A Sprouting Shinigami - Kaminari Training #1

The Crimson Edge was back in place and the Gotei was still in chaos. Luckily, Kaminari was finally able to catch up. When the afternoon came, and Kaminari found herself without any paperwork to deal with, she made her way to the Eighth Division training grounds. She took some time to set up a few tools to train, including hakuda and zanjutsu training dummies, kido targets, and markers for shunpo training. On a tray sitting near the edge of the training area, Kaminari placed a few bottles of water, a bucket of ice water, a couple of dry towels, a few bandages, and the top of her shihakusho. She took time to stretch before her training.

Once everything was in place and she was warmed up, she started off with the hakuda exercises. Each dummy was five foot apart on four corners to surround her. They all had two sets of spinning parts that acted as arms for her to dodge and counter. In the middle, she took her stance and began. She focused on the first dummy, each strike pushing the arms to spin and mimic an incoming attack. As in came in, she blocked it and continued the cycle. She kept going and going, the wood striking her wrist only to be pushed back the other direction. As it came back, she tried moving back, only to have the wood scrape her jaw.

"Ack." she wiped the skin where the wood struck, stopping the dummy with her other hand. Taking up the stance one more, she started again. She moved faster, kicking the dummy up to a higher gear. The faster it went, the harder she focused. She counted up in her head. Once she got to ten three times, she shifted her stance and added in a second dummy to make it harder on herself. Switching back and forth between them, Kaminari focused more on dodging than countering, using her own momentum to move swiftly around the dummies and practice her foot work. As she moved between them, they struck her side and shoulder.

"Again." she said. Resetting once more, Kaminari began again. She started with the first and counted to ten three times. The second was brought in, so she counted again. When the third was brought in, she repeated the process until all four practice dummies were going. She swerved in and out of the four dummies, keeping a close watch on each of their movements, and trying her best to make sure they didn't slow down. As one slowed, she moved inward and crossed all four, gracefully avoiding the other three, and starting the fourth up again. She counted to then nine times before a kick went wrong and she ended up on her back.

---

Somewhat out of breath, Kaminari laid on her back and stared at the sky. A bead of sweat trickled down her cheek. "Not enough." she said as she forced herself back to her feet. "The rule is, if I'm not really sweatin', I'm not ever stoppin'!" Kaminari punched at the air a few times, hyping herself up, before getting back into position. Taking up her stance once more, she started again. This time, she began with two and counted up five times. She got up to four and kept going until she counted up seven more. Every time she got to ten, she told her self to move faster, to check her footwork, to focus harder, and to just keep going.

After thirty minutes of nonstop hand-to-hand training, Kaminari ended up on her butt, her back, and her stomach. Her wrists were bruised, the skin red from splintering the worn down wood. She had a scrape on her jaw and a bruise on her back, but she kept going until she was completely out of breath. On the last round, she ended up on her side as one of the wooden arms swung around and clocked her one in the side of the head. "Ow..." she whined and used the blurred vision as a reason for taking a needed five-minute break. Her face, hair, and shirt had a thick layer of sweat. Her uniform was covered in dirt, and she wasn't done.

Kaminari heard voices heading her direction. She hopped up to her feet, not wanting to get caught on the ground, and quickly stationed herself between the dummies to start again. As she began, a trio of friends from her squad walked into the training area.

"Hey, guys." She said, waving.
"Oh. Sorry Lieutenant." One lazily waved back.
"We weren't aware that you were here." Another said.
Kaminari shrugged off the attitude that the second statement came with and smiled anyway.
"Yeah, did you guys wanna..." Kaminari pointed back to the training equipment.
"Oh, no. That's okay, Lieutenant. We'll train later. We have other places to be anyways." the third interrupted her before shoving them out of the training area.

Kaminari watched them walk away and turned back to the dummies. She took her stance and started again. 'One, two, three... Her mind unfocused and one of the wooden arms came around and struck her square in the already bruised jaw. She stopped and let the dummy slow to stop as well as she held her jaw. "Focus." She said and took her stance once more. "Go." Once again, Kaminari weaved in and out of all four dummies with the grace one would expect from a Lieutenant. As the round went on, her movements became harder, less fluid. She struck with more force than she realized and broke one of the dummy's arms off.

