[Joint Training] Learning Bakudo Techniques Pt 1

[Yuna Xiao]

The Shinigami Primer that Yuna received during her time at the Shinōreijutsuin lay before her open to the chapter regarding the top Shinigami of the Seireitei. "I've met the awesome folks in my Division already and they are fantastic people, such great mentors, I still want to see who else I can meet and learn from, however."
She leans back in her chair and sighs. "It would be too presumptuous of me to approach a Captain for training especially since I'm only learning beginner techniques. So, perhaps a Vice Captain? No no, they're surely too busy. But a Third Seat should be excellent!" she excitedly leans forward again and flips through the pages, carefully scanning through all of the senior officers.
"Unoji-san would be fantastic to help me out with practicing my Shunpō or maybe Hohō, and plus I'd get to know someone from the second coolest Division. She's just not what I'm after right now... How about Argentum-san? A woman from Sixth Division must be incredibly skilled and smart but ehhhhh...." She runs her hands from her face to her forehead in deep thought "I-I don't know if I can handle being trained by a Sixth Division officer, they probably all robots beyond our comprehension.
Then - whom!?" Yuna continues to pursue the pages. "Youji-sama is already teaching me Hakuda, so I can cross him off the list. Kanamaru-san is from the Information Dissemination Squad so I feel like she would be great for learning intelligence and counterintelligence skills but not Bakudō." Her eyes narrow for a moment and then the smirks. "Mason-san? Yes, I heard so many things about how he can teach people any Kidō, it was so obvious! Then it's settled" She exhales in  relief having decided upon someone to mentor her for this.

She closes the Primer and equips her Shihakushō, inspecting herself carefully in a mirror to correct any imperfections first. "Right. Off I go then." Yuna cracks open a window and leaps out and problem concerning anyone that just watched this crazy woman jump out a window, but she easily finesses her way to the rooftops to help her navigate to Thirteenth Division where she had done her best to memorise the location of in her time off spent exploring the Seireitei.
Yuna is a quick woman so it didn't take long for her to find the Squad 13 Barracks. She stands at the entrance, requesting entrance in front of the guards presumably there monitoring access.
"Good day friends! If he's available, I would request an audience with Third Seat Wycliff Mason-san."

[Wycliff]

Yuna would find that the moment she walked into the squad 13 barracks and asked for Wycliff the other shingami in the squad started to mutter about themselves. Several whispers between one another wondering why a person was asking for Wycliff of all people was heard. It would take some time before at least one shingami actually spoke back to her. “I’m sure he’s around but….. I don’t think he’s awake….” The rest of the shingami in the area started going off to what they were doing before Yuna had arrived none of them really wanting to deal with what they assumed was someone trying to talk some sense into Wycliff.

“Listen I’ll take you to where he’s at and that’s it, the rest is up to you.” The shingami smiled at Yuna and started to lead her deeper into the barracks, they didn’t say anything as the reached what was marked as the captain’s door. “So he’s in here, he said he was doing some paperwork, but……. That was a few days ago and we hadn’t seen him since.” The shingami bowed at Yuna and then started off on their merry way getting back to the work that they had been doing before getting the rather strange and new visitor to their barracks.

Opening the door to the captain’s room Yuna would find a massive pile of paperwork cluttering the desk that would be hinding Wycliff, who at the very moment was passed out sleeping on the desk. His dirty blonde hair was long and covering his face. The curtains to the room were drawn and he was totally out cold and the lack of light in the room obscured him a bit. There wasn’t any reason Wycliff was sleeping, he just wanted a nap and this was the best place to do so without any interruptions.

[Yuna Xiao]

She patiently waits for a response as the group of Shinigami seem quite hesitant to say much on the situation. Yuna, however, doesn't think about it too much but does hope that she didn't walk into a situation where there's bad blood due to recent events, or worse.
When she receives her rather mundane answer she sighs exasperated "Really - asleep!? Great, I had to pick the laziest mentor in the Gotei 13. Whatever, I just hope he's good at what he does."
She mulls over the situation in her head as she is escorted. "Just be professional--you cannot start picking fights with people when you're so fresh out of the Academy. Besides, maybe he's just really busy and tired? I sure hope so..."
"Thank you," she says as she arrives to the Captain's office. She was familiar with how Third Seats often take on the grunt work from Captains. 
Yuna peers over the mountain of paperwork through the darkness and shrugs, "guess he's out cold, I know what would warm him up!" She eagerly walks over to the window and flings open the curtain to fill the room with a viciously bright and hot bath of sunlight whereupon Yuna walks back to the desk and clears her throat and speaks with particular energy "Good afternoon Third Seat Mason-sama! I apologise for the intrusion sir!"

