Hime Monongatari
Chapter 4: School Trip, eh?
The sun had nearly disappeared on the west horizon, causing the world to appear painted in blood. The sky, which was redder than the color of a Momiji tree's leaf, was decorated by some thin, orange clouds here and there. Soon, the night would fall, and the cool autumn air would grow even cooler.
A black limousine drove steadily on the main-road of Karakura Town. Inside the car, sat two girls in Karakura High School uniform, Kuchiki Rukia and Matsumoto Rangiku. They were on their way back from the school to Kuchiki Manor.
"Is there something wrong, Rukia-chan?" Rangiku asked the petite girl when she saw the unusual glint in her eyes. "You look … nervous," she added.
Rukia sighed heavily and leaned her head against the car's cold window. "I really am nervous, Nee-chan," said Rukia, "It's because of the school trip…. Ochi-sensei told us that the first-year students will have a school trip to Kyoto next week."
Upon hearing the words 'school trip', Rangiku's eyes lit up, a wide smile appearing on her lips. She leaned closer to Rukia and patted the raven-haired girl's shoulder cheerfully.
"Isn't that exciting, Rukia-chan? Your very first school trip!" she said excitedly. "You can visit tons of interesting places with your friends! And you can even try to find a boyfriend during the trip!" the strawberry-blond said with an amused expression, "No need to be nervous! It'll be fun, trust me!"
Rukia's brows furrowed and she shook her head. "Sure it'll be fun if there's no the 'you need your parents permission to go on the trip' part," she exclaimed. "I really don't have any idea about how I should ask their permission…. Besides, I doubt Mom will let me go… and I bet, right after I tell her about it, she will start to give me the long speech about how dangerous a school trip can be without having any bodyguards around," Rukia said, rubbing her temple anxiously.
Rangiku, being her usual cheerful and positive self, just laughed at Rukia's words. Then she patted the petite Kuchiki again, "Cheer up, Rukia-chan! Let's' hope Byakuya-sama will let you go for the trip so that pleading to Hisana-sama will be easier."
Shifting her gaze to the reddish scenery outside her window, Rukia realized that Rangiku was right; if she got the permission from her father, pleading her mother would be much easier. After all, her mother always trusted all of her father's decisions.
She mumbled softly more to herself than to her Nee-chan, "Yeah…. Dad."
--###--
When Rukia arrived in Kuchiki Manor, the first person she looked for was her father. Really, she just wanted to get over with this asking permission thing as fast as possible.
The petite girl walked hastily on the long, cozy corridor of her house leading to the library. Around this time, her father was usually there, reading some books and having some tea while waiting for the dinner. And when she finally faced the huge door of their private library on the end of the corridor, she quickly opened it and popped her head into the room.
"Dad?" she called for her father as her purple eyes roamed the vast room filled by bookshelves, making sure that he was really there.
"I am over here."
Rukia heard the reply came from around the corner of the room, behind a large, old bookshelf. The raven-haired girl then stepped into the library and closed the door behind her without a sound. After that, she walked towards the source of the voice. There, on the corner of the library, under the huge window, she found her father sat on a comfortable couch, reading a thick book with his usual aristocratic expression.
Upon seeing his daughter coming over, Byakuya lowered his book and moved his gaze from its pages to Rukia. He looked straight to his daughter's big eyes with a questioning look.
"Erm… Dad," Rukia said nervously, "May I talk to you?"
"I'm listening," said Byakuya with his monotonous voice.
"It's about my school trip."
Byakuya merely raised an eyebrow, asking a further explanation from his daughter.
--###--
Ulquiorra sat on a chair in a VIP hospital room. His green eyes were fixed on the ill figure sitting on the bed in front him, a figure of a forty year old, brown-haired man. As the man in front of him read the papers on his hands, Ulquiorra examined his appearance. He noticed that the man he had known for seven years had been thinner during these last three months, and he had grew even paler—though Ulquiorra was still paler than him.
"I see," the brown-haired man, Sousuke Aizen, said as he finished reading the papers given by Ulquiorra a moment ago. "So, you and Grimmjow will go for a school trip to Kyoto," he said again with a faint smile.
Ulquiorra nodded. "Yes," he said, "And we need our guardian's permission—your permission—for this trip."
"Ah, yes, yes," Aizen nodded lightly, still smiling, "Don't worry, I'll give you two the permission you need. What I have to do is just sign on these letters from your teachers, right?"