Ignoring the lost arm, Kaminari kept striking back harder and harder. She felt the pain shoot up her arms as her wrists repeatedly struck against the hard wood, scraping on rough edges and spinning faster as she put in more force. One, two, three, four, five... She counted up as normal, getting passed round nine, ten, eleven... When she came to the twelfth, she was back to sweating and was almost out of breath. She could sense herself faltering as her thoughts broke her focus. Instead of continuing, she spun her way out of the middle of the dummies and stood on the sidelines, wiping the bits that were not sweat from her face.

"Just do something else..." Kaminari told herself as she grabbed some water and looked over to the set of markers on the floor. The marks were white lines painted in the dirt of the training ground. There were ten of them, all in a line, and each marker was about five feet apart. It looked like she measured out some sort of ruler. Wiping her face with a cloth she used the ice water to wet, she took a bit to cool herself down and then went over to the painted lines. Standing on the first line, she stretched out her legs a bit to warmup. Ready, she began shunpoing forward, trying to land on each line five foot away to practice her accuracy.

---

Kaminari zipped forward and hit the fifteen foot marker. Starting from that point, she tried to move the short distance again, but she kept over shooting it. Time and time again, she ended up at ten feet, fifteen feet, thirty feet, twenty-five feet, but she just couldn't seem to hit that five foot distance. Out of breath, she stopped and leaned over with her hands on her knees to reset herself. Once she caught her breath, she stared at the lines in silence for a few minutes. Using a nearby broom, she swept the dirt away to fade the lines enough to make a new set. This time, she separated them by seven foot distances to try again.

Back at her starting point, the lines were spread over a much farther distance this time. If she couldn't hit the five foot distances, maybe a little wider would be better to start at. She took a deep breath and flashed forward again. She didn't land on a marker this time, but just beyond the fourteen foot marker. In fact, she was where her old fifteen foot marker would have been. "Ah!" Kaminari yelled in frustration forcing herself to calm down. "Okay, okay... Again!" she said. She went again, and failed again. She repeated this processes for about ten minutes before her frustration led her to slipping and sliding across the dirt to marker 21.

"Ack!" she hissed and winced, sitting up quickly to check her arms out. The dirt ground scraped up her arms quite a bit, a few places were bleeding. "Oh, for goodness sake." she said and made her way over to her rest stop. She wet one of the clean towels and began wiping off the dirt and blood. Having predicted this, she used the few bandages she had to wrap up her arms once the wounds were cleaned. After that, she returned to her starting line to stare intensely down at the course she made. She didn't start again, but chose to stand in silence, thinking, and only becoming more and more frustrated with the exercise and herself.

"Look here, you idiot!" Kaminari raised her voice in frustration, "This isn't that hard. Just get from one line to the other. Why is this so hard for you? You are the dumbest person ever if you can't just get from there..." She pointed at line number one, "...to there!" She pointed at line number two. "So get off your stupid butt and do what you need to do, or you might as well just kiss your position goodbye! If no one is gonna like you, then they gotta get the proof that you deserve to be here! Now, DO IT." Kaminari shouted the last bit and then took a few minutes to calm herself down. "Okay." she nodded and returned to the starting line again.

Kaminari took a deep breath, and another. She focused directly on that line, the seven foot marker, her goal. She kept mentally hyping herself up, seeming like she was going to move, but never doing it. After some hesitation, she finally took that step and vanished for a brief moment. When she reappeared, she slipped on the dirt and landed directly on her back, like a cartoon character hitting a banana peel. "Oof." she groaned as she moved to sit back up. She bent her back forward, a low popping sound echoing out as something corrected itself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the line. She was on her butt, but she was on line number two.

"Seven feet?" she questioned, her eyes brightening for a moment. She looked back behind her and the excitement faded. "Fourteen." Kaminari sighed and groaned in annoyance before letting herself fall back onto the dirt and staring up at the sky. "That's just sad..."

“You’re trying too hard,” said a voice in a casual, almost distracted tone.  Above Kaminari, perched on the top of a nearby wall, was Genpaku.  He was sat there looking down over the yard, a bundle of files under one arm and a pen in hand.  He brought his attention back to Kaminari in particular.

Every nerve in Kaminari's body ended up on edge the moment she heard his voice. She hurried back to her feet, almost slipping on the loose gravel. "C-Captain, what are you doing here? Ho-... Did you need some help with those?" Kaminari pointed to the bundle of paperwork he had with him. "And what do you mean trying to hard?"

