The Double Edged Sword

01

Deep within the Gotei Thirteen there was an empty white room where Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the Captain Commander, sat in his chair. It was almost like a throne room with one singular King's chair within it. This room was used for many occasions, much like meetings or gatherings; or in this cases training lessons. The room was spacious, the walls white, but the wooden floors held an appearance very close to a traditional Japanese dojo. 

"Come here child." 

A strong yet gentle voice echoed from the hollow white walls in which a young girl played. It wasn't uncommon for the older man, her grandfather, to speak with her so casually, though normally he preferred to watch her training sessions - or as she liked to think of them, her 'play sessions' - in silence. 

He didn't usually have downtime to spend with his dear granddaughter, but he did make sure to take the time to observe her training. As the Captain-Commander he preferred to remain emotionally reserved from all of his 'children' though Izumi was different. Special even.

Caught a little off guard, the girl set her wooden sword down in front of  the practice dummy while blatantly smirking at its horrible condition. 

The straw man was missing both arms, half its head, chest cavity ripped wide open and both bottom limbs were badly damaged. It hadn't lasted very long like her uncle had promised, but she was also known for being extremely rough with her 'toys'.

'Perhaps I've been playing to roughly again.' she thought to herself before shaking her head.

'No, I'll just have to ask Uncle ken-chan to bring me another.'  An image of said man popped up in her five year old mind causing a light giggle to leave her lips. In her experience, that man definitely was her partner in crime; even if he didn't like to show it sometimes.

With a skip in her step and a smile on her face, the young Izumi rushed to the older scarred man's sitting form. Coming to stand just before his large chair, she bowed. Imitating the other members of the Gotei 13; the organization her grandfather was in controlled. 

As a sign of deep respect, each and ever single person that reported to the elderly man bowed their heads, so why would his granddaughter be any different? 

That was the assumption of Izumi anyways.

 Her long unkempt mop of hair flopped over and dangled in her face, the tips of it touching the floor. Genryusai popped one eye fully open with a raised eyebrow at her antics; scanning her poor form all the way down to her messy hair touching the floor. He sighed.  

When the deep sigh of disapproval filled the air it caused the girl's smile to turn to a frown. Glancing up slightly she watched him through her purple fringe tilt his head to the side and study her as she continued to bow. 

"Child tell me, why do you bow?" He grumbled reaching his cane out to lightly tilt her head up. He nodded slightly to himself at the sight of her face then removed his cane. 

He knew that he was much too lax with the formalities around this child, but somewhere in his heart he felt that she needn't be subjected to such things at such a young age. He watched as she cocked her head to the side in confusion; mop of thigh length hair hung to the side. He raised an eyebrow at her expectantly before returning to his original position. 

Genryusai was a fair man, painfully fair especially in his old age, and that is how he had managed to stay in the position of Captain Commander for so many years.

"What do you mean gramps?" She asked confused after a moment, his mouth twitched upwards slightly before he opened his eyes and made contact with Izumi's electric blue ones.