Decree of the Moon [Shishiyuki, Elyss]

"One shot? So be it. Then I won't waste either of our time testing the water with weaker techniques."

Shishiyuki, too, took a single deep breath, her focus becoming all the more refined. As Elyss' reiatsu flared, so too did the Koizumi family head's, a steely grey energy that made the very air around her look as if it were rotating in on itself like a whirlpool. She took up her stance, and with a single flash step shot toward Elyss, readying her hand as she moved to perform one of the techniques she knew all too well had never been properly witnessed by anyone; Onsoku Tensou.

As her fist shot toward Elyss, eyes cold and focused only on this fight, Shishiyuki's spiritual energy quickly began to rotate through her hand, and then out from it, a vortex of energy that was ultimately focused around the end of her fist. Most might have thought that the snap of the sound barrier breaking was from her speed, but no. It was simply from the energy winding around her blow, and the impact of her punch was made colossally more deadly by the energy used, her own refinement of technique.

Of course, that all assumed she did indeed strike the Captain. She was fully prepared for the likelihood that Elyss was able to avoid this blow, and was prepared with several defensive techniques and wide counterstrikes should that happen. But such a thing was entirely instinctive. Any of her thoughts were only on this blow for the moment.

Impressive. Very impressive. Shishiyuki supposed that she should have expected this from someone at the level of a captain, and in truth she had doubted tremendously that something as fundamental in her own style as the Onsoku Tensou would have been enough to pierce the defenses of any captain, let alone one who was renowned for her unyielding body. Now it was her turn to defend, it seemed, and she was certainly thankful that her own years of training had given her an understanding of this sort of close quarters combat. She certainly noted Elyss' hand coming to grab her wrist, and it was only by the slimmest of margins that she was able to avoid that. But she certainly could not do the same to the open palm that was about to collide with her, and so instead she could only meet the blow head on with her own.

Her elbow struck out to meet Elyss' palm, eyes only briefly darting toward that angle of offense, that same extreme rotational energy which defined Shishiyuki and her style manifesting around the joint. Before her elbow actually met with Elyss' hand, however, the energy quickly began to rotate outward rather than inward, creating a near-perfect redirectional spin. The Shousei Rekkou was a strike designed fundamentally to meet another blow directly, which redirected all external force toward the opposition. Of course, she did not expect Elyss to simply throw this palm and leave it at that.

At the very same time as her elbow struck out, her knee did much the same, moving at speeds so blinding that few could have hoped to see it. Her energy rotated like a saw out from that joint, prepared to slice through all but the greatest defenses, not only using her own energy to cut, but spinning at such a rapid pace that it would attempt to rip Elyss' own energy from her body at speeds well beyond what most ever trained their energy to move. That was the true nature of Shishiyuki's Kyokushuretsu Kongou Ken, a style which not only exploited the enemy's weaknesses, but the fundamental flow and motion of their own energy.

She had no time for words, no reason to retort or to give some banter in return. All that mattered to Shishiyuki in this moment was proving her resolve. Demonstrating her strength. That was what she had sought for a thousand years, and that need only became stronger with each passing moment.

The moment Shishiyuki was grabbed, she understood exactly the gulf between them. It wasn't in skill, or in strength. Those things were secondary, simple facets of a person that could easily be trained. No, the difference between herself and the captain she was now facing was quite abundantly clear to her. Elyss' resolve was simply greater. Her experience in the world was more vast, for all of the years of life that Shishiyuki held over her.

As the captain's skull slammed into her face, the crack of her nose echoing through her skull and blood gushing outward, Shishiyuki simply grinned. Her free fingers still moved, performing the necessary minute gestures to achieve one particular mukyoku ougi meant decidedly for moments such as this, those secret kido developed by the Koizumi which required no words, only gestures.

"I'm hardly finished."

Shimetsukai. One of the kido she herself had developed, one which enveloped the caster's body in heat so searing that even the practitioner was not protected. A devastating spell in close combat, to be certain, but Shishiyuki was not especially certain whether or not it would faze the captain. Her own energy was certainly greater, but she knew that Kishimoto was a more resilient woman that to simply fall from one spell, no matter how well-crafted or who had cast it.

That, however, was irrelevant. Shishiyuki had already resolved that she would not hold back. She would not simply accept defeat by being knocked down, and even as Elyss had knocked her down, she already had begun preparing a second mukyoku ougi, all the while still giving her best to simply throw Elyss off of her.

Such a savage beating was the sort of thing Shishiyuki had not experienced in her entire life. It was welcome, in that sense, even as she continued preparing her mukyoku ougi. Those words rang hollow in her ears, even if she welcomed the fury behind them all the same. It was certainly for the best that her spiritual energy could defend her, given she doubted her actual body could have withstood this assault on its own.

"Predators? Monsters? Beasts? That was all I might have ever wished to be, not so long ago. It was everything that I could not have."

The full weight of her spiritual pressure roared outward as she completed her spell, the grin she wore quickly growing into a scowl. Just as quickly, the completed spell manifested. Choukyodaifuku, a maelstrom of spiritual energy with only a single purpose; to rip apart everything within. To tear all energy away, pull it into nothing, and coalesce it all in the center.

"To live as I pleased, and die a senseless death. That is what I dreamed of for a thousand years. But now, when I have found something to live for, far greater than that sort of mindless savagery..."

Clenching one fist tightly shut, the whirlpool began to contract. She could certainly survive it, if only because she knew the spell's intricacies, could plan for its speed and its trajectories. Whether or not Elyss could do the same wasn't even a question. She was certainly durable enough to survive it. This was simply one more mark of Shishiyuki's refusal to surrender, and with that same clenched fist, she struck upward, matching Elyss' blow with one of her own. Empowered by her mastery of hakuda, of the heat still coursing through her body, but beyond all that, carrying the full weight of her refusal to accept defeat.

"I will set it aside for nothing. Not for you, not for anyone. After a thousand years, I have found purpose, and I will reach it! No matter what I must crush to achieve it, what I must trample underfoot and tear apart with my bare hands!"

It was good, that Shishiyuki was so adept at repairing her own body. If she hadn't been, she might well have died from that meeting of blows. As it stood, she still needed a few moments to properly discern if she could in fact survive what had happened.

She could, thankfully, but it was nothing short of agony to do. Further agony still to stand, to continue the efforts in healing the unfathomable wounds she'd just sustained. Her arm was nearly crushed, her whole body strained. It wasn't even a question that she must have been bleeding internally. But she could handle her injuries. Slowly, surely, she began to limp away, her every step seeming gradually more stable. Painful? Yes, absolutely. It would certainly have been better for her to wait and take her time, rather than healing herself with every step.

But she had other things to do, pressing matters to attend to in the aftermath of this bout. She could not afford to wait.