The nurse came in quietly, checked Jushiro's pulse and temperature, and gave him some medicine. He drank it quickly, and she took the cup from him before he left.
"You know, sometimes I'm surprised we made it through the Academy without being expelled," Jushiro commented after the nurse had left.
Shunsui chuckled. "Or arrested, for that matter. Do you remember the incident with the boar?"
C.E. 43
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jushiro said.
"Of course it's not a good idea. That's what makes it an excellent practical joke," Shunsui explained. "Just relax already."
The two shinigami-in-training were crouched outside the Shiba family boar pens. The Shiba family was composed of very wealthy landowners, famous for their stock and agricultural produce. However, their purebred boars the pride of the clan. Shiba boars were three times as large as normal pigs, and their sweet meat was in great demand for holiday dinners.
"All right. There are four guards we need to worry about: two on patrol and two at the gate. I'll distract them, and you'll run in and grab a pig," Shunsui said.
"How am I supposed to grab a pig? They're huge!" Jushiro objected.
"They're trained to move when you swat their rears. You're a smart guy. Figure it out," Shunsui said, and he hurried away into the darkness.
Why do I let myself get talked into these things? Jushiro wondered.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by ungodly, pig-like squeals to Jushiro's right. The guards ran in the direction of the noise. Jushiro hurried up to the fence and jumped over it, heading for the nearest boar. The animal ignored him, continuing to munch on some grasses. He hit it gingerly, unwilling to irritate something with such large tusks. The animal didn't even look up. He hit it harder, and the animal reluctantly began to move.
The boar moved painfully slowly. Suddenly, Jushiro heard a shout behind him. The guards were coming back, and they were running towards him. Panicking, he swatted the boar as hard as he could. The animal bellowed and began to run. He was shocked at how quickly it moved; it was getting away from him. Jushiro flash-stepped up to it and managed to vault onto its back.
Then he realized he had no way to steer.
The boar was running at full tilt towards the wall. In desperation, Jushiro fired a blast of Kido at the fence, blowing a hole in it. Wow, that actually worked, he realized. The boar ran through the gap without even pausing, and continued to barrel through the fields beyond.
Suddenly, Shunsui was next to him, keeping pace with flash steps, a feral grin on his face. "You…are…insane!" Jushiro shouted.
"I'm not the one riding the pig," Shunsui said.
"Where'd you learn to flash-step like that?" Jushiro asked
"Same place you learned to blow up a fence with Kido. I made it up as I went along," Shunsui said. "Which reminds me, where are you going?"
"I don't know. I can't drive a boar!" Jushiro said. "Did your friend tell you how to make these things stop?"
"Not really," Shunsui said.
Since they didn't have a choice in the matter, they simply let the animal run until it grew tired. When it did, it stopped suddenly, throwing Jushiro off its back, head over heals.
"The Shibas," he said, picking bits of grass and branch out of his long, dark hair, "must all have the patience of saints. I'd have slaughtered every animal years ago."
Ignoring its former rider's plight, the boar was grazing unconcernedly. "You certainly wouldn't think something that large would run so fast, would you?" Shunsui observed.
Jushiro sat down to catch his breath. The boar had stopped in a large, open field, well outside the bounds of Rukongai. "How on earth are we going to get this thing into Seireitei without anyone noticing? It's not like we can exactly hide him; he's huge!"
"The best way to hide something big is to conceal it in something bigger," Shunsui said. "Trust me."
Jushiro sighed. "So, now what do we do?"
"We get this boar back to Seireitei. We should probably try to walk him this time," Shunsui said.
"Fine with me," Jushiro said.
By the time the West Gate loomed over them, it was past midnight. Shunsui led them into a shed by the fields, where there was a massive cart, a cage sitting on it. "How in the world did you get that?" Jushiro asked.
"The cart is just a standard supply cart, and I borrowed the cage from 12th Squad," Shunsui said.
"Borrowed?" Jushiro asked.
"Just get the boar into the cage," Shunsui said.
Surprisingly, the boar entered the cage quite willingly. They piled supplies around the cage to conceal it and wheeled the wagon outside. The gatekeeper let them through without comment. They dragged the wagon through the quiet streets and over to the Academy buildings. When they got to the biggest lecture hall, they unloaded the boar.
"Finally," Shunsui said. "Now we just have to get the boar onto the roof."
"What?" hissed Jushiro. "You just said you wanted to let it loose in the main hall. You didn't say you wanted to get it on the roof!"
"Come on, it isn't that high. It'd be an easy jump for a shinigami," Shunsui said.
"But we're not shinigami yet!"
"Just grab its left side, and get ready to jump," Shunsui ordered.
Why do I get myself into this? Jushiro asked himself again. Then, without giving himself time to think about it, he leapt into the air.
Headmaster Yamamoto never did figure out exactly how the Shiba family's prize racing boar ended up on the roof. The Shiba family later attempted to train the animal to jump vaults on command, but they could never get it to repeat the trick.