"We are NOT!!" The 3 protested as they heard Kiyone blurt out the news to them.
"Why are you denying it? It's true!" Rangiku joined in.
"Who told you such a tall tale?" Rina asked ready to kill whoever it was.
"Well nobody, it's really obvious though!" Rukia said.
"You don't have a problem with Rina locking lips with your brother Rukia?" Nemu asked.
"Excuse me?!" Rina asked embarrassed.
"Actually no I don't, I don't mind her being my future sister in-law." Rukia said.
"Rukia…" Rina warned her in a deathly tone. Rukia understood and stayed away from the topic.
"What do you mean by 'obvious'?" Mika asked suspiciously.
"Well, for you, Renji doesn't care if you follow him, annoy him or whatever and he treats so much more nicely too!" Kiyone pointed out.
"No he doesn't!" Mika retorted.
"Yeah right…"Soifon muttered.
"And you Tori, I can do work without you in our office ya know! He just made up that lame excuse so he could see you!" Rangiku stated.
"Wow really?—I mean, NO HE DID NOT!!" Tori said quickly after being awestruck by Hitsugaya's intentions. Rangiku rolled her eyes at her reaction.
"And you Rina, Byakuya would normally tell people to bug off when they start 'stalking' him or even talking to him. He totally doesn't care if you're around at all!" Isane pointed out.
"Maybe cuz we're JUST FRIENDS?!!" Rina asked thinking they were all strange, after all can't girls just have friends that happen to be guys but aren't boyfriends?
"You guys are in denial, face it" Isane said.
"Yeah, and you guys shouldn't be embarrassed anyways, you guys are lucky!" Rangiku pointed out.
"…can we leave this topic now?" Rukia asked.
"YES PLEASE!!" Mika prayed—she was on her knees, hands put together as if she were praying.
"And can we get this guy out of here?" Nanao asked pointing at her captain who was listening intently in the girl talk.
"Gladly" Soifon said kicking him out the window.
"Are we really that obvious?" Tori questioned as she and her two friends walked back to their division.
"I hope not, but I guess we are if people like them can figure it out…" Mika mumbled.
"Yeah…well let's try to keep the relationship to more of a friend level" Rina advised as the other two agreed. As the 3 walked back to their division, they were quite surprised to see their captain well enough to be in the office.
"Ah, there you 3 are, I have an errand I need you guys to do" he said with a smile.
"What is it?" Tori asked warily.
"I'm positive you'll enjoy this mission" He said.
"A mission?" Mika asked not totally convinced—missions to them were something really boring.
"Yes, remember the academy you went to?" He continued.
"Oh yeah…fun times, fun times…" Tori remarked.
"Well, you guys are gonna go there just to make sure that this year's recruits aren't challenged, if you know what I mean. The last thing we want is more people like you 3" He explained with that unnecessary comment at the end.
"Ok...what's wrong with people like us?" Rina asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, it's just that, I don't think the Gotei 13 can deal with more people like you." He answered.
"Cuz you're all turning into old farts…" Mika said quietly.
"Ah, the good old days" Mika commented when she and the other 2 entered the nostalgic area.
"Yup, failing every class and not bothering to show up—those were the good old days!" Rina agreed.
Even though all 3 had failed every class and just didn't want to show up for any classes, they still somehow became shinigami. It was probably most likely because of the girls' talents in certain areas that benefited them. Tori's shunpo was unimaginable; even though it was just introduced she had mastered it right away, as if it was something natural to her. She actually got faster and could do more flash steps if she was hyped up with sugar. Mika's swordsmanship was just amazing; she could easily analyze a person's movements and just turn it into her advantage. She was able to dodge magnificently and move with the sword as if one. It was a special talent that the captains were looking for. Rina's specialty was kidou. She was able to master the high level spells easily, it wasn't long before she was able to cast them without the incantation. She also could heal a bit, it wasn't as great as members of the 4th Division but it proved useful especially once her skill improved even more. In fact, in the beginning all 3 girls weren't in the same divisions at all. Mika was in 11th Division, Rina was in 4th Division and Tori in 2nd Division. How they all wound up together in 13th Division was a common problem—their laziness. Ukitake had agreed to try to help them with their problem; it had improved… a little.
The hot sun scorched the dry earth as 3 young girls tried their best to get through the heat waves. It was very hard though even though they had spiritual power. They hadn't eaten in days and were starving. In fact, their hunger and the heat made them loopy.
"Hey look! It's a hippo on that tree!!" A girl with long blond hair pointed at a rock that was supposedly a tree.
"Really? I see a platypus!" A girl with short dark hair responded.
