Here is the second chapter. This one has more of the characters in it. I hope you enjoy and review.
She was running, as fast as her legs could carry her, on top of the dome of the cold and void sky of Hueco Mundo. Anxiety was pumping into her veins, causing her heart to race. Something terrible was about to happen. She could sense it, his warm and protective aura was being overwhelmed, by this dark, heavy, and barren force. This force's intent was to consume every shred of hope, as if it was trying to make everything around it empty as it was. How could anyone approach this force? How could he approach this force? The need to find him became even greater.
Before she realized it her legs had taken her to a tower. She could make out a figure, but was unsure who it was. She prayed it was him, but she knew it wasn't. There was no way he could produce such an ominous feeling.
"So you came, did you Woman?" the dispassionate voice said.
Dread completely took a hold of her. It wasn't her savior's voice, but her captor's. His lifeless and icy stare fell on her, sucking all of her strength away. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn he was trying to consume her soul.
Her captor shifted his body slightly, giving her a better view. His form had changed from earlier. Now he had two monstrous devils like horns, with a matching tail and wings too boot. If possible his pale skin became paler, his eyes turned yellow, while his irises became green, and his waist was covered in what appeared to be black fur. The change wasn't drastic, but with that reiatsu, he was like an entirely new being.
A gasp escaped her lips and her eyes widened in fear, not at the sight of this monster. Her reaction was for the man he held by the neck with his tail, her savior, the man who had risked everything just to rescue her, the man she loved.
"Kuro….saki….kun?" was the only thing she could say.
Her captor turned his attention away from her and back to her savior. He placed the tip of his long, bone fitting finger on his chest. "Just in time, to witness the death of the man, you put all your hopes into." Energy as black as the man's wings formed in the tips of his fingers. He was taunting her, doing it as slowly as he could and making sure she was watching. He wanted to annihilate her heart, for no other reason than because he thought it unnecessary.
Never before had she been so angry at herself for being so helpless. She couldn't just stand there. She had to do something, anything. He needed her now more than ever; she just had to do something. "STOP!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. It was pointless. Her captor could not be persuaded by emotion, but it was all she could think of at that moment.
He unleashed his black energy, piercing his new captive's chest. She could only watch helpless as the life from her savior's eyes fade away into nothingness. Not even a scream escaped from his mouth, his body seemed to have already died. A giant, clean, hole appeared in the center of his chest. It was a nightmare it had to be, she could see right through his body! There was no way that was real. If it were real than she would at least see some charred fat, right?
Looking into his eyes, which were always full of such emotion, pain, sadness, anger, happiness, determination, were now dead, as dead as this dreaded hell they were in, made her heart weep. This just couldn't be. No he never lost, not when it mattered. He promised her that he wouldn't die and when he made a promise he kept it. That was the type of man he was, that was one of the many reasons she loved him. It was a joke he would awaken any second now, his eyes would shimmer with anger and determination like they always did when he was in this type of situation. He had to, because he promised her!
Her captor released her savior and let him fall from the tower. That was a mistake. Any second now he would awaken and then make his counter attack. The counter attack that would defeat this man, no this devil once and for all. But he never awakened. Instead his limp body continued to fall. Her savior was falling!
"NOOOOOOOO!" She screamed so loudly that both her captor and her white clothed friend were transfixed by her. She didn't care though; the only thing that mattered was saving her savior. Unconsciously she summoned her Santen Kesshun and caught him in midair. She ran as fast as she could. All she needed to do was heal him and everything would be alright. That was simple; she had done it so many times before. Even if he was dead, and god she hoped he wasn't, she could just bring him back. After all she brought back that arrancar woman even though Grimmjow had disintegrated her torso and head.
Before she could make it to the man who had captured her heart, her other captor materialized before her, stopping her in her tracks. His eyes were just as unforgiving and cold as ever.
"Forget it," he told her. His words made her body tremble. "His life is already out of your hands," he continued.
How could he say that with such a straight face? Why did he have to make it his mission to destroy her utterly? All she wanted was to go to the man she loved and heal him. Couldn't he just be satisfied with her heart being broken?
Luckily her white clothed friend came to her aid and held her captor off; giving her the opening she needed to get to him. Wasting no time she unleashed her Sooten Kisshun on him and immediately started to reject the damage inflicted on him. "Kurosaki-kun," she cried in relief. Her relief was short lived however, when she realized that her Sooten Kisshun was having no effect. His eyes were still lifeless! As lifeless as her brother's eyes were when she saw him die. 'Oh god no,' she thought. It hit her, he was actually dead and there was nothing she could do. What could she do? What would he do in her situation? He would keep trying, but no matter how hard she tried she could not will him back to life.
