A/N. Here's the fourth episode to Shinigami Death. Sorry it took me a while to get up, I couldn't figure out how to start the story, and the lack of reviews I got for the second and third chapter kinda killed my motivation for this story too. Did I do something wrong guys?

Disclaimer: I own nothing!


Episode 4: The Shinigami Academy Pt. 2


'I dream of a very lonely place; of an artificial landscape of blue structures of steel beams and glass, barren of all signs of natural life…'


Di-iing~Do-oong~Di-iing~Do-oong

The deep, baritone sounds of a bell resonated heavily throughout the empty feeling space, reverberating until is faded into heavy silence as a passing breeze gently teased and pulled at thin strands of strawberry blonde hair, eyes slowly opening to gradually take in the sudden and unexpected change in surroundings; a pitch black abyss that had suddenly overcame her without warning fading into a world of silence and skyscrapers.


'And in the distance, rings a bell long and low. Its home a tall, upside down clock tower hanging upside down in thin air as it counted out the seconds in reverse.'


As her mind raced to catch up with what was going on, the nine-year old girl went over what she could remember, which was admittedly little. Her head tilting in confusion as she stared at the blue sky before, eyes only barely noting the clouds that climbed upwards towards a place she couldn't see thanks to building laying sprawled out above her head like a ceiling, and somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn't help but point out how odd it was that the sun was out, when she felt so sure that it should be night time.


'An odd, backwards world where everything was the reverse of how it should be; where everything had switched places or wasn't where it normally would be at all.'


"Ichigo…"


'And the only thing within this large silent world was an old man, cloaked in tattered black.'


"Huh?" the girl asked as she turned around, eyes blinking in slight surprise at the sound of her name being called so suddenly. "Oh… It's you, Old Man." Ichigo noted as she tilted her head to the side once again, eyes slowly taking in the appearance of the black-clad, middle-aged man balancing so perfectly on the pole protruding from the side of the building.

The man said nothing, instead choosing to watch as the much younger child slowly took in her surroundings once again, as if trying to figure out where exactly he come from. It was a few moments before she decided to finally look back at him, her head tilting to the side for a third time as she seemed to contemplate something before slowly walking up to him, stopping to take a seat in front of him once she was close enough.

"Can I ask you a question?" she inquired, looking at the man expectantly before deciding to proceed anyways when it seemed he would not give her an answer, "Aren't you lonely?" the man eyes widened slightly at the unexpected question, head tilting to the side in confusion as he eyed the girl sitting with her legs sprawled out in front of her, expression one of genuine curiosity as she stared up at him, patiently waiting for his answer.

"What do you mean by that?" At his question, the girl blinked for a few moments as her eyes drifted what would've been skywards if the world wasn't as eschewed as it was, her eyes meeting the sight of glass windows on a building instead.

"You're in this world all by yourself right? Aren't you lonely?" she asked again in response, meeting the other's gaze through his yellow sunglasses evenly. The man was silent for some time, eyes staring at the sky behind her.

"This place… Is only as lonely as you make it to be... Only as lonely as you feel." Ichigo blinked in confusion as the man continued staring off into the distance, at some unseen place that she felt she'd never be able to find no matter how hard she looked for it. She was about to say something in response when she found herself being interrupted when the bell rang yet again, causing them both to look at the upside down building protruding out an empty space between two buildings where a street probably would've run if this world were upright and not laying on its side.

Di-iing~Do-oong~Di-iing~Do-oong

"It is time for you to go, Ichigo…" The man stated, staring at the face of the clock tower as its hands continued going backwards, as if there was some secret answer to a question he himself was refraining from asking held within. Ichigo sighed, slowly pushing herself up onto her feet as she blinked, wondering how she was going to get out of such a strange place when there was no obvious exit.

