Strange Encounter

When Takashi woke up again, he was lying in bed once again. Jūshirō was sitting next to him, while Shunsui was nowhere to be seen.

"You're finally up Takashi. Want to play a casual game of Go while we wait for Shunsui to come back? I'll explain what happened after the test."

"Sure."

Jūshirō's face brightened, and he pulled out the Go board and stones he had been holding behind his back.

"Anyway, after the test finished, Shunsui and I were the only ones left standing. Captain-Commander Yamamoto announced that we were both his disciples and told us that classes start next week. Then Shunsui carried you back, and went out to buy some dinner. Not much to explain."

"Congratulations Jūshirō. Now that you're Captain Yamamoto's disciple, I'm sure you'll be able to do great things in the future. Because of this awesome achievement, I'll give you a chance right now to remove the stone you just placed down and place it somewhere else."

Jūshirō focused on the board for a few minutes.

"Ahh, I can't believe I missed that."

Jūshirō picked up the stone, then placed it right back down where it was before. Takashi just shook his head, but he let himself smile.

A while later, Shunsui arrived humming a song and swinging around two bags of food.

"Hey, Shunsui. Congratulations on becoming Captain-Commander Yamamoto's disciple."

"Oh, you heard about that from Jūshirō. Yeah, yeah, it's not such a big deal. Could you come over and help me set up for dinner?"

Takashi thought it was a strange thing to request for, as everyone just grabbed their own food and made their own meals, but he decided to help.

"Takashi, you got a really good friend in Jūshirō. He was going to refuse becoming a disciple unless you became one as well, even in the face of that old man. I managed to convince him but he really values you as his friend. I just wanted to make sure you know that."

Takashi felt a warm feeling in his heart.

'Is this the feeling of having a friend?'

He responded to Shunsui, "I understand."

Later that night, when Jūshirō was packing up the Go pieces, Takashi stopped him.

"Let's play one more game, Jūshirō."

"Are you sure? You need lots of sleep and it's late already."

"Don't worry. I can still stay up a little bit longer."

Jūshirō quickly placed the Go pieces back into position as if he were just waiting for an excuse to do so.

That night, Takashi forced himself to stay up until Jūshirō fell asleep before letting himself fall asleep.

The next day, Takashi was awoken by Shunsui shaking his shoulder. Takashi groaned while Shunsui went over to wake Jūshirō. Afterwards, he stood on his bed and gave an announcement.

"School starts in one week so we have no time to waste. We have to have as much fun as we can have before school drains the life out of us."

"I would love to do that, but I think that Takashi might be too tired."

Takashi saw how much his friends wanted to go out and have fun, and he couldn't bring himself to stop them.

"I'm fine. Not tired at all. Let's go."

Truthfully, he was so tired that he couldn't even see straight, and he felt like the floor kept on spinning around, but he managed to power through it.

They wandered all around the Seireitei, stopping at all kinds of different shops, and pausing every so often when Shunsui went to chase a pretty girl.

Takashi was exhausted, so when Jūshirō and Shunsui moved away for a second, he closed his eyes to rest a bit, but when he opened his eyes, they were gone. He immediately grew alert, and saw a flash of silver hair out of the corner of his eyes. He quickly turned and followed it, but in his haste and exhaustion, he tripped. He braced himself to hit the ground, but that never happened. Instead, his head felt like it had been wrapped in some kind of thing, so very soft and comfortable and it felt divine. He had no time to prepare a resistance and instantly fell asleep.

When he woke up, he was in a bed again, but this wasn't his own bed. This bed was far better than his own bed, and it was so comfortable that he nearly fell asleep again, but then he remembered what happened just before he fell asleep, and he sat straight upright.

'Where am I? What is this place? What will happen when Jūshirō and Shunsui find out I'm gone? I need to leave."

He stood up and started walking around. The room was basically empty. The only thing in there was the massive bed. He couldn't find any people, so he decided to go straight out of the front doors. When he opened the doors, he entered a hallway still devoid of people. He wandered around, but all that had accomplished was making him confused. He was now totally lost. He was about to give up, when he turned around and noticed a door there. He could have sworn that that was not there when he first entered, so he felt very suspicious. He slowly approached it, and tore off a piece of cloth to touch the door. It easily opened, and he saw his dorm room beyond it. Takashi was extremely confused, and looked around, but suddenly, he found himself standing in front of his dorm room with his hand on the dorm door. Again, he was massively confused, but there was no point in standing around, so he went in and laid down.

Jūshirō and Shunsui were walking around with Takashi when he suddenly disappeared.

"What just happened to Takashi?"

"I have no idea. What should we do? What should we do?" Jūshirō was freaking out.

"Calm down, Jūshirō. There are two possibilities. Either Takashi left by himself, which means it is likely that he returned to our dorm, or he was taken against his will, which means we should go back to school so that the old man can help us find him."

Shunsui often seemed immature and childish, but he was actually wise beyond his age.

"You're right. Let's go."

They quickly returned to their dorm, and found Takashi lying on his bed. When they returned, Takashi immediately got up.

"Something really strange happened to me earlier." He quickly explained what had happened, and Jūshirō responded with their experience. He was mainly talking to Shunsui, as Shunsui was a noble and lived in the Seireitei. Shunsui nodded thoughtfully.

"I can't really be of much help, as most Shinigami's keep their abilities secret. However, this ability seems like an illusion ability, as it was able to make a copy of you as well as create a maze. Perhaps a spatial ability as well, as they were able to move you from the marketplace to our dorms. That means they're not any random Shinigami. They're probably quite high up, but I can't think of any who have illusionary powers. But this is not the most important point. We need to understand their motive. Takashi, can you think of any reason why they would do that?"

"I don't think so. I remember that before I fell asleep, I tripped and fell into something soft and comfy. Maybe that has something to do with it?"

"Hmm. I can't think of any motive with just that. Well, there's nothing we can do about it, since they're way beyond our capabilities, and they don't seem to have any ill will, so everything should be fine, but let's stay here for the rest of the day, just in case."

Takashi and Jūshirō nodded. They played several games of Go, then went to bed.

The next day, they picked up their schedules and had some more fun in Seireitei.

The day after that, Shunsui made an announcement again.

"Shunsui, you really like making announcements."

"I sparred with Takashi two days ago, and realized something. You two are really bad fighters, so I've decided, today will be training!!"

The other two were swept up by his enthusiasm and agreed to train as well.

"Ok, you two. Attack me together, otherwise you'll have no chance."

"Okay!!!" Jūshirō was really pumped up by the training and charged at Shunsui.

"Ora ora ora ora!!!"

Takashi nearly tripped when he heard what Jūshirō was shouting. He sent out a few attacks at Shunsui while Jūshirō moved behind him but Shunsui easily blocked all of their attacks. Suddenly, Shunsui seemed to notice something and he frowned. He easily slipped past Takashi's defense and got so close their heads were nearly touching.

"Takashi, are you ok? You seem very distracted. You're showing all kinds of openings that you didn't have last time we sparred." Shunsui whispered.

"Everything's fine. I can resolve my problem by myself."

And Takashi did just that. Jūshirō was suddenly thrown backward, not by Shunsui but Takashi.

"Jūshirō, can you please fight silently?"

After that, Takashi fought a lot better without Jūshirō constantly distracting him, and they both improved tremendously.

While they were training, a dark figure appeared in the distance.

"Seems like that child I met has a lot of potential. His two friends have already been taken, but he has enough talent to become a captain. I think I will watch over him for a bit longer."