Extended Discipline [Solo]

Continued From - Simple Movements [Solo]

There were no clocks in the dojo that Ailin had been instructed to wait in. It was empty, the days classes had been long over. The dojo was one of the larger ones, having windows line the top of the walls where moonlight could shine through.

She didn't know how long she had been waiting, but it was sure that it was well over two hours time. He was late, and she couldn't help but visualize all the different ways she could kill him.

"It's not like you to pretend to be meditating Tao. Meditation just doesn't suit you." She heard an all too familiar voice come from right in front of her face.

"And it's not like you to be late to a practice that you scheduled." She retorted as she held a piece of paper up for him. She had received it earlier that day from one of his "Friends." "I wasn't late." He started, only pausing when she opened her eyes to look up at him. "I've been here the entire time, watching you." He said as he smiled brightly.

Ailin stared up at him, she wanted to attack him already, wanted to yell at him, wanted to make him suffer. He had the audacity to have her sit there for hours waiting for him and when he finally decided to show up spit out a blatant lie like he just had. 'If you're going to lie to me, you could at least make it believable.' She thought as she leveled out her head and closed her eyes yet again.

Actually trying to calm herself down, she reminded herself over and over about how much she wanted this training session with Tsukimiya. She needed to the practice, even though she had politely dismissed the other students who had offered.

"Perhaps I didn't enter the right way." She heard Tsukimiya's voice come from across the room, his entire movement pausing for a moment. "I'm sorry for being late Tao. I'm ready to begin training when you are." She could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

Opening her eyes, Ailin stood in her spot, the bells in her hair ringing, and saw him by the place where the wooden katanas were stored. "Don't worry about it Tsukimiya." She said as her face formed into the sweetest smile she could manage. "It's a student's job to wait for their teacher." She mocked him, just as he was mocking her. He was the only person who had been able to get that kind of reaction from her. . . Why was that?

"That's better." She heard him say as she watched him pick a bokken out of the storage area behind him. He had chosen one in the shape of a long katana. Having never seen his zanpakutô, she could only assume that the bokken he chose was one that he was used to sparring with.

"Pick out a katana that resembles your own zanpakutô then join me." The tone of his voice drastically changed. He was serious now, she couldn't find any form of humor in his hazel eyes.

"Yes Sir." She said as she walked to the storage area; selecting a simple katana made from white oak. She turned to look at him, and walked towards him, stopping a a few meters away and waited for his next instruction.

“I only have one rule for this practice.” His voice was calm, taunting almost, a smile playing on his lips. “No kidō. I just want a fight one-on-one, you and me.” With the last word, Ailin watched the smile drop from his face; it wasn’t like him to restrict a spar like that. Kidō itself was one of his strong suits, one of the reasons she had wanted him to be the one that trained her, but if he wanted to play like that, than she would do so.

Her hand gripped the hilt of the wooden katana lightly as she looked at him, she wouldn’t be the one to attack him, too many times had she tried that and too many times had it failed. “Is there a reason?” Her voice was just as soft, but the taunt that rang in his wasn’t present. ‘Perhaps he just wants to even the playing field a bit.’ Her thoughts drifted to how much she needed to learn before she could dream about passing her graduation exams.

Perhaps she had been letting herself get to comfortable in his presence over the past few days, but before it could register he was in front of her. His golden hair practically brushing against her face, the smile, the taunt that had been present earlier completely gone. Her own eyes stared up at him, he taller than her by a lot, but she wasn’t scared. At her size and stature she would have a lot of conflicts similar to this one and she couldn’t let them cause her to fail a mission in the future.

“Go.” His voice was barely audible as he said the word, and she could feel his feet lift off the wooden floor of the dojo. Gripping the hilt of the wooden katana tightly, she steadied herself as she felt him move in circles around her.

It was obvious that he was more skilled than she was, Tsukimiya had known what he wanted to do since the day he awoke in the Soul Society. Unlike her, he came from a higher part of society and great things were expected of him from his birth. She was just another nameless blip on their radar, her status neither coveted nor feared. ‘He wants a fight, but I can’t fight him unless I can catch him.’ Her thoughts twisted through themselves as her eyes darted from side to side, trying to find a pattern in his movements. She could hear the bell that hung from his ear chiming each time he landed, her eyes flinging to the next position she thought he would reappear each time he moved.

“Your eyes will be your downfall if you don’t learn how to use your other senses correctly Tao.” Twisting her body in a half circle, she lifted her weapon to block his incoming strike. The force from his strike would’ve been enough to knock her out if he hadn’t alerted her to his presence by speaking. “Would you like me to close them?” She let out a breath as she stared up at him, of course he wanted her to close them, in his head her eyes were a disadvantage to her. But she needed them, she wouldn’t be able to gauge pressure, wouldn’t be able to learn movements, wouldn’t be able to fully understand what he was teaching her without them.

