A Glimpse into the Soul [Closed]

Yui knew that her skill was getting better… she could feel it. Already, she knew that her ability to hide her spiritual pressure, her ability to detect others, her hand to hand combat, and most notably her stamina, had taken a turn for growth. But those were things, aside the stamina, that she was already relatively good at… she needed to see if she could go after something else, something she knew she was lacking on. Her first instinct was to ask him about Kidou, but it have to wait… she still was struggling with even the basics of the basics with that one, and at least she knew the basics of Zanjutsu and wouldn’t fall flat on her face with it. That in mind, she set out, reaching the perimeter and yet he didn’t seem to be the wiser just yet; he usually didn’t need to passively scan his surroundings when she approached because his skill was such that he could detect people without needing to focus on it most of the time.

She slipped into a nearby tree, not even the leaves rustling as she did so, not giving him that extra cue. While she was not able to stay hidden from him when it came to Spiritual Perception, she was extremely adept at keeping hidden physically, and she wouldn’t give him any hints. Speaking of hints, she had finally started to get a grasp on the things he liked and didn’t, even if his responses were bland at best. While normally the variance wasn’t very thorough, she had managed to isolate the ten’s while simultaneously eliminating the eight’s and narrowed down the list. He preferred beans and vegetables with a rich and creamy sauce rather than meat and heavy foods, and he liked white rice as the basis. What she had made this time was in light of this information, and made in a completely different way than normal; inside a flour tortilla, something called a ‘burrito’. She had a fair number of them, and taste tested one before coming and knew this was probably one of her best combinations so far.

She felt it when his senses sifted out searching for her and knew she had been caught immediately, a smile playing on her face. Damnit. He wins again today… and his head turned towards her and made a nod, and like every day she trained with him, she fell out of the tree, twisted and landed straight on her feet, approaching with a gentle smile and presenting the basket with the contained goods, wrapped for warmth and freshness. His smile was nice to see, and his question friendly enough as she handed him the basket. “Like a rock after that workout I started a few days ago. I’m gonna have abs of steel before long.” She gave him a wide smile this time, patting her stomach, referring to the ‘Spartan’ workout she had discovered and started doing before she took a shower and crashed each night. It was intense, but it was something she loved as a challenge before knocking out for the night.

“How about you? Anything interesting?” It was as casual as ever, even if she did reach back and pull out her reverse bladed wakizashi, Shiva from it’s sheath and lowered herself into a stance, holding the blade slightly behind her but like one did a dagger, with the reverse blade outward but away from her thumb like a Ninja should. She knew how this would start first… he would begin by checking her stance and then go into some basics and instructions, and she waited patiently for it.

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Mako remained calm as he watched the woman approach, accepting the basket as he glanced down at her stomach as she commented on "abbs of steel" and made a brief noise of amusement in the back of his throat at her small, soft frame holding anything as "hard as steel". Stepping forward and placing the food down by his own things, he would move back in place as she inquired if he had anything interesting-- without missing a beat he gave the same response that he always had.

"As well as I usually do," before he would allow his gaze to flick up and down her form once, twice, and then settle as he approached her-- lowering himself as his hand lifted, starting with her feet as he would shift her footing slightly into a wider stance, tapping her lower back to straighten her as well before rising and pointing to the blade calmly.

"No reverse grip. It's a style entirely designed for pure offense and entirely reliant on dodging-- that's something you're already comfortable with." The reason for this was clear-- the point was to train her in area's that she wasn't comfortable with-- and that meant not using a reverse grip designed for assassination and power-- but kendo and similar styles. With that, he would turn and move back toward his original position as he would grasp the tantou calmly, one hand held behind his back while the other lifted the blade upward-- despite its short length, the sealed blade was being held exactly like a katana.

The reasoning for this would become evident quickly-- as his reiatsu flashed out briefly, once, before a barrier would slowly wrap around the blade and extend-- forming into a pulsating blade of reiatsu, cold grey matching his reiatsu's neutral state.

"We were taught the basics of Kendo in the Academy-- but I'm aware it's been a while for you. I've placed you in the stance-- but do you remember any of the specifics regarding the style?" His face remained its usual blank, emotionless face as the blade hummed with the barrier, the one benefit of using that spell meant that he could control whether it had an edge-- or not. Perfect for spars and training. Watching the young woman he would wait for her answer calmly, unconcerned with rushing the "lesson" as it were-- they would have plenty of time to push themselves when the actual spar began.

One benefit of being able to read and mimic others-- meant that he could easily spot where she was messing up as well, it would come in handy correcting her since he was certain she was so rusty. There was also the point of her Shikai and the idea of evolving it into more weapons-- in which case she would have to adapt and learn how to use more weapons than her blade. Learning more weapon styles meant she needed a solid foundation-- and Kendo was as good a point as any to start at, even if the extra weaponry was only theory crafting at the moment.

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The noise of amusement made her eye twitch, taking it as something that ‘she couldn’t obtain’ like everything else. “Oh shove it! I can do it if I try!” she declared, breaking down and chuckling at the end, unable to stay made at the emotional statue that was Mako. Wouldn’t do any good anyway… but it did make her feel better marginally, and that was a plus. His comment regarding sleep made her frown a little; she knew he didn’t sleep great, but he never seemed overly tired either, which was an odd combination. Still, she knew it was absolutely pointless to try to pry the information out of him either; he would either tell her when he felt up to it, or he wouldn’t at all. He held those keys to the little tid-bits about his life very close to his heart, and no amount of work would do much to release that information in any way.

