There's a possibility these chapters might be awfully short, and updates will take almost forever, so I apologise. Yes, this is a KusaHitsu fic, though more on the Friendship side. There will be a bit of cheesiness (maybe a lot), so…I hope you won't mind. –bites lip- And obviously, I do not own anything except for some scenes I made up myself…I may be using OCs every now and then. This is based on the novel, since I haven't watched the movie yet and I'm not sure if they're slightly different or almost worlds apart. Oh yes, I likened the Shin'ou Reijutsu In to the Gakuen Alice in the anime/manga with the same name, except on a tad bit darker tone. It makes things hella easier to write xD

Halcyon Days 01

First Encounter

"...Kusaka-san." Hearing his name being mentioned, the academy student with his deep, royal purple tied in a bun gave a slight jump, shoulders tensing as he turned to face behind; a man, or more like a complete stranger, dressed in a black kimono and a piece of ragged cloth covering the lower half of his face stood as still as a statue, dark hazel eyes staring into Kusaka's very own ocean blue orbs. Hands folded behind his back - there was a zanpakutou attached to his waist, Kusaka noticed - the masked figure turned and tilted his head towards the trees. "Come with me."

Unsure of this man's words, the new recruit simply stayed in his position until the shinigami-like figure's shoulders slumped, grabbing onto his hand and forcing him to tag along into the shadows of the trees. Leaves rustling from the cool, morning breeze; the warm radiance of the sunlight shining upon the emerald blades; while twigs snapped upon impact from their feet, only to have the student trip over a large tree root exposed to the atmosphere before stepping onto his other foot. He would've had dragged the man along with him to the soil if not for the fact that he released his hold on his wrist. The back of his head struck against the mud pile and rotting leaves - thank goodness it wasn't one of those rocks he passed by earlier - his purple hair stained with snapped twigs and black patches.

Kusaka sat up, leaning against the bark of a tree nearby. He sent the man a glare, to which the other did not make much out of it. "What do you want?" Kusaka asked, voice rising.

"I came here with a gentle reminder from Central 46," the masked figure simply replied, tone calm and evidently not amused by how much of a gangster the new academy student appeared, what with a mud smear across his face as if it were a dried scar from a chopper; he only frowned even more when the younger snorted, mumbling something incoherent under his breath, something about the Central 46 being famous for their gentleness. "You do remember the conditions you agreed to before you came here, don't you?"

Kusaka folded his arms, but remained silent.

"So you do. Well, Central 46 would only like you to keep those conditions in mind. However, there is another condition to add on to them. Now, Kusaka-san...there is an extra price to pay." The adolescent notably flinched, but otherwise still said nothing. He heard the sandal feet dragging themselves across the short distance between them, and the sound of a sword being unsheathed rang throughout the forest. Birds hiding in the tree branches immediately made their escape to the sky, returning to their comfort zone no longer. Kusaka almost growled as the cool metal came into contact with his skin, glaring at the masked figure. "Coming to this academy has been just far too easy for you, and Central 46 is certain that you graduating will be no problem at all. That's the catch here; if you don't want them to resort to drastic measures, you must graduate within a year. To add on to that, you must, by hook or by crook, become a captain within the next fifty years."

"C-Captain? But that's..."

"Come now, it can't be that hard for someone with such great potential such as you, can it?" Smirking beneath the cloth, the messenger of Soul Society's biggest decision-making force tapped the blade against Kusaka's cheek repeatedly. "Graduation will only take up one of those fifty years, and you'll have the next forty-nine to yourself. I do know for a fact that if you don't adhere to these conditions, Central 46 will take care of the matter personally, and I do know that you don't want that to happen, hmm? Well," he paused, sheathing his zanpakutou. "it has been nice talking to you, Kusaka-san." Turning around, the mysterious figure headed towards where they came from. "I hope we'll meet again."

"...I hope we won't."

"Sorry? Did you say something, Kusaka-san?"

Kusaka snapped back to the present; taking a quick glance of his surroundings - tables, chairs, boards, and most importantly of all, students - he held back a sigh as relief swept over his features. All pairs of eyes were on him, well, except for one pair but it wasn't like anyone could notice whose it was while being overwhelmed by a sea of confused glances. A tingle shook up the back of his neck when an apparent someone standing next to him cleared her throat. The purple-haired student regrettably turned to his left, only to have a pair of pale blue eyes blazing with fury glancing down at him. "S-Sensei...?"

