Caught in the Act

Yugiri knew exactly where she wanted to go, while she did consider using the store as a measure between the time she might spend with Rio and resuming her little travels around the world. That wouldn't be right though. Yugiri couldn't just show up and be caught like that, then dump all those issues onto her role model's shoulders unresolved and heavy to carry.

A distraction was in order to provide clarity.

Maybe Rio would be able to figure it out. Yugiri didn't think so though, if she was using a more public place and not her own special little hideouts she made when she was younger then maybe. The younger Shihoin didn't offer any hints though and was pretty content to be quiet while she recalled the way until they came across a river in one of the more overgrown natural areas of the Seireitei. Micah was the only one that knew of this spot as she remembered, maybe she should've picked another which didn't involve having to go underwater and swim into the cave.

"Hmm. Time to swim."

She stated. Beginning to undress again down to her underwear and stuffing the clothes under some foliage out of sight.

"I think you'll find it."

Yugiri was confident that Rio could figure it out, jumping into the river and swimming down towards the waterfall and into the tunnel for a few metres before she was able to come up into the little training area she had made herself as a kid to work in private and end the mystery of the clan wondering where she'd always run off to when she was younger.

She forgot to mention there were clothes here that could probably fit Rio. She had planned for larger size shihakushos if she ended up growing more when she was younger, and smaller sizes. Ultimately Rio would have something dry to wear if she had also followed Yugiri's lead in keeping her dry set of clothes hidden outside.

Going a round with Rio would surely be therepeutic for her and letting her forget her stress.

As the two reached the river, Rio could not help but tilt her head in confusion. At first, she wondered why Yugiri had stated it was time to swim out of nowhere - and then, she undressed and leaped into the river without hesitation. To say that the Shihoin Aegis was confused was an understatement. But then, after careful consideration, Rio had decided to simply follow her lead and read the movements of where she intended to go. Of course! Yugiri was hardly the type to execute an action without any thought behind it.

Nodding her head somewhat shyly, Rio discarded her own clothing, dressing down to her own underwear. Rio jumped into the river as well, deftly swimming along with Yugiri as she memorized the pathway which led to Yugiri's hideout. She followed Yugiri, swimming through the tunnel until she arrived where her cousin was at. She had to admit that the swim itself felt somewhat invigorating but she looked at Yugiri with curious eyes as she moved through the water beside her.

She had never seen this place before.

It was a strange experience like she was returning to this place a different person and with someone else of all people that knew her. Yugiri felt a little awkward, maybe the idea of someone knowing your hobby was making secret little training spots that no one else knew of was a little weird. It sure wasn't something normal or anything.

When Rio popped up out of the water she got a towel thrown at her. There was more fancy ways to dry yourself like Kido but Yugiri preferred not to use her skills as a matter of convenience so she dried herself down the old fashion way.

"We should spar. It will help as a distraction from your stress. Yes?"

She grabbed a shihakusho that fit and one that she guessed would fit Rio as well before throwing it at her sibling's general direction. It was hard to guess if Rio might have learned Shunko or not which meant she got a backless top like Yugiri wore to spare her the awkward moments that happened when someone might learn Shunko and accidently blow their top off.

Once she was ready, Yugiri looked at Rio expectantly. Not letting on to the fact that she did want someone she knew was stronger than her to test herself on. Finding situations like this was rare, even rarer was she in a situation when she felt comfortablely able to bring out her zanpakuto but that wouldn't be fair when Rio didn't have her's.

"I think I'm a bit closer to where you are now, I grew pretty fast for my age so don't hold back. Right?"

It wouldn't be much of a victory to her if Rio was holding back as they were now. It was a little unnerving to consider fighting Rio in close quarters though.

"A spar... huh?"

The level of confusion that Rio felt was pristine. She had hardly envisioned that her conversation with Yugiri would eventually descend into the unfamiliar realm of a spar. There were no objections towards the idea but striking someone she truly viewed as family would prove a little difficult at first.

Even so, any apprehensions were quickly dampened as she resolved herself and realized that Yugiri would not stand for someone to go easy on her. She had always made that one law abundantly clear to anyone.

Rio had quickly outfitted her body with the Shihakusho provided by Yugiri. Flexing her muscles in order to get accustomed to the new ear, Rio assumed a fighting stance, deftly moving towards Yugiri, enhancing her focus.

Moving back and forth in rhythmic motions, as though she were participating in a ritualistic dance, Rio sized her sister up as she provided Yugiri with a display of her martial prowess.

"Well, let's test how close you are then, shall we, sis?"

If Yugiri was aware of the fighting styles on earth outside of the hand-to-hand combat of Shinigami, she would easily recognize Rio's current fighting style as Capoeira. Rio swayed her hips from left to right before taking off with her right, performing a swift roundhouse kick that, even if she managed to dodge the first,
Rio would fall forward, push off of the ground with her free hand and perform another kick all within the space of a single second.

As a fighting style, it hardly lacked the practicality of Hakuda but in terms of overall feints and deceptions? Well, Rio was quite intrigued on testing her sister's reaction time.

