Authoress' Note: Chapter two! (Obviously…) We'd like to send a thank you to daydreamer1008 who gave us our first review. So, yeah, thank you so very much, your review made our day. You win a virtual extreme double chocolate cupcake with rainbow frosting and sprinkles. X3
Umino woke up face down in the dirt(1). Frowning, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she pushed herself up. Kazoku lay not far off, also face down. "Dammit…" Umino mumbled, looking around. Her eyes were met with the sight of a large baseball field outside what appeared to be a school building. The weather was bright and warm, contrary to the cloudy shadow that had been present outside when they had entered the computer lab. A group of girls were playing softball at the other end of the field, but other than that, the area was fairly empty. Umino stood and dusted herself off.
"Mnyah…" Kazoku grumbled, rolling onto her back. "Umi-chan, help me up…" she demanded childishly, holding her arms up. "Get up yourself." Umino answered, somewhat annoyed at the current situation. "But… But…" Kazoku spoke sadly, letting her eyes tear up and retaining her chibi-like face. Umino looked away. 'Don't look in her eyes, don't look in her eyes, dammit, don't look in her eyes!' She thought, but her gaze drifted back to Kazoku several times before she sighed. "Fine…" she mumbled, pulling Kazoku to her feet. The younger girl smiled and giggled sweetly. "Thank you Umi-chan!" Umino bit her lip, then let out an 'awww!' before hugging Kazoku. "Kawaii!"
"Lemme go!" Kazoku protested in her chibi voice. Umino reluctantly released her adorable friend. Said friend blinked a few times, looking around. "Where are we?" She questioned. "Because I'm pretty sure the computer lab doesn't have a giant building in it." She pointed to the school building. "Or a baseball field. Or grass."
"I'm not really-" Umino was cut off by someone yelling "heads up!" followed by a loud thud as a softball hit Kazoku in the side of the head. She cried out as she fell to the ground, her hands moving to cradle the spot. Umino's eyes widened before laughter erupted from her. Kazoku glared up at her with hurt, watery eyes. "I hate you." She whimpered, her expression causing Umino's laughter to fall short.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" They heard. Both girls looked towards the voice to see a busty orange-haired girl run up, followed by two other girls. One had short, choppy black hair and the other had dark red hair and glasses.
"Are you alright?" The orangette asked, kneeling beside Kazoku. The injured girl sat up slowly. Her eyes were still tearful. "I'm so sorry!" The girl repeated, embracing Kazoku who looked up, her eyes showing sudden confusion. Umino was staring at each of the strangers. She then looked down at her sister who gave a small shrug.
The black haired girl reached down and put a hand on Kazoku's head where she had been hit. Kazoku flinched, turning her head away. "Damn Orihime. You hit her pretty hard." The girl said, crossing her arms. Umino's head snapped up. "Ori… Orihime?" She said slowly. The orangette looked over. "Oh, silly me, I didn't introduce myself!" She let go of Kazoku and stood up. "I'm-" "Inoue Orihime." Umino finished. A perplexed look crossed the three strange girls' faces.
"Orihime, do you know them?" The black-haired girl asked, looking at the two new girls suspiciously.
"HIME-CHAN! You're not cheating on me with two other girls, are you?" yelled the dark red-haired girl worriedly.
"Oh no, it's not like that! You see… we, uh… wanted to learn the names of the students because… uh… we're new and we'll be in your class this year! Yeah!" Umino said, hurriedly coming up with an explanation. Kazoku gave her a quizzical look before standing.
"You look a little short." The black-haired girl commented, resting a hand on Umino's head. "You sure you're in the same class as us?" Light glinted off Umino's glasses and she glared up at the girl, then attempted to bite her hand. "Hey!" The girl snapped. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Kazoku giggled in her usual chibi-like way, drawing everyone's attention back to her. "I'm guessing you're Tatsuki, right?" Kazoku asked, pointing. The dark-haired girl simply nodded. "And you… I think it was…" Kazoku continued, tapping her chin while looking at the redhead. "Umi-chan, what was her name again?"
