In the Scottish Lowlands, near the border with Northumbria and just north of the river Tweed, there existed a village of Quincys. There, they kept the area clear of Hollows, hating the creatures with a passion that would have left normal men fleeing in terror, keeping the area more or less safe from Hollows. Despite cattle raids being common, the Stormgate clan was pretty much left alone due to rumors that there were some powerful druids amongst them. And that the number of unexplainable deaths had dwindled to almost nothing mere weeks after they had arrived, not even their worst enemies could have denied.
However, power tends to attract power. As such, some of the local - and more intelligent - Ex-Medio Hollows eventually noticed the lack of Hollow activity as well as the significant spiritual power of the 'hunting groups'. Hungry for the spiritual energy they sensed, they arrived in the area.
After a number of battles, one of the smaller groups at one point met up with a small group of Shinigami fighting off one of the Ex-Medio Hollows that had been plaguing the area. However, they were on the losing hand, two of their number already being mortally wounded by the masked beast.
Their hatred for Hollows overcome by their general opinion on Shinigami, the Quincy joined the battle, and it didn't take long for the Ex-Medio, now severely outgunned, to fall.
As the amount of Hollows started increasing again, several more of these incidents - Shinigami and Quincy taking down a Hollow together - took place, eventually leading to a meeting between the local Shinigami leader and one of the Elders of the Stormgate Clan.
Since both sides weer low on manpower due to the recent attacks, the Shinigami and Quincy would clear the area together, working in mixed groups. The only condition being that a Shinigami would be allowed to deal the killing blow, sending it to Soul Society in stead of destroying it. The Quincy agreed to this temporary agreement, since they just wanted the Hollow gone. With a large number of their village's fighters injured or dead, they weren't about to fret over details. The Gotei tolerated the unspoken alliance as well: The Hollows were being removed from the area, and the Quincy weren't the ones doing the actual killing. Although the method was quite unique, it solved both problems nicely.
The mixed patrols proved to be surprisingly effective. So effective, in fact, that even after the wounded had recovered, the agreement was silently continued. After a few more years, the Shinigami even established a small outpost in one of the empty houses in the village, using it as a base of operations: With the amount of Hollow-slaying potential every man, woman and child was trained to hone, there was no place more secure from a Hollow's surprise attacks.
Of course, no matter how strong they were, Shinigami and Quincy could still die. However, because the initial treshold - the waryness both Shinigami and Quincy shared for each other - had been lowered by the mutual cooperation, the Quincy that were sent to Rukongai after their death were more likely to consider enrolling for the Academy.
Around thirty years later, the first Quincy-turned-Shinigami from the village returned to the clan. Although there had been some initial resistance, the fact that they had been working together with Shinigami for the past few decades meant it was easier to accept seeing a familiar face in a Shinigami uniform. That he came back to rejoin the fight against Hollows only strengthened the ties between Shinigami and Quincy.
This continued for a good amount of time. Of course, now that the first Quincy had graduated from the Academy, it meant that the Quincy that were still either in Rukongai and the Academy had people to turn to in case they had problems figuring out the ways of the Demon Arts. Someone they could ask for help when they didn't understand a problem they were presented, or failing to grasp the trick of using a sword technique, having relied on spiritron-based weapons for most of their lives.
At one point, a few Quincy Shinigami tried to teach their former clan members a couple of weaker Demon Arts. However, the majority of Quincy weren't able to get the hang of it, and as such, the 'project' was abandoned after a while, with only a few of the village's inhabitants having caught on to the basic Restorative Art (#15) they had tried to teach them, Marento's mother amongst the few.
-- Growing up --
Marento was born as the third child in a family of five: he had two brothers and two sisters, one of each older than him. Having grown up amongst both Quincy and Shinigami, he was quite used to seeing the both of them, and accepted as natural that they went to kill Hollows together: he was still a child, after all, unaware of such things.
A few years later, Marento was eight at the time, his family had recieved bad news: his older brother had died when a Hollow surprised one of the patrols, returning from a fresh kill, making Marento the oldest in the household. His mother tried to teach him the Healing Art one of the Shinigami had taught her, and much to her relief both he and his younger sister had managed to get the hang of it.
One day, he was out on his own in the hills to play, when he accidently wandered off and got lost. Unsure where he was, or how to get home, a shriek came from behind him. He quickly turned around, and to his shock noticed a six foot Hollow standing behind him. Quickly, he tuirned and ran, the Hollow on his heels until Marento managed to jump into a pit of some sort that appeared to provide a decent cover.
Not for long though. The Hollow was clawing at the opening, the loose terrain quickly giving way: the creature was digging out the opening so it could attack. Marento crawled back, not daring to take his eyes away from the shrieking Hollow's white mask, which appeared to have multiple rows of sharp teeth in it's mouth.