"Nah, I've got it.  Heard activity going on while I was working and decided I'd get some air while I finished this round of reports," he said in response to her questions.  He leaned forward slightly and let himself slip down off the edge of the wall and land on his feet.
"And I mean you're trying too hard with your Shunpo, literally.  Too much force."

Kaminari dramatically tilted her head far to the side. "Too much force? How am I putting to much force... it's like fast walking!" Kaminari flailed her arms and roughly ruffled her own hair before taking a deep breath. "No, calm down. You're being stupid again. Sorry, Captain. Can you explain what you mean though?"

Genpaku considered her for a moment before he gave a sudden smile and a nod.  He turned and set the reports down, along with his Zanpaku-tou which acted as an impromptu paperweight.
"Think of it like this instead; you're trying to learn how to skip before you've figured out how to jump," he said, turning back to her and walking out to her makeshift course.

Kaminari stepped to the course with him and stared curiously at him. She still had no idea what he meant, and her 'please don't think I'm stupid' look made it clear.

He raised an eyebrow at that.
"Do you know how to skip?" he asked.  Without any prompting, in what was likely one of the sillier things anyone passing by could have seen, the Captain of the Eight Division then went on a short little skip as an example.

Kaminari started shaking her head until she saw what it meant. "Oh!" she nodded at the sudden realization and copied him for a moment, "Okay, I just didn't know what it was called. So, I'm trying to learn that without learning to jump." Kaminari thought for a moment. "Well, the goal is to increase accuracy, so what step am I missing?"

Genpaku thought about explaining how she seemed to be going about the action wrong, but stopped a moment as he considered.  He tilted his head a second before speaking again.
"Try something for me," he said, walking over to where the start of her course was.  Instead of facing out where she had her markers though, he faced perpendicular to it.
"Starting from here, try for the shortest range Shunpo you can manage."


"Without falling on my face?"

"Preferably."

Kaminari nodded and took her spot at the start of her course. With a swift step forward, she vanished for a moment and reappeared between the seven and fourteen foot markers, seemingly at a distance around ten and eleven feet. The movement wasn't what you'd call fluid, but she stuck the landing.

He raised an eyebrow as she shot off in a direction other than he directed, but took note of where she landed.  He gave a nod all the same; it'd work out he supposed.  He held up a hand at her.
"Stay right there," he said as he walked over to where he bundle of supplies was, grabbing the tape.  He made his way back over to her and slapped down a piece of tape where her foot was.
"Now, do it again by returning to the start point."

Kaminari raised an eyebrow at the tape. For a brief moment, she had the hardest time not ruffling his hair. She even lifted her hand to do it, but as he stopped leaning down to put the tape in place, her arm quickly swung behind her and her face went blank. "Okay, yeah, sure. From here?" Kaminari nodded and repeated the same thing she just did, landing almost exactly in the same spot she had started in, maybe an inch or two off.

Genpaku watched as she tried again and gave a nod at the results.
"Not bad.  So now, repeat that.  Until it becomes comfortable, like taking a step while walking.  Shunpo is a movement technique, and movement techniques require an good understanding of our own limits and spatial understandings.  You understand if you can jump across a stream by looking at it, more or less, because you've grown up running on your own two legs.  You know, instinctively and intuitively, if you can make the jump or not.  Shunpo is similar, but as you haven't had the ability to Shunpo as long as you've had the ability to walk you have to get reacquainted with the spatial knowledge associated.  For basic Shunpo, its not a huge matter.  But, if you're wanting to use it more precisely then you'll need to become better at judging and gauging such distances."

Kaminari stared at him for what was probably an uncomfortable amount of time, but when her mind focused back in, she looked back to the tape. Something in what he said did click with her. She readied herself and began her training again. In a flash, she ended up over the tape once more. This particular step was still uncomfortable, so she did it again, and again, and again, and again. There were a couple times she almost lost her balance, but she kept going with it. The woman zipped back and forth between the two points for a long while. She wasn't sure when she was supposed to get used to it, but she didn't stop.

Kaminari's focus was solely on continuing that shunpo until it felt like she was walking. It had to become second nature to her. About fifteen minutes in, she stopped losing her balance. About thirty minutes in, she wasn't tense anymore. About forty five minutes in, she stopped after realizing she had been dazing out enough that this must have felt completely natural. She looked down to her feet, smiled widely, and looked to where Captain Arishima was, but he was gone. "Aw, when'd he leave?" Kaminari excitedly turned toward the exit and dashed toward it. As she did, he was wandering back in with a bundle of files.

