Aka
RED

By Kaitlyn Reid

Shinigami Training Academy Arc

"My name is Akemi Kitsune. Akemi means bright beauty. Kitsune means fox. I am 12 years old-- the youngest applicant to the Shinigami Training Academy this year."

That is what I wrote as part of my 1st diary entry, the day that I was going to receive my acceptance letter. At the time, the Shinigami Training Academy had teachers such as the great Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia, Abarai Renji, Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryuu and Yasutora Sado. I would meet heroes if I were to get accepted!

This was the day that set my life on a course that some would call disaster, but I would call the most amazing thing that could ever happen to anyone. I remember walking into the kitchen, wearing my favorite kimono, blue with red roses. I saw my mom getting the mail through the window. She walked into the house with a nervous, but anxious look on her face. She handed me a big, black envelope with a Shinigami Badge seal on it. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I opened the envelope. I slowly opened my eyes as I sensed good news. I read the letter aloud:

"Dear Applicant,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Shinigami Training Academy. If you succeed through this program, you will continue into the thirteen court guards otherwise known as the thirteen protection squads. Classes begin next month on the 1st, while the dorm and school tour occurs the day before. Be at the gate at 7:30am sharp. Here is a list of supplies:

Wooden katana

Kidou permission forms

Katana permission forms

Zanpakuto permission forms

Notebooks for each class"

"Which reminds me," my mom interrupted slyly. She handed me a card with my picture on it that said: "Shinigami In Training". That made it all really sink in that this was not just another dream. This was real. I was REALLY going to be a shinigami and I really just read that letter and it was REALLY for ME. The ID would get me into the Court of Pure Souls. The court was for shinigami and other exceptions like Yasutora Sado, the Quincy family, and Inoue Orihime.

"Arigato Mama. Now I get to meet people like Kurosaki ICHIGO!!!" I sounded like an obsessed teenager, but I WAS an obsessed teenager. (almost anyway). After breakfast, I went outside and greeted my friends with the average, girly, high-pitched scream-fest that every girl does when she has something to be really excited about. They were so proud of me. It was adorable when the younger ones asked if I could teach them kidou. It broke my heart to tell them no, but my badge would be taken away, and I'd have no chance of not getting expelled from the academy. Unfortunately, my goodbyes would have to be said to all of them for a while, since we only have holidays and part of summer at home, in just a week. Hopefully, they would apply next year. Anyway, that was really the last "play day" that I had with them, because I had so much to do to prepare. It was a very bittersweet day.

***End Of Chapter 1***