His body suddenly went from feeling like he was flying through the sky to running into a brick wall at full speed. Whatever his head had struck it was hard even making a plunking noise as the world stop being beautiful and filled with lights. Finally Kaito was able to gather the his senses and he opened his eyes for the first time since he had died at the hands of whatever it was that had killed him. He opened his eyes for the first time and he had to blink twice so that he could adjust the sunlight. Wherever he was it was bright and it felt like he was back among the living. Clinching his hands as he clawed the dirt so that he could get a grip on his standing up. Making his way to his feet Kaito stood up slightly disoriented as he stumbled left and right, finally regaining balance on a nearby tree. It was after a moment that he realized he was panting and sweating as if he had run a thousand miles, "What's wrong with me?" he wondered to himself.

Once Kaito got ahold of himself he stood up straight and looked down at his hands in bewilderment. He tried to understand what had happened to him since he became a soul. The best that he could come up with was that he had to get used to his new soul body in a manner where it would require the most extreme physical exertion. He looked up at the tree as he quickly came up with an exercise that would at least increase his stamina and ability to keep his wind for a little while longer than just a couple of seconds. "Damn..." he muttered as he began to hate himself for the things that he had to do in order to get to the point where he could at the very least survive. Sighing as he began to stretch out first his hamstrings then his worked his way to stretching his arms. When he finished stretching Kaito looked up into the tree to see exactly what his goals would be. First he would try and make his way up to the first branch, which was about 10 feet up from the ground. Not very high up, but it would give Kaito the chance to work his newly formed muscles.

The moment he touched the bark of the tree in front of him, his flesh was set aflame. Kaito stepped back in surprise as he shook his hand that had been seared on the burning wood. Another problem with the training was that he would have to climb the tree each time as fast as he could because when he had been transported to wherever he was, he didn't seem to have any close. Although he looked at the tree with determination he felt a little weighed down by the weight of having to exert himself this much. He ran up to the tree and latched on the wide trunk, "It burns..." the boy thought as his skin screamed mercy as it was set ablaze against the burning bark. Blocking it out of his mind he focused his mind and felt an energy flow through him as he put one hand in front of the other. With each progression it was possible to hear the sizzling of his skin against the bark. Finally he reached the first branch, pulling himself up while still the sun beat down on his back. As his feet finally vaulted the branch, he realized that his breath had gotten slightly better. Once again he sighed as he jumped down and decided to rest so that he could go for the second branch. "This is a ridiculous amount of work" Kaito sighed.

Kaito had only meant to sleep for but a few minutes possibly even a few hours, but when he had awoke from the nice nap he had taken he noticed that it had been more than just a few hours. Of course there was no sure way to tell exactly how much time had passed, but Kaito could tell that it was definitely something beyond that of a few hours. Still, naked Kaito felt the cool breeze that blew through the plains that he was in. He closed his eyes and let it caress his body, flowing around his very being even into the crevices that people normally wouldn't allow for things to go into, but he let it go because he didn't feel like disturbing such a fine feeling. After a while he stood up once again so that he could continue his "training".

Getting a running start he leaped after the onto the tree and started pulling with his upper body and pushing with his lower body, "This is easier than I thought it would be" he thought as he inched his way up the tree once again, "I should have my body conditioned in no time" he deduced happily. He got to the first branch only moderately tired, sweating and breathing just a little bit. He was tempted to stop and rest a little on the first branch, but he knew that during training it wasn't productive to stop during the actual training itself so he kept on climbing. As soon as he got a little bit above the first branch was when the intensity of this second level of training hit him, leaving him in a cold sweat panting stuck halfway between the first branch and the second branch. His naked body felt all the sweat as his pores opened up releasing a ton of water weight.

There was no way that he could continue climbing up the tree as he stayed in his spot panting as if he had no more breath in him, his muscles were inflamed as the lactic acid built up within them. His body no longer obeyed his will and refused to move another inch as it used up energy simply staying in the one spot, "Come on..." Kaito thought as he gritted his teeth. "Come on...Come on...COME ON" he screamed over and over in his head. Suddenly the burning in his muscles reached unbearable levels and Kaito found himself screaming right along with his muscles in agony. Using the pain as motivation he reached deep within himself and found the will power or energy, the name wasn't important, but Kaito could feel his body begin to move upward as he moved towards the second branch. He saw that it was just above his head and he refused to give up now that he had come so far. Putting two more tugs with the upper body in Kaito had to but reach once more and he would have achieved his goal.

Sweat dripped down his neck and into his eyes in rivulets, "I'm right there" he thought as he reached just a little bit further trying to reach his goal before his strength gave out. At the last moment Kaito just tapped the second branch, but he didn't have the strength to mount it like he had the first one. In fact the moment he touched the second branch his body became dead weight and he fell back to the earth, landing on his back with a thud. "Training level 2....success" he managed to cough out as he lay on his back. His eyes started to close from the sheer effort of the training that he had done.

very nice, +2.5 spirit power

(OCC: Mostly aiming for spirit power here, but if there might also be speed points here though I'm not sure. I will leave that up to the pros. Thanks again guys and girls.)

