One afternoon in the peach garden [Closed]

One of the more beautiful areas of the Rukongai was the peach gardens near a small but fresh water lake. The grass always seemed to be a lush bright green and the dirt paths leading through the rows of trees saw very few foot steps besides the occasional visitor or the farmer preforming a harvest of the sweet fruits. Being a regular visitor though Momoka was welcome any time as she liked to relax here often and it didn't see much trouble. As Momoka had helped with the harvest today she took some time to relax and sit under the Sakura tree that stood in the middle of the field of peach trees. It was seen as a sign of good luck and the shinigami woman felt at home here and often volunteered to guard the garden at night and nothing really happened instead of the occasional homeless soul looking for food.

The man who owned the garden frowned upon letting others go hungry so he always left a basket near the entrance of free fruit. Today a group of armed men wandered into the farmers house and began demanding money from the poor old man. The farmer held a pitch fork in his arms to keep himself up as he had been beaten by the group of thugs. Hearing the commotion, Momoka quickly rushed to the house and being the somewhat speedy woman she was she was at the house in a span of a minute tops. Looking in she sighed and opened her fan and closed it before opening it once more showing a light teal blue. Closing it again she walked in calmly at first and while she hated theives there was an elderly man in the house so shooting the foundations down with kido was a bad idea.

"Ohaiyou~" she said putting on a rather cheery voice for the thieves as they turned to her, she only had her fan in her hand so she seemed harmless. One of them tried to take their chances with her and walked up to her with a rather cocky smirk on his face.

"Hey der little lady...what brings a cute little thing here? You should wait outside, don't want ya to see anything bad" he chuckled rather loudly, though that was probably not something he should have been doing as Momoka tapped the fan against the mans head. The man stopped and looked at it only to get a rather violent shock from it as lightning flowed from her fan into the mans body. The electricity caused him to spasm violently and when the shinigami woman removed the fan the large man dropped to the ground with smoke visibly rising from his unconscious or at least stunned body.

The others in the group seemed to run except for two of them, they rushed at her swords drawn and as Momoka wasn't really expecting such a stupid action, even from some wannabe bandits, she was caught off guard when the swung their blades at her. She let out a small 'eep' in panic as she tried to duck under the blades quickly. She only just succeeded and one of them tired to kick her. The foot collided with her nose and she grunted in pain as she really hated getting hit in the nose with someones smelly foot. She held her nose and leaped out of the house and pulling out a white cloth to absorb any blood that may come from her nose injury and she just waited for the two to come out and become free game for her Hadō.

PREPARE TO EMBARK INTO LANDEN'S POST!

It had been a long trip for Landen, he had spent the past four months in central america hunting hollows, surveying the monsuta quietly, and growing. His mind was still on the fight he had in Bolivia, how he was so far out of his league in that battle and had decided to stick it out anyways. His body was still sore from it but the soldier knew not to show signs of pain. Now though he had come home to the soul society, despite the fact he was a vizard he was still a shinigami, still worked side by side with his brethren, but at the end of the day he reported to a different officer and she was..... abrasive.. to say the least but he wanted to forget that.

It was his routine when he came home to stop by any local farm and buy some fruits and for whatever reason this time around he had a severe hankering for some peaches. Usually oranges or mangoes did the trick for him but this time his mouth would water every time he though of the peach, the succulent fruit with its light fuzz. A shiver went down his spine as he entered the orchard and the smells over whelmed him.

The moment was ruined though as a spike in spirit pressure alerted him to a fight. Within seconds he appeared right outside the farm house, the grass waving around his feet from the speed of his entrance. A girl exited form the house holding a white cloth to her nose that was stained with blood. She was an attractive young woman that appeared to be around Landen's age. He took the moment to size her up and look at her many assets. It wasn't as if he was too concerned on the fight taking place because all of these men were much lower than him in power.

