"Again!" Kensai demanded, a smile playing on his lips. "You can do better than that, Sakura." I was already sweating perversely and having Kensai shouting weak encouragements was not making this any easier. I gritted my teeth and continued to jab at his cupped hands that he held before me. He moved his hands quickly, trying to prevent my fists from hitting them. When I finally did hit his hands, they only ended up cushioning my blow before relocating to a new position.
"You. Aren't. Helping." I managed to say in between punches. These weekly hand-to hand combat sessions were becoming increasingly harder as time progressed. Luckily, the clearing we were training in was open and we had more than enough space to move around. I pounded at his fists with increasing force. As I delivered a forceful punch to his left hand, he stepped back. He winced and was clutching his left hand.
"Damn, you really hurt my hand." I blinked. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it from my own ears. Kensei never gets hurt. The feeling simply does not register with him. In fact, he actually mentioned, during my first week, that if I ever did manage to hurt him, it would be a straight up miracle. Naturally I scoffed at him. In reality, I never imagined that I'd be able to pull it off but after seeing the way he was holding his hand, I grew increasingly concerned. I hesitantly took a few steps toward him, biting my lip.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit that hard…" My green eyes then caught sight of his expression. His face did not convey pain or anger. A thin smile was present on his otherwise emotionless face. My eyes widened in realization and I huffed. "You asshole, I thought you were serious."
He laughed softly. His eyes meeting mine, his smile had evolved into a grin. "Sakura, did you really believe that you'd be able to hurt me through mere hand-to-hand combat? I thought you were a little more advanced than that." I narrowed my eyes and lightly pushed him.
"I hate you."
"Not yet, but you will once I'm through with you." He approached me, his body towering over my small one.
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm up for the challenge. I can take whatever you throw at me."
His expression was mixed with surprise and amusement. "I doubt that very much."
I walked over to the tree where my zanpakutō leaned against. I picked it up, admiring it for a moment before walking back over to Kensei. "Fight me."
His expression lost all signs of amusement. "Sakura, we haven't trained with weapons yet. You'd only be basing your technique off what you've learned at the academy and that's beside the fact that I'm a much more skilled fighter than you. You don't have a chance."
"You don't know that. Think of this as a diagnostic test." I unsheathed my zanpakutō and held it firmly. "Show me how it's done."
After a few moments of staring at me, waiting for me to change my mind, he sighed and unsheathed his zanpakutō. He shook his head and started murmuring to himself. "The only reason I'm even considering the idea is because you're too stubborn for your own good." He raised his sword casually and his brown eyes met mine. He spoke gently. "Sakura, I'm going to go really easy on you. Don't mak-"I cut him off as I brought my zanpakutō down in a vertical swing. He blocked the attack with ease and forced my sword back. I jumped back and held a defensive stance as he delivered attack after attack. I timed my moves carefully and narrowly avoided his uppercut. Sweat started to trail down my brow as I prudently tried to calculate his fighting pattern. After a few minutes of playing defensive to his offensive, I wasn't surprised to learn that I could detect no pattern within his style. He seemed to be combining different attack patterns that held no relevance to each other. He focused on my actions and instead of attempting to win the fight, he was merely forcing me to try and maintain a defensive stance. Although it angered me that we were no longer fighting one on one but rather training my defensive abilities, I had to admit that he was really forcing me to rely on my basic instincts. I ducked as his zanpakutō cut horizontally and I swiftly made a low jump to my right. He made a move to follow me just as I anticipated. I knew that if I was going to gain the upper hand, I would need to catch him off guard. As good a fighter as Kensei was, he was still prone to surprise. I adopted an offensive state and started making quick jabs at him. As he blocked my attacks, I could see a smile forming on his face. Whether he knew it or not, he was clearly enjoying our weapon training. I started to repeat a certain offensive pattern that one of my opponents demonstrated back in the academy. I knew that the pattern was easily predictable and I anticipated that Kensei would recognize it quickly.
