Here's the second chapter for you guys. Enjoy, my friends.
Ichigo silently sat in his S7 a couple of streets away from the main hub where the racers and fans were gathered for the coming events, listening to some music to keep him occupied for the time being. Thinking back on the past hours' events, the thought that ran through his mind was, 'How did I end up getting eight gorgeous girlfriends? I may not have much experience in having a love life but I will love all of them equally and unconditionally, they were there for me when no one else was. And I'll be there for them when they need me.'
Earlier, he had talked to the Sukuna brother he was hosting and the Cursed Spirit told him that he had to be the luckiest man on Earth to be in the situation he was in. After the little chuckle Sukuna had at the teen's expense, he sat down with him and had a small chat with him about what he would tell the three teenage defenders of Karakura Town if they approached him. Ichigo told Sukuna that he would tell them he wanted nothing to do with them anymore and he didn't want their pity, if they wanted to have his friendship back, they would have to earn it and it would be the same for the people in the Soul Society. Whether they wanted to try or not was up to them. The Spirit accepted the answer and told him he had grown as a warrior and as a person, explaining that Ichigo had learned to no longer trust in everyone blindly or forgive everyone without hesitation and it took courage and strength to have someone he had known for so long earn his trust again. He ended the conversation by advising him to always cherish his new loves and stand with the people who would support him through thick and thin.
Exiting his thoughts, he looked at the clock on his dashboard, by the time shown on the timekeeper, he needed to get moving to the hub. He pulled out of his parking spot and sped away to the gate for the entrance. Checking in with one of the supervising officers at the event, the teen pulled up next to Yuji's 488 Pista and parked beside it. Yuchi was already standing next to his ride and said to him when he got out, "Hey Ichigo! You feel up to racing today?"
The Strawberry smiled. "Yeah, I think I am," he replied.
"Good because there's a few certain individuals looking for you. I gotta say, I'm a little envious of you. You have eight girlfriends! And all of them love you dearly. I wish I had someone who loved me like that."
Ichigo patted his friend's shoulder. "You'll find someone one day."
"Ichigo!" shouted a familiar feminine voice that he recognized immediately. He turned in the direction of the voice and saw the girls a few yards away walking toward him.
"Hey ladies." he greeted them as he each gave them a hug and a light kiss on their lips, which they returned in kind.
"This is the racing league you guys are in? It's insane! I see cars everywhere, some of which are tuned and modified to a high degree!" Anko ranted.
"Yeah, it's pretty wild. This league is just one of many, the whole league is part of a group of racing leagues all run by the same people that are for racers who want to compete without having to be hounded by the cops or hurting someone, and there are different disciplines that are standard for all of them. Road Racing, Drag Racing, and Street Racing are the ones that our league uses and they are divided into the different divisions of cars used in them, except for Street Racing which allows any division of car to be used as long as the car is at a similar rating level compared to the other competitors. Hypercars, Modern Muscle, Modern Supercars, Modern Sports, Retro Supercars, Retro Muscle, Classic Muscle, the list goes on." explained Yuji.
"It sounds very complicated," Fu said and looked around at the number of spectators and fans walking around. "Is this the normal amount of fans that are at these events?"
Ichigo gave a smile when his mint-haired lover asked that question. "It's not, in fact. The events today and tomorrow are for the last round of eliminations and the final race for each division and discipline. The winners of all the final events in each division in each discipline are crowned champ and win a purse of $500,000 American, they also have the chance to go to a special showcase of races that are only for the winners in all the leagues. Both me and Yuji race multiple times today and tomorrow in different divisions, though we don't race against each other." They continued talking and relaxing to enjoy themselves until a racer that had a bone to pick with both Ichigo and Yuji since they each had beat him multiple times on several occasions angrily stomped up to the two in a foul mood.
