Who Needs Friends? -Open-

The sun was setting in the distance and the yellow and orange streaks seemed to set a perfect backdrop for the end of Tariasha's training. He sat against a single tree, carefully placing his Zanpakuto next to him; sweat beads covered his face, in this moment he did not care for it as he was too tired to continue his training. On his own training was boring, all it seemed to be was attacking a tree, or using his kidou to destroy small pieces of the landscape ahead of him, even Hohou was boring. He thought back to some of his days when he had last spoken to a person who genuinely seemed to be friendly, now-a-days it seemed that everyone was too serious to take time off to even speak to Tariasha. The last person who he spoken to that even made him slightly happy was Arawn, back in the shinigami academy, Arawn had provided him with advice, which actually had helped him reach squad 5. It was time he made some new friends. He stood up, wiping his forehead with his sleeve he picked up his Zanpakuto, one day this would become his best friend, and would end up saving his life in many dire situations, but he knew that for now it he would actually need some real friends other than what may have seemed like a piece of cold steel.

Walking through the Seireitei was always like a maze, it was like he was a mouse and at the end some person was holding a large block of cheese for him. He had seen several Shinigami stood in groups telling jokes or just general conversations, it didnt seem right for him to go and just join in. Tariasha felt like he was a very insignificant part of the world, and insignificant in his squad, it seemd to be filled with meatheads who wanted nothing else than a power gain; he wondered if there was even a library in the squad 5 barracks, and how many of them could read. It had always been hard for Tariasha to make friends, he was hopless at it, making friends was a lot harder than it seemed. He spotted a bench not far from where he was and still feeling so tired he went to go and sit down on the bench. He looked around at his surrounding, the large white walls seemed to be a nice contrast to the shinigami who wore black garments, and the occasional Captain who blended in perfectly with the walls. He stood up and left for the gardens, it was peaceful there and he may actually find someone to talk to. By this time the sun was high in the sky and it was hot, he walked in to the gardens which seemed cooler, probably due to the coverage against the sun by the trees. He spotted a shinigami who was sat down against the wall reading a book, it seemed the perfect opportunity to introduce himself to someone; he walked over to the shinigami, carefully thinking about his choice of words before he spoke to the shinigami. Hey, I hope I am not disturbing you but, do you mind if I ask you what book you are reading?, it sounded like a really stereotypical thing to say when starting a conversation with a person who was reading, but it may be that he was actually interested in the book.

It had been a long day of overseeing the academy students train, and teaching them various ways to maximize their kido's effectiveness. Its nice to see them so into it and actually listen to what i say. I suppose i should take this time for myself, I've got another shift starting in another hour or so. Dray swung by the cafeteria and grabbed a sandwich and the book he had been reading lately from his bag, it was a book on advanced programming and hacking systems which he had been reading to supplement his ability to tap into computers.

He headed over to the gardens that are nearby and slumped down over against a wall and started eating his sandwich. Today he had chosen to actually wear his Gi along with his seat patch. Over the last few days he had been wearing his normal clothes, but with wearing normal clothes and not having a visible zanpakuto anymore, and without his seat patch he had been constantly stopped everywhere, people didn't recognize him because of his long absence. He still looked a little out of place without a zanpakuto on him, but with his Gi on and his seat 14 patch no one had stopped him or bothered him today which he was grateful for. He would have to talk to his superiors about getting a patch for his normal clothes as well.

He had only been relaxing for a few minutes when someone came over and started talking to him. "Hey, I hope I am not disturbing you but, do you mind if I ask you what book you are reading?" Dray glanced up from his book to get a better look at the man before him. He was surprisingly muscular for a shinigami. I wonder why he is talking to me, usually people are intimidated by rank. Dray responded by saying, "It is a book on advanced programming and hacking. Difficult reading. Is there anything in particular you want from me?"

Tariasha was not fond of computer books, he had never been good with them, he had figured out that his finger weren't agile enough to maintain a constant typing flow; to type up anything would have taken him hours. Although he was quite taken back from the last comment, it did sound a tiny bit rude, but he was interrupting him from his book. Tariasha had only time to realise that this was no normal SHinigami but it was a seated officer from squad 12, no wonder he was reading such advanced book he must be a smart guy. 'No, sir, its just I thought that it may be a book on kido or something, I am in need of training, not just strength but my technique and its hard to figure out on my own. Is there any such book that you may know of that I could read, that would help to maximise my skill?' Tariasha was still sweating, but this time it wasn't from the heat, he felt so embarrassed that he went to speak to a seated officer in that manner, if he had known he would have never done such a thing.

