Chapter 2: Etude

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

Aya was glaring daggers at the seniors in front of her, her right leg simply twitching to kick their heads off their necks. She was in a terrible mood—the entire weekend, she'd been cramped up in the little shop debating whether or not Hitsugaya Toushirou had actually seen who she was. The kid had simply walked away without another word when their eyes met, and she had been unable to find him after her shift ended. Damn it all…if that kid blabbed, who knew what was going to happen to her reputation…

And thus, Aya was much more pissed off than usual. And because there were people for her to vent on, she'd take the chance and, well, vent on them.

The bulky leader of the group spoke up.

"You arrogant little—"

Aya did not even bother to let him finish his insult, appearing directly under him and kicking her foot up, catching his chin. She thought she heard something crack but did not ponder about it, instead leaping up and smashing her leg into the side of his head to knock him out of the way.

"You guys wanted a fight; you got one."

Aya balanced herself on the next two seniors' shoulders and kneed both of them in the face, pushing them against a third upcoming one and causing them all to fall, unconscious, in a pile. She dusted herself off, her onyx eyes glittering angrily, and she made her way up the stairs to homeroom.

"Aya. Stop killing people," said Tatsuki dryly as she entered.

"Shut up. They deserved it."

"You seem in a worse mood than normal, you know…"

"Because—"

The door opened and there was a sudden simultaneous squeal among the girls in the classroom. Aya turned around and stiffened.

"Hitsugaya-kun!" called one of them. "Do you need some help?"

"I'm just looking for Satori Aya-sempai."

Tatsuki gave Aya a perplexed look and pointed at her.

"Here she is," said Tatsuki. "Do you need her?"

"What do you want?" said Aya uninvitingly.

"Could I talk to you in private?"

Aya could see her female classmates group together and start whispering. It must've been a weird sight, the famous and most lovable singer asking to speak with the second scariest girl in the school. Aya frowned and followed Hitsugaya out the door into the hallway.

"What is it?" she said when they stopped by a deserted staircase.

"You were the one at Raven's Nest on Friday night, right?" he said.

"Nope. What's that?"

"…Stop feigning ignorance."

"Look here, kiddo, if you called me out just to tell me where I was on Friday, you're wasting your time."

"Kiddo?" repeated Hitsugaya, annoyed, showing the first bit of emotion that Aya had ever seen on his face. "We're not here to insult me—"

"And we're not here to talk about my life. So if that's it, I'll be leaving now."

"It's not like our school doesn't allow part time jobs. Why don't you just fess up?"

"That's none of your business. I'll be leaving now."

Aya's dark eyes met his icy blue ones for a brief moment. The intensity in his irises sent shivers down her spine, but the Firebird simply turned around and returned to the classroom, leaving the freshman alone in the hallway.

******************

"Today," said Ukitake brightly, "class 2-C and class 1-C are going to combine and have a music class together!"

There was a momentary silence after the teachers' words, then tumultuous applause.

"We get a class with Hitsugaya-kun!" said a girl excitedly.

"And there are a ton of cute first years," said another male student stupidly. "We can make a good impression of them!"

Ukitake noticed that the only people not rejoicing were the members of the notorious so-called "gang" of 2-C. Arisawa Tatsuki simply looked disgusted. Kurosaki Ichigo, orange-headed and obnoxious, looked like he could've jumped off a cliff. But it was Satori Aya who had the worst expression, frowning to the point where her eyebrows contracted together in the middle of her otherwise relatively attractive face.

"Why in the world are we having a freaking music class?" she demanded.

"Some first-years are having trouble thinking of an idea for the upcoming school festival," Ukitake explained. "Thus, we're combining this class and class 1-C together and making some sort of concert or talent show."

"How lame," said Ichigo.

"Forget it," yawned Tatsuki. "Let's just skive off."

"Excuse me?" said Ukitake sternly.

Class 2-C's trio's simultaneous glares caused Ukitake to take a step back. As a teacher, however, he was not that easy of a pushover, and he recovered himself.

"No, all three of you are participating, and that's final," he said curtly. "I've had enough reports from other teachers about you three; it's high time that someone disciplined you."

Ichigo smirked. "What, you think that we're going to actually participate in this damn thing?"

"No can do," said Tatsuki. "I have to train for the upcoming karate competition."

"And we have to finish a fight with Senkaimon, because one of us missed it last week," said Ichigo, shooting a nasty glare at Aya, who simply scowled back.

"Fights are not important!" said Ukitake desperately. "You three, if you don't participate, none of the class will."

"That's a completely arbitrary decision, Ukitake-sensei," said Aya.

"Too bad. It stands."

