Author's Note: Arigatou for all the reviews and/or favorites and/or alerts! I may not have that many reviews now, but with all the favorites and/or alerts, I'm already very content! Arigatou!
…I really changed it to T rating…Oh well. Who asked me to be so vulgar? XD
New vocab: naiatsu – internal pressure, nairyoku – internal power. It's like reiatsu and reryuku so, yeah.
Disclaimer: Read previous chapters.
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Scroll Three – The Practical Examination
"…and thank you for the amazing display of swordsmanship, Ayasegawa-kun," Aizen concluded Ayasegawa Yumichika's exam progress with the word of thanks as he flipped to the next page of the exam candidates. The feminine boy smiled and walked back in the horizontal line, knowing that his turn was already over. He glanced at his baldy of a friend and winked at him. His friend just smirked at Yumichika's way of saying good luck. Aizen scanned over the words of the document displaying the next candidate's profile and then spoke into the microphone, "Let us welcome Inoue Orihime, fifteen-year-old student of our very own Karakura High."
Squeals from the crowd could be heard as the orange-haired girl stepped out from the horizontal line. Yamamoto nodded his head at her for her to begin. Orihime pulled out her snowflake-like hairclip from her long orange hair and tossed it at the target like a sharingan. At first, the crowd wasn't very impressed and neither was the panel of judges, but she wasn't over just yet. "Koten zanshun!" she yelled and her hairclip glowed a bright orange as it flew towards the target at higher speed and sliced the dummy into half. The crowd was astounded by the way she manifested her nairyoku into her hairclip and gave a loud cheer. Orihime plainly smiled and stepped back, bowing.
Aizen seemed pretty satisfied with that kind of offensive attack as well. Not showing the interest on his face, however, he spoke, "A very nice technique, Orihime-chan. Next, we have Ishida Uryuu, fifteen-year-old student of Zaraki High, from the state of Zaraki."
There was random murmuring amongst the crowd, wondering why a Zarakian was allowed to take the entrance exam when all Zarakians had been downright rejected the previous years. Ukitake smiled instead. Hitsugaya noticed his father's smile which seemed slightly different from all the other smiles Ukitake had. Perhaps it was a true smile? "Koutei-otousan, what are you smiling at?" Hitsugaya asked.
Ukitake turned to face his son. "You will soon see, my aisoku. This boy is not of an ordinary sort, and neither is Ichigo-kun."
Hitsugaya arched an eyebrow at the statement but later scoffed it off and resumed watching the practical examination. Ishida stepped forward from the horizontal line and bowed at the panel of judges-cum-examiners. Yamamoto nodded as an indication for Ishida to begin his display of his specialization. He asked for a spare sword for Ishida to use, but Ishida kindly shook his head and explained briefly, "My specialization is not swordsmanship, Yamamoto-soutaichou. It is archery."
"Oh?" Yamamoto's eyebrows were raised. Hitsugaya just folded his arms and leaned back against his seat, waiting for Ishida to make his move. Frankly speaking, he wasn't very interested in watching Ishida, but he sure was interested to see what the strawberry had up his sleeves. "Well then, get this boy a bow and an arrow," Yamamoto ordered. The shinigami guard bowed and was about to race off when Ishida shook his head once more.
"There's no need, soutaichou. I have my bow and arrow right here," Ishida patiently stated as he folded up his long wrist-length sleeve. Ichigo blinked and stared at Ishida's wrist. There was a string tied around it and a small little ornament dangling from it. What was it? Ichigo couldn't tell; he was too far away from Ishida to tell.
The panel of judges-cum-examiners became interested and the crowd leaned forward to watch on a closer inspection. Ukitake was still smiling away while Hitsugaya was utterly unwilling to see what Ishida was about to do. From the panel of judges, Mayuri smirked. "This boy…He's not what he appears to be," Mayuri thought gleefully to himself. "Looks like I have a brand new test subject…" Ishida clutched onto the cross-like ornament and closed his eyes as if concentrating on something. After a suspenseful moment, a blue bow appeared on his left hand where he was holding onto the ornament, and as soon as he opened his eyes, his right hand was holding onto a glowing and blue arrow. The crowd began murmuring in amazement. Ukitake seemed very satisfied already while Hitsugaya just arched an eyebrow and stopped caring. Mayuri's grin only widened. "Manifesting his nairyoku into a bow and an arrow…That is something I have never seen in my entire life as the captain of the Bureau of Technology and Science. This will be a fruitful examination…"
Ishida aimed the arrow at the target, which was a dummy filled with stuffing and a bull's eye on its tummy, and released the arrow. The bright blue arrow moved at top speed, and within less than a second, it blasted the entire dummy into lumps of charred stuffing. The stuffing-less dummy fell from the sky where it got blasted to and landed on the head of a dark-haired captain who had these girly hair accessories and a pink scarf. He pulled the dummy off his head stoically and tossed it aside with a flick of his wrist like a girl. Mayuri and another captain who had spiky black hair and an eye-patch stifled their laughter. Ishida embarrassedly repositioned his spectacles and bowed, moving back in line. "Well…" Aizen paused, grinning a little at the sight. "…that was a fantastic display from Ishida Uryuu-kun. Don't you agree, Kuchiki-taichou?"