That being said when the majority blotted for it he let them pass but the two that decided to stay and play and hurt the beautiful woman would be another story. He would suck his teeth and get one's attention as he exited the house. In the blink of an eye he closed the distance between himself and the thug, stopping right behind the man. His left hand on his Zanpakutō that was still sheathed 'mostly'. A gush of red would litter the air as blood sprayed out of the man's chest and he fell forward. In the moment Landen had passed by the man he used his speed and weapon skill to bring the bottom of his handle of Azai up into the man's sternum and shatter it, causing internal bleeding that wouldn't be life threatening.

The second man would stop dead in his tracks in the door way, a cold sheen of sweat on his brow and running down his cheeks. Landen would smile cheerfully at the man, his auburn brown hair getting in the way of his hazel eyes. "Sorry about what I did to your friend. I just don't like an unfair fight, two grown strong men against one slender beautiful woman. tsk." He would scold before side stepping so that the woman who he felt was charging a kido attack could way lay the bastard.

Never a dull moment. He would think as he kept walking on into the orchard, looking for a good tree bearing ripe fruit so he could pluck a few and enjoy his vacation.

As the fight had begun it suddenly ended as a man appeared from nowhere and cut one of them down with ease then breaking the others sternum. This man was strong and pretty good looking in Momoka's opinion, however without a love of kidou there was no way he was anywhere near the sort of person momoka would even consider dating. But she blushed upon hearing his most likely accidental and the blood had stopped flowing from her nose now as it wasn't that bad to begin with.

Rather then deal with cleaning it she opened her fan once more and revealed it's color had changed to red, she closed it again and a small flame appeared and she burned the cloth. With a sigh she looked at the now rather pathetic man on the ground. She wasn't a killer so she decided to spare him, with that Momoka decided to take that small bit of revenge though. The thief soon let out a loud yell of extreme pain as Momoka had swiftly kicked the poor guy in the crotch. She then looked to Landen and smiled as she didn't really know what to say to him as she never met him before.

"Arigatou, I guess you saved me there, but I didn't really need help sir...but thank you anyway, I'm Momoka, a fellow shinigami" the woman bowed to Landen and rose up again as she looked him over a bit "So what brought you out here?". Her curiosity got the better of her there and she wanted to know more about this person and what secrects she may end up discovering from him. At the back of her head she thought that maybe this guy was a great hadoist and if she played it right she'd learn many great things from him.

PREPARE TO EMBARK INTO LANDEN'S POST!

He had made his way to the tree of his choice, it was on a hill by itself and had a good view of the area around it with plenty of shade. The peaches were ripe and ready to be plucked and savored. It wasn't until he set his Zanpakutō and picked a peach that he noticed the woman from earlier had followed him to offer a thank you, but not before insisting she didn't need his help, and introduce herself while asking his business here.

He squinted at her, really taking her in this time, back at the farm house he knew she was attractive but getting a better look at her confirmed it. She had purple eyes he had never seen before with long, like holy lord, long brown hair that almost matched the bark of the trees. Her waist was thin but she had curves in the right spots, firm and slender legs, a huge bust that almost made him have to clear his throat.

"I'm sure you had that all handled, what with your running from the two men, but you're welcome. I'm Landen and I'm not technically a shinigami. I'm a vizard but same difference minus the hollow. Also if you must know I just got back from a posting in the world of the living and as always I stop at a random farm to eat some fruit. This time I felt like peaches alright? What's it to you? Noisy one." He said, trying to act tough and nonchalant, he didn't want this woman to think she had a sway on him with her good looks and all.

"Also Miss I Already Had It Handled you were taking too long to charge a single kido attack, they would have been on you before you were ready to fire. I hope that's not your main offensive style because a hollow will be on you like white on rice before you even draw that fan out to use. You need training if you're dead set on using that. I'd go find someone to train you. " He said, raising his chin up and crossing his arms, but not before taking a decent bite out of his peach. Just because she had interrupted his snack didn't mean he was going to stand there and not eat, for the love of god he didn't get many days off. Didn't have a reason too since nothing here held him down, he spent most of his time in the human world fighting hollows and stopping hostile take overs when he could. It was more rare for him to be here than there in all actuality.

