Kuro felt the pressure of Kaiyo's punch into his stomach, but his mind registered no pain at the moment. His power seemed to be dulling the sense of pain for now, saving it until after the battle. But his power levels seemed to be dwindling now. His last attack had been successful, even surprising with the level of power he'd been able to exert, but that was now fading back into him.

Not now! I can't come this far, just to fail now!

Kuro willed his body and his power to continue with all of his mental ability. His power stopped fleeing from him and rose for just one more instant. In that time Kuro turned on the spot, following Kaiyo's progress as she leapt over him. While he turned, he raised his zanpakuto up at the ready once more. As Kaiyo landed, he completed his spin and ended with his sword's blade edge held at Kaiyo's throat. He let out a grin that seemed too cocky for an academy student.

Then his energy left him in an instant. His efforts had increased his power once more in that last move, but struggling to hold onto them when his energy was so low had caused far greater fatigue and mental stress than regular. His sword fell from his hand and clattered to the ground as his legs gave out and he followed it. His vision blurred and the only thing he could do before he fell unconscious was to smile lightly up at Kaiyo and say, "Thank you."

Kaiyo nodded in appreciation as Kuro's blade hovered at her neck, Kuro began swaying for a moment. As his Zanpaktou clattered heavily to the ground Kaiyo leapt forwards to catch himKuro, her cheeks flushing red as he spoke; before drifting out of consciousness. Kaiyo smiled down at Kuro, 'Your the one who landed the hits' she called politely.

Kaiyo didn't waste much time in carefully picking up Kuro and carrying him to the medical centre at the shinigami academy; handing him over to the capable hands of the fouth squad who promised to look after him. Kaiyo had almost forgotten about her own injury before someone pointed it out; after being bandaged up the girl left a small note in Kuro's hands and left.

'Dear Kuro,
It was really good sparring with you and i hope we can do it again someone soon. Sorry if it was a bit hard on you but you did really well. Well done! see ya soon,
Kaiyo'

Kuro's recovery lasted the rest of the day. He faded in and out of awareness as the hours rolled by, his energy levels slowly working their way back to normal. He read Kaiyo's note many times, pleased that their exercise had been fun for her and successful for him. As he drifted out during the twilight hour, he heard the voice that had been talking to him for a few days now.

Your power is growing, but what does it grow for? Who does it grow for? Ponder on that, and we may meet soon.

Kuro passed out again, forgetting the message that he had just heard.

(ooc: I know that this is double posting, but I've just decided to give up on the previous posts for now and start again.)

Kuro's skills were growing fast. He was a fast runner, he could fight, even his kido was improving. So as he walked onto the sparring grounds, he was confident that he would get in a nice day's practice. He stopped suddenly when he discovered that the grounds were covered with his classmates, sitting in front of a different instructor than normal. He wondered what was going on as he sat in the back.

The new instructor was a young looking woman. She sat at the head of the class, her legs folded in a meditative position. She looked calmly over the class and began her session.

"I am filling in for your teacher today. I have decided to do things a little differently than others. Most shinigami train their spirit power by battling each other, but I like to do things with a special unique element. You will be practicing today in groups of 4. You are to sit in a ring and take turns testing your reiatsus against each other. That way you will be simulating the condition of a battle that can have the greatest effect on the outcome. It will also give you a chance to struggle to improve your reiatsu if you find that yours is weaker than the others. Good luck."

This was, for lack of a better term, odd to Kuro. He had never heard of an exercise like this, but he was willing to try it if the instructor said to. He turned to his left to see the partners he'd be with. To his surprise, he knew two of them from his zanjutsu class, Sai and Akari. The last member of their group was another girl about the same height as Akari. She seemed shy and did not give her name as they sat down in their ring.

Sai started off and flared out his own reiatsu. It was adequate, but did not seem to effect the rest of them to a compressing degree. Kuro and Akari simultaneously responded by releasing their own reiatsus. Kuro felt that his was about the same level as Sai's, and Akari's was just beyond both of them. The other girl still didn't seem effected. She simply blushed as she realized it was her turn and flung out her reiatsu. The effect was instantaneous. Kuro, Sai, and Akari were forcibly bent forward as the mass of reiatsu hit them. This girl didn't seem like a quick thinker or a harsh fighter, but her talent with spirit power was astonishing. The only pressure that Kuro had felt greater than hers was Kaiyo's. He and the others started to breathe heavilly as the reiatsu continued to press on them. Kuro saw this as a chance for improvement and closed his eyes in a struggled concentration. His power seemed to grow a bit and ease the force pressing down on him. He didn't think he could keep this level of strength up for long, so in a quick effort, he focused all his power and surged it out in a massive mental attack on the group. Sai, Akari, and the other girl all gasped as his power washed over them and clashed with the shy girl's. Her power eased even more as her concentration faltered and Sai and Akari were suddenly throwing more power into the competition. For the next half hour, none of them managed to overpower the rest as they kept each other in check. Kuro stumbled away from this practice spiritually exhausted, but pleased that the substitute had found a way to spice up spirit power training.

