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A Test of Faith	By : honeyMellon Category: Bleach > Yaoi - Male/Male > Renji/Shuuhei Views: 1155 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: No underaged beings, humans or otherwise, are involved in this work of fiction. Bleach and all its characters belong to Kubo Tite, I just "expand" them for fun. I do not make any profit from these work of fiction.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
From last chapter:

He pictured that same face and imagined what it had looked like last night, when Renji figured out that Shuuhei wasn't going to show up.

Chapter 4

Renji went about his day as usual. When he woke up that morning, he promised himself that he would not dwell on his disappointment, and so far he seemed to have succeeded in not thinking about it.
The day's schedule was mostly training new members of the division in Zanjutsu techniques. This was one of the favorite things on his list of duties as the vice captain. He loved seeing the enthusiasm and fire in the young people; they reminded him of himself many decades ago. Where they lacked skills, they made up for it with the eagerness to learn.
"Eyes on the enemy, Kazu," Renji reminded the boy in front of him, who seemed distracted by someone else's sparring partner. "On your enemy."
The boy grinned sheepishly and corrected himself. He tightened his grip on his bokken and then, with a yell, lunged forward to cross swords with his sparring partner. The partner was taken aback by the sudden movement; staggering backwards, the girl dropped her own bokken.
"Sorry!" Kazu gasped in alarm and rushed forward. The girl waved him off and bent down to pick up hertraining weapon, then immediately resumed a fighting stance.
Renji nodded in approval. That was how it should be done. The enemy would not wait for you to recover in an actual battle, so training should not halt because of a minor stumble like this. He crossed his arms in front his chest and decided to watch the two members spar.
The girl was extremely agile. She was short and small, but she made up for her lack of strength with speed and accuracy. More than once, she forced Kazu to abandon his posture with her skillful use of katsugi waza. She made Kazu's attacks appear clumsy by darting out of the way easily and immediately returning counter attacks. Renji noted that she made several attempts at applying suriage waza but couldn't quite execute the complete upward motion under the weight of Kazu's bokken.
She has promise, Renji decided, feeling pleased. He paused for a moment to recall her name. Right, she was that girl who was with Rikichi last night. Heh, good luck, Rikichi, he thought, chuckling to himself.
Still smiling, Renji turned away to observe other pairs, but was immediately interrupted by a yelp of pain. Turning back immediately, he saw the girl on her knees, cradling her right hand.
"Akari! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Kazu, who had gone to her side, sounded so distraught that one would've thought that he had chopped her arm off entirely. Others also began to flock towards her.
Akari held back her tears and offered a small smile to reassure her friend. "I'm okay, it just stings a little."
"Let me look at that." At the voice of their vice captain, the young members stepped aside to clear the path. Renji knelt down in front of Akari and took her right hand. Yep, typical wrist strike injury, he thought. Akari hissed softly when Renji gently pressed on her wrist to gauge the level of injury.
"Come on, let's get you to the 4th division," Renji said. He held the girl's elbow to support her as she stood up, her steps a little wobbly from pain. "The rest of you, take a break for now and try not to get into trouble before I come back."

