The Hunter and the Disaster

Enter the Predator
Hayashi Kagekyo, the man cursed to carry the Essentiam Inferno as pentance for his own mistakes in life (albeit, not unwillingly did he take it on), stood atop a tree outside Hama Town. His senses were strained, focusing on the sounds of the world around him. Without his demonic power, he wasn't at the his best, nor was he unkillable, so he always had to be ready. ''He's fast, I'm faster. He's strong, I'm stronger. He may be the best, I'm better.'' The mantra his Godfather drilled into him circled his thoughts.

Jōshōtsu narrowed his eyes at the tree 15 meters ahead of himself. He had been tracking this abomination for weeks, and after what he saw the thing do to his men, he could not allow any more mistakes to be made. He will be accountable whether this man is captured or dies. Only his hand, and his hand alone will punish the wicked, by sovereign command of his superior.

With that thought in mind, Jōshōtsu reached back into the satchel on his waist below his back, retrieving several kunai and inserting them in between his fingers, making four for each hand. With an initial strategy in mind, he took a deep, silent breath, watching as the cool night air and the nocturnal sounds becoming silent, as he released his breath. Within a instant, his feet left the branch he stood on, moving quickly, like a wraith in the night seeking the soul he needs to reap.

The soles of his feet tapped rapidly to and fro from each tree and branch he came upon, rapidly throwing the Kunai in a circle around Hayashi.

Once he landed on a branch 7 meters in front of the man, he snapped his fingers with his back to him, causing a 3 second delay for concussive explosives to go off from the knives, with the intent of merely studying the man's reaction time speed and his combat style, as custom with every encounter with a new target. Tonight, would be no different.

Hayashi opened his eyes and braced against the blast, but he was sent forward all the same. Reacting on pure instinct, he saved himself from falling to the ground by manifesting his wires and wrapping them around the branch he was just thrown from. Hurridly, he flipped back atop the branch and looked for whoever it was that thrown the explosives. The intial shock left him as he caught his breath, but still the thought remained. who wanted him dead?

Carefully, he focused on the angles and distances between the smaller blasts, using mathamatics to track the attacker, before noticing the person was right in front of him. "What was that for ya nut? Coulda killed me."

Jōshōtsu narrowed his eyes at Hayashi as he moved on both instinct and intelligence, seeing this man as both a skilled warrior but also a thinker. To be able to manifest wires out of spiritual energy on sheer will also told him he had skill manipulating his personal energy. This told him, he will be a worthy foe.

"You are versed in combat to a high degree, and you've been schooled in knowledge equally well," Jōshōtsu's cool voice emanated in the air, his yellow eyes turned focused on him as he turned around and kept a rigid, crisp stance as he held his arms flat on either side, his weapons present and accounted for, "as to why I attacked you, it is a rather unintelligent question coming from a man who used so much to both find me and avoid my initial attack. May you give me your name or shall I give it for you?"

"Name's Hayashi Kagekyo, the ex-Demonic Son of God . Who the Hell are you?" the wire-master replied. He was careful to keep his ring out of sight, a sign he was thinking defense, not attacking. He also began taking mental notes of the area, already visualizing a chess grid.

Jōshōtsu looked at Hayashi with keen interest, noticing the rapid eye movements coming from Hayashi as well as his stance.

He's already on the defense, his stance tells me he's used to fighting at a mid-range distance but that doesn't tell me he's used to close quarters or long-range. I must see his combat first hand, Jōshōtsu deduced in his mind after a eery amount of silence to creep over the air.

" Jōshōtsu. I'm merely a predator, and you are my prey," he said while narrowing his eyes, before he inwardly thought how blasphemous could a man's title have than what he just told him. His stance did not change however, only that he remained aware and alert, ready for his prey to make the next move. He already has made preparations to make his own move....

