Re: Lazy Man's Training Regimen [Joshua/Hana]

Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:36 pm

Joshua raised an eyebrow as Hana responded to his question, his usual smirk firmly in place.
“Nah, not that long and not that boring. And you knew my reputation when we started all of this,” Joshua said, his same joking tone laced through his voice. If he was put off at all by her comments, it certainly wasn’t showing.

And it wouldn’t, because he wasn’t. But that wasn’t all to it.

“Besides, what had I just said a minute ago Hana?” he asked, a rhetorical question as he continued without real pause.
“A lot of this comes down to trial and error, of feeling out how yer own energy moves. Would me standing around telling you to try again have made you figure it out any faster over this last half hour?” he asked, a very light sense of chiding in his words.
“Explainin’ how energy control works has always been a bit difficult; maybe I just don’t have the knack for teachin’ it well to people. Didn’t get a lot of it when they were trying to explainin’ it back in the academy either. A few of their ideas made sense, and helped me figure it out on my own. I’m doin’ my best to pass what I got of it on to ya, but a lot of it is gonna come from you getting the feel of it. Besides, I don’t get the feeling that someone being in yer face and screaming at ya to do something has ever really worked.”

Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:56 pm

Lazy Man's Training Regimen [Joshua/Hana] - Page 4 Hana_PostingHeader20

Enter: Hana Aoyama

Oh, there he was, Mr. Logic Man. How dare he toss all of this back at her! Hana sighed. At least she got the hang of fusing her reiryoku with her zanpakuto. It was all about learning to sharpen it now, so Hana reinfused reiryoku into her blade.

“You are quite right; yelling does nothing good for me.” Hana said, not admitting that yelling at her would likely just upset her and convince her to give up. She did not need a drill sergeant. Her ability to learn came from something else.

“Do you happen to have advice on how to sharpen my reiryoku? I have it in the blade, as I am sure you can see, but how do I manipulate it once it is there?"

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Sat Nov 04, 2023 3:15 am

“Mostly practice,” was the simple side of Joshua’s answer to her question. He wasn’t being flippant though as he considered the question some more.
“Its like anything new you learn to do, it’ll take time to get the hang of it. You got the sense of how it feels to send that energy into yer blade, which is shaping it on a large scale. Now ya put some time in getting the feel of it and how to move it around so it takes the shape you desire. Kinda like how you learn to shape kidou spells, or when you learn how to whistle. Ya start by putting yer lips together and bl-” Joshua started, but trailed off after a moment as a new question took up his consideration.

“Ya do know how to whistle, right?”

Once Joshua got the answer to his question, he stood there a moment as he tried to figure out a new approach. He reached up, scratching his head and jostling his hat in the process as he tried to plot out the next step to take. Every time he thought he had some kind of common activity to build upon, Hana proved him wrong. This was indeed proving to be a bit frustrating, though he would also have to be honest that the challenge was certainly interesting. Much better than running around doing errands or some such oth-

Joshua snapped his fingers, a smile lighting up his face for a moment.
“Hana, how do you control how far you shunpo?”

Fri Nov 10, 2023 6:44 am

Enter: Hana Aoyama

Hana absorbed his example like a sponge took in mud. She got a little of it, but felt uncomfortable with the explanation afterwards. If she was comparing this to anything, it would be to reading. She loved to read, but it didn’t start out that way. Once she new the fundamentals of spelling, definitions, and grammar, that’s when reading became practice for… well, reading. The more she did it, the faster she got. Trying this whistle example only got him a funny look and an, “Of course not. When would I have had time to learn such a meaningless skill?”

“Shunpo?” Hana asked, distracted, as she once again tried sharpening her reiryoku while it was in her blade. It wasn’t working, and now she was confused by his question and her focus dropped. She let her arms relax and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Shunpo… It is… like a dance for me. I used to dance all the time, and dancing required specific footwork that became quite useful when practicing something like shunpo. In short, I just took another step, continued the choreography until I got to the place I wanted to be. Just… exceedingly fast.”

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Tue Nov 14, 2023 12:02 pm

A month or two ago Joshua might have been surprised by Hana’s comment about whistling. He’d had some time to get used to the differences by now though, so instead of surprised he was just mildly saddened by the revelation; not enough to truly affect his demeanor, but he found it sad that Hana so often didn’t seem to know how to do anything that was fun. At least to him. Just what did nobles get up to all the time that kept them so busy when they weren’t having to fight for scraps to stay alive?

Before his mind could wander much down that path of thinking though Hana answered his question about Shunpo. Well, dancing; that was something at least! It was even relevant to what he was trying to help Hana learn. He nodded along with her explanation.
“And I imagine there was a lot of work involved in learning how to dance. Lots of learning to move your body in the right way to get the steps down, lots of using new muscles you didn’t know you had on ya. This, shaping energy and such, is a lot like that. Its a new muscle in a way that yer just really getting a feel for how to move. And ya are getting there quite quickly, but there’s always more to learn right?”

“I’d say think some more on how it feels to actually perform Shunpo; how does it feel when you move different distances, and how are you managing to adjust the energy. Its gonna be a lot like trying to watch how ya walk, which is to say difficult; the moment you start trying to do it, yer gonna get conscious of it and it’ll throw it all to bits. Between that though, and those Kidou exercises I asked ya to do last time, I won’t be surprised if ya got a better grasp on it next time we meet up.”

Joshua gave a stretch, casting a gaze skyward and seeming to judge something for a moment.
“I think that’ll be all for the day though. If you don’t mind, I suppose I should head off and maybe do a bit of my own trainin’ before I run out of wisdom to dispense and lose my excuse to enjoy yer company. Besides, I get the feeling I’m gonna get deployed soon so I should see about preparing for that,” he said, with a sharp smirk and a wink before exchanging a farewell and sauntering out of the training grounds. His stride was light as though he had not a care in the world.

Wed Nov 15, 2023 3:06 am

Enter: Hana Aoyama

Hana much preferred her dancing example. She did that for so many years that it did come naturally, along with calligraphy and playing the violin. Changing the example to shunpo unmotivated Hana more than helped. She got his point, but it wasn’t… fun. Nothing about this job was fun or comfortable. Her shoulders slacked and her head lowered. She was lost in thought until he decided to call it a day.

“Okay. I will continue my training for a little longer,” Hana said, waving as he left. Once he was gone, she stood in silent contemplation for a minute or two, before ripping away thoughts negative thoughts and raising he sword again. Being a Shinigami may not be fun, but it was better than her alternative. Hana would rather continue her training and learn to destroy hollow before becoming a wife.

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