[Next day]

"Focus Agito! Focus! You're not meditating right!" yelled Uruku-sensei. I growled before opening my eyes and turning against him.

"For the sake of fuck, SHUT UP! Maybe your big mouth is the one that stops from me meditating you jack ass!" Uruku-sensei blinked in surprise before pouting childishly.

"I just think you would be able to do it so easily. I didn't think you would struggle to go within yourself ... have you had any dreams lately?" My annoyance morphed into confusion.

"Dreams? No, I haven't had any dreams lately." He groaned in annoyance before crossing his arms.

"Strange. You haven't had any dreams about meeting your zanpuktou but you're physical reactions to other weapons suggest you have. Maybe your zanpuktou is premature? This is a rare case, even for me. The only person who developed a zanpuktou this year is the Kuchiki but he had the expected symptoms of it. You have mixed signals. Which is highly unusual and to be taken seriously."

"What would happen if I met my zanpuktou prematurely?" He tossed me a serious/sad look before answering.

"Death. All reiatsu will be drained out of you until you're nothing but floating reishi in Soul Society." Great, just great. So what if my zanpuktou was premature[ ugh, I feel like a pregnant woman] and then I still try to meet it I might die?! This whole zanpuktou thing is getting to complicated.

"You know what? Let's both get a lunch break. I'm starving!" Before I could say no, he already had raced off towards some unknown destination. I sighed to myself before getting up and walking towards the cafeteria where I bet Rue is reading some medical book like she usually does.

"Hey," I greeted tiredly, dropping down beside her and resting my forehead against her shoulder whining pathetically just to be dramatic.

"Mm?" She didn't even look up from her book! It was a medical tome, from what I could see in the illustrations. Dangling from her mouth was a piece of takoyaki which I snatched and started to eat. What? Family germs!

"What's up?" Rue asked, not even bothered with me stealing her snack.

"Uruku-sensei is trying to get me to meditate, to see if I can meet my zanpakuto," I mumbled.

"Have you been into your Inner World?"

"My what now?" Rue snapped her book shut and turned to stare at me.

"Agito-kun," she asked slowly, "You do know what you're supposed to be focusing on while meditating right?"

"Nothing right? You're supposed to think of some zen shit?" Rue smacked the back of my head before face-palming herself.

"You're such an idiot! Uruku-sensei is an idiot too!"

"Why you gotta hit me?!"

"When you meditate you're not supposed to think of nothing," she explained, "Everybody knows that."

"No Rue-chan, no one knows that!"

"Hmph!" She scowled at me and huffed, "Obviously! You're an idiot!"

"Well then how do you meditate?"

"You're actually suppose to focus on a single thought or feeling within yourself. Like, I sometimes mediate-"

"You meditate?"

"-yes now shut up, and I focus on my heart beat. I focus on feeling my pulse everywhere. I get really still and I focus really hard in feeling the blood flow in my fingertips, my toes, my ears, and I once felt the blood vessels in my butt!"

"That is not safe Rue-chan! There are some safe sex practices and good lord, I don't want to know about your masturbation practices!"

"GLUTEUS MAXIMUS!" Rue shouted above my own loud voice, "It was the gluteus maximus! I just feel the blood vessels in my muscles! Anyways, that's how you meditate. But to meditate yourself into your Inner World, well..."

"You said that already," I pondered, "Inner World. What the hell is that."

"Your education is severely lacking," Rue muttered, "Your zanpakuto spirit doesn't just share a body with you. Your soul has an entire world inside yourself, one completely unique to you. Your zanpakuto spirit resides there."

"Have you been to your Inner World?" I ask Rue-chan because she was so informative it was getting suspicious.

"Um," she said, "No, but I've been trying really hard. I meditate as much as I can but I can't seem to get it right. To go into the Inner World, you gotta meditate on your reiatsu, feel it flowing within you and dive down deep."

"What happens then?" Rue just shrugged and said, "I don't know. Never entered my Inner World."

For some reason, an idea tickled my brain. I grasped Rue-chan's hand and laced our fingers together, thinking a thousand miles a minute.

"What's wrong?"

"We were born together," I said slowly, thoughts still forming in my head, "Grew up together. You might have died first but I followed close behind. We trained together, made friends and enemies together. We entered the Shinigami Academy together and look to our future ... together. What if ... maybe..."

"We find our zanpakuto's together?" Rue questioned, following my train of thought.

"Is it even worth a shot?" I ask, doubting my own thoughts cause I wasn't really known for genius. I was known for skill and talent but not for my intellect. Not to say it wasn't there but I'm not pried for being smart. As if she could sense where my thoughts were going, Rue-chan gripped my hand back.

"Yeah, it's worth a shot," she said, "Here?"