Already, wires were extending from Hayashi's ring, remaining bound to his finger via said ring. He swung his hand around, striking whatever got in his way, gathering debreis to actually strike. Although on their own the wires were a killer's tool, while the advantage was in the other's court, just wires would do nothing. To set up his defenses, he begain using the Essentiam Inferno, virtually liquifing his arm to do so, he spread his curse around his legs, and rasing it back up in the form of a very short wall to trip his opponent if he decided to strike.

A blue aura surrounded Jōshōtsu as he noticed the strange and bizarre occurances before him, seeing that his body's composition itself was changing while striking out his wires to form a barrier and striking nearby objects turning it into a debris wall.

"Maintaining a defense will not save you," he spoke lowly, suddenly became a vivid blue before discharging the energy as a pulse, flowing throughout the forest for a good 20 meters, sending a pysionic attack towards Hayashi's mind, ergo, his body filled with a violent killing intent. He would be paralyzed for a good minute or so if he didn't take proper precautions and exude enough spiritual energy, but this was to merely test him. It came with a warning, "if you don't attack me now, I will kill you, creature."

Hayashi's blue eyes glinted with killer intent. He was able to deflect the phychic energy enough to remain moving and capable of defending himself. "Then kill me. Let's see if you'll be the one to send me to Hell! Strip my soul to the core, end my life!" he yelled, the madness of time sweeping across his mind, his desire to die coming forth.

"Well, I wouldn't want to make it easy for ya, Margin would slaughter me." he said, regenerating his arm using more Essentiam, the feeling of pain spreading, his death would come within a matter of years, if not months as the curse ate at his body. From his cletched fist was an organic sword. his Zanpakto. It was reddish-black and almost alive looking. With a lunge, Hayashi was on the offensive, a brutal strike aimed for the heart.

Now, Jōshōtsu thought as his body was impaled by the crude designed weapon, appearing at first to have been torn open and bloodied in a gory display before Hayashi's eyes. However...

"That lunge is not worthy to be called a swordsman's technique, but that of a primal nightmare that you are," the voice rang out as suddenly the body dissipated into a dark blue mist before him, as doubles of Jōshōtsu were on either side of him, both following through with a knife handed strike towards his throat aiming to cease his breathing and possibly break his neck, "Miko Zanshu! ( 巫女斬首, Lit Translation, "Maiden Beheading.")"

"Too easy." Hayashi muttered, ducking down. Once he was below the attack, he stuck out his free hand and grasped one of the doubles by the ankle, and pulled back to send it tumbling down. Hurridly, he disconnected the wires using nothing more than his mental connection to the ring itself, not wanting to risk dragging the mess of a defense along with him if he moved any further.

Jōshōtsu's doubles then appeared to simultaneously fade away into blue mist, as Hayashi grabbed the ankle of one and threw it into the other, revealing that the ploy of what appeared to be a physical attack was merely bait to keep him on his feet...for another pair of black spherical explosives lied at the feet of Hayashi, already primed and detonating within the moment the mirages disappeared.

"He has good reflexes and brute strength," Jōshōtsu commented to himself as he watched the portion of the forest erupt in a spherical blast of orange and white energy, sending a large concussive wave in its wake, shaking the trees and branches while knocking a few from their roots from the sheer force, the explosion could be heard, and vaguely seen from the town below. The explosion's flames licked and caught onto other trees in front of where Jōshōtsu really was. High up on the tallest branch of a tree 10 meters away from where his mirage-Illusions mock-attacked while he hid two more potent explosives where he would see them, "but I wonder how resilient he really is."

Hayashi was almost incineraited by the blast, unable to escape it in time, but thanks to his genetic make-up, he was able to regenerate the damage almost as fast as he took it, making him look almost unkillable. Once he was able to see, he discovered that the blast sent his ring flying in a random direction. Damn him, looks like I need to hunt it down after I kill this guy. he thought, angry at how foolish he was to fall for a ruse like that. The Essentiam that comprised his body began shifting and his hands became claws, as his Zanpakto was once again swallowed by his hand as it shifted. He quickly turned to face where the spiritual pressure emminated. "Where, oh where, did you go? Now I'm pissed! Where the Hell are you?! Come out and fight me! I promise to make it simple and painless for you."

