The Art of Rokushiki! [Training]

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To those not in the know, the art of Rokushiki seemed like a mysterious, superhuman ability - as though there were people born with a gift for hopping through the air and kicking blades of wind at people. It was fantastic and strange - Even Devil Fruits made at least some sort of bizarre sense. But Rokushiki was simply this art form - this martial art almost, comprised of techniques that seemed so superhuman and distinct from the common man. But a blonde woman who stood out in the open plains of Dawn Island knew better. The only difference between one person who could use Rokushiki and one person who could not was simply training. There was always potential in people to achieve certain things. Some simply chose to realize it.

But of course, it wasn't as if the training was easy or normal. Normal training involved performing katas and sparring with people. While certainly, there was plenty of that involved in the process, it was also a bit different. You had to innately know how to act in order to use Rokushiki. The exact amount of force needed to kick the air to create a blade of wind - the kind of focus that could turn kicking off the ground ten times in an instant into superhuman speed. You had to ingrain it in your very bones. Which also meant you had to plunge yourself headfirst into the abyss and hope you figure out how to land safely. A machine had been set up, designed to launch tennis balls at Justine. To learn how to use the ability of Kami-e, it was a necessity that she was able to dodge the tennis balls much like how she'd dodge a punch.

Except her feet were strapped down to the ground.

It would be too easy, after all, to side-step the attack. But Kami-e wasn't about side-stepping - it was about being able to dodge an attack when side-stepping wasn't even an option. She had to put herself in a situation where dodging was rather difficult. As the tennis balls flew towards her, Justine made her body sway left and right to evade. Whoever designed the machine had been rather brilliant - the settings on the machine enabled it to fire the balls in completely erratic orders. Rather than waiting for one ball every five seconds, Justine would have to contend with two balls in succession, a pause, three balls in succession, then perhaps two balls fired simultaneously. They also had a tendency to change where they were aimed, meaning Justine found herself weaving desperately from left to right just to dodge by a narrow margin.

No one said the training was easy, after all.

[long3]

She felt another ball pass by her ear, the air itself brushing past. Her eyes focused solely on the machine, watching as another projectile shot towards her. Pressing down hard on the ground with her foot, she forced herself to twist and just narrowly avoid the projectile by the smallest of margins. They were speeding up, she realized, this time feeling the skin of her side brushed by the air. She kept her arms in, compacted against her body. She couldn't afford to let them out, where they could be struck by the projectiles far more easily. But the weaving, twisting and bobbing of her body was getting more difficult as she felt herself reaching the limits of her flexibility and reaction time in dodging. How much more could she accomplish?

No, she told herself. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't just abandon training. She needed to set herself rigidly on a course. She needed to push herself beyond her limitations. If she only focused on what her limitations were and not her potential, she'd never progress. Furrowing her brows, she weaved her body to the side, narrowly avoiding another hit. Another ball however was coming quickly after it, aimed for her head. Twisting her neck, she just barely moved her head out of the way of the ball's path. Before the next ball afterwards could strike she pulled herself back in, evading the hit. That had come incredibly close. But it still hadn't hit. The blonde smiled, focused. She was still progressing. She was still keeping up with the balls. She wasn't so easily surpassed.

"I can accomplish this. Kami-e is the art of dodging even under difficult circumstances. But I've been thrust into difficult circumstances many times before. I can do this," she thought to herself, watching as another two shot towards her. She weaved her head to the left, dodging the first, but quickly weaved back towards the right to dodge the second. A hair's breadth made the distance between her head and the second ball, but that hair's breadth made all the difference. "I'm close. I can feel it. My body feels looser. I can do this. I can accomplish Kami-e".

[long3]

"I'm getting close. I'm almost there," Justine thought to herself, her eyes focused forwards as she ducked and dodged around the zipping orbs. Her feet remained planted in the same spot, but her body weaved around. She was feeling more flexible, her body twisting as though her own bones were rubbery. But that wasn't quite it. No, Justine knew what it was - She'd been given training in the other forms of Rokushiki before. She'd never been able to master them as well as Soru or Rokushiki and certainly couldn't perform the techniques in the field, but nevertheless she knew that she was making progress. She was beginning to adapt and learn just what to do.

As Justine stood in wait, she stared down at the machine before her. Pop. Pop. Pop. Three loud pops rang out consecutively as three balls shot towards her, spinning through the air. One was aimed for her right temple, one for her right knee and one was aimed for her left side. Justine grit her teeth. This was the time to push herself further - To push herself to succeed. As the three balls came, her knees buckled in one direction whilst her back bent inwards. It was as though, for a moment, her body had been twisted into an S-shape. Like her bones were made of rubber, she didn't so much just dodge the balls fired at her so much as she bent around them, twisting herself around them. As the balls passed by by the breadth of a hair, the blonde couldn't help but smirk.

