Tranquil as a forest but on fire within[Training/Plot]

The black haired man took a stroll at the training field today, something that became his new routine ever since Tao lend him a barrack to stay. It was interesting to see the training that these soldiers was doing to prepare themselves for the war. Some of them was pretty hyped up, some was losing their motivation a bit and the best guess that Tenma could have was because of the set of the training. However it was understandable though, for a warrior like himself if they didn’t have a fitting training set then it would be not interesting at all.

While Tenma was walking, he saw some soldiers were practicing with bows and arrows. It was pretty interesting for the swordsman and to tell you the truth, he had always been interested to try archery. He was a novice on this and maybe he could try and train himself to do it, it would surely benefit him to have archery skill for the war later. So far he was pretty much a melee fighter himself and he got his medium ranged attacks covered due to his ability to wield throwing knives or even another throwing weapon. But perhaps he could make himself able to cover a long ranged attack as well, especially if he was out of reach with some enemies. He remembered his father was an expert when it came to handling weapon. He couldn’t remember if there was any weapon that his father couldn’t wield. From various type of swords, knives, nunchaku, bows, explosive and many others, Tenma remember that her father could handle all of them without flaw. He was pretty much more interested in Katana though before and he simply put more time to learn the path of swords although now he felt like he should try to explore another weapon as well.

As he approached the archers, one of the soldier welcomed him and asked if he was interested to join the training. Being a polite man, the black haired man smiled towards the soldier and said, “Will I be a distraction if I join the training? I never wield a bow nor shooting an arrow before so I expect that I will be so bad at this.” His words made the soldier laughed, to think that a friend of their general never even wield a bow before. “It is pretty simple actually sir, pardon me for laughing. It was just surprising for a friend of General Tao to say that.” The black haired man laughed as well but didn’t feel offended at all, his laughter was also fake as usual. “It is alright, do you mind to teach me the basic for a little bit? Then I will try and learn by myself.”

The soldier was more than happy to help the one eyed man, taking a liking to Tenma because for a friend of a general, the swordsman was not cocky and underestimating them at all. Little they knew about what kind of person Tenma was actually, he was actually the type that wouldn’t really care about stuff like that. The soldier would guide him to enter the practice area and brought him a set of bow and arrow so he could try and shot at the target after learning the basics.

“First you would need to determine your dominant eye because it is more accurate in aiming and judging distances, but we both know which one is more dominant right?” The soldier laughed and scratched his head, seemingly nervous to try and joke around with Tenma. “Oh I forgot, I am in the archery division, my name is Wang Xun. It is a pleasure to train with you, Sir.” The man bowed his head politely as he introduced himself.

The one eyed man shook his head and introduced himself as well, “My name is Tenma, Mikazuki Tenma. You can drop the formalities with me, I am not in any ranks here. Also I am grateful that you take some of your busy time to train me.” He would touch his eyepatch before saying, “and yes, it is pretty obvious isn’t it?” Tenma laughed as he replied to the joke.

“Okay, after we determine your dominant eye, we can now tell which hand that you can use to do the job. Since your right eye is more dominant, you will need to hold the bow with your left hand and pull the bowstring back with your right hand.” The soldier would explain while giving example to the black haired man by demonstrating it as well. “My right eye is more dominant as well so it is good that I can give you a correct example, your stance should be like this.” Wang Xun held the bow with his left hand and would pull the string back with his right hand before releasing it. “Next up is umm, the stance!” The soldier put down his bow and continued to explain, “It is still related to your dominant eye, so after you hold the bow with your left hand, point your left shoulder to the target. After that handle the arrow and string with your right hand. Do you understand until now?”

When Tenma nodded, the soldier would nod as well and continued, “You need to stand upright without tension, make yourself comfortable but firm. Place your feet shoulder-width apart so that your two feet form a straight line pointing towards the target.” Wang Xun demonstrate it once again and Tenma nodded, mentally acknowledged that this man was truly a good teacher. It was easy to perform anything that he explaining and judging from how he guide Tenma, Wang Xun was pretty used to teach another soldiers it seemed. “You see, in the proper form, the archer stood and formed a “T”. Our back muscles are used to pull the arrow to the anchor point. Not only that, you will need to ummm, pinch your bottom together to bring your pelvis forwards.” The soldier took an arrow after he finished with his words and placed the arrow on the arrow rest as he moved close to show Tenma on how he should place his arrow properly. The black haired man put an arrow exactly as the soldier told him and showed it to Wang Xun if he did it right.