"Shitty tree..." Kaito muttered as he felt the grass blades underneath him slowly creep up into the regions of his butt that he wouldn't have liked them to be in. Although this was an uncomfortable feeling for him he didn't move because he was still a bit too lazy and tired to attempt trying anything strenuous again so soon. He stared directly above him at the clouds that continued to float as lazily as his own mind was floating, "Man, I wish I were cloud..." he randomly thought to himself, "They're so free. So careless in their listless floating" he observed. While staring up at the clouds wondering about the clouds Kaito couldn't help, but notice how strange it was to see the sun being blocked out every once in awhile by the same lazy clouds which provided a much needed respite to less fortunate beings like himself who didn't have clothing to shield him from the abusive rays of the sun. Although he was a bit sore from exerting himself so much from the previous days he could tell that he had grown a little stronger since his arrival, it wasn't that he had tested it, but rather there was an innate sense that told him that he was stronger. Kaito then propped himself up with both elbows as he looked up at the tree that he had been trying to overcome for the last couple of days. His gaze wasn't one of anger, humiliation, or even determination rather it was one of boredom and genuine disinterest in continuing his own training.

Continuing to look Kaito pushed up off his propped elbows so that he was now in a crouching position, completely coiled up like a cat waiting to spring. Even though it wasn't too hot or too cold Kaito waited for the howling of the wind to give him the signal to start his treacherous climb up the huge tree. In anticipation the boy rocked his body back to the point where his hind parts were just kissing the ground as he readied all his muscles to explode at the designated time of action. A small drop of sweat trickled down and slid down Kaito's nose as it dropped hopelessly to the earth, at this Kaito grunted, "That's what I'm gonna look like if this keeps going on" he deduced grimly. Closing his eyes to block out the sensory information that would only serve to distract him, Kaito reached deep within his being, willing power to fill his body with every ounce of strength that he had at his disposal. It was as if he could feel this weight, that wasn't too heavy become lifted off of him and he couldn't help but open his eyes just to get a visual of what was happening, but he couldn't see anything. By the time he pulled himself together Kaito realized that the wind had given its final whistle and that it was time to go, smiling as his body unwound to release the maximum amount of exertion that it was capable of.

He could feel as his feet didn't seem to hit the ground anymore rather they seemed to gently caress it with each stride, kicking up only the top layer of soil and never digging into the ground. In the first two days his feet dug into the ground leaving huge craters, but he didn't seem to really be going anywhere, but he hadn't minded. It took him three strides to cover the distance that it would have taken him several choppy steps just two or so days ago, "What is going on with me?" he wondered half-heartedly, not letting his focus leave the tree that was in front of him. Kaito realized that he must have gotten a bit faster along with having more endurance because he found the tree right in front of him just after a couple strides and in fact it came rushing at him at a speed he hadn't anticipated and he was forced to leap into the tree so that he didn't crash into the tree. This wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him as he continued clawing his way up the bark, dipping well into the well of life force that he had only discovered last night. Like last time it was easy for him to finally reach the first branch in fact he had not broken a sweat, at least on his face. There were some exposed parts of Kaito's body that were actually itchy and sweating profusely, neither of these conditions made prevented him from getting any further up the tree. He grunted once again as he clawed at the bark of the tree, trying to make it before the noon came and brought the fury of the sun along with it.

Feeling the bark splinter underneath his grip made Kaito sense how much stronger he had become in the last couple of days, but he didn't allow the thought to distract him. While he was lazy and didn't like to do much, he also didn't like the idea of his soul be killed especially since he had gone through the entire death cycle once. He definitely wasn't keen on going through it again which is why he was simply trying to better his chances of survival by preparing his body for the troubles to come. Extending his right arm over his head, he grasped the wood with such force that splinters broke off and fell onto his face. He quickly shook them off as he began extending his left arm just above the place where the right arm had reached and pulled himself up even further along the tree. By not sweat had begun to drip freely from every part of his body, but his breathing was still relatively normal, "I have a little more time until I reach the threshold of pain for my body" he reassured himself out loud. He was just grasping onto the second branch when he suddenly felt the heat on his back increase and he half-turned his head to look at the sky only to see that the sun was now reaching the high point in the day, "Damn!" he cursed, but then a smile spread on his face as he closed his eyes and put his forehead on the bark of the tree. "I guess it wouldn't be fair if I only got stronger under the easiest of circumstances, would it?" he asked to no one in particular. Despite the heat that now seared into his back Kaiyo pulled himself past the second branch of the tree with the third branch locked in his sights.

"More...More...More" he kept saying in his head as he struggled now to continue pushing his arms forward to reach up any further in the tree. While he had passed the second branch, the third branch was near the top of the tree and the distance between the second and third branches was completely different from any distance he had to cover before. He had extended his left arm and wanted bring his right arm up as he was breathing heavily, trying to suck in breath that seemed to refuse to fill his lungs. His chest burning from the overtime work his lungs were doing, his muscles felt as though they may explode and as he tried to move his right arm he realized that his body had reached the point that it wouldn't take orders any longer. Clenching his teeth he fought just to hold his place on the side of the tree. The sun's rays continued to bake him like an ant underneath a magnifying class and Kaito could feel his lazy self ready to give in. "Why bother?" he asked himself, but then he thought about how as a soul he had lazied around and almost gotten killed by a beast. Suddenly he pushed himself once again, forcing his arms to extended clawing at the tree, going higher and higher. With closed eyes Kaito progressed up the tree until finally his left arm touched what felt like a branch and it was only then that Kaito looked up; he had done it. "This is troublesome" he thought as he looked back to the ground and realized there was no way he was just going to drop to the ground. He used what was left of his strength and climbed onto the branch, swinging one leg over so that he was straddling it and passed out from the exertion of his training. Before losing consciousness completely he noted that the tree shaded him from the sight of the clouds and he got a little annoyed.

