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Raw had been standing till, watching for the longest. He was like that, he'd stand around randomly, with his big size, intimidating others. He barely spoke without provocation, so unless you actually knew him, or engaged in conversation, he was silent.
He decided on actually training today, so walked off away from everyone else to an area that seemed to be made out of pure-sand. There was another training dummie, he pushed off with his back paw and spun while kicking its head off. His tail knocked off another dummie at the same time, but this was merely for mausement.
He took stance and muttered the incantation for his kidou and sent it out with just the slightest whisper of "bakudou #4, crawling rope" The rope wiggled a little, and then wrapped semi-tightly around the headless dummie.
"hhhhmmmmmm" he sighed in in dissapointment.
Raw then sat down, crosslegged.. his tail twitching every few seconds

After simply training his agility by jumping and running around various objects, Rawtoon felt a bit tired. He walked under a tree and sat in the shade. After a couple hours he dozed off. He was awaken by the sound of a kidou blast in the distance.
He was out, but he still heard it in the distance since being a werewolf gave you those kinds of abilities. He got up and stretched, seeing it was now dark. He stared back to the row of training dummies, feeling like they must've been left out. None the less, he took his stance and muttered his prior incantation aloud again.
"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini. Look upon yourself in horror and then claw out your own throat."
His voice quieted, now he would try something new.."bakudo #9: hit, bakudo #9: hit, bakudo #9: hit."
He fired off three separate shots, each one weaker than the other, but all of them seemed more powerful than when he didn't recite the incantation. His theory proved, and he smiled slightly to himself, leaving the training area to get some rest.
[exits to Squad 10]

Soru replaced the aching with that of excitement. He would become stronger and have a wider range of options when he entered his next fight. He only hoped that he improved his endurance so he would be able to use these skills more than thrice per day. That was another goal he wanted to accomplish by the end of the week.

He stepped infront of his chosen straw dummy and decided to practice using several lower level Kido to train his stamina. He took a deep breath inward and focused his energy in his fingers, "Hado #4, Byakurai!" His whole hand started to glow and felt as if one was playing pinball under his skin. Before his hands burst, a bolt of white lightning erupted from his hand and wildly the straw doll, the ground and the wall behind it.

Soru felt surprise and disbelief at how destructive and unfocused he was at firing Hado. Never the less, practice makes perfect and he was compelled to cast as many as it took to get stronger. He was ready to fire again, when his eye was drawn to the growing red stain on his hand. It wasn't a particularly large stain, but it seemed to be growing.

Soru didn't believe it, but it seemed the pressure from the Byakurai must have ripped open the small pricks in his hand. He didn't find it all that serious and continued. It wasn't like he was going to die from the opening of a wound, literally, the size of a pin.

"Hado #4," He felt the pressure building up again, and suppressed it to the best of his ability, "Byakurai!" The bolt was still very unfocused and darted off in various directions, but it didn't seem nearly as out of control as the first shot, "Perhaps the Hado aren't as hard as I first perceived," He said very quietly. Just silent enough that only those listening would hear.

He stretched out his arm one more time, "Hado #4, Byakurai!" This blast was even less spontaneous than the last shot, and went through the straw doll's stomach area. He grinned and was about to cast another shot, when his fingers bled just a little more viciously.

She had been running for what seemed like hours now! She still hadn't gotten over her letter from the Gotei 13 that informed that she was leaving the Academy for SoulSociety. Once arriving, she was told to find something around the Sereitei to do.
So, she ran, and headed straight to the Kidou grounds.
Stopping in a could of dust, the first thing she did was yell out so all can hear "Bakudo #2: Crawling Rope"!
She gracefully outstreached her arm in a quick striking motion, and like snakes rope appeared, wrapping up the dummie in front of her.
"Now.." she said, darlky, "Prison guard of demonic prisoners, take hold of the guilty, and on their limbs place your restraining shackles 'Bakudo #10: Four Point Binding Shackles'!"
She reached out with both arms, stretching them towards the same dummy. This time shackels appeared at its hands and feet. She then concentrated as hard as she could and suddenly the dummie's limbs broke apart and fell off, causing the kidou to dissolve like an illusion of sorts.
And that is why I'm no longer just a candidate from the Academy, I will now be a soul reaper!

Soru stretched his fingers out as he made his way to the Kidou grounds. He felt stiff due to the fact that he had been doing a whole lot of nothing the past few days. He looked at his hands to see they had healed up very nicely. He felt a sort of pride from training until he sustained bodily injury. He continued to play with his fingers until he reached the entrance.

