Show Your Passion [Tutor]

[Miraku]

It was finally time. Raku had sent word to Hira earlier in the week to make sure he got the information on time this week to meet him at a dojo in the more populated area of town. It was here that Raku would start the boys early stages of swordsmanship training. It wouldn't be with real swords just yet. Instead they would do their training with more lightweight wooden training swords, which would allow for easier movement and carrying ability. Especially while Hira was still in the earlier stages of building up his strength. But this early training would set up his muscle memory in order to get him ready for wielding a proper sword when the time came.

Showing up early, Raku had already finished his training, but decided to keep it a little lighter today as he would actually be partially participating in this training today. It would be good practice for him to work on the basics either way. He was dressed down in only a tank top and some loose sweatpants, with nothing on his feet to respect the dojo area, and keep his shoes off the clean floor. The dojo had multiple rooms, and some of them were currently in use by others working on their skills, but Raku had gotten access to use of a room on their own so that he could teach Hira in peace without him having to worry about others watching, or judging. As well as keeping Raku's mind at peace on the issue. He wasn't really one who enjoyed being watched while training either, which explained why he trained on his own every morning, instead of with other people or during his training sessions with any pupils.

Walking to the room they would be using, he entered it, and seen things sitting around the room off to the sides, and laying around which he figured he might be able to use. He began to set up some basic stuff around the room such as dummies to practice hitting, objects to move between and work on striking, etc. Things that they may want to use closer to the end of the training. And so after finishing the setup, Raku grabbed his bottle of water and walked out of the room. He moved to the front of the building and sat down on the stairs in the front hallway awaiting the boys arrival. Taking a big swig of water to quench his thirst slightly before he would be ready to start, waiting for Hira to arrive.

[426 WC]
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[Hirateuchi]

It was finally time to start practicing with swords. Hira had gotten the message from his parents of where to meet his mentor Raku this week, and was more excited than all the training sessions prior. Soon he could go home and show his father all the progress he had made with his sword-fighting skills. First thing was first though, he had to get ready. Slipping into a loose black kimono, Hira grabbed a large bottle of water and a practice sword from his father's room, securing it tightly to his waist. He was sure Raku was already prepared with another sword, but it couldn't hurt to be prepared, and practice running with a sword on his side was an added benefit. If there was one thing he had learned from Raku over all of these weeks, it's that Hira had to teach himself just as much as his teachers did.

It was a nice day out again. Funny how it always seemed to be that way when he went out every week to a new training session. Perhaps this was the world's way of telling him that he was making the right choice by listening to his parents and learning from the strange old man they found for him. Not wanting to stop and waste time, Hira sighed and called a farewell out to his parents before leaving.

Hira jogged lightly over to the dojo where Raku had informed him to meet, not wanting to spend all of his energy before the training session, but moving briskly enough to get a solid warm up. Arriving at the dojo, Hira wasn't terribly surprised to see Raku sitting outside waiting for him. It had become a typical site, Raku waiting nonchalantly for Hira to arrive as though he were always late. It didn't bother him though, he was becoming accustomed to many of Raku's small nuances. Hira lifted his arm up to wave, as he jogged up to the front of the dojo. Beyond Raku, he could see a room set up with practice dummies and all manners of other training tools. "We gonna be practicing in there today?" Hira took one last look at the sky before heading inside without confirmation. He was far too eager to begin working today. The boy called out, not knowing if his mentor was following yet, "I didn't know if you had extra practice swords so I brought one of my dad's. My dad used to use piercing swords, though, so it might be a bit different from the normal ones."

[WC 427]

 

[Miraku]

As he waited, it didn't take long before the boy showed up, on time as usual. Raku felt like showing up earlier than the boy showed he was getting prepared and at least putting an effort into teaching him. Whether the boy cared or not? He didn't know, but it didn't bother him either way. The boy walked up and asked if this was where they'd be practicing, taking a moment to look around, and then just began heading inside without any confirmation, maybe meant more to be a rhetorical question than a serious one since he had obviously been invited here for a reason. He continued to speak as Raku stood up and began to follow him towards the open room where they would be practicing. He spoke of bringing his father's practice sword, which Raku could see he was carrying from the moment he appeared in view, figuring as much. It was definitely apparent that it was more for piercing, but you could definitely still do more than one thing with a weapon, as he would soon teach him.

