Chapter 7: Chapter Seven: Uncertain Threats
'Where am I? Where is this place?'
As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but darkness around him. He couldn't even feel his own arms, legs or any other organ for that matter. He felt like he had been imprisoned somewhere unable to move even a muscle. A chilling emptiness surrounding him and escaping from here felt like a far-fetched thought.
He tried to speak but no words came out of his mouth. It felt as if every function of his body, even the most basic ones had been sealed away. Even trying to move a finger felt like an immense struggle on his part. Panic clawed at his chest as he tried to make sense of his surroundings.
'Someone's here!' Out of nowhere, he could pick up the sounds of approaching footsteps but unfortunately couldn't see who it was. All he could do was to wait for whoever it was to approach him. He wasn't sure if the approaching entity was someone friendly, here to rescue him or someone who harbors evil intentions and may very well be the one who locked him in this cage of nothingness.
'I need to get out of here.....somehow.' The moment he came up with the thoughts of escaping this place, the scenery around him started blurring. Vision seemed to have returned to his eyes, albeit barely, given everything still appeared blurry to him.
He could see himself, locked inside a glass chamber of sorts with someone walking up to him. He couldn't see the person's face nor make out any features. His ears on the other hand seemed to work perfectly fine as he was able to make out the words, the person uttered after pressing their hand on the glass chamber.
"I am going to make you the perfect king."
Suzaku's eyes shot open, his hand going for his zanpakuto, the moment he felt that he had regained control of his body. Much to his shock and surprise, he found himself in his room with nothing out of the ordinary.
Letting out a relieved sigh, he kept his weapon beside him. After officially becoming a shinigami, Suzaku had made a habit of keeping his zanpakuto near himself even during his sleep. The nature of their work was unpredictable and emergency situations could pop up at any point of time. There's no harm in being ready to deal with any kind of situation at any point of time.
"Nightmares are weird." Concluding that it was nothing but just a bad dream, the shinigami went back to sleep, not even bothering to give a second thought to whatever he saw in his dreams.
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The following morning, both Suzaku and Matsuri were called to the training grounds of Squad 13 by their Vice-Captain, Kaien Shiba.
The senior officer had planned for a training session for the two new recruits who have been showing exceptional performance right from their joining in various missions assigned to them. He had also taken note of their fighting prowess against the hollow and wished for them to improve themselves even further.
Hollows are beings who mostly fight relying on their instincts and are mostly considered low-intelligence creatures. But there are rare chances of encountering hollows with intelligence and fighting against them proves to be difficult, especially for the rookie-level shinigami and sometimes even for the most experienced ones if the hollow in question is a high-leveled one.
Intelligent hollows aren't the only point of concern. The cases of shinigami going rogue and even killing their own comrades for whatever motive they have had in mind wasn't new to Kaien. He had heard numerous tales regarding rogue shinigami, though had yet to encounter one for himself. As a Vice-Captain looking out for his men, and also as Suzaku's apparent guardian, he wanted to ensure that Suzaku was ready for all kinds of scenarios.
"You two ready?" Kaien asked, unsheathing his zanpakuto, suspending it in the midair where it began to revolve and glow with a golden aura. "Even if it's a training session, think like I am really coming for your heads. I will try not to hold back too much."
"Rage through the Seas and Heavens, Nejibana!" The rookie duo watched, their own zanpakutos drawn out. The katana finished transforming into a crystalline trident, with Kaien grabbing it and taking his stance, his weapon disposed horizontally behind his back.
'He wasn't kidding about not holding back.' Similar thoughts ran in the mind of the rookies, both taking their respective stances. Both of them gave each other a quick glance before Matsuri stepped back a little, having interpreted her partner's message through their brief eye contact.
Kaien took the initiative of drawing the first attack, rushing right between them using shunpo and crouched before turning around. The prongs of his weapon were aimed at Suzaku, who jumped at the very last second, thanks to his slightly better reflexes. The black-haired male jumped on the trident shifting the weight towards the other end, forcing its head to hit the ground.
