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

Rangiku had skipped off work and was spending the afternoon wandering about. The Captain was in a series of meetings and she didn't see a reason to spend such a beautiful day indoors. And so she wandered aimlessly, passing through the gardens of the Seireitei.

As usual Rangiku felt the urge to talk, and thought about finding someone to talk to. At the moment she didn't feel particularly drinking, so Captain Kyoraku probably wasn't a good choice of companion.

Rangiku carefully pretended not to notice Nanao and Isane as they skulked behind some bushes. They'd managed an acceptable job of keeping their relationship hidden, but of course Rangiku knew everything that happened in the Seireitei-

Speaking of knowing everything, there was one thing Rangiku didn't currently know. How exactly had Kurosaki Ichigo gotten into the Seireitei academy?

Curiosity, to Rangiku, was an admirable trait. And of course Ashcat agreed.

She should perhaps launch an investigation.

Possibly it might end with drinks later. The boys were mostly lightweights, by Rangiku's standards, in the Seireitei only Shunsui, Jyushiro (when he was feeling well) and Captain Zaraki could better her with the sake cups. Of the others only Ikkaku and Iba were really a challenge. Renji, Hisagi and Kira, poor pretty boys that they were, well they just weren't in her league.

Ichigo had friends in the Seireitei, and his closer friends were the ones most likely to break the rules anyway. Renji (granted he claimed his captain had tacitly approved) went tearing off to Heuco Mundo without orders. Ikkaku and (to a lesser extent) Yumichika only listened to Captain Zaraki. And Captain Zaraki himself, well, he was the one and only Zaraki Kenpachi. What more could be said?

Renji would have to be involved of course. Though neither would ever admit it he was probably Ichigo's best friend. It certainly wasn't Chaddo anymore.

Would Chaddo know?

Rangiku shrugged, causing a nearby shinigami to drop the load of papers he'd been carrying. Getting anything out of Chaddo bordered on impossible, he could be a very dry stick. Becoming a vice captain hadn't changed that at all.

But Renji, on the other hand, he'd be easier.

And of course Ikkaku, which meant Yumichika, and Nemu had to know. She'd start with the Seireitei's baldest man. And he was the Seireitei's baldest man - counting the hair on the captain commander's chin he was indeed less bald than Ikkaku.

Ikkaku had it down to an art – if only he could extend his vast knowledge of the follicularly challenged arts to her legs-

Rangiku turned towards Eleventh division. Renji was usually busiest during the afternoons, while Ikkaku trained his subordinates hard in the morning. On nice days he'd go off to fight in the afternoons. It wouldn't be that hard to find him.

And indeed, it wasn't. She located Ikkaku lying under a tree and sat beside him.

"Good afternoon, bullet-head."

Ikkaku opened one beady eye to look at her, promptly shut it again.

Rangiku tapped on his shiny head a few times. "I said good afternoon, bullet-head!"

"Go away Matsumoto. I'm taking a nap."

All right, she'd have to sweeten the pot a little.

"Such a pity," said Rangiku. "And to think I felt like a fight-"

Ikkaku was already on his feet, crouched a little. Baldy-san would fight anyone and particularly enjoyed fighting people he didn't usually get to fight. Rangiku qualified - Ikkaku was a warrior to the core and never saw anything but her strength - even her girls couldn't distract him when he was fighting.

Ikkaku had impressive concentration. One of these days they'd make him a captain whether he wanted to be one or not.

Rangiku drew Ashcat, barked "Wait!"

"What? Let's get started!"

"I want to know something. If the fight lasts at least half an hour I want you to answer a question."

The bullet-head didn't think that one through. He never did when he had an opponent.

"Fine."

Rangiku smiled. "Then dance with me, Ikkaku-san."

Both shunpoed forward, locked up their unreleased Zanpakuto.

Rangiku smiled despite herself. They were well matched, and truth told she liked Ikkaku as a sparring partner. His technique was one-sided, made no use of kido or hakuda, but he was very good. Renji was more rounded and Iba more rounded still, but for a good scrap it was hard to beat Ikkaku. Most of the other Vice-Captain class fighters, the males at least - had to be cut up a little before they'd treat her as an opponent. And the females - they tended mostly towards kido (or in Nemu's case some Hakuda). And sometimes, when Rangiku was feeling aggressive, the boys simply gave her a better match.

Sparring with the lady captains was always interesting, but there was simply too much of a gap between her and Captain Unohana while Soi tended away from her Zanpakuto.

