A/N: This chapter has been gathering dust, so I decided to post what I had eventhough the usual amount of words was not reached.
Chapter 12
"Tomorrow?! How the hell are we supposed to prepare for the arrival of guests in one day?!", Ichigo yelled at Kisuke and slammed his hands on the office desk.
Kisuke, however, simply stood there unfazed behind the desk. His fan was covering the lower half of his face making it hard to see any reaction from him.
"Quiet Ichigo", Rukia commanded and pulled him away from the table, "It's not like we need to house every one of them. Additionally, it's only for a couple of days, that is, until the rest of the guest rooms are cleared out."
"Why aren't the dormitory rooms free already?", Uryuu asked.
"The rooms were scheduled to be renovated during the break, but there were delays in the paper work. I can't say that I'm too happy with the arrangement either", Kisuke replied and slapped the fan shut on his palm.
He wore a grim smile on his face which faded quickly.
"You will be the student's guide and make sure that no troubles occur until the rooms are free", Yoruichi instructed.
"I have already taken the liberty of contacting your parents and asking for their permission", Kisuke smiled sweetly.
Ichigo started fuming again:
"That sly bastard. I'll wring his neck for sure one day."
"Here are short profiles of each student you will be taking care of", Yoruichi handed each student a brown envelope.
Ichigo opened his envelope and he could see that the person he would take care of had black hair. He pulled out the content and suddenly yelled:
"Why the hell is Rukia in this envelope?!"
"I am not in your envelope, I am right beside you. And why, may I ask, does my envelope tell me that a group of people will be staying in my house?", Rukia asked with a strained smile.
If one looked closely, one might see fine lines of veins throbbing on Rukia's forehead. Her anger was just barely contained but she masked it.
"Well…", Kisuke drawled, "The thing is that there weren't enough people to house the guests, so since our dear Rukia lives next to Ichigo, I asked your guardians whether we could arrange something and thus: it happened."
It was quiet in the room for a moment. Ichigo looked like he was going to explode and for some reason the others couldn't understand, they felt a chilling sensation when they glanced at Rukia's smile. Suddenly Uryuu spoke up:
"Excuse me, why is my envelope empty?"
"Mmm, mine is also empty", Chad commented.
"Oh! I have someone", Orihime exclaimed, "Let's see… Her name is Nelliel Tu Odel…hmm…Odelshwan? Odelshwak? Is that how you say it? No, Odelschwanck? Hmm… It's a child?!"
"Yes", Yoruichi answered, "I hope you are familiar with the side effects of making a contract. She may look like that, but she is older than you. We have split up Rukia's house, but for the female's room, only two could fit."
"Oh well, I don't mind", Orihime replied with a smile, "Since I live alone, it will be fun having someone at home for a while again."
As the students filed out of the room, Kisuke called over to Ichigo who was the last to leave the room:
"Ichigo, since you are Rukia's neighbor, don't forget to help her pack!"
"Yeah, yeah", Ichigo grumbled resentfully and closed the door behind him.
"These kids are quite fun, right?", Kisuke chuckled as he sat down.
Yoruichi collected the envelopes left behind that contained the blank paper.
"This was so typical of you", she answered with a slight shake of the head.
"Don't talk as if you weren't suppressing you snicker", Kisuke grinned.
####
Ichigo's eyes followed the small bus as it stopped in front of the school gate. The door swished opened and eight people stepped out, six students and two teachers. Although Ichigo wasn't too sure if the second teacher was actually a teacher at all due to her short height, but considering the side effects of contracts, Ichigo wasn't too surprised. The students wore white uniforms outlined with black, which Ichigo thought of as slightly strange. Even the teachers' attire was mainly white.
"Did their principal have a fetish for white? Those uniforms look like a mix of a suit and baggy pants…", Ichigo did not try to deliberate further on the topic.
As the last student stepped out, Ichigo heard a gasp coming from Orihime beside him. Curious Ichigo glanced at his friend and saw her rather confused expression. However her face cleared up. Ichigo turned again to see the reason. She seemed to be staring at a stoic faced, black haired boy. Ichigo felt that the boy had a rather depressing feel to him. Abruptly Orihime called out:
"Ulquiorra!"