"Captain!" Kaminari shunpo'd toward him, flawlessly executing the ten foot distance she had been practicing. She appeared right in front of him and mindlessly threw herself into hugging him. "I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it! I did it!" She squeezed tighter and tighter until she finally let him go and began showing it off. She kept shunpoing in random directions like it was nothing, perfectly using her new ten foot distance. "I don't have any balance problems at all. While practicing, I dazed out. It can't be hard for you if you're dazing out and and still doing it, so I did it!" She hopped around cheerfully a couple of times.

He certainly hadn't expected quite so exuberant a reaction once he'd gotten back, nor had he expected she'd have grasped it quite that quick either.  'So that's what that felt like,' he thought to himself, thinking back to reactions he'd gotten back when he'd been forced into the Academy.  She grabbed him in a hug, holding tighter and tighter in her excitement and leaving him blinking a few times before she started to zip about the training yard.
"Well, I see you remain a quick study.  Now, the harder part I imagine.  Now that you've got that distance down you work on shortening it, little by little.  I'd recommend you keep working with that distance as well though if it feels comfortable.  Ideally, you want to train it into your body until it works almost by instinct instead of conscious thought."

Kaminari shunpo'd back in front of him and smiled, nodding. "What you said before clicked, about jumping the river, so I think that is why. I've been trying to get a shorter distance for a while now, but couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. I'll definitely keep working on it, but right now, I've got to do something different." Kaminari calmed down and pointed back toward the training area, "I still have some zanjutsu and kido training to get done. I might even get back to hakuda, since I know that's your thing and could use the help there." Kaminari rubbed her wrist, the bruise coming in dark. "Wanna join?"

Genpaku gave a nod, understanding the want to change up the training.  She commented on things she still needed to train in, and he caught sight of her rubbing at the bruise on her wrist.  He shifted the papers in his hands to under an arm.
“Hold still a second,” he said, reaching out one hand over her two.  After a moment, a soft green glow rose up from his hand around hers.  After a short bit, the bruises seemed to fade away some and pain receded.
“Won’t fix everything, but should help you focus on the training a bit.  If you get too banged up though, don’t hesitate to visit the Fourth Division,” he said, making sure to not make the comment too pointed; he wasn’t trying to scold her, just remind her that it was an option.  He considered her offer for a moment, looking back at the papers under his arm then back up at the sky.
“I could probably squeeze in a short bit of training now before I should finish up these,” he said, truthfully wanting a break from the paperwork.

The good mood Kaminari was in showed in her childish behavior. His "hold still" was met with the childish reaction of not moving a single muscle, at least until she realized what he was doing. "Wow, really?" Kaminari questioned, watching closely. The bruise was gone and there was only a light soreness left. "Captain." she said, her tone falling more serious, "That's not fair. You're not allowed to be good at everything. Leave some skill to the rest of us peasants." Kaminari's straight face was quickly replaced with a cheerful smile. When he accepted her offer to train, she performed a quick skip and gestured for him to follow her back to the training area. She hurried back, shunpoing every ten feet she could. Back at the training arena, she spun on her heel to face him. "What would you like to train in?"

He wandered over, setting down the work to be done later along with his Haiori before moving to join her.
"Really, that is more up to you at the moment if there is anything you wish to work on.  Though I should be upfront; from what I heard from your Academy time, you're roughly on par with my own Zanjutsu and likely outstrip me as far as Kidou is concerned.  So I won't be able to lend you much in the way of guidance there," he said plainly, clearly comfortable acknowledging both her skill and where he was lacking.

Kaminari hopped around, punching at the air until she got hit with two really cool compliments. "Really?" Kaminari replied, trying to hide the embarrassing redness in her cheeks by looking away. "I doubt it. Anyways!" Quickly shaking that off, Kaminari took a couple moments to think. "Hakuda it is! One of the teachers at the Academy told me I needed to focus on doing that because my shikai doesn't work with zanjutsu. If I get my hakuda skill up, then I can defend myself without... well, you know? It kind of messes up friend and foe, so... Yeah. You okay with knocking me on my backside a couple hundred times?"