"…" The stoic captain didn't say anything.
"Come on, Byakuya, don't be such a pissed off prissy," the spiky-haired captain teased with a toothy grin.
"…I am not being a pissed off prissy, Zaraki-taichou. Please watch your language," Byakuya solemnly spoke, closing his eyes.
Ichigo and Ishida blinked. This captain was from Zaraki and he managed to get into the exams just like they did? For a Zarakian like him to be a captain…He must be a really powerful Zarakian. Ichigo locked eyes with the cold and stony Byakuya, who didn't even flinch when he saw Ichigo. Remembering the 'stunt' Ishida pulled, Ichigo decided not to get into the bad books of Kuchiki Byakuya or else he'd instantly regret it. He stole a glance at the koutei and the koushi. It appeared as though Ukitake was struggling to contain his laughter while Hitsugaya was busy sighing away and rubbing the temples of his forehead. Was he maybe annoyed by his father's incessant laughter? Ichigo nearly smirked. "That Toushirou is really easy to annoy, ain't he?"
"Now, we have Kurosaki Ichigo, fifteen-year-old student also of Zaraki High," Aizen introduced and clapped, the grin not leaving his face. The strawberry stepped up and stood there like a statue, waiting for the indication from Yamamoto to continue. Now Hitsugaya showed interest; let's see what this guy's up to was the sentence that flashed in his mind.
Ukitake looked at Hitsugaya. "Oh?" He raised his silvery white eyebrows as soon as he noticed the really serious frown on his son's face. "My, my, is my little Toushirou actually feeling worried for the person who displayed such rudeness to him?"
Hitsugaya shot his father a twisted look. "…What?!"
"I mean, look at you! You look worried and concerned! Are you perhaps hoping that Ichigo-kun will pass?"
Hitsugaya blinked, not really registering what Ukitake had just said. He became so engrossed in his protest that he didn't notice that he had gone red for just a little while. "Of course I'm not, koutei-otousan!" Pouting a little, he folded his arms. "Whatever gave you that idea…?" he asked, his voice getting rather low and waning.
"You've been my son for twelve years; I can understand you by now." Ukitake's smile widened. "Don't worry, I'm sure Ichigo-kun will do just fine. You'll see; he'll pass."
"…I'm not hoping for him to pass."
"But you never said you're hoping for him to fail," Ukitake spoke in a sing-song voice.
"…Fine. I'm hoping for him to fail."
"Really…" Ukitake sighed, finally giving up on teasing his son. "You're just so stubborn…"
Meanwhile, Ichigo was waiting exceptionally patiently for the old captain to give his consent for him to start. When the soutaichou finally gave his nod, Ichigo asked for a sword for him to use. However, Yamamoto wouldn't give his consent for Ichigo to use a sword in his practical exam, making up an excuse saying that they changed the expectations for the exam at the last minute. Ichigo mentally cursed the old man while the crowd leaned forward, not able to take the suspense. Sure, it wasn't fair to the remaining candidates, but it was a decision made by the examination board through and through, so they couldn't complain. Ukitake watched seriously for once, as he did not want Yamamoto to deliberately make things hard for Ichigo. Hitsugaya silently hoped so too. The first few candidates – Yumichika, Orihime and Ishida – almost heaved a sigh of relief upon knowing that they would not be tested on the 'new' topics of the practical examinations but the remaining candidates – Ichigo, the bald friend of Yumichika called Madarame Ikkaku, a big but short man called Shiba Ganju, a young tanned woman known as Shihouin Yoruichi, her friend, who was wearing a hat, named Urahara Kisuke (A/N: I'll explain later as the story progresses), a timid boy called Yamada Hanatarou and a big but silent teenager named Yasutora Sado – felt that it was pretty unfair to them for the exam rules to be changed all of a sudden. Well, it wasn't like they had a say in things; one complain from them and out they go.
