Bloody Liquor

Hurs stood in the first street of the Rukongai a little further away from the academy grounds than most ventured. He put out his cigarette under his sandal after a few puffs. He wore his student robes and left his bokken in his room. The only thing he carried with him was his reiatsu orb, which he would practice with every moment of free time. He folded his arms and waited for Jack and Kaya, noticeably calmer than Kaya had seen him taking in the fresh night air of Rukongai. Orange lanterns illuminated the streets in an Edo style layout, creating great beauty in the night. A few nobles and well-to-do members of society came out dressed in their best, most likely heading to the Red Stag. The party culture in Rukongai was pretty small due to the poverty, but it was growing for various unknown reasons.

In the years he had spent in Soul Society, this had to be the most stagnant place had ever been to outside of a business trip to Africa.

Kaya slowly made his way street to the stretching and yawning.  There was nothing like an afternoon vape before an afternoon nap. Kaya wasn't much of a drinker but he never turned down an opportunity to drink with the boys.  While Hurs was definitely a weird man Kaya didn't really get any bad vibes from him so at the very least he could be somewhat sure his new acquaintance wasn't an angry drunk. Yup, it would be a peaceful night because "my life isn't cliche enough for me to get into a bar fight on a peaceful night like this, right?"

Jack made his way towards the bar. It was a bit nostalgic as the familiar sights and smells caressed his senses. But there was something else as well. Having spent most of his time around other students lately, it was as though he could feel where Kaya and Hurs were waiting for him. Jack had taken a moment to stop in his dorm and tidy himself up a little. Jack left his bokken in his room, not caring to wield a stick even as a status symbol.

"Well aren't you two gentlemen just dapper on this fine night."

Could they sense me approaching as well? It's all rather queer really... This presence and energy everyone is all about. The books claimed reiatsu is essentially what makes a shinigami. Is that why these civilian folks put off such a dim feeling?

Jack wrapped his arm around a somewhat decent lookikg red-headed woman who was walking down the street, likely on her way home from trying to scrounge a living at one of the nearby establishments. She seemed very surprised by the sudden embrace. Jack then smiled and waved her on. She seemed confused while she walked away, still not trusting the lanky blond student.

Even with a more intimate proximity, it seems that civilians just don't possess the same kind of... feeling as even the most basically trained shinigami students.

The red-headed woman gasped and turned quickly when she realized that Jack had basically pick-pocketed a few credits into her pocket when she had been distracted. He turned his back to her and started walking past Khaki and Hurs towards the bar. He could hear the familiar sounds of a party starting to wind up. Jack ran a hand through his hair and straightened his uniform.

Hurs sauntered into the bar showing Kaya the way into the hole-in-the-wall building which had a much bigger inside than its apparent outside. Either it was a result of an enchantment or the owners really knew how to organize furniture.

He waved to Jack,

"Glad you could make it. Thirsty Thursdays are still a thing here so I couldn't let you guys miss out. If we become shinigami, I'm sure this place will become a regular stop when things get dicey."

People began to trickle in and soothing Jazz music began to play from a phonograph (Georgia on My Mind). The bartender waved his hand and amazingly the music began to play at a much higher definition and at a louder volume. Hurs wasn't sure how he did it but it made up for there not being many musical instruments in Soul Society. After drinking some scotch, Hurs cracked his neck and asked,

"So where do you boys hail from?"

Kaya stood and talked a while with Hurs before a shady individual showed up before them. He felt reserved due to the weird feeling he gave him but Kaya decided to ignore it, especially since it would pretty rude to assume things about a fellow student. Kaya decided to introduce himself as it would be rude otherwise.

"Yo, how's it goin'? Name's Kaya."

After walking in and absorbing the atmosphere Kaya felt that it would be a good night and decided to loosen up a bit before responding to Hurs' question

Kaya stood and talked a while with Hurs before a shady individual showed up before them.  He felt reserved due to the weird feeling he gave him but Kaya decided to ignore it, especially since it would pretty rude to assume things about a fellow student. Kaya decided to introduce himself as it would be rude otherwise.

"Yo, how's it goin'? Name's Kaya."

After walking in and absorbing the atmosphere Kaya felt that it would be a good night and decided to loosen up a bit before responding to Hurs' question.

"I'm from district 78...needless to say it was a pain in the ass growing up there but I met some cool people and had my fair share of fun!"