"No, it's a wombat" The 3rd girl with mid-back black hair said.
"I dunno, it kinda looks like a…" The blonde never finished as she collapsed from hunger.
"Mika?!" The short-haired girl cried out. She then fell over breathing heavily.
"Tori? Mika?" The other girl cried out, she bent down and shook them. They were still conscious but were barely clinging on to life. "Hang on!!" She told them.
"Looks like you three need a hand" A masculine voice spoke from behind them. A shadow masked the 3, the dark-haired girl turned around to see a man that was a shinigami.
"Who are you?" She asked cautiously.
"That doesn't matter right now, right now we need to get you and your friends to safety" He said outstretching his arm to her. She took it hesitantly as he lifted her up.
"What's your name anyways?" He asked as he was carrying the unconscious girls in his arms; he and the girl were walking side by side to an unknown destination.
"I'm not telling until you tell me yours!" She answered looking away like a spoiled kid. He chuckled and smiled at her, she however looked at him strangely.
"Okay then, I'm Sosuke, Aizen Sosuke—Gobantai Taichou of the Gotei 13" He told her.
"…Tsukiyomi Rina" She answered not looking at him.
"Are these two your sisters?" He asked she shook her head.
"We're orphans, we promised to stick together since we lived in such a crappy place" She answered.
"The one with blonde hair is Kurai Mika, and the other is Shinboku Tori" She finished the introductions.
They had reached their destination—Seireitei. Of course bringing in 3 people from Rukongai was very hard. But after much convincing they were brought in.
"Stay here, I'll be right back" He said as he left the room. Mika and Tori had fallen asleep and lay on the couches. Rina sighed; their lives hadn't been so hard until that very moment. The door slid open; Aizen returned with food with him, he knew the two had fainted from hunger.
"Just eat as much as you need, we're gonna have to wake those two up first though" He said seeing the two sleep soundly on the couches.
"I'll do it" Rina volunteered as she grabbed a pillow.
"What are—" Rina threw the pillow onto Tori which woke her up, she then threw another pillow at Mika who shot up.
"PILLOW FIGHT!!" Tori declared and started throwing pillows at Rina.
"Hey! Stop it!!" Rina yelled as she was under a huge pile of pillows.
"Hey look taiyaki!!" Mika spotted the pastry and engulfed immediately.
"Screw the pillow fight!! Let's eat!!" Tori said, tossed her pillow aside and gobbled anything she could get her hands on.
The food that Aizen had brought in had disappeared in less than 15 minutes.
"Hey, who's that guy?" Tori asked pointing at Aizen.
"He looks nice…too nice…" Mika added giving a suspicious look to him.
"Oh that's Aizen Sosuke, a captain of the Gotei 13 or something" Rina explained.
"How old are you guys?" He asked suddenly.
"150" They answered in unison (in 'real life' terms—15 years old).
"You should be old enough" He muttered. The girls were puzzled. "Oh sorry, guess I should explain" He said. "It seems all of you have spiritual power, you can become shinigami" He explained.
"Shinigami?" Mika asked uninterested.
"They're spirits that fight to protect Soul Society, from hollows" He answered.
"Ohh…BORING!!" Tori shouted out. He looked quite stunned.
"Why not? You have the potential!" He said.
"Yeah, but you said 'protect' and that means 'work' and I hate work, so I ain't going to" She said back to him.
"Do we get to use a sword?" Mika asked getting excited.
"Yes"
"OKAY I'M IN!!" Mika declared to the room.
"What about you?" He asked Rina.
"Sure whatever nothing else to do in this dump" She mumbled.
"Wait…is there bunnies here?" Tori asked rethinking her decision. Aizen nodded unsure of what it would lead to.
"OK I'M IN!!" Tori yelled out punching the air.
---
"6 years?!" Tori whined when she heard she had to go through 6 years of school before becoming a shinigami.
"Chill, there's free food here" Mika muttered to her.
"Oh yeah…"
"Well we're gonna be late, so we better go now" Rina said walking past them.
The red hakama swished back and forth in every step. The long white sleeves of the top were quite annoying as they could get caught every now and then. This was the uniform for the girls attending the academy. The boys' uniforms weren't much different except for a blue hakama.
"What room is it?" Tori asked.
"I dunno, I'm just following this map Aizen gave us" Rina answered looking at the piece of paper... upside down.
"We need a map to get around?" Mika asked.
"Apparently" Rina answered rolling her eyes, they had gotten lost around it a few times before their classes had actually started.
"Ok, finally" Tori sighed in relief as they had arrived in time. It was a lesson that had to do with a book, a chair and a desk.
