Fanfiction: Through Her Eyes Updated: Chapter 8
Chapter 8! The fight between Shirataki and Ururu
Through Her Eyes: Table of Contents
Through Her Eyes: Chapter 8 - FF.net version
Disclaimer: The only character I own so far is Shirataki Rika. I merely borrow and play with the ones you recognize.
Chapter 8: Fighting Through Lesson One
I started towards Ururu, but she was much faster and shot towards me like a bullet. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of me, fist pulled back and ready to strike. Throwing my body down to the right, I felt the force of her punch brush against my left cheek in a gust of wind, but had the presence of mind to swing my leg out at her in an attempt to knock her over.
She dodged the attack by leaping up into the air, then came down at me with another punch, forcing me to roll to the right before scrambling back up to my feet. Coughing slightly at all the dust her last punch stirred up, I squinted around me, trying to catch sight of Ururu as the air slowly cleared.
The only warning I had before the next attack was the pattering of her sandals from behind me. Whirling around, I was just in time to catch a kick to my sternum and sent flying backwards. I collided with the dirt ground, and gritting my teeth against the tiny pebbles that dug into my back, used the momentum to swing my legs over my head and roll back onto my feet.
Still wheezing a bit from having the wind knocked out of me, I settled back into my stance as I watched Ururu come charging at me yet again. She jumped up just before reaching me and pulled her right leg back, aiming to land a powerful kick on the side of my headgear.
“Tch!”
I blocked her kick with my left arm, wincing at the strength of the impact, before reaching up with my right hand to grab her ankle. Pivoting on my left heel, I threw her several yards away.
Aiming for the head, I charged at her as she landed lightly on her feet, but wasn’t nearly fast enough. She easily dodged the punch with a side-step, then whirled on one foot and landed a powerful kick on my back, sending me flying yet again.
Breaking the fall with my arms, I pushed myself back up, brushing off small pebbles that had become embedded in my skin. Hearing Ururu run towards me from behind, I blindly threw a back kick at her. She easily evaded it, and I was forced to throw myself to the side to avoid a new punch. Another attempt to sweep her legs out from under her was unsuccessful yet again.
Our fight continued on like this for a while. With Ururu constantly on the attack, I was forced to dodge or block her kicks and punches, leaving me with very few chances to launch any attacks of my own. While were a couple of times where I succeeded in throwing her onto the ground or away from me, I was unable to land a single hit since she always managed to move out of the way, quite the opposite of the consistent blows I kept on receiving from her.
As time wore on though, the number of times I got hit started to decrease while the number of times I was able to counterattack started to increase, forcing her to have to go on defense more and more often. It was something that Tatsuki had remarked on during one of our many sparring matches at the dojo.
--Flashback--
We were circling each other warily, both of us panting for air and blinking sweat out of our eyes.
“Not too bad Rika!” Tatsuki grinned at me from over her gloves. “Might actually be able to force me to fight seriously today.”
I snorted. “Yeah right! You know that you have to fight me seriously every time, I’d wipe the floor with your otherwise.” A smirk made its way across my face. “Then again, I do that even when you do give it your all.”
“Ha!” Tatsuki feinted to the right before taking a swipe at me. “I wipe the floor with you just as many times as you do with me.”
Grinning, I aimed a flurry of kicks at her, forcing her backwards. “We wouldn’t be sparring partners if that wasn’t the case.”
“True. Why you don’t compete in the championships is beyond me.” She managed to block my kicks with her arms, then pushed me back before rushing forward with a barrage of kicks and punches.
“Simple… I don’t like competitions.”
Blocking one of her roundhouse kicks with my left arm, I then looped it around her leg and pushed behind her knee joint, upsetting her balancing and forcing her closer to me.
“There’s so much pressure to win that it kills off the adrenaline rush I get from fighting. Anyways,” I blocked her punch with my right arm, then grabbed her shoulder and forcefully brought my knee up into her already bruised left side before releasing her, causing her to fall to the ground. “It’s my win today.”
Tatsuki sat up with one hand pressed to her side and pulled off her head protector. “I hate it when the matches are long, you usually win those.”
“Really?” I walked over to the bench where our water bottles and towels were. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah.” She caught the bottle I threw and drank from it before taking the towel I was holding out for her. “It takes a while for you to really get into a fight and reach your full potential, but as it wears on, your reaction time gets faster and you get a bit more creative with your attacks.”
