Training Day

Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:21 pm

Steven was still more or less a new shinigami. He had come a long way from when he had started out in the soul society but he still had a long way to go. He was at some training field or another whenever he had time in between his missions for the squads trying to make himself stronger. He would work on his speed, his strength, his endurance, occationally even his kido but most of the time that wasn't his focus. His strong suit was with a weapon in hand. It was simply his fighting style. Still he knew that being skilled with a sword wasn't enough to win every battle out there. He would have to become stronger in order to overcome the many challenging opponents out there.

To that end he was once again out to get in some training. Someone else was supposed to be there as well to help him out but Steven tended to be a bit early to everything. If he liked to scope out the area and have an idea what he was working with before things got started. Knowledge of terrain could be just as important in a fight as the strength and skill of the fighters themselves. It wasn't much to talk about. An block within the Seireitei with some structures built up for practicing various skills. Still old habit have a way sticking around regardless of the actual situation.

Steven had a bit of time to kill before the other person showed up so he decided to get started. The area was large so he started to run around the perimeter to warm up his legs and work on how fast he could move. When he was satisfied with how quickly he got around he finally stopped. His legs were warmed up. He pulled out his Zanpakutō for a short while simply holding it hoping to hear it speak. He wasn't quite far enough along for that quite yet. He slowly started moving through some simple stances and moves practicing them. This allowed him to keep his skill up and practice balance as he moved through them all.

Sat Feb 08, 2014 5:33 am

“Yes Captain” Toshiro had been running around the 7th Division Headquarters for over an hour helping the other members. He enjoyed helping them and found that to be his duty as the 3rd Seat of the 7th Division. Most notably he delivered a box of food for the Captain as he departed on an errand but prior to leaving the Captain instructed him to take it easy and head over to the training grounds. All of a sudden it struck him, he had forgotten about his pre-arranged yet anonymous spar. His body shot into action as he ran toward his room, his right hand pushing the door to one side while his left took hold of his Zanpakutō. Weapon in hand, he launched off toward the training grounds.

The Seireitei was under the piping hot sun. The temperature was almost 38 degrees Celsius and it was affecting the productivity of all the thirteen squads. Not many of them could cope with the heat while the majority installed air conditioning units in all of their buildings. Toshiro had been wearing his shinigami attire the whole day; he was a little sweaty and rather damp by this point in the day. He couldn’t wait to train and even though he was directly under the sun, he picked up his pace to reach his destination quicker.

With every step a tap echoed into the surrounding area, his breathing was steady, this little jog served as a great warm up. He looked ahead while his sight bounced up and down with every step of his run. The sound of metal tapping against the sheath echoed into the vicinity while his adrenal glands opened and began making him both anxious and excited for the fight. Toshiro had yet to awaken his Shikai and that’s what he had aimed toward over the past few weeks. His black hair shook around frantically as he ran in a rather weird manner; he wasn’t really an expert in any field of battle but he enjoyed it as it seemed to keep him active and healthy!

He hadn’t fought for months and thus this created an excellent opportunity for him to wipe away the rust. Afar he could see only one individual while the rest headed back to their barracks, the individual also had black hair which closely resembled Toshiros but whilst he neared the battle scene he tripped over a small rock that had been in his path. His body launched forward while his eyes widened, he wasn’t expecting the sudden descent but almost instinctively placed his right palm onto the ground prior to collision in order to spring back up and land on his feet. It was weird, he had never practiced doing that but watching his Captain use it on the rest of the squad so often probably allowed it to subconsciously register.

As he landed he inhaled. His breathing seemed rather rapid while his breath seemed to be intoxicated with the smell of sweets. He looked over at the opponent who seemed to be rather good with his sword; Toshiro wasn’t much better but he made up for it by being better in other fields of expertise. He bowed formally prior to introducing himself. “I am Toshiro Watanabe, 3rd Seat, Squad 7. Pleased to meet you. ” his voice sounded loud and over enthusiastic, it was obvious the opponent wouldn’t really give a damn about this greeting but as he concluded his right hand reached for the hilt of the as a small click sounded the instant the Zanpakutō left its sheath.

