• • •
"Wow," Kurosaki stated, his hand once more on his forehead as he felt around for any trace of his previous injury. "Those wounds sure healed up cleanly…"
"Surprised?" Rukia asked as she swallowed a bite of her lunch, "What did you expect? My Kido grades were top of the class. Healing wounds like that is nothing."
"Yeah, but my Kido grades were higher." I taunted her, smirking. I knew that it ticked her off that I was better at Kido than she was. Kido was like her specialty. She was known for her Kido skill when she was still in the Academy. Besides, she had stayed in the Academy longer than I had. I was just a natural at controlling my reiatsu.
"Grades?" Kurosaki asked, looking in-between Rukia and I. "What? There's a Shinigami school?"
"Hm, well something like that." Rukia mused, as she then began to dig in her bag that she brought with her up to the roof. "Anyway, Ichigo, Jun… How do I drink this?" She asked, holding a juice box out towards Kurosaki and me with an aggravated look on her face.
"Huh?" I asked, hoping that she was joking.
Kurosaki sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Just poke the straw in."
"Straw?" Rukia questioned, raising an eyebrow. Her gaze fell on me, observing as I drunk from my own juice box. "Is that the straw, Jun?"
"Yeah, see? It's just on the side of the box." I explained, as I pointed to the straw that was attached to her own juice. "You just pull it off and stick it in the top of the juice box."
While I was talking Rukia through the process of putting a straw in her juice box, I didn't notice the others arriving until I heard Rukia's and my name called.
"Hi Kuchiki-San, Kokawa-San!"
I looked around to see who had called my name, and my gaze fell onto a familiar face. I knew he was a friend of Kurosaki's; I had seen him around him more than a few times. He had somewhat short and pointy black hair.
"Hi, Mizuiro-San." I said, lightly waving at the newcomer.
"Hello, Mizuiro-San." Rukia copied me. She was probably relieved that I had known his name. I knew she was horrible at remembering all of these students; remember the time where she didn't know who Orihime was at the park?
"Bingo! You both remembered my name, even though we haven't been properly introduced!" Mizuiro exclaimed as he shot a smile in our direction. "I'm Kojima Mizuiro, age fifteen! Nice to meet you ! My hobby is-"
"Womanizing." Kurosaki spoke, cutting Mizuiro off.
"Huh?! N-No it's not! You're horrible!" Mizuiro exclaimed, shocked, as he wildly waved his arms around.
"Watch out you two. He may look like a dork, but he's a real player." Kurosaki advised, pointing at Mizuiro. I was kind of wondering what he was talking about. I mean, yeah. Mizuiro was adorable. But, he wasn't my type. Did I even have a type? Well, I knew it wasn't adorable men.
"Stop it~!" Mizuiro whined, frowning. "You're ruining my reputation. Besides, I'm only interested in older girls! All girls my age are safe!"
"Like I said, watch out." Kurosaki advised as he took a sip from his juice box. Rukia's eyes bugged out as she turned to look at me and I had to fight to hold my laughter in, slapping a hand over my mouth.
"Huh?" Mizuiro asked, looking up at Kurosaki with a curious expression; poor thing probably felt like he was left out of something. Which he was.
"Forget it," Kurosaki advised.
"What's up? Mind if I join you guys?" I recognized the voice and had to restrain from twitching. Keigo.
"Hey, Keigo." Kurosaki said, looking up at his friend who was walking over. He hadn't spotted Rukia or me yet, so maybe we could make a quick escape..?
"Hmm? Chad's not here?" He asked, looking around for the tall, dark student.
"Nope." Kurosaki spoke, as if it was just brought to his attention.
"Oh, yeah. I haven't seen him." Mizuiro added.
"That's weird. Where'd he go?" Keigo asked, turning his head to look around properly.
Dang it; I knew I had been spotted.
"Whoa! Are those the two beautiful new girls?!" Keigo yelled, even though it was clear that nobody was going to answer his question. "What brings you two here?!"
"Ichigo picked them up and brought them here." Mizuiro stated, pointing at the strawberry.
"Idiot… No, I-"
"What?! Ichigo!" Keigo exclaimed, as tears began running down his face. He gave the berry a thumbs up as a huge grin stretched across his face, "Good job~!"
"Oh… yeah…" Kurosaki muttered, a deadpan expression on his face. "So happy you're crying…"
"Um, hello?" Rukia said, a bit of a questioning tone to her voice. I forced a smile, lightly waving towards the light brown haired teen.
"I'm Asano! Welcome to this place of men!" Keigo exclaimed, posing with a salute. "Now, today's lunch is a party!"
"With coffee, juice, and a sandwich?" Mizuiro asked.
"Shut up!" Keigo argued back, not noticing a small group of three other students approach him from behind. One of them caught his attention by kneeing him in the back. I inwardly cheered, finding his pain amusing. "Whoa?!" He exclaimed, "Oww! What are you…do-"
"Yo, Kurosaki." I twitched at the new guy's voice. He was trying to sound all tough and gangster like. It was horrible. Not to mention his hair was the same color as Kurosaki's; although I could tell that he had dyed his hair, whereas Kurosaki's was natural… Or so I think.
"O-Ooshima…!" Keigo stuttered, "They lifted your suspension…?"
"I'm not talking to you," Ooshima decided, throwing Keigo out of his way so he could get closer to Kurosaki. "Hey, Kurosaki? When are you gonna dye your hair? With that bleached hair and drooping eyes, you're copying me."
Gross. He just admitted to styling his hair like that on purpose. How would anyone find a bleached orange afro attractive? Besides, he was giving piercings a bad name. I almost wanted to take my own piercings out, not that I would just because of him.
