Lazy Days [Private, Kyouhai]

When Kit heard the other could use shikai, even bankai, the young shinigami appeared to brighten up, an interested smile spread across his countenance. Quietly he tapped a finger to his bottom lip a moment after, wondering what he should say, what questions to ask, where the training would even be located and the times for it. Unlike most other shinigami, Kit had a pretty clear schedule for the foreseeable future, so he figured to default to whatever Kyouhai deemed appropriate for the dates and all that.

"So... so, um, er... so I... l-like, you wouldn't mind... teaching me... shikai, w-would you?" He asked quietly, blushing a little when he posed the question if only due to his own embarrassment about not having developed so far on his own. Most other shinigami he could think of, out of the Academy, could access and utilize their shikai and the abilities therein, whereas he never even pierced the veil that covered the nature of his Zanpakutō's abilities. They were still foreign to him and could be anything, so when Kyouhai's follow up question came up, the younger shinigami seemed to be a little reluctant to answer, immediately anyway.

"E-Er... I... I can... w-well I can talk with her... sometimes, usually... if I need help for something, but... um..." he shrugged his shoulders, "I can do some.... passable fighting, though otherwise... not really anything." Honestly, he had a hard time reaching out and developing bonds with people or spirits, Kit always worried about insulting his Zanpakutō, or intruding upon her space by trying to communicate. Of course, such apprehensions would need to be dealt with if he were to grow as a shinigami in any capacity.

"I-It's... n-not really much," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and averting eye contact.

It turned out that Kyouhai's assumption that Kit was unable even to use Shikai may have been correct. The other Shinigami appeared to brighten up and get excited when Kyouhai said that he could use both Shikai and Bankai. Kyouhai realized that he could end up needing to help train this Shinigami, which could be a bit of a problem. He knew that there were some people who needed more... drastic measures than the usual meditation to learn Shikai. Kyouhai really hoped Kit wasn't one of these people. He knew that some people had to be brought near death to allow them to enter their inner world for the first time, and he didn't feel comfortable doing that to someone. What if he accidentally killed them?

"So does this mean we get to beat this guy up a little?" asked Kyokuryuu in Kyouhai's mind. "No, Kyokuryuu... It means we have to teach him, the same way you had patience and taught me back when I was on the same level as this guy..." said Kyouhai to his Zanpakutō. "Ok, whatever you say..." said the Zanpakutō spirit, sounding a little annoyed.

As Kyouhai finished his short mental talk with his Zanpakutō spirit, Kit asked the question he was most worried about. "So... so, um, er... so I... l-like, you wouldn't mind... teaching me... shikai, w-would you?" asked Kit. He blushed a little, which Kyouhai took as a sign of him being embarrassed that he didn't have Shikai like most other Shinigami in the Gotei 13. Kyouhai figured that the embarrassment was natural, but it didn't make sense to him that someone didn't know their Zanpakutō's name. But he wasn't the type to judge people like that. He decided to help this other Shinigami. "Yes, I would be happy to help you with obtaining Shikai." said Kyouhai, hoping that the training wasn't going to end up being too dangerous or tiring for the other Shinigami.

In response to Kyouhai's earlier question about what Kit could do with his Zanpakutō, the young Shinigami said "E-Er... I... I can... w-well I can talk with her... sometimes, usually... if I need help for something, but... um..." he shrugged his shoulders, "I can do some.... passable fighting, though otherwise... not really anything.". "I-It's... n-not really much," mumbled the young Shinigami, looking away from Kyouhai. "Hey, don't feel bad about it. It actually takes a lot of strength and even more effort to obtain Shikai. The fact that you can sometimes talk with your Zanpakutō spirit is a start." said Kyouhai.

Kyouhai wasn't sure where to start. He knew how to obtain Shikai, of course, but he didn't know how Kit thought or what sort of a connection he had with his Zanpakutō. Even though he was 1,401 years old, Kyouhai still didn't understand everything about Zanpakutō. They were the one part of being a Shinigami he just... didn't understand. "Well, I'm sure you know this, but the way to release Shikai is to call out your Zanpakutō's name. As such, it follows naturally that you must find the name of your Zanpakutō to use Shikai. But I'm sure you already learned that at the Academy." said Kyouhai. "So do you know what your Inner World is and how to get there" asked Kyouhai. This question was meant to help him know where to start with training Kit to use Shikai.

