OnigiriKami: OMG! You guys gave me so much reviews in a short amount of time!! And I thought that the response in the last chapter would have been negative.... Well here's chapter seven!! It's a little boring... but a little interesting at the same time....
READ AND REVIEW!!!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH!!!
Last Chapter...
'Forget about me, Kuchiki Rukia...'
"ACHOO!" Rukia woke up with a sneeze. Her hair was messy and her eyes were swollen from the lack of sleep. She was kept awake by what had happened the other day.
'That Ichigo... what the heck happened yesterday...?'
The image of yesterday replayed in her mind, and it made her shiver as she was reminded of his cold eyes. He had beaten up Ganju and did not stop even though he was already unconscious. The only thing that stopped him, was when Rukia began to cry right in front of him. He had suddenly halted in his punches and gave her a sad look. Somehow, deep in Rukia's chest, she could feel defeat and humiliation for crying. She felt regret and stupid...
Ichigo was stupid. How could she avoid him and ignore him, when she sat right next to Ichigo?! Was he that rushed to tell Rukia this, that he could not think through the scenario?
'I wonder what'll happen at school....'
Rukia lifted herself off of her futon, went out of her room, and walked into the bathroom in the hallway. She stared at her own reflection in the mirror and made a face that meant that she thought that she looked horrible today. She got her toothbrush and toothpaste, and started to brush her teeth. When she was done, she took a quick shower, dried herself, then changed into her school uniform. She wore the autumn season uniform, because it was getting colder by the day. It was a thicker grey blazer and a grey skirt. She tied on the red ribbon tightly, with the golden holder placed in the middle. Rukia got a hair drier and started to dry her hair, then she got the hair brush to fix her hair.
"ACHOO!" Rukia sneezed again. She sniffed her nose, and said to herself, "Must've gotten a cold from yesterday...." She ran down stairs and saw that Renji was eating his breakfast rapidly. She could tell that he was hungry, and Rukia knew that he was a big eater. Rukia came into the very small kitchen, where the dining table was. She saw that Renji had made her some food.
"Eggs." Rukia said, then pulled her chair and sat down to eat.
"Rukia.... what are you going to do know...." Renji gulped his food, "with that guy?"
"...." Rukia could feel her head heating up and she could barely catch the words that Renji was asking her. "I don't know...." Rukia said slowly and uncertainly.
"Rukia... are you all right?"
"I'm fine-" Rukia was interrupted by the fit of coughs she was having, "-just a little cold..."
"Okay... if you say so....." Renji said in hesitation and worry.
Rukia sat in her seat with boredom etched on her face. She stared at the desk diagonal of her on the left. It was empty. It felt strange that nobody cared that Ichigo was missing for two days. Did these people really hated Ichigo that much.
No...
They feared him.
'Ichigo'll be absent today also... the third day...' Rukia thought with certainty.
"Hey, Rukia." called out Tatsuki. She walked towards Rukia and grabbed a chair next to her. "Yo." Tatsuki said boyishly. The tomboy gave Rukia a smile then slouched in her chair, and opening her legs unladylike. The girl didn't gave a care about other's opinion and she was strong. Rukia liked this trait about her.
"Oh, hi Arisawa." Rukia greeted back. She then saw Tatsuki leaning in her face and looked carefully at her.
"You look pale, Rukia.... are you sick?"
"No... no... I'm fine...." Rukia gave Tatsuki a reassuring smile, then she changed the subject. Her curiosity was overwhelming her. "Say... is it okay if I ask you about Ichigo again?"
"Ooooh! Speaking to him so familiarly!" Tatsuki teased Rukia then started nudging her elbow at her.
"No! That's not it... please be more serious Arisawa!"
Tatsuki's facial expression had slowly changed to a more serious one, "... what is it about...?"
"I-I know that you already said that you wouldn't betray Ichigo.... but I need to know about his past...." Rukia said. her voice was hesitated by how she was unsure of Tatsuki's reaction.
"...." Tatsuki gave a look at Rukia, before she sighed and made an expression of defeat, "Fine...."
'T-That easy to budge her.... she must have kept this for a long time....'
