Monsters We Became { Bleach Aizen Sousuke Fanfiction }

03 - Lies Kindling

"Would you prefer to begin training today?" Koukou asked, half turned towards the sand at the end of the paved pathway. Bylosse and Aizen stood in the shadow of the uniquely vibrant building that reached above the rest of the gray roofs. Despite his protest towards Bylosse leaving, Soujimaru had made no attempt to follow the three outside.

Aizen answered with a bow, "Yes." It was a stiff movement like a forced obligation and not a simple gesture of gratitude. Yet, it did not lack the grace that permeated all aspects of the man.

His reluctance did not bother Koukou.

"Then follow me." Koukou tilted her head, "And, please, there is no need to bow if you do not like to."

Ahead was nothing more than a pit of sand shielded from Tower Vare's light by the quartz tree at its side. Not that the glow from the edifice would have reached the sands any more than the moon lit the desert above. In the swallowing shadows, the rocky cliff face at Bosque Santuario's edge loomed above like an open maw, unmarred by the Hollows' burrows.

Koukou's bare feet indented the white grains, each silhouette marked with an imprint of the curled claws at the ends of her toes. Aizen's waraji sandals sunk into the sands, dusting his white tabi. Bylosse made his way to the crystalline tree and sat below it, half-lit from the far light, his stony gaze fixated upon the other two.

At the far corner of the arena, upon the blocks demarcating its edges, a lone post stood. Koukou placed a hand above the uncarved top and light blossomed from within. When her hand moved away, what remained was a glowing orb like those throughout the rest of Bosque Santuario.

Aizen watched with the same curiosity that he found in all the surrounding oddities. Was the light a modified bala? Bala are balls of hardened reiatsu Hollows use as weapons – although this ability is thought to be limited to the most Shinigami-like ones. These are modified from the oft red beams of energy, called ceros, that all of the masked beasts can fire . If it was a similar creation, then it would be proof that 'regular' Menos are able to use the technique.

Never-the-less, there would be more time to contemplate reality later. Aizen collected his gaze. The field sat now bathed in a warm glow and Koukou returned to its center. She faced him, thirty paces apart, "Shall we begin?"

Aizen unsheathed his Zanpakuto and tried to ignore the golden reiatsu biting his skin.

"Place your left foot behind your right."

"A bit farther."

"Widen your stance."

"Raise the heel of your left foot. Lower."

"Lift your blade."

"Higher."

Koukou did not move to inspect his form, yet each correction was exact. It was not exactly that the Shinigami's stance was poor. Rather, it was a mixture of those footworks expected of someone far along in their training and something else. As though some muscle memory was controlling his movements.

"Practice the basic stances before moving to the more complex ones."

"Loosen your grip. There is no need to squeeze the life from your Zanpakuto."

"Please watch me, and hold your blade as so."

Koukou raised her left arm straight out, perpendicular to her body. Opening her outstretched hand, light-blue reishi pulled itself into her open palm. Energy gathered like a volley of arrows as it took the form of a tsurugi – or something akin to a double-edged blade. No metal covered the surface of the weapon, the radiant blue surface was solely made of spirit particles. The blade blended in a smooth blur of pale light without so much as a constructed hilt. She closed her hand around the taper of energy. Her left palm rested at the back of the sword, and, with her right, she gripped higher on where the hilt would have been.