Pikachu, I Choose You: A Bleach Fanfic
Disclaimer: I have to say it again? Geez... (gulp). I...I don't own...BLEACH!!! THERE!!! I said it! ...And I don't own Pokemon either.
Summary: What does Pikachu resemble? A mouse? Kinda. A yellow rat? That's true...hey, but that's beside the point. Yes, Pikachu looks like a rabbit! In short...Rukia finds out about Pokemon and all hell breaks loose (for Ichigo)
Ahhh...I got such a nice break from writing...kinda wanna go back to it – but I can't keep all the reviewers waiting, now, can I? OO Thnx to all who reviewed! I'm glad you enjoyed all the Pokemon goodness .
Btw, for notes on how chaps are coming along, visit my profile page! I have a little section which briefly says how many words I'm at, when it's expected to come out, and sometimes even an excerpt from the chap!
So...Ichigo will finally enter (DUNDUNDUN) the POKEMON CENTRE!!! Let's see how Ichigo will survive this time XD.
Chap 4
"It's...it's beautiful", Rukia sighed. Many people in the crowd surrounding her agreed enthusiastically. Ichigo was not one of them.
"I don't see what's so great about this stupid shop," Ichigo muttered staring at the entrance with hard eyes. The large gray building had a large sign with the Pokemon logo on it, posted over a blue arc with the outlines of various Pokemon on it. The displays windows had posters depicting Pokemon such as Turtwig and Skitty on it, with tantalizing glimpses inside the shop. The people in the crowd surrounding the entrance were pressed up against the displays, or running inside, waiting impatiently for their friends and family to follow.
"Why, Ichigo, what are you saying?" Isshin cried. He was busily snapping photo after photo of the shop, looking positively buoyant with joy. "This is the most beautiful building I've ever seen! Why...beautiful doesn't even come close! It's sublime! It's gorgeous! IT'S LOVELYTASTIC!!! IIT'S BEAUTILICIOUS!!! IT'S – "
"SHUT UP! Those aren't even words!" Ichigo snapped. "And try to save our film – you can't waste it all on the entrance!"
"Don't worry, my son – I have plenty more!" Isshin proudly whipped out a Ziploc bag bulging with film and shoved it in Ichigo's face. "But you're right –we can't take pictures of only the entrance! Ichigo! Yuzu! Karin! Rukia! We need to take a picture of all of us together as a family! Excuse me, sir," Isshin asked a man standing close to them. "Can you please take a photo of my family and me for us?"
"No problem," the man answered, carefully taking the camera from Isshin. As the Kurosakis gathered together (Ichigo grudgingly), the man smiled at Ichigo and Rukia. "Are you taking your girlfriend on a date?"
"HELL NO – SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Why does everyone ask that?!? Ichigo had a strong desire to kick something while Rukia merely blinked.
"Of course not! That is my third daughter, Rukia!" Isshin proclaimed proudly. He turned to the man with a solemn face. "You see, poor Rukia-chan here needed somewhere to live, so she is now an honorary Kurosaki! Though of course, I'd be thrilled if Rukia and Ichigo decided to grant me some grandchildren!" The man blinked while Ichigo punched Isshin in the face. Stupid old man – just shut your MOUTH. He thought irritably.
"Please – can we just take the photo?"
(15 minutes later)
"Look! A person is dressed up as Lucario!!!" Yuzu hopped up and down excitedly, pointing at what was indeed a Lucario costumed person in front of the store.
"It says that it's the "Lucario Handshake Event" day," Karin informed her family, looking at a poster on the wall. "Basically, we get to pose with the guy over there and get our pictures taken."
"Daddy!" Yuzu turned to Isshin with hopeful puppy eyes. "Can we please take our pictures with Lucario-san? Plllleaaassssseee???"
