A Field Trip - First Impressions [JT - Tala and Rei]

[Tsuyoshi Minamoto]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Training}Training for CTP

“Remember. While you’re here, you represent the Academy, so I fully expect you all to be on your best behavior. Visiting the Division grounds like this is a privilege that can be revoked at any time!” The older woman that stood before them folded her arms, grey hair cascading around her face as she cast a look to each of the academy students before her in turn. Her gaze bounced from one to the other, before falling on a younger man with bleach-blonde hair. “That means you, Hizuku. So help me if I hear from a single one of the members of Third Squad that you’ve been goofing off or calling trouble, I’ll make sure you repeat this year from scratch, do you understand me? Minamoto-Taicho has been kind enough to offer these visits to his Squadhouse while the grounds are under construction so that each one of you has the opportunity to meet with a member of his Division to ensure that it’s the right fit for you. And I promise you, for as scary as I am, the Captain of Third Squad is not one to cross. Do you understand?” Her gaze was piercing, as though staring through the young man who gulped audibly and nodded in response. Her stern gaze was replaced with a bright and excited smile as she turned around and continued onwards, the small class of Academy near-graduates following behind her in turn.

Third Squad was in the process of undergoing renovations, which could be easily identified by the scaffolding and the Unseated Shinigami making their rounds with various amounts of materials. Some of them were working on constructing new foundations for what looked like expansions and others were in the process of tearing down older, worn down pieces of structures, presumably to make room for new ones. The path she took led the students past most of this construction as she made her way in the direction of the training rounds. On their way, Shinigami garbed in full uniform, including their Shihakusho and their Zanpakuto of various colors, lengths, and styles, occasionally nodded and cast generic greetings their way, but quickly returned to their duties. They had grown accustomed to the dramatic increase in recruitment efforts led personally by their Captain and the novelty of seeing a bright-eyed bunch of academy students had worn off of most of them. Very clearly, they had jobs to attend to and the general sense of urgency led an atmosphere of duty and obligation to their work.

The path of the academy students and their instructor continued onwards into a side door on the grounds of the main squadhouse and continued through a few hallways. Inside of the hallways, conversations could be briefly overheard as well as the sounds of ongoing training. Steel clashing on steel, the incantations of Kido, and casual conversation floated around the students as they continued, eventually making their way back outside and onto the main training grounds, following a series of signs that led them out and onto what seemed to be freshly cared for grass. In the distance, a multitude of Shinigami - no less than fifty - were in the process of a number of drills. Presumably, the ones leading the drills were seated officers and those participating were unseated, though they bore no special insignias or markings to distinguish their ranks. Obviously, none of the Shinigami present were of a high enough rank to warrant the distinguished emblems, but the entire grounds gave off an air of energized instruction. In one area, Shinigami were practicing their Kido on both stationary and moving targets, and in another, a series of one on one duels were being supervised by two shinigami who offered the academy students a brief wave before returning to their duties.

“Hmm… I know he’s around here somew- Ah!” The instructor continued towards a group of unseated Shinigami that looked like they were standing around waiting for something. “Kokoro-San!” She approached them, arms outstretched. Without missing a beat, one of the Shinigami smiled broadly and approached her, embracing her long enough to show a kinship between the two of them, before they separated again, his attention now focused on the academy students behind her. “Class, this is Hachibana Kokoro, 18th Seat of 3rd Squad.” She gestured to the man clad in all black. He stood approximately six feet tall and wore his Zanpakuto suspended across his back, the sheath protruding from either end of his lower back. He offered them a smile and a nod, before looking back to the instructor. “He will be assigning you to these Shinigami based on the forms you filled out earlier, so that you have the opportunity to ask questions, observe, and get a feel for the Squad before graduation. Remember - you’re representing the Academy and I expect you to act accordingly.”

