"Shatter, Kyoka-Suigetsu"
For a second you see nothing as your blade shines and shimmers with an intensity you've never seen. Then you feel power coursing through your sword. You grip the handle harder than you ever have. Though one thing bothers you.
"It didn't change?"
Kyoka Suigetsu laughs once more. She walks besides you and up to the endless sea. "When you unleash my power, it is the world that changes not me." She raises a blade, an exact replica of your own, and swings it over the waves. The night sky, the moon, and the stars all vanish to be replaced by a panoramic view of your room. Everything is as you remember it.
Then you look at the reflection in the water. The room is the same except the other bunk.... is you. You look at your sword spirit and then back at the reflection and she's standing in your place. "When you master this power you will be able to make a dragon seem like a horsefly and vice versa," She smiles at you and leans in. "Anyone who sees my release will be subject to total domination of their senses."
You stare at the sea that stretches to the end of your very being. The ability to appear anyway you want.... What does this say about you? You remember Isshin's words to you in the grove and it makes far more sense now. You've always seen going with the flow as a good thing but perhaps it's meant you've been drowning all along. At this moment, you wonder who Aizen Sosuke truly is.
Her smile subdues and she steps towards you and puts both hands on your shoulder. Leaning she says "Relax," causing you to tense up even more. "Did I not tell you what happens to this world when you are anguished?" She hugs you and while it is warm and soft... for a second you think your bones might break. "Besides, do you know what this means I can do for you?" She pulls back and stares you in the eye in anticipation. You look to the sky and the sea at your dormitory and see.... it's so vivid.
"I... don't need glasses anymore do I?" Possibilities flood your head. Perhaps this ability means true freedom to live your own path. With this power, no one could tell you what to do... Maybe you could even become Captain Commander... The thought lifts your spirits and the misfortune of the day leaves your mind.
Kyoka-Suigetsu grins. "Yes... But~ you can also undress all the girls in your class~!"
...
How would that even work? It's not like you know what's under there. Kyoka Suigetsu laughs again and answers as if she's read your mind "Don't worry I have my ways~."
"I think I'm going to leave now."
Your zanpakuto just laughs again releasing you from her hold. "We're just getting started, Ou-sama." She steps back and you feel cold metal against your neck. She steps back and raises the blade, the grip reversed with the dull edge on the bottom, and assumes a stance. "We'll start off slow and ramp it up as the night goes on..."
You draw your own blade and find it hard to maintain a steady grip. You are just simply too excited.
---
You exit your inner world lying in your bed. There is no part of you that does not at the very least ache. You feel wetness over your eye and slowly reach over for your face, though the muscles in your arm don't want to co-operate. Someone has placed a towel over your head. One of your eyes opens (The other does not) and the first thing you see is Watanabe Sei. Her hands emit a faint light blue glow as they hover over your chest.
She stammers "Aizen-Sama... Aizen-San!" and stops what ever she's doing to grab your hand and hold it. Your body hurts so much more now but you don't particularly mind.
"What are you doing in my room...?" You groan, and WHY are you on the bottom bunk? Tosen Kaname steps into the corner of your vision.
"When I came back you were still in a trance but your spiritual pressure was rampaging," He calmly says. "Despite your deep meditation, I could still hear you wincing and had to check your body for wounds." You let the implications, considering Kaname's sensory impairment, roll over you for a second. Still though, you doubt Isshin would have done that for you.
"So the towel...?"
"Yes, I put it on for your black eye. Frankly, if it had been just a bit worse I would have taken you to the infirmary," Kaname answers. Kyoka Suigetsu had promised not to aim for your face... but she couldn't help it when you dodged into a blow once or twice. "When the morning came I brought Sei in to administer kaido."
"Why didn't you...?" You pull away from Sei's grasp and she, after a moment, goes back to casting her healing arts.
"I didn't know if you wanted them to know you had achieved Shikai," He responds. Of course, there was no way that, even with such a lackluster transformation, this would get past his abilities of spiritual perception. "You have broken the record and that would get the attention of all of soul society."
You turn back to look at the ceiling. You'd already gotten an offer for the equivalent of a 20th seat position in the Onmitsukidō. Of course there was no way you'd be giving up your zanpakuto for that.
"What's wrong with that?" Sei asks. "Every captain and corps commander would know his name!"
"And so would every noble. Do you want to see him be the rope in a five way tug of war?" Kaname fires back.
"Yeah poor Aizen Sosuke, getting marriage offers from all the most beautiful women in all of Seireitei. You're just jealous!" It's a terrible read, but Kaname scowls anyways... but then he frowns and his shoulders slack.
"I would never attach myself to the nobility..." He answers to Sei, but you can feel that in part it is directed to you.
You don't really know what Kaname truly fears, but one thing is clear. Against your better judgement, you sit up and it seems like every muscle below your neck is protesting.