Ichigo saw the black haired boy notice Orihime and widen his eyes.
"Orihime?", Ulquiorra said as he started walking towards Orihime, who also stepped out as well.
"They know each other?", Ichigo thought as he raised his eyebrow.
Suddenly Orihime dashed and hugged Ulquiorra, an action that surprised everyone, but when the boy hugged back, his teammates made loud gasps of surprise and disbelief. Ichigo could have sworn that he saw a small smile on the stoic boy's face.
"Ulquiorra…that Ulquiorra just hugged a girl?!", a tall scrawny boy with long black hair exclaimed with a horrified expression of disbelief.
"Oh shut up Nnoitra!", a blue haired youth smacked the other's head.
"Don't act as if you weren't surprised Grimmjow! It's Ulquiorra, damn it! The guy who practically is an emo!"
"Is that what you always thought of me?"
Nnoitra froze.
"Ahaha! Did I say something like that? That's not possible you know?"
"…"
"…"
Noitra inched his way behind Grimmjow while Ulquiorra stared for a little while more. When he finally turned his attention back to his female company, Noitra heaved a relieved sigh.
Somewhere behind them a blond haired dark-skinned girl stared blankly at the group and a pink haired boy shook his head in exasperation.
"Why do some of them have those weird hair colours? Did they dye them or is it another effect of the contracts? And pink hair? You gotta be kidding me! Luckily none of us have that", Ichigo shuddered as he imagined Chad or Uryuu having pink hair.
As the groups were divided, Rukia confidently stepped forward.
"Welcome to Karakura Academy!", she started, "We are students here and are your guides as well. My name is Rukia Kuchiki."
Rukia pointed at herself and her hand wandered to each person whose name she called out.
"This is Ichigo Kurosaki, Uryuu Ishida, Yasutora 'Chad' Sado, and Orihime Inoue."
"Ah, thank you for picking us up", a young man walked over and a girl trailed after him while skipping.
His brown hair wavy hair nearly reached his shoulders and his blue-gray eyes seemed lacked motivation. As to contrast him, the seemingly young girl was grinning and her eyes were lively.
"I am the supervising teacher for this school. My name is Coyote Starrk and this is my assistant Lilynette Gingerbuck", the man introduced himself and called out the members of his group, "Come and introduce yourselves."
The first to announce his name was the blue haired guy.
"Name's Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez."
"Tier Harribel", the dark-skinned girl said.
"I'm Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck", a green haired girl was next.
"Ulquiorra Cifer", the youth had separated from Orihime and returned.
"My name's Nnoitra Gilga", the one-eyed black haired boy said.
"I am Szayelaporro Granz", the pink haired guy introduced himself last.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance", Rukia gave a slight bow and indicated towards the school building, "Please follow us."
####
A group of thirteen people sat in a meeting room that was usually used by the student council. However they had been given permission to use it to receive the guests.
"As you can see, due to unforeseen circumstances, plans have been rearranged to fit the needs. However this matter should be cleared up soon and we hope for your cooperation in this", Rukia ended her explanation.
"This should not be too much of a bother to us, I guess", Lilynette the assistant spoke and she glanced around the room for objections but everyone seemed to agree.
"Then this should be settled", Coyote finalized.
"Would you like us to show you around the school then?", Rukia suggested.
Coyote nodded and Rukia stood up.
"Then we will split into two groups. Ichigo and I will take half and you three take the other. We'll start from the cafeteria and you'll start at the practise fields, ok?", Rukia instructed the Karakura group before she turned to the guests again, "How would you like to split?"
"Any suggestions?", Coyote asked.
"Grimmjow, Nelliel, Szayelaporro, and Coyote should go to the cafeteria and the rest will set off for the practise fields", Lilynette arbitrarily decided and no one objected.
"Then let's go", Rukia motioned for every to go.
Ichigo who didn't say anything the whole time thought about how Rukia pretty much handled everything.
"She is amazing in a way. Isn't she supposed to be the new student?"
"Say Rukia… "
"What?"
"…Nothing."
