Through the Fire and the Flames (Raikotsu's Apprentices)

[Raikotsu Sudeki]

Rai smiled he remembered hearing those words in what now seems like ages ago against his fight with Kiyr against Mathew when they were being initiated. Though unlike the last time Zax and Yachiru heard those words when fighting against himself in this case they find their opponent more powerful, but at least it was possible to make him bleed. Rai smiled to himself at that. I wonder how fair that was asking them to make me bleed when I know damn well thats impossible unless I let myself bleed... Nah they'll get over it.

Rai would just sit back and watch, Kazuya knew the extent of Rai's skills and if he wanted Rai to join in he figured he would just ask, but this test was set up for Rai's pupils. He hoped that Ari, and Koshiro knew they didn't have to fight if they didn't want to, but hey he wasn't going to stop them...

[Hone]

"Woh!!" Zax said as he shot his bones into the ground to get catapulted back. When he landed he made the remaining sticking out bones turn sharp and shot it at Kazuya.

[Arael Hiroshi]

Ari nodded her head in acceptance of Kazuya's request, then quickly took a few steps back as he lit himself on fire, and a wave of blistering heat blasted past. Her eyes grew wide, until she realized this must be a qi. Kinda the same, but not the same as each of Rai's, Kiyr's, and Matthew's individual qi. Kazuya's qi must be control over fire.

Since Kazuya had spoken of testing Yachiru and Zax, Ari decided to step back beside Rai and just watch for now.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Koshiro looked surprised. This was new.
He had been doing some research on this. Qi. Control over something. Fire? Fire. Hmm. How does he not burn himself with that?


Koshiro snapped out of his earlier daze. Now he was interested. He stepped 2 steps back and drew his sword. Like normal. His first attack was to grab his throwing knife from under his belt, and threw it straight at Kazuya's shoulder.

[Kazuya Hikari]

As Zax shot out the remaining bones sticking out at Kazuya after catapulting himself backwards, making the bones sharp, Kazuya would easily deflect the attack, sending the bones flying off behind him and buried in the trees behind him. At the same time, the knife Koshiro threw at him would melt the moment it came in contact with his fire engulfed body, the sheer heat of the fire only at half of the hottest and highest temperature Kazuya could raise it to.

"... Is that the best you can do? Now it is my turn."

Taking off, Kazuya would go after Zax first, moving at such a quick pace that even Raikotsu would have a somewhat difficult time keeping track of him, and if he managed to get behind Zax, would deliver a quick karate chop to the back of his head, to knock him out.

[Hone]

Zax would be bewildered at the sight of the bone flying off.

"WHAT!?" Zax would say as he widened his eyes.

Then he saw something suddenly move towards him. So he screamed and bent over. Suddenly their were spines coming out from his back.

[Yachiru]

Yachiru, as a natural defensive posture, backed up and allowed her Qi to cover her body in what would look like a slightly transparent pink half egg, and making 4 tentacles sprout up from the bottom edge of her her on either side making an octopus form. She had been working on this for weeks and had adapted to the technique fairly well. Yachiru would lash her arm out making one of the tentacles on her right side act like a whip to slash at Kazuya from a distance, the pink tentacle would stretch itself long and go for a diagonal slash across Kazuya's chest.

[Raikotsu Sudeki]

Rai had forgotten how fast Kazuya was, and was caught off guard to say the least. But the way his pupils were reacting this was going to be short fight.

"Zax! This isn't game, start fighting for real! Koshiro, I assume you've been working on your Qi lets see what you can do!"

Rai hoped that they would get their act together, he couldn't afford to coach them in a real fight.

[Malakai Uragirimono]

Malakai lunged forward and knocked Koshiro to the ground, He probably wouldn't be able to get up for as long as it took to get a few hours at Sider's a few seconds.

He drew his sword (the simple one that replaced his WarHazzard blade). He leaped into the air and aimed to have his sword come down on Kazuya's head.

"You want to bleed!?! Come on then!" it was time to release some anger.

[Arael Hiroshi]

Ari, standing on the sidelines with Rai, watched in silence and awe as Kazuya displayed his impressive power and speed. She watched as the bones from Zax were deflected with ease, and was amazed when Koshiro's knife simply melted from the heat. Then Kazuya moved, or should I say, disappeared. Ari had never seen anyone move so fast. He made even Rai's quick movements, which she could still only barely see, look almost normal speed. Oh dear, I'm not sure if Zax even has a chance. She thought to herself.

