The foot is faster than the eye (solo)

It had been months since he had returned to the Academy. In most cases it was for his private Kido practice or studying spells. This time he was granted permission into an area he had only visited once; the speed training grounds. His first visit had been during a class where he had learned to make high jumps. The practice has actually came in handing in several of his activities. At one point such a high vertical leap had saved his life. The class he was now going to take involved using a similar power to move at incredible speeds, a technique called shunpo. Although he had be restricted from being taught the skill until now he had taken some time to study up on it. But that alone wouldn’t help him. He arrived in the training area early enough so he could take a look around. It would seem he wasn’t the only one with such an idea. There were seven people there when he arrived. Two of them were instructors, the other five was the remainder of his class. It would seem the learning of shunpo was limited. Arawn was unsure what he had done to gain the privilage, he didn’t know that he had been promoted. His squad members would tell him this later since they so enjoyed him being an errand boy. But they were nice enough to let him enjoy one of the benefits right away. Since he was the last person missing from the class the teachers decided to start the session early. So Arawn wasn’t given a chance to look around. From what little he did see the dojo was made rather large and wide almost 200m or more square. The floors were soft like a carpet, but still firm to walk upon. Half of the room was empty with several strange marks on the floor. Arawn stopped looking around as the teacher started to talk. The class stood at attention as he spoke.

“The use of the technique is very helpful in evasion and repositioning yourself. “ He seemed to be talking about the application of shunpo. From what Arawn read it was versatile for both offense and defense. A sudden burst of speed that the eye could not follow. Instantaneous movement sounded impossible, but then he reminded himself he was sword carrying, spell casting, soul reaper. The teacher had finished most of his speech and now was covering the basics of the skill. A burst of energy through the legs into the feet, and focus of the mind to direct the flow and control the body. It almost sounded like kido, something Arawn’s wasn’t too good at, but seemed to manage well. The teachers felt that was enough instruction to let the students try it. Perhaps this was to help them realize it was harder than it sounded. For that indeed is what Arawn found out. He had a hard enough time channeling reiryoku to cast spells, now funneling power to his feet and legs was beyond his ability. The teacher walked among the students telling them to properly breath and focus. The session ended without anyone making progress of any kind. The instructors handed out booklets on exercises to perform before the next class. In general it was meditation, stretches, and some kido circulation techniques. The forbade any practice outside of the classroom, warning them of disastrous results. Arawn sighed, although he hadn’t faired any better than the rest of the class, he had hoped he would excel at this. So far he was fairly mediocre at all aspects of shinigami arts. He looked at the booklet in his hand, still there would always be room for improvement.

Several days later the class resumed. One student was missing, apparently he had tried to preform shunpo outside of the training area. They were told he was severely injured. Some of the students got pale, they too probably were tempted to try practicing alone. Arawn was curious to what extent he was injured. After that announcement was made the class started with reading the booklets on the theory of shunpo and technique. Arawn had read something similar in the library, it was of little help. The basics was gathering energy, in this case reiryoku, within the legs and feet. Each person found a spot in the training area and tried to focus. Once again he found he couldn't muster even a little amount of energy. He thought others were having the same trouble til he heard one student give a yelp of surprise and a couple other gasp. The student was flying through the air backwards when Arawn turned to look. The instructor teacher had vanished and reappeared just in time to catch.
"What had happened?" He asked the other teacher that was watching.
"Well it seemed he made some progress, but he forced himself in the wrong direction and was unbalanced." The man replied quickly, "Back to your practice people." he said clapping his hands.
In the minutes the followed there were other students that had the same mishap occur. While they didn't get launched backwards they did end up rolling and tumbling forward several feet. Bruised, but relatively unhurt due to the area's soft floor and walls. Even as Arawn wondered how bad things would have been if they had been on concrete.

After class he approached an instructor. He couldn't seem to channel his energy properly for even accidental launch the others experienced.
"Sir, if I can have a moment of your time." he began by explaining his current casting method. The instructor listened to his explanation, but shook his head towards the end. It was an odd situation he wasn't sure how proceed either.
"I'm not sure if you'll have as much control with shunpo with reiatsu as you do with kido." he began after much time. "There's a chance you'll be launched much further and harder than that other student was."
"I thought as much too after seeing what happened in class. I wanted to talk to you first before making an attempt."
With much reluctance the instructor agreed.

Arawn took a stance in the middle of the now empty training area. The reiatsu started to thicken around him. Rather than push the energy outward with a spell he tried focusing it through his legs. The instructor stood ready. Push outwards, he thought to himself. Nothing happened.
"Try to visualize as you project." The man stated, "Focus not just on the energy, but the direction."
That made sense, to move forward he needed to shift the power out and behind. Backwards and out. He tried to himself moving across the field. He gave a grunt and then he felt a rush of air, he was tumbling through the air. He felt a pair of arms grab him and his flight stopped. As excited as he was his heart was fluttering. He looked down at the ground where he had been standing, there was a scorch mark.

As with kido it seemed he lacked the the ability to properly focus his energy. Only but building and excessive amount of energy could he preform normal techniques. Unfortunately for him, the shunpo was successful, but overall uncontrollable. He had succeeded in moving instantaneously, but couldn't come to a stop properly. In a battle such a maneuver would spell his doom rather than bring him any advantage. If he needed to shunpo to someone's that's barely 12 feet away, he might land 30 feet away. And that was if he was lucky. In the worst case he would be sent flying ungracefully into the sky or tumble across the ground and injure himself. Again this was due to his reiryoku and reiatsu abilities. Too much and not enough when needed. Arawn sighed, this was his twelfth class and his progress was the lowest of the whole class. While they had begun working on smaller jumps, a true test of skill, he was stuck doing the medium steps. There was a large square drawn on the floor, each side of the square was 20 feet. The task was to jump from corner to corner. Then to jump across the square, and then repeat the process Every three of ten shunpo had him within 6ft of the target spot; either past or short. The other students were doing smaller jumps between three locations on a drawn triangle. As for the two advanced students they were flash stepping between two points on a line. It was like a shuttle run. Arawn stopped his practice to observe them.

The two bodies flickered from one side of the line to the other. They were sweating. They did this to extend their stamina, they had to see how long they could keep going before they tired. Knowing how many times you could shunpo was just as important as knowing how long you can hold your breath, or how many bullets are in your gun. It was practical to know your limits. And they were approaching theirs. One of them slipped and fell after a shunpo to the right side of the line. He slowly got to his feet. It was hardly funny when someone that had just done twenty rapid shunpo falls down. Much more humorous when that person barely can do two. Arawn was that person, the teacher clapped his hands to get him to refocus on his own practice. He sighed; he tried to focus his power slowly, he was too tired to try the usual overpower method. Nothing happened as expected the teacher didn't rush him. Not even a trickle of power manifested itself; nothing. It took him another 15 mins to make a single lap around the square. He was thankful when the bell run for the end of the class. Although his progress was slow, he had taken the time to understand the methods. More so he was trying to think of a way to combat such a skill. He had seen two people shunpo repeatedly avoiding one another in a sparring match. The loser was the one to react the slowest, or the one who tired first. Although practice had failed, he decided to hit the books, readying his mind even if the body couldn't keep up.