Some quick footnotes: (despite that they're positioned in the header, haha)
- 'Shi ne' is a phrase from Weiss Kreuz's Ran Fujimiya. I love him. It means 'Die' or 'Kill' or something equally as spectacular.
- And 'Durendal' is the name of Roland's sword from the medieval text 'The Song of Roland'. I've been studying these kind of texts as part of my university course, and I find them incredibly tedious and painstaking, so what better way to actually make use of them?
Enjoy the chapter! I'd love it if you left a review at the end!
Disclaimer: I own Bleach as much as I own Microsoft, ie. not at all.
Songbird in the Lion's Den
Chapter 2: Shi Ne
FREAK? I'll show him freak!
"Hey! Listen up, fish breath!" I shouted at the group of boys. Never had I been more scared or had my arms shaken more violently in my life but I had to do this; I had to make a stand. Enough was enough; I'd had it with the name-calling and the snide remarks. After a year you'd think it would have ceased, but the only thing that seemed to have changed was that there were now more of them doing it- some from the lower year who I didn't even know for goodness' sakes. Constant taunts of 'Queen Weirdo' and 'Freaky McFreak' still frequented me whenever I passed Kiego and his arsy stupid underage loons, with whom he played lord and serf when he wasn't sucking up to the student council or trying to merge with the cool drama kids. And I'd just about had it.
"This stops RIGHT NOW!" I screamed, edging closer to them, and I felt a little resolve increase as their faces changed. Obviously they hadn't expected this from little old me. "If I hear so much as another syllable from you when I'm around I'm gonna stick my paintbrush in you where the sun don't shine!"
Haha! Mental high five, I thought to myself. I was going to make sure that whenever Kiego heard the name Kuchiki Rukia he'd run away screaming...
"You're not smart, you're not cool and you always smell of rubber, so shut up! If you carry on with your stupid name calling, you can be certain that... that I will..." Having used my one and only prepared line I was now struggling to find another equally as worthy one. I'd dreamt about this moment for ages, but I'd usually imagined myself just throwing him that one liner and then proceeding to kick his butt to next Tuesday and back. But since this was real life, I lacked the means and strength to actually do that. I was quickly becoming shakier and the fact that the scene in the cramped corridor was attracting just about the entire student body didn't help either. Kiego caught on to my hesitation and my fortress came crumbling down like shortcake pie.
"You'll what?" that smarmy rat started, poking me in the side at which I immediately swatted. Who knows where he'd been. "Ha ha! Nothing! You can't even spin a real insult, loser! Why don't you go back to your basement and talk to the mice until you have something better to say? You're such a dumbass, Kuchiki, or should I say, Ku-BAKA? Ha ha ha! Trying to stand up to your superior is not a good idea!"
Why that little--! Superior? NEVER! I was shaking like a lunatic on the outside and internally my blood boiled. I clenched my hands into little fists, even though I knew there was nothing I could do with them. I was outnumbered five to one, and even if people got involved they'd only take his side. Damn, I hated high school!
"Now hurry along before the sunlight melts your face--NHYARGHH!" Suddenly Kiego was nearly bent over backwards by a clip to the collar. Everyone immediately turned to see the person responsible was none other than the senior president, and at that dispersed quicker than you could say 'What's for dessert?' It was almost the law that there were to be no gathering crowds or commotion when he was around. He'd mentioned it in a school publication (which he happened to be the editor of, so it might as well have been law) that he'd 'Shi Ne' anyone involved in a fight or ruckus. I'd believed that to be some sort of lethal death move, so my admiration had started from there. Now that I could put name to a face, it seemed even more possible that the fiery redhead before me could have 'Shi Ne'd' anyone he wanted five times over in a pair of stilettos whilst rocking a sleeping child.
"What's this?" he simply asked, feigning obliviousness to a haunting effect. No one answered, because only a moron would. Everything Abarai Renji said was strictly rhetorical, even when he actually wanted to ask a question. It was painfully true.
"Ah, bonjour Rukia-chan." he greeted. My jaw dropped to the floor at his casual use of French. Was this really the time? Or the place? I thought.
"Uh, hi." I replied.
Everyone else was as- if not more- shocked than me at the fact that the senior president was striking up foreign conversation with me in the middle of the corridor with Kiego's collar scrunched in his fist. He might as well have Shi Ne'd somebody. My blood was now lukewarm behind a mixed feeling of retreat and confusion.
Renji let go of Kiego and briskly shoved him to the side, shooting him the look before approaching me. I wanted to run away, he was going to kill me for sure. I wanted to taste the world and have four kids before my time was up, but now I'd never get to do any of those things. The only thing I'd be tasting is putty food through a hospital tube.
