Thunder, Lightning, Strike! (Akira and Chika JT)

[Akira Hinosai]

Akira's eye twitched in silent rage as no fewer than 8 butterflies perched on him. Meanwhile, the bowl of sugar water he'd brought for them was completely ignored by the denizens of Squad 12's rookery. "Come on, you little shits! I haven't got all day!" Akira's protests were ignored. One of the hell butterflies crawled onto his face in a display of insolence. "If you weren't protected by the law I swear to god..." Akira would give anything to crush one of these little assholes in his hand as a warning to the rest. Unfortunately, these hell butterflies were "precious beyond measure" and "worth more to the Gotei 13 than 100 Akiras", or so it was claimed by the dickwad officer who gave Akira this lame task.

Between mucking the beast pens, cleaning test tubes, and now this, Akira wondered if he'd be better off getting flayed open for scientific study. In the time since his meeting with Captain Aramis, Akira had found being the new kid basically meant everyone got to dump their unwanted chores onto you. It's just for a little bit. I'll prove myself, and then they'll see... That thought made Akira smile. One day he'd be free to wildly experiment with unknown forces in peace. He'd leave all the bitch work to the new grunts. Today, though, he had to feed the butterflies. Orders were clear that he was to sit with them and wash the bowl when all the butterflies had eaten.

That seemed so cruelly inefficient that Akira thought it had to be a sick joke. He placed the bowl on the ground and shooed off the hell butterflies perching on him. With that, a few found the bowl and started slurping up the solution. Akira sat down  and waited for the hell butterflies to finish. Though after checking his makeup, reapplying some black lipstick, and pretending to fire kido at imaginary enemies, he quickly grew tired of waiting. "Fuck this shit. I'm gonna go train!" Akira announced his show of defiance to the butterflies, who didn't seem particularly impressed. As Akira went through the screen door of the rookery, however, he found something that made his blood chill. 

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT as the door gently came to a close behind him, he saw one of the hell butterflies escape. However, to Akira's relief it didn't seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere. When it slowly fluttered past his face he managed to scoop it up in his hands in a masterful display. Phwew, that was a close one! I mean, imagine if I had to chase this thing all over the seireitei? Suddenly, Akira was hit by a bolt of inspiration. No one would blame him for shirking his duties if it was to retrieve a vital asset to the squad and to the gotei 13. And what an asset these little bugs were. They could find any one, deliver any message better than any courier

He knew the message he wanted to send, he just had to figure out who to send it to. Ken'ichi was no kido master, so if Akira wanted to pursue actual magic, he'd have to look elsewhere. He didn't know much of the other squads, but he knew there was a kido corps. Unfortunately, he had heard it was full of nerds with no friends. There was squad 5, which was vaguely kido-ish in its orientation. Having decided on his mark, he opened his hands slightly and spoke to the butterfly. "To the upper echelons of Squad 5: As Squad 12 and 5 are staunch allies, as love between them like the palm might flourish, etcetera... that on the knowing of this contents, without delay of any kind, should that bearer, Akira Hinosai be instructed in the ways of Kido by a seated officer of sufficient rank."

Then, Akira opened his hands and let the butter fly. Then, he ran after it as it instinctually knew where to find the squad 5 officer's office or whatever. Akira followed it dutifully, never taking his eyes off it, and only running into other shinigami 3 times, and crashing into a wall once. Still, he picked himself up and followed it all the way to Squad 5's designated slice of the seireitei. Akira would follow until he saw it reach some squad 5 officer and would let the message play before introducing himself. "Important request from  Ken'ichi of House Shihoin, and Lieutenant of Squad 12... I mean, you heard the message, sounds important. Can you teach me everything you know about kido?" Akira failed to hide his excitement. There were stars in his eyes. He was gonna be a sick ass ghost wizard!

[Chika Hirabayashi]

Slowly stretching her back as she woke up, Chika Hirabayashi let out quite the yawn within her personal quarters. Despite recently receiving a promotion for the efforts she'd put in with Captain Celes as of late, she hadn't felt like much had changed. While sure, there were a number of titles and honorifics that came with her more serving as an acting-captain of sorts within her Squad, it wasn't something that she'd felt any rather noteworthy changes happening within.