Genpaku raised an eyebrow as she brushed the compliment off, chuckling.
"Contrary to popular belief, I'm not that great at everything," he commented before she decided on a topic. He gave a smile and a shrug to her question as he rolled up his sleeves slightly.
"I could certainly go a few rounds at least. Give you some pointers when I see things to point out," he said as he took up a stance.
"Well, when you're ready. Feel free to use any Hoho you want while you're at it."

Something pinged the back of her mind when she heard Captain Arishima's words. Instead of asking about it, she tucked it away for another time. She was excited to take advantage of whatever training time they had before paperwork or another catastrophe pulled them away. "Don't get me wrong," Kaminari spoke up as she picked her spot across from him, "I would be surprised if there weren't a few things you could work on. Not everyone can be up to your Mom's level; she's insane and about a bazillion years old. You have the right to take a few centuries to catch up. Just do me a favor, hm? Have a little fun sometimes; all you do is work."

Kaminari lowered herself into her stance, and with a light smirk, she raised an eyebrow at him. "Shunpo? I definitely can't beat you in that, Captain." Kaminari said and shot forward, taking a step that let her vanish from sight. The rapid movements of shunpo could be followed by some, and there was no way he couldn't see her movements. However, that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. She rushed behind him, reappearing mid-leg swing. She swung her right leg up and toward his midsection, aiming for his waist. Figuring he'd dodge it easily, she continued the movement, and with a spin on her heel, sent a quick jab at his chest. She had no intention of aiming at her Captains face. As far as she was concerned, the bullseye was center mass. If she could hit him there, she'd call it progress! So exciting!

Though this should be fun, she did not expect to hit. Her kick was dodged. Expected! Her punch was parried. Expected! What she did not expect was his attacking back. She assumed he would keep dodging, tell her where she was bad, and then she'd try to change it and do better. So, when his stance shifted and he was on the offense, her eyes widened and she reflexively stepped back. An involuntary "ack" came out while she tried to keep her balance.

His fist was about an inch from connecting. Her step back turned into a slight stumble as his kick came in and she tried getting out of that range as well. Like with the two jabs, she barely dodged. He wasn't trying to hit her, at least not hard or at his full strength, but there was only so much someone could hold back. His technique was way beyond hers.

Quickly regaining her footing, and deciding to do something different, Kaminari rushed him head on. There was no shunpo or any sort of trick. She moved in with a few of strikes toward his torso, keeping an eye on his movements in preparation for any counter attack. However, she didn't really let up. If he blocked, she attacked again. If he dodged, she just stepped in further. It was easy to tell how focused she was because she was holding her breath. Her stance was a bit more sturdy, but still lacking. Each strike had a point to it, a reason behind it's trajectory. If one looked closely, they could tell she was watching something.

If there was one thing Kaminari was really good at, it was observation. That focus was her taking in everything she could, storing whatever thoughts she had about his technique in the back of her mind as she kept moving. She attacked with whatever strike came to her mind. Each movement had purpose, whether it was slowed, off course, weak, or badly implemented, she just kept moving. She did not notice the increase in speed, and only did her best to match it to prevent herself from getting hit. And throughout the entire time she kept up her onslaught of attacks, not once did she breathe. When she ran out of breath, her body forced it, and she had to stop. A shunpo back, and she took in a deep gasping breath.

"That was awesome." she said through one deep inhale, wiping some sweat from her forehead. The continued sparring lasted them a little less than a minute. Kaminari held her breath for quite a while and worked up a sweat. "So, how atrociously horrid was that?"

Kaminari kept up her onslaught of strikes and Genpaku held his ground, turning aside each strike and replying with one of his own.  There was a timer running on this bout, and it was basically whether Kaminari broke and had to breath or passed out from forgetting; in the end, it was the former.  She broke off, retreating to take a lungful of air.  Winded though she might be, her enthusiasm persisted.  He gave a small grin at that as she caught her breath, easing from his own stance and making his way over.  He seemed to ponder her question though.
“Overall, not terrible.  For your level and experience though, it certainly could use some work,” he said, not shying away or sugar-coating the response.
“There are plenty of things to work on, but I saw two that are the most important and pressing.  So, those two are the things I’ll point out for you to work on.  Your root and your center are off.  Can you tell what I mean by that?”

"Oh, I know. I know, but in what?" Kaminari said, hopping on her tippy toes from the excitement. The visible excitement faded as he explained. She stared in confusion. "Uuhhhh... Hm. Hmm.... Maahhhh. Shhhh." Kaminari shrugged, "Yeah, I honestly don't know. I remember things like that being mentioned at the Academy, but it was more about balance, not whatever root and center are. And I feel like my balance is fine... Or I never think I'm off balance."

