Several weeks later
Saturday
Rukongai District 1: Junrin'an
It had been several weeks since I had joined the Shino Academy (Shinigami Academy) and not once have I been able to see Toushirou. I felt so bad that even though the deadline for my Zanpakutou materialization was next week and I wasn't even close, I just had to go see him. So, here I am again, walking down the dirt path surrounded by fences in Junrin'an.
I walked through the gate, the cool breeze welcoming me. The place looked empty; the ground seemed hard and cold and the plants looked frozen. I couldn't see Toushirou or his grandmother, so I went around back, taking off my wajiri sandals and walking on the wrap-around porch.
No one was in the back either, so I sat down on the porch.
"Damn, I come to visit him and he's no where to be found. That's just great," I grumbled.
"'Bout time you came back. What has it been, three weeks already?"
"Huh?" I sat up, looking around. I still didn't see him, but then his head poked over the roof, "What the hell are you doing up there!?" I asked him. He gave a mischievous grin and jumped down, "Just thinking. What, are you jealous that I can sit up there and you can't?" He was still wearing his pale blue kimono; and I had never noticed before that he was barefoot.
"Oh yeah, like I'd ever be jealous of you!"
"I bet you are! I have so much more freedom here than you do in that damn academy and I can do almost whatever I want with no homework or projects or dumb things like that!"
"I am not! And I have plenty of freedom, even with homework!"
"If you have plenty of freedom, then why don't you come visit me!?"
"I—Oh… right, sorry," I stared at the ground and noticed that the ground was frozen here too, "Hey, Toushirou, why is the ground frozen here?"
"Hell if I know."
"You didn't do that, did you?" I walked over to a water bucket to find that the water was frozen solid inside, "You did, didn't you! You've frozen all the water here, too!"
"I did not! And are you kidding me? It's almost October here, how can the water be frozen?"
"I'm serious! Come here!" I said, showing him the bucket. Sure enough, the water was frozen. I groaned and scratched the back of my head with my hand, "Damn, Hyourinmaru, can't you keep everything from being frozen? Why do you like having ice around so much anyway?"
Toushirou stared at me, confused. I didn't even know what I just said. It just sort of… came out. I didn't even know who this Hyourinmaru was!
"What did you just say?"
"I… I don't know. I don't even…" I touched my mouth as if it was the cause of everything. Toushirou smirked, "Heh, looks like I'm not the only weirdo around here!"
"You take that back you little—argh!" I tried to smack him on the head, but he ducked and kicked me over, laughing, "Aren't you supposed to be learning this kind of stuff in your school? Man, you suck!"
"Shut up!" I yelled at him, detaching my face from the ice (my head had landed on the frozen bucket). "OW!" I ripped my cheek off the frozen water. It was blazing red, "Damn you Toushirou! That hurt!"
"Oh, sorry!" He grinned while I chased him around the yard, "I'm gonna stick your head in the bucket and leave it there! Let's see how you like it!" I screamed at him. He stopped and twisted around, tripping me. I got up and was about to hit him in the head with the bucket, but instead of that, water poured out and soaked him.
"Oh! Sorry, Toushirou! Now how did that happen? It was just frozen a second ago…"
"Damn that Hyourinmaru. Jeez, he always has to go around freezing everything. There's more to life than the cold…"
The voice echoed in my head; it was a male voice, someone I've never heard before. Who are you?
"Huh? Oh, so you can finally hear me huh? About time."
Who are you? Please, what is your name?
"My name is—"
"Hey, Nazeka! Stop staring off into space like that! Look, sorry about making you hit your head against the bucket, but I was just having fun!" Toushirou waved his hand in front of my face, trying to get my attention.
"Hey Toushirou…" I said quietly, "Have you ever heard a voice inside your head? Like, one that you've never heard before?"
"No. Don't tell me you're schizophrenic now…"
"I don't mean something like that!" I felt a nerve twitch in my temple, "I mean… well, even I don't really know what I mean…"
"Well, neither do I. Hey, Granny will want to know that you're here. Why don't you come in and see her?"
"Oh, sure!" I smiled, putting down the bucket and following him inside. Granny Hitsugaya was kneeling in the living room, drinking tea. Toushirou ran up to her and said something quietly in her ear before kissing her on the cheek and running back to me. He dragged me by the sleeve of my hakama and asked me to sit down beside his grandmother.
"I'll be right back; I'm going to make the rest of us some tea," he ran out of the room and into what I assumed to be the kitchen. Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I had actually been inside Toushirou's house. The rooms were simple—Ukitake explained that all houses were like this in Soul Society—with sliding doors and tatami mats (only the Royal Families had nicer floors and different layouts). They typically had several rooms, mainly consisting of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and one extra small room. Whether or not they had bathrooms… I did not know.
"It's good to see that you're back keeping Toushirou company. I'm so old that I can't do much of anything any more, so it's good to see him out with younger people," his grandmother said, taking another sip of her tea.
