Another time, another day.

Tatsu had been casually sitting down in the shade of a tree, hiding away from the glaring sun and the thick heat, a bottle in hand and the white wrap of cloth around his zanpakuto showed who he was. He seemed to have been drinking there for quite some time, but his skills at doing nothing seemed flawless. He was in fact at the bottom of a tree near the academy's resting grounds, an area filled with memories for him.

This area was one of the rare area's in seireitei where you could actually see far off into the distance without seeing too many districts of the rukongai. The scenery was beautiful, a huge patch of tree's could be seen almost to the eyes content.

Sipping another small shot of sake from his bottle Tatsu enjoyed the free time he had earned after his dreadful experience. Time passed and he took up a catnap lightly breathing in and out without any disgraceful snoring and scratching.

Haruko was wandering the Shinigami academy, finding it somewhat nice to be outside whilst the weather was a little too hot to be cooped up inside. She had a lot of academic work to do, but she felt she might start going insane if she stayed inside much longer. She had pushed the top half of her uniform off of her shoulders and it dangled around her knees, leaving her in a plain white sleeveless top that she wore underneath it, something she had been scolded for in the past, but she wasn’t a fan of being too hot.

Sitting in the shade of a tree she saw a face she recognised, and quirked an eyebrow at him contemplating simply walking past and leaving him be, or actually walking over. She chose the latter and sauntered over leisurely, stopping beside him. Upon closer inspection she could see that his eyes were closed and he seemed to be dozing, though she couldn’t be entirely sure. She waited for a brief moment before resting her bandaged up hand on her hip, clearing her throat in an attempt to see if he was indeed awake, deciding that if he didn’t acknowledge her somehow, she would leave him be.

Tatsu had not seem the time pass and had been sleeping for a while, and something bothered his waking up, someone was clearing their throat, and by the sound of things it was a woman. That was all he could recognize just by listening in on her voice. He opened his right eye and looked at her, he had been obviously asleep but he didn't rush to stand or anything, it seemed like he'd rather not care for the moment.

''Hey...Good morning'' He said while sitting back up properly.

Glancing up to the woman he offered a small smile, as he glanced at her, she somehow reminded him of himself back when he was an academy student. He took his left hand and burried it in the hidden pocket his kimono offered taking a ball wrapped with paper, nothing fancy and offered it to the woman.

''Here, you hungry?''

Wether or not if she took it, he tossed it at her in a way he was almost sure anyone could catch, as he dug in his kimono for his last remaining wrapped riceball. The samurai loved riceballs and he made them himself, but he didn't tell that to anyone.

Ah, so he had been asleep which made her feel slightly guilty for bothering him enough to wake him up; but only slightly. She cracked a slight smile as he looked up to her, but it disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared.

“Good morning to you,” she replied, pushing a stray piece of hair from her face as she glanced quickly at the bottle that was in his company, that was a good enough explanation for his odd choice of a bed. Looking at someone who had just woken up made her realise that she herself was fairly tired, she covered her mouth with her left hand as she yawned before making to grab the riceball he threw to her. She very nearly failed, saving herself in the last moment as it bounced off the side of her hand, quickly catching it with her other one.

She wasn’t really hungry, but she was too polite to decline the offer, she unwrapped it and inspected it subtly before raising it to her lips and taking a small bite. She nodded appreciatively and smiled down at him. “Tastes good, thank you!” she said, taking another, larger bite this time. She was a sucker for good food, something her waistline would more than likely suffer for if she wasn’t in training…

Tatsu ate his rice ball with new found hunger and was done with his mildly spiced food shortly, he didn't hold it against her for waking him up, he would most likely have squad duties sooner or later. He stood up to face the woman, his long hair falling to the lower part of his back, only thing holding it in place was a red ribbon at the base of his neck. His kimono was in pristine shape, he put his zanpakuto to his waist and yawned in response to the woman. Picking up the bottle and hiding in the white cloth that surrounded his zanpakuto he turned to the woman, a safe distance to make sure she wouldn't smell his breath and spoke in a very prepared manner, he was polite.


''How may I help you, is there anything I can do?''

All taken into account Tatsu was very conditioned and shaped, but still slim like someone who had trained for endurance training and cardio. The long red ribbon in his hair floated and didn't match any colors that was on him, and it was worn as if it had seen battles where this man wasn't suposed to actually survive. The smile on his face was polite and all signs of the sleeping man was gone.