Yuna slightly smirks feeling proud - that should teach him to be sleeping on the job.

[Wycliff]

As the bright light came into the office Wycliff started to mutter in his sleep at the discomfort of having the sunlight resting right on his face. In his half asleep state he assumed that he had forgotten to draw the curtains closed last night when he came back. What he wasn’t expecting was a voice speak to him with the energy and peppiness that it had. He didn’t know the voice, and really he wasn’t paying all that much attention to what was being said, just that someone was talking to him. After they had finished speaking he didn’t hear the sound of a door opening or closing so he assumed that they were still here and had some business with him or the other.

Slowly he raised his head from the desk, his face still had a tired look across it and his dirty blonde hair was all a mess. Letting out a loud yawn he opened his emerald green eyes, however due to the sunglasses he had on there wasn’t really a way for Yuna to tell that his eyes were opened. He leaned backwards in his chair causing it to tilt back. He did this as he looked over the Shinigami that had entered the office, trying to figure out who this was, as he had never seen her before.

Looking at her he noticed something that was very different about her uniform. She was wearing what essentially was a miniskirt version of the typical uniform coming up to above her knees. Wycliff also noticed that she was a lot shorter than him and had short blackish blue hair that came to her shoulders, he could some form of eagerness from her eyes, yet he didn’t know who she was and why she had come into the office. He debated on playing dead and pretending to fall back asleep again this time sitting upwards, however he figured that if she had gone through the trouble to wake him up the way she did, she wouldn’t be dissuaded by him pretending to be asleep again.

With a tired voice he spoke, “so ya wanna tell me who ya are cutie? And what brings you here?” Wycliff wanted to get some answers, but at the same time he was still half asleep and really wanted to get back to the dream he was having. He remembered something about being on a beach watching the waves crash and just tanning, probably something he would do later on if there was time left in the day and if he could find an excuse to leave the gottei again, knowing that the paperwork had piled up he would have to deal with that or have an excuse to ignore it.

[Yuna Xiao]

The sunrays seem to almost intensify as if it can sense Wycliff's disdain for its warmth. 

Yuna watches the man lazily rouse himself to consciousness after presumably a long night of trying to neglect his administrative work as hard as he can. "Really? Sunglasses indoors!?" She briskly thought. "Is this man for real? Did all that do was just get his body to move? I should say something, no wait for him to say something, but he's taking so long and just..." She pensively sighs trying to be as patient as possible. After what felt like an eternity for a woman of such gusto as Yuna, the sloth man finally spoke. "Wuh- C-Cutie!? I-er--" Wycliff clearly had caught her off guard and became easily flustered, emotions swapping between annoyance, confusion, flattery, disgust, and surprise just to name a few. She eyes the side of the room while still facing him out of embarrassment, hoping he doesn't notice her mild blush, and not really knowing how to react to that, trying to be professional and move on. She clears her throat "M-My apologies sir; I am Yuna Xiao, unseated Seventh Division, sir." She quickly flashes her Squad's emblem as proof. "I am eager to learn how to be a strong Shinigami and thus I am looking for mentors and trainers so I was asking around and apparently you have the ability to teach people any of the Kidō. I barely passed my Kidō classes back at Shino Academy because it was not my specialty and I want to learn from the best that the Gotei 13 has to offer... s-so if you don't mind Mason-sama, please allow me to learn Bakudō from you... I'd like to start with #3, Sazanami. I'll even help out around Thirteenth Division as a show of gratitude." Yuna bows respectfully although somewhat reluctantly as she internally curses her luck to have chosen such a difficult Shinigami to get help from. 

