A Lesson in Thanks
Koujaku had managed to clean out the spare room in a single afternoon. The room had been full of boxes and bags, and Grimmjow didn't know where she had put it all in such a short amount of time. He had left one day to go to the Shoten as Kisuke had asked, and when he came back the room was completely cleared out. Koujaku had managed to get a bed, desk and dresser into the room in the short time Grimmjow was gone, and he was now convinced that she was a witch.
"How the hell did you manage this?" Grimmjow asked, scanning a bookshelf full of various novels and textbooks.
"Hard work and determination." Koujaku replied as she pulled a dark blue fitted sheet over the mattress. "You're supposed to say 'thank you' when someone does something nice, by the way."
Grimmjow only scoffed. He didn't ask her to do it, so he felt no need to say 'thank you' to her. He didn't really ever feel like saying thank you to anyone, and knew for a fact that the words had never even left his mouth before in his life.
"Che." He scoffed, pulling a textbook off the shelf to examine it. Koujaku elected to ignore him, knowing that she couldn't beat manners into him every day if she ever wanted him to learn anything.
"You never did tell me," Grimmjow began, replacing the textbook. "How you got tangled up with Kurosaki and that hat-and-clogs guy."
Koujaku was silent as she fought to get a pillow in its case. She and Grimmjow would be spending quite some time together in the coming months, so it wouldn't hurt to let him know a few things about her.
"I met Kisuke-san after he saved me from a Hollow attack when I was fifteen or so. Apparently I've got larger than normal reiatsu or whatever it's called and it attracts them from time to time. I started working at the shoten a while after that and met Ichigo-kun when he became a Soul Reaper." Koujaku shrugged and tossed the pillow onto the bed.
"There's not much to it. Other than the reiatsu, there's not much else about me that Kisuke-san should like, but I can't get away from him."
Grimmjow could believe it. Her reiatsu was definitely larger than normal, and if it weren't for his own reiatsu masking hers, he figured he would have seen a Hollow or two coming after her in the time he had been with her. He should probably teach her how to suppress her spirit energy, as it would be inconvenient for her to get eaten by one , but he didn't really want to. He wasn't the teaching type, and he figured that Koujaku wouldn't take well to him telling her what to do anyway.
Koujaku learned the hard way that Grimmjow didn't like sweets or energy drinks.
Since Tao had quit without notice, Koujaku had to train the newbie on the graveyard shift as well as work her own morning shift, so that meant she was gone from nine-thirty at night until two the next afternoon. With Koujaku also being the manager and on salary, it meant that she didn't get paid any overtime while she was training the newbie. She had at first attempted to get Juugo from another store to train Shiemi, but they just had someone quit as well and couldn't spare him.
Since Koujaku was working sixteen hour shifts, she was currently surviving off of energy drinks and candy, as she was too tired to cook anything more substantial. She came home Friday afternoon with a Monster in one hand and a bag of gummy worms in the other, toeing off her shoes and shuffling into the living room. Grimmjow was sitting on the couch reading another textbook from his room, looking just as bored as always. He looked up when Koujaku entered the room, his mouth slightly parted as he sniffed the air.
"Hey." Koujaku greeted tiredly, setting her drink on the coffee table as she slumped onto the couch next to Grimmjow.
"What the hell is that?" he asked, looking from the energy drink to the bag of gummy worms in Koujaku's hand. The woman quirked a brow and held the bag out to them.
"They're called gummy worms. They're a type of candy." she explained.
"They look disgusting." He deadpanned. Koujaku made a face.
"Yeah well, no one asked you." she retorted, taking one from the bag and biting off an end.
"Let me try it." Grimmjow suddenly demanded, holding his hand out. Koujaku placed a few of the gummy candies into Grimmjow's palm, watching as he inspected them as if they could be poisonous. He shoved all four of the gummy worms into his mouth at once, his face suddenly going green. Koujaku burst out laughing at his expression. Grimmjow glared at her, but the gagging noises he was making alleviated the heat from the expression.
