The Lone Fighter: Senkaku Ningensei vs Nori Haruo

Reunion
Tereya Haruo wasn't a very calm and level-headed woman. Especially in the heat.

It was another scorcher in Hueco Mundo. Both Tereya and Nori, her husband, were sitting in the living room that was becoming a bit too hot for their comfort. Tereya was sitting at a table, her arms and head in a "class sleeper" position. In front of her were several empty bottles of what looked like beer, one of them less than half full. Naturally, under such circumstances, Tereya would have already gotten up, said "Fuck you all", and leave in order for a more cooler place in the Living Realm. She wasn't very patient in such cases, where anyone was virtually no one in such a situation.

However, at the moment, she had drowned and subdued herself.

At the moment, she was highly happy.

Pun intended.

"Goooooooooooooooooooood FUCK, it's not in here...." She drawled, raising her head up for a moment. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah........... who the hell smashed our air conditioner?! Someone needs to turn off the ffffffffucking sun...." She giggled, hiccuping a little as she moved her head from side to side. "It's so friggin' hot, I bet I could fry some bacon on m' forehead, and some potatoes on ma' neck.... maybe at least two eggs on each of my ass cheeks...." Her dreary like eyes drifted towards Nori, a shit-eating grin on her face. "Bet you'd like that, wouldn't you, Princess?" She chuckled briefly, but almost in an insane manner before calming down and turning away.

"You're drunk."

Her husband, the genius that he was, thought it was important to point out the obvious. The obscene comment made him look away sheepishly as a single bead of sweat crawled from the tip of his forehead to the crook of his neck. "If you're so hot, why don't you leave already..? I'll be fine here by myself." He mumbled. A while ago, she had said she wouldn't leave him alone. But now she was drunk! Even if she tried to keep him here, he could probably overpower her and do what he wanted... And if she decided to leave, he could do what he wanted anyway. How sucessful his plan was - getting her so shit-faced that he was barely recognizable - was almost making him happy.

Grabbing a fist-full of her long hair, he lifted her head up, and directed it pointedly at the wall. "Just open up a garganta and go. Maybe you could go visit a bar and drink more... Or go somewhere where it's snowing. Your choice." Even if his persuading skills weren't... The best, he doubted she would argue with him. Why would she? She was drunk!

"GAH, GOD DAMN IT!!!"

Unfortunately, the hair pulling did not suit well with the drunken woman. Immediately, she threw Nori's arms away, though almost making herself fall in the process. "I don't have to do shiiiiiiiiiiiit......" She said haughtily, raising a finger to point at his face.... or, specifically, his nose. "I kick the fish when I want, I piss on you when I want, and I go wherever I want. And what I want is staying here and making sure you don't do anything eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemooooooooooooooooooooooo.................!!!!!"

An annoyed expression appeared on Nori's face. Immediately, he grabbed her by the wrist and gave her a light push, making her go off-balance and tumble off her seat. Stand and staring down at her, he wondered why she was acting like this... Maybe she was high, too? "I don't really think you're in a position to stop me, Tereya..." Nori pointed out slowly. If he said it at normal speed, she might not understand.

"Uhhh...huh..." She lay on her back, not even bothering to get back up. The drunken blush spread across her cheeks was as clear as day. "Don't you re...re....re...." She raised a hand up, closing her eyes and raising a finger up in order to presumably stop Nori. "D..don't fucking interrupt me, uh...." She placed a hand to her head for a moment. "...what's the word I'm looking for, remember! Yeah, that's it. Don't you remember what I was tellin' you back in the gym...? If you run off...erm...I'm gonna kick your ass! No, wait, someone else'll kick yer ass.... maybe the fish... I done forgot." She giggled once more.

This time, he frowned. "You forgot? You told me I could do whatever I wanted, remember? Or... Maybe you're too drunk..." Nori took a few steps over to her, stared at her for a moment, then dug his food slightly into her side. "C'mon... Do something about it." Even though she was drunk, and helping him... Nori felt angry. He didn't want to stay here with her; she knew what he wanted to do. And, for whatever reason, he felt like he needed her permission to leave... So he'd beat it out of her. Thud! He kicked her in the side. Thud! He did it again. Thud! Nori wasn't going to stop until she told him to go away.

