My eyes flutter open and I turn to my right to look at the clock. It reads 5: 30am. 'Great...' I heave myself up and just sit there for a couple of minutes.

I sigh and finally get up to check the calendar, its tells me that today is Friday. "I wonder if anyone will miss me if I skip school for one day?" I question out loud as I stroll over to where my gigai and backpack are located. I reach for my gigai when my soul pager rings, I instinctively pick it up and flip it open to see that it was only a text message. The text message reads: "wivenrcalglkwerflnsdl :D (h) :) (b) (f) (w)" and says that it was delivered from Rukia's soul pager. 'I guess she must be playing around with her soul pager's functions.' I'm tempted to text her back, but I know I have more important things to do, think about.

After a revaluation, my mood instantly dampens. Thinking about Rukia makes me think about what happened yesterday and I am instantly depressed again. I leave everything as it is and only grab a quick bite of toast to eat before leaving on a walk to try to take my mind off the thoughts that were swirling around in my head.

I wander around aimlessly until I get to a park with a playground. I sit down in one of the swings and begin rocking back and forth. It was windy today so no one who was out really minded that a seemingly empty swing was moving by itself. Now that I'm inactive, worries rush back into my head. Thoughts like: Will I ever get back? If I ever do get back, will I be punished? Why am I so useless even though I'm a fourth seat? How will this boy change the course of events- surely he will not be overlooked?

I easily lose track of the time while I'm in my own little world and only just snap out of it when two kids that go to my school run past me, making me fall off the swing. Grumbling, I stand up and yell after them, "Watch where you're going! That hurt!"

As I rub my now sore butt, I contemplate whether I should go to the school or not. I won't actually do any learning or work today, I'm way too distracted to even attempt to do math or things like that. I start walking around again, window shopping on the way. I may not be able to buy anything as I am now, but I could always come back for it if something truly catches my eye.

After a while of walking I try looking for a clock. Machi must be wondering where I am, considering this is probably the first time I've ever skipped class. In the end, I decide to head to the school, if only for Machi's sake.

I get to the courtyard just before lunch time. Looking at the windows, I try to catch a quick glance at Machi- to see if she even showed up today. For all I know, she may have skipped like me, though I doubt it- it doesn't seem like a Machi thing to do. "Whatever, whether she's here or not, it's not like I have anything better to do today anyway," I mumble as I go sit in my usual spot high up in a tree near the back of the school.

I sit there quietly until I'm disturbed by the lunch bell- it's the cue for hundreds of students to pour out of the white building, bringing their loud chatter and laughing with them. Some go out for lunch while other merely find a sunny place to sit. So much for my peace and quiet. Though, what was I expecting at a schoolyard?

I survey the area for a glimpse of my brunette friend. I'm broken from the ritual as Machi herself comes towards me, shouting my name. I look down at her as she reaches the base of the big tree, "Sup?" I question, uninterested. One look at her face tells me something had been bothering her. 'Just like me,' I think.

"Well..." Machi starts uncertainly, "I was wondering if you could you like help me get stronger? You know... so I can actually help you guys out with hollows and shit."

'It seems I'm not the only one who started reconsidering their place after yesterday.' "But what about school? It's only lunch..." I say, not that I'm really one to talk considering I ditched today. Even though I am at school, being in shinigami form doesn't really make it count.

"Whatever, it's Friday! I know my homework for the classes I've already had and I'm pretty sure I won't have any for P.E..." Machi insists, trying to make me help her out. I know I should help, but I find myself stringing her along anyway.

I shrug nonchalantly and reply, "You know... skipping class isn't good." 'Cause I really have the right to say that... Man I am a hypocrite today...' I wave my finger at her in a 'tsk tsk' motion and shake my head as if I truly care for her education. Which I don't- her studies are her worries.

She gives me a blank stare and says, "Come on! I'm passing..." I raise an eyebrow. 'Just passing? I'm not even from here and I'm more than just passing... Though I think I may have only worked so hard to try to get my mind off the fact I may never see my true home again.'

My boredom is the only reason that I'm telling her off right now for wanting to skip school. Honestly, I don't give a damn and I doubt I ever will. "Okay!" I exclaim, making it seem like I've given in after some thought. "I don't really care for the education here anyway... why the hell do I need to know about World War 2? I doubt a hollow would randomly start asking me history questions..."

"That would be really creepy..." Machi says, shivering at the thought. I smile slightly at her antics. She shakes her head as if to banish the thoughts then says, with more force, "So anyways, you can help me out right?" She pauses to look around and notices people staring at her. I then realize that I'm still in shinigami form and smirk. I can only imagine how crazy she must seem to them right now.

Machi quickly thinks up a plan and grabs her phone to make it seem like she's talking on it. I just laugh at her. "So yeah... where should we start?" she asks me.

'How am I supposed to teach her to fight when I don't know how to make her into a shinigami in the first place?' I groan quietly and say, "If you want me to help you, then hang on a minute. I'll be right back." I stand up and shunpo away.

