Sweet~ alright chapter 2. this time how about reviewing. And for my friends at bleach-rpg please refer to me by my pen name: im sleeping go away
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Chapter 2
Squad 9, the dawn of the age.
Zamiraku walked behind Kazami Norimaku, his new captain, on the way to the squad 9 barracks, were Zamiraku would be introduced to his future squad. The sunlight of the warm spring day was refreshing, but the hustle and bustle of the mid-day Sereitei marketing district was beginning to give Zamiraku a headache. Kazami whistled a song as they walked.
"Is the marketing district a great place or what?" Kazami asked Zamiraku, leaning his head back so that he could hear Zamiraku over the sound of the crowd.
"I'll have to say 'or what'." Zamiraku said pointedly.
"oh, come on Zami-kun don't rain on the lovely day!" Kazami said as he stretched his arms, and flashing Zamiraku a playful smile.
'zami-kun? Is that some sort of ridiculous nickname?' Zamiraku though to himself, but didn't say anything.
"remind me again why we are not using shunpo to get to the barracks?" Zamiraku asked, plainly annoyed.
"because its not far, and I always love walking through the marketing district, people will give me some good deals if I come here regularly." the captain responded.
Almost as if it were rehearsed, a balding skinny man with a wispy mustache waved at Kazami. "Nori-san!" the man yelled across the crowd at Kazami. "I have some extra persimmons with your name on them! Free of charge!" he gave the captain a toothy grin.
"Thanks! I'll come pick them up later! I have this new recruit to deal with." Kazami yelled back, then turned to Zamiraku with what appeared to be his deluxe victory smile.
"If you keep making funny faces, I'll have to punch you." Zamiraku deadpanned.
"Haha, yeah yeah." Kazami laughed.
Zamiraku stared at Kazami as they began walking through the crowds. Kazami was not what he expected a captain to be like, he was really easygoing and congenial. The person who was closest to Kazami in rank was Headmaster Kogretsu, but he was a captain-elect, not a captain. 'I always thought that a captain would act like they have a frozen stick up their ass. Kogretsu was nice, but a stickler for rules and regulations, so it was like there was only half a frozen stick up his ass.' Zamiraku thought to himself.
"Oh, and one more thing, be careful of thieves," Kazami said, cutting Zamiraku from his thoughts. "some bandits somehow got into the serietei a few weeks ago, and are supposed to be in this area. We've caught all but one, but he is probably still skulking around here somewhere."
' so there was a reason for going through the marketing district, he wants to try and catch the bandit, maybe I misjudged him, he is more shrewd than he lets on.' Zamiraku thought. But once again, he was interrupted by a tug at his obi sash, were his zanpakuto was. Zamiraku whipped around just to see a man clad in black running off with his Zanpakuto.
"Hey! Stop, you!" Zamiraku yelled as he turned to run after the man, but he stopped short, because Kazami was already in front of the bandit, sword drawn and giving him a gentle smile, not too different from the insane smile he gives. And the once bustling district had fell silent, and formed a circle around the two men. Zamiraku walked up closer, to get a better look, and the crowds parted for him once they noticed the soul reaper uniform, pretty soon he was standing at the front of the crowd, partially inside the circle of people.
"Now, Mr. bandit..." Kazami said, still smiling. "it seems as if you have taken my recruit's zanpakuto, and that is a big no-no." his words, while polite, seemed to have a strong aura behind it, like what he was really saying was: 'hand over the zanpakuto, or die.'. "So, Mr. bandit..." Kazami continued. "you have two options; One: give me the zanpakuto and the stealth force picks you up and removes you from the sereitei. Simple and quick, nobody has to so much as get a scratch. Two: you resist, and I personally remove you from the sereitei, one way or another." as the clincher, he flicked his zanpakuto just slightly, so that light flickered off of it in a threatening display.
"uh-uh-uh I-I-I'm" the bandit stuttered, clearly scared witless.
"Well?" Kazami prompted, still smiling kindly.
"I... I'll leave..." the bandit said, as he place Zamiraku's zanpakuto at Kazami's feet.
"Good!" Kazami beamed. "I'll call the stealth force and have them pick you up." he turned around and shouted out to on seen person. "Hey, come on out, I flushed him out!"
