Yay! Another chapter!
I have nothing to say in the matter- It's my own fault for not updating. XD
Disclaimer: Bleach is mine- in my own dreams.
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"Uggh…" Ichigo moaned, the intense throbbing in his head made it seem as if someone was in there pounding his skull in with a hammer over and over and over. . . "Goddamnit!" He growled, prying one eye open. Oh heavens, it was so hard to- just what in the hell had made him possibly act so stupidly?
"I'm glad that you're awake."
"GAAAHH!" Ichigo yelped, jumping three feet into the air. He noticed for the first time that someone had undressed him and a good portion of his upper body was covered in bandages and he was staring up at a very familiar ceiling . . . "Wh-what are you doing here? And I'm not DRESSED FOR GOD'S SAKE!" The Shinigami did best with the covers, however he didn't feel very menacing being half-naked in front of a silly schoolgirl.
Giving him a blank look, Karin snorted. "I LIVE here, you idiot. Now, you've got some explaining to do, Mister!" She slyly smiled, much to Ichigo's unease she looked exactly as the third captain on his good days. The girl stubbornly crossed her arms together and made a fair imitation of Rukia when she wanted something; preferably in the next breath you took. "Just what the hell was that monster! And how'd the hell you shoot a fireball out of your hands?"
The orange-haired youth made an effort not to groan. Jadedly he pointed at his jeans, an arms reach away and mutely the girl handed the pants to him. Fishing around his pockets for the cell phone and memory chikan. "Oy, little girl. Look at me for a second." He held up the memory-erasing device and pressed the button. It made weird noises and the antenna wiggled for a minute, but other then that, nothing happened.
However, the slightly glazed look in Karin's dark eyes convinced him of otherwise.
"Hey, little girl. . . So do you remember?" He asked, hiding the chikan and cell phone under the covers. His dark brown orbs narrowed at the prospect of being ripped off by his own captain if the stupid thing didn't work- he paid good money for his equipment! ". . . Can you hear me?"
Terse silence stretched for what seemed like an eternity before Karin burst out in a series of rapid sentences. "Oh my God! There was a rampaging rhino that was chasing me and then the firefighters had to come but they only shot fire into the buildings! The rhino knocked down some houses and then it flew away!"
Ichigo stared blankly at the girl for a good second, and then stared back at the Chikan device. The girl and then the device. Girl, device. Girl, device. What the hell? This thing just makes it worse! He thought, his face forcing itself with another smile. "Yeah. . . Good one kid. So you really don't remember?"
"I told you! The flying rhino came and then-"
"Honey! Please don't pester the patient when he just woke up."
Both heads turned and standing at the door, was Masaki Kurosaki. Daintily inspecting Ichigo's wounds she didn't notice the fish-like look that her patient was giving her. "There! If you keep still, then those cuts will heal nicely." Her pretty eyes sparkled vibrantly at the bleached haired Shinigami, her lips drawn back for a half-smile.
Awkwardly, Ichigo muttered some choice words saying that it wasn't necessary and tried to swing himself out of bed. "Seriously. . . Uh Lady, I have to go. Err, thanks for patching me up and all. . ." He started to walk barefooted to the exit, albeit unsteady but still walking.
"AND WHERE ARE YYYYOOUUU GOING DEAR PATIENT?" Isshin tackled the teen with the grace of a charging bull, effectively knocking his head against the tiled floor. "We of the Kurosaki Clinic cannot allow our patients to leave in such bad shape! Therefore! YOU. ARE. NOW. BEING. RESTRICTED. TO. BED!"
"Oyaji. . . I think you killed him." Karin deadpanned, casually leaning against the wall. She tucked her baseball cap backwards and took off the apron that she wore whenever she worked at the Clinic. "Kaasan, what's for dinner anyways?"
Suddenly animated, Ichigo jumped to his feet and started to yell. "WHAT THE HELL, OLD MAN! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO SEND ME TO THE AFTERLIFE?" He reached for his jacket, getting his bandaged arm through the sleeves was work enough. "Thanks and all again. Put this on my tab."
