Chapter 8: Renovation lessons
Makoto was standing next to his pupil with a wide smile on his face. "Just like that, keep it up. Let it flow", he instructed her.
They had relocated their Reiatsu training into the dojo, so they had some peace and quiet, since people kept flipping them off when they were outside.
She had finally done it after just one week. The girl was a natural. It had taken her 6 days in total and she had already started to release Reiatsu on command. And that was only yesterday.
She was on a completely different level now. Where as the day before she was only able to release her Reiatsu in somewhat controlled bursts, now she was able to do so in a controlled and steady flow.
She had a strained, but statisfied look on her face and managed a smile. "Not much longer and I`ll let you eat my dust", her tone and expression were somewhat joking, but challenging as well.
Makoto smiled to himself and thought of the progress Kiara had to make to actually fight seriously with him. The ridiculous amount that he ended up with tempted him to tell his pupil, if only to get a chuckle out the face she`d make, but decided not to, since that would only bring up questions after questions.
So he just kept smiling and responded with: "Well, if you think so we can call it a day right now and put that theory of yours to the test."
His grin must have taken a more devious direction than he intended, because her smile vanished and she lost her concentration, resulting her flow of released Reiatsu to peter out.
"Ah damn it", she cursed. She closed her eyes, most likely to once again picture the image that helped her release her Spiritual pressure.
Maybe her concetration wasn`t the real deal yet, but she had already made huge progress. Makoto had assumed it would take her a week to get to where she was on the first day of their training.
Instead, she straight up tanked his schedule by one-upping herself every day. On their second day, she had already found her inner power, her Reiryouku.
On the third she had found out how she could shut off her outlets and through that how to suppress her Reiatsu. Normally it was the other way around and releasing ones Spiritual pressure was learned first, but that was just another clue at how different Kiara was.
On the fourth she had, after a lot of effort, released her first controlled Reiatsu burst.
On the fifth she released them regularly.
On the sixth, she could hold them upright for smaller amounts of time and now, on the seventh, she already figured out how to regulate the flow.
If he wouldn`t have been so proud, he`d be scared by how fast she was progressing.
"Your form is not bad, and you`re picking up things fast, i gotta give you that, but your concentration is laughable. You can`t lose focus during a fight just because someone startled you."
"I know", she responded disgruntled. Her flow of Reiatsu slowly started to stream again. "Give me another week and i won`t have that problem anymore."
"Oho, someone is sure of herself."
"You wanna bet?", she looked at him provocatively.
"Well, i`m usually not much of a betting man, but i think i can make an exception this time", he answered.
"Fine. I bet you that in one weeks time, i`ll have what it takes to keep up my focus, no matter what happens."
"I`ll take that bet. It actually suits my schedule. Now you can surprise me when i get back."
The flow of Reiatsu dropped again and Kiara looked at him irritated. "You`re already going again? But you`ve only been here for a week", she lamented.
First, he gave her a sceptic look until she realized that she had lost control once more. She pouted somewhat embarrassed and closed her eyes again. Then he started speaking.
"Yeah, sorry kid, but what i do is important and unfortunately, important things require time. Sometimes, i`d rather stay here, but when duty calls, well, duty calls."
"What is it that you do that is so damn important that you are always gone?", she asked, after she maintained control again.
He waited a bit and thought his answer over before he spoke. "Some of it is helping the people in the lower districts and reestablish some order and the other part is… well you`re not yet ready for that one."
"What do you mean by that?"
"In time, you`ll know. When you`re strong enough, i`ll give you an explanation and maybe even take you with me. Until then, you stay here and train."
"You do know that you gotta think of a better answer than `In time, you`ll know`, 'cause i`ll tell you right now; that`s gonna get real old real fast."
"It won`t if you don`t ask every 5 minutes", he responded with a smirk.
"I won`t if you don`t leave every 5 minutes", she countered with a pouting expression.
"We both know that yours is exaggeration to the max and mine is pretty accurate."
She was about to reply with a snarky comment, but bit her tongue before she started talking, most likely because she knew he was right.
"Seriously though, why do you have to go that often? I can understand that it takes some time to get there and get back here, but you still leave a lot more then when you started tutoring me."
He looked at her and slowly, a self-statisfied smirk found it`s way onto his face. "In time, you`ll know", he said with a gloating tone.
The way she grimaced at that comment was golden.
ooo
Kiara had had enough. Without dropping her focus, she walked over to the stand that held the exercise swords, grabbed 2 Bokken and threw one at Makoto.
He caught it without even twitching a muscle.
"Now that`s a new one, are you- are you actually volunteering for Zandatsu-practice?", he said with a fake disbelieving tone.
She didn`t respond to his little jab and took her stance, while increasing her Reiatsu-output. She didn`t exactly know how much it would boost her fighting capabilities, but if what Makoto told her was the truth, then simply raising one's own Spiritual pressure should have some effect.
