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 Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:19 pm
Kaisho waited patiently for his Captain to arrive in the Squad 7 barracks, he felt rather nervous as to what he had been summoned for. He had no idea what he could have been asked to meet him for, but it must have been something important. It is rare for Bullene to personally meet up with his subordinates privately, or at least, that was how Kaisho perceived it. He fumbled ideas around his head, thinking about what he could be summoned for.
"Could it be Hakuda training?" Kaisho pondered, muttering quietly to himself. He began to pace around the site Bullene asked Kaisho to meet him at. "No... the last training sessions for that are over now, and I had not asked for any hand-to-hand training."
His clog sandals patting the grass gently, as he paced back and forth in deep thought. "Or is it special orders?" Kaisho spoke again, tapping as his chin. "We haven't had a Lieutenant for quite some time, so he may want me to perform some lieutenant duties. Hmmm, no... I've only just been given the third seat rank. He'd see it as too soon..."
On that though, Kaisho sat on the ground with his head slumped looking at the parting between his folded legs. As the second current member of the squad with Shikai, the first being Captain Katsurou, Kaisho would have almost guaranteed that Bob had a place as Lieutenant. Unfortunately, Kaisho heard of news that Bob had been demoted to Eighth Seat. His pride divided into an equal sense of guilt, feeling that Bob should, at least, rank higher than himself.
Suddenly a thought occured to him and he pulled the cord on the tied attached to his scabbard, loosening his Zanpakuto, before bringing it into his view. Kaisho examined the wakizashi in front of him, and with a narrow smile upon his face, began to understand why he had been summoned. He slowly got up and waited patiently once more.
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:34 pm
Without warning, a rush of wind was accompanied by a swift thud. Standing above the crumpled body of his 3rd Seat, Squad Seven Captain Bullene Katsurou dropped his fist. Bull clenched his teeth as he looked down on his squad member. "I don't think I should have hit him that hard..." He mumbled. "Maybe he'll get some good out of it." He sat down and began to meditate while he waited for Kaisho to stand again. Squad 7 Captain
Bullene Katsurou
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:31 pm
With a thud, Kaisho began to lose consciousness. It was unexpected, and the shock of it kept him conscious for long enough to see that it was his Captain, Bullene Katsurou, who had initiated the thud. The pain rippled through his body, and as his eyes closed and his consciousness fell with it, the last thought in his mind was that of an unspoken response. ‘Damn it, that hit was a bit extreme, Captain...’ he though, as everything descended into darkness. The next memory to come to him was that of waking up, the pain still ringing through him as he regained consciousness. However, Kaisho found himself lying in a thick bed of snow and while slowly picking himself up from it, he squinted at the pale surroundings.
The evening threw a cover of white over the landscape under it, bringing thick snow to the whole world. Though only shallow, it spread for miles upon miles, and everything in its wake stood glazed in frost, be it a grand oak tree or a short blade of grass. Now and again, the wind would brush past, bringing with it a spray of kicked up snow across the air. The dusk sky was awash with mist-like silver clouds, which seemed to pass into one another as they passed through the sky. Strangely, the trees were not bare of leave, and they were strong and healthy, suggesting that the soil underneath had almost magical properties. In the twilight horizon, there was a single full moon sitting high, shining in a silver glow, majestic and awe-inspiring to gaze upon.
{{ Post 1 of 10 }}
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Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:33 pm
“Is this a dream?” Kaisho said to himself, gazing around at the breathtaking world around him, noticing two major differences to the place he found himself in, compared to Soul Society. Firstly, it was daylight in Soul Society, while this place was set in late evening. Secondly, a winter like this had not descended upon Soul Society either, and there were no signs of even a hint of wintry weather sweeping across it, let alone in such depth. In order to find answers, Kaisho decided to walk around, brushing himself clean of the snowflakes that littered his shinigami uniform and teal cape.
Kaisho walked along the snow leisurely, taking in the magnificent scene around him. His clog sandals made heavy slatted imprints in the snow, but kept his feet from sinking into the snow. Despite its cold and unforgiving atmosphere, the sight was just beautiful. This was the epitome of winter at its purest, and Kaisho wandered these lands with a feeling of immense pleasure, embracing the cold like it was part of him. He passed a trickling stream, surrounded by a cluster of trees and stopped. The stream was iced over, but there were parts of the stream which had what seemed to be potholes in the icy layer, as if something had broken it.
