Mirrored worlds 11
It was a good few weeks before jushiro recovered, in that time, more extensive experiments had been done and several of the captains had met their counterparts, according to reports, it had resulted in quite a lot of surprises, for example, upon meeting the little snow cat Toshiro, or leopard, as he preferred to be called, rangiku thought he was adorable, by all other accounts, everyone seemed to get along with their counterparts as well. By the time jushiro was healthy again, the two worlds had decided to work together, the animals quickly discovered that they were indeed weak, and with the potential for growth, the respective captains made what you could call treaties, the human captains took days off to train their other selves, it was going to be a long road, but there was no one better to train with. The two shunsui's had started speaking about training but it wasn't until jushiro had completely recovered that he agreed to assist in training his counterpart. Since the other world was not ready for such strong powers yet, the training was decided to happen in the human seritei. Gates had started to be made as a permanent doorway between the worlds and they were built in a protected room near the captains quarters, so they could be kept under constant watch and controlled. Jushiro had his installed while he was unable to work, it saved disturbing his work when he returned to duty.
Jushiro's soul comunicator beeped and looked up from his paperwork to see that it was just a message that his counterpart was on his way over, jushiro nods and neatens his paperwork before standing and leaving his office and going too the portal room. Jushiro leans against the wall and waits, he didn't have to wait long though before his counterpart entered the room through the mirror, jushiro was relieved to see he'd come in human form as requested, it would be easier to train that way, the cat smiles and bows his head 'good morning ukitake taicho' jushiro nods politely 'you too..' He looks thoughtful and then looks at the cat 'forgive my manners, but I need to know what I can call you.. Since sharing a name is confusing..' The cat looks surprised but nods in agreement 'you have a point there... You may call me shiro then' he smiles, jushiro nods 'then shiro San it is, welcome once more to our side' he muses, shiro chuckles 'thank you.. So where do we start taicho?' Jushiro stands 'we start by leaving seritei.. Ah.. You can't flash step can you..' Shiro frowns 'no.. I've never enjoyed the sensation..' Jushiro nods 'well then I'll start there..' Shiro looks surprised then nervous 'hai.' Jushiro smiles and starts heading out 'it's easier then it seems, follow me' shiro does as told and follows the captain out to the courtyard. Jushiro then turns around and faces him 'now, flash step.. Or shunpo, you may have heard both terms.. It is the quickest way to move around seriei, it works by manipulating the reiatsu around you and pushing you forward, much like running in a way.. Do you know the basics of manipulating reiatsu?' Shiro looked confused 'I'm not sure I'm familiar with the term... I wouldn't know...' Jushiro nods and holds his hand forward, Palm up, he effortlessly creates a ball of reiatsu in his hand 'this is reiatsu, it is often described as a shinigami's life force as our reiatsu controls everything we do.. Your reiatsu takes the form of the water you manipulate..' Shiro nods understanding 'so then it's basically controlling water for me? I think I can do that then' jushiro closes his hand and nods 'focus your energies to your hand, if you can, I will judge' shiro was slightly surprised at how forward the captain was and it made him a little edgy however he did as told, focusing on drawing his energy to his hand, his reiatsu took the form of water, jushiro watches until he is satisfied 'that's fine.. You shouldn't have any trouble with flash step at this level' shiro bites his lip nervously 'uh.. Are you sure..' Jushiro smiles 'of course.. I'll explain it easily.. Focus your energy under your feet and use it to project you forward, i found it easy to start with a walk to get used to it, run when you have the idea' shiro looks confused but repeats the words in his head, he sighs and closes his eyes, at first he found it a little hard to focus his energy to his feet, it was rather strange for him. He eventually figured out what the captain meant as the release of tension under his feet pushed him forward, it tripped him up the first few times causing a chuckle from jushiro 'I told you it wasn't hard.. Well done' jushiro turns and flash steps onto a nearby roof, one that shiro would have to use his new found abilities to reach, he waves 'please join me up here shiro-San' shiro looks shocked and sighs before trying out his new step, he remembered saying running made it easier so he tried that, before jumping with a little help of reiatsu, he only just lands on the roof and slips, he would have fallen off if jushiro hadn't caught his hand 'well done, see you can do it, you had nothing to be worried about' shiro had to calm his heart but smiles a little 'thanks..' He had started to think maybe he wouldn't survive this training... Shiro straightens up 's-so what's next.. Taicho' jushiro points toward a rather large mountain in the distance 'we will be going into that direction, we will practice your flash step on the way' he muses, shiro nods and looks toward the mountain 'why so far away..' Jushiro looks thoughtful 'I don't like training in seritei..' Shiro nods 'fair enough..,' jushiro looks at shiro 'I'll follow you, so don't rush, I'll be right with you' shiro nods sighing nervously before walking to the edge of the building and once more used his reiatsu to jump across a narrow gap, he found it easy once he'd got started, after a few minutes it was tiring but the momentum he had gained meant he didn't have to work so hard, jushiro like he promised stayed beside him, supporting him in a strict sort of way.
