Colors of Determination (Kuro)

Kuro was up to his old pass time of hanging around the academy again. It was the best way he knew to relax from his captain responsibilities while at the same time keeping an eye out for future Gotei members who showed great potential. As he leaped from rooftop to rooftop to avoid mingling with the crowds and disrupting their training, he scanned the different classes of students looking for someone to grab his attention. There wasn't much sticking out today however. Mostly average talent with those at the head of their class's results only leading by a miniature margin. Kuro chuckled as he continued his observations, remembering his time in this academy. That had been so long ago...and he'd come far since then. But not on my own. My friends and role-models helped me to get where I am.

He was beginning to feel that he wouldn't find an individual to focus on today when he cast his gaze across the courtyard of a zanjutsu dojo of the academy and peered in the open doors. A class was inside at the moment, new by the looks of the beginning exercises they were doing and the hesitant way they went about pairing up for spars. Kuro decided to get a closer look and whooshed across the courtyard with a shunpo that planted him around the corner of the door frame. He made sure his reiatsu was calm and not giving him away before peeking around the door to get a look of the class. Like his first assumptions from afar had figured, it was a group of nervous beginners. But then he saw one that stood out from the rest. A young woman who was performing her stance and balance exercises with seriousness and a fiery aura. Kuro saw that she was finishing up and was beginning to look for a sparring partner. His face cracked into a grin as he got an idea and ducked behind the door again.

Away from the potential notice of any of the students inside, Kuro slipped off his haori and neatly folded it, stashing it in a corner of the courtyard. Now that he was only dressed in the normal black shinigami robes, he could blend in better at the academy without raising too much of a fuss with the students. A captain showing up in the middle of their class would be sure to make them even more nervous than they already were. Kuro walked calmly back to the entrance and took a deep breath before making his way into the dojo. His arrival did catch a few students' notice, those who had still not partnered up for sparing. Luckily, their new status at the academy seemed to let them miss the fact that he was a captain. The teacher also looked up, and immediately began to show shock and disbelief at a captain's presence in the dojo. Kuro lifted a finger to his lips to signal for the teacher to settle down and act normal. Having gained control of the situation, he made his way to the weapons rack and picked up one of the wooden swords. Trying to get a proper feel for it, he then turned and b-lined for the girl he'd seen before.

"If you're interested in a spar, I'm willing to be a partner." he called out to her as he finished his approach and stood a short distance behind her. "By the looks of your grip, you're eager to get started."

Kuro grinned with anticipation as the instructor gave the signal for everyone to start. He held the wooden sword he'd picked up lightly, trying to get used to it. It had been a while since he'd sparred with one of these. He looked over the short distance between him and his opponent and made a mental note to start out slow. He took another deep breath, exhaling slowly to make sure that his reiatsu was still in check despite the excitement he was feeling. He was going to fight this spar on natural strength and skill. No use of shunpo or bolstering his might with his spiritual power. And kido was out of the question. Guess I'll test the waters first. he thought as he prepared to start.

Raising the wooden sword into a ready stance, Kuro leaped forward, closing the gap between them in a short instant and swung down with an obvious frontal attack that he had no intention of landing a hit with. This was just a first test to check the girl's own strength and fighting spirit.

Kuro pressed lightly on the crossed blades, just enjoying the moment for a short while. He then continued by giving some light feedback of his opinion on the student's performance. "Nice block. Your reflexes are adequate. But how's your speed and footwork?"

Leaping backward to take himself out of her weapon's range, Kuro then circled to the side and wound around her range of vision at a moderate speed. When he was close to the edge of her sight line, he darted in again, swinging his sword in a horizontal slice at her front side. He was sure that she'd be able to keep her eyes on him during this move; he'd held back on his speed's full potential considerably. But he wasn't making everything easy. His speed was just enough to test how quickly she could react to the changing of his position and adjust her own position to block. If she only brought her weapon up to block again without properly adjusting her feet and stance, Kuro's current attack was likely to knock her off balance.

Kuro was impressed by her move. She had simplified her handling of his attack by dodging back instead of trying to block it directly. It was definitely a wise choice when dealing with a foe that you didn't know much about. But he was a little disappointed by her counter attack. He thought that his earlier move with his speed would have discouraged such a simple move like a vertical slice. It was too easy to counter. Eh, maybe I'm expecting too much. Most opponents outside our close combat specializing squad wouldn't take advantage of it like that.

