Skill Up

***Date Finished:*** TBA

***Setting:*** Mini training arc where characters get to know each other

A few weeks have passed since Shiroe's first mission, frustrated by her performance, she wanders into the training grounds and starts to practice, swinging and throwing blades and bullets at targets. She wears the same equipment she did during her mission, except for her Cursed Tool Ivory having rubber bullets instead of real ones.

Her frustration causes her footwork to become messy, which makes Shiroe further frustrated with her self until she simply throws her blade into the ground, sits letting out a long sigh. "Oh hey!" Kura says in a much more friendly manner than before, sipping on a box of apple juice, the two spent some time during rehabilitation together and got a bit closer. "So, Chikara said something about training against the 2nd years. Shiroe looks up at Kura from the ground, "is that so... Sounds interesting" she gets up, dusting herself off and picking up the equipment that had been scattered. "How strong do you think they'll be?" she says while reloading her handgun with rubber bullets.

"One of them is a brother of Haru Asashi, that special grade guy, I don't know anything about the second one though." Kura said, still sipping on the apple juice as before. "I got some talismans for myself, so I'm prepared, and I see the same goes for you" Kura added, laughing. "Guess that means he should be quite strong huh" she stretches and starts to walk around "I also have a special grade brother, wonder if It's going to be a new trend now" she adds with a snicker.

Walking into the training grounds while he still had free time, Nogami Gensai entered the place, this was his second year, and yet he still didn’t know where things were. Looking at the two other people, he had wondered if he barged in on their alone time.

“Sorry to bother you guys, but I hope I’m not distracting you two or anything” he said.

“You aren’t, we’re waiting for the second years since our teacher said we’d have a training session with them” Shiroe turned to face him, “may I presume you’re one of them?”

”Yes I am. Nogami Gensai is the name” the second year said with a bow, his three katanas almost falling out of the sheaths due to how far he bowed before getting back up. “Now that I have introduced my self, tell me what are your names?”

Shiroe does an elegant bow as she introduces herself, “I am Byakko Kizen, but you may call me Shiroe”. She eyes the 3 blades Nogami carries on him, “I take it you’re a swordsman, then? Are the extra blades spares or do you actually wield all 3 at the same time like in that one show”

”Oh I'm Kurayami, nice to meet you” Kura said, a little bit coldly as he didn't see this guy at the campus yet, examining him and his weaponry.

”Oh these katanas. Well, one if for me and the other two are for my comrades, though I have used two katanas before” Gensai said to the other two students. “And it’s very nice to meet you Kurayami” Gensai exclaimed while holding his hand out for a shake.

As Kurayami shook the 2nd year's hand, the last person to train with them arrived, “Hey guys, let's make the introductions quick, my name is Atsui” an elegantly dressed, tanned man said, approaching them. "Then you may call me Shiroe" she says with a short bow, "May I assume you're Harus brother?".

”Ugh, I am, nice to meet you” Atsui said, visibly angry at the mention of his brother, “It's always about him, everyone knows me because of him, not because of me, I hate this” Haru thought, putting up a smile.

”Hello there. My name is Nogami Gensai though you can just call me Nogami. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Nogami said as he bowed towards Atsui. “And may I ask who is this Haru you speak of”

”Oh, Haru is my brother, anyways get ready.” He said as he walked to the other side of the training place. So did Kura, the two already met earlier and knew each other.

Shiroe takes a spot near Kura with a gun and combat knife at the ready. "Shall we, Kura?". All of them were ready, but noone made a single move, until Kura launched blasts with raw cursed energy at Atsui, falling back in teh process.

Atsui launched at Kura at full speed, drawing his wooden Bō in the process, while Kura blocked the attack, the two started fighting up close, launching attacks back and forth, leaving Shiroe to fight the other second year or help Kura.

## Shiroe vs Nogami

”So I guess it’s just you and me?” Nogami says as he unsheathes his swords and gets himself into a defensive position, he was determined to win this no matter what.

"By the looks of it, it is" Shiroe takes her own defensive stance, gun, and blade pointed. "Then let's dance". She fires a rubber bullet towards Nogami as she anticipates his next move.

In a blur, Nogami quickly dodges the bullets. With his strength and speed, he rushes towards Shiroe with his katanas in hand, going in for a blow to the other student.

Shiroe takes a step back, trying to stay out of the blade's range as she continues to fire her rubber bullets. She aims one at each foot, left knee, right hand, chest, stomach and left shoulder in rapid succession and random order.

Quickly reacting to the rubber bullets, Nogami quickly spins his body at blinding speeds, blocking all the bullets with his katanas. “I didn’t expect that to work.” Nogami says before landing on the ground.

Shiroe looks at Nogami a bit baffled, then laughs a bit "Pfft, you fight like my brother" throwing her combat knife towards Nogami as she continues to kite and stay out of the blade's range. "This should be interesting" she thinks to herself.

“What the fuck!” Nogami exclaims as the ground is wreck asunder by Atsui’s and Kira’s fight. “I thought this was training not a death match” Nogami said as he got his footing back.

“Alrighty, I’m back on my feet” He says as he quickly looks for his opponent.

Shiroe had jumped into the air, keeping her cool as she lands elegantly back onto the ground. "That was... interesting?" she mutters to herself. Shiroe looks in Kura's direction only to watch him launch a burst of Cursed Energy, "Watch out!" she yelled to Nogami in response.

