This is my first story, so here goes nothing! Please note that this takes place years after the Winter War, so things have settled down a little. Reviews are always appreciated, flames are not. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1

Healthy Competition

"Excuse me?"

I was sitting under a tree at the Soul Reaper Academy. I looked up to see a little girl with pink hair behind me. She wasn't wearing the uniform of a student, but that of a Soul Reaper. I smiled and nodded.

"Your reiatsu seems impressive. I wanted to let you know that some of us Soul Reapers are going to be watching the students who are graduating this year in advanced swordsmanship in about an hour. Are you one of those people?"

I nodded again.

"Okay, then. I'll see you there!"

Most of the students were inside the canteen, eating. I didn't get along very well with the other students. That was probably because I didn't talk. It wasn't like I had no vocal chords, but I never spoke. I couldn't bring myself to make a noise. It also probably didn't help that I already had my zanpakuto and could perform shikai. I've had my zanpakuto for years, though, since before I joined the academy. The school made me leave it in the headmaster's office so that I didn't harm anyone. Because I already excelled in swordsmanship at the time of joining the academy, I had only been here for two years but was about to graduate. Most people thought I was a natural at kido and shunpo as well, but, as I had no voice to cast spells with, I had had to work five times as hard to garner those abilities. I may have looked the same age as the other students, but I had only been in Soul Society for fifteen years.

I stood up and began the walk to Swordsmanship. When I got there, all the other students were already warming up. The graduation would be taking place in two weeks, as soon as exit exams were over. People from the Soul Society had come in once last week to observe a Kido class. They talked to a few of the students, but not me.

As I went over to the bin to pick up a wooden sword, I noticed the headmaster speaking to some of the soul reapers. There were at least six captains there. I saw the little girl with the pink hair hanging on to the shoulder of one of them—he was the tallest man I had ever seen. The headmaster stepped over to the tall captain.

My jaw dropped when I noticed that he was holding my zanpakuto. I hadn't seen it in months! I dropped the wooden one and walked over to him immediately.

I tapped his shoulder.

"Hello there, Udai-san," he smiled genially. "I was just telling Captain Zaraki of Squad Eleven here about how you already know your zanpakuto's shikai. I believe your zanpakuto's name is Akuryo…Zeiga?"

Actually, it was Akuryo Seika (and she preferred to be known as just Seika), but that was close enough. I could hear her laughing at him. It sounded like a bell.

"So I guess you're pretty talented, huh," a bald guy said. He stood next to the captain.

I looked at the ground nervously. I had heard things about the eleventh squad, about how they were the blood thirstiest division in Seireitei. I didn't want to fight one of them.

"Here," the headmaster said, handing me my zanpakuto. "With all these captains around, I doubt you'll get away with hurting anybody. Make sure you're ready to start sparring in half an hour." He moved on to speak to the other captains.

I bowed. As I began to walk away to practice wielding Seika again, I heard the bald guy say, "She was pretty quiet."

I stopped and swayed on the spot.

"Go ask to watch her perform Shikai," Zaraki muttered, "I'm going to look for other recruits." I began walking, going to the far side of the room. Most of the other students were clustered around the middle, so there was no doubt I would harm anyone.

"Your name is Udai, right?"

I turned around to see the bald man and another person with purple hair standing next to him. I couldn't tell if the second one was a man or a woman.

I nodded.

"I am Ayasegawa Yumichika," the second one smiled. I decided he was a man.

"My name is Madarame Ikkaku, but you can just call me Ikkaku if you want," the bald man said.

I looked at the ground. It was so embarrassing that I couldn't explain to him that I just couldn't "call" him anything. I pulled a note card and gave it to Ikkaku. He read it aloud.

"My full name is Udai Kagami," he read. "My zanpakuto's name is Akuryo Seika. I aspire to be a Soul Reaper."

He looked at me, confused. I took a step toward him and turned over the card. It had three words on it.

"I am mute," Ikkaku said slowly.

"That makes sense!" Yumichika smiled. "That's why you don't make any sound when you walk! Okay, can we see your Shikai now?"

Ikkaku made a face at him.

I held up my sword and focused on Yumichika. The command is "Sake," Seika chimed from somewhere deep within the blade. In my mind, I shouted Sake! Akuryo Seika!

My sword, which looked like a regular katana, began to glow. It bent at the middle and split into four blades. I looked up at my spectators. They both looked very confused.

The blades began to grow and twist into vines that wrapped themselves around Yumichika. He looked absolutely terrified. Realizing that the vines were draining his reiatsu, I pulled them back and Seika returned to her original form.

Yumichika glared at me. I didn't understand why he could be mad at me…unless he didn't want Ikkaku to know what his shikai looked like. But if they were friends, Ikkaku had to know.

Ikkaku laughed. "Wow... that looked just like Ikkaku's for a minute! But it's not; I've never seen those vines before. That was pretty good, but unfortunately, Squad Eleven isn't exactly the place for a kido-type sword. So we'll be moving along now. Thanks, though."

As Ikkaku began to walk away, I saw Yumichika's expression of fear replaced with one of relief. But he understood Seika's power completely, and that was important. He pointed to Ikkaku and mouthed 'Use his' before saying, "Wait, Ikkaku. She has something else to show us." Ikkaku turned around. It was obvious from his face that he expected nothing.

The command is "Nobiro," Seika said, now as nervous as me. Nobiro! Akuryo Seika!

Seika grew into a naginata. I panicked, realizing I had no idea how to wield a naginata. Calm down, Seika sighed. You don't need to attack. See what Ikkaku's reaction is.