The healer finished the final touch on the wrist-guard around Akari's right hand, then sat back to let her test it out. The 4th division had temporarily halted the use of their medic's healing powers to treat minor injuries like this, preferring to save them for the more serious cases that were bound to increase as people prepared for the upcoming war. Akari winced when pain flared through her wrist even with the tiniest movement, but she bit her lower lip to refrain from crying out. This is nothing, she reminded herself, feeling angry that she had such low pain tolerance.
Renji looked at the girl's expression and could tell that she was in pain, but was obviously trying to put up a brave front. He grinned; he liked this kind of fighters, and he knew that she would not appreciate being talked to like a patient. So instead of asking her if she was alright, he clapped a hand on her shoulder and said cheerfully, "See? Good as new!"
Akari smiled, her cheeks slightly pink. "Thanks, Abarai-fukutaicho."
Renji thanked the healer and left the infirmary with Akari.
"You're really good, you know," Renji said as the two of them walked towards the 6th division barracks. "You just need more practice, and some strength training."
Akari looked up in surprise. She hadn't even realized that her vice captain had noticed her during the training session. When she was focused on something, she had the bad habit of tuning out everything else around her—which she knew could potentially get her killed in an actual battle—so she didn't even notice where Renji was while she was training.
"T-thank you," she said, blushing. Her heart soared at the compliment—from the vice captain! The injury was well worth it, she thought happily.
Renji watched her with amusement. Despite her brave front, she had a girly quality about her that reminded him of Inoue Orihime. Well, scratch that, he thought, recalling Orihime's air-headedness. He scratched the back of his head as he thought of who else he could compare her to, but after a few moments decided that he really didn't know enough girls to make a fair comparison.
"So when did you graduate from the academy?" Renji asked, wanting to distract Akari from the pain that was surely bothering her.
Akari beamed proudly as she replied, "3 months ago, Abarai-fukutaicho."
Renji's eyebrows shot up in surprise. With her Zanjutsu skills, he would've pegged her as a more senior member of the squad. "I'm impressed!" he said with a smile. "Where'd you learn Zanjutsu?" While students do learn it in the academy, there were so many things to learn at once that it was seldom to see a fresh graduate who actually excelled at it, unless they had taken extra lessons or already possessed the skill.
To Renji's surprise, Akari's smile faltered when she heard the question. Oops. Just as he was going to tell her to forget his question, Akari said in a small voice, "From my brother."
Now that Renji knew it was a sensitive topic, he wasn't sure what to do next. Should he continue asking about this brother of hers? Or should he just shut up and pretend that she hadn't replied?
Akari saved him from his inner struggle. "My elder brother taught me when I was younger, but...but my father did not like it," she said, her voice soft and laced with a hint of sadness. "You see, nii-san had wanted to join the Gotei 13."
Renji cringed at the use of past-tense in her sentence, but, sensing that she wanted to talk about it, he decided to probe gently. "I bet he must be really good at it," he said.
"Good?" Akari eyes widened indignantly. "He was the best! He won every competition he entered!"
Renji laughed at her reaction; the girl obviously idolized her brother.
Akari paused after her sudden outburst, then her smile faded again as she added, "But that was...that was before he f-fell ill..." Her eyes began to redden, and she blinked furiously to stop the tears. Her voice went even softer. "He passed away when I was twelve. My father never got over his death."
Not trusting his own eloquence, Renji decided to just keep quiet and let her continue.
"He blames the Gotei 13 for my brother's death...my father," Akari said sadly. "If nii-san hadn't pushed himself so hard, he wouldn't have died. At least, that's what my father believes. When nii-san began to fall ill, he would still watch me practice. But my father would get so angry..."
Akari stopped, suddenly realizing that she had been babbling on about herself since they left the infirmary. She blushed fiercely in embarrassment and said quickly, "I-I'm so sorry, Abarai-fukutaicho! You must be bored."
"No! Not at all," Renji said sincerely. "I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me all this."
Akari's cheeks reddened even more. She was actually surprised at herself for pouring her heart out to her vice captain. Not many people knew about her family problems, and she couldn't believe she was now telling Abarai-fukutaicho about them. She searched Renji's face for any signs of pretense, but found only genuine interest and concern in his eyes.
"Thank you for listening to me," Akari said, still feeling embarrassed.
Laughing, Renji said, "Stop thanking me, you've thanked me at least three times in the past hour." Then, realizing that he only made the girl even more embarrassed, he ruffled her hair good-naturedly and said, "Seriously, you can talk to me anytime. Now, shall we go in? I think one hour is a long enough break for those brats."
Beaming, Akari nodded and followed her vice captain into the 6th division grounds. Her wrist throbbed, but her heart felt lighter than it had ever been since she entered the academy against her father's will.

To be continued...
Sneak Preview of the next chapter:

"Yeah, why go back?" Shuuhei whispered huskily in Renji's ear. "Why...when I can have you here?"
NOTE:

As noted throughout the Bleach manga/anime, there are 4 main skill sets for Shinigami: Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hoho, and Kido.

Zanjutsu is literally "Art of the Sword" in the Bleach universe, which basically is Kendo in the modern world.

Naturally, I don't know Zanjutsu, nor kendo, myself, so I wrote based on what I read up on basic kendo techniques. Forgive me if they're not entirely accurate!
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A Test of Faith