Though, there was a lot of 'official' work that seemed to be coming with her transfer. Work that tended to take quite a bit out of her. Even just the night before, Chika had spent most of her evening sorting through papers where necessary. To say it was time consuming would've been an understatement. Though, she'd finally had the opportunity to take a day to herself. Work (for the most part) had been caught up on, so she was free to train with her Squad where possible! If nothing else, she could've used the time to refresh her own memory on her knowledge.

Standing up from her place of rest, and stretching her arms and legs out once more, Chika let out another yawn. Lord, she felt rather tired. Surely there was something that could've helped her with that; tea, maybe? She'd have to check that out. That was, if she had the time to do so; it seemed that a small black butterfly had made its way within her room with a message.

---

Scrambling to tie gauze around her right arm, Chika rushed from her quarters, sprinting out toward the training fields of the Squad. This had to have been some kind of new record for how long it took her to get ready; she was raring to go in no more than two to three minutes! "I-I'm coming!" she shouted, letting this rather mysterious Akira individual know she'd be there shortly. Before anything else, as she ran across the division's barracks, she ran through everything on her person; her Zanpakutō, her uniform, and her proof of rank. Awesome! It all seemed to be there.

Eventually, she'd find herself just outside the Division, watching the new arrival. Placing her hands on her knees and huffing about, Chika a bit of time to catch her breath. It seemed that someone had already received the message. "Pleasure to see you here, Vice Captain Hirabayashi," the taller individual standing across from Akira spoke, "seems you've a guest. If you don't mind me, there's some rather delicious-looking curry that Suzuki-san has been spending the afternoon prepping. I'll leave you two to it."

Chuckling in between breaths, Chika nodded her head. "Thank you, Nakamura. Your welcoming our guest is incredibly appreciated!" Straightening herself out, and with a flick of her ears, she took in the appearance of this new guest. Holding out her hand to offer a shake, Chika gave her best smile. "Hinosai, correct? It's a pleasure to meet you! Lieutenant Chika Hirabayashi, bearer of the Starcursed Brand, at your service~!" With a quick but respectful bow of her head, Chika smiled toward her guest.

"You're looking to learn some Kidō, correct?" She smiled. Even though she wasn't able to perform it herself, she absolutely adored Kidō Theory and the applications of the spellcasting art in almost every sense. She was more than glad to teach an eager individual what they wanted to know! "Let's head to the training fields, if you're all right with that!" Throwing her arm in a waving fashion toward Akira, Chika made haste toward heading inside.

[Akira Hinosai]

Starcursed brand? Was this chick for real? "Ah, yes, the pleasure is all mine!" Akira bowed his head. Oh boy, what am I into this time? Slight bad feelings aside, Akira's plan went over perfectly. Lieutenant Chika Hirabayashi took the bait. Now Akira could sit back and reap the rewards. Who knows? Maybe he'd become a kido master for real. Chika had asked him if he would be so kind as to join her on the training fields. Akira resisted the urge to comment on what a stupid question that was. "I would be happy to!" Akira wasn't sure what mask he was putting on for Chika. Still, considering he was asking her a favor, playing the dutiful subordinate couldn't hurt.

Akira may have had an interest in kido, but that didn't mean he knew all that much about it. He was good at pretending like he did, but that was just it. He was pretending. Akira knew kido could do more than little bolts of lighting or ropes of energy. He just couldn't reach that level yet. Akira knew he'd lost a massive portion of his combat prowess without soul command. With kido, he had the potential to regain all that versatility and then some. He just had to actually learn it. Besides, it wasn't like this body was suited to direct combat like the old one had been. So he'd take a few levels in wizard, so to speak.

