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Resolve That Never Wavers[]
Through mountains and cities, he had traveled, searching for the ultimate adversary to test out his strength. A young Quincy, no more than eighteen at best, born straight from rural China and raised to find both strength and harmony through conflict. He had learned to live and die by the fist, using it not only to rise in status, but to merely exist. However, he who is brought up in the way of martial arts is only at his strongest when he is at peace, and as young as he was, he was never at peace.
From his family members, to his own masters, Cang Du beat his way to the top of his Clan, but even this was not enough. As he heard that the father of all Quincy, Yhwach, had returned to the living, it became his mission to find him; perhaps his greatest ancestor could provide him with the peace that he desired. His skill greatly impressed Yhwach, and was gifted with a most fitting power: he could turn his skin into the strongest of steal, to make him an even more potent and deadly fighter, but even in the service of his Lord, he couldn't find any peace with the challenges that they provided him; he needed something more.
And so he traveled throughout the World of the Living, seeking the strongest of foes, but alas, he could find none. The more fighters he defeated, the stronger his arrogance grew. "Could I achieve peace through this?" he would think to himself as he continued his endless trek throughout the world. "Is there truly no fighter out there capable of overcoming my strength?"
And then, a revelation came to his mind: if the plane of mortals could not provide him with the peace that he sought, then perhaps the realm of his kind's mortal enemy, the Shinigami, could.
He moved through the Rukongai with a face of sheer determination, blowing through the various thugs and gangs that would have the courage to stand in his path. He could feel something far greater than himself, a warrior of unparalleled strength and wisdom, the Shiroyasha. Above all else, he desired to find this "White Demon", and challenge him as the ultimate test of strength. Should he prevail, and defeat the most powerful of martial artists in existence, he would truly find peace.
And so he found the gates to the famed Kawahiru Dojang, glaring up at their large size with apprehension, but determination. "Shiroyasha, I challenge you!" he shouted as loud as he could without damaging his lungs. "Open these gates, and let me see for myself if these tales of your might are true! Show me why you are so feared!"
Upon the loud echo of the Quincy's demand, no answer came in response. But instead, merely seconds after, a grey bottle that would be recognized by anybody familiar with Japanese custom as a container for serving sake came flying over the gates of the property. Given its trajectory, it was surely to smash right into Cang Du's forehead if he did not avoid it quickly enough. And following this, the wooden gates that concealed the nature of this building flung open, with its very master, dressed in his signature white clothing with black trim, came rolling outwards in an almost cartoon fashion. He landed right on his back, his head rested against the ground where he halted as his eyes were narrowed with a exhaustive tint, a mere couple inches from the Quincy that was most likely drenched in the left over sake from the bottle that flew earlier. Out came walking a strange female dressed rather provocatively, with long flowing orange hair, as she passed by the fallen white-haired man. Her face reflected a form of... disgust? No. More like... annoyance. But surely this wasn't any situation that any outsider would wish to look into.
The bottle smashed right onto Cang Du's forehead, and he was drenched in the rice-wine, but his pose, nor really even his expression changed, as if he had endured worse forms of trauma. Though he had to admit... the aroma of the famed alchohol was tempting, especially to one so young. But alas, his soul was one of iron; he wouldn't be swayed by brew. The only thing that would make him leave would be a shameless display.
...like the one he had seen just after being hit with the bottle.
He could only stare at Seireitou's fallen form, and glanced at the orange haired woman that followed, with his own expression of disqust present. "This... this is a joke? All of these tales and songs of the most powerful warrior in existence, and this is all you are? A drunkard wedged in the belly of a whore?" Following these words, Cang Du could only spit at the ground in front of the two beings. "I should kill both of you know; those who share common purposes in life should also share their ultimate demise, and two lowly creatures such as yourselves deserve no less of a fate..."
