I'm sorry for the delay, but this chapter was a bitch to write. This is version 10 and I'm still not completely satisfied with the way it turned. Also I hurt my wrist some weeks past and just as it was almost healed, I hurt it again in a stupid accident. I can type, just not for long periods.
Thanks to my beta and Kyouko no Kyuubi, who helped me with the proper Japanese terms.
Hope you enjoy it and leave a review on your way out! They fuel my muse.
Chapter 3: Living the dream
Hakuryu Hitoko observes the newest batch of first years in silence. She has seen many students come and go in her centuries as the Head of the Kido department and Kido teacher of the advanced class. It's unlikely that more than half of the class will show any promise and only a handful will have enough discipline to complement their talent and hone it to the standards of the 4th or the Kido corps.
The dark-haired girl with glasses, Ise Nanao, showed promise in her entrance test. Her reiryoku reserves are average, but her reiatsu control is outstanding for her age. Her penchant for carrying a book with her at all times indicates a learned mind.
Hitoko's main interest however is the newest Shiba. Shiba Ichigo stands out in any crowd with his vibrant orange hair and the immense reiatsu output for his age. He is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Despite his orange hair, he and Shiba-fukutaichou could pass for twins. At least appearance wise.
Shiba's personality is as different from his family as night is to day. He is moody, silent and always scowls, even when addressing his superiors. He doesn't smile, joke, or babble on about something or other. Yet he isn't condescending in his silence like the Kuchiki, it's more like he doesn't feel the need to fill silences with endless chatter.
Everyone has entered the class and the students are chattering while they wait.
"Silence!" The noise stops, all students turn to the front to pay Hitoko attention. Some sneer disdainfully at her, while others are nearly shaking with nerves.
"You are here to learn the noble and precise art of Kido," she started. Her voice did not rise above her normal volume, barely louder than a whisper.
"There will be no fighting in this class, with or without asauchis. As such, not many of you will truly understand the beauty of a perfectly executed spell, the power of an unspoken incantation. I can teach you to generate fire and lighting, to bind your opponent in such a way they cannot break free. I can even teach you to heal…if you listen to my every instruction that is."
The class remained silent, caught in the spell of her words. She smirked. "If I catch any of you doing something I did not order you to, you will be expelled from this class. Kido is dangerous. It can even kill the wielder if used improperly. As such my authority is absolute from the moment you step through those doors, till the moment you leave again. I have no patience for gossip or disrespect. Do. You. Understand?"
Most of the dunderheads nod frantically, straightening their back at the vicious ending of her welcome speech. 'Cannon fodder, if they are that easily intimidated.' Hitoko directs the students towards the other end of the classroom, to store their asauchi for the duration of the class.
The next part of the class is dedicated to reiatsu exercises meant to refine the students' control. At this point Hitoko calls in her assistant, a recently graduated Shinigami with a heart for teaching, to guide the class while she observes them. She picks out Ise after mere minutes, then Shiba, whose clan must have worked on his reiatsu control with him. A couple more students follow and Hitoko herds them to the adjacent classroom.
"You've shown more potential then your classmates and will learn from me at an accelerated pace. Disobey me or waste my time and I'll send you back to the other dunderheads. I'll show you the Hado # 1: Sho and you will try it yourself on the dummies. Point anywhere else and you're out."
The small group nods, serious expressions all around. Hitoko first makes them learn the incantation then preformed the spell, while explaining exactly what she did. Ise picks it up on her first try. Shiba takes a bit longer, because at first he keeps focusing on the amount of reiryoku he pushes into the spell, effectively overpowering it every single time. So Hitoko slaps him on the back of the head and tells him to stop concentrating on his reiryoku and focus on what he wants the damn spell to do. Once Shiba gets that down, he excels. And damned if Hitoko doesn't wanted to know what reiatsu exercises he knows, because Kido is a bitch to learn with that much reiryoku.
When the others get the spell down as well, Hitoko hands out bundles with the first 30 Hado-spells and their incantations. They will practice those spells over the course of the first semester, but no spell will be performed before they know the incantation by heart. After putting the fear of the Soul King into them, should they try the spells on their own, they are free to go.
Hitoko goes back to the other group, who just finished up. Her assistant has gotten most of the class caught up, though some still need extra guidance on Friday. He also handed out the Hado-spells, so next week the class can start practicing the first one. Hitoko will stay with her own advance students, who are most likely to go to the Kido corps or the 4th.
