Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite.
…
The Bodyguard
Mission 10
…
– The Principal –
Eight ambushers in all.
Were they the underlings or the hitmen of drug dealers, (and perhaps pimps) who held a grudge (for whatever reason) against him? Or perhaps fools who thought they could get some cash if they held him hostage? They certainly didn't seem like the usual run-of-the-mill type lackeys; these men were too subtle, too well trained. His eyes narrowed.
Was he really their target?
Mid-battle, Haru's eyes widened. Almost as if he had recognized one of the attackers.
Was Haru the target?
It was a possibility; most of the men were aiming for his bodyguard. But then again, when the attackers saw how strong Haru was, they usually tried to take him out first. He kicked an attacker and grabbed another by the collar and knocked him out. All the while, he studied Haru's movements out of the corner of his eye.
Usually, if they were lackeys with only the intent to abduct, Haru struck strong enough to knock them out, to haul them back and question them before they turned them in. If the attackers were hitmen, he matched them with killing intent in order to protect his principal.
But now, Haru's movements were slower, weaker, as if he were in shock. As if he was torn between silencing the men forever and letting them escape. So he followed suit and slowed his attacks enough to allow them to get away. Once they had gathered up their incapacitated and unconscious comrades and retreated, Haru stood there, shell-shocked.
"How did they find me?" Haru whispered in disbelief.
This was the first time after that incident that he had seen Haru so vulnerable. And it hurt him.
…
3 years ago
…
Their timetables changed to training, breakfast, academics, training, lunch, more training, more academics, and then dinner, after which they were blissfully free. Technically, at least. As long as the academics preceptors didn't pile homework on them.
All the third years were resentful that they had to train before their breakfast. As they went to the training ground, Ginjou yawned hugely. "Wh-why can't we be like the seniors in America?"
Karin found herself yawning in response. "Wh-what're American third years like?"
Mizuiro answered, "Oh, I've heard they finish their applications to universities the previous year so they can slack off all they like in senior year. They call it 'senioritis.'" He said 'senioritis' in very precise English.
"Well, all the people with this 'senioritis' can go shove their heads down a toilet." Renji said grumpily.
What 'training' referred to was one-on-one training with a preceptor, to be rotated every week as to get every student roughly acquainted with as many martial arts styles as possible. At the end of the week, they would take exams for how much they'd learned, and marks would be given depending on what level of proficiency, if any, they had reached.
Karin found that a month and a half of break had made her rather soft. So by the end of the three hours of being assigned to the Long Fist style had her drenched in her own sweat.
Breakfast brought them back to life a little, but they were immediately whisked off to academics, taught by none other than Ulquiorra Cifer himself.
"…I will start with mathematics."
Ulquiorra looked around at the students' faces, ranging from depressed to skeptical. "For those of you who don't know how to apply the previous mathematics you have learned in real life, by the end of this year, you will. Period." He said all this with an expressionless face and a monotonous voice to match… but Karin got a feeling that Ulquiorra was not someone to mess with.
"Then I will teach you discrete math."
Karin fought back a groan. She had dreaded discrete math – a very misleading name. Karin liked to think of it as terribly indiscrete – better yet, glaringly – difficult math. Ulquiorra's eyes flickered around, taking in the ashen faces around him. "Discrete math is necessary. Now; take notes on what I say – "
Resigned, Karin took out a notebook and began to take notes, trying hard to concentrate on the monotone voice droning on, and on, and on…
After the academics, which left them very drowsy (Keigo had the rings of his notebook printed on his face due to falling asleep on them), Karin had to train with the Long Fist preceptor once again.
The third years found out that they were forced to train under the searing heat the hard way. As the training went on, the hotter it got, until it was positively sweltering near the end.
Karin's uniform, which was a jumpsuit (with long pants, no less), stuck to her skin making her sweaty and sticky; not only that, but her cursed corset added to her misery. After training for three hours straight, she felt its weight; not only did it limit her mobility, it was also another padding around her torso, essentially baking her alive.
