Disclaimer: I don’t use big word and I don’t own Bleach
It has been almost two weeks since Ichigo’s first Kendo practice. They have had two more Kendo practices after that.
Ichigo is fuming. He cannot understand why Rukia is still so distance with him even after she royally whooped his ass every time they sparred. She is totally a different person outside the dojo.
Ichigo does not know what frustrated him more. She acting like she normally is, which is to keep everything to herself, or the fact that he does not have the courage to confront her.
He has tried to strike a conversation with her but she always managed to disappear within seconds after she reply to his queries. Is she avoiding him or is he being a paranoid?
He finds his eyes once again wander towards the small back of Rukia. What the teacher is trying to teach is no longer a precedence.
After he saw the findings from Uruhara Kisuke’s investigation, Ichigo could not stop thinking about her and every time her face resurfaces into his memory, he is consumed with rage. It is an ordeal to see her everyday at school and not being able to do anything. He still can not believe that he has yet to loose his patience and resort to meet her head-on whether at school, her work place or her home but Ichigo does not want her to question his method of finding out about her personal info. She does not advertise her workplaces or her home. Ichigo would not blame her. These savage girls will do anything and go to any length to make her life miserable. Just the other day, he bears witness to it.
It was during lunch break. Rukia was once again skipping her lunch and Ichigo could not help but feeling bad about it. He has excused himself from Renji and the others, proceed to bought two slices of cake and a cup of the finesse coffee, and went back to the classroom to give them to Rukia.
Ichigo stopped short when he was few steps away from the classroom. He could hear strained voices coming from it. He took a peek to see if Rukia was still in there. If she is not, he would walk away.
His heart sank to his stomach when he saw Rukia was actually the subject of abuse. There were three girls circling her desk, made it impossible for her to get away. The girls were cursing her and calling her names. She just sat there looking bored, as if the same occurrences happened to her everyday. None of them saw Ichigo standing in the hallway.
“Just because you are with that bunch of freaks you think you can get away with anything?!”
“We’ll bring this matter up with the Student Council. Just you wait and see.”
Rukia was sneering at this warning.
“Bitch! Don’t mock us –“
This time Rukia did a full out snicker. The girl in the middle raised her hand to bitch slap Rukia. Ichigo saw what happened afterwards in slow motion.
Rukia stood and grabbed that girl’s hand before it can land on her cheek; she then pushed the girl towards the other girl who was standing besides her. This sent both of them reeling to the floor, screaming in pain. The third girl who was dumbfounded at the turn of event, stood aghast.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ichigo asked demanding an explanation. He knew that he needed to stop this before it become worse. All the girls jumped when they heard Ichigo’s voice, including Rukia.
When the three girls saw Ichigo, they quickly wailed. Rukia rolled her eyes.
“She pushed me,” says one of the girls as she pointed at Rukia. Ichigo recognized all three of them but did not know their names. Ichigo made a mental note to try and remember his classmates’ names one of these days…
“Why would she push you?” Ichigo asked faking his ignorance as he walked towards them.
“I offered to buy her l-lunch but she pushed me f-for no reason,” the girl said, faking her sobbing.
“She’s a freak,” added the girl who was standing.
Ichigo felt disgusted by the blatant lie. He looked at Rukia, expecting her to say something to defend herself or refute the fib but she just looked at the girls who were still on the floor, once again with her bored expression.
Noticing that Ichigo was waiting for her to say something, Rukia shrugged.
“It was like what they told,” said Rukia nonchalantly. The three girls smiled satisfactorily. They must have thought that Rukia was taking their warning seriously when in all truth, Rukia just wanted to resume doing her homework and get this little drama done and over with. She has more important things in her mind.
Besides, Rukia was not sure how much Ichigo have heard. What Ichigo didn’t know was these girls were coming hard on her because they heard about her kicking Ichigo’s butt in Kendo. They were blabbering about how Ichigo was taking a pity on her and allowed her kicked his butt. Rukia almost laugh out loud but knowing these girls, that was not a smart move so she kept her wits and let them say whatever they wanted to say. She has been in this situation for so many times before it was hardly intimidating anymore. Clearly they were not a fan of the rest of the Kendo club members since they were calling them names and what not. It did not bother Rukia at all. Those kids happened to be her best friends. Just like her, they do not give a rat ass of what others think of them, especially if it is coming from these superficial girls.
