Completed 7/13/08

This one's a shortie—more of a prelude than a full-length chapter. Have fun, and remember that I don't own Bleach.

Screams resounded all throughout the courtyard as students scrambled out of the way of the uncontrollable spearhead blasts.

The instructor cursed. Leaping in front of the students, he barked a hasty bakudō, both circumventing the incantation and producing a shield to negate the errant shards of energy.

It was barely in time. Most of the blasts were absorbed by the shield; several ricocheted off to explode not-so-harmlessly against the courtyard walls, showering hapless students with shards of hot stone. A few of the more potent bolts hammered against the shield and cracked its shimmering surface. The instructor flinched with each blow. It held, but barely.

I could only stare at my hand, and the thing that seemed to have latched itself on. Even as I watched, green shards of power materialized above it, forming into white fragments and fusing with the existing piece. It crept up my arm.

I shook. My hand wavered in my vision. I didn't know what the hell it was, but it was coming off.

I grasped the jagged edge with a shaking hand. I was going to rip it off and pound it into the ground until it was dust. My intentions blazed across my vision.

Immediately hot shards of pain laced through my head, down my arm. I thought I heard a distant cry.

But I pulled. I wrenched, I ripped and tore at it, grappled at it until it came off in my hand, where it shattered into indiscernible fragments. They faded into green wisps, dissolving into the morning air.

The blinding pain died down along with the mournful voice that dissipated into soft pleading whispers, eventually fading away altogether.

I stared numbly at my hand. It took several seconds to realize that someone was speaking to me; I looked ahead.

"—don't know what the hell you were thinking, launching that goddamned bomb!" the instructor screamed. Flecks of saliva peppered my face. Classmates were gathered all around us. "Just look at what you did!"

I blinked and looked around. Craters littered the rock wall and pristine grass lawn. A tree off to the side was torched.

I looked across to my target. Nothing.

I looked down the left, down the right. No targets. I swallowed and looked back at sensei, who was glaring daggers at me.

Oh, shit.

"First," he growled, "go back to your dormitory. You're exhausted from a shot like that, I know. We'll discuss your punishment later."

Bewildered, I turned and headed back to the novices' quarters. Exhausted? I searched myself. No, that wasn't it. I knew my limits, knew that something so powerful, such an unrefined mass of reiatsu was an energy dump. It would normally have sent me unconscious. It was either incredibly efficient, or... what?

Shakkahō isn't a particularly efficient choice for offensive kidō: just a mass of explosive reiatsu converted into superheated fire. But that wasn't just Shakkahō. I'm not even convinced it was solely kidō. It was a combination with god-knows-what, producing an incredibly volatile blast of energy. Lacking my control, it lost direction and exploded. If that entire thing had landed against a surface, or contacted sensei's bakudō...

Finally I reached my room. Since I'd reentered the Academy, they haven't stuck me with a roommate. Thank god.

My head hit the pillow, and almost instantly I drifted off into a dream-plagued sleep.

It turns out the bastard landed me with cleaning up the kidō instruction site and replacing the targets, tree and grass. He also forced me to assist in the reparation of the wall.

You can guess who the bastard was. Yep, my kidō instructor. He also removed me from his classes.

What I don't understand is how the hell they added those things without the expectation of something blowing up. It's a practical kidō instruction site. With novices. Students at the academy. Lots of potential there. Why did they include these fancy little bits knowing that? They probably never forced any previous students to replace every little thing they blew up before me out of our pathetic little student budgets. Then again, probably nobody ever destroyed most of the courtyard.

Finally I finished for the day. As I dragged my poor broken body and its amassed collection of bruises, sprains and sores over to my dormitory to collapse for the night, a small group of shinigami passed by in the halls.

"—seen Hinamori-fukitaichō? Need to report—"

"—heard she's with the other vice-captains—"

As they rounded about the corner and disappeared, something inside me clicked. A protesting memory bubbled up sluggishly from beneath several layers of aggravation and exhaustion. I forced my weary and manual-labor-numbed brain to focus. What did I...?

Oh, no. Fifth Division's Commissions Office. After lessons. Which ended about six hours ago.

I turned tail and sprinted back the way I came.

"Sorry I'm late!" I gasped, leaning on the door frame and panting heavily. "Lessons, you know, only just remembered—"

A bored-looking woman glanced up from her desk. "Aida Satsuki?"

I nodded. Looking back down she continued in a businesslike tone. "Aida Satsuki, you are charged to—"

"Wait," I interrupted, adopting a polite voice atop my ire, "what is it that Commissions Office needs with me that's so important, ma'am? I'm still taking my requested classes and am technically out of action as far as missions go—"

"No matter. We've seen to it that your lessons are postponed, and all involved parties notified of your departure." She glared at me. "This is a mission assigned directly from Central Forty-Six itself. You will take it."

I gaped back. Central Forty-Six? Since when did they have enough free time to bandy about discussing the fate of lowbies such as myself?

Finally I regained my voice. "What's so special about it?" I asked, feeling helpless. Apprehension grew within me.

She seemed to lose a bit of her composure, allowing disconcertion and worry to seep through. "Nothing, as far as I can tell. You want to hear it or no?"

I nodded, feeling the steel jaws of the trap close around me.

"Aida Satsuki, you are charged to take up residence within Karakura Town of Japan for a period of two months and eradicate any and all hollows that threaten the existence of its humans."

That's it for now. I only have the last few lines for chapter four transcribed from brain to computer, but five is nearly finished and will be uploaded soon after.

This is the first time I've employed this particular writing style, and, finding that I like it, want to know what you think. In other words review or I'll sic my vicious OC hollow on your family.

Thank you for last time :3