chapter 7
"Good morning, sweethearts!" I sang, skipping into the recovery room full of sleeping soul reapers. "I trust you slept well!" I jumped onto the foot of Izuru's bed as Hinamori walked in, smiling at my contagious giddiness.
"Izuru," I heard Renji mumble into his pillow, "Do something to make that girl shut up. I'm trying to sleep here."
"Aww, Renji, that's not very nice. After I healed all of you and everything..." I pouted and turned toward Izuru. "Kira-kun," I whined, inching closer to his blushing face. "Renji's being really mean." I gave him my "kicked puppy look."
He slowly mumbled something, but it was incoherent. I smiled and patted him on the head. "Kei." I winced and turned around at the cold tone in the captain's voice. "Care to explain why all of our wounds have healed overnight?"
I averted my attention to a piece of my bangs and mumbled an answer. "I just happened to find this medicine lying around... used it on you guys... guess it worked." I heard Hinamori's giggle from the other side of the room.
"And you used this on us in the middle of the night?" The air around Hitsugaya seemed to drop a few degrees.
I looked him straight in the eye, feeling a wave of sarcasm come over me. "Don't be silly, Shiro-chan. Hinamori used it on you, of course." I held back a fit of laughter only at Hinamori's expense. "I wouldn't dare touch you with her hovering over my shoulder." I gave him an "Are you crazy?" look and said, "Besides, you would probably give me severe frostbite." I jumped off the bed and headed back out the door, "Ciao, babies. I hear that dog-boy's back in town. I'll be back."
I stood outside, gleefully listening to the stunned silence of the room I left. "Who's 'dog-boy'?" I heard Renji ask.
There was another silence. Then a small "Oh-no..." That, I could tell, was Izuru. And I ran before he could even think of stopping me. 'If there's anything I know how to do, it's hold a grudge.'
:: — : — : — ::
I walked down the crowded streets of Konoha. 'I thought that I sensed him near here...' I turned into what appeared to be a barbeque restaurant, a very packed barbeque restaurant. I looked around at the many booths and smiled. 'My, my... What do we have here?'
At one particularly large table sat a larger boy who I didn't recognize, but was arguing with Pineapple-head, Neji, his hair being twirled by Yuka, Kisa, currently asleep on Shikamaru's shoulder, Naruto, dramatically telling a story to a wide-eyed, dark-haired girl, and Kiko sitting on Kiba's lap. I sensed that Izuru's spiritual pressure was moving. 'If you're going to do this, then you better get it moving along.' I could almost feel Taka Arashi's impatience. 'I see that someone else has become quite attached to little Kira-kun as well, eh Taka Arashi?.'
I dropped the subject because as soon as Kiba turned to look at me I felt a swell of angry power, surging from the being of my unwillingly inactive zanpakuto. "Hey you! Dog-boy!" I yelled, sure that my soul-slayer's voice was mixed in. "I need to have a word with you." Then I looked at Kiko as they both stood to face my, now slightly glowing, figure, "Preferably alone." I felt my spiritual pressure flare as a low snarl emitted from the couple. "Fine then, be that way."
I walked outside of the restaurant. 'I don't want any property damages. That would suck.' I stopped, turning around so that the couple behind me were close enough to feel the sting of my spiritual energy. "Dog-boy." I started. "Can you remember the man that you fought roughly a week ago?" I smiled sweetly as a look of realization dawned on Kiko's face. 'So, I did tell her to keep her dog tied up.'
Unfortunately, for him, Kiba's tanned face turned into a wide smirk and said, "Yeah, I remember. He's a weak fighter. I don't know why we had to fight someone so... pathetic." I felt Taka Arashi's fury cloud my vision for a moment, so I heard rather than saw Kiko slap her forehead.
I couldn't hold it in any longer and, holding back the bulk of my fury, I swiftly punched that stupid smirk off of his face. I felt that I should have added a good kick, but Kiba's howl of pain was satisfying enough for now. I rubbed my aching fist. 'Stupid, stiff gigai...'
"Hey! What happened out here?" yelled Naruto, closely followed by the rest of the group. He ran over to Kiko, who was kneeling over the bleeding boy on the ground. "Are you hurt, Kiba?" he asked, getting no other answer besides a glare from Kiko and a middle finger from Kiba.
At that moment the, previously bedridden, but now healthy, soul reapers jumped from out of nowhere to land around me. "Kei Akumamaru, what did you do?" I faced the questioning captain and smiled sweetly.