Eventually, Marento hit something solid with his back just as the Hollow broke through. The boy's hands found something solid, and held it out in front of him as the Hollow leaped forward. Marento pressed his eyes shut, and waited.
Nothing happened.
He opened his eyes just to see the Hollow dissolving into nothing. Then, he noticed that what he had been holding had been a sword. He wasn't sure what had happened, but he ran outside of what he would have recognised as a small cave had he looked back. All he wanted was to get home, and despite it's weight, he dared not let go of the weapon he carried.
When he got home, using the stars as a compass, his parents were waiting for him. The combined anger he faced made the Hollow pale in comparison: Later on, his father would tell him he was lucky it had been an Enfante, and it had fled in panic as soon as it felt the pain of the sword's blade hitting its shoulder.
The sword, however, was a mystery. When Marento led a small group of men to where he had seen the Hollow, the area had been changed by a small landslide due to heavy rain the night before.
Since his father had been a firm believer that 'a weapon chooses it's wielder', Marento was instructed to keep the weapon. Even though most of the village's inhabitants over twelve years old could form a weapon of their own using spiritrons, they still needed to carry a 'regular' weapon with them and be trained in it's use, even if to keep up the appearance of being armed. Besides, when facing a bandit cattle raid, the use of Destructive Arts was considered overkill, and forbidden from use against non-Hollows unless under very rare exceptions, but since the existance of the Clan, that had never happened before.
Much to his surprise, when he first tried to clean the weapon, there appeared to be runic symbols on it. He asked one of the Elders, and she had told him they were Anglo-Saxon in nature. However, being accustomed to the Celtic Ogham runes herself, she offered to bring up the subject during the next Gathering, when a representative for their sister-village in Northumbria would be present as well.
-- A Warrior's Path --
Meanwhile, Marento was trained in basic hand-to-hand combat, but he had not yet been using actual weapons in training before, and as such had had no skill in them. Usually, one would begin training with a small, light weapon until he or she got the basics under control, and move on to a more preferable weapon later on if they wished so. However, since by some twist of fate he had found himself a weapon (or: the weapon had found him), he started his initial weapons training with it instead. True, he still needed the wooden practise swords for things like balance and combat stances, as well as sparring matches, but all that time a part of his traning included the mastery of the greatsword on his back, which, truth be said, was still bigger than he himself was.
Still, he was a quick student, much like his older brother had been. He was fortunate his father's weapon of choice had been a halberd, and recieved many pointers from him to increase his efficiency in using large weaponry. The Elder and her escort returned a few weeks later, and she told Marento that the runes on his sword meant "Stormbringer". The Northumbrian Quincy hadn't known the sword's origins either, but both him and the Elder had believed there was some degree of Fate involved, and decided it would be best to let him keep the weapon until his fate played out.
Also, when a group of villagers went to hunt, fish or barter with nearby villages, Marento would join them, often practising his Demon Art in a forest under the watchful eye of one of the Elders. Even though their role as priests was lessening as Druidism and the Roman-introduced Christianity had been blending into Celtic Christianity since the 2nd or 3rd century, they still had a considerable social standing as poets, teachers and judges, and were warmly welcomed by the other villages whenever they arrived. The additional income generated by this (the amount of cattle you had was linked to social standing: they made worthy gifts indeed) helped keep the village running while the majority of villagers were busy hunting Hollows.
And so, Marento came to be an able, well-rounded fighter, with a strong ability to heal. Apart from his father's sense for strategic insight, he had also inherited his height: By the time he was fifteen, the blade slanted across his back didn't pose a problem anymore due to its relative size. When the Elders believed his fighting skills and spiritron control were up to a decent level, they had sent him along on his first mission at the age of sixteen.
The mission itself was fairly simple: eliminate a Hollow that had been attacking a nearby village's cattle. Like most, it started out as usual: The Shinigami homed in on it using a special item they called a 'Cell Phone', the Quincy would soften up the target with long-range attacks and the Shinigami and some of the more close combat oriented Quincy, including Marento, would move in to finish it off, after which a Shinigami would send it to Rukongai.
It was relatively easy compared to the other missions he would later get, where less warriors would be available and battles were expected to be fast-paced, but it was a training mission after all. Despite a couple of slip ups which could be blamed on inexperience in the chaos of an actual combat scenario, Marento's performance was adequate. He had made a couple of tactical errors, like accidently finding himself inside someones line of fire, but the other warriors in his group were seasoned veterans, well aware of his faults, and anticipated his mistakes to prevent the Hollow from striking in the gaps in his defense.
This continued for a number of years, and he gradually became better, more experienced in the use of his greatsword and the Destructive Arts his clan used. His Demon Art improved as well, since he never broke the habit of using it on wounded animals, or sick trees. In time, he occasionally came to do missions much like his own first as well, only this time, a 'green' Shinigami or teenage Quincy would be joining his team, and he found himself on the same position his mentors had been when he faced his first real battle.