"Kurosaki! Itadori!" the racer, a lanky 29 year-old brunette, shouted as he approached the group of ten, clenching his fists and grinding his teeth the entire time. "I'm sick and tired of the both of you constantly beating me when you're just some inexperienced brats! How is it that two people as young as you have these high performance cars and beat me every single time I race against either of you? It's unacceptable!" he yelled at the two teenage males and pointed a finger at them to express his anger.
The two boys just looked at him with bored expressions on their faces, then they got an idea on how to mess with the guy. "Who are you again?" Ichigo intoned calmly. "WHO, WHO, WHO?!" he shouted at the guy, mocking the loser like he was a gamer who got completely owned on an online video game. The man grew red in the face at being blatantly insulted.
"Stick to painting, something, if you're losing all the time. And nobody knows who you are." drawled the pink-haired teen with half-lidded eyes. The girls began laughing at the absurdity of the little act they put on.
At that point, the man lost it. "I'm Kenji Takeshi, you ingrates! I have been racing in this league for seven years, show some respect!"
"Nah, don't feel like it. Now go bug someone else, I don't feel like being bothered by you." chuckled Yuji. The offending individual screamed in frustration and stomped off, leaving the girls in hysterics and the boys feeling proud at their small joke.
"That was hilarious!" giggled Nel "I thought he was going to blow his top when you made fun of him the first time." She, Anko, Fu, and Yoruichi had to hold their stomachs from how hard their laughter was while Tia, Yugito, Samui, and Konan could not keep their internal laughter contained any longer and started laughing as well. The boys weren't much better either because they could be seen wiping tears from their eyes and barely holding in their own laughter.
"Believe me, Kenji is an idiot and talks a big game but he can't win if his life depended on it, he is that bad. Many of the other racers love to mess with him and it never gets old." Ichigo said while recovering from his amusement.
"I'll bet," Yugito chuckled. "Ichigo, we noticed that you had some markings on your body in addition to your tattoos, Yoruichi said she never saw any markings when she first met you. What are they exactly, I've never seen anything like them in my life." Her fellow girlfriends nodded in concern, they wanted to know what the weird markings on their boyfriend's body were. While they had knowledge on the fact that Hollows, Soul Reapers, Jujutsu Sorcerers, and Cursed Spirits existed, they didn't know about Yuji and Ichigo being vessels.
The two boys looked down slightly as if they were contemplating something. "I have had them since before I met Rukia but Yoruchi never saw them when we were in the hot springs because the steam prevented them from being seen," he explained to his lovers. "Those permanent markings are there because they show that I have mastered the powers of Ryusei Sukuna, a legendary Special Grade Cursed Spirit, as his vessel." The girls looked surprised at the influx of new information.
"I don't understand, what do you mean that you're a vessel?" asked the large-chested blonde of the group. This was news to her as well as the rest of them.
Ichigo began explaining he had known his heritage long before he met Rukia and how months before their first meeting, he had come into contact with a Cursed Object, one of Ryusei Sukuna's fingers, that a Cursed Spirit in the area was after and an inexperienced Sorcerer needed to find it to take back it to his superiors. Before the Sorcerer was killed by the attacking Spirit, they told him the details surrounding the finger and not to let the Spirit eat it as it would empower it to unimaginable heights. Somehow, a group of young children wandered into the area and got very close to where the fight was, forcing Ichigo to do something drastic: Eat the finger. Since it was explained to him that the appendage would strengthen whoever consumed it, he made the decision to eat it, which incarnated that Sukuna brother in him and made him become the Spirit's vessel, allowing him to destroy the attacking Cursed Spirit. A powerful but trollish Sorcerer then found him and immediately recognized that Ichigo had become the second current vessel of the Sukuna brothers, he took him back to the main Jujutsu school in Tokyo and explained there was another vessel like him, who was in fact Yuji, instead for Ryusei's brother, Ryomen, and that after hearing who Ichigo was, the elders decided to let him be and not interfere with the Soul Society as they had learned not to mess with Ryomen's vessel which was a consequence for their stupidity. After he returned home and Yuji transferred to Karakura High, Ichigo met with Kisuke, his dad, and his newfound friend and discussed how being a vessel would impact his powers. Months later, Rukia came to Karakura Town and he got involved with the world of Hollows and Soul Reapers for the first time.