Everything was happening so fast, soon her captor had over powered her friend, cruelly taking his arm. She tried her best to shield him, but her captor tore through it as though it were paper. Everything was falling apart, things kept spinning more and more out of control. If she just had time to think, if everything could just stop for a moment, she could think. But that didn't happen and both of her would be protectors were on the ground. If she didn't do something soon her friend would soon join her brother, and her savior. Everything was crashing around her threatening to bury her. She did the only thing she could think of at the moment. "SAVE US KUROSAKI-KUN!"
By some dark miracle her wish was granted her savior stood up, but he was transformed. His power became even more terrifying than her captor's, but unlike her captor's he produced a destructive and out of control force. His hair came to his waist, his skin became as white as her clothing, strange markings appeared around his chest, a new mask formed around his face, and this one resembled a bull's skull. She wouldn't have believed it was him if she hadn't seen him transform. To her horror her savior let out a cry so fierce and so savage that it didn't resemble anything human.
She watched helplessly as he destroyed her captor. That wasn't him, no not her Kurosaki-kun. He never destroyed his opponents. He fought them off, to defend his precious people. But this, this horrible monster was destroying the devil. What had she done? When the decimation had finally ended and her captor defeated, he still continued withhis destructive assault, preparing to carve up his body. He was finally stopped by her now one armed friend. He tried to reason with, but the unthinkable happened. Her savior had actually stabbed him, throwing him across the dome.
"Ishida-kun!" she yelled.
He turned his attention to her. Her heart stopped. This couldn't be happening her savior was going to kill all of them. He was going to kill her. "Sa….ve…. I will…..save you," he said.
He was trying to save her. Despite transforming into this horrible monster, who only knew how to destroy, he was still determined to save her. He allowed himself to be consumed by this awful power to help her. Because she was too weak to help herself she had begged him to save her. This was all her fault.
He returned his attention to her friend, charging crimson energy in between his horns.
"Stop Kurosaki-kun!" she desperately tried to reach him. "Kurosaki-kun!"
Her plea fell on deaf ears and she watched as he obliterated every last trace of her friend. There wasn't even time for him to scream out for help.
"Ishida-kun!" she shrieked.
"Inoue!"
She turned around to see the rest of her friends running towards her.
"Kuchiki-san, Sado-kun, Abarai-san!" Thank god they were here. They could reach him and help him.
Her savior shifted his attention to the new comers.
"Inoue, what's go…." Before the raven haired woman could finish her question the savior was right in front of her. Her eyes filled with fear and her body trembled. He merely stared at her as if trying to discern something. "I…Ichigo?" she asked.
He responded by grabbing her by the throat and pulling her up to his face. The raven haired shinigami mouth was forced opened, as it hopelessly tried to grasp for oxygen.
"Kuchiki-san!"
The two men tried to stop him. The red haired shinigamiconjured a giant serpent like weapon, while the brown haired man formed armor around his arms. The savior dropped his captive and instantaneously appeared behind the red haired man. Without warning he sliced through the bone like serpent then ripped off the man's head, much to their horror.
"Ichigo, stop this!"
"Kurosaki-kun please listen to Kuchiki-san and stop!"
However like before he did not stop this time he attacked the gentle giant, impaling him in the chest with his horns. He shook his head up and down until he threw him off. The gentle giant was still clinging to life, so her savior hacked him up until he was unrecognizable, not before the brown haired man let out blood churning scream that sent chills down her spin.
"No, no please stop. Please stop this Kurosaki-kun," she whispered helplessly.
Now all that was left was the raven haired shinigami. Surely he would stop for her, he had to. They were too close for him to kill her in cold blood.
"Inoue," her shorter friend called her. "Run, I'll hold him off."
"No, you can't! He won't attack you, not you!" she tried to make her understand. "You are too important to him. He'll stop once he sees you." Despite her words she was having a hard time believing them.
"Inoue, don't argue!"
Before the two women could continue he was already upon them. His paralyzing and dark reiatsu over flowing from his body and instilling terror into both of them. His clawed hand found its way to the shinigami's neck once again. He roughly pulled the raven haired shinigami away from her. The crimson energy charged in between his horns.
Utter and complete horror had found residence in the petite shinigami's violet eyes. Her small hands wrap themselves on his hand; the position was similar to prayer. An in-distinguishable noise came out of her. She was obviously trying to communicate something, but her lungs being deprived of air made it impossible for her to actually speak.
