A/N: I know it been an awfully long time since I uploaded anything to this story, reasons being:
1) I've started University and the work load is more overwhelming that I could have imagined. If I'm not working I'm automatically behind and feel guilty for doing anything other than work. But I'm sick of it so need something, like this story, to escape to.
2) I was bored of writing the Rukon arc even though it's essential to the story, so I lost interest and switched to my Pokémon x Fairy Tail fic for a while. I just wanted to get it out of the way and move on to the main bit of the story. I didn't wanna give up on it because I have so many great ideas for the later chapters and sequels, it's just getting there that's the problem.
3) If I found the Rukon arc boring as the writer than obviously the readers would too. I decided to write it all and upload it all in bulk. Maybe I'll get readers, probably not, it would be nice but doubtful so I'm writing this more for myself these days.
If you are, by some miracle, reading this and find it boring feel free to skip to Chapter 16 when all the Rukon stuff begins to end (if that makes sense) and Academy stuff starts, and I hope it becomes slightly more interesting ^^
Enjoy :)
Chapter 10 - Grounded
The journey home was a long and awkward one. The snow had quickly ascended into a troublesome raging blizzard which turned their thirty-five-minute journey into a two and a half hour one; which seemed to drag due to the atmosphere around the four of them.
Kimi felt horrible and so avoided making eye contact or conversation with any of her family, choosing instead to stare out of the window in a deep daydream.
Of course Shinsetsu had kept true to his word and punished her when they finally got home. To Kimi it was the worst possible punishment, worse than being hit or scolded.
Shin had taken her to his office, sat her down (without offering her nibbles or a drink as he usually would have done), and began by repeating the consequences of her actions and how disappointed he was with her in the calmest, quietest, most dissatisfied tone.
Kimi did feel ashamed and kept her eyes averted to the floor the whole time, just nodded and saying "Yes, Sir" until he told her the punishment.
"You are not allowed to leave the house for one week. In that time, you are to complete jobs and chores around the house, which includes cooking and cleaning-"
Kimi stood up and protest. "You can't do that!"
"Oh I can and I will"
"But-"
"One more complaint and I'll make it two weeks. You should have thought of the consequences before acting." Shin too got up and walked around the table towards the door. "I have given the maids the week off. You will do this alone and without help."
"WHAT?! Alone? I can't do all of that alone!"
"Three weeks?" he asked in a raised voice. Kimi stopped instantly, knowing now not to make it any harder for herself.
"You will start immediately; Am I making myself clear?"
She folded her arms and snapped her head away from him so not to look him in the eyes and grunted "Yes, Sir" again.
Shin smiled and walked her out of his office.
Over the next few days Kimi skulked around the house in a foul mood, doing any jobs that were given to her.
She usually spent the majority of her time outdoors, exploring, training or just relaxing somewhere with a good view. She hated being cooped up like this. She now knew how animals felt when they were forced into captivity.
At first she would rush jobs just to get them out of the way, thinking that she would get to relax and be left alone in her room afterwards, but she had been mistaken. As soon as one job was finish she would be given another, until eventually she realised that she might as well take her time and put some effort into them.
She began to appreciate the maids and all their hard work. Until now she had never really taken much notice of them but now she realised that she was doing all of the work that more than five people would do all by herself… and it was exhausting.
She tried to think of it as training and exercise to overcome that horrible sinking feeling in her stomach whenever she thought of this as a week's worth of training lost and one week further away from joining the academy.
The only up side of the punishment was that when she was given a kitchen job she could sneak bites of food out of the store cupboards as long as no-one was watching. But at the moment she couldn't.
Yuu was lounging around in the dining room with her feet up on the table whilst Kimi mopped the floors, probably to make fun of her or make her task more difficult. It was unlike her to be indoors at this time of day so she could think of no other reason.
"You missed a spot" Yuu mumbled, pointing over to the corner while crunching into a huge and juicy-looking red apple.
Kimi winced as though her words were knives. Now she knew she was there to annoy her, she had been over that spot three times already!