Ichigo could not believe what he was hearing. How can Rukia take their abuses just like that? Just as he was about to retort something, one of the girls who was on the floor called his name.
“Kurosaki-kun”
“What?!” Ichigo snapped. The three girls cringed.
Blame his upbringing but Ichigo could not turned his back away from someone who was in distress and since Rukia did not show any kind of distress, Ichigo just had to be a gentleman and help the girls out even though it was clear as day that they were faking it.
“I’m sorry. Are you alright?” asked Ichigo again, this time with a fake smile on his lips and no frown. He bent down and helped the girls up.
The girls beamed at the contact. “We are fine now that you’re here.”
Ichigo felt like puking.
“I guess I should escort you ladies to the café then?” Although his back was towards Rukia, he could felt her rolling her eyes.
The girls squealed in delight and quickly latched on Ichigo’s arms. They would not pass this rare opportunity.
“Can you girls wait for me outside? I need to grab something from my desk,” said Ichigo. Truthfully he just wanted to talk to Rukia for a second. The girls did not question him and merrily walked out of the classroom.
“Why are you being such a fool?” asked Ichigo to Rukia once the girls were not in sight.
“Why are you being such a fake?”
“Touché!”
Rukia gritted her teeth.
“I saw what exactly happened, Rukia.”
“Peeping tom”
Ichigo facepalmed. Knowing that he was going to be defeated in this battle of wittiness; he surrendered by putting the cake and the coffee down on Rukia’s table. “Eat these.”
Rukia who was already on her seat just looked incredulously at Ichigo. “Why?”
“In order to grow you need to eat,” Ichigo said casually as he started to walk out of the classroom to fulfill his promise. He saw Rukia’s ears went red when she heard his remark and he silently chuckled.
But when he came back from the café with Renji and the others, he saw the cakes and the coffee were on his table, untouched. Rukia refused to acknowledge his presence ever since then.
Keigo’s wailing snaps Ichigo out of his thoughts and back to the class. Rukia is no longer seated in front of him and half of the class has already heads out. Apparently the bell that indicates that the school day is over rang few minutes ago.
“Gets your ass moving Kurosaki. Jeez, you have got to stop with the spacing out,” says Renji.
“Yeah you are making it hard for Ishida,” adds Keigo.
“Huh?”
“His beloved Inoue does that a lot too. If you are not careful, you are going to be his rebound guy.”
“Shut up, Ikkaku,” says Ishida annoyingly but he is blushing nonetheless.
They all chuckle at the joke while Ichigo smiles wearily. He is not in the mood for stupid gay joke at the moment. He also thinks that the gay joke is getting old. People might get the wrong impression about the way he swings.
“You okay, Ichigo?” asks Mizuno. The concern in his voice is apparent.
Ichigo sighs. “Yeah I am okay,” says Ichigo half heartedly. He puts his books in his bag.
The others look at one another, knowing for certain that there is definitely something that is bugging their friend’s mind. However they are not going to force it out of him. If he refuses to talk about it, they have no option but to respect his decision.
“If you say so,” says Yumichika, defeated.
“I do say so.”
Silence.
Ishida cough and grabs his bag. The others follow suit.
“Ready to go?”
“I have Kendo practice,” says Ichigo.
“Oh man! I thought we all agreed to go to the city today!” whines Keigo.
The rest of them shake their heads, clearly disappointed. Ichigo smiles apologetically. He starts walking out of the class and the others tag on.
“I do not get it. Why did you pick that club? I mean, we are all in the golf club, why didn’t you join us?” asks Renji curiously as he catches up to Ichigo.
“Could it be that Ichigo does not want to be with us?” gasps Keigo teary eyes, jumping to conclusion as usual.
“Shut up, Keigo. It was just something that I like to do, alright? Get over it.”
“You sure that is the only reason?” teases Yumichika as he winks knowingly at Ichigo.
“What other reason would I have?” grumbles Ichigo.
“Oh I don’t know…” says Ikkaku. “Maybe it is got something to do with… one of the girls? Have you seen them? I mean their boobs are this big!” Ikkaku makes an exaggerated round circle with his hands. The boys laugh.
