Substitute School, First Semester: General Education

A Bleach Fanfic

Written by Zero-Sennin

Lesson 21: Grief Management 101, or Pushing Past Pain

Saturday, August 14, 7 AM

Karakura Town, Minamikawase: Kurosaki Residence/Clinic

With the first light of the sun shining over Karakura Town, it wouldn't be long before some people began to wake up so that they could get their Saturday started in full swing. For others, however, Saturday was a day of rest, a time to recuperate and recharge for the week that would start in two days.

Ichigo Kurosaki, despite fitting into the former category, had the sleeping habits of the latter category, and was completely submersed in a dreamless sleep that could only be interrupted by a surprise attack from one Isshin Kurosaki or the buzzing of his Soul Phone, both of which had become conditioned alarms for him to jump to action.

It was the latter which roused him, much more quickly due to the fact that the vibrations were much more intense than usual. With a half-awake groan, he sat up and flung his hand out to land on top of the phone, and then picked it up, absentmindedly switching over to the message screen. Once he could see the message, he began to read it listlessly, slowly scrolling his eyes from line to line.

Cpt. Aizen is missing, presumed deceased. Lt. Hinamori injured, in recovery. Seireitei is on high alert while Cpt. Soifon & Disciplinary Cps. investigate. Do patrol on your own this morning and this evening. Will come by to see you when lock-down is over.

Rukia

When he finished reading, Ichigo blinked once or twice, chasing away the last vestiges of sleep from his mind.

That was when the import of what he just read hit him, and he sharply looked back down at the screen, unable to process anything but one set of words.

Cpt. Aizen is missing, presumed deceased. Lt. Hinamori injured. Cpt. Aizen...missing...presumed deceased. Hinamori...injured.

"What the hell...?" Ichigo whispered, eyes wide and fists clenching. "Captain Aizen...murdered? No. No way. This is...this is some sort of sick joke!"

He stared at the phone for a while longer, and then stood up. He strode over to his desk, opened up the "Reaper crap" drawer, and pulled out Alfred's pill. Moments later, Ichigo was out of his half-dressed body, staring Alfred straight in the face.

"I'm going out on patrol early today, Alfred," Ichigo said, fighting to keep the rage he felt bubbling up under control as he stuffed his Soul Phone into his robes' inner pocket. "Try to fake being asleep for another hour or two, and deal with the old man as usual. Karin will be able to tell that we've switched, but don't worry. She understands what's going on."

"Yes, sir!" Alfred said, saluting sharply. "You can count on me!"

Ichigo nodded curtly before phasing through his window and running off to the east, traveling through the air as opposed to roof-hopping. Alfred watched him go for a while before turning around and tucking himself into bed, diligently counting every second between now and the end of the hour.

Ichigo's thoughts as he raced across Minamikawase were nowhere near as organized. The one thing he could feel right now aside from a tiny nugget of grief was a ferocious hatred. Hatred for whoever had injured Hinamori. Hatred for whoever might have killed Aizen. Hatred at the fact that if the assailant was strong enough to do both things, he couldn't do anything to avenge the captain or the lieutenant.

However, his enraged thoughts were interrupted by three familiar energies headed towards the northeast from his current position, moving well ahead of him. Puzzled by how familiar they felt, but not sure where he'd felt them before, Ichigo stopped and stood in midair, getting a fix on the signatures.

It took him a few seconds to register the three energies as belonging to Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki. Scowling, he looked around to get a fix on where exactly he was, as he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going.

Yeah, this is right between Sakurabashi and Minamikawase, he thought. Close enough for them to have met up with each other before heading out. But where are they all going at this time of day, together?

Remembering how Tatsuki had told him that she, Chad, and Orihime could sense spiritual energies, if only barely, Ichigo suppressed his own signature and began to follow them. He knew that he had to patrol, and definitely planned on doing so, but he had to know just what it was that would cause all three of them to travel together when by her own admission Tatsuki had said that she didn't hang out with Chad that much, if at all.

7:25 AM

Karakura Town, Mitsumiya: Urahara Shop

Within the half-hour, Orihime, Tatsuki, and Chad, dressed in standard summer clothing and with Ichigo still on their tracks, had all arrived at the Urahara Shop. As they crossed the street and entered the lot in front of the shop, Ichigo, traveling above and behind them, began to descend to street level. Though his face was set in his normal scowl, he was actively fighting to keep it there, as he was more than ready to get extremely upset.

I told them to stay away from Urahara. I told them to just stay out of trouble and keep their heads down. And this is the first thing they do. Goddamn it, don't they get it?

When the soles of Ichigo's sandals rasped against the concrete, his friends flinched and turned around to see what caused the noise, only to go pale as they saw Ichigo, arms folded and scowl getting downright nasty, begin to walk closer.

