Since I don't have much to say in here, I won't waste any more of your time here.
Oh, thanks to those who leave comments and reviews for me! Hontou ni Arigatou gozaimasu!
A Feminine Prince, a Masculine Princess…Oh My!
"Then?" Ichigo rubbed his throbbing temple and had a brow twitching slightly. "I've got to wear swimming trunks too?"
"No! No one's wearing swimsuits then." The planner stiffened; he is not going to let this project go to the landfill! "We've planned to have the spokesmen of Ginrei Kojaku to be in evening dresses or gowns in the beach, standing in the sea breeze with a piano or a violin—alongside with the local Thai musical instruments, of course. Beauties in hot clothes, the elegant temperament with the unpolluted sky and sea…ah ~ " His eyes sparkled in shoujo-manga-style as he imagined the scenes, nearly had a nosebleed and fainted from it. "Romance ~ ! That's the ultimate style of Ginrei Kojaku!"
Ichigo felt his stomach flipped. "How about the Shiretoko Peninsula? Kondoi Beach sounds good as well. If not, I love the Hoshizuna-no-hama in Taketomi. Must we really have to get overseas? I don't like plane flights."
"Oh, my good sire!" The planner begged with wails. "Have mercy on us the poor! My legs are giving up on me for doing all these preparations! It's just a few hours of flight, and I've threatened the airline company to have all the latest blockbusters prepared for it!"
"I hate watching movies." It was not very convincing; watching movies comes second of his hobbies below reading, but he would grab onto any chances that make him not have to be on a flight. Besides, were the strong turbines in the studio not good enough? He nearly had his head blown off that day! Now, he was even going to a beach for stormy sea breezes with hateful sand?! He must go at all ways and even nail himself to the house so that he would not leave Japan.
"I-If you don't like movies, I've also prepared loads of online games for everyone!"
"Only Orihime still have a liking to such childish plaything." They better have Tetris prepared. Already an adult for five years, she was still staying up whole night for such a prehistoric game!
"Oh yeah! We've got Karaoke too! We can all sing during the flight, and the long hours would be gone in a blink!" The planner nearly fell on his knees. "Oh, please, Kurosaki-sama ~ ! If you're not coming, the project—!"
"I hate singing." The model sighed. "By the way, you should bug my agent about it. What the point in bugging me?"
"Taki-san said you won't go no matter what," The poor man at least had the dignity not to be grovelling like a cheap slave, throwing himself under people's feet. "Oh, I ask of you…please!"
In the end, Ichigo, in great boredom, brought a merrily-bouncing Orihime onto the private plane. He has put on his sunglasses all the time, trying to have a nap. Oh God…can they please not to sing anymore? The live shows of idol stars have been so unbearable that they have driven away the sleepiness.
"Then, we should invite our latest Ginrei Kojaku spokesman for a song!" Being a model in the spotlight of the year, Matsumoto Rangiku put the microphone in front of him with a sweet smile. Many have known that her long harboured jealousy towards him for bereaving her chance to shine and sparkle in the previous opportunity as the spokeswoman. "C'mon, don't be such a party-pooper; you're the only and truly spokesman of Ginrei Kojaku! Let us hear your voice!"
Ichigo remained seated. He knew how to spell "shame", unlike those stars who dared to make a noise. "I'm a model, not a singer."
"Oh, don't be like that. C'mon!" The others were starting to make a ruckus in the crammed plane. They have also grown envious and scornful towards this gorgeous male model. Humph! Such a sissy man…how dare he had the guts to compete with them in the modelling industry instead of going to be actors or singers! How shameless!
"Go and have a song, Ichigo…" Orihime's face beamed. "I've never heard you sing at all!"
So troublesome…
"…Alright, you ask for it," He stood up and took the microphone.
"Take off your glasses too," Rangiku instigated. She was sure that he did not have any make-up, and you cannot consider a man handsome without any make-up. "No one sings with sunglasses."