If there's a God, he must have a sick and twisted sense of humor. Ichigo grimly scowled, using all his will power not to turn around and stare at his mother again. She was just as he remembered, although there were some unnoticeable strands of gray hair mixed with her orange. He missed her- that much he admitted. He missed her gentle and kind touch, her soft laughter. . . everything. However, he was a Shinigami now and that changed everything!
"This is silly. We don't even know your name. I'm Kurosaki Masaki and this is my husband Isshin. And this little girl is Karin, and Yuzu should be in the other room." Masaki spoke, effectively freezing Ichigo in his tracks. "And you are?"
"Eh?" Ichigo's brain worked hard to come up with an efficient name. He couldn't come out and announce that he was temporary raised from the dead. No, no, that would be bad. Imagine: Hi. I'm your dead son, Ichigo. What's up Mom? "Ku. . . Chiki Ichi. . . Maru. Nice to meet you." Spluttered the Vice-captain, sweating bullets.
If THEY EVER find out, I am SO dead. But then again, how the hell are they ever going to find out? Ichigo envisioned Byakuya, Rukia, and the Third Captain looming over a chibi of him ten times their original size with flames shooting from the background. Shivering, he vowed to NEVER let ANYONE from Soul Society know about this.
"You dare impose upon the noble Kuchiki name?"
"ICHIGO!"
"Yare, Yare. . . Now what's this all 'bout? Taking on my name, eh?"
Smiling, the woman somehow ushered the boy back to bed. "We haven't decided what the causes were of your wounds, so I cannot allow you to leave yet." She gave him a small smile and pulled the covers over him.
Ichigo sighed and decided that things were always too troublesome for him. "I. . ." He started to talk, only to have Isshin interrupt him.
"Oh no, Kuchiki Ichimaru-kun! We would be irresponsible to just let you flaunt out of here! What will the other people say? Gasp! We will house you, feed you, send you to school until you are deemed by ME! The magnificent doctor of this Clinic! That you are a hundred percent, tip-top order!" He boomed happily, smacking the upside of Ichigo's head. "AND this will all be sent on a bill to you later on!"
Dead silence reigned for a span of three seconds.
"Oyaji, he's dead."
"WHAT!"
- - - - -
"This is so stupid." Ichigo muttered, walking around his new school. "How the hell is someone supposed to find anything here? It's too big!" He fumbled around for the sheet of paper scribbled with the room number, squinting at the messy handwriting. "B-4? Where the hell's that? I'm I even on the right floor?" The disgruntled Shinigami muttered, craning his neck around looking at the different room numbers.
BAM!
"Ahh!" A girl walking with her friend crashed to the ground, dragging Ichigo with her. Unfortunately for her, she was carrying books and all her papers scattered around. "Oh no! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She cried, scrambling around to retrieve her papers. "Are you all right? I didn't mean to run into you!"
"Orihime! Don't apologize! That jerk's the one that crashed into you!" Her friend growled menacingly, abruptly standing up to her full height. Her eyes flashed with untamed anger until her brain registered the perpetrator's face. Gasping, she couldn't believe her eyes! It wasn't possible! "Ichigo?" The girl breathed daring to believe for a second that the dead can come back to life.
The said so teen blinked, wondering how the hell could anyone could recognize him until her name resurfaced within his head. Karate girl. The one that kicked his ass every time on the dojo mats- Arisawa Tatsuki. "Eh, sorry who?" He feigned stupidity, pretending act sheepish. Helping the other girl, Orihime was it? He apologized and walked away (Quickly), leaving his childhood friend behind with the ginger-haired female.
"Tatsuki-chan, who was that person?" Inoue asked, gathering up the last of her things. "Do you know him?" They headed towards their classroom, which was only a few doors down.
Dully shaking her head, Tatsuki gave a fake laugh. "Of course not! He just looked like a friend of mine from a long time ago. . ." She thoughtfully recalled that the last time she beat his little ten-year-old butt in Karate and he promptly burst into tears after that. Yeah, that was funny. Some man he was! What kind of guy started crying after being whooped by a girl! The girl deadpanned, propping her hands under her chin.
