Author's Notes; Okay, NOW we get introduced to Nanao, just a little. Masaki's first crack at Kido. Please Rate and Review.

Kido Destiny

The eighth and thirteenth captains were in attendance for Masaki's final lesson; kido. Lisa held a bright glowing orb in her hands, the product of minute spiritual concentration. By the time the captains showed up, Masaki already had his own orb in his hands.

"Ah, Masaki," Ukitake called out. "It seems like you're doing well."

The boy with bright red hair instantly lost focus. He turned to face his host and bowed. The orb flew above his head and shattered into tiny pieces before he even had a chance to acknowledge the captain's appearance.

Shunsui chuckled. "Perhaps he needs to be a little more concentrated." He patted his fellow captain on the shoulder. "Don't speak too much, Jushiro, or your distractingly beautiful voice will throw off our young ward."

The captains sat in the grass as Masaki turned back to his teacher. "You need to learn to focus no matter what kind of environment you're in." Lisa pointed out. "Now, try it again."

Masaki nodded and held out his hands. A glowing orb swirled to life in front of him, easily as large as the one Lisa had created.

"Excellent," Lisa remarked. "Now, kido is divided into two main groups; Bakudo and Hado, binding and destruction."

"Ba-Ku-Do." Masaki accentuated the word slowly in his mouth. "So that's what it means."

"Seeing as how we're short on time," Lisa stood to Masaki's left and gestured to the tree in front of him, "We're going to focus on one basic spell. It's called sho, and it's a hado." She pointed to the tree. "Hado 1; Sho!"

The tree flew backwards and hit the ground hard, the feel of it reaching Masaki's feet. "Think you can do that?"

Lisa then explained that the simple attack was nothing more than concentrating spiritual pressure on one point and letting the words frame the attack for him. Most of what she said reached Masaki, but he was thinking deeply about what had occurred only a few months ago.

The fire was spreading to the upstairs quickly. Masaki cursed and struggled against the binding grip of the red light. He felt the invisible paralyzing feeling bending against his will. If he could just escape it, just use a little more force . . .

A cicada crawled under the bed. Masaki stopped struggling. The tiny creature seemed to demand total attention. It drew Masaki away from thoughts of the fire, thoughts of death. The curious creature seemed to hold some kind of hope for him.

Masaki snapped back into reality and broke free from the iron grip of the paralyzing red light. He rolled from under the bed and rushed to his brother's side.

"Lee!" He yelled. "You have to move!"

His brother looked at him in horror. "I can't!"

"Yes you can!" Masaki urged. "You have to!"

He wrapped his arms around his brother and struggled to lift him off the ground. It was hard to balance his kid brother as he made his way to the window.

"We can get out here, Lee." He reassured his brother. "We can live through this!"

"HADO 4; BYAKURAI!"

The lightning bolt pierced Lee's body, and hit Masaki in the chest.

The pain.

The cicadas.

Both were everywhere.

Masaki landed in the woods. He woke to find his home burning before his eyes. His family; Father, mother, brother. He knew just from staring at the house that all three were dead.

This is where Masaki made the vow. After the tears had stopped, Masaki promised himself that he would harness the magic that had destroyed his home, learn to use it himself, and turn it's power against the ones who had done him wrong.


Masaki pointed at the tree. "Hado 1; Sho!"

The tree fell back with a loud thud! This earned him a round of applause from the captains. He smiled to himself. He wasn't done there.

Let the words frame the spell. Feel the spiritual pressure in your body. Command it. Demand that it obey you.

He pointed to another tree and opened his palm. "Hado 4,"

Lisa's eyes widened. "Maki, wait!"

Before she could stop him, he had already uttered the words.

"Byakurai!"

The force of the spell sent him flying backwards! He slammed into a tree as a thin strip of lightning shot from his palm. Masaki fell to the floor to be scooped up into the arms of Lisa. She shook her head.

"Idiot, what made you think you were ready to learn something like that?"

Masaki stared at the ground. "I thought I could handle it."

Ukitake was instantly by his side. "Who taught him that spell?"

Lisa shrugged. "Don't look at me! I barely taught him sho."

Shunsui stood up and walked to Masaki's side. "It looks as if the tree you attacked has been reduced to a pile of ashes."

Masaki's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Don't encourage him." Lisa frowned. "The kid hasn't earned it."

"Maybe not," Shunsui grinned as he gripped the edge of his bamboo hat, "But you can't argue with results."

Ukitake looked down at Masaki as Lisa let him stand on his own. "Masaki, how did you learn that kido?"

He told them the story.

On the final day, Lisa explained to him in greater detail the mechanics of kido. She taught him about spell chants, things necessary to get out a powerful spell.

"The reason I didn't teach you the chant for sho was because it was such a low level spell, it didn't really need one." She had her hand on his shoulder, trying to explain kido thoroughly. "And you're lucky byakurai isn't a high level either, or things could have gone much worse."

Masaki nodded. "Will I learn all this at the academy?"

Lisa nodded. "They teach basic kido at the academy. You'll also learn to better yourself in the other disciplines and even learn how to receive and communicate with your own zanpakuto."

Lisa was going to miss spending all this time talking to little Maki. She had come to really enjoy his company over the past month, and hoped he would see her again soon.

When training was finally over, Lisa and Masaki just talked in the field for hours. She spoke to him about his training, the life he was going to have, the powers he would learn to wield. But she noticed the times she spoke of kido where the times when his eyes grew the biggest.

"You must be proud of him," Shunsui commented to his friend. "After all the work my Lisa put in, I'm sure he's going to be great."

"I don't doubt that for a moment." Ukitake agreed. The two captains were in the latter's living room, drinking fine tea. "I feel almost fatherly around that boy."

"Fatherly eh?" Shunsui asked. "I've never seen that color on you. I hope you don't mind, but I'm throwing a little competition your way."

Ukitake stopped drinking tea mid sip. "Competition?"

"I found another one before I found him." Shunsui explained. "A younger one, who I've been teaching over the past few months."

"Month, huh?" Ukitake shook his head. "So you've given yours more training. I wonder who will graduate first. What's her name?"

Shunsui grinned. "Her name is Ise. Ise Nanao."