Ichigo turned to face the window, assembled gun sitting on her lap. Turning her attention back to the fire arm she started disassembling it, pulling it to pieces in record time.
"Very good Kurosaki, take a break for now," her teacher said, grabbing the gun from Nnoitra's hands as he tried to shove the trigger into the wrong spot. Ichigo was glad they weren't practising with real guns, several of her squad mates would have been gravely injured or dead by now. One did not need to point the barrel at ones face. Opening the window, she lit up a smoke flicking the dead match out the window into the flower bed below. Looking out the window, she watched as Grimmjow drilled a different squad on tanks. Leaning on the window sill she sighed, 'he looks nice in a uniform,' she thought, eyes tracking his every movement. Ichigo's eyes widen as she realized what she was doing, stamping out her cigarette butt she shut the window, placing her back to it.
"Earth to Shiro, come in Shiro, earth is calling you." She blinked, stunned and turn to face Starrk, he looked over her shoulder to see what had captured her attention so throughly.
"We'll play with tanks soon enough. On the other hand teach asked me to pass this over, we need to be able assemble guns while blind," he muttered handing over a blind fold and returning to the back corner of the room to nap again. Sleeping was the only thing he excelled at. Ichigo rolled her eyes, amazed at his laziness. Ignoring how close she was to getting caught staring at Grimmjow, she placed the blindfold over her eyes liking how it cut off once of her sense's completely. Grabbing a piece, she traced over it with her fingers till she identified it. 'Trigger,' she thought repeating the process with every piece set before her, it wasn't long till she had every bit memorised. It was a lot easier now, every time she dismantled it and reassembled it she got faster, her fingers flying. Before she knew it Ichigo had gathered a crowd, even the teacher was watching. A grin split her face in two and she knew it was the same look Shiro got on him face when working with computers, she could hear the murmurs of fear in the crowd.
There was a faint click, that she recognised, someone was timing her. Grinning wider, Ichigo moved her hands faster, wanting to impress everyone.
"28 seconds that's pretty damn impressive Kurosaki, just a few seconds slower then my own time." She scowled, of course it had to be him who was timing her.
"Give me time, I'll beat yer fucking ass next time," Ichigo said ripping off the blind fold to face Grimmjow, his smile growing wider at her words.
"Shunsui I'll be taking Starrk and Kurosaki off yer hands, when the rest of the class catches up send em' my way," he ordered, kicking Starrk off his chair, the brunette jumping up into a fighting pose, startled.
"Stand down soldier," he barked, scaring everyone in the room. Grimmjow slowly placed a hand on his shoulder, asking if he was okay, speaking so quietly Ichigo almost missed what he said. The brunette nodded, but he still looked somewhat alarmed. Grimmjow motioned for her to follow, leading Starrk out of the room himself.
"Starrk 'm placing ya in the sniper training squad, and ya will be staying there. Kurosaki same thing but only for a week before you move to another training squad. This is done in order to see what you excel at, eventually everyone will be going through the same process," he explained, unlocking the door that lead to the snipers range.
"I'm guessing ya've had prior training afore? Since he ain't transferring ya?" Ichigo asked curious about the sleepy man standing before her. Little was actually known about him and despite appearances he was pretty smart. He smiled tightly, nodding.
"Retired army sniper. Less then honourably discharged due to suffering from PTSD. I was forcefully re-enlisted because of the need for soldiers," he murmured, picking up a sniper rifle from the wall rack.
"If I can complete basic training without suffering a fit I'll be going back to the battle field. My wife is threatening divorce if I go back, she doesn't really mean it Halibel is just scared for me. She had to take care of me all on her own when they shipped me back here, but now we have a daughter and she doesn't want to expose Lilynette to my psychotic ramblings." Ichigo stood there amazed by what he had told her. A retired soldier with a wife and child, forced to return to the one place he never wanted to come back too.
"So I'm guessing yer not 25 like shin-chan said when he introduced everyone to me?" She asked, he couldn't possibly be 25, that really didn't add up. Starrk smiled a little, Grimmjow snickering.
"We changed his age, Starrk is closer to 40 then 25. It was done in order to keep this all secret, so keep yer trap shut Kurosaki!" He ordered, shoving a sniper rifle into her hands.
"Oh and the aim of the game is to set him off. I've seen what war has done to the soldiers who return, its not pretty," he said, turning his face away, he didn't want the others to see him upset. Ichigo frowned, confused by what he said. Grimmjow was being nice and he was never nice to anyone. Maybe he wasn't as cold as she initially thought. Ichigo almost squealed when she was roughly shoved into a stall by the hand gripping the back of her neck.
"Come on Kurosaki, standing around. Daydreamin' like a country hick ain't gonna help ya with yer training. Get shooting, let's see if ya have any skills at all," Grimmjow backed, shouting right in her ear. Nope, she took it all back. The man was still an arrogant bastard, there was nothing nice about him.