Akira would follow Chika to the training grounds. After all, he was a guest here and didn't know the layout like she did. This Lieutenant seemed a few cards short of a full deck. There was just something about her that seemed to hint at that. Maybe it was the dog ears and tail. Are those real? Is she a furry? Akira suddenly got distracted pondering the cultural connotations of being a furry in a world with actual anthropomorphic animals. It must be terribly insulting towards them... Then again, it was pretty funny so Akira was quite ok with it. Of course this opened up the question of if furry was some kinda slur for beast clans. Akira did like calling those bestial members of soul society furries. It was hard to care that much when the whole lot of them rubbed him the wrong way, thinking they were so cool because they were anthro  teenage mutant ninja motherfuckers.

"So, not to pry...But what exactly is the Starcursed Brand?" Akira was curious and it seemed like a way to kill time as they walked over to the trainign grounds. Regardless of her answer, by the time they arrived at their destination Akira would take point explaining what he hopped to learn. "So...I'm familiar with some basic kido, the stuff they teach in the academy, mostly. I'll take any instruction you can give me. Even your take on basic and advanced kido theory would be a godsend." Akira was curious to know how much of his fake lesson to Benjiro was actually true. "Oh and kido spells too, let's not get too caught up in theory" Akira rushed to correct himself. After all, he wanted to shoot bigger lasers first and foremost.

[Chika Hirabayashi]

As the two continued to walk about, heading toward the barracks with relative ease, it seemed that Akira had asked a question; one that prompted the girl to hold in place, her ears to flicker upward, and her tail to immediately begin to sway back and forth. With a jump, Chika immediately turned around, placing her hands on her hips and facing Akira. It seemed that he was going to get quite the story from the Vice Captain, simply for asking just what she was talking about.

"Tell me, Akira; do you believe in destiny?" Whether he said yes or no, she was going to continue on with her words. "Well, the Starcursed Brand is a manifestation of my own destiny; my own path in this world, and the role that I'm to fulfill alongside those that I'm destined to fight alongside." Holding up her right hand, she allowed the sleeve of her shihakkushō to droop. Her right arm had been rather neatly bandaged and wrapped up.

"Underneath this wrapping, my arm houses the Starcursed Brand; a mark of fate said to emerge only once every millennia. It's a brand that radiates with spiritual power, but at a cost; it's because of this brand, and the effects that it's had on my soul that I've never been able to learn the spiritual arts; you'll see when we get to the training fields, but I'm unable to perform Kidō! That said, there're few in Seireitei that match my knowledge on the spells from an academic level!" With a wink, she continued on with her story.

"Hell, it's a miracle that I was able to form a bond with my Zanpakutō here," she spoke, gently patting her Bakkotō, "but that's neither here nor there at the moment. Bearing this Brand comes with a pre-written destiny; one that I've got no choice but to fulfill! Before I pass to the next life, I must defeat the King of Hollows, deep within the recesses of Hueco Mundo. If I don't, this world will be brought to ruin from the might of the Starcursed Brand. If it falls into the wrong hands, either from my own defeat by his hands, or from some other means, this world will be thrust into ruin. It's because of those reasons that I bind the brand, lest someone if ill repute catch wind of its most recent bearer!" Throwing her hand toward the ground with a smile, she turned her attention back toward Akira.

She wasn't quite sure how he was to react to her words, but she hoped that it wasn't anything negative. If nothing else, she'd hoped that he'd hear the significance in her words; that she had quite a mission that needed to be fulfilled in her life, and one that she was going to stop at nothing to complete as time went on. Perhaps he'd be helpful toward that goal? Only time could really tell on that one. Hearing him continue to speak once more, she commented after. "Oh, don't worry! I won't bog you down with all the information you're not looking for; that said, it's important to get a good grip on it before you're able to put it into practice!" And with that, the two continued walking.

[Akira Hinosai]

As the girl turned around, Akira couldn't help but feel like he really shouldn't have asked about the Starcursed Brand. All her body language seemed to indicate that she would truly like nothing more than to talk about her weird-ass power. It was like she planted that mere mention of it there for Akira to pick up on. Now it was too late for him. He'd stepped on the landmine, and now had to watch his proverbial legs be blown off. "Tell me, Akira; do you believe in destiny?" That was a weird question. "Uh...Sure?" Akira figured that was the sort of answer she wanted to hear. It turns out, it was some rhetorical question or something.

