One Last Bowl [Hono, Yuri]

Well, travel wasn't easy to get all lined up. But if nothing else, it was done. It was a little scary, interestingly enough. The idea of getting away from all of this nonsense, it was a good feeling. But there was an air of uncertainty around the situation that she hadn't quite expected to bother her. What exactly she'd even wind up doing on earth?

But those things she had a general idea for. Frankly, she didn't know for sure, but that was the point. To escape this inevitable black hole of bullshit between the nobles and the rest of the soul society. But that didn't mean she didn't have at least one obligation to square away.

She'd reached out and contacted Hono through her phone, at least the inter sereitei communication worked fine enough. And she'd told her to meet her out in the sticks. And for once in the last several weeks. Yuri actually wore her old gotei uniform as she sat cross legged in the center of the cleared out field. Her eyes closed, and with Sessho resting in her lap. Quiet and thoughtful as she waited for Hono to arrive, her hands lightly resting on either end of her zanpaku'to as she waited. And prepared herself. Hono had been improving somewhat ... awkwardly ever since they had first trained together. So very long ago when the girl hadn't even known the name of her zanpakuto.

She had just one last lesson to teach the girl.

Yuri opened her eyes, smiling as Hono's voice garnered her attention. Raising her head and looking the woman in the eyes, she couldn't help but chuckle softly as she slowly stood up, rolling her shoulders slightly as she stood up and brushed off her rear and looked at Hono. What a transformation indeed. ONe that you wouldn't even know had happened just looking at her.

She waited until Hono approached and the two were just a few paces from one another, giving Hono a knowing smile.

"Que linda. Honestly I expected you to ask that question before you even came out here." She noted softly, closing her eyes for a moment as she took a nice, slow, deep breath. Reaching to her hip, she gently drew her zanpaku'to and held it out infront of her sideways. That smile of hers deepening as she looked the woman in the eyes.

"It's been quite some time since I first decided to help you out. Honestly, in some cases I kinda wish I'd just taken you under my wing. But still.... I can't help but feel like I've failed a little. I perhaps should have been more direct. But now... with things are. I don't think that I can give you the attention you should have had. Which is why, I want you to show me what you can do." She noted with a slow spread of a smirk across her lips. Her spiritual pressure slowly welling up around the area as she looked Hono dead in the eyes. She had been ... lacking. Certainly, she had been keeping up with her own training. But in the short time that she had been with the Eigth division, working with so many other squads, she'd realized something. Something that needed remedying. There was so much more to herself that she wasn't training. She performed at pace, or above her peers with her zanpakuto and kido. But in Hoho? In Hakuda? She had found herself sorely lacking. She'd been so focused on teaching that she herself hadn't quite met the expectations. But more than that.... some of her former students... had more than surpassed her.

And that was something that had struck deep. And now, she had to know.

Had Hono surpassed her as well?

"Hono Kaen. This isn't just a training bout I want to have. I need to know that you're prepared for the soul society that's to come. And I want you to use everything at your disposal, to prove that to me."

Yuri's smile widened and tilted, turning into a smug little smirk as Hono went so far as to praise her on what a job she'd done for the woman. She knew that wasn't true. There was so much more she could have done. Not JUST with Hono, but improving herself, so that she could have pushed Hono even more.

"You're far too sweet. But I've not shown you properly... what it means to be a shinigami." She murmured softly, letting out a slow, steady sigh, her spiritual energy slowly coursing along her body. Not just her pressure, but her actual spirit energy roared out from her as the sky seemed to darken almost as a brilliant goldwn glow coursed around her body and she brought her weapon up infront of her in a guard. Thats right, she HAD told Hono that no shinigami worth anything shouldn't be able to use everything at their disposal. And so, with a loud SHUNK, she sank her blade into the ground and brought her open palms up in a ready stance. A slow, steady sigh escaping her as she did.

