(OCC: Speed would be the main thing here, but I think there may be some room to grade for spirit power here as well. Grade as ya will though. Thank you everyone)

Another day has come to the world of the dead. Souls society was filled with life as the morning sun filled the sky. Once again the shinigami known as Kaito was up and about looking for a good bit of training. Though now he is stuck in a void without having any where to go. So Kaito figured that he would make a move that would finally put him ahead of the game and try to salvage his graduation. As he finally walked into the forest through the training grounds Kaito set down his training blade and zanpaktou as he started to stretch. These next couple of days will be nothing, but shunpo training for Kaito and once he finally learns how to use it he will finally be able to take his place as a normal shinigami. "I'm going to get this done and then take my spot as one of the strongest and talented shinigami to leave this academy" Kaito muttered sarcastically as he tried unsuccessfully to motivate himself. He sighed to himself as he scratched looking at the training ground in front of him.

Kaito jumped out into the clearing and after giving himself a few more last stretches he started to let his reiatsu out and around his body. He had a lot more then before and that is why he knew that trying out this training would be exactly what he needed. Of course the concept of shunpo was taught in class but they would have to learn it on there own time. Kaito was planning on taking his training to the next level finally by learning how to use it while still in the academy. He had all weekend to try and learn it. Kaito soon started to concentrate his reiatsu to the bottom of his feet which thanks to ability to watch other people and analyze their movements and come up with a strategy to either counteract or copy the ability. The real hard part was what came next and Kaito would have to try and use that reiatsu to move. Kaito shifted his foot allowing reiatsu to flow through, but he did not move at all. He just looked down at his feet and sighed. "Just great..." he sighed as the wind blew his black hair backwards revealing his crimson eyes as they stared calculatingly at the tree.

Kaito shot straight up into the air smashing his head into a tree branch and right back down onto his feet. He held his head as he stumbled around trying to keep his balance from the heavy blow. His eyes soon got focus again and Kaito stood there in the forest cursing and wondering what the hell just happened. Kaito noticed that he would have to really keep focus if he was going to use this ability. As he slowly made his way back to the center he continued with the constant slamming and bashing of his own body. Each time he would shoot off into another direction and hit a tree or a rock. Finally he decided that he would instead simply run around a little bit so that he could get a feel of his body running with reiatsu flowing through him. He took one step and then another as he ran through the training ground with no reiatsu in his body. His feet felt good on the grass as he stretched his limbs out on the training course as he gathered reiatsu to feet but didn't release it.

He had built up his spirit power to its max within his body as he was jogging, maintaining it with his mind as he ran in different directions for the soul purpose of making his body comfortable with the movement, "Now there is just one more thing to add to the mix" he thought lazily as he tried to simulate how the action would take place. Finally before his foot came down to the ground once more he released reiatsu into the soles of his feet and prepared himself for the burst of speed that he had anticipated to pick up. As he predicted he shot forward about three feet at such high speed it felt like not even a second had passed when he planted his foot firmly into the ground to stop himself. Even though he had attempted to stop, he had slid another feet before he actually came to a stop, "Man...what a pain" he said out loud looking at the ground behind him, "As if getting a handle on this thing wasn't bad enough. Now I gotta learn how to stop" he muttered grumpily to himself as he suddenly felt the drain of using so much spirit power, "Geez, just one step and a lost this much..." he thought as he collapsed to the ground in a cold sweat.

Taking a few seconds on the ground to gather himself and regain his focus once more he lay facedown in the dirt. "Time for round two I guess" he said muttering to himself. Even though this was more work than he wanted to be doing Kaito couldn't help, but smile as he thought about where he had been just 3 months ago. "I guess that tree really wasn't so hard compared to what I'm doing now" he mused to himself. He pushed himself up with both hands and got into a track stance, his white academy uniform now dirty from laying in the dirt, Kaito reached deep within himself in an attempt to reach for more reiatsu. Finally when he gathered all the power that he could muster, he exploded forth in movement with his muscles thick with reiatsu. The world became a blur for the seconds that he was in between his flash step and he managed to catch a glimpse of a tree that was in his path so he braced himself to stop. Again he skid a little ways before he actually stopped, but what had interested him was how he had seen the tree. "I couldn't have used my vision" he said thoughtfully as he stared at the tree in front of him trying to figure it out before shrugging his shoulders, "Either way, my movement is still too slow and I lose too much reiatsu using this technique" he realized as he prepared to try it once again.