Akira tried his best to whether the storm. He was doing pretty good up until she mentioned she couldn't actually use kido. WHAT?!? Akira tried not to let this earth-shattering revelation cause him to lose his composure, but it was really fucking hard. She didn't know kido? SHE DIDN'T KNOW KIDO?!? WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY GOING TO DO? WHY WAS HE EVEN HERE THEN? I'm fine. This is fine. Akira felt himself die a little on the inside. Somehow, the girl kept fucking talking about destiny and the starcursed brand, but he couldn't help but notice how she glossed over the CAN'T DO KIDO part. Maybe he was a little biased, but SOMEHOW that seemed way more important than all this destiny nonsense.

He felt he was denied some critical need-to-know information. AND RIGHTFULLY FUCKING SO. If you asked someone to show you how to do something, you'd be well within your rights to expect them to know how to do the thing they were teaching you. Why would anyone learn a skill from someone who can never learn it? On what fucking world did that make any sense? Only somehow this girl didn't seem to pick up on the fact she was fucking useless to him, and now he was stuck. He couldn't tell her she was full of shit. She had rank over him! She probably had mange or rabies or whatever since she was a dog person. So, when she asked what he wanted to learn, he played nice. He had no other choice. He knew how it worked with people stronger than you. Play nice or else they'll disembowel you.

Still, the crazy weird dog girl seemed to think she had something to teach Akira. If nothing else, this would be more productive than feeding butterflies. Marginally. Akira would keep following her, without saying anything unless prompted until they arrived at the training grounds. Once there, he figured he'd ask some questions.  "Ok, so how do I become so powerful at kido that I can crush anyone who even thinks about challenging me? What's the theory that helps me do that? Can you teach me some sick ass forbidden kido that will utterly annihilate my enemies?" At the very least, he could probe her for information, if she had an "academic understanding" of kido.

[Chika Hirabayashi]

Chika found herself chuckling at Akira's words as he'd made some rather out-there requests. They were certainly something she sought to entertain - in time. "Easy there, tiger," she started with a smile, "we might just get there eventually, but you've a good bit to learn before you're going to be slinging around 90's-level spells with ease!" Giving him a soft smile, the two eventually found their way to the training grounds.

Looking around, Chika let out a soft smile upon realizing the grounds were fairly clear. If this whole thing were to go anything like her own excursion into kidō, then making sure this area was to be kept clear was the smart thing to do. Else quite an amount of damage could've been done to those that got caught in the blasts of the two of them. Lord only knew that wasn't exactly going to be the most fun situation to have to deal with. Regardless, it was time for the two to begin!

Drawing her blade, Chika shouted before her student as her own reiatsu circulated around her weapon. "Fight for a brighter future, Yabureta Yume!" As her words finished, and her "Zanpakutō" glowed with starlight, the weapon eventually transformed itself into a much larger weapon; a naginata, decorated with what looked to be a galaxy within the blade.

Tapping the end of the shaft against the ground, Chika held the weapon straight as a creation of her own seemed to form from thin air, not thirty feet away from Akira. Warped with the same twilight that decorated her weapon's edge stood an unmoving, floating fox statue, resting on what looked to be a torii gate. Sparkling dust fell from the statue during its creation, and slowly began to permeate around its immediate area.

"All right!" she called out, "that totem is going to serve as your target dummy for our exercises. After a little while, it's going to fire back an attack at you, so we'll use that in order to help you with both offensive and defensive spells. To start, you should've been taught the very basics of a few Hadō in Shin'ō; let's run through Hadō #4, if you're willing!" Assuming Akira was down, she'd immediately take stance beside him.

Holding her index and middle finger together in front of her, Chika took a deep breath. Pulling the same hand back by her head, Chika began with the familiar chant. "Arise, god of thunder!" Swiping her pointed hand up toward the sky, she continued. "Awake, mother of storms!" Finally, she finished the chant by pointing her fingers toward the totem. "Unleash lightning upon the sinners! Hadō number four; Byakurai!"

