Chapter 10: Kido Session

'Captain Kanashimi?' Haruko slid open the office door, bowing low, 'Did you want to supervise today's early morning kido session?'

Yuki replaced her brush carefully and stood, fastening her zanpakuto at her waist, 'Of course,'

'Please follow me,' since the shinigami seemed to be the most comfortable around the captain, everyone else in the squad got her to deliver messages. After all, most of the male shinigami disliked playing messenger anyway.

After a few short minutes of shunpo, Yuki found herself on a large green field which overlooked a deep, stretching hole in the ground. Across the other side of the gap, the yellow stone cliffs were dotted with targets.

So this is where they practice kido, she thought to herself, Interesting.

'Everyone, listen up!' Izuru was in a good mood, even smiling occasionally, 'Today we'll be showing our new captain our kido skills! Please do your best!'

Apart from a few shinigami who rolled their eyes at the Lieutenant, everyone moved quickly up to the edge of the pit and held out their hands, ready to cast their first spell.

'Hado 1. Sho,'

There was crumbling sounds as most of the gathered shinigami hit one of the targets.

'Hado 4. Byakurai,'

White lightning sparked and Yuki watched carefully, seeing who hit targets and who missed completely.

'Hado 31. Shakkaho!'

The shout was louder, for some unknown reason, and the blasts of energy that resulted were decidedly interesting. Most of the Division members formed the red spheres and then managed to fire them, but a few ended up having tiny little bulbs of light drift away from their outstretched hands and vanish into the sky.

When there was a loud explosion, Yuki turned slightly and knew instantly that someone had undoubtedly blown up the kido. Interestingly, none of the shinigami in her Division showed any signs of having such an event occur to them.

'Renji!' the angry shout startled many of the Third Division members, 'What do you think you're doing?'

Recognising Kuchiki Rukia's voice, the captain of the Third Division moved along the line of shinigami and then saw, about twenty-five metres away, standing on the edge of the cliff, Lieutenant Abarai Renji. Rukia was beside him and reprimanding him furiously, ignoring his blackened appearance.

'Wait a moment, will you all?' using shunpo, Yuki appeared beside the Lieutenant, listening to Kira taking over the practice.

'Captain Kanashimi!' Rukia flushed slightly and bowed deeply, 'My apologies,' she kicked the back of the red headed man's legs none to subtly, 'This piece of garbage can't get his kido right,'

'I see,' looking up at Abarai, the captain addressed him next, 'Did you discard the incantation?'

'No captain,' Renji was looking rather embarrassed, as this was his first time meeting the new captain and he was covered in black, 'I didn't,'

'He messed up one of the words,' Rukia smirked at him, 'Renji, watch again,'

'Kuchiki,' Yuki interrupted the shinigami as she raised her hands, ready to cast the kido, 'May I?'

'Oh,' the petite shinigami was surprised that the captain would bother herself with such a trivial thing, 'Of course,'

'Hado 31,' raising both her hands, Yuki aimed at one of the targets on the distant wall, 'Shakkaho,'

Renji almost jumped then the blast of red energy left the captain's hands. The pressure it was exerting was astonishing. His eyes watched the kido's swift path to the opposite cliff face and then they widened when a rather large section of rock cracked and tumbled to the ground below.

'Ah,' Yuki glanced at her pale hands, 'I think I didn't hold back enough,' looking forwards again, she added, 'And I think I missed the target,'

'No, you didn't,' Rukia was awed, being a fellow kido practitioner, she understood the art and could appreciate fully what she'd just seen, 'It's just that you destroyed it completely,' And a large bit of the wall too, she added mentally.

The Sixth Division Lieutenant was staring, and he knew it, but Renji was just amazed that someone could harness that much power into a relatively low level kido spell and then say that they were holding back.

'Abarai,' he jerked out of his thoughts when he heard his name, Yuki met his gaze evenly, 'Keep working on your kido,'

'Yes captain!' Renji was glad that Byakuya wasn't here to see him being so embarrassing – the stoic man had a hard enough time dealing with him when he was actually working hard, 'Thank you captain!'

