Chapter 1 – Fight Club
Note: I don't own Bleach. If I did, I wouldn't be posting of FAN fiction, now would I?
"Just help me understand," the teen breathed hard.
The girl looked at the orange haired boy. He was expecting her to answer, and he expected it now.
Rukia didn't mean to catch Ichigo of guard, but in his rare moments of utter sweetness, he made her heart melt. He did so again just now. And she did the stupidest thing ever – kissed him. She pulled away quickly and apologized, blushing as she did so.
Now he was seeking an explanation. She owed him one: when he was infatuated with her, she ignored him and dated his friendly rival, Renji. And now that he has moved on and accepted her as just a close friend, she did these things to him. Now that she was thinking about it, ever since Ichigo had stopped chasing her, his interests in girls altogether waivered. Did I really put him off that bad?
"I… I'm sorry," Rukia whispered, but Ichigo could hear her.
They were sitting in his small room, doing homework. Rukia didn't even recall what Ichigo just did that drove her to his lips. She glanced at his face: he was in shock and seemed a little bit disgusted.
"Please, don't ever do that again," he asked without changing his expression.
Rukia was shocked: his answer seemed a bit hostile, though his voice was relatively calm. She glanced down at the books of the floor, then saw Ichigo's hand as he grabbed his pen and continued working. Rukia felt relief that he hadn't just kicked her out of his home. It gave her a little hope.
Ichigo was still a little pissed at Rukia for her unexpected and unwanted kiss, but the soothing atmosphere of the club compelled him to forget. Chad and Inoue was with him, and they laughed and talked about little things like good friends do.
The whole bunch-of-friends concept was still a bit new to him, but he rather welcomed it. It did require that he pay more attention to what he said, and he hated it. But in the end, he had to admit, he'd never return to his loner life with Chad helping him out in a fight now and then. And they always started over my hair!
It was strange to see Inoue in a night club, but then again, he wasn't a regular himself. People would stare at him regularly, but he ignored it. If people had a problem with how he looked, fuck 'em.
"You look tense, Kurosaki-san," Inoue commented after he had grown silent.
"Huh? Sorry, was just thinking," he replied with a weak smile.
"Okay," she said without asking out further.
That's what he loved about Inoue: she always accepted his vague answers and also accepted the fact that he didn't really open up to anybody. Everyone knew about his mom's murder and he witnessing it, but no one ever asked him about it. Not after he lost it in class a few years back.
The huge problem was that Ichigo didn't have anything he could share with anybody except anger and loneliness. Recently, the loneliness had been taken care of, but his anger at life still remained. He didn't want to be angry, but he couldn't manage to change his mind set.
"C'mon, let's get outta here," Ichigo said as he got up.
"Yeah, I have to get home," Inoue said.
"Me too," Chad said somberly.
Ichigo didn't mean to go home, he just felt that the club didn't help him forget, despite how the three of them relaxed mere minutes earlier. So at the door, the three parted ways and Ichigo found himself walking in no particular direction.
He tried to keep his mind blank and just enjoyed the evening air. It failed though: all that he could think about was his anger. His anger for having his mother being taken away, his anger for being bullied over something as trivial as his hair color and his newest anger: him discovering he was gay.
He knew he shouldn't be angry, but he thought that it made him even more not normal than he already was. He'd catch himself having extremely erotic and inappropriate thoughts about his male friends, and though his denial period was swift, he still cringed at the thought 'I am gay'.
He stopped suddenly and looked around. The streets were empty, but not threatening. Somewhere to his right he could hear sounds of people cheering almost as if a sports game was taking place in the non-existent stadium in town.
Fuck it, wanna find something I believe.
Ichigo marched in the direction of the noise, on a mission to something not even he knew what it was. He just wanted to find something to hold on to, and he had to find it now. Ichigo didn't know what to expect but the source of the noise caught him off guard.
He was in the parking lot of the local mall, and in the middle of it was an organized street fighting tournament taking place. A large crowd of people was standing around a steel cage containing two fighters going at it.
Ichigo felt excitement rushing through him: it's not what he was looking for, but something like this, you don't get to see every day. He knew it was an organized event by the sponsors' logos and banners everywhere and he remember seeing the poster for it somewhere on a notice board, but had completely forgotten about it.
He squeezed himself through the crowd, and even though his slender frame easily slid through, some people still moaned in discomfort and annoyance. Ichigo was awed by the two fighters in the cage. One was an extremely tanned blonde woman and the other a man in his late twenties with curly brown hair.
As the matched progressed, it was evident that the man had the upper hand, but seemed a bit uninterested. The woman also didn't show much emotion and there was a cold, professional atmosphere to their fight.
The fight ended with the man conceding and the crowd booing playfully. From what Ichigo could deduce from nearby chatter, theirs was a practice round and they were apparently good friends.
