The boy frantically turned to me with a look of fear on his face. "Pull me out!" He yelled. "Hurry up and pull me out!"
I grabbed the blade and pulled it with all my might, it slowly started to slide out but it was to slow, I wouldn't make it.
"Hurry!" The boy yelled.
I put my last ounce of strength in one final pull and the blade came free, blinding me in a pillar of light.
I fell back at the sudden release and felt myself tumbling and spinning. The constant swirling made me sick to the stomach, and I seemed to have lost my sword along the way. I held my body tight as I continued rolling through the blinding light. It felt like hours till I stopped, though I knew it was only seconds. I seemed to slam 'back' into my body, filling it's my limbs with mine. My headache immediately disappeared, and I vaguely recognised I was now standing up.
I opened my eyes but it didn't feel like that, it almost felt like I opened someone else's eyes and was now looking through them. On instinct, I reached behind me with my left hand and grabbed hold of a sword and pulled it out. Once it was out I smashed it against my face, letting 'it' break… 'it'? No, it was a mask, a mask coverer face, and I broke it.
With my right hand, I reached up to my face and threw away the remaining parts of the broken mask, letting my own eyes adjust to the light in the first time in which felt like forever.
The light faded and I was back in Urahara's training room with Urahara-san, Jinta and Ururu staring at me with wide eyes and shocked faces.
I gave them a small smile a let out a sigh of relief, I was finally out of danger.
Chapter Nine - My name is...
A gentle breeze rustled my newly formed Shihakushō and made a whistle through the silent air. In front of me, Jinta, Ururu and Urahara were frozen in shock, Jinta looked the funniest, but oh how I mentally laughed at Urahara, the great Urahara-san shocked? No way! But it was true, that award went rightfully to me, Amber Katori, the girl who made Urahara Kisuke shocked. Ha! Believe that!
My lips tugged up into a smirk as I stared at the three of them, and rightly so, they did chuck me into a hole and left me to die. I'll let the kids off though, they were only doing what they were told, but Urahara-san wouldn't get off as easy, oh no, he defiantly would get his fair share of beatings.
I brought my attention back to the three in front of me. Urahara-san and Ururu seemed to have gained some composure but Jinta was still staring at me like I was a ghost her something. His eyes were wide and his mouth was trembling as if he wanted to say something but couldn't form the words.
"Yo...You didn't become a hollow." Jinta stuttered, unable to form his words right.
"Of course not!" I replied almost immediately, blowing a piece of hair off my face. "Who do you think I am?"
This seemed to make Urahara-san chuckle slightly as he began to walk over to me. Ururu and Jinta followed, Ururu was lagging behind Urahara while Jinta ran out in front, passing both of them and heading straight towards me.
"Glad you made it out in one piece Katori-san." Urahara said as he stopped in front of me. "I honestly didn't expect you to make it out aliv-."
I cut him off mid sentence by throwing a piece of my mask at him, which hit him square in the face to my delight. He stumbled back a few steps and clutched his face where the mask hit.
"Katori-san! Your so cruel!." He wailed, peeking at me through the gaps between his fingers.
I clenched my fist together to stop myself from beating him to a pulp, I had just survived death and he was acting like it wasn't a big deal. If he thought I would be easy on him, he had another thing coming.
"I'm cruel?!" I yelled, stomping my foot down in anger. "Your the one who trapped my in a hole and left me to die!"
He peeked through the gaps in his fingers once again, than took his hands away completely and grabbed a hold of his fan.
"Left you to die?" He questioned. "No No. This technique is a one hundred percent success rate!" He cheered.
"One hundred percent- How many poor people have you made do this?" I demanded from him, getting right up in his face.
He pushed me away with his fan and took a few steps back. "Let me see." He muttered, looking up at the sky as if he was wracking his brain to try and remember. "Including you... two!"
Urahara-san gave me his signature grin and I used all my will power to stop myself from slapping him silly.
"Well let's forget about that now shall we?" Urahara-san proposed as he shut his fan tight. "No point dwelling on the past."