"Going to go train with the guys to get ready for the season, right, Tatsuki?" Ichigo asked, somehow managing to keep his voice from breaking into an out-and-out yell. "And I'm guessing that this is one of those rare times where you meet up with Chad, right?"

"Ichigo, I can explain," Tatsuki said slowly.

Were there a wall nearby, Ichigo would have punched it. "What is there to explain! I told you guys to just stay cool and accept what was happening. Instead, I find you all going to go see Urahara behind my back! What the hell are you doing? Do you want Soul Society to have your heads on a platter? They only agreed to leave you alone because they didn't think you were gonna pull something stupid like this!"

"Kurosaki-kun, please. Just hear us out," Orihime said, stepping closer to him. A slight wind picked up and blew her hair back a bit, and she absently brushed a strand of hair out of her face before she continued talking. "We had to do this."

Ichigo took three steps forward and swung his hand down. "Bullshit! You didn't have to do anything except listen to me when I told you to stay out of it!"

Before Ichigo could get any more upset, Chad approached and put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. Ichigo was about to snarl and throw the larger boy's hand off, but Chad was firm and unwavering.

"Ichigo. We know you can protect us. We know you can protect Karakura. But can you protect all of us and all of Karakura at the same time? Could you forgive yourself if we got hurt because you couldn't protect all of us and all of Karakura at the same time?"

Ichigo opened his mouth to respond, but Chad immediately continued talking, cutting off his reply. "You can say that you can protect everything if you want, but you know that you can't be everywhere at once. And that's why we had to do this. We have to protect ourselves, so that you can do your job. We have to protect ourselves, so we can help you protect this place." The Mexican boy's single visible eye gained a hard light. "We have a right to make our own choices. This is the choice we made."

For a moment, Ichigo looked slightly guilty, but soon enough he got a handle on his emotions and shook his head, shrugging off Chad's hand. "Whether I would or wouldn't accept being powerless has nothing to do with this conversation. This is about your decision to ignore me when I told you to just stay normal!"

Tatsuki crossed her arms and frowned. "News-flash, Ichigo. We're not normal anymore. We can't be normal, either. Even with those armbands on, we could still see ghosts. Even if we didn't get any stronger, they wouldn't have gone away. Hollows would still be after us. Nothing would have changed."

"I know that!" Ichigo yelled, throwing his arms up into the air. "But that doesn't give you the right to just go off and decide to do stupid things like this just because you want to! Now things are more difficult for all of us. I have to lie to my superiors about what's going on and hope to God they don't decide to investigate further, or we're all screwed." He began to pace back and forth, his eyebrows growing tighter with each passing second. "And you guys, you have to stop coming here. If Rukia ever catches wind of this, I'm positive she'll rat you out before I can convince her not to. She's nowhere near as lenient about this kind of thing as I am."

"Kurosaki-kun, we can't stop now," Orihime whispered, her boldness replaced with her normal nervousness around Ichigo, and amplified to the maximum by his anger. "None of us can go back to the way things were, including you. None of us can go back to being normal, so we have to make the best out of what we have now."

Ichigo stopped pacing and glared at all of them. "Except I didn't have a choice but to stop being normal. If I hadn't become a Soul Reaper my entire family would have died. You all didn't have to do this! You could have gone right back to your normal lives and lived just fine!"

Tatsuki finally let the control she had on her temper fade, and she grabbed Ichigo's robes and pulled him close to her and down a bit so that they were practically face-to-face. "Did you not listen to me?" she yelled. "I'm telling you that it was too late to be normal a long time ago! It was too late the moment we could see those goddamn Hollows, there was no turning back after that!" Her eyes began to change to the burning purplish color of her empowered state. "We made the only decision we could make, Ichigo. If you really and truly think that any of us were going to sit back and pretend that there was nothing going on, you're a hell of a lot more stupid than I thought."

With Tatsuki in his face, Ichigo was hard-pressed to come up with a sharp comeback, and so chose to stare down at her, his mouth set in a hard line. Eventually, she let go and pushed him away, growling angrily to herself for a moment before taking a breath and facing him with a much more controlled expression. Chad simply watched the exchange in silence, while Orihime shrank back a bit and looked between Ichigo and Tatsuki with concern. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what she could say to mend the growing rift between her best friend and her longtime crush.

After about half a minute of tense, bitter silence, Ichigo spoke at last. "I guess that's true."

Tatsuki fixed him with a stare that would burn water. "What's true?"

"I am kind of stupid, aren't I. Thinking that you guys would just be able to turn your backs on this when I didn't do it." His voice was soft at first but as he continued to speak, it grew firm once more, becoming bitter and upset again. "Well, you know what? If this is what you want, then fine. Since I was wasting my time trying to help you guys live normally, I'll just worry about doing my job."

Orihime visibly wilted. Chad frowned, not liking how Ichigo had thrown Chad's words from earlier back at them, and Tatsuki looked chagrined for a moment, realizing that maybe she'd been too harsh with him.