As such, years passed, and with the Shinigami and Quincy working in unison, the Hollows were effectively kept out of the area. Both his sisters were married into other families, and he had two children of his own as well. His younger brother, the youngest of his siblings, lived with his parents, helping his mother take care of his father, who had been unable to fight after a Hollow had scored a nasty hit on him and rendering him unable to fight anymore.
However, trouble brewed on a different horizon...
During one of the Gatherings of Elders in 1065, it turned out that the earl, Tostig, had been dethroned by a rebellion after a ten year period of martial law, and Morcar, brother of earl Edwin of Mercia, had taken up the throne of the earldom. Tostig was exiled, and believed to be plotting an invasion to avenge himself on Morcar and Edwin.
When Edward the Confessor died in early 1066, Harold succeeded him as King of England. Tostig, having been plotting revenge against Edwin and Morcar for stirring up the rebellion, raided the English coastline until his army was defeated at Lincolnshire by their combined forces.
Which was where the request for help came from. During that battle, a number of Northumbrian Quincy were killed, the regiment they were in taken by surprise in an ambush, and overrun, leaving the village crippled. To make matters worse, Tostig had survived, and had managed to join up his remaining forces with those of King Harald III of Norway and his own invasion fleet, in turn causing Edwin and Morcar to raise another army.
Marento and his younger brother were among the warriors that were sent to take their places in the army, saving their sister-village from certain defeat in case of a Hollow counter-attack. Shinigami joined as well: even though they were not allowed to actively participate in human skirmishes, they went along to clear the area around the future battlefield from Hollows as a preemptive tactic. The Mercian army joined up with them as well as they marched south, towards the Northumbrian capitol, York.
Taking position near Fulford, a village lying between York and the oncoming Viking army, the two armies set up their defense. Marento had noticed that the ground was marshy and crossed with a number of ditches, making it a perfect choke point.
A few days later, the Viking army arrived, and the defenders attacked first before the rest of the Viking army would have arrived. However, the marshy ground literaly bogged down the defenders' advance as they pushed back the Vikings. However, numeric superiority eventually turned the battle in the Vikings' favor, and the defenders were pushed back, eventually being dislodged from their position on the firm ground. To make matters worse, the Vikings that had arrived later had decided to go around the battlefield, and the Saxons' main force was under attack from three sides.
Seeing his younger brother near him take a spear wound, Marento rushed over to him, swinging his greatsword with the bloody efficiency of a warrior that had been fighting creatures whose abilities far surpassed mortal men for the past sixteen years. He healed him there, and as he sent him to the city, he covered his escape.
The oncoming Vikings severely underestimated what one man could do. Determined to save his brother from the massacre, he lost himself in the swinging of his sword, subconsciously ordering spiritrons to form around the blade of his weapon. The spiritron-enhanced edge sliced through wooden shields and chainmail like butter, and any wounds he took were covered in spiritrons to stop the bleeding, causing them to glow slightly.
To a Celt, it would have looked as if he had entered a kind of warp spasm. To a veteran Viking, the red-haired warrior would seem much like the berserkers outlawed in Norway since 1015. Either way, he was a fearsome sight. His sword appeared able to cut through anything, wounds did not seem to affect him and some would even claim to have seen him glow.
After that, events were lost in the chaos of battle. Some say Marento managed to break through the Viking lines single-handedly before falling. Some say he died shortly after seeing his brother reach the relative protection of the city walls. Nevertheless, with both sides having taken heavy losses, such details were hazy at best.
And so, Marento had died. Not by a Hollow, but by human blades instead.
-- After Death --
Using the little he knew about spirit density, Marento prevented a carrion eater from getting too close to his corpse, making it decide on a less bothersome meal instead. As he waited for the Shinigami to appear, he surveyed the battlefield from his point of view: the main force of Saxons had had their escape cut off when their retreat had pegged them against a natural pit further back. Their final escape cut off, the defending army had been destroyed utterly.
He noticed large groups of soldiers being told the introductionary speech from various Shinigami when he noticed something black in the corner of his eye. He loked, and found one of the Quincy Shinigami who had followed him from his clan village. The Shinigami aimed his palm at the ground next to his body, silently mouthing the words 'Sudden Impact' as the ground exploded, forming a trench measuring roughly eight by three feet.
The two of them lifted his physical body into the grave without speaking a word. Words were not needed. After putting his corpse in the ground and placing his greatsword on top of it, the Shinigami used another Demon Art to entomb it. However, Marento shook his head when the Shinigami raised his Zanpaktou, since a spirit had mentioned rumors of an army massing to the south as well. As such, the two of them went out to check the rumor.