I scowled at him even though I had to agree with him, the past could never be changed, this was the path I had chosen and I had to stick with it. Though all in all it went pretty well, 'well' as in I didn't turn into a hollow or blow up. I guess I had to be grateful to him, even though it infuriated me, once again Urahara-san was right.
Jinta walked up to me and started poking my arm. "Huh looks like you really did turn into a Shinigami." He said as he continued to examine me. He seemed weary of me for some reason, though I had no idea why.
He stood back and continued to stare at me. I stared back at him in confusion, he seemed analytical. Though most people thought Jinta was just a brute that bullied Ururu all the time, he was actually very perceptive. While Ururu was more in-tuned to spiritual pressure, Jinta was more in-tuned to little mundane things that seemed out of place. It seemed both children got the best of Urahara-san's qualities.
"You look different." He said.
I titled my head in confusion, I wasn't sure what he meant. I looked down at myself to see I was now wearing a black Shihakushō and had a brown strap from my left shoulder to my right hip as well as grey cloth hanging off my body, but that couldn't be what he meant.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
By this time both Urahara and Ururu had started examining me, it felt kind of awkward, being examined like I was some art piece, but I held my tongue and let them.
"His right, you have changed." Urahara-san said as he stood back next to Jinta. "Your hair has turned black and your eyes have turned brown, I think your a bit shorter too."
I quickly grabbed a strand of hair from my ponytail and examined it, he was right, my hair had turned black, and now that I think about, it they all seemed a bit taller too.
"Will it turn back to normal? I asked, not too sure if I liked this new change.
"Not sure, maybe it's permanent, maybe it's not, I honestly have no idea." He replied.
I dropped the strand of hair and let out a deep sigh, it was just one surprise after the other with me.
"So what now." I asked.
"Well, how about we get onto the next lesson?" Urahara proposed.
I thought about it for a moment, you didn't need to by a rocket scientist to know that Urahara's lessons were bad news. But I doubt he would let me get away without doing them, so in reality, I had no choice.
"Fine." I replied turning around to Urahara. "What do I do?"
He just smirked and pointed to his hat. "Please knock off my hat with your sword."
"Sword?" I muttered in confusion, till I remembered the sword I had in my left hand. "Ahh my sword." I said as I changed my grip to my right hand and held it with both of my hands.
The sword was just like the one I saw in the box. It had a blue hilt and had a piece of red string attached to the end, but that wasn't what stood out the most about the sword. The sword was huge; long as I was tall and wide to fit the proportions. I wasn't sure if I liked it, the hilt and the ribbon were fine, it was just the size that bothered me.
"What wrong with it." I asked.
Urahara-san tilted his head to the side. "Wrong? What do you mean."
"I mean look at it!" I said as I pointed to the blade. "You can't tell me this looks like a normal sword."
He narrowed his eyes and squinted at the blade long and hard. "If you mean by how large it is, I'd guess it's because you have no control on your reiatsu."
"Control?" I repeated. "And reiatsu? I thought I didn't have any!"
"Oh you defiantly have reiatsu." He replied. "Ever since the kidō seal disappeared, your reiatsu has been released, and due to lack of control, is leaking everywhere, which is the exact reason why your sword is so large, it just expands and holds its shape."
"Hmm, I don't really get it." I muttered as I looked over my newly acquired sword. "But all I have to do is knock off your hat, right?"
Urahara-san grabbed a hold of his cane and pulled I apart, showing the blade in which I couldn't see before.
"That's if you can."
I clutched the hilt of my sword tightly, and swung up. The long sword had length on my side, but even with the advantage Urahara calmly stepped back without having to deflect my blade with his.
I continued to slash and slice at him, not worrying even in the slightest of hurting him, I was in the zone, there was no pulling me out now.
I felt elated as I pushed my arms to swing the sword down, I had felt anxious at first, but the more I engulfed myself in the battle, the more comfortable I felt, in fact, I was enjoying it. It was like I was born to do this.
It was a pattern, I would swing my zampaktou and Urahara would dodge. I couldn't even get him to simply deflect. I continued to swing, edging forward each time, each time getting closer. Finally I was there, I swung down hard and fast, leaving him no other option but to lift his sword up and deflect. A loud clang sound resonated throughout the room like music to my ears, this battle was finally getting started.