Flexing his leg muscles to the point of cracking the ground, Nogami quickly gets into a sumo stance and places his hand on his knees, in one fail sweep before the blast could even get close enough to pose any real threat to him, he takes one big leap into the air with the ground turning to rubble under him. This jump was atleast for a student, the ultimate display of pure physical abilities and strength.

Shiroe stares at Nogami's leap in surprise, "that's purely physical strength?" she thinks to herself.

Nogami marveled, his voice tinged with awe, as he initiated his rapid descent, his body a blur of motion. With lightning speed, he hurled his gleaming sword towards Shiroe's form, a lethal projectile in the making."Isn't it truly remarkable?" Nogami exclaimed, his words punctuated by the sound of air slicing around his descending figure.

## Atsui vs Kura

Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Atsui took the upper hand in the fight as he summoned a sand dragon shinigami, right before dealing a finishing blow to Kura, the took out a talisman to both negate Atsuis attack and patch himself up, punching Atsui right after. The latter quickly got up to fight back, and fight back he did, sending somewhat of a sand storm with many sand shinigamis on Kurayami.

While Kurayami is slashing most of the shinigami with his strings, Atsui launches at him to make the boys situations even worse than it already is. Kurayami, to nullify the effects of the sandstorm and the cursed energy of Atsui, activates his **Simple Domain**. The two are now fighting purely with physical combat, Atsui as the physically stronger one, takes the upper hand, once managing to get his Cursed Energy back to balance, he uses **Cursed Energy Control: Ruins of Apep** destroy most of the training ground, throwing everyone in the arena off balance.

“Kurayami, was it?” You sure are a honorable figther, but this is enough.” Said Atsui as he sent multiple slashes of sand at Kura, who only managed to block them partially, at this point being completely exhaustef, he puts everything he has into his final attack, not on Atsui, but on Nogami, sending a huge burst of cursed energy as he faints and falls to the ground.

## New challenger's dawn

Amidst all of the fighting a teenage boy strolled into the arena, the boy had in earbuds and his eyes looked like a mixture of focused and sad. The boy being one of the newer Students at the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. Taiyou Ren observing the others fighting he made note that all of them where strong, compared to him who still was figuring out his first technique. of course he was only a first year so he would learn in due time.

Walking up to the nearest person Taiyou still kept his earphones in and began speaking. "This is a training session between the second years at least. Am I supposed to go against one or just observe?" The simple question carried a lot of weight. for someone like him the primary way he fought was through physical combat though his cursed weapon wasn't fully out at the moment. but they already began coming into their own styles and had vast amounts of experience compared to him.

"in any case, it should be fun" Taiyou said watching the others still.

Shiroe turns to take notice of the newcomer, with a wave of the hand and a gentle smile "Morning" she says peacefully in the middle of the battlefield, her attention now rigged on the 2nd second years around her she takes a few steps back to gain distance in preperation.

Waving back Taiyou gives a smirk. Watching her dance around the battlefield was a spectacle since he first saw the girl in action. Giving a glance Taiyou takes out the earbuds and begins stretching. Taking into account that this is a training session it wouldn't be surprising if someone got the jump on him. Now would be the best time to train his situational awareness.

## The Scorpio, Tiger and Bear (Prolly temp.)

As Kurayami stopped fighting, it was now a two against one, leaving Shiroe in a disadvantage. Atsui summoned new shikigamis to fight alongside him while also making a sword out of his sand. He sent many shikigamis at Shiroe and launched at her alongside them-

Shiroe activates **Ash Blosson** and throws her knife at the nearest Shikigami. She then stows her gun and enters a drawing stance for the blade she carries. Standing still, she reveals a new technique, **Ash Blossom: Domain**. The simple domain-like barrier which surrounds her body spreads across the ground at the last minute, nullifying Cursed Techniques. Quickly followed up with an upward swing, kicking up dirt to blind Atsui, as she further enhancing her speed and using the blades momentum to curve it down onto his neck.

Landing back on the ground, Nogami now unsheathed his swords, for which felt like one thousands time. “Let’s really get going” he said before striking the air with enough strength to blasts of winds toward his opponent. Caught by surprise from the wind blasts, Shiroes attack completely misses Atsui as she braces herself for impact. Unable to dodge in time she gets sent back a few feet and takes a bit to recover, shaking off the numbness on her arm from taking the impact.

Flashing in from the side, Taiyou appeared between the others in a bright flash. "Senpai, should we even the odds!" He said towards shiroe as the other two teamed up in their own right. Before waiting for a reply He brought his hands together in a clap. As they separated from each other a long handle appeared from what seemed like nowhere. Grabbing it in his left hand. Taiyou flicked the handle outward revealing his cursed tool. Flashing in a deep blood-red hue, lightning erupted from the empty handle until a fluid expelled from the handle. Taking shape into a blade died crimson. With his cursed tool revealed Taiyou adjusted the sharpness thanks to the tools unique property. this causing it to become blunt, akin to the wooden swords pulled out from his upperclassmen. Now standing ready to assist his fellow first year, Taiyou smirked and launched forward.

Shiroe whistles as if catcalling Taiyou, "well well well, I was wonderin' when you'd hop it" she rights herself taking an offensive stance besides Taiyou, activating *Ash Blossom* once more, starting to feel the strain from continuous use of the technique. "Lets show these upperclassmen what us youngbloods can do eh?" she says with a smirk.

Atsui slides back of as he creates a O out of his hands, shouting Domain Expansion: Storms of Sahara as the sand fills the space with multiple scorpio shikigami.