"That bad, huh?"
"Why did they get slimy as soon as they got wet?" Grimmjow grumbled, the gummy worms falling out of his mouth to land in an undignified manner on his lap. Grimmjow grabbed a tissue from the coffee table and waded them up inside of it.
"You must have a thing about textures. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if you didn't try to eat all of them at once." she chuckled, taking a deep drink from her Monster.
"I want to try that too." Grimmjow said after a moment of silence.
"Dude, if you didn't like those, I highly doubt you're going to like this." Koujaku said. She knew for a fact that Monster was not the best tasting drink in the world, and could foresee Grimmjow not liking it either. The Arrancar just gave her an expectant look and she sighed, passing the drink to him. He took a large gulp only to spit it out immediately after, the drink soaking everything on the table. Koujaku shouted in irritation and jumped from the couch to fetch some paper towels.
"I told you you wouldn't like it!" She hissed, cleaning up the mess as well as she could.
"It tastes like poison. How do you humans stand that shit?" He asked, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth.
"We don't drink it because we like it! We drink it because it keeps us from falling asleep!" she explained, taking everything off the coffee table to run a wet washcloth along it to prevent it form getting sticky.
"It tastes like shit and it'll probably kill you." Grimmjow announced, standing up and taking the half finished drink into the kitchen. Koujaku then heard the sound of the drink being dumped in the sink and she rushed over, taking the can out of Grimmjow's hands just a moment too late. The drink had already been completely dumped.
"What the hell?!" she yelped, angrily tossing the empty can into the garbage. "Those are expensive! You can't just throw someone's drink away because you think it's poison!"
Grimmjow only shrugged, not apologetic in the slightest.
I'm going to fucking murder him. The woman thought, already planning on how she would go about it.
Sundays had always been Koujaku's only day off since she was in school, so she always used that time to visit her grandmother. Her grandmother was a kindly woman called Uzura, who had the same red eyes and black hair as Koujaku, but her personality wasn't nearly as explosive as her granddaughters. She lived in a retirement home on the other end of Karakura Town, despite Koujaku's offer to continue to live at their home.
"You don't need me there any longer!" She had said, waving her hand in front of her face in a dismissive manner. "You need to get out on your own! Invite some friends over without your granny there too!"
Koujaku left the house early that Sunday morning, catching the bus to her grandmother's retirement home. Her music played loudly in her ears during the ride, and she hoped that Grimmjow wouldn't go off by himself today. She needed to figure something out to keep him occupied while she was at work, but she didn't know what. He was too volatile to find an actual job just yet, but perhaps Kisuke would let him work at the Shoten a few times a week. Koujaku mulled that thought over for a while, and figured she would talk to Kisuke tomorrow after work.
Koujaku's grandmother was sitting in her usual spot in her rocking chair by the window knitting. Koujaku knocked on the door and poked her head in, smiling at the sight of the old woman.
"Oh, Koujaku-chan! Come in!" she said excitedly. Koujaku entered and set her backpack down on the ground near the door, walking over to hug her grandmother before sitting on the other chair.
"Hey, Gramma, how's your day been?" she asked. Uzura smiled.
"It's been great! I think that Daisuke from down the hall was – what's the word you kids use? – hitting on me today!"
Koujaku smiled, resting her head on her hand, knuckles curled. "Is that so?"
"I do believe he did! He came and asked me to play shogi with him, and when I beat him, he said that we should keep playing until he wins a game!" Uzura's smile and laughter were contagious, and Koujaku couldn't help but to laugh with her.
"That's great, Gramma. You should ask him to coffee next time you play shogi together."
Koujaku and her grandmother spent the entire afternoon talking, only once leaving the retirement home to walk down the block to get ice-cream and pick up a few things from the store that Uzura needed. Before Koujaku knew it, she was waking up from her position in the arm-chair, her neck and back stiff from sleeping in an awkward position for so long.
