Hand-to-hand combat training

Yuki stood in the empty dojo in front of a practice dummy with her feet spaced evenly, knees slightly bent to help with even distribution of weight. She stood still for a few minutes, sizing up her 'opponent' before swiftly bringing her hand up for a powerful jab to the torso, pushing the dummy backwards. Without pausing she followed through with a roundhouse kick, her leg completely straight, betraying a deadly elegance to her movements.

The dummy once more flew backwards, hitting the back wall and rebounding back towards her, though at a slowed pace. Yuki readied her stance to prepare for the return of the dummy and got in low for a weeping kick which knocked her 'opponent' off its feet. Because of how it was designed the dummy sprang right back up with great spped, almost smashing Yuki in the nose. However, she danced out of the way, twisting to the side and elobowing it, her elbow sinking into the soft material. Spinning around the dummy she grabbed two handfuls of material and flung it downwards in the same manner she would have had she'd been fighting a living person.

The mock fight between her and the dummy continued, as it did every day. It had become a sort of ritual for her to practice her favourite form of fighting - hand-to-hand - but she did often wonder what it would be like to practice with somebody that could actually think for themselves; could see her moves and counter them to force her to improve. However, she was much to anti-social to actually ask anybody to train with her, so she was stuck fighting her deadly dance with an unappreciating dummy made of material. But it would be nice to fight somebody...

Matsu walked into the dojo with a slight air of someone who wasn't quite sure how he got into his current position. His subordinates had told him that Captains should be friends with and train with other Captains, and had told him that their relationships should extend past Matsu using them as subjects in his experiments. Matsu agreed, and that was why he found himself in the dojo.

He was wearing his typical Captain's garb, but had left in such a hurry that he was still wearing his goggles, though they were pushed up on his forehead. Matsu recognized the Captain in the dojo, but he wasn't sure exactly what her full name was. So, he compensated by greeting her with a (very awkwardly done) jovial wave, "Hello, Yuki-san! Imagine seeing you here!" Though he was trying to sound enthusiastic, it was...off, we'll say. Matsu wasn't a particularly socially intelligent individual.

Yuki stopped and looked up at the person walking into the room, wiping a slight sheen of sweat from her face. She inclined her head towards him in polite acknowledgement, though she was slightly surprised to see him here. Because she had heard about the new, anti-social scientist that headed the 12th division, and the dojo would have been the last place she would have expected to see him. Not that she could talk; people usually described her as anti-social as well.

"Hello Mikaboshi Taicho, I could say the same thing. Are you here to train?" Here eyes bore into him as her voice coloured slightly with curiosity. Maybe, just maybe, if he was here to train then he would consider training with her. Now, to just go about asking him... That would be difficult.

"Maybe? My squad members told me I should get out and socialize with the other Captains. Considering I don't know any of them all that well, I decided to come here first, and I guess I got lucky," Matsu replied. "If training counts as socializing, I would be happy to train alongside you."

"Well, I'll warn you now, I'm not a very social captain so you might not be in as luck as you thought, but then again you're not very social either, so they might cancel each other out. Who knows?" She was glad the other captain had suggested training; it saved her a lot of work, and most probably an awkward situation.

"Training would be great, I find you always learn better with a partner. Do want to do any specific type of training, like hand-to-hand or swordfighting? Because I don't really mind." She stood and waited for his reply.

"I'm not really a hand-to-hand type individual; I prefer to fight with my sword. Which isn't to say I can't fight hand-to-hand...but I'd prefer to leave it to 2nd Division," responded Matsu. He walked up to Yuki until only a foot separated them. "I hope you don't mind if I begin with a trick of sorts."

Considering Yuki was a Captain, Matsu was fairly certain that she would be able to block his surprise attack. She might also know that his sword was, despite his katana-length sheath, actually a wazikashi. This meant that unsheathing it was a lot faster than might be expected from the katana-length sheath. His hand whipped down to the hilt of his blade, and he slashed out with it diagonally from his bottom left to top right- her bottom right to top left.

