-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A young male was dropped off by a car, two adults getting out of it and pulling out three suitcases and preparing to help him bring them up the long stairs before him. He couldn't have been older than 14 with silver-white hair that reached the middle of his back in length and bright, deep, blue-violet eyes. His skin was fair and smooth without a single blemish or mark and he had rather slim build for a boy. Despite that, there was no denying he was male, something in the way he carried himself and subtle hints in his face were all it took to confirm that he was indeed a boy.
The two adults started toward the stairs with the suitcases, but he moved to stop them and they looked to him with confusion as he said, "I don't need that much, just that one should be enough." His voice soft and gentle, but nearly genderless in tone, not masculine or feminine, but still beautiful in its own way. He points to one suitcase, which was the smallest and a dark blue in color.
The two adults look to each other and the woman crouches down and holds the boy by the shoulders gently as she said, "Are you sure, Kiri, sweetie? You're going to be staying here for quite a while."
Kiri smiled and nodded as he said, "I'll be fine, mom, having too much stuff would only distract me."
His mother smiled sadly and moved to hug him and he hugged her back. The man just moved a little closer and ruffled his son's hair before stepping back and prying his wife off of their son. He looked almost nothing like either of them, both were fairly normal in appearance, dark hair, fairly attractive for their age, but they didn't have the same type of unique beauty he had. It had puzzled him when he was younger, but he no longer let it bother him any more.
He grabbed the suitcase he'd indicated and started up the steps, waving goodbye to his parents until they were just dots at the bottom of the stairs. From there, he focused on getting up the steps and finally reached the top with a small sigh. He was immediately greeted by an old man with thinning, long white hair and a beard to match, dressed in a white robe and he bowed slightly to Kiri, who returned the gesture. Kiri himself was dressed in rather ordinary clothing, jeans that were a bit worn, a dark blue, three-quarter length sleeve shirt, a chain hung from the belt loops on his right hip, short boots that had were a little scuffed, but still good and he had a grey, hooded jacket tied around his waist.
The old man said nothing and simply started off down a path, Kiri following calmly and pulling the suitcase along behind him. They reached a large, temple-like building and Kiri was motioned inside, but the man liberated him of the suitcase for the moment. Kiri carefully slipped off his boots before proceeding onto the wooden floor of the building's interior. He marveled quietly at the architecture inside, but his attention was drawn to an altar where a younger, but still clearly older man waited seated for him. His hair was dark, but with grey streaking it here and there along with neatly trimmed beard. He was dressed in a black robe with golden trim and a white sash. Kiri stopped at precisely four meters from the man and sat down on a cushion that was there, bowing politely before sitting up straight.
The man simply looked at Kiri for a while and Kiri did the same. They sat there for several minutes, simply staring at each other. The man then finally broke a small smile and said, "Such determination in those eyes of yours. They will serve you well while you are here. Welcome, young Kiri, to my humble dojo. My name is Lei wusong, but you may simply refer to me as 'Sensei.' Do have any objections to this?" Kiri simply shook his head 'no' and returned the small smile, but remained silent. Lei thought carefully for a moment and said, "You have come to learn the art of the shinigami battle stances, but have you decided which of the seven you wish to learn?"
Kiri blinked a bit and said, "No, I have not, each has their own appeal, but I cannot decide which is best suited to me."
Lei nodded slightly in understanding and said, "Then I shall help you decide, stand."
Kiri did as he was asked and stood while Lei did the same. Before Kiri even had a chance to ask how this would work, Lei rushed forward, aiming a punch for Kiri's stomach. Kiri quickly spun out of the way, a look of mild surprise crossing his face as Lei stopped and said, "Good reflexes, and you move quickly." He rushed Kiri again, combining punches and kicks into flurry of motion. Kiri could only back away and dodge, afraid that a block might break a bone. Lei finished the combo with a low leg sweep and Kiri instinctively backflipped away from him, landing in a low crouch and watching him carefully as he said, "You're flexible and have a natural talent for acrobatics and I can see that you were looking for an opening, even if you didn't realize it yourself. I think you would do well with the sorrow stance." Lei approached Kiri, who tensed up instinctively, ready for another attack, but instead received a small pat on his head as Lei said, "Congratulations, you've passed the preliminary test."
