Shinigami Savant Quest #67

You are Kusajishi Riku, Captain of the Ninth Division of the Seireitei Court Guard. At the moment you find yourself squaring off against what may be the most difficult opponent you've faced so far in your life: yourself.

Your doppelganger stands the same height as you, has all of your features right down to your eyelashes, and carries the same relaxed demeanor. Her two swords are outwardly identical to yours as well: Tenkotsuki's copy being suspended blade-down from her sash while Kobara no Tachi's is worn blade-up and tucked through it.

However the image is not exactly mirrored, much to your relief: on your clone's wrist is an ornate sliver bracelet, which is of a design you've never seen before and certainly do not own. Why go the trouble of producing a near-perfect copy but add such a visible detail you can't rightly say, but in any event it doesn't really help you fight her. What it does mean is that you can probably use that visual cue to distinguish the real Yoruichi from HER copy, against whom she's already fighting.

The other Riku smiles confidently. “I'd hoped to get a chance to meet you, Riku. I wanted to be the one to tell you that you're no longer needed... It's only appropriate.”

With an almost blinding speed the other Riku draws her sword and crosses the room in an instant, a ferocious strike aimed at your neck only barely stopped in time by Tenkotsuki's blade. The enormous force behind the swing, its laser-like precision... everything about her is familiar to you. It's your strength. It's your speed. They're your movements, following your own style and technique, developed from your own centuries of experience and observation. If anything it feels almost as if she's a bit better at it than you somehow, despite there being absolutely no immediately discernible differences to account for that feeling.
>1/?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=JWE0k9WGe8U
youtube.com/watch?v=6gL8p0dGP0c
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

“I can see it in your eyes,” the other Riku tells you with a smirk as your swords lock close, subtly shifting and sliding against each other to win the battle of leverage. “You're frantically asking yourself how perfect a clone I am. Well, allow me to answer that question with another question...”

You feel yourself losing out ever so slightly in the meeting of blades, and decide to drive your knee forward into your attacker's gut only to find your counterattack met with her own leg. A second snap-kick to the side of her head as your blades slide past each other is blocked with her arm, and a second slash with her “Tenkotsuki” finds only air as you take advantage of hirenkyaku to reverse your momentum and slide around to take her back.

“What point would there be in merely copying you?” she asks, having used her own hirenkyaku to escape. Yet again, your own carefully-practiced movement has been used against you. “Why settle for a stalemate?”

“You're implying you're better than me somehow?” you grunt, knocking her fist away and striking at her ribs with Tenkotsuki's hilt. “How's that work?”

Her elbow quickly drops to disrupt your attack as you exchange a furious series of blows and counter-blows. “Secret.”

“Of course.”

So far this exchange has accomplished nothing but make you wonder if one of the Privaron Espada actually got in a lucky shot, and you're actually in a delusional state lying on the ground back in Karakura town. You're not sure which of the scenarios would frustrate you the most, but thinking back on the Privaron Espada it seems much more likely that this is real.
>2/3

That means you'll need to find some means of gaining back momentum, something you can leverage against your clones to steal back a clear advantage. As the two Yoruichis continue to trade massive blows at an insane pace you may well find it harder to tell them apart at a glance, as their shunpo have the effect of shuffling them around when you're not looking. Though with the stakes as high as they are here it's less like a shell game, and more a strange sort of roulette. You also spare your opponent a thought: if she's anything like you she's waiting to gauge your abilities before taking you down in one overwhelming assault.

You can't let that happen, no matter what line of attack you decide to pursue.

>Figure out quickly which is your Yoruichi and tag out with her. Face her clone instead.
>Attack in Shikai, try and work out what the differences between you and your clone are.
>Go all-out, see if this wanna-be you can keep up with the real deal.
>Try to lure the clones into attacking each other: it worked great against the Privaron Espada.
>Other?

>Figure out quickly which is your Yoruichi and tag out with her. Face her clone instead.

Hey Queen, can we have some time extension to the vote? I've got something that I want to post for discussion before we decide upon an action.

>Other: Remember that Shikai ability to randomly modify spells that we almost never use? Use it. Fake Riku won't be able to predict an effect even we can't.

You have my curiosity.

YOU have my attention.

Yeah, alright. Sounds like a blast!

This sound cool

Doable.

So There's this idea that's been in my head for awhile, so let me post it and ask for some time before you close the vote.