When they noticed the first English columns, led by King Harold himself, after a day's travel, they immediately returned north to where his brother was, in a makeshift camp formed by the few that survived the battle. There, he told his younger brother what he had seen, and he had informed the officers. Due to him having prevented their capture - spirits made excellent scouts after all - they decided to trust him on this, and he led the column of assorted housecarls, conscripts and fyrdmen right to them. There, he gave King Harold valuable information, allowing his forces to crush the unsuspecting Viking army near Stamford Bridge, killing Tostig and Harald III in the process.
After this battle, Marento said goodbye to his brother, after which he closed his eyes, waiting for the Shinigami to send him to Rukongai.
-- Rukongai --
Upon waking up on a grassy field, he got up, and looked around. The area looked pretty decent, considering the stories he had heard from Shinigami on what it could have looked like had he ended up in a high-numbered District. Testing his Destructive Arts for the first time after dieing, he found himself unable to even sense the spiritrons around him. Although he knew this, it still came as a shock.
Nevertheless, he decided to get his bearings from firsthand experience. After asking a number of passers-by, surprisingly able to understand them even though the majority was dressed in strange clothes he couldn't place, he learned that he found himself in the 36th District. Although it still had its slums, they weren't as noticeable as in the high numbered Districts - about the same ratio as an average city would have, had he been able to see one. True, he saw York, but he had never been in it: he just passed it with the rest of the army when they headed out to meet the Vikings.
The 'locals', spirits who had been living in that District for quite a while now, turned out to be nice, for the most part. True, there were occasional fights between people that had not yet gotten over their hostility towards each other, but they were generally caused by new arrivals, and rarely got out of hand unless there had been a major battle on the physical realm.
He noticed an empty building in the middle of the District, and decided to look around in it. It had several large rooms on both its floors, supposedly for storage due to the windows being nailed shut, but what really caught his eye had been the courtyard at it's center. After asking around, it turned out it's previous occupant had been a successful merchant, who had decided to try his luck in a lower numbered District after having set up a profitable business here. There hadn't been many new arrivals lately, and as such, the house was still empty.
Marento decided to move in. Now having a place to stay, he concentrated on the next task at hand: food and clothing. He took another look at his clothes: they were reduced to rags through the various wounds he had suffered in the battle, and the purple brooch on his shoulder appeared to be the only thing that hadn't suffered any visible damage.
Going over the skills he had, he found he didn't have much to go on. Fighting Hollows wasn't necessary, as the Shinigami's main base was literally within range of sight. He could teach, but with a good amount of people that had been living in the District for the past few centuries, chances were that they already knew what he could tell them.
However, he could do one thing the others could not. He still had his restorative Demon Art, and it was a sure step up from what the District had to offer on healing. Since the house was fairly large, he turned the ground floor into a hospital, with him living on the second floor himself. Outside, he hung a sign with the Celtic Triple Spiral, symbol of the continuity of life and spiritual growth.
It turned out to be a good bet. The occasional fights and backalley incidents brought in people that required healing, as well as occasional spirits trickling in with older wounds. He would use his Demon Art on them, and they would spend the day in the hospital to recover, since not everyone took the influx of energy equally well. In return, his patients brought him clothes, food, and, on occasion, furniture, which he then used to decorate the house with. There had even been a man - he believed he said he was Greek - who offered to take care of the courtyards trees and plants for him.
In all, it had become a blooming business. Due to the steady increase in workload, since more and more people heard of it, he had started taking on apprentices, teaching them how to master the Demon Art. As word spread, the Shinigami learned of it as well, and a few members of 4th Division occasionally dropped by to help him, while picking out some of the more talented apprentices, trying to persuade them to join the Academy. They had tried with Marento several times, but he had turned them down, claiming to be waiting for someone.
Not all of the apprentices went to the Academy, however. Some decided to remain in Rukongai, opening up other hospitals in the adjacent Districts, and each bore the Triple Spiral above its door, identifying it to all as a place of healing.
And, after thirtyfive years of living in Rukongai, she had arrived in the 42th District of Rukongai.
Upon hearing of the hospital in 36th District, the origin of the safe havens run by a red haired giant, Fethnaid Stormgate had traveled all the way from 42nd District to meet him. She had known it was him before even hearing his name. Her husband. When she had finally arrived late at night, Marento had been so surprised he could barely get two coherent words out before she hugged him.
Several months later, she was helping out in the hospital in every way she could. During her life, she had already managed to learn the basics of the healing Demon Art from her husband, and as such it only took her little time to master it. If a patient that was brought in was still struggling in blind panic, she used her musical skill to calm him down somewhat.
Gradually, Marento transferred more and more of the hospital's leadership to his wife. After a couple of years, he carefully brought up the subject of becoming a Shinigami to her, and she reacted better than he had expected. In hindsight, that was to be expected, since both had come from the same Quincy village: They shared a mutual enmity towards Hollows to rival a Shinigami, and every spirit they absorbed into their own being was one too many.
