Chapter 29: Imposter
The book in Kirara's hands was one that she'd already read before, but she still read it intently as she sat with her legs pulled in close to her chest on the raggedy sofa they had. It was a rare day off for her, and she was taking it easy as she ignored the pile of homework that she had been given.
Books were always something that Kirara enjoyed when she had a quiet moment to herself, but that had only grown in the last century as she found herself with an abundance of time and not much to do other than train. At least, until she started attending high school.
Kirara was completely in a world of her own as she read, even as others passed by heading out into town or to do some training of their own, enjoying their own quiet weekend, so she was left to enjoy her book and for once, not think about Ichigo and the Shinigami who followed him everywhere.
As she turned the page, Kirara suddenly snapped back to reality and instantly shut the book with a snap.
"What are you doing?" she asked, leaning her head back to look at Shinji, who was now leaning on the back of the sofa behind her. It was still a strange thing to Kirara, seeing him willingly approach her after so much time. Her heart sped up just from his close proximity.
"I wanted to see what was so fascinating about this book," he said lightly, eyes on the book that Kirara had firmly closed in her hands. "Didn't you just read it?" Shinji asked, reaching out to take it from her. Kirara moved it away instantly.
"I finished the series a few weeks ago, but I wanted to read it again," she said, moving it again as he continued to try and take it from her. "Nosy," Kirara grinned when she saw his eyebrows furrow just a little as she refused to let him take it.
"What are you hiding?" Shinji leaned forwards, but Kirara moved quickly. She leapt up, ready to bolt, only to be caught around the waist and pulled back. Instantly she giggled, unable to deny the delight that raced through her at his touch. It was still new; still strange for her, but she was enjoying it.
"Let me go!" she struggled in his grasp, causing Shinji to almost fall over the back of the sofa. Kirara managed to break free, dancing clear of him with another laugh. "There are some things that you just don't need to know, Hirako. This book is one of them," Kirara turned to grin at him.
"That just makes me want to know more, Princess. Give it!" Shinji launched at her, but Kirara just weaved around his movements to bounce away. She stuck her tongue out at him, holding the book close to her chest.
"Nope!" with that, she took off. Kirara didn't get too far, having just reached the stairs when he caught up with her and pinned her against the wall. It had Kirara's stomach squirming as she looked up with a grin at him.
"I thought you were faster than that," he murmured, one hand on the book she was holding tightly.
"I am," Kirara replied simply, still grinning even as her heart raced. "But I didn't want to embarrass you so easily," she added, watching as something flashed in his eyes. Before he could retort, Kirara pulled free of his hold to get in close and kiss him.
Instantly Shinji's grip on the book slackened as he leaned into it, unable to resist the soft kiss that made his head swim. Every time she kissed him it chipped away at his self-control, making him want to make up for lost time.
But then Kirara was gone, and it took his mind a second to catch up as she headed for the door with a laugh.
"Brat," he muttered. Hearing him, Kirara grinned, and tossed the book onto the sofa.
"You say that like it's a surprise," she said, seeing him eyeing the book that she'd finally discarded. "I'm going for a walk. Want to join?" Kirara's offer made him tear his gaze from the book to look at her. There was a devious look in her eyes as she held out a hand to him, and part of him struggled to decide. On the one hand, finding out what was so good about the book that she didn't want him seeing. And if he took her up on the invite, she'd see it as a win.
"I will find out what you're hiding about that book," he warned as he took her hand. His fingers brushed the scar on the back of her hand, reminding him of a moment long ago. Instead of the flash of victory he expected, Kirara's smile softened to one that made him have to look away, suddenly embarrassed.
"And I think I'll be very happy when you do," Kirara's reply only confused him, but Shinji chose not to question it as she led him out. He still remembered her question about the human soul residing in a bird, and something told him that he'd only be left more confused by whatever answer she would give.
"I can't believe you're that much of a book nerd," he said, letting go of her hand.
"More entertaining than anything else going on in this town," Kirara replied, looking up just as he slung an arm over her shoulders and tugged her into his side. She felt herself blush at the action, but didn't stop him.
