Disclaimer: I don’t use big word and I don’t own Bleach
It has been almost a month since Kurosaki Ichigo transferred to this school. He quickly gained popularity although in all honesty he does not do anything that warrants it. People are mistaking his aloofness and his constant scowling as being cool. Go figure.
The fact that his family recently funded quite an amount of money (i.e. a lot) for the library and activity rooms has also led people to believe that he is currently the wealthiest kid attending this school. It is not far from the truth though. The Kurosaki family is actually head to head with the Schiffer family in term of being the wealthiest.
The girls and some of the boys are head over heels in love with him while most of the guys look up to him. Even though Ichigo tries to avoid unnecessary conversation, he still is on friendly term with almost everyone. After all, the reason he has asked for the transfer is to uncover what he needs to discover.
The teacher is at the moment explaining something about the Calculus Manipulative.
Instead of paying attention to what the teacher is teaching Ichigo finds himself once again staring at the small back of the raven haired girl who is sitting in front of him. She is concentrating on the lesson and is taking her note vigorously.
She is the only girl in this school that has not tries to make a pass at him. Hell, she does not even bother to look at him. When their eyes met, it was usually accidental i.e. he has been secretly observing her, like what he is doing now.
Ichigo smiles ruefully. He likes looking at her. When she is not aware she is being observed, she makes all sorts if weird and sometimes funny faces. Like at this moment for example, whenever she is concentrating, her index finger of her left hand always manages to find her lower lip and play naughtily with it. Or when she got questioned by the teachers she always tucked in her hair behind her left ear before answering. Ichigo recognizes it as the sign of her being nervous. She also has the habit of tapping her foot when she gets annoyed. But his most favorite expression of her is probably when she looks out the window gazing at the scenery outside that promise sovereignty. She just looks so out of place in this world full of shallow and pretentious people.
Even though he has been sitting behind her for a month, he has yet to get formally acquainted with her. She would smile whenever their eyes met and he would blush every time she did that. But that was about as far as their friendliness goes. Not a single word has been uttered between them. To be honest, Ichigo is slightly pisses off that she does not seem to remember him at all.
It is not like he never tried to talk to her but she always vanish during lunch break and quickly disappear when the bells ring indicating the end of the school days. He had seen her couple of time under that tree during lunch break but he does not think he has enough reason to disturb her serendipity. He tried to look for her before she stepped out the school ground, but for someone short, she sure is fast. He even checked the club to try his luck but to no avail.
He later found out that she has joined the Kendo club which has practice every other day. Ichigo could not resist a chuckle. He should have known. It is the perfect club for her. Kendo is the least popular club in this school because no one wants to get their clothes smelling like piss from the gears. It also signifies that she does not totally forget about her past. It gives Ichigo some hope. So last week he decided to join the club too. He has brought all his gears with him today so he can’t wait for the school to be over. He so badly wants to talk to her.
While they have yet to strike a conversation, Ichigo has learned a lot about her from all the rumors he has heard. For someone who is so low profile, she sure is popular among the students and even among the teachers. The opinions are divided though. Most of the girls only have nasty things to say about her however the boys only have praises for her. The teachers too commend on her diligent and hard-working attitude.
Despite what the rumors said about her, she is not an anti-social. Ichigo has seen her talking to the boys although the boys are usually the one who initiate the conversation. She does not even seem ill at ease with everyone. She is more often than not seen hanging out with Renji and after Ichigo has done some inquiry; Renji is probably the closest friends to Rukia in this school. People had seen them together since the first day Rukia set foot in this school.
This led to another discovery of how she often gets bullied by the girls. He has yet to witness it with his own eyes but he has heard some pretty good story about how bold and defiant she often is. The sort of things she did has become quite legendary tales in this school. It was among the first story he heard when he first arrived here. Ichigo almost feels sorry for the girls who are stupid enough to play with fire.
Ichigo smiles again. She has not changed at all except for those sad amethyst eyes. Even though Ichigo has seen her laughing, that sad eyes of her cannot fool him even for a second.
The bell for lunch break rings through every corner in the school. The teacher is reminding the students of tomorrow quiz but half of them are already out of the classroom heading for the café.
Ichigo eyes still follow every move that Rukia makes. Unlike any other day, today she still bends over her desk finishing her notes.
“Rukia, time to fill in that stomach of yours,” calls Renji as he walks towards Rukia. Sneers can clearly be heard by some of the girls that have yet to head out for lunch break.
Ichigo feels a tug in his heart as he watches Renji casually put his palm on Rukia’s head. Rukia looks up.
“Go on ahead. I’m not hungry –“
“Like hell you aren’t –“
“I need to finish this,” says Rukia with tone clipped with finality. Renji knows whatever he said now will not change this girl’s mind. He admits defeat with a shrugs as Rukia picks her pen again to continue with her homework.
Renji looks exasperatedly at Rukia. That is when he sees Ichigo. He grins.
“Let’s go. The others are waiting.” It was not an invitation, but more like an order. Renji does not want Rukia to be disturbed.
And true enough the classroom is by now empty except for the three of them. Ichigo eyes averts back to Rukia. He does not feel like eating today but Renji is already on his heel and dragging Ichigo away.
“But she –“
“Do not bother,” Renji interrupts Ichigo protest with definiteness. Ichigo would have lashes back if it was not for the grim tone that he heard laced through his words. Instead Ichigo looks at Renji inquisitively.
Renji sighs. “She needs to work over time today and probably won’t be done until later at night. That is why she needs to finish up her homework whenever she could.”
“Even if it means she has to skip lunch?”
Renji nods dourly in affirmative. “Anyway it is none of our concern,” says Renji as he steps into the café.