After getting past the initial fear, shiro actually began to enjoy flash stepping, it was a good half an hour before jushiro told him to stop, they'd well and truly left seritei and were in the middle of nowhere, shiro was exhausted by this point though so he sat down roughly catching his breath, jushiro looks around thoughtfully, unaffected by the slow flash step, he nods and takes off his Haori folding it neatly before sitting and placing it on the ground beside him, without the Haori, shiro noticed that the captain had two zanpakuto Strapped to his waist as well as a big tied to his back that his haori had been covering. Jushiro placed the blades beside him and produced a smaller bag which he gave to shiro 'eat this ok, it will make you feel better' shiro nods taking the bag tiredly, looking inside he found a bento and a water bottle, he suddenly realised how hungry he was 'thank you..' Jushiro nods 'no problem, your going rather well so far' shiro smiles a little 'thanks... But should I be this tired already..' Jushiro nods 'it's perfectly reasonable' shiro starts eating thoughtfully, though curiousity finally got the better of him 'why do you have two blades..' Looking at them beside the captain, one has a beautiful red hilt and a decorative guard, the other however looked plain, completely different, jushiro looks at the blades 'I have two today because I'm going to give you one..' Shiro looks surprised 'what..' Jushiro nods 'eat and I'll explain' shiro nods and does as told but now keeps his attention on the captain, jushiro lifts the blank looking blade putting it in front of him 'this is what's called an asuchi.. It is essentially a blank blade, powerless and empty.. But impressionable... Throughout my training, you will imprint your soul into this blade and in the future, it will become your zanpakuto' shiro nods 'this seems like a big deal...' Jushiro smiles 'something like that, today I will go over how you should care for your blade, I will also start with basic stances' shiro gulps 'that seems like a lot of work... As well as dangerous..' Jushiro chuckles 'work yes, dangerous no.. You won't taste my blade for quite a while, I have sparring swords for fighting' he muses, shiro finished the bento and drank some water before putting it aside, he did feel better now he'd eaten, he wondered if there was something in his food.. 'I feel somewhat relieved to hear that...' Jushiro nods "don't worry, I will push you, but not so much that you will suffer too much" he smiles, this didn't really help shiros nervousness at all.
