Chapter 26 - Shakka-SPLOSION
I sat up in the cherry blossom tree outside of my dorm room, its flowers glowing an unnaturally bright pink in the intense moonlight. I took a deep gulp of cold air, pulling the thin sleeves if my jumper further down my arms to fight the breeze. I thought it unusually cold for the time of year.
I looked down from my perch expecting to see the lake that filled the grounds on this side of campus, but instead, I saw what seemed to be a small town from a view that suggested I was atop a cliff or hillside, its many lights flickering into existence like bright golden laced spiderwebs. I frowned down at it wondering why there would be a village on campus. That couldn't be right, surely. I shook the thought out of mind and looked down again. I felt like I knew the place. A pang of sadness hit my heart and I couldn't bear to look at the town anymore. I got up and without leaping down from the tree began running. Its long winding branches transformed into a path surrounded by dense forest on either side. This time I didn't question my bizarre change of surrounding. I had no idea where I was going, I just needed to get away from that town.
Just then something caught my attention. I wasn't the only one up at this late hour. Another person was coming towards me at a run. I dived into a bush at the edge of the woods and watched her glide past as if she hadn't seen me. She was blonde and small enough to possibly be a little bit younger than me and wearing a Soul Reaper uniform, but weirdly her facial features were blurred like someone had patched them over with a shimmering silk that matched her skin tone. I frowned again, wondering how she had not noticed me or stopped to ask why I was out here all alone when suddenly a massive humanoid being with the face of an indescribable white beast jumped out on the girl roaring at her in distress and rage.
It bolted and she followed at a sprint. I followed too, though my legs didn't seem to be moving as quickly as I knew they could. It was as if my body didn't know what to do with its spiritual energy. No matter how much I told it to run faster it just couldn't, like I hadn't learned how to yet. I willed myself to catch up, then suddenly it was like the world shifted around me.
The girl, the monster and I swapped place so that I was now its prey and she was chasing after us. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the beast gaining on me rapidly. I began to panic, desperate to get to safety. With a roar of effort and frustration, I forced all of my spirit energy to my feet in an attempt to a flash step but nothing happened.
I looked forward and standing towards the end of the path was him. Sosuke Aizen in his white cloak with his sword already unsheathed.
Suddenly I was running too fast, the immense speed that I was used to had finally returned to me all at once and I knew I couldn't possibly stop in time. Aizen gave me that vile, smug smile and he raised his sword and I ran right into him, impaling myself in the chest. The world exploded into a blinding white light and I woke up screaming.
I almost fell out of my bunk as my body was forced into fight-or-flight mode.
"Hey! Calm down, it's only me!" came a startled voice from down below me. My eyes came into focus and I spotted Momo opening my balcony door to let some fresh air in and I relaxed. She had come in and opened my curtains to wake me up, that would explain the burst of light.
"Good morning sleepy head! Nice of you to join us" She said sweetly breathing in the cool morning spring air.
I took a deep breath. Thank god it was just a bad dream I thought, now understanding why everything seemed out of place. I threw my face back down into my pillow with a groan.
"Momo! Why?!" I demanded
Just then Rukia popped her head around the door, "Because revenge is sweet!" she said slyly before pulling away.
"And because you're gonna be late for class, dummy" Momo added, not disagreeing with Rukia's statement. I peeked out from my pillow as she was picking up some of the books that had fallen from their piles on my floor. "Look at this mess… And you forgot to set your alarm clock before you went to sleep" she said waving around the little black box that had been sitting on the desk below me.
I groaned. I wanted to remind her that cleaning was the last thing on my mind last night with that terrifying blackout vision that was now giving me nightmares, but I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to be smothered with sympathy like I was a sick person, so instead I made an excuse to get her off my back. "I don't usually use an alarm clock, my body is my alarm but I barely slept last night and now my body is malfunctioning,"
She gave me another look of concern but thankfully didn't pry. "Sorry to break it to you but we have a Kido test in just under an hour... maybe you should start setting an alarm from now on, just in case"
At this, I launched up and vaulted over the edge of my bed to the floor and started gathering up my uniform. "Crap, crap crap! No time to be tired. I'm gonna be in deep crap if I'm late"
Momo blinked. "Well that was a 180, I'll leave you to it" and she backed out shutting the door behind her.
I was completely covered in sweat on my back and chest from the nightmare. I knew it was stupid, but I had to double check that there wasn't any kind of scar on my chest where Aizen's blade had penetrated. There wasn't, but It felt like there should be. I couldn't remember ever having a dream that was vivid enough to make me scream out loud before. I didn't know what it meant or if it was related to last night's blackout, but just then I couldn't care less. I'd ponder that some more another time but now I had more important things to think about.