"Kusaka-san," she began, tone exceptionally sharp; Kusaka almost gulped, blinking at her like a defenceless deer prying its way out of a lion's claws. "While the history of zanpakutou is a boring topic we are touching on today, it isn't right to just trot away to your little dreamland, especially in my class. You're unbelievably lucky that your grades are more than acceptable, therefore I will let you off for today. However, if you do not do well for the test on Friday, I will personally see to it that you are moved to the front of the class. Is that understood, Kusaka-san?"

His classmate sitting next to him couldn't help but laugh, only to cower away when the teacher's glare fell upon him instead. With a sigh, Kusaka mumbled, "Hai, sensei..." and apologised for his behaviour softly, while loud enough for her to hear.

She gave a light nod of acknowledgement before walking away from his seat. "All right, now let's continue. I'll begin by explaining how the first zanpakutou came about."

...Self-study time is next, huh.

With a sigh, the young child-like student ran his hand through his snow white hair, glancing out of the window. There was almost nothing he could do during that one hour free time before it was time for kidou; in the first place, he was almost expecting more from the Advanced class, especially since the name just gave it away, and prepared everything beforehand, only to learn that not only were they learning at a slower pace than that of the Intermediate class, but also the fact that almost the whole class consisted of total idiots who liked showing off their skills. While they weren't lousy, they could do a bit of touching up because at the rate they were going, they were about to put the name of Advanced to shame.

It was his first day being an Advanced class student, not that he took the entrance exam late, but because of some reason that was completely stupid. He was mistakenly put in the Intermediate class on his first day of school, stuck there for almost a month before someone came along and told him that his grades had been irresponsibly swopped with someone else's. Well, no wonder he saw this guy running down the hallway in tears and screaming at almost every single person that walked past him; it was just so...how would he call it? Oh yeah. Childish.

Hitsugaya Toushirou was one who could not tolerate childish behaviour.

He didn't care how almost everyone in the class poked fun at his hair or made up some lame joke about his height - to which he threatened to beat the ass up of anyone who did that during the next zanjutsu practical - since they were just a bunch of idiots anyway. Everyone was surprised to see a child amongst the class of those who supposedly achieved the highest of results for the entrance exam, spreading baseless rumors like his parents bribing the teachers, or just some kid who wants to show off and begged the teachers to let him into the Advanced class, or even saying that he was a secret long-lost great great great grandson of the soutaichou himself. His first impression of his classmates had already been a terrible one, them coming up to him, and then the first thing they asked 'Excuse me, are you lost, little one? Or are you here to see your big sister?'

It was such a frustrating matter that lingered in his mind, especially since he wasn't introduced to the class yet - really, he just slipped in and sat down so quietly that the person sitting next to him didn't even acknowledge his existence until he heard someone's book flipping open and let out a high-pitched shriek; good thing their homeroom teacher hadn't arrived yet at that time - no one knew who he was or why he was even in the Advanced class. Hitsugaya almost gave a roll of his eyes whenever he answered 'it's none of your business' to just about everyone who asked him about his test scores.

"I'm telling you, this guy's a fake. No way someone of that age can be in the Advanced class."

Hitsugaya simply gave out a sigh, the exhaled air brushing away the few strands of white covering his eyes.

"When I asked him what he got for the entrance exam scores, he didn't even want to tell me! You think he's keeping it a secret or something?"

A soft laugh. "He's probably too ashamed of his results. Hey, for all we know, he got the lowest score out of all of us here. What do you think, Ku--huh? Hey, where'd that guy go...?"

Hitsugaya did not bother to carry on listening to the pointless conversation at the back, and buried himself in the book he borrowed from the school library. In the first place, why was he even eavesdropping on his classmates? It wasn't like he was worried about being ostracized or anything close to that, though a bit of tame interaction would be alright every once in a while. Blinking at the kanji printed on the pages of the book, he flipped it over and checked the title. Rubbing away the dust on the deep, ocean blue cover, his eyes narrowed at the title. 'The Values of Friendship'. Great. Just what he needed.

Resisting a moan, the white-haired pupil closed the book shut, sticking in a piece of scrap paper as a bookmark, and left it aside before gazing out of the window once more. Though the fact still remained that he borrowed that book, it wasn't the book he intended to carry along with him for self-studying period. He had already prepared the book on the history of kidou, as well as the various aspects such as hadou and bakudou, just to gear himself up for the demon arts practical, but somehow, for some reason, it had swopped with that of the friendship book - he thought with a slight twitch - which had no relation to kidou whatsoever. The pre-teen didn't even know what in the world possessed him to borrow that book; perhaps he had mistaken it with the article on how to establish and foster lasting relationships with one's zanpakutou. After all, he did get lost in the Zanpakutou section.

