'Does she know what a Fullbringer is? Perhaps I should go over and ask her. No, what if she doesn't and think I'm being a creep? Argh, why am I even thinking about this so much? If she does know and she knows I'm one, she'll come & ask me and if she doesn't, then I won't bother her.'
"Hey, Chad. You okay? You look deep in thought."
"Just thinking." Chad answered Ichigo without thinking as he continued to look at Riruka, who was busy talking happily with Orihime and her friends.
On the other hand, Ichigo smirked as he saw his friend's gaze, Chad blinking as he felt a tap on his arm and looked to see the smirk on his face.
"Don't."
"Why not? She greeted you first and you're curious on why. Nothing wrong with that." Ichigo said as he leaned back in his chair and they both turned slightly as a voice spoke from besides Ichigo.
"Ichigo's right. A girl you haven't met at all greeted you and that's something that rarely happens considering how cautious most women of today's men are."
"I hate how lucky you are with getting a girl without even trying, but I have to agree with Mizuiro here on this. A girl doesn't just greet any guy like that without either having some kind of feeling…or an ulterior motive like most of the girls I've went out on dates with."
"You've gone on one date since I've met you in middle school and that was a prank played on you because you kept peeking under their skirts." Mizuiro's words deflated Keigo, making the teen drop dramatically onto his desk with a groan while both Ichigo & Chad had slightly disgusted looks on their faces.
"Hah, I keep forgetting how messed up you are, Keigo."
"He's calmed down a lot, I'll give him that." Mizuiro said and Keigo snapped out of his depression with a smug smirk and nodded.
"Yep! Now, listen Chad, here's what you need to do."
"Ignore every word that he's about to say is the first step." Ichigo chimed in, smirking as Keigo gave him a glare while Mizuiro chuckled & Chad smirked before turning to look over to Riruka.
He was surprised to find her looking back at him, ignoring the girls chatting around her before his three friends looked at him as he stood up.
"I'll be right back."
"So, Riruka? Do you know Chad?" Orihime asked while sitting next to Riruka and the girl smiled & shook her head.
"Not at all. This is the first time we've seen each other."
"That's surprising. Most would rather stay away from him because of his stature." A slender black-haired girl spoke with a raised eyebrow as she looked up from her book, to which Riruka looked at Ryō Kunieda before the girls looked intrigued as the new student blushed slightly.
"C-Can you girls keep a secret?"
"Uh, sure. What's the secret?" Tatsuki asked before raising an eyebrow as Riruka reached into her cleavage and pulled out her phone, the girls leaning in as she quickly tapped to her gallery before opening a photo & turning it towards them.
"Is…is that Adrian Grenier from Drive Me Crazy? What? I like American movies, okay?" Michiru Ogawa answered with a huff as the girls looked at her while Riruka giggled as she nodded while putting her phone away.
"Yes, it is. I kind of have a slight crush on him and when I saw Chad, he looked like a taller dark-skinned version of him."
"And that led to you greeting him?" Tatsuki asked with a raised eyebrow before smirking as Riruka blushed & nodded.
"I wasn't thinking, okay? It kind of just…happened."
"Well, you don't have much to worry. Chad's usually not the type of guy that will think that there's something going o-!"
"Um, hello?" Chizuru Honshō stopped speaking as she heard a deep voice speaking from behind her, the girls all looking shocked to see Chad standing behind her while looking at Riruka.
"Could we…talk, perhaps?" Chad asked while looking at her, to which the girls' head snapped to their new friend before their eyes widened as she blushed & nodded while standing up.
"Um, sure." She spoke and Chad nodded before walking towards the exit, everyone watching in shock as the two left the room before Ichigo spoke up.
"Everyone else just see Chad asking the new girl out?"
"Yep."
"Okay, so I'm not hallucinating."
"A-Are you sure we're allowed up here?" Riruka asked with a concerned look as the two of them came to a stop in front of the door to the rooftop, to which Chad raised an eyebrow before shaking his head as he reached forward & surprised Riruka as he simply pushed open the door with brute force.
"Not at all. It's just the only spot when we can talk freely without someone interrupting us." He spoke while fixing the door hinges back into place, walking up onto the rooftop before blinking as he saw Riruka standing by the door.
"You can sit. I won't hurt you."
"Then, if it's no problem…" She trailed off as she sat down on the stairs next to her before raising an eyebrow as Chad walked over to sit on the stairs opposite of her.
"You know, you can sit down next to me. I won't bite…unless you want me to~" She teased with a smirk, giggling as Chad gave her an awkward look before sighing as he stood up & walked over to sat down a meter besides her.
"So, what did you wish to talk about?" She asked as she looked over at Chad, who looked to be hesitant as his head turned to face her before he sighed as he lifted a fist.
Activating Spiritual Fist, Chad watched as spiritual blue flames covered his fist and looked at Riruka only to be surprised as the blushing teen girl from before was gone.
Instead, a confident look was in her eyes as she gave him a stoic stare, his guard up as both of them stayed silent before she spoke.
"When did you figure it out?" Even her voice sounded different as she still sounded confident with hints of haughtiness and playfulness.
"When you walked into the class. Your energy felt different compared to everyone else's spiritual energy."
'That and the system helped me see it.' Chad thought as he dismissed Spiritual Fist, watching as Riruka simply looked at him with a smirk before his eyes widened slightly as she stood up.
"So, you can already access your spiritual energy? That's quite impressive for someone new to it."
"And how do you know I'm new to it?" He asked, frowning as she giggled before he froze as another female voice spoke from behind him.