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As he sat there, leant to the side after he listened to what Kyouhai replied with, the young shinigami smiled lightly. He liked hearing that he wasn't a lost cause, although he supposed he wouldn't have graduated from the Academy in the first place had that been true. Still, teachers, even if for a short time, or even for one time, were hard to come across without searching for those in the profession: not many people liked the idea of spending their time with a lesser skilled individual in an attempt to better them. At least, he figured, he knew most of the basics already when it came to getting to the point where he needed to be to develop and discover his own shikai abilities, and he likely could discover it on his own if given enough time, but at this point the younger shinigami felt restless and impatient with his speed alone: he'd take anything to help at this point. At least, then, he would feel better about working within his division as, to his knowledge, he was likely the only individual who hadn't figured it out thus far. There were some steps that eluded him, namely how to go about receiving the name of his own Zapakuto, granted she seemed rather content in not telling. Additionally to that, travel to his own inner world was barred behind intense meditation and focus, the likes of which he felt took too long and, often, ended unsuccessful.

Perhaps I just give into distraction easy... he murmured within his thoughts.

"O-Oh... u-um... I... I can enter it... s-sometimes," he mumbled, eyes turned down while his fingers drew in the dusty dirt, "I... I wish I could... do it a bit... more reliably." Conversations were hard to come by with his own spirit and, most of the time, she only chose to acknowledge him when he would appear before her within his own inner world. Kit felt baffled as to why that was, but he couldn't argue with her, not when she always seemed to give him something to think about the few times they were able to talk. Her words so often boiled down to "develop a strong mind and a sound form," but such a task came so hard without proper guidance. "I-I.... I've spoken with her... before an' all, I jus'... um... she never really... gives me much information," he added a moment later, a light sigh escaped is lips. "A-All I know... I... I can get there, a-after... a long time of focusing on it... a really long time," he pushed some hair away from his eyes as a stray breeze blew by, "But... she... doesn't say much to me." The shinigami shrugged his shoulders and sighed again, unsure how helpful all that was.

"I guess..." he started, "I... jus'... need to reliably get... um, y'know... to the... the inner... inner world... and work better with, er... I figure fighting in general," truthfully Kit didn't train too often in the art of combat, namely as the particular art made him uncomfortable to perform around other people in a training area. He always felt as if they were inwardly commenting on his technique, critiquing his blade usage, his stances, his movement: it threw him off more than not, and the fear of all the judgment kept him away from the training spots more than it should. Most of his time and effort went into more peaceful endeavors, many of which he used music to help facilitate and find a rhythm with. He always performed his tasks better with music, something to drown out all the unintelligible noise of the world so he could focus on whatever task was at hand, normally when he was drawing, painting or writing from time to time.

"U-uh... um... i-is there... a-anything else you wanted to know... ?" He asked nervously, head turned to look up at his prospective trainer, be it for an hour for one day, or however long this Kyouhai individual could stomach him.

Kyouhai listened as the other Shinigami described his experiences with his inner world. It seemed to him like Kit could enter his inner world, but maybe not of his own free will. This meant that maybe he didn't know how to get there. "I just wish I could do it a bit more reliably..." said Kit, confirming Kyouhai's earlier thought. "Well to get to your inner world, there's this thing we have called Jinzen. It's supposed to help you enter your inner world or resonate with your Zanpakutō through meditation," explained Kyouhai. "I wonder just how hard teaching this guy is gonna be..." wondered Kyouhai. He was well aware that using Shikai just didn't come naturally to some people. Also, it seemed like it had become harder to obtain a Shinigami's first release over the past 400-some odd years.

Kit continued to speak, this time saying that he'd been to the inner world and he'd also spoken with his Zanpakutō Spirit a couple times. However, he said it also took him a long time to get there, and he could only do it by focusing extremely hard. Basically, Kit was doing a less well-refined form of Jinzen when he entered his inner world. "Remember when we were going through all this? I had to beat you nearly to death before you could do a Shikai, let alone a Bankai," said the voice of Kyokuryuu, Kyouhai's Zanpakutō, in his head. "Maybe that's what this guy Kit needs too... I'll talk to him and see what sort of things help him when it comes to Zanpakutō," replied Kyouhai mentally.

"I... jus'... need to reliably get... um, y'know... to the... the inner... inner world... and work better with, er... I figure fighting in general," said Kit to Kyouhai. This was definitely something Kyouhai agreed with. However, before he could respond, the other Shinigami asked "U-uh... um... i-is there... a-anything else you wanted to know... ?"

"No, that's all I really needed to hear," began Kyouhai. After maybe five seconds, he spoke again. "So from what I've heard, I see that you're able to travel to your inner would and speak with your Zanpakutō, but she won't tell you her name, which is the thing that would allow you to use Shikai," said Kyouhai. He wasn't asking a question, but rather stating facts. Kyouhai could be confident in his ability to interpret a situation like that; it was something that came of being over 1,400 years old.

Kyouhai now got to his feet. "Come with me. We're going to the Seventh Division's training grounds, and I'm going to see if I can help you get closer to learning your first release," said Kyouhai.