Lofty Pursuits

A fanfic by Tsu_chanB

A/N: So I found this in the depths of my email account. It started out as the first chapter to a full length fic that I decided not to do after seeing the breadth of the Bleach anime. So, I've changed a very few things and made it into a one shot. Enjoy!

"Come on, Toko-chan, don't be a stick in the mud! It's the perfect day to go to the beach!"

My name is Nojima Tokoharu. I am 15 years old and a freshman in high school. I lead a pleasantly normal life. At least, I like to think so . . .

"Ano, I don't know, Odine. My mother might want some help around the house today since I have the day off, and I would like to get started on the reading assignment Minami-sensei gave us," the girl spoke tentatively into the telephone.

"Ah, you're such a workaholic, Toko-chan!" the voice on the other line responded robustly. "You deserve a day off every once in a while, too!"

The only thing that I might consider odd about myself is that I have had a crush on my next door neighbor for four years.

"Besides, Ishida-kun said he would come." Tokoharu's cheeks lit up in a fiery blush.

"And why do you think that would make a difference in my decision?" She shot back, affronted.

And the worst part is,in all those years, I was never able to speak more than two sentences to him.

"Oh, come on." Odine dismissed her friend's distress. "I've seen you making eyes at him across the classroom for years."

". . ." Toko was shocked. Were her feelings really so obvious?

"I am your best friend, after all," Odine continued. "I'm supposed to know these things. But don't worry, it's not like I'd tell anyone."

". . . Thank you, Odine-chan. Ano, I'll go ask my parents."

I have a hard time starting friendships. Odine, whom I have known since grade school, has been my best friend and always tries to get me involved in social events, though usually I just end up fading into the background.

"Waah! Toko-chan, you made it!" Odine jumped at the amber eyed girl in an attacking embrace. Toko stumbled back from the force and a blush immediately sprung up on her cheeks. The smaller girl broke away and bowed to her friend.

"A-ano, thank you very-"

Odine pulled Toko up and pushed her towards the two cars parked a few meters away, waiting for their final passengers. "Whatever! Just get in the car already, it's almost noon!"

Odine opened the back door of a brown Honda and shoved her dazed friend into the seat. Toko sprawled across the seat, and into the lap of the other passenger. She lifted her head to gaze into a pair of dark blue eyes.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, Ishida-san. Forgive me, I did not mean to fall on you. Ano, i-it was an accident." Toko scooted into her own seat as she rambled on with her apologies.

"It's fine." Ishida pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. Toko stared.

The car's engine roared to life and Toko looked away to fumble with her seatbelt before clicking it into place. Odine whooped from the driver's seat, "Alright, here we go!"

Toko remained silent through the hour and a half drive to the beach. Odine tried to add her into the conversations the others were having, but Toko only said a few small words and looked out the window again. Toko already knew that Odine had set it up so she and Ishida would end up sitting together, and the girl was thankful for her friend's kindness. But she couldn't bring herself to talk to him. She was just too scared. Toko found it much more enjoyable to watch the scenery pass by and listen to Ishida as he talked with the other two people in the car.

"Ne, Nojima-kun, I heard you made first rank in the tennis tryouts."

Toko turned her head as Riku, the boy in the front passenger seat, spoke. "Eh? Oh, ano, yes. Yes, I did."

The boy shook his head. "Dude, do you sign up for every sport that girls can play or something? I mean, you already made first in swimming and diving and volleyball. Are you going to play soccer and basketball this fall, too?"

Toko blushed and tightly interlaced her fingers in her lap. "Ano, well, my mother will sign me up for all of the sports programs at the beginning of the year. But I'm not going to take basketball because it would interfere with cross country."

"So you do it cause your mom wants you to? Man, that must suck."

". . ."

I love to play sports, I guess that would be my main hobby. It is one of the few things I am good at. Besides, I don't have to be shy when I am not talking to anyone.

Another conversation began without her, and Toko turned her head to the window once again with a small sigh. She began to wonder why she had agreed to come. This trip would turn out to be just as boring and stressful as all of the others.

"We're he~ere!" Odine announced in a sing-song voice as she pulled the car into a parking space before the beach. Everyone piled out of the brown Honda as the car following them parked as well. Four other figures stepped out of the blue Subaru.

"Ah, it's perfect weather for the beach!" Orihime spun around with a laugh.

The group of eight gathered together to remove all of the supplies from the two cars. Toko waited for everyone else to go first and decided to take whatever was left over. As she waited, the small athlete looked to see who was present in the other car. Orihime she already knew about from her exclamation, but there was also Mahana, Michiru, and Jinpei, all members of the handicrafts club. Coincidence?

In fact, as Toko looked around, she realized that everyone on this little trip was in the handicrafts club. Toko was also a member, despite the fact that she rarely attended the meetings, and when she did, it was almost always because Odine forced her. She usually spent her time in a corner cross-stitching, a relatively easy task.