It was the same torture after lunch, and Karin swore that her face and arms were fried by the end of training.
"What's up with the weather this year? It wasn't like this last year…" Keigo complained.
Slumping on the nearest classroom chair, Ginjou grunted, "Again, climate change. The westerly winds are shifting – "
Ganju interrupted, "Okay okay, we get it."
" – resulting in extreme weather, basically annihilating the four seasons to two. No spring, no fall. Just summer and winter…"
Keigo likewise interrupted, "Yeah. This year, it's really hot… Definitely global warming. It's sweltering out there. Thank goodness for AC…"
"I swear, they gave us this schedule just to torture us. Training before, and after lunch? What the hell are they doing? Trying to make us throw up?"
"…Last year they didn't make us train under direct sunlight…"
Karin's forehead only rose from the desk when Preceptor Gin came into the classroom.
Gin glanced around, looking amused. "Well, well, we have quite the steamed bok choy here, don't we?"
'A little strange, but a very apt expression.' Karin thought wryly, seeing all the wilted students, very reminiscent of the boiled Chinese cabbage.
"Yep, you're stuck with me for one more year. I'll be teaching ya'll how to apply the discrete math Ulquiorra teaches ya." He motioned to a flat device that Karin hadn't noticed before, due to her exhaustion from her previous training session. When he opened it, Karin realized that it was a laptop. "As some o'ya probably already know, discrete math is required for programming… and hacking."
He suddenly snapped the laptop shut. "But until ya learn enough discrete math'matics for ya to actually utilize 'em, I'll just review the defensive tactics ya guys learned last year." His smile a bit sly as he added, "And maybe I'll teach ya some real battle tactics, like ambushing, raiding… But for today I'll dismiss ya, ya'll look bushed."
As the students filed out all too gladly, Karin chanced a glance at Gin. She caught him looking at her, and she quickly looked away.
After a long shower, Karin collapsed wearily on her bed. She tried to be cheerful. "At least I've finished Tsukabishi's crash course…"
But when Karin closed her eyes, the forced cheer succumbed to the darkness of the inside of her eyelids. Like always, in that darkness, Ikkaku came to mind. Opening her eyes, Karin opened a drawer in her bedside stand and she drew out the USB.
Karin turned the small item over and over in her hands. Clenching it in her fist, she curled up and went to sleep.
She slept so deeply that she didn't even stir when Renji sat down on her bed and wiped away a lone tear that trailed down her nose. Ever so softly, his lips brushed her cheek. "It'll be better soon." he whispered. Karin shifted slightly, and her lips curled up slightly, as if she were dreaming a good dream.
The next day, Karin woke up to her skin feeling like it had been savaged with a scrub brush. She kicked aside her blankets and went into the bathroom to get ready for classes. But she stopped and stared when she saw her positively crimson reflection.
"Gnaghhh!"
Alarmed, Renji awoke and rushed to the bathroom door and began to bang on it. "What! What is it?"
At Renji's voice, Karin hurriedly put her contacts in and pulled on her uniform, wincing whenever the clothing brushed against her red, raw and sunburned skin. And when she pulled the door open, Renji's fist came down to bang on the door again.
Instinctively, Karin turned her head just in time to avoid a blow to her nose. Her cheekbone was not so lucky.
Even after the first training period, Karin's cheekbone was still throbbing, and now swelling up into a green mountain. It was much like when she had first challenged Ginjou, even though it didn't hurt nearly as much. Nursing her swollen cheek over the breakfast table, Karin shot Renji a dirty look. "I appreciate your concern, but I'll thank you not to bang on the door too hard. Better yet, do me a favor and refrain from banging at all."
Renji hung his head.
After the next training period, Karin felt more sunburnt and sore than ever. Her cheek had jarred with every kick she had practiced with Long Fist style, she had gone to the infirmary for some pain relief. After taking a painkiller, she received an ice pack for her cheek (not without a scarily gentle smile from Nurse Unohana). Holding the ice pack to her cheek, she morosely picked at her chicken salad. Apparently, her peers felt the same.
