Hoho Training

Nikitio’s chest was not feeling entirely better, but it had lightened up a bit. He was not wincing as much from the cloth touching his opened skin. He checked the one at his side to see how bad it was, and it was crusted with small amounts of blood. The skin was also pink and red. He knew there was going to be an ugly bruise later on in the day. He would have to be sure to practice his guards plenty. So far though he hadn’t learned any, but he was sure the girl would teach him. Assuming Nikitio didn’t die first that is. His Kido Instructor wasn’t too too bad. He seemed to have a set expectation for Nikitio, and so he would have to work on that as well. At least it was only listening so far. He could do that on his own, in his dorm. Next was Hoho. He wondered what this would be like. Agility and Speed went hand in hand with each other, so this training should be interesting. He had heard that Shinigami can move at speeds that the eye cannot see. Maybe this was the base of such speed. He would certainly have to find out. This was his mission, along with surviving the day.

Nikitio arrived in a forested area. It wasn’t a true forest though. It was just choked to death with trees. He wondered what kind of training would take place here for speed. There was nowhere to go besides for the path that was made. A girl sat in the tree looking down at Nikitio. She giggled and waved. Her hair was short and pink. It covered one of her eyes, showing only one of her blue eyes. The only eye that showed, the right one, was glittering with excitement. It was clear she took her job quite seriously, but it was unlucky for the students not her. Her skin was deathly pale, and her lips were thin. Her fingernails were painted pink as well. She slipped off the tree and landed skillfully before vanishing. Nikitio nearly tripped over himself as she vanished before his eyes. She appeared behind him and caught him before he could fall.

She giggled, and it sounded like something a child would giggle. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.” She giggled again and vanished. Nikitio fell over and looked around for her. She was back up in the tree looking down. This must be that ability that he had heard about. He would learn it one day, and he would be certain to be faster than her. She just continued to giggle as he sat there. ”Well? Get up silly! You can’t learn Hoho on your tushy!” She laughed out loud this time and jumped down. ”My name is Sakura. I shall be your teacher. Now then, I want you to run from there to that tree as fast as you can. Then run back.” She added that last part like it was something she always forgot. Nikitio was betting that she did. He stood up and dusted himself off. He would going to spend a lot of his time fixing his outfit and himself it seemed. He did as he was told and ran from there to the tree and then back. Sakura arched an eyebrow at him. Her face was unreadable though. It was a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. A mixture that few people could get right, but she managed to do it perfectly.

”Well…you’re fast but you’re not fast enough. And you certainly use a lot of steps. You know how much energy you burn out that way? Hmph! If only the Onmitsukido could see this. They would laugh at you until they are blue in the face!” She laughed then, and Nikitio balled his hands into fists. He ran again, and again, and again. He continued to run until he was panting and doubled over. ”Well you certainly are determined, I’ll give you that.” She shrugged, and leaned on a tree. ”But Hoho is more than speed, and running till you cannot breathe won’t help you. You need to be able to run without burning yourself out. You need to be able to run and move change direction quickly, without losing speed.” She shook her head. ”Your footing is all wrong. You need to work on that. If you tried to quickly change direction, without losing your speed, then you would trip over yourself and fall flat on your face. She giggled as if she had imagined that and found it amusing. Nikitio was willing to bet that she did.

Nikitio stood up straight and looked at Sakura. ”So what do I do then? Teach me. Show me the way.” Nikitio said softly. He did his best to hold back his anger. He wanted to punch this girl in the face. She was beginning to piss him off with her constant giggling and laughter. He felt like she would just giggle and laugh herself to death rather than actually teach him something. At his request though she seemed to get extremely serious, and the giggles and laughter faded. ”So you want to learn?” She vanished and appeared next to him. ”Run through the forest to the other end. I will be there. If you can survive, I will teach you. If you die…well that’s not my problem.” She vanished then. Nikitio looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. He didn’t want to admit that she could be at the other end, but he had to. He walked up to the entrance and stared into it. Why would he die? He then though about that question and shook his head. He didn’t want to know the answer, but he was about to find out anyway.

