Disclaimer – I don't own Bleach. This story was written for the Wattpad FanFicFriday "Back to School" challenge. Since there was a deadline the last few chapters are rougher then I wanted them to be. There are a total of ten chapters, each dealing with each of the ten prompts for the challenge. I hope to post each chapter over the next ten days, but there may be delays.

Five: Write a chapter in which a character learns something unexpected.

School Stinks
~This Stinks~

Toshiro's hands played with the string in his hand making various shapes from the loop. His small mouth pushed together as his focus remained on the string in his hand and ignored everything else around him. A soft breeze blew through the window bringing with it a calming sent. He didn't notice Rangiku let out a disgruntled sound from having to do the paperwork and instead kept his focus on the string.

A hand gently brushed a strand of hair away from his forehead indicating she had moved from the desk to kneeling beside the couch he was lying on. "Hey? Why don't we go and do something together? Let's get you out of this stuffy office. The way you're acting worries me."

Toshiro's fingers stopped maneuvering the string and his mouth pushed deeper into a frown. Prior to the war with the Quincies he would have pushed her hand away and have chewed the strawberry haired woman out for treating him like a child as if she was his mother. "It doesn't feel bad, being comforted like this. Still... I don't want to go and do something."

The child taicho went back to playing with his loop made of string. "Taicho?" Despite the fact she was trying to get his attention he continued to play the string games. "I'm going to the first division now to talk to the head captain Kyraku and Ukitake Taicho. Please behave yourself. If someone tells you that you need to eat, then go ahead and eat. I'll see you when you get back."

How much time passed he honestly did not know, but the door slid back open and a trey was set down on the table next to him. "You should eat Hitsugaya Taicho. You've lost a lot of weight."

More time passed and he heard Rangiku's voice indicating she was back. "What happened to eating your food?" The woman sat on the floor next to him and brushed his white hair away from his forehead. "I need to back your bags. You and I are being sent on a mission to the world of the living."

Toshiro sat up while still fiddling with the string in his hands while swinging his feet off the couch. "What is the mission?"

"Could you please look me in the eye Taicho so I know you're paying attention?"

"She knows I hate looking people in the eye."

He still complied and when he did she explained their mission to him. "You and I are tasked with taking a survey of the class Kurosaki's sisters are in to try and figure out which ones have spiritual pressure and which ones can see Shinigami. You're going to be added as a student in their class for a week or so."

Two bright teal eyes widened, a look of horror spreading across the child's face. "In case of an emergency."

"That's not..." Toshiro looked at the ground, swallowing as he did so.

"Do you want me to pack your bag for you?" When he didn't reply she got up and left, speaking over her shoulder as she did so. "I'll come back to get you."

"Why? I've already graduated from Soul Reaper academy. Pretending to be a high school student was bad enough. I don't like this." This eyes narrowed as his zampaktuo spirit suddenly lectured him about maturity.

Rangiku got back with two bags swung over her shoulder and touched his lightly to get his attention. "Time to go." The corner of his mouth twisted up slightly wishing there was some way to escape all of this. "I'm glad there is life in your eyes again."

"Yeah, well... I think being turned into a zombie and tortured by a mad scientist would do that to a person, don't ya think?" Toshiro folded his arms across his chest and followed the woman. "Come on... I've never been able to get along with people of similar age. It's not that I don't try hard enough. Social interactions simply aren't my strong point, particularly when I have to deal with the immaturity of my age group."

They arrived in living world near Urahara's shop so that they could in fact get their gigai so that they could walk around the world of the living and be seen by humans while there. She started to give more instructions to him. "Tonight we'll spend the night at Orihime's place and tomorrow you can start your first day of school." The woman paused as she realized he was scowling at her. "What ever is the matter?"

"Isn't there an easier way to do this?" The boy's eyes darted away suddenly. "Like a way I could have limited interaction with people and go back to what I was doing."

"What do you mean? You have to observe the people in the class to determine who can see Shinigami or not as well as sense what kind of spiritual pressure they have."

"Yes. But I don't have to be a student in the class to do that." Toshiro turned and flash stepped away leaving her in her dust. Upon arriving at the junior high he felt out Karin's spiritual pressure as that would tell him which classroom she was in. On his way to the classroom he passed by the offices where her twin Yuzu was coming out with papers. The girl didn't notice and he followed after her.

When she opened the door to the classroom he slipped in. The girl handed the papers to the teacher and went to take a seat. The teacher of course didn't notice the Shinigami dressed in the front room, but some of the students in fact did. One of them was of course Kurosaki Karin. The girl's violet eyes suddenly widened, not at all pleased with the fact he had shown up out of the blue like that. He simply stood their, watching the reactions of the students.

