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Kaisho looked around the training grounds, a large bag in hand, eyeing the other shinigami from the other squads as they trained hard honing their kidō. Kaisho thought long and hard on the kidō skill he wanted to hone, but did not seem quite sure. He was tactical with Bakudō, but based on his rank battle with Aizakku a month earlier, he did sense a lack of potency and efficiency. With his decision settled, the newly appointed Fifth Seat immediately commenced his training, setting his bag and Zanpakuto down next to him.

Without another Shinigami present to use them on, Kaisho could only practice Sai and Hainawa using himself as the target, and Seki on various objects and obstacles. Firstly, Kaisho sat for a moment, wondering how he could to this, his thoughts trailing from one idea to the next until he came up with a conclusion. Kaisho held his arms out in front of him and close to one another, ready for his training.

“Bakudo #4, Hainawa!” Kaisho said aloud, as the energy rope formed from his hands and twirled tightly around his wrists. Satisfied with its strength, tested by trying to move his arms apart, he decided to try to break free from it. Within a few seconds, Kaisho was able to break free with a little effort; a sign that the energy used to create it was not enough. He tried again, and the same thing occurred. Kaisho was finding self-tutoring rather baffling at this point, trying repeatedly to improve, but not having much of an effect.

After a few hours of trying, Kaisho felt tired. He had used about a hundred or so Hainawa’s, and his wrists ached from breaking free so many times. Kaisho realised that it was time for a different angle of practice. He thought about it, and thought that maybe some visualisation tactics would help somewhat. Before he tried this out, though, he thought it was time to have some food to replenish the energy he lost. Pulling a large box of meat buns and rice cakes from his bag, he proceeded to eat, sipping on a small bottle of sake that he fumbled out of the bag too.


Kaisho had finished his meal, and as soon as he had done so, he decided to get under way with Kido practice. He recited silent words as he prepared for the second part of his training regime, his mind working on how to visualise the forming of reiatsu within his Hainawa. Again he colllected his stance and held his wrists slightly in front of him, dlosing his eyes and emphasising the wording of the spell intensely.

"Bakudo #4: Hainawa!" Kaisho said intensely.

The yellow rope flickered into being, swirling powerfully around his wrists with a firm grip, almost burning into Kaisho's skin as the Kido coiled. This time, the binding spell had moulded quite nicely, and when Kaisho tugged his wrists apart, he could feel the difference in tensile strength immediately. Breaking Hainawa came as more of a challenge too, as he would now have to try a good few minutes at a time to break free, usually fading away before he could actually break it.

It took focus, as well as energy and skill, to maintain Kido. Trying so hard to break the spell meant his focus was diverted elsewhere, discovering the problem of not being able to split his focus properly. Before Kaisho could get any closer to solving this problem, despite practicing for hours on just this one spell, night began to draw in.

Kaisho decided enough was enough that day, as he grabbed his belongings and his Zanpakuto. At his wazikashi, he stared... a faint feeling of yearning in his heart. He longed to learn the name of his Zanpakuto, eager to see the spirit and the powers that lie dormant for him to share. However, that faint yearning sharply followed with the fact that he was not truly ready for their encounter, not yet at least.

"Hopefully I can sharpen up my Kido before we finally meet, dear Zanpakuto..." He whispered as he tied it tangent to his obi sash.

With everything he had taken with him, Kaisho made his way back to the Squad 7 barracks, planning tomorrow's honing session as he walked steadily.


After a peaceful night of sleep, Kaisho returned to the Kido training grounds to work on his spells. He wanted to practice once more on his Hainawa before he moved onto something else. He limbered up before training, and practiced his reishi gathering by performing Byakurai, shooting it high into the air without use of an incantation or name. As expected, it was extremely weak, but this was purely a warm up to get his spiritual energy circulating nicely. Kaisho did this a few times, each getting more powerful, but always significantly weaker than with the announcement of its name at least.

Once Kaisho had satisfied himself in the warm up, he focussed his mind on one more attempt at Hainawa. He resumed the position he took from yesterday and recited the name of the binding spell clearly, though not closing his eyes this time. Soon, Hainawa began its formation and wrapped around Kaisho's wrists, binding them in place.

His mind mulled over how he would break free of this, as it was clear that strength alone was never enough, especially in Kaisho's case. He thoguht back to his seating battle with Aizakku, and realised that he used a burst of reiatsu to break the same Kido spell. With that in mind, Kaisho tried to gather reiatsu around his wrists. However, gathering reiatsu around a specific point rather than a full-body emission was difficult enough, but after an hour or so of trial and error, managed to successfully break free... much to his relief.

