Disclaimer: I don't own 'Bleach' or any of its characters, only my own OCs, this goes for the whole story.

Rina Kimura didn't want to be here. She would have preferred to stay at home in District 76. Yeah it wasn't the best District but at least it wasn't the snobfest of the Soul Reaper Academy. Rina was a young girl from the Rukongai who had taken the exam as a dare; a joke which had ended badly. She had apparently gotten quite a good score and was now forced to attend the stupid school. She probably wasn't going to be placed in the top class, as her reading and writing wouldn't have been the best, but she honestly couldn't care about this either. If she was completely honest she was actually trying to figure out the quickest way of getting expelled and being allowed to go back home and be with her family and friends, people who cared about her not the strangers who would look down on her and likely want to backstab her at every corner. She wasn't even here because the Soul Reapers scared her it was because her mother frightened her and was going to kill her if she didn't take this 'great opportunity'. The more she thought about it the more she knew she had to take this opportunity, find some sort of goal. In the end all that mattered was that Rina was here and didn't want to be.

Here, specifically, was an auditorium where a bunch of students were wearing really uncomfortable and incredibly white clothes listening to an equally annoying old man go on about how much of an honour it was for all of them to be here and all the things they could potentially achieve. If Rina was going to be forced to come to this place then there was only one thing that she had on her mind, besides escape, was to learn all she could to help her family back home. Obviously she was going to learn lots of different ways to fight which would be useful but she mainly wanted to know how to protect the ones she loved in other ways. If she could even just become a semi-competent healer she would be happy. Rina lost a brother a few years before to an incurable illness. She believed it was only incurable because no one had the knowledge to know otherwise in their remote district. If she could stop this from happening again all of this pain from listening to a boring old man would be worth it. A sickness like that would eventually spread if not contained properly. In other words, Rina's time to complete her goal was limited and her escape would have to wait until she was able to save everyone in the ignored lower districts.

Her inner ramble was stopped by an older boy in the row below her. He was handing a picture to his friend next to him and it had a humorous representation of the elderly gentleman who had yet to stop talking. They had been encouraged to bring paper and pencils with them in order to take notes from the 'inspirational' speech they were being forced to endure. However it would appear that this was just giving some of the less enthused students a chance to release their frustration and boredom. With the same stationery before her, Rina was able to discretely draw on, scrunch up and throw a bit of paper at the same boy who had initial distracted her and given her this idea to cure her terminal boredom. The boy was scared to say the least by the sudden appearance of a rogue paper ball but after turning around to see Rina give him a thumbs up he then returned to opening up her paper creation.

'Love the picture. :) '

It was a few simple words and a crude smiley face but it was enough for the two boys to smile before returning Rina's original thumbs up.

The rest of the lecture continued in this fashion with the boys writing or drawing on paper, placing them so that Rina could see them and then her replies coming in the form of paper balls, facial expressions and occasional hand gestures.

Rina guessed the Academy wouldn't be so bad if she was able to make friends this easily. She was partially right and very wrong.

The three eventually found and introduced themselves after the lecture was finished and they were allowed to have a break for lunch before being given a tour of the classrooms and extensive grounds, including the living quarters for anyone who isn't a noble and already lived within the Seireitei. The boy who had drawn the picture was surprisingly tall with light hazel eyes and had his long black hair tied in a simple ponytail, his name was Takeo Fugimoto. His friend didn't have to worry about his hair as it was extremely short and also a dirty blonde colour but was even taller and a whole lot more muscular, his name was Aoi Suzuki, which matched the colour of his eyes; blue. Basically little Rina Kimura had made friends with possibly the two biggest boys in her year with both boys towering over just about everyone else in a room. The only difference besides hair and eye colour would be that Takeo was a bit leaner and built more for speed while Aoi was taking strong to a whole new level and built big, tough and just about indestructible. In other words, Rina's life at the Academy had already got off to an interesting start.

