Discalimer: I do not own Bleach.

Hey everyone,

I always really liked the concept of Kido. I found it to be cool and wish that it was used more often than it was. Because of this, I decided to make a fanfiction with a character who primarily used Kido. I always wanted to write one but never really had an idea that I genuinely liked. I also have chosen the pairing of OCxSoifon. I was not too fond of Soifon at first, but she has grown on me over the years and has become a character that I feel is underrated. Also, please don't expect any harem elements because that isn't what I'm trying to accomplish with this fic.

This is my first fanfiction so I hope you like it!

-IncognitoAlias

Today was the day of the Soul Reaper Proficiency exam for Shino Spiritual Arts Academy. Many souls take the exam every year to see if they were eligible to become a soul reaper. It was no surprise that so many souls took the exam every year; being a soul reaper paid well, and provided adequate job security for the soul's families. As per usual, many failed the written examination, and even more failed the practical exam. The participants that are left are waiting for their turn to take the practical.

"Next up is... Akira Satoshi" The soul reaper in charge of permitting entrance to the exam announced. Hearing his name called, Akira pushed his way towards the front of the group of souls. As he stepped out of the crowd, the soul reaper got a better look at the boy. He had a neutral skin tone that complimented his semi-messy short brown hair and dark blue eyes. He wore the standard male academy uniform, which consisted of a white shirt covering a pale blue undershirt. The pants provided were pale blue, which matched the undershirt. He stood at about five foot eight and had reasonably broad shoulders.

"I'm right here." the formerly named Akira said, raising his hand in response with a smile.

"Alright then, just let me check your name off the list real quick." The man replied while scribbling down something onto the clipboard in his hand. "Please go inside. The director of the academy is waiting for you in the room at the end of the hall."

Nodding at the man, Akira turned and walked at a brisk pace through the doors of the academy. Akira would be lying if he said he wasn't confident in himself to pass the practical exam. After all, he had studied the principles of spiritual pressure and spiritual energy. He could even flex his spiritual pressure a little bit. What more could they ask of him before he had even begun?

Finally arriving at the room, he put his thoughts to rest, readying himself to open the door. While he was still confident in his abilities, his nerves got the better of him. What if he did fail? What if he wasn't as good as he thought he was? No, he couldn't afford to consider that possibility. He couldn't give up now. Not after coming so far. Not after the promise he had made to himself.

Shaking his nerves away with a determined expression, Akira opened the door and walked inside. What he saw before him was not exactly what he expected the practical exam to be. The examination room was just an empty room with a man he assumed to be the director, sitting on the floor. Separating himself from Akira was a low hanging table with four separate objects of varying colors evenly spaced apart.

"Come sit." the assumed director ordered with a gruff motioning to the opposite side of the table. The director seemed to be a man in his late forties. He had long black hair that fell down his back and grey eyes that were pointy and stern. He held the expression of one who was overly serious.

Akira, deciding it was best not to question him, obediently moved at a brisk pace and sat across the table from him on the floor.

"What you see before you is the practical exam." The director began. "This test will ultimately tell if you are worthy of entering the esteemed Shino Academy. Each item on the table tests a souls' aptitude for one of the four primary arts of a soul reaper. Kido, Hakuda, Hoho, and Zanjitsu." He continued motioning to each object.

His curiosity piqued, Akira looked down, identifying the items. There appeared to be a silver chest that was slightly bigger than his hand on the far left. Bejeweled along its perimeter were green gems, which complimented the glass lid on top. Peering through the glass lid, Akira couldn't see anything inside other than the red velvet fabric stitched onto the inside.

The next item was a golden cup. It had a handle on either side extending past the top of the cup only to wrap back down and connect with the top of it. Akira immediately recognized the cup to be a grail. Once more, looking closer, he decided to peer in, and there was a clear liquid floating around at the bottom of it.

Moving on to the third object, Akira observed a singular silver ball hanging by a thread. The thread attached itself to a mahogany wooden post that extended up from the table. The ball also appeared to be constantly rotating on its axis without twisting the line that held it.

Finally, Akira looked at the right-most object. What he saw was a stone statue of a young boy sitting down with his legs crossed. The boy's hands clasped themselves together as if it was in prayer. The figurine also had a necklace made of large beads attached by a string, giving the statue a Buddhist look. Finished looking, Akira turned back to the director, who continued his explanation.