+2 to spirit power ^^

Kaito awoke during the hottest part of the day, the sun shining through the branches as abusing him with its powerfully hot rays. Kaito didn't want to want to wake up at first because he felt that if he simply laid down that he would have nothing to worry about in terms of training again. He turned over onto his belly in an attempt to shield the sunlight that was blasting his face, making it hard for him to stay asleep, although the only thing that Kaito had succeeded in doing was to ensure that his back would have burn marks on them. As the heat became more and more a factor of how well Kaito was going to sleep, he struggled to counteract it with numerous turns, alternating between sleeping on his side to sleeping on his belly and back. In desperation Kaito had even attempted to sleep curled up in a ball while on his feet, but he did all this to no avail, "Dammit" he grumbled, "As if I don't deserve the sleep..." he complained. Scratching his forehead even though it wasn't itchy, Kaito looked up to the tree with his free hand held up so that he could block out the sun. A sense of accomplishment emanated throughout Kaito's being even though he was feeling the less than favorable effects of his intense training, "In the end it was worth it" he told himself.

On his feet he realized that he had spent the last week or so completely naked and Kaito not being one, who was completely oblivious to the facts of nature realized that if he didn't wash and find some clothes soon that he may very well end up dead from some unknown disease. Again he scratched his head as he headed towards a stream that he had seen before, but never had the chance to approach because of the commitment he had made to his training, but once he was upon it staring into his own reflection he no longer had the desire to go into. "That looks way too cold for me to be jumping in haphazardly" he noted to himself without even bothering to physically dip his foot in the water to check its temperature. Kaito then looked down at himself to see that he was covered in grime and he sighed once again, "Looks like I don't have a choice in the matter" he thought as he prepared to leap into the water, the sun reflecting off the water he leaped into the air landing in the water without splashing too much water up in the air. As he waded in the pool his face now wet from the initial splash of the dive he quickly calculated how large the pool of water was.

Realizing that he needed more training he decided that the best action would be to swim some laps around the pool of water, so it wouldn't be a total waste of time while he was cleaning himself off. Putting his head down Kaito brought his right arm over his head while at the same time pushing with his left arm so that he would move through the water which was relatively easy in light of his training that he had gone through the last couple of days. After the first couple of laps around the water, which was the size of a small lake, Kaito began to feel his breath fun out. Even though that was the case it still wasn't enough so he decided that to further progress his training that he would dive underneath the water and drag heavy stones with him to the surface. Despite the fact that it seemed like a stupid idea, Kaito dove down and saw a stone that was pretty hefty looking.

He swum down and picked it up with both hands underneath the stone as he turned to start swimming skyward once more, but to his amazement the stone was alot heavier than he had initially had thought and he didn't move when he began pushing with his legs. "Shit", Kaito thought as he struggled to gain even an inch of progress upward, finally he reached deep within himself again as he had done with the tree and he slowly made more progress as he continued to push with all his might. Pumping his legs, he closed his eyes as the burning in his muscles and lungs continued to build to the point where he was beginning to see spots in his vision, "I can do this" he tried to convince himself as he tried pushing. "Dammit" he said as he coughed and the water starting rushing into his mouth forcing him to let go of the stone as he made a sprint for the surface. As he broke the plain, Kaito sucked in as much air as he could before he regained the ability to form coherent sentences. With his muscles still burning Kaito decided that he would at the very least bring that one stone to the surface before the day was done.

Since his breathing had calmed down he saw no need to wait any longer even though his muscles still ached slightly from the first attempt at picking up the stone and his body felt drained. He dove in spite of all these things, feeling the air rush past him in bubbles as he once again made his way to the bottom of the pool of water. While he was still descending, he realized how clear the water was, "Good thing, I would hate to have to swim somewhere where I have no clue what is at the bottom" he thought. Finally reaching the place the stone had fallen, Kaito planted his feet on the floor of the lake as he heaved the stone up, its cool hardness pressing against his naked being, but he didn't really care. Pushing off the ground Kaito lifted as he started pedaling his feet in an attempt to drag the stone up with him. Like the first time the weight of the stone was overwhelming, but this time he put his maximum effort in from the start so that he would be able to pick up the slack at the end when things would get tougher. His muscles cramped up as he closed in on the halfway mark of the the lake, but he couldn't hold on as his body once again gave out on him. He let go and made his way back to the surface, disappointed in his lack of ability and fortitude to complete the task.