I draped the towel around my neck. “Oh… I always thought that I could react better because I got used to my opponent’s attacks and could start reading their movements.”
“Well, there’s that too. It usually goes both ways, but because you start getting creative, it actually gets harder to predict how you’ll attack.” She took another swig of water. “But your reaction time itself does get better too.”
“Interesting… must be due to all the adrenaline. Would definitely explain why I crash so hard once it wears off after the matches.” I laughed. “But you know, better reaction time and creativity or not, if the match drags on for too long, I end up losing in endurance.”
“Yep, and that’s why we should work on yours!” She pulled the towel off her head and threw it onto the bench along with her bottle. “Up for another round?”
I chuckled and stood up. “You say it’s to help me build up my endurance, but I think you just want your revenge.”
Strapping on her headgear, Tatsuki grinned at me unrepentantly. “How did you ever guess?”
--End Flashback--
While I was able to react to Ururu’s attacks much faster than when we had first begun the match, we had been fighting for a while, and though my endurance had increased with help from Tatsuki, my body was already waving a red warning flag at me. Each breath of air that my burnings lungs managed to draw in seemed to contain less and less oxygen. Muscles in my arms and legs were beginning to tighten up and I knew that if I let this drag on for much longer, they would stop working at the level I needed in order to clear this first lesson. Additionally, even the adrenaline pumping through my veins couldn’t stop the pain from various cuts and bruises on my body from creeping its way into my awareness. I was definitely starting to reach my limit, but Ururu looked like she had simply taken a stroll through a park.
Pausing a couple yards from her, I reached up to wipe the perspiration off my forehead. Considering my options.
The main problem I had was that Ururu was faster than me, and therefore able to move out of the way before I got within attacking range. If there was a way for me to hold her down or limit her movements, I might be able to land a punch.
Time to get creative then…
When Ururu rushed at me with another punch, I ducked and charged forward as if to collide with her headfirst. She jumped, and using my back as a springboard, leapt high up into the air, pushing me face first into the ground. Turning over while spitting dirt out of my mouth, I was met with the sight of her diving at me like a missile and had to hurriedly roll out of the way to avoid having my nose smashed in.
Scrambling up into a crouching position, I used the cover of the dust to grab onto the chain of fate attached to my chest, then whirled around just as Ururu came diving at me with a flying double kick. Grabbing her legs with both hands and stopping her inches away from my head, I wrapped the metal links around her legs and flung her onto the ground. Tugging at the chain with my right hand, I jerked her towards me and swung back with my left fist, bringing it around to connect solidly with the right side of her head protector.
Letting out a big breath and grinning at her in triumph, I unwrapped the chain, then stood up and reached down to help her up, only to witness her pupils dilating before she grabbed my wrist and flung me onto the ground with more force than anything I had witnessed from her during the fight. Winded, I could only lie there and watch wide-eyed as her fist came down and connected with my chest full force, just centimeters away from where the chain of fate protruded from my torso.
Lying on the ground, frantically gasping for the air her punch had forcibly removed from my lungs, I tried to figure out what was going on. Hadn’t Urahara said that I would clear the lesson if I succeeded in hitting Ururu? Didn’t that mean that the fight was over when I managed to punch her? Then why did Ururu attack me so aggressively afterwards? And what the hell was up with that huge increase in power?
It was when I tried to turn my head to look for Urahara and ask him what was going on that I realized I couldn’t move. I tried to lift my arms, my legs, even twitch my little finger, all to no avail. Aside from my rapidly moving eyes, my body just wouldn’t respond to my commands.
What’s happening?!
Then, as if it was triggered by this realization of my immobility, the numbness from Ururu’s final punch wore off, only to be replaced by intense pain. Each breath I tried to take felt as if an iron plate had settled on my chest, growing heavier and heavier with every gulp of air. The burning pain spread from my chest and into my arms and legs, dissolving the adrenaline in my veins, and making me aware of just how much I had pushed my body to its limits. Every little cut felt as if salt had been rubbed into it, every single bruise felt like it had been inflicted with a battering ram, and all my muscles seemed to be crying bloody murder at the top of their nonexistent lungs.
This isn’t a normal adrenaline crash! Oh god… what the hell is happening to me?!?
