Rest is for Pansies

Rest was for pansies and Kaito was certainly not going to be soft under Sagumi’s tutelage. It had not been more than four hours since Sagumi had interrupted what semblance of rest Kaito would have gotten after his ordeal and dragged him up the long, long flight of stairs. The expansive temple stretched throughout the entirety of the Karakoram Mountain range so there were quite a few stairs to climb from Kaito’s dormitory. As they passed the final step and Sagumi pushed open the small hatch leading to the mountain top, cold air rushed past the archway, crashing upon the pair in blistering and thin mountain air. Not giving Kaito more than a moment to acclimate to the cold, Sagumi ushered him outside and shut the hatch behind them.

Sagumi had led Kaito to an expansive platform/balcony overlooking the mountain range, the platform itself being a perfect square with a small ramp leading back into the mountain. After Kaito had stepped off the ramp and on to the balcony, Sagumi gently kicked the ramp out of its comfortably situated position, cutting off the boy’s means of escaping back into the mountain. A devilish grin coming to the man’s face as he watched for Kaito’s reaction to the further...rather inhumane treatment. Sagumi let out another exasperated sigh before deigning to explain what they would be doing up here.

“This is an early morning training exercise, we will be doing this every day for the next two weeks. If you would be so kind as to stand at the edge of the platform, we may begin.”

He doubted it was any big secret, but Sagumi had taken a liking to Kaito rather quickly. It wasn’t quite as blatant as the liking he had taken to Koneko’s breasts...er...Koneko, but Sagumi had very quickly determined the value in Kaito and was not simply the well of untapped power. That was part of it, yes, but not the entirety. It was regrettable, but normal, for a parent to play favorites and the relationship between master and apprentice was not a far cry from father and son. He was responsible for Kaito’s development now, in more ways than one, and it did fill him with a sense of pride at his development. Kaito was his favorite though simply because he reminded Sagumi so much of himself when he was a child, the first time around. He wasn’t quite the perverted pillar of awesome that stood there now, it was a gradual transformation and while he did not really wish for Kaito to develop his more...eccentric personality traits he was happy that he epitomized most of his strengths. As a child, Sagumi was observant, headstrong, proud and impressively intelligent, all of which describe the young Kaito now. Questionable fashion sense aside, Kaito had plenty of potential to go above and beyond his teacher and Sagumi was fully intent on helping him get there.

A soft chuckle escaped Sagumi as Kaito dropped in to the Naranhi Junbi Sogi, or the parallel ready stance that Sagumi had taught him only a few hours before. It was the most basic of Tae Kwon Do stances, but it was still impressive just how quickly the boy had grasped the form. Unfortunately for young Kaito, knowing the forms was simply not enough to fully utilize them properly, he was still missing quite a bit before he could utilize his martial arts prowess properly. Thankfully, in a fashion that Sagumi was sure Kaito could appreciate, technology had done a healthy amount to contribute to martial arts training and while Sagumi wasn’t the most tech savvy individual, he did have countless lifetimes to learn and install everything he needed to. The man reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small black box that was littered with red buttons. Another signature smirk showed before he pushed one of those buttons. The edge of the platform that young Kaito was standing would quickly begin elevating itself from the rest of the platform, forming an elevated box around the area. The now forming edge was only forty centimeters wide, just barely enough room for one foot to stand on. Satisfied once the elevated edge was five feet off the ground, Sagumi returned the black box to his hand and spoke to the young boy, hopefully for long enough to let Kaito balance himself on his new footing.

“While I applaud your moxie, it’s not going to be that simple. Your job is to stay on that ledge for twenty minutes. If you try to jump off that ledge, I assure you that you won’t land until you reach the bottom of the mountain, face first.”

As soon as the word “first” would leave his lips, Sagumi would “blip” out of sight before appearing a few feet away from Kaito on the ledge. However, this time, in his hand would be Gekijouyari, Sagumi’s Qiang or chinese spear. The weapon would seemingly materialize out of mid-air and in to the man’s hand. He paused for a moment, so Kaito had a chance to react, before violently swinging the spear tip at Kaito’s head. Sagumi was not going to pull any punches on the power of his strikes however, even if he was letting up on the speed and if Kaito did not demonstrate the required acumen, Sagumi was more than willing to relieve him of his head.

It was getting more and more clear with each passing moment that Kaito was so, so very much like the young Sagumi. Less angst perhaps, but the moxie, the drive, the creativeness, all of it reeked of his master’s younger days, all of that and the overconfidence bordering on outright stupidity. Perhaps he knew Sagumi was not going to kill him, perhaps he just wanted to show off, but the fact of the matter was he forfeited sure footing for the sake of being flashy and it was going to bite him in the ass. Sagumi loved flashiness, in fact it was pretty much the entirety of his repertoire but young Kaito was a long way away from being at that point. Flash is only effective if one has the basics down and Kaito, while he was incredibly quick for his age and experience, was missing those basics and the core strength he needed to fully utilize his techniques. Kaito was, at least, in for a rude awakening despite how clever he was and hopefully he would learn to utilize that cleverness without taking unnecessary risks, that was when he’d become truly terrifying.