It was the kind of whole in the wall place that you had to already know about to be able to find. The smooth music playing was one of the most beautiful songs Jack had heard in a long time. Hurs grabbed a table and had started drinking. Jack walked up to the bar first and ordered five shots. Lining them up, the shinigami tossed the whiskey back without so much as a grimace. He then grabbed a couple pitchers and brought them to the table, leaving a nice tip for the bartender.

The shots of whiskey burned his stomach. That fire was creeping through his veins as Hurs piped up about where he was from. Jack's eyes dropped to the table and he grinned a little, his smile spreading a little. Not before his expression hinted at a darker answer running through his mind.

How much can I trust these guys really?

Maybe it was the music or maybe it was the next great swig of beer Jack took... but the man went from a somewhat happy expression to an obviously angry looking grin.

"I don't know honestly. I woke up in the streets of Rukongai after..."

The pressure in his temples welled up again. There was pain and the sounds of ocean waves ringing in his ears. Jack rubbed his forehead with his index finger and his thumb as he took another drink.

"I'm just a poor soul who joined the Gotei 13 to escape from poverty here in Rukongai. A humble drinker and..."

Jack slipped a deck of poker cards from his sleeve onto the table. His emotional problems seemed to subside as he began shuffling the cards.

"Do you gentlemen fancy yourselves a game of poker? I'm Jack by the way. Jack Barlow."

Jack introduced himself to Kaya, his slow southern drawl seeming to be following the lazy pace withvwhich he shuffled the cards.

Hurs gaped for a split-second but quickly sewed it back into a smile. His stomach sank... well at least Jack was an honest degenerate. At the same time another feeling came over him, a hope that this guy wouldn't burn out before anything interesting would happen. He was fine with the wheeler-dealer type but this guy seemed a bit cracked up from his past. It was best to move on from the subject. It's not like his past was so great that he could judge.

"Sure, man!"

Hurs helped himself to more alcohol and began to play some poker rounds. He naturally became more talkative with the more alcohol and cared less and less about losing to Jack and regressed into constant conversation.

"And then the guy pulled out a kidou shotgun and almost blew your brains out... what a DUMBASS"

Once he reached his story about them spying on the advanced class he explained by what he meant about the academy.

"Look I'm not saying what they teach isn't helpful, I'm just saying there's always more than what the books teach. We should honestly meet up and spar once we learn how to kick some ass. Well Kaya's already got that part down but SEE? That's what I mean. There needs to be more hands-on stuff going on. Everyone that does things alone gets bored. That shit doesn't change in the afterlife."

He paused and then noticed that someone had touched his shoulder from the table behind.

"Heh. I hear you son."

An interested man with a tattoo'ed shaved head and his crew at the table joined in.

"Which is why you should join the 3 pillars foundation. I don't know if you've heard about us but you seem like the smart type who thinks things through."

Hurs folded his arms with eyebrows raised.

"... Hah, gonna need a name first my friend."

"The name's Nero Moltova. And this is Akashi."

A short Asian muscle-man with two batons nodded at Nero's side. Hurs noted that, out of the group, they were the only ones with some kind of weapon, but they all had reiatsu.

"We are a group of peace protectors that are growing in numbers everyday. We're tired of the Shinigami being indifferent to the going on's of Rukongai and have decided to take the matters into our own hands. We can do just fine policing ourselves. If you join us, you'll not only become stronger than what the Soul Society offers but you won't have to worry about fighting hollows and getting killed from some arrogant officer's orders. We have no ranks here."

Hurs grunted,

"That's hard for me to believe. I'm not interested though."

He looked at Kaya and then Jack wondering what their reaction to these thugs would be.

Aoisuke's servant walked through the corridor of the house and he had a piece of paper in his hand. It was an event in one of the lowliest parts of Rukongai. It was a request he made to the said servant which his grand father had no idea about. All he had to do was leave this house unknown to his grandfather and go to where the party was at. The servant did a good job too; he followed Aoisuke's instructions to the best of his ability, this party was to have ladies inside with free drinks all night long and ladies are free before 11 pm.