Keigo groused, "I'm completamente brûlé…"
"You do realize that 'completamente' and 'brûlé' is a mix of Italian and French, therefore nullifying your point to mere babble…?" Luppi pointed out, though he sounded considerably less acrid than usual.
A very red Ginjou groaned, "What he means is that he feels like the homo sapiens equivalent of crème brûlé… Except not nearly as tasty…"
"Ugh, now I want crème brûlé." Ganju pressed his cheek against the comparatively cool table.
"Not me. Not in this hot weather. I'd prefer shaved ice." Mizuiro too looked uncharacteristically miserable, his face permanently flushed from the sunburn.
Shishigawara snapped, "Stop complaining! We're all completely burnt! Look at us! We look more lobster than human!" He motioned to the rest of the people at the table, all with utterly crimson skin.
"None of you have bruised cheekbones on top of sunburned skin. So shut it." Karin said sullenly.
"At least you've got an ice pack." Keigo pointed out, but quailed under Karin's wrathful expression.
That the third training of the second day took place inside the building was an immense relief; like last year, the firearms training began on the second day.
This year, they would learn how to shoot guns with longer ranges.
The preceptor had silvery-gray hair just as Preceptor Gin did, except his looked more rough, as if he'd dyed it. He stood behind various types of large guns, several of which Karin didn't recognize.
Karin frowned.
Had they manufactured new guns since she had entered The Academy?
The preceptor spoke, "I'm Muguruma Kensei. You may already know, but this year, you will move on to rifles, which obviously, have longer barrels than shotguns do."
He looked as bored as he sounded. "I trust you know the physics behind guns and bullets; Newton's laws, acceleration, etc. If not, then I suggest that you go to Tsukabishi and request that he tutor you." His voice gained a hint of irony. "I'm sure that he will be more than happy to comply."
Recalling the exuberance with which Tsukabishi Tessai had crammed a whole year's worth of lessons into her head in a mere month and half, Karin agreed wholeheartedly.
Preceptor Kensei turned his head to look around at the students that barely numbered twenty. Karin noticed that he had 3 piercings his left ear, not to mention his eyebrow piercing. 'Coupled with his hair, looks like we have ourselves a rogue preceptor.'
Kensei's pierced eyebrow twitched. "Tousen asked me to remind you that you will use these guns only to protect people. But face it, your principals will not all be saints." He made a typical shrugging motion. "In fact, most of the principals that you're hired to protect are not saints. They're either very famous… or they've made a hell of a lot of enemies to need your protection. If your principal goes willingly into danger and orders you to look out for him and snipe anyone, you will have to do it, if you want…" He rubbed the tips of his fingers together, "…the money."
Kensei motioned down at the various guns in front of him.
"We'll cover AK47s, Colt variants, and the M15 series… Including some illegal guns. But I won't tell if you don't."
He looked nonchalant as he said this, as if he were confident that no student would squeal. And of course, he was correct. No gunhead in his right mind would give up the chance to touch, much less shoot, illegal guns, which had been outlawed because they were considered so deadly.
"Let's see… what else will we cover in this class… we'll aim at moving targets." Then he added, "And of course, I'll oversee your swimming skills too."
At this, Karin gulped, and Renji cast her a sidelong glance.
Kensei clapped his hands. "Alright kids. Let's get started!"
Later that day, Karin vehemently stabbed her chopsticks into the cucumber-and-brown-rice sushi that had been oh-so-generously donated by the headmaster. As she shoved it into her mouth, Ginjou asked with weary awe, "Gee, Akimoto… How do you have enough energy to even be able to get angry?"
Karin tried to answer while partially swallowing the cucumber roll but choked. From across the table, Renji watched resentfully as Ginjou pounded her on the back to help her get it down. Drinking some water, Karin then properly articulated what she wanted to say. "Nothing."