"Patterns are very dangerous to use when in the offensive state." He said, his voice rang out over the clash of the two zanpakutōs. I jerked my zanpakutō vertically, creating a break in, an otherwise predictable, pattern. He was caught off guard and my zanpakutō grazed his shoulder blade. He didn't react to the pain and instead, gave me a look of approval.
"That's why I don't use them." I said with a smirk. He pushed his weight into his zanpakutō and managed to tear himself away from my protruding attacks. The way that we fought was an unearthly experience. At the academy, I was used to the opponents realizing their defeat within the beginning moments of the fight. They knew my reputation well and it didn't take long for them to back down. Fighting with Kensei filled me with such adrenaline and excitement; I couldn't imagine myself ever stopping. From a bystander's viewpoint, I imagine it would look as though we were caught up in a dance. Our feet moved according to the other, it was mesmerizing. Deciding to have a little more fun with the fight, I jumped onto the lowest branch of a nearby tree and ascended. I heard the rustle of leaves behind me and turned just in time to see Kensei leap at me. I switched branches at the last minute and watched as Kensei brought down the zanpakutō in the exact spot that I inhabited only seconds ago. He looked at me with a bemused expression and followed me as I scaled the cherry blossom tree. Reaching the top, I leapt backwards. I saw Kensei emerge from the top and I soared towards him the same moment he made a jump towards at me. Our zanpakutōs met in mid-air and for a second, it seemed as though time stopped. I could see his expression through the crossing of our two zanpakutōs. He was grinning and his eyes flared with competition. Just as quick as it seemingly slowed down, time seemed to resume its initial path. Since we met in mid-air, we both missed the branch and fell towards the ground. The tree wasn't overly tall and we both landed in a fighting stance, the fall making no difference to the fight at hand. We clashed zanpakutōs once more and as I took up the defensive stance, I rapidly started calculating my next opening. Unfortunately, I became a little too transfixed on his attacks and I didn't notice his feet pivoting.
In hindsight, I shouldn't have ever lost focus. One of the first lessons you learn in the academy is pay attention to your opponent's stance. Their body language often gives you an idea of what direction their attack will be coming from.
I had just blocked one of his attacks when his blade came seemingly out of nowhere and slashed my left arm. I could feel blood dripping out of the wound but I held back my cry of pain and continued the fight. I soon became aware of how one-sided the fight had suddenly become. Kensei was no longer reacting to my attacks and had simply given me a cold stare, his face no longer showing any enjoyment. I stopped swinging my zanpakutō and looked at him with a confused expression. "Captain?" His eyes remained focused on my arm. I looked down at it and back at him. "It's just a scratch. We can still continue…"
"No." He said simply. His face was entirely expressionless again; his eyes seemed to bore into mine. "Sakura, I…" He sheathed his zanpakutō and strode towards me. He was so intimidating when he was like this. His personality had taken a dramatic shift in mere moments. He became the daunting captain that I learned to obey without question. I sheathed my own zanpakutō. "I'm sorry…"
"It's nothing. I'm just relieved you didn't take my arm off." I joked, trying to take the edge out of the conversation. The cold look on his face made me regret that the words ever left my mouth in the first place. My eyes fell and I covered the wound with my right hand. I wished that I hadn't made that miscalculation. I wished I could take it all back.
"I should have never listened to you." He said quietly. "Why did I think that this was a good idea? What possessed me to listen to my 7th seat?" The words stung much more than the wound itself. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. The wind picked up and the cherry blossoms fell from the nearby trees floating gracefully into the clearing. It was so quiet when compared to mere minutes ago. He stood in front of me and looked at my right hand that was doing a poor job of covering the wound. "Sakura, move your hand." I hesitated before slowly shaking my hand. He gave me an icy look and I feebly moved my hand away, exposing the cut. He gently moved my arm so the wound faced him. He furrowed his brow while he examined the injury. He tore a piece of cloth from his kosode and carefully wrapped the jagged piece of cloth around my arm. As he wrapped the cloth around my arm, my eyes caught sight of the injury across his shoulder blade that I had given him. Somewhere during the fight, he had moved his kosde to hide the blossoming injury. I was about to mention it but after thinking it over, I thought it was best to bring it up later. I let out a soft sigh of relief as he finished wrapping it and tied the ends into a small bow.
