Meeting in the Cafe(Bear)

Sitting at one of the far end booths, Theocelese would appear to Emilia to be someone else entirely due to his attire and current form of mental occupation. Clothes of a much more relaxed demeanor hung from his form, a blue button up shirt and a pair of black jeans fastened tightly with a belt. Around his left wrist, a watch and in the most strange enough fashion, a pair of glasses hanging barely down at the end of his nose. With both hands he held open a newspaper in foreign writing, which he was reading rather intently with a cigarette in his mouth. Something about having his old “domain” back, a place where he felt completely relaxed and at home just gave him a sense of normality. Sure, there were wars to fight and time for strife, but the time spent to himself waiting for company to arrive was not such a time.

He hadn't noticed Emi's arrival until she spoke out to him, to which he folded back the top half of the newspaper, grinning as a plume of smoke shot out of his nostrils. Carefully, he dog-earred the top right corner of the paper before folding it up and setting it off to the side. The Arrancar rose from his seat, taking the cigarette from his mouth and letting it settle in between his fingers. “Emilia, I'm doing well. Took some time to do repairs around here but I have my coffee and my papers again, it feels good to have these things again at a time of rest.” Theocelese gave his guest a warm and welcoming hug before motioning to the seat. It wasn't his intention, but he hadn't figured Emi would see him in such a way. He looked so...human, and much like an old one at that.

“We're not at war right now, so there is no need to call me by any title. Theo is fine. Have a seat, would you like something to drink or eat?”

“No, I very well have the intention to practice combat,” He began, his movements taking him behind the counter, from which he brought up a clear, glass bottle. From the counter top, he took two small cups of the same transparency and walked back over to the table. “Your attire is fine, I just wanted you to be aware that there are things outside of the field of battle. Keep that in your mind, you must have a life outside of war. If you don't, it will consume you and you will be lost.” He sat down and poured the two glasses to the top before taking the spectacles off of his face. “I know you know you can trust me, and heed my words. It is my duty to not only be a battle field commander and adviser, but align your path if it starts to become muddy. I say all of this,” Theocelese paused his words to take a drink long enough to kill half the glass, “I say all of this because you cannot model yourself after something and only take appearances. You must invite the culture, and it is my culture--our culture, to tend to the guests of our home and make them as comfortable and welcomed as possible before attending to matters of business.” He took one more elongated drink, finishing his glass.

Just as he had sat down, the Arrancar stood up and stretched as if he'd just woken up from a nap. “Take your time, have as much of the bottle as you'd like and when you're done, head out the same way I'm taking and follow the path straight. Pardon the mess, I've been renovating as of late and made a direct path to Las Noches' interior. That is where we will practice. I'll be getting ready, I will be there briefly.” With that, Theocelese left the area and Emi to herself to have her wine until she went to the central open area of Las Noches. It would look like a mess on the way, true to his word it looked like construction was under way but it was just a straight path to a doorless opening that revealed the massive, sandy interior. It looked like there was once vegetation here, but whatever was here either hadn't been tended to or the experiment had gone wrong in the best way possible.

The Arrancar did as he said, leaving to dress in something more appropriate for battle. A simple brown tunic and a pair of black pants. He waited a little while longer to do his best at suppressing his presence, but even he knew since his latest tribulations the result was a somewhat damaged core. His ability to do something like that was irreparably carved, but at the cost of new power. Though with the mindset of someone like Theocelese, he wasn't one bound for dirty work done in the shadows. He was absently stalling for time to keep Athena on edge. The maddening lack of sound in the sandy plains, mixed with his lack of visual presence was just a way to test the girl. Though Athena wouldn't need wait long, as Theocelese would make his appearance by Stepping in behind her, and rushing in with an attempt to knock the girl over with his shield. He did not do what so many others did in cinematic pictorial pieces where one yelled before a strike, there was no point to giving an enemy the know where you were.

This may have been a spar, and as such Theocelese would be holding back to a degree that no real, life-threatening harm would occur, but there would be bruises, cuts, and gashes. From their previous conversation, this would have been something easily assumed. In fact, his primary goal for this meeting was to further speed up Emi's progress of power. His honor dictated he would see the girl, the daughter of a man he knew and respected through combat, protected in her efforts of war. He too had cause to bring his blade to the table, for the Gotei caused him much harm in the past, but as far as Theocelese knew the girl had no more family. There was no one who could step in and give council or aid. There were surely others whom she had reached out to, but having not known these others, had to make his own assumption they did not have the aspect of their honor in their affairs. For as much as Kisho was a man of war, Theocelese liked to think that if their places were switched, Kisho would do the same as he would. Not out of affection or emotion, but to honor the last words of a fellow soldier who would ask nothing more than to make sure his own daughter was safe.

Theocelese regained his stance in anticipation for the counter attack, his knees remained bent, feet angled and back straight. He was ready to be on the move in any direction, but he wasn't surprised to see the retort from Emi was to come right from the front. He took two steps forward, his feet more or less shuffling than actually stepping, and dropped his shield. At the angle of the swing, Emi's pommel and the underside of her forearm would make contact with the sharpened edge of his shield. Theocelese did not make a counter attack, not just yet. He gave a nod to her arm, the motion meaning for her to keep her arm where it was. “There are four basic ranges of combat that you already know, but know not in these terms. I have simplified it to A through D. We are at A range right now, Emi. Where are within close proximity to utilize our shields as offensive weapons, and against many Shinigami this is where you and I need to be. As you know, Shinigami weaponry almost always is some form of a Katana, a wonderful weapon versus another of its kind, but very weak against our fighting style. Supposing you fight a Shinigami who wields a Shikai or Bankai with a variation of sword and shield, this is what I would do.” Theocelese spoke while he retained his current stance, but shifted his blade to his shield hand.

