Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings don't belong to me.

It took awhile to get back to some degree of normalacy, somebody ratted on me and word started getting around that Ukitake-san had spoken to me. Rumor mill started picking up steam.

I didn't need this. This was year one. What the hell was going to happen when I had to show someone other than Hanataro my Zanpakuto? What's that called, Sado-san? No idea Sir, but I've mastered Bankai, so can I skip the rest of the class?

With any luck I can stay with Hanataro's private lessons all the way through the academy. We've got seven years left, I know Hanataro will reach bankai before I graduate.

Damn upperclassman. There was nothing personal the first time, but if someone takes a dislike to me and I have to lay another beating the rumors aren't going to stop. I might very well get caught if his (or her) friends jump in.

Well I can hardly let them beat me up. Bullies don't stop once they find a victim, and lose my temper just once-

Next bully I'll lure away from campus before I kick twelve kinds of shit out of them. Hopefully the embarrassment will keep them quiet.

I'm a bit lonely. Sado Kon's friends are just that, Sado Kon's. It'd be nice to talk to some of my friends, Renji or Ikkaku or Hana or someone. I'd love a few words with Rukia but unless she calls me into her office I can't get near her. I'm willing to risk getting caught myself, but I won't risk her.

Ukitake really creeped me out, I haven't felt right since.

Maybe it was the hair kido. I'd stopped shaving my head when I found out my stubble is white. Yes, I've joined the snowy club. Lucky me. Granted it's way too short but I was on my way to looking like Snowy's older brother.

That'll show the little bugger, Toshiro would go through the roof if he saw me with the white hair, grinning at him, and a foot and a half taller. I've already decided, if I do see him I'm going to look him in the eye and before he can even open his mouth I'll scream MATSUMOTO! at the top of my lungs. Then I'll either run away or stay to watch Snowy go through the roof.

Toshiro's okay but he's too serious. He'd enjoy life a lot more if he loosened up a bit.

Right now I looked more like Iba than Snowy or Ikkaku. I'm not sure that's an improvement. I'm betting I won't like looking like Renji either.

Glad I didn't go for those tattoos yet, I've been having second thoughts.

Got the hair all planned though; can't let it get too spikey, see? So when it gets a little longer I'll slick it down flat. Then when it gets long enough I'll stop with the grease and tie it back, start wearing a pony tail. The eventual plan, if I can deal with having long hair, is to start putting it into a braid.

What can I say? I like the way it looks on Bankotsu.

Ah, I'll see, I doubt I'll be able to to live with it that long, I'll probably end up looking like a Bleached Renji.

Pineapple junior.

I'm miles away from long hair being a problem. Right now it looks like white astroturf.

Two more days passed before the Hakuda club approached me.

I think I said normalacy returned. It lasted about three hours.

Hakuda is the art of unarmed combat. Someone from the club saw me take on those four clowns and got the bright idea I should join.

I didn't even know there was a Hakuda club. Apparently these were mostly the kids who figured they'd go into the special forces, Soi Fon's gang. They approached me and asked me to try out for the club.

I'm thinking the last thing I need is Kitty's little friend coming around to see me with her would-be proteges. Soi Fon doesn't like me and she doesn't think she can beat me. Makes her unpredictable.

So I politely thanked them for their interest.

Apparently it doesn't work like that. The pleasant young person smiled at me a little less and told me again, I had been invited to try joining the Hakuda club.

Again, I thanked her and said I wasn't interested.

Which got me a third explanation, that I, Sado Kon, had been invited to try joining the Hakuda club. She wasn't smiling much at all by then.

So with no one around to point out I was making a big mistake I thanked her for her interest, told her I was too busy with my Zanpakuto training and kido class problems and that I didn't have time to join a club.

She's looking downright angry by then and storms away.

Silly me. Here I was thinking that'd be an end to it.

The next morning I'm in the cafeteria trying to have breakfast with Seymour and Morisato. I made a friend in Seymour-san. He's an okay guy, but he's one of those people who've been picked on to the point he has no confidence left. I gather he's pathetic at basically everything soul reapers do, but when the Rukongai is your only option you tend to want to stay on at the academy regardless of how you're treated.

Maybe I could help him a little. He'd never be a great shinigami but there had to be some kind of place for him in the Seireitei. Corrections squad maybe, or maybe research with Urahara's guys. I doubt Urahara has any official mandate but he had to be running his lab again.

I wouldn't send anyone to twelfth squad with that freak there.

We'd find somewhere for Seymour.

I'm just chilling out, it's another regular day at the academy, scratching my head with its newly sprouted white hair. No big deal. The fourth years hadn't come back – according to Morisato the academy goddess Kurosaki Yuzu of seventh year had announced that bullying was terrible and anyone who did it ought to be ashamed of themselves and even eleventh company didn't like bullies. Then Morisato started going on about her incredible kido and how Yuzu had a Captain for a father and a twentieth seat twin sister and ooo, she was supposed to be the little sister of Morisato's legendary Substitute.

I ignored the last bit – I didn't even hear it. Yuzu is the goddess of the academy. My little sister is running the school.

Morisato starts up with some more about Yuzu when someone at the front of the room starts shouting for attention. Some kind of announcement.

"Attention everyone!"

Better be important, buddy. I don't like being disturbed when I'm eating.

