The Chemical Reaction
Atagoki: All the beautiful reviews...it makes me cry. XD Anyway...on with the show?
Warning: Not much in this one.
Disclaimer: I dreamed a dream that I owned Bleach, then I woke up.
Chapter 7:
And Urahara is attacking Ichigo with his weird gadgets and stuff. — Dawn Shard
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"Yeah, Yuzu...I know, I'm sorry I made you and Dad worry and cause Karin to get bitchy. All right, I've said it ninety times. Can you just ease off my back? Look, I've got to talk to this guy and I'll be home in a few minutes. He doesn't live far from the clinic. All right? Yes. Fine! I'll do clinic duty whenever you need me to, if you could just back off. Okay...love you too. Bye." Ichigo clicked the "end" button on his cellphone and then ran a hand through his spiky hair and looked up. "Urahara Shoten?" he snorted, then walked forward to see quite the spectacle.
"Jinta, Urahara-san asked that we please clean this area. If you could just please help—"
"Shut up! Can't ya see I'm practicin' for baseball?"
"But—"
"Shut up!" the red haired boy screamed, lifting his broom to bother the girl, to which Ichigo grabbed and jerked from his hands.
"Is there an Urahara Kisuke here?"
"What of it?" the fiery-haired boy snapped, attempting to get his broom back.
Ichigo frowned. "I need to talk to him."
"Follow me," the girl with black hair instructed, opening the door and calling out for the owner.
"Ooh, a new customer! What can I do for you?" a man with blond hair grinned, flapping out his fan and hiding his face behind it and a hat, pulling the brim down.
"Kuchiki Rukia sent me to you. She said I needed to talk to you."
The blond man narrowed his eyes behind the shadow of his hair and hat and closed his fan, walking to the back and motioning for Ichigo to follow. Ichigo reluctantly complied.
"Kuchiki Rukia, you say? I suppose she's here to even the score. Did she give you something to give me?"
"No...just paper for me to find—hey! What are you doing?"
Urahara placed his fan down and snatched the paper from Ichigo's hands and began to examine it. "Ururu, get me the black light."
Ururu nodded and dashed into the back room, then reappeared with a black light in hand and gave it to Urahara, who was now sitting. He hummed as he took the paper from the table where he laid it temporarily and then clicked the light on and hovered it over the paper. It zoned in on some characters glowing green under the light. "Kuchiki-san is much smarter than you think, Kurosaki. Now, she's instructed me to make sure you don't do anything like come back for her, make sure Inoue Orihime is all right, and that I'm to keep an eye on you. And to do so, I'm sending you with this new invention I happened to get my hands on from Kuchiki-san and her connections in the technology department. I call it the Kurosaki Observing Network, also known as Kon. Of course, the feeds come to me and Kon has a mind of his own. Let's turn the little tyke on." Urahara said gleefully, motioning to Jinta, who typed something on a computer and flipped a few switches on.
The small, inanimate plushie (if that was even what it was) came to life and started moving around, then looked up. "Hi, master!"
Ichigo bent down and poked it. "This is weird. Why again am I taking this?"
"Hey, that hurts!" the plushie swatted at his hand and Ichigo took his hand back.
"Sheesh, I thought it was just a transmitter or whatever."
"I am called artificial intelligence, I'll have you know!"
"Told ya he has a mind of his own, Kurosaki. I'd explain his mechanics, but it'd go over your head." Urahara grinned like a little school boy. "So, go on, take him, he's yours. He's quite valuable, so try and take good care of him. Also, I'm giving you instructions to not attract attention to yourself. Be a good boy and stay incognito for a while. We're done here for now. I'll contact when I want to talk to you again. Bye-bye, Kurosaki-san!"
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"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime cried, wrapping her arms around her friend with the smaller frame.
"Inoue-san, good to see you! So what brings you to my apartment?" her dark, spiky haired friend asked, grinning and scratching her casted arm.
"We just haven't seen each other in so long...I wanted to say hi! And what happened to your arm?"
"Oh...you know. I was just practicing and I sorta bruised it, then I went to a martial arts tournament and well...oops."
Orihime grinned from ear to ear. "Tatsuki-chan, you must be more careful. So who did you rescue?"
"Nobody. I was just practicing my martial arts and then some jerk made his little comments at the summer camp. He was shooting his little bow and I would have liked to choke his little neck with that, ahem, sorry. Anyway, he's just responding because I asked why he was doing archery. Apparently the guy gets picked on a lot. Then the guy had the guts to harass me about my grades. My grades! All right, I'm no genius or whatever, but I'm decent. And these are advanced classes here. Advanced! Eighty-four percent is not bad...it's no ninety-seven percent like he got, but I did hella good, I should say. So...seriously. What about your job, Inoue-san?"
