Chapter 17 version 3
1984
Tanya stood, a frown on her face staring up at the signage donning the barracks that would be her new home over the next 10 years and hopefully no longer. In front of her was a building that appeared to have been heavily used. It was built in a similar style to the 10th division headquarters but the number of patched walls, noticeable roof damage and other such marks of ongoing maintenance indicated that this was a place that saw much revelry.
No, she doubted revelry was the correct term, from her understanding there was a constant glut of duels to determine a person's standing within this division. She would not be surprised if a few of them spilled over into damaging the building.
Hoisting the bag which contained just about everything she owned over her shoulder, Tanya muttered a sound of tepid discontent before stepping towards the outer gateway of the battered building complex.
She no longer donned the reds and whites of a student instead she bore the black and whites of a full-blown soul reaper. Admittedly She had made a few personal alterations, all of which were well within the regulation dress code, which she had discovered to be exceptionally lax for a military institution.
Prominently displayed on her left breast the silver wings assault medal hung, a relic she had decided was worth keeping at this point. She had replaced the sandals that were given to students freely, with a good pair of rugged combat boots she had commissioned with her savings.
In contacting a shoemaker to have her old boots reproduced to fit her growth, she had inadvertently secured a small contract to advertise the shoemaker's business and the "modern" style of footwear. She wasn't sure if it would actually work out the way the craftsman seemed to think it would, but she wasn't above supplementing her income with very minor effort.
The final addition to her uniform was a well fitted black peaked hat with white highlights, in an attempt to keep her disobedient hair out of sight.
She also had one other new, hidden addition to her appearance thanks to recently figuring out that she could no longer handle alcohol as well as she once did. Thankfully it was separated by layers of new clothing so she would not need to talk about it anytime soon.
Firming her resolve to be careful when drinking around people she was comfortable with like Grantz, Nicole, and most likely Visha too, the knowledge that she was apparently rather suggestible while intoxicated, did little to soothe her mounting irritation.
Taken together, she hoped she looked no different than all the other soul reapers hanging about and would draw no undue notice. That assumption died the moment she opened the door and was covered by the confetti and streamers that fell on top of her.
"Welcome to the 11th division Tanya!" came a familiar and cheery voice as she was wrapped up in a hug by the brown haired girl. Had Visha always been such a hugger? She wondered, she had always kept her unit on a tight leash when it came to military decorum, so it was possible that Visha kept those tendencies under wraps and there was certainly no way to break her of these tendencies now seeing as Visha was a higher rank and possibly her commanding officer, accepting the hugs would likely be the best course of action as it were.
"Good to see you too Visha" Tanya managed to get out past the pressure of the hug. After a short while, Visha finally let go, allowing Tanya to shift her gaze to the soul reapers who had tossed the confetti. There were four men and one pink-haired girl surrounding the entrance.
Three of the men looked absolutely bored out of their minds, which was understandable she supposed, seeing as this was obviously a personal endeavor of Visha. The pink-haired girl, one Lieutenant Yachiru Kusajishi if memory served, seemed to just be happy to be included, the fourth man however caught Tanya off guard.
"Visha, why didn't you tell me Koenig was part of the division?" First Lieutenant Wilibald Koenig, commander of the third company of her 203rd battalion. A rather competent soldier with a level of professionalism that was worth celebrating. He had also been one of the few members of her battalion willing to bring and draw his officer's sword onto the field of battle in mage combat. Something that at the time, she believed to be foolhardy and wistful, now? Well she was sure that skill served him well. He seemed to have caught her train of thought as he was standing among the other reapers with one of the biggest, smuggest looks plastered on his face she had ever seen.
"I told her not to." He said interjecting before Visha could reply.
"And you told her not to, why?" Tanya curtly responded with a tone that made her curiosity plain to see.
"I knew you'd join the 11th division after you completed the academy, so I figured it'd be a neat way to surprise you." He said with a smile.
"And how did you know I would be joining the 11th division when there were plenty of other options?" Tanya asked, not understanding his line of thought.
Koenig shared a gaze with Visha for a moment before returning his focus to Tanya. "Let's just say I thought there was something in this division that would make the 11th a great fit for you."
Before she could ask what he was talking about Visha spoke up. "Koenig showed up two years after me but he blitzed his way through the academy and got himself 12th seat in the division."
Tanya nodded, his swift ascension through the ranks made sense since she had turned 203rd into the best fighters the empire had ever produced, it followed that they would excel in this world. "Good work Koenig, are there any more members of the 203rd I need to know about?" Tanya asked, looking at Visha.
