From Rukongai to Seireitei
Their new uniforms were the token of the transformation their lives would be undergoing. Exchanging their Rukongai’s Hakama for the Seireitei Shinigami Academy’s Shihakusho was a symbolical step towards their transition into full fledged shinigamis. Though quite different in colour from the traditional pitch black clothing those warriors of the 13 squads wore, the shape and composition of their outfit was the same. A loose finely woven top, that wrapped around the torso, leaving a v-shaped collar neck up to the waist level, and a heavy skirt-like bottom regularly wrinkled and loose at the ends, that waved and swung as they walked. For boys, they had a white coloured top and a light blue bottom with a few circular white shapes drawn on the left side of the piece.
Link, a former hero of a distant land in the world of living, had arrived just three months ago in Soul Society’s 31st north district of Rukongai, where he met Naruto, a deceased ninja, killed in a huge war that broke out in his land. It was in his very first day in the afterlife and in a matter of minutes that, by a stroke of luck, he found his first friend and family member.
Link recalls that the shinigami who performed the ‘konso’ at him, the ritual of crossing a soul from the world of the living, had told him that in Soul Society families were not constituted by blood relationships, but rather by common interests and affection. Indeed, this was how his relationship with Naruto came to be. First by Naruto sharing with him information about that new world, which he inhabited since his death— roughly two years past from that day they met— and then by Link showing himself a caring and pleasant person, who shared house chores and started working to help with the family’s expenses. They lived in four people, which were Link, Naruto and two of Naruto’s friends from the afterlife, both of which could not work due to being considered children and denied every job opportunity. It was quite hard for Naruto alone to make a living for three, considering that all of them had the need to eat regularly, due to having a spiritual pressure higher than the average citizen of that district. Ciel Phantomhive and Gon Freecs were those two. The first had had quite a luxurious life in the world of living and was having a hard time adapting to Rukongai’s way of living and mild poverty. Gon, however, was very understanding of the situation and often found himself depressed to be unable to help Naruto, who chose to bear responsibility for those two lives.
Link quickly became a sparring mate for Naruto, who struggled to learn the ways of the sword with the wooden rod he had detached from a broom in order to practice. Naturo’s dream, he said, was to become a shinigami, as he had quite a taste for adventure and for fighting, due to his previous life in the ninja world. Link couldn’t find that a better hobby, as he also was very keen on fighting and quite knowledgeable when it came to sword play. Naruto had, however, another reason to become a shinigami, which was the salary. Even students at the academy were paid roughly five times what he could earn in a month of hard work. With that money he could give Ciel and Gon a comfortable life and also afford a modest living in the expensive capital of Soul Society, Seireitei. For Link, it was all new, but Naruto’s ambition inspired and moulded his own, he was quickly convinced that he also wanted to venture into the shinigami’s way of life.
Both of them became very thin, hunger was something they were already getting used to, despite the constant pain and discomfort it caused. It was known that people without significant spiritual pressure, or reiatsu, as they would call it, didn’t need to eat regularly and pretty much could withstand long periods of hunger without really feeling its effects. Link and Naruto, however, had quite a strong reiatsu for normal citizens of Rukongai and some people told them they might have the potential to become fine shinigamis. Once, it came to the town the notice of the admission test that would be held in Seireitei’s Shinigami academy. It was worrying for Naruto and Link to leave Ciel and Gon a few days on their own, while they travelled to the capital to take the exam, but the two children were very understanding and supported the idea. Thence, the blonde couple of deceased warriors took the long road to the south, travelling through thirty more districts until they reached the north wing of Seireitei.
The exam had not been much of a challenge for them, starting a simple display of their spiritual pressure, evaluated by an old shinigami, who took notes silently, without hinting anything about the performance. Then a short display of sword play against another shinigami, who tested patterns of attack and defence based on the level of mastery every contestant was showing. They’ve met shortly after the test and made their way back home, knowing that the results would come out in a couple of weeks.
After four weeks, the first two of hopeful and patient waiting, the next filled with anxiety and the last with disbelief, a carriage arrived at Rukongai’s 31st north district. Link and Naruto were called by a neighbour and quickly made their way to the main street, where a crowd gathered around two black haired shinigamis. One of them went ahead to contain the curious people and the other opened a scroll.
