So some of you may be pleased to know that I have decided to continue with this story and hopefully tie it off a bit better than I originally had planned. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Guess what? I still don't own Bleach or any of its characters!


Ichigo collapsed onto his bed with a groan. Thank Kami it was the weekend! He couldn't remember the last time his body had ached this badly and not even the steaming hot shower he'd just taken had helped. For the past week he'd undergone an induction into the Spiritual Arts Academy and he'd endured test after test which had allowed the instructors and teachers of the Spiritual Arts Academy to assess his knowledge and skills. It seemed that Yamamoto had taken a special interest in him and had sent the best of the best to assess his zanjutsu, hakuda and hoho skills, Yamamoto himself had insisted on taking the zanjutsu assessment, whilst sending Soi Fon to conduct the hakuda assessment and Byakuya to conduct the hoho examination.

He was proud to say that he had held his own against Yamamoto in zanjutsu and the Head Captain had personally passed him out of the class as a zanjutsu expert. He had initially held his own with Soi Fon in the hakudo assessment and was grateful for all the martial arts classes he had taken as a child, but he had to admit the petite Captain was vicious and she had ended up kicking his butt. Although she had not remained unscathed by their battle and by the end of the assessment he could see she had a new respect for him, as he had for her. After her assessment he had been placed in the advanced class of the 6th Year to refine his skills.

Things with Byakuya had not gone smoothly though. Much to his dismay he'd kept losing concentration as his mind kept flashing back to what had happened between him and Rukia and he'd become slightly paranoid that somehow Byakuya knew what had happened. For the first time he had viewed Byakuya as Rukia's older brother, rather than an enemy, and along with feeling guilty over taking part of Rukia's innocence, he also felt fear of what Byakuya would do to him if he ever found out what had happened between him and Rukia. Although logically he knew he would be able to fight and beat Byakuya to defend Rukia's honour, a small part of him felt like he shouldn't even try to fight him as he had disrespected the noble traditions. Even he knew that his performance during the session had not been up to par and he had a feeling that Byakuya suspected something had been off with him that day too, although he had reluctantly agreed that Ichigo could be placed in the advanced 6th Year hoho class.

Although he had learned to control his spiritual pressure over the past 20 years and he could sense it a lot better than he could when he first became a substitute soul reapers, he'd been surprised to find it was only at 4th Year level and he had been placed in that class accordingly. Needless to say the rest of his assessments had not gone too well as he had limited knowledge at best of kido, the history of Soul Society, the laws of Soul Society, the geography of Soul Society etc etc and the bulk of his class timetable was taken up with these subjects. He had no idea how he was going to learn 6 years worth of history, law, and goodness knows what else in what remainder of the academic year, but one thing he knew for certain was that he was going to do it. He'd only been at the Spiritual Arts Academy a week but already he was sick of it.

Fortunately joining the school mid-term and being in numerous years for various subjects had meant he'd been allocated one of the private rooms that were normally reserved for guests of the Academy. However, he still had to eat his meals in the food hall with his fellow students and he hated that area the most. It seemed that news of his arrival had spread quickly and he had become somewhat of a "celebrity" amongst his peers, after all, it wasn't every day that you got to go to school with the saviour of Lady Rukia Kuchiki, or the only soul reaper who had been able to defeat the corrupt former Captain Sosuke Aizen. The guys looked at him with a mixture of awe and competitive, whilst the girls had swooned over him, his trademark scowl not being enough to scare them away.

If anything, his time at the Academy had made him more home sick for the living world than anything else. He missed the banter of his work colleagues every day and the feeling of doing good in the world whenever he arrested a murderer. He missed having beers with his friends and the luxuries of the living world such as being able to watch sports on TV whilst slumped on a comfortable couch. He missed the freedom of being able to do what he liked when he liked, and above all else, he missed his family - even his crazy old man.

Days at the Academy were bearable at least as he'd had other things to concentrate on, but the evenings and nights had been the worst as he'd been unable to stop his mind wondering back to that fateful night and thoughts of his family.

He couldn't help but ask himself, why him? Why had Karin called when she did? Why hadn't he kept her talking longer? Why hadn't his boss put up more of a fight about him taking some unexpected time off work? Why hadn't he gone home to pack first? If he'd only been 30 seconds later he wouldn't have made that train and he probably wouldn't be where he was now. It all seemed so unfair! He was still young and there had so much that he had wanted to achieve. He'd had a future planned out, damn it, and it had all been taken away in a blink of an eye! He just felt so angry over the whole situation.