Koenig shook his head, "I go out to the outer districts every few months to take a look, see if I can find any clues or rumors about them but so far nothing. There was a rumor of a man matching Weiss' description taking up a business in fireworks but I have yet to confirm it."
Tanya nodded at the expected, the only reason she knew any of her battalion had made it was because they were all drawn to the military. If Weiss or anyone else decided they would not join the military and pursue a civilian career it would be very unlikely that she would run into them anytime soon.
"Well, I am sure they will show up sooner or later" Tanya commented before she continued "So I assume these three are 10th squad and my squadmates?" looking at the trio of bored men. There was really nothing stellar to describe about them one was bald another had a mustache and the last was short.
The pink-haired girl giggled loudly at that. "They're not squad 10 silly, these are a few of the other new recruits from this year's stock. They're your competition for the spot on squad 10."
Tanya sighed, of course, the combat unit settled things like what squad a person was assigned to with a competition. Looking at the three she guessed they were from lower classes, most likely class three and four, the groups who Grantz had been beating quite handily for years now.
"Alright I'll take all three of their challenges at once," Tanya stated with a wave of her hand. She did not want to have to waste more time than necessary on this and she figured there was a chance this was similar to the stories about what you needed to do if you ever were sent to prison, one must establish a reputation to signal to the others that they were not to be trifled with.
Visha tried to say something starting with "Tanya you don't" but Kusajishi jumped up and interrupted her.
"That's the 11th spirit Kenny saw in you! I knew you'd fit right in, but of course, it is up to these three whether or not they're up to the challenge." She turned expectantly to the trio.
The de facto leader of the trio, a dark-haired man with the unruly mustache seemed contemplative "Give us a moment to talk this over." he requested as he led his two compatriots to the side and began a minutes-long discussion in halfhearted whispers.
What little Tanya could make out of their discussion followed along the lines of "Isn't that the girl who trained with that monster, Grantz?", "She hasn't attained Shikai yet though." and the particularly humorous one of "She's just a single girl there's no way she could beat all three of us."
After they finished their discussion, the reapers turned to the pink-haired Lieutenant and accepted the challenge. "Yeah, we'll fight her as long as we're allowed to release our Shikai."
The excitable Lieutenant turned to Tanya to ask about their stipulation but halted when she noticed Tanya nodding her agreement.
"This is going to be such fun!" Kusajishi exclaimed before pointing at Visha. "You show her to the arena and I'll go get the others to watch." She pointed at Tanya "If you win I'll give you a sugary treat for one of my stashes."
The proposition caught Tanya's attention for a moment and she responded "Are we talking about chocolate?"
The pink-haired girl put her finger to her mouth as she replied"Only if you make it a good show!" Before scampering off.
Smiling at the prospect of getting her first taste of chocolate since she arrived in this world she turned to Visha"Well then Seats please show me the way to the arena."
6th seat Renji Abarai sat at the top of the viewing stands with two of his fellow officers. Yumichika Ayasegawa the 5th Seat and the third Seat Ikkaku Madarame. They had all been dragged here by Yachiru to watch a couple of newbies fight each other.
Normally he'd probably have skipped out on such an event, it happened once a year after all and he preferred to just work on improving his own skills but Yachiru was being rather forceful which usually meant the Captain was involved in some way.
Speaking of the devil Kenpachi Zaraki walked into the room with Yachiru riding her usual pedestal. He seemed tired, yawning openly as he ascended the stairs and sat down next to the third seat. "Morning boys," he murmured.
"Morning Captain" Ikkaku responded before continuing. ''So what got the lieutenant so excited anyways?"
"Oh yeah forgot to mention, Visha's former commander showed up a couple of years back and I pulled some strings to have her assigned to this division," he said leaning back against the wall
Visha's former commander? Well, that was unexpected. Renji had sparred a few times with her over the years so he was well aware of how skilled Visha was, hell he was certain that if she put more effort into climbing through the ranks she could unseat her way to 7th without any serious issues. But he never asked about her history, he just assumed she learned how to fight in the 80s like the Captain himself.
"Okay, so she made a new friend that does not require waking everyone up, i need a full eight hours of beauty sleep." Yumichika snarked, looking more tired than most.
"I told her that there was only one position on Visha's squad and she would have to fight the three other newbies." Yachiru chimed in happily.
"She called your bluff, I assume?" Renji asked, Visha's squad was constantly understaffed since she went out of the way to complete and double check the paperwork for the whole division.
"Nope, she went and challenged all three of them to fight." Yachiru's smug reply came.
Renji turned to the young Lieutenant "So you lied to her and got her to agree to a 3 on 1 fight please tell me you at least restricted the fight to unreleased combat?"