I struggled against the tunnel vision threatening to take away my sight. Was I dying? Was it even possible for souls to die again? Or had my time run out when I wasn’t paying attention, and I was now turning into a hollow?
No, that couldn’t be it… If I had been running out of time, if I was that close to turning into a hollow, I wouldn’t have been able to limit Ururu’s movements with the chain of fate. She hadn’t hit it either, so it couldn’t have been shortened during her last attack.
So then what the hell happened?!?
“Lesson one… clear!”
I shifted my eyes to the side and watched as a grinning Urahara slowly came within my line of vision, one hand holding his cane, the other resting on Ururu’s head.
“That was a most excellent show, Shirataki-san, it seems you are ready to begin the next lesson.”
I’m not really in any shape to start another lesson! Can you not tell that I can’t bloody move?!?
He squatted down and thrust his hand directly in front of my face. It was so close that I could feel my labored pants graze off his skin and brush back over my lips.
“Lesson two… shattered mind.”
The darkness that I had managed to hold off at the fringe of my vision suddenly swirled in with alarming speed. Despite the respite from pain it promised me, I fought against the familiar feeling of impending unconsciousness, not liking the sound of the second lesson one bit. Struggling furiously, I refused to relinquish my mind to the engulfing shadows, afraid of what would happen to me if I surrendered to its clutches. Regardless of my best efforts though, the darkness kept growing and I could feel my mind slowly fall into a daze.
Urahara’s gray eyes locked onto mine as I started slipping away.
“Come back to us, and it’ll be lesson clear.”
I knew nothing more after that.
--------------------
Here is the promised continuation of chapter 7. Action scenes are both fun and hard to write, especially when you write most of it on an airplane and the rest in the middle of the night. Both times are were trying because I couldn't really get up and act out the fights, but they seemed okay when I was finally able to test them out.
So you guys will be meeting Shirataki's zanpakutou spirit in the next chapter. Any guesses as to what it'll be like or what her inner world will look like? It should be interesting to see what people think fits her and I would love to hear your guesses.
Chapter 9 is currently in the works, no promises on how soon I'll be able to get it out though. I'm hoping for soon, but well... I don't know how long writer's block will stay away.
Through Her Eyes: Table of Contents
Through Her Eyes: Chapter 8 - FF.net version
Disclaimer: The only character I own so far is Shirataki Rika. I merely borrow and play with the ones you recognize.
Chapter 8: Fighting Through Lesson One
I started towards Ururu, but she was much faster and shot towards me like a bullet. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of me, fist pulled back and ready to strike. Throwing my body down to the right, I felt the force of her punch brush against my left cheek in a gust of wind, but had the presence of mind to swing my leg out at her in an attempt to knock her over.
She dodged the attack by leaping up into the air, then came down at me with another punch, forcing me to roll to the right before scrambling back up to my feet. Coughing slightly at all the dust her last punch stirred up, I squinted around me, trying to catch sight of Ururu as the air slowly cleared.
The only warning I had before the next attack was the pattering of her sandals from behind me. Whirling around, I was just in time to catch a kick to my sternum and sent flying backwards. I collided with the dirt ground, and gritting my teeth against the tiny pebbles that dug into my back, used the momentum to swing my legs over my head and roll back onto my feet.
Still wheezing a bit from having the wind knocked out of me, I settled back into my stance as I watched Ururu come charging at me yet again. She jumped up just before reaching me and pulled her right leg back, aiming to land a powerful kick on the side of my headgear.
“Tch!”
I blocked her kick with my left arm, wincing at the strength of the impact, before reaching up with my right hand to grab her ankle. Pivoting on my left heel, I threw her several yards away.
Aiming for the head, I charged at her as she landed lightly on her feet, but wasn’t nearly fast enough. She easily dodged the punch with a side-step, then whirled on one foot and landed a powerful kick on my back, sending me flying yet again.
Breaking the fall with my arms, I pushed myself back up, brushing off small pebbles that had become embedded in my skin. Hearing Ururu run towards me from behind, I blindly threw a back kick at her. She easily evaded it, and I was forced to throw myself to the side to avoid a new punch. Another attempt to sweep her legs out from under her was unsuccessful yet again.