Sparring felt good - it was nice to work the kinks out. Ikkaku was really only a third seat in title - anyone with Bankai was classed a little above vice captain if they weren't actually a captain. Except for the precious little Kurosaki girls, who even Momo treated as precious little sisters to be shielded from danger.

The bullet-head almost knicked her!

He was grinning that Ikkaku grin.

"You ready to start paying attention Matsumoto?"

"Growl Haineko!"

"Extend Hozukimaru!"

Their spar had lasted for almost an hour. Both had collapsed under the same tree she'd first found him under.

Matsumoto wished she'd had the presence of mind to bring some sake.

"So Ikkaku," she said sweetly.

"What? You want some more?"

"You said you'd answer my question."

"So what is it?"

"How'd you get Ichigo into the academy?"

The look on bullet-head's face was absolutely priceless.

Relaxing under the tree, reviewing kido in my mind. I'm trying to figure out what I keep doing wrong, and I've basically narrowed it down to two things. One, I'm simply not doing it right. I don't think that's it though, I know all the words, I say them in the right order, and I can concentrate just fine. No, I'm leaning towards door number two; too much power. I'm thinking I'm getting surges that I can't even feel and they're upsetting my balance, so to speak. The other day, perfect crimson fireball. It formed up, it was stable and it should have worked perfectly. My shot was dead on, it should have hit the exact center of the target. Instead it goes haywire halfway down the range, veers up and to the left and bursts before it gets anywhere near the target. I'm beginning to think that some little surge is getting through me and sending the thing haywire.

The theory fits the facts at least. I just can't figure a way around it.

It's nothing Rukia has ever heard of before, and she says my spiritual pressure is so high anyway that she can't tell it it pulses or not. I can hardly take a trip to twelfth or fourth to find out, either.

Che.

Another thing. I've begun to feel uneasy, like I'm being watched. The problem is I haven't been able to figure out who it is. Or what they want.

Who the hell would be watching me? It can't be anyone who knows – after all, they'd already know. Tatsuki knows. The Red Flower knows. No one else has any reason to sus-

Oh, shit.

It doesn't have to be someone who knows, does it? It could be someone who suspects.

Nah, can't be. No one has any reason to sus-

Okay, that's a little strong. People might have some reason to suspect. I haven't been as good as I should be at hiding myself. But I'm quiet, and I only talk to about two people other than Rukia. If it were for that damn manga I'd have no trouble at all, certainly not with Tatsuki as a shield; she's taken most of the attention away from everyone else. More than one promising upperclassman loath the woman. Tatsuki's taking attention away from a lot of talented people.

A lot of people are pissed off at her.

Good thing I have other reasons to be pissed off at her. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to justify it, what with trying not to be noticed and all.

So who'd be watching me?

Let's think about that. Who'd be watching me?

The paranoia is strong within me.

Interested in me?

A girl maybe?

That could present its own set of problems. I already have a girl, and she's a good one. But obviously I can't show myself to be dating a Sensei, so we've been circumspect.

If it were a girl there could be a problem, but it was a problem that could be dealt with.

What if it wasn't?

Okay, that was a hypothetical, but I've learned to trust my instincts. Let's just go with that for a second. Suppose someone were watching me, just hypothetically. Why? Not that I really needed a why-

No, go with the why. The Hakuda gang? Okay, that's kinda the who, but these things are interrelated. Someone who'd watch me. They'd most likely know or at least suspect who I was.

If someone suspected me what would they do?

Interesting question. At one point I would have just figured they'd turn me in, curry favor with the shinigami establishment. But Red Flower didn't do that, did they? No, they wanted something else.

I guess I've got an unfavorable view of the human species – everyone has to want something. Funny how that whole banished Vizard thing has made me paranoid. Anyway, if someone suspected me, suppose they wanted something. If they had nothing on me I could laugh them off or whatever. So assume they'd be looking for evidence. Hence, watching me.

I've got hero too heavily on the brain. Surely it's possible that nobody cares and my paranoia is getting ahead of me?

Unfortunately it makes sense. Whatever someone wanted they'd start with evidence, either for me or against me. So I have to make sure no one can identify me.

Brilliant, that's what I've bloody well been trying to do all along.

How could someone find me out? Something definite. Let's say for sake of argument to turn me in. There isn't a student in the academy who'd risk going to the shinigami with a cockamamie story about the Substitute at the academy, not when the shinigami would send in a captain or something just to investigate a guy with an unfortunate resemblance-

They'd need proof, solid proof. Certainly a lot more proof then I'd given them.

