Game 2 - Chapter 1

"Whoah", quipped Duggo, "I know Kung Fu".

He then sidled up to Daisuke and muttered quietly to the big man, "I don't like this magic mumbo-jumbo much either, but what the hell, it's worth a shot, right?"

Some students noticed a figure flying across the room out of the corner of their eyes, and a loud crash echoed through the training room. A cloud of dust swirled around where Ximenez and the teacher had been standing a moment ago. The dust slowly cleared, revealing Ximenez standing alone, his hand outstretched and a malicious grin on his face. There was a large crack in the wall, about three full meters opposite Ximenez. Slumped against the wall, about a meter and a half below the crack, was Hinamori-sensei, a small trail of blood trickling down her forehead.

Ximenez pushed his dark glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose, chuckling to himself. "Oh dear, I'm so terribly sorry," he muttered with a casual shrug. "Are you alright, sensei?"

Naomi seen the teacher get hurt. Naomi ran up towards the man in the red hat. With out thinking she punched him in the face. She ran over to see if the teacher was okay afterwards. "Are you okay sensi? Someone call the nurse." Naomi yelled.

A bright blue field of energy blocked Naomi's fist, pushing her away a little. Momo shakily held her hand out, projecting a protective kidou as she looked up from where she found herself, lying against the wall, and smirked a bit, despite the slight shock. "I'm alright, don't overreact, Oxen-san."

"That, I'm afraid, was the wrong spell," Momo said to Ximenez, as she rose to her feet. "You used Way of Destruction Spell #1, Ximenez-san," she said, knowing without a doubt that the 'mistake' had been intentional. She waved her hand briefly, her fingers glowed for an instant, and the wound on her forehead vanished.

Momo turned to the class and put her arms into the air. "Way of Binding, #49! Clean Circle!" A cool blue glow enveloped the teacher's body before emanating throughout the class. After a moment, all the students without the strength to break their partners' kidou found that they could move their hands again.

"You all did very well," Momo addressed her students, walking up and down the line, while still keeping one wary eye on Ximenez.

"Kazenosei-san, good form and use of reiatsu. Brown-san, I can tell you've got a high level of spiritual awareness as well."

"Tenkawa-san, you're very quick in the mind, and you matched your partner's reiatsu level perfectly. Did you happen to do that on purpose, perhaps subconsciously?" She put a hand on Ashibue's quivering shoulder. "And you, Kijou-san, I could feel the power of your spell as well. You just need to relax some," she smiled.

"Yuansuzaku-san, to answer your question, it's not a matter of concentration. This applies to your question as well, Kazenosei-san," she said, turning back to the tall auburn-headed man. "Once a kidou spell is cast, it can't be uncast. Once that reiatsu leaves your hands, it's just like a bullet fired from a gun that can't be unfired. To undo a reiatsu spell, the target of the spell needs to have a superior strength and undo it himself, or else you need to use a second kidou spell, like the Clean Circle I cast a moment ago. Kaito-san was able to break your Restrain because his physical strength was greater than your mental strength. Make sense?"

She continued down the line. "Zetsumei-san, your form was impeccable. You just need to work on building up your reiatsu a bit. Kanue-san here just happens to have one of the highest in the class. And Kanue-san, you should remember not to rely just on your superior reiatsu. That won't work if your opponent has a higher level than yours."

"I'll use you two as an example of this," she said, skipping down the line to Hikari and Anshou. "Of the two of you, Kijou-san has the higher reiatsu. However, Mizukin-san employed both a distraction and a hand-to-hand combat move to ensure the success of his spell over his partners. That's an important lesson to remember, all of you. Kidou is not something that should be relied on by itself. It takes skill with your body and mind to use kidou properly."

"Kasahara-san and Oxen-san," she went on, back up the line. "You are another pair who managed to cast spells at the exact same strength, though with you two, I don't suspect it was intentional. As you all can see, interesting effects can occur when two kidou spells of equal strength are cast against each other. Usually, opposite spells will simply cancel each other out, however occasionally, wild and unpredictable things can happen, particularly with higher level spells. It is possible for high level kidou users such as the higher-ups in the Kidou Corps to intentionally lower their reiatsu in an attempt to match the frequency of the opposing spell. However, one would need to be unbelievably skilled with kidou to have any hope of influencing the outcome of such a conjunction. More than likely, you'd probably just wind up simply negating the spell under a best case scenario, or just blowing yourself up or blowing a city or two up, or maybe annihilating an entire dimension." She put one finger as a warning. "So... I'd advise against experimenting with that sort of thing."

