Not going to be easy [Solo]

He had wanted very much to improve more then just one subject by the time he left. He had planned to push himself to his very limits, and he did not plan on slacking on that promise, as Mike had wished for honest progress, as is the only way to dominate in this era.  body had flickered and died as he had vanished, leaving behind a small tornado of dust in his dissipearence. The man had appeared roughly 20 meters away, in a rather plain training area. In Mike's  focus, he had noticed six training dummy's with targets on them, and a wall covered with blackened targets. He could easily infer that people had been training in the use of Kido techniques on this wall, and was surprised there was even a wall in the first place. Mike had walked up briskly to the wall and placed his hand on the targets. There was no mistaking, it's seki seki. Mike, pleased with this confirmation, turned around and stared his training ara down one last time, before lowering his head.

It was time to start his training. Mike's  hands instantly moved for the latch of his long coat, which also served as a centerpiece. He clicked a button and unlatched his cloak, letting it fall to the ground to reveal a traditional Shinigami Shihakusho with sleeves that reached almost to his wrist. Mike had taken a deep sigh, as he knew exactly what was ahead for him....nothing but pain. Mike then untied the bondage that held together his Kimono and he let it fall, leaving only pants and his bare torso. Mike was semi-slender man. It was clear he had a strong foundation for muscle but no clear training to add on to it, and his intentions were to change that. 

"THUD"

Mike had heard a noise from a seperate training ground. "THUD" "THUD THUD THUD THUD-THTHTHTHTHHUD" He had heard repeated strikes of what sounded either like wood on wood or bone on wood. Satoshi was intrigued by this, and so he looked at his clothes on the ground, disappointed he had to put them there in the first place. He slowly bent his knees as to acquire his garments back, and as he did, he threw them over his shoulder and Shunpo'd into the Dojo. Mike, seeing no one in there, decided to just sense his spiritual pressure, which most likely he should of done from the start. Mike had simply tense his face as to focus, but no signature. How was it possible this person had no trace of spiritual energy? Mike began walking to the source of the noise, the sound of impact echoeing through even the floors of the Dojo. As Mike had slid the door open, he had seen a middle-old aged muscular man from the back. He had mostly black hair with two streaks running through the left side of his hair, and a full bear that was patchy on random spots with grey. His eyes were blue and he wore an identical Shihakuso as Mike. As soon as he saw the old man, he was astonished by how healthy he looked. Being Shinigami, they had no real sense of keeping health, but this man looked as if he could lift the Soul Society himself, yet shorter then Mike. As soon as Mike had even touched the door, he noticed the sound stopped. To Mike, this must indicate he had a very keen sense of hearing.

"Don't be shy. Come forward."

Mike's face slightly cringed with the clear mockery. Mike's hands had almost twitched toward going toward his blade, but his had known better. This man's spiritual pressure was nowhere to be sensed, even within his presence, and yet the way he presented himself clearly seemed to be that of a captain. The man's Zanpakuto had a red handle, along with a square and tan guard on it. The scabbard itself was black, it looked mostly plain. Mike had stepped down from atop the dojo's slightly raised floor and said,

"What's your name.", Blurted Mike

"Mashida Oshitekken", Stated the stranger

"Your real name, please."

"...Heh, Durendal Mitsugi. How did you know?"

"You couldn't fool a hollow with that name."

Durendal had chuckled at this statement and looked up at Mike instead of just looking grim constantly.

"What is your purpose here, Mike?"

"How did yo---??!?"

"--Doesn't matter. My reasons for knowing your name I would prefer to keep to myself. Now speak."

"Watch your tongue, Durendal. For fear of losing it. And I'm here to train, what else?"

"You'd be surprised. And how do you expect to train with no trainer?"

"Improvise. Martial art master's had to start somewhere."

Durendal shook his head, as if shamed in Mike's answer.

"It is obvious your skills are in need of ho-"

"And who's to say it is not YOUR skills that need honing, old man?"

Mike's face had remain emotionless throughout the entire confrontation, but he would be a fool to admit he was not at least surprised at the speed.

"Interesting. I'd accept your offer on the chance that you know what you're doing."

"Don't question me, or maybe instead of leaving this place improved, you won't leave it at all..."

"Something we share in comm-"

"-Hmm?"

"Love the hair"

"That's what I thought."

The older Shinigami had told Mike that he was going to teach him in a few basics of Taekwondo to start off, as it is a very easy hand to handle style to learn for beginners. Mike was about to copy the punch Durendal raised his right hand to silence his action...

"Ah ah, slow down. Every strong bridge must first start with the foundation, the basics."

Durendal had then pointed toward an extremely thick tree growing on the edge of the training grounds. Mike knew exactly what that meant, the man had wanted him to punch the tree. Mike sighed and dropped his items once more and paced toward the tree. As he arrived, he had gotten in a much sloppier verison of Durendal's Taekwondo stance.

"STRIKE!" Durendal screamed

Mike sent a right straight fist for the tree, and it he hit it with an anticlimactic, "thud". Mike's fist had a streak of pain in his knuckles, but it quickly went away as Mike's focused has shifted to Durendal laughing.

"I never knew my punches could make someone laugh."