She noticed him examining her further and wondered why, sure she knew she was good looking but did he really need to examine her further. Then he decided to criticize her on her kido ability, now that was a bit of an insult to her and she hadn't even began to charge a kidou. So she just sighed and put on some rather cute puppy dog eyes for him and looked a bit sad "I'm good with Hadō...Honest I am sir...I just didn't have time to charge one because they were attacking me" she gave him the sad look and this guy obviously didn't know her. Landen would have been in for a shock if one of them had ran and she used her shikai.

She sat next to him and decided to try and mess with him more if possible "Will you help me improve Mister Landen? I want to be the best with Kido but if I don't learn from anyone I won't get better right?". Landen probably hadn't heard how persuasive Momoka could be but then again he was in the living world for ages apparently, and a Vizard...she saw them as interesting if anything, her interest was poked at even more as she wanted to know how a vizard ticked. Did the hollow take over sometimes, did the mask ever not come off at all. SO many questions, so little time...wait she wasn't human, she had all the time in the world at this rate.

She fidgeted a bit as she feigned her sadness furether "Are you any good with Hadō at all mister Landen? And what's it like being a Vizard does it hurt?" she moved a bit closer to him and by now he'd probably be able to tell she was faking her puppy dog eyes and sadness. So she kind of realized it and just gave up giving him a smile before speaking again "But seriously, I wasn't charging any kido, but if I did I may have brought the whole place down and the farmers very kind so I don't want to ruin his business, also that peach your eating isn't even ripe". She pointed out the size and color of it wasn't right and that a sour flavor might be an aftertaste.

She then stood and picked a couple and sat again offering one to him, it was very pink and gave off a nice aroma. "So how's the human world? Everything going well I assume?" she bit into her fruit and sighed after swallowing it, after a rather quick and pointless fight she needed the nice fruit. She looked to Landen awaiting his response.

PREPARE TO EMBARK INTO LANDEN'S POST!

He had seen many women before use the sad puppy dog look before but it wouldn't affect him. He would play the tough mysterious hero in this instant to keep her interested. She was a damn beauty and he wouldn't mind spending a few minutes talking to her and perhaps making a friend, who knows. "You might not be able to keep up with me and I'd be a hard teacher. " He said with a yawn, stretching out and spitting out the peach, it was too tart to eat.

"I'm a Hadō master, I know all kido and can use them to a terrifying degree." He boasted, lifting his hand up in the air, point his left index finger at the sky. "Hadō 54 - Haien." With the words uttered a wicked blast of deep purple spirit energy would rocket from the tip of his finger and into the sky like a mighty pillar of violet fire. Once his show was over and the purple light vanished he turned to lay on his side and prop his head up with his right arm as she sat by him.

He would take the ripe peach in his left hand and begin to chew thoughtfully on it, ignoring the question about if being a vizard hurt. A flash of the battle he had against power Steiner appearing in his mind, his hollow had taken over and he had beat the boy within an inch of his life. He would swallow the fruit and exhale, letting out the pain of the memory before putting his cocky grin back on, "If I teach you then you have to do me a favor, you have to join my friends squad in the Gotei 13. Squad 7." He said, holding the rest of the peach in his hand as he pointed at her.

The week before he came home he met up with Carter and the boy had explained how he got a promotion and needed recruits bad, that the Gotei was in shambles. her next question caught him off guard and a dark shadow cast over his face, "Nothing's going well over there. The darkness has never been stronger." His hazel eyes would look up at the sky before he spoke again, "People are basically slaves to the evil groups like Shadowfall and Monsuta. That's why I keep going back to earth rather than stay here and mill through mounds of paper work. The front lines need men who have nothing to lose, no families, nothing to make them hold back." He explained, calmly, having made peace with the fact that he wasn't destined to know love or have a family many years ago.

"But enough of that Momoka, if you're serious about training in kido I can teach ya but like I said you have to join Squad 7 and listen to my bud Carter. He needs all the help he can get."

