Been a while since I've updated and if I'm honest I should be revising rather than writing but this bugger me until I got it down on paper...or computer, which is more accurate. Thanks for all the lovely reviews.

Enjoy.

The entrance hall was packed with people coming from all over to complete the entrance exam. The nobles were easy to point out, staying separated, not wanting to mingle with the commoners, but even then there were so many people. So many people and yet he stood out like a sore thumb.

He knew it was the fact he already had a zanpakuto. From the moment he entered the building people had been staring, whispers following him as he walked up to the desk to sign up his name for the tests. After so much time when his life depended on not standing out it was rather alarming. He could feel his hand twitching to touch his sword where it laid across his back.

Irritation swelled to the point where he nearly stormed out of the room. It wasn't happening quickly enough and he couldn't stand to be around so many people, with them all looking at him. It was pure luck that they started to run the exams, splitting them all into thirteen groups. So he got into his line to wait until they were called into the room one by one, it would be a long wait.

After what seemed like hours his name was called and he was ushered into a wooden room. It reminded him of a dojo, probably its main use when the exams weren't on. In the middle of the room were a young man and two glass balls.

"You are Zangetsu Ogihci?"

He nodded his confirmation and the man smiled at him.

"I am the eleventh seat of the Fourth Division. I will be supervising your test today." He nodded again and drew closer to the man.

"You may have not seen these before you can use these spheres to help meld your reiatsu. You need to push it into the sphere and form a shield around yourself. I will give you a demonstration."

The man took one of the balls into his hands and after a moment or two a transparent blue ball appeared around the man. He knew now that if he touched it, it would be solid.

This is easy. You've done it before, do it again.

He sure didn't remember doing it before like the harsher voice said. His zanpakuto's voice however cut in.

Calm yourself. This is not an obstacle which will stand in our way.

The man seemed to have taken his frown for nerves because he was babbling on about being able to take the test the following time if he failed but reassurances that he was sure to pass, afterall he already manifested his zanpakuto.

The orb felt familiar in his hands. Like he'd held one before somewhere deeply buried in his lost memories. He tried pushing his reiatsu in but nothing happened, or at least nothing constructive. It felt all wrong, like there was a different better way.

Thoughts of a space of blackness, a void, and falling in it flitted through his mind and got stuck. He could feel his mental self sinking into this circular well of nothingness. Sinking and sinking. While he remained completely calm within his mind he wasn't witness to the chaos he was causing.

His reiatsu was flooding out of his body where it was usually so tightly stored. The walls started to shake, the man fell to his knees unable to stand and many of those waiting outside fainted from the pressure. Then something in his mind clicked and there stood in the middle of the chaos, he was surrounded by a glowing blue shield.

It was safe to say that he passed the entrance exam with flying colours going straight into the top class. The fact he'd already manifested his zanpakuto would have guaranteed him that anyway but after the power he displayed at the entrance exam he became a legend in the academy.

OOO

"You remind me of one of my students from when I was alive."

It was the first day of his academy classes and he quickly discovered that the power he displayed ostracised him from his peers. So he was rather surprised by the shoulder length brown haired woman that sat next to him.

"Your student?"

He had to admit he was rather curious. She was after all the first person to talk to him.

"I was a High School teacher when I was alive. He was always getting into fights, never turning up to school but he was a good boy."

She seemed rather fond of this boy.

"What happened to him?"

"He went a little off the rails, always looking so sad for a few years. They said he died pushing a young girl out of the path of a van. Saved her life but it ended his. What's your name?"

He looked at her. She thought that the boy could be him.

"Zangestsu Ogihci."

She grinned at him. "Not the same name. Shame, you looks so much like him although with the wrong coloured hair. Should have really known better, Kurosaki Ichigo was well known for a refusal to dye is orange hair. Anyway, I'm Ochi Misato. Nice to meet you."

He nodded at the woman letting a small smile show through. There was something about that name, Kurosaki Ichigo that clicked in his mind. He had orange hair under the dye and looked like this person. That couldn't be his real name, could it? Surely this person he'd only just met know more about him than he did?

As the teacher walked in he was forced to put the rather unsettling thoughts behind. He was sure in time he would remember, after all everyone else seemed to have memories of their time when they were alive. He pushed it to the back of his mind as the teacher started the class.

OOO

Classes were not exactly like he'd expected. The sheer amount of theory startled him, for a military organisation they seemed rather insistent on learning. While most of the actual content seemed new to him there was an echo of remembrance behind so much of it. After the first time the Winter War was mentioned he'd had nightmares of fighting for his life for weeks.

Despite everything the one class there was no errie feeling in was the one he was almost failing, kido. His lack of control was something that had Ochi-san, or Ochi-sensei as he jokingly called her, in hysterics at his poor attempts. Although he had to admit that he was rather glad as it gave him an opportunity to see her.

The first kido practical class they'd had they were meant to be learning the simplest spell, the first binding spell. They'd were paired up and put in front of straw targets to practice on. When it came to his turn it became rather apparent that having such alarmingly high reiatsu levels was a disadvantage when one had so little control over them.

The teacher made a point of telling everyone that in her 120 years of teaching she had never had a student manage to make a simple binding spell go so wrong that it created a six foot deep crater. It took hours for the embarrassment to start to fade.

While he remained at first year level in kido the remembrance came in useful in all his other classes and he was learning at such an accelerated rate they were bumping him up years and giving him special lessons. Rumours of him being a prodigy spread like wild fire.

They were saying that as soon as he improved his kido he would be graduating in record time.

Despite what others said he didn't think his achievements were so great. He could wield his zanpakuto skilfully because they had a strong connection but he'd done a lot of fighting. This just made zanjutsu easy and similar for hakuda. As for hoho, he'd always been fast, that wasn't something that was going to change any time soon.

But there was always a feeling that however far he pushed he could do better, that he had done better, been stronger. Sometimes his inability to do kido seemed like a blessing. It reminded him that he was still learning and quelled the frustration when he was so sure that he could do better than all the teachers put together. The taunting voice in his head confirming his thoughts really didn't help.

He'd been there a six month when they sent a seated shinigami to help him with his kido.

There was a smaller practice area put aside for such situations so he was to meet them there. It wasn't until a petite raven hair girl froze in the doorway, shocked by his looks that he realised just how hellish the sessions would be.

Just the sight of her forced half images of blood, of fighting into his mind. The way she launched her way across the room shouting 'Ichigo', grabbing hold of him in a death embrace terrified him. The way she was so familiar with him pushed more flashes of images and feelings through his mind. And it hurt.

It took all of his strength to push the woman off of him. The look of shock on her face as she tumbled to the ground at his feet was to be expected.

"I am not Kurosaki Ichigo." He was sure that it probably came out as a growl. The malicious voice was egging him on and telling him to frighten her more. It took him a moment to reign in the reiatsu he realised he'd been leaking and turn towards the practice target. "Shall we begin the tutoring?"

It was safe to say that the training sessions did not improve from there.

While he rapidly improved in both control and kido ability he did so purely to get away from the girls bi-weekly presence. He quickly found the girls attachment, bringing up things he hadn't done (or at least couldn't remember) and insistence of calling him that name aggravating. Whenever he brought it up there was nothing but insistence that he'd remember given time.

With the rate he was going though the academy it was hardly a surprise to him that in just over a year he was put forward for the graduation exam.

Next update will be after my exams so sometime in June probably.