((Spirit power please))

You’re an idiot, Hagane laughed in the back of Himawari’s head, as he lifted her upwards before crashing her back to the ground.

Yeah, ‘cause I need you to tell me that, Himawari thought back, cross at herself, for being caught out by a simple stumble. She was going to need to train so much more; there was no way the Second Division would have her if they found out she stumbled over her own feet in the middle of a fight. She looked up at him, as he snapped her arms behind her back with his Kidou, hooking Raikou Arashi over her shoulder.

She smiled, “If we ever get on a mission together.” She forced herself up onto her feet, shrugging off the blade on her shoulder, “You know, I really hate that you’re good at Kidou.” She stepped backwards, channeling reiatsu down to her wrists. Reiatsu began to flow from her, blowing out like a gale-force wind. Her hair whipped around her like a crimson tornado as the reiatsu flowed, his binding Kidou weakening under the sheer force of her reiatsu. She felt her hands suddenly free, and she brought them down to her side, allowing the wind to die back down. She stretched her arms, her muscles feeling taut from the sudden Kidou he’d cast upon her.

“Do you have any idea how uncomfortable having your arms twisted behind your back is?” she asked him.

"No, I'm not into that kind of kinky stuff," Ryouta joked. "By the way, that's some pretty impressive reiatsu you've got there."
He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry if you don't like it, but an enemy isn't going to lie down and not cero or bara the hell out of you, so, this is pretty much the closest thing."
He stepped back a bit and readied his swords again.
"Wanna go again?"

Himawari rolled her eyes at his “kinky stuff” comment, before raising her arms up before her again, “Sure.” She raced forward, flash-stepping around him in circles, hoping to throw him off with the blur of Reiatsu, before leaping up above him to deliver a barrage of attacks from above. She could not help but smile; sparring with him was fun, more fun than she’d ever had battering the daylights out of some punk back at the Academy.

She threw three punches towards his shoulders, followed off with a well rounded kick towards his neck. She was hoping to fight with him without using the full force of her Zanpakutō as much as possible, knowing that increasing her physical strength as an unarmed fighter could only benefit Hagane later.

OOC: Ok a lot of the posts where to short to get a point but here's what yall did get.

Ryouta: +1 kidou
Himawari: +1 kidou, +1 fighting skill, 0.5 spirit power.

Meh. I hate fighting. Ryouta flung up both his hook swords and began a complex barrage of slashes. He watched the way she moved and attacked. The muscles around her eyes tightened every time she made a right or left hook. Her shoulders moved a certain way when she punched straight out. Her uppercuts came right after a slight movement of her neck. Ryouta smiled. It was a good idea to read that book on neurophysiology.
It still took effort to block her attacks though. However, as she continued her attacks, he found it was easier and easier for him to notice the small things that gave away her movements. Soon, he had adopted a slightly different style than he usually used, and this was geared especially towards fighting a hand-to-hand combatant so he could respond with maximum efficiency.
Ryouta found the frustration he was starting to see in her eyes heartening for some reason. "I could be wrong- but I think I've analyzed your muscle movement to an extent that I can predict almost all your attacks. You'll never get through my defense."
He blocked a couple of punches and kicks, and then said, “Shuurai.” Both of his blades glowed bright white as Ryouta let his spiritual energy increase. “Inadzuma can be a much more powerful attack.” He released the electric burst of reiatsu. These ones were much more powerful than the original smaller spinning arcs of electricity he sent before.

Himawari couldn’t really help her frustration showing, and the fact that he seemed to be really enjoying it was only making her situation worse. He wasn’t kidding when he said he could predict her every move; it felt like he was almost inside his head, thinking of her moves before she could. She jumped as his lightning attacks sped her way.

She back-flipped herself out of the way of a few, but one caught her leg, a jolt of electricity shooting straight up her body. She collapsed to the ground, the electric surge jolting the nerves in her legs. She glared up at Ryouta, a sarcastic tone dripping from her lips “You know, if you really want to kill me, you could at least give me some kind of warning. Death fights are no fun if your opponent dies quickly.”

