Hey, everyone! Tahaku here, bringing you another story that my adorable plot bunnies have given me. *cradles a reddish brown bunny with a black under coat* This little guy here gave me the idea of this story, and took dominance over another bunny that had a Freezing story. Don't worry, FP, SK will be updated. I just really had to get this out, lest I forget it.
Well here's chapter one of Shinigami of the True Cross!
Enjoy!
Chapter one: Time For Another Dive
"Okumura! Hey, Okumura!" Ryuji Suguro shouted as he walked up to Rin Okumura.
Ryuji stood at 5'11", his hair was brown with a yellow streak that ran right down the middle of his head; he had brown eyes, several piercings, and a serious look on his face. (I mostly took out the word "in" and changed a couple of words to the past tense.)
"What's up with you man?"
"Huh?" Rin looked up from where he was sitting, "Ah, Bon, hey."
Gaining a tick mark on his forehead, Ryuji growled, "Idiot! What are you doing spacing out like that?!"
Rin gave him a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his head, "Ah, sorry. I was just lost in thought. Today's lesson in Demon History was a lot to take in…"
Shiemi Moriyama – a girl who stood at 5'5", had blond hair that reached to her shoulders, green eyes, and a gentle appearance, who sat next to Rin – spoke up, "You mean about Satan having a sister?" Rin nodded at her question.
"Yeah, that is pretty heavy," said Renzo Shima, who, along with Konekomaru Miwa, stood next to Ryuji. He stood at 5'9", had short pink hair, brown eyes, and had a carefree air about him. Konekomaru stood at 5'3"; he had a pale shaved head, brown eyes, and wore glasses; he seemed to a nervous air about him.
"That's kind of big to find out that you and Yukio have an aunt, eh, Rin? Do you think you got any family?"
"Eh?" Rin deadpanned. Rin stood at 5'8"; he had navy-blue, almost black hair, blue eyes, and currently had a distant look, "I don't know…"
Heaving a large sigh, Ryuji turned and left, with Renzo and Konekomaru following suit.
"Anyway, we'll be going now. With classes over, I need to get working on my homework."
"Ah, yeah," Rin gave them a short wave, "See you tomorrow."
=3=
Karakura Town, Noon.
Atop the roof of Karakura High, sat several students, either enjoying their lunch, or just conversing with each other. At first glance, one wouldn't expect to see this kind of group, as they looked like people who'd spend their time engaged with other people during lunch instead of the ones they sat with. Or against.
In the group, sat one Uryuu Ishida, who stood at 5' 9 ½", with raven-black hair that reached to his jawline, with the right half of his bangs framing his face and the left tucked behind his ear; he had blue eyes, wore rectangular glasses, and had a slightly condescending look, although, that was just his natural appearance.
Next to him, sat Yasutora "Chad" Sado, who stood at 6'5 ½", he had dark colored skin, due to his Mexican ancestry, shaggy, brown hair that went past his eyes, covering them from view, brown eyes, a small goatee on his chin, and a calm, silent demeanor about him.
On the other side of Uryuu, sat one Tatsuki Arisawa, who stood at 5'1"; she had black hair that was mostly spiky, except for the back, which reached to the middle of her back, blue eyes, a lean frame, and currently had a calm look on her face.
In front of Uryuu sat Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami, who stood at 5'11"; he had orange spiky hair, brown eyes, and his ever-present scowl. On his right shoulder, was strapped a magenta silk sleeve for a katana. A little off to the side, but still close, sat Mizuiro Kojima, who stood at 5'0 ½", with black hair that had a single short bang over his face, the rest brushed to the sides and hung straight down over his ears, green eyes, and was busy texting on his cellphone.
Next to him, sprawled on the ground, lay Keigo Asano, who stood at 5'7 ½", slightly straight brown hair that covered part of his forehead, brown eyes, and was currently unconscious. An finally, sitting next to Ichigo, or more aptly put, leaning against him while her arms were wrapped around his arm, was Orihime Inoue, who stood at 5'2", had long wavy burnt-orange hair, gray eyes, and a kind face.
She wore a pair of sky blue, star shaped hair clips on the lapel of her jacket. They may not look it, but they were the closest group of friends in the entire school, since the majority of them participated in the Winter War together.
