Chapter 21

I stared down in my breakfast as I sat on by the table at the girl dormitory. My heart was racing like never before. I.. I saw myself this time. I saw everything out of Kei's point of view. I had never knew that he loved me that much. My heart was pounding in my ears so loud that I didn't hear what Misaki told me about the lessons we would have today. The last lessons we would have before going out to find the answers to this mystery. It couldn't be any later. I had to know.

Kei cared so much about me that the only thing he ever thought about was me.. and for the first time I understood. Someone was only after me. Kei had been the person that had crossed the fire and fought my battle. This person that had talked to Kei was the one that was after me. I had never heard his voice before. I looked at the side of my plate and took up the necklace from the table. What did this piece have in all this? The person said that when the time came and Kei took it of he would be able to hurt us both. What I still didn't understand was why Kei and I was marked as some kind of enemy? Why us? The only one I could ask about this was Kaito, he who had the same necklace as me. If these necklaces were some kind of protection then I now understood why Kaito wanted me to wear his necklace while I didn't had my own on. We both were haunted by this monster. That had to be why Kaito wanted to be a part of this mission. That was the reason why he had taken an inserts in me at the entering ceremony and said that he wanted to become my mentor. He wanted to get an end to this monster and we were the only two who could do it. To put all this to an conclusion: The only reason why I now needed to see Kei, alive or not – he had to have left behind something - was to know all the detail to what we fought against. Everything else now came as a bonus.

I had also seen the rather young version of my hero, the Captain of squad 6 – Byakuya Kuchiki. I didn't know that they had been childhood friends, Kei and the Captain. That made more sense why the Captain had attended the funeral. My thought stopped. Maybe the Captain knew something? Maybe Konno-sensei also knew something more but decided not to tell me before he left so that I could focus on the Academy? That was laughable now... their plan didn't work at all as I were ore determined to become powerful.

The question that stood now was... should I tell my friends about this dream? It wasn't really leads in this dream and wouldn't give then anything other then worries. They knew what waited for them.. it was only I who needed to understand more what we stood against. Misaki and I left breakfast together and met up with Ryuu and Yūshirō. We went to our first lesson and as always went Misaki to her class. I still couldn't understand why she hadn't been granted to come to the first class. Normally would I had already been training for a few hours but I thought that Kaito would have wanted me to have rested enough. Tomorrow was the day.

"Why are a lieutenant on our lesson?" I thought Ryuu was joking but he wasn't. In the corner of the classroom sat Abarai Renju, the lieutenant of Squad 6. I hadn't seen him sense the entrance ceremony. His head was red as ever and he sat like he was about to die of boredom. Why was he here? Then.. I knew. He was here to see us and understand what kind of newbies we were.

"He maybe prays that we're not useless." said Ryuu as he took the lead. We sat down for the first time ever on the first row of the class. Ryuu probably thought that we had to show him that we were dedicated and in the same time didn't want to sit right next to him.

"We're not useless." said Yūshirō and looked at me as he patted his hair down. He always had that crazy hairstyle when he woke up- He still hadn't fixed it. "Tell him that we're not useless. If someone were to survive outside and go on a mission we would be the ones." I looked at Ryuu and nodded.

"Yūshirō speaks the truth. I don't think they would let all of us go if it wasn't safe. They could just agreed to let me go but they said that you were invited too. I think that this will be a perfect moment to learn something new. We will not get hurt. We're the top, right?" I lied. I had to keep up this wall between them and the truth. I thought it was safe for them but... for me? I was prepared to met my death. They had however a time to learn something... like how it was to met your destiny and fail to defeat the enemy you always have had.

"Say's the girl that ranked the highest on the entrance exam and the mid-term exam. I heard the teachers discuss our process with our souls blade. They all said that you already had yours." They.. had said what? I laughed and shook my head.

"I would have know if I had a dream that someone wanted me to call its name or had heard whispers in my ears. I haven't heard anything so that must just be a bad guess." Neither Ryuu or Yūshirō was sure about this.

"Maybe you have heard it but you thought it was something else." I fell silent. This was out of my comfort zone. Yushiro was one of the smartest person I had met. If he had a theory then I wanted to hear it.
"Like.. like what?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard it but when I do then I'm going to tell you what you should look for. Something however tells me by the time I have get in touch with my Shika then you already have a Bankai. You think so low about yourself. Kaito wouldn't spend all that time with you if he didn't think you were a genius and could jump over a few years." I was just about to answer that but what were I supposed to say? That Kaito probably only was there with me because we shared the same enemy? I thanked the Soul King for making our teacher, Gengorō Ōnabara, come into the classroom. In his hands he held dozens of swords. This... this was... the Sword ceremony. I had only heard stories about it. This wasn't really a big thing but for students that longed for their katana? This was something big. These swords were more shells then a Zanpakutō. A Zanpakutō did you create... but this was the tool you needed to comunicate with you Zanpakutō and make it come out in a sword form.

"Today you're lucky. The Commander has chosen this class to become the first class to get their own katana months before they are used to. These blades.." He put them down on the teachers table. Every sword looked like each other but that was the thing. When we found the one that spoke to us most then as we took it, it would transform after our reiatsu and then found its own spiritual pressure.

"Are those you will chose between. You don't have to worry, if a sword doesn't speak to you then you don't chose one. It will only mean that you haven't created a bound strong enough. We will try again for you to find your true match later. If you asked me, to do this months to early is absurd. Almost no one have created a bound this early.. oh.. Abarai-fukutaichou. What a suprise!" Everyone had noticed that Abarai Renji was sitting in the back of the class. He walked towards all the swords and took up one of them looking at them like he was judging them. Then, he put it down and looked over the class.

"Hey, punks. My name's Abarai Renji and I'm the lieutanent of squad 6. I'm here to see that you don't start to stab each other. If you were to do so you will be pleased to hear that you will be kicked out of the program. That's the only thing I'm here to say." That was an encouraging speach.. or not. I saw that Gengorō Ōnabara looked at him with a proud look. Yes, he had been his student alright.

We all were allowed to stand up and join in one long row before the swords. We all were looking at the swords and everyone as clueless as the other about what we were suppose to feel. If we felt anything towards one of the swords we were allowed to take it up and feel it's weight. However... there wasn't anyone who stepped forward. I looked at the swords. What where I looking for? I sighed and searched and there... there it was. There was one I held my eyes on. I didn't know if it was the sword speaking to me or if it was just that I thought it was the most beautiful sword. Okay, all the katana looked much like each other but this sword was a little bit different.

It was the handle really, that made me get stuck by it. A bright yellow silk ribbon were wrapping the handle and at the end of the katana were a chain haning down with some pearls looking like flowers and at the very end was the same thing that was on the Captain of Squad 6's robe – a tassel. I stepped forward and took it up. As soon I touched it the katana started to glow. I looked up but no one else then me was seeing it.

"Finally," said the Zanpakutō. "Finally have you learn how to truly focus."