Jinpei was the last person in line to grab something from the trunk to take to the beach. He filled his arms with the smaller items, offered her a nod, and went on his way. Toko bowed her head in return before taking a peek at the contents of the trunk: two picnic baskets and three beach chairs. She cleared the trunk, shut it, and followed the crew of high schoolers.

They ate lunch before anything else, watching the strong waves blown in by the wind crash against the shoreline. It was reminiscent of lunchtime at school to Toko, but this was a more pleasant environment. The gulls cawed overhead, sensing a possible meal, and some landed on the warm sand at the outskirts of their circle.

"Hey, check it out!" Odine pointed emphatically at a group of people a few meters away playing volleyball. "Maybe they'll let us play next game. I'll go ask!" She was off like a rocket, without waiting for a reply.

"I'm not very good at volleyball," Michiru mumbled, embarassed, as she poked her chopsticks around in her food.

"Ah, don't worry 'bout it, Michiru," Riku smiled. "If we do end up playing, Nojima-kun can cover you."

Toko blushed at the implied compliment and stared intently at her sushi.

"Waah!" Odine returned, jumping into the middle of the circle with wild energy. "They said we could play winner next match! Hey, we should get in some swimming before then. Check out those waves!"

The active girl stripped off her shorts and t-shirt to reveal her brown bikini with yellow daisies. She pointed dramatically to the ocean, shouted "Let's go!", and grabbed the person closest to her.

Ishida fell onto his back as Odine grabbed the collar of his white t-shirt. "Come on, Uryuu-kun, I won't let you sit here on the beach all day and think. In fact, I'm not going to let you think at all today!" She started dragging him across the sand as the rest of the group watched in fascination.

"Odine-chan has so much energy," Orihime smiled and took a bite of her summer roll with creme cheese and leeks.

"W-wait a minute!" Ishida called, surprised.

"We don't have time to wait!!" Odine stopped, blinked, and looked to the others. "Hey! Aren't ya guys gonna come?"

Riku, Michiru, and Mahana acted immediately, dressing down to their bathing suits. They took off running for the water.

Ishida managed to escape from Odine's grasp and returned to the blankets the group had set up. Toko watched from the corner of her eye as he removed his shirt and glasses before heading back to the ocean at a slower pace.

"Ne, Tokoharu-chan, are you going to come swimming?" Orihime asked as she pulled off her shirt.

Toko jumped to attention. "Oh, ano, no. I was going to stay here, in case the volleyball team came over."

"Oh," Orihime tapped her chin in thought. "Maybe I should stay too, so you don't have to sit out here alone."

Toko's cheeks aquired a pink tinge as she shook her head emphatically. "Oh, no! Please, enjoy your time here at the beach, Inoue-chan. There will always be time for me to swim later on."

Orihime nodded. "I understand. Thank you very much, Tokoharu." With that, she left to join the others.

Toko sat and watched them, splashing each other and playing in the water. Her eyes followed Ishida more than anyone else.

I was immediately attracted to Uryuu when we first met. He was handsome and very confident; proud, even. And the more I learned about him in listening to him talk to his friends and in hearing snippets about him from those around me, the more attractive he became. He became more unattainable, too. I knew I could never approach him. Uryuu probably didn't even know I existed.

She began to wonder what the world looked like to him, now that he didn't have his glasses on. Was it all a blur? Or were things just a little fuzzy around the edges?

Toko's eyes slowly wandered to the glasses sitting nearby, gleaming innocently in the sunlight. She scooted a little bit closer to them. The group out in the water continued playing, hardly taking notice of her. A few minutes later, she moved again.

This pattern repeated until Toko stopped next to the glimmering spectacles. She eyed them for a few moments, debating, before turning to the right and grasping them firmly in her small hands. She held them up in front of her eyes, looking through them without actually wearing them. The world curved inside of the lens, distorting her vision. Toko placed them on her nose and found that, the farther away the object, the less she was able to see it. Her vision went from slightly fuzzy to a mixed blur of colors.

She looked back to the ocean to see all seven of her friends returning to shore, in varying degrees of hurriedness. Ishida was first in line, standing only two meters from the blankets. Toko yanked the glasses off as a new blush spread up her face to the tips of her ears.

"A-ano, Ishida-san! I'm so sorry, and, a-ano, I was just curious and I didn't know you would be coming back so soon and, and . . . ano . . . "

She handed him the spectacles and stared at the sand between her feet.

"It's fine," he replied for a second time, reaching for his towel. "One of the people from the losing team swam out to us. It will be our turn to play now."

The volleyball game ended rather quickly. The opposing team gave no credit to Toko, the smallest member of the group, as their best player. She scored three points within the first ten minutes. Toko's team won in no time at all, despite being one person short and having Michiru on the team, who really couldn't play the game very well.

The high school students dispersed after the game. Odine and Riku left for a walk down the beach, hand in hand; Mahana and Jinpei returned to the ocean; Orihime and Michiru tossed the frisbee at each other; and Ishida retreated to the blankets to sit and read.