Every time he did, Tereya gasped in pain, the foot that slammed into her side painful and agonizing. Under normal circumstances, she would've gotten up and fought back immediately, determined for retaliation. But in her drunken and numbed state, such blows sent up jolts down her nervous system that she couldn't ignore, and brought chills down her body. "Oh, shit..." She groaned, immediately reaching her hand up to grab the ankle of his foot. "I...I didn't know you wanted to play rough... just the way I liiiiiiiiiiike it!!!" With a sudden jerk, and a display of her strength, she yanked Nori's leg towards her, tripping him and making him fall on his back. Then, with a sudden lurch of her own body, she was upon him, legs straddling his waist, and hands securing his arms to his sides so that he couldn't escape.

She looked him over with a blank, but rather dangerous look. "Yeah....I remember now..." She muttered, grinning. "You and I both know what's gonna happen if you run away. Why would I bother stopping you when that's going to happen? Don't be a fucking retard and act like you forgot."

While normally he would've argued with her, or agreed immediately, this time he stayed silent and stared at her, making no movement to resist. She had him pinned, so there wouldn't be a point to it... But he could annoy her by staying silent and not acknowledging her. And then she'd get bored, let him go, and he could move away! It was perfect. And, even though he knew that this would only make her angrier, and that there was no way she'd ever actually leave him alone (even when she was shit-faced), he continued to lay there and stare at her.

"Heeeeeeeeeeee....... I just noticed something.... this is sooooooooooooo wrong....." Tereya drawled, giggling a little and hunching forward. "You're supposed to be on toppa me, aren'tcha? It's the way in works in them movies.... though, the men in those don't act like the pussy you do, so I guess this is justipied...jousti.... whatever the hell the word's called.... what was it called again....?"

"Justified."

"I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR FUCKING OPINION, YOU SHRIVELED-UP PUSSY!!!" Tereya snapped, eyes flaring for a moment. However, they immediately returned to their dreary and tipsy state. "Now, what was it again....er.... oh, right, justified!" Then, she looked up for a moment, eyes drifting towards the ceiling. "Woooooah...... when I yelled like that, it felt someone just gave me some PCP.... hehehehehehee....." She giggled, a bit more insanely.

The sudden screaming made Nori tremble. He didn't take Tereya for one of the drunk violent types... But, it looked like she was. Considering things for a moment, he decided that the best thing to do would be to sit there and say nothing until she passed out or got off of him. It couldn't take very long!... If she didn't kill him before then.

Just outside of the house, and at the nearest wall to them, five fingers pressed itself to the nearest wall, and a figure was standing silently by. He could hear the voices come from within, and he sweat-dropped a little at most of the conversation that came from the woman. However, he wasn't here to listen into their conversation, but rather to interrupt it. Ever since that fateful confrontation, he had been wanting to test his powers out on his former opponent, as well as the woman that decided to upstage him. In their state, he would have to find a way to catch them off guard and finish them both off at the same time.

With a bit of stepping, he lined himself up with where they were at.

Nori closed his eyes. With her on top of him like this, he wasn't going anywhere... And he had enough time. He'd sleep! And then when he woke up, she'd be sleeping too, and he could get away! And then he'd be able to do what he wanted...

Slowly, the man raised his hand up to the wall.

"Cero."

All it took was a quick charge, before the sphere of reishi formed into his palm and erupted into a compressed energy beam that tore through the wall, the splash damage shuddering the rest of the foundation. It sped towards Nori and Tereya, the latter of which looked on with slowly widening eyes. She lifted herself quickly...

BOOM!

Nori stared dully upwards at the Cero sped over him, barely missing the tip of his nose. It hit one of the walls to the living room and demolished it... This probably wouldn't wake Mitsune; she would just assume that Mommy and Daddy were fighting. After glancing to Tereya to make sure she was alright, he used Kogeru to appear roughly twenty meters in the direction of the source of the beam, and once he saw who launched it, he disappeared again, out of the line of sight of both him and his wife.

