the Hollow’s head, but out of the corner of her eye she watched Saera, waiting for her to leave the monster. As soon as she moved, Hanako would have to act and trust that Saera was fast enough. There was too much at stake and Hanako wasn’t sure if the monster would give her another chance to charge up. But even so, if Saera couldn’t get away, she would have to hold off. Whatever the consequence, she wouldn’t endanger Saera to kill the Hollow.
When Saera would move, Hanako would simply send some energy through the chain and into Bakumusha’s main body, together with one mental command.
“Saku!”
Bloom!
The countless little flower-buds on the blade would open simultaneously, all at once, and cover the giant sword, made from tightly entangled roots, in purple lotus flowers. From these it would expel a giant cloud of pollen-dust, covering a large area in less than a heartbeat. And then...the dust would ignite.
A roaring fireball, almost 50 meters across, would consume the Hollow almost in its entirety, and the violent explosion, directly in its face, would rip it apart.
Even if the violent part of this ability was what Hanako used to strike down the Hollow, it still wasn't the actual secret true ability of Bakumusha. If Saera were to be caught in the explosion, even if it was so little that she would receive little to no damage to her body (clothes didn't count), she would suffer the effect and Hanako couldn't do anything about it: The memory of Bakumusha's true ability, everything about the dust, the explosion or the secret effect, would be completely wiped from Saera's memory. To her it would be as if the mighty impact of the sword alone had destroyed the Hollow.
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Sat Aug 14, 2021 1:32 am
Saera didn't have to be told twice, when Hanako shouted at her to move, she moved. She wrenched Tsuki no Ryu out of the Hollow's back and threw herself back, putting everything she could into a flash step, not caring about where she landed as long as it was away from whatever Hanako was about to do. She found herself tumbling as her battered body skipped across the water just as Hanako commanded her Zanpakutou to erupt. She caught a brief glance of erupting flames before the blast wave violently forced her under the water.
It only took her seconds to resurface, but that was all Hanako had needed. As Saera formed a platform of ice underneath herself to get easier footing over the water she caught sight of what was left of the Hollow, a mangled pile of quickly dissolving flesh and blood. The explosion had completely destroyed it. The fight was over.
Saera took a deep breath, pushing her adrenaline fueled energy back, forcing herself down from her battle high as she, as swiftly as she could, made her way back to shore.
As she stepped back onto the sand she called out to Hanako, "Well. Ah think Ah can guess why ya weren't to eager to do that down below huh?"
It only took her seconds to resurface, but that was all Hanako had needed. As Saera formed a platform of ice underneath herself to get easier footing over the water she caught sight of what was left of the Hollow, a mangled pile of quickly dissolving flesh and blood. The explosion had completely destroyed it. The fight was over.
Saera took a deep breath, pushing her adrenaline fueled energy back, forcing herself down from her battle high as she, as swiftly as she could, made her way back to shore.
As she stepped back onto the sand she called out to Hanako, "Well. Ah think Ah can guess why ya weren't to eager to do that down below huh?"
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Sat Aug 14, 2021 8:07 am
The Big Woman
With a flash of light Bakumusha returned to it's sealed form. And with a sigh Hanako let herself slump on her bottom and a second later flat on her back, her Katana still in hand. Even though the sand was soft she felt the bumps and bruises on her body. She didn't care. It felt good to not move for a moment.
When Saera came back ashore she got back up on her elbows and smiled a tired but relieved smile.
"Honestly...I've never used it in combat before. But you're right. I would have first popped that can open and then the water would have contained the explosion, we would all have drowned and that Hollow would probably still be laughing at us."
She sat up fully and became serious again.
"Are you okay?" She asked, scanning the other woman with her eyes, searching for any obvious and dangerous wounds. She ignored the humans for the moment, more worried that she didn't accidently hurt Saera in the explosion.
"Ah...one thing...I would appreciate it if we could keep Bakumusha's ability between us. The only other person that knows his true abilities is Captain Kobayashi. As far as everyone else is concerned, Bakumusha is a normal combat type. I would like to keep it that way."
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Re: 40 Fathoms (Saera, Hanako)
Mon Aug 30, 2021 7:23 pm
Saera gave Hanako a devil-may-care grin and cocked her head as she walked up to her, using Tsuki no Ryu to help keep herself up.
"Way Ah see it, ain't no one's damned business what our zan's do, so I ain't gonna be spillin'."
Saera held out a hand to help Hanako up. "Ya know, after that Ah feel we've earned a break. Ah know a few good hot springs in the Rukongai, ya interested? Well, after we beat the tar outta the fool that fucked up the gate."
Saera's eye's flicked back up to the humans, who were just standing there, staring at them, or in the case of everyone except the man staring in their general direction.
"Though, Ah guess we should deal with the livin' folk over there huh? If nothin' else we should probably find out who the hell sent 'em down." Saera flashed another, more awkward, grin at Hanako, "Ya think ya could do the debrief with 'em? Ah'd probably wind up beatin' or freezin' the lot of 'em."
"Way Ah see it, ain't no one's damned business what our zan's do, so I ain't gonna be spillin'."
Saera held out a hand to help Hanako up. "Ya know, after that Ah feel we've earned a break. Ah know a few good hot springs in the Rukongai, ya interested? Well, after we beat the tar outta the fool that fucked up the gate."
Saera's eye's flicked back up to the humans, who were just standing there, staring at them, or in the case of everyone except the man staring in their general direction.
"Though, Ah guess we should deal with the livin' folk over there huh? If nothin' else we should probably find out who the hell sent 'em down." Saera flashed another, more awkward, grin at Hanako, "Ya think ya could do the debrief with 'em? Ah'd probably wind up beatin' or freezin' the lot of 'em."
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