"Class, today we have two new students. Please come in!" Their teacher announced, hushing the class. She stood up and waited for the door to slide open. Silence crept by the seconds, and very distinctively they heard arguing in the background.
"Just what the HELL are you doing here!"
"For the same reason you're attending this human education facility!"
"It's not a 'human education facility!' It's called a school for your information! And who sent you?"
"Hush! Do you want them to overhear?"
"Me? You're the one screaming at me!"
"You're the one who's raising their voice!"
The door slid open, as the teacher had enough and the two stumbled ungracefully into the room, still hissing offhand remarks. "Ahem. These are out new transfer students, Kuchiki Rukia and Kuchiki Ichimaru. Please welcome them as they will be with us for the rest of the year. Now, would you like to introduce yourselves?"
"Huh?" Ichigo was never the person for large crowds, and thus he was never the greatest public speaker. But really, what could he say? That he was from the afterlife and he liked playing with swords? He was on a mission to stop all Hollows from killing everybody in the human world? He was living with his family who thinks that he's dead? Great, now what? He stole a quick look of how Rukia was faring- she was sparkling for kami's sake!
"Hello everyone. My name is Kuchiki Rukia and it is so nice to meet you. I hope we can get to know each other very well in the future." She even curtsied! The smug look on her face seemed to mock Ichigo; his Vice-captain rank be damned! The teacher directed her to a window seat and everyone waited for Ichigo's little introduction.
Swallowing hard, the orange-haired Shinigami stammered, "Err. . . nice to meet you all. . ." This is awkward. He thought, edging for the nearest empty desk. Secretly, he stole a look towards Rukia who had a forced smile on her face that was getting strained. And I have to explain about my new name too, damn it.
After getting reacquainted with the educational system that he had been missing for years, Ichigo (much to his horror) discovered that he was (terribly) behind everyone else and his (best) subject was (sadly) physical education. He didn't have a good chance to talk with Rukia yet, and her constant eye twitches that she gave him whenever the teacher or a classmate referred to him as Kuchiki Ichimaru-kun was starting to piss him off.
Rukia wasn't the only one eying him the entire time either. Tatsuki was also giving him suspicious glances too from period to period. Feeling a headache, the young man wanted to cut class already- thank the Gods when lunchtime rolled around.
Slamming his hands on her desk, he growled irritably. "Just. What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. H. E. R. E. . ." Dark chocolate brown eyes narrowed into slits that wasn't going to just take no for an answer. He had been (non-officially) kicked out of Soul Society to hunt down Hollows that have yet to appear on the radar screen, which seemed to be some kind of twisted joke when he couldn't even get out of this stupid gigai!
Offering a hand out which he saw that she had scribbled something on there that read: Say something and I'll kill you. "My, my Kuchiki-san! What a strange coincidence of names! And you said that your first name was Ichimaru? That sounds so familiar to me. . ."
You bet it does. Ichigo thought sullenly, finding himself agreeing with her. After all, two completely new students with the same last name- he was SO going to kill Urahara later- should be on friendly terms with each other for politeness sake.
A boy with slicked back hair politely introduced himself as Kojima and sat down at an empty desk next to them. "Say, do you two know each other? You guys do have the same family name."
"Oy, get outta here." Ichigo grumped purposefully ignoring Rukia's patented death glare, secretly enjoying himself knowing that he was pissing her off. "This isn't any of your business."
"Are you two cousins?"
"No."
"Distant relatives?"
"No."
"Hmm, then the only logical choice is that you two are lovers." Kojima tapped his chin thoughtfully, giving Ichigo a sly smile. "I bet you two eloped! How romantic! Two young lovers caught up in a society of hate and dispute! Oh no, Kuchiki-san is clearly out of my reach- a pity for she has the loveliest eyes."
He couldn't take it anymore. "FOR THE LAST TIME! RUKIA AND I AREN'T LOVERS! YOU THINK I'M THE TYPE OF GUY TO ENLOPE? IT'S JUST A FREAK'N coincidence THAT WE JUST HAVE A SIMILAR LAST NAME!"
