No Speed Limit (Shin Kinsen)

Kuro sped out of the Seireitei into the Rukongai, looking to spend some time away from the stress of the uptight city. Making his way over the stretch of dirt that blanketed the land between the walls and the closest district village, he took note of the bright and sunny day with a nice breeze blowing lightly across the open space. Quickly getting louder as he neared the Rukongai dwellings, Kuro could hear the sounds of the citizens going about their day. Merchants selling their wares, the majority being water vendors. Children could also be heard enjoying their free time with their friends. Kuro smiled at the display as he ran straight through the village without a rest and continued back out into the barren area between it and the next one. Unseen, but not unexpected, a group of four sneakily dressed figures took a moment's pause at the village gate, watching Kuro's progress.

"He's up to his old antics of goofing off in his natural habitat." one muttered loudly for the others to hear.

"Regardless, we have to keep an eye on him. We don't know when he could try and slip away to do something that threatens Commander Raiden." spoke another. The others nodded in agreement and resumed their quiet stalking of the second division captain.

Kuro kept running even as he passed through other villages, often changing directions to head for another village rather than directly plunge deeper into the Rukongai. He came upon a village in the fifth district and marveled at the shared simplicity that it had in common with the other villages. The citizens here didn't have many responsibilities or worries like he and the others in the Seireitei did. He decided on a whim to take a closer look at this village, turning down the many streets between buildings to closer observe the activity.

Shin was sitting on a little bench in the 4th district just finishing off eating pork buns, one of his all time favorite foods. As he took the last bite of his pork bun and chewed it, he pondered what he should do today. He had already checked in with his regular customers earlier that day, and they either had no work for him or it was already being handled by another courier. He looked down at the ground at his swinging legs, one of the other kids would play with him at all anymore, so he could rule out that. He gulped down the piece he had been chewing and hopped off the bench.

He looked around and didnt see anything interesting to do so he started to head towards district 3 to see if anything was going on over there, however about a minute into his walk he saw something come speeding towards him and zip by at high speeds, it was a man, with purple hair! Shin froze for a moment in shock, he had never seen someone going that fast. Curiousity getting the better of him he decided to follow him and see who it was and what was making him go so fast. He spun around and dashed after the man at his top speed, he chased him all the way through district 4 and into district 5, amazed that the man was so fast, he was faster than shin was! Shin had never met anyone faster than he was before. He had heard stories of fast shinigami but had never seen one faster than himself. The man off ahead of him was starting to slow down so shin did the same, and decided to follow him on the rooftops, he scrambled up the side of a building and followed the man on the rooftops attempting to be stealthy while he watched the man to see if he seemed nice enough for shin to feel safe if he introduced himself.

As Kuro slowed down to a walk to better look at the village, he came upon a group of children gathered around a tree. They looked with sour faces into the high branches where Kuro could now see a little girl clinging to the trunk with a scared expression. Kuro grinned at the situation. Kids were always getting themselves in trouble. It's a part of childhood after all. The innocence was charming. He strode up without hesitation and called to the girl.

"Hey, little girl. What are you doing up there?"

The girl only closed her eyes and clung tighter to the trunk. One of the boys on the ground answered Kuro's question for her. "Our ball got stuck in the branches, so she went to get it, but she got scared when she saw how high up she was."

"Oh dear, that's no good." Kuro said with a friendly reassuring face. "I guess I'll have to get her down then."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Like this." Kuro winked as he leaped high into the air and stood in midair next to where the girl continued to hang on for dear life. He gently brought an arm behind her for support while loosening her grip from the trunk. She kept her eyes shut the whole time, but chanced a peek when she felt herself swept from the branch she'd been sitting on and held in the arms of a tall purple haired man. Kuro smiled warmly and slowly made his way to the ground. When they touched down, he carefully placed her on the street while the other kids gathered around. Kuro downplayed any praises they gave. The joy was interrupted when one boy pointed back into the tree.

"Our ball's still up there."

