I didn't do too well, I thought, pushing open the Soul Reaper Academy doors.

The sky was tinted with pink as I strode through the lavish gardens dotted throughout the academy gardens, fat catfish leisurely swimming in ponds covered in dark green lily pads.

They have such an easy life, I thought bitterly, envious of the stupid catfish. They scattered from my reflection as I leant over the pond.

Sighing, I mulled over the examinations that I had to endure. The exams weren't particularly hard, since I had done hem before; but my examiners decided that because I was 'unofficially' (as they put it) in a squad, they would spice things up a bit.

They had decided to test me to see if I could withstand fighting and using large bouts of my spiritual pressure for a long time. Hence why it took me a whole day to finish them all. All day I was put through grueling tests that even a graduate wouldn't do after lots of training.

In my mind and with my fingers, I tried to tally up the points I believed I racked up to see if I passed or not:

1. The Entrance Exam

Because I was 'coming back' into the academy, I had to complete another extrance exam. I thought I did pretty well on that, considering that it seemed that they didn't alter the questions from the first time I did it, which was a while ago.

2. Hakuda:

I'm pretty sure I failed this one. I might be fast and quite capable of fighting with my bare hands, but even my skills were puny when weighted against the Captain of Squad 2, the Stealth Squad, Soi Fon, who might I might add, had special training from the widely known Lady Yoruichi, the famous Hakuda Master. I couldn't get out of the way fast enough to dodge her damn fists; the test was over before it even began after she knocked me out.

3. Kido:

Another failure. This didn't end up too well; poor Kenpachi is going to have a big bill to pay. I was using Hado number 31 as per requested, aiming for a red and white target across the other end of the room. When I released the power, not only did I manage to blow myself and the teacher up, but the WHOLE training field and everyone who had been watching me.

They had to evacuate part of the academy because of me. The exmainers were not too pleased with that and I tried explaining that I had trouble focusing my Reiryoku into a single point, but they didn't take any excuses.

The most depressing part – when the smoke and dust cleared, we all noticed, to my utter horror and shame, that the target I was aiming for was the only goddamn thing still standing in perfect condition.

4. Combat:

I loved this test the best and I did very well. I seemed to have mastered the Zanjutsu technique, as they called it, even becoming particularly handy with the more basic forms of Kido. That's where the praise stopped though.

A problem I had was that when my opponent began to use Kido with their own attacks to throw me off, I became erratic with my own Kido spells, resorting to more 'dirty' abilities, they said, to fight such as my shadow step and camouflage ability.

They were not impressed.

I tried explaining that in a real battle, dirty tricks were common because an enemy isn't always known to be respectful and follow traditional techniques. The look and lecture they gave me after my spiel left a bitter taste in my mouth.

My anger flared again, thinking of all that, and I smacked the surface of the water, making a large splash. Grumbling, I went on my way again. Fury was extremely depressed as he bumped against my leg. I felt every emotion he had, as if he also knew my chances of passing were low.

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes but I wiped them away angrily, frustrated at my weakness. I couldn't fail now, not after finally making it into the squad and befriending some great people. If I couldn't be a soul reaper in the strongest squad, then I didn't know what I would do with myself.

Stop being weak, snarled a little voice in my head. It wasn't Ikari but merely my own self- consciousness. Stop showing everyone how weak you've become.

I wiped my nose, standing taller and squaring my shoulders. So what if I failed? Maybe the squad will stand up for me when the time comes.

This sent my stomach into a frenzy.

As the shadows lengthened around me, I realised that I could make good time getting back to the Squad and my room. With a single thought, I jumped into a shadow. Forty metres from where I started, I appeared out of another shadow, smiling to myself.

I couldn't travel more than forty metres at a time and I needed to have shadows around me for the teleportation to work, but it was good to have a power like it if I was in a tight situation. Some soul reapers, those who are really connected to their zanpakuto spirits, are gifted powers by them. Fury had given me the ability to become a shadow, so now I could shadow jump and become camouflage and blend with the environment whenever my spiritual pressure was quite high.

Another soul reaper example was Toshiro: his icy demeanor was probably a result of Hyorinmaru's ice ability. Although, I once said that to him and almost lost an eye. It took me several hours to thaw out.

