Chapter One: Bazaar Time!
After crashing into a hut roughly as they escaped from the cleaner which was chasing them through the gate, Ichigo was the first one to get to his feet. He dusted his black kimono, his soul reaper "uniform," if we may call it so.
"So, where are we, Yuroichi?" Ichigo asked from the humanly black cat by his feet, which was browsing around attentively.
Yuroichi replied, "Well, we have finally arrived at the Soul Society. The place we are at now is a village called Rukongai. It's been a long time since I've been here… but, Ichigo,"
"Yes?"
"Perhaps watch out a little. People here don't like soul reapers much, or so I have heard. Again, I have not visited this place since a time that feels like eternity, I can't take rumors for certain." Yuroichi explained.
Ichigo nodded understandingly.
"I don't see anybody here," Orihime objected, standing up herself with a little struggle. "But where's all this noise coming from?"
There was a loud cacophony, a mixture of cheerful yells, angry shouts, and other sounds one regularly hear at a bazaar.
"I presume they are hosting the annual bazaar now. Unfortunate. We will have to march through the soul-reaper-haters before we could arrive at the gate." Yuroichi noted glumly.
"Oh, they can't be that bad, can they be?" Orihime inquired.
"Well, if we take Ishida as the average soul-reaper hater, then, yes, we do have something to worry about," Ichigo said.
Ishida grunted, visibly displeased with the remark.
"They are surely not going to shoot any of us down if we just mix with the crowd, which I assume will be easy as at a bazaar where all sorts of people show up…" Ishida said.
"You have got a point there, but again, these are souls and they will probably recognize strangers," Yuroichi said.
"Well, we haven't got much of a choice, do we? Let's go," Ichigo said and the others followed suit. Yuroichi guided the group from on top of Ichigo's shoulder, to avoid being trampled on by the crowd and to cut through it quicker.
"I am really tempted to buy something," Orihime conceded. "I wish we could just stop so I could by that – oh my God, how beautiful!"
Orihime stopped for a second – big mistake. The forceful crowd drove Orihime off her legs and she couldn't do anything else but go with the flow.
For a while, no one noticed Orihime's missing; they were all too busy fighting their way through the bazaar. Then, suddenly, when a question was asked of her in an attempt to begin a conversation, finally, her loss was realized.
"Umm – Orihime?" Ichigo repeated expectantly. As he turned back, his face fell and his eyes narrowed as if squinting. "Er – guys – were did Orihime disappear to?"
The others, including Yuroichi, turned back to see the place where Orihime was supposed to follow them.
The others muttered nervously.
"We have got to search for her," Ichigo decided, and, before anyone could prevent it, he started off the opposite direction and spied with his eyes for Orihime. He was yelling her name, too.
"What are you doing?" Yuroichi hissed angrily in his ears, injecting his claws into Ichigo's skin, who whimpered in pain.
"I need to quicken the search somehow, obviously," Ichigo explained. "Orihime! Orihime, where are you?!"
Ignoring the crowds' murmurs and glares, he ambled in the direction where they came from, in the space between the bisected crowds.
"You fool! This way, people will realize you are a soul reaper!" Yuroichi hissed in his ear and pressed his claws more in into Ichigo's skin.
"Nothing to worry about, they'll just murmur and whisper and that's it," Ichigo stated conceitedly.
As Chad and Ishida caught up with him, they repeated the same thing Yuroichi stated before. Ichigo shrugged the matter off, not able to correct his mistake now. Finally, they found Orihime, arguing with a shopkeeper about the seller's merchandise, apparently.
"You are certain this isn't a bijou? Because I am planning to buy this for my mother, and she likes original jewels only…"
The young, female shopkeeper with dark complexion was visibly growing irritated. Behind her sat a boy appearing on the verge of manhood strikingly similar to him. Evidently the two were siblings. The boy, though seemingly much more mature, simply sat there and watched his sister's quarrel with a customer. He too had a black hair and wore a black kimono.
"Trust me, this is not a bijou, for the thousandths time! How about buying it already?" she hissed through gritted teeth. A vein was pulsing in her forehead and even her fists were clenched on the table her merchandise was scattered on.
