• • •
Running as fast as I could, not because I had to, I could make out the light at the end of the tunnel. Now I knew where that expression came from; the creator must have been running through the Dangai.
Of course, with my luck, the subordinate Shinigami in charge of the jigokucho had let them all fly away and hadn't been able to retrieve any of them when it was my time to leave. That's why I had opted to take the Dangai to the Human World; I didn't want to wait for them to actually gather the butterflies again. But, even with the Dangai's defenses deactivated for my passage, it still wasn't a walk in the park. It felt like it went on forever!
However, I did reach the light at the end of the Dangai. As I ran through it, I found myself in the city known as Karakura Town.
Again, with my luck, I found out that the specs of the Dangai were off, dumping me out in the sky about thirty feet from the ground. I couldn't hold back the squeak of surprise as I began to fall, but I did manage to use my reiatsu to catch my footing in the air. Sighing at the close call, I instantly took to running on the thin air.
This was my town, however I didn't remember much of it. I was small when I had lived here with my parents. And I was still young when they were killed when they fought off a Hollow. I had moved from city to city, town to town, many times after that. That is, until I wound up here again. That's when my life was changed forever.
As I was running, I observed my surroundings. People were scurrying around, fancily dressed in business suits and ties, probably trying to get to work on time. Venders were on the street side trying to sell their goods and merchandise. Even without my brain thinking it, my feet found a familiar pathway, taking me to the old store that was more often closed than it was open: Urahara Shoten.
In fact, it wasn't even really a store for humans in the first place. Of course he did have stuff to sell to keep up appearances, if a curious human decided to stop by. Urahara Shoten was more adept in providing illegal goods to other souls; things that the Soul Society usually wouldn't permit.
Coming to a halt in front of the small shoten, I couldn't help but smile. This place brought back many memories; most of them being some of the greatest ones that I've ever experienced in my life. I took a few steps towards the door before a rather large sign caught my attention:
We're closed at the moment!
Please come back later~!
I felt my left eye begin to twitch at the sight. Did they really draw a heart underneath all of the words, too?! Although, that did seem to suit them… With another roll of my eyes, I drew my fist back and pounded on the door. Five quick, strong strokes in succession.
"Urahara!" I called out, frustrated that I didn't get a reply. Again, I pounded on the door; however, this time it was harder, faster. I had to make it clear that I wasn't going to go away. No matter how early it was, I was going to be successful in making them open the door.
"Oi! What part of 'we're closed' don't you understand?!" I heard a voice yell from behind the sliding door. They sounded aggravated that they had to be up this early; and I remembered who owned that voice.
Hanakari Jinta.
A few more seconds past, and the door remained unopened. I could feel my eye begin twitching again, probably from aggravation and a spiked heart rate. I pounded on the door once more, yelling: "Hanakari Jinta; it'd be in your best interest if you opened up this door right now! Or so help you, you'll be dead!"
Not even a split second after I finished yelling my rant, the sliding door was thrown open, and a small figure engulfed me in a tight hug. He was much shorter than me, probably about a foot or so, which kind of made it awkward.
"My, my; aren't you awfully affectionate this morning? Or did my yelling finally get through to you?" I asked, rolling my eyes as I pet the top of his red head. When he still didn't let go I took the palm of my hand, jammed it between his forehead and my body, and forcefully shoved him off. "Alright you parasite! Let me get in so I can get back into my body, at least."
"Hey, I'm not a parasite! I just don't want you hitting me anytime soon. It's better to be on your good side!" Jinta informed, as he entered the shoten once more, me following behind him. I slid the sliding door shut behind me, and then I felt another pair of arms circle around me.
"Aw, I missed you too, Ururu!" I exclaimed, lighting hugging the dark haired girl back. If anything, I saw her as a little sister; after all, we did have the same dark black colored hair. She was always so sweet and soft spoken, just like I was when I was small. "It's nice to see you again."
"I missed you, Jun-Chan." Ururu softy replied, lifting her head up so that I could see her shining eyes. I lightly sighed; I just hoped that she wouldn't burst into tears. I wasn't great with kids in general and crying kids were much worse.
"Well, well, well~." Another familiar voice chimed, "It looks like our little Substitute Shinigami came back alive after all!"
Urahara hadn't changed at all; he still had the same shaggy blond locks, striped bucket hat that tended to shadow his gray eyes, and traditional clothing. Fan included.