"Sakimoto-san, Takeshi-san, good work to the two of you," Momo continued down the line. She paused and looked at Satoko for a moment before going on. "Are you alright, Takeshi-san? You look a bit out of it."

Next down the line. "Duggo-san... do you have a last name, by any chance? My attendance sheet just says 'Duggo.' And Kokubunji-san," she placed a finger on the enormous man's nose. "I can tell you don't have a very high reiatsu level. But next class, I'd like you to at least try, ok?"

"And you...," she stopped at the end of the line and pointed up at Ximenez, who towered over her at least half a meter. "I don't care if Captain Kurotsuchi did sponsor your entrance into this school. If you pull something like that again, I won't be caught off guard. You got that?"

With that, the bell rang. "Alright, that will be enough practice for today. The cafeteria should be open in about an hour or so. Get yourselves a good, hot meal and some good sleep tonight. We'll work more on form and incantation methods next class. You're all dismissed!"

EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN AWARDED FOR TODAY!

If your Kidou spell was succesful, you gain 20 EXP.

Duggo +20
Ryuichi Kanue +20
Maka Kasahara +20
Chiken Kazenosei +20
Ashibue Kijou +20
Anshou Mizukin +20
Naomi Oxen +20
Satoko Takeshi +20
Junshirou Tenkawa +20
Cardinal Ximenez +20
Midori Yuansuzaku +20


If your Kidou spell was unsuccesful, but you managed to break free, you gain 15 EXP.

Rokurou Kaito +15
Daisuke Kokubunji +15
Igarashi Sakimoto +15
Zetsumei Oushou +15


If your Kidou spell was unsuccesful, and you could not break free, you gain 10 EXP.

Rikiki Brown +10
Hikari Kijou +10


Roleplaying Bonus:

Rikiki Brown +13
Duggo +11
Rokurou Kaito +12
Ryuichi Kanue +15
Maka Kasahara +12
Chiken Kazenosei +13
Ashibue Kijou +18
Hikari Kijou +10
Daisuke Kokubunji +12
Anshou Mizukin +15
Naomi Oxen +10
Igarashi Sakimoto +15
Satoko Takeshi +15
Junshirou Tenkawa +13
Cardinal Ximenez +12
Midori Yuansuzaku +13
Zetsumei Oushou +11

=========================================

Duggo gains a level!
Rokurou Kaito gains a level!
Ryuichi Kanue gains a level!
Chiken Kazenosei gains a level!
Ashibue Kijou gains a level!
Naomi Oxen gains a level!
Igarashi Sakimoto gains a level!
Satoko Takeshi gains a level!
Junshirou Tenkawa gains a level!
Midori Yuansuzaku gains a level!
Zetsumei Oushou gains a level!


RULING: All experience you gain in excess of 100 carries over to be used next level.

Junshirou got to his feet, shook his wrists in their newfound freedom, and looked deep in thought for a second or two, before returning to normal. He looked at the girl he'd just been partnered with, and sighed. What on earth was he expected to do with that? He simply muttered "Gokurousama deshita"* and perked his ears up to listen to Hinamori-sensei's speech in its entirety, taking mental notes throughout.

So... it seemed that, as expected, Kanue had one of the highest reiatsu levels in the class. What was said about the older Kijou sister and the blond boy she was partnered with was a surprise, though... not only the fact that it could be done, of course, as it could be deduced from first principles that spells that needed gestures and spoken commands could be disrupted quite easily, but the fact that now the whole class knew this as well. He also wondered how Hinamori knew that he had focused on increasing his reiatsu prior to casting the spell... surely her senses couldn't be that good. It had only gone up a fraction, and there was an entire class of reiatsu levels that would have been being sensed at the same time. Still, as a seated officer, it wouldn't be beyond belief that her senses were keen enough to detect the fluctuation.

So, there were quite a few potential kidou specialists in amongst the advanced group. He would have to keep an eye on the situation as it developed, he decided. He might also have to find some way of improving Ashibue's crippling shyness - after all, in a battle situation, reactions like that could get her killed. That would take a lot of work to solve, though.

Thinking about all this, he filed out of the classroom. So what should he do in the next hour? He wondered whether he should go to his room and jot down some of what he'd seen happen today, or whether it would be best to try and engage someone in conversation. He looked around to see what everyone else was doing.


