The trio continued studying and practising together for the next month. They tackled each class and each assessment that came their way and helped each other improve upon weaknesses. It was an effective process.

However.

It all fell apart.

The nobles and other higher ups of society didn't like being beaten by a bunch of Rukongai scum and planned their revenge to ensure it never occurred again. It damaged their pride and reputation. Within the space of a week Rina, Takeo and Aoi had come first place in one class each. They had demonstrated that the nobles weren't the best in every area of expertise a soul reaper was required to know. Rina had wiped the floor in her energy control and manipulation. Aoi showed everyone that his tremendous size and strength extended to the characteristics of his energy. Takeo demolished everyone in the fighting arena, it was the only time his mouth wasn't running a million miles an hour but instead his movements took control of this extraordinary speed.

This meant that it would take something as serious as murder to get this particular trio demoted to a lower class and stop them from showing up the nobles by getting them out of the way. There were other ways to get rid of them though. If their scores started falling then the teachers would have no choice but to forget their previous excellence. If they couldn't train or study then they couldn't get better.

That was the plan.

And almost the entire year group was against them.

"Who raised you? A dog? Piece of dirt!"

Raucous and unnecessary laughter came from a group of largely built males. In the middle of the circle they formed was a male and female pair. They had grown up together and in the Rukongai that meant everything. These nobles didn't understand that bond or the struggles. They just made fun of other's despair.

"Get back! The lot of you!"
"Oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it? That little bitch has a lot of nerve refusing us. And you honestly think we're scared of you,"

More loud laughter.

"Don't call her that!"

"Stop Taro,"

"But they can't treat us like this!"

The pair argued and only ended up fuelling the cruelty of the group that surrounded them. What made things worse was the fact that the hallway was full of other students and not one of them lifted a finger. Even teachers walked past without batting an eye. That was how it was at the Soul Reaper Academy. Unless you were someone of importance you got no protection and if you were someone of importance then you could get away with anything. It was easy to distinguish between those that could be attacked and those that couldn't be. It was simple. If they were nobodies then you wouldn't know their names and could do what you wanted. This attitude meant that if you were someone from the Rukongai then you were a target no matter if it was the classrooms, dormitories, corridors or training fields. Nowhere was safe. You could be attacked and beaten to a pulp and then punished for coming late to class or missing it altogether due to being unconscious. If you were a woman you had things much worse than the men from the Rukongai. If you were a female then you could be grabbed and groped at any time and if you were ever found alone, well most committed suicide or left to return home in humiliation and disgrace. Even if you had someone to stand up for you, it did little help if the gang just decided to beat them up first.

"Ha ha ha! It seems that little bitch is smart and cute. How about you hand her over tramp and go back to chewing on your bones, filthy mutt,"

"Don't call her that!"
With this cry of determination the male half of the pair attempted to attack the leader of the gang who had decided to make the life of himself and his female companion miserable. His clumsy right hook was stopped by two of the other thugs who laughed louder as they threw the scrawny Rukongai boy into a wall and proceeded to grab the arm of the terrified girl.

No matter how much the girl screamed she got no help. The only thing she did receive were glances of annoyance and the occasional comment to be quiet. Her screams turned to silent panic as she was dragged off while her friend laid unconscious against the wall. Until they got to the T-intersection of the corridors.

"Get! Off! Her!"

This was a situation where Takeo's loud voice was both a blessing and a curse. It scared the gang of boys enough for the leader to loosen his grip and Mai to grab the girl's other hand and run her to safety behind Aoi but at the same time it caught the attention of everyone else. It wasn't considered acceptable to stand up to nobles, let alone punch one hard enough in the face so that his nose broke.

After this the scared, and pain filled, cries were coming from the gang of not-so-tough, snivelling even joined in when some of the boys thought it was a smart move to attack Takeo from behind. Aoi stood away from the violence. He kept the girl safely placed behind him and collected her still unconscious partner. This fight was a lot different to the one earlier. Everyone who was witnessing this fight had stopped. Completely. Soon there was an uproar from the bystanders with shouts of 'How dare you!' and 'Stop!'. Hypocrisy at its finest.

"Enough!"

Everyone stopped and turned to see a certain Professor Akamine strolling down the hallway on a mission.

"This fight end now!"