She made the motions quickly and easily, used to the corrections being made and not thinking anything of them, but it wasn’t until she realized that this was the basic Kendo stance and his first sentence that she grew a frown. “But with typical Kendo, both the size of my blade and the fact that the edge is on the inside curve makes it a huge disadvantage to use the traditional style.” She obeyed none-the less, adopting the Kendo stance and flipping her blade, but the small handle made it almost impossible to grasp with two hands even as small as her own, so she held the blade in front while her other hand lingered to the side, open and ready to work as well. It was the best she could do in the current situation.

His reiatsu came to life, and she prepared herself momentarily, thinking that he was going to start with a ‘combat assessment’ where she needed to defend herself and try to counter-attack while he evalutated her skill in this stance… but that didn’t happen. Instead, his weapon increased in length through pure Reiatsu, making it a proper Katana. That was weird… at least, from what she could see, it was simply a way for him to make his weapon a proper size. He asked a question, and she gave a weak smile. “Not really. Not only was it a long time ago, but I never really used it. Even my Kendo teacher in the academy laughed and said it was impossible with my blade… but I tried anyway.” She swung the blade down, perfectly vertical, her body remembering what her mind did not. The force wasn’t much, but it was precise and quick, and it was obvious that, like everything else Yui ever did, she had practiced this quite a bit.

Granted, that had literally been centuries ago since her last official practice, but that was also how Yui worked, which Mako was well aware of. She couldn’t learn from books, and instead learned from ‘doing’ whatever it was that she was trying to learn over and over again, training her body to be the memory that she lacked, and it usually worked well this way. At the Academy, it was pretty standard for classroom instruction to precede the physical instruction, and that was always a point where Yui struggled.

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Mako allowed a slight smile to form on his lips at her comment on doing it if she tried.

"I don't doubt that-- but I prefer you the way you are, toned but soft." The response was, as per usual-- blunt and forward as he glanced at her waist once more, before he continued about as he wished. Instead of listening as she commented on the typical kendo requirements when it came to the blade. He nodded his head slightly in agreement as he moved toward his position, arching a brow slightly.

"Correct. Think of it like training with weights-- if you can manage to hold your own using that weapon, you'll be able to use a more suited one far more effectively. This will also give you more experience when it comes to fighting against kendo and other forward styles." As he explained this, he would release a breath before he raised the blade of reiatsu up, holding the weapon in one hand as well due to his tantou's short hilt, he could extend it as well but he had no reason to do so.

Then, there was a single brief moment of silence-- and Mako was on her. His blade slashing downward in a rapid swing from above, a simple, but effective vertical strike designed to hit her left shoulder down to the left side of her hip. It was a test, first to see if she realized what he was trying to get her to do-- guard, not dodge, and similarly, it would test to see how well she was able to parry and defend while the blade was out of her usual reverse grip. There were many aspects at play when it came to both-- footwork, body movement, what muscles were braced and what remained relaxed-- it was Mako's job to get her to fall into the habits she needed.

As it stood-- if she did manage to create a new form of weapon, she'd be completely unused to it. Analyzing her, reading her, it was all key to ensure that he could correct her-- he didn't follow up with a barrage because for now, they were not sparring, he was testing her. Gathering data and information as per usual-- the sparring was approaching, of course, but he didn't wish to go that last step until she had a firmer grip on her basics, and he had a firmer grip on her current level of skill. As with everything, his immense patience was his greatest tool.

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OK, he couldn’t decide consciously if he like pork or beef better, and wouldn’t give her a definitive answer no matter how she tried, but he did have a preference to her physical body? What the absolute hell?! Not that she would comment on it… his blunt way of responding to those inquiries was well known and she was not able to talk about the subject so freely. Instead she would just get an irritated look and blush slightly, then roll her eyes and continue on like it had never happened.

She listened to what he had to say, and nodded, even though her brow furrowed in concern. Sure, it made sense… but training with weights and training with a blade that could turn and hurt her simply because she wasn’t able to push back as hard were two different things. The weight idea had merit though… maybe she could add some weights to her Shunpo Suicides in the morning to increase the challenge. Sure, it was the warmup for the day, but it had been getting easier… this would add that extra aspect of challenge and make it exciting again. His comment about learning the style to be able to defend against it was probably the largest sole source of motivation, and her expression turned to one that was more determined.

Mako moved with his signature quickness; enough to truly press her and make her struggle a bit, but not enough to completely overwhelm her. She combined a deflection and a dodge all in one, using her blade to make his veer more away from her shoulder while simultaneously stepping out of the line of fire, a prudent move as the blade skidded off the blunt side of her blade and moved towards the ground. She also took another step backwards, making it to where he would have to advance to strike again, and she reset herself, and she could tell her wrist lacked the strength to stop a strike like that completely. Watching it though, it likely looked like a fish out of water, unable to stop herself from reverting at least partially back to her ways that involved dodging. She didn’t like this method of combat, but that was a part of the reason that she was doing it.