The first training session would be the hardest, shiro soon found out why jushiro was exactly what he was, after shiro had recovered from the flash step, jushiro gave him his asuchi to tie at his waist, he then gave shiro a wooden sparring blade and then held the partner on his shoulder "now, the idea of a good stance is so that you can't be pushed over in a fight, everything starts with your stance, if you fail you will die... So listen well ok" he smiles, jushiro takes his stance, one foot forward and his other a shoulder width apart behind him, knees bent, two hands on the hilt holding it forward "this is your basic defensive stance, it helps you spread around the weight of any attack, giving you the best chance of completely blocking an attack" shiro watches trying to take it in, he attempts to copy the stance. Jushiro nods and circles him making shiro nervous, jushiro then pushed him lightly which shiro saved himself from falling over but only just "your stance is weak, stand wider apart, the wider base you have, the easier it will be not to fall, bend your knees" shiro grits his teeth fixing his stance until jushiro was satisfied, jushiro then nods "you should practice this, I will test you next session... I won't go easy on you either..." Shiro nods "hai". Jushiro sighs before standing in front of him taking his stance "now each person has a preferred method of fighting, for example I am defensive, anyone else might teach you how to strike first, but I won't... I will teach you defence foremost before anything else, for of course your safety..." Shiro nods "hai" he was taking a mental note of everything that was said, he would write down everything when he sat down for tea again. Jushiro nods "now... The basics of blocking are simply moving your blade in such a way that it counters an attack before it reaches you... You would block if you didn't have a chance to strike as it minimises damage" jushiro steps forward making an obvious swing from his side, shiro jumps back almost tripping with shock, the tip of the wooden blade dragged across his skin though, jushiro stood back "I could have killed you just then, using the time you stepped back, you were completely open and I could have ended your life, keep this in mind and take your stance again, this time I will do the same thing... Use your blade to block me..." Shiro gulps and take his stance gripping his sword tightly, jushiro then repeats his obvious left strike and this time shiro blocked most of it with his blade, jushiro didn't use a strong attack, shiro was just not very strong at all.
Jushiro smiles and withdraws "now you see the difference?" Shiro nods "I do..." Jushiro looks thoughtful "you seem to lack strength at the moment, this will be something you gain without trying, for the time being I will show you some blocking techniques which you can use to minimise your damage" jushiro holds his blade sideways and in one hand while he places his other hand flat on the blade itself "you can use your body force to block, such as evenly spacing your strength like so across the blade, you will find it's a stronger force and you will be able to block most strikes" shiro watches raptly , jushiro then changes his block, holding his blade flat against his lower arm "this is another version, keep in mind though, these blocks can damage you if the attack is too strong, would you like to try these?" Shiro nods taking a defensive stance once more, jushiro nods and changes the direction of the swing, attacking from the head, shiro was surprised for a second and had to change his block but was able to block the weak strike "you surprised me..." Jushiro withdraws "why is that? Did you really expect me not to change my attack pattern?" Shiro looks unsure "I guess I didn't think about that.." Jushiro sighs "battle is not that simple... You must always be prepared to change your tactics in accordance with your partners fighting style..." Shiro nods feeling a little stupid "hai..." Jushiro nods "there's one more thing I need to teach you about blocking..." Jushiro instantly holds his sword straight and pushes it forward stopping the blade just in front of shiros chest, he would have impaled him if he didn't stop "two things... Don't let down your guard..." Jushiro withdrawers and shiro was breathing heavily from the surprise "strikes like this will kill you if they hit a vital organ... So to block these, you can either be extraordinarily accurate, or you will need to redirect the attack, I will teach you how to redirect the attack, it's pretty simple.." Shiro nods, he by now well and truly decided that he never wanted to get on his bad side... Jushiro takes a defensive stance "this one is easiest if I show you how it's done... Please attack me.." Shiro is reluctant about following this order but does so copying what jushiro had done, he held back though, he didn't want to risk hurting anyone, even though his opponent was a million times better, jushiro with ease hit blade and then pushed it to the side in one motion, not stopping the blade but letting the strike miss him entirely "your holding back... You will die if you do that here while fighting me... Just for future reference.. Don't hold back.." Shiro nods withdrawing his blade "hai..." Jushiro nods and continues "do you understand what I just did?" Shiro looks thoughtful "you pushed the blade to the side... In my understanding..." Jushiro nods "exactly, while all the other blocks I've shown you stop a blade, this block doesn't, in fact you can use this to catch your enemy unaware and deal a fatal wound this way, but that's for another time... Show me what you have learned now, I will attack you this time without stopping to give you a rest, prove you have listened..." Shiro nods "hai!" After they had both taken their stances, jushiro stepped forward into an attack from above which was blocked loosely, jushiro didn't waste time attacking from the sides and throwing straight attacks, shiro blocked most of them, taking a few hits here and there, but defiantly improved for the five minutes that they practiced, this was effortless for jushiro, the strikes were weak for him and and it wasn't draining him too much, but shiro unfortunately felt the effects so jushiro let him rest once he was somewhat satisfied and withdrew "not bad... You can rest now" he smiles, shiro looks grateful and sits down tiredly "this is hard work... But you don't seem affected by this at all... I don't get it.." Jushiro sits crossing his legs "I have been training for nearly two thousand years, this is something that comes as easily as breathing for me.. Particularly at this level... I will however leave your training here for today... If you take in too much at once.. You won't learn anything..." Shiro nods "hai... Thank you taicho..." Jushiro chuckles "no problem, when your bruises are healed we can train again..".