Kiri's blue-violet eyes went wide, but he smiled as well as he looked up at the older man. He wanted to hug him, but settled for a small bow and said, "Thank you, Sensei."
Lei smiled and moved back over to where he'd been seated before as he said, "There is someone else here close to your age and while he's been here longer I think he's only two years older than you and you probably could learn from each other. You will also be staying with him as he will be your guide while you're here."
Kiri listened quietly and finally asked, "May I know his name?"
Lei said it calmly, "Shiroi."
Kiri nodded again and bowed before looking about, unsure where to go next. Lei noticed the confusion and politely pointed to a door beyond the altar. Kiri bowed one last time before heading for the door and opening it, finding his boots waiting for him outside it and slipping them on before glancing about for this Shiroi.
He was soon approached by a young man who was clearly taller than him with dark hair and a very noticeably strong build for his age. Kiri blinked up at him in quiet awe, but bowed politely as he said, "Hello, I'm Kiri, you must be Shiroi."
Shiroi looked down at the small, polite boy in front of him, taking in every small detail about his appearance. No matter how he looked at him, only one word could describe him, beautiful. He wondered how he'd passed Sensei's preliminary test, but decided not to question it. He noticed the confused look on Kiri's face, finding it rather cute, but the other was clearly wondering if he was mute or something and he stammered slightly before saying, "S-sorry, I didn't mean to just stare like that, but you just look so..."
Kiri finished for him, saying, "Strange?"
Shiroi shook his head and said, "No, beautiful." Then blushed at the rather blunt compliment and stammered, trying to explain that he didn't mean anything by it, but Kiri only laughed as the other panicked and finally quieted down.
Kiri smiled and said, "It's Ok, I get that a lot. So what's with that outfit?" He gestured politely to Shiroi's attire, which was a grey gi with a darker grey sash keeping it in place.
Shiroi looked down at it and said, "It's my uniform for my discipline here. It's how we know who is learning what. I got saddled with the sin stance, you?"
Kiri nodded in understanding and said, "I got sorrow, what's that uniform like?"
Shiroi only blinked at Kiri in disbelief and said, "Sorrow?! Sensei said you could learn sorrow?! Jesus, you seriously must have impressed him somehow."
Kiri shrugged and said, "He said it suited me best, based on how I move naturally."
Shiroi nodded a bit and said, "You're a lucky guy, not many people have the stuff to learn that stance. The uniform would probably look real nice on you too..." Shiroi absently imagined Kiri in the uniform and couldn't help but smile slightly, then shook his head and said, "Speaking of which, I should probably take you to my place so you can change. Sensei only allows street clothes if we need to go into town for something." He motioned for Kiri to follow and started off down a path, passing smaller buildings and other people moving about. There weren't as many as Kiri had expected, but considering how difficult this place was to find, it was hardly surprising. He noticed that most of them were older than him or Shiroi, actually, nearly all of them were. He saw only one younger person, and he couldn't have been older than ten and dressed in the same uniform as Shiroi.
Shiroi finally stopped at one building, which was the size of a decent cabin and he led Kiri inside, both losing their shoes on the small ledge just inside the door. Shiroi led him to a room where he found his suitcase and what appeared to be a white cloth folded neatly on top of it. Kiri moved to pick up the folded cloth and felt the material carefully as Shiroi said, "I'll let you get changed, come on out when you're done." Leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.
Kiri soon exited the room, dressed in a long white robe with a light grey sash tied on the right side and matching pants, a pair of black, slipper-like shoes dangling from his fingers as he fussed with the collar of the robe, unable to get it quite right. Shiroi calmly moved to help and fixed the collar for him before taking a step back and looking Kiri over again. The sleeves were rather big on his arms, but it looked nice on him. Shiroi nodded slightly and said, "Looks good, and it's custom made too, they make sure each uniform is tailored specifically to each student." Kiri only nodded a bit and seemed distracted, as if his mind was somewhere else. Shiroi sighed, knowing what he was thinking and moved to suddenly hug the smaller male, saying, "Hey, don't worry, you'll see them again." He felt Kiri tense up at first, then felt his slim arms wrap around his waist as he hugged him back. He let Kiri go and smiled broadly, the other doing the same as they laughed a little. They didn't know why they were laughing, they just felt like it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of chapter 1, please let me know what you think so far and leave a nice comment. Hopefully I can write the next chapter soon, but until then, bye bye for now.
