"Mikihara!"

Rei leapt slightly in her seat, rubbing her eyes and looking around to find the teacher at the front of the class glaring at her. Kaizuka-sensei kept on with his silent tirade before dropping his gaze to his book again and continuing. Rei rested her chin in her hands, letting her eyelids droop again. It was one of their theory classes, teaching the history of Soul Society, its founding, and how it continued to endure by the actions of the Gotei 13. To her, it seemed mostly a long rant about how the noble families were responsible for saving all of their asses and that the rest of them all owed their lives and souls to their superiors.

Classes A and B consisting of twelve students each were present in the same lecture classroom. After the first week, Rei had yet to learn the names of many of the other students, the majority of them keeping to themselves. She'd stuck close to her two comrades from the slave arena. Yugito had managed to fall asleep without being spotted, snoring softly on Kaoru's shoulder. The latter left her there while trying to scribble down notes on a small piece of parchment. And then further down the front of the room was that strange boy, Kaien.

He looked around and waved back to her. She raised a hand in response before letting it slap back down on the desk as she continued to half-process the teacher's words. The textbook sitting before her was battered and old, issued to her on her first class with Kaizuka-sensei. To try and stop herself from dozing off, she flipped it open, turning over pages to gaze at pictures, occasionally pausing on certain articles of interest. It covered much of what the man at the front of the class was talking about, the majority of it concerning the history of Soul Society and the formation of the Gotei 13. She reached a section concerning the important figures of the Gotei 13, primarily the captains.

She found Shiro quickly. Shiro Matsumura, 2nd captain of the 10th Division. A civil war veteran with one of the longest list of battle honours earned among the officers who'd fought on the frontlines. The picture was taken several centuries before yet he looked almost the same, maybe slightly more youthful but he had the same hair, same build, same unwavering blank stare. He'd looked at her as he'd offered a hand to help her up just like he was looking out of the page now.

Her hands turned the page again. There was a list of the prominent officers who had served with Shiro, mostly his lieutenants of which he seemed to have gone through many. The woman in charge of her zanjutsu training, Misaki Kurogane, was among them. That caused Rei to raise an eyebrow as she moved on coming to the next image and then freezing. Her mouth opened in a silent gasp as her eyes fixed on the photo of a woman wearing the haori of a Gotei 13 captain. The caption under the picture read; Asuka Mikihara, Captain of the 9th Division.

Mother...

Rei's fingers ran across the page's surface, trying to gain some feeling or emotion captured in the image. Though clad in the uniform of a shinigami, a militant arm of Soul Society, bearing a zanpakutou at her side, she could only feel warmth and love from the woman on the page. Her mother was smiling, the same expression she'd last seen, blood staining her face as someone drove a sword through her chest. It was the smile she'd reserved for her young daughter, the one held in her arms in the photo.

A droplet of water wet the page. Damn it... She was crying... Rei grit her teeth, balling up a fist and wiping her eyes furiously. She looked around her to see if anyone had seen her but the class were either doing their best to pretend to be interested in Kaizuka-sensei's lesson or, like Yugito, snoring loudly enough to make her wonder if their teacher was partially deaf. Gripping a fistful of her uniform, she dried her eyes, slamming her textbook shut as the bell rang to signal the end of the class. Seizing her things, she stood and hurried from the room, slipping out as the others converged on the doorway.

Yugito and Kaoru caught up with her in the corridor, the former still wiping sleep from her eyes. Kaoru kept staring at her, peering closely at her face as they kept on walking. "Are you alright, Rei-san? You look like you've been cr..."

"I'm fine, Kaoru. We better hurry up. We have kidou training and Kuchiki-sensei already has enough reason not to like us."

--

"Hadou #1: Shou!"

A breeze seemed to churn around the man-sized wooden dummy, causing it to rock slightly before returning to its static state. Rei looked around to see Yugito give a howl of frustration at her failed attempt to knock over her target with a spell. Much like the previous few classes they had under the watchful eye of Hideki Kuchiki, the girl proved that she had next to no abilities when it came to using kidou. It had taken enough time just to even cause 'something' to happen when she said the words. Her inability to do something the smaller girl could do was not doing great things for her mood.