Urahara-san was the first to disengage in the battle of our blades, he took his sword from me, and hopped back a few paces to create some distance between each other.
"That's pretty good." He complimented me. "Even though this is your first time fighting with a sword."
"Second." I corrected him. "The first was against those arrancars."
He dipped his head down but said nothing, re-gripping his zampaktou in the process.
I re-gripped my zampaktou to get ready for phase two, but something was wrong, it felt weird in my hands. I frowned down at the sword and switched my grip to my left. To my surprise it felt better, it felt right, I was right handed, but this sword felt better in my left hand.
I continued to switch between the two, determining which one felt right. They both felt the same, but my left hand felt right for some reason. I shrugged it off as a side effect from turning into a Shinigami, and gripped the zampaktou with my left hand.
"Ambidextrous now are we?" Urahara asked.
I looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah looks like it." I replied, bending down into a ready position.
"So... shall we continue?" I asked.
Urahara-san let his head and his sword dip down, letting shadows cover his face. The wind around him started to pick up and a dark aura formed around his body, making chills run down my spine.
"Just to let you know Katori-san." He said in a deathly clear voice, letting every word echo around in my head. "I will not go easy on you."
He charged at me with his sword raised, his eyes were focused directly on me and his sword was buzzing as if it too was ready to attack. He was serious, he was dead serious.
Without thinking, I raised my sword to block his. Our blades connected sending a ringing sound echoing in my eyes. I was flung back, hurling through the air and was only stopped when my body collided with a boulder, making it smash.
I winced in pain and coughed the dust out of my lungs. The taste of dirt and blood filled my mouth, staining my taste buds in that horrid taste.
I grabbed what remained of the rock behind me, and hauled myself up through the throbbing pain, and into a standing position. I stabbed my zampaktou into the ground and lent on it for balance. I opened my mouth and gulped in as much air as I could. My heart throbbed in my chest and my arms and legs were shaking in fear, though I'd hate to admit it, I was scared, scared to the bone. His attack was that powerful after only one swipe? How could I stand up to something like that?
The familiar scrunching sound of footsteps caused me to jerk my head up and my heart that skip a beat. Urahara was in front of me, slowly walking towards me, his feet crunching on the sandy ground. I clutched my sword tighter and stared at him in fear, I couldn't help it, his presence seemed to push uncontrollable fear through my veins.
His crunching footsteps came to a stop in front of me, making me clench my muscles in fear.
"I commend you for not running, but you will need more than guts to defeat me and my zampaktou." He said as he readied his sword for another attack.
I pulled my zampaktou out of the ground and held it in front of me. "You and your zampaktou?" I asked, trying make sense of the situation.
"Yes, it's as I said, me and my zampaktou. Look, I'll show her to you."
"起きろ (okiro/wake up)"
"Benihime"
Urahara's sword burst into a show of crimson red lights. The light faded to reveal a new sword in his hands. The sword now had a golden hilt and guard, a black cross shaped pattern lined the golden hilt, and at attached at the end, was a read piece of string.
I stared in awe at the sight, this was the sword he used against the arrancar, the one that spouted out red energy beams. But what did he say again? Benihime? A name? Does a zampaktou...
"...have a name?"
-'His sword didn't seem to be the same one I saw earlier. It looked like a normal sword compared to the big one he had just before.'
-'Ichigo took his sword in his right hand and rested his left hand on his arm.'
"Bankai
Tensa Zangetsu"
-"How about I show you again if you don't believe me?
泣け, (nake/cry)
Benihime!"
"A zampaktou's... name."
"Yes, every zampaktou has a name." Urahara explained. "And this is her name, Benihime." He said as he shone her in the light.
His demeanour suddenly went dark as he drew Benihime back into the shadows. "Unfortunately for you, she isn't so kind to let a sword like yours get in her way."
The sword seem to glisten with blood-lust before it was thrust down onto me. On reflex, I raised my sword horizontal to the ground, ready for the deflect, but it never came. The sword came down and sliced clean through mine, sending at least half of the blade falling to the floor.