And then there was his family. When he'd entered the senkaimon to return to Soul Society that fateful night there had been no signs of the emergency services at the crash site and he wondered if they'd managed to recover his body yet. The train had crashed in such a remote location that he just hoped they would be able to find his body and return it to Karakura so that his family could finally get closure on what had happened, although the thought of his family having to see his disfigured body sent chills through him. The last thing he'd wanted was to cause his family more grief or anguish or disrupt their lives further, after all, they should be celebrating the birth of little Ichigo and Karin's soccer tour of Europe, not mourning his death.

However, the more he thought about his death and the circumstances surrounding it, the fewer answers he found. If anything, more and more questions popped into his head - Did Karin decide to go on her European soccer tour? How was Yuzu coping with the new baby? Was his Dad behaving himself? Did his nieces and nephews understand what was happening and why everyone was so upset? Did Karin blame herself for calling him when she did? Did Yuzu blame herself for going into labour early, after all, if little Ichigo had been on time he wouldn't have been on that train? That day he had been in the office prepping for a court case so the chances were he wouldn't have been injured in that earthquake if Yuzu hadn't gone into labour and if Karin hadn't called him.

Damn! Come to think of it, did the case against that scumbag succeed without his testimony? His testimony was going to be one of the lead pieces of evidence as he'd been the first to arrive on scene and had discovered the bastard in a vicious rage still stabbing his pregnant wife. It had been heart wrenching to watch the woman and her baby's souls reluctantly separate from her body as he'd tried to secure her husband and stop him from landing anymore fatal blows, but alas, he had arrived too late. Later on he had discovered the scumbag's two older children stabbed to death in their bedroom closet - a place they had obviously gone to hide - and it had taken all his self control not to drag the guy out of the cop car he had been placed in and beat the bastard to death. It had been one of his most trying cases not only as a cop, but as a soul reaper too. After the fucker had been taken away and whilst Forensics had been gathering evidence, he'd managed to gather the souls of the wife and children and they'd told him exactly what their husband/father had done.

Apparently the wife had discovered her husband had been having an affair and when she'd confronted him about it he had gone on a mad rampage which had resulted in the bloodbath Ichigo had first encountered. The women and children were so upset, confused and scared, but he had managed to perform a konsol on them altogether and he hoped that they had all arrived in Soul Society together and were now living together peacefully somewhere. The wife should have had her baby by now and he hoped the child had arrived safely.

If that case ever fell apart because he wasn't there to testify he didn't know what he would do with himself and he could feel the resentment and anguish start to burn in him once again. Why him and why now?

A knock at the door interrupted Ichigo from his depressive thoughts and he groaned internally at the thought of who could be on the other side. His somewhat celebrity status at the school had garnered him quite a following of female fans and for the past week he had had more than one female student knocking at his door asking if he needed anything, or whether he needed a tutor in a vain effort to try and get close to him. He'd declined them all as politely as possible, after all the only woman he wanted was Rukia, and tonight would be no exception. Perhaps if he just laid here quietly then whoever it was would go away...

Another loud banging on the door had Ichigo sighing internally and he tried to read the visitor's reiatsu, his brow furrowing into a crease when he realised that he could not sense who was beyond the wooden door. That only lead him to believe it was one of the students from the uppers years who had the skill to hide their reiatsu, or one of the teachers, neither of which he fancied talking too right now. He did not feel inclined to get up and investigate and he simply clamped down his spiritual pressure as tightly as he knew how.

"Oi Ichigo! Hurry up and open this thing will ya?! It's freaking me out being back in this place again!" came a loud male voice.

Ichigo eyes widened and his body started as he heard the familiar voice and the door rattled once again as the person on the other side became frustrated and banged the door.

"Yeah, hurry up Ichigo. Your cutting into our valuable weekend time!" a muffled female voice drawled from beyond the door.

Was that...? No, it couldn't be, could it? Quickly Ichigo rolled out of bed, wincing as his muscles protested at such use, and opened the door to have his suspicions confirmed.

"Renji? Rangiku? What are you doing here?" he asked in disbelief.

"What's it look like baka?! It's your first weekend in Soul Society so we're taking you out to celebrate!" Renji stated simply.

Ichigo ran his hand through is head awkwardly. It wasn't like he wasn't pleased to see his old friends, it's just that all he wanted to do this weekend was catch up on some sleep after the gruelling week he'd just experienced, make a start on the classes he was already behind in, and take a walk around the grounds to try and figure out a way he could sneak out to see Rukia during the week. He just didn't feel like going out drinking all night, especially after his recent pondering.

