Disclaimer: I do not own bleach or any character contained herein. Nor do I own Guts Griffith, a character from berserk, Hayate and Nagi: From Hayate the Combat Butler, Hime and Hiro: from Princess Resurrection, Takashi and Rei from High School of the Dead or Maka from Soul Eater, all rights go to their original creators.

Note 1: Everyone give a big round of applause for Eternal Love's Eclipse my Beta, without whose editing none of this would be possible.

Note 2: Attention Princess Resurrection fans, and people who have an idea for a good Shikai but no characters to give it to, I need your help. Hiro's shikai has me stumped and I am open to any suggestions or ideas you all have. I have everyone else planned except for him. Please PM me with any ideas you all have, thank you.

Note 3:1500+ views and 21 reviews wow! Thank you all for making this the most successful story I have written to date.

Chapter 5: Speeches and spectacles.

The days passed by slowly and with little purpose. The academy fell into its usual routine of magic, history and combat classes. There were only a few changes following its first encounter with Captain Ichigo. First was that the students had found the captain to be the best new topic of gossip ever. Word had already made its way around the school that Takashi couldn't even cut him. Other students soon added more amazing tales about Ichigo, ranging from him taking down the entire court guard by himself, to speculation about what kind of pajamas he wore. The teachers changed to. More specifically their eyes changed as they gained massive baggage. It was clear that they were getting little sleep, though there was no official word as to why. Finally the top eight students in the class changed drastically.

The first day they seemed like their old selves, but much more energetic. They seemed to have a fire to do anything. They completed all of their assignments with a fury. Uri even turned in homework for the first time in years and Hiro actually went first at the magic classes' firing range. But this all died after a day or so. It wasn't that they were overwhelmed or anything, in fact one could say that they got bored. They completed their first day back to school so easily that nothing really interested them in it. To make matters worse their attitude was becoming infectious.

Other students were calling out their teachers on how basic many of their lessons were. History class practically ended as all the students echoed Ichigo's accusations and questioned the very need for such a class. The teachers were losing control, but some of them were adapting. Especially the combat classes, who now saw the first honest chance for an increase in their budgets and were eager to prove themselves worthy. Despite these few successes though the general air of the school took a general turn towards dissatisfaction and thus became ripe for change.

That change seemed inevitable when it was officially announced that Ichigo would be returning to address the student body on the first day of the next week. The excitement that infected the air was palpable. Everyone from the teachers to the students was giddy with anticipation for what changes would be made to the school and how they would be implemented. Even the eight started taking their assignments seriously again as they mentally and physically prepared for the return of the captain.

As the fateful day approached the school was cleaned from top to bottom and on the day itself no actual schoolwork was done as teachers and students spent the day speculating on the meeting to come. At noon, all of the classes emptied out into the courtyard and flanked the long path that led from the official north gate to the academy main building. Everyone stood at strict attention as they waited for him to come. When Ichigo entered the campus the lines fell silent as everyone turned to watch the approaching captain. For just a moment the silence came from awe, but then it was gradually replaced by stunned silence.

Ichigo entered the campus with a casual walk as he quietly whistled to himself. To his left was Guts Griffith towering over him and revealing his missing arm to the crowd around him. To his right was little Hinamori carrying a massive stack of paper in front of her. The crowd just couldn't process the scene. Was this scrawny boy with a crippled attendant and a tiny girl for a lieutenant the same hulk of a man they had been hearing wild rumors about for a week? As Ichigo made his way through the sixth year students, Takashi decided to prove at least one of those rumors right.

"ICHIGO!" he cried out as he leapt from the crowd and blocked the captain's path with a drawn sword. "I bet you thought you crushed my spirit but your little challenge has only made me stronger!"

"Good for you!" Ichigo said with a smile. "Who are you again?"

"I am the man who will kill you!" Takashi declared as he charged the captain with his sword drawn back ready from a wide right swing. He swung his sword with all his might and all his energy focused into it to sharpen it as much as he could. The blade came within an inch of the captain, who then calmly leapt over the sword and kicked Takashi in the face knocking him to the ground.

"Nice killing intent, and much better spiritual pressure than from before," Ichigo complimented, as he stood over the falling boy and stomped on his fallen body with his right foot. "But your technique sucks. Still don't give up, in a year or so I might have to draw my sword." He concluded as he stepped on and over the fallen attacker and quietly entered the building.

The stunned crowd then rushed over to Takashi and crowded around him trying to see what damage the captain had done to him. Hime, Nagi, Hayate and Hiro quickly formed a ring around him though to keep the crowd from trampling him any further. Rei tried to help him up while Uri stared at him and shook his head.

"What in all of Soul Society possessed you to try that again?" he exclaimed as Maka started giving Takashi some first aid. "Didn't you learn from the first time?"

"I don't learn, I improve." Takashi said, with his voice full of pride, "That time I was good enough for him to take the time to beat me. Next time I will make him draw his sword."

"Why so that he can kill you?" Uri asked then shrugged, "You sir, have some seriously messed up goals in life."

Skip

Later in the day, after the student's afternoon classes, Ichigo took the stage to the main auditorium. Everyone was silenced with in a moment or two as the waited for him to speak. Ichigo reminded himself to go easy on Takashi next time for giving him such a captive audience. He then took a deep breath and plunged straight in.

"The most important thing to remember about being a Death God is that there is no most important thing about being a Death God. There is no sure fire way to gain a position as an officer. Nor is there any one way to guarantee that you will be a successful soldier. There is not combination of things that will guarantee success either. There is no trick sheet, there are no short cuts. This is both a blessing and a curse.