Nikitio took off at a jog into the woods. No sooner had he entered than was the first trap sprung. A pair of large logs swung down from either side at him, and he rolled forward, onto to jump back as a third fell from the tree tops. [/color=indigo]”This bitch is crazier than the last![/color] He said with quick pants. Adrenaline was coursing through his body. He could feel the blood in his body being redirected to his arms and legs. He ran forward though, and tried to dodge some other traps. He had several close calls. Arrows, pits, and logs stood in his way. He found each trap harder to avoid than the last. He did his best though, and still didn’t reach the end. He had no idea how much farther he had to go, but if he saw another pit he wasn’t sure he was going to make it. The strain was nearly too much to handle. His muscles and body screamed in pain as he worked for his life, literally. He wished he could be back with his Zanjutsu instructor. He continued to run and looked down for a heartbeat. That was all the time he needed by this point to notice the small and thin line that hinted there was a trap there.

He jumped over the wire and where he landed he felt his right foot dip a bit lower than his left. He silently swore to himself as he realized that the trap was a fake, and this was the real trap. What were the odds that he would land on that one spot though?! He rolled forward as he heard the creaking of logs as they swung out from the darkness again. He looked back at it and let out a sigh. He was sweating and this wasn’t even over yet! As he thought that he saw a light ahead. ”Oh thank you!!! He shouted as he sprinted forward. He ran for all he was worth. He ran like he had never run before. He ran like a crazy person! He tripped as he ran out of the forest. A number of spears were shot out of the tops of the trees, and he quickly rolled over. They all missed, and he heard the sounds of giggles. ”Well well well, looks like you lived. That is good news! This means you get to stay and learn the ways of Hoho! You have a lot to learn yet, but this was a good start!” Nikitio ran at her and she vanished from sight once more. Her voice rang in the air behind him. ”Now now, be happy! While you’re at it, get to your next class!” He turned around but she was gone.

Nikitio looked ahead of him and there was a door. He walked into it and was in the halls of the academy again. So that made one crazy instructor, one calm one, and one psycho one. So far Nikitio was still alive, barely, and so that meant he had some kind of skill. Or maybe he was just extremely lucky. Whatever it is, he was alive, and that’s all that mattered. He slowly made his way to his next class, but he was not happy about it at all. He wanted to go to his bed and sleep. He wanted to sleep forever. His body ached in places he didn’t know he could ache in. His face was red, his muscles were sore, his chest was screaming. He was just a mess, and he was not happy at all. Like the girl said though, he lived. So he guessed he should be happy, but who ever does what they should do? He wanted to kill her, but he wouldn’t. He only had to deal with her until he managed to learn the basics. Then he was out of here and hopefully to a real division.

He looked around for a moment not knowing where he was. Some kids walked by and looked at him. He looked away from them and decided that it was best not to look lost. He tried his best to ignore the pain and put on his emotionless face, but that was too hard so he found it best just to avoid people’s stares of wonder and question. He didn’t owe them anything. He just minded his own business, something he wished they would do, and tried to find his way to his next, and final, class of the day: Hakuda. He had been looking forward to this earlier this morning, but by this time, he was certain he didn’t want it. He could only imagine what kind of pain this class would bring. Something ridiculously difficult was in store for him. He could feel it. He didn’t like this so far, and he knew he would die here. It was fate. The Fates hated him, and that was that. Woe was him, who had had dreams, and whom now had a death wish. Oh well, cest la vie.


:Exit:
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After his Zanjutsu class had gone rather well he was in a good mood. His back hurt like a bitch, but it would heal. He didn’t know how much more he could take of Claudia’s compliments. He felt like she would burst at any moment now. If she did he didn’t want to be anywhere near it. He had to head to his Hoho class now. He wanted to learn more about this Shunpo. He had already done it once. When he did, he wasn’t aware of it though. He wasn’t in control of his actions. It was something he did on instinct. He needed to learn how to do it naturally and on command. If he couldn’t do it on command, then what was the point in having the skill? He had to gain this knowledge to feel whole. He had already sent a not to Derrick that informed him he would have to come in later. Derrick had responded that he understood and wished him luck.

He got to the Hoho training area and frowned at it. It was different this time. Unlike before when it was a bunch of trees, now there was just a field. There were two posts though, and between them was nothing. The poles were made of wood and were at least thirty feet high. He didn’t understand how they got there without anybody knowing, but here they were. Nikitio knew better than to question such a thing. Stranger things have and would happen. He looked at the poles closer and noticed one had a red ribbon and one had a blue ribbon. On the top of the red pole was a shadow. He squinted to try and see better, but there was nothing he could see.