With an impatient grunt, he took off the shades, as well as the noisy ruckus of those shrilly women, as they had their tongues tied. The flawless skin reflected the light outside the plane and those ambers told a greater mystery than the best ones. Without any make-up, he lost the bewitching feminine temptation on the runway, but with more of his masculine handsomeness. Those who were glimpsed at as his eyes rolled around blushed furiously.
Such a glamorous being…any note that comes from his full lips will snatch away any fluttering hearts…
"…To make it easier for a first-timer, we'll have something more suitable for men!" Rangiku arranged a CD in the player. "Well, this should be easy enough, so let's see!"
Heavy drums started the music and brought up a heavy band of percussion with strong electric guitar and keyboard (1). They waited for the first syllables to be sung with excitingly thumbing hearts…watching the supermodel ripped his full tight lips open, holding their breaths…
…I-Is he an alien from another world that music never exists? Everyone stared at him in utter disbelief. Orihime hid her face behind her hands, trying to disclaim that this man was her boss.
"Superb…" The stunned planner murmured, "A song with such easy and heavy beats, and he still manages to miss all of them…just very super…"
"He totally ignores the music and sings the lyrics on his own tempo…"
"Such a cheap and easy song, such an awful performance…"
"I've thought that I've lost my musical senses, but it seems that I've still got some in me…"
"Not a bit of intonation! He surpasses any of the best rappers…"
"O Kami-sama ~ ! Please, stop him from singing anymore ~ !"
Despite the cries for him to stop, Ichigo finished the song calmly, remaining passive even though as if he was facing the most destructive tsunami. The plane, deafening for the last long hour, was now so quiet you could hear a pin drop on the carpet. Without another word, most—with pale faces—put on headphones and began to watch the blockbusters.
"Stop being an ostrich. It's over." He put his shades back on. "I've long said I'm not singing."
The reply he got from Orihime was a painful groan.
The team of staff, coming to welcome them, looked at the group of sick-looking fairs in confusion.
"What's happened?" One whispered at the planner's ear. "Got caught in a current? Have everyone got airsick? Why's everyone looking so pale?"
"Don't ask me." He pushed the staff roughly. "Just never wail like cats and ask for a song from Kurosaki-san!"
"A song?" The staff was utterly confused. "We've arranged a Karaoke room tonight. Why—?"
"Shaddap!" The planner groaned at his throbbing head. "Oh God ~ what a nightmare ~ !"
Orihime's face pale all the way to the hotel. "Your singing…"
"What about it?" Looking at the scorching sun, Ichigo's moods were nowhere as good.
"…I've finally understand why you didn't become an idol singer."
"Knowing your shameful weakness is a courageous virtue; and I'm a brave man with courage." He sighed. "Those women have blasted my ears off."
But you did not have to blast ours—and I mean all of ours—off for revenge in folds back!
"W-Wait!" Looking at the list of their allotment of rooms, Orihime grabbed the staff exasperatedly. "Why do I have to be in the same room with Ichigo?! I'm a female!"
The staff blinked and checked the list. "Oops, we've forgotten that Kurosaki-san's a male. Well, never mind that; isn't he gay? Besides, the room's spacious with a king-sized bed…"
"Says who?!" She screamed.
"Me." Ichigo dragged her away impatiently. "You don't have to say another thing; it's a truth that everyone knows. Come on, don't worry; I'll let you choose which side to—"
"You're gay?!" Orihime stared at him. "Okay, then explain to me why you've broken seven of that thug's teeth last month when—don't change in front of me! Get into the bathroom!"
"Can't gays choose their targets?" Ichigo's cool as a cucumber. "Alright, I admit that I'm not and I'm 100% straight. But isn't this saving a lot of trouble for the both of us?" He really detested those women's eyes, like flies staring at a piece of decaying meat.
"I don't care 'bout that! Just put on some pants!" Steam rose from Orihime's ears like a boiling kettle. "Oh God ~ I'm yet married ~ !"
"Stop screeching like a banshee," He lay on the bed to relax his sore-tired muscles. "I've been changing in front of you in the backstage when there're shows, and why don't think about that at those times?"
You were not wearing only your boxers in front of me at those times, and I know the proper reason for that!
