-Wonderweiss's translated speech will be in Italics, unless unable to be translated, it will remain untouched; there may be times when his speech is fine.
-all thoughts for all characters will be as such: "{abc}"
Chapter 26:
A Christmas to Remember
It's finally X-mas Eve. All the schools in Karakura Town got Winter Vacation, and won't be starting up till the second week of January; that includes Karakura High. Though, we didn't get away so lucky; me, Ichigo, and the others were buried in homework up till now, and were incredibly scrwed on trying to find gifts. Ichigo said to buy gifts for those I'm closest to, so I chose: Tosen (of course), Ichigo and his friends, Jushiro, and Shunsui. We actually got an invite in the mail that was addressed me me, Ichigo, Grimmjow, D-Roy, Rukia, and Kaien that read:
Yo Ichigo, Weissy, Grimmjow, D-Roy, Kaien, Rukia,
You guys are invited to the Christmas Party of Awesomeness! There will be all kinds of drinks and food, and even music!
If you have bought gifts for people, we will be exchanging those as well; I made sure to get one hell of a tree...with help, anyway.
It will be held within the Karakura Ball Place, in Ball Room C.
It will start at 6pm on December 24.
Ending time is whenever you wanna leave the next day (after we have exchanged gifts of course).
Dinner will start around 6pm, so be sure to arrive early.
Hope to see you all there!
Signed,
Luppi Antenor
Here's the other problem; Isshin slipped on letting us know we got an invite until now, and it's currently 3pm! That means we have less than three hours to try and get gifts! With that in mind, we all grab our coats and rush to Karakura Mall...and this place is ungodly packed! I have no idea where exactly to go.
"Okay gang, we're going to split into groups of 3. Grimmjow, I know you've come here on your own before, so you take D-Roy and Kaien. I'll take Rukia and Wonderweiss." Ichigo says.
"Got it. The number one rule: no getting lost." Grimmjow agrees.
"We'll meet back here by 5:30, no later than that. The fountain here will serve as a rendezvous point. If one person finishes early, report to the fountain. Try not to get everything in one store." Rukia says.
D-Roy looks around and says, "It looks like this whole place is holding these 'sale' things."
"That means the merchandise will be cheaper than normal. That makes it lucky for us." Ichigo says.
"Then that's a good thing! We shouldn't be spending too much." Kaien says.
"What are we waiting for!" I cry out getting excited.
"Weissy's right. Let's get moving!" Ichigo says.
We then split up, searching for the right stores to go to. Rukia instantly points out a Spencer's Store. Ichigo asks why on Earth she'd want to go in there, and she replies she wants to get an evil joke gift for someone. With not much choice, we head inside anyway, and we quickly spot Tesla here. Rukia continues to look around while Ichigo and I talk to Tesla.
"This is the last place I'd expect you to be in, Tesla." Ichigo says.
"I did want to get Nnoitra-sama a gift, and I tried all the other stores here, but this one seems to be the only place where I can find something he likes." Tesla replies.
"No joke there, huh?" Ichigo asks.
"...I'm really starting to hate this place..." I say, becoming very uncomfortable of the content here.
"Looks like Wonderweiss isn't liking this store. I don't blame him." Tesla says.
"Same here. Oh hey, I was thinking of getting something for Szayel to thank him for figuring out Weissy's past, and for getting Shirosaki and Extinguir to talk to each other." Ichigo mentions.
"That's easy. Besides the adult content here, they actually have things here Szayel will like. I saw one of those static machines and those oil tube things." Tesla replies.
"Great! Wonderweiss, you should get him something too." Ichigo says.
"I need to get going. You guys going to Luppi's party tonight?" Tesla asks.
"Yeah; we're here to do some quick shopping since we got busy with homework." Ichigo answers.
"Good luck. See you there!" Tesla says as he exits the store.