Shiro looks thoughtful "you seem different In training then you do normally..." Jushiro looks at him "training is something I've always taken seriously..." Shiro nods "who do you train with..." Jushiro looks thoughtful "it depends on how I feel... On days like today I would train with shunsui... But other days I would train in my inner world against sogyo no kotowari..." Shiro looks a little confused "how does that work.." Jushiro searches for the words before looking at shiro "there will come a point where you if you meditate, you will possibly be able to hear a voice in your head... This seems a little strange to say, but this voice will be your zanpaktou... From that point on you will be able to speak with your zanpaktou and you eventually find yourself in what's called your inner world... It's where your zanpaktou lives inside you, an inner world is a very private thing, there are very few ways which anyone besides you can see the inner world, and only you can hear the residing zanpaktou's voice..." Shiro looks thoughtful "that's pretty amazing..". Jushiro looks a little distant for a moment before nodding and answering shiro "it is... Do you mind if I have a visitor?" Shiro looks a little unsure "no... I guess not.." Jushiro nods and the space beside him glows for a moment before the two innocent looking twins stood there instead, holding hands "hello shiro-chan" shiro looks surprised to see them "uh.. Hi..." The twins happily hugged jushiro tight before settling into his lap comfortably "dad.. You haven't come see us for a while..." Jushiro sighs hugging them both "I know.. Forgive me... I've been a bit busy" the twins sigh "you should play with us tonight.. Please?" Jushiro nods "I owe that much don't i, we can play tonight ok" he smiles, the twins look happy "hai.. " they look at shiro "you know he isn't too bad for a new starter is he... He reminds us of you..." Shiro blushes a little "whys that.." Sogyo smiles "dad started off pretty weak but he learnt quickly.. It took a while before his strength complimented his mind.. That was when he started winning fights against us.." Jushiro chuckles "you too are honest.." Sogyo laughs "we are.. Our name is truth of picese silly" shiro smiled watching, the twins whom seemed so lost before, were now perfectly at home here, and it wasn't a master and blade relationship between the three, it was genuine friendship, sogyo looks at shiro "hey... What's your specialty... You a captain aren't you.." Shiro looks surprised "huh? What do you mean..." Sogyo gets up "your a captain shiro-San... Why.." Shiro blushes a little "well... I guess I'm one of the most powerful in our side... I don't really.." Sogyo cuts him off "what are you good at then?" Jushiro frowns "take it easy you two..." Shiro smiles a little "it's ok... I just got taken off guard...I-I guess I am pretty good at hand to hand fighting.. I guess.. I am not.. Nor ever did feel very comfortable with a blade... Though strangely it's different with this... Asuchi..." The twins look thoughtful then can we play with you?" Jushiro sighs "sogyo... That's not a great idea..." Sogyo pouts a little "we were going to play fair! No tricks or anything... Please.." Shiro looks unsure "what did you want to play?" The twins look hopeful and ouch the air playfully "we want to play fight of course...", jushiro sighs "I don't mind you playing with me... But.. You could hurt seriously hurt someone else.." The twins look depressed "hai..." Shiro sighs feeling a little guilty "well I suppose if you go easy, I can play... But only for a little..." How bad could play fighting be right? The twins look hopefull "we promise!" Jushiro looks at shiro "your absolutely sure about this? It's more dangerous then it sounds... You've already worked hard today... Don't stress yourself too much.." Shiro nods "I'm fine, it can be a short game" jushiro stares for a moment before sighing "fine... I'll set the rules then... No weapons, shunpo, and reiatsu advantages