Crumbling Earth [Yetsuna STT, PG-13]

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

This is for TP.

Yetsuna made her way along the halls of the squad 11 barracks her destination was one of the more common ones among her division, the training room. After a few twists and turns she found herself outside her the entrance. Based on the noise level coming from inside the room she could tell it was packed, granted the members of her squad were often loud even in small groups the inside of the room sounded like a packed festival in the middle of summer.

Sliding open the door her hunch was proven correct, the room was indeed filled with her fellow squad members. Some were practicing their swordsmanship, other barehanded combat, out in the courtyard and few were even practicing kido. After a quick glance around the room to see who was there she entered and closed the door behind her.

Her entry did not go unnoticed.

Those closest to the door noticed her first and stopped what they were doing, not out of fear or eagerness for a new training partner, but out of caution. Something had changed in the green haired woman since gaining her first release and promotion, she had grown more coarse, her normally sweet voice now had a hard edge, like a military commander with no tolerance for games. Her welcoming eyes now displayed the same hard edge that her voice had gained, giving her the appearance of almost constant anger even if she wasn't.

She was not blind to the reaction of her squad mates, she knew some of them feared her, she was the 4th seat in the division and in a division that valued strength above all else that was nothing to scoff at. A few months ago she might have taken the time to ease their fears, to let them know she was friendly, but she did not care, at least right now, she had something that she had to deal with first.

As she crossed the room some of the occupants stopped what they were doing to give her a wider berth, other didn't, but it mattered little to her what they did. She moved outside into the courtyard where a few people practiced kido, but she had no intention of joining, rather she made a direct line for a secluded corner. As she closed in to her ultimate destination she pulled her blade out from across her back and held it in front of her for observation, her hard eyes observing every detail of the blade.

After her brief observation she reversed her grip on the blade and drove it several inches into the ground in one smooth, but powerful, motion. She took a seat roughly a half arms length away from her weapon and crossed her legs and arms before setting her gaze upon the blade once more. She began to focus on the blade to try and call out its resident.

Her call was far from kind or friendly, like most shinigami's probably were, no her call was one of annoyance and a controlled anger. Despite her tone the spirit, Ishio, responded immediately, "Why do you call me?" he asked in her mind flatly. "Why do I have call you anymore?" she shot back, not making much of an attempt to hide the disdain in her voice. As his voice sounded Yetsuna felt at tug on her body, a sensation she come to know fairly well over her numerous confrontations with the spirit. After a bright white flash she saw her surroundings had changed; she was no longer (mentally) in the training area of division 11, she was in her inner world and in front of her was her zanpaktou's spirit.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Ishio, at least at first glance, almost seemed like a normal human, he had two arms and two legs, white skin with a hint of a tan, and long dishwater blonde hair, but like almost everything in the spirit world things weren't what they seemed. In reality his skin was actually a light colored stone, even possessing the same hardness and abrasiveness, his hair wasn't really hair either, rather it was sand that had bonded together to form something akin to hair. 

At his full height he stood a tall 6' 5", which in combination with his slender build gave him a very lanky appearance. He wore a solid black kimono with a white lining underneath and geta for foot wear. To complete his ensemble he wore a crown made of onyx which sat just over his forehead. His entire appearance gave him the look of nobility, which was fitting for his name implied the same.

"Then you know the answer to your request already," he said flattly. His response made the shinigami's face go from flat to anger in a instant, it was obvious that he had gotten under her skin, a feat that was almost unthinkable a few years ago. "At least tell me why," she said her voice soaked in anger, "All those years and you've refused to train me, to talk to me, but you still give me your powers. Why?"

The sword spirit took a deep breath and let out a sigh before speaking, "To deny you my power would be to go against the reason for my existence, but just because I give you a power that is rightfully yours does not mean that I have to share my wisdom with you," he replied with a slightest hint of distaste in his voice. Yetsuna's blood began to boil turning her normally pale face burning red with anger, he was always so cryptic and she hated it, she just wanted straight answer out of him for once, was that so much to ask?

"That doesn't answer my damn question!" she shouted back at him, "WHY?! WHY DO YOU REFUSE TO TRAIN ME, TO OPEN UP TO ME?!" Her breathing was getting ragged from the shouting and the anger, despite this Ishio stood there as calm and composed as ever. "Because," he said the disdain continuing to grow in his voice, "Your soul personifies earth, a steadfast element, unwavering in the face of adversity and ever committed to it's goal, but," he paused for a moment. "You have no goal. You have nothing to work towards in your life, even if the goal was reckless, such as revenge on that hollow from all those years ago, it would still be better than wandering aimlessly like you do."

Ishio's voice was showing signs of anger as the disdain keeping elevating, "A goal drives you to become better, it drives you to go beyond any personal limits you have. If you truly want my guidance, if you want to be true to the element that you're supposed to represent, find a goal in your aimless life an commit to it!" Yetsuna almost physically recoiled from what her should-be ally had just said to her. Of all the reasons she could have imagined for his refusal of her she never would have guessed that this was his problem. Not because it was deep or profound, but more just because he had called out the way she had chosen to live out her life.

