Wax on, Wax off [Alison]

Great, just goddamn great. A plus soul had strolled into Seireitei and wanted basic training in all the combative arts, and she had been granted approval. It might not have actually occurred like that, but Norma didn't really care. What she did care about, was that she was chosen to teach her kido. Of all the people to be chosen to do this, she was the one given the job. Sure she was the captain of the kido corps, but that was besides the point. She didn't WANT to.

"You all hurry and spruce this place up. We have a stranger coming."

The members of squad nine scurried about cleaning a mess that didn't exist. Norma made sure her squad was spotless, but to her, it was never clean enough for a visitor. Training a plus. If she had the ability to do this, why was the woman not in the academy? Wasn't that the proper place for her? Dammit to hell. Either way, the woman was on her way, and Norma was training her. As per request of Maki, the new head captain.

Alison felt more than a little awkward, spotting signs of quick clean up attempts, as well as the occasional still busy worker eyeing her curiously. She frowned, shifting the weight of her tote bag. She'd met with the Head Captain, Maki Tsukino, and after finishing Zanjutsu training, however long that took her, or however successful she was at it, leaving most of her belongings behind, headed to Squad 9 to find Captain Norma Higgins. She was dressed in the uniform for Shinigami Academy students, with a patch clearly visible on her shoulder.

She hurried along, frowning at the clap of her training shoes, already missing her own footwear. Ignoring it, she headed for the captain's office before pausing. Did she hear shouting? She rounded the corner and spied a number of shinigami scurrying away from a much... MUCH older lady in a Captain's Haori. WELL! And here she'd thought she was jumping to conclusions to expect her to be an old lady for having the name Norma. She headed over, assuming her different garb would make note enough for her arrival.

She approached Norma and quickly did a formal bow, arms at her side. "Captain Higgins? My name is Alison Lauregarde. I'm a plus reporter for a spirit world journal. My column is called The Other Side, with Alison Lauregarde." She paused, realizing her professional introduction was probably unnecessary here. "Um. Sorry, what I mean is that your Head Captain wanted me to be available as a reserve Shinigami and requested I undergo crash course training in Zankensoki. So, she sent me here to receive Kido instruction." She delivered this entire speech still bowed forward. It seemed the old crone had an intimidating effect on her as well.

Norma turned when she heard a woman's voice. A young woman, a pretty lass, dressed in an academy uniform was bowed before her introducing herself. So this was the girl Norma was supposed to train. Hmm well, it could have been worse. At least she didn't look like an idiot.

"I know what you're here for. I've been informed."

Norma turned and began to walk away from the girl. She waved to her over her shoulder. She had had a special training field set up especially for Alison. She suspected that this wasn't going to be easy. She was a plus, that had never had any training. She got recruits who graduated from the academy who couldn't melt butter with their kido skills.

"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I'm not certain of that yet. You did come to the right place though. No one else in Seireitei has my knowledge of kido. I can teach you everything you need to know."

She didn't even notice Norma had walked away at first before, realizing Norma wasn't saying anything else, she glanced up. "Oh!" She quickly fell into step behind Norma. Shifting awkwardly to try and keep straight posture under the weight of her tote bag. Norma seemed like she was reserving judgement on Alison, which she supposed was better than if she outright disliked her. Still, she wanted to make a good impression on Norma, since she would be teaching Alison for who knows how long.

"Thank you. The Head Captain was aware of my work, I guess and decided I had enough spiritual pressure that she would prefer I be capable of serving as a Shinigami in an emergency." She kept up her pace, sighing. "I'm looking forward to learning Kido, however."

"Really?"

Norma said rather dryly. They walked a little further, and turned a corner. Finding themselves at the training ground Norma had had set up. It had training dummies and large pillar like rocks. Norma was going to have to start with the basics with this one. Hopefully she could pick it up.

"I find it funny that you say that. I live in Rukon and I've never heard of you before."

That didn't really matter though. Maki wanted to use her as a recruit, and she wanted Norma to train her, so that's what she'd do. She would teach the girl as much as she could learn.

"That is neither here nor there though. Captain Maki wants me to teach you, so that's what I'll do."

Alison frowned self consciously at the flat 'really'... She kept quiet but her frown deepened, her brow furrowing at the quip about never hearing of her. Well, maybe you would have heard of the article if they made it in large print? She took a slow calm breath. Now now. Can't let an old crone upset you Alison. You need to learn from her, remember?

"Ah. Sorry about that. Our publication has somewhat spotty coverage." She said with perfect politeness. She hurried up next to the captain, excited to see the training ground. She turned and nodded. "I promise I'll do my best, Captain Higgins." She said with a salute, deciding not to correct her that it's Head Captain Tsukino, not Captain Maki.

"I will accept nothing less than your best."

Norma said rather nonchalantly. Norma turned to face the woman, and leaned on her cane a little. First thing first. Could Alison even focus her reiatsu so she could use kidou.

"Before we start, we need to find out if you can focus your reiatsu."