"So where are we going?" he asked, and Kirara hummed. He frowned, looking down at her. "You don't know?" Shinji didn't know why he was surprised by anything the strange woman did. She just grinned up at him.
"That's half the fun, don't you think?" she asked.
"Well then…" Shinji stopped, pulling her against him to press a kiss to her temple. Her smile softened, before he lightly tugged the ribbon that tied her hair up. It never escaped his notice that she'd stubbornly held onto it the entire time. "Lead the way, Princess," he then pushed her away lightly.
"Don't call me that," Kirara warned him, not missing his quiet laugh as she rolled her eyes. "Prick," she muttered.
"You say that like it's a surprise," when Shinji repeated her earlier words, Kirara shot him a droll stare. "If you don't hurry up, I'm just going to go back and look at that book of yours," he warned, and her eyes widened.
"Okay, okay," she grabbed for his hand again, and he grinned at the action as he let her pull him along once more, happy to go wherever her whims led them.
Slumped over her desk, Kirara was woken from her nap by the bell chiming loudly to let them know that it was lunchtime.
The warmer season was finally on them, and the students were allowed to swap into their summer uniforms at last. Kirara had almost burned her winter uniform in celebration.
"Alright!" Orihime was as cheerful as ever, leaping from her seat. "At last, time for lunch!" she cheered as Kirara sat up properly and yawned widely.
"Jeez, Orihime. It's just lunch, it's not a big deal," Tatsuki commented. Instantly Orihime whirled around to look at her in shock.
"How can you say that, Tatsuki?" she demanded. "Everyone knows that a healthy red-blooded high-school girl comes to school for only one reason," she said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"In Kirara's case, I think that reason is to take a nap," Tatsuki smirked at Kirara, who was getting to her feet. Kirara smirked at her.
"When they start making maths useful to my life, then I'll stay awake," she replied.
"No, silly!" Orihime exclaimed. "It's to eat her lunch!" she declared.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Have a seat already," Tatsuki told her as she pushed their tables together.
"So Tatsuki, what do you have for lunch today?" Orihime asked as she took a seat again. "I've got bread and red bean paste!" she announced, making those around her blanch at the unsliced loaf of bread that Orihime had with her.
"That sounds good!" Tatsuki laughed, patting her head. "Unfortunately, my lunch is a little more ordinary," she chuckled.
"I feel like I underprepared," Kirara said as she set down her own lunch, which mainly consisted of her leftover dinner.
"That's a lot of bread," Hibiki commented as she sat beside Kirara and set down a set of onigiri. "Why bean paste?" the brunette asked, unable to hide her curiosity. Orihime beamed at the question.
"So I can make my own red bean buns!" she said, as if this was obvious. Hibiki stared at her, unable to figure out what to say as Kirara started to laugh.
"Interesting choice," Tatsuki said.
"Orihime?" Chizuru sidled up with her own lunch in her hand. "Why don't you and I eat together?" she asked sweetly. Kirara snorted, earning a glare from the girl in glasses. Chizuru clung to Orihime when she could, bordering on creepy with how she was. But Orihime was sweet to the point of oblivious, letting her do whatever she wanted until Tatsuki stepped in.
"Yeah, okay!" Orihime nodded through a mouthful of bread. Chizuru gasped, seeing the crumbs clinging around her mouth.
"That's so cute!" Chizuru threw her arms around Orihime, who looked startled. "You bite into an entire loaf of bread and smile with crumbs all over your mouth!" she shouted with glee. Tatsuki rolled her eyes.
"Let her go, would you?" she growled.
"I think you're going to need a crowbar this time," Kirara mused with a mouthful of rice as she just watched. Hibiki shifted uneasily in her seat, not saying anything.
Movement caught their attention by the window, and the entire class went silent as Ichigo landed on the open window after leaping up from the ground. Everyone stared, unsure if they were really seeing things.
"'Scuse me," he was oddly polite, and Kirara's eyebrows furrowed. "This is Class One, Group Three, right?" he asked, his usual scowl replaced by an uncharacteristic smile.
'I guess that damn Kuchiki is teaching Ichigo about Gikongan, but something seems…off,' Kirara thought as she slowly rose from her feet. The fake Ichigo straightened up, still balancing easily on the window ledge.
