the new recruits
The group of would be Shinigami were resting in the shade of a tree on the edge of the academy grounds, the silence was interrupted by Keigo's typically loud voice as he rushed up to his friends.
"What on earth has you so excited now, Keigo?" Alice asked with exasperation
She and the others didn't get a response, instead they all tagged along with, or in Mizuiro's case dragged by, the teen as he lead them into the academy. The brunette lead them to a hall filled with a large crowd of excited, chattering students.
"So what's all this about Asano?" Tatsuki asked beginning to grow impatient
"It's only just been announced, apparently the academy had no warning at all!" he responded
"No warning about what Asano-san?" Mizuiro asked his friend
"Ichigo's here."
"What?!" was the collective response from the group
"What's he doing here?!" Tatsuki almost shouted
"It seems you're going to get your answer very soon Arisawa-san, if you bother to pay attention you will notice our bright haired friends Reiatsu heading this way, fast." Mizuiro replied
"Hang on, since when can you sense Reiatsu!?" Keigo asked his friend
"You can't yet? Hmm guess I'm just special, and it's not like his is particularly hard to find."
"Mizurio, cut the crap for a bit and answer the question, I can't feel anyone other than a taicho's Reiatsu"
"It's just something I've found I can do," he replied to his friend "we'll talk about it later, he's here."
The group looked forward as their friend's billowing Reiatsu flooded the room, shortly followed by Ichigo himself. The young man had added a numberless white haori to his outfit and had a look of solid determination on his face; combined with his natural stature and customary scowl he made an intimidating sight. His flowing Reiatsu was making it hard for many students to breathe properly and some had to bolt from the hall altogether, choking out for their friends to let them know what was happening later.
"First off sorry about my Reiatsu, I'm suppressing it as much as I can." The young man apologised "I'm sure you're all wondering about why I'm here, right? How many of you are from Rukongai or know someone from there?" his question was answered by well over half the crowds hands going up "Then I'm sure most of you know of the state most of the districts are in, let me put this bluntly, it's not because the Shinigami haven't tried to change it, we simply don't have the manpower to do it. This isn't a situation that's going to change fast; out of the rough thousands of you here over two thirds will fail. Some of you will join the Kido corps or the Onmitsukido, coupled with the losses the Gotei 13 suffers in its duty, most of you will only be filling the gaps left by your predecessors, the number of Shinigami is growing, but far too slowly to have any effect in the near future. Now raise your hands if this isn't your first attempt at entering the Seireitei's forces"
Fewer hands were raised this time, but it was still a fair number.
"That's good to see, it means you haven't given up, the current taicho of the 8th division took three tries to pass, I personally reckon he was just being a lazy ass but the point I'm trying to make is that your Reiatsu can and will grow as you push yourself and learn more about yourself and being a Shinigami, but that doesn't mean you will pass." Ichigo looked out over the rather glum crowd of students before continuing with a slight smile on his face "Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to put you all off you goals, I'm just being honest with you. Most of you simply lack the mentality or the Reiatsu to fight hollows, you aren't fast enough, you don't hit hard enough and your blades aren't sharp enough. Against a hollow you're dead, but that still leaves a good three divisions, which you're more than capable of outmatching a regular human. So here's my offer, I'm after students to make up a Shinigami lead task force I will take into Rukongai to re-establish the law in the higher districts and hunt down all who would seek to harm another person simply for their own gain. I won't take any of you who are passing, I won't rob the military of manpower, but I will be looking over the reports of all volunteers. You need training? I will arrange it or provide it myself; you can always leave at a later date and retry the academy with more experience under your belt. Lack the mentality to be a Shinigami? Our goal is still to help people, we have several uses for you besides fighting and we will need a solid support unit. Before I go I want to give you all a warning though, first off I don't think many noble houses are going to be happy with this and second, while we will be recruiting any past students we can track down that fit the bill I am aware that most failed students from the higher districts join gangs and other criminal organisations, if I find out anyone who joined me is helping them without one hell of a good reason or leaves to join one then mark my words, I will hunt you down and destroy you myself. Have a nice day people." and with that he swept out of the room.
