Title : Tensai

Author : Dùlin

Character : Hitsugaya Toushirou

Rating : G, plus a few strong words.

Warnings : ... Uh ... I dunno. A bit of angstiness, maybe ? Usual for me. Sort of a past missing scene.

Disclaimer : BLEACH belongs to Tite Kubo and whoever it is that makes the anime. Which are, as you might have noticed, not me. This might actually prove to be for the better.

A/N : I had to write it. is snuggled to death by the bunny

"Anyone knows why we always get saddled with the Rukongai brats ?"

"How come there's so many of them anyway ? Must be something wrong with the selection process or something ..."

"See that one over there ? The kid with white hair ? Hitsu-whatever ?"

"Man, he's short !"

"Passed with flying colors. I even heard they're talking about bumpin' him up a year."

"What the hell ? There's no way they'd allow him to do that, is there ?"

Histugaya ignored the whispers and the stares, as he'd been doing ever since the beginning of the school year. The truth was, he was bored out of his mind. Classes had stopped being challenging a week after they'd started and all of his classmates were Sereitei-born air-headed morons. At least Hinamori had other Rukongai people in her class. Hitsugaya knew that there had been other people from Rukongai who'd passed the exam, but somehow he'd ended up being the only one in that particular group, the so-called first-year advanced group.

If this was advanced, Hitsugaya couldn't help wondering what the hell the other groups were learning.

There had been an influx of Rukongai candidates in the shinigami academies these past years. Never before had so many souls with a high spiritual power been detected in Rukongai. Hitsugaya could only guess that there'd been some sort of catastrophe in an highly spiritual area that had caused many people to die and be sent to Soul Society around the same time. Then again, the teachers were probably glad about the new recruits. The Sereitei-born candidate who'd taken the exam before him had had to be explained how to materialize his own spiritual power.

The whispers died as the teacher came in.

"Silence ! We will be doing a practical kidou lesson today. We will go down to the firing range. Quietly, if you please !"

Everybody went down the corridor, talking under their breath excitedly. Once in the firing range the students sat down and peered at the targets at the other end of the field like they'd never seen anything like it before. Hitsugaya rolled his eyes and yawned.

"All right, we've studied the theory of hadou in class, and you all master at least a few spells in the first ten. This practical will help you focus your energy. At my signal, choose a spell, say the incantation and try and hit your target. Please form a line."

Hitsugaya took his place in the line along with everyone else and sat down. For that first exercise, they would be casting the spells one by one so the teacher could correct them. The target was some ten feet away. You'd have to try really hard to miss it.

"Hadou, fourth spell ! Byakurai !"

... Or apparently not that hard, Hitsugaya thought with a wince as bolts of white lightning flew all over the place, leaving the targets pretty much intact. There were shouts and applause every time someone managed to graze one, which happened only twice before Hitsugaya's turn came. No one tried to use another spell, either, everyone dutifully parotting the same incantation.

"Histugaya-kun, please stand up."

Histugaya did and stepped forward, his eyes locked on the target in front of him.

"You think shorty can see the target from where he is ?"

"Yeah, if he misses, he might hit us in the foot or something."

"Either that, or he'll shoot himself in the foot !"

"Hadou, sixty-third spell ! Souren soukatsui !"

The twin rays of blue fire made three of the targets explode. Hitsugaya's arm was shaking a bit, muscles convulsing after having been subjectcted to the unexpected amount of spiritual power, but the sight of all his classmates gaping at him was worth every little bit of pain.

"... Please come see me after class, Hitsugaya-kun," the teacher said. "We need to talk."

Histugaya nodded and sat back down. Somehow, he wasn't feeling so bored anymore.