+2 to speed

Kaito soon found himself thinking that maybe if he kept his flow concentrated evenly through his body but made the source of the receiving of reiatsu his feet it would make it easier for him to maintain control of his movement. As Kaito stood up once more he inhaled, filling up his lungs so that his chest swelled out before he exhaled, releasing all his doubts and frustrations along with the breath. Staring straight ahead Kaito took his stance once again, "I had better get this down before tomorrow or else I don't think I'll ever train this again" he thought as he cleared his mind. As he started to concentrate his reiatsu again he slowly started to hold it into the position so that it did not send him flying. Kaito furrowed his brows in concentration of forcing the reiatsu evenly through out his body. Lastly he knew all he would have to do is pick a direction and be able to move without losing his vision at the point of maximum speed. Closing his eyes he got ready to use shunpo once again, hopefully this time with more control than he had the previous times.

As he remembered his first attempts at shunpo he touched his still throbbing head, placing his left hand on top of his licorice-black colored hair trying to rub it in an attempt to quell the throbbing, "I should of brought a helmet if I knew it was going to be like this." he sighed once again. Kaito cursed himself as he thought about all the time he could have taken care of learning the skill at an average level so that he could have graduated without having to put in so much extra time. Now in order to graduate it would mean that he would have to be at the very least above average so that he could make high enough grade so that he would be able to receive the passing nod from the teacher. He shook his head miserably as he tensed his muscles once more ready to move now that he had managed to spread the reiatsu evenly throughout his body, "Well here I go" he moaned out loud as he threw himself at maximum speed in the direction of the tree.

Kaito launched himself though he did not kick of high enough and that made his foot catch the ground and he slammed face first into a trunk of a tree. He dropped slowly to the ground as he grunted from how much pain he was feeling from impacting the tree with such force. Scowling, Kaito stumbled to his feet as he a determined feeling spread throughout his being. This was unusual since Kaito rarely ever got motivated about doing anything especially when it came to training or even just listening to lectures and that was something very easy to do. When he realized what exactly it was that he was feeling, he grinned at the thought of him actually working hard as he gathered his reiatsu to maximum levels, but this time it was easier than any other attempt he had tried. This time he continued his training for 3 hours straight without pausing for any breaks or any other distractions as he had the first time. He had quickly buckled down picking up his feet so that his movement wasn't impeded by his feet dragging down, "I remember that academy teacher had something about that..." he remembered as he dipped himself back into his training mode once again. He had gotten the vision down, but it was still too erratic in its occurrence which meant that he couldn't yet focus his will when he decided to. Though this distressed him, he realized that the more he used the ability the easier it was to see. So it would seem that the whole sight thing would just come with use.

"I really wish that this would come a bit easier..." Kaito grumbled to himself after the repeated hours of focusing his reiatsu and dashing only to be brought to an abrupt stop by another object. It wasn't that he hadn't gotten the technique down, rather it was that he couldn't stop once he had completed a successful flash stop which really did him no good if he couldn't control the technique at the end. Sighing Kaito looked down at his feet once again as he tried to remember what he had noticed about the teacher's technique when he had performed the technique numerous times with ease, "What exactly was it that he did that made it so easy?" he asked himself even though he couldn't come up with the solution since he had slept through much of the lecture. Racking his brain he tried as hard as he could to try and come up with a solution that would somehow compensate for his lack of ability to stop; he reasoned that if he couldn't figure out how to stop well then he should account for that flaw in ability and then he could work around that problem. Even though Kaito was normally very good at seeing the solutions to dilemmas fairly quickly, there was no other solution that he could come up with besides actually learning to stop the old fashioned way of mastering the technique. When he realized this he sighed as he smacked his head into his palm.

