I don't own Bleach.

Studio began every 2:40 on Monday, the same as every other Monday any other week. This particular Monday was the start of a new semester, a new year, and a whole new set of problems for Nanao Ise to solve as an Architecture student.

"Alright now everyone write your name on an index card with the name of last semester's studio professor on it and the grade you received from them that semester and hand it back into me. This is to make sure that you've all come back for another final year here." announced the coordinator.

"Nanao! Hey Nanao! Hey!" whispered a busty blonde-haired girl from a studio bay.

"Hello Rangiku." replied Nanao "Are you actually going to put your real grade this time or are you going to lie like you did last year so you'd get to pick a better professor?"

"Oh shut it you, I'll do what I have to so I can still get out of here in one piece. Five years of this shit hole is enough to kill a person. After my first three, I was already sick of it. But of course you wouldn't know about that now would you Miss Nanaoperfectpants?" Rangiku retorted.

"I can't help that I actually do the work and get a good grade now can I? Maybe you should take my lead this year Rangiku and try not to sleep with the professor just to salvage your grade." she said flatly.

"Ouch, you know, that hurts. Why must you always accuse me of such perverse actions?" smiled Rangiku.

"Maybe because it's true?" said a tall, tattooed, red-headed man.

"Oh yea… I forgot about that, thanks Renji." replied Rangiku, smiling.

"Hey Nanao. How was your summer in Rome? Did you actually get to go out and see any of the sights or did you spend all of your time in a book looking at them?" asked Renji.

Nanao stared at Renji with her usual stoic face "…Thanks Renji, it was just fine, and tell you the truth I never opened a book the whole time I was there." Renji and Rangiku gasped.

"You've got to be kidding." they spoke simultaneously.

"No, wait that's not true. I read whenever I was on a bus going somewhere… it seems to me that whenever we did arrive at one particular place I always knew more than the tour guide did."

"Well that shouldn't be of such a shock to you. You know more than everybody all the time anyway. You actually remember the name of the guy who did that waterfall building…"

"Don't you mean Falling Water? And that would be Frank Lloyd Wright… good God Rangiku we've been here for five years and you STILL can't remember his name?" asked a wide-eyed Nanao.

"Uh, of course I can! I was just testing you… oh hey, we need to turn in our cards. Okay, I got a… B in Hitsugaya Toshirou's studio last semester." muttered Rangiku.

"B for me in Soifon's studio. Rangiku, I thought you managed to get a C? Your jury was pitiful…" inquired Renji with a raised brow.

As Rangiku tackled Renji to the ground over his snide comments, Nanao wrote down an A in Unohanna's studio. She gathered up the cards from her two friends and handed them to the coordinator.

"Now, settle down, settle down. We have a few changes this year. All of the usual Thesis Advisors have returned this year except for one, professor Ichimaru who has for some reason disappeared, along with professor Aizen. They will not be returning for at least this semester."

A pang of anxiety hit Nanao in the stomach. No! Ichimaru was who I had picked out at the end of last year as my advisor! Damn it! Now I'll have someone I have no idea what his teaching skills are like!

"For any of you who had signed up for professor Ichimaru or Aizen, I am sorry to say you will not be able to transfer out into another advisor's care, we have no other placements for you. We do have a capable replacement for the two of them, however, and he will be here shortly. I'll allow him his own introduction. Ah, here he is now." finished the coordinator.

Nanao looked over towards the door where a tall, built man wearing a tan coat and jeans stood leaning against the door frame. He had a kind face, but was not shaved and of all things had a pony tail to contain his hair. Who the hell is this guy?

"My apologies for my lateness class, I am Shunsui Kyoraku, the replacement for professor Ichimaru." said the man.

Rangiku nudged Nanao and whispered "Oooh, hot stuff there! I would have loved to have gotten that guy. You're so lucky Nanao!"

Nanao shrugged off Rangiku's comment Oh Rangiku, get your mind out of the gutter.

"Now then." the coordinator began again. "Advisors, please read off your students and take them to their separate studio bays to begin your class. Professor Kyoraku, you may go first."

"Thank you. Alright I have three of you; Kira, Izuru, Hinamori, Momo, and Ise, Nanao. Please come with me."

As the three students siphoned off with their professor, Renji and Rangiku waved goodbye to Nanao.

Izuru and Momo moved close to Nanao as they walked a few paces behind their professor.

"Hey, have you guys heard anything about this one? I heard he was a hard ass from Penn, doesn't take any crap from anybody and really gives you a tough time if you don't get your concept down in a week." said Izuru in a low voice.

"Yea? I heard he's like a modern day Louis Kahn, he's supposed to rock. You heard anything Nanao?" asked Momo.

Nanao only stared blankly at the back of her professor. "Nothing."

They quickly arrived in the last studio bay in the back of the room. "Alright, choose a spot and then begin moving all of your boards and supplies down. If you need help with anything, just ask me." Their professor said and he winked at Nanao. Nanao looked away, trying to ignore the gesture.

Izuru and Momo ran off to their old places to grab their belongings as Nanao went one bay over to where she was last year. Picking up her drafting board, she moved back to the other bay where her professor stood and walked to the corner near the window. Nanao struggled a little under the board's weight and managed to catch her foot on one of the desk legs. As she began to fall, a pair of hands reached out and balanced her. One hand tightly gripped her arm and another on the board kept her from crashing into the window and possibly breaking something. Nanao flushed with embarrassment and looked down to reassess her footing. The strong body of her professor stood behind her until she managed to stand up straight. As Nanao turned her head to look towards her professor's face, his head had managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and they wound up colliding foreheads.

