Blood Trail (open/read occur thread first)

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

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Mijek came to halt within the door of his faux lair. He simply needed a place to wait and he knew from records that little to nobody used this empty warehouse for the moment or in the last few months. His conflict would not get any more involved then needed, and only those who had reason to hunt him would find him here. A straight line from his crimson calling card on a map would lead his target audience directly to him.


"Come come, I grow tired and weary, my age at it's end. New definition is my desire and I cannot dare claim such until my message has been given."

Mijek sighed heavily before sinking down ten meters from the entrance and spinning to face the doorway in a kneeling position with his heels propping his buttocks up. His blade was withdrawn and laid beside him before he closed himself off from the world and waited.

[Nanako]

"Interesting to see an Onigami these days. I haven't seen one of you since the war." Tsukasa looked at Mijek with a small smirk. She wasn't here to fight, but to simply find out who it was that did that to the shinigami she found. "So are you trying to get the shinigami to find you for one last battle or something?"

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"Depends...do you want to lose the other arm to find out...or would you like to be quit and see for yourself and keep it."

He had not opened his eyes to look at her, not as far as the girl could have seen anyways, but he had hit the nail on the missing arm. He did not stir and had not flinched at her appraoch suggesting he had seen, or felt, her coming for some time.

"I am seeking to find my definition, I have no idea what that will entail."

[Zakura Kessin]

"Ching...ching...ching..." The sound of a chain clanging together eminated from the top of a flight of stairs near Mijek and Tsukasa. "Sad...so sad." Kessin said in a solemn voice. He walked down a metallic flight of stairs towards Mijek and Tsukasa. He had witnessed the death the onigami caused and followed him here to the warehouse, opting to enter through a class window on the roof.

"You seek definition... someone such as yourself seeks definition....this is rather surprising." He reached the bottom of the staircase and stepped out onto the floor roughly 20 feet to Mijek's left. "I would have assumed you to be a typical, overthrow Soul Society type." His long, black hair draped to the sides of his face, his eyes ever-so piercing as was usual for the elder. "You are so desperate for an image that you are willing to openly kill as you had done, throw your life away and die fighting.... is that how you want your empire to be remembered? A tired, petered out and desperate old horse that needed to be put out of its misery?" Kessin stood there with his eyes transfixed on Mijek. His zanpakuto was unsheathed but perfectly concealed under his overcoat, ready to defend if need be.

[Nanako]

Memories of his arm flew through her mind for a moment. Before she could speak up again Zakura appeared and Tsukasa quieted down for the moment. Ain't seen him in a while. Wonder where he has been. She thought as she watched and waited for Mijek's reply.

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"My empire will be remembered in whatever way the shinigami wish to define it's history. We have lost and they will write the history of it as victors. Of course it was never really my empire. True in its final days I was the last remaining true onigami surrounded by the cowards and power mad fools who had once called themselves shinigami. I was isolated as the single man to see the absolute lack of difference between ourselves and shinigami until the day I noticed that isolation with the arrival of Maigo."

Mijek seemed to remain calm throughout, despite harshly used words, and turned to Zakura with keen eyes glancing at where zakura held the bade out of site as if wary of him before focusig to look at Zakura's own eyes.

"I witnessed the fall of my people decades ago, and it was not a handful of months ago that I realized I was no longer fighting for anything more then my mothers memory and pretending it was what the Onigami stood for. We rebeled because the Seireitei had grown arrogant, and yet we were made of nothing but petty fools who had been the cause of that arrogance. So tell me, what purpose has my life had up to now that will go undone because I did throw it away with surrender to the inevitable?"

[Zakura Kessin]

Zakura's hands dropped to his sides in a relaxed motion but his blade stayed unsheathed under his coat and out of sight due to his ability to control it with his mind. It was all out of standard precaution.

"If your mother's memory is what you were fighting for back then, what has changed it now? What has caused you to give up? The fact that the majority of your compatriots were, as you say, power hungry cowards? Or is it that they are all dead?" Kessin never broke eye contact with Mijek. "You made a bad choice in the company you kept but that shouldn't be the end of the path you walk." Kessin broke eye contact for a moment to stand directly in front of Mijek. "What purpose does your life have? The same as it always has been... fight for your mother's memory...try to prevent the same from happening to others."