And, as was to be expected, nothing had happened. She'd channeled no reiatsu through her movements, nor had she released anything extra from her fingers. Standing up straight once more, she turned toward Akira. "You're up, Akira~! Try to circulate your reiatsu toward your fingertips, and make sure to only expel after you're finished speaking the chant. Otherwise, the results could be... less than favorable." Chuckling to herself again, she eagerly awaited Akira's move.

[Akira Hinosai]

Akira deflated visibly. "Awwww." They were dumb questions to ask. He knew it was unlikely he was anywhere near that level. Hell, he'd be lucky if he could shoot a moderately ok death laser. Still, there was something about kido that made him forget all his caution. He was so fascinated by it that he wanted to learn all he could as quickly as possible. It helped at least that Chika hadn't been a bitch about it. Akira played the dutiful student and waited as patiently as he could for the instruction to begin. All of his earlier fears of Chika not knowing what she was talking about vanished when she released her zanpakuto.

"That is so cool!" Akira looked at the galaxy pattern naginata in awe. One day I'm gonna have an even cooler zanpakuto. One day was not today, so he watched as she set up the whole training exercise. She created a target dummy out of her swirly spacey zanpakuto. Seemed a weird ability but Akira didn't say anything. It was a good thing too, as Chika explained these constructs would redirect the damage they took. Fortunately for Akira, the first spell of the day was one he knew well, Byakurai. He watched intently as Chika ran through the incantation. He had memorized this spell as quickly as he was able. Round one of their training would be a total breeze.

When it was finally his turn, he took a deep breath and tried to correct his footing. He drew his fully automatic 9 millimeter finger gun and tried to line up a shot. Don't lock your knees. Use the force. Insert sage advice here. "Awake, mother of storms!" Akira visualized himself as a lighning rod. He tried to ease the reiatsu through his feet and into the veins along his arms. Easy does it. "Unleash lightning upon the sinners! Hadō number four; Byakurai!" Time seemed to stand still as he focused his reiatsu. It felt different this time, more potent. He typically was one to use mental incantations instead. Quicker that way.

However, there was something to be said for the power boost gained from taking the time to say the spell. He watched in awe as a bolt of white lightning shot from his finger, hitting the target squarely. "OH FUCK YEAH! DID YOU SEE THAT?" Akira turned to Chika, very impressed with himself. For added flair, he blew smoke off his trusty finger pistol. "So, how'd I do? Come on, you can tell me!" Akira couldn't help but smile. He felt a rush of dopamine hit his system and he was fucking living for it. After all, who didn't want to shoot sick ass lightning lasers when they were a kid? Akira got to do that for real  now. "So, what spell do I do now?" Akira figured it was prudent to jump into the next topic. After all, Chika had mentioned something about the statue returning fire.

[Chika Hirabayashi]

Watching carefully with her hands on her hips all the while, Chika couldn't help but smile as Akira recited the incantation proper, and proceeded to continue with the spell in question. As their reiatsu built up, concentrated toward their fingers and expelled in the shape of lightning as expected, Chika found herself immediately bursting into cheer! "AWESOME~!!" She exclaimed, jumping into the air all the while, "excellent job there, Akira!! Absolutely flawless, if I do say so myself!"

As she spoke her words of affirmation, her tail began to wag rather notably. Truth be told, she was glad to have been able to teach someone something like Kidō! While sure, she couldn't perform it herself, it still served well for her to know such spells. Especially if she was looking to take a Captaincy position in time within the Fifth Squad. She'd need to figure something out, and it seemed that academic knowledge of these spells was going to be the way to go. After all, she felt that she'd possessed a rather encyclopedic knowledge on the spells! Perhaps she had? Ultimately, it remained to be seen.

"In truth?" She started, "doesn't look like much for you to work on with that one! You executed form near-perfectly, reiatsu control seemed quite noticeably proficient as well! If I hadn't known any better, I would've thought you had practice with this kind of stuff in the past!" Chuckling to herself at the notion, Chika continued. "You've quite the prodigal amount of knowledge to you, Akira!" She'd genuinely meant that; there were few that she had known even in her squad with such an immediate grip on the spiritual arts.