"Oh you don't say! It a pretty big spot too, I should get rid of it-" and she dropped the wet mop on Yuu's head from behind.
She flinched, yelped and jumped to her feet. "You made me bite my tongue! Meany..."
"You've got some nerve, calling me a meanie. You try doing this crap and then call me a meanie!"
"Oh get over it already. Your punishment ends tomorrow; You can go out again and stop skulking around the house like a moody old cat. And at least we don't have to suffer your horrible cooking anymore." she added the last bit under her breath, immediately flinching and bracing herself to be attacked with the mop again but luckily Kimi missed that last comment. Yuu sighed in relief and took another bite of her apple while Kimi spoke.
"It doesn't matter... I wanted to go out in the snow while it's still fresh, but its melting and paths frozen solid now..."
"That won't be the last snow dummy, it'll be back soon"
"It's not the same though; Virgin snow is the best thing in the world!"
Yuu nearly choked on her apple. "Excuse me? What did you say?"
"Eh? Virgin snow? You know" Yuu stared at her with wide eyes as if to say 'No... not really'.
"Fresh snow, deep, thick, untouched, smooth, pure white... Not that horrible slushy stuff you get on the roads and in the village. It's so much fun to play in~" she said dreamily.
Yuu lobbed a cushion in her face. "Okaaayy, enough of that weirdo, your freaking me out, get back to work already these floors aren't gonna mop themselves, chop chop!" she quickly springing to her feet and clapping her hands as if to usher her along.
"You're the weirdo for not knowing what I'm talking about, weirdo." she sighed under her breath, picking up the mop and bucket of soapy water and stomping into the hallway.
The next morning Kimi woke up in an exceptionally good mood. Today her punishment, which had felt like an eternity of miserable slavery, was finally over. She got dressed and skipped off to the dining room with a spring in her step.
She slammed the door open, smiling brightly and humming to herself. "Gooooood morning everyone~" she sang, sitting at the table and helping herself to an omelette.
They stared at her as though she had lost her mind. "You're awfully happy today" Shin said smiling pleasantly.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" she took a bite of the square piece of omelette and sank back into her seat in bliss. "It tastes so good when I haven't made it myself..."
Yuu laughed. "Sorry to agree but your cooking was horrendous. You burnt almost everything. Today it the first day we've had edible food thanks to the maids"
"And they do a wonderful job! I'm so glad they are here"
"We'll at least we know that your punishment taught you something." Shin piped up, piling a bowl high with rice. "But I must say you did a magnificent job on the outside hallway floors. So I would like it if you clean those floors once a month"
Kimi winced and put her food down. The idea of more cleaning disgusted her. "You're only joking right?"
"Joking? Certainly not. You did a magnificent job. Cleaning the outside hallways is not one of the maid's usual jobs; they get cleaned once in a purple moon" Shin said, jovially waving his chopsticks around as he spoke.
Kimi dropped her head onto the table heavily in despair "And here I thought I'd never have to pick up a mop again in my life"
"No worries Kimi, I'll help you next time, It'll will be fun with the two of us" Yuu smiled. "Now hurry up and finish eating, it just started to snow again; you wanted to see the snow right?"
She shot a glance out of the nearest window, and she could indeed see tiny flakes floating to the ground without a single breeze and promptly wolfed down the rest of her food, choking as a few grains of rice went down the wrong way.
"Slow down, you'll give yourself indigestion" Yoshino warned her, patting her on the back.
"I know I know but there's no time for that, I gotta get moving, thanks for the food, see you later" and with that she was up and gone.
Yuu looked back at her parents and shrugged, then followed her.
"That girl, she's like a flea in a bottle, she never sits still." Shin sighed. "But at least we know that she is happy, that's all that matters"
"Jeez Kimi, you'd think you've never been out doors before"
"I'll have you know that that week of punishment was torture, absolute TORTURE. I'm so glad to be out again" she prancing through the snow like she had never seen the stuff before.
