Chapter Thirty-Five
A young, portly boy with short black hair and the appearance of a ten year old by the name of Daichi stood outside of the gate to a noble family's abode.
"How are we supposed to get in there?" He inquired of the kids he was around, all of the same age.
A young Saiko looked up and down the length of the gate. "There, that tree, we can climb over it and drop down the other side."
"But how do we get back?" A thinner, black haired boy by the name of Hansuke asked. Looking at his friend.
"That looks too dangerous," A young Yasu muttered shyly. "How do you know they won't notice a bunch of kids climbing up their tree?"
"Don't be stupid, the tree's covered in blossoms," Yasu's friend, Masashi said, pushing some of his dark brown hair out of his eyes. "They won't see a thing." He ran over to the tree.
"What if you fall out and get hurt?" Yasu cried. "Masa! Wait!"
"You just have to be fast enough not to be seen." Saiko declared, hurrying up the tree.
Daichi kept jumping up and down, trying to reach for the lowest branch. "I can't get to it!" He cried. "Help!"
"You're too fat, Daichi, go home." Hansuke shouted down to him.
Saiko smacked Hansuke on the back of the head. "Get down there and give him a leg up!"
Hansuke grumbled and jumped down, attempting to push Daichi up the tree trunk.
Masashi dangled upside down from the tree and held a hand out to Yasu. "Come on, don't be such a wimp, I'll protect you." He said.
"You couldn't protect a fly." Yasu said, shaking her head quickly.
"How do you protect a fly?" Masashi asked, furrowing his brow.
"Hansuke, what are you doing down there?" Saiko demanded.
"Helping like you told me too!" Hansuke cried.
Masashi grabbed Yasu's hand and pulled her up into the tree. She began to scream but quickly had her mouth covered.
"Quiet, you're going to get us caught!"
"Get offa me! It's no use... I can't get up there." Daichi whined.
Hansuke stopped pushing him. "Maybe you should go run a couple laps around the house, then we'll try again.
Daichi glared at his friend.
"Get going, fat-ass!" Hansuke said, climbing back up the tree.
"Sorry, Daichi, but you would compromise the mission," Saiko said sadly, shaking her head at her friend.
Yasu watched Saiko wearily. "Girls shouldn't be so tough," She said to Masashi.
"Yeah, maybe they are from her side of town?" He asked, frowning at the group of three strangers. "I'll show her what a real man is like." He clambered over Saiko and did a black flip out of the tree.
"Masa, wait!" Yasu gasped, holding tightly onto the branch.
"Hey, showoff!" Hansuke called down to Masashi. "You're going to get us all caught!"
"So is your yelling." Saiko stated. "Now get down there."
Hansuke looked wearily down at the ground. "No, no... That's okay. I'll stay up here."
Saiko kicked Hansuke in the back, sending him rocketing out of the tree. "I said get down there!" She cried before jumping down after him.
Yasu carefully climbed over the fence on the branch and looked down at the ground below, terrified. "It's so far..."
"I'll catch you, just jump." Masashi promised.
Yasu shook her head. "I don't want to get hurt." She said, looking at Saiko who was brushing herself off, perfectly unharmed from her jump.
"Fine, if you want to be such a baby you can stay up there." Saiko said, unsympathetically. "Come on, Hansuke."
"What?" Hansuke whined. "You'll let her stay up there but not me?"
"You're already down here, no use complaining now, let's just go."
Masashi began glancing back and forth between Saiko and Hansuke who were heading towards the large mansion, and back to his friend with a pleading look. "Common, Yasu, you can't let them talk to you that way." He said, holding his arms out.
"But I..."
Masashi shifted his weight, not wanting to leave his friend, but not wanting to get left behind either.
Yasu took a deep breath and half slid, half jumped, out of the tree. Saiko turned around just as she did it and watched the girl fall.
"You're not under her!" She cried suddenly to Masashi. "Move left!"
Yasu landed a few inches away from Masashi, she stood up, unhurt but visibly shaken. "You jerk!" She shouted at her friend. "You were supposed to catch me!"
"Oh, heh, woops," Masashi said, scratching the back of his neck.
"I could have died!"
Saiko turned to Hansuke. "I said go left, didn't I?"
"Yep," Hansuke agreed.
Saiko turned back to Masashi. "I said to go left."
"Can we just keep going? I want to go out of here as soon as possible." Yasu asked.
"You should have just stayed home," Masashi sighed.
"You begged me to come with you!"
"I didn't know you would be such a baby."
"I'm the baby?" Yasu asked, narrowing her eyes. "You wanted me to come because you were afraid of them." She motioned to Saiko and Hansuke. "I didn't even want to come."
"You should be afraid of us!" Hansuke said, flexing.
"No one is afraid of idiots." Saiko said, pushing Hansuke over. "Let's get moving, I've heard nobles don't do anything other than sit around so this place is probably flooded with them."
"Lead the way," Masashi said, narrowing his eyes at Saiko.
"What if we get caught?" Yasu whispered.
"Stop worrying"
"They'll probably kill us and then make rugs out of our skins." Hansuke explained.
"Wh-what?"
"I know it's hard for you, Hansuke, but don't be an idiot." Saiko said before turning to Yasu. "They'll make decorative lampshades out of our skins, not rugs." Saiko patted Yasu on the shoulder as though this were a reassuring thought, before turning back around. "Let's go," She declared, turning a corner.
Half a second later, Saiko came sprinting back around the corner. "Abort mission! Abort mission! Abort mission!" she screamed, running back to the wall and quickly climbing back over it.
"But wh—" Hansuke was about to ask when a full grown noble man walked around the corner.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" Yasu cried, running after Saiko.
