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View Full Version : Week #79 [Seventh Division] Kaiden Rezain <The calm during the storm>(Shikai Mission)


Kaiden Rezain
02-26-2009, 03:02 AM
Part One- 1,554 Words

Kaiden had been put on the shelf in terms of getting missions for the past week. It was no surprise, he had been wounded quite heavily on his last mission and as such his commanding officers didn’t want him to injure himself further. They had even gone so far as too ban him from the training dojo and he wasn’t allowed out of the division’s section so that he couldn’t slip off and train on his own. His healing was coming along nicely thanks to the downtime though, without straining himself as usual he was going to back at full strength in no time. This would good, Kaiden was just now discovering the “Shunpo” technique and he needed to do a lot of work on it in order to get a handle on it.

After going back to the see the doctor for a quick check up of his condition, he made his way back to the central courtyard of the Seventh Division. With nothing else to do but not really wanting to go back to his quarters at the moment, he decided to sit down in the shade of a tree in the grass. It took him a while to get comfortable, mostly because a few positions felt as though they were going to stretch and tear out his stitches. After several minutes of trying, he got comfortable and leaned back up against the tree while setting his Zanpakuto off to his left side and tried to relax a little bit. Though it was nice to have a bit of a break, he hadn’t become a Shinigami to “take it easy” and didn’t really like having to sit around and do nothing, not even train. Still, the gentle breeze flowing through the courtyard and the warmth of the sun was nice, maybe it wasn’t so bad taking a day off from time to time after all. With the sun shining down on him, he closes his eyes and enjoys the gentle breeze as it flows on by him.

In his ears, Kaiden hears the faint rumbling of a thunderstorm. Without opening his eyes, he wondered if he had fallen asleep because at the last he could remember there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Since he didn’t have any idea how long he had been out, he decided to get up and head on back to his room and rest properly. He reached to his left side and felt around for his Zanpakuto but didn’t feel it anywhere. He was a bit cross; he wondered if someone was trying to play a joke on him by taking it while he was asleep. Opening his eyes he was a bit shocked at the scene before him. He was sitting in the middle of a wide open field, the grass a little bit higher than ankle high and waving to and fro in the wind. He looked around and saw nothing for miles but a rolling field, the single defining feature of the field was the tree in the center of the field that he was leaning up against. He stood up and looked around but couldn’t find his Zanpakuto anywhere.

Upon stopping to look up in the sky, he noticed that the entire sky was eclipsed by rolling storm clouds that continued to flow and crackle overhead. Though he was confused and unsettled by the area that he was in, there was something that was calming about the sight of the lightening as it crackled through the sky. Wherever he was he didn’t really think that it mattered too much, he would have to go ahead and get started heading back towards the Seireitei soon, he could expect to get an earful from probably at least the Vice Captain, though the Captain may decide to lecture him this time about letting his wounds fully healing before heading out on his own again. It was still puzzling to him how he had gotten this far out from the Seireitei while he was asleep, but how was less important right now than getting back.

As soon as he took his first step, Kaiden realized that something was off already. He looked down at his side and immediately noticed that his stitches were completely gone; there were no wounds or scars in its place either. Now he was utterly confused and couldn’t help but to verbalize that confuse in a simple statement, “What is going on here?”

“Ugh, you really don’t get it do you? Figures.” A voice seemed to come out of nowhere, in the midst of the rumblings in the sky, timed almost perfectly with lightening strikes. Kaiden looked all around him, trying to find the source of the voice, but there was no one in sight for miles that could have said it. He was really starting to get confused by the all this; winding up in the middle of a field was strange enough to begin with, but now with this voice from nowhere was starting to get really creepy.

There was another rumbling as a lightning strike struck the ground only a matter of feet from where he was standing. The force of the strike was enough to knock Kaiden off his feet and onto the ground with a thud. His ears were still ringing after the near strike and he was rubbing his eyes as the flash from that strike had temporarily blinded him. Both the ringing in his ears and the impairment of his vision began to fade at about the same time and he tried to focus on a small, shadowy figure right in front of him. As his faculties began to return to him, he saw the image of a large bird-like figure in front of him. He had no idea about this, but even with his limited control of Reiatsu he could feel that this “bird” was emitting an extraordinarily large amount of Reiatsu at once. Leaning forward, Kaiden asks one simple question, “Who are you?”