His body felt completely drained by the time that he made it to the top, in fact he even had to swim over to the bank so that he wouldn't run the risk of sinking to the bottom of the lake in such a weakened state, "I didn't think it would be so much effort" he laughed deliriously as he rested his head on the land while the rest of his body waded in the water. While he was positive that he had no chance of completing the task in his current condition, for some reason even he himself couldn't understand, he couldn't just give it up. In a last ditch effort he dove to the bottom trying to go for the stone once again, completely locked onto the stone. His grip on the rock was weakened, but he still managed to pick up as he pedaled his feet furiously once again. He managed to lift the stone once again, but he struggled to get much further than that. Racking his body for resources he exploded with the last of his energy upward and he managed to propel himself to the surface with the stone in his grasp. Shortly after he dropped it back into the lake as he swam fervently back to the bank and crawled onto land so that he could pass out safely, "Just a little more and I would have had it" he said as he passed out into unconsciousness.

+2.5 spirit, nice post ^^

The sun shined in his face as he tried to turn his face in order to shade himself, "Geez...my body is completely thrashed" he observed even as his eyes remained closed. Finally he rubbed his eyes trying to get the sleep out from his eyelids as he kept trying to make himself comfortable on the bank, where he had been laying for the last couple days since he had tried to drag the stone up from the lake earlier. As he moved slowly to get up, he felt the pain of his back shoot up his spine as he tried to sit up in order to look up at the sky, "What a pretty day..." he thought as he continued to look at the clouds since he had no reason to continue pushing himself so hard. He was going to let the laziness overtake him once again putting him to sleep, but then he remembered his reason for training in the first place, "I don't wanna die...I guess that's why I have no choice, but to keep working..." he thought as he continued to look up into the sky.

After awhile of daydreaming Kaito grunted as he struggled to his feet, tottering as he finally made his way to his feet, "Eh...well looks like the muscles in my back haven't exactly gotten used to the idea of me swimming with heavy objects on my back" he joked contritely. Without any hesitation Kaito leaped into the lake once more as he gathered his determination so that he could do the training that needed to be done, but with each stroke his shoulders and back cried out in pain to him, his lungs throbbed from the efforts of the previous attempt at carrying the boulder to the surface of the lake, "It doesn't matter if I die pushing myself here...I have to be ready" he thought as he went deeper and deeper still despite the protests of his body. Finally he found where the stone lie and placed his hands underneath the stone as he felt the familiar resistance of its weight resisting him, "Dammit, it even feels like this thing has gotten heavier" he mentally complained as he tried to struggle upward with the stone in his grip. His legs barely responded to his command to pedal and he had trouble even getting off the floor of the lake, but finally he reached into his being, managing to push himself upward in time for his breath to run out. Kaito rushed back to the surface so that he could regroup and regain control of himself.

As Kaito wallowed at the surface of the lake he tried to come up with a way to move the stone without overusing the already sore muscles in his body, "There has got to be some trick to carrying it up through the current of the lake" he pondered as he eyed the flow of the water around him, "Forget it, this isn't the time to be trying to come up with strategies" he scolded himself as he gathered his breath and dove down once again. The stone was clear in the water which had taken up Kaito's black hair throwing it in many directions that made it hard for him to see, but he didn't mind as he continued to make his way toward it. Reaching it once again Kiato felt the strain of his muscles trying to pick up the stone. Ignoring it he heaved the stone and using momentum generated from the initial swing managed to get the stone on his back, "Hopefully this works" as he started pedaling the surface once again off his well overused leg muscles.

With the stone on his back, Kaito found it almost impossible to make any headway as he continued swimming straight upward, so he tried to swim somewhat to the side so that he may be able to lessen the effect that gravity had on him. Feeling that his legs were losing their effiency at pedaling, Kaito did the only thing that he could think of, which was to find a where the current of the stream would help him. Pushing to the side he continued to search for the current with the heavy stone on his back, but he knew that his body wouldn't hold up much longer as his eyes pierced the foginess of the water so that he might be able to find some evidence of a current. His legs continued to push as he struggled to simply keep from sinking to the bottom of the stream, but his legs weren't the only thing that was beginning to fail him; Kaito's lungs had reached them limits and only functioned through the use of Kaito's will power. "I don't have long now" he thought as he tried to maintain his focus long enough to drag himself and the stone upward.

Things weren't looking good for Kaito as he continued to sink to the bottom of the lake once again, but he pushed with all the will that he had in his body til he got until the halfway point. By then he had given up looking for a current and proceeded to drag the stone straight up, "This is hopeless, I don't have the power to continue trying to do this" was the only overwhelming thought that ran through his mind. Finally he gave up on the stone and dropped it into the depths of the water once again as his face twisted up in concentration reaching deeply into the depths of his soul, clawing at whatever source of strength that he could. Finally in a last ditch effort, Kaito exploded upward gasping for breath once he broke the surface. "There's gotta be something better..." Kaito thought as he paddled over the bank so that he could rest his aching muscles.

