Hi! This is my first story and it's based on a rough plot I cam up with while watching the episode. Reviews are loved and thanks for reading! I've edited some parts as I was reading through them and winced when I realized that there were quite a few mistakes. I apologise to anyone who read it before it was edited. PLEASE REVIEW!
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Noe looked on dispassionately at the beginning fight between her orange-haired foster brother and the group of skateboarding gangsters. Her arms were folded across her chest, one of them still wrapped up in a cast that was covered in colourful marker-made signatures. Her stomach growled angrily, impatiently reminding her of its much-wanted meal, and she sighed.
"The hell's wrong wit' you?" The first guy said angrily, standing in front of his fallen comrade to confront Ichigo. "You suddenly kick Yama-chan down and then you tell us "Outta the way?"" Ichigo merely grunted in reply, his expression nonchalant.
"Say somethin', you little-" He was interrupted by Ichigo's foot and squawked before he fell to the ground, where he received further beatings. His three friends stood a distance away, stunned.
" Whoa, Toshirin's getting…"
"This is bad!" Ponytail-Ugly said, starting to shake.
"That's so messed up!" Fat-Ugly agreed. The guy getting beaten up by Ichigo cried out in pain with each hit, his face getting grounded into the basement as the back of his head got repeatedly stepped on. Noe wondered whether his nose was broken too.
"Quit yakkin'!" Ichigo shouted, expression angry all of a sudden. His clutched his fist tight, shaking with anger. "All of you bastards! Look at that!" He pointed at a fallen soda glass bottle with flowers in it, the water spilled all over the floor. Noe frowned, thinking that her foster brother was being a little too dramatic.
"Question one: What the hell is that?" He asked. "Yes, you in the middle!" The gangster who was indicated started and stuttered.
"Um, uh…a tribute for the kid who died here recently?"
"Absolutely right!" Ichigo gave him a huge kick that made him fly a few metres.
"Mit-chan!" One of the gangsters cried out, sweating profusely.
"Okay, then." Ichigo turned around and asked, "Why would that bottle have fallen over?"
"Erm, well, we were skateboarding and knocked it over…" Ichigo kicked them so hard that they flew back a considerable distance.
"Bastards!" He yelled, suddenly seeming to be on fire. Noe checked her phone for the time and saw that it was past dinnertime. While Ichigo was still busy and distracted, she shouldered her heavy school bag and walked towards the lamppost behind him. A little female spirit about ten years old with brown hair in two pigtails apparated behind the lamppost and peeked out of it. She died young.
"O-nee-san (Big sister)…?" She said, eyeing Noe's imposingly tall figure. Noe kneeled down until she was at eye level with the girl. Her expression carefully kept emotionless, she rummaged through her schoolbag until she found a pink foam-board rose that she had managed to make to her satisfaction in Home Econs today. There was even a short stem attached to it made of green-coloured crepe paper entwined over a piece of wire. She was planning to give it to Yuzu when she and Ichigo got home but decided that she had found a better use for it. Noe placed the upset glass bottle back upright and smiled a little to herself. She poured out the water and placed the rose inside.
"There. This is one flower that won't wilt…" The little girl's eyes widened in surprise and her face brightened.
"Thank you, O-nee-san!" She bowed. Noe smiled in response before standing back up to see the gangsters fleeing. Ichigo was watching them, arms folded across his chest like Noe before. "If I scared them that badly, they probably won't come back here."
He turned to face Noe and the young girl. "I'll bring some new flowers tomorrow." He said to the young girl.
"Thanks for chasing them away. Now I can finally rest peacefully, O-nii-chan and O-nee-san." She thanked them, smiling.
"You're welcome." Ichigo said.
"Don't mention it." Noe said.
Both of them turned. "Hurry up and go to Heaven." Ichigo waved over his shoulder and the little girl disappeared. He and Noe started walking, neither of them saying anything. Noe's stomach grumbled and Ichigo frowned. "You should start eating lunch."
"Don't want to." Noe replied, her voice enforcing some stubbornness. She didn't like eating lunch for some reason that even she herself couldn't fathom. It just made her uncomfortable; as if she was betraying some routine she never remembered having. Ichigo shook his head and kept quiet once more. It was already dark and the streetlamps were already switched on, illuminating the streets as they walked.
"We're home-"As they entered the door of the Kurosaki clinic, Noe saw from the corner of her eye a foot flying closer. She calmly ducked and allowed that foot to hit Ichigo instead.
"You're late!" Isshin Kurosaki cried out, withdrawing his leg and stood in front of them, his arms akimbo. "You two! You know our dinner is at seven every night!"