"The best I can do for you if you guys get found out is say that I didn't know about it and that I don't think you should be punished. If you get in trouble anyway, then...that's your problem."

Even as he spoke, Ichigo felt his chest ache, and his fists clench. He wasn't quite as angry as he had been a few moments ago, but he still felt hurt that they had gone behind his back after all that had gone on, and though he might not have shown it, he did understand why they did.

It's just like it was with me. They wanted to protect themselves so that I wouldn't have to. They were thinking about what they wanted to keep safe, the same way I did. They made the same decision that I did. All they wanted to do was help. But they've made such a mess out of things. What am I going to do if the Gotei comes after them?

The problem wasn't that he didn't care about his friends, or didn't want to protect his friends, but that he didn't want to have to fight the Gotei to protect his friends. He had worked hard to gain the trust of the Soul Reapers, and Rukia had saved his life, saved his family. He didn't want to violate that trust, or break his word to pay back Rukia's favor to him, but he couldn't abandon Tatsuki, Orihime, and Chad.

Duty is heavier than a mountain.

With a quiet, annoyed grunt, directed at either himself or at his situation, Ichigo sighed and gathered Spiritual Particles under his feet. "I've got to go. I'll see you all around."

He took a leap and landed on the solid air, then set out to the east, continuing to comb Mitsumiya with his Soul Phone at the ready. His friends watched him go, their expressions somber.

"He's really torn up about this," Orihime said, trying not to bite her lip as her crush became a black spot on the horizon.

Tatsuki nodded, pressing her lips together. "Yeah. But he's in no mood to talk about it. I know Ichigo, though. He'll be fine."

Orihime's brown eyes fixed Tatsuki with a guilty look, and after a while, Tatsuki groaned and began to scratch her hair, mussing it up even more. "It's just like I told Ichigo, even with the armbands on we could still see ghosts. We'd be walking, talking Hollow bait whichever way you looked at it. At least this way we can fight back if we have to."

"But is it worth Kurosaki-kun's friendship?" Orihime asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Tatsuki brushed a piece of lint off of her sky-blue shirt and shook her head. "Even if he doesn't agree with what we did, he understands, I know he does. Once he calms down a bit, he'll be fine, just like I said." She turned towards the shop and began to walk. "Now come on. We're wasting time."

Both Chad and Orihime cast one last glance at where Ichigo had disappeared, but eventually followed Tatsuki inside.

11 AM

Seireitei, Soul Society: Fourth Division Barracks, Medical Ward

Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu sighed with a mix of exhaustion and relief coloring her breath as she entered the room where Hinamori had been sleeping for the better half of 12 hours. The Fifth Division's Lieutenant had been in critical condition when she'd been brought to the ward, and it had taken every bit of skill that Isane had to stabilize her; Captain Unohana had been supervising, and did assist quite a bit when necessary, but was intent on trying to get Isane to utilize her not-meager medical skill.

Hinamori's room was, like all of the medical wards, decorated with simplicity in mind. The bed had white sheets and two fluffy white pillows, and was set up so that the foot pointed at the wall with the doorway; half-open windows were placed on both sides of the bed, letting in quite a bit of light and warmth.. As Isane approached the bed, she adjusted the bag that she was carrying in the crook of her arm, which had a number of medicines and a few fresh rolls of bandages to apply if necessary. Hinamori's wound hadn't needed any surgery to fix, thankfully, but the Kidou used to seal the wounds needed time to stick, and the pressure from the bandages would help that happen.

It wasn't until Isane put the bag onto the foot of the bed that she heard the rustling of the sheets, and she looked over to the head of the bed to see Hinamori slowly, carefully sitting up. The smaller girl, despite all the sleep she'd had, looked as if she'd tossed and turned all night; her eyelids were puffy and baggy, and her eyes themselves were somewhat red, while her skin was pale and clammy. A few strands of her undone hair were clinging to her forehead.

"Kotetsu-san," she said, her voice hoarse and croaking. "How did I...?"

"One of the men from your division found you outside," Isane replied, bending down a bit more so that Hinamori didn't have to look up at her face, and taking a moment to brush aside the thin, light-purple braids on the right side of her head. "He brought you here as quickly as he could."

Hinamori's response to that was a semi-blank stare, and for a moment the sheer emptiness in Hinamori's eyes made Isane internally flinch. To see any person with that kind of despairing expression was difficult, but with Hinamori it was like staring into an abyss of utter depression.

"What happened to Captain Aizen?"

Despite herself, Isane couldn't help but look away.

Hinamori's hands, already resting limply on her lap, seized suddenly, straightening out the wrinkles at the bottom of the sheet and concentrating them between her two fists.

"No."

Isane wanted to tell Hinamori that the body hadn't been found, that there was a chance, however slim, that Aizen might still be alive, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. She knew how dangerous it was to give people false hope, and had a gut feeling from Hinamori's reaction that whatever the Fifth's Lieutenant had seen would likely keep her from believing any words about her Captain's potential survival.