Yuu shivered and wrapped coat tighter around her. "If you ask me your completely out of your mind, walking around like this in a jumper and tights."
"I don't feel the cold, it doesn't bother me at all. I love this weather. It's way better than an unbearably hot and sweaty summer"
"If you say so."
A call came from the right of them outside one of the workshops at the edge of the village centre. "Welcome back Kimiko, Hello Yuuga" a middle aged man waved at the two of them and beckoned them over. "I see you're back out and about again"
"I- How did you?" Kimi asked confused.
"Oh come off it Kimi, you really think that the villagers didn't know about your little journey last week? You really thought news wouldn't spread?"
"I- No I didn't think anyone knew-"
The man laughed heartily. "What you did takes some guts kiddo, and in the end it worked out, the problem was solved"
"Yeah... I guess so..." she trailed off, then realising what he was getting at. "But I didn't have any part in solving it, more than anything I just got in the way-" she rushed in an attempt to justify herself. Even so, she didn't really want to tell the man that she couldn't remember anything and was found unconscious. That would make her sound weak.
"Nonsense. You defied the law of the Soul Reapers, snook past them, escaped, ran away from home and tried to solve a murder mystery, as far as I'm concerned that brave, good job." He patted her on the back.
Yuu scowled at the man for condoning Kimi's behaviour, it was quite obvious that their two had conflicting opinions. "But anyway, I was wondering if you would do me a favour"
"Sure-"
"Sorry I can't today" Yuu cut in quickly. "I've got to pick up a few things from the Tailor's shop for Mother, I was going to take you with me Kimi but you can handle this alone, right?"
"It shouldn't be light work for our hero-in-training" The man chuckled heartily. Kimi blushed at this and Yuu rolled her eyes. "I have an order from some clients at the edge of the district to the South, would you mind making a delivery for me? I would do myself but with this ice underfoot is a nightmare for the cart-"
Kimi gave him a thumbs-up. "Not a problem, you can count on me. I'm pretty fast so I can be there within half an hour"
"Thanks a lot, I'll pay you in cake when you get back" he chuckled again, heading off slightly into the doorway and picking up a long and thick package with straps on to fix it to her back.
She had never really spoken to this man before, she knew he was a carpenter due to Yuu having to make deliveries for him in the past, but evidently, news about her and her eating habits had spread far and wide, everyone wanted to pay in her sweets and savouries these days.
"Thanks but you don't need to pay me, especially not in cake, I'm gonna be too fat to train if I carry on eating at this rate" she shrugged, pinching at her belly, which she had definitely put a couple of pounds on.
"Hmm, then I'll carve you a little something or other as a thank you" he smiled again, handing it to her with a piece of paper for the address and location. "Careful now, it might be heavy. Its tough stuff but still be careful with it along the way, I don't want it to be damaged"
"Don't worry, I can handle this" she glanced at the paper and had a vague idea of where she was going, though she had never been quite that far south before, it was basically a straight road. "Ok then, I'll be off" she waved while turning away.
"Have a safe trip"
She and Yuu went their separate ways just down the road. Kimi hadn't really had any plans, she had actually been wondered where she should go to enjoy the weather and was thinking of checking out the meadow and shrine, but they were in the opposite direction so that would have to wait 'till another time.
She decided to get the job done and over with before playing in the snow, so to keep the goods that she was carrying safe and focus on the directions, but it turned out that the place she was headed was fairly well known. About half way through her journey she began to spot sign posts for the exact address, a Blacksmiths workshop.
Ohhh, I guess this package contains supplies from Mr. Daiku she thought as the sky grew darker, threatening heavier snow. But she wasn't bothered. She could use her spirit energy to keep herself steady on ice if need be. She had found all sorts of funny little uses for the energy over time.
But suddenly something solid shot past her right by inches and smashed like glass on a tree. She watched it break into a million shimmering pieces. A solid brick of ice. She whirled around to see where it had come from but another one met her directly in the face.
