As Shin'ichi entered the room off of the main one he saw that it was currently being used as a clothes depot and saw the twins getting ready to leave, each now wearing their respective uniforms. He called out, "Hey, you two, wait up a second."
Arata called over his shoulder, "Not gonna happen," not realising that it was Shin'ichi that was talking.
Akane, however, turned around to see who called out to them and, seeing Shin'ichi, she tugged on her brother's arm and said, "Hey, it's Shin'ichi-san."
"Shin'ichi...Shin'ichi...sorry, don't know that name."
"Oi oi," Shin'ichi said, one of many future scowls forming on his face.
"Forgive him Shin'ichi-san, my brother has memory problems when it comes to names," she then grabbed her brother by the shoulder of his new Kosode, forcibly turning him around, even though he could have easily resisted, and demanded, "Say your sorry!"
"Oh, it's you," Arata said, "Sure, we'll wait for ya."
"Cool," Shin'ichi said, not really expecting an apology forthcoming, "Just give us a sec 'n' I'll be right with you."
XXXXX
5 minutes later Shin'ichi had retrieved his student's Shihakushō and went over to the twins, who proceeded to take him to a bar in their home district and Shin'ichi started to look at the drinks list. While he perused the drinks list Arata called over a waiter and said, "Can I please have a Mai Tai for my sister and a Baijiu for me and my friend please?"
Shin'ichi said, "Bai-what-now?"
"Baijiu,"Arata said, "it's a drink that is commonly used in this district to celebrate special occasions."
"Special occasions?"
"Yeah, you know, things like the rise of a new 'Boss' or, in this case, the successful application to join the Shinōreijutsuin."
"No! Akane said, finally starting to listen to her brother's attempts to get her new friend to drink the horrid rocket fuel. "Don't listen to him Shin'ichi-san, that stuff is undrinkable!"
"Don't listen to Akane, she just has a weak stomach for liquor."
"I..."
"Don't worry Akane, neither do I. I think that I'll just have whatever passes as whiskey and some sort of soft drink here."
"So, you like cocktails too Shin'ichi-san?" Akane asked.
"Yeah, I never could tolerate any strong drinks."
"Oh thank the lord," Akane said, "It's always a pain when I have to drag Arata home after he starts on the Baijiu."
"I thought that it was only drunk on 'special occasions'?"
"It is drunk on special occasions, unfortunately it is also drunk every other day as well. It also happens to be a drink favoured by some of the noble clans that come by here every so often. There is usually a big fight that happens too."
"I see," Shin'ichi said, thinking, 'I hope that no 'nobles' come by then.'
"Well then, let's hope that no nobles come by then."
"Enough about that though, how'd you go in the exams?"
"Oh I aced it...well, except the Kidō bit anyway."
"Eh?"
"Yeah, apparently I'm in Remedial Kidō."
"Remedial...I didn't even know that there were remedial classes!"
"Yeah, well I don't think that they take it too well when you destroy a training dummy."
"You...but how?"
"I don't know. All I know is that one minute it was fine, then, the next, its arms were flying away."
"Wow...I don't even have the words to..."
"Yeah. But I made up for it in the other parts."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I got into advanced Hakuda, Hohō and Zanjutsu."
"Really? I only got into advanced Kidō and Hohō. I got into intermediate Zanjutsu and basic Hakuda."
"I see," Shin'ichi said, pausing before continuing, "Hey, Arata, how'd you go?"
"Me, I got," Arata said before taking a shot of Baijiu, "Advanced Zanjutsu," another shot, "Advanced Hakuda and intermediate Hohō."
"What about Kidō?"
"Basic...bah, who needs it? I'm gonna join the Eleventh Division anyway."
"The Eleventh?" Shin'ichi half-asked.
"Yeah, they're so cool! They do all their fights without relying on anything so annoyingly pathetic as Kidō."
"Hey!" Akane yelled, still irritated by her brothers continuous total disregard of her favourite skill.
"The only squad that focuses solely on Kidō, is the Kidō Corps, and they aren't part of the Gotei 13."
