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 hadn't been given more than a few bruises from her fights and so she had gotten back to lessons rather quickly,however Rakeshisu had been in the infirmary for a whole week now, the nurses wanting to make sure his shoulder was fully healed before sending him back to classes.
Since then, Kiyomi had sent a letter to her family to see if everyone was alright. They were so far and Kiyomi was beginning to hope that perhaps this group wouldn't really act upon their threats, instead relying on their intimidating mannerisms to keep her from acting out of line.

Rakeshisu only had to search for a couple of moments, finding Kiyomi to be snoozing in their Kido class. After being welcomed back by the teacher and the curious glances of the students stopped their staring at him, he made his way over to the snoozing girl.
"Aren't you supposed to be practicing Kido?" he asked, hoping the sound of someone talking to her would wake her up. He blinked, wondering why the heck Kiyomi would fall asleep here.

"Hmm... what was that?" she asked, blinking her teal eyes open and forcing herself not to yawn. As she did so she realised that she had fallen asleep; she was leaning against a nearby wall and looked as if she was hugging her sheathed asauchi. Leaping to her feet at the realisation, she began to panic.
"Ohmygosh. How long was I asleep for?" she asked, teal eyes scanning the area. A few other students had glanced over out of curiosity, but soon looked away as they made eye contact with Kiyomi.

"Not sure, I just walked in here and saw you sleeping," Rake laughed at his friend's reaction to finding out she was asleep.
"I'm out of the Infirmary in case you haven't noticed," he teased his friend for not seeming to realize he was there yet. The class began to ignore the two as their interest died, the teacher was too busy assisting some struggling students to notice the two weren't practicing Kido, one of the kids being tutored was one that was STILL having the kido being blown up in their face. Rake was reminded of his first day, how his had blown up on him due to Tora's interruption, becoming slightly irritated once more at the memory since he thought that he would have been able to do it...

"Oh... Rake. Sorry," she blinked, a distant look in her eyes for a moment before she looked up at him and smiled, "It's good to see you back in lessons. I was wondering how much longer they'd keep you locked up in that infirmary for," she chuckled. She knew the medics had only done it for his own good, but she knew how frustrating it must be just sitting around for a whole week.

"The only GOOD part about it was the entire time I was able to meditate with my sword when I wasn't drugged up and sleeping..." Rake groaned at the memory. There was practically NOTHING to do there that the medics would even allow him to do! He had been in the dark about everything ever since the attack and Kiyomi's breakdown. She seemed to be somewhat better, but Rake noticed that something still just didn't feel right. He decided it would be best to not push it, especially in someplace public like this or else he might get a sword directly into his heart, which he was lucky that the sword didn't impale THAT at all..

"I guess that's something good then," she smiled, "How has progress with your asauchi been going anyway? I haven't had the chance to ask for a while now." Kiyomi was always curious about what other people experienced when meditating with their nameless swords, especially because every zanpakuto was said to be unique; formed from the very soul of their wielder.

"Little if any progress..." Rakeshisu sighed, Kiyomi was the only person he spoke about his nameless sword with since she was the only one to really ask. Even though Rake had been in the classes for a while now, students usually tried to stay away from him in Kido classes and in hand to hand combat classes he was too busy getting his butt beaten to socialize. In the swordsman ship classes people also tended not to talk to him. He wondered if it was because he was slightly above average in those classes, just a little...tiny..yeah he's way ahead, that the students maybe saw him as uppity and think that he thought he was better than them or something of the sort.

"I can't say i'm doing much better," replied Kiyomi with a small smile. She'd still always end up in her frosty meadow littered with white lilies, but she'd never see anything remotely like a zanpakuto spirit.
"Anyhow... I suppose we should start doing something before I end up falling asleep again," she smiled before turning to head towards the target practice area. The rest of the class seemed to be practicing whichever Kido they were weakest at, and so Kiyomi decided to systematically go through each Hado she currently knew, starting with the very first; Sho and then working on whichever she felt needed improvement.