"Ichigo... had two traumatic events in his life..." Tatsuki said in a whisper so that the crowds of people wouldn't hear her, "One... his mother died...." Tatsuki saw the look of shock in Rukia's face, "and... second..."
Tatsuki was cut off when the class door slid open loud enough for everyone to hear. At the door was Kurosaki Ichigo and the blue haired man with rectangular glasses that Rukia could not remember his name. Ichigo made no emotions on his face and he had his hands in his pocket. He made no eye contact with anyone, especially Rukia.
'I-I thought he wasn't going to come!'
Rukia turned to see that everyone's faces had shown immense fear for the teen, and Rukia frowned at them all. She didn't like how they were treating Ichigo like some kind of unknown disease. But Ichigo looked like he didn't even mind.
Ichigo walked and passed Rukia, not even glancing at her. He even passed his own seat. When he came to the back corner of the room right next to the window, and very far away from where Rukia was, he stopped. He stood in front of a shaking boy who looked very weak and was looking down at his seat. Ichigo stared down at the boy and then all the students went silent. Rukia tried to suppress her coughs.
Then suddenly, everyone flinched from there seats, including Rukia, when they heard an unexpected slam. Ichigo had kicked the desk of the weak looking boy and stared at him straight in the eyes.
"We're switching seats, got it?" Ichigo said, his voice had no sign of aggression, only calmness, as if he knew the outcome of what would happen next.
"Y-Yes!!" said the boy as he quickly got out of the seat and went to Ichigo's old desk. He sat their trembling for a while and was staring down in embarrassment. The boy thought everyone was looking at him so his face started to slowly turn red and he was sweating. But the classmates was not looking at him at all. Their eyes were glued on Ichigo as he took one of his hands out of his pocket and pulled the chair out. He sat and then motioned the glasses guy to come over with his hand. He gave the guy next to his desk a look meaning for him to get lost, so the person fled and switched seats with the glasses guy. The bluish haired guy slowly walked in the aisles of desks and sat next to the delinquent.
'Tch! Ichigo planned this well!'
When they sat there, and was talking about something... almost like mocking each other, the crowd of students started to slowly talk again. Rukia immediately let go of her breath and started to cough. Then after she was done and regained her breathe, she turned to the shivering boy next to her and said, "What's your name?"
"Y-Yamada... H-Hanatarou..." Hanatarou whispered at Rukia shyly. He had bluish-black hair that went down to his chin and had weary blue eyes.
"Hanatarou... I like it... like Hana*" Rukia said, "Can I call you Hana?" Rukia saw that Hanatarou nodded his head quickly and his cheeks turned a little pink from talking to someone. "Are you okay, Hana?"
"Y-Yes... just a little shaken... that's all, Kuchiki-san." he said with his squeaky voice.
"Huh? How do you know my name?" Rukia asked in bewilderment.
"E-Everyone knows your name... because Ochi-sensei introduced you... and on the first day you came here.... you made that big scene...." Hanatarou then looked admiringly at Rukia, "From that moment, I have admired you!! You could stick up to Kurosaki-san!!"
'I-I have a fan?'
"Everyone admires you, they all want to be just like you, Kuchiki-san!" Hanatarou kept babbling, his eyes burning with passion. "We even made a fan club of you in the internet!"
'T-This is going way to far.....'
"H-Hana! You can stop now, I get it." Rukia said. She saw that Hanatarou stared at her with a smile and laughed.
"Hahahaha.... sorry, I didn't mean to go so far... but we really do admire you!"
"Well you shouldn't! You guys don't know anything about me!" Rukia said, as she snapped. Nobody should admire her. After all, she let him die.... nobody should......
She saw that Hanatarou looked surprised then he gazed down at his desk in sadness, "I'm sorry... Kuchiki-san... I'm sorry if I did something wrong...."
"No, you didn't do anything wrong, Hana.... I'm just not feeling very well today... sorry...." Rukia apologized, she was ashamed of making Hanatarou feel so down, then she smiled and reached her hand out for Hanatarou, "Let's be friends, okay?"
Hanatarou looked up from his desk and was startled, then he suddenly looked like he was about to cry. "Th-This... is my first time having a friend!!" he said with little tears in his eyes. He quickly wiped them and then reached out to grab Rukia's hand and shook it lightly.
