Kuro stood deep in a forest in the rukongai. I was a rougher district, but nothing as bad as the Zaraki district where he'd lived. Deep in the woods, he was very unlikely to be disturbed by others. He had come here to perform some private training so he could improve his skills. He wasn't in the academy anymore, so he was going to have to train himself now. This area seemed like a good place. His first attempt was going to focus on improving his speed. He worked for a long time, making sure that he was properly stretched and warmed up. This was going to be a long and strenuous run. Crouching down, he prepared to start. This training was in the interest of making him more efficient for the squad he was in. He took a deep breath and launched himself through the surrounding flora.

The forest was dense with trees. He had started out in a small clearing, but the trees he was now dashing through were large and closely grouped together. He had to keep himself focused and his reflexes at the ready, or he risked smashing right into one of them. The forest seemed neverending. He shot through the brush, going uphill then down hill again. His clothes protected his limbs and body, but a stray twig would whip his face every once in a while. He had no real target, just running to improve his durability and his stamina. It wasn't bad for improving his analytical skills either. Thinking about a next move in such a high speed motion in a dense area could be stressful. He scraped his arm as he narrowly avoided a large tree with very rough bark that seemed to come out of nowhere. He smiled and laughed with excitement, the adreneline flowing through him as he gambled with his well-being during this training exercise. Left, right, another right, then left again, he continued to shift to either side as he dodged the large ancient obstacles in his way.

When he had grown bored with just running along the ground through the trees, Kuro moved into stage two of his training. With a mighty leap, he left the ground and began to move, still at an incredible speed, through the middles and tops of the trees. First he bounded up onto a branch, then flew through the air against a trunk of another tree. From that trunk he began to zig-zag through the forest, bouncing from trunk to trunk. He would leap onto a branch whenever necessary to regain his altitude, but then he would be back on the trunks again for a full five minutes before needing to use a branch again. This kind of training was necessary to bring out his full potential so that he could perform his duties for Ryouta fuku-taichou. Soon this leaping around got boring because it was so easy. Kuro descended back to the ground and dashed back to the clearing where he had begun. He had left a bad with a few supplies in it. His lunch and some various pieces of training equipment. After rumaging through the bag for a minute, he found what he needed: ankle weights.

This was the oldest trick in the book when it came to training one's speed, but it was nevertheless very effective. Kuro had brought these along after noticing them in the supply room. He carefully strapped two anklets onto his feet after loading them with lead weights equaling a combined total of 40 extra pounds. Kuro felt the weight on his feet as he stepped back to his starting position. He set off into the foilage again, this time notably slower. Trying to maintain his previous speed was an impossible thing now, but Kuro struggled to keep as fast as a pace as possible. Every step was a chore now, and Kuro's stamina was dropping much faster than before. He turned and began a circular path around the clearing so that he would not have to walk far when he ran out of energy.

He was running much slower than before, but still fast enough to require quick thinking on his part. The trees zoomed by on his left and his right as he weaved in and out of them. The weights began to feel heavier, but Kuro pushed himself to keep running, even as his breathing grew irregular and difficult. I can't stop now. I must improve. For my fuku-taichou, for my friends, .......and for myself! Kuro's eyes shown brilliantly as he poured his spirit power into his legs, his speed picking up again for a few minutes. As his stamina reached its limits, his path began to wobble as he stumbled in exhaustion. He panted as he came to a halt and bent down to clumsily take off the weights. But as his hands preparded to unstrap the first one, he rethought his actions and slowly started to walk back into the clearing. His legs felt like they were entirely made from lead now. But keeping the weights on at all times would improve him even more. And such an action would definitely make his speed unmatchable with time. Kuro smiled with satisfaction and sat down in the clearing, setting up camp for his night's stay here in the clearing. He wasn't done his training trip yet. Tomorrow would be even tougher.

(OOC: Speed please. I'll be using this thread for all kinds of training, so I'll note at the bottom which stat every post is aiming for.)