"OH JOY!!" Mika cried out sarcastically. In fact none of them cared about the lesson that was yet to unfold. They fell asleep through the whole thing.
"Kurai, Shinboku, Tsukiyomi!! Wake up!!" The teacher yelled at them.
"Unh?" They groaned as they were woken up.
"Whaddya want now?" Tori asked grumpily rubbing her eyes.
"Can either of you repeat what I just said?" He asked. "Yeah, 'can either of you repeat what I just said?'" Tori repeated word for word with the same tone of voice.
"NO! Not that!! God…How about the lesson then?" He asked confidently.
"Read the board smartass" Rina said smirking when he realized the whole lesson was on the board.
"Woo hoo!! I can sleep, night baldy!" Mika cried out and patted his bald spot before dozing off.
"All 3 of you are to remain after class for the lesson!" He yelled out angrily.
"Gee…I'd love to, but I have a life!" Tori retorted. The class couldn't help but giggle, 3 defiant girls that were planning to become shinigami were talking back to their sensei.
"Do I need to report you 3?" He asked.
"For what? Falling asleep during a boring lesson?" Rina asked.
"Hey I don't blame them!" A male shouted out.
"Yeah!! They have the right idea!" A girl shouted out. Soon the whole class rioted chasing their sensei out of the classroom. The class about the rules and regulations of Seireitei was completely useless for the day.
"Ok, now it's…what is it?" Tori asked wondering what their next class would be.
"Its kidou!" whispered a brunette named Ayaka. She had started the riot chasing their sensei out of their class.
"Ohh…ok" Just like the class before nobody cared and the 3 fell asleep again.
"Wake up!" He yelled at them.
"Ohh… not again!!" Mika whined.
"Perform Hadou No. 31" He commanded.
"That's way too hard!! We only covered spells from 1-10!!" Ayaka protested covering for the three.
"Well if they had been paying attention then they may be able to show me something" He retorted.
"Ok here's your stupid fireball" Rina grumbled shooting out a red blast at his head.
"Aah!" He yelped and dodged to the side barely dodging the blast. "Watch where you're aiming!" He yelled at her.
"You wanted a fireball, since you weren't watching I had to get your attention somehow" Rina said back boredly. The class was wide-eyed as it was their first lesson; a high level spell already had been cast.
"Hey look a spider!" Mika yelled out.
"AAAHHH!!" Tori screamed and started shooting out Hadou No. 4: Byakurai, at it.
"Stop firing!" Their sensei yelled out dodging every single ray being shot out. Tori shot the spell out repeatedly at a post causing it to collapse. It was a very important post that held up the ceiling, so it started to cave in.
"Everybody out!!" The whole class was evacuated from their training area. Once everybody was out Mika couldn't help but say: "I like this class!" cheerfully as the building caved in.
In fact most of their classes turned out like that, they would occasionally skip out merely because they didn't feel like showing up at all. Despite the fact they wouldn't show up or learn anything for the matter, their performances demonstrating their skills were something words couldn't describe. Without any kind of training they were able to master them at a professional level. They were soon separated into different classes to help out others that were weak at their skills.
---
"I don't really know how to explain this…" Tori mumbled, a girl had asked her how she could master shunpo.
Since shunpo is flash steps, it could be considered running really, really fast. But it wasn't something that could be taught so easily.
"Um…I guess you just…uh…" Tori wasn't sure how she could explain it. "Uh…would you look at the time, I gotta go!!" She said quickly pointing at the imaginary watch on her wrist before running off. "Phew, that's one problem down." She sighed in relief. She heard a movement behind her.
"Huh?" She looked back to see a white-haired male shinigami behind her. People cleared a path for him as if he were king. He walked down while people were whispering in awe. Tori decided to follow him; her shunpo was good enough for quick escapes besides, it was a great opportunity to test it out. Straight, left, right, downstairs, turn, dead-end, turn back, go downstairs again… His face lit up when he found the room he was looking for, he entered eagerly. He exited swiftly with shunpo holding something large and round--hidden, wrapped in cloth. Tori followed him and soon jumped in front of him.
"Stealing is bad ya know!" She scolded the shinigami in mid-air.
"What the--?!" He exclaimed nearly dropping the watermelon he stole from the kitchen.
"S-Shouldn't you be back in class shorty?" He asked rudely.
"I may be short, but I don't have a silly nickname…Shiro-chan!" She said back to him.
"How did--?" He started but stopped realizing that if he had asked that question about his nickname, he would be admitting that it was his nickname. "Okay, you caught me red-handed…" He grumbled.
"Whatever, I won't tell!" She assured him before shunpo-ing back to the academy.
