A New Day [Ludalfa]

It was just another cool, cloudy morning in Seiretei. With almost all of the nearly eleven million Shinigami living there fast asleep, the entire warrior city of the Gotei United was eerily silent. Soon, however, it would be bustling with activity as it always was, with millions of rank and file Shinigami rushing to carry out orders and complete their daily tasks as quickly as possible. Some would be leaving on missions to Earth or other realms, others would be returning from their missions with stories of deadly battles and glorious victories. But now, everything was silent and peaceful, almost as if mocking the perpetual strife that engulfed the many different worlds.

In the First Division's barracks, a lone Shinigami began to stir. Kyouhai was one of the few people in his division that could truly call themselves a "morning person." He enjoyed getting up before everyone else, usually to work out. After all, to be one of the warriors in the combat unit charged with protecting Soul Society from its enemies, one needed to be in good shape constantly. Also, as a combat unit Seat Officer (though his Reiatsu was around Captain-class), he needed to lead by example. Today, however, was his day off. He had been hoping to sleep in, but his natural sleep cycle refused to let him sleep past six o'clock most mornings. "Why am I up now... It's supposed to be my day off... I'm really not tryna do anything today..." thought Kyouhai as he pulled on his Shihakusho and strapped his Zanpakuto, Kyoukuryuu, across his back.

Moving as quietly as possible, he headed out of the barracks room and into the road through the First Division compound. It was an overcast morning, cool but not particularly cold. A human with one of their thermometers would have measured an air temperature of about 15 degrees Celsius. Still, it the light clothing that was the Shinigami uniform, Kyouhai shivered as he walked toward the entrance gate to First Division's compound and the main streets of Seiretei."Wait, what the hell are you doing?" asked a voice in Kyouhai's head. It was Kyoukuryuu, his Zanpakuto spirit. "Your Reiatsu's flowing out of you like crazy! Anyone who's awake is gonna know what you can do," complained the spirit. "You're right, I'd better take care of that," replied Kyouhai mentally. He suppressed his Reiatsu so that anyone awake would only sense him to be around forty percent as strong as he actually was. Rather than an almost Captain-class Shinigami with the ability to use Bankai, he would would seem to be of appropriate strength for his Seat Officer position.

Finally ready for his day, Kyouhai pushed open the gate and left his division's compound. He began walking east down the street, expecting to see nobody for quite some time...

It had been a long time since Yoma left the gotei and in his absence many things had changed, yet could he say he had changed? As Yoma quietly walked past many familiar sites it had seemed that many faces had changed. Yoma could no longer recall if this was truly the same place as before as he kept walking. All the pathways had been reworked, buildings were redesigned and changed and Yoma now felt lost. Yoma couldn’t help but laugh he couldn’t understand what brought him here. He looked at the remains of his zanpakuto. It had been a while since it broke and now it was nothing but a charred hilt seemly crumbing away with only a sliver of metal not even short enough to call to call a dagger. Yoma’s zanpakuto was now worthless to him. He was informed that it should restore itself over time but there had been no change. Yoma in this time had begun wondering what a Zanpakuto truly was and questioned the role of a shinigami. He felt that he needed to relearn what a shinigami was and how to fight.

He felt that was his reason to returning to this place that he had left long ago. Something told him he wouldn’t be able to continue moving if he couldn’t find these answers. Even as he walked lost in this place with one turn looking the same as the previous. Yoma just wondered along like he had been doing all his life. Nothing changed even though he had finally found a place to call home. He continued wandering aimlessly his whole life to reach something yet nothing. Yoma’s power had grown weaker and he hated it was this all his fault? Did he bring this to himself?

Yoma couldn’t help but think that was their someone who was willing to help him. He knew with his previous history in the gotei it was likely he would be pushed aside. To him, the world he saw around him was void of color and soul. He hated this feeling that he got from the gotei. This was the reason he left. He felt so limited yet here he was crawling back to ask for help. He knew that he had a chance to find someone to guide him towards a new path to escape from this voidless hole.

Yoma came across the first division’s gates he remembered this place. He hated this place remember the shinigami of old that were linked here. He knew they have possibly changed in this time but he did not want to ask for their help. Yoma walked away he felt like he had made a bad decision before spying someone up ahead of him. Yoma ran to catch up something told him to ask him for help. Yoma couldn’t tell any details of the shinigami nor knew if the shinigami was stronger then him all he knew was he wanted to ask him for help. Yoma Bowed.

'Hello my name is Yoma Yazaki and I would like you to help me. I want to go over what a shinigami and learn what I can all over again.”

