When Shin'ichi arrived at Shinōreijutsuin, clad in a set of clothes that he was told were in a style that was commonly worn in Rukongai, he saw that, contrary to what he had believed, there were actually many people applying to become a student at the academy. This was evidenced by the queue that he saw coming from the front of the building. He went up to one of the people at the end of the line and asked, "Hey, are you here for the entrance exam?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" a twenty year old, with red hair that slanted back and to the right, said, turning to look at Shin'ichi. Seeing the sword in Shin'ichi's belt he asked, "Can you use that or is it just for decoration?"

"Huh?" Shin'ichi asked, gaining the scowl that easily came to his face at the man's attitude.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" Shin'ichi said, mimicking the irritating man.

"Hnh," the redhead said, thinking, 'Probably all talk,' and looked away, not answering Shin'ichi's question.

The girl next to him, who was quite a bit shorter than her brother but with equally red hair spiking down in a ponytail, said, "Oh don't take any notice of my brother. Yes, this is the line for the entrance exams...mmm...sorry, I don't think I quite caught your name."

"Your right, you didn't..." Shin'ichi said, pausing before he continued, "...It's Shin'ichi."

"Shin'ichi huh?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"No no, I've just never met anyone with that particular name, that's all."

"I see, so how long have you been here for?"

"About two hours now. Apparently the 'noble' candidates get to go first."

"Well there's fair for ya," Shin'ichi said, "I just hope that we don't end up in the same classes as any of those pompous bastards."

"How can you be that confident about getting in?" the girl asked, suddenly suffering a bout of nerves before Shin'ichi's confident dismissal of the tests.

"It's easy really...umm..."

"Akane," The twenty year old supplied.

"Akane...right, well just think of it this way. I need to pass so I will."

"It's that easy?"

"It's that easy."

"Huh...wait...how did you...?"

"How did I? How did I what?"

"Well, I've been intermittently feeling a bout of nerves for the past few days, now they've completely disappeared."

"Oh...well...that's good...I guess," Shin'ichi said, unsure of what to say. "Say, do you know what they test you on here?"

"I don't really know. Rumour says that they test you on 4 areas, speed, swordsmanship, reiatsu control and possibly hand to hand combat."

"So, what are you expecting to score higher marks in?" Shin'ichi asked the two, clearly, twins.

"Well, I'm hoping to score high in reiatsu control, while Arata is hoping to get a passing grade in hand to hand, what about you, Shin'ichi-san?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that I'm a shoe-in for the swordsmanship part, probably hopeless n the reiatsu control part, other than that, who knows?"

"Well, I'm not too physically strong so I doubt I'll do any good in anything other than reiatsu control."

"Oh, buck up, you won't know unless you try, right?" Shin'ichi said with a smile on his face.

Three and a half hours of uncomfortable silence later the twins and Shin'ichi reached the doors. Looking inside they saw that there were still twenty or so people lining up in front of them. Shin'ichi dramatically and sighed said, "Well, looks like we're almost there."

Arata exclaimed, "What are you, crazy?! There's still like twenty people left!"

"Well, compare it to the fifty that were outside, plus the extra twenty that were before them, and it evens out pretty well, doesn't it?"

"Hmm...if you think of it that way, I guess."

Akane thought, 'Oh, I like this guy, he doesn't take Arata's attitude lying down, if I had to guess, I'd say that he doesn't take anybody else's attitude much better.'

80 minutes later Akane and Arata tried to enter at the same time, but were blocked by an entrance officer that said, "Sorry, but only one person is allowed entry to the exam room at a time."

"Oh," Akane said, "Well then Arata, you can go first then."

"Alright!" Arata said, pumping his fist into the air, "I'm gonna do this!"

"Good luck," said Akane.

"Yeah, break a leg," Shin'ichi said, wishing the man, that he barely knew, luck in his exam.

4 and a half minutes later Shin'ichi was called into the room. When he got there he saw that there was a panel of five examiners at the front of the room, the one on the far left was wearing a blue scarf. The one in the middle said, "Okay, since you've waited so long to get here would you like to start right away?"

"Sure," Shin'ichi bluntly said, not one to waste his words.

"First of all we will need your name."

"Aosaki Shin'ichi."

"Aosaki Shin'ichi, right," The man in the middle said as he wrote Shin'ichi's name down on one of the many identical forms on his desk. "Now Shin'ichi, what would you like to start off with?"

"I'm sorry, I just recently got here and am unfamiliar with what I am being tested on."

"I see. Well you are here to be tested on your aptitude for the shinigami arts. They include Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō."

"Alright then, since you're the examiners, why don't you decide?"

"Alright then," The man in the middle said, as he thought, 'Since he has his own sword we might as well test him on that first.' "Alright, first up is Zanjutsu," he turned to the judge on the far left and said, "Aloysius, you're up."

"Very well, headmaster," Aloysius said as he got up from his seat. When he was standing opposite Shin'ichi he said, "Normally we use bokken for this test, but since you have your own sword I'm going going to allow you to use it. Keeping in mind of course that I shall be using my Zanpakutō."

"Huh?" Shin'ichi exclaimed, "Isn't that a bit much for a test?"

"Normally yes, but I think that you should be able to handle it."

Shin'ichi smirked and said, "Alright then gramps, you can even go first," as he drew his own Zanpakutō from its new sheath.

