Chapter 11 version 3
1982 January
Tanya stood in the street watching the woman with her face with a mix of confusion and concern. She had no idea why her sword would look like an older version of her and why this entity had opened their conversation by mocking her former profession.
Stepping forward, she took the seat across from her older doppelganger, "My name is Tanya-" she attempted to introduce herself with her current name but was cut off.
"No, it's not, your name is Salaryman or Salarygirl as it is now. Even when you had a name in your first life you were a Salaryman. And as Salaryman, you ignored your boss's warning to watch your back after firing that man because you were superior to the man only to end up being thrown in front of a train by that same man. Whatever name your family gave you had no real hold on your spirit, you used the rules of society to turn yourself into a Salaryman."
The spirit sipped her coffee contently. "You know, for a supposed free market libertarian, you sure do love working for authoritarians. Corporations, monarchies, if you didn't hate communism with a burning passion, I expect you'd work for them." "
"I do not like working for authoritarians…" She was cut off again.
"You don't? Are you sure about that Salarygirl? You seem to find yourself in service to them quite often, hell you're currently embarking on a career where you have to do the bidding of unaccountable bureaucrats by your own estimations."
Tanya was getting annoyed by what must be the sword spirit's and it continued accusations so she argued back. "I am not exactly in a position to refuse service to them. The Soul Reapers are the top of the hierarchy here, and if I were to find myself a job as an accountant in the city, I'd still be hunted by Hollows for having Spiritual Energy. And in the Empire I was a flight capable mage, that alone secured my service to the Kaiser."
"Not in a position to refuse? You were a child of 8 when you signed up for military service, you had 8-10 years of being in a position to refuse. And here, in the middle of the most secure area of Soul Society, you are safe from the Hollows, but you don't really want to be safe, you want to soar in the skies, fight in the mud and win it all. Something you 'had' to do to appease your boss when we both know that's not true." The spirit finished with a pointed look at Tanya.
"An interesting but ridiculous hypothesis, what makes you say I want to fight?" Tanya demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What were those words you said before you joined the battle over Norden? Oh yes! I remember now 'I've never felt more alive as I charged into an enemy mage squad one on four." The spirit ran her finger over the rim of the cup and leaned forward on the table, her other hand under her chin.
"Nationalistic rhetoric to cement my position as someone loyal to the empire to those listening on the radio mixed with adrenaline-fueled by magic." Tanya responded, knocking away the statement as junk.
"That's strange, I remember you quite enjoying the thrill of that fight. The moments of your life or death held in your hands. I also remember you tossing that radio away before you said that since it would have slowed you down" the spirit mused with a smile.
"I did no such thing, I was ordered to commit suicidal charges and my options were to fight or die as a deserter," Tanya said, standing up from her seat, staring directly into the eyes of the spirit.
"You can keep telling yourself that Salarygirl. But do you really think the empire would execute a child for cowardice? Wasn't it more likely you would have been granted a pardon by Kaiser because you were so young and been drummed out military prevented from flying again." The spirit said, picking up the cup to sip it again.
"That… was a possibility, but I had no guarantee of such a thing." Tanya thought it best to move on to the reason she's here. It was pointless to argue about decisions already taken. "So then are we going to just continue to have arguments on my life choices? Are you going to tell me your name and what this place is?"
The red spirit chuckled "Ha! I don't know what's funnier, that you think you'll get my name on our first date, or that you didn't know that my name is the crux of our meeting. As for what this place is, this is your inner world, a representation of you or at least you believe you are. It was created by achieving Jinzen, a meditative state to communicate with me. I'm guessing your little meetings with Being X left you more open for communication with spiritual entities."
"What do you mean the crux of our meetings?" Tanya asked, looking around at the officer buildings towering over their streets. Being X had communicated with her in several ways over the years, from stopping time to the visions of other places, it would make some terrible sense that that would leave a mark on her mind.
"The name of your Zanpakuto, my name, is what's used to release the power of the Shikai and others. In order to learn my name, you must come to an understanding of yourself. And because your head is as dense as platinum. I think we'll have that first understanding in about... 100 years, maybe?" The spirit's casual rudeness was grating at this point.
"And pray tell what's to stop me from just naming you something I like, and being done with this search?" Tanya asked, really not liking the attitude of the spirit.
