BLEACH –Again–
Chapter Four: Something to Watch Out For
The next day was quiet as Ichigo taught math to his students of Class 3-A. Seeing as he wasn't very good with math himself when he was younger only strove him to gain more knowledge in math, and now… well, you get the picture.
While teaching, however, Ichigo noticed a number of students glaring or staring at him, as if trying to find out who he is exactly. Without alerting any of them, Ichigo took a look at who they were.
"Sakurazaki Setsuna, part of the Kendo club… Tatsumiya Mana, a member of the Biathlon club… Nagase Kaede, a Walking club member…" Ichigo listed down, just to name a few. He didn't know what they want, but it was obvious that they were checking to make sure he wasn't a threat to them or the school in general. He groaned a bit. "This is going to be so annoying…"
But first, questions need to be answered.
(After class)
"Oi, Konoe-san!" Ichigo called out, entering the door.
Konoe looked up, a confused look on his face. "Yes, Ichigo-kun?"
The orange head stood in front of the Dean's desk, scowling, hard. "Alright, fess up. I know there's something more to this school than there is to a normal school. So tell me everything."
Konoe raised a brow. "I haven't a slightest idea what you're talking about."
"Oh don't give me that lame excuse…" Ichigo muttered, scratching his head. "… 'Vampire', 'Magic Combat', everything. There's something weird going on here, and I hate being kept out of the loop," Ichigo growled a bit, his patience running thin. Konoe gazed at the orange head and sighed. "I suppose there's no going around this…"
"Obviously…"
"Very well then…" Konoe folded his hands, his eyes opening to reveal serious dark brown eyes, staring at Ichigo. "Tell me, Ichigo-kun… what do you know about Magic…?"
(Meanwhile…)
Nodoka was walking to her walker, her arms filled with books, thinking back at her only memory of the orange head teacher of hers when she noticed something sticking out of her locker. Taking it and opening it, taking notice of the heart shaped sticker, she took out its contents. She looked at the envelope and flushed at the name it was written from. "N-n-negi-sensei! This is a letter from Negi-sensei! Wh-wh-wh-why?"
Looking left and right to make sure no one was watching, she unfolded the letter to read it.
"Miyazaki Nodoka-sama,
After class, I will be waiting behind the dorms. Please be my partner.
Negi."
There was a moment of silence as Nodoka reread the letter twice, thrice, four times before it clicked.
"A-a-a-a l-l-l-l-love letter f-f-from S-s-sensei!" Nodoka thought in shock, taking in the word "partner" wildly. "K-kyaa~… wh-what do I do…?"
(Meanwhile…)
Ichigo sighed as he drank an orange juice box, sitting on the steps of the waterfall near the stairs to school. As he drank, he thought back to what Konoe told him about the weird things about school.
"Tell me, Ichigo-kun… what do you know about Magic?"
"To think that there was such a thing as Magic…" Ichigo sighed. He thought that Magic was something that came from children's books and games. He even thought that it was some sort of Fullbring ability after learning about it. But to think that there was a whole world of it, there was no way Hollows could have attacked that many. Added to the fact that there was no reference to anything the Mages held dear being the pin point of their powers… it didn't make sense to the orange head at all.
But after all Ichigo has been through, this was only a part of the whole mess his life has turned into. And it all started 5 years ago. Great. Peachy.
And given about how strong the Mages are that Konoe told him about, as well as Eastern Mages in Korea, China and beyond, Ichigo deducted that they were about as strong as a Seated Officer in the Gotei 13. The strongest of the Mages, known as Magister Magi, Ichigo thought, was about as equivalent to about a 10th Seat to at least a 5th Seated Shinigami. This meant that he would have to use his second level of Fullbring to be at par with them. Although he couldn't help but think that Konoe was forgetting something (cough-Eva-cough).
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed two girls heading towards him. Peaking into his roster book, he saw that it was two girls in his second class.
"Saotome Haruna and Ayase Yue, huh? Both are part of the Library Exploration Club, whatever that is…" He mused himself as the girls approached him.