"Hey, you better watch those 'little' comments. I've grown a bit since I left; I now stand right at five feet~!" I proudly stated, but then pursed my lips. "But what did you expect? It sounds like you expected for me to become Hollow chow by now."
"Hehe, you're correct! I did expect that~!"
"Urahara!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening before narrowing in anger.
"I kid, I kid." He mused, lightly waving that stupid fan around. He then took a seat at the table, where it looked like he had occupied before; there was a cup of tea in front of him. "So, what brings you back down here? I hardly expect that the Soul Society would let you freely roam around."
"Actually, I'm on a mission." I explained, as I sat down on the cushion directly in front of Urahara. "I'm here to locate and detain Kuchiki Rukia. My Taicho had a few strings pulled and they chose me to come. After all, I am still a human. You can't beat sending a human to the Human World instead of a regular Shinigami." I lightly chuckled, before shaking my head. "However, I do hope that it takes a bit of time to find her. I mean, I missed this place more than I had realized. I don't know if I could leave again so easily."
"Your body is still in excellent working condition." Urahara stated, still in his somewhat goofy demeanor. "And, since the shoten is a bit crowded, I'll let you stay in a spare apartment that I have in town. You might have to move some of my research material out of it though… Actually, I'll have Jinta and Ururu do that later." With a motion of his hand, my body walked into the room.
"A gikongan?" I asked, looking at my body. My eyes lightly traveled across it, from the tip of the hair to its striped sock covered feet. Whatever had inhabited my body must have been informed on my style of dressing because it was dressed exactly how I would have.
"It's actually a kaizo konpaku, but you were close enough." Urahara stated. I stepped into my body, feeling myself re-anchor into it once more. It felt completely different; my limbs felt heavier, and I felt more…solid. Which, I guess would be right. I was no longer in soul form, made up of reishi. I was back in my real body. It just felt so right, so normal. Which was something that I hadn't felt in years. However, I felt the pill form of the kaizo konpaku in my mouth, so I reached in and withdrew the lime green sphere shaped pill.
"You'll want to keep that. It'll help when you need to leave your body to fight off Hollows or search for your missing person." Urahara informed me with a smirk on his face. "And you'll need to hurry up. You don't have much time left!"
"Time for what?"
My question was left unanswered, as Urahara stood up and walked out of the room. I was about to follow him, when I heard Jinta mumble, "Man, I'm gonna miss having that kaizo konpaku around. She did all the work…"
Eye twitching yet again, I forcefully smacked the back of his head. He stumbled forwards a bit from the force of the blow, which was still quite powerful even when I was in human form.
"Hey! What was that for?!" He cried, clutching the back of his head in pain. As if I'd let him play the little innocent boy act; he was anything by innocent.
"That was for being lazy and making that poor konpaku do all of the work while you slacked off! And using my body, too! You're lucky I'm in a good mood, or that hit would be returned tenfold." I threated, as I menacingly popped my knuckles to further scare the kid. I narrowed my now icy blue eyes, "Now what do you have to say?"
"S-sorry!" He stuttered out, his own eyes widening. He had probably forgotten how scary I could be; which I know is bad of me. I shouldn't scare little kids, but he deserved it!
"Okay, you're sorry. So what? I mean, how are you going to act now?"
"I-I'll do the chores… I-I-I won't be lazy a-anymore!"
"Good." I nodded, crossing my arms. "Because, if you continue to just be lazy like you are now you'll eventually turn out to be like Urahara. And I'm sure you wouldn't want that."
"Hey, now look who's dealing out low blows." Urahara whined as he re-entered the room. "Besides, I went through all of the trouble of getting off of my lazy butt to go and find the key for you!"
"Alright, I'll admit it; you did do that." I said, as I eyed the key in his hand.
"Yep~! Now, I'll have Jinta and Ururu move all of your stuff into the apartment today. And they'll move my stuff out of it and into your old room here!"
"Why are you having little kids doing your work? I'll just do it myself; it'll probably be quicker that way, too." I reasoned, lightly sighing.
"Now, now, you can't do that. You're going to be busy all day today!"
I blinked in confusion. Why did Urahara always have to speak in coded language; he was always so confusing. Why couldn't he just come straight out and actually say what he meant?
"Wow, that's a pretty confused look you have on your face." Urahara noted as he laughed. "I meant that you would be busy because I'm not going to let your education suffer while you're here. After all, I am your guardian. You're newly enrolled in Karakura High, because I had a feeling that you'd be coming back soon."
