Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. I only own Catalina Vazquez and Eita Harada.
Chapter 5: Training
[Kat's POV]
4:30 in the morning. Kisuke has been waking us up at 4:30am to get stamina training going.
I was about to start my way down the ladder when Eita yell angrily.
"That is it! I'm done with this fucking ladder!" Eita cried outrage. "I'm fucking jumping down."
I stare at him disbelief.
"Eita…" I warn cautiously.
"I'm tired of having to climb this stupid thing up and down every day for 45 minutes each way!" he growl frustrate. "Today I will learn to control my spiritual force." Eita said determinedly.
Eita jump down before I could stop him.
"EITA!" I yell after my stubborn friend.
I pray to god there was someone down there to catch him before he breaks his neck.
"FUCK YEAH!" Eita scream loudly. "Come on Kat jump! I'll catch you if you can't do it!" Eita scream excite.
I stare down the deep hole. Something about the dark hole brought a dark sensation of fear.
"Jump Kat! Trust me! I'll catch you!" Eita scream again.
Eita's 'trust me' triggered something. A long forgotten feeling of trust. It like I knew Eita would never hurt me intentionally.
'Trust him. You always have.' A faint male voice whisper.
I froze staring into the darkness. The voice was right even if I don't remember yet I must have trusted Eita.
I took a deep breath jumping down into the darkness. My hair blew all over the place as I desperately try to get my spiritual force to create footsteps midair to help with my fall like Kisuke had told us.
I start to panic. Maybe I couldn't do it.
'Relax. It's fine, you can do this.' A gentle voice whisper. Her voice was so soothing it was hard to ignore it. I close my eyes ignoring the blowing wind and the fact I was falling.
Concentrate. Focus on your feet. I open my eyes focusing all of my spiritual energy onto my feet and gasp surprise as I land on the ground with a soft thump. Eita was standing beside me grinning like a mad man.
"We fucking did it!" Eita yell overly excited.
I stare at the ground amaze that I did it. But I didn't do it alone those voices helped me. Could those voices be my zanpakuto? The one Kisuke and Yoruichi have been talking about. I suddenly froze holding my head painfully.
I groan my knees buckling from the pain. Eita immediately came to my side. I could see his lips moving but couldn't hear what he was saying. Suddenly flashes of something that seem like a memory flash through my head.
"Eita, do you trust me?" I ask him solemnly, looking at him seriously.
He just stare at me unresponsively, until he finally hiss annoy, looking at me somberly, "Byakuya and you are the only people I can trust with my life." He finally admit quietly.
Sighing in frustration he lets go of me running his hand through his hair aggressively as he turns around.
"I'm positive about Aizen. He killed your brother and will do the same with Shinji!" I explain determinedly, wiping a couple of my tears away. "Please Eita, help me." I beg my best friend, my brother, because that is what he was to me, a brother. "You are like a brother to me, I know I can count on you for anything, please" I urge anxiously, desperately.
I sigh relieve, the pain subsiding.
"Kat answer me are you ok?" Eita question concern.
"Yeah, sorry, just a headache." I murmur painfully, rubbing my temple. "It feels like I'm slowly getting my memories back…" I said to no one in particular.
"Yeah I guess I understand. I get headaches too when I trying to remember something. I get bits and pieces some make sense and others don't." He explain somberly.
"Oh you guys actually made it a whole hour earlier today." Kisuke said amuse as he look at us. "That means you have better control of your spiritual pressure which means we can move onto hand to hand combat." Kisuke grin cunningly, pulling out his fan he fanned himself mischievously. "Have fun."
We look at him weirdly not understanding his excitement. Suddenly the ground beneath us shook when Eita push me out of the way. I roll onto my side and quickly cover my ears when the loud scream of a hollow echo through the underground training grounds.
I quickly stumble to my feet staring at 5 giant hollows. Eita suddenly appear beside me also staring at the hollows disbelief.
"They aren't completely real. But their speed and strength is the real deal. I built them just to help you train and make the sense of danger more real. Now, they might not be real but I wouldn't underestimate them." Kisuke warn slyly, jumping onto a nearby rock as he watch us. "You have until you have to go to school to defeat one."
"School?" I ask confuse.
"Well you two do need an education and as your dear guardian it's my duty to make sure you receive an education." Kisuke coo happily.
I glare at him. But then look at the hollows again as they scream loudly again.
"Just one?" Eita grin happily. "Give us more of a challenge Kisuke."
I jump to my side barely missing one of the hollow's giant hands and scream when I was suddenly smack across the field by another giant hand I didn't see.
