"Hadou 31: Shakkahou!" the instructor barked. "First row, step forward!"
Hanya shifted a bit more comfortably onto his heels as the first row of students began gathering their power in preparation for releasing the Hadou. Despite Kidou being his specialty, he couldn't say he actually looked forward to these classes. Katsumoto, the instructor, was a strict taskmaster of a teacher. He supposed it was simply that the older shinigami wanted to pound as much teaching into their heads as possible in their time together - and no one could deny the man was a knowledgeable, experienced shinigami. He just wasn't a very likeable person.
Not like Lady Unohana, who had taught a guest lecture on healing techniques. Hanya drifted off momentarily, remembering her kind, welcoming manner.
"Hi hi!" the exuberant voice very nearly made him fall over. Despite sounding very loud in his ears, the instructor never even glanced towards the third row, where Hanya had been sitting. He turned and found himself face-to-face with the little pink being that followed Zaraki around. The 'Demon Zaraki', he'd heard the man called. Suddenly nervous, a quick look around didn't immediately show a looming Kenpachi about to swoop down from on high - possibly heralded by the screams of small children - and destroy him for talking to his little disciple.
Finally, he realized he'd been staring wildly around himself for several seconds, though that had apparently not stopped the little girl from chattering on. He realized she'd already introduced herself as Kusajika Yachiru and was now explaining how cool she thought his hair was. He tugged at his rat-tail self-consciously, which was apparently a bad idea, since it had given Yachiru the same idea.
Except, in order to reach, she'd had to use him as a stepping stool, and her feet landed directly on somewhere that was very, very uncomfortable for him, even as slight as her weight was. His hands flexed, ready to remove her from her perch, until visions of Kenpachi-retribution danced through his head. His hands stayed where they were.
"Ah," he said, his voice slightly strained. "Hello. My name is Hanya, Oto- "
"Nezumi-chan!" Yachiru pronounced. Hanya blinked. Had he just been called a mouse? "Um," he tried again. "My name is Hanya."
"Nezumi-chan," she repeated with surety. He licked his lips and started to say, "Well, then -" when she interrupted him again. "Well, I need to get back to Ken-chan, I think it's almost our turn!" And in a blur of speed, she was gone, and Hanya was left staring at empty space. He had to admit he was impressed. He doubted he could move that fast, and he'd been training at the academy for over five years. Not only that, but there was something about her aura that made it so he hadn't even noticed she'd come - just like even his enhanced senses couldn't seem to read her presence when she appeared.
He'd have to look into that - learn the trick of it, if he could. He could think of lots of situations not being noticed would be useful for.
He was so enmeshed in thoughts of sneak attacks and unnoticed midnight snacks that he only noticed that the row ahead of him had reteated to the back of the room, leaving his row the first in line, when whoever was behind him nudged his back. With a thankful glance over his shoulder, he prepared to step forward.
"Forward," barked the sensei.
"Tch," Hanya heard Kenpachi mutter from several spaces down. "What a waste of time." His voice clearly stated that he would rather be making things bleed than learning anything to do with kidou. His pink passenger pulled herself up until she was evenly balanced on his shoulder and sang into his ear, "Lemme try, Ken-chan!" Hanya smiled to himself when the enormous beast of a man caved into her demand. They were, he thought, oddly cute together. He wondered, idly, if grouping the words Zaraki Kenpachi and cute in the same sentence qualified him as certifiably insane.
Their row stepped to the fore as new targets were set up. His smile widened when he saw that only a quarter of the previous row had hit their targets at all. He might not be a prodigy, but kidou was his strong suit; an above average amount of power and a steady aim ensured that he very rarely missed. And he had to admit to a bit of vanity in this, his one ace subject. It was nice to be acknowledged in those few areas in which he excelled, after all.
Hanya centered himself, and began drawing in his power in preparation to release a bolt of blue fire: the 31st kidou. In his light trance, he vaguely heard a child-like voice say, "Like this?" before his senses detected an immense gathering of strength that dwarfed his own offering by an order of magnitude. If his power was a lamp to his classmate's candle flames, this was the sun fallen to earth.
He threw up a hand to shield his eyes, his kidou conjuring forgotten. The rest of the class, even Katsumoto-sensei, seemed blissfully ignorant of it. How could they not sense it?
A bare second later, there was a roar, and a ravening beam of pink fire erupted and tore across the intervening space. It devoured several targets without slowing, and kept on going, until itslammed into the wall behind the targets with a thunderous detonation.
Even having closed his eyes as soon as the pink fire had appeared, Hanya still had to blink spots out of his eyes. Within a few seconds, he was able to see the result: a hole in the wall ten feet across (hadn't that wall been made of lethality stone? his mind did its level best not to descend into gibbering madness) and Yachiru-chan hopping around with glee.
Another, almost reluctant grin quirked his lips, despite his stupefaction. And here he'd been thinking the Kenpachi was the only dangerous one.
- - -
lethality stone: used in the formation of sekkiseki walls, i.e. the stone Soul Society prisons are made out of that drains spiritual power.
A/N: Ahh, feels good to get back into the writing game after three months of absence. A real shame trying to upload anything to ff net makes me feel like I just got done going three rounds with the superhero of your choice.
By the way, I pretty much exclusively watch the anime, so if I write something that conflicts with manga, or if you happen to have a suggestion on something I can do better, review and let me know, huh?