"STOP KUROSAKI-KUN!" she yelled at him. She seemed to grab his attention. He took his eyes off of the shorter woman and put them on her. Seeing this she knew this was her chance to get through to him. "Kurosaki-kun, look at what you are doing. You are hurting Kuchiki-san! Please wake up and stop this! Please return to the man you were before. Please return to the man who cares so much about his friends that he will travel to hell and back for them. Please just return. Don't hurt Kuchiki-san, she's your friend. She's your…." She couldn't finish the last part, because she was unsure what they were. A very small part of her resented the raven haired shinigami for holding such a special place in her savior's heart. She would feel terrible for even experiencing such emotions afterwards.
"Sa….ve…..you," he repeated his earlier words. "I….will sa….ve….you… I will….save….you."
"You already have saved me! Look Kurosaki-kun, I am in one piece. Please let her go, she's not a threat to me."
"Sa….ve….Sa….ve," he continued to repeat. His grip on her neck tightened. The petite shinigami could no longer hold on to his him. Finally she turned her attention on to her, pleading to her with her panic filled violet eyes to help.
"Kurosaki-kun," she tried one last time. This did not deter him in the slightest. The raven haired woman shut her eyes instantly just as a crimson stream of energy washed over her body.
"NOOOOOO!"
Her eyes snapped opened. She shot up from her bed with speed that would rival a bullet's. Her breathing was labored; she inhaled and exhaled in quick succession. Her eyes darted back and forth through her apartment, taking in her surroundings. The realization hit her. She was not in Hueco Mundo, but her tiny apartment in the Human World. Putting her hands over her face, she let out on giant sigh. "It was just a nightmare." She removed her hands from her face to look at the clock beside her, which read 4: 47. "It's still dark outside," she whined to herself.
Ever since she had returned home she had been having nightmares of her time at Hueco Mundo. To be more specific she was having the same nightmare of Ichigo transforming into that monstrous form and killing all of their friends trying to protect her. Just the thought of it was enough to make her sick to her stomach.
"It felt so real." The healer grabbed herself in a hug. 'It could have easily been real, if he didn't intervene when he did.' Her thoughts went to Espadawho held her captive. Life had a twisted sense of humor. Her captor ended up saving Ishida from her savior. For all the problems she had with the emotionless Ulquiorra, she was eternally thankful to him for returning her Kurosaki-kun to her.
A yawn fought its way out of her, reminding her how late or rather early it was. Her eyes darted back to her digital clock which now read 4:50. "Hah," she sighed. She was in store for another long, grueling, sleep deprived day. Lately she was lucky if she got two hours of interrupted sleep. "Who needs sleep anyway?" she joked.
Orihime decided to get out of bed and take a long nice relaxing bath. The idea of trying to soak away her troubles was more appealing than returning to sleep only to wake up again ten minutes later, besides her body was drenched in sweat. She walked into her bathroom, turned on the water, and waited for the tub to fill up. Sitting down beside the tub the red head princess' thoughts returned to a certain scowling ex-substitute shinigami.
Today would be the first day that Ichigo came to school since before he started his training with the vizards. At least she thought he would come to school today. She was unsure how she felt about his return. On one hand she had missed turning around and seeing his disinterested and annoyed face. However on the other side she wasn't sure if she could be around him, not yet anyway.
The last four weeks she had been struggling to keep her lack of sleep problem a secret. Even Tatsuki was unaware of her problem. It hadn't been easy though. She started to nod off in class more often, which Ochi-sensei and Tatsuki took notice. Luckily she had been able to ward off both women. Ochi-senses stopped questioning her after she explained that her absence was due to visiting family in the U.S. From there the teacher reasoned that Orihime'snodding off was due to her body still not being use to the time zone yet. All she needed to do to get Tatsuki off of her back was to tell her that she was worried about Ichigo, which wasn't a lie. She had been very worried about him. Like with Ochi-sensei, Tatsuki assumed that Orihime's concern for the orange haired boy had kept her up later.
Her nodding off had consequences though. It became a challenge to follow the lectures and that in turn made it harder to take notes. Thankfully Tatsuki and Ishida were more than generous to share their notes with her. Od course their notes could not keep her awake when the time to take a exam a raised. Her last exam she had gotten 79, well below her usually work. Of course she was just grateful she passed, considering she was asleep for most of it and spent the last 15 minutes trying to scribble down answers. Despite all of her problems she had been successful in keeping her friends in the dark about her nightmares.
With Ichigo returning to school though meant that she would also have to keep it together in front of him. Past experience told her that keeping herself collected around him was easier said than done. Last night she couldn't even keep her thoughts together, while talking with him. She was only around him for about 20 minutes. How would she keep it together around him for a whole day?
