Serious Shinigami Shenanigans

A young girl with pale brown hair tied in a ponytail, wandered down the hallway of the Shin'ō Academy (or as the locals called it: the Shinigami Academy) in her white and red uniform. Her destination was the board upon which the school posted important messages and information. She was incredibly nervous. After taking the entrance exam for the academy, she was about to find out whether or not she had gained a place at the school.

With the board finally in sight, Kiyomi stopped walking all of a sudden. She couldn't quite see anything that was written, but her nerves seemed to have gotten the better of her. What if she didn't get a high enough score? What if she would have to wait to retry the entrance exam? She was never this nervous about anything and it felt unnatural to her. But her mind focused on one thing; if she didn't get into the academy, what if she hurt her friend again?

As these thoughts crept into her already nervous mind, a group of other students wandered past her, evidently headed for the board. Kiyomi stood for a moment and watched, waiting to see what their results were. Judging from the large smiles that were passed around the group shortly after, they had succeeded. With a small sigh, Kiyomi closed her eyes, still standing in the middle of the hall.
"Alright, pull yourself together Kiyomi," she thought to herself, trying to pluck up the courage to move forward, "You'll never find out how you did if you just stand here."

Opening her teal blue eyes and nervously twisting a hand through her wavy, pale-brown ponytail, she took a few steps forward until she was stood in front of the large board. Glancing at it, she scanned all of the pinned up papers, looking for the correct one. Finding the list of students who had taken the exam, she scanned down it for her name:

Shiratori Kiyomi.... Pass

All of her former nervousness evaporated instantly and a wide grin spread over her face as she read the result. The sheet neglected to mention scores, possibly out of respect for those students who had failed, however Kiyomi didn't really care. She had passed!
There was a small note pinned to the entrance exam results telling everyone who had passed to find their name on one of the class lists and prepare for their first lessons. Nodding to herself, Kiyomi began to scan each of the lists, looking for the class she had been put into.

Nearby the happily grinning girl, two males were staring at their name with confusion.
"So...I guess this means I did better than you!" a strange man with brown hair laughed with a sly smile at the red haired man with a very manly ponytail.
"It does not! It says nothing about scores, it just says pass and your name happened to be above me because of your last name!" The ponytailed man snapped back with a growl.
"Come on, don't be a sore loser now, I did better than you so my name is above your's~" the brown short haired man spoke, ending the sentence on a playful taunting tone.
The man with red hair glared at his friend, annoyed by his friend's, Toraburu, taunts. He decided to let it drop and be happy he passed at all. The man's name was Rakeshisu, known as Rake(rāk) to his friends, and he was applying to be a shinigami at this strange school. He had been taunted into it by Toraburu, who had been acting strange since his friend had actually wanted to do something, but he had dismissed it as his words actually had reached him before death.
"Aww lookie, you even have a girl above your name, whoever this Shiratori Kiyomi is, she did better than you!" Tora continued to tease.
"Now you're just pissing me off," Rake told his friend, giving him a vengeful punch in the shoulder.
Tora did not have the same reaction though, and gave his friend a playful shove that seemed a little too powerful than Tora had meant and shoved Rake back and towards Kiyomi.

Kiyomi continued to stare at the board. She had scanned at least three of the class lists now and couldn't find her name. She was beginning to get a little worried. What if she hadn't actually passed and the former list had been wrong? Her wide grin had began to form back into a small frown as she continued to search for her name.
She was distracted from this search when she heard her name being said by someone nearby. Glancing over, she blinked at the two dressed in the male blue and white uniform. They seemed to be arguing about something. Turning her attention back to the board, she attempted to ignore them, until one of them knocked into her, having been shoved by the other. The force from the push in turn knocked her into the bulletin board where a few of the papers that were loosely pinned up fell off.

"Careful!" called Kiyomi, picking herself up off the floor and flashing a small glare at the two with her teal eyes. She then began gathering up the paper that had fallen off the board, pinning the sheets back up one by one so that the others waiting to see the entrance exam results wouldn't be denied of it.
As she was pinning up the final piece of paper, her teal eyes widened in shock.
"W-wha-..." she blinked, not knowing how to express her disbelief.
The piece of paper in her hands was the list for those who had been chosen for the advanced classes... and her name was on it.
Kiyomi continued to stare at the piece of paper for a moment before realising that some of the others in the area were giving her funny looks. She then quickly pinned the list back up on the board, the wide grin from before etched across her face once more.

"Oh, sorry!" Rake spoke to the girl he had fallen on. He ignored the laughing Tora and attempted to help the girl pick up the papers and pin them to the door, but she had already done so. Rake was unsure of what to do next other than apologize again, but the girl seemed to stop and stare at a certain piece of paper. He blinked as the girl put the paper on the board with a grin, he looked at the sheet, wondering what was the big deal and saw that the paper had been advanced classes. He assumed that her name must have been on there.

He had been about to dismiss the event until his eyes scanned the paper and saw something familiar.

Rakeshisu Hachūrui...Advanced.

