Disclaimers: I do not own BLEACH.
A/N: I won't dilly dally this time. I'm sick, so my brain probably won't be able to produce more ideas for a while, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be late for the next update. That is all.
Thanks you for anonymous, Sierra77, auburn-haired-sadist-XD and anonymous (Sofia) for reviewing! It was very much appreciated!
To:
anonymous: Yay! Everyone loves blush-face-brown-haired-chin-guy! XD I'll give you the link, in case someone doesn't like spoilers... -search for the website- aah! Here we go: www. mangafox. com/ forums #post225232 (remove the space and you'll get there! I hope...) It's just the basic info about the plot though...
anonymous (Sofia): You didn't print it? So I wrote in that lil' book of yours for nothing? Whee! I did something useless again! XD (Yes, I know her in real life, for those who doesn't know)
Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes! Enjoy!
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Perfection
Chapter Sixteen
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"Oi!" Ichigo called out while turning to his sides, searching for his lost nakama. All that appeared in his vision was bunches of green tree leaves, rumbling around as a gust of wind blew past. The small river that his feet is currently in glowed as the setting sun shone on it. The soft flow of the said river caressed his haori hem gently, taunting it to follow the current.
"Oh crap..." Ichigo ran a hand through his spiky orange locks. The humid weather is tangling his already tangled hair even more. Sighing, he looked up to the orange and purple sky, which had stay that way from a few hours ago. Then, he casted his gaze back to the white castle and kept it there for awhile. He inhaled deeply and exhaled as he started to advance towards the said white castle, figuring that his friend would probably head there anyway.
Little did he know, his friend was having the same problem.
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"Ne, ne, Ishida-kun? Where is Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked as she followed the bespectacled boy.
Said bespectacled boy turned around and answered, "To tell you the truth, Inoue-san, I do not know."
"Eh?!"
"I seemed to have lost him when he lead the way," Ishida turned back and held a branch to the side so Orihime can pass.
"Sou ka?" Orihime put her index finger on her chin as she passes through the gap the branch has made. "That's not good."
"Indeed it isn't, but I bet he's also going to the white castle and I'm pretty sure that he won't get lost on his way there," Ishida let go of the branch after Orhime passed and continued on walking towards the white castle.
"Ah... Where's Sado-kun and Abarai-kun, then?"
"Huh?"
"I can't see them anywhere," Orihime looked around and double-checked their two friends presence. "Yep, they're not here."
"This is bad. I was sure that they were behind us..."
"I'm sure they're fine, Ishida-kun! Now, I am going to ask you a question," Orihime pushed his back forward with both hands.
"What is it, Inoue-san?"
"Tell me five good reasons why you're in love with Kuchiki-san."
"Five good reasons why I'm in what with who?"
"Don't be around the bush, Ishida-kun. We all know that you're in love with Kuchiki-san ages ago," Orihime closed her eyes and shook her head to the sides like it's obvious.
Ishida's azure eyes widened in bewilderment. Since when did that—? Who is feeding this girl such lies?
"Ano... Inoue-san, I don't know what you are talking about, because it is certainly not true," Ishida answered Orihime's question.
"Really?" Orihime looked disappointed. Ishida bit his tongue for making her look that way.
"Oh well!" she smiled back, "I thought you did. Nobody else believed me though, they keeped on saying that you liked someone warm and cheery with an unusual hair colour..."
"Who says so?" Ishida inquired.
"Kurosaki-kun, Abarai-kun and the others, of course!" Orihime beamed.
'Those bastards!' Ishida thought as he crushed a branch that he happened to be holding at the time.
"Ishida-kun, why are you crushing that branch?"
"Be-be-because! It's... in the way, Inoue-san!"
"Ooh! That makes sense! Let's hurry Ishida-kun! We don't want to arrive last now, do we?" Orihime dragged him forward, water splashing as her brown shoe hit the bottom of the green stream.
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Sado quietly moved his legs forward, taking another step. He looked around, wondering if he could spot some of his friends. Not seeing any, he continued on walking, enjoying the warm sunlight on his skin. He smiled upon remembering his time in Mexico with his Abuelo, who had taught him what his fists are made for.
To protect.
He remembered all the times when Abuelo would pat him on the back, praising him when he didn't fight back all the guys that ganged up on him. He felt so happy. But when his Abuelo passed away, his will to protect weakened to the point that he almost fight back and take all of his anger on some innocent passerby.
Sado sighed silently as he carefully moved a bunch of branches away from his sight. He squinted, the sun was too bright for his own liking. When he finally opened his eyes, the sight awed him so much that he could not speak.
"...Abuelo?"