"So now you know. I completely understand if this makes you afraid of us and—oof!" Ichigo got interrupted as he was immediately glomped by his girls and hugged by them tightly, of all the things he was expecting, this was one thing he wasn't.
"Ichigo, we don't care about that. We're sorry that you had another burden placed on you, but it doesn't matter that you are hosting a Cursed Spirit inside of you," Tia said softly into his chest. "You are still the man we love and that's never going to change."
"Oi, your girlfriend is making me sound like I am some sort of parasite! I am not a bloodsucking leech, Ichigo!" shouted an irate Sukuna in the Strawberry's mind.
Anko asked as they let go of him, "If it's not too much to ask, could we meet Sukuna?" hopeful that they could at least get a feel for who the legendary Cursed Spirit was.
Ichigo looked to Yuji for an answer, who simply replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't see why not. He may act like Zangetsu at times but he behaves most of the time, though he did have a bit of a rivalry with him. He sometimes shows up by manifesting an eye and mouth on the side of my face."
An single eye and mouth appeared on his cheek in a fanged grin. "So I finally get to meet your girlfriends, Ichigo. They're quite the bunch, I can see why you care for them as much as you do. Quick question: What am I, a tick?! Why'd you make me sound like I'm a freaking parasite?!" Sukuna shouted in irritation.
Tia giggled, "I guess I did word it that way, sorry about that." Yugito let out a small, uncontrollable snicker of her own, though Sukuna heard it and sighed in resignation.
"Kids, they don't show any respect anymore. Before I settle back into this bonehead's mind, I have a piece of advice for you ladies: Don't fight over him, he loves all of you regardless of who you are, he just didn't understand his feelings before all of you woke him up to them." he advised.
"We'll keep that in mind, Sukuna," the blonde Vizard thanked the Cursed Spirit before his eye and mouth disappeared back into Ichigo's cheek.
Just then, an announcement came on over the loudspeakers saying that the first race for the final Road Racing elimination round was being prepared and the racers participating in the Retro Supercars division needed to report to the track that had been set for the event. "That's my cue. I'll be racing next." He gave the girls a quick kiss on their lips. "Love you girls, wish me luck." he bade them farewell as he climbed into his S7 and rolled away to his starting position at the finish line.
Yuji showed them to the viewing room for the other racers and their personal guests where they could watch the race on large screens. Once they were there, they sat down and waited for the race to start. Slowly, the other racers in the division Ichigo was currently in pulled up to their starting positions and prepared for the officials to start the race with the countdown lights, some of the cars they were driving included a Jaguar XJ220, an older Ford GT, an Ferrari Enzo Ferrari, and a Maserati MC12, among other cars as well.
The track for this specific race was a sprint through downtown Karakura Town going by the business district, a few high end residential areas that were blocked off to traffic, as was with every race that went through areas containing people, and the outskirts of the city, the finish line was at an area not too far from the hub and where the drivers could easily go drive from to the hub in a short time after the race was finished.
Inside his car, Ichigo prepared himself for the race to start. Little did anyone know that due to his former Soul Reaper powers and his new vessel powers, he had honed reflexes that were far superior to his opponents which made him a highly-skilled racer who could outperform most drivers. He looked to his left and chuckled, that Kenji guy was in the vehicle next to him, it was going to be extremely fun for Ichigo to completely thrash the guy in this race.
The lights hit red, yellow, green, and the racers sped off, the fans cheering for them. They charged down the first straightaway and made a slight turn left, continuing down the road to a moderately tight turn and took the turn to a small, windy road that went down the back alleys behind some of the large towers that were on the edge of downtown. After that, the group of drivers hit an open street that ran through the middle of Karakura Town and went straight for a long while.
