Sparring

"Alright. Let me show you a few moves before I send you to spar with another student."

Katashi stepped away from Sora and got into a basic stance before beginning to move. He demonstrated simple fist striking forms and nothing else.

He didn't wish to show Sora other types of strikes, like palms or finger jabbing. Katashi wanted Sora to solely focus on one thing, and that was fists.

Katashi's  movements were slow, allowing Sora to see every movement with great detail.

Soon enough, he finally stopped and turned to look at Sora.

"How much did you memorize?" Katashi asked.

"All of it."

"Alright…" Katashi nodded and turned to the group of students training to the side. "Ryou! Come and spar with the new kid."

At Katashi's yell, all the students stopped training and looked over at Sora curiously.

"A kid?"

"Isn't Ryou too much for him?"

"Maybe the kid's Quirk is strong?"

"But we can't use Quirks in the dojo. That kid is most likely strong but has weak skills. Ryou on the other hand is not just strong, but has great skills. Even if the kid lands a punch on Ryou, Ryou would be fine."

Everyone nodded and eventually turned to look at a guy who was walking over to Sora and their Sensei.

A teenager with a buzz cut and a strong body. His hands and elbows were covered in red scales and his finger nails were short but sharp. Two horns were sticking out of his forehead and a long red scaly tail from his behind.

'Ryou… did his parents name him like that because of his appearance?' Sora wondered as he looked at Ryou's dragon-like appearance. 'If that's how he looks, I wonder what his quirk is, or maybe that is it.'

Katashi waited before Ryou was standing before him before introducing Sora.

"Ryou, this is Sora, a new student. His punches are heavy, so make sure to dodge and defend well. Although his punches are strong, help him familiarize himself with the basic fist techniques," Katashi explained before turning to look at Sora. "Your mother enrolled you into the swordsman program, so after two hours of sparring with Ryou, you will come to me to begin some basic sword training."

Nodding at Katashi's words, Sora turned to Ryou.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sora."

"I'm Ryou and likewise. Come to me whenever you need some pointers."

Ryou nodded his head to Sora, expressing his good intentions as a senior in the dojo.

"I want you both to spar to the best of your abilities. I need to deal with some issues, therefore, I won't be here for a while."

Katashi turned and left, leaving Sora and Ryou behind.

"Alright, show me what you've got," Ryou said as he got into his fighting stance.

Sora nodded and got into the basic stance that Katashi showed him.

Originally, Sora wanted to use the martial arts he already knew of, but decided against it since he didn't want to raise too many questions.

Learning new martial arts was also pretty good.

'Should I start collecting every technique I come across,' Sora thought to himself.

If he collected martial arts, he would have a wider set of moves and techniques he could use. It will help him become quite versatile, but he will first need to find a way to increase his talent or training speed.

Sora and Ryou faced each other, with serious expressions on their faces.

Taking one step forward, Sora decided to begin the fight. He needed to improved his martial arts, and just standing around won't help.

Dun-dun!

Pa!

With heavy steps, Sora struck first with his fist punching only air as Ryou easily dodged.

'Here's the hard part…'

Sora turned his head and watched as Ryou sidestepped and punched out at him.

Gritting his teeth, Sora was prepared to fail.

Lifting his foot and turning his body, Sora instantly began to lose his balance. Simply turning his body sideways was already enough to make him lose his balance.

Not just his feet, but his hands as well. The instant he tried to block the strike from Ryou, Sora's hand failed to stop Ryou's fist, and it was no way near enough to stop Ryou's fist.

Ta!

'Shit…'

Tripping over his own feet, Sora stumbled forward but react fast enough to attempt to regain his balance.

"Ha…"

Seeing Sora trip and stumble, Ryou raised his eyebrows in surprise.

'The punch and stance was nearly perfect, but out of that, everything was that of an amateur.

He's a very clumsy person,' Ryou thought after what happened to Sora.

Ryou pressed forward to Sora as he talked to him, "Looks like you have a long road ahead of you."

Sora nodded as he clumsily began to dodge Ryou's attacks.

"Attack continuously, I can take it."

With a serious expression on his face, Sora continuously tried to dodge and block Ryou's attacks. Occasionally, he would try to counterattack, but it would only end up failing.

Determined to not give up, Sora continued forward.

Pa!

Sora received countless hits on his body as he failed to block and dodge multiple attacks.

"Ha…" Sora gave a light chuckle.

His body was being covered in wounds and bruises as Ryou hit him. It was a good thing that all of Sora's training had made him tougher.

If that wasn't enough, Sora's Quirk had a minor tempering effect on his body. As it continued to heal his body, Sora could feel how he was becoming resistant to the punches.

His skin was as soft as always, but it was more durable and resistant, even his muscles were tougher. It helped Sora to last longer under Ryou's punches.

'The tempering effect is extremely weak… Should I delve into medicine?' Sora suddenly thought to himself as he withstood Ryou's punches.

If he could increase the effectiveness of his body's healing, it would be great.

Feeling no more punches landing on his body, Sora lifted his gaze and looked at Ryou curiously.

"You're tougher than you look," Ryou said as he took a step back. "I should take you a little more seriously."

Sora watched in amazement as Ryou's muscles began to grow in size.

'Is it the natural ability of his body?' Sora wondered.

He was aware that it wasn't allowed to use Quirks in public, especially here in the dojo because of Katashi's rules.

"I constantly have to hold back against others here at the dojo since we can't use Quirks. There's only two people who can withstand my real punches, and now there seems to be three with you here," Ryou said, a happy smile on his face as he let himself relax.

As Ryou's muscles grew in size, Sora's body was already completely healed from all the wounds and bruises that his body endured.

"Ready for the real sparring match to begin?" Ryou asked as he clenched his fists with an excited smile.

