Once Ren arrived at the same crossroads from yesterday, he was confused to see there was no sight of Akane nearby.
'Strange… Is she sleeping? But I don't even know if spirits like her need to sleep…'
As if to answer his doubts, he suddenly heard a voice nearby.
"You came again. Good Morning, Ren nii-chan."
Though he could hear her voice, Ren wasn't seeing her anywhere near him. He asked her, unsure if it was a prank.
"It's Akane-chan, right? Are you hiding? I don't see you…"
"Haha, what do you mean by that? I'm right here?"
Despite her words, Ren frowned slightly as he still couldn't find her. Thankfully, he quickly caught some movement atop one of the walls close by.
She seemed to be waving towards him, indicating her presence, but he could only see a transparent blur moving back and forth.
'This isn't right. Yesterday, I was able to see her clearly, and I even patted her head. I have a bad feeling about this…'
Every explanation he could come to as his mind raced for an answer simply didn't bode well for him.
"This time you're here pretty early. Did you come to play with me?"
He heard her voice once more as the blur jumped down from the wall. It was even possible to hear the sound of her feet hitting the ground, and he noticed that while a small amount of dust was blown away, there was no shadow where she was supposedly standing.
'Well, it's best if I simply fake it for now, else she might get sad again.'
Thinking up to this point, Ren smiled and responded, looking at where he imagined her head and eyes would be, "Today I didn't come to play… but instead, I bought you a gift!"
Akane seemed to be a little down when she heard the first part of his words — though Ren didn't notice that —, but after he brought up the fact he had a gift for her, he had a safe bet her eyes widened in surprise and were probably sparkling in anticipation, judging from the sudden erratic movements from the blur in front of him.
'Heh, that's cute. It's a shame I'm not seeing her right now.'
He felt a little regretful, but dismissed it as he knelt on one knee and held out the two flowers, while also explaining his previous reasoning.
"This one on the left is a white rose, and it means to be innocent. The other one is a pink rose which symbolizes happiness."
Ren paused for a moment, before continuing with a bittersweet tone. He remembered her appearance from yesterday, with a gruesome wound going down from her shoulder, and what seemed to be dried blood flowing down her head and over her left eye.
He could imagine the fear and suffering Akane felt during her last moments, and what kind of isolation she must've been in afterwards since no one could see her, wouldn't even hear if she talked to them or react if she touched them. That on top of having a weird chain suddenly appearing on her chest as she would've watched her own dead body be taken away along with her parents'.
'That's not something a little girl should ever go through…'
At that moment, Ren somewhat understood why Ichigo in the original series always made an effort to help any and all spirits he came across, and was probably doing the same thing over here as well.
"Believe me or not, I once felt the same kind of pain you went through… well, it's not exactly the same, but it was very close. I hope you do not let this kind of thing ruin your childhood, and that you can be happy in the future, despite everything."
Though he hoped to change it somehow, Ren knew that she would probably die after being attacked by a hollow — the same one that would later destroy Ichigo's house on the fateful night —, which he wasn't sure he would be able to do anything against, or even when it would happen. He never felt so powerless before.
Before he drowned in these kinds of thoughts, however, Ren suddenly felt a tug on his hands as the flowers he held started floating away, spinning and twirling around.
"Woow, these are so pretty~ Thank you!"
Ren smiled awkwardly at the blurry blob jumping around, 'At least she sounds happy…', he thought while letting out a sigh. It seemed he was the only one feeling sad here.
"Hm? There's a note too!"
Akane's words drew his attention once more, as he realized he forgot to read the note.
"Let's see… 'This onii-chan called Ren likes to pretend he's the coolest guy around, but he was worried about you. If you feel sad, just tease him to death. I guarantee it'll be fun ;) ~ Yumiko'... ?"
When she finished reading, she looked back at Ren with a question, only to start laughing right after.
"Hahaha, you're blushing, Ren onii-chan!"
'That woman…I'll settle this score later.', He gritted his teeth, calming down after a moment as a sharp glint flashed through his eyes. He would definitely take her offer and pay a visit later, even if only to wash away this shame.
Glancing at his watch, he decided it was best to leave now, so Ren dismissed the plans forming on his head, smiling at Akane — what he hoped was her, anyway — while standing up once again.
"Well, it's good to see you're happy, but I need to go to school now, so I'll be leaving, okay?"
To his words, she stopped laughing and went silent for a moment, but eventually responded with a cheerful voice.
"Okay. Thanks for the gift, onii-chan."
He saw the flowers move, settling perfectly inside the jar by the lamp post, before saying goodbye.
"Bye, Akane-chan. I'll stop by when I can, but you have to take care of yourself until then."
"Got it~"
He could imagine what she might look like right now, so Ren left with a smirk, also remembering the time where he spent most of his week with the bunch of kids in the orphanage.
'Some things never change, huh.'
[Karakura High School, inside class 1-3…]
Ren leaned back on his chair, pondering over the books open on top of his desk. The sun was already out by now, and he could feel the warmth coming through the windows as he looked at the ceiling, lost in thought.
The rest of the way here was not as eventful, and he soon arrived at the school gates with a decent amount of time to spare, despite his little side quest earlier. A teacher called Kagine, who he later learned was his physical education teacher, was already there by the time he arrived, making Ren wonder if he was put there because of yesterday's incident.
