Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rei gave off a gruff huff as he treaded the path back to the Dormitories, not satisfied with how long it took to catch Hiren. "Something....about her...." He thought in a strung-out manner as he side-stepped a cracked tile and went around, welcoming the breeze that commanded the sway of his clothing. "Shes....so strong.........I hope I see her again.." The boy murmured to himself as he paused in the middle of the way, all alone, save the voice of the wind grazing and caressing his body with a level of gentleness, that equaled a mother embracing her son, only cooler. ".....I want more power......like the other woman's Bankai......Bankai.....I want that...but first.." Rei would swing his sheathed Zanpaktou, cutting the air next to him. "I need.....to get stronger." He murmured once again. The boy began walking again until the Dormitory was within' his range of sight. The hanging lamps still welcomed those who made the place their home, even though it was daylight.

Rei looked to the sky and shut his eyes as a bit of the cloth from the collar of his uniform padded across part of his face and seemed to trace the barbed wire scar around his neck, raising a bit of uneasiness within' him as the memory of how he got that dominated all of his thoughts. With a shake of his head he proceeded to his room. "..260" He stalled for a moment, noticing he was the first to get there, the feeling of uncaring filled him soon as the scent of his incense smoldering on its burner filled his nostrils, assaulting him through a tiny crack where he had brushed against the door and opened it slightly. Rei shut his eyes and let the breeze and the smell, along with the darkness dominate his sence of smell, feel, hearing, and sight. He felt nigh weightless as the sensation took hold and he drifted backwards and leaned on the banister, Zanpaktou still in hand, but with a loose grip.

Ethan walked slowly towards his dorm, surrounded by other people who had finished the tag challenge before he had. He was glad that he had finally caught Hiren, but was disappointed that it hadn't happened earlier. Exhaling heavily, Ethan soon found himself staring at his dorm room door, room 490. He didn't really realize how tired he was until he undressed and got into his night clothes. Usually Ethan would have gotten up and chatted with the other people, but he still hadn't gotten used to the rigorous training and he was tired, ready to go to bed. He wrote a little in his journal, and then fell asleep, entering his dream world.

Kaosu was pissed. And it wasn't any ordinary 'the day sucked' kind of angry. He had completely and totally screwed the lesson up. For once, he felt like he was on the bottom of the food chain. Objects along the way to the dormitories got to feel that pain as well. Kaosu kicked every stone, punched every tree or light post, and finally smacked the walls when he reached the dormitories.

Easily locating room 200, right out of the stairwell, he slid the door open with a fury and closed it just as huffily. He kicked his bed before sitting on the edge; taking off his zanpakuto belt and then the rest of his academy garb, throwing it at the same wall he always did.

"Gah, so pathetic." He groaned, laying down on his cot, looking out his window at the stars. "I guess tomorrow I'll have to work on something.

He drifted off to sleep, not caring whether or not the tiger would visit him or not. Hopefully, he wouldn't. He was too angry to try and calm down.

When Masaru arrived back at the dormitories, he didn't go straight to his room like most of the others were. Instead, he wandered around the complex, walking with his hands tucked into the openings of his pants on his hips. He passed the others, noting their physical exhaustion and their longing for their beds. He was not tired in the slightest, his thoughts keeping his mind off his needed slumber.

As he walked, he went over the exercise in his memory. Near the beginning, he had tried to focus all of the reiatsu he possibly could into his tag attempts, but they soon proved to be ineffective. As he moved on, and other students moved out, his limited reiatsu began to dwindle, but he continued to call on the non-existent power. This, combined with a constant loss of stamina was the cause of his decrease in speed. That combination would total to his failure in the lesson, having had to have the teacher slow down so much she would have been better off walking. Of course it was embarrassing, as the other students in the same situation showed in their gloomy appearances heading to their dormitories. But not Masaru. Not tonight.

The night before, he spent a lot of time kicking himself over his failed zanjutsu class. He felt now that he still carried a bit if that negative energy with him to the hohou lesson, and it dragged him down; the thought of failing again. And just thinking of it made it happen. And right now, it would only make things worse if he slept on bad thoughts. So, there he was, walking around letting off steam. He thought about stopping one of the students and trying to strike up a conversation, and maybe help them take their mind off of the lesson, but he wasn't sure if anyone wanted to talk to anyone else at this point, so he just kept to himself.

Rei would straighten up as Kaosu shut his door down the way with great anger, the wind greeted Rei once again in what could have been an attempt to keep him at peace. "It hit him harder than the others.....Still...he has my respect for being able to do all that he can...I want to be able to fight on par with someone like that...." The boy grimaced as an odd feeling ran over him momentarily. He quickly discarded the feeling, wanting his peace once again. "Hm?" He muttered as the lower light of the sun setting caught his eye, it had set a bit, but not by too much. "...every...time... this sight always catches me in awe and rapture...." The voice in his head had not been heard from for some time, which almost worried Rei because he didn't know what it was doing. With that thought, not even the wind caressing and hugging his form could put him at complete ease.