I stared wide eyed at the falling blade, watching it clash on the floor. Suddenly a blade appeared just centimetres from my face, causing me to duck under it with speed I didn't know I had.
I jumped back, and went to deflect Urahara's blade, but once again it was sliced clean off, leaving me with only a few inches of blade.
I did the only thing I could think off, I ran. I turned around, and ran.
I ran and ran, pushing my legs and arms to go faster, to go harder, but nothing seemed to work. To my left, Urahara appeared with a blade in hand, swiping down at my left arm creating a deep gash in my arm and sending me sliding back a few meters.
"Your sword may be large, but that's all." He teased as he slowly started walking towards me.
I mustered up all my courage to fight back and swung my broken sword, but without the length it once had, Urahara jumped back, dodging it with ease.
"Like I said, there's no concentration of spiritual energy in it, it just distends and holds it shape." He snickered, as he went for another slash.
I quickly pulled my sword away, letting him only nick the top. I jumped away and started to move backwards, not wanting to be near him, but not wanting to turn my back either.
I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip on my swords, making my hands blister. There was no way he was bluffing, every strike he went for was aimed to kill. One wrong move, and my head could be rolling on the ground.
I lightly hopped on each foot, letting my body smoothly move backwards without having to take my eyes off the predator in front of me. I took a deep breath, and then another, and forced myself to loosen the grip on my zampaktou in order to calm down. I didn't dare close my eyes, instead, I relaxed my vision, moving into a state of calmness while keeping my sight on Urahara-san. I pulled myself out and felt sharper than before, I had a plan.
I stopped my feet from moving backwards, instead letting them lightly dance on the sand while I waited. Urahara slowed his pace for a moment as he looked over at me in confusion, but just as quickly as it came, he discarded it and continued to run at me faster than before.
I wasted no time to put my plan into action. I focused on the blue energy from my soul, and willed it into the sword, to engulf and strengthen it. The process was surprisingly easy, I didn't need to force it like I did before, it seemed to flow naturally.
Urahara appeared in front of me, with his sword raised and coming down. With a clang, both metals connected, pushing on each other for dominance. I grinned, my plan had worked, by forcing energy into the blade it had made it strong enough to deflect Urahara's zampaktou without getting sliced itself. But the force was still strong, and it was taking everything in me to not get pushed over.
Urahara lent in and pushed down harder. "Don't think that just because you've learnt to control a bit of spiritual pressure that you have stopped me!" He yelled, as red flames engulfed his body.
A moment was all it took for fear to infiltrate my body, causing me to hesitate. Urahara gleamed as he saw to opportunity sliced his zampaktou down, cutting clean through the blade and the guard, leaving me with only the hilt.
I stared down blankly at the piece of wood in my hand. It was over, I had no weapon, what I could I possibly do? I looked down at the plain hilt, wondering if I should throw it away. But I couldn't bring myself to do it.
I let go of all my restraints and let my body shake in fear, what more could I do?
Urahara walked up to more with a gleeful grin on his face, I tried to glare at him, with anger, or frustration, or some sort of strong feeling like that, but all that my eyes said was fear, pathetic fear.
"Now you don't have a sword, will you still attack me with that?" He asked with an evil grin "C'mon you just have to knock off my hat." He said inching towards me. "But if you dare attack me with that pathetic thing… I'll kill you."
My eyes widened and I stumbled backwards, than into a sprint, there was no doubt in my mind, he was trying to kill me, I was going to die!
I continued to run through the sand, not daring to look back. My heart throbed in my chest, my lungs wheezed for air, and my legs were like lead. Adrenalin was the only thing keeping me going, the adrenaline from fear. Fear was keeping me going, but it was also stopping me.
It was a continuous game of cat and mouse. I would run, and Urahara would catch me only for me to find myself running away again. I was scared, humiliated, and tears threatened to spill. I was pathetic.
"Is this all I can do?" I thought to myself.
'Can I only run?'
'I'm running, yet I'm standing still.'
'Why can't I move?'