"Sure, that's fine with me." Though she was a little concerned about this 'trick' of his that he wanted to do - hopefully it wasn't a weird experiment. It was only when a foot separated them that Yuki realised one crucial factor - she had been practicing hand-to-hand combat, which meant her sword was over by the wall. Hoping that she was mistaken Yuki looked down to her waist quickly, and with hardly any movement, and saw it was not there. Damn.

But she didn't have time to do something about it because Amatsu was suddenly drawing out his sword from the sheath. She prepared her stance and body to dodge the katana, but it was too fast for a katana. Had it been a person of lower fighting calibar they might have been cut, but Yuki had managed to twist her body away from the sword to get by unscathed, though her balance was slightly thrown considering the stance she'd had before dodging. Continuing with her unbalanced momentum, Yuki allowed herself to go into a roll to take her to the other side of the room. It had been careless on her part going into a sword fight without a sword, but everybody makes mistakes. To make up for lost ground she shunpoed back over, keeping her gravity low to the ground, and swung her sword upwards in a graceful arc.

Matsu smiled a little with relief when his sword passed through air; he was no social genius, but he was pretty sure that cutting someone would probably not serve to incline them towards you. He regretted attacking her while she was unarmed a little bit, but training sessions were supposed to mimic real life, weren't they? Matsu didn't have any more time to ponder the ethical implications of his actions before he was forced to confront the tip of Yuki's sword coming up towards his chin.

Matsu sidestepped the attack, allowing her sword to swish harmlessly past his right side. As he did this, he also stepped closer and lashed out with his own sword, again aimed at her torso. Him stepping closer removed the advantage she held of having a longer sword, and in doing so, gave him an advantage because his blade was shorter, it would have more maneuverability at these close quarters, as well as greater speed. That being said, Matsu began a flurry of quick cuts and stabs with the sole purpose of disorienting Yuki and keeping her on the defensive. His attacks were aimed at her joints and vulnerable tendons. More specifically, his blade struck out at her elbows and shoulders, but he finished with a slash aimed at her torso.

Yuki blocked the shot to her torso which had been a counter-attack to her upwards slash. She didn't fail to notice the fact that he came to fight in close quarters to benefit himself as he had the shorter sword, but she still had an advantage over him - her height. His sword may be shorter, but he was also a lot taller than her, meaning his centre of balance was higher as well so he could be off-balanced easier than she could. As part of her mind thought of ways to achieve this the other part was concentrated on the battle.

Amatsu was maneuvering his blade to make quick stabs and cuts, not staying long enough for it to be blocked by Yuki's sword. Because of this Yuki was unable to go on the offensive and instead staying defensive, but for the moment that was ok with her. She was quick and light on her feet, and even though she was unable to bring her sword around fast enough to block an attack she could usually dance out of the way of harm. Though, in saying this she could still feel slight stings of discomfort on her arm and shoulder where the sword had been able to nick her. Yuki could see that her opponent was intelligent, thinking out each move before he played them - and going for her more vulnerable points was a good strategy, one she herslef would probably have used had she not been forced to defend.

However, Yuki saw her chance to change the tide of the battle when the shorter sword came slashing out at her torso. Quickly she ducked under the sword to allow his forward momentum to ddestabalise him when it met with no resistence. In the same fluid motion Yuki spun around his side and aimed at his legs, the place she felt was his most vulnerable and important.

Matsu stumbled, the slightest bit off-balance as Yuki dodged around him. He could feel her reiatsu, and as such could tell roughly where she was going (behind him), and inferred she would probably use that as an opportunity to attack. "Presto," he muttered under his breath. Instantly, his body was surrounded by flickering reiatsu. Zip!

His technique increased his speed exponentially, making his Shunpo incredible, and allowing him use of several speed-based techniques. In fact, when he used his Shunpo to dodge her attack, it was actually a speed-based technique, Utsusemi. Matsu moved so quickly that he left an afterimage behind, which Yuki's blade appeared to bite into.

