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 Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:59 am
At least the sun wouldn't bother Tsai now, it was nearly done setting and the air up here was very thin. Why was it? When he was climbing the stairs of Sokyoku he didn't experience any problems with breathing. Neither did he experience problems breathing when he was on Sokyoku Hill listening to Yamamoto-sotaicho's speech. Maybe it was because of the fact that he was exhausted from climbing about 1000ft in a day.
It was now 9 hours into the climb, Tsai was about 1100ft in the air, he was about 400ft close to finishing the climb. This thought was keeping Tsai going and from sleeping or falling down. His reiatsu was nearly depleted...if he fell it'd be over for him.
[29]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:05 am
Tsai could wanted to get the climb over with. He was way too tired to continue. With one hand holding onto his zampakuto which was stabbed deep into the side of the upside climb of the cliff. Tsai began spinning his grappling hook while upside down. He tossed it hoping to be like spiderman and swing his way a couple feet upwards.
The first throw wasn't as successful as his previous tosses. He tried again. A swing and a miss. He reeled the grappling hook back, his grip was starting to loosen from his zampakuto's hilt as he tossed for the third time. And like they say "Third time's the charm," it worked, the grappling hook got lodged a couple feet away, Tsai quickly tugged it three times. Judging from how tight it was lodged, it was pretty safe to swing to the other side on it but he needed his zampakuto to stop it.
[30]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:09 am
He quickly grabbed the hilt of his zampakuto with both of his hands and as the zampakuto loosened from the side of the cliff, Tsai became a sort of pendulum and swung to the other side. Tsai tried to stop himself during the first swing but failed and missed it. He continued to swing back and forth but lost speed and height with each miss.
Then Tsai began to think, and he thought of something that would help him. He began to swing him legs to each side as the pendulum came back and forth adding speed to each swing. Tsai soon regained his old momentum and with one stab into the cliff, he hooked himself onto. Tsai wasn't as tired now that he had a rest while swinging. And he skipped from 1200ft to 1300ft.
Tsai was now somewhat rested up and could continue the remaining 200ft climb. His reiatsu was somewhat recovered but not fully and he wasn't as tired as before. Nor was he as heated.
[31]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:13 am
Holding onto his zampakuto with his left hand (since it wasn't as sweaty as his right), Tsai wiped his hands on his gi to get the sweat off of them, switching hands each time. He then tugged on the rope as hard as he could to release the pick. He hoped to finish the rest of the climb using his stabbing and releasing method to get the maximum benefits from the training.
The pick fell after two strong tugs and Tsai began reeling it in. In about 5 minutes time, Tsai resumed his climb. Night was almost here.
[32]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:17 am
Tsai was moving alot slower than he was before and had only moved from 1300ft to 1310ft in 20 minutes, he was trying to conserve energy and slow down his pace. The climb had now reached 10 hours with no complete rest stops, and the fact that if you fell, you'd become worst than roadkill.
The shinigami now alone up the climb began concentrated on his own breathing so that he wouldn't lose focus on what he was doing. He couldn't check his time but he knew it was about 7-10 hours due to the sun being down now. Making it harder for Tsai to accomplish the climb since it was dark afterall.
His sweat had dried off but he was still sticky, this helped his grip but made him feel awfully uncomfortable. "A bath is waiting for me when I get home.."
[33]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:21 am
About 1350ft in the air now, Tsai began to lose his concentration and began closing his eyes. He was starting to become sleepy, but he couldn't sleep. Suddenly, there was a voice that called out to him.
"Boy, keep going, don't get distracted!" it shouted at him. Tsai shook his head and opened his eyes wide open. What was it that called to him? Was it Kaosu? He looked down, no it couldn't be, Tsai couldn't even see him anymore. Karite? I doubt it, he was younger than Tsai, it wouldn't make sense for him to call Tsai, boy.
[34]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:24 am
What was that? The thought continued to move through Tsai's mind. "Was it just me beginning to hear things? I mean, I'm tired and all maybe I was just hearing things.." Tsai wondered as he continued to mvoe up the hill, a few more things fell from his bag. They were just books and ordinary equipment that he could replace. He had safely secured his important training equipment and books deep inside the book and it would take alot more than gravity to bring those things down.
Tsai continued to think about the voice which called out to him. And suddenly the thought hit him. "Shikai?" he suddenly muttered and stopped. "Are you there?" he asked inside him head trying to communicate with his shikai. "Greetings?"
[35]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:27 am
There was no reply. Maybe he was just hearing things. Tsai refused to give up but continued to climb. He was now 1390ft in the air. "Hello? Are you here?' he continued to say those words in his head, he lost concentration on his climb and randomly stabbed his zampakuto and pick in places and moved forward. Bad idea..