are to be nullified..." Jushiro mainly looks at sogyo "human strengths only..." Sogyo looks ecstatic "hai!" Shiro looks at the kids, he was t sure how fighting them would be... He didn't like attacking children, jushiro looks at shiro "I'm not so worried about your abilities, but don't use any of your melee abilities either, it's not fair..." Shiro nods "hai.." The twins smile and then start glowing, their forms blur and merge, shiro looks shocked when the twins stop glowing, there stood a teen version of the captain, everything looked similar but somehow more noble, powerful even, the teen smiled "we will fight this way" jushiro nods "good... Children shouldn't fight.." Sogyo nods "hai!" Shiro stands, the twins suddenly looked like a rather strong foe, however their robes would be their downfall if anything, their sleeves were ng and ontop of the heavy amount of fabric the already wore, a large cloak sat on their shoulders, their robes trailed on the ground slightly, sogyo moves to a clearing before standing defensively "ready to start" shiro faces them standing defensively also, jushiro nods "you may begin.. I'm watching.." Sogyo nods before stepping forward and punching forward, shiro only just dodged and felt the wind by his side, he immediately countered to be blocked though, from just this much, he could tell sogyo was strong and fast, his agility was not restrained to his child forms, shiro could already tell that he wouldn't be fast enough but as long as he dodged he would still stand a chance.
The fight was very fast paced and the longer shiro fought, the more he was impressed by sogyo's fighting ability, he could switch from a fist fight to kick within seconds. Shiro was being backed into a corner until he had seen most of what sogyo could do and he tried to fight back, this was about the time that sogyo slowed down, easing up so shiro had a chance, he didn't waste this chance and it wasn't long before they were equal. After what seemed like forever jushiro clapped his hands and sogyo jumped back and smiled, he had enjoyed the whole fight, shiro was tired again and caught his breathe "well done.. It seems you don't lie... You aren't bad at hand to hand..." Jushiro muses "you would be pretty dangerous if you combined your reiatsu in a fight.." Sogyo chuckles "that was fun, you should play with us again" shiro smiles "thank you taicho..." He looks at sogyo "and you surprised me..." Sogyo smiles "whys that?" Shiro looks thought "well truthfully I doubted your fighting... Usually one has one skill that they are gifted at...". Jushiro chuckles "well 2000 years is a long time... What else is there to do other then to hone your skills in that much time..." Sogyo nods in agreement "dad has a point,.." Shiro nods "your right.. I guess I'm Nieve... But then would I be correct in assuming taicho... Is just as good as you... Sogyo..." Sogyo nods "hai, a zanpaktou learns with their master..." Shiro looks at the sitting captain, he just kept getting more frightening "I have quite a scary counterpart..." Jushiro chuckles "not exactly... Though you should rest before we head back, flash stepping will drain you again of your energy" shiro nods and sits "hai" sogyo looks at jushiro "then you should play with us while he is resting... Please?" Jushiro sighs "you not going to give this up are you..." Sogyo sighs "we miss playing with you..." After a moment jushiro looks apolegetic "it will have to wait until this evening... It's rude to ignore a guest..." Sogyo sighs "hai.. But we won't go easy on you then.. Be careful.." Sogyo pouts a little before hugging jushiro and fading, Jushiro nods "hai... Don't worry.. I won't disappoint you.." Shiro looks thoughtful "you have quite the scary pair of children..." Jushiro nods "a lot of people say that... But I don't think so..." Shiro chuckles "I'm not surprised you say that.." Jushiro smiles "would you like some tea before you go home?" Shiro nods and smiles back "hai, sounds good taicho.."