"Hinamori-san, I need to change your bandages," Isane said instead, zipping the bag open and reaching into it to pull out the roll of fabric. "After that, I have some medicines that I want you to take when your meal gets here."

"Tell me what happened to Captain Aizen, please," Hinamori asked. The way she said it, despite the ragged edge to her voice, implied that it was not a request.

Isane turned her attention to the bag, partially to look for the medicines she needed to leave for Hinamori and partially to hide her sad frown from her fellow Lieutenant. "I'm not at liberty to discuss that, Hinamori-san. I'm sorry."

The cracking of Hinamori's knuckles might have been mistaken for firecrackers had they been any louder. "Tell me."

"Hinamori-san, please, calm down," said another voice, and Isane sighed in relief as Unohana came gliding into the room, smiling placidly as usual and bringing her aura of motherliness with her. She carried a tray in one hand, with a cup of warm tea and a bowl full of thick, hearty soup. Hinamori briefly flicked her haunted eyes up to the Captain of the Fourth before slowly loosening her fists and doing as she'd been asked, causing Unohana's smile to widen slightly.

"Much better." Unohana then turned her attention to Isane. "Isane, I'll take care of Hinamori-san from here. Could you kindly go and do your normal rounds for now? We've got a few people waiting for you. When I leave for the meeting, I'll need you to come back here."

"Of course," Isane replied, standing up a bit more quickly than she would have liked as she bowed at her shorter superior, then Hinamori. "If you'll excuse me."

With that, she all but rushed out of the room with long strides, taking only the barest of moments to duck her head so that she didn't hit the top of the door on her way out. Once Isane was gone, Unohana went over to the bed and set the tray down next to the medical bag, and finished unpacking all of the medicines before closing the bag and putting it on the floor. She then picked up the tray with the soup and the tea and pulled at the two legs attached to the underside, turning it into a miniature table that she then set above Hinamori's legs.

"Please, Hinamori-san, eat up. The soup will help take the edge off of some of the medicines we had to use on you."

Hinamori stared somewhat sullenly at Unohana again, but at length took up the bowl and put it to her mouth, taking a few quiet sips before setting it back down. The taste of the chicken in the broth was good and flavorful, somewhat lightening her mood despite herself. Then, the memory and the blood and the sounds and the pain all came rushing back to sweep away the pleasant feeling, and she frowned, if only to keep tears from running down her face.

"I know you want to hear about what happened to your Captain," Unohana said gently as she stood over Hinamori, "but we can't tell you until you've made a fuller recovery and given your deposition to Captain Soifon."

Hinamori shook her head, pressing her lips into a line. "I can give my testimony right now, then. Get her here and I'll tell her everything."

Unohana shook her head, slightly moving her braid. "She's still investigating. For the time being, you need to rest and eat. There will be time for those things later."

Hinamori's right hand began to crinkle the sheets again. "Unohana-san, I'm not nearly as fragile as you and mostly everyone else seem to think. Please stop treating me like a child and tell me what I want to know."

"As I've said, you need to recover first," Unohana replied, and though she hadn't stopped smiling even once, the tone of her voice had the slightest tinge of ice around the edges, enough so that Hinamori thought she felt her blood freezing. "At that time, and not before, will we discuss the matter of what happened to Captain Aizen. I would therefore advise that you focus entirely on getting better so that you can find out what you wish to know so badly."

After a few moments of intense silence, Hinamori sighed and nodded, and Unohana's smile lost some of the stiff artificiality that it had held during her short lecture. "Good. Very, very good." With that, she placed the roll of bandage gauze, as well as the medicines she wanted Hinamori to take, on the bedside table, and said, "Once you're finished, I want you to take one of each of these pills. If you need any help, the call button is right on this table here." She pointed to a small, square, gray remote with a circular red button. "I'll be back soon to change your bandages."

With that, she left the room, turning left and down the hallway a bit to where a few chairs were pressed against the wall between Hinamori's room and the next one. In the seat closest to Hinamori's room sat none other than Toshirou Hitsugaya. His eyes were locked on the wall opposite him, though as he heard Unohana's gentle steps he jerked his head towards her in surprise, not relaxing until he realized who was approaching.

"How is she?" he asked quietly; though his expression was calm, his fingers were twitching irregularly, and the skin under his eyes was puffy and dark. He didn't have Hinamori's haggard, worn look, but Unohana, being Unohana, knew sleep deprivation when she saw it.

Unohana sighed slightly, and her smile shrank a bit. "She's awake, but most definitely on edge. She wants to know what happened to Captain Aizen very, very badly. If you still intend to visit her, you cannot tell her anything, not yet."

Hitsugaya shook his head, standing up and running a hand through his white shock of hair. "I would visit her, but the captains' meeting is going to happen soon. I'll see her later."