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"Bah! Damn these branches!" Renji swung Zabimaru and cleanly cut off the branch in front of him. Like Ichigo, he was getting sick of this swamp. 'Shtoopid green water!' he kicked the green water below him, without said green water do as much as a flinch of hurt.
"Damn it! I can't get lost! I need to find Rukia! Damn Ichigo and his stupid skill of leading!" he swung Zabimaru and cut off another branch. Luckily, this branch revealed the big gate of the white castle.
"Yatta!" Renji hollered. He quickly ran and pushed open the gate – which has to be at least 100kg. He grinned happily, thinking how he would laugh at Ichigo's face when that strawberry knew that he beat him on saving Rukia. Panting, he leaned against the opened gate, his satisfied grin never leaving his face for a second. As his breathing slowly tuning back to normal, he started walking, following traces of Rukia's reiatsu.
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Guy Y's eyes snapped open. He quickly stood up from his sitting position looking all 'red-alert'.
"What's wrong?" Rukia asked from inside her cell. Of course, she already knew what was wrong. She felt Renji's reiatsu approaching about five minutes ago and had always tried her best to not let her excited emotion shine through her face. Being a Kuchiki that she is, it helped her a whole lot.
Guy Y narrowed his eyes on her. "You know what's wrong."
"What? What is it?" Rukia keeped her eyes on his, her poker-face still going strong.
"Don't try to play dumb with me, woman. I know you felt it, too," he slowly walked to Rukia's cell.
Rukia narrowed her violet orbs and said, "What?"
"You knew that this is going to happen all along, didn't you? Didn't you?! You knew... You knew that... You knew all along that my ice cream is melting!"
"Huh?" Rukia accidentally let a stupefied emotion through.
"You knew that this room was way too hot for my poor ice cream, yet you didn't tell me! You traitor!" he spat the last word disgustedly at Rukia. Literally.
"What the--?! How am I a traitor?! And FYI, you spat on me," Rukia wiped Guy Y's salive off of her face. 'What's ice cream, anyway?' she wondered.
"You knew that I love the choco-chip mint flavour! How could you?! How could you, I say!" Guy Y pointed accusingly at Rukia.
"And you knew that I couldn't care less!" Rukia put her hands on her hip.
Oh yeah.
It's on.
Guy Y gasped loudly. "Rukia... How could you! After all that we've been through... it's over? You're just going to give up?! Where is she, Rukia? Where is my Ruki--"
POW!
"Just when the hell did I become yours, moron?!" Rukia seethed.
"Right..." Guy Y rubbed his sore jaw. "You already have a boyfriend. Whoops, I meant had."
"No! I didn't have one!"
"Then who's the orange haired punk?"
"He's..." Rukia paused, trying to think of a word that fits her so-called 'relationship' with Ichigo. "A friend. Just a friend."
"Sure..." Guy Y rolled his eyes.
"Don't you go all sarcastic on me!"
"Of course I'm being sarcastic with you..." Guy Y commented sarcastically, which boiled Rukia's blood yet again.
Rukia gritted her teeth in anger as Guy Y smirked smugly. Then, she took a deep breath to calm down her nerves.
"Well," she started, "At least I don't blush like a little girl, blush-face-brown-haired-chin-guy," she turned around on her heels and went to the glass window.
Guy Y blushed regarding her comment. "I do not blush!"
"Sure ya don't," Rukia commented sarcastically.
Guy Y gritted his teeth but quickly replaced it with a forced smile.
"And unlike you, I will take the mature way out of an argument," he walked away calmly to collect the liquid remains of his choco-chip mint ice cream. "Hiks... My ice cream..."
"Pssh... What mature way out?"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
"NOTHING!"
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"Horra! Horra! Horra!"
CRASH!
WHAM!
SPLASH!
Ichigo's scowl deepened as he successfully cut another tree down.
'Timber...!' his hollow screamed.
"Shut up," Ichigo seethed.
'King, have anyone ever tell you that you look extremely stupid talking to yourself?'
"I don't care."
'Aww...' it cooed mockingly. 'What'sa matter, King? Sad about losing your precious Queen?'
"She ain't my Queen."
'Sure. Keep telling yourself that and you might be able to convince yourself about 0.0000001 percent.'
"Shut up already!"
Ichigo swung Zangetsu down on a medium-sized branch in front of him, which landed on the watery swamp loudly. He angrily stomped over it and decided to ignore Ishida's lousy piece of advice and started shunpo-ing. His scowl softened as he – finally – saw the white gate that had been pushed open by Renji.
"Someone got here before I did?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. He tried to feel the said someone's reiatsu but couldn't. He felt as if something is blocking his senses. The only 'clue' he has is a strand of crimson red hair left by the door.
