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 blinked. As she waited for Rake to perform Konso on the soul, her teal eyes watched the young spirit. She wondered how she had died... but knew she couldn't dwell on the subject as a shinigami would perform Konso on hundreds of thousands of souls within their lifetime. Instead, Kiyomi began broadening her senses. Now that she knew what a real wandering soul felt like, it might be easier to sense others within the vicinity. She was disturbed from her thoughts as Tora stopped Rake from running the young spirit through with his nameless sword.
"Flip the sword round," blinked Yūjin, since no one had told Rake how to do Konso correctly yet, despite preventing him from doing it incorrectly. Kiyomi turned to her friend with a nervous smile, to which Yūjin just shrugged.

Rake kept himself from snapping back a "I knew that" since he had already made it obvious that he did not. The shinigami performed a correct soul burial, sending the soul to hopefully a good place in Soul Society. The girl had been frightened when the sword handle touched her, and terrified when the glowing began and her soul was transported to the Soul Society. He kept silent and to himself once they had finished, he had forgotten how embarrassing it was to not know something everyone else knew. He was used to having someone in the same boat, but Toraburu seemed to be jumping out of his own boat that Rake had accompanied him with...

"Did any of you sense the way she felt different to a shingami or a normal spirit living in Rukongai?" asked Kiyomi out of curiosity, "We could use that difference to help locate any other souls in the area," she smiled cheerfully.
Yūjin shook her head, "I wasn't looking for any difference so I'm not sure I sensed anything," she frowned. Kiyomi blinked before turning to Rakeshisu and Tora, "What about you two?"

"Not me either..." Tora spoke.
Rake had sensed the difference. The "sensing" differences felt as if Shinigami were a more familiar "Sense" while souls that have spent time in the society were only somewhat familiar. The spirit on the other hand, felt like it was a stranger he had seen one day in a mall, vaguely familiar yet not knowing he had seen them. He remained silent towards it though, not wanting to further draw attention to himself since Tora seemed to not want to fool around today.
"So, since you seem to be the only one being able to sense them currently...does that make you our hound dog?" Tora joked, eliminating Rake's thought of him wanting to fool around and changing it to: Tora was up to something.

Yūjin chuckled at Tora's joke, and even Kiyomi cracked a small smile despite trying to remain serious. This training was the real deal thing that they'd experience when doing their duties as a full shinigami and she wanted to learn as much as possible from it. But she was still only a student and, if averages were anything to go by, had at least four full years at the academy left.
"I guess so," she chuckled. After the small bout of laughter ended, Kiyomi stood and closed her eyes, attempting to broaden her senses in order to locate something with a similar feel to it as the spirit that had just moved on.

It was a few moments before she found one, it's metaphorical light blinking strong in the darkness of all the other muddled feelings and sensations.
"There," she pointed in the general direction of where she had sensed it, her eyes still closed. It was another moment before her teal blue eyes opened again, as if she had taken the precaution of double checking.
"I think there's one over there. If we find it, you can all try and get a feel for it so you can sense them too," she smiled, happy that she had discovered this easy way to locate the wandering souls.
Yūjin grinned back at her friend, "Alright then. Let's go!"

The group of four had performed soul burials on four other souls by now, a small boy, an old man, and two twin sisters. Rave had kept to himself the entire time, leaving the others to perform the burial unless nobody volunteered. Tora was suddenly himself again, joking around and whining about the work, but he actually did do the work. Rake wondered if his friend was sick or even hypnotized! The group had been performing a soul burial on an innocent girl that had recently died, when the ground seemed to shake and a strange creature with a strange mask appeared before them. It hissed, and seemed to glare at them,"Lunch?" it spoke.

Kiyomi and Yūjin both turned to the strange creature with wide eyes. Kiyomi felt as if she had been frozen to the spot, her teal gaze resting on the creature's white mask.
"A H-hollow?!" she said in disbelief. It matched the general descriptions and what they had been taught in class, but it just seemed so... strong. Everything they had been taught seemed to tell them that hollows this strong would nearly never appear unless someone with a strong spiritual power was in the area, drawing them in.
As Kiyomi continued to stare wide-eyed at the creature, it began to make it's move. The large hollow leaped toward Yūjin. Kiyomi didn't have enough time to act, Yūjin attempting to draw her Asauchi to protect herself. However, the hollow was quicker and soon it's white mask was dripping with scarlet, one of the pincer-like protrusions on it's mask having impaled Yūjin.
The young student stared at the hollow as it withdrew the pincer, dropping her half drawn Asauchi as the shock took over. Her eyes already beginning to dull, she went plummeting down towards the ground, a trail of red droplets left behind from her wound as she fell.