"Wait a second!" Tatsuki yelled as they all got to their feet and gathered around. "How the hell did you get up here like that?!" she demanded. Ichigo, or whoever was inhabiting his body, smiled at her.
"What do you mean, how?" he asked. "I jumped up here. You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you?" Ichigo just smiled. Tatsuki kept an arm up to shield Orihime.
'Not just a Gikongan then. Could he be one of those Kaizo Konpaku I heard about?' Kirara wondered, having heard briefly about them - including that they were supposed to have been destroyed. 'Only one person would have something like that lying around. Kisuke, what the hell are you doing helping a Kuchiki?' Kirara wondered to herself, not taking her eyes off Ichigo. His smile widened.
"Pretty rad, huh? Can you believe it?" Ichigo asked as he finally jumped down from the window.
"I bet he crawled over from the classroom next door," one of the boys in the class muttered, unimpressed.
"No way, he jumped from the yard!" another exclaimed, convinced of what the impostor was saying.
'I don't like this. The way he's looking at the class…it's creepy,' Kirara thought as he seemed delighted by the attention being entirely on him. Suddenly he darted forwards, pushing past everyone to grab Orihime's hand.
"Hey there, pretty lady. I don't believe that we've met," he said softly as he sat on one of the desks. "Would you please do me the honour of telling me your name?" he asked, kissing her hand. Orihime's face lit up in a blush as everyone stared.
"Ichigo!" Tatsuki snarled as she grabbed him in an armlock. "What the heck do you think you're doing, you stupid moron!" she yelled as she yanked him away from Orihime, who looked flustered. "This better not be your idea of a joke!" she snarled.
"First he's able to jump all the way up from the yard, and now this?" Hibiki looked up at Kirara with a nervous look. "Something feels off…like he's not really Ichigo," she admitted. Kirara's eyes widened as she stared at Hibiki.
'She's perceptive. Crazy perceptive. Is Ichigo's Reiatsu really having an effect on everyone in class?' Kirara didn't reply to Hibiki as she thought about it, before the fake Ichigo slipped out of Tatsuki's grasp.
"Don't look so nervous, my lady," Hibiki jumped when he took her arm and knelt before her. "I don't mean to scare you," he soothed.
"Please let go of me," she breathed, looking scared as he held onto her hand.
"It's okay," the impostor smiled, as if to try and relax her. Before he could kiss her hand too, he was grabbed by the collar and yanked away from Hibiki. The dull thud echoed through the classroom as he slammed against the wall.
"She asked you to let go of her," Kirara growled, her voice low as she kept him against the wall. The fake Ichigo stared at her, trying to break free and failing. "I don't know what those idiots are playing at, but unleashing a Modified Soul on a class of kids is worth me getting pissed off," she kept her voice so low that only he could hear her.
Behind them, Kirara could hear mutterings from the rest of the class. Even Tatsuki could only stare at them, never having seen Kirara move so fast or with such anger as she kept who they thought was Ichigo from moving.
"How did you…" he trailed off, eyes wide. Kirara sneered up at him, before glancing to her left. Ichigo was on his way back, no doubt to retrieve his body.
"Tell anyone what I just said, and I'll destroy you myself," she warned coldly. "And keep your hands off Hibiki," Kirara added, before finally letting him go. He sank to the ground, staring up at her with real fear in his eyes.
"Kirara?" Hibiki called, and Kirara stepped back. She could still feel her heart racing as she felt that adrenaline start to fade, and realisation kicked in. She'd almost put him through the wall in her anger. The moment she'd seen Hibiki scared, she'd snapped.
"Shit," Kirara turned and ran off, ignoring the stares from the rest of the class.
Kirara still hadn't fully calmed down by the time she had returned home. She hoped the idiot masquerading as Ichigo would keep his mouth shut and not blab that she'd known what he was. It was a slip in her anger, and she was still berating herself.
"You make it very easy to sneak up on you these days," Shinji whispered in her ear, his arms going around her to pull him back into her. Kirara couldn't stop her squeak, once again caught off guard.
