Welcome to Gaia! ::

((From the bar.))

William wandered back onto what he had named the training grounds of his Squad. He felt very much at home here, mostly because it reminded him of the fights he had had back when he was alive. Countless matches from several generations flashed before his eyes, both good and bad. He absentmindedly jabbed forward with his right, swapped feet, and jabbed with his left while he remembered the match where he had decided to train both his arms to fight equally. It had been a close call for him, only because he had attempted to hit his opponent with the wrong arm in the wrong swing. Never the less, he had won through sheer dexterity and agility.

The swords on his forearms clanked when he jabbed, and he remembered that he had not even looked at the mystic blades. He grabbed the hilt of the sword on his left hand and pulled, but the sword did not come out. The same happened when he attempted to pull out the right sword. "Why in the world give me swords when they don't even come out of their sheaths? Do you have to say a password or something?" He sighed and looked for a nice spot to relax. His eyes fell upon a large flat stone in a sea of sand next to others like it. "Perrrfect....GAH not again!" he exclaimed at the unwanted rolling of his "R" in the word "perfect". He grumbled while he laid down on the rock to relax in the sun. The world faded from his cares while he watched the clouds in the sky be pushed along by the wind.

William had been listening to one of his favorite songs that he had memorized from back on Earth when he smelled something strange. He had been smelling a lot of unusual things lately, but this smell was interesting to say the least. He nearly jumped out of his tabi when the voice spoke out behind him. "Woaw! Geezus man! Don't sneak up on me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack....well that's if I can still have one." When he saw the positive smile on the man's face, he also chuckled before he said, "I must look like a fool for jumping like that."

He paused for a moment to listen to the man about William's swords. William's eyes glanced down at the swords on his arms, "Well, I wouldn't necessarily call them swords just yet. They won't come out of their sheaths. In fact, they feel fairly solid, as if they're welded into them." He felt something on the edge of his mind, but he was torn back to reality a moment later when he looked up to the man again and said, "Forgive my rudeness, the name's William Stark and yes you could call me the newbie here. I didn't know about the bar though; I just thought that if I wasn't stopped, then it was free. I'll pay it back when I earn some of the money you use here."

He sighed after his apology and looked around idly, "So, uh, what is this place? I mean this world. Did I die and go to limbo or heaven?"

At the news of his debt having been paid, William bowed in thanks and respect, "Thank you, um....forgive me, I didn't catch your name. I'll pay you back as soon as I can." He got back up from his bow and ignored the taunt of the man. William held up one of his arms and attempted to pull the sword out of its sheath. Not even a shaking of metal against metal could be heard. With all his effort, he could not even make the metal scrape. "Nope, they don't seem to be blades at all; they seem to be more like show pieces."

He stared with annoyance at the blades before he dropped both of his arms. Immediately, there was a click and a shift in weight on William's arm that felt like something swinging down on his arm. "What the heck?" The blades had shifted down on his arm but had not come out. He clenched his fist and noticed that the pommel of the sword was exactly even with his knuckles. He examined it for a few moments before he said, "I....I don't think these swords are swords at all. They look more like....bracers with a hammer at the front if anything. Still, the scabbards and initial shape look just like gladius' back on Earth."

Something dawned on him, and he looked up to the man again, "What are these swords, or whatever they happen to be for that matter, what are they used for? Everyone I've seen wearing a black robe has one. They're not for killing are they?"

William relaxed his arms and the swords shifted back out of the way to where they had once been. He had to nod at the mention of Tonfa, but they felt different without a grip. "So he's a Sixth Seat....if I have a Captain, then this is definitely some sort of military organization." He chuckled to himself slightly, "That was some drafting I went through then."

His eyes passed over the surroundings while the man spoke, "Ah, a proper introduction then. Forgive me," he took a deep breath and bowed to Zaine. "As I said before, my name is William Stark. What I did not tell you before was that I am the new recruit for Tenth Squad. I recently died and came here wearing these robes and swords. Before I died, I was a professional fighter and earned my living that way. That is about all I can tell you professionally speaking for now." He looked around again, as if he was trying to find something to occupy his mind now that it was awake and ready to go full power. He tensed his hands to relieve some of the tension that was building up; this usually happened before a fight or when he was fully awake after relaxing.

