Magic Man Taien (Academy Thread) [R, NDE]

[Taien Hadohou]

Gah! That was much harder than Taien expected it to be! Of course he improved his controll a lot more during that particular excerize, so it was all worth it. No pain no gain right? And Reti-Sensei's class could be especially painfull depending on what Reti-Sensei had in store for Taien. Who knew what Taien would do next time he came in? Come to think of it, what was Brock-Sensei's Kido Class experiance like? Taien had to remember to ask that of Brock-Sensei next time he saw him.

*DONG. . . DONG. . . DONG. . .*

"Oya oya! Thank you for the lesson today Reti-Sensei, ill see you tommarow!"

Taien called to his instructor as he bolted out the door. Next up was. . . Kendo if Taien wasn't mistaken. Taien mentally checked the fastest route to his Kendo class, and went down the designated path accordingly. A turn here, down this corridor, down some stairs. . . here it was! Taien had gotten here early. Nice! He could find a practice sword that was well balanced then.

Taien noticed a few students were here already, but what really struck out in his mind was the old Sensei in the seat at the far end of the dojo. He was clad completely in white, and even had a white blindfold on. Wait, blindfold? Did that mean he was blind? Did he loose his eyes? Or was it one of those swordsmen things? Either way, it didn't really matter.

Taien trotted down the dojo untill he got to the Sensei. He proceeded to bow and say,

"Oya oya, good morning Sensei."

Even if he was blind, it was still respectful to bow. Besides, one rule of the spiritual world. NEVER underestimate blind swordsmen. They tended to hand your head to you on a silver platter with a side of lemon before you ever knew what was going on.

After that, Taien went to one of the racks, shifted through a few of the swords, tested a few, and then took the most balanced of the lot. He then waited for class to start, looking for a sparring partner if that was what they were doing today.

[Manabu Brock]

Reti cheerfully bid his student goodbye. Taien tended to have the effect of affecting people cheerfully unless they were already upset. Luckily, the vast majority of teachers at the academy weren't generally angry at the world. Even the tough ones weren't upset, just tough. The most counter-cheerful at least didn't mind Taien, and the others generally liked him. After all, he tried hard and never complained.

The old sensei found him pleasant as well. He smiled when Taien introduced himself. "Ah! Good morning!" responded the sensei as he returned the bow in proper fashion. "How nice it is to have a student greet his sensei and bow! You must not think less of the others though." The old man now gestured to indicate the other students who were seated and waiting quietly. "They, too, are acting properly and either are too shy or thought they should not speak until spoken to. You may now tell me your name."

After Taien's apology and introduction, the old man gave his name as Takuan Munenori. He finally dismissed Taien to join the students waiting for the bell. That's when Taien went to the racks. As he was about to test his first choice, there was a voice. "Hadohou-gakusei, I have not instructed you to take a weapon. Please be seated. The bell is about to..." The last word coincided with the ringing of the bell.

[Taien Hadohou]

"Hadohou-gakusei, I have not instructed you to take a weapon. Please be seated."

As Takuan-Sensei said those words, Taien put the weapon back, turned around, and went to sit down. He did it quickly and meticulously, and was able to be seated just as the bell rang. Convenient. Or rather, Taien kept track of the time it took him to get to the class. They had clocks in the Shino Academy after all. Well! Now that the introductions were out of the way, Taien looked forwards to whatever Takuan-Sensei had to teach him. Despite not really being the most competent practicer of Zanjutsu, Taien would learn what he could. It could prove useful later on in his life.

When Taien had been at the rack, Taien noticed how well kept the practice Shinai were. Takuan-Sensei sure kept his equipment in good repair. They needed to be, after all, there were quite a few students who regularly whacked away with them at each other, if they weren't repaired sooner or later, they would have fallen apart. Or they just would be in bad shape. Probably the former. Taien sat patiently and awaited instructions from his Sensei.

[Manabu Brock]

"Good morning students. My name is Takuan Munenori, and we will be learning the way of the sword together." After this sentence, all the students, including Taien, greeted their new master in unison. It had seemed natural to each person individually to do it, but the entire class, to their surprise, used the same words in the same order with the same cadence and intonation.

"As you can see, correct actions yield correct outcomes. This is true all of the time in all situations. I encourage all of you to pursue correct action all of the time, but during our time between bells we'll be focusing on acting correctly while handling a sword. Before handling a sword, you will need to get a sword, before which you must choose a sword, which comes after being aware of the choices of swords. This awareness comes from using your senses near or in the direction of the swords. In order to get near the swords, you will need to move, and before doing that, you must get up.

In short, if you can get up correctly, you will master the sword.

