And here is the fourth chapter for The Fourth Horseman, hope you guys are enjoying it so far and thank you to those who are reading my story. Another disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does, and I make no money off of this. Man I suck at Author's Notes. Anyway, on to the story.
Chapter 4: What Is My Name?
"Now that you have passed lesson two, we can move on to lesson three. The purpose of this lesson is for you to learn the name of your zanpakutö. Seeing as you don't have one right now, it's probably permanently in its Shikai form. It's in this form because you probably don't know how to control the output of your spirit energy. So the only way you're going to get a zanpakutö, is by learning his name," Kisuke says to me.
"Her," I correct him," and what is a Shikai?"
"Zanpakutö have three forms: the sealed form, the Shikai, and finally the Bankai. A Soul Reaper gains his Shikai when he learns the name of his zanpakutö, and the only way for a Soul Reaper to unlock his Bankai is by having enough spirit energy, which you already have no doubt, and by manifesting his zanpakutö spirit. The zanpakutö spirit needs to deem their master worthy of its power, sometimes the zanpakutö won't even give the proper name of their Bankai, therefore only giving a fraction of the power they possess."
"So how does one learn the name of their zanpakutö?"
"You have to figure that one out by yourself," he says while waving his fan.
"Ag fine, so do you have any tips on where to start?" I ask.
"Yep, and all you need to do is make me drop my fan," he says with a smug look on his face.
"Really? That's it?" I ask in disbelief of what I just heard.
He nods his head. "Well this is going to be easy," I say while running at him. He pulls a toothy grin and holds out his cane.
"Careful what you say Katashi, don't judge a book by its cover," he says as he pulls the handle of the cane, revealing a blade that was hidden inside it. My eyes widen in shock and I immediately stop dead in my tracks, a smile forms on his face. "Told you, now what were you saying about this being easy?" he asks with a smug look on his face. He starts charging at me with his blade extended, intending to run it through me. My instincts take over and I dodge the blade and immediately thrust my arm out aiming for his hand that was holding the blade, intending to hit it with enough force to make him drop it. He sees right through my plan and shifts his body so that he gives me a hard kick to the face. I soar through the air and into a small cliff face, breaking the rock and leaving an imprint of me.
"Damn," I say as I pull up my hand to wipe away the blood from my nose. He charges at me while I'm still dazed from the attack, I see the blade coming straight for my head and I narrowly dodge the attack. I manage to dodge it, but I didn't come out completely unscathed, I look down to my side and see blood slowly dripping from the wound. 'This test is supposed to help me learn the name of my zanpakutö, but I haven't felt her presence at all,' I think to myself as I see Kisuke bring up his blade. I ready my hands and stand in a defensive stance, ready for the next attack.
"Come on Katashi, you expect me to drop this fan without using any zanpakutö?" he asks as he charges at me with his blade poised to strike. He was right, without my zanpakutö, I had no chance of winning, I could only do the best I can to defend myself. As he brings the blade down, I side-step and aim a punch for his head. My fist almost made contact with his face, then my eyes widen in shock as Kisuke simply vanishes from my sight. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a faint outline of a man moving behind me, I quickly bring up my arms to block an incoming attack. Not the smartest way to block a blade, but when you have nothing to defend yourself with, you have to go with the next best thing. I try to not let out a scream as I feel a blade make its way across my arms, once the blade leaves my arms, I deliver a strong kick to Kisuke's mid-section. The man slides a couple of meters away from me and smiles.
The man then leaps into the air and extends his arm, "Hadö number thirty-one: Shakkaho," he says and an orb of red fire shoots forth from his hand. Relying on instinct again, I roll out of the way, but the attack manages to graze my leg before it goes off in the distance and explodes behind me. "Damn it," I curse, trying to ignore the stinging pain in my leg, "what the hell did you just do?" I ask and stare at the man with anger in my eyes.
