The sport that Jinta lived for, and breathed for, more than anything in the whole world, was baseball. Sure, he was good at playing other sports, like soccer and basketball, but baseball was absolutely the thing to look forward too. The sound of the bat, as it hit the target, was to him, one of the most mind numbing and thought provoking things he had ever heard.
One of the places that he eventually wanted to go and see, was the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, playing at the Meiji Jingu Stadium. Truth of the matter though, he had problems finishing his chores at Urahara's place, and ended up getting his allowance deprived because of it, thus he rarely got to go to any major baseball events, and was stuck going to local high school ones.
It came to his surprise though, when Matsumoto Rangiku, the big bosomed woman who followed that small taicho around, came to him proposing something, something he really hadn't expected to have happen, ever. He figured, before he knew what the deal was, and took it, that having tickets to one of the games, would be worth it.
However, one of the conditions was that he had to put up with Rangiku's small, white haired taicho, as the idea as she put it was to make it so that he would become more sociable with kids his own age. The fact was, Jinta never really had liked the boy, as he found him slightly stuck up, and rather full of himself. Yet, that was something he could deal with.
The other condition was that he had to somehow convince Kurosaki Karin to go along with them. The girl's life revolved completely around soccer, and not other sports, thus he knew this would be problematic. Matsumoto was going to suggest an idea of how to do it, when Jinta suddenly piped up, that Karin would likely to be go, if he invited Yuzu, her sister, along with Ururu and Toshiro.
Karin had, as expected, fought off the idea, until she found out that Yuzu had, in her opinion been connived into going too, and she finally gave in, to keep Jinta's grubby claws off her precious sister, who still had some iota of innocence about her that had been yet to be tarnished. Urahara even gave Jinta money to buy snacks with, and Ururu too.
Thus, they met up outside of the shop, waiting for everyone to arrive. Urahara had his old van ready to go, and Jinta was quite happy to be going along, even though he would have to deal with Karin and Toshiro both in the same day. Nothing, could unsettle him, as it was almost like he was going on a date with Yuzu-chan.
Toshiro and Matusmoto were the first to arrive, and the white haired taicho was not at all pleased that the whole matter was going on, and slouched back against the wall, irritated that his fukutaicho had dragged him into this mess. He was rather remaining in a sour mood, until the group suddenly heard someone call out to them.
"Hi everyone! I am excited about the game!" a very sweet voice came, causing everyone to look up. There they saw a girl equivalent to the younger ones age roughly, smiling delicately at them. "If only we weren't missing two of our members, the whole group would be here!"
"Toshiro…" came another voice, more stiff, and rugged then the first, from the person next to the small brown haired girl. She stood at a similar height, her visor shadowing her eyes, but it could be seen that she had raised an eyebrow out of the idea that she hadn't expected the white haired boy to be there. "You are actually coming along on this?"
"Ka… Kurosaki-san…" the small white haired boy's head popped up, rather surprised to be seeing the female standing there, and also having a vague idea that Matsumoto had been behind this whole charade, and why. Unseen by anyone except said person, he winced, as he had a bad idea about the whole day. Actually, he had a bad idea the whole time.
"So… you two know each other," Jinta felt his enthusiasm for the day, suddenly diminish a bit. He had wanted to enjoy sitting next to Yuzu, maybe sharing a drink, a soda that was bubbly fresh, but he had known that would never happen without Karin dumping the fizzy mess on his head.
"Yeah… we've met before… a few times…" Hitsugaya stated, his tone rather brushing the whole matter away, his icy resolve almost falling, but not doing so. He was trying hard to maintain himself, who he was… at least, who he tended to show people on the outside. Something about that girl though, set things off a bit.
"I pegged you more for a soccer fan, Toshiro, not baseball," Karin stated, rather coolly. She also had a rather irritated look in her eye, almost as if she were saying that if he did indeed favor the sport, she would never forgive him.