"Hello Ichigo-sensei," Yue greeted as Haruna greeted with her own unique greeting. Ichigo greeted back as Yue got right to the point. "Ichigo-sensei, I don't mean to be rude, but have you ever saved a small 10-year-old girl about five years ago?"
Ichigo blinked. "Huh? Where'd that come from?"
Before Yue could further elaborate, Haruna butted in. "Iiiyaaan, but isn't there just that bugging feeling you get when you think you met someone before, and you're not sure, and you just want to go and make sure it's alright and you just wanna go at it?" She blurted out as Ichigo looked even more confused (hell, I'm confused myself). Yue angrily pushed Haruna away before saying, "What she meant to say is that there might be someone in our class that you have met about 5 years ago. Preferably around spring…"
Ichigo tried to think back, but then again, back in spring less than 5 years ago was around the time he met Rukia and become a Shinigami, other events following after that, so of course the usual answer of his will be…
"Um, sorry, can't remember."
Yue dropped a sweat on her ridiculously huge forehead as Haruna fell on her face comically. "What'dya mean you can't remember!" Haruna demanded as Ichigo glared. "Hey, a lot of stuff happens during 5 years, ok? Don't expect me to remember every single detail of my life," He countered. "Although I can perfectly remember all the fights I had with Shinigami, Hollows, Arrancars and the likes. But then again, they don't need to know that."
"Wha-! Jus-! But-! That's no excuse to be forgetting such a heart-warming and luscious-…!" The mangaka (Manga Author) was interrupted by Yue who elbowed the girl in the sides. "Forgive Haruna, Ichigo-sensei. I'm sorry if we tried to pry anything from you," She apologized.
"No, it's fine."
"Well, if you excuse us, Ichigo-sensei, we'll see you tomorrow," Yue greeted as Ichigo waved bye, admittedly amused by Yue's manner of dragging Haruna away.
He blinked. "What was all that about?" He wondered to himself. It was then he noticed that his juice box was empty. "Must've drank it all during the talk…" He muttered as he got up and walked to his dorm room and his roommate.
"So what do you think we should do?" Haruna whispered as Yue continued to drink her unknown juice box. "For now, we should wait…" Yue answered.
"WHAT! I can't have that! I'm not gonna wait patiently when Ichigo-sensei could be encouraged to remember his memories with Nodoka!"
"That's just you wanting to be closer to him, Haruna…" Yue deadpanned. "Anyway we should wait because Nodoka's probably still choosing whether she wants Negi-sensei or Ichigo-sensei," She added as Haruna ignored the blue head. "And then, when those two get close enough to be as intimate as they want, they can… they can… ooooohhh~~~" Yue slapped her forehead, knowing that she had just lost the green head, at Haruna's bluntness as the four-eyes started daydreaming and drooling like crazy. "Nodoka… I'm a bit scared and worried about you and your future relationships…"
(Meanwhile…)
Sakurazaki Setsuna watched as Ichigo waved goodbye to her classmates before noticing that his juice box ran empty. Watching the orange head get up and throw away the box, the swordswoman followed Ichigo. As she sneaked after her new teacher, she sensed two others following the orange head.
"Mana-san and Kaede-san?" She wondered as she caught the eyes of the two. The three then nodded and tailed after Ichigo.
Suffice to say, it wasn't as eventful as they hoped. The orange head only walked around aimlessly around campus, greeting a few students along the way, which they noticed the girls were blushing heavily to. Then Ichigo walked alongside Takamichi as the two discussed about Ichigo's classes and how he was doing. Afterwards, Ichigo yawned and looked at the time, realizing that it was only 5 o'clock.
They then watched Ichigo sit down and take out a book to read, occasionally taking out some sort of badge, before settling down and reading.
…
…
…
An hour has passed and Ichigo has not moved from his spot. Setsuna was yawning at the boredom before realizing what she was doing. Concentrating all her remaining energy at Ichigo, she noticed one important fact.
The orange head wasn't there.
It appeared that Kaede and Mana also focused out as they two were looking around, spreading out to find the suspicious person. Setsuna sighed at her failed shadowing and stood up to stretch, before an ice cold juice can touched her cheeks.