Consider what it means to get up. What are the steps involved? What is the context in which you are getting up? How do you relate to your body? How do you relate to your surroundings? The people around you? Me? What is your place in this room? In the Academy? In the universe? Close your eyes and think about what is correct in this context. Do what is correct. Rise when it is correct in the correct fashion. Keep your eyes closed, for they will confuse you. Accustom yourself to the smells in the room and ignore them. Acknowledge the taste in your mouth and the feel of your clothes, your body and organs, the air... acknowledge and set them aside. When I finish giving the instructions, you must shut off your hearing as well. Let all sound fall to the background. In this state you will be free of distraction and able to more easily follow the correct path."

A hand went into the air and all eyeless heads turned toward it. The blindfolded sage nodded and gestured, and the owner of the hand then rose to ask a question. "Sensei, I am worried I may unwittingly hurt someone or be hurt myself." The blind heads all turned to attend the teacher.

"Do not worry. This is my classroom, and I have given correct instruction."

[Taien Hadohou]

"Good morning students. My name is Takuan Munenori, and we will be learning the way of the sword together."

As Sensei-Takuan greeted his class, so did his class greet him in return. In fact, every single one of the students there seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, as everyone greeted him in the exact same tone, speach pattern, everything was the same. It was if they were all linked together in greeting their new Sensei. . . which would be awesome in its own way, but probably unlikely. No, it looked like they all just had the same idea at the same time. Which was still an odd coinicdence, because seriously? All these people thinking of the exact same thing at the exact same time? Seemed natural. . . almost instinctual. This was going to be a good class!

"As you can see, correct actions yield correct outcomes. This is true all of the time in all situations. I encourage all of you to pursue correct action all of the time, but during our time between bells we'll be focusing on acting correctly while handling a sword. Before handling a sword, you will need to get a sword, before which you must choose a sword, which comes after being aware of the choices of swords. This awareness comes from using your senses near or in the direction of the swords. In order to get near the swords, you will need to move, and before doing that, you must get up.

In short, if you can get up correctly, you will master the sword.

Consider what it means to get up. What are the steps involved? What is the context in which you are getting up? How do you relate to your body? How do you relate to your surroundings? The people around you? Me? What is your place in this room? In the Academy? In the universe? Close your eyes and think about what is correct in this context. Do what is correct. Rise when it is correct in the correct fashion. Keep your eyes closed, for they will confuse you. Accustom yourself to the smells in the room and ignore them. Acknowledge the taste in your mouth and the feel of your clothes, your body and organs, the air... acknowledge and set them aside. When I finish giving the instructions, you must shut off your hearing as well. Let all sound fall to the background. In this state you will be free of distraction and able to more easily follow the correct path."

. . . Wow. Deeply philosophical stuff from a blind teaching swordsman. Hmmm. . . just what exactly was Taien's place in the classroom? In the world? In the universe even. . . This would take some pondering indeed. For now, Taien tuned out everything else around him and dove deep into his mind. . . and then pondered. His body took in the smell and feeling from the room, every time he breathed in, and every time he breathed out. The taste of the air, the sounds from occasionally shifting people and his own breath, he let it in, and learned from it, knew it, and put it aside. This seemed very odd at first. He knew they were there, and yet, they were not to his senses.

Speaking of senses, it seemed like this was an excersize to turn off all of the students other senses. Sigh, smell, hearing, taste, touch. . . the five senses, blind to this task. And supplementing for them was something. . . different. It wasn't like sight, but it could see, it wasn't like smell, but it could sense smell, it certainly wasn't touch, and yet it felt like. .. something. Something different. What exactly was this? Was this. . . the swordsmans legendary sixth sense? Their keen instinct, so well honed it bordered on precognition sometimes?

Taien contemplated for what felt like a long time. Clearly this was deeper than first thought. However, Taien learned fast. He learned from this new sense, learned where things were and what they were. Although his instinct was weak, it was enough for this task. It might take all class period to truely grasp the essence of it though, it wasn't easy.

[Manabu Brock]

Each student got up in his own time. Some people made their way around with eyes still closed. Some opened their eyes again before getting up to examine the swords. Only a few students went all the way to the racks and back with a sword without looking. Taien would make it only as far as he could go without thinking about the activity and thinking about his place instead.

When everyone had finally gotten a blade and returned, Munenori removed his blindfold, folded it, and set it in its appointed place. After this, he looked around the room. "It's a pleasure to see you all! Now that each of us has a sword, we can practice." The rest of the class focused on proper form. Well, it really focused more on proper grip. Each finger, of course, has its proper place as well as each knuckle and joint. So the class progressed from beginning to end as it should.

At long last, it seemed that Taien's out-of-time experience here was coming to an end. On to the next class!