“Tsk, you are nowhere near ready to learn my name just yet. Look around, look at me, look at yourself, and let’s see if you can put it all together yourself.” The bird said as it almost seemed to sneer at Kaiden, as though it was looking down its beak at him. Dusting himself off, he got up off of the ground and began to think about things slowly. He was in an area that he hadn’t been before, his Zanpakuto was gone, while the place was new to him it didn’t feel all that strange, and then this creature coming out of the sky and talking with him, it could only mean one thing.

“This is my spirit world isn’t it,” he said as less of a question and more of a statement directed at the green bird. This scenario was the only one that made sense to him, there was little way that he could have been dragged out this far or kidnapped and brought out here unless he was drugged, and even that group that had promised that he and Aoi and Azami were “next” wouldn’t have just left him here, they would have killed him.

“Not bad, you were able to figure that out faster than I thought you would, perhaps you aren’t as completely useless as I originally thought,” the creature snapped back at Kaiden. That thing was really starting to get on his nerves, like he was just supposed to know that he fell asleep and woke up in the spirit world of his Zanpakuto. Just as he was thinking about that, something else hit him.

“Wait a second, if this is my spirit world then doesn’t that make you my…” his voice trailed off as he reached his hand out to touch the bird-like creature. Within inches from the creature’s body, a bolt of energy crackles from the bird’s body and runs through Kaiden’s arm. The suddenness and force of the shock knock him back several feet and leaves his left arm tingling all over.

“Right, you shouldn’t do that. My body always emits a small cloud of Reiatsu and with your limited control over yours it causes some nasty feedback. But again, I must say I’m slightly impressed, I am your Zanpakuto’s spirit, either you’re not that dumb or my expectations were just too low.” Seemed like every time that bird opened its mouth it was just to insult Kaiden, even as patient as he was it was really starting to get on his nerves. He was considering teaching the bird a lesson until it spoke up again.

“Well, I suppose that we should get started. Since you’re here, somehow that means that you are ready for my training. I’ll be teaching you some new skills and helping you train. With each lesson you pass, you will get one step closer to learning my name, each time you fail then I’m going to run a few thousand volts through your body.” Kaiden couldn’t hide his surprise at that last part, but he was kind of looking forward to getting some training in, the time that he had been forced to “take it easy” was even more annoying than that arrogant bird. He couldn’t help but think that this was going to be good.

Kaiden Rezain
03-04-2009, 10:51 PM
Part 2- 1,160
Total So Far- 2,714

The green bird looked at Kaiden and just sighed and shook his head. “Wow, I didn’t think it was possible but you really can’t use Kidou can you. I have to say that I am just amazed that someone who got me as their Spirit can’t use Kidou,” he said as Kaiden could do little more than just roll his eyes. Earlier in the training he had tried to warn that stupid bird that he couldn’t do Kidou and even attempting to train him wouldn’t work but all that got him was a massive shock for “backtalk”.

“I suppose I can’t be too mad though, you did try to tell me and you did give it your best effort so we’ll just forget that lessen for now,” came the next part of the bird’s speech as he finally stopped shaking his head. Kaiden was just glad to be moving on to something else but at the same time he was worried about what this taskmaster of a bird had in store for him next. While he was waiting for an explanation he felt and saw a change in the bird’s reiatsu flow. It felt as though it was starting to power up in a way to make better use of its power at one time.

“It is Shunpo training time now Kaiden. I’m going to Shunpo away and you are going to try to catch up with me and try to pass me. Each time you don’t reach the amount of steps that I know you are capable of your going to get a powerful jolt as “motivation, understand?” Kaiden couldn’t help but gulp as his spirit set down the next phase of his training. While he had started to get a basic understanding of Shunpo, he had yet to actually try to use it at all. He wasn’t really that good at working with new techniques and learning them, it was one of his weak points in the Academy and it only seemed that as of late he was starting to figure out how to use some of the techniques of his division.

