Hime Monogatari

Chapter 5: 'Accidentally' Shoot Her? No Way!

"Woooow…!" Orihime exclaimed in amazement at the spectacular view seen from the verandah of the Kiyomizudera's Main Hall. "The scenery was really beautiful!"

"Yeah," Rukia answered in awe as she stared at the vivid-colored autumn scenery extending before her eyes.

It was the second day of their school trip and they were visiting Kiyomizudera, the 16th of the Western Japan 33 Kan'non pilgrimage sites and the most popular place in Kyoto. The best attraction of the temple is the main hall that had a huge verandah—where the students of Karakura High School were standing right now—with 139 support beams underneath it. The view from the verandah, like Orihime had mentioned, was really beautiful.

The students were enjoying the view as they listened to the guide's explanations about the temple's history and other information related to the famous temple.

But suddenly, Rukia felt a shiver run down her spine and the back of her neck prickled; she felt like there was someone stared intently with a rather murderous intent towards her. Quickly, she turned around and her eyes roamed around the verandah, trying to find where the murderous look she just felt came from. And the petite girl found that no one was staring at her.

How strange… Actually, it wasn't the first time she had felt this kind of gaze on her. She had felt like there was someone tailing and keeping an eye on her since her first day in Kyoto, since she was at Honganji Temples. But Rukia always failed to find who the stalker was since every time she tried to find the owner of the murderous gaze she always found that no one was staring at her. And frankly, it started to creep her out. Was there someone who had bad intentions towards her? What if there was someone who wanted to… kill her?

"Kuchiki-san?" someone tapped Rukia's shoulder, snapping the said girl from her fearsome thoughts.

Turning around, Rukia found Orihime staring at her with a worried expression. "H-huh? What is it, Inoue-san?" asked the raven-haired girl.

"You were spacing out, Kuchiki-san," the orange-haired girl said with slight apprehension in her voice. "Is there something wrong?"

Trying to cover her anxiousness, Rukia used her acting skills and successfully smiled an honest-looking smile to Orihime. "Oh, nothing really."

For a moment, Orihime kept staring at Rukia, as if she wasn't really sure of her answer. And when finally Orihime smiled back to Rukia as an acceptance of the answer, Ochi-sensei and Yamada-san had gathered their classmates.

"Okay, kids, now you'll have some free time. But make sure to come back to the bus before 3:00 pm! Or else, we'll leave you to the next site!" Ochi-sensei said with a wide smile.

--###--

"Jishu Jinja?" Tatsuki asked the orange-haired girl, raising her brow.

"Un!" Orihime nodded excitedly as an answer. "We went around the temple and tasted the water in Otowa Fall, so, now is the time for Jishu Jinja! Besides, we still have plenty of time."

Jishu Jinja was a small shrine tucked away behind Kiyomizudera Temple that dedicated to Okuninushi no Mikoto, the god of love and match making. And Tatsuki, being the one who had known Orihime for a long time, knew that the orange-haired girl really wanted to visit the said shrine—she knew Orihime liked those kind of things; amulets sold in the shrines that promised good luck for your love life, fortune telling, strange spells to make your confession successful (which later proved to be a bunch of fake, useless spells), etcetera.

"Well, it's okay with me," Tatsuki said, scratching the back of her head, "What about you, Rukia?" she asked the petite Kuchiki who went with them since they left the Main Hall.

Rukia smiled to the two girls, "Sounds good to me."

"Yosh!" Orihime exclaimed happily, "It's settled then! Let's go to Jishu Jinja!"

With that, Orihime quickly grabbed Tatsuki and Rukia's arm, dragging the two girls to Jishu Jinja, despite Tatsuki's protest.

Once they arrived at the shrine, the girls found a pair of rocks—known as koiuranai no ishi (Love Rocks), set in the ground in front of the shrine about sixty feet apart from each other. And when Orihime saw it, she squealed in joy and quickened her pace, dragging along the two raven-haired girls with her.

"So, these are the koiuranai no ishi!" said Orihime as she took the picture of the stones using her mobile phone.

Rukia, feeling a bit confused as to why Orihime was so excited about the two stones, looked at Tatsuki and asked, "Koiuranai no ishi?"