We know that we're fighting a clone of Riku, And if Yoru-clone is anything to go by, an up-to-date clone of Riku. So it's safe to assume that Riku-clone has Bankai and Ressurecion, along with the cloned facets of Tenkotsuki and Rosa. But there are several things that are bugging me.
1. Riku-clone sounds like a cocky brat. That means she's confident to a fault. Which means
2. That is DEFINITELY NOT how real Riku operates. real Riku would not be that of a big talker mid-combat. Often times we do the talking before battle and when the battle is at it's end. That leads to...
3. Riku-clone only knows how we "typically fight" based on the last time data was gathered from us. We typically use Shikai and Ressurecion. Bankai was more of a quick on & off thing to make use of the reiryoku surpressing aura. And there was almost no instance aside from 1 or 2 instances where we used the spell mod roulette. which isn't enough for the data gatherer to figure out entirely out of our 12 spell mods.
4. Riku-clone's cocksure cockiness would lead to her being more prone to reckless and high-risk moves in which we can captialize on. Not sure about Bankai through.

which brings up to the main point:
What do we know of ourselves and the public image we built for ourselves? What would the real Riku do in a situation whereas the clone-Riku wouldn't dare do? How can we turn our character & combat flaws into our strengths?

Alternatively, we can fall back on the fighting style we developed as an LT which involved modifying spells to work in melee combat. We largely ditched that after learning Shunko but I see no reason we can't pull it back out again.

Backing

I have an idea and I know it sounds crazy, but what if we let our swords take the wheel? We have 2 other separate beings (child of fox god and our past life) residing in our soul. Although they're facets of the whole, they still are separate from the Riku our clone were based off of. Heck Rosa even had a fighting style completely different from Riku's.

>writing

A sobering thought crosses your mind: in a lot of ways, you're not a shinigami. You were a quincy in life, and the soul of that woman was shattered upon her death. The gaping holes left by that traumatic event were later filled by your “inner hollow” Rosa and the remnants of the dead goddess who would eventually come to call herself Tenkotsuki. None of you can truly exist without the others, and it is this symbiotic relationship that makes you who you are. The others are not just your power, they're an inseparable part of your soul... but at the same time, they're as foreign as any other symbiotes you might find in nature.

So what parts of you have actually been copied here? You can't say for sure just yet, but you know one way to find out. And it begins by calling on that power which has always been a part of you.

“Prohibit, Tenkotsuki.”

“What exactly are you planning, my dear?” Tenkosuki muses inside your mind.

You can practically feel her grin at your mental reply. “Let's see if her Tenkotsuki ripoff is anywhere close to the real deal. Go nuts.”

>youtube.com/watch?v=JWE0k9WGe8U

True to form, you can feel a surge of power filling your body as Tenkotsuki releases. Your momentary exchange leaves you confident that she understands that the course of this battle is ultimately under her control.

“Shikai?” your clone quips. “Time for you to serious the fuck up, Riku.”

Your mirror releases her own sword, and on top of that she enters a form of shunkō. From the outside, that's intimidating as all hell: you can actually understand why shinigami outside your own Division might secretly be terrified of you.

>dice+3d10, DC 7

Rolled 7, 5, 7 = 19 (3d10)

Rolled 3, 6, 4 = 13 (3d10)

Shit. That link should accompany the post with the actual combat in it.

Rolled 2, 4, 2 = 8 (3d10)

too late queen. you asked for a roll, we gave you the dice.

Well, at least we succeeded!

Yes, but the MUSIC is mis-timed.

Just... pretend that link is in the next post and give me a 1d12, I'll take the second roll.

Rolled 9, 5, 3 = 17 (3d10)

>dat spanish guitar
you have fine taste Queen.

Rolled 4 (1d12)

Rolled 6 (1d12)

Going with this. It's an interesting one desu, but not the most powerful.

Well I hope it works out!

desu

>“Shikai?” your clone quips. “Time for you to serious the fuck up, Riku.” Your mirror releases her own sword, and on top of that she enters a form of shunkō.
Yup. this confirms that Riku-clone is cocky to a fault. She's confident in the abilities that real-Riku demonstrated in public with inherently automatic proficiency, but the poor bitch has poor basic understanding of how to synergize the abilities she's given. You don't enter shunko and Shikai at the start of combat. Shunko's great as a powerboost but it works better as a short term buff that burns Reiatsu at a alarming rate.