With his now free hand, Theocelese took Emi's arm by the wrist and lifted it to the moment just before she made contact with his own shield. With a slow turn, he angled the blade further and moved Emi's arm down. It was now angled to strike at his face. “You must also consider there are few like you, your father and I in this world. We take to combat with our own strength and body, and if we were to have it our way, would only fight with our weapons and nothing more. I am aware of a form of Shinigami magic that once turned my shield into an electrical conduit, and I was forced to discard of it to keep myself from getting shocked. At this range quadrant, I would make my estimations on ending the fight in one single blow, or keeping at a Shinigami and rendering him or her unable to use magic, or Zanpakutou powers.” Towards the last sentence, Theocelese once again took his sword back in his hand and resumed stance. With a nod, he disappeared via Sonido and appeared about five or so meters back. He smacked the shield with the flat of his blade once before putting himself on the defensive again.

It was the best possible thing for him to do, to teach Emilia. While his personal sense of honor would mean he would put himself in front of her to staunch an enemy's advance, he would not always be there. Imparting this knowledge was just a fine substitute, and also doubled as a means to them to work together in the future. That would happen at another time, perhaps in the not too distant future, and when it came down to it those who stood before them would see nothing but terror. Of course, each lesson would have its own subjects and the one to be taught now could have the potential for serious damage to be dealt. His eyes remained on the Vizard, watching her movements and pattern with each step, yet he did not move or act until she was already dedicated to her own strike. A slight parting with the ground and her feat, very theatrical and flashy, perhaps only best used against the biggest brutes lacking in intelligence, and he would be informing her of that very soon. First in action, then, in words and demonstration.

Theocelese's form moved forward, taking a step to his right and darted forward so that the tip of Emilia's sword met with the edge of his shield. His arm loosened at this time of impact, and in turn his shield opened up his torso. In conjunction with this, Theocelese's right foot shot up, aimed at the bottom left side of his current student's own shield. This meant that when the other shield opened, it did so as his foot hit the ground and letting him get in that much closer. Even in the case her shield wasn't kicked, he was still in a position to turn this into a positive. With his arm already cocked and shield propped back with aid from Emilia, Theocelese's form twisted down and to the right as he punched with the edge of his shield. His intended aim was the other shield's edge or the face of it. His right arm, his sword arm, was also aimed in the perfect position for a counter-stab, should the need arise.

His response to the attack was rapid, turning on one leg and shooting down to a kneeling position on the other. He was in the position to use his knee to press against the flat of the blade, and with that momentum of dropping down on that knee, pinned the blade to the sand beneath them. With his own blade, he tapped the front of her shield a couple of times before hopping back up to his own two feet. There was a wide grin on his face. “Very good, Emilia. If you want to end a fight like that, aim just a bit higher there to hit the femoral artery. Even a solid knick can do the trick. All you have to do is play on the defensive side, let them get wild and aggressive. Your opponent will bleed out quickly, even more so if you force them on the offensive.” With his input finished, Theocelese vanished with Sonido, and just like last time, appeared about ten yards from Emilia. He gave his own shield two taps, giving her a moment to get ready. But that was it, just a moment. Theocelese followed the signal up by doing one complete spin, and when he was re-positioned to face Emilia, his shield was hurtled towards her like a flying disk, aimed to make contact with either her upper chest, or the upper portion of her shield.

He took off immediately thereafter, with sword in one hand and bare armed on his left, he would see how Emilia was going to fare when it came to more complex attacks. All things varied on her reaction to such a start like this. The end result, he would show her a nifty trick he picked up some time ago that could be used in the very same manner and situations he was putting both himself, and her in. The girl was quick to adapt, and having such an advantage as what he was going to show her was going to put down countless foes. Give them false confidence, then snatch it up and away.

At the launch of his shield, the Arrancar would put direct control over it. This was a tactic that he knew some could employ to do exactly what Emilia did, fall right into a trap. As his shield continued in what seemed to be a harmless manner, it traveled a few meters in the air before circling around full force and at the speed of a normal Bala. As Theocelese continued towards Emilia, his sword arm raised upwards. If this were a real fight, he would go for a high-low feint, but this was merely to draw the other God's attention. While his strike would indeed be blocked by the shield, he would also allow his Hierro to act in his own shield's stead. His own swing was at full force, so that Emilia could feel the power behind such a blow for the future. It was so that she would know what to do, and although she would feel the impact upon her arm, she would need to put trust in not just her shield, but every shield beside her. However, after their blades met their respective areas, Theocelese halted his movements and eased up. It was one of the few non-verbal signs he gave to her to show there was a quick lesson to be learned from this.

He nodded once and spoke.

"Turn around."

Suspended at the height of the Vizard's nose was Theocelese's shield, rapidly spinning from its halted position. It was close enough that if she moved even slightly towards it, she'd be bleeding from the tip of her nose. In this deadly silence, the continuously slicing of the air was all that could be heard, at least for the moment.

"Just because I literally threw my defense at you does not mean it cannot come back to strike you. I also have Hierro, though we do not need to worry about any Shinigami possessing such things, they may be able to mimic it artificially. When we fight together Emilia, you needn't worry about these sorts of tricks." The dullness of his emotionless face broke into a grin, and his left hand came to rest against the back of his head. "As the kids say, I'll have your back." After a few scratches, his arm rose as did the shield. It hovered up and over Emilia, sliding back onto his arm.

"Now, what do you say we call it a day? Unless you have any questions, or would like to continue for a bit longer."