With a mischievous grin, Urahara pulled an outfit on a hanger from behind his back. On the hanger was, I'm assuming, the school's uniform.
Now, it wasn't that bad. I mean, it was pretty dull looking; after all, it was a gray color. It did have red on it, which I was happy with. The top was designed like a jacket, and it had a front pocket outlined in red at the top, and another on the opposite side near the bottom. A plain white collared shirt was under it, with a red ribbon around the collar. It was possibly supposed to be tied like a bowtie. Now, the only problem that I had with the uniform was the skirt; it was quite short.
"Shesh! How is that supposed to cover anything?!" I cried out in alarm, as I jerked my finger towards the small skirt. I glared at the scant amount of material, shaking my head from side to side.
"This is your new school uniform." Urahara spoke with a wide grin. He had done it on purpose! He knew that I'd freak out about the skirt! "You better hurry up and change! School will be staring soon! You don't wanna be late on your first day~!"
Scowling, I snatched the hanger from his hand. I figured I might as well go along with his plans, whatever they might be, for now. If there was one thing that I knew about Urahara, it was that he was a master schemer. He knew what he was doing. So, for now, I'd play along. Humor him for a bit.
• • •
"Hey! Hey! You're one of the new students, aren't you?!"
I forced my eyes shut and sighed in annoyance. No, I didn't recognize the voice. However it was very loud, especially for so early in the morning. Besides, I think it was quite obvious that I was a new student; I mean, I think I stuck out pretty bad.
First off, my hair probably gained attention. I mean, it was unnatural; nobody has both red and black hair. The owner of the voice probably hadn't seen me from the front, so he probably didn't see any of my piercings yet. And I was also wearing red and gray striped thigh high stockings, in hopes that it would at least cover some of the skin that was exposed by the short skirt; although, it didn't accomplish that much. I also think that I was the only student to be wearing black low-rise converse shoes. So, all in all, I was pretty sure that I could easily be identified as the 'new student'.
I took a deep breath, hoping to calm my anger, before I forced a smile on my face and turned around to face the owner of that annoying voice. "Yes. I'm the new student. Who would you be?"
The owner of the voice did belong to a guy, as I had correctly identified. He was quite a bit taller than I was, but then again, that didn't mean much. His hair was slightly longer than most guys would have, as it was slightly wavy and almost touched the top of his shoulders. His hair was almost a neutral brown, one that seemed to blend in.
"Ah, let me introduce myself to the lovely new student~!" He exclaimed, as a smile stretched across his lips. His cheeks were tinted a light pink color, as he reached out and grabbed one of my small hands and placed it in-between his two larger ones. "I'm Asano Keigo! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Um," I began, getting a little freaked out by the huge grin that was still plastered across his face, "I'm Kokawa Junko. You can just call me Jun, though. That's what most people tend to call me."
"What a beautiful name! It fits you perfectly; a beautiful name for a beautiful girl!" Keigo exclaimed once more, lightly tugging me closer to him. He still had a death grip on my poor hand. I didn't know what to do in this situation; I don't think that it would be wise to drop kick him. That would probably draw too much negative attention. Although, it might get me kicked out of school!
Keigo spoke again, drawing my attention from my thoughts to him once more, "Let me see your schedule! You might be in my class!"
His brown eyes darted down to the copy of my class schedule that was clutched in the hand that he wasn't holding, and he immediately released my left hand and made a grab for the paper. I was thankful that he had released my hand, but the unpleasant throbbing caused me to lose my focus on my grip on the paper. Keigo easily pulled it from my grip, leaving me glaring at him and rubbing my now sore hand. Of course, he didn't see the glare because he was too busy looking at my schedule.
"You have amazing luck, Jun-Chan!" Keigo exclaimed with a huge smile on his face, "We have our first four classes of the day together! Isn't that wonderful?"
In a flash, I had yanked my schedule from his hands. Smoothing out the wrinkles on the piece of paper, I sweetly smiled. "Yes, that is wonderful. Would you mind showing me to class, then?"
"Of course! That's the least I could do! I'll also introduce you to all of the good people!" He exclaimed, quickly moving his large hands to grip around my slender upper arm. Keigo then proceeded to…skip?... off towards class, leaving me almost running to catch up with his longer stride.
"Welcome to Class 1-3!"