"Yūjin!!" called Kiyomi, her normally calm voice laced with terror. The young shinigami still found herself unable to move out of fear. Attempting to calm her breathing, she closed her teal eyes, praying that the hollow would not attack her whilst she was vulnerable. She imagined herself in her 'happy place': the snowy meadow from her dreams. As she did so, she almost felt a cool wind blow over her, calming her instantly and quelling her fear enough to open her eyes again.

When she did, she saw that the hollow had turned it's gaze to Rakeshisu...

The strange insect like creature had turned towards Rakeshisu. Rake flinched after seeing what it had done to the other girl, and his hand lay on his blade in his sheath to his side. Toraburu also stared at the monstrous bug-hollow. The creature lunched forward, its pincers ready for the stabbing. Rave managed to pull out his unnamed sword in time to stop the pincer's point from hitting him, but was still thrown off his feet. Terrified, he forced himself to look at the creature, which was charging towards him. He thought it was the end of him, as he saw that his sword was BEHIND the creature, but the creature suddenly stopped and made a hissing sound.

Rake looked up to see Tora with his own sword stabbing into the hard shell of the beast's neck. The beast had felt Tora on him just in time to throw the young shinigami off, and was quick to stab Rake's friend as quick as he was with the other girl. The hollow laughed, "Weakling shinigami, my favorite...the more powerful ones are delicious, but you guys should be like a desert."

Rake had been too busy staring at his friend's injured body. The bug turned to him after looking at Tora once more, "Hey, it's the guy who ran into my face with a car when I was trying to eat that guy..."

Rake was frozen to the spot, as his friend from high school struggled to breathe. The hollow noticed that Tora was still alive a little too late as the shinigami managed to use the nameless sword and the last of his strength to slice at the bug. The hollow roared in pain as one of his pincers were sliced off, leaving a single pincer. The monster glared at the shinigami and finished him off by stepping on him with its pointy legs as if he meant to crush Tora like a bug.

The now alone in training shinigami stared in disbelief at his friend's now dead body. He felt as if he was hallow inside the heart like the minus spirit was hollow in it's own. This was his only and last friend that he knew was with him in this afterlife, and he was gone. He had saved him, and he was gone. Did shinigami reincarnate like the souls in soul society? He should have paid attention if they had even taught that. He should have paid attention to everything they had said. Why had he been so stupid?

The hollow laughed, "Well looks like i finally get my lunch, but first i'll deal with you two."

The man knew now what the hollow had been talking about. When he had woken up out side of his body, he had seen a large creature suddenly disappear that had been in front of his car. He had also seen a flash that must have been a soul burial now that he thought of it before the shinigami noticed him and performed a soul burial on him. The one before him must have been Toraburu, and they had gotten lucky with the luck of the draw. The hallow had both reunited them in death, and taken Toraburu away in the after death. Toraburu must have been following him around ever since he had died, but why? Was this why Toraburu had been acting strangely? Because he had dropped his new habits and went back to his old ones?

Rake ran out of waiting time as the hollow lunged at him, but this time he had enough time to roll away. He swallowed, "Where's the supervisor? Do you know?" he asked the girl that had been frozen in fear and sorrow. He knew that he had to keep moving, or else he would end up like Tora and the other girl. Luckily, Tora had made their task a lot easier as the strange beetle had seemingly only one offensive weapon that he could see.

"We have to be careful, who knows what its hiding..." he mumbled more to himself than to the girl.

The young shinigami student felt fear begin set in again as she watched the bug-like hollow quickly stab and kill Toraburu as it had done Yūjin. She blinked, knowing she needed to stay calm if she was to survive... and yet it was just so hard. She had hardly known Yūjin for two months, and yet now she'd never speak to her again. Kiyomi hesitated to look down at the area where her friend had fallen, hoping for some sort of confirmation that she was still alive... that she'd be okay when this was all over... only to be sorely disappointed. She couldn't even sense her friend's spiritual presence.
Kiyomi couldn't help likening it to before, back in Rukongai. Was she just destined to not be able to protect her friends? A small tear rolled down her cheek as she finally lost the grip she had had on her emotions since Yūjin had fallen. However, the droplet of water had frozen the moment it dropped from Kiyomi's face and it was only then that she realised that in her fear, she had allowed her spiritual power to 'escape', cooling the temperature of the area around her.

"Where's the supervisor? Do you know?"

Rakeshisu's voice brought her attention back to the current situation, and Kiyomi struggled to control her reiryoku once more, trying to block her emotions from affecting her as she knew she would only end up dead like the others if she didn't concentrate.
"N-no," she blinked, finally drawing her nameless blade to protect herself. The hollow appeared to have gone into hiding, but if the reiryoku she had emitted was any clue, it would soon be drawn back.

"Focus."

That's right... she needed to focus. Channeling her fear and sorrow into the conviction she needed to defeat the bug-like creature, she turned to Rakeshisu.
"If we work as a team.... w-we might stand better a better chance of winning," she blinked, stuttering a little as she had still not quite gotten over the shock of the death of her closest friend. Kiyomi was taking the chance and hoping to form some kind of plan of attack whilst the hollow was absent from the area.

