Maigo entered into the dark room with a small duffle bag at his shoulder, letting it drop to the ground a few feet from the door as he took his time to move around the room and light each candle in the training room. With each new flicker of light, Maigo's face illuminated just slightly more bright and radiated his seemingly exasperated and empty expression. It was a face of confusion underlined by frustration. His troubles hadn't truly held him back anymore than his motivation and it was time to move past where he has.
With the final candle lit, the room was moderately illuminated, revealing a large matted area at the center as the square room overcast everything. At the far side of the mat were 5 dummies made of thickly braided rope and straw, obviously meant for practice cutting and taking a solid hit all the same. The bases of the figures were made of cheap wood but crafted well enough that they stood straight and solid. The humanoid shapes they offered gave little in the way of being a real person as they were little more than blank expressions of torso and head.
Maigo shifted his way back towards his bag and removed a towel and a bamboo bottle to drink water from along with a few rice balls and other protein-rich snacks to keep him going through a long day's training. He wore his standard ninja gear as he would for a mission, black pants and sandals with some wrapping of bandage around his ankles leading towards his knees before folding into the pants legs themselves. Two ninja pouches at his back right and back left hip and two kunai holsters on his right leg as well. His shirt was little more than a grey vest parted slightly to expose his chest and a large cloth belt colored in a dark red to keep his person together. Most interestingly were the katana sheathed at his right side, ready for a quick draw and his backpack that kept two folded fuma shuriken folded and hanging at the side of the backpack.
Within the pack, there were many various ninja tools that would aid Maigo on missions. No need for them here but it felt right to bring it all along in case he wanted to vary his training. Regardless, Maigo lowered his left shoulder slightly and let the arm of the backpack fall lazily off his arm before he shimmied his way out and flung the backpack around to his right hand before holding it, swaying, over the ground slightly. Once he was sure, he would let it drop to the ground with a small thud and clang of metal against the items within.
Turning slowly with a sigh, Maigo would begin to stretch for a moment, feeling his muscles tighten and stretch with some resistance particularly in the support muscles. The very essence of him began to build as he closed his eyes and focused his efforts on increasing his stretch and controlling his breathing. Feeling it almost like a tangible event. Each inhale felt sharp and increased the build-up in his torso and stomach before he would exhale and leave a void of air and stress behind it. The void felt better than breathing to him. The very state of leaving behind his worries to focus on the primal and essence of being alive. It was invigorating and prepared his mental state more than any motivation he'd had in some time; more than the stretching he was doing to stay lithe and limber, more than the fear of remaining weak forever. Those motivations were too abstract and temporary.
No, feeling alive in this very moment was all he needed to do to prepare. To focus on his task and the goals he set out for himself today.
And yet, his concentration was broken completely with a sharp snap.
One of the dummies called out to him with a sharp and raspy voice that pierced the air like a threat.
"Do you know why you're training? Or are you as lost as the others that have come to this room?"
Maigo's eyes would bolt forward towards the direction of those training dummies and golden orbs would scan the area in front of him looking for friend or foe. Deception or the source of his new company. Instead of finding the dummies talking back to him, he instead found an obsidian bird standing at the shoulder of the fourth dummy. Golden eyes would meet a void of pitch black and his voice would hitch as the bird's long beak would stay pointed to the wall to the right and a single black eye would focus on Maigo with an intensity he was unsure he deserved.
His throat would begin to clump and he would force his vocal cords to action while now standing upright completely still. His legs slightly spread apart and something less terrifying than fear gripping him in place,
"What?"
It was all the young genin could manage to bring out of a gulped breath before watching the bird rustle its feathers and continue to stare at him. The stand off between Genin and Raven was in motion and all the training and awareness Maigo had; wondering if it were a Genjutsu or a Summoning jutsu. All of it failed to matter as he couldn't seem to parse reality in the moment.
[907 words, 10 XP total gained (5 solo + 5 for Training Ground)]