Pondering on Akira's next question, Chika tapped a finger to her cheek. "Hmm..." She thought, "oh! I've got one!" Quicky repositioning herself to step a bit away from the Shinigami, Chika held an arm out in front of herself, almost shielding herself with her forearm. "I shall tone back my wish totem in order to better allow you to utilize this next spell with ease!" She smiled. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then seize your own throat! Bakudō #8: Seki!"

As her words finished, and once again the lack of an effect came from the girl, she held that same pose for a short period of time. Eventually lowering her guard, and once again facing Akira, she placed her hands back on her hips. "Normally, such a spell isn't proficient against other casters such as yourself. It helps protect against physical attacks, instead! But for the purpose of this exercise, you should be all right, assuming that your spellcasting aptitude shows itself once more!"

Assuming that Akira took the time to follow through with the same protective motions she did, and his recitations were prepared, Chika was prepared to fire off a bolt from her totem. If connecting with Akira's own Seki, he'd likely feel a bit of push-back against it, but would ultimately end up unscathed should everything go well. The question remained, was that to be the case? She had full confidence in him!

[Akira Hinosai]

On the outside, Akira was smiling. On the inside, he was screaming. OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT! Prodigal Knowledge? Past experience? Chika was on to him! He was DEFCON 2 level fucked! Do fledgelings seriously struggle with Byakurai? It was piss easy! A blind deaf comatose lobotomy patient could figure it out! How was I supposed to know these dumb fucks actually struggle with it? Akira's face betrayed none of his true feelings. Having been backed into a corner, he decided to settle on the last resort of any super spy, fraudster, and charlatan. "Heh, you really think so?" Akira laughed an appropriate amount and rubbed the back of his neck in a display of "aw shucks" style humility.

Everyone was eager to discredit a blowhard. However, people were less willing to suspect a friendly hapless dork. A little humility went a long way when it came to manipulating others, even if it made Akira's soul cringe. He would correct his presentation on the next spell. Then Chika's suspicions would be completely dashed! Akira listened intently as the instruction continued. Even if he was going to act like he didn't get it, he still wanted the extra spell for his personal use. From the way Chika described it, it was some sort of shield technique. That seemed like it would come in handy. After being shown the proper verbal and somatic components, Akira was completely prepared to half ass it.

Then, it occurred to Akira that whether his shield was tough enough or not, a bolt of lightning was about to come straight for him. He wasn't exactly sure he trusted Chika not to go all "sink or swim" on him. Fucking hell, I'm actually gonna do this, aren't I? Akira raised his forearm to shield himself. He was familiar with the maneuver. He had a shield spell or two in a past life. When he was ready, he said the incantation. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then seize your own throat! Bakudō #8: Seki!" A small shield made entirely out of luminous reiatsu appeared in front of his arm.

It was just as well that he did, because before long, he was faced with the same byakurai he'd fired off before. The same one that had gotten him into trouble. The bolt hit Akira harder than he would have liked, pushing him backwards. It was all Akira could do to keep his stance up so he wasn't knocked flat on his ass. "SON OF A GOD DAMN!" Akira screamed. The moment seemed to last an eternity. He thought for sure he was going to die here. Right when his shield began to flicker, the byakurai had faded. He was alive, for the moment anyway. He might need to tell Ken'ichi and Aramis about this little dust up... Akira looked up at Chika with bewildered eyes. "H-how did I do?"

[Chika Hirabayashi]

Listening to Akira's words, Chika nodded her head rather vigorously. "I do!" She exclaimed, "while most usually pick up Kidō at some point during their tenure, it's not often that most get the hang of it on their first attempt! Usually it takes a couple of days, to even months before someone's able to get going!" Chuckling to herself, Chika pondered on her own situation for a moment. Alas, such was not to be helped.

