Fire Froze ( Bleach Fanfiction )

Chapter 7: Inner World And Extreme Training

~Aki's p.o.v~

I closed my eyes as I steadied my breathing. The fire in me dwindling into a small flame, as I entered a state of mind that led into my inner world.

I opened my eyes and got off the floor, crushing a few bright colored flowers as I did so. A glimpse at my inner world would be a hot summer day, in a bright flowery meadow, bordered by thick trees that just go on and on forever. An infinity of heat, orange, yellow, and red flowers, with thick oak trees lining the sides.

I turned my head to face my zanpakuto. "Kasai," I began, not really knowing what to say. Instead of a reply, the elderly, grey-haired, zanpakuto flashed a warm smile at me. I haven't seen her in a long time so I drank in her appearance. She was a tall aging woman, maybe it was because she was wearing old wooden Japanese clogs, her kimono was made of a light orange silk and was covered with red and yellow lotus flowers all over it. Her long silver hair seemed to gleam in the scorching heat, as her obi seemed to stand out more. It was flaked with bright gold stars.

The pale skinned zanpakuto walked closer to me, her old clogs and white socks standing out more to me now, as she crushed a few flowers. "Aki." She said with a kind and familiar voice. She reached out her long arms to me, engulfing me in a kimono-interfering embrace, I slowly pushed away from her. Distant. I wasn't used to such, uh personal contact...

She had a wave of shock cross her face, but smoothly recovered from it. Typical Kasai. I thought with a smirk, but quickly as the thought came, returned my face to it's usual dull form. Kasai continued to look at me with gentle amber eyes, the same color eyes as mine, "You only reach out to me when you want something, I'd rather you didn't, but I am glad to see you." She said looking down to me with a small smile, I was probably up to her stomach in height. Half pint... I said talking down to myself, wow I'm negative.

I cleared my throat, "Kasai, I uh..."

I swallowed my pride.

"IneedyourhelplearningflashstepbecauseIcan'tdoitonmyownandI'mswallowingmyprideandaskingforyourhelpsopleaseteachme."

"Huh?"

I sighed. I gulped. "I need your help learning flash step, because I can't do it on my own and I'm swallowing my pride and asking for your help, so please, teach me." I took a breath.

The zanpakuto smiled, and tried to hide a childish giggle. "It's NOT funny!" I said losing my temper, Kasai had then burst into a fit of laughter.

"You don't know how to flash step?"

"I. Just. Said. That." I heaved my breath.

She flashed me a wise and childlike smile, "Then we got some work to do. Let's get started." She grabbed my hand and wisked me away in a flash step, further into the endless meadow. "To do that," She began, "you must learn from the basics. When you flash step, it feels as if time surges foward and your caught in between. It feels as if two walls are grinding against you, pushing in different directions. You must learn to master the feeling, to overcome it. That is how you shunpo, my dear Aki-sama."

"See...You make it sound easy, but it's really not."

And it wasn't.

-

I spent at least six hours in my inner world, or so I thought. By the time I got back into the real world I was sitting on the dirt floor, I sighed, got up, and looked at Rangiku. I shook my head, "No luck."

"Oi." The strawberry blonde said, guess she was at a lost for once as well.

-

We decided to take a walk deeper into the training grounds. I walked lazily with my hands folded tiredly behind my head. What came into my vision put me into a abrupt halt. What was in my vision was a worn down Hayate working tirelessly at flash step, all on his own. "Hey," Rangiku mumbled to me, "Looks like you're not the only who sucks at shunpo."

I elbowed her in the knee.

She winced, "Hey Hayate!" She called out to him.

He turned his head to face the two of us, smiling his wide, big, goofy smile.

Loser... I thought quietly.

Rangiku walked over to him as the two began a brief conversation, then both turned to face me, while I leaned awkwardly against a huge tree trunk. Rangiku motioned me forwards as I shook my head in a no way. She rolled her pale blue eyes and walked back over to me, grabbing my forearm tightly. "Come on." She said between gritted teeth. "No." I snapped, tempted to bite her. "I swear Aki, you are the worst at social situations." She then picked me up to my unfair advantage of height and flopped me down in front of Hayate. "Hey..." He said looking down at me, trying his best not to smirk nor laugh and offered me a hand up. I ignored his gesture. I stood up, nodded towards him, cleared my throat, and tried to recover my wounded pride.

Could this get any worse?

"Alright," Rangiku said with a clap of her hands, "Since you both are terrible at shunpo, I'm going to train you both! Are you ready for Rangiku's Extreme Training?!"

Yeah, it just got worse.

-

Rangiku had put us through extreme training, just like how she proclaimed. I couldn't understand why Hayate looked so confident with his usual grin. A hour into training the three of us got too tired to continue, so we took a break near a icy stream. The water was light blue as I kneeled down taking small sips of the cold, refreshing water. I was having trouble, since my hands were abnormally tiny. Well, I am proportioned with my height. Hayate then loomed over me offering a leaf he folded into a cup. I shook my head, "Keep it for yourself."

He then showed me another leaf cup he had in his other hand. He smirked as he forced me to take the cup from him. He ruffled my long brown hair as I was putting it into a ponytail. "Why. Did. You. Touch. My. Hair." I was a little sensitive when it came to my hair.

He laughed, and his voice surprisingly came out like chime bells. Light and airy. We sat, back to back, leaning onto each other as we took sips of water from our leaf cups. I would've argued about how he was touching me, but I was too tired to put up a fight. I just silently relished in the water.

Rangiku didn't think I realized but I did. I realized she was watching the two of us. Another thing she didn't think I noticed, was that she was smiling as she looked at Hayate and I... And Hayate didn't seem to mind.

-

A/N Thank you if you read this chapter, sorry for my absence, school has been horrible. >~< Anyways, love you all and please vote share and follow!