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Chapter Six - Battle Training. . . and a Familiar Face

Life as students of the Shinigami Academy was going fairly well for the Elric brothers and, after a few weeks spent focusing on kidou, the class began to include battle training with wooden swords in their daily lessons. Now Ed had excelled at kidou, after his rather harsh initiation, however soon found out that he wasn't such a natural with a sword. Al, on the other hand, seemed to come into his own when their training branched out. His kidou skills were average at best however he soon proved to be the best in their class at sword play. The class was assembled out in the training grounds, taking turns fighting each other, when the instructor turned to the Elric brothers, who were standing side by side as usual.

"How about brother against brother?" he asked as he stared at Ed and Al.

The assembled students cheered this, seeming to like the idea of sibling versus sibling and the two boys in question nodded and took their places in the center of the battleground. Both Ed and Al raised their wooden swords at the same time and, after a brief pause during which they took a moment to size one another up, they simultaneously launched themselves at one another.

Al was slightly faster on the attack and Ed barely managed to raise his sword in time to block a furious blow from his brother. Knocked slightly off balance by the blow Ed flew backwards a couple of feet and was forced to do a back-flip in order to keep himself from falling on his ass.

"You're good," he muttered as he raised his sword and prepared for a second attack.

"Thanks," Al said as he too raised his sword, more than ready for his brother's attack. Here he was in his element and knew that he actually stood a chance of beating Ed. A smile spread across his face as he blocked Ed's attack and launched one of his own.

"Not exactly sure why I'm surprised by this fact," Ed muttered to himself as he struggled against his younger brother. "You've always been able to kick my ass in a hand to hand fight."

"That's right," Al said as he swung his wooden sword furiously, glad that there was still one thing that he could do better than his older brother.

"Whoa!" Ed exclaimed, barely managing to block the attack with his own sword. "Guess I should probably take this just a little more seriously or else he's going to hurt me."

With this thought in mind Ed focused every scrap of his attention on the battle with his brother but in the end it did him very little good. Al still emerged from the fight victorious, much to the annoyance of his older brother. Ed wasn't used to losing and it irked him to no end to lose to his younger brother.

"I can't believe I lost to you again," Ed exclaimed as he and his brother took their places among the other students and prepared to watch someone else fight. "Why can't I ever win?"

"Cause I'm better than you are," Al said with a smirk, enjoying his brother's frustration. It wasn't often that he was able to best his brother at something so when it did happen he took full advantage of the situation.

Ed narrowed his eyes as he gazed at his younger brother. "You are positively evil."

The smile on Al's face only broadened. "I learned it from the best."

Ed shook his head, completely missing the implications of his brother's words. "I knew I should have kept you away from Mustang. That guy always was bad news."

"Nii-san!"

"What?" Ed asked, a questioning look in his golden eyes. He seemed completely oblivious to the reason why his brother was gazing at him with such a reproachful expression in his gray eyes.

Completely giving up on his older brother Al simply shook his head. "Oh never mind."

Captain Hitsugaya was sitting at the desk in his office, furiously attempting to catch up on the paperwork that his slacker of a vice-captain had been neglecting for the last month. He had to have all of it completed for the captains' meeting that was being held the next day and was growing slightly frustrated. One of these days he was just going to snap and then. . .

Suddenly there came a knock on the office door which jarred Hitsugaya from his concentration and made him jump slightly. Glancing over at the door with narrowed eyes he snapped, "What?!"

The door slid open and a Shinigami whose name Hitsugaya didn't know stepped inside the office. This particular soldier had only been a member of Squad Ten for a couple of weeks, having transferred from Squad Thirteen, and the young captain couldn't recall his name. "Forgive the intrusion Captain Hitsugaya but I have a message for you from one of the Academy Instructors and she said that it was important."

Hitsugaya gathered two things from this statement from his subordinate; one, Hinamori had some news for him and two she thought it important enough to recruit one of his subordinates to deliver the message to him. Hitsugaya sighed as he stared at the man. Hinamori's news was rarely ever as important as she made it out to be and there was a part of him that just wanted to tell the messenger to go away. The young captain briefly debated this course of action however ultimately decided against it. It wouldn't work anyway. Hinamori would just continue to bother him until he sent a reply so it would just be easier to do that now as opposed to later.

"Let me have the letter," Hitsugaya said, holding out his hand even though he still wasn't sure whether or not he really wanted to know what Hinamori wanted to tell him this time.