“I didn’t know you like them big size, Ichigo,” says Mizuno between his chuckles.
Ichigo rolls his eyes but inwardly he has to agree. Those girls seriously have bigger boobs than most of the girls in this school. Even Miss Yourichi has boobs comparable to those of Halibel and Nel. So Rukia does not really fit in if you think about it. Ichigo wonders what makes them, including the boys, so close to Rukia. Maybe the male members have fetishes for girls with smaller boobs? Is that why Rukia was accepted? Ichigo shudders at his own thoughts and prays to god that it is not the case, it just him over thinking things.
“Hey Kurosaki! You are spacing out again!” calls Ishida as he waves his hand in front of Ichigo’s face to get his attention.
“Seriously Kurosaki, you should have your head check. All those butt whooping done by Rukia must have damaged your brain.”
Ichigo’s face turns red at Renji’s remark while the others are basking the moment, laughing their asses off. Rukia must have told Renji about it. Damn it.
“Oh yeah we heard about that. Man, if you want to join a club at least makes sure you are good at it.”
“I am. Rukia is just better at it than me.”
“I still don’t get it why you let yourself being bullied by those guys”
“I heard no one ever lasted more than two weeks after they joined –“
“Except Rukia,” interrupts Sado who finally decides to join in the conversation.
“Where did you hear all these craps from?” asks Ichigo.
“So you mean, you did not get your ass kicked by the rest of the guys? Not even by Nnoitora?”
“Well…”
“You two close?” asks Renji all of the sudden before Ichigo has the chance to reply to Ishida’s question.
“Huh?” asks Ichigo, bewildered at Renji’s sudden question. His friends sure have a lot of questions today; more than what he considered normal.
“You and Rukia… Are you close?”
“If you think getting my ass kicked every time we do sparring make us closer, then I suppose we are,” replies Ichigo nonchalantly.
Ishida, Mizuno, Keigo and Sado burst out laughing. “Jeez, you really are sucks at Kendo, don’t you?”
Ichigo rolls his eyes.
Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika however, look at each other, knowing exactly what the others are thinking. They have observed Ichigo more closely since he joined the Kendo club. They have their suspicion but nothing to conform it until Rukia told Renji about the incident that happened the other day. Renji quickly confided in Ikkaku and Yumichika since they are in this together. The look only lasted about two seconds and the only person who caught the exchanged is Sado but he does not think anything distrustful about it so he soon forgets.
“Stay away from her, Kurosaki,” warns Renji as he pats Ichigo’s shoulder. “She is untouchable.”
“Says who?” asks Ichigo skeptically. He does not like what he is hearing. What right does Renji has to control who should or should not be friends with Rukia? Why is he prying?
“Didn’t you see the guys she hangs out with?” replies Renji but Ichigo get this feeling that Renji is not laying everything on the table. Or it could be that his paranoia is working on full time again…
Wait what? Rukia hangs out?!!
“She hangs out?! I thought she does not have time for that?”
Ishida, Keigo and Mizuno do a facepalm.
“Kuchiki-san is a teenage girl, Ichigo. Of course she hangs out.”
Ichigo scowls. The files did not mention anything about her hanging out with friends. The files specifically said she does not have any sort of social life. How can Uruhara Kisuke miss out on something important like this?
Dammit Kisuke. Are you playing games?
“I... I got to go. Later,” Ichigo excuses himself before the other guys manage to say something in return. They look at the retreating back of Ichigo who is walking with both of his hands in his pocket, stomping his feet all the way to the dojo.
“That guy has such an awful mood swing,” retorts Mizuno.
“Yeah, worse than my grandmother,” Keigo agrees.
“Fuck you Keigo! Now I have an image of an old hag wearing a tampon in my head!” wails Ikkaku as he tackles Keigo to the ground. The rest of them could not help but laugh.
--
Rukia and Syazel are preparing themselves with their bōgu set. The others have scatter around the dojo; they are either doing stretching, practicing or preparing their own bōgu set. Nnoitora and Halibel are already sparring and Hallibel is kicking Nnoitora’s scrawny butt. The dojo is already noisy from the kiai and fumikomi-ashi that originate from the kendōka.