Takeo was then disconnected from his victims, with a lot of help on Rina's part. After this the students in the hallway became divided. Rina, Takeo, Aoi and the two original victims stood on one side and everyone else was on the other. A hallway full of students, a school full of students and they were all on the other side. I guess most people did choose the side that benefitted them the most but it seemed like one of the biggest forms of hypocrisy coming from people who were learning how to become Soul Reapers and protect others. If you weren't willing to protect people now then what right did you have to want to protect people later? Power was truly a corrupting thing.

"You lot are too come with me now! The rest of you go see the nurse,"

"What about these two? They're injured as well. The boy still hasn't woken up, he could have a serious concussion and-"

"Enough! You lot should have thought about that before attacking these poor boys!"
"Hey! We didn-!"
"I don't want to hear your excuses! Another word from any of you and that boy won't get any help! Now move!"

Rina attempted to reason with the teacher but when she was completely and rudely ignored Takeo tried to intervene only to receive more threats. Aoi stood silently as always and the girl was still too scared to do anything but throw concerned glances at the boy currently being carried by the blonde giant. Reluctantly they had to follow the marching orders that had received and as they walked down the numerous hallways they had verbal abuse hurled at them from every direction. News must travel fast. And the nobles didn't like the idea of someone resisting their power and authority over those of lower standing. Akamine didn't care about this; he pointedly ignored it. He came from a noble family and believed in the absolute power they should hold over others. He also purposefully led them at a slow pace to his office so that the group of five would have to withstand as much of the abuse and foul language as possible.

The corridors of the Soul Reaper Academy were always flooded with light during the day as the walls were home to giant windows that were spaced closely and made up almost half of the walls themselves. The crowd that was gathering to ridicule the group almost blocked out this light. Both literally and metaphorically, times were getting dark when things such as this was allowed. Rina came to the Soul Reaper Academy to help people and she now knew why she had to become string. She saw why the great force of the Soul Reapers never assisted the desperate people of the Rukongai, they simply didn't care. Unless the Seireitei was under attack the Soul Reapers were likely not to lift a finger.

Making it to Akamine's office only made things worse. Akamine was one of the teachers at the Academy that hated the people of the Rukongai with a passion. They were dirt upon the world, no better than Hollows in his opinion. Most teachers didn't discriminate as it would be a bit obvious on the results and the Head Captain would not look favourably upon such things but being the teacher of the top class meant that it was more likely for those from the Rukongai to not do as well. This meant Akamine was the only teacher who could both discriminate in and outside of class. There were a few teachers who had Rukongai origins and while they didn't discriminate they also couldn't stop the other teachers from doing so at risk of losing their own positions they had to work twice as hard to obtain.

In Akamine's office they were given their punishments which aided the nobles in their quest to eventually get the trio expelled.

"You three! You will have to attend detention for the rest of the semester! This will include cleaning the classrooms, cleaning the weapons and cleaning the training areas. The girl and the unconscious boy will have to personally apologise to that group of boys for causing such an unnecessary fight. That seems fair to me,"

"FAIR!"

This time surprisingly it was Rina who had spoken up and even Takeo and Aoi were shocked by her sudden explosion. She also didn't give anyone time to comment before continuing.

"Fair is not letting those mongrels get away with their disgusting behaviour! Fair is not punishing us for standing up for ourselves! Fair is not turning your back on people when they need help! Fair doesn't exist in this pitiful place!"

"Now listen here you-"
"No! I refuse to listen to someone who has no honour or respect for life! It doesn't matter if someone has spent their whole life in luxury or has to struggle every day! It doesn't matter if someone comes from the Seireitei or the Rukongai! Things like this shouldn't matter!"

It was only a short rant and when she was finished Akamine once again went to speak, but before he could even make a sound there was the quiet beginning of … applause? Even though the doors had been shut a crowd had still gathered to eavesdrop outside, mainly to gleefully discover what the punishment for the impudent group would be, but some in the crowd were fellow Rukongai citizens. What they were hoping for was just that. Hope. And someone had finally given it to them. One Rina Kimura from the Rukongai, District 76. The students from the Rukongai were few in number and easy targets but now they had a hero. They had come across someone who was brave enough to stand up for them and speak their mind.

The dynamic of the entire Soul Reaper Academy had changed. With just a few simple words.