The man seemed happy as he smiled wide and praised Tenma for doing it right, “You are good! The fun part is coming soon though, usually people use three fingers to lightly hold the arrow on the string, so the thumb, index finger and middle finger. Some use two fingers though if they find it more comfortable and some other using the whole different two fingers technique.” Wang Xun explained as he showed Tenma the various type of hold the arrow and let the black haired man to choose which one that he found comfortable. After trying all the style Tenma decided that the two fingers worked the best for him, but he would choose the one the second style that Wang Xun introduced to him. The soldier would nod and then gave Tenma a wider smile, making the swordsman asked the soldier about the meaning of the smile. “Now is the fun part?” The black haired man smiled brightly and Wang Xun nodded with excitement, seemed liking how the swordsman could learn quickly and followed the instruction without any complains.

“See the target over there? We are going to use it soon. You just need to hold the bow arm outwards towards the target, your inner elbow should be parallel to the ground and the bow should always stay vertical and you should be able to look straight down the spine of the arrow.” Wang Xun would began to stance himself and raised his bow, towards the target. “Draw the string hand towards the face to your own reference point, it could be somewhere around the chin, cheek, ear or even the corner of the mouth depends on which point that you are comfortable with. In my case, my cheek is my reference point. Now aim.” The soldier began concentrating, wanting to show Tenma a good show by giving a right example. He would release he arrow right after that and it hits the target perfectly in a blink, “Once you released the arrow, move your draw hand back and finish the shoulder rotation, keep the bow hand steady until the arrow hits its target, don’t forget to watch your arrow as it flies.” The swordsman clapped his hands together and smiled, “That’s beautiful.” His praise made the soldier scratches his head and smiled sheepishly. But he would ask Tenma to shot the arrow now, wanting to know if the man was really as bad as he said.

Tenma would began to put himself on the stance and followed what Wang Xun has taught him, he would then tried to aim to the target and before he shot it, he could hear the soldier said something to him. “Oh yeah, you would need to be consistent from shot to shot regarding your reference point, also, try to not relax too much or to keep pulling back once you reach the anchor point or you will lose power.” Tenma chose the corner of his mouth to be his reference point and the moment he placed it there, Wang Xun would slowly guide him by telling him to release the arrow by relaxing the fingers of his string hand. The swordsman followed it and released the arrow the moment after, but unfortunately his aim was not correct since it missed the target and hit the side. Although it was a failure for Tenma, the soldier clearly didn’t think like that as he was really surprised. His jaw was opening wide and his eyes were sparkling, he didn’t expect Tenma would do it perfectly although he didn’t hit the target. The strength that the one eyed man used was powerful enough and his stance was perfect as if he was born to wield a bow. The soldier began to think that maybe the one eyed man was a natural born warrior as he was able to do something like this when he never do it before.

“I missed it…” Tenma said to Wang Xun and sighed, seemed disappointed. “You can try again, practice makes perfect!” The soldier laughed and brought the black haired man five other arrows, wanting him to try and shot it all repeatedly so he could see what kind of mistake that Tenma did to miss the target. The black haired man gladly took the arrows and try to shot it again, hoping to hit the center of the target. He concentrated and recalled the instructions from Wang Xun again before releasing the arrow, now it hit the target but it was not at the spot that he wanted so he took another arrow and wanting to aim again. Although Wang Xun was already surprised that Tenma was able to hit the target and debating with himself whether or not the black haired man did it based on luck. As the soldier was thinking hard about it, he could hear the sound of the arrow hitting the target and a relieved sigh from Tenma. He was more surprised to see that the arrow that the swordsman shot was at the center of the target. “You did it! That’s good!” Wang Xun praised Tenma and his eyes were more sparkly than before but the swordsman brushed him off, “Maybe that’s just a luck. I will try again.”

The training session that Tenma did gained attention from the other soldiers and now they were gathering up to see what the swordsman could do. Tenma shot another arrow and the moment it hit the middle again, the crowd made an awed sound together, didn’t expect that he would be that good. The swordsman was still not convinced that he did it perfectly though, so he used his last arrow and shot it only to see it hit the center of the target. He let out a relieved sigh and raised down his bow before looking at Wang Xun, “It was really fun receiving the training from you. You are a good teacher.” Tenma praised the soldier and Wang Xun could only shake his head, “N-no, it’s all because of your natural talent. I think you are very talented at this and ummm, you can take one of the bow and arrows with you and you can come visit the practice field anytime whenever you want to train.”

The soldier received a smile from the swordsman and he would give Wang Xun a deep bow, respecting the lesson that he had given to him. “I would, thank you for letting me try archery.” The black haired man would then visit the training field and did a routine training for at least a week, quickly gaining a lot of lessons from the fellow soldiers as well as obtaining his own set of bow and arrow, customized just for him by the blacksmith in the barrack.

WC: 2000+/2000