The other Riku comes roaring towards you like a human-sized freight train, powerful reiatsu trailing from her arms and shoulders in the wake of her charge. Her choice is an unadorned flat thrust typical of the Shinsengumi, made all the more dangerous by the fact that you've since learned how to augment the already fast and aggressive move with kidō. Dodging this particular technique would be difficult if not impossible given the circumstances, so you opt for something else.

“Dankū!” you roar, raising the barrier just in the nick of time. Much to your shock the attack seems at first as if it's threatening to break through the wall... but instead you see your doppelganger continue on through it. Both Rikus are taken aback as your attacker emerges out the same side of the barrier she just struck, and as it crumbles you're only just able to take advantage of the surprise to land a deep slash on her back.

The other Riku stumbles forward before catching herself with a hirenkyaku. As her step ends she throws off her copy of your haori, which has been left tattered by her own shunkō and stained by her blood. She then turns to face you with a snarl, parrying your follow-up attack.

“Too bad you couldn't take better advantage!” she shouts, driving her foot into your stomach as you loop a reiatsu chain around her leg. While you recoil you tug on the chain, pulling her into your waiting fist. The resulting blow sends her crashing back to earth in a pall of dust, within which she disappears entirely.
>1/2

She's hidden her spiritual pressure, just the way Yoruichi taught you to all those years ago. Any opportunity at all to seize momentum back, even if it's underhanded. A resounding series of blasts and massive surges in reiatsu alert you to the fact that Yoruichi and fake Yoruichi have begun putting their respective Shōsōtōs to increasingly brutal use, replicating a wide variety of spiritual tools in their attempts to kill each other. Some of them even you've not seen before.

>Pump out reiatsu of your own by going into shunkō, sense her movements that way?
>Briefly “toggle” Bankai to purge her invisibility at an inopportune moment?
>Take a cheap shot at the fake Yoruichi, see what the other Riku does?
>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?
>Other?

>>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?

>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?
Aww yisss

>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?

>quit faffing about and just go full release and bankai. End her

>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?

>>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter that doesn't require you to sense your opponent?

>basically two fights like this are going on at the same time
>youtube.com/watch?v=6gL8p0dGP0c
Except with Yoruichi and Riku.

>Briefly “toggle” Bankai to purge her invisibility at an inopportune moment?

>Put full faith and trust in Tenkotsuki to come up with a counter.
>Create a illusion of casting a spell to take a potshot at the Yoruichis to use as a bait. Then use spell roulette to catch her (Riku-clone) off guard.

Too bad Shunsui isn't here. We might have been able to combo with him to take her, like using kido to make a light source that extends her shadow to him.

Pity this place is too dangerous for onlookers, bet it's quite the spectacle!

>In Tenko you trust
>1d12, 2nd roll
OR, AT YOUR OPTION
>3d10, DC 7 best of three

You may roll one or the other in your response to this post. Trying to save time here.

Rolled 11 (1d12)

Fug...

Rolled 5, 1, 8 = 14 (3d10)

Rolled 9 (1d12)

Rolled 2, 2, 10 = 14 (3d10)

Rolled 4 (1d12)

We have a 9, now let's see the 3d10.

>dice+3d10

Rolled 1, 1, 3 = 5 (3d10)

Go TENNIE Go!

Rolled 10, 2, 10 = 22 (3d10)

Rolled 5, 9, 4 = 18 (3d10)

...

Rolled 6, 6, 10 = 22 (3d10)

Fuck I always do that.

FFFFFFFFF

That clutch save.

Look again, We ded.

Depends on if the roll has to be linked to the original call for rolling or not.
Ultimately up to Queen.

linked to the incorrect post. As is the third roll, you get a success.

Thank your lucky stars it wasn't the other way round or you wouldn't be getting a pleasant surprise.

You're the best!

...

thank god I was incompetent at linking the dice to the right post at the right time.

I love how we took a fight between two extremely technical fighters and turned it into a case of rolling the dice and random powers.

Hey, it's just consistency.
>writing

Riku's showing the side she doesn't like to show much, She'll get the job done no matter what, Even if she has to use the most despicable methods.

Man, we should have set up a series of codes to for this.

Iike if we wanted to figure out which is our Yuroichi, she would respond with daffodils or donkey show.

It's moles, man. Moles all the way down.

btw, what was the spell mod Tenkotsuki made to our Dankū? Dankū is a barrier designed to hard stop an attack, so why the sudden pass-through molasses effect?

I mean like right before the fight.

