Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


An aged couple waited in their finely furnished sitting room for their applicant to arrive. He was already a half-hour late to their meeting. The couple in question was part of a highly respected nobility that made a name in the fencing world and the safe transportation of cargo, so they were essentially a bodyguard and escort family. Recently, a man named Shin Kenpachi, who had been roaming the countryside with an unquenchable bloodlust, attacked one of their distinguished members at a checkpoint.

"He is late," said the old woman. Her husband nodded. The company they had contacted assured them of their agent's credibility for being on time no matter what. This tardiness was not a good display upon which this company trusted their most skilled and experienced agent with.

"Hello." A voice called out from behind the couple. They both turned to meet the eyes of their hired hitman. Suichi, a renowned name in the assassination business of its time, walked in from behind the couple and sat across their table from them. The woman glared at him with contempt and finally snarled out a complaint.

"Do you now how long we've been waiting on you, young man?" The assassin looked apathetically and responded in a flat voice

"Yes. I've been here since this morning." The couple stared at him in shock. Suichi scratched at an itch on his ear, then returned to slouching in his seat. His hair was messy and black, his eyes were half-closed and his sword was holstered around his lower back horizontally. His pants were a standard shinigami-style of pants, but he wore no sandals or shoes, just socks. On his torso was a black tank top skin suit that was held tight by his belt around his body.

"Were you stalking us this whole time, just to taunt us?" The elderly man inquired, still slightly shocked.

"No," Suichi answered, "I just didn't want to be late so I came here and waited for you to start waiting on me. I just lost track of time, is all." The couple's stare was broken as the lady reached behind her and pulled out a wooden square. In this square was the picture of the target as seen by a specially designed technique for bounty hunters and shinigami to recognize a target. She placed the square on the table and pushed it to Suichi, who grabbed it lazily and held it to his face.

"That is the man we want you to kill, and we can pay you exuberantly if you are successful." Suichi threw the picture back down on the table and stood up.

"Sorry," he began, "but I can't target this man." The couple fumed at him silently, glaring straight into his apathetic face. "My company doesn't want anybody to pursue this guy. That and I'm not in this business for the money, just to deal some punishment to the wicked people in the world. Sorry again, see ya." With that stunning remark, he walked out the door and left the estate without a trace. No guards even noticed a man entering the premises when the couple interrogated them all.

Man, that guy's trouble, Suichi thought as he walked down a busy street. I should tell the boss about this. It must be the eighteenth hit we've gotten for him this month.Shin sat next to the campfire, deeply enjoying the first feeling of warmth he had felt in far too long. The walking and training seemed to never end. Everyday he and Hoji trained their skills, meditating and sparing, discovering new techniques that could be launched at the flick of a wrist. All the while, time was taken by both to try and communicate with their swords.


Combat wasn't lax either, as various bounty hunters or self-righteous shinigami or even just some daredevil punks were waiting at every village in and out of Shin's path. So far, any progress to achieve the so-called 'Shikai' has been unsuccessful between the both of the fighters. Shin was still at a total loss as to how to adequately listen to his sword, whereas Hoji was just randomly calling out any name that he could think of in an attempt to provoke his sword.

Both of them, recently, had reached a mutual revelation that a summoning of some kind had to be called out before the name of the sword to access its full power. That was as far as either of them got to a credible discovery, and neither could hear a thing when they tried to speak with their swords. While it was just continuous training for Shin, it was maddening to Hoji, who spent most of his free time shooting holes in trees with his new techniques.

"RRRAAARGH!!" Hoji screamed. Shin perked his eyes up to see that Hoji was mindlessly punching and kicking dents in a tree. "I can't get it to work at all! Damn it all!" Shin usually didn't add to Hoji's rants, but this one peaked his curiosity.

"What can't you get to work?" Shin inquired. Hoji stumbled with his arms in the air, unaware that Shin was still awake, let alone listening to him. He turned wide-eyed to affirm that Shin was staring him down accusingly. Hoji jumped back and straightened himself out.

"My sword," he began explaining in a defeated tone, "I've been trying to jumpstart the shikai by pouring my spiritual energy into my sword, but that doesn't work. I can't hear anything when I meditate either, just white noise and wind sometimes." He stopped and looked at Shin expectantly.

"Yeah," Shin said, "I usually hear the same thing. That in mind," he pulled his sword up to his face, eyeing the hilt's black wrapping soulfully, "maybe we should concentrate on the common aspects of our meditating and see where that takes us. The wind, most preferably." Hoji nodded and yawned. It was late and sleep was a rare commodity they had both gone without for quite a while.

"Enough training for today, I suppose," a weary Shin said as he lay down with his sword on his chest. "Time to sleep once again." Hoji followed with an affirmative yawning grunt and nearly fell over to the ground. The night pressed on with silence as the two monsters slept and dreamed unaware of just what the morning would bring to them.


You again!

yes…

Where are you?

where I've always been…

Who are you?

you…

You? Me? What does that mean?

you're close…but…he is…

What?

Are you still there?

Shikei

What? What's that? Wait, are you my--

no…he is…

WHO?

The greatest fighter…shikei…spread the word…

Hoji awoke from his cryptic darkness with a start. His head jumped up ahead of his body and he pulled a muscle in his neck. He looked over to the peacefully sleeping man across from the dying fire, the greatest fighter he knew of, and wondered aloud.

"Shikei…" He stared at the sky for only a moment longer, then drifted back off to sleep in hopes of dreaming once again.