His eyes snapped wide open when he saw his own name on it. He was in advanced?! How!? He continued to gawk at the paper stupidly until Tora walked over and asked him what the big deal was. Rake grabbed Tora behind the neck and shoved the friend's face into the paper where his name lay, "Advanced Classes, I'm in them."

Rake began to feel a sense of triumph, he had bested his friend in being a shinigami, he was in advanced classes! He was stronger! He-"Hey, I'm in them as well..."

"DAMN IT!"

Kiyomi appeared to be attempting -and failing- to keep her excitement contained. She looked as if she was going to hop up and down in her gleeful state. Glancing over to the two guys she smiled, seemingly having forgotten the incident from a few moment ago.
"So you're in the advanced classes too, huh?" she grinned, seeming excited even though she didn't know who they were.
"I'm Kiyomi," she grinned, "Kiyomi Shiratori. I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other!"

"Ah, so you're the Kiyomi that did better than Rake!" Tora spoke happily. He looked at the younger looking girl and spoke, "So, got a boyfriend? Rake here is available!" The question was replied by Rake with a fist to Tora's face from the side. Tora whined, "Oww! Did you really have to do that?"

"Stop doing that to every girl we meet!" Rake yelled at his friend before turning to Kiyomi and introducing himself and his friend, "I'm Rakeshisu and that's Toraburu, he is as his name suggests, trouble." Rake ignored the people glancing uneasily at him and his red-cheeked friend, dismissing them as background and knowing they'll eventually move on with their lives and forget all about him.

"I'm not COMPLETELY trouble!" Tora whined, earning not even a response from Rake.

"Sorry about that once more," Rake felt the need to say once more. The girl did not seem all that powerful to him, but he payed no attention to that, instead he just wondered about what he and his friend are supposed to be doing now. Who was their teacher? He wondered, glancing back at the board attempting to see if they had told the teacher's names as well.

Kiyomi blinked at the sudden question, not entirely knowing how to react as she had never really been in such a situation before. Soon enough though Rakeshisu had punched Tora in the face, causiing her to chuckle a little.
"Well.... pleased to meet you both, anyway," she grinned, "But I figure we should be heading towards our first class now. We have about half hour to find the right classroom." She smiled nervously, pointing to the corridor which she thought ws the right way to go.

It had taken the three a short time to reach their class and they had arrived early, along with the rest of the entire class. While Toraburu asked every female in the class if they had a boyfriend, which resulted in several bruises and perhaps a near broken neck bone, Rake had found his seat at the front of the class. He was soon joined by Toraburu who whined about sitting in front of the class and preferred the back where he could mess around when the teacher wasn't noticing. Rake ignored his friends complaining, and instead focused on the strange stage like center in front of the rows of elevated desks all containing students that had passed the exams as well. Though there were not as many as he had thought.

He found himself searching for any faces he might just so happen to recognize, his mother, father, any friends...until he had remembered that he had died at a younger age so it was likely that they were all either still living or finding their way around soul society. There was no way he would be lucky enough to have found a family member AND Tora, much less a known face in the Soul Society's Shinigami Academy.

Kiyomi had been rather surprised at how quickly they had found the correct classroom. However despite how early they were, they were not the only ones. Most of their class had already arrived, with a few more arriving shortly after she did. There weren't as many people in the class as she had expected, but she assumed it was because this was the advanced class, and that there were always less students in Class #1. She couldn't help but wonder what the conditions for getting into the special accelerated class actually were. After all, she hadn't thought herself that special. Did she have a higher reiatsu than she realised? Or was her score on the test just that good?

The young student managed to get a seat by the window, on the second row. She could see Rakeshisu and Toraburu from where she sat, but couldn't really speak with them without attracting the attention of at least four other students, let alone do it under a teacher's nose.
Oh well, I guess i'll just have to befriend whoever ends up sitting next to me, she thought to herself, unsure whether or not that was a good thing.

A short while later their teacher, Gengorō Ōnabara, entered the classroom, introducing himself and taking roll call before beginning their first class. He ended up giving a rather boring lecture on what it means to be a shinigami, as well as outlining the various things they would be studying this year. Kiyomi had decided to take a few notes, mostly of the first bit so that she knew what would be expected of her during the year. However as she listened, she found her gaze straying out of the window at the outside. She wondered how her friend and her adopted parents were doing. She realised a short while later that she was getting menacing glances from their new tutor, and so for the rest of the lesson paid extreme attention to everything he was saying. She made it look like she was writing every word that he said down, when in actuality she was doodling in the corner of her notebook.

Throughout the lesson, Toraburu asked stupid questions repeatedly in attempt to anger the teacher, not taking the class seriously at all. Rake merely listened in and out, only choosing to listen to the interesting parts. Time passed on as the boring lecture continued with a slide show showing various types of jobs a shinigami performs and is their duty to fulfill. Once the teacher finished, the students were told that their kido classes would be the first they were to practice.
"What's a Kido?" Tora asked out loud and innocently.
Rake shrunk in his seat in attempt to not be noticed as the entire class and teacher stared at him.
"I just had to sit next to an idiot..."