Ichigo had started in the sixth position at the beginning of the race and was now in fifth after drafting behind Kenji in his Porsche Carrera GT and passing him quite easily. Only a tenth of the race had been completed so far, so there was still time for him to win as they had just entered the long strip of road going through the city. 'Time to kick it up a notch.' Ichigo said to himself. He turned on his car's energy converter, a device Kisuke helped create with special Kido that siphoned off both Cursed Energy and Spirit Energy to make their rides faster and more powerful, and allowed it to use his Cursed Energy to boost the S7, an audible rush of power came from the engine that was music to the Strawberry's ears and could even be heard on the monitors back where his loves were watching the race.
The end result of this action was Ichigo blasting straight past both the racer ahead of him and the guy two positions in front of him and settling into a comfortable third place after he had been drafting behind the driver in fourth place for some time. The racers behind Kenji, who was still in sixth place, slowly started to drop out of view. However, the orange-haired teen's driving was beginning to make a lot of the other competitors nervous that he would completely overtake them and leave them behind. And they had no room for error meaning they could not make any mistakes if they wanted to go to the final race in the division. The six racers that had left the rest of the pack far behind them continued to roar down the road, hitting the three-quarters milestone in the race as soon as they came to a difficult hairpin turn that allowed Ichigo to pass into second place.
Back in the viewing lobby, the girls were cheering as they saw their boyfriend move into the runner-up spot. "Go Ichi! You got this!" shouted Yoruichi.
"He's good, I mean really good. It's like he's been doing this since he was young," the cat-eyed Yugito commented on Ichigo's skill as a driver.
"It just comes naturally to both of us, especially him." Yuji nodded to Yugito's unasked question.
Nel, Fu and Anko cheered, "Come on, Ichigo! Win for us!" making Konan, Tia, and Samui let out a silent laugh at their actions, though they began saying words of encouragement to the monitor as well.
There was a series of turns coming up and the driver in first place was now sweating heavily, while the six racers that finished the race first would move on to the final event, the starting position for each driver that made it depended on the time that they clocked on that specific course. And it looked like Ichigo had a very high chance of passing him for first place and leaving them behind which would allow him to get a better starting position for the final race. He started trying to block him from making a move during the curves, but it made no difference as Ichigo kept following behind him, drafting as much as possible and then hitting the gas and zooming past him without a second thought after the turns had passed.
By then, it was past the nine-tenths point and Ichigo was cackling in glee at how easy it was to decimate his competition. He raced down the final stretch to the finish line and crossed it, sending him to the final event and putting him in first place for best time clocked. At worst, Ichigo would only be bumped down to seventh place at the start if the drivers that qualified from the second race all got better times than him, and it would still be a comfortable position to start from since the final race was a lot longer than a normal race. He slowed to a halt and pumped his fist at his victory, then began driving through the designated street to the hub where Yuji and his girlfriends were waiting.
The girls shouted, "Yeah, Ichigo!" in jubilation while the pink-haired Itadori male grinned when they saw Ichigo zoom through the finish line in first place. They rushed outside of the lobby to wait for him so they could congratulate him properly, forty-five seconds later, he came rolling into the lot and jumped out of his Saleen where he was greeted by his lovers and friend.
"You were amazing, Ichigo. I knew that you had skill, but I didn't know you were that good!" exclaimed Nel as she hugged him. He laughed happily as he returned the hug.
"I was laughing like a loon the whole time during that final stretch, I couldn't believe the race went that smoothly, there's always some sort of jockeying for position in most of my races. For an important race like that to go as great as it did, it makes me happy," he replied as he kissed her. "I think... I think I'm going to be alright now, I have you girls in my life now and that is something I will always be grateful for."
All of them teared up when they heard him say that and they brought him into a hug. 'He's finally happy again. For so long, that's all we've wanted, and that's never getting taken away from him again, not if we have anything to say about it.' they said in their minds.
