Ryouta stood in front of the 2nd Squad Captain; he was at attention, or at least, as close to attention as a person like him was capable of being. “Ya rang, Taichou?”

“Yes. I want you to complete some special training to increase your speed,” she said.

“Fine,” Ryouta shrugged. “Who’s conductin’ the trainin’?”

“Me,” she replied. “Here.” She handed him a pair of hollow cylindrical things. Ryouta took them and staggered under their unexpected weight. “Put those around your legs- you’ll wear them for your training.”

Ryouta bent and did as he was told. “Now, go out and run. If you’re not inches from unconsciousness when you get back, I’ll be very displeased,” the Captain said.

Ryouta nodded and saluted. “Taichou!” He did an about-face and began to run. If he was human, Ryouta was sure that he would be rooted to the ground. However, as he was a Shinigami, his strength was much greater than that of an ordinary human’s strength. He wasn’t sure, but Ryouta guessed the weight of each of the weights to be around 150 kilograms. They were definitely a hindrance to him, but since he was fresh, they weren’t that bad yet.

Ryouta found it necessary to pulse reiatsu throughout his entire body to aid him in his running, as well as to increase the efficacy of his training. Ryouta picked a reasonably fast-paced song that he enjoyed and began to run to its rhythm and beat. His bare feet slapped against the tiles of Seireitei at even intervals. Ryouta’s breath came in intervals that were equally steady.

The weights (which were around his shins) were beginning to drag on him now. Ryouta felt his muscles burn because of the extra exertion. He willed himself to go harder; to push himself beyond what he thought was easily accomplished, even difficultly accomplished. Despite his previous training, Ryouta’s breath was coming in short gasps now, and he felt his muscles beginning to cramp.

Ryouta closed his eyes and turned back. He focused on the steady beat of his bare feet against the ground. The pleasant slapping noise drove him further as his feet carried him back to headquarters. Sweat was not only beading on his forehead; it was dripping down his nose, into his eyes, and running down his face.

His heart beat painfully against his chest; his lungs burned with each breath as Ryouta forced himself to go on- he was almost there. After what seemed like forever, he crashed through the door to where he had left his Captain and collapsed on the floor, completely drained and fatigued to near-unconsciousness.

“Glad to see you can follow my orders,” said the Captain. “Report back here tomorrow for more. You’re dismissed. I want you to wear those for the rest of the day though.”

Good Job!
+2 to Speed

Ryouta knocked on the door of his Captain’s office to let her know he was coming in, and then entered. After he had taken a good long nap yesterday, he had spent the rest of the day wearing the immensely heavy weights that she had given him to strap around his legs that day. “Taichou,” he greeted her.

“Your training continues today, Ayame,” she said. “Here.” She handed him to similar pairs of weights. “Those go around your arms.” Ryouta groaned inwardly as he wrapped the heavy weights around his arms and secured them. “All right, same orders as before. Hop to it!” she commanded him. Ryouta saluted her with some difficulty, and then exited.

He decided that the best way to improve his speed via this method was to start off with a slow jog, but as his muscles warmed up and got used to the extra weight, to just start sprinting. Ryouta swung his arms back and forth a couple of times, took a deep breath, and began to jog. When he was jogging, the weights on his arms were not that much of a hindrance, as he could swing them slower and easier.

Ryouta’s muscles quickly warmed up, and he picked up the pace so that he was sprinting through the streets of Seireitei. Again, Ryouta focused on rhythm to augment his running. And then he remembered something that he had gotten/stolen from the Real World- a device that played music called an ‘iPod.’ He now secured it to his sash and put the ear-buds in his ears. Ryouta picked a song that was fast paced by a band called Rise Against, and then began running to the beat of the drums.

As he ran, he even tried to sing along to get the music in his blood. Other Shinigami looked at him strangely as he ran past, singing at the top of his lungs, but he didn’t care. The music seemed to lessen the now burning, sort of achy pain that was accumulating in both his arms and legs. Ryouta pumped his arms and legs steadily to the drums’ sound- speeding up when it sped up, and allowing himself some reprieve when it slowed down (which did not happen very often).

