Zanpakutō meditation

Pociden began his day with a walk. The sky was clear and the sun was shinning brightly. There was a slight breeze in the air and the grass swayed slightly. He walked with a pep in his step and a smile across his face. The reason for this happiness was due to the news he had received a few days ago. He had not only joined squad 9, but also was going to take a seated position.

The place he was going to was a place he had heard of from some fellow shinigamis. It was not only quite and peaceful, but the area was far away from the nearest village. What a perfect training ground that place would be. Pociden thought as he walked away from their discussion with the two shinigamis. Soon, he had the idea to go and examine the area to see if it was as good as the shinigamis were claiming it was.

The walk was long which gave him time to think. He thought about how he would fit in with the squad and what he would be training if the area was good. He noticed that he passed the last village on the way there and knew he was getting closer. The walk after the village was longer than he had initially thought it would be but soon he arrived at the forest he was suppose to enter.

Entering the forest, he noticed that the trees were somewhat tall and the grass was about a quarter of his height. He moved through the grass and trees and soon came to the area. He stood in the center of the area and was happy at how right the shinigamis were. He pondered what he would train and then a realization came to him. He had trained his speed and strength but never really made an effort in communicating with his spirit. Deciding that this was where he would attempt to breach the barrier he had with this Zanpakutō, he sat down with his legs crossed. He placed his Zanpakutō horizontally onto his lap, closed his eyes, and began meditating.

He sat there and meditated for a couple hours. He still was not able to go into his inner world let along make contact with his spirit. Still he kept on meditating for a few more hours. Birds had chirped here and there and some grass moved as the wild life came and went through the area. Still not a single grasp of spiritual connection with his Zanpakutō. As another hour passed by, he started to lose confidence that he would make contact with his spirit today. Hours passed again and soon the sunset came. Still he continued to meditate and finally it was night came over the area. One more hour had passed and he had given up on today. He sighed with defeat and stood up. Picking up his Zanpakutō, he began to walk out of the area and back to the soul society.

As he headed back, he started to see the last village he passed on his way to the area that morning. He noticed that there was still light emanating from the village. He started to develop a bad feeling from some reason so he hastened his pace to a jog towards the village. When he got to the area, he saw why he had developed the ominous feeling. The village had a gang of ten or so bandits which rounded all the villagers and placed them in the center of the place. Pociden deducted that they had came to the area and probably raided the villagers of their possessions. He gauged the strength of each bandit and figured that the ten bandits were somewhat weak. He began to move in closer to examine the situation further.

Pociden was behind a building and examined the villagers conditions. All of them had their hands and legs bounded together by rope. Each of them were either bloodied or had bruises everywhere. Pociden then turned his attention towards the bandits. The bandits were all facing in the direction of the villagers and had their backs where he was located. Each was discussing with one another about something. Pociden scanned the area one more time and decided to make his move. He drew his Zanpakutō, and gripped it with both hands. He looked around once more and saw that one of the villagers had noticed him. The villager, who was a boy around the age of eight or so, looked at Pociden. A slight smile started to develop on his face as he assumed that Ace would come to their aid. Pociden smiled back and charged in.

He shunpoed behind the one all the way to the left and made a quick downward slash from the right shoulder to the left hip. The attack would not kill the bandit but would take him out of the fight. As he fell, Pociden shunpoed to another one and made an upward slash bringing the bandit out of commission. Surprised by the attack out of nowhere which took two of their comrads, the bandits turned their attention to Pociden and attacked. They began to trade blows but this fight was leaning towards Pociden to win. He would take one bandit down with a few strikes from his Zanpakutō meanwhile the bandits would strike him with their weapons. But each time the bandits tried to hit him, he would flash step away from the attack making them miss. But every so often one of them would get lucky and manage to hit him. The battle ended soon and he managed to wipe them all out without breaking a sweat. He sheathed his Zanpakutō and untied all the villagers to free them. The boy that had noticed Pociden ran up to him and told him that what he did was amazing and that he could be like him. Pociden smiled at the boy and told him that if he trained hard enough he could achieve his goal one day. The villagers thanked him and offered a place to stay in their village as a sign of gratitude. Pociden happily agreed to stay since he still had a far amount of distance to travel back to the center of the Soul Society and he was going back the the area again tomorrow anyways.

