Strawberry Genius Chapter 3: Friends & Foes, a bleach fanfic

Hi guys!

Danizinhachan: I have already decided which Division Ichigo is going to be in, if you want to know you're just gonna have to wait and find out *laughs evilly*. Since you were wondering she will age normally until after the 17 month timeskip so she's look about 15-16 by the Ryoka invasion.

Shade Sparda: I'm glad to hear that thanks! :D

suri. mawarne: Renji? I hadn't really thought of using him much outside of cannon, since he never really was one of my favourite characters. If you have any ideas how I'm welcome to it.

Princess of Miracles: *Rubs neck sheepishly* Erm, sorry... But there will some good nobles... eventually.

Yemi Hikari: Yes, I am aware that the Shibas have aqua/green eyes, the blue eyed thing was just something I made up. Btw Bleach wiki is my main source of information for consistency.

Dianne060807: I've planned for about 4-5 chapters maybe less for her time at the Academy. Its mostly develop her character and show her natural talent which will be noticed by the Gotei 13. She will meet Kaien sometime during her school days.

Teddypro: That's an interesting idea but unfortunately I've already decided which Division she's gonna be in and it isn't the 1st. To be honset I don't think she would get far in that Division de to her age and being the Head Captain, Yamamoto will be too managing the other duties to have much time to train. Well that's my opinion at least but I still think that's a good story idea.

Episode 3 - Friends & Foes

(3 hours later…)

"Prejudice is the same no matter what your social status is."

Ichigo wished those old geezers had told her how it'd take to finish marking the results. Was she waiting for approval to stay and enter the academy or was she waiting for dismissal? The strawberry didn't know what to do if the Shinigami wouldn't take her on. She couldn't go back home to Junrinan… not when there was still a chance that she could kill all the citizens with this reiatsu that Hitsugaya had told her about. "I could go back to living in solitude like I did before" the thought of that hurt because she didn't want to go back to being alone.

Leon was kind enough to give the girls some crackers to eat but Ichigo was so nervous that the poor girl hadn't been able to eat much of it.

"What if I didn't pass the exam? I hadn't had any formal schooling in Junrinan so I really just guessed at those multi-choice questions. I remembered how to read and write but I can't remember ever attending a classroom in my life. What if I'm too stupid to get into the academy?"

The redhead got up and paced around the room in an effort to work off some of the nervous energy coursing through her body. She was only broken out of this fretting when a blue-haired teacher stepped onto the small stage in the front of them.

"Attention all applicants! Your test results are now ready!" he told them, in a booming voice.

The stomachs of all the candidates did little flip-flops as they made way to him and Ichigo wished she hadn't eaten that cracker.

"I will now call out the names of all the students who made it into the academy in order of highest to lowest grades" announced the teacher. He pulled out about four stapled papers and starts to call them out. "Number one: Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Wha-What?!" said cried in shock, not really enjoying the fact that she was the best out of all the newbies.

"Congrats Ichigo!" praised Selina, happy for her new friend.

"That's incredible!" commended Leon, who patted her on the back. "Who knew you were that good, kid."

"Nah, it-it's no big deal" murmured Ichigo, not liking all the fuss. They didn't look convinced. It seemed as if everyone was staring at her, which made her uncomfortable. She really didn't like all of the attention.

Ichigo immediately walked over to waiting bluette. He handed over the pieces of paper, the street girl glanced at it but all the numbers and graphs on it made little sense to her. The only thing that stood out was a big red stamp that red '100%'.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, you have posted one of the highest scores on the entrance exam that we have seen in a long time. It is my pleasure to offer you admittance into the academy, starting tomorrow" he told, hiding his admiration.

She looked at the calm man in disbelief and then glanced back at the crowd of students how were looking back in astonishment and envy. "I got accepted and with the highest score? I can't believe it" she whispered to herself.

"You will be placed in an advanced class for the brightest students. You will have a lot of expectations for you to work to now, so be prepared for a lot of extra work."

"Uh-huh, thanks" she nodded, still dumfounded.

Ichigo wasn't sure whether to jump for joy at having been admitted or cringe under the crowd's heavy gaze. She could their conversations about her ranging from "How did that girl do so well?" to "How did that brat cheat?"

A few minutes later, the Moto siblings had just gotback their results.

The Moto siblings had just got the results back.

"What classes did you get in?" Ichigo asked. She was hoping at least one of them got in the same as her.