"Yes, Aizen-sama."
Then silence followed as Aizen took a pen from the nightstand next to his bed and put his signature on the permit letters from the school.
Ulquiorra sighed silently. To be honest, he didn't really want to go; it wasn't like he found that the trip interesting. Besides, right now was definitely not the right time for a trip, he thought, eyeing the ill figure in front of him. But… well, he needed to go; he had something to do during the upcoming trip.
"Anyways, Ulquiorra," Aizen called him, snapping the green-eyed boy back from his own thoughts, "Why are there only two letters? Where's Nnoitora's?" he asked, handing the papers back to the pale-skinned boy.
Taking the papers back, Ulquiorra answered his guardian's question with his usual plain tone, "Nnoitora said he has no interest in this program, therefore he didn't give his letter to you; he won't go."
"I see then," the brown-haired man said.
"Thank you for the permission, Aizen-sama," Ulquiorra said as he got up from the chair. He then bowed deeply to his guardian before turned on his heel and walked to the door.
The green-eyed boy stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him smoothly. He then drifted to three figures standing not so far from him. Ulquiorra moved closer to the three.
"Have you met the doctor?" he asked with his deep and seemingly emotionless voice.
"Yeah," Grimmjow, who was leaning on the wall next to Nnoitora, was the one who answered solemnly.
"So?"
Shaking her head a little, Neliel answered sadly, "The cancer cells have grew too strong, there's nothing we can do. Aizen-sama's life wouldn't last more than two months."
--###--
The sun was shining brightly in the clear autumn sky this morning. The wind, though it was still cool, wasn't as cool as yesterday—thanks to the sunshine.
Ah… what a perfect day for a trip.
With a happy and triumphant smile, Rukia stood on the front schoolyard, along with the other first-year students. They were listening to Yahiko-sensei's short announcement about their schedules—including the places they'd visit—during their time in Kyoto. But, actually, no one was really listening since they were too excited chatting about how fun this trip would be (after all, they would get the written schedule, so why bother to listen?). Soon, they would depart to the station, and take the shinkansen to Kyoto.
"Kuchiki-san," Orihime, who stood right beside the petite girl, spoke to her with a cheerful smile, "I'm glad your parents allowed you to join this school trip with us."
Rukia smiled back to the orange-haired girl. "I'm glad as well, Inoue-san," she said, remembering how hard the efforts she had undertaken just to gain her father's signature on the permit letter and a 'you may go' from her mother.
Yesterday, if you want to know, she took an hour just to explain to her father about how important this school trip for her—and how bad she wanted to go—so that he would sign on the letter. And after she got it from her father, Rukia did her best to plead her mother (it took three tiring hours). She even used her acting skills—her fake tears—to make her mother let her go on the trip.
And finally, today, Rukia could taste the sweetness from her efforts; here she stood, with her friends, waiting for their departure. The first school trip of Kuchiki Rukia! She really couldn't stop smiling due to the excitement she felt.
"I think that's all, kids!" Yahiko-sensei finally exclaimed, indicating that his announcement is over. "Now, get into the buses!" he said, pointing the buses waiting in front of the school gate that would drive them to the station.
Waiting for no second order, the students quickly picked up their bags and charged on the buses. It wasn't very long before all the students and the teachers who would accompany them on the trip got in, and so they departed to the station.
--###--
Two hours later, the students of Karakura High School finally arrived at Kyoto Station. And from there on, the students would use six rented buses waiting for them in front of the station to travel around Kyoto, the seventh largest city in Japan that preserved its historical and ancient beauty.
As soon as they got out from the station, the students quickly got into the buses and occupied the seat they liked. As for Rukia, being the student who went in a trip like this for the first time in her life, it was rather difficult to get a seat. She had no experience in the seat scramble; every time she went to occupy one, someone else always popped out of seemingly nowhere, passed her by and took the seat first. Great, now, it was getting on her nerves….
'Couldn't they just take the other seats?!' Rukia cursed in her mind
Groaning mentally, Rukia dragged herself further into the bus, trying to find any empty seat available. And she found out that the only one left was on the back row—the furthest row from the bus' door, between Renji's and the certain ice-cube dude's seat… Why, for heaven's sake, WHY the only place left had to be beside him…?
Rukia sighed. Deciding that it would be better to sit there than to stand all the way there, Rukia finally took her heavy bags off her shoulder and put it with the other bags on the shelf over the seats. Then, she placed herself on the empty space between Renji, who was arguing about random stuff with the carrot-top sat next to him, and Ulquiorra, who was busying himself already with a book in his hand, completely ignoring his surroundings.
