Post by Zatoshi Kizukara on Feb 11, 2022 18:13:30 GMT -5
The sun stood halfway to noon and Zatoshi had already been awake for the past six hours. His hair was still damp from the bath as he made his way down the academy halls. Today was a Monday. That meant his lengthy morning ritual had already accommodated a score of pull-ups as well as a few miles walked around the academy grounds, bearing a yoke of wood over his shoulders weighted at both ends with stones. His legs had already taken on some soreness, as well as his back. He didn't think much of it. There was a certain pride that accompanied rising before the sun for self-improvement long before any of his peers were awake.
It was something of a pattern as he was easily ten minutes early to his first class of the day as well. The class was on Hakuda, which was apparently an unarmed shinigami martial art. He was enthusiastic enough heading into it, though you couldn't tell by looking at him. Zatoshi had a few years of very committed training in a different martial art already under his belt. His time in his local Bōgyote school was treated as a passion before he left to become a soul reaper. The martial art itself certainly saved his life in the events that preceded that decision.
So when he entered the matted space that made up the indoor Hakuda training hall, he did so with the expectation that he would do exceedingly well in this class. Expectations did not always reflect reality. Rapidly in the introductory lecture Zatoshi learned a few discouraging pieces of information. One, that it was primarily a striking martial art with little to no emphasis on grappling or ground-fighting. Even worse, that a basic fundamental of Hakuda involved utilizing reiryoku during strikes in order to augment one's physical strength. Controlling his spirit energy wasn't something that came easily at all to Zatoshi. In fact he hardly had an indication that it was real unless someone was doing something with it in front of his face. That didn't stop his instructors from thus far commenting that he "had a lot of potential".
Like hell he did. He didn't have a clue what that was supposed to mean when he didn't have the slightest talent for it. Luckily the first day's instruction was pretty simple. They did a warm-up as a class and went over basic footwork, leading into some basic striking and defending. The instructor seemed to know what they taught well, and how to disseminated it. At the end of instruction through to the end of the class period they were paired off for randori.
So far, so good for the most part. Zatoshi found the class to run very similarly to how his Bōgyote school handled instruction. One difference he rather quickly noticed was that in his Bōgyote school they would do three-minute rounds and rotate sparring partners during randori. It appeared here, they did not. This only became a problem when Zatoshi was paired with a student who was a little too enthusiastic about attempting the techniques they'd been taught in a free sparring setting. His surname was Ito, and he was thus far the most annoying thing to happen to Zatoshi at the academy.
They were paired off today because they were similarly sized, and it wasn't long into their sparring that Zatoshi realized Ito was going to be a problem. Things started just about how they should. They took turns for the most part firing out probing strikes at each other with the purpose of allowing the other to perform the parry that they were taught earlier in instruction.
It wasn't until the instructor encouraged a more dedicated attempt to make the strikes land that there began to be a problem. He had halted the randori a few minutes in to call the class into a circle around him to listen. "Pay attention to your measure! Almost all of you are throwing strikes when you cannot even reach your opponent! Only attack when you can connect, and aim. I'm not telling you to try and knock each other's teeth out, but you all have to throw in the proper measure with the intention of making contact so that both of you are actually getting good experience." The instructor explained, walking over to Ito.
"Look, if I throw a strike from way out here - one, it has no chance of hitting you in the first place and two, yeah anybody can go ahead and block that. Not only that but now I'm setting up this expectation in your head that this is what it looks like when someone's going to try and hit you," He said as he threw punches at the air half a foot in front of Ito's face, "When you go to fight someone for real, that's going to end up in you failing to apply any of these parries properly. Your ability to read measure is going to be completely fucked. And if you're the one throwing the strike in this situation too by the way, you're not actually getting any experience in what it's like to try and hit someone. It's a problem for everyone involved. Everybody understand?"