"Wh-whew. I-whew. Sorry, fun for an old man. We start with excercises of course. You could sit there for ten days and punch and learn nothing. I thought you would of seen past that."

Mikw looked away and cringed slightly in emberassment of his mental defeat. The old man removed the tops of his robes to reveal a scarred and tanned body. He had then dropped his Zanpakuto and said,

"I shall join you in the foundation training to make sure you're doing it right. Sento Kaishin!"

"Don't be shy. Come forward."

Mike's face slightly cringed with the clear mockery. Mike's hands had almost twitched toward going toward his blade, but his had known better. This man's spiritual pressure was nowhere to be sensed, even within his presence, and yet the way he presented himself clearly seemed to be that of a captain. The man's Zanpakuto had a red handle, along with a square and tan guard on it. The scabbard itself was black, it looked mostly plain. Mike had stepped down from atop the dojo's slightly raised floor and said,

"What's your name.", Blurted Mike

"Mashida Oshitekken", Stated the stranger

"Your real name, please."

"...Heh, Durendal Mitsugi. How did you know?"

"You couldn't fool a hollow with that name."

Durendal had chuckled at this statement and looked up at Mike instead of just looking grim constantly.

"What is your purpose here, Mike?"

"How did yo---??!?"

"--Doesn't matter. My reasons for knowing your name I would prefer to keep to myself. Now speak."

"Watch your tongue, Durendal. For fear of losing it. And I'm here to train, what else?"

"You'd be surprised. And how do you expect to train with no trainer?"

"Improvise. Martial art master's had to start somewhere."

Durendal shook his head, as if shamed in Mike's answer.

"It is obvious your skills are in need of ho-"

"And who's to say it is not YOUR skills that need honing, old man?"

Mike's face had remain emotionless throughout the entire confrontation, but he would be a fool to admit he was not at least surprised at the speed.

"Interesting. I'd accept your offer on the chance that you know what you're doing."

"Don't question me, or maybe instead of leaving this place improved, you won't leave it at all..."

"Something we share in comm-"

"-Hmm?"

"Love the hair"

"That's what I thought."

The older Shinigami had told Mike that he was going to teach him in a few basics of Taekwondo to start off, as it is a very easy hand to handle style to learn for beginners. Mike was about to copy the punch Durendal raised his right hand to silence his action...

"Ah ah, slow down. Every strong bridge must first start with the foundation, the basics."

Durendal had then pointed toward an extremely thick tree growing on the edge of the training grounds. Mike knew exactly what that meant, the man had wanted him to punch the tree. Mike sighed and dropped his items once more and paced toward the tree. As he arrived, he had gotten in a much sloppier verison of Durendal's Taekwondo stance.

"STRIKE!" Durendal screamed

Mike sent a right straight fist for the tree, and it he hit it with an anticlimactic, "thud". Mike's fist had a streak of pain in his knuckles, but it quickly went away as Mike's focused has shifted to Durendal laughing.

"I never knew my punches could make someone laugh."

"Wh-whew. I-whew. Sorry, fun for an old man. We start with excercises of course. You could sit there for ten days and punch and learn nothing. I thought you would of seen past that."

Mikw looked away and cringed slightly in emberassment of his mental defeat. The old man removed the tops of his robes to reveal a scarred and tanned body. He had then dropped his Zanpakuto and said,

"I shall join you in the foundation training to make sure you're doing it right. Sento Kaishin!"

z

Durendal had then gained a serious look and looked down at Mike. "You should focus on connecting with your Zanpakuto on such a peaceful night like this. After you are finished communning with your Zanpakuto, we will begin with strength training. The following day, we will focus on speed training. And then rotate right back into todays stamina training. You'll be here for quite some time, get used to it. I've talked to some inside people, and they'll excuse your dissipearence from duties for up to a month while we train. Understood?"

"Yes. However, I'm puzzled as to how you managed to acquire enough strings between your fingers to actually pull on them."

"Could you translate that for me?" Durendal asked, obviously puzzled.

"How exactly did you cover for me for such a long period of time?"

"Oh please, you think the Soul society can't handle patrol duties without you? Get over it."

"My my, such a mouth on you. Why help me if you have such an attitude toward me."

"I don't really have a choice. Your such a hopeless case that I thought I might intervene in your pathetic attempts to become stronger."

"You're the one who said that my punch was solid."

"Yet, it was stopped with a single appendage. Solid stance does not a punch make, kid."

"Heh...Tsk tsk" He sighed

Mike had then rised from his grounded seating and walked toward his Zanpakuto, where he picked it up and paced back to the steps. Durendal told him to keep his cloak off to know how to regulate body eat easier. Mike wanted to become better at combat, not learning how to control basic body functions. He shook his head and decided it might be benificial anyway to keep it off. The old man had sat on the steps meditating with his Zanpakuto, most likely showing Mike how to do it whilst doing it himself as he said he was going to. Mike had sat down on the ground, roughly 10 feet across from the steps where the old man was sitting in an indian sitting meditative way. However, Mike didn't need him to show him how to talk to Kyoufuu, as he was quite familiar with it. Mike had then sat in an identical position with his sword layed across his lap similarly. After an hour of sitting in silence and meditation, Mike found his head spinning for a brief instant, but then found himself standing in an a plain of internet staircases going at an angle for what seems like an eternity. Mike had then turned around to see Kyoufuu sitting atop his upward standing sword, picking her teeth.