"This will be a thorough examination. So please, place your blade with mine. We'll consider this a battle of concession. There will be four points." She smirked, raising a hand with four fingers raised, lowering them as she went through them. "The first that is knocked to the ground. The first that is pushed to take their sword from the ground. The first who is pushed to releasing their zanpakuto. And finally, whomever is forced to yield." She noted as she cracked her neck, and for once, that sly, smug smile of hers turned fierce, her lips peeling bacmk to show her teeth as she grinned at Hono.

"As soon as you release your weapon, we'll begin. I hope you're ready."

Yuri chuckled as Hono offered her enthusiasm. Tch, to think one of her own students would actually be eager to spar against her, especially in such a serious circumstance! She remembered when a number of her students would be quaking in their boots to actually fight her. Her eyes narrowed as she locked her attention onto Hono, a slow and steady breath as she slowly let the tension spill out of her body. And just like that, a subtle swish as Hono suddenly shot towards her and unleashed a flurry of strikes. Yuri's focus tightened and her spirit energy crackled along her frame as those fists slammed into her frame, her body hardened as she braced herself with Hakuda, and as that last strike struck in towards her face, her own hand shot up in a blur of speed.

A gentle tap to Hono's wrist, but the sensation would be as if she was hit with a brick, aiming to slam that fist off course with a burst of force from just that gentle tap, keeping her body mostly in position before her body blurred. Her body shooting up just a foot or two into the air.

Onitoppū 鬼突風 _{(Oni Gust)}

A sudden blur of motion as Yuri's frame swept past Hono, executing two instantanious roundhouse kicks to the woman's shoulder and chest, aiming to launch Hono clean across the clearing. Keeping a straight face even as pain lanced up the right side of her body. It was a technique that was quite up there in Hoho. The transition from a simple hakudfa move into a more advanced hoho strike was one that no doubt would startle hono, but Yuri didn't care in the slightest. She wasn't proficient enough with the move to execute it without hurting her.

That was fine. So long as it hurt Hono as well, thats all that mattered to her as she landed deftly after the move and hopped back, taking a moment to catch her breath a bit, her chest and shoulders still stinging from Hono's flurry of strikes. She'd had to eat a few hits before she could be sure Hono would be in the proper spot to unleash her hit. Hono WAS definitely faster than her. Thats why she was using Hoho at all. To match, or surpass the woman's own speed. She wouldn't JUST beat Hono. She intended to rob her of the advantage that she had already.

To see what Hono would pull out in response.

Whew.

IN the midst of the dust and grass flying about as the two women went at one another, Yuri felt a brief moment of reprieve as she flashed a confident grin at Hono, as the woman was sent flying, even as her body ached, she still was all too happy. And as that spell flew her way, she only grew all the more enthused. Her own spiritual energy flaring in response. "Bakudo Number Eighty Five, Horuhitsugi Sanzai! _{掘る棺 散在 Scattering of Exhumed Coffins)}

She slammed her palm down into the ground as black script burst out from the ground where she was standing and a number of blood-red boxes burst up from the ground, four of them clustered infront of her to tank the Byakurai completely. And as Hono rushed towards her, those boxes burst open, a sudden burst of rotten air rushing from the coffins as chains burst from them, spraying in a fan, planting them into the ground all around Hono, none of them actually seeming intent on dragging Hono in.Yuri was panting from the exhertion of the spell, her head throbbing from having to quickly unleash such a thing. Under normal circumstances, the chains would have launched directly at Hono and she would have been dragged into one of the coffins to hold her in place. But suffice to say, it was a rush job. But it wasn't without merit.

The ground beneath them suddenly creaked, as massive cracks shot out across the clearing, and those chains still did their job. The ground shattered as suddenly huge chunks of earth were ripped up from the ground and pulled into the coffins, destroying Hono's footholds.

A shudder of sound as Yuri shunpod up into the air above Hono, her legs bunched up as she aimed to slam both feet into the woman from above, aiming to launch her into the excavated earth where there wasn't sure footing.