Change of Scenery

Carmine did his best to absorb all that Sorrow had told him. Apparently, Demons could move on the same plane as humans, whereas Shinigami could only be seen by those who had high spiritual pressure. Furthermore, not only could they exist on the same plane, but they could affect it as well, impregnating a human. And the more startling fact was that Demon's weren't limited to single means of creation, they could spawn by possessing souls, humans, and even ideas. As he pondered that, he considered dropping the subject altogether. As much as he was thinking of demons at the moment, he may have spawned several already. A somewhat foreboding thought, the more he considered it.

Sorrow went on to explain how demon's could mask their presence to prevent the Gotei 13 from coming down on them, and that it was more of a passive ability than anything. Invaluable information, should he ever have to fight a demon. The thing that drew his attention the most was Sorrow's weapon. He called it an iramasha gem blade, though since he had no idea what that was, it meant little to him. The thing that caught him most, was that it had a name. He wasn't sure how closely related the weapon was to a Zanpakutō, but if they were similar in the name aspect, that meant he could at the very least call his weapon's power. He alluded to it at the very least, by saying it had its own set of skills.

"I'm supposed to be evil but in reality I am the product of a world that hates me for my birth, this I have no control over." This time, Carmine could hear the venom in his voice. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be born into a world that hated him for existing. For a brief moment, he wondered if some Hollows felt the same way, and for the first time he felt sorry for them. Nodding slightly, he looked back at Sorrow. "Last three questions. First, when you say custom made, do you mean all demons have blade's similar to yours, or are you an exception? And second, as far as demon's general strength goes, what would you say yours is in comparison? Like, if the strongest Demon alive was a 10 out of 10, what would you rank yourself?"

"Custom made to me, this doesn't mean other demons don't not have weapons or items of power. And I wouldn't even be on the scale. I'm far from powerful." He answered cooly, he yawned a bit thinking of how the time seemed to be passing much too slow. He wanted to get something done, wanted to mingle with humans, wanted something. An idea hit him and he laughed a bit to himself as he shook his head, his blade coming to his left hand.

"Do you care for a spar? It won't be to the death and we will both grow in power from it, you'll grow more than I will so in a way I'd be mentoring you." He asked swiftly, his eyes scanning the man as a smile played upon his lips. He wanted to fight now that the thought had accord, his mind having switched totally over showing the excited side of sorrow.

Not on the scale? That was almost disappointing. Carmine had hoped to at least be able to gauge Demon's strength by use of Sorrow, but it seemed luck wasn't on his side this time. However, he did learn something interesting; it seemed demons carried around items similar to Shinigami's Zanpakutō, though it wasn't always a sword like weapon. It presented possiblities, and Carmine's mind began to race. As he bowed his head in thought, Sorrow spoke again. "Do you care for a spar? It won't be to the death and we will both grow in power from it, you'll grow more than I will so in a way I'd be mentoring you." Carmine slowly raised his head, his twinkling with amusement. "Isn't that a coincidence? My third question was going to be if I could spar you, see where I stand among demons."

Removing his sheath from his lap, Carmine used it as a crutch to pull himself to his feet, casually shaking his legs to stretch out his muscles. "It's a good thing we were thinking along the same lines. I think this could be an interesting battle for me, thought you'll forgive me if I don't consider you a mentor." Breaking down into a crouch, Carmine shifted his weight, his left hand tightly clasping his sheath directly below the handle of his Zanpakutō, his right hand hovering over it, as if he meant to draw. His normally unremarkable eyes had narrowed down into a glare, a hint at the serious expression that was no doubt on his face beneath his mask. "My only request is that you take this seriously. If you hold back, it pretty much defeats the point of the exercise, wouldn't you agree?" As he spoke, his spiritual pressure, meager as it was, began to well up around him, slightly visible as a light blue vapor for a brief moment, before dispersing. "Come when you're ready..."

Carmine was beginning to form an idea, a combination of something that he had been trying to accomplish with a mixture of Sorrow's words. He was thinking about how Sorrow said that Demon's could passively sense spiritual pressure, and it got him thinking. Carmine was a decent swordsman in the Gotei 13, but one thing he had problems with was keeping up with faster opponents. But he began to wonder if there was a way to extend his pressure in such a way that he could determine whether or not someone had entered his area, despite if his eyes couldn't keep up. He decided now was as good a time as any to begin experimenting.

Sorrow smiled as Carmine had something he shouldn't, "don't hold back." that right there was a dumb thing to say. He wanted to feel what a demon could do and small as Sorrow was he wanted to show him what he had to offer, he quickly ripped through all of his adjustable states. From caged beast to The Demon blademaster, his skills rocketing upward. (ooc real quick, his skills leap to a total of: one total speed skill increase, half a strength, half durability, and one whole weapon skill.)

