[TG] On The Edge (Basic Katana, Cerianis)

[Whisper]

(Timestamp forthcoming. Continued from Demios Training Grounds.)

When Cerianis came out to the small field past the tents where she'd signed up for lessons, she would find a young woman with her back turned, facing the adjoining fields. She watched those who were training in horseback riding, axe, and dagger. Her long black hair fell to her waist, and was tied back in a fishtail braid that ended in a black ribbon. She was tall and slender, and across her back lay a beautiful weapon in its elegant gold sheath.

As Cerianis approached, the woman would turn to her, regarding her with eyes as dark and deep as the earth."Are you Cerianis?" she asked, her voice barely audible above the winter winds.

[Cerianis]

Timestamp: 41st Pontius, in the Season of Winter, Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum.

Walking up to the young lady she hears a faint " Are you Cerianis?"

Waiting a moment to quickly gather herself and make sure she had heard the question properly then answered "Yes i am Cerianis and you must be instructer Shukyo Azara?" she patiently awaited her reply...

[Catalyst]

oocHi Cerianis! I'll be taking over moderation of this thread

"Yes, that is right." The woman seemed to have the habit of exceptional calmness, which was somewhat reassuring.

"Let us sit in my tent out of the wind so that we may speak at our ease." She ushered Cerianis to a tent of plain canvas. It was large enough to stand comfortably in, although much too small for swordplay. Inside was a table and four chairs, and other sundry unobtrusive furniture here and there. She gestured to Cerianis to sit, allowing her to do so before taking a seat herself.

"May I see your weapon?" she asked. "We will begin by getting to know it, what it's parts are called, and how to care for it. When we start training in earnest we shall use wooden swords so that no one loses a limb. I will find you a practice sword that matches your own in weight and balance."

[Cerianis]

Sitting down at the table, Cerianis listened to the woman talking, and when she was done, she pulled out the Kattana and laid it on the table gently waiting for the woman to continue talking, she found that her instructer was a very calming sort of person and she was glad because she could get over excited at times.

[Catalyst]

Shukyo examined the sword with care. "This is a fine blade, it should serve you well. There are a good number of katana made for beauty and not for use, and I always like to examine my student's weapons to make sure that they will not find themselves in battle holding a broken hilt in their hands." She passed the sword back to Cerianis.

She then drew her own sword, and laid it on the table. "The blade of your sword is its heart and soul. It was made with great effort and care, and if you treat it well it should last a lifetime. But the other parts of your sword may not be so durable, so I will show you how they may be changed."

The hilt of her sword was wrapped in silk cord, and she unraveled it with careful fingers. Underneath, the hilt was made of wood. She slid it in front of Cerianis so she could have a close look. In the middle of the hilt, was a hole filled with a round peg. So percise was the fit of the peg that it could not be felt through the wrapping.

"This peg holds the blade onto the hilt." She pushed on the peg, and with some effort it slid free. The hilt then slid off the tang of the sword, and after it, the disk shaped hand guard. She gave the hand guard for Cerianis to examine.

"If you fight with your sword often, your hand guard will become chopped and weakened. This is not good, as if it breaks you may have your hand badly injured. As you can see on mine, there are several deep marks already, although I do not think they weaken it much. In any event, if you hand guard becomes damaged, you must replace it, which is easily done as you can see."

"The hilt itself may last you a life time if you care for it properly. The chief enemy of wood is dampness, so you must keep it dry as best you can. Replacing the hilt is more of a chore than replacing the hand guard, as it must be made carefully to fit the tang of your sword, while hand guards are fairly universal."

"The silk wrapping of the hand guard will wear out with time. Sweat from your palms will cause it to decay. I will show you how to wrap your hilt properly, which is an important skill. A poorly wrapped hilt may come lose, and make your sword difficult to control."

Lastly, Shukyo showed Cerianis the tang of her blade. "The swordsmith marks the blade here, under the hilt. You can see that this blade was made by Garen in Zinn'Sunn. I recommend his work if you ever need to replace your sword."

She then showed Cerianis how to wrap the hilt in a tight braided pattern. This took some time and skill, each turn of the silk had to be quite tight, and in the end it was tied securly to the base of the hilt.

[Cerianis]

Watch Shukyo, she admired the efficency of how handled it, wrapped it, cared for it and told her how to care for the hilt and handgaurd. Shukyo was very good at everything in which she did. Cerianis continued watch the woman as she was taught many more things about the katana... She knew she had come to the right place when she had especially seeing as though she needed to defend herself more often. When she looked at her blade more closely she could see the deffincecies in the blade.