"Hadou #1: Shou!"

The second wooden dummy seemed to almost explode under the force of another spell. Kaoru lowered her hand, eyes still wide and staring at the results of her attack. She seemed to be intimidated by her own actions. Poor girl... After what she'd been through, anything violent scared her half to death though she was slowly getting over it. Very slowly. Rei offered her a brief smile and a thumbs up in an attempt to encourage her even as the tall figure of Kuchiki-sensei descended on her, obscuring her from view. From the sounds of it, she was being congratulated for her pleasing results. The slight squeaks of her nervous replies made Rei grin slightly despite herself as she turned to her own target.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she tried to channel her own reiatsu into the kidou spell. It was hard to grasp at it, like trying to seize wisps of fog in her hands. She could visualise the intended effect in her mind, see the target being knocked over by the solid thrust of her attack. Closing her fist slowly, she felt a ripple beneath her fingers. Drawing back her hand, she gathered those threads of energy together. Then her eyes snapped open as she punched forward.

"Hadou #1: Shou!"

A force ripped from Rei's right hand, bursting forward and striking the wooden dummy directly in the chest. An invisible thrust crashed into the target's chest, cracking the solid wood and propelling it backwards, knocking it flat on its back. She let her arm drop to her side, walking over to it to inspect the damage. A small dent had appeared on the dummy's chest where her spell had struck. Not as much force as Kaoru but at least she'd managed to do it. Which was a whole lot more than Yugito had managed on top of that.

The other girl had attempted to knock her target down by throwing stones at it. Rei watched blankly as she then gave up on the stones to march down the length of the kidou range, drawing her asauchi from her side and stabbing it through the dummy's chest. Having punched a hole in it, she'd proceeded to kick it down and then hacking away at it until it lay in pieces. Rei shook her head as she walked over to her, inspecting the decapitated target, nudging apart chunks with her toe. Yugito looked over at her, grinning, clearly pleased with herself.

"Gets the job done, right?"

Rei shook her head wearily, trying to ignore as the same thing that seemed to be becoming a daily occurrence happened again, the other members of the class pausing to watch Yugito's performance. Kaoru hurried forward, tugging at her sleeve, trying to appear invisible despite being in the open kidou firing range. She yelped as she was dragged along before the other girl realised she was clinging to her arm, stopping and setting her asauchi down. "Did I overdo it a bit?"

"I think...you might just have, Yugito-san. We're drawing unnecessary attention." Rei stepped forward, grabbing a fistful of Kaoru's uniform and dragging her out the way just as Kuchiki-sensei stormed forward in a mood she could only sum up as 'pissed off', if a member of that senior clan could manage such a state of attitude. They turned away to avoid the repercussions of their companion's quick-tongued replies against the sounds of their instructor along the lines of failing to fulfill the objective of the day's exercise, having no talent for the most powerful art available to the Gotei 13 and questioning the wisdom of ever allowing such uncouth and common characters to be accepted into the academy.

"Kuchiki-sensei is right, of course. Who knows what Unohana-dono was thinking when she allowed those...peasants and scum in." That was a voice Rei had been getting used to hearing over the past few days. She looked over her shoulder to see another girl standing a few metres off, surrounded by a pile of blown-apart dummies. Long silky black hair, very refined features... Misato Kuchiki, their fellow classmate and resident bitch was the top student of the first class and she didn't mind lauding it over the others, none more so than Rei and her two comrades.

Rei closed her eyes attempting to close her senses off from having to listen to them. After a week, she'd hoped they'd just stop but they kept going at it. Not all of them, of course though the ones from some of the lower clans were always ready to agree with the Kuchiki. She held her sheathed blade with her left hand, gripping it to steady herself. It seemed that her long honed ability to draw in on herself worked better on her short-term beatings than these constant snide comments. Her thumb flicked up, loosening her asauchi from its sheath. It was too simple. A draw and a stab through the Kuchiki girl's throat. No problem...

"Rei-san...?"