His presence had vanished... for the moment.

The Arrancar waited for a moment as the dust cloud billowed in front of him. He closed his eyes for a moment, turning his head away and thinking. As Tereya got up, she rubbed her temples in aggravation, glaring over at the dim figure through the smoke that dared stand to attack her. Who in the hell did he think he was?! This place was trashy enough already, he didn't have to go and mess it up even more!!! It was a rather indirect stand off for a moment...

...until Senkaku opened his eyes once more to look behind him.

He swung his sword upon a re-appearing Nori's neck.

It was easily countered by Nori letting the sword slip past his defenses slightly, and moving to the side as it dug left a shallow gash in his shoulder. His left hand was brought up - palm open - and thrust at the Arrancar's nose; aiming to break it and drive the cartridge into his brain and kill him. Predicting that he would try to dodge, Nori put his right leg inbetween Senkaku's own; hooking it around his left and preventing him from changing his location properly.

There were no words as Nori's fist struck Senkaku's face, the force enough to break the nose. However, in that tense moment of silence, the Arrancar didn't flinch, only closing his eyes upon impact. There was no damage registered, the force having proven no effect. Calmly, he grasped the wrist of Nori and looked at him with half-lidded eyes. Then, he charged up another Cero, firing at the point-blank range they were at.

Nori was not to be deterred. He spun the sword around in his other hand so that the guard was opposite the side the thumb was on; it was positioned in a way that - before the cero blew his other arm off - he could swing it and make the blade impale Senkaku in the eye. Unless he was Superman, this would kill him. And then Nori could just regenerate his arm! Once again, in order to prevent his sword-arm from interfering, Nori turned his head and bit down into the stretched-out arm; not trying to cause him harm, but to prevent it from moving.

Realizing that Hierro wouldn't protect that weak spot, Senkaku knew he had to act. Immediately, he shut off the flow of reiatsu that was making up his premature Cero and pulled back before the blade could hit him. Nori's teeth would prove to be a burden to him, but one that he could easily throw off. Gritting his own teeth, he swung his free arm back, balled his hand into a fist, and swung it into Nori's face with one swift motion.

The sudden blow to his head interrupted all of Nori's momentum. The blade heading towards Senkaku's head stopped; he dropped it clumsily to the floor the moment the first struck his head. His teeth scraped off of the man's wrist, and, because of his own leg being hooked around Senkaku's, he fell to the ground too. Now would be a great time for Tereya to intervene! But he knew for a fact that wasn't going to happen. So... Without any hesitation whatsoever, Nori rolled over on his side and launched a kick right for the lump inbetween the arrancar's legs.

However, once Senkaku had begun falling, he acted quickly. He twisted himself like a cat, landing on his hands in order to catch himself. Then, he rolled over, avoiding a kick and standing back up swiftly. "I would've thought that you would've pulled your sword out by now..." He commented, raising his blade up in order to swing it down on Nori's seemingly prostrate form.

Nori didn't respond. He used Kogeru to move from his defenseless position on the ground to a more preferable one behind the man. His right arm curled around his neck and grabbed his chin, while the other gripped the back of his head. In one, strong, ripping motion he put all the force into both of him that he could, and attempted to rip his head off. Or... At least... Break his neck.

No words this time...

...had his arrogance from before vanished?

Either way, Senkaku's eyes widened at the death grip having wrapped itself around his head. However, they had also managed to pick up the disturbance of reiatsu. His spiritual senses did the rest. Dropping his sword, he gripped each of the wrist that secured Nori's arms in place, struggling against his strength. In a desperate move, he lurched forward and bent down, hurling Nori off of him and back onto the ground. This gave him enough time to pick up his sword and sheathe it.

He wanted to fight barehanded?

Fine by the Arrancar.