"Oh, all right! Even if it is a bijou, my mom will still like it! It looks really real…"
"Because it is real…" The girl said in a voice that trembled from rising temper. As Orihime looked away, the girl raised her hand to strangle her, but before she could do so, Orihime looked back and put the marvelous necklace back on the table.
"I didn't bring money with myself, I forgot. So I won't buy it, so sorry. Perhaps next year -" Orihime apologized cheerily.
If something, then it even worsened the young shopkeeper's mood. Orihime gave her a bright smile, and, since her eyes were closed, the girl attempted again to choke her.
"Hey, Orihime, I think we had better go…" Ichigo and Ishida said together and hooked on her.
"Why, guys? I was really enjoying the conversation with this sweet shopkeeper…"
"The feeling's not mutual," the girl said with open displeasure. "Wait!" she said, examining Ichigo's clothing. "You are a soul reaper!"
Ichigo swallowed hard, and everybody else, who have already realized the fact, looked at him disapprovingly, eyes sparkling with pure loathing.
"Er – yes – no – maybe…" Ichigo stammered nervously. "Why? Would that be bad if I was a soul reaper?"
"I have to challenge you to a duel then," the boy sitting on a chair casually spoke up.
"Do not accept it," Yuroichi hissed.
"Oh, gosh! You've got a talking cat with you, don't you? And it's black! My favorite type!" the girl said and made a move to grab Yuroichi. Yuroichi slipped to the back of Ichigo so the girl couldn't possibly reach her. The girl reached for it but the cat ducked. Her face contorted into a frown.
"Fine," she said menacingly. "I wouldn't want to touch it anyway. Probably it carries disease or it'll try to murder me, after all, it is a soul reaper's pet, isn't it?"
Ichigo's eyes narrowed. What was she aiming at? Yes, of course, the let's-insult-the-basically-innocent-soul-reapers-for-no-reason but the girl seemed like going somewhere with it.
In a foreign language that caused an upsurge of irritated whispers in the crowd. Undisturbed, the two proceeded their conversation in the strange-sounding language. They appeared to be discussing very serious matters.
"They are taking in the old soul language," Ishida explained, fixing his glasses on his nose as the sun shone on the lenses, making him appear mysterious.
Yuroichi and Ichigo both looked at him in surprise.
"Oh, I thought it was like Chinese or something! You know, there is very little difference between Asian eyes if we discount the Afros…" Orihime elaborated as if she were cheerleading on a final rugby match. She even did some waving with her arms that resembled a duck attempting to fly.
A sweat drop appeared on her friends' heads; Chad merely grunted, however, cautious not to insult her the littlest.
"I am Japanese-American, you dumb-" the female shopkeeper yelled furiously. "However…"
The boy said something to her, again in that unfamiliar, awkward language.
"Let's go, quick, before they pay attention to us again…" Yuroichi whispered into Ichigo's ear, who beckoned the rest of the group to follow in a way only they had seen. The others obeyed, but Ichigo picked the wrong person to try to hustle his way by.
The girl pushed him back.
"What are you trying to do? Escape the fight?" she demanded loudly.
Oh no, oh no, Yuroichi yowled.
Chad stepped forward. "Let us pass by," he requested, sounding polite.
The girl glared at him with electricity sparkling in her eyes.
"Fight!" she decided to bark at last. Slowly, the entire crowded begun chanting 'Fight' as if they had every right to see a fight play down in the busy streets of Rukongai.
"Uh-oh," Ishida commented.
"Leave it, guys!" the boy yelled, louder then the entire crowd. He probably used some sort of technique to raise the volume of his voice so everyone could hear and listen to what he was saying. "He's probably afraid to fight me one-on-one, I mean, c'mon, he's just a little, useless soul reaper!"
The crowd stopped chanting for the time they laughed appreciatively at the insult.
Yuroichi quickly whispered, "Don't pay attention to them, Ichi-"
But it was too late to try and talk some sense into the orange-haired boy. He roughly pushed the innocent cat down of his shoulder so it fell down into the dust.