[Wycliff]

He smiled as he saw her face blush slightly and her stutter on her words as he called her cute, Wycliff was always a flirt he couldn’t help it. It was harmless flirting, but if she got so flustered after one instance of just being called cute he would certainly have some fun teasing her later on. He leaned forward as he listened to what she had to say about why she was here and who she was. He kept the same smile across his face as she spoke and when she was all finished he thought about what to say.

On one hand he was more than happy to help her get out and train as that meant that he could get out of doing paperwork, on the other he did really need to finish what he had said he would, it only made sense to honor what he was suppose to do. He let out a deep breath as he weighed the choices that presented himself. Normally if it wasn’t for the massive amount of paperwork he had he would have easily accepted in a heartbeat there wasn’t any reason not to. Sure her offer of helping out was nice but the thirteenth squad had to take care of their own issues.

The longer he thought about it the more his eyes wandered over to look at all the paperwork on his desk and the more he just wanted to escape to the beaches of the human world. That’s when it hit him, he could go there and also train Yuna as she said her name was. “Aight, ya want me to teach ya some kido huh? Thanks for the offer to help out, but squad thirteen gotta take care of their own stuff ya know. Still I’d be happy to teach a cutie like ya.” He said as he slowly stood up from the desk and started towards the door.

Before passing by Yuna he placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair a bit. “Call me Wycliff, no need to be so formal.” He smiled at her as he opened the door and started off towards the senkaimon. He already had a set up in a remote private beach in Brazil so there was no need to really bother grabbing anything and as he walked towards the Senkaimon he spoke with her. “So Yuna, how long ya been a shingami for?” He said pulling a packet of pop rocks from out of his jacket ripping it open with his teeth.

[Yuna Xiao]

Yuna blinks in anticipation for his answer as he seems to take his sweet time formulating a response, or maybe she just felt like time was progressing at the speed of two snails trying to push a sloth because she was too embarrassed and just wanted some Hollow to attack so she could have an excuse to leave. Her eyes darting between the wall and Wycliff's face who hasn't stopped staring at her, presumably a little too closely at her petite frame and gentle curves. If only the uniform had body armour of some sort to hide such features.
Finally, the Third Seat answers and... she gets only more flustered as the man repeats The Word™ like he needs to meet a daily quota or something, then she turns beet red as he ruffles her hair as though the two have been pals for years - clearly Twelfth Division is a little bit more relaxed and casual than most and it's not something she's used to. "T-t-thanks... Maso--W-Wycliff, sir- er, d-dude-GAH!" Yuna had now committed mental seppuku and was praying that the Soul King himself would smite her out of existence. The last person to pat her hair like that was when she was alive and this guy she just met went ahead and did it! Yuna could not look at him for even a second and could almost sprint at this point just to get things moving faster toward the Senkaimon. She struggled to formulate words even and completely overlooked her usual formal bow of gratitude and was so distracted that she didn't even bother asking why they were going to a beach or why he had a spot so ready, "... Er, a-a few weeks" she said meekly, "graduated... not long ago... W-what about you," she very nearly called him 'sir', stumbling through the word and mashing it together with the next in a combination of sheer mortification and simply not being used to speaking in a casual fashion "sssi-Wycliff? Must have been centuries to get to your level." At this point she might as well just wear a hat that says 'dunce' or so she felt. Maybe this was punishment for her mischievous wake-up call earlier? Only the gods know for sure.

[Wycliff]

“Ya it’s been a few hundered years since I’ve been a shingami, tho age don’t mean much as I know plenty of oldies that ain’t that strong and some peeps younger than me who are higher ranked and stronger.” Wycliff didn’t like the idea that depending on how old you were meant how strong you actually were. He knew that there were many factors that resulted in someone being strong. Some were born with strength, other worked hard and long hours and some would never get to the higher levels of strength no matter how much they tried. Seeing the Senkaimon up ahead he smiled knowing that the beaches of the human world were close by.

Without saying much else Wycliff walked with Yuna through the Senkaimon arriving at a remote beach with no signs of human life around say for an old wooden cabin that almost seemed to be absorbed by the trees around it. The smell of fresh salt air came into his lungs and the bright sun shined down, Wycliff loved the damn beach and this was a great day with how there were no clouds in the sky. He looked over and saw that a tree branch had fallen over the door of the cottage, a minor annoyance, but nothing too bad to deal with.