Cowering slightly, I gulped, waiting for the final blow, for him to clip my collar like he'd done Kiego's and then proceed to inflict on me the curse of the Shi Ne.
"So," he boomed, "first you start something in the middle of the corridor, where people are trying to walk, which I hate, and now I can't even have a conversation in private anymore?"
I looked up to meet the face of my maker but was surprised that he wasn't actually talking to me, but to everyone else who'd been stupid enough to remain at the scene of the crime. Those included Kiego and a bunch of older years that were friends of Renji's (but were exempt since they had a perpetual place in his good books).
"Who's heard of 'Shi ne'?" was all it took to dismiss the remaining observers. "And hey, you," he addressed to Kiego as he was about to leave, "If you don't want my friend here to stick her paintbrush where she said she would, in future you'd better not give her a reason to."
The brunet shot me a look of contempt before joining his prepubescent gang, who had no idea what was going on apart from the fact that there was a scary redhead on the scene who looked like he could kill them with his eyelash. They made haste in leaving, but for once I actually wish they'd stayed so that the attention would have been lifted from me, but, I had no such luck. I knew it, Renji wanted to see me in private so that he could commit the murder and hide the evidence without disturbance or paperwork.
"Rukia-chan, I tried calling you the other night, but the woman on the other side said you weren't there." he said, any trace of what just happened evidently wiped from his mind. My jaw had no plans of reattaching itself to my face as I just stared at his heavily tattooed face, incredulously as I remembered I'd given him the number for Isotou. And what the heck-- Rukia-chan? Oh gods no, please don't tell me he thinks we're friends now just because I called him Renji-kun that fateful day.
"Earth to Rukia."
"HUH? What did you say?" I blurted, suddenly aware of human life on Earth.
"That's no way to talk to your senior, is it now? Especially after I saved you back there."
I furrowed my eyebrows at his insolence and crossed my arms roughly. Oh, so he wanted to play the hero, eh? Wanted a shot at glory, did he? I wasn't going to have any of that; I'd already been through this kind of thing with the people who just left!
"I can fight my own battles! No one said they needed your help!" I spat, turning away from his evil eyes and hair, which I'm sure were the work of the devil himself. My brother always told me to live an honest life and to steer clear of people who looked like Satan. And here I was, about to follow his advice.
"Kuchiki!"
Kuchiki? It was Rukia-chan just now! Oh I see your colours coming through, Abarai, I see them well and clear. And they're not telling me good things. Was Karakura High aware that its senior president was actually a demonic warlord? The truth was always the greatest injury in war, they say, and this was walking proof in the battle of the century. Kuchiki versus Abarai- fight to the death!... or something like that.
I halted, but not by choice. Some person, I'm guessing a crony of his, stopped me and gestured towards somewhere behind me.
"He's talking to you, you might wanna listen. Abarai doesn't play games very well." the orange-haired person said.
WHAT? Games? Who in the name of old man Yamamoto was this strawberry head?
"Okay, what is it?" I more stated than asked, rolling my eyes and preparing myself for the worse. And then it suddenly hit me- the money. He wanted to pay me; why else would he be here? I quickly became very excited at this prospect, and Renji must have mistaken it for my warming to him or something because, dear lord, he smiled at me.
"A couple of friends who are seniors and I are heading down to Karakura Café after class, say at four, and I was wondering if you'd like to come?"
Ah, Karakura Café! I loved that place. I was actually going there myself later on, huge emphasis on myself. I didn't expect to talk about the commission money in such an informal surrounding, but I supposed it couldn't be helped- must be busy, being the president. Yeah, busy plotting deaths. Anyway, I sighed and agreed to it. A café was as good a place as any when there was money in discussion, and I did give him a phone number that didn't belong to me after all, so calling was out of the question. Hell I would have even sat in a dung pile with him if it meant he was going to hand over some cash.
I tried my best to smile sweetly, which invariably ended up as more of a grimace if I'm honest, and waited for him to leave- which he didn't. He just lingered next to me in silence.
Okay, so I got it. I sighed yet again. I was the one that had to leave, not him, because almighty president there decided the rules. Jeez, I thought as I turned to leave, what a snob. I allowed it this once, because he helped me with that dolt Kiego back there, as much as I hated to admit it.
What I didn't see however, were Renji's eyes trailing me down the corridor. Alright, so I cut him off a bit abruptly, but what good would have staying achieved? What did he expect- a conversation or something?
TBC...