Yamaru found himself lying against a large tree as he slowly awoke. He looked around and saw that he was in the middle of a forest, pieces of blue sky pierced through the gaps in the canopy.
"Ok, so what am I suppose to do?" He asked aloud, looking around confused. Almost as if on cue, the ground began to shake and fragments of blue visible through the trees turned black. "What the…" Before he could finish is sentence, Yamaru felt as if the world flipped upside down, as he began falling towards the empty abyss. He reached out quickly, catching himself on a branch, and there he dangled for a moment as the reality of the situation sunk in.
Off to the side, Yamaru noticed a very familiar light, golden like the sun, almost as if it was signaling to him. "Well, if that's not a sign, I don't what is." Yamaru said sarcasticly. Flipping himself up onto the branch, Yamaru noticed a flash of another light behind him. Turning to see the source, he hung his jaw open, "You've got to be kidding." He said, seeing a wall of flames encroaching towards him.
Yamaru turned and began jumping from branch to branch, heading towards the only thing in this world that might comfort him, the golden light. The flame began to pick up speed, and seemed to stretch far into the horizon, like a giant snake circling its prey. "Damn it." Yamaru cursed the flames; his only hope was that the flames didn't get to the light before him.
Before long, Yamaru's hopes were shattered as the forest ended and the light in the center of the large field in front of him. He could tell the field was surround be the forest, but the light was out of jumping range, even if he used a Subayaiho.
"Well this is cliché." Yamaru sighed, staring back at the wall of flames, devouring tree after tree closing in on him. "Man in a do or die situation." He continued, jumping back to gain some running space. "His only hope is the one move he has yet to master." He lowered his voice, adding a bit of drama to his situation. Off in the distant horizon beyond the light he could see the faint glow indicating that the forest on the other side was also being engulfed in flames. He smirk confidently to himself as he took off, jumping to the edge of the tree line, focusing all his reiatsu into his leg as he jumped, reaching desperately for his saving grace as the fire swallowed the rest of the trees. "Hopefully this will save me, wouldn't that be a twist." He chuckle to himself, as he appear in front of the light reaching out.
The smile fell from his face as Yamaru realized that he hadn't been able to Shunpo, falling short of his objective. "Life sucks." He thought as he began to fall further and further from the light, as the light grew smaller and smaller, the sea of flame grew larger, closing in on the light.
"No, to hell with this." Yamaru said, reaching for the light still. "It is my power. Mine. I refuse to lose to noth…" Yamaru stopped mid-rant as he felt something in his hand. He looked to see two ribbons in his hand, one red and one white, which seemed to stretch from the light and endlessly into the abyss. Not questioning his luck, he quickly wrapped the ribbons around his arm and halted his fall, and began to climb back up to the light. The flames raced toward the light, and inches away, Yamaru reached it first, finding a white box in the center of it. The ribbons seemed to be coming out of the box as one, but split apart a couple inches out.
As Yamaru opened the box, the flames extinguished instantly, leaving no trace of ever existing and the world turned right side up again. Standing back on solid ground again, Yamaru looked into the box and found the hilt of a sword that really shouldn't be able to fit in a box that size. The pummel formed a nock where the indent ran up towards the spine of the blade, and the hilt was wrapped with blue and white cord. The guard was the most unique part of the sword, a yellow circular guard with four blue circles that intersected with the sides habaki but not each other, and two smaller blue circles at either end of the habaki. (A/N: I'll post some pictures later.) The sheathe was a dark blue, the same as the blue on the wrap and guard, and the blades hamon was shaped like isosceles triangles.
"This is…" Yamaru said, trailing off in awe of his new blade.
It's about time. A female voice said from inside Yamaru's head.
"Who said that?" Yamaru asked looking around.
The was no reply, but Yamaru felt himself being pulled up into the clear blue sky.
"That's a fine blade indeed." Yamaru heard Ukitake say as he began to regain consciousness.
"He appears to be awakening too." He heard Unohana's voice say as he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling.
Sitting up, Yamaru realized that in his right hand was the sword he drew out of the box just a little while ago.
"Congratulations, Kireajiha-kun." Ukitake said was Yamaru snapped his attention back to his surrounds.
"Ukitake-kouchou, Unohana-taicho." Yamaru began, beaming with excitement. "I materialized my own Zanpaktou!"
"As one would expect for someone who just passed their graduation exam." Unohana stated, sipping some tea.
"That was the graduation exam?" Yamaru asked. "The forest, the fire, everything?"
"Not quite." Ukitake replied. "The graduation exam merely places students into their 'inner world' so they can try and materialize a Zanpaktou. The forest you mentioned is your own; everyone has a unique inner world." He explained.
"So, does this mean what I think it means?" Yamaru asked, excitedly.
"Yes, you are now no longer a student at Shinoreijutsuin, you are a Shinigami." Ukitake said, applauding Yamaru's achievement.
"Congratulations, Yamaru-kun." Unohana said, smiling warmly.
"Thank you, both of you." Yamaru said, bowing to the two Captains. "Thank you for all the times you've treated my wounds Unohana-taicho, and thank you for giving me the freedom to grow at me own pace Ukitake-taicho."
"There's no need for thanks, Yamaru-kun." Unohana said.
"We were just doing our duties." Ukitake said humbly. "You are free for the rest of the day, and I will send word that the ceremonies will have one extra this year."
"Thank you, sir." Yamaru said, bowing again and standing; sheathing his sword and placing where his wooden sword use to be, on his left side, he walked over to the door, bowed one more time and excused himself.
NRawk's Notes:
So, this was a sort chapter, but the important thing is… ZANPAKTOUS ARE HERE!
I should have another chapter up sometime in the next few days, though I did just get my psp fixed, and I got some kingdom hearts: birth by sleep to catch up on, so I'll try to pry myself away from it long enough to give you guys something good.
Anyways, like always, I hope you enjoyed, and reviews let me know how everyone is liking, or not liking things in my story. Even though I won't change major points of the story to appeal to individual reads, I could still rework thing in my story to better appeal to everyone. So reviews please :)