Bleach Beginnings

"Kazuma Vampireal was a well-respected man in the Soul Society. The esteemed captain of the Thirteenth Division, he was a decorated squad leader of the Gotei 13. He started young, as a mutt born in the Rukongai. And now, at the end of a very long career and eventful life-"

Kyo choked, looking down at the congregation. How could he do this? All of the other Gotei 13 Captains were looking at him, waiting for him to speak about his former Captain. How could they sit there and expect him to speak about his best friend's death? He stared at the ground. Kazuma was gone. The Captain he had followed into battle countless times against the forces of evil, his greatest friend throughout life. They had escaped the Rukongai together and finally reached salvation in a life with the Gotei 13. They had protected the Soul Society together from Hollow invasion, and numerous other threats. And now his longtime friend was gone.

He looked back out over the gathering. "...I can't do this." the congregation murmured together slightly. "He was my friend. My brother. He worked himself to the bone to try and protect the Soul Society. Do you want to hear me talk about his life?" He stared deliberately out over those assembled.

"We were two rats born in the Rukon Districts. We were poor, and we barely got by. We scraped the bottom of garbage cans for food, and we had to steal to continue living. We bonded together as brothers." His eyes hardened. "We were brought into the Soul Society because we had impressive reiatsu levels.

"We excelled in what we did. But I had only ever focused on being there for Kazuma. So he got promoted instead of me. When I was asked to be in his squad as his Vice Captain, I was overjoyed. And when we led one of the assaults on Hueco Mundo, he shined.

"I never met his lover. When he told me that a son showed up on his doorstep, I didn't know what to think. And now his son is going to grow up without the marvelous man that his father was. A man that fought for his dreams, and experienced the victory of his fight."

He started to think of something else to say, but as he stared out over the gathering, he couldn't find anything else to say. He turned his eyes to the floor.

"Kazuma Vampireal was my friend. If he had a blood brother then I would be closer than he was. I will celebrate his life, but mine will never be the same."

He stepped down, and took his seat in the ceremony. A dirge played, and although his close friend was speaking to him, he couldn't muster up enough focus to listen. For some reason, however, he did notice a somber woman nearby. A woman he didn't recognize...

Strife woke up, staring at the wall above him. He was in a cold sweat, and he sat up, breathing quickly. It was just a dream... He held a hand over his eye.

He got out of bed, blinking. It was as if the world were slowly coming in around him. And as it did, he noted a monotonous bleeping. He looked next to his bed on the nightstand, seeing his alarm going off. "Oh, just in time..." he muttered, blinking a few times. He deactivated the alrm, and then saw what time it was. "Oh no..."

He stumbled, pulling on his clothes quickly. He ran out the door, running as fast as he could towards the Seireitei. "Nooooo! Being late on the first day is SO cliché!"

---

Strife fell into the line of Shin-o Academy students as they were calling them up. I was actually on time. Great, so I didn't become an anime cliché for my first day as an official member of the Gotei 13...

He watched the person next to him get called up. Strange, all of his peers had brought their asauchi with them. And they were bringing it up to the podium...wait, did the need his asauchi? He looked down, hoping to find that he had already strapped it to his back and he had only not felt it until now.

No such luck.

"Strife Vampireal."

He looked up. No, no...they're calling me already?!

He stepped forward. Maybe they wouldn't notice. The practitioner raised an eyebrow with a noticeable frown. They noticed.

"Strife Vampireal, where is your asauchi?"

Strife groaned gently. "I uh...I'm sorry, I left it at home."

The practitioner looked noticeably disappointed. "Strife, you have two hours to retrieve your asauchi and return it to the Shin-o Academy. if you do not then you will be unable to graduate."

Strife blinked, but quickly bowed. "Thank you!" He then ran off stage and back to his dorms.

However, when he got back, he tore his room apart looking for the asauchi. "How could I have lost it..." But then he blinked, thinking back to that very morning. His locker had been open when he left... "Crap."

In the dorms of the Shin-o Academy, many higher class people took residence. However there was also a considerably larger margin of students from the Rukon Districts nowadays, since the times were a little on the move in Soul Society. It was to be expected; they lived over ten times longer than humans ever could, so they changed a lot more slowly than anyone else could expect. Never the less, the influx of students into the Shin-o Academy was becoming more and more occupied from people in the Rukons than ever.