-- The Academy --
Marento stood in front of the gates leading into the Shinigami Academy. He walked up to one of the Shinigami in front of it, politely asking her to lead him to one of the Shinigami for an Acceptance Test, but she giggled at his request. She apologised for it though, and explained there were a couple of drafts on set dates every year. Apparently, there were that many Rukongai members wanting to join, that a few sophomores were posted in front of every Gates on a rotation schedule, since the teachers had gotten tired of the constant interruptions a couple of centuries ago.
Marento joined the first scheduled draft, and, already having several lifetimes of experience with Demon Arts, was accepted at his first try, ending up among the top of his draft. The overwhelming majority failed outright, being drawn to the status of Shinigami in general or simply trying to escape life at their Rukongai District. Based on his draft ranking, he was put in the Elite class from the beginning.
Marento turned out to be a quick student, and having been raised with the sword, posessed a natural intuition for understanding sword techniques. The same was true for Demon Arts, due to his advantage over others based on sheer experience. His name was often found in the top ten students: rarely at the top, but almost always near it.
While in the Academy, he had made a couple of friends, and they helped each other out on studying. Marento had a knack for swordsmanship and Restorative Demon Arts, but had trouble with Binding Arts. His roommate, a Greek named Simonides, excelled at Hollow Lore and General History, while the sophomore Marento had met at the Gates had a knack for using all kinds of Demon Arts, although her swordsmanship was lacking. Most people found her name hard to pronounce (Ix'Chimalxochitzin could be a little rough on the vocal cords after all), and as a result everyone just called her Maya instead, since she used to be a Mayan priestess during her life. The sparse free time they had, they had spent either helping each other out on their studies, or visiting their families in Rukongai.
Also, the Quincy Shinigami, spread out over the various Divisions, tended to be drawn to each other as well: A couple of other Shinigami had jokingly nicknamed them "14th Division" once, and the name had kind of stuck. Playing along with the running joke, they all took to wearing white armbands around their left upper arms, with the kanji for '14' on them.
A couple of years passed in this manner. Marento and Simonides had their first gateguard duty, and were faced (much like Maya had warned them about) with numerous inhabitants of Rukongai, desperately trying to show off their skills at spirit energy control, or, sometimes even lacking that, fighting skill. Marento had understood why she had giggled at him back then: she, and most others in the Academy, had probably gone through the same ritual before finding out about the drafts.
Then came the final exams. The first ones were easy, testing the student's general knowledge, but they became progressively harder, covering areas like swordsmanship, Demon Arts and battle conduct, the latter usually a fight between two groups of students under the watchful eyes of 4th Division's healers. A negative ruling on any one test meant you had to redo the year, as Maya found out herself when she had failed the year before. After graduation, Shinigami would have to depend on each other after all, and in a battle every mistake could prove fatal.
In contrary to the popular belief in Rukongai, the Shinigami do not have an armory stacked with weapons, where a student is taken to to simply 'pick one'. The Final Exam was where a Shinigami would meditate to find the core of his or her being, have it show you the shape of the Zanpaktou and return after it had manifested its form in your hands.
Marento looked into the waiting room he had been led into. He recognised the most of faces of the students present: they were the ones from his year, excluding those that had failed any one of the previous tests. He spotted Maya and Simonides, the latter pacing up and down nervously, and joined them in waiting for the Exam to begin.
Despite her apparent calmness, Maya paled slightly when her name was called. After blinking a couple of times, she quickly got up and was led by two full Shinigami to the Academy's main chamber: the same as was used by Shinigami Captains to witness Bankai releases.
Several other names were called, and none returned to the waiting room. Simonides suspected they were led to another room to wait on the other graduates, but it didn't help to calm his nerves, as a small yelp from him showed when he heard his name be called. He, too, was led away, and all Marento had to do now was wait.
Then, Marento heard his name. Taking a deep breath to (unsuccessfully) concentrate, he glanced at the four other students that remained before following the two Shinigami to what the students had nicknamed the 'Bankai Room'. Two large doors were opened into a room that still showed the signs of numerous Bankais, some as much as milennia old.
Even though the very feel the chamber gave off was intimidating, Marento sat down in the appointed place, while being told the rules: There was no set time limit, but the Exam would end when the student was either successful, or too exhausted to continue. Also, leaving the room would count as a forfeit, automatically failing the Exam, and thereby the year in general. Fail three times, and you were given an Asauchi, a nameless Zanpaktoh, and not allowed to take the Exams again. There had been exceptions, but they were rare, since they required a Vice-Captain or above to vouch for you.
After an attempt to shake off the nervousness, Marento started to meditate, using a small trick the Elders had taught him while teaching Destructive Arts. Those Arts might not work anymore, but the basics were the same, and after a few adjustments, he had achieved a level of meditation deep enough to not be bothered by his surroundings anymore.