"I was wondering when you were going to visit. I was starting to get worried." Kyoufuu flicked something out of her teeth, how she flicked something out of her teeth she had no idea. She was a Zanpakuto spirit.

"I was busy tr-"

"No shit, I can see everything you do. You still have much to learn."

"Such unqualified condescension."

"Hardly."

Both Mike and Kyoufuu smirked. Kyoufuu jumped down from the sword form that Kyoufuu would normally take, and the sword stayed standing up. Kyoufuu and Mike bowed toward eachother.

"Shall we commence?"

"Of course....Wake up, Kyoufuu."

Mike had slammed his right hand on the hilt of his Odachi, and drew it as static charges encircles the entire sword at the same time it was being drawn. When a full draw was achieved Mike had begun twirling the sword in his hand, until it started spinning fast, with an outline of electricity circling it. In a instant, Mike slashed down the sword and a huge wave of air rushed forth, as Mike's Odachi flashed as if lightning stuck it, and in an instant, Mike was holding a pulsating long sword that was exactly identical to Kyoufuu's sword. Both of them nodded as they charged forth and begun sparring with the Sword. Zanpakuto and Shinigami clashed with no abiility, only skill of the sword back and forth as electricity flew and steps had been crumbled away just by impacts and electric pulses colliding together. From far away, it would appear as if two indivuals were fighting in a large ball of electricity. Kyoufuu saw that Mike had dodged a head strike. Mike smirked and did a solid jump into the air about four feet and brought his sword toward the arm that had swung from.

The shinigami had seen this coming, but not fast enough as Kyoufuu extended the blade to strike Mike's upper arm and he twirled out of the way, whilst doing a counter attack within his spin, but Kyoufuu tossed up her Zanpakuto and he blocked the strike. Kyoufuu wrapped the blade in the cord and yanked Mike but Mike had also extended the blades with the same cables, and made the blades wrap around and he had reverse pulled Kyoufuu, and she had came flying as Mike sent a kick to her face at the same time.

Kyoufuu caught a solid foot to the face and sent her sprawling down the endless flight of steps. Kyoufuu and Mike retracted their blades, but Kyoufuu slammed her sword into the ground and held on to it to keep from falling down any further. Mike then shunpo'd toward her and attempted to catch her off guard with a back strike, but Kyoufuu knew him too well. The Sword was embedded, and Kyoufuu had sent the cord toward Mike's stomach like a whip, but Mike endured it to continue the strike to Kyoufuu's legs. One of the legs had been hit at the same time Kyoufuu had managed to yank the sword from its stoney hold and swung it at Mike's face to no avail, as Mike was out of reach. The two went at it back and forth, no end to the constant combat.

"My my, you flared up quite a bit last night. I had to put a barrier around you so that you wouldn't attract unwanted attention. Try to keep the internal battles scaled down next time. How was it?"

"Lovely. How about you and your valentine?" Mike laughed to himself, as he thought he was pretty clever for making an allusion to a human holiday.

"I told my Zanpakuto about how you tried to punch a bloody tree." He chuckled and turned around to look at the leaf on the ground, and smiled in accomplishment.

"That's a faulty statement, your Zanpakato see's everything you do."

"Well, it seems you don't need me if you know such secret information." The old man shot Mike a mocking look.

"Shh, don't tell anyone else or I might have to kill you."

Durendal chuckled and said "Alright, now that we have our ego's drained, we shall begin with some basic Strength and accuracy training." Mike yelped in slight pain as he was hit in the wrist with a whip-like stick for doing a push-up wrong. Mike kept up the basic pushups over and over and over for hours, marks up and down Mike's arm. As Satoshi had begun in improving in his push-up speed, Durendal had forced Mike to clap every time he pushed up, and made sure it was a high enough clap by swinging the stick two feet high in the air.

Every muscle in Mike's body had burned from exhaustion as had completed his final pushup, adding up to a total of five thousand. It was the middle of the day when he had completed all of his pushups. Mike could not move his arms, and his shoulders had felt like he had taken on the role of Atlas for an hour. But Durendal would not let Mike let up. Durendal decided to let his arms rest by doing sit ups. However, Durendal had put a knife under Mike's back to keep him from touching the ground when he goes back down for a sit-up, as increasing muscle strain was exactly what was required in order to build muscles, as muscles could only be built when broken down. That was the Master's plan, to build Mike all the way down, and then let him rebuild himself into something even greater then he was before.

After the muscles in Mike's body couldn't handle anymore, it was finally revealed that Durendal was more of a healer then a fighter, as only thirty minutes after ripping all his muscles apart, they had seem to be rebuilding themselves as the Master had put his hand on Mike's back. They were, of course, sore but hardly hurt as bad as they were.

" I think this session will do for now, Mike. I am glad we have met."

Mike turned his head around and looked at the man with intent. "Sure...."

And with that, the man had walked off.