"Rukia? Wow, I didn't know that you guys were on first name terms. You must be really close then."
As if by a godsend, Ichigo's cell phone rang- instantly he met Rukia's deep violet gaze. A Hollow. "Look, I have to go to the bathroom." Ichigo growled, getting to his feet. Just how the hell was he going to use a Zanpaktou? He hurried to the door, and distinctively he heard Rukia making the same excuse.
Finally in the recluse of behind the gym, Ichigo stubbornly squared his shoulders and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "All right spill it. What's really going on here? Did Slipper Hat send you?" He could almost imagine the blonde haired man joyfully asking for Kuchiki Rukia and shipping her off to the human world with a snap of his fan.
"Yes. I am to assist you. Since you did not have the foresight to buy Soul Candy, I'll just have to do this!" She pulled on a glove with a skull and punched through his chest, effectively pushing out his Shinigami form.
Giving her a wry grin, Ichigo stretched his arms. "I bet you that he ran out. C'mon, let's go slay a Hollow. I need to vent out some pent up stress." He cocked his head to the side, staring at Rukia. "Aren't you going to come with me?"
"Well I . . ."
"Oh let me guess, you don't have any Soul Candy either? Geeze, this is gonna be a problem. I guess there's no choice then." He plucked the glove with the skull out of her hand and slipped it on his with a bit of difficulty. Doing the same that she did to him a few seconds earlier, he grinned at Rukia.
Coming up to Ichigo's height by tugging on his ear, she slapped his head. "Idiot! And just what do we do with the faux bodies? Some human might just come along and see us! Oh no! Two students unconscious on the ground! Gasp! Use your head for once!"
"Fine, fine!" Ichigo dragged the bodies over to the shed and fumbled with the latch. "Just help me get this lock open and we'll just stuff them here for the time being." The orange-haired youth briefly enjoyed the peeved scowl that Rukia gave him- it meant that she wasn't mad enough to send him to bloody hell (yet). "Anyways, what do you know about modern human society?"
The two hid the gigai behind the basketballs and track hurdles. Ichigo was pretty sure that no one would find the bodies but just in case he covered tarp over the 'sleeping' Ichigo and Rukia gigais and dusted his hands in satisfaction.
"What do you mean? I know plenty!" Rukia defended herself, jumping up into the air. "Like human children must go to these educational teaching facilities and those metal moving things are. . . cars. . ." She slowly pronounced the foreign words, modern marvels that were magic.
Ichigo snorted, mentally turning over a funny thought- but does she know how to open juice packs? He relished the flying sensation when he leapt into the air, being stuck in a physical body made him feel trapped somehow. The orange-head wondered why Rukia wasn't taking this perfect opportunity to berate him of his newfound name. "Hey, are we even going in the right direction?"
"Well Vice-Captain, I thought that your ability to sense reiatsu surpassed mine!" Rukia smirked; she liked to watch Ichigo's ears turn red when he was embarrassed- it was something that she found adorable with him ever since she met the boy.
"Rukia! You know that I suck at that!" Growled Ichigo grudgingly, his pride was a bit sore even after all these years. "Now tell me if that damn Hollow is nearby. Lunch ends in thirty minutes and I don't want to explain to the teachers exactly why they found my body in the PE shed with you."
"Would that be such a big deal?"
He gave her a look of disbelief. "Are you serious? They would have us expelled for God's sake- not to mention it would be all over the news!" Ichigo landed on the next building gracefully, his feet smacking against the terra cotta tiles, satisfyingly filling the growing silence in between them. The wind whistled loudly in his ears while he ran, his bright orange hair sweeping back.
Once his bangs parted, one could see a tiny scar- barely noticeable to the naked eye marking a small niche near his forehead. Just a few years into the Shinigami Academy, he was sent on a training trip with a group of three led by an experienced Death God. On a foolish mistake on his part, as well as a near death experience, he had been wounded near his left eye. Unohana-Taichou said that a new inches lower and he would had lost half his vision.