Unohana nodded in understanding, and Hitsugaya returned the nod shortly, then strode down the hall, his pace brisk and steady despite the cloud of exhaustion hanging around him. The captain of the Fourth watched him go for a few seconds, and then turned back towards Hinamori's room, shaking her head gently.

11:45 AM

Seireitei, Soul Society: First Division Barracks, Captains' Meeting Room

As he stared out over the gathering of Captains standing in front of him, Captain-General Yamamoto, like always, felt the weight of his command on his back. Not long ago, he'd had twelve of Seireitei's strongest Soul Reapers standing right in front of him, three of whom he'd taught himself.

With one of them gone, and another missing, he felt a number of warring emotions. The pride he'd had at such a force being gathered under his command was damaged. The fact that one of his captains had been attacked and possibly killed outright enraged him, as did the fact that the perpetrator had gotten away.

Some part of him noted that it was not the time to be distracted by such things, and that there was supposed to be a meeting going on.

"Where is Captain Ichimaru?" Yamamoto asked, finally bringing himself out of his thoughts and onto the matter at hand. "I'm fairly certain that unless he tendered his resignation sometime in the last few days, he's still a captain."

Soifon frowned semi-pensively. "Actually, sir, I have some...unpleasant news. Lieutenant Kira came to my division right before I came here and informed me that the Captain hadn't returned to the Third Division after leaving last night." Her frown grew tighter. "I have my men searching the entire Seireitei for him. In roughly thirty to forty minutes they should start canvassing Soul Society proper."

Yamamoto, though force of will, kept his eyes closed and eyebrows loose, restraining his anger. "I see. And what of Lieutenant Hinamori?"

"She's only recently awoken," Unohana said, straightening slightly as the focus shifted to her. "She's eaten and taken her medicine, and I changed her bandages before leaving." She then turned to Soifon. "If you wish to interrogate her, she's more than willing to speak."

Soifon looked up at the Captain of the Fourth and nodded firmly. "I'll see to her immediately."

Yamamoto tapped the bottom of his cane against the ground, much more gently than usual. "Now, for the matter of Ichigo Kurosaki. Until we sort this matter out we cannot waste time on his training. Therefore I am announcing a suspension of his trips to Soul Society until further notice. Lieutenant Abarai's request to aid Kuchiki in patrol and supervision of Kurosaki has been approved for the next month on a probationary basis, at which point it will be reviewed again. Do not send her or Abarai back to Karakura Town until tomorrow." He then turned to his right, looking directly down at Soifon. "Interview Lieutenant Hinamori immediately. Whatever she knows, we need to know."

Soifon saluted, and Yamamoto straightened slightly, gripping the top of his gnarled staff slightly harder. "I want you all to have all officers in your divisions, seated or unseated, to adhere to a ten o'clock curfew until we know who attacked Captain Aizen and why. We will not lose another man or woman to this assailant. That will be all. Dismissed!"

With curt bows (and in the case of Kurotsuchi and Kenpachi, a grunt), the captains left the meeting room. Once it was completely empty, Yamamoto sighed and closed his eyes.

"Of all the times for something like this to happen, it had to be the same day that the 46 finally came to a decision about Urahara," he muttered to himself. "I have no fortune, it seems."

Slowly, he walked forward, gently tapping the bottom of his cane against the hardwood floor as the Butterfly-delivered message from the Central 46's primary judge, Number 1, echoed from his memory and throughout his mind.

After heavy deliberation it has been decided that plans to capture the renegade Kisuke Urahara must be prepared and executed as soon as possible. His lack of overt activity against Soul Society does not excuse his crimes from a century ago. He is to be brought in alive so that the location of those individuals directly affected by his work with Hollowfication can be discerned.

The emptiness of the room made Yamamoto's voice echo off the red walls even though he was talking at little more than a conversational volume.

"We can't spare any manpower towards that kind of effort until we know what happened to Aizen. And if we delay, the 46 is likely to force us to rush in half-cocked, and against Urahara that's the worst mistake to make."

His grip on his staff tightened.

"There will be no mistakes. He will face justice."

12: 15 PM

Mitsumiya, Karakura Town: Below the Urahara Shop

"Kaitou Kick~!"

A cloud of dust shot up into the artificial sky above Urahara's training grounds, and after a moment, Uryuu Ishida, dressed in the pure, blinding white of his Quincy outfit (stained with brown due to a few unfortunate meetings with the rocky ground) and the white protective headgear that Urahara provided during their first training session, dashed out from it, rapid-firing several arrows of Spiritual Energy back into the cloud.

To his complete lack of surprise, Kai, grinning madly, dashed out of the dust without as much as a scratch. In his battle body, the Mod Soul was notoriously difficult to hit, and his leg strength let him match or even outpace Ishida's now-weakened Hirenkyaku speed-stepping technique.

