Survivability 02 [DBSK / Super Junior / Bleach universe]
Title: Survivability 02
Author: Verocity
Fandom: Dong Bang Shin Ki / Super Junior / Bleach
Featuring: ChangMin, KiBum, SungMin
Pairings: -none-
Rating: G
Warnings: A little profanity here and there, sparring
Genre: AU [Bleach Universe]
A/N: The second one-shot in my Survivability universe. (Otherwise known as my KPop characters in the Bleach universe series.)
Summary: KiBum consults ChangMin for a possible renovation, but one thing leads to another and...
Word Count: 2,011
A loud shriek from the sentry wards blasts ChangMin awake. His first action, simultaneous with opening his eyes, is to draw his sword. His second action is to scan for anything moving towards him. His third action is to recall his location. All three of those actions get interrupted.
A sheathed soul cutter blocks his hand and forces his sword back into its sheath. His scan of his immediate surroundings is fruitless as the intruder is right beside him. A sudden pillow to his face interrupts his attempt to recall his bearings. Another weight flops gracelessly beside him on the... sofa?
"My Captain is the biggest ass ever," a deep, husky voice says barely audible beneath the disembodied shrieking. The sound's familiarity detaches ChangMin from his alert!-must-kill-everything-that-moves! mode.
"Wha-" ChangMin answers eloquently. "KiBum...?" He breaks the sentry ward spells and a ringing silence replaces the shrieking.
"Does it matter if I learn healing? I'm a field warrior! I'm not some 4th Division deadweight who can't hold himself in battle. I'm an action guy. I kick ass!" KiBum punches ChangMin awake. "Say something!"
"Healing is very important," ChangMin answers automatically, still operating on autopilot. He blinks blearily and looks around. He recognizes his division's office. Okay, so he's on duty.
"Yeah, right. I don't see you volunteering at the 4th Division to learn their craft," KiBum answers with as much sarcasm he could cram into the last word.
ChangMin yawns. KiBum smacks him again with the throw pillow. ChangMin pushes him off the sofa with a harmless but souped-up spell. KiBum goes with the energy to minimize the blunt damage and lands deftly on his feet. "Really? Using demon arts to push me off the couch? Have you really deteriorated that much as a fighter?"
Finally more lucid than groggy, ChangMin sends another blunt force of spirit energy against KiBum. "First off, I'm a lieutenant. Treat me with respect."
KiBum deflects the spell with his sheathed sword. The energy slams against a nearby book case and causes an ink jar to fall off but remain thankfully in one piece on the floor. "I'm older. Cry me a river, assface."
"And you're in my office," ChangMin retorts. He gets up and wonders if he could have tea in peace in the pantry. Or maybe the garden. Or if he should get rid of KiBum first. It doesn't seem like he's there for a serene visit.
"Correction, you're lounging in Captain JaeJoong's office. Sleeping on duty, in fact - which would make an interesting blot on your profile." From inside his sleeves he draws a brown paper bag and throws it at ChangMin. "Also, your alarm sentries suck."
ChangMin deftly catches the small parcel and raises it to his nose. Gyokuro tea, adequately refined from asahi. Damn. This means he doesn't get to kick KiBum out of the office. "I had the sentries tuned to go off upon detection of unwanted personnel. Like your nitpicky lieutenant. And if you really think my Captain will be upset that I sleep here, you are so misinformed." ChangMin points at the messily-kept futon at the corner of the office and the alcohol jug being used as a paperweight. He goes over to his desk and rummages around in the cabinet for his tea set. He isn't sure, but he remembers washing it after the last time he used it. Maybe.
KiBum furled his nose. "Slobs, both of you."
"We operate more effectively in a home-like environment. Have you noticed the almost-complete absence of stress in our division? Particularly compared to yours?" ChangMin jumps out the window and settles on the patio overlooking the division gardens, which is actually nothing more than a wide field overrun with wild flowers.
KiBum jumps out after him and lands more heavily. Being more adept at physical maneuvers also gave him more mass, and ChangMin could use spirit energy to absorb impacts. "There's nothing undesirable about living in a clean environment. Particularly if I'm not the one cleaning."
ChangMin lights a few lumps of coal beneath the filled teapot, but he adds in a few spiritually-enhanced embers to speed things up. There was no law in Soul Society against using the demon arts for practical purposes. "I'm surprised lieutenant SungMin hasn't enforced cleaning rules on the rest of the 8th Division."
"Oh, he tried, but Captain HanKyung intervened. "Now only non-seated officers have to clean. I love being the 4th officer."
