By the time help arrived from the division, Rumi had long finished the battle and talked to Kazehime already. The help team consisted of Kaien, Miyako, Kotsubaki and Kotetsu, and they seemed to have rushed after meeting with the patrol team Rumi had told to leave her and run.
"Fujiwara, you're okay?" Kaien asked as he got to the scene.
Rumi nodded, "Yes, but unfortunately, the hollow escaped before I could finish it."
"It escaped?" Kaien asked.
"Yes." Rumi replied, "I fought it for a while and it seemed to have some sort of touch-activated ability. My Zanpakuto was a bit on edge so I could only guess whatever ability it had, it could be targeted towards Zanpakuto or something. I didn't get close to it and only used Kido so I didn't have a chance to find out its exact ability.."
"I see..What was the state of the hollow when it escaped? What did it look like?" Kaien asked.
"It had six tentacles intitally and had a fire shaped mask on its eyes. But when it escaped, it no longer had the tentacles..I think it only had part of its body and head? Also it might've been rescued instead of teleporting away itself." Rumi answered.
"I see. Thank you, Fujiwara." Kaien said, "We'll keep watch here and patrol the area in case it'd come back. You can go back to the division to freshen up and rest for now."
Rumi nodded. Since Kaien was a lieutenant and she told them about her theory of its power, they should be fine. So, Rumi decided to thank them for coming and leave. But just as she turned around to leave, Kaien said, "Fujiwara, I'm glad you're still alive. And thank you, for saving the lives of the other members in your patrol team. If you hadn't stayed and fought or told them to run, they probably would've died here. Thank you."
Rumi turned and said with a small smile, "I just did what felt right to me. That's all, sir Kaien."
"What felt right to you, huh?" Kaien muttered, "I think you'd make a great leader."
Kaien's words didn't leave her mind as she walked back to the division.
Would she really be a great leader material?
Although Rumi didn't think of herself as such, Kaien's words made her feel happy.
-------------
On the other hand,
"Gin, how is our new subject doing?" Aizen asked.
"Captain, unfortunately our new project might have failed. She's still alive and the hollow had to be teleported away."
"Hm..Interesting. Even though this hollow was given the power to destroy Zanpakuto with a touch, it failed. Did she get any help?"
"No", Gin shook his head, "She was alone. But it seemed that she had sensed something was amiss and didn't attack it with her Zanpakuto. She didn't even get close to it at all."
Aizen's eyes a bit widened at that. "So, she used kido only?"
"Yes."
"The power of her kido spell?"
"Remarkable. But nothing too alarming for now. She needed to use full chants and all." Gin replied.
"But the potential.. she should be able to become a kido master in the future." Aizen stated, "Shikai in two months and mastering Zanjutsu in a short time..I'm afraid she'll achieve Bankai soon. A Kido master and Zanjutsu master...truly an ideal candidate for our test subject."
"Should we move forward with Metastacia for its second attack, Captain?"
"Of course. But we should save her until she gets Bankai, Gin. We can't waste an ideal subject this early on." Aizen said.
-----------
When Rumi got back to the division, she was welcomed by a very worried Rukia who rushed towards her.
"Rumi! idiot! Why did you stay there alone to fight after telling everyone else to run? What if you actually lost and died?" Rukia shouted, not even caring at this point whether calling a sixth seat idiot in public as an unseated officer herself was fine or not.
Seeing Rukia's genuine look of worry and anger based from that, Rumi felt a warmth in her heart and couldn't help but smile.
But of course, as Rukia saw that, she became embarrassed and somehow it made her angrier. "Idiot! What're you smiling for? What're you thinking even? Why wouldn't you worry about your own life?"
"Okay, okay. Sorry." Rumi held her hands up in defeat, still laughing. "Really. I wasn't thinking much except that I wanted to beat its ass you know. Thought it'd be cool to say 'stuff like I got this. You guys run.' You know, I felt so cool!" Rumi started bullshitting, again. Because if this wasn't a chance for her to act cool, when was?
In her defense, she saved the rest of her patrol team and she herself took on the hollow alone to save her team. That had to be a pretty cool feat.
"Seriously you can't keep quiet for a day, could you?" Rukia said, but she was smiling. "I think you're officially cool in the division now. Even though we all used to gang up and gossip about your laziness. Now... they're all going to be exaggerating things.."
"Really? Really? Now I'm so excited. If I knew this would happen, I would've gone on more patrols and save more newbies haha." Rumi started to mumble more and more about how the newbies would look up to her in admiration and how people would form fan clubs and all, and Rukia had to listen to her fantasy for an hour.