"This part of the exam is not something you can control. It showcases what your compatibility is with each art and will ultimately decide your fighting style as a soul reaper." The director explained.

Listening to the explanation, Akira was struck square in the head by an epiphany. He knew why so few souls passed the exam each year; it was luck. He hated to admit it, but it made sense. Most souls don't even have spiritual energy, while he was lucky enough to be born with a fair amount of it. So, of course, a spiritual energy's compatibility is based on luck as well.

"While you can change your compatibility with hard work, it takes much more effort to make a minuscule amount of progress with an incompatible art than a big change with a compatible one. For this reason, you must receive a score of eight or lower to pass. Each object will give a score of one through three, one being the best score and three being the worst score. If you receive all twos, you will have no specified weakness but no strong suit either. If you receive a three in one art, we require you to receive a one in a different art to counterbalance that weakness ." The director finished crossing his arms in the process.

"Will the scores have any effect other than my admission? It seems like this test is too big of a deal to only use for the practical." Akira questioned, resting his chin in between his thumb and index finger.

"Yes, very astute of you!" The director responded with a genuine smile. "The scores also determine what classes you will get assigned. If you score a one, the test deems you to be in first-class for that art. If you score a two, the test assigned you to the intermediate class, and if you score a three, it will have assigned you the elementary class for that subject."

Nodding at the explanation, Akira began to truly understand just how much this test will affect his future. The test could screw him over if he isn't compatible with one of the arts, for heaven's sake! Steeling himself, he recalled the fateful night where he decided to become a soul reaper.

45th Northern Rukongai District 15 years ago:

"Sis, I'm home!" A young Akira yelled out into the house. If he was honest, though, calling it a house would be a bit of an overstatement. He and his big sister lived in a tool shed on the outskirts of the 45th. It wasn't ideal, but with him being a kid and his sister working as a laborer for the landlord, they couldn't make enough money to buy or build a house. Their situation worsened when they realized that Akira had spiritual pressure. Which meant that he needed food, and food just so happened to be very expensive inside the 45th.

His sister wasn't his blood-related sister, but he chose to see her like that. She had beautiful silky black hair that reached to her waist, sea-green eyes that complimented the freckles adorning her face, and a smile that always made him smile in return. She had found him alone in an alley and had given him a home. Which only added to his adoration of her.

Smiling to himself at the memory, he walked further into the shed. Akira was surprised to see that his sister still wasn't home yet, even though it was getting dark. Placing the money that he got from his job as a delivery boy on a workbench, Akira grabbed a piece of bread from the sack they used to store their food. Sitting down on their makeshift bed, he ate his dinner in silence for once.

Usually, Sis would talk to him and keep him company while eating. It was strange eating alone, and Akira couldn't say that he particularly liked the feeling. Finishing his meal, Akira peered out the window to see that it was now almost completely dark outside. The only faint traces of light he could see were those from candlelight originating from the landlord's home.

Figuring out that something must be wrong, Akira stood up and began to rush to the door. Passing the workbench, he noticed a small knife lying on top of the bench. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry, Akira picked up the knife and stashed it in his rags.

The toolshed he lived in was at the corner of a reasonably large cotton farm. Because of this, the house was about an acre away. Picking up his pace, he started jogging to the house. About halfway through the farm, Akira felt himself pass through a freezing wall of cold air, stopping him in his tracks.

Snapping his head behind him, he saw a wall of energy that shot up into the sky. The wall ran along the farm's perimeter and then connected in the sky above the landlord's house, making a perfect box-shaped dome around the farm.

Looking back at the house, Akira felt an insidious presence coming from that direction. It was so disgusting that it made his stomach consider giving back the food he had just eaten.

Backing up out of fear, Akira tried to get through the wall of energy as he had previously done. But the wall refused to let him through and didn't give any leeway. Trying to calm himself down and not assume the worse, Akira sat down with his back against the dome of energy and began to rationalize the situation.

The feeling coming from the house was almost definitely a hollow as much as he'd like to assume otherwise. If that was the case, that means that the wall of energy he propped himself up against was likely the hollow's unique ability. He didn't feel anything coming from the house until he passed through the wall, which means that no one outside of the dome could sense the hollow. Sis was in there with that thing as well, and he was likely the only one who could save her!