"That's because you haven't noticed me, big guy." The voice sounded more mature than Riruka's as he felt the presence walking around, watching as a tall dark-skinned woman walked around while dressed in a dark brown long-sleeved shirt with form fitting pants and knee-length dark boots.
"So, you're the one who defeated that Hollow last night? I have to say I expected a bit more."
"Who are you people?" Chad asked with a frown as he raised his fists, ignoring the slight irritation he felt at her insult and the dark-skinned woman simply smirked before turning as Riruka spoke up.
"Jackie, I thought I told Ginjō I had this."
"You did, but he decided that having a second eye on the mission would help, especially when the target had this much spiritual energy before even awakening their Fullbring."
"I asked you all a question." Chad spoke up, adding a bit of bass into his voice and the two ladies turned to face him, Riruka looking a bit irritated while Jackie raised a challenging eyebrow.
Before his eyes could keep up, Chad barely leaned back just as a kick flew past his face, Jackie looking a bit impressed as her kick barely missed his face before his eyes widened as blood flew from the small cut on his left cheek.
Quickly leaning forward while pulling a fist back, Chad feinted a left hook that made her lean into the path of his uppercut, smirking as he felt the blow connect before he was surprised to see her blocking his fist.
However, his lack of attention was his downfall as he felt a force slamming into his chest, a pained wheeze escaping his lips as he fell to a knee while Jackie hummed as she pulled her leg back while rubbing the forearm she used to block his fist.
'I didn't detect any spiritual energy in his fist, which meant that just his physical strength was enough to make me feel a small hint of pain through my spiritual defense. Not bad.'
"I'll report back to Ginjō that he's good. Bring him to our hideout later today." Chad barely heard Jackie speak over his own labored breathing, looking up as he heard a whoosh of wind only to see a frustrated Riruka standing in front of him.
"Why don't they trust me in doing the job right? Oh, I should help you up first."
"I…can do it on my own." Chad groaned out as he stood up, to which Riruka shrugged as she sat down while Chad sat down to catch his breath.
"So, I suppose I owe you an explanation, don't I?" Riruka said with a sigh, smirking as Chad just gave her a stare.
"Start from the beginning."
"Right. Well, first off, Jackie & I are from an organization called Xcution, which consists solely of Fullbringers. Wait, you're probably wondering what that is."
'So, Fullbringers are spiritually-aware humans that all have their own unique ability called a Fullbring that stems from an object that has been with them throughout their life."
"Well, not an object that has been with them all their life, but an object that holds tremendous importance to their being. An object of affinity, as Xcution calls them." Riruka explained as the two of them made their way back to the classroom, to which Chad nodded before the girl frowned as she saw him still rubbing his chest.
"Are you okay? Jackie has a tendency to not hold back as much as she needs to."
"Pain is an old friend."
"Hah, men and their need to act macho." Riruka muttered with a roll of her eyes, to which Chad simply smirked before he frowned as he looked at his necklace.
More specifically, he stared at the coin attached to the necklace around his neck, frowning a bit at how dull it had gotten over the years despite him making sure to clean it at least once every two weeks.
"Is that of importance to you?" Chad blinked as he heard Riruka's voice, looking over to see her giving him a curious look before smiling as he nodded and reached up to rub it.
"It is the last present my grandfather gave me before he passed. He said that it's an heirloom that's been in our family for generations and that I'm the thirtieth to hold it."
"Wow, I'm very sure that might be your Fullbring, then."
"Hopefully." He muttered as he lifted the coin to give it a soft kiss before letting it drop once more, taking a few deep breaths to mitigate some of the pain in his chest before looking over to see Riruka looking amused.
"What?"
"For such a big guy, you really are quite the softie."
"My reputation is mostly from helping Ichigo fighting thugs and my stature, but if you get to know me, I'm not that different from most guys." He admitted with a shrug, surprised at how easy it was to admit that to a girl before watching as she giggled.
"Good to hear. So, I'll see you after school?" She asked as they stopped in front of the door, to which Chad hummed & nodded, making her smile as she nodded before opening the door & walking in.
However, as she did, she was surprised to see most of the class near the door, all of them quickly scattering & walking back to their seats while Ichigo & Ryō shook their heads.
"H-Hey, Chad. Buddy ol' pal. What brings you here?" Keigo asked with a sheepish grin as Chad turned to look at him, the tall teen simply looking at his friend before shaking his head as he walked to his seat at the back of the class.
"So, how'd it go?" Ichigo asked as Chad sat down, to which he looked at him before Ichigo smirked as Chad nodded.
"Good."
"Glad to hear it, bud. At least, your reputation with the girls wasn't ruined by hanging out with me."
"Orihime doesn't seem to care." Chad spoke while gesturing at the bubbly girl speaking to a smiling Riruka, a small smirk appearing on his face as Ichigo blushed before glaring at his best friend.
"Low blow there, man."
"You started it."
A/N: And there we are! A quick chapter that was written when I was bored one day, which is why it is so short.
As you guys can see, the system isn't going to be the main focus of the story until much much later as I want to first do a bit of world building.
Also, Xcution is one of my favourite anime groups so I hope I can do them justice and I hope you guys liked that I included them this early.
As usual, if you want to read up to ten chapters ahead on this story or any of the other ones I'm currently busy with, head on over to Pat-Reon/KingCrimsonNova for all the goodies. If you want to, feel free and if you don't, don't worry as I will still be uploading like always. This is just a way to make some extra cash.
Anyway, let me know how much you like it or hate it in the reviews.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week…
Ba-Bye~!