Lackadaisical Learning [Solo - Kido App]

“So you want to learn demon arts” the inverted old man stood on wooden flooring, in his hands he held a wooden stave with carvings etched into it. Apparently this was how his Zankaputo manifested - most Shinigami his age would have retired their Zanpakuto to the barracks, but this man had held onto his, supposedly this was because he was still teaching academy students but Emon had figured there was a reason why.

“Ah yeah, I can explain why I really didn’t pay attention in the acad-'' a sharp thwack as the mentor swung his zanpakuto into Emon’s upside down torso. He was suspended by the roof by a rope, apparently the old teacher set up traps around his home? It was a form of paranoia that Emon hadn’t expected but he was not going to challenge it. “Yes, you didn’t pay attention and now you want to learn”

Ah yes, he’d fallen asleep in all of his demon arts classes hadn’t he? It really showed when he could only remember a few demon arts and not very well. Only really the binding kido had stuck in his head but he was sure there were others. Combat Kido? Yeah that’s right, the fireballs and stuff.

“Well I want to learn now, y’see I saw a bumblebee and I thought to myself well I didn’t give it the proper attention when I needed to, so why not n-” another thwack from the stave as the old man narrowed his eyes. If he had his Zankaputo - which consequently was just out of hands reach sitting on the ground, he’d show this geezer what for.

“A bumblebee”

“Yes it was very cute, maybe a giant hornet actually - I don’t know. I called it ‘bee-chan’ so a bee is what it was” the old man was watching him and held up two fingers. Suddenly Emon’s arms snapped twisting behind his back - an unspoken kido, the words of a true master not needing to be uttered.

“What did I use just now?” sharp and to the point - maybe that was why Emon visited old Titus, the old man had a thing with just getting the job done and Emon had always respected that. Locking his arms behind his back. He knew this. What was it. He remembered sitting there during that first lesson, staring at the board - the kanji, what did they say?

“Lock their limbs”

Break their instinct.

Restrict their movement.

“Sai” he whispered, and for a moment a faint outline glowed around his limbs, the force of the demon arts locking his arms behind his back. But he didn’t ‘understand’ sai, the nice thing about Titus’s kido was he knew another one, a kido that’s sole purpose was to undo the incantation if the user knew what the demon art was.

“You know what it is, but you don’t know Sai, you speak its name but you don’t acknowledge it. Demon arts are the tricks of demons - find the reason” the old man said to him, once more thwacking him with his stave. Oh great, this part - Emon had forgotten about this part, possibly the most irrelevant part - context - words without meaning were nothing.

To hold to constrict, to add power to his words. It was the flavor to the cooking that just made it flow.

The spice was what was needed.

“Bakudo #1: Sai (塞, Restrain)” this time the words were said with intent and meaning. It was like the magic was called to - no, the magic was broken. It was forced to obey his will in his reiatsu and his power. The binding was shattered but the words hung in the air, a gleaming marker in his spiritual pressure. He didn’t just ‘know’ Sai. He ‘understood’ it, the foundation of all binding Kido was now at his fingertips.

Then he was hit in the forehead by the old mentor again. “Foolish boy, you walk but you have not yet run. Only a fool would stop at ‘Sai’ I will beat you till you learn”

“Hey - hey - wait a minute I lear-”

What proceeded was agony. The old mentor had gone off his rocker compounding blow of compounding blow with his stave bounced off Emon’s torso as it swiftly became covered in bruises and his consciousness seemed to ebb.They continued again and again and his vision started to blur and dim.

Well this was it.

Hit to death by a geezer.

But something was dislodged in his head, a lesson he’d learnt long ago. But he guessed that was the point though right? All of these were lessons he learnt long ago.That his slack mind just wanted to forget in exchange for a cigarette - ooh a cig- Ouch.


Once more he dipped into the pool of his memory, he found energy coalescing around his hands trying to form a shield, but with each strike and pound of the stave the energy would simply shatter. What was he missing? A name obviously. But what was the name? And then it clicked - or rather it was beaten into him.

He raised a hand, a hand freed by Sai, a hand guided by liberation from pain and he felt his spiritual flow through his arm “Bakudo #8: Seki (斥, Repulse)” the words had meeting, they coiled around his palm and formed a barrier that the stave struck and bounced off of and for a moment the mentor froze. The words shattered. The beating stopped.

“Old shinigami proverb - “swinging one’s blade out of duty alone is a captain’s job. Swinging one’s blade out of hatred is nothing more than violence” - remember that Suzumei-san” the old geezer said looking down at him - when had Emon been cut down onto the floor? The training had worked and he had learnt a lot about Kido after all.

The tutor walked away from him and plopped down on the tatami mat that made up the sole interior of his house, outside of two empty bird cages that hung open from the ceiling. The geezer house was located in a district of Rukongai owned by the 4th Division, apparently he was a proficient healer.

Titus extracted two sake cups from his cupboards and placed them on the mat. “Tell me Suzumei-san, have you decided which squad you will join yet?” he said, taking a sip of the cup of sake and sighing softly. Emon mirrored the expression by taking a long hard draw from a cigarette and breathing out the smoke into the air of the shack.

“Seemed irrelevant without the zanpakuto spirit” he replied waving his hand in the direction of his weapon which still lay discarded on the ground where it had fallen.

That seemed to get a smile out of the old man “you know once we didn’t fight for our zanpakuto spirits to notice us - we just breathed and they were there. Hard times will come again Suzumei-san, the rebellion? I feel it was just a beginning to something more” that earned a head tilt out of Emon - he guessed in a way, the rebellion had redefined what the modern ‘Soul Society’ looked like.

“Emon do you know what my last name is?” the young shinigami was puzzled. Weird question, but now that he thought about it, not once had Titus introduced himself other than Titus. “I assumed it was some western name preference”

“Ah I see, yes that’s true. No the truth is, I’m always called Titus. Not quite sure why. I do have a last name and I think you’ll be quite interested in it” the balding scholar said his eyes seeming to twinkle.

“I’m not really, I came here to learn Kido”

“Bah, you’re right” the scholar said with a hand wave “a story for another day. Come to me when you want to learn more kido. I’ll show you more when you’re strong enough”. They seemed like fair words to Emon who nodded to the old tutor in appreciation and thanks, finishing his cup of Sake. He stood and exited the building.

As he left through the mentor’s garden’s paved trail, the wizened man watched him with keen eyes looking out at the midday sun. “Hornet ay? Didn’t know hornets came that close to Shinigami in the middle of Soul Society” he murmured with a chuckle. There was an ignorance in being young, wasn’t there, Kodo’kuna Yukionna he said giving his zanpakuto a squeeze.

Moments later Emon walked towards the Soul Society, a thick coil of smoke wrapping around his head as he puffed his cigarettes with gusto. His body was still covered in bruises but he’d just call them a ‘learning’ hurdle. He was not too interested in being poked and prodded by somebody from Squad 4 and so preferred to recover at his own pace from most of his minor injuries.

It was mid-day and -  . . .  he’d forgotten his Zanpakuto. He turned around and groaned walking back towards the old geezers house, he found his weapon lying against the man’s garden gate. Blood rushed to his face as he turned back around after taking the weapon and he hurried off in a direction to go find some lunch.

He had an idea of a spot.

Sai 336|100 Seki 128/100