Hey guys! Guess what?! It's back to me again!! :D Moshimellow appears again! Anyhooes, enough of that, its time to start the fic!
-:-
The sky was lit a lovely purple-orange by with the setting sun when the six students finally left the academy and began to walk along the banks of the river. Fluffy, white clouds were scattered across the otherwise clear sky and the breeze that blew from the riverside was cool and refreshing.
"OMO! That was so hard!" exclaimed Hiyori, disturbing the peaceful setting. She poked warily at some sore places on her body. "Mochiii... the punches you gave me are going to bruise... I didn't hit you that hard..." she whined.
"It's not my fault you're so crap at sparring. Don't whine. It's annoying and you sound like a drunken sheep," replied Mochi, without looking up from her book. Saiko and Tifa grinned evilly and bounced around Hiyori going "Baaaa, baaaaa!!!" as the rest looked at the beautiful scenery contentedly.
"It wasn't that hard," pondered Shioru as she looked amusedly at the two fools who were still teasing Hiyori. Saiko stopped bouncing for a second. "I'm so awesome at it! Did you see that hit I landed on Bakawaka? Dude! It like totally pwned her!" she babbled while demonstrating by waving her arms around spastically and aiming flailing blows at some unseen opponent who probably looked like Hoshika.
"Che. Don't forget, it was the only hit you ever landed on me. In case you can't remember, you lost all the matches except for that one. And the only reason I lost was because you pointed to some random spot and said, "LOOK THERE'S A FLYING COW-HAMBURGER!" scowled Wakanao as she kicked a random rock into the river.
"It was your own damn fault for believing me! I mean, I pointed to the freaking ceiling, you freak!" replied Saiko in her scrambled language, and once again another fight broke out between the two. Ignored by the rest of the group, they fought, with Saiko trying to drag Hoshika into the water against fierce resistance.
They walked for a short while alongside the riverbank before reaching a split in the path where one path continued along the banks of the river, and the other headed away, over a pretty, but nondescript field full of flowers and long grass.
"Which way should we go?" Shioru asked the others.
"I don't know. Where does the right hand side one go?" asked Hiyori.
"Bakari. Don't you even know the way back home? If you keep walking along that road for about 3 minutes you'll reach our house," sighed Mochi as she finally looked up from her book.
"I don't want to go home yet though. Let's see what's on the other road!" suggested Tifa as she began to march on energetically down the other path with the still-fighting Wakanao and Saiko trailing behind. Shioru looked at Hiyori and Mochi resignedly, then shrugged and followed Tifa.
"Well we might as well go since the rest of them are gone already. I guess we'll eat out tonight then," before muttering quietly to herself, "I hope there are kasutera stores on this road."
Mochi sighed then stretched out lazily, the hand holding her book reaching towards the sky. "Might as well, although I would much rather spend the afternoon doing..." she trailed off and she went to join the others. Hiyori smiled happily when she remembered that she'd wanted to go see what cute accessories she could buy here in Soul Society anyway and skipped happily behind them.
-:-
"That ramen shop was pure epic and untainted win!!" Saiko flailed as she toted bags full of bowls of takeaway ramen. Everyone else nodded in silent agreement, their appetites for good, asian msg-filled food sated. The ramen shop not only had ramen but a range of other favourite foods including kasutera (Shioru's), tempura soba (Mochi's) and lots of other delicious dishes. They were all stuffed to the maximum and on top of that, were also very happy with their purchases.
"I love that accessories shop!" cried Tifa and Hiyori simultaneously. They waved their little flowery bags stuffed full of jewellery and soft toys around. Their obsession with cute things was so insane and intense that even Mochi and Saiko were dragged in with the rest and were forced to buy at least one, supposedly, "kawaii" item.
Saiko, when hearing this command to buy, immediately snagged a soft toy snake she saw hanging from a hook; Shioru a teddy bear, Hoshika a fancy new ribbon but Mochi just ignored their feeble pleas for her to choose something, anything, and continued to read her book. Feeling desperate, Hiyori quickly grabbed the closest item and stuffed it in Mochi's hands. "Here you go! Now buy that!!" she nagged, steering her to the counter where she paid and went back to reading her book.
"I still can't believe they actually had such a busy little market area here," said Shioru. Hoshika nodded happily. "Now that I know it's here, I'm going to come all the time! The ribbons are so pretty," she prattled on, seeming completely out of character.
