Ayane-san: Really sorry for the late chapter! Got lazy and side-tracked, but overall, chapter 2 is up and running!
Ichigo: Che, you slack off too much!
*WHACK!*
Saaya: *winces* Ooh! That gotta hurt!
Ayane-san: Please enjoy the chapter!
"ALL RIGHT EVERYONE!" said Yachiru yelled over the mic "LETS GET THIS COMPETITION STARTED!"
"Heh, this is competition is gonna be a piece of cake," Ichigo said.
"Oy, don't get too full of yourself Ichigo," said Abarai Renji, the Sixth Squad's lieutenant. "Don't think that you're gonna be the one to win 'cause the person who's going to when this competition is me," he said proudly with a smirk.
"CHE! Now who's the one being full of himself?" Ichigo said sarcastically.
"Well at least I'm stating the FACTS!" Renji said in his face.
"What? You wanna go right now you bastard?" Ichigo said, clearly pissed off.
"BRING IT ON YOU STRAWBERRY!" roared Renji as the two both grabbed their zanpakutou's until...
"ENOUGH THE BOTH OF YOU!" someone yelled. As the two quickly stopped their actions at the sound of the voice, they turned around to where the voice came from and saw that the person standing before them was none other than Kuchiki Rukia.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU TWO IDIOTS THINK YOU'RE DOING? DON'T TRY TO START A FIGHT HERE YOU MORONS!EVERYONE CAME HERE TO ENJOY THIS EVENT, NOT DIE FROM A BATTLE BETWEEN
TWO IDIOTS!" Rukia scolded.
"Y-Yes ma'am," they both said, shaking from the sudden outburst and scolding from Rukia. Suddenly, the announcements came on to announce what the first competition is.
"Attention everyone, we shall announce the first competition of the Seireitei's sports festival" said the voice, which was Nanao's. "The first competition that shall be the Track and Shunpo competition. All participants please report to the stadium immediately." And she turned off the announcer.
"Ah! That would be me," Ichigo said.
"You're in the track and shunpo competition?" asked Renji.
"Yea, remember, we chose who's going to do what for each team, and I chose track since I'm good at running and shunpo," Ichigo said.
"By the way, what's the name of your team anyway?" asked Renji.
Ichigo as he froze in his place, looking away.
"Well...as for the name...its...team Strawberry," Ichigo said embarrassingly, his head lowered in shame.
Renji blinked, before realizing what he had just said. He bursted into a hysterical laugh. "GAHAHAHAHAH! TEAM STRAWBERRY? THAT REALLY SUITS YOUR TEAM'S TASTE!"
A vein popped on Ichigo's head. "SHUT THE HELL UP YOU DAMN PINEAPPLE!"
Then Renji snapped.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLIN' A PINAPPLE YOU DUMBASS?" Renji screamed.
"YOU WANNA FIGHT?" Ichigo hollered back.
"BRING IT ON CARROT TOP!"
"I SAID ENOUGH ALREADY!" Rukia shouted again. "ICHIGO JUST GET TO STADIUM ALREADY! AND RENJI, STOP TRYING TO PICK FIGHTS WITH EVERYONE!"
"WHAT?BUT HE STARTED IT FIR-Geh!" he said, until he was interupted by Rukia's deadly glare at him.
"I-I'll shut up now..." he stammered
"Good then, now let's go, we have get ready for our competitions. Ichigo you better hurry or you'll be late." she said calmly.
"Alright," Ichigo said as he ran towards the stadium.
At the stadium...
Ichigo was running towards the starting line until he heard a familiar voice.
"Yo, Ichigo" a voice called next to him, as he stopped and turned towards the direction of the voice. There he saw Shihoin Yoruichi standing in front of him in a track and field uniform with the name of her team on it.
"Y-Yoruichi-san? You're in the race too?" he asked, shocked that Yoruichi would be participating as well.
"Yea, why? Do you have a problem with that, Ichigo?" she asked, smirking a bit.
"NO! I just didn't expect that you would be here, that's all," he said.
"Well then let's get one thing straight Ichigo, I'm not going to go easy on you and you better re-think your victory plans while you still can." Yoruichi said as she shunpoed past Ichigo to the starting line.
Ichigo gulped. Then he mumbled, "I sure hope I can when this..."
"Don't think that you're going to out run me, Kurosaki Ichigo." a low, serious tone said from behind.