Where Kaisho had stopped, a lone grey horse stood over the stream, sipping from a pothole it had made, in a lazy fashion. The horse was lean, but its body was encased in extremely strong defined muscle from its neck to its hindquarters. It had a dapple grey look to it, with an icy blue mane and tail. The mane was separated into a set of six bunches, each of which had a small silver ring attached to the end. The tail however, had no ring attached to it. On the horses head, the silver facial marking resembling a crescent moon sits between its eyes. Its eyes were cobalt blue. {{ Post 2 of 10 }}
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 12:53 pm
“Kaisho...” The horse said in a deep tone, a reiterating ripple of sound filling the air. Kaisho jumped back in shock, “You... You can talk? Just what are you?”
The horse began to walk around the partly frozen stream and edged close to Kaisho with stride upon stride of imposing grace. The ringlets attached to its mane jingled softly as they clapped against the horses neck. For a strange reason, Kaisho felt as though he knew this horse, but he had never seen it before in his life. The two of them were walking now, meeting just two feet away from one another. As Kaisho and the horse stared into each other’s eyes, the answers became clear to him, and he smiled. “You managed to figure out what I am.” The horse spoke again, to which Kaisho replied, “Yes. You are my Zanpakuto spirit.”
Kaisho broke his gaze long enough to look around at the scenery once more, understanding quickly that this place must be his inner world. A feeling of relief and great happiness washed through his body, and Kaisho looked back at his Zanpakuto. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” Kaisho said politely, bowing slightly. “So, what is your name?” He added with a smile. His Zanpakuto snorted, rather disgusted at such a question. “That, Kaisho Fuyuki, is something I cannot tell you on a whim...” The horse said, turning away.
{{ 3/10 }}
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Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:52 pm
Kaisho felt bewildered by this, since he thought that if he met with his Zanpakuto and asked for its name, that he would immediately find out and be granted access to the powers of his latent entity. However, he soon realised that this was never the case, and that he would have to prove himself in one way or another. “So what must I do?” Kaisho snapped, hoping that his Zanpakuto would stop. “I know I must earn your respect, much in the way of a horseman must earn the trust of his steed before he can ride it.” He added, remembering glimpses of his past life as a human, and that of how he used to own a horse of his own. His Zanpakuto turned, rather surprised that Kaisho had spoken with such wisdom for such a young soul. “It seems you have experienced this before...” he said calmly, yet inquisitively. Kaisho nodded, “It’s a faint memory, but I... used to have a horse of my own. Before I died and came to Soul Society, that is.”
Kaisho’s Zanpakuto spirit stood still for a moment, moving towards him a few steps before stopping again. It seemed as though the spirit was showing a willingness to trust Kaisho, despite wanting Kaisho to prove his worth. The horse looked away, over to the wide white scenery. Curiously, Kaisho looked over, and to his astonishment, saw that at least a thousand blocks of ice. “One of those ice blocks has my name carved upon it. It is your job to find it and pierce it with your sealed sword.” The horse said clearly. Kaisho went to pull his wakizashi in preparation, but it was not there. The spirit flared his nostrils, snorting again in the form of a sigh. “Your sealed sword, after I have finished explaining the task, will be me... Kaisho.” The horse explained.
Kaisho blushed, “Sorry, hehehe, I guess I didn’t think of that.”
For a moment, there was a pause, until everything that had been said was taken on board. “So, what will happen if I pierce it and it is the correct name?” Kaisho asked, raising a brow. The horse answered honestly, “A flash of reiatsu will obscure your vision for a few moments, whether you pierce the right one or not. If it is the correct one, I will be released from the wakiazahi, and we’ll commence the next test.”
“And if it’s the wrong name?” Kaisho asked hesitantly. The Zanpakuto spirit looked into his eyes, a cold stare emanating from their cobalt gaze. “You’ll regain consciousness, without any recollection of seeing me or this inner world, and I won’t let you back here until I think you are worthy.”
All fell eerily silent once more and Kaisho’s eyes grew wide in disarray. It felt like an eternity before either of them breathed, let alone spoke. “I see...” Kaisho mumbled, the only words he could muster.
“Remember one thing before I become your wakizashi...” The spirit told him, “Remember this face.”
