A/N: here's the fourth chapter! sorry it's taken some time to put this chapter up!

I do not own Bleach.

The End is Only the Beginning

By: KawaiPanda

Chapter Four: First Day at the Academy
Part One

"I was wondering, have you thought about becoming a soul reaper?"

"N-not really."

"I think it would be a good idea if you thought about it."

"O-okay..."

"I just remembered that even as a human you had a lot of spiritual energy and you'd probably go far if you wanted to become a soul reaper." Orihime nodded, though she didn't think she was the Soul reaper type. She voiced this and Rurichiyo nodded. "Well, it was just food for though. And besides, if you did become one, you will be able to see your friends more often."

It was true. She did have a lot of soul reaper friends that she missed. And Soul reapers did go to earth often, she would be able to see Tatsuki and the others!

It had been a whole two weeks since Orihime had been asked if she wanted to become a soul reaper. And because she didn't want to jump straight into it, she took the time to think it over. Though, from the constant inquiries from Rurichiyo and Ryusei, she had been by the academy, learning that the entrance exam was coming up and the requirements to get in. She'd even got to tour the facility, seeing the classrooms and such, though she suspected that the nice treatment was because she was the adopted sister of Rurichiyo.

The man who showed her around was one of the various teachers, though he taught senior students. He was very polite, and smiled a lot when she asked questions.

She gave it a lot of thought. And she was leaning towards attending. She knew she would have to stay on the academy grounds, but it was no problem for her. After all, she'd lived in a small apartment in the world of the living, and was not used to having such a large room all to herself. In fact, she was having touble sleeping in her bedroom at the Kasumioji estates. And a smaller room would be nice for a change.

She was just afraid she would get differential treatment while in attendance at the academy. She also didn't want anyone to know of her past involvement with the soul society. They would expect way too much from her. After all, her powers were nothing like those of a shinigami's and to have them hold her to such high expectations... well, it wasn't fair. After all, she had been more a nuisence while she was alive anyway. She was virtually useless, all she could do was heal really.

Orihime shook her head, trying to shake the depressing thoughts out of her head. She needed to have positive thoughts today. After all, it was the day for the exam to get into the academy.

She had woken up early to make sure to have a large breakfast, here lately she was eating more and more... more than she thought she could ever consume in an entire seating. And what's even weirder was the fact that she wasn't gaining any weight from it either. Surely she would have gained at least fifteen pounds by now had she still been alive and consuming this much food. She frowned down at her plate of eggs, sasauge, and red bean paste. It was her third plate this morning. Sighing, she finished off plate of food and placed her plates into the sink.

"I wish you luck Orihime." Rurichiyo said from behind Orihime. Startled, she almost dropped the plates into the sink, and whirled around.

"R-Rurichiyo-sama." She smiled at the young girl. "Thank you. I probably need it."

Rurichiyo waved her doubt off. "From what I've seen in the human world of your abilities, I have the utmost confidence in you. Besides, from what Kenryu has told me of his time at the academy and the exam, I know you'll pass with flying colors."

Orihime blushed at the compliment. "Thank you Rurichiyo-sama."

"No problem. Now, you better get going. The exams will start soon, and I'm sure you don't want to be late, am I correct?"

"Right! I'll see you later!" Orihime called as she dashed out of the room and headed for her destination.

From what the man had said, it would take a total of at least six hours to take the entire exam. The first part would be a written exam, after that, there would be a test on kidou to see if those who made it that far could do a simple spell. And after that, there would be a physical. And if they passed all of those things, they would be able to attend the academy. Though, even once someone passed the exam, it could be a matter of years before they graduated. The average time it took was six years, and for prodigies, two years or less.

She knew from Ryusei that some students were offered positions among the Gotei Thirteen or even the Kidou Corp. before graduation should they be skilled enough and capture the attention of a squad.

By the time she reached the academy, she had only five minutes to spare. She sighed in relief and moved to get in line before someone called her name.

"Kasumioji-sama!" She blinked for a minute before realizing the person was calling her.

"Yes?"

"Come with me please?" The woman was a bit out of breath when she reached Orihime. Her red hair was a bit messy, but she just brushed it back behind her shoulders and held out a hand to Orihime. She took it hesitantly, and they shook hands briefly.

"O-okay." The woman led her down the hall, away from everyone else and they were a good distance away from the exam room before the woman started talking.