"I can't believe they didn't notice you throwing paper for half the talk,"

"I think they probably just wrote 'Beware. Nuisance.' Next to my name on their list,"

"Either way you're awesome,"
"Thanks Takeo. You too. I love your pictures, they're so life like. Especially the one of that professor,"

"It took me while to get the nose right,"

"Yeah, I'm just surprised they you were even able to fit it on the page,"

Another discernible difference between the two boys was that Takeo was a chatterbox while Aoi would just sit silently with only the occasional laugh at a joke but more often than not a simple nod or shake of the head depending on the topic of discussion. The difference between the boys and Rina, besides gender, was that Rina was considerably younger than them and most of the others in their year as well. Rina Kimura came to be in the Academy from a childish dare, and also a bit of a childish dream, and as such she was still a small child herself. Most of the others were either teenagers or young adults. There may be one or two other smaller children but it was extremely rare for someone so young to pass the entrance test, much less graduate at the same rate as the older students. It typically took 6 years to graduate from the Academy but for some of the younger students it could take an extra couple of years, unless they were particularly gifted and if so they tended to pass in half the expected time. Rina didn't care about making a name for herself, on the contrary wanted quite the opposite, and so wasn't going to try to excel at everything and was content with just trying to stay in the same class she was in now and graduate with everyone else.

The break for lunch continued in a similar fashion until it seemed to end too abruptly for the trio. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for everyone else, they were sorted into the same group for the tour that would apparently be the same groups as their classes as well. They were told that they were the top class and so encouraged to work as hard as possible in order to maintain that position within the Academy and their lives. Rina ignored this but it seemed to ignite something within Takeo and Aoi who appeared to want that position and accompanying recognition. After the pep-talk they were led to the main classrooms that they would be required to attend and the specific lessons that would take place in each, as well as the standards they would be expected to perform to. Basically Rina just saw a bunch of huge buildings that all looked the same and were less interesting then tying her brown hair into knots, which she was currently doing to the amusement of her new friends and the annoyance of their tour guides and future teachers. It wasn't until a certain name was mentioned that she then stopped everything and payed full attention to what was occurring before her.

"Good afternoon Captain Unohana. What an honour this is. May I ask why you have paid us a visit?"

There now stood before them a tall woman with her black hair in a braid that fell down her chest. She wore a small smile and closed her eyes whenever that smile grew, as it did after being addressed by one of the teachers.

"Akamine. Good afternoon. I came because I was told this was the top class and I just wanted to remind them that Squad 4 is always looking for bright young Soul Reapers who are ready to learn the art of healing and medicine. If they want to they can choice to do a specialisation course here at the Academy, can't they Akamine?"

"Ye-Yes Captain! We-We were just heading towards those facilities right now. Would you like to join us, Captain?"
Once again the Captain of Squad 4 wore a gentle smile before politely refusing and explaining that she had other duties she needed to attend to promptly. With that stated she turned and elegantly drifted down the hallway out of sight. Akamine proceeded to lead them down a different passage to the room he had mentioned before and began to explain the classes, techniques and training involved with this line of learning. It was a complete contrast to before as Rina hung on every word and everyone else seemed as interested as she had been with her hair.

After the necessary information was said the rest of the tour continued with only the outside training grounds left and then the group split into genders and were led off to see their respective dormitories. The dormitories looked like the rest of the Academy but weren't connected and actually quite a distance away. Basically everything was constructed of a sturdy and well-maintained wood with everything suspiciously clean, especially to someone from the Rukongai. It had been a really busy day and once everyone was handed their timetable they were left in their new homes to rest before Academy life hit them with full force the next day. The tour had taken the whole afternoon and with the quickly fading light and strict rules about going to the male dormitories, and vice versa, Rina couldn't be bothered to go see her friends and instead tried to talk to some of the girls she would now be boarding with. It was obvious that there were many more males enrolled at the Academy than females but that doesn't mean that they are all going to band together and be the best of friends instantly. There were still class boundaries after all.

"Hello, I'm Rina Kimura. Nice to meet you!"

"Oh. Hello. Where are you from?"

"Rukongai, District 76 and-"

"Don't care!"

The particular hallway in the dormitories that Rina was a part of seemed to be full of girls from the upper end of the Rukongai, with Soul Reaper ties, family ties, nobility ties or mobility themselves. Basically it meant that nobody wanted anything to do with a little, unimportant brat from the lower Rukongai. They made it seem like District 76 was as bad as District 80 but from experience Rina knew that not everyone from District 80 was bad and that something as stupid as this doesn't define a person. If only these snobs were that smart. Unfortunately it seemed that the higher the snobbery the lower the intelligence. It would seem that all of these girls would have needed their respective ties in order to pull enough strings to even get in to the Academy in the first place.

At least while all the other girls tried to manipulate each other and determine who was worth befriending, Rina would be able to get a good night's sleep and maybe have a bit of an advantage in the morning for the first intensive day at the Academy.