Kaisho asked why in his head as he stared, half because he was told to, but half because he understood that it served a purpose. With a blink of his eye, his Zanpakuto spirit sealed itself away and became the wakizashi that Kaisho was all too familiar with. He yanked the blade from the snowy ground, and proceeded to the pasture of ice blocks. {{ Post 4 of 10 }}
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:08 am
“Remember this face.” He reiterated in his mind as he approached the icy site. The vision he was seemed blurred, probably because he had no fixed place to look to remember a particular feature. Kaisho entered the pasture nervously, the sea of ice blocks filling his wide eyes. The daunting task began to sink in, many names etched upon the blocks and just one chance at making the right decision, Kaisho could be sure that he would have to think long and hard about his choice. He peered at each one, looking closely at the names and thinking of how they relate to his Zanpakuto spirit and this inner world. However, for some unearthly reason, none of them felt right.
Kaisho slammed his fist upon one of them, frustrated at the task. “How in the world am I supposed to be able to to find the right name in all of this.” He roared, sitting down in deep thought. He must have looked at well over one hundred names by now, and nothing about the spirit’s appearence stood out as something he had seen while looking around. In the end, he rose to his feet and had another walk around, remembering the numerous details of the face and body.
{{ Post 5 of 10. }}
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:21 pm
Hours had past, and the task was now beginning to wear Kaisho’s morale down. He was sure he had looked at every single ice block within the area, and nothing had remotely resembled any of the featured Kaisho could remember. He noticed that almost every single block had a name on them, but there were a few that did not, which he found odd. Suddenly, Kaisho realised that maybe he had to remember them so that he could somehow manifest those features. It made sense to him, since out of so many he had to choose only one, he would need at least some way of whittling the number of choices down. Kaisho stood back from the pasture of a thousand ice blocks, and closed his eyes. A plan he hoped proved successful set his mind to work, and he began to remember all of the details of his Zanpakuto one by one. He began to say each of them out loud.
“Cobalt eyes.”
“Long Mane and Tail.”
“Six Silver ringlets.”
“Dapple Gray skin.”
“Cresent Moon Facial Marking.”
As Kaisho opened his eyes, all of the important details he rememberd became visible, and the rest of the named ice pillars disappeared completely. Of the details he described, the six ringlets and the facial marking remained, and were either etched or imbedded within the clear chunks of ice. However, there were still no names upon the seven blocks, which worried Kaisho a little. His mind flashed back to the last words said to him, and with a smile he walked over to one of the marked blocks of ice. It was the one with the facial marking upon it, and after staring nervously at it for a long time he sighed.
“I finally think I figured it out.” He remarked, continuing in depth. “I thought, at first, that you wanted me to choose a name. That would just be a silly way of disproving my luck more than proving my worth, which in itself would have proved my own lack of worth, whether the name was correct or not. No, you wanted me to prove myself by proving I had the patience to figure out what to do, and now I figured it out. Now all I have left to do is put my faith in you showing the name to me when I pierce this block.”
Kaisho threw his arm high into the air, coming down on the top of the ice with the tip of his blade and driving through it cleanly. His heart thumped hard as he felt sword sank through it, and doubled in pace as a blue aura burned onto the ice, spelling out the name of his Zanpakuto in Kanji. However, before he could speak his zanpakuto’s name, the whole block of ice, and those around them shatter in a glorious wash of cold, artic blue light energy. The only noise Kaisho could hear was the faint and fleeting sound of jingling metal. What was to be his outcome?
{{ Post 6 of 10. I'll do post 7 when I'm done, but I'll carry on through 'til the end and break it up into the last 3 parts. }}
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Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:10 pm
“Where am I now?” Kaisho muttered to himself, the flash of light taking almost an eternity to fade. Eventually, after many a second went by, Kaisho’s vision traced to a silhouette in front of him. It was still, and the shape was still unclear, so he squinted a little harder than before and lurched his head slightly forward. As his vision improved and the light faded completely, he could see that he was still in his inner world, with his Zanpakuto spirit standing strong in front of him. “So, I guess I passed the first test?” Kaisho grinned, his spirit nodding back in reply.
“All right then.” Kaisho said with glee, rubbing his hand together expectantly. He then pulled his wakizashi around to his eyes and looked at it for a moment. “Now if I just call out your name, this will release, correct?” Kaisho asked as he examined his Zanpakuto, which had mysteriously reappeared. He was not very sure on how he knew it had returned to him either, which confused him a little, but only for a moment. His Zanpakuto spirit shook its head, “No, you have yet to know the release command. Without that, you cannot summon me in weapon form.”
