"Mortified doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now, you downright ass..."

Emi was too busy smiling like the fangirl she was and examining her Byakuya photo collection on the floor of Squad Thirteen's barracks. "He looked at me..."

"Only because you threw yourself at him!" Tsukiko flung her arms up in frustration and scoffed. "You are such an idiot! He's my captain for crying out loud! How am I going to face him tomorrow? You wanna explain one that to me, dumbass?"

A pleasant look still about her, Emi said, "Well, darling, you just face him. It's really not that hard."

Tsukiko somehow overcame the urge to choke her.

"Besides," Emi continued, "he invited you back, bright and early and all. It's not like you were kicked out of the squad or anything."

Plopping down on Emi's bed, Tsukiko sighed and rubbed her eyes. "You're missing the point. You single-handedly destroyed what little reputation I may have had, and now I'm left picking up the pieces. I swear, if you get me kicked out—"

Emi stood up and flopped herself on top of Tsukiko, driving the breath right out of her friend with a gentle smile on her lips. "Tsukiko, my dearest, most wound-up friend, stop overthinking this shit."

A series of angry-sounding gasps was the answer.

Laughing, Emi lay across Tsukiko's legs and gazed up at the ceiling. "Captain Kuchiki's really not going to kick you out because of me. Even if he does, you'll just get transferred to another squad. It's not like they shank you and heave you out of the ranks because your psycho friend has a crush on your captain."

For what must have been the nine thousandth time since the start of their friendship, Tsukiko wondered if she should be concerned or reassured that Emi was aware of her indecencies. As the second oldest of the main line of the Kontori clan, Emi was technically a lesser noble, but given her family's reputation for screaming at walls and using vivisection as means of casual entertainment, a vast majority of the Soul Society chose to forget they held some power. Emi, though, was exceptionally tame for a Kontori, bearing what many thought of as high-level eccentricities. Case in point: the obsession with Kuchiki Byakuya.

But, for the time being, Tsukiko slowly found herself accepting Emi's reasoning. Withdrawing her legs, she lightly sat them across Emi's torso and looked up at the ceiling. "You know, I still can't believe it, that we're full-fledged Shinigami starting tomorrow."

Emi smiled. "Yeah, it's nuts. I remember walking into my first class at the Academy like it was yesterday…. Time sure does fly when you're decimating Hollows, am I right?"

"Oh yeah."

"I just wonder what the other Captain Kuchiki is going to be like. I mean, I know she's a war veteran and general badass, but that doesn't mean she's a good leader at home base."

Tsukiko tilted her head as she contemplated Emi's captain-to-be. "I see your point," she said, "though from what I've heard she's really fair. There was definitely that scandal with Kurosaki-sensei a couple of years ago, but otherwise she's a good captain, and person I guess."

Emi screwed her mouth into a questioning look. "I dunno…. Captain Kuchiki always seems so worried about her, like she can't do much."

And there it was. "You can't seriously have developed an opinion of Captain Kuchiki based purely on what…the other Captain Kuchiki thinks? How do you know those aren't just rumors left over from years ago?"

"Because Kuchiki Byakuya is a pillar of perfection and anything he thinks or says is law!"

"Pardon me for calling bullshit, but I call bullshit."

"You're bullshit!"

Tsukiko simply waved a hand, tuning out the subsequent rant on just how perfect Kuchiki Byakuya really was.

Tsukiko was very early the next morning, but she'd rather have it that way. Frequent anxieties about being late had kept her up most of the night until a blissful, blank slumber removed her from it all for a solid four hours. Now, through the yawns and wishes for some strong coffee, Hokutan Tsukiko awaited her first test as a real Shinigami.

Mild stirrings alerted her to others also milling about before drills began, though none had yet to fully reveal themselves, making her suddenly self-conscious where she stood in the training field. As if her new presence wasn't enough, now she was definitely a rookie for showing up first. Tsukiko mentally slapped herself, but just as soon as the equally as figurative pain set in, she reasoned with herself that she was doing this right. Besides, better to show Captain Kuchiki she was willing and eager to begin rather than late and intent on testing his patience.