This didn't change the fact that Rina, Takeo and Aoi were punished, if anything it actually caused their sentence to be extended from the end of the semester to the end of the year. It may have helped the boy and girl however as when they had to apologise to the gang of boys a whole group of other Rukongai students went with them to stop any funny business from happening. The trio eventually learnt that the names of the pair they had helped were Taro and Misa and as thanks for the rescue they offered to help Rina, Takeo and Aoi with the chores they had been punished with. First it was Taro and Misa and then just about every other Rukongai student in the entire Academy and from every year were offering to help with the work. Eventually they had to make a roster for who would be doing what and when. They also started travelling in larger groups to deter any more attacks and would occasionally come together for 'meetings', or sorts, where they talked about any problems they were having or discrimination they were being subjected to. Basically within a space of a month from the incident in the hallway there was the beginning of a 'Rukongai revolution' within the Soul Reaper Academy.

It was the start of change and of course not everyone was happy about it.

This was when things truly started to fall apart.

The clearing that Rina, Takeo and Aoi would always go to study and train had been taken away from them. Not that it made terribly much difference as they barely had enough time to sleep. The teachers could stop others from volunteering to help with the chores, as it barely used to happen, but they did set in place a rule that if it was for a punishment then the offenders had to be present and with the extra help they were receiving Akamine made sure to add more and more to their already huge list of chores. By the time school was finished and the chores were completed there wasn't much time left to study. They barely slept. Which went on to another trick that was played on them constantly. Some of the others in the dormitory, those that were nobles but decided to stay in the Academy dormitories in order to be closer to the Academy's facilities, that made it nearly impossible for the trio and even some of the other Rukongai students to get any sleep some nights. Once again they would take it in shifts to keep their enemies awake to prevent them from performing well in class.

I'll give you one guess as to who led the resistance group.

Byakuya Kuchiki.

He took quite a bit of personal offense regarding the 'revolution' and so had organised for there to always be a group of 'his' people in that clearing at all times. A few days before he executed his plan both Takeo and Aoi had beaten him in the fighting arena and Rina had surpassed him in reiatsu control. This put a massive dent in his pride that he was not about to forgive or forget easily. He was the one who planned the clearing and the sleep deprivation. He also encouraged, or bribed or blackmailed, some of the teachers to increase the workload and homework and even give them more chores as punishment. He was not going to lose! He refused to lose to them! He was not going to lose to those Rukongai scum! Byakuya Kuchiki refused to lose to those lowly Rukongai trash!

The lack of sleep was the worst part. It put everyone on edge and they even fought amongst themselves at times. Even the trio would end up yelling at each other. They had lost their sanctuary and were slowly losing both their sanity and their hopes at the Academy. Their grades slowly slipped and the meetings became scarcer because no one had the time nor energy to be bothered to attend.

The revolution had taken only seconds to form and was quickly eroding away.

Hope was truly a fickle and fleeting thing.

"I don't know what those losers were getting so worked up about. Those losers should know better than to attack those of noble upbringing. Really they should just be grateful to even be accepted to come here and be in our very presence,"

I'll give you one guess.

"Yeah!"

"You're right as always Kuchiki!"

"You tell them!"

"They need to show more respect!"

"Well respect is a two-way street,"

Once again the great and powerful Byakuya Kuchiki had to be put in his place and this time Rina didn't need any encouragement to do just that. The snobby noble and all of his followers and admirers were at the bottom of the amphitheatre style classroom while the trio sat on one of the back benches and observed the hilarious display of ass-kissing occurring below them.

"What was that, scum?"

"You don't understand, snob?"

"You don't deserve to be here,"

"Well then neither do a lot of the others. If I don't deserve to be here but I was able to beat you then where do you belong?"
"Shut up! I don't even have to come here! With the power and influence the Kuchiki family holds I can graduate instantly into a seated position at the snap of my fingers!"

Byakuya seemed triumphant after imparting this bit of knowledge onto Rina and the compliments of awe he received from his loyal group only boosted his ego further.

"Question then. Why haven't you?"

"…What?"
"Why haven't you graduated yet? There has to be a reason why you were forced to come here. Was it to make political connections or because there is a skill you need to learn? Does teamwork and humility ring any bells?"
"Take that back!"
"No,"

Byakuya was slowly approaching the bottom of the steps. He hated this girl! She thought that just because she had gotten into the top class and gotten a few good scores that she had the right to talk to him in this fashion. His hands were fists by his side and trembling as if the air was below freezing. His anger could barely be contained. The only one who ever caused him to act like this was a Captain so who did this worthless girl think she was!

"You're not worth my time,"

"Then stop talking about me,"

"I am not talking about you!"

"Well I thought I was a loser and Rukongai scum and all that. Aren't I? And aren't you always talking about how pathetic and worthless I am? So there. You do always talk about me and you need to stop,"

"You!"

