Black Veil of Naps

Okuda could feel the sudden pressure slam into him from behind and above himself. Crushing him down towards the ground before he could even realize his target had actually evaded his attack, he had much to do to regain his impressive speed. “Hey, you’re losing my guy...you might wanna...I dunno...do somethin’ to change your fate here? Did you forget I exist or something in the short time since I was SHOUTING AT YOU?!” said Shinda-en slowly letting his voice raise in pitch and volume until he was shouting inside of Okuda’s head. It was annoying, but he knew that even using just his Shikai would not help him much here.

Okuda slowly gripped the blade of his Zanpakutō as he turned to look at his opponent, the pressure causing him a great amount of pain as he did so. He then glared at the man and said “Scorch the Earth, Asahi!” The blade then began to glow red hot as the spine of the blade returned to an unpolished state, as if it were still being forged for the first time. This granted Okuda a bit of a reprieve from the gravity, but he knew that at this level it would still impair his movement speed.

Okuda then placed his right hand in front of his face, concentrating some as his hand and face were suddenly engulfed in black flames. When he removed his hand, a white mask with a red circle on its forehead remained in its place. His eyes had also changed, instead of being sapphire on white conjunctiva, they were now yellow atop black conjunctiva. A low snarl sound could be heard as his Inner Hollow was laughing in his mind. Okuda watched as a flame engulfed the entirety of his blade suddenly.

The flames around his Zanpakutō suddenly turned pitch black, a sign that he was in sync with his Hollow, a sign of thanks for letting him stretch his legs a bit. Looking at his opponent he suddenly disappeared, leaving only a small trail of black flames in his wake as he suddenly struck at the man, though it was not from straight on as usually would be with his Hi Kyōka Sokudo, instead a few moments before he would have reached his opponent he suddenly pushed up launching himself high into the air. Then with a slight somersault he spun so he would be falling straight down onto the former Captain.

Both hands tightly gripping the hilt of his Zanpakutō he used the enhanced gravity of the man’s own attack to aid his sword strike, his Ryūtsuisen. Regardless of if Okuda landed a blow or not his Zanpakutō would suddenly return to its sealed state and the mask would disappear from the inside out slowly, a sign that Okuda had released his mask from control. The Shinigami would breath a bit heavily, still not used to the use of the mask, but he knew he could go for a while longer if he needed to use his mask more.

Okuda landed on the ground with a loud thud after being forced to hover in the air for longer than he had expected. Okuda felt his Zanpakutō dig deep into the ground, the flames having made it much easier to do so by softening the ground. However, it seemed that the man had seen enough in their very short spar. He was ready to call it quits for the time being it seemed. Okuda had no objection to this of course, neither did Shinda-en since he got to stretch his metaphorical legs in this quick bout. Shinda-en laughed loudly in Okuda’s head and said “I like this man! He is strong! He’d make a good lackey for Asahi-sama!”

“Yes...he would make a good lackey, definitely a good teacher for you Okuda to help you learn how to fight with your new spiritual body so I don’t have to do all the work at least...” The voice that was speaking was cool, calm, collected...yet it burned with a quiet rage that Okuda knew from his one meeting with him so far: it was Asahi, the spirit of his Zanpakutō, who wanted to see the world burning one day.

Okuda looked at the man, his eyes slowly going from their yellow-gold color to their regular sapphire, the black conjunctiva returning to white as his Zanpakutō returned as well to its natural state. Okuda was panting hard, his body still not used to utilizing both his Shikai form nor his mask, either one seemed to take a large toll on his body, but to use both? It was taxing on the man’s body. Okuda coughed a bit, slowly pulling his Zanpakutō from the ground, giving it a hard slash to knock the dirt and soot from his blade.

“You’re right, I am burning the candle...I need to learn to fully control both powers, to master them so I can fight at my utmost for the day the wars resume, when battle returns to every moment of our lives...its my experience that peace only lasts for a short time compared to war. Teach me, help me learn to properly use this new body I have, its different from when I was alive. Help me to learn how to fight and manipulate not only the blade in this body but also Kido...HoHo...and the mask.”

Okuda was definitely sore and tired from going full force as he had, there were still some black flames on the ground next to him, burning from when his sword had pierced the ground. With a glance of his eye he sorted the flame, snuffing its Reiatsu fuel supply and making it turn into just smoke. He had done more than his fair share in the small spar, he could only hope that the man before him agreed to take him as a student of sorts. To teach him more than the Shinigami Academy had ever hoped to teach him, after all that building was only seeking to give a bare minimum of information.

Okuda watched as the man summoned someone from inside his home to bring three candles, they were placed equidistant from each other a good bit from him. Okuda was a bit confused as to how this would help him learn, that and he was not expecting to start his training right away. Okuda sighed a bit and drew his Zanpakutō from his scabbard once more. He was about to make the attempt when he noticed that since it was still day none of the lanterns in the area were lit, nor were there any sources of flames.

“Do...do you want me to do this in my Shikai or without my Shikai? My Zanpakutō allows me to control flames to an extent in my sealed state...if you want me to do this in my sealed state, I do require a natural flame produced from some other means...” Okuda let his voice trail off after that, wondering which the man was going to say, was he going to demand Okuda go right into his Shikai so soon after he had left it. He knew he could only hold his Shikai for so long at this point, before he was no longer able to use it that day.