Thankfully I wasn't a bathroom hogger or a slow dresser like a certain someone who had miraculously managed to be ready before me. I had expected my lateness to domino onto Rukia and Momo as they'd seemed like the type to need a wake-up call every morning, but I was wrong. They were perfectly capable of being on time without my help.
I felt a little bit more human once Id showered and nibbled on a cookie from my stash.
We headed down to our Homeroom to get signed in for the day.
Onabara was in a pretty good mood when we arrived, it seemed us students weren't the only ones who enjoyed the party last night. He went around the class asking people if they had a good time and if they had decided on what clubs they wanted to join.
Renji, on the other hand, looked annoyed.
"Where the hell were you? I stood outside your dorm looking like a freak for half hour!"
"Blame sleeping beauty over here," Momo said jerking a thumb to me.
I shrugged. "Rough night"
"Should have known it would be your fault." He muttered pushing past me to hand over his Weapons Training applications to Onabara.
"Shut it. I've has never been late before, this was a one-off"
"Don't even think about getting into bad habits, Murasaki" Onabara warned me. "Tardiness won't be tolerated"
"I know Sir, I was Ill last night at the party so I didn't sleep well, It won't happen again"
"Good. Do you three have applications to hand over?"
"Yes, sir" Momo smiled handing over her ASS club application and I resisted the urge rip it up.
"Anyone else?"
I shook my head. "I'm undecided at the moment, I don't want to take on too much of a workload. The track team and the music club are both big time-consuming commitments"
"We're still deciding too but we think we will join Kido club together" Rukia announced. I frowned. They hadn't said anything to me about that. "Sorry, you were asleep when we had the idea but we figured your schedule might be full with Music and Track team." She clarified when she caught my confused face.
"Oh, No its fine. I definitely won't be able to handle all three"
"It wouldn't be a bad idea, joining a classroom-based club gives you a head start on your class sessions and more time to practice. You might want to consider it but remember that try-outs for teams with limited positions are taking place over the next few days so you only have one more day left to decide" Onabara advised.
I nodded just to make them happy. All I was interested in was running off some energy and playing my instruments. If that meant I dropped behind the others then so be it, I would just have to work harder in class. It would take them years to catch up with my level on Hoho, Hakuda, and Zanjustu anyway thanks to my years of training so I wasn't overly concerned.
The bell rang and we headed out to the Kido hall.
"Have you practiced?" Rukia asked Renji almost scornfully as if knowing the truth, regardless of whether he answered yes or no.
"Of course I have, what do you take me for?"
"A slacker. I can't bail you out of a test so for your sake I hope so"
He tsked. "I don't need bailing out, I got this," he said confidently.
We were given another ten minutes just to allow everyone one last chance to memorize the spell. I made sure to reread the spell over and over again until I had it memorized and could recite it fluidly.
Madame Onigei called for us to line up into three groups of ten sitting on our knees along the open patio a few meters in front of the targets. Rukia, Momo and I were in the second group. I looked to my left for Renji and saw that he was for some reason in the group behind us, probably trying to buy himself more time to memorize the spell.
Onigei called for the first group to come up. They stepped forward and all at once began reciting their spells with their arms outstretched.
When the spells fired it was like watching a firework display that had been organized by toddlers. A few of 'fireworks' were the wrong type or went in the wrong direction, and one person managed to produce only feeble sparks the fluttered to the floor.
Only one member of that group hit his bullseyes dead center with a near perfect shot of red energy, a tall young man with white blonde hair and a kind smile. Madame Onigei praised him and told the rest of the group that she expected to see improvement.
Our group was next. The three of us stepped forward with the rest of our row, held out our hand's palm out and began to chant. I forced my eyes open while speaking and focused on the center of the target in front of me. "Ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, all things in the universe fly. Ye who bears the name of Man, gathering heat and war." I felt around for my spiritual energy and pulled it to the surface, focusing it into the palm of my hand. "Beyond the seas in reverse, take steps to the south: Hado number 33 – Shakkaho Red Flame Cannon!" I finished, shouting out the name of the spell a little too forcefully.
My spell cast more like a white lightning bolt than a fireball. It ripped through the air with what sounded like a sonic boom and blasted through the bottom of the target where it joined to the metal pole.
My target clattered to the floor in a smouldering heap with some of the metal pole still attached. The rest of the class looked on, gasping in surprise or giving appreciative claps at the level of destruction I'd caused. I cringed. I'd managed to bring attention to myself by completely screwing up, again. I was hoping that it would at least come out in the right shape or color but I hadn't improved at all from my attempts last night.
I looked over at Momo and Rukia's targets. Rukia's was singed at the bottom in the same place as mine, and Momo had a clean circular blast mark just above the bullseye. They were staring at me shaking their heads with smiles that said: "Look, you're at it again!" I shrugged at them with an embarrassed grimace.
