Practice Makes Perfect (Apollo and Open)

His steps were measured and confident. He strode with a purpose. His robes whipped about his frame with a calm fury. If it weren't for his height, he would have looked imposing rather than goofy. He paid no notice to the snickers of laughter he got as walked across the dry dirt that led up to the Zanjutsu Dojo. He swept aside a stray hair from over his left eye and removed his shoes, stepping into the Dojo quietly. It had appeared smaller from the outside; A square of unpainted wood for the walls, with an intricately shingled roof in a dark shade of blue. The appearance was misleading, however. The inside of the Dojo seemed to stretch as far as two Olympic-sized gymnastics floors. The ground was a soft, worn tatami. Lines and racks of weaponry, both wooden and battle-ready, were against every wall. There were dummies on the far side of the room, where a few students were practicing their kata and the like. An instructor watched over them, looking for form and technique, it seemed. There were but a few dummies left, so Hibiki walked forward. He passed the instructor, whom looked at him with a hard gaze, then at the blade at his hip. The left corner of his mouth twitched upwards slightly as he spoke,

"Welcome, Hibiki. Form and Technique. Practice it, but make it your own." Was all he said. He backed up to be able to watch them all at once. Hibiki couldn't help but feel confused. All the others were doing the same thing, what they had learned in the textbook. He had skimmed through it, but didn't think anything of it when he had walked out of the door with the intention of coming here. He took a deep breath. It was just one day. He'd do what he wanted, and then go study.

He drew his blade, sizing up the dummy in front of him. It was taller than him, probably about 6 feet tall. His mind flashed back to when he was at the Academy Preparatory school, and faced the 7 foot tall giant, and he smiled slightly. He drew in another breath and exhaled slowly as he held his blade, point up, in his right hand. He slackened his grip on the top and bottom and top of his fist, causing the blade to fall sideways like a pendulum. As it went horizontal, he was sliding his left foot forward, bending his right leg at the knee as he leaned forward with his core. His center of gravity had switched to his chest as his blade faced down and his hand turned palm up to receive it in a reverse grip as his left leg tightened up. He lunged forward and to the left, left hand on the hilt of the blade to steady it and his right hand keeping the blade horizontal. He moved forward with enough speed his hair blew back, momentarily revealing his eye patch. He felt his blade bite into the wooden dummy and slide cleanly across where its ribs would have been. As his blade left the wood, he planted hard and jabbed back, spearing the dummy on his blade. He then took out the blade and sheathed it once more, after slinging it in a motion symbolizing cleaning it of blood.

He snapped back to attention, realizing he had done all of that by pure instinct, letting his body have complete control. He grinned as the instructor nodded encouragingly.

"You would make a very good addition to the second squad, young man. Keep at it." he said. Hibiki bowed his head in thanks and watched the other students practicing, and one in particular caught his eye, who seemed to be doing his own thing as well.

Apollo faced the training dummy with a grim look on his face; he had come there to blow off some steam. When he had entered the dojo he had been one of the lucky few to find a training dummy, it was a good thing so that he wouldn’t so that he wouldn’t have to hold back. His blade was gripped tightly in his left hand as started his form one more.

“I won’t lose…I won’t be weak…I refuse to be weak anymore.” Apollo’s voice was hollow as he took a step closer to the dummy leading in with a quick body slash, Apollo began his assault. Two more slashes followed as Apollo unleashed all of his pent up anger into the dummy, then his right hand came up for a chest punch. The dummy slid back on the floor, and Apollo charged after it.

Catching the dummy Apollo brought the blade up and with one smooth motion had decapitated the dummy. Before the head hit the floor Apollo caught it in the crescent of his blade, spinning around he flung it at the far wall where a young student was staring.

“What are you staring at?” Apollo’s anger was still aflame as he snarled at the student. Crossing the dojo Apollo’s eyes never left the shinigami “You might find yourself well matched against a dummy, but how would you fair against a living opponent?” The dojo master had started to make his way over, but Apollo ignored him. “Let’s go kid if you think it is okay to stare let’s see what you can do.”

OOC: sorry for the short post

Hibiki hadn't meant to be rude, though from the look in the student's eyes, he wasn't in much of a good mood anyway. Hibiki drew his blade, ready to be on the defensive. The student just kept coming, and seemed to ignore the advances of the instructor, whom stopped. Hibiki was calm, however. Calmer than he would have been in any other situation., which surprised him. He even smiled at the challenge the student was putting forth.