A few stifled bouts of laughter echoed through the classroom as the students couldn't hold it in any longer. Most of the patronizing laughter came from students who already had varying amounts of training due to being part of some of the highly respected families of Soul Society. Kiyomi cringed a little at the reactions of everyone else, though she had to admit she only had very limited knowledge of the art; not that she'd say that out loud.
Gengorō's hard stare bore into Tora for a moment before explaining that he would find out shortly as they had their first Kido lesson next. It was a few more tense moments before Gengorō yelled, "CLASS OVER!" and all of the students got up to leave the room, eager to escape the awkwardness that had been those final minutes of the lesson.

Kiyomi picked up her notebook and hugged it to her chest before heading toward the classroom's door. She glanced back at Rake and Tora, waving to them before she headed off to the outside training area that was used for Kido lessons.


"In this first lesson, you shall learn how to control your Reiryoku. This is essential when using Kido as Kido spells are powered by a shinigami's Reiryoku," the teacher began, "Everyone grab a mat!"

Once all the students had lined up and grabbed a mat, the teacher instructed them all to sit upon it, learning to control their reiryoku through meditation. He had also proceeded to say that any who feel like they are ready should try the first Hado spell on the targets on the opposite side of the field. He wrote the name and incantation of Hado #1: Sho on a blackboard and propped it against a wall so that any of the students could read it if they wished. He did a quick demonstration of the spell, before ushering the students off to find a space to sit.

Kiyomi lay her mat down on the sandy ground and sat upon it. She flicked open her notebook and made a note of the name and incantation of the Hado spell, before closing it and doing as she had been instructed; meditating.

Tora simply laughed as he left the classroom at how angry the teacher had gotten and lost his cool. He was horrified when he heard that they were to sit and meditate. He had sat for approximately two minutes before attempting the incantation. As was suspected, Tora merely blew himself a foot into the sky and landed on his back with an grey ashen face.
Rake, meanwhile, had been distracted by Tora's screw up and his concentration broke when he himself was attempting the spell. Rake, too, was blasted into the air, except he had landed in the back of the class space...and interrupted someone else in their own concentration. Rake sat up and glared at the exploding with laughter Tora.

Kiyomi was a little more patient; she must have sat meditating for what seemed like an hour(but was probably only half). Unfortunately, the constant explosions from other students trying the Kido spell kept destroying her concentration and control over her own Reiryoku. The teacher tried so very hard to keep his laughter inside, but at some points he utterly failed, letting out a small laugh as the students continued to try the spell before they were ready.

Eventually Kiyomi got a little fed up of being constantly distracted and got to her feet. Moving over to the line that they were to attempt the spell from, she pointed at one of the targets with her index finger, holding her hand with her other hand as she began to speak the incantation. As she chanted, a small blue aura surrounded her index finger. Finally, the incantation complete, she called out...
"Hadō #1. Shō!"

....only for the spell to explode in her face, just as it had done every other student. The explosion wasn't as powerful as some of the others' had been, meaning that she wasn't thrown back very far. Kiyomi sat there for a second and blinked before she chuckled at herself and got back to her feet, dusting off her uniform.

Once all of the students had finished blowing themselves up, and after silencing a bickering duo that was Rake and Tora as they argued over who ruined who's spell, the teacher merely sighed, "You kids these days are too full of yourselves, now for Hakuda, let's hope you guys do somewhat better there than your wonderful display here."

Rake wondered if he would have even gotten the spell if his concentration had not been broken. He dismissed the answer as a no, if it had worked then he would have gotten it. He had no right to yell at Tora, but he still did not apologize to his friend who was making faces at him as they left in good humor. Rake watched as students were called up to display their combat skills so far to the class, and knew that he would not do so well in this category as well...while Tora kicked absolute butt. Though Tora WAS in trouble for using dirty moves such as kicking some unfortunate guy in the knads...

Kiyomi had spent the rest of the Kido lesson meditating in her chosen spot after her first failure. When the lesson ended, she quietly got to her feet, grabbed her notebook and headed off to the room that would be used for their Hakuda class. It was a large indoor training area, with an allocated square in the middle, likely for where one on one sparring would happen later on in the curriculum. For now, their teacher stood in the centre of the square, beckoning the students to sit around it.

After a quick briefing, each student was called up in turn to demonstrate his or her current knowledge of Hakuda. The teacher watched each of them in turn, her eyes focusing on them and only them as their showed their skill. Some of the students from higher class families had clearly had specialised training before entering the shinigami academy, as they performed various punches and kicks to the tutor. A few of the students had noticeably fallen to the pressure of standing in that central circle and had attempted to improvise movements that they hoped would pass as hand to hand combat.

When Kiyomi's turn came, she knew she had nothing to show as she had no knowledge of Hakuda at all due to her relatively peaceful life in Rukongai. She had never really needed to fight anyone as she had always had the company of her friend or her adopted family.
Standing, Kiyomi bowed to the teacher in respect before simply stating, "I have no prior knowledge of Hakuda, ma'am," and sitting down again. A few of the other students gave her stares of disbelief, but she didn't care. She couldn't demonstrate what she did not know, after all.