Wycliff could already feel the heat coming down from the sunlight baking him in the black uniform that he had on. “Listen, I’ma go change into a bathing suit I got in the cabin over there, if ya want there’s some beach wear in there that might fit ya. If not ya can sweat it out in the uniform.” With that Wycliff wandered over to the cabin slowly moving the tree branch that had fallen over the door. With some effort he was able to move it and get inside. The cabin had been like he had left it, two wooden trunks with writing noting that one was for males and other was for females. A broken down bed with a nightstand that had an older photo of Wycliff with a few of the locals.

After a few minutes Wycliff left the cabin and was now wearing a bright blue pair of swim trunks. His sunglasses still on and he looked out to the ocean taking another deep breath in. He would wait for Yuna to either change if she wanted or stay in the uniform she had on. Either way once she was ready he would speak again. “Aight ya told me ya barely passed the kido class in the academy, is that because ya bad at kido or were ya skipping classes?” He said that last part with a cheerful grin remembering his time in the academy.

[Yuna Xiao]

Yuna tries to regain her composure and takes a deep breath as she listens to Wycliff, "I sure hope most Shinigami have that perspective as well as it's a healthy viewpoint. I sure hope that when I become Captain that people will see me for a great leader worthy of the title~" It wouldn't be long before the duo made it through the Senkaimon to the World of the Living. It was at that point that she had realised that she is now on a beach and her trainer was very serious about this unusual location for training. She scanned the area taking in everything that she sees and sighs happily in the warm sun. "Well, it's not what I was expecting that's for sure. It is... strange, being back here, in the World of the Living. I did not think it was possible to ever return until I became a Shinigami. Wycliff-san, you know this is the first time I've been here since I died, right?" She chuckles lightly as she daintily squats to pick up a tiny hermit crab scuttling around, it smooshes itself into its miniature abode and Yuna grins, putting it back down and looking to the man just as he clears the entrance to the ramshackle cabin. "Normally I would be pretty wierded out by this but I think I'll enjoy being here for a little while." She stands and walks over to the cabin just as he leaves

"Does this guy just buy a bunch of women's clothing and hope it fits the various ladies he brings here? What a strange fellow. No way am I going to let a guy I just met see me in an outfit that I didn't even get a chance to look-over before I wear it! Maybe if this was with Nisei-sama, but she doesn't look the beach type." She says to him just before she enters the cabin: "Thanks for the offer, but I'll stick to my own clothes. I will, however, enjoy the wonderful sand and sun" Yuna removes her tabi-boots, Asauchi and arm guards since she's only practicing Bakudō, and her Shuhakushō, placing them all neatly on top of the women's trunk where she then returns to the outside, clearly quite excited to be not only on a beach but also in the World of the Living again. Her non-uniform outfit that she wore beneath her duty uniform was not quite as light as a bikini might be, but a hell of a lot better than a heavy kimono.  


"What? SKIP classes!?" Yuna had a look of shock and horror on her face "Is that even possible!? No- I would never think of that. I was always the first one into every class AND every cram session too. No, I just... Never got the hang of Kidō, I only barely managed to get Hadō #2 and that's all. They told me I was probably able to graduate a year or two early if my Kidō was as strong as my other skills but alas, it was not so. But it didn't dissuade me from trying as best I could! Maybe now that I have matured a little bit, I will be able to give it another shot." She had a look of fierce eagerness as she stared toward the horizon over the ocean, hopeful about the future and curious what she will have to do to learn Bakudō.

[Wycliff]

Wycliff turned to see that Yuna had come out of the cabin rather quickly, he saw that she wasn’t wearing a bathing suit but instead something more akin to what he would call a ninja outfit. It seemed to be something light enough that wouldn’t cause her to sweat too much in the heat. “Aight, if ya start to sweat too much let me know, I’ll head to town to get ya something to drink. Some of the locals owe me a favor or two.” He said with a smile across his face as a nice breeze of wind came blowing over the area, cooling down the two of them slightly.

