Blah. I skipped an entire three or so months in the story because I'm too lazy to really build up a character's strength or personality. AND I figured out the seperate story to chapter thing so reviews are encouraged. Seriously, guys, I'm dealing with a harsh crowd here. I need some encouragement.
His blade hung loosely at his side- the metal of the tip clicking against his heels- the only thing holding it up being a thick metal chain the color of a pigeon. He wore his shihakushō* lazily; his back, arms and chest completely bare. He hadn't changed except for muscle growth, and a slight difference in height and weight. Walking briskly, he arrived at the Shinigami Academy in short time, approaching his red-headed friend. He paused, halted, moved off to the side behind a wall and looked over his left shoulder to avoid being seen. 'Too slow, come one…faster…'
"Masa!!"
"Jesus fucking Christ Reed!!" Masato squeaked and jumped back three feet. "You scared the living shit outta me!"
Reed shrugged, "Just my job." And slung his arm around Masato's shoulder. "Doin' well?"
"Hells yeah." Masato replied confidently. He'd been attending the Shinōreijutsuin for eight months now, and stayed behind every day to practice. He knew he was a thousand years behind the ability of his best friend, but he was forcing that large gap to slowly close. "Mid-terms are somewhere in the next month or so, and I should get my overall evaluation soon."
"Great!" Reed exclaimed, then turned sour. "You don't know how boring it is in the Seireitei when you're not here. All they do is order me around."
Masato laughed, "You're not even around for them to order you Riido!"
"Exactly! I got so sick of it I just started skipping."
"You're not going to get anywhere doing that." Ichimaru Gin said teasingly as he passed the two.
Reed rolled his eyes. "Tell that to the old man." he replied, remembering specifically how Gin had made it so that Reed could become a Shinigami just one day faster. Aizen had to have had something to do with that, he figured. "Anyway, Masa, I wanna show you this really cool place I found."
"You probably didn't find it Riido." Masato said; cognizant.
Reed frowned. "Stupid. This is s'pposed to be fun! And what the hell does cognizant mean?!"
Masato shrugged. "Ask the author of this thing. I dunno."
Reed made sure to look that word up later. Or ask the author. Or just ignore it. He led Masato to a large field beneath an ominous cliff looming overhead.
"The hell's that?" Masato said, looking up at it.
"Sōkyoku."* Reed answered simply.
"And that would be..?" Masa asked expectantly, anxiety shown in his hazel eyes.
Reed's brows knotted up. He was thinking hard…or just making a cool face to confuse readers. "We'll find out soon enough. I heard from Soi Fon that there's a soul reaper who's gonna be executed soon."
"Yeah? So it's where they execute criminals, eh..?" Masato glanced side-ways at his friend, who was already walking away. "'Ey Riido!" he called out. Reed stopped and looked over his shoulder, uttering a "what?". "Who's the soul reaper?"
"Huh? Rukia Kuchiki…why?"
YOTTSU : SEIIKU*
"So it's just some giant bird that like…eats people?"
"Nah, nah…it's like…well yeah, a bird but…I heard it's made of fire or something. And I think it just…runs through people and burns them to death."
"Like a cremation?"
Reed shrugged. "I really don't know, but it's gonna be big. You an' me," Reed cocked his chin at his friend. "we're going to see a live execution, so we know what we're up against in the Soul Society."
Masato nodded. "Yeah. You stand a much better chance than me though. I'm still in the damn Academy!"
"Hey now, everyone's gotta go…okay, not everyone…" Reed paused, remembering what happened with him not nine months ago…
"You would be an advantage to the Seireitei. Frankly speaking, we need you, Reed Scissormouth. And I, Shigekuni Genryūsai Yamamoto, am asking you to join the first court guard company, regardless of the test or not."
"Wonder if they've ever done that before? Y'know, Masa? Just gone into the Rukongai district and recruit guys from there?"
"Who knows. All I do is that we both got in. By means of…" Reed realized where this was going, and drew in a deep breath along with his friend. "Flower Crane Cannon!!!" they both fell on their backs laughing, remembering the old times in West Rukongai. Reed didn't hear it, but Masato sat up, listening to the familiar ring in his ears of approaching spiritual pressure. He yelled out, seemingly into the empty tree-line, "Whaddaya want?"