The girls in the class immediately whirled around and glared at Aya.

"Participate!" one by the name of Uehara Aki said fiercely.

"What, so you all can look like pedophiles and get close to your little Hitsugaya Toushirou-kun?" smirked Aya. "By all means, ladies, go ahead. I'll participate."

"What?!" exclaimed Tatsuki.

"I'm just going to terrorize the shit out of that kid," said Aya smoothly.

Ukitake opened his mouth to chastise her, but his eyes met Aya's, and he shut his trap. Coming from a girl that barely came up to his shoulder, the insult shouldn't have been scary at all. But the depth in Aya's eyes frightened him slightly, and showed that there was meaning behind her words…perhaps Ukitake should give the boy a head's up…

******************

"Hitsugaya-kun!" crooned Aki, putting her hands around the boy's shoulders. The white-haired freshman looked revolted at the demeaning treatment. "You can teach me how to sing better in this class! I'm really horrible at it, so I probably need extra help, so how about we go to karaoke after school?"

"No thanks…"

"Aw, c'mon, please?"

"He hates you, Uehara, but I think he just hates the world, so don't mind him," said Aya, propping her legs up on the desk in front of her.

"Aya, something wrong with you?" said Tatsuki. "You're being more belligerent to him than you would normally be to underclassmen…or upperclassmen, for that matter…"

"Hitsugaya is just too kind to actually tell you how he feels," continued Aya, ignoring Tatsuki's cautionary statement. "Or maybe it's because he's too small and scared to stand up to real high school students?"

"Don't talk about me being small, Satori-sempai," said Hitsugaya. Aya could see a vein protrude slightly out of his temple. "Not when you're hardly five feet yourself."

"You're not even five feet, Hitsugaya."

The teacher, a pleasant looking woman, walked in and the class settled down. Ichigo leaned by Aya's ear and spoke.

"Why're you being such a bully to him all of a sudden?" he asked. "You were the one that spoke the most favorably about him yesterday."

"My opinion changed over night," she said, eyes narrowed as she looked at the back of Hitsugaya's head. "I now think that he's too cocky for his own good."

"Aya, he hasn't done anything to you. And he hasn't even been acting cocky!"

"Shut up, Kurosaki."

"Are you two paying attention?" called the teacher, causing them to shut up. "Good, now, ah! Hitsugaya! Come up here."

Aya rolled her eyes as the short first-year walked to the front of the stage, his face showing slight disdain. Even teachers loved the cute little kid who could pass for an elementary schooler…

"So I'm thinking that we should host a concert!" said the teacher cheerfully. "And Hitsugaya-kun can be the star. Seeing as he's already popular, news of his concert will spread easily and we'll get lots of voters! Of course, this is a class participation event, so we'll include the rest of the class as well!"

"Like backup singers!"

"And stage designs!"

"And instrumentalists!"

"Kill me now," scowled Hitsugaya, crossing his arms. No one seemed to hear him, however.

"What a dumb idea," said Aya, leaning back in her chair so that it balanced itself on its back two legs. "This is such a drag."

Tatsuki pursed her lips. "Aya, care to tell us why you hate that kid?"

"Nope. I just do."

The class was beginning to name off who would be backup singers, stage designers, and song coordinators. Hitsugaya Toushirou seemed to have no say in the matter, not even which songs he would be singing—all the girls simply chose his most famous ones and listed them in order.

"Okay, now, most of Hitsugaya-kun's songs can be played with just a pianist. Anyone here play piano?"

No one raised their hand.

"I heard Satori-sempai can," said Hitsugaya amidst the silence.

There was a pause, and Ichigo burst out laughing.

"Who the hell said that?!" he said, shaking with laughter. "My goodness, you'd actually expect Aya to be able to play the freaking piano?! She'd destroy it in frustration!"

"Exactly," said Aya sourly. "Now shut up and stop being stupid, Hitsugaya."

"Will you s-stop being such a jerk to him?!" said Aki tremulously, turning around to face Aya. The fright in addressing Karakura's Firebird was plainly written all over her face. "Y-you think you're tough and all because y-you can beat people up, but right now, you're just being a b-bully!"

"I suppose I am," sighed Aya. "But I can't stand it when people make stupid assumptions, so whatever, call me a bully, but idiocy is something I really can't tolerate."

"I hear you're close to last in your class when it comes to exams," said Hitsugaya wryly.

"Oh no, Kurosaki is," smiled Aya. (The class cringed at the sight of her smile.) "But that's nothing for you to be talking about, Hitsugaya."

"I'm number one in my class, thank you."

"Because the elementary schooler has to be good at something."

"Stop it," said Ichigo lazily, hitting Aya across the head lightly. "You're so immature."

