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I awoke from my bed, sitting straight up, beads of sweat dripped from my forehead. My chest rising and falling as I breathed heavily…
"Had that been a dream?" I thought to myself… I looked around…
I was in my familiar room in the ninth-division building of Sereitei. My room, a simple white-walled room with lightwood floors and rice paper doors. I looked about, noticing the excessive shelving on the wall, each self covered with expensive and rare jade, silver, stone, and gold incense pots, giving off an exotic, sweet scent. My Zanpakutou was lying on a plush cushion besides my bed, next to the many paintings of Koi-fish I had recently painted. Golden light trickled down from the stained glass, circular window on the ceiling, casting beautiful designs on my floor. On one corner of the room were compact bookshelves with rows upon rows of books.
I was happy to wake to a place as peaceful as my room… I brushed a lock of black hair from my face, but proved fruitless as more hair tumbled down. I looked around, much calmer. I lay back down, rubbing my hand on my face, tired, stressed…
I was due to become the ninth division's new lieutenant, or vice-captain, whatever they called it…. I was supposed to be assigned to captain Kusabana Ruka, some female. Not even sure who or what she did, but I figured she must be pretty powerful. I half-smirked, thinking how much of a burden I might be on her. "I think I'll go easy on this captain, I'd rather not lose my rank again due to silly behavior… " I thought. Raine Shiba, member of the Shiba clan… That's who I was, cousin to Kaien Shiba, who used to be a lieutenant too… He and I looked a little different, my skin was more tan than his and my black hair was wavy and nearly shoulder-length. My eyes were the same color as his, though, that strange crystal clear turquoise color. I was only similar in appearance to him in the eyes, jet-black hair, and body physique, but otherwise, I took more after my father… Kaien's uncle… I was the only son of Kaien's uncle… I remembered training with both of them. It was such a long time ago, when I had finally learned the name of my Zanpakutou.
"Raito Hisui-Emerarudo…" I whispered, looking to my Zanpakutou. The sword glowed a soft green and hummed in response. I smiled. They were safe…
My door flew open, causing bright light to flood in from outside.
"RAINE! Get up you idiot! You're going to be late for your initiation as lieutenant for the ninth squad!" The voice of Abarai Renji bellowed from outside.
"Eh, shut up will ya?" I said, stepping off from the bed and putting on my appropriate shinigami attire. I wore the basic black robes with a green, long-sleeved undershirt. The sleeve of my right arm was torn completely, exposing the torn remains of the right arm of the green undershirt… I fastened my Zanpakutou to my cloth belt, white, and fastened with a knot in the front…
Impatiently, Renji scoffed from outside. "Will ya hurry up?" he said as he barged in; I looked up, semi-startled.
"You should have more patience…" I said, he raised an eyebrow, or eyebrows… I am not exactly sure how many eyebrows he intended on having. Renji was slightly taller than I, with long red hair tied up in a ponytail held in spikes above his head, giving it the appearance of a bright red pineapple. He had excessive tattoos running all over his body, and a headband covered where his forehead tattoos were and wore the basic shinigami uniform with the Sixth Division lieutenant shield armband on his left arm.
He held out a small armband shield almost identical to his, though the black symbol printed on the face was the symbol for the Ninth Division (九) and a small Buttercup symbol underneath (which stands for oblivion). I beamed as I tied it onto my left arm, just above my elbow. It fit snugly, grasping onto my arm as I wore it proudly, choking the left sleeve of my uniform. Renji sighed impatiently. I laughed softly.
"Alright, alright, lets go then…" We stepped out from the room, closing the door behind us.
"Is she ready too?" I asked.
Renji answered. "Ruka just became captain about a week ago… They needed a replacement for Kaname Tosen."