"No way dude! My snake so pwns your ugly, ugly ribbon of complete and utter faildom. I mean, your ribbon sucks!" taunted Saiko. Mochi looked up from her book again to roll her eyes. Another argument. Then she vaguely remembered Hiyori forcing her to buy something and she peered cautiously inside her own little flowery bag. Inside was a chain necklace with spiky lotuses at the end that may or may not have looked strangely dangerous in the moon's white light.
Tch. How gay. She made a mental note to lose it as soon as possible; the moment Hiyori's back was turned. Looking scornfully at the little flowery bag, she stuffed it in the bin and pocketed the necklace. Can't let it go to waste.
"What are you doing Kanda?!" shouted Hoshika. Mochi looked up and finally noticed that the others were already waiting at the split in the paths for her. "Tch. Coming."
-:-
After their shopping trip and the day's classes, they all felt dead tired and flopped onto their beds the moment they got home. There was a rare silence inside the small building. Saiko and Hoshika stopped fighting to fall asleep in their room and Shioru and Tifa had already passed out on their beds. Hiyori, however, was happily arranging the day's spoils on her side of the room.
"Mochi!! Do you mind if I put this on your side?" chattered Hiyori. She held out a fluffy pink cushion and a couple of soft toy bunnies. There was a silence. Hiyori waited for a second before putting them back on her side, sighing and curling up into her bed. Mochi was already fast asleep on her bed, not even bothering to change out of her uniform.
Mochi turned over in her sleep and the necklace jingled merrily in her pocket.
-:-
It was so dark. That was the first thought that registered in Kanda Mochi's sleep befuddled brain as she slowly regained control of her body and opened her eyes drowsily. Instead of the starry sky she usually saw through her skylight when she awoke every morning to train, there was total darkness. Nothing.
Her alertness shot up and peaked again. Where am I? Did someone take me away while I was sleeping? More importantly, where are the rest of the fools? Mochi closed her eyes and breathed silently, listening for any sounds or disturbances of the air.
Soft footsteps sounded in front of her, gradually getting closer. Someone's here. Her hand shot instinctively towards the sword by her side, courtesy of Sanada-sensei.
"You don't need to do that. I won't hurt you," Mochi's eyes widened as she recognised the softly spoken Japanese. Suddenly the darkness of the sky was dotted with stars; their cold light illuminated the beautiful face of the raven-haired samurai who stood before Mochi. He was the most beautiful guy she had ever seen. (5)
His face; elegant cold beauty with dark sapphire eyes, had a sort of royal grace to it although it was a tad bit girly. His blue-black hair tumbled down his back in long silky tresses. A chain with an unknown symbol on it hung on his neck, and from her first glimpse of it, Mochi loathed it. Even though Mochi could feel no wind, she could swear that the pure white kimono he was wearing was swaying, as though a breeze was blowing. Mochi had a feeling that she had seen him before, somewhere... but she pushed that nagging thought away.
Upon seeing the shocked look on her face, his face morphed from the cold expression he had into a smirk. Regaining her composure and feeling slightly annoyed by his smirk, she flash stepped behind him and immediately had her sword to his neck.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked. Showing absolutely no concern or shock at the sharp katana, he replied in a voice of pure silver. "Your zanpakutou's real form."
My Zanpakutou?
"Nani?" Mochi re-sheathed her sword, but did not take her hand from its hilt.
The samurai smirked again and ran his fingers through his long silky hair.
"I am the true form of your Zanpakutou," he repeated. Mochi's eyes were drawn to the empty Zanpakutou by her side. She vaguely recalled a lesson when Sanada-sensei had been saying something about how the Zanpakutous they were given were empty and something about a true form.
"So... you live in here?" Mochi gestured to sword that was still in her hand. The samurai looked blankly at the sword before realization finally dawned on his face. He buckled up and made weird coughing sounds. After a few seconds of listening to those weird "haah haahk haah" sounds, she realised he was laughing at her. "What are you laughing at? It's true right?"
Mochi waited impatiently for the samurai to recover from his fit. He straightened up and spoke, "Well. I technically don't "live" inside the Zanpakutou, its more like I reside inside your soul and when you release reiatsu into one; I'm transferred into the vessel of the Zanpakutou (1)."
