The usual disclaimer. Tomorrow will be the last time I update for a couple of weeks. The holidays and all. I'll pick back up in January.
Five updates a week until the story reaches an end. BTW, I need some suggestions for an ending. I've always been good at the
beginning and middle parts of a story, it's ending it that's tough for me to do.
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The next day.
Noi received the orders to care for Ikkaku the next morning and groaned loudly enough to catch Unohana-taicho's attention.
"Is something the matter, Noi-chan?" Retsu asked gently.
"You haven't heard?" Noi asked, surprised. The captains were supposed to know about these things ahead of everyone else.
Unohana-taicho shook her head, smiling that soft benign smile. "It's nothing really, just squad eleven being pests." Noi said.
"Hm. They do enjoy watching you put Yumichika-kun through walls." Retsu said with a chuckle.
"You know about that?" Noi asked with a pained wince.
"All Seireitei knows about that. You've single-handedly managed to make squad four look tough. You, having the softest touch,
and job, a medic can have." Retsu said, chuckling more when Noi covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. " Zaraki-taicho
told me about Madarame-kun's assault upon your person yesterday. If you don't want the assignment, I'll send someone else."
Unohana-taicho offered.
"Captain!?!" Noi wailed, face red. "It wasn't an assault. If Ikkaku was brought to trial, I'd be charged with aiding and abetting."
Noi whispered, Unohana-taicho chuckled again.
"Well, you are relieved of your regular duties, except for the ointments and liniments. We'll have a still room set up for you in squad
eleven's dormitory. As well as quarters near Madarame-kun." Retsu said, steeling herself for the inevitable storm of protest.
"What!?!" Noi demanded in a piercing shriek.
"He has requested twenty-four hour surveillance. He did suffer a head injury." Retsu explained.
"He's gonna suffer a lot more than that!" Noi growled darkly to herself. "What will this assignment require, aside from enforced slavery?"
Noi asked.
"Madarame, Ikkaku has a few specific requests. One of them is a daily massage. Another is your home brewed tea. He already has
his new futon. Aside from those, just the basic care regime." Unohana-taicho said, reading the obviously rushed, hand written request.
Ikkaku couldn't write to save his life. "I'll have your still room stripped and assembled in squad eleven's dormitory. See to your personal effects.
Zaraki-taicho expects you there in one hour. He sent several officers to help you move."
"Aye Taicho. I'll go immediately." Noi said with a sigh.
Noi left the hospital, and went to the squad four dormitories. No less than seven officers waited for her outside her quarters,
and a huddle of junior squad four members were up the hall, curiosity outweighing caution.
"Ya took long enough…" one big, brawny, officer began.
"Don't start with me or you'll be going through a wall!" Noi snapped venomously at him. "The worst day of my life, and it's not even lunch time!"
Noi shrieked after entering her apartment, to begin packing. She didn't bother with more than a few uniforms, she'd been excused from her
daily duties, and packed her small wardrobe of common kimonos' and yukatas'. Her tiny vanity case with the built in mirror and compartments
for her small amount of make-up.
"Ya don't keep much, do ya?" asked one officer in a puzzled tone.
"Medic's don't usually have time for pleasure outings. Barring ceremonies, we don't get out very often." Noi explained, going into
the bathroom to collect her personal items.
"I thought ya had all the time in the world." said the big moron. "You have nothing to do but wait."
"We don't wait. As soon as orders go out for a squad to go to the living world, squad four begins to prepare for the worst possible outcome.
We start working before the squad has even left their barracks. And we don't stop working until every member is back in their barracks."
Noi explained, she liked to lecture when she was upset, excited, or just plain tired. "Be careful with my bed. It's the only luxury I indulge in."
"A bed is a luxury?" asked the shorter officer skeptically.
"We have to sleep sometime. Two and three shifts a day takes a toll on the body and the mind. My bed is my haven. I don't have to work as
hard as the others, since I'm potions master, but standing all day, half bent over a table, a book of recipes, and a thousand ingredients
that could kill me if mixed wrong, is all a little more than exhausting." Noi said with a sheepish chuckle. "And I'm required to work shifts in the
hospital at least four times a week. More, if there are too many patients for the ten medics on call to care for efficiently.
"So, it's harder than it looks?" asked the big, not quite, idiot.
"A million times more." Noi said with a resigned sigh.
In Squad Elevens' Dormitory.
"Is she here yet?!" Ikkaku demanded impatiently.
"Not yet. Be patient." Yumichika chided quietly. Ikkaku had woken him before dawn, and demanded that he wait for the silly girl with him.
Well, she couldn't be much of a girl anymore. Not with Ikkaku hanging off her like a bad set of curtains. Yumichika snickered at this thought
and the mental images.
"What's so funny?" Ikkaku demanded, his ankle kept him confined to a very small area.
"Nothing you'd find amusing, Ikkaku." Yumichika said, hiding a smirk. He was like a small child waiting for a puppy, but father was running late.
"Perhaps she is in her new quarters, settling in her belongings?" Yumichika suggested, Ikkaku had told him about the luxurious bed. If she
spent so much on a bed, how much was spent on personal effects, he wondered off-handedly.
"She doesn't have that much stuff.!" Ikkaku shouted. "It wouldn't take all morning to move.!"