ChangMin gapes at KiBum. "And you still think your Captain's an ass? Or do you just think of his ass, period?"
"One trait doesn't negate another," KiBum answers lightly, ignoring the second part of ChangMin's incredulity. "Because apart from requiring knowledge of basic healing techniques from all 8th Division members, he refuses to provide ban kai training unless we can match his spiritual endurance. And it's goddamn impossible." KiBum unsheathes half of his sword and stares at his reflection, then sheathes it again with a bitter grunt.
"Ban kai training is deadly serious," ChangMin says darkly. He'd heard that JunSu, the 2nd Division lieutenant and the only non-captain with a known spiritual capacity greater than ChangMin's and had above average synchronicity with his soul cutter, utterly failed in his (so far) one and only ban kai training with his division's Captain. ChangMin was wise enough not to request ban kai training given his abysmal prowess on zanjutsu, knowing JaeJoong would laugh at him to high heavens at the very whisper of it.
"Current models of training are deadly serious," KiBum corrects him. "There has to be some other way to obtain ban kai. Chinatsu's itching to manifest!" Chinatsu is his sword's name and is widely considered to be shy but damaging in the battle field, sometimes even proving to be a bit unwieldy or petty. ChangMin secretly agrees with Captain HanKyung's refusal from giving KiBum ban kai training.
ChangMin removes the teapot from the heat. He pours thick tea for both of them, which they let simmer and cool on the patio.
"You could figure something out," KiBum urges him. "A new method to gain ban kai."
ChangMin shakes his head vigorously. "Not a chance. I can't even get Moriko to behave reliably in battle. What makes you think I can figure out another method of training for extreme zanjutsu?"
KiBum scowls at him like he's being an idiot, an act that very few people do around ChangMin. "Aren't you a demon arts expert? Use your genius to figure out how pure spirit energy reacts to soul cutters. Figure out how to draw energy from other sources when manifesting a soul cutter's spirit. Maybe draft an incantation to stimulate the spirit into manifesting using ambient or its own energy."
ChangMin doesn't think about it long. "If the Captains or the Kido Corps or the research facility hasn't figured it out yet after a thousand years, if it is possible at all, then there must be a good reason why not. Tradition isn't always a bad thing, you know."
KiBum makes a small grinding sound of frustration in his throat.
"Besides, you haven't even fully mastered Chinatsu's powers yet. How many times have you burned the grass in your training field without meaning to?" ChangMin gingerly takes his cup in his fingers and blows gently on the surface.
"I can work on my shikai abilities while discovering my ban kai ones," KiBum answers. "It's called multitasking, and I can do it."
It's ChangMin's turn to scowl. "Despite our deep history of friendship, KiBum, I'm more inclined to trust a Captain's judgment rather than my own about obtaining high-class and potentially dangerous abilities. And if I do figure out a way to manifest your soul cutter's spirit by using the demon arts, you'd have to be stronger than me to use it. And we both know why I'm a lieutenant now and you're still a seated officer."
Quick as a flash, but not quick enough to outmaneuver ChangMin, KiBum draws his sword and says, "Scorch, Chinatsu!" The sword immediately turns into a scimitar with a dark red blade, dark enough to be mistaken for brown in the shade. Along the curve are three jagged lines engraved with gleaming gold. At the very moment of release, the temperature of the air around the shikai increases drastically, and the very air itself seems to dry up. KiBum swings his scimitar toward ChangMin. The blade's journey through the air creates a high-temperature wind that blows behind it.
But ChangMin had paid attention to KiBum's body language so he anticipated this attack. He drops his cup (which shatters on the patio but he'll resent it later after the spar) and jumps away from KiBum. "Orchid Sky," ChangMin answers, and the air around his fist agitates into a high-pressure swirl. He punches towards KiBum to guide the air, while around him the wild grass blows outward.
ChangMin's pressured wind and KiBum's heated air clash. Wind explodes away from them, carrying within the gust loose dirt and dried leaves. The wild grass around the impact point dries in an instant as the water in them takes a mere split-second to evaporate. Even the spilled tea becomes nothing more than residue. From inside the office several scrolls were blown off shelves, empty bottles and jugs crash on the floor, and fluttering cloth suggested that the futon was blown elsewhere. ChangMin hopes he tied his own scrolls tightly.