Kaito smiled to himself as he always did every time he thought about graduating. It wasn't long till he started up again. Time and time again finding himself hitting something and lacking a bit of speed mainly out of fear of hitting something to hard. Though on one of his last tries everything seemed a lot more clear even enough so that he was able to stop before hitting a tree. After this successful attempt Kaito smiled and fell back onto his butt and watched the sky, "Bout time I finally got one right, let's try it once again" he said to himself. He didn't want to take a break when he had just built up momentum. Quickly making his way to his feet, Kaito built up the reiatsu and spread it evenly through out his body as he had done before, narrowing his eye, he said "Now" in the calmest of voices as he dashed at the tree in the blink of an eye, but planting his foot before he actually struck the tree. Instead of stopping there, Kaito gathered up his reiatsu once again as he planted on his left foot and flash stepped over to the tree to his left without pausing in between steps. As he came to a stop, he almost immediately dropped to his knees as he tried to gain his breath. Sweat dripped from the ends of his hair as it dangled over his face, which was hunched over facing the ground, but Kaito was happy he had gotten so far in his development. "I'll rest a little now" he thought as he fell flat on his back with his face looking up into the sky.

+2.5 speed nice post

Kaito soon stood up to once again resume his training. His body ached but he knew he had to get to it. As he took off once again his vision seemed to totally absorb everything in his surroundings. He wasn't exactly impressed with this feat since he hadn't exactly pushed himself his hardest when he used the reiatsu. As Kaito launched himself all around the area and all through the training grounds he felt as if his legs were on fire. Even with his feeling the way he was Kaito wasn't worried about that and he wanted to keeping pushing forward. "I can't stop now" thought to himself as he tried to deal with the pain that had kept creeping up through his legs, "Not after everything I have put myself through, I can't let things end here" he kept telling himself. Things were looking up for him and he figured that since he was progressing in his training that he would be able to pull off graduating after all. He grinned as he stared in front of him with a look of determination in his eyes, "Who knows if I will be strong enough to do anything once I graduate though" he felt the as a crushing realization was there. "Oh, well there's no point in thinking about that now" he finished as he dashed forth again dosing his feet with reiatsu.

His speed increased every time he performed shunpo, as did the distance, by the time the sun had started to dip below the horizon Kaito's ability with shunpo could even have passed as average for a shinigami. Though after about another hour of his training he was stopped dead in his tracks by a shock wave of pain that emanated through his legs finally making him have to stop. Kaito sat down in a grassy field and soon laid back looking up at the starry sky. He figured he would keep up his training by constantly letting his reiatsu flow by his feet. He some how felt it very relaxing."I just got to keep this up for one more day or so. I almost have it. After I get this done I will try some work within the forest and going around multiple trees and such" he assured himself. Kaito watched the sky and sure enough he saw a shooting star strike through the sky. He smiled and sure enough saw another and another until the whole sky was being filled with stays as the rained across the night sky. Kaito could not believe what he was seeing. He held his hand up towards the sky and looked through his fingers at them all as they looked like they passed through his hand.

For some reason the feeling of watching the stars flit back and forth across the sky gave Kaito the motivation that he needed to ignore the pain in his legs as he stood up once more so that he could continue his training under the blanket of the night. "This should be even more productive than training during the day" Kaito thought to himself as he focused the reiatsu at his feet once again preparing himself to dash around the makeshift obstacle course that he had practiced on. He had fully understood the nature of flash stepping and finally realized how one could become a true master of it. "Rather than pushing off the reishi at my feet, I would be faster if I simply slid atop them" he observed. To test his theory he gathered reiatsu at his feet quickly and then rather then burrowing his foot into the ground he pressed lightly forward to see how far he would go. To his amazement he had found himself by a tree that he had predicted to be at least 40 feet away from where he had been previously standing, "In the blink of an eye" he thought to himself. It surprised him that it would make such a difference even though it was a small change in concept.

Shaking off his disbelief, he began gathering his reiatsu once again at the soles of his feet. Like before he gently pressed off the tip of his feet, back in the direction he had been standing before. Once again in the blink of an eye Kaito was back in the destined spot with relative ease even though maintaining focus of the technique was hard because the reishi had to be mostly controlled or else the particles will dissipate from his feet and he would no longer have control over what direction he was going in. Instead of stopping at just that, he planted his right foot and pivoted back to the direction that he had been just seconds before, "This is getting a little bit easier" , he felt a breeze as he once again appeared on the other side of the clearing. This time he lost his balance and stumbled to the ground. Instead of rushing back to his feet Kaito laid there for a moment hoping that he would get a better hang of the technique by the time examination time came around. Figuring that he could at least master one more aspect down before he went to bed he pushed himself to his feet.

