Sword Play [INV ONLY]

It had been a while since she taught anyone anything, the last time was... a while ago. When she had first met Shio and Yorishou. She remembered the day like it was yesterday. Yorishou had been teaching a bunch of young academy students how to swing a sword properly and she had volunteered to... "help". Though to be honest, she got involved more for her own enjoyment than anything. By the time Yorishou and herself had finished warming up she doubted that those little kids could keep track of their movements at all. Now here she was teaching people again, guess there was nothing else to do with the knowledge you gained but to pass it on.

As she jumped from building to building heading towards the training grounds, the nostalgic feeling that was washing over her only became stronger. It had been peacefully lately. Especially so, and she didn't mind it at all, except it didn't do well for keeping ones fangs sharpened. Thus practice and training was a must to stay at her peak, but something told her she had yet to reach her zenith either way. She landed one of the pillars supporting the walls of the training ground, anyone present would suddenly catch a hint of her heavier than normal reiatsu.

Blue eyes stared down at the grounds, she saw one young man walking in, he was early. Hmm punctual people usually made for good students. Usually. With a quick step she would move from her current location, exiting some 20m away from Rasen, seating herself beneath a tree to his right. This was her favourite tree.

"Well, you're an early one aren't you. Were you excited or nervous?"

Ma'am. She couldn't very well say that she enjoyed being addressed as a ma'am. It made her sound like she was married or old, which she was up in her years by normal standards but she wasn't a ma'am. If she went with a shinigami's standards, she was still quite young, judging from the lad in front of her, there was a chance she wasn't much older than him if they weren't around the same age and still he called her ma'am.It may have been out of respect, but she wasn't really one for the whole "ma'am" thing.

"How about we not do the ma'am thing," she said as she took the letter from his hands. "Just Meilin is fine, or if you need to be formal, Tachibana sensei is ok, but preferably Meilin." She looked down at the letter upon opening it, reading what it said as Rasen proceeded to get down onto his knees to ask for permission to learn under her. The letter itself was from the third seat of the 11th squad, Ikkaku. Hmm, interesting that he'd recommend someone this young, perhaps that meant the kid had some potential. Most people she knew were concerned more with the current level of strength someone held, which she didn't blame them for it was important to know their current strength, but she was more interested by their potential for growth.

She folded the letter and slipped it into her robes with her right hand while gesturing with her left for Rasen to raise his head and stand to his feet. "Ok come on, stand up, you're making this weird." She folded both arms beneath her chest and pondered for a minute. She looked around the large training grounds. "Well I suppose for a warm up, you can about 100 laps around the grounds. Come get me when you're done." That being said she went back to relaxing beneath her favourite tree.

For the most part, he didn't seem to be a fussy one, but she really needed to get him to work on calling her by something that didn't irk her so. Her full name followed by sensei was definitely not going down the right path, but she would handle that later, for now she rested her hands behind her head and crossed her legs at her ankle and watched as he commenced his laps. He was ok speed wise, not exceptional, but he wasn't slow either. Though at the pace he was going... she gauged he would probably burn himself out soon if he didn't slow down. She watched as he ran on, as she thought about it. What did Ikkaku senpai see in this guy?

She watched as he seriously began to slow down, to the point he was like a snail in her eyes. At this point she stood casually, entering a step and exiting to his left where she began running at a pace matching his own. "Hmm, if you get tired just from that... how do you plan to survive my training?" She upped her pace just a bit, as if egging him on as she pulled ahead a bit. "You gotta move faster than that to dodge a sword, and even faster to land a blow with your sword. And most times your opponent will likely be on par with you if not better. If you don't have the stamina for those long fights... you'll die."

For purpose of visual aid and a bit of showing off, her right hand moved switftly and adeptly to the hilt of one of her two zanpakuto on her left. She pulled back quickly, drawing the blade releasing a wave of reiatsu equal to tier III with the swing as she did so. The attack flew ahead of them quickly, whilst the speed she drew her blade at was close to that of most of the masters within the Seireitai.

She sheathed her sword once she saw her demonstartion had warrented the wanted effect intended for its use. Stepping off to the tree again she took her seat and relaxed as she watched Rasen continue his run around the grounds. He wasn't a quitter, she'd give him that much. And that was mostly what she looked for in students. Well this was her first real student so she supposed she should say it's a trait she wanted in all her students, if she were so lucky. As he came back over to her he announced that he finished all the laps and used her full name again. If she was lucky enough, hopefully her future students wouldn't do that either.

