I DO NOT own Bleach

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"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Apparently the Squad 6 Lieutenant just asked the Squad 9's 3rd Seat to marry him."

Whispers swept through the Academy the next week. One well-connected student was very good at picking up gossip from within the walls of the Seiretei and before long the rumours had spread all over the Academy. Every single student knew at least some of the circumstances surrounding the planned wedding.

"So is it true, Raidon?" Izumi asked as they walked through the whispering crowds on the way to another practical Kido session.

"Yeah," Raidon said. "I'm surprised it took Renji this long to ask Rukia to marry him –everyone knows they've been a couple since the end of the Winter War."

"So what took so long?" Izumi wondered.

"Apparently Renji was afraid of being cut to ribbons by Senbonzakura," Raidon said. "Even I don't know what he's thinking most of the time."

Izumi knew how he felt –Captain Kuchiki had an aura around him, the feeling that you might end up electrified if you disturbed him when it really wasn't necessary.

"I heard Lieutenant Abarai visited Captain Kurosaki twice in that one day."

"Yeah, and I heard he was forcibly ejected both times, the second time through the window."

It looked as though the rumours had reached and were circulating around the Fourth Years as well as they waited for the arrival of their Kido teacher. Izumi and Raidon took their places in their respective groups.

The whispers stopped when their Kido instructor arrived and called for their attention.

"Up until now, you've been trained in mastering the kido sxpells by firing at the dummies," he began. "I've noticed that the vast majority of you can use Shakkaho and Shakatsu without the chants.

"But you always have plenty of time and little pressure under which to perform.

"That changes from here on. Kido is a technique to attack and restrain your opponents with your spiritual energy in the heat of battle, to be used alongside other techniques.

"For the rest of this class, I want you to spar and use Kido to target any openings between strikes. The number of the Kido and use of Discard is completely up to you. There is just one rule: don't aim to kill. I don't want any of you to be confined to the infirmary. Begin whenever you're ready.

An hour later, there were very few still standing. Multiple spells had blown up in their casters' faces when they had panicked; some were nursing injuries from zanpukto and others were scarred from spells that had been more powerful than they were meant to be when they had hit. Their sensei had had to call a halt to several of the more dangerous pair-ups.

Izumi and Raidon were in the minority who didn't need to visit the infirmary to be patched up or blown themselves up.

It was yet another note their sensei made for the notes that he would send out in a couple of years' time. Those two had a much better grasp of maintaining a level of energy that the others had yet to master.

It wasn't just Kido that demanded the combining of other disciplines now: Hakudo was now only supposed to be used while disarmed, against an armed opponent; Hoho was a vital discipline in both Hakudo and Zanjutsu.

Their teachers quickly noted that only the two genii and some of the more elite members of the Advance class were able to keep up with the stricter discipline and avoided walking out of the room with limps and aches.

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