"GAAAA!" Ichigo screamed as he turned around quickly to see the Sixth Divisions captain, Kuchiki Byakuya, also Rukia' older brother.
"B-Byakuya! Don't sneak up on me like that!" he yelled.
"You couldn't even sense me coming. How pathetic," Byakuya replied.
"S-SHUT UP! YOU JUST CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD THATS ALL!" he yelled.
"Stop making such a ruckus and get to your place already so I can beat you and win," he said as he shunpoed off to the starting line thinking, "This competition shall surely raise the Kuchiki Clan's reputation..."
"What's his problem?" Ichigo thought. "Well I better get to my place before the race starts," he thought and shunpoed off to the starting line of the race.
There, he saw the other participants besides Yoruichi and Byakuya. He saw Soi Fon, the Second Divison's captain, Hitsugaya Toshiro, Kira Izuru, and even... Hanatarou? Well he wouldn't try wondering the reason why he's participating. Then when everyone got to their places Nanao came out with a pistol in her hand.
"Greetings, everyone. I'm Ise Nanao of the Shinigami Women Association. First, we'll start off with introductions. We have Matsumoto Rangiku-san, Kusajishi Yachiru-san, and Kurotsuchi Nemu-san. Please take note that we'll be participating from time to time as well. Now let's go over the rules. For this competition, there are three laps in the race," she explained. "In the first round, everyone must run normally, that means you can't use shunpo, and then in the second and third lap, you may use your shunpo. Is that clear?" she asked, pushing up her glasses.
''Understood," they replied.
"Then, is everyone ready?" she asked
"Ready!" they answered.
"Then...on your mark..." she raised her arm in the air with pistol in her hand and got ready to fire, "Get set...GO!"
And pressed the trigger and a loud 'bang' sounded. Everyone ran like there was no tomorrow once the gun sounded.
"T-This... is... is... no sweat... at all..." Ichigo panted.
"Heh, don't start thinking this is going to be easy Ichigo," said Yoruichi right beside him.
"Y-Yoruichi-san!"
"Theres still the next two laps to go so you better prepare yourself," she said and then ran right past him.
Once they passed the starting line, the shunpo part of the race started. Immediatly, Ichigo used his shunpo and moved swiftly across the field. As for Hanatarou...he was panting behind, not even a few inches from the starting line.
"P-Please wait!" Hanatarou said panting.
"Why is Hanatarou even in the race?" Ichigo thought with a sweatdrop.
"Oy Ichigo, try paying attention to where you're running," a manly voice said.
"Ah, thanks!" he said with a thank-you-very-much-sir grin. Then it hit him. "Eh?" Ichigo looked beside him to see... Yoruichi's cat form. "You turned into a cat?" he yelled
"Well anything can go in this race Ichigo." she said as she shunpoed passed him.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he shouted as he shunpoed even faster. Then suddenly, Byakuya passed Ichigo with a swift use of his shunpo.
"B-Byakuya?" Ichigo said.
"Fool," Byakuya commented as he shunpoed even faster.
"AH!" exclaimed Ichigo, shocked at Byakuya's shunpo skills, even though it wasn't that surprising that Byakuya would be that fast. But, there's also no surprise of what Ichigo's reaction would be as he got pissed at how Byakuya just called him a 'fool' just then. With that, Ichigo shunpoed with all his might to catch up to the two.
Back to Hanatarou... He was lying on the floor panting.
"Why was I put into the race?" he asked himself.
Matsumoto raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Looks like we already have one contestant out!"
Back to the Race...
Ichigo shunpoed as much as he can, even enhancing his speed by concentrating his spiritual pressure until he finally caught up with Byakuya. But still, Yoruichi was still far from the both of them.
"So you managed to keep up, huh?" Byakuya said calmly, even while he was still using shunpo.
"Hah, do you really think I would let you off that easily for calling me a fool just then without getting back at you?" Ichigo replied with a smirk. "Then you must be insane."
"You're insane if you think you can actually surpass me," Byakuya said, as both of them increased their speed, they were still neck and neck.
"WOW WILL YOU GET A LOOK AT THIS!" Yachiru announced excitedly through the microphone. "BOTH BYAKKUN AND ICCHI ARE TIED WHILE BOOBIES* IS IN THE LEAD! WHILE ALL THE SLOWPOKES ARE ALL IN THE BACK, THE TENSION BETWEEN BYAKKUN, ICCHI, AND BOOBIES IS GETTING FIRED UP!"