What this meant was that, regrettably for the board of directors above the Academy, that the school was slowly becoming more occupied by liars and thieves. Some of these thieves were all from the same district, and they had banded together to form a gang inside the school. They were riding the razor's edge to expulsion, but the point was that they were still around. Strife had steadily butted heads with one of their more prominent members, Akihiko. He was closely related to the Omaeda family, but they had disowned him so that he couldn't get any more benefits from them. That was why he had to go into the Shin-o Academy. So when he found Strife's sword out in the open after checking dorms, he found a great opportunity to make some money and help spite Strife in the process.

Strife rushed to the area of the Academy that they usually hung out at, which would be the section D dorms. As he walked into the building, he saw two Academy students standing in front of the door. They were guarding it. Strife also saw these guys around the dorm a few times, but he didn't know them personally.

"Oh. Look at that. It's Strife."

"Hey Strife. How's it hanging?"

He glared at them slightly. "You guys know what I'm here for." Their expressions considerably hardened. "...I don't want any trouble, but I'll be out of your hair today. I'm graduating. So just let me convince Akihiko to give me the asauchi back, and I'll be gone after today."

The two started laughing at him. "Well look at that. He wants his asauchi back. What do you say we teach him a lesson?"

"Yeah. He doesn't even look that strong. Let's beat him to a pulp, he's been getting on the boss's nerves lately anyway-"

"Do it," Strife suddenly said, glaring at them both. They paused, looking at him a little incredulously. "...well? Come on then. You wanted to hit me, right?" He reached up, smacking his own cheek lightly. "Right here..."

They looked at him for a few moments, before one of them reached and punched him in the face, growling. But Strife didn't fall. He bent to the side a bit, the guy's fist still in his cheek, but slowly straightened up, even against the man's best efforts. His cheek had some damage on it, but he didn't seem to feel it. He reached up slowly, gripping the man's arm tightly.

"My turn."

“What the hell is this guy made of…” the guy said.

Strife didn’t give him any form of answer, instead whipping the man’s arm straight out as he pushed, letting go and then delivering a powerful punch into the pocket of the man’s armpit. He howled in pain, before Strife grabbed his face, pulling him forward to launch his knee into his stomach. His partner was shocked as the guy fell to the floor, gasping for breath, but then moved in for Strife. Strife, his knee still raised, swiftly kicked the guy’s knee, and brought his elbow across his face, sending him crashing to the floor. “Stay down,” Strife said. Huh, that sounded kinda cool, actually.

He heard some murmuring from the other side of the door, and busted it down with his foot, looking at the guys inside.

“What the hell is he doing here?”

“Were Akito and Tsuya not enough?”

Strife looked at all of them slowly, before punching his open hand. “Akito and Tsuya are fine. I just saw them in the hallway; they’re taking a nap. You guys feeling sleepy too?”

Those gathered looked to him in a bit of astonishment, before they all got up. Only a few moved to engage him, however. They had their asauchi on them, unlike Strife in his current predicament, and charged him. Strife was honestly a little scared. Nevertheless, Strife took up a stance, holding his open hands towards them. The first one came in with a swing for his chest, and he sidestepped, kicking his face with a powerful blow, and sending him back into his comrades behind him. They stepped over him while he was still moving on the ground, and one took a stab at him, another slash coming in from another guy not long after. Strife swept his leg up, and knocked the sword into the swing, before punching the guy who had tried to stab him in the throat. Immediately afterwards, he threw the back of his fist across the next guy’s face.

As he fell to the ground, Strife noticed a red glow throughout the room. Some of the guys had hung back and charged up Kido spells…Shakkaho by the look of it. “Kido isn’t allowed in the dorms!”

“See if we care!” They fired the red blasts at him, and he barely blocked it. In the smoke afterward, they grinned, and there Strife stood with his sleeves burned off, and his arms sustaining some burns. He lowered them, glaring at the group. “And now you went and burned my shihakusho…are you guys seriously determined to *($ me off?!” He held out his hands in front of him. “Hado #33…Shakkaho!” They cringed back as the red glow presented itself, but when nothing happened, they looked.