Kessin turned and looked out the door in front of him. "You mentioned Maigo... I only ran into him once...a strange fellow. He didn't take too kindly to me though...apparently he knew of me." He said with slightly twisted glee. "I didn't think anyone would recognize me... I suppose I had gained much infamy amongst the Empire...heh." He chuckled a bit but he was waiting to see Mijek's response.

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"What has changed I feel should be obvious. I realized that my mothers memory was to destroy those arrogant fools that had caused turmoil within Seireitei. Those fools were ourselves, the onigami, and I had not realized it until we were already destroyed. My path is already gone, already completed. I have no new path and no new purpose."

Mijek paused for a moment with sudden realization before speaking again in a questioning tone.

"So what do you believe I should do? Kill all the shinigami I can before I am beaten? Do you believe that is why I am here? Do not think me an idiot, I cannot defeat them even if I wished to, and with a complete lack of resources I have no way of continuing to wage war for the reality of my mothers...I mean...for..."

He trailed off, finally giving into his own confusion on the matter. What was his purpose? Why should he surrender to the shinigami? Why was he giving up now when he had always stood strong before.

Mijek looked inward for what had changed, and he knew now that it was true. He no longer had eyes of hundreds t his back, looking to him for guidance, demanding he be strong for them in the way they desired. He had never really followed his path, but the path they had wanted him to set for them. He had his whole life been the tension cable holding the suspension bridge of his people, but with the tower his people represented he now fluttered not knowing what he truly wanted.

"Or more so...what do I want to do...For myself."

[Zakura Kessin]

"You have no new Onigami path to follow.... its time for you to leave it behind and begin your own journey." Kessin turned and looked at Mijek once again. "Tell me...have you mastered bankai? How about your zankai?" He took a couple steps towards the kneeling man. "You can't claim the end of your journey until you have mastered yourself... perhaps this would be a good starting point to begin your life anew. Who knows....perhaps your true calling will come when you least expect it too." Kessin would know this all too well...it happened to him hundreds of years ago.

"You are no longer Onigami...you are free to do as you please...to train yourself as hard as you wish, to explore things you wouldn't dare try as a caretaker to the Empire. Your calling shall come in time...for now....prepare for it." He then walked up to Mijek within a couple feet. "I know all of this... I walked this earth for hundreds of years...served for hundreds more...yet I found my calling. I know you can as well...you are a warrior and the worst opponent a warrior can face...is himself." Kessin ended his words. He then looked at Tsukasa. "Been awhile lil' missy."

[Nanako]

Kisaki had said nothing so far and only listened to Zakura and Mijek talking to each other. For the most part she didn't understand what they were talking. Maybe thats cause she wasn't really listening. When Zakura spoke to her calling her "missy" to which her expression from then was showing some annoyance. "Yes. Yes it has been."

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"I wouldn't know, there is no Zankai of a higher level then that which I have attained, and my bankai is simple in it's design so beyond fine tuned control in final form I have little to gain from it. My body is weaker then it could be but only due to lack of a developing opponent."

Mijek seemed satisfied with the results of his calling card, or so one could assume from how he seemed to have fully relaxed as he spun up onto his feet while replacing his blade at his hip in a smooth motion. He glanced at the women with a moments reservation before speaking.

"So, are you the shinigami who was fool enough to follow the corpse?"

[Zakura Kessin]

Kessin turned his attention back to Mijek. "Hmm..." He thought for a moment. "If the shinigami were to have responded to this incident of yours, they would have done so by now. For whatever reason, they are not coming..." He turned and walked back a several feet, then turned again to face the onigami, as if he had decided on something. "I have some fine tuning to do as well... so I shall be your opponent." A bit of a small sinister grin spread across Kessin's face. "We shall need another place to do this in....with that calling card of yours leading to here, it'll be a matter of time before the curious see it and come. What say you?"

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"No I believe here will do fine. Whatever cretins that intrude on us try will fail to phase me if I will it."

Mijek watched the women for only a moment more before focusing on Zakura and sliding his left leg forward and bent at the knee. A low stance allowing for a swift forward assault if need be. He exuded no feeling, almost no energy leaked out to press against those around him. He even put off a feel of immovability that brought silence to the area.

"Or is it that you fear the dangerous parties that flit and flutter about this realm on wonton causes, and with utter lack of purpose?"

[Zakura Kessin]

Kessin smirked at the newly stanced Mijek as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Fear is nothing to scoff at young one...it can be an effective tool." He said as he puffed on his smoke. He stood loosely, his whole body facing his opponent, legs spread a little bit and slightly bent at the knees however his hands weren't going for his zanpakuto...they remained the same to the onlookers... but Zakura was prepared, mentally and physically for whatever his new opponent had in store for him.