* Gokurousama deshita = Thank you for your effort

Chiken was worried at first for the sensei, but only for a second in which she stood up. Hearing that Ximenez used the way of distruction spell, Chiken was glad he didn't know that spell because of how much more advanced Ximenez must be to them and since he accidentally used the wrong spell, Chiken would probably not know the difference between them either. (Chiken isn't realizing that Ximenez did the spell on purpose)

Hearing that you couldn't 'un-cast' the spell, Chiken relaxed. He wasn't overly worried in the first place, but it relaxed him some that he didn't forget an important thing like undoing the spell. Chiken was also relaxed by the fact the he had remembered the proper form for the spell. He was lost in thought until the bell rang him out of it just in time to hear about the cafeteria being open shortly. Since he had time to kill until the cafeteria would be ready, he propped himself against a wall to work on his watch but made sure that he didn't seem too much into it to deter people from talking to him.

Igarashi was paying attention at the encounter between the teacher and Ximenez, he was surprissed at first when he saw how Hinamori-sensei was propelled to the wall so easily, and for a moment, he thought that Ximenez was indeed more powerful that what he looked like. This thought quickly subsided after he saw how th teacher quickly recovered and stated he had used a different spell. He cheated then.... just to show off... that bastard..." His dislike towards that man only increased more after this, so he naturally simphatized with Naomi's actions against him, too bad the teacher had blocked that punch, he would have liked to see it connect.

After being dissmised, Igarashi wondered what he could do in the meantime, he wanted to go to the caffeteria, since he was unable to eat in all day, but since he could not do that yet, he wondered what else was to do... Maybe talk more to Satoko, but right now he looked like he wanted to be left alone, so he scratched that idea. Igarashi was not one to directly go and speak with someone he didn't know, but then again, if he was to work with these people, maybe he should get to know more of them, not just Naomi, Zetsumei and Satoko.

With this in mind, he decided to walk towards the dark haired man he saw that got entangled with the gloomy looking girl, he was curious about that man since yesterday, his introduction had caught Igarashi's attention, and decided maybe it would not hurt to try and speak a bit with him, not that Igarashi spoke a lot though. With this in mind, Igarashi walked towards the dark haired boy which seemed to be doing nothing more at the moment, and stood in front of him; "..." Dammit Igarashi! you can't expect to speak with someone just like that if you don't say something first!"... Tenkawa... right?"

*Zestu watches what X does and is the most concerned about Hinamori-sensie's welfare. He goes up to her after class.*

"Are you all right Hinamori-sensie?"

*After getting a response to this, Zestu complements her teaching.*

"Thank you for your pointers sensie. I feel like I was able to learn a lot. I've never been very good with kido, so please look after me. I'm going to go join the others. Good evening sensie."

*Zetsu decides to go to the cafeteria quickly for a bit to eat.*

(Sorry this is short, I will edit it later. Can't stay on long right now.)

"Ahh, ...Igarashi Sakimoto-san, isn't it? Eighth district?"

Junshirou hesitated, then frowned.

"I don't know much else about you."

This annoyed him slightly. By now he knew things about a lot of the people here, but Igarashi had escaped his attention. He seemed to remember that he'd managed to contact his zanpakutou, but he wasn't certain... at the least, all he could say was that there hadn't been any sort of outburst from him during the class that he had heard. He had no idea how he had performed in kidou. Had he won? Had he lost? Junshirou had been too busy straining against the Restrain spell to notice much, and Hinamori-sensei's speech hadn't touched on it much, except to congratulate him for good work.

"So how did you do in that? I was a little too busy to look, I'm afraid..."

At the back of his mind, Junshirou was by now distinctly annoyed. He should have been observing more. He'd done a lot worse in the kidou class than he'd hoped he would do, although perhaps that just signified Ashibue's potential. There were other people who he wanted to find out various pieces of information about/from... he knew little about Kaito and Chiken, for instance, and hadn't yet talked to Mizukin, Kokubunji, or Midori. There were things to discuss with Kanue, especially after finding out that he'd offered to help Takeshi with training. And even further back in his mind was the idea that he hadn't learnt to control his reiatsu to a sufficient degree, which had to change. If he couldn't control his reiatsu, then what chance did he stand in a combat situation?

...unfortunately, having all this at the back of his mind had prevented him from hearing any response. This annoyed him even more. He fished around for an answer that seemed like he was listening, settling for "I suppose everyone could improve, though", and hoped that it was relevant.

Kasahara watched as her teacher flew across the room; the cause was Ximenez. The brunette frowned deeply as she stared at the man wearing a red hat. Was his spell so powerful as to knock Momo-sensei down? She failed to notice, at first, that whatever spell he had cast was NOT restraining the teacher. She believed that Ximenez's level one restrain spell was alarmingly strong enough to do damage.

