The Essence of Fishman Karate [Training]

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A hand jabbed through the water repeatedly, fingers tight together and outstretched. The water flowed around his form, as though he was moving through it rather than within it. After every thrust he would pull back, readying his arm for another thrusting motion through the water. His eyes were focused on a target far away - a stone pillar. He moved through water like a Human would move on land, but movement wasn't the problem here. No, he needed to improve. He needed to better himself. If he wanted to become a greater warrior, he needed to improve his Fishman Karate. Both his own techniques, and the techniques of the island home he had not seen in nearly twenty years. The techniques of his childhood friend, Sakana.

Down in the deepest waters, Lao Hu practiced on the sea floor. His movements were slow but deliberate, occasionally punctuated with quick, fluid thrusts with his hands. He was in a state of intense focus, his mind and body as one. He needed to be, if he was going to train and improve himself. Already he had begun to build upon one of his own techniques, a technique created long after he had left Fishman Karate. A technique with which a single thrust could create a sharp, piercing spear of water. Smaller and more compact compared to Yarinami, but with far greater cutting power. He had named the technique Ryuusui Nukite, but now he sought to build upon that technique. To make a greater power, capable of piercing and cutting even through steel.

So he continued to move his hands through the water, moving with the water. He could feel every inch of the cool liquid against his skin, as though he was bound to it. His eyes were sharply focused on his target in front of him. His movements were fluid and his strength was great, but it wasn't enough. He needed something more. His hand cut through the water as it pushed forwards, snapping forth. Nothing happened. There was still something needed. His attacks needed a sharpness to them he hadn't possessed before if he wanted to accomplish his goal. If he wanted to be capable of piercing even through steel, he needed to find a power within him that was untapped. He needed to find a spirit and drive within him yet unseen. He needed to be one with water.

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His hand cut through the water again, shooting forth in front of him as his outstretched fingers pointed like a spear's tip towards the towering stone structure ahead of him. His eyes were sharply focused on the point of his hand before focusing back on the stone structure. He could see it - the sharpness he was looking for. It was there, just waiting for him to reach out. He could feel the water moving with him. He could understand it. Drawing his arm back slowly, he continued to stare down his target. His gills absorbed oxygen from the water around him as he thrust his hand forwards again. The essence of Fishman Karate was to move with the water, and to make the water move with oneself. To eternally be bound to water. There was no problem to be found there. Lao Hu could see what he needed to do.

He pulled his arm back once more, moving slowly and deliberately as he continued to focus. The sharpness of Ryuusui Nukite was generated from how highly-pressurized the water around his palm became with his movements. If he wanted to create something sharper, he had to apply more pressure. More force. His hand cut forwards through the water again, this time thrusting forth like cannon fire. Still not enough. He needed more. He pulled back and sharply thrust forth again, his hand piercing through the water like a blade through flesh. Still more. He drew his arm back, closing his eyes for a moment as he focused. His strength flowed through his arm, his entire body building strength. His legs kicked, his waist twisted and his arm pushed forwards. His hand stabbed through the water.

"Ryuusui Nukite!" he bellowed as torrents of water around his hand stabbed forwards as well, focused upon a single point. The water shot with the speed of an arrow and the force of a battering ram as the pressure sharpened it into a mighty, torrential spear. It crashed against the stone and dispersed, but Lao Hu made no expression. A sound had rung in his ear. It sounded like a blade slicing through stone. Suddenly, rock began to crumble as the tower of stone before him began to split down the middle lengthwise, each half crashing to either side and breaking apart. Lao Hu watched how it split apart before his eyes focused on the tip of his still-outstretched hand. This wasn't just Ryuusui Nukite. No, such a grand and powerful cutting technique deserved a better name. So he decided on a better one.

"Ryuusui... Jigokuzuki," he whispered, his eyes still focused forwards. That was the first step forwards.

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Lao Hu couldn't deny himself at least a moment of satisfaction as he looked at his handiwork. A stone pillar on the ocean floor split down the middle, causing the two halves to fall to either side. Proof he'd been successful. His original technique could cut through flesh and into stone, but it would never have pierced through stone like a hot knife through butter. It was a small success, but an important one. After all, now that he'd gotten the hang of it, there was still another cutting technique he needed to teach himself. He'd watched his childhood friend use it against him time after time when they had fought, creating blades of water from the swing of her arm. It was an admirable technique, and he wanted to teach himself how to do it.

