On the Grind [Igen, Kalara]

As the sun slowly fell and the hours of early afternoon seemed to stretch on particularly long, Kalara found herself having wandered down to the Eighth's barracks. It was true that she had yet to be invited to the Eighth officially, however the paperwork was already in the works. And so, the towering woman had decided to come on down and visit her soon to be official barracks. Upon arriving, she had mingled with the others there just as they were about to begin their afternoon training session. And from among their number, she had watched as a member of the First Division had appeared with a tiger in tow of all things. What is he doing here? Are there logistical things to take care of? Or is he here to train with us? Kalara wondered to herself.

Kalara could hardly believe her eyes. And yet, the tiger stood in front of them as clear as day, fur shimmering in the light as she proceeded to lounge just a little ways off. Kalara found herself swept up in the tide of admirers, hovering close to the outside of the circle. Contrary to them however, she didn't try to approach but instead contented herself with a quick, and relatively unintimidated, rather awed trailing of her fingers through the tiger's fur before attempting to retreat quickly. Sometimes having such long reach is lucky. She mused.

Kalara cut a distinctive figure from the rest of the crowd not only as she towered over nearly everyone present in the courtyard, including Igen himself. But also because her eyes held a sort of distance that caused her fellow peers to give her a wide berth. Igen might sense them straying away from her instinctually, though it hardly seemed to be reciprocate. In fact, should Igen choose to watch, he'd notice a bit of a pattern. Kalara would notice a small inefficiency in a squadmate's stance and wander over. She'd correct it with small nudges before lumbering off, just as quickly as she had arrived.

And finally, Igen would see her shunpo away to rucksack she had seemingly abandoned just inside the courtyard, it sagged heavily and must have been filled with a great weight. This expectation would be proved correct as Kalara withdrew from it a small, broad pillar stake of an unusual stone, wrapped in a thin bandage and some padding near the top. Greater examination would reveal this to be Sekki Sekki stone, which she planted heavily on the courtyard grounds and began weighting its base to support its standing weight. Given her relative distance from the rest of her squad, and the fact that she was all alone, she was relatively free to approach.

Indeed, Kalara was full of such contradictions. Had she known what Igen was thinking, she likely wouldn't blame him for feeling such surprise at her rather demure nature. Nor might one expect such a shy woman to have such drive as she did. And yet, Kalara exceeded both expectations. Still the general attitude hovering about her, was one of intense loneliness. And as such, as Igen approached, Kalara seemed to flinch with surprise. Faded, green eyes rose to study the lanky, young man in front of her.

"I could use some help, yes. It's an old training exercise of mine. Sensei used to make me do it for hours." Kalara explains, accepting Igen's help as she kneels down to properly position the weights around the base. "If you could just continue to help me steady that upright, that would be great." Kalara asks, as her fingers begin scrabbling around in the dirt for a few minutes. "Okay, it needs to sit into this hole now." Kalara informs Igen as she envelops the pillar in one massive hand, fingers encircling its circumference. Having formed a shallow hole, she grabs the pillar and sinks it into the ground. Toughened fingers then begin piling on rocks and dirt until a small mountain has formed around the base of the pillar leaving it shuddering in the ground directly upright.

"You strike the stone see, and it absorbs your reiatsu. You continue to do this until you run out of energy, making sure you're striking in such a way that all your reiatsu flows into the Sekki stone. You simultaneously work on expanding your reserves and your control." Kalara found herself explaining, shocking herself at how she seemed to be rambling on. Geez, am I really that surprised this guy came over? Well, you do usually send people screaming in the other direction. This must be a nice change of pace. Kalara thought to herself, swiping a hand through the air near her temple as she heard her Zanpakuto's unwanted input. Quiet, you. She retorted mentally, though there wasn't any real bite to her words. "Sorry, Hisui Sanzuki (Jade Mountain Moon), my Zanpakuto, wanted my attention."

Kalara watched impassively as the confusion etched itself on his face. She was fairly evident she could guess what he was about to ask. In fact, as Igen asked the question about why she didn't spar with her squad mates, he would receive a slight acknowledging raise of the brow from her. Kalara turned towards him fully at that and rested her left hand on top of the pillar. His summarization wasn't entirely incorrect, but there were a few points that she felt needed addressing. Especially as he was part of the Command Division. For all Kalara knew, he was there auditing her branch and even if it was unnecessary she wanted it correct for the records. "I'm recovering. I do spar with my other teammates on occasion." She said, before murmuring softly under her breath. "Well those willing to spar with me, anyway. Most of them seem afraid of me."