"Masa? What're you yelling…"
"You got some pretty damn good sense-a spiritual pressure, kid!"
Masa cocked a brow. "Yeah? Got somethin' to say 'bout it Baldy?"
"I am not bald!!" the lieutenant-class soul reaper bent over, growling through gritted teeth. "Punk! What're you doing outside of the Soul Reaper Academy?"
Reed stood up. "That'd be me. I excused him fer the day. Ya mind? We were talking."
"Hasami…" the man backed down a little. "Well, make sure you inform someone next time!"
Masato stood up. "Excuse me? How can you intrude and just walk off like nothin' happened?! Baldy!"
"I am not bald, you sonova"-
"Enough!" Reed smacked them both upside the head. "Masa, just ignore him. He's just some stupid Shinigami with no manners in particular."
"Says the one who addressed General Yamamoto as 'old man'." He shot back.
"You got a problem?" Reed turned around, looking agitated. "Just 'cause I didn't have to enter that Academy?"
"Hell yeah I got a problem, kid!" he took a step forward, looking ready to take a bite out of Reed's face.
"Then say somethin' 'bout it!" Reed retorted. They were now nearly at each others' throats. Masa's eyes were going back as if watching a tennis game. He watched as they threw insult after retort after meaningless word that kept the argument going, until he copied Reed's action of smacking them both upside the heads.
"What the hell're you two doing?! And who are you anyway?"
Sighing, Reed explained, "This is Madarame Ikkaku, third seat of eleventh division. We met at the same time looking for captain Zaraki."
Ikkaku grinned begrudgingly. "And still a better fighter than your friend here."
"Seriously?" Masato looked at Reed, who nodded reluctantly.
"Hey, I'm only ninth seat in the first division, that's six levels behind him."
Masato sighed. "And? I'm about three six hundred levels behind you."
"Neh, you'll catch up bud."
Ikkaku cleared his throat. "Hey, I know talking about levels is exciting, but captain of second company requested that I find you."
"So this didn't happen by accident?" Reed cocked his head slightly upward.
"No. I dunno what 'bout, but she says it has something to with Rukia Kuchiki."
"The execution girl?" Masa said, earning an annoyed look from Ikkaku.
He nodded. "Her execution is in two weeks."
"Rukia Kuchiki… what did she do to end up with a death penalty?" Reed asked, Soi Fon walking to the front and left of him. She glanced back.
"I'd assume that is none of your concern… If you must know, she'd been in the human world for quite some time." Soi Fon paused, but only briefly. "As far as I know, she had given him all of her Shinigami power, thus extending her stay in the human world."
"She's being sentenced to death because she was in the human world?" Reed stopped, his brain boiling at how unfair that seemed.
"No." Soi Fon kept moving. "She has been sentenced to death because she did something illegal; she gave up her powers as a Shinigami…to a human, of all things!"
"And apparently, that human is running around here too." Reed said to himself. He remembered hearing from a red-haired lieutenant about a group of ryoka in the Seireitei, saying they were going to rescue Rukia. Ikkaku had also told him about the human's fight with captain Kenpachi Zaraki. It wasn't clear who won, but to fight with a Shinigami at that level…that was amazing enough. "It amazes me that they can't just take back their power. What kind of soul reaper was she anyway? To let a human get that strong is just irresponsible."
"You're thinking logically, Hasami, but it's not that simple. I can't explain any more to you; if you want to do something about it, confront the ryoka."
"Y-you know I can't do that…" he said reluctantly. If he were a cat his ears would be back.
Soi Fon snorted. "You seem to be just fine skipping out on your duties right now. It wouldn't make a difference anyway; the entire Seireitei is looking for the ryoka."
"Really…that strong? This guy is that strong…" Reed suddenly felt anger wash up inside him. He hadn't come to the Soul Society to become the strongest- or maybe he had…just a little- but for a mere human to gain that much power from a soul reaper that couldn't even keep her powers? That was pathetic. It was irritating. It was clawing at Reed's mind for the rest of the day. He didn't feel the urge to fight the human, but he felt like he made the Soul Society look weak. Like they didn't know what they were doing. Like they were a litter of kittens and he was stepping on them. Reed wanted desperately for someone to do something about it.
