Pain Is Necessary For Growth (Aoi)

The boy was looking down with an extremely sad look on his face, as he was passing by now currently in his training gi in order to improve on himself, the small zanpakuto on his back like a little dagger held by a weak young master of a house hold as he made his way carefully and slowly towards the training grounds. He had some scratches on his forehead and his arms were red from the beating he took the other day. He was still tired or to be more correct he was in pain having not fully recovered as well as not wishing to head to the squad four barracks again. He spent so much time in hospital it was starting to become his second home.

He looked on as his bare feet stepped softly and silently upon the ground as he heard the sound of a punch, the punches slowly but surely hitting away as he came closer it was a familiar face, it was her. Shiori, the fast girl with the weak kido. Also the girl who hit him really hard in the gut with a knee that one time or was it the other girl as the events of that day were vague to him. He moved closer and watched her as he washed his hair and face off a bit with a nearby water fountain.

He noticed from the corner of his eye, as the left right movements of her fists did not lie. Was it really that girl that he met with Mori, was it really the kidoshu member Shiori. With a left and a right with a few head shots and blows to the body, he had memories of the pain to his gut from a knee. The battle that day ended in a strange way, as he was wondering if she was training or here to play.

She was either flailing with movements wasted or she was putting her full weight behind ever shot. Blow by blow as the small boy almost forgot why he had come there in the first place. It looks like she finally noticed him as he was washing his face and hands. She really focused on him as she said almost too casually.

She asked if he was Aoi as he wondered if he was really that unrecognisable. She then said it had been a while and asked him how he was doing as he looked down slightly, before looking her in the eyes with a look that seemed a bit sharper then when they last met. They also looked as if he was in pain as he spoke out a soft but audible reply.

"Hi Shiori, I am okay just came here to train" as he was a bit nervous as his reiatsu flared slightly. Though refined his reiatsu had some level of instability which had to do with his future power he had yet to fully awaken. A beast laid in wait deep within him as his body was not quite strong enough to handle its intensity which is why he had come to train to begin with. He was seriously there to get stronger.

He stood there as she spoke as a thought rose to his mind as she offered a chance for him to join her again. She did not even wait for his reply showing her focus on training as she turned back towards the training dummy, however the look in her eyes changed, a look he should know well but did not understand. The look of determination that he was also showing.

She held a boxing stance similar to one of the women in the street fighting ring deep in the rukongai underground. He watched the way her feet were set up and it looked like she was preparing for something. A left upper, a left jab followed by a left hook. It may look impressive but with that she could not put too much weight into her left punch but the triple hit would make it a bit faster, though easier to predict.

He watched her and then thought to himself. He motioned for her to back away for him to show her something. He took a deep breath then whirled around at a high speed with a roundhouse kick that knocked the dummy out the ground again. It was not a refined round house kick since his skills were average at best, but they both probably needed to work on their hand to hand combat.

"Well, we could have a friendly street fight if you want to"

As the small boy blushed and it may seem strange that one who loves playing with kido a lot was actually requesting to do something that involves no kido or zanpakuto.

She said it was okay for them to spar and that he should not hold back which he had no intention of doing, his hand to hand had been lacking for too long and while he was a lot weaker before, he was at least around the level he remembered Shiori to be at, however he was not sure if she had improved since their last encounter. Not to mention he was still not sure he could beat Nessa if it came to a fist fight, but he knew deep down that his kido had reached a height unlike any other.

She was lowering her stance which might be good for holding her ground, but it was not the best stance when you wanted to have free movements as she asked him if he was ready as he nodded. She charged at him as he made a quick back step to allow him to take a stance as his left arm was raised to his eye height stretched out while his right arm was held low to the right of his waist. She finally came into range for a jab, which was usually an effective attack, he felt it seemed a bit strange she would aim a fast high attack at someone shorter then her, as he aimed to land a counter on her since she was taller the range gap meant her making this jab might be his only chance at an easy or free hit.

However just like the world on earth and the times in rukongai, nothing came for free. He noticed her leg movements as he was aiming for a body blow, for him a body blow would be more like a full on straight to the gut. He realised that maybe she was attempting a faint and forgot that she had to think about her opponent and not simply the attack being good. He saw an opening, but he knew it was out of reach as he cradled his arms in blocking the knee as he backed away. He could have tried to attack again, but it was too risky after that knee nearly got him. After being hit in the gut a few too many times, he was expecting it for some reason. Why did they always go for his gut as he took his stance again with a look of coldness as he showed less openings then earlier. His stance was not perfect, but it was clear that the real spar would begin now.

She said it seemed like he was practicing which was obvious since he had pathetic hand to hand combat skills before, barely that of a beginner but he had been focusing on improving. She pushed forwards with a new stance and then she stepped towards his left as he raised his left arm as a guard and placed his right arm behind that as support for his block. Something he learnt was important was that you should normally block mainly with one arm and use the other as a suppose to that you stance was not too firmly routed in only defence. While a cross armed block was generally strong this was a variation on that in order to not simply just turning and breaking stance every time you have to defend which was sometimes the difference between victory and defeat.

