GLASS
Chapter 2
On the Prowl
'Not much longer.' I thought. Waking up early is one of my more normal traits. I didn't bother looking at the alarm clock; I knew it was going to release its annoying siren soon. This will be the second morning in the dorm room and although the other girls are…irritating at best, it's still more comfortable than sleeping on a hay stack. I sat up suddenly and the alarm buzzed. 'No time to waste!' I thought and lurched across the room and into the bathroom to shower before the other girls.
I showered quickly and threw my uniform on afterwards. The others were still babbling wearily and one was still in bed. I didn't bother waving goodbye and walked swiftly through the halls. There were a few students like me, eager and excited, that were roaming anxiously outside their classrooms doors. I moved further down the hall to my first class and was very happy to see that the door was open. I poked my head in.
"Oh…" I gasped. I held myself against the door and took in the place I was going to spend the next year in. All of the chairs ascended row by row. Each row accompanied by pretty desks and a window at the end. I was in the door at the bottom of the staircase that led up to each row. I was about to take my seat, the first row by the window, when I felt a flicker of air to my left. I jumped quickly to the side and was greeted with what seemed like astonishment and then I was swallowed in by chocolate brown eyes.
"Hello. Are you going to come in?"
"…what?" I stood there for a moment with my mouth open. He had wavy brown hair and wonderful eyes. A very handsome man…he also had a Captains Haori on. He stood back a moment I from that I was able to see him in full. He was tall. Over six feet but not by much and he was strong. The hair on my neck rose when I felt his spiritual pressure. It wasn't normal, and it was then that I started feeling uncomfortable. Spiritual pressure is like a weapon, it can be wielded as a weapon or if you are strong enough, it can even become like another limb. His spiritual pressure was all over me…like he was analyzing me in some perverted way.
" I won't ask twice." He turned away and went over to his desk. Strange I hadn't noticed him before. I stepped into the room and walked over to the seat I had chosen. I spent the next few minutes staring at him, he did likewise. He sat at his desk looking over at me calmly a few times and then he just sat there with his head leaned onto his right hand. Students started flocking in and he turned his attention to them. Smiling politely as they walked by and conversing with a few of them.
"Take your seats." He announced a little later. The room scattered into place and quieted down quickly. Who wouldn't? Our teacher was a captain, a very powerful captain. However, none of the other students seemed to feel about him the way I did.
"My name is Sosuke Aizen, Aizen-Taicho, to be traditional…you all can call me Sensei."
"Yes, Sensei." The class answered. He smiled softly and continued.
"It is my job to train and teach you how to protect yourselves and others from a variety of things. Can anyone tell me what these things might be?" he paused a moment and looked my way, "You, please stand and state your name." I stood quickly and bowed.
"Hael Namiro, Sensei."
"Namiro –san, could you answer my question?" I nodded.
"We must protect others and defend ourselves against the spirits of Hueco Mundo. Hollows, the Gillian, Adjuchas, and Vasto Lordes, Sensei." The class was silent.
"How did you learn this Namiro-san?" he asked. I shrugged and said dumbly:
"I heard a few Shinigami talking about it." He smiled and told me to take my seat.
The rest of class went by normally. We went over the coursework and what was to be expected of us. The hour that it took him to explain this, he didn't once look over at me. When he dismissed the class I quickly went to grab my things but they fell forward off of the desk before I could grab them. Everyone trickled out of the room as I went to the front of the desk to retrieve my items. I bent slowly and gathered them in my arms and looked at the desk for a moment, recalling the moment when they fell. It made no sense and when I turned to leave the classroom, Aizen Sensei had his head leaned to the side and resting on his hand again. His eyes were narrowed, or at least it looked like that from where I was and he seemed like he was analyzing me again. Then I felt it, that creepy crawling spiritual pressure.
"Why do you keep doing that?" I asked, irritated. He cocked his head towards me curiously.
"Doing what?"
"Sending your spiritual pressure out on me." I pulled my books closer to my chest protectively. He laughed suddenly.
"How awkward! I didn't think you'd be able to feel it. My apologies." For a moment, that rich laughter caught me and I stumbled stupidly where I was standing.
"Well I can, so stop it." I said as I gathered my wits. With that I waltzed out of the room, or at least I was going to until someone bumped into me at the doorway.
"Oh." It said. I looked and had to stifle a gasp. A creepy looking boy with silver hair and squinted eyes was grinning in front of me. He seemed young but his height was rather odd. He seemed very tall for his age. He had a similar spiritual pressure. I know because it crawled over my stomach and went up my back. This boy was searching for something different. Aizen Sensei had been analyzing but this boy was just being rude. It seemed he enjoyed making people feel uncomfortable because when he saw that I had felt it, his smile spread, if that was possible.
"Sorry ma'am. I am a bit shortsighted ya see?" Then he pressed his finger into his eye.
"Gin that is enough." Immediately he dropped his hand and pushed me out of the way to get to Aizen Sensei.
"If you would pardon us, Namiro-san." Gin, as he was called, closed the door before I could say anything.
I stood there for a moment and had turned to leave when I realized I was missing my notebook. I turned back towards the classroom door. It could wait until tomorrow I thought…but I'm a sore loser. I straightened my back and waltzed right back into the room. I didn't stop walking but I saw from the corner of my eye that Gin and Aizen Sensei were at his desk and had been talking. Now both of them were staring at me. I smiled to myself and reached over and grabbed my notebook off the desk, turned on my heel and walked out of the room. I left the door open of course. I wanted the victory so I stood outside of the door and watched as Gin came over and closed it again, cocking his head and grinning as he did so.