I looked at Ikkaku, realizing that the blade was about two inches away from his face. I pulled the naginata back and drew my hand across the blade, returning Seika to a katana.

He looked at me, perplexed. "You're an interesting one, Kagami." They went back to the other side of the building. I began drilling your basic slashes and pierces.

After about ten minutes, the swordsmanship teacher walked in. He expected the students to come in half an hour before him to do last-minute practicing. The class gathered around him.

"Good afternoon, everyone," he said with the air of utmost seriousness. "We're going to try something different than sparring today. Everyone is going to be given a number on a slip of paper, and you will be forming a group with everyone else whom has that number. Each group is going to possess a baton. This isn't going to be over until one group has all the batons. Every team member is going have a bamboo sword, used to maim, not to kill. You may utilize the entire campus. Everyone understand? Please form a line."

As we jumped into a single file line, I wondered what good an exaggerated game of capture the flag would do to show off our abilities. If we were just going to split up and go to different parts of the school, wouldn't it just be impossible to watch?

The teacher handed me a slip. It had a messily scrawled ten on it. When he was finished passing them out, he asked us to find our group members. There was only one other person on my team. His name was Kuroda Kai, and he was nice enough. In our advanced class of forty-three people, he ranked tenth.

I went up to the teacher to grab a baton when the headmaster snatched my zanpakuto back. I ignored it, thinking about strategy.

The teacher added, "All of you have your bamboo swords from before, am I correct? All right. There are eleven teams, and please note that the number of people on each team is somewhat sporadic. The numbers range from two to six. When I say go, you will have ten minutes to strategize within your team. You are not allowed to attack any other teams during this period. In ten minutes, the school bell will ring and the official game will have begun. You are not allowed to use kido. Any questions?"

Kai raised his hand. "During these ten minutes, we can go out of this room?"

"Yes you can," the teacher nodded. An idea hit me like a brick. I took out a notebook and began writing it down. Kai was reading it over my hand. When I finished, I looked at him and waited for him to finish reading. He looked at me, smiling, and nodded.

"Is everyone ready? All right, the soul reapers and I are going to start heading over to the security room now. That is where you will find us. Go!"

Kai grabbed my hand and we shunpo-ed together—right into the security room. I opened a door to find an empty closet. We jumped in and closed the door. In a few minutes, the soul reapers entered the room. The bell sounded throughout the school.

"Excuse me, but I just noticed," the headmaster mused, "there are only ten teams running around on this camera."

"Maybe one team was already defeated."

By now you're probably wondering why it would be a good idea to go into the same room as all the captains. I know everyone on team one—the team with six people. It was just everyone else's luck, but they happened to be the boys that held the rankings of second through seventh in our grade (I hold the first ranking, of course). If we were to be running around, trying to get everyone else's batons by force would be a waste of time. But, by the time team one had gotten all other ten batons, they were going to be exhausted. And then they would run around, trying to find us. After a while, one of them would finally realize the one place they haven't looked, and they would come here to the security room, where Kai and I would be lying in wait. Kai would grab all of the batons and shunpo away to put them back in the sparring room, and then come back and help. He was the fastest person our class.

It was a perfectly good idea, but we hadn't accounted for all the time it would take for them to figure it out. An hour later, we were still sitting in this dumb closet, and I was drifting away...

I must have lost track of time, but Kai was suddenly tapping my foot urgently. I felt the baton still in my lap and handed it to him. There were footsteps outside the room, getting closer.

"But they've only got ten of the eleven batons," someone said.

We heard the door open. I could hear them panting, and I imagined them looking around, waiting to see where we were. In the shadows of the closet, Kai held up three fingers…then two…then one.

In unison, we jumped out of the closet. Kai, like me, could be silent when he wanted to. The door made no noise as it opened. Kai had taken all ten of their batons and was gone before any of them had time to react, and I had already hit one of them so hard across the head that he was lying on the ground unconscious. I heard a cheer that sounded like it came from the little girl with the pink hair.

Then I realized that having to face five people wasn't that much easier than facing six. While holding two of them back with my sword and kicking one of them away, I got two heavy blows to the stomach. I decided that there wasn't enough space in the security room and ran out into the hallway.

Kai was finally back, tripping one and then hitting him with a hard blow to the chest. I heard at least three ribs crack. Kai then picked said boy up and threw him down the stairs.

Meanwhile, I was fending off the other four. It was obvious that they were exhausted. I tried to copy Kai's tripping trick but ended up hitting the guy's feet. He was hopping up and down, making him an easy target for Kai. Kai did the same thing as he did to the last guy, and then there were only three left.

The tallest one of them called out, "I'll take this guy somewhere else. You handle the girl." He grabbed Kai's collar and flash stepped away, carrying him along.

Two on one isn't very fair. I was left trying to stab each of them but not even making contact, while they were landing every single blow. Finally, I got fed up with my approach and began to do long, sweeping slices from the side. I jumped up and hit one of their heads from the side, knocking him into the other guy. They hit the ground hard. I grabbed their bamboo swords and threw them behind me, out of reach. I then took my sword and held it across their necks, waiting until they had passed out from lack of oxygen.

There were bruises all over my body—something that I was used to. I stood up and tried to sense Kai's reiatsu. I began to walk toward it, when I felt a hand close around my throat, cutting off my circulation. One of the guys—the first one to fall—hadn't been knocked out. I grabbed at my throat, gasping.

He picked me up and walked, swaying, a few steps forward before he held me out at arm's length and then let go. I was falling—falling down to the ground floor. Ten stories down.