Indeed, the first technique was, if anything, preparation for learning how to utilize this technique. It would have a wider range and be capable of firing off multiple shots. The blades of water were a useful technique. Fukashikon had been the name of the technique, or so she had told him. Regardless of what it was named, he knew he wanted to be able to use it. Having an extra blade or three was incredibly handy, after all. Floating just above the ocean floor, the Fishman turned around, staring at the other rocky structures of the floor before spotting one that would make a good target and focused on it. Facing towards the structure, he raised his arm. In principle, this technique shouldn't be too different, he told himself.

Slowly, his arm began to gently swing outwards before pulling in. Again and again he repeated the action, letting his arm sweep out slowly before drawing back to repeat. He needed to get used to the movements first. He'd seen Sakana perform the technique many times during their fight and from memory he was working to replicate her movements. Once he had the motions memorized, then he could begin practicing the attack. Out and in. Out and in. He continued to repeat the motions again and again, his whole body engaging in one movement. At first it had felt rigid, but now he was beginning to feel loose and fluid. The movements felt more natural to him as he continued to repeat, correcting his own very slight mistakes with each motion.

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His movements were finally beginning to feel like his own, as if he had been the one to develop the technique in the first place. As if he had been the one to master it first. His arm movements began to quicken ever so slightly as he repeated the actions with haste. As it felt more natural to him, he felt he could begin to speed up his movements. The way his hand moved through the water was memorized not by his brain, but his body this time. He repeated the actions less consciously and more physically. His body was slowly beginning to learn how to perform the technique, and he was ready to practice it now. His brows furrowed as he focused on the stone structure before him and drew his arm back. He was ready to begin.

Once more his legs kicked and his waist twisted as this time his arm swung out, sweeping in an arc as his hand chopped through the water. From the swing of his arm an edge of water was created that cut through the water itself. The crescent swiftly glided through the ocean, shooting towards the rock before crashing directly against the stone. Rock crumbled, but Lao Hu watched as, even though stones fell, the rock still stood up strong. He'd succeeded with his technique, but looking at the cut, he could see what was wrong. The edges of the cut were jagged and it only managed to cut into the rock a couple of inches. This wasn't enough. He needed more practice. He needed to understand and be able to perform the technique without even thinking.

Drawing his arm in again he repeated the motion, sweeping his arm out. More focus. More power. He had the technique down. He just needed to correct it. Repeating again and again, he prepared himself for another strike. His eyes sharpened on the rock as his mind concentrated on his target. His body tensed in anticipation and suddenly he swung out his arm, creating another blade of water that cut through the ocean, shooting towards the rock ahead. The blade cut into the rock, causing rubble to crumble down again as it left a wider yet more jagged gash against the rock. Another few inches had been cut into the rock, making the rock's wound look deeper. The Tiger Shark Fishman growled, watching how the rocks fell. It still wasn't enough.

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Lao Hu looked at the gash in the rock he had caused. He looked at how deep it cut, but also how jagged the edge of the rock's wound was. He analyzed the destruction he had caused with his attempt at the technique. It possessed a sharp edge and power, he understood. But therein lay the problem. The more powerful and sharper it was, the more uncontrollable it was. He needed to be able to focus the edge as much as possible to maximize cutting power. But even with the cutting power he'd given the technique thus far, it had only just reached about a third of the way through the stone structure. This wasn't enough, he told himself. It needed more power. Drawing his arm back, he focused. His arm, his shoulders, his spine, his hips and legs. Everything was connected. It wasn't just the movement of his arm, but the movement of his body as one.

He repeated the action once more. Twice. Three times. He wasn't simply throwing the blades, he understood. No, rather than let the water shoot off as a blade, the blades of water were an extension of the swing of his arm. His chopping motion through the water was the blade. He drew his arm back and focused on the stone. Once more his legs kicked, his waist twisted, his shoulders moved and his arm swung out with a chopping motion. The blade snapped outwards from his arm, shooting forwards towards the stone. The sharpened edge of the water blade cut deeper still into the stone, carving into it a cleaner, sharper cut. The edges were only a little jagged and now the cut was almost halfway deep into the stone. Lao Hu smirked. He'd get it perfect next time.