"What I just used now my friend is a Kidö spell, Soul Reapers can use their spirit energy to make spells that they can use in battle," he says as he floats down on to a stone pillar. Before I can say anything, he brings up his arm again, "let me give you another demonstration, Hadö number thirty-three: Sokatsui." A beam of blue energy shoots out of his hand, I didn't have any time to react to his attack and took the full brunt of the blast. I'm repelled a couple of meters before I come to a stop, I struggle to get up as I feel burn marks everywhere. I manage to stand up and look down to see that the top half of my outfit has been blown away, only leaving the pants relatively unscathed. I'm surprised to see the silver cross till hanging around my neck, I never knew that I would be wearing something like this in my Soul Reaper form, I thought it would stay behind with my body, but I'm relieved to see that it's still there.
I hear a swooshing kind of sound and look behind me to the source, "That's an interesting mark you have Katashi," Kisuke says to me.
"Huh? Where?" I ask confused by the statement.
"On your back."
I try to look over my shoulder and I manage to see a bat wing and some parts of a skull in my line of vision, I look over my other shoulder and see the rest of the skull and another bat wing coming out of the side of the head. "How did I get that? I know I've always wanted to get some tattoos, but I don't remember ever getting one, not to mention something like this."
"I don't know how it got there, probably when you gained your Soul Reaper powers. But you should be focusing on the battle Katashi," Kisuke says, bringing my thoughts back to the task at hand. "Bakudö number four: Hainawa," Kisuke says, hearing similar words from before, I knew it was another Kidö spell. As I'm about to blindly dodge the attack, I suddenly felt that I couldn't move my arms that were now bound behind my back. I felt a slash across my side and felt the pain shooting throughout my body and I fall to my knees. I look up and see Kisuke standing ten meters away. He then starts walking slowly to me with killing intent in his eyes.
'Is this how it ends? Is this how I die?' I ask myself in defeat.
"Why did you become a Soul Reaper?" I hear a woman's voice call out to me. I look up and see the woman from that world I was in just before I became a soul Reaper standing in front of me.
"Huh?" I ask in surprise of seeing her here. She lets out a sigh at my response.
"I'll ask again, why did you become a Soul Reaper?" she asks with calmness in her voice.
"Because I wanted to get rid of the nightmares."
"You and I both know that isn't the truth, what is the real reason? You know you can't lie to me, I'm a part of your soul. Tell me the truth please," she asks me with kindness evident in her voice. I look down and think about this. After a few moments of silence, I give her my answer.
"Because I didn't want to see anyone who is kind, gentle, and innocent to die by their hands, the hands of killers. After watching that man take away my sister from me, I promised her that I wouldn't let anything like that happen to anyone. When I heard that Rukia was taken away to be executed, I couldn't sit by and do nothing, I had to do something. So I decided to become a Soul Reaper and help Ichigo and the rest of them save her. After all, she talked to me when nobody else would. I owe her that much."
"Look inside your soul, what do you wish to do to those who take away the souls of the innocent."
"I wish to. . . avenge them. To take vengeance upon them and give the souls eternal rest. That is what I wish for," I tell her.
"Then I will help you, I will be the blade that you will use to avenge the fallen."
I suddenly felt this huge surge of power growing inside of me, it was nothing like I've ever felt before. "Now reach out with your hand and call me," she commands.
I couldn't hold in the power anymore and I let it out of me, I see a massive dark purple and black column of energy rise out of me into the sky. And I feel the chain that was binding me dissipate. I look up at Kisuke and see a shocked expression on his face. I reach out with my hand and see the shadows of the landscape come surging to me, "Walk over the ashes of my enemies and come forth from the shadows: Yami No Ha," I chant and then the shadows that were swirling around me come together in my hand. I feel a hilt is formed and I grab hold of it, then the shadows start forming a blade from the hilt and extend into the air. When the blade is finished forming, I stand up and swing my blade down to the ground, clearing away remaining reiastu and shadows. When I look down at my new zanpakutö, I see a black and red bound hilt with a bronze handguard and a black blade with a silver edge lining it.