Tearing off a strip of dehydrated (that is, dried) mango, Ginjou stared at her, skeptical. "Nothing? Is that what you wanted to say at the risk of inhaling your food? That can't be what's bothering you." He shrewdly said, "Tell me. It was the part about where Muguruma mentioned swimming, wasn't it?"
Karin almost jumped out of her skin. She looked at Ginjou, alarmed. "H, how did you – "
Ginjou scoffed. "Last May, remember? When we all got hammered? You screamed like a little girl when Renji mentioned swimming."
It took a second for Karin to recall her disastrous birthday 'party.'
"Oh, uh. Yeah." Had she made a big fuss about that? Everything before she blacked out was kind of hazy.
Ripping off another strip of mango, Ginjou said smugly, "Be honest, Akimoto. You don't know how to swim."
His smug tone bothered her. "Don't be an idiot. Of course I know how to swim!" Karin defended, but there was a tremor in her voice.
Ginjou grinned. "Then why is the mighty Akimoto so afraid?"
That stumped Karin, but not for long. She decided to be honest, at least, partially. She tried to look forlorn. "…I… want to try something new."
Raising a brow at her, Ginjou prompted, "…And this new thing you're trying…?"
Despite how lacking the sushi roll was, Karin popped another one in her mouth said, "Try swimming with my clothes on." Though she tried to say it lightly, the bruise on her cheekbone (not to mention the sushi in her mouth) belied that attempt.
At this declaration, all of her friends looked at her like she was an inmate fresh from an asylum, though it might have been because she had sprayed rice all over their food.
Tentatively, Keigo asked, "Uh, have you tried to swim with your clothes on?"
Taking into account her bruise this time and gingerly chewing on her third piece of sushi, Karin nodded.
Renji backed her up. "Yeah, he's been practicing all summer."
Rolling her eyes, Karin said, "Please, Abarai. Don't even try to suck up and make me forgive you for this morning's accident. I'll be a dog with a bone with that one for at least a week."
At that, Renji clammed up, causing their friends to snicker.
The week passed, and Karin finally let up on teasing Renji about the incident where he had accidently pounded on her cheekbone. However, Renji still couldn't forgive himself. Seeing her suitemate so depressed, Karin playfully slapped him on the back. "Relax, Renji. It's no biggie." She pointed towards her cheekbone, the swelling finally starting to go down, the bruise now fading to a lovely red-purple. "See, it's nearly healed."
Renji grinned weakly at her.
Karin frowned. "Don't do that." She hooked her thumbs at the corner of his mouth and yanked upwards.
Temporarily forgetting that she was Karin, Renji jumped up and yelled, "Ow! Wha' de hell wath tha' for?"
Karin firmly kept her thumbs at the corners of his mouth, pulling them even wider apart. "Smile for me. Don't just jerk a halfhearted grin. Show some teeth."
Finally getting her thumbs out of his mouth, Renji gagged. "Yuck... Fingers in my mouth…" He rubbed his cheeks, which were stretched and red.
Meanwhile, Karin looked disgustedly at her thumbs. "Oh yeah? What about my thumbs? They were in your mouth! They're practically coated with your saliva!"
"That was by your choice!"
They glared at each other, but after a moment, simultaneously burst out in laughter.
Later, at lunch, she casually seated herself on the other side of the table from Renji and motioned for Ginjou to come sit beside her. Ginjou grinned at her and set his tray beside hers. "Why dost the exalted Akimoto beckon to me?"
Failing to suppress an amused smile, Karin propped an elbow on the table. "Remind me when Renji's birthday is? It's on the last day of August, right?"
Shoveling a spoonful of clam chowder into his mouth, Ginjou nodded. After he had swallowed, "Why?" It dawned on him, and a smile spread across his face. "Ah. You wanna throw a party."
The smirk on Karin's face answered all of his questions.