"Now we have come to a decision to not test you on what you specialize in," Yamamoto spoke. "but to test you on the basic requirement for being a shinigami. The above few candidates have already fulfilled this basic requirement: kidou." Ichigo blinked. The word sounded totally alien to him. "I will elaborate more on the use of kidou. Kidou, otherwise known as demon arts, is a basic necessity for all shinigami warriors. This is because should they lose their weapons in a case of a battle, they can only rely on their diverse knowledge of the kidou spells. The reason why we included a practical examination in the first place is to see if candidates are able to manifest their nairyoku into kidou spells. The above few candidates are able to manifest their nairyoku into their weapons-of-choice very well, thus they have passed the practical exams with flying colors." Ichigo growled at this. He knew Ishida was most probably mentally jumping up and down for joy, having had the chance of beating him already. "Now, Kurosaki Ichigo, please show us how skilled you are at manifesting your nairyoku."
Ichigo sighed in frustration. To be honest…he sucked at manifesting his nairyoku.
"Kurosaki Ichigo?"
But damn, he couldn't let them waiting forever, could he?
He closed his eyes and concentrated on manifesting his nairyoku. It wasn't easy, since he admittedly confessed that he truly sucked at that. He still couldn't see why it was so important anyway. He thought of manifesting nairyoku as some sort of soul-searching literally, and tried 'searching' his soul for the nairyoku, but of course, nothing came out. After what seemed like eternity, the crowd finally saw a little blue spark coming from…his hair?! It looked like some electrical surge or something. After a few more moments, sparks could be seen all over his body, and soon his entire body was glowing bright blue, though it was a tad bit dimmer that Ishida's bow and arrow. Aizen's voice cut in, distracting Ichigo, "That is displaying your naiatsu, Ichigo-kun, not manifesting your nairyoku." Ichigo lost concentration totally and the naiatsu surrounding him faded away as he fell to his knees, panting. It was really taxing, and all that creepy captain could say was an insult of some sort? Damn him, then. "I suppose it would be good if someone can demonstrate the correct way of manifesting nairyoku. I hope you don't mind, Hitsugaya-koushi."
Hitsugaya blinked in confusion. "…What did he just say?"
"Sousuke-kun, what are you playing at?" a flamboyantly dressed captain asked after taking a sip from his bottle of sake.
"Nothing, Kyouraku-taichou. I just think that it would be best if we see a vibrant display of nairyoku manifestation for the remaining candidates to have an idea of how it should be done," Aizen replied. "Your Majesty: Ukitake-koutei, would you approve of Hitsugaya-koushi demonstrating for us?"
Ukitake pondered. If he let his son go down there and showed everyone a truly magnificent display, some would really begin to envy his power and rank as koushi, which was what he lived in fear of. On the other hand, if he didn't let his son go down there, the residents might begin to jeer at him for being selfish and might even begin to spread rumors to tarnish his name and reputation, as well as the koushi's. Ukitake couldn't have that, but he couldn't have people envying his son as well. Oh, it was such a dilemma Ukitake couldn't arrive at a decision at that point of time. "…Toushirou, my aisoku…Do you wish to have a go?"
"…I wish to protect the people," Hitsugaya plainly replied softly, indirectly telling his father that he wanted to have a go, even though he wasn't a candidate for the exam.
Ukitake nodded and gave a fake smile. "...Alright then."
＜ブリーチ＞
"So that's him? The one with the crazy naiatsu?"
"Yes, it is."
"Oh my…Just look at the way he is able to manifest his nairyoku…"
"…"
"…He's practically freezing everything in his way…"
"It's not like he can control it, you know."
"…A Shakkahou is supposed to be of fire, not of snow."
"He doesn't know what he's doing, period."
"Yamamoto is not a happy soutaichou…Look at all the snow on his bald head."
"Technically, he wouldn't be bald, would he?"
"Oh right, he's got snow for hair."
＜ブリーチ＞
Yamamoto grunted as he shoved the snow off his head, as did the other captains of the panel of judges. An apple-like crown prince was stomping back off to his seat situated at the highest spot of the stadium, his feet trudging through the snow. Ichigo blinked, dumbfounded by how…beautiful the koushi controlled his nairyoku, even if it did go a little out of control during the process. Ok…so it went totally out of control…What with the big fiery blast suddenly turning into a gigantic snowball being hurled towards the captains and the prince getting so embarrassed that he didn't realize he made winter come earlier than expected. Standing up and brushing the snow off his clothes, Ichigo stole a glance at a reddening Hitsugaya taking a seat next to the koutei who was trying as hard as he could to make his son feel better and less ashamed of his performance. For such a prideful koushi like him, it was really embarrassing.
