Absolutely!

This was just about the greatest deal I could ever hope for. “Absolutely, captain!” I said and gave her an overenthusiastic salute. “I thought so, follow me.”

Soifon left the room and I walked straight after her. Too my curiosity she took a small lantern with her. We went through a door that connected her office with another not publicly accessible corridor. I assumed that the other rooms here where Soifon’s living quarters, storage rooms and archives of some description.

However I wouldn’t find out today. Instead Soifon guided me down a flight of stairs that went deep, deep down. The light of the outside world dimmed with every step until we reached a dark, stone chamber, lit only by some candles on the walls.

“I still have much work to do so you will do this next part alone.” Soifon explained while she took a candle from the wall to lighten her lantern. She then put down the lantern in the middle of the room and sat down. I sat down opposite to her, the lantern between us.

“This room is about as close to blending out the rest of the world as it gets, you will try to get in touch with your Zanpakuto here.” I nodded. “Very well, captain. I will do my best to unlock my Shikai in two weeks’ time.”

Soifon raised an eyebrow, “Shooting directly for the stars, huh?” I blushed slightly, she got me there. But she immediately followed that up with a soft smile, “I can respect that. Do your best Nize.” She then got up and left the room, “I will be back in a few hours, then I will look after your progress personally.”

Now you can call me easy but that smile had been just about all the motivation I had needed. By the time Soifons footsteps were inaudible I was already in deep meditation.

As always getting into contact with my Zanpakuto took a little bit but after a while I felt something change in the solitude of my concentration. “Ah, the soldier returns to his weapon.” A deep, metallic voice rumbled through my soul. “From what I heard you aim to learn my name in two weeks’ time? Inconceivable!”

“I get where you are coming from, but there is a lot at stake here.” I said in an attempt to calm down the sword’s spirit. “What? You getting a date is a high stake? If you wanted to sleep with her just ask her, you wouldn’t think I already forgot about how you changed reality with an unthoughtful comment.”

I was taken by surprise. “You know that?” but after a moment of thinking I added, “No, that makes sense, you are part of me, so you aren’t affected by the changes.”

The metallic voice answered, “Yes, so why should I grant you my name? There is nothing at stake for you, who can make your precious Soifon do whatever you want.” I went silent for a while after that.

He was right. What was holding me back? My moral compass? My honour? No, I had no remorse sleeping with the woman I found attractive enough and frankly I wasn’t about to feel bad about it either, sex and love were two entirely different things to me.

But the question remained, why didn’t I just grasp at what I wanted? The answer, as simple as it was, only came to me after an unnecessary amount of thinking.

“I don’t do it because it doesn’t feel right.” I said to the voice. “Because I have loved before and love isn’t something I should just get because I want it, it should be something earned, something mutual. I guess to put it shortly, I want Soifon to fall for what I am not for what I make her see.”

The black void of my meditation suddenly lit up as I entered my inner world for the first time. I stood on top of a mountain, a great forest extended about the whole horizon. I had seen this view once before, back when I had been alive. Somewhat nervous I turned around and looked at a great castle, the towers and walls stretched high, with the beige stones softly glowing in the light of the sun.

I almost lost myself in nostalgia but the voice pulled me back into the here and now. “A good answer, you have earned the right to stand before these walls.” I looked up and standing on the wall above the closed gate was a knight. His plate armour was rugged and showed signs of battle, not one of these shining fellows most stories featured. No this was the look of a man that had seen war. He looked down on me, two blue burning orbs instead of eyes glowed through the slit of the flat helmet.

At least now I knew why his voice always sounded that metallic. “Now, for your next test you will have to…” he stopped and looked at the sky, “It seems your captain is demanding your attention, we will part ways for now.”

“I will be back.” I assured the knight and saluted as a farewell. He returned the gesture, “As a gift of departure, take off that right earring tomorrow, there is no use in training with master if that master can’t correct you.”

With that my consciousness was thrown out of the inner world and returned to my body. The room was darker than I remembered, but the answer came rather quickly. The candles still burned but the lantern had gone out, leaving the centre of the room in near absolute darkness.

“You were deep in there.” The captain’s voice rang from behind me. I could only see her form against the light that shined down the stairs but I still felt her dark eyes resting on me. With a proud smile I rose from the ground. “I made a lot of progress today, Captain. I was even able to get into my inner world.”

Soifon seemed pleased and gestured for me to come closer. I had expected some kind of verbal praise, instead Soifon grabbed me by the collar and pulled me into a kiss. It wasn’t much really, just a few moments of our lips resting on each other’s.

She let go of my collar and I pulled back ever so slightly. “Can’t keep you unrewarded with a major success like that on day one, can I?” it was only whisper, so close were we. Her eyes trapped me as they always did, the iron will within in them paired with the slight playfulness of the moment.