"Since when were you under the impression I was going to leave you all behind?" You throw your legs, against Sei's protests, over the side of the bunk and sit fully upright. "Besides it's not like anyone is going to want to recruit a Shinigami who still can't cast any kido." You chuckle to yourself and Sei giggles. Kaname still seems down. You're almost worried that you're going to have to hug him, but you can't remember the last time you did that so you really don't want to take that option. "Perhaps some breakfast would cheer you up, Tosen-san?"
"Alright... But I'm not carrying you to the cafeteria." Kaname responds.
"I didn't ask," You grin as you stand up and immediately regret it, but you can't afford to show weakness.
It's a long walk to the cafeteria.
---
You stand atop the reflective sea flanked by you... and you. Five of you face off against five of Kyoka Suigetsu. She and her doubles smirk then flash step towards you. You step forward and raise your blade catching her sword before it splits your skull. The doppelgangers match your moves.
Using your zanpakutos abilities is like flexing a muscle you never knew you had. Creating the mirages happens with only a thought but maintaining them requires focus.
Adrenaline courses through your veins, your focus wanes for just a moment, and one of your mirages on the left breaks apart as it clashes blades. Another falls as your opponents mirage drives her blade through his skull and shatters into. You pull your blade back and flash step two paces before leaping into the air.
"What a shame, all these images are breaking apart before you can even watch them bleed to death. Where's the verisimilitude?" Kyoka Suigestu chides you. In that exchange, her hair had shifted to the side and you now get a glimpse of her other eye. Her left pupil shines a solid yellow like the full moon in the sky.
Sustaining illusions is an exercise in force of personality. They take little to no spiritual energy but it feels like you are in a constant argument with your opponent to convince them of these images veracity.
Perhaps quality over quantity is what you should be aiming for right now. A third illusion fades, having been dismissed by you. You raise your right hand in the air and in your palm coalesces the radiating spiritual energy. "Ye Child! Victim of Passion and Love," You begin to chant, invoking the fifteenth hado: Moesashi. The five Kyoka Suigetsu does not wait to finish and leaps in the air at you. Things slow to a crawl as you clench your fist, crushing the malformed magic orb, and shout "Hado #9: Kuuken". This second spell goes off perfectly as the air ripples around you in all directions. The expanding sphere of over-pressure makes short work of your own duplicate, and Kyoka Suigetsu's.
Your first spell likewise expands but in a far less ideal manner. The orb cracks then pops and smoke and ash explodes out pelting you. Your palm and fingers burn and you tumble to the ground as the pain overcomes you. Through the smog you see a figure sprinting towards you.
"Ou-Sama?!" Kyoka Suigetsu grabs your hand and looks at it. Already the skin has begun to blister. Then she puts her palm to her face. "Oh, Ou-sama what happened to all those safety lessons they imposed on you?" she laments.
Safe fighting is an oxymoron you have decided. Pain is to be expected when you do battle. Of course how would Kyoka Suigetsu know that when you've never managed to land a single blow since you began these daily spars.
Then an idea comes to you. Instead of creating a second Aizen you merely change the image of yourself.
"It hurts so much...." the false Aizen cries out and reaches for Kyoka Suigetsu. "Oh, Ou-sama!" She obliges and draws him in for a hug burying his head in her chest.
In reality you raise your good hand and point, sticking your arm through the false Aizen, at her shoulder. "Byukurai," You utter and a bright beam of light goes through the both of them. Blood from your own illusion decorates your face before shattering with it.
Kyoka Suigetsu screams... and then shatters. Suddenly you feel something tightening around your neck. "Ou-sama, when did you become so duplicitous?" She pouts as she tightens the choke hold. "Though it was a good move, I think you may be ready to use me in battle now," She pats you on the head as you black out and return to the real world.
---
Sei groans as she examines your hand. "I thought you were done mutilating yourself like this..." You note that, as soon as you had unwrapped the bandage and presented the wound, the other students in the cafeteria started picking new seats further from you.
"So did I," you answer. Really what kind of Zanpakuto starts fighting you after you've achieved Shikai? "How long do you think it'll take to heal?"
Sei sighs. "Why don't you just let me heal it?"
You pause trying to think of a dignified way to explain. "Because... it'd be gross." She groans and grabs your hand.
"You were just going to spend new years like this because of that?" She whispers a chant and the blisters begin to pop, and your skin begins to flake. Ugh.
"You're lucky you have someone like her to take care of you," Yadomaru Lisa says. It's easy to forget she's there sometimes. "I bet Isshin-san would be totally useless with this kind of thing."
"If anything, it's more likely I'd be the one taking care of him." You admit. How that man has not just fallen into mishap after mishap is a mystery that eludes you. That's probably why the only time you get to talk to Lisa is when she's with Sei, nowadays.