"We both got in Class 3#: The Standard Program" Selina replied. "What about you?"

Ichigo looked away "I got into Class 1#: The Accelerated Program" she said quietly but it was loud enough for the siblings to hear, judging from their shocked looks. "I need to leave now, we are meeting in the assembly later for our schedules" she decided to get away fast.

"Wow! Did you guys see that?!" Leon exclaimed. "Look how fast she can run!"

"Amazing it was almost like she teleported!" Lina said.

They all thought "She is a genius" as they looked on.

xxxx

(Down, the corridor…)

"Damn it why couldn't one of them get in the same class as me" she thought, as she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. Hearing that she won't be in the same class brought back some memories. "Why do I have to be this good? Why did end up in one of the worst districts where I no choice but to fight so hard?"

However, in her inner turmoil, she hadn't been paying attention to where he was going and she bumped into someone hard. Ichigo lost her balance and they both went down.

"Watch where you're going, brat!" a male student yelled, as he picked himself up off the floor. He looked at the little girl and took note of her clothing. "What do we have here, another Rukon brat who thinks she has the right to join our academy? Go back to where you came from kid, this is no place for the likes of you" he smirked.

The anger from being looked down on by the teachers, being singled out as a genius and being separated from the Moto siblings earlier raged through her. The little redhead got up and took a few steps forward until she was right in the brown-haired punk's face, ignoring the fact that she had to stand on her tiptoes to look up at him.

"The likes of me?" she repeated, clearly offended. "What makes you think that you're any better than me?"

The student laughed. "Because I'm a noble, while you're just trash from the outside. That's what makes me better than you."

"Ah, so that means that you're here because your family got you in, not because you really deserve it" she countered, with a bored face.

The student's stunned face flushed in anger and his dark eyes flashed dangerously. A part of her was screaming at herself to stop, just walk away and not make any trouble but most of her was angry at this treatment and didn't want to back down.

"You little worm" the student said. The prat came at me with a right hook but the fighter girl easily got underneath it and got out of the way, tripping him up with an outstretched leg.

"Is that all you got?" she tsked. "Guess you're just a lot of hot air."

Though unintentionally, the class brawlers attracted a steadily growing crowd of students. Half were the other guy's side encouraging him to put the street rat in her place and other such nonsense. The other half was hoping that someone would stop this bully from causing harm to the little girl but were too afraid to do it themselves. Ichigo stood as tall as she could, with hands in fists raised in front of her, waiting for him to get up. The girl from Uramachi wasn't going to hit first, not unless it became absolutely necessary but she wasn't going to back down either.

"Damn you!" he growled. "I am of nobility! Where are your manners, girl? I demand respect from commoners!"

"Hmph!" the strawberry rolled her eyes, waving his insults off with her hand. "Hate to break to you, buddy but the terms 'nobility', 'manners' and 'commoners' don't exist from where I'm from. Never needed them. So they really mean nothing to me."

"Is that so? Then allow me to teach you!" The student came at her again, much quicker than before. He seemed to disappear for a moment and reappeared in front of her, much to her surprise, before she could defend herself. He caught Kurosaki by the shoulders and threw her only to flip in mid-air and land on my feet, to the astonishment of the crowd. The student charged again but this time Ichigo was able to follow his movements. He crouched low; ready to sweep her legs out from under me but she jumped out of the way and avoided the sweep. But she wasn't quick enough to avoid the following kick that was only to be caught by someone else.

"Hey! Leave her alone you jerk!" Ichigo couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Leon the goofy blonde-haired boy put himself between her and the bully.

The student hissed about something along the lines of "more peasants" came at Ichigo's defender but a roaring voice stopped him before his fist connected with the newcomer's face.

"Enough!"

The crowd of students parted to let the blue-haired teacher from the entrance and Selina through. The man was fuming and I got to my feet, panting with adrenaline. Whatever the man had to say to me, she'd take it silently.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Oji-san" the headmaster said, facing the student that Ichigo had been fighting with. "You're a 3rd year student and you felt the need to get in a fight in the hallways with a child? You're old enough to know better than that!"

The student glared daggers at Ichigo and Leon a silent message saying 'this isn't over', before he turned his attention to the headmaster. He bowed deeply. "I apologize, headmaster. I don't know what came over me, it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't" the sensei said. "The rest of you, get out of here. Don't you have anything better to do?"