He crouched and held his blade from the top of the hilt, so that he could have easy manipulation of his grip. He had shifted his blade to his left hand and taken a step back with his right leg, making his body angled and facing slightly sideways. He was leaning forward again, which shifted his center of gravity back to his chest.

"Well, let's see if your bite's as big as your bark..." Hibiki said coldly. The biting edge in his own voice made him shiver slightly. He lifted up his right hand, palm up, aimed at the angered student. He smirked and then motioned twice with his palm, accepting the challenge.

During the events leading up to the confrontation, Masaru had been doing some training of his own in the dojo. However, he was using his nodachi with the sheath still on, so that he wouldn't actually damage the dummy if he hit it too hard. Of course, he only planned on warming up against the dummy; getting his muscles used to performing the powerful slashes and cuts that were normally a part of his repertoire. However, in addition to these large-ranged cuts, he did make a few attempts to try moves that could be done closer-up. Given the length of his blade, this limited him to attacks with his fist, or the guard or pommel of his blade, or the lower half of his blade, giving him limited maneuverability, but still, these moves had their place.

Now all warmed up, Masaru looked around for a sparring partner; after all, there was no substitute for actually fighting someone. His veiled eyes found a familiar among the people in the dojo; Apollo, the student from the bar. Apparently, Apollo had graduated as well; he was wearing Shinigami robes like Masaru's. (Masaru still practiced at the dojo at the Academy occasionally because it was a more familiar setting, and his peers in 8th Division had not gotten used to him yet). What he saw and heard after did not surprise him; Apollo had not struck him as a particularly pleasant individual the last time they'd met, and his angry challenge to the student seemed excessive to Masaru.

However...Apollo had not done anything illegal, so there wasn't anything Masaru could do about it. He could, however, move in closer, obviously to watch the match, his sword drawn but at his side in case Apollo's anger clouded his judgment, and he made an attack that would severely injure his student opponent. Hopefully Masaru's mere presence would cause Apollo to calm down and approach the challenge as a training exercise, not a way to vent anger. Then again, the fact that Masaru had drawn his sword might be interpreted differently; as a sign of aggression.

(OOC: If you do not mind I will be observing, Or at least not Interfering with you two...)

Kuroi was supposed to be observing... Learning how to teach... but this teacher couldn't control his class room... Two students were facing off... Kuroi wanted to see them fight, as the rest of the classroom he hadn't paid much attention to...

As the teacher approached them, preparing to stop the fight, Kuroi shunpo'ed over too him, forming a wall between them and the teacher... "Lets watch them fight, and they won't kill each other, ill step in if they get carried away... Go tend to your other students"

Kuroi's request was met with compliance, as he was faster than the teacher, and could probably intervene in before a fatal blow is struck... Kuroi leaned up against one of the straw dummies and watched... Waited, and Observed while keeping his Hand on his Zanpaktou...

"Ah hello, Junko, I believe is your name, correct? It is nice to see you again," Masaru greeted Junko cordially, noting the fact that she was breaking the rules by wearing chainmail and a talabard. Given the arrival of a Shinigami that seemed more competent than Masaru to deal with any overly violent attacks from either participant, Masaru decided that he would take Junko up on her offer.

"A rematch? Well, there never was a victor in our original match, so I would say that our match never ended on desirable terms," he said. "But let us finish." He drew his enormous nodachi and readied himself for battle. "Ladies first."

Masaru's eyes watched her as they stood tensely, awaiting action, making a silent assessment in the moments before contact. It was interesting that her weapon of choice was a broadsword. Typically a two-handed weapon used with strength as its strong point, though Masaru was pretty sure he could wield it effectively one-handed. This would be an interesting...Masaru wondered if she was giving thought to what strategy Masaru would be using. Since he had graduated, and she had not, he decided to give her a hint even as she acted.

As she rolled toward him and launched herself up, he said, "You know what I like about a nodachi? It allows me to use my strength to its utmost...but with all the precision of a katana!" She was coming down at his left shoulder, and Masaru moved with perfect strategy. He stepped around to the right, so her blade would go past him harmlessly. Since she was in the air, she would be unable to change direction until she hit the ground. Masaru's blade came down and up, a blow aimed to catch her in the midriff as she came down, though with the blade turned so he would strike with the flat.

