Kido. Spells used by shinigami for multiple purposes. They required a certain degree of concentration and dedication that Haruka didn’t quite care to posses. Forming spiritual energy at her feet for shunpo she could handle, but forming spells and memorizing incantations? Not her thing. Thusly, the young woman was in Kido class C.

She really appreciated the tutoring Mai had given her the week before, and it was probably those sessions that gave her enough motivation to actually pass the test. But, alas, there was just nothing driving her any further. She wasn’t a perfectionist, nor was she an overachiever. She allowed what came to her easily to come to her, and allowed what troubled her to continue troubling her at a level she could take.

Ok, well, maybe that last part wasn’t entirely true. She was rather sick of letting Kagashi trouble her. And, fittingly, when she walked into Kido class C he was on one of the cushions haphazardly strewn across the room with his arms on his knees and his eyes focused intently on the ground. Haruka allowed her eyes’ target to become one with Kagashi’s as a blush crept across her face. However, there were no cushions near the man, so Haruka headed toward the back of the room, which was currently rather sparsely populated. The floor was still the object of her attention when the class started, so Haruka never got a chance to scan the room for people she knew.

“Good afternoon!” Boomed a loud baritone. “Welcome to Kido class C! I welcome all of you apparently unmotivated students into this room with a wholesome heart, and promise that you won’t leave here with the same attitude.” Haruka finally got herself together enough to take her eyes off of the ground. The man speaking was very tall and very round. His uniform pitifully begged to become a size larger, and his long black hair was loosely tied into a ponytail. His eyes were dark brown and extremely small compared to the flabby folds of his cheeks. “My name is Mumei Akasu. As you have probably already guessed, you are to call me ‘Mumei-sensei.’ I am neither your friend nor your foe, but I am one of the ones who will shape you into a competent shinigami.

“Now, enough with the introductory material. I’m guessing I’m boring you and making you feel like this is never going to go anywhere. All of you destroy the cushions you are sitting on with kido. Now, go!”

As one, the “apparently unmotivated” students rose and turned on their former seats. Haruka frowned, formed spiritual energy into her arm, and uttered the incantation for one of the basic spells they had been taught late last week. A small spark slithered out of her hand and created a small burn mark on the cushion. After a quick glance around the room, Haruka found that most of the students were only faring a little better than her.

Mumei-sensei sighed from the front of the room. “This is going to be harder than I thought…Well then! Let’s go back to the basics, shall we? Everyone, find a partner and begin to form spiritual energy into a ball on your palm! Your partner will be there to chart your progress and tell you where they think you’re going wrong.”

As soon as Mumei’s voice died from the room, everything fell into a chaotic stampede. Students flew immaturely around the classroom yelling for “so and so” to be their partner. Haruka sighed and stayed still. At the very worst, she’d just end up with that one guy who never got a partner on his own.

“Yo, Racing Stripes. ‘Sup?” came a voice from behind. Oh, Haruka would recognize that voice anywhere. Sendo Shino.

‘That’s right. She needs much more help in kido than Mai does, so she’s attending the first half of the class. Great. ’

“And what do you want?” Haruka said flatly, without turning around.

“Should be obvious, yeah? I wanna be partners with my all-time favorite roommate!” Shino said the last part as if it were an imitation of Mai.

“Tch.” Well, let’s see if you can get a ball going, then.” Haruka said darkly, and finally turned around to face the other woman.

Shino immediately thrust her arm out in front of her and began to force the spiritual energy out into her palm. At first, it looked similar to a miniature lake, and then it slowly formed into a properly shaped sphere. “You closed your eyes.” Haruka said bluntly. “And you have your arm too straight.”

“Tch. And what does that have to do with anything?” Shino retorted with a growl.

“Hmph,” was Haruka’s reply before she herself extended her arm. Unlike Shino’s stance, Haruka’s arm was visibly relaxed. She allowed her spiritual energy to flow calmly down her arm and ooze out into her palm in a pillar-like shape that abruptly morphed into a sphere.

“That took you way too long, you fool.” Shino said arrogantly.

“Oh?” Haruka replied, allowing a small smirk to disrupt the previous expression of concentration her face had worn.

“Well, yeah. I think I got a couple grey hairs while waiting for that.”

“Shino.”

“What is it?”

“You already have grey hairs. A lot of them.”

Shino scowled at that and grabbed a strand of her current body’s long grey and black hair. “Right…I miss my red hair…” With that, the girl heaved a heavy sigh and began to act as if Haruka were a mere mannequin.