With his thoughts collected, he picked himself up off the ground. He was determined to save the one person in his life that ever cared for him. This time he would be the one doing the saving! With that thought, Akira planted his foot into the ground and took off towards the house at a breakneck pace. Worried that he had wasted too much time, Akira moved as fast as his legs would carry him.

Nearing the house, he felt a shiver go down his spine. The insidious feeling was much worse up close than it was near the barrier. Every instinct in his body was screaming at him to turn around and go back the way he came. Despite wanting to listen to those instincts, he pushed his body forward.

Surely the hollow could sense him now that he was less than 10 yards away from the house. He was practically right on top of it, after all. There was no way he could fight the thing head-on, but he couldn't necessarily sneak around it either it would sense his spiritual energy.

Still trying to figure out how to deal with the hollow, Akira noticed something that utterly confused him. The entire house was still completely intact! No hole or significant damage was present on the outside.

"Maybe it's not a hollow then…" Akira muttered to himself before feeling a rock smash into the back of his head, blindsiding him.

Disoriented, Akira tried to stand up and defend himself but quickly felt a pair of teeth enter his leg. Kicking the offender off of him did little to stop his vision from beginning to blur. Did it inject him with poison? He still couldn't see what hit him but quickly felt his consciousness begin to fade. Struggling to get up, he heard a slithering sound approaching him. Cursing his carelessness, he crumpled onto the ground, the poison taking its full effect. The last thing he heard before he passed out was the chuckling of the offender.

Akira wasn't sure how much time had passed since he went to sleep. The first thing he heard was the sound of someone eating food. Maybe Sis decided to try some of his food finally? She always worried too much about him. She works for it as well, so she should treat herself sometimes. Groggily lifting his head, he opened his eyes only to remember his current situation immediately.

He sat in the corner of a dark room. He could barely make out his surroundings due to how dark it was. The candlelight he had seen from the tool shed was alight in another room down the hall, indicating that he was now inside the landlord's house. The candlelight provided a small amount of light that filtered through the cracked door.

"That's good the candlelight is still on," Akira muttered to himself while picking himself up. "It hasn't been too long since I passed out ."

Now that he had his bearings, though he was sure of two things. One, the sounds he had heard in his sleep was definitely someone eating in the other room, and two, the room he was in smelled of death. Looking down, he caught the faint sheen of a mutilated corpse in the filtered light. Traumatized, he lost his dinner on the spot.

No ordinary hollow would leave their food behind; they devour them whole. Akira had never actually seen a hollow before, but he had heard that much. People tend to disappear in the 45th, and when there are no traces, everyone knows what fate the soul met. It's a common occurrence with so few soul reapers assigned here. Sparing a glance at the corpse, Akira was able to identify him as his landlord based on the straw hat he always wore.

Wiping his mouth, Akira once more tried to focus on his primary task; finding Sis. He took deep breaths through his mouth to limit the smell from entering his nose and opened the door more so that the candlelight would shine into the room. There were about four more bodies, all being the landlord's family. Regrettably feeling relief that Sis wasn't one of them, he moved into the hallway and moved as slowly and quietly as he could.

The sound of feasting grew louder as he neared the room with the candlelight. His heart started to beat faster and leaped into his throat. His back pressed firmly against the hall wall, he peered into the room and was shocked at what he saw.

The hollow was only about 3 feet tall. It had a body very similar to that of a snake, except it had an aardvark's head and limbs like a lizard. The tail also formed a large ball about the size of Akira's head. If he had to guess, that tail is what hit him earlier. The mask held an elongated shape to it and gave way to a small mouth for small bites at the end.

But what concerned him the most was what was beneath the hollow. He would recognize that hair anywhere. It was eating, Sis! He had to save her! Losing his self-control, he burst into the room only for the hollow to look up at him in disinterest.

"Oh, are you awake now, boy?" The hollow spoke nonchalantly before getting up from its feeding. "I was planning on coming to you when I was done with this girl here, but it seems you came to me in the end." the hollow finished smugly.

Frozen, Akira didn't know what to say. He had lost the element of surprise because of his stupidity. Looking down, he got a better look at the hollow's handy work. It didn't seem like the hollow had started long ago, but Sis was clearly already dead. She was missing a good part of her stomach and most of the meat on her legs. He was too late. He wasn't able to save her.