"Why wouldn't they be able to do anything about it?" he asked himself, pacing back and forth in his room. "Fer Crhist's sake, he's just a freaking human!!"
"So fight him yourself."
"I can't…" Reed said begrudgingly.
"Why not?"
"Because it's not my place!" Reed faced Hitsugaya, who was standing in the doorway.
He snorted in disapproval. "You seem to have no problem slacking off in your duties right now. I would highly disapprove of you doing anything else rash…" he growled, "but if you feel so strongly about this, I wonder why you haven't rebelled and gone off to fight him yourself yet?"
"Because…because I'm only ninth seat. If he can even live to say he fought with a captain, he's too good for me." Reed began to relax a little, realizing his logic. "He's just…too strong…"
"And what exactly are you getting so upset about?" Hitsugaya's brows were knitted. He didn't understand the point behind getting upset over a ryoka.
Sighing, Reed flopped down on his bed. "I don't know…I'm just worn out right now. I'll get upset about it later." To punctuate his point, he rolled over and faced the wall. Hitsugaya took this as an insult, however.
"I'll be seeing you in a few days to discuss your training with captain Aizen. Do not show such disrespect in the presence of a captain, Hasami."
"My apologies, captain Hitsugaya." Reed mumbled loud enough for him to hear. He wasn't below addressing a captain as 'short' anymore. His personality had changed quite a bit from the beginning- from a rowdy kid who wanted to be a soul reaper, to a Shinigami with actual problems in his life. He addressed captains and lieutenants as such, but wasn't above being rude to anyone other than them. He generally kept his nature about him, occasionally being distracted by something "fun", but when he needed to, he could hyper-focus on certain topics. One such topic was this ryoka boy. 'Wonder if I'll ever be that strong…' the thought to himself, trying to maintain being calm. 'He's…he's gotta be something like Zaraki, large, intimidating…yeah…someone anyone can look up to.' Sitting up, he realized, 'What if I used this opportunity to train? He'd be perfect! Sure I can't even beat Ikkaku, the bastard, but if I could just focus my kidō enough to the point where I could paralyze him…' he hesitated. Rangiku Matsumoto. She was still recovering, and could barely even lift a finger. From her shoulders and up, she was fine, but from there down it was…like watching a bug try to fly inside a jar of honey. He suddenly felt immense grief wash over him.
"I should check on her…" he said to himself, heading quickly to the infirmary, where two captains were watching her closely.
"Ah, Hasami-san," Retsu Unohana, captain of squad four, greeted him as he entered. "It is nice to see you again. Rangiku is doing well, however she still cannot move for the most part…" a sad look replaced the smile on her face as Unohana looked upon Rangiku's sleeping face.
"Yeah, nice to see you too, captain." He choked on a swallow, seeing Rangiku's crippled arms and twisted torso. "She's okay?"
"She's fine. The healing process is complete, but the recovery will be long and slow."
"Right…" Reed sighed, and noticed out of the corner of his eye, a keen face looking his way. He turned his head and was confronted with,
"You're an interesting looking specimen… Tell me boy, would you do the favor of being my test subject?"
"Err…test subject? Sorry, I'm not a lab rat." Reed could tell he didn't need to address this captain as such. "Experiment on a hamster an' leave me alone, will ya?"
"Hmm…very touchy. I'd like to investigate that a little more, if you'd let me?"
Unohana stopped him from getting any closer to the boy. "Now, Kurotsuchi, you don't want to do that, now do you? This young man is quite important to us." The smile on her face said 'back off or I'll kill you'. Reed held in a snicker at that.
"Hmm. Ruin my fun why don't you? Hey boy," he said, looking intently at Reed again. "if you ever change your mind, I'm Mayuri Kurotsuchi, captain of twelfth division and second president of the Shinigami Research Institute." He exited with another keen look Reed's way. 'For a mere child to do that much damage to a lieutenant…he must be something exceptional. I'll have to ask Yamamoto about his stats…'
Sōkyoku- a large halberd, which the Gotei 13 uses to execute Shinigami
Yottsu : Seiiku- Four : Growth/Development
Shihakushō- a soul reaper's uniform
I'm somewhat of a sadist/masochist, so Reed and Kurotsuchi are gonna meet again later on. I hope everyone knows that means pain and blood and shit or whatever Kurotsuchi does to his test subjects.