Getting Back Into the Force ( JT / R )

[Deleted]

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC} Training for CTP.

What day was today anyways? So often did he lose track of the day, since everyday was basically the same activities over and over again. It could be Tuesday, it could be Saturday. No, wait, it couldn't be Tuesday. There wasn't the trade mark salmon and egged rice breakfast that was served on Tuesday mornings. For the love of...what day was today anyways? Then again, did it matter? What did it matter what day it was when he wasn't going to be doing anything anyways. Discharged from the Thirteen Court Guard Squads over a injury that had persisted for two years, and now waiting for the Central Forty-Six to go over his resubmission papers, Raygin was bored as hell.

He spent most of his time wandering through the Seireitei, his past years of service and title as a Kawada allowed him the luxury of wandering the military city without question, though he was only allowed into "public" areas. The constant walks he went on were good for his health, plus it was a good reminder of the good condition his heart was in. Being able to walk for hours a day was refreshing as well as relaxing. His home life wasn't exactly something he could say the same for. Living with the Kawada was...something else in all honesty. Sure, Raygin had gotten used to the disrespect, the looking down on, and the "oh you're still a thing" looks he often got. Hey, they were a family with personality at least!

But a personality that Raygin just did not click with. The new head, Shokan, was quite the literally who. He was never around, never present, and Raygin really knew nothing about the guy. Tsukuyomi was quiet as always, never bothering talking to anyone. Taien, at least, was a chat able fellow. Out of the entire family, Taien was the one guy Raygin could have a real conversation with, and you know why? Cus he was adopted as well. Imagine that. And then there was Katrina...Katrina Katrina Katrina.

Katrina was something...special. Special in both a good and bad way, but was heavily leaning into the "oh god what" territory. That was a special egg that just didn't need to be tip toed on at this time, so moving on to what Raygin was actually doing right now. It wasn't often Raygin got messages from other people, especially less by Hell Butterfly. And especially less when it was a Captain contacting him. A Captain that Raygin knew and got along with. Grin Shihoin. Sure, there past meetings weren't exactly long, but long enough that Raygin had a good outlook towards the Captain.

His real interaction with Grin was actually through his wife, whom he had met during a party held by said family a long while ago. The two had gotten along rather well, but Raygin was not himself during that time. During that party Raygin had still been suffering his debilitating injury, the one dealt to him by the Vandenreich Quincy, Caesar. That injury had both ruined his life as a Shinigami, and nearly caused him to end his own life numerous times. It was not something that he wanted to think back on, this was here and now.

Grin had invited Raygin to Squad Elevens training fields for a little practice. It wasn't a secret that Raygin wasn't in the Gotei Thirteen, his discharge due to his injury had been known throughout the other Squads. When a Vice Captain who one shoted a Kuchiki and caused the Septima Espada to run away was removed from his position via medical discharge, it wasn't long before the news spread like fire. But, Raygin was Raygin. He was easily replaceable. He couldn't disagree with that either. He knew he wasn't an important person, just another piece of cannon fodder.

But he didn't want to mope around anymore. He wanted to improve, to rejoin the Gotei, but such a task was proving to be rather...difficult. Raygins development wasn't going anywhere. His growth wasn't working and there was another issue on his mind. Raygin had not heard anything from his Zanpakuto. He wasn't surprised...it was his own fault. He had rejected the spirits attempts at communication, having not been ready to accept a new Zanpakuto after the loss of his last. As a result of the constant pushing, the spirit had simply ceased trying to contact Raygin, and the Soul could not feel it anywhere within him. How badly did he mess up?

The sound of shouting became apparent as Raygin neared the designated training field, stepping into view and out into the field. Dozens upon dozens of other spirits practiced in the yard, preparing for their duties to slay Hollows and defend the Seireitei. Stepping into the field he made his way through the ranks, looking around at the training soldiers and wondering just who it was that was supposed to be training with him. He didn't expect the Captain himself to do it, that would have been ridiculous. I am on time...right? He wondered as he stood around, scratching his head while searching for anyone who was looking for him.

[Wycliff]

The soft sounds of the waves hitting the beach and the caws of the seagulls slowly woke up Wycliff. His sleepy eyes opened up and as they did the bright midday sun hit his eyes causing him reel back and groan in discomfort. He didn't want to wake up, it was so nice being asleep in the warm sun, but he knew that he had been asked to train someone. A tasked given to him by another captain that he didn't really know, but he wasn't about to say no given that it was training. Still instead of being where he needed to be he was covered in sand surrounded by water. Wycliff had fallen asleep once more on a strange beach, he thought that he could get away with a bit of sun before doing the training, but he underestimated how lazy he actually was and passed out.

