Author's Note: No, I have not abandoned my story. I'm sorry everyone if you feel that I have taken a while to write the next chapter. It's because school and work have both been crazy lately, and I'm just trying to survive right now. I love writing this story, so don't worry about me discontinuing it or whatever. It's just going to take me longer to post up future chapters. I'll try my best to get my new chapters in, so please do not assume that I have decided to abandon my fanfiction. This chapter wasn't written so well either, just to warn you.
Chapter 7
It took Rukia all afternoon to memorize the different hallways in the Kuchiki house. Most of the time, she'd go to some hallway and then find her way back to Byakuya-sama's office. For sure she won't be able to get lost now. She'd be able to find Byakuya-sama's hallway wherever she was.
She realized how hungry she was when her stomach grumbled. 'I guess I should be getting back to the servant's house and grab something to eat.' She headed for the nobles' house exit, but realized that she must have exited the wrong way, because for some reason, she couldn't see the bridge that lets her cross over to the servant's house, or see the servant's house in fact. All she could see was a small house across from her. There were only stepping stones and plants around her. She then realized that she didn't know her way completely yet. Rukia sighed to herself. 'Well, since I'm here, might as well check out that place.' She decided that she'll just eat later after seeing what was in the small house. Well, at least it was small compared to the other two houses. It didn't seem too small to her though.
As she walked on the stepping stones and got nearer to the mini-house, she heard wooden swords clashing together. She could hear feet shuffling when she got even closer. When she was right in front of the door, she could hear people talking. 'I probably shouldn't bother them then.' she said to herself, and then started to turn around to leave. But as she was about to walk away, the door slammed open, and a bald man hit her shoulder with his as he stormed past her.
"Stupid kid... Always thinks he's so good!" he said aloud to himself, not noticing that he hit someone at all. He just continued to walk away. Rukia had to squint her eyes a bit as she looked at the man storming away, because his head was reflecting the sun into her eyes. She really wanted to yell at him for being rude, but he was too far ahead already that she knew her voice wouldn't reach him. Besides, he was having a conversation with himself.
"Man, Ikkaku sure is pissed." said a woman.
"Yeah, well, it was probably because Hitsugaya-sama went all out on him without warning." said another's voice. It was a man this time.
Curious about who was talking, Rukia decided to take a peek inside the house, since the door was widely open anyway. Bad idea though, because they spotted her as soon as she took a peek.
"Oh, it looks like we have a guest." said one man. He was wearing a hat and sandals, and he was holding up a fan to cover his mouth.
"Hi there. I've never seen you before. Are you new here?" said another man. He had silky black hair that was just at the level of his jaw, and had one very elaborate eyebrow.
Rukia freaked out for a moment, and then took a bow, noticing that everyone in the room had higher positions than her. "Umm... yes, I'm Rukia, a new servant." she replied, still bowing her head.
"No need to be so formal Rukia-chan! I'm Shihouin Yoruichi! I'm the vice-head of the guards! I like to take it easy around here, since I believe that everyone is my equal!" said the woman with purple hair.
"Indeed, it doesn't matter if you're a servant. I'm Ayasegawa Yumichika, by the way. I'm just a guard here, and a chef every once in a while for the servant and guard's house." added the man with the elaborate eyebrow.
"And I'm Urahara Kisuke, head of the guards. I don't care for formalities either, so don't worry about it." said the hat and sandal guy, putting his fan down. "The bald guy who you probably saw leave just a second ago is Madarame Ikkaku, he's a guard here too, and he's incredibly rude and impatient. He hates to lose too. Just to let you know at least." he added. Well, Rukia already knew that Ikkaku was rude because of the way he treated her earlier.
After hearing an introduction from everyone, she scanned the room for a second, and noticed that another person was inside. He was at the corner of the room, wiping his face with a towel. He had white hair, and he looked awfully young. Yoruichi also scanned the room and noticed that they had failed to introduce one more person.
"Oh! By the way Rukia-chan, that's Hitsugaya Toushiro-sama! He's a noble, but you just can't tell right now because he's in his training outfit." said Yoruichi. She then turned her head to the direction where he was, and yelled out. "Oi, Shiro-chan, come here and introduce yourself!"
Rukia was surprised that Yoruichi would call a noble that. Wouldn't he get angry for being shown such disrespect? The young noble then walked up to where everyone was and replied to Yoruichi. "Don't call me that! It's Toushiro-sama or Hitsugaya-sama to you!"
"Don't be so angry Hitsugaya-sama. You know how Yoruichi-san is!" piped up Yumichika. "Anyway, this is Rukia-chan, a new servant in the house." he then turned to Rukia. "What's your job anyway? You haven't mentioned yet."
Rukia was now starting to get tired of telling others what her job was. "I'm Byakuya-sama's personal maid." was all she said, and as expected, more surprised looks from other people.