After a night with such an encounter, she went to the spot for the shooting with a pair of panda's eyes.
"A titanic fan with the natural sandy wind," Ichigo muttered his complaints. "They really have to scrap off my hair along with my scalp, aren't they?"
Orihime did not make verbal replies but made her displeasure known by applying face powder roughly on his face.
"Hey! L-Lighter!" He coughed from the large puff of choking powder. "You think you're painting a wall? I'm taking your salary for three years!"
"I'll use mascara with mercury compounds and paint you up like Ancient Egyptians to poison you!" Orihime yelled to show her frustrated anger. "I'm changing my room!"
"I'm not even complaining, so why are you?" He took a long swig of iced water, lifting his head to glance at the blazing sun. "I'm not even complaining about you drooling on the pillow last night."
Her face flushed red from anger, feeling her vessels pumping at an alarming rate; she was surprised they have yet burst. How could she say it aloud that she felt asleep last night with Ichigo hugging her in his arms?!
Looking at her steaming madness, Ichigo, originally in a foul mood with the burning sunlight, felt his grumpiness ease a bit. She was really cute with this angry face. He admitted that he was not their typical good guy, for he always loved to tease her to craziness.
The grouching Orihime did not notice Ichigo's gentle-as-liquid-chocolate eyes, but not the photographer. He secretly took a picture of the model in the perfect make-up and captured the stunning lights in his eyes.
"Don't waste anymore spaces of the memory card." He caught the movements and smiled at the photographer. "When can we start? I'm going to be a piece of jerky."
It was a pretty hard and tiring day. They had to wait for the lights for this moment, and had to wait for whoever stars or models to finish their most unreasonable tantrums. A few make-up artists have burst into tears during the tantrums, yet Matsumoto Rangiku was still screaming, puffing out her bosoms and hands on her waist.
"Why aren't you crying, Orihime?" Ichigo lay on the beach. His body was covered in sand, especially his legs with oil to stick the grains more easily. "The other make-up artists have already cried; it makes me kind of embarrassing."
Formerly in her shrilling, Rangiku caught that and shut up with a long face, slightly pale from awkwardness. With a harrumph, she stormed off.
Yet not Orihime. She replied annoyingly, "I'll be in tears after you've been nicely marinated from the soaking of salty seawater, because I'll be laughing very hard."
They finally called it a day and returned to the hotel until late at night when they could not even see their fingers, and that the nodding-off staff nearly burnt the photographer's hair with the lights. Orihime dragged herself onto bed and fell asleep without even getting in time to pull the sheet over.
Ichigo took a nice long bath instead. Just as he was tending to his orange locks, the almost-unnoticeable phone rang. Nearly no one knew his number, but what surprised him more was the displaying caller's number.
"Karin?" He whispered to avoid awaking Orihime, but the surprise was clearly audible in his usual calm tone.
"Damn you, Ichi-nii! What's your phone to you; a decoration or what?!" His younger sister scolded in annoyance. He has cleverly pulled the device away from his ear, but he could hear her from an arm's length. "I've been calling you for the entire afternoon, and you never answered any one of them for once, let alone a second! Where the heck are you now?!"
"I've gone to the beaches in Thailand for some sceneries…" He tried to sound as appeasing as possible. He knew his sister as well as his hands; it was the best to pacify her as much as possible by letting her get the picture of the situation.
"Why won't I know?!" Ichigo pulled his phone away from his ear in time again; Karin's voice bellowed through the small black device with the mechanical screeches. "I'm also in Thailand, and so coincidently in the same hotel as you are! I'm asking you because I can't get which room you're in! Get your ass down to the lobby right now!"
The loud slapping sound really hurt one's eardrum. This fiery and irritable younger sister…it seemed that she has not changed at all. With a sigh, he slipped out of the room quietly and went to meet his sister.