Genpaku shook his head slightly at her explanation, and looked her over again for a moment.
“I’m referring to your stance and balance when I say root.  You and I are alike in that neither of us is like Captain Toma; no matter how much we may wish to, we cannot rely on raw strength when it comes to combat.  We’re built lighter.  This means we have to rely on technique than power.  It may not feel like you’re off balance much, but it affects how much power you can bring to bear with any single strike or combination.  Here, take a stance and throw a strike.”

Kaminari listened intently, trying to understand what he meant, but the only thing that clicked was that she wasn't as gigantic as Kaito. Who was? "Yeah, you're right about that, but..." Kaminari cut herself off before she was told to take a stance. She returned to her normal stance and did as he asked, throwing a strike toward his torso.

As Kaminari took the stance and threw her strike, Genpaku shifted slightly. He hadn’t meant to throw the strike at him directly, but this would work all the same. He turned her strike aside with an open-handed sweeping motion, using more force than previously. As he did he reached out with his other hand and pressed, lightly but with enough force to rock her slightly, on the top of her sternum. He didn’t do enough to send her falling, but enough so she’d feel herself rock backwards.
“You may not feel much off balance, but it does leave you open to being disrupted. Your front foot is a little too far out to the side, and a little too far back.”

Kaminari's movements were disrupted in an unexpected way. She wasn't sure what he was going to do, but a simple push backwards was not on that list. She kept her balance... barely, and she could tell that was his intention. "Okay..." she said, something clicking. A few seconds of thought and Kaminari looked back to him. "Careful, I might dramatically fall to the ground next time. Then you'll feel guilty..." she said.
Kaminari took her stance again and this time threw the punch toward the air, rethinking something, but not really able to get it right. She just couldn't put her finger on it. She threw the punch three more times. "I feel something off now that you did...that, but I can't figure out what it is..."

Genpaku raised an eyebrow at her comment, smirking slightly. “Or I’ll get a good laugh out of it.”
She turned her attention back to the training a moment later though, and threw out a few punches. Genpaku caught it on the third punch, but waited. She voiced her thoughts and he gave a nod as he took a step back and took a stance.
“Change up of goals for this specific exchange; you are to try and land a hit without getting hit in turn,” he said. He waited and when she moved to strike he slipped to the side, the side she was putting all her weight on, and reached out to tap her lightly on the shoulder.
“You’re putting all your weight on one foot or the other instead of balancing it over your whole stance. Putting all of that weight behind a punch and stance can be useful, but if you do it with every strike you leave yourself rooted and unable to react. It also messes with how your strength flows to your strikes.”

"Oh, OH! Captain Arishima, is that how it is?" Kaminari said, replying to the joke about her falling down. Though, it did sound like she stole some slang from someone in the world of the living. She didn't exactly have that attitude to make it work.
New goal! Kaminari turned to face him, taking her stance. She moved to strike and he ended up on the side of her punch. When her shoulder was tapped, she ended up stumbling forward once before catching herself. "I am?" she questioned, looking down to her feet. She took the stance again, tested it and smiled. "Holy sun lady, I am. How in heavens did you notice something like that?"

“Because it is my job!” he said with a mock haughtiness and seriousness that lasted about half a second before he smirked, showing it to be a joke.
“Also, because I’ve seen it happen in others. Your back foot was barely making contact with the floor, and the angle of the strike was wrong. Its not as uncommon a mistake as you’d think,” he said, letting her return to a neutral stance for the moment.
“Try adjusting your stance like I said, and spreading your weight evenly. You want to be able to shift your weight and balance at a moment’s notice so you can bring power to bear from whatever direction you need.”

"I can't argue." Kaminari said, smiling, trying to add to his joke.
Kaminari took her stance again, adjusting it enough that her back was straight and her weight was evenly spread. Though it was definitely more correct, the look on her face pretty much showed that she didn't like it. "This feels horrible. I can feel more balanced, I admit that. I'm just not used to it, and it feels too weird!" Kaminari threw a punch, then a second, third, fourth, and fifth. By the fourth, however, her stance started shifting back.

