Gate Training (Ichi, Ni, Sanban)

(Ichiban starts here)

Narora stood surrounded by many trees. His Sourusodo, Kyuketsuki was out in front of him, and he seemed tense.

His stance was that of a normal Kendo stance. His knees bet slightly, as if to spring forward. Both his arms on the Sourusodo. His brow was set in a concentrated face. He suddenly sprang forward at a tree. He suddenly shifted his stance, the sword now held in one hand as he hacked and slashed at the tree, marks appeared, but they were not very deep. Thin, actually...

He continued to slash, he would not give up until he cut the tree down. He let out war cries as he hit, each time, his Sourupowa rose higher and higher. He felt a strange energy flow into him. He smiled, this must be what Kami had spoken about. A Gate.

He quickly began to pull on the power, and after a few moments, he was covered in the Silver glow of his power. He charged again, and swung his sword, now taking out large chunks of the tree at a time. Just as he cut through it, he felt the last of the energy disappear from his body, leaving him tired.

(Niban starts here)

But he did not quit. He quickly stood up again, and this time, chose a different method. He quickly threw a stick up high into a tree, where it stuck.

Narora grabbed his Sourusodo in two hands, and jumped. He rose almost 20 feet in the air, before he fell again, landing hard, but not before marking where he left off with his Sourusodo.

he looked up and growled. He was still another 30 feet away from the stick with that jump. He focused his Sourupowa into his legs, to the point where they started to hurt. Like they would explode. He jumped again, leaving a spreading wave of Silver Sourupowa in every direction.

But it did him no good. He only reached another 10 feet higher, a total of 30 feet of the ground, but he still had another 20 to go.

He trained like this for another 4 hours. Each time, getting a little bit higher.

Currently, he was resting, Kyuketsuki was stuck into the ground and rested next to him. He panted, like he had been for the past 3 minutes, then got back up, and pulled his Sourusodo from the ground, her blade gleaming.

He walked up, and pulled on the power of his Ichiban gate. A new idea he had a while ago, but did not work. He was getting better at it, but not good enough to reach the Niban. He began to pull more and more energy from the gate. As he pulled enough to reach close to jump, he jumped.

He missed by about 4 inches... well he would. He was still flying, but he had calculated that he would miss by about that much. He grunted as he tried anything to make himself go higher.

'C'mon, c'mon!!' Unconsciously, he pulled on a new form of power. Small smoke-like lines of Sourupowa came off of him, and he suddenly found the energy to jump higher. As he missed, landed, and jumped again, he found himself sailing past the twig, and into the branches.

He laid there, grunting in pain then sighed. "...ouch..." He then, promptly fainted.

{Next Day}

Narora woke up to the sound of a bird... a very close bird... he turned his head and was looking into the eyes of a small robin. It blinked. He blinked. When it pecked his nose, he let out a yelp of pain, and the bird flew off.

He got up, mummbling something about 'stupid red birds'. He looked down and let himself drop to the floor, a good 100 feet down. He glanced at a training dummy and smiled to himself.

He pulled Akasha from her sheath on his hip, and activated his Niban, the Silver Sourupowa now flowing off of him. He grinned.

He then charged forward with a war cry and began to cut at trees, each time he cut one down, he tried to go faster with the next one.

After about 40 minutes of this workout, he let the gate drop and returned to normal. He sat down and began to think of another test for his new gate, Sanban.

'I could ask Kami-Chan... no, I promiced myself that I wouldn't and that I would do it on my own...'