She finished her speech, before nodding and standing aside. “Good morning! As Midori-Sama said, I am Hachibana Kokoro. Allow me to be the first to officially welcome you to Sanbantai! Here, we pride ourselves on our ability to work together as a cohesive unit in order to tackle the latest and greatest threats to the security of the Soul Cycle. You all are here because you’ve expressed, one way or another, an interest in joining our Squad. Today is your chance to ask questions and get a feel for the camaraderie we’ve built here in order to make sure that when the time comes you can make the best decision for yourselves in terms of where you want to go when you’ve earned your Shihakusho.” He nodded, looking between them. “Alright now… Let’s see here…”

As he spoke, the other four shinigami around him stepped forwards in turn, introducing themselves in kind and offering various facial expressions to the group, from excited warmth to muted disinterest. As they continued to introduce themselves and talk about their various specialties, Kokoro fished out a piece of paper from a pouch on his waistband, looking over the paperwork. “Uhh…” He cleared his throat, leading the other four unseated Shinigami to go quiet and spread out, as though creating beacons for academy students to congregate. “The following students will be going with Aimi-San…” He gestured to one side and began reading off names one by one. As the crowd of students dwindled and they were taken off to various parts of the training grounds with their assigned chaperones, he looked to the rest of the group, which consisted of four academy students, including Takagi Rei, and pocketed the list. “And the rest of you, will be coming with me. I’ve got something special for the four of you.” He grinned, turning off on a heel with the expectation that the students would be following closely behind.

He made his way deeper into the squad’s training grounds, passing a few more groups of shinigami hard at work refining their skills, before approaching a much smaller group of Shinigami. These Shinigami were fighting across a broad level of skill, utilizing all four styles of combat. This, however, wasn’t the most distinct part of their interaction. What was most notable is that their supervisor was - well - not dressed like a Shinigami. Not entirely, anyway.

To start, he wore a sleeveless Shihakusho - his arms adorned in a beautiful series of tattoos of various colors. Around his lower body he was wearing a pair of relatively baggy martial arts pants, and he was carrying not one, but two swords. Wrapped around his waist and folded over was a piece of white cloth which, while he was seated, was clearly adorned with some type of black pattern that was impossible to make out.

The first of his two blades was held inside of a very ornate scabbard that sat on his left hip, the hilt of the blade covered in well-maintained silk wrappings and the entire weapon seemed to be of extremely high quality. Behind him, however, was a sword that, to put it in nice terms, looked like it had seen better days. Faded violet silk covered a damaged Zanpakuto hilt and the scabbard itself looked to be in impressively poor condition. He sat with his arms folded atop a rock structure, overseeing the group that was training in front of him.

“Tala-kun! Keep your stance strong! The Captain-Commander would have a fit if he saw how you were swingin’ that thing around!” He barked out at a younger unseated member who was going toe-to-toe with another shinigami whose auburn hair was tied up in a bun. His eyes were extremely focused on the mock duel that the two of them were having and he didn’t seem to notice the academy students approaching. That was, until, Kokoro cleared his throat.

“Ah, sorry for the interruption, Minamoto-Taicho. These are the newest batch of academy students to arrive to explore the grounds. I figured these four in particular might be of special interest to you.” Kokoro spoke above the clash of steel and the occasional Kido being thrown about, leading to the three pairs of training Shinigami to stop in their tracks, allowing for Tsuyoshi to speak unimpeded.

Tsuyoshi cast his gaze from the pairs of training shinigami and over to Kokoro and the academy students he was talking about, flashing a toothy grin in their direction. “Ehhh? New blood, you say? You already gave them the welcome speech, right?” He leaned forwards, sliding off of the rock face and coming to a graceful landing on the grass below him, nearly silent in his landing, likely thanks to the thin fabric that covered his feet. Tsuyoshi stretched his arms backwards and gave his hips a turn to the left, and then to the right, in order to stretch out his back, before approaching. “Well, in case he hasn’t - welcome, students, to Sanbantai. Home of the Expeditionary Corps - Seireitei and the Gotei 13’s first line of contact against the latest and greatest threats.” Now that he was standing, the black insignia on the white fabric that was wrapped around his waist was very clearly the insignia for Third Squad. And that fabric was not any normal fabric - it was his Haori. This was Third Squad’s newest Captain - Minamoto Tsuyoshi, the Demon of Seireitei.