"Ow!" chirped Nanao as she placed her drafting board on a table safely before clutching a red patch on her forehead.

"Nnh, ow." mumbled Kyoraku as he backed off from Nanao, a hand on his forehead as well.

An awkward moment passed before Izuru and Momo returned with their belongings. Nanao looked back at her professor. He was still rubbing his forehead. Izuru and Momo looked from Nanao to Kyoraku confused, noticing the two's matching red bumps.

Finally, Momo asked, "Uh, are you okay? What just –"

"It's nothing, I just smacked my head on my board when I was putting it down." interjected Nanao before Kyoraku could get a word in.

Izuru frowned at Nanao. He didn't believe her, something was up. He decided he would shrug it off and ask about it later. Momo, taking the hint from Izuru decided the same.

They all stood there for a moment, no one saying a word when Kyoraku decided to break the silence.

"So! This is your thesis year. Let's get started shall we? Like I said, I'm Shunsui Kyoraku. A little about me, well, back when I was doing my college time at Penn, I did my thesis project based on Louis Kahn's Embassy in Bangladesh. I also got my Master's from Penn in which I acquired an extensive knowledge on many of the buildings Kahn had produced. I can be a little rough around the edges at times, and may even snap a comment or two at you, but I am not harmful. I can assure you, my jeering at you is merely my way of testing my students. But enough about me. Names. I know you all know each other, but considering I'm new here, I would like for you to introduce yourselves. You can start." Kyoraku pointed to Momo.

"Oh! Uh… Okay, uhm, I'm Momo Hinamori." said Momo, blushing.

"Would you care to tell us anything else? Perhaps a favorite architect? Style? Something more about you, please." asked Kyoraku.

Momo thought for a moment, then replied, "I would have to say Gehry. I love post-modern, and his forms are totally awesome. It's really free-form."

Kyoraku smirked, "Thank you Momo. I'm 'totally' glad I asked you."

Izuru chuckled and Momo frowned at him.

Kyoraku looked at Izuru. "How about you emo pretty boy? Why don't you introduce yourself?"

The smile on Izuru's face quickly disappeared. "Izuru Kira. I'm not emo, and I'm intrigued by Scarpa. I tend to think like him I believe, and I can write with both hands at the same time like him, too." said Izuru feeling proud.

Kyoraku smirked again, "Well I hope that can come of some use to you in ahem other activities. I've seen some of your work and it seems that it's all for your 'own enjoyment'."

Momo laughed this time and Izuru looked angrily at Kyoraku, who kept a very cool expression on his face. Nanao had stared at her professor through all of his interjections. Appalled by his comments, she huffed to herself. Kyoraku noticed and decided on his next target.

"And what about you miss…?"

"Nanao Ise." she spoke coolly. "I enjoy Aalto's work and believe that his principles on classical architecture becoming modern architecture generate extremely powerful and simple forms."

"Oh, so you happen to know something about architecture, hm? Well I hope you're going to be concentrating on more than just his furniture…" Kyoraku grinned.

Izuru chuckled again, but before Kyoraku finished Nanao interjected tartly, "Well at least Aalto has an actual system of form instead of the most random geometric shapes placed throughout a plan like Kahn."

Izuru and Momo stared wide-eyed at Nanao. They both were thinking the same thing. Here we go… Kyoraku cocked his head to the side slightly, "And that's what you believe?"

"Evidently. His architecture makes no sense and it has no meat to it. It's like he was back in kindergarten playing with wooden blocks."

The verbal tennis match began, the ball back in Kyoraku's court.

"Apparently your closed mind has yet to grasp the higher technique of what Kahn was trying to display in his plans and elevations. He was even a master in sectional thinking; the experiences he created between floors of the building—"

"…Have no coherency. Aalto makes direct visual connections and useful forms on the interior with centralized circulation that allows for –"

"And what the hell do you think Kahn did in the Embassy in Bangladesh? Nanao, you won't be able to win this argument." he said coolly, spiking the verbal ball onto her side of the court.

Kyoraku continued, "Kahn's circulation is all about centralization of the circulation to pass through the main part of the embassy, where the meeting rooms are. As for his 'random geometric shapes', each one holds meaning in a bigger theory that extends to each unique program in each space. The extrusions of points based on each of these shapes forms a new and unique space no matter where you travel inside. I've been there Nanao, have you?" He pulled out a picture from his notebook that was set on the desk next to him.

He tossed out a gorgeous black and white photo of the interior of the Embassy in Bangladesh. She gawked at the photo, having never realized how beautiful it did look. She stood speechless, shaking slightly, having never been outdone before in an argument over architects. Izuru and Momo still looked wide-eyed between the two. Kyoraku merely smiled at Nanao and said,

"I didn't expect you to know everything about him, but I'm moderately impressed you did have something to say unlike these two over here. Thank you for trying."

Nanao dropped her head slightly and sat on the stool nearby. Kyoraku continued on.

"Now where were we… oh yes, this is your thesis year. I hope to do just as well as Ichimaru would be doing if he were here, however considering the state of you three and your knowledge, I plan on revamping it slightly and do better than he would be doing. We will be retracing theory in this studio; we will not be concentrating heavily on green design, although it should still be inherent in your projects. Now, for Wednesday I want…"

Nanao drifted off into space as she listened to her professor speak. That's the first time someone has actually been able to talk me down. He made me feel like an idiot… why I oughtta… there will be other times Nanao, take it easy. Just dazzle him with the things you can do in studio, like modeling. Yea, that'll shut him up.