Chapter 18: First day of service
Dreams floated over me until the sunlight seeped through the window and I woke with a start. My last dream was rather odd and felt too real to be a dream…oh, I don't remember what happened anymore. I hopped out of bed and pulled my shihakushō on as I remembered what happened yesterday. I still feel numb from what Zaraki told me, but if anything, it made me feel relieved to know why I have funny turns. A knock on my door woke me from my day-dreams.
"Come in! I called. A girl with chestnut hair walked in and bowed; I bowed back and asked her what her business was.
"Captain Kuchiki sent me to collect you. He wishes to see you and requires that you bring your zanpaku-tō. That's all." She stated and I grabbed Taura and followed her down the corridors.
After a while, we reached Captain Kuchiki's office and entered. Byakuya Kuchiki was sat at his desk, writing something and turned to face me.
"Zooi, we have our 6th Company meeting in a few minutes, but I would like to have a word with you before." His voice was calm and soothing, unlike Kenpachi's roughness, but frightened the girl next to me. I felt her quiver and glanced at him; he nodded to the girl to leave and she did without making a sound.
"What did you want to talk to me about…sir." I added quickly.
"I take it that Captain 11 spoke to you about the Demon-Hollow?" Byakuya's words made me flinch, and I nodded sadly.
"I see. That subject on the Demon-Hollow is forbidden among the lower class Soul Reapers; only Assistant Captains and Captains can speak of it because it caused such a mess. Countless people died because of it…" I suddenly clenched my fists in anger – he was basically talking about me, that thing was inside me so if he talks about that he talks about me. Byakuya noticed my sudden change and stopped.
"I'm sorry…I hadn't realised that it had an effect on you Zooi, but there is one thing I must tell you. Never, ever let the rest of the Soul Reapers know who you are, and never let them see the Hollow mask."
"The…the Hollow mask? I stuttered. "What Hollow mask? I'm sorry sir, but I don't know what you're talking about."
"When you reach a certain point, a Hollow mask will appear, but once it begins to appear it means you slowly give yourself over to the Hollow. Your power…will be beyond many of our limits. You must restrain yourself at all costs otherwise people could be hurt." Hearing Byakuya talk like this was shocking. Usually he comes across as emotionless and cares about nothing, but this…this was just ridiculous. Could the Hollow be that dangerous? And it sounded like he was hiding something…what am I supposed to do?
"Enough of that, we'll be late otherwise." Byakuya stood up, as did I and together we walked towards the assembly hall.
An hour later, 6th Division was out on one of the many training fields the Soul Society held, polishing battle skills and kidō…not that I was particularly any good at kidō. I only ever used it in an emergency or if I had time to plan something. During our break, I sat on the grassy embankment, looking down at the rolling hillside, listening to the rumble of the waterfall 100m away. A boy round about the same age as me came and sat next to me, his zanpaku-tō resting beside him. I realised I'd seen him before, he was the green-haired boy who stopped me from entering the meeting about Vamps quite a few weeks ago. I stared at him for a moment, but turned away when he ignored me.
"Quite a surprise to see that you're my Assistant Captain now." he spoke suddenly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I stared at him incredulously.
"I'm sorry, you just don't seem…I dunno." He laughed and glanced at me. "I've seen you round before, walking round the Seireitei…but I never knew what company you were with." Something about him put me off for some reason, but I couldn't quite figure it out.
"Nobody these days know who I am," 'which is perfect' I thought. "I've been away…" I broke off quickly before I blurted it all out. The boy nodded and stood up at the signal that break had ended.
"I'll um…I'll go with you for sparring practise…if you want, I mean…you don't have to if you don't…want to…" he was turning red, but unsheathes his zanpaku-tō all the same and stood, ready for practise. My face was blank, and unsheathed Taura as well. I couldn't help but feel uneasy fighting again…if was as if something was dangerous near me…well, there was: the Demon-Hollow.
We stood for a minute or so, until the boy lunged for an attack, but I quickly blocked it and jumped back, holding Taura up. The boy looked puzzled for some reason and prepared again.
"Why do look confused?" I asked. The boy looked taken aback but answered all the same.
"Not many can block it like that; as though it was nothing. Looks like you're stronger than I thought." He lunged again, leaping first and holding his sword above him; I stepped to the side and kicked him away before he realised where I'd gone. I wanted to Shunpō and hold Taura at his throat, but I remembered Byakuya's warning after the assembly; 'Give them a chance and don't go all out otherwise we may end up with dead Soul Reapers. Only if they rise up to the challenge, can you fight…but you must let them attack first and don't release your zanpaku-tō unless it's required. Your fighting skills are top notch.' I remained standing and waited for the boy to stand up. As soon as he was ready, I let him lunge one more time and blocked it easily and swept him off his feet, but let him roll away and bound towards me in an attack that could leave me injured if I didn't block it properly. Raising Taura, I saw that the boy was smiling, and as soon as he landed his attack I felt a judder and put all my strength into the block and forced him backwards, but this time he nimbly jumped back instead of falling over.
"Were you…holding back?" I asked, expressionless. My eyes burned but showing no emotion. The boy laughed.