Tatsuki smiled at the petite Kuchiki. "You don't know, eh? People said that if we can successfully walk from one rock to the other with our eyes closed, we supposedly will find true love. And if we're helped by someone to walk between the stones, that means we will need a go between for our future love," Tatsuki explained.

"That's just a myth, right?" Rukia asked again with a doubtful look.

The tomboyish girl just shrugged her shoulder. "Well, I personally think so. But our Orihime here believes this myth and she wants to try if she can walk between the so-called love rocks, hoping that her true love will be none other than Kurosaki Ichigo," she said with a teasing grin, "Right, Orihime?"

Upon hearing her best friend's teasing, Orihime went red. "I-It has nothing to do with Kurosaki-kun!" she stuttered.

"Ohhh… I see now," Rukia said, smiling teasingly to the orange-haired girl—who grew even redder.

"Erm…. W-well, since we're here now, why don't you try it, Kuchiki-san?" Orihime asked the purple-eyed girl nervously.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. After all, it's your first school trip, isn't it? So I think you deserve to try it first!" Orihime said, pushing Rukia towards one of the rocks.

As she was being pushed to the nearer rock, Rukia glanced to Tatsuki, who was giving her a look that said, 'Oh, Orihime is just trying to change the subject.' The petite girl chuckled lightly.

"Fine, fine, I'll try it," she said, so that Orihime would stop pushing her.

And so Rukia closed her eyes; she began walking towards the other rock stood sixty feet in front of her. Even though Rukia didn't really believe such a myth, she somehow felt excited. What if she really could successfully make it to the other rock and found a true love afterwards? And what if she failed? Would she be a single for her entire life? But it was just a myth, after all, and Rukia decided there was no need to put too much faith on such a trivial thing.

Smiling due to the excitement she felt, Rukia kept walking at a steady pace, making sure that she didn't go out of the supposed track. And somehow, she was sure that she almost made it. Just a few steps more and…

"Oh!"

Rukia felt her foot trip on a small stone stuck in a narrow space between two paving blocks on her way. Snapping her eyes open, Rukia found that the gap between her face and her destination—the rock—was subsiding. She could hear the surprised and fearful gasps from Orihime and Tatsuki. Panicked, Rukia just shut her eyes again—tighter, this time—and prepared her body to receive the pain when her head hit the hard surface of the rock.

'Oh boy… I'll be sent to a hospital in my first school trip? That's not funny,' Rukia thought.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

Huh? Wait, this was weird… Why hadn't she hit it yet?

Curiously, Rukia cracked her purple eyes open to meet the piercing green-eyed stare of none other than Ulquiorra. Rukia blinked her eyes for a couple times before she fully realized that Ulquiorra was holding her with his right arm, stopping her from hitting the rock. She could feel his arm around her waist, supporting her weight, and Rukia's cheeks burned reluctantly in embarrassment. The petite girl hated to admit it, but he was quite strong if he could hold her using only a single arm.

"You'd better be careful, Kuchiki Rukia," he addressed the petite girl by her full name as usual, putting Rukia back on her feet. "Because the danger can be anywhere, waiting for the right time to swallow you."

With that, Ulquiorra turned on his heel and walked away, leaving the stunned Rukia behind him; her mind was too busy trying to absorb what the true meaning behind his words were.

Ulquiorra walked passed Orihime and Tatsuki who were still shocked, heading to a teal-haired guy—whom Rukia recognized as Grimmjow, one of Ulquiorra's 'friends' she met that day at the back of the gym—stood a couple feet away, waiting for him. Once Ulquiorra reached at him, Grimmjow joined the green-eyed boy and left the shrine.

After she managed to recover from her shock, Orihime quickly approached the petite, raven-haired girl, asking her warily, "Y-you alright, Kuchiki-san?"

Still stunned by the green-eyed boy's words, Rukia just nodded, murmuring a soft, "Yeah…"

"Good thing that Ulquiorra caught you before your head landed on the rock, though I wonder what was he doing here… He couldn't be looking for some amulets from this shrine, right?" Tatsuki said as she approached Orihime and Rukia with a sigh of relieve.

