A Falling Star's Last Wish
C H A P T E R T W O
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
The group of fourth years of the Shinō Academy stood quietly outside a large building that was used for one purpose and one purpose only... zanpakutou training. All were giddy with restlessness. Today, they would be receiving their much wanted katana that would be with them for the rest of their shinigami career. Many had not gotten a wink of sleep the night before just to make sure they would make it on time. Many were close to an hour early. The whole day they would be spending their time in this one building. The only ones that knew how to receive a zanpakutou were sworn into secrecy.
Soon they would be given the honor of knowing.
Tale had received only one piece of advice from her two closest friends, Jinsu and Asa.
"Don't sleep any the night before."
And she didn't sleep any the night before. Her whole night, Tale would be taking to herself, telling some random story that popped into the top of her mind, or even writing them down to tell Maiko whenever she saw her old nanny again, or Asa and Jinsu.
Tale waited for the sun to rise for over ten hours, and much to her liking, it did. Although she had to wait an awfully long time. She stood in a fresh clean uniform that morning, bags under her eyes like most of the other fifty or so students, and leaned against the wall so she could stand up right. If it were to her liking, she would be asleep on her lovely futon with whatever weird dreams decided to run through her mind.
A gong sounded, startling almost all of them into full conscious. The doors slid open. No one walked out. The students at the front were a bit hesitant, not knowing what was going to happen, but took a step inside. Everyone followed, Tale lost somewhere in the middle of the small crowd.
They walked through a dimly lit hall. After a minute or so of soft whispers to friends, the shinigami in training came to two sliding doors. There was no light coming from the other side to filter through the thin paper. There were no sounds. Genki, one of the older boys of the group, took over his "role" as a leader and walked forward - the doors snapped open. He jumped back a bit; Tale gave a silent laugh under her breath.
Candle light could be seen just faintly.
"Take a seat quickly and quietly," they heard the voice of Yamamoto-sensei. Everyone quickly filtered in, finding a seat on a soft pillow; each pillow had a candle beside it. Tale sat somewhere near a wall, close to the front. Every student had a diameter of close to two and a half meters separating them from the others. Suddenly she wished Kasu and Loki were still her guards. The darkness felt eerie.
"Please follow directions as told. If done incorrectly there will be many consequences." The students stayed quiet, waiting for the first instruction. Tale tugged at a strand of her long royal purple hair, her golden eyes flashing with a bit of concern. "Close your eyes and relax, let off a small amount of reiatsu while doing so."
Tale could hear many deep breaths being taken, and the sudden feel of reiatsu filled the room. The pressure pushed on her shoulders, but she pushed back with the same amount with her own spirit energy. With her legs crossed, hands folded elegantly in her lap, and breath coming in equal amounts of calm, Tale felt the exhaustion start to take control. She fought to stay away, but something told her not to.
"Next..." She didn't hear the rest for she had already fallen asleep as the cousin of death abruptly took over her mind.
Tale felt like her soul was being pulled away from her body, yet still intact. From behind closed eyes, she could tell a light had been turned on. Her hearing was not well, almost like someone had stuffed her ears with cotton. She deeply wished to not be like this. It felt worse than having to spend all of her holidays from the academy alone. Her father was busy with noble affairs, her mother no longer looked at her like a little doll that she had once shaped perfectly, and her brother was too busy with his own friends - the sons of many nobles that came to the manor a few times a year.
"Shihōuin-san, you may open your eyes." Tale's brow furrowed slightly, having never heard the voice that talked to her. She did as it said and could only gape in awe at what she saw.
It was the academy all over again, but there weren't souls training there to become shinigami. She didn't know what to call the beings that surrounded her. She could see all of her other classmates 'waking up' from their small trance, some being more stubborn about finally getting some sleep. A hand reached out and she took it, standing up from the pillow that she had been sitting on. The spirit, dressed in an elegant outfit that she couldn't even describe, gave a small bow to the student.
"Shihōuin-san, I am Fezajuuniji, your Yaturi-sensei's zanpakutou. It is a pleasure for me to be helping you find your new friend." Tale bowed in return, amazed at all the zanpakutou spirits that were surrounding the students. They always looked happy to finally be picked. "Everyone here shall receive a Zanpakutou, no matter if the wielder or katana is pleased or not. Please, look around. You will know your Zanpakutou when you see him or her."
Tale was left alone from then on as Fezajuuniji walked off to help another confused student. She took a few steps forward, almost ambushed by a small pair of spirits that were rushing toward their wielder. Tale looked to make sure she was not in any immediate danger and walked forward to see the full room. Other students were already talking with their zanpakutou, asking for their name and such. Tale felt immediately left out when no one rushed toward her or she saw anything that caught her attention.
She panicked. The zanpakutou had said she would find her 'new friend' but where was he or she? All of the zanpakutous were different from one another, each having a unique outfit and looks, unlike the students who were wearing uniforms. Tale fiddled with her sleeve.
"Are you Shihōuin Okitetsu?" Tale spun around, seeing a young male tilt his head at her. She nodded, opening her mouth to ask her own question but it was drowned out with a squeal.
