Forged In Guilt, Part 1 [Hana/Josh]

"Your showing your age, Josh,” Hana commented after that early 2020s inclusion comment. If anyone felt the need to clarify themselves like they were from that time… well, no point in getting into that now.

Hana raised an eyebrow at his request, and nodded. A quarter of the speed? So... slow down? Okay. Hana took a moment to think, prepare, and then moved in exactly like she had done the las time, but doing her best to get the perfect percentage of "slower" down, like he requested. She... was over thinking it.

As Hana stepped in and brought her blade down, Joshua moved with a similar slowness; he drew his blade from the sheath.
“You’ll recognize this; the motions from Zanjutsu are large and sweeping. We need all the power we can get to guarantee we get through a Hollow’s hide and mask,” Joshua said as he parried the slow strike with the draw of his blade, sweeping the blade high and wide and bringing it down towards Hana. He stopped long before it was close to her, the example given.

“Now, again,” Joshua said, resetting and sheathing his blade.

This time, when Hana brought in the strike the motion was different. Joshua brought the blade straighter out, parrying Hana’s blade lower down its length before flipping the blade and slowly sweeping it towards her. It ended up about where it had been in the first clash they had, when Hana had been moving at speed.
“People are, on the whole, more fragile. A sharp blade and the correct pressure will kill them as good as any swing that could bring down a tree. Now of course, there are those out there as durable or more-so than Hollows. Ya gotta judge that kind of thing. People have different weaknesses than Hollows do.” Joshua stepped back, lowering his blade.

“So, these things ya gotta keep in mind. Where Tairifuck is concerned, ya gotta take into account a few other things. He’s primarily a Kidō user. His hands, his throat, his tongue; these places will weaken him, but they’re also the places he will guard most jealously. He’s quick, but not that quick; grounding him will make it easier to find an opening. All of that though circles around to somethin’ we both gotta keep in mind.”

“We can train until we’re blue in the face, until our bodies are broken, and until we have mastered how to swing a sword. He’s a Kidō user; if either of us wants his life, we’re also gonna need to find someone talented in Kidō who is willing to let us learn how to take them down.”

Hana was guided through some small differences between fighting hollows and men. She could barely note the differences, but assumed she would catch on the more she trained. It was likely a process as fickle as playing the violin or ballet. One wrong angle and the entire performance could be completely ruined.

When Josh brought him up, Hana’s expression hardened. He was making good points. To fight a kido user, she needed to really understand kido more than she does now, but who could actually help her? Who would help her?

"Lieutenant Mizu Morikawa of the Kido Corps was willing to guide me in kido before, but I have not spoken with her for a while. Do you know anyone that would take the time to do that, especially with the state of the Soul Society?"

“Unclear,” Joshua responded, a definite note of annoyance in his voice as he brought his blade up and let it rest on his shoulder. He let out a sigh.
“I imagine it’ll end up being slightly more complicated than usual. I got friends in a lot of places, and there is gonna be no shortage of people looking to train themselves up after all of this destruction. Seen it before, safe money is that half the woods around the Rukongai are gonna end up getting roughed up something fierce in the next month or two. Now who in specific...hard to say. I’m still working on figuring out who I know that’s left,” Joshua said, trailing off with the thought.

The problem with knowing a lot of people was that it was a lot of people to lose.

After a moment he shook his head and looked back to Hana.
“If you can get Lieutenant Morikawa to help ya out then I’d say jump on that. If there is a chance I can jump in, I’d call it a favor to pay back. Kaminari might be willing, after she gets like two weeks straight of sleep. Barring that, maybe she’ll know someone else who can help; she’s in the Division to know who afterall.”

Hana had wandered the Seireitei before, asking random people if they wouldn't mind helping her, so she could do that again. It was how she met Tento and Mizu in the first place. Besides, one thing Josh said made Hana realize something: people aren't going to be interested in training others right now, they'll be interested in training themselves. It would be a better idea to push for intense sparing or real matches and see if she could win against anyone.

“Enough of all that,” Hana suddenly waved her hand as if she was tired of the conversation. “We came out here to train, did we not? We have wasted enough time.” Hana took her stance and faced Josh with a cold ferocity in her eyes.