"Yes?"
"I challenge you to a fight! Next class! Don't chicken out!"

By this time he had already made it so far up the stairs so as to be level with Rina when he made this final declaration. He also didn't wait for her smart and taunting retort but continued to the door of the classroom and disappeared into the hallway. He was going to get his way! One way or another! If she didn't agree to the fight then he would tell the teacher to make her anyway. Either way he would win and prove to everyone the superiority of the nobility.

…

"He does know that I suck at sword fights and everyone knows that, right?"

"Maybe,"

"Rina I think the main problem was that you pushed him a bit too far over the edge,"

"Once someone is over the edge you can't keep pushing them, plus it wouldn't make any further difference,"

"That's not what I meant!"
"I know,"

"Behave,"

As usual Aoi didn't say much and tried his hardest to stop a playful fight from breaking out between Rina and Takeo. Rina continued to stir Takeo up and Takeo continued to take every bit of bait she laid out for him.

Maybe things were going back to normal.

As normal as it could be in this cruel place that is.

It also wouldn't last forever.

The next class was, of course, sword fighting and came a bit too quickly. Rina would have preferred to rest her head on the desk for a bit longer and she maybe should have thought of this before spending most of the break arguing with the Kuchiki. Saying that she also couldn't allow the stuck up, noble brat to continue to mock others from the Rukongai. If it was only about her then she may have let it slip, even though Takeo and Aoi would have stood up for her, but if someone disregarded anyone else's pain and torment or laughed at it then they would pay one way or another. At the moment Rina only had the strength to verbal battle but maybe, just maybe, she could find an inner strength to defeat him and prove she wasn't weak, just like everyone else from the Rukongai.

The classroom that the sword practise took place in was a large wooden building that was slightly separated from the main building. There was a single passageway leading to the building and there were clearings on the other three sides that were occasionally used for outside training. The building itself was made entirely of wood, from the floors to the walls to the ceiling. The trio, and by this point most of the other Rukongai students, knew every inch of this place as they had to polish the wood almost every day. Both the outside and inside of the building was left the natural wood colour and the ceiling was flat. However, the interior was a bit more intricate with its layout and design. The middle area was quite large and took up most of the floor of the building, it was also lower than the rest of the room as the ring of this arena area was risen up as steps to be used as benches, on two sides at least. There was nothing but a few barrels of wooden training swords near the entrance of the building with the benches then leading off from this on both adjacent sides. It was the side opposite the entrance that was the most interesting. This was another bit of flat flooring, still raised higher than the fighting area, which was usually covered in cushions for the instructors or important observers to sit on and also displayed a few of the more precious items in the room. A few zanpakuto were placed on the wall here as a sort of reminder and motivation for what the students were truly fighting for.

When Rina, Takeo and Aoi entered the building most of the others in their class were already assembled but instead of standing in the middle section of the room they were seated on the surrounding benches. Only Byakuya stood in the centre. With their teacher, another Rukongai hater, standing on the raised pedestal opposite the entrance there was obviously nothing that could stop the impending fight. Not that Rina could refuse anyway. Nobles weren't the only ones that had pride.

"Good luck kid,"

Simple words from Takeo and a comforting hand on the shoulder from Aoi.

Could only do so much to boost Rina's confidence.

"You ready weakling?"
"Weak? Really? This coming from the guy who is purposefully challenging someone he knows he can beat. You didn't challenge anyone else because you know you would lose. Not exactly the bravest thing I've seen in my short years,"

"Shut up!"

"You started this trash talk, coward,"

"What did you say?!"

The teacher then had to step in to stop the yelling contest and get the real fight underway, mainly with a direct threat at Rina to fail her and her friends if she didn't quiet down immediately. Once the two youngest students in the Soul Reaper Academy had their wooden weapons in hand the match was able to get underway.

From the beginning it was one-sided. Byakuya knew he could win easily but wanted to draw out the loser's humiliation. For a time he would easily defend every thrust of Rina's sword and then would deliver a few well-placed hits of his own to injury and hurt his female opponent. By the end of a couple of minutes Rina was covered in sweat and breathing heavily while Byakuya had barely batted an eye. It was only now that Rina was having any regrets about her protective outburst that started all of this. It was only slight and only brief but it had been there nonetheless.

Maybe she couldn't win every fight.

Maybe the loudest or smartest yell didn't always get a positive result.

Maybe she really was weak…