Rei gave a sort of frown when he heard something which drew his attention close to the middle of the Dorms. He glanced downwards at Daisuke as he wrote, but turned and crossed his arms. The boy went into a lean on the wooden banister again, pressing the handle of his Zanpaktou against his face. Due to the fact that there were a larger number of students around from just moments ago, not even the incense that smoldered and crept around his head could keep him from throwing up a small guard. "...people...in one life...or the next........I hate them..." Rei spoke the last piece in his mind and then turned to hop onto the banister, grab the edge of the overhang of the roof, and flip up ontop of the plated roof, treading slowly to the top to take a seat of the bent knee kind, clutching his Zanpaktou close to his body as his gaze wandered to the view all around him. He was a poor sight this boy, he had been hurt so much, and didn't seem to want a friend, troubling indeed.

Masaru stood in a black void, nothing above him, below him, or to his sides. When he turned around, he spotted a very vibrant Shinto gate. It's red-orange color popped in the darkness of this place, and also since it was the only thing around. He cautiously approached it, examining it with a strong curiosity. He thought he was dreaming, but it felt too real to be a dream. As he reached the gate, he looked up at it. It was pretty tall, and after inspecting it, it seemed real sturdy as well. He finally took a deep breath, and walked through the gate, hoping that something would appear before him, but he still remained in the black void. He walked onward a bit before looking over his shoulder, seeing the gate still there. When he turned back around, he saw a large structure. He blinked a bit before rubbing his eyes and taking another look. It definitely had to be a dream at the rate things appeared out of nowhere. He took another deep breath and entered the main hall.

Inside, it was very spacious, the walls spreading very far apart from each other. Along them, candles flared, emitting light into the dark room. The wooden floor was empty, from the entrance to the back, nothing was standing. But towards the back wall, which stood far away, a large group of candles stood around what looked like a human figure. He began to walk along the floor heading for the back, his large feet thudding the wood beneath him. As he got closer, the figure began to take shape. It began to look like a sitting figure. A figure with an odd helmet on. A figure in full armor. Finally, he arrived, and looked upon a suit of empty samurai armor, perched in a sitting position. Masaru sighed in disappointment, hoping to find some sort of person or spirit to tell him what was going on. He turned his back on the perchment, and began to leave.

"Where are you going?"

A booming voice echoed through the hall, and caught Masaru off guard. He stopped dead in his tracks, and looked around a bit, again noting the emptiness. He slowly turned around and looked at the armor. It couldn't have been... he thought to himself, but his thought were soon interrupted.

"Why not? Do you even know who I am?"

Masaru contined to stare at the armor, wondering how this was all possible. He then remembered placing the zanpakuto across his legs, and realized that he must have connected with the soul of the sword prematurely. As he thought, the empty armor soon began to move, as if someone was inside of it, but he could clearly see that it was unoccupied. As it finally stood, it attained glowing red eyes behind the mask it wore. As it did, it spoke the words that confirmed Masaru's beliefs, and pointed to the sword on his hip.

"I am the soul of your zanpakuto."

The soul lowered it's arms, holding the zanpakuto to it's side. It's glowing eyes seemed to narrow at the statement. It's gloved hand seemed to rub the chin of the mask hovering under the helmet it wore, going over the thought in it's head.

"You've done well to seek me out this early, you must have some promise. Very well."

With that, it held the sheathed sword up in front of him, holding it with both hands. Suddenly, from behind it's back, four additional arms shot out and stretched into the air. All four reached towards the soul, and seemingly from thin air, all drew blades simimar in appearance to the zanpakuto. The last arms held the original and the sheath. Before his eyes, the arms began to move quickly, shifting the swords from hand to hand. Masaru tried to watch any of the swords, but the hands were moving way too fast to track but one. Finally, it stopped, still holding five swords and a sheath. It held the sheath first in it's middle left hand, but it was now in it's bottom right hand.

"Now, with your sword, disarm me of the real zanpakuto, and I will tell you my name."

Masaru thought for a second. I don't have a sword anymore... But he grew accustomed to this world, and sure enough in his right hand, a plain looking zanpakuto was in his hand. It was much smaller than his, and it seemed a lot weaker than his zanpakuto, like he was about to break it in his hand. But without an explanation of this new sword, the soul began to attack with all five swords. A strike would come from the bottom, and Masaru would block it, but he had to be quick and throw his arms up to block a high strike. But this was all happening so fast, it was hard to keep up. It soon showed as Masaru was taking giant steps backwards, retreating from the strikes. Finally, he tripped on himself, and while blocking a powerful strike, he fell on his back. He threw his arms out to the sides to break his fall, and the sould took advantage of the opening. It placed it's foot on Masaru's chest and pointed all five swords at various vital points on his body. Masaru was breathing very heavily, but the soul back off. It slowly sheathed the four zanpakuto into the air in front of the sheath, and sheathed the real zanpakuto, which was in his bottom left hand.

"I was wrong to think you had some promise at this point." As he spoke, the four arms began to return to their position behind his back, and his right hand extended out towards him. He sensed defeat, and spoke up.

"Wait!" he spoke up loudly, and the soul hesitated a bit. He slowly began to rise, breathing heavily. "My strength... it's not with a sword... not yet... it's with my hands."