"Hey?! What about me?!" The two people that had just become friends looked to their right to see Tatsuki pointing at herself and made a pouting expression. "Let's be friends too, Hana!"
Hanatarou started to cry again, then he nodded his head.
The sliding door opened a second time to reveal the long black haired teacher with glasses. She spun in the classroom all the way to the podium. Her hands clutched the clipboard and when she reached the podium, she slammed it on top of it. "Homeroom has begun, back to your seats!" Ochi-sensei said excitedly.
Everyone rushed to their original seats, except for the four that had swapped. Before Tatsuki left towards her seat she said to Rukia, "I'll talk to you about that later, okay Rukia?" Tatsuki saw that Rukia had nodded, and then she quickly went to her own original desk.
'Damn... when I was finally about to know what happened to Ichigo!'
Rukia then turned her head behind her, while the teacher was calling attendance. She saw Ichigo with his right hand supported his head and covering his mouth. And Rukia was surprised that he was staring at her with his amber eyes, but as soon as they met each other's eyes, he slowly averted his eyes from Rukia to look out the window.
'In those eyes... what was he thinking just now....'
"Ganju!!" said a woman with a white beanie on her head. Her black tufts of hair was sticking out of the beanie and she wore a red T-shirt and green cargo pants. Her aqua eyes looked mad at a bandaged up patient in a chair. "You idiot! How did you got yourself into this mess?!"
The woman's words were harsh, but she only did that to cover up her immense concern for Ganju.
"Nee-san... I got battered up... because...." Ganju said, his confession sounded hard to say. "OOF!" Ganju yelled in pain, when he felt his own older sister kicking him in the stomach.
"Spit it out!"
"I.... I found Aniki's killer..."
Kuukaku looked startled, then her eyes showed sympathy for her younger brother.
".... Ganju... I said to forget about him...." Kuukaku said, her voice was no longer furious.
"Nee-san... when will I be out of the hospital....?" Ganju whispered, ignoring Kuukaku's words. His eyes looked faraway as if he had made up his mind on something, "I'm going to Karakura High.... OOF!" Ganju had gotten another kick from his sister at the same spot. She kept batting him.
"All of the sudden you're going to school again! Don't think that I'm not suspicious! Forget about that vagabond! He left us!!! He's nothing to us anymore! He gave us nothing but his dead body!!!" Kuukaku said, her voice trembled as she said each insult to her older dead brother. She was also hurt. "I told you, no more revenge!"
"NEE-SAN!" Ganju yelled at her. Kuukaku stopped her kicking and was shocked at Ganju standing up to her, "If someone precious to you died... you feel so much hatred for the man who killed the one precious to you..." Ganju's hands clenched and shook violently to control his anger, "...wouldn't you want to kill the killer!"
Kuukaku's knees started to shake as she saw Ganju's fierce aqua eyes. She slumped to the light blue tiled floor as her eyes widened at the truth. She didn't want to feel like this. Her brother would have never let them be like this.
She wanted the murderer of her brother dead also.....
OngiriKami: Yes, I have involved Hanatarou, but he makes a very little role in the story and this might be probably the last time he gets a long conversation, in the other chapter's he might only say, "Hi." He's just a character in the story that I put in to replace Ichigo's seat. This chapter is making you all very puzzled right?!
I changed Kuukaku's wrappings to something more modern, and I made her have both her arms, I don't own the character, but I think that if she had two of her arms, it'll be easier to write her actions! Also I replaced her clothes on her head to a beanie, because it'll be weird if she had a cloth on her forehead if this is an AU story...
*Hana: Flower
Okay, I have my finals coming up so I'll make you guys very slow, and the chapters to be difficult to speed:
20 MORE REVIEWS!! (yes, I'm trying to slow you guys down.... ) That means it'll be a TOTAL of 73 reviews (I'm trying to not let you all lose track...)
If I made any errors, then tell me, I was kinda rushing this chapter... I need to update my other stories and then study!!!!
PREVIEW:
Rukia faints in PE....
An ORANGE head takes her to the infirmary......
and...
kiss.....
STAY TUNED!! :)
