An Unexpected Turnout: Chapter 7
Ichigo rolled over. Forgetting he was on the couch, he fell off hitting the table on the way down. The flowers were still sitting, unharmed, on the small brown table.
"Ow!" He said, trying to get up and not hit himself again. "Must of dosed off." He looked out the window. It was pretty bright outside. In fact, the sun was shining brighter then when he fell asleep. It was probably morning.
There was a knock on the door while Ichigo was still trying to get up. The door slid open to reveal Rukia standing on the other side.
"What are you doing Ichigo?" She said, walking in.
"Eh... Uh, nothing." Ichigo crawled out from where he was and sat back on the couch. He put his hand on the spot where he hit himself at. The spot was throbbing, but it started to fade away.
"Okay then... We need to go to Captain Ukitake's office right away. He wants us to meet him there so we can all go to the meeting together."
He totally forgot about the meeting this morning. He forgot he was in the Soul Society too. Falling off the couch made him take his mind off of it right when he woke up. He did try to clear his mind last night, though.
"That won't be necessary." Captain Ukitake said from behind Rukia. "I decided to come here instead of you coming to my office."
"Oh! Good morning Captain!" Rukia said, turning around. She bowed in front of him. He gave her his usual smile.
"Good morning, Rukia and Ichigo. I wanted to get to the meeting hall a bit early, do you mind?"
"Not at all," Ichigo said.
"Alright then. Shall we go?" The two nodded and followed the captain out. They left squad 13 and started to walk to the meeting hall.
"So, are you nervous, Ichigo?" Captain Ukitake said over his shoulder.
"Not really."
"That's good. Do you have any questions about anything?"
"Now that you mention it, do any of the other captains or squad members know about me being here?"
"Only Shunsui, Head Captain Yamamoto, and myself. Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering." This was kind of interesting to Ichigo. Knowing that no one really knows hes here, he wondered how they would react. Ichigo also wondered why the head captain allowed a human to become a captain. It wasn't really like him. Then again, Ichigo doesn't know him that well.
The group kept walking toward the meeting hall. They weren't that far from it now. Just a few more minutes and they'd arrive.
...
"Hm! Hm hm hm hm. Where am I?" Katsuya whined. "I know I came from that way... so I should go..." He looked to his right and saw a dead end. Pouting, he sat on the ground and leaned his back on the wall behind him. He banged his head on the wall a couple times. The wall shook when his head made contacts with brick.
"What are you doing?" A childish voice said. Katsuya looked to his left. "Doesn't that hurt?" He saw a little girl with pink hair lugging around a sword with wheels.
"Oh, no! This relaxes me in a way. I'm use to this anyway." Katsuya smiled at the girl.
"Oh!" She giggled and walked over to him.
"Yup!" She sat down beside him and he stopped banging his head on the wall. "What's your name? Mines Katsuya."
"Mines Yachiru! Nice to meet you Kat! Wait what about Kitty! It sounds just like Kenny's name!"
"You nickname people two? I've always done that. What should your nickname be? Hm..." They both sat there and thought. "What about Yachi? Yeah, until I think of something else." The two giggled.
"That reminds me! I gotta find Kenny!" The girl jumped up. "I want you to meet him too so come on Kitty!"
"Okay!" Katsuya jumped up and the two started running to their left. They made a quick right and continued down the hall.
...
Finally at the meeting hall, the three waited outside. The gigantic doors were closed at the moment.
"Hey Jushiro! Your late." Captain Kyoraku said behind Captain Ukitake. Nanao was beside her captain.
"Oh, Shunsui! I usually get her before you."
"Well Nanao woke me up a little early this morning, but the wake up call forced me to get up, so I'm still tired." Captain Kyoraku laughed a little.
"I see."
"Don't worry though. I have something to wake me up!" The captain of squad 8 pulled out a bottle from under his girly kimono. He smiled and popped the top, but by the time he did this, the bottle was out of his hand.
"Captain! You shouldn't be drinking during the day! Especially this early in the morning." Nanao said, putting the cap back on the bottle of sake.
"Come on my little Nanao! How'd you get the cap?" Nanao hit him over the head with the book she always carries."Why are you so mean to me?" Captain Kyoraku whined.
"I'm not 'your little Nanao'," She said, turning to Captain Ukitake. "Good morning Captain Ukitake." Nanao bowed to him.
"Good morning Lieutenant Ise." He said with a smile.
The trio continued to talk amongst themselves, forgetting about Rukia and Ichigo. Ichigo used this time to talk to Rukia. He shooed her away from the group so that if they were to talk, the others wouldn't be able to hear them.
"What?" She asked.
"Have you seen Katsuya yet? I know he's suppose to be in the Soul Society, but he hasn't shown himself to us yet." Ichigo said.