'Why am I stuck in place?'
'Why?'
'Why can't I moved forward!'
"If your stuck in place, then why don't you take the first step?"
My legs came to a stop at the sound of the mysterious voice. I slowly turned around as a grey cloak covered me from the outside world, behind me stood the boy from before, his arms crossed in front of his chest, and his mouth tugged into a grin.
"It's you." I said to the boy.
The boy nodded than stared back at me with his dark red eyes. "Why do you run Amber?" He asked. "You haven't you called out my name yet."
"Name…?"
"Every zampaktou has a name." Urahara explained. "And this is her name, Benihime."
My eyes widened, a name, a zampaktou's name. If a zampaktou could have a name, they could also have some sort of conscious. This boy, he couldn't possibly be...
"You didn't answer my question." He said. "Why do you run?"
I bowed my head down and gritted my teeth. "I… I'm just too scared." I said, wincing at the words. "The fear that runs through my body has a mind of it's own, I'm just too scared."
The boy stared at me long and hard before replying. "I know you don't really believe that."
I widened my eyes at the boy as he continued.
"Fear isn't a bad thing, it's there for a reason, just like when you get hungry or thirsty, the feeling is there for survival." He explained. "To be strong isn't to not know fear, to be strong is to know fear but push through it." He said as he glanced up at me. "Fear is a necessity, but it can also be a rope that ties you down and stops you from moving forward. What you need is a balance, to know fear, but to be able to push through it."
I bowed my head down and avoided his eye's. "But how." I sniffed. "I can't do it alone!"
"Who said anything about doing it alone?"
I looked up to see his arm outstretched and a smile on his face. "I'm here" He grinned.
I took his small hand in mine and stood up.
"You may have been alone in the past, but I'm here now, so there's no need to fear." He said squeezing my hand tighter.
I nodded, as the wind around us started to pick up.
"You should be able to hear it now." He grinned. "So call it out! My name is!…"
"Tengetsu!" (天月, Heavenly Moon)
Bright blue light erupted from the hilt making the wind whip fiercely around me. My zampaktou seemed to get heavy in my hand till and reached a comfortable weight, and the power inside me quickly rose to the surface in waves.
The wind, dust and light eventually died down, showing me standing in spot, with my fully formed zampaktou planted in my left hand.
The sword was completely different from my previous one, instead of a formal katana, it looked more like an oversized Kyber knife. It has no guard and the hilt seemed to be wrapped in grey cloth. The strands of the cloth hung from the hilt with two blue beads at the end of each piece. The blade was black with a silver edge and curved inside to the hilt on the sharp side of the blade, and curved outside on the dull part of the blade. There was also a hollow part inside the blade, where you could easily hold it instead of using the hilt.
I stared over at my newly formed zampaktou, letting it glint in the light. This one defiantly felt better than the other one, it felt stronger, and easier to use. It felt alive and seemed to hum in my hand, well I guess it was alive. Tengetsu, my zampaktou.
"Well Katori-san." Urahara-san said from in front of me. "Since you have your sword, shall we start the lesson in the earnest?" He asked.
"Sorry Urahara-san." I said as I started to raise Tengetsu over my head. "I think it's best if you dodge this."
"Pardon?"
"I don't think I can… control it yet!"
From above my head, I swung Tengetsu down, letting the blue energy around it release. The energy parted from my sword and sped off towards Urahara-san, splitting the earth apart on it's way.
The attack stopped end exploded into dust and light. I strained to keep my eyes open, looking through the cloud of dust for Urahara-san. His green hat drifted out of the dust and to the ground in front of me. I let myself fall to the ground and close my tired eyes, whatever that attack was, it took a lot out of me, but it was worth it, Urahara's hat was off, the session was over.
Urahara's footsteps echoed through the cavern as he walked over to his hat, he stopped in place and picked it up, brushing the stray dust and dirt off it.
"My hat is torn." He said as he placed the torn hat on his head. "Though I don't think you did that intentionally, did you?"
He let out a small chuckle and looked up to the fake sky. "You are defiantly one frightening kid."
"Just like him."