"Huh," she sighed again. 'There is no way I can keep myself composed around Kurosaki-kun.'While trying to discover a solution to her problem, the healer noticed that the tub was finally full. Reaching for the nozzle, she turned it off then dipped her finger in to test the water. Finding it was just right; she took off her shirt and pajama pants. Orihime jumped into the tub for her nice, warm, and relaxing bath. As soon as her body was submerged into the water all of her worries washed away. 'I'll figure something out after I take my bath,' she happily thought.
Everything looked so odd to him. It was like he was waking up from a dream he half remembered. He recognized everything around him, but it just didn't seem real. Ichigo stood outside the gates of Karakura High School frozen in place. Some invisible force was keeping him at bay, he would have sworn it was the work of a hollow, but with his reiatsu gone there would be no reason for one of them to stalk him. He knew the real reason why he couldn't walk in, even if he wouldn't admit it to himself.
If he took a step into that place, he would be denying that everything that happened to him this past year had actually happened. Denying that he ever became a shinigami, denying that he had fought all of those battles, denying that he was different, and denying that he ever met Rukia. How could he deny any of that? Were all of his struggles for nothing? Did all the rivals and enemies he crossed swords with and the lessons he learned from them all for not? Was this what all of his trials were leading him to, a life of normality?
He should have been ecstatic about being able to return to school and not have to worry about his badge going off and having to rush off to deal with a hollow. This is what he always wanted a nice, relatively safe, and normal life. That is still what he wanted, right? "What am I doing here?" he asked aloud.
Before he could dwell on his question a loud and annoying voice called him.
"IC-HI-GO!" Keigo yelled as he pounced on Ichigo. Unfortunately for him the orange haired teen's reflexes were as sharp as ever and his face met with Ichigo's foot. "Ow, ow, ow!" he started screaming and rolling around on the ground. "You are too mean, Ichigo! Is that how you treat a friend who was overjoyed at seeing you?"
Ichigo snorted, showing disinterest in Keigo's whining. "It's your own fault."
"How is it my fault that you kicked me!" Keigo asked in his usual dramatic fashion, flinging his arms up and down.
"When someone jumps at you your first instinct is that they mean you harm. If someone means you harm you either run or attack them," he explained as though it was so obvious. "I don't run away, so I attacked. If you don't want me to hit you than you should stop jumping at me every time you see." He turned his back to Keigo.
A stream of water fell from his eyes. "You are too cruel. This is the thanks I get after visiting you night and day when you were in your coma!" He continued is mock crying and muttered things like being un-appreciated.
Ichigo groaned. The day had barely started and already he felt a headache forming. He liked Keigo he really did, but sometimes (like right now) he was just too much to handle.
"I see Keigo is annoying you already, Ichigo," a disinterested voice stated.
Both Ichigo and Keigo turned around to see Mizuiro standing behind them with his face buried into his phone as usual. He tookhis eyes off the device long enough to greet Ichigo. "Welcome back Ichigo. Are you feeling better?" he asked.
Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say, because Keigo's pouting and crying intensified. "Why don't you ever greet me and ask how I am doing, Mizuiro?"
"Hmm, oh you're there to Keigo," Mizuiro stated as though it were an afterthought. The short man turned his attention back to his phone.
Keigo's sadness turned into anger. "You liar!" he accused. "You just said, I see Keigo is annoying you already Ichigo," he said the last part in an even tone, trying to mimic Mizuiro's voice. To his annoyance the young man in question was not paying him any mind. "Screw you guys!" he screamed. "You know one of these days I'm just going to leave and when I do you two are going to miss me! Then you'll be saying stuff like we should have treated Keigo better or I wish we hadn't pushed Keigo away!"
"Well we won't know unless you do that, will we?" Ichigo sent his loud mouth friend a challenging glare.
Keigotried to meet Ichigo's glare with one of his own, but unlike his orange haired friend he was not good keeping a scowl on his face. Within ten seconds he backed down. "You're just lucky, I like you guys so much," he muttered.
'Oh please. He would be the one who would miss us more than anything if he left,' the ex-substitute thought.
"Why are we standing out here?" Keigo finally asked after his temper tantrum died down.
Both Mizuiro and Keigo's eyes were on Ichigo, silently asking him. He closed his eyes pretending that he was thinking of a reason. He couldn't tell them the reason why he was outside of the gates. Sure his friends now knew of his old life as a shinigami, but that did not mean it made it any easier for him to talk to them about it. They couldn't understand all of the battles he fought, all the pressures that came with it, and he did not want them to know. They shouldn't have to be burdened by his old life. He had done enough already. Aizen was going to kill them because they were his friends. He was lucky they were still talking to him.
"I….it's just weird going back to school after being gone for so long." His eye lids opened to watch their reactions. They seemed to have bought it. Mizuiro kept pressing buttons on his phone, while Keigo gave him another one of idiotic and overly cheery smile.
