Baenlin's training III

Baenlin adjusted the weight of the pack on his shoulder as he jogged up incline just outside of the village. He wanted to keep his training today to himself for a while. He had had very little instruction in the use of various weapons up to this point and he wanted to solitude to focus and decrease the chance of anyone else getting hurt by his incompetence. Maybe a small part was the chance that he could embarrass himself in front of other members of the village, but it was a thought he hardly gave any consideration to before forcing it down. The hike up from the village left him plenty of time to think, and that isn’t a thought he wanted as company. Instead he forced himself to focus on going through various forms and practices he would actually perform once he reached his destination.

The climb up was strenuous, but not overly so, and it served to have Baenlin well warmed up when he finally arrived at his destination. While there was more than enough room for him to move and swing a weapon with ease, there were many small boulders strewn around the clearing and a few seemingly ever present evergreens found at this altitude in the mountains. In the cent of the debris was a small pond, only twenty feet or so across at it’s widest point. The pond had many small fish in it considering it’s size, and each of them was of various colors with each having it’s own unique pattern. All in all it was a peaceful place; a place that almost insisted upon the tranquility and focus he had been searching for during his exercises. He had discovered this area a few days before while walking around and reading, letting his feet wander as they would as he did so. He was sure there were others that frequented the clearing, as there was evidence of other traffic, but he hadn’t run into anyone yet and he hoped he wouldn’t.

Baenlin relieved his shoulder of the weight of the parcel tied across his back. It was wrapped in gray cloth with a rope winding it’s way along the parcel to keep it all together. Baenlin took care as he carefully unwound the rope, spread out the covering cloth and arranged it’s contents. Inside were and assortment of practice weapons. There were the expected kunai, a belt of 10 actually, the shinobi trade weapon of choice and the only sharp weapon in the lot. Then there was a training sword made of teak with a core of iron to add to it’s weight. There was the bo staff, for which no training version could be made. Lastly there was the Manrikigusari, a chain weapon with a weight a each end of it’s ten foot length.

Baenlin chose to practice with the kunai first, figuring they would tire him the least. He first tied the belt around his waist as it was meant to be worn, then took his time to find a suitable target. There was a knot where a limb had broken off some years ago low on one of the trees dotting the clearing. It would be difficult to get a kunai to stick starting out, but they would still leave their mark on the bark to show where they struck. Baenlin took his time starting out, the same pace that the academy insisted on while practicing throwing kunai or shuriken. His first few attempts were failures. His throws were accurate but, as expected, it took a great deal more effort to puncture the bark of the tree than it did the academy’s practice targets. After he managed to get a full set of ten hits to stick into his target he changed up the exercise. He started doing various maneuvers while still aiming at the same target. He mixed it between aiming at his target while running in various directions from his target, to impressive acrobatics, to him acting as though the target and himself were exchanging kunai, to jumping from boulder to boulder.

Eventually the exercise did tire him. When it did he waded out into the small pond, sat down when it came to the point that the water came up to his neck while in that position, and began to meditate while allowing the waters to cool him and the fish to nibble at his skin with their toothless mouths. The feeling calmed him almost to the point of sleep, but he maintained his discipline and kept focused enough to remain awake by force of will alone. Eventually he felt that it was time to begin another exercise before he became too cooled and waded out of the pool.

Next he chose to start with the sword because it was the least complicated of the weapons he had brought with him that he had left to practice with this day. He again began slowly, allowing his muscle to warm themselves again after the exposure to the cool water. Slowly the forms came to him, and he moved his way through them with the utmost care, doing everything he could to demand perfection from his body. He sped up as he went, but always he kept his movements smooth and steady. Even when he paused he forced himself to control is body to the point that the point of the sword did not move. After a hour of flowing through the two handed poses, he pulled a kunai out of his belt with his left hand to practice his one handed poses with the sword while periodically mixing it with dual wielding poses. There was little more he could do without the aid of an opponent, so once he grew bored with the practice, he switched to the bo staff. This was an uncommon choice for shinobi, and Baenlin knew this. However, in open combat, Baenlin felt that the reach and double ends of the bo staff would dominate the sword or bo staff any time. He went through this practice with the same steady movement, but he incorporated some measure of taijutsu into his routine here. Sometimes he would wield the staff as he would a spear, only to switch to sending the piece of teak spinning in his hands to come down hard on the head of an imagined enemy. He then planted the butt of the staff into his opponents imaginary spine by using the bo as a pole to vault over the body to bring the full weight and leverage of the staff down upon a boulder that served as his next target. On and on he went, and if he had been fighting he would have leveled a small army in his exertions.

After he grew tired again, he spent more time meditating among the fish in the pool. The exercise coming next, with the Manrikigusari, would be exhausting and painful since what little experience he did have with it mostly have from watching other students and extensive reading into the weapon. The training weapon he brought along was made with lighter chains and weights than the functional fighting weapon so as not to be as damaging in case of an accident. A true Manrikigusari could easily wrap around a careless users neck or limbs and snap them like twigs in their momentum. The very thought made Baenlin as nervous as he would ever be (which was not so much as most people) as he started one weight to spinning from his right hand. He start as he had with the kunai, spinning the weight and trying to time it so that it darted straight at the knot in the tree he had been targeting. It took several tries, but he eventually got the practice down. After that, he tried copying the routines he had seen other students perform in the training yard in the village. This proved as bad as baenlin had expected. His movements had to be seamless in order for the weapon to truly be effective, and all too often he felt the weight snap to a stop at the end of it’s chain and recoil towards him. Baenlin shivered to think of what would have happened to him if the full weight was involved. As it was, by the end of the exercise he was bruised and bloodied and pinched from the chain. He did feel, however, that he had made some progress with the weapon as he coil it up back on the gray cloth.

He arranged the weapons on the cloth so that they again formed one, bulky package, and wrapped them with the cloth and he bound it all together with the rope once again. Again he went to the pool, this time unclad, to allow the cool of it’s waters to sooth the aches and pains that resulted from his exercises. This also allowed him time to think on the state of things. As much progress as he had made in his training, he was still displeased. There were many obstacles, more so than he thought there would be. While he was no where near wanting to give up, he found it slightly frustrating, and he knew that was the beginning of defeat. He faced this emotion in this moment, and did all he could to expel it, and allow the water to wash it away. He would succeed, he would not stop, no matter what his emotions demanded of him. The world needed him, whether it knew it or not.

word count 1608
for 8 stats and 16 jp

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