Of course, the orange-haired woman had left by now, as she was... Let's say a temporary visitor, so to speak. But upon hearing the derogatory remarks made by the visiting Quincy, the white-haired man known as Seireitou quickly sat up, before finally regaining composure as he stood back up to his feet. He patted himself off from the dirt his clothes gathered in the ordeal. Finally, he registered the presence of the newcomer. His eyes narrowed with what could be discerned as a serious demeanor, and then the white-maned master spoke. "...If I've told you guys once, I've told you a thousand times. I don't want any boy scout cookies or magazine subscriptions. The place you're looking for is about seven districts that-a-way." he remarked, actually pointing in the direction of the outer Rukongai districts, obviously referring to his friend, Raian Getsueikirite, where his own school lay. Upon doing so, he scratched the back of his head and proceeded to walk back in toward the broken wooden gates.
A sweat drop went down the back of Cang Du's head as the orange-haired woman left; it was a surprisingly subtle way of bringing his confidence down somewhat. He could admit that he might have been over his head somewhat, but the woman didn't even seem to register what he had just stated. He had literally threatened to kill both her and her host where they stood, yet she seemed to regard him as little more than a breeze of air. Maybe he had gone in too far over his head...
No, he didn't come here to be brushed off, not by her, nor by the Shiroyasha, whose own comments seemed to convey only a sliver of more care to his existence than she. "Don't brush me aside so quickly, Shiroyasha." he stated, balling his fist out in front of himself and towards Seireitou. "I've defeated the greatest of martial artists in the World of the Living. I've treked and climbed over the tallest and mightiest of mountains with my bare hands and blackened feet. And I've blown my way through the Rukongai as if it were nothing but weeds!"
His arm, from the elbow up to the balled up fist, became coated in a shade of dark grey, a visual demonstration of what his true power was. "Do NOT toss me aside like I have done them!!!"
Seireitou's steps continued toward the entrance of the building, the clicking sound characteristic of wooden geta stepping against solid ground following, as he finally stopped at the forefront of the gates. He turned his head with an air of subtlety, enough to lock eyes with the aggressive Quincy on his lawn. His facial expression displayed the change of persona. Before, there was absolutely nothing even remotely serious about this man and the way he presented him, but now... This was the trademark of a true master. Composed and noble. It was then that he abandoned immature antics and addressed the Quincy firmly.
"Would it not be fitting? Just as you brushed aside insects to get here, I am myself brushing aside an insect that dares speak to me with such disrespect." he uttered with a deep clarity.
Now things were starting to change.
Cang Du felt his confidence start to waver, and the mood that swept around his vicinity felt... distorted. Such was typical in the cases of mood swings, but this was unlike any he had ever felt before. In the beginning, he saw Seireitou as a simply drunkard, posing as the great martial artist of legend, but now... now he could tell why this man was so feared, and the man was only looking at him.
For a flicker of a second, the nerves in his body seemed to send a slight jolt down to his left leg, causing it to just barely inch backwards as Seireitou merely stood and spoke. He couldnt' let his composure diminish right now, beginning to push the leg back even further; not out of retreat, but to prepare his next move. Seireitou had just given him a glimpse of the being that he had come here to challenge, and so he would waste no such time exchanging words
He dug the heel of his bare, retreating foot into the ground, and then reared his own body back to send the balled up, solid iron fist right straight towards Seireitou. He was putting all of his might into this strike, putting up his greatest use of Blut Arterie and The Iron to show Seireitou the gap of power between them. His naive mind would have him believe that this gap would be far more in favor of himself than the Shiroyasha; he could turn his body into solid metal, what could this silver haired man possible do that would outshine something like this?
"The peace I have sought for so long..." he thought, as the fist would generate streams of wind from around it as it flew towards it's target. "Will at last be mine!!"
There it was. An impressive display of strength and precision. Seireitou knew it right then and there. He wasn't dealing with an amateur. This man clearly experienced battle in his time. From the way he took a step back, ensuring that his stance was distanced enough to allow a proper degree of support for the incoming punch as the strength behind the Quincy's muscles were constricted and tight, as he pressed forward to unleash the attack. Beautiful. Elegant. But there was proof of the child's youth.
It was akin to a newly-molted cicada. A breath of fresh air. A beautiful addition to the glorious picture of nature. But above all?
Weak. And naive.
