(Spirit power please.)

Kaito followed the old man back to the place where he lived, this meant returning back to the village where he had first been shown that he didn't possess enough power to protect himself or anything else that was dear to him. As they entered the entrance of the town, Kaito stared at his body; it had undergone so much change in mere month that it was hard for him to accept that it was really his own body. After a tedious trek back to the old man's humble abode accompanied by many halts in the travel since Kaito maintained his lack luster work ethic, the two travelers finally returned to the place where the boy's final training would be. It was bright and early when they had arrived so the old man turned to Kaito, "Boy, since it is daytime...there's no point in wasting time that we don't have...we shall resume your training immediately" the man said as he went into his hut leaving the last words to trail behind him. "Tch...you've got to be kidding me...I damn near died in that crazy forest and I return to not even get a day's rest?" Kaito thought grumpily to himself.

Staring at the sun and the clouds that drifted aimlessly in the sky, Kaito wished that he could be as free as them so that he could spend the rest of his days simply drifting lazily about instead of struggling to try and get stronger all the time. He heard the old man's shuffling footsteps coming towards the entrance of the hut so he sighed and wheeled around only to come face to face with a huge stack of papers. "Ara?...what's all this then, Ossan?" Kaito asked quizzically; for some reason the goofy manner in which the old man was currently regarding him made him nervous. "Well, lad..." the old man laughed as a reddish hue spread across his cheeks, "I forgot to deliver this mail to the many subscribers of my work so I was wondering if you...could help me..." he finished with a sheepish grin on his face. A moment of silence passed between the two and in that moment it was possible to hear the background noises of the entire village, from the children playing to the adults rushing about making sales; all these natural noises were interrupted by a single answer, "No".

The boy wasn't going to listen to anything else that the old man had to say, "Using me as his errand boy...ridiculous..." he muttered indignantly as he walked almost to the exit of the backyard, "Baka! This is your training...it will raise your stamina!" the old man yelled. Hearing this Kaito grimaced and dropped his head backward so that his face was pointed towards the sky, "Dammit..." he cursed as he pivoted back towards where the old man was standing. As he approached the old man, he heard the guy sigh in relief only furthering his irritation with the senior in front of him, "All you have to do is carry me upon your back and take me to all the houses I point to so I can drop off this new edition" the old man explained. Kaito scratched his messy black hair as he tried to deal with the irritation that was building up within his spirit, "Yea...I guess it doesn't help me now, not to do what you say..." he reasoned as he knelt down so that the old man could climb on his back. He felt as each step the old man took on his book left an flaring imprint, but the boy ignored and lifted up the old man, "Where to?" he said in gruff tone indicating that he wanted to get the entire ordeal over with as soon as possible.

The sun would begin its descent along the horizon before Kaito would be finished running throughout the entire area of Rukongai as the old man guided him down one corridor to the next; to make things worse they got lost several times. During the high point of the day the task was at its worst because not only was Kaito tired from running through the many districts and areas, but the heat bore down upon his body making him sweat profusely which made it hard to hold the old man on his back. After the first hour Kaito was sure that his lungs would explode from lack of air and the acid that now replaced the blood in his veins was going to kill him if they didn't stop this ridiculous line of work really soon. Eventually really soon came and passed, but Kaito didn't see the old man slowing down any time soon as he continued to direct the boy from one house to another sometimes making the young soul trek through more than a couple districts at a time only to turn back once more.

Night would blanket the entire area before the old man would finally give the signal to return back to the hut where they had originally started their journey from and Kaito struggled to make it back. As soon as he set foot into the old man's backyard he quickly collapsed to the ground in a fit of wheezing, "Damn...I can't believe I did all this work for the old man like that..." he chastised himself. Unfazed by the miserable state of Kaito's being, the old man nimbly leaped from the boy's back and landed gently on the ground, "Not bad Kaito-dono, but you should realize that if this is the extent of your strength then you still aren't ready..." the old man said bluntly. Kaito didn't immediately respond as he continued trying to regain his breath, but eventually he gained enough wind where he managed to squeeze out a couple of words, "This is nothing...I still could go on...for days..." he spluttered in the toughest voice he could managed. As if the boy's words gave him hope, the old man knelt down beside the boy, "That's quite enough, lad, you're on your way..." he praised the boy in a kind voice as he helped the boy to his feet and into the house.

+2.5 Spirit Kaito...