From across the table, Renji noticed that Karin was smiling at what Ginjou said, followed shortly by laughter. He felt a stab of annoyance.
What was really happening was that Karin was asking where Ginjou obtained all his snacks.
"I bring some myself but mostly, I infiltrate the staff room to get them. I think they make it intentionally hard, because we have to be sneakily skilled."
"Skilled in sneakiness, you mean." Karin pointed out.
"Same difference." Ginjou returned to attacking his soup.
Karin pondered for a bit. "Hm. I guess we should raid the staff room then. We should keep track of the times when they're all out."
Waving his hand, Ginjou dismissed that comment. "Psh, I already got those times down."
Raising an eyebrow, Karin asked, "Oh? What times then?"
Ginjou looked around, checking if anybody was listening. He whispered. "Meet me at the staff room's back door at 11 o'clock."
Karin was taken aback. "Back door? I didn't even know there was a back door."
Ginjou clucked his tongue and shook his head with mock regret. "If you don't even know the back entrance to the staff room, then you don't deserve to go there… Too bad."
Indignant, Karin whispered heatedly, "Wait! Ginjou – "
But Ginjou had already engaged into a conversation with Shishigawara. Karin silently fumed.
Well, she'd just find out herself then.
Skipping her post-dinner combat practice, Karin snooped around the staff room. She carefully avoided the security cameras; it was like second nature to her.
But no matter how thoroughly she searched, Karin couldn't find this supposed 'back entrance' to the staff room. Had Ginjou led her on? He was, after all, a trickster.
After another futile ten minutes of looking at every nook and cranny, Karin gave up and sat down on the marble floor, leaning against the wall of the staff room, not caring that a security camera was staring straight at her.
When she was about to get up, she saw familiar shoes walk into her line of vision. Quickly, Karin looked up. "Gin…" Belatedly, she added, "Preceptor."
Gin actually chuckled. "You can drop the honorific when we're alone, you know."
Karin failed to notice that his dialect had faded.
He asked, "What were you looking for?" His grin turned catlike. "Oh~ you were looking for the back door, weren't you?"
She considered denying it, but she saw no point in making up such an obvious lie. Karin met his eyes steadily. "Yes, sir."
Beckoning for Karin to follow, Gin walked into a dead end. "Call me Gin." He stretched out an arm and pushed the wall of the dead end. "It's here." He gently pushed Karin in. "Go on."
Karin's mouth dropped open. It was a storage room filled purely with… snacks.
"The preceptors… have all this?"
Gin shrugged. "Well, it exists at the headmaster's command. But most of us don't eat it, so some might be over the expiration date… but if you look carefully, you'll find some tasty stuff." Reaching over, he grabbed a bag of shrimp chips. He opened it and snapped one between his teeth. "My favorite is shrimp chips." He offered Karin some.
Karin grinned and took one. She said, "They're my favorite too." She popped it into her mouth.
Gin smile gained some mirth. "That's something we have in common." He held out the bag with more emphasis. "Take as many as you want, Haru."
When she realized that Gin had left out the customary 'kun,' Karin almost dropped the handful of shrimp chips that she had been greedily taking from the bag. She stared up at Gin.
Stuffing the shrimp chips into her pocket (she couldn't well put it back in the bag or stuff them all in her mouth) she looked Gin straight in his open pale blue eyes. "Why… do you treat me differently…" she paused, hesitating. "…Gin?"
Yet again, Gin smiled the inscrutable smile at her.
"You're so dense… Haru." Gin leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Your secret is safe with me."
Straightening, he smiled and walked past a shell-shocked Karin.
That night, Karin lay awake in bed, trying to decipher Gin's words. It seemed that he wasn't speaking about his showing her the snack storage… he had looked too serious for that.
A terrible thought struck Karin.
Had he found out about her gender? Or worse, her true identity?
She rushed to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
Beyond her fading bruise, did she still look like Kurosaki Karin?
