Rai-kumo (Ichigo\Bleach) Ch. 5

Next morning, 7:46am
You groan slightly as the light from the windows finally hits your face. The fight with Ikkaku had taken a long time. You didn't win this time and Ikkaku had walked away with a smug look on his face, one you really wanted to wipe off one day. Well, you two were in the same division now, and the time for another match would come soon. Hopefully, you could train until then. Suddenly, you remember why you had left the window open: to get up early today. You quickly got out of bed, dressing in your new shinigami uniform. You put on the white under-kimono first, then slide on the black kimono, smiling to yourself. You were now finally a true shinigami! You tug on the hakama and run to the door, hastily slipping on your tabi socks (the toe socks) and waraji (bamboo samurai's sandals). You run to Rukia's house to tell her the good news that your fight had delayed yesterday.
9:00am
"Rukia!" you yell as you burst in through her door. "Rukia, I passed!! Huh?" You glance around the room and notice that it's empty. "Rukia?" you call, walking around slowly. The room is neat, made and furnished in the traditional Japanese style like all of the houses in the Soul Society. The tatami mat floors, paper-covered walls and sliding screen doors in the room are all clean and white. The bed was made, nothing was out of place, but that was just the way Rukia was. When you walked over to the bed, you were surprised to find that there was a small note taped to the wall above it. "Reminder: speak with Captain tomorrow about senses being jammed." That was weird. "Did something happen?" you wonder aloud.
Where'd she go? > >
A knock comes at the door. You slowly walk over and open it, hoping someone will be able to answer your questions. You see a very tall man with medium-length wavy brown hair and coke-bottle glasses, wearing the captain's shinigami uniform. Next to him is a smaller, younger girl with kind brown eyes and straight black hair tied up in a neat white-cloth bun with a blue ribbon. Captain Aizen and Vice Captain Hinamori standing there with surprised looks on their faces when they see you. "Aki-san," Hinamori says in a soft voice, as you let them in, "Why are you here? Where's Rukia?" Your jaw drops in surprise. "I thought you'd know," you answer truthfully. "So, you haven't seen her?" Aizen asks, looking puzzled. "No, I haven't," you repeat, slightly annoyed. "I came here looking for her this morning..." The two glance at each other worriedly, Aizen muttering, "This is bad... What do we tell Captain Kuchiki?"
"What do you mean by that?!" you ask suspiciously. Aizen's glance shifts a little before he responds, "Rukia's been missing since last night." "Last night?!" you yelp, smacking your hand to your forehead. This meant you just missed her! "Yes, she hasn't returned to the Soul Society yet and her division is getting worried." You bite your lip. "Have they sent out a search party yet?" you demand. "No, but-" You cut Aizen off by hurriedly saying, "Then I'm going to look for her!" and walking out the door. "Aki," Hinamori cries, following you out. "I know you're worried, but this is a reckless!" "I'm going," you snap, "And I'm not coming back without her!" That paper you found on the wall worried you. Rukia was a very capable shinigami, as you had learned in your stay at the Soul Society. It wasn't like her to have trouble with her powers, then suddenly vanish. Something must have happened, you were sure of it. The appearance of Division 5's commanding officers confirmed that.
"Aki." You feel a heavy hand on your shoulder. Swiveling your head around, you see Captain Aizen attached to that hand, his mouth set in a small frown. "Before you go running off, do you know how to get to the human world? You just graduated." You blink at him in surprise and grit your teeth. "Uhhhhhh..." Aizen sighs. "As I thought. Well, there isn't anyone out looking for her yet; everyone's too busy. So, I think I'll be doing us all a favor if we let you go look. You know what to do when you run into a Hollow, you're in the 11th division." "Don't remind me," you think, glowering. After you learned you were the only girl besides Yachiru on that division, you were beginning to think you were being lumped in with the wrong kind...
