Chapter 378: Chapter 342
"That's it?" Yoruichi asked after a moment of silence.
"I'm sorry?" I answered, still mildly calm. "What were you expecting?"
"I don't know, surprise? Like 'holy shit the cat is actually a super hot chick and she's naked in front of me. I hope I don't pop a boner'. That kind of thing, like the way a kid your age would react."
"I mean....I didn't expect, well..." I looked at her skin tone and chose not to finish that sentence.
"Didn't expect what!?"
"...It's not important." I coughed a little awkwardly. "And I'm not a kid."
"You're like barely older than Strawberry."
"How old do you think I am?" I blinked at her statement.
"I don't know, eighteen?"
"Yeah...a little older than that. It's not my first time seeing a naked woman."
"Boo." She huffed, standing up. "Thought you were some little innocent brat."
I did say I had a daughter...granted I also explained that she adopted me only some months ago.
"Hell, it's not even my first time having a naked woman suddenly pop out at me now that I think about it." I had the sense to hold back saying that Jinn did it better.
Sure, Yoruichi looked like a chocolate goddess, but Jinn, well....Jinn felt more innocent about it which increased the excitement to a degree. She was Naked just because she was Naked. She wasn't fishing for a reaction.
And she's blue.
I don't wanna over fetishize her whole blueness, but I can't deny that I find it very attractive.
And if we're just talking about things of that nature.... I've been flashed plenty of times.
Amaterasu came to mind. Which was still a memory that admittedly made me a little tingly. And after that whole debacle, I don't think a surprise naked woman was going to startle me too much.
"You're very beautiful." I decided to add on to appease her.
Not that I was lying.
"...seriously? You're going to give me a pity compliment?" She looked at me dryly. "Fine, I'll take it." She rolled her eyes. "But this isn't over." She stretched her arms, and I did notice that it looked like she intentionally made her chest bounce a little, given away by her peeking at me for a reaction. I merely raised an eyebrow and she huffed again. "Ugh. Whatever. I'll be right back." And she utterly disappeared from the spot she was in.
It was many times faster than how she moved as a cat. Hell, it was substantially faster than how Mayuri moved in his Bankai.
That....actually gave me pause for concern because that speed was actually something dangerous to me if used properly.
I just waited for a few minutes before I felt her presence touch my Bounded Fields again and I let her back inside.
She was now wearing some skin-tight bodysuit with an orange overshirt and her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
"Where'd you get the clothes?"
"The store." She blinked.
"That's not what I meant. I mean, where did you stash them....like, were you just waiting for this whole thing?"
"Nah, I ran back home." She snickered. "Why? You regret it now, huh? Did I leave a lasting impression." She bent over slightly.
"Are you still on that?"
But how far away was her 'home' that she could make it there, change, and back in only a few minutes?
"Hey, my pride as a woman was challenged." She huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm damn sexy and I want to be recognized as such."
"I didn't say you weren't. I just said I've seen better." I replied.
"Bullshit." She said pointedly. "I'm calling bullshit. You're a kid. No way you've seen better than me."
"Uh huh." You know what? Fine, I could prove a point. I took out my phone and started looking through the pictures I had before turning it over to show her. "This is my woman."
She leaned over, looking at the screen. Her brow furrowed and she pouted. "No way those are real."
"They most certainly are." I had checked very thoroughly.
It was a picture of Raikou. It wasn't too revealing or intimate, But just enough that it really showed off Raikou's assets.
She pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "....I admit nothing."
"Right." I put my phone away for now. "So, I guess this is the first time we're really meeting."
She quickly changed demeanor. "Hah, yup. Shihōin Yoruichi. Former Shinigami, blah blah. Nice to meet you and everything even though we've met."
"Hey..."
"What?" She looked at me.
"You gonna do that to the Strawberry too?"
"....that's a good idea." Her eyes lit up with a mischievous smile. "Wanna be there when I do?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
She started cackling. "He's going to start blushing and sputtering."