"I would imagine so, I mean you missed two months of school not counting that one day showed up last month," Keigo said.
"Yeah," he mindlessly agreed.
Keigo continued, "We better get going, so we aren't late. Ichigo you really can't be late since it's your first day back. I doubt Ochi-sensei will buy that you missed school to fight evil shinigami and hollows."
"So Urahara-san told you guys everything?"
Mizuiro was the one to answer. "That guy came to us the day that Arisawa punched you." He put his phone down to look Ichigo in the eyes. "We were with Arisawa talking about what was going on. Than all of sudden this shady looking guy in sandals and a hat came up to us. He told us that if we wanted to know what was going on with you that we should go to his shop around midnight."
Keigo continued from there. "We thought he was fishy and weren't going to go, but our curiosity got the better of us. On our way there Mizuiro and I saw Arisawa going there to, so we all decided to travel together. Then we saw you in those weird clothes going in the same direction."
"We figured that guy in the hat was telling us the truth at that point," Mizuiro chimed in. "We fell back a little so you wouldn't notice us and followed you into the shop."
"Then, we followed you down to that huge underground basement thing," Keigo jumped in again. Saw you, Ishida, and Chad with that guy. He was talking about going to some Hoco Modo or something."
"Hueco Mundo," Mizuiro corrected.
"Yeah, that place. After this big hole opened up and you guys left the hat and sandals guy explained everything that was going on."
The orange haired teen's eyes twitched in annoyance. 'Damn that hat and sandals. He didn't say anything about telling them the night I left for Hueco Mundo.' He could just see that huge cat like grin on the former captain's face now just waving his fan, laughing his ass off. Just thinking about that face pissed him off. He wasn't sure how or even when, but he swore to himself that he would get Urahara back, if it was the last thing he ever did.
"Let's get going already Ichigo!" Keigo yelled bring his delinquent friend back to his senses.
"He's right Ichigo. You can't afford to be late on your first day back," Mizuiro added. His attention had gone back to his phone a while ago. He walked through the gates along with Keigo. The pair stopped when they noticed that Ichigo was still in the same spot he was before. They had simply thought Ichigo was standing outside of the gate as some kind of reflection he was doing, but now they were growing concerned.
Noticing his friends' worried stares Ichigo thought it was best to simply walk in and avoid the barrage of questions that were sure to come if he stayed still for a moment longer.
"Ichigo," Mizuiro spoke in a low tone.
Ichigo recognized that tone. Mizuiro only spoke in that tone when he was genuinely worried about something. "It's fine guys." He took his first steps into the school, the first steps into his new life. "I just needed a nice kick in the ass to get me going," he joked, giving them a half grin.
To his relief both Keigo and Mizuiro stopped looking at him as though he were about to die and went back to their normal behavior. The three boys journeyed to their class for the first time in almost two months. Despite his moody disposition Ichigo couldn't help, but smile. He would never admit this to anyone, especially not Keigo, but he had really missed them.
'Maybe things aren't as bad as I'm making them out to be,' he thought.
Whack!
An ear drum shattering smack was produced as a hand met with the head of a certain spiky orange haired young man. The classroom was full of snickers and sympathetic nods. Said young man in question was rubbing the back of his head desperately as he tried to stop a bump from forming. Normally he would pound anyone who would dare inflict such harm to him, but for two obvious reasons he could not do that now. The first reason was that his attacker was a woman. Unless it was life threatening situation or an official match he never lifted a finger against a woman (Rukia didn't count because she asked for it sometimes and even than he rarely lifted finger against her). The second reason was the attacker was his teacher, Ochi Misato.
"Ah, Kurosaki you finally decided to show up," she spoke in her deceitful sweet voice. "Never mind that you've been absent for over a month and that the term is nearing its end, it is good to see you again. With another swat of her hand she hit her pupil upside his head again. "I don't suppose you have an excuse; I mean reason why you ditched school for such a long period." She inflicted her third slap to the head succeeding in drawing tears from the poor man.
He nursed his poor aching head and fought back the urge to strike back. "Didn't my old man tell you why I was out?" he asked her.
"Nope," she replied dryly.
'Damn that old man. I was unconscious for a month and he didn't even think to inform the school? Sometimes I think he loves to watch me suffer! Note to self, kick my old man's ass later. First Urahara-san and now my old men. My list for people's asses I need to kick just keeps getting longer.' "I was in bed sick all month." It wasn't a lie at least. He was unconscious for a month and the cause was because he felt ill, if you count all your molecules being rearranged as a result of losing his spiritual power as being ill.
She gave him a disapproving stare, before returning to her fake sweet smile. "I'm so sure you were. Take a seat and after class I'll talk to you about making up all the work you missed."