A boy with freckles raised his hand. "Sensei?"

The man paused his writing on the board, all pleased at his lesson being interrupted. "What is it Hashigami-kun?"

"There is a kid standing next to you dressed in a black kimono and a white coat. He's also got a sword on his back."

The chalk on the board suddenly broke just as Karin choose to look out the window instead of at Toshiro. "Excuse me?"

The small taicho watched as some of the students began to laugh and note that there was no one there while other students looked around nervously trying to figure out what the joke was all about. Others squinted at him as if trying to make out what the object happened to be. He could also hear Karin's friends chuckling to themselves about how Toshiro had played a really cool prank, only for one of them to squint at him in confusion, indicating that he could see something but not make it out.

A sudden chill ran down his spine and his teal eyes darted over to where Karin was sitting and noticed that she was looking right at him and wasn't at all happy with him. He swallowed, not at all sure what he had done wrong as he had simply been wanting to get the mission done and over with so he could go home. She raised her hand and told the teacher that she had another one of her headaches so she was going to go and get some fresh air.

The dark haired girl walked past him and he couldn't help but feel nervous. The fact she had kicked a soccer ball at his head in the past when she was angry at him crossed his mind. He slipped out of the classroom and let her close the door. They then headed up to the roof where he watched her go over to the edge and take a deep breath. She then turned to him, anger in her eyes. "What the hell do you think you were doing Toshiro?"

He narrowed his eyes at the girl. "I was told that we were to observe your classmates and discern if your spiritual pressure has effected them in a similar manner to how you brother's effected his classmates. The idea was to observably see whether they showed spiritual pressure as well as how well they could see me."

The girl's violet eyes widened and she swallowed. Her hand smacked across his cheek, causing his hand to reach up and touch the stinging stinging. His eyes widened with shock as she went off on him. "You idiot! That's the reason why you came into my class and embarrassed me like that! I trusted you! I thought you knew that I didn't want anyone to know what I could see ghosts! Yet there you went walking into my classroom making an idiot of yourself! You're such a jerk!"

"I'm sorry..." The boy looked away, his eyes darting to the ground.

"Sorry?" Karin's voice strained. "I get my stupid friend not thinking, but you of all people?"

"...my stupid friends... she didn't label me as a friend..." Panic raced through Toshiro's mind about her not considering him a friend. "Wait... we're not friends?"

The girl opened her mouth to say something only to have someone else interrupt her before she could say something. "Taicho!" Rangiku flash step onto the roof. "I just had to modify the memories of everyone in that classroom!" The woman reached out with her hands and began to pull on his cheeks.

"Matsumoto... stop it." The boy muttered, his one cheek already sore from Karin slapping him.

"You walked into this one taicho! I've not felt the need to do this since you ranked up from third seat to captain rank! I am so mad at you! Actually, I am really fed up with you and the fact you've been avoiding people and only doing things because you were ordered to do so."

Toshiro's hands reached up to pull her hands away. "You're not the only one fed up with things! You and everyone else know full well what happened to me during the war with the Quincy! What's wrong with me wanting to stay home? The sooner we get this mission done, the sooner we can go home!"

"So you're turning into a hikikomori?" Karin rolled her eyes.

"A what?" Toshiro blinked a couple of times.

"A shut in Toshiro."

"Is it so bad of a thing?" The boy looked away. "Can we please go home?"

"Home? I don't think so!" Rangiku snapped, causing the boy to flinch.

"I've finished the mission. I've identified those with spiritual pressure and those that can see me. What else do we need?" Toshiro's shoulder flinched suddenly.

"Besides the fact you need names of all things there is the fact the whole point of sending you on this mission wasn't to get information but to get you to interact with those around your age! That and get you out of the offices where all you've been doing is playing string games the past couple of weeks!"

The temperature on the roof suddenly dropped and Toshiro's eyes twitched. "Say what?"

The corner of Rangiku's mouth twitched as she realized she had been caught. "You weren't supposed to find out."

The temperature dropped even more as his arms crossed his chest. "Matsumoto... you had no business butting in like this!"

"So Ukitake and Kyoraku Taicho had no business butting in either?"

"You're not my mother and they are not my fathers... uncles... what ever!"

"I am your mother!" The woman snapped.

Toshiro's eyes widened and he let out a short laugh. "What are you? Delusional?" The woman suddenly gave him a rather hurt look. "I'm sorry Matsumoto. I shouldn't have said that."

"You know... you can be an insensitive little brat at times." The woman's voice lowered followed by an awkward silence.

The bell rang indicating the end of the school day and Karin looked at the side of the building again. "So... what should your punishment be Toshiro?"

