We went back down to the bottom of the building. Kanonji was swarmed by fans, so through the chaos it was easy for Ichigo to slip back into his body and for us to get back to our friends?
When we got back Adel was livid. “What the hell was that, Tara?” She mock-slapped the back of my head. “You could’ve gotten killed!”
I just grinned and hugged her. “It’s okay, I’m fine.”
“Still!” she steamed a bit more before relaxing and hugging me back. “Just don’t be such an idiot. You know I can’t fully trust that moron of a boyfriend you have to make sure you’re safe.”
“Hey!” Ichigo exclaimed, obviously a bit offended. “I did just a fine job, thank you very much!”
“Oh, really?!”
They continued on their normal arguing tangent and I laughed--I had such morons for friends.
“What’re you laughing at?” Adel asked, interrupting their fight.
“Nothing,” I chuckled, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye. I threw one arm around Adel’s shoulders, one around Ichigo’s waist. “I just have such idiots for friends.”
Needless to say, I’d never slept better in my life that night.
Adel’S POV
“Completely…unbelievable!” Kagine-Sensei, one of the Gym coaches, yelled. “Do you kids realize what you’ve done?” He flipped a switch on a remote he was holding and a clip of Ichigo pushing past guards popped up on the projector. “This TV broadcast last night was spread nationally!! Filmed in our town!!!” He leaned forward and got right in Kurosaki’s face. “Well, Ichigo? What do you have to say for yourself?”
Like an idiot, Kurosaki took the “wise” option and tried to make a joke out of it. “Well…he looks a lot like me….”
“His is you, moron! There’s no question about it!”
“Are you kidding me? I’d never act that way! That’s my long lost twin brother, Shiro. It’s so sad, I never thought I’d see him again.”
A vein popped up in Sensei’s forehead. “You really enjoy being a smartass, don’t you? You know how much shame you and your friends have brought upon Karakura High? Our reputation is slaughtered!”
“Kagine-Sensei?” Tatsuki said, raising her hand.
“What, Arisawa?”
“I get how Ichigo, Rukia, Tara, and everyone else is here. They were on screen. But why are Orihime and I here?”
“You were with them, weren’t you?”
“No!” she said bluntly. “That was just a coincidence! Their behavior had nothing to do with us!”
“Ch-” I said, “thanks a lot, Tatsuki. I feel the friendship.”
She smirked, understanding my sarcastic tone. She turned back to Sensei. “Well, if that’s it, we’re gonna go back to class.” With that O-chan and Tatsuki discreetly left the room.
“Back to what I was saying,” Sensei said, grabbing Keigo and Kurosaki by their collars, “it’s disrespectful to the school that you two would--”
“I’m sorry…” Babs said, making a super-sad face. She tilted her head down in shame. “This all happened because I couldn’t stop them. If I’d been stronger and held them back more, maybe they wouldn’t have made such a ruckus. I’m sorry, Sensei….” She sniffled and pulled out a hankerchief from her pocket, pretending to wipe her nose.
Sensei rushed over to her and gave her a sympathetic look. “Oh, Miss Maddox, I know it wasn’t your fault…” he drawled on while we silently made a game plan. While Sensei comforted Babs and she dawdled on, we started to sneak out the first-story window and onto the track. We had to quickly climb and make a run for it.
“Wha…?” Sensei noticed the eerie silence and turned around, noticing us making a run for it. “Hey! Stop, you idiots!! Get back here!!!”
I just laughed as I ran, enjoying the rush of adrenaline I got from the risk. If I even tried this at home, my mom’d kill me strait. I wouldn’t be able to sit the next day at school, she’d whip me so hard.
“Phew!” Mizuiro sighed as we left the school down the main stairs. “We escaped! All thanks to Miss Maddox <3.”
“Oh, please,” she blushed. Hm…a bit out of character for my friend…this could be interesting.
“Don’t praise her, idiot!” Kurosaki yelled. “She tried to sell us out!”
“But,” Tatsuki said, (she and Orihime had caught up with us on their way out) “it was her performance that enabled you guys to escape!”
“That’s right!” Babs yelled proudly, sticking out her chest like a superhero, “if it wasn’t for me, you all would be chewed out!! Plus I’d never try to sell out my dear friend Kurosaki!” She looked up at him with a face that screamed just try to give me shit now, asshole.
