The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 12: A Brief Encounter with a Fear- Inducing Man

The hollow thunk of wood against wood echoed in the training room and I studied my fingernails, sighing. It's only been two days of this and I'm already reached my patience and boredom thresholds.

The new soul reapers trying out for Squad 11 were ridiculous. Half of them couldn't fight; the other half were good fighters but just plain idiots. One such boy was grinding on my nerves. He could fight well, I gave him credit for that, but he was a bully, always picking on the weaklings, trying to take charge of the group, threatening the others. In my mind, that made him just as weak.

"Oi, you fat buffoon," I called out to him as he continuously whacked another boy on the head with the wooden zanpakuto replicas they were given for this assessment. "I said stop!"

He stopped what he was doing and tilted his head to me. "Aw, why?" He grinned, before swiping a hand through his long, black hair, pushing it off his freckled face. He would have been classified as 'hot' had it not been for the sneer on his lips and the darkness in his eyes.

Gritting my teeth, I raised my chin and glared down at him, anger flaring dangerously. "Because I said so."

Kenpachi had left me alone with the soul reapers because of an important meeting. The rest of the squad were busy with regular trips to the living world, working together to take down the increasing amounts of high class hollows all over the countryside.

Which meant I was left to deal with these kids by myself, all day, because of my stupid punishment. I didn't mind doing this though; in fact, I had thought it was quite exciting at the start. But now, with the back- chatting and the pompous idiots who thought they ruled the world, I was starting to really hate Kenpachi and the Head Captain.

"But you're a girl," he sniggered, gesturing up and down my body with the wooden zanpakuto. Some of his lackeys laughed along with him and my spiritual pressure pulsed in the air around me.

The other soul reapers moved out of the way to form a circle as I stepped forward from the wall, so tempted to draw my real zanpakuto and slice him open from groin to head. My fingers even itched as I thought about it, but memories of being electrocuted for the last four days reminded me of the impossible. That's why Ikari was back in my room on my bed and I was void of weapons.

Instead, I asked for one of the other soul reapers to throw me their replica. "What's your name, soul reaper?" I asked, twirling the wood in my hand, testing the weight of it.

"It's Paulo. What's yours, pretty?" he smartly replied.

I merely flash- stepped behind him and swiped his legs out from underneath him with the replica sword. He hit the floor with a thud and some of the others laughed as I glared down at him.

"I'm Kera, the new 4th seat of Squad 11. I'm surprised you haven't heard of me."

Kenpachi had finally given me a squad position and I was quite happy with it, bragging about it to everyone I saw.

"Oh, you're that girl who got beaten by Kenpachi Zaraki."

An irk mark appeared on my forehead before I planted my foot into his face, twisting it. "I'm also that girl who's going to make you wish you were never born," I snarled, before lifting my foot and kicking him in the side.

He rolled along the floor and stopped, wheezing slightly. I stood above him with the tip of the sword against his throat. He laughed, spitting out a glob of blood and saliva. "I don't believe you. Women can't make me wish I have never been born."

I would have crushed the living daylights out of him, but I was under strict orders not to kill any of them by Kenpachi. But it made me wonder what type of filth was being allowed to crawl their way into Squad 11 recruitments.