ChangMin's throat dries almost painfully, but he'd faced KiBum's shikai before and knew what to expect. While KiBum was leveraging for a follow-up attack, ChangMin casts Ambush Flare, a little-known spell for binding: KiBum finds his sword entangled in a thick webbing of materialized spirit energy and thus unable to swing. ChangMin quickly follows up with Crawling Rope, one of the basic binding spells but powered it up enough to ensure that KiBum, with his limited magical talent and even more limited spiritual energy, couldn't break out of it easily.
KiBum's following futile struggles showed him an opportunity: the leverage he had afforded him to move Chinatsu only about half an inch or so in any direction, but it was still enough to disturb and heat the air around its blade. Just a couple of seconds of fidgeting could hyperheat the spirit webbing and disrupt the spell making it solid. But ChangMin was already reciting the incantation for a more restricting spell and unless KiBum can think of a maneuver against that...
ChangMin, however, suddenly finds himself bathed in weak red light. He recognizes it for what it is: Way of Binding #9. He fired a burst of spirit energy through his shoulders and shrugs off the half-hearted bind, but by then his and KiBum's attention were turned to the figure leaning out of the office window.
"Yah, Lieutenant," SungMin calls, "I can't let you abuse one of my officers."
"It's just a friendly spar," ChangMin answers, but he's pretty sure SungMin already concluded that when he laughs.
"I know, I know. I'm here to fetch KiBum." And to KiBum, he says, "There's a new policy I want to discuss. Seated officers are being summoned."
ChangMin undoes his spells and KiBum sheaths the resealed Chinatsu. "Couldn't you just have used the Tenteikura like any reasonable lieutenant?"
"I could have," SungMin admits, "but summoning the officers manually is a nice excuse to go out for a walk. Oh, and KiBum."
"Yes, lieutenant?" KiBum asks while dusting himself off.
"You're on library duty for the next three weeks. Disciplinary action for sparring against an officer from another division without the permission of your superiors."
KiBum accepts without a word of complaint.
"I guess we'll get going now, ChangMin. I'll see you on the next briefing." SungMin bids ChangMin goodbye. KiBum rolls his eyes for ChangMin to see and follows SungMin. ChangMin is left standing in the garden surrounded by dried wild grass. He contemplates the wasted tea and shattered cups.
Inside, the door to the office opens. "Yah, JaeJoong! Your office is a mess!" Captain YunHo's voice carries outside.
JaeJoong's voice sounds truthfully confused. "Huh? Where?"
[Continue to Chapter 3]
Author: Verocity
Fandom: Dong Bang Shin Ki / Super Junior / Bleach
Featuring: ChangMin, KiBum, SungMin
Pairings: -none-
Rating: G
Warnings: A little profanity here and there, sparring
Genre: AU [Bleach Universe]
A/N: The second one-shot in my Survivability universe. (Otherwise known as my KPop characters in the Bleach universe series.)
Summary: KiBum consults ChangMin for a possible renovation, but one thing leads to another and...
Word Count: 2,011
A loud shriek from the sentry wards blasts ChangMin awake. His first action, simultaneous with opening his eyes, is to draw his sword. His second action is to scan for anything moving towards him. His third action is to recall his location. All three of those actions get interrupted.
A sheathed soul cutter blocks his hand and forces his sword back into its sheath. His scan of his immediate surroundings is fruitless as the intruder is right beside him. A sudden pillow to his face interrupts his attempt to recall his bearings. Another weight flops gracelessly beside him on the... sofa?
"My Captain is the biggest ass ever," a deep, husky voice says barely audible beneath the disembodied shrieking. The sound's familiarity detaches ChangMin from his alert!-must-kill-everything-that-moves! mode.
"Wha-" ChangMin answers eloquently. "KiBum...?" He breaks the sentry ward spells and a ringing silence replaces the shrieking.
"Does it matter if I learn healing? I'm a field warrior! I'm not some 4th Division deadweight who can't hold himself in battle. I'm an action guy. I kick ass!" KiBum punches ChangMin awake. "Say something!"
"Healing is very important," ChangMin answers automatically, still operating on autopilot. He blinks blearily and looks around. He recognizes his division's office. Okay, so he's on duty.
"Yeah, right. I don't see you volunteering at the 4th Division to learn their craft," KiBum answers with as much sarcasm he could cram into the last word.
ChangMin yawns. KiBum smacks him again with the throw pillow. ChangMin pushes him off the sofa with a harmless but souped-up spell. KiBum goes with the energy to minimize the blunt damage and lands deftly on his feet. "Really? Using demon arts to push me off the couch? Have you really deteriorated that much as a fighter?"
Finally more lucid than groggy, ChangMin sends another blunt force of spirit energy against KiBum. "First off, I'm a lieutenant. Treat me with respect."