"Why, of course! Daddy won't deny his little girls this chance of a lifetime!" Cheering, the lot of them ran down to where "Lucario-san" was, Ichigo following with a thoroughly exasperated look on his face."Lucario-san! Lucario-san!" Yuzu and Karin yelled, waving energetically at the man in the suit. "We wanna take pictures next!" Of course, since the man was being Lucario, he couldn't speak, so he gave them the thumbs up and gestured for them to come over. Isshin was fairly glowing, hurriedly taking out his camera as Yuzu and Karin posed with Lucario.
"Oh, my little girls, you look so beautiful!" He cried out, attracting many weird looks from shoppers. "Say cheese!"
"Why don't you and Rukia-chan go next, Ichigo?" Isshin suggested happily as Yuzu and Karin came skipping back. Ichigo merely gave him a look. Isshin shrank back nervously, whimpering. "...what?"
"I – am – a –teenager," Ichigo spat out the words, scowling around him at the many children around to empathize his point. A little boy started to cry as Ichigo's scowl passed over him.
"Ichigo!" Rukia said sharply, noticing the little boy. Isshin followed her gaze and gave a gasp of shock.
"Oh, now look what you've done!" Isshin cried out, rushing over to the crying boy, who was being comforted by his mother. "Are you ok? My big, bad son didn't hurt you, did he?" Isshin coaxed the little boy. The boy gave a great sniff and shook his head, eyes still filled with tears. He took a terrified look at the dark-faced Ichigo. Ichigo had to admit, he felt kinda bad for making the kid cry though.
Rukia walked over and crouched down, talking to the boy kindly, who stopped crying. "What's your name?"
"M-my name is Hikaru." He seemed to be more relaxed in Rukia's presence, looking up at her with trusting eyes.
"Have you had a chance to take a photo with Lucario-san yet, Hikaru-chan?" He shook his head, eyeing the suited man longingly.
"Hikaru's a shy little boy – he's a little scared of Lucario-san, so he won't take the photo – we also ran out of film," his mother explained. Rukia looked thoughtful for a moment; then her face brightened as she hit upon an idea.
"Kurosaki-san," she addressed Ichigo's father. "What about me and Ichigo take a photo with Hikaru-chan? That way, Hikaru can take the photo and it'll be Ichigo's way of apologizing." She glared at the offending orange-haired teenager, who made a slight gagging noise.
"W-what? Do I have to?" Ichigo protested. Rukia glared at him, but his pride refused for him to give in so easily. To take a little kid photo with a man dressed up as a Pokemon... "Can't I just apologize? I'm sorry for making you cry!" He added hastily to the little boy, who shrank slightly behind Rukia.
"Take a photo Ichigo! It can't be that bad!" Isshin cheerfully took the matter out of Ichigo's hands as he dragged his son over to the man being Lucario, while Rukia and Hikaru followed.
"But...but..." Ichigo flailed, thinking desperately of an excuse to get out of this as Isshin positioned them so Hikaru was standing with Lucario's hands on his shoulders, and Ichigo and Rukia on either side of them. "But...we can't even get him the photo after! We can't send them the photos after!"
"Not to fear my son, I brought my Polaraid!" (In case you don't know what a Polaraid is, it's those cameras which instantly develop the photos) Isshin happily showed off his Polaraid camera in Ichigo's face.
"You...you freak...," Ichigo managed to say. Who brings so many cameras and film on such a short trip?!?
"Why, thank you! I'll take that as a compliment," Isshin said proudly. "Now, say cheese!"
CLICK
FLASH
"...you sure look grumpy in this photo, Ichigo."
"Shut it."
(Finally...entering the Pokemon Centre)
"Pokemon Centre; it's there we go!
With Mudkips, Pikachus and Slowbros!
Games, videos, and plushies too
Of Meowth, Turtwig and Mewtwo
DVDS, cards, keychains, toys
For every single girl and boy
There's merchandise galore,
And we want more!
Garage kits, stationary, pencils, pens
And it's all gonna cost a lot of yen!
Oodles of stickers, songs to hear
Oh, if only the Centre was near
It's not just an act;
We all know it's fact!