"Can we please work on this?!" said the teacher. "Satori, can you or can't you play piano?"

"I…"

"You can, can't you?" accused Hitsugaya.

"I wouldn't really be surprised if you could," said Tatsuki. "After all, your mom…"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Tatsuki, seriously, imagine Aya with a piano. She'd break the thing before she could even play 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' Aya and a piano just don't match."

For some reason, Ichigo's incessant assurance that Aya could not possibly be a pianist irked her. Sure, he was unknowingly helping her out of her situation, but…did she really not look like she could be a potential instrumentalist? Of course, that was a good thing…if she did look that weak, Senkaimon's trio would've never been able to take her seriously.

The bell rang, causing the class to uniformly jump in their seats. The teacher gave a sigh.

"We'll talk this over tomorrow. Satori, I'd like to see you at my desk."

Aya let out an aggravated breath as the rest of the class filed out the exit, murmuring amongst themselves. Kurosaki and Tatsuki lingered at the doorway for a moment.

"You guys go on ahead," said Aya. "I've gotta head back early anyway."

"Sure; just remindin' you that the fight is tomorrow after school, so keep tomorrow free," said Ichigo.

"Yeah, yeah."

The two of them left the room, letting the door swing shut behind them. There was a silence as Aya simply stared at the teacher.

"Just hire a damn pianist," Aya said. "Why do you insist on me?"

"So you can play piano."

"I learned a little," she muttered, unable to flat-out deny it. "But I'm terrible, so get someone else." "Satori," the teacher said seriously, "we want this to be successful and for everyone to contribute, so—"

"Forget it," Aya said snappishly, heading towards the door. "I'm not doing it."

She walked out on the teacher without another word, slamming the door shut behind her. A cool voice, smooth as ice, spoke up to her right.

"Why do you insist that you can't play?" said Hitsugaya, his blue eyes piercing to the point where Aya thought he could see through her. "I know it was you at Raven's Nest on Friday, and I actually enjoyed listening to you."

Aya did not respond, simply walking down the stairs to exit the school grounds. Hitsugaya followed her, his light steps barely audible on the tiles. A silence settled between them until they walked out of the building, where Aya was greeted by a group of burly men.

"What do you want?" she said.

"Satori Aya!" said the one in the front. "I am Uehara Shinji, and Aki is my little sister! She told me about your rudeness today, and I will punish you for making her cry."

"You're an idiot," said Aya crassly.

"Aki is right—you're just conceited because you can fight! But I, Uehara Shino, captain of the karate club, will show you otherwise! I challenge you!"

"Right here, right now?" said Aya, tossing her bag aside. "No rules. My fighting style is unorthodox."

"Fine by me," Shino snarled. "Get down here."

Aya walked down the stairs and paused in front of him; the rest of the group circled around them, blocking out any escape route. Aya noticed a glimpse of white hair behind her shoulder and half-turned around.

"What the hell are you still doing here?" she asked Hitsugaya. "You're going to get caught up in it."

"I can take care of myself," he replied calmly. "I'd like to see how you'll take care of this."

Aya shrugged.

"Suit yourself. Don't blame me when you get hurt."

"Ready?" said Shino.

"Yes."

Shino was not an inexperienced dumbass like the third years she'd faced this morning. Karakura's karate club was actually one of the best in the nation, which meant that Shino had to be skilled to some degree. The muscles in Aya's legs contracted as Shino ran towards her, fists raised.

Aya flipped on the ground, balancing herself on her hands and caught both his hands in both her legs. She twisted her body and, keeping a firm grip on Shino's hands, pulled downward. Her typical enemies would've been slammed to the ground, but Shino was a bit burlier than the average male; his added weight made it harder for Aya to slam him down. She managed, hopping up the moment Shino hit the ground, but the karate captain got up rather easily afterward.

"Not too bad," he said. "But not enough. That move would've been much more efficient if you'd simply dodged and punched me in the face or something."

"Don't be one to lecture me," said Aya. "Not when I got the first blow."

"Suit yourself, brat."

He ran at her again, and this time, Aya did move to the side, swinging her leg up to catch him by the chin. She couldn't quite reach, however. Her leg was too short and did not come up to Shino's neck, as he was over six feet tall. Realizing too late that her intended target was too far out of her reach, Aya gritted her teeth and brought her foot forward. It didn't connect with Shino's chest like she'd planned; he caught her ankle and had her dangling upside down in a split second.

Aya, glad that she was wearing shorts under her skirt, brought her other leg up and kicked off his chest, forcing him to let go of her. She skidded off to the side, taking some time to recover; Shino took advantage of her momentary rest and brought his fist forward, smashing it into the side of Aya's face.