“Shit..... I'ma be late for this guy ain't I....” Wycliff muttered to himself as tried to pick himself up off the sand. Still with sleepy eyes he gathered up his uniform and his blade, tossing it on without care. He so much wanted to go back to sleep, but he had made a deal and training wouldn't be too bad. With a yawn escaping his mouth he opened up a senkaimon and dragged his feet through the gate he wasn't exactly a person to rush into anything and being sleepy wasn't going to help him pace at all. Eventually he would find himself exiting the senkaimon and stepping into the soul society.

Now where the hell did I need to be...... oh right squad eleven barracks. With another yawn escaping his mouth he carried his disheveled self through the streets of the seireitei and towards the barracks. He wondered what sort of person would he be training with today? He hoped that it was a new recruit, they always seemed to be so eager to learn and listen. Most of the older shingami he ended up training with seemed to have a stick up their ass about how they should train and what not. Training could be fun if you made it, as long as it didn't hinder the progress there was no reason that you couldn't make it fun, but nooo no one liked doing it like that, they always wanted to do basic things, which was fine, but it got boring after a while.

As he approached the training grounds he saw that most were already training with someone. Some were doing basic kido work, while others were sparing with one another. Heck there was even a pair working on their shumpo's, for the moment he couldn't see anyone that didn't have a partner. For a breif moment he thought that maybe, just maybe he would be able to sneak back to the beach and nap as it looked like his training partner wasn't here anymore. Wycliff wouldn't blame whoever he was suppose to train with if they had left, after all he was at least an hour late to show up with that in mind he was about to take off till he spotted someone looking around.

It was a young looking shingami, with spiky brown hair and golden eyes. “Guess that's my training partner huh...” It seemed for the most part that this young shingami was Wycliff's training partner. The person was looking around for someone, which had to be him right? Damn Wycliff should have payed attention when that captain told him the name of the person he was suppose to train, but then again he was busy with taking a nap when he got the request so he wasn't going to blame himself too much for the lack of knowing a name. Whatever he doubted that not knowing this shingami's name would actually be the worst thing given how late Wycliff was.

Shuffling his feet he made his way towards the young shingami, he yawned as he approached the kid and smiled “Yo, names Wycliff, I'm guessing I'm suppose to train with ya. Sorry bout being late, I sorta got held up with something.” As Wycliff spoke he brushed off his blond hair with one of his hands having bits of sand fall to the ground that were trapped in his golden locks, while the other hand extended outwards to offer a hand shake to the young shingami. With that sand falling out of his hair as well as the scent of the ocean in the air around him it would be easy for Raygin to figure out where he had been.

SPOILER: Click to show

Training for TTP

[Deleted]

"Hmm.." Raygin grumbled softly, worried that he might have been late. If that were the case then it wouldn't have been surprising if Raygins partner decided to abandon the appointment. Raygin hoped that weren't the case. Folding his arms across his chest he frowned, scratching his head as he decided to wait a few more minutes before heading back...elsewhere. He might actually go pay Grin a visit and have some words with him. Not for anything bad, mind you, but rather to go catch up with the square jawed Shihion. He blinked when he suddenly heard approaching footsteps, turning his head in the sounds direction. The young mans eyes brightened up at the sight of someone approaching him, someone who looked like they had just woken up from a nap.

Raygin smiled, turning his whole body towards the approaching Wycliff and resting one hand on his hip. "No, no, don't be sorry. I just arrived myself and was worried i was late, hah." Raygin commented, grinning and scratching the back of his head. Reaching out and grasping Wycliffs hand and shaking it, Raygin noted the sand falling out from between the other Shinigamis ears. "Looks like someone took a day off to spend at the beach." Ray commented, the scent of salt just oozing off the guy standing in front of him.

Raygin wondered what sort of skills this person possessed. What were they good at? Why where they a Shinigami? Raygin was hoping to understand these things after training with him, and to hopefully discover something more about himself in the meantime. "I'm Raygin by the way. So before we begin, what are you good at?" Raygin asked, stepping back from Wycliff as he awaited the answer. What was Raygin hoping to learn here? Swordplay? Kido? Or maybe he was just looking to get his blood pumping and muscles sore. What could Wycliff offer him?

[Wycliff]

Wycliff kept his smile across his face when the young shingami also said that he had been late and hadn't waited long for him. “Dat's good to hear Raygin.” There was a question that he hadn't been expecting the rookie asking him what he was good at. Truth be told Wycliff wasn't sure as to what he was good at anymore. Before he was good at using kido, but ever since that incident he's had issues using kido, not that he is unable to use them nor has he forgotten how they work or the incantations, more like they won't work for him.