"I give you advantage of first move. Let's see what you can do." Is all he would say as he awaited the attack.

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

"I have ruled an empire the rival of Soul Society, age does not beget wisdom in all matters. Fearing for self-preservation though is pointless gesture in my eyes as we all will return to the cycle and be reborn anyways." Mijek gave zakura a quick once over before heading in to probe the defenses. His blade snapped to life at a muttering from him before forming around either forearm over his clothes and seeming to grow content as black wrappings.

"I'm a strict fist-sword type of fighter so don't mine me getting the sword out of the way. No then, let's see what your capable of in a warmup."

Mijek's energy seemed to concentrate inward for a moment before he burst forward quickly aimig to deliver a one-two punch combo at roughly head level to Zakura. The lack of focus and follow through behind the punches would make them weak but easily adaptable to a defense on zakura's part.

[Zakura Kessin]

Kessin avoided the first punch by ducking left and keeping low. At the same time, he swept the right lower portion of his coat over Mijek's arms and face and threw a powerful and direct uppercut directed towards his opponent's gut with his left fist, using his own momentum to fluidly move and deliver the attack. Kessin kept note that Mijek's swords became black wrappings and was on guard as to what it and his opponent was capable of.

[Mijek: The Last Oni]

Mijek pivoted from the blind spot knowing the all to narrowly missed glancing blow across his side would have been a painful one had he not gone with the reflexive move to slide around an object before him while in motion. His feet scraped lightly across the floor almost dancing around Zakura's position before stopping a bit behind Zakura and dropping immediately into a sweeping kick aimed to drop Zakura none to gently on his rear.

[Zakura Kessin]

Mijek's kick would connect, sweeping Zakura off his feet. Instinctively, he twisted his upper body around towards Mijek's direction, left, and brought out his left hand so that it would touch the floor, allowing him to quickly roll away. At the same time, he brought around his right fist and using the momentum of his falling and his twisting, aimed another punch at Mijek's abdominal area while he was still recovering from the kicking motion. Whether the punch landed or not, once his left hand made contact with the concrete floor, he would quickly roll left and get back up.

[genmu]

"Next time." Mijek shot away on springs that seemed attached to his arms before landing a good few meters away in a skidding halt. He already knew from the first attack that the second one would give him an equally well honed reflex maneuver as a counter. It was a battle of competence until one or the other reflexively performed the wrong one, or until they broke the combat for a moment such as they'd done by moving away from one another.

"Like an extra set of hands, eyes, and ears. Evenly matched or thereabout wouldn't you say?"

Mijeks springs were gone and the wrappings still lay on his forearms, though extended a bit beyond where they had been just a second or so before. When mijek had just begun to come in for this first punch combo.

"Thats good, a real fight should be a group of smaller battles rather then a drawn out mess."

[Zakura Kessin]

"Evenly matched? I wouldn't be so foolish as to make such quick assumptions based on a warm up. I will neither over nor underestimate my opponent. However, I can try to match them, either by mimicking their advantage or copying their handicap..." Mijek would see what Kessin meant by that last statement as he pulled off his coat and grabbed his zanpakuto. "Keine Rose ohne Dornen, Abaddon." He uttered his shikai phrase out, chucking his coat to the side and spreading his limbs outward. His sword glowed with light as it began to lengthen, however this time Kessin willed it to wrap around himself, first loosely across the upper portion of his back, across his shoulder blades and slightly below his neck. Then it wrapped tightly around his feet, shins and upper thighs. It then wrapped around his abdomen a few times before crisscrossing around his upper body. After that it tightly wrapped around his upper arms, then his forearms and then wrapped around his hands. There were roughtly 10 feet extra on either end so they became tucked under the forearm wrappings. After all was said and done, the light took the form of blackened chains that had wrapped itself around Kessin. None of his joints were wrapped up however...he had free ease of motion as he did before. The 10 feet of chain on either end were still tucked into the bottom portion of the forearm wraps and hidden away. None of the chained wraps were bulky...this meant that nothing would interfere with his ability to move at all. The bladed edges of the chain's links also didn't cut into his flesh due to movement either. Kessin didn't want to harm himself needlessly.

Kessin landed on the floor again...he was mimicking Mijek's own transformation to a small degree. He kept his reitsu suppressed as much as he could. "Whenever you are ready, former Onigami."