First Training Session (Shizu and Aesop/Finished)

Aesop pulled out his pocket watch, checking the time. He was pleased to see that he was early. Better to wait than to keep a lady waiting. He told himself. He gazed around at the surrounding forest. A nervous tremor shot through him as he waited for his meister.

It would be their first time training together and Aesop was a but excited to see how it went. He hugged himself and let out and ectatic little giggle.

Okay, he was very excited.

Shizu burst out the door and buckled her shoes as she wobbled on one foot. "Today's the day!" She said to herself, being barely audible as a piece of toast muffled her voice. She had some time yet, but who could wait on a day like this?!

A blast of adrenaline fueled her veins as she pulled up her stockings then ran at full speed to the training grounds. This was a day she had waited for, and honestly thought would never come around. She leapt up and smacked a dangling sign of a bakery she has come to know well from previous events with her hand and waves to the cashier who had been washing windows.

"Im here, I'm here!" The pumped meister yelled as she ran towards the waiting weapon.

Aesop clapped his hands together when he saw his meister approaching.

"Miss Shizu, how wonderful to see you," he gushed. Despite the fact that he already knew she was coming.

"I was hoping to practice that throw and return technique I mentioned before," Aesop told Shizu, "See how much damage we can do to these trees." He transformed into his weapon form.

"How does that sound to you, Miss Shizu?" His voice eminated from the shield.

Shizu nodded and grabbed the sheild, a bit awkwardly at first. " Alright, got it." She replied with both doubt and determination, however that combination works.

With a deep breath and shaky hands, the meister closed her eyes for a moment and studied their wavelengths... then she made her move.

"Here goes! " she said once before taking aim and tossing the sheild.

The night previous, Shizu had gone to the movie and comic store to study how 'Captain America' fought with his well know 'red, white, and blue, ' shield. Even though she had gone through the techniques on her own for hours... it took her multiple times to make a strong contact with the trees.

He felt an internal jerk inside himself in fear that his meister would drop him when she seemed to have trouble holding onto him. Thankfully, the feeling passed as soon as it came. A nervous apprehension swept through him while Shizu steadied him in in her hands.

The apprehension built up until finally, she released him. It was on odd feeling, being tossed like a Frisbee. But not in a bad way. It felt... Natural. Aesop wondered if it would feel any different in his human form. He didn't doubt that it would.

As soon as he was thrown, Aesop got to doing his part. He kept himself spinning in the air in order to gain speed as he soared toward the tree. He could hear an audible crack when he made contact with the tree's bark. Not enough to cause major damage, but enough to raise splinters.

Shizu's throw was hard enough for him to naturally bounce off the tree. He reversed his rotation as he spun back to his meister.

"I'm heading back," Aesop called to her in warning.

Shizu fought back the instinctual urge to leap out of the way and dug her feet into the ground. As soon as her fear subsided, the meister then outstretched her arms and lightly grasped the weapon. It was a bit awkward at first considering she nearly lost her footing as she caught the spinning shield and muttered a soft oof as it forced her to back up some.

"That wasn't too bad for a first time." She chimed with a pleased expression and tone. She pushed back an excited squeal and got into her stance, improving it from the last toss. "Okay, let's give it another go." Then without a second to retaliate, she whipped to sheild into motion.

This time, the force she put into the throw had caused a whirring sound around the weapon. She watched it closely as it whistled by. As she did, Shizu noticed the weapon glowing softly. Whatever she did, it caused the weapon to speed up impressively.

Aesop barely had any time to process that he had been thrown again. It felt different this time, even someone as unobservant as himself could notice it. The speed had increased greatly for the second throw. He was quite grateful that he couldn't get nauseous in this form otherwise he would have vomited by now.

Something seemed to change on the inside as well. It was difficult to describe, he'd never felt anything like it before. It was... he struggled to find a word to describe it. It was good. Empowering.

He kept himself spinning even as he made contact with the tree. The familiar crackling of wood filled his nonexistent ears. The splintering sound grew louder and he felt himself sinking deeper into the bark, his shield form still spinning wildly. This wasn't something he could just bounce back from like last time. Slowly grinding to a halt, Aesop transformed back into human form. He stared in awe at the damage they had done.

A deep, four inch gash had formed in the wood as thick as his weapon form. What splinters it could have had were either flattened down or just torn clean away leaving a nearly smooth indentation.

By this time, Shizu had already stared running over to see what ever had happened. Her eyes gazed upon the humongous gash that had left a mark cleaner than that of even a saw blade.