The perfect conditions for a party

Aoisuke knew he had to find a mix between his academy robes and looking casual so he put on a simple white T shirt with his robes folded down to his waist with his training weapon sticking out from his waist. His footwear was the normal papyrus sandals with the white socks and his grey hair hung loosely all about his face as he walked. He looked at the invitation and saw two women outside wanting to come in. They both wore black dresses and were tall and thick with dark hair. He motioned them to come with him inside. He called the bouncer and told him to tell teh waiter he wants a whatever it was the ladies was drinking and he will take saki. His eyes searched the areas and at once he saw the VIP room then he saw the bar and the lounge area then he saw the guys that were dressed similar to him. He walked up to the group with the two girls under his arms.

"Hey, drinks are on me. What you guys up to?" said Aoisuke.

Jack seemed much more at ease as he dealt the next hand. Jack was clearly inebriated at this point and was far from slowing down his consumption. The more he drank, the more at ease the man seemed to be in his own skin. The things that had been troubling him were a far away storm on the horizon at this point. Jack flagged one of the wenches down and left her a nice tip for lighting his cigar.

Jack laughed at the kidou shitgun story as another student approached. He looked too casual with how he wore his uniform. The liquor didn't let that go over well with Jack. He was opening his mouth to begin insulting the man when he said the magic phrase that made him an instant bro.

"I never could turn down free drinks. Have a seat my scruffy new friend. We were just starting a new hand of poker. I'm Jack Barlow. Don't reckon I caught your name friend. "

Jack downed another glass of whiskey as he dealt in Aoisuke. Before they could really get started however, another group of fellows approached the table. Jack could feel these guys' presence. A red flag went up in his mind as they spoke about some kind of police force working for Rukongai.

"Ahhh that makes sense now."

Jack grinned mischievously and cocked his head to the side a bit drunkenly as he held his hand of cards in one hand, drink in the other.

"Yeah I'm going to have to decline your offer. You see, I really like the cut of your jib there Zero. But it would never sit well with my southern sensibilities..."

Jack finished his drink before his sentence.

"To work for a yellow bellied academy reject who covered up his fear of hollows by running away and starting some kind of... male escort service."

Jack blew a beautiful smoke ring from his cigar right at the man's face to punctuate his insult. While he was drunk, Jack's accent seemed to be even smoother. He glared at the man but the smile didn't leave his face.

Kaya sighed deeply,while welcoming their new bar friend, the more the merrier. This was especially true in the case of a bar fight as it seemed that they had gone past the point of no return, after hearing Hurs and Jack give their response he decided to finish the rest of his glass because if they were gonna throw down he might as well be drunk for the occasion. And hey at least he was done getting his ass kicked in poker

"You know....you guys are nothing but trouble" Kaya said shaking his head while cracking his neck.

Hurs laughed as a student raged on over from the dance floor to join the group.

"You got a sense of humor kid! Join our mob here, now listen what do you think about the hobo situation in Rukongai and kidou shotguns... I think there's a connection that really needs to be looked into!"

He said ignoring the shortie from the Three Slobs group yelling back at Jack who didn't seem to care. As Kaya broke the glass on the ground and people began to back away from the scene, Hurs interrupted.

"HOLD ON NOW HOLD ON. Nero. You mean to tell me that all of your boys have reiatsu from sheer talent? You there!"

"Huh?" One of the thugs replied by instinct.

"Do you guys take in anyone?"

"Uhh... yeah."

"You fool!" Nero swung around and bitchslapped his subordinate into a table.

"Hah! I knew it. So you guys must be using some kind of illegal process to 'make people stronger' am I correct?"

The ruffians looked at each other and Nero snarled,

"You know what? Not only is the deal off, but I think we're going to teach you punks a lesson permanently. Let's see if you can continue in the academy after we break your bones!"

Nero pulled out his batons and readied to take on Kaya. Suddenly the short Asian man pulled his hands out of his pockets and brought out gloves with spiked knuckles on them. He was actually Native American and with a loud war cry he charged and randomly swung at Jack's head who was sitting calmly at the table.

Hurs stepped in,

"I mean you don't even have this!"

With gritted teeth he pulled out his reiatsu orb and let thoughts rush to him as his adrenaline kicked in. A reiatsu spherical shield suddenly warped around him, stopping the man's attack.

Hurs breathed in ecstasy as he finally felt the first surge of full reiatsu coarse throughout his being. He finally had power to make some kind of difference in his life which had been chained to fate for so long.  Everyone stopped.