KiBum deflects the spell with his sheathed sword. The energy slams against a nearby book case and causes an ink jar to fall off but remain thankfully in one piece on the floor. "I'm older. Cry me a river, assface."
"And you're in my office," ChangMin retorts. He gets up and wonders if he could have tea in peace in the pantry. Or maybe the garden. Or if he should get rid of KiBum first. It doesn't seem like he's there for a serene visit.
"Correction, you're lounging in Captain JaeJoong's office. Sleeping on duty, in fact - which would make an interesting blot on your profile." From inside his sleeves he draws a brown paper bag and throws it at ChangMin. "Also, your alarm sentries suck."
ChangMin deftly catches the small parcel and raises it to his nose. Gyokuro tea, adequately refined from asahi. Damn. This means he doesn't get to kick KiBum out of the office. "I had the sentries tuned to go off upon detection of unwanted personnel. Like your nitpicky lieutenant. And if you really think my Captain will be upset that I sleep here, you are so misinformed." ChangMin points at the messily-kept futon at the corner of the office and the alcohol jug being used as a paperweight. He goes over to his desk and rummages around in the cabinet for his tea set. He isn't sure, but he remembers washing it after the last time he used it. Maybe.
KiBum furled his nose. "Slobs, both of you."
"We operate more effectively in a home-like environment. Have you noticed the almost-complete absence of stress in our division? Particularly compared to yours?" ChangMin jumps out the window and settles on the patio overlooking the division gardens, which is actually nothing more than a wide field overrun with wild flowers.
KiBum jumps out after him and lands more heavily. Being more adept at physical maneuvers also gave him more mass, and ChangMin could use spirit energy to absorb impacts. "There's nothing undesirable about living in a clean environment. Particularly if I'm not the one cleaning."
ChangMin lights a few lumps of coal beneath the filled teapot, but he adds in a few spiritually-enhanced embers to speed things up. There was no law in Soul Society against using the demon arts for practical purposes. "I'm surprised lieutenant SungMin hasn't enforced cleaning rules on the rest of the 8th Division."
"Oh, he tried, but Captain HanKyung intervened. "Now only non-seated officers have to clean. I love being the 4th officer."
ChangMin gapes at KiBum. "And you still think your Captain's an ass? Or do you just think of his ass, period?"
"One trait doesn't negate another," KiBum answers lightly, ignoring the second part of ChangMin's incredulity. "Because apart from requiring knowledge of basic healing techniques from all 8th Division members, he refuses to provide ban kai training unless we can match his spiritual endurance. And it's goddamn impossible." KiBum unsheathes half of his sword and stares at his reflection, then sheathes it again with a bitter grunt.
"Ban kai training is deadly serious," ChangMin says darkly. He'd heard that JunSu, the 2nd Division lieutenant and the only non-captain with a known spiritual capacity greater than ChangMin's and had above average synchronicity with his soul cutter, utterly failed in his (so far) one and only ban kai training with his division's Captain. ChangMin was wise enough not to request ban kai training given his abysmal prowess on zanjutsu, knowing JaeJoong would laugh at him to high heavens at the very whisper of it.
"Current models of training are deadly serious," KiBum corrects him. "There has to be some other way to obtain ban kai. Chinatsu's itching to manifest!" Chinatsu is his sword's name and is widely considered to be shy but damaging in the battle field, sometimes even proving to be a bit unwieldy or petty. ChangMin secretly agrees with Captain HanKyung's refusal from giving KiBum ban kai training.
ChangMin removes the teapot from the heat. He pours thick tea for both of them, which they let simmer and cool on the patio.
"You could figure something out," KiBum urges him. "A new method to gain ban kai."
ChangMin shakes his head vigorously. "Not a chance. I can't even get Moriko to behave reliably in battle. What makes you think I can figure out another method of training for extreme zanjutsu?"
KiBum scowls at him like he's being an idiot, an act that very few people do around ChangMin. "Aren't you a demon arts expert? Use your genius to figure out how pure spirit energy reacts to soul cutters. Figure out how to draw energy from other sources when manifesting a soul cutter's spirit. Maybe draft an incantation to stimulate the spirit into manifesting using ambient or its own energy."
ChangMin doesn't think about it long. "If the Captains or the Kido Corps or the research facility hasn't figured it out yet after a thousand years, if it is possible at all, then there must be a good reason why not. Tradition isn't always a bad thing, you know."
KiBum makes a small grinding sound of frustration in his throat.