Stumbling back into the wall, Akira allowed himself to slide down it until he was sitting on the floor. Burying his head in his hands, he rocked back and forth, all the while staring at the corpse. Seeing Akira stare at the body, the hollow smiled and decided it should take its time with Akira.

"Hahahaha. Was she important to you?" He questioned jeeringly. "Did you want to save her? Did you perhaps have feelings for her?"

At that statement, Akira looked up at the hollow forlornly. "Why does that matter? She's dead now." He croaked distraughtly.

"Well, I mean, it depends." The hollow replied, pacing on the floor around his last meal. "If she did happen to be important to you, you might have been able to save her."

"What do you mean?" Akira asked, pausing his rocking to give the hollow his full attention.

"I was just about to finish her off when I felt you enter the barrier. If you weren't so useless, you might have saved her!" The hollow finished sadistically.

Akira, pitying himself, accepted it as the truth. She was the one who worked for him. She was the one who paid for the majority of their food. She was the one that always looked out for him. The one time she needed him. THE ONE TIME! He failed her.

Smashing his hand into the floor, Akira felt anger wash over him. He through being useless. If anything, he at least didn't want to go out being as futile as he had been. Standing up, Akira glared at the hollow and pulled the knife out of his pocket. Ready to use it at the first opportunity. The hollow not taking him seriously egged further.

"Do you think a knife will actually hurt me? Only a zanpakuto would be able to cut me!" The hollow mocked. "What do you expect to do with the-"the hollow never got to finish as a projectile flew into its mask's eye socket at a blinding speed.

"Arghhhh!" The hollow screamed painfully.

Akira, standing where he had thrown the knife, was surprised at the speed he had thrown it. Knowing that this was going to be his last chance for redemption, he rushed the hollow before it was too late. Akira lunged for the hollow's mask, trying to get to the blade before the hollow could. Feeling his hand enter the mask and take hold of the knife, he viciously ripped it out before sending it directly into the hollow's other eye socket. Akira immediately felt the oppressive atmosphere produced by the barrier go away as the hollow painfully thrashed on the floor in front of him.

Fed up with Akira, the hollow flared his spiritual pressure, sending Akira crashing into the wall.

"Agh. Fuck. I can't see! I can't see!" The newly blinded hollow repeated over and over as it slowly descended into madness. "I'm gonna enjoy ripping you apart!" The hollow yelled, snapping its head towards Akira's spiritual pressure before pouncing at him.

Akira regaining his awareness pushed off the wall and narrowly dodged the hollow's attack. Deciding not to waste any time, he sprinted out the door and down the hallway. The hollow not far behind recklessly swatted at the area he had been in a few moments prior before continuing its pursuit of him.

Bursting out the front door with the hollow hot on his tail, Akira sprinted towards the central village of the 45th. About halfway through the field, the hollow caught up to him and swiped at Akira's leg, tripping him. The hollow, done playing games, readied itself to finish Akira off. But just before it could try, a sword cut its head clean off.

"That was a close one, kid." Said his savior. He was a middle-aged man in soul reaper garbs with a bloodstained sword held his hand. "You're lucky I decided to patrol this area tonight."

Akira could only find it in himself to nod in agreement at the soul reaper. If he were a second late, Akira would be dead. He was sitting up, catching his breath, when the adrenaline left him. Every emotion that he had experienced in the past few minutes rushed back into his body. Failing to fight back the tears, Akira bawled on the ground.

He didn't know what to do. He was alone. Again. He had lost the most important person in his life, and it was his fault. He was unable to stop the hollow from killing Sis. He'd be dead if it weren't for that soul reaper. Why was it that every attempt he made to help was in vain? If he was stronger, he could have- no, would have made a difference.

He needed to become powerful. It was the least he could do to atone for his current weakness. Even if it can't change what already happened, he couldn't go through that again. He needed power. He needed the power of a soul reaper.

Present:

Akira adopted a determined scowl at the memory. Refusing to let himself lose faith in himself over this. If he failed this year, he'd train until he was finally allowed entrance. He wasn't going to stay the way he currently was.

"How do I begin?" Akira asked, looking at the director in his eyes.