[Taien Hadohou]

Doing something without thinking? Taien could do that quite well at times. Times like this especially. While Taien was contemplating the things in his mind, his subconscious took control of his body, and sort of put it on auto-pilot. Or rather, it let the instincts of his body move him. Taien got up, and his body moved on its own. He moved through the other students, and moved out of the way of other students getting up. He moved to the rack of swords, eyes still closed, and instinctively reached out with his right hand, seemingly grabbing a sword at random. In reality, he had grabbed the balanced sword he had held earlier.

At this point, Taien's eyes opened, confused as to what he was touching and how he had gotten where he was.

"Oya oya? I was over there a moment ago. . . why am I over here with a sword?"

After the momentary suprised, Taien just shrugged, and went back to smiling, as per his usual attitude. He went back to his spot, having learned much in the short time already. Fairly good for him after all, as he was not a student of the way of the sword, nor an instinctive swordsman. It was by virtue of his ability to learn that he got that far in the first place. Anyways, now their Sensei had taken his blindfold off and greeted his class. The class responded in kind, Taien among them. They spent the rest of the class on the proper way of how to hold a sword. After that, the bell rang, Taien went to his teacher and said,

"Oya oya! Thank you for the lesson, Munenori-Sensei."

And bowed as he said it. He then proceeded to his next class, the ever exciting travel class! Taien raced off to the classroom, eager to see what new course or lesson was in store for him this time around.

[Manabu Brock]

OOC: From the boundless mind of the great and mighty Ad-Gin-kami-shi.

As Taien arrived at Travel it became apparent that once again, he had a class with Michi. However, Tilman was also in this class. That made three friends in the same class. Awesome. The same teacher from last year was present. Uryuu obviously taught for all Travel, and thus he was the 1-2 AND the 3-4 teacher. He was present this time, observing everyone. Instructions were already up on the board, a whole new opening drill that no one could have possibly imagined. Like before, it was a maze of corridors, transparent. Black reiatsu flares were moving throughout them, one hundred and fifty in total. Everyone by now knew how to create sparks to destroy the flares. However, something was wrong. The flares were much faster than before. Also, the maze was completely different, as was the objective. The maze was 3 dimensional, all across the entire room.

Instead of just being confined to the floor like before, it was ALL OVER the gigantic room! There were ways up to just near the ceiling, and ways underground. The ways to reach high or low were marked with "vectors", which were white arrow markings stretching either up or down based on where a person was going. They could funnel upwards, or funnel downwards. Currents of wind in combo with vectors prevented people from using upwards passageways to get back down, and using downwards passageways to get back up. Once down or up, one had to go find a new passageway if one wanted to get back. At the very heart of the maze, a large cube-like chamber with a golden apple floating in the center existed. Uryuu spoke. "The goal is to touch the apple." he said. "Black flares are moving all across the maze. You have three lives. For each hit that you take, you lose a life. If you lose all three lives, the maze will automatically eject you. There are thirty five of you. For each person eliminated from this, everyone will receive fifty kendo whacks to the bottom tomorrow. Also, as individuals, you receive punishment for losing lives. Your total possible grade for this year lowers by 15% for each life that you lose. This means that if you lose one, no matter how hard you try, you'll never score beyond an 85% in my class." As everyone filed into various parts of the mazes, the maze entrances and exits closed. Everyone was sealed in. It was time to start. "Begin." Uryuu said. Immediately, a flare began rushing towards Taien. "Beware", Uryuu said, "This time they will keep going beyond you, even if you get hit. They won't reverse back. This means the sacrificial strategy no longer works."

[Taien Hadohou]

"Hahaha! Wow! Looks like we're all in the same class this time huh?"

Taien beamed before examining the new and improved course for this year. It was almost the same as the one last time, but it was about ten times awesomer! Was that even a word, "awesomer"? Probably not, but Taien used it anyways! It was a gigantic three dimensional maze that looked to be split up. White arrows seemed to point to the next "vector", and at the middle was a golden glowing apple inside a cube! Neat.

Taien wondered about the new maze a bit, studying it and analyzing it as much as he could before he had to go in. He had the same sensei this time around as well, so that was cool. Last time Taien had been in here, he could use his Reiatsu dots to break apart the flares, but he wasn't sure this time around. Of course, this time Taien could test it at a distance. The new maze probably had new flares, it was only to be expected of the Shino Academy, where great things were done!

Uryuu-Sensei then spoke aloud the classes instructions,

"The goal is to touch the apple. Black flares are moving all across the maze. You have three lives. For each hit that you take, you lose a life. If you lose all three lives, the maze will automatically eject you. There are thirty five of you. For each person eliminated from this, everyone will receive fifty kendo whacks to the bottom tomorrow. Also, as individuals, you receive punishment for losing lives. Your total possible grade for this year lowers by 15% for each life that you lose. This means that if you lose one, no matter how hard you try, you'll never score beyond an 85% in my class."