Once she was reset, she readied herself again, waiting for his next move. It was just like she had thought; he was going to strike and evaluate, make comments and corrections as they went. She knew how skilled he was with Zanjutsu, as him showing off that skill once was what had been the primary reason that she thought that this type of training would be beneficial. The more she knew, the better armed she would be for when it was time to fight someone using it.

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The look she gave him was cute-- a glare and blush made it clear what she was thinking, as he arched a brow slightly and shrugged.

"Your body is more important to me. Other things aren't even close," he stated simply-- of course before he could go too in-depth in that direction, the actual training had begun. His eyes followed her movements even as his senses followed her energy and watched its ripples. The parry had been decent-- weak, but decent. However she had fallen into the habit of dodging, and he slowly released a breath as he straightened and watched her reset herself as he shifted his footing just slightly.

"You're running. You won't be able to do that if you're trying to swing around a larger weapon. Put your other hand behind you-- against your lower back to control your center of gravity more effectively. This time, don't dodge-- parry the blade to the side, don't try to outright block it." He didn't doubt she couldn't do it if she tried-- but he also knew that the bigger issue was her lack of knowledge. Even if you could block easily, you wanted to parry as much as possible.

A full block risked too many possibilities-- the key to armed combat was controlling the force of your opponents strikes as much as possible so that you could use as little energy while forcing them to expend as much as possible. Waiting for her to give the affirmative-- he would then shift forward before his blade lashed downward suddenly once more-- the same attack as before. There was no point trying to open her up to different patterns, not yet-- let her get some form of confidence against a certain form of attack first. Once that could be obtained-- he could start pushing her further.

This process would then rapidly continue-- again, and again he would aim blows for the same shoulder each time-- whenever she parried-- if she tried to dodge while doing so, the movement of his blade completely shifted to slide horizontally over her head and crack against her shoulder instead. Not enough to bruise, but enough to sting, the way an instructor would halt a student that was moving incorrectly, harsh, but not abusive. Similarly-- if she resisted her urge to dodge, he would continue the smooth downward strike as she attempted her parry-- before his blade would smoothly roll with it until it was over her head once more. His control of the blade shown as he recovered from what should be an awkward position easily.

Instead, she had a split second to realize where the blade was, as each time he stated calmly, "Again," before the blade slashed downward, this time at her opposite shoulder. The same attack, but its position shifted each time between her shoulders as the constant barrage of overhead, vertical swings were aimed at her. Forcing her to adapt through constant pressure, though he of course fully intended to stop when she hit her limit in stamina.

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Another eyeroll combined with a bit of flushing of her cheeks was the only response that he got from his reply. She understood what he meant; it was a physical attraction, and that was one reason she couldn’t ever take it seriously. Her body was more important to him, not who she was as a person, and that made it a very odd and strange ordeal to deal with as a whole. For now, she needed to simply push that stuff out of her mind and work on the training that had been set before her, and she listened to him as he talked. What did he mean ‘if she swung a larger weapon’? He had mentioned it before, thinking that there was a chance that she could have different weapons instead of simply her reverse wakizashi, but how was that possible? Shikai changed the weapon once, and that was all… or was it? Mako’s assessments usually were spot on most of the time, so perhaps there was a chance that it had some truth to it.

She gave him a nod, putting her strong will to work by forcing her legs to remain rooted, through sheer determination fighting the instincts of training for hundreds of years. The same attack came, and her legs flinched, but didn’t move, obeying her will to stay in place, rooted to their spot. The first time, the deflection didn’t work; she was pushed downwards because she had accidentally outright blocked it and the blade came down, almost digging into her shoulder. After a quick reset, she did better, getting the blade to deflect off to the side the way she was supposed to mostly, and the third strike was just about perfect. The next several were much the same, getting it down to where it was muscle memory instead of conscious thought, and her confidence with it grew.

The next strike though, she prepared the same way, and saw entirely too late that it wasn’t in the same spot before it came down on her shoulder, causing her to go to a knee with the impact for a moment. She gritted her teeth and shot back up to her feet instantly, looking up at him. That pain was her own fault, not his, and she would take it along with whatever came next. He had been training with her long enough to know that something like that happening, a failure occurring because she hadn’t been paying close enough attention, was something that would only motivate her to push forwards and muster even more vigor towards the training, and not to let up for anything. The next one she deflected well, but not perfect. Same with the next. Soon she was doing better, but nothing too exceptional just yet.

This was were that higher threshold for stamina was starting to come in handy. She knew that normally, when they first met, this much activity would have her panting and requesting a quick breather, but now she was still even with her breathing, keeping it steady and there was just now a bead of sweat forming from her brow as she focused on the blade. After a minute or so, she noticed she could predict better the movements of the blade if she was able to widen her focus not just to the sword, but also the arms and shoulders as they gave hints on direction and power. It was another five minutes before her wrist caved and she started to drop her blade, but the hand she had behind her back quickly lashed out, snatching it before it could hit the ground. “OK… give me a sec…” she said, placing the blade in the sheath with respect.

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Repetition was key to any training-- and this couldn't be emphasized more than in this situation. Each time she raised to parry a blow, she grew more confident-- and even when his switch up surprised her, she was able to defend accurately from the new angle-- and even switching attacks back and forth. Lowering the humming blade, he would allow a brief smile to form on his lips as she finally gave out-- catching her blade as she sheathed the weapon and requested for a break. He simply nodded, moving toward his things.