"Besides, you haven't even fully mastered Chinatsu's powers yet. How many times have you burned the grass in your training field without meaning to?" ChangMin gingerly takes his cup in his fingers and blows gently on the surface.
"I can work on my shikai abilities while discovering my ban kai ones," KiBum answers. "It's called multitasking, and I can do it."
It's ChangMin's turn to scowl. "Despite our deep history of friendship, KiBum, I'm more inclined to trust a Captain's judgment rather than my own about obtaining high-class and potentially dangerous abilities. And if I do figure out a way to manifest your soul cutter's spirit by using the demon arts, you'd have to be stronger than me to use it. And we both know why I'm a lieutenant now and you're still a seated officer."
Quick as a flash, but not quick enough to outmaneuver ChangMin, KiBum draws his sword and says, "Scorch, Chinatsu!" The sword immediately turns into a scimitar with a dark red blade, dark enough to be mistaken for brown in the shade. Along the curve are three jagged lines engraved with gleaming gold. At the very moment of release, the temperature of the air around the shikai increases drastically, and the very air itself seems to dry up. KiBum swings his scimitar toward ChangMin. The blade's journey through the air creates a high-temperature wind that blows behind it.
But ChangMin had paid attention to KiBum's body language so he anticipated this attack. He drops his cup (which shatters on the patio but he'll resent it later after the spar) and jumps away from KiBum. "Orchid Sky," ChangMin answers, and the air around his fist agitates into a high-pressure swirl. He punches towards KiBum to guide the air, while around him the wild grass blows outward.
ChangMin's pressured wind and KiBum's heated air clash. Wind explodes away from them, carrying within the gust loose dirt and dried leaves. The wild grass around the impact point dries in an instant as the water in them takes a mere split-second to evaporate. Even the spilled tea becomes nothing more than residue. From inside the office several scrolls were blown off shelves, empty bottles and jugs crash on the floor, and fluttering cloth suggested that the futon was blown elsewhere. ChangMin hopes he tied his own scrolls tightly.
ChangMin's throat dries almost painfully, but he'd faced KiBum's shikai before and knew what to expect. While KiBum was leveraging for a follow-up attack, ChangMin casts Ambush Flare, a little-known spell for binding: KiBum finds his sword entangled in a thick webbing of materialized spirit energy and thus unable to swing. ChangMin quickly follows up with Crawling Rope, one of the basic binding spells but powered it up enough to ensure that KiBum, with his limited magical talent and even more limited spiritual energy, couldn't break out of it easily.
KiBum's following futile struggles showed him an opportunity: the leverage he had afforded him to move Chinatsu only about half an inch or so in any direction, but it was still enough to disturb and heat the air around its blade. Just a couple of seconds of fidgeting could hyperheat the spirit webbing and disrupt the spell making it solid. But ChangMin was already reciting the incantation for a more restricting spell and unless KiBum can think of a maneuver against that...
ChangMin, however, suddenly finds himself bathed in weak red light. He recognizes it for what it is: Way of Binding #9. He fired a burst of spirit energy through his shoulders and shrugs off the half-hearted bind, but by then his and KiBum's attention were turned to the figure leaning out of the office window.
"Yah, Lieutenant," SungMin calls, "I can't let you abuse one of my officers."
"It's just a friendly spar," ChangMin answers, but he's pretty sure SungMin already concluded that when he laughs.
"I know, I know. I'm here to fetch KiBum." And to KiBum, he says, "There's a new policy I want to discuss. Seated officers are being summoned."
ChangMin undoes his spells and KiBum sheaths the resealed Chinatsu. "Couldn't you just have used the Tenteikura like any reasonable lieutenant?"
"I could have," SungMin admits, "but summoning the officers manually is a nice excuse to go out for a walk. Oh, and KiBum."
"Yes, lieutenant?" KiBum asks while dusting himself off.
"You're on library duty for the next three weeks. Disciplinary action for sparring against an officer from another division without the permission of your superiors."
KiBum accepts without a word of complaint.
"I guess we'll get going now, ChangMin. I'll see you on the next briefing." SungMin bids ChangMin goodbye. KiBum rolls his eyes for ChangMin to see and follows SungMin. ChangMin is left standing in the garden surrounded by dried wild grass. He contemplates the wasted tea and shattered cups.
Inside, the door to the office opens. "Yah, JaeJoong! Your office is a mess!" Captain YunHo's voice carries outside.
JaeJoong's voice sounds truthfully confused. "Huh? Where?"
[Continue to Chapter 3]