That system was rendered null when Yoru-clone donned a sash of the same color we gave to our wife. We'll need to come up with something different. However the sight of real-Riku defeating clone-Riku would illicit a different but identifiable reactions to distinguish one from the other.

Sup guide, I've been following this quest since the start and I've loved it all the way (my favorite was the the running gag of stealing OMG's shoes)

Though I feel the need to express that I don't really like how you went with the Valhallan's I dunno but it feels like you hit them too hard with the woobie bat. From what we've seen they are so damn weak and incompetent at more or less everything and given how high powered everything in the bleach setting is it feels like the Valhalla's shouldn't really exist as anything higher then a medium strength Hollow would have wiped them out. And even if they lost their premier fighters a thousand years ago they should have rebuilt by now, right? I dunno it just doesnt make sense to me how these guys are still around is all...

Anyway whining done, other then that I love this series to bit, cheers everyone!

Well, you've trusted Tenkotsuki so far and she's never once let you down. May as well see what she can cook up for this situation.

“You're up,” you inform her mentally. “Hope you have a plan.”

“I do, naturally,” she replies. “Allow me to explain...”

A web of reishi expands outward all around you, forming something of a self-contained sphere of loosely connected strands wrapped in a concealing spell. It's somewhat more draining than other techniques might be, but it goes up quickly and does its job just as fast. With a monumental tug the lines near you go taut and tear, giving you the cue you needed.

“Too little too late!” your clone shouts, cleaving through you with her blade only to watch your body disappear before your eyes. “An afterimage?”

“An afterimage,” you confirm, grasping a nearby reishi thread with your left hand. “Hadō 54: Haien!”

The web of reishi erupts with a massive bloom of purple flames, each strand cooking of as Haien burns through it to form a massive floating funeral pyre suspended in the air. Of course it was a trap the whole time. She can't have really thought you'd simply stand still without taking any preparations, and attacking directly like that was just walking into your trap.

Whoever made this clone mustn't have thought very much of your...
>1/2

t. t.v. troper.
not exactly sure how in the actual fuck you escaped from that quagmire, but welcome.

“Hadō 63: Raikōhō!” your clone roars, her rage burning hotter at the center of Haien's flames than the pyre itself. The blast of electricity tears towards you, and you only just raise Dankū in time to block it in a tremendous explosion that rocks the countryside for miles around... yet again.

With a familiar swishing noise your clone lands lightly on her foot behind you and pivots, forcing you to meet with in a wide, flowing parry and a hirenkyaku of your own in response. Your blade cuts through nothing but air as she vaults overhead, slicing downwards with a tumbling blow like a bladed acrobat in flight as she arcs past you.

“Raikōhō!” you roar back at her, just missing as she kicks off a 'platform' of reishi gathered at her left foot and takes aim at the spot where you were. Your own Hirenkyaku lets you catch up with your spell in a move that surprises even yourself, and you deliver something of a master-stroke.

Channeling shunkō into your right hand you backhand your own Raikōhō back in your clone's direction. At close range there's hardly anything she can do to stop it...
>2/2

Taking a short break to change tacks slightly. There's a whole other fight that's been going on, and I'd like for you to see some of it instead of just finding out at the end.

>There's a whole other fight that's been going on, and I'd like for you to see some of it instead of just finding out at the end.
Wooo! Cat fight! Cat fight!

Yoru fight and cliffhanger goodness!

Their "premier" fighters were never much above the level of a strong Lieutenant, and the region they have responsibility for is drastically different from the Soul Society's turf for a very specific reason. It'll make sense eventually, but now isn't really the time for that plot-wise.
>writing

Really, Riku should suggest a time-out so she gets to watch the catfight for a bit herself. Or maybe just finish off her clone before Yoru does!

>Your own Hirenkyaku lets you catch up with your spell in a move that surprises even yourself, and you deliver something of a master-stroke.
>Channeling shunkō into your right hand you backhand your own Raikōhō back in your clone's direction. At close range there's hardly anything she can do to stop it...
So Fox girl turned a lightning spell into a magical tennis ball which we backhanded towards our clone. Nice. Or am I wrong with the spell modding? Jeez Queen can you please clarify the spell mods we used in the fight? Or are you modding the spells off of a random table you made?

The modified spell was the Haien, we just back handed a bolt of lightning back into our clone at point blank range.

>Or are you modding the spells off of a random table you made?
This, and the Raikōhō was unmodified. Riku basically modified an existing technique: instead of thrusting an equal amount of reiatsu at it with the opposite spin she hit it with the same spin, changing the direction accordingly. A little like how a gyroscopically-stabilized projectile will tend to veer one direction or the other based on the direction of the wind and the direction of the spin.