In a few seconds I appear in front of Urahara's shop and hastily make my way inside. I sigh in relief when I notice Urahara lounging near the front. "Urahara!" I call to him, "How do you make a human with high spiritual powers into a shinigami?"

"My my. What's with all the demands? Don't I get a hug first?" Urahara jokes as he sits up to look at me. I give him a semi glare.

"I'm sorry Urahara! But I don't have time! I need to get back to school pronto to train Machi..." I inform him, trailing off at the end.

"Ah I understand now!" he says, waving his fan. Even though I can't see half his face I can picture a huge smirk growing. "You agreed to train Machi but you have no idea how and you don't want to back out of it to in case she starts to regard you as untrustworthy!" I look away and pout, blushing from embarrassment slightly. 'Damn! He's sharper than I give him credit for...'

He smirks wider and fans himself, "Don't worry my dear Sazuki, I shall help you!" My mood instantly brightens and I turn to face him expectantly. "For a price of course!" My head drops in disappointment and Urahara laughs. "You didn't think I'd reveal a secret to you without me getting something in return, did you?" He questions me with that annoying smirk still on his face.

I groan, "Okay fine... what do I have to do?" I cross my fingers in hopes that it's not that bad of a job.

"All you have to do..." he tells me slowly, trying to play up the atmosphere. I glower at him, signalling he should hurry up since I really don't have the time. "Is not die," he finishes with a flourish.

My jaw drops and I fall over at his words. "T-that's all?" I cry, astonished. I was honestly expecting something like cleaning his store or running errands. Maybe even a perverted suggestion, but not this. Today just might be a good day afterall.

He nods his head and smiles, "So do you think you can do that for me Sazuki?" I nod my head happily. He then ushers me to get closer to him. I walk up to him and he hands me a piece of paper. "Everything you need to know is on that little sheet," he tells me, "Now hurry along, you don't want to keep Machi waiting any longer." I nod my head and smile at him appreciatively. As I leave the store I hear Urahara call out, "And don't forget to visit again soon!"

"I won't!" I promise him as I shunpo back to the school. On my way back I try to stifle a sneeze. 'I hope I'm not catching a cold or something... Can shinigamis even get colds?'

I tuck the piece of paper away before smiling at Machi who looks really annoyed right now. I must have taken longer than I thought talking to Urahara. I sweatdrop slightly as I say in a happy tone, "Okay, we can go now!"

"Finally!" I hear Machi grumble, not even trying to hide her annoyment about how I took way longer than I said I would.

"There's a forest nearby that we can use for your training grounds," I inform her as I begin walking away. She follows closely behind me still grumbling about how late I was.

After a few minutes of silent walking, a horrible shrieking noise pierces my eardrums. I whirl around ready to draw my zanpaktou when I notice that it's only Machi singing. Very, very badly. Even the song is ridiculous, only repeating four words over and over again. I'm tempted to ask about it, but I decide I'd rather not know who's responsible for such an atrocity. I take a deep breath then turn back around and continue on my way towards the forest.

A few more minutes pass and Machi breaks the accumulating silence once more, "So where are we going?" 'Didn't I just tell her this? Does she have a short term memory span or something?'

"I know this great spot in the woods. It's this huge clearing and it's pretty far away from where people might stumble onto us," I answer, giving her more information than before. I then remember that there was something that looked like a material list on the sheet I got from Urahara so I quickly check it. Thank god I did. "Looks like we're going to need to make some detours first though."

"Okay?" Machi says, uncertainly as she follows me when I make a sharp turn away from the direction of the forest.

I stop in front of a hardware store and turn to Machi, "Okay Machi, since I'm a shinigami," I motion to my attire, " You get to do the shopping. We're going to need a shovel or two and some rope."

Machi stares at me wide-eyed, "Are you going to murder me or something?" I smirk at her, considering it's pretty close to what I'm about to do. She walks quickly inside, trying to get away from me. I wait patiently as she purchases all the necessary equipment. 'I hope she has enough money, because there's another stop after this.'

While Machi is at the counter I notice that she also requests a knife. I laugh slightly as I catch on to why she would want it. I don't want to burst her bubble but... "I hope you know that regular objects can't hurt shinigami," I call to her. Machi mumbles something then goes back to purchasing things.

When Machi walks out with the supplies in a plastic bag I turn and head towards a convenience store, our last destination before the forest. I stop in front of the store and turn to her, "I hope you have enough money on you... You now need to purchase five days worth of food for two people." I notice her "Are you fucking kidding me?" expression and quickly say, "Don't worry! I'll pay you back after your training!"

"You'd better..." she grumbles as she heads inside to buy what I asked for.

As Machi walks back outside I eye what she's carrying. Everything she has can be instant made, which will be a good thing, but she also failed to buy anything that had any nutritional value what so ever. "Interesting choice of food," I tell her as I rummage through the items. I grab a bag of chips and start eating them. "What?" I question as she glares at me, "I've barely eaten all day!"

Machi then snatches the bag out of my hands and says, "Can shinigami honestly get hungry...?"

