A/N: Took a trip to New York City this week, and I have to say it was freakin' amazing! I've lived in New York my whole life, but I'd never been to New York City before...how sad is that? Anyway, this was a very fun chapter to write, but I'm looking forward to the next one even more! Thank you for your reviews everyone, and thank you, dear reader, for making it through this pointless author's note! This is the longest chapter ever, at exactly four thousand words!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, only the things I make them do.

Chapter 10: Visitor From Hell

"Kurosaki-kun! Kurosaki-kun! Come quick! A captain is coming to inspect the academy!" Ichigo jumped from his regular bowl of rice (he had been doing so well with not falling asleep, too) and ran out of the food hall towards Minobe's voice. "Hurry, we'll miss him! Come on!"

As the two ran towards the main gates thousands of thoughts were running through Ichigo's head. Is this a normal thing? Is there a problem? Did they find us out? Who will it be? Is Kenpachi here to fight me? Or maybe Byakuya found out I'm friends with Rukia, and is here to kill me? Or maybe it's...

Ichigo's worst fear was realized as the two turned the corner and he heard one word in the chatter. "...Aizen-sama..."

"Oh, fuck no!" Ichigo couldn't contain himself and started running back the way they came. He had only taken a few steps when he ran straight into Minobe's friend and the shy kid.

"Sorry, Ichigo-san! We weren't watching where we were walking!"

"Amazing, another astounding alliteration, Terada-san! I don't know how you do it!" The clumsy kid offered his hand to Minobe's friend as she laughed at his own attempt at alliteration, and then he quickly turned to Ichigo. "Sorry, so sorry, Kurosaki-san! It was all my fault! If I hadn't-"

Ichigo cut him off "It's fine, no problem...uh..."

"Choshi Naoki."

"Terada Michi. Sorry I never introduced myself to you Kurosaki-san. Of course, Minobe-chan says you have quite a problem with remembering names!"

Said girl hurried over and glared at Ichigo. "What was with that little outburst, Kurosaki-kun? What if the captain had been there when you said that?" Ichigo blanched as he remembered why he almost ran over Choshi and Terada in the first place. Minobe started dragging him back to the crowd of students while Terada laughed and ran to help. Choshi wasn't sure if he should help Ichigo or the two girls, and Minobe and Terada decided to strike up a conversation while pulling Ichigo. "I heard the Captain Aizen is the best captain! I hope I get into his division when I become a shinigami!"

"NO!" Minobe let go of Ichigo in shock while Terada stared at him questioningly. He tried to pull himself together as he caught his breath. "You...you can't...he-he's not...don't...augh! Never mind!" He stomped off to his dorm before the three students could stop him. Choshi simply pulled out his notebook.

...can't put names to faces, is strongly against Captain Aizen (but why?)...

--

The rest of the previous day had been very uneventful and Ichigo was able to get through the hakuda and extra zanjutsu class with ease. The biggest surprises came in the hakuda class. Contrary to what he had been expecting, Minobe was horrible in hand-to-hand combat. Sure, she was great at dodging, but the small girl seemed very uncomfortable with actually hurting people with her own hands and feet. That's why she's so good at zanjutsu, because she can move her body and the sword it the only thing that harms her opponent, he had thought while the class watched her spar with her friend. Terada seemed alright at hakuda, but there was still a lot of work to be done.

The biggest surprise, though, was that Choshi was extremely good at hand-to-hand combat. After he settled into his stance against one of the larger students he seemed to go into a trance and the clumsiness evaporated. Ichigo thought the kid might actually do fairly well in a battle against himself. At least until Choshi had won the fight and tripped over himself walking back to his place in line. They're many times older than me, yet they're completely unprepared for war...what had happened to them before? Were they killed in the Seireitei Massacre? Did they even make it to a division? Ichigo had thought about his new, albeit a bit annoying, friends for most of the night and wondered if he was getting too attached to them. That's the problem with war, he had thought, don't make any new friends, since you'll just have to mourn them later.

--

And so Ichigo found himself in the nearly empty fitness room pondering the same thought. He couldn't break away from them, he knew, since the idiots would come running right back. But, just being near himself when the war started was dangerous. All he could do was graduate was soon as possible, then hope they forgot about him once a few years passed.

Ichigo sighed and took out his schedule. Today's Wednesday, right?

"Yup. I would know, there's nothing better to do here. Thankfully it won't last too much longer..."

What's that supposed to mean?

