Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings do not belong to me.
That first day was a little unusual. I'd never thought too much about the Shinigami academy, I just sort of assumed it'd be more like the high school I went to. It was closer to a college I was used to. Except apparently it wasn't that unusual for people to join late, and it also was specifically set up to identify and fast track people with ability.
Note to self, no ability.
As a first year I wasn't supposed to carry my Zampakuto even though I had it, so I stashed that in my room (roommate wasn't there). Beyond that I was told to sit at the back of my classes and try to catch up. People who joined late usually repeated the first year.
My head is cold.
Ikkaku must be loving this, bald headed pachinko bastard.
My first priority was finding Yuzu. I've got the next seven years to catch up with class work, and I kind of have a head start on the practical curriculum. But I do need to see my little sister before Kurosaki Yuzu calls me Ichi-nii in front of a crowd. Other students won't recognize the name, but the senseis, on the other hand - one of them overhearing could be a very different story.
Look, honest confession time here. This hurts me to say, it hurts me more than I like to admit-
No easy way to put this.
Uh-
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd just had three years of practice being nobody special. During the war I had sort of a double life, which very quickly went back to a single life after it. From all-conquering hero to nameless face in the crowd.
It had been hard and disheartening to learn that in the real world you don't go blazing into the principal's office with a bold new plan to strike down the bad guys. You don't go to the front of the line either, you go to the back with everybody else because you're nobody special. Then you get to watch your friends grow apart from you when they figure out you're the cause of everything bad that ever happened to them – everyone who picked up a charge from my spirit energy is uncomfortable (at best) with the results.
Like hiding under the bed when the enemy was marching in the streets would have done them any good. Nice idea but it doesn't work that way. I may be biased (alright, incredibly biased) but I'll take the power to fight hollows over hiding under the bed hoping they'll go away any day.
But it doesn't help; eventually you get to worry about getting into college and you get to worry about what comes next. That's life. The heroing business is a hard one to leave but nothing like as hard as going into the normal person business. I swallowed a lot of pride in the last three years, I like to think it made me stronger. Today it probably saved me from doing something stupid. If this had happened three years ago-
If this had happened three years ago I'd have done something stupid by now.
I didn't speak to anyone in my classes, mostly because no one spoke to me. These people were seriously studious. Though I guess if I had nowhere to go back to but North district 80 I'd be studious too.
Oh wait, I don't have North 80 to go back to. I don't have anywhere at all to go back to.
Most of the students look younger than me, though a few of them were quite a bit older; apparently all physical ages were welcome. Kind of weird to get used to. One thing I'll give the old man, he accepts that noble birth isn't a guarantee of success and everyone is allowed an equal shot. Knowing the old bastard it's because he divides the the world into shinigami and non-shinigami rather than from any kind of altruism. To him the nobles are the same kind of dirt as the commoners, only the Shinigami live in the court of pure souls. Great system huh? Nice to have massive inborn power that wasn't earned and can't be learned, eh?
I happen to be one of the privileged few. I figure as long as I can still see that I'm still Kurosaki Ichigo inside. I hope I always will be.
Been wondering how Byakuya got through here. He must of had private tutors or something, I simply can't see him mixing with the common folk. At some point in the distant past even Byakuya picked up a sword for the first time, I simply can't see the stoic Kuchiki-dono getting knocked around with the rest of the kids.
Kuchiki's okay, once you get used to the way he thinks. In his way he's a decent guy. A little intense maybe, and I wouldn't want to share a dorm room with him, but he's okay. He has unrealistic expectations of himself, that's all.
Anyways, the first day passed quickly enough and I didn't get outed. So all was well with the world. I was finally beginning to think this was going to work. Todays classes were ancient history, middle period history and that class on spiritual pressure. That one was kind of difficult; fine control is easy when I'm just releasing my spiritual pressure normally but it gets a little tricky when I'm trying to lower my output. It tends to surge on me.
I'd been concentrating so hard on that I hadn't noticed the other students dropping like flies around me. That was the whole point of the exercise, for everyone to get a feeling for their limits. I tried to remember to drop before anyone got suspicious, but my mind sort of wandered. Suddenly I realized that just me and two other people were still going, I had to take a dive and hope no one noticed me pull on the second patch to cut my output. Most of the class was gasping and wheezing, so I think I got away with it. The point is I almost didn't. Next time I'd have to fade out a lot sooner or someone might think I have potential or something. The last thing I need is to get fast tracked into the arms of someone who understands high spirit pressure, say like a Captain. This is only going to work if I absolutely never stand out.
