There might be some spoilers if you haven't read the manga.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor any of the Bleach characters. There are a few OC (like the whole Kurayami family), but the rest of the characters are works of the mangaka of Bleach.
The next morning, Kurayami and Kyoraku greeted each other outside of the Ukitake house, where Ukitake was already waiting along with a servant.
"You should have just waited inside, Juushiro," Kurayami said.
"Good morning," said Kyoraku.
"Good morning to both of you," Ukitake replied. Then he turned to his servant. "You can go inside now. Thank you."
The servant bowed and went inside.
The three of them walked to the Academy talking about how nice the weather was that morning, and Kyoraku joked about going on a date with Kurayami.
"Don't even think about it, Shunsui," Kurayami told him.
"Wait," Kyoraku complained, "but why~? It's not like it's a bad thing to go on dates! There will be no compromises, so let's go and have fun~"
"Shunsui..." Kurayami's voice was low. "I said NO!" she yelled. Then she hit Kyoraku's head really hard and quickly walked away. He fell to the ground, and Ukitake crouched next to him to help him. "You two," she said without turning around, "if you don't hurry up, I'll leave you behind!"
"We're going," said Ukitake while hekping Kyoraku get up.
"Man," Kyoraku said rubbing his head, "she's really strong."
"I don't know how you didn't expect that," Ukitake said. "Let's hurry up, or she'll really leave us behind."
"Yeah."
When the three arrived at the Academy, every eye was on them. In the entrance, on the hallways, and even in the classroom, everybody was looking at them and talking about them in whispers.
"See how well that guy Ukitake looks?"
"There's no way he could have recovered from something that bad in only two weeks."
"Why are the three of them always together?"
In the classroom for the First class, all of the other students kept their eyes low. Then one person approached the trio and apologized to Ukitake.
"I'm sorry," he said, "for not helping you that day. I was really scared and I didn't know what to do."
At this guy's words of apology, everyone else came together in a circle around the three and all of them apologized.
"I'm sorry I was such a coward."
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anything."
"I was really scared you might have died."
"I couldn't move because I thought I would do something to make the situation worse."
"There was nothing I could do."
"I'm ashamed of myself."
Kyoraku, Kurayami, and Ukitake couldn't help but be surprised at the sudden expression of apology from everyone.
"It's.. Okay," said Ukitake smiling. "It's not your fault, everyone, so stop apologizing. As you can see, I am fine now."
At his words, everyone smiled. They started talking with Kyoraku and Ukitake, making jokes and laughing. When Ukitake looked for Kurayami, she wasn't next to him and Kyoraku, as she had been when the others started apologizing. Instead, she was in a corner, looking at everyone else and smiling. Ukitake was about to stand up and talk to Kurayami when the teacher came in.
"Everyone sit down," he said.
"Yes, sir," the students replied in one voice and sat in their places.
The class ended, and everyone was dismissed for lunch. Kurayami went out before Kyoraku and Ukitake, who were caught up in a conversation with some other students. She was walking in the hallway, deep in her own thoughts, when she bumped into someone.
"Sorry," she said. "I wasn't paying—" she stopped when she saw the face of the other person.
"Yo, Kurayami," the other person said. "Long time no see, huh."
"Hiroshima Aoi," she said with a little resentment.
"So cold," Hiroshima said in a sarcastic tone. "Aren't we pretty close 'friends'?"
"Get away from me," she said and started walking away, but he grabbed her arm.
"Oi," he said in a slightly angry voice. "Where do you think you're going? You're the one that bumped into me."
"Yeah," she replied. "And I apologized already, so let go of me." Then she pulled her arm away from his hands. She turned and walked away. Hiroshima ran in front of her and stopped her a second time.
"What?!" he was really angry now. "You're acting so highly just because I got transferred to a lower class? You think I'm not worth your time because I'm in the Second class and you're in the First?"
Now everyone gathered around them because they were curious of what was happening.
"If you hadn't talked so arrogantly back in that training session, I would be the top of the top class!" Hiroshima continued his rant. "I still can't believe that I, of all people, should be in the Second class while YOU are still in the First class. That;s UNBELIEVABLE!"
Ukitake and Kyoraku came to the hallway where Kurayami and Hiroshima were because they had seen everyone else rush to get there. They pushed through the thick crowd and found Kurayami and Hiroshima standing in the middle.
"Hey!" Ukitake said first. "Let go of her!"
The two friends rushed to Kurayami's side and helped her get out of Hiroshima's grip.
"Ah," Hiroshima said, annoyed, "you two again." He rolled his eyes and started ranting again. "If neither of you had been there, SHE," he pointed at Kurayami, "would have made a fool out of herself. But no! You HAD to 'come to her rescue' because she's a little girl who can't do anything by herself!"
"Hiroshima," Kyoraku said in a calm voice. "You're making a fool out of yourself right now. Look," he pointed at the huge crowd that had gathered around them, "everyone is watching you rant like a little boy."
"YOU DON'T HAVE ANY RIGHT TO CALL ME A LITTLE BOY!" Hiroshima yelled and came at Kyoraku with a fist intended to hit the latter student. Then, the First class's kido teacher appeared in front of Hiroshima and grabbed his arm.
