Showoff[Byakuya, Hiroe]

"Another?"

A dumbfounded expression dominated the young woman's countenance. To be certain, it was still a shock in and of itself that Byakuya had brought her here. Upon waking up, she immediately assumed her classmates brought her here, assumed they had a laugh at her expense. No, it was Byakuya all along. Contrary to her expectations, he hadn't offered a single word of disappointment.

He was reassured her, told her to be proud of her Shikai, and revealed that he was made aware of her presence here by someone else... but who? Hiroe automatically eliminated Ajora. Her favorite classmate usually kept to herself. Had it been Kaito, maybe? Nah... he practically hated nobles. It was worth inquiring at least to figure it out.

"Thank you, Byakuya-Sama. I am honored by your praise. I tried my best there, but unfortunately, as you can see, it's not a finished product. I clearly need to learn how to control my momentum... if you don't mind my asking, who spoke to you about me?"

"Kuchiki. Please, do not refer to me by my first name," Byakuya said. That brought back quite a few old memories: the disrespect of a certain orange haired Shinigami. Though not entirely a bad set of memories, anything involved Ichigo Kurosaki was frustrating, especially recent reports... Either way, he had no interest in allowing another to call him by his first name, so he was going to stop that now.

"Kaito," Byakuya said. "He did not request anonymity."

Byakuya turned away and gestured for Hiroe to follow. Due to her injuries, he slowed his normal pace to prevent her from over exerting herself, at least for a while. Once enough time passed, he would return to normal.

"I have been searching for students worthy of extra lessons with me," Byakuya said, talking as they walked. "As I told Kaito, those I choose have no obligation to accept, but if you do, expect exhaustion. Is this something you would be interested in?"

"Kuchiki... right! Sorry about that."

Hiroe respected his wishes, quickly shifting into the proper way of addressing him. Of course, once that matter had been addressed, Hiroe's eyes shot open the moment Byakuya revealed who it was that recommended her. Kaito? A soft shade of pink tinted her pale cheeks as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. She was honestly surprised to hear that. She expected a teacher or some other unknown individual, but Kaito? Hiroe was flattered beyond compare.

As Byakuya turned around to walk, gesturing for the woman to follow, Hiroe walked beside the former captain, offering her undivided attention as he spoke. Ah, so that's why he was playing the role of spectator in those classes. He was looking for potential students, and Hiroe seemed to be on his list. He said they had no obligation to accept, but Hiroe felt it would be an act of foolishness not to train with a storied captain whose accolades spoke for themselves, whose battle experience transcended her own by several orders of magnitude. Exhaustion? Heh, Hiroe dealt with what it felt like to fear death. She wasn't going to let exhaustion tear he down.

"Yes, Kuchiki-Sama. I would be honored to train under you. Exhaustion doesn't bother me one bit. It's a necessary step to improvement, after all."

If truth be told, Byakuya was expecting more resistance to his offer. He thought she'd ask a few questions, or even have another she may already be training with. Trying to uphold two training schedules with different instructors, while also taking classes at the academy, could be difficult and dangerous depending on the intensity of the training. A new training regimen was not something to take lightly. She was either confident or foolish. Near the entrance of the academy, Byakuya stopped and turned to Hiroe, pulling a peice of paper from his shirt pocket.

"Here," Byakuya said, handing the paper over. It was instructions on how to get to his manor, but specifically on how to enter his training grounds, not go through the main gate. "We will begin next week, Monday, three in the afternoon to avoid your class time. Prepare yourself, remove any scheduling conflicts. I'll see you then."