"None of your business."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and looked at the schedule for Wednesday. It was just an extra hakuda class, his first hohou, and another zanpaktou meditation seminar. Easy day, especially the meditation. The sword from Monday was a pretty nice horse-thing and let me sleep for a while. It was kinda awkward when the old guy said that we shouldn't get discouraged if we don't get a small glimpse of the spirit's appearance even by the end of the year. Even more so when I stupidly said I didn't want to work with the same horse-thing the whole year...

He stood up and brushed himself off, looked at the clock and decided that he had time to take a longer shower than normal before his hakuda class. Twenty minutes later he stepped out refreshed and rejuvenated, not to mention the cleanest he'd felt been for a long time. The matter of Aizen had completely left his mind and he even whistled as he walked to class. At least until Ichigo realized what he was doing and quickly stopped.

--

Hinamori Momo bounced to the reception desk near the main building, taking in the familiar sights of the academy. Her captain had entrusted her with picking out the first class they observed and she was determined to make him happy. Especially since this was the first visit he had made to the school in forever. Hinamori smiled as she recognized the unchanged secretary, the same one from her own academy days. "Excuse me Hirano-san?"

The middle-aged shinigami looked up from her paperwork and smiled. "Vice-Captain Hinamori! It's been so long! What can I do for you?"

"We're just observing today Hirano-san. Can you tell me which combined classes are today?"

"Ah, yes. We've got morning chemistry and hakuda classes as well as an afternoon kidou. But for observation I would recommend either the hakuda or kidou, especially if you're looking for recruits."

Hinamori thought about the choices. Captain Aizen has always held an interest in kidou, and most of our division is good in kidou...but he's also fond of hand-to-hand combat, since I saw him in the training room that one time. Her cheeks flushed as she pushed that memory out of her mind. What to choose, what to choose...oh! "Hirano-san, do you know if the freshman prodigy is in any of the classes? Captain Aizen is intent on grabbing him before anyone else." That's Captain Aizen, he's always looking out for the strength of his squad!

"Yes, you're in luck! Kurosaki Ichigo is taking the morning hakuda class. It starts in three minutes, but you can get there easily with shunpo." Hinamori nodded, waved, and took off at top speed to where her beloved Captain was waiting.

After she told Aizen of the arrangements for that morning he nodded happily and patted her on the head, congratulating her for her perfect choice. As they both took off he thought, Maybe she's not so useless after all. She at least had the brainpower to remember the little hints I dropped about Kurosaki. Every thing's going perfectly, and my day will be complete if Kurosaki really is what I expect him to be.

--

Ichigo couldn't stand it when Minobe started rattling on about how great the Captain of the Fifth Division was and how cute his little Vice-Captain looked. He wanted nothing more than to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her, to tell her the truth. Although, one thing did go right that class, since he was very glad to see that his sparring partner was a seventh-year. That was the thing about these extra classes that he liked. These classes could be taken by anyone from any year, so he was as close to an even match as he could get. Hopefully this'll be better than yesterday's freshman class. The guy didn't even last five seconds! One strike to the head...what I'm wondering is how these people got into the First Class.

"Not everyone in the First Class is expected to be Captain-level or higher, o' mighty slayer of arrancar and first-year students."

Shut up...oh, fuck no! No, no, no, no, NO!!

Minobe looked at her friend in alarm when he started growling and glaring at the entrance to the classroom. She looked over and squeaked, seeing the two high-ranked shinigami entering the building. Minobe frantically racked her head with a way to shut up Ichigo, and decided on a good elbow to the face.

"Hey, that's my signature move!"

"What? Whatever. But Kurosaki-kun, you can't go doing that at Captains and Vice-Captains! What do you have against them anyway?"

She barely caught what he said as he started glaring again. "Not her, him." Minobe huffed and nervously glanced at the kind-looking Captain. She was even more annoyed when she realized the Captain and Ichigo were having a staring contest, one looking encouraging but confused and the other glaring with the most hatred and rage she had seen on his face.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was fighting one of the hardest battles he had ever fought. Every muscle was clenched, hoping to keep himself from springing on the monster of a man in an instant. Don't kill him, don't kill him, Ichimaru and Tousen are still at large, don't kill him, you'll be locked up and executed for treason, don't kill him, don't kill him, don't kill the bastard that deserves to die this instant! Ichigo rose from his seat a little bit.

"Hey, wait you idiot! Use your reason, you've had it longer than me! Don't take it for granted! Remember what sandal-hat said: 'As for the matter of Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen, you must not let them know what you are planning. This is of utmost importance.' If you do this now, everything will be lost!" Ichigo grunted and dropped back to a sitting position, relaxing his face back to a scowl. He glanced back at the bastard Captain one more time and saw with satisfaction that he looked even more confused, a rare expression on his face.

