Academy Days II
1245 Words
1245 Words
Takes place after:
Academy Days I
Academy Days I
As far as first impressions went for the young heiress, there wasn’t a whole lot that seemed to put her off on her first day of school. Of course, there were the more than occasional trip and whiff and fall from less favoured members of society, but all that did was give Amaterasu a good chuckle now and again. After all, the troubles and mistakes of others were infinitely more interesting than some dull dawn of the first school day.
If anything, though, she was the only one who seemed to be enjoying these little hiccups of others, as most students were either trying to hurry to these misfits and help them or scurry along as the embarrassment nearly made them the laughing stock of a group of even bigger misfits. It was refreshing, really, to see all these different types of people mingling with each other, discussing things that really didn’t seem appropriate for this kind of day.
The day itself was quite warm for its time, with the majority of the sky being crystal clear. A fan favourite of the sun, of course, because it allowed it to shine its rays towards Soul Society unbrokingly. She liked it. The sun, the rays, the still somewhat refreshing gusts rolling over her skin every so often as she pressed onwards. She got a few looks left and right, but nothing she wasn’t used to by now.
She was, perhaps, not the most famous of the Yoshishige household, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t known at all either. The wind carried her name in a surprisingly careless whisper more often than not, and today was certainly no different. She didn’t mind it. In fact, she welcomed it, because it meant her name carried some kind of weight along with it. This was how legacies were built, how dynasties were created.
If she had to pick something that irked her, though, it was that a lot of people seemed to be pointing at her and whispering dark musings to one another as they passed her. Her name carried with it positive weight, but the way they pointed at her and mused about her were nothing like that. It wasn’t until she had stepped into the academy’s main hall that someone stepped up to her and confronted her.
“Ma’am?” a somewhat gruff, older-looking man said, his voice a deep baritone.
“Milady,” Amaterasu countered, but quickly added, “I’m sorry, what seems to be the problem?” when she realized the man wasn’t really amused by her response.
Pointing downwards, the man replied, “Your sword, ma’am.”
“My... sword?” Amaterasu asked, somewhat semi-perplexed. “What about it? If you want to have it, I’m afraid you can’t. It’s an... heirloom.”
“No, I don’t want it,” the man said. “I was going to ask you where you got it, because freshmen don’t get a zanpakutou until after they’ve finished their academy years.”
“I know,” Amaterasu responded, her voice filled with what sounded like pride. “I’m not handing her over, though.”
“Her?”
“Yes.”
Seemingly startled by this response, the brown-haired man placed his right hand under his chin and rested the elbow on his left palm as he scratched his goatee. This wasn’t really how he had expected his introduction with the freshmen would go, but...
“So,” he continued, moving over towards the front door of the academy hall, “she has a name then, does she?”
“Yes.”
“Very well,” he said, his hazel eyes fixated intently on Amaterasu. “Follow me.”
Then he turned to the rest of the freshmen gathered and continued, “All of you. We’ll be holding our first lesson right of the bat!”
“Whaaat!?” the assembly hall exclaimed in unison as the teacher led them outside.
Not keen on joining in on this mess of a response, Amaterasu simply followed the man outside - he was well over a head and a half taller than her, with broad shoulders and scars littered all across his body. He’d obviously seen war, and had been to hell and back. Maybe he was sick and tired of all the fighting and that was why he’d decided to become a teacher?
Or maybe he was just not that useful.
“Draw your blade, Amaterasu,” the man finally said after they’d moved to what looked like some kind of practice area.
“Amaterasu?” the Yoshishige heiress asked. “How do you know my name, but I do not know yours?”
“Hah,” the man responded. “Fair enough, young lady. The name’s Shuichi, and I’ll be your zanjutsu instructor for the coming years freshmen!”
“That still doesn’t explain how you know of me,” Amaterasu responded. “You seem to know my name a little too well for someone who just knows me as a Yoshishige, Shuichi-san.”
“If you can best me...” the man began as he drew his blade and dashed towards Amaterasu, “then maybe I’ll be in a mood to tell you... and call me senpai!”
“Ho,” Amaterasu responded both verbally and physically as she attempted a light sidestep in an attempt to parry the instructor’s oncoming piercing strike.
In hindsight, the man was probably not going at her with the full brunt of his actual power, but at the moment it felt like a small victory as the parry went through and the blue-eyed fighter could create a little space between the two of them again. It was the first time she really used her sword in an actual battle, but it didn’t actually feel like that at all. The handle fell into her palm just right, and the balance of the blade was near perfect as she raised it again to make a threatening stance towards Shuichi.
“Ahem,” an elderly sounding voice called from behind Amaterasu and, on instinct, the young heiress was ready to slash whoever had managed to sneak up on her.
Catching her blade between his fingers, the elderly man smiled faintly, took the blade from her hands in one motion and held it out in front of him in the sunlight.
“Lady Yoshishige,” the man spoke softly. “You are still too hasty, too untrusting of your surroundings. We will have to do something about that.
“For now, though,” he continued as he turned the blade around and handed it back to her, “let’s just call it quits for today. All right, Shuichi-san?”
“I... of course, sir,” Shuichi responded, bowing deeply. “My sincerest apologies. When I saw that blade... I...”
“At ease, I cannot fault you for wanting to touch steel with this blade, but she’s not quite ready for her yet. Just teach her what you know, and the day will come when you can truly test her mettle.”
With that, the man clapped rather loudly in his hands, leading everyone to take some kind of militaristic stance as if waiting for orders. Amaterasu, however, was still looking at the elderly man. She had seen him somewhere before... but where?
Before she could get a chance to ask, the man had already called out, “Dismissed!” and had left the students alone again in his wake. He was gone, and the crowd slowly dispersed as Shuichi gave a few last second pointers as to how the real introduction would start tomorrow and where they could find their bu
“Lady Yoshishige,” the voice of the elderly man whispered in her ear, and Amaterasu turned around with great haste.
“Sir?” Amaterasu asked.
“If you’d be so kind as to follow me,” he said, “I have some things to show you.”