My thoughts now thoroughly distracted with that disaster of a fight, I didn't happen to be watching where I was going. That's when I ran into Kenpachi. I mean literally ran into him, since I was shadow jumping and moving quite fast every time I appeared out of a shadow.

"Oomph!" I flew backwards from the impact, my arms wind-milling before I crashed to the ground.

Lying on the ground, I contemplated just how screwed up my day had been, before sitting up, brushing dirt from my face and hair.

"Kera," Kenpachi said in his rumbling voice.

"Kera!" Yachiru cried with more enthusiasm.

"Hello Captain, Lieutenant," I replied, tilting my head up at them. "Were you looking for me?"

"Yachiru, run along now. I have to speak to Kera alone," Kenpachi said to Yachiru, ushering her away. I felt as if a stone was sitting in my stomach.

With a pout and a wounded look over her shoulder, she bounded away. "I'll bring you some candy after!" I shouted after her. "You have my results, Captain?" I asked quietly, not daring to look at him.

"I do," he answered.

I waited with a sick feeling in my stomach, but I couldn't help becoming curious with my results. With a bated breath, I waited for him to say if I passed or not. Instead, he just started walking away from me.

"H-hey," I stuttered, scrambling to my feet. "Captain?"

"If you want your results, you have to follow me," he said over his shoulder, never hesitating in his step. Thoroughly confused, I caught up to him.

For a couple of minutes, we walked in silence, side by side. When we reached a large pond, large willows gracefully bowing over the edges, he pulled out the official envelope. I was not very eager to see my results as he ripped open the sleeve, a piece of paper covered in scribbles being revealed.

I was prepared to defend myself at least for my failure, but when Kenpachi promptly ripped the document to shreds and let the pieces scatter in the breeze, I was in a state of shock.

"What was that for?" I cried, watching in disbelief as the pieces settled on top of the water.

"You neither passed nor failed, Kera," he stated, turning to face me. On his face was a large grin, his most famous smirk, and I couldn't help but smile along with him. "According to the Head Council at the Soul Reaper Academy, that would be seen as a fail but I sorted them out. Just like all the other times; most squad members didn't actually pass their tests, but I got exemptions for most of them."

"But why?" I was flabbergasted by this side of the ferocious Kenpachi Zaraki.

He shrugged his shoulders. "How else would I have the strongest squad in the Soul Society?" He smirked again before departing and leaving me alone in the growing night.

It was an effort to get my limbs to move again, but I felt somewhat lighter as I made my way back to the squad. I smiled happily as I contemplated what this all meant.

I'm an official soul reaper now!

With that happy thought, I skipped over to the barracks and burst into Ikkaku's room, only to find him sprawled on the bed with a sake bottle in hand. Some other group members must have also been indulging in the sake, but most had passed out and were lying all over the place. Even Tetsuzaemon was present, but he looked a bit unsteady when he waved at me.

"What's up, Kera?" Ikkaku asked.

Leaning against his door frame, I inspected my nails. "I'm an official soul reaper now," I bragged. "Also, Captain told me an interesting fact," I continued slyly. "It seems that most of Squad 11 didn't pass their soul reaper tests."

"Yeah, most didn't, but I was one of the few that did," Ikkaku stated, before drawing his attention away from peering down the neck of the sake bottle and up to me. "Did you have to get an exemption?"

I swear an irk mark appeared on my face for he began to laugh.

"You did, didn't you?" he crowed.

"Give me that!" I snarled, stomping over and snatching the sake bottle from his hands.

He cried out in protest as I sculled the whole damn thing, which was a lot since it must have recently been opened. It burned as it went down and I had to resist the urge to gag and throw it all back up.

As I sucked the last little drops out of the bottle and the sake coursed through my body like lava, I considered if I was actually punishing Ikkaku or just myself.

Ikkaku's face was a mask of surprise and disappointment as I lobbed the empty bottle at his shiny head. Light- headed, I strode out of his room, taking good measure to kick something of his.

As anyone could see, I threw tantrums and destroyed things when I was angry or upset. Although, a slight thrill of pleasure rushed through me or maybe that was the sake's doing.

By the time I reached my bed, my head was already pounding and all I wanted to do was bury it as deeply as I could into my pillow. Groaning, I tried to ignore the churning in my stomach.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a lot more enjoyable.