Re: Hidden Copse (Private)

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded, ignoring his lapse.

"Now, your body needs to remember this so that you can pick up a senbon on reflexes and be holding it the right way." She looked up at him, pondering.

"I think that you just need to repeatedly regrip it, or put it down and then pick it back up."

[Anei]

Anei nodded and slid the senbon back into its pouch then reached his hand into his coat, running his fingers over the cool metal getting a good feel for their position. He practiced a couple times sliding them out with his fingers, not fully gripping them yet, just slipping them from the bunch in a position from which it would be easy to move to holding them correctly. Content with his knowledge of their location and position, he flexed his fingers and practiced a couple times pulling them out at a medium speed, stopping each time to check his grip on them.

[Paksennarion]

Paks watched him carefully, making sure that his every move was right. She would not do a shoddy job of teaching Amimono-san.

[Anei]

Anei smiled down at her as he continued his practice, occasionally stopping to shift his grip, until he felt he had it down reasonably well, then he would increase his speed. Fifteen minutes or so later he smiled down at her happily. With the pouch on the left side of his coat, he could easily use his right arm to reach in and grab a senbon, starting low and sliding his hand up with a little curve to it, again resembling a snake with his actions, holding the senbon with his fingers in the correct position held in front of him.

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded finally.

"I think you have it. You are still going to need to practice more, but for now it is fine."

She turned to the tree they were standing in front of. "Senbon are different from kunai or shuriken, for one they're smaller. You need to aim for a precise place, not a general location because they will only hit a small area. Their shape makes them different too, but you'll just have to get used to that," she pointed out a spot on the tree, it was a little ways up. A small red dot, the size of a coin.

"Try hitting that."

[Anei]

Anei looked at the tree for a moment, studying the dot, going through a few calculations in his mind, trying to imagine the feel of the senbon flying from his hand. He stepped up a little, pulling one out as he had just practiced, his free hand's fingers flexing and unflexing nervously before he threw the senbon, mostly the same way he would have thrown a kunai, to keep it straight, rather than spin like a shuriken, but a little lighter and with more movement in his wrist than his arm, as he had seen her do earlier. It thudded into the bark of the tree, not particularly deep, a few inches down and to the left of the dot. This was a bit harder than the girl had made it look.

[Paksennarion]

Paks paused. She looked up at him.

"That was good for your first try," she wanted to add something about missing totally on her first try but she didn't remember and she was sure he would notice the lie, "This time, remember to move your hand like this," she showed him, sliding her hand deftly though the air and releasing the senbon so that it hit the spot on the tree.

Paks retreived both senbon and handed him his.

[Anei]

Anei smirked nodding, taking his senbon after watching her movements carefully. He practiced in the air again before gripping his senbon, feeling a little cold with the cool air on his skin which was usually covered, shivering. He let fly again, mimicking her form rather well, the senbon flew straighter and faster, going in a bit deeper, but his aim was still off, hitting about two inches under the dot. It was strange how the slender form of the weapon could make obvious how inaccurate you truly were. A kunai would have appeared to hit the dot, but really just hit the entire area around it.

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded, "That is a lot better. Your form was fine."

[Anei]

Anei nodded a little, pulling out another senbon, practicing once in the air and tried again, this time hitting too far above the mark. With something so small, even a slight variation could all but shatter your pinpoint accuracy it seemed. He had barely felt a movement in his aim but the difference was nearly half a foot. Incredible.

[Paksennarion]

Paks watched, there was nothing she could really do. His form was perfect, all he needed was practice.

[Anei]

Anei tilted his head a little and pulled out another senbon, checking his grip on it once more before letting it fly, allowing himself to smile happily as it embedded itself into the target, though it was on the outer ring of it.

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded again. "That was good too. Have you noticed how there is less air resistance when you throw senbon?"

[Anei]

Anei nodded. The senbon was clearly the most aerodynamic weapon he had ever used, little more than a long needle. Not much to resist the push of air.
"Oh, yes, very much so. It is to be expected."

[Paksennarion]

"Good, keep that in mind. You don't need as much force behind the throw, focus more on the target."

[Anei]

Anei nodded listening to her. That made sense, of course. He walked over and retrieved his three senbon, then returned to stand beside her and threw again. This time two of the three landed within the circle, though they didn't go as deep as they had before.

[Paksennarion]

Paks just watched. Carefully following his movements.

[Anei]

Anei retrieved them again and continued to practice, and on his fourth try he was able to get two in the circle and one on the outline of it, which he considered a victory. Suppose all it would take at this point was practice.

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded as Amimono-san got better and better. He was surprisingly good at this seeing as he had only just started today. Paks remembered hearing that senbon were one of the harder projectiles to learn.

[Anei]

Anei nodded a little and went to retrieve his senbon. Of course he wouldn't let himself get too confident yet. It had taken four tries to get good accuracy, standing in the exact same spot throwing at the exact same target. Anyone could do that if they tried long enough. Being able to hit a moving target while moving with accuracy like that would be much more difficult. It would be a while before he could use these in battle.

"Thanks Paks-chan. I'll have to practice more, of course."

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded. "If you need help, just ask. Okay?" She tilted her head to the side and observed his reaction.

[Anei]

Anei nodded happily, smiling at her.

"Absolutely. Thanks Paks-chan. Hmm perhaps I could teach you a few things too."

He tilted his head looking at her, pretending to think for a moment, then grinned and winked at her.

"Would it be fair to say you like snakes at all?"

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded. Her right sleeve rustled and slowly her nin-snake stuck her head out of the bottom of the sleeve.

"This is Nagi."

Nagi hissed warningly, before curling around Paks' wrist.

[Anei]

Anei laughed heartily seeing the snake slither out. He had expected from what she had said about her clan that they had an affinity for snakes but even he had not suspected she had one on her arm the entire time. Even better.

"I see. That move I used to throw you over my shoulder, when we were fighting before. Its a special snake style of fighting I have developed. Would you like to learn it?"

[Paksennarion]

Paks nodded.

"Yes, please."

Amimono-san's fighting style was amazing. She knew that hers was just an amalgamation of various things that she knew. It was not fluid, or very concrete. But no one else had offered to teach her any other Taijutsu moves or things like that and so she had to stick with her miss matched movements. If she could learn, even just this, Paks knew that she would have a better chance at throwing her opponents off and working on the strengths that Amimono-san had said were created from her weaknesses.

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