Night
Kai and Ito were both lying in their own bed, preparing to go to sleep for tomorrow. Kai was busy playing with Kurenai while Ito was reading a Seireitei bulletin magazine.
"You ever wonder whats up with Shido? He's changed quite a lot from when we first came here.", Ito suddenly asked.
"Whats wrong with him? He said he's fine?"
Ito looked at Kai with concern in his eyes. Shido's behaviour change was very subtle, but Ito was the first to notice it. It was almost as if he was being influenced by someone.
"Shido said his roommate was Jinriyu, right?Let's go spy on them quickly. I'm worried about what Jinriyu is doing to him."
Kai thought Ito was being a little paranoid. But thinking about it carefully, Shido had been zoning out an awful lot, especially during an ongoing fight. Eventually Kai caved in and agreed to go check him out, but just this one time.
The two would go outside, and stand in front of the wall where the windows of all the male dormitories were. There were at least, 10 floors all with windows that were either lit up or turned off.
Kai went through his phone and said,
"Shido said his room was 957, so he's on the 9th floor... Then using some quick math, his room must be one of those two windows over there."
He pointed towards a pair of windows, with one having its lights on, and the other with it off. If the lights were on, then that meant the people inside were still awake, and if they weren't it meant the opposite.
Ito then suggested, "Message Shido and check if he's awake. If he is then he'll surely respond."
Kai sent a quick message asking if Shido was awake, but there was no response even after 15 minutes. This confirmed that he was surely asleep.
"Wait- if he's asleep, then do we still even need to check up on him?", Kai asked.
"Are you stupid? What if he's drugging him to sabotage his match? You and I both know, that he will deffinatly fight tomorrow. This is our only chance to catch him in the act."
Kai thought that Ito was being a little too extreme and far fetched with this idea. But he had already come this far, so he might as well see how it goes. Kai then asked,
"How do we even get up there? If I try to do it, I'll make too much noise and we'll wake everyone up. I don't know what kind of punishment Grandmaster Fujinishin would give me, and I don't plan on finding out."
Smirking, Ito patted him on the back.
"Don't worry. I've been training all my life for situations like this."
Ito jumped against the wall, and started to run upwards without even making a sound.
Occasionally, he would jump against a window to show off. Eventually he would make it to Shido's window, where he would see Jinriyu and Shido, both in bed and fast asleep.
He looked back down at Kai as he gave him a thumbs up, signifying everything was okay.
Kai looked a little relived but then he started to panic while waving his hands.
"What's wrong with him?"
Although Ito hadn't noticed it yet, he was slowly slipping until he eventually fell. The crash from his fall was so loud that it alerted everyone who was asleep.
One guy opened up his window to see what the racket was for, but all he saw was an empty dirt crater. The two had already quickly left.
The next day
As Shido was walking to the arena to meet up with Kai and the others, he came across Yuki who was walking in the opposite direction. The two would quietly walk past each other, until Shido told her,
"Your going in the wrong direction?"
She suddenly paused, before quickly turning around and speed walking past Shido.
"That girl is.. surprisingly normal."
In the arena
The crowd was hyped up as this would be the last day for the competition between the first years. After the fight between Kai and Hikone, everyone was excited at what today would bring.
In response to this energy, Shunsui Kyōraku would take the centre of the stage.
"We're all ready for today right? There aren't that many first years left, so today is going to be a little short... but i'm certain that these students will surpass the expectations which have been set thus far."
The crowd cheered at the opening speech.
"Can Shido Shido Tatsuya of Class 1-1 enter the arena!"
Shido's hate-filled eyes were stuck on the display. He was looking at someone from amongst the crowd, but nobody could tell who. A powerful slap to his shoulder suddenly broke him out of his trance, as he then saw Kai smiling at him.
"It's time for you to go. You'll win right?"
Shido smiled back as he said, "Yeah!"
Once he entered the Colosseums battle field, he wasn't at all surprised to see Jinriyu Kenzo at the other side of the arena already waiting for him. He lightly waved while making his usual snake like smile at him.
"It seems fate has brought us together like this, or maybe I influenced this match up? Not like you would ever know."
Shido prepared to draw his Zanpakutō with a hint of aggressive malice in his eyes.
"We came here to fight, didn't we? Stop trying to talk your way out of this, and draw your sword."
Jinriyu laughed which confused everyone who watched.
"You never answered my question from back then. Do you have an answer for me now?"
Back then when Shido asked Yuki about why she came to Shino academy, he never got an answer. The reason as to why Shido asked Yuki of all people, was to check if he made the right decision coming here. Kai wanted to protect others, Shinten wanted to pull his family out of destruction, Ito was a pervert, Hikone wanted to become a Soul Reaper after being inspired by people he looked up too.
But amongst everyone in the school, there were two people who never made their goals clear. Jinriyu and Yuki. It would be right to call them two sides of the same coin, both were strong in their own right, but one was clearly more malevolent than the other.
Shido's own goal was revenge against a certain man. A secret which he did not tell even Kai, but something Jinriyu had deduced almost instantly. Against who? No one apart from the two of them knew. But now Shido wasn't so sure if revenge was what he wanted.
Sure he could kill him, but then what came after? If others found out about what he would do, then he could end up serving a sentence in Muken.
Was revenge worth it? Is what Shido asked himself constantly. The hate from which he sustained had almost disappeared, but now there was only one step left to take.
He raised his middle finger towards Jinriyu, while expressing intense emotions of rejection and rage.
"Fuck you! Go shove your plan, up your ass!"
Jinriyu who was the target of such profanity started to emit his spiritual pressured as his rage towards Shido started to increase.
"Ha!? So you too were just another enemy of mine? And here I was thinking I could relate to you! I'll kill you were you stand!"