Friday Night Fisticuffs [Makoto, Shishiyuki]

"..."

She bit her lip, staring at her finger while repeating the process she was comfortable with. It was all the same up to a point, this wasn't going to be hard. She watched the flow, letting it constrict while trying to coax it outside of her fingertip. It was hard to imagine it or perceive in some way that helped, her hand would squeeze a little bit from the attempts to work the process before she succeeded, partially.

The flow of power was definitely going beyond her fingertip, except it was also spilling out into her teacher's arm. Rather than a defined path the river might as well have been flooding but it was still somewhat successful in the way of having it squeeze out.

Ah, well, that was to be expected. It would make for a good lesson, at least, and Shishiyuki's arm tensed the faintest bit as she rebuffed the flow of energy, the kido covering her scars once more fading a bit as she exerted herself in such a way. Makoto's energy was not violently pushed back, but rather gently kept from spilling too far forward.

"You have succeeded at least in allowing your energy to move forward, but you have not quite managed to have it return. This will come in time, of course, but for now I should be able to help guide you."

While obviously Shishiyuki couldn't simply manipulate Makoto's energy into returning, she could at least nudge it in the right direction, redirecting the flow closer to where it was intended to go. With a good bit of control, Makoto would hopefully have no issue reining it in.

Her gaze stayed fixed on her finger and the flow of energy, she knew it wasn't right and the assistance she received told her so. How irritating, she didn't like it when she failed. Even if she had unrealistic expectations for her own improvement, far to high for what she should expect to see. Regardless, Makoto did gently guide it back.

She let out a sigh when it worked and stopped, her hand felt a little shaky and the sweating didn't help. How tight had she been squeezing through the whole process? She assumed a bit more tight than what would be considered comfortable if they were around the same level of power but they were not.

"I can repeat it. This time I will control the flow better."

If she did it again and did it better then she could feel comfortable in her success, even if it was a little impatient of her. The fact she was aware of her own error only meant that it annoyed her more, if she was aware of them then she wanted to fix them. She hated knowing something about her technique was wrong and not doing anything to solve it.

"You did perfectly well for a first attempt, particularly when you consider your prior instruction in hakuda. These are, remember, advanced techniques. Do not rush into them. Mastery and understanding is more important than success."

It was a difficult lesson to learn, but one that Shishiyuki had certainly made abundantly clear for herself over the years. It did not matter how quickly she achieved something, so long as it was achieved as she said it would be. To rush herself into a shortlived success was ultimately asking for some manner of failure on her behalf.

Of course, Shishiyuki's arm was still tensed, still ready to help Makoto in whatever way was necessary. The hold on her hand was hardly enough to discomfort her, though she understood that it was rather tight. This was a difficult lesson, however, so she would not begrudge Makoto that.

A first attempt was nice however, Makoto was the type to look for her first success over being satisfied with an attempt. That is ultimately why she persisted, her insistence for another attempt turned into trying multiple times with only marginal improvement after the attempts made. After a while the tight hold of Shishiyuki's hand began to wear at her, the pain beginning to start in her finger was enough to start making her focus slip.

She stopped. That seemed like enough for that hand and finger at least, her eyes stared at her hand just to make sure nothing seemed off about it. It just felt the same tingle her fingers had when she started doing the first exercises.

"What exactly are these advanced techniques capable of exactly? Many ideas come to mind but that might be the difference between practice and theory that makes them plausible. You've never really outlined the scope."

Waiting for Makoto to finish, not wanting to interrupt any focus she might still have had on the flow, Shishiyuki spoke quietly, not wanting to seem overbearing in her speech.

"There is an exceptionally wide variance, in that regard. Consider the Jitsuteika, a technique that I imagine is relatively unknown, given the peculiarity of it and the requisite knowledge to even begin applying it. The extension of one's palm, directly toward one's opponent. It is, at a glance, quite similar to the Tessho, but upon impact, your energy's flow is made still, and then all at once reversed entirely. All the while, your energy has extended outward, into the foe's own flow. The shock of these two rapid shifts, suddenly introduced to the body without warning or preparation, can be enough to kill those weaker than oneself rather easily."

It was, ultimately, perhaps for the best that such a technique was quite obscure. Its widespread use would likely be considered cruel.