The only member of the club who has not shown up yet is Ichigo and apparently Rukia is not the only one who notices this.
“You think Kurosaki quit the club already, Rukia?” inquire Syazel as he helps Rukia putting on her gauntlet. Rukia, according to Syazel’s sharp observation, is quieter than usual.
Rukia shrugs. She bends down and picks up her shinai. After that she walks to the center of the dojo and starts practicing her strikes. Syazel looks at her with concerned.
“What the fuck is up with her?” asks Grimmjow as he poke Syazel’s back with his shinai.
“How the hell should I know?”
“Tch. You are good for nothing Syazel.”
“I can say the same about you, Grimmjow.”
Grimmjow smacks his shinai on Syazel’s head and laughs his ass off when Syazel starts to rubs his head and his face turns as pink as his hair. “What the fuck, Grimmjow!”
“Oh man up, Syazel,” says Stark lazily as he walks pass the whining Syazel. He takes off his helmet, picks a spot and plops down. Weiss who was practicing with Stark earlier joins them. His eyes are on Rukia.
“You notice it too?” asks Kaien who walks over to them and is closely followed by Nel. It seems like everyone has notice Rukia’s odd behavior. Even Nnoitora and Hallibel could not concentrate on their sparring. They decide to end it quickly with sonkyo and hurriedly walk over to join the rest of the crew. The only other person with Rukia out there is Ulquiorra who is observing Rukia’s practice and correcting her mistakes as if nothing is out of the ordinary.
“I guess what happened the other day really affected her, eh?” says Weiss as he wipes his sweat with a towel.
Within few hours after the incident happened, everyone at the school already knew about it. Of course what they heard was totally the screwed up version; Rukia being a bitch, harassed them and then came their knight in shining armor who scooped them in his arms and all that shit. The only people who knew the truth of exactly what happened are Rukia, Ichigo, Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika.
So everyone including the Kendo club members think that Rukia was hurt with how Ichigo acted under that circumstance. To have him believed three strangers instead of his sparring partner is quite unforgivable. They all kind of have a silent agreement that whenever there is a betrayal by a fellow kendōka, his membership will be terminated.
However, despite what everyone thinks, Rukia is not mad at Ichigo because he chose to believe what the girls said. She is angry at him because he has the audacity to make some sort of crack about her height. No one ever get away with it. She is not going to start being compassionate now. So she found herself looking forward more than usual to attend the Kendo club today. She will definitely settle the score with him the way she knows how. The only problem is he has not show up yet! That coward! He better show up or he will find more than her shinai up his orifice.
“I say we teach that bastard a lesson,” suggests Nnoitora who is always up for a fight, either with a shinai or with his fist.
“I don’t think that will sit well with Rukia,” objects Hallibel.
“Or Ulquiorra,” adds Kaien.
The rest of them nod knowingly except for Nnoitora and Grimmjow who think this is their best chance to beat up Ichigo. But even they know very well not to mess around when it concerns Ulquiorra.
They are in silence contemplation when Miss Yourichi walks in. She is quite surprise to see her students being so quiet.
“What is up?” she asks as she comes up to the rest of her students who are watching Rukia practices.
“See for youself,” replies Hallibel. Miss Yourichi takes a look at Rukia and immediately knew something is bothering that petit girl.
“Because of the rumor?” she guesses. They nod.
Miss Yourichi tilts her head. “This does not seem like Rukia. She never let some petty rumor get to her head,”
“Must have something to do with Kurosaki,” says Weiss.
“Speak of the devil…”
Ichigo walks in, making quite a racket when he trip on his shinai which consequently caused him to fall forward on the wooden floor.
Grimmjow and Nnoitora walk up to him.
Ichigo is already annoyed. He does not need this right now. He could not get a hold on Kisuke. That old man did not answer his calls. Ichigo wonders if Kisuke did it on purpose and that pissed him off.
“What?” Ichigo asks irritatingly as he helps himself up.
“Your membership has been denied. Get the hell out, fucker –“
“What?!” Ichigo cannot believe this. What did he do –
“You heard him. Give us a reason not to fuck you up right now…” says Grimmjow, cracking his knuckles.
Ichigo looks at the rest of the club members. They all look at him with a mix of detestation and disappointment in their eyes. Miss Yourichi avoids looking at him at all and none of them show any sign of denying what Grimmjow and Nnoitora have said.