The group scattered quickly and the student that I had been fighting with gave me one last glare that promised "This is not over" before he left.

"Um, thanks teach."

"You're welcome, child" he said, passively. "Just try to avoid any more scuffles with the more rowdy students." The headmaster also left without another word.

"Making new friends already, Ichigo-san?" Leon joked, trying to lighten the mood. "You looked pretty upset so I decided to come after you up but I lost you in the crowd. It wasn't hard to find you with your reiatsu going so crazy. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine" she lied. The truth was that the girl's knees and hands were aching and was still edgy from the scuffle even though she hid this rather well from them.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Selina asked.

"People everywhere are prejudiced both around here and the outer districts" she simply said and left it at that. They didn't need to know anything else.

Her two new friends didn't push the issue, much to her relief. "By the way, why did you help me out back there?" she asked, curiously. "I'm ungrateful its just something most people wouldn't do for a stranger."

Leon blinked dummy for a moment, before rubbing his neck sheepishly. "I dunno but that's just the way we are: helping people we don't even know. I feel like everyone deserves to have a friend."

Selina rubbed her cheek, shrugging softly. "Our motto is this: strangers are friends you just haven't met yet. We got it off our mom" the blonde girl said, smiling softly at her wise words. Ichigo opened her mouth to retort, probably something along the lines of it being naive. Yet, she opened her mouth only to have the words not follow.

"Friend?" the strawberry thought softly to herself, feeling her mind stop to process this thought. She turned away for a moment, her eyes blank of all emotion. She thought about the word. Ally. Comrade. Companion. But friend? To call someone a friend was to trust them. Enjoy their company. To laugh. To play. To joke. To live.

"Friend..." she murmured to herself, almost disbelieving she heard that word. From a boy and a girl who he had just met, no less.

The older kids' eyebrows raised."What?"

"Your mom..." Ichigo immediately said, waving her hand down to collect her thoughts. The orangette fumbled with her hands, shutting her eyes tight. The toe of her sandle making small circles on the ground. She let out a calm filled sigh. "... she sounds sweet."

"She's the best" Leon stated, cracking a real smile to Ichigo. The little girl nodded as the walked back to the assembly hall.

It wasn't just word friend that got to her. It held the value of love, security and comfort. "Mom." That one little word gave her feel warm thinking about it... but at the same time empty and she had no idea why.

Walking through the wide doors, the trio walked into the assembly hall they were told they had to be. In the room, there were easily a few hundred people. All of them wanting to succeed and wanting to become a Shinigami. Suddenly, someone who Ichigo remembered was the headmaster, but forgot his name, walked to the high stage.

"Welcome new students to Shino Academy" the headmaster spoke to the point of yelling, over the general chatter of the room. With that, the entire room went absolutely silent. "Today, you are gathered here to become Shinigami! You are now part of a proud tradition. A unique school dedicated to raising future protectors for the Gotei 13, Onmitsukido and Kido Corps to preserve the Soul Society from evil and defend the Human World from Hollows! Apply yourself diligently to your studies and uphold the hour of our academy."

At this stage, Ichigo was starting to stop paying attention. She was about to zoned out, until she saw the principal look on with extra seriousness. "Remember: Do not seek beauty in battle. Do not seek virtue in death. Do not make the mistake of considering only your own life. If you wish to protect that which you must protect... slice the enemy you must defeat from behind. That is our commandment, take it to heart."

He let those words sink in before continuing.

"As you leave the room, you will all be given an Asauchi. Please keep this sword with you at all times, as it will become your partner for your stay at the Academy!"

With the opening speech over, the pupils started filing out of the hall, collecting their Asauchi on the way. As for Ichigo, she walked to the exit, ignoring the man giving out the swords.

"Huh? Ichigo, why aren't you gonna get your Zanpakuto?"

"Don't worry I've already got one" she smirked, pointing to the sword on her back. With that said, the berry girl left heading off to find the room she had been assigned to.

"You've got potential kid. I can see that already" Selina thought, to herself.

xxxx

(30 minutes…)

"Okay students, form a line depending on the first letter of your first name and we will give you a paper with your name and room number and. We will also give you a key for your dorm room and the one shares the same number as you will be your roommate for the foreseeable future. You may now get in your lines."

Ichigo looked at the paper once more to make sure she read it right. "Room 15D. Ps. Students please make sure to pick up your uniforms at the cafeteria."