Finally, she lost it after an hour and told Rumi to go and annoy others. Rumi laughed, made fun of Rukia and then skipped away to her room. Kaien probably wouldn't be back for the night, and Captain Ukitake was probably sick, which meant she could sneak off to catch up on some very needed sleep.
Rumi didn't even know how she fell asleep that night. She probably passed out after getting into the bed and when she woke up, it was two days later.
And, her reaction to that was "Welp, i might've overslept a little."
----------
Rumi didn't know how Kaien would react if he found out she fell asleep for two days. But, on the bright side, she found that after two days of sleep, requirement for Sloth passive skill was met again and it was turned on automatically again. This was great news, because this meant her combat power would be back to normal.
Hopping over with excitement, Rumi went to check on the current situation and update about the hollow she fought the other day. From Rukia, Rumi found out that Kaien and the reinforcement group had been camping around the area in turns in case the hollow appeared again. So far, it had yet to show up. With its all tentacles gone, Rumi guessed it might be healing itself and baiting its time. She knew it'd be back in a matter of time.
Anyways, great news for her was because everyone was busy with the hollow case, no one cared that she slacked off and accidentally slept for two days. So, she just did her usual job light works and decided to use some time to test out her new understanding of Kazehime shikai state.
After getting to her favorite deserted spot, Rumi materialized Kazehime into reality as usual and told her that she wanted to test out her Shikai now that she had completed it. Kazehime blinked her eyes in confusion and asked, "Rumi..didn't you say you wanted to test out Shikai? Why did you materialize me here then?"
"Oh yeah..I forgot." Rumi scratched her head, and smiled sheepishly, "I think I've gotten really accustomed to materializing you out here to talk..."
"You know, sometimes, I wonder if there's something wrong with you." Kazehime said, looking unimpressed.
"Huh, why?" Rumi asked.
"I dunno. It's like you're dense and smart at the same time.. For most people, most of their Bankai training was to materialize their Zanpakuto spirit into the real world. After years of battles, knowing their Zanpakuto spirit and sufficient reiatsu and control, they could materialize the Zanpakuto spirit stably in the real world." Kazehime said, "But, you, you took such a short time doing it, even before you actually completed Shikai state. So tell me why are you taking longer on the second part?"
"Second part?"
"Yeah, you're supposed to subdue me or try to convince me to teach you Bankai, genius." Kazehime rolled her eyes, "I told you you did it with Shikai. I even said congratulations and stuff. Do you seriously not take that as any sort of sign? Why're you so slow with hints?"
"Excuse me, I'm slow?" Rumi gasped, feeling indignant.
"Yes, you are! No wonder you never got a boyfriend back when you were a human." Kazehime stuck her tongue out.
"Hey! That's a low blow! Take it back!" Rumi gasped and then pinched Kazehime's cheeks.
"It hurts! Why're you torturing your own Zanpakuto? It's Zanpakuto abuse!" Kazehime shouted.
"Huh..you look more like a little kid" Rumi stuck her tongue out.
"That's it! We're fighting it out!" Kazehime said.
"Nope," Rumi laughed.
"Why? You're scared?" Kazehime asked.
"Nope," Rumi replied, "But I don't want to fight it out today. You know, I've been thinking and.."
"And?" Kazehime asked, turning a bit more serious.
"And I feel like I'm just starting to grab the essence of the wind. I don't know how to control it, not in the sense of subduing it. So, how do I even do the step two of Bankai training? That was the question I kept asking to myself. And for weeks, and months, I couldn't find the answer." Rumi said calmly, like she had accepted that she might not be ready for Bankai as she wished.
"I also recalled about the hint you had given me. You told me to remember my reiatsu nature and that the answer I'd been looking for had been there, already... For a moment, I wondered if that is because you're wind natured or that you could be wind itself. And because I have wind reiatsu, I should somehow be able to control you." Rumi continued, "But the thing is..it never felt right, Kazehime. You told me to slow down, remember my nature and that the answer was already there, like the answer was in me. But..I don't know, Kazehime. I don't know the answer."
Kazehime was looking at Rumi with an expression that was rather hard to decipher or read.
"Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Maybe my resolve isn't strong enough other than wanting it for coolness factor. Or maybe..." Rumi continued, voice getting quieter, "Maybe I don't want to take the control like that.. Maybe I'm scared to confront and take control.."
"I'm not perfect, Kazehime. I told myself I wanted to live freely and enjoy the ride. Yet, I find myself getting consumed by greed, pride, and wanting to be better than everyone else. So much so that I forgot how I wanted to live freely once. I want to be free, but I want to be also powerful and be significant. I want to fight freely without limiting myself to not showing struggle and putting those limitations on myself. But I also want to win and want to appear to do so effortlessly. I don't want to be a hero, but I want to keep people close to me safe, and I want to be someone who could take down a big villain. You see, Kazehime. I'm full of contradictions. So, tell me...how could I ever find the answer?"