"Right." Still rubbing his sore head the ex-substitute walked to his seat. On the way there he saw Keigo and Mizuiro's mocking grins. He shot them his death glare at full blast, but it had no effect on them, which pissed him off. He shifted his gaze to his right. What he saw only increased his wrath; Ishida was watching him with smirk of his own glued on his face. "Stupid four eyes," muttered to himself.
Ichigo failed to notice the brown pair of eyes watching him. 'He's here!' She had been bracing herself all night trying to ready herself for his return to class. It seemed that all of her prep work was for not. She still could not keep her heart from racing and the butterflies in her stomach from fluttering. She didn't know why she felt this we way, when she just saw him last night. Being able to sense Ichigo's reiatsumust have spoiled her. Orihime was so use to being able to sense him from anywhere that she got to embrace herself in his presence constantly. Now that it was gone she had to endure being without the feeling until she saw him. She continued to watch him until he took his seat. Once Ochi-sensei started the lesson she immediately focused her attention on her. She was having enough problems staying alert without drooling over Ichigo.
Lunch had arrived and in Keigo's opinion it couldn't have come at a better time. Ochi-sensei had been pouring on more and more work. The term was nearing its end, so couldn't she give them a break? Frankly he could use an hour break. Lunch always reenergizedhim no matter how tiring a lesson was. The only problem he had with lunch was that it was so quiet. At least it had been quiet as of late.
Like usual he and his friends were eating lunch on the roof. Their group consisted of Mizuiro, Sado, and the newest member Ishida, which he still wasn't sure how that happened. One day Ichigo just invited him to lunch and he had been coming ever since. Ichigo was absent because he had to talk to Ochi-sensei during the break about all of his missed work, much to Keigo's dismay.
Ever since Ichigo left their group had diminished. First Ishida left to god knows where, then Sado disappeared, and finally Ichigo vanished as well. That left Keigo and Mizuiro alone. Mizuiro was good company, when he took his noise out of that phone of his and actually talked! When Ichigo left he became more withdrawn, which made lunch extremely dull for Keigo. That went on for an entire month, it nearly drove him mad.
He never thought he would be overjoyed at seeing Ishida. But last month when he saw the straight laced no non-sense four eyes he cheered. He brought Sado with him as well. It looked like the dark days had finally ended or so he thought. He forgot that Sado was a silent giant and that Ishida was a humorless dick. Keigo had to endure another month of silent lunches. He tried to generate a conversation, but he was always met with a simple nod or a yeah. He was really pitting his hopes on Ichigo's return to finally end the awkward silent lunches.
He looked around to see Sado and Ishida eating silently, while Mizuiro was texting one of his girlfriends. How the short, phone nerd got so many girls was beyond him. He envied his short friend's luck with the opposite sex. "So," he started off trying to grab the group's attention. Sado looked up, but Ishida and Mizuiro continued going on with what they were doing. "Does anyone else think Ochi-sensei is going overboard with all the work she's been giving us?"
"No," Ishida said plainly in between bites.
"Not really," Mizuiro answered. "I mean it's been easy to me. After all it's just busy work."
Keigo's eyebrows twitched and his mouth frowned in annoyance at his friends' casual attitude at their increased work load. "You agree with me don't you Chad?" he asked hopefully.
The hollow powered human put his left head on his chin as he thought about the question. Keigo eagerly awaited his reply. After what felt like an eternity (to Keigo anyway) Chad finally opened his mouth. "I've found that the work hasn't been all that challenging. She is probably giving us a lot of work to make up for the lack of difficulty so we don't get too comfortable," he reasoned.
Keigo face fell into a frown at Chad's answer. "You guys are bunch of nerds, so of course you think it's easy," he complained.
"That says more about you than it does about us," Ishida shot back.
Keigo was about give his own witty comeback when the door to the roof opened up. All eyes were on the door, each one of them was expecting their missing friend.
"Ichigo!" Keigo rejoiced and quickly jumped towards the door. Misfortune befell him again and he was punched down, with his face hitting the pavement hard. His attacker was none other than Arisawa Tatsuki.
"Think again," she said. Her fist was still out stretched from her punch.
Mizuiro went to aid Keigo checking to see if his friend was still breathing. "You might have gone overboard Arisawa."
Tatsuki massaged her fist. "He shouldn't go around jumping at people. I'm not as nice as Ichigo. I don't hold back," she said.
Mizuiro gave her a nervous laugh.
"Tatsuki-chan you didn't have to hit him that hard," Orihime's concerned voice from behind the black haired girl.
"Hey he shouldn't have jumped me," she kept insisting.