He looked expectantly at Mochi. "Oh..." she replied distantly, looking off into the darkness. Remembering that she was lost in the middle of nowhere she looked up sharply and asked again. "Where am I? Why am I here? " And where are the others? She thought silently to herself.
As if he could read her mind, he answered her unspoken question first. "You don't need to worry about your friends. They're all safe and sound at home and they won't notice you gone anyways."
Seeing Mochi about to say something, he continued quickly. "You are in your own consciousness. Inside your own mind or what some call your 'world'. To make things simple, it's a dream. But a dream where the host is awake and can control."
Even though it was just a stupid childish thing, Mochi pinched herself hard just to see if she'd awake from her dream. "Tch." Ignoring the aching pain on her arm, she looked up expectantly at the samurai again. "You haven't answered the other question," she said.
He was suppressing another laughing fit from seeing her childish action but was reminded by her command. "Ahem." Straightening himself up, Mochi realised he was taller than her and was not quite as womanly as she had thought.
"Let's get to business now. I have recognised your potential future as a shinigami, and as your Zanpakutou, I will give you the great honour of being trained by me," he continued.
Hearing the word 'training', Mochi's face twitched as she realised just who she was talking to. Oh yeah, that bastard. "Speaking of training, WHAT THE FUCK WAS WITH THOSE ANNOYING MORNING TRAININGS?!!? IF YOU ARE PART OF MY SOUL, WHY THE HELL DO YOU KEEP TALKING TO ME IN MY HEAD?! I WAS HALF CONVINCED THAT I WAS GOING MAD!" Mochi stopped to breathe after her outburst.
The samurai smirked again, not showing any surprise about her rant. "Well, don't you agree with me that those trainings have helped you with your skills? Especially with improving your shunpo skills. And not to mention, I think you would rather be woken up by my voice rather than your friend's 'Ohayo Nippon' alarm clock?"
Oh yeah, that alarm clock,Mochi thought bitterly. She still had bad memories of that time when Hiyori forgot to set her alarm and it went off too early, waking Mochi up. She started grudgingly, "Well I can't argue with you on that, Bakari always talks in her sleep, but what kind of new training will I be doing?" she asked.
The samurai smirked again and waved his arm. Gradually as Mochi watched in wonder, lights began to dot what seemed to a never-ending lake. The ghostly glow emanated from within pale lotuses as they floated on the smooth, calm water.
"You must use only your skills of Shunpo and raw Zanpakutou skills to find me within one of those lotuses. If you fail at this and give up, just pretend we never met. I don't want my skills to fall on unworthy hands," he said.
Smirking again he added before turning to walk away. "I will be in the form of your Zanpakutou of course. Ganbatte." Mochi panicked slightly with his departure, she was all alone in this "dream world" and had no idea how to get out. She wanted to call out for him but realised in dismay that she didn't even know what his name was. Reaching out, she tugged lightly on his sleeve. Looking around, he smirked in amusement. "Yes?"
Mochi's eyebrow twitched at this. Teme (2).... But she kept her temper under control and spat out another question at his turned back. "What do I call you?"
At this question, he smiled genuinely, but with a mysteriously amused air. Mochi wondered what was so funny but she kept silent as she waited for his reply. "My name is Kanda Yuu. You can call me Kanda but I think that would confuse you so Yuu will be good enough for me."
At this, Mochi was too stunned to remember that she was still annoyed at her. She pieced pieces of the puzzle together; his blue-black hair which was like hers, his eyes which were the same as hers, the familiar face and now the same last name....
"Are we freaking related?" blurted out Mochi at the same time as Kanda Yuu said softly, "And no we are not related." There was a silence. Mochi stared in confusion at the samurai. He looked up again with a piercing gaze. "I am part of your soul. But that has nothing to do with whether I have the same last name as you, look related to you or not. It was just meant to be." Mochi's eyebrow twitched again. Yeah yeah. The faster I can have this done by, the faster I'll be able to get out of this creepy place. She shivered unconsciously before drawing her sword out. En guarde (3), lotuses.
-:-
Mochi panted as she cleaved through the 50th lotus in the row, counting. By now, her reiatsu was running low and she hadn't seen a mere glimpse of a sword, let alone her annoying Zanpakutou. Talking about that guy…Mochi looked around. The surroundings were all dark and motionless, the water still as ice.