That everyone loves –
POKEMON!"
"Rukia, please, don't sing that song." Ichigo moaned, his eyes shut tight. They had finally entered the Pokemon Centre – and it far exceeded Rukia's wildest dreams, while far surpassing Ichigo's worst nightmares.
The first thing they noticed was the sheer amount of people there were. The swarms of people from all age groups babbling about Pokemon – there were even foreigners that looked like they came from America in the group! Then the noise came and roared in their ears.
"Argh, I can't even hear myself think!" Ichigo yelled over the noise. Rukia was distracted by the Pokemon Hall of Fame, busily examining the footprints.
(Here's a description for those of you who have no clue whatsoever what it is – and yes, it's real)
Just in the entrance of the Pokemon Centre, there are some brass plaques off to the side. There are 3 of them and each one has footprints in them – one of Pikachu, one of Charmeleon and one of some bird Pokemon...(forget which one)
(And back to the fanfic)
"Ichi-nii, is this gold?" Yuzu ogled at the footprints with awe. Ichigo snorted.
"Of course not, Yuzu. They couldn't afford it."
"You sure? The Pokemon Company is pretty rich..."
"I...I MUST TAKE PICTURES OF THIS BEAUTIFUL SIGHT!!!" Isshin jumped in and began clicking madly away, much to the annoyance of the surrounding people. Ichigo, Rukia, Yuzu and Karin all took that as their cue, and left the Pokemon Hall of Fame, leaving Isshin to his photo fetish.
The store was jam-packed with Pokemon. Shelves upon shelves of various Pokemon merchandise, display cases in which tempting video games peered out, plushies crowded onto tops of shelves, blown up legendary Pokemon hanging lazily from the ceiling, posters and posters plastering the walls, screens advertising the Pokemon series and movies...
Geez, I'd need eight eyes to see all of this stuff. Ichigo idly thought, as he starely distastefully at a group of Pikachu, Plusle and Minun plushies, which stared balefully back at him.
"Oh, look Ichigo!" Rukia suddenly turned to point excitedly at the wall where several large screens were. "It's some of those vi-do games you told me about!" She struggled to say the strange word; her tongue looked like it was trying to balance a pebble on it.
"It's a video game, Rukia." Ichigo sighed. Would she never get the terms of this world right?
"Video games?!?" Karin yelled sharply, swinging her head from side to side, trying to find it before finally catching sight of it. "C'mon Yuzu, Rukia, Ichi-nii – I bet I can beat you all!" She ran to one of the screens, from which a group of children was leaving. Surrounding children eagerly swarmed forward, but Karin beat them all.
"Outta my way!" She roughly pushed her way to the screen and grabbed the joystick roughly, punching one poor boy in the face. "HA! It's mine! All of you, buzz off!" She turned to holler for her siblings. "OI! I GOT THE GAME FOR US! HURRY UP!"
"Wait, Karin-chan!" Yuzu wailed, squeezing her way through the crowd of disappointed children. Ichigo sighed, and picked Yuzu up. "Oi, all of you, get out of the way." The children, all awed and scared of this tall, scary-faced stranger, scurried out of the way like ants and Ichigo walked to the video games, Rukia following close behind.
"Finally!" Karin yelled. "Ok, which game do you guys wanna play first?" She turned around eagerly to the screen. Rukia and Yuzu leaned in eagerly.
"Ohhh, let's play that racing game...looks fun..."
"No, no, I wanna play the mimicking Mime Jr. one...they're so adorable..."
"Whatever, I'm not playing." As one, the three girls, even Yuzu, turned to glare hard at Ichigo. He glared stubbornly back. "I'm not gonna play baby games with you three. It's ok in Yuzu and Karin, but seriously, you too Rukia? Act your age!"
"Oh, I get it Ichi-nii," Karin smirked. "Nice acting..."
"What do you mean acting?!?" He yelled back.