Ichigo crouched down and carefully inspected the 'crime scene'. His eyebrows furrowed even deeper as he tried to analyze who is it that opened the door before him.
'Let's see... Who has red hair... Ishida has bluish-black hair... Sado has deep brown hair... Inoue has burnt orange hair... and Renji...' Ichigo paused his train of thoughts for a second. 'Renji... What was his hair colour again? Let's see... I can vaguely remember pineapple... pineapple... pineapple is yellow... So his hair is yellow? Oh why the hell not? So whose hair is this?!' he gripped the hair tightly in frustration.
"Whatever!" he stood up and threw the hair onto the floor. After giving it a stern glare, he started walking towards the one-way path.
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"Ishida-kun! Look! Look! The gate has been opened!" Orihime pointed out.
"Indeed. I wonder who has done it..." Ishida replied.
"Look what I found!" Orihime ran towards the door. "A strand of red hair... Who could it be?"
"Ano... Inoue-san, don't you think its--"
"It must be one of those las incógnitas!" Orihime made a fist eagerly with her left hand. "Oh well!" she threw the 'mysterious' red hair away and started walking. "Let's go Uryuu! Oh! Gomenasai! Can I call you Uryuu, Ishida-kun?" she asked with a blush on her cheeks. After all, he is the third person that she had call with his given name—after Tatsuki and Rangiku, of course.
"It's fine, Inoue-sa--"
"Uh, uh, uh!" Orihime cut in and shook her head to the sides.
Ishida raised and eyebrow. "What's wrong, Inoue-sa--"
"Ssh!"
"Inoue-sa--"
"Wup!"
Ishida is bewildered. After he finally gets it, he said, "Inoue-sama--"
"Mou, Uryuu!"
"Okay then... Ino--"
Orihime cut him off with the 'look'. Ishida gulped.
"Uh... Ori... Hime... -san?" Ishida raised his eyebrows cautiously.
Orihime's face lighted up. "Yay! You finally get it, Uryuu! But you can drop the -san if you want to!" she beamed.
"Okay... Shall we go then, Hime?" Ishida started walking inside the castle. Orihime stopped suddenly.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"N-Nothing!" Orihime followed him with a smile. For some reason, she felt special after being called 'Hime'. It felt different than when Chizuru does it.
'I wonder why?'
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Renji raised an eyebrow as he finds himself in a familiar situation.
"Hmm... Three paths, huh?"
Standing upon him is the intersection of three hallways, each doesn't look as if you could walk through them in a mere 15 minutes. Sighing, he decided to take the right one and started walking.
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Ichigo stared wide-eye at the three hallways. He had to choose a hallway again. Hueco Mundo was enough for him, he does not want to take anymore chances.
"Ah, look! It's Kurosaki-kun!"
Ichigo turned around to see Ishida and Orihime running towards him. Orihime waved her arms eagerly as she beam, Ishida running beside her.
"Osu, Ishida, Inoue!" Ichigo greeted.
"Hi, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime chirped.
"Kurosaki," Ishida gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. "So... We have to choose again?" he continued, noticing the three hallways behind Ichigo.
"Yeah..." Ichigo answered, rubbing the back of his head.
"Look, Uryuu! The red-haired person went to the right one!" Orihime pointed at a strand of red hair on the floor, slightly inside the right hallway.
"Uryuu... huh?" Ichigo shot Ishida an all-knowing look. Ishida shot a stern look back and Ichigo raised his hands defensively.
"Do you think so, Hime?" Ishida asked Orihime.
"Hime... huh?" Ichigo grinned at Ishida.
"Oh shut your mouth, Kurosaki," Ishida blushed and turned away.
"'Kay then, I'll take the left one," Ichigo took a step towards the right hallway.
"And I'll take the center," Ishida stated.
"I... Um..." Orihime paused for awhile to think. "I'll go with Uryuu, is that okay?"
"Yeah! Of course it's okay!" Ichigo grinned and secretly gave Ishida a thumb-up which the Quincy blushed at.
"Great! So... As soon as we save Kuchiki-san, we'll go back, right?" Orihime asked.
"Yes. And if you find a dead-end, go back here and choose another hallway. The person who saves Kuchiki-san have to leave a mark here as he or she go out, so the others will know when to stop searching and go out, agree?" Ishida suggested.
Ichigo and Orihime nodded at the same time.
"See y'all, then!" Ichigo shunpo-ed to his destined hallway as Ishida and Orihime ran towards theirs.
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A/N: I know, short chapter. I'm sorry about that. But look how close I am to the 50th review! So... as a prize for the 50th reviewer, I'll tell them... DUN DUN DUN... Guy Y's true name! Sorry, it's not very exciting, but I can think of nothing else. Remember, I'm sick, so my brain doesn't work out properly!