Without another word, he turned and started heading back to the main road. I walked beside him in silence. I lightly touched the bandage, still feeling the tingling of his fingers against my skin. I looked up at him, hoping to catch his eye but judging by the way he focused on the path ahead, it seemed as though he had no intention of meeting my line of sight. We walked for a few minutes before I broke the silence. "What date will we continue training hand-to-hand combat?"
"Next Tuesday." He stated, not even bothering to look at me. I hated the feeling of being helpless in this situation and I especially hated how he needed to play the goddamn stoic hero all the time.
"What about weapon training?" I asked cautiously. I secretly hoped that this situation was a one-time thing and that we'd be able to further advance my weapon capabilities.
He suddenly stopped and wheeled around to face me. "Don't you understand what happened? I could've taken your arm off back there." I opened my mouth to retort that I had only been joking but he cut me off. "As long as I am your captain, I'm prohibiting myself from using weapons whilst training with you. You are too fragile for me to handle. I can't risk that ever again." While I respected that he was clearly torn up about this, I hated that he now viewed me as something breakable and easily damaged.
"But I hurt you as well! I cut you on your shoulder blade!" I exclaimed, directing a pointing finger at his shoulder. "Why is it okay for me to hurt you but not vice versa?" I faced him dead on. I knew how dangerous this was, challenging my captain, but I had to make some sort of defence.
"Because it's you we're talking about!" He raised his voice dangerously; he gave me a piercing glance. "I'm trained to take minor injuries such as this." He motioned towards his shoulder. "I should be subjected to numerous punishments for even risking your life." He scowled. "Sakura, take note of my following statement: We will never fight with weapons again."
"I can't believe him. I just can't believe him." I was lying down in the 9th Division headquarters, specifically in my sleeping quarters. Mashiro was sitting beside my bed, looking at me intently. Mashiro, although childish, was definitely the sort of company I needed right now. She usually found a way to cheer me up in these situations. Kensei was at a captain's meeting and right now, I needed to get all my feelings into the open. I shifted in my bed and turned on my side to face the vice-captain.
"Well, he did hurt you. I'm sure he feels pretty bad about it but he definitely overreacted. He can be such an emotionless moron." She ruffled the back of her wavy lime green hair and adjusted her goggles. "I can't believe you actually gave him a scratch. I've never done that…" She trailed off and sighed.
"You don't want to. He's really intimidating. He was so cold towards me after he injured me but when I mentioned that I had injured him, he started to get really agitated." I recalled. Mashiro nodded as if she'd heard this story a thousand times before. I moved my arms above my head and shifted my gaze to the ceiling.
"Kensei's such a hot head but he'll cool off eventually. He always does." Mashiro said as a matter-of-factly. I turned my head towards her, our eyes meeting. "I wouldn't worry about him, Sakura. Kensei will always be Kensei. You just have to ignore him and move on. He shouldn't stop you from having a great time." She smiled at me.
I couldn't help but laugh at Mashiro's view of Kensei. You'd think that a vice-captain would respect her superior but it could not be more opposite when examining the case of Mashiro and Kensei's relationship. They had a funny way of interacting with each other. I had experienced first-hand a number of their fights and while it was funny to watch, it was also unusual. "Thanks Mashiro." I said, a smile now forming on my face. "I really needed to hear that."
"Don't mention it." She said, giving me a playful wink. "What do you say we have some rice cakes with some ground sesame on top? I'm hungry." She moaned and stuck her bottom lip out. "Please? I don't want to eat alone."
I giggled at her expression and gave a light sigh. "Sure. Let's go."
She squealed with delight and grabbed my right hand. "Come on. I'm starving."