He wouldn't be stopped so easily. The moment before he hit the floor, he used Kogeru, then appeared slightly above Senkaku in the air; swinging his leg downward, and aiming for a incapacitating blow to the Arrancar's neck. Even though his Hierro would probably render the kick useless, he would just hook the limb around his neck, hang off of him, then put him in another headlock. The Arrancar was stupid if he thought he could win.

Senkaku's eyes narrowed, and he whipped around to face Nori once more. He raised his arms defensively, the leg connecting into the Hierro once more. With that defense, he parried the leg away, broke the X-shaped defense he was in, and swung an uppercut towards his airbone opponent. However, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something wasn't right with the man... why wasn't he saying anything? Why did he choose to attack immediately?

The moment he'd decided to parry the leg away, and left Nori not touching him, he'd made his mistake. Although it was slightly cheap, and Senkaku would catch on eventually, Nori planned to spam Kogeru as much as he could while it was still effective. Immediately, he appeared behind Senkaku once again, placed his hands in the same position one more, and this time, hooked his leg in between Senkaku's so he couldn't throw him over.

There was one major difference this time.

Senkaku had caught on.

Before his arms could reach, the Arrancar caught them at the wrists and held them in place. "You haven't forgotten our first fight so quickly, have you....?" He questioned quietly, before yanking himself free from Nori. "I was able to read your Kogeru from the moment this fight started. You're wasting your time...." He raised a finger to point at Nori, charging and firing a green Cero from the tip.

Nori's mouth slanted as he used Kogeru to dodge the cero, appearing an equal distance away from Senkaku on the side opposite where he had just been. It seemed that, depsite the Arrancar's claims of being able to "read" his Kogeru, he wasn't trying to stop him from using it. So what if he knew where Nori was going to appear? It didn't matter of Nori just appeared a small distance away, so that he still dodged, and Senkaku couldn't do anything to him. Conveniently, Kogeru was at his feet, and with a flick of his ankle, it popped up into the air long enough for him to grab it and unsheath it in one smooth motion.

His opponent decided to finally unsheathe his blade.

In response, Senkaku unsheathed the jian sword, leaving his first one unsheathed. He didn't want to use his full skill just yet... plus, he wanted to put off using the wakizashi for as long as possible. He disliked the shape, but had to admit it was pretty useful when utilizing speed strikes. He readied his blade with one hand, narrowing his eyes.

What was he waiting for?

After discarding the sheath (he could just go pick it up later), Nori readied himself into a defensive stance, readying himself for the Arrancar's onslaught. There was no reason for him to attack... The Arrancar had broken into his house, attempted to kill him, and his wife, but expected Nori to chase after him? Bullshit. Senkaku could attack. Nori was going to conserve his energy.

"He's not attacking...? Very well."

"Thanks for being generous...." Senkaku said casually, before taking one step forward. With a burst of Sonido, he ripped himself off of the ground and rocketed towards Nori, sword gleaming with the intent to kill as well as the brilliant light of the sun. However, inches from reaching him, he used another Sonido to re-appear above him, swinging down upon his head.

Nori seemed slightly startled by the sudden advance on his position, as well as the sudden change of position. So he was going to try and trick him now, huh? It wouldn't work that easily. Even though he wasn't prepared for it, Nori was able to step to the left, grimacing slightly as the blade skimmed his arm. Grunting, he swung his sword at his opponent (who was, conveniently, still in mid-air and wouldn't be able to dodge properly) with enough force to send him crashing through the wall if his Hierro was fortunate enough to block the strike.

It was an impressive maneuver.

Even as Senkaku attempted to maneuver himself away, the blade caught him in the arm. The force was enough to spin him around like a horizontal top, momentum and direction having diverted where he would crash. As he spun, he extended a hand just as he was maneuvering to the ground. Then, he flipped back onto his feet, another Cero fired at the man from his free hand.

It seemed the Arrancar didn't know how to learn from his mistakes. Nori stood there, idling the time away before the cero hit him. ''... I wonder how long it'll take him to figure that he can't hit me, at a distance, with such an obvious attack... I'm only going to use Kogeru to get behind him again... Or, at least, somewhere where the Cero isn't... Where the fuck is Tereya?''

