• • •
"Welcome to Class 1-3!"
Class wasn't that much different than what I had imagined. I guess school was school, no matter where it was. Desks were lined up in perfect rows, facing the front of the classroom where there was a dry erase board. What I assumed was the teacher's desk was up front as well. Groups of students were randomly placed, some circled around desks. They appeared to be killing time by chatting until the teacher showed up.
"Thank you for showing me the way." I spoke, turning towards my over-excited helper. Man, I just hoped that everyone wasn't like him. If I could only be so lucky…
"It was my pleasure!" Keigo excitedly spoke, throwing his arms around me in a huge hug.
"Keigo! Who have you trapped this time?!"
I blinked in surprise at the female voice that yelled from somewhere in the classroom. I didn't recognize the voice, but that was to be expected. After all, I don't think that I knew anyone in this town; with maybe a couple of exceptions.
Keigo immediately released me, cowering against the wall of the classroom as my gaze landed on the female who had yelled at him. She did seem kind of intimidating, but not enough for him to be cowering against a wall in fear. Then again, from what I have learned about Keigo in my few minutes of knowing him, is that he tended to over-exaggerate everything.
The female was exactly my height; however she had a thinner, more athletic build to her. She wasn't as curvy as I was. Her hair was cut short, it spiked out at the sides, and was a deep black color. This gave her a somewhat tomboyish appearance.
"Tatsuki-Chan!" Keigo exclaimed, only for him to falter under her dark gaze. "I-I was j-just sh-showing the n-new s-s-student to c-class!"
I decided to speak up, not wanting him to get into too much trouble. After all, he had been kind enough to show me the way. If he didn't, I'd probably still be wandering the halls, looking for this class. "It's quite alright; he really did show me the way here. Nothing else."
"Oh," The female blinked, taking in my appearance for a few seconds before a grin split across her face. I was thankful that it wasn't as scary as Keigo's grin had been. "Hey there! I'm Arisawa Tatsuki. Nice to meet you."
Tatsuki placed her hands on her hips, and lightly tilted her head in my direction in greeting. I smirked a bit, crossing my arms across my chest and returning the quick head tilting. I could tell that I would get along nicely with her. "Kokawa Junko. You can call me Jun, though."
"Hm, do you by any chance participate in karate?" Tatsuki asked as her dark brown eyes traveled over my appearance. Sure, I might be curvy in the appropriate places, but I was still somewhat muscular.
"When I was younger I took tons of karate classes. I was also enrolled in kendo classes, but I preferred karate better. I moved around a lot after that, so I never really took it up again." I explained. Making new friends didn't seem like it would be that difficult. "Let me guess, are you a member of this school's karate team?"
"Bingo! You're smarter than you look," Tatsuki spoke with a chuckle. "Yeah, I am. I'm also one of the best on the team. I can also speak for them and say that we wouldn't mind it if you joined; I think you would be good addition."
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I have to decline for now. At least until I settle down here a bit more. Maybe next year?" I asked with a small chuckle, "But you'll have to tell me when you compete again. I wouldn't mind watching. It sounds like it'd be a good match."
Tatsuki smiled. "Thanks, that'd be cool." I nodded along with a small smile, and then took another look around the classroom. "So, come with me and I'll introduce you to one of my other friends. Come on!"
Grabbing onto my arm in yet another tight vice grip, I was drug towards a desk near a window.
"Orihime, I have someone I want you to meet. She's the new student that transferred over." Tatsuki explained, as she came to a halt in front of one of the desks and released her grip on my arm. She gestured behind her towards me with her thumb, causing me to lightly blink as she smiled at the girl in front of her.
"Hey, I'm Kokawa Junko. You can just call me Jun, though." I spoke, flicking my wrist side to side once in a small wave.
"It's nice to meet you, Jun-San." The girl spoke with a pure smile. She was just a bit taller than me and Tatsuki, probably by an inch or so. She was also really busty. Her hair was long and reached more than halfway down her back. It was also a really pretty reddish orange color. Happily, the girl returned my wave with much more enthusiasm. "I'm Inoue Orihime!"
"It's nice to meet you, too." I responded, smiling as well.
"So," Tatsuki asked, as she decided to begin a new conversation. She made herself comfortable by sitting on top of the nearest desk. "Why did you transfer during this part of the year?"
"Oh." I lightly spoke, lightly biting my bottom lip. I had to come up with some form of lie; I couldn't exactly tell them that I was here on a mission from the Soul Society to find a Shinigami that had gone missing. I'm pretty sure that would have gone over well: not! "Well, my dad had to move because he received a better job offer here, in Karakura Town. But this is where we originally lived. I was born here, after all. It's nice to be back here again; even if my memory of this town is a little foggy."