Kazehime tilted her head, the wind around her feet stirring restlessly.
"Would you at least try one time?" she spoke after a long time of silence. "You say you're full of contradictions. You say you don't know what you want. You say you're scared."
She stepped closer.
"But tell me something, Rumi."
Rumi looked at her.
"When you fought that hollow," Kazehime said quietly, "did you hesitate?"
Rumi frowned. "No."
"When you told the others to run," Kazehime continued, "did you stop to weigh whether you were being heroic or selfish?"
"…No."
"And when you danced with the wind," Kazehime said, her voice softening, "did you stop to ask whether it was right, or efficient, or impressive?"
Rumi swallowed. "No."
Kazehime smiled, not teasing this time.
"Then why do you only doubt yourself now?"
Rumi's breath caught.
"You keep asking how to control me," Kazehime said, spreading her arms as the wind rose around them. "You keep asking how to subdue the wind."
She leaned forward, forehead almost touching Rumi's.
"But you've been doing it wrong from the start."
The wind surged — not violent, not hostile — just present.
"You don't need to erase your contradictions," Kazehime said.
"You don't need to choose between freedom and ambition."
"You don't need to become pure."
Her eyes sharpened.
"You need to choose."
Rumi clenched her fists.
"Choose what?" she asked.
Kazehime stepped back, the wind forming a loose circle around them.
"Choose a direction," she said.
"Even if it's greedy."
"Even if it's selfish."
"Even if it's ugly."
Her smile returned, sharp, proud.
"Wind doesn't ask permission to blow, Rumi. It just moves."
The pressure increased.
"So stop standing still."
Kazehime raised her hand.
"If you want Bankai," she said calmly,
"then stop asking me for the answer."
The wind howled.
"Show me."
Rumi looked at Kazehime in the eye, her words repeating in her mind.
Kazehime said she didn't need to erase her contradictions or imperfections. That she didn't need to choose between ambition and freedom.
But where does living freely start and end? Would she be happy and feel free only making herself sit in an office doing paperwork and endless patrols or missions?
Or would she feel sense of accomplishment and content if she wandered around and do nothing?
The answers to both were no, she understood that much.
Then, what does being free mean? And what did she truly want to choose if she were to forced to choose one?
Rumi closed her eyes. She remembered everything that'd happened ever since she got to Soul Society. She remembered how she'd been scared yet taken certain calculated risks, trying unorthodox methods, learning new things, letting curiosity guide her, getting competitive with her friends, taking charge of her own life instead of entrusting it on others, choosing to keep certain things secret, training, fighting, everything that shaped her into this version that was standing here.
She had been scared, many times, but she had always chosen the best option she thought to keep going. Sometimes, she let herself choose what she wanted without fear. Sometimes, she made safer choices even if she wanted another thing. But, the past her kept going, making choices. That was why she was here at this point, wasn't she?
Maybe she didn't have to know all the certain answers. Maybe she just needed to move forward without fear- or even with fear. Maybe sometimes, she chooses with her heart or maybe sometimes, she make safer choices. Maybe she didn't need to limit herself to one path or one set of choices everytime. Maybe living freely is admitting she couldn't be the same always and allowing herself to change, make different choices, follow her heart or grow into a stable path. Maybe she didn't have to force herself to limit herself in the name of freedom, or for the sake of living freely.
She could instead go one step at a time, choosing which her heart or head desired, changing and adapting as she go. That way, she could be free to choose what she wanted when she wanted to.
Wind doesn't ask for permission to blow. It just moves, freely to any direction at any time.
Maybe she doesn't find the answer to chain down the wind and force it to go the same direction rigidly. It was never about chaining it down. It was about being conscious of the wind, and acknowledging its nature to freely exist, then simply guiding it when it needed direction to keep going.
For she was the wind, for she would never be chained down herself, she wouldn't chain her down for the sake of control.
Rumi opened her eyes and looked at Kazehime one more time.
"Let's do this, Kazehime."
"Great, I've been waiting for this moment, Rumi."
With her words, the two met in the middle, one as the form of wind, and one surrounded by the wind. And just as they quickly met in the middle, they left just as quick, one chasing the other.
A tornado had appeared in the sky right above their little chase and the reishi in the surrounding areas were disturbed.
Those who didn't know would think of it as a trial.
But, for Kazehime, the decision had already been made.