"Now!" He yelled, signaling his partner for the counterattack.
Matsuri wasted no time in closing in with her zanpakuto raised high to strike down their senior officer. The latter, being the more experienced shinigami, had already seen through their tactics and wasted no time in shifting the position of his hands and moving away from Matsuri's attacking range. Holding onto the other end of his weapon with both hands, Kaien used it as a leverage to jump and land a kick on Suzaku's chest, sending him flying back and freeing his weapon at the same time.
Despite having pushed Suzaku away, he had no time to rest, given Matsuri had closed in on him and swung her sword downwards, the blade meeting with Kaien's horizontally raised trident.
'Her strength is no joke.' Kaien analyzed with an unnoticed, proud smirk on his face. Both the rookies weren't slacking off on their training and they definitely worked a lot on both their teamwork and individual techniques. 'Not only that, she purposefully attacked the heavier part of the weapon.'
The vice-captain let Matsuri win the conquest of strength by letting the left end of his weapon go downwards. He was about to use his weapon as a vertical leverage to kick away Matsuri, only for Suzaku to cover the distance between them within a short span of time to rejoin the fray, ready with his two fingers pointed towards his vice-captain.
"Hado #4: Byakurai!" Suzaku chanted, releasing a beam of concentrated electricity. Kaein kept his upper body straight and simply moved his right foot behind, making a 90 degree angle. In that way, he was perpendicular to his own weapon and also avoided getting hit by the Kido spell with practiced ease.
Returning to his original position, Kaien grabbed his weapon, this time putting more strength on the side where the trident lay and pushed Matsuri away. Despite being pushed slightly, the latter quickly countered with another downward slash, with the vice-captain blocking her attack before twirling the trident in his hands, quickly forcing her sword down on the ground.
He then swung the other end of the trident at her legs, striking her right calf, knocking her down. He twirled his weapon against his left hand to follow up with an attack. Instead of aiming it towards Matsuri though, he brought it down on the approaching Suzaku, who instinctively took a step back to dodge. The latter attempted to slash his opponent again but stopped midway when he noticed Kaien's unusually evil smirk.
"My....my bloodline! Saved.." Suzaku went pale when he took note of the fact he had literally jumped in a situation where Kaien's trident was placed right between his legs.
"I really am a good person." Matsuri grabbed her partner by the collar before tossing him away while Kaien lifted his weapon from the ground. Not intending to give any time to their vice-captain to prepare, the blonde shinigami rushed in, attacking with a barrage of powerful Kendo strikes.
The latter kept his upper body straight, twirled his weapon with both hands to block her attacks, but took a step back with each strike.
"Your strikes are getting stronger." Kaien complimented her efforts. She took the praise so well that the next strike almost made him lose his stance. He was actually struggling to keep her sword from bringing him down along with her weapon. The conquest of strength wouldn't have been much of an issue for him if he hadn't released his Shikai. But he did so in order to properly adapt himself in fighting longer battles with a heavier weapon.
"I consider each individual's fighting styles can be narrowed down into three basic factors: speed, power and technique." Kaien spun on his heels, taking Matsuri by surprise before grabbing the lower end of his trident and swung it like a baseball bat, sending the blonde shinigami flying. "What do you think mine is?"
Not giving the rookies any time to recover, Kaien darted forward with a shunpo. Matsuri rolled back after landing before immediately getting back up on her feet, only to see Kaien reappearing a short distance away from her. 'I won't be able to block or dodge in time!'
Lucky for her, Kaien wasn't the only one approaching her. Suzaku, who had recovered from his momentary trauma of nearly having his proof of masculinity taken away from him, went for a low drop kick aimed at the vice-captain's knees. Knowing that Suzaku's kick would completely cripple him, given the speed of his attack, Kaien stabbed the trident on the ground to gain leverage for a sort of cartwheel, effectively avoiding the dropkick.
"That's one dangerous move, Suzaku. I am really starting to think you want to cripple me." He spoke, lifting the trident from the ground.