"Did you really become a fitting model for women's wears?" Albeit younger than him for four years, Karin was really bossy with her imperative tone. She sized him up reprovingly and her beautiful face distorted with disgust. "Why still in tight-fitting black clothes, after all these decades? You want to be mistaken for a ninja? Oh, gracious! You've got really some dressing sense; Salvatore Ferragamo (2)…"
"Alright…" Ichigo raised his hands in defeat as a sign of pacification. The truth he could not say to her was that Agnes b. and Coco Chanel never suit a tomboy like her. "Why come to visit me so suddenly? Just coming across, or on purpose?"
"Right, by both." Her face settled down with seriousness. "I've just had some business in here done and I needed to find you on my way back. I've heard that you've come here, so I came here since you didn't take the calls." She sighed lightly as she took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket—she ignored her brother's disapproving frown—and after a while, "Do you know that Dad had a stroke attack, Ichi-nii?"
Ichigo's eyes widened. "When was it?"
"This afternoon." She lit one and breathed out a puff. "If it's not Kon-san telling me by himself, I'd take it as a joke. Could it be all the deeds he's done?" Though she sounded like making fun of it, a bit of the ashes fell from the tip of the cigarette.
"Why aren't you rushing back?" He creased his brows further. "Logically, I need to go back as well, but Oyaji's severed our father-son relationship…"
"I'm no doctor; what's the point in rushing back now?" Karin acted to be calm as usual. "Kon-san's said that Dad's situation's settled, but yet out from the danger zone. Just let the doctors worry about that after spending so much on the medical fees. We've been siblings yet unseen for so long, if I don't come and tell you this face-to-face today…I feel odd."
He knew this tomboyish and rather short-fused sister very well. Comparing to him, the obstinate eldest son who desired only to break away from his father and their kind-hearted youngest sister who would never hurt a soul—innocent or not, though unspoken, Karin's love and devotion to their father and the family went beyond anyone's imagination. Despite how discontented she was towards their father's harsh domination and oppression, she still stood by the tyrant's side like a loyal chancellor. Be it the "worthless" elder brother or the pure younger sister, she always showed her supports towards them. He remembered it as if it was only yesterday: when he made his determined resolution to leave that place at fifteen, only Karin, a then tough girl but at a tender age of eleven, got on the same boat with him.
"Is there something wrong, Karin?" This tough and iron-willed wench rarely showed her face of fret; even the news of their father having a stroke ought not to have that much of an impact on her.
"Something?" She woke up from her stupor. "No! You've been imagining! It's just…with Dad getting a stroke so out of the blue, it makes me kinda uneasy. I've been waiting to end him and claim his life mine; I've been planning it for long, but the deities have made a head start…it kinda pisses me off…"
Ichigo gazed at his beloved sister, tasting the mouth-drying regret. He knew very well that if it was not Karin claiming to take up all the responsibilities of the family affairs, he would never have the chance to leave the house, for both their father's totalitarianism and his position as the eldest child of the family.
"Or is there anything that's happened to Yuzu?" Though her sweet nature and her intention of not getting involved with the Dark, whoever had control over her would also be a great threat.
"Yuzu's long dead in Columbia years ago." Karin got alerted and snapped. "Don't splutter nonsense, Ichi-nii."
Oh yeah? Then the death-feigning sister is safe and sound.
"If not those, then what's it? You've got something in your mind, Karin; I knew it, so don't lie to me."
"I really don't want to get you involved with the affairs of the Kurosaki House," She sighed. "But if I don't ask for your opinions, I won't feel right. Things aren't going smoothly as I've expected recently, as if some conspiracies are brewing somewhere…" Looking at her elder brother listening intently with a straight face, she released her hold of breath. She had no more relatives other than him to rely on. "Some of my informants have told me that Kuchiki Byakuya-san's planning to let the right of producing arms for the Far East be held by the Shiba other than us…"
"Hasn't the Shiba House fallen with the death of their head and now powerless in Europe?" Ichigo found it strange. "I know Byakuya; he never has any business dealings with those who've had flaws, though the Shiba used to be excellent arms producers with their famous outstanding explosives. Besides, I've heard that the Shiba House's had contacts with the terrorists. This has gone against Byakuya's principles…"
"That's what I found it weird." Karin thought for a while in silence. "Though you can brave a man with a generous recompense, but I've heard that the Shiba House's had a compromise with some of the South-East countries, which we've long established good terms along with the price. However, the Shiba seemed to have raised some even better conditions. It's exactly the same as what we've planned before!"