Basically she modified it using a space-time kidō trick to reverse the direction of the attack/attacker striking it. A little wasteful, but a nasty surprise.

So basically "Kido Tennis" using a lighting bolt turned into a tennis ball made of lightning, and using a hand-sized tennis racket (read: our hand is the racket) made of shunko.
I think we just invented a sport.

meant to link it to (you)

… that's when you see it.

She draws her second sword, the one that would ordinarily be Kobara no Tachi, and parries the blast with that. And to your horror you watch your Raikōhō disappear into it, leaving only a faint yellow glow and a static crackle along the length of the blade.

“That's definitely not my sword,” you observe, realizing how your clone managed to escape Tenkotsuki's trap with only minor burns.

Your clone laughs. “Well, certain arrangements had to be made in my case. Has anyone ever told you what a pain in the ass you can be sometimes, Riku?”

“Yeah. You did, just now,” you retort, calmly sizing up your opponent as your wife clashes with her clone in the distance. She's drawn a familiar set of glass orbs, glowing a warm amber from within, and is countering a similar set of weapons produced by her clone. Each clash shatters the two orbs as they meet with a deep, resounding blast that's less of an explosion and more of a subsonic rumble that you feel in your lungs.

You eye the other Riku warily. “Has anyone told you that you talk too damn much?”

In a change of pace your Yoruichi – at least you think it's yours – uses shunpo to get behind her opponent and unleashes a Raikōhō: her personal favorite. The other Yoruichi produces a shiny steel shield with her own zanpakuto and reflects the blast back at her attacker, who produces a matching shield.

“I'm just saying what you'd be thinking,” she replies with a dismissive shrug. “What the HELL is going on over there?”
>1/2

She glances over her shoulder at what you've been watching as the two Yoruichis bounce the confused kidō back and forth at each other, predicting one another's flash steps until there's not enough power left behind the spell to be worth reflecting. At that point the Yoruichis simultaneously flicker as they re-engage with flash-steps and begin to trade closely-matched blows with their butterfly swords.

“They seem like they're having fun!” you comment as you slash at your clone, who manages to parry by smacking your wrist with her foot and slashes at you with the kodachi in her right hand. You can't help but notice the smaller sword in her left hand has returned to its sheath.

She grins. “I dunno if it's you or me, but seeing it makes me kinda happy, you know?”

Your own grin however is a facade: with the intensity of Yoruichi's fight, you aren't fully comfortable using your Bankai for fear of accidentally countering her response to an attack. Her technique with that sword of hers relies on correct analysis and very carefully timed reaction, and an unanticipated interruption could prove lethal.

>Take a moment to communicate with Yoruichi through Kakushitsuijaku: it'll leave you briefly wide open, but it'll make it safer to use Bankai.
>Try and lure your opponents into hitting each other, you and Yoruichi could both use that opening and wrap things up.
>Continue trying things that the other Riku can't possibly anticipate, but be wary of that technique she used to absorb your spell.
>Other?

>Try and lure your opponents into hitting each other, you and Yoruichi could both use that opening and wrap things up.

>Take a moment to communicate with Yoruichi through Kakushitsuijaku: it'll leave you briefly wide open, but it'll make it safer to use Bankai.

>>Continue trying things that the other Riku can't possibly anticipate, but be wary of that technique she used to absorb your spell.

>Continue trying things that the other Riku can't possibly anticipate, but be wary of that technique she used to absorb your spell.
>Other? Also try and draw her into boasting about how and more importantly why she is so "Amassing".

>Other: Let Tenkotsuki or Rosa take the wheel and control our body.
This is too crazy and unexpected for clone-Riku to anticipate. This also confirms that they can't clone the aspects of Rosa or Tenkotsuki.

>You can't help but notice the smaller sword in her left hand has returned to its sheath.
It might need to return to its sheath. Also, our clothes are better than theirs since they didn't manage to replicate the Oken fragment armor.

Second, Time to let Rosa out to play!

Hey, worked last time. Well, kinda. I wanna see Rosa-time.

>Other: Let Tenkotsuki or Rosa take the wheel and control our body.

Pretty sure we could actually let Rosa out of our body to fight her way because of the lingering aftereffects of Muramosa.

>someone remembered that

Do it

Do it do it do it do it!
Side note: but what are the Valhalla Regai doing?