'No, sir, its just I thought that it may be a book on kido or something, I am in need of training, not just strength but my technique and its hard to figure out on my own. Is there any such book that you may know of that I could read, that would help to maximise my skill?' The man replied. Draylon stared at him while he thought about the dilemma this man was facing. No book will really be helpful when compared to person teaching, is he asking me to teach him? why doesnt he get a specialist or someone from his squad to teach him. The man seemed nervous now, probably because of his stare.

Drayon pulled out a bookmark and carefully set it in his book then closed the book and set it aside, bringing his full attention back onto the man before him. Ugh i don't want to teach him, why didn't he just get someone from his squad... well im probably one of the most qualified people to teach him about kido, at least that would have the time or even consider it. Dray thought about it for another second and mumbled, "Screw it." Shoved his things in his bag and stood up, sandwich in hand. He looked at the man before him and said, "Follow me, I'll teach you." Then took a big bite of his sandwich and started walking towards the kido training grounds.

"Follow me, I'll teach you", the officer took a large bite out of his sandwich and started to gather his things. He hoped that he wasn't bothering the man too much, he could have had someone else to help him, but the officer; who at the time he didn't notice that he was seated - had seemed like a fairly cool headed guy. Judging the guy as they walked out of the gardens, he was at the average height for a man, but his build was rather slim, Tariasha knew that looks were deceiving. 'Sir, please don't let me distract you form your book, I meant no bother to you at all' Tariasha knew that he himself was shocking at kido, he could only manage a couple of bakudos which he practiced so much that he was good at them, the hard part was learning them.

There wasn't that many people at the kido training grounds, save for a small shinigami kido class that was out doing practical work.There was several targets around the area, in various forms; some of them were human shaped and other in hollow-like shapes, trying to introduce the academy students into the various sizes and shapes of hollows. Tariasha stood next to the officer, waiting to be told what to do.

As they walked along draylon was eating his sandwich at an accelerated pace, wanting to finish before they arrived. On the way the man mentioned he didn't want to bother him but dray waved off his concerns saying, "Don't worry about it I'm used to teaching people kido by now, you wont be the first I have helped." if he was looking for a book to help him he no doubt has problems with technique and control of his kido, maybe i should start him off easy... nah, I'll teach him Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi, it should be about the peak of what he should be capable of as an unranked shinigami.

The Kido training grounds were pretty barren today, only a single class out practicing today. Well that is good for us, Arashi-Tomoshibi is more easily taught with multiple open targets. "I've decided that instead of helping you improve individual kido, I'm going to teach you one that requires a lot of control and technique to use properly, once you master this one you will probably find that the others are easier as well. Oh yeah, by the way I'm Draylon Karosu, 14th seat of 12th division. So anyways I'll show u what you should be capable of at the end."

Draylon took a deep breath focused his energy and said, "May the arrows of my soul, be guided by my will, to reach their true destination, Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi!" 10 inch sized orbs shot out of his hand and stopped hovering in the air. "You can use it to create a wall between you and your enemy to ward of close range combat" The orbs shifted and were placed between him and the other man. "I've used this many times in combat and it is quite effective, noone wants to run headlong into an attack, next you can use it to intercept long range attacks." Draylon picked up a chunk of rock and threw it high into the air, and directed one of the orbs to intercept it, which it did. The orb exploded on contact making about a 1 1/2 foot explosion in the air, obliterating the rock. "You can use it to ambush enemies, leaving a few behind and attacking from unexpected directions." Draylon made the remaining 9 scatter in random directions making one go a few feet behind the man. "You can use them to guide an enemy's direction, herding them towards allies or another attack." He reformed them all on one side of the man. "And of course you can use them for a long range guided attack." He sent the remaining 9 orbs in to barrage 3 different targets downrange. "These are only some of the uses but i think you get the idea, the only downside is in order to control them you actually have to concentrate. Any questions so far?"