“Why you little…” Kurosaki mumbled, giving her a death glare.
We continued home in our mundane teenage way, waving goodbye as each friend parted from us.
When we arrived home, Rukia made a beeline up the side of the house, trying to make a discreet entrance into the house.
“There’s a Hollow,” she said. “Over by the bakery uptown.”
“Got it,” I said. We sprinted into the house, dropped off our stuff (Ichigo dropping off his body), told Isshin we would be back in a while, and rushed out of the house towards the bakery.
“Now tell me,” Babs said as we were running, “why are we here? I mean, I get why Rukia and Kurosaki are here. But we don’t have any powers. What good will we do?”
I shrugged. “I do it for fun. We can just help any way we can. Rukia’s been pretty useless lately, right?” I said quietly, so only my friends could hear.
Tara grinned, throwing a thumbs-up. “You know it.”
“Okay, okay,” Babs sighed, concentrating back on running. “Point made.”
We got to the site and the only thing there was a soul…a very creepy one at that. It was obvious that he was a hardcore otaku in his life.
“Aah~” he cried, latching on to Babs in a perverted way, “Magic Girl Megalon has come to save me~”
Babs kicked and punched, peeling him off her. “Get the hell off, you creeper!”
“Jeez…” cried Kurosaki, running a hand through his hair frustratedly. “No Hollow again?”
“Has this been happening a lot?” Tara asked curiously.
He nodded. “This is the third time Rukia’s stupid pager-thing has reported a Hollow incorrectly!”
“It’s not my SoulPhone!” she cried, annoyed. “Someone else is exterminating the Hollows!”
“But,” Babs said, regaining her composure from the pervert, “there aren’t any other Soul Reapers in town, right? So who else could be doing it?”
Rukia shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I’m gonna report this to the Soul Society. For now, Ichigo, just Konso this thing.”
“Konso?” it said excitedly. “You’re not gonna stab me with that thing, are you?”
“Come on, guys,” I said to my friends. “This’ll be quick, let’s just start home.” They shrugged and followed, so we walked out of the alley and back towards the Clinic. On the way there I spotted my favorite little raven-head.
“Ishida!!!” I yelled across the street. “Ishida!!!”
He turned his head and waved to me politely, obviously in too pensive of a mood to talk at the moment.
“Well that was kind of rude,” Tara observed. “He could at least come over here and talk for a little while.
I laughed. “He’s not being rude, that’s just Ishida.” I looked over to Babs suggestively. “Ya know, he’s a lot like you, Babs. I bet you guys would be good friends. Or more…” I waggled my eyebrows at her.
She blushed deeply and pushed my shoulder. “Shut up, idiot. That so would not happen.”
I just grinned. “Whatever you say….”
What my friends didn’t know was that I was “psychic.”
*********************************************************************************
“Finally!” I exclaimed, grabbing the paper from Ochi-Sensei’s desk.
“What is it?” Keigo asked, coming behind me to peer over my shoulder.
“It’s the rankings for our class,” I said. “I was curious if I made the top 50.” I quickly skimmed down the list. “Ishida…Ryugamine…Lancaster!!!” I spotted my name and followed the line to my ranking. “Twenty-third…not bad, Adel, not bad.”
“TWENTY-THIRD?!?” Keigo said, snatching the list from me. “H…how does such a boobalicious babe have smarts, too?”
I slapped Keigo’s cheek roughly and took back my list. “It’s because I study instead of making up stupid, perverted words like ‘boobalicious.’ I mean, what is this, Ikebukuro?”
He looked at me quizically. “What do you know about Ikebukuro? That town’s full of danger, you know that.”
I huffed. “As a matter of fact, I have a couple friends there. And yes, they’re involved with the color gangs. So you can shut the hell up, now.”
He gave me a frightened look before returning to his seat like a scared little puppy.
I chuckled inwardly before turning around and looking at Ichigo. “Kurosaki,” I called. “Good job on the midterm.”
“Huh?” he asked, perking his head up at the sound of his name. He got out of his chair and walked to my desk, peering over my shoulder at the paper in my hand. “What’d I get ranked?”
“Ranked?” Keigo scoffed. “As if; no friend of mine would get put on that list of nerddom!! Why would Ichigo be on this list?”