Back to the task at hand, Ren mused to himself, knowing there wasn't anyone else nearby.
"Overall, the curriculum is pretty similar. I shouldn't have any major trouble reapplying what I still remember from my own time at high school, though I will need to study properly from time to time in order to do well on the rankings. I'll also be able to deal with Japanese History, Language, and Literature, which I was a little worried about before. English will be a breeze, though."
This time, there was a real need to do well academically. He couldn't afford to fail the year and distance himself from his best chance at survival, much less get expelled.
"There is a problem, however."
He corrected his slouched posture and looked at the books again, a confused look in his eyes.
"For some reason, the more I look at these, the more I get this feeling… like I already did this before…"
It was hard to explain, even for him. He could sometimes even remember a page's content before ever opening it, and this didn't happen just once. It was too much of a stretch to call it a coincidence.
"Well, I'm not sure this is actually a problem, in any case. But that doesn't mean I don't have any guesses."
Having read many works that depicted these kinds of situations before, Ren could think of a few possibilities that were very likely close to the truth.
"It's probably safe to assume this is related to my reincarnation. I would bet these are Ashikawa Ren's memories and experiences that are somehow being accessed by me now."
That was hardly something bad, from what he knew, so Ren at most felt a little confused, though he reckoned he would soon get used to this.
Since it was something he had no control about, he decided to just ignore it, as it didn't bring any harm.
As he came to this choice, some of his fellow classmates started arriving, and while he greeted them normally, Ren didn`t chat with them for long like he did when Ichigo, Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro arrived.
Knowing his alone time was over, he closed the books and put them back inside his bag, then waited for the teacher to arrive and for the classes to start.
[...]
Misato Ochi was actually a very good teacher, all things considered. She was charismatic, energetic, and somehow even the rowdier members of the class started paying attention to what she said, even if a little.
'For someone that only recently graduated, she is doing great. I initially thought I'd be in for some extra study in my free time, but if it's going to be like this, I think I can chill a little more than expected…'
Ren watched as she explained each topic attentively, while also pulling the students into the discussion. That in turn made them more engaged and interested in asking questions about their doubts, which he felt was fundamental for properly learning things from a teacher.
Remembering how she was in the anime and the way the students behaved, Ren smiled to himself. Even he got pulled along by her, despite it only being their second day as teacher and class.
This could be attributed to him making an extra effort to quell any questions he had in class. He had repeatedly raised his hands up as the class progressed, and he could see from her reaction that she seemed grateful for him asking things, since his behavior influenced the other students to do the same. Well, not everything was perfect, since while he noticed she was probably feeling proud, by the time he raised his hands for the 13th time she already looked exasperated.
"And this is how we make use of the formula to solve the problem. A-any questions? Haah, of course… ask away, Ashikawa."
Ren felt a little guilty hearing the resignation in her voice when she turned around and saw he had raised his hand, once again.
'She almost sounds like a warrior accepting his death… I feel kinda bad. Well, only a little bit.'
Ren thought with a wry smile, but before he could ask, the loud hum of the bell echoed through the school building, signaling the start of their lunch break.
Misato let out a sigh of relief, but it ended up being a little louder than she initially intended, causing the class to laugh at her reaction.
"Good for you, Sensei."
"Saved just in time, hehe."
"Fight!"
A very light blush formed on her face hearing the student's comments, but she quickly hid it under the guise of adjusting her glasses. She looked at them with a smile.
"Okay guys, this is all for now. We'll continue next week. Also, please give me some mercy next time, Ashikawa."
While her last words made it sound like she was annoyed, her tone indicated otherwise.
Ren scratched his cheeks and answered with an awkward smile, "Yeah, sorry about that. I'll keep it in mind."
"Haha, there's no need to be sorry, you asked a lot of interesting questions. I can see you're smart, and probably studied the content beforehand, which most people don't do. If you have any other things to ask, feel free to look for me anytime."
To her words, he nodded, "Okay. Thanks, Misato-sensei."
Since she did say to call her however they preferred, after he had asked somewhere around seven or eight questions, Ren started referring to her as Misato-sensei. It was initially as a joke, but since it stuck and she didn't seem to mind, he decided to keep it this way.
After that, she said her goodbyes and left as the students moved on with their arrangements for lunch. Some of them brought a few desks together and sat to eat, others went to buy something from the cafeteria or from one of the vending machines inside the campus, while others simply hung around, not particularly eating anything.
Ren was of the second group. He learnt from a young age that one should never skip on their meals if possible. Eating and resting properly were the only way to make the best out of their training. Being that he wasn't really a fan of physical training, the thought of having to do it for longer simply because he didn't eat properly was horrible to him, so he never missed any meals since then.
After getting something called yakisoba bread and a drink from the cafeteria, he went back to the classroom.
Once inside, he noticed Tatsuki and Orihime eating together and chatting about something. The other girls from their group were not in the classroom at the moment, and Ren saw this as an opportunity to introduce himself to the two.
'This is my chance. Let's see how it goes.'
—
Extra Titles: ("Question maniac.", "Ren actually talks to the air", "Bro says it would be easy, but tortures the teacher with questions…", "A weird feeling of deja vu", "Ren prepares himself to actually talk with girls.", "It's not like they would say 'Ew', right? …Right?")