Minobe went to elbow Ichigo again, but now he was much too on his guard. He grabbed her arm and pushed it towards her back, never looking away from the wall he was concentrating his remaining anger at. Minobe took a few seconds to recover from her surprise at Ichigo's retaliation and then confronted him. "What do you have against Captain Aizen? Why are you doing this? Do you want to ruin any chance you have of getting into a squad?" He didn't answer, leaving Minobe to stomp off as her name was called for a match.

--

Aizen hadn't felt this way in quite a long time: confused. He had many expectations as to Kurosaki's behavior, remembering the similar attitudes of other prodigies he had studied. Absolutely none of those expectations had been met. Aizen's biggest concern was the prodigy's strange behavior towards himself. He was sure Kurosaki had no hatred towards his Vice-Captain, in fact the student hadn't looked at her once. But he had never seen that kind of rage on a child. Well, maybe once, that time when Captain Hitsugaya found out that his own Vice-Captain accidentally set his office building on fire.

What worried him even more was Kurosaki's sudden change in attitude. One second the prodigy was about to spring at him, then his eyes glazed over as if he was listening to something. A second later he dropped and remained passive and in the same position until even now. Either very disciplined or very concentrated. I'd have to guess the latter, judging his earlier behavior.

Aizen's attention refocused on the present as he heard the professor call out Kurosaki's name and another's. "A seventh-year," his Vice-Captain whispered to him, "I wonder if the prodigy will win?"

Kurosaki settled easily into the starting position, a haze coming over his features. This was a mask that Aizen knew only came over those who fought many battles, not just from formal training. Kurosaki Ichigo...you're right in front of me, yet I cannot read you so easily. Why are you so different from the others? Why aren't you what you should be?

--

Ichigo grabbed a towel on his way back to his seat after the match. As he wiped his face he was acutely aware that everyone's eyes were on him, especially those of the bastard Captain. The match was easy to win, too easy, since all Ichigo had to do was look at Aizen's face to gain strength. Six minutes of furious punches and kicks was all he needed to defeat one of the top seventh-years. Ichigo hoped no one noticed that he was trying to make the match drag on longer to play down his own strength a bit, as well as vent the rest of his anger. Of course he had wanted to make his very last hit count, but Ichigo thought he might have gone a bit overboard. After all, an eleven year-old sending a grown man through a wall might have looked a bit disturbing.

"These kids are gonna get chewed up by hollows when the war comes. Good job at making yourself look a bit weak, though. I know how tempting it was to end it in one shot like that other match."

The best thing in war is to have the enemy underestimate you. I'll go back to kickin' ass when Aizen leaves.

He heard a strangled noise next to him and looked at Minobe questioningly. After a few more seconds of staring she leaned to him and said in a furious whisper, "You beat a seventh-year! A seventh-year! I can't even win a match against a freshman! How? How do you do it?" Ichigo shrugged and glanced at his enemy, but the bastard seemed to be completely focused on watching the current match. Minobe was still whispering to him, "What's so special about you? Why are you so good at everything? What the hell is wrong with me? I've trained by myself for 20 years! You're just a kid!"

Ichigo couldn't take it anymore. He turned to her and whispered back, "You know what? You can have it! Take my spiritual energy, my hair, my abilities, my life! Have it all, cause I'm sick of it! I've been through things you can't even imagine! And I'll tell you what's wrong with you, it's your damned attitude! You act all uppity about your abilities, but when I show you up you act like it's my fault! And if you continue with that, you're not going anywhere, not in this school, not in a squad, and not in the fuckin' wa-" Ichigo stopped his rant abruptly, amazing at himself for almost slipping and telling her about the coming war. Not to mention Aizen could probably hear everything they were saying. That would've been disastrous.

He ignored whatever face Minobe was making and turned to watch the current match, not really seeing anything but the amused-looking man in the corner.

--

The class finally came to end, tediously slow for the impatient captain. The only interesting moments were Kurosaki's match and his spat with his little friend. But what Aizen was most curious about was what Kurosaki was about to say before he stopped himself. From the inflection of the beginning of the word, in almost seemed like the prodigy was going to say "war."

