Recruit Searching (Haruko)

Tatsuya strode through the Seireitei, toward the Spiritual Arts Academy. He didn't have much free time, so what was he doing heading to the academy? He volunteered to teach a hakuda class. But he was also to trying to find new recruits for the second squad and potentials for the Omnitsukido. Teaching the class would knock out two birds with one stone. Tatsuya calmly walked through the main gates of the academy. It didn't take long for everyone to start noticing him and starring in shock at his size. Tatsuya simply ignored the stares, they have always been apart of his life. He walked through the halls of the academy, remembering the fun times he had while attending. As he walked all the students would kindly step out of his way. He headed to the sparring grounds. The class he was going to instruct was almost getting ready to graduate. Their skills would naturally be more polished then the underclassmen. He was looking forward to seeing what they had learned. Too bad he was a bit late.

When he arrived, the class had already begun. He walked up to the teacher and greeted him. "Sorry I'm late, Yamanashi-sensei. It couldn't be helped." Tatsuya stated and added a bow. "It's okay, I'm well aware of second squad's issues. Besides it's only their warm up." Yamanashi responded kindly as Tatsuya rose back up. "To be honest I was quite surprised when you offered to be a guest instructor in such a time. After all Lieutenant Okibi, it couldn't have been easy being able to get away." Yamanashi stated graciously and thankfully. "I've been in tougher situations." Tatsuya added with a slight grin. "So I've heard." Yamanashi returned with a grin of his own. "What say we get under way?" Yamanashi asked and quickly walked out to the busy students. "Attention class." Yamanashi called out making all the student stop what they were doing and stand up straight. "We have a special guest instructor with us today. Please welcome Lieutenant Tatsuya Okibi of Second squad and thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to come here." Yamanashi waved his hand over to Tatsuya, who stepped toward the class. "Good day class. I am Lieutenant Tatsuya Okibi." He introduced himself.

She’d attended enough sparring sessions to be fairly well acquainted with the skills of everyone in her group. She was, she found of an average level, she was neither good nor bad at both fighting with a weapon or when simply using her fists, her speed fit the average bill as well.

And so, as the rest of the group chatted away some of them play-fighting or practising while they waited for their instructor, Haruko sat, observing everyone (looking decidedly grumpy) with her Zanpakuto sitting atop her lap, not even sure whether she would be needing it in this particular session or not. As she saw her instructor she stood, brushing herself down, and then focusing her attention upon him as he called for it.

She then looked across to the other man, a lieutenant? This peeked her interest, she had heard of him, but not much. Then again, everyone knew the captains and the lieutenants, they were practically celebrities. She rested one hand on her hip and blinked a few times, wondering what he would have in store for the group, hopefully something a little more exciting than the class usually was…

"Let me be straight with the class. Aside from being here to instruct the class, I'm here to look for potential prospects for squad two. Let's see what you can do." Tatsuya said as looked at each student carefully trying to get an initial feel of their presence. As usual, students didn't hold much in terms of spiritual power, but he could spot a look of eagerness in their eyes, probably hoping for something exciting. It took a minute for Tatsuya to realize that he really hadn't thought about what he could do. "One second class." A thought quickly crossed his mind and he walked over to Yamanashi. He whispered into his ear so that the class couldn't hear. "Oh. That's good. Give me a minute." Yamanashi replied out loud with a smile. Tatsuya walked over to the class and Yamanashi began to silently chant. His lips were moving and he was forming signs with his hands. "You are going to have to forgive me class. My kido skills are about as effective as mosquito bite." Tatsuya said when Yamanashi started, enticing a round of laughter from the students. "If you could please clear a space, 20 by 20 meters from me." Tatsuya requested and watched the students clear the area around him. "Thank you very much. Yamanashi-sensei?" He turned to look at Yamanashi and his hands were glowing. Yamanashi gave a nod to Tatsuya and slammed his hands into the ground.

Tatsuya jumped high into the air as Yamanashi did this and pillars began to rise from the ground underneath Tatsuya. The pillars covered a 20 by 20 meter area and rose approximately 20 feet into the air, some lower and some higher, but not much difference, the pillars themselves were of different widths and spaced unevenly apart. Tatsuya landed with one foot on the center pillar with easy, without the slightest wavering motion. "Thank you, Yamanashi-sensei." He quickly acknowledged the instructor and placed his other foot on an adjacent pillar. "Alright class. I'm sure most of you have decent skills when fighting on solid ground. Let's see how you do up here and without a safety net." He announced with a satisfied grin on his face. "Now who thinks they can knock me down. Don't worry though. I'll be taking it easy on you guys. I just wanna see your balance and technique." He smiled and waited.