"I'll let you have this one, Jack, I just had to try this for myself. Gentlemen, let us begin."

Hurs nodded at Kaya and broke a beer bottle on the table, squaring off against one of the taller brutes. Kaya could have Nero. He also wondered what Aoisuke would make of all this. There were 6 of their group which meant that one of the students would have to take on 2.

(Describe your opponent and then attack and then I'll take over to test your limits)

Jack didn't move an inch as the asian bloke attacked him. That arrogant smirk on his face widened a little as Hurs blocked the attack. Jack's hands were resting on the table still holding his cards. Jack laid his cards on the table, face down.

"I fold. It seems that these 'boys' wanna find out why we were recruited."

Jack's face went from smiling and jovial, to very dark and twisted as he flipped the poker table up in front of him. His sitting form was briefly hidden from the asian bloke. Jack kicked the table as hard as he could, sending the table at the asian man who had attacked him. The force of the kick made Jack roll backwards in his chair all the way up to his feet.

Without missing a beat, Jack stepped forward and kicked for the middle of the table, trying to time hus strike to when the asian fellow would be blocking the table.

Jacks opponent wasn't too impressive. A makeshift shihakusho with the left shoulder exposed, a real rat - faced, buck toothed, idiot of a man. This all seemed too familiar to Jack, nostalgic even. It had been a good while since he had gotten into a drunken bar brawl.

After confirming that everyone had gone off into their own fights Kaya was soon confronted by the beast himself, Nero.  He looked to be about twice his size and twice as strong, fortunately for Kaya he was too drunk to care.  He decided to get creative and picked up a chair ready to take on his brand new opponent.

"You know, it's only fair since you've got weapons too y'know?"

 He would have to hurry up and take down this new opponent for two reasons.  For one, from all of Kaya's years of experience he could tell that this opponent was the type to get stronger as he got angrier, if this was true he would have to take him out quickly like he did that gangster in the library unfortunately though this wouldn't be anywhere near that easy.  Reason number two, this was a bar fight, the longer things went on the uglier things got and if he could assist his new partners crime before they got seriously injured that would be just swell.

"Damn it this is why I hate fights!"

Kaya declared this as he charged at Nero swinging the chair directly at his head, a quick knock out would be the only chance he had at a swift and easy victory

Nero staunchly closed his hands into a hammer fist and swung it like a bat at the chair, cracking a hole in it and stopping its momentum. With an evil grin he grabbed for Kaya and aimed a headbutt to stagger the student. He then whipped out his batons and went to work, spinning like a top and aiming a blow to kaya's sternum.

--------------------------------

The Indian man rightly named Skinburn jumped over the table with a howl and headed straight for Jack. His knuckled fist aimed a left hook for jack's kidney. Even after he aimed the punch, he would immediately put his hands up and weave and block anything that came at him. Skin burn was all about aggressive defense and consistent wearing the opponent down before letting his the colors shine.

-------------------

Hurs quickly ducked a strange metal whip that his opponent had pulled on him. Hurs moved in to retaliate but was suddenly snagged by the whip which cut into his ankle. He was then thrown by his opponent (who was only 3 inches smaller than Nero) across the room and into more bottles. Hurs got up and confidently smiled as he substituted for a longer broken wine bottle. He ran at the pale man who only seemed like he existed for the purpose of being the awkward one in the gang and rolled, dodging the whip multiple times. He instinctively grabbed the whip after blocking with the wine bottle and held on leaving the to in a tug of war he would lose if he didn't think of something. He moved towards as the man pulled to keep his hands from being any more cut than they should be. The man, as weird as he looked, knew what he was doing and jumped and rolled to free his weapon out of Hurs's grip.

-------

The rest of the group surrounded Aoisuke. "Heh. Rich and a student... So are you going to help them? Cuz if you do we'll make an example out of you. Or you could sit back and let us deal with police work. They shouldn't have broken the peace."

Jack made a half step to his right, dodging the punch from the induan dude. He threw a feint left and a right cross, the blow landing solid against Skinnys guard. Jack began unleashing a constant barrage of punches and kicks into Skinnys arms, not caring where he hit, only caring that his fists hit flesh.

A thin layer of perspiration was beginning to form on his brow.

"Aw, come on now! I knew you was yelluh, but isn't this taking it a bit far?"