As Ishida readied his bow once more, Kai's hand darted to the ground, picking up a rock no bigger than his semi-broad palm. The Mod Soul then let it drop in front of his right foot before kicking it, and Ishida squawked in annoyance as the impromptu projectile shot right at him and forced him to roll out of the way and fire another set of shots.

Kai grinned, and easily sidestepped the rain of arrows. "Not bad! Pretty quick on your feet, ain't ya." His grin widened, and he came in with a strong jump, landing inches in front of Ishida. "But not fast enough!"

Ishida had just enough time to grimace before Kai's right foot flew forward in a straight upward kick, catching the Quincy on the jaw and sending him right into the sky.

As Ishida's pained yell cut the air, Ururu, unlike Kai, was on the defensive. On the other side of the training field, she and Tatsuki were trading blows back and forth, though their actual methods of dodging and countering varied. Ururu was, true to her boxing, bobbing and weaving under every punch and kick that Tatsuki threw out, and would on occasion lash out with a straight, a hook, or even more rarely, an uppercut. In contrast, Tatsuki would block most of the blows Ururu laid out before attacking with chops or kicks.

Orihime and Chad were sitting on the sidelines as the battle raged on; Chad, in fact, was lying on the ground as Orihime used the Souten Kisshun on him to patch up a few painful punches he'd taken from Ururu. Personally, Orihime hadn't seen that much combat, as Tsubaki's speed had been much reduced the few times that she'd shot him at Ururu. The aggressive 'fairy' had explained to Orihime that without strong willpower, he was weak, but nothing he threatened to do to her could put her in the state of mind to actually try to attack Ururu with the Koten Zanshun.

As Tatsuki roared and dropped an axe kick down on Ururu's head, Orihime sighed in satisfaction and recalled Shun'ou and Ayame, dissolving the Souten Kisshun. "How do you feel, Sado-kun?"she asked.

Chad got to his feet and shook out his legs, then experimentally flexed his deactivated right arm and rolled his shoulders, noting that all the soreness was indeed gone. "Much better. Thank you."

Orihime smiled and stood up, crossing her arms behind her back. "No problem. I'm just happy to see that Shun'ou and Ayame are useful."

Despite the expression on her face Chad could tell that something was bothering Orihime, but didn't get the chance to ask what, specifically, as Tatsuki cried out in pain. Automatically, his head and Orihime's snapped up to the fight in progress, where they saw that Ururu was using her right forearm to hold up Tatsuki's leg, blocking the axe kick, while her left fist was buried deep into Tatsuki's gut. The little girl then ducked backward, allowing Tatsuki to take a staggering half-step forward, before moving in with three punches—one straight to the sternum, another to the chest, just above the first, and a final straight to the chin that sent Tatsuki flying through the air and into a large rock standing right next to Orihime and Chad.

As bits of the rock tumbled down from where Tatsuki's spread-eagle body had broken the stone, Ururu punched her glove-covered knuckles together twice and raised one of her fists to head level, extending it toward Tatsuki and the others.

"Freedom...Punch."

Tatsuki's response was to groan before she fell face-first on the ground. Orihime squeaked in fright and immediately put a hand to her hairpins.

"Shun'ou, Ayame. Souten Kisshun, I reject!"

While a groaning Tatsuki was enveloped by the healing shield, Chad turned to face Ururu and walked forward, looming over the little girl with unintentional menace once he got about three feet away from her.

"My turn again, right?" he asked.

Ururu nodded.

Chad's right arm flashed white, and the armor wrapped around his arm instantly, buzzing strongly. After flexing it, he extended it in Ururu's direction, curling his hand into a fist. Ururu's response was to duck into a boxing stance once more, and in a few moments, they were locked in a stare-down.

From where she'd fallen, Tatsuki, now lying on her side, shook her head weakly and sighed. "Damn, she's strong. There's no way either me or Chad is going to beat her at this rate."

"I don't know if that's the point, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said. "I know you've been doing karate for a long time now, but these guys are on a completely different level when it comes to the spiritual stuff. We kind of don't have any chance at beating them yet."

"I know, I know," Tatsuki replied, rolling onto her back and attempting to sit up. Her head smacked against the Souten Kisshun when she managed to get her waist perpendicular to the ground; spitting out a curse, she laid back down, rubbing the new red spot on her forehead.

"Tatsuki-chan, you have to stay still! You're still hurt, you know!"

"I couldn't tell."

With a grunt, Chad lunged, drawing both girls' attention away from Tatsuki's latest blunder. Ururu crossed her forearms together for an overhead block of Chad's incoming punch; her timing was spot on, but the force of the hit sent her skidding backwards quite a few feet.

Feet pounding, Chad rushed in after her with a shorter blow from his left arm. Ururu quickly dropped out of her guarding stance and ducked under the attack, then countered with a rapid set of jabs to his stomach, knocking him back a bit. Unperturbed, Chad stepped right back towards her, and the fight raged on.

