The Strength of Will [Training] [Closed]

[Wynne Kuchiki]

The Realm of the Living. It wasn’t too long ago that Wynne had been here. Or had it? Had it been weeks? Or had it been months? She truly couldn’t remember. Her past weeks had been a wild ride for her. Probably the most danger and excitement she had experienced in all of her life, if you could even call it that. She had made her first friend Camile, and then lost her. And while that sucked, she had also betrayed the Soul Society as well. Thankfully she didn’t do anything too crazy, only steal a few things from her Kuchiki household and leave without telling anyone. Nothing that could get her truly punished. Plus it wasn’t like she had announced her betrayal to the whole world. Technically no one should know what she did, so as long as she came up with a reasonable excuse, no one should know the sins she had committed.

That was all fine and dandy, but if that was all that had happened, then Wynne wouldn’t really be in the situation she was in now. When she and Camile had left Soul Society, they had fled to Hueco Mundo, a place inhabited by hollows and arrancar. Monsters that her kind were sworn to kill. And when Camile had left her there, one of them had found her. Thankfully Wynne had managed to survive the encounter, and it was there that she learned that only strength mattered. And swore to spy on the Shinigami she used to serve. Plus she gained some strength along the way. Strength that still coursed through her body and gave her purpose. Strength that would change her life from here on out.

It was always making her a little suspicious. Wynne was quite short for someone of her age, but ever since Col gave her a part of her power, she had noticed that she had grown a few inches. This was a little concerning since it had been only a few hours since that incident. Her increased power level she could kind of explain away but how was she supposed to explain increased height. A growth spurt at her age? Or maybe no one would even notice? Not many people cared about her anyways, so maybe her absence wouldn’t even be given a second glance. It’d be more convenient that way, even if it'd sting a little.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

Still, she was letting herself get distracted. The reason she hadn’t gone back to Soul Society yet was for several reasons. The first was because she wanted to collect herself. She had left for a reason in the first place, and if everything had gone as planned, then she wouldn’t be going back. But alas, life wasn’t fair, so here she was. Second was Col’s gift. It had settled down somewhat in her body, but she wanted to make sure it was completely undetectable before she went home. If someone detected it, she would be expected on the spot. She had accepted power from a hollow. No matter the reason, that was a heinous crime in and of itself. No one must find out what she did.

The final reason was that she wanted to start getting used to the strength that was residing in her body. While reiatsu wise not much increased, physically wise it was a whole different story. Her speed and strength were on a whole different level. She didn’t know how much strength her body could output, and she wasn’t comfortable with not knowing the answer. What if her secrets were revealed in the Soul Society and she needed to flee once more? She needed to know everything her body was capable of. All it would take was a few hours of training, and she had promised herself that if she survived her trials in Hueco Mundo, she would make the most of whatever life she had left. And she would keep her promise.

She had chosen the outskirts of Karakura for this excursion. Close enough to the city to not be bothered by hollows, but far enough away to not be bothered by shinigami either. It wasn’t like she’d be launching off Kido, so she doubted she’d be bothered by anyone. She was just testing the limits of her body. She wasn’t superhuman, it wasn’t like she could leap from building to building. Maybe if her body started out average she’d be able to. But when she received Col’s gift, she had barely been able to jog for a minute before getting tired. She had preferred to sharpen her mind rather than sharpen her body. It had seemed like the smarter move at the time. How naive she had been.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

Live and learn. Everyone made mistakes. And she would learn from hers. Training your mind was nice and all, but if your body couldn’t keep up, then what was the point? Both her body and mind needed to be on the same level, or at least up to a basic standard. And from what she knew, her body had been sorely lacking. It wasn’t anymore, but the point still stood. It shouldn’t have gotten to that point to begin with. Taking a moment to stretch, Wynne worked out the kink in her back and legs. Before beginning her workout, she wanted to make sure she didn’t pull any muscles. That would end her session before it even began.

A nice breeze was blowing through the area she was in, so even though she was going to work up a sweat, it wouldn’t be too bad. A nice blessing for the rough week she had occurred. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. Popping her fingers, Wynne let out a sigh before taking off in a light jog. She didn’t want to start sprinting at full speed just yet. She read somewhere that it was better to start slow and then go faster from there. And thus she would. As the seconds flew by, she kept an eye on how her legs felt. The whole point of this was to see how far she could push herself, so if she got lost in thought then she’d have to do this all over again.