There Strife stood, a red, glowing ball held in his hands, ready to fry all of them. However, it soon started shrinking. As they watched in awe, it condensed into his fists, as he balled them up, ready to fight once more. They started steaming, and the red glow was faint. He wasn’t only good at swordplay and Hakuda. One of the men said, “Oh sh-“ before he was smashed in the face with a steaming fist. A very small explosion loosed, not even that large in power, but enough to send him flying into the wall. Strife hopped over to the next one, coming down with a fist across his face and sending him into the floor. He finally turned and roundhouse kicked the last one across his face as he tried charging him from behind.

Strife stood up straight, looking at all of the men on the floor, before rolling his neck around on his shoulders, his hands ceasing to glow and steam. He looked at the door across the room, and went to it, hoping that Akihiko hadn’t run off yet after hearing all of the commotion. He turned the handle slowly, taking a breath, before throwing the door open. What happened did so in a matter of an instant.

As he opened the door, a sword tip came through the door at him. He barely even noticed it in time, and moved back, but got stabbed, growling in pain. He quickly started stepping back as a guy ran forward, hitting the wall with his back when he ran out of room, but grabbed the sword with his bare hands, keeping it from going in any further. Akihiko stepped out of the room with one more person, Strife gritting his teeth.

“Well, look at that, Strife!” Akihiko gestured around at all of the bodies lying on the floor, and grinned. “You handled most of my guys without breaking a sweat. But now it seems you’ve got a little problem with a sword. Does it hurt?”

Strife chuckled in pain, keeping the stab from becoming worse. His fingers were bleeding and getting blood smeared all over the blade, but he was managing to keep it from advancing further into his person. “What, this? This is just a flesh wound, Akihiko. But if you really like how I laid out all your men on the floor like that, I’ll make sure to do the- same!” He forced the blade out of him, merely diverting it quickly so it sank into the wall behind him, and brought his elbow right up into his chin, and consecutively kneeing him in the stomach. As the man bent over, gasping for breath, Strife huffed, and brought down a heavy haymaker across the back of his head.

As the man crumbled to the floor, Strife looked down at his wound. Nothing too serious, but he’d have to get someone to look at it a little later. He looked back up at Akihiko. He seemed a little surprised at how much Strife was shrugging off the new wound, but got into a stance, along with his man next to him. Strife stepped forward, stumbling a little, resulting in a chuckle from Akihiko and his cohort. Strife grunted a little bit, knowing it was a little embarrassing. But nevertheless, he took up his stance, and when the other guy started moving, he turned, sweeping a kick into the air towards their faces. They both stepped back, leaning away a little. As Strife’s leg came back down, he continued the momentum by holding himself up with his hand and sweeping their legs out from under them. They fell on their backs, Strife standing.

“Make this easy on yourself and give me my asauchi, Akihiko,” he said, staring them down.

Akihiko growled and snapped, as the man next to him chased after Strife on his hands, kicking at him with his feet. Strife backpedaled, catching his foot, and then using his other hand as a hold to sling the guy into the wall and put him into it. He didn't stay there, rolling out and hitting the floor, unconscious, but it more than suited Strife's needs at the current moment. He turned around to find a fist in his face, though, which knocked him off balance and brought him back into the wall. He grunted, standing up as Akihiko moved forward to hit him again. He got punched in the face a few times, and brought his foot up into Akihiko's gut. Akihiko stumbled back and held his stomach as Strife got to his feet.

"Nothing but cheap shots, as usual," Strife spat.

Akihiko growled. "Shut up!" He kicked a piece of furniture on the floor at Strife, which he barely caught, and tossed aside, but then Akihiko got another hit in. Strife brought a rough elbow into his nose, blood spraying all over his arm, as they continued the brawl. They traded blow for blow, a punch to Akihiko's face, a kick to Strife's knee, a haymaker on the back of Akihiko's head. He didn't last long, though; Akihiko simply didn't have the tenacity Strife could boast.

Akihiko was sitting against the wall now, bruises all over his face, and blood caking his chin. He coughed. Strife retained little injuries visible, picking up his sword, and looking back at Akihiko. The only real injuries he sustained were the stab wound from before, and raw knuckles from all of the punches he had been dishing out.

"I told you I didn't want any trouble. Trouble usually doesn't end well when you get guys like me in on it."

Akihiko tried to respond, but he only coughed. It was too painful for him to talk. Strife chuckled a little. He didn't consider himself a sadist, but that was pretty damned funny to him.He took his asauchi and left the room full of dropped guys. He made his way back to the graduation ceremony, a few people gasping at the way he looked and his wounds. The practitioner didn't seem to even care, just accepting the asauchi.