The clock on the wall read 10:45, causing Koujaku to curse. The buses had stopped running over an hour ago, so she would have to walk home.
There was a note on Koujaku's backpack from her grandmother and a cloth bag filled with tupperware sitting next to it. The note said that her grandmother didn't want to wake her after she fell asleep since she knew how hard she worked. Koujaku thanked her grandmother for the sentiment, but wish she had at least attempted before the buses stopped running. Koujaku put the bag of left-overs into her backpack and quietly left the retirement home and began her long trek home.
When Koujaku was in school, she often had to walk home alone anywhere she went. That was fine by her; Koujaku was a solitary creature by nature and tended to avoid people as much as possible. It was easy, too. Koujaku had one of those things called 'resting bitch face', so coupled with her aloof demeanor and family background, she was easily stuck with the label 'punk' and avoided like the black plague.
She often spent time at the school's library to catch up on her school work and avoid going home, usually arriving around seven or so. Her father was always gone by this time, so it worked out perfectly. She would rather spend her time at school than be in the same home as her father.
One night she had gotten so caught up in her school work that she hadn't left the library until well after the sun ad fallen. How the key holder for the school didn't think to make sure that all of the students were gone before locking up was beyond her, but she figured that if worst came to worst, she would just hop the fence and get off campus that way.
She ended up needing to hop the fence, but was soon on her way back home, her school bag a familiar and comforting weight on the back of her thighs. The streets were dark and quiet, and a cool breeze drifted by, telling Koujaku that autumn was fast approaching. Koujaku just wanted to be home already. She was starving and knew for a fact that there was pizza waiting for her in the fridge.
There was another gust of wind, but it was hot and sticky with condensation. Koujaku felt goose-bumps rise on her arms and the hairs on the back of her neck rise. This was definitely not normal for this time of year. Koujaku ignored it and kept going. It was probably just a weird drop in barometric pressure that caused it, she reasoned.
Koujaku rounded a corner only to stop dead in her tracks. Standing in the middle of the street was some... thing. It was just as tall as the apartment building it stood next to, and it looked like some sort of humanoid lizard, with long arms, enormous claw tipped hands and short legs. Its tail was long and thin, with razor sharp bone-like spikes running from the base of its head to the tip of its tail.
It was looking directly at Koujaku, mouth parted as if it were scenting the air.
Or imagining how I would taste.
Its face was completely white, split in half by a mouth full of sharp teeth. The most noticeable thing about the monster was the large hole in the center of its belly, about the size of a basketball hoop. Koujaku didn't know how it was still walking around with a wound like that, but she realized that she didn't really want to know.
The beast let out a terrifying scream, the sound a cross between a dying woman and the sound metal makes when crushed with immense force. Koujaku thought that it sounded mournful, and for a moment felt pity for the creature, but the thought was quickly shoved away when it began to walk toward her. Koujaku felt some sort of pressure bearing down on her suddenly, making it difficult for her to breathe, let alone try to run away.
The beast was steadily making its way toward Koujaku, who by now had fallen to her knees as the pressure she was feeling was only getting more and more intense.
I have to get up, I have to run away. She thought frantically. She attempted again and again to get up, but it felt as if she had sunk to the bottom of the deepest trenches of the ocean, and it seemed as if the harder she tried to move the more intense the pressure became.
The monster was now looming over Koujaku, maw open, saliva trailing off its many sharp teeth to fall to the pavement and seep into Koujaku's clothing. Before the monster could gobble her up, there was suddenly a man standing between Koujaku and it. He wore a long black coat with white diamonds along the hem and traditional geta clogs. He was immensely tall, so much so that Koujaku could only see his back and shoulders from where she was kneeling on the ground.
The sudden appearance of the man startled Koujaku greatly, but what was even more alarming was the long katana he had unsheathed from a cane.
What does this weirdo think he's doing?! She thought. That katana isn't going to do shit to kill that thing.
"What are you doing?" she gasped, each word harder to say than the last. "Get... out of here."