"Yasu, wait!" Masashi shouted. Hansuke grabbed Masashi's arm and pulled him into a nearby bush.
"Hurry! Hide somewhere!" Saiko whispered down to Yasu from her position in the tree. Yasu tried to climb up the wall but wasn't strong enough to get herself over. She dropped back to the ground and turned slowly to face the advancing noble.
"Who are you?" The man asked, glaring down at Yasu. "And why were you trying to spy on my wife?"
"Wh-what? I wasn't... I-I..." Tears began to slide down Yasu's panic stricken face.
"What are you doing here?" The noble asked. "Common trash like you does not belong on these grounds."
Masashi, from in the bush, was fighting against Hansuke. "Let go of me! I need to help her!"
"You're an idiot, you can't do anything against him, you're a kid, and he's an adult with a weapon."
"I got lost..." Yasu said, tears rolling down her cheek. "Please don't make a lamp out of me..."
"Tch, as if anyone would want a lamp as dirty as that." The noble man spat.
"I'm sorry, sir," Yasu began shaking and tried to bow before him. The noble pushed her head down to the ground.
"HEY!" Saiko cried, jumping down from the tree. "Don't do that!" she grabbed the noble's arm and tried to pull it away. "She didn't do anything wrong!"
"Another one? You're multiplying like rabbits. I already asked your friend and now I'll ask you, what are you doing here?"
"Nothing, we were just leaving."
The noble grabbed Saiko's arm. "This is private property, you children are going to have to be punished.
Yasu flinched and kept her head on the ground. "Please... Please let us go, we won't bother you again."
"Don't touch me!" Saiko yelled, trying to fight for her arm back. "What gives you the right?"
"The right? You're low class brats trespassing on my property. You were planning on stealing from me, weren't you? Maybe I'll steal from something from you to show you how it feels."
"I don't have anything you'd want! Let go of me!" Saiko shouted again, becoming desperate she bit down on the man's arm. The noble cried out in pain and threw Saiko away from him, drawing his sword in defense. Yasu looked in time to see the glint of a sword. She screamed and her view was abstracted by a body. There was a cry of pain and Yasu saw Saiko double over, her hand pressed hard over her eye, blood dripping from the cracks between her fingers.
"My eye!"
"Formal?" Matsumoto asked, examining the dress Saiko had purchased. "Wow that is… Something…"
"I can't wear uniforms with backs anymore. They feel uncomfortable…" Saiko sighed.
"This isn't a uni—Never mind, it's great. Who are you dressing up for?"
"No one," Saiko narrowed her eyes at her.
"Right… Are you going to get Yumichika to do your hair?" Matsumoto questioned.
"I was thinking about it."
"You should let me do your nails then."
"I was going to ask Yumichika to do that too."
"How can he do your hair and nails at the same time?" Matsumoto exclaimed.
"He's that skilled." Saiko nodded.
"You know what he's been saying, right?"
"What who's been saying?" Saiko eyed Matsumoto suspiciously.
"Ikkaku, as he hands these out." Matsumoto held up an invite. "He's got a massive, bleeding gash on his head but he's smiling like an idiot when he's telling people you two hooked up."
"WHAT?"
Yasu walked down the hall, wiping her eyes. "Keep it together, Yasu."
Renji stepped out of his room, spotting her. "Yasu! You're crying again, what's going on?"
"Oh you know." Yasu pointed behind her. "The Sixth Captain again."
"Wh-what did he do?"
Yasu shook her head. "Don't worry about it."
"How can I not worry? You're not supposed to be sad like this." Renji looked concerned.
"I'm not sad, I'm happy, really."
"Stop lying to me." Renji stared down at her.
"You wanted to play cards, let's play, come on." Yasu tried to turn to Renji's bedroom.
"Yasu…"
Yasu smiled at him. "You don't want to play anymore? That's okay, maybe next time, I should get back to party planning, it's going to be really fun. The Sixth Captain agreed to have it at his house."
"He agreed to that? You're kidding me." Renji flashed her a 'yeah right' kind of look.
Yasu nodded. "He sounded really excited about it."
"Oh…kay."
"It's going to be formal, you have a suit right?"
Renji nodded slowly. "I got the invite." He held up the card Ikkaku had given him.
"Oh? Did Saiko give it to you? She's been talking about you all morning."
"R-really? What did she say? She misses me doesn't she?" Renji entwined his fingers and stretched out his arms in front of himself cockily. "I knew it."
"Oh yeah… She can't wait to see you at the party so you better go and dress nicely." Yasu looked down sadly.
"You got sad again, what's up with you." Renji pushed on her forehead.
"I'm not sad; I'm just… thinking about… how much planning I have left to do." Yasu lied.
"Can I help you? Somehow," Renji scratched the back of his neck. "I don't have anything else to do."
Yasu looked up at him. "Yeah, I guess I don't see any harm in that."
"No harm?" Renji laughed at her. "What's with you?" He put an arm around her shoulders.
Saiko kicked her bedroom door down and stormed out of her room.
"You could have just opened it!" Matsumoto jogged after her.
"Don't make me kick you down next!" Saiko growled to herself. "Specifically asked him to take one to Abarai. Told him that. Liar…" She clenched her fists.
"Ikkaku!" Saiko grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
"Time for round two?" Ikkaku winked at her.
"Who's invitations have you handed out?" Saiko said through clenched teeth.
Ikkaku looked at his tiny stack. "All but four!"
"And how many people have you been telling we're together?"
Ikkaku looked at his tiny stack again. "All but four!"
Saiko turned to Matsumoto. "My reputation is good, right? No one would believe that?"