"No. If he was in the Sereitei, we'd be able to detect his spiritual pressure, but I know I haven't. He might be concealing it though."
"That makes since. If he came into the Sereitei and didn't hide it, then people would start detecting the unfamiliar pressure and start trying to find it and take it out. He is doing the right thing, I think."
"Yeah. After the meeting we need to go look for him, if hes in the Sereitei."
"Ok"
Ichigo looked over at the two captains and the lieutenant. They were still talking up a storm. Captain Kyoraku looked like he was whining to Nanao about something. Nanao was ignoring him and talking to Captain Ukitake. They still didn't notice that Ichigo and Rukia weren't over there with them.
...
"This way this way!" Yachiru said, jumping and pointing to the left. Katsuya ran to where she was pointing and she followed after him. They went all over the Sereitei, looking for her captain with no luck.
"I don't think hes here Yachi!" Katsuya said with a smile, looking through some bushes.
"I thought he would be..." Yachiru pouted. "Okay! That way!" She said, about to take off running to the right. Katsuya followed her to the new destination.
She was running pretty fast, but Katsuya could keep up with her. He was surprised how fast the little girl was. She didn't seem that powerful. Katsuya didn't judge a book by its cover though.
"Check there, Kitty!" She commanded Katsuya. He peeks around a corner into one of the bars in the Sereitei. There was a couple rough looking soul reapers in there, but there was no sign of a captain's uniform.
He looked back at Yachiru to shake his head at her, when he saw a shadow covering his sunlight. He looked up to see someone looking at him in the face. He had spiked hair, with an eye-patch on his right eye, and a scar on his left eye. This made Katsuya jump a little, but he didn't try to move.
"Yo!" The man said.
Katsuya managed a smile and waved at the large man.
"Yay! We found Kenny!" Yachiru jumped for joy and climbed on the man's back.
"This is him?" Katsuya asked. She nodded and a big smile came over the young boy's face. "Nice to met you! My names Katsuya, but you can call me Kat. Yachi calls me Kitty though. I really don't care what you call me, just nothing mean or insulting!"
"Captain of squad 11, Kenpachi Zaraki," He said, still in Katsuya's face.
"Yay! Pachi! Maybe I should call you Pachi Pachi. Or Patches. You look like a pirate. Maybe Spiky. I like your hair. You must use a lot of gel to keep it up like that. And the bells! How do you get the bell on the top spike?"
Kenpachi had an irritated look on his face. "Shut up kid," he said annoyed, "you talk to much." Katsuya just looked at him with admiration.
"Where were you Kenny! We were looking all over the place for you!" Yachiru said, changing the subject.
"My office. I didn't leave there 'till now." He answered.
"Aww! I thought you were right behind me when I left. Oh well!" She giggled.
"Whatever, now let's get this meeting over with. Which way?"
"That way!" Yachiru pointed to her right. "Kitty! Climb on board! We're about to take off!"
"Okay!" Katsuya said with a smile. He jumped on Kenpachi's back. Kenpachi didn't feel him get on until Katsuya put his hand on his shoulder, which felt weird to him. Ignoring the awkwardness, Kenpachi took off in the direction Yachiru pointed to.
Yachiru and Katsuya kept pointing out random directions. They were taking turns actually. When Yachiru pointed in one direction, Katsuya would point in another after Kenpachi would turn that way. Things were going really fast by them, but they could still see clearly.
"Hmm...?" Kenpachi looked around.
"What is it Kenny?" Yachiru asked her captain. A big smile came over his face.
"He's here!"
Yachiru gave a happy gasp. "Yay! Ichi's here!"
"I think I can trust my instincts and get us where we need to go," Kenpachi said, happy as ever.
"Ichi?" Katsuya said to himself. "Are you headed to Ichigo?" He asked Kenpachi. Katsuya noticed he said 'Ichigo' and corrected himself.
"That's the idea! I can follow his spiritual pressure. He's probably at the meeting, so he's leading me to where we need to go." Kenpachi responded.
This is my chance to see Ichi. A quick and easy way to get to him. Katsuya thought to himself. He smiled. "Just the guy I was looking for!"
"You know Ichi, Kitty?" She said surprised.
"Yes I do! We just met. Yesterday actually. I haven't been able to find him since then."
"Cool!"
Katsuya and Yachiru kept talking up a storm on Kenpachi's back. Kenpachi wasn't exactly interested in their conversation, so he concentrated on looking for Ichigo. Surprisingly, he was doing pretty good without Yachiru's directions. He was getting closer to the meeting with every quick turn. He felt accomplished.
...
