Hello guys, I'm back! Due to many boring things that you're probably not interested in, I was unable to do much else besides read and maybe submit an OC or two on Fanfiction as of late. But now I'm back and have been doing a little work on this story, the main part of that being that I have accepted OC's from a few people. Even though it will be a few chapters until any of these OC's are even introduced, I thought I'd list the creators so that everyone knows if their OC was accepted or not. I apologize to those who were not accepted and thank you for sending them in!
Maebara18
orangebanner
Aaron26
Again, thank you all for taking the time to create and send me your OC's, and please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. Like I said, it'll probably be several chapters before any of these OC's are introduced, which is also at around the same time the more entertaining stuff will be happening. Okay, now here's the chapter!
Chapter 4: A Close Call
There are times when you realized you've made a mistake. For Takeshi, this was one of those times. At the moment, he was hauling yet another load of wood to Michi's little house, the wood under one arm and the axe resting on his shoulder. What the wood was for, Takeshi could only guess. "What the hell could he possibly need all this wood for? It's not like he's making the house bigger, wait, no, he'd make me do that to if he was." He huffed, frowning angrily.
In the two months that Takeshi had been living with him, Michi had continued to only tell him tiny amounts of information each day. During that time, he'd been doing absolutely any work that Michi seemed to think up, a poor trade-off in his opinion. "I'm beginning to feel as if that old man just wants me to work for him forever. What could I possibly be gaining from all this?"
As Takeshi neared their little shack, he heard a small commotion coming from down the road. Looking forward, he saw a man in a black robe walking towards him, shouting loudly at people who hadn't gotten out of his way fast enough. Takeshi raised an eyebrow cynically. The man didn't look any different than everyone else around here, save the nice robes. Then he saw the sword. A small grin appeared on the youth's face. "Black robes and a sword, this guy must be a Soul Reaper." Slightly picking up his pace, Takeshi marched passed Michi's house, towards the loud man.
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It seemed he was right. When Takeshi had gotten nice and close, this man that was staring at him with such a weird expression was just plain boring. He already felt himself forgetting the man's face, seeing only his cloak and sword. "I said, what the hell are you doing standing in my way!? You should clear the road when someone as important as me, a Soul Reaper, graces your shitty town with my presence!" The man gritted his teeth and held up his fist, the young man's blank eyes beginning to piss him off. It also wasn't helping that he refused to budge from the middle of the road, unlike the rest of the townspeople.
"I see no reason why I should move. There's plenty of room on this road. Go around." Takeshi had quickly decided that this man wasn't interesting in the least, for what reason he couldn't yet say.
The man's eyes bulged, and he slowly reached for his sword, seeming unable to voice his anger. When his hand grasped the hilt of his zanpakutō, he appeared to find his voice again. "That's it kid, you're gonna die." He said it quietly, too enraged to say it in his past tone.
Takeshi's eyes suddenly shined with a light of interest. "Oh, now that's more like it." He dropped the wood he had in one hand and placed it on the handle of the axe, grinning. "Let's see you t-Oof!" The axe feel from his hands as a wooden cane slammed across his stomach, knocking the wind clear out of him. Falling to his knees, Takeshi had just enough to time to see a piece of wood fill his vision before he lost all further interest in the proceedings.
Michi stood above him, his walking stick extended out to where Takeshi's face had previously been. Turning towards the surprised Soul Reaper, he planted the base of his cane back onto the ground, bowing his head slightly. "I must apologize for my…son; he's very new to the afterlife and does not yet understand how this world works. I apologize on his behalf, Soul Reaper. I swear that it will never happen again."
Slowly lifting his hand from his weapon, the man scratched the bottom of his jaw and grinned, looking down at the elderly man. "Heh, damn well better not happen again. Otherwise, I'll take care of him myself. Permanently." He patted the pommel of his zanpakutō emphatically, waited as Michi stepped out of his way, and then strode off.
"Damn kids, always doing stupid things. I swear, it's almost as if they come here just to die again." With that, Michi grabbed Takeshi by the back of his shirt and dragged him to the house.
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Takeshi was never one for drinking, but as he opened his eyes, he felt as if he'd just downed a whole barrel of crappy sake, and had then woken up with an equally crappy hangover. "Ugh, what happened?" He groaned, putting one hand on his forehead in an effort to stop the pounding headache he'd been blessed with.
"What happened is that I saved your miserable life, stupid kid. You're lucky you had been close to the house; otherwise I wouldn't have been there in time. Honestly, what were you thinking, picking a fight with a Soul Reaper of all people?" Michi's harsh voice did nothing to help Takeshi's already sore ears, a fact he seemed aware of. He sat in a chair next to the bed that Takeshi reclined in, his walking stick across his lap.
"Wait, I think I remember something. I was just getting ready to beat up that Soul Reaper, then…" He paused for a second while he struggled with the memory. "-Then I think somebody hit me with a walking stick…" His eyes widened in anger as it came to him. "YOU OLD BASTARD! I was going to-agh!"
