Soup For The Soul

Yuri put on a lopsided smile as she watched Hono closely. She certainly remembered seeing how Hono had taken to her little spar before. though hearing what Hono's takeaway had been definitely caused her to raise a brow. "THAT'S what you took away from that? I rebuked you for neglecting your shinigami skills. I didn't say you had to be good at everything." She noted with a sigh and a smile, shaking her head slightly as she peeled her Zanpaku'to from her own waist and circled Hono in the training area.

Oh? Why was she putting off such an aura? Her head canted a bit to the side and she flashed a toothy little grin. "You look like you've got something on your mind Hono. That's the kind of thing that's going to distract you, you know." She pointed out with a hum. Raising the tip of her sword and moving the tip about in slow circles, as if searching for an opening in Hono's stance. Taking a casual, seemingly loose-gripped hold of her sword as she began closign in on the woman. Her eyes affixed to the weapon in Hono's hand. She'd been talking about Shikai. She wondered how long it would take for the woman to release. would she even bother trying to show off her other skills? Or would she go straight to shikai?

"Well come now. Don't keep me waiting~"

She rolled her eyes slightly at that and sighed. Well she supposed it was something that at least the GIST of her lesson had sunk in, if not what she'd actually been trying to teach the girl. Still, seeing the girl take on such an aggressive look brought a lopsided little smile to Yuri's face.

The sudden burst of a shockwave with Kido caused Yuri to raise a brow and flare her spiritual pressure, bracing herself from the impact as it pushed her back ever so slightly, that rush of air roaring around her as her eyes darted back up toward the approaching Hono.

"Oho, you've gotten faster!" She grinned from ear to ear as she raised her weapon to meet Hono's own. A clash of steel as she pressed the clash, applying pressure to Hono's grip with a sudden steely hodl of her own weapon.. Bulling toward the other woman, she pushed her blade up towards Hono, forcing them to maintain their own hold to keep her weapon from sliding off her blade and slashing her face or shoulder. Not bad form, still a little simple, but this was just the start, and those eyes of hers watched expectantly towards her kouhai.

"Bakudo Number 13. Nehan Seisha 涅槃精舎" _{(Temple of Nirvana)}

She raised her free hand up to her lips and held a finger over her lips as she cast the spell, a sly smile forming across her lips as she....tested Hono. It was a spell designed for fodder. Unleashing a fall of black feathers around the both of them, a soft, calming sound of chimes would strike Hono's ears. For weaker shinigami or even hollows, the aura of reiryoku would be enough to make them flat out drop asleep on the spot if the caster was strong enough. But of course, with Hono, she'd simply feel numbness trying to creep into her body and mind, making her struggle to maintain herself while in that little bubble of feathers, assuming she didn't escape beforehand.

If she didn't, then she'd find Yuri lunging forward to execute a vicious kick to the side of her head, intent on knocking Hono to the ground.

She slashed viciously as Hono pushed back, following as the woman tried to back up, and so as the woman made that leap, Yuri attempted to punish them for trying to back out of that pressure with a slice across the woman's shoulder, that smile widening all the more as the woman valiantly resisted the effects of her spell. "Oh? And who said I wanted you to use shikai? There's a few people here but we'd want to put up a barrier if I was to authorize the use of Zanpaku'to" She teased. Turning to the side and waving to a few nearby members of Second Division. The pair promptly saluted and encircled the fighting area. Promptly erecting a barrier as Yuri turned in time to see Hono chanting.

A casual smile on her lips as she watched the woman chant.

"Farewell."

The release phrase for her shikai was unleashed, pale white blooming along the length of the sword as it became bone white. Raising her weapon to bear before she let out a slow, steady sigh. Eyes drifting to a shut as that full powered kido surged in her direction.

Shizumeru 静める - _Hush

A clean twisting slash of the blade, not using her zanpaku'to's innate abilities, but rather a simple zanjutsu technique to unleash a burst of wind amidst the slash with the flat of the blade, batting into the incoming kido spell with a swell of her own spiritual pressure and physical strength. Causing that Shakkoho beam to detonate upward, that force shoving the explosive burst of flames upward and outwards, cascading into the inside of the barrier and raining as embers around the woman. Though of course, she'd expected a ball rather than a beam, and so some of that attack had still gotten through, singing the woman's shoulder as she tisked softly.

"My goodness. Not bad." She hummed, glancing at her singed arm as thin white roots spread over her skin. Smoothing over the skin as pale white flowers grew where those burns were, no less than four blossoms blooming along her skin as the roots mended her flesh. "Awfully innovative." She chimed before vanishing with a shunpo. Her speed amplified by the strength of her release as she closed the distance between herself and hono and promptly slashed clean down from shoulder to hip, aiming to cleanly slice through core muscles. But of course, Hono would almost instantly feel the pain assuaged if hit hit. As roots and flowers would spread and grow through her flesh, flowers sprouting as they'd close the wound immediately.

This was the ability of her zanpaku'to of course.

Oh? The struggle that Hono was having had her canting her head a bit to the side. "It seems you haven't quite improved as much as I expected. Some of my other students have grown almost alarmingly. But I suppose it's not fair making such a comparison." She smiled nice and slow. The sudden look of agony showing on Hono's face was more than enough proof that the girl still wasn't taking well to the growing of her roots through their body. Of course, in terms of those agonizing thorns, she didn't use those. She wasn't here to torture Hono. But even so, just the normal roots were still an intense experience.

