C.E. 44

Shunsui was in the middle of a very pleasant and unprintable dream when he was awakened by a shout. "What the hell?" Jushiro shouted.

"You alright?" Shunsui asked, without opening his eyes. Really, it was much too early to be awake, let alone to deal with his roommate's problems.

"No, I'm not!" Jushiro said. "Did you do this?"

Shunsui sighed, rolled over, and open his eyes. Jushiro was towering over his bed, his white hair rumpled and messy.

Wait. White hair?

"What happened to your hair?" Shunsui asked, trying to wake his brain up enough to process the change.

"That's exactly what I want to know," Jushiro said. "So you didn't pull some joke on me?"

"No," Shunsui said. "Can I go back to bed now?" he asked. As Jushiro stormed out of the room, muttering something about dye, Shunsui went back to sleep.

Over the next few days, Jushiro tried several different methods to re-color his hair. Jushiro might be diligent, but he was also slightly vain about his appearance. Shunsui thought that worrying about hair color was rather silly, but he kept his opinions to himself.

Unfortunately for his peace and quiet, chemical dyes simply wouldn't affix themselves to Jushiro's hair. After the third botched attempt, he was getting desperate. He was now trying to modify a water-based Kido spell to color his hair.

A great plume of steam enveloped his body down to his torso, cracking with blue sparks. Suddenly, it dissipated. Shunsui took one look at his friend and started to laugh hysterically. His body shaking, he fell of his chair with tears streaming out of his eyes. "Ha, ha, ha! I'm sorry, Jyu, but at least that color looks good on you!"

With a pained expression on his face, Jushiro pulled a strand of his hair from behind his back to see what color his hair was now. It was an absolutely lovely shade of lilac.

Present Day

"At least the color faded," Jushiro said.

"And it gave you time to get used to the idea of having white hair," Shunsui said. "Although I must say, violet hair certainly made you popular with the ladies."

"Not all the ladies," Jushiro said. "Do you remember what we did to Retsu?"

C.E. 44

It took a week for Jushiro's hair to settle back into a silvery-white (although Shunsui insisted that traces of purple remained). Of course, Shunsui insisted on learning the spell Jushiro had tried to use. The grounds around their dorms suddenly acquired several purple trees and one very disgruntled violet cat.

Being Shunsui, it didn't take long for him to come up with a better application for their newfound skill.

The Shinigami Academy was divided into six levels. Shunsui and Jushiro were in the third level. One of the students in the fifth level was Retsu Unohana. She was said to be a genius in healing Kido. She was also very beautiful; most of the male shinigami recruits had a crush on her. She had a lovely black braid which fell to her waist behind her back. That was what inspired Shunsui.

Jushiro distracted Retsu by engaging her with a question about Kido. Shunsui snuck up behind her and began the invocation. As steam dissipated, they saw a large purple stripe in the back of her braid. Jushiro and Shunsui ran away, flash-stepping as quickly as possible. "Wish we could've waited around to see her face," Shunsui said.

"I doubt that would've been a good idea," Jushiro said.

"Well, we should be safe now," Shunsui said, slowing to a normal walk.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over them. They turned around, and saw what appeared to be a very large, green flying manta ray bearing down on them.

Shunsui's mouth fell open. "Run!" Jushiro said.

They ran, but even at their top flash-step speed, the creature gained on them.

"What is that thing?" Shunsui panted. "A Hollow?"

"I don't know. It doesn't have a Hollow hole," Jushiro wheezed.

They dodged inside a nearby building to catch their breath. The creature crowed in frustration, but continued to circle around their hideout.

"We are in so much trouble," Jushiro muttered. "That thing could rip this shed apart if it wanted to."

"What if we split up?" Shunsui suggested.

"Then whoever it chooses to chase won't have any protection," Jushiro said. "We'd probably better go on the offensive. I don't know if it's a Hollow or not, but we really can't let it run loose. You distract it from the front and I'll try to get its head."

Shunsui dodged out the front and yelled, "Hey, freak! Come and get me!"

Jushiro rolled his eyes. So overdramatic, he thought. Still, it worked; the manta ray turned and started charging at Shunsui. As soon as it had his back to Jushiro, he charged out after it. He jumped up onto the rooftop and flash-stepped as fast as he could after it. It was ridiculously fast, and Jushiro was starting to get tired. Finally, it slowed down Jushiro jumped onto its back, raised his zanpakuto over his head, and brought it down onto the creature.

Nothing happened.

"It's not working!" Jushiro yelled. Shunsui jumped onto a wall to get a better position on the creature, but it swooped down and swallowed him whole.

"Shun!" Jushiro shouted. Desperately, he swung his sword down on the creature's head again, but his zanpakuto didn't even scratch its blubbery back. It shook him off, swept down, and swallowed him as well.

Interesting.

Being eaten didn't feel like he thought it would

Jushiro found himself in a warm, soft enclosure, lit by very dim green light.

"Hey, is that you?" he heard Shunsui ask.

Jushiro felt a surge of relief that his friend was all right. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "What in the world is this place?"

"Ah, gentlemen. I see you are both here," a woman's voice said calmly.

"Retsu?" both boys said.

"That's Unohana-senpai to you," she said coolly. "Really, if you plan to pull pranks, you ought to be prepared to accept the consequences."

"What is this thing?" Jushiro asked.

"It's my shikai," she said.

Despite himself, Jushiro was impressed. It was nearly unheard of for a shinigami to achieve shikai before graduating from the Academy. No wonder Retsu was already in the fifth level.

"I'd advise against trying to fight your way out. Minazuki is quite impervious to attack, so you'll just tire yourselves," she continued.

"All right," Shunsui said, lying down and putting his hands behind his head. "Your move, Retsu."

"Just relax. You'll be here a while."

They flew for about twelve hours. Shunsui predictably napped for most of it. Jushiro always had trouble sleeping during the day unless he was sick. Actually, he was feeling quite good, all things considered. Before, his lungs had been starting to burn from the exertion, but the air inside Retsu's shikai seemed to be more soothing than normal air.

Eventually, the manta ray landed and let Shunsui and Jushiro out. "I'll see you back at school, gentlemen," her voice said calmly, and then the manta ray dissolved into green mist.

"Well," Shunsui said after a few moments, "shall we start walking back?"

Fortunately, they could flash-step far more quickly than the manta ray. When the creature let them go, it had been quite late at night; they arrived back around noon the next day. They were both exhausted, but they made it to their afternoon classes.

As fate would have it, Retsu had come to do a demonstration for their Intermediate Kido class. She had her usual serene smile, but her dark braid hair was braided in front rather than behind her.

"I'll need a pair of shinigami for my demonstration. Kyoraku, Ukitake, will you come to the front, please?" she said.

As they approached her with trepidation, she murmured softly, "I'm glad to see you both made it back safely."

"Nice braid," Kyoraku muttered back.

Jushiro was never quite sure, but he thought he might have seen a sparkle of amusement deep in her eyes.