Pociden awoke the next day somewhat in a haze. He was slightly confused in why he was in this house. Soon he remembered that he had helped the villagers by defeating all the bandits that had captured them and this was their way of giving their appreciation. He stood up and walked outside of the house he was in. It was dawn and some of the villagers were already up and about. He went back into the house and grabbed his Zanpakutō. He was determined to break the barrier that was between his zanapakuto and himself today. He walked out of the house and thanked the villagers for letting him stay. The villagers thanked him back for rescuing them and he headed off the the forest.

By the time he reached the forest entrance, it had already became morning. As he traveled through the forest, he enjoyed the few birds chirps from the surrounding trees. It was around mid morning or so when he had reached the spot. He sat down with his Zanpakutō in his lap again and began his meditation once more. He meditated all throughout the morning and noon. It was beginning to sunset again and he started to lose confidence that he was going to make contact with this spirit. He sighed and was about to give up when he heard something. It was a deep voice that said something slowly. He started concentrate on what the voice had said. It said it again and this time it was much more clear. The word it had said was, "Come."

When Pociden heard this, a gust of wind through him and he opened his eyes. What he saw was a white door, the size of Pociden himself, in front of him and complete darkness all around. When he looked downwards, it was complete darkness, yet somehow he was standing like there was a floor beneath him. That's when he heard the voice again. This time, it was louder.  "Come to the door." The voice said to him. Pociden was about to ask why and then decided that it would be better to just follow what the voice was asking him to do. He walked over to the door and noticed there was a white doorknob on the door.  "Open the door and step into the room."Pociden followed the voice's orders again and opened the door.

What he saw was a giant white room with equally giant white columns extending to the roof. On the floor there was intricate designs in the shape of diamonds and a path that led to a giant circle in the shape of the sun. On the walls are a variety of flower shaped designs. In the center of the room on top of the circle is a table with a white table cloth over it and two large white chairs. A black hooded figure is sitting in the chair. There are two silver chains with a diamond shape prism at the end. Each chain hangs on either side of the hood. His hands are covered with black gloves and he had black boots on for shoes. The black hooded figure's arms are folded across his chest.

Pociden looks around the room amazed at the design. He then turns his attention to the mysterious figure in front of him. The figure motions to the seat with his hand as if to offer Pociden a seat in the chair. Pociden walks to the chair and takes a seat and still looks around the room. "Who are you and what is this place?"Pociden asked after some time had passed. The hooded figure looked around the room and then turned his attention to Pociden.  "The place we are currently in is your inner world. As for who I am, I am your spirit of your Zanpakutō." The figure said. Pociden wasn't surprised as he had a guess to who the person was and what this place is. "There are things I would like to know about you. I'm assuming you have time for a chat?" The spirit asked. Pociden nodded and they began to learn about each other.

Pociden learned a lot about his Zanpakutō spirit and his Zanpakutō spirit learned a lot about Pociden. They over the course of the conversation they turned from being complete strangers to friends. Pociden even got to know that his spirit's name is Dusk. Pociden felt that the conversation had been going on for a while and decided that it was time he headed back to his world. Pociden thanked Dusk for the conversation they had and the time they spent getting to know each other and extended his arm to shake Dusk's hand. Dusk thanked Pociden back and shook his hand back. As Pociden left, he had noticed that the door was much larger on the inside and it had appeared on the outside. Pociden estimated that it was around twice the size of the door outside and then he heard Dusk say something. He turned around and heard Dusk say that the next time they mean, the table won't be here and that the place will look slightly different. Pociden nodded after hearing what his Zanpakutō said and pushed the doors open and reentered his world.