Yesterdays [Shaoling, Yugiri]

"Age brings experience, Yugiri."

While it was true that she couldn't simply stop the realities of momentum, Shaoling was hardly unfamiliar with being tossed around in a fight like this. She'd faced far larger and far stronger opponents, and she'd developed ample responses to it by now.

"9 Fushiki: Bouchouami."

Typically, Shaoling did not even speak the names of her techniques aloud. It was fairly inconsequential to her, but then again, most fights didn't give her much reason to boast. This was not only a former student, but an opponent worth her best effort. She may as well take the opportunity to boast a bit, hm? As she was thrown, the wind which surrounded her quickly spread behind her, creating enough pressure to stop her impact and let her quickly recover. But, given Yugiri's own speed, she would need to have some followup. Luckily, she had many.

"136 Hoshiki: Nomi."

Few realized the realities of hoho, that it was not so much a question of knowing where to step now, but rather knowing where to step next. The 136 Hoshiki was built on that knowledge, a step technique that fired one so quickly that, without proper mastery, the user would likely not even be able to step again. Shaoling, of course, was more than skilled enough, and as she leapt upward, she gave a challenging, cocky smirk to her former pupil. No words were needed. Yugiri wasn't the sort to let that go unaddressed.

Yugiri didn't miss a beat in her follow up, following her thrown teacher and scowling at the quick recovery but it didn't matter. Everything about her fighting style was predicated on follow-up, it was the reality of a fight. The person that could forsee every step after the first was the winner. That was the nature of speed and getting a clean kill, you couldn't just be fast but had to be three steps ahead.

Leaving a trail of afterimages in her wake the upstart closed the distance between her and Shaoling. She'd show her that she wasn't the same little Shihoin from before, she might not have mastered her Shikko and perfected it like Shaoling had with Shunko but it had its own unique properties.

"Shikko: Daikoma - Hijū."

She tried for the high ground but frankly it didn't matter where she ended up. All moves she could've made in this situation would result in the same outcome and she'd turn whatever Shaoling's attack was right back at her.

Very good. Yugiri's speed and form was impressive, and Shaoling was quite sure that few shinigami alive right now could have actually kept up. But Shaoling was head and shoulders above most shinigami, of that she was absolutely certain, and as Yugiri rose to meet her, Shaoling responded by twisting her body in a wide kick. The blow alone would have certainly been enough to shatter bones, but it was simply a vehicle for the full extent of her technique.

"21 Fushiki: Marunoko."

As she swung her leg, the wind of her shunko began to rapidly spin around her, expanding outward in a thin, blade-like rotation. It would be more than enough to cut through most opposition, but she doubted Yugiri would have been so foolish, or so weak, to be cut down by it. But defense was hardly her only approach, and she threw a punch forward as the winds shot forward, rotating at exceptionally high speed and creating a near-vacuum.

"1 Fushiki: Tatsumaki."

Even if the wind struck Yugiri, it would do tremendous damage, but that wasn't half as important as the fact it would pull her closer.

Timed to perfection, it was the kind of technique which relied entirely on being executed with precision where a misstep could result in the opposing attack being all the more devastating for her.

"Shikko: Gaeshi - Daiki."

She shouted, her shikko's bright aura glowing a little brighter while she brought her hand down against the kick. Read the airflow and motion of the wind, a perfect counteraction to allow for a moment to cancel out the shunko and smash her hand into the kick.

Unfortunately she had committed to attacking the leg and so the oncoming Tatsumaki dragged her closer to stagger her for a moment but without reliance on footholds she was able to invert the vector to turn pull into push. Though she had used it as a means to break them apart she was still in the midst of having cuts break her skin and tear at her clothes. Just endure it for a bit longer.

"Not.. Bad."

Shaoling's confident grin grew a bit wider as Yugiri was pulled in. The impact between her kick and Yugiri's hand had been all well and good, but it was hardly her ultimate intention.

"Kei 1 Fushiki: Gou'u."