"Well Salarygirl it's almost like I was implying I knew you would do that from the start. It's not like your first instinct upon meeting a being claiming supernatural power before was to name him Being X." The spirit said with a conniving smile. "But the short answer is no, the name was chosen when you made your connection with the sword, it can not be changed just because you don't want to follow the rules… for once in your life."
Tanya sighed and shook her head then said "Unless I can come to an understanding with myself? And find your real name? We are at an impasse. And let me guess, you're going to continue to call me Salarygirl."
"Maybe when you start looking like me I'll call you a Salarywoman. Till then you're just Salarygirl. You didn't even accept your name as Tanya till a few years into the war. From what I remember you always referred to Tanya as if you were some spirit possessing her, which is rather comical considering our current situation." the spirit said with a smile.
Tanya rubbed the bridge of her nose, annoyed that the spirit apparently had full access to her memories. Yes, she had referred to herself in the third person for a while. It had been a confusing first couple of years into her new life. And to be frank she hadn't realized she'd stopped doing that at some point. Maybe there was something to be learned here but it was going to be like pulling teeth. She could feel it. "Well, this has been an enlightening disaster. I guess I'll just lay down and try to fall asleep?"
"It's your world, you can leave whenever you want," the spirit taunted.
"Well then, good night Tasha," the spirit chuckled at Tanya's farewell as she went for a bench to sleep on.
"Good night." the spirit said, watching her go.
Hakuda or, by translation, White Hits, was a hand-to-hand combat style favored by Soul Reapers. It was a style of combat that favored close fast hits until the enemy was overwhelmed. She had seen some of the more advanced students practicing it in one of the bout square that was on the campus, and from watching a man get punched onto the roof of a three-story building, she knew this was something should not take lightly.
It was now two weeks since the start of the school year and her fruitless conversation with the sword. In those two weeks, she had time to study and determined how she would learn the combat style of the Soul Reapers. And she had chosen to start with Hakuda. With her class instructor Ōnabara putting her on notice about using her style of magic on campus, her magical enhancements to cover her smaller stature were out. Which meant her body was lacking the strength needed for combat.
This was why she had chosen Hakuda, its practice should help her build up muscle strength and as an added bonus, she would not have to use her enhancement spells on her body freeing up mental power to run another spell.
She was not planning to master Hakuda, but she wanted to get as good as she could. Though thanks to recent information she picked up she figured it would push that potential as far as possible. The 2nd division apparently was not the only scout force. Her assumption about there being secret police was half right. It would seem there was another branch of the military called the Onmitsukidō closely linked to the 2nd division. This was a unit that was the secret police by her guess, with 2nd being the public face. Apparently, those who could get an Expert status of hand to hand were allowed to join. So that was the bare minimum she needed if she wanted to be able to defend herself in case she ever got on their list. Just because someone is not after you yet, does not mean they're not coming. Any and all secret police deserved to be treated as something that one day may come after you, because without very good checks or balances there was nothing holding them back.
So here she was standing in one of the courtyards attempting to practice the movements in the book between her daily exercise regimes when she heard the familiar voice of Vooren Grantz behind her.
"Um, miss Degurechaff," turning she saw him standing there with Nicole Levenshtein looking at her. The first time she really had the chance to examine the pair since their meeting. Grantz was wearing a blue version of the uniform as we expected of the male students and had a small katana at his left side. Nicole was wearing a red uniform like herself but had a Wakizashi tied to the back of her belt very similar to how Matsumoto carried her. Their blades looked very unremarkable so Tanya assumed he had yet to fully attune to them.
She noted he had spoken in Japanese so she put him to the test "I see I was right they would be teaching you the local language, how goes your lessons," she said taking a natural stance over the one she had just been using to practice her punches.
"Better than it was two weeks ago, we're still learning but this sink or swim environment," Nicole said on the behalf of both of them, so Tanya asked Grantz directly.
"Grantz how are your lessons coming"
"I **** get some **** words" it was not the worst attempt she heard but two-third of the conversation was still good progress.
Flipping to german she said "Well not bad I say. At the end of the month, you two should be able to make your way up the ranks without needing a translator. So what brings you two to me this lovely day. I hope it's not reminiscing about old times" she already had a good idea why since she implied she knew more about their shared situation, they would have the itch to ask her what she knew.