Our fight continued on like this for a while. With Ururu constantly on the attack, I was forced to dodge or block her kicks and punches, leaving me with very few chances to launch any attacks of my own. While were a couple of times where I succeeded in throwing her onto the ground or away from me, I was unable to land a single hit since she always managed to move out of the way, quite the opposite of the consistent blows I kept on receiving from her.
As time wore on though, the number of times I got hit started to decrease while the number of times I was able to counterattack started to increase, forcing her to have to go on defense more and more often. It was something that Tatsuki had remarked on during one of our many sparring matches at the dojo.
--Flashback--
We were circling each other warily, both of us panting for air and blinking sweat out of our eyes.
“Not too bad Rika!” Tatsuki grinned at me from over her gloves. “Might actually be able to force me to fight seriously today.”
I snorted. “Yeah right! You know that you have to fight me seriously every time, I’d wipe the floor with your otherwise.” A smirk made its way across my face. “Then again, I do that even when you do give it your all.”
“Ha!” Tatsuki feinted to the right before taking a swipe at me. “I wipe the floor with you just as many times as you do with me.”
Grinning, I aimed a flurry of kicks at her, forcing her backwards. “We wouldn’t be sparring partners if that wasn’t the case.”
“True. Why you don’t compete in the championships is beyond me.” She managed to block my kicks with her arms, then pushed me back before rushing forward with a barrage of kicks and punches.
“Simple… I don’t like competitions.”
Blocking one of her roundhouse kicks with my left arm, I then looped it around her leg and pushed behind her knee joint, upsetting her balancing and forcing her closer to me.
“There’s so much pressure to win that it kills off the adrenaline rush I get from fighting. Anyways,” I blocked her punch with my right arm, then grabbed her shoulder and forcefully brought my knee up into her already bruised left side before releasing her, causing her to fall to the ground. “It’s my win today.”
Tatsuki sat up with one hand pressed to her side and pulled off her head protector. “I hate it when the matches are long, you usually win those.”
“Really?” I walked over to the bench where our water bottles and towels were. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Yeah.” She caught the bottle I threw and drank from it before taking the towel I was holding out for her. “It takes a while for you to really get into a fight and reach your full potential, but as it wears on, your reaction time gets faster and you get a bit more creative with your attacks.”
I draped the towel around my neck. “Oh… I always thought that I could react better because I got used to my opponent’s attacks and could start reading their movements.”
“Well, there’s that too. It usually goes both ways, but because you start getting creative, it actually gets harder to predict how you’ll attack.” She took another swig of water. “But your reaction time itself does get better too.”
“Interesting… must be due to all the adrenaline. Would definitely explain why I crash so hard once it wears off after the matches.” I laughed. “But you know, better reaction time and creativity or not, if the match drags on for too long, I end up losing in endurance.”
“Yep, and that’s why we should work on yours!” She pulled the towel off her head and threw it onto the bench along with her bottle. “Up for another round?”
I chuckled and stood up. “You say it’s to help me build up my endurance, but I think you just want your revenge.”
Strapping on her headgear, Tatsuki grinned at me unrepentantly. “How did you ever guess?”
--End Flashback--
While I was able to react to Ururu’s attacks much faster than when we had first begun the match, we had been fighting for a while, and though my endurance had increased with help from Tatsuki, my body was already waving a red warning flag at me. Each breath of air that my burnings lungs managed to draw in seemed to contain less and less oxygen. Muscles in my arms and legs were beginning to tighten up and I knew that if I let this drag on for much longer, they would stop working at the level I needed in order to clear this first lesson. Additionally, even the adrenaline pumping through my veins couldn’t stop the pain from various cuts and bruises on my body from creeping its way into my awareness. I was definitely starting to reach my limit, but Ururu looked like she had simply taken a stroll through a park.
Pausing a couple yards from her, I reached up to wipe the perspiration off my forehead. Considering my options.
The main problem I had was that Ururu was faster than me, and therefore able to move out of the way before I got within attacking range. If there was a way for me to hold her down or limit her movements, I might be able to land a punch.
Time to get creative then…
When Ururu rushed at me with another punch, I ducked and charged forward as if to collide with her headfirst. She jumped, and using my back as a springboard, leapt high up into the air, pushing me face first into the ground. Turning over while spitting dirt out of my mouth, I was met with the sight of her diving at me like a missile and had to hurriedly roll out of the way to avoid having my nose smashed in.