Toshiro unsheathed his Zanpakutō and held it parallel to his body. His eyes focused on the opponent while he extended his left hand and gestured ‘Come at me’. His left hand still held his sheath since he had nowhere to put it but regardless he aimed to put it to good use while sparring with this new opponent.

Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:04 am

Steven had been waiting for a while for his partner to show up. He had moved through several stances trying to think about what stance would be the best to use in the up coming fight. He didn't know much about his opponents method of fighting so it was hard to tell exactly what he should do for the fight. He paused each time wondering if he would hear something from his Zanpakutō about the stance he had moved to but every time it was the same nothing. He wondered just how much longer it would be until he heard its voice much less learned its name. He had a ways to go but he was sure he would get there eventually.

When his opponent finally did arrive he certainly did make a loud and formal entrance. Certainly nobody would have missed it. He wondered about this man. How strong was he? How far was he willing to push one of his subordinates? "Quite the entrance. Sorry if I am a bit less formal then you but I am Steven a member of squad seven." he said to Toshiro. "Just because I am in your squad," he said raising his Zanpakutō to point it at his superior, "don't think I want you to go easy on me. I won't grow any stronger if you don't push me. If I think your holding back I will make you regret it later."

What he said was the truth after all. He didn't want anybody to hold back when they fought him even if it was only a training match. He always tried to push himself so that he would grow stronger. If everyone went easy on him then he would never get strong enough to challenge the officers of the squads. He planned to some day be strong enough to defeat the captains themselves and he would need all the practice he could get before then. But it was also more then just wanting to become stronger. There was something exciting about facing a challenge. Having to figure out how to overcome obstacles and not let anything stop you from achieving what you wanted. He loved a challenge more then anything.

He turned his body around so that his left side was facing towards his opponent. He lowered his body and moved it away from his opponent a bit by bending his knees while he raised his Zanpakutō over his head. He had no idea why he had chosen this stance at all. It wasn't one he had practiced before, he actually just thought of it on the fly. It was deceptively open making it appear that he was unguarded but he would be able to dodge incoming attack without much trouble. The stance seemed to suggest quick attacks but would also lend itself to putting his entire weight behind his attacks as well. The whole stance when thought about seemed to be designed to adapt to the situation so that he would be able to strike and block in a variety of ways depending on how his opponent reacted.

He saw the signal his opponent made telling him to go on the attack. He wasted no time turning his entire body reaching out with his left arm making a lunge strike at his opponent with his arm fully extending out his Zanpakutō aiming at Toshiro's right shoulder. It would be to simply a strike not to get dodged or blocked but it wasn't all that was planned. He would pull back quickly after that first strike turning his body only half way back around before launching the strike again this time at Toshiro's left hip. He was trying to decide at that moment if he should press for more attacks after that or move back and see how Toshiro would react. When facing a new opponent safer was usually the better policy.

Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:24 am

His opponent acknowledged the gesture which was a rather bad move from Toshiros point of view. This young 3rd Seat had learned the hard way that the fight should always stay on your terms and not your opponents. His eyes met with the reflection of light from his opponents Zanpakutō, the duo were indeed in the same Division which made him eager to help someone improve. He now understood why the Captain had sent him here but it wasn’t time to dwell on the Captains diversity. His opponent, Steven or something along those lines began his frontal assault. His stance was rather weird and with him holding the Zanpakutō above his head it left his chest exposed, but that wasn’t what Toshiro was targeting.

As his opponent launched forward Toshiros eyes remained on the blade until he managed to finally calculate its descending trajectory. The blade was perfectly shaped much like every Zanpakutō; it seemed to be carved to the top quality and forged out of some strong compounds. He had only a moment to react and rather calmly, he met the opponent’s blade with the blunt side of his own. It seemed that his opponent only intended to stay there for a brief moment prior to attacking Toshiros hip. His eyes focused as the blade eased the pressure a touch above his shoulder and began moving from left to right aiming to cut the left side of his hip. This time however Toshiro decided begin his own onslaught and thus while his opponent was focusing on his own attack, Toshiro began his.