+2 spirit

(OCC: Trying to go for fighting skill and spirit power here. But grade as you will judges)

Even though Kaito had grown dramatically over the past couple of days, he still wasn't sure whether or not his endurance would be enough to survive the traumas he would be facing in the world that he was coming to meet, "Should I even give it another shot?" he asked himself as he sat upon the bank with his chin in his hand. He stared out into the rippling lake, where the waves seemed to come from nowhere, but Kaito knew better than that, he knew that the waves came from somewhere even if he didn't really care where that somewhere was. It frustrated him that he couldn't succeed in dragging the boulder out from the lake with just the energy he possessed in his body even though he knew that it was not a task that could easily be performed. As he continued contemplating whether or not he should continue attempting to lift that stone out of the lake he realized that even though he was training to survive whatever it was that he was going to face, he had yet to train any particular type of offensive ability. Kaito grabbed his two shoulders as he placed his forehead on his knee trying to figure out what exactly he should do next and then it hit him. He had figured out a way to train both endurance and fighting strength, but he knew that he wouldn't enjoy it.

Kaito's naked being once again hesitated to move because of the pain that emanated through every fiber of his being and he knew that the next step of his training would make for a very painful process, but he sighed as he got up and stood in front of the tree that he had climbed only days earlier. He smiled briefly as he looked up at the height of the tree remembering the struggle that he had dealt with in the early days of his training when he first arrived in this place of souls. Getting over his nostalgia he clenched his right fist and concentrated everything he had into the that fist and then reared it back as he picked out his target on the tree. With a yell he threw the fist with everything he had at the tree, but to his dismay the only thing that happened was that his fist had gotten hurt. He held his fist and kissed it a couple of times so that the throbbing from his hand would calm down. He shook his head trying to shake the pain away from himself, "I don't have time to be hurt" he thought as he clenched his fist once and then unclenched his fist for good measure. "Time to go at it again" he said out loud with a look of determination.

Slamming his right fist into the trunk of the tree with all the might he had, Kaito ignored the pain as he clenched his left fist and then swung that into the tree as well. His training was to build his fist to the point that he could break the tree trunk with nothing, but his endurance and his strength which he knew would be an incredible task in of itself taking many weeks if it worked out right. Kaito struck the tree with all the might he could muster and even managed to shake a few leaves from the branches as he continued to pound away at it, "Looks like I'm making progress" he thought with a wince from the pain his fists were emanating. Quickly a serious look came over his face as he threw another fast, hard right and that was followed by a left hook that was enough to cause a boom that was heard throughout the forest he was sure. He kept striking it over and over as with each blow his breath began to run and his muscles screamed even more than they had been before. Kaito was pulling from his reserves as he kept striking the tree over and over again even though he was past his limit.

"I'll punch this tree a hundred more times then I can call it quits for the day" he wearily declared to himself, "Here goes nothing" as the first blow struck the tree with tremendous force once again. His left hand quickly followed the punch taking out even more strength than Kaito had anticipated. Even though the first fifteen punches were manageable his strength was completely drained and he was again fighting purely on will power as he threw blow after blow on the tree. Making it to punch seventy-five was a feat that Kaito didn't think that he would be able to handle. He coughed up spit as he quickly tried to catch his breath to finish up the last twenty-five punches. With a determined look in his eye he stood up straight once again as he continued panting uncontrollably, wobbling even on his feet. There wasn't much more left in the tank.

Clenching his right hand Kaito threw ten more punches and then let his arm sag lazily to the side as he leaned to the left to compensate for the extra dead weight that was now his arm. His left arm was still lively and Kaito dipped into his last reserves of strength and threw fifteen punches before he stammered to the trunk of the tree so that he could have something to lean as he fell. There wasn't anything more that he could do as his sweating body could no longer do obey his commands. Passing out there was nothing that he could do as he drifted off into the land of the subconscious.

+ 2 spirit ^^

He could feel the breeze as it gently brushed his face causing him to stir from his slumber as he looked around checking his surroundings to make sure that he was safe before he made any movements. Kaito's hands were throbbing, but all in all he could feel that he had changed from the first days that he had arrived in this place, a bumbling, stumbling nobody just waiting to killed or worse. Rubbing his face to firmly awaken himself Kaito felt as if that he had really pushed himself to a nice level of stamina. His muscles hurt, but they didn't feel weak and unable to sustain his being as they had when he found himself stuck in the first place so he didn't mind being in pain for the time being. Standing up to stretch, Kaito decided that today would be the last day that he would strain himself in this forest, "There's no point in increasing my strength if I never have to use it" he thought with a steely look in his face.

Facing the tree that he had been practicing on Kaito set the bar high since it was going to be his last day and he felt that he shouldn't hold anything back in his training. "Here I go" he thought as he threw the first strong right into the tree and he felt the tree tremble with the force that he had unleashed through his fist. "Today I shall do 1000 punches" he proclaimed to the entire forest. Without thinking of the impossibility of the challenge he had decided to take on he threw his left fist at the tree again making it shudder from the force of the attack. Slowly as he continued to punch the tree over and over again he widened his stance so that he would better be able to deliver the blow quicker. His muscled body rippled with each pounding explosion that he threw at the tree, each punch pushing him one step closer to the limit of Kaito's stamina, but he continued with the impassioned abandon of an extremist trying to forward his goal. It was afternoon and he had managed to throw 250 punches, but his body had started sweating profusely even though the sun had gone down and ceased to abuse him. Even with all this Kaito refused to give in to the tiredness and the weariness of the lactic acid spreading through his muscles at an accelarated.