Her friend and partner was very upset by this surprising event and tried to attack Ximenez with her fists. Momo-sensei prevented her fist from hitting his flesh via a forcefield of some sort. But why? The teacher spoke towards Naomi, asking her not to overreact. Kasahara assumed that, even though Naomi was only trying to avenger her by knocking Ximenez down, Momo-sensei did not want a fight to break loose in her class.

The teacher proceeded to scold Ximenez lightly for using the wrong spell. Rather than using a Way of Binding Kidou spell, he used a a Way of Destruction spell. It relieved Kasahara that Ximenez wasn't extraordinarily strong in kidou to 'cause damage when using a restraining spell. Momo-sensei proceeded to compliment and comment on the class's efforts. Most were able to cast their spells and only a few weren't able to be successful. When her teacher had mentioned Takeshi, asking if he was alright, Kasahara turned her attention to the scarred boy. He did look a bit distracted. Kasahara didn't know if he had been one of the successful casters or if he has failed another exercise. She was too busy with the aftermath of Naomi's and her casting to pay attention to the other students in the class. The teacher only told him and Sakimoto that they did a good job so the brunette could not tell if Takeshi's spell won over Sakimoto's.

She'll have to ask about it later, when she's not stubbornly trying to avoid the boy. Perhaps she'll speak to him tomorrow, assuming that Takeshi would have dinner and directly go to bed. Kasahara had plans tonight anyways; she looked at Naomi, still remembering the promise to meet up with her tonight after dinner. What was she going to tell her? The brunette was still unsure as to what she could tell her and what she could keep as a secret. She had until after supper to decide.

Kasahara grinned brightly and gave her friend a hearty pat on the back, almost knocking her over with a hard slap. "Guess it's time for dinner. Wanna come with me?" True be told, the brunette was starving. She barely touched any food during lunch and breakfast had been hours ago.

Quote :

"Ahh, ...Igarashi Sakimoto-san, isn't it? Eighth district?"

Junshirou hesitated, then frowned.

"I don't know much else about you."

"Heh, Likewise..." Igarashi chuckled a bit at his response, seems he was right about Tenkawa from the introductions, he was not one to be polite or waste time with formalities, Igarashi liked that.

Quote :

"So how did you do in that? I was a little too busy to look, I'm afraid..."

Again Igarashi smiled at this, he could tell Tenkawa had a hard time paying attention to anything tlse in his case, a very odd encounter indeed; "Could have done better, Takeshi was better at casting the spell... but i managed to break free..." Igarashi was unsure what else he could add, there was really not much to say about his encounter with Satoko, so he left it like that.

Quote :

"I suppose everyone could improve, though"

"It could, maybe next time i can be successful and maybe you wont get yourself caught in a bind like that." Igarashi was surprised to have answered like that, he was not one to use puns, but from time to time some sense of humor slipped his lips. Igarashi also noted that while Tenkawa's answer was relevant to what Igarashi said, it still sounded a bit off, especially because he had just stated he could do better... Tenkawa's mind was probably thinking in something else, Igarashi wondered if he was not interesting enough to that boy, or if he had something more important troubling him; "You get distracted easily... don't you?"

Ah, so Igarashi hadn't succeeded at the kidou. He'd been partnered with Takeshi, so that was good... perhaps it would raise Takeshi's self-confidence somewhat. Junshirou gave a distant smile at the wordplay, hoping that the man wouldn't notice that he had his mind on other things.

...so he'd noticed. Drat.

"Sorry, sorry. I just have a lot to think about. I still haven't considered what the whole thing with the zanpakutou means."

After meeting a blank stare, he explained.

"Well, the spirit of a zanpakutou isn't just the sword, you see. It wasn't there when the sword was made. You can think of it as part of yourself, really. And while the spirit of the zanpakutou - uh, my zanpakutou, that is - while the spirit itself isn't anything odd, the internal world is strange beyond belief... I think I can describe it as an internal world, anyway. It seems like other people had internal worlds too, but I haven't really asked about it much."

He looked up hopefully.

"I suppose I can always wait until later to figure out what all of it means. Perhaps deep down, I'm really Max Ernst. The whole thing's reminded me of something else, though, and I can't quite remember what that something is... you know that feeling? When there's something just on the tip of your memory? I very rarely get that feeling, so I'm wondering what it all means. It seems important, as well."

He blinked.

"Aanyway, I've been talking about myself too much. What's your day been like?"