“Rukongai’s 31st north district had three admitted in the exam. Please, come with me the following: Naruto Uzumaki, Tetsuya Kuroko and Link!” the voice of the shinigami reached far and soon the crowd became noisy, as some people ran down the street and squeezed through the narrow alleys shouting their names. Link and Naruto shouted and waved to the shinigami, making their way through the crowd, that gradually recognized them and made space.
“Great, now it’s just this Tetsuya guy missing.” the shinigami said as he checked Link’s and Naruto’s documents.
“But I was already here, sir...” a blue haired slender boy, apparently at his sixteen years of age, grabbed the shinigami’s sleeve and pulled it lightly, warning him of his presence. The shinigami jumped in surprise, Link and Naruto also hadn’t seen the boy getting there.
“Oh... sorry, I didn’t see you. Here, let me check your papers.” The shinigami turned to Tetsuya, and grabbed the papers that the boy extended to him. “Right, the three of you, congratulations, now get inside, we have a long journey ahead.”
The trip took less than Link and Naruto had imagined, whilst they had walked for three days just to get to Seireitei, this time, was they had a carriage pulled by two horses, they arrived in just a day and a half. The two shinigamis were outside, conducting and guarding, while the three boys remained inside.
“Nice to meet you! I’m Naruto, this is Link. I hope we end up in the same class, as we are all from the same place” Naruto had greeted Tetsuya, smiling, as he extended his hand to the blue haired boy that sat in opposite to him and Link in the carriage. Kuroko looked away, a bit shy, but then turned his sight back to Naruto and grabbed the elder’s hand, pressing it gently in a handshake. Link followed Naruto’s greet with a smile and his hand, greeting Kuroko in the sequence.
“The pleasure is mine... I’m Tetsuya, but people call me Kuroko, as it’s easier” he said, a bit muffled by shyness and obvious anxiety, and Link and Naruto could notice the slightly sweaty hand they grabbed, that the boy’s eyes were a bit agitated and that his legs were a bit shaky.
Link stood up and sat beside Kuroko, grabbing one of the boy’s hands that held the other over his lap and pulling it towards Link’s thigh, where his other hand waited, wrapping both around Kuroko’s. He looked at the boy, who flinched at the sudden approach, but did nothing to retract from Link. “Kuroko, don’t worry, everything will be fine now. I don’t know why are you so tense, but life’s gonna get much better in the academy, trust me. Let’s be friends!” Link said while massaging the boy’s hands and staring at him with a soothing gaze.
“Thanks...” Kuroko looked down and moved a bit towards Link, closing the gap between their thighs and having his shoulder meet Link’s arm, due to the slight difference in height. Tetsuya, then, accommodated himself beside Link and rested his head on the blonde’s shoulder.
They kept their conversation for a while and, after some time, got silent due to having exhausted all the topics they were up to talking about in that first encounter. It was night by then and the slow, rhythmical stride of the horses made it very hard not to fall asleep. Naruto had already crouched in his seat, lying alone in that space meant for two people. Link had been talking a bit with Kuroko even after his friend fell asleep, but he couldn’t stand for very long and finally tilted his head sidewards, resting his cheek on the top of Kuroko’s head. Kuroko fell asleep too, shortly after Link.
Tetsuya had passed away early, at the age of sixteen. He had just won a basketball game with his team and decided to go out with Kise Ryota, his boyfriend to celebrate. It was all going perfectly on that night, but then it happened. They were walking back to the bus stop late at night when a suspicious guy approached them with a gun, asking for their money, which they barely had. Furious and seemingly a bit agitated, the bandit scowled at them, swearing at the couple that had been holding hands shortly after he reached them. He pointed the gun to Kuroko and then Kise tried to disarm him, but it was in vain, the bandit managed to shoot both and Tetsuya spent his last moments perishing by Kise’s side. They lurked as spirits in the living world for some years, until, in another tragic day, they were assaulted by hollows and Kise ended up being eaten just before a shinigami arrived. With nothing left on the living world, Kuroko decided to go on to Soul Society. He was adopted by a family of street boys, that lived from robbing the food stalls and playing on the outskirts of the district. He was quite good at being stealthy and he thought that it was his way of helping his new family to survive. However, soon he discovered they had other interests on him aside from having him steal food. Every night was a struggle to get the opportunity to sleep as he couldn’t complain, he couldn’t deny and he couldn’t risk losing his only family there, while he was shared among three of them and used to relieve their sex drive. As soon as he knew about the shinigami academy, he saw that as a way of escaping from that life.