Thankfully my schedule includes a complete exemption from Zampakuto training. I was listed as independent study for sword with private tutoring.
Thank you guys - I was a hell of a lot less likely to get caught now.
Unless Zaraki was my tutor - and they wouldn't do that, would they?
Renji and Ikkaku? They-
-wouldn't-
-do-
Renji and Ikkaku?
Oh damn.
I ate dinner by myself, made sure to sit very quietly at the edge of the crowd. Didn't want some upper classman deciding to be a jerk, my nerves were a little too raw. Especially since someone knocking my eye patch off would bring a rain of captains down on my head, probably right through the roof.
I ate slowly but finally I had to put down my chopsticks. There was no more help for it, I either had to go meet the new roommate or spend another night on the lawn. Didn't know where the library was yet, so I had nowhere to go study. Besides, there'd be people at the library. Since the whole point was to blend in I should probably stick to my dorm room for studying, the less people who saw me the better. Get a reputation for being a lone wolf, people could respect that. Get a reputation for being strange and they might send someone from fourth squad to examine my head. I can see it now, Isane-san comes knocking on Sado Kon's door.
I hope she wouldn't be holding a grudge from that time I sent her flying.
Not so good. Normal, I had to be normal. Seven quiet normal years, by then it'd be ten since anyone had seen me. Ikkaku could have a quite talk with Zaraki and I'd become a background member of eleventh. Zaraki would keep his mouth shut for a few fights a month if we could find somewhere quiet to do it.
As I was walking looking at the other students with their books and their friends and so on it struck me as a little weird how absurdly young they all were. None of these people had ever killed a hollow, let alone an arrancar. Or played a practical joke on Byakuya.
Guess that makes me the local sempai.
In hindsight replacing Byakuya's scarf with a pink feather boa no longer seemed the brilliant idea it had at the time. Even if it was perfectly timed to Byakuya waking up, Ikkaku pushing an amped-up Yachiru through the gate (he'd been feeding her sugar) and Renji showing up early for work.
It was a prank on Renji more than anyone else, he had to keep a straight face.
Had to put that out of my mind. I was in first year here. I'd never killed a hollow, an arrancar or anything else. Just one of the guys. I don't stand out at all.
I've gotten better at controlling my spiritual pressure, but I never said I was actually good at it. That could eventually be a problem but it seemed to work well enough for first year.
The ten percent patch was a lifesaver.
Lifesaver. Poor choice of words.
I finally got back to my assigned room.
In hindsight it had been a nerve-wracking day, really I couldn't tell you much about the place or what we covered in class. The fact I hadn't even noticed that says a lot about my mental state. I was sure I'd get used to it, but that was going to take time.
I knew I had a room mate, I'd seen his things when I dropped off Zangetsu. I just hadn't met the guy, he hadn't been there.
He looked up when I walked into the room.
"Are you my new roommate?"
"Yes," I answered. He looked young, though that doesn't mean much here. Physically (if you can call people made of spirit particles physical) he looked about fifteen. I'm - or I was in college, so he seemed young.
"Is that a real Zampakuto?"
"Yes it is." I'd stood Zangetsu's sealed form in a corner this morning.
"Cool. My name is Morisato Shiba." He stood up.
"Sado Kon."
"A pleasure to meet you, Sado-San."
There wasn't a whole hell of a lot else to say. Thankfully Shiba-kun was a polite kid and went back to his reading.
I lay down and wondered exactly how the hell I was supposed to go about learning to go from sealed Zangetsu to Bankai Zangetsu without anyone seeing. I'd already decided to ask Zangetsu if I could try painting his bankai form a little, maybe add a bit of red so he wouldn't be quite so obvious, maybe get some ribbons like Rukia had. The Manju guard is going to stick out like a sore thumb though.
I don't have a plan for that yet.
I don't think Zangetsu actually likes me enough to do any of this, in fact I think I'm going to get told off.
When it got dark enough I'd planned on tracking down Yuzu.
Morisato-Kun felt the need to be polite to the new guy.
"You want to borrow one of these?" He was reading a manga.
I was about to refuse when I got a look at the cover.
Went cold all over.
Never had a feeling like that in my life, not the first time I saw a hollow, not when Byakuya first cut me, not when I first ran into Zaraki or even the first time I ran into Jaggerjack.
I managed to nod, so Morisato tossed me one of the mangas off the pile.
Words utterly failed me.
This kid was reading some kind of Seireitei manga.
It was called 'The Substitute.'