Instaneous regeneration...?!

Jōshōtsu became wary of this new prey as he literally saw his body's composition sinew the muscles and body parts, even synthetic clothes brought about his body, showing that he truly didn't have a real body but more of a single organism that took a humanoid appearance.

"It seems you are more resilient than I anticipated, creature," a voice echoed around the forest, as the hunter maintained his seclusion of sight, "for that, I will grace you a brief moment of my more suited and desirable skill."

Once Hayashi stopped yelling, Jōshōtsu descended from above, unsheathing one of his swords, the first one on his left hip and struck a near blindly sped slash down towards his shoulder and past his torso, intending to sever him in two pieces, while crouching low to avoid any retaliation or impulse use of his vicious looking claws, "Close combat."

Hayashi spun around, growing tendrills to deflect the slash, and more to ensnare Jōshōtsu. "Funny. You expect to slice me in half after seeing what I can heal from? Every cell in my body is able to be perfectly replicated, and all I gotta give up is a few days off my lifespan. I call it a good deal for someone who wants to die." he growled, sending more tendrils out of his back. He wanted to end the fight so he could hunt down the ring, no matter what he'd find it.

He slowly modified his left hand into an axe, a very sharp one at that. "This power's been killing me for a short while. A few weeks actually. Too bad I can't tell when it will finish the job." he said normally, making small talk to distract his foe.

Jōshōtsu narrowed his eyes as he reacted instaneously as the tendrils launched towards his body, unsheathing the most forward one on his right hip while slicing three tendrils coming out of his back while backpedaling away, making sure to slash left and right in a almost windmill motion, buzzcutting the organic material within seconds. As he backpedaled towards the tree behind Hayashi, he placed the soles of his feet on the tree before initiating a Flash Step, disappearing from view and moving right in front of Hayashi again

"Disappear!" He hissed as he crossed his swords in front of him before slicing nearly one dozen times within the time it would take to stroke one sword, the incredible speed made a blue aura as if it looked like a spider's web, the force cutting past Hayashi and through a tree behind him.

Hayashi was nearly slashed to ribbons by the assult, and he could no longer survive on just the Essentiam's regenerative factor, which in the end would kill him as dead as can be. To heal up, he used his Temporal Healing factor, a unique power exclusive to him. In order to use it, he had to bypass the laws of time itself and rewind the injury to it's, to use a term his father's friend had, 'Point Zero'. Effectively, his body canceled the attack's effects on his body, and some of the Essentiam damage, but not outright eliminate that part. The payment for this however, his body (and clothes) regressed to the age of a ten year old. "Oh come on not this stupid Honey I Shrunk the Kids body again!" he yelled, his voice higher pitched.

"What?!" Jōshōtsu became slightly alarmed as the effect of what should've been a clean cut and possible gore, what turned into that of a reversing in age altogether.

'''Shapeshifting again? An Illusion? If I blocked an Illusion he cast upon myself I lose my own perception...but that hasn't happened, there wasn't a change in his Spiritual Pressure or the resonance around him. Time-space? That shouldn't be possible, can it?''' Jōshōtsu analyzed in his mind as his brow quivered slightly with his eyes wide and alert, unsure of the situation that has transpired, but his swords were kept firmly in his grip in case he became a threat again.

Hayashi smiled, making him look even more childish. "Trying to figure it out? Join the club. Let's just say...I own time. Right now, your attack never happened to me, but the time displacement was years rather than minutes or seconds. But the advantage is, it reversed the crap in my body a bit. I mean, I still only have a matter of years left, but this adds a few days. Now then, I need to concoct the antidote to this stuff before someone I care about is killed by it, and myself a few days after." he said, withdrawing his claws. "Besides, I want my ring back."

"Time/Space reversal? I see then," Jōshōtsu raised his blades up again, saying with a cold, dispassionate voice, a eery blue reflection shined off his eyes, "then allow me to reenact the same wounds I gave you to your future self!"