Kaito pushed his left foot deeper into the as he cocked back yet another right jab preparing to thrust it into the tree once again in order to keep going since he knew that if he stopped even for a second, the training would end right there. Realizing this he flung his right fist into the tree with an grunt as he switched his pivot to the right foot as he brought his left hand back in a fist preparing to the repeat the process once again. At this point Kaito had closed in on the 500 mark, but even this was purely acheived through will power as he had done most of his training in the first place and he knew that just that alone wouldn't be enough to keep pushing. Both fists were numb and Kaito wondered just how much longer he could keep throwing them, "These things seem like sides of meat hanging from my body now" he said in between forced breaths, "...Who would have thought the last day would be one of the toughest..." he thought as his mind wandered for only a second as he quickly refocused it on cocking his right hand in preparation for the next strike. Kaito was determined to continued until he achieved his goal, passed out, or died. He was of course hoping that it would be one of the first two.

Bark splintered off into the air in front of him as another fist crashed into the trunk of the tree, but Kaito didn't see this anymore. His fists had begun bleeding profusely and with each punch that he landed on the rough surface, blood spewed from his hands as if they were the spouts of the Buckingham fountain on at primetime. Kaito didn't feel this anymore either. His body had begun to smell of a repugnant mixture of sweat, blood, tree sag, and leaves. The smell was akin to the rotten, but sickly sweet that one would imagine coming from a rotten orange or any other fruit. Kaito didn't smell this as he continued throwing punch after punch at the bark of the tree without any sense of these things or anything else for that matter. Thoughts had ceased to run through Kaito's mind sometime ago, he was like a zombie just pounding away without emotion or even conviction. The word that he uttered was the number of the punch that he had just thrown and that was enough for the situation. By now it was nightfall and he couldn't clearly see everything around except for the tree in front of him.

"990...991..." he uttered with his eyes half way open, Kaito counted off the punches that his bloody hands mindlessly launched at the tree in front of him making the tree a bloody bare spot where he had been punching. Forcing his body to move was one thing, but Kaito couldn't understand how he had managed throw the punch he gathered the will power to move his body. He couldn't consciously say that he made the decision to **** his arms back and throw the bloody stub at the end of his arm at the tree, it just happened once he decided to move. "994...995...996" the numbers came out listlessly as he struggled to simply hold on to his consciousness. While he felt detached feeling to his body, he still felt the heavy weight of being tired bear down upon his body as he struggled to maintain his footing in the ground as his movements became sloppier and sloppier. "997...998" he counted off as he held the last fist at the right side of his hip, Kaito stared at the tree devoid of any emotion at all. He couldn't even be seen completely because of how dark it was, but his eyes were inescapable against the darkness of the night. They glowed like two emeralds in the moonlight as Kaito threw the last fist crashing into the trunk of the tree, sending numerous pieces of the bark flying. He didn't remove his fist as he fell to his knees and started to fall forward as the world seemed to move in slow motion, "1000" he whispered as his head bounced off the ground.

+2 spirit, nice post

(OCC: I'm looking for spirit power as I normally have in this post. Judge as you see fit thank you)

Kaito awoke to an angry response from his aching muscles as he turned over to try and stand up, "I guess the time for training has come to end and the time to explore my surroundings has drawn to a start" he said as he struggled to his feet. Today was the day that Kaito had decided that he would leave the small patch of lush green vegetation and search for any other souls like him. It didn't seem like such a bad idea since he had grown alot stronger since he had first arrived and he was sure that he could at least stay alive in a hostile surrounding, "I had better be able to stay alive after going up against such troublesome odd..." he grumpily admitted to himself as he stared out to the desert around him. He stepped out to the hot sand and immediately felt the intensity of the burning sun attack his flesh, "Oh joy...another summer stroll" he joked contemptuously to himself.

It had been a couple of days and Kaito hadn't seen any signs of civilization in the vast desert around him, "Maybe things would have been better if I stayed at the oasis" he complained to himself. Finally he saw the outlines of some sort of houses in the distance as the sand blew across his face, making it hard for him to see what the actual features of the houses were, but he decided that it would be better than nothing. Arriving at the village Kaito was greeted by angry, grimy people who stared at him as if he had done something wrong to them. Kaito quietly spied a well at the other side of the town, so he began to make his way there hoping that it wouldn't be a problem to do so. Unfortunately his fears were realized as five burly men came out of their houses, holding large wooden sticks, patting them against their hands menacingly. "A sign of my never ending luck I guess....How troublesome" he said under his breath as he stared at the men. One of the men raised their stick at him and laughed out loud, "Check out the naked freak here. Let's kill him and roast him on a stick" he called out to the men.

Immediately the other four men responded to the man's order with almost robotic precision and obedience, "That must be the leader" Kaito observed as he watched the men descend upon him as it they were a plague. Although Kaito had trained hard, he didn't have a weapon so it was almost pointless for him to go against these men, but he knew there was escaping as he ducked under the first stick that came careening at his head. The next stick he punched with his fist hoping that he had enough strength to deflect it with just the momentum that he generated; surprisingly it worked and the stick bounced away harmlessly leaving only Kaito's throbbing hand. In his shock at being able to deflect the stick with just his bare hand Kaito opened himself up to an attack. Two sticks came crashing into his torso, knocking the wind out of him and he fell to his knees clutching his stomach.

