Part 4
That stalactite was huge, and looked so ...
"Calcite," Uryuu continued. He pulled the torch off his head and played the beam along the formation. "Deposited over the years, by gradual precipitation as a dripping solution of calcium bicarbonate loses carbon dioxide to the atmosphere."
Well, if it ain't Professor Ishida.
Uryuu lowered himself to sit beside him, forearms balanced on neat narrow knees. "But of course, that wasn't on your mind." He slanted a glance at Ichigo, expectant.
"Ok, you want to know what's on my mind?" Ichigo huffed his irritation and propped himself up on one elbow. " I am thinking - wow, amazing." He flung one arm skywards. "Eighth wonder of the world outside of Soul Society. Epic approach route included. Let's take some pictures. Jeez, we could have died. Drowned. Floaters washed up on the beach tomorrow morning."
Uryuu set his torch down. The reflected light slid across his glasses, as slippery as mercury. He examined Ichigo, in a patient academic manner, as if deciphering hieroglyphs on a freshly uncovered relic.
"It'll take more than this to kill you. Besides, you won't let yourself live it down, if you lost. To me."
So patently true. It would have been utterly humiliating. But I might still get by. If I knew you were around to call me a wuss.
"Uryuu, I wasn't just talking about ime/i being washed up on the beach - "
"The fact that we're having this conversation shows that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
Ichigo wanted to bite back with something. Anything. A smart, stupid, blatant and rude retort to keep himself upright, rooted and on the same level playing ground. But he had no reply.
He tucked his hands back under his head. He was well-versed with Uryuu's strengths and weaknesses. He could trust him to hold his own with his Quincy abilities. Hell, he could even predict when the guy would shut himself within the walls of his idiosyncrasies and launch off into space to orbit on dork mode. He thought he knew the extent of him.
His gaze locked itself on Uryuu's sharp profile, etched with shadow, and he wondered how many other secrets it hid.
Arisawa Tatsuki always prided herself on her powers of observation and the fact she never hesitated to come down with a bang whenever things went wrong. Lately, a fair number of things did but they weren't anything that a well-timed sucker punch or a bout of hearty ranting could solve.
She couldn't believe that almost nobody, not even parents, teachers, school principals, policemen and others supposedly imbued with higher authority, seemed to notice that things were indeed weird these days.
Those new "classmates", for example. The one with the shiny pate and the other with the flaming red hair. That Madarame and Abarai didn't look like your average Karakura highschoolers. Were they yakuza on probation? Bumpkin bullies who didn't have a clue what vending machines were? Heck, even her grandma's countryside had vending machines.
She wondered where they came from. They had just dropped out of thin air like from some other dimension. Weird and weirder still, even Ichigo, Orihime and Ishida radiated the same strange vibes and was on disturbingly familiar terms with the transplants, as if they'd just spent the past summer together playing soccer friendlies.
Well, that was a mystery, but if she knew anything about their dimension, galaxy, universe or whatever, it must be abundant in shameless freeloaders and good-for-nothing loafers.
The odd markings on their skin, the way they posed and lounged around like they owned the place and everyone else, eating almost all the pizza (they had to phone for another delivery), throwing back the beers like beer nuts. The pile of fist-crushed cans was building into a minor landfill and no sir, these hustlers were still as sober as day.
Shiny caught her looking, and flicked her a piercing stare. She jutted her chin out in silent challenge. He just sneered, almost amused and went back to poking the campfire and Abarai with back-slaps and vulgar tales.
One was a blessing though. She noticed how Orihime got along with the blond busty one. That was a relief - a huge one, no offense meant. Petty envy was beneath Tatsuki, another thing she could be dead proud of.
At last, here was a kindred spirit who could squeal together with Orihime and appreciate her gross tastes in food and other girly things. Tatsuki had to admit though, that looks were deceptive - Rangiku had clout that matched the depth of her cleavage. And that helped a lot to keep Honshou Chizuru at bay.
Speaking of which, said irritant was now curled up next to her, occasionally breaking out into incoherent babbles. "Kiss me Hime-chaan ..." Chizuru moaned and flung her arms around Tatsuki's legs.
Urgh.
Thank goodness, the beer and the pills worked. Just that she really wanted to kick the bitch into the sea after that and be done with it. That would have solved a lot of problems, but Orihime would never have approved. So Tatsuki just gritted her teeth and wedged herself in between Chizuru and Orihime.
The things she'd do for her friends.
Now, Ichigo - that fellow never really fancied the noise and raucous merry-making that was Keigo's style. So she fully understood the reason why he would want time-out.
Tatsuki noticed how Orihime looked wistful for a split second when she saw Ichigo amble off down the beach. Shortly, she had turned her attention back to cooing over a tub of artichoke/salami/vanilla ice cream with Rangiku, but Tatsuki had felt the ache when a soft yearning nestled behind those wide eyes.
The two figures on the rocks - she had noticed them too. How they quickly flitted away like moths to seek some distant unseen flame.
One more thing that Tatsuki prided herself on was her power of discretion that told her when she should just keep her observations to herself.
-- end of Part 4 --