Imagine what it would be like to be both a Soul Reaper AND an Espada. This is the story of how young Jinta Byakuya came to find out about his heritage and how he found love in Gin Ichimaru, the former Captain of the Third Division. Read on and you will see what I mean. Review where necessary.
Name: Jinta Byakuya
Age / DOB: 19 / June 23
Mom: Aoi Byakuya
Dad: Kuro Byakuya
Sublings: Youkai – 12; Mugen – 4; Shiori & Ryuga – 3
Hair: Dark Blonde
Eyes: Green
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 180 lbs
Race: Human / Soul Reaper / Espada
Gender: Male
Abilities: Shunpo, Kido, Hado, Soccer
Friends: N/A
Zanpaku-to: Sekigon (赤い軍隊 - Red Army; Fire based)
Chapter 1 – All Hollow's Eve (2006)
It was the week before Halloween when I met Gin Ichimaru. I still find it hard to believe that it's been little more than 2 years since I received my Soul Reaper and Espada Abilities. I was a senior in high school for crying out loud! So, I was making my way home when I heard something kin to a jackhammer overlaid with nails on a chalkboard. I covered my ears and looked around to see what was making that God-awful noise. That's when my peripheral vision caught what looked like a rip in the sky. I caught sight of a male figure stepping away from a distorted background. When the sky "sealed" itself behind him, I noticed that he had purple tinted silver hair framing a fox-like smirk. His squinted eyes opened about an inch and he frowned before his oddly blue eyes caught sight of me staring at him in awe. In the next instant, he was circling me as if he was sizing me up. I felt somewhat scrutinized under his cold blue gaze.
"Hmmm… Lord Aizen might be pleased to have a pet like you around," he drawled. "But I would like to see how well you do under pain. Shinso! Ikorose!"
I gasped as a sharp pain snaked its way from my stomach to my brain. "Please let me live. I want to see my family one more time before I die."
No more than two seconds later, the pain just simply disappeared. I looked down at my stomach to see that I was dressed in similar clothing to the silver haired man next to me. My school-uniformed body was hanging limply under his left arm.
"Interesting," he murmured. "Lord Aizen is definitely going to be having his share of fun with you, my young friend. What is your name by the way?"
"Jinta Byakuya," I answered, shock laced in my tone. "But sometimes my friends call me either Jin or JB. And you would be … who, exactly?"
"Gin Ichimaru," he replied. "But I would prefer it if you called me Ichimaru-Taichou. Now come along, Jin-san. We don't want to keep Lord Aizen waiting, now do we?"
I shook my head and followed the captain up a stairway to another rip in the sky with a distorted background. What he was a captain of, I never knew until he explained it at a much later date. I accepted this fact as I followed him. What I saw after stepping through the "sky-rift" absolutely amazed me. However it was the man on the throne like chair before me that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. He had swept back wavy brown hair and a death-defying gleam in his soft brownish gold eyes. Standing to his left was a dark-skinned, dark-haired man with a semi-transparent visor over opaque white eyes.
"Who is who? Is that Aizen on the throne or the guy standing to his left?"
I had to ask the second question just to see if I could get a reaction out of Gin-san. He simply gave me a smile over his shoulder as if to tell me that I already knew the answer. It wasn't exactly the reaction I was looking for, but at least I got something out of the former 3rd Company captain. The next voice I heard was like hearing oil sliding over hot glass.
"Is this the best you can do, Gin? Not up to MY personal expectations, but he will do for now. Come here, boy. I want to get a better look at you. Kaname, Gin. You two may leave. Send Grimmjow in when you run into him. I need to tell him something. Keep the Arrancars and Espadas busy until I call for them, gentlemen."
Gin-san and the Dark fellow left, allowing a man about my height into the room. He had messy grayish blue hair and blue eyes that looked a little greener that Gin-san's, not to mention the green eye shadow on his lower eyelids. He had a hole in his abdomen where his stomach would normally be and an exposed jawbone covering his right cheek from just under his eye to a little past his normal jaw line. This had to be Grimmjow. I burned both Face and Name into my memory banks for future reference.
"You called, Lord Aizen," he growled, sneering over the 'Lord.' "I was just about to knock when Tosen opened the door and told me that you had asked for me. Who is this young sapling? He looks a bit young for training as an Arrancar. Forget the Espadas because they'll tear him apart."
"He is to be your new subordinate," Aizen explained. "You are to train him in the ways of the Espada when he is not training as a Soul Reaper from Gin, Kaname, or myself. You will be sharing your rooms with him as well until further notice."
I briefly saw Grimmjow's eyes widen before he squeezed them shut and bowed, dropping to a knee in the process. He answered with a barely audible "Yes, Lord Aizen" before standing and retreating to the door. He was about to open it when Aizen nodded for me to follow one of my four new teachers. I quickly followed Grimmjow down the winding halls and spiral staircases before he stopped at a door with his name engraved on it in both Japanese AND English. My name was directly beneath it. He held the door open for me and when I didn't move, he grabbed my right shoulder and shoved me into the room with enough force to make me almost trip. As soon as I gained my balance, I turned to give him the death glare but I was stopped at the look on his face.
"Why the shocked looked, boy? You look like you just saw a GHOST. Oh wait. You ARE a ghost. I can't believe that I missed that! Oh, boy. You should see the look on your face!"
I pulled my left fist back and charged at him, catching him just above the hole in his abdomen. I heard him wheeze as he collided with the closed door. I was ready for him to lay one on me but he didn't because he started laughing.
"What's so funny, Jawbone?"
"I'm definitely going to be having my fun with you IF Aizen let's me have my TRUE way with you during your Espada training. Now all I need is name."