Yoma knew this wasn't the best idea but he had to at least try. he clutched his zanpakuto and hoped for the best.

Nobody else was supposed to be awake at this hour. Kyouhai was expecting the streets to be completely empty, just as he'd seen them countless times before when walking around Seiretei at this early hour. It was very unlike rank and file Shinigami to do anything without being directly ordered to. Even Kyouhai, as a Seated Officer, was expected to be in certain places at certain times. Failing to do so could result in serious punishment. Even going on a walk when there were still tasks to complete for the day was a somewhat risky thing to do.

Because of all this, it was definitely a surprise when he began to detect the Reiatsu of another being nearby. "Definitely a Shinigami, certainly not an officer... Seems like a low level recruit, probably just out of the Academy. He's definitely moving in my general direction, but even if he were hostile, he seems too weak to pose a threat... unless he's hiding his Reiatsu like me," thought Kyouhai as he analyzed the information available to him based on the other Shinigami's Reiatsu. It was very likely that he was just as weak as he seemed, but because Kyouhai himself hid his Reiatsu constantly, he was very skeptical of anyone who seemed to have an abnormal amount of power. He was somewhat on edge as the other Shinigami's figure appeared out of the morning fog.

"Hello, my name is Yoma Yazaki, and I would like you to help me. I want to go over what a Shinigami really is and learn what I can all over again," said the other Shinigami as Kyouhai approached. He was surprised at the abruptness with which the seemingly new Shinigami spoke. He should have at least been able to tell by Kyouhai's Reiatsu that he was at least a Seat Officer and addressed him as "sir." Then again, maybe it was just a rookie mistake. Whatever it was, it didn't really matter. Kyouhai was in a good mood and did not really feel like correcting Yoma. Instead, he decided to do the decent thing and try to help him.

"Yoma Yazaki... I haven't seen you around before, but I can certainly help you out. I'm Kyouhai Suzumori, a 1st Division Seated Officer, by the way," began Kyouhai. But why exactly did this man need to learn how to be a Shinigami "again." Was he unusually stupid and actually managed to forget everything he'd been taught at the Academy, or was there something else going on here? He decided that he had better figure out exactly what the problem was. "What exactly do you mean by 'again?'"

Yoma thoughts were focused on pushing his strength further. That to him he was extremely ignorant of the other’s shinigami’s reiatsu. He could still feel it but he couldn’t understand it. He grew excited upon hearing that the shinigami was willing to help him. Yoma grew surprised that the shinigami he had casually walked up to was a seated officer. He was so used to getting yelled at by the higher ups but he knew this time it was different. This shinigami seemed to have no idea who Yoma was. So Yoma took this as a good sign and a chance to start over on a new footing but grew silent when asked to explain his predicament and what happened to him. He honestly hated talking about it but understood it was something he needed to accept to continue moving forward.

“As i said before My name is Yoma Yazaki but i am a shinigami who Suffers from Dissociative identity Disorder. Due to this it causes abnormal memory loss and some other conditions. The memory loss isn't sudden but it's more of gaps in one's memory which normal memory loss does not cover. Due to this i was able to luckily graduate the Acadamy and became a trouble maker within the gotei 13. I felt like i didn’t belong so i left and wanted to find somewhere to belong Yet here i am once again looking for help to learn what a shinigami’s purpose is and to go through some basic training.”

Yoma spoke with what he thought was the best information to give Kyouhai but then thought he had forgotten something. He held what remained of his zanpakuto and realized he never mentioned what had happened with his zanpakuto. He hesitated to say anything but gathered the words.

“Upon meeting meeting an ally and participating in a spar i had my zanpakuto break. Honestly i never thought about my zanpakuto and was ignorant towards it. Now my power feels weaker and my zanpakuto has been broken for a long time now. I was informed that it would repair itself but it still has no change. I thought if i went back and went over my basic training i could move closer to restoring my zanpakuto. i don't know kido, i dont know how to use a sword, and worst of all i do not have a basic understanding of reishi and energy that i cant even properly use my power.”

Yoma felt as he was talking too much his energy had drained out of him as he spoke as he knew it was his fault his zanpakuto was in it’s current state. Yoma waited for the Kyouhai to respond because this could change his opinion on the matter as Yoma was now a shinigami no longer associated with the gotei and was now part of a different organization but this was information that would not be rapidly available to the gotei. Yoma could only continue holding on to hope and his potential he could possibly one day obtain.

