Mastery [Closed]

Meditation Music: Zen Garden
Duel Music: Catastrofe

The younger swordsman stood before his master as the man stared down at him with a fixed, powerful gaze. The human watched as the man then turned and said, "Today you will master the Sonic Blade." Lightly tapping his cane, Rei heard this and had learned it's meaning, and moved to where the rest of the group was meditating. One may think that sword skills just involved attacking an opponent blindly, but they were wrong. Swordsmanship was about control, especially about zone. Get too far out and your dead. Get too far in and your dead. It is all about your zone. And the move that he was going to master increased his zone, but he had to use it carefully or he might overextend himself. Calmly sitting with the others in the Lotus Position for Zazen meditation, Rei placed his fingers together and closed his eyes. He focused on the sound of trampling feet outside the tucked away dojo, focusing his mind away from everything else but that sound. It was the starting point to this meditation for him. He heard after a few minutes the sound of Sensei's feet, but he ignored them and drowned them out as his mind slipped away as he wished. There was nothing there, and his ears did not pick up the whacking of Yamamoto's cane against another new stuent's back, didn't hear the man instruct.

After a few minutes of the meditating, Yamamoto would say, "Now, everyone stand up. You will all be given bakutou to use temporarily, but understand that these are not your's to keep. I want everyone to master one of the techniques that they learned from me." A list did not have to be given and everyone was given a curved piece of wood, which Rei assumed was a bakutou, having never seen one before. Releasing a low sigh, the human narrowed his eyes as he stared at his opponent, who was a bit taller and bigger then himself. His zone was set, and he saw his opponent's zone. He thought to himself, "Then the Sonic Blade will increase my middle zone beyond his. That is my time to strike." He had learned that cuts were nothing that Yamamoto was caring about either: if you got cut, that was a lesson in pain and you were to theoretically learn to not get cut again.

As he and the others squared off, Yamamoto seemed to change his mind as he said, "Wait." His cane slammed onto the wooden floor as he said, "I've changed my mind... I want everyone to duel for the mastery. The first two up will be Kurashi and Yan." Nodding his head, Rei would head to where Yamamoto was looking: the very middle of the room. He turned and looked at his opponent with a glare before he crouched with the bakutou in his left hand and pulled it back as he jumped at the opponent with all his speed and force, seeking to end the battle right away. Slashing out with the wooden blade, adding the Sonic Blade, he was surprised to see that his mind from the blade slammed against nothing, but his opponent's struck him in the chest, below his heart. He went flying and landed on the ground in pain as there was no holding back in the strike. He would look up as the larger student wiped away some blood from his cheek, but it was nothing to get happy over.

As Rei got up, the other charged, not giving him a second to recover. It was a good thing Rei had experienced this several times before and used a move that the other likely did not see coming, and that was a raising strike. He used the momentum of raising quickly, as well as his opponent's own charge and brought the bulk of the weapon against his opponent's chest and pushed up, yelling, "Dou!" The strike to the chest in kendo, is called dou. He heard a crack as his weapon was going up against a rather large opponent, but he pushed and the man let go of his weapon, which Rei grabbed in mid air and pointed down with a slash, making a deeper cut into his other cheek as he landed on his back, while his cracked bokutou lay against his shoulder while he still held the handle. He said, "Just because one is smaller, does not mean one blow will kill them." He would then hold the blade out to Kurashi, who said, "Yes... I'll remember that..."

Yamamoto, who almost always seemed to have closed eyes, opened one so that the black color was visible and said, "Wise words, Yan, but remember that you still got struck hard. Get that checked, least you develop an infection. You may act tough, but you are hurt."Rei would cringe at that, as he thought, "Okay, respect my senpai more and shut my mouth..." He would nod his head as he joined the others on the floor, grunting slightly in pain from the movement as he watched other groups preform their mastery. He was still working on why it seemed natural, but that would have to wait as Yamamoto sensei would only listen to questions before meditation and after the lessons were done.

He would see everyone finish, and then Yamamoto took the center stage of the room and slammed the end of the wooden cane onto the ground as he said, "Now, everyone, return my weapons and leave, unless you have a question." Nodding their heads, the entire group said in unison, "Yes, Yamamoto Sensei." Everyone would stand and Rei would go with them and turn in his bokutou before he stayed behind. He saw that there were many others, and thought to himself, "Well... if I'm good with the Sonic Blade... wouldn't that mean that I'm decent in its use... or maybe that I've seen it before or that maybe my father was a swordsman in his past?"

Words: 1,ooo / Done