Quote :

"Sorry, sorry. I just have a lot to think about. I still haven't considered what the whole thing with the zanpakutou means."

Igarashi's eyes widened after hearing Tenkawa's lasts words, that was exactly what Igarashi had been trying to figure out all that time in the Zanpakutou calls, he was truly surprised to hear that someone else was also trouble by this just like him.

Quote :

"Well, the spirit of a zanpakutou isn't just the sword, you see. It wasn't there when the sword was made. You can think of it as part of yourself, really. And while the spirit of the zanpakutou - uh, my zanpakutou, that is - while the spirit itself isn't anything odd, the internal world is strange beyond belief... I think I can describe it as an internal world, anyway. It seems like other people had internal worlds too, but I haven't really asked about it much."

He looked up hopefully.

"I suppose I can always wait until later to figure out what all of it means. Perhaps deep down, I'm really Max Ernst. The whole thing's reminded me of something else, though, and I can't quite remember what that something is... you know that feeling? When there's something just on the tip of your memory? I very rarely get that feeling, so I'm wondering what it all means. It seems important, as well."

Igarashi just stood there, listening word by word, between Liueutenant Kira's explanations and all that Tenkawa had just said. There was little doubt in Igarashi now, what he had witnessed in the Zanpakutou class was indeed inside his mind, and if what Tenkawa said was true, That old man and that surreal landscape where all part a part of him, and all that was also the result of what Lieutenant Kira had explained to Kasahara. But it seemed that, like Igarashi, Tenkawa still had trouble figuring out what the vision itself meant, and apparently, his was even more weird than Igarashi's.

Quote :

"Aanyway, I've been talking about myself too much. What's your day been like?"

Igarashi broke away from the seemingly blank stare he had all that time, in truth, he was really glad Tenkawa had brought in that subject, he did want to know more about it, and maybe talking about it with someone else could bring him more answers;"hmm... not bad, but in truth, i have been wondering about the meeting with my Zanpakutou as well, Before that, i had never before experienced something like that, not even in dreams. All that was a surprisse for me... and that person.. what i think was my Zanpakutou spirit, he spoke to me as if he knew more about me than myself... but if he is a part of me, how could he possibly know..."

Igarashi then felt silent, he really wanted to talk about this subject, but he rarely spoke that much to a person he had just met, nevermind about something as personal as that. For a moment, Igarashi wished he could go back in time and erase what he had just said, those things were to be pondered by himself, or maybe a teacher... not someone he barely knew. But the damage was already done, so he just stared back at Tenkawa, wondering what where his thoughts about all that, and if he would not think Igarashi a fool.

Takeshi's swirling thoughts had wandered far from his illiteracy, first they had trailed back to his Zanpakutou, and then slid into thought about his life in the streets. Somehow this had led him to thinking about his classmates, and what abilities they may posses. He was making his way back to his identity crisis when he took notice of Ximenez's attack on Hinamori. He observed the force of the spell, and unlike the a few other students, immediately knew it had to be a more destructive spell, such force could not be exerted from a level one Binding spell. He felt no spite or dislike for Ximenez, but was curious as to what he could have gained from that. He was still pndering this when Hinamori interupted his thoughts. Takeshi listened to the end of her sentence, and responded with a certain measure of uncertaintity in his voice. "I-I'm fine... I think." How can I comment on how I am, when I've been filled with uncertainity of who I am?

Takeshi stood, he was unsure of what action to take, he needed to apologize to Kasahara, it appeared she may have been correct about his status as a failure after all. Or maybe he was blowing this all out of proportion? Maybe Kasahara was wrong, just as he had thought before, had he only won by luck? It's always possible, maybe I just got lucky. Then again, I've never been lucky before, so was it skill? Bullshit, I've been lucky various times this year, else I'd be dead. Dammit! I'm filled with these mixed up feelings, and I don't know what any of them mean! Why am I being put through this hell!? Do I really deserve this? How should I know? DAMMIT, SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Takeshi swore, his rage with himself filing up, and he stopped paying attention to his actions, letting the last few enraged shouts at himself fin their way tout of his mouth.

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I don't need these poisoned thoughts, leave me be!" He swore once more, and then opened his since closed eyes. He was sure that at least a few people had noticed his outburst, but didn't feel like meeting their stares, and made flight to the hallways, setting a course for the outdoors. On his way there, he managed to calm himself enough so that he could think clearly, and a completely new question, one he felt needed to be answered soon, aroused in his head. What the hell is happiness? I think It's time I learned...