It took every ounce of his will power to stand up again as he saw the leader run at him with his stick over his head and yelling like an amazon warrior, "This is going to hurt a lot, but I have to keep pushing so that I can fight against them until I can come up with a strategy" he thought. The stick came down hard on his shoulder and Kaito gasped as an explosion of colors flashed before his eyes from the pain, but he gritted his teeth and remained on his feet. He had come up with an idea since he knew that fighting these men wouldn't do him any good except to serve in getting him killed for sure. His legs crying to buckle underneath him, Kaito demanded that his body stand tall as the men continued to rain down blow after blow upon him, "I...won't...fight you" he said through clenched teeth. Dipping into the pits of his soul, Kaito forced himself to take every blow, only moving to bring his two arms in front of his face so that he wouldn't get struck in the face.

"What a guy...his spirit power must be amazing..." he heard one of them men say as there was a slight break in the beating that was being rained down upon him. "Spirit power?...What....the hell?" Kaito's thoughts swirled in his head as the pain made it hard for him to focus on what he was thinking about. "Shut up! Fuck this kid! We kill him now!" he heard the deep voice of the leader shout at the others just as Kaito felt another explosion of pain come from his back. This time blood filled his mouth as he felt his innards absorb the blows that continued to rain down upon him, but he refused to give in to the desire to fall on his face and allow them to kill him. His spirit seemed to draw upon some strange reserve of energy that he had never known was there and it almost seemed as if the more they hit him, the more that this energy continued to pour into him. "I must..live..." he thought as he continued to dip into every reserve that his body had to offer.

+2 spirit power *whew* you sure do know how to write your training. You've already surpassed me.

(OCC: Spirit Power please. the training isn't anything special, just basically using a weird technique to force the wasted reiatsu emitted from a soul's body back into it. Essentially its what the Vizards do naturally and painlessly, I might add. Only this old man has replicated it over the course of time to this point and it hurts like hell. haha Anyway please judge as you see fit)

Kaito's body shook with every blow that the mean rained down on his body, but he wouldn't relent in his determination; he felt that his training had been enough that he wouldn't die from these guys. "Come on! ya blaggarts! Kill this asshole! Show him that we are from the district of Zaraki!" the leader of the men yelled out once again trying to motivate his men, but it didn't matter to Kaito. The pain that he was experiencing brought him to a completely different place; it was as if he had moved beyond the pain and his body was just filling up with a strange energy, "What is this feeling?" he thought, hearing his thoughts echo all around. "Is this the verge of death?" he asked himself as he opened his eyes once more only to catch a glimpse of another attack closing in on him once again.

By now Kaito's body was beaten, battered, and bloodied yet it didn't matter because he didn't feel it, "Why? I can no longer feel the pain...What is this..." he wondered his thoughts drifting throughout his being as the energy continued to pour from his body. Before Kaito was using his will power to force out the energy to continue fighting, but now it seems as if his body were simply responding to the situation and freely lending him more spiritual power, "Spiritual power...yes that's must be the name of this energy" he realized as a bead of blood ran down from his forehead and past his lips. Kaito hadn't known what the name of the energy was that he was feeling, he simply knew that he needed it to be able to fight. The men kept raining down hits on him fervently, but now there weren't looks of blood driven ecstasy anymore; the men were afraid of this kid now. Kaito could feel himself begin to shut down now, "Just as I finally learned something, that's when I'm killed..." he thought angrily as he passed out.

When he awoke once again, Kaito found himself in an alley, his body riddled with pain from the beating that he had taken at the hands of those men. "I guess it worked...I figured they would except my determination and hold back from killing me, although it doesn't feel like" he thought as he stammered out of the alley on unsure feet. He walked through the streets of Zaraki with his broken body until an old man saw him and walked up to him, "I see you ran into the Hell Gate Warriors" the old man said with a hint of superiority in his voice. Kaito didn't have time for an old man to gloat in front of him, it was taking every ounce of will power simply to move his body in the condition that it was in at the moment so he started to walk past the old man. He didn't even make it a few steps as the old man's hand clamped his arm in a vice grip that stopped him in his tracks, "Hold on, I can make your spirit energy jump up even more" he said, "I have been experimenting on a certain means of training, and I would like to test it on you" he said.

Kaito followed the man back to his house, even though he was a bit leery of this miracle training that the old man was telling him about. Once they reached the old man's back yard the old man sat him down in the middle of a strange symbol on the ground, "This training is going to hurt extremely you see and in your condition you may end up dying, but if you survive then you will be dramatically stronger after three times" the old man said. The old man explained that the as a soul, which was what Kaito was, there was always wasted reiatsu that was being expelled from the body and the training that he would be putting Kaito through would forcibly send the wasted reiatsu back into his body. "Of course since it isn't a natural way for such things to occur your body will want to reject it, but the seal below you will keep the energy from leaving your body before it is absorbed; provided you do not die of course" the old man said, "Let us begin". Sitting cross legged just outside the symbol, the old man raised both his arms at Kaito with the palms facing him and that's when it hit Kaito.