"Well, that certainly was a challenge..." Kaisho said to himself, sweeping away beads of sweat from his brow. "Now onto something else."

(After making his way to Squad 5...)

After making his way from the Kido Honing grounds, Kaisho wandered into the Fifth Squad's barracks, requesting the aid of a 5th Squad Shinigami to help hone his Kido, as working alone had its disadvantages. Thankfully for the Seventh Squad's Fifth Seat, they agreed to allow him to use the squad's very own training grounds. They introduced him to Genji Kazemaru, to which both seemed to feel comfortable talking to one another.

After the ice-breaker session, Genji asked Kaisho to wait for him at the training grounds while he ran some errands. Genji took particular care in highlighting that he should not use any Kido unsupervised. Kaisho nodded, respecting the rules of Squad 5 just as he would for his own, and proceeded to the Training Grounds. There, Kaisho relaxed in the glade with his hand behind his head gazing up at the passing clouds.

Time seemed to pass slowly, but Kaisho did not mind, for it meant that he still had enough of it to make good progress. Kaisho had a feeling that he should probably work on his Kido until Bullene Katsurou, Seventh Squad Captain, found the time to train his subordinates in hand-to-hand combat. However, he pushed that though to the back of his mind, focussing only on honing his current Kido as best he could.

Genji blissfully walked along the path to the training grounds. His head bobbed as he sang a song in his head. It was such a lovely day today, absolutely perfect for exercise. Kaisho was right on time. Genji gave a frendly wave to his new student. Oh! New student. That was a new thought. Genji was going to be teaching someone for the first time. This was a truly fantastic day for both him and his student.

"Hello!" Genji said cheerfully. "It is so nice to be here on such a lovely day, wouldn't you say? Well, either way, I see that you are in need of help in Kido. Which ones are you interested in practicing today?"

Kaisho looked up at the Shinigami walking towards him with a warm smile. He walked towards Genji and waved in response to Genji's earlier gesture, pleased to know that he could commence his training with a skilled Kido Practitioner such as Genji. The two exchanged brief pleasantries before the Fifth Squad member asked the burning question.

"I would like to hone my current skills,and possibly learn a few more Kido Spells along the way..." Kaisho started, feeling very relaxed. "In particular, I would like to improve on Bakudo #8, Seki today. Being a member of Squad 7, I want to improve this because it significantly aids my hand-to-hand combat." Kaisho added, being thorough in his reasoning. He waited for a response intently, as Genji stopped to think.


Genji stroked his chin as his mind shuffled through the names of Kido.

"Ah, yes," said Genji. "Number 8... A good shielding spell. Simple, effective, very useful. We'll start of simple. First things first, Kaishi-san, try to focus on your concentration of reiatsu. Relax and feel it running through your body like the blood in your veins. Let it come natually and then focus it. Got it?

Genji offered sound advice to Kaisho, and with a slight nod of confirmation, began to relax himself. In doing so, he realised that he could feel the ever so slight feeling of soothing reiatsu from both himself and Genji, also feeling the flow of his reiryoku in his body. It circulated in vast amounts, and he laughed a little as he thought about this. Genji pulled a bewildered expression, "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Its something I seem to remember someone saying... Oddly it sounds like a reference to my days as a human." Kaisho replied, "Something about me having more energy than my body can use up. I can feel what they mean now..."

Both the Shinigami knew that remembering something after their human death and rebirth as a spirit entity was rare, but neither delved into it. More important things were on their mind.

Slowly, Kaisho began to focus his reiryoku, channelling the energy into his hand. At this point, Kaisho seemed to find it easier to gather his energy, now that he had a grasp of what his reiryoku flow felt like. The difficulty came in actually materialising Seki, since he had always relied on the announcement of the spell's name to materialise Kido. Instead of guiding the spirit energy to the spot and performing Kido on his own, and using the name and incantation as a power enhancement, he would actually use them to bring about the Kido, leaving no room for enhancement and greatly reducing his reiryoku's efficency.

Kaisho pressed on, determined to perform Seki without name or incantation, and eventually the persistence paid off. A small round shield formed in the palm of his hand, which he increased in size with short injections of more spirit energy.

Genji happily clapped.