"Strife Vampireal, you officially graduate the Shin-o Academy."

Strife gave a brief wave of appreciation, nodding to the practitioner. "Thank you, sir. It's an honor." He then left the ceremony, groaning at his wound.

"Maybe I should go and get this checked out after all..." he said, swaying a little. He fell against a wall, holding himself up barely. "Oh come on...I've gotten this far..." he said, before falling to the ground. "...am I going to die?" He slowly closed his eyes, despite fighting the action the entire while.

Strife woke up, feeling exhausted. He looked around and sat that, at least from what he could observe, that he was in a bed in the Fourth Division. Weird...how did he get here? He looked down at himself, lifting up the blanket around his waist. Oh, right...I was stabbed there...

He dropped the blanket back down, looking around and waiting for any doctor to show up. When no one showed up to see him, he slowly got up. The wound hurt a little still, but not overly so, so he could still walk. He got his clothes and got dressed quickly; leaving the bandages on since they had been so kind to put them on him. Looking at himself and running a quick hand through his hair, he went for the door, before it opened up and hit him hard in the forehead. "Ouch!" He held the bridge of his nose, groaning a bit, before looking at the door to see a surprised woman there looking at him.

"You're up!" she exclaimed, looking at him. He peered at her. She seemed familiar. Her look slowly grew a frown. "Did you seriously get beat so bad that you forgot me?"

He blinked, chuckling a little. "No, I remember. You were that one girl-" She looked a little upset now, and almost growled. Suddenly he had a flow of memory. "Wait wait wait! Luma! I remember!"

She huffed a little. "Honestly... I lug your very heavy weight all the way to the Fourth Division and you can't even remember my name half of the time!"

He smiled slightly. "Come on, Luma. I'm not saying it's unappreciated, but we barely even talked in the Shin-o Academy as it was. But really...thank you for bringing me here."

She looked at him and nodded. "Well...in any case, you need to be more careful. I think you had legitimate reasons to get into that fight with Akihiko, and I don't think you'll be getting in any trouble for it, but you're in the Gotei 13 now. You can't just be running off by yourself anymore. You have to learn to work as a team with whatever squad you apply to."

He grinned at her. "In any case, Luma, I'm sure you'll make a good Fourth Division member."

She blinked, and then shook her head. "oh, no, I'm not part of the Fourth Division. I'm applying for the Sixth Division." Strife blinked, and made a sound, nodding. "...wait, did you assume just because I brought you to the Fourth that I was part of it? Strife..."

He shook his head rapidly. He didn't want to look any more stupid than he already had been. "No, no, that's not it..."

"Right. Well in any case, I should be getting back to the Sixth now. ...take care of yourself, okay?"

He nodded. "Thank you very much, Luma." He then exited the room as she walked in another direction, and left the Division's property as he walked to the First Division. "I still need to decide which one I want to join..." he mused to himself, walking up the steps to the large building. "But I should see him first." As he walked into the large Division's headquarters, where all Captains of the Gotei 13 would meet the Captain Commander when he called for them, he saw something moving out of the corner of his eyes. A shadow. As he tried to focus in on it, he suddenly saw someone charging at him at an incredible speed.

He's fast... Strife thought to himself, going for his blade. That was when he remembered that he hadn't gotten one yet. The black cloaked figure was already close enough to hit him now, so he nimbly moved out of the way of the sword, losing some of his hair in the process. "Seriously?!" The figure laughed almost maniacally. "Huh? I know that laugh..."

He was brought away from his thoughts by the man when he came in for another series of quick attacks. Strife did his best to dodge, getting nicked in some places, before he noticed he had another sword at his hip. Two zanpakuto? Strife quickly dodged another attack, before grabbing the other zanpakuto and kicking him firmly in the chest, launching him back a few feet while also freeing the blade for his use. He took a stance and got a feel for the blade as his opponent straightened up. My hand's a bit big for this...and it's still a katana, but it's really curved...more slashing? He flipped the blade, holding it underhand and putting his hand up, ready to fight now. His opponent seemed reasonably disgruntled. "You took my sword, Strife."

Before Strife could question his identity once more, he made really fast movements over to him, coming in for another cut. Strife wasn't quite that fast yet, but now that he could block, it was going to be easier for him. He blocked the blow, a nice clang sounding out as the twin blades met, and he discovered decent force behind it.