Rakeshisu agreed with Kiyomi, though his curiosity burned. He was torn between knowing he had every right to ask since he had gotten a stab in the shoulder about whatever this was, and respecting that Kiyomi didn't seem to want to talk about it. Here wasn't exactly the best place anyways, so he simply practiced random kido techniques, since he seemed to be about average on all of them.

It was after lessons that day and it was beginning to grow dark. Kiyomi wandered around the school, her teal eyes scanning for somewhere comfortable enough to sleep. Her own bed in her dormitory had been left cold and empty for the past month or so, following her little encounter with Esa, in an attempt to hide from the group he belonged to... only nowadays she found it hard to sleep at all.

Finally deciding to sleep in a tree again that night, Kiyomi climbed high up into the branches of the one she had selected. She used a sash to tie her asauchi onto a branch so it wouldn't fall out of the tree during the night, making sure to position it so that she could draw the sword if she ever needed to. Lying down on one of the thicker branches, Kiyomi stared up at the night sky through the leaves and sighed quietly to herself.

Rakeshisu yawned as he walked about, Of COURSE as soon as I go out for a walk because I wasn't tired I would get tired immediately after leaving.. he thought agitatedly in his thoughts. The shinigami hadn't been able to sleep due to the scar aching too much and keeping him wide awake. He had experienced nothing but misery ever since he was taken to the infirmary, he just wanted things to go back to the way before the attack...
His somewhat peaceful walk was interrupted by the same boy that had dragged him into the mess from before, where he was being blackmailed into attacking different students. Rake looked up, stopping beside a tree and growled, "What the hell do you want?"
The boy held out a slip of paper, "Just making a delivery."
"Come on, I only just got out of the Infirmary!" Rake countered, hoping to delay having to injure another student.
"I guess you don't care about those documents then..." The other man countered with a grin, only making Rake tighten his jaw in anger.

Kiyomi had managed to drift into a light sleep, but it didn't last long as she began to toss and turn on the branch she slept upon, her quiet whispers the only clue to the nightmares within. A few moments later, her teal eyes snapped open, Kiyomi waking in cold sweat.
As she propped herself up and slowed her fearful breathing, she became aware that her breath was freezing as it left her mouth. The white puffs of breath rose with the small breeze and Kiyomi blinked, resting her hand against the branch she sat upon. She quickly drew it away however, as it was unexpectedly cold to the touch... or rather, not just cold, but covered with frost. Glancing around she could spot more of the white frost in the darkness, littering the nearest leaves and branches of the tree she slept in.
Not again... she frowned, hugging her arms around herself as if to try and protect herself from the cold.

Kiyomi didn't have time to dwell on the condition of the frosty branches as she soon heard footsteps nearby. Turning to identify who they belonged to, she spotted a boy she'd never seen before, and a rather familiar face.
Rake? she blinked, listening in on the 'conversation' the two were having.

"You remember the deal right? We keep it hush hush about the documents so long as you keep doing what we say like a good little doggie," the man spoke, holding out the paper for Rake to take after coming a few steps closer.
Rake began to debate just kicking this guy's butt using Kido, but decided against it since it would only cause whatever the organization was to release the information and possibly expel both him AND Kiyomi. It would have been completely his fault to add on to it! He snatched the note from the boy in anger. Rake began to wonder what the group would do if he just suddenly disappeared, would they release the information or would they assume him attacked and killed by the other "organization" that was apparently evil. He dismissed the thought, he wouldn't be able to do that. He was a rat trapped in a corner with a hungry feline just waiting to pounce.

Kiyomi found herself attempting to hide behind the leafy tree branches, despite the fact that neither Rakeshisu or his blackmailer could see her in the darkness. As she listened, Kiyomi felt dread creeping through her. In her own plethora of problems, she had neglected to notice Rake's situation. They were using the files they had stolen as leverage against him. She'd asked him to hide them... she'd convinced him into stealing them. She'd asked him to help her investigate the deaths of their friends in the first place. This was all her fault.
Why did she always bring such problems to those she cared about? It was like a curse, that just kept following her.

Unsure of what to do, Kiyomi remained silent, hoping that the blackmailer would walk away so that she could confront Rake. She had gotten him into this mess, she sure as hell was gonna help him get out of it.