"Says the one who was inches away from slicing away my dignity." Suzaku shouted with blank eyes, to which Kaien responded with an amused laugh. Grumbling under his breath, Suzaku stepped back near his partner, before whispering. "I am starting to figure out how he fights."
"Really?" Matsuri inquired, keeping an eye on their vice-captain while listening to what her partner had to say. "I can say for sure he is a power-type fighter."
"You are right about that one. There are no wasted movements. He keeps on the defensive until he can startle his opponent with pure strength before going for the killing blow." Suzaku reported before taking a short pause. "Then there's his stance where he doesn't move his upper body much. it's as if he wants to keep his movement to a bare minimum."
"I think I know why." Matsuri went on to explain to her confused partner. "You see, Nejibana is a heavy weapon. I felt it when he hit me with that. Imagine if he always fought at full throttle, he would exhaust himself in no time."
"I see that you two have figured it out." Kaien spoke up, approaching the rookies. "I used this training session to make myself more adept for longer battles using Nejibana. You two were a great help and I can see how much you two have improved. I am impressed."
"Well it's all thanks to your guidance." Matsuri replied with a polite bow.
"I am glad to see that you two are taking your training sessions seriously." Kaien smiled before taking his stance again. "Up for Round 2?"
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Few Weeks Later....
'It's rare to see everyone crowded together like this.' Suzaku kept his thoughts to himself, glancing around to see literally all the members of Squad 13 gathered around with the exception of the two highest ranking members; the captain and the vice-captain.
"Miss Miyako." Matsuri, having found out Squad 13's Third Seat amidst the crowd of members voiced her concern. "What's with the tense atmosphere?"
"There hasn't been a single hollow sighting in days." Miyako informed.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Matsuri inquired, causing the more experienced shinigami to shake her head.
"I don't care about how much we have raised our defenses or how much we are prepared for emergencies. That itself shouldn't stop hollows from appearing." Miyako further added. "The last hollow sighting was almost a month ago."
"And why do you suppose they aren't showing up?" The blonde shinigami grew concerned. Hollow appearances should be something which is natural. Them not appearing at all is what makes things concerning.
"The higher ups are pondering on a hypothesis that someone has been controlling the behavior of the Hollows for a while now." The Third Seat frowned deeply. "There's a rumor about someone like that...."
"Everyone line up!"
Before Miyako could complete her statement, Kaien's voice rang throughout the meeting hall of the 13th Division Barracks. He entered the room followed by none other than the captain of Squad 13, Jushiro Ukitake.
Jushiro was a tall man with long, white hair tied into a ponytail and a pair of green eyes. He wore the standard shinigami shihakusho, underneath a long-sleeved white haori signifying his status as a captain. The symbol of the squad was embedded on the back of the haori. He also wore a narrow white obi which secured his Zanpakuto.
'So that's our captain, Jushiro Ukitake..' Suzaku took note of how all the murmuring the room died down the moment the white-haired man entered the room. This was his first time ever since joining the division that he got to meet the captain.
Despite not being present for most of the matters related to the squad due to illness, the man was still respected by all the members of the squad.
"I am sure you all have heard about the strange behavior of the hollows recently. Looking at the past records something like this has happened before. By all indications this is a bad sign." Ukitake revealed, causing the room to be filled with whispers. "That doesn't change anything though. Protecting soul society from all kinds of dangers is the sworn duty of the Gotei and we will be doing that. I want each one of you to be prepared for battle."
'He makes it sound like we would be going to war...' Suzaku narrowed his eyes. From the tone of the captain's voice, the possibility of a war happening didn't sound that far-fetched.
"Over the course of next few days there will be lectures, conferences and joint training sessions to prepare you all for whatever we will be facing. Vice-Captain Kaien here will be giving you further details." Ukitake said before stepping back to hand over the stage to Kaien.
"Tomorrow morning will be our first joint training session. You all are to gather at the 8th division's courtyard at the same time you gather here everyday." Kaien instructed. "That is all. Dismissed!"
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