Perhaps she would be able to parry the blow, but that didn't matter. If she did, Masaru would simply counter with a Hado#1: Sho of his own while she was being stopped by his blade. Without even the force of friction to keep her where she was, and with Masaru's blade momentarily stopping her descent and reducing her gravitational weight, the spell would probably send her flying, especially given Masaru's unnaturally high reiatsu.

Junko had anticipated within reason correctly... or at least, close enough...

Junko never expected her first attack to hit, merely to get him to retaliate, and she had achived that goal perfectly, and a lackadazical attack as well, assuming that she would fall...

"Hado 2 Reel"

Junko yelled this as she fell, and aimed it at Masaru's head... And even with her chainmail armor, he would not be pulled because of his mass, she would be...

And so she became a human cannonball, flying at Masaru's head.

So she was going to use a Hado spell to move while in midair. It was clever, especially since his blade was too long to bring back to parry, but he also had kido on his side. Masaru backed up as fast as he could with his left hand outstretched so as to grant him more time. "Bakudo no Hachi: Seki!" A round shield appeared over his left forearm, which he used to block Junko's unorthodox attack. The shield would also temporarily paralyze her and repel her away.

If she had been an actual enemy, Masaru probably would've gone with a Hado spell like Byakurai in order to finish the fight, but since she was a comrade, he went with the Bakudo. "You're inventive, but you're going to have to do better than that," he told her.

Junko was shocked by the defense, Masaru was truley shinigami material, She would have figured that he would have been more shocked by anything than a human cannonball flying at his head, and yet he reacted coolly and calmly, responding with kidou rather than force, a wise move...

She spun uncontrollably now, repelled sufficently from the original trajectory and unable to move her muscles to try and fall better... She did however break loose from the kidou right before she impacted, her muscles relaxing and as she hit, the clinking of her chainmail made a fall sound worse than i looked... Falling from 9 feet in the air is never pretty anyway, and Junko bounced, her spine arching flipping her talabard over her head and revealing the gold inlaid breastplate that lay underneath.

On the bounce down she landed head first, and lay their for a moment, using two kido quickly had taken a toll, and the paralysis was not fully worn off... In a fight she would most likely be dead, but in a fight that move would have most likely have worked differently, and she would have never gotten airbourne in the first place...

She struggled to get to her feet, she had dropped he sword somewhere, it lay several feet away from her. She stood, stumbling, most likely a concusion but Junko's head was clearing up, her vision straightening up...

"You're inventive, but you're going to have to do better than that"

Junko smiled, a lucid grin, her eyes clearly not focused... she was hurting, but she tried her best to not let it show...

Junko tried to reply smoothly, but her speech slurred and she struggled to keep her balance, "Or I could, I could just win?"

She stood trying to keep her vision straight and trying to be ready for an attack, and slurring a hado spell, "Hado 8 Blade of Flames", a smaller broadsword formed in her hands, made entirely of flames, and she stood as ready as she was going to get to continue the fight.

((OOC: Hows that for ya, i got the time to do a nice long post))

Masaru watched impassively as Junko hit the ground with a resounding crash and lay still for a few moments. He could still feel her reiatsu, and therefore was not concerned that he might have seriously injured her. Given her state, however, if she had been an enemy, Masaru was confident he would've been able to finish her quickly. He had to commend her, for certain. She was inventive, as he had put it, able to adapt to fighting someone much bigger than her, as well as physically stronger.

He was slightly more concerned when she stood and spoke in slurred speech, then used Hado#8. Slurred speech indicated a head wound, possibly, though it could just be she was fatigued. He would have to be extra careful to not go too hard on her if that was the case. Masaru was familiar with Hado#8; it was a spell that caused a blade of flame to appear around one's hand or hands. However, it was not capable of deflecting physical objects, which made it somewhat less than a satisfactory weapon.

Masaru leveled his weapon at her. He'd have to be careful not to accidentally be-hand her. Perhaps this was some sort of desperate do-or-die effort; after all, if he simply cut through her flame blade to her, she might be able to do some form of significant damage with her flame blade. At great cost, obviously, but she didn't seem the type of person to shy away from Pyrrhic victory. Masaru could respect that, but that didn't mean he was going to let her win.