"You should have seen it when I insinuated that he and Rukia were fucking right before I met them the first time." I chuckled.
"Seriously? Is that why they were all flustered after you stole his sword?" She snorted with amusement. "I can totally see Strawberry getting all shy because of that."
"You know....you're awfully nonchalant about flashing people. As fun as it would be to see it happen." Yasaka can be just as, if not more, playful, but she would draw the line at just revealing herself to random people.
"Eh, it's not that big of a deal. Not like I'm walking around town naked or anything like that. Besides, some of the training I had to do back home just kind of numbed me to any kind of shame when it came to being naked." She waved it off.
"Oh, speaking of training." I perked up, picking up on the subject change. That seemed like something that shouldn't be touched otherwise.
"Right, you wanna learn Hohō, or rather what I've been doing – Shunpo?" She sat down cross legged.
"It would save me time instead of learning from scratch."
"Hah, you think you can pick it up by yourself?" She laughed.
"I did learn Kidō." I pointed out.
"....true." She looked thoughtful. "You got that book, and it looks like something straight out of the Academy in how it's explained. It's not the worst reference...but it's kinda plain and doesn't really explain it all that well. Now that I think about it, I don't think they want people learning this stuff on their own and pretty much designed the lessons and books and stuff to require someone to teach." She tapped her chin.
You know, with how shitty Soul Society felt...I didn't have trouble believing that in the slightest.
"How complicated is this, exactly? Besides the obvious....cause moving far distances in a single step isn't really physically possible."
"It's not actually just moving a large distance in a single step. I mean, that's how you do it when you're the best like me." she said cockily. "But really, it's just like moving from one spot to another in the least amount of steps possible. The better you get, the less you have to move. In a competition of speed, if you only have to move a single step to travel a hundred feet and someone has to take two or three, that's only moving half or a third of your speed. If that makes sense." She scratched her head. "I'm not really a teacher. I trained a pupil back in the day, but that was mostly just making him a little mad and forcing him to chase after me. I didn't really touch on any technical stuff after he learned the basics."
"Well, I wouldn't mind a hand in learning this." It's not like I'm too prideful to admit that something may be difficult for me to learn. I am very respectful to those who mastered their crafts. In this case, Yoruichi should be a peak master of this movement technique if I was reading things correctly.
"Hmm." Yoruichi tapped her chin. "And what's in it for me?"
As soon as she said those words, I mentally winced and my heart dropped. I could have been coy, could have done the back and forth....but I knew where I stood on this one. "....what do you want?"
That Cheshire grin of hers said it all.
[***]
"Where did you even get that!?" I exclaimed, falling to the side as something whizzed past my head.
"Asked Kisuke to make it for me after seeing it on T.V. Humans make really fun things." She grinned, holding up a paintball gun of all things. "Though...this one is a little special."
She did step away, saying something about wanting to get her tools to help teach me. That had been a little while ago at this point.
"I noticed." I replied with a scowl as I saw that there was now a colorful dent in the concrete behind me.
"Alright, do it again like I told you." She hefted up the monstrous weapon she waved around like a toy.
There are dozens of similar marks around the room at this point. And I had a few on me.
...I didn't really wanna reveal my Aura, so I had to swallow a little bit of my pride here and accepted a little pain.
"You didn't tell me anything. You just said 'Take less steps and move faster' and started shooting me."
"What's so hard about that?" She looked at me in confusion.
"The part where you physically move from point A to point B by taking less than the required steps. I've received no explanation so far." I crossed my arms.
"Alright you big baby." She rolled her eyes. "I'll go slow, watch my Reiatsu and how I move."
I did watch her feet intently, trying to note of everything she did. She disappeared in a burst of speed, landing gently on the other side of the room. "Get it?"
"...maybe?" I mused, running what she did through my head again. "Did you push or pull yourself with your own Reiryoku?"
"Wait, did you seriously see what I did?"
"Uh...kinda?" I blinked. "Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"Huh." She looked surprised. "Honestly, didn't think you'd pick up on it.....I'm a little impressed."