nice idea +2 spirit

Things were back to normal again today, if that term even applied to life at the shinigami academy. The original instructor had returned with a new idea for increasing one's power. To Kuro, the idea seemed to boil down to nothing but an all out lynching. The instructor's obsessive passion for battling had led him to organize a class exercise where the class grouped into sets of 5 and took turns with one-on-four battles. The only handicap that was in the one's favor was that while they were permitted to use all types of skills, the other four could only attack physically.

Yeah, nice handicap. Kuro thought as he eyed his opponents. His luck had grouped him together with Sai and Akari again. And from his experience in zanjutsu class, he knew that they would not be shedding any tears over sticking to physical skills. The other two classmates were thin and short boys that looked like they might make good members of the second squad someday.

The instructor began the exercise and all around the sparring grounds fights began to get rough. Kuro quickly turned his attention to the two small boys, figuring that their small and thin stature was most likely accompanied by a talent for speed. As usual, his observations did not lie to him. They were both incredibly fast and closed in on him before the other two could move more than three steps. Kuro blocked an attack from one before taking a chop to the back. He turned around to counter attack with a quick jab from his right hand. As he spun, he noticed that Sai and Akari were holding back and observing for now, likely waiting for the boys to wear him down so they could finish him off.

Kuro's counter attack met nothing but air as the boys coordinated their attacks to keep his focus from ever concentrating on one of them. He was sure that he was faster than either of them individualy, but they were working together to keep him from exploiting that. They swarmed around him, constantly striking at his back and sides. Regardless, he continued to smile as his strategy found an easy way out. He turned his attention to defense and managed to block most of their attacks for the next few minutes. When they began to slow down and show signs of fatigue, he burst out his reiatsu in a split second, catching them off-guard. Their movements were already slowed by their lowered stamina, and Kuro's reiatsu on top of that froze them in their tracks. He concentrated his reiatsu even more and cast a kido to augment the effect.

"May the black sounds of those that have felt death emit and destroy! Hado #7: Black Thunder!"

Another surge of Kuro's reiatsu burst from his body with a roar similar to an explosion, washing over the boys in a thick black wave. This pressure taxed the boys' bodies even further until they were hunched over short of breath. Kuro lightened up on his reiatsu and darted forward to knock them out before they could recover. As he brought his own breathing under control, he heard the sudden sounds of movement behind him. He spun around as fast as he could and parried the blades of both Sai and Akari together. They both responded by throwing fast punches at Kuro that forced him to leap back and evade. He knew that he stood no chance of beating them if he tried to rough it out like with the previous two. So he devised a new plan that was an all out gamble of winner take all.

Kuro flared out his reiatsu again, taking advantage that he could do so. As Sai and Akari started to adjust to it, Kuro took his only chance that he would get and sprinted around their fighting space while keeping his reiatsu flared. This was extremely wasteful on spiritual energy, but necessary to keep Sai and Akari at bay until his plan was ready. As he ran, he layed out a web of kido energy around the area. Bakudo #12: Ambush Flare. He had read about this kido and the destructive effect it could have when used by kido masters. While he was nowhere as good as a master, he thought that he had a loophole he could use. Thanks to his speed, he completed the net just before Sai and Akari were able to move again. Quickly sprinting between them, Kuro grabbed hold of the front of both of their robes and used his spirit energy to fuel a sudden toss of both of them into the net. He felt that his energy was approaching his limit as he placed a hand on a thread of the net and cast one final kido.

"Hado #11: Reading Lightning!"

Electricity flowed through the net away from his hand, making the whole mass hum with energy. Sai and Akari spasmed from the current before going limp in its midst. Kuro sank to his knees as he grinned. He wasn't a master kido caster who could infuse a hado into the ambush flare, so he had improvised by using a hado that would flow through the mass regardless of his skill level. He threw one last annoyed look at the instructor as his vision blurred from exhaustion. This exercise had most definitely increased his power, but through a much more complicated and unnecessary method.

+1.5 spirit and locked for you, nice post