Aizen just seemed as satisfied as ever. "Thank you for... 'cooling' down everyone's intensity, Hitsugaya-koushi. I'm sure our muscles and hearts have calmed down," he joked, even though his bad pun earned himself cold death glares from the koushi. Apparently, Aizen Sousuke was at a danger zone of losing his job for offending the prince like that. Good for him. "So, Kurosaki Ichigo, are you prepared to show us your manifestation of your nairyoku?"
"This bastard made fun of Toushirou…I'll make him pay," Ichigo thought before he mentally slapped himself. "Wait…I made fun of Toushirou too. So I make this guy pay and then make myself pay? That doesn't make hell of a sense…" As much as Ichigo was being an idiot, the panel of judges was waiting for him rather impatiently. Scratching his head, Ichigo decided that he should think about it later and concentrate on the exam first. Remembering what Hitsugaya did when he demonstrated, Ichigo followed suit by first closing his eyes shut and clenching his fists. He then remembered that Hitsugaya's hands were glowing bright blue, and managed to figure out that he had to concentrate all the nairyoku into his hands. As Hitsugaya watched the bright blue glow of Ichigo's hands, he blinked.
The strawberry was mimicking his earlier actions.
And he was doing very well, at that.
Suddenly, Ichigo felt like the nairyoku was about to burst out from his entire being, feeling the rush of power flowing throughout his blood vessels. It felt…weird, keeping all that power bottled up and not letting it out, so he did. He let it all out. With a roar, Ichigo thrust his hands upward and a blast of nairyoku rushed towards the wall, blasting it into pieces of mere hardened cement and bits of dust. The crowd gasped. Ukitake's eyes widened at the sheer power of that blast of nairyoku. It seemed quite frightening if it wasn't handled properly. Hitsugaya just realized that the strawberry idiot was a really good cheater. (A/N: Okay…That comment kinda ruined the mood XD)
Panting, Ichigo went back into the line and leaned against the wall. It was much more taxing than his previous attempt, of course, since he managed to let it out as an insane blast. Ishida placed a hand on his shoulder as if asking his childhood friend to take it easy. Ichigo just gave the archer a rather dumb smirk and scoffed. Yamamoto gave Ichigo one last glance before looking at the score sheet and marking a tick besides Ichigo's name.
Kurosaki Ichigo had passed.
＜ブリーチ＞
"Oi, Toushirou!" Ichigo greeted, waving his hand at the back view of the crown prince.
A vein throbbed on Hitsugaya's forehead as he spun around sharply, shooting him a death glare. "It's Hitsugaya-koushi," he replied, trying to be as calm as ever, with strong emphasis on the 'koushi'.
"Whatever, it's still the same, ain't it?" Ichigo asked, not really meaning it as a question.
"Hn," Hitsugaya scoffed, folding his arms. "What do you want, anyway? You're supposed to be preparing for the written examinations taking place later in the afternoon."
"…Just wanted to have a decent chat with you," Ichigo half-lied. The truth was, he had clean forgotten about the written examinations because he wanted to have a chat with Hitsugaya. Oh well, he knew earlier that he was going to fail the written exams anyway.
Hitsugaya arched an eyebrow. "It's not like we have much time on our hands for a mere chat, you buffoon. I need to return to the palace with Father before the written examinations begin, and a forgetful idiot like you should be preparing for the exams right now if you want to pass, lest you forget all the studying points like how you forgot about the written examinations taking place later on."
Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. The crown prince actually saw through his half-lie! How did he do that?! It wasn't like he was a lie detector or something…was he? "Ah well," Ichigo spoke, not really intending to elaborate much on his forgetfulness. "Let's just settle for a quick one then, Toushirou."
"Hitsugaya-koushi, Kurosaki," Hitsugaya corrected, his temper getting really bad.
"Yeah, yeah."
The white-haired prince resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "What do you want to talk about? Make it snappy; I don't have time to waste."
"About earlier!" Ichigo got really pumped up and excited. "You were amazing with the nairyoku crap! You were great with the snow, Toushirou! And hey, that rhymes!"
Hitsugaya twitched uncontrollably. Not only did the orange-haired clown make fun of his name once in that certain sentence, he (unintentionally, of course) made fun of it twice in one sentence. He was not going to get away with that. "Baka…" Hitsugaya muttered under his breath, trying to control his anger.
"How'd you do that, Toushirou? It was really cool and when I followed you, it made one hell of a dent in the wall!"