Okuda decided to start preparing in case the man told him to use his Shikai, he then gripped the blade of his Zanpakutō near the tsuba where it was dullest and began to channel his Reiatsu into the blade, wondering what his new teacher would say to do...

Okuda listened to the man speak for a time, listening as closely as he could to every little word he said, taking in mind how it was said, bit it their inflection or their intonation. Once Jaeden had finished speaking, Okuda nodded softly and focused his Reiatsu into his blade once more, channeling it as best he could. Once he had done so, the man spoke softly a phrase that was becoming more and more common to him: “Scorch the Earth, Asahi!” Okuda then felt his Zanpakutō begin to heat up once more, reaching its usual heat.

The blade itself began to glow a dull red-orange color whilst the spine of the blade began to look as if it were cooled off but with the sort of “scabbing” of unfinished metal fresh from its heat treatments. He slowly exhaled his breathe as he moved his right hand down to just below the tsuba, his left was already holding the blade in its normal position. Once his hand had returned to its normal position on the hilt, the blade began to suddenly actively burn, it was normal for his Shikai to do this and was expected as he had willed it to do so.

The flame was a normal red-orange color like the blade itself. He then pointed his blade at the middle candle, focusing his Reiatsu on the tip of the candle, trying to will it to erupt in flame. He resisted the urge to simply create a fire based attack with his blade, after all Jaeden had said that was not the point of this training. Okuda focused his Spiritual Pressure, his eyes closed tight as he did so, the energy pouring from him to where the candle was. He imagined his Reiatsu was a flame that was already in existence.

The fire was his to create and control, to move as he so desired. The fire was a living thing with a will of its own however at the same time, it was not docile or wanting to obey him...much like Asahi. Okuda heard a loud explosion suddenly, when he had opened his eyes he saw that the first candle was no longer there...nor were the other two, instead there stood a good two meter diameter crater instead, smoldering and smoking, there were even a few fires burning what little material there was there.

Okuda sighed softly and shook his head, looking to Jaeden “I don’t think this is going to work, even if its possible...I might not have the strength to do what you want yet, I can barely create the flames when in my Shikai let alone control them to such a fine degree. Thats usually what happens when I try to create a fire that is too small, it simply...explodes as if the flames are too hot to be controlled at that point...” Okuda was not quite sure what the man was expecting, but this seemed to be Okuda’s best at this point...or was it?

Okuda sighed heavily, he knew he needed to master the flames lest they burn him and anyone around him by accident, something he did not want to happen. Okuda listened as the man told him to think of the flames as if they were a sword being drawn from a sheathe. Okuda understood the purpose of visual training, mentally picturing one thing while doing another to attain a certain outcome. He then listened as the man asked if he had any one person he wished to protect or a reason to wield those flames. The obvious answer was for his wife, but he had not found her yet in the Soul Society.

Okuda shook his head woefully and said “Not anyone in specific...at least not anyone that I’ve found in this afterlife of mine. If I had to pick someone it would be my wife, however I don’t know where she is, we died many years apart and she went to the Soul Society first without ever having seen me after I left for war...Other than that...I still want to protect as many people as I can with this blade of mine, to wash the blood of idealistic youth off my blade...”

Okuda was referring to the Meiji Revolution of course, and how he wielded his blade not for himself or for the defense of others, but for the purpose of installing a new government. He knew that what he did was the right thing...at the time, but he could never shake the feeling of the fact that he had killed people simply for having different ideals than other people. Murdering them for the ideals of a few that envisioned a better life for many sure, but still murdering nonetheless.

Okuda however knew that simply wallowing was not the point of this exercise, he doubted the man even actually knew what he spoke of as Okuda was closer to one thousand years old at this point. He then decided it was time to return to his training. Closing his eyes, Okuda knew the distance of himself to the candles and knew the rough properties of their waxy and flaxen bodies. Okuda knew how hot his sword could burn roughly, in the range needed to melt steel itself, especially when in his Shikai form. He also knew how it felt to unsheathe a blade as that was a task he made nearly second nature to himself whilst he was alive.

Okuda focused his Reiatsu towards the candle to the right of him, focusing all his energy onto the single point of the candle’s string that held the fire whilst it burned away the wax. He then held his sword in front of him in a middle guard stance, standard for fighting an unknown style of swordsmanship, those who could see the flow of Reiatsu would see the red string of fire march slowly towards the candle itself. The in-enviable task of training his flames a tool of pure destruction.

Okuda then slowly pictured a blade of pure fire being drawn from a sheathe of pure blackness across the tip of the candle, slowly lighting it. His concentration was broken before he could finish as the top half of the right most candle suddenly exploded. As if the fire was so hot it was igniting most of the wax and string instantaneously. Setting fire to the rest of the candle body, the other two candles sent flying a few meters away by the explosion of the right most candle. Okuda sighed a bit, but at the same time felt some elation.

Elation at the fact that he had managed to only explode half of one candle instead of all three candles. The smell of wax burning filled his nostrils, but he was able to ignore it. After all, during the war he had smelt far worse smells on the battlefield, burning bodies for one...