Fifteen seconds into the fight, the Souten Kisshun dissolved, allowing Tatsuki to sit up properly to catch her breath. By that time, Chad had managed to score a hit on Ururu's chin, though with the (admittedly very tight) gloves that he was wearing, he hadn't hurt her much, if at all.

It was right about this time that Orihime's nose caught whiff of a familiar, comforting scent, and she looked towards the entrance of the training room with a curious, yet expectant smile on her face.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Tatsuki frowned at Orihime, wondering what the bubbly girl was talking about, but cut her reply short as her spiritual sense confirmed what Orihime just said; he was controlling his Spiritual Energy and Pressure very tightly, allowing only the bare minimum to leak from his body, but Ichigo had indeed just arrived in the training room, and was coming their way.

In about two or three seconds, both Ichigo and Urahara came out of a Flash Step, landing from about three inches off the ground to stand right next to the rock that Tatsuki had been punched into. Once settled, Ichigo looked over to where the girls sat, and offered a jaunty, two-fingered salute, while Urahara nodded his head at the three teens before departing himself.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" the Deputy Reaper asked.

Tatsuki was still miffed at Ichigo regarding the argument they'd had in front of the shop, and so she crossed her scaly arms over one another and looked off to the side. In contrast, Orihime smiled pleasantly at her crush, fighting the urge to wring her hands with the nervousness that she most assuredly felt.

"Well, Sado-kun and Tatsuki-chan are just practicing with Ururu-chan over there," she said, pointing to where Chad and Ururu, ignorant of anything in the world except each other, were still exchanging blows. "Ishida-kun and Kai-kun are training somewhere else." Her index fingers tapped against each other nervously as she pressed her palms together. "Kurosaki-kun. Are you still upset about before?"

Ichigo's scowl cut deeper into his face for a few moments, but eventually he pulled it back to normal, sighing. "A little bit, yes. But I got over the worst of it."

"Yeah, I bet," Tatsuki replied, snorting out a small plume of smoke and steam. "Your face is still all scrunched up and annoyed."

"I did say I was still 'a little bit' upset, didn't I?" Ichigo said, allowing that annoyance to come back to the fore as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "...anyway. As I was trying to say before Tatsuki so rudely interrupted me, I was upset for a while, but between doing patrol and thinking about what you guys said...well, I realized that even if my situation was different, I would have done the same thing in yours." He then looked up into the artificial sky, scowling deeper once more.

"Besides that, you're my friends. I'm not gonna just up and abandon you over something like this. Even if I'm mad at you, I won't throw away what we've got just because I don't agree with your bad decisions."

Tatsuki stood up in a rush and sauntered over to Ichigo, purple eyes blazing with annoyance; however, she stopped short when Ichigo looked at her with a satisfied smirk. After pausing for a few seconds, she shook her head and sighed, realizing that he'd provoked her on purpose.

"As long as you're not gonna be a jackass about it, then whatever," she said at last. "So, what are you here for anyway? Was it just to apologize?"

"Well, yeah, but also, I guess I wanted to see what you all were up to." He watched Ururu lay into Chad's chin with a wicked uppercut, but it didn't take him too long to recover and counter with a strong punch from his right arm, sending her flying. However, it didn't take much for her to flip back upright in midair, land safely, and rush in with more quick jabs. "Since I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to Soul Society with things as they are now, I figured I'd come practice with you guys a little bit, just for today."

Tatsuki eyed Zangetsu warily, frowning. Even with her tougher skin she didn't want to take her chances with a blade. Ichigo saw this and shrugged his zanpakutou from his shoulders, setting it gently on the ground, before cracking his knuckles and settling into a fighting stance. Sighing, Tatsuki finally got to her feet and squared her shoulders.

"Then let's do it."

As her friend and her crush got ready to fight, Orihime felt two different emotions. One was relief, knowing that Tatsuki and Ichigo were on the road to making up with each other. The other was concern, sparked by what Ichigo said just moments before.

"Since I have no idea when I'll be able to go back to Soul Society with things as they are now..."

He'd hid his slight worry and hesitation from Tatsuki, but Orihime had been watching Ichigo for some time. She knew his moods about as well as he did. She knew something was bothering him.

The only question was whether or not he would share that something.

Knowing him, he wouldn't.

12: 15 PM

Seireitei, Soul Society, Fourth Division Barracks: Medical Ward

To make things relatively more comfortable for the still-injured Hinamori, Soifon elected to sit while interrogating her, leaving one of her subordinates outside to take notes so that she could effectively grill the Fifth's Lieutenant (and technically, Acting Captain) on a one-to-one basis.

Except that she really didn't have to do much grilling at all. Hinamori's story was short, sweet, and to the point. The Lieutenant only got emotional when it came to describing who had attacked both her and Aizen.

"Captain Ichimaru?" Soifon asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. "Are you certain?"