"…He thinks blasting the wall to bits is a mere dent? How dense can this idiot get?" Hitsugaya thought, half-wondering why he was wasting his time with an idiot like Ichigo.
"…I made it up," Hitsugaya replied honestly.
"You what?"
"I made it up. I didn't know it'd work, to be honest," Hitsugaya continued calmly, giving Ichigo a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Well…that was still some serious badass shit!" Ichigo exclaimed the vulgarities, meaning it in a gooooooood way of course.
But Hitsugaya Toushirou was not going to take any of Ichigo's vulgar words. Before he could do it, a flying fist came towards Ichigo's face and punched him right in the cheek. Ichigo groaned in pain as he held his cheek and stepped back. Hitsugaya, confused, looked to his side and saw a bun girl – a really pissed bun girl – standing there with an outstretched hand. He raised an eyebrow. This girl looked really familiar…
"Do not speak to the crown prince in that manner!" Hinamori ordered. She then turned around and nearly scared Hitsugaya with her smile. One second she was pissed and scolding Ichigo, and the next she was smiling so warmly at him. Contradiction much? "Are you okay, Shirou-chan?"
"Shirou-chan?"
"…Ah," Hitsugaya muttered, not really sure why the girl was suddenly asking if he was okay. Of course he was okay; it wasn't like as if Ichigo was going to pummel him to a pulp.
To his surprise, Hinamori was waving her hand. "Shirou-chan, don't you remember me?"
Hitsugaya blinked slowly, letting the nickname 'Shirou-chan' sink in for a moment. He could only remember two people who would call him Shirou-chan; one was his father and the other was… "Hi…Hinamori?" Hitsugaya asked, rather unsure.
"Oh, good! So you do remember me!" she exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands.
"…Sure I remember you. You always wet the floor back when I was visiting the Rukongai states with koutei-otousan," Hitsugaya replied, smirking a little at the memory of a younger Hinamori getting so scared out of her wits that she couldn't stop peeing.
Hinamori pouted, her face getting red with embarrassment. "S-Shirou-chan!!! Don't tease me like that!!! I don't wet the floor now…"
"Sure you don't…" Hitsugaya mumbled, looking at the ground to avoid her gaze.
"My koushi-aisoku!" Hitsugaya turned around at the yelling voice of his father. Ukitake was walking quickly, though he wasn't running, and Hitsugaya's eyes widened.
"O-oi, koutei-otousan! Don't walk so fast!" he shouted out worriedly, running after Ukitake and stopping Ukitake from walking by gripping his wrists. "…Don't ever do that again, koutei-otousan."
Ukitake smiled light-heartedly. "Hai, hai, my little koushi," he cooed, ruffling Hitsugaya's hair. "I didn't think you'd still be here, Toushirou. Now come, we have to return to the palace immediately."
Hitsugaya gave a quick nod at Ukitake and he turned around to take one last glance at his childhood friend and a cursing Ichigo. "Oi, Hinamori!" Hinamori blinked in confusion, waiting for Hitsugaya to continue. "About last time, I'll explain it to you another day."
"Alright, Shirou-chan!" Hinamori replied enthusiastically. Oh, she could wait; in the meantime, she could spend more time reading scrolls with Aizen.
"And you might want to change out of your hakama…" Hitsugaya trailed off, hoping Hinamori didn't hear his parting words as he left the stadium with Ukitake.
Unfortunately…
Hinamori heard him loud and clear.
She looked down, hoping that it wasn't what she had expected…but it was, much to her horror. Flushing bright crimson, Hinamori gave a screech, the tears nearly spilling out of her chestnut eyes as Ichigo was laughing and pointing at her. A horrified – and amused – mother of a random child in Karakura Capital helped dry Hinamori's tears and clean up the mess she left behind.
"SHIROU-CHAN, YOU'RE SUCH A MEANIE!!!!"
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A/N: I just noticed that this chapter had hell lot of dialogue. Ack.
And I just made Hitsugaya seem like the teasing type…XD This chapter had more humor to it, no? XD (I gotta stop with the XD signs someday…)
Next chapter: The ten candidates passed all three aspects of the entrance exam with flying colors and the divisions they have been assigned to have been determined by the survey! Ukitake holds a grand celebration for their wonderful performances at his palace ball and everyone from the Gotei 13 is invited to share the candidates' joy. This is going to be so exciting! But what's this? Ukitake learns of a horrible secret, Hitsugaya tells Hinamori all there is to tell, and…what? Cross-dressing?! Who?!