Kana had been tense all morning. After staying the night at Orihime's she had run across the hall to get her school things. The uniform was quick enough to get changed into, her shoes waiting by the door, her bag on the table in the living room. Next to a note. That was dripping with a frighteningly familiar reiatsu signature. There was another lingering signature she didn't recognize, probably from whoever had delivered the message, but the one who wrote it had outright infused their reiatsu into the paper. As it was, all she could was shove the note into the depths of her bag and give Orihime a lopsided grin as they left for school.

"Summer break was so fun! I can't to get back and see everyone."

"Hime. We were fighting Shinigami all of the summer break."

"Yeah, but we got to be such good friends during it!"

Kana chuckled and ruffled Orihime's head as the shorter girl skipped beside her. As much as Kana was dying to read that note, it looked like it would have to wait until she was alone and if today followed suit with every other school day she had had since she had transferred, that wouldn't be until she was home that evening. There was a possibility she would be able to slip away from her friends for a few minutes to look at it, but that was a slim chance. And even then if whatever was written in the note affected her, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to hide her reactions when she went back to her friends, so it would be best to wait until she had some time alone. Maybe she could fake an illness during class or something? Kana just hoped there would come a reason for her to split off from her friends for a little while.


Her chance came in the middle of second period. Ichigo's badge started beeping loudly, only audible to their Spiritually aware group. Ichigo shifted to make an excuse and run off, but Kana leapt to her feet before he could, pushing on Ichigo's shoulder to stop him from getting up. Her other arm wrapped around her middle, and she made a show of putting on a pained expression. The teacher turned from where she was writing on the board to yell at her, but she stopped as soon as she saw Kana's facial expression and arm around her lower waist, palm resting just at her panty line.

"Get to the nurse then!" Kana was quick to grab her bag and job from the room, grinning at the teacher's mutter of 'poor girl' as she closed the door behind her. She burst reiatsu out to brush against her friends as a way of saying 'Relax, I got this one' before sending a tendril towards the rolling wave of reiatsu she could feel was a pretty weak Hollow. She would just kill the thing, go read her note, and then go back to class as soon as she could. If anyone asked, she'd just tell them that yes, she actually did have bad period cramps. Chances are they'd not ask anymore questions after that.

Kana rounded the corner at a sprint, damn near knocking someone over. She stopped for a second to smile at them apologetically, charcoal eyes meeting a light brown. The boy's hair was blond and pin straight, flipping about his shoulders as he shook his head.

"Sorry! I'm in a bit of a rush." Kana apologized, bowing slightly.

"Don' worry abou' it." The gangly teen turned to leave, hands in his pockets as he slouched away. Kana thought she felt the tiniest flare of reiatsu from him as he left, but she brushed it off in favour of heading out the doors, quickly back to her sprint.

The Hollow was fairly close so she didn't bother attempting to get out of her body to flashstep and with just a little speed boost she was there in just under 4 minutes. It was only as she came around the corner of a mostly empty park to see a gorilla type looking Hollow that she realized this would be her first time fighting one alone. If this had been happening a month ago she would have been so hyped to fight this thing. As it were now though, it was just a nuisance standing in her way. She summoned Arashi's unreleased form to her side with a crackle of lightning and a swish of her arm as she stalked towards the Hollow who was only just now turning to face her. Her face twisted into a scowl as he pace picked up steadily. Why couldn't she fight a powerful Hollow? Why did it have to be this slow thing that still was trying to figure out her presence. She lifted Arashi above her head with both hands and with a flash she brought the blade down hard, scoffing at the pitiful roar of the Hollow as it disintegrated.

"What a waste of time." Kana mumbled to herself, and with another tug of her reiatsu Arashi dissolved. Grinning at how empty the park was, she quickly dropped herself onto a nearby bench and dug through her bag. She dropped her bag to the ground once she pulled the note out. She moved to unfold it but her fingers froze, eyes locked on her name written in smooth calligraphy.

"Why the fuck am I so nervous?" She had been waiting hours to look at this thing, was dying to know what was written in it. And now she was hesitating. Why the fuck was she hesitating?

'Because you're scared of what's going to happen. You're scared you're going to lose your friends over this.'

Kana's fingers tightened around the note and her brow furrowed, teeth gritting.

'I can't be scared! If I'm scared, I'll just be...I'll just be like, forever. Watching Ichigo get into all the fights, watching Orihime get all the praise for healing him. She could fight if she wanted to. She was faster than any of them, she could push past, she could get herself in there and none of her friends would even try to stop her. But she would lose. Ichigo had that fucking unlimited fountain of reiatsu. Her's had a limit and in this world she couldn't just push past like she used to in her stupid little street fights. In this world when you fought you needed more than just the know how on how to crack someone in the jaw without breaking your thumb. You needed speed, you needed power, you needed the drive, you needed more and more and more and she had nothing in comparison.

'Enough of this. I need more. I'm weak.'

'What makes you say that?' Arashi's voice echoed in her head and she scowled at the mocking tone.

'Don't be an ass. You know it as well as I do. Fuck, even ignoring how Soi Fon destroyed me the first time, we just need to look at that incident with Aizen. I couldn't move. I couldn't even think about attacking him, about saving my friends. It was a battle against myself to do anything other than toss Rukia at his feet and pray he wouldn't kill me.'

'I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.'

'Fuck off Arashi, you prick.' Her lips twisted into a wide grin as Arashi's laugh thundered, and her grip on the note eased up.

'The man was terrifying, yes. And you didn't even sense his Zanpakuto. I'm a God and yet she struck fear and awe even into my own soul.'

'Fear and awe, fear and awe. So his Zanpakuto is the same as he is. You said his Zanpakuto was female?'

'I did.'

'So really...Aizen and his Zanpakuto are exactly what we want to be.'

'Which means they're the best ones to receive anything from in order to get to where we want to be.'

Kana gave a slow mental nod, exhaling slowly as she opened the note.

My servant will bring you to me in 3 months time.

Do not resist.

You will receive what you desire.

The note was elegantly written, the words a great deal less so. Even so, her heart pounded hard in her chest and she couldn't wipe the grin from her face. She could do all the training she desired over the next three months, but after that it looked like she would have to submit to Aizen in order to become unbeatable.

'He knows then, what we want.'

'He also thinks himself above us. Thinks we won't go against him.'

'Which means we can use him until he is of no use to us anymore.'

'Glad to see we're on the same page. In three months time then, we'll be leaving everyone behind.'

'They'll be upset but if we leave-'

'If we stay here then I'll always be weaker than someone else. They won't understand it because Aizen is the enemy.'

'They'll understand at the end of it all.'

Arashi's voice faded from her head in a whisper. Kana frowned sadly at the note for another few seconds before sighing. With a burst of energy the paper was set aflame and crumbling to ash and Kana was swinging her bag over her shoulder and leaving the park.

For three months then, she would train. For three months she would allow herself to have friends. After that, they would likely hate her. Hell, even if they knew her reasoning they would likely hate her. These people grew up with love and support and friends and family and all that mushy junk that made them stronger together. But Kana wasn't about to be some shitty side character who needed other people. She had managed all her life to deal with shit on her own. She wasn't going to stop that now. And when she became too powerful for anyone to stop her from doing whatever she wanted, then she could finally relax. She could finally feel like the world wasn't out to get her.

People gave her many frightened glances as she walked back to the school, grinning to herself as she realized how much she sounded like some broody teenager.