Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach!
Okay, wow, the responses for this fic have been amazing so I have just felt compelled to add another chapter. It might not be as soon as every one had hoped, but it's another chapter...Haha. And also, thanks for clearing up the whole "how spirits become Soul Reaper" thing. Haha. I had forgotten all about the Academy!
Anyway, here's chapter four!
Enjoy!
Wheel of the World
Chapter Four: Meet the Soul Reapers
"What are you doing here?!"
A rather confused and slightly angry Kuchiki stood up, pointing an accusing finger at the her white haired savior, whom she thought would have been gone from her life for good. Violet tinted eyes gazed in awe at the shorter man, connecting with his greenish blue ones.
"Kuchiki, please sit down." Ochi-sensei suggested, looking at the raven haired girl with a strange glance, "This is really...an odd way to greet your new classmates."
But - But that white haired guy is a...well, he's not even alive! She wanted to scream out, but chose not to; she preferred not being called insane. Instead, she settled for a more put together answer, "Uh...haha, okay, Ochi-sensei." She gave a trademark, gleaming, perfect smile in her way - one of the things that has let her get out of trouble so much in her years at the school.
"Anyway, before I was interrupted," Ochi-sensei made a point of looking directly at Rukia when she made that statement, "I have to assign seats...hm...okay, there are some extra seats in the back behind Rukia, so make with it." She clapped her hands in a hurried manner, "Chop, chop."
Rukia watched the group of five make their way behind her. They were quite noticeable. One with a big, spiky mop of orange hair. One with scarlet red hair and tattoos. A girl who wore her hair in a bun on the top of her head and had large brown eyes. Matsumoto, of course, was getting all the attention from the guys (and Chizuru, creepily enough) for her uniform choice that could barely conceal her "assets". Hitsugaya just seemed to chill with the whole situation, as if he was used to scrutiny.
Her large, violet eyes studied them as they sat down. She quirked an eyebrow when Hitsugaya looked her way, and the white haired shinigami just gave her a look that told her they would explain to her everything fully as soon as the day was over.
She sighed and turned around, looking out the window from the corner of her eye.
This is too strange.
Unbeknown to Rukia, a pair of crystalline green orbs were fixated onto her.
Hitsugaya gave a lazy yawn much resembling that of his fukutaichou's and leaned forward, putting his cheek in his hand while listening to Ochi-sensei babble on about some topic...he wasn't really sure. His mind kept wandering off to other things.
He found himself studying her, for some strange reason. Hitsugaya looked at the manner with which she did things. The subtle thought patterns that would cause her spiritual pressure to fluctuate around her in various rays of light were a wonderous subject with him. No wonder she's a hollow target. She has no clue how to control her spiritual energy.
Besides the aura of power emanating from the raven haired girl, he noticed the way her hair slightly curled at the ends, barely reaching over the collar of her shirt. And he realized just how small and slender she actually was. Strange, how such a small girl was able to survive something as large as a hollow.
Well, he was just a bit shorter than her.
Just a bit shorter.
Not by much.
Ugh.
Hitsugaya quickly felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance at his current stature. I will grow...I will grow. I'm just not...an adult yet, and so what if that woman is just a bit taller than me? It's not like I ca -
"Stare a hole in the girl, why don't cha?"
Just then the white haired boy realized he had been staring quite hard at the back of the Kuchiki girl. Hitsugaya turned around, not seeing Matsumoto as he expected, but he connected eyes with the curious, chocolate gaze of Ichigo, "Ichi - "
"I mean I know she's pretty and all, but damn."
Hitsugaya felt his cheeks heat up. "S-Shut up!"
"Kurosaki, Hitsugaya! Settle down." Ochi-sensei called out to both of the spiky haired youths.
Renji and Matsumoto snickered, while Hinamori looked oblivious to it all.
"Y-Yes, sensei." Both of them said in unison as they turned to face the front in their seats.
As soon as Hitsugaya got settled, he looked up in front of him, and was met with a pair of stunning jewel-like orbs giving him a strange look. Kuchiki. He thought automatically, meeting her gaze with his icy one. She quirked an eyebrow for the second time at him before turning back around to listen to the teacher give some lecture on some topic or another.
Things are off to an interesting start.
As for how interesting they would be, Hitsugaya could never guess.
The raven haired girl sighed exasperatedly as she jammed the small, plastic straw through the juice-box she had bought for break time.
"Kuchiki." A sharp, curt voice penetrated the silence around her.