"He started it, sir." When his glared intensified I continued. "There wasn't any damaged property, unless you count Dog-boy's nose. And, besides, he deserved it." Then, it was my turn to narrow my eyes as Hitsugaya opened his mouth to protest. "Don't you dare start with me, captain." I felt my leftover rage bubble up as I challenged the white-haired captain. "You try to look me in the eye and tell me that if someone hurt Lieutenant Hinamori, that you wouldn't hesitate to let Hyourinmaru freeze their intestines from the inside out!"
He looked shocked by my outburst, but that didn't stop me. My rage overtook my will and tears began to flow from my eyes. "What was it you said to Captain Ichimaru?!" I tried to keep my hands from shaking by clenching them so hard that my nails bit into my palm. "You told him 'If you make Hinamori spill one drop of blood, I'll kill you!' Isn't that what you said to our captain?!" I could feel everyone's eyes on me and it made me angrier, but now my voice could only manage a whisper. "Am I wrong?..." I couldn't handle the stares and I bolted away from the crowds, running to the only place where I knew someone was there to listen.
chapter 8
I wailed into Amaya's shoulder, "I hate this place! The spiritual pressure's so off balance! It makes my mood swings out of control!" I felt her gently pat my back. "Everyone going to hate me when I get back..."
"No they won't, Kei, It will be fine..."she said. I took a deep breath and sighed, wiping my tears away. "You should see me when Kisuke's new fan-girls shows up." I laughed at that, picturing my friend's jealous rage was always funny to me.
I stood up from the floor of the large storage room we were in and after helping Amaya up, we walked back into the empty store. "Have you noticed the unusual spiritual pressure too, Amaya?" I asked, eying a shelf of candies.
"Yeah," she said, rearranging a pyramid of cans. "Especially when people come in groups. There's no arrangement to their powers. I mean, I suppose the genin, chunin, jounin ranks kind of divide them, but that really only helps organize who to give what jobs to, right?" I nodded my head in agreement. "I mean, can't you sense the energy that Naruto's practically drowning in?"
I again nodded. "It rivals Zaraki-taichou's, maybe even Ichigo's strength... I'd hate to see him when he's mad." I turned just in time to see Kisuke walk in, scaring Amaya, making her knock down her great can pyramid.
"Oops! Sorry, Amaya-chan!" he said patting her on the head. I tried to disguise my laughter as a cough when I saw Amaya practically melt under Kisuke's hand. He turned to me, appearing to just notice my presence. "Oh! I didn't see you there, Kei." I rolled my eyes, 'Yeah right, the former captain of the twelfth company can't sense a person who's standing just ten feet away from him. Good sense of logic, Kisuke.'
But, my train of thought was cut off when Kisuke continued with, "You know, I just ran into Hitsugaya-taichou, cheery guy." I'm sure my mouth was hanging open at this point. "He said that he was looking for you." I felt dizzy. 'The prodigy captain is coming after me?' I groaned. 'He is sooo going to kill me.'
Just then, the door opened, letting in a rather perturbed looking captain followed by Kisa who was dragging along Shikamaru. I heard Ayame mutter something about "Speak of the devil..."as I ran to hide behind her. She smiled at the captain and said, "Can I help you with something, sir?"
He didn't even respond to her, but instead gave a small nod to Shikamaru. I felt my muscles tense and freeze up. "Kagemane no jutsu: success." I glared at Shikamaru, who was standing across the room with a smug smile on his face. 'So this is what Renji was talking about.'
Ayame turned to me, surprised. But, when she understood what was happening, I thought I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. "Don't attack them! They probably thought that I would run away when they found me." I could do nothing but watch as Renji, Izuru, and the rest of the search party, walked into the store. Hitsugaya moved toward me. "Although, I do feel a little hurt, sir, that you don't trust me enough to let me move on my own." I said, causing a wave of nervousness to come over Izuru.
I felt the binding shadow release me and my legs felt weak from the unusual experience. "I'm sorry for how I acted, Hitsugaya-taichou. I was out of line and I will accept the punishment for my behavior." I said, bowing down to the captain.
When I looked up, he was surprised, probably expecting another outburst. But, he quickly composed himself. "You idiot. I'm not going to punish you." Then I thought I'd heard him mutter, "Momo would kill me..."
I sighed out of relief and walked back over to join my place beside my fellow soul reapers.