"Later!" Ichigo and I call.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the mall, Grimmjow, D-Roy, and Kaien are in a Hot Topic store. Grimmjow was trying to keep himself from laughing as he gets an idea to buy Ulquiorra nail polish for a joke. D-Roy gets evil himself and suggests a pink skirt. Kaien was more focused on the various Gir shirts that he thought the girls would like; some had Gir shouting "cupcakes" or "tacos", or had phrases like "I miss my cupcake" or had the lyrics to the "Doom Song". As Grimmjow and D-Roy were going back and forth on ideas for a joke gift for Ulquiorra, Stark strolls in, and approaches the guys.
"What are you two doing?" Stark asks.
"Uhhh...nothing?" D-Roy replies, trying to hide the real answer.
"You'll see tomorrow morning after the party's over." Grimmjow replies with a sadistic smile.
"I see." Stark says.
"You looking for gifts too?" D-Roy asks.
"Yeah. I forgot to get one for Lilynette...only I have no clue what to get her. She told me about this store, so I figured I come here." Stark answers.
"Kaien's looking at Gir szhirts to get the girls. They're actually pretty cheap." D-Roy says.
"They have pants here for women too. Chances are she wants clothes, right?" Grimmjow says.
"Like you wouldn't believe." Stark replies.
About an hour had gone by. Ichigo, Rukia, and I got most of our people to shop for complete; I just had Orihime left on mine, Rukia has Kaien remaining, and Ichigo wanted to get something for Nel (oh, he so likes her). We had checked out various jewelry kiosks, where I eventually found one of those glass pendants for Orihime; it had some kind of flowery design inside it. Rukia soon found a nice watch for Kaien at one of the kiosks, and it was a nice watch, too. When Ichigo couldn't find anything, we checked out the jewelry stores. Rukia kept teasing him about getting her a ring...before he could do anything to retaliate, I grabbed the back of Rukia's shirt and dragged her out the Belden Jewlers store. Ichigo was able to freely look at what the place had to offer, soon looking discouraged, he spots something he thinks Nel would like.
Ichigo spotted a turquoise Taraus pendant with a white topaz gemstone in the middle of it (I did research in the Las Noches databanks...Nel was born April 24). He asks one of the employees to see it, and the employee takes it out so Ichigo can look at it. It apparently comes with the choice of a gold necklace or a white gold one. After examining the pendant, Ichigo chooses the gold one. The employee smiles saying it's a good choice, and asks Ichigo if he wants it. Before Ichigo could agree, an old lady soon calls out that she wants it.
"Oh yeah, what for?" Ichigo challenges.
He could hear Shirosaki say, "Ichigo, amigo, you may wanna back down...she's creeping even me out!"
"I want it for my daughter; she's a taurus." the old lady replies.
The employee whispers to Ichigo, "I know that old hag. We all call her 'Stubborn Mule' since she argues for an item only she wants, and is very hard to get rid of. So far, she's taken at least 20 things from us that's usually the last one in stock. Believe me when I say this...she wants what you just picked out for herself."
"So, gimme the necklace, young man." Stubborn Mule demands.
"No way. I'm getting this for someone myself." Ichigo argues.
"Hmph, how cruel, denying an elder woman something of value." Stubborn Mule plays.
The employee then says, "Oh, I almost forgot! She never had any kids."
"Look 'Stubborn Mule', I'm trying to get this for a girl I like, got it? You're not going to get this from me!" Ichigo says.
"Oh really? I feel sorry for her." Stubborn Mule says.
...Oh crap!
Ichigo nearly explodes saying, "DO I LOOK LIKE CHICKEN GEORGE TO YOU? I said I'm getting this for my girlfriend, dammit! Not to mention, you don't have any kids! You're worse than Scrooge, you old hag! Now go the f*ck home before I call the damn Mall Security to escort your old ass outta here!"
The whole mall nearly goes quiet, having heard Ichigo stand up to Stubborn Mule. The old lady looks at him in shock. Ichigo keeps a serious look on his face. The old lady then relaxes her face and sighs. Ichigo had clearly won.
She says, "You're the first one to stand up to me like that. Okay, the nacklace is yours, young man."