Kaisho looked up in surprise from his wakizashi. “What!?” He yelped, a frown creasing his forehead. He suddenly remembered that he that yet to take the next test. But what was the next test? How did it have significance to the release command? Kaisho’s questions were neverending, and grew by the second. He just had to focus on the next task and hopefully succeed, as he had a feeling that the same conditions applied from the first task if he were to fail. {{ Post 7 of 10. Next time I post it'll be the last remaining parts, 8 through 10. }}
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:28 pm
“So let me get this straight... You want me to figure out your release command now? And I assume I only have one shot at making it work?” Kaisho presumed, but his remark met another shake of the head. His zanpkuto spirit stated, “You can have as many tries as you can to guess it, but while you are thinking of it, I shall be fighting you. And if I defeat you before you can correctly guess it, you will return to consciousness with no recollection of any events that have occured.”
Kaisho stared blankly at his zanpakuto spirit for quite some time. In the end, he rolled his eyes with a sarastic remark to follow. “Perfect. Well, I best get my thinking cap on again. In your own time.”
Kaisho regretted his last for words, as his Zanpakuto spirit reared up with a piercing neigh. Its remarkable reiatsu froze Kaisho in place, a shockwave of energy from the horse spirit glazed parts of his body in a thin sheet of ice. It was an uncomfortable sensation, which forced the Shinigami to shake the frost from his clothing and face. The horse then swung its neck back, and sharply swung forward down onto its forelimbs. The action created a huge crescent wave of energy to form from the glowing mane that trailed behind, and with it aimed directly for him at speed, Kaisho had to move away. He did not want to receive a hit from any attacks, or even initiate one of his own. His main aim was to see what his Zanpakuto could do first, then figure out how to counter.
Nimbly he moved away from the attack, which ripped through the snowy grass. It made a fissure roughly six inches wide, a foot deep and stretched for at least thirty or so metres before it lost it dissipated. Kaisho let out a short whistle as he looked at the aftermath, impressed by the force behind it. However, he found himself having to dodge another one, but this time his Zanpakuto spirit was ready. The horse charged, and within no time at all it was right on top of Kaisho, leaving him no time to evade again. With a strong flick of its head, the horse sent Kaisho flying back, winding him in the process. As Kaisho hit the soft snow beneath his falling body, he clutched his chest, grunting in pain as he struggled for breath.
“Kaisho, I have not heard you attempt to release my weapon form yet.” His spirit stated firmly, almost agitated. Kaisho, meanwhile, stood up and stared in silence. ‘What was with the rearing up?’ Kaisho thought, coughing as he took a deep breath. ‘The reiatsu flared up as he did so... that has to be it.’ He deduced, flicking his wakizashi from its reversed grip into the standard weapon grip, whilst still maintaining the blade in his left hand. He rose his wakizashi up vertically, smiling as he did so. “Rear Proudly...” Kaisho said, thinking that this was the command. However, the wakizashi failed to respond, which placed Kaisho in a state of disbelieve. Without a moment to let him gather his composure, his zanpakuto spirit attacked with another wave of ice energy, forcing Kaisho to use insticts alone to dodge.
{{ Post 8 of 10. }}
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:30 pm
Fortunately, Kaisho evaded the attack due to his keen reflexes, but did not come away unscathed. A stinging cut on his left forearm opened up, and quickly began to freeze over. “What’s this!?” He winced, clutching at the frozen over wound. The stinging intensified, the pain receptors around the cut overloaded with not only recognising a wound was present, but a massive drop in temperature surrounding it. “Now normally an open wound like this would not bother me in the slightest. The fact that your cold energy wave creates intense cold on any wounds it inflicts, makes even a superficial cut like this one distractingly painful.” Kaisho said, commending the ability of his zanpakuto. “Just spend your thinking on dodging my attacks long enough to figure out my name.” The horse spirit retorted bluntly, flashing another wave of energy at Kaisho before charging forward.
“Dodge long enough to figure out your name?” Kaisho said with a smirk, watching the oncoming attack. “I can do more than dodge.”
