Laughing Desert Training

[Texas]

Early morning rise and grind! Well early morning meditate, but it was training so technically that statement wasn't too far off. Jiro had woken up right before the sun came up and left his tent. Both him and his Kisama brethren had arrived at the Laughing Desert and set up a little camp site. There were two tents, a fire pit set up with rocks, and a very large brass pole that Jiro had set up dug deep into the sand. It was approximately 30' in the air and 20' in the ground so it wouldn't move. At the top of the brass pole was a mini red flag. This was to help them find the camp site in case their hunt got a little too intense.

With the cool air and young sky, Jiro exited his tent. He stood up half dressed and put both his arms on his hips. With a little hip flex, both arms lifted up in the air for a grand stretch. Following was a yawn as well, normally Jiro would be loud and obnoxious, however since he didn't see his friend up and awake yet he had decided to quietly stretch out his body. After the initial stretch, Jiro had decided to do a full on stretch. Lifting his left leg up and getting the quad all situated. Then shortly doing the same thing with his right leg. Getting all of the leg muscles stretched out was important for every day use after all. After finishing up his legs, Jiro jumped up and down a little bit to loosen up his muscles. His hair flopped up and down a little bit. After a few moments of doing it, Jiro adjusted to stretching out his arms.

The broad man was awake and loose! However, with Yutaka not being awake and plenty of time in the morning.... Jiro figured this would be a great way to mediate and focus on some of his weak points before they really got started in combat. After this excursion was going to be a fun way to get another Kisama Clan member trained up and prepped for the future. If he could help train his new friend to be a stronger warrior and confidently defend himself, then that would be less worry that Jiro had in the back of his mind. Who knows, maybe the two would be sent out on combat missions in the future.

Near their camp site was a small sandy hill. Jiro made his way up the little hill and looked at the sky. The little hill was above most of the other sand structures, so he got a great view of the desert land. Maybe it would be a good spot to try to spot animals to hunt. They were there to find the Giant Armadillo which was rumored to be in the area. Unfortunately for them, the laughing dessert was a massive place... so they would need to do some serious hunting.

After some morning thoughts, Jiro slowly crouched down and sat down on the sand. He crossed his legs criss cross applesauce and rested his arms on his bent knees. Jiro gazed upon the desert with his red eyes and feasted on the beauty that came with the calm stillness the morning gave off. The cool air would only be around for a little bit before the sand reflected the heat off of the sun, so this moment would only be brief. With that in mind Jiro shut his eyes and began to meditate.

Like with all meditation, there were different ways and forms. However, the constant the came with meditating was addressing problems head on. Doing it in a way that allowed the person meditating to determine how big of a deal it actually was. For Jiro this was a way to fight off any form of anxiety or fear that he would try to take control of his brain. The term mind of matter was true for the Kisama Warrior and he was a big proponent of making sure the mind was as strong as the body. While focused on his past, present, and future, Jiro wanted to use this exercise to try to increase his chakra capacity. In truth, Jiro barely knew what the hell chakra was. But he was informed the other day about how it worked and what it was. Even though this black magic made no sense to the man he wanted to use this opportunity to try to figure the whole thing out.

With that, Jiro started to focus on his entire body. All he could do though was flex his muscles. After around twenty minutes of focusing on his body, Jiro adjusted to focusing on his mind. With the mind active, Jiro focused on what he believed to be his chakra. So... it was there after all! Jiro tried to see where his chakra would go and what it was about. He could feel this flowing sensation run from his mind and throughout his body. This sensation didn't make sense, what was this? The confusion continued but the focus remained. The flowing chakra within him was present, but before he could really dive in to what it was... it was gone. Just like that. As fast as he figured out something was there, that feeling had disappeared.

Jiro opened his eyes, and saw the sun had arrived. Had he been meditating longer than he thought? Was this chakra black magic real? None of this made sense.... The black haired muscle man lifted his body up and stared back down at the desert before completely turning around to face the camp site again. The Heart Warrior walked back to the camp site and took a seat around the camp fire rocks. He wasn't going to start the camp fire, but he was going to start with some tea. Maybe by the time it was up and ready, his friend would be awake and ready to go!