Individuals, nor the people surrounding them, couldn't judge whether their appearance had changed over time. Karin could sneak into Renji's room and compare one of her old pictures to herself now. Yes.
Silently entering Renji's room, she carefully picked up a magazine that had a picture of her on it, back when she had just turned 14.
She had bangs back then. Her hair in general, had been long before Karin sheared it all off in the privacy of her bathroom. Looking back and forth from the picture to the mirror, Karin saw that she had become significantly tanner with rougher skin. Her eyes looked smaller, due to her lack of eyeliner. Her face was thinner; she had lost some of her baby fat (more like she no longer had any fat on her body as she had exercised it all off). Her body was more muscular and tall.
Yes, she looked significantly different from her 14-year-old self, Karin decided.
She made to put the magazine back until she spotted an article written by Honshou Chizuru, one of her brother's high school classmates. Since Chizuru had interacted directly with a Kurosaki, she tended to write close to the truth.
It was an article about her, portraying the relationship between her and her older brother.
'Kurosaki Karin always called her older brother, Kurosaki Ichigo, 'Ichi-nii.' Just by that, one could tell how close she was to her brother. As Kurosaki Ichigo's classmate in tenth grade, I have seen Ichigo even rush out of class when he heard that Karin was ill. When I asked him about it later, his excuse was 'Karin never complains, so other people don't know when she's in pain… but if she's sick to the point where others noticed…' he trailed off right there, but one can guess what he would have said next. And this was from the lips of Kurosaki Ichigo, renown to never speak of family affairs, even as the designated heir of Kurosaki Armament. Even now, when his younger sister has disappeared, he does not speak about his younger sister. Could it be that even he has no idea as to what has happened to Kurosaki Karin?' Article written by Honshou Chizuru.'
Karin closed the magazine and carefully placed it back in Renji's room.
Truthfully, she had known that Ichigo had suspected that something was up with her; it hurt her to admit it, but she had intentionally not told her siblings. Especially Ichigo. She knew that Ichigo wouldn't tell, but if she had told him, she would have weakened too much. There would be too many ties to her old life. Ikkaku was enough.
And even that connection had cost Ikkaku a terrible price.
Karin crawled back into her bed, unable to sleep for the longest time.
In the end, Karin didn't say a word to Ginjou about what had transpired when she was searching for the snack room. So Ginjou just assumed she had failed to find it.
Truth was, Karin just didn't dare to go back.
So when Renji's birthday rolled around, it was Ginjou who provided all the snacks and the orange juice.
"Sorry mate, but I gotta save the holy water for the end of the year, where we finally leave this hellpit."
Something shifted in Karin's mind. 'Leave this hellpit.' Where had she heard that phrase before?
Blue eyes flashed into her mind.
"I was never good at remembering faces. And frankly, I couldn't care less. I'm leaving this hellpit soon anyway."
"Ah~ so he was your suitemate, eh." Karin mused. The one who had informed her that her contact lenses were keeping her from shooting accurately.
The one who made quick work of her in the final exam.
The heir of Ammo Co.
Smirking at the thought, Karin turned her mind to other things and toasted to Renji's 'health' with the orange juice.
"To Abarai Renji, my 'suitie,' now eighteen!"
The other boys chorused along the same lines, and Ganju fruitlessly attempted to punch Renji in the arm 18 times.
Karin sipped her orange juice without tasting it; she was gazing at the bag of shrimp chips before her. She had sampled every other snack, deliberately leaving the shrimp chips last, to decide whether to… heed Gin or not.
But now, she knew she wouldn't.
No.
She couldn't.
Sighing, Karin's hand went to the Tostitos. She would have to find a new favorite snack.
But her hand swerved back to the shrimp chips once again. As Karin crunched happily away at her still-favorite chips, she promised herself, 'After I've found out what exactly Gin knows about me, that is.'
…
A/N: Enormouth thwanks to MissJudged oneth again.
As the manga develops Ginjou's character… I'm realizing that the Ginjou in this story is getting more and more OOC…