“Begin,” was all that the bird shouted before vanishing in a Shunpo and appearing several yards away. Not really knowing where to start, Kaiden began to focus his Reiatsu and use it to try to push off from. After a few seconds, Kaiden tried to move forward as quickly as he could. He felt himself move through space at a faster rate than he had ever moved before. As soon as his foot touched the ground however, the bird vanished and reappeared behind him and then blasted him with a bolt of energy at the base of his neck. Kaiden tumbled forward and shook a bit as the energy coursed through his body.

“You call that a Shunpo, you went one step. Now get up and try again, we aren’t going to stop until you get it right.” Kaiden dusted himself off and stood up while the bird continued to command him. As soon as he was up he focused quicker this time and tried to move with all the speed that he had in him. He moved through the space at a much faster rate this time, covering much more distance. However, it still wasn’t enough to impress his spirit as once more he was blasted by a surge of energy from the bird.

“Don’t focus so much, Shunpo is more natural than that, an extension of your own movements,” his spirit said to him as he was starting to look annoyed, as though this tip was coming from pity and thinking that he couldn’t figure it out on his own. ‘He went from one step to three after one try, that’s quite an improvement,’ went through the bird’s mind as it vanished and appeared several steps away. Kaiden was starting to get mad now. He had been shocked so many times now that he had lost count and now that thing was not only insulting him but patronizing him as well. Without even thinking this time, Kaiden just rushes him with the single purpose of reaching that annoying spirit. In a flash, Kaiden appeared right next to his spirit. He wanted to punch that annoying thing, but the cocky smirk on his own face as he had finally shown that spirit a thing or two was enough.

“So, is that all? I was expecting something a little more your training,” Kaiden said smugly, enjoying the moment as he lorded over his spirit and enjoyed the moment. His spirit didn’t really like the taunt and sent another pulse of electricity through his body, once again knocking him to the ground. Laying on the ground and twitching, regretting his decision to back talk his spirit.

“Don’t get cocky; we are not nearly close to being done yet. You’ve still got more to go before you’re Shunpo is up to the level it should be but you have shown enough improvement to move on to the next step. I want to see how well you do with Hakuda now.” With those directions from his spirit, Kaiden couldn’t help but smile. Now they were getting to something that he was better at, fighting in hand to hand combat was something that he had been improving for a while now.

Without dusting himself off or speaking this time, Kaiden pushed off the ground and tried to sweep his spirits legs and knock him off balance. The bird simply jumped up off the ground and easily dodged the attack. Kaiden didn’t figure that it would be that easy to take his spirit down as he jumped back up a tried to throw a few punches while it was in the air. His spirit moved with surprising grace while it was in the air, though it would make sense that it could since it was mostly bird after all.

After several minutes of them going back and forth, with Kaiden attacking and his spirit effortlessly dodging, his spirit send out a small wave of Reiatsu, lighting up his body for a split second. With the sudden wave, he hopped backwards, expecting to get shocked again.

“Not bad for a novice, you have some skill I suppose. You are getting closer to completing the first part of my training. Now we are going to go back to your Shunpo training.” As the bird started talking, Kaiden began to expect that they were about to change his training up again. However he was extremely surprised that his spirit decided to skip Zanjutsu. However, Kaiden knew better than to try to argue with his spirit, which would just end with him being electrocuted. Maybe his spirit knew that he was already good with Zanjutsu or they were just going to come back to it later, either way it didn’t really matter to Kaiden, this training was helping him develop his other skills a bit.

Kaiden Rezain
03-10-2009, 09:52 PM
Part Three- 1,312 Words

It was hard to tell just how long they had been at it. There was no way to judge how many days had actually passed, since the sun never seemed to rise or set or if it did it was hidden by the ever present storm clouds overhead. He had gone to the basic assumption that he had been training with his spirit for at least a week and a half. He was only judging this amount of time based on the number of times he had passed out after reaching his limit during training, he counted that was the end of one day and the start of the next. His body had pretty much been fried, there were burn marks all over his body from all the times that his spirit had just let loose and zapped him. He didn’t really want to admit it though but that annoying bird’s training methods had been particularly effective.