Hikari made her way over to her sister, grinning from ear to ear. "Kage-chan touched a boooy, Kage-chan touched a boooy," Hikari teased in a singsong voice. "So how was it?" She playfully poked Ashibue in the ribs. "First time you ever got to hold hands, huh?" She laughed a little, her smile bending into a catlike expression.

Satoko Takeshi wrote:

"SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I don't need these poisoned thoughts, leave me be!"

"Oh would you stop it already?" Hikari turned to Satoko and snapped. "Go put on some makeup and join an emo band or something." She reached for her sister's hand and practically hauled her to her feet. "Come on, Kage-chan, let's go get cleaned up for dinner." Hikari led her sister down the hall with Anshou following close behing.

Anshou closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head smiling. After all these years, he'd gotten very used to Hikari's attitude and outbursts. He was a little perturbed, though, by the teacher reading Hikari's reiatsu as higher than his. Surely after all this time training together, the gap had closed somewhat?

The blond boy's stomach growled a bit. It would be good to get a hearty meal inside me, he thought. Maybe a little bit of after hours training would be on the schedule for tonight.

Kasahara, after giving Naomi an invitation to join her for dinner, turned her attention towards Takeshi. He shouted outloud to himself, which most likely drew the attention of other students. She wondered what caused him to exclaim out like as he cursed at his thoughts. It was obvious that her attention wasn't the only one drawn to the scarred boy. Hikari, one of the Kijou sisters, snapped at Takeshi for his outburst. Her response to his shout was somewhat unusual; she mocked him by telling him that he should put on make up like a female and 'join an emo band or something'.

The brunette faintly distinguished Hikari's outburst as an insult of some sort towards Takeshi, only having some knowledge of what an emo band is and the slang that 'emo' represents. To say the least, Kasahara was somewhat upset at her reply to the scarred boy's yell. Hikari, from what she could tell, was an uncaring person. She cared only for herself and of Mizukin. She faintly remembered the blonde girl turning down the opportunity to pair up with her sister, whom seemed like she was only trying to stay close to her family member, in this class's exercise to cling to the blonde boy.

Kasahara, despite trying to ignore Takeshi and being upset at the boy for declaring himself as a failure in front of her, felt the need to speak to in his defense even though he was no longer in the building. She left Naomi's company and stepped out of the hall to shout towards the brighter of the two Kijou sisters. "Why don't you stop being *selfish and care for someone other than yourself." She felt sorry for Ashibue for having to live with such a person for so long. She wondered why the darker of the two Kijou sisters couldn't relying on someone else for strength and companionship.

[[ Excuse me if this post seems a little abrasive or hard to understand, I typed this up while I was under the influence of alcohol. :p It probably sounds a lot more intelligent than usual. (typed out 12:13 am)

Edit: Lolol woke up the next mornin' and proofread it. Nothing changed from last night except I rephased "stop being such a bitch" to "stop being selfish". ]]

"Well said, Kasahara-san," Midori observed, although she did so under her breath. She'd had her fill of Hikari as well, the girl had proven to be nothing more than a pompous brat thus far, plus how she dragged the smaller girl around like a rag doll was horridly offensive to Midori - no one should be held to another's whims so restrained like that, it was as if Hikari intended to make every decision in Ashibue's life for her and the latter was simply going along without the will to complain. I hope the academy puts some more... well, spine in to that poor girl. At this rate she's helpless without her sister... what if Hikari does something foolish and falls on the battlefield, or they get separated? Has she not ever thought of what this sort of dependence will do to Ashibue Kijou-san if something like that happens? The difference in address between the two sisters was intentional, in Midori's mind - Hikari had done everything in her power, intentional or not, to remove any respect Midori might have had for her, while Ashibue-san had simply been her quiet self. She glanced over and saw the poor girl collapsed on her knees, struggling to control her breathing, while Hikari yanked her violently to her feet and dragged her out of the room. It was disgusting and horrifying to the green-haired young woman to watch this wretched spectacle. No one should be another's slave like that. No one.

Shaking her head, she turned back to Kaito and bowed slightly. "Thank you again for your partnership, Kaito-san," she said with a very slight smile as she rose. "I'll see you later." She then walked across the room to meet back up with Kokubunji-san, who was still standing with the strange young fellow known as Duggo. She bowed her head in greeting to both as she walked up, but her mind was distracted by something Hinamori-sensei had said: "I don't care if Captain Kurotsuchi did sponsor your entrance into this school." Her mind was racing to remind herself of why this had sent a shudder down her spine momentarily. She had done her research before enrolling in the academy, and if she didn't know the Captains of the Thirteen Protection Squads by face she at least knew them by name and squad - they were hardly secretive figures in Soul Society, after all. Kurotsuchi, Kurotsuchi, she pondered over and over silently, I know that name from....! Twelfth Division. Why would the Science and Research Division sponsor a student? Or maybe the proper question is, what kind of student would that Division sponsor? Ximenez seems to fit the bill perfectly, it wouldn't take any effort to convince me he's some kind of experiment....