Jack held his arms up in a rough boxers stance, his barrage ending to allow him a moment to catch his breath.

Kaya had instinctively dodged the headbutt coming from the larger man who was trying to beat him into the bar floor. As Kaya stepped back he stumbled backwards As the large man spun towards Kaya realized his mistake, he was fighting out of character. It appeared as if the beer brought out Kaya's more violent side but he had never won a fight that way. Kaya had always relied on instinct to move his boy and fight is opponents and now that he was drunk doing that would become easier than ever before.

Kaya moved forward as if to directly take on the large man's strike, at the last moment however Kaya rolled under the strike ending up on the opposite side of the man. While resisting the urge to vomit after preforming such a weird move while drunk Kaya threw both legs from the chair that he had in his hands at his opponents head while delivering a swift kick to the man's gut. He wasn't sure if it would work but over thinking in a fight like this would get him into trouble.

It seemed that if there was going to be a party, it would have to be hosted by the devil himself in order to continue. A brawl of this magnitude was almost unheard of in the district, but, of course, peace could never last. The thugs didn't expect resistance from common academy students and this would be messy no matter what they would decide to do. Nero yelled in between his fight with Kaya for them to hurry it up and finish the job.

 Skinburn spun around, hit by the right punch of Jack. He then brought up his guard and dodged or took blow after blow from the student before he finally had enough and decided to literally go for the jugular. Skin burn went into a frenzy, returning blow for blow (mostly aiming for the abdomen because that's all he could really reach). His technique "Cornered Bobcat" suddenly came into play. With a sudden burst of reiatsu he would pump power almost instantly in his legs and leap into Jack, aiming a spiked uppercut that almost always finished the job.

-----------------------------------------------

Nero raised his eyebrow, surprised by the sudden increase in the student's agility. It seemed the kid shifted from the usual adrenaline-spiked brodown that inexperienced fighters had before running out of fuel in the tank and was intelligently responding to his attacks. The man stepped back and then swung his baton in a wide arc at the direction of where Kaya would end up and knocked away the chair legs aimed at him. The stepping in left him vulnerable, however, to Kaya's kick which dropped him to his knee. Once Kaya's inevitable counterattack came, however, the man would smirk and run straight into the attack while pressing a button on one of his batons. A hit on any part of Kaya's body would send a taser shock through the student, paralyzing Kaya temporarily. Nero would then return the favor with an spinning axe-kick to the head.

"You know why they call me Father Time? No matter who fights me it's a matter of time before they all run out of steam."

Although Nero was strong, he used his specially made batons to really end fights quickly. They were enchanted with a kidou that hid the electric shocks so outsiders and his opponents would believe he was paralyzing them with the sheer force of his strength. The psychological trick often worked, causing fear and hesitation with the enormous amount of strength people believed him to have.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hurs spun around again, trying to avoid the whip as it lashed out at him repeatedly. He was getting mauled pretty badly, with blood dripping down his clothes. Every time he dodged, he would find himself already ripped into with the whip.  Hurs, being drunk and being his usual creepy self, just kept dodging and barely yelled as he studied each and every move. The man paused for a bit, bewildered by the man’s stubborn process.

“Why you just dodging me?! Come on! Don’t you want to rip me to shreds?! Feel the fire of vengeance with me there’s nothing sweeter! When I avenged my brother from shinigami I learned to fight like never before!”

Hurs just ignored the man who seemed to be on drugs and muttered to himself “Alright… I think I got this now…”

The slender man laughed maniacally as he spun and sadistically lashed away. He stopped to survey the damage once he was sure he was done scourging the man into submission.  Hurs, after dodging for the 30th time, had many cuts on his body. He ripped off the top shreds of his robe and wiped off the cuts on his body. Only a few continued to bleed, while the rest were shallow or just blood from one of the deeper ones. Hurs threw them on the ground and yelled,

“Your whip is faster than you are!”

‘The Whip’ looked puzzled. He didn’t realize a whip’s own weakness was that the drastic acceleration of the whip’s end was much slower than the user’s movements. Hurs was dodging his very aim before that happened by moving sporadically and fluidly with the help of the good ole’ alcohol running through his system.

“No problem! I’ll just bring out the big guns.”