But the petite Kuchiki just ignored her friend's comment. Right now, her mind was too busy thinking on what Ulquiorra had said…

"The danger can be anywhere, waiting for the right time to swallow you."

And Rukia shivered slightly as she remembered the murderous look she often felt recently. Did it have something to do with Ulquiorra…?

--###--

Ochi-sensei was walking toward the parking lot alone. Soon, it would be 3 pm and the students would get back to the bus, and she decided she would head beck there now, waiting for them.

When she arrived at the parking lot, she found no teachers were there. Well, perhaps the other teachers were still on their way here and would come in a minute or two, she thought.

But apparently, Ochi-sensei wasn't the first person arrived there because when she entered the bus for 1-A's students, she found an unconscious Yamada-san laid on the bus' floor with tight ropes tied to his hands and feet, and a white handkerchief gagging him, preventing him from make any noise if he woke up.

Behind her spectacles, Ochi-sensei's eyes widened. "Yamada-san!!" She quickly approached the unconscious figure of the said tour guide, "Yamada-san! You alright?! Yamada-san, answer me!!"

"Don't worry, Sensei, he's okay," spoke a cold, deep male voice from behind her.

Turning her head around in shock, Ochi-sensei found a lanky, black-haired man stood behind her with a cold smirk on his lips.

"Who are-?"

Ochi-sensei's word was cut off by a white handkerchief pressed over her mouth and nose. Soon, the strong smell of chloroform invaded her nose. It just took few seconds before she found everything was faded into pitch black and her body grew heavy. She blacked out.

Nimbly, the thin man caught her body and placed her on the front seat. The man made sure that Ochi-sensei looked as if she was fast asleep on the seat. And while he was busy positioning the unconscious teacher, another man entered the bus with a grin on his face, showing his square, shark-like teeth. The second man was dressed in white, buttoned shirt looked exactly like what Yamada Hanatarou was wearing: the uniform for the tour guides.

"Heh. What should we do with this tour guide then, Shawlong?" the grinning man asked, placing his foot on Yamada-san.

The lanky man, whose name was Shawlong Qufang, straightened his body and glanced over his shoulder to the other man.

"Just hide him somewhere unnoticed, D-Roy," Shawlong answered.

Still grinning, D-Roy Linker bent down and loomed over the unconscious Yamada Hanatarou. "Can't I kill him instead?"

--###--

"Huuuh… This is weird…" Keigo said as he eyed Ochi-sensei's figure sat on the seat inside the bus, "Why is she sleeping? Shouldn't she guard and guide us or something like that?"

Ichigo, who was standing behind him, rolled his eyes. "Let her sleep, Keigo. Maybe she's tired. And we don't need any guard; we aren't 5 year-olds. Besides, we already have Yamada-san as our guide," the carrot-top said.

"Oh, speaking of Yamada-san, where is he? We've all been here but we haven't seen him…" Renji said, scratching the back of his neck as he wandered his gaze around the bus and the parking lot.

Ichigo blinked, and then he realized Renji was right, there was no sight of their nervous tour guide. "I wonder where he could b-"

"Yo, kids!" someone suddenly entered the bus and greeted the students, cutting off Ichigo's words.

Automatically, all heads snapped to the stranger who just entered the bus. There were questioning and confused looks written on their faces as they saw a man with shark-like teeth dressed in the tour guide uniform with a name tag on it. D-Roy Linker was the name written on the tag. Was he a tour guide too? But what was he doing here? After all, Yamada-san was the one who in charge on their class, right?

Seeing the looks on the students face, D-Roy's grin grew wider. "Well, looks like your teacher is fast asleep that she can't introduce me,"—D-Roy eyed Ochi-sensei—"so I'll just introduce myself to you. My name's D-Roy Linker," he said. "I was sent here by our tour agency to replace Yamada-san guiding you."

"Replacement? Why is that?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.

"Well, he called the agency and said he needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible because he got a call that his mother just got into an accident. And so he asked our agency to send another guide to replace him, that's why," D-Roy explained to them.

Truth to be told, the students were a bit confused at the sudden replacement for their guide, but they said nothing, they just 'oooh-ed' or shrugged.

