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.

The hollow was horrified as one of its fellow hollow-brethren tackled it and began to devour it. The screams seemed like they could have been heard for miles. Rake flinched as the high pitched noise emitted from the dying hollow and sounds of pleasure rose from the new one as it filled its stomach. The new hollow turned and noticed the two shinigami.

"Well...THAT might get them to get their butts over here sooner..." Rake mumbled as he kept his eye on the new hollow. The New hollow seemed to be giddy, as it laughed at its new found prey, two apprentice shinigamis that were yet to have become full fledged shinigamis. This one did not seem to want to speak currently, as it was too busy extending its ridiculously long tongue and licking its lips as it imagined the taste of a cooked Rare Rake.

The only good that seemed to come of this new development was that Kiyomi and Rakeshisu wouldn't have to fight two hollows at the same time. However, just as that thought flitted through Kiyomi's mind, she felt the presence of a second hollow appearing nearby. Luck just wasn't on their side as this new hollow went straight in with an attack, jaws parted as it attempted to eat Kiyomi whole. Kiyomi could do nothing but dodge with a quick movement. However the hollow then lashed out with it's claws, catching her shoulder as she attempted to dodge the second attack. Kiyomi winced at the pain of the injury, but focused on staying alive. Her teal eyes quickly glanced to Rakeshisu as she distracted the newest hollow to appear.

Rakeshisu was startled by the sudden appearance of the new hollow to add on to the one that had eaten the bug. Rake cursed once more, and tried to aid Kiyomi only to be cut off by the one that had eaten the bug. He yelled a curse at it, but it had no affect on the hollow, who seemed all to happy to see its prey's fear in its eyes. Rake was backed into a wall, why did the place they had to be attacked have to be a park with cement walls? The hallow charged forward to attack, and Rakeshisu raised his sword to attack the beast, but something had grabbed onto the tip of his blade and pulled him up.

Rake was lifted into the air, not having the sense to let go until he witnessed another grinning hollow mask appear in his face. He cried out and let go of his sword, landing on top of the other hollow beneath him that had crashed right into the wall. The hollow that had grabbed his sword shrieked in pain as it just barely registered that the blade was cutting into its hand, and let go. Rake quickly recollected his blade and leaped off of the back of the hollow he stood on as the one that had lifted him up, jumped onto the dazed hollow's back in attempt to chase Rake.

"Ok, we DEFINITELY don't got this!" Rake said, forcing the fact that his dead friend's body was only inches away from where he stood out of his mind. His life was in danger, now was not the time to grieve. Now was the time to probably scream for help though...that would be nice...

Kiyomi dodged another few attacks from the hollow, her shoulder aching from the initial swipe that had caught it. She was tiring quickly, not used to such frenzied running around and constant use of her not fully mastered Shunpo. She was only able to move a few steps worth of distance at a time, though the speed with which she moved certainly gave her an advantage.

Knowing that she needed to get to an angle at which she could hope to attack from, she attempted to Shunpo around the hollow and attack it from behind. Unfortunately, the hollow understood what she was trying to do and retreated. From the distance it was to Kiyomi, it began to charge a red ball of light in front of it's parted jaws.
"A Cero...." she whispered, eyes wide. They had been taught very little about ceros so far and so she had no idea how to deal with one.

Luckily, before she had to think about it, the hollow was split in half and disintegrated as the sixth year acting-instructors finally made an appearance.
"Sorry we took so long," one of them apologised, a few more having headed down to help Rakeshisu. Kiyomi breathed a long sigh of relief and pretty much sank down and sat on the ground now that she knew they would be alright. It was then however, that her mind wandered back to their friends and tears began to well up in Kiyomi's teal eyes once again.

Rake had been too busy being backed against the wall, yet again, by the two large Hollows as they learned the value of teamwork quickly. They both advanced as Rake kept himself from turning around and trying to climb the vertical wall in a feeble attempt to escape, he was finished! Tora's sacrifice had been meaningless, and he was to die this very moment, ganged up on by two hollows. He could feel fear grip its icy claws on his heart as the hollows advanced once more. One of them could easily reach out their long hand and grab him. This was it...

That was until the hollows seemed to suddenly combust into two blades of the sixth years. Rake watched as the hollows received a soul burial and the threat was removed. He felt light headed with relief and hes knees wanted to buckle, but he held himself up, "Th-Thanks" he spoke, trying to remain calm since there was no reason to continue panicking.

He took a deep breath trying to make it not obvious, and found himself staring at Tora's body. He remained silent as he looked at his friend. He felt sorrow, rage, and confusion all over again. Sorrow for his friend's permanent departure, rage for his friend's sacrifice to save him, and confusion for why exactly had Tora done that. Why did he feel the need to sacrifice his final life, where he knew that there was nothing beyond for a fact?

Rake sat himself down as well, becoming lost in the maze of grief, sorrow, and confusion.

Kiyomi sat in silence for a few minutes as the sixth years dispatched the rest of the hollows and continuously apologised for not arriving sooner. She wiped a few of the tears from her face and glanced up at the sky, her Asauchi on the ground beside her. It was an exceptionally clear night, and you could see the stars despite the lights of the city.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered, the apology being aimed towards the friends she had been unable to protect.

A sixth year soon helped Kiyomi back up onto her feet. The young shinigami sheathed her Asauchi before the acting-instructor lead her and Rakeshisu back towards where the Senkaimon was located. As the doors opened, a group of Jigokuchō arrived and all of the first year students were hurriedly sent back to Soul Society to receive treatment for their injuries.