"If that guy was just joking about all this… I'll beat the crap out of him," muttered Mochi as she flash stepped lightly across the water. The hair on Mochi's neck rose as she heard a low chuckle. She spun around. Silence. Mochi's temper suddenly flared, bringing her reiatsu up with it.
She flashed to the next 5 lotuses, slashing them through with ease. Upon reaching a particularly large one, she brought her blade up and slashed with all her strength. As Mochi swung the blade, words she had never come across in her whole life flashed in her mind. "Soragen, Hatsudo! (4)" she shouted.
Bright yellow flickers of pure electricity crackled around the sword in Mochi's hand. The moment the words left her mouth, almost like a command, the Zanpakutou transformed in her hands.
Its new shape settled as a long white katana without a cross guard and engraved with a strange pattern. The blade clashed with the lotus, sparks flying into the air. In astonishment, Mochi realised that the sword was a lot lighter in her hand, and the ease with which she flooded it with her reiatsu. There was a crack in the lotus, letting a brilliant light stream out and explode in her eyes.
The world in Mochi's eyes turned black and white simultaneously as though someone flicked a switch. As quick as it happened, colour started to flood Mochi's vision and soon the scenery before her turned beautifully into something that would belong in an art museum or perhaps, the private gallery of a man obsessed with perfection and beauty.
She was standing on a lotus pad in the middle of the lake, beside a Japanese Zen Garden. Sakura blossomed beautifully on the graceful trees, manicured lawns sprawled next to pebbled footpaths. There was a small Japanese style gazebo not far from Mochi in which Kanda Yuu sat looking at her with an amused smirk on his face.
In her hurry to get to the goddamn bastard, Mochi tripped slightly on the remains of the cracked lotus and fell forwards towards the clear, sparkling surface of the lake. Expecting the cold embrace of the water, Mochi closed her eyes and waited for the bitter coldness to hit and envelop her body.
.
.
.
Nothing. Except for a strange floating sensation. It was almost like she was in water, except she wasn't getting wet. Mochi opened her eyes cautiously. Standing up, she soon realised that even though the depth of the lake was unclear, it was only shallow. The stuff that swirled around her legs felt like water but it was the different substance, almost like a thick smoke. Something clicked in Mochi's mind and her jaw clenched as she unsheathed her Zanpakutou. He's going to die for this.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU TELL ME TO SHUNPO TO EACH GODAMN LOTUS PAD IF I DON'T EVEN GET WET IN THE WATER?!" yelled Mochi. She sped towards him and slashed with her new sharp weapon. To her horror (7), he didn't move aside and just stared towards her as her sword came down. His eyes didn't even twitch as the blade swung dangerously close.
With a crack, the blade struck his chain, splitting the strange symbol in half. The remains of the chain fell to the stone ground with a resounding clatter. There was a silence. Kanda Yuu slowly moved from his statue-like position and stared at the broken necklace at his feet. Mochi's feelings went from anger, shock, horror and then to apologetic.
"Uhh. Gomenesai... (8)" she said faltering, looking away guiltily. There was still a silence.
Sudden laughter from the samurai startled Mochi and she looked up in confusion. He laughed and laughed and laughed for about 5 minutes before looking up with a grin.
"Arigatou. I've been meaning to get rid of that," he said, recomposing himself. He picked up the remains of the necklace and threw it quickly into the lake. "That's one bad memory taken care of," he muttered quietly to himself. Turning around to look at Mochi, he smirked at her guilty expression. "Don't worry too much about it. It wasn't very valuable to me anyways."
Feeling slightly annoyed again, Mochi looked away and scowled. "I just don't like being in debt with other people. If you were meaning to get rid of it, why didn't you just take it off earlier? Instead of waiting for me to break it so crudely."
Kanda Yuu's expression turned dreamlike as though he was faraway in his own world. "I couldn't have. It's impossible..." he murmured in a sad voice. Feeling awkward, Mochi looked away and stuck her hands in her pockets to feel something sharp and pointing sticking in her hand. "Ouch!"
Kanda jerked out of his daydream. "What happened?" he asked, somewhat sadistically. Mochi yanked her hand out of her pocket quickly and examined it. There was a huge puncture with blood dripping out. "Damn I don't have a bandage with me," cursed Mochi. She was about to stop the blood with her sleeve when Kanda's slender fingers circled her wrist.