"Might as well," I said, glancing around the cafeteria, "I mean we gotta start somewhere right?"

"But in the cafeteria?"

"Shut up and meditate."

I tried my best to meditate. I tried following my heartbeat, finding the blood pulsing through my veins. But it was frustrating cause I knew that one of the basics of meditation was supposed to be find a quiet area and we were in a crowded, noisy room. I tried my very best to focus on my breathing, my bloodflow, my reiatsu but it wasn't working!

My heart rate began speeding up, hammering in my ears. I tried my best to calm myself but the frustration at my own inability wasn't fun. I wanted to try because Rue was here and if my theory was correct, I needed to succeed for both of us to enter our Inner World.

Rue-chan gripped my hand hard.

I opened my eyes to star down at our clasped hands before looking up. Rue's eyes were still closed, her breathing steady. But she couldn't be meditating because despite her calm, her nails were digging into the meat of my palm. The pain pierced past my swirling anger, leaving me with her savage reminder of support and love.

It reminded me that I wasn't alone in this.

My breathing turned calm and I tried my best to meditate once again. This time, I didn't focus on my breathing, heart beat, or blood. I focused on the warmth and weight in my hand. I focused on the feel of her callouses on mine. I could feel our warmth, together, slowly spreading.

Was it our bond? Our sibling love? Our connection as sisters? I sure as hell wouldn't know. I didn't even tried to understand it. I basked in the warmth. I followed it. I imagined a stream and dove down deep. Noise fell away. Smell fell away. I didn't even realize that I couldn't even feel the touch of my sister anymore. I felt nothing but the warmth.

When I opened my eyes, I was not in a place I knew.

I was in a forest fire.

I was surrounded by trees as tall as a hundred meters. Endless trees. All in flames.

The red, orange, gold flames rose high into the air, burning brightly, all consuming ... But it didn't burn the trees. I watched as flames bite at the closest tree branch to me, the pine bristles young and still growing. The fire didn't burn it. The fire produced no smoke. It was a very strange place to be because no matter how bright the fire was ... it seemed like ... the dark corners stood out more.

I looked up and to my surprise, it was night. The sky was a beautiful midnight blue, stars glittering overhead like diamonds.

I knew where I am now.

My Inner World.

I walked among the trees, looking around and trying to find something, anything. There were no bushes, only trees. The ground was soft soil. The stars had no constellations I could recognize.

"Hello?!" I called out, knowing that my zanpakuto was out here somewhere. I don't know how I'm supposed to find my zanpakuto. Weren't they supposed to come on out and introduce themselves?

Then it came.

This god awful shriek, coming from the sky but far away. It wasn't a call. It was a cry of pain. It was so loud, the trees moved! Like a mighty gust of wind, the trees bent away from whatever made such horrible noise. And it was horrible.

Like a dying whale. A great blue whale singing -screaming- in rage, in pain. It was the most horrible, heart wrenching sound.

I covered my ears and tried my best to pinpoint the source of the sound.

The sound rose up and warped. The eerie sound turned terrifying. The whale song twisted into something worse, a war cry. The war cry of a mammoth, a dragon, and a demon. I threw myself onto the ground as the trees shook and the flames roared higher.

"Ah!" I cried out, clutching my heart as it cramped up. Why was I hurt? Why was I hurting?!

"Who are you?!" I demanded, feeling something tear inside, "Who are you?!"

Above the roaring fire, a crash of thunder tore through the night. The sound ended and I could hear nothing.

I started to scream.

...

"Wake up!"

I snapped awake, gasping for air and my body spasmed in muscle twitching .

"Whoa! He's awake!" My eyes darted around, what the fuck?

Why am I on the floor?

"I knew you were fucked up," said a student who was standing before my prone form. The boy was big, muscle and fat big. From the ugly sneer on his face I knew that they weren't here to make friends.

"Let me go!" I sat up, looking wildly around before my eyes landed on my sister. Rue sat ten feet away from me, struggling to get her long blue hair out of the tight grasp of some neanderthal. A growl, deep within my throat was torn out of me but before I can get to my feet, a sandled foot hit my sternum, setting me back down on my back.

"You ain't going anywhere."

"What the fuck do you want?" I demanded, unsure what the hell was going on. We were in the cafeteria right? Then I entered my Inner World and my mind is still trying to understand what I felt and witnessed on the other side. Waking up, we're in a totally different area of the Academy from where we were.

There were three boys. One with his foot on my chest, one with his fingers twisted in Rue's hair, and the last one keeping watch in the corridor. They weren't Nobles, that was for certain but I didn't recognize them from anyone I've made enemies with.