Michi watched with dispassionate eyes as the boy held his aching head in his hands. "I'd suggest you keep your voice down, unless you enjoy self-inflicted pain. Now if you'll at least follow that bit of advice, I'll tell you something useful. As long as you ask me politely and by the title I told you, not 'old bastard'. "
Takeshi popped open an eye, and lowered his hands. Gritting his teeth, he managed to calm himself down. "Please, tell me something useful…Master." He reluctantly finished, still quite agitated with the old man.
Michi nodded. "Better. I'll start with the fact that you all but challenged a Soul Reaper to a fight. That was foolish. You might have felt that you would've been a match for him, but that was not the case. If you had even the smallest amount of Reiatsu, then his would have overpowered your own, causing you to feel hungry and tired. Since that was not the case, it can only be one of two things. The first is that you have equal or greater Reiatsu than him, which would leave you unaffected."
Takeshi nodded at this, grinning. "No need to tell me the second, it's obvious that the first one is the correct one as well. I'm sure I could've defeated him if you'd-Agh!" He held his forehead with both hands, hissing in pain.
"No interruptions, especially ones as ridiculous as that." Michi straightened his beard while he waited for Takeshi to pay attention again. When he the boy had finished getting over the pain, he continued.
"As I was saying. The second, and far more likely, is that you have absolutely no spiritual energy of any level and were therefore unaffected. Which means you would've died instantly had I not intervened!" He shouted the last part at Takeshi, his pent up anger surfacing.
"After two months of learning, you decided that it was a good idea to pick a fight with a damned Soul Reaper!? I swear, if I had known you were this dense, I would've let him cut you down and free myself from your idiocy! Are you insane!?" By this time, Michi had become quite red in the face, glaring at the younger man.
Seeing as he had stopped talking, Takeshi decided that he might want an answer to that last question. "Meh, maybe a bit."
"OF COURSE YOU ARE! WHAT ELSE COULD YOU BE IF YOU'D DO SOMETHING AS FOOLISH AS THAT?" Calming himself, Michi took a deep breath and looked at the young man with hard eyes. "Now that you've seen the type of people Soul Reapers can be, do you still wish to pursue that idiotic dream?"
Without hesitation, Takeshi nodded. "I made my decision as soon as I got here, I'm not about to change my mind just because of one obnoxious fool."
Raising an eyebrow, the older man stood up from his seat. "Very well." Walking over to the single closet in the shack, he grabbed something that was leaning against the wall. Quickly turning around, he tossed it in Takeshi's direction. "Here."
The younger man caught it with both hands, thinking at first that Michi had tossed him a walking stick of his own. He quickly realized that this was no mere walking stick, dangerous as he had learned they could be. In his hands he held a masterly carved wooden practice sword. "That is the first of many practice swords that you will soon be using. I was planning on saving Zanjutsu lessons for later, but if you insist of fighting so soon, then we shall start ahead of schedule."
Looking behind him, Takeshi saw many wooden practice swords in the closet, along with a folded up wooden bench, and assorted carving tools. "So that's what happens to all the wood." He said quietly, one mystery solved. Weighing the practice weapon in his hand, he allowed himself a grin. "First question, what's Zanjutsu? The second, when do we start?"
"Zanjutsu is swordsmanship, something any Soul Reaper should at least be competent at." Michi grinned as well, although his seemed far more intimidating. "As for your second question; right now, of course. You want to become proficient as soon as possible, correct?"
Feeling that he was about to be given his second beating of the day, Takeshi hesitantly stepped out of the bed. "Um, yes Master." The sword was quickly batted from his hands, followed up by a swift strike to knee.
"Give me an assertive answer, like the one you gave me when I asked you if you still want to become a Soul Reaper! And pick up your sword!" Michi waited patiently while Takeshi reached up and scooped his wooden weapon off the ground.
"Of course Master! Yes Master!" the words left Takeshi's mouth in quick succession, shocked into action once again by the elderly man's sharp words.
Michi smiled, his eyes glowing with something akin to excitement. "Good! Now, raise that weapon and prepare to defend yourself. I won't be going easy on you, so get ready!
Oh dear, I'm not quite sure if I like it whenever he gets excited. Something tells me I'm going to regret this very, very soon.
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As it happened, Takeshi was correct. He layed in his cot, feeling that his whole body was just one big, painful collection of bruises. Damn, he wasn't kidding when he said he wasn't going to hold back. He winced as he turned for a more comfortable position, only to put more pressure on some of his bruises. Still, I can't help but wonder about what Michi said. About the amount of spirit energy I have, or rather, the lack of it. He held up a bruised hand and glared at it. Am I truly that weak? Then a thought struck him. But what about Michi? Does he also have such low spirit energy that he was unaffected, or perhaps… He shook his head in disbelief. "I wonder."
And there you have it! I know it's not much, but I hope it was satisfactory. I decided that Takeshi is going to need far more training than simply showing up and fainting of hunger at the first Soul Reaper he meets. It just seems all too convenient to me and I wanted to make it a bit more realistic. So, feel free to share your opinions on that. I plan to update about once a week, so look forward to reading the next chapter until then. Later!