The class of students responded pretty affirmatively and they were sent off back to continue randori. Now Zatoshi had expected this. His previous school was very practically inclined considering his village was in the west 53rd district. Practitioners were there because they genuinely expected that they might have to be able to defend themselves at some point. He had been out of measure for Ito's sake to be honest. It was the first day they were doing Hakuda and Ito didn't seem like he had much martial arts experience. He just wanted to give his partner the chance to get used to some of the motions and gain confidence in his application of technique. He could decrease the measure little-by-little as Ito got used to things until they were both properly striking with the ability to connect.
The instructor's little pep-talk seemed to convince Ito that the goal was definitely to hit Zatoshi. Something Zatoshi wasn't going to willingly allow him to do, and had considerably more experience. When Ito would strike, he would be consistently slipped, parried or checked. As this happened he began to strike harder and harder, and his face betrayed growing frustration and lack of restraint. A short time in, Zatoshi tucked his chin behind a shoulder roll just in time for an open-handed strike to smack stiffly over his earlobe. His blood-pressure spiked and his response was sharp and correctional.
With Ito now wearing a busted lip and a bad attitude, there wasn't much chance he was going to hold back when he found out that Zatoshi's legs were sore. He had followed up a wild pair of palm strikes with a sharp lead-leg kick to the thigh. This one slipped in unchecked, and when Ito saw the pain flash through Zatoshi's face he began to make it a recurring theme of their sparring.
Each time he would do it, Zatoshi would respond in a 'non-verbal way' that he had better ease off. To be honest, due to the level of difference in experience it was starting to look like Zatoshi was battering his sparring partner. It could have been very easily interpreted at this point that Ito was just trying to get revenge for some of the excessively stiff shots he was being given. This look would only get worse when Zatoshi had finally gotten angry enough, finally had enough to send a very clear message.
The next time he tried to kick him in the thigh Zatoshi changed levels, dropping and wrapping his arm around the back of Ito's thigh before he could retract the kick fully. His other hand shot over Ito's opposite shoulder to grab a handful of the back of his academy uniform. Ito was hopping back and trying to get space back as Zatoshi pushed through, driving his hips under Ito and using his grips to lift Ito fully into the air, turning him over and slamming him back-first onto the mat in absolutely massive slam that stopped the class completely, everyone turning to look at the sudden thump of bodies crashing to the floor.
It was something of a pattern as he was easily ten minutes early to his first class of the day as well. The class was on Hakuda, which was apparently an unarmed shinigami martial art. He was enthusiastic enough heading into it, though you couldn't tell by looking at him. Zatoshi had a few years of very committed training in a different martial art already under his belt. His time in his local Bōgyote school was treated as a passion before he left to become a soul reaper. The martial art itself certainly saved his life in the events that preceded that decision.
So when he entered the matted space that made up the indoor Hakuda training hall, he did so with the expectation that he would do exceedingly well in this class. Expectations did not always reflect reality. Rapidly in the introductory lecture Zatoshi learned a few discouraging pieces of information. One, that it was primarily a striking martial art with little to no emphasis on grappling or ground-fighting. Even worse, that a basic fundamental of Hakuda involved utilizing reiryoku during strikes in order to augment one's physical strength. Controlling his spirit energy wasn't something that came easily at all to Zatoshi. In fact he hardly had an indication that it was real unless someone was doing something with it in front of his face. That didn't stop his instructors from thus far commenting that he "had a lot of potential".
Like hell he did. He didn't have a clue what that was supposed to mean when he didn't have the slightest talent for it. Luckily the first day's instruction was pretty simple. They did a warm-up as a class and went over basic footwork, leading into some basic striking and defending. The instructor seemed to know what they taught well, and how to disseminated it. At the end of instruction through to the end of the class period they were paired off for randori.
So far, so good for the most part. Zatoshi found the class to run very similarly to how his Bōgyote school handled instruction. One difference he rather quickly noticed was that in his Bōgyote school they would do three-minute rounds and rotate sparring partners during randori. It appeared here, they did not. This only became a problem when Zatoshi was paired with a student who was a little too enthusiastic about attempting the techniques they'd been taught in a free sparring setting. His surname was Ito, and he was thus far the most annoying thing to happen to Zatoshi at the academy.