"Chizuru."
"Yep, that's right, I'm Chizuru! So what's your name, my new princess?" leered Chizuru while she gave Kazoku one of her 'special' hugs from behind. "Oh, I think we're going to be great friends!" Of course, this action did not please Umino, or Tatsuki for that matter.
"Don't touch her!" yelled Umino in rage as she punched Chizuru, who ended up letting go of Kazoku and falling to the ground, clutching her face. However, as soon as she fell down, Tatsuki starlight-kicked(2) her so hard that she skidded across the field, bouncing almost all the way to the storage shed. At the same time Tatsuki yelled, "How many times do I have to beat your ass until you get it through your head that you aren't supposed to do that!"
Kazoku looked at Chizuru. "That was the les-"
"Yes Kazo-chan, yes it was." said Umino, shaking her head. Kazoku frowned, looking down at her chest. "I feel violated…"
"As you should." Umino said and glanced around the area, then shook her head. "This is impossible!"
"Don't worry; I'm sure it's just your imagination!" Kazoku said with a tiny giggle. Both Kazoku's and Umino's voices had taken on a British accent(3), causing them to receive strange looks from Tatsuki and Orihime.
"Umi-chan! Umi-chan!" Kazoku said suddenly, tugging on Umino's shirt. "Lookie! It's the Strawberry!" Kazoku was pointing toward the storage shed where Chizuru had landed. A teenage guy with orange hair and a permanent scowl on his face was nudging Chizuru with his foot, checking to see if she was dead or not. Standing next to him were three other guys. One looked as if he was of Mexican descent with dark brown hair that covered his similarly colored eyes. He had tanned skin and was extremely tall.
"Oh Kami! Ichigo, is she dead? She is dead, oh no we're gonna get blamed for this aren't we?" This was said by the boy standing next to the Mexican. He had shaggy brown hair that was shaking wildly with his head as he paced back and forth.
"Calm down Keigo. She's obviously not dead, just unconscious," said the last boy who was checking Chizuru's pulse. He had neat black hair and dark eyes.
"Are you sure? How can you be sure? She's dead, I know-"
"STRAWBERRY!" screamed Kazoku and Umino. Suddenly they had disappeared from Tatsuki and Orihime's side, and Ichigo was in the process of being glomped by two small blurs of hyperactive energy (A.k.a. Karasukami Kazoku and Akadoragon Umino).
"What the he-oof!" grunted Ichigo as a sudden weight on his back cause him to tip over and do a face-plant. He rolled over to see two faces peering down from their perch on his chest. "Who the hell are you two?"
"Ahh, what the hell! Why does Ichigo always get the ladies! Ichigo, you could share you know!" yelled Keigo. "Some of us haven't had any action in a while!"
"Are you sure you don't mean 'never' Keigo?" pointed out Mizuiro as he and Chad sweatdropped.
"Hey! You don't know that!" Keigo yelled. "Ichigo, how much do I have to pay to get a girl as well endowed as that!" He asked while pointing at Kazoku. He was then blinded by the light reflecting off Umino's glasses. She then spoke in a cold voice.
"For your information, we were giving Ichigo a friendly hug and he has in no way, shape, or form, paid for us. We are not some vulgar whores off the street as you seem to think, who will give a guy action if he simply pays for it. The fact that you would even suggest that makes me wonder just how pathetic you can be. Are your features and personality really so terrible that you have to buy love? Because that is the impression I am receiving." Umino turned around to pull Kazoku off of Ichigo.
Kazoku seemed to have just noticed Chad, so as soon as she was up, she glomped Chad who, in return, caught her, earning him the sparkly eyes and a giggle. Keigo, who had recovered from the insults of Umino, was about to comment. That is, until he heard a very unnerving voice in his ear. "You should know that I am very protective of Kazoku, and anyone who upsets her in any way with face my wrath." Umino then swiftly turned and walked over to Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Orihime, who were watching Chizuru, who seemed to be somewhere between waking up and having a twitching fit.