Matsumoto slammed her hands excitedly on the desk. "Woah! Even that Soi Fon-taichou is lagging behind! And right behind her is Hitsugaya-taichou!
Are they really going to be last place?"
"Damn, I won't be able to win this way," Ichigo thought "Well; I guess desperate times call for desperate measures."
So in one swift motion, Ichigo put his hand over his face, while still using his shunpo, and then a dark spiritual pressure covered his face and when the spiritual pressure disappeared, there on Ichigo's face was his hollow mask. After just that sight, everyone was shocked that he would even summon his hollow mask for such a purpose, even Byakuya and Yoruichi.
"WOW! ICCHI JUST PULLED OUT THE BIG GUNS!" Yachiru shouted into the mic.
A few seats away from her, Nemu was eagerly taking down notes and constantly observing Ichigo's hollow mask.
"He really summoned his hollow mask," Yoruichi thought. A slow smirk spread on her lips. "Heh, this'll get interesting." And she started increasing her speed.
But suddenly, Ichigo flashed just right beside her. Yoruichi was stunned. She slightly glanced over with a shocked expression of how fast Ichigo can move with his mask on. In a blink of an eye, Ichigo quickly glanced over to see Yoruichi's shocked face. He smirked at her reaction to his speed, since she would always surpass him in speed without his hollow mask. Then, he swiftly flashed out of her sight and reappeared in front of the starting line and flashed right past it.
"WOW! LET'S SEE THAT AGAIN!" shouted Yachiru while turning to point at the enormous screen standing on top row of the audience seats.
And there on the screen was a slow motion recording of Ichigo's swift movement past the finish line.
"THIS IS GETTING EXCITING! ICCHI'S GONE WAY PAST BYAKKUN AND BOOBIES! COULD HE BE THE ONE TO TAKE FIRST PLACE IN
THE RACE?" Yachiru shouted with an excited tone in her voice.
Back to the other competitors...
"DAMN HIM! HOW DARE HE SURPASS YORUICHI-SAMA AND TREAT HER LIKE SHE WAS SOME SNAIL! I'LL MAKE SURE THAT SUBSTITUTE
PAYS FOR HIS INSOLENCE!" Soi Fon thought menacingly as she picked up her speed, since she was in 5th place.
"Damn it, I have to catch up or I'll lose!" Hitsugaya thought as he too, picked up his pace, since he was right behind Soi Fon in 6th place.
Back to the farther competitors...
"Che, this is a piece of cake," Ichigo thought. "I'll definitely win this race in no time."
It was the last lap of the race and Yoruichi and Byakuya were trying to catch up with Ichigo. They were both neck and neck, but Ichigo was still in the lead with one more lap to go. Yoruichi and Byakuya were starting to get closer to Ichigo by the second. With that, Ichigo increased his speed even more.
"Those slowpokes aren't gonna catch up with me," he thought, but then suddenly, Ichigo tripped and to make matters worse, Yoruichi and Byakuya were close by an inch and they were caught up in the trouble as well.
The cause of this predicament was that Hanatarou had collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. At the same time, the rest of the race participants caught up, but was immediately pulled into the mess and the pile of four shinigami had become a ball of shinigami thrown towards the finish line. They all came whirling through the air towards the finish line. But instead of flying right past the finish line, they all came into a pile with only a few inches between the pile of shinigami and the finish line.
"WAAA! SUGOI! EVERYONES ALL IN A HUGE DOG PILE!" Yachiru shouted as her eyes sparkled. "WHO WOULD'VE IMAGINED THAT? WAIT!
WHATS THAT?"
The audience began to eagerly poke their heads closer into the field, their eyes wide and opened.
From the pile of worn out, trembling, arm came out of the pile. It grabbed the finish line ribbon and pulled it down.
"UNBELIEVABLE! A HAND HAS JUST REACHED OUT FROM THE PILE FOR THE RIBBON AND PULLED THE FINISHING LINE! BUT WHO COULD THIS MYSTERIOUS PERSON BE?" Matsumoto said suddenly through the microphone as she stood from her seat in suspense.
And out from the pile of shinigami, came out Kurosaki Ichigo, with his mask off, with the piece of the ribbon in his right hand.