"A commercial spy." But who dared to do so with a father who manages the house so arbitrarily straight?
"I thought about that too." Karin nodded. "It's just I can't find it out myself. Besides that, the old man's secretive little side-job's getting a little problematic, but I've got no idea what the heck he's achieved in that…"
"Oyaji's still trafficking drugs?" Ichigo scowled, screwing his brows as tightly as he could manage. "You're not sure about that too, Karin?"
"No," She shook her head. "The old man never let me have the slightest grip on that business. It's something that only he knows. But it's all fine now; he's laid down, and without his management, those goddamned things will be lost eventually. I'll check the accounts once I return and halt the suspicious flights of the capitals." She chuckled a bit sinisterly. "With the halted funds, they won't get anywhere further!"
"That's not the final way out…" Ichigo considered for a while. "It's the same if the facilities and the ingredients get into the hands of other vile people. If I were you, Karin, I'll check they out and uproot them soundlessly, leaving not a trace behind…"
"I knew you'd do that, Ichi-nii." Karin smiled and after a while, she barked out a merry yet cruel laughter. "After the old man's woken up, that stupid face he'd have when he find out the fall of his Great Drug-Dealing Empire…oh my, how hilarious it'd be! I can't wait to see it!"
"Won't you start trying from Ginrei Kojaku?" Ichigo just thought of it.
"Ginrei Kojaku? What does it have anything to do with Ginrei Kojaku?" Karin was baffled with this information. "That freaky Kurotsuchi Mayuri…he's rather nice deeply in his guts albeit his horrible dressing senses. The House's full of legal and honest businessmen…"
"I'm not talking about him…" He braced himself for his sister's next reaction. "It's the new CEO, Ishida Uryuu."
"Ishida Uryuu's the new CEO of Ginrei Kojaku?!" Karin exclaimed. Half of her torso was stuck out of the chair as she nearly jumped out of it and fell down, if it was not her legs making a firm support on the ground. She sat back down in a heavy hump, but she could not conceal her surprise. "I'm really taken by surprise; I don't even know that! Indeed, it's my idea to invest on Ginrei Kojaku and Dad's taken up the project all by himself. I never knew that he's valued it to this degree and even put his personal secretary in charge of a cosmetic company! Even so, what the hell can a cosmetic company do?"
"They've been sending 'wrong' goods to Ginrei Kojaku."
"Goods? What goods?" Karin was beyond confused. "How do you know this much, Ichi-nii?"
"I don't know much either," He sounded restraining. "I only know that they've always been sending amphetamine."
Karin's eyes widened, but this time she recomposed herself quicker. "…I'll get someone into this."
They fell into silence and it was the elder brother who broke it, "What kind of person is Ishida Uryuu?"
"What kind? He's become Dad's personal secretary some years ago, and Dad's really fond of this lad. You know, other than work, Dad loves to collect as much Japanese antiques as possible, especially from the Edo period. That's how the two met with this interest in China. Ishida found him some rare items, and later Dad got him as his personal secretary."
"I'm not asking about that." Ichigo judged and weighed his next words carefully. "I'm asking about his background and how do you think of him."
"I hardly had encounters with him, so I don't have many comments about him." Karin waved her hand like shooing off a bugging fly. "He's 'normal' if you're talking about his background. He's got a Master degree of Visual Arts and a large pool of knowledge in antiques. In the company, he's rather to his place with good relationships with the workers. If you must have me point out any flaws…" Karin scrunched her nose. "His 'men-women relationship' is pretty intricate. Mark it: it's 'men-women relationship'. Has he done anything to you? Did he know…you're the eldest son of the Kurosaki House?"
Ichigo shrugged. "I don't know, but I've never changed my surname, have I?"