Quickly but skilfully, he wrapped a long white ribbon around and around, securing it with a tight bow. "You'd better give this back to me. I need it to tie my hair with."
"Thanks..." muttered Mochi as she snatched her hand back. So damn awkward man.
Gingerly, Mochi slid her hand in her pocket and felt the cold chain of the thing that wounded her. She pulled it out cautiously. Strangely it was rather light in her hand but heavy in her pocket, even though she didn't notice it beforehand. A chain with familiar looking metal lotuses emerged from within.
.
.
.
Hiyori. She's going to get hell from me tomorrow morning... The bloodstained spike on the one of the lotuses shone innocently in the sunlight. Mochi rubbed her eyes in mystification. Was it just her, or could the locket be somehow bigger than before? Looking up, she realised the samurai was still looking at her questioningly.
"It was a necklace my friend gave me, even though I don't wear jewellery," stated Mochi as she held it out for him to see. Kanda Yuu looked at the lotuses in a strange sort of way.
"Your friend has a strange taste in necklaces. This is actually a weapon," he said, his smile turning into a slight smirk. He took it from Mochi's hands and swung it around dangerously.
"Stop that. It might hit something." Mochi said. She took it from him and paused for a second. "On another note, I think I might give this to you since I have no need for it and I broke your...necklace." She reached up and slipped the necklace on samurai's neck. It settled on his chest with a satisfying jingle. "There. In fact it sort of suits you more than the other one you had," she said in approval. Kanda's expression turned unfathomable and a little weird.
Mochi cringed at her little action. Crap. That was way too intimate. She backed away, feeling somewhat awkward. "Well I sort of need to go and I really want some sleep so could you send me out of this place?" she asked, trying to look anywhere but his face.
"I guess I should let you go now, since you now have your zanpakutou. Just to let you know, just call me by Soragen or my name and I'll come. I'll let you go for today's training because you need some rest but we'll continue tomorrow."
Mochi looked up again saw his sad expression as he looked at her. "Sayonara, (9)" he murmured. Then everything went black.
-:-
Kanda Mochi stirred slightly in her sleep. She faintly heard Hiyori above her muttering something about surds before she rolled over and fell into a deep sleep. Beside her, Soragen shimmered slightly before changing back into its unreleased form with one small difference. Bound around its hilt was a chain with two pointed lotuses. Mochi rolled over again and knocked her Zanpakutou, making it fall to the ground with a clatter. However, that revealed something on the chain that had been when it was still lying on the bed.
One of the lotus' points was stained brown with drying blood.
A/N:
(1) I'm pretty sure it doesn't only apply to empty vessels because in Bleach, Ichigo's reiatsu was transferred into Rukia's Zanpakutou. However, it was only a temporary and very weak weapon and he had to find his own Zanpakutou in his world before he had a proper one.
(2) It basically means "You bastard".
(3) French for "On guard". Usually said before a fight. Sort of like "Beware" or "Watch out". I stole/borrowed this from Ouran. xD
(4) [空幻- Soragen] this is the name of Kanda Mochi's Zanpakutou. It can be translated into Japanese as empty illusion. Hatsudo means invocate. Not all Zanpakutous require this command to "activate". This is just my little joke and mention of DGray Man. Also, in case anyone was interested, the sword is a cross between Sasuke's chidori sword (Naruto) and Kanda Yuu's Mugen (DGray Man).
(5) Here is a reference picture of what I based Mochi's first impression of Kanda. In case noone realised, I borrowed him from Hoshino Katsura's manga/anime, DGray Man. But of course he belongs solely to her and her only. .com/albums/cc36/mishelle1990/yuukanda_
(6) A gazebo is a structure, as an open or latticework pavilion or summerhouse, built on a site that provides an attractive view of a garden etc. In this case I'm making it on a little deck so it looks like its floating in the pond. My reference picture is sort of what I mean by that.
.com/files/images/japanese_garden_.jpg
(7) Kanda Mochi only likes fighting fair matches and only threatens people with her sword when she's pissed off, not harm. (She's not that mean =.=;;) Because Kanda Yuu seemed to be such a good fighter, she expected him to fight back but his not moving made her scared that she would actually hurt him.
(8) Sorry in Japanese.
(9) Goodbye or Farewell in Japanese.