"They both are part of the team representing Karakura," one man said to another, and Ichigo's interest was prickled by the prospect of a street fighting society in town.
"Who's the girl? Fucking hot!" the other man said. Ichigo could believe that normal men found her attractive – she had breasts the size of his head.
"That's Halibel, one mean bitch," was the reply.
The name sounded almost mystical to Ichigo and he was even more intrigued by the whole concept.
A scantily dressed woman entered the ring after Halibel's fight and announced that the official match would start where the sixth position of the Espada was being challenged. The people seemed to quiet down as two men stepped into the cage.
The first, a large and terrifying black man, was introduced as Leroux Zommari. He flexed his muscles in acknowledgement and gave a satisfying grin when the crowd cheered in anticipation.
The next man caught Ichigo's attention far more than any other man ever could. He had electric blue hair styled into a spiky trend; he was ripped, but looked a lot more natural than the Leroux character. The orange haired boy felt his heart skip several beats as he took in the man; it was like a vivid dream of a man in real, flesh form. Ichigo was so absorbed by the image of this man that he completely skipped the part where the woman announced him.
Ichigo was annoyed with himself momentarily for missing it, but when the men stepped into position to start fighting, he found himself cheering along with the rest of the crowd and quickly adopted their style of chanting in unison.
Ichigo felt sorry for the blue haired man: his opponent seemed really strong and Ichigo hoped that the fight didn't end too bad for him.
He was pleasantly surprised when he realized Blue was keeping up and Ichigo was even sure was beating Leroux. He felt him smile internally for drooling over the man even before he knew he could fight. It was strange – it felt vaguely like butterflies. Tsk, what crap. Ichigo thought he was a fool for thinking he could feel something like that without ever meeting the guy, but he had to admit, Blue sure was appealing.
Eventually the match ended in Blue's favor and Ichigo was subsequently even more awed by the man. Even the cruel and sick laugh that escaped his smirking mouth when he gave Leroux the finishing blow didn't disturb Ichigo nearly as much as it should have.
Disappointment crept over Ichigo as Blue left the cage after his victory was announced – yet again missing his name as he stared at the guy like a zombie. Leroux had gained consciousness, but still had to be dragged out by three other men. The rest of the night passed with more practice matches and one or two ranked matches, though none were for a rank among the Espada.
When people started heading home and the fighting had stopped, Ichigo decided that he had better also get home, though he didn't want to. He wanted to see more, and he wanted to see Blue.
He was walking up a dark alleyway when he noticed several men closing in on him. They seemed a bit drunk and snickered as they cornered Ichigo.
"Yo, dude. What's with the hair? Looks pretty shit," one said and the others followed with laughter.
Fuck, not again.
"Haven't seen you around here. You new to fighting, kid?" the man continued.
"No," Ichigo snapped back. He wasn't, he was just used to receiving help from Chad.
"Oh, interesting. Come, show us what you can do," he said with a sneer.
This wasn't a good situation. The man was about double Ichigo's size and from his experience in fights, he knew the others wouldn't merely standby and watch. His heart was racing as the men got closer to him, and as he felt himself pressing into the wall behind him, utter fear crept in.
He hadn't always been reluctant to fight, usually defending himself even when he knew there was no chance to succeed. His pride was very important to him, and due to his temper, he would quickly defend his it. But lately, he didn't seem to care that much. It seemed to help too – he had realized how many fights he could've avoided if he didn't strike first.
But now he couldn't avoid the inevitable, and he felt very afraid. He balled his fists, ready to retaliate when the man would come at him.
"What're you guys doing?" a voice came from behind.
Everybody was caught off guard and quickly ran off. Ichigo thought it strange that a group of men would run off by one little question, but he wouldn't know – he was staring at the ground.
Even when the man stepped in front of him, he didn't look up.
"Hey, kid, you OK?" the man asked, seemingly concerned.
The voice, now not drowned by angst, sounded melodic and beautiful. It had a certain edge to it and it inclined Ichigo to face his savior.
Blue gave him a brilliant smile when he saw Ichigo was all right. Ichigo was unable to speak, and he thought he must have looked like an idiot for just standing there. Blue didn't seem to mind and just looked at him.
"What's yer name, kid?" Blue asked him.
"Ichigo," he mumbled. He felt embarrassed by it.
"Cute." the man laughed and patted him on his shoulder. "Come, you shouldn't wander these streets after a night like this."
Blue stepped away and motioned for him to follow. They walked back to parking lot.
"Where are we going?" Ichigo asked nervously. Even though he drooled over the man, he wasn't sure if he could trust him.
"To our 'dojo', if you could call it that. I just want to get my things, then I'll drop you off where you want to be."
"I didn't catch you name," Ichigo said, feeling a bit excited that he had a chance to hear it from Blue personally.
"Call me Grimmjow, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez."