Koujaku was now almost completely doubled over, pebbles from the street biting into her forearms, every bone in her body creaking from the pressure. The man only made a sound like he was laughing. Koujaku didn't know how he could laugh at a time like this, and knew that they were both doomed.
The beast gave another roar and lunged at the man, who had only flicked his wrist in retaliation, the point of his katana now facing to the left instead of downward as it had just been. The monster stood frozen for a split second before its head split in two and it evaporated into a cloud of weird powder. The pressure suddenly lifted and Koujaku fell, rolling onto her back to take deep, heaving breaths.
"What in the holy fucking hell -" she gasped, chest heaving. The man tutted from where he still stood a few paces away.
"Come now, is that any way for a young lady to talk?" he had said, voice light despite the fact that he had just killed a huge lizard monster without moving an inch.
That was the day Koujaku had met Kisuke Urahara and learned about Hollows, and she had never wanted to see another one for as long as she lived.
As it stood, she was standing face to face with the third Hollow she had ever encountered before. It was vastly different than the first one she had ever seen. This one resembled a cross between a bear and an alligator with thin, spindly legs. Koujaku had immediately ditched her backpack and booked it in the direction of the Shoten, praying to God that Kisuke, Ururu, Ginta or Tessai was awake to kill it.
She also hoped that she even made it to the Shoten for one of the four to kill it.
It would be cool if that afro-haired Soul Reaper were around, but Koujaku had some of the worst luck, so she doubted that he would get there until after she was long dead.
She skidded around a corner and dashed through an alley, vaulting over a low fence that blocked the exit. Her muscles burned and a stitch was beginning to pull in her side, making it hard for her to breathe. The adrenaline was the only thing keeping her going at this point. Koujaku thought that she should start to work on her cardio – if she made it though this ordeal, that is.
She could hear the Hollow howling behind her and feel the vibrations of its footsteps. It was gaining on her, and this realization spurred Koujaku to run even faster. She would go to church every Sunday and donate her time to the local soup kitchens if she made it out of this alive. Hell, she would wear dresses every day for the rest of her life if it meant that she could have one.
Koujaku felt her knee give out as it hyper-extended, a swift popping sound coming from the joint followed by a searing pain as it did so. Koujaku fell to the ground and skidded a few feet, the asphalt eating through the sleeves of her hoodie and thigh of her jeans and creating road-rash on the flesh in those places. Koujaku tried desperately to get back up, but as soon as she put any pressure on her left leg, the pain made her fall back to the ground again. Koujaku hissed and turned to sit, watching as the Hollow rounded the corner and scuttled into view.
This is it, she thought, glaring furiously at the Hollow. Goodbye, Gramma. See you later Kisuke, Ururu, Ginta and Tessai. Good riddance Ichigo; try not to cry too much when you hear that I got eaten by a Hollow.
The Hollow was drawing ever nearer, just a few more paces and it would be close enough to Koujaku to gobble her up in one bite.
It was like deja vu when he appeared.
Just like before, the Hollow was standing over Koujaku, saliva tailing off its many teeth to fall to the pavement and seep into Koujaku's clothing. Just like before, there was suddenly a man standing between Koujaku and the Hollow, only this time it wasn't Kisuke. The man was just as tall as Kisuke, all broad shoulders and dominating presence as he towered over Koujaku with his back to her. He wore a white jacket that had a black collar, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A katana with a white sheathe and blue hilt rested on his left hip, his hands shoved into his pockets in a bored manner.
Unlike Kisuke all those years ago, the man standing before Koujaku didn't use his sword to kill the Hollow, but instead punched a hole through its head, the creature almost immediately disappearing in a cloud of reiatsu. Koujaku felt that punching the Hollow was a little overkill, but was grateful all the same.
The man turned to Koujaku, his electric blue hair giving away his identity immediately. He looked a bit different from what Koujaku was used to seeing. He still had the teal markings around his eyes, but there was some sort of white thing attached to the right side of his face. It looked to be one half of the mandible and maxilla of come sort of large cat, and Koujaku briefly wondered how it stayed attached to his cheek.