Kimi screamed in pain and fell to the floor, clutching her swollen and throbbing face. She couldn't see, the ice had blinded her. She tried desperately to wipe away her freezing tears and bring her clouded vision back into focus as she heard the crunch of footsteps ahead of her and someone's faint jeering.
"Would you look what wondered onto our turf boys, the little bitch from Harumachi that everyone's been talkin' bout" Kimi felt a hand grasp the top of her head firmly and turn her to face its owner. They took hold of her hair and hoisted her up. "Not so tough now are ya, Hero!" there was more jeering from behind the speaker.
She couldn't see a thing so had to rely on her other senses, though touch and smell were impossible. She was shaking too much from the pain and it felt as though the ball of Ice had broken her nose.
Shit! What have I got myself into this time, I know that voice, I've heard him before! "What do you expect, you friggin' ambushed me!"
"But I thought Soul Reapers could sense when people were near"
"I-" she began, but in fact he was right. Real Soul Reapers could sense the presence of others by sensing their spiritual pressure, but Kimi hadn't grasped that technique yet. She had no idea that they were there. They had obviously planned it from the moment of seeing her, for them to be so fast in blinding her. "I'm not a Soul Reaper"
He spat in her face. "Then why are you pretending to be one and taking all the glory!"
"I'm not pretending! I'm training to become a Soul Reape-" but her words were cut off why a fist to her stomach. She hadn't expected it and the impact winded her badly. She spluttered all over the boy and she coughed up something warn that she could swear was blood.
"Not a very good one are ya! You look pretty useless to me!" Kimi couldn't get enough breath to reply. She wanted to curl up into a ball to ease the pain but she was forced to hang limply in mid-air, the pain in her stomach over righting the ones on her face and scalp.
He sudden let go of her and she dropped to the floor, the fresh, powdery snow rising into clouds around her.
She felt another hit, this time a kick to her ribs. "That's for the first time we met"
Another to her back "That's for knocking me unconscious"
Another in far too quick succession be from the same person, there were more than three boys there "For beating me"
More from other people, one after the other she was struck all over her body.
In the mess of voices and jeering, the boys did not see what was happening to Kimi. For the first time in months her eyes rolled to the back of her head and that steering headache consumed all of her senses.
The voices were fading away as though they were being played on a distant radio and a film played across her eyes. Quick flashes of images sped past.
She was flat on her back wearing on a sheet of ice wearing a black Sailor-style school uniform, people laughing at her. It changed again. She was sitting in a classroom with people laughing at the snowflakes in her hairs, jeering the word 'Dandruff' at her back.
Now she was cowering against a brick wall as countless people pelted sharp balls of snow and ice at her. The boy's voices in the real world seemed to dub them.
An adult male came running towards them and the children ran away.
But the adult was dubbed by a new voice, a young male.
She never felt the last hit, but that was because it never came.
Back in the real world, a new person had arrived on the scene, this time wielding a bamboo sword. As he struck a blow to the leaders back and made him fall to the floor, the film began to fade away, the mix of voices and images becoming disconnected and no longer made sense.
The boy then continued onto the others.
"I would never dream of hitting an unarmed person with my sword" he began "but what you just did was unforgivable so I'll make exceptions. Hitting girls is unacceptable but actually beating them to this extent-" he never finished his sentence. He took all four of them on until they had finally realised that they were out matched, and finally scarpered.
Kimi only just heard this sentence, but she was more concentrated on the migraine that was now leaving as quickly as it had appeared, panting as though she had ran a marathon.
Once they, their screaming and their footsteps were out of range he knelt down to the blooded up girl who now lay in the snow, flitting in and out of consciousness. He shook his head in disgust as her swollen face covered in blood from her nose, took his coat off and wrapped it around her, then gently lifted her up into a bridal-carry.
Before he turned away he spotted the large white wrapped package that had been roughly discarded by a tree. He raised an eyebrow and retrieved it before setting off.
Another boring Chapter. If you are reading and Rukon stuff bores you, you could skip to chapter 16 :)
Review if you feel like it :)