"Kami-e" she thought to herself with a certain satisfaction, her brows narrowed as she returned to a normal stance, her hands now reaching down for the straps around her feet. It was time to start practicing her Geppo.

[long3]

It had taken the better part of ten minutes undoing the straps on her feet. Using her Kami-E to dodge the attacks as she tried to undo the straps, it was at the very least good practice for her newfound technique. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but give a relieved sigh as she eventually undid the straps and stepped out of range of the machine, walking around until she finally came to the machine's side and turned it off. Now, of course, it was time to begin working on the next technique, Geppo. Training for Geppo was slightly different, but at the very least didn't involve dodging tennis balls. It did, however, involve strapping a set of weights to her ankles and forearms.

Taking the weights she'd been given by the nearby Marine base, Justine quickly took to fastening the ones around her ankles first, locking them tightly. She then spent perhaps the better part of another ten minutes trying to fix the others onto her forearms. There was a certain trickiness to fastening a weight onto your arm when your other arm was being weighed down by the other strap, but in due time she managed to fasten them to her arms. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at herself and allowed herself to feel the weight dragging her downwards. She stood far more rigidly than usual, trying to compensate for the weight. Nevertheless, now came the actual training part.

Though the fundamentals of the technique seemed basic enough, the training was far more difficult. While weighted down, she had to teach herself to jump with the weights on her. Steeling herself, she grit her teeth and tensed her muscles. If this was the training, then so be it. With great effort, Justine bent her knees, strained her muscles and jumped. All of one foot. Almost as soon as she ascended into the air, she dropped down again, her feet hitting the ground and her legs buckling down. She managed to catch herself before she lost her footing, but nevertheless Justine felt very shaky in her legs. She tensed, looking at the weights attached to her limbs again. This was not going to be easy.

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Justine grunted, her muscles tightening as she forced herself upright again. After landing on the ground last time, it had felt as if she'd been shaken to the core. A shockwave passed through her flesh and bones through her body, from the feet upwards. Nevertheless, in spite of the shock, she knew she had to continue. If she didn't, after all, she wouldn't accomplish her goals. Rising to her full stature, she tensed her muscles and grit her teeth, pulling against the weights. With a mighty heave of her entire form, she leapt upwards once more. She rose all of one foot off the ground again, only to then crash downwards. Hitting the ground once more, Justine's knees buckled as she almost fell, just barely managing to withstand the shock. She tensed.

It hurt like before, but pain wasn't going to stop her. Justine forced herself to continue, clenching her hands into tight fists as she forced herself up to full stature. She took a second to breathe, closing her eyes as she let her mind empty itself. Focusing solely on her task, she began to bend her knees, tensing the muscles in her legs as she prepared herself. With a spring in her legs she began to ascend, suddenly lifting off her feet and into the air. It may have lasted only a moment, but the feeling of rising into the air, no matter how short the ascent, was capped by what felt like a short pause in the air itself. A moment where Justine was neither rising nor falling, but standing in the air itself. A thought suddenly struck her, merely a moment before she struck the ground.

Hitting the earth, this time she buckled and fell backwards. Collapsing onto her behind, Justine, grit her teeth and rubbed her back. It was sore, but she couldn't care - the blonde had suddenly realized just how to accomplish Geppo. The weights weren't there to make it more difficult to accomplish the technique, she began to realize. It wasn't a handicap, but a teaching tool. She looked at the weights and smirked as she began to push herself back up onto her feet. She had a plan on how to proceed. Standing upright, she felt ready to perform Geppo.

[long3]

Justine stood at full height, confident in herself as she looked down at the weights around her ankles and wrists. She realized that these weights weren't meant to make Geppo training more difficult. Rather, the experience of jumping with them on was a learning curve of its own. It forced her to realize something she may have never noticed beforehand. But now she knew - all that was left was to put it to the test. Bending her knees, she prepared herself for motion as she looked back up. Her brows furrowed. Suddenly, her legs sprung upwards, throwing her into the air. She ascended only a foot in height, but that one foot was all she needed. She waited, patiently timing herself. She rose, rose, rose and... Stopped.

In that instant after she stopped ascending and before she started descending, her legs kicked downwards, pushing against the air itself. As though she had been on the ground, she seemed to suddenly jump again into the air. Ascending even higher than she did the first time, Justine smiled as she felt herself begin to slow to a stop again. Once more she kicked, this time moving forwards through the air. Every time the weight of her body began to pull down she kicked once more, now traversing the air as though she was on a walk through the park. She sprung from position to position, circling around until she returned to her starting point, dropping down onto the ground.

As she landed, Justine rolled to reduce the impact and returned to her feet, smirking to herself. She'd discovered the secret to Geppo and its use. Lifting her arms up, she began to undo the straps on the weights, allowing them to drop from her arms and land on the ground heavily by her feet. Reaching down, she began to undo the straps around her ankles, feeling the weight drop off of her body. Feeling lighter than she'd ever imagined, Justine decided now was not the time to celebrate her success in achieving Geppo. After all, there was still one other thing to do - learn how to utilize Shigan.