Now a little bit more on Rina Kimura. She would only look about 10 or 12 but in this world she was more like twice that old. She had come to the Soul Society when she was only a baby so her age was determined by the weird workings of the Soul Society and not the world of the living. In the Soul Society puberty was the point when you stopped aging 1 year every 2 years and started aging 1 year every 10. It was a weird system but that was just how things worked. It would be another few years before Rina reached that point but at the moment she was just glad that she had enough experience to survive and reach her goal. Most of the others at the Soul Reaper Academy looked to be in their mid-late teens or even twenties, very few came to the Academy much younger but Rina always liked being the exception. The exception to the rule of most infants dying within the first couple of years of being in the Soul Society or surviving hollow attacks or even the likelihood of getting adopted into a family in the lower end of the Rukongai. With this in mind she had two goals now. One, to become a great healer to be able to protect her family back in the Rukongai and now two, to be the exception to the unlikely event of a young female from the Rukongai graduating the Academy. Nothing fancy like graduating quickly or at the top of the class but so long as she graduated and proved everyone wrong and came one step closer to the more important and long term goal.

Her type of family in the dirt of the Rukongai was rare. Hideaki and Namiko Kimura were exceptional people as they took it upon themselves to adopt any abandoned babies they found. They had taken in four children over the years including Rina who was the second youngest. Jun was the first and the one who had died from the illness, the amazing older brother who was a complete gentleman and tried his hardest to protect everyone in sight. Rai was the first girl the couple took in and another great older sibling for Rina, a bit of a princess but still a tad over protective. Rina came next and shortly afterwards they took in the youngest and sweetest, Jiro. 2 boys and 2 girls. In the end they made a good family and, as said before, a rare one. In this area of the Rukongai most adults fended for themselves and the children banded together for protection. A normal family wasn't normal here.

Back at the Soul Reaper Academy it was the beginning of the first of many days at this institution, and it was not off to a great start. The only highlight was sitting with Takeo and Aoi but everything besides that just kept going downhill. Their teacher, Akamine, was as boring as the lecturer from the day before. The trio spent the class passing notes to each other instead of taking notes about the lesson, with Akamine giving pointed glares at the students whenever he caught them doing so. What came next was plain annoying. They were going to be encouraged for the first week to take their breaks in the classroom so that they would be more likely to interact with everyone in their class. Being around snobby people is painful.

"Kuchiki! You looking forward to kido practice next?"

"If it's anything like the lecture it'll be too easy. As with everything,"

"How are you this good at everything?"

"Class,"

Rina, Takeo and Aoi were sitting at the back of the lecture theatre, eating lunch and watching the group at the bottom of the room. Most of their classmates were crowded around one young, black haired boy who couldn't look any more like a snob if he was covered in solid gold. He was ranting on about being a child prodigy and being able to pass the Academy instantly if he really wanted to.

"How irritating,"

"Yep,"

A head nod.

Rina and Aoi agreed with Takeo's obvious observation.

"Love to bring him down a peg or two,"

"Yep,"

A head nod.

This was how the conversation continued until they thought of how to change it up, which wasn't hard considering how much the Kuchiki brat was boasting.

"What's even more impressive is your age!"

"Yeah, how old are you Kuchiki?"

"26,"

"Wow!"

"You must be the youngest person here!"

"Most students are over 50! You're half that!"

"Yeah,"

"NOT!"

Aoi and Rina both jumped as the loud mouth between them yelled and stood up from his seat. Now all eyes were on them and while Aoi didn't move after the initial shock Rina proceeded to sink lower in her seat, and given her short height from her young age, she became almost invisible behind the desk.

"Ignore the peasant,"

The Kuchiki only made things worse because now Takeo was walking down to the bottom of the room and dragging the resistant Rina behind him.

"26 isn't the youngest, dumbass. Rina's 21. What do you have to say about that, Kuchiki?"

"Liar,"

This led to Rina trying to pull Takeo back from bashing a certain person's skull in and Aoi magically appearing behind the duo to assist Rina in her failing endeavour. Basically it turned into Rina stepping aside and letting Aoi wrap his tree trunk arms around Takeo's chest, pinning his arms and lifting him off the ground so his legs were kicking out in front of him just far enough away so that he couldn't reach Kuchiki. Said boy however took this as an invitation to continue to taunt Takeo, knowing that he couldn't be reached.