"Kya!"
Setsuna jumped back, her nodachi in her hands as Ichigo blinked at the sudden scream of terror. "Uh… hey, I thought you were getting thirsty sitting there for about an hour or so, so I bought some juice," He offered, gesturing at the two orange juice cans in his hands. Setsuna flushed brightly at her sudden burst out as she slowly accepted one of the juice cans.
The two sat in silence before Ichigo looked at the swordswoman from his juice can. "So, you practice Kendo?"
"H-hai, Kurosaki-sensei," Setsuna hesitantly answered.
"How good are you?"
"Um, I'm still learning, but I'm still a novice compared to Ojou-sama's father…"
"A novice huh… … … … Wait, Ojou-sama?"
Setsuna narrowed her eyes at Ichigo's confused ones. "Hai, Konoka-ojou-sama. I've been tasked a very important task to protect Ojou-sama from any harm," She responded. Ichigo blinked. "So…" He began slowly, "Konoka's royalty, eh?"
"Not precisely, she's…" Setsuna stopped herself when she realized what she was doing and quickly grabbed her nodachi, aiming her blade towards Ichigo's neck, who look unfazed at the blade suddenly being at his throat. Instead, he blinked and sighed. "Is there a reason you're pointing a sword at my throat, Setsuna?"
The swordswoman narrowed her eyes further, a bit confused at Ichigo's response, or lack of it, to a potential life-threatening situation. "I don't seem to remember giving you permission to address me by my first name, Kurosaki-sensei…" She muttered, growling out the "sensei". Ichigo stared at Setsuna with tired eyes ("As if he's experienced this multiple times before") before sighing loudly.
"Look, if it'll calm you down, I'm not hunting down any royalty or any nobility or whatever. I'm just a regular graduated guy, trying to take his job seriously," Ichigo tried to ease Setsuna's tensions. Seeing no move on Setsuna's behalf, Ichigo twitched an eye, gripping the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his temper down. "If you want confirmation, talk to Konoe-san. I have no idea who Konoka really is, nor do I wanna know. So can you get your sword off my throat?" Ichigo nearly yelled as Setsuna hesitantly withdrew her nodachi.
"You're telling the truth… right?"
"Kami, what is up with all the suspicions! I get it, I look very suspicious myself, given even my own background being a bit questioning, but I'm not the kind of guy who'll go around, kidnap some girl just because she happens to be some princess-in-hiding who has no idea on her own ancestral backgrounds, just to get a ransom or power!" Ichigo mildly ranted as Setsuna blinked in confusion, awed that her teacher has gotten every suspicion on her mistress correct, without even knowing a thing about Magic (not that she knows).
Standing up, Ichigo addressed his young student. "And please, if you really think that I will do something bad, at least report it to Konoe-san instead of tailing after me. That goes double for Mana and Kaede, can you tell them for me, since those two have been tailing me as well." Sighing roughly and scratching his orange hair. "Again, I'm not here to do anything hostile nor am I against Konoe-san and this school. All I want is a good paying job and this was the only one I can get to without being too close to an annoying somebody…"
Setsuna could only watch as Ichigo then walked away, calling after himself that if she wants to talk more about her suspicions on him, then talk to him at the teachers' office. It took her a moment to think straight before Ichigo's previous ranting caught her attention.
"Since when did he notice Mana-san, Kaede-san and I tailing him…?"
Notes:
This chapter along with Chapter Five are a double-chapter feature to celebrate my birthday. COnsider it a thank-you gift for taking time off your busy schedules and reading this.
Okay, I honestly had NO idea where I was going with this chapter. It's just supposed to show off a bit of the interactions between Ichigo and Class 3-A, but I suck at showing interactions except in battles and the whatnot, so this chapter was dumb, well sorta.
On the plus side, Yue and Haruna have started their somewhat plan, Chamo starting his "Get-Aniki-As-Much-Pactio-As-Possible" plan, and the three strong-ass girls are keeping their senses up around Ichigo, the teacher giving off a warning of his own. So yeah, just simple stuffs before Evangeline attacks. On to the next double-chapter feature for my birthday!