I look back to Kisuke who still has the dead panned expression on his face, "Kisuke, shall we end this now?" I ask in a monotone voice.
Kisuke composes himself and looks at me, "Don't get too cocky now that you have a zanpakutö, you still need to make me drop my fan. To be honest, you almost did when that dark column of reiastu exploded out of you, and not to mention your spiritual pressure sky rocketed. But it's gonna take more than a little spirit energy to make me drop this fan," he says with confidence in his voice.
"Is that what you believe? If so, let's put it to the test," I say and charge at him with speeds I didn't even know I was capable of. He quickly brings up his blade to block the attack. Our blades clash and sparks fly, the force I was coming at him with makes him slide backwards with me still pushing against his blade. It was now my turn to be the attacker, so I charge at him again and strike with speed, precision and accuracy. He manages to parry all of my attacks despite only holding his zanpakutö with one hand. He jumps away and smiles at me.
"Not bad Katashi, you're quite the swordsman, having practiced with a katana before," he says, "now let's see how good you really are." Kisuke then raises his hand with his sword and winds start swirling around him, reiatsu starts spiralling upwards from where he stands. I decide to do the same and my own reiatsu starts spiralling upwards, however, the colour is the same dark purple without the black in it.
As I feel my energy well up inside of me, I hear Yami No Ha whisper to me, "What I'm about to teach you is a devastating attack. When you use this, always remember these words: If you cower once, you will fear forever. If you turn and run, you will regret. If you hesitate, you will die when you stand. When you strike, look for fear in your opponent's eyes. If you move forward, you will know the truth," she says before she leaves me to the battle, I heed her wise words. After I accept them, I feel like a blind fold was taken off and now I have knowledge that I previously didn't know. But once I knew this, there was only one thing to do.
"Hell Slayer," I roar as I bring my blade down, releasing all the energy that was building up inside me. I look up and see a huge wave of dark purple energy soar towards Kisuke, as the Emo Lady said, look for fear in the opponent's eyes. And to my luck, I found it. As soon as I found the fear in Kisuke's eyes, even if it was tiny, I still found it nonetheless and I knew I had won this fight. A smile forms on my face as I see Kisuke drop his fan and watch him grab his zanpakutö with two hands to block the incoming attack. The deadly wave of energy engulfs him in a torrent of dark purple flames, when the flames clear, I see him with a huge smile on his face.
"Well done Katashi, you've passed the third and final test," Kisuke says.
"And you should have seen the look on your face when I used that attack and when that column of energy came out of me, priceless," I say to the man laughing.
"Yea, yea, get it out of your system," he says in a bored tone.
"Kisuke, do you mind if we continue training tomorrow? I haven't had any sleep for a couple of days now and almost sleepless nights before this," I ask him.
"Sure thing kiddo, you've earned it," he says, "if you want to get back into your body, just fall into it and you'll be back in it in no time. There's also a spare room to the left for you to sleep in, save you the trouble of walking all the way home."
"Thanks," I say as I start walking towards the ladder and start climbing it.
"We are going to start training tomorrow, so rest up. It's going to be a busy day," Kisuke yells up at me.
"Got it," I say and climb up the rest of the way. I walk around the store and find the room Kisuke was talking about. I close the door behind me and climb in. I lie down thinking of what just happened over the past couple of days, I went from a normal teenager to a Soul Reaper in that time span. In the end, I was happy, I could finally keep the promise I made all those years ago. I close my eyes and let sleep wash over me before one last thought entered my mind, 'I'm finally getting a peaceful sleep fore once.'
Author's Notes:
And that's chapter four, I tried describing the fight scenes as best as I could, it took me a while to come up with the name for Katashi's attack and if his zanpakutö's name sound weird, it's because I used Google translate for it, it's all I had. His zanpakutö's name means Blade of Darkness. So yea, hope you enjoyed this chapter and next chapter will be posted next week Friday. Drop a review if you can, just to tell me how the story is going so far. Until then, see you next time.