"That's enough, Hiroshima," the teacher said. "You're coming with me." He turned to the crowd. "Everyone, mind your own business and go eat." Then he turned to the other three involved in the incident. "You three too," he smiled. "Go eat."
"Thank you, Sensei," said Ukitake, and the three of them bowed their heads before turning around.
"Seriously," Kyoraku said once the three of them were out in the garden. "What's wrong with him?"
"Who knows," Ukitake said and smiled.
"Whatever," Kurayami said. "It's not really worth thinking about it." Despite her words, her voice sounded rather annoyed, and the other two didn't fail to notice it, but they decided to stay quiet about it for now.
"Look," Kyoraku said to change the subject. "There's a big tree over there. We should go there for some shade, or Ukitake will faint again." The three of them laughed and walked to the tree. They sat and ate, talking about how boring the class had been, and how they could not wait to graduate.
"But," Ukitake said, "once we graduate, we'll become Shinigami, and we will have to fight..."
They stayed silent for the rest of lunch time, they ate in silence, thinking about what Ukitake had said. The three of them had very similar thoughts. I don't want to fight...Am I scared of getting hurt? No. Am I scared of dying? No. Am I scared of killing evil? No. I just want peace.
The rest of the day went by rather slowly. They had another kido training session, this time training for aim. They had to aim at a stationary target and then at a moving dummy. For Kyoraku, Ukitake, and Kurayami, these two were easy tasks, and they were able to complete them at their first try, but it took everyone else at least five tries in each exercise to get them done. As a result, once they were done, the three of them had to wait until everyone else was done. Because the teacher saw that they were doing nothing, he told Kyoraku and Kurayami to run around the garden until everyone was done and Ukitake to read some of the things he had missed during the two weeks.
For the next couple of weeks, everything was the same. Kyoraku and Kurayami would meet at Ukitake's house and the three of them would go to the Academy together. In the Academy, they would attend the classes and complete all of the task with great ease, and then do whatever other exercise the teachers would tell them to do.
One day, after the kido training session, Kurayami went to wash the sweat off of her face. When she was done, two other girls approached her.
"Umm, Kurayami-san?" one of them said.
Kurayami looked at them and noticed they were both acting really shy about something and even blushing out of embarrassment. "Do you need something?" she asked them kindly.
"Well," the other one said in a quiet voice, "we were just wondering—Ah!" she suddenly stopped mid-sentence. "We forgot to introduce ourselves!" She bowed her head. "My name is Kinoshita Ayame, from the Third class."
"And my name is Maruyama Saki," the first one said.
Kurayami took a more careful look at them. Kinoshita had short black hair styled with a flower-shaped hairpin on the left side, and her eyes were dark brown. Maruyama had longer black hair, which was let hanging loose right above her waist, and her eyes were a lighter brown. Both had a rather slim figure and were taller than Kurayami.
"Nice to meet you," Kurayami said smiling. "I guess I don't need to introduce myself since you already seem to know me."
"You are pretty famous after all, Kurayami-san," Maruyama said shyly.
"Thank you, I guess," Kurayami said. "So what was it that you were wondering?"
"Oh!" Maruyama exclaimed. Then she looked at her friend.
"Umm, Kurayami-san," Kinoshita started saying, "well... Umm.. Are you... By any chance.. Umm... Close to Ukitake-san and Kyoraku-san?" At the mention of these two names, both girls turned completely red.
"Huh?" Kurayami expressed her confusion. "Is that all you were wondering?"
"No," Maruyama replied in an embarrassed tone of voice. "There are rumors that the three of you are really close, so we were wondering if... You..."
"You want me to introduce you to them?" Kurayami straightforwardly said. At this statements, the other two girls turned a brighter red, which Kurayami thought was impossible.
"If it's..." Maruyama and Kinoshita mumbled in shyness.
Kurayami laughed. "It's no problem! I'll introduce you guys tomorrow during lunch time! Just make sure to find us. We're usually under the big tree in the middle of the garden, so you will most likely find us there." She saw one of the other First class students wave at her to come, so she left saying, "See you tomorrow!"
When Kurayami arrived at the classroom, she saw Kyoraku and Ukitake sitting at the back and waving at her. They pointed at an empty seat that was between them, motioning her to sit with them.
"Thanks!" she said as she sat down. "I would have hat to sit in the front if you hadn't reserved my seat."
"Yeah, no problem," Kyoraku said.
"Why did you take so long?" Ukitake asked her.
Kurayami sighed. Just when she was going to answer, the teacher came in and started the class.
After the classes were over, the three walked to the Ukitake house and spent a couple of hours together. As Kyoraku and Kurayami were about to leave, Ukitake remembered something.
"Haruna," he called her.
"Yeah?" she said, curious of what this white-haired friend of hers had to tell her.
"You didn't answer me back in the Academy," Ukitake said with some concern.
"Oh," Kurayami said, "it was nothing big. You'll see tomorrow." She smiled and left after saying goodbye.
Kyoraku remained a little longer, and looking at Ukitake's worried face, he said, "Don't worry. If she said it was nothing big, then it really wasn't anything big, so there's no need to worry."
"Yeah," Ukitake said, a little bit more relieved. "Thanks."