As expected, he used his Teleportation technique to appear slightly to the side of Senkaku, swinging his sword horizontally with equal force as he had done before. Nori could keep this going for a while... "So..." He drawled, frowning at the Arrancar. "Why did you decide to pay us a visit, Senkaku?"

Anticipating the strike, Senkaku maneuvered his own sword to block, forcing a swordlock and allowing himself to speak. "Isn't it obvious?" He replied calmly. "Our last fight was interrupted, so I'm taking the liberty of finishing it." Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Tereya slowly walking out of the smoke, waving a hand in front of her to clear her vision. "Though, I can't help but wonder if you're a bit shaken up by something...." He added, referring to the change in Nori's fighting pattern. Then, with a forceful arm, he shoved Nori's sword as well as its owner back from him to gain the duelist's distance.

Which was quickly closed by another use of Kogeru, placing Nori slightly lower than Senkaku, in a squatting position. A swipe was immediately made at the Arrancar's legs. If he dodged by jumping upwards, he'd be in mid-air again; leaving the advantage to Nori. This was getting too simple and repetetive... But! Nori didn't want to release his Zanpakuto until the Arrancar went into his Ressurecion.

"It's none of your concern."

"I guess you're right..."

With a downward swing of his own blade with one hand, he forced Nori's sword into the ground to pin it. With his free hand, however, he reached over and grabbed his wakizashi, unsheathing it with another swift motion. Using its swinging speed factor as his own advantage, he swung it at Nori's face, hopefully to tear it in two halves. It allowed him to smile a little - despite the mood, Nori's resolve hadn't faded away. He hoped a greater opponent would surface.

"Hmph."

Choosing to let go of his sword in order to dodge, Nori used Kogeru to appear above where he had been before; perched curiously on Senkaku's other arm. With a grunt, he hopped off of it as soon as his swing was over. "This is a warning. We've been fighting long enough for me to adjust to your spiritual pressure, and at this point, I'm relatively sure that I can cut you. You should change your fighting style to compensate for that."

"Thanks for the tip..."

In other words, he had to fight with effort. But without releasing his Resurrecion, he couldn't fight the way he wanted against Nori. In that moment, he decided to stop fooling around. A desire to see - and defeat - Nori's demon form once again needed to be quenched. As far as he could tell, Nori had no intention of doing that. Maybe if he released his own form...? Willing to test that theory, he twisted his wakizashi blade and sheathed it back into place. Then, he raised his other blade and pointed it at his opponent.

"....Equalize! Agua!"

Then, he was enveloped in a tornado of his own spiritual energy, small in shape, but large in its exertion of power. The winds around him were like the ones of a coming storm, hitting everything with a considerable, but not overly strong force. It glowed a brilliant green - the color of his spiritual energy.

Perfect...

Nori used the force from the tornado to launch himself back, catching Nasuka as it flew haphazardly through the air. As soon as he was able to steady himself, he took up a defensive stance. This time, he held it with both hands... It, with his massive strength in tow, should be enough to parry the Arrancar's own strength. Still, he wouldn't release himself just yet... Instead of using his Release to combat his enemy, he'd decided to only release when he needed it. Basically, as a failsafe to ensure he didn't lose.

When the flash finally cleared, Senkaku had revealed his new form. Two blades of now entirely different looks (and clearly made of ice) were now sported in his hands, both of them having the cutting edges that could cut through even the sharpest material. As they gleamed in the sunlight, Tereya couldn't help but whistle a little. The form was dull, but the blades themselves looked pretty impressive. She folded her arms across her chest, waiting for the fight to commense.

Senkaku made his first move.

With a flip of one of his blades, he lunged down and stabbed it into the ground.

A second later, a geyser of boiling water erupted through the ground under Nori's feet.

It was unexpected, in the least.

Almost in a comical manner, Nori was brought upwards by the stream of water, then launched fowards towards Senkaku as it hit the ceiling, gritting his teeth and patting himself as he tried to get rid of the burning sensation covering his body. So he had water powers now?! Fucking fantastic.