Post by Wishes on Mar 24, 2011 2:20:00 GMT -5
It was another day in the Fourth Division, and Mitsutaka almost had the entire building figured out.
There were individual rooms for seated members, a mess hall and meeting hall on the ground floor. Above, there was an observation tower for examining the heavens. Below, there were various laboratories and a single, empty room.
It was this room that Mitsutaka now stood within. He'd tried asking other members of his division what it was for, but those ranked below him had never heard of it, and those above him were...
Well, they were missing, as far as he could tell.
He'd seen them the first day he had been appointed fourth seat, there for the swearing-in ceremony, and had spoken with them but briefly. He was unique, he knew, and truly lucky to have had such a short jump from his training to a fourth seat. A fourth seat! Students could spend decades within the Academy, and still only dream of a seated position as high as fourth. And here Mitsutaka was, young by spiritual standards, and transferred from Academy to the 4th Division in less than a year's time. It came of spending so much time with his Zanpakuto, he reflected. It came of near-constant improvement and practice during the century and more it took to walk to Seireitei. Hell, he laughed inwardly, It came of using the skills he'd learned to manipulate his grader. He had been a shallow, uninteresting man, swallowed up by greed and hate of his own inadequacy. It had been easy to manipulate him, as it always was with those crippled by such dissonance. Don't congratulate yourself too much, his Zanpakuto chided him. Luck is ever your ally. A short spike of pain up his arm accompanied the reminder; Kowareta's favorite way of assuring complete focus... and an appreciation for pain itself.
Still, those skills had served him well in recent events... especially with that golden-haired student. Akimoto Nakamura, Mitsutaka recalled. Don't congratulate yourself too- Kowareta began, but Mitsutaka cut him off. "Yes, yes," he admitted, "That was more personal insight than deduction. Still..." he paused. Kowareta finished his thought for him. Still, wasn't it interesting to see one so like you, but turned down a different path? Or, perhaps... down the correct path? Should anyone else have said that to him, Mitsutaka would have at least feigned anger. But he held no secrets from the other half of his soul, and so he simply nodded. "Perhaps." Still, Kowareta ruminated, he does have a sort of lively air around him, that one. One almost feels as if one can feel something other than emptiness, neh? Mitsutaka's posture worsened even further, and he slumped down to sit on the floor, his head nearly touching his folded knees. In a small, quiet voice none but he and his blade could overhear, he answered that all-important question.
"Yes."
After a moment of quiet self-reflection, Mitsutaka stood up. Perhaps he would return soon to this odd room- something about it was compelling, somehow giving him the impression it held some secret importance. For now, though, he thought he might take a walk. Painful introspection, he knew, had its time and place. Its time was "not now," "not after a clash with that oddest of students." It was "later," adamantly.
Mitsutaka walked out of the 4th Division building and looked up at the sky. It was another perfectly fine day, as it almost always was within the Seiretei. Perhaps a brisk shunpo-walk would clear his mind.
[581 words | =11GP/=10GP | Σ11GP/Σ10GP]
There were individual rooms for seated members, a mess hall and meeting hall on the ground floor. Above, there was an observation tower for examining the heavens. Below, there were various laboratories and a single, empty room.
It was this room that Mitsutaka now stood within. He'd tried asking other members of his division what it was for, but those ranked below him had never heard of it, and those above him were...
Well, they were missing, as far as he could tell.
He'd seen them the first day he had been appointed fourth seat, there for the swearing-in ceremony, and had spoken with them but briefly. He was unique, he knew, and truly lucky to have had such a short jump from his training to a fourth seat. A fourth seat! Students could spend decades within the Academy, and still only dream of a seated position as high as fourth. And here Mitsutaka was, young by spiritual standards, and transferred from Academy to the 4th Division in less than a year's time. It came of spending so much time with his Zanpakuto, he reflected. It came of near-constant improvement and practice during the century and more it took to walk to Seireitei. Hell, he laughed inwardly, It came of using the skills he'd learned to manipulate his grader. He had been a shallow, uninteresting man, swallowed up by greed and hate of his own inadequacy. It had been easy to manipulate him, as it always was with those crippled by such dissonance. Don't congratulate yourself too much, his Zanpakuto chided him. Luck is ever your ally. A short spike of pain up his arm accompanied the reminder; Kowareta's favorite way of assuring complete focus... and an appreciation for pain itself.
Still, those skills had served him well in recent events... especially with that golden-haired student. Akimoto Nakamura, Mitsutaka recalled. Don't congratulate yourself too- Kowareta began, but Mitsutaka cut him off. "Yes, yes," he admitted, "That was more personal insight than deduction. Still..." he paused. Kowareta finished his thought for him. Still, wasn't it interesting to see one so like you, but turned down a different path? Or, perhaps... down the correct path? Should anyone else have said that to him, Mitsutaka would have at least feigned anger. But he held no secrets from the other half of his soul, and so he simply nodded. "Perhaps." Still, Kowareta ruminated, he does have a sort of lively air around him, that one. One almost feels as if one can feel something other than emptiness, neh? Mitsutaka's posture worsened even further, and he slumped down to sit on the floor, his head nearly touching his folded knees. In a small, quiet voice none but he and his blade could overhear, he answered that all-important question.
"Yes."
After a moment of quiet self-reflection, Mitsutaka stood up. Perhaps he would return soon to this odd room- something about it was compelling, somehow giving him the impression it held some secret importance. For now, though, he thought he might take a walk. Painful introspection, he knew, had its time and place. Its time was "not now," "not after a clash with that oddest of students." It was "later," adamantly.
Mitsutaka walked out of the 4th Division building and looked up at the sky. It was another perfectly fine day, as it almost always was within the Seiretei. Perhaps a brisk shunpo-walk would clear his mind.
[581 words | =11GP/=10GP | Σ11GP/Σ10GP]