They all wore Karakura High's grey uniform. For the guy's it was a grey long-sleeved jacket with red lining that ended halfway up the neck, and some, like Uryuu and Mizuiro, wore it completely closed; others, like Ichigo and Keigo, wore it open to some degree, showing the white dress shirt, or whichever shirt they were wearing, the grey pants were held up by a black leather belt with a rectangular metal buckle.
For the girls, it was a white blouse that ended a little lower on the neck than the male's jackets, on the collar was a red bow, the jacket was also long-sleeved and zipped up to mid chest, where it opened up in a 'v' shape, and a grey skirt completed the outfit.
"It's still amazing how much more hectic things have gotten lately for us," said Tatsuki, "And here I thought all we had to deal with were hollows."
"That just shows how much of the world there is that we still don't know about," replied Uryuu, pushing up his glasses.
"Hmm," Chad nodded in agreement.
"But…what's even more amazing," said Uryuu, looking over at Ichigo, "is that it was Ichigo who dragged us into this, which isn't surprising, and yet…what is surprising, is how we were dragged into it."
"Hey!" Ichigo butted in, "It's not like I wanted to, you know! It just happened."
"But you still did in the end," Tatsuki smirked at him, "And you did it how you always do things, in the most unexpected way possible."
Orihime decided to speak up, "Yeah, Ichigo! It's not every day that you find out that you mom is an extremely powerful demon! You're always so cool, Ichigo." She heaved a content sigh and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "Like, a superhero, or a gre—," She was interrupted when a black rag hit her face, effectively cutting her off.
"Ichigo, you meanie! That wasn't nice!"
Chuckling a bit, Ichigo looked at her, "You were going off in your own little world. We still need you here with us in reality to give your input. And besides, Orihime…" Ichigo grinned, "We all know that you like playing with my tail."
Tatsuki laughed while Uryuu chuckled as Orihime pouted and looked away with a blush on her cheeks, even though she still ran her fingers through the rag that turned out to be the fluffy end of a tail.
By this time, Keigo had woken back up and spoke, (read: shouted) "Ichigo! You're so lucky! You get to go to True Cross Academy!"
With an exasperated sigh, he replied, "It's not for the reason that you're thinking, Keigo. You remember what we told you about demons?"
He nodded.
"Well, I'm going over there because they requested that I become an exorcist." They stopped keeping secrets from the others, since they trusted them, and it just caused problems anyway if they had to hide things from them. Like before. "And we're discussing who was going to go."
Keigo sat down, crossing his legs and his arms in a huff, "Well I, for one, am not going! I've already had to put up with hollows and the afterlife. Demons? You can count me out."
"That's why we're having this discussion, to know who is going to accept the request that Johan Faust V has extended to us through Kurosaki," Uryuu told him.
"Unlike before, you have a choice whether or not to be in this," Uryuu turned to Ichigo, "You already know I'm going, my pride as a Quincy won't allow me to remain where I can't offer my assistance. Even if you are a fellow Quincy, you're still a Shingami, Kurosaki. I will prove that Quincy are superior."
Ichigo huffed in amusement, "Of course, Ishida, I already knew you would join." He grinned, "Especially since that means I can beat you're ass again."
Before Uryuu could retort, Tatsuki spoke up, "But he is going to have the best grades out of all of us. He's already been accepted by True Cross separately from us."
"Really, Ishida-kun?! Wow!" Orihime exclaimed.
Uryuu pushed up his glasses, "Yes, though, I planned to enter their college after we all graduated, but I see no reason to not accept their scholarship now."
"That leaves two, since Mizuiro already voiced his decision to stay, the player doesn't want being an exorcist to get in the way, next is…" Ichigo trailed off. They all turned to look at Chad, who only responded with a simple, "Where Ichigo goes, I go…"
"Well, that just leaves me, then," said Tatsuki, garnering everyone's undivided attention. "You can't be around to protect Orihime all the time, Ichigo. Plus, there is no way I'm getting left out this time!" He nodded in acceptance. "I'm definitely going."