Kuro turned and pointed his finger at the red object in the branches. "Hado #2: Reel." As if tugged by an invisible force, the ball pulled itself free from the branches and fell down to Kuro's outstretched hands. Holding it up for the kids to see he grinned mischievously. "You mean this ball?"

All the while that this was going on, the four from before were still tailing Kuro. They had followed his travel the whole time and had not missed the small fast boy who had taken up his own chase. They kept their distance to avoid detection by both and talked quietly among themselves. The female from before who seemed to be acting as unofficial leader spoke for all. "It's sad to see a captain wasting his time with a bunch of little brats. But we may be able to make use of that one there. Let's keep an eye on them both and see how things go."

Shin watched as the man came across a group of children around a tree, Shin saw a scared girl in the tree and watched as the man jumped in the air and floated for a little while and took the girl in his arms and brought her down, she looked relieved. The one of the kids pointed at a ball in the tree and the ball got sucked into the man's hand. A bunch of questions were popping into shin's head, why was he so fast? how come he could jump so high? how come he could float? how did he suck the ball to his hand?

Shin deemed it safe enough to go over and meet the man, He hopped down from the roof and rolled as he hit the ground off in a side street, dusted himself off and came over towards the tree where the kids were.

One of the kids said, "Yes! now we can play again!" then he spotted shin as he approached and said, "No Shin, you cant play with us." Shin ignored him and walked over to the man and tugged lightly on his clothes and asked, "How come you're so fast... and how did u float? and how come you can..." Shin motioned with his hands. "Do that thing with the ball.." Shin stared up at the man, now noticing that his eyes were purple as well as his hair.

Kuro caught hold of the boy's sleeve as he and the others moved to play somewhere else and snubbed the newcomer. He couldn't think of anything to say, and ended up only eyeing him with a inquiring look with a slightly cocked head and a raised eyebrow. The kid simply shrugged off the look and continued down the road. Kuro ran a hand through his hair as he watched the procession. "Well that wasn't nice." he remarked before his attention was returned to the new kid when he pulled on his haori. He was a short guy with sandy brown hair and a curious look on his face. Kuro broke out a chuckle in response to the mass of questions he was flinging at him.

"One at a time, one at a time. I guess you saw me come into town huh? I've always been fast, but I've improved a lot by training in the Seireitei as part of the Gotei 13. If you haven't already guessed from my outift, I'm a shinigami." Kuro stood up and slowly turned to show his robes, the back of his haori decorated with the number two to indicate his squad. "The other things I did, like the standing in the air and fetching the ball were all skills I learned as a student in the academy and trained during my time in my squad. We can do a lot more than those simple tricks though." Kuro took a breather, finished with the explanations of the boy's inquiry. "So what's your name stranger? Any reason why the other kids didn't want to play with you?"

Shin looked up at the man before him, now looking down at him, and smiled before starting to answer the flurry of questions. Apparently the man was a shinigami and everything he was able to do came from that. Shin thought about that for a moment. It was pretty cool that he could do all that stuff, maybe the man could train him.

The man asked him who he was and why the others wouldn't play with him. Shin's enthusiasm died down a little as he remembered why. He looked down at the ground and swung one leg back and forth and said, "I'm Shin... They don't let me play with them because I'm too fast, they say its unfair to the other kids. Though I'm not as fast as you are..."

Shin stopped moving his leg and put it back on the ground and looked at the shinigami and said, "Can you teach me how to do all that stuff you did?" With a pleading look in his eyes.

Kuro took a seat on the ground, resting his back against the tree from before. His smile dulled down a bit when he heard of Shin's shunning from the other kids for such a silly reason. He remained silent for a several moments, deep in thought with how he should go about responding to the boy's request.

"If you want to learn to do that stuff, you'll have to become a shinigami too. I do sense some power from you, so it is definitely a possibility if it's what you wish. As for your training, I can't guarantee that I would be as good of a teacher as those in the academy. I've given people a hand with practice before, but being the all around teacher is a bit of a step up from my usual role. But if you're sure..." Kuro broke off as a loud grumbling sound sounded from his stomach. He broke out in a small burst of laughter as he stood up and dusted himself off. "I guess the run from the Seireitei gave me an appetite. Wait here for a moment, I'll get us something to eat." Kuro gave a small wave and seemed to disappear from the area as he sped back to the main road with a shunpo.