Seireitou turned his head to face the entrance of his building once more. The direction of the fist was just as his previous thought indicated. A newly-molted insect with eyes fresh from its cocoon. And just like that cicada that has just molted, it had no idea... just how large the world outside of the tree branch from which its cocoon swung from was. The punch was far too naive and wild, without any sense of direction. It had great strength behind it, and a well-developed support, but as long as it was flying blind... It was as weak as the punch from an infant. As the punch neared Seireitou's body, a mere pivot of his heels, which caused his body to turn enough to face Cang Du directly, occurred at the same instance as the punch reached its target. With such timing... Such perfection of self-control over his body's motions... The torque generated by his turn caused that punch, and all its great strength, to literally slide off the Shiroyasha's body once it collided, sending the poor Quincy flying in the direction drawn by his failed strike's trajectory.
"My apologies, I thought I saw a bee." he responded, as justification for his previous turning, as though trying to pretend it wasn't an attempt at blocking and redirecting his punch.
Cang's narrow eyes widened as his body literally seemed to throw itself in the direction behind Seireitou. The weight and pull of his fist was practically hurtling him towards the building that the silver haired man had left, but it was also because of it's weight that he managed to slide onto the ground as opposed to doing any damage to the structure.
His teeth gritted against each other, and he redirected his Blut all into his legs. With a fairly sizeable upheaval of dirt in his wake, Cang Du threw himself at the Shiroyasha once again. This time, however, as he were a few feet from Seireitou, he leaped up into the air and spun himself around. His waistline was even with Seireitou's head, and his right heel, lined with his Iron ability barrelled straight towards his target's head. It was a technique that he himself came up with; a simple one, but it fit with his style of fighting. Calling it "Anvil Kick", he intended to swipe Seireitou's head clean from his body.
A narrow smirk formed on the white-haired master's face. But once more, the Quincy child would know the depths of how far he was from matching fists with the Shiroyasha. His heels merely kissed the ground before he launched himself upwards, right off his toes, and in the same instant, he was already forming a back flip of sorts. Once the heel of the Quincy challenger came close to where Seireitou's head originally was, the latter stuck out his right hand's index finger, pressing against the kicking heel. And there he managed to stand, upside down, using only his mere finger to hold himself up and using Cang Du's own heel as the surface.
What a fantastic sight this was. Cang Du, with his heel held outwards over his own head, and Seireitou, upside down with his finger holding him up on the Quincy's attacking heel. But this exchange lasted mere milliseconds. Once the heel passed the original location of its intended target, obviously missing, Seireitou almost repeated his same motion but in reverse, landing back to his feet in the exact same spot he was just standing a second before. Cang Du, unfortunately, was still in the middle of the ordeal that comes with such a large sweeping kick: the time it takes before his foot manages to return to the ground. And until it does, he'd be a sitting duck.
Without making a motion of the feet, Seireitou clutched his fist together, but left a single finger stretched out. The same index finger as before, that he used to stand upside down on Cang Du's heel. With a powerful thrust outwards, he struck for Cang Du's face, but the trajectory of the attack suggested he wasn't trying to really pierce the boy's skull. Such a technique would be considered fruitless by a practitioner of martial arts, but to a true master? A mere finger... is like the strongest of spears; the sharpest of blades.
Thoughts weren't even able to process through Cang Du's mind as the finger came towards him. The truth of the situation finally seemed to hit him home; he truly was out of the Shiroyasha's league. Seireitou had used his own attack to counter him, or at the very least, demonstrate how far the gap between the two of them truly was. He could only stare as the finger hit him right straight on the left side of his mouth... and sent him flying back. His back hit the stone wall with enough force to crack it; to think that this was accomplished with but just a mere finger.
Blood was all over the lower left side of his face, and he was already exhausted. He hadn't even thought to use his Iron ability to soften his impact, or his Blut for that matter. This was all it took to bring the young Quincy down to earth... he had been out of his league the entire time. This was so resolve-breaking, he couldn't even work up the strength to get up from his position. It was that, and the amount of shame he had brought upon himself. Acting as if he were on top of the world, and in just a few minutes, reduced to a mere dog... he almost wanted to die right then and there.