"How many times do I have to tell you, the Kidō Corps may not strictly be a part of the 13 Divisions, but they are still aligned to the Gotei 13." Akane realised that Shin'ichi was still with them and, to include him in their 'discussion', asked, "Shini'chi-san, do you have any idea which division you want to join?"
"Hmm...to tell you the truth...not really. I know that I don't want to join the Eleventh Division, and there's no way that I could possibly end up in the Fourth Division...but other than that..."
"See, there's more to fighting than mere slice and dice."
"Hai, hai," Arata said in a sarcastic tone.
"Anyway," Akane said, turning back to Shin'ichi, "Which district did you come here from Shin'ichi-san?"
"Me?" Shin'ichi said, pointing at himself, thinking, 'Where did Rukia say she was from? A number in the seventies I think it was...hmm...given my marks it would probably make sense to come from a similar district.' Shin'ichi said, "District 64: Sabitsura(1)," not knowing that most of the Eleventh Squad members came from around that district. "What about you?"
"We came from District 50: Kuchiba(2) What was it like in that district? I heard that after our district 50 it becomes really lawless and violent."
"Yeah, I don't think that it was all that bad, granted there were some thugs, but most of them were just that, thugs."
"I see," Akane said, "It was just the opposite with us, there were some tough guys that kept everyone in line, but they relied mostly on their subordinates to enforce their will upon us, but most of the enforcers had some limited skills as potential shinigami."
"So, does that mean that you were one of these 'enforcer' guys?"
"No. We were lucky enough to remain unnoticed until a shinigami came to our district and said that we should try to become Shinigami ourselves...so, here we are, on our way to becoming full-fledged Shinigami."
"Hah," A voice, belonging to a seemingly young man with black hair, two locks placed in a Kenseikan and wearing a long, silver/green, scarf made from Silks of the Leucadendron, from the next table scoffed, "As if you rabble could ever hope to amount to anything in your own districts, let alone become a Shinigami."
Arata, well and truly drunk by now, said, "Who d'ya t'ink you are? 'n' who 'r' youz l't ta tell us what we c'n do?"
One of his henchman said, "He is the great Kuchiki Daiki, Second Cousin of the noble captain of the Sixth Squad, Kuchiki Byakuya, and third in line for the position of head of the Kuchiki Clan."
"Oh," Shini'chi said, turning back to continue his conversation with Akane. Unfortunately, Arata couldn't let it go, and said, "I d'n't c're who ya 'r' or 'bout s'me stinkin' t'tl' th't ya g't by b'rth! All 'at 'atters 'n the r'l w'rld is th's," grabbing his right bicep, causing Shin'ichi to clamp his hand over his eyes, thinking, 'That idiot! The only thing that Kuchiki's hate more than disrespect, is someone that they consider beneath them treating them as an equal.'
"Begone from my sight, filth!" Daiki said, turning to look at the, in his mind, insignificant primates that were in his way.
"Filth!" Arata yelled, "I'll give you filth!" and threw his fist at the arrogant noble, which was easily swatted aside by one of the henchmen, who then hit Arata, knocking him out easily due to his intoxicated state.
As Daiki turned away he brought the force of his lieutenant-level reiatsu down onto Shin'ichi and Akane, who were still relatively sober, in an attempt to intimidate them into submission. This didn't go over too well with the disguised Shin'ichi, who stepped between Akane and the irate noble, using his own reiatsu to defend against Daiki's, which, due to it's being sealed, was also lieutenant-level. Daiki looked up in surprise what Shin'ichi had done. He turned back to look at him and coldly said, "You...outside, now!"
"You want to fight me?" Shin'ichi asked, curious as to why the noble would want to fight him.
Two of Daiki's henchmen grabbed Shin'ichi by his arms and 'escorted' him outside the bar, followed by Daiki, whom was ignoring Akane's pleas to just overlook her brother's stupidity, any any events that that 'may have' caused. When they were all outside, Daiki said, "I, Daiki, son of Daichi, challenge you to a duel."