"She's just a runt. No way could someone from the Rukongai get into the Academy at a young age. My age is impressive for nobility. So, you telling me that she is better than most of the nobility? Please. Like I said before she's just a runt who's pretending to be special for attention,"

"You would know about, that wouldn't you?"

"What?"

Rina didn't mind being made fun of but she wasn't about to let someone make fun of the Rukongai and the people who suffer and struggle every day to survive while people like this brat live in complete and oblivious safety. She did have an evil side after all, being raised in the violent and survival conditions of the lower Rukongai. She was intending to use this precious skill.

"If you didn't want attention you wouldn't keep talking all this crap. You also wouldn't care so much about being the youngest. What do you have to say about that?"

"You're just trying to make me look bad!"

"And that's not what you were doing when you called me a liar?"

"You are!"

"How would you know how old I am?"

"I-You-Just-…Shut up!"

"Not the best at everything it would seem,"

With this all Rina had to do was poke her tongue out before casually walking back up to her seat, with Aoi carrying a more settled down Takeo in tow, to initiate the first Kuchiki tantrum of the year. And not the last in the slightest. Another incentive to encourage Rina to stay in the top class. Annoying this spoilt brat was going to be very entertaining.

The rest of the day uncovered a couple of things. One, Rina was very good at kido but when it came to wielding a sword she had a lot to learn. Also, that Kuchiki kid was extremely competitive and likely held a grudge for eternity. Whenever he got a compliment or did something perfectly he would wait before everyone praised him and then look at Rina to see if she got a reaction. She would just smirk and wave. He obviously didn't appreciated this as it always ended in him scowling and turning away. Basically Rina was enjoying herself. Despite her initial thoughts and experience this was turning out to be fun.

Until the weeks continued and Byakuya Kuchiki took the game too seriously and crossed a couple of lines he would soon learn only released the vindictive beast inside the Rukongai girl. But the weeks before this were the best Rina was ever going to have at the Academy.

The days were spent joking around with Takeo while Aoi kept protective watch over the two. They became hated by the teachers but their background as Rukongai already did that anyway. They were hated by most of the other students as well but that was only because they all wanted to suck up to the Kuchiki who openly spoke about his hate for Rina in particular. It didn't matter much though, it was still fun to mess around and have friends like those back in the Rukongai, people who understood and genuinely cared. The last thing Rina wanted was to start playing the political games of the Sereitei, which could stay up to the nobles and high profiled, ranked soul reapers as far as she was concerned.

Whenever class finished the trio would go to one of the training grounds around the Academy and dormitories. There they would often joke around and occasionally do some of the extra theory work they had been given in classes or practise kido or with sticks to perfect their sword form. It didn't matter whether they were doing work or being stupid they had fun either way.

"Rina! How do you control Spiritual Pressure or Energy or whatever this well?! If I can't pass level 6 I'll have to redo the class! How can you already be up to level 8?! Why is this so hard?!"

Takeo was having another exaggerated rant while Aoi was attempting to teach Rina how to play shogi. This meant that Rina's focus was split between her confusion induced headache and trying to remember how to play the perpetrating board game. In other words Takeo was not taking being ignored very well and so simply increased his annoying level, which meant more whining and louder yelling.

"Rina! Aoi! I need help! Help me! Help! Help! Look a bird! … Rina! Aoi! HELP!"

With this last attempt to get attention Takeo flung himself stomach first onto the ground, conveniently over the one sided game that his two friends were trying to play. This would have worked if Aoi didn't produce another game from his bag and laid it on Takeo's back. Takeo then proceeded to give up and let Rina and Aoi finish the game on his back, which didn't take very long considering Rina wasn't very good and Aoi had been playing just about his whole life. Very one sided.

"Okay Takeo. You need help?"

"Ha ha ha. Funny Kimura,"

"Just focus,"

"Yeah. What Aoi said,"

"I hate you both,"

"Sure. Sure,"

"I mean it!"

"So you don't need our help?"

"… No … Yes … What answer means you'll help me?"

"Just meditate and try to focus your energy into your hands,"

"Then practise taking it away and putting it back to help control the amount of energy in your hands,"

"Then you can try putting different amounts in each hand,"

"Then-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. A lot of work. What will you two do while I sit in silence?"

"Give thanks to all higher beings,"

"Shut up Rina,"

"You need to practise your sword skills,"

"No, no, no, no. Please Aoi. Noooo,"

"Guess Aoi is the only one not going to be in pain,"

"Not if I have a say about it!"

"Rina. Behave,"

"I hate you,"

"No you don't,"