Serious Shinigami Shenanigans

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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.

Kiyomi meanwhile had neglected to return to her dorm at all that night, instead falling asleep in her tree where no one would find her. She spent an uncomfortable night there, with her dreams continuously weaving the worst case scenarios in her mind as she slept. As the nightmares began to worsen, Kiyomi stirred within her tree, not completely waking, but moving in her sleep. She muttered in her sleep, the signs of a bad dream all there for one to see if they looked correctly. However, Kiyomi's dreamscape soon switched as the nightmares became too much, pulling her back to that tranquil, frosty meadow. The presence of the meadow in her mind was enough to calm her, and allow her to rest peacefully for the remainder of the night.

The next day the missions began. Rake had a paper slipped under his door, and Kiyomi's came in the form of a paper airplane flying towards her face. Rake did not open his paper immediately, nor was he pleased to open it. He took his time in preparing and even meditated with his nameless sword to try and stall for a bit. He eventually stopped stalling and opened his letter. It was a mission to attack a student, a certain time, location, and the mention to not be seen. He frowned at the mission, but slipped it into a pocket anyways. He had to do this, what would Kiyomi think of him if he had unintentionally revealed the files to the public? He huffed at the thought of her calling him keishi again...this was not going to be fun.

Kiyomi's mission, seemed more of a stealth type of mission. She needed to get a file from inside the school's office, not that far from Rake's designated location. Lucky for both of the two, school had been cancelled that day due to odd events occurring throughout the school.

Kiyomi was rudely awoken by a paper aeroplane hitting her face. Confused for a moment she opened it before realising what it was and quickly sticking her head out of the tree she was still in to try and find who had thrown it. All she saw was Esa's form leaving the area, but that was enough to figure out who had thrown it. Looking back at the paper she half read it, something about stealing some student information and schedules.
Kiyomi sighed and leaned back against the tree branch she had been sleeping on. I guess this is it then, she frowned to herself. She continued to lie there for a moment before she realised she should probably get up. Grabbing her Asauchi from where she had hung it on a tree branch, she hopped down from the tree, landing neatly on her feet and bending her knees to break the fall.
She stretched her back, having slept in an awkward position before glancing around. She was pretty sure her hair was a mess but she was going to be late for her lessons if she didn't get moving.

Upon reaching her first class, she was told that classes were cancelled due to some unexplained deaths throughout the school. The staff were currently investigating the cause and had thus cancelled the lessons. With another sigh, Kiyomi walked out of the classroom and stared up at the sky. This just meant she had less to stall this task with.

It was time, it was the place, and yet the target was nowhere to be seen. Rake sighed as he sat in a tree and awaited for his target to appear. A picture was included in the mission, he was to attack some ginger kid, nothing instructed him to kill, so he would not. He would just have to make sure they never saw him.

He just had to wait. Wait. Wait. Wait....wait.......THERE! Rake quickly mumbled the desired spell and had it erupt and cover the area, Sekienton. The red smoke covered the area and blocked all smoke. The shinigami yelled in surprise, and was even more surprised when the butt of a sword's hilt struck his lower back. He tried to turn to see his attacker but the attacker had already retreated into the mist. The ginger, still confused reached for his own sword in fear. His attempt to defend himself was shattered as his shoulder was struck with the hilt, making it too painful to reach for his sword along with giving him a limp arm. He looked about, finally registering that he was being attacked. His realization came too late though, as Rake finally struck his back harshly. The boy collapsed and Rake made his escape.

The mission was rather easy, Rake noticed. He wondered if the mission was to test if he would actually perform the mission. The red haired shinigami performed a silent apology and fled the scene as the red smoke began to disperse. Rake looked at the slip that had given him his mission, and tore it to shreds beyond recognition before scattering the debris. He had completed his mission, surely the organization would be happy. He would need to gain their trust in order to find out what was really going on...

With another small sigh and read through of the note, Kiyomi made her way towards the staff area of the academy's campus. All staff rooms and offices were located in this area and Kiyomi knew that she couldn't get caught here or else she'd probably end up in detention for about a month.
Sticking to the shadows, she was glad that most of the staff were distracted by these recent deaths. Unfortunately, it would also make her job a little harder, as some of the staff would be more likely to be doing the paperwork to sort out this mess of incidents.

Quickly locating the block of staff offices, Kiyomi checked the note for which of the offices the information was in. She was glad they had provided her with this information at the very least. They clearly seemed to know exactly what they wanted and where to get it.