After that last remark, he fell backwards into the hallway. I looked up from his sprawled eagle form and he was looking up at the one person I was already becoming attached to. It was Gin-san with his infamous fox-like features and silver hair. I made it a point to step on Grimmjow's face with my right foot before squatting down next to his face and smiling.
"My name is Jinta Byakuya, son of Kuro Byakuya and brother to Youkai, Mugen and the twins, Shiori and Ryuga. If you dare to forget that name, I WILL kill you, with or without permission from Lord Aizen. Do you understand, Jawbone?"
I pressed down until I heard the bones in his nose and his face mask begin to crack under the pressure I was dealing him. He finally managed a grunt before grabbing my ankle with his left hand. He pushed up and nodded slightly before I started peeling his fingers away. I pressed down with all of my hundred and eighty pounds hearing the glorious sound of popping bone. I felt a slender hand on my shoulder. I looked up into the face of my Gin-san. I lifted my weight off of my right foot and settled onto my left until Grimmjow was no longer under my feet. I saw a thick brownish gunk coming out of Grimmjow's nose before smiling at my accomplishment.
"Hey, Gin," he said. "Tell Aizen what this punk just did. Either I need to be healed right away or I will be out of commission until I am completely healed and recuperated."
He scrambled to get to his feet but said appendages kept getting caught in the baggy bottom part of his pants. I rolled my eyes and snorted. I kicked out at him and he stumbled forward. His jacket flared out just enough for me to see the elaborate number 6 tattooed on his back between his shoulder blades.
"Lord Aizen will know, Grimmjow," Gin-san told the Espada. "Come along, Jin-san. Lord Aizen wants you to start your Soul Reaper training today. Every three days you will be trained by either Kaname Tosen-Taichou or me. On the thirteenth day you will be trained by Lord Aizen himself. If you impress him, you will be given one day off of your Soul Reaper training to go through your Espada training with Grimmjow. Understood?"
I committed the schedule to memory before racing to catch up to my Gin-san. When I fell into step behind him, I felt a slight spike in Spiritual pressure before hearing a voice that sounded like a hissing cockroach from Madagascar.
"Hello, Jinta Byakuya," it said from somewhere overhead. "Have Ichimaru-Taichou take you to training field three. I want to see Aizen-Fukutaichou's new pet."
"Shut it, Shinji," Aizen's voice commanded. "And how many times do I have to tell you to quit using that Echo Kido Spell?! It gets annoying enough hearing your reports but it's even more annoying hearing your voice over a loudspeaker!"
The first voice, who I guessed was Shinji, laughed as I asked Gin-san how many training fields there were in the complex.
"Four and that's NOT including the three used by the Arrancars, Espadas and Vizards," he replied. "There is one for each of us former captains plus one for the three of us to train on together. The Vizards are currently using Training Field Three, their assigned field, to train their newest yet most adamant recruit, Ichigo Kurosaki."
That name stopped me in my tracks. I had heard only stories about Ichigo Kurosaki. He was in the year behind me. From what I heard about him he always seemed to be cutting class and his grades were suffering because of it. And I got that off of three of his classmates: Uryu Ishida, Chad Sado, and Orihime Inoue. Whoever hasn't heard of Strawberry Kurosaki has some major selective hearing problems. Besides, if I had hair THAT color, I would immediately start coloring it black. I ran to catch up with Gin-san again while I was laughing to myself about the whole thing with Ichigo.
"How much farther, Ichimaru-Taichou?" I asked an hour later. "It feels like my legs are turning to Jell-O or something. Can't we stop for five minutes? I don't know if I will be up for training after all these twists and turns we're making."
He snapped and, almost immediately, I felt like I had just finished a cup of coffee. Five minutes after that, we stopped at a door and he opened it onto what looked like a soccer field of some kind. He waited for me to pass through before passing through himself and shutting the door behind him. I began looking around, expecting to see soccer balls so that I could start dribbling them in circles around Gin-san. I turned just in time for Gin-san's sword to miss my right shoulder. Or was that a lance? Anyways, I continued using my momentum to roll away from where Gin-san was aiming.
"Oh! I do apologize. I don't think I introduced you to my Zanpaku-to, Shinso, properly. If you don't mind, would you please draw yours before I use up all of my spirit energy on my Bankai?"
Zanpaku-to? I wondered. What the hell is he talking about anyways?
I noticed a sword sheathed at my waist and drew it quickly. I felt a prescence drape across my shoulders and my breathing started coming in ragged gasps. I charged at my future lover, putting all of my weight and momentum into a blow that I was planning on shoving through HIS stomach. When he didn't move, I pushed even harder to land my strike. At the last possible second, Gin-san shifted his weight backwards and to the left, dodging my attack. A sharp and loud PING sounded in my eardrums as he used his sword to shove mine aside. I was beginning to feel my exhaustion from climbing the multiple staircases to get here. I knew that I wasn't going to last much longer if we kept at it at the rate at which we were going after that first initial attack. When Gin-san sheathed his sword, I saw that his usual smile had lessened since he began training me on that soccer field.
"Sheath your sword before you slice yourself open, Jin. Lord Aizen wouldn't want a mess of a possible Espada on his hands if he could help it. For the next two days, I will be teaching you the ways of the Soul Reaper. And from now on, I will be teaching you Kido, Hado, and various other small things while Tosen-Taichou trains you in the way of Zanjutsu. Then, I will have to ask Lord Aizen to talk Grimmjow into teaching you about the Arrancars and the Espadas. Understood?"
I nodded. He went on to say what needed to be said about being a Soul Reaper, especially if you were either a Captain, Lieutenant or a single digited seated officer in the Gotei 13.
(1) This means "shoot to kill." Sounds a little gruesome but it's definitely something worth looking into.