She remained lost in these rather unnerving thoughts, a worried and thoughtful look on her face, until Daisuke or Duggo - or anyone else who happened to come by - disturbed her.

Maka Kasahara wrote:

"Why don't you stop being *selfish and care for someone other than yourself."

Hikari stopped in her tracks, and turned back.

"How about you mind your own damn business, Little Miss Man."

Kasahara felt her right eye twitch slightly at Hikari's response. Calling her 'Little Miss Man' was a sour insult to the tall brunette. Her hands clenched tightly into a fist as she gave the blonde girl a crossed look. "Well, unlike a man, I can hit bratty little girls*!"

She took a step forward, ready to go after that little witch with her fists, but held back. Kasahara couldn't start a fight. Due to the fact that they were still in the academy and there were teachers lurking about, the tomboy didn't follow through with her threat. She wanted so badly to have her fists hit the annoying girl in front of her, but couldn't. It was against the rules.

Still standing there, gritting her teeth angrily, Kasahara was bent on not starting a fight in the halls. She will, however, finish a fight if Hikari starts it.

*A gentleman never hits a girl. Kasahara is NOT a gentleman.

"Yeah? What, you wanna hit me? Come on, hit me. I dare you. My daddy will have you out of this Academy and back in whatever trash pile you crawled out of before you can count to three."

Rikiki hopped up, unbound. Now that she could move, she frowned at Ximenez. What a meanie. She didn't like him too much anymore. She waved goodbye to Momo, and walked to the door, where she heard the arguing outside.

It seemed to consist of Kasahara, Satoko, and Hikari. The former two she didn't know very well, but so far had found she liked them, paticularly Satoko. Hikari, she knew a liitle more about, and Rikiki severely disliked her. She made outbursts like Rikiki, but they tended to be angry and destructive. Rikiki felt a compelling need to kick her.

At Hikari's last comment, Rikiki went an angry red. Powerful perople had always been pushing her around, this girl wasn't going to do it to anyone. Rikiki launched out the door, aiming a flying kick at Hikari. "Dynamic Entry!*" she screamed.


*Naruto in-joke.

God this girl infuriated Kasahara! Having Hikari taunt her, just asking to be hit, almost made the brunette attack her. She just had to be patient.

Hikari threatened her by speaking of her father and how he could have the ability to kick her out of the academy. She seriously doubt that he could, but this gave Kasahara some leverage over her. "Oh, so you're a daddy's girl, eh? Is that why you're here? Because daddy pulled strings to get you into this Academy?"

She calmed down a little but still had her hands balled up into a fist, ready and waiting for the other girl. "Obviously you couldn't have come here on your own. Let's face it, you aren't cut out to be here. Your sister would make a great shinigami but you, on the other hand, will end up being the runt of this class."

A grin appeared on Kasahara's face as she continued. "So why don't you just run home to daddy and cry about how you're not cut out to be a shinigami. It'll happen eventually, why not sooner than later?"

Rikiki's kick caught Hikari full-force in the stomach, sending the blonde girl reeling to the floor.

"So why don't you just run home to daddy and cry about how you're not cut out to be a shinigami. It'll happen eventually, why not sooner than later?" said Kasahara, as she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

Standing behind her was the tall, slender assistant headmaster of the school. Nanao Ise, the Lieutenant of 8th Division.

"What seems to be going on here," Nanao said sternly.

Hikari's body started shaking, leaning against the wall like she was crying.

"I... Ise-sensei," she pointed at Rikiki and Maka, her hand trembling a little. "Ise-sensei... Kasahara-san was threatening me... and Brown-san hit me..." Her voice was high-pitched and a little choked like she was choking back tears.

"I saw that," said Nanao, adjusting her glasses before placing a firm hand on Rikiki's shoulder as well. "You two. Come with me to my office."

As the teacher led Rikiki and Maka away, Hikari grinned at them, pulled her lower eyelid down and stuck out her tongue at the two students behind the teacher's back.

Anshou slowly lowered his hand from the hilt of his zanpakutou. It appeared that he wouldn't be needing to use it.

He went over to the fallen Hikari. "I'm guessing you're alright?" he smiled.