”Hainawa” the only word leaving Toshiros mouth as a rope consisting of energy formed out of thin air made of dense reishi. This rope would begin on an attempt to entangle his opponent’s arms thus preventing him from moving them until he broke the technique. Meanwhile, Toshiros Zanpakutō descended down on his opponents shoulder. If it was to hit it would cut through the flesh and it would be rather painful. Toshiro aimed to be good in all areas so that one day he served as top notch Captain. Nothing was going through his mind at this point which was why he remained calm, awaiting the collision and the entanglement.

The opponents blade cut through the surface of his clothing and if the entanglement succeeded that would be where his attack came to a stop. However if Hainawa was unsuccessful then the blade would cut one to two centimeters into his hip prior to colliding with muscle tissue and bone structure. Toshiros facial expression would begin to change if that was the case. He would get a grim look of pain while his cheeks vasodilated in order to cool the remainder of his body down. He could have used a technique to protect that side of his hip however he wouldn’t have the time to cast the incantation.

If the blade was to cut through Toshiro then it would mean that he would be focused on Toshiros body and not his own thus increasing the likeliness of the collision from Toshiros own Zanpakutō. It would almost be a blow for blow through with more strength being applied by Toshiros Zanpakutō he would highly likely reach the bone structure and damage some of the nerves in the shoulder. It was all a matter of seconds and now the ball was in Stevens court.

Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:37 am

Steven always watched his opponents closely when he fought anybody. He looked for anything that would be able to help him out in a fight in any way no matter how small. The rope coming at him followed by a quick counter attack while his sword was still moving towards its target. To continue the attack as intended or to back away in defense. For Steven it really wasn't that much of a question. He quickly diverted his blade when the ropes started to appear turning the handle so that the blade would cut through the ropes of reishi. Steven also began to pivot his body using his left foot as the center of the motion swinging his entire body backwards around to dodge what was left of the ropes as he was sure even a little would leave him vulnerable for to long.

Despite twisting his body in a large circle he would never take his eyes off of his opponent. Where he had been aiming with his sword would have done a number on his arm certainly and since his greatest strength was his skill with his sword that was one thing that he certainly could not afford to lose to him. The strength of that strike could indicate that his opponent liked to put some muscle behind his attacks but it was till to early. To many possibilities existed for him to analyze his opponents attack patterns. He would have to draw out more of his opponents skills in order to learn that. He wondered what he would discover about his opponent in the heat of battle.

As he swung his body around his sword arm would follow after cutting through the ropes to trace the outside of the large circle his body had formed though he pulled his arm in speeding up its rate of movement as he brought down the full speed and weight of the spin down on his opponents back. He wished he could have landed at least a little bit of damage on the hip as he had planned because it would likely slow down his opponent a bit but some things couldn't be helped. He would have taken the worst of that first exchange and sometimes you had to know when to abandon your first tactic. He had learned how his opponent would deal with rapid attacks now this one was for full force attacks.

He didn't doubt that his opponent would have something he would be able to do in order to get out of this little maneuver. He didn't plan on landing major damage he just needed to watch how his opponent would deal with the attack. That was his way of fighting after all. Either play defensive to learn his opponents strategies or force them out with his own attacks. The first thing he had learned about fighting was that if you could understand your opponents methods of fighting you would be able to find a way to win easier. That had stuck him even after he had died in the living world and come to the soul society and became a shinigami. He always strove to learn as much as he could about his opponents before he committed himself to a style of fighting.

He planted his feet when they were far enough in the spin to allow him to get enough force behind his swing. He would be ready for his opponent to strike back at him by leaping away. He would also be ready if his opponent decided to run to escape the strike. It was to early for him to know what his opponent would do yet so he had to prepare for as many possibilities as he could as fast as he could. He held his free left arm as close to him as possible thinking about the few Kido he had managed to learn well enough. If he decide to take the attack to claim a chance to strike himself he would make his opponent take two attacks for it.

Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:42 am

Some would call what his opponent did flawless while others would call it instinct. Toshiro simply stood there, his eyes glanced down at the hip to take note of the blade; it was moving away. As Toshiros blade descended down on the opponents shoulder, the man moved which almost instantly registered with Toshiros mind. It was fascinating; the cut would have been several centimeters deep and maybe even effect the motion of the arm. His eyes followed the man as he rotated; in the meantime, Toshiro took a safe step back in order to equally distribute the pressure of the coming attack.

At this point in time, Toshiro had considered two possible explanations to the sudden dodging. The first was that the man was scared that with the loss of the arm would come the loss of the fight which to Toshiro meant that he was either good at Hakuda or Zanjutsu! Or the second was that he had been testing Toshiros responses in order to find a weakness and exploit it. He wasn’t going to let either of it to happen, he inhaled as he braced his sheath.

Toshiro edged forward as the opponents blade began attacking once more, his sheath meeting the trajectory of the blade while his right hand that had wielded the blade expanded out the middle and index finger, both of which were aimed at the shoulder joint that Toshiro had previously attacked. As the blade slammed against the sheath, a large clasping sound echoed into the area and Toshiro moved consecutively thus minimizing his opponents possible response time. As the opponents blade descended onto the sheath Toshiro smiled and whispered loud enough for the duo to hear, “Hadō 4 … Byakura-“

With the escape of the whisper shot forth a thin, compressed ray of blue energy. It escaped the tips of the extending fingers and travelled rather quickly. With this duo being quite close to one another, the attack would likely hit at point blank range unless his opponent could do anything about it. If the attack hit it would pierce through the skin and leave nothing of the joint that it had struck; similarly, it would damage the surrounding nerves but the shinigami would still be able to continue.

Toshiro felt rather bad for being so harsh, however he didn’t await the result of his attack and as the Byakuray concluded, he moved his sheath and body. As the technique concluded, he scraped his sheath past the Zanpakutō and performed a flash step in order to create a little distance between himself and the opponent. His eyes began surveying the damage; he hadn’t ended the fight already had he? A sign of worry began forming its way across his face while he gently called out, “Are you okay Steven-San?” . Toshiro created quite a large distance, and spoke almost the moment he re-appeared, his eyes attempted to look over the mans body and determine the damage dealt, if any.

Tue Mar 04, 2014 3:22 pm

Fighting to try and learn your opponents strength was always a bit of a risk. He knew that as much as anybody. Sometimes your opponent managed to pull of moves that simply could not be avoided. He hadn't expected his opponent to use his sheath to defend from his strike. It was a smart plan all things considered. His opponent was able to think quickly on his feet and come up with ways to dodge or block incoming blows while striking back. He wasn't entirely surprised when his opponent decided to counter strike him because of this.

His body was moving almost before he realized how his opponent was striking back at him. He might not excel at Kido but he had taken enough classes in it to know how several of the common ones were cast. He was able to react to his opponents next kido with an almost instinctive speed. The planted his fit while his body was still moving in the rotation. His feet pushed him backwards but expecting what was coming he know it would be enough to dodge so he also pushed himself up as well. This wouldn't allow him to dodge the incoming Kido but it would allow him to reduce the severity of the damage and allow his arm to retain its full mobility for the rest of the fight.

The end result off his reaction to his opponents strike was that rather then the Kido tearing through his shoulder it would move through just below the joint. Regardless of where it hit him that strike still hurt as it traveled through his flesh destroying his muscles, bones, and nerves. He saw that his opponent used his shunpo to move away from him after making his strike. He wondered what his opponent was planning with that. Was he preparing something long range or simply giving him a chance to recover because it was training. He wasn't entirely sure but he had to take advantage of it while he could.