Matsu appeared behind her, crouched as she was, and mimicked her attack, slashing at her Achilles' tendons in one fluid stroke.

Amatsu muttered something under his breath, but Yuki couldn't quite make out what it was, but she continued through with her attack. However, when it sliced through the other captain the image seemed to distort and fade away and YUki realised she had been tricked. Whatever he had said it had made him travel faster than she expected and so didn't notice.

She felt his reiatsu appear behind her and his lowered stance similar to her own, and even his attack looked similar. She knew that if he got her where he was aiming she wouldn't be able to use that foot, but at the same time she knew she wouldn't be able to dodge considering how close he was, or bring her blade around in time to block. So instead she did the next best thing. Yuki allowed her leg to collapse onto the ground, so she was no longer standing on her foot, rather her knee, meaning that Amatsu's attack slashed across her thigh. It hurt, but not as much as it would have had it been her Achilles' tendon. She rolled out of his range to pre-empt any follow through attacks and twisted her legs around to give her momentum to jump up onto her feet.

She could feel the blood slowly dripping down her leg from the shallow slash, but she ignored it, her eyes never leaving Amatsu. She didn't know how long his technique lasted so it wouldn't be a good idea to try and out-speed him, so to speak. Both hands gripped her zanpakuto and she decided she wouldn't be the first to run in this time and waited for him to come to her - she knew she probably wouldn't have to wait too long.

"Because we are colleagues, if not friends yet, I'll tell you about my technique," Matsu said. "I feel I owe it to you for the hit, anyway." He paused a moment, and then continued. "I call it Presto, like the musical term meaning very fast. It augments my speed exponentially, and not just my Shunpo, but potentially any other part of my body, thus enabling me to perform speed-based techniques that are generally restricted to 2nd Division members."

"Keep your eyes on me," Matsu warned. "Don't get distracted for a second- or the power of Presto will overwhelm you." This wasn't intended as a boast; Matsu truly meant the warning. He was sure that this technique he had developed himself was highly dangerous, and felt that it was his responsibility to inform Yuki of its potential. "Congratulations on forcing me to use it," he said with a smile before he moved again.

Matsu charged toward Yuki at slightly faster than normal speed, certainly not using Presto to its fullest. As he got within five feet of her, he utilized Presto again to perform another Utsusemi...which led to a Senka maneuver. In essence, he left an afterimage directly in front of her, and appeared behind her simultaneously to strike at her unprotected back. He did however make one small adjustment; instead of aiming for her Saketsu and Hakusui, his sword plunged toward her right kidney. It was certainly less dangerous than aiming for the former two, but would definitely put her out of commission if he landed this hit.

She listened intently to the explanation of his attack, the gears in her mind turning as she processed all information he gave her. His warning only emphasised what she had already realised and she made sure her eyes did indeed stay on him at all times. She didn't like his technique at all, considering the fact that her zanpakuto was designed to enhance speed in his weight and manueverability, so the fact that she wouldn't be able to be faster to her opponent did not sit well. But she didn't dwell on it; that was what training was all about, experiencing techniques and fighting styles that don't necessarily work well with you, but learning to work around that. Though she did feel better when he congratulated on forcing her to use it.

When he charged forward to attack her she knew that the attack wasn't what it appeared to be. He shouldn't have told her about his technique, even if it was out of curteousy and she was grateful for it, but because now that she knew he could go very fast her mind worked out that he probably wouldn't go for a straight forward approach. She could be wrong - though it was unlikely - so it was too risky to anticipate his attack and try to block it, so instead she shunpoed forward and to the right, only a few steps or so, but far enough forward that his positioning would be off fractionally should he be trying a fast manuever again, and in a good place should he actually be attacking head on.

When he appeared straight behind where she was two seconds ago, his blade aimed for where her kidneys would have been roughly situated she parried with her Dick, pushing back on his and added some of her weight to it to try and force him backwards, closer to the wall so that he would have less excape routes and less ways to get around her. However, she was unsure of this technique - it was quite hard for two intelligent people to fight considering they can probably have the potential to think of any attacks, counter-attacks or dodges used by their opponent. Which just means I'll have to think of something stupid, because he may not be expecting that. But then again that may be what he is expecting.