“Shall we uhm, continue?” Haruka asked cautiously, scared by the other woman’s lack of retort. When Shino didn’t reply, Haruka sighed and sat down.

‘Wait, did she say red hair?’

---~---

It wasn’t long before the bell rang to order the passage of students from kido to swordsmanship. Haruka meandered through the labyrinth of white halls until she reached the swordsmanship room. It was actually quite close to where she had had swordsmanship as a basic training student, but it was down the hallway some.

Swordsmanship class A. This was the only other class that Haruka had with Mai. And, since Shino needed the help more, the woman wouldn’t even be showing up until halfway through the class. Upon opening the door, Haruka was thrust into a room unlike any of the ones she had seen so far. Most of the rooms were sparse and dull. However, this one had walls lined with many impressive katana. A distinct, sandalwood scent hung in air that did not even seem stagnant despite the fact that its home was an enclosed classroom.

And the enclosed classroom was definitely gaudy. Aside from the katana on the walls, there was a meticulously polished oaken desk sitting on an expensive, iridescent rug near the front of the room. Upon the desk were twin incense holders, busily working to fulfill their purpose. Between the incense was another katana. While many of the katana on the walls had intricately carved scabbards, this one far surpassed the work on the others. Flowers, sakura blossoms, and vines alike wove their way up the intricately carved wood.

A woman whose appearance definitely matched that of the intricate scabbard on the desk was standing off to the left, her hands behind her back. Her hair was neither purple nor black, but somewhere in between, and was pinned up in an intricate pattern on top of her head. Her large, green eyes shone out with a sort of radiance that spoke of great determination and passion for life, and her skin was a delicate, pale porcelain.

“Class A students.” She began her speech. Her voice was as elegant as everything else in the room, and although it was not loud, its soothing tone floated through the atmosphere with a force that demanded the attention of all in the room. “My name is Kiyora Hakuen. Welcome. In this class you will be refining you abilities with the blade. I will not allow any slacking off, nor will I allow any complaining. If you cannot handle something, then you do not belong here. Am I clear? Good. Now, partner up and begin sparring. I want to see what I have to work with here.”

‘Hmm…with Shino in class now, Mai’s not around…’

Haruka saw Mugen off on the other side of the room, but he had already found a partner.

‘Darn…and I could’ve gotten him back for earlier by pulverizing him. Oh well. ’ The woman sighed and stood off to the side a bit to wait for someone to come up and ask to partner up with her. No one came. And soon, everyone has a partner. Haruka was the only one still alone.

“You there,” Kiyora-sensei called out as she walked up to her. “You shall be that Sendo girl’s sparring partner.”

‘Mai’s sparring partner? Can’t argue with that.’

“However, she will not be here until halfway through the period. What is your name, woman?”

“Tokoyami Haruka, ma’am,” Haruka said with a bow. Kiyora-sensei was a woman that demanded your respect.

“Tokoyami-san. Until the time that Sendo arrives, you shall spar with me. As I have already stated, I will not allow any slacking in this class. Now, get ready.” And with that, she tossed Haruka a wooden practice sword.

The taller, more experienced woman came at Haruka quickly. The black and red haired woman barely even had the chance to raise her blade to block the attack. The fight continued like this for the next few minutes, with Haruka using everything she could just to block her sensei’s attacks. But all too suddenly, Kiyora’s attacks slowed. She began to leave herself open far too noticeably to be serious.

‘She’s trying to lure me into a trap? She even goes all out in training matches…’

Haruka knew better than to take one of the false openings, but was unable to figure out how to get a hit in otherwise. Then, Kiyora tied to get a little too fancy. The graceful woman leapt into the air and thrust her blade downward in a vertical slash. Haruka saw an opportunity and used her developing shunpo skills to slide herself behind the woman. As a trained shinigami, Kiyora was able to recover from her move fairly quickly, but not before Haruka was able to get a tap on her shoulder.

“Brat. This is swordsmanship class, not shunpo,” Kiyora spat.

“Yes, ma’am, but with all due respect…if we don’t learn to chain the various skill sets that we are learning together, we won’t get anywhere. Your introductory speech never said anything against using knowledge from other classes in this one.”

“Tokoyami Haruka, right? I’ll remember that name. Come, let’s continue.”

-~-

It was finally time for the last class of the day. Haruka couldn’t believe that she was going to have to go through a similar routine every day for the next few years. One day was tiring enough.