I smiled a bit, hoping that they wouldn't be able to see through my lie. I had to work in some part of the truth, so I wouldn't be seen through so easily. Although, mentioning my dead parents still got to me. I could literally feel my heart wrench inside of me, and I had to force my eyes not to tear up. It would definitely not be good to have a mental breakdown in front of two people I just met.
"Do you have any other siblings?" Orihime asked, curious.
"Nope. I'm just an only child." I informed, not minding the slew of questions that I was sure were to come.
"Why do you have so many piercings?" Tatsuki bluntly asked. It didn't seem like she cared if she was too forward or blunt.
I laughed at her forwardness, not minding it at all. "Actually, each of these piercings has a story behind it. I get them for people that I trust with my life. It would take too long to tell you about all of those different people and stories." I explained, mentally adding that she wouldn't understand more than half of them anyway.
"Well, I think they're cool!" Orihime exclaimed, placing a hand on her hip. It was as if she thought that statement made things official; like it had just gotten her seal of approval. "I've always wanted piercings! But, I always chickened out in the end."
Orihime pouted, earning laughs from both Tatsuki and I.
"Orihime-San," I spoke through the laughs, "I don't quite picture you as a person with piercings."
Tatsuki nodded, smiling as well. "I agree with Jun. Orihime, that means no running off and trying to get something pierced!"
Orihime pouted again, as if she were a child whose plan had been caught and foiled. "Aw! But they look so cool and sparkly!" She explained, as her eyes sparkled a bit before dramatically dulling and becoming unfocused.
"Um, Orihime..?" I asked, confused for the poor girl.
"Don't worry about her. She daydreams a lot. It's quite normal."
I shot Tatsuki a skeptical glance, about to ask how she figured that randomly spacing out like that was normal, when I was interrupted by Keigo's annoyingly loud voice. "Another new student!"
His words caught my attention, as my eyes quickly darted around the room, looking for him and the other new student.
However, it wasn't just any new transfer student.
It was the person that I was looking for: Kuchiki Rukia.
I couldn't help but release the breath that I hadn't known that I had been holding. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. She was alright; she wasn't dead! But-!
How could Keigo and the other students see her? They didn't have high enough levels of spiritual energy, at least, not from what I could sense. If that were the case, then she must have been in a gigai; otherwise known as an artificial body. Her powers felt so faint…like they were barely there. If she had truly lost her powers, then how come she didn't return to the Soul Society? She could have at least sent them a message.
This was all so confusing.
"Jun?!" Rukia asked, her own violet eyes widening in shock.
"You know Jun-Chan already?" Keigo asked, surprised as well.
"Well, duh." I said, nonchalantly waving my hand beside my head. "Rukia and I are best friends. We both lived in the same town, but I didn't know that she'd be moving to Karakura Town, too. She just told me that she was moving." I quickly turned towards Rukia, winking at her. Hopefully she'd understand that it meant to play along.
"Ah, but that would have taken all the fun out of it, Jun-Kun~!" Rukia spoke, giggling. Her voice sounded more different than it usually did, almost fake. Maybe that was her acting voice..? If it was, she desperately needed some pointers. She was even using honorifics, which she rarely used back in the Soul Society. We were alike in that manner; we only added honorifics to those with higher status, like nobles, Taicho's, and Fukutaicho's.
"See, you're no fair, Rukia." I spoke, mock glaring at her. "Besides, you never told me when you were leaving and say bye before you left!"
"I'm sorry. I know I should have, but I was just blindly rushing about." Rukia explained, her eyes flashing a bit. She understood what I was talking about, and was replying in her own way. I think she was talking about how she was upset that her senses were blocked, freaked out, and that affected how she acted.
"Well, I guess it's alright." I drawled out, smirking. "But you have to be sure to explain everything to me later, okay?"
"Okay, everyone! Time to take your seats!" Rang out a female voice, slightly more mature sounding than the other students. Looking towards the front of the classroom I met the gaze of my new teacher, who then tried to usher her students to their desks. "Today we have a surprise! Two new transfer students!"
Rukia and I made our way to the front of the classroom, because we weren't sure where we were supposed to sit. The teacher smiled at us, "These two are Kokawa Junko and Kuchiki Rukia." She adjusted her glasses as she read off our names, before looking up from the list and smiling at us. "My name is Ochi Misato, or Miss Ochi to you two."
Rukia and I lightly bowed to her, showing our respect. Miss Ochi smiled at us once more, before directing us to some empty seats towards the back of the class. When we sat down, Miss Ochi began the rest of the roll calling.