"Phew" He sighed in relief. "That was a close one"
Rina and Ayaka were walking together to their next class which was a hakuda class.
"I hate this class…" Ayaka sighed. Hakuda wasn't their best skill at all.
"Oh no" Rina said suddenly looking at a guy that was looking at them. It was, well the name didn't matter at all. Everybody knew him as a pervert; he would hit on anything that moved. He started to run towards the two.
"Oh crap!" Ayaka shrieked as she and Rina ran off quickly. As they ran on they realized people were clearing a way for some people.
"Talk about bad timing!!" Ayaka said noticing the people in front of them.
"Um…sorry to say this but he is right behind us!!" Rina notified her unaware friend.
"Yeah, but do you know who that is?!" She asked, stopping.
"Who cares!!?"
"Rina!!"
"Hey watcha talking about?" The perv asked.
"WAH!!!" They screamed.
"Bakudou No. 61, Rikujou Kourou!!" 6 rods of light struck him as he was binded.
"Um…great to see that you took care of our problem but…" Ayaka squeaked.
"What?" Rina asked. Ayaka pointed up, Rina arched her back to look up to see a man staring down at her. "What?" She asked again not understanding.
"Get out of the way you idiot!!" She whispered frantically.
"Why?"
"You have no idea who he is, do you?" She asked as if it was the end of the world.
"Uh…he's a guy?" Rina guessed.
"No!!"
"He's not a guy?!" Rina gasped in shock.
"Not that!! He is a guy, but not any guy, he's Kuchiki Byakuya!! 28th Head of the Kuchiki family, A.K.A. a noble!!" She informed her.
"Ohh…Hi Byakuya-san!!" Rina waved happily as Ayaka fell backwards.
"You idiot!! Get outta the way, respect the nobles!!"
"Wait, how do you know he's a noble?" Rina asked not believing her.
"The textbooks say it and he's wearing the Kenseikan."
"Kenseikan?"
"The headpiece; how dense are you?!" She asked hoping that he wouldn't kill her for her stupidity.
"So you know if a guy is a noble if he's wearing hair-curlers?" Rina asked Ayaka who just fainted. "Did I say something?" Rina asked clueless.
Byakuya glared at her for her remark, nobody could've been as stupid as her. Well Rina was just putting on an act, she didn't care if he was a noble or not. She didn't think it was right that the nobles get all the respect and attention while many people like her from Rukongai were treated like dirt. Byakuya and his family moved on anyways pushing her out of the way.
"Um…can you release me now?" The pervert asked.
"Sure I'll give a fast way out of this building too" Rina offered.
"Okay…" he answered.
"Hadou No. 33, Soukatsui!!" A blast of blue light shot him out as well as obliterating a large portion of the wall, the blast caught the attention of the Kuchiki's for a moment.
A red-haired male was running down the hallways quickly, he was determined to reach his destination as he was very excited. In fact he couldn't stop as he turned a corner and slammed into a girl.
"Ow…" She mumbled rubbing her head.
"Oh sorry, here I'll help you…" He volunteered gathering her books for her.
"Thanks, why are you in such a hurry anyway?" She asked retrieving her books from him.
"I have to tell this girl something" He said quickly.
"Your girlfriend?" She asked smiling.
"Wha--? NO!!" He shouted out.
"Whatever you say…well I've got to go, hafta beat up some more guys before I can leave this dump" She said.
"Wait, you beat up guys?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, my swordsmanship isn't so bad ya know" She said.
"Right, you could never beat me" He said confidently.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, I'd fight you if I'd have time but I gotta go"
"Wait, what's your name?"
"Abarai Renji, you?"
"Kurai Mika, guess we'll fight in the future huh?"
"Yup" He said before running off, nearly running into more and more people.
"Oh right, this is where we met the guys too right?" Tori asked remembering the events.
"Yup" Rina answered. The building was same as ever; the students that caught sight of them crowded around and cleared a path for them.
"Way too formal" Mika muttered looking at the sight before them.
"FOOD FIGHT!!!" A male yelled out throwing a tomato narrowly missing the shinigami's heads.
"Ohh…whoopsie" He said quietly noticing the 3 in front of him.
"YES!!! SOMEONE THAT UNDERSTANDS!!!" Mika cheered.
"JOIN IN IF YOU'RE NOT LAME!!" Tori added on. The students were confused but started throwing random objects at each other.
"That's more like it" Rina commented.
"What's going on here?" A voice asked them.
"Umm…" Tori started noticing that their captain was right behind them.
"They're, improving their reflexes?" Mika answered.
"Right…" He said back not convinced at all.