Pushing on the blade with all of her strength, Ailin jumped a few feet back and out of the way of his blade, her feet making a light tap on the floor as she landed. Instantly she was rushing forwards towards him, her katana swinging to hit his shoulder, but before her blade could make contact he disappeared. Skidding to a stop, she spun to face the sound of a bell chiming behind her, bringing up her katana to stop his incoming attack. “I’m not going to tell you how to fight, but your eyes will get you killed someday if you don’t learn to use them properly. You rely on them too much and that is a weakness no squad can afford to have.” His voice wasn’t taunting but at the same time it didn’t have the disciplined tone he usually displayed.

‘Is that fear?’ The question passed through her head, but she immediately dismissed it. She couldn’t let herself get attached to anyone and couldn’t allow them to get attached to her, getting attached wasn’t worth the pain she would go through if she lost them. As much as she didn’t want to believe it, she wasn’t human anymore and the simple pleasures that came with being a human weren’t hers to enjoy.

Jumping back a bit as she felt his presence close to her, she narrowed her eyes, watching his blade sweep towards her legs. ‘Avoiding his attacks won’t be enough. I have to attack him.’ She thought as she lifted her finger to point directly at him. “Had-” Her voice cut as she remembered his only rule for this practice, her body turning as she dodged another one of his strikes. Jumping back another foot, she turned her head to see a wall just a few feet behind her. ‘Soul reaper’s use their surroundings to their advantage.’ She thought as she jumped one more time, her foot connecting with the wall as she propelled herself in Tsukimiya’s direction, her katana falling from above him, exerting as much force as she could.

“Too slow.” She heard his voice above her, her eyes widening as she tried to turn around to block him, but she had registered his presence too late, his weapon easily colliding with the back of her ribcage, sending her directly to the ground. Letting out a breath of air, her chest wretched as she pushed herself up from the ground, her eyes turning to look up at him.

Her eyes stared at him as she tried to recover from the hit. She was slow, slow by a tremendous amount, or at least that was what it seemed when she was up against him. “Get up Tao.” Tsukimiya’s voice was low, anger the shining emotion in every syllable.

There were many reasons for him to be angry with her, her performance just now, how stubborn she was, the fact that if she was really against an enemy, she would be dead, but he didn’t explain any of it to her. They didn’t have that relationship, they were friends, they were training partners, they were student and teacher, but they weren’t confidants. There were things about her that she could never say to him, just like she suspected he had things he could never say to her. ‘I need to do better.’ Standing straight up, her eyes met his as he waited for her. When they had first started training, it had been decided that the first strike was practice, just to let the other know what they were up against. So far, in all their sessions, she still hadn’t been able to land a hit.

Pulling a cloth from her pocket, she folded it a few times and lifted it to her face. “Okay.” Her voice paused for a few moments as she took one last glance around the dojo. ‘I’ll do this your way Tsukimiya. You haven’t given me a reason not to trust your judgement yet.’ She thought as she tied a knot in the cloth, her ears picking up the soft shuffling of his feet on the wooden floor. “Again.” Taking a quick breath, her hand gripped her zanpakutō hilt a bit tighter as she tried to calculate his movements. They had worked like this before; ever since the beginning he had told her that her eyes were her greatest weakness, she relied on them like she relied on air to breath.

‘He’s moving in a circle again. The closet. . . The door. . . The wall facing East.’ Her body turned every time she felt him move, but each time, she didn’t feel him get any closer to her. His spiritual pressure wasn’t much higher than her own, but his agility, his dexterity; the extent of his knowledge was greater than her own by quite a large amount.

After a few points, her feet were off the ground. The dojo was a secured space, there weren’t many places he would run to, and with an attacking opponent, he would have to face her at some point. Pointing her katana, she thrust it towards the area she presumed to be his chest. “Do you feel how your other senses react when you take one away? They try to make up for the handicap, they work harder and you perceive more than you normally would.” She could hear his voice, feel his hand run along the blade of the wooden katana.

“Learning how to fight when deprived of a key sense is a lot harder than learning to fight with all of them. You learn to feel pressure more, you learn to key where the person might be, you learn to pay closer attention to what you’re hearing.” She heard his voice in her ear, immediately turning to swing, feeling her blade hit his own. He was doing an awfully large amount of talking and even though she expected it, it was still irritating that he was still treating her as though she was a kid. She was in his class, even though she was nothing when compared to him, she was still someone that a lot of other students wouldn’t want to contend with. “Are you even trying Tao? I can’t even tell if I’m wasting my time anymore.” She could hear the

“I am Tsukimiya. I am.” Ailin spit out as she continued to strike in his direction, feeling the vibrations as wood hit wood. He was going easy on her, he was always going easy on her, and he was always looking down on her. Yes, she had asked him to train her. Yes, it was obvious that he was on a different level than she was, but that was usually how it worked when a person asked another to teach them. But no, she didn’t want to learn like this. “You say you want a fight, but you’re constantly restricting yourself; making sure that your blade doesn’t harm me.” Her words came out with a sharp edge to them, she was angry and it was her own fault.