(Spirit power please)

After the previous days efforts Kaito was pretty drained from all the running around and he hoped that the old man would give him a day off, but when he heard the slight creaking throughout the old, wooden shack he knew that it would be the opposite of what he hoped for. Soundlessly Kaito threw back the sheets on his bed and gingerly placed his feet upon the cold floor in hopes that he could escape from the shack before the old man came to his room to wake him up. Inching slowly towards the wall Kaito began to wonder why he had to deal with such crackpot of an old man in the first place and it was then that he remembered that it was the old man who had saved him from living a meaningless existence. "Geez...it seems that in the end I owe the old man more gratitude than I'm showing..." he pondered as he rested with his back against the wall. After giving it some thought the young soul decided against trying to escape whatever bizarre task it was that the old man was going to give him today and instead he would try and appreciate the help that he was receiving.

The moment that the small, shriveled person came hobbling through Kaito's room doorway he knew that he should have simply bolted when he had the chance; the old man's expression clearly indicated that it was going to be a rough day of training. Feigning sincerity the old man greeted Kaito in a cordial fashion, "Good morning youngster...how did you sleep after that workout yesterday?" he asked as his wrinkled face twisted to a fake smile, but Kaito knew that it only meant that he had a rough day ahead. Getting up from his spot against the wall the young boy towered over the old man as he stared down at his makeshift senpai with a pained expression on his face, "Man...I get it...I have a huge workload that I'm going to have to deal with so let's just skip the pleasantries...you're making me nauseous..." he muttered as he scratched the nape of his neck. After he had nonchalantly made this comment Kaito had averted his eyes away from the old man to the crooked window that was awkwardly positioned over the cot that he slept upon, "The day looks so nice...too bad I'm going to be wasting it training..." he thought when suddenly he felt a small impact on the back of his head. Blinking a few times the lazy boy turned towards the old man with a start as he held the spot that had been struck, "What did I do?" was all that he could muster since he hadn't quite recovered from the shock of being hit in the back of the head.

After several moments of arguing and yelling in the small confined space of the shack the two combatants finally made their way to the backyard, despite the fact that their issues remained unresolved, but they decided to put that behind them for the moment. "You're next training will be your ability to draw up the massive reserves of spirit power you now possess in huge sums..." the old man said gruffly without looking in Kaito's direction since the two of them were still at odds with each other. When Kaito heard what his next training session was, he felt a wave of exasperation fill his being as he craned his neck towards the sky, "Spirit power? again? when will this endless obsession with this spirit power stuff end?" he asked himself silently. Having no choice, but to agree with the old man's whims the young soul shuffled to the middle of the backyard and glanced towards the old man to see if he would get any further instructions or hints on how to go about this level of training. Since the old man's back was still turned away from him he assumed that he wouldn't be getting any help which suited the young man fine which he indicated with a shrug of his shoulders as he closed his eyes and began to focus the power that he had felt within his body so many times before.

A sudden burst of noise and wind began to pick up around Kaito as he gathered his spiritual power in large sums in a cocoon around his body, "This isn't so bad after all...maybe I overestimated the intensity of this training..." he chuckled to himself as he continued to build up the energy. "Now release it in a steady flow throughout your body" Kaito heard the old man bark in the background so Kaito began to focus upon releasing the energy that he had now built up within his body. To his surprise he found that he couldn't release the energy easily and instead the energy simply dissipated into tiny particles in the corner of his mind until finally he could no longer feel the energy within his body; he dropped to one knee as he struggled to catch his breath. "What the hell just happened?..." the young boy wheezed as he tried to get back on his feet when he heard the old man tutting as he made his way deliberately towards Kaito, "You overestimated the level control you had over your own power..." the old man said through grinning lips. Heaving a breath Kaito ignored the old man's quips and once again began to gather the energy within his body as he had done in his first attempt, "I can figure this out on my own..." he uttered angrily through gritted teeth.

Just like the first time that he had attempted to release his energy in controlled bursts, Kaito found himself even more drained than he was at the start of his second attempt; each breath became labored and the weight of his body forced him to stand on a lean. "There must be a trick to this whole thing...I don't need this old guy to figure it out..." he decided as he straightened his body in preparation for his second attempt at the exercise, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he would need to consult with the old man since he seemed to have a better understanding of this concept. Looking in the direction of the old man, Kaito saw that the old man still smirking as he watched Kaito suffering from the efforts of his training and it forced him to concentrate even harder as he gathered the strands of energy that lay floating within his spirit. He felt as the energy filled him as it had the previous two times and he tried to control the torrents of wild energy that seemed to surround him, "Now all I have to do...is get the energy to disperse through my body..." he told himself. In his mind the careful beads of energy that he had gathered burst before his eyes and disappeared as they had before leaving Kaito crumpled upon the ground at the feet of the old man, who simply stared impassively down at the struggling soul, "This could take awhile..." were the only words the old man uttered as Kaito passed out.

+2 Spirit Power to Kaito