"Oki-chan, look! Isn't he adorable?" Tale's shoulders slumped slightly at the sound of one of her 'friend's' voice. Hanaru wasn't exactly what she called a friend, but whenever class called for pairs they would immediately pair up. Tale only nodded, not really wanting to do anything farther. "Aw, what's wrong Oki-chan? Haven't you found your zanpakutou yet?" Hanaru skipped up, leaning on the balls of her feet with her hands clasped behind her. The hime shook her head.
A voice sounded amongst the large group. "All students who have received their zanpakutou, will you please return to your seat to have farther instructions." Yamamoto stood at the front of the room with his zanpakutou beside him, some students amazed at what they saw. Hanaru turned away from the teacher and to her friend.
"You'll find 'em, Oki-chan. This is helping them figure out who has and hasn't!" Tale waved to her friend and watched as the room started to become less and less crowded. Soon... there were only two people left in the room. All eyes were on the two. Tale bit her lip, muttering a prayer that the other was her zanpakutou and turned to face the spirit. The atmosphere in the whole room changed for Tale at that moment.
Standing exactly five meters from her was an elegantly dressed spirit. She wore a black kimono, splashes or white here and there as if it were a night sky full of stars. A pale blue obiage could be seen poking out from underneath a slightly cream-colored yellow obi that was tied in a Darari musubi knot. The obijime, the color of navy blue, was tied securely around her waist. Almost all of the students had gone silent. In the spirits hands was a kodachi - black sheath with a hilt of the same pale yellow as the spirit's obi.
"Shihōuin-san, report back to your seat with your zanpakutou." Tale stumbled forward, surprised at the sudden speed that her zanpakutou's spirit had just moved to stand beside her.
"Come, Okitetsu-sama. We must not infuriate your sensei." The spirit gave a small bow to her wielder. Tale swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, gently taking the spirit's elbow and walking over to her seat. Now beside the soft pillow she had sat on was another. The spirit sat beside her, the lights began to dim again. As Tale took a quick glance around, there were a few pillows obviously empty. The students had not followed the directions correctly somehow. Genki was among that group. She felt slight pity for him; Genki had worked hard for his spot at top of the class.
The same directions came. "Close your eyes and relax, let off a small amount of reiatsu while doing so." Tale followed again, easily, but this time the want for sleep did not come. She felt a hand gently take her arm.
"Naitekiyo," the spirit whispered. Tale was thrown away from her body yet again. This time, the distant sounds of a festival were heard. Tale's golden eyes snapped open. She was sitting on an open grassy field. Out in the distance she could see the lights of a town that was having a festival. It was night time here; the stars were like a map of the world. She swore she could see the whole universe from that one spot.
"Is it to your liking, Okitetsu-sama?" Tale looked to her left, her zanpakutou spirit sitting beside her with her hands folded into her lap. It reminded her so much of the times her mother had taught her about the ways of nobility and how to be a proper young lady... Maybe that was who she was deep down... And Hanaru was a good looking young man deep down, too.
Tale nodded. The spirit reach to her left, picking up the kodachi she had had in her hand when Tale first saw her. She reached her left hand out, handing it off to Tale. The princess gently took it, the sheath in her right and the hilt in her left. Tale had always been left handed when it came to things.
"I am here to help you whenever needed, Okitetsu-sama. I am your friend, your protector, and your weapon. I hope we can do many things for the rest of our time together." Tale glanced up at the spirit.
"When will I learn your name?"
The spirit smiled, "When you are ready, Okitetsu-sama." The world around Tale disappeared, back into the training room that she had entered earlier that morning. Tale looked down at the flickering candle, it was almost out. She glanced around at the others, some also just now coming back from the adventure of the day, and others still stuck. Tale could feel the kodachi clutched in her left hand. She would never leave her newest, and truest, friend.
Tale stood, some of her classmates surprised that she did such a thing when Yamamoto had not said anything, and made eye contact with her sensei. Something had changed in Tale right then. She was no longer the quiet princess that had been told to follow every order she was given. She was no longer the girl with few friends and liked it that way. She was no longer the one to always stand in the back. From then on, there was no more Shihōuin Okitetsu. It was just Tale.
She turned away after a few seconds, and walked in between students to the closed sliding doors. They snapped open as she reached out to open them herself. Tale walked out of the building a new person, Jinsu and Asa both waiting with anxious smiles.
"So, how'd it go?" Asa asked, her arms crossed over her chest like they were most of the time.
Tale walked up to them, having finally grown to the same height as her friends, and grinned, "Could have been worse."
Author's Note:
I absolutely loved writing this chapter. The whole zanpakutou-have-an-academy-thing was completely made up by my cheesy-bread influenced mind. Ask me permission if you are ever going to use Ikoinō Academy - yes I named it (but I'll probably still say yes anyways. I just want to know what you're using it for. I don't bite… hard.)
Also. If you've noticed on the earlier chapters where it goes from scene to scene without a break in the page – it's because FF decided to be stupid and not put them there. There aren't any in this chapter since it's a straight scene, but I don't want people yakking at me about it. Now, who was confused on some words?
Fezajuuniji – basically means "feather of midnight"… don't ask.
Obiage, obi, obijime – basically a sash (or cord) that is tied around the person's waist over their kimono
Darari musubi knot – you'll have to look this one up; all it is, is a type of knot that the obi is tied into
Naitekiyo – literally means "Inner World"
Review for me, please? /puppy dog eyes.