Her swings became a bit more rapid as she followed him around the room. In her head she knew that emotions were something that shouldn’t be taken out on the sparring grounds, but she kept her façade up everywhere else. She was a weapon of the Soul Society; more willing to kill off a list that they hand to her than to judge people for herself. Powering through swing after swing, she felt something that felt like a piece of flesh rather than a hard piece of wood. Forcing herself to a stop, Ailin pulled the ribbon from her eyes and glared at him, noticing the line of pink on his forearm from where she had managed to hit him.

“I want an actual fight. You and me; no holding back.” Even through the short breaths, her voice was firm, graduation was approaching quickly and she was still playing games with a friend instead of learning from a fellow classmate. ‘I know enough to pass the examinations, I know enough to get out of this school, but if I go out there as I am now. You said it yourself; I’ll only end up getting myself or other people killed.’ Her thoughts circulated as she waited for him to accept her challenge of an actual match. Sliding her feet to a steady position, Ailin straightened out her back as she lifted her katana parallel to the ground in one of the most basic stances she knew.

As Ailin stood there, she watched a grim expression cross Tsukimiya’s face for a moment and couldn’t shake the feeling of irritation that spawned with it. She didn’t understand why he was so hesitant, she didn’t understand why he always refused to fight her, they were both Academy students, nothing could possibly go wrong. They had both been in a countless number of spars and were still standing, so he had no reason to be worried about anything going wrong.

“I’m not ready to fight you.” Her eyes narrowed for a moment at the words that were coming out of his mouth. “And you’re not ready to fight me. Learning to fight isn’t something that can be rushed, but you were rushed through it simply because the teachers saw something in you.” His voice was a big stronger as he said the words, emphasizing how much he truly believed in what he was telling her. Letting down her stance a little, she thought about what he was saying.

‘So that’s why you agreed to train with me. Not because you considered me a friend, but because you considered me unusual.’ Glancing at the ground for a moment, she didn’t try to hide her dismay to the fact that he had declined her offer. “But you will fight me someday? For real?” She wanted to know his answer. Until the day he would accept an even spar, she would always be his subordinate instead of a comrade-in-arms. She didn’t care if they were the same Rank, both still nothing but babies when it came to the world outside the Soul Society. “Yeah. I promise. I’m sure someday we’ll end up sparring with each other on even grounds.” A smile showed on his lips as he said the words, his body moving as soon as he said the words, appearing above her, his sword coming down at an angle that was meant to pierce her heart.

“I finally understand why you agreed to train with me now.” Ailin paused a moment as she dodged his attack, having it followed by a doppleganger of the first, he wanted her to block. “You want to know why they put me through. A little nobody from the Rukongai.” Lifting her sword so that it was directly in line of his attack, Ailin exerted enough pressure to block the attack. Pushing herself away from him before forcing herself forward, getting as close as she could to the ground and twisting her body so that her left foot would hit his right calf. It narrowly missed its target as he forced his own body forward, his right leg aiming for her abdomen. At the sight of his leg coming at her, Ailin dove into a roll towards the northern wall, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid contact, his foot. Wincing in pain for a moment at the pain in her right calf, Ailin retreated again, stumbling a bit on her landing.

Moving from her position, Ailin jumped into the air, doing a quick somersault so that her back wouldn’t face her opponent too long. ‘Leaving your back open for the opponent is just as good as handing them your life.’ She thought as she lifted her weapon to block another one of his incoming strikes. Continuing to move around the room, Ailin tried to block the rest of his barrage of attacks, she had never had him actually force her back like this. He usually defended her attacks while she tried to hurt him, but apparently he had other plans. Breathing heavily, she could feel the amount of force behind his swings, his spiritual power rising as he continued to attack.

“I’ll admit that’s one of the things that I find interesting about you. You don’t seem like any of the great ones from the history books.” She could hear a small hint of sarcasm in his voice. It had been awhile since the Soul Society had found anyone that could match the strength of the old Gotei 13 from hundreds of years ago. The history books were filled with names of people that no one could remember. The hollows had almost been able to wipe out the entire Soul Society, but they had been able to rebuild, putting time and effort to create the current system. ‘I’m not like them. I’ll never be like them.’ She thought as she tried to dodge another one of his attacks, his weapon barely missing her left shoulder.

‘I’ve only given them one reason to let me graduate early. Even with that reason, I’ve barely been able to keep up with the classes and trained for hours after class was over.’ Flipping through the air, her maroon eyes fell on the figure before her. Tsukimiya was really on a different level than her, he was strong, he was fast, kidō came naturally to him, and he had the attitude of a real soldier. Looking down at the katana in her right hand, she gripped it a bit tighter before looking back up at him. “Give me a real fight and I’ll show you what they see in me.”

She could see a flash of interest appear on his face. "Time and place." The words flowed form his lips as what could only be seen as satisfaction on his face.

Continued In - Relentless Assault [Solo]