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
(
I'm not ready to go alone )
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."
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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.
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"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 ( ... )
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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.
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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."
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 ( ... )
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Byakuya closes the gap between them and swings down toward Rukia, silently hoping she'll surprise him with more non-traditional efforts.
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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.
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