"NO! Ma'am we were wondering about what you said that there was more going on than we know. All we know is that we woke up half-drowned in a river in district 60 north about 8 months ago. We didn't even know we might have died till you showed up and asked if we died together." Vooren Grantz said, sounding confused.
"I was wondering how you were doing" Levenshtein chimed in, "last I saw you being sealed in the coffin, I never thought we would see you again Lt colonel".
"Ah, I guess my death would have some questions, well I'll make it simple then, I died, and woke up like you about 6 months ago, yes that means I've been here less than you, time apparently works funny here. As for why we're here, I met General Lehrgen on the way here. Apparently, the American dropped a magic-based bomb after we died that had an odd effect. He believes that it's opened the door to another afterlife that our souls slipped through. I have other theories but for now, I'm going to assume that's the reason we're here." Explaining Being X and her feud would not be conducive to a working relationship with the two former Lts. And considering the academy seemed to put a lot of emphasis on friendship, having the appearance of one or two might be useful to her grades.
"And yes we are dead… to a point, this is some other world's afterlife, a terrible place when you think about, fight or get eaten by a monster, not something talked about in the scriptures I skimmed at the orphanage." She joked in a humorous tone.
"As for me, I'm doing rather well. I made it safely to Central and I'm pursuing a new career very similar to my last career, but just with more monsters" Tanya said watching the two process the information, Grantz seemed pained when she confirmed their deaths while Nicole seemed in bit shock.
Nicole recovered from her shock, shaking her head. "Well, that's good, it's just like you laying on your feet and to start dealing with the situation. Really missed your way of handling the messes we got ourselves in after you passed. Weiss and Serebryakova were just not able to hold the battalion together afterward".
Visha had not been able to hold the battalion together? That was an odd statement; she had always been the most effective of adjutants. Perhaps she could find out what had happened by mentioning something they didn't know. "Oh, that reminds me, Visha's here in this world."
The two former lieutenants both tensed immediately upon hearing that, with Nicole asking first. "She knows you're here right?"
Tanya raised an eyebrow "Yes, we had a conversation about 2 weeks ago. She's apparently an officer of the 11th division which is why I assume we haven't had time to have a meeting since then. I've heard that that division doesn't do their paperwork and I assume Visha is the one doing the paperwork for them."
The two exchange a look of worry before Grantz said "Did she seem normal when you talk to her?"
"She made more jokes than I remember, but she's been here a few years so I just assumed she had time to mature good humor," Not sure what they were getting at.
The two both let out a deep breath "That's good, after you fell in battle she became very aggressive against the Russy and a few attacks that were just not exactly well planned. I don't think she handled your death well at all sir." Nicole started finally explaining the situation.
'Unfortunate' Tanya thought but it made sense Visha already had a bad history with communists. Losing your commanding officer probably did not sit well with her. By the looks of their short meeting, she'd most likely gotten over her hatred for the communist and it had adapted to life in this world.
"Well, that is unfortunate. If I ever run into Visha I'll have to admonish her for letting the situation get that bad. She should have been taken off the front the moment her emotions blinded her to strategic situations." The two lieutenants shared another look, this one seeming to bear relief between the two.
"Lieutenant colonel," Nicole began before Tanya spoke up stopping her,
"Levenshtein I've told you, I no longer have my rank. As far as this world is concerned you and I are no different. If you have an issue saying my last name without putting the rank you knew me as then just Tanya will do." She needed to break those two habits of calling her former rank.
"L-Tanya," Nicole began, seeming uncomfortable by using her first name before she continued "umm, so what were you doing out here before we came over?"
With a smile, Tanya explained "I'm attempting to learn the Soul Reaper hand and hand combat style while exercising. They don't want me using spells since I'm using the empire's mathematical formulas. Spiritual energy does not convert to magic mana well and the academy staff are worried that I might injure myself or others. So I'm having to learn how to fight without relying on magic to buff my physical strength."
"Wait, magic works here?" Grantz said, confused.
"Did you not try to use your magecraft?" Tanya asked, confused.
"We tried a couple of times, but it always failed. The amount of energy needed was too much to cast it to completion," Grantz explained.
"Oh.. then what did you use to get into the academy?" Tanya was surprised by this development.
"They just tested our spiritual energy reserves, made sure that it was above some arbitrary limit they have, and gave us money to get uniforms," Nicole answered.