Karin did the same. She is—by her brother's words—an eaglet with its wings starting to grow strong, then usurp its father's place as the succeeding ruler. She is a woman who—by her brother's words again—would punch men with the hand they ask for. Sometimes Ichigo even thought that she was the elder one, not him. She did not put much thoughts about that man's messy relationships in her mind, but if it was concerning about her brother…that was a different story.
"If he dared to have devious ideas, tell him to find and speak to me directly." She laid a relieving hand of his arm.
"Beware of this man." Ichigo warned. "Send a word of mind to Kurotsuchi Mayuri as well."
"Leave it to me, Ichi-nii." She would not pay heed to someone who gains a position with measly trinkets. "I will."
"Ichigo?" Orihime's sleepy voice rang from behind. "Why are you here?"
Swirling his head to look behind him, he found her to be draping a simple jacket over her shoulders, staggering out of the elevator without even wearing any shoes. He frowned. "Why aren't you wearing shoes? Why did you wake up?"
"I'm hungry; we haven't even had dinner, have we?" It was only after she sat down then she realised that Ichigo has been with a rather masculine stranger. "Err…I see you have a guest here…I-I'll go somewhere else…"
"She's my younger sister," Ichigo gestured elegantly. "We're finishing our conversation, so it's alright. Karin, this is my make-up artist, Inoue Orihime."
All her sleepiness ran away in an instant. "Oh…it's a pleasure to meet you, Kurosaki-san." For a moment she took this younger woman to be a man! What is with this family; they look nothing what their gender is supposed to be! In details, these siblings looked alike nothing except their scowls, yet it was still the first time she met Ichigo's family.
"Hmm…thinking my sister's a handsome guy and then losing your cool? Such pleasantries…" He teased with a smirk.
"Do you really have to tease me to no end, Kurosaki Ichigo?!" Orihime howled as if it was her second nature. Upon seeing Karin, previously glaring daggers at her elder brother, turn to look at her with a raised brow in amazement, she blushed. "I-I'm sorry…I'm not interrupting anymore. See you later." Without another word, she escaped to the furthest and most isolated corner of the lobby.
"That's her?" Karin measured the far-away blushing Orihime with slight interest. A tiny smile—very similar to her brother's—appeared at the corners of her lips. "The cohabitant I've heard you're living with?"
"Yeah." He took a sip of juice from his glass. "I've not expected that you're so clear of my activities despite I've left the Kurosaki House for so many years, Karin."
Karin's face got a tint of pink on it. "…Actually, you've got a—"
"A guarder by my side? C'mon, Karin; that's not the latest news. If he can or hopes to, Oyaji's even checking on our breathing and heart rate." He answered calmly. "You're talking about Taki, right?"
"You knew? When? I just knew it recently!" Karin cried with worry. "I don't know that Dad's gone this far to arrange this…but why having a cohabitant? What if—?"
"Firstly, I don't want to live alone. Secondly, if I don't get a cohabitant myself, Taki's moving in. Even if she doesn't do so…well, someone random is all I needed to fool Oyaji into believing that I'm absolutely 'normal', so he won't be bugging me."
"But that's not the eyes of just 'someone random'," She teased, taking a drag from her cigarette. However, upon Ichigo's silence, disturbance stirred within her. She frowned, "Don't tell me you're taking it seriously, Ichi-nii? I've heard about the case involving Rukia; I only thought that you're punishing her on purpose because she's throwing another of her unreasonable tantrums, pushing your buttons to no end again…"
"I don't know." Loneliness painted his gorgeous face. "I don't even know what kinds of ideas I ought to have. If I'm the truly-free Kurosaki Ichigo today, I could possibly be thinking about my future. Now? Oyaji's in the sickbed, Byakuya's ideas and directions are vagarious that even I couldn't comprehend, Rukia's still yelling to marry to me…Karin," He put up a bit of puppy eyes and lay a I-am-leaving-to-you hand on her arm. "I'm waiting for you to become the true head and have the weight of the Kurosaki House on your frail shoulders. By that time, I'll truly have no solicitude to it."
"What are you babbling about, Ichi-nii?" She truly held this handsome elder brother dear in her heart. "That's what I should do. I've got to run for the flight." She stood up. "If you have any problems, just call me."
