The next morning Shin'ichi woke up at about six and had a shower, in the bathroom that was attached to their room. After he got dressed in his students Shihakushō he headed to the Academy's cafeteria to get breakfast. He had what they were calling Eggs Benedict, but was in reality a pseudo-burger that consisted of an egg, bacon and hollandaise sauce between two muffins. He separated the pseudo-burger and tried to eat it as you would a proper Eggs Benedict and found that it was, truly, horrendous. After he finished that off, topped with a glass of apple juice, he headed over to the Kasumiōji manor as there were no classes that day. When he got there he was met by Kenzaki Ryūsei(1), who had felt his, admittedly diminished., reiatsu approaching, bypassing the commotion that would have occurred otherwise. Seeing the green haired Shinigami in his Student Shihakushō, Kenryū struggled to contain his laughter. Finally calming down, he asked, "What happened to you?"
"The Captain-Commander wants me to go through the traditional channels to become a full Shinigami, and I agree with her."
"Okay, so why are you here then?"
"Ah, that," Ichigo said in a grave tone. "I need to speak with Lurichiyo."
"Very well. She has been looking forward to a visit from you for quite some time."
"Yeah, sorry, but I could never really make any time for that...work...you know."
"Yes. I understand. As does she."
"Ah, good," Ichigo said, thinking that if she was against meeting him then the chances of her helping him would be lessened considerably.
"I'll take you to her," Kenryū said, allowing him entry to the clan compound.s
"Thanks," Ichigo said as he followed Kenryū through the compound and into the main manor.
When they made it inside Kenryū said, "Announcing, One Kurosaki Ichigo, seeking an audience with you, your highness," in an officious tone.
Lurichiyo looked up from her piles of paperwork and, seeing Ichigo's current state, laughed. She laughed long and hard, stopping only when Kenryū coughed. She said, "Oh! I beg your pardon Ichigo...but just the sight of you in that ghastly get-up..." Ichigo sighed, silently agreeing with her, but explained his situation nonetheless. "Okay," Lurichiyo said, "If that's the case, why are you here and not in class?"
"There're no classes today, and I find myself in need of your assistance."
"My assistance?" Lurichiyo said, "Of course I'll help you in any way I can, but I don't see how I..."
"It's a simple matter really. I need you to refuse to make a replacement Asauchi(2) for Kuchiki Daiki."
"Refuse to...Why? Our relations with the Kuchiki clan have always been kind of strained but..."
"I see. Well, I need to 'adjust' Daiki's attitude, and I figure that this' probably a good place to start. You see, he and I got into a bit of a fight last night, and I won and took this Asauchi from him," Shin'ichi said, producing the Asauchi that he won from Daiki. "Unohana-Sōtaichō has kindly allowed me to take care of the 'adjustments', so long as it does not become a problem for her."
"Very well," Lurichiyo said, "consider it done," tearing up the sheet that she was working on and retrieving another, this one stating the refusal of the request for a replacement sword.
"What should I do with this one?" Shin'ichi asked, having no idea what to do with a soulless sword when he already had a sword with a Zanpakutō spirit residing in it.
"Keep it," Lurichiyo said, "Those swords take on the reiatsu of their possessor and become Zanpakutō. You already have your own Zanpakutō, so who knows? Either way, leave it here with us for a few days, right now that thing has some of this Kuchiki Daiki's reiatsu in it. We'll wipe it clean for you."
"Alright, thanks," Shin'ichi said, handing the blade to Kenryū before leaving back the way he had come.
XXXXX
Meanwhile, Arata woke up, lying on the floor of his sister's dormitory room. Forgetting that they were no longer in their house, he stood up and stripped to enter the bathroom attached to the room. When he entered the blonde inside shrieked as she had just exited the shower herself and was clad only in a towel. Arata's eyes widened in surprise, and pleasure, as the blonde was truly amazingly beautiful. Hearing the shriek coming from the bathroom woke Akane up and, seeing the door open, and her brother's absence, she figured out what the problem was and rushed over to the open doorway and yanked her brother, by his ear, out of the bathroom, apologising to her roomate after she had forced her brother away. When she turned back to face her brother, after closing the door behind her, She said, "Put...Your...Clothes...On...NOW!"
"R...r...right!" Arata replied, finally remembering that he was no longer in the house in which they shared a room, but in the Shinōreijutsuin, and hurriedly got dressed in the clothes that had not been changed since the siblings had got back the previous night. After he rapidly donned his clothes he left via the window, escorted by Akane's foot.
After Arata had left the blonde in the bathroom came into the room, half demanding, "Who was that?"
"That? That was my dumbshit brother. Again, I'm so sorry about that. I had to bring him in here last night because he got kind of drunk. Oh! I'm Akane by the way."
"I'm Kiyoko, and I can understand your problem with your brother. I have one of my own you know?"
"Uhh...no...I don't. I just met you."
"Oh! Right! I was asleep when you came in last night, wasn't I?"
"Yeah," Akane said, thinking, 'This person is a bit of a ditz, isn't she?'
"Oh right, since we're roomies, we should probably get to know each other better, right?"
"Yeah sure, why not...so...what do you want to start with?"
"Okay, how about your brother?"
"Ararta? What do you want to know about him?"
"Well..." Kiyoko said, blood rushing to her face, "is he seeing someone at the moment?"
"Eh?" Akane said, stunned that her roommate was asking her that right of the bat.
"Well...you know...he's kinda hot...and lar..."