His form changing as he gained his full power, His torso is bare but his bottom have becomes grabbed in samurai greaves, The over pants being colored a bleach white while the leggings underneath a stark black. His fingers become engulfed in razor sharp claws while the skin on his back turns black and reptilian wings emerge from his shoulder blades. The wings holding no membrane, much like bone but someone he can manage flight with them. His hair now falling down past his shoulders and the same white as his greaves. "Do I look like a demo now?" he asked ironicly as he lifted off of the ground, taking flight. He would show the man a hard fight. It's easy to dodge an attack form your level, it's a bit harder when dodging ones form above. His smile faded as an abyssal black hole grew from his chest, metallic noises ringing outward from it as chains lashed outward and towards Carmine, them being the same color of the hole and emitting a slight energy wave. They swirled around his frame closing in upon him as Sorrow hovered in the air.

His demonic snare was in play now and about to latch onto the shinigami. Sorrow had promised not to kill and he would stay true to such promise but that doesn't mean he wouldn't harm the boy a bit.

Carmine raised an eyebrow slightly as Sorrow began to warp and change his shape. His spiritual pressure fluctuated slightly, as his appearance truly resembled his view of a demon. "Now that's a demon..." he muttered, his right hand drawing slightly closer to his Zanpakutō. In retrospect, it may not have been the greatest idea to ask for him to come at him without holding back, but it was too late to change his mind now. His pride wouldn't allow it. Sorrow opened a large pair of wings, seemingly floating up near the treetops. Carmine's eyes followed him up, and he realized that if the technique he'd been attempting was to work in a situation like this, it couldn't be limited to touching the ground. It would have to be a sphere, encircling him from all sides, including above. If Sorrow dive bombed him as he expected, the technique would be much less effective.

As Carmine turned that over in his head, he was snapped back to attention by a strange, metallic grating sound coming from Sorrow's chest. It seemed like a hole was growing there, perhaps some completion to his transformation. Instead, chains flew from it, hurtling towards him. Pulling his right hand away from his Zanpakutō, he raised it up, palm out towards the chains. "Bakudo #8: Seki" As he spoke, a blue, round shield sprang up from his palm as the chains reached him. They collided with a strange clang, deflecting the chains from their path. Hopping backwards, Carmine's mind raced as he considered his next move. He hadn't fought aerial hollows before, so he had no real experience with doing so. A measure that he had often learned was bringing an opponent to your level. If an enemy was stronger, level the playing field. When he was a human, back when he was a fighter, he would often use body blows to slow quicker opponents down, and the principle here was similar, if not the actual practice.

The first step was to level the playing field. Removing his left hand from his Zanpakutō's sheath, Carmine raised his right. "Alright! Sphere of power, form in my hand. Hear the crack of the FREEZE! Hadō #9: Kōri no tama!" As he finished the incantation, a small drop of water seemed to form at his palm, quickly morphing into a sizeable sphere of ice no bigger than small basketball. Stepping inward, Carmine hurled the sphere as hard as he could towards Sorrow. After a moment, he swore loudly. "Gah, too low, I didn't aim it right," he groaned. The sphere flew low, too low to hit Sorrow, but aiming just where he'd meant it to fly. Not far below and behind Sorrow was a tree branch, his real aim. He'd hoped his convincing performance had lulled Sorrow into believing his aim was just bad, and he wouldn't be prepared for the real fun. When the sphere struck the tree branch, it exploded, shooting out a spray of small ice shards, many of which conveniently aimed at Sorrow's back.

Kidō used:

Spoiler:

Sorrow smiled as his chains crumbled when they collided with the shield, this was to stop the shield from paralyzing Sorrow. The hole in his chest quickly closed as an ice ball flew below him. He knew that that Kidō had a little bit of a bounce back, he had tasted it once before, twirling in the air he faced it leaving his back exposed to the shinigami. His free hand coming outward, "Behold, the putrid embers of Zoa Koa." Sorrow muttered and with that the area on the ground in front of him, half way between him in the tree began to glow an eerie green coloring. He silently counted to three. When he finished counted green fireballs the size of baseballs shot upward, engulfing the forth coming shards, not burning them but melting them as the green fire gave off an acidic like burn, the force of the blast pushing the shards upward as well.

Sorrow quickly turned back to Carmine before he could think to strike his exposed flank. Sorrow's smile never vanishing as he noticed the shadows that played off of the trees. He used his shadow movement to come up right behind Carmine, his gem blade lashing outward, the tip aiming for the right shoulder blade to dig into the flesh shallowly the movement and the attack being without any sound. The only hint that Sorrow had moved being that he was no longer hovering in the air. He'd step back into the shadows. he appeared in a tree bent over on all fours gripping a branch. " This is what being a demon is" He echoed before fading outward to another location, now at the base of a tree in a shadow, the outline of his face being the only thing showing. " To throw the enemy off, to torture, to scare." with that he vanished once more. This time appearing back where he had been before starting the whole segment of movements. Hovering in the air with the same smile fixed upon his face.