I leaned against the stone wall of the hot springs. Night had already fallen and the only sound was the wind giving a gentle breeze. I loved coming to the hot springs. All my problems from the Soul Society and the Living World seemed to float away in the springs' mystic waters. I dipped my head in the water, wetting my hair. The hot temperature against my naked body was tremendous. I wanted to stay within these waters forever. I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. As relaxing as this was, all good things must come to an end. I stood up and climbed up on the edge. I grasped my warm robe that was hanging limply from a low tree branch and tied it securely around my waist. I was about to leave when I caught my reflection in the water. I peered into the springs, observing my reflection. "Sakura…"
I jumped and turned around. My heart was beating rapidly from the surprise but once I saw that it was only my captain, I relaxed a little bit. Kensei looked at me with a serious expression just as he looked at me earlier today. I suspected that he was still angry with me. My eyes drew to his bathing attire. He wore a black bathrobe that revealed a large portion of his incredibly muscled chest, displaying his infamous '69' tattoo. I found my eyes travelling down his robe before I forced myself to avert my gaze. "C-Captain! I-I'm sorry. I know I should be on d-duty but I couldn't help m-myself." I stammered. I could already feel my face going beat red. Kensei shook his head slowly and repeatedly said my name softly as he came closer to me. I leaned against the edge of the hot springs for support as his body closed in on mine. His expression wasn't serious; it was tender. My face flushed as he brought his left hand towards my face and stroked my left cheek.
He leaned his head forward so that his mouth hovered beside my ear. My whole body shook, not from fear but from lust. "I can't help myself either." He whispered. Those five words were music to my ears. He gently pulled my head back and directed my face so that it faced his. His brown eyes locked with my jade ones. He seemed to hesitate a moment before moving inwards. He stopped short of my lips, causing an involuntary whimper to escape. He chuckled at my reaction. "You're quite impatient, aren't you?" He smiled at me, teasing me. "It's my duty as captain to fulfill the needs of every squad member." He said huskily and pressed his lips against mine in a heated kiss. His hands wrapped around my back, feeling down my spine. He took advantage of my surprised gasp and slipped his tongue past my lips. My arms wrapped around his head and my fingers intertwined into his silver hair. Our tongues wrestled with each other for a few moments before he took control once more.
He moved his mouth to my neck and started to suck on it. I threw my head back in ecstasy and moaned. My eyes snapped shut as he let his tongue drag from my neck down to my collarbone. The heat of the hot springs accompanied by the increasing heat between our bodies was almost too much to bear. As he placed kisses just above my chest, I felt his left arm grab my leg and move it upwards so that it rested against the side of his thigh. Getting the message, I propped myself onto the stone ledge and wrapped my arms around his waist. His hand travelled up the robe on my left thigh, sending chills down my back. I bit my lip in anticipation. I wanted him to stop teasing me. I needed him to continue. My face grew hot as he slowly placed his kisses further and further down my upper body. He stopped right when his head was in between the top of my breasts. I could hardly stand it any longer. "Kensei, please…" I begged him to remove the flimsy cloth that stood between him and my body. He only smirked and moved his right hand towards the edge of my robe that covered my bust, gradually pulling it aside. My eyes remained shut. I couldn't wait any longer. "Kensei…"
I opened my eyes and it was entirely dark. As my eyes adjusted I soon realized that I was in my bed. "Goddamnit." I cursed as I slammed my head back into my pillow. It was too good to be true. I turned on my side and cursed those rice cakes for giving me such tempting dreams. I should have never gone with Mashiro in the first place. My disappointment was greater than I would have liked to admit. I had feelings for Kensei. Knowing that our relationship could only be one-sided, was killing me. My feelings towards him arose almost immediately during the day we met. I felt such chemistry between us and the attraction was undeniable. I sighed and brought a hand to my forehead. He was a captain and that's all we'll ever be: a captain and his 7th seat. Stop kidding yourself, Sakura…With a final glance at the barracks, I closed my eyes and left the real world behind.