Sagumi did not adjust much to deal with the bullethead smacking off the tip of his spear and angling it skyward. He instead watched with a bemused smile as Kaito lept up to stand on his weapon and delivered the obligatory lame cliche. The second the barrel of his firearm was positioned toward the spear a second time however, something quite unfortunate for young Kaito would befall him. The spear suddenly did not exist. The weapon seemingly ceased to exist, causing Kaito to lose is ground and the bullet to careen down toward the ground. Simultaneously, Sagumi shifted his weight on to his inside leg, his outside leg picking up off the ground as the bullet would smack off the ground and ricochet harmlessly behind him. As Kaito was falling, Sagumi’s raised leg would quickly shoot forward, the heel of his foot flying straight toward the boy’s nose. If it hit, Kaito would be sent flying a few feet in a straight line, aimed to be landing on the raised edge. Sagumi pulled the force back on that one, at most it would give young Kaito a disorienting headache and a bloody nose.

Regardless of the effectiveness of the man’s kick, Sagumi would quickly *blip* out of view. As soon as Kaito would get his bearings, Sagumi would appear directly above him, hovering in the air and in his hand, slowly materializing into existence again, was his spear. A wild grin spread across Sagumi’s face. The hand holding the spear would raise high above his head as his front leg picked up off the ground, mimicking some strange bastard child of a baseball pitcher and a javelin thrower. Sagumi swung his leg forward, torquing his whole body forward and down, his arm violently swinging forward as the spear left his hand, hurtling straight for Kaito’s face. The spear would whistle violently as it cut through the air, shredding the air space around it as it flew straight for young Kaito. If he got hit, he’d be outright obliterated.

Sagumi had noticed. Kaito was always bright, he was always clever, he was always efficient and he always had potential. He had also been jumpy, distracted and antsy and all of those deterrents to focus were now gone from him. His eyes didn’t hold that uncertainty anymore. They didn’t hold that trepidation. Sagumi wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not in regards to how rapidly Kaito was developing, a few short hours ago there was no way he would have been able to block that kick. It wasn’t just that his powers had manifested, he was faster, stronger and tougher than he was not long ago and even with Sagumi’s help, the growth was phenomenal, frighteningly so to be perfectly frank. He hadn’t seen this kind of growth in a pupil since Takumi and he was honestly prepared for it that time around. Though to be fair, he perhaps should have been more prepared for Kaito to demonstrate the growth that he was. The boy did have a wealth of talent beneath the inexperienced shell and nothing filled Sagumi with more joy than shaving away that fragility.

The man’s original plan was to have the weapon phase out of existence on its downward trek toward Kaito, after all he didn’t want to break the platform that he was sure one of his many worshippers undoubtedly put a lot of effort into building, but when the young man didn’t begin fleeing and didn’t look completely and utterly terrified, Sagumi’s interest was sparked. So instead of doing the responsible thing and making sure no harm came to his student, the building, or anyone who happened to be below the trajectory of his spear, Sagumi was going to let his student try to out muscle his throw, potentially killing him, the platform, and Koneko if she was unlucky enough to be standing directly below the spear, or probably anywhere near it or probably in the mountain at all. Thankfully, such fears were ungrounded as Kaito reared back and swung the sword he had drawn straight at the spear point and caused the weapon to be knocked straight back at Sagumi. As soon as Kaito’s sword had impacted with the spear, Sagumi was no longer airborne and was instead crouched down next to Kaito, opposite the direction his katana was going and on the edge staring up at his spear as it careened off into the sky and faded from conventional sight.

“Woooooooooooooooooooooooow, you could have made a lot of money five or six hundred years ago, baseball players were paid pretty handsomely before hollows ate most of them.”

Even still, what Kaito did was physically impossible. Ignoring that his muscles were not remotely capable of performing such a feat, even spiritually assisted strength should not have been capable of knocking his spear back on the trajectory it had taken. First off, the boy had not shifted his stance at all, made no motion to slide to the side or even shift his footing at all whatsoever. Consequently the principle point of impact would have had to be in front of him. Basic physics would indicate that if the principle point of contact was in front of his body, then the swinging momentum and to force generated by the connection with the blade of the katana would force Sagumi’s spear to the side. Instead, it was rocketed straight back from whence it came, which as was mentioned is impossible through strength alone. That ruled out Kaito’s power being a simple enhancement of strength. No, Kaito did something else to produce that kind of reaction, something that required finesse and thought and the best way to break through a cerebral defense was much that one would weaken a computer’s defenses. Sagumi was going to need to find the breaking point of Kaito’s capacity to reason, to formulate, and then he was going to force him to start relying on his physical skills when his brain simply could no longer keep up with the pressure. If his ability to process and reason information was anything like the abilities of a muscle, it needed to be pushed to its limit and occasionally beyond for it to fully grow and Sagumi had no qualms whatsoever of repeatedly beating Kaito into the ground, mentally and physically, until he was ready to grow.