He was relieved to see the officer shrug off the question if Tariasha was bothering him, it made him feel a bit better about pulling him away from his book.'I'm Tariasha Getsu, Unseated Shinigami of squad 5 . Tariasha watched as Draylon made and controlled the orbs, it seemed hard and intricate to try and to control all of the orbs at once, he knew immediately that this officer knew a lot about kido. Draylon had made it seem like it was nothing particularly hard, and Tariasha knew that when he was going to do it, it might not work out for him. 'I don't think I have any questions'

Hado number 20?! That seemed terribly hard, but he didn't want to let down Draylon, after all he did come to teach him, so he might as well have a go at it, he held out his hands in front of him, and concentrated on moving his reiastu to his hands, it made sense that it would bet the hands, as they are what mainly controlled it.uttered the incantation ' May the arrows of my sould, be guided by my will, to reach their true desination, Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi!', he directed his reiatsu out of his hands as much as possible. He looked in front of him to see if any orbs had appeared.

Draylon stared stupefied as the man tried to cast it after seeing it once, instantly realizing that he would not be able to cast it, unless he was a god-like genius. He jumped back a few feet as his attempted failed, setting off a detonation in his hands. He hopped back over and said, "That was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen..." Draylon took a look at the man's hands but they seemed ok, a scratch or two, luckily he hadn't used much power in his attempt. "Not only have you only seen it only once, but you attempted to cast it without knowing why it works or how it works... You may be able to get away with that when you learn the basics but for the advanced it doesn't work like that. First of all start with one orb, think of it like an egg, there is a gooey center of unstable explosive energy with a shell of tightly controlled energy, you manipulate the shell only, and when it hits something the shell cracks and the unstable energy bursts out, causing the explosion. Try forming ONE for now, and later we can work on forming more and controlling more than one at a time. You are lucky you have me to teach you this one, noone knows this technique better than I do."

Dray took a few steps back, he had taught this technique many times and almost always the first attempts failed horribly, it was a difficult technique, hopefully this one had better control then the last one, he had lost control many times almost hitting Draylon and actually hitting himself. "Use a small amount of energy, i don't want you hurting yourself."

Tariasha felt like he had the IQ of a goldfish when he realised what he had done, the explosion had hurt, but his hands were O.k, it was no more than being dragged through a thorn bush. After being told what to do and how to concentrate, it made him feel even stupider, it was easy to think of it like that, and Draylon had been teaching it to other students, so it should be no problem for him to learn.

Tariasha placed his hands in front of him, he thought of an egg, like a chicken egg the inside reiatsu was explosive, and was in comparison the yolk, the outside as a hard piece of reiatsu which protected the inner piece of reiatsu, but would inevitably split open, thus allowing the explosion to occur. He knew he was over thinking it, but somehow he had to redeem himself for his earlier stupidity. The egg like reiatsu was in his in, he focused on sending out only a small amount of reiatsu to his hands, he didn't want to kill himself learning kido. He focused ahead of him where he wanted the egg to form, hoping that this time, it might work, but he knew that if it went wrong however, Draylon would be there to help him.

Draylon watched carefully as Tariasha carefully formed the orb, which honestly wasn't a bad attempt. However it wasn't entirely spherical as it should have been and it was wobbling a lot, and changing it's form wasn't stable, it seemed to be shifting a lot. "You're doing pretty well all things considered but you need to make the shell firmer and make it completely uniform otherwise it will shift as the unstable part tries to break out of the weak point in the shell, basically it has to be the most perfect sphere you can make otherwise it will be unstable like it is right now. Take it slow, you can restart if you like but go ahead and try what i said." This guy is better at kido than he thinks, he probably didn't have a decent instructor before, either that or no instructor.

"You're actually not that bad at kido..." Draylon watched as the man attempted to use the skill again and casually said, "Out of curiosity what do you think of the Hado I created?

Tariasha was glad that he had been able to at least make the sphere, it was a real confidence booster. He retried it just as Draylon had said, slow and steady. Once again he thought of that egg, this time it became a perfectly spherical egg, the delicate centre still intact, but the outer reiatsu was harder than that egg shell it had become made of an even harder substance; he held out his hands and uttered the incantation, he had forgot to the last time May the arrows of my sould, be guided by my will, to reach their true desination, Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi!', as he started to create the orb physically, Draylon said another thing 'Out of curiosity what do you think of the Hado I created?', Tariasha was amazed that Draylon had created a Hado, it took a genius to make kido; suddenly he felt extremely honoured to be taught by the creator of the Hado. ' I Love this Hado, its such a great technique' he was trying not to look away from the piece of reiatsu that was forming into an orb. What an honour.