"Death? Oh, there's no way that would've killed you. I made sure it would only cause minor burns at best. This is only a sparring match, after all." He smiled. "I hope you don't mind if I try something more akin to hand-to-hand combat with you."
Ryouta reversed his grip on his hook swords; he held them backwards so that they ran along his arms instead of pointing straight out. This of course limited his range, but allowed for greater defense. In addition, it allowed him to more effectively attack with the bladed guards over the hilts and the spikes on the ends.
"Haha, get ready, here I come!" Ryouta flash-stepped in front of her and began a series of hand-to-hand combat moves. He was actually making it up as he went along- sometimes stabbing out with the points on his hilts, other times slashing. The slashes were particularly dangerous because of the way the hooks pointed. If he managed to land a hit, and continued with the slash, the curved hook at the end of his sword could potentially slice off something.
"This is an interesting form of combat," Ryouta said as he flash-stepped and stabbed, then flash-stepped and slashed. "What do you think? It's kind of new."

Himawari immediately flipped herself back up onto her feet, her arms rising to defend herself from his attacks. Her leg still tender from his previous attack, Himawari still managed to flash-step backwards out of the range of his initial attack. The steel guards of her gauntlets rose to meet each of his new attacks, the two of them flash-stepping around the training area in some form of strange dance.

His form of hand-to-hand was defiantly different from anything she’d ever seen before; it seemed to do what it was intended to do, but it didn’t flow that well, and she couldn’t help but feel his swords weren’t being used to their complete potential. And his hand-to-hand was far too random; if it got much wilder, Himawari was worried that he may actually hurt himself before he hurt her. “It’s not too bad,” she told him, “Could use some work. I could probably show you a few things about hand-to-hand though.”

"Probably, it's not my forte, I'm trying to learn new things- that's the point of sparring." He whirled and made a couple of reverse slashes. "Meh, I don't much like using my swords like this. It's not really how they should be used, I just wanted to try something new." He flash-stepped away and flipped them back into position.
"Much better." Ryouta flash-stepped again, this time right in front of her and began a complex series of slashes. Since he had analyzed her muscle movements, he was now testing her defense. Ryouta brought himself closer to Himawari, now using his left blade just to block, his right blade just to attack. He thrust at her, then made a side cut, which, when dodged, led to a backhand side. Spinning, he switched his blades’ roles, his left blade now coming down in an overhand strike, and then another switch! His right came in an overhead backhand. Here came the crucial moment- if Himawari used both hands to block, she would lose, as she would be unable to stop the resulting backhand side.
I hope she sees this...if not, I'm afraid of when she gets sent out on an actual mission- please let her see the strategy here...

Ok Himawari, Hagane called to her, let’s show him what we’re really made of! Himawari smirked as she blocked downwards against his barrage of attacks. He was really laying into her defense. It’s as almost as if he’s testing me, she couldn’t help but think to herself. His blades seemed to blur in her vision, Himawari really having to work in order to make sure he wouldn’t wound her again. She spied an overhand strike and her arms immediately rose to defend herself. Wait…

It was almost as if time had slowed down around her as she spotted the second blade, coming in out of the corner of her eye. She knew she had to move fast.

“Tertiary Feathers!” She shouted, and immediately two curved blades extracted themselves from her gauntlets. In a flash, Himawari had managed to block both of his blades. She looked up in his face, and couldn’t resist winking at him. She swung her arms, around, forcing him off her, and launched into her own offense. The best thing about her shikai, Himawari thought, was that it still left her hands free. She could now switch effortlessly from fighting with a blade to hand-to-hand. She dropped her hands to the floor, aiming a good kick up to his chest, before a well aimed slash with her Zanpakutō to his feet.

Ryouta shifted slightly to the side to avoid her kick, then jumped and used Hohou to avoid her slash. "I was wondering what the abilities of your Zanpakuto would be- thanks for showing me." He flash-stepped up. "Hado no Yo: Byakurai!" Again, his blades took on Seele Schneider properties as they lit up. He flash-stepped in close and began aiming slashes at her elbows and knees, as well as her shoulders, basically any part that's essential to fighting but not essential to living. Ryouta kept his distance as well, using the curved hook ends of his swords as his main damage-inflictors, so to speak. In this way, he a) prevented serious injury, and b) kept her at a distance so she couldn't get close enough to land a hit.
Ryouta continued this routine for some time, but realized that although it was improving both their respective fighting abilities, it wasn't interesting, as it got boring after lots of repetition. He flash-stepped above her and shouted, "Todoroke!" and sent a blast of air at her, then flash-stepped in close and swung at midriff level with his blade turned so the flat would hit. If all went well, the blast of air would disorient her long enough so his strike would land a hit.

