When the class was done Shin'ichi was more embarrassed than he was impressed. As he was the only one in the class to have taken a tanto as a weapon he had no one to practice with. He spent over an hour swinging his sword at nothing, making a complete jackass of himself. At the same time he provided his inner hollow with endless amounts of amusement. When they were done Daiki commented, "Did you end up hitting your opponent Aosaki?" before laughing, along with the entire class, minus Arata at any rate.

Shin'ichi said, "No," considering it answer enough for the arrogant Kuchiki.

Daiki commented, "Well, I guess that there's really no helping the helpless," in an attempt to gain the admiration of their classmates. It was proven successful as the rest of the class, minus Arata, who had seen Shin'ichi effortlessly deal with Daiki in the bar, and the twins, Seiko and Saito, who had no time to pay to any who were so superficial as to comment on something that was, quite frankly, out of their classmate's control.

Most of the class clustered around Daiki as Aloysius called out, "Alright, tomorrow I will come back with information on where you went wrong in today's training so that you can work on those areas in pairs that I shall assign you tomorrow," as the students filed out of his classroom, headed outside for their break. Shin'ichi stayed, sitting down on top of one of the first row desks. When the rest of the students had left, Aloysius turned on Shin'ichi, crossed his arms, and frowned as he said, "Alright, spill it. Where did you manage to get your hands on an Asauchi? Even ignoring the fact that the type you recently acquired fits the base requirements of a daishō, you don't just 'come across' one lying on the ground."

"Does it really matter?"

"Not to me, no. However, someone seems to be messing in matters concerning the noble Kuchiki Clan, and I was wondering if that Asauchi you 'found' once belonged to Daiki."

"Supposing it did, what would you do?"

"Hypothetically speaking, I don't really know. I suppose that the first thing that I would do would be to inform Byakuya-dono about it. After which he would put in a requisition with the Central 46 for them to force you to return it to its rightful owner. If you didn't give me reason enough not to that is."

"Well, hypothetically, if I managed to take it to a blacksmith that I know that can cleanse it of residual reiatsu, and reforge it into a completely different blade type, would that be enough of a reason?"

"So, hypothetically, Daiki has no true claim to the blade anymore?" Aloysius asked as he thought, 'There is only one family of blacksmiths that can cleanse and reforge a Kuchiki clan member's blade once the wielder has started to bond with the blade. The Kasumiōji. If Shin'ichi is somehow in with the Kasumiōji then he's no ordinary student.' He smirked and said, "Okay, I'm satisfied that there is no threat to either Daiki, or you, by your possession of his previous sword. Since you now possess two swords instead of just the one, you'll need to learn how to use them, won't you?"

"Well yeah, I thought that I'd just try and figure it out myself."

"Nonsense. Just come to the third exercise hall after classes have finished for the day and I'll teach you personally. Of course, in class you will need to stick with just the one, after all, things need to be kept at least somewhat fair in the classroom."

"Agreed," Shin'ichi said, standing up and leaving to go and find Arata, wherever he was.

XXXXX

Five minutes later Shin'ichi found Arata lazing about under a tree, sitting near his sister and Kiyoko. He sat down, not saying a word, despite all three glaring at him. As he started to lay back to stare at the clouds flying overhead, he was stopped when Arata demanded, "Alright, spill it."

"Spill what?" Shin'ichi 'innocently' asked.

"What did Aloysius-sensei want to talk to you about?"

"Oh, just about my performance in class," Shin'ichi said, accompanied with mocking laughter.

"What happened?" Akane asked, getting even more curious.

"Well…" Shin'ichi droned, "Aloysius-sensei had our class pick a random bokken in order for us to use to practice our kendo."

"Wait! You guys actually had a practical class?"

"Well yeah. Why?"

"Kenryū-sensei was somewhat…"

"Less than enthusiastic," Kiyoko supplied.

"Yes. That'll do."

Shin'ichi thought, 'Kenryū? What the hell is he doing here?' "So…why not?"

"He says that since we are less likely to progress past basic swordsmanship skills, our time, right now, is better spent on the theoretical side of swordsmanship rather than the practical." Akane leaned in before whispering, "But, if you ask me, I think its just that he can't use a sword himself."

Daiki heard Akane's theory as he was walking past with his three cronies and barked a laugh at her statement. He said, "Don't be ridiculous, Kenzaki Ryūsei is the bodyguard of the leader of one of the more important lesser noble families, and the Kasumiōji take care of taking care of the maintenance of the Zanpakutō of noble family members. There's no way that he is inept in the use of a sword."

"Oh," Akane said, "I didn't know that."

"Of course you couldn't, those from common stock would never understand noble society."

"Now se…"

"Don't bother Akane," Shin'ichi said, "it's nothing more than a waste of time, trying to get people to change their beliefs if they have been ingrained since birth. Of course, over time, well…" Shin'ichi left his sentence open, letting each of the gathered students to fill in the rest.

Daiki growled and said, "Don't think I've forgotten the humiliation from the other night. I will defeat you. Especially if you continue on like you were today." Daiki smirked, his sense of superiority once more inflated to its previous level, and walked off, his cronies in tow.

Kiyoko asked, "What's his problem?" once their antagonists were out of earshot.

"It's nothing really," Shin'ichi offhandedly remarked.