"It's a blessing because this means that there is literally any way to become a successful Death God. If you focus solely on strength, you can do it. If you focus solely on technique or magic, you can still do it. Even if you have nothing on your side but speed you can still race to the top. Any skill you already have and are proficient at can lead to success if used in the right way.

"This fact is also a curse though. Mainly it makes it nearly impossible for the academy to teach you how to be a successful Death God. Even if you pass all the tests and graduate the perfect student, if you haven't learned how to harness your talents you are going to die the first time you fight a hollow and there is no way around it. This means that the Academy is going to have to change. It can no longer be an academy. It can no longer be a place which says 'if you pass these tests you can kill hollow' because we can't guarantee that. Rather the academy has to become more like a grand library where you can come and say, 'teach me to be strong.' And we give you ten instructors who can make that happen.

"This does not mean you all will get to pick your classes, nor does it means that you can skip out on the classes you already have. What it will mean is that over the next year or so the academy will establish a baseline of what skills you have and don't have and then build a specialized training program around those so that you can get better and better at your strengths.

"So if you're a very strong individual but you have a poor memory, you can choose to avoid magic classes and focus on kendo and hand to hand combat. So that you learn to bring your power to bear and smash your opponents quickly. If you're fast but lack strength, you can choose to focus on flash step and your agility so that you can run circles around your foes. If you're really smart and can learn spells effortlessly you can focus on magic and learn to blast your foes into oblivion. The idea will be to identify your areas of strength and build on them to the point that can overcome any challenge using them.

"This does not mean that you won't have to take any class you don't like ever again. Quite the contrary. Over the first year or so we are going to test you on everything so that the academy can find out what you are good and what you aren't. But even after that you will have to take classes you're bad at so that you can learn skills to cover your weakness and learn how to fight outside of your element.

"Here's how we are going to do this. First, History class is going to be gradually retooled into a theory class that uses history to give you practical examples of how to use your skills and how not to. Its time will be greatly reduced and its material will be streamlined which in turn allow us to restructure the combat classes. Second, combat class will be broken into three separate classes: Kendo, Close Quarters Combat, and flash step which will be taken separately throughout the day: a class in the morning, a class after lunch and a class in the afternoon. Third, magic class will split its time between practical theory on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and application on the firing range on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. After this year has established a baseline for what skills you all do and don't have, next year you will have a more personalized schedule centered around developing your talents. All of these changes are going to be implemented over the next two years.

"Sixth year students you all present the problem. You all will join the Thirteen Court Guard this fall whether you're ready or not, and unfortunately there is no time for us to establish a baseline for you and help you specialize. So this is how it is going to work. Your schedule will change tomorrow rather than over the next few months like it will for everyone else. You all will have your EOGs in May and they will cover an entire year's worth of material. After that you will return here over the summer to specialize your skills and prepare to enter the Thirteen Court Guard. Understood? Good."

The auditorium was stunned into silence by the implications of what they had been told. Everything was going to change for them. The sixth year students were scared out of their wits. They had hoped that Ichigo was going to be fun captain who did away boring classes not the malevolent jerk who suddenly dropped a year's worth of work on them and expected it done by the semesters end.

"Now then," Ichigo continued, "while there is no one way to guarantee success as a Death God there are ways to guarantee failure. In fact there are three, three central vices that can get any Death God killed without exception. While we can't have an entire class centered around combating these vices you all do have to know about them. So what we are going to do is that I am going to explain these vices in three special gathering like this and they will be followed by an exercise in preventing them.

"Today's vice is hesitation. Hesitation is a natural response to fear designed to make the mind take a step back and evaluate their decisions before plunging forward into certain doom. Which is fine for civilians who encounter such danger once or twice in their lives but for Death Gods it is not a luxury we can't afford. Hesitation not only creates openings in you stance it also holds back your blade and keeps you from fighting at your full potential. Remember your sword is a living being that reflects your emotional state and desires. If you hesitate to attack, then your sword will hesitate to cut the enemy and no matter how hard you swing, how fast you move, or how many spells you know, you cannot kill a foe you can't cut.

"Hesitation is born from fear and doubt. Fear can either be of your enemy: that they will cut you, or of yourself: that if you cut you will become some kind of monster. Either fear is crippling. Even worse is that of self doubt: if you assume that the enemy is going to win you will be proven right. Hesitation is overcome with anger or determination. Anger of your enemy will overcome your fear. Hatred and a desire to destroy will over power any and all hesitation sharpening your blade and empowering your spirit. But this comes with a risk, anger makes you reckless and cool headed hollow can take advantage of that. Determination is far better, it overcomes fear and doubt while keeping you in control, but it's not something that can be learned, determination has to be made and that is what we are going to do together today.

"Allow me to introduce to you all the captain of the eleventh squad. Kenpachi Zaraki." Ichigo said as three men walked on stage from the right. Two of them were of average height but looked really weird. One of them was bald and had red eyeliner on, the other had strait black hair with really weird eyebrows, but no one really noticed them. Everyone eyes were focused on the giant that walked before them in a captain's cloak. His black hair was fixed up into spikes and there were bells on their tips. He wore an eye patch and had a long scar over his other eye. His cloak was battered and torn and dozens of scares could be seen over his body.

"In the words of my mentor," Ichigo concluded, "'please try not to die.'"

"All right you maggots!" Kenpachi exclaimed as Ichigo left the stage and everyone leapt to attention. "Form up into pairs and make three lines in front of us. Go on now hurry." Everyone quickly obeyed.

"Now then face your partner and raise your sword. When I give the word all of you are going to cut your partners with that sword and then hold still while they cut you. If I think that any of you aren't swinging with your full force I am going come down there and cut you myself. Got it? Good. This is called the head chopping game and we're going to play it 'til there isn't an ounce of hesitation left in your swords! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life! Begin!"

End Chapter 5.