The reason he didn't check the title beforehand was due to the fact that the librarians on duty assured him that they did not make a mistake in shelving the reading materials, one of them going up to him and simply removed the book of average thickness, handing it over to him and telling him that this was the book he was looking for. Just as he was about to check it, she took the tower of books off his hands and sent it in for the approval for him to borrow them. With the sea of the human encyclopaedia-thick paperbacks flooding his room in the (ridiculously far corner of the) males' dormitory sorted out as quickly as he could, Hitsugaya then looked for the book he wanted to read during class, but it just turned out to be otherwise, unfortunately for him.

Sighing, he watched as the lease of nature respired before him. The swallows and doves soaring the pale, blue blanket; the glaring rays from the sun dazzling just like any other afternoon; various patches of white sewn on that blanket, moving together as if in a herd; the glistening emerald of grass blades bending backwards, row by row, as a breeze swept across them; and there, a lone butterfly of wings so pale and dainty, struggling to keep up against the wind, staggered in the air towards the window. Hitsugaya blinked, gluing his eyes to the fluttering snow white wings falling to the window pane, notably folding against the creature's small frame; it was such a petite little creature, almost the size of the tip of his last finger. He didn't know butterflies of this size existed.

Inquisitively, the white-haired boy noiselessly let a gap form between the window frame and the pane, allowing the butterfly to safely perch on his finger. Just as he heard rushing footsteps gaining a distance closer to him, the Junrinan child closed the window shut and hid his finger underneath the table, occasionally glancing at the wings slowly moving up and down in a somewhat hypnotic manner, its antennae twitching slightly as if trying to seek comfort from the shadows. "Oi, what do you think you're doing!?" Just as Hitsugaya turned to face whoever had yelled at him, assuming that he was caught in the act, all he saw were a few studious students flipping pages of their respective handbooks, with no one standing with a frustrated or a 'ha, I caught you!' look.

Giving a shrug of his shoulders, Hitsugaya held the hand out into the light, staring at the nearly translucent wings that were livelier than before. Ah, there it was, a little line across the part where the wing grew from the main body. His emeralds glued themselves to the scenery outside; no blades were arching their backs nor swaying in their usual dance routine. He wondered if it would be alright to let the butterfly go while the wind wasn't present, but there was nothing he could do for it. He gave the wings an extremely gentle stroke, keeping his usual indifferent expression, and let the butterfly go, making an attempt to ascend towards the sky.

He failed to notice the purple-winged butterfly that flew along with it.

"K-Kojiku-san? What are you doing?"

"Be quiet, bun head! Come with me!"

Unable to wriggle his wrist out of the blonde's hold, Kusaka sighed and allowed himself to be carried wherever his classmate wanted to bring him to. They stopped right outside of class, the deep, reddish orange orbs sending him a glare before taking a glimpse of the entire class from the door, and then Kojiku dragged him further away from the light. Seemed as if the blond adolescent-like didn't want their conversation to be heard, particularly by someone - Kusaka could tell as much when he caught his friend's eyes narrow upon looking at the tuft of white hair, standing out from the crowd - and pressed a finger against his lips, shaking his head violently. Kusaka brought up his last three fingers, his index and thumb forming an 'o', and resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Sure, it had been a month since his entrance to the Shin'ou Reijutsu In, and around that time, he had met the orange-eyed blonde known by all as Kojiku Megurou (ko-small; jiku-axis; megu(mi)-blessing) and while they did not become fast friends, they were, however, close enough to study for tests together. Most of the time, Kusaka was by himself, but if a test was coming up - which was ultimately inevitable - Kojiku would drag his big-brained friend along with him back to his room and they would begin sharing their own knowledge about the topic raised. But then again, the class was full of bootlickers that attempted to befriend those who excelled as well as received the top of the top for the entrance examination, and Kusaka couldn't say that it was much different for the youngest son of the Kojiku family (they were pretty well-known around the parts of Northern Rukongai).

And as such for being part of the bootlicker company, Kojiku was overprotective of the genius he had as a comrade. Kusaka wasn't that dumb to figure out that the reason why everyone gave him weird looks was due to the fact that the blonde liked spreading word that the two of them were the best of friends in the Advanced class. Even the Second Years had heard the rumour; a group of them visited the class during break time to learn more about this Kusaka Soujirou who was said to be the best of the First Year recruits that year, and every time someone even attempted to think about knowing a bit more about him, Kojiku would make his fabulous entrance and drag his purple-haired 'friend' away, most likely to keep him from interacting with those who wanted to make use of his intelligence, Kusaka concluded.

Somehow, perhaps that greedy streak activated when Kojiku noticed how Kusaka was staring at their new classmate.