Hands grabbed at her wrist and she found Kaoru there. The smaller girl shook her head and Rei sighed, slapping the tsuka to push it back into its sheath. It seemed Kuchiki-sensei had also finished with Yugito as their companion returned over to them. Their kidou instructor called them all over for another talk about how to cast the spell again. The three sat at the back, Yugito grumbling away about where Kuchiki-sensei could stick his criticism.

"Perhaps you should listen rather than complain about it." The three girls looked forward to see Misato staring back at them, the condescension almost pouring from her voice and expression.

Kaoru opened her mouth to apologize but Yugito held up a hand to forestall her, snapping back. "Perhaps you should take your own advice, shut up and mind your own damn business."

"Tch..." Misato spat on the ground. "Unlike...your kind of people, every member of the Kuchiki family has mastered these valuable abilities from an early age. I accomplished what you couldn't when I was only 7 years old. Even one of those spiritually-challenged Shihouin could manage it. It's hard to imagine a level lower than them but then I suppose we don't usually count slaves as actual people."

"That's ex-slave, bitch..."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean, Kuchiki...?" Another student whipped around in their seat, the dark-skinned Hideo Shihouin, yellow eyes narrowed as he glared at Misato. "Do you have a point to make...?"

"You should talk to Kuchiki-sama with more respect!" Rei looked back and forth as another one of the students spoke up. Kumiko Nomura of one of the lesser noble clans and always a firm supporter of the Kuchiki, looked ready to jump to her defence on her behalf as expected. Hideo's death stare swung around to lock onto Kumiko.

"And you should shut your mouth when talking to your betters. If you speak to me again like that, I'm going to crush your windpipe."

"Tch...he thinks he can."

"They do all tend to have a high impression of themselves..."

The brother and sister were talking to one another, backs turned as if ignoring them all but making sure they were loud enough so that all the others could hear them. Soujirou and Azumi Matsumura maintained their false air of aloofness at the collective glares from all the previous parties. Hideo made to stand fists raised but the brother slapped a hand backwards, catching the Shihouin in the chest and bowling him backwards and tripping over the back row of seats. He leapt to his feet, whipping his leg around in a roundhouse kick.

Yugito and Rei reached simultaneously for the back of Kaoru's uniform and pulled her down as the attack swept over her head in the confined space, cracking Kumiko across the face by accident. He collapsed in a heap even as Misato raised a finger, pointing it at Hideo and blasting a burst of white lightning across the whole group at large. Those initially not caught up in the kidou spell and fell away with smoke and cries of pain immediately leapt to their feet, fists and feet flying as students gave in to their simple need to hit something.

"Hold please, Rei-chan?" Yugito pushed Kaoru into Rei's arms before charging into what was swiftly developing into a simple brawl with a grin. Rei rolled her eyes as she watched their companion attack as Kaien sidled around the edges of the fight and took a seat beside her. He watched casually as Azumi punched Hideo across the face and then took him down with a flip that the Shihouin evaded up bracing up and flipping aside. It was...interesting to watch the two unarmed specialists beating the hell out of each other, after all.

"So...how's your day been today, Rei?"

"Er...fine thanks, Kaien." She raised an eyebrow at the out-of-place question. An explosion suddenly tore through the crowd of struggling figures, blasting them apart as Kuchiki-sensei finally realised that they probably weren't listening while beating each other's brains out and decided to break them up. Rei covered her ears as he started to shout at the top of his voice. She sighed. "Though...I have a feeling it's going to be a long day after this..."

--

"Seems I'm not arrested and imprisoned yet. Yamamoto must be doing an even better job of holding the clan up than I thought."

Shiro downed another bowl of sake and signaled for Shunsui to pour him some more. Still wearing his civilian gear, he took his sunglasses off and set them down on the table of the drinking house. He'd ended up meeting Shunsui and Juushirou, still clad in their captain uniforms, there in the Seireitei but outside the Gotei 13 territory lest he run into any unfavourable members of his clan on their way to complain to the captain-commander. He and Shunsui were sharing a large bottle of sake while Juushirou sipped at his green tea.