"Hey, Ichigo!" Ishida said pejoratively as he and Orihime ran to grab Yuroichi.
"What do you mean by 'useless little soul reaper'?" Ichigo demanded haughtily, drawing his dangerously large weapon from its case. "I can defeat you anytime you wish! How about now?"
The shopkeeper girl's lips edged upwards and the boy grinned openly with visible malevolence.
"Well, then that is it," he said.
"OK, fight begin!" the shopkeeper yelled and her brother immediately jumped in front of Ichigo. Ichigo fell back in surprise.
"Whoa! Didn't expect that from a big-mouth like you," he commented, returning the insult.
"I don't care about your expectations. Could we just start the fight already?" he said curtly, towering above him.
"OK," Ichigo said, sounding nonchalant, as he attempted to stand up. The boy pushed him back.
"Introduction," he muttered through clenched jaws so only Ichigo could hear.
"Er – what?"
"OK, so!" the girl yelled as she herself jumped and separated them. Basically, she pushed her sibling gently aside and kicked Ichigo meters away from the boy.
"Hey, call that impartial!" Ichigo commented, concealing successfully his surprise of the girl's fighting abilities.
"Here we don't just murder the one challenging us, you know. This is Rukongai. Peaceful souls live here. We shall introduce the rules of a fight to you, shan't we? Well…" the girl rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Fine," Ichigo mumbled meekly, feeling like a piece of scum as he got to his feet. The scene was much too intriguing by now for anyone to intervene. Orihime, true to her anxious nature, however, managed to squirm out a squeeze despite her great excitement, "Ichigo, quit it when you still can!"
"Listen to Orihime, you fool!" Ishida added, sounding passionate about stopping someone to fight.
Chad merely grunted in agreement. Yuroichi squealed and pinned his claws deeper into Chad's skin who felt nothing due to his immense muscles.
Ichigo ignored his friends' desperate attempts to prevent him from battling as the girl explained the rules, forcing herself to remain calm.
"We first introduce ourselves to one another and tell each other why we are fighting. We guarantee we will not kill each other no matter what. If anyone inflicts more then a deadly injury deliberately that one will be eliminated from the battle and thus will lose it -"
"If that's how a single fight is played down how do you war with each other?" Ichigo blurted out.
"We don't war around here you idiot! We're not like soul reapers, how long will it take you to comprehend? Seriously, you are one piece of shit!" the girl clasped her mouth as the swear word left her mouth. She blushed with embarrassment and made weird movements with her hand in an attempt to lessen the upsurge of whispers that arose again. "Ugh – never mind! So my point is. I am going to be the judge – no, your friends will be simply spectators."
"But then you'll let 'im cheat!" Ishida protested.
"Ah, are you a Quincy?" the boy inquired suddenly.
"Umm – yes,"
"Then why are you siding with him? You should, most of all, as a Quincy, understand how souls are much more decent then those filthy little soul reapers…"
Ishida seemed to taken aback to speak.
"Would you quit insulting us? You've got the totally wrong idea of soul reapers! I don't know where you get all that stuff about them being evil and filthy and useless and scum and- "
"Can we just start the battle already? You are boring me with your well-rehearsed protesting." The girl said. "My name is Saionji Barokku, very displeased to meet a soul reaper,"
Ichigo's head was boiling and his face was red from furiousness.
"Meet my brother, Arekanderu Barokku," the boy introduced grinned smugly. Ichigo returned the gesture with a furious glare. The boy shrugged and looked away.
"I don't know who you are," the girl said at last. "Orangu Idiotu?"
Ichigo pulled a face. "I am Ichigo Kurosaki, substitute-soul reaper,"
Everybody else seemed to only have heard the soul-reaper part.
"So, soul reaper, Arekanderu, let the battle begin!" Saionji jumped back and let the big boys fight. The crowd, with the exception of Ichigo's friends, cheered, clapped, howled, catcalled and, wholf-whistled.
