35.
Title: Byakurai
Prompt: None
Pairing/Character(s): Byakuya
Word Count: 297
A/N: A sort-of sequel to #27 and #20 without actually drawing in anything important from either. Well, it's true, I can manage without prompts if I feel like writing my own idea. Even if it ended up a bit short.
They were whispering again. He knew they were, as he had always known. They were merely doing their job as people, gossiping about the lives of others. But now was really when they had to choose? Now?
He had been in the middle of a big kidou test that day at the academy. It was grade-wide for the fifth years, and he was as nervous as the next one. But it was a kidou test. They had no right to gossip about someone's zanpakutou, especially when they often lacked the potential to manifest one of their own.
He felt a migrane start to form. Bad. Migranes could affect his kidou. He really did want to pass the test. It wasn't his weakest point (he hated zanjutsu with a passion to rival the power of a senjukotentaiho, the ninty-first hado. Luckily he didn't have to perform that high a kido) but it didn't mean that he liked it all that much. He much preferred Hohou.
But the Hohou test was for weeks yet. He was itching for it, to win what he knew he could. But first he had to survive the kidou test. And he had to do it with a migrane.
So it wasn't really a surprise when his name was called and he produced a ridiculously overpowered byakurai, without the incantation.
He had failed the test when it had exploded just far enough from them to give the training area a nice shaking, but not close enough to hurt anyone. Luckily.
But it was a failing, and as it were it could not be allowed. That was why he was so prideful when he used that perfect byakurai against the ryoka boy, Kurosaki Ichigo. For that success, all those chains and practices were worth it.