YAY! I UPDATED! OMG!... STUPID WRITER'S BLOCK! THIS CHAPPY MIGHT NOT BE SO SATISFYING BUT I'M TRYING! THANK YEW REVIEWERS! THIS IS DEDICATED TO YEW!...
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"S-s-sensei!" Orihime stuttered, scratching the back of her head and laughing nervously.
"Oi, I'm only two years older than you are! I feel old being called sensei all the time..." The orange-haired man grunted.
"But it's not right to call someone that's been teaching you for the past five years by their name!"
"It is in this case..."
Hinamori stared at the two talking in awe. What was with the teachers here? There were teachers back at her high school that were up to twenty-three years old and popular with the students but... the teachers here... some were even younger than their students!
"Kurosaki Ichigo, nice to meet ya," the teacher held his hand forward, which Momo nervously shook.
"So, sensei, no! Ku-ro-sa-ki-kun! Sorry! When's lunch?" Inoue inquired, trying to check the time on his wrist watch, which he held high above her head for some reason so that she couldn't read the time. It didn't look like flirting much... more like...
"I-it's in five minutes!" Stuttering? Why was he stuttering?
"Argh! I was planning to help cook today! I might as well hurry and help them now!" The ginger-haired girl sang before prancing out of the room.
"No! Inoue! That's... not... such... a good..." Too late. She was out of the room. "Idea... Ah! Wait!"
Ichigo closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before Orihime's voice could be heard again.
"Sensei! Can you please let go of my shadow? It's not fair!"
The teacher grinned and walked out into the hallway, followed by Momo- who was quite clearly confused. The teacher and new-comer both jogged out into the hallway where Inoue was standing. Well... she didn't really look like she was standing... more like not being able to move?
'What's happening? How did he do that?...'
Hinamori looked down onto the floor where she saw the large-bosomed female's shadow which seemed to be in the same posture and position as its owner was. However, unlike the ginger-haired teen, it didn't struggle or move as much. It was perfectly still.
'What's with the shadow? It's somewhat unnatural... and strange...'
"I can control shadows." Kurosaki explained in one sentence. "Give me one thing, anything in this world, that isn't transparent and doesn't have a shadow at the same time."
The brunette bit her lower lip as she thought hard. Speaking of which, she couldn't really think of any. Even glasses- which were mostly transparent- had a shadow sometimes. The sun and planets had a shadow... Did the stars have any shadows?
Momo timidly chewed on her takoyaki as she eyed (but was careful not to stare) and analysed everyone at the table. To her surprise, there were only nine people or so. The silence seemed to chew at her more than she did on her lunch.
"So..." A guy who looked around two to three years older than her with crimson red hair and tattoos all over his body started. Hinamori's head quickly snapped up from her plate. "What can you do?"
"Me?..." The brunette stopped for a moment, taking in everyone's stares. (Besides Toushiro's) "I... can... move or break things?... I guess?"
"What level?"
"Excuse me?"
"What level are you on?"
The female had a puzzled look on her face and felt like an idiot. What the red-head was asking seemed to be like gibberish to her. It went through one ear and out the other. Like a train passing through a tunnel.
"Now, now. It is simply rude to intimidate and shoot questions at a newcomer like this before you know their name. I thought you would know that at your maturity level, Abarai-san. What a shame."
Everyone's heads turned to meet the hard gaze of a young girl who seemed to be around twelve years old. She had chalky white skin, as if she'd been recovering from a long-term disease like cancer or something. Her eyes, which were golden yellow just like Haruka's, stood out on her pastel face but were accompanied by perfect lips with a beautiful pinkish-red shade that you'd only see on models on the cover of magazines. She also had long, silky, chestnut brown hair that ran down to her waist, loosely tied in a long plait.
"I am sorry for being quite sudden but I do feel like eating something today. I also do need to attend to my new student? If I am correct, she would go by the name of Hinamori Momo?"
Captured by the girl's beauty and velvet voice, all Hinamori could do was slowly nod.
"Well, it is simply delightful to finally meet you. My name is Arakawa Natsuki. I'm your teacher and Haruka's older sister."
"Onee-chan! Is it really okay for you to be walking around now?" Haruka bounced off his chair and stood next to his sister, holding her arm in a death grip which didn't seem to really hurt her. Natsuki turned to her sibling and smiled, nodding.
"I also have a student to teach now. I cannot be in bed all day, now can I?"
"But you MUST tell ANYONE if you feel bad! Okay? MUST! It's a MUST! MUST! MUST!"
"Okay! I promise. You don't have to worry."
A smile broke out on the little boy's face and he grinned from ear to ear. Natsuki looked around the room as if she were in it for the first time. Well, not really the FIRST time... Maybe the way a person looked at their room and analysed it after coming back from a trip or vacation?
Her eyes settled when she noticed a flower pot on a window sill on the far side of the room. The ceramic pot held what seemed to be a merigold (It's a flower). The female shuffled her way to it and sighed. It was dead. Its leaves and stem dropping lifelessly as its flower petals lay on the soil.