But he was still stronger.

He shoved his opponent off, making some cuts for him which was defended against very well. The way he used the blade, and the way he preferred to use two swords...Strife grinned, he now recognized him. As he bashed his opponent back once more, he laughed. "Come on, Kanji. You're good at swordplay, but you haven't won a single match against me yet."

"Stop trying to be cool, Strife!" Kanji teased, coming in for another cut. However, he spun and fired a Kido at Strife. "Byakurai!"

Strife had some difficulty responding, but sliced it apart, knocking it out of the way. He quickly brought the blade back around to block another incoming blow, being pushed back on his feet a bit, before they both jumped back. They were both grinning like demons. "Oh, I see...fast as we can go, then?"

"Bring it."

They took a moment, before charging at each other. They were a little faster than before, and slashing and hacking at each other with the skills of master, neither making any observable headway. After a few minutes, Strife finally found an opening, and went for it, before the air was suddenly gone around them. "That's enough, you little brats." Even as Strife struck forward for Kanji's ribs, they were both suddenly flung to the ground by an immense pressure, unable to breathe. Strife was able to muster up enough strength to look at the man, seeing Kanji's long silver locks had been freed when he hit the floor. The man standing was intimidating, wearing the Captain Commander's haori. He had spiked silver hair, and he wore a pair of shades.

"Uncle Kyo. Glad to get the classic welcoming."

Kyo looked at Strife, and then looked at Kanji, realizing he was smothering them with his spiritual pressure. He focused and restrained it, letting them get up. Strife tossed Kanji's blade back to him, and he caught it and sheathed it. "Why are you two idiots out here fighting in my courtyard?"

Strife shrugged, rolling his neck around. "I dunno. Guess he just missed me. He's the one who came swinging out of nowhere." Kanji shot Strife a look.

"Snitch."

"Slut."

"Enough out of the two of you." He looked at both of them again, before jerking his head towards the First Division palace. "Come inside before you idiots screw something up." They all started walking up the steps, Kanji falling into place beside Strife. He punched him in the arm. Strife punched Kanji's arm in return, moving him a few feet. "Boys?"

"Coming," Strife answered quickly, Kanji rubbing his arm. They were led into Kyo's office, and he sat at his desk, while Strife sat down across from him. Kanji stood against the wall in a cool pose.

"Strife, so you graduated the Academy today." He received a nod from Strife. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I did everything I could to make some time, but the work I had here ended up getting in the way of me going there today."

"It's alright, Kyo. Really. I don't expect you to be there every time I do a little thing."

"In any case, congratulations. I'll have your zanpakuto issued immediately." He wrote a few quick words on paper and then sent it out on a jigokucho. Strife always liked them in their red and black scheme. "I'm afraid I don't even have much time for you right now. But I'll listen to anything you need from me."

Strife nodded. "I had a little trouble along the way, but I'm thinking of signing up for the Third, Seventh, and Thirteenth Divisions."

Kyo smiled wryly. "They would be so proud of you." Strife didn't really feel comfortable on the topic of his dead parents, so he simply moved on. "Well?"

"Well I wasn't saying automatically put me in there, but I mean, maybe a letter of recommendation?"

Kyo frowned. "Well, I do have a lot of work to do...but I promise I'll let them know. Now again, I don't have much time to spare for you, and I need to handle something for Kanji."

He nodded, grinning. "Thanks, uncle." he then left, and went to a property taken out for him by the Gotei 13, going to sleep after unpacking a little.

Strife woke up in darkness to a familiar scene. He had been having these dreams for a while now. But this one...while it was the same as all the others, he was seeing it from a different point of view.

Normally, when he had this dream, a silver haired man would be fighting a shadowy creature, and he was slowly getting destroyed by it. But in the dreams before this he had been a spectator of the fight as if on the sidelines. This time he was actually in the role of the silver haired man. The shadow creature, who he could tell for some time now was a Hollow, lunged for him with a claw, and he batted it away with a large sword. It wasn't really that huge, but it was definitely thicker than a regular katana. It was about a foot from the back to the edge at the base, and curved to a point when it reached around three feet long.