Turning her attention to the pillar once again, she patted it. "You're right though about this. It's supposed to be boring. The exercise is as much about concentration as endurance, over long periods of time. I mainly use it as a focus tool. The repetition helps me concentrate, and sort out my... thoughts." There's a slight shudder through her frame as Kalara winces. And for the briefest of moments, her reiatsu flickers growing exceptionally dense. Familiarly dense. A sharp, piercing voice shrieks into her thoughts in delight. I smell a fight~ Not now, I don't have time to deal with you. Oh, piss off. Come on, let me rip him to shreds. It'll be fun. I'll give him a beautiful beating. I said NO.

Having said that, now that Igen had broached the subject and seemingly penetrated into her aura of isolation, Kalara found herself loathe to simply ask him to leave her alone. "My Zanpakuto is a bit...touchy right now. Don't use me to cover her up~ She's your broken half. I am exceptional and you damn well know it. She heard, and winced again, squeezing faded emerald eyes shut. Using her fingers, she pushed up the strands of her two-toned hair that had drifted before her eyes, and massaged her head. "So if you want to do some light sparring, I'd ask for hand to hand."

Since the invitation had apparently stalled, Kalara squared up with the post once again, and took a step back. Lowering her center of gravity slightly, she rose up to her toes. Using the slight rotation of her hips and her grip on the earth, she generated the force for the strike. Transferring that force through her core and shoulders, she imagined a river of reiatsu transferring through her arm to her fingertips and palm. She concentrated on keeping the entire amount condensed as a single force and slammed her palm into the post, causing a deep thump and violent shudders. Behind the post, an intangible force seemed to breeze like wind, and gashes splintered along the ground away from Igen and her. Kalara regarded the cracks for a moment, as her face twisted with frustration. Her concentration was absolutely shot right now, what with the possibility of a Command audit, and the voices of the shared spirits inhabiting her body arguing with each other. "I'm not well..."

Rubbing her scarred fingers of her right hand with the scarred fingers of her left, she accepted Igen's offer to recuse themselves from the group. Dropping to the ground with a thump, Kalara folded her legs and hunched forwards, resting her elbows on her knees as she clasped her legs to her. It seemed an instinctual motion. The effect was that she made herself effectively smaller, and less intimidation to speak to, now that she was no longer really looming over Igen as before. As Igen asks her to relate what's going on, Kalara schools her tone, biting down the pessimistic mirth that arises.

"They're afraid of me. I mean, it's not new... I've had most people afraid of me most of my life." Kalara responds, then seems to relent. "But this is different though. There's this strange aura in the air, almost like anticipation. It's like they're waiting for something. You know, like something that should've happened already but didn't. That sort of feeling." She shrugs and motions to her arms, which are engulfed in rough, slowly fading scar-tissue from the shoulders down. "I had a training accident a few days back. Got back from a mission and was extremely excited to continue developing my own style. Mission was a bit rough you see. I got injured by a Hollow. Pushed it a bit too far, I think. But thanks to the miracles of the Kido division I was healed. Caused a hell of a weird dream though. Ever since then though, people have started drifting away from me."

At the mention of her being a Vizard, Kalara actually blinks. "Wait a...what?" She retorts before holding up a hand. "No, wait we learned this in the academy. A Vizard is..." She says, slowly trailing off as realization took her. Oh look, she can figure it out if she puts her mind to it. Surprise, hun~! Wow, you must have really been out of it when you beat me in that race to have not put it together till now.

Igen's direct manner and soft spoken words served to quell a lot of the anxiety plaguing Kalara. She seemed to be fidgeting less and mellowed out slightly. At the very least, she had taken it to heart that a Vizard could still serve the Gotei United, and could even attain the rank of Captain. And Igen had also knowingly created a link between herself and her division. After all, if the Captain was a Vizard, then he would have certain understandings of the struggles Kalara would face.

When Igen asked her about her leave from the Kido Corp's Infirmary, Kalara could only manage a shrug. "Honestly, I was rather out of it. I don't really remember much that happened whilst in the Infirmary. It's all a little...fuzzy? ...Groggy? Bit hard to describe actually. Apparently, I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Last thing I remember though was an old academy teacher/nurse visiting me. He made me promise to stay until my arms healed. I'm not saying it isn't possible that I left when I saw my physical injuries had healed. But I genuinely don't remember."

She was also rather surprised at the fact that she couldn't sense her own reiatsu's transformation. Though she supposed that it was akin to something she had once told her father when he had warned her to beware of snakes' rattles. That it must be funny that the snake couldn't sense it's own rattle, since it was attached to it.

Kalara exhaled as Igen described the proper procedure to a Vizard's service. She wasn't sure about how she felt about having a handler assigned to her. Or about being assessed by the Third Division. She had heard they were involved in a bunch of experiments. And as for the handler, she remembered feeling confined within the walls of her family estate as a young girl, unable to properly connect with people due to her isolation. This was just a longer lead. But if that's what it took to stay... "Alright. I'll come with you." Kalara says, rising to her full height. Dusting herself off, she returns Igen's smile with a small dip of the head and the ghost of a strained smile. "Lead the way."