As they took their steps into the room, Raku closed the traditional Japanese looking screen paneled doors behind him. "It's alright that it's more for piercing. Everyone needs to find their own style of weapon.
Though I will definitely be showing you how you can use your weapon in unique ways as well." He told Hira as he walked to the side of the room, reaching down against the wall and grabbing one of the practice swords he had left out for them to use, swinging it around a bit. His movements were very quick with the sword as it was much lighter than the heavy metal swords he was used to swinging around.

"First thing's first. You need to know how to hold your sword." he started off, placing both hands on the handle of his weapon. "With a Katana sword, you're best off using both hands like so in order to swing it with more strength and inflict deeper wounds with your slashes." he released one of his hands and held it with his just left hand, "You can also use just one hand to free up your other, as well as get a wider range of motion." he continued by swinging it from side to side. "But with a piercing weapon, you'll want to be thrusting in order to pierce your opponent with it, so you definitely don't want to use two hands." he told the boy, as he began to wave the sword around a bit in his hand as if it were a piercing weapon. Thrusting the sword forward in a strange stance that felt a little foreign to him, having not used a piercing style in a long time.

"So first off, I want you to get used to the feeling of holding the sword with only one hand. Use your dominant hand. Get used to waving it around, and thrusting it forward and then pulling back." he told the boy, showing him some more examples. "The forward movement is obvious, as it is to inflict damage, while other motions are used to moves other weapons out of your way, so as to defend." he continued explaining. "Although you're just doing this in the air currently, it is to get you used to the feel of the sword in your hand before we actually try to use it against another weapon or person." he finished, stopping and planting the bottom of his weapon against the floor, resting his palm on the top of the hilt as he waited for the boy to replicate and get used to the feeling.

[616 WC]
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[Hirateuchi]

Hira looked nervously down at his practice sword as Raku demonstrated several moves that he wanted Hira to try. He was originally excited to work with swords, but now, being thrust so suddenly into the situation, his nerves began building up. He always thought he would be learning swordsmanship from his father. Not wanting to take the thoughts further, Hira nodded as Raku ended his instruction. Raku was a bit odd, but he was treating Hira well. He wanted to give him a fair shot.

Giving the practice sword on his waist an experiemental grip, he looked back up and slowly took it out. Imitating clumsily the swings and pokes Raku had just gone over, the boy began asking a few questions, trying to understand more of the concept of sword fighting while his muscles were focused on how heavy even a practice sword was. "So explain something to me Raku." Hira lifted up his sword after a few swings imitating what seemed to be him blocking another sword. "How exactly does defense work with a sword? It seems like it would be much harder to defend than it would be for the enemy to attack." As if to prove his point he made a few more test swings, showing the relative ease compared in his mind. The boy had a youthful ignorance about the nuances of battle, but he thought he brought up a good point. "Wouldn't it make more sense just to keep attacking and not let them get a hit in? The best defense is a good offense or something like that?"

The other idea he had was also idealistic, but a fair point to bring up for a young child just learning the ways of battle. "Or why didn't we just train my speed so i could dodge it all?"

[WC 304]

 

[Miraku]

As the boy began to test out his sword, following the movements he was shown earlier, Raku watched and listened as he also began to ask questions. Watching him continue to swing the sword around, the Hira began to ask about defense as it pertained to swords, obviously getting some basics but missing the more subtleties of it as he seemed curious as to whether defending was even worth it if you could just stick to attacks. Raku chuckled a bit that the naivety, proceeding to lift his practice sword back up. "While that could be true, depending on how fast you are. But, there will always be someone out there better than you. Faster than you. And if they're faster, how will you stop their onslaught of attacks if you don't know how to defend?" he posed the question to the boy, as he started swinging the sword around a bit, getting faster and faster with each swing until he was swinging so fast it was beginning to become difficult to see where each swing began and where it ended. "You see, defense can throw off your opponent and give you the advantage, switching the tide of battle if you're able to hit them, and they're not able to land fully on you." he continued, trying to explain it in the best way he could.

"As for dodging it all, that is possible, but again, there's always a chance someone out there is faster than you, and if you're not able to dodge, you may still be able to block the attack." Raku told the boy, as he set his sword down facing the ground again, leaning his palm on the hilt to keep it upright, as he looked towards Hira once more. "You can works on your speed in the future as well to increase your ability to dodge, but I just wanted to get your strength up to snuff so you could start learning the swordsmanship itself as soon as possible." he explained further.