Draylon watched closely as he reformed the orb once more, it looked alright, but you can never be sure. He thought for a moment about his response to his question about what he thought about his Hado, it seemed like a generic answer, he wasn't sure if he really meant it or just saying it because he was teaching him the technique, a higher rank, or the creator and might get pissed at a lesser response, at least in his own mind.

He looked closer at the orb and realized that it had a flaw. He lightly coated his hand with riatsu and touched the orb. He frowned, just as he thought he had made the shell too hard, if done properly it should have detonated when he touched it. He looked over and said, "You made the shell too hard, its supposed to detonate when it comes into contact with anything. You need the balance between containing the energy inside and the shell breaking and it detonating when it comes into contact with something. This is where it starts to get difficult, dont try to rush it, this will take some time."

Dray walked over to a nearby bench about 10 feet away and watched as the man tried in vain to get it correctly. He summoned up a small ball of pure electricity and started tossing it back and forth between his hands.

Tariasha took this advice, he knew that it was something that he couldn't get from anyone else as each piece of the information was precious, in the fact that only the maker of the kido could give and nobody else would know the kido inside and out like the owner.

The hours passed as Tariasha practised in the kido, sometimes it would work and other it would fail, there was a time when he had created the whole orb from hardened reiatsu, he hadn't noticed it and he wasn't sure if Draylon was looking, but he had lifted it above his head not noticing that it was too hard, and too heavy, he had struggle to hold it and dropped it on his foot, leaving himself with a rather nasty swollen foot; but he persisted in learning. The day was hot, and gradually grew cooler, classes walked in and out of the kido grounds, some shinigami students stopped to see the reiatsu orb that Tariasha had made, but were taken away by their teachers so that he could be left in peace with his learning.

Tariasha few hours later Tariasha took a seat on a rather iconic bench, it was positioned under a cherry blossom tree, the small petals fell from the tree every now and then, but were replaced with a new petal straight away, that was an advantage of living in the soul society, the trees were nearly always full of life. The sweet scent of the tree also masked the burnt grounds of the kido training, and the burnt flesh and fabrics of Tariasha after his many attempts. 'I think i am finally starting to get it, I thought it would have taken me months to learn the basics of the Hado, but already after a several hours I have already started to master one orb', Tariasha went silent for a bit waiting for the response of Draylon but he knew there was something else he also wanted to add in Thanks. This means a grate deal to me, that you have taken the day off. I mean you were happily reading your book and treating yourself to a sandwich, until clumsy ol' me came and disturbed you and then you taught me the fabulous kido which you have made. Thanks. Tariasha meant the thanks as genuine as it could be, because to be honest it was the most genuine you could get.

To be honest Draylon was only partially paying attention to the man before him at this point, he knew the basics of how to make the orb or the principals at least, achieving them would just take practice. Dray watched silently every once in a while, flinching when he dropped the ball of pure solid riatsu on his foot. That had to hurt.
After that dray got intently focused on the ball of energy in his hands slowly changing the shape of the elctricity, over time he made it into various shapes, everything from a tree to a human figure, by the time Tariasha had stopped and come over to the bench he had it in the delicate shape of a blooming rose, it had taken him almost 30 minutes to shape it properly and he was pretty proud of it. He looked up as Tariasha sat next to him on the bench. Apparently he thought he had mastered one orb, it seems he had forgotten that he hadn't even practiced moving it yet, just creating it.

Then the man started to thank him and dray listened to his heartfelt thanks before getting up, rose still in hand and said, "You're not quite done yet, You still have to learn to move the orb, which is difficult as well." A petal from the cherry blossom tree fell down and touched the rose, and instantly got burned to ash and dissolved, proving that even if it was beautiful it was still dangerous. Dissolving the rose in his hand he walked out and said, "To move the orb properly you need to make sure the balance of the walls stays proper in order for the orb not to detonate, just like how it had to be a sphere so there was no weak points, when wind resistance starts effecting the orb it will distort, it needs to be able to not lose it's form as it moves so you will need to practice that as well." Dray looked at the tired man in front of him and said, "You can continue to train if you want, now that you know the basics but it will still take you a while. Like i said this is a Kido that is based entirely on Technique and control and that once you master it other kido will come easier, i wasn't joking. Once you master this one you will find most other kido pretty straight forward." Dray looked at the man expectantly curious to hear his reply.