Over by the roof exit, hidden from view, stood one Chizuru Honsho, she had straight red hair, bangs parted on both sides of her face, purple eyes were framed by red angular glasses, and an angry look upon her face, "That damn Kurosaki, stealing my Hime and filling her with improper thoughts, I will save her yet!"
Then she gained a mischievous grin as a thought came to her, 'Since they're talking about an invitation to a school being extended to all of Kurosaki's friends, then I can definitely join! I just gotta say that I'm a friend and that I want to join! Then I can save Hime from that beast's claws! Then she'll be all mine!'
While she was chuckling darkly, several girls came running up the stairs and out the door, effectively running her over without a second care. She lay on the floor, a hand and leg sticking up comically in the air at odd angles and twitching. They were Orihime and Tatsuki's friends that would spend lunch with the two usually, now, they were joining in with the others, as they had been informed as well.
First came Mahana Natsui, she had curly brown hair that hung around her jawline, a fairly large bust, brown eyes, and freckles around the lower area of her eyes.
Next was Michiru Ogawa, she had straight brown hair that reached her shoulders, with the bangs held up by a clip, and dark eyes; she tended to shy away from Uryuu, she would stay away from Ichigo, but Orihime was right next to him. Plus when Ichigo was with Orihime, she didn't find him as scary as before.
Right behind them stood Ryo Kunieda, whose hair was fairly long, reaching to about her waist, her bangs parted at her left side, pushed to the right side, she had a beauty mark under her left eye, and a book in her hand.
"Is it true, Orihime?" Mahana immediately asked, "You're going with Ichigo to True Cross Academy?!" Orihime gave a nervous smile and nodded.
"That's quite the honor," said Ryo, looking up from her book.
"So when do you guys leave?" asked Michiru, a little sad at the prospect of Orihime and Tatsuki leaving.
"In two days," came Ichigo's quick reply, "I don't think you'd really be able to come to a decision in such a short time." They seemed to have been considering it and looked a little down at the declaration.
"But I told Mephisto that some might not accept immediately." Every one gave him a surprised look. "What?! I'm not stupid, you know! I'm not ranked 17th for nothing!" 'Why is it that they always think I'm some kind of idiot?' Ichigo thought to himself.
'Perhaps it is because of your headstrong attitude,' said Zangetsu from within his mindscape.
'No! It's because he's totally dense and doesn't get anything about anyone else around him!' cackled Shiro, his inner hollow, the other tenant of his mind.
'You do remember that I'm going out with Orihime now, don't you?' There were no further comments from the albino.
"…So you can come over to True Cross at a later date," Uryuu's voice brought him back to reality.
"Oh, wow…thank you Kurosaki. That's very kind of you," Mahana said to Ichigo, who waved it off.
"It's nothing, really."
Ichigo turned to face the rest, "Alright, all that's left is to tell my freaky cousin who's currently going, who's staying, and who might be coming later."
They then settled down and started talking about other things, waiting for lunch period to finish. There was the occasional laugh or growl, with Ichigo swishing his tail about for two reasons: to play around with Orihime with it, and to swat away small, black, little cat-like things that floated in the air that had short little devil tails called Coal Tars.
Keigo was knocked unconscious once again when, getting annoyed with him again, Ichigo swept Keigo's leg out from under him with his tail. He hit his head on the floor. Chizuru was right next to him as they were dragged away from the group. Tatsuki had beaten her when she made to lunge for Orihime, a perverted look adorning her face.
=3= two days later =3=
Standing at the edge of the curb of some random street, where they had all agreed to meet up at, were Ichigo and everyone that was going to True Cross with their luggage next to them. Everyone else that wasn't going had come to see them off, so currently Ichigo was comforting his twin sisters, Yuzu and Karin.
Yuzu stood at 4'6"; she had shoulder length, light brown hair held in two pigtails with a strawberry hairclip on the right one, bangs hanging over the right side of her forehead; she wore a light blue hoodie and a tan skirt. Next to her was her fraternal twin, Karin.
Karin stood at 4'6" as well, black hair, most of it tied up in a ponytail, reached her back, with the rest framing either side of her face, with dark grey eyes, she wore a black, long sleeved shirt, and blue form fitting jeans that stopped halfway on her shins. Behind them, proudly grinning stood their father, who stood at 6'1", had black spiky hair, a bit of facial hair on his cheeks and chin, brown eyes, and wore a lab coat over his casual clothing.