"Those who survive a strike by Jitsuteika will still find that their sense of attachment to their own soul feels out of sync, as if they cannot fully control it. This is untrue, and their actual faculties have not changed in the slightest. But such an absolute shift in perspective, even for a brief moment, is quite drastic. It is these sorts of techniques, which disregard any concern for your opponent's life, that often find the most application of this knowledge."

Makoto sat there rubbing her palm, listening to the explaination of Jitsuteika given to her. The name sure didn't sound as imposing as having the technique itself explained to her. How intimidating, Makoto almost wondered how she'd ever accomplish something like that. Well, it really depended. Everything she would learn was likely to come from Shishiyuki, Makoto did not trust that she would ever reach a level of mastery where she'd grow beyond something Shishiyuki could do with this field.

Still.

"I see.."

She didn't know how to explain how she thought Makoto didn't really care about the fact it had such an effect on someone, in reality she might've relished knowing that someone would spend the rest of their life in such a miserable state just because they were people. If she said something positive she would probably show to much of her sadism that Shishiyuki was already given knowledge of.

"What other ones exist?"

At this point she was just curious to hear Shishiyuki keep talking about these esoteric techniques.

That sort of dull curiosity, in response to a technique which would reasonably elicit horror from most, told Shishiyuki a rather great deal about Makoto. In all truth, it probably told her more than anything else that Makoto might actually have said to her. Well, it did not matter much either way. Even if Shishiyuki considered that sort of outlook to be disagreeable, she had promised to teach this woman.

"The Hyakumon Sendan, a technique of which there is no written record by order of both the Gotei United and the Great Noble Families. It is, of course, still able to be passed down through training from one who master to another, but such a thing requires understanding of the technique beyond its mere physical demands."

Shrugging that part off, as if it were ultimately inconsequential to her, Shishiyuki continued on.

"It is a technique which requires many rapid blows to the opponent to achieve, and it likely could not be feasibly used on a foe of genuinely equal capability to oneself unless they were thoroughly weakened. In striking each of their extremities and their joints, one reverses the flow of energy with each strike, until these interferences have occurred throughout their body. Every key point of spiritual flow has been obstructed or altered, and their body will rip itself to shreds over several agonizing minutes as their own energy attempts to right itself."

She nodded, it was not that she was not taking on board the full weight of this information that was shared nor that she did not appreciate it. The methods of maiming someone for the rest of their life and the next technique described which completely tore them into shreds in the worst way possible.

A vile kind of knowledge and yet Makoto didn't hate it, the knowledge of techniques existing only served to picture it onto someone, not anyone in particular. No, that implies she had a specific person in mind that her enmity was directed at. It would probably be better if it was only one specific person.

The fact she could derive some mind of sick amusement by just pondering these techniques frustrated her. She should be disgusted or horrified at the scene in her mind but she was not, unfortunately.

"Right..."

Makoto made sure she didn't smile, it was the least she did in these kind of scenarios. Try and act like anyone else would but she couldn't go further than that. Instead she just looked thoughtfully at Shishiyuki while her mind tried to picture what had been explained to her.

"That sounds like an awful way to die."

It was the best she could muster to her teacher. Just a simple, objective fact. She needed a change of topic, going down this rabbit hole and being reminded of that part of her nature didn't bring her much satisfaction. This was a distracting tangent. The saving grace for her was that her next question did not ask if Shishiyuki had ever utilised these techniques on a person to see the result herself.

"Um, could we please continue now. I'm sorry I got us off the subject at hand like that. I will reign in my curiousity better in the future."

Shishiyuki briefly wondered as to the limits of Makoto's malice. It took a rather impressive degree of apathy toward others to have such an underwhelming response when it came to a technique as cruel in nature as the Hyakumon Sendan. A torturous method of killing, and one which only might have worked on an opponent already at your mercy--most would have found such a thing repugnant, but Makoto spoke so emptily of it.

"Of course. You need not apologize, Miss Arima. Curiosity and interest in the subject matter are the signs of a promising student."

Of course, that perhaps said more about the nature of these lessons than anything else, given the student in question. However, Shishiyuki was under no illusions about the truths of her art to begin with. Hakuda was not a style of beauty or of inner tranquility, as so many other styles claimed to be. It was a combat school, intended for violence and nothing more. One needed to be willing to engage in such violence if they were to ever pursue it seriously.

"Continue on with the previous exercise. There is no purpose in advancing in the material until you have become comfortable with this, though it may take some time. As I have said, do not rush yourself."