The next few minutes went by quickly, which was surprising as a few weeks over Wynne would have collapsed in the first minute. From the mental count in her head, it had been around five minutes or so of intense jogging? The count was probably off slightly, but she didn’t need it to be exact, just close. Her legs were burning, but it was a good burn, and not painful enough to make her stop, thus she chose to keep going. Only after another two minutes of constant running did she decide to take a break and rest her weary muscles. The whole process hurt, but she’d need to get used to it as she planned on making these types of jobs a daily thing.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

Wiping the sweat off her brow, Wynne closed her eyes and tried to feel Col’s power inside of her body. From what she could tell, it had already all but dissipated inside of her. Which was a good thing. The less evidence of her misdeeds, the better. Plus it showed that her body was adapting to the power she had been given. All things that she was glad for. But since there was a low chance that her senses might be off, she would keep going for a little bit more. For situations like these, you couldn’t be too careful. Plus more physical workout would only help her improve.

The next thing she wanted to test out was her strength. But she wanted to do it in a way that wouldn’t hurt her body. Punching the trunk of a tree might not be worth the whole endeavor and she doubted she’d find a punching bag all the way out here. The price of being on the outskirts of Karakura. Taking a quick glance around, Wynne wondered what she could use. There were trees, mounds of dirt, some stone, branches, and other various forms of nature. That was about it. Nothing man made that she could use. This would require some thought.

After a few moments of debating, Wynne decided to start off with some sturdy sticks. The width of some of them were a few inches wide. The average person wouldn’t be able to snap them in half unless they had considerable strength. Something she should half now. Taking a firm grip of the wood, Wynne furrowed her brow as she snapped the branch in two between her arms. “Huh, wasn’t too bad.” Tossing the broken branch away, she looked for a bigger stick. Perhaps she had underestimated her strength? She probably should have started with a bigger one to begin with.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

Stick after stick, branch after branch. The area around Wynne was filled with snapping as she tested out her strength against the nearby wood. The level of difficulty increased as she sought out sturdier branches, but she still managed to snap everyone she came across. Probably because the ones that fell off of the nearby trees only fell off at a certain size. Still, she had achieved her goal. She had a vague idea of where her measurement of strength was. But it wasn’t where she wanted it to be. Other shinigami could still outclass her easily and that didn’t sit well with her, she needed to be stronger.

But first she needed to get these splinters out of her hands. Who knew that snapping all these branches with her bare hands would have consequences? Taking a few minutes to walk to the nearby river, Wynne washed her hands gently by the bank before returning to her training spot. Her little exercise regime had taught her a few things. Basically since she had been a pitiful excuse for a shinigami before Col’s gift, she was now only slightly above a basic Shinigami now in terms of power. While her strength was at a decent level, nowadays that wasn’t anything special for shinigami. Quite a few were exceptional in their strength, so she needed to be even stronger if she wanted to stick out. That was just how things were now.

“I guess I should start making an actual training regime. Even more so than just jogging. Lifting weights to increase my strength. Exercising. Maybe even ask my family for help. I could improve faster that way, but then I’d actually have to talk to them.” The latter had pros and cons. On one hand she’d improve tremendously, on the other hand she didn’t really like her family all that much. She’d have to think about it more, that was for sure. For now she’d definitely research some exercises to figure out what muscle groups to target so she could improve faster. Better to improve efficiently with targeted research than flounder about aimlessly.

[Wynne Kuchiki]

With this new goal in mind, Wynne spent the next few hours working on improving her body. She didn’t really have a set exercise plan, so she just worked on pushing her body to the limit. She did this by doing as many pushups as she could do in a row and then beating her score after she rested. Once she got bored of this, she tried doing a handstand and walking around on just her hands. Unfortunately for her, she failed in this aspect horrendously. So she had to settle for going back to pushups in embarrassment. Perhaps she could go back to handstands once she worked on her balance more?

Still, it seemed like her strength was improving? It was hard to tell since it had only been one day. Her muscles were burning at least. And if her muscles hurt, that meant they would strengthen once they healed. So she would be stronger in the end. A little bit of pain today would mean more strength for her tomorrow. Slamming her fist into the trunk of a tree, Wynne smiled in satisfaction as a dent appeared on its surface. Right before clutching her hand in pain. She’d have to remember that even if she could damage hard surfaces, they could damage her back. “Ow ~”

Once the pain in her hand had died down and she’d cleared the area she trained in, Wynne decided it was finally time to face the music. It was time to head home. She had delayed long enough. Col’s power was virtually undetectable inside her body and she needed to get a move on. She was a changed woman, she was no longer the same Wynne that left Soul Society. She was stronger now. In more ways than one. She was also a traitor too, so if someone found that little tidbit out she’d be tortured and executed, so she’d need to keep that part under wraps. No pressure though…..

[Kitai Yoru]

18 paragraphs, 90 TP awarded, good luck on your type change.