"You were just using this as an excuse to shoot me, weren't you?" I said dryly.
"No, I'm seriously doing my best to teach you." She put on a straight face. "You've said before that you had like no experience using your Reiryoku before so I didn't expect much."
".....I think I'm doing a pretty good job, all things considered."
"I've seen better." She replied without missing a beat.
"....touche."
"Thanks." She grinned. "But seriously, I honestly didn't expect much from this."
"Well, I'm happy to have your confidence, Sensei." I rolled my eyes. "Can you answer my question?"
Well, at least she didn't hold anything over my head when I asked for the favor. She's playful, but very vindictive in all honesty. Her requirement was merely that she could have fun with it and I would go along with whatever she did as long as she properly taught me.
It was said in less words than that, but that was the gist.
So here we were.
"Hmm, to answer your question...it's a little of both? But also not really either." She tapped her chin again. "We're skipping like....all the basics steps in the learning process, just so you know. So this is a little more awkward to teach. Not to mention you're a human and this technique was made by and for Shinigami."
"Yeah, it's probably going to take some tweaking on my end to come up with something feasible to mimic it." I muttered. "However, the concept should be something I can understand before I start doing that. Tell me what I'm doing wrong."
"Alright, alright, go do it again, I'll pay close attention." She gestured for me to continue.
"I'm gathering my Reiryoku around my feet." I began to move. I tried to push myself forward with my Reiryoku and move quickly. And while I felt my speed increase above what I intended, it....wasn't really correct.
"Not a bad attempt."
"Really?"
"No, I'm just sparing your feelings. It was pretty bad and I felt bad seeing it."
"Fuck you."
"Don't talk to your Sensei like that." She shot at me with the paintball gun again.
I slightly tilted my head out of the way "I think you're just mad about earlier and taking out your pent up anger on me."
"Yup."
"....you're not supposed to just admit it outright."
"What's the point in hiding it?" She took aim again. "Get runnin."
With a grumble, I lined myself up again and tried once more. Perhaps it was just a matter of intensity? I gathered a significant amount of Reiryoku around my feet as I went to move. And right as I did this, I had a premonition.
I was suddenly reminded of the training I did with Thorum to learn the Whirlwind shout.
A similar idea, to move faster. However, this was leagues above the shout in application.
Not to say that it made the shout obsolete, but Shunpo was a more practical use, it was superior in most instances.
And as I gathered the power around my legs, I was reminded of my many failures.
Unfortunately, the trigger had been pulled and both of my feet launched forward.
The sky ceiling became the ground and the ground became the ceiling as I went tumbling across the room and hit the wall.
"....ow." I let myself fall down completely.
"Doing good!" Yoruichi shot me a thumbs up.
I returned it with my middle finger only for her to expertly shoot it.
And it stung a little.
"Alright." I got up, brushing myself off. "Pushing myself forward only makes it unstable and I lost my footing. Let's try.....gently guiding it with a sort of pulling motion too."
"Sure, that might work." She nodded, but the tone and the anticipation on her face told me otherwise.
[***]
"So, what attempt is this?" Yoruichi lazily looked at me as she laid on her side, flipping the pages of a Magazine I gave her.
"I lost count after two hundred." I sighed, stretching myself a little. "I think I'm getting better at it."
"Yeah, if you were in the academy, you would probably be the head of the class."
"I feel like that isn't praise."
"Most Shinigami can barely hold their swords, let alone use Shunpo." She hummed, flipping another page. "Here's some advice. Pure power isn't always the best option. You might wanna try some more finesse and work your way up to moving faster."
"That makes sense. But....I'm not even at the point where I can take more than a few feet in a single step yet."
She just shrugged. "Just do whatever then, I'm having fun watching you."
"Thank you for the insight." I said dryly.
Though, she was giving me advice when I needed it. So I was thankful for her help as I tried to learn this thing.