"Miss Kasumioji, no need to worry about the exam. Ever since your tour last week, our senior instructor Nao has been raving about you."

"What do you mean?" Orihime was confused. She had taken a tour last week with that man, and he had led her around, though she didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

"Your spiritual pressure Miss. It is so exceptionally high!" Her green eyes were shinning in excitement.

"I don't understand." She knew what spiritual pressure was, after all, she wasn't stupid, but she hadn't noticed having any of her own before.

"Can you not see the discomfort you bring to others?" When she had arrived at the exam, most, if not all of those still waiting to go into the classroom grimaced, and one had outright fainted when she appoached. She nodded carefully. "Well, your spiritual pressure was so high that you can immediately start classes."

"But shouldn't I have to take the exam?" The woamn shook her head.

"No. The written part is just a personality exam really. Then the kidou wpuld be to see how much spiritual pressure you can manifest, and a regular physical to see if you can keep up with training. You, Miss Kasumioji, have so much spiritual pressure that I'm even sweating to raise my own up to keep from buckling." Orihime's eyes widdend.

"R-really? I'm so sorry! Is there anything I can do to lower it?"

"Well, I've heard that one way is just thinking about it will lower it, and by thinking about it, I mean you have to want it to be low." Orihime nodded in understanding and took a deep breath, willing her pressence to be like that of a butterly. Very unnoticeable. "Thank you."

"It worked?"

She nodded in relief. "Anyway, Nao-sama has spoken to several of the staff here, as well as the Head Captain of the Gotei Thirteen and they have decided that you will be accepted into the academy immediately."

Orihime was breathless. She honestly didn't know what to say or think. "O-okay."

The room they came to stand in front of was open, and Orihime's companion walked inside, beckoning her to follow her inside. There was a package on top of the desk, as well as several papers.

"This here holds your uniforms, and these papers are your schedules and such. One paper has your room number on it, as well as the key to it as well taped on." She sat down behind the desk, grinning at the orangette. "Since classes start tomorrow, you may start moving in as soon as possible, though I think Lady Rurichiyo has already taken it upon herself to have many of your things sent over."

Orihime blinked. "W-what?"

"We've already contacted your family with our decision to let you attend."

The blond knew! all along she knew that orihime was going to get in. "Oh... thank you."

"There is also a map among those papers, so you should be able to find your way around soon enough."

"Thank you, miss..." Orihime hadn't gotten her name.

"Right, I'm June, June Saito. Should you ever find yourself in trouble, or need help with anything, just come find me." Orihime nodded, before picking up the heavy package.

"Thank you Miss Saito."

"By! See you in class Miss Kasumioji."

Orihime wandered around a bit before she realized she had no idea where the dorms were, and set the box down, searching through the pile of papers for the map. When she found it, she saw that she wasn't too far away and headed off in the right direction. Upon seeing the building, she smiled in relief. The freshman dorms were co-ed, though the girls lived on the upper floors, and the guys the lower. After pressing the up button to the elevator, she glanced at her room number. Room 701. When the doors opened in front of her, she hasitily stepped into the metal box, and pressed the seven button.

The way up seemed to take forever... but when she finally got to the top, she sighed in relief. She didn't like elevators. She practically ran out of the thing when the entrance was wide enough to accomidate both her and the box. Her room was right in front of the elevator too, and she was glad. Pulling the key off of the paper, she stuck it into the keyhole hesitantly, turning the knob slowly.

This whole thing seemed unreal. After all, she was sure no one else had be able to get into the academy so easily, but she wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

XxXxXxXxX

When Orihime woke up the following morning, she was a bit disoriented.

Yesterday she woke up in her room at the Kasumioji manor, and today she was in a new room. But, upon seeing her things, she realized she was safe. And after sleep finally left her eyes, she remembered yesterday.

She'd been accepted into the academy. And last night, she stayed here.

Today was the first day of classes, and that meant wearing one of the uniforms that were hanging up in her closet. This new room of hers was nice, not as big as it had been at the Kasumioji manor, and for that she was grateful.

Taking a moment to stretch the rest of the lingering effects of sleep out of her, she pulled on her uniform, and brushed her hair into a messy bun, using her hairpins to keep it in place.

When her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she needed to eat, she glanced at the clock to see what time it was.

It was just after nine.

Since today was the first day of class, it didn't start until ten, which she got from her schedule for today. It gave her plenty of time to make it to the cafeteria and eat something.