He stabbed his pick into the cliff but it was a loose spot, the spot broke freeing his pick and caused Tsai to hang with one arm onto his zampakuto. He gritted his teeth trying to pull himself up.
[36]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:32 am
He tried to pull himself up by he was too tired to go on, and his reiatsu was nearly gone. If he used his reiatsu to pull himself up he wouldn't have enough to finish his journey up, but he didn't have much choice now did he?
"Oh oh oh..Tsai, you really need to focus when your climbing something like this, I'll give you a little boost and you pull yourself up," a voice said, it sounded like Yamamoto-sotaicho. Tsai looked up at the cliff but noone was there. Was he hearing things again?
Then, his zampakuto began to glow a bright yellow. Suddenly, Tsai felt a jolt of reiatsu into his body. Was that his zampakuto spirit? Tsai smiled. "Thank you" he muttered in his head as he used his reiatsu to pull himself up and stabbed the pick back into the cliff. This was his first time that he had communicated with his zampakuto. This probably meant that he was on the way to unlock his shikai.
[37]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:36 am
Tsai was quite happy while he climbed even though he was tired, and sticky. But the thing was he still had a nice amount of reiatsu to keep him going. His zampakuto had somehow given him a nice amount of reiatsu. Tsai was very grateful.
But he didn't use alot of it, he released the reiatsu fairly slowly just incase anything like his previous event happened again. Tsai was now about 1410ft in the air and about 96% done the climb.
[38]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:39 am
Trouble soon struck Tsai. He was ow 1430ft in the air when suddenly his pick breaks. It was now useless to him. There was no way he could continue with only his zampakuto and his hands. But he had no choice, he moved his right hand forward and dug his fingers into the rock, gripping it as hard as he could and pulled his zampakuto out then as soon as he did he stabbed it forward. This proccess was slower than before and was painful as well.
"I got.. to keep... going!!" Tsai kept saying to himself as he gritted his teeth. His glasses were somewhat dusty causing his vision to be a bit covered up.
[39]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:44 am
Even though he had enough reiatsu to continue the climb and a little extra, Tsai refused to use anymore than he already have, he needed to maintain his reiatsu release and not get to greedy with it. He decided to switch hands, using his left (since it felt no pain) to grip onto the rock bare handed and his right to hold onto his zampakuto.
He continued his painful journey up Sokyoku. About 10 minutes passed, Tsai had only complete 5ft. It was a hell of alot slower than when he had the pick as well. Now, about 1435ft up the cliff Tsai began to lose concentration again, thinking about his painful arm and less about where he was going. He suddenly felt a slight electric jolt from his zampakuto.
Tsai blinked and stopped to catch his breath. "Thanks, I needed that,"
[40]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:46 am
Tsai continued his climb, using his left hand to grip onto the rock bare-handed and his right to stab his zampakuto into the cliff. The journey was a slow proccess but it was better than running laps and weight training all day. Tsai felt as if his strength, balance and endurance had increased. After climbing for about 11hours, the climb didn't feel as hard as it did when he first climbed it. He had passed his limit but he didn't feel tired now.
This was the fruit of his labor. He smiled at his results.
[41]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:55 am
"Tell me, Mister Zampakuto-san, why have you decided to help me now of all times and not before?" he asked his zampakuto while climbing up the cliff.
There was no reply for awhile but Tsai waited and continued to climb. "You must understand Tsai that even though I'm a part of you, I can only show true signs of myself when you have broken through the barrier that you broken awhile back. Due to the fact that you have broken that limit, I can finally begin to help you. If you want to further borrow my powers, you'll have to go further past the limit," the voice replied.
Tsai somewhat understood what the elderly voice had said to him. "So for me to further become powerful, I'll have to shatter my limits and build on it?" he asked. "Precisely.." the elderly voice replied.
[42]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:59 am
"I get it now, that's why you didn't appear when I was fighting Chimitsu..because-" Tsai was then interrupted. "Because you didn't even get a chance to reach your limit, that woman is powerful, I am sure with enough training, you and I together we can defeat her," the elderly voice said.
"But she is way ahead of me in terms of power alone and with her shikai, isn't there a way I can become more power in a short amount of time? Tsai asked his zampakuto spirit. "There is...but I'll leave that for you to figure out.." his zampakuto spirit replied to him.
Tsai remained quiet for the next 30 minutes as he reached the 1450ft marker. He began thinking of ways for him to become stronger. "Going to Yamamoto's special classes now would let me learn a few new abilities that I could use to defeat Chimitsu but that's all I can think of..." he muttered to himself.
[43]
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