Kasahara felt a hand on her shoulder and she immediately froze. The voice behind her was most certainly not one of her classmates and it made her stomach churn. Hesitantly, the tomboy turned around to see the Assistant Headmaster standing right next to her. The fists she had kept tight loosened considerably as she stood there slack jawed. "S-suman*."

Hikari proceeded to put the blame on her and Rikiki. She had to think quick!

"I didn't threaten her! Not as much as she threatened me!" It was true! Kasahara, atleast while the assistant headmaster was near by, never spoke of anything that would be considered threatening! At most, she was insulting the blonde girl while Nanao-sensei was around them.

Naomi stood there as her friends got pulled away. She heard the remark Hikari said about a trash hole. Naomi was not a rich person and took offense when someone said something like that. Naomi saw Hikari stick out her tounge.


(Edited by Smythe: No. I'm not letting this game degenerate into a giant brawl.)

Nanao didn't respond to a word Kasahara said as she marched them down the hall to her office. The door to her office was solid thick wood rather than rice paper, and very imposing.

A gold plate next to the door read:
伊勢 七緒 副隊長
Lieutenant Nanao Ise
Asst. Headmaster

She opened the door to her office. "Have a seat."

Nanao's office was spartanly furnished. The white walls were bare apart from a single scroll bearing a large kanji '8' inside a diamond, the symbol of Nanao's division. The wood floors were bare, no carpet or even tatami mats. And the only furniture in the room were a series of uncomfortable looking wooden chairs and a huge, fastidiously organized dark oak executive desk. Nanao took a seat behind her desk and stared down at Kasahara and Rikiki.

"So. What happened."

"hmm... not bad, but in truth, i have been wondering about the meeting with my Zanpakutou as well, Before that, i had never before experienced something like that, not even in dreams. All that was a surprisse for me... and that person.. what i think was my Zanpakutou spirit, he spoke to me as if he knew more about me than myself... but if he is a part of me, how could he possibly know..."

Junshirou listened patiently to Igarashi, and looked pensive for a while.

"Hmm... what I'm going to say next is just a theory, alright? I don't want you trusting this absolutely. But here's what I think it is... we have maybe two or three layers to our mind. There's the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind, so maybe what the zanpakutou knows about you is taken from the subconscious while you only know about the things in the conscious. But the mind also has various functions... there's the part of the mind devoted to physical pursuits, the part devoted to mental pursuits, and the part that strikes a balance between the two. Although the zanpakutou inhabits our subconscious mind somewhere, it's made up partly of the physical part of the mind and partly of the mental part of the mind, and each person's zanpakutou has a different balance. For instance, mine seems to be heavily centred in the superego. ...uh, the part of the mind dedicated to mental pursuits, that is. If I might hazard a guess, I'd think that yours is centred more there than you are normally, which is why it knows so much about you. But all this is speculative... you'd have to talk to a psychologist about it."

He was aware of how much information that was to digest, so he stayed silent for a few seconds.

"The whole thing just seemed so... so strange, though. I'm used to things I haven't seen before, but it was just an overload of oddities."

He paused.

"I wish I could remember what it reminded me of, though. I know it had something to do with my time in Rukongai when I was younger, and it might have had something to do with... I don't know, some sort of teacher; some old man. I can't think what he could have taught me, though..."

He looked downhearted for a second.

"I don't know why I'm saying this to you. It would be unlikely in the extreme for you to know anything about it. It's just nagging at me."

He looked around... by now, the two had walked quite a way. This seemed to be the corridor he'd marked 30B on the impromptu map he'd made on the first day, although they all looked alike, so he couldn't be entirely sure. The directions he'd taken meant that this was either 30B or 32A, and there was a small hole in the second door on the left in 32A that there didn't seem to be here. His stomach gurgled, and he blushed slightly.

"Hopefully the food won't be too much longer...", he said, and looked attentively at Igarashi while playing with his thumbs.

Kasahara, after being escorted into the Assistant Headmaster's office, sat down in one of the wooden chairs. Even though she had put up a defense, she was still apparently in trouble. Nanao-sensei asked her to explain what happened and Kasahara replied clearly and truthfully. "Hikari Kijou was being unpleasant towards another student. I told her of her faults and she proceeded to insult me."

There was more to the story, but Kasahara thought it would be best if she didn't proceed. She would continue it if the Assistant headmaster inquired. It wasn't until Hikari insulted her first that the brunette fought back with a threat. Techinically, the blame should be on the blonde girl in Kasahara's opinion.