Chapter 15: The new Assistant Captain
For the next six weeks, I trained with Miss Unohana every day to build up my strength again and to prepare myself for entering the Court Guard Squads; today would be the day I would find out if I managed to get the position of Assistant Captain of Division 6. I was walking towards Division 1 headquarters and saw the green haired boy from the meeting six weeks ago, but as I stopped to knock on the giant doors he grabbed my arm.
"You need permission to be going in there, you know." He said. His voice was deep and warm, but he had a serious look on his face. I looked at him and showed him the note in my hand.
"Happy now? I do have permission. Anyway, why're you here?" I retorted.
"Captain Kuchiki sent me to get the Assistant Captain's badge for the ceremony." He held out the bundle in his hands that held the badge for me to see.
"Oh right. I'd better go in, I don't want to be late." I opened the doors and walked in. The boy followed and gave the bundle to Captain Kuchiki and left quickly.
Standing in a line, there were a total of four of us who were waiting for the results of who would get the position of Assistant Captain. As I was the last to turn up, the others obviously found me irritating already. Five minutes later, Captain Kuchiki and the Captain-General Yamamoto entered the room. The man next to me gulped and seemed tense as soon as Captain Kuchiki glanced at him. Captain Yamamoto looked at all of us, and I felt my insides turn to jelly as I looked at my father again.
"As you know, you are here to find out if you have acquired the position of Division 6's Assistant Captain." He paused and looked at Captain Kuchiki.
"A lot of thought has gone into this decision – could you all but Zooi Tamyaomo please leave. That will be all." Captain Kuchiki said and the others glared at me viciously as they filed out. Had I…had I…really managed to get the position?
"Congratulations Zooi, you are now indeed the Assistant Captain of Division 6." Captain Kuchiki unfolded the same bundle of cloth the boy earlier was carrying and wrapped the badge round my left arm. I looked at it and smiled.
"Thank you, sir," I bowed to Captain Kuchiki and to my father. "I am extremely grateful for this."
"At noon, we require you to meet the Captains and Assistant Captains formally and introduce yourself. Tomorrow you will start for real." Captain Kuchiki bowed his head to me and left and I was left with my father. I turned to leave, but Captain-General Yamamoto stopped me.
"Wait, Zooi." I turned round, my legs shaking. "Congratulations, you deserve it." I flinched as I saw him looking straight at me.
"Thank you sir. I appreciate it."
"I'm sorry you know." I narrowed my eyes and looked at the ageing man that stood before me. "I'm sorry I left you in that prison cell, it shouldn't have happened." I felt as though I was hit by some tremendous force and I lost my balance and held onto the wall for support.
"Excuse me, sir?" I breathed heavily.
"I am deeply sorry for the pain I caused you, and that I forgot about you. It should not have happened and I failed to help you and I failed as a father." I looked at the old man and saw sorrow in his eyes and believed him, although I still felt anger towards him.
"I can accept your apology, sir, but I can never forgive you. Not fully anyway." He looked up and nodded.
"I understand, it was my fault in the first place…" I cut him off quickly.
"You don't understand, though! You can never understand what it was like to be locked up for 36 years without any contact of the outside world! How could you understand what I went through?" I could stand now, and clenched my fists. "My life was ruined because of it, because I did something wrong."
"Zooi, please understand that I was not in a position to let you roam free, not after what happened." I was confused – what did happen?
"What did happen? I don't even know what I did anymore." A tear trickled down my scarred cheek and I brushed it away. The Captain-General looked at me and down at the floor.
"Very well. It's obvious that you are in no mood for talking to me, however I must tell you one thing. You must restrain yourself and keep yourself away from the intruders where possible." He left quietly and I stared after him before leaving myself.
I stood outside Division 1 and stared out to the rest of the Seireitei. As I hopped up onto the trees, I saw my father walking towards his living quarters; I lifted my spirit energy and he looked up as I whooped and I soared down the tree and flew onto the next. So it seems that my father had not entirely forgotten about me, and that he was 'sorry'. I scoffed and jumped down in front of Division 11. Kenpachi was already waiting for me outside and stood up as soon as he saw me.
"Well? How'd it go?" he asked. I was stood 20 feet away from him and I walked up to him.
"Fine. I'm Assistant Captain now to Byakuya Kuchiki." I said as I walked past him and into the living quarters. As I sat down on my bed, I looked at the picture of my mother and father standing behind me when I was younger. A tear splashed onto it and I wiped it off. Setting it back down on the table, Kenpachi appeared at the door.
"Take a walk with me Zooi." He demanded. I nodded and wiped the tears away as I followed him out of the headquarters.
Ten minutes later, we were at the same waterfall as before. While we stood atop the thundering water, I wondered what Zaraki wanted to talk to me about.
"Zooi, now you've been formally entered into the Court Guards, you have to call me by my title."
"Um…okay? I replied, puzzled at what he dragged me all the way out here for.
"That's not the only thing though; I have to report to you about the report on the intruders…the Vamps." He paused and looked at me. "They…the Vamps seem to know you somehow…we don't know why, and you have to keep away from them. I'll tell you more on the report later, but for now we must leave otherwise we'll be late." He turned to leave, but I stopped him.
"Wait, you can't just say that and then leave! I need an explanation!" Zaraki stopped and turned round and grabbed my arm. He suddenly looked really scary, and I took a step back.
"Look, I can't tell you any more at the moment, so just leave it. I don't know why they have something to do with you, and why you need to keep away from them…please, just leave it for now. And please, whatever you do, just stay calm during the meeting – don't do anything rash." This time he left, leaving me standing, staring after him. How do the Vamps 'know' me? How do I even have anything to do with them? I kicked the ground and flew after Zaraki…or Captain Zaraki as I have to call him now…
Once again, I stood outside the doors to Division 1, waiting to be called in. All the Captains and Assistant Captains were assembled, and would meet me for the first time; the doors opened and I was commanded in. The shock of such spiritual pressures shocked me, but I managed to control myself and walked forward.
A couple of hours it was all over and Captain Kuchiki was talking to me about what would happen tomorrow.
"Tomorrow, you'll be moving into the Division 6 barracks, so please move anything of yours tomorrow and we'll be addressing our squad of our new Assistant Captain. You do not start officially until tomorrow, so can do as you please until tomorrow." Captain Kuchiki finished and walked away just as Zaraki…Captain Zaraki placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Well, I have to say that he seems nicer for some reason." He sounded confused and I looked at him.
"What do you mean…sir?" I asked, emphasising 'sir' and walked off. Captain Zaraki followed me, but I carried on.
"What? Zooi, wait." I flew and bounded from building to trees towards the river in the field the other day. Captain Zaraki followed me all the same, but I didn't care. As soon as we reached the river, I slammed my fist into the water, causing it to splash and freeze.
"Explain." I demanded viciously.
"Before you have a tantrum, I wanted to talk with you now anyway, so just listen." I calmed down and sat on the rocks, placing my zanpaku-tō Taura down as well.