I ponder what she had asked. It's actually a good question. Souls shouldn't get hungry unless they're close to becoming hollows, and yet I still feel an emptiness in my stomach. At last, I come up with an explanation, "Not exactly, but I've been pretending to be human so long it's become a habit."

She then sticks her tongue out at me and I return the favour. I grab back the bag and say, "Anyway, come on let's go." I begin walking away again.

Machi glares at me once again and remarks, "You do realize right now, that a bag of chips is floating..."

I sweatdrop, "Good point." I quickly eat whatever chips are left in the bag and then give it back to Machi, "Problem solved."

She puts the bag in the garbage and says, "Whatever... Let's blow this Popsicle stand." She walks ahead of me then pauses, "The one thing I forgot..." She mumbles then resumes on walking. I quicken my pace to catch up considering she doesn't even know where we're heading.

We get to the clearing shortly thereafter and Machi heaves a sigh of relief as she drops everything she had been carrying, which is honestly quite a lot. I couldn't help her because then random objects would be floating and that wouldn't be very good... "Okay! Grab the shovels Machi!" I instruct as I take out the piece of paper once again.

"What the fuck... I can barely read this... Damn his handwriting!" I mumble to myself. I notice Machi eyeing me and I rapidly fix my slip up, "I mean... damn MY messy handwriting..." I smile sheepishly, all the while sweatdropping.

Machi gives me a blank stare then passes me a shovel, "What the fuck... Whatever..."

I take the shovel and make my way to four different spots where I make a mark with the shovel. After I make the fourth mark I turn towards Machi and say, "Okay, now you must dig a hole that reaches all four of these spots." I motion to each of them. "I'll tell you when it's deep enough, but first let's work on the size." Truly, this hole should have been dug before I brought her here, but the workout will make her stronger.

"Okay..." Machi says as she gets to work shovelling the heavily packed dirt.

While Machi is digging like crazy, I drop my shovel and find a good sturdy tree to lean against. I sit down with my back against the tree and watch Machi work.

After a little while of digging, Machi looks at me with a questioning look. I tell her, "I'm already a shinigami. I don't need this training, remember?" This may be a little harsh, okay, this is pretty harsh, but this should strengthen her. She says nothing and gets back to work. I frown, her silence is kind of discouraging.

Digging the hole is a lot of work. It takes Machi two days and a night, with some help from me (I pitied her), to make it to the right standards. There was time for eating and sleeping of course, I'm not that much of a dictator.

On the morning of the third day of training I peer into the hole and give her a thumbs up, "Great job! It looks good!" I go back to the supplies and grab the rope. I go back to the hole and lower the rope. "You can use this to climb down inside, unless you want to jump right in. Though it looks pretty deep..." I inform her of her choices. But something seems like it's missing.

Machi looks into the hole and that back at me. "What... no... I just spent two days digging!" she cries. She does look exhausted, and I can't blame her for it either.

I recheck the little paper. The next step brings an evil smirk to my face. "Oh this is going to be fun!' As I think more carefully about how to do the next step, I realize I should give her time to rest. "Yeah..." I say, "You should rest up before we do the next step."

She lifts an eyebrow at me, clearly sceptical about the sudden change in mood. "Okay..." she says, uncertainty dripping from every word. "I guess that's good for now..."

An hour passes by. After I think she has had enough time to rest, I stand up. I take a special glove out of a random pocket and put it on. I smack Machi and her soul tumbles out of her body. As she tumbles I can hear the clanking of her soul chain. 'I hope she can do this. If not, I'm going to hate slaying her...'

"What the fuck?" she yells angrily. I swiftly grab my zanpaktou and bring it down upon her soul chain, severing it. I wait a bit for Machi to notice the fact that she should no longer be able to breath.

"Okay so... You're not a serial killer... or an assassin... but WHAT THE FUCK!" she exclaims before she cuts herself off as she beings to pant. Now time for the next step on the list.

"Next up is..." I say slowly, to build suspense. "This is going to be fun!" I can't stop myself from exclaiming, smirking once again. This step has to be my favourite by far. Machi just glares at me. "You've got five seconds to start running," I tell her. She looks at me confused then takes off when I reach two. She must have sensed that I wasn't kidding around, this is quite serious. I keep counting until I finally reach zero.

"Zero!" I call to her. I start to chase after her, but not going full speed because a human would not be able to keep up, and start yelling out kido spells, "Hado 31: Shakkaho!" I fire a ball of red energy from my hand. It barely misses her and creates a ditch where it hits the ground. Machi eyes the ditch then speeds up.

After a couple of those I switch it up and yell, "Hado 33: Sokatsui!" This time I fire a burst of blue spiritual energy at her, similar to Shakkaho, but over a wider area and with more power.

"HOLY SHIT!" I can hear Machi scream as she desperately tries to dodge my kido spell.

"Try to hit me!" I instruct her, "Come on!" I then resume yelling out kido spells. She ignores me and keeps on running away, not bothering to look back. I frown and speed up slightly, making her escape harder. "I'm going to keep chasing you until you manage to strike me!" I inform her.