As their little training session had continued on, and as Chika had made a display of her own to Akira in order to help them get the hang of things, Chika ran through the motions of a Bakudō this time around. Mimicking the actions as necessary, and giving Akira the stage in order to perform on his own, she watched closely as he spoke the incantation as directed. Holding his hand to the air, she prepared to fire a bolt of light from her totem, not unlike the appearance of a Byakurai.

As it collided with Akira's Seki, providing the same push-back as mentioned, she held her hands in fists, both nervous and excited to see what was to come from his Bakudō! As he slid back, shouting out in what seemed to be surprise, she watched carefully analyzing the Bakudō he'd thrown up in the process. And, it seemed that all had gone according to plan! As the bolt of light faded, alongside Akira's Seki, she cheered out in excitement at that very second.

"AWESOME~!!" She exclaimed, jumping into the air, "amazing work you've done there!!" Placing her hands on her hips, Chika smiled. "It's not often that someone can block such a strike so successfully with a spell like Seki! Well done, Akira!" Chika did what she could to hype him up! After all, he definitely deserved the praise! Chika's wish totems had provided struggle to even Captain Celes; for him to be able to protect against them was no small feat.

"Hopefully you're not hurt?" She asked, walking around him to make sure there were no noticeable marks or anything, "because that was not the purpose of this exercise, aha~" Scratching the back of her head, Chika found herself chuckling. "In turn though, you've certainly shown to be rather spiritually apt! What say we jump to a Hadō in the fifties next?" If nothing else, she was definitely interested in gauging a reaction from the young Shinigami at the prospect, given his original disposition on the matter!

[Akira Hinosai]

Akira wished he just tanked the hit. He'd rather be clutching a smoking hole in his gut than dealing with the ever increasing expectations of a dog girl hopped up on redbull and pixie sticks. She was testing him. He was certain of that. Ok, obviously she's testing me, since, you know, that's what we came here for, but Fifty-something spells? Nope. No way. Not happening. She's gathering data on me, and if she digs deeper she could find something. Still, if her goal was to see just how strong Akira was, she set her sights a bit too high. He wouldn't even have to pretend to fail if he would do so naturally.  "While your confidence in me is flattering...I, well, how do I put this..."

"I'm good, but I'm not that good." Someone blasting heavy ordinance right out of the academy was unheard of. Gifted students who graduated early weren't unheard of. Uncommon, sure, but not unheard of. To be so skilled at kido right out of the academy was the sort of prodigy that comes only once every thousand years and reshapes the world. That wasn't a very believable story, and it drew too much attention besides. Upper percentile, but not top percentage. The golden area, and one Akira was fine coasting through until he got his inner hollow and zanpakuto spirit to talk to him. Still, even if he had no hope of casting anything in the 50's range, that didn't mean there was nothing to be gained.

On the contrary. Learning the somatic and verbal components ahead of time could serve him well down the line. Even a failed spell was a bit of a workout, and it wasn't like he had anything better to do. "Still, I don't see the harm in trying, you know, just in case? Just don't get your hopes up, ok?" Akira smiled nervously, his earlier bravado melted to a polite and respectful supplicant trying to get on the good side of their patron. The well of reiatsu within him was a puddle where once there had been an ocean. The idea of just allowing his mana reserves to sit like this was completely unacceptable. He would fight and and fight and fight until this stupid new body bent to his will.

[Chika Hirabayashi]

Placing her hands on her hips with a slight pout, Chika would've blown out steam if she could. "You stop that," she started, "you can do it if you put your mind to it! Sure, it might not be something you get on the first try, but that's okay! If that's the case, we can pick it back up at a later time!" Clapping her hands together gently, Chika's tail wagged back and forth.

Truth be told, she was quite excited to see where Akira was going to go! Where his progress was going to lead him. There was something almost... odd about it, but she couldn't quite figure out just what that was. Either way, she felt she had a kindred spirit in Akira! Whether or not that was true, or reciprocated even, remained to be seen. Perhaps a friendship was set to blossom?

"Okay~!" She cheered, clapping her hands together, "we're gonna get into one of my personal favorites here, all right?" She nodded her head in excitement, before turning her attention once more to face the training dummy. Taking a deep breath, the girl pointed an open palm toward her totem, gripping onto her forearm with the other.