The old lady leaves the store as Ichigo gains a surprised look on his face, amazed at what he just said. Everyone pretty much cheers for him, amazed that he was able to keep his gift for Nel. Apparently, not many people are able to stand up to her. The employees at Belden congratulate Ichigo, offering to give him the necklace for free. Although happy to hear that, he decides to pay for it anyway, saying he'd feel better of he paid for it. It's placed in a small jewelry box, which gets placed in a gift box, and is wrapped in gold wrapping, and gets a white bow placed on it, with a tag with the words "To:" and "From:". Ichigo pulls out his pen, signs the names, and leaves the store.
It's 5 minutes to 5:30pm. Ichigo, Rukia, and I are by the fountain. We had bought wrapping paper, tags, and bows on the way, in order to wrap everything up. Pretty soon, Grimmjow, D-Roy, and Kaien show up. Whatever they got for who, they wrap up their gifts with the leftover wrapping paper we have. Grimmjow asks about the yelling they heard earlier. Rukia replies saying Ichigo stood up to a stubborn old woman who wantede the necklace Ichigo picked out for Nel. Grimmjow wasn't sure on whether to congratulate Ichigo or not, as the situation confused him. Once everything was settled, we went back to Ichigo's real quick to drop off the gifts we had gotten for his sisters and his dad, and we bolted out the house in order to get to the Karakura Ball Place.
Once there, we followed the signs that read "Christmas Party of Awesomeness"...and apparently Luppi drew himself as a chibi in a santa outfit. We soon come to two large doors which Grimmjow and Ichigo open, and found everyone else had arrived, including all the squads from Soul Society, who were more than shocked to see Kaien. Retsu had to quickly explain the situation to them, and most of them understood; Yamamoto, of course, wasn't exactly pleased at this, but was more than glad to find out now.
"Oh man, if I knew you guys were coming, I would've gotten you all something." Ichigo says.
"Don't worry about it. The lot of us couldn't resist a get-together after all the stuff that went on." Komamura says.
"Not to mention, most of us kinda missed Wonderweiss running around the Seireitei. All we ever get for visitors are Hollows." Renji says.
"We actually got Captain Yamamoto to agree to come with us." Ikkaku says.
"It was more of a push to get Byakuya to come." Kenpachi says, looking over at him.
"Somebody has to keep an eye on you, Zaraki." Byakuya says.
"Enough with all the talking, let's eat!" Yachiru says.
"She's right. Okay everyone, pick a seat! There's plenty of food and drinks to go around!" Luppi announces.
As everyone finds a place to sit, Dondochakka asks, "How did you afford all this, Luppi?"
"Yeah, all this stuff looks really expensive!" Pesche says.
"Don't worry about that. All I can say is, I wanna see all this food gone by the end of the night. And if there's anything remaining, I have containers so you can take it home." Luppi replies.
"In that case, somebody save me some of that smoked ham." Uryuu says.
"That's if I don't eat it all." Vega says.
Luppi had all kinds of food lying on the table: turkeys, hams, corn, rice, squash, yams, biscuits...all kinds of stuff! For drinks, there's apple cider/juice, wines, eggnog (bleh), water, and other kinds. After dinner, it was time for deserts...I was drooling as soon as I saw the large cake with the creme frosting, and the smell of the pies was adding into the equation. After that, and after everyone was mostly settled, Luppi turns on the music. One could tell by listening to it that someone had turned it into a dance remix version. While some danced, others talked or played games that this room was hiding, one of them being Twister. I did not partake in twister, instead, I played Sorry with Jushiro and Shunsui. The later it got, the wierder things became. Quite a few got pretty damn drunk, and one could tell when they passed out and hit the floor; Grimmjow was first to hit the floor. Me and a few others seemed to be the only ones not drunk. I think Luppi prepared for people to pass out whether it's from being drunk, or just plain tired; he announced he rented out the second floor that contained regular hotel rooms, which some had gone to. I saw one couple head up there: Gin and Matsumoto. For some reason, a red flag went up in my head.