He grinned, as he was glad to get back to training. He may even learn the name of his Zanpakutou some day, but for now, he wanted to focus on his Kidou. He made his way to the target range and turned to face his target. He braced his hands and focused his spirit energy. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!" His hands began to glow a bright red. The familiar crushing sensation filled is hands once more, but not as drastically as the time he tried this bakudo before. Perhaps he had gotten stronger, "Bakudou #9; Geki!"

A bright ray of red light shot forth from Soru's palms, and he felt serious recoil on his arms. The ray traveled in a wide straight path. It looked almost like a colored flashlight. As quickly as it came, it vanished in a flicker.

Already, Soru's arms were sore. The recoil from the first shot was already tingling in his arms. He could tell there was a major difference in strength needed for the different level Kidou. This, however, didn't discourage him from trying again, as he prepared to cast the Bakudou again.

It had become a daily routine for Clare after a year at the academy. She woke up early, read the known information on fighting styles or kido that she was going to train in that day, and spent at least a full hour in highly focused training in one of the training areas on the campus of the academy, all before her first class. Today she planned on furthering her training with Thrust; in her mind, if she could master its usage there would be a number of purposes for this "simple" hado. Despite her teachers all saying she has some natural talent with kido, she never seemed to be able to summon the spells at the same strength as the other students and so she sought to improve herself by focusing on a single spell at a time.

"Though this kido, like many others, has no official incantation, there have been many recorded cases that talented kido users have developed incantation for kidos like Thrust and have received a large improvement in overall power, speed, or effect of the spell. No theory as to why this happens has been officially recognized, but most kido masters tend to think that it comes from the added focus that the incantation provides. There are limitations to the effectiveness however: first, the incantation must be appropriate for the kido and its level; second, during the initial practicing the exact same incantation must be voiced aloud, and only after it becomes second nature can it be reduced to a mental chant; third, a created incantation that has not yet been mastered should not be used to train for a modified kido. Now the only way to know if such a method will work for you is to actually go out and practice, and practice hard!" Clare read aloud to herself from the Way of Kido, Volume 1 Practical Supplement manual, a dusty and largely unread addition to the curriculum at the academy. Her teachers had all told her that she had a basic knack for kido, but she took more time with mastering the spells themselves; that was why she ended up searching for additional help from the kido manuals, and with manuals for various other fighting abilities for that matter.

Clare closed the book, stood up from her desk, and walked out of her room to head for the kido training grounds. Since zanpakto weren't usually allowed on the kido grounds, Clare had to leave it behind. She always hated leaving her zanpakto behind; ever since she was given that sword she started having those nightmares more than ever, it always felt that having her zanpakto by her side, in her hands even, made her fears, worries, and doubts disappear. Well, more specifically, if felt that those darker feelings were being absorbed by the zanpakto like it was protecting her.

She was alone on the kido training grounds for the moment, and that was perfectly fine for her. Now I don't have to worry about distractions or competing with anyone, she thought with a slight smile. There were a few sandbag dummies lined up along the wall to her right, and Clare decided that a heavier one would be a good test for the book's theory. She set the dummy in the middle of a clear area, and stepped a few meters away from it.

First the normal way. She held her left arm out straight at about shoulder height, pointed her index finger at the dummy, and said with confidence, "Hado number one, Thrust." The feeling was largely what she had grown used to during her education at the academy: the natural surge of reiatsu before the spoken part of the spell, the slightly tingling sensation from channeling of the reiatsu to her hand and then the almost painful funneling down to her finger, the light recoil up through her arm as the spell launched forth. The sandbag got a small dent and slid back a few inches.

Now for the added focus. First she cleared her mind and visualized what the kido was going to do; it was just an invisible bullet of kido launched wherever she pointed essentially. Next she visualized a dark sphere surrounding her hand and slowly filled that with reiatsu. Then she pointed her finger at the dummy, and began funneling all of that reiatsu down through her finger. She had decided upon what incantation to use during the walk to the training grounds and had practiced it mentally a number of times so that she could recite it exactly the same way throughout the practice session, and she said it aloud, with her voice full of energy, "Your enemy approaches the gates, stand ready and repel him! Hado number one, Thrust!" The energy that had begun filling her index finger rather painfully, launched forth with even more force than before, forcing her arm to bend at the elbow from the recoil. She quickly inspected her finger to make sure she wasn't actually injured from the experiment, and saw no visible signs of injury, only the slight tingle that is left after a bit of pain.

