[Private] Working Out Stress

The position of Vice Captain was a stressful as all hell, and this week on particular was a horrendous one. Stress relief was needed, and just a smoke and a walk wouldn't cut it. No, Shiori needed an actual workout, and a bit of training was the ticket.

In this particular instance, sword training wasn't going to do it either. Honestly, she wasn't a fan of swordfighting. She preferred kido in general, but what really got her going was hand to hand, in spite of how savage she viewed it. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure of sorts. In the empty dojo, Shiori stretched, preparing to annihilate a training dummy.

Being a relatively new member of Squad Five, Kuro had his own stressors hounding him. For one, he was still unused to the constant paperwork and formality required by his position. For another, not many people had been willing to spar with him, whether out of derision or fear, he could never tell. Derision, because he was a fairly small person, but fear because he was an intensely physical fighter who did not tend to hold back. In either case, it limited his amount of stress relief, so it was a fairly common sight for him to be pounding away at a training dummy at any hour, day or night. His time was better spent training, not sleeping. It did not help that his conversation with Katana still rang through his head. On his better days, he could put such things out of his mind without too much worry, but this was not such a day. As it was, his anger had no release, so he did the only thing he really enjoyed anymore.

Kuro walked into the dojo, not expecting to see anyone else. He did not recognize this person, but he at least recognized the badge representing a Vice Captain. "Ah. Sorry, didn't think anyone was in here." Kuro frowned slightly. Normally, he'd be more polite, but this had been a taxing time for him. Just getting used to his new position was already weighing on him, but with everything else added in... "I can leave, if you prefer." Despite saying this, he moved further into the dojo, waiting for her answer before he took his place towards one of the training dummies. Hopefully she wouldn't say anything about it, or would offer him a spar. Thanks to Empathic Presence, he knew she felt stressed, and she would absolutely sense his anger, simmering as it was.

Removing her uniform to reveal the sleeveless training garb beneath, she'd not noticed the arrival of someone else to the dojo. As she'd had a rough week, she wasn't particularly focused on sensing reishi of others while training unless they were making an effort to be sensed at all. It wasn't until he spoke that she noticed him at all.

"Hmm?" Shiori turned her head towards the new occupant, pulling one of her heavily tattooed arms across her chest to continue stretching. As he spoke, she give him a bit of a once over. It was obvious to her that he was here for a similar reason, so no judgements. She switched arms, and continued stretching. "No, you're fine. Dont let me get in your way." Misery loved company as far as she was concerned. She finished her stretching, hands resting on her hips. "I'll just move out of the center of the room. Find a corner or something if you want."

Kuro huffed in amusement, sensing a feeling of comradery with the vice captain. Stress and anger built up over time, and outlets such as physical combat were the best way, for him at least, to alleviate such things. His eyes roamed the vice captain, noting her tension and stretching. If nothing else, she had a body for speed, which implied a few things, but he supposed there were better ways to find out. "Alternatively, if you are up for it, I could use a spar." He suggested, rolling his shinigami robes off of his shoulders and onto a rack nearby. Underneath, he wore a plain black sleeveless shirt, good for workouts or spars, but otherwise not very useful. It did help keep him cool, at least.

Normally, Kuro would not be brave enough to ask for a spar from someone he just met, let alone someone ranked Vice Captain, but he had not been having a normal week. Ever since his outburst of anger at Katana, he felt calmer, more assured. Perhaps that was her plan all along, but it did not change his view on her attitude. Regardless, he certainly appreciated the change. He still felt like he was a bit too much of a pushover, but... these things took time. Kuro rolled his shoulders, stretching his arms out. It was obvious from his build that he was primarily a physical fighter. If his build did not make such a thing obvious enough, his utter lack of control over his energy probably would. He'd never been too good with that, so he stuck with the funner side of combat. Punching and cutting things really hard.

Shiori raised an eyebrow to the suggestion of a sparring match. Wasn't of them people accidentally encountered her in a training room and decided to duel her this was in part from her position, though the higher ones rank got, the less of a deterrent that was. She took a moment think the proposition over. From the looks of this guy, he was built for destruction and fighting. If she did end up sparring, she'd. Red to focus on dodging, countering, and pressure points. Not like the subject was new to her.

"Not what I came down here for, but..." Shiori glanced down at her officer uniform, wrapped around Suijingiri, her Zanpakuto. A sparring match without that judgmental spirit echoing in her mind was more than welcome. She kicked the bundle back a few feet and cracked her knuckles. "Hell, why not?"

Kuro's grin only widened in excitement at the coming fight. It would certainly help to get his mind off of his worries, if nothing else. Hopefully she wouldn't take it too badly if he managed to win, but for the moment, he did not care too much. Right now, little else mattered but the fight ahead of him. With a casual motion, he moved his massive sword next to his robes on the rack. This would be a hand to hand fight, apparently. Kuro rushed forward, not bothering to use hoho, instead simply running forward.

With a sudden twist of his hip, his body twisted into a kick, all the momentum from his charge spinning his leg at immense speed towards the left side of her abdomen. A simple start, but one meant to gauge just how far he could take this. He knew quite well not every Shinigami cared for the physical arts as he did, though he supposed his utter lack of skill with Kido was similar to others. Still, there was little more than the rush of a fight that could get his blood pumping and his head clear.

The man seemed to be fairly excited by the prospect of a good sparring match. So much so that he'd decided to eschew proper stretching and warm ups for literally jumping into the action. While Shiori admired his gusto, she couldn't help but find his lack of etiquette a bit off putting. Regardless, here they were, midway through a flying kick. Maybe she could wear him out or frustrate him into making mistakes?

The opponent was faster than Shiori initially expected, with a bit more force than she was comfortable countering this early. She stepped back as he initiated the kick, shifting her stance and utilizing shunpo to maneuver to where his leg had started. Now to his side, she delivered a swift jab towards the location of the femoral nerve on the other leg and then letting him pass.

Kuro had always been a strange one. While he was often instructed to stretch, he never actually did. Despite this, he had decent enough flexibility, and never seemed to cramp up from the exercises he did. Thus, he never really paid attention to stretching exercises before a fight. If you couldn't fight immediately, it seemed like that would be a weakness to him. Not that he really understood the average person. Regardless of his strange body, Kuro was well aware of the opening he provided, and understood quite well best to counteract the exact move he was doing. As such, once Shiori moved, he let himself drop, his other leg collapsing beneath him. In the same motion, Kuro placed his hands on the ground, forcing his legs to twist and kick towards where Shiori appeared, aimed at her midsection.

Overall, he was always a physical fighter, and had been extremely observant about such fighting. Granted, these were opening moves, and it would not be to be arrogant in this instance. Most of his time at the academy had driven arrogance into him, but he'd been fighting constantly to reverse that. Even so, he found himself leaning back into that mindset as he fought this opponent.