Entering the building full of offices she kept her senses open, taking every precaution she could to limit her chances of being found, including ducking down another corridor when one teacher hurried past where she had just been. With a small sigh of relief as the teacher passed by without spotting her, Kiyomi wandered up to the office door she was about to steal from and put her ear to the door. It appeared to be noiseless inside and so gently, she turned the handle. It was open, luckily, and so Kiyomi quickly ducked inside, closing the door behind her and making sure she kept her senses open as she began her search for the right documents.

It took a good ten minutes before she even found the right filing cabinet, but as she did so she became painfully aware of someone walking down the corridor, straight towards the office she was currently in. She could sense their presence, even if only weakly as they drew closer. Hurrying her search, she quickly dug through the files until she found what she thought looked like the correct one. Grabbing it, she became painfully aware that the person was stood right outside of the door.

With no time to exit the room now, Kiyomi did her best to hide her spiritual presence. When the staff member opened their office door they found nothing out of place. As they stepped in, Kiyomi soundlessly dropped down from her position stood on the small edge that was the top of the doorframe and using the ceiling to keep herself up there.
Before the teacher could even turn at the slightest noise, Kiyomi had used multiple shunpo to make her way down the corridor. She didn't even look back as the teacher poked their head out of their office in suspicion, only to see nothing before them as Kiyomi had already ducked into an adjacent hallway.

Not wasting any time and with both her Asauchi and the file in hand, Kiyomi exited the office block and made her way back to the main area of the school. She returned to the tree she had slept in the previous night and found Esa waiting for her.

Rake had returned home to a silent room. He checked his hiding spot for the documents once more, they were still there. He sighed in relief and took them out, moving their hiding location. This time, he had pulled up a floorboard in his room and hidden them under there inside of a box. The strange shinigami had known he was holding those documents under his bed, so he had to put them in a new spot.

Once he was finished, Rake attempted to concentrate and meditate with his sword. He found that he strangely could not concentrate, though it was more as if whenever he tried to enter the desert and sand storm, he was pushed out. Had he done something to anger his sword's spirit? Rake gave up, "Look i'm sorry okay, I kind of don't have a choice..."
His sword did not respond, as expected. The shinigami merely remained silent and laid back on his bed, trying to figure out what to do.

After handing the information over to Esa and watching him walk away with a smirk on his face, Kiyomi headed off to try and find somewhere more private. Right now she felt as if wherever she went she was constantly being watched by this group of his. She considered going to find Rakeshisu, but figured she'd only put him in harms way if she did something like that; she'd make him a target.

With a small sigh, Kiyomi found a quiet corner and attempted to meditate with her Asauchi. She once again found herself in her unchanging inner world, a plethora of frozen plantlife and white lilies. With a sadness in her teal eyes, Kiyomi stared up at the grey-blue skies of her inner world. Why did her zanpakuto spirit always ignore her like this? Had she done something wrong that would warrant such ignorance? It just seemed like whenever she most needed someone to speak to, even the cool winds that would normally rustle the lily petals would cease. Still staring up at the motionless sky, Kiyomi frowned before sitting down on the snow covered ground to spend the rest of her meditation time in silence.

As the days dragged on the missions grew in both violence and importance. Rake had just recently received a mission that required a group attack on a group of friends from the opponents. He was to go with a higher ranked trio. Rake was to perform his red fog spell, which he was beginning to become somewhat known for since he favored the spell, as the group carried out the attack. Rake saw it as an opportunity to gather some info from them. Over hear something, question them, and such.

Meanwhile Kiyomi's instructions had been growing in violence. Gradually changing from harmless sneaking missions to attacking actual people. Rake had not seen much of Kiyomi, he had been trying to avoid her until this mess was settled. He just hoped she did not notice that he was avoiding her on purpose...

Kiyomi's instructions had been steadily growing in violence, and she had noticed it. Every time she was rudely awoken by a paper aeroplane, she felt a sinking feeling of dread. It was only a matter of time before they asked her to seriously harm someone, the way these instructions were going. And what only made matters worse was that she knew she could not refuse, lest the do something to harm her brother Raito, who currently still lived an innocent life in Rukongai.

The paper aeroplane that arrived this morning hit her in the face from her sleeping position, curled up in a grassy area near one of the lesser used buildings. Kiyomi had taken to sleeping in unusual places in an attempt to avoid the instructions they kept sending her. It had worked a few times, but it had only served to postpone the job for a few days, as they soon found her again.
She constantly felt trapped and watched, wherever she went, though she had managed to keep her grades up so as not to raise the suspicions of others.

The instructions on the newest paper aeroplane clearly told her to find a specific student and break the bones in his left arm. Tearing the instructions to pieces and tossing them into the air, Kiyomi sat against the wall of the nearest building with her head in her hands. This was getting to be way too much. Were they using her to send violent warnings now? How long until they asked her to actually murder someone?