[Tala Selao]

Tala was by no means a good sword fighter which honestly made sense as he never really was able to properly pick up kenjutsu while in the academy. In truth, he never really liked sparring like this anyways but of course their new Captain was looking to whip them into shape and he, of course, was probably one of their weaker fighters when it came to kenjutsu. It didn’t help that his training in bojutsu doesn’t completely lend itself to sword fighting quite well, at least not all of it. It was obvious by the way that he was swinging his Zanpakutō in overarching down swings, and powerful upward strikes that he was making use of it’s longer blade to keep his sparring partner at bay while he danced around them.

Hearing Kokoro clear his throat however, Tala stopped himself mid-swing and quickly sheathed his Zanpakutō as he fell in line with the other Shinigami who were training with him. They stood at attention and listened as the Captain gave the students his own little welcome speech. While that was going on, Tala scanned the students with growing curiosity at the sight of the possible new recruits that would be joining them. He was actually somewhat excited to see what the Captain had in store for these students but also was a little dreadful as he had a good feeling of what it would be.

[Rei Takagi]

A reminder that the students were representing the academy was genuinely not necessary here, at least in Rei's eyes it wasn't. The young lad kept his mouth shut as the instructor grilled through the class that made their way through. Squad Three was, currently, undergoing renovations, so it was not unusual to see work being doing around these parts. Everybody was hard at work, and it showed. Kind of inspiring, all things considered.

Rei had opted to keep his posture straight, and his focus was on following along for the moment. Even still, he couldn't really help but make these observations. Even in the midst of reparations and renovations alike, the squad was still keeping themselves in tip top shape. Huh. A quick greeting was had before Rei found himself among the four that had to go with Kokoro himself.

Interesting.

He seemed excited for it too, something Rei kept in mind as he followed closely, further into the Sanbantai's grounds. Immediately, the man who was not quite wearing the Shinigami garb stuck out to Rei. Huh. There was a quiet bow as this man, the captain of the Third, greeted the students. The Demon of Seireitei...

"Thank you, captain." Rei spoke, finally. There was a brief bow. One that was delivered amid a hail of thoughts like 'why did we get brought here immediately oh no.'

[Tsuyoshi Minamoto]

Tsuyoshi looked amongst the four academy students gathered and set his hands on his hips, shifting his body weight to lean slightly towards one side. Kokoro gave Tsuyoshi a nod, folding his arms over his chest, before turning back towards the academy students. ”Yes, Taicho. I already gave them the welcome speech. The others were sent off with the other recruiters based on their specialties. This is the group that you requested specifically.” Kokoro gestured towards the academy students and then went silent. Tsuyoshi’s grin was persistent on his face as he listened quietly to Kokoro with his eyes settled firmly on the academy students. When he was finished speaking, he nodded and began speaking.

”Perfect. So, you must all be wondering why you were brought directly here. Amongst the list of students presented to me, you all expressed direct interest in joining Third Squad, and are the most compatible with the attributes that we look for in our Division. Consider this your opportunity to impress me and prove that you belong here.” He spoke firmly and deliberately, although with more excitement and less intimidation. He then gestured to his left and his right, referring to the Shinigami behind him that were previously training. ”In front of you are your future peers and comrades. They will be fighting alongside you in the future, even if you end up joining a different division. However, being in Third Squad comes with certain expectations and requirements, which you should know about before you graduate.”

He turned, walking over to the pair of Tala and his sparring partner, clasping them firmly on the shoulders, eyes on the Academy Students after turning about to face them. ”This squad faces some of the most dangerous threats that Soul Society has ever had to face, and that comes with a certain level of danger. Here, your comrades are more than just your allies in arms. Here, your squadmates are your family. And as part of your family, you are expected to learn about who they are - “ He paused, stepping towards the next pair of Shinigami, performing the same action.” - what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, what their ambitions and their motivations are. You are expected to learn from and teach each other.

This Squad is in charge of the first response of Soul Society to potential threats to both Shinigami and the Soul Cycle as a whole. As such, most encounters that you face will be against Hollow or Hellspawn, but that doesn’t preclude Quincy, Bount, or any other spiritual creature that might threaten the balance of Souls, including other spiritually aware humans. Because of the inherent dangers, there is a strict guideline of traveling in pairs when you go on expeditions, with exceptions in only emergencies.” He continued stepping amongst the pairs before standing in front of the group at large, folding his arms over his chest.