"Karin," Ichigo halted her. "As for the matter with the amphetamine, you better contact with Chad of El Directo. They hold more information than we do as they have close relations with the sources, and now Dad couldn't provide anything for you…"
"Not 'Chad' again!" Karin exclaimed, giving a playful nogging on her brother's head. No matter how old he was, how famous was he a fitting model for women's wears, it is still the same-old brilliant and dashing-out-to-protect Ichi-nii in her heart. "It's Sado Yasutora, the Head of El Directo and the man at the helm of the Mexican Empire! Well, thinking about you two being really-close buddies since teenage, you're now probably the only one who could call him 'Chad'; he goes mad whenever someone calls him that. I heard that he's delivered a near-fatal punch to his subordinate for the slightest 'cha' sound for indicating him!" However, what he has suggested was rather valuable. "Nevertheless, I will."
"…Just keep a watchful eye, Karin." Ichigo pulled her into a gentle hug. "After the deaths of Mum and Yuzu, we're the only relatives in the family to rely on in this world."
Karin felt hotness in her eyes and forced a smile. "What's with you being so fussy like an old lady all of a sudden, Ichi-nii? We'll definitely see each other sooner or later. Have you forgotten my initial oath? I never have the intention to walk on the Dark Path for my entire life. After I've put the Kurosaki House in order, I'll be waiting for your comeback."
He wanted to say something, but on a second thought he held his tongue; it would only hurt his dear Karin. He only straightened her slightly-ruffled suit jacket and her patting on his shoulder before leaving.
Tides of emotions flooded in his chest as he watched the silhouette of Karin's back disappeared behind the glass doors of the hotel. Even without saying about her intentions out loud, the elder siblings have helped Yuzu to feign her death in order to escape from the Kurosaki House, for she was such a pure and innocent soul that none of her siblings wanted her to be tainted by foul blood. It was the best way to protect her from the World of Darkness. With the strong bond and love he had with his siblings, it was true to say that he also did not want to leave the place he grew up in. It broke his heart to step out of that ground, for he has failed to talk his father out of the wrongdoings the old man had done and reason him to the path without crimes.
All that left was Karin, bearing the responsibility and weight of the whole family for a harsh decade. However, this hard-headed maiden never said a word of resentment about this arrangement and took it all. That was how she showed her unbreakable love for her family. If it was not for her, the Kurosaki House would now be in rubbles.
At her silent corner, Orihime was astounded, forgetting the cup of tea at her lips. If she had not known that those two are siblings…what a beautiful scene from the fairytales! Such harmony was heavenly!
"Stop gawking." She yelped as she did not realize that Ichigo has gone in front of her. Without another word, he grabbed her by her arm and dragged her away.
"Hey! S-Stop and let me go! I can walk properly on my own, thank you very much!" She cried as she struggled to escape from his clutch. She finally succeeded when they were in the elevator.
"What a harmonious scene just now!" She mumbled to herself with sparkles surrounding her head. "It really made me think of the Prince and the Odalisque! Oh my god ~ !" She has entered into her anime hyper schoolgirl-in-love mode, swinging her arms frantically and screaming with a heart in her mouth. "It's so fantastic to see it with my eyes, and not in a dream! What a shame it's the opposite; such a waste for you both to be the opposite gender—hey!" She rubbed the swelling bump on her head with tearful eyes. "Why did you hit me? That hurts ~ !"
"No salary for you for five years!"
"How can you be so cruel ~ ?!" Orihime wailed.
Explanations:
(1) I was listening to MY BLADE, AS MY PRIDE when I wrote this. If you don't know the song, go YouTube it. I'm not quite good at fast songs (the refrains), but even I can sing this, so I classify it to be an easy one.
(2) Unless you don't know, Japanese say the full name of the brands whereas for Hong Kong people, like me, just Ferragamo would suffice.
Author Speaking:
Ichigo's family finally appears, and it's Karin! Not that I don't like Isshin, but under the circumstances in this fic, he'll be someone quite different, and we'll get to see him sooner or later.
Kuroi Kokoro 09