Hellooo! This is my longest chapter, like, ever. What a milestone. And it's not even that long :P
Anyway, if you guys are hoping for some lemons there isn't any in this chapter i'm afraid... But be patient, it's coming! Enjoy and review ;) x
Ichigo and his friends sat in the Centre, being as loud and obnoxious as they wanted – the other Desumacchi contestants were too scared and spirit-crushed to stand up to the shiny new idiots. All of them had been branded with a tattoo under their eye, saying 'NEWBIE'. Though disgruntled at being called 'newbies', the group had accepted the tattoo, simply because it granted them 3 days free passage, and they'd been assured that it would disappear after the days. They could go almost anywhere around the city safely – even the dodgier districts. Gin had explained that Desu consisted of 13 'Divisions' – all known for their different reasons. There was a prohibited division, though. Apparently, Division 1 was to be entered by invitation only.
A purple-haired woman, Yoruichi, had made friends with the group. She seemed to be very strong, and when they'd met her, she already had 3 gold medals. She'd explained about the Divisions, the safer ones, the shops with the best prices, and the more helpful of the Keepers to go to. Keepers owned bars, inns and clubs and such, and it was well known that some of them would help you while some would gut you – it was just finding the right ones. Yoruichi being around had provided Ichigo with some comfort, but he understood that the beautiful woman was trying to win this thing, and she couldn't do that by hanging around with newbies.
"Hey Dream-boy!" yelled Rukia, tapping the orangette on the head, "Let's move. We're gonna go see these Keepers Yoruichi told us about, try and gain some friends."
The scattered people moved out of the way as Ichigo's gang passed through, scrambling to get out of the path of the muscular, weapon-wielding troop.
Yoruichi had advised that they devise a kind of gang name. She said it would gain them some notoriety and respect – probably keeping them safer from attack and multiplying their friends. So far, Rangiku wanted 'Gang Beautiful', Ikkaku wanted 'Gang Ikkaku', while Rukia and Renji had come up with 'The Crush Brigade'. Each of these ideas had been soundly stamped down by Yoruichi, thankfully.
The group reached the tavern that Yoruichi had told them about. It was a cute looking place in one of the nicer districts, with surprisingly little blood splattered around. It looked reasonably secure, although had the look of a place that had been fixed repeatedly. Traipsing inside, the gang found a dim room, lit up by candles. Tables were tightly-packed, yet everyone looked comfortable enough. The warm lighting and friendly bartender made the tavern a desirable and reassuring place to be.
"Sorry, no more room! You'll have to leave I'm afraid," cried the bartender, rushing towards them with an apologetic look, "Oh, you're Newbies! Come in then, come in. Isane, take care of the bar?" yelled the woman, smiling as she beckoned the gang through a curtain of dusty red velvet, into a back room. She had long black hair, which streamed down her back like a waterfall.
The room was cosy, with a sweet fire and plenty of fat sofas and cushions around.
"Sit down," grinned the woman. Her voice was melodic and her laugh tinkled. The sound alone made you love the woman.
"I'm Unohana," the woman introduced herself as the gang settled into the cushy seating, "I'm Division 4's Main Keeper. Some of the places you'll go to don't have names, but welcome to The Mayfly!"
"Hi! We're… Well, we don't have a gang name yet, but I'm Ichigo."
The rest of the group proceeded to introduce themselves to the lovely woman, feeling completely at home here. After chatting for a while, Unohana handed Ichigo a card. It was bright yellow and had her smiling face on it. Next to her face it said 'Keeper Unohana's Favour Card'
"Favour card?"
"I knew as soon as you walked in that you were a lovely group. I'll tell you about Keeper cards then! As Keepers, we have these, Favour Cards. They mean that you can commission the Keeper who gave you them to do you one favour, or give them to the punishers as a way out of your punishment. They're worth quite a lot around here! You can sell them to other players for medals. Of course, some Keeper Cards are worth more than others, depending on how often the Keeper gives them out, or what kind of 'Favours' they'll do. For example, mine aren't worth much because I don't do any killing, attacking or stealing favours. And, I guess I hand them out quite a lot…" she grinned sheepishly, "Anyway, it'll get you a meal each, so save it until you're starved! Or, i'm pretty skilled at healing if you need it."
After a while, the group said goodbye to their 'Desu Mother', as they now liked to think of her, and left to go to the next Keeper.