Looking past the tent flap she could see a slither of daylight and could hear others at swordplay, and wishing that she could be out there she knew she had to wait and learn the "boring" stuff first so she returned her full attention on her instructor and as she had been told when she was younger she showed she was listening with respect to her instructor.

When Shukyo Showed her how to wrap the hilt she was fascinated... after a small silence she realised that Shukyo was waiting for her, " I understand. How much longer would this keep everything in good shape for do you think master Shukyo?"

[Catalyst]

Shukyo considered her answer before she spoke. "There is really no telling how often you will have to replace parts of your sword. A lot depends on the weather, on whether you wear gloves to protect the wrapping from the oils on your hands, and things like this. Sometimes you will have give your weapon harsh use in order to survive."

"There is one other sword care issue I will mention- polishing and sharpening your blade. The katana is a very carefully made weapon and it is best to leave its sharpening and polishing to professionals. Bring it to a shop if you need this done, although it is best to take care with your sword and have it polished and sharpened as rarely as you can. Do be sure to wipe moisture, especially blood, from the blade when you are finished with it. Also be careful to remove fingerprints from the blade, which can lead to rust."

Having finished with the basic sword care, Shukyo led Cerianis outside, to a cleared circle of bare earth beside the tent. She took a brief detour to open a trunk, which contained a bundle of wooden swords. She spent several minutes selecting one, then gave it to Cerianis.

"This sword is fairly close to your in weight and balance. You will practice with it instead of your real sword, both to prevent injuries and so that you can hit targets with authority and not concern yourself with dulling your blade. But be careful with it. Wood though it may be, it can still break bones."

"Now, let us learn the basic stance and grip. They will not feel natural to you, so you will have to practice until you are comfortable with them. Let us start with your feet. Face them forwards towards your opponent, with your feet parallel and one just behind the other, so that they do not overlap. There, yes, that is good. Now, your rear heel should be lifted very slightly, with your weight on the balls of your toes. Yes, like that. Make sure your knees are bent slightly, locked knees will dramatically slow your reaction time."

"Rock back and forth, get the feeling of this stance. Then I will show you how to hold the sword."

[Cerianis]

Listening to her reply she nodded slowly in understanding.

She was fairly surprised when she was motioned out of the tent expecting more in this area, but apperently not. They made a brief detour to a trunk in which her master took several moments to choose a sword, when she was given the sword, she noticed how much it did resemble hers very closely. While doing the stance she was told to do, she had a fair bit of trouble getting her feet to stay straight as she had always walked with them slightly crooked, but getting her balance was no problem for her, even as a katta she had superb balance. Rocking back and forwards she did fairly easily, even though it did feel slightly unnatural to her. Remembering to unlock her knees she bent ever so slightly, as though she was getting ready to pounce.

She looked expectantly at her instuctor, waiting for either more instructions or be told what she had done wrong...

[Catalyst]

"Good, yes, you're getting the idea. Let us practice footwork, but we will do so with you holding your sword."

"The first and most basic of stances is called 'mid guard position,' with your sword held at about waist high and angling upward. It is not the most flashy and impressive of stances, but it is versitile and good for most purposes. Here is how we do it. Facing forwards, hold the grip with both hands like so." She stood next to Cerianis and slid her hands into position.

"Your hands should be spaced several inches apart like this, with your dominant hand on top. Are you right or left handed? The point of the V between your thumbs and forefingers should align. If you are used to chopping wood with an axe, this grip may seem odd to you, but you will see why the sword is held that way when we practice. An axe is gripped with your hands together and rotated out (compared to this grip). The axe grip allows you to achieve maximum chopping power with a vertical swing, but that is not our aim here. By splitting your hands, you increase the speed of your reaction time, and your hands are held so as to allow you to swing at other angles than vertical."

"Now, take a few minutes to practice moving and swinging your sword. Don't worry about form for now, except that after you step you should return to this basic stance, and you should not change your grip on the sword."

[Cerianis]

Are you right or left handed?

She was asked after replying a quick "i am right handed", she was helped with putting her hands in the right positions, but it felt really awkward and she kept unconsiously changing them slightly, but realising what she had done put them back the way she had been shown.

After beeing told to move and swing her sword she waited a few moments before moving then she stiffly waved the sword, becomeng more fluid as she got used to it. She started moving her feet around. She stopped, watching her instructer carefully, then remebering what she had been told, and returned to the basic stance.