"Kat!" I heard Eita scream.
I slam hard against a rock and groan painfully slowly standing up. I peak up and gasp barely dodging another swing.
"You gotta move faster Kat. Think ahead and remember there is more than just one enemy." Yoruichi's stern voice suddenly came from above me.
Yoruichi was kneeling midair staring down at me sternly.
"Don't be afraid. Fight like your life depends on it!" Yoruichi advice somberly.
I glance around her and saw that Eita was dealing with 3 by himself while I was having problems with 2 of them.
I grunt ignoring my stinging scrapes and bruises trying to focus on the enemies at hand.
"You are stronger than you think!" Yoruichi encourage further.
I ran forward dodging the hollows attack barely. Quickly reacting for the next blow follow by the next. I still wasn't fast enough to land a blow but I was slowly getting the hand of dodging.
Eita and I finally were back to back staring at the giant hollows.
"I can barely dodge these bastards' attacks." Eita growl angrily.
"Me too." I reply out of breathe. "But maybe that's what Kisuke wants." I mutter thoughtfully staring over at Kisuke who was still holding his fan. "Maybe we need to get faster before we can actually land a hit. This is still spiritual training. How else can the hollows move so fast?" I explain out of breath whipping some sweat from my face.
"So we need to use our spiritual force to help us move faster?" Eita ask slowly.
"Yes."
"How?" he ask confuse.
I stare at my feet and then smile thinking back how Yoruichi was floating midair.
"We need to concrete our spiritual force to our feet." I explain determinedly.
"Worth a shot." Eita mutter concreting on his spirit force while I did the same.
The hollows lunge themselves at us and we swiftly dodge their attack. Everything happen so fast but I look ahead seeing the other hollow attacking as well and smoothly dodge their hand. I grin jump into the air and gasp disbelief as I was standing midair. Eita suddenly appear beside me smirking and kneel down.
"Now this is what I'm talking about." Eita smirk happily. "Come on Kat let's take them down!" Eita's loud war cry made the adrenaline in my body pump even more quickly. This was going to be fun.
I fix my red bow and then tug on the gray skirt. The skirt felt too short for comfort and you could see my bruises and scrapes from training earlier. I frown.
"How about some leggings." Yoruichi offer softly.
I turn around surprise at her sudden arrival. I smile accepting the white leggings from her.
"How did you know?" I ask softly.
"You never were much of a skin person."
"I guess I'm not." I mutter softly. I look at Yoruichi seriously, "What kind of person was I?" I ask.
"What do you mean?" She ask confuse.
"Was I loved by anyone? Did I have any friends? Did I have a family?" I ask sadly.
"Yes you are loved. Yes you have friends. And yes you have a family." Yoruichi reply sternly. "Kisuke and I will always love you, we will always be your friends and you are my family Kat." Yoruichi explain softly squeezing my shoulder gently. "The rest of your memories while come with time. Don't rush it." She whisper gently.
I nod.
"I better put these on before I'm late for school."
I walk out of my room with the new leggings and smile comfortably. I follow the smell of breakfast into the front room. Eita was already sitting down eating away along with Jinta. I swear they both had no filling that stomach.
"Ready to go to school again?" Eita ask with his mouth full and I grimace at his disgusting habits.
"Yeah. Have people been asking about me?" I ask eating some toast.
"That Kurosaki kid kept asking about you. Told him and everyone you got hit by a car coming home from school. You pushed me out of the way that's why you got the most damage. Congrats you are a hero." He chuckle smugly and I groan annoy.
"I didn't want all that attention." I mutter exasperatedly.
"Well with you back people can stop bugging me about how you are." He mutter mouth full.
Eita and I stood outside Karakura High. It felt like almost a life time since I've been here but in reality it has only been a couple of days.
We walk into the huge building making our way to our classroom. I nervously look around the busy halls full of kids hoping not to run into someone we knew.
We reach our classroom and I took a deep breath walking into the busy room. Everyone stop talking and turn to look at me surprise.
"Come on your seat is over here." Eita mutter dragging me to the back of the room.
"Catalina you're back!"
I look around and saw an orange hair girl greet happily making her way towards me. Her big gray eyes smile happily at me but they also seem to hide some type of sadness.
"Um, yeah." I reply awkwardly, not knowing what to say to this stranger.
"Oh, I'm Orihime Inoue by the way. We didn't get a chance to talk on the first day and then you got hurt but I'm glad you are doing better." She explain sheepishly and just as awkwardly as me.