"Of course, I'm just teaching you the basics, and trying to help you be able to wield the sword. I can't teach you the structure or specific style of swordsmanship your family uses. Hell, swordsmanship may not even be what you want to do after you get a feel for it, but at least your trying it out." he told the boy, curious how he was feeling now that he was actually getting the chance to use the sword. "Either way, it's useful to know how to use a sword, even if you're not a swordsman since it could come in handy one day." he continued telling Hira, as he walked over to a structural pillar in the room and leaned against it. "For now it's all about getting used to the feeling. Making the sword an extension of your own body to where it feels very natural to use it." he finished, as he waited to see if the boy had further questions or comments while he practiced.

[506 WC]
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[Hirateuchi]

Hira continued waving his sword around as the man explained further what it was like to wield a sword in combat. He watched in disbelief as Raku sped up his swords swings slowly, making a point of why defense would be important. The swings got faster and faster, until Hira couldn't even see where the blade was in the air. He stared in a mixture of astonishment and disappointment. Sure the man had trained for a presumably very long time to get to that skill level, but in that moment he was making it seem like an unattainable goal. Hira stopped swinging his sword and looked at it. Why was it that he wanted so much to learn how to fight with a sword? Did he feel a sense of obligation towards his father whom wanted to start at a young age but got too sick to continue? Or was it a sense of guilt keeping him towards it, scared of what his father might think if he gave up the family tradition?

Either way, Hira stood tall, once more determined to figure this out. Raw determination is what got him through all the climbing exercises back in the forest, and he was sure that if he had the same drive now it would come to him eventually. Hira started swinging his sword in more even, precise strokes, letting the weight of the sword carry his moves more than exerting his body. Noticing the training dummies nearby, Hira walked over and gave a few practice swings in their general direction. He looked over to Raku. "So what's the point of these guys then? I don't see how these help me out. Wouldn't it be better just to spar with you to get the hand of dodging and blocking instead of just striking?" As if to prove his point he make a few more practice swings at the dummy and pretended to dodge a few imaginary attacks. Even one moment he lifted his sword above his head and contorted his face as if blocking another imaginary strike.

[WC 346]

 

[Miraku]

Raku watched as the boy continued to practice, getting a little more precise and comfortable with the movements. Hira looked like he was determined to get better. It seemed like he was beginning to figure it out through his practice, at least seemed to be getting the hang of it more so than when he had started. As he finished up a few more strikes and swings of his sword, he turned towards the training dummies that were set up around the room. Seemingly curious about how the dummies would help, and whether it would be better to actually spar with a human, Raku chuckled a bit.

"Well, they're nice to practice your strikes on for sure, not so much for the blocking or dodging aspect." he responded as he watched Hira move around and strike the dummy, pretending to be in a fight which caused Raku to laugh a bit more. "Imaginairy fights aren't too bad either, but you're right. Spar's against real people are definitely much better for learning and practice than messing around with a dummy." he told the young boy, as he stood up straight once again, getting off the pillar and lifting up his sword.

"If you'd like, you could try to practice with me; try to hit me, and I'll attempt a few attacks myself once in a while just to switch it up in order to do some real training, and we can just forget about those silly training dummies." he told the boy, holding his sword out, waiting in front of Hira ready for him to start his attack if he was willing to give it a try.

[276 WC]
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[Hirateuchi]

As Raku stood up Hira looked cautiously, and nervously, to the man's sword. There he went getting himself in an awkward situation running his mouth off like always. Even if Raku went easy, would Hira even be able to touch him? Thinking back to how fast Raku was swinging his sword earlier, the boy made a loud audible gulping noise before stepping up in a facade of confidence. "Well, just don't complain when your back gives out on you from trying to block me, old man."

Hira momentarily lost focus on what was going on around him, thinking about his family. He remembered his father telling him about some of the fights he was in when he was younger. "When the opponent is stronger than you, you have to be smarter than them," Hira remembered hearing many times.