"Wait!" Ichigo suddenly called, pausing as she turned to walk away, turning back to face the man who had dropped his gaze from the clock tower to look at her, "You never told me your name." the man stared at her in obvious, silent contemplation before finally opening his mouth to speak,

"In time, when you are ready, you shall learn my name-"

Di-iing~Do-oong~Di-iing~Do-oong

Both turned their heads to look at the clock again, the man's gaze dropping once again to stare at the back of Ichigo's head before he continued speaking. "As I was saying before, it is time for you to go. Do not worry, in time you shall learn my name."

"But when-?"

"When you are ready." Suddenly the scenery began to blur, as if she were in a speeding car rushing by in some inexplicable need to hurry. As the world began to fade to black once again, Ichigo only faintly managed to register the suddenly very distant voice of the man, his voice sounding so far away it was almost scary to the young child, "Ichigo, remember this! You will age if you pull back, you'll die if you hesitate. Let go of your fears and continue to move forward and you will be able to hear my name!-"


"Kurosaki!" Ichigo gasped as she found herself being shaken awake, her eyes flashing open to meet the dark grey eyes of one of the visiting lieutenants; Shuuhei Hisagi of the ninth division if she remembered correctly.

"Huh?" came the oh-so-intelligent reply that left her lips as she stared up at the man, eyes blinking in surprise as her mind once again struggled to catch up to what was going on. The man released a sigh, of whether relief or exasperation she wasn't sure, and moved to sit down in front of her. Moving to sit with her legs crossed, she turned to face the man, not having noticed until just a few seconds ago that she had actually been laying down instead of sitting up.

"Thought it was a bit odd to find one of the younger students passed out on the ground seemingly dead. Sorry about interrupting-"

"Interrupting?" Ichigo questioned, obviously very confused as to what the man was talking about, her mind still trying to remember what exactly had happened before she had apparently woken up. Shuuhei blinked at her for a moment, before suddenly starting to chuckle at her in amusement, his hand landing heavily on her head as he ruffled her hair,

"You were in your inner world, weren't you?" he questioned, watching as the child's eyes suddenly went skyward in thought, an expression of realization and recognition dawning her face as she seemed to finally remember what had happened.

"Oh, that's what that weird place is?" she questioned, looking at the man expectantly.

"Yep." He answered easily, eying her as if she'd grown a second head for a couple of seconds before deciding to ask the question he apparently had, "What do you mean by 'weird'?"

"I mean exactly as I said. Weird." She answered, blinking at why the question before deciding to elaborate when he quirked an eyebrow at her, "It's weird. All the buildings are sideways and you can stand on them." She began, waving her hands around to further emphasize her point as she continued explaining the landscape of what had apparently been her inner world, "And the skies are where the wall used to be, same with the ground! And then the clouds go up!"

"Up?"

"Yes up! Like a waterfall flowing backwards!" Shuuhei was trying very hard not to chuckle at her suddenly very enthusiastic explanation, slightly shocked at how much energy she was showing, considering all the motivation and energy she showed in class, which was very severely lacking in quantity. "And there's this one building, a clock tower, that is upside down!"

"Upside down? An upside down clock tower?"

"Yes, if the world was upright like this place, then it'd be on its side, but it's upside down in there. Oh, and tells time backwards." At the obviously confused expression on the man's face, Ichigo found herself quickly elaborating, trying her hardest to explain how odd the clock really was since she doubted she could take him there to see for himself, "The clock's hands go the opposite direction! Instead of going clockwise it goes counter clockwise! And the world's so silent that when the bell rings it's almost deafening in volume!"

"I see." He replied, sitting back as he silently encouraged to continue going into as much detail as she possibly could about her inner world, now that she seemed so open and connected about something rather than as aloof an closed off as she always appeared to be any other time. The moon was still out, and he didn't have a clock with him right this very instant, but he would estimate it to be somewhere around three o' clock in the morning; give or take half an hour. He could only guess that it was the lack of sleep causing this rather talkative episode with the child. Either that, or she was very curious about her inner world.

