It had been overcast in Soul Society for the past few weeks, and for more than a month now Yamaru found little interest in his day to day life. Since his graduation Yamaru was placed in all different classes. He had to repeat first year Kido, since he had yet to cast a successful spell. He made it to second year Hakuda, and forth year Hoho and Zanjutsu classes. His Hakuda still wasn't very good, but Hoho and Zanjutsu became boring, soon the life drained from his eyes and days blurred passed him. Though he trained and practiced all the time, it felt like majority of his classmates liked the idea of just being a Shinigami, not a good Shinigami, so he quickly lost interest in them.
"Wake up, eat, classes, eat, training, eat, shower, sleep, and repeat." Yamaru thought as he walked towards his Zanjutsu class. "Why am I even going to Zanjutsu class?" He thought, turning a corner. "Nobody wants to spar against me and the instructors have classes to teach." He let out a sigh, stopping dead in his tracks and turning around. Suddenly, he hit a mass and fell back on his butt.
"Well, I have to watch where I'm going." A man's voice commented from a few feet away.
"No, it was my fault." Yamaru said, looking at the black haired man.
"No, you were ahead of me," He protested as they stood up. "Amimono Tansuko, sixth year."
"Kireajiha Yamaru, second year." Yamaru introduced, shaking Tansuko's hand.
"So, you playing hooky?" Tansuko asked, motioning to the classroom door down the hall. "Wait, your second year? This is the fourth year hall."
"Yeah, I've lost interest in my classmates." Yamaru said. "If you're not busy I'll tell you about it. Amimono-san."
"Tansuko, my last name has too many syllables." He replied. "Can I call you Yamaru?"
"It's fine with me, come on and I'll tell you about it." Yamaru said, walking back down the hall.
The two wondered the halls for a while, talking about Academy life. Yamaru told Tansuko about his first year, the exam, and why all of his classes were messed up, while Tansuko told Yamaru about his years in the Academy. He had very low reiatsu before, and was bottom of his classes for the first year, but he was determined to graduate. He has abnormally high energy and is able to stay awake four days at a time, but requires a normal night sleep to recover his strength, which gave him time to practice and train to become better. He favored most of his time in Hakuda until his third year when he began hearing his Zanpaktou's voice. It told him to gain some experience in Hoho and Zanjutsu before it was willing to tell him its name. He spent the remained of his time rounding out his skills, but still favored Hakuda.
"So, I've become one of the best Hakuda students in my year, but my Zanpaktou still refuses to tell me his name." Tansuko said, finishing his story. The two were now sitting in the lunch area of the Academy.
"Maybe he's waiting until you can manifest a blade." Yamaru suggested. "At least you can hear yours, mines been silent this whole time."
"So, what are you gonna do about your situation?" Tansuko questioned. "You need someone to train with?"
"Yeah, but who could I ask?" Yamaru responded.
"Me." Tansuko replied, hinting to an offer. "I need someone new to train with anyways, how about it?"
"Really?" Yamaru asked in disbelief, his eyes regaining life again. "You'll train with me?"
"Sure, we're friends now, how about we go have a sparring match right now." He suggested, standing up.
"It would be an honor." Yamaru accepted, "But where should we go?"
Tansuko smirked a bit, looking to his new friend, "Follow me." He said as he led Yamaru out of the Academy.
The two walked a ways in Seireitei, the clouds began to stir and before Yamaru knew it, found himself in the middle of an open garden filled with grass.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"One of my favorite spots to get some R&R." Tansuko said, moving to the center of the garden. "You ready?" He asked, producing a pair of plain bracers from his clothes.
"Whenever you are." Yamaru replied, drawing his wooden sword.
After Tansuko strapped his bracers on, the two faced each other, ready for the first strike.
"Okay, let's see how good he really is." Yamaru said, as Tansuko charged for the first strike.
Tansuko lead with a swift punch, straight for Yamaru's chest, which Yamaru parried, pivoting around to bring his sword across Tansuko's back. Tansuko lifted his back leg up, aiming it for Yamaru's side as he began his counter, forcing him to block with his free hand quickly. Tansuko then pushed off Yamaru's hand, spinning around for a back hand strike to the head, as Yamaru instinctively roll away, turning to face his friend.
"Not bad, for a second year." Tansuko complimented, impressed by Yamaru's skill.
"You too." Yamaru returned the compliment.
They both grinned and thought to themselves, "This is going to be good."
The match went on for a half an hour, neither person able to gain the advantage, and it had begun to rain heavily. Tansuko was good, and so was Yamaru, and they kept using more and more difficult stances, techniques and strategies, trying to get that one moment of weakness.
Yamaru's smile never faded, the smile of pure enjoyment mirrored on Tansuko's face. His strikes were becoming more powerful, quicker, more precise, even though they both were out of breath.