"Okay, kids, now, take your seats, we're heading to the next site!" D-Roy exclaimed, and the students just obeyed him, getting back to their seats. "Let's go then, Mr. Driver!" he said, turning his head to the driver and grinned.

There, on the driver seat, sat none other than Shawlong, who nodded solemnly to D-Roy. And he drove the bus out of the parking lot, following the other buses rented for Karakura High School's students.

At first, nothing strange happened. Their bus just drove steadily behind the other buses, heading to the next site. But after a while, the bus' speed suddenly increased, and turned sharply to the left on an intersection in the middle of the city, leaving the other buses in their dust.

"HEY! What was that for?! Why the hell did you drive the bus the wrong way?! Shouldn't we go straight back there at the intersection?!" Keigo asked; eyes scanning a hand map of Kyoto he brought from home.

"Huh? Really?" Renji asked in surprise. "So, what's this supposed to mean?!" He got up from his seat and approached D-Roy.

"Just shut your trap, will you?" D-Roy said casually, suddenly taking a gun out from under his shirt and aimed it at Renji.

Gasps filled the bus as soon as the students realized what kind of situation they were trapped in: bus hijacking! This was very bad; any action or word that pissed off the hijacker and they'd find a bullet stuck in their head.

"Now, kids, just shut up and listen," D-Roy said, his eyes roaming over the surprised and frightened faces of the students with gun still held firmly in his hand, "I and my partner there"—he jerked his head at Shawlong—"don't have any intention to kill you useless brats unless you get in our way, so just cooperate with us, okay? Do whatever we said and you can keep your beloved lives."

"So, what do you want?" Ichigo hissed at him, anger and anxiety held in his voice. He was mentally scolding himself; why didn't he realize this D-Roy-guy's lie earlier? Replacement my ass…

D-Roy grinned widely. "We're here for one of your classmates, Brat," he said, approaching Ichigo's seat.

Another collective gasp filled the bus, and D-Roy found the increased fear of the students quite amusing. His grin grew wider and he walked over to Ichigo.

"And fortunately, the one we're here for is sitting right here," he said to the carrot-top as he placed his gun against Rukia's head.

Rukia's purple eyes widened in shock and fear at D-Roy's words and the cold sensation she felt as the gun brushed against her forehead. "M-me?!" Rukia stuttered.

"Yes, Miss Kuchiki Rukia, you," D-Roy said, moving his gaze to the raven-haired girl, "we need you to come with us, and you'd better be a good girl, or else, I may 'accidentally' shoot you."

Cold sweats started to run down her skin, and Rukia could see the horror plastered on her classmates' faces, as well as thickened tension in the air. She felt her body tremble, and her knees went weak. She just stared wide-eyed at D-Roy, feeling like a trapped mouse. What to do now? What to do?!

"Foolish," spoke a coolly voice from beside her.

Surprised, Rukia's head turned a fraction to see Ulquiorra leaning back calmly on his seat with his eyes closed, like nothing was happening right then.

"What did you say, Brat?!" D-Roy asked the boy harshly.

Ulquiorra opened his eyes slowly and darted his cold gaze to D-Roy. "I said, foolish," he said very calmly, causing D-Roy to get even more pissed. "If you really want her, surely you won't harm her, which means you can't use her life as an exchange. You wouldn't dare 'accidentally' shoot her," he explained matter-of-factly.

D-Roy frowned and twitched in anger. He hated to admit it, but yes, this brat was right, he couldn't harm Kuchiki Rukia—not yet, at least. His boss would be furious at him if he dared to kill her now.

But a moment latter, D-Roy's grin came back; he moved his gun from Rukia's forehead to Ulquiorra's temple. "Yeah, I you're right, Brat. So, what if I use YOUR life as an exchange instead?"

Ulquiorra just stared at him with his green eyes, there was still no emotion written on his face. "You'll regret it," he stated simply.

--TO BE CONTINUED--

A/N: hello there! Just so you know that I'm NOT dead yet (just too busy with my school). Anyways, here's the fifth chapter. And I think it'll take a long, long time until I can finish the sixth chapter....

As usual, thanks goes for Cat-san and all the reviewers! :)

Disclaimer: BLEACH belongs to Kubo Tite!