An explosion of pain that didn't seem to have any end to it, Kaito gasped from the sheer shock of the pain, "Oh...Oh my...God..." he wanted to cry out, but couldn't because of the pain. Through his turmoil, Kaito saw that blue particles of what he assumed was spirit particles begin to float around the area that was within the seal and that the particles were floating towards him. Even more importantly his body was absorbing them, but the more particles that hit him, the more the pain increased. Kaito focused his will simply to keep from losing consciousness, "I will complete this training...I MUST" he thought as pain threatened to swallow him whole. It felt as if a blue fire was consuming his being and wouldn't be put out for any reason. Kaito felt his body begin to shake violently and he even felt foam begin to come out of his mouth as he struggled to maintain not just consciousness, but his sanity as well.

Kaito felt his mind fading into oblivion as his body continued to fight against the reishi particles that were forcefully attaching themselves to his being, "Shitty...Old man...I'd better be 10 times stronger after...after going through a retched experience like this" he cursed in his mind. He could feel his endurance depleting, but he also felt as if his body was swelling up as if he were a hot air balloon. His muscles seem to be expanding beyond the point that they were naturally made to and at that point Kaito thought for sure that he was going to die. Rearing his head back, Kaito let out an ear-splitting cry into the wind as he tried to hold on to anything that would keep his mind from drifting into the insanity that he knew the pain was going to drive him to if he wasn't careful. Gripping into the ground, Kaito's hand clawed the earth raking through every grain of rubble as his concentration slowly broke down more and more. He had never experienced this much pain before, it was as if he had entered hell and was trapped there.

Tears began to stream from Kaito's eyes, but he refused to ask the old man to stop, more correctly he couldn't ask the old man to stop because the pain had paralyzed had left him utterly speechless. All he could do was watch as the seemingly endless reishi particles continued to beat against his body as they forced their way into his being. Drool leaked from the side of Kaito's mouth and it mixed with the tears as both liquids made a small path down his face and onto the ground, "Am I going to die here? Should I have listened to the old man?" Kaito wondered to himself as he felt the pain overwhelming his being. Suddenly Kaito saw the old man's lips moving as if he were trying to tell Kaito something, but Kaito couldn't hear him for some reason, "What? What, Old Man?.....WHAT!" Kaito screamed as his mind slowly began to lose stability and his concentration gave way to the dramatic pain that the absorption of reishi particles was causing him. "Hold on, you're almost at the end" he heard the old man as the old man's palms suddenly began to glow purple, "What does he mean by the end? I wonder..." Kaito thought.

Almost as soon as that thought was complete, Kaito's head snapped upward and his eyes rolled back into his head. He didn't know what was going on and he wanted to call out to the old man to see if this was normal procedure, but he had absolutely no control of his body. Everything went black and Kaito found himself standing in a space of complete nothingness without any clothes on; albeit he had no clothes on to begin with. Kaito looked around everything felt so hazy and thick as if the very air in the atmosphere was filled with something, something that was invisible and untouchable. "Where am I?" Kaito asked as he looked at his hands and feet, his voice echoed throughout the space as if it were a hollow area where sound could travel freely forever. Above him Kaito saw a light that was about as big as a baseball and floated listlessly, not moving at all in any direction. Kaito could feel the warmth being emitted from the ball of light even from where he was standing and he looked at it curiously wondering what it was until he heard the old man's voice through the darkness.

"Boy, you must grasp the light while you are in this catatonic state. If you don't find a way to grab it soon your body will disintegrate from the overload of reishi" the voice chimed as if it were a bell. Not saying anything about how to get to the light the old man's voice and echo faded away leaving Kaito alone once again in the dark, "So what? If I die...in the grand scheme of things...would it even matter?" he realized that the words weren't in his head, but rather they echoed all around him. "Do I want to die? Am I ok with being erased from existence?" Kaito thought lazily, he was almost ready to just give in and allow oblivion to claim him. That's when he realized that he didn't want to die, "I don't have a reason to live yet, but I don't want to die...I...I WANT TO FIND MY REASON..." the words rung out around him. Then as if responding to his rejuvenated will to live the ball of light drew closer to Kaito and hovered only inches from his nose and Kaito instinctively knew what to do. He reached out and clasped the ball in his hand as it grew brighter in his grasp, "With this I can find that reason to live..." Kaito thought as the light grew to the point that it blocked out everything.

Suddenly Kaito felt his body being dragged into a cot and his face was being dapped with a wet, but dirty wash cloth. The old man came into view and the white seemed to dissipate, "I didn't think that you would actually be able to survive that. What the hell are you anyway?" he heard him say more than once. Kaito couldn't answer right away because his body felt like mush and his lips wouldn't move in the manner that he wanted them to. When he did actually attempt to say something it came out as a bunch of nonsense that no one could understand; including Kaito himself. "As predicted, your speech and other functions have been completely scrambled. You did good kid, to survive your body forcibly absorbing reishi...that's no small feat" he heard the man say. Suddenly his consciousness gave way to exhaustion as the old man's image faded from his mind and all he could think was, "I want to find my reason...", as he faded off to sleep.