Chapter 8: Practice Makes Perfect (1)

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

*Sound Effects*

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AN: Uh I know Bleach is relatively inconsistent about the concept of food, like most of it being made out of Reishi but also the stance on whether animals exist in Soul Society being rather vague, so I just decided to say there is — sue me.

Chapter 8: Practice Makes Perfect (1)

Once Koda had set foot on the porch of his new lodging, the other guide promptly flickered away. Leaving only himself and his supervisor who amiably allowed him to get accustomed to his accommodations.

The cabin itself wasn't too grandiose yet it still bore a homey feel to it, something Koda could definitely get used too.

The masked woman abruptly held her index finger to her ear, her eyes portraying her stark puzzlement in response to the information she was receiving.

"Is there a problem?" Koda had taken her for the always calm and collected type, to see her exhibit her emotions so openly warranted his concern.

"Well, originally you were meant to begin your first mission today — but apparently Okita-dono has made some amendments to the mission, and you've been given a month to prepare…" Koda stood in place, staggered, a whole month? What kind of mission was he being assigned?

"And before you ask, no I can't tell you what it is, apparently that's part of the 'surprise'..." Koda opted to put his cynicism to rest, he trusted Okita, he didn't give off the allure of someone with ulterior motives.

"In that case I won't pry, by the way what should I call you?" Koda wasn't too keen on referring to the masked woman as "supervisor" all the time, it sounded awfully bureaucratic.

"Hm, Okita seems to trust you enough, you can call me Yasui" He nodded appreciatively as he picked up a white sheet of paper that had been left on one of the tatamis.

This was his training regimen, one he would have to closely relegate his routine to unless he wanted to face Okita's wrath. He held it towards Yasui and pointed to the first sentence, "Shunpo training? What's that?" He had never heard of such a term, perhaps it was related to that Kido thing she mentioned.

Yasui smiled behind her veil, fissuring out into a black blur and appearing behind Koda before his optics could process what had just transpired. "This is Shunpo, an essential skill you'll most definitely need for your first mission" His sclera glowed with delight, from his perspective she had practically teleported.

Who wouldn't want to be able to perform such a feat?

Yasui was pleased to see that Koda was brimming with enthusiasm, he was going to need it if he wanted to complete his first assignment. "I'm glad to see you lively, however there's a more pressing matter we need to attend to first…" Yasui playfully poked his ribcage, drawing attention to how scrawny Koda was.

*Grumble~*

"I guess I could use a few more calories…" Yasui nodded in agreement as she walked to the outdoor firepit, Koda decided to follow her interested to see how she would make a flame without a lighter, maybe she'd conjure one out of thin air like earlier.

She clasped her middle and ring finger together, holding her hand outwards and swiping to the left, fabricating a vermillion flame out of nothing. A veritable "wow" escaped his lips as he watched the spectacle.

"If you can master the basics early, I might be able to give you a bit of Kido tutoring before your first mission" Koda's ardor had reached an all time peak, never before had he looked forward to training so much.

Yasui pulled out an entire boar out of a makeshift cooling unit made with the Hadō, Hyōga Seiran. Albeit a heavily watered down version of the spell, the majority of the Roamer's Kido techniques were obtained through the torture and interrogation of captured Soul Reapers, but not everyone was a Kido expert — thus their versions of the spells rarely tended to encompass its full power.

"That's quite a lot of food for one meal, sure you can handle it?" Judging by Yasui's slim figure it didn't make much sense for her to be such a big eater, but hey, who's to judge?

She let out a suspiciously malicious chuckle as she glanced at Koda, "Oh this isn't for me, you'll be eating the whole thing" Koda's jaw dropped, completely in disbelief at what his eardrums had just processed.

"Are you…serious?" He queried.

"Dead serious, unless you'd like me to tell Okita you object to his carefully constructed meal plan?" Koda quivered at the very thought, despite him unquestionably considering Okita as a friend, his show of power was still fresh in his memory, he wanted no part of it — at all costs.

"No…of course not" This woman was intelligibly more devilish than she let on.

…

'I want to vomit…' Koda clenched his stomach in pain after painfully wolfing down an entire boar, he gripped his forehead in despair realizing that he'd most likely have to go through this every day.

"What are you lounging around for? It's time for your Shunpo training" Koda groaned as he ploddingly forced himself upright, no longer feeling as animated as before.

With leaden steps, he followed Yasui to an open clearing with relatively flat ground. "The most important thing to consider when flash-stepping is the soles of your feet" She gestured for Koda to pay close attention, which he made a valiant attempt to do.

"Start by kicking the ground, building momentum, and catching it as best you can — like this" She demonstrated a more elementary flash-step and motioned for Koda to do the same.

He attempted to replicate her movements, but ended up failing in a lumbering fashion as he merely dug his feet into the ground, stopping him from moving at all.

"You're putting too much power into it, Shunpo requires you to be light on your feet, like a feather — focus on skimming the surface with the soles of your feet, you should channel more of your energy into horizontal movement rather than vertical" Koda nodded and tried to improve his efforts.

After roughly twenty attempts, Koda finally felt as if he had "flashed" over a short distance, granted it was only a few centimeters but progress was progress. Yet somehow Yasui still appeared to be disappointed.

"Look, you create too much dust each time you step, moreover it produces too much sound — Shunpo was a technique developed for stealth, you're still not stepping softly enough" Koda didn't utter a single complaint, instead he took her advice to heart and continued to work on his technique.

Yasui hid herself among the foliage as she discretely observed him, wanting to give him space to train comfortably. And his commitment was nothing but awe-inspiring, at some point it didn't feel like he cared too much about improving his Shunpo, he just seemed to enjoy the training itself.

With that said, at times it was slightly unnerving watching him accumulate countless bruises and cuts on the soles of his feet — which did eventually heal only to reappear again shortly after. But the sight of the hazel dirt gradually being turned scarlet-red wasn't necessarily a tasteful scene to rest one's eyes upon.

Eventually a few hours had gone by, Koda hadn't noticed until the sky began to darken as a result of being too engrossed in his own training.

Thankfully, his efforts didn't go unrewarded — he could now cover a whole meter in distance but still had to work on minimizing the dust he let up as well as the sound he made. All things considered, for only one day's worth of practice he had made substantial progress.

"You can rest now, in an hour we'll do some sparring" Koda's expression lit up at the mention of a spar, but behind her mask Yasui couldn't help but feel fairly nervous at the thought of it — primarily because of Okita's warning.

'I put you in charge of his training because I'm confident you'll be able to escape if things get out of control. I'm not convinced he'll be able to hold back should he get too worked up, and remember, if he ever becomes too much for you, you're obligated to tell me immediately, I won't be responsible for the death of one of our greatest subordinates, understand?'

The dourness in Okita's voice had been evident, he understood Yasui's prowess perfectly well yet in spite of that he still warned her. She had observed their fight so theoretically she had a grasp on Koda's fighting style, but at the same time she didn't.

This was because Koda didn't really have a "style", he just swung like a madman, making him unpredictable.

And Yasui didn't have much experience fighting such people, and when one considered the potential that laid dormant within Koda.

"Sparring" him was no different than putting your own life on the line.

She would need to exert utmost caution and nothing less if she intended to come out in one piece.

'Sigh, it hasn't even been a full day since he joined — I can't let myself get worked up this early on'

Woefully, Koda's vicious aura continued to rise as he thought fighting her, wracking Yasui's nerves even more.