Rukia spun around, vision clouded with her dark locks for a moment before the wind blew them from her pale features. Her eyes connected with the all too familiar icy green ones of Hitsugaya Toshiro.
"Um, who are you? I doubt we've met before." She replied with a smirk.
The white haired boy glared, "Don't play dumb."
Rukia rolled her eyes as she sipped from her juice-box, savoring the sweetly tangy flavor of it.
Hitsugaya pointed to the box, "What's that?"
"Don't play dumb."
"Oh, you think you're clever, don't you?"
"I like to think so, yes."
"Oi!" An unfamiliar voice made itself known. Rukia looked to see a boy with a head full of spiky orange hair and a pair of seemingly kind chocolate orbs, "Hitsugaya, don't harass her for crying out loud!"
"Hitsugaya-taichou."
"Well, since you aren't techinically a captain now, I think I could skip out on the taichou part, Hitsugaya." The orange haired man prodded, and Rukia could sense that this was annoying the short shinigami turned student, but she chuckled anyway at the strange, spiky haired man's statement.
"Ichigo! Hey!" A rather exasperated bun-wearing girl said as she rushed up to the threesome, a ragged looking Matsumoto and red haired guy following her.
"Oh, the gang's all here." The man now revealed to be Ichigo said, scratching the back of his head with a somewhat sheepish look.
"Toshiro, is this her?" The dark haired girl turned to Rukia, chocolate orbs meeting violet ones.
Her calling Hitsugaya by his first name caused some questioning in Rukia's head, He said he didn't like being called Toshiro...so why is that girl calling him that? Hm... The wheels in the Kuchiki girl's head began to turn.
Hitsugaya nodded, "Yeah."
The brown haired girl immediately stuck out her small hand, "I'm Hinamori Momo!"
Blinking in confusion, Rukia took this Hinamori girl's hand in her own and shook it, "Uh...okay..."
Sensing her dilemma, Hinamori turned to Hitsugaya and gave him a questioning look, "She doesn't know who we are, ne?"
Hitsugaya shook his head no. "I was about to explain before I was so rudely interrupted." He sent a glare in Ichigo's direction.
"Hey, I was just trying to be friendly!"
Shaking his head once more, the white haired boy turned to Rukia, "I requested with the leader of Soul Society for me to be able to keep watch over you."
Rukia tilted her head to the side, knitting her eyes together in a cute confusion that almost made Hitsugaya want to gag. Gag or hug her, that is. But he would never admit the latter out loud, "What for?"
"Because of your spiritual energy, genius." Hitsugaya said in an all-knowing manner, "We have a feeling that if you are to continue to live this carefree life that you are living right now...then your soul will eventually be devoured by a hollow. Sooner rather than later - " He saw Rukia's expression change from one of childish wonder to that of worry, " - but we are here to prevent that, so don't worry."
Rukia took in a shaky breath, "You mean...you requested to come to Karakura...to stray away from whatever duties you had...for me?"
"For your power," Hitsugaya began, knowing what the girl must've been heading at, "Both me and Yamamoto-genryusai agree that your power would be very valuable to Soul Society when you move from here to there."
"I have to move?"
Hitsugaya sweatdropped. This girl could be very naive. "When you...pass...from this world."
Her eyes darkened, knowing what he meant, "Oh."
"But that isn't going to happen for a while, so you have nothing to worry about!" Matsumoto chimed it, ridding the atmosphere of its gloominess.
Rukia closed her eyes in a smile, "Haha. Thanks."
"Anyway, Hitsugaya brought us all here to protect you," The tall, red haired man with tattoos spoke up, stepping forward, "Oh, and a plus, he gets to teach you the different tricks and trades of the experienced shinigami."
"I thought I was explaining everything." Hitsugaya interrupted, giving the scarlet haired man a look.
"But you always take too long," He replied, closing his eyes in a sheepish grin as the green eyed male turned his glare on him, "Ah...ha..."
"It's the truth, taichou - err, Hitsugaya...haha, gotta get used to that." Matsumoto chirped, giving him a smile, whilst pointing a finger to illustrate a point, "You do rather like to ramble on dramatically."
Ignoring Matsumoto's comment, Hitsugaya turned back to Rukia, "As you know, I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro, that's Matsumoto Rangiku," He then pointed to the orange haired boy, "This is Kurosaki Ichigo." Next he pointed to the red haired male, "That is Abarai Renji." Last, he pointed to the smallest member other than himself, and introduced her, "And this is Hinamori Momo."