"What?"

"I said... what should your punishment be. You walked into my class, completely embarrassed me. You owe me one." The girl turned back with a rather mischievous look on her face.

"I guess I do owe you one for that."

"I want you to help me play a prank on my father." Karin watched as the boy blinked a couple of times.

"On your father?" Toshiro's voice strained.

"Yes... my father."

"I don't have any choice?"

"From the looks of it, no taicho."

Karin pulled out her cellphone and dialed the number on her phone. "Hi dad. I'm want to introduce you to my boyfriend so I'm bringing him by the house."

Toshiro watched as she quickly hung up the phone. "Wait... I don't feel comfortable lying to your dad about that kind of thing."

"He already thinks I'm bringing a guy I'm dating over. One of two things are going to happen. He's either going to embarrass you super bad with his immature antics or he's going to give you the lecture."

"Matsumoto..." The boy turned his head to look at Rangiku.

"Would you rather I tell Ukitake and the head captain about this?" The boy let out a sigh before scuffing the ground at this comment. "Plus... I would love to see either one of these things happen. You didn't exactly make my life easy did you?"

"You also want me to date her..." Toshiro grumbled. "I think he disappears whenever he feels Shinigami rieatsu around."

Karin frowned. "Toshiro... my dad can't see ghosts."

"We'll still hide our spiritual pressure so your nii-chan doesn't interrupt. I want to see what happens when my cute taicho shows up in a gigai to be interrogated by your father." Rangiku's comment caused Toshiro to glare at her which in turn caused her to laugh.

Toshiro felt nervous all the way to Urahara's shop as well as to the Kurosaki household. Karin opened the door and the two stepped in and he honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Of course... what he saw wasn't any of the ideas that had crossed his mind either. He could see the back of her father's head while he sat on the couch. Karin made to reach for his hand, only for him to suddenly feel the man's reaitsu's flare. Rangiku's eyes had to have been as wide as his.

He quickly moved around to the other side of the couch, trying to keep his shock hidden. "You!"

Isshin blinked a couple of times, the angry look on his face suddenly leaving. "Toshiro?"

"Dad... you know Toshiro?"

The man turned to look at his daughter. "You two really aren't dating, are you?"

Karin suddenly bristled. "How the hell would you know that!"

"I know him..." Isshin was interrupted by the small taicho of the tenth going off.

"You! I hate you! I really, really hate you!"

"Toshiro... calm down." The man turned back to look at the exasperated youth.

"You weren't there! You disappeared shoving off your stupid captains duties onto me. To what? Have a bunch of kids? To get married? To forget about us?"

"Kiddo..."

"Don't kiddo me! You of all people know I don't like that!" The boy took a deep breath. Despite this the words began to choke out. "You weren't there! You weren't there when I needed you!"

Rangiku took a deep breath. "Oh dear. This isn't good."

"I ended up dying! I was bleeding out all over the place! I was scared and I couldn't save Rangiku on my own. I couldn't save anybody let alone myself! At one point I wanted to die, but then I wanted to for some reason live! But I ended up dying instead! And you know what happened? I got turned into a zombie! If that wasn't messed up enough I was forced to attack other Shinigami and ended up being one of that stupid idiots experiments! I hate you! I really hate you!"

"Is that all Toshiro?"

"No! I can't focus. I can't stop thinking about what happened. I find myself tired of work though I can't explain why. For some reason Ukitake, Kyoraku and Matsumoto made some kind of plan to get me to watch your daughters class just so I could interact with my age group! I hate it!"

"Hate it is an understatement." Karin snapped. "You walked into the classroom as a Shinigami and caused a major disturbance in our class."

"So?"

"Toshiro?"

"What!"

"I think the uncles are right about you interacting with your own age group."

Toshiro swallowed, looking at his former captain almost as if he was betrayed. "Why?"

"Why do you avoid your normal routine, something that is so out of character for you? The only reason you ever did that was because you realized that something was missing." Isshin reached out and grabbed the front of the boy's shirt and pulled him into a hug. "Also... I'm really sorry that I couldn't be there to protect you."

"If you think I'm going to cry, I'm not going to."

"No... you've grown up enough to date my daughter if you wanted to. That's kind of a shock." Isshin let the boy go. "Still... tomorrow go through with their plan. You may realize there is merit to all of this. Also... you owe Karin an apology."

The boy sighed before bowing towards the girl. "I apologize for my thoughtless actions earlier Kurosaki."

"Apology accepted." Karin looked away.

Isshin looked over his shoulder at the girl, a rather annoyed look on his face. "I need to talk to you privately. And then the lady who is glaring at me murderously as well after that."