Shingyo Style Secrets [Shishiyuki, Makoto]

If Shishiyuki were less attentive of a teacher, she may have failed to notice the indication of pain from Makoto as she made her attempt at the technique. However, she had certainly been watching closely, and she moved over to take hold of Makoto's hand and look it over, checking for injury. When studying these sorts of advanced Hakuda, every injury needed to be treated as potentially serious.

"Do not push yourself too far, Makoto. Hakuda is a style which will only punish you for overcommitment. You will damage yourself more than your foes, and that is far from ideal."

After she had discerned that Makoto was not in immediate danger of suddenly perishing or losing her hand, Shishiyuki let go of her hand and returned to her role as observer once more.

"Continue. Carefully."

While she knew that she had screwed up the whole deal of having Shishiyuki grabbing her hand to check it made her blush and naturally, turn away to try and hide the fact that the blood was rushing to her face. She couldn't tell if it was a matter of pride that she wanted to think that her hand was fine and she didn't screw up though it was equally as feasible that she was reckless and not considering her own wellbeing.

"Right."

When she was allowed to continue Makoto regained her composure and did just that, she did what she was told while trying to avoid the same mistake and then looked at Shishiyuki expectantly to criticise it.

"How was that?"

Studying the form, Shishiyuki nodded in approval, already planning the remainder of the lesson plan in her head. It would do no good to attempt to teach another technique in such a short amount of time, so they ought to do their best with this one.

"Better. Familiarize yourself a bit more with it, and then we will move on to the next part of the lesson. I want you to attempt to strike me in the solar plexus with the ryusha hakken once you are comfortable with its use. Rest assured that I will be perfectly well."

It was more hands-on than their typical lessons, but they needed results more efficiently than normal. Shishiyuki was not an easy target to strike-- doing so was, in itself, ample training.

"Strike you..."

That would be difficult she thought even if she managed to hit her for whatever reason, she was sure that Shishiyuki wouldn't struggle in preventing her from doing so. It was a little while ago but she wasn't one to easily forget how thoroughly she was beaten when she fought her for real the first time.

"Right!"

Makoto wanted to take an element of surprise and put faith in her ability to perform the technique on the third go and try and take her teacher by surprise, it was third's a charm after all or something like that. A blur of black and silver when she encroached into the personal space of Shishiyuki and tried to rysha hakka her in the stomach.

Typically during their training sessions, Shishiyuki made it a point to give Makoto a bit of time to adjust, a window where she might familiarize herself. However, this was not a typical training session, and as such, they had no time to waste. Shishiyuki simply sidestepped the strike with very little effort, giving Makoto a weak blow that was only enough to send her a bit off-balance.

"Again."

This training may have been less gentle than normal, but Shishiyuki nevertheless had the same investment into it that she always had. Rather than simply explaining to Makoto how to correct her stance and technique, Shishiyuki simply stepped forward and corrected it by hand, moving Makoto's body into a more appropriate form herself. It was brief, and then Shishiyuki once more took up her defense, ready for Makoto's next attempt.

A stagger at the response which was what she expected really, Makoto never expected to be handed a win for free though the impatient correcting of her posture like she was a doll being manipulated to the proper position caused her to hesitate.

She didn't exactly know what to think about that but a little bit of determination to focus on the task at hand and try to strike her teacher in the stomach drew her back into action. If she thought about this like a fight then she could get rid of all that other baggage and distraction.

This time she launched forward trying to get close to her again while tucking one of her feet behind Shishiyuki's heel and aim to trap her from dodging. Hopefully the attempt to stop her from retreating would make her decide to counter attack and even if she took a hit to get it, Makoto would try and achieve her goal of using ryusha hakka on the gut.

Shishiyuki certainly had to commend Makoto's ingenuity in this situation. Adapting to her evasive efforts in such a way was not something most of her students might have thought to do. Shishiyuki was, realistically, both physically strong enough and well-trained enough to simply use Makoto's own efforts against her, and for a moment she thought to do so. However, that would likely be counterproductive. The typical opponent would not be prepared at the degree Shishiyuki was, and so instead, she allowed Makoto to make the strike.

Of course, she had still prepared herself to actually take the blow, and so a strike that would certainly have laid most flat was mostly absorbed, instead merely requiring Shishiyuki take one step back to catch her balance. She nodded in approval, then took up a defensive posture once more.

"Again."

While a singular success was good, it only taught Makoto the bare basics of what the strike ought to feel like. Now it was a matter of refinement, perfection. She obviously could not teach the full possibilities of the ryusha hakken in only a few hours, but she would still do her utmost as a teacher.

"You held back!"

It came out more defensive than she intended at the notion that Shishiyuki had let her have it. It was more of a guess than any kind of certainty to her deduction since she always assumed that her teacher was just in a league of her own from what she had seen thus far.

Makoto did take the que to continue however, this time trying to test the waters with a few strikes and read how she reacted to the hits. Shishiyuki said that she had to ryusha hakken her stomach but there was no rule to say that she needed to prioritise the action as her only one. At some point when she thought she could make an opening then she'd aim to do it.

"I did, yes. Your form was correct, and you applied the technique in an intelligent manner. I would rather imitate an opponent you are actually likely to engage if I am to teach you quickly."

Shishiyuki naturally grasped Makoto's intentions nearly instantly, but seeing as the woman had seemed insulted about her teacher going easy on her, she decided that she would not do so this time. Each of Makoto's attempts to catch her off guard were rather handily rebuffed, and as her palm came forward for the ryusha hakken, Shishiyuki simply grabbed her wrist before it could impact. This naturally left the two of them rather close to each other, but that was of little concern at the moment.

"The purpose of the ryusha hakken is to be applied swiftly, before the opponent can even be able to prepare themselves for combat. Do not think to make openings for it. It should only be used when there is already an opening."

Releasing Makoto and once more taking up her stance, Shishiyuki took a breath to center herself once more. This was certainly beginning to work up a bit of a sweat, wasn't it?

Her irritation at being taken easy did get the better of her when she saw a swift retaliation and felt the fingers around her wrist which halted all progress from a failed attempt. It did frustrate her and she was using it as an excuse to vent all the other tension. It wasn't really appropriate for her to do so but here she was regardless.

"Alright."

Taking up her own stance she stared down Shishiyuki silently, it felt tense while trying to plan out scenarios in her head and the anticipation built up. Assuming she didn't get any pressure applied to break the stillness of the moment that was wasting time, Makoto would eventually close the distance. Coming in close almost like she wanted to embrace her but the arm that tried to snake around Shishiyuki's back was just to hold her there so that a ryusha hakken could be performed on her.