He found himself surrounded by steam, floating through it, although apparently not affecting him beyond the loss of vision. He looked around, detecting movement just at the edge of his vision, but was unable to see what it was. Rushing over, he couldn't see the vague figure anymore, even though he still had the feeling he was being watched...
After (literally) chasing after shadows for a while, he started to notice himself getting exhausted. That's when it hit him: he was supposed to have his mind fixed on finding his Zanpaktou, not being distracted by the first thing that came along. He assumed a meditative stance again, stubbornly ignoring the feeling he was now floating upside down, and tried to lock onto where his own spirit energy wanted him to go, instead of where he willed it to. There was some initial surprise that the steam was visible with his eyes closed as well, but he carried on meditating anyway.
Shortly after, he felt something. A small image of a reiatsu, barely noticeable, led into the dense walls of steam ahead. He opened his eyes, but almost immediately lost the image. Looking around, he failed to see it again so he closed his eyes again. Much to his surprise, the reiatsu strand was there, almost waiting for him to approach. Keeping his eyes closed, he willed himself there, drifting slowly along the path the reiatsu led him to.
The steam got thicker the closer he got to its source, and by the time he had reached the 'center', the outline of a hilt was barely visible, the reiatsu attached to it with a small knot. Careful not to lose his concentration, he slowly extended his hand to the sword. The resistance the steam gave was getting thicker the closer he got to it, but he still managed to get through. When his hand closed around the hilt, the steam folded in on itself, and Marento found himself being thrown back into reality.
He threatened to fall, but somehow managed to support himself on something. Still having his eyes closed, he felt what his hands were holding on to, and smiled.
He did not need to see the weapon to know what it looked like. He did not need to feel the runes, to know they were there.
His father was right. A weapon chooses it's wielder, after all.
-- Shinigami --
He was congratulated by the teachers present, and was led to another room to wait on the other graduates. When he stepped in, he noticed Maya and Simonides talking exitedly, the looks on their faces telling him they had passed even if he hadn't spotted them in the room right there. Upon seeing him, they rushed to meet him, showing them their Zanpaktou.
Maya drew a long, slightly curved dagger, and exitedly told him it was the same type of knife the priests of her day used for child sacrifices during festivals. That earned her a couple of odd looks from fellow students, but they were too happy to be bothered by it, and Marento and Simonides were used to it by now. Simonides produced a rapier-like sword, claiming the design was unknown to him, but his character fit the flexibility of the weapon. Marento showed them the greatsword, and told them what the runes on its blade meant while trying to explain the weapon he had during his life looked exactly like the one he carried now.
An hour later, the inauguration ceremony began. Of the four students after Marento, three had joined them for the ceremony, although one of them looked somewhat disppointed when he didn't spot his friends amongst the graduates. One by one, the new Shinigami were asked for a Division to join, and subsequently assigned to it. Simonides, always having been interested in knowledge and lore, became a member of 12th Division while Maya followed her love for Demon Arts to join the 7th. Marento himself joined the 9th, causing some of his fellow students to lose a bet with each other on whether or not he'd say '14th'.
The initial missions were mostly similar to his first missions as a Quincy. An overpowered group with him in it would hunt down a weak Hollow, compensating for any mistakes he made. They weren't many, but most of them were due to him underestimating his Shinigami abilities as he drew on the experience of fighting Hollows as a Quincy. True, he had been trained to getting used to his heightened speed, strength and senses, but even after all that time it was still hard to unlearn his old body's limitations on an instictive level in mid-battle.
But, even that was eventually overcome, and as a result Marento's star quickly rose. The meetings of the 14th kept him updated on how things were going in his home village, among other things, which he passed on to his wife. The hospitals were doing fine, although they were having some trouble in the higher numbered Rukongai, and by this time his children had joined their mother in their work. Maya was having the time of her life learning Demon Arts, even inventing a couple of her own, and Simonides had acquired a pet project of his own, which he happily spent the majority of spare time talking about.
-- Shikai --
During one of his meditations, spent talking to his Spirit from within the shapeless mists where he had gotten his Zanpaktou, she remained silent for a while, and then issued a challenge to him: If he could catch her, she would tell him her name.
Marento started to do what he had first tried to do during his Academy Finals. He chased the robed figure of his World as best he could, but found himself straining to look past a few feet, let alone track someone down in it... Remembering something from one of their previous conversations, he tried to concentrate on feeling her presence as opposed to using his sight. He put his hand on his Zanpaktou, and tried to listen to where it said he had to go to find its other half.
He resumed the hunt, but with his senses attuned to the feeling his Zanpaktou was giving back to him, using it to guide him instead of his senses. He didn't catch her at first, but he knew he was getting closer as his fingers brushed the feeling of cloth, and redoubled his efforts... Anticipating her movement, he eventually cut her off, and managed to grab her lower arm as she tried to dodge him.