"That is very good," he said joyously. "You have focused your reiatsu well. That is one step. The next step is to maintain it even when pressure is applied. To put it simply, can you keep it up if the shield is struck? I believe it to be an appropiate time to test it. Would you like me to strike, testing your shield's hold?"

Kaisho was glad to hear that his progress was coming along smoothly, and when a mention of hand-to-hand combat came into the equation, Kaisho happily agreed to it. He readied himself as Genji prepared to strike, focussing reiatsu in both of his hands in anticipation of where he would be attacked from. The moment he could tell the side of attack, Kaisho shifted reiatsu over the the corresponding hand and performed Seki in conjunction with his blocking technique, just in time for Genji to strike it with considerable force.

Unfortunately, Kaisho's Seki dissipated under the strength of the attack a second after it struck, and the follow through hit Kaisho's arm. However, Kaisho managed to block the oncoming blow without much trouble, which had been softened by the shielding spell. His arm did get pushed back from the impact thought, although this was just down to lack of hand-to-hand training.

"It seems that my lack of practice both in hand-to-hand combat and Kido is obvious, but I did get the feeling that you wasn't going easy on me." Kaisho smiled, thankful that Genji was not insulting his abilities as a Shinigami

"I think I have an idea," Genji said. "Try to hold up the shield for a longer period to time. I won't attack you. Just try to keep it up. I see the problem may be that you don't have enough practice keeping up your reiatsu. If you have more practice holding up the shield without any outside interference, it will help you keep it up when attacked. What do you think?"

Kaisho stood for a moment, thinking about the suggestion. “I’ll try it out... Thank you Genji-san.” Kaisho replied, and got to work immediately. With Genji watching carefully, Kaisho performed Seki, and just as before he performed it without reciting its name. His reiatsu focussed around his hands and he formed a barrier, this time keeping his reiatsu held in place. Maintaining it was difficult, and after a couple of minutes, Seki dissipated. Unsatisfied, Kaisho continued, spending hours on maintaining the reiatsu shield in his hands until he accustomed to it.

Eventually, Kaisho could maintain Seki in his hands for well over ten minutes without much effort. During his academy days, Kaisho practice in all of the arts frequently, but after graduating and becoming part of 7th Squad he had been neglecting his training somewhat. Controlling his reiatsu for more than just to conceal his presence was replaced by hand-to-hand combat with other shinigami in the squad, but even so, he had become rather lazy.

However, with his new mentality, he reverted to the basics in order to recondition and hone them for better use in the future. With sufficient time spent familiarising himself with his reiatsu, and his basic Kido, Kaisho felt confident that he could put his Kido into practice.

Genji watched his student with a blissful glee. Kaisho was picking up on reiatsu control quite well. The long hours of practice had certainly paid off, for Kaisho was successfully sustaining the shield for several minutes. The sun was beginning to set, and Genji was starting to feel a bit drowsy after monitoring Kaisho for so long.

"You have done very well," Genji said with a smile. "Now, I do believe, you are ready for me to test out the strength of your shield. We'll try a kick, like before, I do not know if you want it soft or hard. Soft would be barefoot; hard would be with a geta sandal. Which do you prefer?"


"I would like that, Genji-san." Kaisho said, "However, would it also be possible for me to practice Seki in a hand-to-hand situation with you... before the night draws in?" He asked, feeling embarrassed about his bold suggestion.

During his academy days, Kaisho found Kido rather intriguing, though not being particularly able to acquire new Kido spells without time and effort. It took him half a year to learn Seki, and in that time he found that there were many factors contributed to its effectiveness. Aptitude was the most dominant factor, as well as the difference in power between the user and the foe.

He had already known about its paralysis effect, but was keen to see if this practice session had inavertedly intensified the effects of Seki, even if it was only able to numb a limb after excessive contact.

"Bakudo #8, Seki!" Kaisho said, focussing his reiatsu on both of his hands and chanting the spell's name with purpose. Naturally, the round shields was much stronger than before, especially with the addition of the announcement. Kaisho also felt comfortable maintaining two shields, different from the long hours where he had trouble maintaining just one.

Genji was very happy with the sturdy look and sparkle of Kaisho's Seki.

"I looks good," said Genji happily. "No let us see if it can hold up, shall we?"