When his strike missed, Matsu could not help but be somewhat relieved. Renal failure was not something he wanted to be blamed for. He was also pleased that Yuki's combat abilities seemed to be very much up to par; he was impressed with her quick thinking, and her strength, as she was able to push him up closer to the wall, doubtless thinking that he would have less opportunities to escape or get around her. That was sound in theory- but he wondered if she had forgotten the other part of Presto he had explained to her.

"I am quite certain you've pushed me up against the wall to limit my movement, is that correct, Yuki-san? However, I wonder if you've forgotten the other part of this technique I explained to you," Matsu paused and smiled, and then switched his Dick to his left. "Did I mention I am more or less ambidextrous?" And then he attacked with blinding speed, using Presto on his left arm to aim a barrage of heavy slashing attacks (both vertical and horizontal) at her with unthinkable speed. This combined with the shortness of his blade and the inherent increase in speed along with Presto meant he was making at least 10 such blows per second. These attacks were meant to push her back, but not just that; Matsu was using Presto on his feet as well so he could circle quickly around her and force *her* into the wall, switching their positions.

Feeling a slight pain in his left arm, Matsu stopped using Presto on it- he did not want to risk muscle damage.

Yuki smiled internally when he switched his sword to his left hand, this would be much easier for her considering she was left-handed. Most of the people in Seireitei seemed to be right-handed and it was quite awkward fighting with them. She didn't forget about the rest of his technique, though she had let it slip from her mind in favour of her plan.

Though now she felt their positions switching so that she was against the wall rather than him, presto giving speed to his arm and feet. Yuki blocked blow after blow, waiting for the right moment to change her defensive status, her eyes calculating any escape routes she could take out of this situation, though she already knew them because they were the same potential ones Amatsu could have taken when he was in her position. Yuki was just adjusting her arm to be able to move fluidly with the faster attacks, though she was still jerky as she didn't have enough room to maneuver, when she felt the intensity lessen, meaning he wasn't using presto on his arm anymore.

She wondered briefly why this was and came to the conclusion that he couldn't keep the attack up all the time - which made sense considering the fact that it probably put his body under so much extra pressure. Using the very brief time between him turning off the presto she pushed him in the chest with the hilt of her sword so that he moved away from her and then jumped up onto his sword, her weight pushing it down towards the ground. Though while it was still suspended Yuki pushed off from the blade to give herself extra height. She remembered that he still had presto on his feet, but what was the point of goign faster than her if he was in the air.

She had figured out in her mind that her shunpo might be fast enough to keep up with his presto for a second or two if she concentrated her reiatsu on her feet. Which is what she did. Yuki knew that she couldn't use shunpo for extended periods of time like he could with his technique, but if it bought her enough time... Without pausing from her leap into the air, Yuki gracefully maneuvered her body and utilized shunpo down towards her fellow captain. He was fast, but so was she - it was kind of her thing.

She hurtled down with speed, her blade pointed straight at his chest, though not in a fatal area in case he didn't block. But she figured he would; this was just a test to see if she could use shunpo to get to him quickly before he had time to move. If it failed then she wold have to think of another plan in her intelligent brain.

She's very good, thought Matsu approvingly as a lull in their battle occurred. I wonder what she'll try next? He shifted his blade back to his right hand.

Shunpo! "Shriek, Kawazu Naka Yusui!" His wazikashi elongated to nodachi-length, turning brilliant green and gaining eight circular holes along its length. Matsu twisted the blade up into a defensive position, catching the tip of Yuki's sword in one of the middle holes. Matsu then twisted his wrist, forcing her sword into an awkward position, and stabbed out at her left shoulder. Considering his blade was now so much longer, he hoped to score another hit with this particular maneuver.

