Friday Night Fisticuffs [Makoto, Shishiyuki]

For a moment she bit her lip and sighed, empty her mind of all those distractions. Just focus. She took Shishiyuki's hand and resumed the same position. Her attention was back on the task, restrict the flow and begin to coax it outwards and back in. Out and in. Out and in. Into them and kill-.

She recoiled a little bit, not because she had narrowly almost made an error with the manipulation. Just the shift of perspective from what she had been picturing to something far more gruesome as motivation for her focus. Makoto's eyes stayed fixed on her finger for a moment while she tried to settle down.

Breaking her finger here out of a slip of focus was not something she wanted to do because she got carried away on a stupid little distraction.

"Rright. I'm sorry, I'll try again."

After a few more goes she picked back up the rhythm, steadily returning to her previous pace before the break and questions. Now it was far more stressful that she had almost made a mistake. Did she find it easier to focus if she played on her misanthropy? Probably, she didn't want to make it her method for focus though, she didn't want it at all.

It seemed that Makoto had come to a stumbling block in her efforts. Well, that was not an inherently bad thing. It was, if anything, rather expected. These were inevitabilities in training, but the concern on Shishiyuki's end came from the fact that Makoto did not seem the sort to take those stumbles well.

"Remember not to force yourself. If you must stop to recenter, you of course should do so. There is no pace which must be kept in these lessons."

She did not pretend that she could read Makoto's mind, but she would still do her utmost to offer what advice seemed most pertinent.

"I apologise, my own personal thoughts have no place in our lessons."

She didn't expand on them, it wasn't like they were relevant to anything. They were here for a lesson; Shishiyuki to give knowledge and Makoto to receive knowledge. Simple as that. So Makoto leaned back and sighed again. It annoyed her when she felt like she was wasting someone's time because of her error.

"Alright. I will try again."

Another attempt, she just opted to take it slow, not let her other thoughts slip in from the recesses of her mind and get in the way. Just her and the process. Once more she settled into that rhythm, just trying to repeat it as long as she could until Shishiyuki was satsified.

"It is quite alright, Miss Arima."

Shishiyuki was all too willing to guide Makoto along on this lesson, offering rebuffs or words of advice whenever appropriate. This was relatively advanced technique, after all, so there was no reason that her expectations would be placed tremendously high. After quite a few attempts, Shishiyuki nodded in approval, her hand still holding Makoto's.

"That is enough for today. Overexertion can lead the body to lose control over these highly contained flows, even in situations where we normally might have no trouble maintaining them. We will continue with this lesson the next time we meet, as there is still much to cover."

A curt nod to show her understanding and she let go of the woman's hand. Shaking it out from the sensation of it grasping Shishiyuki's hand for so long. The white-haired woman suppressed a yawn, it was getting late and it took a lot of mental energy to focus for all the time, she didn't complain though. She'd been through far worse than a bit of exhaustion, it was normal for her to exert herself to that degree.

"Alright, I will see you next time, Lady Shishiyuki."

Getting up from the chair and stretching her legs, Makoto gave a small bow before turning to leave her teacher to her own devices. Maybe she should get some rest, at least then she wouldn't be scolded for neglecting her rest to practice as much as she did from Abalia.

Before she left her head turned back to glance Shishiyuki, wondering about something and whether or not she should ask. It could wait, her body wasn't content to stay any longer than she needed after the lesson.