The orangette had been searching forever for her room with no luck, until finally she saw a door that said 15D. "About time" she muttered, impatiently. "I was about to give up." She began to open the door. "Who will I be sharing a room with? I hope it's someone who I can get along wi-"

Ichigo's musing was interrupted by a rather unexpected surprise. The door. She had been hit face first by a force from the other side and was now sporting a very red and sore nose.

"Gah! Damn it!" she yelled out, in pain. Suddenly, a burst of jovial laughter emanated from the room. "Okay wise guy! Don't even start! Why the hell do I have to put up with someone who...!" yelled Ichigo, as she burst into the room. However, as soon as she opened the door to lay it in her soon-to-be-dead roommate she recognised that face. "Mariko?!"

"Huh? Ichigo-san! You're here, too!" the brown-haired girl cried in surprise, hugging her. "Are you my roomie? That's totally super! How've you been? Did you miss me? You wanna be a Shinigami, too? Do-Ah!"

"Slow down you talk too fast!" she chastised, grabbing her lips. When it finally appearance the brunette had calmed down. "Looks like we are roommates..." Ichigo replied, slightly happy that he was sharing a room with someone she knew... well sort of.

The room was medium-sized and plainly decorated with nothing on the walls. It had a bunk bed on one side of the wall, two dressers on another with an old bookshelf and on the last wall two closets. You could tell the top bunk had already been claimed by Mariko from the way the bottom was made while the tops blankets were practically falling off of it.

"Not bad" said Ichigo remembering, where she was used to live. The orphan used to live in houses that were rotting away more each day; the last one had holes all over the place but was still better than shanties in the outer districts she squatted in. It barely even had a roof. But the worst moment was when she had to sleep outside in the winter cold while in District 79.

"So this will be my home for the next 6 years."

At that moment, the young girl vowed to herself that once she became a Shinigami she would do something about the districts living conditions. But for now that could wait.

Dumping her Asauchi onto the floor bed, Ichigo sat down on the bed next the older girl.

"So" Ichigo said, trying to break the ice. "It looks like we're sharing rooms. We might as well start getting used to each other."

"Okay then" Mariko replied, cheerfully.

"Well first" Ichigo continued, before putting on an angry face-fault. "What the hell was that gag with the door, huh!?" she outraged, to the older girl's amusement.

After taking a few minutes to calm down, Ichigo settled down and started talking with Mariko and hearing stories about the Junrinan girl's life. Both girls were enjoying each other's company and continued talking.

"It's because of me that Toho and the others abandoned her. They didn't like that she suddenly started talking good things about me, the village pariah, so they stopped hanging out with her and refused to even acknowledge that she exists now. But despite that, she's really nice and continues to stick up for me, she even treats me like a little sister. Even if we're only half a year apart in age."

"Oh didn't you get the highest grades in the entrance exam?" the older girl chatted.

Ichigo just looked away. "Oh, yeah I did."

Cherri noticed her unhappy tone clear as day. "What's wrong, aren't you happy about it?" she asked, with concern. "Most people would be over the moon."

"I'm not saying I'm upset about its just that I don't know how to deal with this" she was hoping not many would know her results but she was wrong. She was now convinced that Cherri would get jealous of her high grades and eventually grow to despise her like those noble prats.

"Wow, you are so weird" Cherri laughed, making the berry face-fault in irritation.

Ichigo couldn't tell if she was simply in the academy just to screw with her. Though, she couldn't help but feel it was her fault that her friends had ditched her and thought this was her pay back to her.

"Oh, just so you know, Toho-kun and the others weren't just mad at me because of you" this bit of information caught the orphan's attention. "Yeah, they said I was an idiot because I wouldn't believe all the mean things that they were saying about you" Cherri explained, before putting on a sad face. "The final straw was when I told them I wanted to become a Shinigami to help people" she said, suddenly looking at her with meaningful eyes, grabbing hold of her by the shoulders and shaking her slightly. "Ichigo. How do you do it?"

"Huh?" she spoke, in surprise to her unusual seriousness. "What do you mean?"

"How could you just stay there and do nothing while all those people spread such nasty rumours about you?!" she told, with concern. "They're calling you the Oni of Uramachi down in the village! They think you're a cold, unfeeling murderer and you just go about every single day like it means absolutely nothing! How?"