For a few seconds nothing happened, and zamiraku though his captain completely went off the deep end, but then some black blurs jumped into the arena a surrounded the bandit. Then a man wlaked out of the crowd with long black hair, not unlike Kazami's. But his hair, while also tied back, was braided, and his bangs were slightly shorter, and he was wearing a captain's haori, but Zamiraku could not see the squad identification on the back. He appeared to be of Chinese descent, and was slightly shorter than Zamiraku.
"thanks for that Kazami." The captain said absently, as he watched the black clad figures tie up the bandit, and then turned to him. "great job team, take him back to the rukongai." the captain told the group. In response, they bowed, and shunpoed off with the Bandit, without a word.
"don't mention it Hisachi" Kazami said. Then he noticed Zamiraku, and picked up his zanpakuto, and gave it back to Zamiraku. "Sorry about not warning you about that, the bandit had a habit of trying to steal zanpakuto, so you were a bait of sorts. The stealth force had some trouble capturing that bandit, so I cooked up this plan. But I didn't think actually work." Kazami laughed heartily.
"It's fine Kazami-taichou." Zamiraku muttered as he put his zanpakuto back into his obi.
"Oh, and by the way, This is Hisachi Uryko, captain of squad 2. he is also the leader of the punishment force and stealth force." Kazami said, gesturing to the man who had walked out of the crowd.
"Yeah, nice to meet you." Hisachi said to Zamiraku. "I've got to go now, I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow Kazami." and with that he shunpoed off.
"Jeez..." Kazami sighed. "don't take it the wrong way Zamiraku, Hisachi is always really busy, so he gets almost no downtime, but he's nice at heart." ha smiled weakly.
"uh-huh... Can we go to the squad barracks now?" Zamiraku asked.
"Oh, ah, sure." Kazami stuttered, as he grabbed Zamiraku by the collar of his shihakusho.
"hey what the hell are you-" Zamiraku was cut off because the wind had been sucked out of him, and the scene of the marketing district blur past into a kaleidoscope of people, then as quickly as it had started it ended, and zamiraku fell down, panting for breath.
"Oh, didn't I tell you to hold your breath for a second? Your body wouldn't be used to a shunpo a captain uses." kazami stated mildly.
"No!" Zamiraku objected, still trying to catch his breath.
"Could have sworn I did, sorry about that." Kazami apologized
"You're going to get me killed ." Zamiraku said pointedly as he stood up.
"Ah, and by the way, welcome to the squad 9 barracks." Kazami said with a smile.
Zamiraku looked around in wonder, he was standing in a beautifully manicured garden, with some small man-made ponds, about 5 feet across scattered around the area. It was enclosed by large walls, easily 10 feet tall, and in the center was a large 3 story complex, made from stone, in essence it looked like a nobleman's house, but it had the symbol for 9 was painted above a large pair of double doors that looked like they would weigh a ton.
"Well?" Kazami said, snapping Zamiraku from his thoughts, "Are you coming?" kazami was now 15 feet in front of zamiraku, looking back at him over his shoulder.
"O-Oh yeah!" Zamiraku managed, and run up to his captain.
"Yeah, so this is the squad 9 barracks, most of the men live here, do you have a house inside the sereitei? Or are you from the rukon?" Kazami asked as they slowly walked to the double doors.
"Well, I'm from the rukon, but... I have a house." Zamiraku said meekly
Kazami stopped in his tracks. "how?" he asked, truly perplexed. "you wouldn't have gotten your first paycheck until the end of this week, and as a normal soul reaper that wouldn't be nearly enough to buy a house."
"Uh, yeah..." Zamiraku said, and Kazami raised an eyebrow. "Well... headmaster Kogretsu gave it to me."
Kazami jerked his head back in surprise. "Kogretsu?" he asked. Zamiraku nodded. "not to sound rude, but why?"
"My house in the rukon got burned down by a bunch of outlaws, and all the male dormitories were filled up, so Kogretsu bought me a small house not too far from here." Zamiraku said, obviously uncomfortable talking about the generous gift.