"Yama-jii is playing the old man card. Pretending he can't hear them when they talk to him, asking them to repeat things until they got tired and left..."

"What Shunsui means is that we have no idea what he's doing but whatever it is, it's keeping you from being punished any further for the moment, Shiro." Juushirou held up a hand to forestall their companion's ramblings. Shiro grinned, scratching the back of his head. "Well...thank him for me, next time you run into him. I wasn't sure what to expect when the clan started pressing down on him with all their political pressure but then I suppose you never know what the old man is capable of."

He yawned widely, setting down another empty bowl. "And how's my Division keeping? I know Mitsuki's a very capable officer but with the Matsumura breathing down her neck and just the whole...captain duties to deal with, I wonder how she's coping."

"Captain...duties...? What are those?" Shunsui seemed to ponder that thoughtfully before giving up, instead returning to his drinking. "But don't worry about Mitsuki, Shiro-kun. Since I figured Lieutenant Fushima might need some assistance from a captain while she get used to her tasks, I've been...checking up on her frequently."

"Indeed... If you checked up on her anymore, she'd have had you called up on sexual harassment charges, Shunsui. And if you weren't a captain...she would have smacked you on your ass." Juushirou sipped his tea again, setting it down once empty. The young waitress came over to replace it and the white-haired captain thanked her, smiling pleasantly. She flushed, covering her face with her tray as she hurried off again. Shiro and Shunsui looked from her back to him, eyebrows raised at his usual, effortless manner at having that effect on females...and furthermore while remaining oblivious to it. He looked up to see them both staring at him. "What...?"

"Nothing..." The other two exchanged exasperated looks before returning their gaze to their drinks, talking in lowered tones just to exclude the 13th captain. "Man...how the hell does he manage it?"

"No idea... But if I had those kinds of skills, I'd use them more. Wasted on him..."

"Oh I don't think a charming guy like you needs those kinds of skills to pick up young, attractive females." Shiro looked around as a woman dressed in a black yukata slid into the seat next to him, long red hair falling in a curtain to hide her face. They sat up straighter and even Juushirou appeared suddenly interested. She gave a sultry chuckle at the sudden attention, tossing her hair back over her shoulder, revealing a beautiful face...which was all too familiar to them all.

"Kiri..."

She put a finger to Shiro's lips as Kirio Hikifune took the cup of sake from his hand, winking at him before downing it in one swallow and refilling it. Her hand slapped down on his thigh as she leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "I thought an appropriate disguise was necessary to keep a low profile while visiting you, Shiro-kun. And you know I just couldn't resist visiting you."

He grinned as she slid closer, bodies pressing together as she rested her head on his shoulder, his arm around hers. Juushirou finished his tea and rose from his seat, clearing his throat. "Come on, Shunsui. We should leave these two to talk."

Shunsui looked torn momentarily, gesturing futilely to his half-finished sake and with an unsubtle nod at the couple. "But...I thought maybe we could stick around and..."

"No...we're leaving." Juushirou took a hold of Shunsui's haori and pulled him up, waving in farewell as he made his way out. "Alright, Shiro-kun. We'll be seeing you around and Ki...your friend here. Take care until then."

Shiro and Kirio watched as the pair moved off, Shunsui stumbling after his companion, leaving them alone again. They waited a few moments before they were sure they'd be left alone when Kirio turned to him again. "So...what now, Shiro-kun? My lieutenant's got things covered for several hours and I've got nothing better to do. Feel like...catching up?"

"Well...from what I've heard from Misaki, Rei's whole class have screwed up and I've got to go out and make sure nothing goes wrong with them. You remember Hideki Kuchiki when people mess around in his class. But..." He placed his fingers under her chin, turning her head to face him, kissing her on the lips. She closed her eyes, sighing in a satisfied way as they moved apart. "...that won't be on until late nightfall and my place isn't very far from here. Besides...you know I've always had a thing for redheads."

She coiled a red lock around her finger, regarding it. "Well...I always know what you like, Shiro-kun. As I think I could prove right...now."

Shiro grinned. He rose, helping her to her feet and offering her his arm as they made their way swiftly from the place and heading out into the night. "Let's go."