[Catalyst]

oocI'm going to go ahead and use Japanese terms for movements, even though Japanese is not a language that exists in Aelyria. Imagine that she is using Kemite terminology

Shukyo nodded with approval. "I always enjoy teaching Katta. Your people are naturally nimble and pick up the footwork quickly. Footwork is the most important part of wielding a sword. It is the foundation for all the movements of your body. Let us learn a few basic techniques."

"The first technique is called Suri-ashi. The movement goes like this." Shukyo barely lifted her foot above the ground, and slid it forwards, following rapidly with her rear foot.

"Imagine that the ground is covered with smooth round pebbles, so that if you lift your foot and put it down, they will roll out from under it and you will fall. So instead, you push the pebbles out of the way by sliding your foot forwards. Keeping your foot low will keep you balanced, and give you the option of resting your weight on it quickly. Let me see you try it."

[Cerianis]

ooc.
Yeah thats alright by me.

Sliding her foot forwards, she notices that her instructer is correct, in that she would have pathetic balance if had have lifted her foot and placed it, not very good if she was trying to protect herself. She continued imagining that the ground was covered in pebbles that were smooth and round just as they had been described.

[Catalyst]

Shukyo watched Cerianis carefully. "That is good. But becareful to always move your front foot first, then your back foot to catch up. That is, if you are going forwards. When you retreat, move your back foot first. This is very important. If you put your feet together your ability to balance is impeded and you rob your blows of strength. If you widen your stance as you stride you give yourself a solid foundation if you are caught mid stride. We only walk with a normal rear-foot-first motion when you are trying to close ground quickly and there is no chance that your opponent can engage you."

"The next move we will learn is called 'Hiraki-ashi,' and is used when we need to move out of a straight line. There are essentially four directions you can move: forward right, forward left, backword right, and backward left. The principle is fairly simple, but the important thing is to make sure that you don't turn your back to your opponent, even a little bit. This means that if you are right handed and wish to move forward and to your left, you must step with your rear foot first. Otherwise you would be turning your back. Similarly, if you wish to retreat to your right, you must move your front foot first. Be sure to avoid bringing your feet too close together so that you don't loose balance."

Shukyo stood back and watched Cerianis practice.

[Cerianis]

OOC very similar to Martial arts which is why i have some clue to as what you are going on about...

Moving the rear foot forwards to go forwards, Cerianis almost unbalances herself but catches herself before she falls over and starts trying again this time going left rather than right and has better luck. She also tries movin bacwards left and right before
trying to go forwards right but has much better luck. Putting all the new movements that she had just learnt, Cerianis moved from the 'mid guard position,' to 'Hiraki-ashi to Suri-ashi, then continueing with hiraki-ashi, just to make sure she had remembered all the moves correctly.

[Catalyst]

Shukyo watched, her face always remaining calm. "You are doing well. The steps are not too complicated but you must practice until they seem completely natural. In a fight you will not want to think about footwork but just do it."

"Now, the last step we will learn is the Fumikomi-ashi, a step you will use during a sudden attack while moving from outside your opponent's weapon range to inside of it. It is very much similar to basic Suri-ashi, but you take a larger step and you concentrate on moving with explosive power."

She demonstrated the move, then watched as Cerianis performed it. She had her move across the training circle this way, then back again. "Good. Now I will explain one of the two most important things we will be learning in this class. Form is very important, the techniques I am teaching you have passed down for hundreds of era, and have been refined and advanced along the way. They will give you effecient and useful moves. But what will really get you through your opponent's defense is your ability to not give away what it is that you plan to do. Observe. I will try to touch you with my practice weapon, parry in any way that seems convenient, we shall not worry about form for now."

Shukyo took up a stance in front of Cerianis. As she watched, her body tensed, and she rocked back on her leg ever so slightly, and moved her weapon back a few inches and then sprang forward. Cerianis was able to knock her wooden sword aside.

"Good! now, we will try again." This time Shukyo assumed her stance, and then a stillness came over her body. Her face went impassive, and her whole body seemed to relax. Suddenly she moved, with no warning at all, and before Cerianis could react she felt the wooden sword touch her lightly in the chest.

"As you see, you can give off a thousand tiny clues as to what you are planning to do, and if you do so you will be parried. The idea strike starts in the mind, with the body at rest. Do not tense your muscles, do not wind up, send the instuctions to all the parts of your body for movement at once. Explode from rest, do not gradually go into motion."

"I will mention this again, when we learn to strike, but it is important for this footwork which is why I mention it now. So try it again, and this time let your body rest, then explode forwards."