"You're gonna call us all the time, right big brother?" asked Yuzu, while hugging Ichigo tightly.
"Of course I will," replied Ichigo with a small smile. It was a nice happy moment between siblings.
"You better not make Orihime cry or do anything wrong to her."
Only to be ruined by an idiot.
Hastily letting Yuzu and Karin go and punching his dad into the wall with one hit, he yelled at him, "What the hell is your problem, you stupid Goat-face?! I'm not some damn pervert, and there is no way I'm going to make Orihime cry! So shut up, or I'll put you out for a week!" No one reacted to the well-known "father-son" relationship Ichigo and Isshin had.
"It's going to get a bit quieter without you coming in for work, Ichigo," said Ikumi Unagiya, interrupting Ichigo's rant.
Ikumi was a tall woman with very visible curves, raven black hair reached her upper back, held in a ponytail by a purple scrunchy, and brown eyes (How many Bleach characters are there with brown eyes?! Seriously!); she wore a brown cap with goggles on it, a white shirt with long purple sleeves, on the shirt was a logo of the Unagiya shop that she owned, tight black pants with a buckle belt, and black rubber boots.
"Take care of yourself and Orihime, 'cause if you don't, I'm going to go over there and beat the shit out of you, got it?"
"Yeah," Ichigo said with a grin, "got it."
Next were one Kisuke Urahara and one Yoruichi Shihoin. Kisuke stood at 6'0"; he had messy light-to-pale blond hair, framing the sides of his face and in between his eyes, covered by a green stripped bucket hat, which shaded his eyes, and a stubble; he wore a brown haori with a white diamond pattern on the lower half, a dark green shirt and pants, with traditional Japanese sandals.
"Well, Kurosaki-kun, you're finally leaving, don't worry, we'll protect everything here while you're gone," Kisuke said to the substitute.
"He already knows that, Kisuke," said Yoruichi, "I'm just sad that I won't get to play with him as much."
Yoruichi stood at 5'2"; she had long purple hair that was held in a ponytail, dark skin, golden-yellow eyes, an orange shirt with two white straps on either shoulder, a wide brown sash around her waist, skintight, black pants, and brown slipper-like shoes. "I'll still visit, though," she said, looking over at Ichigo.
Ichigo couldn't help but give a slight groan as his cheeks became slightly flustered.
After all the words of farewell, they all settled into talking with each other while waiting for their ride to arrive.
=3=
Soon enough their ride came. Though…it wasn't what they were expecting.
"We're going…in that?" asked Uryuu, voicing every one's thoughts. Well, except Orihime's.
"Oh! It's so cute! Look Tatsuki, Ichigo!" squealed Orihime, jumping up and down in joy, "Isn't it? And it's pink too!" During Orihime's cries of how cute it was to her, the back door opened and out stepped a man that dressed as eccentrically as a certain perverted shopkeeper.
He stood at 6'5", had dark purple hair, a pointy goatee, forest green eyes, pointy ears, a white top hat with a pink and purple twist on the base, purple gloves, a pink tie with white polka dots, a white suit-shirt with a white under shirt, a white, high-collared cape with a purple inner lining, white dress pants, and black dress shoes. This was Johan Faust V, or better known as Mephisto Pheles, the director of True Cross Academy. (Must be a bitch to get stains out…)
"Well, good day, every one," said Mephisto, giving a slight bow in greeting. "We are running a little late, as we were held up earlier, and I have to ask you to please load your luggage quickly and get in so we may leave now. To those not coming, it is a pleasure in meeting you, no matter how brief it is."
Everyone who wasn't going had eventually left and everyone else piled into the pink limo. Once every one was in, the engine roared to life and they left for their first day as exorcists.
=3=
In the trunk lay one very battered and bruised Chizuru, as she was—and is—hit by the luggage that had fit into the trunk. 'This is nothing! I'll go through worse just to save my Hime!' thought Chizuru, determined to achieve her goal. At that moment the limo hit a pretty hard bump, sending Chizuru and the luggage up for a moment, only to crash down, Chizuru first.
"A-anything…for my…Hime…"