My eyes were still on Hisagi as he and two other third years assembled us. He looked...good. Same as always, the messy black hair, the matter-of-factness and that tattoo on his cheek.

"First, we'll do simple instructions. I'm sixth year Hisagi."

Immediately, everyone began whispering excitedly, disregarding the other two sixth years who were also introducing themselves.

"What's this? Are these senpai famous?" Renji whispered to Kira.

"You don't know?!" Kira exclaimed indignantly, truly shocked. "Not 'those', the one in the middle. Hisagi Shuuhei. He's the first in years to receive a squad assignment before graduation, and they say he's an ultra-promising candidate certain to become a ranked officer in the future."

"Ehhhh?" Renji looked a bit incredulous. Perhaps Kira was sugar-coating stuff again.

"Asuka."

Hisagi was saying something about splitting up into teams to complete our tasks. Standing right in the middle of the three sixth year students, he was obviously the leader, and also the better looking one among the two sixth years.

"Asuka!" Renji hissed again.

"What?"

"Dammit stop looking at him. Go find your group of shinigami, you hopeless idiot!" Renji gave me a shove.

I sighed and glared at him. My group found me by themselves, two other girls whom I knew little about. There was an awkward silence as we listened to Hisagi explain some thing. A bit away from us was Renji's group. I cursed under my breath when I saw them.

All three of them, Kira, Renji and Hinamori were together. Lucky bastards. I was the only one who got stuck with two other strangers. My teammates didn't look too good either. One was fidgeting and the other was actually biting her nails. I winced at the sight. But then again, maybe this would be good. I'd probably get a chance to have a one-on-one go with a fake Hollow. Their loss, definitely. I need to get all the training I need.

Hisagi finished saying whatever he had to say, and then we were off.

An hour later

The perimeter was clear. It was easy to spot Hollows from where I was perched, on a tall building, but there weren't any to be spotted.

We were in an abandoned city, where no people could be harmed by any fake Hollows that were released for our training session. So much for hoping to catch a glimpse of the real world, Kira, I thought to myself.

Those three would probably have brought down their first Hollow already, considering Kira's talent at kidou and Renji's prowess at wildly slashing, sorry, fighting. Renji's rash swings of his sword would be of no use against a trained swordsman, but against a fake Hollow, well I guess they'd be taken down in no time.

And here I was, stuck on top of a building watching for a non-existent Hollow.

One of my teammates called up to me. "Nothing yet?"

She sounded suspiciously hopeful, the suspicious part confirmed by her aura. She was definitely hoping that no Hollows would appear before our time was up.

"Why don't you run around in circles waving your arms shouting to see if that will attract some Hollows?" I called down to her. I enjoyed the horrified yet guilty look on her face as she debated whether I was kidding or not.

To save her from embarrassment, I called down again. "Just kidding! Just stay put, and stay alert down there!"

I reached for my own katana by my side. I had yet to use it in a real fight, and my fingers were itching real badly. I wished a Hollow would hurry up and appear. Silently, I cursed the person who had made these fake Hollows, because whoever it was, they probably sucked at their job. Why create fake Hollows that wouldn't appear when they should?

Just as my hope had dwindled to the tiniest drop, a huge, lumbering beast appeared in my line of sight. Suddenly revived, I practically jumped up and leaned impossibly forward, just barely still hanging on to the side of the building.

So that's what a Hollow looks like. Doesn't look too intelligent to me.

Lithely, I slid down the building and landed lightly. I was pretty good at these kind of stuff, scaling buildings and all, even though I'd never undergone such training. Ichimaru wrote it all off as my skills left over from my past life.

My teammates hurried to me. "What, did you see something?"

"Uhuh, wanna come?" By suggesting that, I was implying that they could choose not to. I hoped they took the hint. Fortunately, they did, and I scurried off thankfully by myself.

I found the Hollow easily enough. There was no way I couldn't spot something that big. Hidden behind a pillar, I silently drew my katana and waiting for the exact right moment.

The Hollow passed by me, without noticing my presence. Immediately I jumped out, and with a single swing of my blade, sliced cleanly down the middle of the Hollow's mask, just like my teachers at the Academy had taught. It disintegrated before my eyes, my katana still outstretched.

"Tch." I was thoroughly disappointed. I cursed the person who'd made these fake Hollows again. Whoever that was was probably sneezing away, considering the many times I'd been cussing at him or her. They obviously underestimated us first years, to have set so easily-beaten Hollows loose.

I disappeared from where I was standing and reappeared at the building where my teammates still were. It wasn't shunpo, since I had no idea how to use that, even with Ichimaru-sensei's patient teachings. It was a technique I developed myself, though I wasn't too sure how I used it. I just vaguely visualized the place I wanted to go to, then kind of direct my mental waves into that direction or something like concentrating towards the place, and then I would be there.

"Come on," I told my teammates. "Let's go to the assembly point. We're already terribly late. The others are probably getting impatient with us."

This was turning out to be a horribly disappointing night, I thought, as the moon shone down above us. I hoped Renji and the others had met a more challenging Hollow on their side. Then at least I'd have an interesting story to listen to.

That was when an ear-piercing scream punctured the air. Random shouts followed, including some voices that I recognized pretty well. Above all the din, still clearly audible despite the noise people were making, a male voice was bellowing.

"Get back, run! I'll hold it back!"

My blood ran cold. It was Hisagi's voice.