"Wow, what do you think happened this time?" tthe meister asked with her mouth gaping open. She hadn't the slightest idea as to whatever that had been...

After a minute or two, Shizu came to an epiphany. "I think that was a form of soul resonance..." or at least a start of one..." she stated and looked over the weaoon.

"Did you feel anything when that happened?" she asked and looked up at him. In order to look Aesop in the eyes, Shizu had to look up a reasonable amount... she really was short.

His eyes widened, "Do you really think so, Miss Shizu? You must be very good at this." Aesop doubted that they would be able to do a complete resonance for a while. But he was amazed they were able even begin one on their first day of training.

He stared at the tree's large wound. If that was just from the beginning of a soul resonance, what kind of damage could a full one do? He tried to imagine doing what they just did to an actual living creature. Aesop was doubtful it would be so clean.

"Oh, um... It's hard to describe," Aesop trailed off, "It felt really good. It made my weapon form feel more natural to me than before. If that makes any sense."

The meister could hardly make words. She neverwould've seen this coming. "It's the only explanation I have as of yet..." she replied and shook her head. She had to close her eyes for a moment to let the thought process...

"Hm... that does sound typical. " Shizu responded and crossed her arms in an agreement. "I can understand that is what a weapon would feel during a state such as this... let's try again and see if anything happens."

Then Shizu walked back to her original spot, waiting for Aesop.

"I'm on it, Miss Shizu," Aesop transformed once again. Resonating with someone without earlier practice seemed farfetched. But he supposed that was what practicing was for. To learn how to do something that they couldn't before.

Practicing to kill things, he couldn't help but add. He remembered not long ago wishing that he was a more traditional weapon so he could be of better use to whoever became his meister. Now he wished that he were a more traditional weapon so the results would be less... Vulgar. For some reason thinking about someone being sliced through with a sword was more appealing than thinking about someone's bones and organs being smashed to pieces by a shield.

"I'm ready," Aesop stated without revealing his apprehension.

The meister took her hold of the shield and focused her l wavelength as best she could. In all honesty, she had a hard time doing so. She seemed a bit off or even distracted.... Thoughts clouded her focus and Shizu had to shake her head to come back down to earth.

"Okay, here goes!" were the final words she spoke before letting the shield fly once more. As the sun's rays started shining through the trees, it refracted off of the spinning object and shone in the girls eyes, which naturally made her flinch. What if that happened in a battle? She thought to herself.... slowly falling into a trance of some unnecessary thought. Before she could realize it, many ideas came to mind. The number one that made her feel hollow.... failure. Would she en be able to really kill someone when it came to the point that she had to protect herself? Or even someone else?

As soon as she lost clearity of focus, the wavelength's strength broke of and the small resonance dissipated into nothing.

The power he felt surging through him went as soon as it came. He bounced carelessly off the side of the tree and rolled across the grass like a dropped penny. Aesop found himself lying on his back on the ground in a daze.

His expression was neutral but heat under his skin betrayed his anger. How could I have messed up so badly? I came here so I could stop being such a moron, not make an even bigger idiot of myself.

"I'm sorry, I have to take the blame for this," his tone was calm, almost emotionless, "I was a bit... distracted."

Shizu's expression still looked somewhat solemn from when when had thought such depressing things. When she saw that their progress had reversed, she knew it was her fault. And Lord Death was that disheartening and embarrassing! As soon as she witness the unfortunate event, Shizu marched over to explain herself.

Though with every step she took, it felt like two steps back. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! You messed up again, Shizu. Nice... were the thoughts that she fought to not scream out at herself and just tend to the dazed, and most likely dizzy, Aesop.

"I-I'm so sorry! That was all my fault! I got distracted and sidetracked..." she said and went on and on as she slumped next to him on her knees with her face pointed down

Aesop was surprised and then he felt a bit guilty to say relieved that Shizu was taking the blame as well. The fact that she appeared to be going through the same feelings as himself made him feel a little more sure of himself.

"It appears we both got distracted," Aesop said in a more naturally calm tone, "Resonating is difficult to do and we only started today." He closed his eyes in thought, still laying on his back in the grass.

"Perhaps if we figured out why we couldn't fully resonate, we can correct the mistake," he said hopefully, "What were you thinking about when you threw me, Miss Shizu?"

Shizu couldn't help but to agree with what Aesop said. Resonating was going to take quite a but of practice and they weren't going to get it perfectly the first or maybe even second to third session of training.

When she heard that she wasn't the only distracted one, she wasn't sure if h really was or if he was just trying to make her feel better... if that was the case, it worked.