As she seemed to apply more force as he got pushed back he did not keep his feet to firmly routed since completely blocking was not really ideal for him as he took the force and moved to his right side upon blocking her attack. She seemed to have used her foot as a pivot in order to add a full body rotation to her attack. He did not understand the terms, but he knew the concept of what she was doing. She was putting her body into her attacks and not just swinging her arm. He wanted to attack, but she had reach on him so charging in while having had to pull back a bit to avoid getting hurt meant it would have just taken too much effort to undo his movement and go back in. He looked to her focused.

"If you did that like a month ago that would have really hurt a lot" as he knew better now then he did back then how weak his hand to hand combat skills really were.

She said he seemed reluctant to strike back, but that was not the case at all he needed an opening. He may be hard to hit, but his reach was a really annoying problem and her lowered stance meant he could not fully take advantage of that huge opening by her gut.

She ran towards him as she raised her right leg to kick at his head, he immediately dashed to the side for a sidestep to get her while she was stuck in the motion. Her one arm was out of position for someone planning to kick with all their force, or was she just inexperienced it was hard to tell since he was not a master at this. He twisted using his left leg as a pivot. He was to her left as he through a full force punch going from low to high in a cork screw motion aimed at the side of her left ribs. He had his left arm above his head as he attacked which was a sign that he may be attacking but he still kept a guard up in case she pulled her leg back or some other high technique since kicking from low with her left leg was not an option with her right leg in the air.

Would she be able to deal with this basic attack, as his plan was to get in a solid hit and back away or guard himself against any counter attacks. He had no real offense in melee and no real defence either so at best he could only keep a good balance between the two...

He watched as she avoided his attack to her ribs with a one armed block, while this was not the best method of defence it was better then a direct hit even if it sacrifices the arm. If he had more strength she could have been heavily bruised or even broken her arm trying a defence like that. He watched as her movements changed as the impact of hitting her arm did slow down his momentum a bit.

As he watched she vanished upwards as he felt her grab onto his arm he was getting sick and tired of everyone grabbing him as if they could spin him around like some toy and toss him wherever they want to. He did not need to put much thought into it, if she is jumping over him then she must have forgotten the one rule of fighting, never jump unless you sure your opponent can not counter. Had she left his arm alone he would have had a more delayed reaction but grabbing his arm left him with only one option.

Twisting his body in her direction not allowing her the chance to land as he did a anti-clockwise spinning front roundhouse kick to her face using her momentum to help lift him into position to kick her in the face. Under normal circumstances it would be nearly impossible for him to land a kick to her face, but he was now attacking her before she could have a chance to land.

He had learnt in the street fight as well, that jumping over the enemy usually lead to them cutting off your landing if not done carefully. It seems her attack was rushed, but maybe there were other reasons.

She might still be able to pull off a guard in this position and he was prepared to kick with his left leg as back up if she guarded against that and then he would grip her arm and put his weight into it so she would slam into the ground unless she let go of her grip. Though this was only if things could get to that point.

She released his arm, which lowered a bit of his momentum. She raised up her guard as his foot clashed with her guard. She landed with her hand dropping to the ground as he landed softly before changing his stance.

As he landed she rotated and hit the back of his left foot with her right foot, the leg sweep was a really annoying technique. However he spent enough time in the dojo in the human world falling to basic leg sweeps to know its less effective if it only hits one leg as his right leg landed afterward as he then stepped back letting his left foot plant behind him and on the ground.

He looked at her tucked in hand, while something looked off he realised they were a bit too evenly matched though he did not know what to do. If he attacked she could land a counter, and if he keeps trying to counter he might get hit since he does not have the reach to match her with a counter unless he was faster then her.

He took quick back step creating more distance between them as he lowered his stance making her idea of punching him even less of an option. He then got ready to attack or counter big with his next movement. He was not skilled enough for a more careful counter, all he had was his next attack. If he failed he might end up struggling and if he succeeded he might gain a slight advantage. Neither of them managed solid hits but they both made near connected hits so it was hard to tell who was winning the spar at this point

He was a bit nervous with the situation, but he looked to her and realised they were both at an equal disadvantage without using their other techniques as he finally took a deep breathe as she stopped trying to attack him. She took a stance as if preparing to brace herself for everything, but both her fists were set up in a better position to counter attack or worse.

He looked to her left and to her right and to her widely spread legs as he realised he could not use a simple attack and with his short range a feint would not have any real chance for him. If she was going to give him room to attack then he was not going to waste it as he dashed back and then pressed against the back of his heals as he got really low down. Then he burst into a really low dash. While at the time it had not become a technique yet, this would be the beginning of his step into the realm of high speed hand to hand combat.

Dashing full speed straight towards her then doing a left side dash followed by a right before pulling his arms close to his body as both arms guarded his head upper body. His speed was as high as it would go and she could probably keep up but for her to dash now would put her behind in terms of initiation. He did not care as he would only stop for a fraction of a moment in time to plant his foot as he released a full on straight to her abs. She could dodge for all he cared with his momentum if she dodged he would fly passed her and make a sharp break.

If she blocked it she would feel the full impact of his hand to hand prowess and while not much he did not leave her many openings, but there was one opening if she had the skills to see it. One that could change the fate of this battle