"Once you master this one you will find most other kido pretty straight forward", would it really be that simple? He guessed that most other kido before it were going to be a lot easier, bearing in mind that at his skill level this would be the only thing this powerful that he would be able to learn. Tariasha was now hesitant at more training, was Draylon serious? Kido really took it out of him, it was more mental that physical; if it was physical Tariasha would be going all night, but sadly it sapped at your will power as well. Tariasha stood up 'I guess i could do another couple of hours training, this time I will create and attempt to move it'; he knew more than another couple of hours training wouldn't do it, but at least he would be able to get the hang of it and then do it by himself whilst Draylon was teaching.

He walked back over to his original place and took back up his stance, his hands placed forward in front of him and his feet shoulder width apart, ready to withstand any explosion made from the movement. The wind was blowing a little bit, but not too much, otherwise this entire training would become void as he wouldn't be able to move his orb. Tariasha created his orb in front of him, using his same old technique, he slowly tried to move the orb forward, it wobbled and shaked as it moved about 2 feet, then exploded, blowing a whole lot of smoke and dust into the air. This Hado was much different from byakurai, where all you had to do was expel the reiatsu out of your index finger with a large amount of force, this Hado required you to balance the orb as well as hold the shell. Once again he recreated the orb and moved it another couple of feet until the shell once again exploded. It was going to be a long night.

Draylon watched as the man decide to continue, and was glad, he wanted to get all the basics ingrained in the man, or as much as possible before he left. He watched as he man continued to attempt to move the orb, failing over and over. After watching for a little while he decided to show an example, maybe that would help the man.

"Hey I'm going to show what i mean by adjusting the walls through the distortions of movement. May the arrows of my soul, be guided by my will, to reach their true destination, Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi." Ten small orbs shot out of his hand, and he manipulated each one to move at as different speed so that the man could see the effect that various different speeds have on the orbs, spaced enough so that the man could walk in between and observe up close.

"Take a look at the effect each speed has on the shape of the orb and how it is being adjusted according to said speed." Draylon watched the man as he observed for a while and listened to what he had to say.

Tariasha understood that it was because he was not using enough speed in his orbs, if he could match the correct speeds to the hardness of the outer shell, then the orb of reiatsu would easily move throughout the air without explosion, until it cam into physical contact with another objects; or at least that what he understood. 'Alright I will try this once more then I will have to be going, my squad need me to help clean up then a final P.T before bed' Tariasha wished that he hadn't got P.T or an chores to finish up. It was nearing the end of the day and the sun was starting to set, it was now cool, becoming increasingly colder, the night was nearly upon them and Shinigami were going back to their own barracks, the academy students that had stayed behind to do extra work were also going back to their quarters. May the arrows of my soul, be guided by my will, to reach their true destination, Hado 20 Arashi-Tomoshibi He made his orb in front of him, then with as much force as he could, he sped the orb along the training grounds to hit, or even nearly hit a human shaped target, he tried to keep hold of the outer walls of the orb as it sped along.

Draylon watched as he tried once more to use the Kido and said that he would have to leave tor P.T duty. He watched as the single shot flew towards a humanoid target, it started to become unstable as it approached the target, but still managed to hit the target before it became completely unstable. "Congratulations, that was very good. I am glad we were able to get the basics taught, with this you should be able to learn the kido on your own with practice." Draylon smirked, he was also glab that this was over with, since the man had to leave for his duties. I'm not really that tired, maybe I'll go up on top of a tall building and watch the stars, yeah that sounds good.

"Well I think it's about time for me to take my leave, take care." Dray waited to listen to the man's farewell and then headed out to find a tall building to look at the stars.

The orb hit the target, which was better than he had expected, his expectations were for it to completely miss or to explode during the flight. He was glad to hear a compliment, he hardly received compliments or even heard anyone compliment someone else around the Seireitei, it seemed so hostile now-a-days. He was starting to feel slightly tired, and he had P.T to do afterwards as well; at least he would sleep well tonight. The sun was set, and the moon and stars had appeared; a beautiful night, maybe he could get a little time to appreciate it during P.T. "Well I thinks it's about time for me to take my leave, take care". Draylon had stopped to hear Tariasha's farewell as well. 'I suppose it is for me as well. Thanks for this, and I hope the next time we meet it may be on more sociable grounds, and that I will also be a seated shinigami, but until then, goodbye sir. He reached over to shake hands with Draylon then left towards his barracks to get changed fro P.T.