I knew they could still feel my spiritual pressure so instead of running away, like I wanted to, I calmly made my way down the hallway and into the courtyard. I sat on the nearest bench and raised my knees to rest my head on. My mind was a whirlwind of questions. Why did my books fall over? Why was that kid so rude? And why was a kid in the Soul Academy? He looked like he was twelve even though he was the size of a normal girl. I was still taller than him but he seemed so young…and what was up with his face? Everything about it was creepy.
"Excuse me?" a sweet voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see a thin girl with blonde hair and brown eyes staring at me with her books against her chest. She must be afraid of me…
"Um, I'm Risa. Yoroshiku." I sighed and shook my head as she introduced herself.
"Sorry! Yoroshiku. My name is Hael Namiro." She took a seat and gazed over at me through her messy hair.
"That was pretty amazing. How you answered the Sensei liked that." I shrugged at her words.
"He asked me a question and I answered. Haven't you ever heard of hollows before?" I stared ahead as I spoke to her. She just shook her head.
"Not really. I knew about hollows but not the other things you mentioned. Are those hollows too?" she asked. I looked over at her and wondered if everyone at this school was as clueless as her.
"Yes, they are hollows. Hollows are just basic forms of the other three, the weaker of them. They can evolve into Adjuchas and then into Vasto Lordes. There are very few of those though. But they are more powerful than Captains."
"More powerful than a captain?"
"Yeah." I looked over at her and she was staring across the courtyard absently. I wondered why she didn't know. "Shouldn't everyone know that?" I asked. She shook her head.
"No. How do you really know that? Shinigami don't walk around Rukongai that much." She said.
"Well that's how I know." I gathered my things and walked away from her. I grabbed my schedule out of my book; Hado. Now this I knew, I was going to master quickly.
I walked quickly back into the building and all the way around to side class. It was outside of the building but the chairs and desks were covered by an awning. Only the targets were unsheltered. Most of the students were already seated. I walked around to the front where there was one desk still available. I stopped halfway through the aisle. It was that weird kid. Silver hair, slit eyes. No wonder no one had taken that seat. I continued down the aisle and sat down and ignored the fact that the other students were whispering about me. I leaned back slightly to accommodate for my too long legs and saw that his head was turned in my direction.
"What?" I asked without looking at him. I figured the conversation would be easier to handle that way.
"Are you talking to me?"his voice came as a shiver up my spine. I responded by releasing some of my spiritual pressure at him. He laughed lightly before releasing his own, concentrating it on my chest. I jerked backwards from the force of it and let out a breath reflexively. I grinned back at him after I had caught my breath.
"What is a freshman doing with that kind of power?" I asked. He leaned over to me and I leaned in closer to him reluctantly.
"I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours." He whispered. I leaned back away from him.
"I don't have one."I scoffed.
"Liar."
"I'm not lying."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not." I said firmly.
"Yes, you are. I can tell," he paused," and he can tell." He turned away from me and stared ahead. I followed his gaze and saw the teacher appear in the middle of the target area; Aizen Sensei. He motioned for all of us to stand. He approached the desks and began pacing through the rows.
"Hado is going to be the hardest of the four fighting skills to learn. It takes more concentration and will only progress if you do. The power of your spells will increase as your spiritual pressure does." From where he was behind us, he shot a hado wordlessly at the furthest target and hit it square in the heart, blowing the wood target to rubble.
"That was hado four, white lightening." He told us the incantation, stance and what inner powers needed to be exerted. By the end of his instruction he had ended up walking over to my row and proceeded down the aisle.
"Any volunteers to demonstrate?" He stopped behind me and for a fleeting moment I thought he would pick me until I felt Gin move beside me.
"I would like to Sensei." He said and hopped over the edge of the desk and into the target area. I watched closely as he took his stance, spreading his legs perfectly shoulder width, palms out before him, thumbs interlaced.
"Hado shi, White lightening." White light shot from him palms and hit the target directly ahead, shattering it to pieces.
"Pick a student, Ichimaru-san." I heard Aizen say from behind me, seemingly closer than before. Gin turned and hopped back into his chair, jabbing me in the side as he did so.
"Your turn." He said quietly.
"Prodigy?" I whispered to him. I followed his example by jumping over the desk, making a point to do it more gracefully than he had. I approached the same line and took the target to the left. I positioned my legs and raised my palms.
"No incantation." I whispered quietly to myself. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves and called on a good amount of spiritual pressure to support the hado. I wasn't sure if that is what Gin had done, but it felt right and made sense. I stared ahead at my target and aimed.
"Hado shi, White lightening." In an instant the entire enclosure was lit by a white light and I felt a burning inside my arms as the spell released itself and hit the target. I blinked a few times before I could see what I had done.
"It's gone…" A student said behind me. He was right. I smiled and turned back to Gin. The entire target had disintegrated from the spiritual pressure. Aizen Sensei had made his way back down into the target area and as I passed him I saw a strange smile on his face, a private smile. I lifted myself back into my chair and looked over at Gin who leaned over to my ear.
"Prodigy?" He asked through a fit of small giggles. I leaned closer to his ear and whispered,
"Tell me your secret and I'll tell you mine."
