Chapter Two

Too Much to Hope For

There was a breeze going through my hair. It felt like I was moving: forward, slightly down, slightly up and forward, slightly down...like I was on the back of someone who was moving. My head ached…probably from the fall. But I wasn't dead. I should have been killed, or at least seriously injured, after falling from such a height. What happened?

I opened my eyes. I was riding piggy-back on that captain back from before…I think his name was Zaraki. He was much scarier up close.

"Udai-san," came a voice. It was Kai. "We won! And we're both getting two hundred extra credit points on our final."

Now I remembered something...I had been blacking out while falling, and it was really hazy, but I think someone caught me before I hit the ground. It must have been Kai. I smiled at him, hopping off of Zaraki's back. The pink haired girl from before was riding on his other shoulder. Ikkaku and Yumichika from before were here too. I glanced around and realized we were in Seireitei.

"This is Captain Kenpachi Zaraki of the eleventh squad," Kai grinned. "This is his lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, and these are the third and fifth seats of the squad, Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika."

"We've met," Zaraki grunted.

"All of the students from our class are getting tours of Seireitei right now," Kai added. "Except for a few that were too badly injured to be walking around."

I nodded at him, looking around. It was just a bunch of buildings, all the same color, with the same style roof. We kept walking while they commented on the events from earlier in the day.

"It was interesting how we couldn't even sense your spiritual pressures," Yumichika hummed. "I was really surprised when you guys finally popped out."

"Are you kidding?" Ikkaku groaned. "Where else could they have been?"

"I don't know," Yumichika whined.

"The captain of the eighth squad talked to me once it was finished," Kai muttered to me. "He said he would like to have me in that division."

Kenpachi suddenly stopped walking. "That reminds me…"

He turned around, more menacing than ever. I couldn't call this feeling fear, but some kind of reason that was telling me to act cautiously.

"How would you like to be on the Eleventh Division?"

My jaw dropped.

"It's not exactly her decision, Captain," Yumichika sighed.

"Look, Udai, when you charged out and began to take on all those guys—who were twice the size of you—by yourself, it was the kind of guts that we pride ourselves on in the eleventh division," he grinned wildly. "And from what these two have told me, you've got a pretty flexible zanpakuto. So we're interested. What do you say? I could place a request."

I couldn't believe it. I usually wouldn't have a choice in the first place, and now I had a captain telling me he was interested in having me be his subordinate.

I looked at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact.

"…So?" It was Yumichika, crouching in front of me, smiling widely. "Whaddya say?"

I didn't want to make a decision right now. I shrugged. I zoned out, thinking back to the fight earlier. If Kai had caught me, why had I been unconscious for such a long time? I heard a small chime of laughter deep within my thoughts. Seika...she must have forced me to pass out. Why would you do that? I asked her. I was just trying to protect you! she whined. What made you think that blacking out would protect me? She didn't answer.

"Well, here we are," said Kenpachi. I looked up. We had reached a large building…or group of buildings. There was a large kanji eleven above the door. We went inside. There was a large open space, where soul reapers were sitting around a rectangular field, watching two soul reapers spar. The two in the middle were skillful, violent fighters. I was slightly intimidated.

"Captain!" said one of the men sitting in the circle. I looked around, realizing that all of the soul reapers in the building were men. A few of them were eyeing my chest—not that there was much to look at anyway.

"Fresh meat!"

I looked at Kai. He was trying to stay cool, but he was obviously panicking.

"Are they any good?" someone asked.

"We're interested in this one," Kenpachi said, looking at me. I flushed.

"Can we see her fight?"

I covered my face with my hands. I should have known—Eleventh division was known for loving combat, picking a fight over food. I didn't want to fight these people! They were all terrifying. The level of reiatsu emanating from the room wasn't overwhelming, but it made me very uncomfortable.

"Sure," Kenpachi shrugged, pushing me forward. I realized that he wasn't even going to ask me.

Someone threw me a wooden katana. If my opponent was using one as well, I probably wouldn't die. And if I used Hakuda while focusing my reiatsu, I could even scrape by with a win. …I was being too hopeful.

"So who wants to fight her?" Yachiru asked.

"Oh, I will!" Yumichika raised his hand. "Please?"

The fifth seat of the squad? He was probably still angry for using his shikai earlier. I was screwed.

"Go ahead," Kenpachi scowled. "Try to make this interesting, you two. But so you don't kill her, we're going to give you a one minute timer…sound okay?"

We nodded. Yumichika grabbed another wooden katana. The two men that had been sparring before backed out and sat down. Yumichika and I took their places.

Staring at a clock on the wall, Yachiru shouted, "Go!"

I waited for him to move.

"I just wanted to let you know," he smirked, "I don't often face my opponents with my eyes open."

I looked at him, bewildered. He ran forward, slashing. I blocked his sword.

"You're so beautiful I could stare at you for hours," he added. Was he trying to distract me?

I leaned back and kicked him in the face, focusing my reiatsu to my foot. He was able to protect his face with his hands, but slid a few meters back.

"She's not too shabby," said a man from the crowd.

I ran forward again, swinging the wooden sword down in hopes of hitting his head. He stepped out of the way and hit me from the side. Before he could step back again, I grabbed the sword and tried to kick him again. He caught my foot, however. I took my sword and put the point on the ground, and using it like a cane, kicked him in the face with my other foot. He glared at me and kicked me in the chest, pushing me back several feet.

I gripped my sword, wondering if he was leaving any openings. He ran toward me, his sword pointed forward, ready to pierce. I smiled, grabbing the tip of his sword and giving it a jerk. He flew in an arc over me, hitting the ground headfirst. Some of the audience laughed.

Still on the ground, he swung his sword, knocking my feet out from under me. I crashed to the ground. Next thing I knew, he was standing over me with one foot on my throat. I tried to push him away to no avail. I had absolutely no leverage on my side. Slowly, my vision started to fade, and my grip loosened. The wooden katana fell to the ground.

"Time's up!" Yachiru chirped. Yumichika stepped back, smirking. I jumped up, smiled, and shook his hand.

"Um, Udai-san," Kai called. "We need to get back to the academy. Like, now."

I went over to him, bowed to the eleventh division, and left with Kai. We flash stepped back to the academy. I returned to my dormitory to find that all things I had brought into swordsmanship today had been returned there.

I collapsed on my futon, not even bothering to change out of my uniform. I hadn't had any hope to beat Yumichika in the first place, so why did I get so into the fight? And the fact was, he was just toying with me for the first part of the match and was able to completely reverse our positions when I flipped him on to the ground. I really was hopeless. I could just do my best to hope that Captain Zaraki hadn't lost interest...

Graduation exams were next week. Ugh…