"She's a woman. If she could take her time, she'd be here…" Yumichika began chauvinistically
"Right now, Ayasegawa-sama." Noi said dryly.
"Noi! It's about time you got here!" Ikkaku said, trying to hide his excitement and using Yumichika as a crutch while he struggled to his feet.
"I brought you this." Noi said, holing out an actual crutch. "If you'd broken your leg, then you'd get two."
"Okay, thanks." Ikkaku said, wondering why Noi was acting so calm. He had expected her to practically jump him.
"You're welcome. Ayasegawa-sama?" Noi began.
"Please, call me Yumichika." Yumichika said smoothly, trying not to giggle hysterically at the look on Ikkaku's' face.
"If you could excuse us please. I would like to go over the schedule with Madarame-sama." Noi said politely.
"Certainly. Call me if you require assistance." Yumichika said, bowing and leaving the room.
"Now that he's gone…" Ikkaku began, grabbing Noi's hand to pull her closer.
"We can go over the ground rules." Noi snapped, yanking her hand back. "This is work, so there won't be anything like what you thought
might happen. I have other duties to attend to besides you. That means you don't call me away from my still room unless you know you're
dying, and you don't wake me in the middle of the night for something trivial or down right ridiculous. I've heard the line 'I'm freezing,
please keep me warm!' before. And if you can't tell, I'm not at all happy at being reduced to an invalid's attending nurse!" Noi ranted,
Ikkaku looked like a whipped puppy by the time she finished.
Yumichika was, however, choking on his efforts not to laugh hysterically as he listened at the door. Ikkaku's wild ways and unpredictability
had drawn women to him, ones looking for an interesting time. That attraction had just granted itself a leave of absence and gave Ikkaku
a long celibate vacation. Ikkaku would not be happy tomorrow morning. After all, he'd been bragging all last night about how easy it would
be to get his pretty nurse into his bed.
That lecture she had just given Ikkaku was going to ensure forced celibacy on the unwilling, and unwitting, Ikkaku.
"What's so funny, Featherhead?" Yachiru chirped brightly, startling Yumichika.
"Nothing, Fukutaicho." Yumichika said, choking back his silent giggles.
"What's up, Yumichika?" Kenpachi ground out. "Is that nurse girl here yet?" he asked.
"She's with Ikkaku now, Zaraki-taicho." Yumichika said, too loudly, before flinging open Ikkaku's door.
Both occupants were on the floor, Ikkaku's ankle was being redressed, and both looked up blankly.
"What?" Ikkaku asked, getting a suspicious look on his face. Noi just shrugged, unconcerned, and went back to rewrapping Ikkaku's ankle,
since he refused to move it from her lap until she had.
"That's too tight!" Ikkaku protested with a wince. "Now it's too loose and…uh…" Ikkaku trailed off, the glare Noi was giving him was effective,
that and the reiki charged scalpel she had reached for, while she glared him into silence. Kenpachi, Yumichika, and Yachiru were all snickering
uncontrollably at Ikkaku's switch in attitude.
"What's the matter, Pony-chan? Don't ya like Baldy?" Yachiru asked and received a blank look.
"Pony-chan?" Noi asked, glancing at Ikkaku, who only shrugged.
"'Cause of your hair. It's in a pony tail." Yachiru said, like it was so obvious a blind man would've seen it.
"You know, everyone always called me 'Pon-chan' when I was in the Academy. Me and my sisters were always called Jan, Ken, and Pon." Noi said,
finishing Ikkaku's ankle and turning to Yachiru, who was thrilled with someone paying her undivided attention.
"Why" Yachiru asked brightly.
"We always played that game to make simple, boring decisions. Like who had to do our laundry, or run errands. I always lost, so they called me Pon-chan.
It was losing one of those games that got me here for the first time a few years ago. I had to make a delivery for someone and wound up putting my first
man through a wall." Noi said with a laugh at the memory.
"I'll call you Pon-chan then." Yachiru said brightly. "You know, Baldy really likes you, don't you Baldy?" she asked Ikkaku, who was now a vivid shade of scarlet
red and gaping in shock. Yumichika was doubled over, laughing hysterically, while Zaraki-taicho had flung his head back to roar with laughter.
Ikkaku was still bright red, but he recovered quickly.
"'Course I like her. She's pretty, ain't she?" Ikkaku asked cockily, Noi jerked back as if he had slapped her. "And…uh, smart and…Heh?" Ikkaku
stammered, catching the disappointed look on Noi's face.
"Who knew he could fit both of his own feet into his mouth?" Yumichika gasped, laughing. Noi stood up and walked out of the room. Ikkaku
tried to stand up to go after her.
"Noi?! I didn't mean you were pretty! Or smart!" Ikkaku shouted, then winced when he realized what he had said. "I didn't mean it the way…Noi?!"
Noi had flung a hurt and angry look at him and had kept on walking. Ikkaku struggled to his feet, whacking Yumichika with his crutch, and
hobbled after Noi.
"I didn't know, he could fit four feet in his mouth, did you?" Yumichika gasped, this made Zaraki-taicho sit down to howl with mirth. It wasn't
everyday they got to laugh like this at Ikkaku. Yachiru had missed the joke and was idly wondering if they had gotten into her stash of candy.
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Thirty-two pages down. I'll be adding an adjoing chapter to this on later today. Keep an eye out for it.