Under the Bloody Rule {Dual Training Zero and Hiro}

Sometimes he had to sit back and just shake his head in astonishment over the direction his life had taken in the past couple of months. Due to the crippling fear of Xan finding out he had been slacking off for quite some time, he had decided to start back his training regime once more, which of course was all he ever done ever since he had met Xan, why can’t he be a normal boy? Well he lived in the land of the undead and he had possessed lightning magic and not lightning release so he his cry for normality was down the drain ever since he was born. Letting out a soft sigh, he would draw his katana, gripped it tightly and began swinging. “One.” He grunted as he swung the blade down at full force. At first he was rather annoyed at how hard this was but now it was as simple as breathing.

Zero had been walking around town, killing some time as he searched for his next meal when he heard a voice say a number. He got curious, not really startled by little things as much, it would seem that becoming immortal in age seemed to have calmed him a little. He headed in the direction he had heard the voice come from and peeked around the corner. He witnessed a boy with a katana, doing what seemed to be some form of Kenjutsu training. Zero was curious as to who the guy was but wasn't sure if he should show himself in his current form. However fate was pulled from his hands as he leaned a little too far out of the corner and lost his balance, crashing to the ground. "Ow.... he would mutter, though nothing really seemed to hurt as bad as it used to ever since he began training with Xan-sensei. If the boy would look over he would see a humanoid shape covered in yellowish brown parchment of some kind from head to foot, almost like old toilet paper that hung off him in some areas.

“The hell is that?” Hiro said to himself as he noticed some kind of creature lingering around the training grounds as he practiced his swings. If he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that someone was using the bathroom, tripped and rolled around in a pile of toilet paper. Maybe it was some new species of creature that was only in the Land of Ash? Whatever it was, he was quite curious on what it was and what would happen if he poked it, poking it sounds like a good idea, Hiro thought as he nodded his head. Hiro would make his way over to the thing at Samurai Bullet Release speeds. “Hmm, what are you?” He muttered as he stared at the thing before him. At closer inspection however he would notice that it wasn’t some new type of creature it was actually a young boy, why was he wrapped in toilet paper though? “Umm, you need help getting out of the toilet paper kid?”

Zero would hold his face as he sat up, wishing he hadn't of done that. He would look up at the seemingly normal person and then push his way to his feet. "Believe me, I've tried... But there is nothing I can do about it. Its one of Carmen's gifts, the Curse of the Mummy. I wanted to be the Werewolf but... Well things got mixed up..." he would mutter slightly as he brushed himself off. He would take another look at the boy and glance over his weapons. "Your sword fighter huh? I've been trying to learn Kenjutsu but its hard... I'm always afraid I'm going to cut my own head off. Now that'd be embarrassing..."

Hiro couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young white haired boy that stood before him. It was bad enough he wasn’t able to get the curse mark that he wanted but now he had to live with that mistake wrapped up in toilet paper for the rest of his life, which was of course all eternity as he should’ve become immortal, damn that sucks. The irony of all of this was that he had actually planned on selecting the Mummy curse mark but had decided on the magician, it seems the gods were looking out for him. Thank god he didn’t have to end up looking like he did, no offense to the kid of course. “Hey, I was pretty bad at Kenjutsu myelf until Xan-sensei helped me out, well I’m still pretty bad.” Hiro said with a chuckle as he tried to cheer the kid up.

Zero raised an eyebrow at the mention of Xan. "Lord Xan also tried to teach me. But I believe he sees me as a failure as well. I completely failed in Kenjutsu and so he just left... My only skill is in Taijutsu now. Though I am still trying to practice." Zero would smile as he seemed happyish now. Here he was talking to someone without stuttering. "I gotta say, its nice meeting someone who doesn't look like a demon or something. Everyone in Pandora always looks so scary..."

Oh so he knew the old man? It seemed as if the old man had been searching high and low for someone to teach Kenjutsu first it was Hobo-san and now this kid. Were there others as well? Why was he even searching so long for someone to teach Kenjutsu anyways? Was he going to die soon or something? Whatever it was it seemed as if Xan had settled with him at this moment as he didn’t ditch him like he did the others, hopefully he would be as good as Xan wanted him to be, he didn’t want to be a disappointment. “Well everyone has their own talents and I’m pretty sure yours lies in Taijutsu.” Hiro stated earnestly as he knew exactly how the young boy felt as he was a Denkou without the ability to use lightning although now he was able to use lightning magic but it wasn’t quite the same. “Yeah your right, you do have some pretty scary people here.” Hiro replied to the kids remake able looking normal, though the kid himself might be in the category of scary looking people. “The name is Hiroshima by the way, you can just call me Hiro.”

"I'm Zero. Zero Ibwa, pleased to meet you Hiro," he would say with a light respectful bow. He would look at the guys weapon again and became curious as to who this guy was. Pandora was strict in their citizen policy. They had to have a certain type of theme. This guy didn't look any different than a regular person. It was possible he had an element that allowed him to stay as a knight, or he could have immortality like himself. He remembered his first meeting with Xan and Tumu, Xan had made him fight another guy to the death. Luckily neither of them died, but the other guy was like some harpy or something. Thanks to that incident though Zero had found his power. Zero would then look around the area, kind of feeling awkward if he didn't say something else. "Wanna train together or something? I can't provide much experience in Kenjutsu... But I can be used as a moving target practice dummy if yah want."