Taien had anticipated as much. It just wouldn't be travel class without a good challenge, no? The maze entrances opened, and students rushed in, Taien included. He tried to find where Tilman-San and Michi-San were going before he went into the maze so they could team up. Taien spotted them, or at least Michi-San, and headed over to him. As Taien entered the maze, and the last people headed in as well, the exits closed all around them. It also seemed Uryuu-Sensei had some parting words for them.

"Beware, this time they will keep going beyond you, even if you get hit. They won't reverse back. This means the sacrificial strategy no longer works."

Warned their Sensei. So, to get a good grade, they had to not be hit, nearly at all. One hit would drop them down to a B, but to get an A, they needed to get to the apple without being hit at all. Taien was getting excited over this task in any case. First he needed to find Michi-San again. He didn't know where Tilman-San had gone off to, he hadn't seen him enter one of the entrances, so he probably had rushed in. Ahh Tilman-San, good old Tilman-San. Well, Taien spotted Michi-San, and hurried over to him before he rushed off.

"Oya oya! Michi-San!"

Taien called as he got close.

"Haha, this course looks like its gonna be fun! Do you have a plan in mind to get to the apple the fastest? Other than just running there. Though that probably works for you, seeing as you probably can outrun them."

Taien chuckled.

"Have you seen Tilman-San around here anywhere Michi-San?"

Taien asked.

[Manabu Brock]

Michi returned the greeting. "Oya oya, yourself, Taien!" One second, Michi was at calling distance, and the next moment he was standing next to Taien. A breeze went by for a second after Michi appeared there.

"To be honest, my plan was pretty much to just go 'til I get there. Big surprise, right? Of course, I've been running into situations that can't be solved by speed alone. I think they're doing that on purpose. This is probably going to be one of those situations. What do you say we stick together? As for Tilman, I think that's him."

Michi pointed toward a section of the maze that seemed to be flashing, and over the general din of the class, they could hear a repeated SMASH emanating from that same area. Yep, he'd already gone in, and he was destroying flares as they approached him. Maybe they could catch him. Maybe not. He'd probably be OK either way.

[Taien Hadohou]

"Hahaha! Ahh good old Tilman-San. Well, he seems to be fine, lets see if we can beat him to the apple~♫!"

Taien chirpped. Well, Mich-San was now successfully added to the group! New member get! All right, now they had to get to the top, preferably before Tilman-San. Why? Because it was as much a race to the top as it was a test of skill! If the two of them could make it to the top before Tilman-San, they would prove they were just as good, if not better, at dodging/breaking flares! Lets do this thing, yah! . . . Was what Taien was going to say, except he thought it a better idea to actually DO something. Tilman-San was moving fast.

"All right, first things first, Reiatsu dot barrier, going up!"

Taien said as he created a net of ten dots around him and Michi-San. These dots would take the hit for them, and hopefully they would be enough to overpower the flares. The last time Taien had done this, they had been. However, there was always the possibility they would be stronger than last time, which is why Taien had more than one floating around this time. Perhaps he could try something with the track this time, but right now they had to move on!

Taien let Michi-San take the lead, he was faster and could avoid the flares more easily than Taien could. He probably would also make a good scout, to see which tunnels led where and what not. They took the tunnel immediately in front of them, and set off on the journey for the apple. Who would get there first, Taien's group or Tilman-San!? Tune in next time for exciting action! . . . Wait, what?! This isn't an old time cartoon!

[Manabu Brock]

In to the fray! Michi took off at break neck speed in front of Taien. Well, that speed might have broken the neck of your average Joe, but this was more like warm-up speed for Michi Watanabe. Taien quickly fell behind, but that wouldn't persist too long. Michi suddenly came to a rather abrupt stop. Why? There was a flare right in front of him on a collision course!

It's a good thing Michi had well developed breaks, but he still had to get going back to Taien if he wanted to avoid getting hit. Except, he didn't even try to turn around. There was suddenly an orange burst about the size of a Michi that careened into the oncoming flare. The flare shattered and left Michi unscathed. However, something wasn't quite right. Last year the flares just sort of went in oblivion when they were broken. This one shattered into pieces. Five pieces they were. They sailed past Michi and continued on with malicious intent.

There were still three purple orbs hovering above Michi, confirming that he had not been hit. It looks like they should have studied Tilman and his exploits more closely. Now these five small flares were headed straight for Taien! He could lose it all right now if he doesn't do something.

Is this the end of our hero? How will he escape from this perilous situation? Tune in next time for another exciting installment of Magic Man Taien!

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

2.8 GPA and 1 year and one class completed. So... We'll give this thread 750 TP