Strife was about to exclaim about how cool the sword looked, since it was black with a red flame detail, but he had to focus as the Hollow roared in its dreadful tones and charged him once more. He kept diverting attacks made by the creature, and made a few swings at him. He managed to make a deep cut into its shoulder, but the creature grabbed the blade and ripped it out, roaring again as it bashed him across the face, sending him rolling a long distance across a vast wasteland. Strife rolled a bit, a little surprised, and then let his legs down, grinding to a stop. The creature appeared right before him with another howl. "Fast too, huh?!" he grinned, and barely avoided a claw as he bashed the creature's head with his elbow. As the creature reeled, Strife noticed the horns.

He dropped his sword, kicking it into the air, and brought his fist right into the creature's face, cracking its mask. He then grabbed one of its horns, and brought his face right down into his knee, cracking it further. He turned, bringing the creature around with him as he spun, and then tossed him into the air, jumping up to follow him. The creature's spinning momentum was coming to a stop, and Strife stepped off of him, sending him hurtling towards the ground as he caught his sword. He then fell towards the creature.

The creature hit the ground on his back, splintering the ground around him, as Strife came down and impaled it, cracking the ground around them even further and sending a shockwave of force out. The creature clawed at the ground, howling into the night, before lying still, breathing. As Strife looked at the creature's face, its mask splintered open from all of the force that had been exerted on it in the fight. As the mask crumbled to dust, Strife looked at the creature's true face surprised. It...was his face!

Strife woke up in a cold sweat, his eyes wide as he looked into nothingness around him. He waited for his eyes to adjust, but what he had just seen...he was a Hollow? How could that ever happen? And if the creature was him...then who was the silver haired man?

Strife woke up much later, taking a shower and getting ready for applying to a division. It wasn't very difficult to get into a division once you graduated from the academy; the Gotei 13 was always looking for more recruits for their military force. Once you graduated from the academy your scores were submitted to the squads that might take some interest in them, or if they requested information on recruits then they would get the reports, of course. But you could also, however, apply for multiple squads to try and get your word in first.

Today, Strife was going to apply to the Seventh, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Divisions. As he walked out of his residence, a member of the Second Visions appeared before him, dressed like a classic ninja.

"Strife Vampieral, a gift from the Captain Commander." he held a large present out for Strife, and Strife blinked, taking it. He nodded in appreciation to the Onmitsukido member, who immediately disappeared afterwards to run back to his division. Strife took the box inside, and opened it. He pulled out a sword slowly. it had a long handle...Strife even supposed that it could be called a naginata by most. As he pulled out the blade, he gasped, and almost dropped it on his foot. The blade...it was exactly the blade the silver haired man held in his dream; the same one had had killed himself with in that fight.

He sat down on the couch, looking at the blade. it was undeniably great...a blade that he would enjoy accompanying him in combat. But still...perhaps it was just a weird case of deja vu? Strife shook his head. No, he refused to believe that this was just some sort of coincidence.

What, then? You're going to chalk it up as a supernatural ability? Everyone make way for Strife, the fortune teller. He's had yet another premonition!

Strife sighed, and looked at the blade. It had come with a harness, instead of a sheath. He put the harness on and fitted it over his back. Man...it really did feel awesome to have a sword like this laying across your back. In the academy most of the students had tried wearing the sword over their back because it looked cool, but unless it was a shorter blade, it was impractical. They couldn't even get the sword out of the sheath for assignments like that. But with the harness and the way the sword fitte into it, he could just pull it off of his back and put it back whenever he needed.

Strife tested walking around with it a bit, but even when he tried he couldn't get his leg to get poked by the blade. The harness was perfect. Despite his weird feeling about the correlation between the blade and his dreams, he moved on with his day to try and go sign up at the Eleventh Division. The Eleventh Division was the closest to to him, anyways, and he was a pretty good physical fighter as it went. He walked into the courtyard, seeing all of the division members out and practicing as they sparred with each other. He saw some absolute maniacs, grinning as there were bloody wounds on them.

Strife was asked to take a seat and wait thwne he got into the building, and he did so, patiently waiting outside of the Vice Captain's office.

Strife found himself waiting for a long time. He knew that the Eleventh Division was typically focused on fighting above anything else, but this was getting a little out of hand. He was thinking about leaving when a young man walked in, wiping his brow with a towel. He had long, black hair, and seemed to be of a lean build. He was in a regular Shinigami’s outfit, and he looked over Strife curiously.

“Evening. What can I help you with?”