”So. Your instructors have already appropriately vetted your general skills, and I’m interested in seeing how well you take to our goals. If there aren’t any further questions, you two will be matched against these two… and you two will be matched against these two.” He gestured to two academy students, including Rei, and then to Tala and his pairing, before pairing up the remaining two academy students with another pair of Shinigami. ”Kokoro, you will be paired against the remaining pair of Shinigami. In each grouping, aside from Kokoro’s, there will be one Shinigami and one Student in either pair. My expectation is not that you defeat your opponent. My expectation is that you will have time to briefly introduce yourselves, and you will be expected to show that you can adapt and learn to fight in conjunction with each other. At the end of your spar, when it has been called, you will be expected to identify your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses - in an expedition, you will be expected to discover your opponent’s limitations so that they can be properly reported back to Soul Society.

Are there any further questions before we begin?”

[Tala Selao]

Tala was surprised to find out what type of training this was and even its goal. It was a little more nuanced and complicated than what he had become used to and been expecting. Still it was a nice change of pace and a very good exercise for the Squad itself. Afterall, like the Captain had said, they were responsible for engaging and reporting on new threats to Soul Society which was a very important duty afterall. He brings himself out of his thoughts and nods as the Captain gives them all their assigned pairs.



He gives Rei an apologetic smile as he bows to them and begins to introduce himself like the Captain had instructed, “It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Tala Selao, currently unseated and most likely the newest member to Squad 3. I apologize if I end up not being very helpful in this exercise as I’m not very good in Zanjutsu and I can only use Sai and Seki. If anything, we can try and focus more on the practical part of this training. It is good practice for what we do out in the field after all.”

He once again gives Rei an apologetic smile but also takes the time to give the boy a once over to judge how capable he might be. It seemed that the boy appeared no more physically capable than Tala himself although he could tell that he was probably a little more agile than him as well which was a good sign if he was going to have to be the one to keep the attention while Tala tried to figure out weaknesses. He wouldn’t make him take that role of course but only if Rei wanted to. Unfortunately, Tala isn’t able to tell how spiritually capable Rei is nor even their opponents.

[Rei Takagi]

Thus far this was a rather simple venture, as well as a more-than-doable type of training. It appeared to be student versus third squaddie. Yet the intent was by no means to win, no. Not at all. The intent of the training was to assess, which was something Rei saw as...agreeable, actually. Especially with the half of the sparring partners being fresh recruits. To know their capabilities and to adapt would prove to be the basis of working as a team.

As a squad.

Taking a deep breath as he was assigned a pair, he would bow, after Tala had concluded introductions. "My name is Rei Takagi--it's nice to meet you. I'm still in the academy, as you can probably see, but I'm alright with my Zanjutsu and Hoho for the most part. I haven't picked up any Bakudo or Hado quite yet, but I plan to rectify that in the future. I'm fine with focusing on the practical parts, either way! Good way to get to know each other and prepare for field work, yup." There's a short pause.

"Well, I'm ready whenever you are!"

[Tsuyoshi Minamoto]

Tsuyoshi watched as the groups of Shinigami and students introduced each other. They each were given about five minutes or so in order to quickly get to know one another and go over their strengths and weaknesses briefly. In that time, Tsuyoshi had stepped away from the groups to take his seated position from before, atop a rock face about the height of an average adult human. He settled himself in position, resting one leg bent across the rock face and allowing the other one to dangle underneath him. He leaned his body towards the bent leg, resting part of his weight on his knee and thigh. “Ehhh? Everyone should be ready now, right?” He shouted out, receiving some varying affirmations. “Good! Begin!” His eyes were focused on the two groups directly in front of him, while Kokoro’s group was left to mediate themselves with Kokoro’s supervision.