Bringing both of his arms up, he focused again on the stone. Here it was, the culmination of his training thus far. Moving as one with the water. Bringing together power, speed and skill. He gave a shark-like grin. He lashed out with one arm, allowing another blade to shoot through the water. But it was quickly followed by another swiping motion from his other arm, unleashing yet one more blade upon the rock. The first blade drew closer still to the rock before crashing right into where every other blade had struck, this time cutting all the way through the rest of the rock as cleanly as a sword through flesh. Split apart from the rest of the structure the rock fell forwards, right into the path of the second blade. Lao Hu watched as the second blade split the rock in half from top to bottom, breaking it apart much like the other stone structure earlier. He gave a satisfied smirk as the stones crashed to the ground. He was almost halfway through his training.

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Lao Hu watched as the rocks crumble. There were still a few techniques he needed to train. Two techniques he had memorized from his fight with Sakana. She had developed some interesting techniques back at Fishman Island. Who knew if she was hiding even more up her sleeves. But whatever the case, he knew that they would come in handy during a fight someday. He remembered his fight with Sakana well - how, when using the technique he wanted to try next, she had been able to move at much quicker speeds through the ocean. Now, he didn't want to make rash judgements, but given how their fight had involved nothing but the use of Fishman Karate, he found it unlikely that she had developed a high-speed movement technique that wasn't based on the fundamentals of Fishman Karate. That meant he could use it too.

The only problem was figuring out how it worked. If she was truly moving at high speeds through the water, that meant that she had to have been using all of her extremities simultaneously to push herself through the water. Almost like attacking with every limb at once, yet at the same time not exactly an attack. If ever there was a technique that required one to be "one with the Ocean", this was it. His brows furrowed as he focused, his arms floating out by his sides. He felt the water flowing around him. The current of the ocean pushed against him. Slowly, his arms and legs moved as one, pushing him forwards. He swam forwards at a steady pace, not rushing quite yet. There was still something he was missing. Perhaps, as he moved through the water, he would discover what it was.

He felt how the current pushed against him. How would she have been able to maintain her high speed even against the natural sea currents? What factor to this technique allowed her to bypass the sea's natural currents? What was he missing? He shut his eyes, instead focusing only on feeling the water passing by him. Passing by. The water moved around him, pushing against him. It slowed his already slow pace. What if this was the secret? What if, rather than bypass the current, she manipulated the current to her advantage? Fishman Karate was the control of water. The movement of water. Movement with water. The Tiger Shark opened his eyes, his muscles bracing as he readied himself. Perhaps this high-speed movement technique, Deshio, was not so complex after all.

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His limbs stretched out, as if to fit themselves into the vast space of the ocean. He felt the currents against his limbs, his mind visualizing them as garments over his body. Movement with the water. He only had a hypothesis, but he was ready to test it. If Sakana could develop and hone this technique, then so could he. With the water around him, his body twisted and suddenly he pulled himself through the water. It was like swimming, in a sense. But there was something more. It wasn't just that he pulled himself through the water - if that was all, he wouldn't have achieved the speed he was looking for. No, as he pulled the water around him, he also pulled it behind himself, pushing him forwards.

The result was a burst of speed he might not have attained otherwise. His body zoomed through the water at speeds that, at first, he wasn't able to control. But his body relaxed into it. As he continued to move at higher speeds his body twisted and changed direction, allowing him to turn around and continue the movements. His body zipped around in a myriad of directions before finally coming to a stop, his body floating in the water at a standstill. The Tiger Shark let out a small grin. Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it? But there was still more to achieve. He relaxed himself for only a moment as he remembered there was still more to learn. He had accomplished training himself to use Ryuusui Jigokuzuki, Fukashikon and Deshio. There were still two more techniques to practice.

"Shibuki..." he muttered to himself. A technique he had conceptualized himself, taking advantage of the way in which a Fishman Karate user manipulated water within the body. Swimming down, Lao Hu brought himself before a stone pillar and pressed his hand against it. Drawing his arm back for a moment, he felt the water slide around his hand before jabbing forwards, cutting into the rock with Ryuusui Nukite. A small crack was left in the stone, deep yet narrow. Perfect. His technique was designed to be used on a person's ear, but if he could generate a shockwave within the crack, he supposed it wouldn't be too difficult in practice to the effect he was trying to accomplish. So with his hand drawn back again, he prepared himself and slapped his hand against the crack.