The crowd stood in silence brought on by utter shock, they had just been told most of them would fail and then been threatened by a taicho class combatant all in one sitting.
"Blunt, to the point, and with all the tact of a flying brick to the face, yep that's Ichigo." Tatsuki commented so her friends could hear.
After his presentation Ichigo made his way to the academy's central office, he hadn't been kidding when he said he planned to hunt down former students. If they hadn't fallen into crime and thuggery then he had a use for them. It was a moment's work to convince a stunned assistant to direct him to the records storage; it seemed word of his new role was beginning to filter down to the rank and file. Or it could be that he wasn't holding his Reiatsu in anymore, he wasn't going to give it much thought just yet.
The archives turned out to be a large system of computers instead of the musty, neglected books and files he expected, it was a pleasant surprise to see an area of the soul society using modern technology other than the 12th division. It was the work of a moment to retrieve a list of failed students for the last hundred years, to both his simultaneous pleasant surprise and quiet disappointment there was a huge list of them. It was understandable, being a Shinigami was a hard and dangerous line of work to be in, but surely they could have found a use for all of the half, or in some cases fully, trained soldiers out in the population before now? Shaking his head to dismiss the thought he got down to work putting his list of top candidates together.
The school was filled with noise and talking, no one could focus on their classes. Ichigo's bombshell a few days prior was the centre of every conversation, it had gotten to the point that some of the instructors and lecturers had simply given up on the regular curriculum and had shifted to teaching what they thought might be of use to a fledgling militia force and advising people on what may be the best direction for them. Despite the interest everyone had in the initiative, one thing was rapidly becoming blatantly clear, very few were willing to cross the noble houses.
"Cowards." Tatsuki muttered in contempt as she overheard yet another group of students decide against joining her friend's effort.
"Can you really blame them?" Alice asked "the nobles hold enormous power and wealth, going against them is considered to be the act of a madman or someone with a death wish by most people"
"Yeah, we can blame them." Keigo spoke up with an utterly out of character seriousness "I know things are different in the soul society but Ichigo has a few things he won't compromise no matter how much it costs him. The first one is to protect those who can't do it themselves, the second ties in with that, if someone has the power to fix a problem then they have the moral duty to fix it. There are a few more but those are probably the ones he's acting on now, even if he doesn't get one person here to join him he won't back down. I'm not as stupid as I act, I know he may just die doing this, that's the easiest way to stop him; it may be the ONLY way to stop him. All everyone is doing by backing out is making that possibility greater, and don't they owe him more than that?"
"I would go so far as to say don't they owe themselves better than that, he was ASKED to help them by that old man and now none of them want to put in the effort?" Tatsuki muttered
"I wouldn't go that far" a familiar voice interrupted "I've had so many Shinigami apply I've had to start turning them away so my little project doesn't weaken the Gotei 13, I think they're just scared of going up against people with so much power," most of the group whipped around to see Ichigo standing behind them in plain Shinigami attire "but I don't think all of them will be against us, some of them are renowned for their willingness to help others" he finished.
"Yo Ichigo, nice of you to join us" Mizuiro quipped with a smile as his friends glared at him "you're getting a little better at suppressing your Reiatsu, you might not choke half the students at your next public appearance"
"What are you doing here?! Do you have any idea the commotion it will cause if everyone finds out?!" Alice hissed
Ichigo scowled at his friend before looking at her in confusion and asking "who's the blondie?"
Ichigo smiled as he walked out of the academy once again, it had been nice to catch up with his friends and meet the new addition to their group. With a sigh he picked up the pace and started weaving through some back alleys, he probably wouldn't even have noticed the man without the Quincy training over the past few days with Ishida, as much as it pained him to use his friends in such a manner his visit wasn't entirely about seeing them. He had first noticed his new shadow by accident as he left the school the first time; this visit was about confirming it. Now he just had to figure out who would want him tailed, it was a list getting longer and longer by the day
Bayakuya sat at his desk deep in thought as he looked over the files his young friend had retrieved from the academies' records, one prominent note stood out, 'Fix this.'