"Do you just spend all day pining at the door like a puppy until I get back?" she asked, tilting her head back to look up at him without pulling free.
"Don't be a smartass," Shinji said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"Being a smartass is my constant state of being. Just ask Kensei," Kirara told him. Shinji didn't argue with that.
"You're back early. What happened?" he asked her gently, and saw her close up. She lowered her head again, and after a moment she pulled free of his grasp. For a moment, Shinji thought she was just going to storm up to her room and keep whatever happened to herself. But instead she sighed and took a seat on the sofa.
"Kuchiki was teaching Ichigo about Gikongan, from what I can tell," Kirara said as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "But the genius went and used a Kaizo Konpaku instead. One with enhanced leg strength, I think," she said, and heard his quiet inhalation.
"Only one place she'd get something as dangerous as that," Shinji took a seat beside her.
"My thoughts exactly," Kirara had a dark look on her face. "The Konpaku showed up to class by leaping three stories to climb in the window, and then put the moves on Orihime," her grip on her legs tightened as she thought about. "Then he hit on Hibiki and didn't listen when she asked him to leave her alone. I lost it," she buried her face in her knees, the words muffled.
"How bad?" Shinji asked, wondering if he could get away with telling her not to go back without her strangling him.
"I almost put him through the wall," Kirara whispered. Shinji snorted.
"That was restrained, for you," he told her. Kirara lifted her head to glare at him, but stopped and lost the angry look when she was suddenly in a memory of the past, the night she realised she was falling for him. Shinji put a hand on her head, ruffling her hair as if to tell her he was thinking the same thing.
"I almost gave myself away. I told him not to repeat what I'd said, but if he does…" she whispered, leaning against Shinji as he kept his hand on her head.
"If it really was a Modified Soul, then he must have some kind of survival instinct to live through that purge," Shinji said quietly. "Something tells me that he'll be smart enough to keep your threat to himself," he said, and Kirara looked up at him again.
"Do you really mean that? Or are you just saying it to make me feel better?" she asked, suspicious. Shinji grinned at her.
"Both, since it's making you feel better," he said, and Kirara laughed. "It'll be fine, Princess," Shinji soothed, and Kirara twisted suddenly in his grasp.
"Stop calling me that!" she shoved him down, but Shinji kept a hold of her to bring her down with him.
"Then stop acting like a Princess!" he fired back, grinning the whole time as Kirara struggled in his grasp.
"I'm going to-" before she could finish her threat, Shinji had a hand tangled in her hair and yanked her down so her mouth crashed against his. Kirara instantly stopped resisting, unable to fight. Instead she shifted to rest lightly on his chest as he deepened the kiss.
"I thought I told you two assholes to keep that away from me?!" Hiyori's shriek made Kirara draw back quickly, going red. It wasn't the first time Hiyori had been unfortunate enough to catch the pair together, and the short blonde was beginning to miss when they didn't talk.
"Sorry, Hiyori," Kirara managed to at least look sheepish, while Shinji just looked at her in irritation. She pulled out of his grasp and fixed her uniform as she got to her feet, before her eyes lit up. "Hiyori, will you spar with me? I need to get this fight out of my system," she requested from the shorter woman.
"You're going to fight the midget? There are other ways to appease her when she's being so prudish, you know," Shinji had only just gotten to his feet when Hiyori's foot slammed into his face and sent him flying across the room.
"Like that?" Kirara asked, her words dripping with sarcasm as he groaned in response. Hiyori glared at him furiously. "Come on, Hiyori. Let the idiot bleed out," Kirara walked past her, and Hiyori snorted.
"Good to see you haven't lost all your braincells," she said, hurrying after Kirara to go downstairs. "Though seriously, you're going to fight in that?" Hiyori asked her, looking her up and down.
"I'm going to ditch the Gigai when I go downstairs," Kirara said simply.
"Not that! I meant the uniform!" Hiyori groaned. Kirara grinned, having known exactly what she meant. As they vanished downstairs, Shinji sat up and wiped the blood away that was streaming from his nose.
"That friendship is as worrying as it was when it first started," he muttered to himself.
Hope you liked it!