Kaisho decided to prove this, placing the index and middle finger on his right hand together and raising it at the energy wave. With reiatsu building up into a spherical point an inch or two away from his fingers, stated the Hado #4, byakurai, as he released the energy within the sphere as one controlled, concentrated bolt. The mixture of energies caused an explosion about halfway between Kaisho and his zanpakuto, and while Kaisho waited, the dapple gray horse charged, but this time at a much heightened pace. Barely able to trace its movements, Kaisho turned and slashed across his body to his right, but by then his zanpakuto had halted its offence and back peddled away from the attack. Kaisho rushed quickly to thrust the wakizashi, but the horse was too fast. He tried to perform Hainawa on his zanpakuto’s legs, but the energy rope could not snare it.
Turning quickly from evasion to attack, the horse charged at Kaisho again, this time with its mane flaring wildly around and reiatsu filling the air in vast amounts. Kaisho responded in kind, pushing his own reiatsu to its fullest and charging in with his wakizashi ready to strike. Both met with a resounding crash, Kaisho managing to cut into something solid. On closer inspection, it seemed to be a chunk of ice that looked like it had come from either his zanpakuto’s mane or tail, he could not tell which from such close range. As they moved away and back into offence again, Kaisho realised that it came from one of the six partings on the mane. He also noticed the sharp point on the end of the icy structure, much like a lance or spear, but seemed to be able to twist and turn as though it was somewhat fluid. The pair stuck at one another again, but this time as they separated, the horse unleashed all of the six tassels on Kaisho at once.
{{ Post 9 of 10. }}
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:31 pm
“It’s clear you want a long range battle.” Kaisho stated, trying his best to parry and evade the lance-like glaciers bombarding him. For a few seconds at least, he managed to fend them off and avoid them, but soon they began to inflict scratches, which brought about the added effect of being injured by this zanapkuto’s attacks. “Hado #4, Byakurai!” Kaisho announced, shooting a distracting blow at the horse, who had been stationary. However, the equine zanpakuto moved quickly to a new location and resumed its attacks. By now Kaisho was covered in cuts, and the pain was intensified by the bitter cold freezing over them. He distracted his zanpakuto by firing repeated bolts of white lightning, and now and again tried to move in close to slash, only for his zanpakuto to swiftly move away and fire off its twisting icy spikes again.
As he tried to outrun the spikes, a flashback of how his zanpakuto moved came to mind. During every high speed movement, the distinct sound of three beats could be heard. Now, from a distance he could not properly hear them, due to the snow underfoot muffling. However, up close he could hear them for a moment before they faded, since his zanpakuto could cover a huge gap of space in almost no time at all. He felt that he may have stumbled upon the correct command, but waited for the right time to say it. Suddenly Kaisho gathered reishi under his feet and used it to ascend into the air.
“Disintegrate you black dog of Rondanini, look upon yourself with horror and claw out your own throat. Bakudo #9, Geki!” Kaisho announced whilst ascending, turning as he finished the incantation.
The spell engulfing his Zanpakuto spirit in a red aura, restricting the movements of his onslaught before the horse could drive the piercing frozen spikes through his body. Geki was stonger than before, Kaisho using most of the reiatsu on a Kido spell he used most frequently in sparring and battle. Even he was surprised with how effective it had become, since he had almost completely prevented movement of his Zanpakuto. He did realise, however, that his Zanpakuto could break free if it exerted even a touch more reiatsu. Kaisho had almost reached his limits. Kaisho stared at the horse below, and somehow he knew. The test was over.
It was the eyes. Kaisho could tell, just by how his zanpakuto looked at him, that he already knew that the Shinigami had discovered the command. Kaisho stood amid the twilight sky, and a happy smile curled his lips. “There is no longer a need to carry on, is there, Kaisho? You know my name, and now you know the correct command to release me.” The horse said, its voice echoing throughout the inner world much as it did the first time. Kaisho took his time to answer, savouring the silence and the feeling of achievement. “I do, yet I do not wish to be rude and not ask it.” Kaisho humbly responded. As Geki dispelled, the horse slowly withdrew its attack, waiting expectantly for Kaisho to descend from his spot in the sky.
“Who are you?” Kaisho inquired softly and politely.
His Zanpakuto responded with equal decorum. “I am, Kangetsu.”
With that, the inner world around them began to glow as Kaisho returned to consciousness. He had fulfilled what he had come here for, and as he parted ways with Kangetsu, he already became overwhelmed with the excitement of their next meeting.
{{ Post 10 of 10. Finito! }}
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