He approached her slowly, always keeping his eyes on her for the slightest movement. Basic strategy dictated he now use the length of his nodachi to his advantage. If all went well, she wouldn't even get near him. Masaru gave a quick growl to hint to her that he was going to attack, and then slashed down with his blade; albeit with the flat turned down. He aimed so that if it landed, only the tip of his blade would strike her left shoulder, effectively keeping her at a distance even if he missed.

Junko, at Masaru's growl, had to recover her blade, she had backed away, as he had approached, and she was honestly hoping the short shinigami that had intervened with the instructor and the other sparring pair would intervene here... But she could not count on such things...

With her free hand she held out at her blade, and murmmered, as to conceal what she cast, "Hado 2 Reel"

As her blade was in her left hand she flipped it so Masaru's Nodatchi made contact with her flat of the blade, and hers was rested upon her shoulder, she crouched so as to absorb the impact... She grinned... Distance was nothing to count on... Junko sprinted forward, grinding her Zanpaktou against his, trailing her Hado 8, after a short sprint she slashed across her body, about at Masaru's legs, her blade set firmly against Masaru's Blade...

Masaru's blade crashed into Junko's, effectively halting its crushing advance. He was genuinely surprised that she had been able to bring her blade up that fast - and that she was now charging him, with their blades firmly locked together. She was going to strike at him with that flame blade; and unlike their normal blades, you couldn't exactly ensure the strike did little damage. Masaru acted on instinct. The first thing he did was release his grip on his sword, instantly breaking the lock.

At the same time, he backed up as fast as he could, calling "Hado#2: Reel!" as he did so to bring his blade back to him, and more importantly, with the ability to maneuver. Finally, he crouched, bringing his still Bakudo#8: Seki shield down in front of his blocking sword to take her Hado#8. If she struck it, it would become a test of whose spiritual pressure would win out; and Masaru was certain that it would be his.

It was pure luck that saved him. Masaru had forgotten that Hado#8 could be thrown, and was startled by the attack coming toward his face; not only because it could be very damaging, but because it might burn away his veil and reveal his true face. That being registered, Masaru did a very undignified stumble backward pedal, tripping over his feet and landing on his rear. That brought his defensive position to shambles; his left arm went to the side, and his right arm went straight out, sword pointed with it.

He breathed an unconscious sigh of relief as the flame dissipated in front of his face; thankfully, the thrown blade had little range. That was when he felt the slap of the flat of Junko's blade on his rear as she slid past him. This proved enough to galvanize him to quickly get to his feet and face her. "That...would've been an embarrassing wound," he said. "I'm glad we're only sparring."

Masaru decided it was time to get serious. He stepped forward, his blade coming in in and overhead strike with him, its momentum would surely leave a bruise, even with the blade turned. But this strike was actually a feint; midway through, Masaru changed its direction with lightning speed, making it a backhand side strike. Despite being deceptively simple, this was actually quite the strategy. The standard block against an overhead strike, especially against someone of Masaru's height, was to raise one's blade and counter horizontally. But when that attack turned into a backhand side; well- most people weren't fast enough to bring their blade all the way back to counter it.

Masaru was greatly impressed that she was able to do a backflip while wearing armor. He wondered why she even wore the stuff if she was strong enough to wear it and fight; after all, speed is more of a deciding factor in a katana fight than one's defensive armor. Perhaps it was a form of training. Masaru did hope that his blow hadn't hurt her too much; it hadn't sounded very good, but then again, she was wearing a breastplate. Maybe it wouldn't do as much damage, or be as painful. He wouldn't know, as he'd never worn armor in his life.

Masaru watched as she retrieved her blade and looked at him. He could see a fire within them that looked more than willing to continue the fight. Beneath the veil, he smiled. He admired her tenacity; it would make her a reliable member of the Gotei. And then she used Hado#8 again, this time to augment her Zanpakuto's deadliness. Masaru briefly wondered if she had forgotten that this was a spar, and that deadly force was probably not within decorum. Didn't matter. Well, two could play at that game.

However, Masaru much preferred the use of Bakudo spells than Hado spells. Oftentimes, the law called for restraining and not killing, so he felt that they were better. "Bakudo#2, Bakudo#6, Hanko-Nensho Totte." He cast the spell on Junko, solidifying her grip on her blade. Reason being, that would limit her to very specific strikes with her sword, and also be unable to use kido to help her compensate.