After the strike managed to inflict the maximum amount of damage Seireitou had intended to preform, he followed through by pointing his extended index finger right to where Cang Du was standing, still trying to wrap his head around the attack he just witnessed. Upon doing so, he began to stretch out his other three fingers: the middle finger, the ring finger, and then the pinky finger, in that order. And with every flick of the finger, a vacuum of air was created from the respective force, causing small punctures and cracks in the stone wall right behind Cang Du; all of them nearly a centimeter from his head.
"I just killed you four times over, stranger. Shall we tango some more or have your hips finally given way?" Seireitou mused.
Cang could feel his eardrums quake in light of being so close to the air "bullets" that Seireitou had so casually thrown his way. He didn't appear to be visibly affected, but he certainly couldn't say the same for his head.
It was here that Cang Du had realized just exactly what he had gotten himself into, and how foolish he had been his entire life. So long he had spent honing his skills, and even longer had he spent showing these skills to the World of the Living, and yet, in the Spiritual Planes of existance, these skills were nothing more than child's play in the eyes of the Shiroyasha. His accomplishments, his strengths, and his resolve... were but dust in a great wind to this silver-haired master.
He fell onto his knees and placed his hands on the ground between him and Seireitou, bowing to him as a visible acknowledgment of his foolishness. "You have shamed me, great Shiroyasha...." he began. One might pass this off as a means to acquire Seireitou's favor, but one as perceptive as him could easily tell that this wasn't the case for Cang. As arrogant as he may have been, he was never a lier, or a deceiver for that matter; there was truth to his humble words. "... I will not ask you to forgive me for this... disgraceful behavior; I am not worthy of pardon from one such as you; he who truly lives by the fist. But..."
He felt his teeth grind and his hands balled up into fists, clenching the dirt beneath him. "I will beg you... plead with you, to grant me the peace I have longed for all of my life. Teach me your ways... teach my how to overcome myself..." he drew to his conclusion, too ashamed to even look at Seireitou. "... teach me to fight like you."
Seireitou's eyes shut closed and let out a soft sigh at the change in the Quincy's demeanor. He rubbed the back of his head in response and took a couple steps closer to the Quincy child. "My lessons don't come cheap, stranger." he answered, acknowledging the plight of weakness that this boy was experiencing. But his seriousness quickly turned into the signature eccentric nature that composed this master. His hands curled up and began making groping gestures in the air. "I like them ripe and luscious with curves like that, see? And big, but not too big, know what I mean? If you bring me something like that, I will definitely train you." he explained.
Cang's face slammed into the ground almost instantly in a comical fashion. Seireitou's composure and nature was about as stable as a bridge made of a few toothpicks. He would normally have retorted with a dismissive comment, but this wasn't a situation where that would benefit his plight; he needed to start fresh, and move up to the top from there.
He stood himself up and hung his head low, almost as if he were too embarrassed to even embark on such a search. "...do you know where I can start looking?"
The silver-haired master gave a bit of a confused glare at him. "What do you mean? Didn't you brag just a little while ago about going everywhere and confronting the best? Surely you spotted some acceptable tail somewhere!" mused Seireitou before finally returning to a serious composure. "I know what you're thinking, that this is just a goofy request from an old perverted martial arts master. But there is a method to my madness, I assure you, young Quincy." Seireitou explained, his demeanor simply relaxed.
"I'm going to have a serious headache being around this man..." Cang thought to himself as Seireitou's mannerisms shifted once again. Choosing not to argue or object, the young Quincy simply placed his clenched left fist against the palm of his right hand and bow before the Hakuda Master. "I will return shortly, Master."
Leaving it at that, he turned to exit the premise, searching for his new master's prize.
It wouldn't be but just thirty minutes later that he returned, and in tow with him over his shoulder was a young woman who appeared to have been from a local brothel. She was wearing an orange robe with violet flower patterns, and her hair was in a bun, clearly just another hooker. The only difference between her and the last one was that she was tied and bount from her wrists and her ankles with rope, and she had a rag stuffed into her mouth. She was squirming and letting out muffled yells of anger, but Cang seemed to be unaffected by this as he set her down rather unceremoniously in front of Seireitou.