"My fukutaicho planned this … thing… and is dragging me along," the small boy stated, rather aggravated suddenly. He glanced at the said women, his eyes telling her she would have a lot to answer for when they got back to Soul Society.
"And you came along with her because…" the girl questioned as Yuzu and Ururu climbed into the van ahead of the others. Her mouth was twisted up in a sort of mockery, as if she wanted to make him squirm, to egg him into some sort of response.
"I came along because of the fact that she would have kept bothering me about it, plus… she made a promise I doubt she'll keep, but I can hope she will… that she'll actually do her paperwork," the small taicho grumbled. "I have to wonder why you are here…"
"So that idiot doesn't flirt with my sister…" Karin muttered, her mood turning dark. This caused Toshiro to glance at Jinta warily, and had a good idea what the situation was about, but was confused when she had brought up the word about having a sister.
"Then, that girl is your sister? There is more than two kurosaki siblings?" Toshiro popped out, rather quickly, looking for an acknowledgment that he was indeed right.
"She's my twin, actually," Karin laughed, suddenly grabbing Toshiro's wrist to pull him into the van. Two teal eyes widened in shock, at her unusual behavior. Jinta hurried to get into the car, and was about to go and sit next to Yuzu, only to find Ururu sitting next to her, and Yuzu having taken a window seat. That was in itself irritating, and meant he would have someone between him and the girl of his dreams.
"Oi… brat… can you move?" came the sudden voice of someone he hadn't expected. The voice was rough, and seemed to be a mockery of everything he held dear, but then again, he was still a kid.
"Pineapple head…" Jinta muttered, as Renji pushed by to sit by Ururu, much to the boy's irritation. "What are you doing here?"
"I just so happen to like baseball," Renji stated, giving off that baboonish smirk of his, "And when Matsumoto mentioned this trip, I asked if I could come along. She said, the more chaperones, the better…"
"Oi… Matsumoto…" came the curt rebuff from the very back. While Jinta had to sit by the boy, he was glad that the whole concept of chaperones stung. He glanced over, and saw that Toshiro's cheeks had puffed out slightly, and that his entire body had tensed up. All was good and well.
"So… you're upset about the fact that you're being called a kid again?" Jinta suddenly stated, trying to make the small taicho even more uncomfortable. "Because you know you are…"
"Teme…" Toshiro's icy aura suddenly shot out, causing Jinta to shut up, knowing full well that was a sign not to push things further. "That isn't the case… not this time…"
The words were slightly confusing, but the van started up, and Jinta lost track of his thoughts as they drove to the stadium. That was until, he and Karin broke out in an argument of what sport was better, soccer of baseball. The heated battle went back and forth, until Karin suddenly asked Toshiro what he thought about the matter.
The small taicho had shrunk down, having to listen to their debate for the longest time, his discomfort growing. Especially after Karin had spoke up. "Kendo… if I had to pick one, it would be kendo. But between the two, soccer…"
That shut both up, until they pulled up at the stadium. Urahara let them out on the sidewalk, which circled around the huge building. There were also, the cold stone brick walls, which some kids would like to walk along, trying to balance on, the odd shaped bricks creating the barrier. "I'll be here to pick you guys up, after the game… hopefully no hollows show up."
"Don't even think of getting them too!" Jinta caroused out. "This building is historical significance to Japanese baseball!"
"Whatever," Toshiro muttered, his eyes glancing at the very dark teal colored building, accentuated with a rather dirty red color. The front was covered in windows, at least four levels, and the stadium seats showed over the top of the roof. A line of flags flew at the top, and on the right hand side, was a huge, two storied poster for the Swallows, done in red and blue colors.
The small taicho looked like he wanted to bolt, from the loud, crowded area, as a good deal of spectators for the sport had gathered, and their loud noise clamored around them. Matsumoto grabbed his shoulder, and motioned for them to move forward, and they went through the turn styles, turning in their tickets.