The nerves were high for her. This was Rio after all, she was both an insurmountable wall for people that wanted to dig their claws into her family but she was also one to try and climb over for Yugiri. She didn't know what exactly to expect, even though she had watched Rio train so much. Could she have changed? How dynamic a fighter was she?

It was more like a dance. That is all she could sum it up to. Yugiri remained ignorant of most human styles all through her life, Erchanhardt's style was not of normalcy either. Rio basing her own off such a style might as well have been alien to her as Yugiri was solely educated in the Soul Society techniques and martial arts. How did human expertise end up anyway? That was something she would get to experience, she felt.

A kick was easy. Yugiri stepped back, out of range of the first kick before the momentum continued and into another kick. No matter, she was used to things happening quickly. Yugiri went low, moving underneath the kick which extended and trying to attack from two angles. One hand to grab the ankle of the foot that came out to kick her while she twisted and tried to kick her leg out from underneath her. The speed was noticeably on point and she was fully focused on her endeavour of beating Rio.

If all went well then she might see Rio end up on her butt, though she was not so naive to expect someone of such skill to be played so easily.

Rio's heart was filled with pride as she observed Yugiri in action even though they were facing off in direct combat. Rio had never imagined she'd spar with Yugiri, at least not in the present. Her banishment had formed so many barriers between them that Rio feared she would lose a part of her family that she cherished as much as the bonds between her and her father or mother.

Even more impressive, Yugiri reacted with flawlessly, moving with deft precision to evade her foray of kicks. Moving underneath the leg executing the follow up kick, she sought to grab onto her ankle and leave Rio falling face flat on her butt.

The strategy wasn't a bad one but Rio was well aware of the idea that her initial strikes would fail to hit their mark. Thus, as Yugiri grabbed the ankle of the leg that Rio missed with, her foot would miss its mark on the leg she sought to sweep from underneath the Shihoin protector. As if she hardly missed a beat in her movements, she utilized the flexbility of her body to swiftly bring her free leg in for a counterattack aimed at the side of Yugiri's head. If the kick failed, then Rio would indeed end up on her bottom but facing someone like Yugiri, that would hardly count as embarassing.

The sweeping strike started and Rio took to the air to try and kick at her head. It was a solid move if Yugiri didn't have her free hand to intercept the strike. Her hand locked around the second ankle, with both legs in hold she made use of the momentum provided from her sweeping strike and Rio's own force to twist and throw her a few metres back after a spin.

Yugiri considered using her shunpo to follow up but it was just a warm up. She didn't want to go too hard in the first move. Instead she kept her stance up and waited for Rio to recover and continue. It'd be silly to get too overconfident against her.

As Rio found herself swung a few meters away, a grin colored with glee lined her lips. Impressive! She didn't want to seem as though she was falling into fangirling about her sister's first set of moves but it was truly amazing to see how much she had developed and grown as a warrior.

Yugiri would've probably pinched her ear if she could peek inside the mental image of the woman she viewed as a sister but ah, that was the power of secrets kept in one's head, no?

Controlling the momentum of her body through the air, Rio quickly landed on the ground quietly before assuming another fighting stance, though this one was more in line with Hakuda and hardly resembled the rhythmic nature of Capoeira.

She decided to utilize the advantage of the flash step to quickly dash within Yugiri's range. She executed a successive set of strikes, each aimed at her shoulders, head, and stomach.

If she found herself distracted by that initial barrage, Rio would playfully steal a move from Yugiri by sweeping her off of her feet by striking her foot at either one of her legs. For some odd reason, she excitedly found herself wanting to test the limits of how much her sister had come to learn.

Rio used flash step. That was all she needed to get serious herself. Now she could use her own experience in Hoho. When she used hoho though, it was much faster. She dodged her back again, smirking a little. It was getting a little confident for her, she wasn't supposed to be getting ahead of herself.

Once she got a few metres she kicked off again. Launching herself to the side of Rio and trying to give her a firm kick into her gut and send her flying backwards. She was getting faster now. It was becoming less restricted as the momentum of the fight picked up and got her pumped.

"Show me more, Rio."

Her words were both taunting and also curious.

Rio was excited now. There was no denying it. It could easily be gleaned from staring at her face. There was a certain level of pride she had in facing off against Yugiri.

A pride to show the one who admired her most just how awesome she was and pride in seeing how much she loved one had improved herself. As Yugiri dodged her next set of strikes and move backward, Rio positioned herself into another posture, allowing Yugiri to execute her own counter. A kick to her gut meant to send her flying backward. Rio raised her arms to block the kick, as her body was pushed back ever so slightly. Rio sized Yugiri up again, as she smiled fondly.

"As you wish, Yugiri." Her tone was pleasant and curious. She shot forward once more, like a bullet loose from the chamber of a gun, utilizing flash step to once again appear in front of her. This time, she aimed an elbow strike towards Yugiri's chest. If this missed its mark, or if Yugiri chose to back away again, Rio would immediately follow up her first strike with a roundhouse kick towards any part of her body that became available.