I laugh softly at her quirkiness and offer my hand happily.
"It's nice to meet you Orihime. Also, you can call me Kat."
"Kat come you must meet everyone." Orihime said happily dragging me away to a group of girls.
Eita wave goodbye smirking evilly as he literally let this girl drag me away. Eita turn to talk with a group of boys where Ichigo Kurosaki was with also.
I glance at Ichigo over my shoulder getting that strange feeling again. He glance my way and his scowl soften a little as he glance at me.
I smile softly at him and then turn back to Orihime as she was introducing me to everyone. I wasn't sure I would be able to remember all their names today.
The day went by pretty quickly nothing exciting happen. I became pretty good friends with Orihime and Tatsuki. The rest of the girls were nice and there was one weird one who keep trying to grope me. But Tatsuki would punch her away while I chuckle nervously at how rough Tatsuki was with her.
All in all school wasn't half bad. Maybe Kisuke was right. It feels nice to have friends to hang out with and talk and be normal even for a couple hours a day. I couldn't remember who I use to be but maybe I can make new memories with them.
[Couple Weeks Later]
4:30am. Eita and I stood in the training grounds patiently waiting for Kisuke and Yoruichi to show up. After defeating the hollows Yoruichi took it upon herself to train us with hand to hand combat. Our flash step as they call it has gotten better and faster. Though I'm slightly faster at flash stepping than Eita.
"Seems you guys have a better grasp of your spiritual force maybe it's time to start training for the real thing." Kisuke explain happily.
"The real thing?" I ask confuse.
"What do you mean?" Eita ask just as confuse.
"Let's start training on summoning your zanpakuto." He said grinning excitedly.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Eita exclaim excited.
"How are we supposed to do that?" I inquire just as excited.
"With these." Kisuke hands me a pack of gum.
I stare at my pack of gum dumbfound.
"This is a pack of gum." I retort baffle.
"Yes it is." Kisuke reply plainly.
"This is a pack of gum!" I exclaim, showing him the gum.
"Push it."
I push the top part of the pack of gum and in one swift motion the pack of gum turned into a blade. I shriek dropping the sharp item and it hit the ground with a loud thump.
"Ok, that is fucking cool. Where's mine?" Eita ask happily.
"Unfortunately Eita-kun you already have a zanpakuto with a name you just have to remember its name to be able to summon it." Kisuke explain. "Kat didn't have a zanpakuto so she needs a special blade one without a name so she can mold it into her own."
"But why does she get the pack of gum?" Eita pouts childishly.
"When you summon your zanpakuto you can have a pack of gum as well Eita-kun." Kisuke promise sighing. "Your spiritual force is getting stronger, soon hollows will try attacking you during the day. It's best you two are ready to fight them."
"So how are we going to summon our zanpakutos?" I ask curiously now picking up my sword. I eyed the plain blade nothing really special about it.
"Believe it or not this part of training will be easy. You guys will be mediating daily until you can form a firm connection with your inner world." Yoruichi spoke slyly.
"Yeah right. We are just going to be sitting for hours for the next days until we can summon our zanpakuto, bullshit." Eita mutter disbelief.
"I can always chase you around with my zanpakuto to make it more challenging." Kisuke offer cunningly, holding his hat down.
"Uh, no thanks." Eita chuckle nervously. "Mediating sounds fun."
And that's how our zanpakuto training begin.
Fun Facts that were not elaborated in the story:
I decided to give Kat a zanpakuto but keep all her spirits. Later chapters will go deeper into Kat's zanpakuto spirits and development of her zanpakuto regarding shiki and bankai form.
The pack of gum is so Kat can carry her zanpakuto while in human form so she doesn't have use a soul pill.
Eita is already living with Kisuke in this version of the story and Eita's and Kat's cover story is that they are foster siblings living with Kisuke.
Ichigo finding out about Kat's abilities will happen in the next chapter and Orihime's brother arc will also be in the next chapter. Kat is friends with Orihime so I feel she would do anything to protect her friend even if it means Ichigo finding out her secret.
I feel Eita is a lot more care free in this version of the story. What do you guys think?
These first chapters have been slow and chappy mostly because I don't want to just recap a lot of things of the first arc of Bleach since Kat really has nothing to do with it. Ichigo and Kat's relationship also won't advance as fast in this version to help with later chapters.
I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone is interested or knows of someone who would be interested in helping me beta this story. Message me any suggestions or offers.
Well thanks again to everyone who has favorite and follow and see yea next week!
Love, Violetta