The soldier nodded and quickly handed a folded up piece of paper to his superior.

Hitsugaya gazed down at the piece of paper that he held in his hand and saw that Hinamori had sealed it closed with a watermelon sticker. Shaking his head and running a hand through his already unruly white hair Captain Hitsugaya pulled off the sticker and unfolded the note. The young captain's teal eyes quickly scanned the note and he wasn't surprised to find that the important news was far less important than he'd been led to believe.

Why his friend had seen fit to send him a progress report on the boy that he couldn't stand was beyond him. It wasn't exactly a secret that the blonde haired boy from the Rukonai annoyed him to no end so why exactly had Hinamori sent him news that the boy was exceptionally gifted at kidou?

"What the hell was she thinking?" Hitsugaya thought to himself as he pulled a blank piece of paper toward him and hastily drafted a reply. Then, once his brief message was complete, Hitsugaya folded the piece of paper closed and turned his attention back to the soldier who'd delivered the initial message. "Could you take this to Hinamori?"

The soldier nodded, accepting the piece of paper that Hitsugaya held out to him. "Of course Captain." And with that the soldier bowed to Hitsugaya and then left the office.

With a sigh the Squad Ten Captain went back to his paperwork.

As he was walking down the hall away from Captain Hitsugaya's office the soldier ran into Vice-captain Matsumoto, who seemed to be headed toward the office. "I wouldn't go that way if I were you. The captain seems kinda stressed today and I think you may be the cause of it."

Remembering the stack of paperwork that Captain Hitsugaya had been telling her to do for the last two weeks Matsumoto immediately turned around and fell into step beside her subordinate. "Thanks for the warning."

"No problem," the soldier said, chuckling softly to himself. There was one thing to be said for his new squad, things were definetely never boring in Squad Ten.

After delivering the message from his captain the soldier was returning to the Squad Ten barracks however he drew up short as his gaze fell upon two boys who were walking across the courtyard a few yards ahead of him. "I don't believe it. . ."

The soldier jogged to catch up to the two boys and as he drew closer he saw that his eyes had not been deceiving him. It really was them. "Edward, Alphonse. . ."

The two boys stopped dead in their tracks, not believing their ears. Turning quickly their eyes widened as their shocked gazes fell upon someone they had never thought to see again.

"Hughes!" Edward said, his golden eyes wide in disbelief.

"Hello Ed," Hughes said, smiling at the two boys that he'd sorta adopted as surrogate sons during his life. He hadn't expected to ever see either of them again and found that he was overjoyed to find someone that he'd known in life here in the Seireitei.

Ed smiled back as he surveyed the black uniform that Hughes was wearing. "I see you decided to join the contest of freaks this time Hughes. So which Squad do you belong to?"

"Squad Ten," Hughes replied.

Ed blanched at this knowledge. "You mean you actually have to take orders from that arrogant little. . ."

"You know Edward he's not actually that bad once you get to know him," Hughes said. "Kind of reminds me of you as a matter of fact."

"What?!" Ed exclaimed in a horrified tone of voice. "You've gotta be kidding me. There's no way I'm anything like him."

Al smiled as he listened to his older brother's tirade. So Hughes had picked up on the same similarities between his brother and the young captain that he himself had seen. Al wasn't really surprised by this since Hughes had always been the perceptive one.

"Calm down kid," Hughes said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. Apparently comparing him to Captain Hitsugaya was similar to calling Ed short and elicited the same ill will. "I didn't mean anything by it."

Ed calmed a degree.

"So," Hughes said, endeavoring to change the subject. "How exactly did the two of you end up here in Soul Society?"

Ed blushed at the memory of how he and his brother had died. "I should have listened to Winry when she told me to stay away from technology. It really will kill you, Al and I are proof of that."

Hughes felt for the two boys, he really did. First they had been robbed of their childhood by tragic circumstances and then they had died at such an early age. It wasn't fair but at the same time Hughes was confident that the two brothers would adjust to life in Soul Society and thrive. "Those two are survivors," he thought to himself. "They'll be okay."

TBC. . .

A/N- and thus ends yet another chapter. Yay Hughes. He's such a great character that I couldn't resist adding him to the mix. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review and share with me your thoughts. Please. And the poll's still open and I really need help with this one guys. Til next time this is Hitsu-taichou signing out.