Norma held one of her hands up, and focused her reiatsu into her hand. A soft pink aura formed around it, just like in battle when people release their reiatsu.

"Can you do this?"

Alison inhaled deeply, puffing herself up, ready to give her best. She opened her mouth a little to say so before thinking better of it. Norma seemed like the type who appreciated actions more then words. She stood at the closest she knew to attention, she watched the woman lean on her cane and casually focus her reiatsu into her hand. She nodded. "Yes, I think so." She glanced at her hand then back up to Norma. "I-I mean, yes. Yes, I can."

She focused on her hand and soon a teal light began to flicker into view. She frowned at it and focused before it slowly intensified and eventually enveloped her hand. She was nervous and it was showing.

Norma noticed that the woman was nervous. Good, her nerves were a good thing. She wasn't too surprised that the woman could focus her reiatsu. She would hope that Maki wouldn't send a completely enfeebled person to her.

"Very good, and those nerves of yours are good too. The day you stop being nervous, is the day you will be killed. Your nervousness is what will keep your instincts sharp, and you alive."

Norma put both her hands back on her cane. Where to start?

"There are numerous kidos, but the vast majority of them fall into two categories: binding and destruction. These are the two you need most.Some people may try to tell you that one is better than the other, but I am here to tell you that those people are fools. Are you ready to really get down to business young Alison?"

She wondered about that. It was good to be aware, but nervousness just seemed like it was letting those factors get the best of you. Besides, the old lady didn't seem nervous at all. Hrm. Odd. But noticing anything like that wouldn't help her learn Kido.

"Those are Hado and Bakudo, right?" She asked, trying to answer Norma's question for her.

"And.. I think I'm as ready as I can be.."

"Very good."

Norma motioned to the dummies set up before them. They would serve as their targets. It proved to be less messy that using actual living things.

"Remember how you focused your spiritual energy into you hand? Well that is the foundation for what we're going to do today."

Norma held out her hand and spoke a spell. An almost invisible for flew from her hand and hit one of the dummies. It didn't break it, but it hit it fairly hard.

"That is a basic hado. Do you think you can replicate it? It's the first of the hado's, and it is called sho."

Alison hopped back a few times on one foot in quick succession. "Woah." She said under her breath, her face frozen with surprise. Okay... That was... crazy... She was supposed to be able to do that? Okay... she could definitely do that... Yeah... "Absolutely... Sho..." She stood and took a deep breath, collecting herself. Alright. She needed to focus.

She lifted her hand out in front of her, eyes closed. She slowly pulled her spirit energy there until she could feel it. She opened one eye to check. Yes. Yes it was there. She turned her palm to face the target. Okay... She repeated the spell to the best of her ability.

It was mostly correct. She finally finished, already realizing she'd messed up but pressing on. "S-SHO!" She said before her reiatsu burst forth, firing the half complete spell like a shotgun, ineffectually blowing the wind forward, but with the side effect of knocking her clear off her feet. "AHH!" she shrieked before landing on the grass some few feet away.

"Oww... Is that... supposed to happen?" She asked, climbing to her feet. "No.. No it's not.."

Norma had to choke back a laugh as the girl messed up the spell and knocked herself on her butt. That was rather amusing, but not all together bad. She had seen much much worse, doing much much less.

"Don't get discouraged. I've seen members of this squad do worse than that. You show promise girl."

Norma held out her hands and started to go through the steps again to demonstrate them to Allison.

"Like this."

Norma uttered the incantation and then the command for the spell. Without problem, the spell fired off perfectly.

"Now, try it again."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." She said, having in fact, been pretty hard on herself mentally for failing. She watched again, dusting herself off a little bit, watching Norma perform it again, listening more intently. She nodded, rather determined.

"Okay.." She held out her palm, taking a deep breath again and saying the spell, correctly this time no less. This time when she exclaimed "Sho!" It did indeed fire a blast, although it missed the target entirely. "Uhhh.." She shakily looked back at Norma. "How was that?"

Norma placed her hand over her mouth to hold back a laugh as Allison missed the target all together. At least she showed that she could perform the spell. Even if her aim sucked.

"That was actually very good. Especially considering you have no training."

She proved that she could perform the basic hado. Now it was time to try the basic bakudo. Norma pointed her index finger at one of the wooden targets with arms, and said an incantation.

" Bakudō # 1. Sai!"

The arms of the target were forced back behind it's back.

"This is the most basic of bakudo. Can you replicate it?"

Alison refused to smile, knowing that she still had a long way to go before she could start patting herself on the back. She bowed her head a little. "Thank you. I'm glad you think so." She said quickly before watching Norma's next demonstration. "Okay... I'll try..."

She nodded, looking at the dummy. "I think... I can do this...." She gathered her energy like before... She did her best to emulate everything Norma had done... Bakudo # 1. Sai!" She shouted, releasing the energy.

And then her arms were suddenly behind her back and she fell face first into the grass. "Um... ow..."