The impact was enormous; Aya flew to the side, crumpling on the ground, holding her cheek.

"Ha," said Shino. "Weak. One blow sent you off."

"Shut up," she spat, standing up and flicking the blood off her chin.

"Looks like you really aren't that great of a fighter at all," Shino said in mockery. "You probably are some stupid little pianist who's just embarrassed to show her feminine side—"

Aya could see the muscles in Shino's shoulders relax; he was relaxing in a battle, showing that he no longer took her seriously. Furious, Aya sped forward and, using Shino's feet to propel herself into the air, leapt above him and brought her right leg crashing down onto his head. The added velocity and speed from the height gave her the strength that she couldn't have attained otherwise; her attack landed on his head full force, enough to cause him to crumble to the floor.

Aya landed behind him, breathing harshly. Her cheek throbbed painfully; she could feel it swell.

"Anyone else?" she snarled.

One of them stepped out of the circle. "I will."

"Stop it," said Hitsugaya, walking over to Aya. "That's enough—she's injured."

"Stay out of this, kiddo—"

Aya blinked, and Hitsugaya was gone. He reappeared in a split second in front of the contender and leapt up to a height that Aya had no idea he could reach, slamming his knee into the side of the karate member's face. The victim's eyes rolled to the back of his head and fell to the ground in front of Hitsugaya.

"Let's go, I have something to talk with you about," he said coolly to the stunned Aya.

"What was that?!" she said.

"What, you thought I was some useless brat just because of my height?" he said icily. "Walk with me."

His commanding disposition was something that she was not used to seeing; she unconsciously followed the first year out of the school grounds. People were staring at them oddly.

"You can fight," she said as they walked on the sidewalk towards Aya's home. "You're not just a useless cute kid—you can fight."

"Stop sounding so surprised," said Hitsugaya. "It's nothing shocking; I'm a singer, so I have to be able to protect myself in case anything happens. Well, now I know that you were the pianist at Raven's Nest."

"What?"

"The entire fight, you didn't use your hands. You're protecting them."

"I…"

"I don't use my hands either when I fight," continued Hitsugaya, "so I think we have the same mindset. Bloodying our hands or injuring them causes them to be unworthy of holding an instrument—the only question is, why are you so insistent on letting no one know that you have a rather feminine side?"

"You saw him," she said angrily. "The moment they hear that I do something girlish or sentimental, they relax—they underestimate me. It's like they refuse to acknowledge me, they—"

"Is that all you're looking for?" interrupted Hitsugaya. "Acknowledgement?"

"I—"

"I'll let you know this beforehand, then. My manager and I were at Raven's Nest on Friday—we're looking for a pianist for my recordings. Both of us thought you were suitable."

"What?!"

"Being my pianist will earn you more than enough acknowledgement, Satori-sempai."

"Don't be stupid!" she said hotly. "I don't want to be recorded, and that's not the acknowledgement I want. I want to be something that Kurosaki—"

She caught herself and immediately stopped her sentence midway, praying that Hitsugaya didn't catch it. Unfortunately, he did.

"Kurosaki?" he smirked. "Ah…I get it…"

"Shut it," she snapped. "There's nothing to get—that just came out wrong."

"You like Kurosaki." Hitsugaya's skeptical smirk was growing wider.

"No, I don't—"

"You want me to keep quiet about this, right?" he said.

"I—"

"Participate in the festival," he said. "Be the pianist. I'll keep my mouth shut if you do."

A car pulled up beside the two high school students. The window rolled down, and Aya saw a beautiful woman with enormous cleavage at the steering wheel.

"Oi, boss!" she called. "You're going to be late!"

"I'll be there in a moment, Matsumoto." Hitsugaya turned to Aya. "So think about it. We'll start easy—with the festival. Of course, it's up to you whether or not you want to do it. I'll just tell Kurosaki about your little secret if you don't…"

"You—"

"Bye," he said, opening the door and slipping into its depths. Matsumoto gave Aya a friendly wave and accelerated the car down the street. Aya watched it disappear out of sight, furious with the freshman, and furious with herself for allowing him to find out so many of her secrets.

Free Talk:

Aya's personality is a bit different; she's not the goody-two-shoes who fights for "justice." She's the bully...specifically, Toushirou's bully. xP But of course, that doesn't work. Toushirou's not a weakling even though he's a singer; I wanted to keep the trait of his strength the same, since in the original plot, he's a prodigious captain despite his age. And of course, Matsumoto would be his manager. :)

I'm still iffy about this whole plot--please tell me what you think!! Please please please review!!! They make me so happy. :)