Dojo Hustle (TheCat)

Steiner had always been someone who had trained on his own, spending vasts amount of time out in the wilderness, or in the wastes training against the forces of nature, evil, and instinct. But there was only so much one could do in isolation. It was only a few months ago that Steiner began to realize that regardless of how much effort he was putting in by himself within isolation, he had hit a wall. It wasn't that he couldn't improve any more than he already had, it was just that the pace at which he was seeing progress had began to slow down, and it worried him that maybe this was just going to be the normal for now on. Steiner was self-taught, he was self-disciplined, and self-trained, but even that had limits. So, it was then that Steiner began to search for a suitable place to hone his craft with those that he would consider his peers. He had found himself wandering the winding alleys and different locations of Downtown Karakura for a suitable place, but his search had revealed nothing to him. That was until Steiner had found himself in a particularly well lit alley, and a glowing neon sign had graced his eyes. The sign had been simple enough, telling him that it was some kind of dojo, and that is was open, yet inside Steiner had not expected such a well run facility.

The facility had all the things a man such as himself had wanted: exercise machines, plenty of people to talk shop with, and more importantly areas for sparring. Speed ahead a few months and Steiner had easily become the talk of the dojo as one of the few, if the only one, who stayed for most of the day at the dojo, and even a bit after hours to train with the training dummies the facility had to offer. He had also beaten most of the possible sparring partners in the dojo, mainly due to talent in the sword alone, but also because most of them were just causal people looking to work-out with no real serious goals in mind other than losing a few pounds or doing something with their down time. Steiner could respect that and even helped on occasion to help shape people up and teach them a few things, after all he had no problem teaching people even if he himself was no master.

It was on one particular evening that Steiner found himself staying, once again, later than everyone else. The owner, a nice elderly fellow, smiled at Steiner who was practicing his slashing and movements as he began to make his way over to the young man. "I will be closing up for the night, Steiner. Lock up when you are done, alright?", the elderly gentlemen said as Steiner stopped what he was doing as he hefted the kendo stick up on shoulder. "Sure thing, I don't think I'm going to be here much longer anyway. Got to head home, got a long day of work tomorrow.", Steiner said as the old man nodded his head, handing him the keys into Steiner's open hand. He pocketed them and smiled as the old man walked out the front door to leave him on his own. For a few moments Steiner took a breather, walking over to his bottle of water, and taking a quick gulp of water to get himself hydrated for the next part of his training.

"Alright, one more hour of training, and then I will call it a night.", he said to no one in particular, but not before turning to look at the mirror to his left. On the corner of his mouth a bit of blood was visible, reaching up to the side of his face, Steiner wiped it off, and let out a sigh. It had been happening a lot recently, he had seen doctors, and they had all told him the same thing about it. He should have been dead, he should be dead for all intents and purposes, but somehow he was alive. In pain, but alive. Reaching into his left pocket, Steiner grabbed himself the pills he had, a bottle of over the counter pain meds, and popped two pills. He wondered just how much longer he could keep up his life-style. He kept a brave face and remained confident, but underneath he was scared, and that was because the doctors didn't know what to think of his unique situation.

He was damaged, but not in a way that medical science had the answers for, and he was frightened by the prospect of what would happen in a few months. Hell, what would happen in a few days. They told him to take it slow, but slow wasn't Steiner's style, and as such he lived in pain and discomfort most of the time. Sure, there were times where he didn't feel like that, but most of the time it felt like his insides were burning, and when that happened he popped a few pills to dull the pain. He didn't want people to see him like this, to see him fearing for his life, and as such he continued to live as he did and train as much as he could. It was all he had, that and the hope that he would find a way to get his powers back, but that was a fleeting memory and more than likely was never going to happen. Steiner grunted, slapping himself aside the face to focus himself, and then put the pills away. "I'm not dead yet....got to keep up with my training.", Steiner spoke aloud, once again to no one in particular, but himself.

Once again he returned to his slashing and movement training, trying to hone his skills so that he could become a better fighter. In truth, he didn't know how much more he could improve in the state he was in, but Steiner would never admit that out loud. Instead he would continue to focus on what was important, his training, and getting better.