"Ah, well that was nice of him, I've never known Kogretsu to be so nice, It's probably because you were such a reliable student." Kazami managed awkwardly, he wanted to get off the subject and back to business. "Alright, here we are." Kazami said as they had reached the double doors.
"Senior officers first." Zamiraku said, getting a slight twinge of fear now that he was facing the doors.
Kazami gave him a hard stare for just a moment, then brightened. "fine, the welcome to-"he pushed open the double doors with ease. "-squad 9!"
Before Zamiraku was a massive hall, with several soul reaper wandering around, some noticed their captain and ran up him, showering him in greetings. Until one finally exclaimed out from the back of the crowd: "I need to speak with our captain!" the crowd parted and revealed a small framed girl who couldn't have been more than 5'3" with black hair clipped up on the back of her head, purple eyes, and glasses without a frame along the top edge.
"Captain, Tasume just got back from his mission, it was entirely successful, not even a single casualty." she paused as she noticed Zamiraku. "Oh, yes the recruits! Were are the rest of them?" she asked as she craned her neck to look behind Kazami.
"Uh, yeah about that Tokimari..." Kazami said nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "Zami-kun here is our only recruit..." he managed a weak smile.
The girl named Tokimari just sighed, and adjusted her glasses, as if she expected to hear that, and then she place two fingers on the bridge of Kazami's nose. "Hado #1 Sho." she chanted, and a blue light surrounded her fingers. Moments later, Kazami fell over, as if he had just been pushed, and his head hit the ground first.
Zamiraku winced, 'that had to hurt' he thought to himself as Kazami sat up, and started to rub the back of his head. "Was that necessary Toki-chan?" he whined to the girl.
"Yes." she said blantantly as he stood back up. "Let me guess, you fell asleep, didn't you?" she asked him, and Kazami paled. "Thought so." she rolled her eyes, then turned to Zamiraku. "Hello, sorry you had to see that, but the captain needs to learn his lessons the hard way sometimes."
the majority of the squad members who had assembled around us were giving each other knowing glaces, Zamiraku inferred that this was a regular thing.
"I'm Tokimori Aysaumi. The 4th seat of squad 9" she said with a kind smile.
"I am Zamiraku Rinansari." Zamiraku said with a quick bow.
"Well, it very nice to have you in our squad Zamiraku." she said, then turned to Kazami. "Should I take him to Tasume?" she inquired.
"Ah, yes. I have to organize a patrol in the Rukongai though, so I'll catch up with you later." Kazami said as he walked off, with all of the crowd in toe.
"Kazami-taichou seems very popular with the squad members." Zamiraku said absentmindedly.
"Quite." Tokimari stated. "Kazami is a bit of a goof-off sometimes, he often gets distracted from what he is supposed to be doing, and he spends a lot of the nighttime outside, just doing nothing in particular, so he falls asleep on the job occasionally, but he is also a very good captain. He is likeable, a strong leader, knows when to be gentle and when to be strict, and most importantly of all he is knows all of his squad mates, all 156 of us."
"How long has Kazami-taichou been your Captain?" Zamiraku wondered.
"37 years next month." she said. "Kazami has been the captain of this squad since before I joined, straight from the academy, 30 years ago."
Zamiraku was surprised, the way Kazami acted, he thought it hadn't been more than 10 years since he took the position.
"Alright." Tokimori said "It's high time you meet our lieutenant, Tasume." she lead him out of the grand hallway, and into one of the many smaller hallways that branch off of it. "remember this path, you'll be called to the lieutenant's office quite a bit, and you can't expect someone to hold your hand and bring you here." Tokimori said. Zamiraku began memorizing the path. Eventually they came to another set of double doors, but far smaller than then entrance doors, with a white poppy, the ninth squad's insignia painted onto the door, and underneath the poppy the name "Tasume Aoimoru" was written.
"Here he is." Tokimori announced. "Tasume Aoimoru, lieutenant of squad 9." for a slight dramatic affect, she opened the door as she finished speaking.
Inside was a quaint office setting, at first it appeared that the room was empty, until Zamiraku noticed a man with spiky black hair looking out a window.