"God of Wind, hear my plea. Take from me my stubborn heart, take from me my weakness. Through me form the winds of change and the winds of destruction. From the four corners of the world, come to me the Eastern, the Western, the Northern, and the Southern winds and let loose upon my enemies! Hadō #58: Tenran!"

Normally, her words would've resulted in quite the display of reiatsu. But, much like before? There would be no display. There would be no circulation of reiryoku through Chika's body, as absolutely nothing came from her speaking those words. Dropping her stance, and turning to face Akira, Chika smiled. "All right, now your turn! Remember to focus on the totem; relax yourself and simply let your reiatsu flow into and out of your arm!"

[Akira Hinosai]

Every moment in training was an opportunity to improve oneself. Akira told himself that when faced with the doldrums of a prolonged workout or study session. Everything, no matter how small, could hypothetically make him better at killing. Maybe practicing this spell was the same way. He was forcing himself to the absolute limit of his abilities. It was real Dragon Ball Z shit. To rebel against his own shitty and weak body. There was honor in forcing it, however successfully into doing what he wanted. Just that exercise of will would make him stronger. In his mind he could see it, shooting sick ass lasers of death and leveling city blocks!

He could almost feel the power coursing through him. He could taste it on his tongue. He wanted to scream. Not out of fear, but in absolute hype. He would destroy this weak version of himself and replace it with the strong version that would wreck some serious shit. Destroy himself. Destroy the whole world. That was a sentiment he could get behind. He listened intently, or as intently as he could to the incantation to Tenran. All thoughts of maintaining his cover were gone. His mask was off, and he was free. He lifted his arm in a fluid motion. He took a deep breath in. The universe was an orchestra and he was its conductor.

He took a deep breath in and out. Nose, mouth, the whole deal. The air was inside him. If Aristotle was to be believed, he was partially made of air. He was air, and the air was him, so commanding a tornado should be no different than moving a limb. "God of Wind, hear my plea. Take from me my stubborn heart, take from me my weakness. Through me form the winds of change and the winds of destruction. From the four corners of the world, come to me the Eastern, the Western, the Northern, and the Southern winds and let loose upon my enemies! Hadō #58: Tenran!"

Nothing happened. Not even a solitary gust of wind. Not even the most minute change to the physical world that could be observed. "Hadō #58: Tenran!" again, no dice. He lifted his arm again, he tried different hand poses. He gripped his forearm with his other hand and tried to force out even the slightest bit of air. That didn't work either. "No, no. I'm gonna keep trying. If I wanted to take it easy, I wouldn't have come here." Akira knew he was going to fail going in. That's the whole reason he was trying to hype himself up as an ascended zen master. Deep down he knew it was all bullshit. Still, if he didn't push himself to the absolute brink he'd never get stronger.

He'd be exactly as he was with Chika. The little guy. A meek helpless social chameleon who could never stand on his own two feet. No. That wouldn't happen. It WOULDN'T HAPPEN! Why the fucking shit would he allow it to happen? "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGGGG!!!" The Dragon Ball Z method didn't work. The only exertion he felt was from yelling and tensing up his muscles so hard to make something happen. "Well that's it, then. There's a hard limit to my abilities, and we just found it." Akira's upbeat tone was undercut by bitterness seeping from every word. He knew he was going to lose going in. If he had that kind of power, it would be a shock to even himself. It wasn't a matter of holding up his cover. Not really, it was a matter of being so special and good that everyone just accepted it.

That didn't happen. It would have been cool if he could cast powerful hado spells with no experience, but he couldn't. He would probably be like the shinigami chosen one, but he wasn't. He knew this was coming, but it still kind of stung, especially when he was doing it in front of someone else. A teacher who thought so highly of him, and he'd failed her. She held out hope he could do it. Even when he doubted himself, and he'd let her down. Let himself down. Maybe beating himself up would make him stronger, strengthen his resolve in the future, but right now, it all fucking sucked.