Chapter 9

Ikkaku, Yumichika and Buffy followed the old man into the large building. Buffy tried not to stare; the room they entered was large, airy and imposing. There were also many people milling around, mostly men and boys, but there were some women and girls as well. The groups were segregated by gender; the people giving the tests were all male.

"Miss Ayasegawa, go join the other young ladies over there," the man said, pointing to the group of girls on one side of the room. "Ayasegawa and Madarame, you two come with me."

Buffy made her way to the group of girls milling around, thoughts running rampant in her head. Buffy Ayasegawa. Huh, it has a nice ring to it, Buffy thought to herself as she made her way to the group of girls. Considering I don't remember my last name from when I was alive, I suppose I could get used to it. It was a little freaksome, considering it had been roughly two weeks since she had met the boys and Yumichika hadn't consulted her at all about whether or not she actually wanted to be his sister. Then again, looking back she saw the signs. He had been treating her like a sister, affectionate but not in a sexual way, overprotective but not stifling and always concerned about her well-being. She, in turn, was overprotective of him as well, even though she knew he could easily take care of himself, as he had been doing so for many years before she had come along.

If that wasn't a sibling-like relationship, she didn't know what was.

"Hi, I'm Rangiku Matsumoto! What's your name?"

Buffy was brought out of her thoughts by a bright, friendly voice. She looked up to see a girl who looked like she was in her early to mid-teens or so. She had long, strawberry blonde hair and the palest blue eyes Buffy had ever seen. Rangiku stood a few inches taller than Buffy and, even though she appeared a few years younger, her breasts were already quite large.

"Buffy… Buffy Ayasegawa," Buffy replied, saying her new name out loud to test it out. She decided that she liked it.

"Are you here on your own?" Rangiku asked. "Or were you dragged here by someone else like I was?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I got dragged, but I'm here with a couple of people," Buffy replied, turning to where the boys were crowded. She was able to easily pick Ikkaku out of the crowd.

He was the only one that had the light bouncing off of his head.

"My best friend convinced me to come along with him," Rangiku continued, turning her attention to the group of males. She pointed to one in particular. "Gin's the silver haired kid standing near the bald guy and the girly-looking guy."

"The girly-looking guy is my… brother, Yumichika," Buffy said once she had seen where Rangiku was pointing. "The bald guy is his best friend and pain in my ass, Ikkaku."

"Small world, huh?" Rangiku remarked. "So, it baldy really that bad?"

"Most of the time I can ignore it," Buffy replied with a shrug. "Sometimes, though, he annoys me to the point where I can't help but smack him upside the head. Then, one thing leads to another and we end up fighting and Yumichika says he's surrounded by toddlers and threatens to abandon us. That usually makes us stop, though, so it works."

"No offence, but you don't look like you can take him," Rangiku said sceptically, looking from Buffy to Ikkaku and back again.

"There's more to me than meets the eye," Buffy replied, slightly miffed that yet another person didn't believe what she was capable of. She would have to show everyone that just because she was tiny she couldn't kick ass. She decided against telling Rangiku that she didn't look like much of a fighter either; after all, if she did she'd be doing the exact same thing she had done.

"Welcome, all of you, to the Shinigami Academy entrance exam."

A man had come forward and addressed the two groups, standing on an elevated platform so that he could seen and heard more easily. Buffy stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to get a better look, but found that it was difficult. Being short in a crowd sucked.

"It's not nice to laugh at people," Buffy said with a pout when she saw Rangiku trying not to laugh.

"Of course it isn't," Rangiku replied, still giggling. Buffy grumbled under her breath, silently wishing that she was still around "her" boys. Maybe then she would be able to convince Ikkaku to lift her up onto his shoulders. She huffed and turned her attention back to the man on the platform; while she couldn't see him, she could still hear him.

"You have all come here to see if you have the potential to become a Shinigami," the man continued. "To do that, we must evaluate you in several skill areas; how you do in these assessments will determine both your potential as a Shinigami and how much you still need to learn before you graduate the academy. Depending on how you do on the exams, you may not have to take a full course load.

"The examination is broken up into three parts. You will be evaluated on your hand-to-hand combat, your swordsmanship and your ability to use your spiritual power. You will be graded by instructors of the Academy, and you will be sparring with various unseated officers of the Thirteen Protection Squads. This exam should take the entire day, and results will be posted by tomorrow. If you have travelled from a distant district, we have places for you to stay overnight. Now, without further ado, let's get on with the examination."