Ari will continue to stand by Rai, perhaps even slightly behind him if the fight gets any closer.

[Koshiro WarHazzard]

Koshiro would stand back up. Nod to Rai and then hold out his hand. A large ball of light would quickly gather into his hand. The light would slowly change colors (He was playing a little) but he was serious. As he clenched his hand into a fist, the light would compress, as it compressed it would get brighter. The light looked violent, and when it was finally compressed to the size of a fingernail, he would hold it at the tip of his right index finger and point straight at Kaz.

"Bang." The light beam would expand violently towards Kazuya. (Like a....I don't know.....Laser beam)

[Kazuya Hikari]

As Kazuya quickly darted towards Zax at a quick pace, the blade Malakai swung down towards his head would quickly begin to melt from the sheer heat of the fire engulfing his body, and Kazuya would fire a blast of fire at the remainder of the blade, hopefully leaving Malakai holding nothing but the hilt of the blade in his hands. As bones shot out from Zax's spine, Yachiru and Koshiro simultaneously attacking him with a Qi tentacle whip trying to slash across his chest and light laser beam respectively, all three remaining attacks would hit nothing but air.

But where did Kazuya go? He had neither evaded left or right or blocked the strikes. The answer was up. If all of them looked up, they would see Kazuya hovering in the air, fire being expelled from the bottom of his boots, his arms casually folded across his chest, frowning slightly at them as he unfolded his arms and landed back down on the ground.

"Zax! Keep calm and stop screaming! Barker's soldiers would have a field day seeing you scream like that! Yachiru! Distance is good but give too much, and your opponent will easily take advantage of it! Koshiro, this is not the time to be playing around, if I was a Barker soldier, you would be dead by now! Malakai, your anger is clouding your judgement! Attacking with a metal blade when it was plainly obvious a metal knife was useless is a waste of an effort! I may be testing all of you to see how strong you are, but if this was a test to prove your worth, ALL OF YOU WOULD HAVE FAILED!"

With an almighty roar, not only would Kazuya raise the fire engulfing his body to the hottest and highest temperature possible, a wave of heat blasted at all of them, though it would feel like a warm summer breeze to Raikotsu and Arael, but two pillars of fire would form in front of him and would travel along the ground towards all four of them.

[Raikotsu Sudeki]

Rai smiled as Kazuya started speaking, nodding in agreement to what he said. Maybe his students would listen better to someone they didn't see everyday.

"This is when things either end quickly or get interesting. If it ends quickly then my Pupils will dishonor me, however if they make it interesting..."

Rai said loud enough for Ari to hear, but he wasn't really speaking to anyone.

[Yachiru]

Yachiru's Qi that was surrounding her melted off to a puddle on the ground that quickly soaked back into her feet. The tentacles were still there but extremely thin. As strong as the heat wave was she felt very dehydrated, but she tried to remain standing. She would attempt to restabilize the barrier around herself but it wasn't full as the last one had been, it was just a thin eggshell shape. She shook her head and clentched her fists, She was better than this and she knew it. The Eggshell-shaped Qi quickly filled in and her tentacles went back to normal, She rose into the air about ten feet standing on her own pillar of Qi, from there she would slash diagonally downwards with her left hand. A chain reaction would flow to her Qi, causing a tentacle from the left side to double it's thickness and slash again at Kazuya. She would follow, if not disabled, with a quick uppercut with her right fist, which would cause one of her tentacles on the right side to no long be pointed but take the shape of an enlarged fist that would aim from the bottom up into Kazuya's lower ribcage/center riegon.

[Hone]

"Get it together Zax. Stop fighting like a baby! You are a man! No more George! Control it! No more cowering!" The fire around Kazuya and the intense heat wave made him remember the campfire on the night of his brothers death. And the pain from the pain from the heat would make his anger flare even more. "Remember your brother! Fight like him! Fight like him!" thought Zax after he curled up. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Zax would yell out a surprising roar that everyone could hear after he heard what Kazuya and Rai thought of him. His leg bone shoot down out from his feet with all his might making him spring up towards Kayuza. Zax would have yard long bones coming out from his wrist pointed straight at Kayuza making himself like a double headed javelin. Rage would be stirring in his eyes as he got closer...