"Psst, Rukia." I hissed, trying to get the Shinigami's attention and no one else's. I didn't want to attract any unwanted attention.
"What?"
"What are you really doing here? Tell me at break, okay? I wanna know the truth, like why and how you wound up in that gigai." I whispered, and watched as her already large eyes widened even more.
Rukia knew she couldn't lie to me. I was skilled in detecting lies. She weakly nodded, and I could tell that her face was paler than it was before. She turned to face the front of the classroom again, her face set in a skillfully built mask. That was her thinking face.
• • •
Miss Ochi had just dismissed class for a small ten minute break. I had forgotten just how boring school could be…
Rukia was still deep in thought. That meant that I couldn't talk to her. Orihime looked like she was daydreaming again, and Tatsuki looked like she was bored to death as well.
A soft sigh caught my attention. Turing around to see where it was from, I spotted the glazed look on Orihime's eyes. She was still lost in her daydream, whatever it was about. Tatsuki's deep brown eyes met my own bright blue ones, as she stood up from her seat and walked over towards Orihime and I. Our desks were kind of close together, which was a good thing. Tatsuki then motioned for me to watch closely, a glint in her eye.
"Ichigo sure is late, huh?"
"W-Wha-?!" Orihime stuttered out, lightly blushing a bit. She even tried hiding behind the magazine that she had pretended to be reading.
"Weren't you thinking about him?" Tatsuki asked, joking.
"N-No! I wasn't!" Orihime tried to defend herself, but her now flaming red cheeks gave her away.
"Hm? Who are you guys talking about?" I asked, confused.
"Heh, it's nobody that you should be worried about. I just wonder what there is about him for Orihime to like. He's cold, his hair is a weird color, he's a brat, he's short-tempered…" Tatsuki kept on listing the bad traits that this 'Ichigo' person possessed. Sheepishly laughing to myself, I crept back to my desk by using Shunpo.
"You know, it's not smart to use that here." Rukia advised while nonchalantly looking through a magazine that she had found while she was going through my bag.
"Well, nobody saw. I doubt that these people could even see it happen anyway. It was way too fast for their eyes to follow." I spoke, sitting down and tapping my nails against the desks surface. "Besides, I could make up some lame excuse like, 'I had to go back to my desk to get a marker!' or something stupid like that."
"Hey, that reminds me," Rukia said. "Can I borrow that marker that you have in your bag for a second?"
"Sure." I said, not too sure what she wanted with my black Sharpie. "What are you going to do with it?"
I tossed her the marker, and she began to write on her hand before I could warn her to stop; Sharpie's were kind of semi-permanent. It would take forever for her to wash that off! I should have just given her a pen instead!
"I'll tell you later." Rukia said, tossing the Sharpie back at me when she was finished. I placed the marker back in my bag before I looked towards Rukia again, about to ask her something.
However, Rukia was intensely gazing at a person who had just entered the classroom. Blinking, I studied him for a few seconds as well. His hair was a bright orange, which seemed very un-natural. But there was something about him that seemed familiar; aside from the bright orange hair. I knew I'd never seen anyone with hair like that, so I shook off the feelings of him looking familiar from my mind.
"You're…are you Kurosaki-Kun?" Rukia asked, shooting the new comer an innocent smile. "Nice to meet you!"
The guy who sat in front of 'Kurosaki-Kun,' noticed this and then smiled. He leaned across his seat, gesturing towards Rukia and I. "Oh! This is Kuchiki-San and this is Kokawa-San! They both just transferred here today. It's a weird time to transfer, but both of their families were in situations where they decided to move."
"Y-You! Why?!" The orange haired male asked, pointing an accusing finger towards Rukia with a horrified expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" The dark haired guy from before, who if I can recall correctly introduced himself as Mizuiro, asked as he looked at his friend with a concerned expression.
"Kurosaki-Kun, I don't have the correct textbook yet. May I look at yours?" Rukia asked, sweetly smiling before she extended her hand towards the male whose hair greatly resembled the color of a traffic cone. When he looked at her hand, his face seemed even more horrified than before. Actually, it looked as if he had seen a ghost. I lightly laughed to myself, if he did know Rukia then he really had seen a ghost. Rukia grinned up at the horrified look teen, "Okay?"
Furrowing my eyebrows, I leaned across the desk and grabbed Rukia's hand. There, scribbled in the Sharpie that she had borrowed from me, were the words:
Make a scene and you're so DEAD~!
"Nice, Rukia, nice…" I muttered, as I dropped her hand and lightly hit my head against my desk. Whatever this was about, I was sure that I'd find out soon enough.