With that said, Jōshōtsu charged forward, swinging his blades in a violent blur that radiated a near silver hue in the air, aiming to slice off his arms and cut his chest many times, his speed and aim with his weapons showed a true testement to his skill of Zanjutsu.

Hayashi would have just dodged the blades if he was in his usual body, but thanks to his forced regression, he was unable to move at his usual speed. Instead, he backflipped, using his coat like a parachute to sustain his momentum in the sky. "Well now, chop a kid into bits. You're sick dude, totally sick." he said before driving himself downwards with a stylised drop kick aimed at the top of his enemy's head.

"You're confusing me for a heartless monster, creature, but no matter what form you take," as the stylized kick came towards his head, Jōshōtsu merely sidestepped, batting away the foot by the ankle with his hilt of his sword before slashing upwards with his other, "you're still my prey, and prey you shall remain till you cease living!"

Hayashi deflected the sword with his knee, hardened by Essentiam and added force from being turned when his leg was batted away. Using Jōshōtsu's moment of disorientation, he ran up to the man and tried to tackle him. "If I'm your target, tell me why."

Jōshōtsu became surprised that despite the lack of speed and strength this temporally transfered version of his target it instinctively could shapeshift the part of its body and counteract his attack. The violent clash of his sword forced him back a few steps, suddenly seeing Hayashi charge towards him. Jōshōtsu however did not allow him to be touched, as he leaped up in a forward flip that elegantly planted his boots on the young monstrocity before propelling him upwards while kicking him towards the direction he was running, which happened to headed towards a rather large tree.

Jōshōtsu has managed to land on a patch of ash covered ground from the result of his 2nd explosion. He turned around, standing straight and tall again with his swords held ready and aloft of him on either side, "You're a Soul Reaper that has inherited a forbidden power. Tampering with Hell, whether willingly or not, purposely or inadverdantly, is one of the highest and oldest crimes that no one shall commit without a price, Hayashi Kagekyo. Make no mistake," he raised both blades up to cross each other as he glared with an eery green glare while the rest of his body cloaked in shadows, "I will be the one to send you to Hell along with your cursed parasite."

"Dude, I was BORN a Demon. As in, I kinda had no choice. As for this, um...this girl I know is kinda dying from it, so I took a sample to study and got infected. I can't contain the disease. Just fifteen more days and I'd be able to cure it.: Hayashi said, not even caring what was about to happen, his time was soon up anyway. "Besides, I was never bound to your laws. I carve my own path." he added, facing the man about to kill him. "Fifteen days, the antidote will be complete and we can put this behind us while I just let my sample eat my body from the inside out. Deal?"

Jōshōtsu inwardly became disappointed in his target. He had hoped it would be more challenging and that his target would drive all of his skill to destroy it. But alas, it was only a child, whether he appeared as a man or a boy, he thought only of saving the one he cherished despite his inevitable death. A prey that would die soon would give Jōshōtsu no satisfaction in the long run, and if he didn't die in 15 days...

"You misunderstand your position, creature," Jōshōtsu spoke coldly, sheathing both of his swords as he continued to glare at his prey, "I am going to kill you. Whether you die in 15 days or not, I will see to it that you cease to exist. Demons, Hollows, Soul Reapers...any of them who become my prey will die because I demand their lives, whether they want the path that led to them to my quarry or not is none of my concern."

With a soundless clapping sound, Jōshōtsu vanished with a Flash Step, but his voice echoed eerily in the forest, "Consider this a time of preperation or execution sentence. If you do not die, as you claim, within 15 days, I will come back once again. Because, next time I will not bargain and I will not show sympathies. No prey is above any other, they are all equal in death. Consider this a warning, Hayashi Kagekyo. Enjoy the last few weeks you have left to live."

Hayashi felt like screaming to the heavens that he'd be done in ten, but that boast would have been pointless. "I'll be waiting for you on the sixteenth day. I'll be at full power, and hopefully, I'll have my ring back." he chose to say. Only fifteen days to go, should be done by then.