The shadow moved down the pole. It didn’t fall, it moved. It looked like it was running or something of that nature. It vanished from sight and appeared at the bottom. It charged at Nikki at an amazing rate. It was so fast! Nikitio’s eyes could barely keep up with it. He heard childish laughter that seemed to come from the shadow. It was high pitched joyous. When he could see the colors of the humanoid figure, he saw that it had pink hair. It had to be Sakura. The childish girl was faster than Nikitio thought she was. Then again, she was the Hoho teacher. He had never seen anything faster than her, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist. Nikitio would be one of the people who was faster than she. He had to be. If he didn’t become faster, than he failed himself and he failed her.

When Sakura stopped she was only five feet away. At first nothing happened, and she was giggling happily. After a few seconds a small gust of wind blew past Nikitio. He had to close his eyes at the wind, but it ended soon enough. When he could see again Sakura was still just standing there. ”I hear you have been a busy busy boy. The rumors go as far as to say that you even know Shunpo! Shame! I wanted to teach you that! Oh well though, nothing to do about it now. Though we could kill you, bring you back as a Shinigami, and then I could teach you! But that is more work that I really wanna go though so we will just see how fast you really are!”

She vanished and appeared by the red pole. ”Use shunpo to come here!” Nikitio didn’t understand what to do. Hpw was he supposed to do that. He didn’t even know how to do it. Maybe if he focused enough he could try to, but that was his only thought. He ran at Sakura as fast as he could. His feet pounded on the ground as he moved. He switched from touching his sole to the ground, to running with his toes. He only allowed his toes to touch the ground and push off from them. He got some distance and cut down his steps by about two. It was a bit faster, but it still wasn’t a shunpo. Shunpo just felt differently. It was like you saw everything outside of time. He was still seeing everything clearly. He was not using shunpo. He couldn’t use shunpo. He couldn’t do it.

As he ran and this dawned on him, he began to get frustrated. By the time he managed to get to Sakura his palms had deep nail wounds in them. He wasn’t confident in himself. How could he not do this? Even the loser he killed could use Shunpo. Even the failed graduate could use Shunpo. Why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he do what they could? Why was he such a failure. Sakura shook her head and sighed. ”I know what you are thinking. Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault. A lot of people do it by accident the first time. It’s not your fault. Nothing is the same for everyone. Everyone does shunpo differently. What I mean by that is we all have a different trigger for it. Some people activate it by feelings of doubt. Others do it by feelings of desperation. You just have to find your trigger. Run from this post to that one until you do. Sometimes it helps to tire yourself out, and then you can do it. With more and more practice you’ll find the trigger, and then you can do it by will.”


Nikitio nodded and ran from one pole to the other. He ran at full force to burn out his energy sooner. If he could ignore the pain of running for so long then he could certainly build endurance. Because of that, he should be able to go longer while using shunpo. Also, assuming he could do these without using a lot of steps, he could do it more times, and be faster. He wanted to do this. He didn’t care if it killed him. He would die knowing shunpo. Shikai, Bankai, Captain, none of that mattered anymore. He just needed to learn shunpo. Once he knew it, he would enhance it until he was the best in all of the Soul Society.

Nikitio continued to run. He pushed himself, and ignored the burning in his muscles. A voice rang in his head. ”Relax your body. You’re doing this all wrong. You need to relax. Let it come to you. The knowledge is in you. Your body knows what to do. Let your mind become a back seat driver.” Nikitio felt he knew the voice, but he couldn’t place it. He listened though as the voice of Claudia rang in his head. He remembered what he told her. He knew that sooner or later he wouldn’t have to rely on instinct to save his ass, but for now it was all he had. He relaxed his body, but continued moving.

There it was. He felt like he knew what to do. He relaxed and centered energy on his feet. Soon he felt his body moving. It was an odd kind of moving. Not like he was running, but as if the world was moving and he was still. He laughed as he moved. He knew he was doing it. His body knew it. His mind didn’t want to believe, but the proof was right there. He was using Shunpo. When he stopped he looked at Sakura and she was clapping. ”Good good! GREAT! Woooo! Haha! I am so proud of you! Now then, get to class. I have to set up a test for you.” She vanished in an instant, and a grinning Nikitio vanished as well.


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