Ichigo blinked; stunned slightly at the information she'd just been given. "So that's what they've been saying about me…" she thought as her eyes wandered to the open window next to them, staring up at the evening sky, painted with an almost shell shocking mix of reds, oranges and obnoxiously bright but beautiful yellows.

Sighing, Ichigo gently removed Mariko's hands from her personage, locking gazes with the girl for a few moments, before finally sighing again. She still couldn't believe that the far-fetched rumour had actually stuck around, especially when there hadn't been anything to actually lead to it in the first place.

"Its fine, Cherri" the berry girl reassured, "They're just rumours. Nothing more, nothing less. They don't make me who I am" Ichigo explained, placing her own hands in her lap as she her gaze shifted back towards the sky, having dropped it down to meet the others gaze. "Besides, I really don't care what a bunch of strangers think of me. If I did, I wouldn't be here in this school."

At some point Cherri had fallen very quiet, staring at the floor far for a question moment. Suddenly, she looked up more chipper than before, happy she had gotten an answer. "Hey, do you wanna go eat?"

Ichigo was gonna refuse but her stomach had other ideas and she blushed. "E-er, yeah okay" came out, meekly.

Cherri smiled and pulled Ichigo with her out of room and eventually walked off of campus. It was at this point the girls got a good look at how huge Shinigami Academy was. It was a huge complex and they saw many students of all years going about their business as they walked through the courtyard, it made the redhead feel small and trivial compared to it.

Everyone else seemed so much older than Ichigo and, for the first time, wondered if maybe that despite getting the highest score she was too young for this. "Should I have waited?"

xxxx

(At, some random café…)

Even after making it to the café, the way there people was whispering things like "Ain't that the Tensai girl from the entrance exam?" and "She is so young". They made it to a restaurant Cherri just found near the school but to Ichigo's dismay they weren't alone.

"You don't have to listen to them" Cherri said, looking at an uneasy Ichigo. "You said so yourself, they can say what they want but you know yourself. You know what's true and what isn't."
Ichigo just looked at her surprised. "Yeah" she said. "It's true but I don't wanna be called a Tensai or Tensaiji or whatever."

"You don't mind being called a demon but you're bothered by being called a genius, huh" Cherri laughed playfully and went back to business of eating dinner.

Ichigo looked from her lap to Mariko and back again. The orangette debated whether she should keep her mouth shut and let the doe-eyed girl continue eating her dumplings but the fact was that she was confused about Cherri's personality and still didn't understand why this girl who didn't even know her was willing to associate with the social outcast. What could she possibly want in return?

"Why? Why are you treating me like I'm normal" she finally asked. "What makes me so special? Why would you care? Why are you even willing to talk to me?"

The blue-eyed girl thought said more than she probably should have and waited for the rebuke to come. It didn't. Instead, the brunette looked sympathetically at her.

"You're not used to people being nice to you, are you?"

Ichigo was left stunned by her answer. When was the last time someone was nice to her simply because they wanted to? How long since she first met this happy-go-lucky girl? Normally, at this point Ichigo would deny this and walk off in a huff but now... she couldn't explain it. "Yeah, you've got me there..."

"Life's easier when you've got friends, Ichigo" Cherri smiled. "And from what I've heard we Shinigami live a very, very long time."

xxxx

(Back to their room...)

After Cherri and Ichigo had eaten their fill; they went back to the room. Finally tired, Ichigo lay down in the bed and in her pink PJ's. It didn't take long for Cherri to succumb to dream land's sweet embrace.

The youthful innocence in Cherri's sleeping face was apparent, the baby cheeks she still had, the messy brown hair. Ichigo felt a little bit better.

If someone like Mariko Cherri, a typical bubbly girl, can get into Class 1 (albeit barely scraping the spot) let alone this school, maybe it wasn't a mistake for her to be here. Sure, there were some that'd wish she'd vanaish there were a few that were willing to give her a chance.

"This is it. There is no turning back now. Whatever happens, my path has been chosen" she thought, as the berry drifted off.

A small smile broke out on the orange-haired girl's face as her brain began to shut down. She decided that she would handle this new life like she handled everything else: with hard work and determination. Ichigo ultimately chose to become a Shinigami and she was going to become the damn best one she could be. This was a fresh start for her.

No more stealing, no more street fighting and no more sadness.

What do you think? Next we'll see Ichi's first day at the Academy as a student. See ya next chap!