Turn Back The Pendulum: It all starts, After Life [Flash back, Tento/Hanako]

After Tento spoke out his words he did not regret it. Hanako took the challenge and let him cast the kido spell on her, so he would let her do it onto him as well. Call it a piece of his competive side coming out, or a simple desire to see if he could break himself out of the binding spell just as she did. "Right, hit me with ya best shot Hanako, don't hold back!".

His heart raced after said that. His body falling out of the stance that casted the Sai kido spell a long time ago in the conversation. His arms were now at his side. His heart starting to pick up a little. Was this..excitement? The first sense since his time entering the after life and the school? Hm....no. This would be the second. The first was his first real encounter with Hanako, the exchange and clash of swords in class. It had been a little bit since he had been excited a little bit from a workout or challenge. This should be fun.

He watched her once more, looking out for signs to see how she felt. His concern and assumption was that she was concerned about her kido skills. Maybe frustration in not being an expert in comparison in other areas, maybe an underdevelopment of skills, maybe a since of lack of knowledge. Whatever it was, it was bothering the upperclasswoman, and Tento was aiming to look for signs of the issues so that he could help her smooth it out. After all, there was no telling if either would fall into a situation where they did not have their sword. Their Kido and Hakuda experience would be the factor to decided success and failure, life and death in those moments. Such was the life of a Shinigami.

In this examination, Tento did see another shimmer of softness in the rumored Ice Queen. A tiny lift of a smile, a softer shine in her eyes, less distant. Then she took her stance. Doing the same as Tento in pointing her index and middle finger towards her target, Tento. In a careful and precise articulation of the full incantation, she casted the Sai spell. A way that Tento thought was slow, either in concern of messing up or wanting to make sure foundations were solid.

Either way, the spell went off successfully. It rocked his body like a unexpected punch, yanking his arms behind his back and his legs locked together before making them go stiff and causing him to fall to the ground on his left side. If Hanako was shy about kido or this spell, she had him fooled. She did the spell perfectly, and felt like it was just as a strong bind as Tento. If not, stronger. Such as one would expect from a fifth year casting a spell in comparison to a first year. But man was this uncomfortable, Tento could not imagaine trying to fight or defend himself like this if a part of his body was restricted.

In the next few seconds to a minute, Hanako got the privilege. to see a comedic few. For Tento was rolling around trying to get himself up, it took a bit with a lot of grunts and force of will. An unknown factor to Tento was that his spirit pressure was moving back and forth to try and break the binding on his limbs. "Eheheheheh...you got me...pretty locked up good here...". He said bashfully. It was such a tight and uncomfortable spell.

He was able to get up, only to be sat on his butt in a cross legged stance, somehow the feeling of mobility in his legs came back. But now was the harder part. If Hanako would look like she would drop the spell Tento would speak out, "N-no please. Don't undo it. Let me try to break out of it too...". That competitiveness was showing again. Or maybe a desire to not look weak in front of Hanako? If they were to help each other train, they had to be around each other level in some things after all? If one was overall stronger heavily, the benefit would only be one sided...

Tento closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He let his muscles relaxed and tried to calm his spirit. This was what Hanako did, and such this was probably the proper way to respond. Just like quick sand, the more you thrashed about, the faster you sinked. One much break through swiftly, and in control if they aimed not to waste the effort.

Smooth breatsh came, in and out of his mouth and nose as the air pressed through his body and circulated. At times Tento did messed up though, allowing a hiss and grunt to leave as he tried to use his physical strength along side his spirit. The muscles in his arms, shoulders, and chest tensed. His body trembled from effort as a very light tiny hue of white light shined on his skin, so weak probably not visible. But yet heavy? With far greater effort than Hanako had let her shown, Tento now took his turn fighting against the spell. From what he felt and could understand from Hanako's action, you needed to relax you needed physicl strneght, but also spiritual pressure. Because kido was not a physical thing, physical things of the world were not a favorable thing to use against it. And for Tento, there were little he currently had.

Even with the exposure of spirits to the living world, Tento did not really get to see them, well clearly. He saw outlines, he could hear voices, but what he mostly got with the physical boost. With that and his work effort and training, he had developed an iron body when he was alive. That body failed in comparison to the one he had now and was working on developing now though. There was so much more potential in it, so much that he had not tapped into and was no way near to reaching or understanding.

Veins on his neck, forehead, his arms. They were pulsing. And then they stopped. Tento had let go in this moment, but his body was still feeling the work. He was sweating up a storm, the back completely wet as if he had just gotten down with a several hour intense workout. He struggled more, the time passing for several moments, longer than Hanako had to. It would be no surprise if the older student was getting impatient. And finally, he somehow did it.

In a swift soft motion, Tento's arm's broke free of the restrained and rested on his lap. A soft sigh escaped his lips before a coy smile surfaced. If Hanko's smile was one of a tigher about to eat, his was a fox thinking about how to enjoy a good trick or hunt. "Sorry for the hold up. What do you want to do next".