When was the last war in Soul Society, and could Kurosaki have been involved? Was he lying about his age? No, since he still had the appearance of a child, meaning he hadn't been in Soul Society that long and corresponding with what the prodigy had told Funaki. Maybe he could remember a bit from his past life? Of course, his own knowledge of wars in the human world was minimal, since the only thing of the human world he had studied was the spiritual hotspot, Karakura Town. But...all these theories could be overruled by the fact that Kurosaki used "war" in the future tense. Student, shinigami, soldier...that was what the boy had predicted for his friend. He says his experiences in the past tense, but predicts the same for his friend in the future. Not to mention this entire train of thought could be irrelevant if Kurosaki meant to say something else. Unlikely though, since Aizen had been hearing people speak and learning about inflections of speech for over a hundred years.

Aizen motioned for his Vice-Captain to follow as he walked out of the hakuda building and told her to get some lunch. Like an obedient puppy she ran off to the food hall, leaving Aizen to confront the prodigy alone. He stood outside the door and congratulated each student on their performance, adding in tidbits that he liked from their match. He knew every one of them would walk to lunch with loyalty to himself, thinking that they had been payed special attention by the Fifth Division Captain.

Kurosaki was of course the last one to leave and Aizen couldn't help but think it was because the child was hoping he would be gone by then. He knew Kurosaki was a lost cause to his own manipulation, so the best he could hope for was to get some information out of the boy and a good response to either Kaname or Gin.

"Ah, Kurosaki-kun. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. Will you join me for lunch?" He put on his best encouraging smile and hoped for the best.

The boy's face immediately turned white. His eyes glazed over for a moment, another moment where it seemed as though he was retreating into his mind, and he finally answered "Yeah...sure."

"Wonderful." Aizen smiled even wider and pat the boy on the back, pointing him towards the food hall. Thank goodness his worst fear hadn't been realized, the boy hadn't said no. He needed more background on Kurosaki, or something more to go off of. Aizen hated more than anything to be left in the dark, to not always be on the top.

They ate their lunch in relative silence, the food at the academy as plain and bland as Aizen remembered. Every once and a while he noticed that Kurosaki was fighting the urge to spring up and attack him. Then his eyes would glaze over and the prodigy would resume eating. What was going on? Did he have some sort of hate for authority, caused by some event in the past? Was he trying to give the Fifth Division Captain a chance to prove himself? But if he hated authority, why would he become a shinigami? Maybe he planned to rise in the ranks as quickly as possible...was he the same as himself? Did Kurosaki want more power?

"So, Kurosaki-kun," he said as he finished eating, "I'm quite impressed with your skill in hakuda. Although from what I've heard that isn't even your best subject. I have to say I'm curious. What is it that drives you? I've been trying to motivate my squad and I need some tips."

The child looked at him strangely, as though he saw through Aizen's kind facade. It was unnerving, since the last one to do that was his own former captain. Kurosaki sighed, as though he was resigning himself to playing along. "I need to be stronger."

This will not be easy. "Oh? May I ask what for?"

The prodigy looked him right in the eyes, silently warning him as he said "For the future."

Aizen smiled, not dropping his mask out of habit, but inside his mind was racing. Does he know something? There's no possible way...everything has been covered up, vanished. No, it must be something else. "It's always good to plan for the future and not dwell on the past, Kurosaki-kun. Why did you decide to become a shinigami?"

"I wanted to protect my friends." Past tense...why? Have they all died? I should have looked more into his background before I came here.

Aizen nodded. "A wonderful virtue for any future shinigami. Have you been thinking of which squad you want to join? The way rumors have been flying in Seireitei you could most likely take your pick. Of course you're always welcome in my squad." He gave his most encouraging smile, the one he saved for manipulating his Vice-Captain.

Kurosaki cleared his throat and took a few deep breaths. "Thank you, Captain, but I haven't decided yet. I'm only a freshman."

The two kept the conversation going a little longer and Kurosaki seemed a bit more comfortable talking to him. Aizen finally decided that he should pay a visit to the principal of the academy before he left and shook the prodigy's hand wishing him luck in school. Although he could've sworn Kurosaki shuddered when Aizen said he was eager to see more of him, the conversation went very well. He had introduced himself, studied the boy's behavior, learned a bit about his skills, and come to three conclusions. Kurosaki Ichigo is either trying to gain power like me but can't hide his hate for authority, a child who experienced horrible things growing up that made him stronger and gain a hate for authority, or has had contact with Urahara and knows everything about what I'm doing. Thankfully, the third choice was highly unlikely.

A/N: Aizen is so hard to write for me, I don't know why I did so much from his perspective. Next time it's Ichigo vs. Renji! Who will win? (Gee, I wonder...)