Ichigo stops on his track. He could not believe what he just heard. Renji who realize Ichigo is no longer besides him turn around to find the scowling on Ichigo’s face deepens. Renji chuckles and walk back towards Ichigo. He pats Ichigo’s back. “You are better off not knowing, my friend. Trust me. She is not one of us.”
Ichigo would have rearrange Renji’s face if someone did not bump into him.
“Ouch,” yelps a female voice from behind.
Ichigo turns around and found a girl that he recognizes from his class rubbing her head.
“You okay there, Orihime?” asks Renji mockingly as Ichigo mumbles an apology.
If look could kill, Renji would have been seven feet underground by now. Inoue glares at Renji who is dragging Ichigo away towards Keigo who is waving frantically beckoning them to sit with him and the others. Already sitting at the table are Mizuro, Keigo, Ishida and Sado.
“Ichigoooo –“
“Be quiet Keigo.”
“I was just being friendly –“
“I said shut up,” warns Ishida for the second time. Keigo pouts nevertheless shut his mouth.
Ichigo avoids Ishida’s glaring eyes as he takes a seat besides Mizuro.
“Chill out, Four Eyes. I just found out Kurosaki is gay,” says Renji as he pats Ishida’s back before he takes a seat next to him. Mizuro and Keigo cackle as they heard this. Sado is as expressionless as ever, Ichigo does not find it amusing while Ishida does not buy the blatant lie.
“If that’s the case then Ichigo has to worry about Ishida wanting his hole,” says Sado with a straight face and the usual monotonous tone of his.
The boys at the table fall silence for couple of second as each of them look at each other.
“Oh my freaking mother of sex! Sado just cracked a joke!” exclaims Keigo and now all six of them burst into laughter which invites several curious glance from their neighbors.
There are several inter-groups in the café. Ichigo does not belong to any of them but he tends to find himself getting drag to this particular group where none of them has anything in common personality wise. There are Ishida who is the quite type but can be very annoying when he got something righteous to say, Mizuro is the mama lover i.e. he is popular among the older girls, Keigo who can be considered the clown of this group. He is obsessed with girls but ironically girls find him aggravating. There is also Sado, the expressionless gentle giant who says very little and Renji who is always over the top kind of person. There are other two students that have not showed up yet; Ikkaku who is very brash and Yumichika who is obsessed with beautiful things. Thank god that he himself can be considered as a thing of beauty otherwise Ichigo might have puke blood. Men are not supposed to be obsessed with that kind of thing. It went against the nature. These two boys are rarely seen without the other.
There is also a group that consist the most rebellious looking student in the school and with Ichigo’s hair color, it would be more fitting for him to hang around with them. There are guys with blue and pink colored hair and girls with striking yellow and green hair in the mix. There is also a lanky looking guy that licks his lips lustfully every time a girl walked by. Just by looking at him, Ichigo knows that he is bad news. Ichigo has been fascinated with this group ever since he saw Rukia talked to the most quite person in that group with jet black hair and a green tattoo that resembles tear flowing down from his eyes at both of his cheeks. Who in their right mind would have tattoos like that?
Perhaps one of these days, he should stop by their table and say hi. Just for the heck of it.
At the far end of the café, there is another group that consists of a guy with baby doll hair, a bratty looking girl with two ponytails who always seems to be yelling at the baby doll haired guy. There is also a very fat and quite guy, a girl who always seen with a porno magazine in her hands, a very girly looking girl with green hair, a well build guy with silver hair and another guy who always has his shade on regardless of the time and weather.
Positioned at the entrance of the café is another group which consists of the most glamorous looking girls in this school. The girl that bumped into him earlier is one of the girls that are sitting there making sure their make up are always perfect, or their shoe and accessories always match their clothes. In other words this is a group of spoiled brats. This is also the group that is mostly responsible of making sure that Rukia’s life in this school is a living hell.
Ichigo can see why Rukia is never been seen in this café. Instead of a cafeteria, this school is providing it student with the most luxurious looking café you can imagine. Even the menus are in foreign language and complicated to pronounce for most common people. Let’s not even mention about the price of the foods.
“Are you not eating that, Kurosaki?” asks Ikkaku who finally shows up with Yumichika at his heels. Ichigo has been playing with his food without showing any interest on the conversation.
“You can have it if you want,” says Ichigo pushing away his plate.
Ikkaku grins with glee.
“See you later, guys,” says Ichigo as he stands up and ready to take leave.
All seven pair of eyes is on him and the conversation comes to a halt.
“Where are you going?” asks Mizuro.
“I’ve got a green stomach,” Ichigo lied. He could not keep Rukia out of his mind.
“Oh… okay later,” says the occupant on that table in unison. For once Ichigo are glad that men are so simple minded most of the time.
When he is outside the café, Ichigo finds a secluded area and dial a number from his cell phone. He waits for the receiver to answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Kisuke?”
“What can I do for you, Ichigo?”
“You can start investigate now,” with that Ichigo ends the call.
--
Uruhara Kisuke smile knowingly as he listened to Ichigo’s order.
“Time to get to work,” he said to himself. He goes to his file cabinet and pulls out a file that has Kuchiki Rukia’s name on it.
--
Rukia gazes out of the window. Her homework is long forgotten as she looks at a figure that is taking her spot under that tree. He is lying there watching the clouds with both hands behind his head.
Even under the shade provided by the tree, his orange hair can still be seen.
“Kurosaki Ichigo…” she whispers.
As if he heard her calling his name, Ichigo looks at her and their eyes meet. It is Rukia’s turn to blush seeing that Ichigo is smiling at her from under that tree.
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