---

1000 Words

[ThatGuy]

Yutaka was happy to be traveling with a member of his bloodline, the family he did not know he had, but it was not all fun and games. In order to properly train their Kisama abilities, Jiro said to keep their alcohol consumption to a minimum, only allowing a few drops of sake a day. Normally, Yutaka would have fought the idea tooth and nail, but he was forced to admit that he was slacking when it came to his bloodline’s ability. Besides, it was a lot better to train with a friend than to listen to some stuck-up commanding officer trying to tell you what to do. The first day went alright, Yutaka had drank a little bit, but nowhere near enough to get drunk. Even then, a lot of it was sweating out of his system by the time the sun started to set.

When it came time for them to go to sleep, Yutaka only laid down for a moment before realizing just how hard falling asleep normally was. Previously, he had always drank until he passed out, but now he had to just sit and wait. That is what he did for the first hour, at least. They were out in the middle of nowhere with no lights except that from the moon and their campfire, and yet, it was too bright for him to fall asleep. With a groan, he threw the pillow over his face, and while it provided moderate relief, he could not get comfortable without the cushion under his head. So he decided to instead try burying his head in the sleeping bag. This did not prove to work either, as he was not able to breathe fresh air. The man only owned three sets of clothes, so he was not about to start tearing them up to make a blindfold, so he resigned himself to his fate.

After another half an hour, an idea popped into Yutaka’s head. What if he used his Kisama abilities to cover his eyes in brass? It was a simple enough idea, and there was no way light would be getting through the brass. Turning his eyelids brass would be a terrible idea, even if he could reverse it. So he decided to instead make something grow from the temples, like a sort of visor. Focusing on the small amount of alcohol that he had left in his blood, he tried to channel it towards his face. Slowly, brass formed around his eyes as Yutaka drew the alcohol from within his bloodstream. When all the light was sufficiently blocked out, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

As soon as Yutaka woke up, he could feel his head pounding. It took less than a day for someone who drank as much and as often as him to feel the withdrawal symptoms. After taking his bronze visor off, he was nearly blinded by the light that shone through his tent. With a groan and some quick thinking, Yutaka channeled the trace amount of alcohol still in his system to once again cover his eyes. This time, however, he would weave it like a basket, so he wasn't completely blinded. It was a bit difficult, but the pain provided by the sun was enough to motivate him. After some time spent trying to hype himself up for the day ahead, Yutaka left his tent and found Jiro making some tea. Looking like a walking corpse, Yutaka spoke with a gravelly tone.

“Fuckin’ bright out.”

D-Rank: [1400 Words Base - 1070 Words Discount (215/2= 107 Statsx10) = 400 Words]
(585/400 Words)

[Texas]

Jiro was enjoying the beautiful early morning. A naturally happy person in general with a go-lucky mentality resulted in him 90% of the time being positive and upbeat. As the red eyed man sipped his drink, he gazed upon the land in front of him while sitting in front of the dead camp fire. While sipping tea, he heard rustling behind him in his comrade's tent. He must be awake at this point! As the man walked out, Jiro turned his body slightly so his neck could turn as well and see Yutaka with ease. His fellow Kisama walked out of the tent and looked like the spitting image of death. Although they weren't drinking, the man looked slightly hung over! With his comment, Jiro couldn't help but laugh. It was bright! The desert's dynamics was interesting to Jiro, freezing cold at night and extreme heat during the day. The sand reflected what the sun or moon provided in a way that changed the weather completely.

The man continued to laugh and happily spoke to Yutaka. "Hahaha! Yuta, come ere. I got tea with a drop of Sake in it. This will be yer alcohol intake for the day." The man reached down for his tea kettle and poured another glass of tea for the man. It was a ginger mint tea with a slight taste of sake in it. Since Sake tastes better hot, the drink came together really nicely. Truth be told, it was a mixed drink Jiro would make when he got tired while drinking at night. As the man handed it over to Yuta, he would ask him a few more questions in his normal cheery tone. "How did ya sleep? It isn't easy without alcohol is it?" Unfortunately Jiro knew exactly the type of withdrawals that Yuta was going through. The Kisama were introduced to alcohol at an early age. Although not all Kisama clan members were alcoholics, it was incredibly hard not to become one due to it being a requirement to perform their techniques. That is why Jiro brought Yuta to the desert. It was a place where he couldn't get more alcohol and couldn't have such easy access to it. They, as warriors, needed to not only train their bodies, but train their minds.