"No sh*t Sherlock!" Rake hissed, enraged with panic, grief, and even more anger. Who would not feel this way if they saw their friend die before their very eyes? Who would not feel this way, if they knew that there was nothing beyond the death of the afterlife? Who would not feel this way, if they knew that their friend was nowhere but eternal oblivion?

The beetle had escaped their sight, but his voice was still heard, "Shinigami, can you not see me? Are you afraid? Do not fear, I tend to toy with my food before I kill it,"

Rake kept his sword ready and steady, awaiting for a sign of the Beetle's presence. Something seemed to mask the only way to sense it, which left Rake in the dark as he looked around. Where had it gone? Did it leave?

A sudden burst of Spiritual Power occurred behind him, he instinctively leaped forward as a half a pincer appeared where he used to be, nearly stabbing him. It seemed that the bug saw him as a bigger threat because Rake was the only one actually acting and not standing around and being paralyzed with fear. The Pincer was only inches beside Kiyomi...

Kiyomi felt a sudden burst of annoyance towards Rakeshisu. Hell yea he was scared, she was too, but she had no way of telling that he'd be willing to back her up if it came down to an all out fight. Rakeshisu was known for being lazy, she wouldn't be surprised if he could be a coward too. His reaction irked her to the point where it distracted her for a second and she felt as if she were back in class, giving him disapproving looks because of his and Tora's slacking or distractions. She was brought back to reality by the sound of the hollow's voice.

Kiyomi felt the sudden burst of spiritual power and, focusing her emotions into her goal, quickly acted accordingly, slicing the remaining pincer from the Hollow's mask with a swift strike, rendering what appeared to be it's primary form of attack, useless. Not stopping there, Kiyomi quickly used what little skill in Shunpo she had to get above the hollow. They had been taught that the main way to defeat a hollow was to slice it's mask and it's head open; which was what she attempted to do.
Unfortunately the hollow was gone again as quickly as it had appeared.

Rake was approached by serendipity as the Kiymoi finally made a move and had injured the beetle. He was beginning to think they had a chance of winning, until it disappeared once more as the girl's blade hovered over the monster's neck, threatening to stab and slice into it with what was probably rage.

The hollow had disappeared for a full minute, before reappearing once more a good distance from the group. It had been screaming in pain with both of its pincers gone. It glared at the two students, "You'll pay for that you little sh*ts!"
The beetle's back opened, and sickening cracks and the sound of a strange slushing of ooze emitted from the beetle. It hissed as it began to change shape and take on a ever so slightly more humanoid form. Its hind legs were thin and held it up off the ground, its wings were still able to be used as they lie on its back. Its arms were thicker, but still sharp as a needle. The head gained a neck and allowed it to move its head around.

Rake stared and almost wanted to puke, the thing was disgusting! He clenched his blade tighter as the beetle laughed, "Scared Weaklings?"

"No, just disgusted," Rake found himself saying, which only seemed to anger the hollow even more...

"Focus."

That one word echoed through her mind again as she finished swinging at the hollow. It was right. Again. She couldn't let her anger towards the creature get the better of her. She needed to stay focused.
The hollow reappeared a minute later a fair distance away before taking on a new form. Confident with it's form change, the hollow sped towards them once more, using it's wings to propel it's movement through the air. It swiped a needle like claw towards the shinigami who had insulted him. Kiyomi used her speed to quickly block the attack with her Asauchi, giving Rakeshisu enough time to act.

The red haired shinigami cursed himself when the monster charged towards him, luckily the girl had blocked the claw. Rake attempted to jab the sword into the monster's mask, but only ended up stabbing its shoulder as the monster's claw slipped against the blade and dug into the earth beneath them. It roared in anger and attempted to stab at him with its other claw, crossing them, but its arm was too short and ended up inches away from Rake's face as the earth stopped holding the weight with friction and the claw in the ground slipped, leaving a scar in the dirt as the monster fell on its side. It quickly disappeared again for a moment before reappearing farther away, it seemed to be aware of the threat now coming from Kiyomi as it glared at her...
"Do you think we'll be able to keep this up?" Rake whispered to Kiyomi as the beast stared them down.

"Not for much longer if the sixth years don't come soon," she replied quietly, her teal eyes trained on the bug-like creature. As the hollow had retreated once again, she broadened her senses to try and locate said acting-instructors. She could feel their presence, but it was a fair distance away; they were likely helping some of the other students. As she searched the area for spiritual signatures, she also found one that didn't belong to any of her classmates, but didn't match that of any of the sixth year students that were supervising them either.

Distracted for a moment in her confusion, Kiyomi was snapped from her thoughts by the appearance of another hollow. She watched, blinking in shock as this new hollow attacked the bug-like one, tearing into it and eating it as if it were nothing.