As soon as the Spirit had whispered her name to him, the mist faded away, revealing them hovering above an island in the middle of a calm blue lake. Where the lake ended, there was a large forest, eventually ending in a mountaineous region furter ahead, it's white-tipped peaks shining in the sunlight. The sky itself was purple, partially illuminated by the setting sun (or rising, it was hard to tell since it didn't seem to move). In the middle of the island, a tall gray tower stood, its walls covered with thorny plants all the way up to the top. This was the only construction visible, but it seemed as if it was part of the land, like a tree would have, in stead of stone construction.
However, Marento discovered that the chase had taken a lot of energy, and the Spirit smiled at him before asking him to return. The next time he returned to visit her, the mist was gone, and they met in the Tower itself for their talks. After initially using the Shikai a couple of times to give him a sense of familiarity with it, he went to his Captain to request him to witness the achievement and - possibly - grant him Seated status. Although achieving Shikai helped a great deal, it wasn't treated as a guarantee for the promotion to Seated, after all... His Captain joined him to the Training Grounds, and witnessed Marento's Shikai. He was promoted a few months later.
Having attained a Seat meant he had acquired the right to be Squad Leader, and that meant he could go where he wanted, provided it didn't go against orders, of course. Finally being able to visit his former home, he found it had changed - a lot. It only had been a century or five since he had died, and both Quincy and Hollows were still as present as ever, but the village itself... Druids were no more, all but a select few had started focusing more on personal gain than on the ancient task of slaying Hollows, half the people living in what was now a small town didn't even have the spiritual energy to see him... On numerous fields, he felt as if the village was no longer the place he had grown up in.
Nevertheless, he still occasionally visited the region - but in a Gigai. The place already had a lot of '14th Division' members in it, and other, more understaffed areas could make better use of his abilities. Which is how he ended up helping out in some of Japan's more troubled areas. Marento worked hard, and he was good at what he did. Having been a healer himself, he respected the Shinigami of 4th Division, and in return he was well-liked within their ranks, some of the older Shinigami remembering him as the founder of the Rukongai hospitals, through whom the 4th still managed to get a few applicants to the Academy every now and then.
Time progressed, and at one point there were even rumors going around that he would be put forward for the Vice Captain position, when it all went wrong. With his home village as an exception, Shinigami and Quincy weren't getting along well. Their relations towards each other had, in fact, worsened, now starting to border hatred. Unfortunately, at that time, there was a previously ignored German army corporal who discovered his latent AdH abilities. Using these psychoempathic manifestations, he gained followers fast until he led the country, and decided to go to war.
-- Quincy Purge --
The Shinigami, forbidden from affecting the course of events in the physical world, chose to act against the Quincy when they learned of the large scale genocide going on behind the cover of war. After all, on a death toll of millions, it would be easier to hide the Quincys deaths, and since most of the countries of the world found themselves involved in what was called World War II, that left the Quincy virtually no place to hide. The circumstances wouldn't get any better, and it was decided to use that time to destroy the Quincy, lest they managed to upset the balance further.
When he heard of the Level One order, Marento found himself torn between two worlds. On one side were the Shinigami, who, unhindered by the passage of time, had been protecting the world from Hollows for millennia. On the other, there were the Quincy, those he had fought with, those he had fought for, and those he had fought to protect. Refusing the Order would have him betray everything he was. Accepting the Order would have him betray everything he had been. Unable to decide between the two, he unsheathed his sword, watching as the runes glowed softly in the dim moonlight. He closed his eyes, entering his inner world, where he knew his battle partner would be waiting.
Marento opened his eyes a few hours later, having reached a decision. He silently thanked the sword before sheathing it again, and heading for the 36th Rukongai District where his wife and children were still running the chain of hospitals. Although the number of people proving themselves capable of learning the Demon Art had lessened over time, knowledge on medicine and surgery on the physical world had increased. As a result, the new arrivals knew a lot more about non-magical ways to heal a person, and the general focus shifted accordingly as the Demon Arts were used only in the most life-threatening cases.
There, he told his wife about his intentions, choosing his words so he would not end up leaking confidential information to her. After having said goodbye, he then went back into Seireitei, to his Captain's office. As soon as he entered the room, he formally unsheathed his zanpaktou, kneeling in front of him with it in a formal way of apology, his red hair covering part of his face. Next to him, although unseen by the Captain, was his Zanpaktou spirit, kneeling in much the same fashion. There, he told him that he could not follow the Order, and that his sword spirit had agreed with him.
The Captain, a kind-hearted man who always seemed to take pride of the achievements of the Shinigami in his Division, told him he understood, but given the rank of the Order, he had no choice but to imprison him pending trial. With his sword spirit resting her hand on his shoulder, he got up, handing his Zanpaktou over to the Captain himself before being led to the prison area.