Returning a few moments later and offering her his water canteen to drink from before he would calmly examine her, his arm behind his back as the blade of reiatsu would remain-- it barely put a drain on his reserves to maintain, so it wasn't worth the effort of re-manifesting it. He was patient, his eyes lifting as he contemplated what he'd witnessed so far-- as per usual, she was a quick learner. Capable of expanding at surprising rates-- but this would take time. Still, she had begun to get the hang of parrying blows from above, which due to her height is what she would be dealing with the most-- though he knew better than to actually say that.

He'd learned once already her sensitivity about her height, even if he found it appealing-- she apparently found it not to be so in any way.

Glancing down at her he would simply blink once before continuing his line of thought-- the next step would be ensuring that she could defend from horizontal blows from either side-- the more that she could master the blade in general, the greater she'd be able to handle more prevalent techniques. Releasing a slow breath he would glance at her, taking back the water whenever it was offered to set it to the side once more before turning to face her and speaking briefly.

"We'll start on guarding against the sides now-- you must be careful not to use your hilt my mistake, there is a way to guard using it-- it's known as an irregular guard-- but it's not something you should attempt until you have complete confidence in your blade control. Until then, you need to focus and make sure you only ever use the side of the blade to parry and guard." As he explained this, he would demonstrate-- lifting the blade up to his right side as if he was blocking an incoming attack, and smoothly tilting the blade after he had "caught" the invisible blade for a split second-- re-directly the non-existent force smoothly away from himself in such a way that if it was an attacker, it would grant him plenty of openings ot counter attack.

Lifting his blade smoothly he arched a brow at her, "Ready?" he inquired simply-- not wanting to begin again until she had her breath back-- but he knew how quickly she tended to recover.

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The break was a godsend… she needed it once in a while, and a lot more than Mako ever did, but then again, she didn’t think she could ever press him enough to make him even breath heavy, let alone seek a break. She accepted the canteen, taking a single deep swig before returning it to him so he could do the same, careful not to let any spill. She was not a wasteful person after all… and a thought struck her. “Remind me at the end… should definitely bring that new type of tea I found. You drink it cold and it’s really good. Would be perfect for this sort of thing.” Of course, random thoughts said out loud, but the smile on her face showed that she really and truly enjoyed this time she spent with Mako, learning and growing stronger.

That thought was wrong. She was growing in Skill… not Strength. She knew that instinctively… something was holding her back, and it was starting to piss her off beyond anything else. She was working so hard, she didn’t understand what was keeping her from progressing. She shook her head, attempting to clear her mind from such things for a little while and get back on track. She watched and listened to him carefully as he accepted the water and set it aside, nodding as he gave the verbal instruction, but paying even closer attention to the demonstration. She was the type that learned by doing more than reading or hearing, but she was able to understand his words much better when she was able to see what he was talking about. She had no assumptions that he would mix in overhead strikes along with the side ones once she had started to get the hang of it… she wasn’t about to be caught off guard again.

He asked if she was ready, and she looked at her hand, twirling her wrist a couple of times and flexing it. Sore, but still usable… and then another thought struck her mind. A curious expression on her face, she drew Shiva yet again, and practiced, for a moment, tossing the blade back and forth, catching it quickly. “I can probably train both sides… I’m pretty skilled with both hands normally, and it will allow me to train for longer without stopping.” It was a solid idea, and a way for her to put her own unique twist on the lesson, which was something that she did often. Certainly, following instruction was something that she took a lot of pride in, but shaping it to fit her was also something that was important to the little ninja. She even had adapted a lot of Hakuda strikes and moves to accommodate her small body, making them more effective for her specifically and making it more difficult to be countered.

Yui prepared herself for a moment and then gave him a nod, saying that she was ready, starting the blade in her left hand for the moment, letting the other rest a bit more while this wrist and arm were still fresh. The first strike came, and she managed to half-parry it but the blade’s deflection went the wrong way. The twisting motion made it difficult with her small blade as his had more reach, but like most things, it wasn’t long until she was doing much better.

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"If you insist," he replied simply to her concern regarding the tea, it wasn't that he was opposed really, it just seemed a bit odd to him-- but then, he didn't really see the point in most things that she ingested or insisted that he eat. Tilting his head a bit, he would watch her once she frowned-- noting it, and deciding to ask the question later as he would patiently wait while she straightened up-- and once more, she prepared. This time commenting on using both hands, his brow arched a bit, he'd trained himself to be ambidextrous-- but that wasn't quite the same as actually being such. Still, it was an excellent thing to do-- if one arm went out of commission, having the other as usable without difficulty was key.

"It's a good idea," he stated simply-- and as soon as her guard was up, it began. Blow, after blow-- initially, he gave her a break, coming in only from her right side so she could adjust to his blade lengths-- again, and again-- until suddenly the attacks shifted to her left side instead. Then, it was above-- and then it came without warning, left, right, above, at any angle or direction- forcing her to adjust each time rapidly with barely a moment in-between. Each time making a comment-- "raise your elbows" or "loosen your grip" each time it came toward her until she was gradually increasing in her skill.

