fandomhigh | Building a Better Fighter [Week 1, Period 5]; Thursday 05/17

As the students settled into the Danger Shop, which looked like a suburban street in Tokyo, Kenpachi and all his massiveness came in with a billowing of his tattered, frayed captain's robes and stood before them with his arms crossed over his barrel of a chest. His eye scanned over the group, and he sneered. Pathetic. Almost every single one of them. Some...could have potential, but that would be left to be seen.

"Building a Better Fighter," he announced, a bit hoarsely, and he cleared his throat, rubbing at the bandage wrapped around it. "You are here because you are weak. You are here because you hope to not be weak. But some of you will always be weak. Don't be one of those people." He grinned now, something as sharp as his features, as deeply cut as the scars on his jagged face. Something...more than just a little bit psychotic.

"I'm going to skip all the getting-to-know-you bullcrap because I don't care. I might, if I feel you're worthy, but, right now, I don't. Make me care. Make me feel like you were actually worth naming."

"This is Yachiru." As if on cue, the little pink haired poked her head out and she waved with a bright smile at all the students. "She's here to help you. Or make your life more miserable. Which is also to be determined."

"This is your first task." A great, looming monster showed up beside Kenpachi, its colours distinctly black and white, its limbs distorted. It tilted back its head in a strange moan of a roar and then turned its eyes, dark and hidden behind a mask, to the students. "This is a Hollow. None of you, I've noticed, seem to be Shinigami and might never actually have to deal with one of these in reality. However, one of you..." Kenpachi's eyes went to the boy; he should know who he was, "...have managed to encountered them before. With the strange magic that is this room, however, you do not need to worry about being mundane in spiritual things in order to see them. To defeat a Hollow, you..."

There was a pause. "You know what? I'm not going to tell you how to defeat it. See if you can figure it out yourself. Get yourself 'killed,' and you're done. Don't want to see you in this room anymore until next week, where you will make up for your failure. Manage to defeat it or at least survive, then you're lucky."

Crossing his arms over his chest, he waited for the first student to step up and take the challenge.

[[~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Play ball. ]]

[[ Class Roster and Syllabus ]]
[[ Info on Hollows ]]

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Qui-Gon looked over the weapons, smiling when he spotted a saber and picked it up.

Kenpachi took note of the weapon this fellow chose. And the fact that he had gotten a weapon at all. His chin lifted. "Are you prepared?"

Qui-Gon centered himself in the Force and nodded. "Yes." He held the saber in one hand but didn't light it yet.

It was shortly after Qui-Gon's answer that he could hear a sound coming from the sky behind him, the strange, displaced call of the Hollow. It was a winged one that was coming toward him, swooping in with opened talons, ready to snatch up his prey. The spirit force coming from him seemed very different from what it was used to, but it was strong, so it knew he would be tasty to devour...

Qui-Gon waited for the last moment, then leapt and rolled out of the way with Force enhanced speed.

The Hollow was surprised to find its talons grasped around nothing but air, especially since it was thinking he had this one snared, with the way it just stood there. It quickly swooped upwards, turning in the air. There it was. Easy to track him. Another call, and it swooped again.

Beginning to get an idea of his opponent's agility and speed, this time Qui-Gon ignited his saber and this time slashed at it as he leapt out of its way again.

A searing pain that the Hollow didn't expect left it's swoop upward again slightly awkward, his balance knocked off kilter by the slice into its talons. It let out a series of sounds at Qui-Gon, mouth gaping open and head moving like a disturbed bird with its feathers plucked.

It moved toward him again, making sure this time to shift slightly to the left when he approached, leaving his whip of a tail headed straight for him after it moved.

Qui-Gon spun aside and brought his saber down on the Hollow's tail.

Which made a rather clean cut. And, without its tail, the Hollow found it almost impossible to keep his flight straight, and crashed into one of the walls along the street in a cloud of dust. It was definitely not going to let something like that stop it, though. The dust cleared and the Hollow was crouched on its hind legs. It let out a faded sort of roar before it tucked its wings in, leaned forward on the so that it was now on four legs. It charged for Qui-Gon, but, once it got close, it reared back up on its hind legs and swung a wing at him hard.

This time Qui-Gon didn't move save for his saber, aiming once again at the limb swinging at him.

The Hollow released another unnatural scream of pain as the lightsaber managed yet another dismantling. Whatever that thing was, the Hollow decided that it had to disarm Qui-Gon from it. Somehow. He was so quick, though; that was a problem, and now it had no tail, a sliced talon, and an injured wing...

It decided to go with the desperate. Lurching forward, it just threw its whole body toward Qui-Gon. It was bigger than him; maybe it could smush him.

Qui-Gon narrowed his eyes and reached out with the Force, letting it guide his next strike -- straight at the mask the Hollow wore.

Hacked off limbs were one thing; the pain was terrible but quickly forgotten. That strange weapon slicing through the hardness of its mask like a knife through butter, however...that was a pain a Hollow could not handle, and it showed in the excruciating release of noise from deep within the blackened bowels of its ethereal makeup. The mask split cleanly in two, clattering to the ground before the creature disappeared into nothingness.

Kenpachi allowed for a moment of repose in the student before stepping forward from where he was watching carefully. "Quite a weapon you've chosen," he commented.

Qui-Gon switched the saber off and inclined his head to his teacher. "It is the traditional Jedi weapon," he said. "Part of our training is making our own saber."

Kenpachi grunted; as if he cared how the weapon was made. Just what he needed; another batch of warriors believing in the existential connection between fighter and blade. "How do you think you might have managed to do what you did if you did not have that weapon?" he asked.

"I would have used whatever I could find in my surroundings, or the surroundings itself," Qui-Gon replied.

An interesting answer. "And what about using yourself?" Kenpachi asked, eying Qui-Gon crtically.

"That would be included in 'using whatever I can find'," Qui-Gon said with a faint smile.

...Kenpachi wasn't even going to touch that one, as it reeked of psychological, searching and finding yourself bullcrap that he'd always felt was a complete waste of time and a big wet sack of baloney.

"Very well," he said. "You're dismissed."

"Glowy Swordy Guy, byyyyee!" Yachiru waved at him.

Qui-Gon bowed formally to Kenpachi and smiled at Yachiru as he left.

Building a Better Fighter [Week 1, Period 5]; Thursday 05/17

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