"Ha! That was a test to see whether you were truly worthy of your position! Though I was surprised to see you had deflected my attacks so easy – not many can do that, Captains being the exception of course." He had changed so suddenly and made me even more cautious. If he was holding back, then he must be planning something.
"Now, let's start again, shall we?" he grinned and zoomed towards me quickly. Is speed was greater than before and I just dodged it before he closed in and attacked for real. Though I was out of the way, it didn't stop him from swinging his sword back as a supposed attack; I saw this coming and jumped before he knew where I was. As I landed, he lunged again and through his sword forwards but as I stepped to the left, he swung it round but as I blocked it, I pulled him towards me.
"Futile." I grumbled and threw him backwards. "Your attacks are too obvious." I decided I could do a bit of 'teaching' now and stepped forwards extremely fast and landed 10 meters to where he was standing and skidded behind and held Taura up to his throat. "See? You're missing the element of surprise." I let my sword hand fall and stepped back. "What's your name?"
"Kanta." he spat. "What was yours again, can't quite remember?" his voice turned sour and was full of sarcasm.
"Nice to meet you Kanta, I'm Zooi. What seat are you?" he growled in annoyance at my calmness.
"4th Seat actually, so watch it." As I nodded in acknowledgement, he attacked again without warning, and almost tapped me if I hadn't blocked it quickly and pushed him back.
"4th? Don't push your luck Kanta. I wouldn't do that again if I were you." With one last push, he was thrown backwards and skidded across the wet grass.
Another hour passed, and Kanta showed no signs of giving up. He had improved from just my words and my easiness. I still hadn't attacked him since he was only just getting into the fight. Apparently he was only 4th Seat because the previous Assistant Captain was promoted and the 3rd and 4th Seats transferred companies. Kanta also told me that most of the people in the Squad were good Kido users and weren't too good with swords. Once again, Kanta attacked at close range and made several consecutive attacks to throw me off guard, but I blocked them all without moving much and retaliated by nipping his arm with Taura and drawing a little blood.
"Always stay alert. No matter what happens if all your attacks are blocked, you mustn't just simply relax without resuming a defensive position. The majority of times, after attacks you must always go on the defensive otherwise you'll wind up dead." I took my chance and shot forwards, Taura raised and ready to pounce. Thankfully, he brought his sword up to block and attempted at forcing me back, but only resulted in forcing himself backwards, but instead of staying on the ground he lunged again and attacked. His close-quarters swordsmanship was polished, but that was about it. His defensive strategies seemed almost non-existent and his long range attacks were even worse. This close combat gave me some work to do and I showed him different ways to block and counter-attack.
Several minutes later, we sat on the embankment again and looked out at the looming storm clouds. Kanta was slightly out of breath and tended to the small cuts I'd given him but seemed different.
"Thanks for that. It was really nice to be shown how to fight for once…even if it was by a girl." He mumbled the ending and I sighed.
"Don't push it Kanta. Just be grateful I bothered at all, and what do you mean?"
"Before, most of the people used to give up after I landed my first attack. Also, the higher seats used to keep to themselves and fought each other and not us. I was only 7th Seat before so I was considered small fry, but I was good at close combat; I seem to have become a bit rusty." He paused and looked up, his hair flapping about his face. A storm was coming, I could feel it in the air and the clouds rolled in were an ominous grey. I looked down the grassy embankment and saw Byakuya looking out at the sky as well. I stood up and walked down the hill to him and asked him what he was doing; Byakuya seemed suspicious of something.
"Is there anything the matter, sir?"
"I'm not sure Zooi. There's something coming…I can't tell what it is though." Just as he mentioned that, a flash of lightning startled me, followed by a clap of thunder. The smell of rain was in the air…along with something else. Suddenly, another flash of lightning alerted me and I shot a look to my right as the rain began to fall.
"Sir!" I shouted over the roar of the rain. Byakuya glanced at where I was pointing and drew his sword…if he drew his sword, if must be dangerous…hold on…
"Hollows! I can sense at least two powerful ones…there may be some weaker ones as well, sir!" Byakuya nodded and ordered me to take a position near the rest of the members of the squad. Kanta ran beside me and looked over to Byakuya.
"What's going on…ma'am?!" Kanta added quickly.
"Just call me Zooi, and there're Hollows coming – a couple of powerful ones at that. Can you tell the rest of the Company to move back into the middle of the field instead of the edges and tell them to prepare for any fighting?" I shouted over the noise of the thunder and rain. Kanta ran and frantically tried to order the Company back.
A deafening roar erupted over the thunder from the trees to the right, and a Hollow flew onto the scene. I could sense this was one of the more powerful ones. It latently ignored me and swooped me down to attack the Company. Quick as a flash (literally) I shunpo'd to defend the Company as they stood, ready fight if it was necessary. Just in time, I swung Taura at it before it had the chance to swoop down again and disrupt the formation. The Hollow hovered for a moment and stared at me. I used that chance to warn the others.
"Fight the smaller Hollows over there! Once they're done, run!" I screamed at them as they stared at the giant eagle-like Hollow.