Genji launched a round house kick to the shield and stuck it hard with a wooden sandaled foot. Though he didn't intend for it to be enough to totally rattle Kaisho into injury, it did sent boy skidding back a few inches. Genji felted the paralysis of the spell take effect. He lowed he leg. A joyous smile curled his lips, for the Seki remained formed.

"Fantastic!" cheered Genji, clapping his hands. "You have made glorious headway. Well done! I am very proud, Kaisho-san. You have done very well. Now about that hand-to-hand practice you requested... How would you like to have short spare with me. You can practice that Seki of yours. I think that I will also test how you fare against other sorts of attacks such as weak-strength kido. What do you say?"

Those words brought a slender smile to Kaisho's lips. He had been waiting for a sparring session in hand-to-hand combat for a while, and the added challenge of Kido spells being thrown in made it all the more challenging. From the sound of it, Genji's introduction of Kido seemed more a test of Kaisho's general ability to confront those well-versed in it.

"That's fine, Genji-san." Kaisho laughed, shuffling himself into a crouching stance. His stance was defensive, and his hands were clenched in his tiger palm style. Reiatsu began to form around his hands, as Seki took a bead-like shape and size, which Kaisho only noticed in the corner of his eye. He had not been concentrating on forming Seki, which had surprised him the most, but his long hours of conditioning proved much more effective than he thought.

Whilst Kaisho was marginally distracted by this new finding, Genji had begun the offensive, rushing in fast to engage Kaisho. Noticing the rapidly closing space between them, Kaisho gasped and jumped backwards, away from a punch aimed for his mid-section. From then on, Kaisho began to read Genji's moves analytically.

Genji's attacks were swift, striking at multiple areas in quick succession. Kaisho managed to block all of them with little effort, due to his prowess in the art of Hakuda. Undeterred, Genji aimed for Kaisho's shoulder with a punch, but Kaisho quickly intercepted it, striking the prone side Genji's forearm, between the wrist and extensor muscles. However, this attack was quickly followed by a punch to the stomach, which Kaisho blocked with ease.

Just then, he felt his body's position and realised an opening on the side of his body. His eyes glanced from his and Genji's retreating hands to the exposed area of his body. Indeed, Genji had already pounced upon that opening with an ominous kick. Understanding the situation immediately, Kaisho resorted to...

"Seki!"

Kaisho swung his forearm forcefully, creating the oval shield of reiatsu along the broad side of it to improve his blocking technique. Kaisho's vertically positioned forearm met with Genji's horizontally swinging leg with a clear clap of sound that surged for hundreds of metres. It was then that Kaisho began to use Seki with every strike, as they became stronger.

Thankfully, Kaisho could keep his eye on the attacks without problems, but they were still quick enough to prevent Kaisho amplifying Seki's power with the use of its name. The basic lesson of all Shinigami techniques was harshly enforced upon him; knowing and not knowing the name of a technique greatly affects the technique's strength.

For a few minutes this continued, until Kaisho and Genji strafed away from one another. Both of them were understandably out of breath, but they each shared an admiring smile. "So, how was it, Genji?" Kaisho asked, respiring deeply as he spoke.

Genji was very pleased and showed it with a smile.

"I must say, Kaisho-san," Genji said, "you are doing quite well. This is a great work out for me. I always knew that they trained you well in squad 7. That captain is super, wouldn't you say? Well versed all around. Not many in the specialists squads can say that about themselves. I do believe I'm well versed and well-rounded too, and it is my job here to make sure you are too. I apologize in advance if this startles you to much."

Genji backflipped back. The second he landed on his geta sandals touched the ground...

"Hado #4 White Lightning!"

A low-stength bolt of electricity shot out of his index finger for Kaisho.

Kaisho leapt away from the Byakurai as quickly as he could, but the attack caught his calf on its way through. With a wince, Kaisho landed on the soft ground sporting a small gash across his calf, and the wound burned like fire was dancing inside it. However, Kaisho remained vigilant, and saw Genji moving to his rear flank for another attack. “Hado #4, Byakurai!” Genji hollered, the stream of white lightning blasting from his middle and index finger.

The Kido spell boasted tremendous speed, it almost felt as though evasive manoeuvres were ludicrous to think about, let alone perform. Then again, Kaisho expected nothing less from Genji. Nevertheless, Kaisho’s reflexes saved him from taking a shot through the shoulder, as he strafed away from the white lightning once more. He did not get away as freely as he would have liked, though, the attack nicked his shoulder in passing. The chorus of pain chimed once more, as the attack left another burning sensation behind.