"Ah, Toki-chan, so come to have the recruits meet-" turned and stopped once he saw it was just Zamiraku and Tokimori standing in the doorway. "Er, make that the recruit. Did Kazami fall asleep?" he asked expectantly.
"Yeah, he did." Tokimori sighed.
He rolled his eyes as if he expected that to happen, giving Zamiraku a chance to look at him. He was taller than Zamiraku, probably about 6'3", his black hair was a spikey mess, and he had a scar going across his left cheek. But the most noticeable quality about him were his eyes, blue as the sky on the clearest day you can remember. "So, you're our only recruit eh?" Tasume asked.
"Yes Sir. My name is Zamiraku Rinansari." Zamiraku said with a slight bow.
Tasume narrowed his eyes and walked around him, as if he was analyzing him, which he probably was. "not bad..." he finally said. "you got a good amount of spiritual pressure to your name, for a recruit that is, and you seem to be in good shape. I think you could be a great soul reaper someday." he grinned.
"Thank you Aoimoru-fukutaichou." Zamiraku said stiffly, and Tokimori chuckled, while Tasume snorted.
"Didn't our captain tell you to kick those formalities? Call me Tasume-san. We can't stand all those ranks, it creates a void between the seated officers and the squad members, you still have to respect us according to our rank though." He quickly added that last comment when Tokimori gave him a sharp look.
Zamiraku stood there uncomfortably for a moment, not knowing what to say. "So..." he eventually began. "How does this work? My integration into the squad I mean."
"Well, usually we have all the new recruits train together with the upper officers for a while." Tasume started. "Normally, we have our Kido specialist, that's Tokimori by the way, our Zanjutsu specialist, me, and our shunpo and hakuda expert, who happens to be our third seat, rotate with the newest recruits and teach them the ropes before we send them out on any missions. That whole process takes about 3 months, and then we continue to have training sessions for the next 3 years, but they slowly lessen. By the time the process is over you'll be a highly capable soul reaper. However, we only have you this year Zamiraku, and we have 3 months of absolutely nothing for you to do, you'll be having some more one-on-one time with us then most other recruits would get. Any questions?"
"uh, yeah will you be teaching shikai?" Zamiraku asked tentatively.
Tasume leaned back onto his desk. "Not in depth, most soul reapers wont get their Shikai until about 5 years into being a soul reaper, some even longer, but if you ever have any strange dreams or visions, let me know."
"okay..." Zamiraku was disappointed, he had hoped shikai would be slightly easier to attain. H always loved shikai studies class the best out of all of his time at the academy, all shikai had al least one special trait that was unique to that soul reaper. All the different variations of abilities always left Zamiraku's mind popping with ideas for battle. "uh, if you don't mind my asking, when did you achieve your shikai?"
"five years" Tasume said, grabbing a zanpakuto that was laying on the desk. It had a light blue hilt, and an a tsuba shaped like two crescent moons facing away from each-other, and a spiral at the center, it was slightly disorienting to look at. "that sure was a long time ago..." he said wistfully. "what about you tokimori?"
"It took me six years." she reached into her sleeve and pulled out a tanto with a diamond shaped tsuba, and a white hilt.
They both seemed like they were deeply lost in their memories, and Zamiraku did not want to intrude, so he left them to their memories, and about a minute later Tasume looked up and asked "Where were we again?"
"Training." zamiraku reminded him.
"ah, yes, training. So we'll be training your for the first three months of your life as a soul reaper, i'll be teaching you zanjutsu, Tokimori will teach kido, and our third seat will-" he was cut off by a call from outside the office.
A tall man with a blond buzz cut and brown eyes walked in. "You called tasume?" he asked.
"No, but it's rather convenient you showed up Ichiru." Tasume turned to Zamiraku. "this is Ichiru Kasaganki, the third seat of our squad, he'll be teaching you shunpo and hakuda."
"Only one?" Ichiru asked, who was now in the room "Did Kazami-"
"fall asleep?" Tasume and Tokimori completed. Then laughed.
"So, when will my training begin?" Zamiraku asked.
The three of them smiled a maniac smile, though not the same as Kazami "Right now." Tasume said ominously. "Follow us." they lead zamiraku through a system of hallways and eventually they ended up outside in the massive courtyard enclosing the barracks. They stopped at a patch were there was no grass.