That said, the release of the girl's Shikai had her perking up slightly. "Oh?" She ventured, eyeing the cleaver and offering a slight chuckle at the sight of it. The thing seemed to be falling apart. "To think that your zanpaku'to would really take such a shape. what do you think that says about you hono? HAs your resolve and determination really deteriorated so much? Or are you simply breaking yourself with all of these notions of ambition you have? She ventured, promptly flipping her zanpaku'to and sinking the blade into the ground as she raised her chin and looked down her nose at the woman.

"Pathetic."

The sharp hiss of a blade striking sounded as Hono aimed to strike at Yuri's arm, and instead connected. A loud crack as Yuri's hand flattened and chopped at the incoming blade with enough force that the metal sang, her skin hardened by reiryoku through a hakuda technique as she struck the blade head on. But even then, a very shallow cut formed. One that was rapidly overgrown by roots, thorns crawling along her flesh to form a serrated chainsaw-like edge. And so with the Shunpo, Hono would not feel flesh, but hard, iron-;like thorns slammiong into the edge of her blade as Yuri's hand chopped into her incoming blade, the gnarled teeth of those thorns clenching, locking the weapon in place as roots grew up from her sliced flesh.

However....it barely hurt. And Yuri promptly narrowed her eyes.

There was a sudden gush as flesh, roots, and thorns were ripped clean from her hand. Having grabbed the parts of her shikai embedded in her hand, she tore it all out in one fresh go, a sudden spray of blood splashing across the ground as she tore the wound back open and then some, a soft clatter as the thorns dropped to the ground along with the flesh that had been wounded. As new roots spilled in and filled in the fresh wound, now rid of the spot that had been struck. "I wonder. Some sort of poison? Does your weapon give tetanus? Well, I don't quite expect to find out." She murmured, sliding back from Hono as she took up a defensive stance, her Zanpaku'to still on the ground, seeming entirely focused on fighting Hono with her bare hands. Already new thorns and vine was slithering along the wound, closing it back up, those gnarled thorns growing, along with a pale white flower in contrast to that bright crimson-stained vines and roots.

"So. What DOEs your Zanpaku'to do hm? It barely seemed to cut. Looking to poison me? Damage my Reiryoku network? I confess, Kaen. If you fuck up my training I have planned later. I'm going to have to make you pay for it." She muttered with a slow, growing menace to her voice. That calm, graceful visage slowly begoming a bit more intense as she recognized Hono's zanpaku'to might have some nefarious ability. Tch, well at least this would be an excuse to get some extra sleep later.

Yuri's smile only widened at the reply as the two of them clashed. The Aggressive shoving of the woman's weapon certainly seemed to try and get in deeper. The pressure from Yuri's spiritual energy and the growing thorns certainly was sufficient enough to keep up against it for the time being. Though as the two of them separated, Hono's question caused a smile on Yuri's lips, one wider than the passive smirk she'd had before.

"Hmmmm~ Many flowers have thorns. It just means you have to handle them delicately. " She stated simply, gently running her fingers along the flower that was growing from some of those burns from that initial Shakkaho. Though it wasn't long begore Hono attempted to attack again. Her eyes darting toward the woman as they slipped in behind her. Her own weapon lancing into the path of that blade. But not to intercept. The cleaver would slam into the throrns in Yuri's palm as she caught the weapon itself, the blade grinding against those hard thorns, sparking as the little chips of fragments would clink off, simply falling to the ground rather than being left inside Yuri as was likely intended.

The Command however caused a shift in Yuri's expression. The sudden spiking burst of heat all around her as she noticed all those little flecks on the ground burning viciously, and the roots of the thorns she'd ripped out of her hand before suddenly were slashed, sliced clean in half, as a cut tore across her wrist. A fragment that had been left behind when she'd pulled it up by it's roots before.

But she did not falter in her intentions. In the same breath that she sucked in a hiss of breath from the pain, her own zanpaku'to tore across Hono's chest as her hand kept the woman's zanpaku'to at bay with the grip of her thorn-armored palm, clanching her fingers to lock that blade in place, forcing Hono to take the slash or abandon her weapon so long as everything went well. But rather than those soft, kind roots, Hono would also feel thorns digging through the wound if Yuri managed to land the hit, thorns that would pry and tear at the flesh as they grew through the fresh-made gaps.

A dry smirk played across her lips.

"My my my, How menacing. But I suppose thats only a concern if there are fragments on two sides. Or...." She gritted her teeth as those thorns in her wrist twisted and grew further, before a soft clatter sounded, the sound of those fragments being pushed out of her body, clacking to the gloor. "They haven't been removed." She noted with a pleased hum despite the pain. "But I suppose I can hardly say much of anything. My Zanpaku'to leaves things behind when it cuts things as well." She grinned, as the wounds, be it just that first wound she'd inflected, or the new wound if she'd managed that hit against Hono's chest, she'd feel thorns aggressively spreading from the flesh, pushing deeper into the woman's body and biting into the surrounding flesh, causing them to bleed again.

" So....what else can you do with the fragments, hmm? Or is this as much as you can currently manage with your zanpaku'to?" She ventured with a slow, smug smile.