"Hey, there it is. It doesn't really look all that impressive you know?" Ichigo said, drawing out his enormous Zanpaktou deftly with practiced ease. Increasing his pace by three more strides, the boy shot ahead. "Oy! Take this, you bastard!"
Rukia was greatly surprised when Ichigo pulled ahead almost effortlessly. Since when did he become so much faster? When she had finally caught up with the other Shinigami, Ichigo's sword had cleaved the Hollow in neat bloody pieces. She knew that Ichigo's promotion to Vice-captain was justly earned through hard work and skill, but before she could easily keep pace with him- even when the said so Shinigami decided to speed up.
Ichigo grimly scanned the area around him, his dark eyes finally stopping on the soul of a little kid looking very much like a ghost of his former self years ago- pardon the pun. Silently he wondered if Rukia felt the way he was feeling right now as he stared at the kid who looked like he was going to burst into tears.
Pity.
Sympathy.
But mostly pity.
It made him sick.
Bending down so that he was at eyelevel with the teary-eyed child, his stern face softened considerably. "You know brat, if you don't want to be afraid like that ever again, then just move on to the afterlife." The sword innocently gleamed in the sunlight, the smooth metal blade reflecting blue-gray waves: the best forged metal that can ever exist.
"But I'm scared!"
A far away look settled in chocolate orbs, Ichigo was painfully aware of the night that he had died. He was scared too, back then. . . and he still was- a smirk twitched upwards at the shaking kid. "Idiot. What's there to be afraid of? You can't live out your entire existence in fear, got that? There's a time to grow up and stop being such a coward! Now go on to the afterlife already!" Ichigo slammed the hilt of his Zanpaktou and performed a burial ritual, the soft blue glow coming out of nowhere illuminated his pale face.
"Ichigo. . ." Rukia softly said, her vibrant violet eyes softening at the orange-headed Shinigami. It was hard to tell what kind of emotion he was reflecting, turmoil swirled within those dark brown eyes clashing with every other pitying feeling out there. "Let's go back. It's getting late, and we might miss class."
"Yeah," he listlessly said and gave a last parting look at where the spirit used to be. "We just might. . Hey Rukia, go on without me. I'll catch up in a few minutes. There's something I have to do."
I didn't want to leave this park, cause it was then I realized that this was the same park that my mom and I used to play when I was younger. It was kind of ironic- the situation I mean.
Since he was in his Shinigami form, the average person couldn't see or hear him so there wouldn't be any suspicious questions about why he was just sitting in a swing rocking himself back and forth and not at school.
Masaki was walking home with a bag of groceries in her arms. Every morning, she would stop by at the park and sit on the swing sets just to remember. It was her way of remembering. It was always sad to come here by herself- but she couldn't bear to bring Karin and Yuzu when they were little. Not without breaking down in tears for her baby boy.
His mother unknowingly sat in the swing next to him and began to rock herself back and forth. "Oh Ichigo, how I remember you playing here. That seems so long ago. I must be getting so old now. If you were here, next to me that would make me the happiest person in the world."
He flinched, and stayed very still in his swing seat. There wasn't any wind and it would be weird if they were moving on its own. "Then be happy, I'm right here Kaachan. That's right, I'm back from the dead. But you can't see me like this- you can't ever know that your son's returned home. You know, I've really missed you. And Soul Society has crappy cooking." He looked up to the sky; the bright endless blue was hurting his eyes and everything started to blur together.
"If you could hear me Ichigo, I love you very much. There is a boy who looks just like you who came to our clinic. . . He could be you if you had not. . . Oh dear, I'm crying again. Silly me. I promised to stop being so sad." Masaki sighed, wiping her face with her sleeve. "Well, I better get going then. Isshin will probably call the police again if I'm gone too long."
Her swing was empty again, and her receding back was getting smaller by the second. "Kaachan. . ." He stood up and forced his head to turn away from her. No, he wasn't crying- honestly he wasn't: it was time that he had accepted the fact that it was time to move on. For the first time in many years, it stopped raining.
And he liked that.