A couple of weeks had passed since the incident. Since then, Rakeshisu had suddenly gained a burst in his performance in the academy. He was more focused than before, and showed excellence in Kidō and Zanjutsu along with improvements everywhere else, though there were some spots he just could not get down for the life of him. He meditated with his sword more often, though he kept to himself the entire time. He would still speak with others if approached, but other than that he left the others alone and focused on catching up from his foolish choices.

It was the beginning of the third week since the incident; a Monday morning to be exact. Kido class had started a short while ago, and they were continuing on from their previous lesson. After the death of her closest friend at the academy, Kiyomi had taken to drowning herself in her school work. She focused on training her physical skills as well as her mind so that she would be able to protect her friends, should anything like that ever happen again.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south," Kiyomi chanted, her hands held out in front of her as a small red orb began to charge in her hands.
"Hadō #31. Shakkahō!" she called out, firing the red orb from her palms toward one of the targets. It was certainly an improvement from the last few times she had attempted. Previously the spell had merely exploded in her face, now at least it weakly shot towards the target, fizzling out a short distance before it actually hit. Kiyomi didn't let this discourage her however, and she decided to take a short break before trying again. As she did, she watched another student step up to try the same spell. He seemed to do it with such ease, that it made Kiyomi smile sadly.
Rakeshisu had certainly improved his attitude towards his lessons since Tora had died. With a small sigh, she got to her feet and began saying the incantation once more.

The red haired man performed a Shakkahō with ease, making the target shatter into pieces and prove to be powerful. Once he finished the training, which was more of a light practice to him now, he would take a seat in the back as he watched the other students explode the attacks in their faces and continue to attempt to hit the target. Some hit them while others' merely burnt out before it reached the target. Rake wondered if he asked, that the teacher would just let him leave. He was already worn out from practice, since a lot of the students were pushing themselves a little TOO hard and ended up collapsing overly dramatically in attempt to skip their next class if they had one.
He noticed that the girl named Kiyomi, who had also lost her friend and who he had fought along side with during a hollow infestation, was not doing too well at the spell, but was still doing better than the others. He began to wonder how much she studied each night since she seemed to excel in a lot of things, but not this.

The young shinigami didn't even need to see the board where the incantation was written to say it anymore. She had recited it so many times it was as if someone had drummed the information into her mind with a wooden stick; it just stuck there.
Kiyomi's red orb charged once more near the palm of her hand. She called out the name of the spell rather loudly, as if hoping that the added vigor she gave to calling the name would give it some extra power. It was a futile effort however, as the Shakkahō fizzled out only a little further than where it had disappeared before; nowhere near powerful enough to be a true Shakkahō just yet.
With a small frown, Kiyomi retreated to the back of the class once more, where she went to retrieve her Asauchi from where she had left it.

Close by to Kiyomi, was to girls that had also decided to stop practicing and start gossiping. THe words were loud enough for Kiyomi to hear by accident of the speakers.
"Hey isn't that one of the students that lost half of their group to a hollow attack on their trip to the mortal world?"
"Yeah, she and that Rakeshisu guy both lost two friends. He used to be really lazy, but ever since then he seems to have improved...makes me kind of jealous."
"Eh, I bet he's just trying to impress the teachers, that other girl too. Maybe the school thought they were weak since they couldn't handle a hollow and threatened them with expulsion? I wasn't there that day, but I heard that the hollow attack was a small one and must have been a natural occurrence every now and then.."

Kiyomi blinked as she heard the conversation the other two girls were having. She knew that everyone was entitled to their own opinions, but they had said it themselves; they hadn't been there. They didn't know what it had felt like.
The young shinigami's mind wandered back to the night of the Konso training. The appearance of those hollows had felt anything but normal, especially with how flustered the sixth year acting-instructors had been.... and then there was that foreign reiryoku she had detected. It had felt like a shinigami's, but Kiyomi couldn't match it to anyone within their class or the group of sixth years that were accompanying them; it was still a mystery to her. Her teal eyes stared at the ground as she continued to think about it.
What if those hollows hadn't arrived naturally? What if they had been lured there by that reiryoku? Hollows were known to be attracted to beings with high spiritual power, surely an obvious reiryoku trail like that would be enough to draw a few of them in...

Getting to her feet once more and strapping her Asauchi to her back, Kiyomi wandered over to where Rakeshisu had retreated to the back of the class due to not having anything better to do.

Rakeshisu was snapped back to reality when he saw Kiyomi approaching him. What did this girl want? Had he done something? Rake stood up as he was approached, his nameless sword at his side in its sheath clinking against the wall behind him. He had made what seemed to be zero progress with his Zanpakuto, even though he worked at it more often than he had used to. It had seemed more like the spirit was teasing him though more than refusing to speak to him...

Kiyomi stood before Rakeshisu for a few moments, her teal blue eyes staring up at the taller student as if hesitating for a moment before she finally spoke.
"I think there was more to the incident back in the world of the living than what first meets the eye," she began, her tone unwavering and extremely serious. She waited another moment to see what Rakeshisu's response would be.

Rake blinked, surprised by the topic. More to it? How could that be? The teachers had explained it hadn't they? He spoke, "Huh? Didn't the teachers say it was probably a normal surge that happens every now and then? What do you think happened?"
The memory of the incident brought a painful ring of the bell that Toraburu was forever deceased, no way for him to return and no way to meet him again. Tora was at his last stop, and was shoved off into oblivion. Had it really been on purpose, Tora's death?