Young Writers Society

Ch 6 - Let the Battle Begin

It was silent in the office for a few seconds before Ookami and I began laughing nervously. “What are you talking about?” Ookami said between laughs. I looked back at the head captains face and my laughs immediately died in my throat. He was serious. Ookami also stopped and looked down at his feet, but I knew better to not show weakness and continued to stare him straight in the face, my hands clasped behind my back to make sure I didn’t slouch. He stared back at me and, to my shock, a small smile graced his lips. “Do not worry. I have not told anyone else and I believe you are not spies of Aizen.”

I scoffed and muttered, “You’ve got that right.” Then I realized what I had said. “Um- well, I didn’t…”

“I know what you are. I can tell you have a hollow feeling about you. I wasn’t made Head Captain for nothing. So, tell me, why are you here?” His smile was gone. He was all business now.

“Ha! Like we would-”

“To join the shinigami.”

This was followed by another silence during which I glared daggers at my brother for just telling him why we were there. “And why would you join us if you had Aizen?” This time it was I who responded. “Aizen experimented on us, sir. We no longer think like normal hollows. We don’t even act like normal hollows. Even so, we still are hollows…” I trailed off. He raised his eyebrows in confusion at what I had said, so I nodded at Ookami, who promptly shape-shifted into a puppy. Head Captain Yamamoto took a step back, surprise on his face. Ookami took this as the sign that he should change back.

It was my turn now. I stepped forward, black smoke enveloping me, and came out the other side looking exactly like the Head Captain. The smoke reshaped itself, turning into a replica of the cane that Yamamoto carried. The real Head Captain grasped his cane thoughtfully before breaking the awkward, stretching silence by saying, “We do still have captain positions that need to be filled. I believe you could fill in two of them.” With a start, I changed back to myself. “What!? But won’t the others argue about that?” He walked towards the doors, gesturing for us to follow him. “Hey! Don’t ignore me!” He continued walking, opening one of the doors, and left, so we had no choice but to follow him. We walked through the long halls, which twisted and turned like a long, cruel maze, until we arrived at our destination.

The door we stood in front of had a sign above it which read ‘Clothing and Repairs’. Yamamoto opened the doors in one big, dramatic sweep. Immediately everyone in the room stood up. There was a loud chorus of people saying “Hello Yamamoto-sama.” and “Good morning, Yamamoto-sama.” followed by bowing, which rippled through the room like a wave. Finally, after all the formality, a woman, who seemed to be in charge, stepped forward. “What can we do for you, Yamamoto-sama?”

“Ah, yes, can you measure these two for shihakushos and haoris?”

She peered at us over the rim of her glasses, a wisp of her sandy blonde hair escaping from its imprisonment in the bun atop her head. She reminded me of a hawk staring at its dinner. “These two? Why, they hardly look old enough to even carry pocket knives.” I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Yamamoto’s. “I have deemed these two worthy of taking captain positions.” He proclaimed and then continued, “So, you should have no problem measuring them, should you?” Oh, I liked this old guy. The woman sputtered and stammered in reply before finally getting a coherent sentence out. “What squads will they be captain of?”

“The girl: Squad nine. The boy: Squad five.” After he said this, he began to leave, the woman bowing to his back, but I called out, “Hey! You can’t continue to call us ‘the girl’ and ‘the boy’ if we are squad captains. You might as well learn our names. I’m Hoshi Izanami and this is my brother, Hoshi Ookami.” The women had suspicion written all over her face as she stared at the three of us.

“Very well, Hoshi-san, Hoshi-kun.” He replied, nodding as he said our names. “When you are done getting measured, you are to come to the main training area at the shinigami academy.”

“What for, sir?” Ookami inquired. “As your sister said earlier, Hoshi-kun, the other captains will not accept you unless-”

“We show them that we have the skills. Got it. Thank you, sir.” I interrupted, bowing after I finished.

“Good. I’ll see you at the academy, then.” He said, and then took his leave.

After we had finished being measured and questioned about how we wanted our shihakusho to look like, we also took our leave in our brand new shihakushos. They had made them with surprising speed that shocked both of us. Mine had tight sleeves and finger-less, triangle gloves, while my brother had the traditional loose sleeves. Leaving the building, we headed in the direction of where we hoped the academy was. After what seemed like never-ending and countless dead ends, we found ourselves outside the academy. It was dead quiet as we walked through the halls of the school, for everyone was probably at the training ground. Everyone except us.

When we finally stepped out onto the training ground, having finally found it, we felt eyes staring at us from all directions. It seemed like everyone in the whole Seireitei was there. There were Captains, Vice Captains, students, seated and unseated officers, and, unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, even humans. There was a tall, dark-skinned male, a skinny, black haired male with ultra-shiny glasses, a female with orange hair who was flinging her arms about, yelling excitedly, and another male dressed as a shinigami with a giant blade hung on his shoulder, bright orange hair, and a perma-scrowl plastered on his face.

Then I noticed who our opponents were. One of them as the Vice Captain Renji who had ler me to the Seireitei and the other was a captain with raven black hair with three stands that hung in his face and a scarf around his face. He had a calm, dense atmosphere around him, like he was of noble blood, which he probably was, given that he was looking at us as though we were the dirt under his feet. I scowled back at him. Head Captain Yamamoto stood up from where he sat and began to say the rules, which I completely ignored as I continued my stare-down with the captain.

When he stopped talking, I leaned towards Ookami, never stopping my staring at the Captain, who also continued to stare back at me, and asked, “So, basically, we just don’t kill them, right?”

“You weren’t listening!?” He hissed back, between gritted teeth. I shrugged. “Of course not. Me and Gloomy Captain over there were to busy having a stare-down.”

“You are probably the stupidest person I have ever met.”

I shrugged again. “I try.” Then Head Captain Yamamoto’s voice rang out, “Begin.” Immediately Renji and the Captain drew their zanpaktous, ready to begin. I nudged Ookami in the ribs and told him, “Eyebrows is all yours, I’m taking Gloomy Captain.” So I moved to the side until I was standing in the same area as the Captain. “’Ello!” I called out. He only continued to frown at me and retorted, “You’re too cocky, brat. You haven’t even gotten out your zanpaktou yet, and you expect to be a Captain!?”

“Yeah!” Renji agreed from across the arena. And then they both lunged forward, their zanpaktous screeching for blood.