She never would have guessed a zanpaktou would be so resilient to its user let alone have on call out its partner for the way they had chosen to live. Part of her knew he was right, but her current frame of mind didn't let her take a hit to her pride like that gracefully. "All those years, all the fights with you and this was your problem all along? This is why you turned me away?"

"Rather then rebuffing my requests all those years wouldn't it have made more sense to just tell me? If you hadn't been so damned difficult maybe we could have done something to resolve this ridiculous issue of yours. What would have been so difficult about just being straight forward with me?" The green haired woman's breathing was somewhat ragged from her loud and dramatic outburst, but after a few moments she regained some of her lost composure.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Having vented some of her pent up frustration Yetsuna found herself in a calm state of mind. As she waited for the spirit to respond she found herself wondering what had happened changed her so much. Before Ishio had made his presence know to her she was almost impossible to anger, but something about zanpaktou managed to change that. Her mind flowed back to when he had first introduced himself.

She had been dispatched to deal with one of the escapees of hell who was roaming around and causing trouble in some town whose name she had long since forgotten. It was as routine as routine could get for dealing with hell escapees, granted it didn't happen often, but all indicators were the mission was unlikely to cause any real problems. As the saying goes, however, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.

She approached the enemy head on in her usual styles, not liking to be the one to strike from behind, as it limited her chance to have a good fight. Before she could even get a quip out, however, the sinner attacked her, but this was not unexpected. Their battle raged for a good while, Yetsuna held the advantage and was beginning to finally wear down the Saika. It knew it was going to lose if things had continued to progress at their current rate.

The sinner rushed her in what appeared to be a reckless charge, leaving itself wide open to a counter from the shinigami. She figured the creature was finished with the fight if it was doing something so desperate, so she decided to take the chance to end it. Her blade cut upwards as the condemned soul got within striking distance, her blade cut into its body as easily as she could cut air; it was much easier to cleave the thing in two than she had expected.

As her blade finished bisecting the creature it disappeared in a mirage like faction, but just as it did, something tackled her from behind; it was the Saika. As the sinner latched onto her it exploded, and she had no way to protect herself.  The light from the explosion was intense, but the force wasn't. For a moment she thought that the Saika had used a misdirection attack in an attempt to escape, but as her vision returned she noticed that the reality of the situation was far different.

She looked down to see if there was any damage to her person, maybe a nerve had been served and she just couldn't feel the pain. But all she saw when she looked down was the Saika's arms wrapped around her black-clad torso. It took her a moment to realize that the black she was wearing wasn't her uniform; it was armor. As the realization hit her a voice sounded in her head, it was flat, emotionless, and chiding, "You should be dead."

The shinigami was mildly overwhelmed trying to process everything that had just occurred, but one word stuck out in her mind, "Ishio?" she asked confusedly. She had no idea how she knew that word, she had never even said it before, but it rose above the chaos that was her mind. "Yes," the stone spirit replied flatly, "I intervened on your behalf this time, but do not expect it to happen again."

It took a moment for the overloaded shinigami to remember that she still had an enemy attached to her back. She grabbed one of its arms and threw it over her back driving it into the ground and leaving a decent sized crater in the process. Between her attack and its surprise that she was still breathing it was stunned for a few moments after it contacted the ground. Taking the chance to really end the fight she lifted and drove her foot down onto its mask, breaking it and sending it back to hell.

With the fight done, she turned her mind to the task of sorting out what had just occurred, "You still there Ishio?" she called out inside her mind.

Silence was his response.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Yetsuna drew herself back from her memories and refocused on the situation before her. After a few moments moments of silence Ishio began to move towards the edge of the precipice upon which the two of them stood, his geta giving off a soft "clomp" with each step. The shinigami crossed her arms under her chest as the spirit walked past her to reach his destination, after which the two of them sat for what felt like a long while.

The precipice overlooked a moderately large town composed of a mix of multi-story and single story buildings. There was vegetation scattered all over the town all off it well kept and healthy giving the impression that someone dedicates a large amount of time to up-keeping the town. It was possible to see edge of the town from their perch and it was easy to tell that the town had plenty of room to develop.

Eventually the spirit broke the silence, his voice returning to to its normal uncaring tone, "I had hoped that you would come to realize this of your own accord, recognize it as a chance to grow and develop, to learn about yourself." He paused to take a small breath, "Obviously that faith was misplaced and it's time to move on, so now I place at your feet a challenge." He paused again, impressing upon his user the weight of what he was about to say, "Find out what it is in life you desire, what you work towards and why you do it. When you think you have found an answer we will talk, and we will test your commitment to that goal."

The green shinigami was surprised by how easily she had gotten that information from him after years of not being able to get answers. She was still unhappy with for calling her life choices out like he had, and too a lesser extent still was, but even though she wanted to fight back, she knew he was right. It caused her pride no small amount of pain too admit it to herself and it left her with a hollow feeling in her chest.