Ryouta was starting to really feel the effects of the weights now- his muscles were now working twice as hard to do the same amount of work. He struggled valiantly to keep going; his voice came in gasps as he still continued singing. Sweat was dripping from his hair and pretty much everywhere on his body where there were sweat glands. Occasionally, some would drip into his ears and trigger a small electric shock from one or both of the ear-buds.

As he felt himself reach his limit, Ryouta turned back in the direction of 2nd Squad headquarters. On the way back, he utilized “shortcuts.” That is, despite the pain in brought him, he jumped over walls and crashed through bushes and trees to get back as fast as he possibly could. When he reached the office of his Captain, he didn’t even bother knocking; he just crashed through the door and was prone on the floor for a few seconds, gasping in deep, oxygen-rich breaths. “Good good,” commented the Captain. “Report back here tomorrow, and continue to wear those for the rest of the day.”

+ 2 speed

Ryouta dragged himself into his Captain’s office with a certain sense of dread. It was true that he had gotten used to lugging around the extra weights she had given him the last time, but still…it was a pain, to say the least. “Taichou!” he greeted her with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. She respected hard work and determination, after all.

“Do you really think I don’t know you, Ayame? You hate coming here,” she said. Damn. Oh well. “Anyway, here.” She handed him another pair of weights similar to the ones he was wearing. “These go around your thighs. Be careful not to secure them too tightly.”

Ryouta sighed and hiked up his robes so he could secure the weights. After having done so, he asked, “So, same instructions as before?”

The Captain smiled. “No. You’re going to the Real World. Japan, to be exact.”

“…Why?” Ryouta asked suspiciously. Her smile was unnerving.

“So you can catch one of those bullet trains. I hear they’re fast,” she said.

Ryouta fought to keep his face from falling. “Hai, Taichou!” he said. Ryouta walked out of the door.

“You may use my personal Senkai Gate,” she offered. Ryouta waved his hand to indicate he heard her and headed for the Senkai Gate. He stepped through the Senkai Gate…and appeared right next to some bullet train tracks. That’s convenient, he thought. Ryouta then decided that he would run alongside the tracks until a train came so he could warm up.

Ryouta found that the weights were impeding his speed more than ever. He struggled to ignore them and just continue to push himself. Ryouta turned his head when he heard a rumbling sound in the distance. A bullet train! He began to slowly pick up his pace as it closed in on his position. As the train’s front car passed him, Ryouta jumped high above it, planning to land on it and in that way “catch” the train, as there was no way he was outrunning one with the weights on.

Just as he was about to land on it, he felt an intense pain where every weight he was wearing was. The pain was so extreme that it caused him to buckle in midair- he fell onto the train awkwardly and literally bounced down the length of the entire thing until he finally fell off to the side and rolled to a stop. “Ow…” He glared at the weights and attempted to take them off. They wouldn’t unclasp, no matter how hard he tugged at them.

Undeterred, Ryouta pointed a finger at the weight around his right shin. “Hado no San: Crimson Strike!” The burst of red energy he shot out was sufficient to break the weight. Ryouta repeated the process on all of the other weights. He stood and marveled at how light he felt. “Hehehe, I won’t even need Shunpo to catch this train!” Ryouta took off at incredible speed; his feet were hitting the ground multiple times per second. In no time at all, he passed the next bullet train station, where he gained on the train- as it had stopped there.

Ryouta kept going, legs churning furiously at a fantastic turnover rate. He saw the back of the bullet train he was after in the distance and put on an extra burst of speed, though his muscles screamed in protest. Ryouta disregarded the pain and quickly closed the gap. He jumped for a second time and managed to grab onto the back of the train with his left hand. “Ha! Got it!”

Ryouta then let go and opened up a Senkai Gate back to his Captain’s office. He appeared just outside it and entered. “I see you ditched the weights,” said the Captain.

“They were…defective,” explained Ryouta.

“Right, well, I expected you to remove them,” said the Captain. “You may go.”

+2 speed