Kaisho did manage to turn and face Genji, who seemed to be assessing his movement speed. Kaisho knew he had been lazy since graduating from the academy, his natural speed could easily evade attack from the likes of unseated members, and any seat below the 10th without knowing Hoho training. But, he realised he could struggle against seated members lower than his own rank, for the same aforementioned reason.

“Keeping on your toes I see, you’re very good at that.” Genji laughed, “But you won’t be avoiding this one.”

Kaisho stood motionless for a moment, bewildered by what Genji was up to, until he could see the hand formation and hear it. The faint, yet chilling sound of an incantation. “Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!” Kaisho heard; his spine tingled with fear. He gulped hard, yet the knot in his throat refused to go away. He had to think of a way to stop him from using it, or at least slow him down.

“Disintegrate, you black dog of Rodanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!” Kaisho recited immediately, noticing the brief pause as the fiery red orb of energy formed itself in Genji’s hands. “Bakudo #8, Geki!”

Before the next sentence could flow from Genji’s mouth, he found himself engulfed in a red aura that paralysed his movements, preventing the flow of reiatsu into his orb. “Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!" Genji continued, Geki seemingly overpowered, even with the incantation. However, it gave Kaisho a valuable few seconds of thinking time. Just then, an idea occurred to him.

“Hado #1...” Kaisho said urgently.
“Hado #33...” Genji smiled.

“Sho!”
“Shakkaho!”

The shot of red flame shattered the Bakudo spell as it blasted from Genji’s hands. It ferociously headed towards Kaisho, who knew that escaping damage was impossible at this point. He did not have enough time or speed to dodge this incantation-fuelled spell, and even if he did, he would not get far enough away to avoid serious injury. All he could do now was close his eyes and hope, but his eyes tracked Shakkaho’s trajectory with a wide gaze. An explosion rippled through the Kido training grounds, followed closely by a cloud of dust and debris.

The dirt and dust lingered in the air for quite some time, minutes in fact, and Kaisho was surrounded by it all. Genji looked on, noticing Kaisho’s silhouette as the dirty haze thinned and settled. He had a thankful look upon his face, as it became clear that his apprentice had miraculously escaped the Shakkaho explosion unharmed. However, fifty metres behind Kaisho lay a crater where Shakkaho had struck the ground. Kaisho decided upon using Sho as a means of deflecting the attack from its intended target. Knowing his Kido was not powerful enough to divert Hado of that strength from that skilled of an opponent, the next best thing was to us it at the source of its aim; the hands. In aiming at the hands, Kaisho was able to divert the desired path of the spell, sending it a yard shy of his body.

Kaisho glanced over his right shoulder in disbelief and in awe. “I can still feel the trail of heat from when it passed my right shoulder... It was that powerful.”

Wonderful pride swept over Genji as he saw that his apprentice had done so well at avoiding such a high-level kido, a task not to be taken lightly. Genji clapped his hands.

"Fantastic!" Genji roared joyously. "You have done wonderfully, Kaisho-san! Just super!" Genji bowed. "Be proud, dude. This was a great session. I thank you, for now I see that I can teach someone. Before this, I was nervous about teaching someone kido. I didn't know if I could do it well. It looks like I can do it well, wouldn't you say?"

Kaisho felt overwhelmingly pleased in his efforts today, although relieved that the night had drawn in on soul society. Genji seemed equally pleased in himself for much different reasons, as he explained that Kaisho was his first real shot at teaching. Kaisho was pleased that Genji had more confidence in himself, and congratulated that.

"I think that you can teach very well." Kaisho said with a smile, "Your lesson was very smoothly run, in the way that you moved on from teaching the Kido spell, then to a practice of it, then finally assessing your students general Kido ability with a short sparring session." He added admiringly.

Kaisho knew that one day he would be allowed to teach people in the ways of a Shinigami, and had been making a mental note of Genji's way of teaching as positive, and something he would use as a basis for his own.

"Well, I think I should go, now Genji-san. It is late, and you gave me quite a workout... and a scare!"

The two laughed at Kaisho's latter remark. "I shall see you whenever you wish to teach me. Is there anything you would like me to refine? Sho perhaps, or Geki? Or something different perhaps? Either way, send me a hell butterfly when you're ready. Sayonara!"

With that, Kaisho darted off back to his own barracks with a wave, knowing that without proper Hoho training, he would take a long time getting back to seventh squad.

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