Orihime smiled, spacing off and then looked back at Tatsuki. "Hm?"
"Your job?"
"Oh...I quit."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I figured it was time for me to go back to school. I've always wanted to go into the food industry or something. Do you think I'd be good?"
Tatsuki made a weird face, then stepped back and invited Orihime in. "Inoue-san, did I ever tell you that custard creme and wasabi with asparagus and cherry syrup is not good? In fact, that's just plain weird."
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"I'm bored." Kon said irately.
"You're a robot, go drink oil or shut yourself off. Wait...don't you have like...computers for eyes? Look for porn on the internet, just shut up."
"I am artificial intelligence and no, I cannot look up porn with my 'computer eyes'!" Kon replied, then looked away. "Urahara put parental blocks..."
"Whatever." Ichigo replied, then flipped the channel on his television in his room.
The door to his room opened and he threw a pillow in the general direction. "I told you to knock!"
"But Ichi-nii, I came to bring you dinner!" the blonde in a pink dress pouted.
"Fine, Yuzu...thanks. Can you go now?"
"But—"
"Yuzu, I'll take you and Karin out for breakfast tomorrow then. All right?"
His sister grinned and then handed him the plate. "Somewhere fancy, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah." he replied, closing the door behind her and flopping onto the bed after resting the platter of food on the desk.
Ichigo then allowed himself to be attacked by a swarm of questions, and much to his dismay and pleasure, they were all Rukia centered. Why did she do it? How did she do it? What even made her listen to me? Why did she believe me? A normal person would have thought I was lying my ass off...then again, Rukia isn't normal. I wonder how she is or if she's in trouble. I hope she's not. God, if she is...it would be my fault. And I would...I would need to do something.
"Stop daydreaming, Ichigo. That dazed look with your drooling makes you look like a zombie and Urahara might call the hospital."
"You idiot, I live in a medical clinic! Not to mention, I was not drooling."
"You were. I saw it."
"What you saw was probably some water leaking on your metal chip...'eyes.'" Ichigo retorted, using air quotes.
His argument was interrupted by a knock on his bedroom door. "Yuzu, I already told you...oh. Inoue? Did Yuzu let you in? But wait. Why are you—how did you?"
"Eh, Kurosaki-kun, is someone here? I heard you and a voice yelling..." she commented, pulling the top of her jacket to close around her throat awkwardly.
"Um. Don't ask. so...why are you here again?"
"Oh," her facial expression and tone changed as she let go of her jacket and rubbed her face with her hands, "Kurosaki-kun, you must help! Kuchiki-san, she's been...she's been tried and convicted of treason! She's sentenced to a private and silenced death sentence! Hardly anyone knows!"
"What? But wait. How do you know?" Ichigo repeated in disbelief, then in a worried tone.
"My friend...Arisawa Tatsuki-chan. Apparently, she went to a study group and I tagged along because I wanted to make new acquaintances and things and I was curious and there was a guy there...he had glasses and a very superficial haircut, not that it wasn't good, it's just that it is very different. But anyway, he recognized me and asked if I had worked somewhere with malfunctioning technology as part of an internship with this guy and I said yes and everything and apparently, two days ago, he overheard some people saying that a Kuchiki Rukia was to receive the death penalty for high crimes that not even I understand and he was wondering if I knew anything and I told him I didn't so then I got this call from this man Urahara Kisuke-san and I asked him where to find you, then he told me and I came to find you."
Orihime was going a mile a minute and Ichigo's head began to spin. He also felt beads of sweat on his forehead, then he snapped out of it and placed his hands on Orihime's shoulders and shook her gently. "Inoue, you must tell me everything!"
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"Rukia, can I just ask why?"
"You already have. And I will tell you once more; because he's innocent and this place has warped."
"You know who's warped? You have!"
Rukia bit her lip and held her tears back, her back facing away from him in the chair. "We all change, Renji. Each of us."
Atagoki: A LONGER CHAPTER! YAY. xD I loved writing this. I'm not even joking. I had a blast. This was so much fun to write. And I think my writing has improved. So...please review.
Also, a note, I planned on replacing this chapter with one with a few edits, but lo and behold, I had a glitch. The only way to make the edits was to delete the chapter, then post it again. How annoying. I really wanted these edits though because I was going nuts without them, so sorry if I...irritate anyone.
And remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I update.