"All right," Arekanderu said. "Let's start with something smooth – you can still give up after my first attack, after that, you're all mine,"
"Er, perverted…" Saionji whispered to one of her friends from the crowd. Everyone laughed appreciatively.
The fact that everybody was against him kind of dampened his fighting spirits.
"Relax, I'm never gonna give up against someone like you," Ichigo assured him frigidly without a facial expression.
"Really? Well, let's see about that," Arekanderu replied nonchalantly. He raised his hands in front of himself and when Ichigo was least expecting two black balls of fire shot out from the center of his palms and shot straight at him. Ichigo jumped but the attack still hit his leg.
"Ugh," he said. He returned to the ground but standing was much harder because of the wound on his legs.
Arekanderu said nothing just grinned smugly. It infuriated Ichigo furthermore.
"What's the grin for? You hadn't done nothing and you're acting like you're royalty!"
"Ichigo, calm down!" Yuroichi said, jumping out of Chad's lap and nearing towards him. "If you won't quit the fight, at least keep your anger, so you wouldn't be blinded by anger!"
Ichigo was utterly tempted to give Yuroichi a good kick in his cat-ribs but Arekanderu's next attack came. Another pair of those horrible black-fire-bombs!
"Geez, man, have you got anything else? 'Cause these bombs are getting quiet boring after a time!"
"Is that so? Then how is it that you still can't block them, soul reaper?"
"Quit calling me soul reaper! I dodged them, anyway!" Ichigo said on his own defense.
"I'll quit calling you a soul reaper if you quit being one!" Arekanderu said wittily.
"OK, enough talk, can you make this fight a little more interesting? If you left out discussing you're fighting for, anyway!" Saionji ordered.
"All right, if that's what the people want!" Arekanderu consented.
The crowds cheered and howled and screamed 'yes!' on the top of their voices. Arekanderu grinned, and Ichigo sensed something bad coming. He looked around attentively for any source of danger, but only found his opponent himself with potential danger.
From under his kimono, Arekanderu took out a rope dart and a dagger. He threw the dagger at Ichigo and it got him right in the heart.
"Ichigo!" Orihime cried in desperation and ran to heal him. Water splurged out from Saionji's palm and pushed Orihime right back to position.
"And you stay there until the entire battle is over." She said warningly.
In the mean time, Arekanderu took out another dagger and tied it to the end of his rope dart. He lazily spun it around with one hand and with the other he continuously fired those black balls of fire at his adversary.
Ichigo jumped away from the attacks and watched attentively what his opponent was doing, and was brainstorming about a possible way to dodge it. He noticed that the longer he spun it around the more visible a dark cupola-shaped formation was being created. Ichigo didn't understand.
When the process was complete, that was when it dawned on him.
"A barrier!" he thought out loud in a yell as he jumped away from another fire ball.
"Yes, that's exactly what it is," Arekanderu assured him. "And it's to keep your little friends from interfering for one, and the other reason is that you couldn't run away and the spectators won't get hurt…"
Someone interrupted his monologue.
"You hadn't done a very decent job, you see! I'm trapped in here too!" Saionji yelled furiously.
Ichigo ignored it, and as Arekanderu was lazily giving excuses to his smaller sibling, he used his chance and attacked him with his sword. Arekanderu noticed in the mean time and attempted to dodge but the result was a deep and bleeding cut in his shoulder.
"Go Ichigo!" Orihime yelled encouragingly.
Ichigo grinned at her.
This time Arekanderu didn't miss the opportunity. He spun the rope dart again and captured Ichigo by spinning the rope around his body then tying a knot as Ichigo was body-binded, practically.
He threw all the daggers he had with him at Ichigo. Some of it the opponent dodged, some of it he did not. He was bleeding as daggers of all shapes and sizes prickled his insides.
Ichigo gathered all his strength and broke free.
Saionji and many others in the crowd gasped. Ichigo took it as a good sign.
However bleeding, he managed to pull out some of the prickling daggers from his skin as Arekanderu was basically too astounded to make a move. He threw them back at him; Arekanderu simply caught them and threw them back.