"Well I was considered a kido prodigy in the academy, so I'm sure I'll be able keep up with you to some degree, besides, my shikai enhances my kidou even further adn if I had released during that fight you have seen a couple of torn in half corpses" she chuckled knowing that her Shikai was responsible for a rather messy string of hollow decapitations during a raid to eliminate an infestation that appeared once or twice. Momoka smiled to Landen and forgiving him for not answering about being a vizard, afterall it's not like he chose that path and Hadō masters had to come in contact with hollows every now and then. She bit into her fruit once more and leaned against the tree looking to the sky which had now been filled with the purple stream of flames, she was awestruck and blinked as the stream vanished.

"I'll join 7th squad, but I need to know a bit more about it, I don't really keep up to date on the squads much and if the squad is kido focused consider me an eager recruit!" she looked back to Landen and couldn't help but to stare the man right in the eyes, as if she was trying to read him like a book. She wasn't a psychic by any means but she always felt the eyes were a door way to what one was thinking, not that weird door way to the soul thing, that door is kind of locked a hundred percent of the time. She began to wonder what this guy was like, was he really just a tough edgey warrior or was he a teddy bear on the inside. She decided to probe at him a bit more.

She lowered her self to him a bit and smiled to him "So Landen-san...why the tough guy act? are you trying to impress me? Because if you are, I have to warn you...there's a lot of tough guys in the seireitei and you'd need to be the toughest to truly impress me...or if you're more of a gentle person..I reckon you and I would get along like a pencil and paper" she winked cutely at him and sat back up and looked to the sky, a nice breeze was blowing now. She let out a sigh as she let the wind blow past her, she closed her eyes with a nice smile on her face. It got a bit heated out here at times and these nice afternoon breezes made this place seem like it was worth the endurance. Her hair shifted gently in the breeze and she soon leaned against the tree as the breeze ended.

"I love the breezes here, you can smell the peaches and the flowering trees, I might try and make a nice perfume from the peach flowers some time" she kind of lost track of what she was doing.

PREPARE TO EMBARK INTO LANDEN'S POST!

He would look back up at the clouds after finished his treat, letting her speak as any man would do. His hands would wind up behind his head and he would lay out stretched in the grass. His rich brown hair would come down over his tanned face as he cleared his throat. "Squad 7 isn't kido, it's internal affairs but both Carter and myself are high kido users and he could use a smart woman to help him. Internal affairs requires a good deal of mind power and strong back bone, I think maybe you can help him out." He would say with a lazy yawn, "Like I said that's the deal. I'll teach you all you want to know and more about kido, maybe even the forbidden ones."

When she asked about his tough guy act he shrugged. "Maybe it's an act but I've been doing it for so many years I can't tell. It's just easier, I see a pretty face like yours and think of what it would be like to be tied down, to have a family, someone to go home to, and when I think like that I get slowed down. I can't be slowed by thoughts of what ifs while I'm on the battlefield. The fates have decided I do not deserve nor will I ever have a woman to hold for more than a few nights and a family to call my own. If that changes so be it but until then the tough guy act is one of the only things keep me alive and focused." he said, being more honest than he thought he would be.

Every night on earth he would think about the what ifs only to banish them as soon as they appeared, he used to spend his times on earth piss faced drunk or with a woman hanging under his arm when he wasn't fighting. It was the easy way to deal with the reality of his fat, he was a sad lonely man. He had a decent amount of power and could retire to the offices if he wanted to but he had nothing here to make him want to get off the front lines.

A nice breeze kicked up ushering in more scents of peaches through the orchard and he couldn't help but agree with her statement but wanted to get back to the topic of battle and being alone for whatever reason, "Now what's your story? You're out here alone and no married man would let a wife as beautiful out of his sight, so that means two possible things. 1. you're bat shit crazy or 2. you're batting for my team, which is cool and all but I'd like to know your deal. Spill." He'd say, wanting to see just why he was wasting his time talking to this girl, any other pretty face he would have had his way with and sent her on hers but for whatever reason he wanted to get to know here, hell he even offered to train her and he never trained girls, just on principal. He had actually only ever trained Carter when Carter was weaker but now they were on even footing and he left his friend to his new duties. Maybe I'll invite him out for a night of heavy drinking he thought while he waited for her to speak.

