Like a Blur (solo/training)

Kuro exited his room with the intent of getting away from captain duties for the time being and getting some good old training done. But unlike in the past, he wasn’t alone this time. He was accompanied by Hana, the little orphan girl he had recently adopted from the Rukongai. She hadn’t fully adjusted to the Seireitei life just yet, still acting very quiet around others. She didn’t even say much around Kuro, though she was noticeably livelier and happier when it was just him around. In an effort to give her a break, he was bringing her with him.
Kuro made sure Hana was holding on tight before he set off like a rocket, dashing madly out of the second squad grounds and into the streets of the Seireitei. He was treating this like a training exercise right from the start, not waiting until he found a better spot to conduct his exercises. His legs pounded the streets at a frightening speed, making the pattering sounds of his progress ring out like the constant sound of a summer deluge. Kuro pushed himself to run faster, focusing sharply on his leg work and increasing the rate of his steps. It was tough to find a proper balance of stride and leg speed to give the fastest overall speed. Kuro experimented until he found a mix that felt natural to him. He tore through the streets, passing citizens at a speed that almost didn’t give the time to identify their faces. He only looked like a passing black and white blur, though that was only those who caught wind of his presence at all. Hana enjoyed the whole thing, her voice breaking out in an excited fit of laughter as she held on and watched the people zoom by.

Kuro kept up his speed as he left the Seireitei behind. He didn’t feel like going deep into the Rukongai today since he had Hana with him. He would rather avoid areas further from the Seireitei’s protection where bandits were more common. With the experience she’d faced shortly after arriving in Soul Society, Kuro was sure that Hana wouldn’t like running into bandits again. He instead chose to locate a densely forested area in one of the closer districts. When they came to one that suited Kuro’s likings, he stopped for a moment to catch a breather. Afterwards, he tried to separate Hana from his shoulders, but found her stubbornly opposed to the idea. She had two large handfuls of his haori and her legs locked around his neck to prevent him from removing her.

“Again!” she insisted.

Kuro sighed as he understood what she meant. But his next exercise was something that he hadn’t wanted to include her in; given how risky it was even to him. But if his little girl wished it, then he would oblige. “Just hold on tight.” He warned as he prepared to begin. He felt her hands grip harder in response. Satisfied that they were as ready as they could be, Kuro vaulted himself into the forest.

This was an old type of training that he’d utilized much in the past. Working to maintain a quick speed while weaving through the trees, Kuro used this run to train both his speed and his reflexes. The fast incoming trunks and branches offered a constant inspiration to duck, weave, and shift his body in ways that allowed him to avoid injury. Keeping a high speed during all of this only made things more difficult, shortening the time he had to react to new obstacles after finishing dodging the previous one. Left, right, jump, dodge left again…the thoughts raced through Kuro’s mind as he ran, his body reacting to the mental orders slit seconds later. An exposed root jutting out of the ground forced him to jump up and catch a tree limb with his hands and swing over the root like a trapeze artist, skidding to a short stop on the other side before shooting off in a different direction to continue the reckless training. Hana didn’t make any noise like she had before this time. Kuro felt her clutch onto him even harder with every narrow miss they made. He wondered if she was regretting her insistence on joining him in this particular exercise. Pushing the thoughts from his head, he resumed his focus on the run as he pushed himself even faster.

With the new boost of speed things got a lot more dangerous. Kuro was down to literally only scarce moments to identify and evade the looming wooden obstacles the forest provided. His face twitched as a rough patch of pain greeted a narrow escape as his arm scraped the rough bark of a tree he passed on his left. A minute later, he didn’t jump high enough fast enough to completely avoid another root. His feet tripped up by the root, Kuro had no choice but to use both hands to somersault back to a running position. Hana was extremely shaken by that display, but still remained silenced by the whole ordeal. After the mistakes, Kuro was honing his focus even more. That helped him to make clearer observations of the obstacles and neater responses to them that carried him through the forest with little trouble. Feeling that he was near the limit of what he could do with this training for now, Kuro slowly reduced his speed and eventually came to a halt.

Kuro had one more idea for training that he wanted to work with before bringing things to a close for the day. Carrying Hana out of the forest, he finally managed to set her down in a desolate area outside the cover of trees. He took a few moments to observe the layout, particularly the gritty composition of the ground where they were now standing. With his plans laid out, he lowered himself to Hana’s eye level.

“I’m going to show you something really cool now. Something I learned to do by accident a long time ago.”

Hana smiled and sat on the ground, watching him with a look of anticipation. Kuro took a few deep breaths and released a bit of his reiatsu, focusing the power and preparing for quick shunpos. Satisfied with the level of preparation, he shunpoed once, then did so again and again. He kept up the continuous string of shunpo, pushing himself faster and faster. At first speed, he seemed to vanish and reappear. But as he increased his speed, clear images began to be left behind as he sped from spot to spot. To Hana watching, it appeared as if there were two or three Kuros appearing and reappearing standing in front of her. Kuro grinned, causing all the images of him to mimic the action. Then all of them disappeared. Hana looked to both sides, confused as to where Kuro had gone.

“Nice trick isn’t it?”

Hana jumped in response to Kuro’s voice speaking in her ear from behind. The mischievous captain had taken one last shunpo to position himself behind Hana for a little surprise. Both of them burst out laughing at the situation. Kuro himself felt much better for the day’s events, satisfied with his training. There was a downside however that he caught onto as they made their way back to the Seireitei. He’d pushed himself a little too far. All that effort, combined with the few collisions he’d had in the forest was going to make the next few days a little painful.


Training: Speed