Masaru smiled behind his veil, and then charged, his blade coming in to meet hers in an upward strike which would be followed by a stab. This was done so that while she might be able to block the first strike, the fact that her hands were gripped to the hilt of her sword would prevent her from parrying the second without going into an awkward ineffective posture.

Junko, when her kidou was sealed... felt helpless, and infact, her Reiatsu was being sealed as well, and she was running low on that as well... Her hado eight died, and as Masaru came to attack, it was all she could do to block the first strike, but as a side effect, the attack knocked her to the ground avoiding the stab...

She was blacking out, slowly though, and she would try a trick that was simple, and would likely cost little Reiatsu,

"Bakuto 1 Sai"

Junko pointed her sword at Masaru, using that as a medium to aim her Kidou, she strained to keep it at full power, but she did, and with noticable effort, she didn't do well with her strength sealed, and she stumbled back to her feet akwardly, but she left her sword down,

"No matter how you cut it, this fight is over"

She said this, the concussion starting to take its toll without her reiatsu to quell it's symptoms, slurred, her eyes fluttering, she left her sword down and pulled a hand away from it... imediatly turning her blade downward to put into the floor to lean on... her chest hurt too, a bruised or fractured rib was possible, and she relized that she had a concussion, She gave up on everything that she was using spiritual pressure for, and in a sense, it faltered and disappeared from its normal level, just to stay concious long enough to say,

"Nice fight ehh?"

And then she passed out...

((OOC: Mediator will now step in))

Kuroi was trying to watch two fights at once, the one with the Large man and the Midevil woman was far more interesting, and the fight with the others was crawling to a bore...

He felt the Woman's Reiatsu fade, almost vanish and he was in motion, she hadn't taken any hits, none fatal, and none that should be causing this, but something was way wrong...

He shunpo'ed over to her... and stepped between the large man and the Woman and caught her as she collapsed...

"Sheath your weapon" It was said as an order, not as a request, and he set the Woman down on her back, setting her head down gently, and he kneeled beside her, starting the healing process and he noticed the Bakuto 2...

"Drop the seal" and this again was said as a command...

He started with the head, trying to accelerate the healing with the concusion and was going to leave the bruised rib for later, if at all heal it...

"Of course. I did not mean for the fight to go this far," Masaru said apologetically as he sheathed his weapon. He concentrated for a moment, and dropped the seal as well. Masaru approached Junko's fallen form. "My deepest apologies, Junko." Then he turned to regard this moderator. "Is there anything I can do to assist?"

Kuroi was pleased to feel the seal drop, and her reiastu levels rose until they were farily normal, or at least better than nonexsitant...

He solved all the problems he could, and having a student have a hurt chest for awhile would teach a lesson to her not to pick fights...

He stood and turned to address the man, "I am afraid all i am waiting for is for her to wake up... and it should happen any minute now, or even in a day... it all depends on how she recovers...

I dont belive i have see you around before... My name is Kuroi Sora..."

Kuroi offered a hand for a handshake, he was pleased with his work, although the woman did take it too abit to far...

((Just abit of a reminder, I my spiritual presense isn't as impressive as yours, aside from the shunpo, there is no indication of my rank...))

Masaru's lips just barely tweaked up as he said, "Masaru Arata. Well I'm surprised you haven't seen me around. I am...hard to miss. It is a pleasure to meet you." He extended his massive gloved hand and enveloped Kuroi's hand in it, shaking it firmly but gently. "I am glad to hear that she will be alright. The Gotei 13 can certainly use people as determined as her."

Masaru couldn't help but feel a little bit happy that he was meeting so many new people. It seemed that graduating the Academy really had opened up a myriad of opportunities. "So, Kuroi-san, which squad are you in? Currently, I am in the 8th Division, but I am thinking of transferring to the 1st."

Kuroi nodded at the detrimation comment, and he was happy such a big man would not be in 11th squad, as that could lead to a paticularly comprimising situaiton, but apart from that, it is nice to know that he is friendly.

"Ahh, yes i suppose I do have a title... I'm 6th Seat of Squad 3, but as you may have been able to tell, I spent alot of my career in fourth squad..."

He looked at his feet when he stated the fact, embarrased by his rank, and he wasn't sure about the fourth squad thing, and how it would test him...