Very nice work + 2.5 speed

The next day dawned cloudy. The forest barely let any of the little sunlight through its branches. Kuro rose from his sleep and prepared his breakfast. He sat in peace as he thought out his training for the day. As he sat wondering, he suddenly heard the sounds of others coming through the forest. Shifting bushes, snapping twigs, the telltale sounds kept echoing through the trees. He listened closer, his hand inching towards his zanpakuto in case they were not friendly. He started to hear voices and relaxed. The voices were young. It sounded like 3 boys and 2 girls. Kuro smiled as they stumbled into his clearing. His ears had not been wrong. 5 children were standing at the edge of his camp looking very surprised to see a shinigami there. Kuro met their confused looks with a bright smile.

"Hello children. What brings you deep into these woods?" Kuro was extremely fond of children. They were usually nice and innocent. He reached into his bag and found a small bag of candy. He offered to the boy in the front of the group. The boy nervously took the bag and answered Kuro's question.

"H-hello sir, my name is Shin. These are my f-friends, Kenta, Hikaru, Aoi, and Megumi. We were just exploring the woods. W-we’re sorry for disturbing you.

Kuro’s smile faded fast. The boy’s voice was too shaky and he and his friends kept glancing around quickly as if afraid of something. Kuro observed that their clothes seemed freshly torn as if they had been running through dense brush. Now that he thought about it, their approach had come towards him fast. He cursed himself for just now noticing that they were also out of breath. Getting up from his fire, he drew his zanpakuto and stared into the woods toward where the children had come from. He heard new sounds approaching. A bigger sound…older sounds…bandits. Two large bandits wielding rusty swords crashed into the clearing. One of them noticed the children by Kuro and pointed his sword towards them.

“You there – shinigami, leave the brats to us and we’ll let you go. They trespassed into our territory so now they have to pay. We’ll use them as hostages and get some money from whatever family or friends they have in the town.”

Kuro’s stern face darkened into his battle glare. Bandits were the worst people around. They were willing to do anything to anyone to gain a little more. But kidnapping little children and threatening them was over the limit. He could not forgive their words. His power started to rise, and his reiatsu burst forth making the grass in the clearing rustle. Shin and the others huddled together in fear and awe of Kuro’s power and stepped back to give him room. As Kuro continued to concentrate, he felt the presence of his zanpakuto spirit beside him. He spoke briefly to the bandits as he clenched his sword in his fist.

“I’ll make this fast. Not that you deserve it, but I don’t want to harm the children with my power for too long.” Kuro took a deep breath and shouted out his zanpakuto’s name, releasing it into its shikai stage. “Concentrate! Seishou-seijin!”

Kuro’s sword flashed brilliantly, turning into a ninja gauntlet with a red stone strapped to his palm. The bandits shrunk back half a step, wondering what move to make since they now saw that Kuro was not merely a beginner shinigami. As they stood there, Kuro dashed across the clearing. The stone on his gauntlet began to shine as he concentrated his power into it. He thrust his palm into stomach of the first bandit, releasing the power in an explosive ejection of kinetic force that sent him flying into a tree at the clearing’s edge. Before the other bandit could react to Kuro’s move, Kuro spun around on the spot and caught him in the face with another concentrated punch that knocked him clean off his feet. He landed on his back, his nose gushing blood as he stared up Kuro looking down on him.

“Do not worry. I controlled myself with how much energy I packed into my punch. Both of you will live today. But if you ever come to this spot again, or I hear news of you committing any major acts of crime again, I will personally hunt you down and rid this world of your existence.”

The bandits groggily stumbled back to their feet and ran off into the woods. Kuro resealed his sword and sheathed it. He lowered his power level as he turned back to the kids and helped them calm down. After lunchtime, he guided them back to the town and said goodbye. He hiked back into the forest and made his way back to his camp. Settling down for the night, he smiled to himself in remembrance of the day’s events. His training sure was exciting.

(ooc: this post is for spirit power)

Excellent Work, I like the description.

+2 to Spirit Power