Slowly getting to her feet, Kiyomi picked up her Asauchi and attempted to fix her messy hair before heading off to her first lesson. The job would have to be done after her last lesson of the day, but she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate very well today.

The group had met in the left wing of the school, an area that was practically never used. Rake found that the people were ones he had never met before, typical since someone he knew might be more friendly towards him and tell him things.

Although, it was only natural to chat on the way there. Lucky for him, the entire conversation was on what they heard the group was about.
"Yeah, I think the big guy saw the other guy kill him with his own hands."
"Must be strong,"
"Which is why the big guy might be collecting recruit likes this"
"I don't know about our latest one, he seems a bit...sketchy..."
"That doesn't matter, he's one of the best in class at Kido, and that's just what we need."
"What if he snitches?"
"Trust me, he won't."

Rake resisted the urge to speak about how he was hearing every word, since then the two would shut up and he would end up in the dark again. He listened as the conversation continued, apparently there was another group they were fighting, and the leader of that group had killed someone. His leader was trying to avenge the victim, and trying to bring him to Justice apparently. Rake hoped that this was true, because then at least he was working for the GOOD side...

It was not long, before they reached their target. They had ambushed a group of the enemy, Rake performed a Sekienton with ease, and even followed it with a barrage of Shakkahō. The battle was completed swiftly and silently, before the group fled victoriously from the scene of injured students. Rake had gotten his information, but he still hungered for more. What had happened at the time the students had spoken of? What was causing this inner war that the teachers were blind to? Rake hated to admit it, but he needed to wait even more. He had to wait until the blackmail was lifted, and he was a "normal" member. Then he would get close to the leader, and question him....or her.

All he had to do, was wait.

The only lessons that Kiyomi had ended up having that day was Hakuda and their basic skills lectures. Their teachers for the others lessons had all been called in to help with the mess that was the constant stream of injured -and sometimes even dead- students  that seemed to leap up out of nowhere. It was causing havoc in the school at the moment, with normal classes constantly being interrupted due to new developments, and classes cancelled altogether due to needing more hands to deal with the situation. Kiyomi hated to think that she would only be adding to the school's problems with each and every task she performed for these people.

She had attempted to distract herself as she tracked down the student she had been ordered to target. He was a fifth year at the school, talented, but clearly he had done something wrong in the eyes of this group. As Kiyomi lay in wait, she attempted to calm her nerves by picturing the icy meadow that was her inner world. As she did this the boy nearly walked out of her sight, but before that could happen she leaped down from her vantage point and grabbed his arms from behind. pinning them to his back she knocked him to the ground with a swift kick.
"S-sorry..." she whispered, closing her eyes as she completed the task, breaking the student's left arm and hearing a resounding snapping sound. Wincing the noise, she apologised to him once more before fleeing the scene. She didn't realise that she ran straight past Rakeshisu as she headed for another of her quiet spots, leaving the poor, injured student to drag himself to the infirmary.

Although Rakeshisu had not seen what Kiyomi had done, he had noticed that it was Kiyomi. He blinked as Kiyomi ran past, seemingly upset about something. He was then torn between figuring out if his friend was okay or if he should just mind his own business and leave her be. For all he knew, he could be the last person in the world she would want to talk to.
"She'll probably just say 'Scram Keishi' or something..." he determined, along with the chances of making her a target becoming too high for him to risk. He continued on his walk back to his dorm, and meditated with his nameless sword. This time, the sword had actually allowed him to enter the sandstorm filled realm. Rake blinked in surprise, and merely wondered if his Zanpakuto was going to do something like show itself. He was disappointed to find that nothing happened.
When he finished meditating, and slipped out of his mental realm, he heard something, "Follow her."

It had been about a week since Kiyomi had last received any instructions. Things had begun to quieten down again and lessons had started to return to normal. Kiyomi was relieved if anything, to have a break from the ever more violent tasks they seemed to be setting her. She used the time to fully immerse herself into her studies again. The staff however, soon planned a new trip to the world of the living, as if hoping to help distract the students from the recent happenings. The trip was scheduled for later this afternoon and would stretch on into the night. Kiyomi listened intently as the tutor explained that they would be in charge of eliminating the weaker hollows and performing Konso on souls in their immediate areas; much like the Konso Training from a few months back.