By now, all of the captains and lieutenants had arrived in the meeting hall, except the captain and lieutenant of squad 11. The meeting couldn't begin without them, so everyone waited impatiently. While waiting, everyone was talking to one another, not really noticing their surroundings. They didn't even seem to notice Ichigo. Maybe it was because he was squished between Captain Ukitake and Rukia, but still. He felt a bit left out.
Finally, The doors opened and in came the squad 11 captain and lieutenant. Right after them came the head captain and his subordinate. Not really rushing, Kenpachi walked over to his spot. Ichigo watched him from between Captain Ukitake and Rukia, seeing if he'd noticed him yet.
Head Captain Yamamoto went over and stood at the other end of the room with his lieutenant. He looked around to see if everyone was there, and began the meeting.
"Today, as you know, will be the first day of Lieutenant's day. We will start by going over the rules of the week, then we shall switch positions." Head Captain Yamamoto said. "Rule one:" He began.
While the head captain was going over the rules, Ichigo was looking around. He wasn't really interested in listen because he's basically heard it before. Every now and then he'd listen to parts of the lecture. Nothing he hasn't heard before.
He looked at all of the captains on the other side of the room. They didn't really seem interested in being here. The lieutenants, however, looked pretty excited, except for one or two.
It seemed like an eternity before the rules were finished. When the captain of squad 1 slammed his cane on the ground, Ichigo figured the instructions were over.
"Now, for the switching of positions." Head Captain Yamamoto tapped his cane on the floor again and the doors in the front of the room opened. Thirteen soul reapers came in with something in their hands and walked over to one of the thirteen captains and/or lieutenants. They handed each captain a white piece of clothing and a badge. Captain Ukitake recieved two badges. The squads without captains were handed the same thing, but they didn't get badges.
Every captain took off their captain's uniform and put on a badge. This badge had the number of their squad on it. The lieutenants put on the white captain's uniforms. Ichigo's uniform had the number 13 on it and his name under the number on the back of the haori. All the former lieutenants had their names on their uniform as well.
Rukia helped Ichigo get his on, first informing him to take off his sword. After he got the haori on, he put his sword back on his back.
"Now that this matter is over." Yamamoto said. "I will now announce the new captain's names." There was a mental sigh amongst everyone in the room. "Captain of squad 1, Chojiro Sasakibe. Captain of squad 2, Marechiyo Omaeda."
Everyone probably wasn't listening to the head captain state the obvious. Ichigo was waiting for his name to be called though, to see the reaction of everyone. He didn't exactly like being stared at, but he was just curious.
"Captain of squad 5, Momo Hinamori. Captain of squad 6, Renji Abarai..."
Head Captain Yamamoto seemed to be enjoying saying all the former lieutenant's names. He had a smile on his face with every name. Wonder why he's so happy.
"And Captain of squad 13, Ichigo Kurosaki." Probably half of the people in the room looked in the direction of Ichigo, a bit surprised at hearing his name. He saw Byakuya and Toshiro twitch and get a serious look on their face. Kenpachi gave a big smile to Ichigo, but he ignored his smile and looked at the head captain.
"Once you exit this room," Yamamoto said, "you will address your captain lieutenant, and your lieutenant captain. Now!" His voice boomed. "Have a great week." He smiled and stood up. Everyone gave a sigh of relief and started exiting the room.
"Captain Kurosaki" Ukitake said. Ichigo looked at him and sighed.
"You don't have to call me that. It sounds weird to me. Especially when you say it when you always call me Ichigo. So, just call me Ichigo."
Ukitake smiled. "Okay, but in front of other captains and lieutenants, I will call you Captain." Ichigo nodded. " Shunsui and I have something to take care of, so,"
"Ok," Ichigo interupted, "it's ok with me if you go." Ukitake smiled once more and walked over to Kyoraku.
Rukia followed Ichigo out of the room. When they got through the door, something pushed Ichigo to the ground. "Yay! Ichi!" Katsuya said, jumping on Ichigo.
"Katsuya?" Ichigo made him stop jumping.
"See! I told you not to worry about me! I made it here!" He smiled in his face.
"How'd you get here? Where did you get that soul reaper uniform from?"
"I'll tell you," Katsuya stood up and put a foot on Ichigo's stomach. Then he balled his right hand in a fist and put it on his right hip. He pointed his left hand at nothing. "The Adventures of Katsuya when we get to a place not here."
"Um, ok." Ichigo shooed Katsuya's foot off his stomach.
"Hey! Ichigo." Renji said, coming out of the meeting hall.
"What?" He said looking at Renji.
"What are you doing? Not even a minute after you get out of the meeting and you already mess up your captain's uniform."
"It's not my fault! He jumped on me." Ichigo pointed to Katsuya. Katsuya waved at Renji.