Besides – and I had to grin - anyone current with the manga would know I could handle a captain. And nobody has ever actually said (to the students, at least) that Kurosaki Ichigo isn't allowed to be here. Of course I'm not, but other than the crackdowns on The Substitute no one actually knows that. And there were a lot of reasons they'd crack down on something like that. Still, it's at least plausible that I could be here officially under an assumed name so my history in the war didn't impact my-

Damn this is complicated.

Whatever. Someone might or might not be watching me, that's been a risk from the start, even if I'm just sort of getting that vibe now. So I keep my head down and don't give anyone any evidence they can use. And try to figure out who the hell it is.

No, you know what? This is crap. I've got nothing like evidence – I'm being careful, nobody is watching me. Get up, go on with my day and forget about this nonsense.

Right.

I have a free afternoon. So does Tatsuki. So first I went to the Red Flower dojo and tossed a few of them around for an hour. Just as something to do. Then I went to Tatsuki, carried her away from Campus and spent the rest of the afternoon beating her up.

What? Everybody needs a hobby.

Again, just something to do. Tatsuki is really not a sword user. She'll need it obviously, but she should realize she's better off doing the hand to hand thing with her other tutors. Right now she's swinging a Zanpakuto blank, no spirit in it yet.

After our little rumble at fight club Tatsuki figured she needed to learn to use a sword. She really hadn't expected to lose to me, and she's figured out she'll need every tool in the box if she wants to live a long afterlife.

Parry her away, shove her back.

She's doing this all wrong. Something about our styles just isn't going to mesh. I'm all about a blade as big as I am and hammering down from on high like the wrath of God. Tatsuki's blank is a wakizashi, it's too short for my style of fighting.

Though I guess a sword is a sword.

I'm shoving her back about every fifteen seconds. She keeps closing but she's using the wrong hand, she's supposed to be using the sword, not her hands and feet. That's the whole point.

I'm kind of wishing Urahara had made something that would force peoples pressure out. Some kind of pressure extraction pump that would force Tatsuki to blaze away at her absolute upper limit. I need to figure out what I'm dealing with, and it takes too long to drag her power up. And today, the power ain't flowing – she's just not getting it right.

I can already tell she isn't going to like training with me. Something about the way she's growling abuse.

Tatsuki shunpoed behind me so I punched her in the head. I could get to like that, just popping her whenever she gets mouthy. Problem is my scruples. If there's no challenge, it's too much like hitting a girl.

"The point isn't to shunpo Tatsuki, it's to use your Zanpakuto." It was probably the tenth time I'd said it, though I'd only been counting for the last six. Tatsuki seems to think she's allowed to use her other tricks. I'd taken to hitting her just to show her I was better at that too. She's too good at taking the blows though; she's a tournament type so she's used to absorbing the force. And I don't actually want to hurt her, so it's not like I can open up the taps and clock her one.

She's getting cheesed off so she jumps back and demands "How do I release this thing?"

Here we go. Another answer she's not going to like.

"You're not ready to release it. You have to learn its name first."

She managed a credible lunge, so I let her through. The uniforms are designed to take a bit of a pounding, so it didn't cut. And I've got a bit of that Zaraki thing going; no way a Zanpakuto amateur like Tatsuki is going to cut me, she'll be breaking her own fingers first.

"Help me," she growled. "How do I do it?"

"Keep fighting. Learn a respect for the weapon, you hold it like it's a nuisance, not even like a sword - hold it like a friend and trust it to help you. When you can do that it might be willing to speak to you."

"I don't have time-"

"There's another way," I said, "but you'll need a few weeks of practice before-"

"-Before what? You weren't doing this full time, Kurosaki! How long did you really fight?"

That was actually a pretty good question. Two or three months I guess, but maybe only twenty or thirty actual fight hours before Urahara-

Though I was working on actual hollows-

But Tatsuki has faced and defeated hollows too.

It's got to be the mindset, I'm sure she's got whatever practical component there is down already - the sword is a part of her and Tatsuki has always been a fighter-

But not a sword fighter.

"You've got to rely on the sword, Tatsuki. I can't teach you that-

But maybe I could-

"Hold on." I hung Zangetsu over my shoulder. "We're fighting the wrong battle Tatsuki. You've got to rely on the sword."

I reached into my robe, pulled out two of my stronger patches.

"Wrap these around your wrist."