"And it's blue. Everything is blue. But you know… it's so silent in there, that I have to wonder if the old man is lonely…" she finally finished, tilting her head as she took on a look of thoughtfulness, eyes staring into the far off distance, or maybe even within herself; into her own inner world without her being self-conscious of it. At the mention of a person dwelling within her inner world, Shuuhei tilted his head, now finally and fully understanding why the child before him had been placed in such an advanced class; she was fully communicating with what was possibly the spirit embodying her zanpakutō, even though she didn't know the spirit's name or had yet to materialize the blade.

If he were to be honest with himself; he could still remember when he had met the child back in one of the closer districts in Eastern Rukongai. Even back then the kid had oozed reiatsu uncontrollably so, but it had been so scattered and spread out that it had been hard to detect at first, having been in such large quantities and having been left to spread without being checked that it had blanketed the whole town and the nearby, surrounding areas. He and the others had only been able to sense it when it had spiked suddenly during the incident where he had first come into contact with the kid; back when she had suddenly flipped a man five times her own size and at least 60 times her own weight without a problem. She had been so small and young though, he had immediately brush it off as a hallucination, though he had starting asking himself questions concerning the matter when the captain of the tenth division had brought it up, debating with his own lieutenant over the matter for a couple of months as well as the others who had been present before finally deciding to go and see the child for himself.

Of course, the captain of the tenth division hadn't actually intended on bringing that many people along with him, but Rangiku, the lieutenant of the tenth division, had insisted on coming along and brining Izuru and him as well. Renji, a lieutenant of the sixth had only agreed to come along because he had something to give to the child apparently. They questioned it for a bit until they had arrived and he had actually handed it over to the kid, everyone else having been slightly surprised at the red, hot-head's foresight to bring a reiatsu suppressant along with him for the kid with an admittedly unnatural amount of reiatsu.

The last thing he had ever expected was to meet the kid again however.

"Wait." He interrupted finally, dragging the child out of her thoughts as she slowly turned her head to look at him, a silent question being communicated through her gaze and expression as she quirked an eyebrow at him. "You said an old man?"

"Yeah, an old man dressed in a tattered black jacket and wearing a pair of yellow shades." Shuuhei released a quiet sigh, barely noticeable as he eyed the child. He vacantly remembered what the girl's teacher had told him the other day when they had first arrived to help teach the students of that particular class; how she apparently had some issues with any form of authority and calling those in a position that demanded respect or who were just plain older than her by a good amount of years by nicknames that would've been considered rude from anybody else, but were generally accepted for the simple fact that after many attempts, the teachers had just given up on teaching her any form of discipline and manners when it came to those of higher status. Given that information and with that being kept in mind, he had to silently wonder if she really didn't know the spirit's name and was calling him "old man" as a sort of substitute or if it was simply because she was used to calling him that and he had never bothered to correct her in any form what-so-ever.

"I see… Do you know his name?" he felt the need to ask, watching as her face screwed up in thought for all of five seconds before dropping back into the neutral expression it usually held no matter the situation; even when talking about sideways worlds bathed in blue with upside down clock towers that told time in reverse. At the question she shook her head in the negative, seeming to frown for a bit before she finally decided to speak,

"No, he said I wasn't ready yet. That it wasn't time for me to learn it. I would when I was ready."

"And he hasn't decided when that will be, has he?"

"Nope." Shuuhei sighed as he suddenly moved to get up, reaching his hand out to help the little girl stand up from the ground as he brushed off the imaginary dust particles on his pants.

"I see…" he seemed thoughtful for a few moments, eyes staring fixatedly at the moon before he finally turned to face the child again, "Well, let's get you back to bed. It's getting late and you have classes tomorrow." He said, slowly herding the obviously tired child towards the dorms.

"Ok."


A/N. Ok, so what do you guys think? Advice is appreciated and I do not mind if you guys have questions you feel you need answering. Please review and tell me what you think of my story! See ya and thanks for reading!