Wait… where are Ulquiorra and Rukia? Is it not Ulquiorra who will make such a decision?
His eyes search for the two figures and found them in the middle of the dojo. They must have been practicing. Ichigo is not surprise to see Rukia’s back against him. Obviously she is still ignoring him and pretends that she did not hear or see anything.
“What the hell is going on, Ulquiorra?” asks Ichigo as he takes a step forward but he is quickly block by Grimmjow and Nnoitora.
Ulquiorra looks at Ichigo with those cold eyes of his. Ichigo can feel everyone tense up waiting for his reply. You can cut the tension with a butter knife. After several seconds, Ulquiorra looks at Rukia who is standing in front of him.
“Let me have him,” insists Rukia, communicating with Ulquiorra what she desires using only her eyes. He can see how much Rukia want to beat the crap out of Ichigo. He is not clear of the reason but he needs to act responsibly so Ulquiorra shakes his head refusing Rukia’s demand. He puts a hand on Rukia’s shoulder and squeeze it gently when Rukia is about to protest. Then he walks up to Ichigo. Grimmjow and Nnoitora step aside.
“They were in a mood for a joke,” says Ulquiorra. “Although I must say that it lacks the humor.” Ulquiorra shot a glare towards the two most mischievous members of his club. Grimmjow and Nnoitora could not believe what they just heard. Everyone else is astonished at Ulquiorra’s words too but before any of them can object, Ulquiorra swings his shinai in front of Ichigo, barely missing his nose.
“Pick up your shinai, Kurosaki,” instructs Ulquiorra. “We are going to do Shiai-geiko. Hallibel, Kaien and Miss Yourichi will be the shinpan.”
When everyone heard this, a satisfied smile creeps up on their lips. Hallibel, Kaien and Miss Yourichi take up the flags readily.
Rukia has the widest smile of them all and for the first time in days she looks at Ichigo with glints in her eyes. Judging from everyone reactions, Ichigo can pretty much tell that things are not going to end well for him. He is even more puzzled when Rukia comes up to him and offers to help him with his bōgu, much to the surprise of everyone inside the dojo. Luckily they recognize the devilish smirk on Rukia’s lips.
“Rukia… what is going on here?” whispers Ichigo confusedly when Rukia hands him his helmet.
Rukia sneers but does not say a word.
This only makes Ichigo scratches the back of his helmet, even more befuddled than he is before.
Let see… first Rukia was ignoring him, and then he almost get kick out from this club for no apparent reason, after that Rukia is alright with him? and now he found himself in front of Ulquiorra; supposedly the best kendōka in this part of the country. Did he accidentally step on the devil’s toe or something?
Ichigo takes a deep breath and grips his shinai unnecessarily tight hoping it could transform into another weapon or at least provides him with a power boost.
He is not going to lie.
His knees are fucking shaking when he sees the imposing figure of Ulquiorra standing there waiting for him. Weiss has just finished helping him out with his bōgu and is handing him the helmet.
Ichigo takes a step towards the arena.
It is only a flicker but Ichigo is certain he saw Ulquiorra smile before he puts on his helmet. It is not the typical smile where you moves your lips (Ichigo does not think Ulquiorra is capable of such a feat), but he smiles with his eyes. His cold green eyes are suddenly iridescent with life as he looks at Rukia. It was only for couple of seconds which makes Ichigo wonders if his fear for his opponent is making him hallucinates but when he sees Rukia turns to shades of pink, he knows he is not imagining it.
With that comes a feeling akin to wrath. He thinks he is being a bit obsessive or even territorial but at the moment he could not care less.
His fear disappears.
Ichigo steps into the arena with a new courage. He grits his teeth and waits for Ulquiorra’s assault as their kiai echo through every crooks and nooks of the dojo.
Read and Review! Please and thank you!
Extra notes:
kendoka - one who practices kendo
kiai - kendoka used a shout to express their fighting spirits when striking
fumikomi-ashi - a stomp of the front foot when making a strike
sonkyo - an act of respect perform by the kendoka after each combat
shiai-geiko - cempetition practice which may also be judged
shinpan - referee
No comments:
Post a Comment