Chapter One
In one of many Gotei-13 offices two girls both around the same age were fiddling with a video camera and a tripod. The one girl, the brunette was wearing a standard shihakusho and was fiddling with the buttons on the video camera, while her partner the blonde mounted the tripod; her haori was tossed haphazardly over the chair. The back revealed the kanji symbol for nine.
Arisa Uchimani and Jennifer Bletchley had finally gotten the camera set up the way they wanted it and now, as Jen hit play she slid over to the desk which Risa was already sitting on.
"Hello loyal viewers," Risa said into the camera causally flicking her blond hair off her shoulder. She was wearing a black tank top over her hakama. "Risa and Jen here of the G-13's ninth and sixth divisions respectively"
"That's right," Jen cut in as if they had rehearsed this little skit several times. She held a scroll in front of the camera even though the font size combined with the distance made it impossible to read. "This here is yet another mission statement from Head Captain Shinakukugariwari Yabba Dabba Do Yamamoto for the captain of the ninth division Arisa Uchimani."
"In other words," Risa stated. "It's an eviction notice. Why am I calling it this? Well my loyal viewers around this time last year I was thrown out of my office and into the jungle called Hogwarts to raise awareness about an evil wizard named Voldemort. Once that was done I was sent to Forks, Washington a few months ago to stop a fake Aizen attack. Now what does the head captain send me to do? De-program a computer virus originally designed by the French Military."
"As you can see," Jen concluded. "She gets sent out a lot. So sign this petition to kick Shinakukugariwari Yabba Dabba Do Yamamoto out of office and replace him with…"
"Byakuya Kuchiki," both Risa and Jen said in unison. "Because shit happens!"
Risa leapt off the desk gracefully and shut off the video camera. She folded up the tripod and placed them both on her desk. Jen was rereading Risa's mission statement for the hundredth time hoping that the more she read it the less true it would seem. As Risa placed the mini-DVD from the video camera in a case and placed it in one of her desk drawers the lieutenant of Risa's division Shuhei Hisagi walked in holding a paper similar to Risa's.
"Hey," he greeted his captain informally after she had reprimanded him for calling her "taichou-sama". "You get the message from Yamamoto-soutaichou?"
"About being deported to France?" Risa asked her face lighting up. "Yep I did and I'm all packed too."
"You know anything about this X-ana program that we're dealing with?"
"You mean XANA?" Risa asked pulling her form out of Jen's hands and reading it. "Yeah, I do and I know people at Kadic Academy as well."
Shuhei shot her a 'what the hell' kind of expression over his papers, but then he realized that this shouldn't surprise him, with Risa's knack for attracting trouble she and whoever she knew usually had their fair share of saving each other's asses. Jen meanwhile had resorted to drumming her fingers on Risa's desk which she was still sitting on. Risa meanwhile resorted to putting the tripod into the closet on the left-hand side of the room.
Outside the office came the sound of crashes and bangs. Risa, Jen and Shuhei peered out of the solid oak doors to see the twins Jake and Jack Emmerson scramble inside the sanctuary of Risa's office.
"Should I ask?" Risa said closing the door behind them. Both twins made themselves comfortable on her couch before responding.
"Err, no," Jack said casually. Jen rolled her eyes; they knew the twins long enough so that when they said 'you don't want to know' they usually didn't.
"So," Jake said reaching into the pockets of his shihakusho and pulling out a form much like Risa's. "French boarding school eh? Aren't we a bit old to be portraying students?"
"Apparently not," Risa said. "On top of that Marcus is supposed to becoming too. Try explaining that one."
"Do I have to act dumb?" Jack asked cocking an eyebrow. Jen looked at him with her face contorted weird as if she was trying not to laugh.
"You mean you don't already?" she snickered. Risa shot her a look. Jack crossed his arms and put on his best pouty face. Jen didn't budge.
"Any chance of you knowing people and this school Risa," Jake asked looking at the form again. Risa nodded and Jake smirked. "So, who's on the dubious dating list of Arisa Uchimani this time?"
"Why do you always assume that?" Risa snapped at him turning bright red. "I can have normal friends!"
"She's getting defensive!" Jack yelled jumping up and pointing at her. "Was he cute?" he added cupping his hands under his cheek and bending his left leg up in a mocking gesture of a stereotypical teenage girl in love.
"Oh he must've been," Jake threw in cutting off whatever Risa had been about to say. "She wouldn't have dated him otherwise."
"Yeah but she dated you," Jack sniggered. At this point Risa had had enough of the two boys bickering and promptly threw them out of her office and barked an order at Shuhei to go find Marcus. She then flopped on the couch where she was joined by Jen and the two girls sat there for a few moments.
"Are you busy at all this year," Risa asked Jen.
"No I'm not," she answered. "Hopefully you want me and Renji on your squad but it's your mission. Oh, should I have Canada connected to France via the Senkaimon before you leave?"
Risa laughed at this one. Soon after Jen joined in, it wasn't that the statement or the reasons behind it were particularly funny but Risa and Jen laughed for a good minute of two before Risa composed herself.
"You have to come with me," she said. "Who else am I gonna room with?"
"You think they'll give us our old room from when we did that foreign exchange student thing?" Jen asked her eyes lighting up. "You think the Chinese food guy still delivers to the window?"
"I hope so," Risa giggled. Jen's face suddenly became serious. She looked at Risa as though they weren't recollecting memories from when they were exchange students with the academy they were about to return to.
"Are you going to bring Ichigo?" she asked. Risa didn't know what to make of it.
"I was planning on it, I mean he and you recovered well from our last adventure in the world of the living," Risa said, she had only hit one of the reasons Jen was asking but after a few seconds Risa figured out the other one. "And I brought him to Hogwarts and he handled it well. The boys at Kadic aren't all groping morons like they are at Hogwarts."
"That's not what I'm saying," Jen said. "Don't take this the wrong way but, Odd and I kept in contact. We still do and I know it looked like he liked her but he still has feelings for you. At Hogwarts the three guys you dated are either your best friends or a total asshole who couldn't be bothered. At Kadic, you left the one guy who really cared about you."
"So what are you saying, you had a serious relationship Odd, what about Marcus!" Risa exclaimed. Her face was going red as she took in Jen's words. But she knew the answer to her question even before Jen answered it.
"Odd and Marcus had the chance to meet and Odd and I talked it over, we're friends nothing more," Jen said. "But he and Ichigo have never met, and if he still has feelings for you imagine how much it's going to kill him if he sees you with Ichigo."
"So who are we protecting?" Risa asked. "Him or Ichigo"
"You know the answer to that," Jen said with a note of finality.