Toko stood to the side and debated. She didn't feel much like swimming, she had done enough of that over the previous summer. She didn't dare sit next to Ishida for fear of melting into a puddle of mush. And a game of frisbee with Orihime and Michiru didn't catch her fancy.

With a sigh Toko took off at a light jog across the shore, in the opposite direction of Odine, of course. She passed beachgoers sitting in the sand and playing in the water. The shore was fairly well populated, since it was a holiday and many people had the day off.

There was always something about running on the beach that was more enjoyable than anywhere else. Maybe it was the sounds or smells of that specific environment. Maybe it was the feeling of the wet sand and water sinking between one's toes. In any case, Toko happily forsook the cool gleaming water of the sea for a long run across the wet sand.

She ran for a long time, until the number of people she saw diminished to almost nothing, and then stopped altogether. Toko stopped, panting, and looked behind her to see a small group of people sitting on the sand at the horizon of her vision. In the other direction there were no people that Toko could see, and she wondered why no one came out this far.

The girl didn't bother herself while wondering about it and decided to take a dip in the cool water to wash off the heat and sweat of her body. She waded out into the sea and shivered, looking back to the shore. Something about the air had begun to feel odd.

Toko squinted at the sand, not sure of what she was seeing. The air a bit far off looked distorted, like the heated air above a grill. She wondered if there was a fire going somewhere over the dunes.

Then the distortion moved and she heard a muffled sound, as if her ears had been stopped up. It sounded like a large animal.

The athlete decided that it would be a bad idea to stay any longer, and began to realize why no one had come out here. The place must have been haunted. Toko swam in the direction she had come from, deeming the shore too dangerous. She heard the sound again, this time louder and more clear. Anxiety overtook her and she began to swim faster, heart pounding and adrenaline running.

She neared the last blanket site she had passed earlier and swam towards shore. She could run faster than she could swim and figured that having other people around would lessen the distortion's effect on her mind, and maybe even drive it away.

Toko walked out of the rolling waves and looked behind to see if the thing was still there. She screamed, not only at the closeness of the creature, but also at the obvious trail of footprints it left in its wake. Large, three toed prints like a monster. The thing was becoming clearer as well. It now had a shape, massive in size.

She shuffled in the opposite direction, legs shaking and unable to move quickly. Toko glanced to the blanket a few meters away, eyes widening to see it unoccupied. She looked around frantically for her life-line, heart sinking as she saw them far out in the water and pulled downwind by the current.

The creature let out a roar that reverberated in her ear. She could feel the ground shake beneath her as it took a hard step forward. A dry sob forced itself from her throat. Toko didn't want to turn around. She didn't want to face this supernatural thing that was so unwillingly real.

But she couldn't deny that it was real, and was becoming more real every second. The shaking girl turned, downcast head lifting to stare directly at the monster that stood clear and three-dimensional before her. She couldn't even run, something she was extremely good at. Fascination, fear, and unbelief all rooted her to the spot as she stared wide eyed at the white mask of the monster's face.

It closed in, quicker than Toko thought possible for something of that size, and pushed her hard into the sand with its mottled green hand. The girl choked out the air forced from her lungs and desperately tried to swallow new oxygen into her empty chest. The thing's grip tightened, squeezing her together even harder. Toko screamed breathlessly as her bones were compressed against one another.

The white masked creature let out a roar of victory and lowered its jaw to consume her head. A flash of blue light intercepted the monster, piercing a hole through its forehead. In the next second it had desintigrated, starting from the head down.

Toko laid against the ground and tried to make sense of what had happened while she tried to catch her breath. More than anything she was happy the creature, whatever it was, was gone.

"Tokoharu!" Toko tilted her head back. Ishida was running toward her across the sand, upside down in her vision. He stopped and knelt beside her as she righted her head.

"Are you alright?" he panted, helping her into a sitting position.

"Ano . . . y-yes." Toko was still dazed and confused. What was that light? How did he know that she was in trouble? Did he kill that weird monster? They both sat for a few minutes and Toko let her eyes fall shut, comforted by Ishida's loud breathing beside her.

"Thank you, but how . . . how did you know?" she finally asked. Toko stared at his shoulder, at his chin, too scared to look him in the eye.

He looked to the water for several moments. " . . . You shouldn't run off by yourself. It's dangerous."

She nodded slowly, embarrassed. He stood and offered her a helping hand. Toko took it gratefully and he pulled her up. She slackened her grip, but Ishida didn't let go of her hand as he began walking back to their friends.

Heat gathered on Toko's face at the contact. She glanced tentatively at her companion, silently questioning him. Ishida caught the look and smiled down at her. Toko quickly averted her eyes to the sand.

A small, hopeful smile made its way onto her lips. Maybe her feelings weren't as one sided as she assumed.

I never thought I would have anything more than a crush for him. I was too shy to come out of my shell. But Uryuu figured it out and helped me become a stronger person. He taught me how to be brave like him.