She looked up at the dummy and saw a deeper impact on its surface, and more importantly she saw the skid marks on the ground stretching nearly a foot back. Clare couldn't help but smile for a moment to herself as she saw the results. The whole process took about 20 seconds... nowhere near battle worthy... first lets see if I can repeat those results, and if I can then I will spend the time training to cut the time down to no more than 3 seconds, she thought regaining her determined composure; once again she set a goal that would seem impossible in just one day, but through sheer hard work she would force herself to come as close to that goal as possible if she didn't end up surpassing it.

For the next few minutes, Clare went through the enhanced process of hado number one, and produced pretty much the exact same results. A strong deep impact, and skid marks of about a foot in length were seen each time. "I guess that's all of the effect I can muster at this level, but hopefully it will grow stronger as I do. At least, I can match the other students with this kido for a change," she said honestly, kind of hoping that the spell would be somewhat stronger after going through the process a few more times. Now that she knew the effect was fairly constant, she could focus on reducing the time the meditation takes. It took her about 10 minutes of constant repetition to reduce the time to about 10 seconds, but at that point the pain in her finger became intense had now spread to her entire hand. Not wanting to give up so soon, she decided to switch to using her right hand, and after testing it out twice, found that it didn't hinder the speed or the effect at all. One bonus about being ambidextrious, she thought with a smirk.

After another 15 minutes had passed, she had reduced the time as far as she could while still saying the incantation aloud, 4 seconds. Now with both of her hands throbbing in pain, she knew the next step to take. She set the dummy back in the original starting place, and took her usual spot in preperation.

Here we go, visualize, channel... Your enemy approaches the gates, stand ready and repel him! "Hado number one, Thrust!" she yelled out, launching the spell with her left hand again this time. The pain from this one shot all the way up her arm, and she fell down to one knee wincing, but she saw that though the effect was slightly less than the normal power that she had finally attained today. It was still there, however. And more importantly, it only took two and a half seconds to perform. Clare was smiling through the pain now, she accomplished her goal. That was going to have to be all she could force out of her body for today, but she was glad nonetheless.

Another goal accomplished, she thought full of hope as she returned to her room again before her morning classes.


((Yes, I made up the kido manual, but that is because kido is supposedly one of the most important things to a shinigami, but the only reason we don't see much of it is becuse of the people that the series focuses on - people that don't use kido - so it is rare that we get any new information about it. I believe that every kido has an incantation that goes with it, just many chose not to use them for obvious reasons, and so worked that belief into my character's story this way. The increase in strength is understandable since there is an increase in concentration, so this method shouldn't be opposed hopefully. cool Now I just need to hope that not every one and their mothers will decide to follow this, lol))

Once Clare discovered that she could raise her ability with kido up to the normal level with Hado number one, she spent the next weeks trying and using those same methods on the other kido that she knew, that didn't have incantations. The first was Bakudo number one, Restrain.

According to the manual she read, Restrain places sacred words around the wrist and waist of the target and forcefully drags their arms behind their back effectively pinning them there. Against people with lower spirit force it has a total body paralysis effect, while against those who are stronger it merely serves as a nearly invisible set of hand cuffs while forcing their hands behind their back. The kido is one that can be dissolved by a large amount of reiastu from the target but at least takes a short time before it wears off entirely.

Once Clare had read through her manual about the kido she started to figure out what kind of incantation to use. While she was walking toward the kido training grounds, she quickly thought about what would focus her thoughts on the proper imagery for the kido and would not be overly cheesy. Something about weakness... capture... Lose all hope of escape... no, not quite right... Crush the spirit in capture... no... her thoughts kept runnng over various possibilities as she got closer to the grounds.

On the grounds she set up one of the wooden mannequins that stood up on its own and had poseable limbs, and then stood in front of it. She decided on her incantation and placed the index and middle finger of her left hand near the chest of the dummy before she spoke. "Capture and render all might worthless. Bakudo number one, Restrain," she said as she swung her left hand and arm out to the side. The mannequin instantly had its arms shift behind it and then collapsed to the ground. Now that is the effect that it is supposed to have! she thought happily, remembering that when she had done it before it moved the arms a lot more slowly and didn't even cause the mannequin to fall. Afterwards she released the spell, reset the mannequin, and repeated the process continually working down the overall time and eventually bringing it back to a mental chant like she had done with the hado before.

By the end of the training session she was exhausted and still had the rest of her classes to attend. It is going to be a long day, and a long week, she thought tired but happy that she was finally making improvements on her kido.