No Tiger, No Dragon, Just a Swallow [Ira, Kasha]

"Hey, not a problem. Besides, this place is pretty nice, can't say I mind taking a little bit of a scenic route."

And, naturally, walking with such an equally scenic partner. It was pretty nice around here, actually. Ira didn't tend to see many places quite this fancy, and his eyes studied the whole grounds with a clear interest. Damn, no messing around here, huh?

"Shoulda expected somewhere like this, but I can't say I'm used to stuff this fancy. It's pretty though."

Well, that told him that Yugiri had become accustomed to living outside of noble luxury, did it mean much to him? No. Not particularly but it was just him analysing Ira's words in a small way of extrapolating details about her life and character overall. A little longer of walking and they came across his abode, Kasha might've perked up his ears to try and listen for the cow of a teacher and see if he needed to avoid her annoying manner of interrogating him for any details or making obnoxiously snide commentary which may have tried to imply that this visitor was nothing but some sexual partner.

She was such a pain.

Quietly guiding Ira through what was the main room featuring the stone training area which was depressed compared to the normal floor and closer to his room to let Ira settle.

"I'll just prepare some things... I do require access to your back though."

It was a more polite way of saying that she'd need to take her top off, though Kasha did look around for some kind of towel as he said it.

"Oh, sure, no problem."

Admittedly, there was a habitual lack of particular care toward the idea of simply taking his shirt off, but Ira was rather quickly reminded of the reality of the situation as soon as he went to remove the dogi. Ah, right. He couldn't exactly go showing those off, at least not without being pretty trashy. That was no good.

Still, he did need to give the lady access to his back, so he carefully slid everything off, making sure to cover himself appropriately and keep his back actually turned to her. It was honestly still a pretty strange thought, the idea of needing to cover up like this. Guess Yugiri was more right than he'd care to admit.

Well, it did work out fine Kasha supposed. The lady at least didn't seem shy but she was still modest unlike his teacher that just walked around with everything out and lacking a care in the world. It had done wonders to desensitise him but also done nothing but bitter him towards the behaviour itself by association of it with her.

"Alright, please try and relax despite the sensations that you'll feel and if it becomes uncomfortable, just let me know."

Kasha explained while taking one of the many senbon that now filled his hand and gliding his free hand over her back until creating an image of it and then, a small sensation of the needle sliding into her back to test how she reacted. A spot which was actually a good starting point since it interfered with sensation so she'd not feel the others as much.

"Fine?"

"Can do- Oh, geez."

This sort of thing was entirely foreign to Ira, but in truth, he wasn't sure what part of that entire little sensation had caught him most off guard. Her hand on his back? The actual needle just sliding on in? It wasn't unpleasant, at least not to a degree that he wanted her to stop or anything.

"Yeah, all good here."

Man, this was weird. This was real weird. Not terrible, just...weird.

"Good, hmm..."

A couple of needles in and he was noticing something a little peculiar, some points were lower or higher than he expected. There was some room for inconsistency but this was a little strange. He might've occasionally missed and given Ira a twang of stabbing pain as a result before correcting it.

"Your spiritual body is a little strange, Ira. I apologise that my aim is a little off because of it."

He decided to avoid any further points and instead focus on the easiest one, the soul chain and soul sleep. Maybe Ira would get some benefit in terms of exercising her body's ability to generate spiritual energy.

Ira definitely winced, not only from the pain but also at the realization that this would have actually been entirely avoidable, or at least somewhat mitigated, if he'd mentioned one of the most basic things about himself. Well, too late to go back now, couldn't just stand up like this, right?

"N-nah, sorry, I didn't think to mention anything like that. My soul's uh, not quite in the body it started in. Long story."

It was something of an understatement, actually, but Ira wasn't really the sort to just go handing out his whole personal life unless it was super necessary. Besides, this girl seemed nice, it'd probably be a little off-putting if he just threw it all out there, right?

"Is that so? I'm sure it must be quite the story, and quite the struggle in itself to occupy a foreign body."

Of course he was assuming it was forced upon him, Kasha could easily have seen a hollow being the reason of taking a human's soul out and forcing it into another body for the sake of amusement. There were those like that, if it was the case like that then he didn't want to pry into her personal matters. If she was a victim of circumstance then she probably didn't want to talk about it, if she had willingly done so well that was also her business.

Focusing his attention back to the woman's back, he began to insert a couple more of his senbon into the points surrounding the soul sleep, not interacting with it just yet. Would be awkward if his aim was off, now wouldn't it?

"Yeah, you could say that. But that's all part of the training, you know? Getting used to the changes. Yugiri's been a big help there."

Ira was, admittedly, talking a bit more than he might have just to distract himself from any further potentially painful stabs. Not that they seemed to be coming, thankfully, at least not near as badly as those misses. Was he mad about that, though? Nah. Small price to pay to be under a lovely lady's touch.

"This is pretty nice. Thanks for offering to do this."

"I see, well that's nice."

Kasha said, mostly absentmindedly while he focused as the next senbon entered a point that would puncture the soul sleep and apply a bit of stimulation to it. A couple more before he listened to Ira's words and he smiled a little bit.

"You are welcome, Ira."

He said while continuing his work, trying to encourage his soul to respond to the acupuncture. A hand coming up to move a stray hair from his face. Couldn't have a slip from hair in his eyes could he?