"Umi-chan! Lookie! I'm taller than you!"Umino turned to see Kazoku, who was situated on top of Chad's shoulders, her hands resting on his head. "Well, taller than you than usual." She giggled sweetly, looking around. "So… This is… uh… Karoku Town?" She asked, earning puzzled glances from everyone. Umino gave a nervous laugh. "Hehe, it's Karakura Town Kazo-chan. Remember?" She had a slight urgent tone as she said the last word, and Kazoku tilted her head. "Oh! Heehee, sorry, I'm not good with any names. They always get all mixed up in my head." She rapped her knuckles on her head and gave a distractingly cute laugh. Umino gave a quiet sigh of relief. 'Situation averted…'
"So where did you guys move here from?" Tatsuki asked, her arms crossed. Umino tensed at her tone; Arisawa was definitely still suspicious. 'Okay, situation not averted.' She thought. 'But thank Kami that Ishida isn't here… He'd definitely catch on right away…' Kazoku sighed. "A land far, far away…" She said dreamily, waving her hand slowly. Umino rolled her eyes. "Abroad." She added simply. "Over from the Americas."
"You seem to speak Japanese pretty well." Tatsuki said. Umino shrugged. "It's not that difficult once you have some motivation. Plus, Kazoku and I have been interested in all things Japanese for years." She answered nonchalantly. 'Stop with the questions already…' She added mentally, though she was pretty sure her message got through in her hardened stare since Tatsuki didn't ask anything else.
"Well, Umi-chan and I gotta go home now." Kazoku said cutely as Chad lifted her off his shoulders and carefully set her down. "Come on Umi-chan! We're probably gonna get lost so we need as much time as we can get!" She grabbed Umino's arm and started pulling her away.
"What? Oh right, okay then. Well, it was nice meeting all of- wah!" Umino's goodbye was cut short as Kazoku suddenly sped off, dragging her friend with her.
"Whoa, hey, slow down!" Umino yelled. Her feet barely skimmed the sidewalk as she was pulled along. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere over the rainbow, so shush!" Kazoku answered, not faltering in her panic-stricken steps. "That makes no sense!" Umino protested, digging her heels against the pavement and causing Kazoku to fly back as if she'd been clotheslined. "Now just give me a minute to think."
Kazoku released Umino's arm. "What is there to think about? We're stuck in this crazy place, who knows how, and we were pulled through a deadly computer screen! What are we supposed to d-" She was cut off as Umino clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her into a nearby alleyway, grumbling about making psychotic rants in the middle of the street. Kazoku bit her hand when they were out of sight of passing bystanders. "Aren't you the least bit concerned that we're in an anime world, with no known way of getting home? Because frankly, I'm terrified out of my mind right now!"
"Kazoku, calm down!" yelled Umino, losing her patience. "We have to think about this rationally. Okay, option A: We're dreaming and in reality, are still in the computer lab. Option B: we've gone clinically insane. Option C: This is really happening. Now, seeing as I don't think we've gone clinically insane because we've known we're crazy for a while already, option B is out. I also know that neither of us would immediately fall asleep in the computer lab AFTER school and when we landed in the baseball field, it hurt way too much to be a dream. So option A is out. That means that we really did somehow get transported to the Bleach world. If that's true, we need to find a place where we know we'd be safe AND that whoever we're staying with will believe us."
Umino thought for a second. "Come on. We need the address of a candy shop owned by one Kisuke Urahara."
"The candy man with the weird hat?"
(1) When we wrote that, my (Kazoku's) thoughts went to Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Anyone ever heard that song?
(2) Ouran: Tamaki pwns. 'Nuff said.
(3) Kudos to whoever can recognize where these lines came from.
Review please!