Yuki saw too late as Amatsu released his shikai, her forward momentum not allowing any change in direction, so her blade went smoothly into one of the circular holes in the blade, around the centre. Her wrists, still holding the sword, were forced to awkward angles to accommodate the angle her sword was being twisted into by the other sword, and without her sword she was defenseless against the attack coming towards her shoulder.

She twisted her body slightly, unable to go too far, but it was enough that nothing vital would be struck as the tip of his sword passed through her flesh, tearing at the fabric on her shoulder and staining her white undershirt crimson. His blade was now much longer than it had been previously, longer than her sword now as well. Pulling her shoulder free from the sword and snapping her wrists around to dislodge her sword from the hole, Yuki pushed herself away and extended her left hand out to the side. Releasing shikai? Two can play at that game.

"Chikyuu wo koora senasai, Touketsu Suru Hi." THe decorative blue tendrils that adorned the blade, which most people looked past, started to swirl and shift, a fine blue mist rising from them to show that the temperature was dropping rapidly, the moisture in the air condensing and turning to vapour.

They then started to extend past her wrist all the way up to her shoulder, forming a protective sort of armour on her arm of strong ice - though it didn't cover her arm completely, just in strips which would take the brunt of the attack and not allow the sword to reach as far as the skin. The blade started to shrink to almost less than 3 times its original length - just shorter than a wakizashi - and ice encompassed her wrist, effectively connecting the blade and her arm so that they would act as one - as though the blade was an extension of her arm.

Once her shikai was complete Yuki feinted to the left and swung at the exposed right side of Amatsu. With her shikai her speed was greatly increased, much more than her power, and so she was lighter and faster on her feet. Without waiting to see if her attack connected Yuki continued to dart in and around Amatsu, striking anywhere she could - legs, arms, shoulders, torso, anywhere that wasn't protected. How the tables have turned... Now Yuki was the one on the offensive, and she also had the smaller height and the smaller sword, meaning Amatsu would feel the same awkwardness she had in the close quarters fighting.

Matsu was just barely able to dodge the blow at his right side by twisting away; even so, her strike sliced through the fabric of the right side of his robes. Matsu didn't have much time to lament this fact however, because now he was forced to take the defensive as she moved around him aiming a barrage of quick strikes at any part that happened to be open.

He received several stinging cuts on both arms, and one on his left cheek, but managed to keep his torso free of damage, as well as his joints and ligaments by twisting his body away and using footwork to his advantage. The fact that his general fighting style resembled fencing the most helped a lot, because fencing focuses a lot on footwork, as well as deflection instead of parrying. I need to get her away from me so I'm not stuck on the defensive...he thought. "Otohei!" He laid his fingers briefly across his blade, sending a physical wall of sound directly at Yuki's form.

Matsu hoped that the attack would force her away from him long enough for him to take the offensive and force her to keep her distance with his own sword's length. However, just to make sure, he uttered, "Fuicchi," and his blade released a high pitched noise undetectable to human ears- except that it would have a very adverse reaction to an opponent's inner ear. In essence, it caused disruption in the inner ear fluid of his opponent(s), causing unconsciousness in weaker opponents, and causing nausea, disorientation, a sense of imbalance and dizziness in stronger opponents.

Matsu planned on exploiting those senses of disorientation to the fullest, and showed this by lunging forward with an elegant slash that was aimed at Yuki's left wrist. This allowed him to a) keep his distance, and b) possibly force her to end the fight.

Yuki noticed that her opponent was very good at footwork, moving without a flaw or fault, so he was able to dodge most of the attacks aimed at more important areas - mainly his torso region. She glimpsed out of the corner of her eye as he laid his fingers on the blade briefly while at the same time saying 'Otohei'.

She felt a force push against her form, trying to push her backwards, but with no effect, she just stood her ground. Though it did cause a small lull in her ongoing onslaught of attacks, though it was only small. Her mind registered him saying another word - 'fuicchi' - though she felt no effects from the obvious attack. She didn't waste any time being confused about the lack of effect and continued on, moving to intercept and block a smooth lung aimed at her left wrist.

