A Chance Encounter

Eyes widening fractionally as he feels the shift in her chakra and the subtle changes in heat, Koutaku’s off-hand rushes through a series of handseals and just as she’s about to spew flames at him, she chokes. Seemingly ever-so-slightly relieved, he drops the final handseal, and lets his chakra relax as he catches her naginata before it falls to the ground. In short order he pulls his shuriken back to his hand, before replying with a nod.

“Yeah, it took me a few hours of practice to really get them down,” his tone is serious and without a trace of judgement or any sense of bragging. If anything it’s more like he’s unaware that it might take someone else considerably longer. At her first sign of open expression, Koutaku realizes he’s still in a different headspace and as he did with his chakra, he relaxes mentally. A cold veneer melts away and he smiles back, glancing down at her weapon as he straightens up, her words reaching him. “Ah, of course haha,” he says with a short laugh before tossing the weapon towards her, its orientation horizontal in the air, blade pointing to the right, and the butt of the shaft to the left.

It ought to be an easy catch.

That done he begins to turn before stopping and shifting his gaze back to Shoko. “If you want I can give you a pointer or two regarding One Handed Seals. It’s mostly repetition, but there were a few tricks I learned that might make it a bit easier to learn.”

“Up to you though,” he finishes with a shrug, knowing that some people are too prideful to learn from another, even if it’s the logical path. He won’t push, but given that he’s had a helping hand throughout his training, Koutaku figures that he may as well do the same for another.

Spoiler:

Shoko catches the naginata and stares at it for a moment, and then looks up to Koutaku, mouth twisting in confusion. He seems to have gotten distracted...? They're in the middle of a match. She considers his offer, weighing it against the chance to even the score.

'A few hours of practice to really get them down' dances tauntingly in her head. Well, fine, if he has some tricks, there's no use to her being petty and missing out. Plus, the way he says it like he's expecting her to say no spurs her to accept his help out of simple contrarian impulse.

"Okay," she says, not unpleasantly, turning the naginata to let it rest on the ground and against her shoulder. "What's the secret?"

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TWC: 1319

Smiling slightly at her response, Koutaku performs a single handseal, "The trick I used is a bit strange, essentially I channel chakra through my hands while I do normal handseals, getting a feel for how it responds to each one. Once I had that down I started practicing the correct forms for every single seal and if my chakra seemed off I'd immediately know that something about the seal was too." He shrugged a bit, "I'm a quick study so it let me adjust accordingly, but it does take some focus to get it right. Still, I figure this outta help, besides, it trains your sense for chakra as well so it's kind of a 'two birds, one stone' sort of deal."

That said, Koutaku pushed back, for the first time using his full speed, to slide back to his original starting position. This time, he let put his weapons away and put his right hand on the hilt of his wakizashi. "At the end of the day," he said, breathing more and more slowly, "...we each have to make our own way. Others can only help us so much." That said, Koutaku's eyes narrowed faintly, his chakra grew still, and his breathing even and slow. The change happened again and this time, he acted first, dashing back towards her at 40 speed as he drew two shuriken with his left hand.

In the same instant, he performed handseals with that hand, the shuriken between his fingers not seeming to impede him at all. Closing the distance, Koutaku swiftly drew his wakizashi at 140 speed, before slowing to a mere 40 once it had cleared the sheath, slashing at her right side (from his perspective) in a diagonal strike.

Spoiler:

Shoko's eyebrows knit at his explanation. It makes sense, but she isn't sure that she has the sense for her own chakra to be able to adjust on the fly like that. This would be easier if her bloodline had awoken. Then, she squints at him as he retreats with blistering speed, corner of her mouth working.

"Why are you going easy on me?" she asks, finally figuring it out. 

Shoko steps back, maintaining a meters' distance from Koutaku as he advances. Unless he picks up the pace, he will not be able to close that distance due to Shoko's reach and their equal speed. Wary of his habit of trapping her weapon, she slips her weapon forward to swipe at his extended forearm. She keeps her hands on her naginata, paying attention to those shuriken and preparing to utilize the handle of her weapon to deflect them.

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TWC: 1467

As her naginata swipes at his left arm, both of Koutaku’s shuriken are suddenly released, but in opposite directions. The first trails backwards rapidly as he runs moving from the back of his hand to the middle of his forearm, changing shape as it does so. Two of its blades elongate, encircling Koutaku’s wrist while the rest of the shuriken grows into a small metal shield with a diameter of 8 inches. The naginata’s blade is caught on his newly formed shield as the other kunai is thrown forwards at 40 speed. It travels along the length of the naginata, wire trailing behind it. Meanwhile, Koutaku slashes at her right side (his perspective) with his wakizashi as he closes the remaining distance between them.

Too caught up in the moment, while Koutaku registers her words, he makes no effort to respond.

Spoiler:

Shoko may have misjudged which arm to aim for, but she focuses on warily keeping her distance. The oak rings against steel and she draws back, eyes catching the flash of steel of the weapon sneaking beneath. She lowers the handle of her polearm to bat aside the incoming shuriken, and then parries the incoming slash of the wakizashi. She chews on the inside corner of her cheek in frustration, unsure of how to approach this fight when he can perform handseals and has access to thrown weapons and wires to threaten her space and disarm her without having to be in reach.