“Ok then boy, you’ve made a lot of progress. I think that you are ready for the final challenge. You pass this one and then I will tell you my name. If you fail then, well, let’s just say the shocks I’ve given you so far combined will pale in comparison to the one I will give you.” The bird said as the amount of reiatsu flowing from him began to change again and grow stronger. “Your final challenge will be to combine our lessons into one and first catch up to me and second land one blow on me.” As those words came out of his spirits mouth, a bright flash of electrical energy bursts forth from the bird. Once he could see again, Kaiden is greeted to the sight of his zanpakuto’s spirit, his tail opened up for the first time since they started training and the bird’s body was just flowing with its unleashed power.

“And begin,” his spirit shouts as he vanish in a bolt of lightning. Kaiden leaped up from his sitting position and tried to follow along with where his spirit had shunpo’d too but he was unable to keep track as the bolt of energy that left his spirit had impaired his sight and hearing for a few seconds. As it wore off though, he began to see the one moving object in the field which easily narrowed down his choice of direction. Beginning to Shunpo, Kaiden appeared and disappeared several times, attempting to cut down the distance between him and his spirit as quickly as he could. Though he could only move five steps at a time in Shunpo, each time he did it slowly began to add up as he began to close the distance between the two.

Just when Kaiden thought that he had caught up to his spirit, he unleashes another burst of reiatsu and manages to move a bit away, he wasn’t going to make it easy on Kaiden but at least he wasn’t zapping him, yet. It wasn’t going to be easy, he knew that his spirit was faster than him and had the added advantage of being able to see Kaiden coming and being able to move out of the way. To top it off, his spirit was taunting him from time to time, but with his actions of letting Kaiden get in close and eventually moving on to more verbal jeering. His spirit definitely knew how to get under his skin and even after everything he had done his spirit did nothing but look down his beak at him.

They continued at this game of cat and mouse for hours. No matter how hard Kaiden tried there was little that he could do shackled with the limit of only five steps in his Shunpo, that aggravating bird just moved just beyond his range with each maneuver. It was infuriating, how was he supposed to be able to catch up to him like that. He was at an even further disadvantage in his spirit world because there was nothing here to use to set up a trap, nothing to hide behind and nothing to use as a distraction it made the whole concept of catching that bird difficult to say the least. There seemed to be nothing that Kaiden could do in order to break the cycle, it was just so infuriating.

“What’s the matter, not quite good enough? Come now, you don’t want to get shocked do you...” the words coming out of the bird seemed to trail off as Kaiden vanished into a Shunpo again but this time appeared behind the bird. Without wasting his sudden, albeit surprising, advantage he immediately coated his right shin in reiatsu and snapped a kick off as quickly as he could, he knew that he wouldn’t get another chance like this. Within inches from hitting his target, the bird thing pumped out more energy and halted Kaiden’s attack.

“Enough. You’ve done well, even better than I thought you would. I would have never guessed you’d intuitively teach yourself the basic mechanics of the ‘Echo Within’ techniques, you’ve shown that you are ready.” His spirits reiatsu output suddenly dropped tremendously as his plume retracted back to the way it was before and as he calmly spoke to his wielder. Kaiden was confused to say the least, he had heard about the “Echo within the Flash” technique, but since he had only just learned Shunpo he didn’t think that he could have reached it already.

“My name is Quetzalcoatl, the spirit of the lightning and thunder. When you awaken, you will remember this name and at the right moment you will create your own phrase to summon up my power.” Kaiden could do little expect but bow and thank his spirit for everything. Though it had been harsh training, Quetzalcoatl methods had worked great for him, he knew that he would have never been able to progress that far on his own.

