So there we were – about to take the biggest leap of our lives…
Tegan Shade, age seventeen, was a teenager of diminutive stature and a quiet voice. Her hair had been dyed every shade under the sun when she was younger but a previous part-time job had forced her into her natural color – that is, deep brunette. Her bangs sometimes fell in her eyes and the back of her hair reached the base of her neck. Her piercing pale blue eyes perused the laptop sitting on the rock before her, the machine appearing completely out of place in the otherwise barren training ground. Today she wore nothing unusual: a black t-shirt paired with grey cargo pants, with straw-colored sandals on her otherwise bare feet. Tegan seemed unconcerned with where she was or why she was there; she was busy showing Kita Nightingale a video she had found on Youtube. Her pale eyes glanced at the other girl to gauge a reaction before adding her own comment every now and then, a small grin on her face.
Kita, for her part, managed a smile and a grimace at once and shook her head. "Wow." She was a few months older than her friend, already eighteen, and - like Tegan - her voice usually hovered on the quiet side unless provoked into anger. Her straight hair was naturally chocolate brown but was highlighted with blonde streaks and it hung down past her shoulders. Her hazel eyes seemed unsure whether she thought her friend was completely insane for showing this video to her and she told her as much. Tegan responded to this with a short laugh. Kita pulled at her blue tank top. She wore slightly new jeans and tennis shoes. On the back of her left shoulder, a tattoo of a blue butterfly over a crescent moon surrounded by stars was visible beneath the tank top's thin strap.
Unbeknownst to both girls, a third girl had been struggling to gain Tegan's attention for the last five minutes. "Tegan. Tegan! Tegan Shade! Hey! Lady! Sister! Nee-Chan! Hey!"
Presently, Tegan had enough. "WHAT?"
"How are you doing that? I thought Hatter said there's no Wifi down here…"
"He was lying to get me focused on training." Tegan grinned. "I found that out the first day!"
Syketon Shade rolled her eyes. The younger sister of Tegan, she had just barely turned seventeen when Tegan's eighteenth birthday wasn't too far away. She was only slightly taller than Tegan, enough to look Kita in the eye at least. Her hair seemed to be the most recognizable thing about her – it was naturally golden but also thick, wavy and somewhat frizzy; at the moment it was tied back in a simple tail that allowed her bangs to fall slightly in her face. Her eyes were hazel. She wore a black Ghostbusters t-shirt – which she thought would be amusing – faded blue jeans, black tennis shoes and a silver class ring set with her pink birthstone. It seemed Syketon shared Tegan's quiet voice more than anything else – it was said often that Tegan inherited their father's looks while Syketon had their mother's – but Syketon seemed only able to keep silent around people she didn't know.
Case in point.
"SYKE!"
This was the only warning she received before she was tackled into a bear hug.
"GET OFF! GET OFF!"
"SYKE! I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN FOREVER!"
"You mean since yesterday."
"But before I didn't see you for like two weeks on end and you never even texted me!"
"You told me you were training –"
"That doesn't matter!"
Syke, realizing that Match was being bothersome on purpose, hugged her back and wailed, "MATCH YOU NEVER EVEN TRAINED WITH US! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS IN THE HOLE?"
"…That's what he said."
"Hush!"
Match grinned as Syke abruptly wriggled out of her grip. She was easily the tallest and the most athletic girl among them, though she was also the youngest at sixteen. She was half-Mexican and it showed strongly. Her hair was long, dark, and straight, her eyes were deep brown, and there was usually a big grin on her face. She was also bouncy, as usual.
Syke glanced at the clothes she had on and smirked. "I thought you Quincy were supposed to have a white suit?"
"Umm…no." Match glanced down at her own clothes: jeans, a black belt, blue and white cowboy boots, and white t-shirt emblazoned with High School CHOIR in blue letters.
"You're wearing blue and white, aren't you? That's supposed to be –"
"I take pride in being a Quincy!" Match declared. "It's just that…"
"She hates the clothes." The interjection came from her brother, who appeared deliberately between the two of them in an effort to startle one or both. Both of them merely glared at him. For his part, he wasn't wearing the traditional Quincy uniform either, but rather a comfortable pair of jeans, tennis shoes and a black t-shirt. Match's brother – Pyro – had dark-framed glasses, brown eyes, and brown hair. Unlike Match, his skin was pale like their father, which caused people to not realize right away that they were related. Upon realizing they were siblings people also normally didn't assume Pyro was the older of the two but he was eighteen. Pyro gave Syke a sly smile. "She thinks they look weird."
"You're not wearing it either!" Match declared.