The greater her skill grew, the less her wrists would harm as she evolved more firmly-- eventually, she'd get to the point that there was virtually no strain on the wrists when she learned to properly re-direct the force. He continued his barrage, until once more, she hit her limit-- without hesitation he would halt the moment she called for a break, and would simply lower the blade as the dim glow of energy faded from his tantou, sheathing it as he would tuck his hands tightly behind his back, sliding the blade back into its holster on his arm.

"Let's take a break. Once you're ready we'll go from swordplay to focus on footwork instead," he commented simply, the idea being to give her wrists the break that they needed as he would step back once. "--I'm going to give you encouragement-- the strongest aspect of footwork in actual swordplay is to maintain your center of balance and learn to bend with the force and transfer it-- not try to simply brace and endure with an outright overwhelming block. I'll want you to keep your knee's bent, with your sword in front of you in the same position as before-- and maintain your stance while you use your body to support your swordplay to deflect projectiles." Of course, he was talking about after the break-- giving her something to think about as he moved toward the side and motioned her to come sit down.

Resting his hands in his lap as his legs crossed, he would raise his hands once he sat down as an idea occurred to him-- offering her his lap to sit in instead of on the grass, his face as neutral as usual.

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As it began, she quickly realized the importance of making it to where the blade slid off her own as easily as possible, minimizing the actual impact on her and making it to where her strength, or lack there of, was impacted as little as possible. It also made it a lot easier on her joints, and that made it to where she could go longer without stopping and needing another break. It took some time, but before too long Yui was not only able to deflect and parry the blade as it made it’s way towards her at speed, but while switching hands, using an overlapping grip technique that allowed her to switch without ever losing contact with the hilt of the blade, and she showed off her ambidexterity with capability on both sides, which was a hidden natural talent that she herself wasn’t even properly aware of.

Every time she made adjustments, she focused on them for a short time until her body began to pick up on it naturally, and then she would focus on the next adjustment. Soon she was going at full combat speed, switching hands as necessary as the attacks came from every direction and she worked to keep him from driving her back. He was pressing his advantage, to that much she was certain… and then she had to take a step back with one of the blows and she felt her concentration slip, her vision fading for a moment. She hadn’t even realized the sweat that was pouring from her face, and now that she held up a hand, her breathing became deep and heavy, where it had been carefully controlled before. Holy hell this was a workout… forcing your body to do things that weren’t well trained and natural sucked something fierce. She couldn’t even ask for the pause, but she was pretty sure that he had gotten the message.

And now he wanted to do footwork. Made sense, but she was going to need a minute. Sure, she recovered quickly, but not that fast, and it took two tries to just get Shiva back into the sheath. She swallowed, hard, and tried to quiet her breathing as best as she could so that she could hear him properly, but it was hard over her deep breaths. On the upside, it did sound a lot like something she could compare to Hakuda, as those aspects were very important as well in hand to hand combat. He motioned for her to come sit down, and she moved towards him, looking at him a little confused for a moment as he moved his hands out of the position in his lap.

The hell was that?

She didn’t have the energy to ask… and instead simply flopped backwards and worked on steadying her breathing, wiping the sweat on her sleeves. It was pretty much like this every day… if she had to take a guess, what would happen is they would work until she was damn near ready to pass out even during the breaks, and then work on her spiritual perception. It didn’t take any stamina, was a good cool down exercise, and in her tired state it made it even harder, which was what they were going for. It was like the weights thing!

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Mako watched her with moderate concern as the woman appeared to be worse off than expected-- he'd felt her weakening but he hadn't expected her to be so far gone that she nearly missed sheathing her weapon. She was acting like she'd just gone through a tremendous combat instead of a training regimen. Still-- she managed to move past it and lay down to catch her breath-- to his amusement she just stared at him in confusion as he offered his lap. His lips twitched, struggling not to smile at her innocence, shaking his head a bit in bemusement before he would place his hands back in his lap as he watched her pant and struggle not to pass out.

"I was offering my lap for you to sit in," he stated simply, the barest hints of amusement echoing from his voice as he rested his chin in his palm and watched her-- content to relax as much as he could while she tried to recover. Calmly he would snap to get her attention before he would glance down a there.

"If you're going to lay down and relax, spend your time on mental exercises-- focus on controlling your reiryoku through your body and stilling your heart. You're welcome to meditate if you wish-- either works, but no reason to waste the time laying there doing nothing with your mind while your body recovers." It was pretty simple, and it was how he trained-- he'd learned quickly that offering her constant ways to improve herself was the best way to handle the little ball of fire. It was relatively refreshing-- it meant she never really gave up.

It also exhausted him just to watch her-- he only acted this way when training himself, and he still used a degree of control to ensure he didn't push himself too far. On the other hand, Yui made everything a competition, how she had the energy to care about everything so minor so often, still completely left him without words. Charming, and completely unusual-- but he supposed that was part of why he didn't mind her being around him. Shaking his head he released a sigh before he would wait, knowing she could be down for a while if she was so out of it that she couldn't even be bothered to sit instead of laying down on the grass.

He contented himself with measuring her breaths as her chest rose and fell, making sure she was breathing properly and didn't need some sort of medical assistance or drink due to pushing herself too hard-- thankfully, all seemed well enough.