Ichigo recovered instantly and he roared, "Damn you! Is this how you treat your children who went out of their way to help a ghost on their way home!?"
"I don't want to hear it! Only punishment awaits those who disrupts our family time, no matter what the reason is!" Isshin shouted back. "Or what! Are you bragging that you're the only one who can see and touch ghosts?!" He and Ichigo started fighting, their arms a blur as they attacked each other.
"Shut up! I didn't ask for this power!" Ichigo replied.
"Stop it, you two! The food is getting cold!" Sweet Yuzu cried out, the rice-scoop in hand. Karin, her fraternal twin, sat opposite her and was ignoring the commotion behind her. "Let them be, Yuzu." She said and held out her empty bowl. "More please."
"But, Karin-chan…"
Noe adopted her foster sisters' attitude and seated herself at the dining table, picking up the bowl of rice in front of her, which Yuzu had prepared. She was starving and was not in the mood to entertain her adopted father; she gobbled up the food, which tasted better than usual.
"Noe-chan…don't you think you should slow down a little bit?" Yuzu asked, her voice concerned.
"I'b bine!" Noe chewed and swallowed. "See?" She added, to prove her point. Yuzu, partially convinced, turned back to her fighting brother and father. There was loud crash as Isshin hit the wall and Ichigo, enraged, pointed at his father.
"First of all," He shouted. "Making healthy high school students come home at seven every night is unimagin-"
"I agree with Ichigo, Tou-san." Noe said. Before Ichigo could continue, a blue ball of smoke appeared above his right shoulder.
"Ichi, you've got a new friend." Karin interrupted, her back still to him.
"Huh?" Ichigo looked up. "Wait, when did you-" He aimed a punched at the spirit. "I exorcise and I exorcise but they still keep coming, dammit!"
Karin finished eating. "Thanks for the food." She said as she put down her chopsticks. She turned in her chair to face her brother. "Ichi-nii has it tough being 'hi-spec'." Noe put down her chopsticks as well and watched Ichigo's frustrated attempts at getting rid of the new spirit. But all she could see was Ichigo punching at air. She sighed and placed her chin on her hand for support.
"But, you know, I'm kind of jealous." Yuzu said. "I can sense presences but almost never see them." Karin looked at her.
"I don't believe in ghosts and stuff, so…"
"What!?" Yuzu exclaimed. "But you can see them too, can't you? Dad and Noe-chan are the only ones who can't see them."
"Karin-chan does not believe in them." Noe said in, deadpanned. "Regardless if you see them or not, if you don't believe, it's like they never existed."
An imaginary strong wind blew as cold as winter. Yuzu stared wide-eyed at Noe.
"Noe-chan is right." Karin said. Ichigo and Isshin finally seemed to have stopped fighting as Ichigo relaxed.
"Dinner…" Before he could say anything else, Ichigo's legs were kicked out under him and Isshin pulled his arm up painfully.
"Your guard was down!" He shouted triumphantly as he sat on top of Ichigo. He was immediately sent flung away by his son whose expression was very irritated. Their fists ended up in each other's faces, with Isshin falling to the floor, twitching.
Ichigo wiped his face. "Forget it, I'm going to bed." He left.
"O-nii-chan!" Yuzu called out after him but he had already gone into his room. Noe sighed. "It's all your fault, Dad."
Isshin immediately assumed an innocent position. "Why!?"
"He's been having a tough time lately." Yuzu explained.
"Now that you've mentioned it, he said he's been seeing them a lot more lately." Karin added. Noe nodded for confirmation, her hand moving back and forth with the movement.
"What? He tells you three that kind of thing?" Isshin cried out. "He didn't tell me!"
"Of course not." Karin replied, straddling her chair and facing the other way. "Who'd talk to a father who's past forty and still communicates like a child?"
"As difficult as it is for me to admit this, she's right." Noe said.
Isshin choked and stumbled to the humongous poster of his late wife, hugging it and sobbing. "O-kaa-san! Lately, because of puberty, our daughters are being SO mean! What should I do?!"
"First thing, do something about this ridiculous house." Karin advised. Noe stood up, her stomach satisfied, and grasped her bag.
"Well, I'm heading to bed. Night." She climbed up the stairs as the other three wished her back and passed Ichigo's room. The thin slit of space between the door and the floor was dark so she assumed that he had fallen asleep before proceeding into her room. She sighed as she set her bag down on her desk and wondered whether she would be able to sleep peacefully tonight. The Kurosaki household was always so…lively.
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Thanks for reading again. Please review, because I seriously want to get better. Constructive criticism will be wonderful.