However, As she moved tiny pin-pricks of light appeared in her vision and the ground seemed to waver, tilting upwards in a sickening lurch. One moment Amatsu was a good enough distance away to block the attack and then suddenly he was next to her, his blade striking her wrist, which she had left wide open in her moment of dizziness. Luckily the ice which connected her sword and wrist protected her, so her hand remained connected to her arm, but she could still feel the effects of whatever it was that had hit her.

Because of the force of impact Yuki was forced backwards a few steps, and because of the strange, disorientating feeling she was unable to keep her footing and so stumbled backwards, landing on her back where she then proceeded to flip over and regain her feet in a very clumsy way. Jumping backwards to put even more distance between her and her opponent Yuki pointed the blade in front of her, perpendicular to her body. She knew that in the state she was in she would be unable to sustain a fight in close quarters, so she would need to go long-range for a bit and hope the effects of Amatsu's attack wore off soon.

"Hisame!"

The moisture which hung about in the air started to crystallise and condense, forming tiny, sharp projectiles of ice which rained down onto the ground, with Amatsu in the centre of the circle of shooting ice. She could have made the diameter 30m - which was the widest it could be - but there would be gaps in the ice, so instead she made the diameter 15m, so there was less gaps, and it would need an extremely good eye to be able to see them. Just from fighting with the 12th Division Captain Yuki could tell that he was better at sword fighting than her and she was very slowly losing. However, she would never give up - giving up wasn't even in her vocabulary, she would weather this out until the end. If only we were fighting hand-to-hand, because then I would dominate.

"Otohei," said Matsu again. The solid wall of deep sound reverberated from his blade; the shards of ice flying toward him seemed to shatter and fall against an invisible wall of pure force. "I would have dodged instead of expending reiatsu," said Matsu, "But I didn't want those ice shards to ruin the walls of this dojo."

He paused a moment. "I think we should take this outside, considering we have both released our Zanpakuto. I don't want my paycheck cut to pay for any damage we may cause; and also, it will give you time to recover from your disorientation."

Yuki wasn't overly surprised when Amatsu blocked her icicles with his strange shield which she couldn't see. Seeing that it would be pointless to continue the assualt she let the ice just evaporate back into the air as she listened to him speak. She smiled at his joke; she was beginning to like him - he was a fair fighter.

"Of course, I've heard from a few division 11 members that it does take a fair amount to repair these walls, so outside is a good idea."

Yuki turned around towards the door and shunpoed out to the large training area nearby knowing that the other captain would follow her. She could already feel the affects of her disorientation start to wear off a bit, and so she stood still while waiting for him to join her.

Matsu was more than proficient enough in Shunpo to follow Yuki to the outdoor training area. He inclined his head to her slightly to indicate that he was going to continue the sparring match, and immediately began by laying his fingers across his blade and speaking a single word, "Shinkan." Instantly, Yuki would feel as if she had been struck deaf. She would be able to hear literally nothing- not because there was anything wrong with her ears, but because any ambient sound waves would not be allowed to reach her ears (as noted in app, this does not affect Matsu's attacks).

Matsu laid his fingers across his blade in a different pattern and spoke a second word. "Fuicchi." Again, his blade sent out a high frequency wave of sound that was inaudible to the ear anyway, but would disrupt his opponent's inner ear fluid. His fingers formed another pattern, and Matsu leaped straight up into the air, saying, "Kizu Teisei" as he did so.

At the apex of his jump, Matsu pointed his blade down and sent blades of invisible sound spiraling down toward Yuki; some of the blades were aimed directly at her, others were intended to hit the ground around her. There was no way of detecting these blades visually or audibly, but one could detect them via reiatsu sensing. As he fell back toward the ground, Matsu considered casting a Binding kido spell, but decided against it, since this was supposed to be swordplay after all, and even using Shikai abilities was stretching those definitions.