They were paired off today because they were similarly sized, and it wasn't long into their sparring that Zatoshi realized Ito was going to be a problem. Things started just about how they should. They took turns for the most part firing out probing strikes at each other with the purpose of allowing the other to perform the parry that they were taught earlier in instruction.
It wasn't until the instructor encouraged a more dedicated attempt to make the strikes land that there began to be a problem. He had halted the randori a few minutes in to call the class into a circle around him to listen. "Pay attention to your measure! Almost all of you are throwing strikes when you cannot even reach your opponent! Only attack when you can connect, and aim. I'm not telling you to try and knock each other's teeth out, but you all have to throw in the proper measure with the intention of making contact so that both of you are actually getting good experience." The instructor explained, walking over to Ito.
"Look, if I throw a strike from way out here - one, it has no chance of hitting you in the first place and two, yeah anybody can go ahead and block that. Not only that but now I'm setting up this expectation in your head that this is what it looks like when someone's going to try and hit you," He said as he threw punches at the air half a foot in front of Ito's face, "When you go to fight someone for real, that's going to end up in you failing to apply any of these parries properly. Your ability to read measure is going to be completely fucked. And if you're the one throwing the strike in this situation too by the way, you're not actually getting any experience in what it's like to try and hit someone. It's a problem for everyone involved. Everybody understand?"
The class of students responded pretty affirmatively and they were sent off back to continue randori. Now Zatoshi had expected this. His previous school was very practically inclined considering his village was in the west 53rd district. Practitioners were there because they genuinely expected that they might have to be able to defend themselves at some point. He had been out of measure for Ito's sake to be honest. It was the first day they were doing Hakuda and Ito didn't seem like he had much martial arts experience. He just wanted to give his partner the chance to get used to some of the motions and gain confidence in his application of technique. He could decrease the measure little-by-little as Ito got used to things until they were both properly striking with the ability to connect.
The instructor's little pep-talk seemed to convince Ito that the goal was definitely to hit Zatoshi. Something Zatoshi wasn't going to willingly allow him to do, and had considerably more experience. When Ito would strike, he would be consistently slipped, parried or checked. As this happened he began to strike harder and harder, and his face betrayed growing frustration and lack of restraint. A short time in, Zatoshi tucked his chin behind a shoulder roll just in time for an open-handed strike to smack stiffly over his earlobe. His blood-pressure spiked and his response was sharp and correctional.
With Ito now wearing a busted lip and a bad attitude, there wasn't much chance he was going to hold back when he found out that Zatoshi's legs were sore. He had followed up a wild pair of palm strikes with a sharp lead-leg kick to the thigh. This one slipped in unchecked, and when Ito saw the pain flash through Zatoshi's face he began to make it a recurring theme of their sparring.
Each time he would do it, Zatoshi would respond in a 'non-verbal way' that he had better ease off. To be honest, due to the level of difference in experience it was starting to look like Zatoshi was battering his sparring partner. It could have been very easily interpreted at this point that Ito was just trying to get revenge for some of the excessively stiff shots he was being given. This look would only get worse when Zatoshi had finally gotten angry enough, finally had enough to send a very clear message.
The next time he tried to kick him in the thigh Zatoshi changed levels, dropping and wrapping his arm around the back of Ito's thigh before he could retract the kick fully. His other hand shot over Ito's opposite shoulder to grab a handful of the back of his academy uniform. Ito was hopping back and trying to get space back as Zatoshi pushed through, driving his hips under Ito and using his grips to lift Ito fully into the air, turning him over and slamming him back-first onto the mat in absolutely massive slam that stopped the class completely, everyone turning to look at the sudden thump of bodies crashing to the floor.
{Relevant Stats and Skills}Strength: 100
Speed: 110
Martial Arts: Bōgyote [Japanese Jujutsu] - I
Pain Tolerance - I
Speed: 110
Martial Arts: Bōgyote [Japanese Jujutsu] - I
Pain Tolerance - I
