A/N: All this swine flu stuff is scary, neh? On Thursday there were apparently two cases of it in the city I live in [Birmingham, UK]. I hope I don't get ill D: I'm also worried about my boyfriend. It's probably just a normal cold, but he gets ill easily DX
I'm probably just being paranoid XD; ANYWAYS. FIC.
I've decided that I wanna upload a new chapter every weekend :3 I hope this is okay with everyone!
Thanks so much to my reviewers; TurquisePL, yaoi-fun-fan and StillEvilFlame! Luff to you guys! 3
WARNING: This fic contains shonen-ai/yaoi, swearing, and possible OOC-ness [though I will try my best to keep them in character!] and is set after the first arc.
Chapter 4 - Never Too Late
It didn't take long for Renji to drag Kira out of bed. Within an hour, the blonde was washed, dressed and walking through the 3rd division of Seireitei. Renji was babbling on about taking him to "the best" and telling him how much stronger the trembling vice-captain would get.
But Kira's mind was wandering aimlessly. He found himself batting between wondering what Gin was doing and thinking about, to feeling guilty about what happened with Shuuhei earlier.
"Oi, are you listening?!" Renji exclaimed, smacking his best friend upside the head. Kira recoiled.
"Don't worry about Shuuhei, he'll be fine. Concentrate your energy on getting stronger and it'll happen sooner than you think!"
Kira nodded, and then looked up ahead of where they were walking to. He froze in fear. "R…R… Renji-san… we're not going where I think we are… am I?" he trembled, slowing down considerably.
Renji just rolled his eyes and grabbed Kira by the sleeve of his hakama, and dragged him quickly towards the gates that read "Division 11" above them, nodding greetings at random shinigami as they passed.
Soon they reached a large building in the centre of the division, and went inside, sliding open the doors carefully. They knew all too well that the vice-captain of Division 11 would be after their blood if they damaged the building in anyway. Female shinigami seemed scarier to males somehow.
Eventually they came to a particularly large door which led into the office of the Captain. Renji stood grinning proudly and turned to Kira. "Go on, go ask him!" he said, before noticing that the blonde was shaking all over - especially his knees.
"I…I…I can't R…Renji-san! My legs won't move!" he said in a high pitched, girly voice.
"Stop being such a wimpy little girl Kira!" Renji bellowed, grabbing Kira by the scruff of the neck and shaking him about violently."You'll break my neck!" Kira screeched in reply.
The door then slid open violently, and the two vice-captains were shadowed by the figure of a large and muscular man. He was covered in scars, had wild spiky hair, an eye patch and an evil, crazy look on his face.
"Renji! Kira! Stop making such a racket in my division!" he bellowed aggressively. Renji let go of Kira, who slid to his knees in front of the insanely strong captain. Zaraki Kenpachi terrified the living daylight out of him.
"Kenpachi-taicho!" Renji exclaimed. "Kira-kun came to ask you a favour!"
Kira looked at Renji with wide, pleading eyes. He was desperate to get stronger… but this wasn't the way he wanted to go about it!
"Well Kira? What do you want?!" Kenpachi asked, leaning down to look directly into Kira's blue eyes. He was struck with fear, until Renji kicked him in the side.
"I want to get stronger!" he squeaked suddenly, with the sharp pain to his side.
Kenpachi stared at him for a few moments, before starting to laugh. It was a terrible, gruff laugh that made Kira shrink back even more.
"HA! A weakling like you? Get stronger? Don't be ridiculous!"
"Please Taicho!" Kira exclaimed desperately. "I'll do anything!" He bowed down low, still trembling quite hard in Kenpachi's presence.
I may not like it, but Kenpachi is probably the best bet I have… he thought.
Kenpachi stroked his chin. "So… you want to be a man hmm? … Ikkaku! Ayasegawa! Get in here!" he roared.
Within seconds, two other men had appeared besides the two vice-captains. One was bald and tough looking, whilst the other was pretty and looked delicate.
"You two, I want you to help Renji to train this coward on the floor, to be a man!" Kenpachi said sternly.
Ikkaku and Ayasegawa looked at each other in confusement, and then down at the cowering blonde.
"But taicho-"
"I'll test him when you think he's ready! Now all of you get out of here before I crush you with my reiatsu!" he threatened, almost spitting in their bewildered faces. It didn't take the four of them long to scramble down the hall and out of the building before Kenpachi could destroy them.
As they caught their breath outside, Kira was heavily bombarded with questions from the two 11th division members, mainly asking him why a vice-captain would need training from Kenpachi when he should be looking after his division.