Pretty soon, most of those who came had went up to the second floor to sleep. I had fallen asleep on the pile of coats on the floor. Tosen was able to remain awake, along with Toshiro, Luppi, and Arturo. Toshiro decides he'd follow Tosen to the second floor since he said his vision was started to get blurry from being up for so long; he had also stated it was 3:40am. They head for an elevator, where it opens up upon pressing the up button, and they head inside. Toshiro pushes the 2 button.
"Man, I can't believe I've made it this far." Toshiro says, leaning against the back wall.
"Same here." Tosen says.
Meanwhile in the ball room, Luppi and Arturo are busy cleaning up most of the mess, placing some left over food in containers and marking them. During the clean-up, Arturo mentions something that surprises even Luppi.
"You know what's strange? I saw Kaien leave the room with Halibel." Arturo says.
Luppi drops a plate with some mashed poptatoes left on it and says, "Nuh-uh! No friggin' way man! You serious?"
"I'm not joking. I even saw Ichigo leave with Neliel." Arturo replies tossing a plastic fork in the trash bag.
"About time! I knew those two really liked each other! But Kaien and Halibel? Why does that still confuse me?" Luppi says, picking up the dropped plate.
"Possibly because those two are an unlikely pair?"
"Maybe. I wish I got lucky."
"I'm sure you will at some point."
Luppi kind of growls at that as he gets some paper towels to clean up the mashed potatoes on the floor.
As he's doing that, Arturo says, "I saw Vega exit with Soifon as well."
"OH COME ON!" Luppi shouts.
The next morning, Yachiru and I are the first ones up. While she heads to the ball room, I try to figure out who's in what room. That came to a fast end after I heard something breaks in one of the rooms. I dash downstairs and head into the ballroom where breakfast items were prepared. Luppi is here, wearing a santa hat, drinking some coffee. I look around to see what's available. I spot a blueberry muffin and grab it as if it was the only one left. Soon, Ulquiorra enters the room, rubbing an eye and looking around for coffee. Moments later, Cirucci enters, saying how well she slept. A littlw while later, the room is filled once again, but two people are missing: Nel and Ichigo. Pesche and Dondochakka decide to go look, and come running in the room moments later, freaking out.
"Guys! Easy! Now calm down and tell us what's wrong." Uryuu says.
"Hand me my milk first!" Pesche says.
Chad hands Pesche the milk, and Pesche takes a few sips. Once calm he says, "Let's see, how should I put this? Um..."
"Pesche and I opened the door once we found it was unlocked." Dondonchakka says.
"Yes, yes. And uh, we poked our heads inside and...well...we found Nel and Ichigo in the same bed together." Pesche finshes.
A whole lot of gasps and "woos" filled the air. That's when Dondonchakka faints from the shock. Pesche takes another sip of his milk before he faints, actually able to make it funny by getting all the milk all over Uryuu.
"I think NOW we can call Ichigo a man." Nnoitra jokes.
"Alright people, let's try to keep this little piece of news to ourselves, okay? We can't let those two know that we know." Luppi says.
"Oh please, there's at least a few of us that got layd last night." Gin says.
"We can tell you're one of them." Tosen says.
Meanwhile, in Ichigo's Inner World, Shirosaki sits up rubbing his head.
"Oh man...what happened last night?" he asks.
"I can tell you." someone speaks.
Shirosaki looks over and sees Extinguir.
"What the?" Shirosaki freaks.
"Easy. Ever since our little discussion, we gained access to each other's worlds. I decided to come and check on you." Extinguir says.
"...Oookaayy then. Do you know what happened?"
"Yup. Wonderweiss was watching before he fell asleep. Ichigo and Nel left with each other last night, and both were quite drunk. It apparently affected you as well. I came by last night and found you asleep with red cheeks."
"Well, at least I know Ichigo's a lightweight. But wait, he left with Nel?"
"Yes."
"So-so that means he-!"
"Oh yeah."
"...PAHAHAHAHAAA! He lost his virginity to the girl with the biggest breasts in all the world!"