“That’s because it will take time to get used to it. And, to be fair, there will be some adjustment to it. Everyone is different, and everyone modifies things to feel more natural to themselves. Practice with the correct stance though, and it will start to feel more natural to you,” he said, giving her a chance to test it while he watched. His eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on something though.
“Where does the power of a punch come from?”

"But what if my other stance was more natural..." Kaminari muttered under her breath. She took the stance once more, even shouldered, even weight distribution, and a stronger foundation. She tested it ten more times, counting up with each punch. It still felt off, and around punch six, she began returning to her old ways, only to correct herself at punch eight. "Yeah, that's going to take me some time..." She said, and then realized what he said, "Uh, the fist?" Her answer was not joking. She meant it completely. "Or the arm, I guess. Or is this some trick question where you say it's from the elbow, or all in the hips?"

“Nope,” he said in response to most of her answers. “You’re last one, believe it or not, was the closest to correct however.”
He thought for a moment about how to better explain, before he decided this was a case in which his best bet was to simply demonstrate. He waved her over as he walked over to the nearby wall.
“Your hips generate a lot of the power by shifting the body, yes. But in truth, it’s the whole body that powers the punch. That is why the stance is important. You can’t just use the muscles of your arm to strike if you want the strike to be strong,” he said, and as example he took a stance and threw an incorrect punch. His fist hit the wall, and nothing really happened.
“But when you use your whole body, bringing all your weight and power to bear,” he said as he reset his stance, then shift and threw a real punch. The plaster on the outside of the wall cracked and broke under the impact.
Genpaku turned back to her. “Your punches feel off still because you’re only punching with your arm. Bring your whole body into it. Though I’d recommend being careful, if you’re thinking of punching the wall.”

The last one being mostly correct? Kaminari gave him a look of disbelief and an eyebrow raise. "Really?"
The first punch he threw was more what she expected. The second punch he threw was just so much more cool. Kaminari's eyes widened and she jumped excitedly, clapping her hands. "You're awesome!" she said before immediately taking a stance to also... punch... the... or not.
She looked at her own fist and to the wall, and then rubbed the back of her head, chuckling at herself. "You're probably right. How long until I can do that? Did your Mom teach you that? I thought she and Kaito were the only ones who could literally punch cracks into buildings."

Genpaku gave a chuckle and a small grin as he reaction. To her actual question though.
“It took some time, and really you want to start out smaller. Use the training bags, use other softer objects as you practice your technique and toughen up. Additionally, you’ll learn to bring some energy to strike with to help cushion some of the impact. Not all Hollow are soft skinned, and you’ll want to be careful about not injuring yourself on their hides.”
He thought about her follow up questions for a moment. “In a way. Lilith did train and teach me some in Hakuda, but I had some training in basic martial arts from back when I was alive. A lot of it also just came naturally after that in some ways. All that said, it took some time before my technique and control was strong enough to do something like that. Lilith and Captain Toma though could certainly do much more than that. The wall wouldn’t be here if they had wanted to hit it.”

Kaminari looked around. She hadn't brought any of the bags out. "I'll get some in a bit. They're kinda heavy. I will make sure to get some practice in with them... Just not right now. Trying to work through this stuff first."
The answers to her other questions brought up more questions, and then more questions. "So, I know she's not your biological mother, but everyone calls her your Mom, except you. How come? Oh, also you actually remember what life was like before the Soul Society? You know so many people here actually don't? I think I'm losing my memories of it because I only remember very specific things, like how I died and who killed me, where I was from, and stuff like that. What all do you remember? Your parents? What about siblings? I didn't have any, at least I don't think. Did you?"

Genpaku gave a nod of understanding at her first comments, and thought she’d leave it at that. Instead, Kaminari seemed to latch on to something he’d said and began to rapid-fire questions at him. He blinked a few times before he held up a finger to stop her from talking for a moment. He had an amused expression on his face.
“You really didn’t go looking much into the person you were gonna call Captain, did ya? And man, once you get going you hardly have any breaks at all do ya. You barely slowed down to breath through all that,” he said before stopping and seeming to think on something a moment.
“Which actually brings me to something I meant to get to! When I said your center was off, I meant your breathing. It’s tied in with what we’ve been doing though. If you use all the muscles to strike, be it a punch or a kick or an elbow, you need to supply those muscles with what they need. Air. If you keep going without breathing, like you were doing with the talk just now or during the spar, you’ll tire yourself out that much faster and rob yourself of power,” he said, removing his hand as he explained.
“You want to exhale on the actual strikes as a note. You don’t have to inhale between each strike, but you have to learn to breath. Doing so will help you no matter what kind of combat you’re doing.”

