Getting a job in the World of the Living sucks.

The first step after getting semi-acquainted with what passes for normal here was to get myself a job, become self-dependent instead of "mooching" off of Urahara-san. Tessai-san can be really mean when he wants to.

You would think someone who sat at the top of the totem pole (a cool new term I've learned since "the big move") wouldn't have a problem getting a good job, right? Wrong.

It took me over a month just to land a job at a small convenience store. I barely make enough money to rent a shabby little apartment, forget about having enough for food! I'm living paycheck to paycheck with no prospects for getting more cash. I've been applying for better jobs, but gotten no where.

Masaki says that I just have to keep trying and someday I'll get a better job. I really want to believe her, but I'm not even getting to the interview stage. How can I get a better job when they won't even give me the chance to show them how awesome I am?

She's very kind, but persistence is not achieving anything. I will have to seek assistance elsewhere.

Ryuuken (once I'd successfully gotten answers out of him, the stuck-up Quincy bastard) said that I wasn't getting a job because my resume sucked, and that's paraphrasing by the way. What he said was much more derisive and complicated and I don't actually remember the whole thing. I do, however, remember that part of it was that I didn't have any listed job experience, but it's not like I can put "Commander of over two hundred Shinigami for sixty years" on my resume. Firstly, the ID that Urahara got me says that I'm 19, less than half the time I was captain, and secondly, the locals wouldn't take me seriously, or worse would condemn me as insane. I think he wanted me to put it down and see what happens, try to get a laugh out of it. Meanie.

I give up.

I give up. I can't get a better job without some more "professional" help. Hopefully the cost won't be too high. Pssh, yeah right. Urahara is anything but cheap, but I'm kinda lost without the guy. Masaki and Ryuuken just don't understand how much I don't know about this world. In Soul Society they train you for the job you're going to get, if you can't pass the training you get bounced to another program. It's simple. You don't go searching for the job.

Urahara told me that part of the problem was my skill set. Knowing how to take and give orders was all well and good, but I had relatively few selling points beyond my military grade obedience, which I barely had anymore anyways. Being a captain tends to take some of the strict rule following out of you when there's not many people above you, at least it does when you don't have a royal stick up your ass. *cough*Byakuya*cough*

So now I'm studying medicine. According to Urahara, who I at least trust in this matter, it is the only previous knowledge from my shinigami days that can be put to use in this world. All I need to do is brush up on the non-kido healing techniques, learn the medicine lay-out, and he should be able to help me get a license to run a small clinic.

It worked!

I can now see that self-employment was the road I should have picked all along.

Now I've got a small clinic in the Minamikawase district of Karakurachou, the next town over from Naruki-shi where Masaki lives. I'm not supposed to treat much beyond your common cold or a minor broken bone, but I'm still learning and can get further licensing later.

I'll be in debt to Urahara for the next couple years for helping me buy the place and getting set up, but I'm starting to support myself now.

Actually it's a nice place, even has a decent sized home attached to it, but it feels empty. It's just me in there. I'm used to a squad or my nephews and niece being around. It never really hit me 'til I struck out on my own that I'm alone. I've lost my family, my subordinates, my home.

But when Masaki stops by, mostly to tease me about my new white coat (almost like she forgot my captain's haori was white) it doesn't feel so empty. The patients I get don't create that feeling.

I wonder why.

Author's Note

Isshin definitely couldn't have become a doctor first thing. I mean there's licenses and stuff and even if Urahara is a master of fake documents I think Isshin would want/need the real thing for medical practice.

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