The four who had been watching the two of them saw this as an opportunity. Standing up from their perches on the roofs overlooking the scene, they all neatly shunpoed down to the ground, appearing before Shin in an impressive display of efficiency and synchronicity. The female among them, only distinguishable by her slimmer body figure and a thin ponytail that protruded from the back of her mask, stepped forward and addressed Shin in a friendly voice.

"The captain was right about you, you do show promise. We saw you chasing after him before, and I must say that you are quite fast for someone with no training. Have you always been so fast?"

Shin watched the man take a seat on the ground and then walked over and plopped down against the tree next to him and looked over at the shinigami as he started to explain that if he wanted to do that stuff he'd have to be a shinigami too, Shin wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea and it seemed an odd suggestion to him as well, a little kid like him being a keeper of the law and protector? It WOULD be cool... The man talked about how he wouldn't be a good teacher. Shin thought he would be a good teacher! and he wanted to learn, what else was there?

Before shin could say anything a gurgle broke out from the man's stomach and he decided to get food for the both of them, and with a little wave he vanished.

Suddenly shin was surrounded by 4 people in masks wearing the robes of the shinigami, Shin got startled and jumped to his feet then relaxed when one of them started to speak to him in a nice voice in reference to the man he just met, he relaxed a little bit. She was saying that the captain was right and that they had seen him chasing him before. That was as far as his mind got before he froze in shock, the man was a captain??!?! His shock making him speak out loud, "Eh? He's a CAPTAIN?!?" Shin bit his lower lip lightly and stared at the spot where the man had just been. Captains were supposed to be really really important people. Maybe Shin should ask him for his autograph or something. A Captain was fetching him food! he had chased a captain, was something bad going to happen to him now? Shins mind overflowed with new questions and comments about the whole situation. Shin totally missed the fact that the girl had asked him a question, his mind now too enveloped in thoughts and questions as he continued to stare at the spot where the man, no captain, had just been.

The three others exchanged glances as Shin froze up when realizing the status of the man he'd been talking with. A couple of them even chuckled at his outburst. The woman didn't show any reaction. She only continued to talk in the same friendly matter as before. "You really seem impressed by his talents, but what would you say if I told you that you have the potential to be even faster than him? We could help you achieve that. After all, speed is our specialty."

Kuro was unaware of the red sash's involvement at the moment. Making his way back to the busy street, he had stopped at a simple store to buy a few rice balls and some tea to take back and share with Shin. The people seemed shocked to see a captain in town, as they saw what the children had missed and understood the meaning of his white haori. Kuro quickly paid for the food and began to make his way back to the side road. He didn't shunpo this time, instead enjoying an easy stroll to not disturb the food and drink he'd obtained.

Shin was brought back to reality as the woman started speaking again, and looked up at her. She was explaining how he could learn to become even faster than the captain... but something seemed off, shin couldn't quite put his finger on it though, maybe it was the fact that they were talking so easily about him surpassing their captain. Suspicions aroused shin answered, "Maaaaaybe." He had to admit though it would be really cool to be that fast, he could complete his courier runs a lot faster and he could be so fast, even faster than the captain. But he knew it was a big decision, whether or not to join the ranks of the shinigami or not.

Shin stared at the woman for a moment or two then said, "Why do you wear masks?" He reached up towards the woman's mask.

"Oh, I'm sorry." the woman brought her hand up and pulled down the bottom of her mask to reveal her full face. She was a stunning display with smooth bright skin and shining blue eyes. "It's a part of our standard uniform, so I'm just used to it. We're a part of the Gotei's special forces, called the Onmitsukido. We're the best when it comes to speed, reconnaissance, and hand-to-hand combat. We also..."

"Why don't you stop before you blab the kid's ear off?" one of the men cut in, leaning against the tree in obvious boredom. "All he asked was why you wear a mask."