Rukia gave a polite smile and cheerily greeted, "Nice to meet all of you."
"AW! Cute!" Matsumoto squealed as she hugged the petite raven haired girl to her, putting her face in a rather...odd position, "I can see why Hitsugaya is so enamored by you!"
"I am not enamored!"
"Mmpphrrrgg," came Rukia's voice as she pried herself out of the strawberry blonde's grip and gasped for air.
"Is it really that surprising?" Matsumoto smiled brightly, looking from her to her taichou. "He does - "
"I believe she wasn't doing that out of surprise, but due to the fact that she couldn't breathe."
Rukia spun around, "Oh, Ishida! Hello!"
The bespectacled man waved a hand in an unenthused gesture of greeting her. "Hey."
"Boyfriend?" Matsumoto asked without any hint of nonchalance whatsoever.
The raven haired Kuchiki blinked several times before blushing a pretty, deep shade of crimson, "I-Ishida? No, n-no! We're just friends!"
Matsumoto tossed a lock of strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder and smiled down at the shorter girl, "Hm, well, if you say so."
It seemed like Matsumoto was the only one to notice the look of hurt that entered Ishida's eyes, leaving as quickly as it came. She patted the Kuchiki girl on the head and gave a yawn mixed with a laugh, "I was only joking."
"Haha, oh, okay," Rukia sputtered out, not meeting Ishida's eyes for a while afterward.
While other details of the mission were laid out to Rukia in full detail, Hitsugaya couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealously in his chest.
He didn't know why...
...but it was certainly there.
"Rukia, wait up, please!"
The darker haired girl turned to be met with the wide eyed gaze of Orihime. "Hey, Orihime."
The orange-brown haired girl slowed to a stop as soon as she was side-by-side with the shorter person. She gave a light, airish sigh, twiddling her fingers in the band of her school bag as she looked out ahead of herself with a dreamy expression, "Beautiful day, ne?"
Rukia nodded, a serene smile crossing her lips, "Yes."
The taller girl turned her head, looking down at the crown of Rukia's head, "Are those new students nice?"
"Hm?" Rukia said, feeling a lump form in her throat, "How would I know that?"
"You were talking with them at break today...so I was just wondering." Orihime replied with a tone of innocent curiosity.
"Yeah, they're pretty nice. Want me to introduce you?"
"Oh - n-no, I wouldn't want you to have to do that, Ruki - "
Rukia interrupted her sentence, knowing very well where she was going with it, "I don't mind, Orihime. Actually, I think they'd want to meet you." She finished with a smile upward to the voluptuous girl.
Orihime closed her eyes in a bright smile and moved her head to out in front of her before opening them again, "Thank you very much."
A chuckle emitted from Rukia's lips, "No problem."
They walked in silence for a while, uttering the occasional commentary on their day, classes, and whatnot, before they reached a fork in the road. The orange-brown haired girl sighed and then announced, "Well, this is where we part, Rukia. See you tomorrow!" She threw a hand carelessly in the air in a wave.
"Bye, Orihime. Have a good night."
"You too!"
With that, the two parted ways, as was the norm for a school day for the two. The two had a lot in common, even if they looked and acted completely different from one another.
After all, they both had their experiences with tragedy at a young age.
Matsumoto Rangiku suddenly felt like a criminal as she watched her taichou try and bust into the very girl's house they were trying to protect. Her strawberry blonde hair whipped about her form in a sea of golden as careful ice blue orbs watched him work, and her voice formed the very question that her mind had been nagging her about for the past few minutes.
"Taichou, are you sure we should be barging in like this?" She spoke with a lazy, yet playful drawl that was expected of her.
"Well, where else do you think we should stay?" The white haired taichou replied, expertly picking the lock with a hairpin he had gotten from Hinamori.
"We could stay at...um..." The aforementioned bun wearing girl spoke up, actually thinking she was on track, but she ended up trailing off and placing her fist to her lips in thought, "Um...we could...ah..."
"See, there is no other place." Hitsugaya said confidently, hearing a satisfying clink from inside the lock system, signaling that the door was open. He twisted the knob and opened the door, entering the house before everyone else and surveying the surroundings. It looked exactly the same as it had that one night when he had been there, except for the few things out of place, such as a bag of chips laying open on the couch in front of the television and a sleeping bag laying on the cushions of it.
Why would she sleep down here? Hitsugaya pondered, sitting his school bag down on the floor.
"Are you sure you don't wanna stay here just for that cute girl?" Ichigo burst up, earning a glare from the shorter shinigami.