Ishida's interest had been peaked. Tatsuki and Orihime usually had lunch with the rest of the girls in their class at the field. The question was why where they at the roof. He attended to find out. "Arisawa-san, Inoue-san what bring you two here?"
Tatsuki took notice of the Quincy. "Oh hey Ishida I didn't even see you there." She was still massaging her fist. She shouldn't have hit his hard head. His skull's density was probably only second to Orihime's. "We came up here to see Ichigo. I didn't think he would still be talking to Ochi-sensei though."
He nodded accepting her response. His eyes moved from Tatsuki to Orihime. She was unusually quiet. Then again she had been like that for last few weeks. It was starting to concern him. He was certain that once Ichigo returned that her spirits would have lifted, but that did not seem to be the case. 'Inoue-san's experience in Hueco Mundo must have been more traumatizing then I originally thought.' He analyzed her discreetly. The first thing he noticed was bags under her eyes. Memories of Inoue sleeping in class flashed through his mind. 'Has she been getting any sleep?' Her usual perky nature had all, but evaporated. She seemed more withdrawn even with Arisawa.
"Inoue-san," he spoke softly so as not to alarm her.
Instantly the princess's expression changed. She gavehim a wide smile, her body turned stiff, and even her eyes seemed more alive. Her act was very convincing. It was no wonder none of them had caught before now. "Yes, Ishida-kun," she replied in her usual perky voice.
"How have you been doing lately?" It was stupid. If she was going through all the trouble of masking herself in front of them than there was little chance that she would tell him what was bothering her, especially not in front of everyone.
"I've been doing great! Just last night I went star gazing. They were so lovely last night. I really hope that sky is just as clear as it was last night, so I can watch them again," she said excitedly.
His lips curved into modest smile. He always found Orihime's enthusiasm endearing. However he could tell that this time she was forcing her smile and the pep in her voice was so artificial. Taking his eyes off of the Karakura High dream girl and put them on Tatsuki, asking her if she had noticed Orihime's odd behavior with his eyes. Tatsuki acknowledged him with a nod. This made him a feel a little better. At least he was not the only one who noticed.
The door slammed opened making a loud bang that made everyone (except for Sado and Ishida) jump. The culprit was the scowling orange haired boy that everyone was waiting for. Judging by the dark glare on his face he was in a very bad mood.
"Ichigo!" Keigo recovered instantaneous and attempted to hug Ichigo. Ichigo not in the mood for Keigo's antics punched him the mouth denying him his need for contact. For the third time that day his body hit the pavement.
"Bad day for Keigo," Mizuiro muttered.
"Yep," Sado agreed.
Tatsuki winced at Keigo's beating. It was true she had done the same thing earlier, but she did not hit him nearly as hard as Ichigo did just now. The poor boy was unconscious for crying out loud. "What has you in such a bad mood?"
"What do you think? Ochi-sensei just gave me all the work I have to make up. The list is like 4 pages long, front and back!" he snapped. Shoving the list into her face
She snatched the list out of his hand. "Don't get pissy with me just because you're upset about having to make up work!" Tatsuki snapped back at him.
"You're right. Sorry for snapping at you," he apologized.
"That's better. I am little surprised about the amount of work she gave you." Taking a closer look at Ichigo's make up work list, she discovered that he gotten work that they did not get in class. "If I were to guess I say she gave you all the extra work as punishment for ditching school."
"Don't say ditching. That implies that I actively chose not to come to school, but I was damn near in a coma for the last month. There was no way I could have gone to school."
"True," Tatsuki said agreeing with him. "But you have to look at it from her point of view. To Ochi-sensei you have missed two months of school without so much as informing the school about being sick. Of course she thinks you've just been ditching this entire time."
He grumbled about that making sense, but still looked put off. "By the way what are you doing here anyway Tatsuki?"
"I wanted to see you and ask how you were doing. The last time I saw you were fighting that guy with that unimaginable force emanating from his body."
"I'm ok all things considering."
"You and I both know that's a lie." His eldest friend observed him with careful eye. It gave him the creeps how she always did that. "I already heard from Orihime…." She pointed at the girl in question. "….and these guys…." Then she pointed to Ishida and Chad. "That you lost your powers. There is no way you are fine with something like that," she argued.
He hated how Tatsuki could read him like a book. It was time to put on his mask of indifference. "It's not really that big of a deal. Being a shinigami was something that forced upon me anyway. It's a relief that I don't have to do it anymore. Now I can worry about normal things, like how I am going to catch up on all these work and still keep up with the current lessons." He hoped he had successful changed the topic.
Tatsuki opened her mouth to say more, but decided against it at the last second. 'If he doesn't want to talk about it now than fine,' she thought.
"Tatsuki," he said in overly cheery voice that did not suit him.