He dropped his fake disbelief and dawned a more intrigued expression. He also took a stance and returned her piercing gaze.
Like always they slowly started circling eachother, until Kiara made a sudden halt, causing him to stop as well. Then, without any further ado, she let out a battle cry and charged towards him, her blade raised high up in the air, ready to strike from above.
At least that`s what was supposed to happen.
What actually happened was him making a simple sidestep, clearing the way between Kiara and the dojo wall, which she almost crashed into. But that wasn`t possible. The dojo was at least 20 meters wide and long and she made one little jump from the middle of it.
So the only conclusion was… that she just cleared a distance of 10 meters in an instant with a single leap.
"See, that`s why i wanted to wait with combining those 2 practices", he said with a slightly scolding tone. "I'm surprised you didn`t actually tear down the wall."
"You knew this could happen and still didn`t even try to attempt to stop me? Also; tear down the wall?", she responded a little dumbfounded.
"Yup. I know i did, when i started to prematurely use both practices at the same time. I actually blew three holes in the walls and even one in the ceiling. And before you ask; no i don`t know how that last one happened, because when it did, i was already a little foggy from my attempts at dojo-renovation. Thinking back i gotta say myself that i was pretty out of it, hence the hole in the ceiling."
He snickered a little to himself before he went on to answer her other question. "So yes, i knew it would happen and i didn't stop you for 3 reasons: First, failure is still the best teacher. I know it's a pain in the ass, but you learn best when you make mistakes. Second, i wanted to see if you actually remembered that i said we will wait until you have proper control, but as we just saw, that still requires a lot of work. Third i wanted to see how fast your reflexes were when something goes wrong. From the looks of it, your instincts are excellent. I don`t think you quite realized why exactly you didn't follow my example of creating more than one entrance to the inside of a building", he concluded.
At first, she didn't know what he meant until she noticed that her Bokken was stuck in the ground and her hand was clinching so hard around its grip that her knuckles were starting to get white. She must have rammed it into the floor when she had sent herself flying across the room.
"What-?", she started confused.
"A little quirk of yours that you, for some reason, haven't noticed yet. You always say that you're bad at fighting and that you never learn anything. It`s quite the opposite really", he lectured her.
"You`re one of the biggest copycats i`ve ever seen. That move you just performed? That's one of the moves lieutenant Ikkaku Madarame likes to use when he`s thrown back, in order to either prevent a fall or to stop dead in his tracks in order to prevent a collision with something. I`ve been watching over your little skirmishes with the other squadmembers lately, whenever i had the time and you even performed this move once or twice before, though never with that speed or proficiency", he continued.
"But i've only seen the lieutenant fight for 5 or 6 times", she replyed baffled.
"Exactly. Seeing as how you've been able to do way better this time than the other few, i think that little copycat-quirk of yours could be amplified when you use your Reiatsu. You couldn`t possibly notice from the outside, but when you release your Spiritual pressure, you let it come out in a burst, letting it flare up first and then you start to regulate it. Because you've seen me do it that way", he ended his lecture.
"Pay a little attention to that detail and let's see what you can make out of it. That would be another thing for you to train while i'm gone."
He signaled her to move back up to the fighting grounds and continued while she tried to rip her Bokken out of the floor.
"Oh and one more thing. You", he pointed at her, while she was still trying to get the sword out, "are not bad at fighting. You just compare yourself to me and you think because you can't beat me, you're weak. Always remember that i do hold the 4th seat in this division and not without reason."
Kiara was starting to get annoyed by the fact that her Bokken still wouldn't budge. So she closed her eyes again, visualized her image and connected it to her inner power. In a burst she opened the blocks that held back her well and let the power flow, then she regulated it to a moderate and steady stream.
She did that so she would have a standard and not overdo things. Slowly she opened the blocks again, bit by bit, until she was statisfied with the output. Then she opened her eyes and gave the sword in the ground a decent nudge. It came out with surprising ease. After that she dialed back on her output again, which took more time than she liked. Then she got back up to the fighting ground.
Makoto gave her a skeptic look and asked: "Did you hear the last few things i said?"
"Wait you said some more?"
"Yeah, that's what i thought. Anyway, we'll wait with training both practices simultaneously until you have proper control", he said.
"But i do have proper control", she complained, and wailed around with her arms to show the obvious aura she was emitting.
He simply pointed to the hole in the ground and argumented: "If you call that proper control, then i'm the Soul King."
"Come on", she kept pressing.
"Give me a reason. A good reason", he quickly added before she could sport a witty response.
"If we don't practice it now, i might do something stupid while you're gone", she said with a daring tone.
"Well, that would be your own damn fault, since i told you not to and you just saw what happens when you try to do it anyway", he countered.
"You're the only one who can teach me that kind of stuff", was her next argument.