"Well, at least everyone managed to successfully cast a spell." Madame Onigei announced as a jab towards the failures of the first group. "You're a little heavy handed with your spirit energy, Miss Murasaki. Please try to work on your control. Perhaps you'll be better when we come to the lightning-based Kido" she suggested, not exactly mad at me. It was our first time, after all, so she couldn't really expect us to be perfect.
"Yes Ma'am, sorry about that, I'm working on it" I promised as we stepped back to let Renji's group take their turn.
They stepped forward. "She wanted a flamethrower, not a laser beam, clutz" he mumbled as he brushed past me.
"Let's see you do better then, stupid" I challenged him.
He had a cocky smile on his face as he rolled up the left sleeve of his uniform, revealing writing along his forearm. Onigei didn't notice what he was doing because the arm with the writing was facing away from her.
I gave a tsk of disgust. "Cheater."
Rukia frowned and looked around me to see what I was talking about and rolled her eyes when she saw. "That's why he went to the back row…"
"Should have expected it."
My eyes widened as I heard him fumble over a word and go back to reread it. "That idiot…" I hissed. "He's gonna mess it up,"
Rukia frowned and leaned in to listen close. Just as he finished the chant he spoke the end of the spell more loudly, clearly and forcefully like I had done, no doubt trying to one-up me on the power scale.
"Renji!" Rukia called out but it was too late.
There was a floor-shaking boom and the room filled with black smoke, illuminated in places where bright orange sparks scattered around the room like bouncing firecrackers. I grabbed Rukia and Momo by the shoulders and pulled them down to the floor where the smoke was thinnest, coughing up a mouthful as we went.
"What the hell did he do!?" Momo called above the commotion of our panicking classmates.
A roar came, and a fierce gust of wind appeared out of nowhere, pushing the thick black plumes out of the open patio doors like a giant invisible net. We sat up, still coughing and rubbing our soot-stained eyes.
"Oh my god…" I said in disbelief as I looked over to where Renji had been.
Instead, there was a huge, gaping hole in the floorboards, the remaining wood blackened and charred around the edges. We scrambled up and ran to the edge to look down. There sat Renji among the wreckage of the burning foundations, completely blackened with soot from head to toe, coughing up a lung.
"Renji!? Are you okay?!" Rukia called down to him. But he couldn't answer through the force of his coughing.
"Abarai!?" Onigei called in anger. "What were you thinking? Did you even bother to practice at all? If you'd have read the textbook like I told you yesterday you would have known not to reread sections of the spell if you got them wrong, but to start from the beginning instead. I would rather you be late than blow up my classroom!"
Renji stared up at her blankly, seeming completely confused and disoriented. He looked around at the debris and then up at the rest of the class looking down at him.
"I should have put money on it…" I murmured to Rukia who held back a laugh. Momo elbowed me lightly and moved forward to help Renji up. He shook his head like a wet dog shaking off the rain and wiped his sleeve across his face leaving a big smear of visible skin. Rukia leaned in to take his other hand and I noticed something odd.
"Renji… what's wrong with your face?" I asked. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
He was finally up out of the hole and Rukia used her sleeve to wipe the rest of his face… revealing a distinctly obvious missing facial feature.
"No way… He burnt his eyebrows off!" I howled bursting into laughter. I really couldn't help it. The look on his face was priceless and I would never let him live that moment down. The rest of the class caught my contagious laughter and Momo swatted me away as she and Rukia pulled him away from the crowd.
"Alright, that's enough," Onigei called over the kerfuffle, clapping loudly for our attention. "Miss Abarai, see that your brother gets medical attention and have him come to my office when he is well. Everyone else, you're dismissed too, we cannot continue with this mess."
There was an excited cheer.
"Don't get too excited, this doesn't mean you all got out being tested. Thanks to Mister Abarai's carelessness you'll all be retaking the test when the classroom is repaired." The class groaned miserably and everyone slouched towards the exit.
"Sorry, Ma'am…" Rukia sighed looking resigned as we walked past Onigei the way out.
I felt bad for Rukia, she clearly felt responsible for Renji in some way and it wasn't fair for her to bear his burden. I wanted to cheer her up but I didn't know what to say without sounding rude towards Renji so I followed them quietly towards the medical wing.
Renji still seemed completely out of it. He definitely wasn't right because he hadn't started an argument over my outburst.
"Kimi… that was mean. You shouldn't do that" Momo complained once we were away from people.
"Hey, if you can't take the heat keep out the kitchen. He challenged me, and he failed. What do you expect?" I said with a shrug. "He gets as good as he gives. He would have done the same if that was me back there, right Rukia?"