Before Tala and Rei stood a somewhat lanky Shinigami from Third Division, and a much larger academy student. The lankier Shinigami stood just shy of six feet tall and without a lot of physique on his frame. He held his Zanpakuto nervously in both hands in front of his body and positioned his weight forwards. Next to him was his academy student partner - a stockier individual with a slightly longer asauchi. He stood at about the same height, but it was clear from the man’s frame that he was heftier and would require a bit more force to bully around. At the word ‘Begin’, the lankier Shinigami started forwards, rushing directly at Tala. Given the relative similarities in their training, there certainly wasn’t a huge difference between this Shinigami’s speed and that of a newly graduated Shinigami, but it was clear from his first movements that speed and agility were the man’s forte. The Shinigami’s blows came with precise, stabbing strikes in Tala’s direction, poking and prodding with his Zanpakuto at Tala to test the young man’s defenses.

The academy student behind him also leapt into action, though he was significantly slower on the draw than his partner. Wide, sweeping swings swept out towards Rei. There was a lot of heft behind them, but they were painfully telegraphed techniques. So far, it didn’t look as though the two combatants were working particularly together, having each chosen a combatant to engage and lacking any kind of lengthy communication in the middle of combat between them. Still, for the other two, they would prove a challenge if they were met head-on without teamwork and cooperation.

[Tala Selao]

Tala is quick to go on the defensive and he was much more comfortable here as he quickly batted and dodged the lanky Shinigami's strikes, showing that he was quite acrobatic and light on his foot as well. Tala was also looking to leave his opponent momentarily open as he blocked and dodged each strike for him to take a quick step forward, assisted with Shunpo of course, and give him a quick shove back with the palm of his hand before he turned his attention to Rei. He noticed that these two had both split up and weren't really working together so perhaps they could use this to their advantage.

Tala took a moment to quickly assess Rei's opponent and determined that while they were likely stronger than the boy, the attacks were too telegraphed and Rei seemed much faster than them for the attacks to properly land. So he comes up with a quick plan, hoping to help dispatch of the easy target first before Tala's fellow Squad member recovered. He quickly ran towards the duo as he sheathed his Zanpakutō, "Takagi-san, keep him distracted for me."

He then holds up one hand with his index and middle finger pointed up as he began to chant while he maneuvered around the duo, trusting that Rei was as good of a swordfighter as he claimed to be and keep the other student's attention, "Man, shaped by Divine hands, revert to the form before limbs, clutch at your own throat and be afraid. Bakudo number one: Sai." With the incantation completed, he quickly leapt towards the student and tried to tap him with his two fingers, hoping that larger boy wouldn't be able to resist his spell.

If all went as planned, then the student would find his arms suddenly locked in place behind his back, leaving himself open for Rei to give a blow to knock him out if they wanted too. Tala wouldn't be doing so as he was instead turning his attention on locating their other opponent, a little more reserved now as they were facing a more experienced opponent this time. If they had enough time to communicate then Tala would quickly whisper to Rei in a low enough tone for only the boy to pick up on, "Takagi-san, I'll keep his attention this time and try and make openings for you to take advantage of. I'm not sure we'll be able to pull the same trick on him."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu Pool - 1,000/1,050}-25 Shunpo
-25 Bakudo #1: Sai

[Rei Takagi]

Five minutes to acquaint oneself with their partner before they would be thrown into what was...effectively...a meat grinder. That was fine, actually. This was perfectly okay! At the end of that, you had to assess your opponent. Or opponents in this case, really. Selao and Takagi's duo were a brawny academy student and a tall beanpole of a Shinigami. Huh. He had immediately come to the same conclusion that Tala did.

His opponent was much too slow to be a threat against him. "Already on it!" He gave a beam of a grin before he set his focus towards serving as a distraction for the other student. No way he could contest the swordplay here. The student was putting far too much force there. Now, that was where Tala had come in. He had employed a Bakudo to attempt restraining the student, and if it were to take hold?

Rei would lunge, swinging his weapon towards the side of the student's head to knock him out cold! One strike, one down, clean and efficient. If it all went according to plan. If they did have time for strategizing? Rei just nodded. "My thoughts exactly. We strike as one." Two hearts, one plan...

This was starting to sound far cornier than it was ever meant to be. If the experienced soul reaper were to advance on Rei, he would make the effort to continue keeping away, and allowing for Tala to hopefully get in there and try keeping his attention away from the student. Hopefully, this would go according to plan just like the last!