Tanya rubbed her face as she realized how low the bar must really be and how far above she must have shot. "That is unexpected news but yes our magecraft does work it just requires a lot of energy. I have this world that allows you spiritual energy to grow through heavy use and I have been practicing every day to increase mine. Since our magic now runs off this world's spiritual energy, once we have the time you should try using your mage blade to cut wood the constant burning of energy will slowly cause it to grow."
"So it's possible to improve though we were just sort of stuck and whatever level we started as. Grantz said thoughtfully
"We're not in the empire anymore, we're not even on our old Earth the rules of the game have changed and we must adapt," Tanya said to affirm the situation.
"I guess we need to, so you're learning the local martial arts? Shouldn't be too hard, you did get an award for close combat" Nicole commented.
"Yes well, that was mage close combat which amounted to stab the enemy with your mage knife," Tanya said dispelling the idea that there was anything similar between the two.
"Well, we both were practitioners of Germanian martial arts maybe we can help train with you." Grantz offered.
From what Tanya knew the germanian martial arts were a mix of boxing and wrestling, not exactly what White Hits referred to but having someone to spar with would probably be easier than no one at all.
Plus Nicole was about her height and weight, it would probably be a better than even fight compared to any of her other options from class one. Nodding, she said, " I think that would be a very beneficial arrangement."
She pointed over to a 5 ft by 5-foot square that had been marked out by a white line. "We can practice over there." She began leading the way to the area. "The rules are very simple from the practice bouts I've taken part in. Since we won't be using swords no need to count a hit as a win instead the goal is to knock the person out of the ring or onto the ground"
The pair of former lieutenants nodded and Tanya continued "Nicole since you are closer to my height and weight I should spar with you first until I get the hang of it."
She nodded and said "I'll take it easy on you since it's your-" Tanya cut her off.
"Nicole will be fighting things that plan to eat us, we have no room to take half measures" Tanya pointed out.
"All right," Nicole said, sounding a bit concerned.
Tanya shrugged it off as she took her place across from her. "Grantz mind refereeing for us?"
"Yeah, si-sure Tanya." He said sliding from one word to another mid speech
Tanya took a stance she'd seen in the book with her hands in front of her that was not too dissimilar from a boxing stance. Nicole responded by taking a similar stance but with her hands open.
Grants gave a word and Tanya moved to punch. Nicole turned out to be faster and stronger than Tanya expected. She should not have been surprised that she trained with Grantz; she was used to fighting opponents bigger than herself. Unfortunately, she forgot that fact and she paid for it with a moment of zero g as she was grabbed by a pair of hands hauled over Nicole's shoulder, her legs dangling in the air and smacked into the ground behind the white-haired girl.
Laying on the ground face up, her pride injured and her back in pain she made a note to make sure that if Nicole ever was in a position under her that the girl would get one terrible job in recompense for this moment.
"Lieutenant colonel are you all right." Came to the panic-stricken voice of Nicole.
Opening her eyes she saw Nicole standing over her looking shaken by her success and Grantz having a similar look of shock and terror.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, sitting up and brushing herself off. "Perhaps you should take it easy on me for a bit just to start."
After a couple of hours of rather unfruitful but telling close combat bouts Tanya was sore and missing her magic a bit. If it wasn't for the fact that pretty much everyone could sense when someone was using a large amount of spiritual energy she may have tried to give herself a better chance in a couple of those fights. However, as it was she couldn't risk the teachers getting the impression she was trying to cheat them.
A bruised ego was a reasonable price to pay for self-improvement. She just needed to get better. Maybe one day Nicole would be the one who got to experience zero-g without flight.
For now, she studied and the subject she was studying was the mysterious Soul King. The research materials inside the library of the academy were astounding and would put the war college library to shame. While the war college library had been a large room with a few shelves in the center, the Soul Academy library was three stories tall with more books than she had seen in some local libraries.
As the evening came on she was sitting at one of the central desking areas, her nose buried in a history book. Details of the Soul King post his appearance were scarce beyond him helping to set up the governing body of the Soul Society. But his first appearance was somewhat documented, it would seem several million years ago on this Earth all worlds existed in one plane of existence, hollow souls humans there's no listing for hell's occupants but she would assume demons all lived on one plane and it was utter chaos.
