Garrison said
As soon as he heard the head captain dismiss them, he grabbed Giovanni's shoulder and pulled hard, pulling him along with him to leave the room. "Thank you Head Captain, for you wisdom and patience." he said, just barely getting the last word out as they left the room. He really didn't feel like getting himself killed after his first real mission. "Gio, I was thinking we hit sauna or something to relax, perhaps pick up some more sake afterwards." he said with a smile. "But in all seriousness, I think we did great and am grateful to have fought along side you today." he added.
Giovanni simply nodded at the dismissal. noting that something He had said had gotten under the head captains skin. "i'll have to take a rain check on that bottle of sake. I really should start figuring out a squad choice." relaxing sounded nice. especially since everything thing he did wound up stressing him out even more. "i think im going to go by squad 5 again get a little more information" he explained. "I'll see you around, and we can have that drink" Gio walked off toward the squad 5 barracks in a light mood despite the conversation he just had with the head captain.
Giovanni was feeling up to being a bit bold, even if It was only to keep his mind off of things. With everything piling up he didn’t need a distraction that would let him think about his life. He needed one that would stop him from thinking about his life. So when he got to the squad 5 barracks they were having a training session. Gio had known that squad five was somewhat known for its production of great shinigami. While he wasn’t entirely sure about Captains he did know that it produced several well qualified seated officers and lieutenants over the years. That meant it would be a great place to train.
Respectfully Gio asked to participate in the squads training which had only recently begun. The 4th seat of the squad who was running the training allowed Giovanni to participate. She seemed to be a kind woman who ran a tight ship, which was something he could understand and respect. Oh but there was a catch. He was given an wooden sword like everyone else, but obviously it wasn’t normal, it was heavier than normal and slowly but surely drained his energy. He could sense that others in the group had similar swords but not everyone. And so it began.
First was the sword practice, the swinging of the sword. The training was progressive, starting off with the typical swing escalating to sparing combat. Gio was put in the ring after three other matches had gone before him. His opponent was the 9th seat of the squad and wast pretty huge. The rules were simple, no hakuda, no kido no shunpo…fight. In terms of power and ranger Gio had the short end of the stick, as made evident by the first radial swing he ducked that caused his hair to be tossed in the wind. Gio came up quickly to strike from below as a counter attack but the man pulled his sword close to his chest to block the blow. Gio didn’t even have enough force to nudge the man off balance so he stayed close, stepping to the right and raising his sword to block the incoming down stroke. The clash was loud and vibrated through Gios body into the ground as he we pushed down into a squat. He rotated his right foot first, creating a twisting momentum throughout his whole body, sliding his sword free and spinning his body. His hair hid the angle of his strike from the larger man so when he attempted to block Gios sword flew right under his guard and slammed into his chest. The man took a couple steps back, maintaining his balance so instead of following Gio reset his stance. The man changed his stance and stepped forward with a much faster swing, Gio tried to parry it but the force knocked his arms up, creating a wide enough opening. Gio twisted his body away from the incoming blow, managing to avoid some damage but still took a hard hit. The man came at him again, but this time Gio stepped towards him to guard. Placing his hand toward the top of the blade and leaning his weight into his defense he stopped the blow. She was pushed back a couple inches and the force of the blow rocketed through him but he stopped it. He tilted the blade forward and pushed up, slipping himself underneath his opponents guard, When his sword slipped free of the opposing force he swung it downwards, aiming for his opponents shoulder instead of his head. It was a clean strike, had it been a real blade the man would have been in two pieces. But it wasn’t so all he did was piss the man off. The man again stepped back placed his sword at his side like it was sheathed and then swung it from that position, fast and hard. Gio blocked it but was sent flying out the ring and into the crowd……ouch
After a few more one on one matches that allowed Gio to catch his breath as well as loose more spiritual energy to that damn sword was Shunpo exercises. There was an obstacle course of sorts set up in a relay race fashion. Team were made seemingly at random of 5 shinigami. The goal was to clear the course in as few flash steps as possible collectively. Running into obstacles added to the ‘flash counter” and the course would be ran 4 times. First time Gio was the first runner, running into 2 obstacles making his number 10. Collectively hi groups total was 37. Second time through he was the last one to go. He realized that the focus wasn’t about who was faster as it was who was ‘better’ so when it was his turn her did completed the course in 7 flash steps without hitting anything. His score was the same for the third round and 6 for the final race. Each time the obstacles were moved around.
Finally the kido round, which would have made him excited and happy if this damn sword didn’t have him close to running on fumes. It was literally a systematic recap of hado and bakudo. Mostly hado. The shinigami lined up in medium sized groups and fired off all the kido they could in numerical order for Hado. Gio could only go up to 33. They were also given targets to aim for as well as a whole lot of noise around them to attempt to mess up their concentration. Gio never missed a shot but as the numbers got higher he was lacking in power. For the Baukudo however it was similar except the targets were each other mostly. For Bakudo 1 and 4, which are simple binding kido they were literally just binding each other. For number 8 Seki they were required to create the small sphere and their partner had to hit it, thus throwing them across the way. Geki and Horin both involved the partners biding each other again, but Gio was a little flashy with his Horin, despite his lack of energy. For Shitotsu Sansen Gio got a firsthand feeling of how it felt to be pinned down to a solid surface. Not fun. Lastly Bakudo 39 Enkosen he had to make a shield strong enough to with stand a couple hado. But by then he didn’t have enough energy left so after the second shot his shield broke.
Luckily for him that was the end of the training regiment for the day. And he wasn’t the only one running on empty. Most of the squad was but he felt accomplished to have made it through it. The 4th seat approached him as he sat against the wall. “your not all that bad, zanjutsu could use some work but other than that you’d get a B.”
“only a B. you must be a tough grader.” Chuckled holding up the wooden sword for her to take from him before he found some way to light it on fire.
She smiled and took it from him, setting it on the ground “did you enjoy the sword?”
“nope”
“I didn’t think so, it saps your energy and makes you be more conscious of your out put. But it also creates spiritual tension. Just like a muscle grows bigger from the tension of lifting weights or constant stretching your spirit energy is the same way. That’s why we use them, in case you were wondering.”
Giovanni nodded, it made sense but he was to tired and worn out to think about it. “please tell me there is a vacant bed somewhere around here”
“there is. Someone will show you to one. Your zanpakuto will be there when you get there” and with that she left him. A younger member of the squad came and showed him to his room. Just as promised Sorareo was laying across the bed. Giovanni laid down and passed out.