OOC: Ok Ryouta your first post after my last approval was not acceptable. Taking a look at your stats your intelligence isn't high enough for you to be exampling the kind of skill you did there, what you where showing was basicaly working out somones entire motor reflexes just by looking at a few movments that would take major analytical skill. For the posts after i'm awarding Himawari +0.5 to fighting skill, and Ryouta +1 to fighting skill.

((Speed please))

Himawari flash-stepped backwards, out of the range of his swinging blade, her speed carrying her away across the practice field. Shunpo was useful to her in this fashion; allowing her to move away quickly, not a great advantage as her opponent was quite the specialist in ranged combat while she was most certainly not, but it did allow her to dodge some of his more dangerous attacks, and, at the same time, could bring her in close for attacks of her own. His almost dependence on Hohou severely annoyed Himawari at times, as he seemed to often use it as a way out of a fight. She really needed to teach him that that was nowhere near the case.

Himawari forced herself back forward again, her Shunpo bringing her forward once more, leaving nothing but a vague blur across the field. She leapt upwards, her own Hohou sustaining her as she flash-stepped forward across the sky, straight towards Ryouta. She reappeared behind him, her left blade winging upwards towards the lower neck, her right one curving down, towards the thigh. She was hoping to draw his attention to his back, so she could stage a much better offensive towards the front. A simple plan perhaps, but simple did not mean the same as bad.

Ryouta grunted in annoyance as she flash-stepped backward to avoid his attack. He opened his mouth to cast a kido spell, but then she flash-stepped-!!! She was behind him, swinging in two directions! Ryouta spun to engage her and parry her left blade with his right, which was heading for his neck. He swung downward with his left in an attempt to deflect her right handed strike. Though her released Zanpakuto allowed for greatly increased maneuverability and close combat, its lack of significant weight allowed him to deflect it more easily.
ooc: Ryouta's smart enough to figure the above out, right?
As he parried the attacks, he uttered, "Bakudo no Nijuichi: Sekienton!" There was a blast of crimson smoke that filled the entire room. However, it was not thick, more like a fog. One could still see up to about 3 m around them. The room itself, however, was probably something like 15x 15. Ryouta flash-stepped into the red smoke, effectively hiding himself as he lowered his reiatsu to an unnoticeable point. He would wait for her to make a sound, then, since he had a ranged attack, he would immobilize her like that.

((Intelligence please))

Himawari jumped at the sudden Kidou, coughing slightly as the crimson fog filled the room. He vanished before her in his Shunpo, and suddenly he was gone. What the! Himawari thought. Surely he hadn’t left her in the smoke. If this was his idea of a getaway to his mission, Himawari was so going to strangle him when he got back. But it just didn’t seem his nature to attempt an escape. Himawari may not have known him for all that long, but she knew him well enough that her was not afraid to tell her he was leaving. No, he was within the smoke. Where he was exactly was the real question. Realising he must be hiding his reiatsu from her, Himawari immediately lowered her own, not wanting him to gain some form of advantage over her.

Himawari thought hard; his Shunpo was good, not quite as good as hers, but good enough to avoid her if she went charging at random through the fog. Plus his Kidou was good, so it was not as if she could wait long enough for the fog to just fade away; that would take longer than she probably had. Any form of illuminating Kidou would only make him aware of where she was, not the other way around. The best way to outsmart Ryouta, as far as Himawari could see, was to think like Ryouta himself. So, what was he waiting for? That was easy, he was waiting to surprise attack her. But in this fog, he could not tell her position any more than she could tell his, so he must be waiting for her to give her position away.

Suddenly very aware of her own clumsy nature, she realised it was probably something along the lines of her tripping over herself and falling flat on her face. Urgh, she thought, I need to work on that. No, here Himawari had to draw him out, and in order to not be surprised, she had to cut off at least one direction he could attack from. She flash-stepped backwards as hard as she could, forcing herself to collide with the wall behind her as hard as she could. The resulting thump and her cry of pain as she severely bruised her shoulder would do the trick just fine. At least he couldn't get her from behind now.