So he was recruiting members for squad two, the squad her younger sister would babble on about non-stop, the squad that ‘if she were a Shinigami she would totally join.’ She smiled a little when thinking of her sister, only a few years younger than herself and of how jealous she would be if, for any reason she was recruited to the squad (despite not considering herself to have the necessary traits to be an asset to them).

She watched carefully as the man spoke, cracking a smile at his joke and then doing as he instructed and stepping away with the rest of the students, curious to see what was going to happen that could warrant them clearing a fairly large area. It was quite impressive, she thought; the things that could be created with Kido, a skill that most definitely not her strong point, the height and structure of the pillars were amazing.

She raised both her eyebrows, not expecting the task to be one so blatantly dangerous, one could easily break something, including their neck falling from such a height. She half considered simply raising her hand and going for it, but she held back, not wanting to come across as arrogant, knowing full well that she most likely wouldn’t be able to hold her ground too well up there anyway. A quick look around the class showed that no-one else was eager to voluntarily participate and so she waited, for she knew that this meant someone would be chosen…

Tatsuya waited patiently for someone to respond, but no one did. "Hmm. Come now. Surely you can't be afraid of a little fall." Tatsuya expressed as they only stared at him. "Well let's get one thing straight. If you all are really trying to enter into the Gotei 13, a twenty foot fall is the least of your worries." He stated with an air of seriousness. "This is going to scare you guys. Especially if you feel that twenty foot fall is dangerous. But you'd do well to pay attention." He uttered, walking easily on top of the pillars and looking at all the students. "As a member of the Gotei 13, you will be sent on missions, sometimes dangerous ones. Sometimes you will be given a routine mission that turns south. You will fight hollows. You will get hurt. You will get stabbed, clawed, impaled, burned, poisoned, electrocuted, slammed to the ground, smashed through a building, and you will do all this while protecting those who do not have the strength to protect themselves. This I can say for certain, because I have experienced everything I just told you." He declared earnestly in truth. "You do not join the Gotei 13 because you want to live comfortably in the Seireitei. Not everyone here will live long enough to enjoy that comfort. The Gotei 13 is a military force and it is a guarantee that you will see battle." Tatsuya continued with his words watching the students. Most were definitely getting scared. "It is not a privilege to be a member of the Gotei 13. It is an honor. It is an honor for me to protect the peaceful tranquility you enjoy in Soul Society. It is an honor for me to fight so that those who can not, can live worry free. And you will hold the same honor. No matter which squad you join or get recruited in to, you will honor the Gotei 13. Be it the 12th squad, constructing items that make our missions easier. The 4th squad, who make sure we stay healthy and heal us when we get injured. Or the 11th squad, who are battle hungry and ready to be deployed at a moments notice." Tatsuya finished the sentence and took a deep breath. "Now I will say it again. This twenty feet that you look upon as if it is a tall mountain is the least of your worries." Tatsuya proclaimed. "You have fear. That's good. Use it. Control it. Turn it into an extra boost of energy to make sure you live through any ordeal that crosses your path. Don't let fear ever control your actions." Tatsuya stated vigorously to the class and finally stopped circling from the top of the pillars. "So then. Who want's to try and knock me down?"

She listened to the lieutenant speak, looking at him as he did so, occasionally looking around to see the expressions of classmates. Looks of both awe and fear decorated their individual faces; she however kept her expression as neutral as she could manage. Unlike most of the other students, she had experienced a hollow attack first hand, and had the permanent damage and scars to prove it, giving her an experience which had been both terrifying and useful at the same time.

She swallowed, blinked multiple times and looked around, his speech had struck up small, almost silent conversations amongst some of the groups of academy students, but even the more boisterous males in the class that would often step forward when faced with the opportunity to do so stood rooted to the spot.

It became clear that no-one had solid intentions of volunteering so she stepped forward herself, feeling a certain amount of pressure as all eyes were suddenly on her. “I’ll give it a shot,” she said loud enough for him to hear as she walked further forward. “Will I be needing this?” She motioned to the sword she held in her hand before making any move to get to the top of one of the pillars.

Tatsuya let out a half disappointed sigh when no one volunteered to meet him atop the pillars. He then heard a female voice behind him and turned to see the woman step forward. "No, this is purely hakuda training." He stated with a smirk. "Whenever your ready, come on up." He turned around and walked to the center of the pillars. He waited for the student to make her way to the center, expecting her to have some difficulty maintaining her balance. "This exercise is to teach you to be aware of your surrounding area. There may only be a few seconds to gather surroundings. Watch your step, keep your balance, and most important of all never take your eyes, off your opponent." He said and got into a loose fighting stance, arms out, hands open. He thrust his left arm out to the female with the back of his hand. He wasn't here to hurt them, only see there skills.