"Why thank you," Aloysius said, and appeared in front of Shin'ichi, blade already swinging to decapitate him. Shin'ichi ducked beneath the blow and brought his sword around, cutting the instructor in half. After Shin'ichi's sword passed through the instructor the scarf he was wearing appeared in place of him, cut in half instead of the instructor, who said, "Onmitsu Shunpo Shihō no San: Utsusemi(1)," from behind Shin'ichi, thrusting his sword at Shin'ichi's Hakusui(2). It pierced through, but it wasn't Shin'ichi, but a speed clone left behind by his using Shunpo to avoid being hit. Shin'ichi appeared behind Aloysius with his sword up against Aloysius' neck. Aloysius said, "Alright, I concede," in a laughing tone. "Although...I do have one minor problem."

"Oh, and what would that be exactly?"

"You just avoided my blade using a technique that falls squarely under Hohō."

"I don't think that you have any reason to complain, after all, that Utsusemi that you used is also a Hohō technique."

"Oh, and how would you know that exactly? Didn't you 'just get here'?"

"I was lucky...or unlucky enough to see a shinigami use those techniques against a hollow one day. I managed to somehow imitate that after-image technique...but that was it."

"I see," Aloysius said, "Well then, I'm sorry for doubting you."

"That's fine," Shin'ichi said, "Water off the ducks back, right?"

"Indeed," Aloysius said, thinking, 'I don't know what you're hiding, but I'll find out,' as he returned to his seat.

The headmaster said, "Well then, since you can clearly use Hohō techniques, there is no need to test you one them. Do you agree, Katashi?"

"Yes, I concur," Katashi, a brown haired man with a comb-over, that had hair extending off the side of his head said.

"Alright, Akemi, you're up next then."

"Right," A woman that appeared to be in her early thirties, whose blonde hair hung back in a ponytail, said, "Okay, Shin'ichi, I'm going to say an incantation and show you how to execute it, then I want you to cast it. Alright?" As she walked towards Ichigo a shinigami that was on the side of the room rushed over and placed a training dummy in the centre of the floor.

"Yeah, sure," Shin'ichi said, thinking, 'I hope it's not a low-level Kidō.'

"The pale tide when the moon has set, the people of coming days will know about the casting of my net, Bakudo #1: Sai," Akemi said, pointing at the dummy with her index and middle fingers, causing the dummy's arms to lock behind its back.

Ichigo thought, 'Dammit!'

"Now, you try," Akemi instructed.

"Alright," Ichigo said, thinking, 'Well, here goes somethin',' and said, "The pale tide when the moon has set, the people of coming days will know about the casting of my net, Bakudo #1: Sai." The arms of the dummy tore off of it and went flying about five meters in the opposite direction from whence they came.

Akemi's eyes widened to comic proportions as her mouth worked like a goldfish. "But...that's not..." then, regaining control of her actions, screamed, "FAIL!"

Aloysius said, "Well, technically he did cast it..." causing all of the other heads of faculty to look at him askance. "What?" He innocently asked.

"While certainly impressive in one sense, there is no way that that can be classified as a successful implementation of Bakudo #1: Sai," the final instructor said.

"Well, if you look at it that way..." Aloysius said, conceding that indeed Ichigo's attempt seemed more appropriate as being classified as a Hadō.

As Akemi returned to her seat the last instructor, a woman that was an acting teacher from the Second Division, got up from her seat and moved to stand opposite Ichigo as the training dummy...or...what was left of it...was removed from the floor. She said, "I'll be testing you in Hakuda."

"Alright," Ichigo said, knowing that he was acceptable in Hakuda, but far more proficient in Zanjutsu.

The woman appeared to Ichigo's side, kicking him in his stomach before he could even register that she was there. Ichigo slid back a few metres. As he came to a stop, the woman appeared next to him once again, but this time Ichigo was waiting for it and used a small flash-step to leave the range of her kick, and then flash-stepped once again, this time going forward, spinning at the same time in order for his kick to gain both speed and power, and kicked her grounded leg out from under her. She flipped in mid-air, kicking Ichigo in his chin as it passed him, knocking him into the air. She immediately spun into another kick when her first foot was grounded, kicking Ichigo into the far wall as he was still in the air at the time of impact. Ichigo got out of the wall holding his chin and declared, "Oi! That was a cheap shot!" and flash-stepped in front of the instructor, kicking her with the full force of his normal strength, plus the increased speed due to his use of Shunpo, ending up with enough power to send her into the desk of the Headmaster. As the woman got up she growled out, "Why you..." before the Headmaster said, "Alright, I'm letting him pass that one too," in order to stop the two, admittedly incomparable, but still both strong in their own right, Hakuda fighters before they could injure each other too much. "Congratulations Shin'ichi, you are now a student of this academy, go out of that door on the right of us in order to receive your Shihakushō."

The female Hakuda instructor said, "But I..."

"That's enough," The Headmaster said, "It is clear that he is of a passable level in Hakuda, is he not?"

"Yes," The woman said, looking away..

Ichigo then left the room to receive his blue and white Shihakushō.

XXXXXXX

Author's Notes

(1) Onmitsu Shunpo Shihō no San: Utsusemi = Way of Onmitsu, 3rd of the Shihō: Molting Cicada

(2) Hakusui = Soul Sleep