Unfortunately, performing the technique underwater seemed a tad tricky. Rather than pushing the shockwave inside the crack, it just seemed to slam against the rock itself. As he saw how his hand pressed over the rock, he frowned. He needed to be able to concentrate the shockwave inside the crack, not on the rock itself. Otherwise it was no different to Joudan Bakusho. He'd need a few to teach himself the method and learn it.

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His hand pulled back once more as his eyes focused on the crack. He needed to be able to perform this right. It wasn't a problem of understanding how the technique work - it was simply a matter of training his body to recognize how to perform it. It was the only way he'd be able to perform it on the fly without even having to consciously think about it. That was the most important part of any fighting style. You needed to be able to do it on instinct - on reflex, even. Anything less was useless. His hand drew inwards again, his webbed fingers cupping around the water before he crashed it against the stone. He felt a shockwave, but while to a certain extent it was pushed inside the crack, as he pulled his hand away he could see he had done more damage on the outside. Not good enough.

Drawing his hand back once more, he focused. He moved once. He moved twice. His hand continued to crash agains the rock, each time missing by only a narrow margin. But every time that margin was closing in. He was adapting to it. He was correcting himself not on a conscious level, but on an instinctual level. He let out an almost animalistic snarl as his hand snapped through the water, crashing against the stone. Water was forcibly pushed inside the crack, filling it up beyond its capacity. There was only one way for the water to go. The interior of the stone burst apart, tearing outwards as water forced itself outwards. Lao Hu grinned in satisfaction as he watched the stone crumbed in front of him. He'd honed one more technique now. That left just one other technique to hone. He knew it would be the most difficult as well, of course.

Murasame.

In practice, he had been able to recognize its similarities to Yabusame. He could hazard a guess that Sakana had improved upon Yabusame. But it borrowed a lot of influence from other techniques - particularly the use of Mizugokoro to give shape to the water. It wasn't just a volley of water droplets - it shaped water itself into almost life-like sharks, capable of shredding things in their jaws. If he wanted to accomplish the technique, he was going to need to understand the principles behind it. Its shape and construction. Its sharpness. Its multiple attacks. He needed to apply them all at once. He extended an arm out, thinking for a moment about the arm motions for Yabusame. He thought about how he had earlier formed the water into sharpened weapons for both Ryuusui Nukite and Fukashikon. He thought about how one could shape the water using Mizugokoro. He cupped his hand, grasping the water. He had an idea.

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Lao's eyes narrowed as he focused himself. His hand moved through the water slowly, in anticipation of performing the move itself. His cupped hand gripped the water lightly in a manner reminiscent of Mizugokoro. He could feel the pull of the water against his palm as he moved his hand through the current. He understood the principles behind the technique. He'd practiced them and practiced them all day. As he continued to move his arm back and forth, repeating the movements necessary for the performance of the technique, he knew it was only a matter of teaching his body to do it. Now holding out his left hand, he began to make the same movements. When she had performed the technique before, Sakana had used both hands separately. It was time to see just how accurate he was.

Tightening his grip on the water, his right arm suddenly whipped forwards. He pulled a torrent of water with him, shaping it much like a set of fangs. As it left his palm the water behind the fangs moulded itself into a seemingly solid shape reminiscent of a shark. His left hand immediately followed, whipping forwards as well to create a second. His right arm then swung again, followed by his left and lastly his right arm swung once more. A pack of five sharks flew through the water, navigating through as though they really were sentient and biting through columns of stone along the sea floor. They only stopped as they hit the sandy bottom of the ocean, with the rock stacks lying in crumbled ruins. Lao Hu looked over his handiwork with a critical eye.

"Fishman Karate is still Fishman Karate... I can handle this..." he muttered to himself, his eyes focusing on the crumbling stone. He was a Fishman Karate practitioner. He'd been using the art for over twenty years. This was no sweat to him. Allowing himself just one grin, the Tiger Shark Fishman slowly floated up before beginning to swim for the surface. His training was done for today. He'd accomplished everything he had sought to do.

[Training Thread Finished]