Rokushiki

After Ryujin's body healed itself to completion due to his fish race genetics in just a week he went to the training grounds of the Black Mamba hideout.

There, his soon to be teacher was patiently waiting for Ryujin. Sentoki looked up, his eyes were shining and a large smile baring teeth appeared all across his face.

Ryujin approached slowly, theorizing of all possible things he could be taught. Then he remembered that Sentoki was in the Marines and had told him about the 'marine's fighting style' in his story. Ryujin knew exactly what that meant.

Being an avid one piece fan the only possible fighting style he knew that were taught to the Marines was the rokushiki. It was an extremely complete fighting style, possessing great mobility, defensive capabilities and both long ranged offensive moves as well as Rokugan, a potent short ranged burst of sheer strength.

But, one thing bothered Ryujin. The fact that in his story, Sentoki mentioned about only knowing five of the seven moves.

"Good, you have surprisingly healed, now let's begin our training" The old man said with his smile remaining unfazed. "Let's begin with the basics, you will have to learn how to transport vital strength throughout your body."

Ryujin looked at Sentoki with his head tilted, he was completely confused as to how he would even attempt to do this. As such, Ryujin let go of his ego and asked the wise old man, "How do I do that?"

The old man looked at him and waved for him to come closer. Sentoki waited for Ryujin before answering, "Well, for starters you will need to have a strong base, which you seem to already quite have. Second, you will need to build up your mind to muscle connection. I will demonstrate"

The old man lifted his upper body up with both of his arms and flexed all of his muscles simutaneously. They seemed to grow much larger in size, bigger than anyone would expect from an old man in a wheelchair.

"This is quite simple, all you require to do this is a strong mind and intense focus. Although right now it became second hand to me." Sentoki pronouced, breaking the silence in the air. "Give it a try!"

Ryujin gave it his all, focusing his mind in the endeavor of connecting to his muscles. He felt a weak connection between them and once he established it as solid he brought it to the surface of his body. He was able to faintly flex all his muscles before getting a cramp on his right calf.

In Earth, something like this would have been near impossible, but incredibly simple to even someone as weak as a low ranking marine.

Sentoki helped him to extend his leg back to its proper form and after just a few seconds, Ryujin strived to repeat the same action as before. Ryujin strained his eyebrows, this signified to the old man that the connection had been encountered.

The old man brought his hand up, telling Ryujin to be pacient, "grab onto that connection for as long as you can before contracting your muscles. Think of it as something like muscular hypertrophy, the more you train, the bigger the connection becomes!"

Ryujin held that link for a solid 12 seconds before letting go and gasping lightly for air. Sentoki shoved a singular finger close to the Fish-man's face to show him that he would rest for a minute before trying again.

After that minute passed he tried again, the link between his mind to muscle felt heavier and thicker. This time he held it for an increased time of 15 seconds, a big leap which impressed both of them.

Again he rested for a minute, this time the strain had been heavier, probably due to the rising fatigue. He was about to repeat it again before the old man interrupted him, "Try to interact with the link this time around."

So he proceeded to enter a state of focus, his eyes stared intensly unblinking towards nothingness. All the junk filling Ryujin's mind was being discarded. He entered the connected state, this time it looked less like he was constipated instead like a psycho giving out a death stare towards an invisible person.

Once inside the connection, he saw a line passing through his entire body. He set his arms forward to grasp it but failed, it fazed right through but thankfully his focus was broken. He tried that two more times before giving up and taking his attention to elsewhere.

He strived to maintain the established relation for as long as he could, reaching upwards of 20 seconds. However in the next second his connection was severed. He felt a huge contracting of his lower back and spasmed in pain, the cramp was pretty rough so the old man gave him an extra minute of rest.

Ryujin looked down at his hands, wondering why he couldnt grasp that strange light line. Sentoki noticed this and came rolling his wheelchair towards him with advice ready to leave his mouth, "You are wondering why you couldnt take a hold of the link, well ill explain it in simple terms to you."

"You tried grabbing it with just your body, instead of the entirety of your being. That connection you saw is the key to learning the Rokushikki style and many begginers such as yourself struggle the most during this part."

The words of advice from the old man resounded deeply in Ryujin's mind, he felt the need to change something and instantly got up. Without wasting a single second he entered the flow state again. He observed the line, it looked stronger and more pronouced than before.

He put his mind and body together, trying to form the entire being. With his mind now involved he drew the line closer and closer, before reaching out his hands to grab it. He shut his eyes until he felt a cold embrace touching his finger tips. Ryujin swung his eyes open, in his hand resided the strange line.

Sentoki observed from the side, sensing a familiar strength his mouth grew agape. To have learned to do this without any form of previous practice in just five or so attempts was undeniably impressive, but still not something to grow arrogant from.

Ryujin was brought back by the sudden touch of Sentoki, he tightened his grip around Ryujin's shoulder and gave him a thumbs up. "Next, I will teach you something of actual use to a young man such as yourself." the old man voiced as he retracted his thumb and extended his index finger.

A faint blue light began coating his finger. The light became brighter before being launched towards nothing. "This is called, the Shigan" Sentoki explained, "it is the most basic ability of the rokushiki set. I will have you learn it before anything else as it is the most efficient way to learn how to control vital strength."

Ryujin felt excited to learn, it would be incredibly useful to him if he were to learn the other abilities such as geppo or soru which would increase his maneuverability. During his fight against the huge army of pirates he noticed that what was lacking in him the most besides raw power was the ability to engage and back down quickly, expecially against The Slim Reaper. "Sentoki, please guide me!"

A large grin hung over the old man's wrinkled face, no one could tell if he was crazy or incredibly motivated, but one thing stood the same. He was going to make Ryujin work as hard as possible!

"Focus your mind, re-establish that connection and take a hold of the line. This will get much faster with practice, trust me."

Ryujin once again connects his mind to his muscles, forming the entirety of his being. Inside the mind world he sees the line, observing it attentively. He crushes the line between the palm of his hands and begins transferring the energy solely to his right hand. He extended his index finger out and vital energy began accumulating in the area.

The energy concentrated into a singular point forming a miniscule amount of light in the end of his finger before being propelled towards the air and dissolving as it moved.

"Good enough for today, but you still need to practice. Everyday try to focus your energy at least five times. You are free to go now!" Sentoki said while pointing to the exit.