"What?" she questioned as her eyes narrowed suspiciously at him.
"Could I borrow your notes?" he asked in his much too sweet tone.
"No."
"What? Why not?" His voice returned to its normal crude and aggressive tone.
"The last time I let you borrow my notes you lost them. I need them to study for exams at the end of term."
"Thanks for nothing," he complained. "Whose notes can I borrow?" he wondered aloud.
Orihime tried to lend her services. "Umm….Kurosaki-kun, I could."
Ichigo didn't seem to hear her. "I know, Mizuiro lend me your notes."
"Last time I lent you my notes you handed them back to me saying it was too hard to decipher because I wrote them in a weird manner."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Damn."
"Kurosaki-kun I could…."
"How about you Chad?" he asked once again missing Orihime's offer.
"You said you can't read my hand writing," Chad reminded him.
"Ishida," Ichigo turned to his last friend/rival.
Ishida took one look at Orihime's disappointed face and knew what he had to do. "Forget it."
"Why not?" Ichigo demanded.
"I can't support your delinquency Kurosaki," he simply stated.
"Fuck you! You know damn well why I was absent for two months! Some friend you are! If I had known you would act like this I wouldn't have bothered saving your ass!"
"When did you save my ass exactly? As I recalled I was the one who came up the tower to help you out!"
"Oh and I guess Ulquiorra just killed himself did he?"
"He damn near gave you that win by standing there didn't he?"
The two men glared at one another each them trying to kill the other one with their ill intent.
"Umm, Kurosaki-kun," she tried one last time to get his attention.
"What?" he snapped. Once he saw who it was he instantly became apologetic. "Sorry Inoue. I thought you were Keigo."
"Nope he's still out cold," Mizuiro revealed. He pointed his thumb at their unconscious friend.
Ichigo ignoring his phone obsessed friend continued to look at Orihime. "What did you want?"
Those butterflies in her stomach mutated and became giant man eating butterflies and they were threatening to break out. "I was saying that if you wanted you could borrow my notes."
"Really?"
"Y-yes," she said.
His eyes brightened and his lips turned into slight u shape. "Thanks Inoue you are a real life saver," he complimented. He was oblivious that his praise made the girl's face turn 3 different shades of red.
"It's no big deal, Kurosaki-kun. It's the least I can do," she said barely above a whisper.
Seeing an opportunity to advance Orihime's love life and feeling a bit sadistic in seeing her friend's embarrassment, Tatsuki decided to push things along. "You know Ichigo you could always go to Orihime's apartment after school and copy her notes down." The short haired girl smirked as she saw Orihime shot her a stare that asked: Why? Tatsuki continued to smirk. "That way you two don't have to worry about staying in the library all night and have to deal with everyone giving you weird looks."
"That makes perfect sense Tatsuki." Ichigo nodded in agreement. "You don't mind me coming over do you Inoue?"
"What? I mean of course not. I would love for you to come over. I mean yes I would like you to come over." 'I am babbling again. Why would do something so mean to me Tatsuki-chan?'
"Good. Since I have to come over to your house anyway I could walk you home with Tatsuki," he reasoned.
"I can't walk home with Orihime today." Both carrot top teens gave her a look that said: explain. "You see my karate team has called a last minute practice," she lied through her teeth. Orihime continued to glare at her in her own comical manner, but Ichigo bought it.
"Looks like it's just you and me then Inoue."
Orihime chuckled lightly. "Looks like it," she repeated. She still couldn't believe her best friend would throw her to the dogs like that."
"Oh crap," Ichigo uttered.
"What's wrong?" Orihime asked hoping that wasn't directed at their walk home together.
"I was so pissed that I left my lunch in the classroom. Now I have to go get it," he explained. "I'll see you guys in a little bit." He walked off.
As soon as he left Ishida walked up to Tatsuki leaned in her ear. "Could you be any subtler?" he said sarcastically.
"Oh like your refusal to give Ichigo your notes were any better."
"Touché," the Quincy complimented her. He was certain no one had seen through his charade. Tatsuki was more cunning than he originally thought.
"What are you two talking about?" Orihime asked with suspicion in her stare.
"Nothing," they said in unison causing her to frown. If she hadn't known Ishida better she would have sworn he had help Tatsuki set up her study date with Ichigo. She immediately disregarded the idea. 'Ishida-kun trying to set me up with Kurosaki-kun is ridiculous.'
Little did she know just how wrong she was.
That's it for this chapter. I don't remember if Keigo calls Sado by his name or by Chad like Ichigo, so I stuck with Chad. Too lazy to check out 400 something chapters plain and simple. Ishida playing match maker will get explained in the next chapter. Until next time.