Business as planned.

My eyes opened and I looked at the familiar wood ceiling. It was great being home. The clock showed the time, 4:45 AM, I got up and started my daily routine. I don’t think I have to go over the detail again so let’s just jump straight to the training shall we?

Soifon had just left her platform and the instructors were shouting today’s regiment. Sadly I had missed the more fun technical exercises, these had been on the plan yesterday and today was simple stamina training. So the first 3 hours of my day were running, swimming and running through water.

As always I wasn’t the most amazing but I was ahead of the curve nevertheless. I guess over a hundred years of coming to every single training session paid off.

But with the morning training done and a quick shower later I finally arrived at what I had looked forward this day. I knocked on the door to Soifon’s office, the answer came as swift as always and I entered the room.

Sadly I wasn’t greeted by a smile this time, instead the Soifon was once again busy with paperwork. However there was another surprise for me this day as a second chair now stood in front of the desk. “Nize, take a seat.” Soifon said.

I walked to the chair and looked at it for a second. It was a normal wooden chair with no armrests. Call me paranoid but I don’t trust sudden changes in an office that had looked the same ever since Soifon had taken over.

But I had my orders so I sat down. As expected nothing happened and I simply said in silence as Soifon skimmed through the content of a folder, occasionally making a note on the side. I waited patiently for about twenty minutes before Soifon put the folder to the side and looked at me.

“Let’s talk about why I have called you here. I have two points we need to discuss, granted that the second one heavily relies on your answers to the first one.”

I nodded and waited for Soifon to continue. “To be straight I want to promote you to one of the seats, your records are good, you follow the mission instructions to the latter and you show up to the training regiments without fail.”

That took me by surprise, being promoted to a seat would mean I would suddenly have one of the highest ranks in the Gotei 2, heck I would even have a higher rank than 99% of the other Shinigames.

“It would be an honor.” I said barely concelling my excitement. “It surely would be, but there is one problem with promoting you.” Soifon looked me dead in the eye, “How close are you unlocking your Shikai?”

Ah, yeah, there was that. “I am afraid it will take a couple years, I can already communicate with my sword but I hasn’t been willing to show its form to me yet.” Soifon nodded, as if she had expected that.

“We don’t have years, I need somebody I can trust in the higher ranks and lighten my workload. The current affair with the Kuchiki’s could take up a lot of my time.”

I nodded, it was sad that this opportunity would slip through my fingers. “I am sure you will find other suitable candidates, captain.”

Soifon made a dismissive gesture. “True, there are other candidates that could be suitable but none of them have mastered the Shikai either. So I will give you a once in a lifetime offer, provided you would take the promotion.”

My interest was stirred. “As I said, it would be my honour to serve the Gotei 2 in a higher position.” Soifon seemed to be satisfied by that answer. “Very good, then let’s talk about the second point. I will personally train you for the next month, if you manage to awaken you Shikai by then I will promote you.”

I was shocked. Personal training by the captain, not only would it be hard, painful and likely involve a lot of shouting but it would also enable me to spend a whole month with Soifon.

But she wasn’t done just yet. “But to give you a little more motivation how about this.” Soifon smiled and stood up. “If you do the impossible and manage to awaken your Shikai in two weeks I will go on that date you wanted.”