My eyes reskimmed the page before I found Ichigo’s name again. “Eighteenth! That’s higher than me, totally awesome!!” I gave him an honest, proud grin.
“WHAT?!?!” Keigo shouted, practically leaping back to my seat. “How’d he get on that list, much less rank so high?”
“I’m not in any clubs, dipstick,” Ichigo monotoned, barely reacting to Keigo’s outburst. “So when I get home I have nothing to do but study.”
“Nothing to do?! I ask you to hang out all the time--”
“Shut it, Keigo,” I said, pushing his face away. “Your presence is starting to annoy me.” I turned back to Ichigo. “But I really am surprised, Kurosaki, no offense. I figured when you weren’t busy you were sucking face with my buddy.”
“I guess…” he said, turning the slightest pink. “Having this retarted hair color’s bad enough. The faculty all hate me and keep a close watch on my every friggin move, which totally blows. I anger easily, so I’m always getting in fights. I’ve also got a smart mouth, so I can’t talk my way out of punishment. I’ve got a lot of crap snowballed on me, so I keep my grades up so the faculty will stay off my back.”
“Jesus,” I said. “That’s gotta be rough.”
“Not really. I’ve kinda just accepted that my hair’s gonna haunt me my whole life.”
That’s kinda sad….
“ICHIGO!” Rukia yelled, throwing the door open and dragging him out of the school.
“Are you serious?” I said, standing up and gathering my things. I threw my bag over my shoulder. “Looks like another problem.”
“What’s going on, A-chan?” Keigo asked as I ran out the door.
“Nothing!” I called. “Just some family issue! No biggie!” I left the classroom and sprinted out of the school. On the way out I saw Ishida brushing somehting off his shouder.
“Hi, Uryu!” I said as I ran by. “Haven’t seen you in a while!” I gave him a big grin as I passed him.
“Hello.”
We ran to the other edge of town before Rukia finally let up and stopped. I leaned down on my knees, completely out of breath. She’d about run me out…I’d be so sore tomorrow morning. Damn.
“No Hollow!” Ichigo yelled. “Again!!! That’s twice today!!!”
“Aw, shuddap!” Rukia countered. “Just get back into your body!”
“What…” I panted, “is with these…goddamn…false alarms?”
“I dunno!” Rukia shrieked. “I gotta go get this piece of junk fixed!” She roughly hit her SoulPhone, as if damaging it would repair it. Oxy-moron.
Yeah, I made a pun. Woo.
“Squabbling?” A familiar voice called. All our heads snapped towards the impressive wave of spiritual pressure. “How ugly.”
I recognized the face immediately. “Ishida?”
He was wearing a completely white outfit with blue accents and shoes. He had a high neckline that formed a cross at the top. He looked like a complete idiot.
“Ishida?” Ichigo asked. “Who’s that?”
I smacked his head. “You idiot! He’s Uryu Ishida, in our class? He ranked number one in the exams!”
“Ishida…” Kurosaki pondered. “Ishida…Ishida….” Suddenly a lightbulb flashed. “Oh! Ishida! What’re you doing out at this hour? And what’s with your clothes? Playing mad scientist?”
Rukia went on the defensive. “How can you see us?”
I sighed. “You guys are both idiots.” I took a sharp breath. “There’s a Hollow coming this way.”
Suddenly Rukia’s SoulPhone beeped. She checked it in surprise. “She’s right!”
“You couldn’t even sense it?” Ishida insulted. “And you call yourselves Soul Reapers.” He turned away from us before revealing a bracelet he was wearing. He concentrated for a second before a bow of reishi appeared and formed an archery bow-and-arrow. He quickly shot the Hollow that appeared from nowhere, making it completely disappear. “Uryu Ishida,” he said. “Quincy. I absolutely loathe Shinigami.”
“Ishida…” I said soberly. “Come on, don’t be an ass. Yes, they’re completely incompetent idiots who need serious spiritual-pressure-training--”
“HEY!” they chorused.
“--But, they’re doing the best they can. It’s not like that bow of yours is doing any good either.”
“It’s exterminating the monsters,” he said incredulously.
“Yes, but you know what happens to that soul when you ‘exterminate’ it. Don’t play dumb with me.”