On Sunday the four Heads get together to discuss the past week, as is their tradition. They met up with the other teachers of their subject on Saturday. Today is more enjoyable, since they are quite friendly with each other after decades and even centuries of working together. The youngest is the Head of Hakuda, Takenaka Haruko, with her 300 years.
Gengoro Onabara, Head of Zanjutsu and Deputy Headmaster, opens the meeting with a cheerful grin. He truly loves teaching and guiding the next generation. "Good morning everyone! Since you've already had time to discuss your first year classes with the other teachers, we will skip the bulk of average students and go straight to the outliers. Any names that come to mind?"
All four speak as one. "Shiba Ichigo."
Gengoro chuckles. "Very well. Shall I share my observations first?"
The other three nod their agreement, although their hierarchy has existed for a long time already. Gengoro always goes first, because he is the Deputy Headmaster. Then follows Shihan Sabaki, the Head of Hoho, who is rumoured to be as old as the Captain-Commander. Such rumours have never been confirmed, nor denied, but he certainly looks as old as the Captain-Commander. After him comes Hitoko and Haruko finishes up as the youngest of the four.
Gengoro cleared his throat and began. "As we were all aware, Shiba-san carries around a full-fledged zanpakutou and he addresses it by name. We have had students like that before, and given the condition he was found in… Those past students though had an unpolished style with major gaps. They were good, but still had to practice a lot to reach their full potential. Similarly, Shiba-san has not reached his full potential, nor has he ever been formally taught, I think. The difference is that Shiba-san could take on any seated officer up to 4th or even 3rd seat in a pure Zanjutsu fight and win."
The silence in the room is deafening. For a first year, who has had no formal training by all accounts, to get such praise from the strictest teacher of the whole Academy is basically a miracle. Gengoro may love teaching and is pretty easy-going in his free time, but in the classroom he doesn't take any flak from anyone. Getting anything positive out of him about a student is basically impossible and usually means genius.
"Well, well. You've made my point for me it seems. Shiba-san held back a great deal in his first lesson, going as far as to stumble on purpose, but he can't deceive these old eyes. He is simply too good to be just a natural, although I detected plenty of talent. With the right instruction the Onmitsukido will be scrambling to bring him into the fold." Sabaki certainly looks happy thinking about his orange-haired student.
Hitoko smirks at Sabaki. "You mean every division will be scrambling to bring him into their fold when the news gets out. We've all seen Shiba-san's big reiryoku reserves at the entrance test, though I personally suspect he held back there as well. Keeping that in mind I didn't expect much from him during his first Kido lesson, but he surprised me by keeping up with what looks to be my star student of the year. His control is outstanding and he works hard, when he feels like he falls behind, even if he is really miles beyond his peers."
Haruko hasn't given anything away while the others were speaking, as she is often wont to do. When she does speak up, her tone is measured and her face blank, but she quickly warms up during her speech.
"So you've all seen the untrained genius, who is holding back. Shiba-san does hold back in my class as well, execpt he is in no way untrained. That boy must have had martial arts classes since he was old enough to walk. I taught the firsties how to fall, and then unbalanced them one by one. He fell so on instinct, while his fellow students looked like dying fish.
Friday I made him compete against the sixth years, he won the whole thing and still would have done so with his arms on his back and blindfolded. I have nothing to teach that boy and I won't have him in my classes anymore so he can waste his and my time!" Haruko is nearly shouting at the end, her face flushed and a manic gleam in her eyes. Shiba clearly has her approval and she is probably imagining him winning every tournament the Academy organises.
Despite Haruko's relative young age, she is fearsome. She lives for talented students she can push into the weekly competitions to satisfy her gambling habit.
Gengoro smiles indulgently at the fire burning in her eyes. "So Shiba-san will most certainly benefit from an extremely modified course. I will transfer him to my sixth years, so he can hone his style. I honestly doubt he will need my guidance for more than one semester. We will need to discuss a spring graduation with Shiba-fukutaichou."