She made sure to pocket her key, and her money that Rurichiyo had left for her before locking up the room behind her. She briefly remembered to control her spiritual pressure and walked into the elevator. Nao-sama had shown her that on her tour and she kind of remembered where it was located. Though, she could just follow some of the other students, because surely they would be heading there as well.

When the elevator stopped briefly on two floors down, Orihime smiled at the two girls who walked on. They returned it in kind and introduced themselves.

"Hi! I'm Kaiya, and this is Hanna, my roommate." Both were blonds, but the more enthousiastic girl had shorter hair in a cute bob, while the other girl wore hers in a pony tail at the base of her neck.

"I'm Orihime." Maybe she would make some friends here after all.

"You must have been like us and gotten up late, eh?"

"Late?"

"Well, classes don't start until ten today but when we woke up, it was a ghost town this morning on our floor." Kaiya said, shock laced in her voice. "Seriously! There was no lines at either of the bathrooms on our floor."

"Weren't, Kaiya. Weren't any lines..." Hanna spoke evenly, correcting the other girls grammer.

Kaiya waved it off. "I guess the other students wanted to check out the competition early." The elevator stopped at another floor as she said that, and a guy walked in, breathing heavily, a frown on his face.

"H-hello." Orihime felt complied to say, greeting him.

"Hey." He didn't say much, and ignored the girls entirely. Feeling the awkward atmosphere, no one said anything.

When they reached the ground floor, the brunette guy took off as soon as the doors were wide enough, and the girls headed in same direction at a slower pace.

"Well, he's a big talker." Kaiya said, when he was out of hearing distance.

"Maybe he woke up on the wrong side of the bed?" Orihime said, already feeling at ease with these two girls.

"Maybe." Hanna pipped in.

It didn't take long at all for the three of them to reach the cafeteria, and they went through the line, grabbing plates of food from the buffet styled breakfast lines.

Once they took seats at an empty table, the interrogation began.

"So, which district are you from?" Kaiya asked, her mouth full of food.

"District?"

"Where you live." Hanna supplied.

"Yeah, Hanna and I are from the ninth district."

"Oh! Um... I'm not from the districts... I think."

"What do you mean? You have to be from a district silly."

"Well I kind of live in the Seireitei."

"Really?" Kaiya asked quite loudly, capturing a lot of attention from fellow students. Orihime held up her hands, blushing.

"Y-yeah."

"Sounds nice." Hanna said easily.

"I guess." She said, scratching the back of her head. They went quiet for a minute and Orihime took the oportunity to fill up her empty stomach. By the time they had finished eating, there was a lot of commotion among all of the students in the cafeteria as the Head Master walked in. It was June! Orihime gulped down her glass of milk and stared at the woman in surprise.

June seemed to notice Orihime's surprise and waved at her, before addressing the entire student body.

"Hello! I'm June Saito, Head Mistess of the Shino Academy, and I would like to congraduulate you all for being accepted into the academy. First and foremost, I wish you all luck in becoming the best you can be, as well as excelling in your studies." She had an easy smile on her face. "I know this journey will not be an easy one. You all have so much to learn. And some of you may fail or even die in the process of becoming shinigami. But that should not deter you from this path you have chosen. As a shinigami, you will face many dangers, because while your primary objective is to send the dead to the afterlife, you will have to face hollows, or worse."

She looked a bit saddened, but continued her speech. "And for those of you who survive and thrive, you will be placed in either the Gotei Thirteen, Kidou Corp, or the Onmitsukido, depending upon what your skills lie in. Again, I wish you all the best of luck, because you will need it."

She turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

Everyone errupted into chatter.

"Wow! Nice speech huh, Hanna?" Kaiya said, grinning.

"Very nice."

"Well, it seems a bit... sad that some may die." Orihime said, frowning. She didn't like the prospect of some of her friends parishing trying to become a soul reaper. But then... people died all of the time. After all, she did once.

"Not may, will. There are always casualties." Hanna informed her.

"Anyways, lets get to class! We don't wanna be late, or forced to sit up front do we?" They had about fifteen minutes left to be on time. Kaiya stood and waited on the others to do so as well.

When they had all dumped their plates, they headed to the classrooms.

A/N: So, what do you think of her getting into the academy? And her first day there?

Special thanks to VitaeCursus, KurosakiCrystal18, Marianne3013, Mailumia, and Nypsy! :)

Any feedback is welcome! :)