The finger came up and Kaminari sucked in her lips. She. Talks. Too. Much. Sometimes. He talked, and that finger was still up, so she was silent. When the hand finally came down, she took a deep breath and started talking again. Though she had a lot to say, she notably spoke with a normal pacing. She started at the beginning...
"Well, first... I don't think a lot of those questions I could get answered by hunting down a file, and I consider it extremely disrespectful to go asking someone else about anyone's past, especially my Captain. That kind of stuff can be touchy, so I'd rather ask up front. Anyone can tell me to leave it alone if they want." Kaminari said in a sincere way. "Second, I talk too much. I get excited and just wanna know! And it irritates people. I'm working on it though!"
And then she became thoroughly confused. "And thirdly you said my breathing? What's wrong with my breathing? You meant during training right? Not like, right now." Kaminari pointed toward the floor, gesturing at their current moment. He explained and her cheeks turned red. "So, wait. I wasn't breathing?"

"You were not."

"Okay. I was not. How in the Soul King's Hell was I not breathing?" She more asked herself than him. She hadn't noticed...

"By holding your breath," he said with a straight face.

Kaminari stopped. She straightened her back. She walked up to him and got in his face, speaking oh so seriously... "Oh, so you got jokes, Silvermane?"

"About as many as you got inches," he said.

Kaminari blinked. "Is... Is that a short joke?!"

Genpaku tilted his head back as though in thought. "Well, people have told me in the past I take things too seriously..."

Kaminari stared at him for a few moments before a smile perked up and she started giggling. She tried to hold it back, and spoke through a few snickers. "You're not exactly the tallest Captain around, so don't you go makin' fun of me! Also, when you get old, your hair turn black?"

Genpaku opened his mouth to respond, stopped, thought about it a moment. "Ya know...I'm not really sure..."
"Probably not though."

"When I am the mortal equivalent of ninety, I will have hair like your twenty year old self." Kaminari said, twirling her hair around a finger, and then realized something. She looked back at him with a blank face. "You know, I'm not sure if that sounds like the compliment I actually meant it to be."
Kaminari suddenly took a stance at the wall and ended up very picky about adjusting herself. When she got her stance in what she considered correct, she took a deep breath and punched the wall. Her fist struck and she instantly tensed. She whimpered and held her fist, "Ow, ow, ow. Oh that hurt. Ow! I regret, I regret."

Genpaku raised an eyebrow, but smiled good-naturedly.
"Well, I'll take it as a compliment anyway then," he said before watching her as she took up a stance again facing the wall and making adjustments. He could hazard a guess where this was going, but sometimes you have to let others make mistakes as well. After she'd smacked the wall and began to whimper, he motioned for her to hold out her hand again as he took it in his own and a soft glow rose up.
"It took me some time before I was ready to do that, and I was blessed with a lot of natural gifts that made it easier. You'll get there, but if you try and jump straight to it you're just going to mess up your hands."

With the tears of dumbassery in her eyes, Kaminari held her hand up as asked. "Sometimes jumping straight into it is the only way I learn." Kaminari said, watching and feeling her hand slowly heal. "I need to get stronger. People here still don't trust me, or even like me." she said, staring downward with unfocused eyes, "I'm going to change that. I've got a lot to make up for and I can't do that sitting back and filing paperwork all day. I need to train."

"People are dumb, and angry, and stuck in their ways," Genpaku said after a moment. The glow began to fade as he looked back at her face.
"But they'll learn. It may take them time, but eventually they will learn. Your hard work though will only go so far. Eventually, they will learn to embrace you for you," he said, giving her a soft smile.
"Take it from someone who has seen it happen. It, like everything else, takes time. Too much of it, but all the same."

With her fist better and a new goal in mind, Kaminari felt refreshed on her training. She took one last look at the wall and returned to the spot they had been sparring.
"There are times where it feels like there isn't enough time. Tomorrow, a really mean hollow could end my life. So, I will train!" Kaminari took her stance in front of one of the dummies, adjusted herself, and once in a more stable stance, began throwing punches into wood.
"Thank you, Captain." she said. A thud echoed out with each punch, her fists striking the wood at a much better force. After number seven, she felt the dummy give. She readjusted herself again, punched more, and kept repeating the process.