Carmine grunted slightly, unperturbed by his Hadō's ineffectiveness. He hadn't expected it to beat him, but he had hoped that it would draw him down so that they could do a bit of fighting on the ground. Breaking back into his original stance, Carmine exhaled slightly in preparation for the next attack. And all of the sudden, Sorrow was just gone. Instinct made him deepen his crouch, his hand clasping his Zanpakutō, as Sorrow's blade seemed to fly just over his shoulder, nicking it open with a shallow wound. Turning around, Carmine used his momentum to draw his blade and slash behind him, but his weapon only found air. " This is what being a demon is," a voice echoed through the trees, causing him to turn. He saw Sorrow on a tree branch, gripping it with all fours, before disappearing again.

"To throw the enemy off, to torture, to scare." This time the voice drew his eyes towards the bottom of a tree, where Sorrow's face was the only thing present. After a moment, he faded again, appearing back up in the air. Shouldering his Zanpakutō, Carmine shrugged. "Sorry, but I'm not too sure about Demon's being scary. Right now, I'd say a Hollow is scarier. Fighting faster people doesn't scare me." He took a moment to survey his wound, before surmising that it was indeed quite shallow, and already stopped bleeding. "Besides, I'm not as slow as I look."

Breaking down into his crouch again, Carmine began to attempt the technique from earlier. He pushed his pressure out around him, trying to use it as a marker. He couldn't keep it out particularly far, which meant his movements might be slow to react, if it even worked, but he had to try something. He kept his left hand on his sheath, but left his Zanpakutō in his right hand, leveling it forward towards Sorrow. "How 'bout you come down here, and I'll show you what being a Shinigami is."

Sorrow took the bait and descended to the ground, his smile still on. His blade had a single drop of blood on it from Carmine, a test slice. He noted the drop as it pulled upwards into the blade, defying gravity. Vanishing into the crystal. His eyes focused on the shinigami as he threw his free hand outward, "Zao Koa says: "GET OVER HERE"" He roared as energy built in his hand, a ruby red spear taking shape from the energy. He launched it at Carmine, right at his chest. He vanished behind it as he muttered the incantation again under his breath as another spear formed in the shadows over Carmines head, the energy now rocketing at his right shoulder from above. He re-appeared where he had started before any of the attacks.

He rushed forward, ground ripping up in his wake as he went, his blade aiming a slash from the inside right half of Carmine's leg all the way up to his collar bone. He kept moving onward, stopping a few meters behind the man noting the aura that he had passed through. He would listen to see if his attack had landed or not. If any had.

Carmine raised an eyebrow slightly as Sorrow slowly descended to the ground, tightening his grip on his blade. He expected him to rush headlong at him, but instead he took a moment to carefully examine the blood on his own weapon. Before Carmine could take the initiative to attack, Sorrow raised his free hand, aiming it towards him. Carmine tensed, as Sorrow yelled out "Zao Koa says: "GET OVER HERE." After a moment, a surge of energy came from his hand in the form of a red spear, and was sent hurtling towards him. Thinking quickly, Carmine ran to his left to evade the strike, inadvertently avoiding the one that dropped on him from above. Sorrow took the opportunity to rush him then, when he was off balance. 'Fast,' Carmine thought with a grimace, as Sorrow covered the distance between them with a staggering speed.

Doing his best to skitter to a stop, he felt a slight tug in front of him and swung his Zanpakutō in the same direction. Sorrow blew past him, leaving a long slash starting at his hip to the left side of his chest, almost reaching his left collarbone. The blow was deeper than the previous one, but still overall pretty shallow. However, Carmine ignored the damaged, almost elated with his discovery. His technique was somewhat effective. The same area he'd felt the tug was the side that Sorrow ran past him on.

The technique was progressing, though it was very much incomplete. He managed to piece together what had just happened. Sorrow had run by, throwing an upwards slash, and in exchange, Carmine had thrown his own. Judging by the angle, he figured his Zanpakutō had been aimed for Sorrow's shoulder, though he was unsure if the strike had landed. He suddenly became aware that his chest was stinging, and a downwards glance allowed him to survey his damage. Nodding slightly, he turned back around, releasing his pressure around his body again. "Alright then. Step in the right direction..."

Sorrow noticed he had a gash on his shoulder. It was lightly dripping blood that soon stopped a few seconds after the discovery after it. He felt how when he seemed to move into the area Carmine was controlling/creating the man picked up on his location. He had an idea as to how to make this work in his favor, Taking one last moment to survey his blade as the blood from Carmine vanished in it once more.

He smiled as he stepped into Carmine's aura sphere smoothly, no doubt Carmine aware of his location, his eyes gleamed as he began to put in play his idea. He vanished appearing right next to Carmine on the other side of the aura, slipped away again appearing in front of him, gone once more as he spoke, "Behind you" oce more gone, he continued this as he danced around the sphere popping up and vanishing quickly as he went, his plan being to over load Carmine's sense that came from his little aura perimeter.

He danced more and more, a slash aimed for the back of Carmine's right knee cap, a stab for his left hand where his sheathing was placed defensively. His last slash being a teasing one aimed to skim the back of Carmine's neck a bit. Him vanishing once more as he appeared once more at the place where he touched down, his right hand coming to his mouth as he yawned in a tauntingly way.