Kuro swiftly side stepped the attack to her right side and darted forward, pressing in on the space between them. He spun his sword into a reverse grip and held it at his side to prevent taking a horizontal followup attack, not that he was even giving her time to recover her weapon after her last attack. He stuck out his sword to the side and passed by her, sweeping the weapon past her right leg as he went.

Kuro felt the resistance of the wooden sword as it lightly smacked her leg during his pass. His grip was lessened by the unexpected bend his wrists made as his weapon held back. Turning to face her again afterwards, he took one hand off the wooden sword to rub his other wrist. He wasn't used to using blunt weapons much, or even weapons of the wooden sword's length. His zanpakuto's short length had molded him more into a knife specialist. He decided to relax for a moment and give the girl a chance to focus and try her own attack. It wouldn't be much for training if he kept her on the defensive the whole time.

Good, keep yourself calm and look carefully for any openings presenting themselves. Kuro commented on her preparation in his mind. He noticed her gaze fixing lower than before and tried to guess what she was thinking. As she gripped her sword and closed in for an attack, he noticed that he was still holding his wooden sword wrong. To compensate, he loosened his grip for a split second, letting the sword slide down a few inches so that he was gripping it above the handle in a more centered position.

He stuck out his fist clenching the sword and blocked the slash she swung at him, albeit with difficulty seeing as he was using one arm to stop a two handed swing. He followed up by lunging forward and pulling back his other arm and thrusting his palm forward. But halfway through his attack, he shivered with an important realization. His habits had made him treat this like a real fight for a moment. But this was zanjutsu class. Mixing hand to hand into the spar wouldn't make for good sportsmanship. Kuro stopped his thrust before it made contact, but that only made his arm a sitting duck for the girl's second attack, which smacked his outstretched arm right below the elbow.

Kuro jumped back, feeling the area throb and knew that he'd have a bruise there later. Fixing his grip to hold the sword properly again, he prepared to take his turn for attack. Decided to go with a rather unorthodox combo and let his sword hang at his side. Turning his opposite shoulder to face the student, he started a sideways charge with his torso twisted to the left. When he was in his range, he swung his sword up from below with both hands in a large upward slash. He continued this attack, using the momentum from the rising strike to twirl his body and bring the sword around in a furious horizontal slash with the centrifugal force of his spin added to it.

Kuro felt the clash from his previous attack and felt that it was adequate. He took another moment to relax and observe some more. But at the same time, he wasn't just standing there waiting like last time. He held his sword in a centralized stance that could adjust to taking attacks from different locations while widening his leg stance, starting to slowly and rhythmically shift his weight and weave his body back and forth. He was incorporating his custom fighting style into this spar now, but this was the first time he'd tried it in a fight with weapons. He continued to sway while keeping his eyes on those of the girl, watching her every move.

Kuro saw the fight in her eyes as she started forward. She's coming... As she started her attack, Kuro was impressed how easily she was making a difficult move for his stance to react to. But his issui style wasn't going to be stopped that easily, that'd be an insult to his effort in creating it in the first place. While it was difficult for his normal sways to dodge a horizontal strike like the one she was using, he had an idea to make it work out. Throwing his sway further, Kuro threw himself to the dojo floor, evading her first strike by escaping below it. When he reached the floor, he had taken one of his hands off his sword and used it to vault himself immediately back to his feet. As he swung back up, he pulled back his arm holding the sword and struck with a horizontal strike to meet her second attack.

She's still getting warmed up. Kuro thought as he saw her continued determination. Maybe I should bump things up just a notch.

He stood still, breathing deeply to make sure he didn't overdo what he was about to do. Focusing intensely, he released a minor percentage of his reiatsu. It was only a sliver above what an average academy student would be capable of, so he was sure that this student would be able to face it. The power shone in his eyes with a mystical golden color as he concentrated and readied his attack. Satisfied with his preparation, he darted at her again, this time with a diagonal approach so that he was approaching from a different angle than normal. With his reiatsu backing him, his approach was a bit faster than before, and the swing he threw with his sword at her side was a just a tiny bit stronger. He looked forward to her response to this new challenge. Show me how much power you have...