Everything was a little chaotic as the groups were divided into smaller groups of four of five. Buffy ended up in a group with three other girls who looked almost identical; they could have easily been sisters, and probably were. All three looked rather fragile and delicate, almost like they didn't belong in a military recruitment examination. She looked over at the boys; Ikkaku and Yumichika had been split up. Yumichika was in a group with Gin, Rangiku's friend; Buffy waved at her brother, and he wiggled his fingers back and smiled at her. Ikkaku was in a group with men like him; surly and tough looking. Ikkaku caught Buffy's eye, his lips quirking up ever so slightly in amusement before his face settled back down into its customary scowl. She smiled back at him before turning her attention back to the man on the raised platform.

"We are about to begin the swordsmanship examination," he continued. "You have been grouped with people who appear to be at your skill level. You will be required to duel a series of unseated officers, five in total. Each combatant will become increasingly more difficult for your skill level. You will be duelling with wooden swords, as we do not want any permanent injuries to occur. The more opponents you defeat, the fewer swordsmanship classes you will need to take once you get into the academy. Easy enough to understand, yes? Decide amongst yourselves who wants to go first and we'll go from there."

The three girls turned to Buffy; it looked like it was going to be three against one.

"You can go first," the tallest one said, although she was maybe half an inch taller than Buffy herself, if that. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Fine by me," Buffy replied with a shrug. She wasn't worried about this examination, nor was she worried about the hand-to-hand combat examination. Maybe the girls were better at the spiritual power part of the academy or something.

Buffy stepped forward, alerting the man on the platform that she was going to go first. When everyone else was in place, the man on the platform held his hands up for quiet.

"Combatants, choose your weapon," the man on the platform said. Next to each group was a table of wooden swords of different lengths and shapes. She picked one that was closest to the katana she had been using since she had arrived and weighed it in her hand. Good weight, nice length; it would serve her well for the examination.

"Now that everyone has a weapon of their choice, let the first part of the examination begin," the man on the platform said. "You will fight each opponent until you are defeated, and then the next person in your group will be up. Sound simple enough? Then let's begin."

The man on the platform signalled them to begin. Buffy faced off with her first opponent, a young man who looked like he was in his late teens. He smirked slightly when he saw who his opponent was.

"I'll promise to go easy on you," he said, attempting to be charming. "Wouldn't want to ruin that pretty face of yours."

"Wish I could say the same," Buffy replied, launching into her attack. It took only a few moments for the boy to realize that Buffy knew what she was doing and could do it well, but by that time it was too late. Before he could fight back in earnest, Buffy had somehow gotten a hold of his sword arm, and had her own sword against his throat.

"If this were real, you'd be dead," she whispered in his ear before she left him to move on to the next person.

Because each officer was sequestered before their fights, they didn't get to see what Buffy was capable of before facing her. The exact same thing happened with each fight; her opponent would underestimate her, and she would end up beating her. After a while the fights would get longer, either from her exhaustion or the fact that her opponents had become more skilled; probably a combination of both.

"Someone's gotta be pullin' my leg here or something," said the large man who was Buffy's next opponent. He was tall and broad, dressed in the black, standard Shinigami uniform. His hair was pulled back from his face in cornrows, and he had a gold hoop in his nose and a silver hoop in each of his earlobes. He let out a booming laugh when he saw that Buffy only came up to his chest. "How did someone this small get this far?"

"Why don't you come here and find out?" Buffy replied, getting into a fighting stance. She was tired and sore, but she could take him. She hoped.

"You have spirit," the man said with a grin. "I like that. You'd probably do well in my squad."

"And what squad would that be?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow as she got into a fighting pose.

"I'm one of the twentieth seats of the eleventh division," the man replied, puffing out his chest. "You seem confident, little one. What makes you think you can take me on, and win?"

"I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I look," Buffy replied. "Now are you all talk or are you going to show me what you've got?"

"Right down to business, I see," the man said. "I like that. Maybe we could go out for drinks or someth…"

The man didn't get to finish the sentence because Buffy had cut him off by kicking him in the gut. He went flying, landing approximately six feet away. If he had been smaller, he probably would have gone farther.

The kick didn't inconvenience her opponent for long, as a moment later he had jumped back onto his feet, his eyes blazing. He growled under his breath, his nostrils flaring as he drew his own wooden sword.

"When I saw you, I was going to go easy on you, but now the gloves are off," the man snarled. "You're going down, bitch!"