Watching her face and expression change over what he said about skipping classes was amusing. When she had finished speaking he walked over and patted her hair again with that same grin across his face. “Relax just messin with ya, cutie.” Now he knew the kido that she wanted to learn and he figured the best way was to try and explain how the kido worked, he knew that doing that with the last shingami had worked better than trying to simply show it off, so he hoped that the same results would happen with Yuna.

He took a few steps back from her feeling the soft warm sand on his bare feet. “Aight, so do ya know how bats see things?” He pulled his zan from his waist side and using the tip of the sheath he started to draw rings in the sand as he spoke back up. “See bat’s they use sound to see, having it bounce off of things and returning to them.” As he came to a seashell in the sand he had the lines curve around the shell then start to come back towards him. “When they hit something, those waves come back and then the bat knows something’s there. Ya following?” He asked her as he finished drawing the small image on the ground and looked back at her.

He would still do this even if she knew how bats saw things. “So the kido ya asking me about works sorta the same way, but instead of sound it’s reiatsu ya sending out and instead of objects ya are looking for spiritual things, walls and what not do affect it tho, but then again not too sure as I ain’t a master at bakudo.” Wycliff was more of a hado user than a bakudo one, sure he knew tons of bakudo, but really he hadn’t mastered a bunch of them at all, not like hado.

“Now then, ya ready to see how it works?” He said as he pulled out a large white blindfold and covered his eyes and sunglasses with it. “Need ya to move around and not tell me where ya are standing I’ll find you only using the kido, no speaking ya hear me.” He said as he covered his own eyes and once it was fixed tight. He would wait a moment for her to move and stop then he starting the incantation saying it out loud for her to know it if she didn’t know it. “Throw the pebble in the pond; ripple across the still waters, trace the boundaries, return. Bakudo #3: Sazanami .”

With the kido said he felt pulses of reiatsu expand outwards allowing him to ‘see’ the world around him. He could see the sand below his feet, the seashells on the ground. The ripples of the kido bounced around everything and there in the darkness he felt it. Yuna’s reiatsu, it was faint, however he knew very well what shingami reiatsu felt like. Without saying anything he started towards her and eventually he stopped a foot infront of her placing a hand on her head again speaking once more. “Got ya.”

[Yuna Xiao]

Yuna looks at him inquisitively "You're familiar with the humans here? There must be some pretty strong souls here to be able to see you. But, I'll keep your offer in mind - a bit of hard work and sweat is always good for the mind and body!" She says, enjoying the breeze for the brief moment it passes the two by. 
The young Shinigami rolls her eyes at the concept of him just messing with her, and besides, she is the opposite of 'relax' to the point where her colleagues in her barracks wonder if she even sleeps or enjoys a hobby. 

She nods in response to his question about bats and watches him create a diagram of his explanation. "Ah - I understand! It's similar to SONAR, but magical~" She shrugs off his comment about his own aptitude "Hey, you're surely a helluva lot more capable than I am, sir." 
"Quiet? Sure thing!" The girl stays quiet and listens intently, quickly jotting down the incantation into her always-handy notepad and watches in wonderment as to the trick being demonstrated. She makes an attempt to test his ability by trying to be as sneaky as possible when moving around, her tiny feet making only the finest of steps in the sand, even her breath is being controlled so she can see just how far this ability can go and making sure that she doesn't stay in the same area for more than a second even going as far as rotating around him 180 degrees.
She blinks at the touch of her head, "Erm-" She casually shuffles her head out of arms reach, not wanting to admit that she's a sucker for headpats, "-That was damn cool, Wycliff! Your reputation in Kidō knowledge proceeds you! Now, I get to try it out yeah? What do I do to start?" She says with a determined look, eager to apply herself and confident just one demonstration is enough for her even though she was utterly dismal in the Academy at this sort of thing. 

[Wycliff]

Wycliff smiled at the complement that she gave him about having a reputation with using kido. It made him happy to hear that at the very least he had a good reputation in something and not that of a wild crazed attacker. However her question about where she should start was one he had to think about, normally there was a field where they had some obvious reiatsu based stumps that could be easily sensed when using this kido. Here at the beach they had nothing of the sort, so it would be harder to try and get someone use to seeing with that kido.