I had the thought of using Magical Energy, or maybe even my Aura instead as a more familiar energy but...it was the flighty nature of Reiryoku that made this possible in the first place.
"At the very basics, it's just the idea of moving large distances in a single step..." I muttered, thinking about a different approach.
I had many different things available to me. Was there a way to....cheat?
I had half a mind that it was a matter of my control of my Reiatsu not being good enough to properly apply it here.
So....I had an idea about that.
I did have a sort of movement technique that I've used in the past that fell out after my physical prowess reached a certain level. To pull and distort myself over small distances through a trick of the Kaleidoscope. It was good for...weaker opponents who couldn't keep up with that kind of thing. But using it once in front of a powerful enemy would make it unusable again because the trick itself wasn't hard to see through even if the usage of the Kaleidoscope was something beyond nearly every other person.
And then there's also my technique that I used to overlay multiple swords – the Myriad Sword as I called it.
It was how I defeated Susanoo the first time.
I looked down at my feet and lifted my right let up, tapping it on the ground. I gathered my Reiryoku again. I was having trouble controlling it in high quantities, but in low quantities, it just makes me a little faster even if it's more stable.
So....why not both?
I'm a Magus. I cheat whenever possible in things like this.
I allowed myself to overlap on to another Parallel world and did the same thing again. Just like how I did with my sword technique, I continued to copy it again.
Five times.
Ten times.
Twenty times.
The concept was extraordinarily simple at its core. I just had to take a simple step forward to move a large distance.
And so, I did the most natural thing possible and took a step.
I felt my body jerk and move faster than I had previously. I could barely catch myself as I went skidding across the ground.
I blinked, looking down at myself, at where I was standing as opposed to where I was before. I was a good dozen meters away.
"What was that?" Yoruichi looked at me, her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Uh....I don't know?" Because I wasn't sure myself. I....technically just performed Shunpo, but I cheated heavily.
"You just...." She opened her mouth and closed it again. "How?"
"I just moved." I held my hands up.
"I was watching that wasn't...." She seemed to have trouble finding the words. "It looked like you took all the steps at once."
That...wasn't inaccurate.
Instead of only taking one step to move this distance, I took every step I needed to at the same time technically fulfilling the same criteria.
"It felt awkward though." I noted.
"Well yeah, it was awkward as hell. I could see you stumble the entire way and I could have literally ran circles around you while you tried to complete that movement. But.....that wasn't bad."
"I don't think what I did is really sustainable." I mentally began to analyze it. "It was too slow; it took too many actions even if it could do it all at once." It felt too rigid too, I don't think I could even properly maneuver using that method.
"What the hell did you even do?"
"I used Magic to take all the steps in one moment as opposed to moving the same distance in a few steps."
"Alright, I'll accept that ridiculousness for now." Yoruichi pushed herself up. "It wasn't really Shunpo. It kinda looked close, but I wasn't kidding when I said I would have danced around you. I think the weakest captain could have yawned and match that movement."
"So it's a failure then." I rubbed my chin. "Maybe I should –"
"No, wait." She interrupted my thoughts. "This...might be a good thing. Your problem is your control over your Reiryoku. Why can't you.....slowly work down from whatever you did?"
"Work down from it?" I questioned, tilting my head.
"Like.....you said you took all those steps in a single moment." She scratched her head. "Why not....slowly take less steps and still do the same thing? Like, you almost did something similar to Shunpo, you should have a feel for it, right?"
"That's not a bad idea. After experiencing that, I think I could get a better hang of it and work towards the right thing."
"Awesome." She pumped her fist. "That means we can move to the next stage! I didn't think we'd get this far and I wouldn't get to have any fun!"
"....dare I ask what that means?"
"That means –" She blurred, moving to the edge of the room by the door. However, she now had something in her hand, a familiar strip of cloth.
"...is that my tie?" I looked down at my chest to see it missing.
"Catch me if you want it back~" She laughed, disappearing out the door.
"...bitch." I grumbled, going after her.
[***]
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