"You must touch each object, and it will absorb your spiritual energy. How the object responds to your spiritual energy will determine your score." The director responded, motioning for Akira to begin.

Moving his hand onto the chest's side, Akira felt his spiritual energy draining inside the chest. At first, nothing happened, then Akira saw purple dots of energy merging into the center of the chest. The center of the mass began to take shape, and he was surprised to see that it formed what seemed to be a purple fireball. The flame was surprisingly stable and wholly contained within the chest.

The draining came to a halt as Akira pulled away. He looked towards the director who had taken out a clipboard during the process. He was furiously scribbling down what Akira could only presume to be his score. Finishing his notes, the director looked up and gave his blessing to begin the next test.

Putting his hand on the grail, Akira was surprised at how cold it was. He once felt his spiritual pressure draining into the grail. This time, however, nothing changed about the grail. That was until he saw steam begin to come out of the grail. Looking inside, he saw that the liquid had evaporated at his spiritual energy leaving burn marks behind, staining the bottom of the grail dark brown.

This time the director had very little to write, allowing Akira to continue with the test quickly. Once more, his energy sapped into the next object. The indigo energy traveled up through the post, down the thread and, into the ball. The ball spun faster on its axis and began to orbit the center it had previously been hanging.

Having completed the process for the third time, Akira would be lying if he said he wasn't tired from the exertion. With no training, he had never had to utilize his spiritual energy for an extended period. He felt some sweat droplets forming on his forehead and wiped them away with an exasperated sigh.

Having heard the sigh, the director chuckled at Akira's misfortune, indicating for Akira to take the last test. Akira put his hand on the statue with a deep breath and proceeded with the final test. Indigo lines akin to veins popped up and ran along the entirety of the figure. The eyes of the statue then glowed faint Indigo. Reaching his limits, Akira pulled away, stopping the flow of energy to catch his breath.

"Well, how did I do?" Akira questioned in between breaths seeing as the director completed his note-taking.

"Akira Satoshi," The director began before looking down to read out Akira's score. "You immediately received a one in Kido. Normally, the energy balls only appear inside the box; yours took on a shape showing that you are very compatible with Kido. Had nothing appeared, you would have gotten a three."

Hearing this, Akira was elated; to start with a score of one provided a supreme boost to his confidence. He always thought the concept of Kido was pretty cool. He hadn't seen Kido performed before, but he could see himself using it a fair amount. If he sincerely was as compatible as the test suggested him to be.

"You then received a three in Hakuda." The director continued erasing the happiness Akira exuded. " If I were to be blunt, the goblet completely rejected your spiritual energy. That is why the liquid evaporated. A neutral score causes the liquid to increase in size, and a good score changes the liquid's color as well as increasing the size."

Losing the lead Akira had built in the first test did put a small damper on his mood, but the Hakuda test was by far the one that felt the most unnatural to him. No other test acted nearly as strange as that one had. Sure it was annoying that he wouldn't be any good in Hakuda. Nonetheless, at least he had made the one in Kido.

"Moving on to the third test, you received a two. The ball orbited where it had previously hung, which is the expected result for this test. Had the thread snapped from coming into contact with your spiritual energy, you would have received a three. Had the ball spun faster but not begin to orbit, you would have received a one.

Being at least average in Hoho was critical for every soul reaper. Akira was glad he was somewhat compatible with it. If he wasn't, he didn't know what he would have done regardless of his Zanjitsu score.

"Finally, you received a two in Zanjitsu. The lines along the statue reflected your spiritual energy's natural indigo color; this result was once again standard. If the lines' did not reflect your color, you would have received a 3. But if the statue moved in some fashion, you would have received a one. That makes your final score an eight, which is a passing grade." The director finished with a genuine smile. "Welcome to the academy!"

"Thank you for having me!" Akira responded, elated at his passing.

Grinning like a mad man, Akira stood up to move on to the next phase of his admission. From what he understood, it only consisted of signing some paperwork. Saying goodbye to the director, Akira went through the door at the back of the room ready to start his schooling.

'Sis, I did it.' Akira thought to himself, 'I'll make sure what happened that night doesn't happen again.'

End of chapter.

Hopefully you enjoyed it! I am a student so I will have some work that will take priority sometimes but you should be able to expect a new chapter once every two to three weeks. Feel free to FFR.

-IncognitoAlias