Moments later, Lieutenant Abarai materialized from within the barracks, doing very little to hide an enormous yawn. Though his red hair and tattoos were a well-established fact of Seireitei life, Tsukiko had never seen him before in person, and it was only after a few seconds had passed that she realized she was staring. Chastising herself once again, Tsukiko looked away.

Select other squad members filed in after Lieutenant Abarai, all in varying states of exhaustion. However, they quickly realized they had a rookie in their midst and turned both gentle and condescending looks upon Tsukiko.

"Ooh, new blood," said a man with a smile all too similar to a smirk.

"Cut it out, Nakajima, you'll scare the poor thing," said a blond woman.

Finding herself unsure of how to respond, Tsukiko quickly plastered an uneasy smile across her face and hoped it would somehow suffice. "H-hi…," she mumbled.

But soon enough, the other rookies joined the gathering crowd, and the pressure set on Tsukiko abated some. She let out a long sigh after one of the newbs made a fool of himself by reciting all the Kido spells he was already capable of, and quietly prayed for Captain Kuchiki to arrive. Surely then the squad would straighten out and bring their taunts to a minimum.

However, when eight o'clock at last rolled around, it was not Captain Kuchiki but Lieutenant Abarai, his braided hair swinging behind him like a rope, who approached the front of the group and called for their attention. "All right, good morning and shut up!" he announced as the conversations before him died down. "Captain Kuchiki had something else going on and asked me to lead the morning's drills, so everyone, assemble!"

Assemble? Like those Avengers or whatever? What was that supposed to mean? Tsukiko nervously looked around as the seasoned squad members organized themselves into even rows and columns, the newer members taking it upon themselves to edge onto the outskirts of the array and watching in confusion equal to hers.

Thankfully, though, Lieutenant Abarai waved them in. He didn't smile, but his eyes were kind and bright, shining like jasper in the morning sunlight. "Rookies, whenever Captain Kuchiki or I say 'assemble,' that means arrange yourselves in alphabetical order. Gimme your names and we'll get you sorted out real quick…."

A few minutes later, having been properly situated between the smiling Hirota and blasé Honda, Tsukiko was beginning to feel just a little better about this whole experience. So far she hadn't been harassed too badly, and Lieutenant Abarai did seem intent on integrating the rookies without flaying them. The only true complaint Tsukiko had was that Captain Kuchiki wasn't present to see her willingness to make up for yesterday's mistake. Where was he at all, really? Daring to extend her reiatsu out some, Tsukiko read the air around her. Naturally she received feedback on her squad fellows, but aside from a larger flare at the front of the field signaling the lieutenant stationed there, there wasn't anything that reported Captain Kuchiki was near Squad Six headquarters. Pulling her reiatsu back in, her breath somewhat shortened, Tsukiko pushed the thought away. No use turning into Emi, worrying about Captain Kuchiki like this.

And so began a quick series of warmups. Lieutenant Abarai led them through easy stretches and a few tai chi calisthenics, all the while quelling any complaints about this "human crap" with the excuse tai chi was a decent exercise in both breath and muscle control, to hell with your complaints, Shimomura, and wipe your damn nose. The light laughter that flowed over the group further eased Tsukiko, and she managed to crack a small smile.

However, the gentle nature of the morning worked itself up in difficulty from then on. Tsukiko was no stranger to tests of endurance from the Academy, but there was something distinctly different about those imposed upon actual Shinigami. Though she was physically capable, a mental sort of block was slowly making itself more and more apparent, telling her she was so far out of her league she may as well be in the World of the Living. Tsukiko reasoned it was only her first day, and that meant she was just wary of the unexpected, but by the time Lieutenant Abarai demanded they break into pairs for sparring, Tsukiko was panting, and hard. Sure, everyone was a little short of breath, but she and the other rookies were especially worn out. Still, determined not to give the seasoned squad members significant reason to taunt her, Tsukiko pressed on. Her determination proved short-lived, however, when she found herself facing the bored-looking Honda.

"Um, h-hi?" she offered, nervously bowing to her sparring partner. She unsheathed her unnamed asauchi.