Hakuda training. Great. She was more confident in her sword fighting skills, and her weaker right arm was something that was prone to getting in the way, or being rendered a liability whilst fighting without relying on a weapon. Despite this hand to hand combat was by no means her worst subject area and she acknowledged that it could have been worse for her.

She nodded her head in affirmation and laid her sword down gently on the grass away from both the pillars and the group, slowly so as she could decide on the most graceful way to ascend the pillars. It certainly wasn’t as graceful as she’d hoped for but it did its job, running up one pillar and then jumping to one behind her every time she lost a slight amount of momentum.

He unfamiliar ground was difficult, and she was indeed finding it hard to center her weight in a way that made her balance perfectly stable and so, she appeared to wobble very slightly on occasion. She breathed out just as his hand came toward her, she leant away from it almost completely losing her balance, very close to falling. She composed herself fairly quickly and lashed out with her own left hand, aiming for his head knowing it to be the center of balance for most people…

Tatsuya let the female regain her balance after she evaded the attack and losing her balance. She lashed out at him with a punch of her own. Her reach was short. Why would she decide to try and fight beyond her reach. Tatsuya guessed it was the inexperience of a student. Not a big problem, they were in the Academy to learn, and he would teach her. Tatsuya blocked the punch with a firm open hand strike, pushing it away with a fair amount of force. "Remember. Depending on your situation, it is sometimes better to deflect then to evade." Tatsuya advised and carefully walked backwards with quick peripheral glances behind him so that he would not miss a step. "Now you come after me." He said after he put a bit of distant between them. He wanted to see if she could maintain her balance while moving. Once she would each him, he would push at her with another back hand, and another if she didn't learn from the last time. Giving her time between thrusts so she would not fall over.

She should have known that her reach would be too short, and she cursed inwardly at her lack of actual thought before making a move, her eyes widening as he pushed her hand away, feeling herself closer to falling than ever. She pushed herself back against his hand, putting even more distance between them before he started to do the same thing.

She listened to his words, she knew herself that she clearly lacked the skill to apply her talents correctly to situations one-hundred percent of the time so it must have been plainly obvious for everyone watching to see. After a few short seconds of mental brainstorming she moved closer, dodging his hand and once again finding that she nearly fell. When his hand came toward her again this time she put her left hand in the way of it, absorbing most of the blow, which hurt less than she expected. This time, she felt she could brace herself a little, and used her better stability to extend her leg, aiming a sharp kick at somewhere around his torso, wholly expecting him to block it.


[Are the pillars like, all connected, or are they separate? My poorly phrased questioning skills xD]

OOC: This would be the best representation of the pillars. Just added in more pillars, unevenly spaced, uneven in size, and uneven in height.

Spoiler:

IC:

Once again she almost fell over when she dodged his push. Another push, but this time she opted to absorb it. "Not the best choice if this was a real fight. But at least you maintained your balance." He expressed with an dash of flattery. She threw a kick at his abdomen and he rotated to his right. The kick grazed him but went past him. He quickly held out his arm to grab her in case she completely lost her balance. "Always try to keep your center of balance in the core of your stomach." He stated once he felt she had secured her footing. "When you do that, much like a gyroscope, it will be much harder for others to knock you off balance." He stated and demonstrated, moving with a fluid motion from right to left. "When you attack, you want to hit the area behind the opponent. That will cause the most damage. But you don't want to use your body weight behind your attacks. When you do that, it throws your balance off." He started to explain and repositioned himself. "Instead you want to channel your energy through your body and push it out through the appendage you use to attack." His body tightened before he threw two slow but powerful punches and a strong side side kick with ease and balance. "Doing so allows the same results as if you throw your body weight, but far more controlled. Therefore, if you miss, you don't lose your center of gravity. Which should always be the core of your stomach." Tatsuya turned back to her and waited.

[Aaah ‘kay, I thought it was like that but I just wanted to double-check!]

She scoffed a little, not because she was ungrateful but because she was getting increasingly irritated with her lack of skill, she was never good at appreciating the fact that one needed to practise to get half decent at something. She was grateful however that he stopped her from falling, for she was almost certain she was going to before he grabbed hold of her.

She furrowed her eyebrows a little, she was quite lanky compared to most people, and hand fairly long legs, but she was almost certain it would be annoying difficult for her to land any kind of attack behind him with the gaps between the pillars separating them. She listened to him closely, nodding her head in affirmation. When his fist came toward her she moved the top of her body as little as she could, doing her best to keep her centre of balance fairly well, though his moves were slow she had some degree of difficulty dodging them and keeping balance, but she was doing decidedly better than she had beforehand.

