A little magic?

Garin walked stiffly towards the Kido training grounds, still thinking about what he'd learned today about his Zanpakuto. He really couldn't do much with it. It was just a sword, and one he really wasn't very good with. He knew that in a fight, he would be at a grave disadvantage trying to use the awkward weapon, and so he needed to learn Kido if he was going to stand a chance in a fight.
He saw an instructor teaching a group of students and ran to take his place in the class.

"The Hado branch of Kido deals with combative abilities. These abilities can be deadly to your enemies when used properly, and deadly to you if done improperly. You must remember at all times to focus on what you're doing." turned to one of the targets on the platform she was teaching from and stuck her palm out at it. "Hado Ichi! Sho!" A blast of air shot from her palm, smashing the target to pieces.

Garin grinned. That looked simple enough and it would be advantageous he was sure. He waited as the teacher came to each student in turn and finally showed up before him. She helped him with the form of how his palm should push forward and walked him through the mental aspect of the Kido. Finally, she had everyone begin practicing on targets.

Garin stepped forward and Shoved his palm forward, shouting "Hado Ichi! SHO!" and watched as a small breeze ruffled the paper on his target stand. The teacher was watching, and he didn't know what to do! Then he remembered something that someone said to him about a hundred years ago. He'd met an old man who taught him a little about using his Rietsu to strengthen his blows. He remembered the man speaking about how he had to focus completely on what he was doing as well as what he expected the outcome to be. Thinking about this, he tried again.

He visualized his Rietsu flowing into his hand as he moved. He visualized it firing out from his hand and he shouted once again, "Hado Ichi! SHO!" and this time a gust of air blew from his hand, knocking the target stand over. He'd done it!

The teacher approached him. "So you've got it. You need practice, but you should be able to do it quite well by the end of class."

When Garin arrived in time for the next class in Kido. He watched the teacher walk up to the teaching platform and stand waiting before the class as they formed up. She turned and began to set up a target. This time, she laid a bottle on top of one of the targets, and finally turned back.

"Today's Hado lesson is a very useful skill for surprising one's enemy. Enemies expect tactics like shooting fireballs, lightning, or ice spears. They expect for you to throw head on attacks at them that they can then counter. What's more important though, is that an enemy never expects you to use a spell to close on them in combat." She turned towards the bottle and pointed. "They'll expect a charge, sure, but why use a spell to close the gap?
They're usually used to attack at a distance and keep the enemy back. This is why the second Hado technique is so useful. The other thing to know about this technique is that this one, and every other technique after, requires the use of an incantation." Suddenly, the teacher's Rietsu activated and she shouted, "Engulfed by the need of want come forward, Hado Ni! Reel!" and clenched her fist! The bottle suddenly flew towards her where her blade sliced it neatly in two pieces.

She turned towards the class. "Just like the bottle, if someone is tugged unexpectedly towards you and you're fast enough, it can result in a killing blow early on. Now, I expect for you all to practice. and I'll come around to help." As before, she walked through the class, assisting with stance and giving words of advice.

Garin turned towards his set of targets. There were three. He pointed at the first bottle and focused on using his rietsu as a kind of funnel to yank the bottle back. ""Engulfed by the need of want come forward, Hado Ni! Reel!"" he shouted with authority... and then sighed as nothing happened at all. He pointed again. This time, he imagined the wind coming from behind the bottle, and his closing fist was like him waving it forward. ""Engulfed by the need of want come forward, Hado Ni! Reel!"" He felt the gust of wind just strong enough to rock the bottle. It fell to the ground with a smash of breaking glass. That was one down, and he would need to keep working before he'd be ready to yank one like the teacher.

He focused more for the next bottle, taking time to close his eyes and visualize the bottle flying towards him. ""Engulfed by the need of want come forward, Hado Ni! Reel!"" This time the bottle was picked up and flew, but didn't go far enough, smashing to pieces just before his feet.

Finally he focused on the last bottle. He poured Rietsu into the technique and visualized it, ""Engulfed by the need of want come forward, Hado Ni! REEL!"" he shouted, and the bottle flew violently from on top of the target! He only just barely dodged the bottle, and looked up to see his teacher stabbing the bottle forcefully, causing it to explode into hundreds of beautiful shards. As tiny pieces of glass rained down, the teacher landed next to him.

"Well, that wasn't bad, but lets work on finesse for the rest of the class, shall we?" She said to Garin.

Garin stood in his position as the teacher walked onto the platform to teach the newest Hado technique. He waited as she adjusted the targets. Smiling, she turned to her students.

"Today we begin learning the first truly offensive Hado. Sure, you could use the other two in combat, but truly, they're not capable of doing a lot of harm to anyone with any skill at all. The move we'll learn today however is a powerful beam attack with just a touch of fire!" She turned towards one of the paper targets and clenched a fist at her side. "Let the swallow chirp at its finest and emit its power," Her fist flew forward, now glowing with red energy, and at the last moment she opened her hand and a beam of light shot forth as she shouted, " Hado San, Crimson Strike!"

The paper target burst into flames when hit by the attack. Garin had to admit it was impressive. The teacher demonstrated one more time before beginning her routine of walking about.

Garin visualized his goal, as was usual, and how he would go about achieving it. He set himself into the stance like the teacher and aimed for the target. "Let the swallow chirp at its finest and emit its power, Crimson STRIKE!" Surprisingly, this time the move worked the first time! Truly it wasn't as cohesive and perfect as the teacher's, but still, it was accurate and strong enough to burn the target. Apparently, he was getting a hang of this Kido stuff. Soon enough, maybe, he'd be an accomplished magician and wouldn't need the ridiculous knife at his side.

At this thought, he suddenly went cold with fear. He felt like a man being watched by some terribly creature...

As the next few weeks progressed, Garin learned several new kido, both in the Bakuto and the Hado families. The teacher taught them well and he studied hard, finding that he actually had a bit of a talent at this now that he had an experienced teacher.

OOC: I figured since I already had these I was wasting time doing a seperate post for each one. I'll continue when I reach the next rank.