“Oh, I should probably mention this as well. When you awaken and place your hands on your Zanpakuto again, it will change in response to the fact that you now wield my power; it will never be the same again. However, seeing how you fight, I think that it will be a great benefit to you, regardless of whether or not you unleash my power during a fight. Good luck Kaiden, I look forward to seeing what you do with my lessons, just remember I’m always here and I have no problem ‘correcting’ you if you start to forget my lessons.” Confusion soon turned to a little bit of concern in a pretty rapid pace. The first part of his spirits message was confusing. He knew that if he said the name and command, his Zanpakuto would change, but he thought that it only happened when he did that. What was his spirit talking about when he said that his Zanpakuto would never be the same again? The second part of the message came with a warning as his bird powered up slightly again and began to spark violently to remind Kaiden that Quetzalcoatl of his methods of training.

“Don’t worry; I won’t forget everything that you’ve done for me Quetzalcoatl. If it wasn’t for your training I don’t know how long it would have taken me to develop these skills, I’ll always be in your debt.” Kaiden said this to his spirit and then again bowed low in thanks to his spirit. As he reached the lowest point of his bow, Kaiden began to fade away and leave his spirit world. Once he was gone however, his spirit looked up into the sky.
“Man, I still can’t believe the natural talent of that kid, he is a lot better than I thought. I still don’t know where he learned to use a sword like that though, he didn’t get that from me.”

Epilogue- 492

Kaiden slowly began to open his eyes, half expecting to see the rolling fields again. He soon realized that he was back in the central area of the Seventh Division headquarters and that he was still resting up against the tree. He soon felt that his stitches were still in place, but he bore none of the wounds of his recent training with his spirit, even though he could remember everything that happened there vividly. Had it all just been a dream that he seemed to clearly remember or had he really gone to his spirit world. He leaned forward and tried to stand up; it was almost as though he had forgotten how to move with them in. Once he was on his feet, Kaiden looked down and noticed that his Zanpakuto was still on the ground, looking exactly the same as it had before. Seeing that, Kaiden could only think of the last thing he remembered Quetzalcoatl saying, that his Zanpakuto would never be the same again. Since it was the same that must have meant that everything he thought he went through was just a dream.

Reaching down and trying to pick it up, Kaiden’s blade seemed to react to his touch and unleashed a powerful surge of light. He leaned back and covered his eyes as the blinding energy was hard to look at. A matter of moments later, the energy faded and Kaiden was able to look again. At first he thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him and that he wasn’t seeing clearly because of the light. However, when he reached down he became aware that it was true. His blade had been split into two exact duplicates of each other. As he picked them up he realized that they seemed to be much lighter than before and that it just felt right. Seems he had really learned his spirit’s name after all, he even just seemed to know what so say now in order to awaken that power. He guessed that was what his spirit meant when he said that his Zanpakuto would be changing forever and his spirit was right again, Kaiden believed that this would work perfectly with his style of fighting.

After picking up his Zanpakutos, he bound them together and placed them in their usual position at his side. He was keeping them together in such a way so that it still appeared as though they were only one blade, he didn’t feel like showing off something like that this early. Few had two zanpakutos and Kaiden wasn’t someone who liked to be showy and for the time being he felt like keeping that information under wraps. The time would come for him to show it off, but in the mean time he just wanted to be cleared and get back to training and doing missions, so that he could really find out what his blades were made of.

Total Word Count: 4,518
Ready For Grading.

Xemorus
03-12-2009, 12:41 AM
Name: Kaiden Rezain
Mission Name: [7th] <The calm during the storm> (Shikai Mission)
Week Number: week#79
Total Words: 4518

Grammar / Punctuation / Spelling: 2
Grader's opinion on storyline: 3
Total grade: 5/5

Thoughts:

I didn't find any grammar or spelling errors in it and the mission was a good read.

blankdoor
03-12-2009, 01:04 AM
Name: Kaiden Rezain
Mission Name: [7th] <The calm during the storm> (Shikai Mission)
Week Number: week#79
Total Words: 4518

Grammar / Punctuation / Spelling: 2
Grader's opinion on storyline: 3
Total grade: 5/5

[B]Total awarded ZG: 620

promotion:19th seat

Thoughts:

One of the few missions I was actually waiting to see the 3rd part of, congratulations.