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If she wasn’t struggling to keep breathing, she might have been able to be embarrassed about the comment… but a part of her wondered. He had said he had a physical attraction to her, nothing more or less, and didn’t expect her to reciprocate. He had made that very clear, of course, in his normal super blunt manner, but what if he was craving it. Maybe he didn’t necessarily want love outright, but considering his demeanor and attitude, he might be craving affection of any sort. Even something more simple like a hug or something… nothing that pretended to be anything more, but something friendly. Stowing that information into the back of her brain, she coughed a couple of times, and then forced her breathing to slow by drawing in the breaths heavily and releasing them slowly, swallowing again between breaths and slowly getting herself under control.’

She did as she asked, focusing on her spiritual pressure and dropping it to the point that it was barely an ember glowing in the darkness, faint traces moving off. She was also looking for his spiritual pressure, but as usual, it was non-existent, so she simply noted anyone that was remotely nearby and muted them from her senses. “Sorry… I was so focused that I slowed my breathing… cost me in the longrun,” she stated simply, explaining why she was so out of breath. She was getting better by the second, her breathing slowly becoming regular even if slightly labored and deeper than normal. About a minute later after hunting down those threads and muting the ones that weren’t interesting, tracing the ones that were, she sat up and stretched her arms upwards for a moment, and the across her chest, getting ready for the next iteration of training. As though she were spring loaded, she rocked back to where she was resting primarily on her hands and neck, and with a bit of agility launched to where she was standing again.

After rotating her shoulders a few times, she pulled out Shiva and twirled the blade through her fingers for a moment before grabbing it like she had been instructed and turning herself towards Mako. She was small, but strong, and offered a hand to help him back onto his feet, a gentle smile on her face, and once he was back standing, she took a few steps away and resumed the stance she had been taught. Catching herself before he said anything, she shifted her right foot back slightly, and then lowered herself a little like he had mentioned before. This was more comfortable, as it was similar to her original stance, and she prepared herself once again for instruction.

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Mako waved off her apology as he simply watched as she continued her breathing carefully, she seemed fine-- even if she had clearly pushed herself a bit too hard.

"If you know what you did wrong, that's good enough. Just focus on not repeating the mistake." It was all that mattered to him, and instead he would lean back as his fingers intertwined slightly, waiting patiently for her to get back up-- and of course, once she had managed to re-situate herself, he simply lifted his gaze once she had sprung back to her feet. Then-- oddly enough-- she offered him her hand, immensely tiny compared to his own thin fingers as he blinked a few times slowly as his brow arched.

Slowly, he accepted her tiny hand in his own-- it wasn't like he needed help getting up, but it was still no reason to turn her down, he supposed. Lifting upward as she tugged, letting her do minimum work-- just enoguh so she couldn't complain, before he would lift a hand slowly and place it on top of her head, it was odd. The contact had been breif-- and pointless-- but--

"Thanks," he stated simply as he glanced down at her, petting her hair once, a slight smile on his lips before he allowed his mindset to shift back into its usual state of "monotone robot".

He watched her take her stance once more calmly, drawing her blade as she allowed a slight smile to form on her lips-- one that made that odd sensation form in his chest, as per usual. He didn't understand it at all, and as per usual, he shoved it from his mind to instead focus on the goal now. Taking her steps-- and waiting, he almost opened his mouth to tell her to fix her stance, before she shifted-- and he simply nodded, clearly pleased that she'd realized and corrected herself without him needing to interfere. That alone was excellent progress.

"I'm going to fire basic kidou at you-- I'll hold back so that you won't die. I want you to parry them, just like you were doing before with my blade. It'll be a completely different sensation trying to deflect a projectile-- remember to use your legs and footing to shift your weight with each movement, use your entire body in your defenses-- not just your upper body like you do when you aim for a one hit kill." As he stated this, he would calmly raise his hand as his reiatsu pulsed around him once, briefly, before his finger lifted.

"Daichi Tenyō," he stated simply-- before suddenly the air around them would slowly shift, large builders, small stone, and pebbles all slowly rising into the air around him and rotating around him as they began to crack, and shift-- the large boulders turning to rocks, the rocks to pebbles, until there was a small ring slowly rotating around him of small pebbles and dust-- similar to a ring circling a planet as his blank eyes lifted to watch her calmly, before his voice echoed out, ensuring that she was prepared.

"Ready?" It was a simple question-- but more than the usage of kidou, the fact that as he used it, there was only the briefest flicker of his reiatsu, was something he was far more pleased about-- even while using his kidou, there wasn't more than a wisp of his spiritual energy, the balance between focusing his control of the kidou and his own reiatsu signature had been a difficult one for a long time. He was quite content to know that now, even as he was wielding the energy, he was able to remain practically undetectable.

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She had known full well that Mako was not in need of any help getting to his feet, but it was a gesture of kindness and friendship that she was glad to say that he accepted, and with strength that belied her tiny frame, she hoisted him up easily, even if he did do most of the work. The confusion on his face and the thanks she received were simply bits of icing on the cake, and it made her smile as she considered it a moment. He probably didn’t have a lot of friends with his award winning personality, so he was probably even more awkward than she was when it came to interacting with other people. Yui, by nature, was actually a pretty social person at heart, it just had been buried under layers of pain and lack of use which her interactions with others was helping to rid her of.