It was the kick that threw her off, she was doing fairly well until she completely missed it coming toward her until the very last second, to which she reacted badly, hopping away very ungracefully to the side, her foot barely catching the pillar which in turn almost had her falling. Somehow, but the largest stroke of luck she maintained her balance, blowing her hair out of her face and turning to him, debating her next move. She was now too far away from him for her kicks and punches to land, so she had to move closer. Though, instead of screwing with her balance once more she decided to wait for him to make a move…

She managed to dodge his attacks and stay on her feet. She even managed to land on the pillars when she jumped back. "At least you have a basic awareness of your surroundings." Tatsuya stated after she balanced herself. "Well I guess since you are not going to come to me..." He said and walked over to her. "I guess we can move away from the lecture portion of the training." He stopped a few feet away from her. "I just want you to keep your balance. But don't be afraid to fight back. If you can." He said before he started throwing slow punches. He started out by aiming for the outside of her body, allowing her time to dodge and gradually move inwards, lessening the time to dodge.

She watched him closely, on high alert for the moment he decided to move, she wasn’t about to take the first one so she knew he had to be the one to. She smiled a little at what she took (whether it were meant as one or not) as a compliment before focusing on the rest of his words. She was still a little nervous, both of the lieutenant and of the fall that would be the result of her poor balance, or being hit one too many times.

Fight back, right she thought, sarcastically to herself before she noted him approaching. She braced herself to either block his strike or move, and found that when his arm outstretched it was easier to move to the side, and then to the other side to evade the other blow. However, as he continued this became more and more difficult, and after just a few seconds she found she had to physically block the strikes, which didn’t do much for her balance. Her third time blocking she decided to be daring, pushing her balance to the back of her mind she pushed his arm away from him body and retaliated with a poorly aimed kick, fed up of being on the defensive all the time…

He made sure to attack as slow as he could while still maintaining enough speed to challenge her. At first she managed to dodge his attacks fairly easy, but then as his aim narrowed on her center it became increasingly difficult. She tried blocking his attacks, but that only made her own balance waver. She should have deflected his punches rather then take them head on. He could see the frustration in her eyes as he kept her on the defensive. She pushed his arm away and threw a wild kick at him in blind frustration. He jumped back and landed sloppily on the uneven pillars. He wavered back and forth as he regained his balance. This time he was gonna let her sink or swim on her own. He waited for a few seconds before speaking. "I think that will be enough." He ended their little training session. "Remember that when you are fighting, you do not want to get angry or frustrated. When that happens you make mistakes. Potentially fatal ones. Now we have enough space for four pairs of fighters. I want you there, there, there and there." He addressed the class and pointed to the four corners before jumping to the ground. "Let's go, pair up and get up there." He ordered. "Take it easy, get your balance and footing, and don't get too flashy." He said before walking over to the female. "Not bad, Ms...?"

She kept herself on guard, but when he announced the end of little sparring session a mix of relief and slight disappointment washed over her, although she didn’t directly show portray it, on sparse occasions she was fairly good at concealing her emotions. She nodded her head in acknowledgement of her words, she had a certain amount of temperamental issues when it came to sparring and she had never really been told to keep her frustration in check when only fighting her peers, so she never really tried, but she took his advice and made a mental note to work on it.

She was a little nervous about simply jumping from the pillars but took the bull by the horns and did it anyway, dropping to the ground with much less grace that she pictured in her mind, stumbling the smallest amount as her feet landed with a sharp, and dully painful thud. She dusted herself off (despite not being dirty in any way) and looked over to the lieutenant as he walked over. “Err, Haruko, Haruko Suzuki,” she said slightly awkwardly with a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “I learnt a lot, thank you,” she said, the expression widening a little bit.

"Ah. Well Suzuki-san, I think I'll be tracking the rest of your days here at the academy." Tatsuya stated with a grin. He let her get back to the class and monitored the rest of students. Some students approached him prior to climbing the pillars, asking for pointers. Tatsuya happily helped them with their technique. As the class went by, Tatsuya made note of a few of the students who might fit in well with the Second Division. He met with them prior to the class finishing, pulling them off to the side. He spoke with them in a casual manner, learning their names and getting a feel for their personalities. They each show promise while up on the pillars. They were definitely excited when they were informed that they might be able to find themselves in the Second Division after they graduated. After everything was done and the class dismissed, Tatsuya thanked Sensei Yamanashi for letting him partake in the instruction of the class. Tatsuya left as a freshman class started to arrive.