And I don't know which way will take us home

[ofnoblemind]

Who:  Kuchiki Byakuya (ofnoblemind ) and Kuchiki Rukia (snowwhitesoul )
What:  Rukia asked Byakuya to help her train in order to achieve Bankai.  He accepted.
Where:  Training compound at the Kuchiki Manor 
When:  August 17th
Warnings: Violence?  I don't see it getting terribly messy. XD

Comments

[snowwhitesoul]

Rukia found herself in the same situation, but coming from the other way. She was worried about failing him, not living to the standard her brother would expect of her, of a Kuchiki. What if he looked at her and found her wanting for the skill and strength needed for this training?

She spent the night falling into a fitful sleep, unaware of the odd brows raised in her direction by her roommates. The next morning she woke, cooked breakfast, and bathed and tried to prepare herself for the day ahead. Some meditation with Shirayuki left her feeling a little less jittery. But she still fixed herself a cup of strong tea as well.

Its noon on the dot when she enters the training compounds that the estate boasted, looking calm, neat and clean as she was ever going to be, in a neatly laundered and pressed shihakusho. Might as well look presentable, so as not to disgrace her brother. She spies him among the flat, manicured fields of grass mixed with sand and bowed to him waist-deep.

"Nii-sama."

[ofnoblemind]

Byakuya can feel her approaching before she even speaks, but he nods his head to acknowledge her presence for propriety's sake. "Rukia." Turning to look toward the sky (but careful to keep his eyes out of the sun), he continues, "You're late." However, it's more of a statement than an accusation, merely a fact spoken. Again, he tells himself that he is her brother and he should act more like it; starting off with negativity will only set a negative tone for the rest of the day.

Sighing quietly to himself, Byakuya turns and starts to walk toward the center of the clearing. "I trust you slept well?" he speaks over his shoulder, already pushing her minor offense to the back of his mind.

[snowwhitesoul]

Rukia bows deeper this time, mostly to hide the embarrassed look on her face. She'd tried to leave earlier, but obligations (read: dodging her roommates) meant she was tardy when she exited via the window of her closet-room and booked it for the estate.

"My apologies, Nii-sama. It was thoughtless of me to be late." She's sincere in her self-recrimination: she wanted to impress and starting everything off on the wrong foot wasn't a good way to do that. But she follows him with less of her eyes and more of her senses as he moves over to the middle of the field that they'd claimed for the day. If he was going to speak nothing more of it, then she'd take what grace she could get today.

"I slept well, Nii-sama." A lie, but not a bold-faced one. What was she going to say? No, I barely slept because I was too nervous and excited about this? It was comfortable, polite chitchat, almost a warm up in its own way; warming them up, loosening familial muscles in preparation of a strenuous workout. She slips in behind him, assuming that her

[ofnoblemind]

There is still plenty of time left in the day. This is important to her, after all, and he'll meet her halfway, so to speak, to make it worth her while. During their entire walk he is well aware of their surroundings, and where Rukia is in relation to his location. He has faith that she does the same; it's only wise for a Shinigami. His hand rests comfortably, casually, on Senbonzakura's hilt

[snowwhitesoul]

Its the familiar ring of steel leaving its sheathe and the cry of the air as a blade spliced it. Hueco Mundo, this wretched land and all its lovely-seeming dangers, and maybe her own tuned up nerves had instilled a reaction to that sound. She dropped to one knee, hand already on her zanpakutou's hilt and her feet rocking forward from the crouch to return the assault when she came to her senses.

She looked up at him, the bar of Senbonzakura's blade between them, and remains still, but her hand never leaving it white knuckled grip on the pommel. The blade was already partially exposed from the saya.

She doesn't move, and waits for him to dictate the next step of the lesson.

[ofnoblemind]

Standing at the ready, Byakuya watches her for a few moments, Senbonzakura unmoving between them. She's quick and that speed is what Byakuya wants to see, proof that after even a short amount of time in his presence with no warming up to get comfortable, she is still aware and responds swiftly. Rukia is stronger than she seems.

Byakuya knows this, but he also knows that she has a long road ahead of her, as does every Shinigami who takes on this training.

Finally, he takes a step back and relaxes his stance, but only just; he doesn't return Senbonzakura to its sheath. "Do not hesitate. Your zanpakutou can feel that hesitation and if you are not willing to give your all, then neither will it." Grey eyes focus on her violet and Byakuya continues. "I am not your brother in these moments, but your enemy. Do not hold back."

[snowwhitesoul]

She rises to her feet at the same time, Sodeno Shirayuki sliding free. She's proud of her speed, her agility and grace. While many of her opponents saw someone they could abuse with their superior weight and height, Rukia could play a vicious low game while on the ground. Sparring against Ichigo and Shiro constantly made her pay deeper attention to how her opponent balanced himself. While a single cut from a heavy swing could mangle her, it took one overzealous swing to cost her opponent their balance and footing. One moment inside their swing range could mean death.

But even then, both boys held back their true strength and speed against her. In all their sparring, she'd only ever scored a solid victory against Ichigo twice, and that was when he got lazy and careless. Sliding her foot back into a balanced, conservative stance, she kept her sword in a sure grip, loose at her side but ready to strike in an instant.

"Understood." He intended to start with live steel, then so be it. She would not falter. "At your leisure, Nii-sama."