Before Buffy knew it, the large man had rushed her and was attacking her relentlessly; it was all she could do to completely fend the attacks off. He was pushing her backwards, gaining the upper hand quickly and keeping it. He was too tall for Buffy to jump over, and his reach was such that Buffy couldn't find an opening that would allow her to get another attack in.

A loud whistle sounded through the room, causing Buffy to pause and glance around. The man took advantage of her distraction, and before anything else could be done, Buffy was punched square in the face. The force of the blow was enough to knock her down, and she was out cold before she hit the floor.

***

Buffy groaned, her hand going to her jaw as she began to wake. That particular area of her face was throbbing; she couldn't remember being in that much pain since she had arrived. Even Ikkaku impaling her with his katana hours after she had literally dropped into Rukongai didn't hurt this much.

"YUMICHIKA!"

Buffy flinched when she heard Ikkaku's loud voice from her bedside, calling Yumichika over, before she heard him get up and walk quickly away. If her head had been clear, she would have been surprised that Ikkaku was at her bedside, and Yumichika wasn't. However, it wasn't and she didn't dwell on it.

She felt a cool hand stroking her non-injured cheek as she came to. She tried to crack her eyes open, but she slammed them back shut when the bright light nearly blinded her.

"Captain, she's waking up," Yumichika said from her right, her injured side. If Yumichika was on that side, then who was stroking her cheek?

"Let's see what we have here, shall we?" said a new voice, a soft, female's voice. "Miss Ayasegawa, you're going to have to open your eyes so that we can check for a concussion."

"Too bright," Buffy groaned, refusing to open her eyes. "Hurts my eyes."

"The infirmary needs to be bright so that we can see even the tiniest injury on our patients," said the kind-sounding woman. Buffy's eyes popped open and she shot up off of the cot, trying to escape like her pants were on fire.

"I don't think so," said the woman with a chuckle, holding Buffy down firmly. "You're not going anywhere until I check you out and even then only if I deem you healthy enough to let you go. Now, if you don't lay back I can't guarantee this will be painless."

Buffy sighed and flopped back onto her pillow, looking at her surroundings. She was definitely in an infirmary; there were simple beds lining the walls and several people wandering around, dressed in Shinigami uniforms. The woman that was attending to her was pretty; she had pale skin, dark blue eyes and long, dark hair worn in a braid down her front. She, too, was dressed as a Shinigami, but she had a long, white jacket over her uniform. To her left, next to the woman, was Yumichika, holding her hand gently. To her right, sitting rather close to the bed, was Ikkaku.

"Buffy, this is Captain Retsu Unohana, the fourth division captain," Yumichika explained. "She heads up the medial and supply division."

"That is correct, Mr. Ayasegawa," Captain Unohana replied with a smile and a nod. "Now, I'm just going to cast some healing kido and I'll be able to let you go, and I don't want to see you back in here for a good long while."

Buffy didn't say anything as Captain Unohana held out her hands; she was soon enveloped in a soft glow. She could see Unohana's lips moving, but heard no sound issuing from them.

Before long, the glow was gone, Captain Unohana's hands were folded demurely in her lap and the ache in Buffy's jaw was greatly reduced, almost gone.

"I think we're done here," Captain Unohana said with a soft smile before her expression turned serious. "But I don't want to see you in here for a long time. If I do, I will be greatly displeased."

"Sure, no problem," Buffy replied. Next time I get hurt, I'll make sure I hide it so that people won't send me here, Buffy added on mentally as she sat up. Yumichika grabbed her arm and helped her off of the bed. She opened her mouth to protest, but Yumichika levelled her with a look that made her snap her mouth shut.

They left the infirmary without any other incidents, Yumichika on one side of her and Ikkaku on the other, both of them with a hand on her arm as if to hold her up. Buffy kind of expected that from Yumichika, but was surprised when Ikkaku had moved to her side and grasped her other arm.

"You guys can let me go now, I'm fully capable of walking on my own," Buffy said with a roll of her eyes and a slight smile. Neither man smiled back; Ikkaku even went as far as to glare at her. "Guys, what's wrong? You're beginning to scare me. Come on, it wasn't that bad! It wasn't even my fault, blame the guy that didn't stop when the whistle blew!"

"Now you know how we felt," Ikkaku said sourly, scowling as he released her arm and stalked off. Buffy stared at his back, wondering what she had done to make him so angry.

"What crawled up his butt?" Buffy asked Yumichika, glancing at him, startled when she saw worry creasing his brow. She knew he worried; being surrounded people like herself and Ikkaku, worrying came with the territory, but he did his best to hide it most of the time.