"Really now! Byakuya-sama's personal maid? It must be harsh." Urahara said, opening up his fan again to cover his face.
"Urahara, watch your words. Don't talk about Byakuya-sama that way." Toushiro said. "Anyway, since Ikkaku left, who's going to train with me? My time's not done yet." he then mentioned.
"Yumichika can train with you for now." Yoruichi replied, and Yumichika looked like he was taken aback. "Uh... alright, I'll train with Hitsugaya-sama. Just please don't be so harsh like you were with Ikkaku." Yumichika said, as he moved to the centre of the floor with Toushiro.
For a moment, Rukia was curious. Why would they be tranining with wooden swords, and for what exactly? She'd understand if it was unarmed combat since they were guards and they had to be experts at self-defense. Swords didn't make sense though. It's not like anyone's going to attack them with such a weapon nowadays.
"Yoruichi-san, why would they be training with swords?" Rukia finally asked. She was sure that it's no harm to feed her curiosity.
"Well, it's because every young noble member of the house usually enter competitions. Kendo, Karate, and such. Byakuya-sama also entered a bunch of competitions when he was Shiro-chan's age. He was champion every single time of course, because he received special training from me and Urahara! We're just preparing Shiro-chan for his battles. He's actually progressing pretty well." Yoruichi replied.
Rukia watched as Yumichika and Hitsugaya-sama fight. Their swords were clashing loudly, and they moved around the floor quickly. Rukia was amazed, because if this was just a training session, she wondered how a real fight would look.
"He's still a long way from Byakuya-sama's level." said Urahara. He then clapped his hands, signaling Yumichika and Hitugaya-sama to stop. "Hitsugaya-sama, I think that you need to go over Byakuya-sama's competition videos once again. You tend to leave openings for the opponent. Just watch his movements carefully and you'll see where your flaws are."
"Alright, fine." replied Hitsugaya. He then picked up his stuff from the corner of the room and left.
"Hmm, I'm getting very hungry! Let's go back to the servant's quarters." said Yumichika, sounding exhausted.
"Oh, do you mind if I come with you? Because I still don't know my way around the house. I ended up here by mistake." Rukia said, and then her stomach grumbled. She blushed deeply after that.
"Ahahaha! I guess you're hungry too Rukia-chan! It's alright, you can come with us!" Yoruichi exclaimed, and they all started to head over to the servants' house.
Rukia once again tried to memorize the hallways leading to the exit of the house. It wasn't that complicated actually, and now she scolded herself for not getting it right the first time, though, if she hadn't made the mistake of exiting the wrong way earlier, she wouldn't have met the people she's walking with right now.
When they finally entered the servants' house, they bumped into Hanatarou. "Hello everyone! Oh, Rukia-chan, you've already met a bunch of people, and on your first day too!" he greeted, while carrying a bunch of white sheets on his arms.
"Hanatarou, do you know if there's any food in the kitchen? We're all so hungry!" Yoruichi asked.
"Umm, well, I think that we do have a lot of leftovers since not much people showed up during lunch time. Ikkaku-san is actually in the dining room right now too, having a meal. You should join him. He looked pretty upset." Hanatarou replied. "Well, I still have to bring these clean sheets to the nobles' house. I'll see you guys later." he said, and rushed away to the exit.
"I hope that Ikkaku isn't too angry." Yumichika said, as they all walked over to the dining room. "Stress is what caused him to go bald." he added.
"You mean male-patterned baldness is what caused him to go bald, Yumichika." replied Urahara to the comment.
"Well, stress made him go bald early." Yumichika retorted.
"I think he was bald all his life." Yoruichi added, not wanting to miss out on the conversation. Everyone just nodded except for Rukia, who thought that the conversation was odd.
They all finally reached the dining room, and saw Ikkaku eating and drinking sake. There was someone else at the table too, and it was the tattoo faced guy that Rukia met earlier, Renji.
"Hey baldy! Is there any food left? Oh, and Renji's here too!" Yoruichi said as a greeting.
"Isn't it a little too early for drinking, Ikkaku?" asked Urahara, and Ikkaku just continued to drink, still looking angry and upset.
"What's up with him anyway?" asked Renji.
"Hitsugaya-sama made him look like a fool during training." sighed Yumichika. "Get over it Ikkaku! You can try beating him next time!" he added, as he sat on his seat with the others.
"Well, I'll go and grab the food in the kitchen while you guys settle down." said Urahara, after seeing that everyone was heading to their seats, and left.
Rukia and Renji sat across from each other, and stared at each other for a bit. Both looked kind of annoyed and angry. "Why are looking at me like that?" asked Rukia to Renji, looking him straight in the eye.
"Uh... have you guys met each other before or something?" asked Yoruichi, who sat beside Rukia.
"Yes, and it was quite an unpleasant meeting." replied Rukia, still looking at Renji with angry eyes.
