Post by Tanaka on Mar 28, 2009 23:11:11 GMT -4
As much as he may loath open fighting Takeki was all too aware of the fact that it seemed to be a fact of life and he was also aware of the fact that one of these days he may actually have to lead people into open battle of a whole new kind, most certainly if he would ever be forced to demonstrate the practicality or superiority of his own ideas. Thus he had better learn to be good at it. Furthermore, much to his own dissatisfaction, he was aware that the promotion system centred around personal power and duelling skills and if he was ever going to climb to the top in order to implement his own ideals then he would just have to grin and bear it, he would have to do what he hated. So he set out to lay the foundation stones for what would hopefully one day be a towering monument of power and prestige. His destination would be no great surprise to anyone who had been following him his entire career, not that anyone had been. Not so long ago he had entered a period of self induced exile to hone his combat skills and most importantly unlock his shikai. Much of this time was spent in a surprisingly accommodating cave and it was to this cave he now returned. Situated a good distance outside the walls of the urbanised soul society the cave was surrounded by tall, luscious, deciduous trees. Now they were green and healthy but come winter the bare branches could present an ominous backdrop to proceedings. A small clearing at the cave entrance provided enough ground to practice most physical movements and the abundance of wildlife presented no end of target practice. The cave mouth itself was obscured by shrubbery and only an experienced eye would be able to detect the tell tale signs of what lay beyond and a small stream, little more than a trickle created by condensation from the cold cave walls provided both a soothing sound within and enough water for one man to live by. However, Takeki did not intend to stay here as long as he had previously, indeed he would like to get back to his work as soon as possible.
Starting small he opted to work on white lightning, to that end he had checked out a compilation of papers on the theory and practical execution of the technique from the considerable archives at the soul societies’ disposal, or rather at the disposal of the thirteen divisions, nobility and intellectual elite. Takeki had seen how much of the soul society must live and doubted any of them had ever set foot in a library but that was immaterial for the moment. Instead he carefully slung his considerable pack upon the ground before rummaging around inside and removing the said documents. He had read through them once before but now he did so again, just to be sure, turning each yellowing page with care, after all some of these papers could easily be hundreds of years old and could easily disintegrate if roughly handled. The principle seemed simple enough, it appeared to involve a concentration of reiatsu in the attacking finger and venting a small amount of this in an concentrated, invisible negatively charged cloud. The remainder, concentrated in the finger must then be given a positive charge at which point the electrical potential will cause the lightning strike. The principle seemed simple enough but execution was going to be tricky. It was all this business with positive and negative charges and the controlled release of both that was going to be interesting, however, it was not impossible, hard but manageable and he had done stuff along these lines before.
So, gently placing the pages back in his pack he also removed his belt and laid down his staff, all in a neat little bundle by the cave entrance. He did however, also take the precaution of cautiously placing a series of trip wires linked to small explosive traps all around the pack, not enough to kill anyone but enough to stagger them and give them one big shock, furthermore Takeki would conduct this training with his equipment in view. No one was going to be stealing his equipment without him knowing . With this done and his mind at rest he extended his right hand and stared at a single finger for some time, it was almost as if he were debating the philosophical concept of the existence of the finger but rather he was trying to figure out how to go about this when suddenly a brain wave hit him, thrust! True it was far from the end result but if he could use a very weak version of thrust he could eject a tiny little cloud of rieatsu, he would of course then have to try and work out how to charge that cloud but it was a start. Pointing at a nearby shrub he but a great deal of effort into reigning in his thrust, after all moderation is hard thing to do when you have the ability to easily indulge in excess. If he got this right the leaves on the shrub should barely quiver, as if a tiny summer breeze had passed by. Unfortunately excess got the better of him and after levelling his finger at said shrub he proceeded to hit it with an invisible discharge of reiatsu strong enough to rip the leaves clean off of the branches. True, it could have gone worse but still this was disappointing for him. Especially since subtlety was his trade, this lack of control was to be expected from the knuckled heads of eleventh division, or indeed any of the line divisions as Takeki liked to call them when in private. Though to understand that you had to read his draft notes on his latest book. Angered by this little self realisation he tightened his right hand into a fist in an effort to suppress this frustration before calming and giving it another go. This process of annoyance and calm seemed to have a positive effect almost at once. The leaves now barely rustled but rustle they did, so he now knew he could get a faint, harmless, yet aimed cloud of reiatsu out there. Now to charge it.
Starting small he opted to work on white lightning, to that end he had checked out a compilation of papers on the theory and practical execution of the technique from the considerable archives at the soul societies’ disposal, or rather at the disposal of the thirteen divisions, nobility and intellectual elite. Takeki had seen how much of the soul society must live and doubted any of them had ever set foot in a library but that was immaterial for the moment. Instead he carefully slung his considerable pack upon the ground before rummaging around inside and removing the said documents. He had read through them once before but now he did so again, just to be sure, turning each yellowing page with care, after all some of these papers could easily be hundreds of years old and could easily disintegrate if roughly handled. The principle seemed simple enough, it appeared to involve a concentration of reiatsu in the attacking finger and venting a small amount of this in an concentrated, invisible negatively charged cloud. The remainder, concentrated in the finger must then be given a positive charge at which point the electrical potential will cause the lightning strike. The principle seemed simple enough but execution was going to be tricky. It was all this business with positive and negative charges and the controlled release of both that was going to be interesting, however, it was not impossible, hard but manageable and he had done stuff along these lines before.
So, gently placing the pages back in his pack he also removed his belt and laid down his staff, all in a neat little bundle by the cave entrance. He did however, also take the precaution of cautiously placing a series of trip wires linked to small explosive traps all around the pack, not enough to kill anyone but enough to stagger them and give them one big shock, furthermore Takeki would conduct this training with his equipment in view. No one was going to be stealing his equipment without him knowing . With this done and his mind at rest he extended his right hand and stared at a single finger for some time, it was almost as if he were debating the philosophical concept of the existence of the finger but rather he was trying to figure out how to go about this when suddenly a brain wave hit him, thrust! True it was far from the end result but if he could use a very weak version of thrust he could eject a tiny little cloud of rieatsu, he would of course then have to try and work out how to charge that cloud but it was a start. Pointing at a nearby shrub he but a great deal of effort into reigning in his thrust, after all moderation is hard thing to do when you have the ability to easily indulge in excess. If he got this right the leaves on the shrub should barely quiver, as if a tiny summer breeze had passed by. Unfortunately excess got the better of him and after levelling his finger at said shrub he proceeded to hit it with an invisible discharge of reiatsu strong enough to rip the leaves clean off of the branches. True, it could have gone worse but still this was disappointing for him. Especially since subtlety was his trade, this lack of control was to be expected from the knuckled heads of eleventh division, or indeed any of the line divisions as Takeki liked to call them when in private. Though to understand that you had to read his draft notes on his latest book. Angered by this little self realisation he tightened his right hand into a fist in an effort to suppress this frustration before calming and giving it another go. This process of annoyance and calm seemed to have a positive effect almost at once. The leaves now barely rustled but rustle they did, so he now knew he could get a faint, harmless, yet aimed cloud of reiatsu out there. Now to charge it.