He looked at the young shingami and wondered for a moment what to say. “Hmmm don't really know...,but then this ain't about me is it? It's about you, I really don't need more training, I can handle myself pretty well against a hollow and the like, ya know.” Wycliff stopped speaking as he pulled out a bag of poprocks that he had been hiding in his uniform. If Raygin was paying attention he would see that there wasn't just a single package of pop rocks in Wycliff's clothing. With them in hand he ripped the top open with his teeth then proceeding to  shove some in his mouth as he let his words sink in a little to the shingami.

It wasn't that there was anything ground breaking with what he said, he just wanted a break to eat some pop rocks. Wycliff loved the way they fizzed and popped in his mouth, each sugar filled little rock being a mini explosion in his mouth. If there was one thing that he loved in this world it was pop rocks and those that worked close with him knew that, especially if someone dared to try and steal his pop rocks. What happened when someone did that was something to learn about another day as the pop rocks he had eaten had vanished. “So let's get some training with some swords.”

With those words said Wycliff turned away from Raygin and waved for him to follow as he started to walk over towards what looked like a weapons rack. As he walked Wycliff dragged his zan across the floor giving little care to it and the scabbard that it was in. There was little care given to his own sword , that much could be seen as Wycliff didn't even have it fixed to his own belt. Unlike other shingami's that wanted to get stronger and closer to their zan spirit, Wycliff didn't even want anything to do with his. Yet for all the mistreatment that he gave his sword it still seemed to be in pristine condition.

Upon arriving at the weapon rack Wycliff dropped his blade and picked up a Shinai made of bamboo with one hand and grabbed another with his other tossing it towards Raygin. “Ya ready to train?” With that said Wycliff held the shinai with both hands and charged right at Raygin his swing would be easy to see and easy to block. It was a vertical swing that would strike right at his forhead, Wycliff wanted to see a few things about Raygin. First and formost was the kid's reaction time to attacks, not everyone was a sharp tack and could instantly counter everything that was thrown their way. Some were better at it than others and with a non leathal weapon it would be easy to see how Raygin would react.

[Deleted]

Wycliff didn’t have, probably, any way of knowing just how experienced Raygin actually was. His questioning thoughts on why Raygin asked him what he was good at wasn’t so the higher ranked Shinigami could stroll down memory lane, but it was instead to help Raygin get an idea of what sort of training Wycliff would best be able to help him at. Raygin wasn’t going to ask someone good with Hakuda to help him in Kido. He wasn’t going to ask a Kaido specialist to help him learn Hado. It was so that Raygin could help make Wycliff more comfortable with their training, to loosen the soldiers and just have fun with it. Training was far more effective if you enjoyed what you were doing and not just torturing your body. Though sometimes that torture method could be helpful, especially if you’ve reached that wall you just can’t break down with standard training measures.

”You think you’ve had enough training?” Raygin suddenly questioned after Wycliff had said it. What a silly thing to say. Raygin simply stared at Wycliff for a moment, before softly smiling and shaking his head. ”You can never have enough training. Do you think at your current level you could stop one of the top four Espada if they came busting in through the Seireiteis walls again? Or if the Vandenreich invaded again, could you hold them back? Don’t think these questions as me trying to berate you or being rude, but you shouldn’t ever get lax or think you’ve reached your peak.” Raygin explained as he caught the sword that was tossed to him. He weighed the bamboo in his hand, adjusting his grip accordingly to hold it the best way that he could.

The young Shinigami couldn’t help but notice the treatment that was being given to Wycliff’s partner sword. It caused him to frown slightly, but he decided to not dwell on it. Instead, Raygin focused on the fact that Wycliff was charging right for him. The sword he held above his head was clearly meant to aim downwards, and if Raygin had to guess it was meant to crash down right on top of his head. Light seemed to shine in the young Shinigamis amber eyes as he dashed forward like Wycliff did, that sword held at his waist as he approached. Approaching with a sword held high like Wycliff was doing wasn’t something an experienced fighter should be doing. They left their torso, and everything down under, exposed with a sword held so high.

But Raygin decided not to capitalize on that. Instead, once close enough, he raised his sword up to meet with Wycliffs on its course to collide with his head. The sound of bamboo smacking together could be heard as the two weapons met, and for once Raygin was glad it wasn’t Ajraka on the other side of the sword. He knew she had a tendency to not hold back and to literally bring the pain during their training sessions. A grin had painted itself across his face as Raygin stared right into Wycliffs eyes, ”A forward assault with your sword held so high…you’re just playing with me to test the waters aren’t ya?” Raygin asked, before pulling back and getting a few steps away from his sparring partner.