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Compared to the training she had to go through to accomplish both Kami-E and Geppo, the training for Shigan was remarkably simple and easy to understand. Of course, that didn't change the fact that the training was also incredibly difficult. Or rather, incredibly painful. The blonde stood in front of a wall, her fingers pressed against the stone bricks. Justine's face was equally cold, her expression focused as she pulled her hands back. In one quick motion she jabbed - her fingers and thumbs colliding against the stone. She winced, the pain traveling up through her fingers. There was no side-stepping the issue of how to utilize Shigan - you had to toughen up your fingers to pierce through human flesh and bone.

Needless to say, it was far from an easy task. It wasn't something someone could accomplish without hard work. The blonde agent could feel the sun beating down on her as she pulled her hands back and jabbed against the stone once more, feeling the shaking pain crawl up her own fingers. She grit her teeth, bearing with the pain. Steeling herself, Justine continued to draw her hands back and thrust her fingertips against the stone again and again without relent. She'd already accomplished a lot today. She was determined to see herself through to the end. She was a Cipher Pol Agent, after all. She had a duty to the World Government to live up to their expectations. They expected her to succeed.

"I'm not going to give up," she thought to herself as her blood began to drip from her fingernails. "I'm going to learn Shigan. I'm going to learn Rokushiki. I will not disappoint those who expect greatness from me," she continued to think, if only to drive the pain to the back of her mind. She continued relentlessly driving her fingers against the stone, each impact causing her hands to shake. She had to keep moving forwards. To stop was to fail. She could not fail.

[long3]

Blood dripped down her fingers, dropping to the ground. Round grooves had been made in the stone, shallow yet nevertheless noticeable. Justine bit her lip, feeling the pain in her bloody fingers. They shook with pain, the result of the harsh training. But she couldn't stop. She wouldn't stop. She had to continue. That was her resolve, after all - she wouldn't stop until she had mastered Shigan. If she was to do her duty as a Cipher Pol Agent - and a member of Cipher Pol Number 9, at that - she had to be able to push herself even through pain like this. Drawing her hands back yet again, having long lost count of how much she'd done so, Justine jabbed her fingers against the stone, squirting blood out of her wounds.

The sun that had spent so long beating down on her was moving across the skies, passing over her and towards the west. The thumping of her fingers against the stone sounded out as the seconds, the minutes and even the hours passed. The clouds crossed the skies as they were pulled by the wind and steadily, the sun's light began to dim. Slowly but surely, the sun was descending down upon the horizon, the skies slowly turning red. The sun slowly began to vanish behind the horizon, sinking lower and lower until eventually only a sliver of the sun's light could shine over the horizon. Soon, not even that could be seen. The skies had turned dark and now the only light in the sky came from the moon and the stars.

Justine looked at the stone before her. Her hands couldn't stop shaking as she held them in front of herself. The grooves had become deeper, like bullet holes in the stone. The feeling in her hands had numbed, replaced by the dull pain. Blood dripped from her fingers, but she wasn't done. No, Justine knew she wasn't done yet. Raising her shaking hands, she looked at the wall again. She hadn't succeeded until she could pierce the wall with a single strike. All of her upper-body strength focused into the tips of her fingers. But she was close. She was so unbearably close.

[long3]

Under the moonlight, Justine looked at her cold, weary hands. She knew how reckless she was being, working herself so hard. There was a voice in the back of her mind telling her that she was pushing herself too hard. It was telling her she couldn't do this forever. As her hands continued to shake, she acknowledged that she couldn't. But Justine didn't need to continue her harsh training forever. She just needed to do it until she could use Shigan. Steeling herself, she forced her hands to stop shaking and held them in front of herself, staring at the wall. She grit her teeth, ignoring the dull pain coursing through her hands.

She jabbed her fingers again, letting them strike the stone once more. They burrowed into the rock as far as the first knuckle of each finger, but that wasn't enough for her. Pulling her fingers back, she jabbed again, puncturing the stone with her fingers as this time they went deeper, as far as the second knuckle of each finger. She was close, but that wasn't quite it. Justine pulled her fingers back, holding them in front of the stone as she took deep breaths. All of the power in her upper-body was honed and sharpened, focused into the very tips of her fingers and thumbs. Her brows furrowed as she grit her teeth, knowing the pain that would come soon. Breathing in through her nostrils, the blonde jabbed her fingers forth once more.

The stone cracked and shook as her full fingers burrowed into the rock, pressing deeply into them. Justine could only see the knuckles on her hands as her full fingers and thumbs had buried themselves into the rock, penetrating it like a bullet through flesh. She gave a weak smile, slowly dragging her fingers out of the holes as she let herself drop to her knees. Her hands shook in her lap, resting down as she let out a quiet sigh. She had done it. After so many tries and attempts, after so much trial and error, she had done it. She had achieved Shigan.