Hinamori's baggy eyes were definitely watering a bit, but she composed herself and nodded once in response to the question. Soifon could see the hard resolve in the small Reaper's eyes as clear as day.

"Absolutely positive. I know I saw him. I know I heard him. I felt Shinsou piercing through my stomach." Her unfocused gaze, lost in memories, became murderously clear and intent. "He's going to pay for what he's done."

Soifon looked out the window to her left and resisted the urge to scruff up her own hair in frustration. Her men were already spread out over Seireitei, and now they were tracking a murder suspect that could match or kill them if they tried to capture him. Worse yet, they had no motive established for Ichimaru's psychotic break, and that meant that she couldn't anticipate what he was going to do next.

If there was anything Soifon hated, it was the unanticipated.

"Yes, he will," the Second's captain said aloud. "Once we find him." She stood up, pushing the chair back slightly, and looked down on Hinamori, still frowning. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Without further preamble, she left the room, and Hinamori closed her eyes; her hands, resting on her legs, crumpled up the bedsheets beneath her once more.

"Captain Aizen..."

As Soifon walked down the hallway with her subordinate, she began to rap out orders quietly but firmly.

"Return to the division and prepare an emergency broadcast via the Soul Phone network. Inform all patrolling members that Captain Ichimaru is to be treated as a hostile suspect until further notice, and that he should not be engaged under any circumstances."

The Reaper nodded his head. "Yes, ma'am."

Soifon rounded the next corner first, leading them both to the front door. "Any news from the team that's investigating Captain Aizen's room?"

"Yes, ma'am. I got a message in the middle of the interrogation. They've found a letter addressed to Lieutenant Hinamori and are holding it at the Second Division for you to examine."

Internally, Soifon half-smiled, half-grimaced. Captain Aizen might have been anticipating this, then. But now we may find out what set all of this madness off. "Then I shall accompany you there."

Again, her subordinate nodded, and Soifon allowed her hand to tense into a fist as they exited the main building and headed down the stairs.

END OF CLASS

Teacher's Notes:

Much to my displeasure, this chapter is indeed a month overdue, and from the looks of things I may not be able to do the triple update that I would normally do to rectify the chapter disparity. Part of it was RL obligations, part of it was writers' block—I have learned that knowing where you want to go does nothing to help you get there.

Additionally, things are still a bit busy, but I think I can probably get back on the 2x a month wagon if I'm a little more clever with my time.

Cultural Notes and Translations:

None this chapter.

Student Review Corner:

LaughingSpider (Ch. 20): As mostly everyone can tell, First Semester has been a bit light on the fighting, so your observation about Ichigo's lack of impetus does have merit. Whether that means we will see Ichigo with/without Bankai later, I unfortunately can't say. You'll have to wait and see~

SilverStella (Ch. 20): That little part of the chapter was to give Iba some screen time mostly. Ichigo's statements aren't meant to encourage or discourage anything regarding pairings, mostly because romance is kind of secondary in this story (read; may not come up very seriously at all, much as I would like to try to integrate it). As for Orihime, I guess I sort of did tone her down a bit, hmm? Personally I don't think she really deserves all the hate she gets, so that probably affected or outright changed how I chose to portray her.

Jozern (Chapter 20): Keigo and Mizuiro developing powers...while that was stated to be Kubo's plan at one point, I'm not sure I'll go that way. Not that I dislike their characters per se, but I'm not sure what I can do with them at this point in time. It is also my hope to at least write and finish part 2, as part 3 would not be so integral to resolving the storyline due to the characters it would focus on and the period of time which it covers. My preliminary idea-planning stage puts Reform School (working title for part 3) at least five to ten years after what would pass for Substitute School's Deicide arc, and the focus would not be on Ichigo and his friends, though they would show up or at least be mentioned in the narrative—hence the name "Reform School" as opposed to "Substitute School".

Also, just so that it is clear as day for anyone still wondering or unsure, I will go on the record here: Kai is Kon. This was indeed planned from his very first appearance, and while I did introduce it to screw with people's heads, I didn't pull it out of nowhere; look back at Lesson 11 and notice what he says to Urahara about Soul Society, as well as his mention of "this body" in Lesson 13 for proof. As far as how I came up with Kai's name, all I had to do was look at canon. In a chapter of Bleach, Kon actually states that he wanted to be called Kai (which comes from Kaizou Konpaku, the Japanese term for Mod Souls), and that Ichigo gave him the name Kon because "Kai" was too cool. By proxy, Kaitou Kondou represents the word "Kaizou Konpaku", canon!Kon's name, and the name that canon!Kon wanted—in other words, a triple joke whammy.

So. Chapter 22. Hasn't been started yet, but I have an idea of what's going to go on in it—I just have to get the finer details ironed out.. Due to how long this one took, I might have trouble getting out Chapter 22 before November, but I will try my best to not repeat missing my deadline.

Hope you guys enjoyed this one. See you next class.

~ZS