"The first year student Sado Kon," shouts this guy, "has agreed to join the Hakuda club-"

I'd what? And who cared? Surely this wasn't worth a public announcement-

"Via gauntlet challenge!"

Via what?

What?

What just happened?

"Sado-san," says Morisato, "are they talking about you? A gauntlet challenge?"

"No," I answered. "Of course they're not talking about me. Some other guy-"

"You'll know Sado-san," the Hakuda guy shouted, "by his shaved head or white stubble, and by his eye patch. Sado Kon wears a black patch over his right eye!"

Then Morisato says "That's you, Sado-san. Stand up!"

Stand up? I was thinking of sliding off my seat and crawling away! What the hell was going on?

Seymour looks at me – he should clean his Aizen glasses. "Are you all right, Sado-san?"

By this point people around have figured out that Sado-san is over here, they're starting to look this way.

I can't believe this, Hakuda club has declared a bloody gauntlet challenge on me.

This is how the gauntlet works. I was going to be unofficially attacked anywhere I went on campus until I agreed to try out for the Hakuda club. Apparently this was unprecedented, because by the time the twit from the Hakuda club is finished talking everybody in the damn cafeteria is looking around trying to figure out just who Sado Kon is. About the only good thing is the campus is big enough to have several cafeterias, hopefully the announcement only made its way to this one.

Except to target just the one they'd have to know I eat in this one, which they probably didn't know, meaning-

Shit.

This is the point where words fail me, I don't know what the hell to say next. The attacks were hardly going to be dangerous, but they were going to be a nuisance, especially if I got surprised and hit someone too hard.

Worse, the better I fought the more they'd want me, at least up to the point I was branded a menace and they actually sent people from second squad in. Soi Fons gang are all secretive; they'd come disguised as students to teach me a lesson probably, and after I'd whaled on a few of their seated officers someone was going to get suspicious.

That's work just peachy, suddenly Soi Fon appears out of nowhere and takes a swing to teach the new guy a lesson, then she'd loose that damn hornet Zanpakuto on me and I'd have to get medieval on her ass-

Damn the Hakuda club!

I didn't even get a chance to finish breakfast. The first Hakuda guy spotted my patch before I'd even finished breakfast!

He tried to surprise me in the cafeteria. So I surprised him with a bowl of ice cream down his pants (I like ice cream, what's wrong with having it for breakfast?). Score one for Ich-Sado I mean.

Next up a girl came at me on my way into kido class. I saw her coming and I moved to one side. She put her fist through the paper panel of the door and Rukia comes running out to tear a strip off her. I tried to disappear before Rukia saw me, but she's too damn quick. I got yelled at, called seven different kinds of idiot and told to see her after class.

Mmm, Rukia.

She couldn't see a way clear of my little problem. Told me it was my own damn fault, too.

Attack number three, a big guy with a beard and a gut. Not a problem, a little light footwork got the ogre to put his foot through a waste basket in front of one of the proctors, which got him dragged off for destroying academy property.

Then came two more during the afternoon and one at dinner. That last one ended up with a guy punching a bowl of hot soup, which was kind of funny.

They were getting better though, each one a little better than the last. A few more days and I was going to have to hit somebody back.

And the damn rumor mill had started again. Suddenly everyone knew who Sado Kon was, he was the guy in the eye patch. Morisato insisted money was starting to change hands over how long I'd last. I tried to shake down the bookies to figure out how many people were left on the hakuda list – they wouldn't tell me. No, that'd spoil the surprise. Worse, no one would let me place a wager on myself.

Bastards. The guy in the eye patch. Being noticed was exactly what I didn't need.

Thankfully they left me alone while I slept, but the next morning there were two of them, a pair of twins in second year. It took some doing but I finally got one to land a punch on the other, knock him out. Then I put a foot to the other guy's ass when he went to check his brother.

The next attacker was a third year. I tricked him, told him I'd be back to fight him in a moment. Then I walked around a corner and shunpoed. Rules of the game; they can't consider it a victory unless they actually beat me.

Morisato told me there was now a lot of money on the table, and that even the fifth years were starting to pay attention.

Sooner or later someone was going to try to fix the betting pool. Surprised Morisato hadn't already.

Up next were two fourth year girls, they tried to lure me into a dark corner with some delightful promises but I wasn't having none of it. I faked tripping in the shadows and landed a headbutt that took one out of the race. Her friend fell for the same thing that twin did, turned her back to me when she tried to check her friend.

So I gave her a boot in the ass and went on my way.

So far there'd been no pitched battles, it had all seemed like luck or incompetence. It was going to be hard to keep my 'lucky' streak going though, eventually someone was going to notice I can really fight. Making me paranoid.

Of course then I screwed up, a guy in my kido class wanted to check my notes, see if he'd copied an incantation down correctly. I thought it was a trick and doubled him up with a fist in the gut.

It was an accident, sort of.

Mmm, Rukia.

This time she was mad at me, told me to stop disturbing her class. I left her office with only the briefest of kisses, all the time trying to figure out just what the hell I should be doing. I reaached the door, stepped onto the path and started to walk.

At some point the club was going to send a mob after me, maybe it was better to join, take the risk -

I should have been paying more attention.

Oh shit.

There's a crowd, not a huge crowd, but big enough.

Fine. This time I'd fight for real, give someone the old KO.

Except they'd probably mob-

Ahead of me I saw a ranking member of the hakuda club, by miles the strongest one of them. Coming this way.

El Directo.

Chad.