"I don't want to be hearing this," Akane screamed, "Lalalalala..." and continued on like that for about twenty seconds before seeing that Kiyoko had stopped. "Alright, first things first. I will not, under any circumstances, assist you in seducing my brother, alright?"
"Oh fine," Kiyoko said, sulking. "Now, my question...what's your brother like?"
"HEY! Don't go off at me for..." Then Kiyoko looked at Akane's face and saw that she was joking, and laughed a bit herself, queueing Akane to do the same. "Seriously though, I need to have a shower and then let's go get some breakfast, I'm starving," Akane said, her stomach growling.
XXXXX
Ten minutes later the two girls went to the cafeteria, only to see Arata entering it as well. Akane called out to him, telling him to wait for them. He did. When they reached him, he said, "Hey...I'm really sorry about what happened earlier," looking at the as yet, to him, nameless blonde.
"Yeah, me too. Sorry about shrieking like that, I come from Hokutan, in west Rukongai, so there wasn't really that much sharing of rooms. Where do you guys come from?"
"We come from Kuchiba, in North Rukongai, so we're kind of used to it. So...once again...Sorry."
"Really? I thought that people from there were all...well...idiot's with muscles for brains and scars all over themselves...although...according to your sister you meet one of those conditions."
"Is that so?" Arata asked pointedly, glaring at his sister.
Akane, though, was stunned speechless by the actions of her roommate and her brother. When she got over her shock, she said, "Would the two of you please not participate in flirting with each other at the breakfast table?"
The two participants simultaneously pointed at themselves and said, "Uhh..."
"YES! YOU TWO!" Akane shouted, drawing the attention of the entire hall to their table. Seeing the consequences of her hasty actions, Akane waved her hands in front of herself and said, "Sorry, sorry, nothing to see here," bowing at her waist at the end.
The rest of the students eventually turned back to their food and started talking amongst themselves once again. When they had Shin'ichi sat down beside Akane, opposite Arata, no food in his hands. Akane, hitting the obstruction as she cut into her bacon, looked up and saw her new friend. She said, "Oh! Shin'ichi! It's nice to see you again." Then, noticing his lack of food, she asked, "Where's your breakfast?"
"Oh, I had breakfast about an hour ago."
"An hour ago?! What the hell were you doing up at six?"
"I had another errand to take care of, so I wanted to take care of it nice and early so that I could spend the rest of the day with you guys."
"I see," Akane said, "you seem to have a lot of 'errands' to 'take care of', for someone who 'just got here'."
"Yeah...well...Anyway, while I was on the errand last night I found this cool cave that we could use for extra-curricular training."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I thought that we could go and check it out after you guys finished breakfast."
"Yeah sure, as long as you don't mind these two goin' at it in front of you."
"It shouldn't be a proble..." Shin'ichi said, seeing a female 6th year student with long, dark, hair and blue eyes enter the cafeteria. He thought, 'Tatsuki! Oh no, this' going to be a problem.'
Seeing the person that she had been married to for much of her adult, living-world, life, albeit with green hair, Tatsuki practically yelled, "Ichi..." before Shin'ichi used Shunpo to stand next to her and clamp his hand over her mouth, before using a long-distance Shunpo to get them out of there so that he could talk to her and explain the situation. Of course she didn't take it too well and started struggling to get out of his grasp halfway through his 'step'. Eventually he had to let her go, cutting his step short by about a quarter. Tatsuki demanded, "Alright dear, what the hell's going on? Why'd you..."
Ichigo cut her off, saying, "Yeesh, even in death you won't let me get a word in."
"Hey! I'm askin..."
"I know what you're asking, and if you give me a damn minute, I'll explain everything."
"Alright, I'm listening," Tatsuki said, folding her arms, impatient for information.
"Okay, first things first. I died."
"Well that's blatantly obvi..."
"Yes yes," Ichigo said, not in the mood for his wife's antics. "Anyway, I asked Unohana-Sōtaichō what I should do, and she said that I should enrol in the Academy. Of course due to my exploits sixty odd years ago, I'm in some of the history classes."
"Some? Heh, you mean all!" Tatsuki commented.
"All of them?!" Ichigo exclaimed. "Anyway, Zangetsu sealed himself in order for me to pass as a regular student here. So from now on, in public, you need to refer to me as Aosaki Shin'ichi, alright?"
"Sure, but first things first..."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"Who's the whore?"
"The what-now?"
"The bitch sitting next to you in there...I saw the way she was eyeing you!"
"Akane's not like that."
"She better not be."
"Anyway," Ichigo pointedly said, "What's been happening with you?"
"Nothing much really. I'm acing Hakuda and Hohō. Not too shabby in Zanjutsu or Kidō, what about you?"
"Well, we're starting classes tomorrow, but I'm in advanced Zanjutsu, Hakuda and Hohō," Ichigo said, completely disregarding the fourth art.
"What about Kidō?"
Ichigo whispered, "Remedial."
"Rem..." Tatsuki said before laughing. "The great Kurosaki Ichigo, failing miserably at something. Who would've thought it?"
"Yeah yeah, laugh it up."
Tatsuki sighed before saying, "Seriously though, it's good to finally be able to see you again," and jumped up, kissing Ichigo not quite forcefully.
XXXXXXX
A/N
Translations
(1) Kenzaki Ryūsei = The adviser of Rurichiyo Kasumiōji, commonly referred to as Kenryū
(2) Asauchi = A sword without a Zanpakutō spirit dwelling inside it
(3) Hokutan = North End
