Chapter 7
Yuki made her way out of the dorms and toward the main Academy building ina zombie like state. She walked through a large patch of trees when she suddenly felt something hit her in the back of the head. It took her a moment before she realized that someone was trying to get her attention as several more hit her. She looked up and back over her shoulder to find Genji sitting above her in a tree, his hand full of small rocks,
"Wow, it took you long enough," He jumped down, "what's wrong with you? You're not still tired are you?"
"No, not tired…" she let out a long sigh, "I got somethin' to tell you…"
"Oh yeah? Spit it out then."
"I got…put into a squad."
"Wait…what?" He crossed his arms and laughed a little, "Oh, I get it, You're joking right? Very funny, haha."
She looked down at the ground, "Sorry to say, I'm not kidding."
He uncrossed his arms, his expression changing to sheer disappointment, "But…But you can't go! You're the only friend I have here!"
"It's too late, the decision has already been made."
"Well, at least tell me what division you'll be in."
"The Ninth Division, third seat."
"Third seat huh? That's pretty good."
"I suppose you're right."
Genji smiled, "You'll do great."
"Y'think?"
"I know so." He smiled widely, "Promise me something?"
"What's that?"
"When I graduate…"
"…You'll be the first reccomendation I'll make for my squad."
He nodded, "Awesome."
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A short time later they'd made their way to the Academy cafeteria. They ate there fairly often after Rin's death, as neither of them could cook to save their lives. Yuki just stared down at her large pile of food. She had several pieces of bread and the biggest bowl of ramen they offered,
"What's wrong?" Genji asked, his mouth full of noodles.
"It's nothing…Just…I had a weird dream…"
"Dream huh? What about?"
"Well this…cat-like creature…told me some things about discovering who…or what it was. Then I woke up to my room covered in ice."
Genji just stared at her, long strings of noodles hanging out of his mouth. After a moment he sucked them up, "I heard about something like that someplace…"
he quickly ducked under the table, digging through the brown messanger bag he always carried with him. He pulled out a thick book and slammed it down onto the table. Yuki raised an eyebrow,
"Since when do you read?" She poked at the book, "Especially something that thick."
"The book seemed interesting…Plus…" He fliped open the cover to show the checkout card, "Hinamori-San checked this book out once." He sighed longingly.
Yuki rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I get it."
He cleared his throat, "Ahem, anyhow…"
He begun to flip through the pages until he came to one he'd marked,
"Ah, here, Zanpakuto."
"Yeah, I know what one is, what's that have to do with me?" She said as she stuffed an entired custard pan into her mouth. She'd eaten her ramen while he was digging through his bag.
"It says here that a Zanpakuto will appear to it's master in any way it can, although most of the time it happens during sleep, in what appears to be a dream. It tries to give hints to it's name, which will, at times, manifest outside of the dream state. Once the name is realized, all that needs to be done is the calling of the name, then the Zanpakuto will reveal itself."
"So, it's my Zanpakuto then?" She stuffed more bread in her mouth, "What a strange coincidence."
"That's what it sounds like. I'd say more like luck, maybe you'll get to start your Shinigami life with your Zanpakuto. Most peopl e don't get theirs till way later."
She shoved the last bit of her food into her mouth and stood up, her chair screeching across the floor,
"Where're you going?"
"Gotta get ready if I'm gonna be leaving in the morning."
"Okay. Good luck , Shinigami."
Yuki smiled and skipped away.
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That night she had another dream,
"I heard about your ssssssituation, h'sssss." The cat creature hissed, "Every Sssssshinigami needssss a ssssssword."
"I know that. But how am I supposed to guess your name…I have so little time to do so."
"I sssssupppose I can break the rulesssss a little, and give you a clue that you can eassssssily underssssstand." She slowly blinked, "But if I do thisssss for you…You musssst guesssssss my name tonight, before you sssssssleep."
"Alright, lets do that then."
She suddenly snapped awake, "Oh what the hell?!"
She immediately noticed it was cold again, but this time her room was coated in a thick cover of ice,
"Woah…"
She stood up and wandered around a little. Everything looked so different this way. She stopped when she noticed something completely out of place.
On her table sat a large block of ice surrounding a star. It gave off an eerie glow,
"Hoshi?" She said inquizitively.
A long, thin, crack appeared down the side of the ice, "Eh? Hoshi? That must be part of it…" She walked around it, to give it a nice long look, although there seemed to be nothing more to see about it,
"Hm…Ice? um…It's frozen?" It cracked a little more, "Aha…Korihoshi…"
At the mere sound of this, all of the ice shattered and reformed in the center of the room as a very long katana with a dark purple hilt. The guard was the shape of a five pointed star, and several star charms hung from the end of the hilt.
Yuki crept up to it, "So this is it…This is my Zanpakuto."
"That isssss correct…" The cat creature sauntered out from the shadows behind the sword. She was a very large black cat, she looked like a housecat, with incredibly long ears. She had enormous yellow eyes and a white five pointed star smack in the middle of her forehead. She bowed her head,
"I am Korihoshi, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Yuki smiled, "The pleasure is mine."
"Well, go on ahead and pick me up. I know you want to, I can see the excitement in your face."
Yuki grabbed the hilt and picked it up, then layed it flat in her palms. It shined in the dim light in the room,
"If you never trussst anyone elssssse, at leasssst trusssst in me. I will protect you alwaysssss."
Yuki smiled, "I do trust you…I can't wait to get to know you."