With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
He commended her effort, and then patted her shoulders. She sighed in relief, before exhaling a great deal of air. She'd been keeping it in since the rock wall, and forgot that she even had to breathe out. He mentioned that the improvement areas were obvious, and she nodded. She knew what they were, too.
He motioned for her to follow, and she did, but she started to get nervous. They were walking straight to the archery equipment, which was her worst skill of the lot. She listened in silence, as he explained archery to her.
She marveled at his skill with a bow. He had not only been focused with the bow, but he moved with it, talked to her, and was still able to hit a horsefly from that distance. She took a big gulp, as she was handed the bow. With her luck it'd fly backwards, and then hit some poor innocent bystander.
She took in a deep breath, as she tried to reciprocate the actions completed by her teacher. She tried to keep the arrows as steady as she could, while trying not to hurt her teacher. She released, and it flew with a whizzing sound. Unlike her many other failed efforts, it had actually hit the target. It wasn't a bulls eye, she doubted she was ever going to hit that, but it was in the middle. She smiled, mostly to herself, she didn't want Roy to think that she was getting cocky.
"Huh, I guess when I'm calm, I'm not that bad of a shot..." she muttered to herself.
It would make sense, and, now that she thought about it, every single time that she had formed a bow she had panicked. It would be hard for her to do anything with it, and that scared her. The only time she ever hit a target was by mass firing, and getting lucky in the process. But not anymore, now she'd be able to hit what she wanted to...after the training.
Sam
Veteran Spirit ... thingy[M:9999999995336822][M:0]
She was nervous, that was a sign at deeper issues. A theory came to mind that her weakness was not a physical one but a mental one. Roy continued to watch as she drew back the bow, her form was not bad, but needed improvement.
He was impressed how close she actually got to the center. Roy let her smile, it was a good shot. Though he didn't here her muttered comment, he would have agreed with it.
Placing his hand on her shoulder, Roy gave her a smile. "Good shot, but try to exhale your breath when releasing." Some good advice as he stepped back.
He wanted her to try again and she needed to keep calm. "When I was a boy, I would try to focus my reiastu around may bow to help me get an idea how to form my first bow."Moment in memories past, those days were great. Shooting arrows with his dad while his mom scolded him for being too hard on Roy. Eating her home cooking after a hard day of training and then some home schooling before bed. Those were the happiest days of his life and hoped he could do the same with his daughter, but without the tragic ending.
But this day wasn't about him, it was about Konan. She would improve in no time and then he can teach her along side Toshioni, a sparring partner might do them both some good.
As he mentioned exhaling as she shot, she nodded. She had a tendency to inhale deeply, then forget to exhale for a while. She just becomes so distracted by the task at hand. He stepped back, and mentioned how he formed his first bow. She gulped, and looked back at him. Forming her bow was one of the biggest problems she had.
She released some of her reiatsu around the wooden bow, when she felt that it was done she looked down at it. It was just like the same bow, in energy form around the bow.
She stared at it, feeling like something was wrong, and then she noticed that the petals were not present. She sighed, and pulled back the string with an inhale. Testing herself, this time she rolled, jumped up, and exhaled with her shot.
This time, she didn't really watch her arrow. She heard the sound of the arrowhead hit the wood, but she was busy playing with her bow. She concentrated, but it still wouldn't work.
Now she was becoming angry, the damned bow was only complete when the four petals jutted out. She cursed, as she released more of her reiatsu into the bow.
Still not working, she threw the normal bow, and fired another arrow into the target. If it was not going to work now, then maybe she could fire it until it worked. However, a few moments after she threw the wooden bow, hers began to dissipate.
"Why me?" she asked, looking up at the ceiling, before she walked over to pick up her discarded bow.
Sam
Veteran Spirit ... thingy[M:9999999995336822][M:0]
Roy noted her nervousness as she tried the trick he did, but the only difference between them was that her cross was around her neck, while his was on his wrist. The fact that she was able to even control her reiastu like that was beyond him.
He nodded as she was able to form the energy around the bow, but her face showed that it wasn't what she expected. He didn't really expect that she would try his maneuver so soon, Roy had to strain from laughing. she already looked angry and his laughing would not help matters.
Now it was time to intervene, throwing his bow to the ground was not the answer. "Konan, pull out your cross and wrap it around your wrist." He said as he stood next to her.
To show her what he meant, he placed his wrist in front of him as if he were holding his normal bow. The middle of the charm glowed dark blue as he focused his reiastu into it, making sure she was able to see the energy being focused. "I've never met a Quincy that didn't have their cross on their wrist. It acts as the medium of the bow and the wrist is where it would be formed." His became more solid as the energy solidified. A metallic blue bow where the tips feathered out like a birds. Right now, it was a small two foot long bow, but he could always change the size at will.
With a reassuring smile, he released his bow and patted her on the shoulder. "Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day." Removing his hand, Roy crossed his arms, and waited for her to try again.
Aggravated, she noticed that Roy was trying to contain laughter. It took a lot of her effort not to just turn the bow on him, and send an arrow into his ass. She grimaced, and then listened as he talked to her.