Upon the departure time, a rather large group of students had gathered in front of the school's senkaimon. Among these people, were a group of sixth years who were attempting to make their way to the front so they could lead the large group of mixed years. As one of the sixth years passed Kiyomi, they bumped into her, nearly causing her to trip over. However before she tripped, they had grabbed her arm, pulling her back up onto her feet and pushing a folded piece of paper into her hand before continuing toward the senkaimon. One glance toward the front told Kiyomi that it was Esa who had bumped into her, which could mean only one thing....
After shooting a look of distaste towards the sixth year, Kiyomi looked to the paper in her hands, unfolding it. As she read it's contents her teal eyes widened and she immediately shot another look to where Esa was beginning to lead the students through the senkaimon.
"N-no..." she whispered, her gaze slowly returning to the slip of paper as she re-read it, just to be sure.

Rake was also joining on the trip, though he kept a distance from Kiyomi, he still kept an eye on her. He could have sworn his Zanpakuto had told him to follow her, so follow her he shall since it seemed like his Zanpakuto seemed to see that something was up. He kept with the group as they traveled into the human world, where Kiyomi's task was to be carried out. Everyone was paired up like before, but Rake had ditched his group to follow Kiyomi, noticing her fearful look on her expression after a sixth year had bumped into her. He could tell that something was seriously up now, his friend was acting beyond normal, and he could no longer hold back his pestering concern and curiosity...

Kiyomi had been grouped with three people she didn't know. They seemed to be second years rather than from her own year, hence why they knew each other and yet she didn't know any of them. The fact that she didn't know them would probably make her task easier... they were probably more capable to deal with such a situation too...
She shook the thoughts from her mind as her teal gaze rested on a wandering soul nearby. The others seemed not to notice and so she used this as a perfect time to separate herself from them. Heading down to the wandering soul, she landed neatly on the pathway and attempted to flash a small smile at the spirit. The spirit was that of a young boy, with pale brown hair much like her own. If she was honest... he reminded her a lot of her brother, Raito.

"Hello there," blinked Kiyomi, welcoming the distraction. The spirit looked to her with curious eyes before they widened as if surprised that Kiyomi could see him.
"A-are you... dead too?" he asked, seemingly completely aware that he was indeed a spirit.
"I guess you could say I am," she replied with a small smile. His childlike curiosity... it definitely reminded her of her brother. He watched her for a moment before speaking again.
"What happens now...?" he asked, a sad tone lacing his childish voice as he sat down on a nearby wall.
"I'm here to help you move on," Kiyomi began to explain gently, sitting down beside him on the wall, "Once you move on... you'll find yourself in a place called Soul Society."
The boy blinked and looked up at Kiyomi with his green eyes. "Is it nice there?" he asked.
Kiyomi blinked and nodded, "What's your name?"
"Hiroshi."
"Well, Hiroshi. Soul Society is a nice place to be, you just have to find some friends to spend time with," she smiled, forgetting for a few blissful minutes that she had a task to do.
The boy turned from Kiyomi and stared at his hands, which were resting in his lap, "I've never really been good at making friends," he frowned.
Kiyomi blinked and then chuckled before hopping off of the wall with her Asauchi in hand, "I'm sure you'll make lots of friends," she paused for a moment before continuing, "There's always the chance that you could end up in the same part of Soul Society that I did. If you do, then I know there are people there who will look out for you. I just need to tap your forehead with this side of my sword and you'll be there."
He blinked before looking back at Kiyomi who was now stood in front of him, with her hand on her Asauchi's hilt as she tapped it to demonstrate which side of the sword she'd be using.
"Are you sure it's nice there?"
Kiyomi nodded with a small smile, "If you'd like i'll write to my family when I get home and tell them to look for you... if it would put your mind at ease."
Hiroshi nodded cheerfully before hopping off the wall, "Could you, please?" he asked with a happy grin, Kiyomi nodding again in response.
"Alright then... i'll go to Soul Society."
Kiyomi ruffled the spirit's pale brown hair before she poked his forehead with the hilt of her Asauchi.
"Good luck," she whispered with a small sniff, wishing the best for the young soul. His cheerful smiles made her feel a little homesick with how much they reminded her of Raito. After Hiroshi had departed from the World of the Living, Kiyomi sat back upon the wall for a moment, staring up at the starry night sky.

Why did everyone have to resort to such violence? Was it not enough that two had died the last time they'd attempted this?

Kiyomi suddenly became aware of the time she had spent with Hiroshi and turned to head in the opposite direction that her 'teammates' had headed off in. She needed to use this time if she was to set up the reiryoku signatures as hollow bait without being identified. She couldn't avoid doing it, lest her brother end up hurt, or worse. After seeing Hiroshi's smiles, she hoped that the thought of her brother would be enough to help her power through the task.
The cruel irony, that she would now be doing the exact same thing that had killed her once closest friend.

(Srry for huge post. |D Also I might not be on tomorrow because i'm super busy :/ If I can get on tho i'll do my best to post :3)