I was reminded of the previous Ninth Division Captain… I then thought of Hisagi Shuhei, who had gone into hiding, we had not seen him recently… At around this point, a good friend of mine's, Kurosaki Ichigo, had just decided that he would enter Hueco Mundo, or so he told me, he was expecting to save Orihime, his friend, from Aizen's clutches…
Renji seemed really jumpy lately, as did Rukia… They both seemed a little weird… Though I was not entirely sure, I decided I'd ask them later…
As we walked across a long platform of neatly tiled ground, I looked up to the sky, the wind was fresh and cool, and the sun reflected off from the polished floors.
We neared closer and closer to the gardens, where most of the 9th division was meeting. Pink petals from the cherry blossom trees tumbled to the ground like snow in the winter, and water trickled from an unknown fountain somewhere in the distance. I looked around as Renji and I stepped in through an open archway, to the open fields of the gardens.
"Why hello there." I jumped from the voice, clumsily stumbling backwards as I turned around. There stood a fairly short woman, or at least not as tall as I was. She had long brown hair that seemed blonde from the sunlight, which was tied back into a neat ponytail with one bang hanging on the side of her face. Her eyes were hazel, and she wore the basic shinigami uniform with the white Captain's haori. She had a sheathed Zanpakuto to her left side, the hilt a bright red with an orange hue. She had a thin physique, with fair skin and she held on to a small notebook in her left hand. She was the Captain of the Ninth Division, Ruka Kusabana.
"Oh, heh, hello." I laughed nervously, regaining myself. "Sorry about that, been a little jumpy lately, I haven't had much sleep."
She smiled a little, holding out her hand, I placed my hand in hers and we shook our hands. Renji leaned against the wall, chewing on a piece of straw as he began conversation with the other members of the 9th Division.
"Nice to meet you properly. I'm Raine Shiba, new lieutenant of the Ninth Division." I said.
"So I've heard," she replied, "I am Kusabana Ruka, Captain of the Ninth Division." She placed her hand back to her side.
"Well then, now that we've got that out of the way, I am sure you know everyone in the squad correct?"
I nodded, "Yes." I was happy to see that everyone had gathered here today for this event. The other lieutenants from other divisions came later. I sat and spoke to many of them, smiling, acting polite, and trying to mask my anxiety. We had spent most of the day getting to know one another, though I was already good friends with Renji, Rukia, and Kira, for I trained with them usually. I made a final speech at the end for the members of the Ninth Division, introducing myself properly, and I spoke with all of the captains.
But after all of that, much later on that evening, everything began to quiet down, and I finally had some peace to sit by the koi ponds and watch as they drifted lazily through the pool of water. I smiled, tossing in small crumbs of the loaf of bread I ate. They pecked at it, swimming swiftly away as I observed them closely.
"They are beautiful aren't they?" I stumbled once more from the sudden voice behind me, falling into the pond and scaring away all of the fish.
My Captain, giggling a little at the fact that I had just thrown myself into the water, stood there, arms crossed, with the notebook still in her left hand. She scribbled something down in the notebook, satisfied, she closed the cover and tucked it within her robes.
"What are you writing in there!?" I looked up, noticing what she had done.
"Oh, nothing, nothing that concerns you at least." She smiled cheekily.
My eyes narrowed to slits as I pulled myself out from the pond, soaked and dripping with water.
"Can you please stop sneaking behind me? That really freaks me out, I'd hate to see you do that when I'm sitting on a cliff-side." I said with an annoyed tone.
She laughed a little. "Sure, I'll take note on that."
I wrung out my robes, wondering how many extra robes I had.
"Anyways, I came here because I need your assistance." Her humorous expression returned to seriousness.
"What did you need my help with?" I shook a few droplets of water from my hair, which was now tangled, wet, and covering my face.
"Well… We just received a pile of new reports, which need to be filed and edited for updates. We do have a few members out there investigating the whereabouts of any Hollow or Arrancar, but we need to get this stuff done. " She did not change expression.
I nodded. "Right lets get this done then.
We walked over to the Ninth Division quarters. Today was going to be a long day, I could tell already…