Jinta, was rather curious to see, what kind of seats they would have, where on the blue-seated stadium they would sit. As he glanced out, he could see the huge buildings, peering over the top of the building. The smells of the vendors were driving him nuts, and it would be awhile until the game would start. Thus, as they took their seats, Jinta decided to try his luck.
"Ne… Yuzu-chan… is there anything that you would like from the vendors?" the boy asked, his personality actually changing a bit, becoming rather obvious to everyone around him except for Yuzu.
"Not really… anything in particular…" the girl smiled, in her usual way.
"Then I'll just go and get something for you, the boy stated, only to find himself tripping into one of the other blue seats that were at that point empty. He sat up, and turned to the person. "Ku… ahh"
Instead of finding Karin glaring at him, he instead found the young white haired taicho, glaring at him venomously. Jinta grabbed him by the shoulder, letting the others know that the taicho was going to help him get the drinks and other things, even though the boy rather protested. When he pulled him out of there, he turned to him.
"What was that for! You don't even know Yuzu… you just know Ka…" this caused Jinta to shake his head, the smells from the bending machine assaulting his nose. "I don't like the idea of a rival you know…"
"This isn't a matter of rivalry, it is a matter of your poor behavior," Toshiro stated, his eyes rather cold, trying to ignore the large number of people there. "You can't read Ka… Kurosaki-san's mood, and the fact she really doesn't want you flirting with her sister? You are a bigger idiot then I thought!"
"Both of you are idiots," came the stern voice from behind him, causing them to turn to see Karin. "I can take care of Jinta myself Toshiro."
"You weren't near enough to him," Toshiro responded, "… and your sister would have noticed if you had jumped him from where you were…"
"Let's just get the sodas and the drinks…" Karin sighed, grabbing the taicho's wrist suddenly. Jinta was rather irritated, and became a bit more so, when he saw a slight flustering of the white haired taicho's cheeks. They grabbed quite a bit of junk food, which smelled sweet and salty, and headed back, only to find the seats rearranged.
Renji was at one end, with three hard blue empty seats in-between him an Ururu, then Yuzu and then Rangiku, who was having fun chatting with the young Kurosaki. Karin hurried to take the sport next too Ururu, making it harder for Jinta to flirt with Yuzu. Toshiro was waiting for Jinta to take the next seat, which the boy felt was very odd, until it clicked.
Even though Toshiro had in fact, been against Yuzu, and thus should have been attempting to add more distance between Jinta and the girl. But the fact was, the boy was trying to avoid sitting by Karin. In fact, it had been likely that he had been trying to avoid sitting by her in the van, but she had dragged him in. Jinta thus went and sat next to pineapple head, smirking as he did so.
Toshiro narrowed his eyes at this, while Jinta turned to Renji, to begin talking about baseball. He however, didn't argue the point, and just sat there, rather irritated, until Karin shoved a hotdog nearly in his face. He blinked a couple of times.
"Haven't you ever had a hotdog before?" the girl asked.
"No…" the small taicho stated, looking at it with skeptism.
"Take a bite…" the girl smiled.
Again, the reluctance came out and Toshiro bit down, into the mustardy, salty taste. "I guess it is all right."
"All right?" Karin teased, suddenly grabbing it back and taking a bite off the all ready bitten end. "I guess I'll take it back, huh?"
"Hey…" Toshiro growled, only to have the hotdog stuffed into his mouth. His frustration and flustering was rather evident, and wasn't the result that was wanted, no complete and utter embarrassment, the kid was too controlled.
Jinta, wasn't happy that his plan for revenge, was actually backfiring, and turned to talk to Renji, but Renji wasn't able to keep his eyes on the game, but was carefully watching the behavior of the two that were sitting there, a bit of shock written on his face. Matsumoto suddenly held up her finger, indicating it was a secret.
Then it clicked with Jinta, why the white haired child taicho had been rather upset about the word chaperone. Rangiku had it planned all along, to inadvirtidly set the two up on a date, even though Toshiro was pulling away from the idea, and just like Yuzu, Karin had no clue.