Disclaimer:
Bleach is not mine, property of Kuto Taito…nuf' said.
Author's Note: (READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING ON TO CHAPTER 3)
Due to the seeming popularity of this fic, much to my surprise, I have decided to split the continuation of "The Babysitters Club" into two separate stories. For now, I will refer to them as the "light, humorous arc" and the "dark, angst arc." The continuation that will remain under this title will be the lighter one. The darker, more angsty continuation will be posted under a different title—to be determined later. The two continuations may have overlapping references since I'm not entirely sure what will be included in the angsty version.
Anyway, today's update is a bit on the serious side, but it's definitely the lighter of the two continuations. Just FYI, I have two separate directions for this story. While today's update may seem a bit serious, I promise lots of funny scenes either at the end of this chapter or in the next chapter.
Finally, I love to know what the readers think, so please leave reviews (preferably longer than "It's funny." or "It sucks.") so I can improve my writing. Thanks in advance.
—"Mayonaka no Taiyou (Midnight Sun)—
The Babysitters Club
Last time on "The Babysitters Club"…
'Personal Statement: I was drugged and raped by Kyouraku-taichou. –Nakata Hiromu'
'Personal Statement: I was drugged and raped by Kyouraku-taichou. –Komatsubara Yuusuke'
'Personal Statement: I was drugged and raped by Kyouraku-taichou. –Sakaki Shin'
Chapter 3: Innocent or Guilty?
4:03 PM
Nanao sat there for what seemed like hours, as she could hardly believe her eyes. She tried to tell herself that this was a dream or someone's sick idea of a joke, but she knew what she had read was real and that there was no running from such strong allegations.
Sure, her taichou was an alcoholic that of course refused to shave and a shameless flirt and womanizer in her opinion, but in all the years she had served under Shunsui, though she hated to admit it, he had always been good to her, his actions showing his true feelings. This was the first time his morality seriously came into question.
Part of her wanted to turn the page and read the gory details to be done with it, but a part of her was too scared to turn the page. For once, the truth frightened her—it was too much. Her head was starting to spin and her vision was starting to blur and darken. She smelled something sweet and intoxicating—not perfume, something…
"Nanao…" called a voice faintly from behind her. "Nanao…Maybe she didn't here me," it muttered crawling to her side. "Oi, Nanao-chan," called Shunsui, peering over her shoulder and waving his hand in front of her blank stare. "Nanao-chan?" He stopped waving his hand and looked into her eyes seriously hoping that his familiar face would somehow snap her back to reality. Thinking she was somehow playing with him, he smiled and shook her shoulder.
Nanao's body responded rather involuntarily swaying to the left and right. Shunsui nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise and shock when Nanao started falling as if in slow motion. His eyes widened in sudden concern. He moved slightly as if to catch her, missed her completely and was rewarded by her unconscious elbow slamming into his groin.
"Sorry, Nanao-cha-----------n," he groaned. "I guess I deserve it for missing your body, though. Damn, even unconscious she has good aim," he thought to himself, wincing.
9:19 PM
Nanao awoke slowly, opening her eyes and finding the world blurry all around her. She sat up slowly trying to get her bearings. A wet washcloth fell off her forehead and onto her lap, soaking the sheet that was covering the lower half of her body slightly. Nanao picked up the washcloth curiously, trying to remember why she was lying down.
She drew a blank and realized that she did not even know where she was, as she was not wearing her glasses. She began crawling on all fours, disrupting the sheets and trying vainly to find her glasses, praying that she would not accidentally smash them.
"Here," said a familiar voice. The voice held out something to her, placing it near her hands.
Nanao immediately recognized her glasses and sat up to put them on. The first thing she saw was a goofy smiled Shunsui tipping his bamboo hat up.
"Yo!" he said waving.
"T-tt-tt-taichou!" she exclaimed, backpedaling rather clumsily and landing on her practically non-existent derrière with a loud thud. "What are you doing—What the hell are you looking at!" she finished angrily, pulling her slightly open yukata closed, noticing she was looking a bit like Matsumoto.
"Nice b—OUCH!" Shunsui was just about to compliment Nanao when his serious fukutaichou turned feisty and yanked his hat off his head, banging the poor cone-shaped shade several times into her taichou's head. Then she remembered that she was in an unfamiliar place, in clothes that did not belong to her, in a bed—
"You weren't trying tt-to—" Nanao started, stuttering. "You were! Weren't you!" she gasped, panicking and stupidly backing up against a wall.
"Nanao-chan, you fainted," he said concernedly.
"I did?" she said, putting down a book she was about to chuck at the unsuspecting taichou's head.
"I don't know, one minute I was talking to you, lighting some incense. You didn't respond, so I went over to check on you. And then you fainted. Well, I tried to catch you, but I missed," he said sheepishly, leaving out the embarrassing part about being unexpectedly nailed in the groin. "I called one of the members from 4-bantai to come and treat you. They changed you out of your uniform because you were burning up."
"Oh, taichou, I'm very sorry," she said bowing deeply, putting her forehead to the floor. "I thought you might have—I'm sorry." She paused for several moments.
"Did you read the complaint?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah," he said sliding the window open, looking out at the quiet night sky. "It must have really shocked you."
"…"
"Nanao-chan, can I ask you something? Do you think I did it?"
"Well…I was always believed in looking at the evidence first before making a decision," she said carefully. "But, I was so afraid it might be true, I couldn't even bring myself to turn to the page with all the evidence…" she said turning away and keeping her eyes cast down. "I—I—"
"Nanao-chan, let me ask you something else. Do you trust me? I mean really trust me?"