An Ibwa huh? Did he have connections to old man Xan? Or he was just a part of the clan? He had never heard the old man speak about another Ibwa so I guess he was just a part of the clan. Did the old man even have any family? Maybe he’ll ask him that the next time they met which Hiro was pretty sure was soon as Xan had a habit of dropping in when he had least expected it. “Well I was out here training but I don’t think using you as a training dummy would be safe.” Hiro stated as he reluctantly after hearing the boy’s proposition. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt or maim the young boy, he was already wrapped in toilet paper for the rest of his life, he wouldn’t want him to have one arm of a stump for a leg as well. Although he was an Ibwa so he probably wouldn’t feel any pain and since they were in Pandora patching him back up as new was a possibility but he didn’t want to use the kid as a dummy.

Zero smiled as this guy wasn't bad at all. He wasn't ready to jump at the chance to harm him, thankfully. Most he met would jump at the chance, but not this guy. "Heheh. Thanks for the sentiment, but I'm pretty durable, at least in physical combat. Unless you are like... Super duper strong I should be fine. I can even do well against most elemental based combat. Ooh, you should totally use something elemental. I have a nice trick that happens when I'm hit by one," Zero would say, actually enthusiastic to fight for once.

“Umm…” Hiro wasn’t sure what to say. The young boy before him seemed pretty confident in himself that he would be able to spare evenly with him which made him think, was the kid more than what meets the eye and under all the toilet paper he was some Taijutsu master capable of crushing mountains and taming god beasts? Or was he just underestimating Hiro completely? He had a strange feeling it was the latter rather than the former. Shrugging he would give the boy what he wished for. “Well if you wanna get struck by lightning so badly” He said before rising his hand pointing his index and his middle finger with his thumb up. “But this isn’t normal lightning.” He warned as the what he was doing was considered as natural energy not chakra so whatever he was planning it must be applied to Natural Energy or well, he’d be screwed. With the electricity building up in his finger tips he would fire two bullets towards him at swift release speeds.

Spoiler:

Zero held his arms to his head in an X formation to protect his face as he took the two shocks. He grit his teeth as he fought back the muscle spasms but then something strange happened. His body seemed to begin to spark, as if it was giving off its own electricity. Blue sparks of lightning randomly flew off his body, dissipating out and turning him into an electric coil. The hair visible on him stood on end, as if he was near static. The bandages around him seemed to glow as the sparks of electricity raced along their length, making them seem to wave on their own. "Ouch, not really lethal but I feel like my body is jumping on its own. Or trying to at least. Anyways, this is my cool feature. I can become whatever element I touch, allowing me new effects based on the element. Thanks to you I can now transform into lightning. Besides that I can also become a skeleton," said Zero as he looked at the electricity jumping off his body. He then looked curiously at Hiro. "I can usually withstand most physical and chakra based attacks. You don't look hurt nor did you spill any blood. So it couldn't have been spiritual. Was that natural energy? You received a curse too didn't you?" Zero asked curiously, somewhat more wary of his new friend.

Spoiler:

Well that was a tad bit unexpected. Hiro thought to himself after witnessing the boy transform into lightning itself. In all honesty he should’ve expected something as outrageous like this to have happened seeing that he was willing to get hit by Hiro’s technique and he was also disappointed by the fact that his technique was so easily shrugged off. He seriously needed to look into his technique creation, unfortunately if it wasn’t anything pertaining to shuriken jutsu, kenjutsu or taijutsu he was completely without Xan’s help or guidance, which sucked. “That’s a pretty neat trick there Zero.” Hiro admitted. Having a technique like that will end up coming in handy once he does have the right elements, and who knows what deadly combos he could create. Damn Ibwas are amazing. “Well the curse mark I have is actually the Magician I was born with the ability to use chakra so with the Magician seal I can now use natural energy which is pretty neat.”

"Magician huh? Your so lucky that you didn't change outwardly. Unlike me.... I became such a freak..." Zero said sadly. He sighed before taking a deep breath and relaxing himself. "So what do you say? Wanna spar? Or you can use me as a practice dummy. But we gotta be quick about it. My promotion ceremony to a Bronze Knight is coming up in about an hour and I can't be late." Zero was honestly excited for the promotion. He had come so far, sure it had taken awhile but at least he was no longer incompetent. He could fight now and maybe even impress Xan-dono.

He was quite happy that he didn’t change outwardly like the others whom had chosen the other seals, even though the Magician Seal probably paled in comparison compared to someone with a Vampire Curse Seal or a Werewolf Curse Seal but he’d rather be weak and normal looking than four feet tall with fur covering his body and razor sharp fangs. “Well if you insist…” Hiro said after it was quite obvious that the kid really wanted to spare but how could he spare with someone who didn’t have a weapon? I mean it was quite easy to do so with Xan as he was a kenjutsu user but would he use his actual weapons on the kid? Well it would pretty safe to use his bokken for sparing, hopefully it didn’t break. “Well we let’s get going my fellow bronze knight.” Hiro said with a smile before gripping the bokken with both hands.

