Death's Shadow Master (Yami no Matsuei)

[1]

Tatsumi Seiichiro met Tsuzuki Ruka during his first week of training.

He stood in a crowd of fresh faced applicants, limited in number due to the lack of open positions. Waiting on the instructors to walk into the room, seasoned guardians stayed in their own group, making jabs at the new meat. He heard one commenting on his stiff appearance. An old descriptor of himself during his lifetime where it ceased to bother him. Nothing new. He ignored their words. No use entering in an altercation with his future co-workers.

While he agreed to himself not to engage in arguments, he saw the beginnings of a fight and stepped back. The escalation grew between two particular people, sneers in place, they exchanged choice words. Before the fight broke out, the instructors made their appearance, prompting an immense silence which spread throughout the groups. Two women and two men settled in the front, gazing at them over their shoulders while engaged in a quick pow wow.

A petite young woman with long flowing chestnut hair, eyes of the same color, sporting a knee-length dress, interacted with his future master. The usual stern and no nonsense man, laughed along with her as the other guardians joined in. Her attire seemed out of place, he remembered himself thinking. After all, the rest of the instructors wore clothing made for messiness and destruction. She appeared weak in comparison.

He chastised himself for such thoughts. A guardian of death used spiritual powers and investigative skills for the majority of their cases. In the rarity that physical force came into play, one of the duo helped their partner out of a sticky situation. These quips came from Chief Konoe when he described a few cases to paint a picture of a guardian of death.

The job read more as a detective than anything else.

Once the introductions came along, the petite woman piped up. "I'm the Bureau's oldest guardian in the Summons Section, Ruka Tsuzuki, pleased to meet you all!" Ruka smiled, dimples formed on her cheeks, amplifying her looks.

Afterwards, the trainers separated to different areas of the room. Ruka motioned the newer recruits to follow her. Settling in a large section of the room, she suggested to place a fair distance between one another to prevent any injuries. He followed her orders. Stopping to her left side, he heard one of the newbies whisper about their instructor.

Turning his gaze towards Ruka, she appeared not to have heard their commentary. She explained a variety of spells used in their field of work. Her tender stayed on her face. Later on in their lesson, she ended up using these newbies as examples for her instructions.

Ruka demonstrated their first set of fuda spells. Simple incantations where she emphasized pooling their spiritual powers to activate the initial glow. She handed them fuda paper and instructed them to begin. He managed to summon a messenger bird while others caused a small explosion somewhere in the vicinity. She corrected the ones who didn't activate any spells.

Once the physical training came into play, Ruka stepped to the side and let her co-workers spar with them. Tatsumi bemoaned anything physical but kept his complaints to himself. Ruka left to help seasoned guardians with their spell work.

From his peripheral, he saw Ruka slam one of her fellow guardians onto the floor. Surrounding guardians bellowed in laughter, providing jokes which made their sparring partners break into their own means of amusement.

Xxxxxx

Chief Konoe placed him with Ruka's younger brother, Tsuzuki Asato. A tall young man with amethyst eyes that brought one's attention onto them without question. He did double take when he first saw the photograph included in his file. From the photo, he saw the similarities between the Tsuzuki siblings. In Tsuzuki's file, his power level exceeded everyone in the Bureau, including his older sister who arrived before him.