[ofnoblemind]

Byakuya watches her movements, taking everything in as he always does. He knows that because of her size, she doesn't rely on brute strength, but instead on speed and intelligence. They have that in common, making this session more interesting to Byakuya. Usually he can outsmart his opponent, but Rukia might prove a challenge.

Not that he's worried. She's still young and figuring out all of her abilities, after all.

Once he is given the go-ahead to continue, Byakuya narrows his eyes slightly and quickly studies Rukia's body for any clues as to her intentions, in case her words were more casual than the reality of the situation. Another moment passes and then he launches into a normal-paced flash step toward her unprotected side, flipping his zanpakutou perpendicularly across his body to block any attacks she may make.

[snowwhitesoul]

Kuchiki Byakuya's "normal-paced" shunpo is still ridiculously fast. He had been tutored in the technique by the Goddess of Flash herself, and it was really the fact that he wasn't trying to truly attack her and that she was aware of his incredible speed that she was even able to shift her weight to one side and blade her body off against him, giving him as little to hit as possible. Then, her blade whips out to swing at his sword arm. If it connected, it would slice the radial nerve on his arm and paralyze his hand.

After all, she didn't have the same reach as he did, so she'd have to settle for attempting to dismantle her opponent's defenses one limb at a time.

[ofnoblemind]

He is mostly testing her reflexes right now, judging her speed and strength as he picks the more indirect routes to attack. How she fights against unpredictability is a way for him to read her, to maybe get a glimpse of just what goes through her mind during times of stress. Achieving Bankai isn't a walk in the park, after all.

Of course, Rukia is already a small target, so when she moves and makes herself even harder to attack, Byakuya finds himself at a slight disadvantage, but again, he's not worried about it. She's smaller than he is, but she is also slower and his eyes see everything. As she attacks, he angles Senbonzakura up just enough to block her blade and uses his size to push against the connection, hoping to put her off-balance.

[snowwhitesoul]

Falling into the move-ebb-flow of sparring was easy, it was pretty much all she did any more. She rolls and shifts and sheds the weight of his advance to the side, not allowing him to trap her into a contest of raw strength - one she was sure to lose. She moved, her waraji barely touching the grass for more than a moment as she put that speed and agility to use, swinging at his hip from the side. Always looking to cripple and disable as opposed to just finding flesh to cut.

Finding that rhythm of battle, pushing her nerves down, she starts to move more aggressively. Pivoting on a dime to bait a swing to go one way, then moving another. Searching, testing his defenses for a gap, a weakness. Because there had to be one somewhere, no defense was perfect.

[ofnoblemind]

Once it's apparent his plan isn't going to work, Byakuya is already moving just a few steps away, at least one eye on Rukia's actions, as always. The side swing is well-executed, but he still sees it and lowers his blade to block it just in time. And then, again, she's already moving to attack him again, putting him almost entirely on defense.

But Byakuya doesn't like being defensive as it takes his control away. So after he parries another blow, he quickly flash steps around her to attack from the back, swinging at her side, but can always stop his strike if it proves to defeat her.

However, he is admittedly a little impressed by her aggressiveness and some of her moves could probably wound a lesser opponent.

[snowwhitesoul]

Rukia probably wouldn't even rank among the top three hundred swordsmen in Soul Society. Her zanjutsu, even from her academy days, was always mediocre at best. But it was enough to hold her own against more skilled opponents, and sometimes that's all that was needed to get the job done. But it took some painful lessons to understand that on a fundamental level, the lessons from her instructors at the Academy were mostly worthless. All their talks about center of gravity, push and pull, proper weight distribution all ran on the assumption that your opponent was at least reasonably similar to you in height and weight.

It wouldn't be until a time after this day that she would understand that she would have to carve out a style of her own, or be forever playing by rules that set her at a disadvantage.

She has to leap back to avoid that blow, conceding several steps to recover her balance. It had been a blind jump away, just to avoid his speed. While Rukia was fast, she still had a ways to go before she'd be to win against an opponent

[ofnoblemind]

Seeing her recovery in progress, Byakuya decides to take a chance. He had learned from experience that when one had taken in enough information about an enemy and their fighting style, then it would be prudent to end the conflict as quickly as possible. Stalling, lingering, being merciful...all of these actions give the enemy a chance to lash out for one more strike. Once involved in battle, there is no room for second thoughts anyway. Kill or be killed. That is the way of things.

Byakuya closes the gap between them and swings down toward Rukia, silently hoping she'll surprise him with more non-traditional efforts.

[snowwhitesoul]

A cleaving blow like that would split her in twain if he put enough effort into it. She cursed herself when she stumbled and had to scramble for her footing, knowing she'd all but given in permission to overwhelm her with both speed and strength. She half-sees the blade of Sebonzakura rise up for the downward stroke.

It was familiar now, that motion. She was surprised she didn't hear the ever-present call of GETSUGA TENSHO somewhere in the distance.

Ichigo had made this mistake with her only once and he never fired a Getsuga at close range with her again. Because its easy to step into the blow when you're as small as Rukia is, and turn that blow into a commitment that can't be unmade. Its easy to bring her sword up and swing at him.

[ofnoblemind]

His eyes flick toward her blade and, widening his eye just slightly, he takes a step back to be just out of her reach. He then quickly readjusts his swing to block her own with the higher end of his blade. It's not as powerful a move, but it gets the job done and allows him a moment to regain his own balance, so to speak, so that he can swing at her once more. He aims for her left arm and takes a step forward, filling in where he had stood just moments before.