"Wrong", he countered once again. "I'm by far not the only one. 3rd seat Yumichika and lieutenant Madarame can do that just as well."
"If you don't teach me now, i'll only have boring stuff to focus on during the next week", she continued.
"And i have yet to hear of a case where somebody died because of that", he dryly replied.
"Do you consider bribe?"
"You couldn't meet my price."
She let out a little wail and then asked: "Damn it, can't I at least have it for this one round? I need something to give me a little edge against you, or else the end result will always be the same", she pleaded.
He sighed, but ended up saying: "Alright, if you can keep it steady at your current level, we can try. For this one time only. But another spike like before and we'll wait until i get back."
(Bleach OST 4 Track 7: Can't lose)
Excited, she took her stance. Finally, she would be a little closer to evening out the planefield. At first he was just Standing there, but eventually took his own stance.
She realized that something was different this time. His eyes had a certain glare to them. Then, he did something unexpected. He took his left hand off of his sword grip and put it behind his back. She wasn't sure what he was planning to do, but she wouldn't let an opportunity like this slip away.
She charged towards him again, more careful and in a zigzag-like pattern.
When she reached him, she was coming towards him from left to right, so she swung her sword horizontally in the same direction on the height of his waist. All he did was putting his sword on hers when it had almost made contact, using it as support and lifted himself over her sword.
After that she felt a quick jab on the side of her knee, that made her lose stability in it, to which she buckled onto it and what followed was a vertical slash from bottom to top that aimed for her arms, which she managed to block. Surprisingly there was not as much force behind it as she thought.
They were both locked in contact for a short while until she broke free and backed off a little bit to gain some distance.
Both fighters mustered each other fiercely. Kiara took a deep breath and tried to calm down to refresh her focus. Her Spiritual pressure was still on the same level. Good.
She looked at her opponent again with full attention on potential weaknesses. Apart from the fact that he was only holding his sword with one hand, she couldn't find much. His feet were well aligned, his knees slightly bent and his upper body was tense but not cramped.
Suddenly she knew her next plan of attack and with no further waste of time she changed her stance, holding the grip of her sword at the height of her face while the blade pointed a bit towards the floor.
Once again she charged at him, this time straight ahead and as soon as she reached him, moved a little to her right at the very last instant and attempted a sting attack onto his upper body.
Before her blade even bypassed his, he made a step to his right side with his left foot, which was further behind than his right, slightly turning his upper body in one Motion on his right foot and redirected her attack away from him, all while their weapons maintained contact.
Next, he let his blade slide across hers and directed his counterattack towards her face. Although she managed to dodge, the strike missed her only by millimeters.
But now was her opening. She pulled her sword back towards her and attempted another stingattack, but Makoto simply avoided it with a simple backstep, turned his blade around and launched another strike attack against her.
Again she managed to dodge, by throwing herself to her right side and rolling on the floor to dampen the fall. She quickly got up, expecting him to rush at her and exploit her lack of a stance, but to her surprise, he was still where he was standing before she evaded his last attack. In the same stance as before.
Something was strange. His attacks were slower and weaker, which was to be expected since he only wielded his weapon with one hand. At the same time though, they were much more precise and aimed.
Since he didn't seem like he would attack her, she took another moment to concentrate and even her output once more. It had gotten smaller during her last exchange of blows. Keeping it at a steady level during a fight proved much more difficult than she had thought.
In the morning, she had managed to hold it upright for about 20 minutes before she had to take a quick break. Now, they haven't even fought for two minutes and she was already having serious trouble. She would have to put it all into her next attack, because she knew that she would lose her focus after, or worse, during it.
Once again she took her normal fighting stance.
Damn it.
This was her chance to finally get a hit on him, since for the first time, she had an advantage. And she still didn't even land a scratch. All or nothing, that's what she had to do now.
Ah, screw it.
If this was her last swing, she might as well do something ridiculous. She readied herself and charged towards him once more.
This time she used her additional strength to jump in the air and leap over him, trying to land a hit mid-air. She jumped about 3 meters in front of him, turned in the air and was planning to land behind him after her slash but she didn't even make it that far.
While she was turning, he suddenly put both hands onto his sword, reached up, shoved his blade between her arms and locked it onto the swordgrip. Then, without any mercy, he practically catapulted her towards the ground and that was the end of that.
Author's notes:
Damn, found a lot of grammar mistakes in this one when i proofread it. Bet there are still some in there, for which i do apologize, but again: English. Not my maiden language. Otherwise i don't have a lot to say about this chapter except maybe a few words regarding Kiara. Some of you may be worried that she'll be a Mary Sue. Well, i'm here to destroy these worries people, because she is anything but. She just got the hang of using her Reiatsu fast, that's all. As for her copy-cat quirk: Well that's some set-up, for things to come, but maybe not in the way you might think.
If you`ve got your own opinion, PM me, or, better yet, review the Story. I`ll always welcome constructive criticism.