Kaito gathered reishi and tried to force himself to use flash step at least four times before he would call it quits, "I have get some kind of growth before going I go to bed" he contemptuously thought to himself. Forcing the reishi particles underneath his feet once again he narrowed his crimson eyes as he focused them perfectly in line as he pressed of the tip of his foot once again. After he managed to dash over to the other side of the clearing without making a sound he pivoted once again as he dashed over to the other side again, "That's two" , but even as he said this he could feel his muscles beginning to tire out as he crouched and tensed up so that he could dash in the other direction. He tried to push himself once again, but all he could manage was to press his foot lightly and only moved a couple of feet before he collasped onto the ground. "I think now is a good time to sleep" he daydreamed as he drifted to sleep.

+2 speed

Kaito soon opened his eyes to the sun of a new day. This day for some reason he felt would be more promising than all the others. For he was almost done with his training. Today he should be finished with it all and he would move on with his training. Kaito stood up stretching his arms and in a flash took off from where he was standing. The training has begun once more and every time he used it his length and speed would come closer to the final stage. As Kaito kept training for a few hours he soon found himself in a forest that was filled with trees that were much closer together. He figured here would be the best place to finish up. He had now gotten to the point where the sliding of reishi particles had come naturally to him which placed him on a level that was even beyond that of the academy level, but he still decided to keep pushing for more.

Kaito flashed stepped through the forest time and time again as the trees passed him by. He felt as if his legs were going to fall off but he was very close to the end. It has been a long few days and it was all about to come to an end. Kaito soon arrived at the edge of the forest and he could clearly see everything like a true shinigami could. He weaved in and out of trees as he rushed through with ease. His body was telling him to stop but he just had to endure it just a little longer, "Almost there. I can't stop now. All I have to do is give it a few more shots and I'm out" he thought as his eyes remained only half opened. Putting his hands on his knees Kaito tried to maintain his strength as he wanted endure for a little while longer.

Kaito shot off into the darkness of the forest in a flash and his body felt like it was on fire but all he could do is just keep going. Trees flew by him and every once and a while a branch would slam into his arms or chest causing him to have to stop. This was the end of it all and yet he felt like it was taking an eternity. As Kaito reached the last bit of the forest Kaito soon felt and saw that all the trees around him could be dodged with much careful movement. Kaito started to take the long way around everything zipping around within the patterns. His arms swayed back behind him as each jump brought him closer to the end. The end was near and his body was aching for it to finally be here.

Kaito kept going pushing his body and step after step he came closer to the light at the end of the forest. It was only an instant but the second he burst out of the trees into the open field he felt like he could do anything. Though that all ended when he landed face first in the dirt do to the fact he could no longer move his legs. Kaito had learned how to use shunpo and control it but there was a massive lack of endurance for it now after using it so much. As he slowly stood up with wobbling knees he started to walk back. A smile was on his face and he was very content that it took him two days. Most shinigami could probably learn it around that time if they did the right prep for it all.

He felt like if he did not master shunpo and his reiatsu control he would lack a lot of it and would of spent a whole day out here after this. So he was glad that he could go home and rest. With graduation close at hand he had to make sure that he had everything that he needed to pass, "This is such a pain in the ass to deal with" he thought as he rubbed his face with a hand in frustration. Even though he was sure his body couldn't take anymore pain any longer he gather reishi at his feet, "I'm almost there" with everything he had he pushed off and suddenly he reached the point he had been seeking. Once he did this he tried to shunpo over to the top of the tree as he tried to leap onto the top of the tree just north of him, but he didn't have the strength to reach there as his attempt only left him face down in the dirt from exhaustion. "Another day ends and another day begins. My life as a shinigami draws near and I'm hoping that it isn't a complete waste of time" he thought.

+.5 speed and thread locked