New quarters, three days later.

My eyes flung open. ‘Huh’ I thought ‘that’s a new ceiling.’ The very fact that I had immediately recognized that made me question my sanity. It was the exact same build, but I simply found differences in the grain of the timbering.

I straightened my upper body and looked around. The quarters were bigger than mine but seeing how all my stuff had been brought here I guess it would be correct to say that it was bigger than my old one.

My old quarters had consisted of one of these Japanese ground mattresses is repeatedly forgot the name for, a drawer and a bathroom.

Now I had an actual bed, I currently sat in and I would throw out as soon as possible, you know why, an actual huge closet, a work desk, four doors, one of which I assumed lead to the bathroom and my own table.

I didn’t even own my own table in LIFE this was great. I got up and checked for clothes before having a slight heart attack. The earring, where was it? If they brought all my other stuff the surely found that as well.

It wasn’t in the living room so slid open the first door. That was a balcony and as a sudden breeze made me painfully aware I was currently presenting all the might of my manliness to the open world. I quickly closed the door again.

I opened the second door my carefully, didn’t want to suddenly surprise somebody on the floor. Instead I saw a nice and clean kitchen. Now this I absolutely didn’t care about, I liked then cantina food. I went to the next door to the left of the kitchen.

As expected I found the bathroom. A shower/bathub, nice definitely an improvement, a toilet and a sink imbedded into a marble plate on top of a drawer. On said marble plate where my utensils, brush, razor, trimmer and also the earring. With a sigh of relief I closed the door again and walked back to the closet to see if there were any clothes.

Indeed there were, several new Shinigami uniforms and also a piece of cloth I could wrap around my arm to signify my rank, there was also a medal like version I could pin to my chest. Sadly neither were for me as they said Seat 2 and that couldn’t be the case.

But with the immediate concerns out of the way I looked at the clock. It was 6 AM, so I was behind my usual schedule already and the date said I only slept for three days.

Okay, what the hell? I froze in place and mechanically went through my morning routine while feverishly thinking about a way to explain this that would only end in me being tortured instead of being made a public example off.

‘What are you so nervous about, master?’ I heard the voice of mercennarium militium, who I will call Merc from her on out unless I have to actually call him. ‘I have missed three days of training, Soifon is going to literally kill me.’ I answered.

‘You are being overly dramatic, think about it this way: You managed to get my name in 10 days instead of a month, clearly an achievement don’t you think?’

He had a point, ‘Yes, I have.’ Okay, getting used to somebody literally living in your mind would take some time. ‘Now get out there, if I remember you have a Shikai to show off and date to plan.’

Right, that was happening too. I glanced over to the clock again, I had wasted thirty minutes already so Soifon should be in her office by now. I opened the last door and stepped into the floor, then went right. I had no idea where I was so simply walked somewhere in the hope of finding places I knew already, speaking of which, that door seemed familiar. I pushed it to the side and found myself to the left of Soifon’s worktable.

“I had wondered who was making that much noise.” Soifon said and put her pen to the side. “I hope you have very good news for me, otherwise I will make an example out of you.”

‘YOU LIED TO ME’ I screamed in my mind. ‘I AM PANICKING RIGHT NOW TOO YOU KNOW’ Merc shouted back. Thankfully I was able to keep my composure to the outside. “Yes, captain, I have successfully learnt the way of my sword.”

‘Nice safe.’ Merc said, ‘Can you be quiet for like 12 seconds?’

Soifon mustered me “I did feel a great increase in your spiritual energy but I didn’t expect you to have actually gone through with it already.” She stood up and ordered me to follow her. Eventually we reached a training ground very similar to the one I was used to but on a much smaller scale.

“I don’t think you had time to call it already?” I shook my head, “I have just woken up.” Soifon seemed to believe me. “Then show me, I am interested in what you can actually do.”

“Yes, captain.” I was just as interested as I pulled out the sword and called out to Merc, “Enlighten me, mercennarium militium.”

The phrase had just sprung to mind, and I saw my Zanpakuto glow and change into liquid energy. This the quicky spread over both of arms up the shoulders and manifested as the plate armour Merc was.

It was surprisingly light and somehow everything around me seemed much sharper. If I had to take guess wearing these increased my senses. Soifon also noticed the change. “You seem more aware of your surroundings,” I looked at her, then she disappeared. Too my surprise I could tell what would happen next and just managed to block a kick to the face with the armguard.

“Good, you are able to keep up with me when I go about half of my maximum speed.” Just going to put it out there right now, captains are monsters. “But I doubt that is the actual ability of your Zanpakuto, most Shikais improve their Shinigamis combat prowess once they are released.”

“She is right, I have something greater in store.” The plate armour said. Everyone was startled. “Did I just say that out loud?”

“You sure did, buddy.” I said to Merc, “This is kind of awkward.” He answered.

“And highly unusual, he can’t move on his own though, can he?” I waited, for Merc to try something.

“No, captain, I can’t do anything.” He said, slightly disappointed. That was probably for the better, having to beings control your arms seemed like a huge pain.

“Mysterious but not actually interesting right now. Now tell us what your ability is, sword.”