Scrambling up into a crouching position, I used the cover of the dust to grab onto the chain of fate attached to my chest, then whirled around just as Ururu came diving at me with a flying double kick. Grabbing her legs with both hands and stopping her inches away from my head, I wrapped the metal links around her legs and flung her onto the ground. Tugging at the chain with my right hand, I jerked her towards me and swung back with my left fist, bringing it around to connect solidly with the right side of her head protector.
Letting out a big breath and grinning at her in triumph, I unwrapped the chain, then stood up and reached down to help her up, only to witness her pupils dilating before she grabbed my wrist and flung me onto the ground with more force than anything I had witnessed from her during the fight. Winded, I could only lie there and watch wide-eyed as her fist came down and connected with my chest full force, just centimeters away from where the chain of fate protruded from my torso.
Lying on the ground, frantically gasping for the air her punch had forcibly removed from my lungs, I tried to figure out what was going on. Hadn’t Urahara said that I would clear the lesson if I succeeded in hitting Ururu? Didn’t that mean that the fight was over when I managed to punch her? Then why did Ururu attack me so aggressively afterwards? And what the hell was up with that huge increase in power?
It was when I tried to turn my head to look for Urahara and ask him what was going on that I realized I couldn’t move. I tried to lift my arms, my legs, even twitch my little finger, all to no avail. Aside from my rapidly moving eyes, my body just wouldn’t respond to my commands.
What’s happening?!
Then, as if it was triggered by this realization of my immobility, the numbness from Ururu’s final punch wore off, only to be replaced by intense pain. Each breath I tried to take felt as if an iron plate had settled on my chest, growing heavier and heavier with every gulp of air. The burning pain spread from my chest and into my arms and legs, dissolving the adrenaline in my veins, and making me aware of just how much I had pushed my body to its limits. Every little cut felt as if salt had been rubbed into it, every single bruise felt like it had been inflicted with a battering ram, and all my muscles seemed to be crying bloody murder at the top of their nonexistent lungs.
This isn’t a normal adrenaline crash! Oh god… what the hell is happening to me?!?
I struggled against the tunnel vision threatening to take away my sight. Was I dying? Was it even possible for souls to die again? Or had my time run out when I wasn’t paying attention, and I was now turning into a hollow?
No, that couldn’t be it… If I had been running out of time, if I was that close to turning into a hollow, I wouldn’t have been able to limit Ururu’s movements with the chain of fate. She hadn’t hit it either, so it couldn’t have been shortened during her last attack.
So then what the hell happened?!?
“Lesson one… clear!”
I shifted my eyes to the side and watched as a grinning Urahara slowly came within my line of vision, one hand holding his cane, the other resting on Ururu’s head.
“That was a most excellent show, Shirataki-san, it seems you are ready to begin the next lesson.”
I’m not really in any shape to start another lesson! Can you not tell that I can’t bloody move?!?
He squatted down and thrust his hand directly in front of my face. It was so close that I could feel my labored pants graze off his skin and brush back over my lips.
“Lesson two… shattered mind.”
The darkness that I had managed to hold off at the fringe of my vision suddenly swirled in with alarming speed. Despite the respite from pain it promised me, I fought against the familiar feeling of impending unconsciousness, not liking the sound of the second lesson one bit. Struggling furiously, I refused to relinquish my mind to the engulfing shadows, afraid of what would happen to me if I surrendered to its clutches. Regardless of my best efforts though, the darkness kept growing and I could feel my mind slowly fall into a daze.
Urahara’s gray eyes locked onto mine as I started slipping away.
“Come back to us, and it’ll be lesson clear.”
I knew nothing more after that.
--------------------
Here is the promised continuation of chapter 7. Action scenes are both fun and hard to write, especially when you write most of it on an airplane and the rest in the middle of the night. Both times are were trying because I couldn't really get up and act out the fights, but they seemed okay when I was finally able to test them out.
So you guys will be meeting Shirataki's zanpakutou spirit in the next chapter. Any guesses as to what it'll be like or what her inner world will look like? It should be interesting to see what people think fits her and I would love to hear your guesses.
Chapter 9 is currently in the works, no promises on how soon I'll be able to get it out though. I'm hoping for soon, but well... I don't know how long writer's block will stay away.