She did. Meanwhile I was taking off my coat.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"You're using too many tricks, that's what's killing you."

"That doesn't tell me why you're taking off your coat!"

"I need the belt." And I smiled the most menacing smile I could. "I'm going to tie you a tree Tatsuki, with one hand behind your back. You've got no pressure to speak of with the patches on and you won't be able to move. Then you'll take your cute little Zanpakuto and try to keep me from cutting off your arm."

She start up about how this was never going to happen, but I was too quick. I've got one patch, she's got two. I had her by her belt and one arm, a little lift and she's on her toes, reaching for pressure that's no longer there. By the time she tries an unaided kick I've got her against the tree. And I can shunpo with a patch or two, she was trussed up in a heartbeat.

"Untie me!"

"Sure, after you're dead." I passed her the Zanpakuto blank. She'd dropped it – I'm like, Tatsuki, that's your Zanpakuto – you don't drop your Zanpakuto!

"Trust the blade Tatsuki. It's a part of you. If you won't let yourself be defeated, that Zanpakuto will never allow you to be defeated."

Alright, so I exaggerated a bit. The point is that even Zaraki trusts his Zanpakuto. He might not know its name, but he loves that sword like he loves Yachiru.

You know, it occurs to me that the reason he doesn't know his Zanpakuto's name is probably because it manifests in the form of a mime or something. We ought to get him Urahara's spirit-dummy thing. Then he could try beating the Zanpakuto's name out.

I would love to have a look at the manifested form of his Zanpakuto.

Actually, that's not so far fetched. I bet at this point Zaraki's Zanpakuto would love to take a crack at the big guy.

That would be a fight worth seeing.

The first swing Tatsuki makes is downright desultory.

"Lookit dummy, when I said I'd train you I sort of assumed you'd put some effort into learning."

"Untie me now."

"When I haven't had a chance to mark you? Highly unlikely."

My second swing went a little closer. She has to at least make an effort before I mark her.

Three blows later she makes like she's going to drop the Zanpakuto blank and roars "Untie me!"

"Nah, I think I'll fillet your arse instead."

"You son of a bitch! Let me go!" She takes a wild swing at me and then she tries to cut my belt!

I'll admit I lost my temper there. She keeps insisting she wants to take every crazy risk I ever did, but she refuses to actually learn anything from me.

"Don't you dare cut that belt! That's the only belt I've got! I'll fillet your arse!"

She almost tried to defend that time, so I marked her. Scratch across the cheek.

Rukia would kill me if she knew I'd deliberately marked a girl's face.

Times like this I miss Zaraki. There's a guy who's always glad to work out your frustrations, and it's nice to play with someone who can take his lumps. Say what you want about his sanity, Zaraki makes for a hell of a good fight.

Or maybe Byakuya, he can be fun. Nothing like getting him dirty to improve your day.

Tatsuki? Not so much.

That first mark got through to her. Finally, something reaches her.

"You need both of those?" I pointed to her eyes.

"What?"

"Your eyes? Why don't you try the old one eye thing? I can have one of those out in a second - if you fail to adequately defend yourself." Head games, I don't raise my voice. All right, I'll admit I wasn't going to carve her up, but Tatsuki tried to dodge rather than parry and Zangetsu almost shaved her head. I think it was a little closer than she was comfortable with.

"You try that again Tatsuki and you're going to get cut. You have a sword. Parry."

Spend the rest of the afternoon poking at her. She just doesn't seem to accept the Zanpakuto is her friend.

Well, hers at least. I doubt Zangetsu likes her any more than I do.

What a great old man he is.

We missed dinner.

Finally I put Zangetsu down.

"This is useless Tatsuki. Either accept the Zanpakuto or leave me alone. I can't train you until you're willing to accept it as a weapon. Come bug me then. Otherwise I'll see you around."

"You can't just leave me out here!"

"I'm not going to leave you, that's my belt. Just work at accepting that damn thing. I can't do anything more until your mindset changes. You want to turn me in, that's fine, but there's nothing I can do until you're ready to learn."

Three days later she was back, insisting her mindset had changed.

Fine Tatsuki, whatever you say. Back out to the clearing we go.

What the hell?

Hang on, I think she's making progress?

What the hell?

Is she actually as determined as she says she is?

Nah, can't be.

I've got to check-

"Hold out your Zanpakuto, hilt first."

She managed that without stabbing me, so I put a hand on the pommel of her Zanpakuto and grinned at her.

"Congratulations Tatsuki, she's alive."