They could all be happy for once, and they would never ask for anything else.
School the next day ended being much better than before now that Ichigo had people to love and cherish with all his heart, he engaged in class more, he was happier, and he spent time with his girlfriends and Yuji during lunch and in between classes.
Chad, Orihime, and Uryu soon noticed this, as did Tatsuki. Orihime saw he was smiling again, this time around Yoruichi, Konan, Tia, Yugito, Fu, Anko, Nel, Samui, and Yuji, and she frowned at seeing the eight girls around the young man she had loved for so long. Thus, she resolved to finally ask him out.
She approached the table he was sitting at and asked cheerfully with a smile, "Hi, Ichigo, would you go on a date with me?" As soon as she asked the question, the orange-haired male scowled deeply. Thinking that she had done something wrong, her smile began to waver.
"Orihime, I can't. If I did, I would be cheating on the ones I love. Yes I said, 'ones'. I don't care what anyone has to say about it, I love them regardless. But, why, after all this time did you finally approach me after basically excising me from the group? Where were you guys after I lost my powers, was I just someone who had to be ignored because I was powerless?" he asked in a deathly calm tone that caused her eyes to widen and sent shivers down her spine.
"Ichigo, we never—" she began.
"Spare me the lies, Orihime. I was at one of my lowest points in my life for so long and there was never any support from any of you, and when you guys started to treat me like I was no longer a part of your lives, I hit my breaking point. I'm not some unbreakable deity. Rukia and the rest of the Soul Society are just as guilty in this. I was very lucky I had a group of people who didn't treat me any different than when I had my powers, and I am forever grateful for them being there and caring for me. Also, why would I want to go on a date with someone after they just about broke my trust, after they had basically thought of me as a monster and were afraid of me? Another thing, I don't like you in that way, I never have."
The auburn-haired healer started tearing up upon hearing this. "But—"
"You and everyone else will have to earn my trust back, I may forgive you guys one day but not right now. I'm sorry, but I need space from you guys for now."
She couldn't take it any longer. "WHY?! I have loved you for years, so why won't you return my love? Who are these girls who stole you from me?"
The purple-haired werecat snapped after hearing that last part. "ORIHIME! OUTSIDE, NOW! WE WILL BE TALKING WITH YOU AND YOU WILL LISTEN!" shouted an angry Yoruichi. She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her through the door and into the hallway, her fellow girlfriends following her to have a stern talk with the girl.
Once they had stopped by a row of lockers, the cocoa-skinned beauty stopped walking and immediately started talking to Orihime. "Orihime, I cannot believe you would act the way you did all this time towards Ichigo. And 'stole him from you'? You never made a move on him for all this time and you think he is yours just because you love him? Well you're too late to the party, he's dating all of us." The healer's eyes widened. "We were there for him when he had no powers. Even when he was powerless, he was still Ichigo to us, the guy we love. You, Uryu, and Chad need to apologize to him, regardless of whether he will forgive you or not," she huffed. "Now, the eight of us are going back to sit with Ichigo and Yuji, if I ever find out you asked him out again, I will use your face as a scratching post. Don't make me have to do that, okay?" Orihime weakly nodded. As soon as Ichigo's girlfriends left, she walked back to where Chad, Uryu, and Tatsuki were sitting and sat down, hating herself for what she had done to Ichigo and now knowing she would never get a chance with him. And by the sad looks on her friends' faces, they had also realized how their treatment of him had affected him and that they might never regain his friendship.
"How'd it go? Are you okay?" Ichigo asked his girlfriends who smiled at him.
"Everything's fine." Yoruichi assured him. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and they settled back into their conversation, happy to be in each other's company.
Nothing was going to ruin their happiness and that was the way they liked it.
Do read and review, guys. It makes it more enjoyable when I see people review my stories, but no flames please.
Crash, out.