The whispers of the future.(solo)

Kenji sat there, in the center of an academy training room. eyes closed on his knees after a training spar. Kenji's zanpakuto stabbed into the floor of the training floor in front of him. Kenji's uniform was tattered and hanging from his waist. Blood tricked down from several wounds on his torso. Minor as they were, the bandages that wrapped his torso up to his arm pits were blotched with blood.

His last training partner was more then he looked, and kenji barely won. The deepest wound was on the left side of his cheek. A single cut that went up his cheek, no need to heal it with Kido. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes, looking at his blade. The blood of the man that he was sparing with rolled slowly down the blade. He was getting tired of having to pull his draw in order to avoid killing anyone. That's what it was designed for after all.

The sight of the blood on his blade reminded him, of the way his own blood ran down the blade of man that scored the fatal blow on Kenji that ended his life. That was before he felt the blade slid from his body, The sights of bodies falling around him, the smell of blood and the screams for mercy only to be silenced by cold bloodied steel.

The memories flashed before his eyes, he had them all. The good, the bad, and the ugly. He reached out with his right hand and took the sword in his grasp and pulled it free from the ground. While his left gripped the scabbard of his weapon, Sheathing his weapon in front of his face, and there it was the whispering. Distant, and almost unbearable.

Snapping his head around to look behind him, his eyes scanning the room. For a split second, he felt as if someone was there. But now that feeling was gone, He didn't know what it was, but he's felt it a few times after a spar. Especially when it was against someone that presented a challenge and actually make him enjoy the fight. He stood up and swayed a little bit god he was beat physically.

Slow steps carried his lithe body out of the training room and down the hallway. His destination, a bath and a meal before he walked the grounds for a while.

As Kenji stepped into the bath, the bandages dissolved as he ripped them off him. Balling them up he tossed them against the wall with a sick wet flop. With another as they hit the ground, Kenji relaxed and sat his head back on the edge of the in ground tub. He gave a content sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. "I wonder if mother came to the soul society." He asked himself with a whisper, a faint memory playing on the back of his eye lids as he closed his eyes.

He remembered his mother telling him stories as they sat under the cherry blossom tree in the courtyard of his family home. One of his favorites was the story of a wandering swordsman his father had befriended and who came to visit often. Kenji could recall that his man was the person that inspired Kenji to develop his draw style of fighting.

But those years faded and soon he was too old for stories, and soon he was a swordsman himself. Several training spars with that wandering swordsman helped him hone his skills. But that same man died not that long after Kenji became a samurai. Which was a shame, he was like an uncle to Kenji. He was pained at the news of the mans death, so much that Kenji slipped into a depression. It was then and there that Kenji put up the walls and became distant and cold.

Opening his eyes he looked at the water, it was turning a shade of red as it washed the blood from his body. Bringing his left hand up he ran his fingers over the wound on his cheek. Hissing and wincing in pain he closed his right eye as a reflex. He washed himself off, and cleaned the cuts on his arm, shoulder, side, and cheek. He rose from the bath and dried himself off, re-wrapping his torso and chest, and bandaging his shoulder and cheek.

Dressing himself in a clean academy uniform and stretched while he yawned. Grabbing his zanpakuto he slipped it back onto his waist and secured the sash tighter around his waist. Turning the blade so the curve of the blade was aimed down at the ground. He opened the doors to the bath and glanced over his shoulder at the water. Which was a darker shade of red from all the blood. Sighing he stepped into the hallway on his way to the mess hall for a quick meal before his nightly walk.

Kenji had found his way to the mess hall and it was alive with conversation among other students. All of them giving him the eye, the looks of hatred and Disgust apparent on there faces as he walked in. Kenji ignored them for the most part and moved across the mess hall to grab his meal. It was him after all, and the cooks new his appetite, so they had piled on the food.

Several bowls of Ramen, fish, vegetables, and or course a large jug of hot tea. Kenji looked at it all, and walked to an empty table. Kenji sat down and started to slowly eat, the sounds around him started to fade as he blocked them out. But something remained in the drowned out dribble around him. Yet again, he felt like he was being watched from somewhere. Looking around he heard the whispering again, barely audible it sounded like a full sentence but the only thing he could make out was a single word.

'Keeennnnjjjiiii' The sound of it made a shiver run up his spine but it faded away when the whispering stopped. Turning back around he started eating again, Kenji wasn't one to shovel the food into his mouth like some of the others. He saw it as barbaric to do such a thing, he was brought up in a proper family so manners were beat into his skull from a young age. So as time passed and dishes piled up he was beginning to feel full.

Kenji finished the last of his meal and stood up. Taking the tray of dishes to the place he was supposed to and turned to leave the mess hall. It was time for his nightly walk before turning in, But the question was where was he going to go this time? Perhaps a stroll through the cherry blossoms? Or maybe venture into around the seireitai for a time? He didn't know, and often times he never even set a destination. He just let his feet carry him were they will.

So off he went on his walk, venturing out of the main entrance of the academy and through the front gate to go where he will for now, if he managed to find a destination then so be it. If not then he was just going to wonder around until he felt tired enough to fall asleep for the night.

After a while, Kenji found himself wandering around the Seireitai. Passing a few shinigami on his way, one being so bold as to nudge his shoulder hard enough to cause Kenji’s upper body twist a little bit. Causing Kenji to stop in his tracks and look back at the pair. Obviously drunk, by the smell and the way they were staggering around while they walked.

“Hey watching it punk!” The large lumbering man called out with a slight slur to his words. “Look what we have here, a student at the academy! A shinigami wanna be huh?” The smaller man looked at his larger friend and walked up to kenji poking Kenji in the shoulder. Kenji didn't do anything at that point in time. He only turned to face the two soul reapers.

“What? Can’t you speak?” He larger man asked pushing Kenji back a step. Kenji’s left hand gripping the mouth of his zanpakuto’s scabbard and narrowed his eyes at the men. “No, I can speak...I just don’t think i have anything to say to you idiots.” Kenji retorted, his voice cold and with the breeze the whisper returned. This time a little easier for Kenji to hear. ‘Kenji, can yo...’ Then it became a whisper just out of range of his hearing. Kenji looked around with his eyes, wondering just what the hell he was hearing.

“What’d you say to us? You call us idiots?” The large man seemed to take offense to Kenji’s words. The small man drawing his zanpakuto quickly Kenji turned the scabbard a half turn and bent his knee’s. “Are you deaf, or are you really just an Idiot?” Kenji questioned again and surely enough the drunken men changed Kenji swinging wildly. Which each attack was easy to get away from, and Kenji just let them tire themselves out.

Soon enough the two men started panting and fell over in exhaustion. Kenji on the other hand was still standing and barely breathing hard. “Figured, you drunks have no right to carry weapons. They are not something you can wave around whenever you want to. They are tools to defend what you believe in!” With that Kenji bend his knee and sent a foot into the large man’s face. Sending him into a nearby wall, and with the same momentum to carry him around Kenji raised his knee under the smaller man's chin knocking him back and out cold for a little while.

Kenji on the other hand started to walk away, back towards the academy, he’d had enough of his walk. So now he just wanted to get a good nights sleep so he could wake up early in the morning and start training again. He wanted to get more powerful and get out of the academy. He wanted get out of the academy uniform and start actually doing some good for a change.