The woman shot the rude man a harsh look and hissed with a voice quite different from the sweet disposition she'd been addressing Shin with. One of the other men came forward and placed a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down while the last one simply rolled his eyes at the entire display. The moment was tense with an atmosphere that one could almost feel hanging over the street. Finally the silence was broken by a returning voice.

"My, what a surprise here. Didn't expect to see any of you guys today. They're not giving you a hard time are they Shin?" Kuro strode back into the area with a wrapped pack of rice balls and a small pot of tea. His face was still light and friendly and his voice carrying a joking tone, but with the appearance of onmitsukido members, especially these ones with the distinctive red sash, his mind was on alert. Not that he was expecting them to try anything out in the open like this.

Shin watched as she pulled down her mask to reveal her face, she was really pretty with light smooth skin and sparkling blue eyes. Shin was stunned at how pretty she was. She continued to speak explaining that she was from something called the Onmitsukido, and that they specialized in speed, recon and hand-to-hand combat. Then one of the men interrupted her.

But shin was no longer listening, he was looking at his fists, then started to throw them around with a little hya noise. He heard the Captain's voice and surprise at the 4 people around shin and asked shin if they were bothering him. The man who had been leaning against the tree pushed himself off it and opened his mouth to say something to the Captain, however his face contorted into a strange expression and a small grunt escaped his lips. Shin had accidentally punched him in the balls with his little punches when the man suddenly moved. A little "eh?" noise escaped from shin's lips as he realized where his little fist was, then he paniced and ran out from the midst of the group and rank towards the captain, then remembering that he was their superior he ran off to the side away from them both and turned to the man he had hit and quickly said, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you, please forgive me Mister Onitmisuke." all the while bowing up and down in rapid succession.

The entirety of those present seemed to freeze as Shin made his little mistake. The two other black garbed men visibly flinched at the sight of the accident and the woman brought her hand to her face in disbelief. Kuro paused for a second, then immediately burst out laughing. Shin ran at him for a moment, but suddenly broke off and set himself apart from both him and the onmitsukido. Kuro wondered what could have brought about such a change in behavior, but let it pass. His laughing didn't seem to have pleased the injured man, who was still panting from the pain but was able to move again.

"You little brat. I'll teach you to watch where you're swinging your fists!" He took a mere two steps in Shin's direction before Kuro was in between them with his right hand on the man's chest holding him back. The size difference between them was obvious, the onmitsukido man being of a larger height and build than Kuro. That mattered not to Kuro in regard to discipline. At a second glance, the rest of them noticed that Kuro was not wearing his haori anymore, instead finding it cast to the ground with his food purchase laying on top of it. They wondered why he had done such a thing, and quickly got their answer.

"I know that you guys don't hold a lot of respect for Rukongai citizens in your ranks, but that you'd even think of raising a hand against a child who has clearly apologized disgusts me." The whole time he was talking, a pale white energy was beginning to outline Kuro's body, some of it arcing up from his back and shoulders like lightning. The black fabric of his shinigami robes was caught in the energy, and slowly shredded away from his back and arms. The eyes of the four widened in surprise as Kuro's face showed no mercy and his left fist was brought forward to plunge deep into the offender's stomach. Despite his size, he was blown back effortlessly, slamming into the tree trunk with a sickening crunch before sliding down to the ground while a shower of shaken off leaves fell on top of him. Kuro ended his technique and went back over to his stuff to put his haori back on. Finishing up, he turned around and was back to his old self as if nothing had happened, even wearing his innocent smile again. "Glad that was settled. So you guys need anything?"

The remaining conscious three all blanched and bowed deeply before running over to gather up their comrade. The woman answered him as they all made to leave. "No sir. We will be getting back to the Seireitei to give him treatment now. Sorry again for upsetting you." With a swish, they were all gone. Kuro breathed a sigh of relief and plopped himself back on the ground. "About time they left. I still can't believe the nerve they have sometimes. Oh well, no harm done. Now we can have lunch without having them spy on us." Kuro unwrapped his package and tossed a rice ball at Shin as he took another and bit into it.