"I did not, I was going to propose three separate fights when she suggested the three on one match and then agreed to let them use their Shikai which was odd since she hasn't attained it herself yet last I heard," Yachiru said, attempting to look scandalized by Renji's accusation of her being the architect of the unfair fight.
Renji shook his head disturbed by Yachiru's trick going out of hand. Though going off of what he just learned and how well Visha got along with the captain he was expecting a female Kenpachi to walk into the hall. The short blond-haired midget with blue-grey eyes and pale skin who walked in next to the 10th seat was not what he expected.
"Pah! What an ugly duckling." Yumichika noted observing the girl with keen eyes.
"Little harsh there, don't you think?" Ikkaku responded. "I'm sure some guy would go for that vampire look she got going on."
"That I do not doubt but I am not harsh at all. She has no makeup on, she clearly puts no care into her hair, her eyes look dead and she wears her uniform not with pride of a soul reaper but with the pride of wearing a uniform." Yumichika proclaimed.
"What's the difference?" Renji wondered.
"A soul reaper embellishes his or her uniform to show off an aspect of them, if you or I were to show up a person would know who we are at glance. That girl altered her uniform not to draw the eye but to make it look more like a uniform. A hyper-conformist style mixed with boots to give her a military look." Yumichika explained looking over the girl.
Renji nodded along, still not quite getting what the 5th was saying. "You've given uniforms a lot of thought."
"You don't get to look this beautiful without devoting time and effort into thinking about what constitutes beauty." Yumichika extolled as if he was some great sage sharing his wisdom with the uneducated masses.
"Well, maybe she's more of a fighter than someone who only worries about her looks." The Third Seat commented before he continued, "Though for a newbie she is very foolish for taking on this fight, without Shikai she's most likely going to be spending the day in 4th recovering."
"Shhh! They're starting.'' Yachiru demanded as the blonde walked towards the center of the fighting arena drawing a silver blade. It looked like a one-handed katana through the handguard appeared to have a western-style dragon engraved on it running along the knuckle guard. She took a guarded stance left arm held close to her body, it's hand pointed slightly off to the side while she held the saber pointed in front of her. Surprisingly her eyes began to glow blue which was something he'd only seen the 12th seat do before.
Her opponents were a mustached man carrying a shortsword, a man with early-onset male pattern baldness wielding a katana, and a short, weedy man with a small dagger-like blade.
Visha took up the role of referee and held up her blade in the air before dropping it and signaling the start of the fight.
The three men started to call upon their swords but the middle, short sword wielding reaper did not get the chance to finish releasing his zanpakuto.
The blonde girl had obviously not mastered flash step but that did not mean she was slow by any measure. She charged the central mustached man forcing him to break off his release to keep her blade from penetrating his right abdomen.
Shrimpy, his dagger having transformed into a three-pointed trident attempted to aid Mustachio, his attempt however was put to a stop within moments as the girl simply backed off of her mustached opponent and pointed her blade at the charging trident wielder.
With her blade now horizontal Renji noticed a small hole in the handguard just above where the blunt edge of the katana began. He most likely would have missed it if it hadn't started glowing before releasing a flash of energy as the girls said something. Shrimpy's legs were forced out from underneath him causing him to smash into the ground face first.
"Hadō #1. Shō?" Ikkaku questioned "I thought you could only cast that from your index finger?"
Before anyone could try and make a guess at how the girl had altered the spell, the man with the exceptionally unfortunate hairline man bore down on her with a massive warhammer.
He expected that to be the end of the fight and the girl to be off to the 4th for recovery due to massive head trauma. To Renji's surprise, however, the hammer instead smashed into a glowing, blue field that appeared just centimeters between her head and the weapon. The girl wheeled around and smashed her knuckle guard squarely into the man's face, crushing his nose and sending him flying a couple of feet into the air before he rolled the rest of the way out of the ring.
Mustachio had finally finished releasing his zanpakuto, revealing a set of large, oversized garden shears. The blades snapped shut and sent a pulsating wave of energy at the blonde. In response, she raised her left hand and created another barrier but the flash of energy surrounded the shield and cut its way through it without issue. The girl managed to set up a second shield, though it seemingly did nothing as the energy cut through that as well before hitting her in the shoulder sending her tumbling backwards.
Watching the girl get up Renji had half expected her arm to fall off. His prediction turned out to be at least partially accurate when he saw the remains of her left sleeve fall off of her shoulder having been completely shredded by the blast, a third shield hanging mere millimeters from her skin protecting her from the attack. He of-handedly noted that apparently, the girl had a tattoo on her left biceps, a stylized 203 over a twin-headed dragon starting at her shoulder and trailing down her upper arm.