He pressed a button on his whip and then the whip protracted a talon claw at the end, which was sure to be a lot worse if a hit landed. Hurs sighed,

“I should have warned you I’m like a sponge. I’ve already figured out how to deal with you.”

With a chuckle he continued.

“Even if your friends are good fighters, all we have to do is wait for a shinigami to arrive and who the hell do you think they’re going to believe when we try to explain this mess?”

“Enough!”

The whip swung with even greater ferocity, but this time his face would meet a chucked beer bottle before he could complete the dance. Hurs dove and rolled before the whip could reach its peak velocity which was much greater than the initial swinging force. He ran at the freak determined to take him out. The enemy immediately altered his steps to account for the lack of distance and amazingly the whip swung at Hurs again, aiming to wrap around his neck and strangle him with the end cutting into his neck.  Hurs focused and grinned, with a reiatsu shield forming around him to keep that from happening. He was planning to use it ever since this all began, but deep down he really wanted a victory from all of this. After the library incident he was determined to prove himself and was ready to do anything to pull out some kind of win, even if it meant getting his ass kicked to find an opening.

“C'mere!”

 The whip user raged and pulled a knife, now losing his own cool and trying to end it as much as Hurs wanted to win. The proud fighter was always the impatient one, however, and Hurs was in the mindset to keep on going. He blocked the knife by simply bringing his free arm up and letting himself get stabbed in the hand. He then raised his arm up and reverse gripped the wine bottle and stabbed straight for the exposed armpit. The cry of agony was a lot less bloodcurling as most would expect and came out as more of a whimper. The man fell to his knees on the floor, his face turning pale with pain as he fell into shock. Hurs made no hesitation and disarmed the man, who at this point was too lost in pain to resist.

“That's fucking right, goddammit.”


He said as he threw the whip away. His opponent wasn't as tough as the ones Kaya and Jack seemed to be brawling with, but he was already losing strength and that guy was definitely on his level of crazy. If the other two were just as bad or worse, Hurs would probably see his last day in Soul Society far ahead of what he had thought was scheduled.

Kaya's opponent was still more tedious than he thought. He had managed to ward off Kaya's attacks with ease twice however Kaya would not stop his assault there, however he would be forced to as the man caught aya off guard with a taser that sent a shock through his body. Before Kaya could even scream however he felt a kick at the back of his head that sent him flying into a wall.

Kaya's body however was somewhat numb thanks to how drunk he was though he was not free from the pain he had just experienced. He was just numb enough to finish his opponent however, it was time for Kaya to finish things. He wasn't sure if one last combo would keep his opponent down but he had no choice, luckily Kaya was still faster than his opponent. He jumped over the large man and delivered several kicks to his spine and landed a punch at the back of his head and then ending it with one final punch towards the spinal area he had kicked twice.

Jack was really pushing himself as a handful of his punches landed on Skinburn. He threw a huge overhand right, expecting the blow to end the match once and for all. When he didn't feel any response from an impact however, Jack was caught completely off guard and confused.

As Jack was lifted into the air by the uppercut, he felt his jaw clench and his body become unresponsive for a moment. Before he could even hit the ground, skinburn had stepped in and began raining down punches on Jack, keeping him in the aur from the attacks.

He's going to kill me...

An axe kick to the top of the students head dropped him to his knees. Jack's head hung at his chest, clearly in pain and only semi-conscious.

I don't wanna die... I still have so much to do... I don't wanna die... I don't.... I...

"I don't want to die..."

Jack had pushed himself to his limits physically and mentally with this fight.As the words left his mouth, Skinburn had raised his foot into the air, aiming to bring the killing blow down upon Jack's hanging head. As the attack dropped, a dark green aura illuminated Jack's frame. His arm rose up and caught Skinburns foot just before it made contact.

"Sorry there boss, can't die today. Looks like I'm pullin your card."

Jack could feel the energy pumping through every fiber of his being. He knew it wouldn't last long so Jack acted as quickly as he could.

Jack rose to his full height, raising Skinburn's leg with him. The native tried to jump and kick him with the other leg to create space, but Jack was high on the strength of his newfound ability. He punted Skinburn across the bar with a hard kick to his groin. Then, with an odd looking fluid motion, Jack cleared the busted up chairs and table between him and his opponent. Skinburn was rising up to his feet, scrambling to recover from obvious pain. He threw a fast 1,2, at Jack.