"They do look weird!" Tegan stated loudly before returning to her laptop.
"That's fine," Syke answered. "I still think it feels strange that the Shinigami robes blow about with the slightest movement. It's like I'm wearing a sheet."
"GOOD MOOOORNING…"
"Oh, shit," Tegan eyes widened in realization of the threat approaching but she couldn't move away fast enough.
"TEEEEEGAAAAN!" Tegan found herself lifted up in the air from behind in another bear hug – it was only through a lot of practice that Tegan managed to get her laptop to safety first.
"Dang it Kyvain – KITA! HELP!"
Kita merely chuckled.
"LET MY SISTER GO!" Syke roared, using Flash Step to close the distance – but by the time she got there the only thing she could do was bowl into her sister, who had been set down. With the Shade sisters sprawled awkwardly on top of each other and struggling to separate, Syke looked around and spotted Kyvain Urahara squatting on a nearby rock and watching with an extremely amused expression on his face.
Needless to say, the good morning thing was a habit Kyvain picked up from Isshin, their father. Of course they were best friends. Kyvain had an odd way of making friends with all sorts of people ranging from outcasts to athletes to video game enthusiasts - and the parents of said people as well. He was the tallest teenager there and the oldest at nearly nineteen. If one looked at him carefully, one could say his hair that was long enough to fall in his face and partially cover his neck, the lean build of his body, and his facial structure resembled that of his father – Urahara Kisuke. Like Match, his eyes and skin were brown and his hair was dark almost to the point of being black. Unlike Match, though, the shape of his eyes suggested Asian or Native American heritage as opposed to that of Mexican. Having never met his mother, though, he could never say exactly what he was crafted from.
"Where are you going?" he called, grinning broadly.
Syke helped Tegan to her feet. "Match! Kita! Give us a hand!"
Kita and Match glanced at each other and both smiled wickedly.
His grin faltered only for a second. "Four on one…"
"Damn right." Tegan smiled, baring her teeth.
Kisuke Urahara was sitting cross-legged across from a black cat only a few feet away from the ladder that led down into the training area.
"So, Yoruichi," he said calmly, addressing the feline, "is Kita good enough to survive Soul Society?"
"She's come a long way," the cat said in a distinctly male voice. Both members of the conversation seemed unaware of Pyro's Spartan-like battle cry as he joined the fray. "What about the Shade sisters?"
A smile twitched Urahara's mouth. "Well…"
"OWWWW! MATCH! THAT HURT!"
To which a chorus of female voices chimed, "WE TOLD YOU NOT TO GET INVOLVED, PYRO!"
"Syke's fighting style has improved greatly but she still sometimes gets frustrated by her own limitations."
"Spark –"
"NO SHIKAI, DUMBASS!"
"As for Tegan, she is an extremely skilled combatant…"
"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!"
"…but her focus is lacking." Urahara seemed to notice the brawl happening a few yards away for the first time, because he smirked at Yoruichi. "This is the bunch you'll be breaking into Seireitei with."
Disgusted, the cat shook its head. "I was hoping to sneak in but I can already see that will be impossible…"
"OUUUUCCCCHHH! DAMN IT, HE FREAKING BIT ME!"
"YOU TRIED TO PUNCH ME!"
The cat glared at Urahara. "If you don't break them up, I will!"
"Oooh my," Urahara replied, fanning his face as though the very thought worried him. "Whatever can a small cat do against a bunch of Soul Reapers, Quincy, and a human? Hmmm?"
The cat looked away. "Don't tempt me, Kisuke. I'll rip their arms from their bodies, I swear it!"
"Now, now," Urahara said soothingly, patting Yoruichi's head. A hiss later, Urahara drew back with nasty scratches on his fingers. "Oooh. Ouch." He stood up and whispered down to Yoruichi, "Now watch this." He raised his cane and shouted above the commotion, "SING, BENIHIME!"
Tegan and Syketon, who were working together with Kita to pin Kyvain down while Tegan ruthlessly messed his hair, immediately glanced up with Kyvain at the sound of Urahara's voice. "WHAT?"
Match, who had Pyro pinned down, was momentarily surprised that everyone had fallen silent. Pyro seized the opportunity to throw her to the ground and scramble away.
Urahara grinned down at Yoruichi, who stared back – tail twitching in reluctant acknowledgment. Then the cat brought up an old joke to Kyvain in the relative quiet, "The girls really are all over you, Kyvain."
To which the three pinning him down screamed, "WHAT DID YOU SAY, FUZZBALL?"
"Shut up! Shinigami, out of your bodies!" Urahara ordered gleefully.