Honda merely bowed back and withdrew his Zanpaku-to, the handguard shaped like a semicircle.

Tsukiko gulped and steeled herself for Honda's first attack, surprising herself with how well she managed to keep her balance from the sheer force of his blow. But this reassurance quickly passed. Hit after hit after hit came flying her way, and it was all Tsukiko could do to make sure that sharp blade didn't hit her. The voice of an old professor told her she should seek the patterns in her attacker, but this was far different than the relatively lazy sparring exercises she knew from the Academy. Though this may just be training, this was still very much a fight with a true and experienced Shinigami, and she was drastically unprepared.

Either unwilling to acknowledge her level or simply uncaring, Honda pressed harder, his face set in a cool look of determination. For the life of her Tsukiko couldn't tell if he was dumbing all this down for her or not, but it didn't matter. Honda was swinging his sword left and right, up and down, each strike carefully controlled and prepared in the milliseconds he left between them. A light spray of sparks flew from the blades as they met time and time again, and the sound of metal scraping against metal electrified the air.

A sudden thought occurred to Tsukiko: Is this what battle is like? Real swords battling real swords, with death running between them all? A pang of panic caused her arm to slip, and Honda's blade slid right past hers and to her neck—

"HAAAAALT!" cried Lieutenant Abarai. "Switch partners, and make it snappy—and Shimomura, would it kill you to get a fucking tissue? Hell on a stick, man, you're a mess…."

Trembling hard as Honda pulled his Zanpaku-to back, once again passing the exposed skin on her neck, Tsukiko fought the weakness in her knees and forced herself to remain standing. Honda simply bowed in her direction and went off to seek another sparring partner, leaving her shaking in the middle of the training field.

Later on, Tsukiko would've liked to have said things improved after that, but as she showered that evening and found countless bruises and cuts scattered across her aching body, she knew better than to fool herself. Even though she managed to survive sparring, then target practice, then the small disaster she was supposed to call sword meditation (she'd fallen asleep and started snoring), Tsukiko couldn't help but feel a little bitter about the day's events. More than anything she was disappointed in herself for not performing better. Surely she knew she wasn't going to be a model squad member on her first day, but all she had experienced was a brutal reminder of how far she still had to go before she could consider herself fully capable.

Wincing the entire time, Tsukiko turned off the water and dried herself off. She hastily threw on her robe, ran a brush through her hair, and thought of how much she looked forward to going to bed. But as she left the showers for the barracks, from the other side of the room came Lieutenant Abarai, naked from the waist up. His long red hair was unbraided and sprawled across his shoulders, dripping water on the jagged tattoos covering his muscular torso. All thoughts of slumber now vanished from her mind, Tsukiko paused, eyeing the tattoos with wide eyes. They were the exact same style as those on Lieutenant Abarai's neck and forehead, but seeing them on a larger scale like this….

"No staring at the higher ups, rookie," Lieutenant Abarai said, walking past her and down the hall. "We're not animals at the zoo."

Tsukiko jolted back to the present. "M-my apologies, Lieutenant!" she said to her superior's just as tattooed back. "I was only—"

"Don't apologize," he said, turning his head. "Just don't let me catch you next time." He smirked and faced the hallway again.

Tsukiko felt her cheeks darken, and her heart began to beat as erratically as the jagged tattoos on Lieutenant Abarai's back. Get a grip of yourself, she thought, but that did nothing for her as she watched her lieutenant until he turned the corner.

Pathetic, she told herself, flustered. Now she was the rookie who showed up early and had a staring problem. Like she needed more reason to reflect poorly on her day….

But were those tattoos really contributing to her bad day?

Shaking her head, Tsukiko limped her sore, sorry self down the hall and to the barracks, where she painfully changed into a night shirt and passed out in seconds.

A/N: A quick shout out to everyone who's favorited, followed, and/or reviewed "The Heiress" so far! Thank you very much for taking a liking to it, as well as my other story, "The Knot Unravels"! You all get a virtual cookie of your choice!

For those who are worried about the new POV: Byakuya comes back next chapter, though I will be switching back and forth between him and Tsukiko for the rest of the fic.