The first thing that he did was flex his arm testing it to make sure that it was wasn't impaired in anyway because of the damage. He noticed that it did hurt a little bit when he moved it but with the adrenaline of battle pumping through him he would be able to ignore it long enough to keep going. While he was flexing his arm he was looking around for where his opponent had disappeared to. He had to be close by. He wouldn't have gone that far. Then he heard his opponent call out asking if he was alright which made turning to face him relatively easy. He tilted his head a bit looking at his opponent. He said not to go easy on him and here his opponent was making sure he was alright. His arm would heal when he went to go see squad 4 later.

He thought for a moment about his opponent. He was skilled enough to block his attack and now he had twice used kido in he movements to try and counter him. Probably he was a well rounded fighter not particularly excelling in anything but able to utilize a wide range of skills to fight with. It could be trouble because the more variety his opponent used the harder it was to come up with a counter strategy. He needed to be able to think through his opponents attack pattern. So far both times he attacked his opponent has done something to block or force him to back off and both involved kido. He needed to figure out a way to take that kido out of the equation and things would be simpler. That wasn't very easy to do though.

He thought about what he should do in response to his opponent. He certainly didn't think rushing toward him would be a good idea but he wasn't the best at ranged battle. He needed something to make a quick strike but not fully initiate. He wanted to force his opponent to come to him and make the first move. He shifted his stance facing his opponent with his sword in front of him held diagonally across his body. A more defensive stance while he raised his left hand and pointed at his opponent. "I thought I told you not to go easy on me." he shouted at his opponent. He prepared his next move. He wasn't a master of kido but he knew a few basics that could be used in a situation like this one. "Pierce their soul and tear their flesh. Hadō 3 Piercing shot." From his finger he shot off three quick bullets of reiatsu toward his opponent. They would have a bit less power for more of them but his aim wasn't just to hurt them at the moment.

Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:08 pm

Toshiro noticed that his ally was alright; he exhaled in relief and re-positioned his Zanpakutō. He didn’t know what was to come, but because his opponent didn’t want the easy treatment, Toshiro decided to fly to action. As he heard his opponent speak, he gazed toward the man’s general direction, it seemed that the 7th Division had some capable individuals, all of whom seemed on par with one another and would no doubt make formidable shinigami within the future. The man before him seemed strategic, he wasn’t rash with his actions and one thing Toshiro took note of was the repetitive movement of his eyes. From his perspective, the opponent was analyzing each and every movement, he was clever, he had to be clever to be a part of the Internal Affairs but at the same time, he had to be strong. Toshiro braced himself, as three consecutive red bullets began flying toward his general location; he smiled as he was fairly good with kido and could thus discern the ability that had been used.

The attack was Hadō 3, it was fast and fairly powerful but could be flawed as with each shot the powers of the bullets decreased. To begin with, he shifted his sheath in order to block the first bullet; as the crimson bullet of reishi collided with the sheath it sent a loud echo into the rural area. Then, he swung down with his Zanpakutō, the blade pierced down the center of the bullet while the energy blew around Toshiros face. Suddenly he seemed to be blushing, but it seemed that the heat caused vasodilation in his cheeks which led to him looking like he was indeed blushing. There was no one here, which put him at east, he didn’t like being embarrassed in front of others but as he swayed his attention to a thought process he forgot about the last bullet but luckily with its lower destructibility and Toshiros quick thinking it simply grazed him. How did this happen? Well, Toshiro was used to phasing out, however in this case as he realized the risk at hand his body instinctively moved and instead of the bullet striking his collar bone it grazed his shoulder instead.

Toshiro stood there in shock as the bullet grazed him. He didn’t waste long and knew that action required reaction. It was an old French saying, “Action, Reaction”, it was commonly used in private schools which were for delinquents, it was a pity that Toshiro knew of this, albeit something had to be done. His cheeks began to dim as he vanished.