This train of thought was lost, however, when she saw the expression on his face and felt the intense spiritual pressure that he had been emanating. The look on his face was a weird combination of murderous, gleeful and bat-shit fucking crazy. Blood-lust was clear in his eyes, and his spiritual pressure was unlike anything Koujaku had ever felt before. It had the same intense, crushing pressure that she had experienced before with the Hollows, but it was different in a way that she almost couldn't place.
Fear rose from the pit of her stomach, welled in her chest and clogged her throat, making it hard to breathe. All Koujaku wanted to do in that moment was runrunrun – her body twitching in a desperate need to follow what her instincts were telling her.
For the first time since they had met, she was utterly terrified of Grimmjow. Every atom and molecule in her body was screaming at her to get away from him – that if she didn't he would shove his hand into her chest and rip out her heart without batting an eye.
She would honestly rather face the Hollow he had just killed rather than stay here with him.
Grimmjow's demeanor suddenly changed, his expression going blank and neutral while his stance dropped into a more casual one. The crazy pressure was gone and Koujaku could suddenly breathe again, but the feeling of getawaygetaway runrunrun had not subsided. Her entire body was trembling, shaking like a three day old kitten. The muscles in her back were coiled so tightly they hurt, ready to spring to her feet and run if need be despite the pain throbbing in her leg
Grimmjow held his hand out to Koujaku only to frown in irritation when she flinched away from him violently, one arm raised in defense. The Arrancar elected to place his hands back into his pants pockets instead, a smirk tugging at his lips.
Koujaku thought it made him look feral. Deadly.
"You're supposed to say 'thank you' when someone does something nice." he quipped, repeating to Koujaku what she had said to him several days ago. Koujaku wanted to laugh at the mundane implications of it, as if Grimmjow hadn't just punched a hole through a Hollow's head and damn near made Koujaku piss herself in fear.
"Uh, yeah, thanks." she said weakly. Koujaku sat there another moment, trying to get her body to stop its shaking.
"Well, come on. Get up so we can go home already." Grimmjow said impatiently. Koujaku only nodded her head and rose to her feet slowly, leaning heavily on her right leg. She almost tipped forward, but her arm snapped out and grabbed a hold of a fence she was standing near to steady herself. Grimmjow gave her a curious look.
"What's the matter, woman?" he demanded. Koujaku was still too frightened to say anything about the 'woman' comment.
"I, uh, hurt my knee running away from that Hollow. Just – just give me a minute." she panted, feeling her knee twinge and twitch painfully, causing her to hiss and double over on the fence. Her leg was bent at the knee and raised slightly to keep the pressure off it, but the pain still throbbed with every frantic beat of her heart. It would probably take several weeks for it to heal properly, but that was only if she could get to a clinic without actually having to walk on it.
"C'mere." Grimmjow said, stalking toward Koujaku. Koujaku twisted out of the way before Grimmjow's hand even touched her elbow, tripping when she accidentally put weight on her left leg. She fell to the ground with an 'oof' and almost began sobbing because of the excruciating pain the action sent jolting through her leg. Koujaku rolled onto her stomach and bit her fist so hard blood welled from the wound and spilled into her mouth. The woman hid her face in the crook of the elbow on her opposite arm as she waited for the pain to subside again, feeling her body rise and fall with her heaving breaths.
There was no way she could walk to the clinic from here. She would have to either let Grimmjow help her or call someone else. A thought suddenly came to Koujaku, and she wondered why she hadn't just called him before. Koujaku flopped back into her back and pulled her phone from her pocket, dialing one of the only numbers in her contacts list and hoping to God that he was still awake.
Ichigo came bolting down the street several minutes later, his face going from confused to concerned to angry in the manner of a few seconds when he saw Koujaku sitting on the ground a few feet from Grimmjow, bending her knee in an awkward manner. Ichigo ran straight up to the Arrancar and grabbed a fistful of his jacket, spinning him around and slamming him against the wall where the two were standing.