"Nothing?!" Akane exclaimed, "You only took the Kuchiki heir to school…in front of a largish audience."

"He…what?" Kiyoko asked, not familiar with the slang used in the outer districts.

"He easily defeated Daiki-san in a battle the other day, after we were accepted into the academy."

"That…couldn't have been easy," Kiyoko stated.

"You would think so, but it almost seemed like Shin'ichi-san could…"

"I'm right here you know," Shin'ichi said, somewhat irritated by being gossiped about right in front of him.

"Right," Akane said, acknowledging his presence before continuing on from before.

Then something strange happened. A student from the fourth form appeared in front of them and bowed. He said, "Forgive the intrusion, but I have a very important matter to discuss with Aosaki-dono."

"Oh," Shin'ichi said in a droll tone. "And what would that be exactly?"

"If we could talk in private?" the student asked, his eyes flickering from one of Shin'ichi's friends to the next.

"No," Shin'ichi stated in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Well…it is irregular, but if you are saying that you will tell them either way, then there is no choice in the matter," the, clearly, messenger said. "Aosaki-dono. You have received the great honour of joining the Order of the Amaryllis."

"The WHAT?!" Shin'ichi loudly exclaimed.

"Please, calm down," the still, as yet, unknown student said. "The Order exists only within the academy. It's actually quite prestigious, so only those most suitable are invited. In addition to which, most of its members have received seated positions in one of the squads upon graduation."

"You hear that Shin'ichi, you should join them."

"Hmm…wait a sec. You said in one of the squads, right?" The messenger nodded. "Which squad would that be exactly?"

"Why, the most exciting squad of all, the Eleventh."

"No thanks," Shin'ichi stated, having no desire to do anything of the sort.

"I'm sorry. In my haste I may have been somewhat vague in my message." Shin'ichi frowned, not liking the direction that the conversation was taking. "You have no choice in the matter."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that your membership in the Order is not up to you. It has already been deci…"

Shin'ichi cut him off. "I'm not interested. Now, move along."

The messenger sighed and said, "Very well Aosaki-san, since you will not accept willingly, then we shall have to force you."

"Force me?" Shin'ichi asked, his tone promising danger should he not like the answer.

"I'll be seeing you," the messenger said, leaving via an approximation of Shunpō.

Shin'ichi looked at his friends and thought, 'I don't know what he meant by force me, but the only way that they could do that is by taking my friends hostage. Even then, I could just beat them easily enough anyway if that messenger is anything to go by. But still, if he's right and all of these Amaryllis guys get seats in Zaraki's squad…' he looked at Akane and said, "Akane. It looks like I'll be taking a slightly different approach to your training."

Akane asked, "A different approach? What do you mean?"

"I mean that there is no way that they can force me to do anything I don't want to. But they don't know that and I want you to be ready for anything they might try."

"But then wouldn't it be easier to train Ara…"

"No."

"Why?"

"You are relatively inexperienced. And I've never tried to help anyone further themself before. As such you are easier to teach. Originally I was just going to focus on the theories that you had been taught and give you practical experience using those, but that idea just went out the window thanks to that guy."

"What do you mean?"

Shin'ichi said, "Training starts at the end of the week," before disappearing via Shunpō.

Kiyoko said, "That was…"

"Yeah, he likes to do that," Akane said, by now used to her friends disappearing at will.

"Oh, I see. Wait! It's not a matter of 'I see' this is serious. How can a student manage to use something as advanced as Shunpō?"

"I don't know, but it goes a long way to explain how he fought against Daiki."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know about Arata, but I couldn't even follow Daiki's movements when they were fighting, but Shin'ichi almost effortlessly followed and countered everything Daiki did."

"Oh," Kiyoko said, now truly interested in Shin'ichi. She thought, 'I wonder if he could help me work on my speed, especially if Shin'ichi-san is preparing Akane-san for a worst case scenario.'

XXXXX

Almost as soon as he had disappeared from his three friends Ichigo appeared in front of Kenryū, who was still collecting his papers from his last class. Kenryū didn't even look up to say, "You know, you should probably stop using Shunpō to get from one place to another if the idea is to hide your identity."

"Well, I don't really have to, since the lecturers already know I can, so right now I'm just a prodigy."

Kenryū scoffed and said, "There's an understatement if ever I've heard one." Ichigo smirked. "So, what do you want this time?"

"Who says I want anything?" Ichigo asked.

Kenryū did not buy it for a second and called him on his bluff. "If that were the case you wouldn't have to Shunpō in here like the God of Flash."

"They still have that title?"

"Of course."

Ichigo sighed and said, "at any rate. Do you remember a student from your last class, Kajikawa Akane?"

"Kajikawa…Kajikawa…ah! Yes. She was more attentive than the rest of the class."

"Well, I need a sword for her by the end of the week."

"A…why?" Kenryū asked, confused by Ichigo's request.

Ichigo sighed before answering, "I'm afraid that I may have done something rather stupid."

"No! You! Really!?" Kenryū stated, not that surprised.

"Yeah. It seems that I may have somewhat underestimated the fanaticism of the Order of Amaryllis."

"They're still around?" Kenryū asked, having had bad experiences with them when he was going through the academy.

"Yeah, and I just refused to join them."

"And you're concerned about what they might do to get you to join?"

"More or less."

"I see. Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"That's all I ask," Ichigo said. Then the bell tolled for the next class.