After much debating and involving the teachers of the minor courses, they finally create Shiba Ichigo's new schedule for the first semester. It goes like this:
Monday
9:00 – 12:00
Kido (accelerated group)
13:00 – 15:00
Admin (6th years)
Tuesday
9:00 – 12:00
Hoho (6th years)
13:00 – 15:00
Geography (6th years)
Wednesday
9:00 – 12:00
Zanjutsu (6th years)
13:00 – 15:00
History (6th years)
Thursday
FREE
Friday
9:00 – 12:00
Kido (accelerated group)
Lunch – dinner
Competitions
While his teachers are discussing him, Ichigo is meditating. Because of his reiryoku depletion he couldn't communicate with Zangetsu and Old-man Zangetsu for months. Ever since he was given the clear, he has been meditating as much as possible in free time. He is still getting used to working with his various aspects, and the more he works with his zanpakutou spirits, the easier he can communicate with them outside of his mindscape.
Zangetsu, formerly Hollow or Shiro, is still sarcastic and bloodthirsty, but Ichigo is learning to appreciate his comments. Old-man Zangetsu is it's perfect counterpart with his calm and even stoic nature. Together they push and guide Ichigo to greater heights, both insisting that Ichigo is still a novice in many ways and that his full potential is nowhere near reached.
Despite their encouragements, and especially Zangetsu's pushing, Ichigo did his best to hold back in his first classes at the Academy. It didn't work out as well as he hoped. Mostly because Ichigo has conditioned himself to do more than his best in class and he has difficulty controlling those reflexes.
Hakuda and Zanjutsu were a lost cause from the start, simply because Ichigo has seen to much war for a 17 year old and sometimes he wakes up thinking he is still there, fighting to save Soul Society for Aizen and from the Quincy. When his Hakuda teacher made him fight her 6th years and they sneered down at him, he simply refused to hold back and let them humiliate him. Having to fight against a younger Tousen was jarring, despite the differences in appearance, so Ichigo had made short work of his fight with the former/future Captain of the 9th.
Kido class went okay, simply because no one had ever taught Ichigo any Kido. Now he is able to control his reiryoku enough so that no spells will blow up in his face, or anyone else's face… It didn't escape him though that the teacher placed him in the advanced group of his already accelerated course. (Though it felt more like kindergarten.)
Hoho…went terrible. Ichigo had learned Shunpo the way he had learned everything else, fighting. However in his first Hoho lesson, only about half of the students mastered the basics of Shunpo by the end of the class and even then they stumbled about every fifth step. So Ichigo had hung back, watched and made it a game. By looking at the stumbling as a diversion tactic, he had made it through class, but only barely. And the Shihan-sama had not bought his act, even if his classmates had.
His minor (read theory) classes had all started with a quiz on how much they generally knew already. And Ichigo couldn't not fill in a quiz entirely and correctly. His history and geography was incomplete, mostly because he learned most things through conversations with different people. But his Spiritual Knowledge was top-notch, and way too extensive for a normal student.
Fortunately, Ichigo has his amnesia excuse. But people are going to ask questions and draw their conclusions. He doubts anyone will suspect time travel, but he can't imagine what people might think. The Shiba's have decided that Ichigo must be the son of one of their missing clansmen or -women. Plenty have left Seireitei over the centuries in search of a suitable partner or an adventure. Such a parent could be responsible for Ichigo's knowledge and training.
Ichigo is walking a thin line and he knows it. Sooner or later he is going to come across someone he knows well and Ichigo can't act, at all as the past week has proven. He is going to give something away and people will start to wonder. The smart thing would be to leave and make his way in the Rukongai and beyond.
But Ichigo doesn't want to be smart. It has been so long since he has had a true family. Ever since his mom died, home was just a place to rest and make his homework. He never truly felt connected to his sisters and his father was a lost cause from the start. As much as he loved, and still loves, his friends in Seireitei, they were Shinigami and he wasn't. He was either their weapon or a hero. And his friends in the Human world, they never understood what he had been through, not really.
Here with the Shiba's he felt at home. For the first time in nearly ten years, he was wanted and accepted just like he was. Kaien, Kukaku and Ganju treated him like he really was their younger brother and Kaien's wife, Miyako, always had a kind word and a hug for him. Here he wasn't a hero, a weapon, or an anomaly. He wasn't the impossible and his strangeness fit right in with his clan.
For the first time ever, Ichigo had found a home. And he would protect it with his dying breath. Even if it meant making nice with Tousen and Gin to keep them from Aizen's grasp. Even if it meant somehow converting Aizen to a good person. Ichigo wasn't alone anymore and he would do anything so he would never be alone again.
I was inspired a lot by Snape's speech in first year potion's class. Credits go to J.K. Rowling.