There, he waited. His imprisonment lasted longer than usual: too many Shinigami were either too busy with what had been nicknamed the Quincy Purge, or purging the souls of the deceased soldiers that had fallen along the frontlines. The 14th Division hadn't taken the Order well either; A number of them had gone Rogue, often hunted down and killed by 2nd Division not long afterwards. Others had simply turned against the Shinigami, joining the Quincy in fighting them. There were also those that decided to end their own lives, not wanting to have to make the choice for themselves. By the time everything was over, '14th Division' was nothing but a memory any more.
-- Hollow Raid --
Only after everything was over did Seireitei have the manpower available to attend a formal trial. Marento was led out of prison, but as he was being escorted to the Court, several loud explosions were heard in Seireitei, apparently coming from Rukongai. In the chaos that followed, it soon became clear that Rukongai had come under Hollow attack. Their number had increased on the physical world, simply because both the Shinigami and the Quincy had been too busy fighting each other to effectively keep the Hollow population in check.
Having the element of surprise on their side, the Hollows had spilled into Rukongai, using the thus created Enfantes as frontline troops to wear down the Shinigami lines. His guards - overeager 11th Division members - ran to the front as well, believing the prisoner to be harmless due to the Shinigami Handcuffs placed on him.
Unfortunately for them, a certain 12th Division Shinigami spotted him standing there as soon as they had rounded a corner. Happy to see his old friend still alive, Simonides headed over to him, now noticing the Handcuffs placed on him. Realising this was not the time for protocol, Simonides removed his handcuffs using a small trick he had learned when his Division had designed them. The two friends then headed towards the front, Marento healing injured Shinigami while his old roommate at the Academy used prototype items and devices his 12th Division had been building to test their effectiveness in battle.
During the chaos of battle, the signs of various Shikai and the occasional Bankai lighting up the sky as the stronger Hollows countered with attacks of their own, the two got separated again, and Marento found himself in back in the 36th District. Instinctively, he headed for where the hospital was, but when he had arrived, the building lay in ashes, several Hollows searching the ruins for survivors when they spotted him.
However, as they prepared to attack the unarmed Shinigami that had appeared in front of them, they howled in pain before their bodies seemed to twist and contract, crushing them onto themselves. Recognising the torture-related Demon Art, he quickly found Maya standing a few feet away from him. She told him the patients had been successfully evacuated along with most of the staff.
However, he knew his wife wouldn't have fled. She'd have stared down a Menos Grande before being forced to run... And after the Hollows were gone, he dug through the remains, only to find her under the rubble. She was still alive, even if barely, and her hands were still gripping the handle of a doubleheaded axe a former patient had given them in gratitude for saving his life. Her wounds were too great however: the strain the Restorative Art would have put her spirit through would have been too great for her, and would only manage to hasten her death. She opened one eye, and as she disappeared she smiled at seeing him there.
Filled with a sworn resolve, Marento then rejoined the frontline with Maya: he might not have his Zanpaktou, but that didn't prevent him from using his Demon Arts. Joining up with one of the many small groups of Shinigami, usually pulled together from seemingly random Divisions, he focused on healing injuries, while Maya took out Hollows using custom Arts most seasoned veterans would simply call torture.
Hell feasted on fallen Hollows that day, just as the first waves of Hollows had feasted on Rukongai's spirits.
-- The Aftermath --
After everything had calmed down, and the few remaining Hollows had retreated, Marento assessed the damage. The Hollows' Raid hadn't breached Seireitei, but it had reduced a large part of Rukongai to ruins, and a large number of its inhabitants were dead, injured of missing. The Shinigami themselves had been hit pretty bad as well, and there had even been rumors more than one Captain had fallen.
Still, duty had made him report himself to his Captain, and the same sense of honor would not have him running away now. He went back to the prison by himself, much to the surprise of its gateguards, and was quickly escorted back to his old cell.
A few days later, after the full scope of the damage was examined and reported to the Gotei's Captain Commander, Marento was called to Court again. Both because he had turned himself in twice now, and the Shinigami were severely understaffed, he was allowed to remain a Shinigami, although his power would still be rank would still be bumped down to Unseated for disobeying a high level order.
However, the 9th had lost both its Captain and its Vice-Captain in the attacks. During the rearranging of Shinigami to fill out the gaps that had fallen in the Captaincies, the 8th Division's Vice-Captain had been promoted to Captain of the 9th, and her Vice-Captain was a Shinigami from 2nd Division. His new Captain had been understanding of the situation he had found himself trapped in, although she had been disappointed of his choice.
Nevertheless, the binding spell sealing most of his power was starting to fade slowly, and he was eventually promoted to 5th Seat again as he finally reaquired his Shikai. Not as high as his former 3rd Seat position, but he wasn't in a position to complain anyway.