Then one day the Soul King showed up and divided it all, creating the system everyone lives in today. Where did he come from? There was nothing. Why did he do this? doesn't say. How come he doesn't make more appearances? Harem maybe. Frankly, the amount of information there was had Tanya a bit concerned that there's something else going on. There were more details about the royal guard than there were about what the soul King was up to. And all that was listed for the royal guard was they existed, they protected the soul King and they were made up of former Gotei 13 members who had been captains. Just the amount anyone who had served under those captains would know after those captains ascended.
Oh sure there were other details in these books but frankly, she didn't give them much credibility. They seemed more speculation and conjecture to her such as assuming the Soul King had a massive harem. Sounded like something a bureaucrat would write to explain why they need funding to her.
Most likely all information about the Soul King was censored or Miss-conjecture to hide possible entrances into his Palace. Maybe he didn't exist and this was all a fiction the Soul Reapers spread about to keep the population controlled. If he did exist though he was definitely a Being X of this universe and she was just glad that he apparently was not interested in interacting with people outside his Palace.
Getting up she picked up the books she'd been reading and headed towards the History section sliding them back in place. Looking at the wall of books she tried to decide what she would read next before she headed back to her room. There were plenty of options from what appeared to be a dummy's guide to talking to your Zanpakuto, a book with the title the Quincy war. As much as she knew she should probably be trying to get in touch with that malicious Spirit residing in her sword, the fact the title referred to a war triggered a response to read it, so she attempted to reach the book.
Unfortunately, it happened to be on the 5th shelf up just out of her reach. Annoyed by this predicament she looked left trying to make sure no one was looking then right thinking that perhaps she could use her magic to give herself a little boost. Looking back to the left revealed someone who had not been there just a split second before holding the book she'd been looking at. A tall man with brown hair and glasses wearing a captain's Haori marking him the commander of the 5th division. Realizing she was dealing with a possible employer she gave an appropriate bow and said, "Good evening Captain."
"The Quincy war? Not many young Reapers bother looking at the history this society was built on." The man seemed to not care about the social etiquette she had been learning.
"I believe a Spanish philosopher once said something to the effect of "Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it" I would personally add either in sequel or rhyme. I've seen enough war in my life but if it happens once it can happen again and it's better to know what happened so you can avoid the mistakes that were made last time." Tanya commented, taking a stab at a conversation with the captain.
"Hmm, an interesting take from such a young person." He handed her the book "I am Sōsuke Aizen of the fifth division and teacher of the optional calligraphy class here."
Smiling, believing she had given a great first impression"Tanya Degurechaff student, former soldier of the German Empire."
"Well Tanya, enjoy the book, I'm afraid though it does not have a happy ending." Something about the way he spoke encouraged her to give her thoughts on that comment.
"War never has a happy end. It's a cruel waste of lives and resources. Sometimes they must be fought to prevent a great evil from taking root but most of the time they are just power games between authoritarian elites." She said while holding the book to her side.
"A political philosopher and a soldier, that's a rather rare combination here." he took moment to think before he said, "I often come down here to grade papers from my class not many students think to look for me in the library perhaps you would like to speak more about you philosophies another time?"
"That would be rather an enjoyable captain Aizen," Tanya said with a charming smile. Getting another captain to think highly of her would be a major success in any future endeavors.
The fifth Captain smiled and said, "Please just call me Sosuke."
Author's note
Man, I sure hope Tanya doesn't manipulate the captain of the fifth division too hard, he seems like such a nice guy…
Anyways, I attempted to explain a few issues some folks pointed out in the last chapter with the pair of Lts. I have no idea if I did better but we'll see.
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Betaed by: BuzzTech, Anonymous
Review response:
AnimeA55Kicker: nope and yeap, depend on your definition of kick their welder's ass. will see what Visha has been up to very soon. which Kenpachi, because the original take would have had her kill the Kenpachi of 1928 which is the one before Zaraki by about 30 years.
EricFreak: I hope the spirit lived up to your expectations, I have some plans for that Visha. Is the 11th her fate? yeah a very good drinking buddy... (chapter 12 reference)
skrapsynneh: here you go!
Grocamol: nope nothing wrong with that, thank you for the praise, I'm sure years of reading this kind of stuff on this site problem influenced me a bit to know what works and what does not.
PsylentFox: one more factor as to why she made contact has been added to your guesswork but you are generally on spot.