Ichigo dodged as many as he could, and, realizing how useless this oscillating game was, he left them on the ground. Ichigo and Arekanderu changed sides, which meant Arekanderu fought from the side where his daggers were pinned to the ground and Ichigo from where very little blood has been spilt so far.
"And what businesses have you here?" Arekanderu inquired.
"As if it were any of your concern!"
"So no business, am I right?"
"No way! I am here to rescue Rukia Kuchki!"
Arekanderu stopped dead at the answer.
"What?" his eyes bulged out and seemingly it took great effort for him to keep his jaws from dropping. "Repeat the name!"
"Rukia Kuchki…" Ichigo said with arched eyebrows. "Ru-ki-a Kuch-ki!"
Ichigo glanced over to Saionji and she was just as stunned as her brother. Ichigo glanced at his friends, wistful for some kind of explanation. Chad merely shrugged and so did Yuroichi.
"What is it?" Ichigo demanded.
"Don't you know?!" Saionji yelled back. "Rukia has been our dearest friend after she became a soul reaper and killed us some years later … er, she tried to kill me, but in the process she killed Arekanderu too… so if she's captured, we have got to see that for ours…"
"Talk in your name only! I am not interested in this whole Rukia thing. I just want to take out the soul reapers, who gave us an early death sentence and nothing more. Oh yeah and one more thing. We have a history with soul reaper because our father and grandfathers had some unknown business with them which probably led to the massacre of our family, but this connection led to our introduction to the Kuchiki family."
"Do you mean you want to come with us?" Ichigo asked, his eyes bulging out in disbelieving. So were his friends' eyes.
"No way!" he said, shaking his head, his eyes still nearly falling out of their places.
"Not like I would tangle alongside a soul reaper wannabe either."-said Arekanderu
"Yes! We accept the offer." Yuroichi said, stepping forward. He was pushed back by the barrier. Orihime ran to heal him if he needed, but in a nonce he was back on his feet as good as ever.
"Ichigo, these are fierce fighters, and going only six of us is like a suicide attempt! Ichigo, since I am the leader of this group, I accept them to the group!"
"What? NO WAY! You can't do that!"
Ichigo protested alongside Arekanderu for a while, but when Ishida, Saionji and Orihime sided with Yuroichi they finally gave in. Partially.
"Fine, then! OK about the boy, but how about the girl? There must have been a reason Rukia wanted to kill her!"
He was banged against the wall of the barrier by a thick wave of water coming out of the center of Saionji's palms. "The only reason she tried to kill is because of what my brother explained earlier and nothing more!"
It took a time for Ichigo to swallow all this.
"Why did she kill your brother?" he swallowed, sounding skeptic of Saionji's story.
"Because he tried to protect me, you tactless moron!" Saionji yelled. Seemingly she was really pissed of about Ichigo's tactless inquiry. Another surge of water landed in Ichigo's face.
"And have some more tact when questioning people about old memories," Saionji ended the quarrel.
"What? I would never do something like that. The real story is that when Rukia was trying to kill Saionji I was walking there and ummm…fell thanks to the sofa which I did not see and fell in front of the sword when it wanted to pierce through my sister…Yes that is what happened!"
"Shut it!" Saionji yelled. "Do not try to makeup stories in order to compensate with the fact that you have a heart too!"
"Sorry for interrupting the family quarrel, but there one more thing I would like to ask you!" Ichigo said, sounding much more polite and understanding this time. "If she tried to kill you, why do you want to save her?"
"I know she didn't do it on purpose. She tried to apologize but we made her feel horrible… not just horrible, even worse… she was very inexperienced and hurt then…" Saionji.
Saionji continued the explanation. "And now we are ready to forgive her." She said and looked up at the sky.
"Whoa…Hold yer horses! I am only goin' there because I wanna kick some soul reaper ass and nothing more! Oh yeah and stop using the word 'we' because you pull me into things I do not even care about."-yelled Arekanderu
The others stared wonderingly, and the crowd slowly disappeared as the fight was officially over, won by neither sides and the sun set behind the hill…
To be continued!