Chapter six

When Jake returned to the Slytherin dorm late that night Jen, Renji, Shuhei, and Risa stayed up to greet him. His face was pale, he looked angry, and he carried his right hand in a white napkin.

"Jake," Risa said jumping out of the chair and going over to him. Jen Shuhei and Renji followed. "Jake what happened?"

"That sadistic bitch," he snarled pressing the napkin closer to his hand. "Reese, get me some hydrogen peroxide will you?" Risa ran up to his dorm and came back with the ANBU-level first aid kit. Jake removed the napkin from his and held it out for Risa to treat.

"What the—?" Renji said when he saw the injury.

"That's cruel and unusual punishment!" Jen yelled completely forgetting her and Renji's vow to whip his ass. "Go report this! This is so wrong!"

"No," Jake said wincing as Risa cleaned the wound, the words 'I must not tell lies' were etched into his skin.

"Baka," Risa snapped slapping his cheek, "this is cruel and unusual punishment! Say something!"

"Hello, with Kenpachi skulking around the school I'm gonna crying because I cut my hand?" Jake snapped at her. "I don't think so, I've been through worse; I'll live." he let Risa finish taping his hand and skulked off to bed.

"I'm gonna go back to my tower," Risa said putting the tape away, "Night guys"

"Night," Renji and Jen said in unison.

"I'll walk you," Shuhei said. Risa nodded.

They reached the Gryffindor tower and Risa bade Shuhei goodbye and entered. Ichigo, Rukia and Jack were waiting up for her.

"That woman is a sadist," Risa said bitterly sitting next to Ichigo on the couch by the fire. "She made him etch 'I must not tell lies' into his skin."

"Who'd she do that to?" A boy with round glasses and messy black hair came over to them.

"Harry," Risa said. "Umbridge gave Jake detention."

"Him too?" Harry asked. "That explains why he was there as well."

"You got detention too Harry?" Jack asked raising an eyebrow. "For what?"

"Telling the truth about Voldemort," Harry said pulling back his sleeve to reveal the same marks Jake had.

"You have to tell someone about this," Rukia said.

"Jake's from eleventh company, he's gonna cry about this?" Jack asked.

"I'm not telling either; I'm not giving Umbridge that satisfaction." Jack shook his head and started to walk up the staircase. Harry followed.

"Boys," Rukia huffed. "They're so damn proud!"

"I know," Risa said shaking her head. "Look at this one." She added elbowing Ichigo.

"This isn't going unspoken; I'm telling nii-sama in the morning."

The next morning Risa, Rukia and Jen knocked on the door to Byakuya's office. He opened the door and saw their expressions.

"It's the second day don't tell me someone's messed up already," he said letting them in.

"It's Jake," Risa said crossing her arms. "And it's not him."

"It's that sadist bitch Umbridge!" Jen snarled. "Her detentions are inhuman."

"Nii-sama, she made Jake and Harry Potter write 'I must not tell lies," Rukia added.

"On the back of their hands," Jen cut in.

"In blood," Risa concluded. Byakuya looked at the three girls.

"I cannot do anything about Emmerson," he said shifting through paperwork. "He's eleventh company, and now a captain; it's his decision, same with Potter, I'm sorry."

"That's injustice!" Jen yelled. She was the only one in all of the Seireitei who would dare argue with Byakuya. "It's cruel and unusual punishment! It's inhuman! Jake's a captain! You can't just…"

"Bletchley," Byakuya said firmly "your weakness is relying too much on emotion, you're not taking into account the opinions of Emmerson and Potter."

"But Taichou," Jen pleaded.

"You're arguing for the sake of having an argument, Bletchley, this matter is closed, dismissed."

"Yes sir."

Jen Risa and Rukia left the office. Their plan had backfired and they needed to tell someone who would listen. Risa and Rukia looked at each other. Jen looked upset, she was used to getting shut down by her captain but now she had a valid point. They walked down to courtyard to join the rest of the group.

Saturday came later giving the students a much needed break from paperwork. Jake, who had been named quidditch captain called the Slytherin team into order that evening. Marcus stopped by to be obnoxious. Jake opened the door to the locker room and saw that none of his team members were there. His watch read 7:30 and he told them practice started at eight.

