Bleach: Derailed

[] Don't think about getting a sword. Find your sword.

It's like picking up something that you can't see, but that must be there, like a toothbrush in a dark bathroom, you reason. You can pick it up without actually stopping to think about picking it up, because your instincts know where it is.

Which is total bullshit because you know that the only part of your body that 'knows' anything is your brain, but since you're a dead soul in the afterlife going to an academy to be a ghost samurai and hunt monsters... You won't complain about impossible things. It seems a bit silly.

Somewhere in this room is a sword that's a perfect match to you. You need to stop thinking about it, and start picking it up, but to do that you have to find it. You close your eyes and stop thinking. You trace your breath through your lungs, feeling the motion move through your body, feeling something else move through you. It emanates out from your center in slow waves, and it's both familiar and new at the same time.

It's like grabbing a part of you that you always took for granted and feeling its shape, being surprised at just how bony your fingers are, or stopping and staring at your strong chin in profile and thinking, 'is that me?'

Minutes pass, you think. Maybe they're just seconds. Either way, nobody has a sword in their hand when you open your eyes and see that the room is full of inch-wide, translucent glowing ribbons.

Most of the ribbons are white, and barely show up against the background of the visible room. Their free ends drift in the air, and their other sides are tethered to the plain swords on the wall, but you see a dozen that are red rather than white. They're spaced out with no visible pattern behind their distribution, and the red ribbons don't have a free end -the other side vanishes into the chest of one of the student applicants.

There's a red ribbon attached to you. You follow it to its sword, reach out, and pick it up without hesitation. Your ribbon thrums, and the sword in your hand suddenly squirms. Its hilt's ornamentation writhes as the steel bar beneath it expands, lengthening to nearly a foot long in proportion to the rest of the blade, which grows smoothly outward until it takes the shape of a giant, oversized blade with a light backward curve. It looks like nothing more than an oversized tanto.

"Ichigo Kurosaki has passed the entrance examination." The proctor intones solemnly, and the ribbons fade from your vision. "Please exit the room using the door opposite the one you entered by, to be assigned your dormitory. Five minutes remain in this round of the examination."

The atmosphere of the room immediately shifts to one of desperation as the remaining nineteen candidates rush from rack to rack, trying to find their match.

On your way to the door you notice that the woman you sat next to in the auditorium is darting away from the sword you saw her ribbon lead to. She's tall for a woman, taller than you are right now, but she's definitely a few years older than you. Unfortunately, she's also built like a stick. Her clothes hang off her like they would from a hangar. Without giving it conscious thought, you step in front of her to block her path and she freezes.

"Maybe try that set next." You tilt your head at the appropriate rack and then walk around her, going stone-faced as you realize that you might have just interfered with someone else's examination. Are you going to get thrown out?

But the masked soul reaper doesn't react, save to glance at you as you pass, and then back into the room to announce, "Takako Omaeda has passed the entrance examination."

Going down the hallway -Shin'o Academy seemed to have a lot of long hallways between classrooms- you're soon joined by the woman you'd steered toward her sword, evidently Takako. She dashes ahead of you, sandals clacking on the floor, and then bows at the waist in a quick up-down motion. "I don't know how you did it, but thank you for your assistance!"

"I'm actually pretty interested in that myself." A grey-haired man says as he opens the door at the end of the hall, just before you reach it. He wears a white coat over his black uniform, and he squints like he needs glasses, or is failing to hold back his smile. He gestures for you to follow him through a room filled by several more soul reapers without white coats, and a large screen displaying the events of the sword room.

On finding yourself in another corridor, you wonder exactly how much the man who designed this place loved long, open spaces. "I just figured that, since there had to be a sword to fit me there, I just needed to recognize what it'd feel like. I saw these ribbon things."

"Spirit ribbons?" The brunette woman puts a name to the thing. "But... Huh. I hadn't thought of that."

"...That does sound like the kind of thing that would work. Anyway my name's Gin, Gin Ichimaru." The smiling man says.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. Nice to meet you."

"Takako Omaeda, pleased to meet you, captain!" She bows.

Captain? You look at the man in a new light. This is the kind of man you need to get in your corner, but doesn't he look kind of shifty for a man in a position of authority? Then you remember that your father is a respected medical professional, and shrug internally. Whatever.

"Am I supposed to bow, or something?" You ask.

Gin shakes his head, the movement loose and easy. "Nah. Omaeda here is just doing it because her family is big on respect. You aren't actually soul reapers yet, so the only people you should be bowing are your teachers. Most of the captains are pretty laid back about that."

The three of you walk along for a little while longer, Takako stiffly formal, Gin relaxed and content not to speak, and you wondering why one of the people in charge of Soul Society is wasting his time doing something with two new students.

"So I bet you're wondering why I'm the one who met ya, right?"

"That's just what I was thinking about, actually."

"Fine, fine. Shin'o Academy has different classes. Class 1 is the best students, with the smallest class sizes and the best lessons, and class 3 is the worst -the people who probably won't pass but aren't being dropped because they can work their way up if they get their act together. Normally students start as members of class 2, and they stay there until they either finish the six year curriculum, earn a promotion to the good class, or get demoted to class 3. Omaeda, your family wants to sponsor you. Do you wanna be a member of class 1?"

"Yes! Thank you, captain."

Gin looks at you, next. At least his face turns to you. You can't actually see his eyes behind that squint. "As for you, Kurosaki... you've got no sponsor, so you'll get put in class 2 to start with."

"How do I get into class 1?" You ask intently. "You mentioned promotions into it?"

"At the twice-yearly examinations, yeah." The captain says. "But there's another way."

"I don't have a noble family."

"...I dunno. You look a bit like a Shiba to me."

"Really?" You ask, surprised.

"Really. It's too bad that the Shiba are a disgraced noble family. You're not getting anything from them, unless you want fireworks, or alcohol."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome! Anyway, you've got enough spiritual power in you that you should be able to get a promotion up to class 1 easy enough, as soon as you stop spraying it everywhere, anyway, but I figure that you'd probably like to start there, instead."

You fit the pieces together. "And you're willing to sponsor me?"

"I knew you weren't stupid." Gin says with a slightly wider smile. "I like interesting people, and you seem like you're somebody worth getting to know. You can pay me back by uh... I'll think of something. Do you drink?"

"Not much." You had a sip of sake once.

"I'll figure something out. Just think about it, and drop my name at the desk if you really do want to graduate as quickly as possible."

And with that he vanishes, just- gone.

"Perhaps... Kurosaki, my family is a noble one. I would be honored to sponsor you into the first class, on their behalf." Takako says after Gin leaves, a canny gleam in her eye. "My uncle is the second seat of the second division and the vice chief of the omnitsukido, the stealth forces, as well."

Choose one.
[] Take Gin's offer.
[] Accept Takako's offer.
[] Go into class two.