"Huh?" Shin'ichi exclaimed, surprised that after all that had happened the stuck up noble would try to keep some kind of formality about the situation.
"When entering into an honour duel it is customary to tell the opponent the name of the one that they are fighting, and their lineage."
"A what-now?" Shin'ichi asked, unfamiliar with the concept of fighting for honour, when all of his experience fighting was done only when needed to.
"An honour duel is as the name implies, a duel to reclaim ones honour."
"Reclaim...honour? What the hell are you on about?"
"You are a stain upon my honour, and any stains upon me reflect back onto the Kuchiki Clan. As such I need to regain my honour by beating you. Now, about the rules of this due..."
"There's only one rule in a fight, kid," Shin'ichi said, realising that& the person in front of him likely hadn't been in a real fight in his life, "The winner takes all."
"Rubbish. Duels are to be fought only for honour or protection."
"Honour & protection? What do you mean?"
"The honour of yourself, your squad and your clan. Or to protect Seireitei."
Shin'ichi sighed and said, "You have no intention of backing down, do you?"
"No," Daiki stated firmly, before disappearing from the sight of most of the people that had exited the bar to watch the two fight. Shin'ichi on the other hand, having fought against Byakuya, an undisputed master of Hohō techniques, had no problem keeping up with the noble's speed and pressed the button that he'd had Mayuri add to his zanpakuto, releasing his sword from it. He then brought it up, point down, in one hand, blocking Daiki's two-handed strike with the Asauchi that he had received to practice his Zanjutsu.
Seeing Shin'ichi's apparent ease in blocking his strike, Daiki's eyes widened in shock. Daiki then struck at Shin'ichi repeatedly disappearing and reappearing, but each time Shin'ichi easily blocked him. Shin'ichi said, "I don't know what technique it is that you're using, but it decreases the strength of your attacks. Even with your powerful reiatsu, right now you're barely at the level of a thirteenth seat."
Daiki growled in anger as he thought, 'Damn it! This guy's seen through myAwaipo(3). Ah well, looks like I'll need to change my strategy a bit.' He then disappeared and then reappeared before Shin'ichi using Awaipo and said, "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat! Bakudo #9: Hōrin," and moved his index and forefinger of his right hand to the left, causing an orange hued tendril with spiralling yellow patterns to wrap around Shin'ichi's blade and then threw his right hand to the right, sending his blade off to the side. Shin'ichi momentarily looked away from Daiki to where his blade had fallen, giving him time to say, "Hadō #4: Byakurai," a concentrated, powerful lightning bolt from shooting from his left index finger, aiming to tear through Shin'ichi's left shoulder, but it went straight through Shin'ichi. Daiki said, "What the..." as the Shin'ichi that he saw get pierced through with his Kidō fade away.
"Hohō technique #3: Speed Clone," Shin'ichi provided as he picked up his sword from where it had fallen.
"Hohō?" Daiki said as he thought, 'So that's how he could keep up with me when I was using Awaipo. According to Byakuya-mataitoko(4) that technique can only be used by a skilled practitioner of Shunpo...which means fighting with speed will truly be futile...damn it, he hasn't been taking this seriously right from the start!' He growled in anger as he charged at Shin'ichi, this time without using any technique in order to give him an advantage, knowing that anything he used would be almost completely useless against his current foe. Instead he forced his reiatsu into his blade in order to increase its attacking potential.
When Daiki clashed with Shin'ichi this time, Shin'ichi was actually forced to grasp his sword with his other hand in order to block Daiki's attack. Shin'ichi thought, 'That one was actually pretty strong. He must have dropped that weird Pseudo-Shunpo(5), although that was kind of obvious by his lack of speed when he crossed the distance between us...maybe I shytould start to take this more seriously...hmm...' as Daiki repeatedly clashed his sword against Shin'ichi's own. Eventually Shin'ichi thought, 'Ah hell, enough is enough,' and let Daiki's attack overpower his defence, causing him to over balance, letting Shin'ichi hit Daiki's sword just above its hilt with enough force to knock it free. Shin'ichi used Shunpo to get the sword while it was flying in mid-air. When he landed he said coldly, "You said that this was a duel, correct?"