Yuki saw Amatsu's nod and so was prepared for when he started to attack. His first attack was strange, leaving her without her sense of hearing, which was very unnerving. At first she thought that his attack had made her deaf, but then she realised that his zanpakuto - considering the other techniques he had already used - were sound based, so it must be a distortion of the sound around her rendering her incapable of hearing any sound.

She shunpoed forward to close the distance between them, her balance already having corrected itself. However, as she was moving forward she saw him place his fingers once more on his blade in a very familiar pattern and immediately stopped to stand still and prepare her body for what she knew was about to come. His mouth formed words, but even though she couldn't hear them she knew what attack he was using. She wasn't as affected by the strange disorientation this time around because she knew it was coming, and also because her body put up a sort of crude shield up against it.

Though, as she stood still for that fraction of a second to restore what little sense of balance she had salvaged, she noticed that Amatsu had jumped up into the air, and saying another attack. Just how many attacks does he have? Something was coming, though Yuki didn't know what seeming as she couldn't see it - another sound based technique. Quickly expanding her reiatsu, Yuki was able to 'see' the attack, which appeared to be a spiral coming towards her with blades of sound(?) though she wasn't sure if that was what they were.

Thinking on her feet Yuki leaped and jumped out of the way of the biggest blades, and also away from the vertex of the spiral, but because of her shaky balance she was sent into a smaller blade which cut along her left arm and leg. Tankfully her arm - which bore the brunt of the attack - was protected by her ice, but the cut on her leg where the blade had passed over extended from the middle of her thigh to her knee, but it wasn't too bad. Yuki was just happy that she had made it out without any serious injury.

"Toushou." Yuki briefly touched the ice on her wrist, speaking too quietly for Amatsu to hear her words, which were lost to her own ears because of the sound distortion. Jumping up into the air Yuki slashed up at him as she pushed up on the reiatsu around her feet, quickly darting out of range before darting back in again for another slash to his left side. Again she pulled away and agains she moved to another place to slash. She didn't want to use her blade too many times so that she would be able to use her attack, but she knew she couldn't just stand and do nothing.

Strange that she would attack me as I fall toward her...thought Matsu as he brought his blade down to counter her upward slash. Given that he was above her, his countering parry would have all the force of his own strength as well as that of gravity. And since he blocked with the upper half of his blade, he was making full use of his sword's length as a lever, adding even more force to the blow. She reacted well to this however, and managed to dart out of the way and aim a slash at his left side.

Matsu was forced to bring his sword upside down (tip pointing down) to block the strike, and then move it horizontally to block her next strike. She is not attacking me as fervently as before...thought Matsu. Is she tiring? Or is she planning something? From what he could sense from her reiatsu, she wasn't tiring; it was likely that she was going to do something Zanpakuto related. Most likely something ice-related, since she had already demonstrated that ability. I will just have to prevent her from doing anything.

Matsu shunpo'd away so he was still in front of Yuki, but they were separated by several yards of earth. He laid his fingers across his blade in a different pattern, and then stuck the blade tip first into the hard-packed earth. "Juubun Teishuuha," he said. It was as if he had unleashed some great force over the area; the ground began to tremble, and all of a sudden shake with all the intensity of a powerful earthquake. In some places, the ground split and heaved, in others, it resembled a blanket's movement if you flip it out over and over. Since Matsu was standing at the epicenter of the earthquake, he would be unaffected. The area around him though, would be devastated.

The ground under Yuki's feet heaved upwards trying to unstabilise her balance, but she managed to jump up to avoid most of the shifting earth to land on a place where the ground wasn't moving quite so violently, though it was still hard to keep footing. Yuki was about to move closer to Amatsu, and also the centre of the obvious circle of destruction, but thought better of it. She wasn't being harmed so long as she didn't fall, and she really did need a little extra time. So instead of resuming the fight Yuki moved from one violently heaving patch of ground to another, fully aware that Amatsu could attack at any moment. But considering her state of non-fighting her guard was completely up and she was ready for anything else he might throw her way. Just a tiny bit longer...