"Since you insist on being formal, Tachibana sensei is fine. Don't go blurting my full name out everywhere." She sighed and shook her head slightly, "Well either you look like a walking corpse, but you did finish the hundred laps. And it only took you, ten minutes, for the next five I want you to take up a horse stance, and don't move an inch, and try your best not to fall."

She wasn't joking at all. The run was to make him tired, but also she needed to guage his stamina and get him on his way to raising it up even more. The horse stance... well you weren't exactly a swordsman if you had poor balance and footing. If his stance was easily broken, then his opponent would simply slip into his guard and his fight would be over before he knew it. Firm footing and excellent balance was necessity for swordplay, most people ignored it, and that's where they ended up injured or dead.

She was almost ready to take a nap, she should've, but that wouldn't have set a good example for her student now would it? Truth be told, if he hadn't shown up early she probably would've just done these exercises on her own in order not to be bored. But alas he did, so she entertained herself by seeing just how much he could take, what his breaking point was. The kid seemed to not have one, doing everything she said diligently and without question. It was something that would've brought tears to her eyes if she'd bothered to care that much, but this was more of a trial run for the lad. If he came back after today, well then she'd kick it up a notch.

"Good good," she said standing to her own feet as he fell off his and onto his arse. She stretched then, twisting her body and leaning from side to side. Rotating her arms and stretching them out, the popping sound of her stiff joints could be heard as she made herself more limber. "Well you seem to have decent stamina, your horse stance is rigid, but after doing all those laps, I'd say it's still decent." She bent forwards, touching her toes, holding it for a ten count before bending as far backwards as she could for the same amount of time again.

"Never forget the basics, they are your foundation for everything.  Anyone can learn a fancy technique, but you'll never use it to your full potential if you don't understand the basis of it." She kicked the treee beside her causing it to shake and leaves to fall. Her knees bent slightly and her eyes narrowed, her demeanour changing from the carefree and seemingly normal person she was into something that resembled cold steel, almost heartless. Her right hand again reached for her hilt, drawing swiftly as she cut through the falling leaves. Each strike was swift and fluid, as if they connecting into each other, never seeming like separate attacks, but more of a continuous flow that ceased to end. A river that kept rushing and rushing.

The leaves all fell to the ground, cut cleanly in half as she sheathed her sword once more. "You have to be quick, fluid and smooth, don't give your opponent a chance to read your next move all the while trying to read theirs. Most fancy sword techniques will leave you open and usually end up being quite easy to read which leaves you in a spot." She gestured for him to stand with his hand, figuring he'd had more than enough time during that moment to catch his breath. "I want you to do two hundred standard strikes." Again she drew her sword, placing both her hands on the hilt this time as she took her stance and held infront of her. She stepped forward with her left and swung down hard and fast as soon her foot touched the ground, then stepped back, her blade once more in place for her guard. "Just like you saw me do just now, begin." This time however she didn't move to go sit beneath the tree, but continued to do the same motion, now she would begin her own exercises. Rasen seemed diligent enough, that she needn't worry about him slacking off if she wasn't watching his every move.

They were pretty much in sync as far as swinging their swords went. In fact Rasen was keeping up better than she thought he would, his stance held though still rigid, but that would be fixed over time, and he seemed to have a pretty true and strong swing with his blade. His stamina was even more impressive, she didn't see much to indicate any falter in his technique until they were about halfway through their reps. Hmm perhaps Ikkaku did send him here with something in mind besides just getting the kid out of his hair... not that he had any. 

They carried on for a bit longer, each strike reaching closer to their goal of two hundred. Her own muscles were finally getting warm and she felt that she could probably up the level of her teachings somewhat, but she wasn't sure if Rasen here could handle that in his condition. She hit two hundred, but she didn't sheath her zanpakuto. She waited for Rasen to complete the set before she would give him her comments.

"Well you have potential, your strikes are strong and true, and you seem to have decent stamina so you should be fine if pursuing the sword is the way you really want to go."

She stepped away putting some distance between them, about five meters. "Now if you're feeling up to it, come at me, anyway you like. Or you can go home and come back tomorrow. The choice is yours." She stood there with her zanpakuto in her right hand waiting to see what he would do. Would he give in to the fatigue or would he try to push pass his current limits and reach a new level of mastery that he didn't have at the moment?