Jack dodged the first punch, but as the cross touched his cheek, Jack drove his forehead into the man's nose as hard as he could, dodging the punch and knocking Skinburn to the ground head first. Jack looked at his arms and torso as the green aura seemed to fade. It was an odd feeling, like he was standing in a pleasant meadow with the heat of the midday sun on his skin. Not unpleasant, but warm, almost lethargic in how it made him feel. The focus such calm provided him was unreal compared to how he fought before joining the academy. Was this really just the beginning of his training,? Jack knew he would need to look into this more later.

"Have you gentlemen finished playin 'round yet?"

Jack poured himself a double and leaned back on his elbows in the bar as he finished his drink.

Hurs faced off against the two men, already being fatigued. He summoned the rest of his strength, trying to think of a way to take on two more opponents. He knew he wasn't as tough as he looked, so how was this going to go down? If he had the drive, but not the body, how could he manifest the way he truly wanted to fight?

 He thought as he downed some vodka. Suddenly, it finally came to him in the most drunken point of the night that, what he needed was something similar but far different. The first thug charged at him with raised fist. Hurs ducked low and aimed a gut punch which was then caught. The whistling stab of an empty wine bottle for the man's gut was avoided as the marauder swiftly half-circled around Hurs' slower attacks. Hurs was then floored by a sidekick from the other guy, who was styling himself off of some Japanese version of Shawn Michaels. The shoulder devil of Hurs harped with an "Ooooo, where's the tylenol?"

Hurs crawled up and shook his head. Looking around at the others, he chuckled. Why did they have to make it look so easy?

He sighed and closed his eyes, to reach back into his pool of reiatsu. I can do this... not really... I'm going to have to wing this and make it my own as always.  

Hurs dodged at the first swing of the fist, turning but then charged aiming his wine bottle at the throat. He then jumped into a roll as a complementary roundhouse barely missed his head. He blocked a punch and put weight into his stance to keep him in the asssailant's face. The two grabbed and blocked and then Hurs unleashed several jabs from his wine bottle to keep the opponent at bay.  The thug was confused; it didn't seem like Hurs was trying to win but at the same time was holding his own against his attacks. Normally, when one was outnumbered they would push to make up for it.

The other opponent came from behind. Hurs sensed his presence and then truly decided to let go. A flurry of attacks then followed, that left a blur of movement. Both of the thugs went upon Hurs like two lions jumping a larger, more burly animal with one in front and one behind, trying to take advantage of a blind spot. Hurs' spiritual energy would wildly go up and down instinctually as he fought. He looked like a man trying to master the waves of a dark malevolent ocean as he humbly accepted the force of a blow while keeping his guard up and then suddenly lashing out to gain distance with a sweeping slash or quick stab. Soon the assailants were reeling just as much as Hurs was from the amount of blood loss.

Hurs looked at them with a glazed over expression of faint but pure willpower. The criminals began to panic and charged at Hurs one last time. Hurs took aim and wrist-flicked the bottle straight at them. It acted as a grenade as it hit their combined fists. The lower part of the bottle shattered, but the upper part of the bottle flew onwards and smashed into the closest enemy's face. The pieces of glass cut deep and into all of the wrong faces. The glass also hit into the other ruffian who screamed as it pierced through his cheek. Hurs rushed in and facepalmed the two of them to them promptly throw them across the room.

He turned to Jack and said, "Cheers" while handing him a bottle and then collapsed onto the floor.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Nero folded his arms and laughed as he he looked at the fruits of his dirty handiwork. It seemed as if Kaya was ready for some more. He ran at Kaya ready to aim another swing when suddenly he took to the air.

"What are you-"

An acrobatic kick from Kaya slammed Nero into the ground. He got up but then yelled in pain as he was kicked in the same spot and then rabbit punched in the back of the head. He tapped the ground as he surrendered from the pain and the fear that Kaya had just broken something.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A shinigami entered the room and surveyed the mess around him. It appeared that this was one of the rare times when the Three Pillars were surprised and unprepared for a fight. With a sigh, he hoped that this was all going to clear up with a few long-winded explanations.

He threw down a gas pellet which jettisoned an extremely fast gas wind that would knock out the students and those in the room. He would dissapear with the defeated thugs, transporting them with a high level kidou spell, before the fourth squad would arrive and take the wounded on stretchers.


>>exit