"What did you do?!" Ichigo demanded, the teen the angriest Koujaku had ever seen him. Grimmjow's temper flared immediately, the blue-haired man shoving the young Soul Reaper away violently.
"Fuck off, Kurosaki, I didn't touch her!" he exploded. Ichigo obviously didn't believe him, his fist rising to land a punch to Grimmjow's face. Terrified, Koujaku reached for Ichigo even though she couldn't grab a hold of him from this far away and at such an awkward angle.
"Ichigo! Don't, Grimmjow didn't do this!" she shouted, afraid at what Grimmjow might have done had Ichigo actually punched him. Ichigo stalled his arm and looked to Koujaku, letting go of Grimmjow's jacket when he saw the shaken look on her face.
In all the years Ichigo had known Koujaku, he had never seen such an expression on her. Ichigo was at her side in an instant, worried in the way only a boy who had younger siblings could be.
"What happened?" he asked, gently pulling Koujaku to her feet by placing her arm across his shoulders and hooking his own arm around her middle. Koujaku huffed in a combination of pain and exhaustion.
"I fell asleep at my grandma's and missed the bus so I walked home. A Hollow found me, but Grimmjow killed it." Koujaku didn't add in the part where Grimmjow looked like he wanted to eat her too. "I was trying to make it to the Shoten, but I hyper-extended my knee when I was running."
"Pretty fuckin' careless if you ask me." Grimmjow chimed in, voice irritated. Koujaku stiffened and jumped a little when he spoke, Ichigo noticing this immediately.
"That's all that happened?" he asked skeptically. Koujaku gave Ichigo a look that said they would talk about it at a later time.
"Yeah, that's all."
Ichigo gave Koujaku a serious look but nodded his head all the same.
"Let's get you to my dad's clinic." was all he said.
They made their way slowly to the Kurosaki Clinic, picking up Koujaku's backpack along the way. Ichigo went into the house to get his dad, and Isshin wasted no time in crying over Koujaku's wounded state, threatening to kill whomever had done this to her while looking pointedly at Grimmjow. Koujaku could tell that there was something more behind his threats and dark looks, but elected to ignore it. She didn't want to get any deeper into this whole Soul Reaper VS Hollow thing than she was already in.
"It's okay, Kurosaki-san. I was being clumsy." she insisted. Isshin smiled warmly, but gave Ichigo a pointed look. Koujaku knew that she and Ichigo would be having a serious conversation before long.
Isshin eventually released Koujaku after sticking her into a knee brace and giving her crutches. He gave her instructions to ice her knee for fifteen minutes every hour or so and telling her to keep off it as much as possible. She received a doctor's note to inform her job of the implications of standing on her leg too long, but she didn't know if the corporate manager would allow her to take time off to rest and heal up.
Ichigo helped Koujaku home, Grimmjow trailing along after them about fifteen feet away. Ichigo still had a pinched look on his face like he wanted to beat the shit out of Grimmjow. Koujaku plucked at his shirt sleeve in a comforting gesture and gave him a weak, albeit warm, smile.
"Grimmjow just scared me is all." she murmured, voice loud enough for only Ichigo to hear. Ichigo looked at her curiously.
"What do you mean?" he asked. Koujaku stared forward, wondering how she could explain what she meant to her orange-haired friend.
"The look on his face after he killed that Hollow – I've never seen anything like it." She began, biting down roughly on the inside of her lip just above the posts for her lip piercings.
"He looked like he enjoyed it. And his spiritual pressure... I don't really know how to describe it. All I know is that I don't want to see that ever again."
Ichigo gave her a look that told her he knew exactly what she was talking about.
Hello! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, because I had a lot of fun in establishing the relationship between Koujaku and Grimmjow and Ichigo!
Thank you to all that have followed, favorited and reviewed, it means a lot to me!
The next chapter should be up on 07/28!