Once, just this once, she didn’t bite his head off for putting his hand on top of her head and rubbing it around. He knew, all too well, that she was not a huge fan of the action because most people used it to make her feel smaller, or like a child, but he knew that and did it anyway. This meant that his intent was not to make her feel small, but instead a sign of affection that was simply more convenient because of her small stature.

As she got into her stance, her violet eyes were trained on Mako, and she couldn’t stop the smirk from playing on her face when she noticed that he was about to tell her to fix her stance, only to realize she had fixed it herself. The truth of it was that she was paying attention, and while she wasn’t particularly brilliant, her body was able to commit things to memory far easier than her mind. But that smirk wasn’t because she thought she was the best thing since sliced bread… not even because she was confident that she was getting a handle on things. No, it was because she could feel it every time they trained together, that she was getting somewhere. Not sitting there struggling to even get above the surface of her weakness, she was gaining skill in leaps and bounds, and she wasn’t drowning anymore. Mako had been one of the first ones to help her make that happen, and for that, he would always have her gratitude.

And then he pulled some crazy crap, like saying that he was going to fire Kidou at her and expect her to not dodge. The look of absolute disbelief was apparent; wide eyes, jaw slackened a little bit… surely he wasn’t serious. Hold back so she didn’t die… what the hell?? She didn’t even think that she was capable of deflecting Kidou with her blade… wouldn’t it just explode on impact? Or electrocute her? Or worse? Instinctively though, she reached out with her senses, able to grasp the thread that was his Reiatsu while he was performing the Kidou, and she could sense, just barely… was that happiness? Still not the most skilled, she dismissed it and instead focused on trying to use that thread to figure out what he was doing next.

He made a large number of rocks around them lift up with the Kidou and then encircle him, growing smaller and smaller to where they looked like nothing more than small pebbles and dust, and she was amazed at his level of Kidou control. She readied herself as best she could, knowing that those were going to be the projectiles she had to deal with, her eyes focused less on the rocks themselves, which were hard to track, but instead on her Spiritual Perception, which could identify the energy controlling the rocks and give her a chance to figure out which was coming first.

He asked if she was ready, and she gave a subtle nod, waiting for the first attack. She could understand what he meant now by holding back. These stones would certainly hurt like a bastard if they hit her, but they wouldn’t cause much in the way of actual damage unless he meant for them to. If he had started with something like the fireball one or the lightning one, she would be a lot more worried about his methods than what was actually in front of her. She was not sure how he was going to do this though… throw one stone at a time, or barrage her and watch as she tried to deflect as many as possible? Either way, she would just have to wait and see, and be as ready as she was physically capable of.

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She didn't bite the hand-- which to be honest, surprised him, but it was a pleasant surprise-- that odd sensation in his chest rearing its head once more as he shrugged it off, and instead continued in their process. The smile that decorated the girls face and the obvious emotions of excitement and eagerness that flowed through her reiatsu made it that much more intriguing. But he was glad-- glad that she clearly was progressing, and happy about that progress she was making. He saw the look of disbelief-- and yet, despite that, she remained where she was-- a level of trust that he didn't expect, but was pleasant nonetheless. Instead, he watched as she would slowly shift into the correct stance once more, and focus on him.

He waited until she nodded, giving him the affirmative that she was prepared before his reiatsu would flutter once more-- before the attacks began. The pebbles shot forward, but he was careful to control their speed to be just slightly slower than her natural reaction time-- to begin, they were one at a time, giving her a moment afterward each time to regain her footing if she failed, or only managed a partial parry. Watching her quietly, Mako followed the rhythms that she began to use-- and as the time ticked away the speed of the pebbles began to increase. The moment she became accustomed to their speed he would alter it, a slight boost, curving it from the side, aiming at a new location-- keeping her on her toes the entire time.

Anytime she slipped in her stance, or failed to use her body properly to deflect the force, or allowed her footing to slip-- he simply pointed it out, and that was only if she didn't realize it herself first. Again, and again, the barrage of pebbles continued as he forced her to rely on her blocking abilities-- until it went from a single stone to a barrage of two, and then three. However, eventually, he knew her stamina would again deplete-- it had grown considerably, but it was still definitely her weakest area. Sadly he didn't have a magical solution for that, he was limited to standard stamina training-- conditioning. Something he knew she was working on her own with as well.

However, whenever she did hit her limit-- Mako would halt, allowing the stones to drift around him slowly once more as he simply motioned to the ground for her to take a seat once again, his hands finding their place behind his back as he would raise his eyes a bit to watch as his pebbles lifted, and changed. Shifting underneath his control and slowly melding together the dust, pebbles, and broken chunks of rock as his eyes watched them press as one, until there was a singular large boulder floating around him like a moon instead. Content with that, he would allow it to gently fall before touching down on the grass gently-- with his focus no longer split he allowed his eyes to fall on the girl once more as a brief smile touched his face.

"Well done," he stated simply-- and she had done quite well, the fact she was learning so quickly spoke volumes on the possibilities that she was capable of. Of course, he'd already known that in a way, but she continued to prove his hypothesis correct-- the similarities between her and Yuuta were notable, but at the same time she had similarities to himself as well. It was an odd combination of instinct, muscle memory, and quick learning when it came at least-- to physical combat and reiatsu control.