"Shut up." Kurosaki growled, "How many times do I have to tell you, this is my natural color. And I ain't copying you. Do something about your own hair, you chicken head. Lay any eggs lately?"
"Chick…! You bastard!" Ooshima yelled, obviously angered.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Keigo spoke, shoving himself in-between Kurosaki and Ooshima, as if he was trying to block a fight from happening. "Let's not fight. Okay?"
"Get lost, Asano!" Ooshima ordered, "I'm gonna kick that idiot's ass!"
"Come on, let us go! We all know how strong you are! We can't beat you, Ooshima!" Keigo said, trying to sweet talk his way out of this.
"Don't be stupid," Kurosaki stated, standing up and crossing his arms. "I'm a thousand times stronger than that baby chicken."
"Ichigo! I'm trying to stop this!" Keigo cried out, tears spilling out of his eyes as he tried to hold Ooshima back.
"Heh, as I thought." Ooshima said, backing away from Keigo. He then stuck his hands into the inside of his shirt, "I knew one day I'd have to settle things with you for good. This is perfect; right here, right now. I'm gonna kick your arse!" He exclaimed, withdrawing his hand. He was wearing a pair of brass knuckles.
"B-Brass knuckles?!" Keigo asked, petrified. "Wait, Ooshima!"
Kurosaki and Mizuiro were just standing there with dumbfounded looks on their faces, probably like the look on my face. I couldn't believe that he just said 'kick your arse' without anybody making fun of that. I looked over towards Rukia and saw that she wasn't paying a bit of attention either; she was still trying to figure out how to drink from her juice box..!
"Hehe, it's too late to apolo…" Ooshima was then grabbed by his hand, and thrown through the air. "…gize?!"
Ooshima landed meters away, and even then he began to skid the rest of the way across the roof. His two lackeys took off and followed him, crying out his name.
"Chad!" Keigo exclaimed, as the said teen [although he looked more like an adult than the rest of us] raised a bandaged hand in greeting. "Be more careful, you could've killed Ooshima! You did save us, though."
"Mm." Chad hummed; he wasn't one that was big on words.
"You're….injured?" Kurosaki asked, eyeing the bandages wrapped around his friends hand and a Band-Aid on his tanned cheek. "What happened?"
"…My head…" He spoke, pausing to point at his head, "From yesterday. A steel beam fell from above."
"Steel beam?!" All of us chorused together, eyes wide.
"My hand and stuff is from when I went to buy bread… I collided with a motorcycle."
"What the hell are you doing?!" Kurosaki bellowed, eyes wide.
"And… The guy on the bike was seriously injured, so… I took him to the hospital…" Chad explained.
"S-So, that's why you were late." Keigo stated, sweat dropping.
"What kind of body do you have there?" Kurosaki muttered, "Damn iron body…"
I couldn't help but gaze up at Chad in wonder. He was abnormally huge. But he wasn't fat by any means. No, it was all muscle. He towered over me by a couple of feet, easily.
Chad went to sit down with our group, but he first removed whatever was behind his shoulder. I only noticed the strap when he first appeared, and took it as a backpack or something. However, when he took it off of his shoulder and sat it down, we all came eye to eye with a birdcage.
"Oh? What's with the bird?" Keigo asked, as he put his hands on his knees and bent down to get a better look at it.
The cage was close to my eye level, so I immediately got a good look at it. I smiled at the bird; I could easily recognize it because one of my foster parents had one when I was younger. "Ah, it's a parakeet!"
"Hello! My name is Shibata Yuuichi! What are your names?" The parakeet asked, perfectly. It almost sounded like a human speaking; it didn't sound like a bird at all. Kurosaki instantly tensed up, looking at the bird with edgy eyes. He obviously could sense the spirit within the bird.
"Oh! Wow, he speaks so well!" Keigo complimented. "My name is Asano Keigo! Say it? Asano?"
"Chad, where'd you get that parakeet?" Kurosaki asked as Keigo talked to the bird; who was making fun of him. You know it's sad when you get mocked by a bird.
Chad raised a finger, implying that he was going to say something important. "…Yesterday…" He paused for a bit, "…I got it."
"Hey!" Keigo yelled, dramatically pointing at the man made of iron. "You quit the explanation because it was too much work, didn't you?! That's a bad habit! Tell us!"
"I…I did not."
"Yes, you did!"
While the little argument was going on, Kurosaki was still tensely staring at the small parakeet.
"Don't worry." Rukia advised Kurosaki, "Something is inside of it, but it's nothing evil."
"Yeah, it's probably nothing more than a lonely soul." I added, nodding my head as I smiled towards the parakeet.
"Though it could become a Hollow if left alone." Rukia further explained. "It would be wise to perform a Konso [send to the Soul Society] tonight."
"Roger," Kurosaki replied, taking a sip from his juice box. "There goes more of my sleeping time."
"No complaining..!" Rukia scolded him like a mother would a child.
I was actually surprised that Kurosaki had noticed the spirit inside of the bird. Then he immediately started worrying about what would happen if the spirit changed into a Hollow. He seems to be taking the Shinigami job more seriously than I thought he would. He even accepted it better than I did when I was younger. Kurosaki does seem to be acting very mature about this whole situation… Much more mature than the way I handled it when I was younger.
"Come on, Jun. It's time to go back to class!" Rukia said with a smile, as she offered me a hand up.
"Yeah, okay." I nodded, grabbing her hand and accepting her help up. It was nice to be surrounded by people that I could call friends. Rukia reminded me that I wasn't going to be alone anymore, not ever again. I would protect those that I held dear to me with all that I had. That was my goal as a Shinigami.
And these fellow humans… they were growing on me.