"I have nothing to say to that." Renji sighed.
Katsuya spotted Byakuya standing partially behind Renji and went to talk to him.
"Hello, my lord." He said, spotting the noble hair pieces in his hair. Byakuya looked down at him, a bit surprised at the manners.
"Hello," He responded.
"My name is Katsuya. May I ask your name?"
"Byakuya Kuchiki. Nice to meet you."
Renji scooted over to Ichigo. "It looks like Capta- I mean Lieutenant Kuchiki is getting along with the kid." Renji whispered
"Yeah," Ichigo said, standing up.
After everyone finished talking to each other, Renji and Byakuya started to leave.
"Hey, Renji!" Ichigo called back to him. "We have some 'business' to talk about, remember?"
Renji stared at Ichigo for a second, trying to figure out what he meant by 'business'. "Oh! Yeah. Sorry Lieutenant," he said to Byakuya, "I have something to take care of."
"I understand." Byakuya turned away from Renji and started walking in the direction of his squad.
"Okay! Off to a place not here to tell my adventure story!" Katsuya said to the group.
"Let's go to Ichigo's office." Rukia suggested. Everyone agreed and headed for the squad 13 lieutenant's office.
...
When everyone got situated in the office, their private meeting began. Katsuya sat on the opposite side of the room, facing the window, getting ready to speak.
"So, anything happen while I was gone?" Katsuya asked everyone.
"Nothing unusual," Ichigo said.
"That's good. Ren is rather silent... No mood changes? Or anything out of character?" Ichigo shook his head. "Hmm..."
There was a silence in the room. Then, Ichigo heard some sort of clicking noise. He looked around the room, to see if anyone heard it, but it seemed like no one noticed.
"Did you hear that?" Ichigo asked the group, breaking the silence.
"Hear what?" Rukia asked.
"That clicking noise. It was kind of loud."
"No, it was probably in your head."
Katsuya stood up, and walked over to Ichigo. He got up in his face and looked him in the eye. Not knowing what he was doing, Ichigo moved his head back a little to get some space between their faces. Katsuya, however, put both of his hands on Ichigo cheeks and pulled his face closer. He kept shifting his gaze from one brown eye to the other, like he was looking for something. This made Ichigo feel really uncomfortable.
"Uh, what are you doing." Ichigo said, trying not to breath on Katsuya.
"This might hurt a bit" Katsuya said, ignoring Ichigo's question.
"Wait, wh-?" Before Ichigo could finish his sentence, Katsuya banged his head on Ichigo's, taking his hands off of his cheeks. This made Rukia and Renji jump a little. The noise was like a brick dropping on concrete.
He stood there in silence, watching Ichigo's reaction. Ichigo cursed and put his hands on his forehead. The blow really hurt. Ichigo didn't know Katsuya had that kind of strength.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Ichigo shouted.
Katsuya smiled and took his spot back on the couch. "I was checking for Ren. When he's in his human form, not in his box, we usually do that to one another to wake ourselves up if we're trying to pull an all nighter. Usually, when we do this, we don't shout at each other. To him and I, it just feels like a tap."
"What does that mean?" Ichigo asked, waiting for the pain in his head to fade away.
"Oh, I get it." Renji said. "He's saying that if you didn't react to the headbutt, then he'd know if you were Ren."
"Exactly!" Katsuya said. "From now on, I'll have to keep doing that just to check. A twist though, is that I won't tell you or give you a warning the next time I do it. It has to be by surprise because he could just fake a reaction."
"What?" Ichigo didn't like the idea.
"It's necessary, Ichigo. Besides, if I didn't, Ren would probably secretly take over and kill everyone, you see?"
Katsuya did have a point. Getting hit in the head is way better then having all your loved ones killed. Especially when it would be done by your own hands.
"Anyways, back to the task at hand!" Katsuya clapped.
"Do you know why Ren is doing this?" Rukia asked.
"No. I wish I did, but he's only following what Shu commands. In reality, if Shu wasn't Ren's owner, then he'd be the nicest guy." Katsuya looked down at the floor. He had a somewhat sad look on his face. Seeing this, Ichigo sighed.
"So," Ichigo started, "are you gonna answer my questions I asked earlier?"
"Your questions..." Katsuya thought for a moment. "Oh! Grab your popcorn and drinks ladies and gents! Here comes the Amazing, Wonderful, Fantastic, Ironic, Awesome, Suspense filled, Knee slappin', Oh My Gosh saying, Door openin', Breath taking Adventure Of Katsuya! Hold onto your chairs!"
Ichigo gave a regretful sigh. Maybe I shouldn't of reminded him...
"Well, what had happened was..."
Wonder how his story will turnout. ^^