"You're just acting like this is above you 'cause you're scared you're gonna get beaten by one of us, aren't you?" She grinned like a fox. "Well, Ichi-nii, if you're that scared, then have it your way."
"I'm not gonna fall for that trick," Ichigo snapped, turning his head away with an indignant huff. "You'll have to do better than that, Karin."
However, the crowd of children had swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
"That guy's scared of losing to girls? Wimp..."
"What a loser..."
"I bet I could beat him...he doesn't look too tough..."
"I guess he's as weak as what his hair looks like – a dandelion!"
Great. Now Karin has destroyed my image in front of a bunch of kids half my age that I don't even know. "Fine!" A vein throbbed in his temple as he grabbed the last joystick irritably. "I can beat you all; it'll be a piece of cake!" Karin smiled satisfactorily, Yuzu gave a cheer and Rukia looked at him smugly.
"Racing game first!" Karin pounded the A button. "Ok – we direct our Pokemon with the control stick and pound the A button to make it go faster! I'm gonna beat you all!" She pressed the A button again and the game started.
"What the hell is this horse thing?" Ichigo asked, staring at his Pokemon. Rukia snorted.
"It's called a Rapidash, Ichigo," she said, with a withering look that screamed "it-is-so-obvious-you-dense-moron". Ichigo chose to ignore that.
On the screen, it flashed:
3 (Ichigo: What the...why are the numbers weird pink globs with faces on them?)
2
1
Start!
"I'm winning!" Karin yelled triumphantly, the four of them pounding their buttons furiously. The crowd of watching children cheered and booed respectively for each of them.
"Oh, no you don't – FASTER, YOU DAMN HORSE!" Ichigo howled, pounding the poor button furiously.
"I won!" Karin crowed, punching the air as the screen flashed "Player 1 wins!"
"Whhhaaa?!" Ichigo yelled. "I was pounding the stupid button so hard and I still didn't go faster?"
"Dumbass!" Rukia yelled into his ear. "You were running into the wall!" She pointed to the screen to prove her point. "You have to look up to see where you're going!" The crowd of children shrieked with laughter as Ichigo turned red.
"Ok! Next game! The "Copy Mime Jr." game!" Karin yelled happily. "We have to copy Mr. Mime's movements with the joystick! If you get it wrong, the Pikachu thundershocks you! Once you run out of health, you lose! We all know I'm gonna win, but let's start!"
One common trait of the Kurosaki's is their absmal memory – naturally, Rukia, being a Kuchiki, won this game.
"DAMN!" Ichigo hung his head in shame as Rukia flashed the victory sign at the crowd of cheering children behind them.
"Ok – next game for sure! I'm gonna win that one for sure!"
"Munchlax Buffet! You have to grab as much food as possible! Press the A button to gobble it! Some foods are worth more! Others make you lose points! I'm gonna win this – let's start!"
Winner: Yuzu.
(30 minutes later...)
"Annnnddd, here are the scores:
In first place, we have Karin, with 5 wins!
Second place, we have Rukia with 3 wins!
And tied for last, we have Ichigo and Yuzu with 1 each!
Thank you for watching! Hope you all enjoyed the show!"
Isshin, who'd shown up halfway through the 4th game (and started taking photos like a maniac), finished talking with a flourish, bowed deeply and beamed. The crowd of children cheered loudly. The ones nearest Karin high-fived her; some children snickered loudly at Ichigo, who was red with humiliation.
Here are Yuzu, Karin and Rukia's words of comfort to poor Ichigo
"It's ok, Nii-san...it was a really close game!"
"Hehe, I knew I would win!"
"Ha! Fool!"
(At the Master Pokedex)
"...Can we leave now?"
"NOOOO!" Yuzu, Karin and Rukia screamed in unison, not bothering to look up from the screen. Ichigo sighed with annoyance and scratched the back of his head.
"You've been looking at that thing for 30 freaking minutes!"
"So?" Rukia asked, busily reading the profile on Buneary.