Closing his eyes, Hira took a deep breath and envisioned how he would try to attack Raku. Speed and power were clearly not in his favor, and neither was perception. The boy was outmatched in every category, of course, and even it the spar was toned down, Raku seemed like the kind of guy who might like to still mess with a student. Well, my mind is what's gotten me this far. He concocted a plan in his mind, not caring that he had not practiced what he was about to try. Walking slowly over to Raku, Hira stopped a few feet away, giving him a bow to show his respect, and to potentially throw him off his guard if he wasn't expecting such a formality. Without waiting for a response, Hira lunged forward, sword in his dominant right hand ready to pierce forward into Raku's side. Time seemed to slow down. Perhaps it was the adrenaline of having what would be the closest thing to a fight he's ever been in. As he reached closer to Raku, though, he did not simply continue pushing into the thrust. The boy brought his left hand over to grab the blade, using the forward momentum he had already gathered to plant his feet down and spin, redirecting his attack further up from a different angle. Did he really just pull that off? He was surprising even himself. The attack was slow and clumsy, but perhaps tricky enough to work.

[WC 385]

 

[Miraku]

Hira continued to joke around with him, but Raku knew the boy was serious as seemed to be in thought about how he would approach this. Waiting patiently, the boy approached and began to bow, which amused Raku in the moment, until the boy used it as cover for the start of his attack, for which he thrust forward in attempt to strike Raku quickly, but before finishing the attack, he changed his stance, switching hands and rotating in attempt to change the direction of the swing mid-strike. It was quite a quick maneuver for someone so new to this whole thing, but Raku still needed to defend. Flicking his wrist upward, his sword lifted until the top edge of it pushed against the side of Hira's sword, lifting it up further and to the side, causing it to go up and past Raku's shoulder instead of hitting him anywhere.

"Very nice. I like the switch up mid attack. Keep going!" he told the boy, as he used the edge of his sword to push Hira's sword further away, giving himself some more space between himself and the weapon once again, leaving Hira to continue his assault. Returning his sword to the front of him as he waited for it to continue, he smirked, enjoying the enthusiasm Hira put behind his learning, and his willingness to do whatever it took to get better.

------------------

As the day went on, the two of them would continue to spar, letting Hira try out different attacks and patterns of fighting, but blocking whichever ones he could manage to get close to landing, dodging a few, and even throwing in a few attacks of his own, slow enough for Hira to block. This spar wasn't about landing attacks, it was about blocking, and being used to attacking with your sword, and recovering from a block or dodge. Attacking was the easy part. Learning to work your attacks around certain blocks and movements was the key.

After a few hours of working on this, Raku took a jump back and lowered his weapon. "Alright. I think that's enough for today. You're certainly getting better with that sword." he told Hira as he began to roll his shoulders a bit, loosening up some from the training. "I think you've definitely got the basics of handling a sword down, even if you don't have the proper technique. Either way, it will definitely be useful knowledge to have. Even if you're just fighting someone with a sword, knowing how they think about using it will be an asset." he finished explaining. "But for now, I think we'll call it a night.
Just keep working at training your abilities and definitely think about where you want to go with this. What kind of shinobi you really want to be. Now that you've gotten some experience with a sword, you should soon be able to tell if it's right for you. Just something to think about." he told the boy, as he walked over to grab his things before heading towards the door. "I'll talk to you later, alright? Get home safely and enjoy the rest of your week." he said, as he began to leave the room, lifting his hand to wave goodbye from behind as he walked off.

[Tutor Finished/Topic Left]
[549 WC; 2373 Total WC]
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[Hirateuchi]

Hira's assault was clearly not enough to penetrate Raku's defenses, but nonetheless he was proud of what he had accomplished today. He took a skill he had no clue about and after a small amount of practice was able to apply it, to whatever small degree. Raku also seemed to be getting more encouraging than he was in the past. Perhaps all this time spent together was allowing him to open up. Even Hira felt a certain fondness for the man, whether he cared to admit it or not. Of all the things he could teach himself from these attacks is that he was putting too much force into each attack and not enough control. It was easy for Raku to deflect an attack and Hira couldn't recover quickly enough to defend himself. He would have to keep that in mind.

"Thanks for going so far to teach me, by the way... I know you didn't know my parents too well but it ummm... Hira wasn't quite sure what he wanted to say to the man. "I'll see ya next time!"

Ending their training session, Hira was panting on the floor, wiping an ocean of sweat off his brow from all of the physical exertion. And it seemed Raku had spotted that Hira wasn't sure about swordsmanship. What did he read minds now, too? At any rate, Hira bid farewell to his mentor, opting to lay down for a moment longer as he gathered enough strength to gather his things and head back home, counting the days until their next meeting.

[WC 261; Total WC 1723]
[Topic Finished/Left]