"Ah, so it's that kind of relationship then," Lisa smiles at you, and you are reminded of that girl from seinosuke's class. Sei gives Lisa a gentle elbow for reasons you don't fully understand though you do find it odd she used the word "relationship".
"No, not particularly. He's quite reliable when it comes down to it, I would say. Without his help I don't think I would have gotten a perfect score on the Kido examinations." You think back to Kaname's prediction and are glad you heeded his advice. Just passing that single graduation exam alone had already gotten you quite the attention from Seireitei in the form of offers for a position in the Kido and Detention Corps.
"Ah, so is Shiba Isshin someone you would call Senpai?" Lisa asks as her grin grows wider by the minute.
"Well, uh..." You suppose that Isshin is more of a rival? but he's also a good friend.
Before you can surmise an eloquent way of describing this, Sei grabs Lisa by the arm and asks "Can you not do this right now?"
"Do what?" You ask. Hold on, is Lisa trying to use you as an in with Isshin...? No, you can't see them having any chemistry. Is she trying to get to know you better? You should have asked her out earlier, Ou-sama!
"Sorry," Lisa apologizes. No, please keep going. "Changing the subject, do you have anything special planned for new years Aizen?"
"Unfortunately my father is away on business, so I'm going to stay here for the week and focus on training," You answer trying to stay smooth as possible. Incidentally you become very conscious of your still healing and still grotesque hand and pull it away.
"Oh, you know the academy shuts down for the week right?" Huh?! "Yeah, they ship off the students who don't have a place to go back to off to one of the thirteen divisions, so the Shinigami there can take leave."
"Oh," You reply. "Hopefully they won't send me off to the eleventh then." Maybe you should just go home then...
"Nah, That's not going to happen for anyone in the accelerated class. We get to pick our preferences." Oh well that changes things a lot. Hold on...
"Wait, are you not going home?" Sei asks. "What about your family?" Lisa shrugs in response and her smile fades. You get the sense you shouldn't trespass.
"What division are you hoping for?" You ask curious. You're not actually sure it'd make much of a difference in this case but you want to change the subject.
"The Eighth," Lisa responds. "I hear they hold the best celebrations with plenty of booze" she says the second part far quieter.
"I thought you were done drinking after that incident...?"
"Yeah, with people who get into trouble like Isshin." Bold words coming from a woman who drop kicked an eleventh squad member in a bar fight but you elect not to say that.
Instead you just shrug and hope you get sent to the Eighth.
---
In the end, you did get the eight (Onabara-sensei flat out asked you where you wanted to go) but the promises of revelry were not entirely fulfilled...
"Good job, Aizen-kun! I've never seen someone restock the storehouse so quickly before." Kyoraku Shunsui applauds you. The wavy haired captain with the pink flower-patterned coat had spent more of the day making sure you had hauled seemingly all the barrels of wine in all of soul society to the 8th division barracks. At least it was a good work out.
"Captain Kyoraku, forgive me for asking but why are you personally overseeing this menial task?" The man is worryingly informal for a person of his position but you decide it's best to err on the side of caution.
"Because my Vice Captain is on leave with his family," Shunsui cheerfully replies. "He's the only other man I could trust with this most important task of the day." These words are entirely sincere and that seems like a problem but not one that you have the tools to deal with.
"At least I'm going to be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor on new years day, right?" you ask.
Shunsui shakes his head. "Oh goodness no, I cannot be serving academy servants alcohol at a public event like that. Yama-ji would have my head." The casualness to which he refers to a literal living legend also shocks you. Shunsui leans in and whispers to you in a conspiratorial tone "I've got a game of Chinchiro going with the eleventh division tonight. Way less people will be watching..."
"I'm just a student. I barely have any money on me! Why would you even tell me this?" You fire back in a hushed tone.
"Because I found out, and nagged him about it" Lisa chimes in. You almost jump out of your uniform. How did she do that.
"It's fine, I've got plenty of money to lend." Shunsui reaches into his robes. "I can spot you both 20,000 Kan." You struggle to keep your jaw from dropping. That's an unseated officer's yearly income!... which would be quite a windfall
What do you do?
[]You oblige. It's not your money you're gambling right? Plus if you win Lisa might think you're cooler.
[]You refuse. The last time you got drunk in the presence of the eleventh division it ended poorly and money wasn't involved that time.
[] Write-in.
Aizen has unlocked the power of his zanpakuto Kyoka Suigetsu and can now perform Complete Hypnosis. When an opponent sees his zanpakuto release, he is able to impose hallucinations over objects that fool their senses. Additionally he can create free floating mirages but currently finds it difficult to do anything other than duplicates of himself. As he trains the ability, the illusions he creates can become more elaborate and more defiant of reality.