"That technique's cool," she says, a little breathless, not really expecting him to respond as she aims to swipe at his right wrist with the end of her weapon. "Is it like a transformation?"

Performing the dragon handseal to inject additional chakra into the thrown shuriken, Koutaku's technique causes two of its prongs to elongate and curl inwards towards eachother as the handle of her weapon strikes. As a result of moving faster than the transformation, it is caught between the two prongs just as it attempts to pull back, thus affixing the shuriken firmly to her weapon. His lips quirk upwards slightly as their weapons meet. As sparks fly from their weapons, Koutaku adjusts his feet and pushed forwards, pressing her naginata uncomfortably close to her. Then, without any regard, he tugs on the wire with his left hand, pulling at the base of the naginata's shaft below her hand where the shuriken is affixed, using his superior strength to pull the weapon further out of position as he applies force with his wakizashi. Suddenly, he turns sideways, pulling his wire taut, such that without shifting her position she would be unable to move her weapon. With his right arm facing her, he drops his wakizashi and jabs below her guard with his hand at 40 speed, aiming for her hip.

"It is," he replies. "I can teach you," he offers even as he attacks, a smile in his eyes. Not mockery, but intrigue and amusement.

After all, it wasn't often that Koutaku met people even half as strange as him.

Spoiler:

He plays her like a fiddle, and the room chimes the match point for Koutaku when his wakizashi reaches her hip. Shoko's cheeks burn with embarrassment, and she has to remind herself to be graceful in defeat, especially with this potential new friend offering such interesting techniques. There's a petty part of her that doesn't want his help, considers it a second defeat in of itself, but she wrestles it down. 

"You win," is all she can say, tone as though she wishes to be rid of the fact by saying it. She catches her breath. "I don't really know a lot of things I can use in a fight yet. Just a lot of the basics..."

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TWC: 1721

Exhaling slowly, Koutaku pulled his blade back and sheathed it even as he dismissed his item transformation technique, Sokumen Henkou, thus returning his two shuriken back to their base state. Pulling both implements back to his person, Koutaku swiftly stowed one of the two shuriken in a pouch as he stood up to his full height. As he settled back into a more normal headspace Koutaku bowed at the waist to Shoko after stepping away from her.

"To answer your earlier question. It's not that I'm holding back exactly. It's more that I'm training myself for situations where I might be unable to use my full speed. Furthermore, I figured it would be more conducive for both of us than going at full speed. After all, you'd likely feel humiliated and I'd just feel like, well, an ass." He smiled, not failing to notice her attitude in regards to losing the bout. Thinking for a moment on what she'd said though--regarding the basics--Koutaku nodded his head once before drawing a second shuriken from his pouch and holding his hand out for her to take it.

"The technique you saw me use is called Sokumen Henkō, it requires only two handseals at its simplest. Dragon and Serpent," he demonstrated both, for clarity's sake before continuing. "The technique is simple in some respects. It lets you alter the dimensions of an item you're holding or have indirect contact with. At D rank you can affect up to two objects with a single activation, and if you want you can even alter the form again for a bit of additional chakra."

Performing the handseals again, Koutaku used the technique, the shuriken still in his hand briefly glimmering with chakra as it took effect. Rapidly one of the weapon's four prongs lengthened from 2 inches to 4, and then rounded out. Koutaku grabbed the weapon, using the new formation as a handle as it continued to change. Gradually, the other two prongs became narrower and then vanished as if retracting into the shuriken so that only one prong and a ring remained. The remaining prong lengthened until it was a blade of 12 inches in length.

"No part of the item can become more than double its original dimensions, but if you redistribute its mass you can do stuff like this where instead of three four inch prongs, you make one prong 12 inches in length by combining the three and then doubling their combined mass." Smiling at his handiwork, Koutaku spun the weapon once and then stabbed its blade into the floor, leaning on it. "I've had quite a bit of practice with this technique though, it's one of my favorites if I'm being honest. Tons of utility. The key is to visualize the changes you want and consider how you can double, reduce, or otherwise redistribute the mass of the object into new formations."

"Give it a try."

Spoiler:

"Imagine that," Shoko murmurs offhanded at the suggestion that he may, in a hypothetical scenario that did not exist, have humiliated her. It's fine. She adjusts her hair and bows back with immaculate form, as is the proper thing to do. 

She steps forward, crossing her arms after accepting that shuriken, a slightly restrained curiosity on her face. Her eyebrows slightly knit at him feeling the need to physically demonstrate basic handseals, but she is in learning mode and finds it easier to bite back any remarks. Instead she tucks another stray hair behind an ear. Any remaining petulance quickly gives way to more open appreciation as he explains further - and demonstrates. 

As much as being useful in combat, it simply sounds... fun to practice. Like a puzzle, working with a starting point and seeing what can be created from it. She stares hard at her shuriken, wondering what potential forms it could hold with a guiding hand. Slowly, having to still focus fairly hard on running chakra through an object, she forms the handseals and wills the shuriken to change shape. The blades begin to shrink into the central ring as it expands... and then folds over itself to become a figure-eight of steel in Shoko's hands, at which point she loses focus and fumbles with it for a moment.

"That isn't quite what I was going for," she says, recovering and examining it, now more concerned with figuring this technique out than being self-conscious. "I wanted a big metal ring."

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TWC: 1973