He placed a hand on his face as he thought about what to tell her about starting to use this kido. “Ya normally just do it, and ya try and move around the area with some posts, but we ain’t got any of that around here.” Wycliff thought about the kido he knew and then an idea came to him. He gave a wide grin and smiled. “If we ain’t got any posts, then I’ll make em.” He took a few steps back and look around the beach, it was clear and empty. He was a bit sad as to what he was about to do to it, however he could always fix it later on… or at least he hoped that he could.

“Arigt, ya close yer eyes and use the kido, and try n find me.” He smiled as he started to walk away from her waiting for her to use the kido, sending out ripples so that she could see without seeing. After she had done the kido he would put his idea into place. Without saying the words outloud he started to cast Hado #41: Kanji Taiho. Each cast of it would create a stone pillar roughly a few feet away from Yuna. He made sure to do it so that she wouldn’t step on it as he created them. He was using them as a way to test that she was actually using the kido properly as each time a pillar would pop up it would be a new obstacle in her path and if she was using the kido she would sense it from the ripples coming off of it.

Wycliff would be standing at least fifty feet away, in a straight line from her, however each time she tried to go forward to him, he would create the pillars making it so that she had to maneuver around them. This was the best way he could think of to both test if she was able to do the kido properly and at the same time to test how well she could react to new information coming off of the kido. He wouldn’t do anything to harm her, however eventually he would allow her an open path to reach him.

[Yuna Xiao]

She looked puzzled as to how his explanation of Kidō was supposed to work - "Just do it? I guess it's like learning any skill where if you overthink it then it just won't work as well..." Yuna nodded to acknowledge that Wycliff had an idea and listened to his instruction, closing her eyes, she began to focus her reiatsu to the palm of her hand, trying to not be put off balance by the sweltering heat having a bead of sweat drip down her cheek. Yuna would take a deep breath and recant the incantation: "Throw the pebble in the pond; ripple across the still waters, trace the boundaries, return. Bakudo #3: Sazanami" She would gently gasp as she was now able to feel her surroundings and just how empty much of it was except as she would quickly sense were some mysterious pillars popping up in her 'view'. This must be part of his test--she would continue to focus on expending reiatsu to keep the Kidō going as she slowly walked toward the signatures of small reishi, doing her best to avoid each one as they popped up but sometimes being surprised as to when and where they would. Nevertheless, she pressed on not being used to having to focus for so long like this, she started to feel how much effort using even simple Kidō takes. She would slowly start to try and push herself to get closer by moving faster, anticipating where the pillars would pop up instead of reacting to them. 
Eventually she would make it to the much more prominent reflection of reishi in her 'view' until she reached just a few feet in front of Wycliff, opening her eyes and smiling wide, shutting off Sazanami and gleefully hopping in excitement "YES! I made it through! I could totally do that all day" she said, clearly out of breath from exerting more reiatsu than she's used to, "did I do well, Wycliff?  I think I could get the hang of that with a few days of practice! Maybe with increased difficulty each time~." The young shinigami was quite excited to put her new skills to good use and push herself while doing so, after all she wouldn't want to slack just because it's a low-level Kidō. 

[Wycliff]

Wycliff was honestly shocked to see how well that Yuna had been doing to get to him avoiding the pillars that he had been creating. It was nice to see that she was able to get the kido easily. He wasn’t sure how hard it would be to explain how to properly do this kido, so for her to be able to get it so easily was a great relief for him. The more that he taught Yuna he started to realize something, it seemed that the more he used kido the more comfortable he felt and that it felt like he belonged teaching. He knew that the Acadamy always had openings and he could easily become a kido teacher….. but that would actually mean work.

He smiled at Yuna seeing how egar she was to keep learning, however he had to worry about the amount of reiatsu she was using, he had been teaching her new kido back to back without a regard to her stamina and what her limits were. “Hey cutie ya feelin ok?” He still called her cutie just to tease but his tone had a worried tone in it. He didn’t want her to keep going out of a responsibility or duty to him. “Ya can take a break if ya want. Catch ya breath and get some sun in.” As he said this he started to observe her breathing and to see if she was sweating. If he could tell that she needed to stop he would and make her rest, if not he would keep going, but unsure as to what kido to teach next.