"alright, time for your first training session, this one is simple enough: attack us, all three of us, in any way you know how." Ichiru cracked his knuckles, Tokimori took off her glasses and tucked them inside her shihakusho.
"What?" Zamiraku yelled. "I'll be crushed! I have no chance at all!" for the first time the three of them seemed threatening, Zamiraku noticed the muscle bulging underneath ichiru's shihakusho, the murderous look in tokimori's eyes and Tasume's smile even seemed scary. He was afraid.
"No, you don't." Tasume said. "So what are you going to do about it?"
the three of them charged, all at once, at blinding speeds so Zamiraku did the only thing he could do.
"HELP!" he screamed, and closed his eyes bracing for the onslaught. But such onslaught never arrived. Tentatively he opened his eyes, in front of him stood Kazami. Ichiru, tokimori, and Tasume were sprawled on the ground.
"owwww, you didn't have to throw us so hard Kazami" Tasume groaned, as himself, ichiru and tokimori slowly got back up.
"what the hell was that?" Zamiraku yelled
"That was lesson #1 Zamiraku" Kazami said. "if you're in trouble, your squad mates will always be their at your back. Although, not many people actually ask for help during this exercise, I find that interesting that you did."
"wait, so let me get this straight, you made me think I was about to be killed just to get that point across?" Zamiraku asked
"yeah." Tasume siad.
"pretty much." Ichiru shrugged.
"essentially." Tokimori beamed.
Zamiraku felt his eye twitch. "you people are Spartan teachers!" he said incredulously.
We won't be denying that!" Kazami said, and the four ranked officers started laughing. Zamiraku felt like he should be angry, but he found no anger bubbling inside him, but rather a warm fluttering felling, and soon enough, he began laughing with the ranking officers.
"Now for lesson 2..." tokimori said, still laughing.
"Oh, what now? Pushing me off a cliff to show me gravity is a pain in the ass?" zamiraku said between laughs.
"Nope, that's lesson 4." Tasume laughed out, and the four of them exploded into laughter again.
Zamiraku smiled. He had found a great squad.
X
However, Even on this good day, mysterious forces convine.
In a cave, far from the Sereitei, a single candle sits upon a rock, casting flickering shadows everywhere, but lighting the room just enough for the four people in the cave to see. They all wore tattered cloaks with hoods, and their faces were unseen.
"anything to report on your end?" asked one of the four in a male voice.
"nothing of any substance, just the routine thing, same as last year." responded another, this time a female was the one to speak.
"Oh? Asked the third person, in a melodic, male, tone. "I doubt that. Everything has substance to it, even the air. I thought I told you to stop saying that!" he said playfully, with not audible malice behind his words.
The Woman gulped, nonetheless. "Nothing that I could consider important to report." she rephrased.
"Better~." the man beamed.
"well, it's the same with me." said the fourth person, also male, who was holding a tanto, making it gleam in the firelight. "nothing of any visible value." he siad.
"okay then, Alert us if anything comes up." said the man who had spoke first.
"hows the gathering going?" asked the woman.
"slow and painful." said the man with the playful tone of voice. "only got 3 so far, and they arn't too great."
"How long do you think it'll take?" asked the man holding the tanto.
"10, 15 years." said the man who had spoken first.
"how slow..." muttered the man holding the tanto.
"alright, meeting adjured then. Said the playfully toned man, then him and the man who spoke first dissapeared.
"Till next time." said the tanto holding man, as he snuffed out the candle with his hand, making the cave go dark.
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sorry this chapter took so long, my computer went and deleted it on me, so I had to re-type it.
Hisachi Uryko is based off of Ishida Hisagi from bleach-rpg
Tasume Aoimoru is based of of lildudeblue from bleach rpg.
Ichiru Kasaganki is based off of ichiru from bleach-rpg
interesting fact about Tokimori, she didn't exist until I sat down and started typing, but then I thought of a way to tie in a future character into the earlier storyline and she fit very well.
Everyone else is OC's and of my creation.
The Idea od bleach belongs to tite kubo.
Please read and review!