Welcome to Gaia! ::

Daven stepped into the dojo with Mocka following him closely. He hadn't even checked to see if his third seat was following him, he simply assumed that he was. Such was his trust of his squad members.

He turned and looked at Mocka.

"You have requested to learn SOMETHING extra, to give you an edge on your assignment to Earth. Therefore I shall teach you the secrets of Shunpo. I chose this becasue it is simply an advancement on what you already know how to do, unlike the Kidos that are a wholly different set of skills."

Daven let a controled amount of reiatsu flow. His fox-red spiritual pressure picked up some small debris and flung it around, and disturbed his fur. He saw Mocka start really paying attention.

"Already you can do this:" and with that, Daven took a step into the air. He continued walking just like he was walking up a flight of stairs, until he was level with the second floor of the Dojo. He stood there and looked down.

"Come and join me up here. We will continue on from there."

"Well, that was certainly labor intensive. The reiatsu should flow, you shouldn't have to think about it.

"Have you ever wondered just how this operates? Everything is made up of Spirit Particles. You, me, the wall, the floor, our swords, everything." As he lectured, Daven sat down, just as if he was sitting in a chair. "This allows us to be able to manipulate those spirit particles. In the case of hoho techniques, that means we can use those spirit particles just as if there were a physical object under us, like the ground."

He leaned forward. "Now, with that concept firmly in mind, can you see how this standing on air works? It is simply that we are energizing our feet to be sensitive and to stand upon the spirit particles floating around."

He did a forward hand spring, pushing off with his hands on the air and springing back to where he was. He sat again. "This is why I am able to do hand stands, sit down, float, run, do gymnastics and anything I want to do like this, because I'm not grabbing a thing I can see, I am using the spirit particles as my medium of movement. Just like I was swimming."

Daven leaned back again.

"This is also why it is harder to do all this on Earth, and why you won't be able to use these techniques reliably near a Quincy. They suck up all the nearby spirit particles and make it vastly harder to use these techniques.

"Do you understand so far?"

"That's theory 101. Now we come to the practical end of things."

Daven took some fur off one of his tails. He made a nice little fluff ball out of it and had it sitting on the palm of his hand.

"Watch this."

He proceeded to focus his reiatsu on his palm, not on the hair, just his palm. In a few seconds, the fluff ball was dancing and jinking all over the place. Daven never directed his reiatsu directly at the fluff, only near it.

"This is a practical example of how when we summon our reiatsu the spirit particles are disturbed. I can do this all day long, simply by having an aura of reiatsu around my hand."

Daven paused. He looked at his Third Seat. Would he have to be prompted to respond with the answer, or would he realize it himself? There would be a lot told in the next few moments.

"That's a good example, but there is a conclusion you should have come to based on what I just told you."

Daven waited a bit, but his student still didn't see it.

He sighed a bit. "When we use our reiatsu at all, we move the spirit particles. That's what this demonstration is all about. The reiatsu around my hand is moving the spirit particles away from it, thus floating the fluff ball. Given that...?"

"No. Here in the Soul Society you might be able to use the spirit particles to make things, but we are talking about this in the context of shunpo.

"If our reiatsu moves the spirit particles, and using more reiatsu makes them move faster, then this is how shunpo works, by using our reiatsu to move our bodies insanely fast.

"This is why the upper ranks can move so fast, the lower ranks may be able to sense this, but it is beyond their ability to manipulate the spirit particles. The more reiatsu, the greater your control, the longer your shunpo range and the faster you go. All you have to do is propel yourself with your spirit pressure, bu 'telling' the spirit particles what you want to do."

Daven was disappointed, but he hid it. Oh well, there were others who he had to lead to these conclusions, and they were good.

"Moving spirit particles with your reiatsu is just like standing on them like we are. First off, you have to TRUST that they are there and you can do this. Second off, you have to focus your spirit pressure. You can't have your zanpakto sitting on the air, because it has no spirit pressure to manipulate the spirit particles with. But you can sit on the air, because you decided that you were going to, and your reiatsu told the spirit particles to act as a chair.

"Same thing with Shunpo."

Daven started collecting even more reiatsu around his body and feet. "I'm going to slow this demonstration down as much as I can, but it still may be too much for you to follow. But this is how it is done."

And with that, Daven 'twisted' the spirit particles into moving very fast, and he was on the other side of the room in an instant. He was still sitting in the same position since he didn't have to physically move to do this, but he still covered 80 meters in the twinkling of an eye.

Daven shook his head.

"You are making a heck of a chore of this. Just like you did when you walked upon the air. The particles are there, they will help you. Trust them.

"Put this another way. You and I are on a mission. We meet an Arancar. You know I am behind you someplace, but you also know that I can't attack without hurting you in the process. The arancar is guarding itself against you and me. Your mission at that point is to do what?"

Daven stopped for a few moments to let him think. "Your mission then should be two fold, one to get out of my way, and two to open up the Arancar for my attack. What is the essential part there?"

Daven waited again. "You have to trust me to do my job. You have to have faith in me to be there, to take advantage of the opening you create, and to not hit you in the process. That's teamwork, trust or faith. If you have it in me, who in this example you couldn't see, why can't you have that same trust and faith in the spirit particles which you also can't see?

"It is that faith that is at the core of Shunpo and all Hoho techniques. You trust that the spirit particles will be a medium you can stand upon. You also have to trust that the spirit particles will move you to exactly where you want to go as fast as you want to get there. TRUST. It is the core of everything."

Daven stood up. "I have given you all the advice and theory you can take for now. I have shown you the key. Now it is up to you to practice it. And you have to learn to trust a thing you know exists but which you can't see. Until you do that, your standing on air will be labored and clumsy, as will your shunpo."

Daven was bursting with pride.

"Excellently done! Now you acquired the trick of juggling, and from here on it is simply a matter of practice until you can juggle as many balls as I can. Practice here and on Earth and keep going. Well done."

He slapped his student on the back and shunpoed back to his office.

[ exit ]