The girl looked at her fallen sleeve before glaring at the unfortunate reaper who cut it. If looks could kill the man would have been dead three times over, Renji suspected it'd be a more merciful fate too.
VIsha's former commander kicked off the ground exploding into action with a fast paced, high jump. Mustachio sent three more slashes of energy at her but she was moving too fast for them to hit her. Then she came down boot first aiming for his head, Mustachio tried sending a final burst to interfere but this one smashed into a multi-layered shield dissipating the energy before it even reached her. Her boot firmly crashed into the man's head toppling him over leaving her standing over the unconscious man.
Shrimpy finally overpowered the hado, got up, and threw his trident at the girl. She almost dismissively cast another Hadō #1. Shō knocking it off course, though surprisingly the weapon returned to it's owner's hands once it was clear that it was going to miss.
The girl stepped off of the unconscious man and started walking towards Shrimpy at a casual pace her blade aimed directly at him launching more Hadō #1. Shōs every few seconds causing the man to stumble further and further back till he was just at the edge of the arena. Coincidentally moving the fight much closer to where Renji and the spectators were sitting, allowing them to hear more of what was being said between the fighters.
In an act of blatant frustration and panic, Shrimpy tossed his trident at her again. This time though the girl simply created a shield in front of it to block before forming a second shield behind it to prevent the weapon's escape, trapping the trident where she could easily grab it before driving it firmly into the ground head first removing the weapon from the fight.
Pointing her blade at him the girl said in a gruff voice "You are out of weapons, you are out of space, you are out of options, yield."
Shrimpy responded by flipping her off with both hands "I never yield bitch."
The girl let out an exaggerated sigh, lowered her blade before kicking the man in the chest so hard he crashed into the wall of the bleacher beneath Renji.
Looking up at Yachiru, her sapphire eyes still glowing softly as she gave them a smile that looked more at home on Kenpachi's face than the short girl who currently bore it "Are there any other candidates who want to take my position in squad 10?"
Yachiru looked around the arena and at the three badly beaten men and responded with a chipper tone"Nope I think you got them all." before reaching into her pocket and pulling out what appeared to be a chocolate bar and tossing it at the blonde-haired reaper. Blondie grabbed it out of the air and looked it over, gave a nod of thanks to the Lieutenant before walking towards her new commanding officer.
"Okay, I want to fight her," Ikkaku stated with a smile.
Yumichika looked at him as if appalled at the thought prompting the bald man to respond. "What? She's like a blonde mini Kenpachi who knows how to employ kido spells in direct combat. Win or lose, that is going to be a fun fight."
Yumichika finally nodded his agreement. "She still needs to do something with her fashion choices to make her stand out more, put some actual personality in her dress."
"Well then, why don't you guys challenge her to a couple of fights, see if you can't get her to loosen up Yumichika, perhaps wager the makeover or something, have fun Ikkaku." Kenpachi Zaraki mused.
Renji asked the prominent question on his mind "why did you ask for her to join this division?"
The captain smiled and said holding up one finger "I liked the look in her eyes."
Renji nodded as the other seats began to smile at the prospects of a good fight. Then he asked the question he'd been sitting on for a while now. "So what's this girl's name anyway?"
Yachiru spoke up "Oh it's Tantan or maybe Yon Yon perhaps Chaffy… so many options to choose from really."
"Okay, could I have her real name and not the pet one you're working on?" Reggie said.
"Tanya Degurechaff" the 11th Captain supplied.
That name struck a chord somewhere in the back of Renji's mind. It took a moment for him to remember but he could vaguely recall a letter he had received from Rukia a few years earlier that mentioned the name.
"Wait, this girl didn't happen to be Sponsored by the 10th division Lieutenant, was she?" He asked.
"Don't know about that but the 10th did want her ass," Zaraki said.
"Hah small world, cause according to Rukia over in the 13th division that girl is a monster who butchered a hollow the first time she met one," Renji explained.
"Monster?" the 11th Captain questions.
"Apparently she was half dead by the time Rukia found her but before she could do anything to save her life Tanya did it herself by becoming a giggling Maniac with a glowing blade and a mastery of Kido spells Rukia hadn't seen before.
"Well now that's interesting, I wonder if that is the key to solving her problem." the captain mused.