"Er guys..." he began before being cut off by Rangiku.

"Uh..uh...uh. You're not going to be one of those goody two shoes who stays in the Academy all weekend and studies are you?" she drawled tauntingly.

Ichigo's brows furrowed further and he felt annoyance spark within him as he realised that's exactly what he had planned on doing "No, it's just that..."

"Well then, there's no problem then is there? You're still allowed out of the grounds on Friday and Saturday nights, right?" Rangiku asked feigning innocence.

Ichigo glowered at the woman in front of him before inspiration hit "It's not that I don't want to come out guys, it's just that there was a problem setting up my bank account and I haven't been paid yet. I don't have any money" he replied sympathetically, whilst rejoicing inside that he had a legitimate reason not to go. One thing he had been pleasantly surprised to find out during his induction was that as a student at the Academy he would be earning a small wage whilst he attended. "Maybe another time?"

"Don't be an idiot! It's not like we're expecting you to pay! What part of 'we're taking you out' don't you understand?" Renji informed him jovially. "Come on! Get ready!"

"Renji's right. We've been planning this ever since we found out what happened. Everyone wants to see you and Renji even managed to convince Rukia to come out tonight" Rangiku added.

Ichigo's brow creased in confusion "What do you mean you've managed to convince Rukia to come out? Doesn't she normally go out with you guys?" he asked curiously which caused both Lieutenants to snort.

"Outside of her shinigami duties that girl's life is pretty much controlled by Captain Kuchiki. Believe me, it's a miracle that Renji managed to not only convince her to come out, but also to convince Captain Kuchiki to allow her out" Rangiku informed him with a hint of distain in her voice.

"Yeah, apparently a Kuchiki Lady should never be seen in a bar" Renji added with the same distain.

Ichigo was shocked by the information he had just been given. Sure, when Rukia had stayed with him all that time ago she had spent a lot of time working, but they had both gone out frequently with their mutual school friends. She hadn't been wild, but she had enjoyed being social with everyone and the thought that her life here was restricted angered him. How dare Byakuya do that to his sister? Who gave him the right?

"Alright, I'll go" Ichigo replied darkly as he headed out the door. Suddenly he couldn't wait to see Rukia again as it seemed he really did know very little about her life here.

"You're going like that?" Rangiku asked with an eyebrow raised.

Ichigo realised with a start that both Rangiku and Renji were in normal clothes and he looked down and cringed inwardly as he realised he was wearing his school uniform. "I told you I haven't been paid yet and it's not like I've had a chance to go shopping since arriving here" he ground out.

"You can borrow something of Renji's" Rangiku stated simply as she turned and headed towards the exit.

"Wait..what!" both Ichigo and Renji exclaimed.

"Well do you have a better idea, hmmm?" she asked the two males innocently, not receiving any response. "I didn't think so and Ichigo can't go out in his uniform. We'll stop by Renji's on the way to the bar".

"Don't think I'm lending you anything nice" Renji stated grumpily as he started to follow Rangiku towards the exit.

"Don't think I'd want to wear your crappy clothes if I had a choice. Captain Kyoraku has a better fashion sense than you do" Ichigo ground out angrily.

"Why you...!" Renji yelled as he turned to attack Ichigo.

"Tsk, tsk, boys" came the sing songy voice of Rangiku "No fighting now, it'll only cut into our drinking time and mean that I'll have to wait for you both to change clothes. Now come on!"

Renji and Ichigo stared each other down for a moment longer before both turned and started heading out of the Academy once again.


With regard to Ichigo getting paid, I couldn't find anything either way about students getting paid to attend the Spiritual Arts Academy. However, I did find out that soldiers do usually get paid during basic training so I figured that the students at the Academy might do too, after all they would have materials, books, clothes etc that they would need to buy whilst they are there. Anyway, the concept of getting paid works for the story so I'm going to use it.

Also, just to let you know there probably won't be an update next weekend as 2 of my relatives died withing 3 days of each other last week (one on my mother's side and one of my father's) so I will be travelling hundreds of miles next week/weekend with my parents visiting family and attending funerals (conincidently my relatives funerals follow one after the other even though they are not related! Makes it easier for us considering it's a 2.5 hour journey to their local crematorium, although the wakes are at different venues...). This is also the reason why this chapter and the next might not be up to their usual standard.

Reviews would be appreciated as always.