He blew me off cooly, pushing up his glasses. “I got the job done. Don’t complain about how I do it.”
“Ch…you really can be stupid, Uryu. No matter how high your exam scores are.” I started my way back home. “Come on, guys. We have no business here.”
“But wait--” said Ichigo, still confused like the idiot he was.
“Explanations will ensue,” I said calmly. “Right now you’d better move before I break your nose.”
Needless to say, we all got home safe.
*********************************************************************************
“Hell to the no, dipstick,” I shot at Ichigo, who’d given me another one of his cockamayme schemes again. “There’s no way this is gonna work.”
“Seriously, it’ll be fine!” He tried to explain his plan again. “All I gotta do is follow Ishida home, confront him, and get him to explain this ‘Quincy’ stuff.”
I sighed. “You really don’t care what I think, do you?”
“Not particularly.” Well, at least he was honest.
“Then do whatever the hell you want. But I’m gonna walk with Ishida; I wanna see how this plays out.”
“What?!? How can you do that, walk with the enemy?”
I chortled a bit. “He’s no enemy of mine, so why not? Plus I gotta keep a sharp eye on you, don’t I? I’m taking Tara with me too; she needs to see this complete epitome of idiocy.”
He glared hard at me. “You wouldn’t.”
“Ah…but I would.” I gave him a wicked grin.
“You’re kind of a bitch, you know that?”
I replied in kind. “You’re kind of slow, you know that?”
So at the end of the school day I grabbed Tara and we headed out. I also invited Babs, but she declined, saying she wanted nothing to do with this “anime shit.”
We quickly located Uryu.
“Ishida!” I yelled, pulling Tara with me to him. “You mind if we walk home together? Talk about some stuff?”
He smirked. “You mean monitor Kurosaki while he follows me?”
I grinned right back. “You’re quick, my friend.” With that we started towards Ishida’s home, pretending not to notice the ginger “sneaking” (very poorly) behind us.
“Adel,” Tara whispered to me. “Are you sure this is okay? I mean, this guy is kinda suspicious.”
“Don’t sweat it,” I said. “Seriously, he’s good. Just think of this as a…learning exercise for your boyfriend.”
“Learning exercise?” she asked hesitantly.
“Exactly.”
We all walked for a while until we reached a small set of stairs a good ways away from the school when Uryu finally stopped, the two of us following quickly in suit.
“Are you going to follow us all the way home, Kurosaki?” Uryu called.
“Damn…busted.” Ichigo walked out from his (awful) hiding place and smirked at us. “How long did ya know about me?”
Uryu started. “Since you came out of your mother’s woumb.”
Harsh….
“Wow, you’re sharp, man…how’d you know?”
“You’re such an idiot,” I interjected. “You’re spilling your spiritual energy all over the friggin’ place. I’m surprised a Hollow hasn’t tried to suck you up yet.”
“Exactly,” Uryu confirmed. “I sensed you’re overflowing spirit the second I hit this school. And when you became a full Shinigami. I even know Rukia Kuchiki’s identity.” Suddenly ribbons--white and beautiful--spawned from the ground around Ishida. “You may recognize these,” he said, stroking some of the cloth. “Spirit Ribbon…manifestations of spirit energy. If you were of any worth as a Soul Reaper, you’d have noticed mine right away. Baka.” He whipped a hand out and grabbed one of Ichigo’s ribbons, suddenly appearing from nowhere. “Did you even know that a Soul Reaper’s ribbons are red?” He glared darkly. “I have the power to kill Hollows. With this power I’ll show you just how worthless you really are.”
Ichigo looked more intrigued than insulted. “And just how are you planning to do that, Ishida?”
“Well…for your mundane brain to be able to comprehend it, I’ll try to put it in banal terms: call it a game.”
“Game?”
“Yes…to help you see that the world would be perfectly fine without Soul Reapers.”
___________________________________________
Hm...Uryu's kind of an idiot, isn't he?
HELLO, how are ya? New chap so...vote, COMMENTING IS ALWAYS NICE (HINT HINT) and...like? Fan? +1, whatever the hell that is? DO IT! PEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR PREEEEEEESSSSSSSUUUURRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..........................
I like to think I make obvious references in this story, so...hope you catch some!! I know there's at least two, maybe more in this chapter...good luck!!!