Prying the duffel bag from the footlocker, Ichigo tipped the contents out onto her bed, snatching up the photo of her and her mother shoving it under her pillows. She could lie about it if anyone saw but she really didn't want to. Ichigo stacked her books in the bottom of the locker with her cigarettes and her folded clothes on top.

"Lights out in one hour, I expect everyone to up at 0600 hours. Beds made, uniforms on, if I see one thing out of place it's a hundred push ups," Gin shouted, slamming the door to his room. Ichigo snorted, rolling her eyes before she set her watch to go off at five. Shouting at her neighbour to shut up Ichigo got comfortable pulling a pillow over her head to block out the light, most wouldn't go to sleep till lights out.

The beeping of her alarm jerked her awake, bleary eyed she looked over the room to see if anyone else was disturbed. Shinji rolled over muttering something about birds, she froze but he didn't move again. Ichigo sighed, removing the elastic band from her wrist she grabbed at her hair to tie it up and got nothing. 'Old habits die hard,' she thought shaking her head as she dressed. Slipping out of the barracks, Ichigo turned towards the training grounds, to the east sat the mess hall and was about three hundred meters from where she stood. Taking a deep breath she started to run the dirt path down to the training grounds. If she didn't work harder than everyone else she wasn't going to make it.

At 0600 Ichigo slipped into the barracks, nobody noticed her arrival or that her hair was drenched. Everyone was to busy trying to get dressed and fix bedding at the same time. Nobody wanting to do a hundred push ups. Ichigo saw Gin approaching from the corner of her eye, not bothering to face him, his fox-like gaze was entirely focused on her.

"Where did you disappear to Kurosaki? You weren't here when I came to yell at the rest of the maggots," he asked, shouting in her ear. A grin consumed her face at the chance to annoying him.

"Was feeding my addiction, I ain't gonna smoke with Starrk in the room I'll lose my cigarette again." This earned her a slap to the back of the head.

"You will address me as sir, be respectful to your superiors," Gin growled, hand raised for another hit.

"Yes ma'am," she chirped, a grin spreading across her face like a knife wound, "would ya like me to kiss yer arse while I'm at it ma'am," she continued, putting emphasis on the ma'am. The entire room fell silent, everyone held their breath as they waited for the fight to unfold. Ichigo had her hands clasped behind her back, they were shaking, she couldn't remember the last time she was so rude to someone other than Shiro. Gin just smiled balling his raised hand into a fist, swinging it into her gut. Ichigo bit the inside of her cheek, holding back the groan of pain and managed to stay on her feet.

"You have half an hour before I return, I expect everything to be in order," he said, speaking calmly like the whole scene never happened, all eyes on him as he left. Ichigo ran to the window by her bed, shoving it open and puked till all that came up was bile. Collapsing onto her back she closed her eyes, waiting till she was numb to the pain. Ulquiorra stood above her, bottle of water in hand.

"Are you okay trash?" He asked, holding out a hand.

"Peachy," she grunted, taking the hand. Despite his small stature he was incredibly strong, pulling Ichigo to her feet with little effort.

"It would be better if you had stayed quiet, I believe Gin-sama wouldn't attack you. He seems to hate you," he murmured, forcing the water bottle into her hands.

"Don't matter, s'not like 'm not used," she said, downing the water bottle. Most turned to look at her, a few shocked.

"What?" It was Shinji who asked, his face a mask of confusion.

"Being hit and shit, I got a twin brother. He's the evil twin," she said sarcastically, waving the blonde off, he frowned but didn't say anything more. It was true, fights between her and Shiro had been a common thing for her as a child, it wasn't until he was older that he realised he couldn't hit her anymore since she was a girl.

"Starrk wanna smoke?" She asked, changing the topic.