She didn't answer right away. "I suppose so. You're as bad as each other…"
"No Rukia! Don't condone it, that was not okay!" Momo said sharply. "He's hurt Kimi, and you didn't even think to help him before teasing him. He can't even defend himself right now, look at him!" I did look at him and all I saw was that blank, gormless expression on his face that made me bite my lip to force down a laugh. Then the bitterness and anger hit me.
"Yeah right." I spat. "I'll remember that the next time I'm on the floor with bruised ribs while he and the rest of the school stand by and watch me cry in agony. Sorry to burst your bubble but that is far more humiliating and painful than burning your eyebrows off." There was an awkward. "Ugh, Whatever. Catch you two later, I've got places to be."
I turned on my heel and walked back the direction we had come and out towards the dorm. Rukia called for me but I ignored her and carried on walking.
I didn't really have places to be. I just couldn't stand Momo accusing me of something that Renji had instigated, which she hadn't even witnessed. If she had been there I was sure she would be more understanding. But I wasn't gonna to let her make me out to be a bad person after the pain and humiliation he put me through. If he wasn't such an asshole, or if he had even attempted to sincerely apologize to me I wouldn't have hated him as much as I did. He deserved everything he got and more.
There was still another half hour until the next lesson which gave me plenty of time to switch into clean uniform and have a relaxing shower. As I was finishing up they entered the dorm to freshen up too.
In other circumstances, I probably would have waited for them, but right now I didn't want to hear their crap. So I left through my balcony window without letting them know I was there and headed out to our next lesson.
For our Soul Reaper Theory class Onabara followed on from the introductory lesson and talking us through the protocol on how to report and respond to hollow attacks and the basic do's and don'ts of hunting them down.
Simple stuff really, like: Only go in alone if it's a weak hollow; Never try to take on a listed or wanted hollow alone; Don't jeopardize your position if you've been given a tracking or recon job; Don't risk your teammate's lives. Pretty much common-sense stuff but the fact that it was being taught in school told me that there were idiots out there that had made stupid mistakes and probably been fired for them. I became engrossed in my textbook again, reading a few pages ahead of what Onabara set for us which that helped time fly quickly.
Momo and Rukia tagged along behind me after class on the way down to the cafeteria. They didn't mention what happened earlier, just acted like nothing was wrong.
Rukia seemed restless. She had a full bowl of ramen in front of her but she was only dipping her spoon into the broth and watching it fill before pouring into away again.
"You gonna eat that?" I asked eyeing it up after drinking the last of the soup from my bowl.
"No… I'm not really hungry… Want it?"
Momo stopped Rukia from pushing the bowl towards me and pushing it back to her. "Rukia he is with a nurse, she knows what to do he'll be fine," she said adding an extra slice from her bowl onto Rukia's "Now sit and eat up. You can have that, I don't like those eggs"
I cleared my throat and just for the sake of peace asked awkwardly: "He wasn't too badly hurt then? No head trauma?" I didn't wanna ask if the shock had made him even more stupid than he already was because they probably wouldn't appreciate the jab.
"No, nothing major. It seems the debris from the explosion hit him pretty hard on the head. The nurse was healing a mild concussion when we left" Rukia told me as she scooped a few noodles onto her spoon. Her chopstick lay untouched, she hadn't quite mastered the art of utensils yet.
"Good to know he's okay," I said mildly and far more formally than I would usually speak, especially to my friends. I didn't know what else to say and I wondered if the amount of effort I was putting into this was obvious to them.
"He should be back in action by tomorrow at the latest"
"Well, at least we might get a few more days to practice Shakkaho before Onigei gives us something else to learn. I don't see how we can have a lesson in that warzone" I pointed out just to change the conversation.
"Good, I managed to cast it, but I definitely need more time to get it right. Didn't she say the next one was lightning type Kido because of your epic laser beam?"
"Not quite. She said there would be lightning based Kido but didn't say when we would learn it." I sighed. "I just can't seem to moderate how much energy I use at once. I'm hoping I'll find some books that teach a spell to reduce one's Spirit energy reserves... It would be easier to control if I had less of it…"
"Hey, having a lot of spirit energy isn't necessarily a bad thing once you get it under control. I doubt you'd be complaining if you could outlast your opponent in a fight because you have more energy in reserve. Don't be so hard on yourself" Momo said confidently.
Suddenly I felt like a horrible person for being so mean about Renji when Rukia and Momo were such purely positive, supportive people. I had been so mean but they still stood by me. I felt like my negativity and stubbornness was dragging them down. I couldn't let that happen anymore. I needed to find a way to settle mine and Renji's differences before they got out of hand.
"Thanks, guys." I grimaced trying to feel positive. "It'll get better soon, I hope."