"By the way," yelled Unohana out the door as they walked away, "How about Shinigami for your gang name? Just an idea!"
This bar had a very different atmosphere to The Mayfly. It was run down, blood stained, dark and… empty. The Keeper looked uncaring - yet you could tell he was strong. He ignored them as they walked in, staying sat firmly behind the bar, eyes closed and head leaning against the wall. The gang sat down, and Ichigo ventured over to the bar, as he was deemed as 'most charming' during the whispered argument that had just been held at the table. Picking his way past the dirty furniture which had been thrown around, he reached the bar, smiling with his most winning smile.
"Hi. 10 beers, please." Though Ichigo hated beer, he didn't want to look un-manly when even the girls were drinking it.
All the Keeper said in reply was "Tch." He got up slowly, grabbed 10 bottles and slammed them on the counter. Dust exploded from both bar and bottles.
"10 bronze," the Keeper said lazily, holding out his hand. Ichigo paid up, and then made a show of looking around the bar with interest. "Nice place," he started, but the Keeper gave him such a cold look that he gave up and returned to his friends.
"No worries Ichi, we'll just keep buying drinks until he likes us. Yoruichi said he's brilliant when you're on good terms."
A few people came in every now and then, mainly just to talk to the Keeper. After 2 or 3 more drinks, a pretty girl with green hair came in to talk to the moody man. After a short conversation, the man came out from behind his bar.
"You lot need to leave. I've got a Favour to do."
"Hey, can we just hang around? Swear we won't steal any booze or anything."
"Tch." The Keeper and the green haired girl walked out, her smiling and waving as they went.
"So… Shinigami," grinned Renji, swigging from bottle, "How are we gonna get this guy to like us?"
"Maybe Rangiku should try and charm him with her assets?" chuckled Ikkaku, prodding Rangiku in before-mentioned places, much to her disgust.
After a sound beating from all the girls, Ikkaku sat quietly nursing his face – thoroughly put in his place. Ichigo looked around his friends, now labelled 'Shinigami' – Death God. He couldn't help but grin as he watched them, yelling, fighting, laughing, chatting. There was no way he could get hurt with this lot – he'd never seen such a tough load of people. Sure, maybe he and Hime were weak points in the group, but he was pretty sure that once he got over his problems with hurting people he'd be more than an adept fighter. After all, he was agile, and through vigorous training of Tatsuki's, he was very good at judo.
The Keeper still hadn't returned hours later, and the gang were exhausted from their day. It was late, and they'd been doing nothing but screaming and jumping around since before the sun had even risen. One by one, the group began to curl into balls in corners, under tables, sprawled across each other and using one another as pillows.
The group were woken abruptly when a rowdy group of people came in. One of them stepped forward when they saw the Newbies stirring on the floor. He had sharp blonde hair, and a smile like piano keys.
"Ah, these must be the likkle new kids in town we heard so much about," he eyed up Rangiku, receiving a scowl in return, "They're certainly as attractive as we heard, anyway."
Suddenly, the arrogant blonde was punched to the floor, and another member of his gang stood with her foot on his chest.
"Pervert!" she screamed at him, stamping on him repeatedly with surprising brutality.
"Hiyori, calm down!" cried another member, a large man with silvery hair and rippling muscles, pulling her gently off the blonde – much to her, loudly voiced, anger.
With a sigh at the chaos, a serious looking woman with black hair and glasses came to stand in front of Ichigo and his friends, who were watching with confused amusement.
"We're the Visoreds. We're the top gang in Desu, and if you try and gain power or some shit, we'll kill you. Don't get cocky and think you can take us. One of us could take down the lot of you within seconds, Shinigami."
With a hard, warning glare, the woman walked out of the inn, commenting "Let's go somewhere less trashy." She was the most terrifying woman Ichigo had ever seen. Her eyes were so scary it felt like she'd just gutted him with them.
Some of the other members followed her out, a couple of them being friendly enough to give an apologetic smile or a small wave. Left in the room was the piano toothed man and the short, blonde girl – Hiyori. They both glanced around in confusion at the disappearance of the rest of their gang, the boy quickly struggling to his feet.
"So… You've been warned," he nodded awkwardly - obviously it was him that had been meant to do the warning, "Don't mess."