He pulled out his cross, and it was around his wrist. He began to focus his reiatsu into it, and out popped his feathery like bow. She marveled at it, and felt a twinge of envy.
He mentioned no other Quincy having their cross around their neck, as she did. Well what the hell, he acted like she even knew the basics.
"It's not my fault I just learned about what the thing is yesterday." she quipped at the man.
He backed up a bit, and was obviously waiting for her to try forming her bow again. She sighed, and took of the cross from around her neck. She wrapped it around her wrist, like a bracelet, and let the cross hang down.
She started focusing her reiatsu into it again, around the wooden bow. She closed her eyes, and began to picture her bow from the times she had actually caught glimpses of it. Thankfully, her reiatsu turned a yellow color, and her bow began to form around the wooden one.
A beautiful honey like color stretched out, more energy like, with four petal like protrusions sprouting out of the middle, in a diagonal fashion. She let out a breathe of relief, she didn't think she'd actually be able to do it.
She pulled back the bow, and let loose a yellow arrow that almost hit the target...until it dissipated. She frowned at the arrows direction, and let loose a string of curses. But she was still smiling, she had made some progress, at least.
Sam
Veteran Spirit ... thingy[M:9999999995336822][M:0]
Calmly, Roy collected himself at her quip and watched her place the necklace around her wrist like a bracelet. He couldn't help but admire the way it shined in the light as she did so. His was worn from the passages of time, he needs to polish it sometime soon.
Then he marveled at the bow she managed to produce. It was not any bow he's ever seen. The honey yellow color shined as four petals protruded from the middle. Even her arrows were of the same color, a magnificent yellow that commanded attention. It was a shame that her control over it was not as commanding.
"Konan, your bow" He said as he came close to her. Roy's eyes gleamed with a certain impressed air and he was smiling. "Your bow is beautiful." What more should be said escaped the elder man. Never had he seen such a sight and was glad he had the chance to see it grow.
But the time to marvel at it was not now and she needed to practice. Taking her arm, he gently lifted it so she can have better understanding of how to hold a bow. "Arm straight. You need to line the shot and your arm acts as your sight." He stepped back after correcting her arm.
He called her name, and she looked up. He was smiling, and there was something in his eyes. She looked down as he told her that her bow was beautiful. She had only been paying attention to the petal parts, and thus had never actually stopped to look at her bow. As it radiated a warm honey color, she felt that he was right.
"Erschreckend Blume, the Terrifying Flower." she said, naming her bow.
She had thought about names, and this one seemed perfect. It had the beauty of a flower, yet the power of the bow. He lifted her arm, fixing her aim, before he stepped back.
She took a deep breathe, checked her arm, and then fired again. This one was closer to the middle, but she felt she could do better. So she fired another, and it landed close, too. She smiled, she could feel herself improving.
Sam
Veteran Spirit ... thingy[M:9999999995336822][M:0]
She was getting better and better with each shot, and the way she picked up on things was a breath of fresh air. She listened to him and followed through, despite some roughness. She was even creative with the name of her bow, was that German? Of course it was, he was probably the only Quincy to name their bow in a different language.
He watched as she continued to fire, taking in account everything he saw. She was concentrating on single shots, which is good.
But a single shot at a time was just that, a single straight shot. Perhaps she was ready to see another way to fire. "Konan," He said, stepping forward a bit with his arms outstretched. "You're improving with every shot, but would you like to learn how to control your arrows as they fly?" He asked, believing that she would jump at the chance.
Konan might be able to handle that part of the lesson, but nothing too advance. He won't show her the seele schneider just yet, it might back fire on her. For now, he'll stick the basics.
She fired one shot, and then another without failure. Her arrows were hitting her targets, and she couldn't have been happier. She was grinning like a damned fool, after all.
Her hand was beginning to hurt just a small bit, but then he mentioned controlling arrows. She initially grimaced, at the though of messing it up. However, picturing her arrows curving all around had her giddy.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" she said as she clapped, and jumped up and down.
She admired her power, and smirked as her power grew. She was going to be one bad ass Quincy.
Sam
Veteran Spirit ... thingy[M:9999999995336822][M:0]
With that kind of enthusiasm, who wouldn't smile. Stepping up a few feet away from her, Roy took a stance, and raised his wrist. Forming his bow once more, Roy began to explain the process. "your arrows are formed by gathering reishi in the air, so by knowing that, you can alter the path the arrow takes and how many you can fire." He drew back his bow forming an arrow as he explained. Looking over to see if she was watching carefully, Roy released his arrows. Three shots, all for one target, but during mid flight two changed course and he managed to hit all three bulls-eyes.
Putting his bow at his side, Roy pointed at what had just happened. "You saw how two of them moved away from the path? The easiest way to do that would to think of them as heat seeking missiles." Trying to find the best way to explain how to do it, Roy remembered how his teacher explained it to him. "Just try to imagine that the target is hot. Try it with just one, fire straight but try to hit the one on its right." Whether she got it or not, Roy looked at the time as he finished explaining.
"While you do that, I'll prepare some snacks for a break." Releasing his bow, Roy went over to his bag and squatted down to grab some things. While he did this, the seele schneider poked out.