Zero would smile and bow slightly to Hiro. "I'll make sure to use as little strength as possible," said Zero before straightening. He would then take up a position by standing sideways to make himself smaller to the weapon user. He held one leg out in front slightly, while he balanced his center of gravity on his hind leg. He held both arms in a defensive boxing position before nodding. "Let's start," he would say before charging straight for Hiro at bullet release speeds, anticipating the attack to come. Once within ten feet he would suddenly burst up a notch, moving at crashing ground speeds. "Kouho! Unless Hiro had the proper training to see, when Zero sped up he would pivot on one leg and virtually disappear, though in reality he had basically side stepped and spun around to Hiro's blind spot directly behind him.

Spoiler:

Well it was nice it know that he was looking to kill me, Hiro thought as he gripped his bokken. In reality if he had hit the kid as hard as he could the bokken would probably snap and leave him without a weapon, so it probably would’ve be a smart idea to use his actual blade, sheathed of course but if push came to shove he would have it use it. Though he wasn’t comfortable with the idea with this spar, it was a good way of testing his skills, mainly his senjutsu based techniques and of course he had one move he had been itching to try ever since he had gained the ability to gain use senjutsu. His grey hues would swap the color they had had since birth for a more vibrant and electric blue with four jagged patterns. Hiro would watch Zero with his active Raidengan and nodded when the boy said he was ready to start. Initially Hiro had wanted to make the first move but Zero had beaten him to the punch. But as he charged towards him, he would take a deep breath and the moment he attempted to disappear from his sight his Raidengan would allow him follow his movements and react accordingly. Spinning around on his feet, Hiro would rush towards Zero at Crashing Ground Speeds and attempted to deliver a single horizontal slash to his torso, but the attack of course was a feint, instead of attempting to complete the attack, Hiro would release the sword and allowed it to fall to his right hand and would them attempt to deliver a genuine slash at crashing ground to his torso.

Spoiler:

Zero watched as it seemed that Hiro possessed enough skill to keep up with his Kouho. His eyes had even changed, this was going to become extremely interesting. But not by too much. Zero didn't bother attempting to block the counter attack to his chest. He waited a split second and as the blade went across his chest Hiro would meet resistance. His bokken wouldnt seem to meet soft flesh. It was more like striking steel with the wooden bamboo sword. As the attack his Zero, Zero countered himself using the strike that he allowed to hit himself as an opening to grab Hiro by the shoulders and pull him into a bear hug with c rank strength at crashing ground speeds. However, so as not to hurt the guy he would merely grip with the strength in his hands while using normal strength to squeeze the guy.

Spoiler:

Well that went exactly how he had expected. Hiro thought as he watched the bokken snap into two. This would turn out badly if he didn’t use his actual sword but if he did he might end up hurting the kid who of course he didn’t want but he didn’t have much a choice now did he? This was much more difficult than sparing with Xan-sensei, with Xan he could afford to go all out without fear of injuring him as of course that was damn near impossible. Well back to the matter at hand. As Zero reached out to him, Hiro would avoid his attempted grasp thanks to his Raidengan giving him the ability to react to B rank speeds. He would then stick his right hand in his pockets and tossed a smoke bomb which would disperse in a ten feet area. He would then put some distance between the two, about five feet and then drew his sword waiting for the kid to appear.

Spoiler:

Zero would stand in place as Hiro avoided his grapple and put some distance between them, placing down a smoke screen in his retreat. "Heh. Seems like I can't catch you and you can't harm me. We might be at a stalemate," Zero would say as his body returned to normal. He wasn't sure if they should end it or keep going. If they kept going it was possible one of them could get seriously hurt. Though there was a chance Zero could win. But there was also the chance Hiro could as well seeing as Zero had no idea of what Hiro was completely capable of.

This was a stalemate in all sense of the phrase and continuing would be complete madness s it would lead to one of them getting grievous bodily injures or killed and let’s face it they were both too young to die especially in a sparring match. “Let us call this one a draw for now Zero-chan.” He said having finally made up his mind not to continue this spare any further. Sheathing his sword Hiro would stand there rubbing the back of his neck wondering what to do next. Zero wasn’t a kenjutsu user so they couldn’t practice Kenjutsu together but he was a fellow True All Tai user so maybe they could learn from each other. “You got anything else in mind?” He asked as he was fresh out of ideas.

Concerning Training:

Approved

» A Routine Training Session (Dual Training = Cleo & Hiro)
» One Master, One Apprentice. (Dual Training Xan & Zaku) [Closed Except to Hiro]
» Kyoshiro's Bloody Training
» [Genin Training Grounds, Area 6] Team 6 Meet Topic (Dual Training)
» Lady Psychokinetic (Bulk Training) Dual Training

Road Trip

With the first round of classes complete and the students already acclimated to life at the academy. The school has organized a field trip in order to give the students a taste of what …

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