"Ichigo, you've only known her for a day!" Renji interrupted, feeling that Hitsugaya was now royally pissed and he should divert attention from the orange top's remark by saying something.
"What can I say? I know what I like." Ichigo shrugged nonchalantly, a smirk forming mischeviously on his lips.
"You need to be quiet," Hitsugaya interrupted him, giving him a cold stare with those infamous, unfeeling eyes of his, "You're beginning to sound like Kurosaki-taichou."
That made Ichigo shut up.
Finally I'm home.
Turning the corner to her house was a welcoming sight for her weary spirits. Too many strange things have been happening lately, and a nice, long, hot bath would do her some good, she knew.
Heaving a sigh as she made it to the door, Rukia looked at the door to her house to find it surprisingly unlocked and cracked open a bit, and she was sure she locked it that morning!
What the - why is my door not locked?! She panicked on the inside as she entered the large house. Her large violet orbs searched the area for anything to be used as a weapon. She quickly grabbed an umbrella that was propped up against the side of the door.
She tiptoed into the house, umbrella ready to swing. And although the sight might not have been very threatening, she felt pumped up enough to do a great amount of damage to whoever the hell decided to infiltrate her house.
She heard something in the kitchen and her eyes darted to the swinging door, from behind which she could hear voices.
Her grip tightened on the umbrella, so hard that her knuckles turned whiter than her pale skin already was.
With a swift motion, she kicked open the door, umbrella over her head, and screamed in a tribal manner, "DIE!"
And she hit something, a loud thump resounded throughout the house.
She was met with four pairs of confused eyes; there would've been five if the fifth person hadn't been KO-ed with the dreaded umbrella.
"Um...Rukia?" Renji looked at the girl as if she had totally lost it, which she looked as if she had. Her eyes were wide, nostrils were flaring, hair was slightly mussy (from what, Rukia didn't exactly know), and she was holding an umbrella over her head as a means of attack.
Rukia was breathing heavily, and her eyes looked at Renji as he touched her shoulder, his large palm almost taking up all the space of the small area of her arm. "You need to calm down..."
"I need to calm down?!" Rukia spat out, looking up at the much taller tattooed shinigami, "You people frikin gave me a heart attack! I thought there was a burgler, mass murderer, or crazed hobo that broke in and was going to kill me!"
Crazed hobo? This girl surely had an imagination on her.
Ichigo spoke up, "Okay, we'll explain it all, just sit down and have some of this thing..." The bright haired man brought out a pudding cup, the thin covering on top of the cup had teeth marks puncturing it and it looked as if it had been bitten and sucked on. "Is this what you call soda?"
Rukia felt her head begin to throb, "No...that's pudding..." She buried her head in her hands before taking in the appearance of her kitchen. It was in ruins, everything was thrown helter skelter on the floor, some things were on the wall, and - oh, dear Lord...what was that on the ceiling?
She couldn't think of anything else, until Hinamori spoke up kindly, "Um, Rukia..."
"Yes?" She said shortly, looking up at the girl.
"You might wanna go check on Toshiro. You hit him pretty hard with that thing."
Rukia quirked an eyebrow before her violet orbs widened, looking to a crumpled mass of shinigami lying on the floor, a large lump on his head where the umbrella had crashed into his skull.
He looked up, his eyes seeming to blaze with fire. "Ru-ki-a."
Uh oh, Rukia sweatdropped, while Matsumoto chirped.
"That's what you get for breaking and entering, taichou!"
End Chapter Four.
I am finally done with it! So glad...I'm so very glad. And I hope you liked it!
I know the ending was kind of stupid, but I wanted to end it on a light note, so there it was!
And for you reviewers wondering about Orihime's love life in this fic - I actually don't know who to pair her with. But I can tell you it won't be Ichigo. So all you IchiHime haters out there can exhale. To keep with the crackety pairing nature of this fic, I was actually thinking about a RenHime. Because I definitely don'twant her with Ishida or Chad or Ichigo in this fic. Because those pairs are the norm. And I think RenHime is quite cute (dodges random objects thrown at her).
Also, Ichigo may seem out of character, but I think his personality might be different if he didn't have to deal with the angst of his mother's death and all that jazz...and thus was born the hippy skippy Isshin-like version you see in this fic! He'll still have his "Ichigo" moments, don't you worry. Lol.
Now, please press that pretty button and review with you comments and opinions, I would really appreciate it!
Join the HitsuRuki army!