"...Never mind. I'm just going to join Dad at the Games section."
He strolled over and paused to look at the Nintendo DS. He ignored Isshin, who was taking a photo of every individual gameboy and game (Isshin, in turn, was ignoring the stares he got from surrounding customers). He inspected the silver light version. "It'd be cool if only there wasn't a Pikachu on it..." he muttered, looking at the picture of it on the box.
"A Pikachu?!?" Rukia had suddenly popped up behind him, peering over his shoulder. He yelped and nearly dropped the box. She snatched the box from him and read the labels intently.
"Ichigo, what's a Nintendo DS?" She demanded, shaking the box lightly to hear it rattle. He snatched it quickly from her.
"Don't do that – you might break it!" He carefully put it back on the shelf. "A gameboy is something you can play video games on."
"Like the ones we played before?" She asked excitedly, eyes wide.
"Yeah, but only if you have the game as well," Ichigo said. He looked at her sternly. "No."
"Huh?" She asked, looking confused.
"No, I'm not buying you one." He crossed his arms. Rukia didn't bother asking how he knew.
"Why not?"
"Because you'll go insane with it, annoy me to hell with it, and it's expensive."
She sighed. Then her eyes widened and she clapped a hand to her forehead. "Ichigo! We have to buy souvenirs for everyone!!!"
"Oh...right...I totally forgot," he lied, as he followed Rukia, who was waiting impatiently for him to catch up. My...poor wallet...
"Ok! Let's see who we need to buy stuff for." Rukia whipped out a list of her classmates:
People to buy Pokemon stuff for:
(Not Checked off; Checked off)
-Orihime
-Chad
-Ishida
-Tatsuki
-Keigo
-Mizuiro
-Chizuru
-Ryo
-Mahana
-Michuru
"Hmmm..." Rukia studied the list thoughtfully. "Ichigo?"
"Yeah...?"
"I hope you brought a lot of money with you!"
(End of Chap)
Well, how did you enjoy this chap? I hope it was worth the wait - if it wasn't... OO. This is a weird ending, but this is a very long chap – my longest yet, in fact! I'm saving the souvenir shopping for next chap, if you don't mind (if you do...well, too bad for you! No, no, I'm sorry...).
In case there are any curious readers, here's a list of all the things in this chap that were fact and all those which were fiction.
The entrance – yes, that was a HORRIBLE description and I'm SORRY!!! However, as far as I can tell from my research, that is what the Pokemon Centre looked like as of the year 2006. So – FACT!!!
The "Lucario Handshake Event" – Yes, this was an actual event that happened outside of the store in celebration of the release of the movie with Lucario in it (Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew; Movie 8)! It happened sometime in April 2006 though, so it is over and done with, for all you hoping to make it to Japan and take photos with Lucario...I'm sorry!
The Pokemon Hall of Fame – It is REAL! Unless I'm much mistaken and they've taken it out by now O.o. At any rate, it was real at least, I can guarantee you that, and there is (or was) a replica of it in the Pokemon Centre in New York.
The video games Ichigo and company played – This is a half lie...I think they're video games, 'cause it sure does look like it, but I may be wrong! Of course, the games are totally made up...stole the concepts off of the Pokemon Stadium games for Nintendo 64 O.o.
The Master Pokedex – I think you can tell what it is – if not, then I don't have time to explain to dense people (PWNED! XD). This was definitely real in the Pokemon Centre in New York. Not sure about how up to date it is now...but that probably means it was in the one in Tokyo as well!
All the decorations and merchandise that I have mentioned so far can be found in the shop as well!
Alrighty, and that's it! Any questions – again, visit my profile page for info on how the next chap is coming on and review people, review!!! THE MORE REVIEWS FASTER THE UPDATE!!!
P.S. Who can guess what the pink glob Pokemon Ichigo is talking about in the beginning of the games? Review and say what you think it was... (hehe – another method to get reviews...)