Twisting her fist in the direction opposite the rotation of her shunko, the whole of the tornado she'd pulled Yugiri in with suddenly exploded outward, its energy slamming into her before returning into the flow of her Eikyuukaiten Shunko. The shunko's rotation only grew faster, Shaoling's very body surrounded by cutting winds, and she pulled her foot away just briefly enough to whip her other foot toward Yugiri.

It was a blow that could easily kill, but if Yugiri were to die from it, she would only have been disappointed.

Yugiri's teeth grit when she felt the sudden change of pressure, destabilising her retreat through Shikko's inversion of the force and interrupting her own incomplete hybrid technique and the excess strain on her body made her wince from the tearing sensation in her arm.

"Shikko: Gaeshi - Mōhyō."

She muttered out with a pained expression, using her feet to catch Shaoling's approaching ankle in such away that she could neutralise and capture it within her feet with the Shikko equivalent of Hanki, of which she only had a few moments before the woman's wind currents would return. Yugiri needed to get Shaoling away from her though and change her tactic before her double edged sword cut her too deeply.

"Shuhyō."

Forcing her body up and trying to align them vertically, Yugiri's feet would aim to plant her feet on Shaoling's and kick them apart but send her teacher careening towards the ground.

Oh? Adapting the Takigoi to her own abilities, that was a clever little touch on Yugiri's end, wasn't it? Shaoling respected the effort required to catch a kick of that caliber, and as her former pupil kicked her to the ground below, she simply smirked to herself before speaking just loud enough to ensure Yugiri could hear.

"Ura 1 Fushiki: Kanryuu."

As Shaoling fell, her shunko quickly wrapped around her body in something of a cocoon, slowing her fall almost instantly as it centered her position. Even if she had not been able to fly as a shinigami, she certainly could have by utilizing this technique. She then kicked directly upward, her foot breaking the flow of wind and redirecting a shearing gale toward Yugiri above.

"Kyouzou Ura 1 Fushiki: Reppuu."

Never falling behind or caught off guard. What a pain, just like the one up her arm. The chirping aura of her shikko dissipated in the wind before it tore her apart instead of her teacher. Yugiri had other cards up her sleeve though and one's which were a lot easier to utilise. She had just been wanting to beat Shaoling with her own creation rather than the one made by her predecessors. It was quite the hubris given that shikko couldn't compete with shunko for raw power.

"Shunko."

The wind had parted but in its place Yugiri had called a storm, the lightning aura flooding her body against her teacher's shunko. She raised her leg filled with her reiatsu to meet the oncoming wind.

"Hensha!"

The axe kick was designed to redirect the force and send it back towards its target, if it was an actual solid body. This was not the case against the wind though which couldn't easily be sent back her way but Yugiri just wanted show off by splitting down the wind with the pure cutting power of her lightning-infused body.

Ah, now there was something Shaoling could hardly call surprising. Seeing that shunko made her expression grow more grave, however, considering the pedigree behind it. She wondered, idly, if Yugiri had learned about her parentage in the time since her own departure. It wasn't likely, given the circumstances. Shaoling had avoided telling her out of duty, but now, she found she wasn't entirely certain where she ought to stand on the matter.

"2 Fushiki: Suki."

A single kick upward shot another scything blade of wind up toward Yugiri, stronger than the redirection of the Reppuu. Shaoling could have followed up with more if she'd been faster, but having seen Yugiri's shunko had given her just the briefest pause, enough to at least momentarily keep her from reacting. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Recovering in her stride, Yugiri followed the axe kick motion to spin in freefall. Without shikko to ignore requiring reishi footholds to be made she was already in the process of gaining momentum to aim herself toward Shaoling and form a foothold to launch off.

"Shinpo - Osuzumaebachi."

A movement technique which was designed entirely to step and and create a launch paid and commit reiatsu into creating a layer of of wind around them. The pocket moving the air in front of her to give her as much speed as possible in a single direction. Dodge right past the wind blade and appear next to Shaoling with a flash.

Then the attack. The landing on her hands to bring her knees in close and slam the feet into her target's chest or under their chin with as much force. The greatest sting you could give them which could kill a person if struck right.