Kaede's Looking Glass

This article, , is a short one-shot featuring some of the history of Kaede Saitou, Rosuto Shiba and Akira Nakamura; with the first and second as the point-of-view characters.

What where they doing today? Kaede couldn’t resist. She peeked into her Warder’s mind and saw the world through his eyes and felt the brush of his mind…

When Kaede had asked him to be her Warder – and he used the term very loosely – he did not think a Princess could be so much bloody trouble! If she wasn’t running off for God only knows what reason then she was the target of an assassination and it was left up to him to knock the poor schmuck up and down the room until he saw sense and repented of his mistakes; at which he was usually executed. And if that wasn’t the issue then he had a hundred nobles to deal with who made Soul Society’s own look like a bunch of lambs. These fuckers had a hundred different reasons for wanting to advance themselves and most of them knew the easiest way to go about doing that: eliminate Kaede so someone close to them could potentially take her place, instilling a new Royal Family.

“You look more distraught that usual.” Akira said, grinning.

“Go bugger yourself.” Rosuto replied, rolling his eyes.

Kaede had declared him “ignorant” to the ways of her people and insisted on teaching him more about Heisekian culture. The first couple of days hadn’t been too bad. They’d sampled the food long enough that he had a fair notion what was what and what tasted like food he’d liked back home. The history wasn’t too bad either; plenty of assassination attempts in there to spice up the bland background which he had to admit to falling asleep through on more than one occasion. The fact Akira was assigned as his mentor was rubbing salt in his wounds.

“Now, what did I say this was again?”

“A Zanku; which, I’ll repeat again if only to annoy you, is the equivalent to the thing I have right here!”

Akira had tried to pass this sword off on him two or three times already by claiming it was the weapon of Heisekian Shinigami. He said that unlike the avatar who inhabited a Zanpakutō the creature who inhabited the Zanku was merely an expression of the Shinigami wielding it; it wasn’t a part of their soul. Akira’s own was a majestic water horse that glided across the waves with no resistance that liked to spray people with water with enough pressure to cut you in half!

“Just take it.”

“Fine, I’ll take it, just to shut you up!”

The moment Rosuto touched the blade the bindings wrapped around the guard and sheath roared to life as an inferno! Streams of fire waved in the air like ribbons.

“Look inside the sword,” Akira prompted. “You’ll see the expression within; usually as an animal. When you do… grab hold and don’t let go! Pull it out and-”

Rosuto did more than wrench. He was guided by instinct; a kind he hadn’t felt since he first manifested his Zanpakutō’s Inner Spirit and conquered it to achieve his Bankai. He used those principles and before long his entire body was coated in intense flames; the air shimmering about him as steam and smoke rose from his skin. Rosuto stood at the heart of a raging fire and not a piece of his clothing or skin burned!

“I don’t believe it…” Akira whispered. “You jumped right to Kyokuchi; the second release! You bypassed Kengen.”

“What, you mean this?”

The flames receded and Rosuto, again by instinct, forcibly removed his Zanku from its sheath! A colossal red Salamander burst the walls before spewing a river of fire from its open maw!

“No way in Hell!” Akira exclaimed, disbelieving. “No ones ever done that so quickly before. No one has; not even the Marshal-General!”

“Stay around, kid. You’ll find that I’m full of surprises.”

Kaede cut the link. Was it possible? Could someone truly draw out the power of the Zanku so quickly? Or did his Bankai training play a part in his quickly he done so? He was obviously driven by some form of instinct. Huh. Surprise indeed. There seemed to be more to this Rosuto Shiba than met the eye…

End.

Next Story > Kaede's Close Run-In.