She nodded as she heard that 7th was internal affairs, that must of meant that she'd be like a spy. She could imagine it now, the frilly white dress, heels and a gun that shot kido for her. The thought was a long shot but she liked to day dream here and there, it's what kept her focused after all. With this Carter being good with kido as well she could potentially learn things from two masters. Maybe even do the impossible and manage to create a Hadō that created a black hole out of nowhere, there were so many possibilities now that she thought about it.

Then he finally explained the tough guy act, it totally was an act, she then heard that the 'what ifs' could get him killed. That wasn't something that she wanted to think about as the realms need dreamers to give it a soul but it also needs realists to keep it alive. So how did one react to being told that a simple thought could kill someone. She wanted to give him a hug, she couldn't imagine how rough of a life he must have had. She waited a moment before doing anything else then he asked what her story was.

She didn't really have a story when she thought about it, she kept to the background most of the time but now she had to stand up and be part of the actual gotei. She really didn't know what to tell him, it was just a boring life for her and she didn't want to seem boring to him. In the end though she really didn't want to lie and she hated liars so being one wouldn't be very fun. "Well...there's not much to know about me really, I woke up here in the Rukongai one day with a nasty slash on my back and after a while signed up to the shinigami, entered the academy and proved I was a good kidoist and graduated a while later, formed a bond with my Zanpakutō and soon I was slaying hollows by the dozen, achieved shikai and started destroying hollows with the little surprise that my shikai holds.". She thought for a moment then just dived in and gave Landen a hug "Let's be friends, ne?".

PREPARE TO EMBARK INTO LANDEN'S POST!

As she spoke and told her life's story he realized she was a standard run of the mill academy graduate. She had progressed as most did and unlocked parts of her Zanpakutō's power already but that didn't amount to much these days. Hell half of the soul reapers here were already more advanced than the heroes of the old tales. Soul Reapers like Ichigo were quite common this day and age and when she spoke of her life he felt bad for her, it was kind of boring, it had no spice, but it was safe and in a sense it was the exact opposite of Landen's.

The next moment he would find her arms wrapping around him like slender vines, her hair rustled into his face for a second and he caught a whiff of her heavenly aroma, like a spice and crisp fruit at the same time. She almost smelled like a foreign candy and he found himself wanting her hair to stay in his face longer but the moment ended as she looked up at him and asked for them to be friends.

"I can't be your friend if I am to be your senpai. It's unbecoming of a man who carries himself with honor. That being said I don't really have much honor to speak of, we'll see what happens." he said, trying to sound tough and aloof at the same time.

"Now I think we should perform your first lesson. Get up, walk 10 meters away from me and try and attack me with your most powerful kidos. I want to gauge your ability so I can know where we are going to start at." He ordered, freeing himself of her smooth and inviting arms and standing up, leaning against the tree like a target with a cocky grin on his face.

"Don't worry, I can take a hit." He assured her, the vizard feeling the pull of his masked side, the panther he had been embracing more and more lately, it wanted to train this girl but Landen hushed it.

Let me mold her..... The hollow would purr into his mind before Landen quieted it with his own words. No, you almost killed Steiner in your sick attempt to make him tough. You are not helpful in training. You know your place is the war front and you will have your fun out there. The thought he projected back at it would quiet the beast and lull it back to it's slumber, Landen had made a promise to it to work with it, in the attempt to obtain harmony with it like the more powerful vizards but still he was too weak in control to let it out to train others.

His hazel eyes would watch the girl, watching a certain part of her as she turned her back to him and began to walk away. Sweet lord shes stacked. He would think to himself while he waited.