His attention shifted back to Zaine and he said, "To tell the truth, I never met the Captain. I was hauled into the Squad as a stray...Shinigami, that had somehow 'infiltrated' Seireitei; this is of course not true, hence why I am no longer incarcerated. I know very little about this place, so I'm really green here. Thanks for the compliment but calling me a kid isn't exactly accurate; I'm roughly over two thousand years old in Earth years. I only died recently when I was distracted in a fight. Very strange death that could be considered unique; then again, I think I had lived long enough."

His mind wandered back to his death and how strange it had been before it shifted up a notch to think even faster. He had let his thought speed seep into his speech, making his sentences direct answers. He patiently awaited Zaine's response, but each second seemed to slow down to ten seconds as his adrenaline started to flow. "Gods, I need a drink..." he thought to himself.

William was fairly neutral at hearing about the Captain and Vice Captain; he thought it not his problem to care about something like that in a place he had just arrived at. William looked around while his mind wandered to the clouds again. It was a moment before he remembered the others fighting here, and he put two and two together. "I take it there's nothing much to do in the afterlife? All I've seen so far has been sparring, drinking, and from what you say about Hollow, hunting on occasion. Not that any of those three sound bad to me at all of course."

William sighed and looked down at his own hands; life had been so simple back on Earth. Now he couldn't tell which was easier: Life...or Death. "Afterlife," he reminded himself in his own mind with a wry smile. "I don't exactly know what I'll do. I guess, since I'm dead, it might be good to see whether or not my fighting skills are still like they were when I was alive. It wouldn't be good if I had to fight those Hollow things and not be able to strike as effectively as before." He began warming up to do some basic exercises for fighting to see if he still had his skill. He thought of something a moment later and said, "You wouldn't happen to want to help me with it, or do you have work which your and I need to do?"

William frowned at the man's comment of accidentally damaging him and thought to himself, "If he cannot control his strikes and swings while fighting, then I might want to watch out for this possible greenhorn's clumsiness." The wink told him that he needed to be careful while fighting the man. Looks were deceiving, and the wink had only added more to his suspicion that the man was more experienced than he let on.

With fake overconfidence, William smiled and said, "Go first? I think you just made a bad mistake." He jabbed and swung his fists in playful way but nowhere near his opponent. His heart was pumping faster and faster now, but exactly how fast it would get even he didn't know. By now his swords had locked into place beside his fists, making it easy for him to strike. He didn't want to use them for the fight unless the man used a sword or shield; his empathy level was extremely high, and he knew how bad brass knuckles hurt.

With a swift fake-out, William dodged away for less than a half a second before he swung at his opponent's face, making sure he could stop if his opponent didn't react right. He would read his opponent first, then play with him if he wasn't as good as he was hoping, and finally he'd put in some precision work to soften him to a yield. If his opponent was his better, he'd give it his all and not disrespect his superior officer with a half-assed 'I am weaker than you, so there's no point in fighting all out' attitude.

William's swings did not connect, "Just as I thought..." He had originally been only playing, but from his extremely vast experience he could tell he was at a disadvantage. On Earth he had always been the faster fighter, forgoing strength for speed. His opponent now, however, seemed able to at least keep on par with him without much effort; he was in well over his head. The man moved with an otherworldly swiftness which he could follow, but he felt like a snail as far as his own movements went.

What was holding him back? Was his mind faster than his body could keep up with? His mind registered the movements of his opponent just before they happened, but his body couldn't move as fast as he wanted. With his right hand, he deflected the brunt of the blow, but it still clipped him in the side. "Fast and powerful? Gods he's not even trying, and I can't keep up," he thought as he spun around to face his opponent after being struck. "How is it that you are so fast compared to me? I was the fastest fighter back on Earth, but here it seems like I've started all over again from the bottom." While he said this, he flexed his muscles in an attempt to make them keep up with his mind.