"Oh, well I'm sure he doesn't mind. He loves you a lot, I can tell," I assured her. She smiled; and then Toushirou walked in the room carrying a small tray with a pot of tea, and two more cups. He handed me one of the after pouring the steaming hot tea, "Here, Nazeka. I hope you like white tea."
"Oh, thank you," I said, taking a sip carefully out of the cup. It was truly delicious; it even beat Kaien's cooking! He poured his granny some more tea and we all sat in silence for awhile, sipping the herbal drink.
"Toushirou, you're all wet. What happened?" His grandma soon asked him. I laughed, "Whoops, my bad." She was confused, so Toushirou explained, "We had a little mishap with the water pail."
"Oh, I see," she smiled. She could obviously tell that we had been horsing around.
"So how are things going at the Shinigami Academy?" Toushirou asked. I appreciated him asking that, since I knew he hated it so much… but he still looked unhappy about mentioning it.
"Well, I'm actually in the same class as Momo. She and I have a lot of classes together actually. I'm not very good at kido yet, but I think that over time I'll get the hang of it. Hakuda is okay… and I absolutely fail at my hoho class. My deadline to materialize my zanpakutou is this Friday and I'm nowhere near materializing it, so for now, I can't do anything in that class. They keep telling me that in order to materialize it, I need to be in complete unison with my inner world and must truly be listening. But every time I try, something always interrupts me."
"So in other words…" Toushirou began, arms folded against his chest, "…you suck at everything!"
"Huh!? Shut up! You didn't have to say it like that! I just don't think I'm cut out for this Shinigami work…"
"You can say that again."
"You're not helping, Toushirou!"
"Toushirou, please be a little nicer about it. You don't need to be so cold to people," his grandma said quietly. He immediately shut up. Oh sure, his grandma can scold him and get away with it; but if I try to, then it only gets worse!
--
"See ya later, Toushirou!" I yelled, waving to him as he sat down on the roof of his house again. He waved and shouted back, "Come back sooner this time, okay?"
I smiled and walked out the gate, through the streets, and into the Seireitei again. Once again, I was faced with the challenge of getting back to the barracks. You would have thought that by now I would've figured out my way around—but no! I can't get a mental map of this place in my head! It's almost impossible to figure out!
So, once again I had to ask for directions; but this time it was only once. I got there in almost no time at all thanks to the directions given to me by the guy with the white things in his hair. He didn't seem too happy to see me again, though.
Captain Ukitake was feeling much better now, so I passed him on the way to my room.
"Dinner's waiting for you when you're ready. It'll be in the dining hall. I told Lieutenant Shiba to watch and make sure that none of the other squad members ate it."
"Oh thank you, Ukitake. I'll be sure to get it before too much later."
It was nearly sundown, so I decided I would do a little more meditation on my zanpakutou materialization before I had dinner and went to bed. The best place to do that is in the middle of the garden outside my room: right next to the little fish pond.
I sat Indian style and leaned against the huge decorative rock, closing my eyes and concentrating on my inner world.
--
A cool breeze enveloped me, and I watched as flower petals fell before me—Cherry Blossoms, Peach Blossoms, and Plum Blossoms all falling at the same time. A small part of me told me that that wasn't possible. The sound of wind through tree branches and over grass could be heard all around me as the petals revealed a huge stone single towered temple with no door; the temple reached high above the clouds as I looked up. It must have been sixty stories or more; either way, I couldn't see the top. There were stone gates behind me that were slightly run down, but still in pretty good condition.
"Where… am I?" I wondered. I certainly didn't recognize the place. I wandered around the grassy plain around the temple, noting that there weren't any walls around the perimeter; only on that one side. The grassy plain kept going as far as the eye could see on all sides except for the one with the gate. I had the slightest notion that that gate was used for keeping things on this side of the fence, not the other way around.
When I came back around to the front of the temple, a pair of doors—that I was certain hadn't been there before—swung open, creaking on the hinges. I entered hesitantly, not really knowing what to expect. There was a single stone statue next to the entrance of a winding set of stairs—no doubt leading to the very top. The statue was old and crumbling, but I was still able to make out what it had once been: an Asian dragon.
There was no where else for me to go except up, so that's where I went. It wasn't long before I got tired; and I assumed that I was up around the twentieth story or so by the time I hated the idea of dragging my feet upward. But, I had to go up; I had only two options: go up forty more stories, or go back down twenty. Either way, there were stairs. I decided on going upward, so I kept forcing myself to climb the crumbling—and no doubt dangerous—stone stairs.
Windows began appearing the farther I went until there was barely any wall left. The stairwell ended soon after, coming to an open rooftop high above the clouds with four outstretching platforms in each of the cardinal directions. They were about five meters long each, ending in a circular platform: the one to south had a huge basin in which clear, fresh water rippled at the slightest breeze; the western one had a huge pile of gold and silver piled high like a statue; and the eastern one had a huge stack of discarded bones, whether or not they were human or animal I could not tell.