"I have brought back what you asked for, Master Kawahiru." he said in a low but dedicated voice. "I hope she meets your... specifications."
Comic darkness drowned Seireitou's eyes as he stared at what his new student brought before him. "Oiiiiii! What is thiiiiis?! What did this stripling do?! We've passed the critical point in a Shōnen series! If... If the PTA finds out about this, we're finished!" were the thoughts roaring in the silver-haired man's head as his mouth hung open in disbelief. He continued watching the woman struggle in her bound trappings, seeing the eyes of despair and the outward sounds of anger. An almost lion-like growl could be heard escaping from Seireitou's stomach, but this was not out of hunger.
"F-Forget the critical point, we've left the atmospheeeeeeeere!"
He slowly made his way toward the seemingly proud Cang Du, some of his composure returning to him as he did so. "Okay okay, you uh... Passed the test, grasshopper. Now you can let the woman go." he ordered.
Cang raised an eyebrow after Seireitou's response. Here he had been hoping that would get to use the woman as a form of training, like a punching bag of sorts, perhaps. He would have liked nothing more, considering how much of a chore the woman was to both capture, bound, and bring all the way back here. But, Seireitou knew what was best for his growth... right?
"As you wish." he replied, grabbing the woman by the back of her neck collar and pulling her up. With two swift movements, he cut off the wrist and ankle restraints, and his actions were met with a powerful and fast slap across his right face from his captive, followed by getting the rag thrown on his head as well. The woman then turned and glared at Seireitou, spitting a large wad at his face before perking her nose up with a single "hmph!", and stomping out of the Dojo's grounds.
Cang calmly took the rag and threw it to the side, before addressing Seireitou respectfully once more. "What is my next step, Master?"
Silver-Hairs Training[]
Seireitou's eyes were once more blackened in comic disbelief at the wad of spit slowly descending down his cheek. Upon wiping it off with his arm, he immediately jumped up with both feet, gliding through the air after his swift kick-off, as his feet crashed into the woman's backside as she was still within proximity. "You're lucky I didn't use you as a punching bag for Robin Thicke over there, you tie-dyed Miley Cyruuuuuus!!" he roared during the execution of the attack. With such an action, the woman yelped in response and was sent hurdling through the air, leaving but a twinkle left in the distance. The silver-haired man, in comedic fashion, then spat onto the ground and turned away, slowly walking back toward where Cang Du was awaiting his next instructions.
As he returned, the Quincy could see Seireitou wiping his hands as though he just got finished taking care of business. "Now then... I suppose it's time for me to be a bit more serious. First, I believe you have yet to tell me your name, young one. And second... Just how sure are you about this?" he asked, almost innocently, but his tone of voice quickly went dark. "Understand that I have no emotional attachment to you. Whether you gain anything from this training... or die like a disgraceful dog on the side of the road... I couldn't care less. Which means, I will be putting you through the worst Hell you can think of, and then some." he thoroughly explained. The Shiroyasha's methods were not one to be trifled with.
"I'm not here to be your friend, Master." Cang Du responded in a dispassionate manner. He had to admit, he knew that whatever training that he had gone through in the past would be nothing compared to what Seireitou was preparing to lay upon him. Be it physical exercises, or spiritual obstacles, it would not matter. "I'm here to be your student and learn how to fight like you, and if I die trying, my next life will find it's way to you once again and this will repeat over and over... until I've found the peace I've killed for."
He resumed the kneeling pose that he had entered before, getting on one knee and placing his fist on the ground below him, his eyes staring straight at the dirt. "I am called Cang Du... The Iron."
Seireitou's eyes descended into a lazy sort of gaze, his left eye twitching after hearing his declaration. "Oi oi, kid. I ain't the girlfriend you left back home, leave the romantic drivel for when you're trying to plow your neighbor's wife." the man answered as he slowly approached the bowing Quincy. "Stand." he ordered.