The meister shifted as she sat some to get a bit more comfortable and started to speak. "Well, honestly, I was think about whether or not I could manage to kill someone when it came right TN down to it..." she replied and crossed her arms loosely. "I know I could learn how, but to actually do it..." the meister trailed off.

"I was thinking about the same thing," Aesop admitted. He gave another wary glance to the gash they created.

"People, kishin or otherwise, aren't made of wood," he swallowed, "It's not going to be as neat. Killing a tree and killing a kishin are two very different things." He sat up and leaned his back against the tree.

"Also, there's the issue that kishin were usually originally human," Aesop shuddered, "I can't help but wonder who tells their family's that we killed them. How does was one break news like that?"

The sudden comment that Aesop had made, almost made Shizu faint. It wasn't long ago that she was told that her father had turned into a kishin... She choked on her words and simply nodded after a moment of drowning in unsaid words.

"Y-yeah... I can't help but feel sympathy for them..." she replied in almost a whisper. She looked up at the weapon and stood up slowly with weak knees. I think I may get sick... she thought and closed her eyes. There was a heavily sinking feeling in her heart as she recalled when her father had indeed once vanished, and to find out months later that he was alive... but a monster...

It took Aesop a few moments to notice how sick Shizu looked. She barely seemed able to stay on her own two feet. He frowned in concern, standing up on his feet again. Was she getting sick? Did I say something wrong? He quickly stepped over to his meister and placed both hands on her shoulders.

"Miss Shizu, are you alright?" Aesop asked with growing concern, "Do you need to see a doctor?"

Shizu looked up and gasped in some air as she came to. "No! Im fine..." she tried to say with assurance. She took a step back and lightly pushed him away while shaking her head. "Im fine..."she repeated a but loudly.

Her eyes were glossy as they watered up as a few tears found their way down her cheekswhich were now a rosy pink. Oh great, now I'm crying?

Aesop felt like a ball of lead was weighing down his stomach. A familiar, cold, prickly feeling crawled across his chest. He hated it when other people got upset. He never knew what he was supposed to do when someone started crying.

"Are you okay?" He repeated, much more quietly than before. Aesop could hear his own voice straining, despite the fact that he wasn't the one crying. It was a stupid question. It was clear that Shizu was anything but okay. His hands and arms jerked around awkwardly, unsure of where they should go. He was being useless. As usual.

What would someone who knew what they were doing do? He wrapped his arms around her in an awkward manner. His back was bent so that he'd be able to reach her. When did training get so complicated?

"Everything gets better eventually," Aesop said. It was a weak and generic thing to say, but I was all he could think of.


(OOC: Sorry about the late reply, my Grandmother was visiting.)

Shizu wiped away the tears that fell and slapped herself a few times before standing on her own. "That's enough of that... sorry about turning this training session into a sob fest!" she replied with a smiled that was a bit forced. "Im actually okay now, so you don't need to worry. Okay?" she stated looking a bit like her normal self again. It had been some time since her father was announced as a kishin, but the emotional wounds were just starting to heal.

"If you don't mind, let us start from the top, okay?" she asked, obviously wanting to forget that this had ever happened in the first place. Wow was that embarrassing or what? She thought and cursed to herself.

"And yes, everything does get better. With practice." Shizu said with another determined smile and a thumbs up. She had to look up to be able to make eye-contact with the weapon so she could try to be assuring.

(OOC: That's perfectly fine :) )

"Alright, if you're sure..." Aesop said hesitantly. Shizu's behavior was still a bit off to him, but Aesop knew better than to push it. The whole situation was uncomfortable and he didn't want to make it even more so. Though he wished he could have handled the it better than that.

"Right, we should try and keep it simple this time," he nodded. He transformed back into a shield.

"Yeah. Nice and simple." She replied and went back to her tossing place. Throw after throw, it seemed that Shizu never had a problem jn the first place. She had cleansed her mind of the negative thoughts she had and was doing infinitely better!

Good, things are finally back on track! The meister thought with confidence and smiled triumphantly.

In this form, Aesop could feel Shizu becoming more and more relaxed. It was odd being for him to be able to tell something like this. As opposed to the guessing game of real life. But he supposed that's how meister and weapon relationships worked, a good connection.

He pondered pushing the issue further. Not now, obviously. Asking a lady you barely knew difficult questions could go south very fast. Or was this one of those things where private is meant to stay private? Oh well, he could worry about that later.

The crackling sound of wood splintering was becoming quite familiar to him. Circling back to his meister was nearly a second nature by now.

"This is going well Miss Shizu," Aesop gushed.