"Dude, seriously, what were you thinking!? You disappeared to wherever you were, and then I find you walking over towards that white-haired guy who claims to be our new classmate!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kusaka peeped at Hitsugaya who was busy looking out of the window again. "I want to be friends with him."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait...say what? Friends?" Kojiku gave out a moan and slapped himself on the forehead. "Have you gone nuts, Kusaka? I mean, just look at him. He's half your size, his hair is freakishly white, his eyes are like a demonic green and--forget it, okay? There's no way a freak like him and a genius like you can get along. You know what everyone says about him; for all we know, he might've gotten in here through some illegal means or something! No one this young has ever entered the Shin'ou Reijutsu In before, and you know it!"

"Of course I know it. All the more I want to be friends with him!" Sapphires blazed rather dangerously as Kusaka snapped his head to glare at the number one bootlicker of the class. He tried to keep his voice low, but found that it was hard to do so. "I don't care how he appears on the outside; it's the inside that counts. Besides, I think he's really lonely." Pausing, he looked back at the sighing white-haired child, and frowned when he flipped the book open with such heavy reluctance while occasionally glancing at a bunch of classmates laughing together. "It would be nice if he had a friend..."

"And what makes you think you can be that friend?"

Answering to Kojiku's challenge, Kusaka smiled, and said, "Because I want to, and I have a feeling that he wants to, too." He instantly ignored the snort and the mumbling of 'no such thing as sixth sense', keeping his gaze on the tuft of snow white hair unbroken. There was something about this boy, something...out of the ordinary. Kusaka could tell that he wasn't what any of his (stupid) classmates had said, but he just didn't know why that he was feeling this way.

Maybe...

"Hey, you do know they're gonna post the list of excellent students later, right?" Kojiku's voice snapped him back from his chain of thoughts. "I bet you're gonna be on that list, Kusaka. So tell you what, let's strike a deal: if you and that little kid over there can get into that list three times, including this time round, I'll let you do whatever you want with him. Just don't regret it later."

"...I definitely won't." With that said, Kusaka turned back and gazed at the sparkling emerald eyes. If those eyes are scary...then these morons' idea of petrifying must be of a kid wearing a white sheet over him and claiming that he's a ghost. He thought with an inward smirk. Now, all I need to know is his name...

"Hey! Look over here! The list is out!"

Kusaka turned, watching as everyone from the class - except for the white-haired boy he had his eyes on, of course - dash out of the classroom like those who were escaping from an asylum, staying in his standing position outside while watching the small tuft of hair bouncing as the owner of such amazingly pure hair took his time with walking at a perfectly comfortable pace. Kusaka, too, began walking in the direction where the main noticeboard was; well, whoever this new classmate of his was, he must be pretty interested to know about the results as well, probably wanting to know if any of the fools in their class actually made it to the top of the month, Kusaka thought, resisting the urge to smile. His mind drifted back to the bet he didn't even agree to; well, maybe waiting for another two more months wouldn't be that bad...would it?

As the two of them reached the main hall, where all of the 1st Years gathered, Hitsugaya (whose name was unknown to practically everyone in the class) managed to squueze his way through effectively, Kusaka watched with amazement. The way he simply slipped through the gaps when he had the chance to...perhaps being young and short wasn't all that bad in itself.

Sucking in a deep breath, the tall, lean figure who was determined to make the child his good friend, too, tried to enter the sea of students, with the exception that he was not exactly someone who resorted to violence so openly and was easily kicked out, literally, in a matter of a few seconds. Not giving up, Kusaka dove in again, this time giving the people around him a light push as he strained to get up to the front. As the crowd began to disperse, most faces being utterly sullen while the rest were simply either of happiness or of indifference, Kusaka picked up the pace and finally reached the front where the young white-haired student stood, near gaping at the list pinned up on the board.

Kusaka glanced up, looking under the heading; the name right next to number two had been his own.

"This..." he turned towards the soft voice right next to him; wow, so this is his voice, huh... He was, to say the least, given a pleasant surprise upon hearing how his new classmate's voice sounded like, given the fact that he was just so quiet in class that he made no sound throughout the lessons, Kusaka noticed. Unbeknownst to Hitsugaya that Kusaka was watching him, eyelids fell over the emerald orbs as a sigh escaped his lips. "Forget it..." he muttered to himself, scratching the back of his head as he walked away, presumably back to class.

With the purple-haired First Year being the only one left, he took another glance at the list, this time taking note of the name that was nicely positioned right above his. Kusaka turned to look at the retreating back figure of Hitsugaya, and couldn't help but smile. "Hitsugaya Toushirou...eh," he muttered to himself, voice barely above a whisper. "I'll be looking forward to knowing more about you."