Pulling the girl, he headed for the door, stopping for a moment to grin and say, "I'm Shinji, by the way."
Everyone was slightly shell shocked at the ordeal. Sitting in silence and staring, dumbfounded, at the door.
"…What just happened?" Ichigo asked slowly after a moment.
"I have no idea," replied Rukia, laughing slightly.
"Ew," sneered Yumichika, standing to brush dust off of himself, "What a bunch of uglies. There's no way they're powerful, only beautiful people are powerful."
The group began to laugh loudly, and didn't even notice the Keeper return.
"Shut up. Why are you being so loud?"
Gasping, everyone quietened immediately, heads whipping around to look at the Keeper apologetically. Unexpectedly, slight amusement and a small smile spread on to his face. It was quickly wiped away.
"Why were those damn Visoreds in my inn?"
"I think they were looking for us. Bastards," commented Renji with an angry glint in his eye.
The Keeper again smiled a little as he took in the scene. "Why are you kids all on the floor? Did the Visoreds beat you up or something?"
Ichigo sensed the banter in the Keeper's voice with satisfaction. Perhaps he was warming to them, after all. He seemed like a strong guy, definitely worth knowing.
The others, though, did not sense the banter. Everyone, even Orihime, immediately began yelling heatedly.
"They could never take us!"
"Who the hell are they, anyway?"
"How could you ever think that such ugly people could touch us?"
The Keeper observed the fiery gang with a blank expression for a few moments. Then, he chuckled. All the Shinigami went silent, staring at the rough man in disbelief.
"I like you kids. You've got passion. You'll go far," he smiled, transforming his bored face into something that was handsome and endearing. Ten pairs of eyes watched his curiously as he went behind his bar and started pulling out beer bottles.
"On the house. Come, on, sit at the bar, we'll have a chat," the previously terrifying man beckoned to the group with a friendly smile, pouring himself some sake.
"So," the Keeper passed Ichigo the bottle opener, which, unfortunately, meant that he had to drink yet another beer, "newbies, hm? What made you want to join?"
After spitting his bottle cap out of his mouth (which he only did when he was trying to look tough, because it hurt his teeth), Renji grinned "because who doesn't need a little extra fun in their lives, right?"
The older man snorted. "Right. I'm Kyoraku, by the way."
Gasps passed through the gang. "You're one of the Espada?" Rukia asked, respect in her voice.
The pony-tailed man laughed, nodding. "Now, I'm closing up, you can sleep in here if you want though. Lock it up. Goodnight!"
He gave a smile to the group before tossing Ichigo a key and heading through a door behind the bar with a slam.
"He likes us," grinned Ichigo.
"Task accomplished," agreed Rangiku, snuggling down in a corner, using her silk pink scarf as a pillow, "although… we've ended up in a rather dirty place."
"Yeah, couldn't we go back to Center?" Yumichika grimaced at the dirty furniture, poking a completely blood-coated chair leg with his foot, and muttering as an afterthought, "How did this even happen?"
Ichigo glanced at one of the grimy windows. His heart began to race at the prospect of heading back to Center in this dark, even if they were protected by their 'Newbie' status.
"No," he said decisively, "we'll stay here. It's dang… Er, I mean, I'm tired."
There were some murmurs of consent from his friends, as they proceeded to drape themselves over each other, everyone trying to stay off the sticky floor. The orangette smiled tenderly at his pile of friends, before heading to the large, solid-looking door to lock up. A cold breeze whipped at Ichigo's face as he approached, and cinnamon eyes widened in fear as he noticed the gap, displaying the dark night. He turned to call Renji, or Chad, but stopped himself at the last second. How pathetic he was! It was only an open door. Clearly Desu made him on edge. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the boy approached the door and tried to push it closed. Ichigo shoved the dark wood, but it wouldn't move.
"Fucking… door!" he grunted, throwing his weight against it. He growled in frustration and yanked it open to find the cause of the problem, and jumped out of his skin when he saw it.
The man was leaning languidly against the door frame, a handsome smile on his face. After a small chuckle at Ichigo's reaction, he reached forward and grabbed him, easily throwing the boy over his shoulder and moving swiftly into the darkness of the night.
"Hey, orange."
I smell lemons in the air! Oh wait, that's just my lemonade...
Paha. Sorry, that was awful X)
Now my pretties, do remember to review. I'd love to hear from every single one of you 3