"You've got to understand, Ikkaku doesn't deal with emotions all that well," Yumichika began carefully. "Before he met you, he's only known anger, pain and the exhilaration of the fight. You scared the shit out of him today and he doesn't know how to deal with it. Come to think of it, you scared the crap out of me, too. And everyone else in there."

"I'm sorry," Buffy said, hanging her head. "I didn't mean to. It wasn't my fault! If it had been a real fight I wouldn't have let that whistle distract me, but I thought it was safe because hello, it was a test and the fighting should have stopped when the whistle blew."

"Don't worry, the guy got yelled at," Yumichika replied. "I'm not sure of what exactly went down, but there was a lot of yelling and gesturing before he got sent away. It should have been safe, I completely agree with you there, but I suppose everything isn't quite as it seems around here."

"I just hope that this doesn't count against me," Buffy said with a sigh, resting her cheek on Yumichika's shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Yumichika asked as he began leading her farther away from the infirmary and in the direction Ikkaku had stalked off in. They had gotten their cabin barracks assignment after they had finished their tests, and while he was sure Buffy had also been given an assignment somewhere other than their barracks, Yumichika didn't want to let her out of his sight.

"You know, the test," Buffy replied. "I just hope I don't get kicked out because I couldn't finish. I mean, I came this far and it would totally suck to be turned away now."

"Come on, they won't turn you away," Yumichika said confidently. "You might have to do the other two parts again, but I doubt they'll make you go home."

"Huh, I have no home to go to," Buffy replied. "It's kind of been with you and Ikkaku since I got here."

"Then we'll just have to make sure you get to stay," Yumichika said with a grin. "We won't know the results until tomorrow, so let's just try to relax until the morning, okay? We're here, let's see if Ikkaku made it in."

They had walked some distance, and Buffy hadn't realized they had reached the guest cabins in Seiretei. It was very basic; the cabin was one room, with four cots arranged with two cots on the left side of the room and two cots on the right side of the room. Only one cot was occupied; its occupant appeared to be sleeping, but Buffy doubted that he actually was.

"Come on Ikkaku, you big faker," Buffy said with a grin, bouncing across the room and sitting on the edge of his bed. He huffed and rolled away, showing her his back. Buffy sighed and poked him in the ribs. "You know, being worried about your friends is normal, it's not something to be pissed off about."

"I wasn't worried about you," Ikkaku grouched. "I'm just pissed I didn't get to knock you out myself."

"Butthole," Buffy said with a snort, shoving him. She must have shoved him too hard, because the force sent him toppling to the floor. Buffy laughed, getting up and skipping across the room to take the bed next to Yumichika as Ikkaku picked himself off of the floor. "You can't stay in denial forever, Ikkaku. One day you're going to wake up and realize what we've all known all along. You like me."

"It'll be a cold day in hell when that happens," Ikkaku snarked before rolling over and settling in for the night, grumbling under his breath all the while.

"He's such a grump," Buffy remarked as she sat cross-legged on the bed. She yawned widely, covering her mouth before continuing. "Hey Yumichika, I've got a question for you."

"What's your question, Buffy?" Yumichika asked, curious

"What was with the whole "sister" thing?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow. "It's not like we can take it back because I'm already registered with your last name and I've been introducing myself as your sister, but I'm just curious."

"It seemed like an appropriate thing at the time," Yumichika replied with a shrug. "Would you rather be Ikkaku's sister? I'll admit, it would be rather amusing introducing yourself as his sister and have people wonder how someone as nice of you could be related to him, but I think it's much easier this way."

"Hell no," Buffy replied with a little shiver. She didn't have an almost-not-really-but-maybe crush on Yumichika, and if Ikkaku had been introduced as her brother it had the possibility of leading to awkwardness.

"You like him, don't you?" Yumichika asked.

"Shh!" Buffy said quickly, glancing over at Ikkaku. He looked like he was sleeping, but he could have been faking.

"I think I have my answer, then," Yumichika said with a satisfied smirk. "Good night, Buffy. Sleep well. Wake me if you need me."

"Sure, yeah, I'll do that," Buffy said with a sigh, snuggling under the blanket in preparation for sleep.

***

Bah, sorry this took so long. And sorry if it sounds awkward. This chapter was kicking and screaming as I tried to get it out. My muse seems to have abandoned me… maybe I should tempt her back with chocolate.