"Because Ichimaru-taicho left! He obviously left because I'm weak, and a coward! I need to protect my division… and maybe… maybe if Ichimaru-taicho sees that I'm strong, he will come back. And then I can help Shuuhei-san, and Hinamori-kun. We can go back to normal…" Kira blurted out, a determined look on his face. "And to do that, I need your help! So please train me!"
Ikkaku shrugged. "Why not, beating you up will be fun," he smirked. "Let's head towards the training grounds."
Kira found himself being dragged by the bald man a short distance, where many other shinigami were practicing. They looked very strong, and Kira quickly became jealous. They seemed to be stronger than even him, a vice Captain!
"So… how do I look stronger?" he asked timidly.
Ikkaku hit him upside the head, as Renji had done earlier. "It's not about looks! It's about what's in the heart. You're a man in your heart!"
Kira rubbed the back of his head where Ikkaku had hit him.
"Ikkaku-san is right, Kira-kun. I may look incredibly beautiful, but beauty comes after heart!" Ayasegawa agreed, flicking his hair back gracefully. Kira couldn't help but wonder how much vainer Ayasegawa could actually be.
Ikkaku cleared his throat and turned back to Kira. "Anyway. I want you to say your name! Pride is one of man's best virtues!"
Kira looked down at the floor. "I am 3rd division's vice-captain, Kira Izuru…"
Or at least that's what he tried to say. His voice trailed off at the word "vice-captain".
"Eh? What? What did you say?" Ikkaku exclaimed, cupping a hand to his ear in order to try and hear what Kira had just said. "Speak up! Be proud of who you are! And don't hide your shaking legs under your hakama!"
"Ichimaru-taicho always told me that, but it just won't stop!" Kira cried back in a high-pitched, nervous manner. He was holding onto his legs, desperate to stop them shaking. Ikkaku pushed the vice-captain, who nearly fell over. He had to grab onto Renji's hakama to stop himself from landing on his backside, nearly choking his friend in the process.
"Kira you idiot!" and another hit upside the head was the immediate response from the red head.
"If you wanna be a man that talked about, fight me! Come at me!" Ikkaku grinned madly, taking his sword out of it's sheath and standing in an aggressive stance.
Kira gulped, and took out his own sword. He took his usual defensive position and waited for Ikkaku to make the first move - which of course, he did. Very swiftly, and his hits made Kira's already shaking legs even more unsteady.
Renji and Ayasegawa stood back and just watched Ikkaku swing madly at Kira. "He's useless," Ayasegawa sighed. "He never used to be this bad."
"It's because he's so stupidly insecure. When Ichimaru left, all of his self-confidence and fighting ability left as well. Kira used to be a really strong person, but now look at him. He can't even shoot a kido spell straight."
"So we need to somehow give him his confidence back? That sounds easy enough. We should shout beautiful things at him as encouragement," Ayasegawa said, flicking his hair again.
"Oi! Kira! Attack and you'll be more likely to win!" Renji screamed at him.
Kira heard the angry cry from his friend, and although his mind responded, his body didn't. He wanted to attack, move forward and defeat his opponent. But something in his mind was stopping him. Ikkaku suddenly struck out and grazed Kira's arm; ripping his hakama and his flesh. But he didn't stop.
It was then that Kira saw himself for what he had become. Scared. Timid. Weak. And all because one person left him alone? One person, whom he had loved dearly had broken his heart. But above all that, there were still people who cared about, and people who needed his help. He needed to stop wallowing in his misery and fight with all he had to protect everyone he loves from the growing danger that lurked in Hueco Mundo. Even if he died trying.
Suddenly he found his legs became still, and his defence became sturdy. He chanced striking out at Ikkaku - and landed a hit.
Ikkaku was slightly surprised, and took a few steps back. A dribble of blood trickled down his cheek, which he wiped away.
"Alright, so you're finally going to get serious?" he grinned. "You're on your way to becoming a man!"
They began to fight full-on, shouting and using everything they had to beat their opponent. Everyone else in the training area had stopped what they were doing, and retreated to watch the fight; reiatsu and tension slowly rising.
"I'll kill you, don't get in my way!" Kira exclaimed angrily, dodging Ikkaku's sword and firing a poweful kido attack, which blew up in Ikkaku's face.
I'm going to be so strong. Only for you Taicho. This is all for you! Be proud of me…
------
A/N: Yay, Kira is getting stronger :D This chapter was rather fun to write. Except nothing really happened, but hey! It's a bit of a break from angsting all the time XD
Poor Kira, getting hit upside the head every 5 minutes XD
Anyways. Please rate and review! Next chapter will be drama-ified. With a pairing I'm quite fond of. Mwa ha ha 8D