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

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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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No, not at first, but Alphonse wasn't going to let his awareness down. He turned at the unusual sound, spotting the Hollow coming right for him. Alphonse quickly jumped out of the way-- faaaar out of the way-- and now that he could see the monster, took up his usual defensive stance. He wanted to see how this thing fought, and think of a way to bring it down. If this were a person, this would be way more easier.

As the boy moved out of its way, the Hollow land on the road, skittering slightly as it attempted to regain its footing...and the boy's placement. Its head tilted, its long, spindly legs bending at unnatural angles as it moved around, observing. It waited another second before charging forward, lowering its head to butt into the boy with the hard, broad surface.

This thing didn't seem to have fast reflexes, so far-- he could be mistaken, so Alphonse didn't scratch off that possibility. Just as long as he was faster than it.

He didn't have long to think on it was it was coming for him again. The Hollow wanted something to hit? Alphonse would give him something to ram his big head into. Within seconds Alphonse clapped his hands together and slammed them down on to the pavement below him, transmuting a decently sized concrete wall not far in front of him. And then, of course, bounded out of the way, because he wasn't going to be behind that in case the Hollow could ram right through.

Alphonse figured it would be a good test to see how strong it was.

*THUNK*

The Hollow hit something alright, its head colliding with the wall, and it backed up, shaking it slightly as if to get rid of the ringing in its head, and then staring at the sudden obstruction. The boy...had disappeared, and this...was...hadn't been there before, had it? Was the boy now behind the wall?

The Hollow figured that the best way to figure it out would be to try to break through the wall. Lowering its head again, it charged forward, rushing into the obstruction with everything it had.

Off to the side (and hopefully not so noticeable-- and if anyone spotted him peering out from behind a telephone pole, shut up, it was the closest thing), Alphonse stared. Yes, more of it, but for a different reason.

Was this thing dense? The wall wasn't even so wide it took up the entire street; heck, the thing could've gone around it, but it decided to go through, instead?

At least he knew now he could build something strong enough to withstand the Hollow's force.

*Thunk* *Thunk* *Thunk* The Hollow persevered in trying to break the wall down, pausing for a moment to let out a long, frustrated cry, matched with the strangled empty mumbling. "Almost...might have..." *THUNK* "...cracked it..."

Almost... cracked what? It didn't sound too pleased, whatever it was, and Alphonse used whatever time he did have to try to figure that out while the Hollow was being... not so smart in trying to get around the wall.

He studied the monster carefully; what, on it, could possibly be cracked? Was that even leading to the way to defeat the thing? That's what Alphonse was going to look for, as it looked like it was going to be his only clue so far.

But if it was going to keep on hitting the wall, he wasn't going to be able to see it as well. Alphonse decided to reveal himself out from behind the pole, positioning himself out to the side and away from the wall. "Hey, over here!" he called.

"There you are!" The Hollow said in its strange, ethereal tones, turning toward the boy. Not a moment too soon, it realized, feeling the pain in its head for the crack that had started to run down the top of its long mask. "No more hiding," it told Alphonse, before charging for him again at full speed.

The side of Alphonse's mouth twitched into a smirk. Opponents didn't normally say things like that towards him, and-- Ah-ha!

Now that he could actually see the Hollow (heading straight for him, no less), it was easy to spot what it was complaining about. It was smashing its face repeatedly on the wall, of course the mask covering his face would be the first thing to be affected by the impact. Good thing he knew it couldn't have been his actual face now.

So, convenient brick wall not too far from him? Was totally being used, and Alphonse hastily put his alchemy to work again. He pulled out a long, blunt object from it, and as soon as the Hollow felt close enough, Alphonse threw down his impromptu weapon to spam down on the mask.

The makeshift weapon crashed firmly on the mask; aided by the crack already there, its hard material shattered, falling off of the Hollow in pieces. It let out a long, gutteral cry before disappearing entirely.

Kenpachi allowed the student to have a moment of repose before stepping forward. He opened his mouth to address the boy, but Yachiru popped up over his shoulder before he had a chance. "Gloves! That was amazing!" she squealed excitedly.

Kenpachi rolled his eyes.

Alphonse was surprised to be spoken to by Yachiru instead of Kenpachi, but after catching his breath quickly and allowed himself to relax, he gave the tiny girl a modest smile. "Ah, thank you," he said, rubbing at his gloved hands.

Great; just what he needed. Yachiru pumping these maggots with false confidence. "That was not amazing," he said, smirking deviously at Alphonse. "That was luck. How fortunate of you, boy, that you seemed to have had it on your side. Luck will save you more than a sword or a prayer ever will."

Alphonse frowned a little; that had to be the first negative comment he'd heard about his fighting ability in a long time.

... It was almost like hearing his master's words, back home, when he was still training.

On the other hand, Alphonse found it hard to argue. Yeah, he got lucky that the Hollow decided to not be the brightest crayon in the box. It made it easy how to go about this battle. He hardly had to throw much of anything around.

"U-um, sorry, sir," he apologized meekly, bowing his head slightly. "I'll try to do better next time."

Kenpachi grunted, eying the boy with disgruntled consideration; such a meek response didn't settle well with him. He sighed, his eyes rolling back slightly in annoyance. He would have smacked him, if it weren't for Yachiru, knowing that he wanted to, holding onto his arm with a death grip and giving him those great big wide wibbly eyes. He was trying to ignore those.

"What are you apologizing for?" he barked. "Success? Don't ever apologize for success, no matter how it is gained. Only thank your lucky stars and plan what to do next time should luck decide to turn its back on you!"

"O-oh, um, right!" Alphonse nodded firmly. "I don't try to depend on it."

The glare remained firm. "...Better," Kenpachi said. "You're dismissed."

Yachiru beamed at him still. "See you next week, Gloves!"

Alphonse paused. ... Wait, was she actually calling him by 'Gloves'? That was the oddest name he'd had to go by, which had caused him to pull his own off and shove them back into his pockets.

Which made Yachiru pout a little, because she liked Gloves, and it was so funny when he put them on.

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

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