The Rain before the Sunshine Volume 1 (Bleach FanFiction)

New me, New Everything.

She never thought she was someone who passed out a lot, but she sure was doing a lot of that as of late. She found herself laying on the forest ground, facing a flickering campfire.

When she tried to sit up, she was pushed roughly back by a large hand, from behind, the message clear. She settled back into the dirt, feeling a strange brush against her arm. She glanced down at herself to see she was covered in Kenpachi's captain coat. She also noticed Yachiru in front of her laying on her back, snoring away.

She wondered if she was imagining things but the pain in her neck from laying on her side without any kind of support like a pillow made it very clear she was awake, alive, and not dreaming. She rolled onto her belly, stretching the coat over to Yachiru, placing half of it over her before settling back into the dirt, letting her fall back asleep as the Captain nonverbally commanded her to.

Sun peeked through her lids and she rolled onto her back, rolling free from the Captain's top coat. She stretched and sighed. She didn't dream this time, she mused, she really was free now.

She heard a faint jingle of a bell off to her side and she saw Kenpachi standing off in the distance, looking somewhere in the forest. She couldn't tell if he saw something, or was just standing there to enjoy the scenery that he has not destroyed yet. She crossed the latter out as soon as she finished the thought.

"Get up, we are going to train."

Not surprised on how he knew she was awake, she stood and dusted off her dirty kimono and tank and straightened her back confidently after picking up her sword. She was smiling, she did not know why, but she was happy, and for once, she was actually looking forward to training. Not because she thought she could master his strange ways of training, but because this was going to her first real step into growing.

"Yes sir."

"So, it looks like i can finally meet the real Carrin now. Don't you dare hold back anymore," he threatened, which was not hard to do for him at all, turning to give her his signature psycho grin that she was beginning to get the hang of.

"Yes sir, i won't let it happen again," she said, still smiling as she gave him a small bow, not her normal 90 degree one. She reached down and picked up his captain coat, not missing the fact that the lieutenant was not there anymore, and held it out to Kenpachi,"Lead the way, Captain Kenpachi."

The captain grinned as he took his coat from her and held it over his shoulder like a sack, turning to lead her who knows where. 

             Elswhere

"You saw that right?"

". . . Yeah. i could almost swear i felt that too."

"No wonder Kenpachi had his eyes on her."

"Captain was never one to take interest in one because they have the potential to be strong. To him you are either strong or your weak, never an in between. In the end it will come down to how good she fights in battle."

There was a short pause between the two as they overlooked the forest from a watch tower. At that distance, they should have seen nothing but perhaps a very small specks of movement, but instead they saw what almost looked like a hole in the forest, previously blown to bits by an enormous power that they only recognised as one person. They both never thought she had it in her, they knew she could be indeed very strong, but this strong, they never imagined. What was an even bigger mystery was why their captain insisted on training her. He never had this kind of interest in a new commer before, much less take them with him on his days worth of training he did often enough for them to know about, they never seen anyone but the Lieutenant go with him.