Rukia looked at the green-eyed boy's bored expression and raised her brow. Honestly, Rukia found it was quite intriguing. He didn't look like the type who would enjoy a trip like this, nor did he seem to have any interest in the trip—even the book on his hand seemed to be more interesting for him. But if he really didn't like it, then why did sign up?
"What are you staring at?" Ulquiorra suddenly asked her, not taking his emerald-green eyes off the book.
"Huh?" Rukia was surprised. Did he just ask her? So, he wasn't fully ignoring his surroundings, eh? He realized that someone was staring at him after all.
"Must I repeat myself?"
Rukia twitched. Heck… why did he have the tendency to be cold and rude? Maybe, Izuru's advice was right, she'd better stay away from this boy since he was definitely not a nice person; he was a jerk!
"Don't get me wrong, I was staring to nothing in particular," she answered harshly as she leaned her head on the seat's back, throwing her gaze away from the pale figure beside her. Like hell Rukia was going to admit that she was indeed staring at him a moment ago.
"Hn."
Upon hearing this, Rukia twitched again. What was that sarcastic 'Hn' supposed to mean?! She turned her head and glared at Ulquiorra with rage in her big, purple eyes.
"If that glare is supposed to intimidate me, I tell you, Kuchiki Rukia, it doesn't seem to work," Ulquiorra said plainly as he cast a sideway look to the petite Kuchiki.
"WHAT?!" Rukia's glare grew more intense as she shouted.
"And in case you want to know, right now, some students are giving you the similar glare you're giving to me."
Rukia blinked her eyes. Huh? Some students were glaring to her? Then, when she roamed her eyes around the bus to confirm the truth of Ulquiorra's words, she found that more than half of the female students were indeed glaring at her with how-dare-you-shouted-like-that-to-Ulquiorra glare. The petite Kuchiki was dumbfounded. What was wrong with them?!
Tsk, tsk… Little Rukia never knew that 70% female students in her class were members of the 'Ulquiorra Fan Club' (she didn't even know such a club existed). But even if she knew, she surely wouldn't care. Right now, there was only one thing she cared: if look could kill, she surely would be dead at this very moment. Fan girls were indeed dangerous…
"Okay kids! Has everyone got a seat?" suddenly, Ochi-sensei's voice broke out, saving Rukia from further glare given by Ulquiorra's fan girls.
"Yes, Ma'am!" most of the students answered vigorously in unison.
Now, all attentions were focused on Ochi-sensei—even Ulquiorra's fan girls seemed to forget about their rage at Rukia for the moment. They focused on what was Ochi-sensei going to say.
Noticing that the students had fully paid their attentions to her now, Ochi-sensei clasped her hands happily. "Good. Now, I'll introduce our class' tour guide, Yamada-san," said Ochi-sensei, nodding to a petite, black-haired man in white shirt who was standing beside her.
The petite man, who looked like he could faint at any minute due to his nervousness, nodded back to Ochi-sensei. "Hello…. Erm… I'm Yamada Hanatarou, I'll be your guide form here on," he said to the students with a sheepish smile.
And after the short introduction of their nervous tour guide, the buses started moving. According to Yamada-san and the written schedule given by Ochi-sensei, first, they would visit Honganji Temples that consisted of Nishi Honganji and Higashi Honganji, two large temples in the center of Kyoto.
The buses moved on the way to temples steadily, while the students were getting more and more excited, eager to see the famous temples and other historical places as well. Little did they know that out there, a black car was tailing them.
Inside the suspicious black car, sat four passengers: four men in black suits. One of the passengers, the man who sat next to the driver, took his mobile phone off his pocket and dialed a number.
"It's me," he spoke to the phone once he heard the soft 'click' on the other end of the line, indicating that someone had picked the phone, "Yes, we've found her—we're following her right now. Don't worry; we won't fail. Soon, Kuchiki Rukia will be in our hands."
--TO BE CONTINUED--
A/N: Yay! Chapter four! Soon, Rukia would find out that her first school trip would be far from normal. *evil grin*
Again, thank you so much for all those reviews, favorites, and alerts! They're my oases amidst the dessert called laziness. And special thanks goes to Cat Alex; sorry for all the mess I made! _
Disclaimer: BLEACH is not (and will never be) mine.
Review please~~ n_n