"When I became a fukutaichou of 8-bantai, I swore my life to the taichou of this bantai. I trust you with my life."
"Then would you believe me if I said I'm innocent—that I didn't do it?"
"As I have always said, I will always be a few steps behind you so as not to get unnecessarily involved in something that is none of my concern, but I will always be behind you to support you."
"I see…Well, then, here's the rest of the report," he said, pulling out a tiny slip of paper from the inside of his kimono and handing it to her.
"What's this?" she asked opening it up.
"The rest of the report," he sighed. Nanao looked at the paper and slowly read it aloud to herself.
'Case 34 XP-L92-748 DA: Nakata Hiromu, Komatsubara Yuusuke & Sakaki Shin vs. 8-bantai taichou, Kyouraku Shunsui.'
"A court summon?" she asked. Shunsui nodded.
'Due to the recent assassination of the Central 46 Chamber-members, the Superior Court is to be in charge of judiciary related concerns until further notice. Your presence is required at the Superior Court 48 hours from the time stamped at the end of this form.'
"48 hours…that's plenty of time," Shunsui said stretching his arms and back lazily.
Nanao looked at the time at the bottom and then at the clock on the wall. "Taichou, that's tomorrow morning."
THE NEXT MORNING…"All rise. The Superior Court for the Gotei-13tai of the Seireitei is now in session, Judge Hitsugaya Toushirou presiding in the place of former 9-bantai taichou, Tousen Kaname."
Wearing the billowy judge's robe that was clearly meant for the taller Tousen-taichou, Hitsugaya walked in stoically, holding a file, looked around briefly and proceeded to sit on the huge podium that oversees the rest of the courtroom.
"Please be seated," he said quietly. "On record."
Iemura, receiving the nod of approval from Hitsugaya, turned on the tape recorder, opened the transcript notebook, and dipped his brush in ink.
"The case that will be heard today is the case of Nakata Hiromu, Komatsubara Yuusuke, and Sakaki Shin vs. 8-bantai taichou, Kyouraku Shunsui, 34 XP-L92-748 DA," Hitsugaya said reading off the cover of the brown file he brought in with him. He then looked at the juror's box.
"Before we commence the trial today, I would like to thank all the jurors for attending. I am about to give you the juror's oath, which requires you to make a fair decision based on the evidence that you hear in this courtroom and the law that will be explained to you. Iemura."
"Right away, Judge Hitsugaya!" he said standing up from his post. "Members of the jury, please raise your right hand. Kira, Byakuya, Yachiru, Renji, Hinamori, Nemu, Komamura, Soi Fon, and Ikkaku raised their hands solemnly.
"Do each of you solemnly swear or affirm that you will base and make your decision in the case now before the court solely on the evidence given in the court and the law which the judge will explain to you?"
"I do," came a unified response.
"You may be seated," said Hitsugaya, shuffling his papers. "You are about to hear evidence in this case and must decide by considering only the information you receive from this very courtroom. You must put aside any feelings of anger, sympathy, passion, or prejudice you might have. The decisions you make here must be based on a fair evaluation of the evidence presented."
"As you hear the witnesses testify," he continued, without missing a beat. "You must decide who to believe and how much their testimony should be valued. Consider the following as you listen to each witness: 1) the attitude, behavior, and appearance of the witness as they conduct themselves in court, 2) how well the witness can recall what transpired, and 3) any reason they may have for withholding or deviating from the truth. It is up to you all, as members of the jury, to decide whether to believe all, part, or none of what each of the witnesses testifies to here."
Hitsugaya looked around for any inconsistencies in his courtroom before proceeding.
"Is the prosecution prepared to give its opening statement on behalf of its three clients?"
"Thank you your honor," said the well-groomed professional attorney the prosecution had hired, standing up to make his case. "The defendant you see before you has willfully harmed my clients, drugging them, forcing them to consume alcoholic beverages, and sexually exploiting them while they were in an inebriated state."
"Is the defense prepared to give its opening statement?"
"Yes," said Shunsui standing up, his pink haori gone and replaced with the standard white haori, clean and pressed with the 8-bantai emblem in the back.
Nanao sitting in back with all the documents froze and her jaw dropped.
"Taichou! This is the brilliant lawyer! Yourself! You're going to represent yourself!" she sputtered.
"Why not?"
"I don't mean to be presumptuous, but this is just crazy! You don't even have a law background! Do you realize what can happen if you're found guilty!"
"Nanao-chan, relax. I know what I'm doing," he winked.
"Ahem, now if there are no other lover squabbles, Kyouraku-taichou," Hitsugaya said, clearing his throat. "Your opening statement?"
"Sorry, sorry," Shunsui said waving at Nanao to return to her seat. He scratched his beard thoughtfully and exhaled. "Opening statement…hmmm…I think I'm being wrongly accused. Period."
Nanao nearly fell off her chair.
"Would you like to add anything to that?" Hitsugaya asked curiously, breaking out of the formality of the whole situation, slightly cocking one eyebrow up.
"Nope."
To be continued…
Author's Note
I based my "trial" mostly on the American justice system, since I don't know much about the Japanese one or the one they used to sentence Rukia. I'm not a law major or anything. I did research and this was the best I could do. I want order so that my characters can wreck havoc on it.
Anyway, I hoped to convey a somewhat believable court ambience—but of course with people like Shunsui, we need lots of bailiffs! Order in the court! Objection! Craziness on crack shall ensue next chapter when witnesses are actually called to the stands. Tune in for another chapter…