"Yes," Daiki said angrily. "What of it?"
"Then I'm taking this sword as my prize."
"What? I thought that I told you that a duel is only to be fought for..."
"I know, but that's only your belief. You should consider yourself lucky that I was your opponent."
"Lucky? How am I lucky?" Daiki spat.
"If you were fighting against an eleventh squad member, then you'd be dead," Shin'ichi said as he turned to Arata and Akane and said, "let's go you guys, I've lost my ability to celebrate anything right now."
Akane sighed and said, "Alright," as she placed her brother's arm over her shoulders and started to walk back to the academy with Shin'ichi. When they got to the academy gates Shin'ichi said, "Yeah, I'll see you two later, right now I need to go take care of some errands, alright?"
"Yeah, sure thing Shin'ichi-san," Akane said, moving off to sneak her brother into her dorm for the night since she had no intention of entering the boys dorms with only her drunken brother for support should any of the guys in the dorm get any funny ideas.
XXXXX
As soon as Shin'ichi had left his new friends he used Shunpo(6) to appear in Unohana's office. She looked up from her paperwork and said, "Shin'ichi-san, I wasn't expecting to see you for quite some time."
"Yeah, well there's this problem that you're probably going to get word of tomorrow morning that I thought I should tell you about."
"Oh," Unohana-Sōtaichō said, her face taking on a weird glow, "and what problem would that be?"
"Uhh..." Shin'ichi said, starting to have sweat-drops appear running down his face.
"Speak now please," Unohana-taichō said, the glow not stopping.
"Well...I just...kinda...got into a fight with some stuck up brat named Daiki...he's probably a Kuchiki going by the scarf and Kenseikan."
"I see. Thank you for telling me...what was the fight about exactly?"
"The damned fool forced his reiatsu upon the people at the bar, after calling them rabble...I countered his reiatsu with my own, and he challenged me to some kind of honour duel or something...suffice it to say that I won."
Retsu looked at Shin'ichi's waist and, seeing his new Asauchi and asked, "Did you take that from him?" nodding to the new sword at his waist.
"Yeah," Shin'ichi replied. "I figured that he'd probably be getting a new one soon enough anyway, so no harm no foul, right?"
"Indeed. Normally that would be the case, unfortunately, the Kuchiki get their nameless swords custom made by the smiths of the Kasumiōji clan."
"I see," Shin'ichi said, grinning evilly, "then I think that I'll head on over to pay Lurichiyo a visit."
"Oh, to do what exactly?"
"Oh, nothing too bad, just hopefully doing you a favour by putting a stop to Daiki's arrogant attitude."
"How are you intending on doing that exactly?"
"I'll take care of that, it won't affect the Kuchiki clan as a whole, so there should be no problems for you."
"Very well then. I shall leave Daiki's adjustments to you then."
"Thank you, Unohana-Sōtaichō," Shin'ichi said before using Shunpo to return to Shinōreijutsuin. When he got there he headed to the dorm that he was to share with Arata. Not finding his room-mate, and friend, Shin'ichi figured that his sister probably took him to her room, not wanting to go through the entire boys dormitory to get to his room. He laid his two swords down at the end of his bed and changed into the pyjamas that had been provided on the end of his bed before laying down on his bed and falling asleep.
XXXXXX
A/N
Translations
(1) Sabitsura = Rusted Face
(2) Kuchiba = Decayed Leav
(3) Awaipo = Light Step - A step technique that increases the users speed, by fooling the users muscles to believe that the user is half as heavy as they truly are. This method results in an equivalent reduction in power. This is taught to Noble's with a decent chance of becoming head of their respective clan. This is so that, should they need to, they can get away from an attacker if they are yet to fully complete any form of combat training. As such it is almost counterproductive to utilise in an actual fight.
(4) Mataitoko = Elder second cousin
(5) Pseudo-Shunpo = False Flash-step
(6) Shunpo = Flash-step
Notes
Please review people. If you don't I may discontinue the story until such time I feel like writing it.