The sun rays shone through the glassy curtain-less window of that modest carriage and reflected on the oily and sweaty skin of those three. Tetsuya and Link were a bit sticky, due to excessive sweating from being so close together, the night had been warm and the day was hot. They climbed down the carriage and met themselves with a long white wall surrounded the space belonging to the academy. Several other carriages were parked ahead and a line of students in poor clothing with some small bags in hand formed from the entrance, past their carriage up to twenty meters away. The three of them grabbed the very few hand bags they were allowed to bring, which were heaped on the top of the carriage, and headed towards the end of the line.
After some time, they had their documents once again checked and received a set of male uniforms from the guards at the gate. Extending from the gate all the way to the main building, a huge courtyard brimming with life from freshmen and older students alike chattering out loud. It was overwhelming, perhaps too much even for the most extrovert like Naruto and Link, Kuroko was terrified. Naruto suggested them to find their dorms first and settle before exploring the place and meeting new people. After waiting a bit to check their names on the large notice board filled with the names of freshman, as wells as their dormitories, their classes and their grades on the admission test, they finally met up again.
“So... I got second floor, room thirty. I’m in the advanced class B. What did you guys get?” Link talked as they met.
“L-Link... I’m in the advanced class B too... but I’m the sixth floor, room six...” Tetsuya smiled as he knew he would be Link’s classmate.
“Damn! I got regular class D... I’m on the third floor, room twenty two.” Naruto sulked a bit frustrated. “But man, this place is huge. How many rooms are there in each floor?” He wondered.
Before any of them could go to the stairs, a loud voice filled the room.
“Freshmen, please head towards the auditory to hear the words of our guest captain in the admission ceremony” a womanly voice echoed seemingly in a magical way, making it audible probably even in the courtyard. Link, Naruto and Kuroko headed to the crowd that was quickly filling up the huge auditory and leaving no seats left. A lot of students could not find place to sit and stood on the corridors. In the stage, a short, white spiky haired boy took a step ahead from the line of shinigamis behind him. He was wearing a white coat over his shihakusho, with some black details. He had an authoritative look in his eyes and his voice was strong, despite him looking to be around seventeen years old.
“Greetings, I’m captain Toushirou Hitsugaya, from the 5th squad.” He announced, leaving the entire audience a bit intimidated with his tone. “You may be asking yourselves why aren’t there enough chairs and why the rooms are so crammed with freshmen this year.” he took a pause. “In fact, this is the year we admitted the most people, but also the year we will be implementing a new system to assure only the best students remain.” he continued and then some mumbling could be heard in the audience. “The examination will continue along the next semester, this will be the real admission exam. Just so you know, we expect roughly fifty percent of this auditory to leave by the end of the semester. We are doing that because some people could not hone their abilities properly where they lived and some may turn out to be great if provided with a good structure. Also there are those who settle after passing an one day exam and become mediocre shinigami.” he took another pause, a bit impatient. “Anyway, I just had this announcement to make. I’ll not be your teacher or anything. I hope I see some of you when you are ready to apply for a squad. Thanks.”
The captain’s speech ended with an awkward feeling, leaving the audience a bit confused towards the reason for him to be talking in the first place, as most were expecting some inspirational talk. The head of the academy then proceeded with the instructions about the classes, the rules of the institution and the dress code. When he finished, the students were dismissed and instructed to go to their rooms.
Link stayed on the second floor as he waved to Naruto and Kuroko, who were pushed upwards the stairs by the crowd. He walked along the corridors, looking for his dormitory on the left wing of the building, as the right was dedicated to classrooms and other teaching related features. He knocked on the door tagged with a 30.
“Excuse me... I’m Link a freshman!” He spoke in a friendly tone, a bit excited to see what his room mates would be like.