Firstly, he appeared behind his foe and tapped his shoulder, he was sure that it would direct the man’s attention and allow him enough time to perform another flash step and re-appear in front of him. Upon appearing, he pivoted on his left foot while his right extended with explosive speed, its target, the stomach. If the kick was to hit, it would drive the acid from the stomach up the opponent’s trachea and potentially out of his mouth, or the food that he had ate in the last few hours would arise in its stead. If the kick hit, it would hurt and bruise the area of impact. Toshiro wasn’t done there though, as the kick begun he extended a finger from the hand that held the sheath and shot the very same bullets that had been included in the opponent’s onslaught. These bullets however were being shot at point blank range and thus simply evading them wouldn’t be enough.

The attack was timed to the second, the shots were intended to hit straight after the kick. The bullets were aimed at one point, the mans chest. If hit, the first would pierce the skin and parts of the bones, the second would remove the remainder of the bones in that specific area while the third and weakest of the trio would strike the organs and bring the fight to an end. It was a pity, his ally had asked him not to take it easy on him yet he would be forced to recall his words after this attack.

Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:05 am

Steven stood there watching his projectiles flying toward his opponent. He payed careful attention to how his opponent responded to the attack. He watched as his opponent blocked the first two strikes. He expected him to block the last one as well so he was surprised to find the last one actually hit him if only by a little bit. Not enough to do any real damage but it was still interesting to know. He wasn't sure right now if he simply intended to let the last shot past because its power was the lowest of the three or if he had forgotten about it. He certainly made no move to try and stop it only to make it hit a lower risk area. He would need to find some way of investigating the possibility of him forgetting about the third strike. He may be able to find some way to take advantage of it.

His opponent stood there for a moment. He thought about trying for another attack but suddenly his opponent leaped into action. He was able to track the general direction of the flash step so he wasn't entirely surprised to feel his opponents touching his shoulder. He had only a few seconds to decide if he would strike from the back or was simply trying to distract him from the real strike. He made a move that should work in either situation. He jumped backwards putting his weight behind it intending to intercept an attack from its intended spot or if it was a distraction he might daze the man or give himself extra time. He wasn't expecting to hit nothing but air as the man appeared in front of him.

He was already moving backwards when he saw the kick incoming. He tried to get his body to move by kick up his legs but was to slow for the kick which knocked the wind out of him and caused him to taste bile in his throat but his body started to flip down as the bullets came flying toward him. Rather then tear through him bit by bit the first two grazed his chest drawing a neat line of blood in a deep cut but the third traveling threw the wound of the first two did no damage. He had managed to escape the worst of his opponents attack but he wasn't quite out of it yet. He still had to figure out how to get back on his feet.

He decided to try something he had heard of others doing. It was something he hadn't tried before so he wasn't sure if it would work. He reached his hands out over his head and placed it against the ground trying to use it to catch himself and launch himself over to land on his feet. He messed up on it though not managing to account for the extra momentum his opponent had given him. Instead it caused him to fall over on his side and continue flipping as he moved away from his opponent. He watched his role carefully and timed his move correctly to slam his Zanpakutō into the ground to stop his flipping allowing him to get back on his feet.

He had to admit that he was impressed. His opponent was definitely strong and he wasn't holding back anything. He forced himself to stand up catching his breath feeling the wound on his chest which appeared as a neat red line dripping blood. It wasn't enough to end the fight just yet but he wouldn't be able to put up with another assault like that. He would need to figure out something to do in order to avoid another situation like that. Part of how his opponent was winning was his skill in Kido. Maybe he needed to try out a bit more in order to level the playing field.

He hadn't gotten far when trying to simply strike out with his sword and his ranged strike hadn't been particularly effective in slowing the man down. He still had speed to try and the few binding kido that basically every shinigami learned to use. He decided to try both. He used his own flash step, while not as fast as the other shinigami was still faster then running, to appear on the right side of his opponent. His left hand reached forward "Bakudo 1. Sai" which if successful would bring his arms behind him and lock them there for a while. His right arm moved his Zanpakutō to stab towards his hip which would tear through the muscles making it harder to move his leg which would slow him down.

Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:31 pm

✖| Clean Up Time!! |✚

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It's been 2014 or even before that!
There for I will be locking this thread, feel free to revisit this and keep on reading!

Training Day

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