Ise tried not to feel so amused about the secret note that Renji had slipped her when he had dropped off his squads paperwork. It was very unusual for a lieutenant to be running paperwork errands, that sort of work was always shuffled down to the lower seated offiers, but she wasn't going to complain.

"Meet me at my place, bring your zanpakutou," the note had read.

The two Sixth squad hall guards posted outside the squad hall bowed respectfully to the visiting lieutenant and allowed her entry into their demesne. Renji was waiting for her outside of his lieutenants quarters dressed for a fight, his own zanpakutou sheathed at his side.

Ise was the definition of a bookish desk jockey and as such, had only very rare experience with actual combat. From all reports, Renji was the precise opposite; one was far more likely to see his face in a brawl or a battlefield than filling out paperwork (and by all accounts, his skills and kido had always been sub-par ever since his days at the academy). Still, Momo had always spoken well of him, and Ise herself had always noticed that he had an aura of easy-natured energy about him that spoke of someone who liked to fight, but didn't fight purely for the sake of fighting, she could see that he was someone who stood firm in what he believed.

:Like a big, dumb, lovable houndog,: she thought with amusement. :Always happy to see you, always ready to play, but hell of four paws when his person is being messed with.:

"Ready for a good fight?" Renji asked cheerfully.

He did most things pretty cheerfully, one of the things Momo liked best about him was his unwavering optimism and his unshakable faith in his own ability to see things through by following the path he most believed in.

"I haven't fought in a long time," Ise said with a small smile. "But yes, I'm ready."

"Good, 'cuz we're testing for Bankai, follow me."

Ise stared at him, frozen in shock for a very long minute.

:Did he really just say that?: she wondered to herself.

And he'd said it so off-hand, like he'd announced they were going to have noodles that night instead of sushi.

"W-wait! Lieutenant Abarai," Ise protested automatically. "Did you really just say we were going to try for bankai? I assume you mean yours!" She called to his retreating broad backside.

"Nope!" he called back to her. "Hurry it up missy, we ain't got all day!"

Ise hastened her footsteps to catch up with him and looked up at him from beside him.

"Abarai," she began severly. "Just because you can achieve bankai doesn't necessarily follow that everyone else can just because they want to."

"Do you want to?" he replied.

"I..." she blinked, brought up short by the question.

"No-one's really ever asked me before," she said honestly.

Ise took a long moment to consider it while Renji led her not just out of the Sixth Squad Hall but out into the less densely populated sections of the Seireitei. She was surprised to note absently, while she considered the question he had put to her with all due gravity, that there was a deep, rocky wood she hadn't really been aware of inside the seireitei.

:Do I want to achieve bankai?: she asked herself, feeling a small sense of wonder at the novelty of the question.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she had always unconsciously thought of bankai as something that happened to other people. After all, she had a Captain that was one of the oldest warriors in the Court Guard Squads (as well as one of the laziest) there had been no real need for her to exert herself to mastering her sword. Ise was called for investigative and messenger duties far far far more often than she was ever called into battle... and if she was called into battle, he Captain was always there to make sure she didn't get hurt.

:But I pride myself on my proficiency,: Ise thought.

The fact that she was a master of kido as well as the queen of bureaucracy was something she had always been very proud of, somehow she had come to consider martial skill as being of lesser importance... possibly because she was not as naturally adept at physical fighting as she was at skills that relied on her innate intelligence. There was no real reason for her not to be as proficient in martial skill as she was in everything else. Looked at that way, her lack of skill seemed odd, as well as being a dangerous blind spot.

:Do I want to achieve bankai?:

Now that the matter had been put on the table...

:Yes,: she realized to her great surprise. :Yes I do.:

Ise prided herself in her proficiency at everything it took to be a good Soul Reaper, the fact that she did not have a bankai was a glaring blemish on an otherwise perfect record. Other than that...

"I... I want it!" she gasped out, realizing the truth for herself.

She wanted to be strong, she wanted to show that Captain of hers that she wasn't a child to be patted on the head or chucked on the cheek and told to go run along and play and let the real fighters do their work anymore. She wanted to be everything she could be, everything she was capable of being. She wanted to discover her true limits and then to surpass them.

"Yes Mister Abarai," she said firmly having abruptly discovered a truth within herself. "I want to acheive bankai."

"Then you can do it," he said firmly.

She looked at him in some surprise. He said it so easily, as though it were a fact as obvious as the sun rising in the east.

"Y-You really think so?"

"Abso-posi-you better believe it!" he said with a smile. "If you're willing to go up to your limits and then over them, if you're willing to fight until you can't fight anymore and then keep fighting. If you're determined enough and brave enough to face the best and worst within you and conquer it... you can achieve it. Bankai ain't a place for half-measures and it ain't something that anyone else can do for you. When you face your zanpakutou in a fight for bankai, you face everything in yourself. Bankai is nothing less than total and complete mastery of all that's within you. You have to be absolutely certain in your own ability to be your own master and absolutely determined in your will to seize control of your own destiny. Anything less than this will result in failure."

"Oh..." Ise said, reflecting on it a little. She nodded to herself, she was more than ready and she wasn't going to be held back anymore.

Hidden in a cleft between two rocks was a large hole that looked like it had been blown directly into the hillside.

"Watch yer step," Renji said as he unsealed his zanpakutou and hooked the top of his saw-edged serrations over the lip of the hole.

Nanao squawked a little awkwardly when he suddenly hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her in close to his chest then half a heartbeat later dropped down. They fell for what seemed like a small eternity, then they abruptly slowed and landed gently on the ground in a dark place. Renji gave a small popping flare of his reiatsu and the dark place abruptly turned to bright daylight.

Ise looked around her in amazement.

"We're outside? But I thought we were underground."

"We are, as far as I can tell. This place was made to look like outside. It's a training arena. I achieved bankai here, and so did the mortal boy Ichigo. From what I know, this place was built about a hundred years ago or so by Urahara and Shihouin to train in. It's a secret, so don't go tellin' no-body."

"Are we allowed to be here?" she asked.

"I don't see why not," Renji said with a shrug. "Urahara and Shihouin are in no position to object, besides they already have one in the mortal realm, and Ichigo could probably care less. It's a great place, maybe the only place, the train for Bankai in perfect secrecy so..."

"Alright," she said with a small smile.

She could feel her zanpaktou getting a little excited, as it always did when Ise faced the possibility of stepping out from behind her Captain's shadow and getting to do something on her own for a change.

"Alright," Renji agreed with an answering smile. He took a position a few feet away from her and turned to face her, Zabimaru already out and unsealed. "Let's get this party started."

Thanks so much for all my wonderful reveiwers, sorry that next chapter of Chasing Shadows hasn't shown up yet, I'm working on it. I hope you liked this chapter (though it really was more of a tease, wasn't it?) and are looking forward to the next one. Ise's zanpakutou is never revealed except for a in one small picture in an art book where it looks like one of those small curved blades that women sometimes hide up thier sleeves in historical dramas. So I had to sort of take my own interpretation with it. Look forward to it please!