Yetsuna remained quiet for a few moments after being issued her challenge, during which time she walked up to the edge of the cliff and stood abreast with Ishio. "Fine, I'll take your challenge, I'll beat this little test of yours too, I'll show you that there's a reason that I have earthen powers," She did her best to sound as overly confident as she could despite her crumbing self esteem. The stone kind turned his head to face her and said flatly, "We'll see."

A bright flash of white light over took the shinigami and she found herself back in the realm of the shinigami. Her back felt sore and the sun had begun to set, most of the people training seemed to have gone home as well. She couldn't tell exactly how long that excursion had taken, but it was obviously a lot longer than she would have guessed. She stood herself up and withdrew her blade from the ground and decided to go for a walk, there was no point in heading home, she doubted she was going to be getting much sleep.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

The half moon had risen to its highest point and loomed overhead shining down just enough light to see by, but that mattered little to the shinigami. She wandered aimlessly around the seireitei, her mind repeating the words of her zanpaktou earlier. The words echoed through her mind endlessly, calling to mind questions she never would have asked herself before. What was she doing in her life? Had she even done anything with her life up until now? Did she even have a purpose to live for?

Endlessly those questions swirled around her mind, each one demanding an answer, and when she couldn't give one, that question lead into another one, and from there another. Every question piled on top of the shinigami, weighing her down, crushing her under the weight of doubt. The questions kept coming even as she pleaded for her mind to stop, to give her some reprieve from the torture, but to no avail. She tired to escape by focusing her mind on something else, anything else, so that it would stop the interrogation, but every time she tried, without fail, her mind pulled her back, like a dog on a short leash.

Her mind spun out of control with questions until it finally came upon the critical blow; Why was she a shinigami?

The question hit her harder than any enemy she had encountered to date. For nearly one hundred years she had fought as a shinigami, never stopping to think about why she did it. She knew she had joined as a method to avoid starvation as a young plus, but why did she fight others to the point of almost getting killed? What was her drive? A desire to protect the innocent? No. What about her sense of morality? no. A way to make up for her powerlessness as a child? no.

With that question she had successfully stripped herself of any remain comfort. To realize that all those fights, all that pain, all those near death experiences, they were for nothing. The realization pushed her to her braking point, with tears in her eyes she let out a loud yell of frustration and fell to her knees in the middle of the street and drove her clenched hand into the tiled ground, causing it to shatter under the force of her anguish. 

Even at the end of her very being the questions still demanded answers and they hounded her incessantly. More than anything she wanted to give the question answers, not only so the torrent would cease, but so she could find something to hold onto as her world crumbled around her. She remained on the ground unable to move, all but crushed by the weight of her despair, and before long she broke once more, her frustration and anguish turning into sobs.

[Kisala Shihoin]

(If this turns into training, Training for CTP)

Kisala was on her way to the squad eleven barracks. She was not on any official business. Kisala would drop by the squad eleven barracks every now and then to hang out with her friends and rivals during her early ears of being a shinigami. Most people would think that anyone from squads two and eleven were like oil and water. The usually quiet and reserved stealth shinigami were obviously more reserved than the more loud and rambunctious shinigami of the combat squad. Kisala's own personality tended to clash with some of them, and it was those clashes that lead her into being more friendly with them later on down the line.

Kisala thought back to that time not so long ago. She was much more stubborn and head strong. She took no shit from anyone especually from men who just saw her as another pretty face, and nice chest and ass. Any kind of cat call or insult thrown her way was met with an immediate fist to the face. She would get into many fights with the seemingly opposite squad, but that's just how squad eleven seemed to roll. They got to know each other through their blades and fists. She could respect that, and came to like them more and more. Lately though her visits have been infrequent at best. Her new responsibilities of being the vice captain of squad two took up a lot of time.

She had hoped that her absence and new rank would not change the way the boy's thought about her. She doubted it. The tanned shinigami rounded a corner and saw another shinigami on the ground. Kisala's first instinct was to rush over to make sure she was ok, but she held herself back. She was a vice captain after all, and how she acted could affect others in some form or another. She then got close enough to hear her sobs. Screw my rank, she thought as she jogged over to girl. She recognized her as the fourth seat officer of squad eleven, Yetsuna. Keria didn't know her personally, but she did make sure to know the names of seated officers of all the squads. 

Kisala knelt down while in motion skidding slightly on her knees. She didn't care about her uniform or her knees at this point. She put a hand on the girl's shoulder trying to comfort her without making her uncomfortable. If she knew the fourth seat better, she would have embraced her in a second, but that was not the case. "Yetsuna are you ok, what is the matter?" She asked concern prevalent in her voice. She squeezed Yetsuna's shoulder a little to get her attention, and comfort her. She really didn't know what to do. Kisala didn't really face this kind of problem in her own squad. They were too introverted for her to see it, and she didn't really have much in life experience in comforting others. "Its ok, its ok." she said gently trying to get a little more comfortable herself. 

[Zeich Yajuu]

Something to keep in mind, try to include more of the actual training, but for the most part this is pretty solid for character development. Additionally, in the future specify what kind of TP you're going for: CTP or TTP (or SP, if you're going for that.)

For now, I'll award you with 160 TP for your 32 paragraphs of solo training work.