In Jiro's mind, if alcoholism continued throughout the clan, they would be great warriors yes! However, they would be great liabilities too. If, for any reason, the members would be captured, then extracting information from an alcoholic could prove to be way easier and a simple tactic against them. Through the brain of Jiro, he wanted Yuta to fend for himself. He wanted the man to be as strong, if not, stronger than himself. He could only do this though, if he could separate enjoying alcohol from needing alcohol. It also didn't hurt to train in techniques along the way.

Jiro would stand up after handing the cup over to Yuta. With a smile and laughter settling, the man would chug the rest of his tea. "When ya ar done, come wit me over dat little sand hill. I am gonna teach ya a technique I developed that would help you." What Jiro was going to show Yuta was no easy feat. In fact, with only a drop of alcohol it was going to seem like it was damn near impossible. If Yuta was truly committed to getting strong, then this would be something he could learn and would aid him heavily in the future.

Jiro would walk over the little hill that he was meditating on and slid down the sand to the wide open. He wanted to be away from their camp site so that they could train a little bit without worrying about damaging their living quarters. The man would wait there for however long it took for Yutaka to get to him. When he arrived Jiro would smile and simply shout. "Alright den. Dis is goin to be difficult, especially since you are not flowing wit alcohol. Focus on your blood within yer body. Try to pinpoint your blood vessels and cells flowin throughout the entire body. Follow dem from ya head to ya toes. After ya get to dat point release the technique throughout the entire body similar to how ya blood flows. Once ya get der, we can work on da next part of da technique."

The man wanted to lead by example, so he focused on his own body and flexed brass throughout the entire body. He was covered in brass like full bodied armor. It even covered his head as well! Jiro folded his arms and looked upon his friend. It would not necessarily be easy, but it would be a good step in the right direction.

---

801 Words

[ThatGuy]

Yutaka gave a look of disgust as the tea was presented to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the taste, or that he wasn’t grateful, but the idea of only being allowed a single drop of sake made him want to puke. Taking a drink, Yutaka was pleased with the flavor of the tea. He had not been expecting that. As Jiro asked how he slept, Yutaka grumbled.

“Slept like shit without a drink. Nothin’ I haven’t done before, though, it just never gets easier.”

Yutaka took a brief moment to finish his tea as Jiro walked over to the sand hill. In all honesty, he’d been eager to train, it was just hard to be excited for anything when going through withdrawal symptoms. With a sigh, he finished his tea before making his way over to Jiro. As his fellow Kisama showed him the first technique they’d be practicing, Yutaka smirked. In the time since their last meeting, he had been practicing this technique. Jiro had promised that once Yutaka could cover his body in brass, that they would scrap. Problem was, he had only managed to pull it off while drunk.

Confident in himself, Yutaka did his best to ignore his pounding headache and focused on his blood. Feeling the blood vessels flow through him, he slowed down his breathing. With slow, purposeful breaths, Yutaka started to encourage his blood to create brass. It was hard to explain to those who didn’t have the same ability, but a Kisama could almost manipulate their blood in the same manner as someone flexing a muscle to manipulate their limbs. Slowly but surely, brass started to cover Yutaka’s skin. After partially covering his body, he could feel the technique start to slow down ever further as he struggled to draw upon the limited amount of alcohol in his system. How the hell did Jiro manage this?

Straining even further, the Kisama focused entirely on his blood flow. After a considerable amount of effort, the brass started growing again at its original pace. It was not long before Yutaka had completely covered his arms and legs, and not long after that, his head was covered as well. Once the torso was covered, Yutaka opened his eyes and let out a sigh of exhaustion. That took a lot more out of him than he had expected! Having finished his task in such a short amount of time, Yutaka gave a cocky smile.

“This it? C’mon, ya gotta give me somethin’ a little harder.”

C-Rank: [1800 Words Base - 1070 Words Discount (215/2= 107 Statsx10) - 500 (Training Pack) = 400 Words]
(421/400 Words)