"You didn't water it?" Natsuki asked, however the question seemed more like a statement. Haruka nodded before apologising.
"Sorry. I forgot."
The older sibling sighed as she put her hand on the soil and closed her eyes. She murmured something beneath her breath and deeply, yet slowly drew in her breath. She slowly raised her hand. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, the dead flora still lay dead in its place.
However, after a few seconds, the dead flower sunk into the soil and a little bud sprouted in its place. Momo's mouth fell open.
'Wait! Did she just grow another flower?... that's... impossible!'
"No, I did not grow another flower. I simply made the dead one drop its seeds and stimulated them to grow faster. I cannot control life and death and thank goodness that those abilities are not in my possession. It would be more like a curse." Natsuki answered Hinamori's question as if she had read her mind.
"Then... what can you do?"
"I control nature."
"Nature?"
"Flora and the weather."
At that moment, a raven-haired girl- who was also quite short- brought an extra plate of lunch to the table for the young teacher. She got back into her seat and resumed eating again. Natsuki smiled as she sat herself in her chair between Momo and Haruka.
"Thank you, Kuchiki-san."
"Pleasure."
The black-haired female's slightly deep, yet gentle voice replied back.
"Gochiso-sama." (AN: For those who don't know, gochiso-sama's a Japanese sort-of-greeting that you say after you finish eating.) Hitsugaya grumbled, getting out of his seat. He pushed the chair back into its place before taking his plates and cutlery to the kitchen. Everyone was then silent for the next few seconds as they listened to the water running and kitchenware clattering against each other in the seat as they were being washed. The water was then turned off, leaving dead silence to wash over the room.
Once the group (besides Hinamori), thought that he was gone, there was noise again.
"That boy needs to cheer up a little." A buxom woman with strawberry blonde hair sighed. A few people nodded in agreement.
"But he's been like that ever since... the pine forest incident..." Orihime mused, pouring chocolate sauce over her potato salad with one hand as the other inched across the table towards the red bean paste.
"I tried my best!" Haruka blurted, his face flushed in the cheeks with a shade of crimson red. "But... it was too late. He didn't even remember me."
"None of this is your fault," Natsuki encouraged her blue-haired brother. "You saved him. There was nothing more to do."
"But... he changed..."
Momo's head raised at the last three words. She wasn't sure why but... she also knew that she had first-hand experience at figuring that out.
"And there was that time where he was acting all weird and strange from the time he came back after breaking his arm and leg... and dislocating his shoulder in the hospital where he was healing." A man with purplish-silver hair and a fox-like grin stated.
"None of us really know why he was like that, huh?" Ichigo asked. Everyone shook their heads besides Hinamori.
"Hinamori didn't shake her head. Maybe she knows something." The tattoo-covered red head said, pointing his fork at the brunette.
"Baka! Of course she wouldn't know anything! She only met him today!" The raven-haired girl smacked the male on the side of the head.
"DAMMIT RUKIA! Why do you always do that?"
"It's just a punishment for being such a hage!" (AN: Hage in Japanese is "bald" but in this case, it's also used for calling someone stupid. Don't ask why. I learned it from watching Bleach... Owo...)
"What did you call me?"
"That's not what's important!" Kurosaki yelled over the top of the bickering and everyone shut up, their gazes cast onto the carrot-top. "Why bicker because of someone who's only been introduced to the problem today, right?"
Everybody's flickered and they were eying Hinamori for the next few minutes, making her nervous. It was more like being stared down on. The strawberry-blonde haired lady from earlier then gasped and pointed at the bun-haired girl's chest.
"I REMEMBER THAT! Where did you get that necklace from?"
Momo wasn't really sure how to reply to that question as all the girls had started to gush all over it. Should she just tell the truth? Or just say that it was a present from a friend a few years ago? She was caught on that one.
"Oi, Matsumoto!" The room went silent as Toushiro's voice boomed from the kitchen. Had he heard everything? The white-haired boy trudged into the dining room with his hands in his pockets. "Lost things can't be mused over."
"We were just-"
"Shut up. You're such a pain."
As the boy started to walk out of the room, Hinamori stood up from her seat.
"But don't you ever think of recovering your memories? Ever?" She wasn't sure if she should've asked that but the question seemed to come out on its own.
"That's none of your business."
"You can't say that you don't! Don't you ever try? To at least remember something-"
"What if I don't want to?" Hitsugaya's scowl deepened and his gaze became piercing, his eyes burning in fury. The brunette was lost for words under his glare. Nobody said anything as the cotton-topped student left the room.
OKAY... YES, YEW CAN ALL KILL ME!... LAWL, JK... SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE... SIGHS...
OKAY! EMERGENCY QUESTION! IF YOU GOT A B-DAY PRESENT FOR A GUY YOU LIKED OR FOR YOUR BOYFRIEND, WHAT WOULD YOU GET HIM?
THANK YEW!...
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