Tanya was not amused by what had occurred during the fight. Her sleeve had been detached from her uniform leaving her recent shame on full display. Tattoos were nothing but unprofessional and should not be shown in places of work, this was a deeply held belief. She'd been deeply drunk and Grantz and Nicole had been rather convincing in that they needed something to remember their time in the battalion and their service to the empire, on the off chance that their memories would fade over time. At least she convinced them to use the runic text of the empire so the "Death from above" was not really noticeable around the 203.
She'd hoped to find a tattoo removal service before anyone actually found out about it but it looked like that option was no longer on the table.
Walking back across the arena Tanya picked up the shredded remains sleeve figuring she'd fix it back on later, looking up she saw Visha approach, staring wide-eyed at her shoulder. "Tanya, I didn't think you were one for tattoos." Shock ringing clearly in her voice.
Fighting down a furious blush and not succeeding entirely Tanya responded "I'm not, but Vooren and Nicole thought it would be a great graduation present to ourselves after a few too many drinks." shaking her head at the memory.
Visha leaned in to get a closer look at the tattoo. "Well it's a good design at least, I would love to meet the artist who did it."
"Well, the tattoo artist is a guy near the academy, as for the design work that was me," Tanya admitted nonchalantly, stuffing the remnants of her sleeve in her pocket before pulling out the chocolate bar.
"You designed it?" Visha asked surprised, "I didn't know you were so artistic."
"I'm not, really," Tanya replied, snapping the chocolate bar in half, she made sure that they were approximately equal shares before she handed one of the halves to Visha. "I just doodle every once in a while." A statement was neither exactly true nor false. During the youth of her first life, she had access to several materials on drawing and had made a little hobby of it before putting such frivolity away as she focused on more valuable career opportunities.
Visha took the chocolate and held it in her hands pondering something, "To the 203rd" she commiserated, before taking a bite.
Tanya nodded and repeated the toast before taking a bite herself. It made sense to honor the old battalion, they had come a long way from the empire but the unit she had forged had proven to be an excellent battalion capable of accomplishing anything put in front of it.
Finishing The delectable treat in her mouth Tanya turned to Visha"So where will I be staying on division grounds?"
Visha finished on her own and responded with a soft smile "Oh this way." Heading towards a northern Hall leading further into the building. "The barracks are open to any members who need shelter and should have enough admittedly cramped bedrooms for all. Unless of course, well I make enough money to own a rather large apartment near here if you were interested in my spare room?"
Tanya thought about it for a moment then shook her head "I could not impose myself on you like that, it would be better for me to secure enough funding to own my own apartment in the long term."
"It's really not an imposition," Visha said as they walked down the hallway. "Besides the guys here can be a bit rough and tumble."
"I doubt it'll be worse than what the old battalion used to get up to while on deployment," Tanya commented, feeling that she could handle any situations that developed.
Visha seemed to finally Accept Tanya's point of view and led her to a small dormitory near the back of the building.
"There aren't many girls in this division so you should have this room all to yourself." She said opening the door to a small room with a writing desk, a closet, and a bed. Hopefully, this would be the last time she would have such a spartan room, Tanya pondered as she walked in hanging her sack of possessions off the closet door.
"This will be perfect" then she said with a smile. "So I assume we will be doing most of the division's paperwork."
"Mission reports and making sure the exhibition matches go off without a hitch and a few expeditions to the '80s to help with the training of the division," Visha explained as Tanya made herself at home.
Tanya's smile grew very content as Visha expanded on their expected duties, this would be an easy assignment. She figured all she needed to do was maintain decorum with the officers of the division, keep their paperwork in order, and soon she could transfer out to a division with fewer battle maniacs.
"Though you might have made a problem in my scheduling": Visha said as she leaned against the doorway.
"Oh, how's that?" Tanya asked, putting her sword against the side of her bed.
"It is quite likely that some of the division's officers are going to challenge you to duels, after that little show you put on, nothing too major considering they see combat as fun and will most likely want to share that fun with you, but it is how officer's seats are determined in this division and the constant changes in formal ranking can be devastation on the paperwork," Visha explained.
Tanya let out an audible hmm, "well there's not much I can do about that. I'll try and keep out of the officers' ways to make sure they don't challenge me to violent spars."
Author's note
I am and forever will be the starship trooper guy.
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by emberwing and Starstruck
response to reviews
Jctherebel: thank you have another.
Kisame Hoshigaki: almost had more
EricFreak: ha I have something planed, tried using ahoge this chapter editors anti ahoge though.
skrapsynneh: you shall have another!
ivan1305as: hehe just have to wait an see.
PsylentFox: damn... going to have changes some my plans now... i joke
Grocamol: i'm press X to doubt on her figuring that out
XxPokemonMasterxX: there actually been massive debates on that in the back ground, names won't be changing but something else might be.