"He going to come at me even hard this time." Yamaru thought, panting. "Faster, and with more power. I have to focus." He clutched his sword a bit tighter, sweat dripping down his face. "Control my breathing, relax my mind, and ready my senses. He will come quickly, with a Subayaiho most likely, I must track him." He focused his mind, as the surroundings began to fade and blur leaving only Tansuko in his sight. Suddenly, before Yamaru could even react, Tansuko rushed, and a fist appeared mere millimeters from his face.
Yamaru blinked, stumbling back and falling flat on his butt and let out a "Gah!", to Tansuko's surprise who was still standing in his original spot.
"You alright?" Tansuko asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just seeing things a guess." Yamaru reassured, standing back up, and getting back into his stance. "Just what the hell was that?" He wondered.
Shaking his head of unnecessary thoughts, Yamaru charged Tansuko with an over head strike. Tansuko smirked, crouching down a bit drawing an arm back, bringing the other up to block the attack. As Yamaru's sword met his arm, Tansuko jabbed his fist forward , aiming for Yamaru's gut, but Yamaru adjusted his grip on the sword to a single handed hold, pressing the other to the back of the blade and slid the sword down to block to punch with the hilt of his sword.
Tansuko flicked his wrists, seeing that Yamaru was able to block his attacks, and jabbed two fingers into Yamaru's wrists, loosening his hold long enough to bring a knee up and knock the sword out of Yamaru's hands. The sword landed behind Tansuko as he kicked forward with his elevated leg, which Yamaru blocked and ducked under the subsequent hook the followed, sweeping his leg around to trip Tansuko.
Tansuko easily jumped over Yamaru's sweep, and kicked him in the back, causing his to roll further away from his sword. "Let's see how well you can fight now." Tansuko teased as Yamaru got up to his feet.
Yamaru tried a couple of feinting techniques he learned in Hoho class, weaving and rolling trying to get pass Tansuko to his sword, but to no avail. "Of course it won't work, he's already learned this stuff." He thought. "I'm just gonna have to be faster." He slowed his breathing again, and focused on Tansuko. The surroundings blurred and faded again, leaving only Tansuko. Yamaru got into a defensive stance, readying for Tansuko's attack. "Just like in the exam, just focus as much energy into my legs as possible." He thought as Tansuko shifted his position and began a charge. Yamaru noticed that even though it was only by a fraction, Tansuko seemed to have slowed down, but he had no time to contemplate this as Tansuko used a Subayaiho to close the distance, appearing below Yamaru's vision crouched low with both hands on the ground. He propelled his legs upward, leaving his hand planted, kicking towards Yamaru's chin. Yamaru jumped straight up, as Tansuko's kick closed in, and landed on Tansuko's feet, propelling himself to his sword with a Shunpo. Standing up after retrieving his sword, Yamaru looked to Tansuko who had an expression of pure shock. "Did I just perform another Shunpo?" He thought, but then heard Tansuko ask.
"Was that Shunpo?" Disbelief rang through his voice, as Tansuko cocked his head. "Are you sure you're a second year?" The rain finally stopping.
"Pretty sure." Yamaru replied, crouching low and adjusting his hold on his sword from normal to reverse. "How about we wrap things up, before we achieve Bankai or something." He joked, huffing and gasping for air.
"You read my mind." Tansuko said, getting into an offensive stance, his legs shaking slightly.
They stared each other down for a while before Yamaru used a Subayaiho to close the gap, appearing in front of Tansuko, swinging up to strike his ribs. Tansuko jumped the moment he saw Yamaru appear, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge, and began to spin horizontally, bringing his heel down of Yamaru's collar bone as Yamaru's sword met his ribs. As the two fell from one another, Tansuko's heel caught Yamaru's necklace, ripping it from his neck, unbeknownst to either person, and as the world faded to black, Yamaru could feel his body being caught, and gently laid to the ground.
When Yamaru awoke moments later, seeing the sky clearing up, revealing the pure blue sky behind the clouds, he then noticed a young woman with grey eyes and silver hair braided on one side, was sitting bent over him, her hand glowing with a green light as she held it over his collar bone. He looked around and saw four other women and a young girl around, one with long purple braided hair was kneeling over Tansuko with a similar glow emanating from her hand. They all wore black Shihakusho, though he noticed most of them had armbands on.
"Black Shihakusho, and medical kido. You girls must be Shinigami." Yamaru said, looking back to the one treating him.
"Correct." She replied, "I am Kotetsu Isane, Vice-Captain of Squad 4."
NRawk's Notes:
So, here's to another chapter down. Thanks to everyone who is following along with the story, I'm glad that you are enjoying it. R&R.