"It was your fault! Why are you the angry one anyway?! I should be the one who's angry! You haven't even apologized yet!" exclaimed Renji, turning red from anger already.
"I already told you before, I called you by that name because I thought that it suited you." said Rukia, just looking serious.
Just as Renji was about to speak, Urahara burst into the room carrying plates of food. It looked like he was about to drop them, but it got to the table safely.
"Man, that was quick! And man, that's a lot!" said Ikkaku, slurring a bit. It was obvious that he was already drunk.
"Well, the food was already prepared, and I think it's enough." said Urahara, as he sat down beside Yoruichi.
They all grabbed food and started to eat, but they did not eat in silence at all. They entertained themselves actually by listened to Ikkaku complain about Hitsugaya-sama. Everyone also listened to Yumichika as he started to fret over his hair, and how it's been drying lately, and how he should use conditioner more often. Yoruichi and Urahara were talking about Hitsugaya-sama and how he can improve more with his skills.
Rukia looked over to Renji, he was still obviously angry at her. "Look, can't we just forget our first meeting and start over? You know, just try to get along?" Rukia asked Renji.
"Fine." replied Renji. "I'm not even really that angry anyway." he added.
Rukia just smiled at him, and Renji grinned a bit back. "So, how's your first day been? Besides the whole getting lost scenario thing this morning." he asked. The others at the table were in their own conversations, so no one was listening in on them.
"It's been kinda boring. Byakuya-sama left for work after he ate breakfast, and he didn't leave me much to do." replied Rukia. "Although I did meet a bunch of people today. Pretty much everyone at this table I met by accident because I got lost. I also met Hitsugaya-sama, Ukitate-sama, Kiyone-san, and Sentarou-san." she added.
"That sounds like a busy day to me." Renji laughed. "Anyway, get used to Byakuya-sama not giving you much to do, because he does the same thing to me all the time."
Rukia just gave him a look, so he continued. "You see, I'm supposed to be his personal assistant and body guard. My job is to run errands for him inside and outside of the house, you know, send files or whatever paperwork, but he does that himself almost all the time, so I'm pretty much left with nothing to do on most days. I get pretty busy though whenever he leaves for international business trips, because I have to go to Kuchiki Corp. and make sure that the files and paperwork are done. I'm even trained pretty well with self-defense and such, but so is he, so I'm also not very needed as a body guard." Renji said as he sighed.
"Oh wow. But I find my job pretty useless too. All I have to do is clean, when there's nothing to clean or organize." said Rukia.
"Well, yeah, your job must be pretty boring too." said Renji, and then realized that Byakuya-sama will be arriving in a bit. "Oh, shouldn't you be preparing his dinner soon? He'll be home at six right?" asked Renji.
"Why, what time is it?" Rukia asked, honestly nearly forgetting that she had to prepare Byakuya-sama's dinner.
Renji pulled out his cellphone from his hakama pants pocket, and looked at the time. For a second, Rukia thought that he looked funny, because holding a cellphone while wearing traditional clothing didn't mix right. It looked out of place.
"It's five-thirty." he said.
Rukia stood up from her seat right away after hearing Renji's response. "What?!" asked Rukia, with a look of surprise and worry on her face. "Well, I better get going now. Thanks Renji-san. It was nice meeting all of you too!" she said to them as she was about to head over to the exit.
She walked as fast as she could to the nobles' home, and after entering there, she quickly headed over to the kitchen. 'Ugh, I should be more aware of the time.' she scolded herself. She even brought her cellphone too to make sure that she knew what time it was, she just forgot about it. She looked at the time. 'Good, I still have twenty more minutes. His meal should be cooked by now.' she thought to herself as she walked into the kitchen. As she expected, Byakuya-sama's meal was already prepared. She just had to put it on the dining table and wait for him like she did this morning. After that was done, she still had ten minutes to spare. She sighed in relief. She honestly thought that she was going to be late.
As she waited for him, she reflected on the day's events. She hadn't realized that time actually passed by so quickly. It honestly seemed like it was going to be a long day. She met so many people, and wondered if she was going to meet more of them the next day, or throughout her stay.
She stood behind the seat where he was supposed to sit for a while now. When she checked the time on her phone, it was already 6:20 pm, but Byakuya-sama wasn't there yet. She then decided to look for him in his office. When she got there, she tapped on the door, and heard him say "Come in." He really was in there. Rukia opened the door and saw him sitting at his desk, typing away on his laptop. She bowed to him, and he looked up.
"Welcome home, Byakuya-sama. Your dinner is already prepared in the dining room." Rukia said.
"I'll be eating soon." he said to her, and then went back to typing. "You are dismissed for today so you may go back to your room if you wish. Just report back here tomorrow morning." he added.
"Of course. Have a good night then Byakuya-sama." said Rukia. She took another bow and then left the room. Once she was outside, she could hear Byakuya-sama coughing. It sounded like he was getting sick, but she dismissed it and just went back to her room...