History of Soul Society was going to be another lecture class. Haruka wondered just how important it really was. Perhaps she could get away with sleeping in it? But no. Shino was in this class. She’d never let her get any rest. “Just my luck,” Haruka sighed as she entered the room.

Unlike the swordsmanship room, history of Soul Society class C had a feeling of dead air about it. Everything about the room seemed limp. Haruka took a seat near the back of the room and waited for the rest of the students to file in. The teacher was a flashy looking man with long, blue hair that reached his waist and a large bead necklace only a few shades lighter than his hair around his neck. His brown eyes looked as dead as the air in the room felt, and his voice when he asked for silence was monotonous.

“Welcome class C students. In this class you will be learning all about Soul Society and the important events in its past. Please work hard. Oh, and my name is Kokuu. Now, open your textbooks to page 17 and begin reading.”

“Whew. This is going to be fun,” growled a voice on her right. Shino, of course.

“Well, we may as well try and make the best of it…” sighed a different voice on her left. Kagashi, of course. Haruka allowed her face to hit her desk with an audible thud. “Oh, Haruka-san. Are you alright?”

“Tch. Stripes over there? She’s probably just frightened by my menacing presence.”

And…that was probably as close to reading Haruka’s mind as Shino had come so far. She let her head remain on the desktop for a few moments, and then reached beneath her desk to grab her textbook. Haruka opened the book, flipped to page 17, and began to read.

“An Introduction to Soul Society.”

‘Yay.’

--~-

It was after the day had ended and the sun was well on its way below the horizon that the day got interesting once again. After history class, Haruka headed over to the cafeteria for dinner. She was planning, just like always, on a nice, quiet meal in isolation with no one to bother and no one to bother her. But Haruka’s plans were often foiled.

She wasn’t far from the cafeteria when she came across a tall, silver haired figure making his way in much the same direction as her. ‘Hehe...Ishikawa again, eh? ’

“Yo,” Haruka called out at the figure in front of her. He kept walking.

‘I suppose he didn’t realize I was talking to him….'

“Oi, Ish-”

‘Oops.’

“Kuishi!”

He jumped, and then turned around slowly. “O-oh. Haruka. And how are you this evening?”

“Fine. Yourself?”

“Oh, you know. I have a feeling the academy is going to be tough to get used to. You heading to dinner?”

“Mm. You?”

“Of course.”

The two began to head towards their destination once more.

“So,” Haruka started. “You see anyone else you knew, yet?”

“Oh, perhaps. But no one as perceptive as yourself.”

“So you’re staying under the radar pretty successfully, then?” she chuckled.

“I should hope so.” He said it kindly, with an air of teasing to his voice, but Haruka could’ve sworn she detected a hint of cold, wickedness under the polite front. She frowned, but decided to discard the information for now.

They arrived at the cafeteria at this point and began to wait silently in line for their meals. When they arrived at the front, Haruka found herself unable to keep her mouth from watering. There were a lot of delicious foods lined up, and she was extremely hungry from the day. She watched with a frown as Haku grabbed himself a dish of Buddha’s delight.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Hm?”

“You didn’t have any meat at lunch, either,” Haruka stated flatly as she grabbed herself two piping hot, pork baozi*. She paused a moment, grabbed a third, and then threw it on top of ‘Kuishi’s’ Buddha’s delight. “You’re eating it,” she finished with a shrug.

“And why might I do that, Hakura-san?” the silver haired man asked as he followed her towards a table.

“Oh, because…I have several ways to make you,” she snickered.

Ishikawa Haku gave Haruka a rather spectacular glare at that point, but the girl was so absorbed in her baozi that she barely noticed.

“Oishii!*” she exclaimed. “Now you. Eat.”

“Hai, hai, okaa-sama…***”

“Tch.”

‘How in the world did I end up eating with someone again? Peace and quiet. Peace and quiet…someday…’

The rest of their meal passed in silence. After she had finished her second baozi, Haruka stretched, yawned, and stood. Haku, who had eaten the baozi but had made no comment on it, was just finishing the rest of his Buddha’s delight.

“Well then, Kuishi. If you’ll excuse me for the time being, I need to find my roommate. Don’t go fallin’ off any mountains after I leave.”

“Mm. You take care as well.” Her eating partner said pleasantly.

Now to see what Mai had found out about that troublesome history teacher.







*Steamed buns! =D

**oishii=delicious

***Yeah, yeah, mother.