"What we want?" asked the leader, grinding his heel down on my chest, "We want to hurt you. You and your sister because you're supposed to be a Rukongai rat, just like us. But you're not. You play games with these Noble brats and turn a blind eye to everyone else. Well screw that. We're going to beat you blood and when you drag yourself back to the Kuchiki, they're gonna be reminded of who the worthless trash really is."

"LET ME GO!" Rue demanded, twisting viciously around, letting her nails sink into her attackers arm and scratching deep.

"Fuck! Fubari this bitch won't keep still!"

"Knock her out then," Fubari, the leader ordered, "It's the boy we really have to beat down."

"No!" I shout, struggling to sit up again to see my sister. I saw Rue's assailant raise a heavy fist, crashing it down against her temple. Rue gasped in pain and her struggles weakened but not enough cause he lifted another fist.

"What the-" I looked back up at the leader who was staring down at me in shock. It wasn't until then did I realize that Fubari was grinding his heel against my chest ... and found something no normal boy should have. He grinned lecherously.

I went fucking insane.

With a scream, I twisted my torso out from under Fubari's foot, rising on my elbow to sit up and I grabbed his balls in my unforgiving fist and twisted a little to the right, like twisting a door knob.

He screamed and I looked directly at Rue's assailant who had paused his assault.

"You hit her!" I scream cause I was infuriated, "You hit her again and I'm ripping your friend's balls off!"

Rue-chan was never a passive damsel-in-distress. She used that one second pause to reach up her attackers pants leg to dig her nails into the tender underside of his knee, tearing into the skin easily. The boy screamed, letting go of Rue's hair and staggered away before sending a kick at Rue's form who was scrambling away. She screamed when the kick landed on her ribs and I did what I promised to do.

Digging a sharp nail into the soft, thin scrotum, I twisted his balls further around, my nail tearing through the skin. My thumb sank into the soft flesh and before anyone could try and stop me, I ripped it back.

Fubari screamed.

The front of his hakama pants began to stain with blood. As he started to vomit, I turned my attention to Rue's attacker who was staring at his friend with undisguised horror. Before he could defend himself I ran and launched myself forward, taking him down with a war cry. Instead of going for his balls, I went for his eyes, scratching down his face leaving bloody scratches.

The boy struggled and yelled from underneath me and I tried my very best to rip his eyes out of his skull.

"Stop it! Stop it now!" I looked up and the look-out was now standing above Rue pressing the sharp end of his zanpakuto against her throat.

I rose slowly to my feet, letting my hands be seen as empty and non-threatening. But my fingers were covered in blood.

"I never said I was better than you," I said, speaking low so that he wouldn't startle and make a mistake too close to my sisters neck, "I'm just as dirty as you."

"Stay back!" he demanded, "Or I swear I'll kill her!"

I stood as still as possible, unsure what to do. Fubari was out for the count, clutching his organs and crying for his mama. The other was still on the ground, sobbing and covering his scratched up face, eyes safe for now. Rue-chan was sitting as still as possible, hair a mess from being yanked and twisted, a swollen bump growing at her temple and probably a bruise as her ribs.

The zanpakuto yielder was a rookie to violence. I could tell by the way he trembled and cried, snot dripping down his nose and sweat off his face. But he held a sword to Rue's throat. We were at a stand still.

'Bluff, ' said a voice in my head and sure, you're not really supposed to listen to the voices in your head but I'm out of options.

I look over the boy's shoulder and down the hall, letting my face fall into the emotions of suddenly being discovered: alarm, surprise, happiness, with a hint of smug justice. The boy saw my expressions and turned around, the zanpakuto laxing from his grip at the prospect by being caught by a teacher.

With that one second of a break, darted forward, smacking the sharp end of the blade away from my sister's neck before taking the boy down. Rue fell away with a yelp. The boy gave a small scream before I got my hands on him.

There was no mercy.

With one hand, I jabbed my thumb into the boys mouth, forcing it open at the jaw and using my weight to keep it open. With his mouth wide I stuck my fingers utnil the boys mouth, digging underneath the tongue. The boy was squirming underneath me, struggling to scream but with so many fingers down his throat it was a near impossibility.

I dug my nails into the soft flesh at the bottom on the boy's mouth, cutting deep until I hit the vein and tearing it.

I withdrew all of my fingers and got off him. He started spitting out blood and couldn't stop. I looked around the chaos, something was roaring in my ears, blood covering my hands and splattered a bit on my uniform. Fubari was passed out. Rue's attacker was still sobbing. The last one was struggling to breathe.

Rue-chan stared up at me like she recognized a memory.

"What the hell is going on here?" I turned around to see that a few Academy professors had come a little too late.

"Oh," I said completely uncaring to how horrid I looked surrounded by the wounded an weeping, "You're here."

~~~

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