Kyouhai listened carefully as the Shinigami who had called himself Yoma explained the problem was. Despite the fact that he had lived for 1,400 years and been associated with the spiritual world for nearly as long, Kyouhai had never heard of such a thing happening to any Shinigami before. As far as he knew, a broken Zanpakuto would fix itself within a few minutes of battle if its wielder survived. Most of the time, Zanpakuto were broken in fights to the death, not simple sparring, so the Shinigami unfortunate enough to get their weapon broken usually ended up dying, in which case the Zanpakuto would disappear as well. Because of this, there was not very much information about what had happened to the unfortunate Shinigami now standing before Kyouhai, who now found himself very confused.

Still, some of what Yoma had said made at least a little sense and gave the more experienced Shinigami something to work with. Yoma had mentioned that he had been "ignorant and harsh" toward his Zanpakuto. Though many lower-level Shinigami didn't really pay that much attention to their weapons' spirits and yet had no problems with using them, it was theoretically possible that a more sensitive Zanpakuto spirit might refuse to work with an inexperienced or "ignorant" Shinigami. These things did have their own unique personalities, after all.

"How does one fix a Zanpakuto that won't fix itself anyways? I've never even heard of such a thing..." wondered Kyouhai. He knew that Shinigami swords that broke in battle were supposed to repair themselves if they broke while in their sealed state. If it was broken while in any released form, the weapon's owner needed only to seal it to fix the broken blade. If this wasn't happening, something was wrong with either the Shinigami, the Zanpakuto, or both. It was always possible that the spirit within the weapon was refusing to repair the blade for some reason. There were many recorded cases of Zanpakuto refusing to cooperate with their Sinigami, after all. There were, however, many other possible explanations as well. Some were even as far-fetched as Yoma not even really being a Shinigami. Whatever the case, Kyouhai decided he was going to get to the bottom of this and hopefully help this man. "Just give me a second, I need to think what to do. This isn't something I've heard of happening before," he said to Yoma, turning away briefly to think.

"Kyoukuryuu, what's the best way to get the most uncooperative of Zanpakuto to work with a Shinigami?" asked Kyouhai mentally, hoping his own Zanpakuto might know how to handle the situation at hand. "Well I would assume that no Zanpakuto would want to die, unless they're stupid or suicidal, so just put the Shinigami in a tough spot and maybe his partner will respond," replied Kyoukuryuu. "Okay, thanks... I think I know just what to do," responded Kyouhai mentally. "Don't kill the guy, though..." warned the Zanapkuto. "No shit, I'm not retarded," Kyouhai said to his Zanpakuto spirit as he turned back to the weaker Shinigami.

"Okay here's what we're gonna do," began Kyouhai. "Come with me to the First Division barracks. I have something there that I think will help you with this problem." he said. Now, Kyouhai turned and began to walk back in the direction that he had come from, motioning for Yoma to follow. He had planned on just resting and doing whatever he felt like (or absolutely nothing) all day, but it seemed like he'd be working today after all...

Yoma was confused to what would happen and if Kyouhai would believe him after everything he had told him. Yoma held a distaste with the gotei after his history with them. he did understand he need help from well trained shinigami within the gotei to help grow his understanding. Yoma stood impatiently waiting for a reply but he couldn't keep himself still to see what Kyouhai would say. A part of him told him to be ready and on the defence in case Kyouhai was going to trick him and attempt to do something to him. Yoma knew with his old reputation he had within the gotei from before stated how he was nothing more than a troublemaker that has caused more trouble than needed. So yoma had to figure out what he could do incase a battle did breakout. He knew his power was somehow limited after the breakage of his zanpakuto.

Yoma was told to wait a moment while Kyouhai thought yoma grew worried when he was told what had happened to him wasn't something that he knew much about. Yoma felt more and more that his broken zanpakuto was all his fault and how he should have earlier on spent more time to learn what being a shinigami was all about. Then Kyouhai had told yoma that he had an idea and that yoma should follow him back to the first division turning around and walking past yoma. Yoma followed he had no idea what he was thinking but had to be ready. He couldn’t hear the voice of his other self so he knew he was on his own. He had lost himself in thought while he followed Kyouhai every step towards the first division felt as it was taking forever. He wanted this to work he needed this to work. It had been as if he lost a piece of himself.

Yoma was hoping that this would be the key to push himself to increase his strength to allow him to be worthy of his zanpakuto. But, with the first division barrack right before them Yoma grew fearful as yoma started feeling uncomfortable with this place. The strong and the most determined shinigami were part of this division given their duties straight from the head captain of the entire gotei. Yoma could only stare at Kouhai as he followed him still curious to where he was taking him.

“Tell me, what is this plan of yours? I am impatient honestly and extremely curious. I am also just so confused if this will even work at all. Do you think it will?”