Yuki just nodded before turning and moving back to her assembled Division, knowing that Rukia would keep Abarai in time with the count Izuru was setting.

'Captain,' Matsumoto peeked out from under Toshiro's desk when he walked into the room, smiling evilly, 'Captain,'

'What is it, Matsumoto?' the white haired shinigami was slightly worried about what she was going to say – as usual – but he wasn't fully concentrating on her.

'Well,' the Lieutenant jumped up and sped to the door, 'Apart from the fact that I spilt sake onto the documents you had on your desk this morning,' she spoke incredibly rapidly, 'The Third Division is having a kido practice at the moment!'

After the woman had vanished, Toshiro took a few seconds to understand what she'd actually said. Then he shouted in fury as he looked at his desk and saw the ruined reports. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to cope with any more desk work for a while, he decided to take a midday stroll and find Kanashimi to ask her about the kido she used on Matsumoto.

Approaching the kido training area, Toshiro could sense different spells being cast and also the reiatsu of the casters. He was surprised to sense Abarai joining in the training session, considering that it wasn't his Division, but, when he also felt Kuchiki's reiatsu, it made much more sense. The small shinigami – she was taller than him though – could be quite fearsome when she wanted to be.

Walking through the trees, the white haired captain could clearly see the Third Division busily working on their kido, the watchful eyes of their captain keeping a careful check on their every move.

'Captain, you used Soren Sokatsui to destroy the Kototsu the other day, right?' one of the female shinigami spoke to Kanashimi.

'That's right,' Yuki turned her attention to Haruko.

'How many kido spells can you do?' the dark haired woman was curious, and she wanted everyone else to remember the power of their new captain and learn to trust her.

'Quite a few of them,' the captain replied dryly.

'Do you know any above 73?' another Division member called out, 'Can you show one to us?' his tone was slightly baiting.

'I know them,' Yuki paused, 'But I'm not sure it's such a good idea to use that level of Hado here without a real reason,'

'Can you really do it then?' another person, despite being awed when the captain destroyed the cleaner, joined in the mockery.

'Don't you two!' Haruko cried out, ashamed of their behaviour, 'The captain's right! And don't forget she saved your lives the other day,'

'Whatever,' someone else sneered, 'She obviously can't do any offensive spells over the level of Soren Sokatsui anyway,'

Toshiro found himself getting quite angry at the Third Division's behaviour. That wasn't the way to treat a captain, whether or not he or she was new. Walking from the shadows, the white haired captain made his presence known.

Turning to face the Division, he spoke coldly, 'Mind your tongues,' then glancing at Kanashimi, he added, 'It shouldn't be a problem to use those Hado here,'

As he finished speaking, there was a ripping sound and a menos grande stepped out onto the ground in the pit below. Everyone froze in surprise, knowing that it was incredibly strange for something like this to occur.

'And now it looks like there's something to test it on too,' Rukia appeared, staring at the menos and then smirking at the startled Third Division members.

'Hado 4,' Yuki's eyes were closed as she raised her hand, white energy flickering around her fingers, 'Byakurai,'

Everyone gasped in surprise, and even Toshiro's eyes widened, as the bolt of white lightning speared the menos, killing it instantly.

Th-that's,' the shinigami couldn't even talk.

'How could that be Bya-,' everyone seemed so shocked that they couldn't form coherent sentences.

'Byakurai,' Toshiro nodded, despite still trying to work it out in his head.

'Correct,' Yuki's lavender eyes flicked open and she lowered her hand, 'I will not use any Hado higher than Soren Sokatsui, not because I currently have no need, but also because the energy output of such a kido that you listed, would have the potential to kill you if it was not held back,'

The group's eyes widened again as they processed the way she said it. If they were all interpreting it correctly, then she could use those kido, but chose not to. And that was something completely different to anything they'd heard about her before.

Author's Note:

Can you imagine hold childishly Renji would act? Byakuya would have a fit seeing his Lieutenant grinning like a fool and 'yes captain' -ing practically with a salute . . .