The crowd widened their eyes and then cheered. They jumped up from their seats and excitedly threw their fists in the air.
"WAAA! AND IT LOOKS LIKE KUROSAKI ICHIGO IS THE WINNER!" Matsumoto shouted.
The crowd continued to scream with excitement. Ichigo was crowned the winner of the race as the big screens showed a live broadcast of Ichigo confused.
"Huh? What did I do?" Ichigo asked in confusion.
"Congratulations, you have won the track and shunpo race," said Nanao as she walked up to Ichigo and on her hands was a red pillow with a gold medal with a red and white striped ribbon tied to it.
"I won?" Ichigo repeated. "I WON!" He took the medal honorably and held it up in the air.
As Ichigo proudly went up to the stage, he waved the crowd as they shouted with excitement with confetti raining down. However, in an instant, Ichigo's victory became a disaster.
"NII-SAN PLEASE DON'T COMMIT SEPPUKU*!" a voice shouted.
When Ichigo heard the noise, he turned quickly towards its direction and saw Rukia with a worried look. But when he turned toward the other direction, he saw Byakuya on the ground with a wakizashi* in his hands, close to his stomach.
"I-I can't live on anymore," Byakuya said weakly. "I don't deserve to be the head of the Kuchiki clan. I lost to that substitute shinigami twice already. (Note: Refer to the Soul Society Arc for recap.) I cannot live on anymore." He began to draw it closer to his stomach.
"NII-SAN DON'T!" as Rukia tried to snap Byakuya back to reality.
"Oy Byakuya! You don't need to get so upset about-" Ichigo said, but suddenly got interrupted by Rukia.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ICHIGO!" she yelled.
"WHAT? MY FAULT?" he replied back, but was confused as to why Rukia would blame him of all people, after all, wasn't she suppose to be congratulating him?
"IF YOU HADN'T WON, NII-SAN WOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT FOR WINNING!" Rukia snapped.
"WHAT?" Ichigo retorted back.
"Ne, don't worry Nii-san, you'll win in the next competition, ok?" Rukia said, trying to comfort her brother-in-law.
"You're right," Byakuya said as he stood from his place and walked away towards his sister-in law. "There are other ways I can redeem myself as well," and walked away with Rukia, but not before he gave a death glare to Ichigo.
"Geh, why did he glare at me?" Ichigo thought as he crossed his chest. "Is winning really a bad thing?"
"Oy Ichigo, that was pretty good, using your reiatsu and hollow mask to move that quick," Yoruichi complemented as she walked up to him.
"Thanks." Ichigo replied almost immediately. "FINALLY! Someone who compliments on my work" he thought. But...
"Oh, but don't take it as a complement or anything," she said immediately.
"Eh?" he said, trying to sort out what she just said in his head.
"I mean you surpassed me, so be prepared the next time you face me," she smirked evilly." All those tactics I used against you were just baby moves, next time; I'm going to show you my full potential." Yoruichi smirked evilly then walked away.
"ALRIGHT THEN!" Yachiru yelled. "THE NEXT COMPETITION IS GUNNA BE THE OBSTACLE RACE! SO ALL PARTICAPANTS PLEASE GET READY IN THE LOCKER ROOMS!" With that said, the announcements ended.
And with that, the track and shunpo race came to a close with a confused Ichigo wondering if winning was a good thing or bad thing.
Behind the Scenes!
Ishida knocked on the locker room's door. "Oy Kurosaki, are you ready for the next event?" said Ishida. But there was no answer. "If you aren't going to answer, at least say something," he opened the door and found Ichigo sitting on the bench sulking with an ominous aura surrounding him.
"Geh!" Ishida said, his arms flying out." K-Kurosaki? Is that you?"
"Is winning wrong or right," Ichigo said blankly, staring at the gold medal he earned just a few minutes ago. "Am I right or am I wrong. Just what the hell is winning anyway?"
"I-Is he alright?" Ishida thought with a sweat drop.
Terms:
Boobies = If you've watched the sub version, Yachiru nicknamed Yoruichi 'Boobies' just like Matsumoto.
Seppuku = the Japanese version of suicide where people cut open their stomach.
Wakizashi = A Japanese short sword.
Ayane-san: Please review as always!
Ichigo: Yea... Review...
Ayane-san: -_-; Is he Kira number 2?
Saaya: He must be.