Strife was glad to finally see someone. “Good evening. I’m Strife Vampireal. I was hoping to talk to your Vice Captain about applying for the Eleventh Division?”

“Strife Vampireal…it rings a bell. And yeah, sorry about that. We don’t really have a Vice Captain at the moment. But I can take care of it for you.” He gestured for Strife to follow along after him, and Strife blinked, but didn’t make any protest, following him into an open office as the man sat down across from him.

The man looked through some papers, and nodded, having found Strife in the files. “Right, Strife Vampireal…fresh graduate from the Shin’O Academy. Relative of…” A pause, and then a quirked brow. “Kazuma Vampireal…it’s an honor to meet his flesh and blood. So what brings you here? You could probably get into the Thirteenth Division a lot easier.”

Strife nodded, agreeing with the man’s suspicions. “You’re right. But I’ve always been a little of a brawler, and I think the Eleventh would be a really good bet.”

He seemed to ponder this, raising a brow. “You…want to join the Eleventh Division on a bet?”

Strife blinked as he realized that may have not been the best thing to say when trying to join a division. “Well, no, but I’m really familiar with the areas of physical combat.”

“And what about the Kido?”

“Does Kido matter? I thought that the Eleventh Division didn’t like Kido all too much.”

He shook his head. “That may have been Kenpachi Zaraki’s policy, but Kido has just as much a place in combat as physical combat does.”

Strife blinked. That was certainly an interesting concept. And slowly, but surely, the pieces started fitting together. “…who exactly are you?”

The man smiled lightly, leaning on the desk a bit. “I know it might have been hard to tell without the haori, as I never wear it during training, but it’s a pleasure to meet you, Strife Vampireal. I am Sasaki Kojiro, Captain of the Eleventh Division.”

Strife blinked in a bit of surprise. Sure, he had put it together already, but it still came as a bit of a shock. “So, how did you start to figure it out?” Sasaki asked.

Strife shrugged a bit. “Well, you are the only one I’ve seen come into an office. That wasn’t enough, but you also have your own beliefs of what the Eleventh Division should be. Finally you seem to have a lot of respect for the Eleventh Division because you didn’t want me joining it on some random want.”

Sasaki chuckled lightly. “I can tell that you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. You sure you wanna risk messing it up by getting knocked around in the Eleventh Division?”

Strife returned the slight bit of laughter. “All due respect, sir…I think I’m messed up enough in the head already. Getting it messed up any more wouldn’t really hurt at this point.”

Sasaki nodded to himself, thinking for a while. “Well, I’d like to put you through a test before I say anything.” He stood up from his desk, jerking his head to the side to indicate that Strife should meet him outside, and Strife nodded, following him out into the courtyard. Some of the Eleventh squad members started gathering. They liked to see their captain fight.

Strife stood apart from Sasaki, taking up a stance. “So, what kind of fight are we doing here? Are we going to use our swords?”

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Sasaki commented. “I like using my fists anyways.”

Strife grinned a little. “Fine with me.”

Sasaki took up a stance of his own, his fists peculiar in that the two first fingers were stretched out a bit more than the rest, prominent like in the drunken boxing style. Another thing to note that he was bouncing on the tips of his toes. Strife took up his usual stance.

Sasaki shifted for only one instant before he was in front of Strife, swinging an elbow for his head. Strife blinked, ducking under it and whirling, kicking for his head with his heel. Sasaki, interestingly enough, used his other hand to block it, reaching across his own body, which was impressive considering it was unfavorable to do. Strife only had enough time to focus on his fists, however, and he didn’t see a kick coming, which caught him in the ribs and sent him flying across the courtyard for a few feet. He caught himself, sliding a little, as Sasaki began another assault.

He caught a blow in his hand, before catching another in his side, and made another return blow but was blocked again. He growled, and Sasaki traded a few more blows with him. “Your stance is good, and it compliments your fighting style. But if you can’t even keep up with me when I’m holding back like this, how are you supposed to function in my squad? Are you gonna rely on my members to come help you every time you get in trouble?”

Strife grunted, catching another one of Sasaki’s blows. If strikes weren’t going to work…he wrapped an arm around Sasaki’s extended one, causing him a bit of surprise as he slammed him into the ground, and then kicked him a few feet himself. Sasaki was as graceful as a swallow, though, and landed without much difficulty. “A bit of improvement. You adapted. Even though I’m too fast for you to respond, you tried a grapple.”