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Yui sensed the flicker in his Reiatsu as the attacks began, the first aimed for her gut, which was a safe shot, certainly. Center of her body was the easiest place to block as her blade was already positioned there, and it was the easiest place to track the incoming projectile. Still, this was a lot different, and although she was successful in deflecting it, the angle was off, and the pebble only narrowly missed her abdomen. It certainly was going to take some getting used to… she had to take things into consideration like the angle of her blade versus the angle of the projectile’s flight, mass, impact, velocity… a lot more than she could handle consciously. Instead, she took a breath after the minor mistake, focused again, and waited for the next one, willing her body to take on the burden of memorizing all that information and commit it to memory. It might take longer than if she was just naturally gifted intellectually like Mako, but in the end, the result was the same, and she would be able to hold her head up high and show that she was strong enough to defend herself.

The next stone came, and this time she didn’t just ensure that her blade hit it, but did so at a much better angle and along with a slight slashing motion, which was better for impact. OK, that was good… but she felt too stiff just sitting still; she barely had time to react before the pebble was upon her, and as such she slowly began to weave the blade through the air as an unconscious thought. It took her a moment to stop this; it was moving back towards her normal fighting style, staying loose and keeping the ability to dodge at the fore instead of deflection. Once she was set again, another rock came and she deflected it smoothly, and reset… getting better with each stone as it came her way. Deflecting projectiles was a lot harder than it looked, but at least this time around she was allowing her breathing to be regular instead of regulating it so much. Another stone deflected. Reset.

Then Two.

She didn’t have time to reset between them this time, as they came quickly, one after the other, and instead deflected the first and stumbled the second, and it was too shallow, the pebble pelting into her shoulder. She flinched only for a moment, the pain lancing through her and quickly banished from her mind as she prepared for the next one, but she could feel the bruise already starting to form. Yui used the pain as fuel; she wouldn’t let the next one hit her… or the next one… and before you knew it, she was deflecting sets of three at a time, gradually improving based on what felt right and what felt wrong, using her body and her reactions to the blows to determine what was good and bad. It was obvious she didn’t have any formal instruction with all of this, as she wasn’t using exactly the proper form, but she was becoming extremely effective at it, even if her breathing was becoming heavy.

The next one was a bit faster, and she realized she had gotten complacent and it struck her hard in the stomach, and aside the slight flinch, she didn’t move… and instead bared her teeth. The next one had a curve, but she was ready, trying to be ready for any tricks, and deflected it upwards and over her head. The one aimed at her foot she just stepped on top of because she didn’t want to overextend in that direction and not be ready for the next, and as if reading his mind, the next came at chest level and she was ready for it. A solid ten minutes went by before she used a Shunpo to get out of the way entirely. She had gotten hit ten times in total, and her fatigued muscles weren’t able to keep up anymore, and she needed a rest. She moved where he instructed and sat down,

Ooooh, a compliment from the man behind the mask. She gave him a weak smile and rubbed a knot she had on her forearm, trying to work out the bruise that was going to show up there sooner than later. “Thanks… still feels like I got a long way to go though… I can tell my skill is improving… but that’s it. Why can’t I seem to get stronger, physically or otherwise?” It was something that had been bothering her for some time, and she was finally putting it into words and asking his opinion.

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Mako's gaze slid downward as she collapsed and started to rub at the spots decorating her body, casually reaching into his shirt-- and with a bit of adjustment, he pulled out a slim jar that held an odd green-white ointment as he lowered himself down with her, and raised a hand-- obviously wanting her to give him her arm before he would unscrew the lid, and begin to carefully apply the lotion-like ointment. It wasn't quite the same as real healing, but it would ease the pain and encourage fast healing. He continued this, applying it to the areas of her body that had been hit as he contemplated her question.

"We cannot naturally be hampered in our growth," he stated finally before he would then lean back once each spot was covered-- tucking it back into his top as he would them emphasize on, exactly, what he was referring to. "As souls, our limits are nearly nonexistent-- we aren't like humans, who are limited by corporeal laws. Theoretically, every shinigami-- every plus that has manifested their reiatsu-- has the potential to be captain-class or higher with enough time and effort. If you're simply not growing, it's not because you're doing something wrong, it's because something is stopping you." As he stated this, he would lean back, crossing his ankles as he watched her quietly.

"Often, it's a mental barrier. Something you aren't even aware of-- some part of you that is suppressing your soul's progression. Fear, Insecurity, Refusing to accept a part of your personality in general-- the list never ends really, it could be anything. Usually, it's something negative, but not always." As he said this, he would then allow his eyes to drift upward. "My own was fear. Once I broke past it, my power started to grow exponentially." The recollection of killing his father, causing his lip to briefly twitch upward in enjoyment-- before he would allow his breath to release slowly and glanced back toward her.

"Similarly-- it could be your Zanpaktou suppressing you. They are, after all a part of us. If you're doing something she doesn't like or doesn't support, it's entirely possible that she is acting as your "barrier" against yourself. Are you able to communicate with her well?" It was an important question, and as he straightened his posture he would let his gaze focus on her own-- his fingers intertwining as they rested in his lap. There were other possibilities of course, but her own lack of understanding of what her Shikai could possibly due, made it seem quite possible that they didn't interact much.

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