15 minutes later and still rubbing sleep from their eyes Risa and Jen showed up. Behind them was Jen's twin brother Miles he looked eager and ready to play. Jake made a mental not to cut him as soon as possible. At eight am Montague and Warrington seemed to have made an effort and arrived. That's when Jake realized that two of last years' players had left. Now it was eight oh four and they were still waiting on one member, and it was no surprise Malfoy was late again. At 8:17 exactly, Malfoy swaggered his little backside into practice. Jake made another note to get a new seeker.

"Alright people," Jake said standing in front of the chalkboard that still had Risa and Jen's hangman on it from last season. "This year is going to be the shit, and I mean it…those Gryffindors think that because they have their little 'eh' they can be all 'eh' well guess what we have 'err', and we're going to unleash a can of 'err' on their sorry asses, who's with me?"

The team was silent and only the sound of the crickets could be heard. Risa and Jen stared blankly at Jake while Miles bounced around in his seat eager to get started. Jake picked up some chalk and began to write on the board.

"This," he said pointing to a kanji symbol, "will be our 'err' for this season. It means fight."

"What the hell is that?" Malfoy sneered. "It looks like a tree taking a piss." Jake lobbed a piece of chalk at Malfoy's head, he ducked and squeaked.

"That's what you get for being an idiot." Jen said pointedly examining Jake's kanji forest. She squinted trying to decipher the symbols. "Dude, your Japanese handwriting is worse than your English, didn't Kenpachi teach you anything?" Jake lobbed a piece of chalk at Jen, which she caught and pelted back at him.

"As a matter of fact we don't waste time with pointless stuff like handwriting," Jake snapped at Jen. "Now sit down and shut up, now that I'm taichou, we run this my way, no highway option."

Jake explained the plans he had drawn up over the summer, the team fell into a deep stupor and Risa was horribly reminded of her time on the Gryffindor quidditch team. They had only suffered twenty minutes when Jake told them to get out onto the pitch.

Oh boy was there a nasty surprise waiting for them.

The scarlet and gold clad Gryffindors were holding keeper try-outs thus blocking half of the pitch. Jake was beyond fuming. He stormed up to Angelina Johnson who had been named captain and looked her square in the eye.

"Where do you come off always stealing our time slots eh?" he asked absolutely furious.

"Back off Emmerson," Angelina said calmly. Jen and Risa flanked Jake.

"Knock it off," Risa hissed before turning to Angelina. "I'm sorry for his rude behavior and that he failed to check the schedule before calling practice, if there's any chance we could take from mid-line that way, we'll stay out of your business if you us."

Alicia and Katie had flanked Angelina. Marcus had come over from his seat in the stands and Oliver did as well.

The former quidditch captains glared at each other from across the pitch all of their animosities toward each other clear in their eyes.

"What the hell are you doing Wood," Marcus snarled at his enemy. Out of the corner of her eye Risa saw him flash his zanpaku-to.

"Watching the team and giving input," Wood spat. Marcus simply glared at him.

"Then you have no business getting involved in this," Marcus spat at him.

"On the contrary I do," Wood answered. Eager to avoid the bloody conflict that was coming Risa spoke up.

"Marcus," she barked. "Stand down, I'll handle this."

"Hai, taichou," Marcus said realizing that the status quo had shifted in her favor. Wood snorted.

"Since when do you take orders from her?" he asked pointing at Risa, Risa was a good few inches shorter than both Wood and Marcus but in this case her size wouldn't be an issue.

"This can be easy," Risa said calmly, "or difficult, for you anyway, with your size to weight ratio and location of center of balance, sparring you is not a challenge."

"I'm twice your size," Wood snarled at Risa. He blinked and she was gone. With a thump Risa pinned him on the ground with his arm behind his back and her foot at his neck. The Gryffindors and Slytherins looked at her in amazement and even Wood was impressed slightly.

"Yeah and you had a point where exactly?" Risa said not shifting. Marcus was having a difficult time refraining from laughter. Risa got off of Wood and glared at him. He got up brushed himself off and glared back.

"I'd watch myself if I were you," he snarled at her.

"Wow, I feel threatened."