The samurai looked at himself to make sure he suited up properly and glanced back at the woman, a serious look on his kind face.

She finished the riceball a few seconds after he did and in a rather unladylike fashion, wiped her hands clean on the front of her hakama pants, not too bothered if it made them a little grubby, they would wash in no time at all. She was fairly keen and saw him hide the bottle, but pretended to be none the wiser to its existence.

That was a fine question. Why had she even walked over and disturbed him in the first place? Even she didn’t know. After failing to think of an answer quick enough, she shrugged her shoulders a little, scratching the side of her head and pursing her lips in thought.

“Nothing actually, I just came over to say hello,” she said with a slight smile, dropping her hand back to her side and poking at a stone with her foot. Often in the way she acted one could tell she was still young and lacked any kind of experience, though she could also come across as much older than her years, having been through the difficulty of the situation with her right arm.

“I can leave if you want..?” She suggested, not sure if she was bothering him or not…

The samurai was intrigued by the girl, it didn't happen often that someone from the academy actually summoned to courage to speak to a shinigami and yet this one came to him just like that to say hello, of course they had met before and this might help the process of thought. Tatsu wondered why she was wiping her hands on her Hakama if the cloth that held the rice was used for that, but he thought it would be wiser to actually just be silent about it and let the girl have her way, he had his experience with that fact.

It was rather weird that one would come to him, out of everyone just to say hello, but once again he didn't bother to say anything about it, words were silver silence was golden.

''Oh no no, you don't bother me at all, wanna go for a walk?''

Of course the samurai didn't know what to do either, which was why he was there in the first place. Maybe he could help her train something, or even help her with her studies, afterall he had cleared the tests of the academy and been assigned to the 11th division quite fast after.

''Maybe I could help you with something, I really am relieved from duty today, so I have very little to do.''

She felt like a bit of an idiot really, but she hid it well behind an expression that was cheerfully neutral. Not so cheerful she looked strange, but not so neutral that could be perceived as being angry or bored or something similar.

She nodded her head, a walk sounded nice even if it was hot, likely to only get hotter as the sun rose to its midday position in the sky. Fully fledged Shinigami interested her to say the least, when she was a child she had never even thought about becoming one, she would have lead an easily comfortable life had she chosen to stay with her parents, but she wanted to make her father proud in becoming one, and so it was now her goal.

She mulled it over for a short while before nodding her head, extra training from someone much more experienced than herself would more than likely do her the world of good, seen as she had not been doing as well as she could have in her training. So she nodded her head with a smile. “That would be great, thanks, but I’ll need to go and fetch my Zanpakuto,” her sword currently didn’t have a name or anything, it was just like a regular sword, but she loved it all the same…

Tatsu wondered what kind of classes she could be having troubles in, after all she seemed like the talented type of woman that could look down on people, surely captain material in his opinion. Tatsu kept his smile, a polite smile that he used to make sure he didn't look any kind of mean or aggressive, not that he was a dangerous person, but rumors ran about this man.

The day was hot and the black robes of the shinigami made sure that he would feel every minute of it, but no words of complaints escaped his mouth, somewhere deep down he enjoyed it. He was already thinking how he would train this girl and in what way, of course a little spar with this one would be easily won but then again he could always teach her a few sword tricks if she was into that kind of fighting.

­''Well then, you should go fetch it, I'll wait here''

He said with a smile on his face, taking the bottle in the white cloth and bringing it to his mouth taking another sip before putting it back. It seemed that he didn't hide it in the least, that was just its natural spot.

She watched him for just second before nodding her head “I’ll see you in a couple of minutes then,” she said with a smile before turning to walk away, tying the sleeves of her uniform securely around her waist so it would flap around too much as she began to run.

She knew her way around fairly well, so it took her only a couple of minutes to get to her room, she opened the door and walked in, not surprised to find her roommate out, the two of them barely spoke to each other and rarely saw each other to do so. Her sword was on its stand beside her bed and she grabbed hold of it, pulling it out of its sheath a little to admire the way it caught the light, before sliding it back in and exiting the room, shutting the door behind her before making her way back to Tatsu.

She went back a little more slowly, not wanting to tire herself out running, but it still didn’t take her too long to return to him. She stopped in almost the same place she had departed from, looking to him and then fondly down at her sword. “Alright then,” was all she said, securing it in her belt and waiting for his instruction.