Shin panicked as the man started towards him, scared that he was going to get a beating when the Captain stepped in between him and the other man he had hit accidentally. Shin stared in awe as the man started to glow and shoot lighting around his body, The Captain rebuked his subordinate and the all shin saw was the larger man go flying and slam into the tree hard enough for him to hear a large cracking noise. Then the Captain walked over to put back on his coat thing. The people whop had arrive picked up their fallen person and headed back to get him medical attention. Shin was in shock, and slightly confused. The Captain had defended him against his own troops, with force, but he also referred to them as a separate group, which would mean they were different, so why would they refer to themselves as under the Captain's, uhhhh it was confusing.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as the captain threw a rice ball at him, he only barely managed to catch it and he walked over to where the captain was. He was without a doubt a captain, shin had seen his power, those people were supposed to be the best and he beat them in one blow. He looked up at the captain and said, "You're a Captain." But then he had so many things he wanted to ask, but he was speechless staring at the man in front of him. He took a bite into the riceball as he stared at the man, unsure of what to say.

Kuro looked puzzled for a second, curious as to Shin's statement of his status now. He pondered for a second, then realized that the onmitsukido must have revealed it. "Yeah, I'm a captain. But I don't like to flaunt it. Now that I think about it, it might've been a good idea to leave my haori back in my office today. I like to be treated like any other guy." He took another bite of his lunch before continuing. "I'm sorry you had to experience that scene. The attitudes of those in the Gotei vary. And there's always those who think they're bigger and better than others because of their strength. So I make it my business to teach them some respect. Those guys right now pissed me off even more because I have a daughter around your age, though I don't see her much these days. Oh well, as strong as I am, I can't change the world in one day."

Kuro chuckled at his self deflating line and turned the conversation back towards Shin. "So you're fast, I've got that much. Your punches earlier didn't look like much until they hit the guy in his weak spot, but with training you could probably improve. Do you know how much spirit power you have?"

Shin took another little bit of the riceball as the Captain stared at him. He went on to explain that he didn't want any special treatment and he took it upon himself to make others realize their place and protect the weak. Then the man asked him if he knew how much spirit power he had. Shin had no clue what spirit power was let alone hoe much of it he had. Shin chewed the bite of riceball in his mouth and said, "I dunno, I don't even know what Spirit power is." Shin stared at the captain for a moment then said, "Whats your name? and how come all you people can teleport?" Shin looked kind of downcast,"When you can teleport what good is it to be able to run fast...." Shin was a little depressed that his only skill seemed so pointless now.

Kuro poured tea into two small cups from the pot he'd brought. He passed one over to Shin before he replied. "Take some of this. It should be a bit tastier than your normal drink of just water. As for your spirit power, I can sense you have some. And the fact that you get hungry is a giveaway sign that you possess it. It's the main necessity in becoming a shinigami and performing all the feats you've seen today. It's okay if you aren't fully aware of yours at first. You'll get in touch with it through training." He took a sip from his cup and flinched as Shin asked for his name, realizing how rude it had been of him to go so far without giving his introduction. "Sorry. I forgot to give my name earlier. I am Kuro Akarui. I was born out in the further districts of the Rukongai, but I currently reside in the Seireitei as the captain of the Gotei 13's second division."

Kuro couldn't hold back a grin when Shin referred to the shunpo as teleporting. "It's not teleporting that you saw us doing. It's one of our most basic speed techniques called Shunpo. It combines natural foot movement with spiritual power to increase our covered distance and speed in fewer steps. The sheer speed of it may make it seem to others that we've teleported, but all we're doing is moving faster than the untrained eye can follow. With time and training, you'll be able to use this technique and see the movements of others using it. Your natural talent of speed will lead to faster shunpos from the beginning. Faster than other beginners definitely."