With less than a second to react the spear had materialized in Sagumi’s hand, the man’s feet pivoting on the narrow and elevated ledge heralded the thrusting motion of the tipped weapon as Sagumi shoved the spearhead straight for Kaito’s throat, his body giving every intention of running him straight through. However, when the visible sight of Sagumi’s spear would actually reach Kaito, a strange phenomenon would occur, any action taken against the image of Sagumi’s body would hit nothing but air. Sagumi, utilizing the Kasumi Gake, had already moved and it was merely his after-image that was still aiming for Kaito’s throat. Sagumi, with a blistering speed, had once again taken to the air, hovering a few feet above Kaito as his arm crossed over his body, spear in hand, before violently snapping back across. Sagumi swung his spear, horizontally, above his opponent, and hard straight for the area right above the tsuba. Sagumi was aiming to violently smack his ideally confused pupil’s weapon straight out of his hand. At the same time, Sagumi’s wavedash has been activated, his feet treating everything, even the air, as if it was solid ground and inherently giving a big middle finger to gravity in the process and was consequently fully ready to move at any time.

Well, Sagumi wasn’t ready for that. His initial attack in that sequence was a complete feint. The attack was never meant to actually connect with young Kaito but instead he seemed intent to rush out to meet it and honestly, that was something Sagumi appreciated. It was never wise to sit back and wait for an attacker to get to you. In that time frame you’ve already let them set up their next move and from that point you are forced to play a perpetual game of catch up, Sagumi was happy that Kaito’s instincts were teaching him the lessons Sagumi wanted to teach. However the big one, the important one, was either being ignored by the young boy or was simply passing his notice. As the sword, its integrity almost undoubtedly weakened from the boy’s earlier display as Sagumi did not put remotely enough force into the feint to completely blow through a legitimate katana, broke from the impact, Sagumi had followed through with his overhead and downward chop at Kaito, forcing him to recoil backward and away from the swing, pushing him farther back and along the very narrow edge that the pair of them were allowed to stand on. Sagumi landed gracefully back on the ledge as Kaito began materializing another weapon, quietly musing as to what the secret to the young boy’s power might be. So far he knew it required concentration and that using it against superior sources of force put a great strain on the object he was funneling the power through and that for some reason it was changing the pigmentation of his eyes, was his power a doujutsu? Sagumi did not miss it when every other human had some form of ocular ability.

Speaking of strain, if Kaito had not begun noticing it yet, through some freak of nature stamina which Sagumi supposed was fair in this world, he would soon. He had, for this entire time, been fighting on what was effectively a gymnastics balance beam. That was the extent of the room his hand to position and balance himself while trying to keep Sagumi from relieving him of his head. Maintaining balance in that situation, especially while constantly being accosted, put a very heavy strain on the body’s core and leg muscles, especially for someone like Kaito who, while a fast runner, has never gone through heavy balance and core strength training before. They weren’t really subjects that were taught in front of a computer, nor was it really part of the curriculum at Karakura High School and all the spiritual power in the world would not help Kaito if he wasn’t physically strong enough to handle the techniques Sagumi planned to impart upon him. To build that strength though, one needed to push past the limits they currently had, to force themselves beyond what they’re capable of and soon, he’d feel the burn in his back, hips, abdominal, hamstring, and quadricep muscles. That was what Sagumi meant by physical.

As young Kaito finished materializing the pair of gauntlets on his hands, another feat that was bemusing Sagumi as unlike the young boy, he simply couldn’t see what he did and he to try and decipher his strange powers by things that were happening in reality. So far he seemed to be able to manipulate kinetic energy, denying the principles of physics, or at least he seemed to be able to do a faux pas at such an ability in addition to his capacity to manifest these strange weapons on a whim. A smile came to his face at the thought that so quickly after their training exercise, Kaito had already manifested and developed control over powers he didn’t even realize existed no more than a day ago. His growth was remarkable and it was time to see if he could grow even more. As the boy got himself ready, Sagumi began running at him, gracefully sprinting on the balance beam as if it were second nature to him. Mid-sprint, Sagumi arced his neck back slightly before snapping it forward and from that motion, and use of his Sumashuu Kenpo, a potent shockwave rushed toward Kaito, a force equivalent to a headbutt being driven straight toward the bridge of his nose. Sagumi would follow up whatever action Kaito took, whether it be dodging, blocking, or taking it to the dome, by intercepting his movements and delivering a hard straight punch toward the boy’s gut.