Still, on the northern platform was the most astonishing of all: a huge steel gray Asian Lung dragon with a mane of teal and four massive bird like feet, all ending in talons the size of my hands. His eyes were closed—sleeping silently—while his tail swished back and forth dreamily. He was curled up tightly; his clawed feet tucked underneath him while his tail curled around. His massive head was resting upon the root of his tail, the long flowing whiskers on either side of his face limp with sleep. He had two horns on the top of his head, and his mouth resembled more of a dog's mouth than that of a dragons. He was furry, not scaly; and it was obvious that by the shape of his mouth his teeth were thick and dangerous.
As I looked on in both amazement and horror, the dragon slowly fluttered his eyes and, yawning ferociously, he uncurled himself to his full length—a stunning display. He was nearly the size and length of a skyscraper turned on its side. How he managed to fit on that platform was beyond me.
His eyes were a blazing yellow, and I could not look away as his gaze pierced mine. He gave one great big roar—quite like a lion's—and stood up tall and proud before speaking. Spiritual pressure so intense filled the area, and I was sure that the tower was going to crumble beneath me.
"So, you finally came after all this time. It's been centuries since my last wielder."
His voice resembled a young man, and I recognized it as the voice that had spoken to me at Toushirou's house.
"Please, who are you?" I asked, and he lifted his head. The spiritual pressure increased, and soon it became almost too hard to hear.
"Do you think you can wield me? I am a zanpakutou. If you think you can handle my powers—both the good and the bad—then hear my name!"
"I can't… I can't hear you!" I yelled at him. The pressure was blocking out my ears; my vision hazed over and it became hard to see.
"My name is—! My name is—!"
I can't hear him… I can't hear him!
Then… everything went black again.
--
I gasped as I awoke, lying on my back. I didn't immediately recognize the wooden ceiling, the cool blankets that were beneath me, and the tatami mat covering the floor until several footsteps from outside helped pull me from my state of confusion. The sliding door opened and Ukitake stepped through, bowed and smiled, shutting the door behind him, "Good to see you're awake again. How are you feeling?"
I watched him as he held out a cup of tea in his hands, "What… what happened?" I took the cup eagerly and gulped it down, not caring that my throat burned from the heat.
"You fell asleep while training and you've been out for several hours, not including the time you would normally sleep."
"What time is it?" More like what day, but either way, I would get an answer.
"It's 3 o'clock on Sunday. Hope you got all your homework done before you went to visit your friend in the Rukongai."
"3 o'clock!? I've been out that long... and I didn't even get to hear his name…"
Ukitake stared at me, confused for a mere moment; but then he understood, "You had a conversation with your zanpakutou, didn't you? That's good. I was beginning to worry that you weren't ever going to talk to it. So tell me, what did he look like? I'm just curious, so you don't have to answer." He sat down beside my bed and took the cup from me.
"Oh, no, I don't mind. He's this huge gray dragon with a long tail and whiskers. He looks very wise, and he asked me if I could wield him, even with all the bad things that come along with him. What did he mean? Are there some zanpakutous that have downfalls with them, rather than just power?"
"Yes. Most zanpakutous have an equal balance of greatness and of weakness. It keeps it so that a zanpakutou may not unbalance the equation between shinigami and their weapons. If the weapon is strong, and the shinigami is equally strong, but the two are stronger than normal, the ending result is a pair so powerful it could easily disrupt the balance and cause chaos. If a shinigami is strong, but the weapon is weak, or vice versa, it creates an equal balance between the two. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I do. But I have another question. If a zanpakutou is very strong, but has more weaknesses than strength, does it do any good for the wielder?"
"Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I assume you believe that your zanpakutou has a lot of weaknesses, but possesses great strength. In your case, I believe that it will help balance the connection between you."
"I see… so I should accept his power?"
"If you don't, I don't know what Ol' Man Yama will do to you… but I can assure you, you won't be punished lightly."
"So even if I want to decline his offer, I can't…" I muttered, quite upset. Why would I want a zanpakutou to even have any weaknesses at all? Then again, if I had a zanpakutou that was better than everybody else's, then I suppose that wouldn't be fair. But, who said working in the army was fair? I mean, in war it's always best to have the upper hand… but even so…
"Don't take it personally. Ol' Man Yama's just trying to do what's best for everyone in the Soul Society. But since you're awake, I would do whatever you need to for today before it gets too late." He stood up and opened the sliding door, glancing over his shoulder to me, "Oh, and I hope you thank Lieutenant Kaien. He was the one who found you."
"Oh, okay."
He shut the door behind him and I could hear the hollow footsteps echo away as he left.
I will receive your power… whatever the cost; and I will hear your name.