Shin took the little tea cup that the Captain passed to him, blowing on it to cool it down then taking a sip as the captain mentioned that he felt that shin did have spirit power, and that it was used for various little skills, shin wasn't sure what it meant but he was ok with that. The man finally introduced himself as Kuro Akarui. Apparently he was born out in the deeper districts but now he was captain of the second division.

Then he started explaining about the teleporting and shin took another sip of the tea, Apparently they weren't teleporting and it was a speed technique to make people go faster that used that spirit energy that he had mentioned earlier. Apparently shin could even learn to do it and according to what this man was saying shin would be better at it than a lot of people.

Shin took a sip of the tea and munched another bite of the riceball as he pondered the possibilities, before swallowing and asking, "Do i have to become a shinigami to learn how to do all this stuff? I don't really like fighting that much, and i'm weak, and i scare easily n stuff... I don't even think id be accepted... I'm too small, and too young... and it seems scary, Couldn't you just teach me how to do it?" He looked up at Kuro with pleading eyes.

Kuro gave a hearty laugh to Shin's self-defeating image of himself. "I guess I can understand your hesitation to fighting, being so young like you are. But age doesn't mean anything to the Seireitei. All that matters is potential. And like I and the onmitsukido earlier told you, potential is something you have. But if you want to wait until a later time to make your final decision, I guess I can try and give you a start to your shinigami training." He grinned again for a moment before continuing, "Yes, you'll have to train as a shinigami to do all that stuff. But I won't force you to attend the academy or join the Gotei."

Kuro finished his lunch and began to stare unfocused up over the rooftops deep in thought. "The question is where to start. Since you you haven't consciously tapped into your spirit power yet, you'll be in need of a temporary weapon. I'll bring you one the next time I come out here. Your running is impressive already as well. I guess the best answer would be to start training your sense of your spirit power."

Shin finished off the little cup of tea that Kuro had handed him as he listened to the Captain. Apparently his age didn't matter at all, that really surprised shin, he had expected them to seek adults instead, but apparently the only thing that mattered was potential, which was in the form of this spirit power he kept talking about? Kuro said it would be ok to wait to decide whether or not he wanted to become a real shinigami or not. Kuro also apparently was offering to train him, but he needed to be a shinigami, but he didn't have to attend the academy or join the gotei.... Shin was slightly confused at this, how could you be a shinigami but not part of the gotei? Kuro went on to start talking about where to start the training, saying he'd bring the necessary materials next time and that he needed to start training how to sense spirit power.

Shin's head was racing with question,s and they all started to flow out at once, "I need to train as a shinigami to learn, but i don't have to join the academy or gotei? how does that work? and how do you sense spirit power? is that the stuff that came out of you when you defended me earlier? Why do i need a weapon? Can't you just teach me how to be faster? How do I use spirit power?" Shin paused for a moment before another question popped into his head. "There is a special permit that allows rukongai Couriers to enter Seireitei, could you get me one? that way I could come visit you and I could deliver between Seireitei and Rukongai. That way you can teach me more, what do you say?"

"You'll learn all of this with training. Like I said, I'm not a teacher. So I don't know the best way to explain these things. Your shinigami powers will be the central piece to all of this that you want to learn. That's why it's necessary for you to awaken your powers. The weapon I'll give you next time will be a temporary possession until your powers generate your own true weapon from your soul." Kuro gathered up the things on the ground from the meal and thought about Shin's request. "I've never heard of this permit, but if you need it to come and go from the Seireitei, I'll look into it when I return. I'll bring it along with the weapon next time. Unless you have anymore questions, maybe we should call it a day today. We'll need to be better prepared to start your training after all."

Shin stared at Kuro, apparently he wouldn't be able to learn anything until his next visit, this disappointed him a little he wanted to be able to learn now, but he would have to wait. He watched silently as kuro picked up the meal leftovers, dishes and trash.

Shin was surprised that the captain had never heard of this permit before, but at least he promised to get it to him and apparently bring a weapon that shin would need for unleashing his abilities. He looked over at Kuro and said, "I guess i'll see you later then, umm if you need to find me ask the courier's office in 5th district." He watched Kuro then started to head off to check his courier routes for jobs.