Sora nodded, also beginning to feel his blood boil in excitement.

"Bring it on," Sora said in a low voice, his body lowered into a basic stance.

Dun!

Beginning with a heavy stomp, Ryou launched himself towards Sora as he pulled back his fist.

Dun!

With another heavy step, Ryou twisted his waist and pushed his fist towards Sora.

Bang!

Sora clenched his teeth in pain as he felt Ryou's heavy fist land on his forearms.

Crack!

The punch was heavy and Ryou's strength was quite amazing as his single punch managed to crack Sora's bones quite easily.

'He's still holding back…' Sora thought, his regeneration kicking in to heal his cracked bone and damaged forearms.

Gritting his teeth, Sora smiled as he found the best sparring partner. A person who could help him push his body to the limits and his skills to the test.

With Ryou, Sora could even strengthen his Quirk by constantly receiving wounds from Ryou.

"Great!"

Sora said, deciding to attempt to fight back despite being weaker and having terrible martial skills.

…

Safe to say, Ryou had to call an end to the match as even his stamina didn't seem to match up to Sora's.

'Running for six years straight with heavy weights and resistance bands seems to finally be working out,' thought Sora as he only felt slightly tired despite moving around so much and his Quirk constantly draining his energy and stamina to heal his body.

"You have amazing endurance…" says Ryou as he sat down planting tiredly.

"Your strength is amazing," Sora said as he recalled Ryou's heavy fists. "But next time, don't hold back."

Ryou raised his eyebrows at Sora, surprised that he saw right through him.

"Haha… I'll make sure to go all out next time," Ryou said with a smile. "Now go to Sensei, he must be waiting for you."

"Alright… I'll see you tomorrow then."

Sora nodded his head at Ryou and left in search of Katashi.

"Sensei might be happy that his new student has monstrous endurance," Ryou muttered as he laid down on the floor to relax.

***

"Sensei, Ryou and I have concluded our sparring," Sora said after he found Katashi.

"You trained an hour longer than I expected so you will have to train the sword at home," Katashi said as he pulled out a polished practice wooden sword for Sora. "We will train here for one hour in order to make sure you get the moves down before sending you home for the day."

"I understand."

Sora received the wooden sword and simply stood to the side as Katashi grabbed his own wooden sword.

"What I'm about to teach you is only three moves. You will have to study the rest of the moves on your own. I will only be teaching you the most basic of basic moves."

Following his words, Katashi held the wooden sword with both hands.

"You must also know, that you must train your arm and grip strength to bring out the basic strengths of the sword. To bring out its true strength, precision and speed is the most important aspects."

Sora nodded at Katashi's words, acknowledging that what he was saying was true.

He had mastered using various weapons in his past life, so it didn't come as much of a surprise. In fact, Sora would say that everything is equally important.

From stance to position of hands on the hilt, and from grip strength to the strength of one's toes to help propel your agility.

"Focus, I will begin now," Katashi told Sora before he began to get serious.

Keeping the sword at his hip, Katashi suddenly drew the sword at an incredibly fast speed.

Woosh…

Sora could hear as the wooden sword cut through the air and he stood there praising Katashi.

'Not bad. To have reached this stage at his age, he might have some talent,' Sora thought after recalling Katashi's previous demonstration of fist techniques.

They were good, but it was at a level anyone could reach with years of training. The sword moves on the other hand were performed more masterfully.

"That was Iaido, also known as the sword draw move," Katashi explained as he repositioned himself for another move.

Taking a slow and deep breath, Katashi lifted his foot and lifted the sword to his side before stomping down and cutting down from his right to left.

Woosh…

The wooden sword cut through the air sharply once more, yet this time Sora could even feel the wind caused by the sword hit his face.

"Slice, the most basic move that cuts completely through something in one swift motion," Katashi explained once more.

Shuffling back, Katashi looked forward once more before moving the sword.

Woosh!

Shooting straight forward, Sora watched on with a nod of amazement as Katashi's wooden sword cut forward and hit a wooden training dummy.

Tch!

The sword managed to pierce through an inch of the wooden dummy before the wooden sword snapped in half.

'That was quite something,' thought Sora.

He was amazed by Katashi's skill with the sword and what he could do with a simple sword and only his mastery of the sword. If he used not only a real sword but his strength as well, Katashi would have not only cut through the wooden dummy, but could have cut through cleanly through an 4 mm thick steel sheet.

'A Master…' thought Sora as he looked at Katashi.

This term was different from all the other times Sora had used it. This time, it was to define the realm of one's mastery in a skill.

In this case, Katashi was in the Master Realm for his sword skills. As for fist skills, they were only in the Expert Realm, a level below Master.

Listing the realms Sora himself had devised, there was;

Practice

Beginner

Familiar

Fluent

Expert

Master 

Grandmaster

Using this Mastery Ranking System, Sora's fist skills was only in the beginner realm, and that was thanks to the only straight punch he could successfully pull off.

In 6 years, he only went from not being able to do anything, to the Beginner Realm. Even an average person would already be in the Fluent Realm after six years of training.

That's assuming if they went through the same training Sora has been doing.

If it was a genius, they would already be a step away from the Master Realm.

…

"That was Pierce. To pierce through in the most direct and shortest path," Katashi explained before tossing Sora a piece of paper.

"Go on a practice these moves yourself after you've memorized the moves in that paper."

Sora nodded and began to focus on the paper as Katashi left to guide other students.

Looking at the title of the paper, Sora nodded with a thoughtful look on his face.

[Basic Sword Moves]

'The basics are everything, everything advanced is based on the basics,' Sora thought to himself with a knowing smile, his eyes golden eyes shining as he touched upon something.

The importance of the basics.