"Captain Aizen?" Hinamori gasps, "Are you sure? She's just graduated, how well could she do in a case like this?" Aizen turns to his Vice Captain and gives her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure. Don't you trust my judgement?" Hinamori blushes and stammers out, "Of course I do!" She looks at you and, with a determined face, declares, "If it's Captain Aizen thinks it's the right thing to do, then so do I! Go ahead Aki, we'll cover for you." Your mouth hangs open. Sometimes it embarrassed you the way Hinamori was so trusting of Aizen. But right now, you were feeling very suspicious. You never ignored your feelings; doing that only leads to trouble, and now, your feelings were telling you that somehow, this was too easy... Hinamori had a point. You had just graduated yesterday... But if it was to find Rukia, who had become an indispensable friend and almost mentor over the last two months, you would do it. You were pretty protective of your friends, even if you don't always admit it. True, Aizen seemed a little too anxious to get Rukia back to Soul Society and he was really concerned that she had disappeared in the human world. She wasn't even in his division, so why was he so agitated? Shouldn't the 12th division's captain be the most worried? Not to mention the fact that his eyes looked a little shifty... You don't buy the whole nice-guy act. You never did, not since the last "nice guy" you met tricked you at kendo practice. "For now," you think, "I'll go with this." You nod at Hinamori and Aizen, who smiles and folds his hands in his robes. "Good. Let's go have a talk with your Captain." You shudder as you walk with the two, getting ready to meet one of the scariest shinigami in all of Soul Society, Zaraki Kenpachi.
And now, a cut-scene! *dodges rotten tomatoes* What? I can't spoil this for you until later!!
Saturday morning, 8:07 am
You arrive in the human world, dressed in the same clothes you had left in when you had gone to the Soul Society. It felt really weird to be in your regular body after being in soul form for two months. "If I hadn't known any better, I'd say I'd gained weight," you moan. Your material body definitely felt heavier than your spiritual body and you were beginning to wonder how you had managed to drag it around all the time before. "It moves so slowly," you complain, examining your surroundings. You're standing in the middle of a street, near a residential district. Apparently, this was the last spot anyone had had any contact with Rukia. It looked pretty ordinary. You pull out your new cell phone. You had gotten it, along with a package of Soul Pills, gikongan, at your graduation. The cell phone was for showing you orders for when Hollows appeared and the soul pills were for when you need to become a shinigami. You're supposed take one and your soul is forced out of your body as the one within the pill enters it and animates it. Very useful.
The phone didn't have any orders on it as of yet, meaning if there had been any Hollows involved in last night's incident, the one which caused Rukia to be MIA, they were either dead or long gone. As you take another look around, your new instructions echoed in your head. "The 11th division agrees. Your mission is to find Rukia and bring her back, giving aid if necessary. You will cover the same area as Kuchiki Rukia once did in the meantime, to keep the Hollows at bay. Report back when you find her or when you have clues." You had to admit, Aizen was pretty persuasive when he needed to be.
You walk around, noticing the kids around here all wore the same grey school uniforms. "That's right, it's Saturday," you mumble. Saturday in Japan is still a school day, and, as per your aunt's request that when you were assigned a division and given an area to patrol, you were to attend the local school. Luckily for you, this one, Karakura First High School, seemed to be a good one. When you'd mentioned who your aunt had been and her request, the Soul Society also decided to give you a room of your own, in an apartment not too far from the school. You still weren't sure why your aunt's name allowed you much, but you had been too busy to ask. You walked forward down the street and as you passed a crossroads, something strange caught your eye. A building with a large sign reading, "Kurosaki Clinic" appeared to your left. It was a two-story clean, white house, two windows peeking from above the sign and two more next to it Those last two were located just above an enormous hole in the front wall of the house. You sweatdrop, thinking that a truck must have gone through it or something. Apparently, the people who lived there had tried to do a quick repair job on it, but the giant wooden boards nailed haphazardly across the hole just made it look shabbier... Coincidentally, your new apartment was right across the street from that building.
You shrugged and went inside your new place. The apartment was kind of small, but that was okay with you. After all, you were the only one living there. There is a small-ish kotatsu (heated table) in the middle of the room, a bookcase lying on top of it, a TV in the corner, a telephone on the wall next to the door, and a stove in the back. Built around the stove are some cabinets and a tabletop, on which you find a small microwave. There are two large windows on the right wall, beneath which is a small, low couch. It looks pretty cheap, but you weren't complaining. To the left of the stove is a door, which, as you find out, leads to a smaller room furnished with a bed, a floor-length mirror and a dresser with a lamp on top. There is a window right next to the bed, above the dresser, giving you a good view of the street below and the Kurosaki Clinic. You wondered if they'd put you across from a hospital because they thought you'd get injured in a fight with regular humans... "Given how the rest of the 11th division is," you think, sweatdropping, "That might just be it..."
A closet door is located on the right wall, next to another door that leads to the bathroom. "This is actually pretty nice," you whistle, noting that the bathroom actually has a bathtub and shower. You go back inside your bedroom and open up the closet to find the same grey school uniform inside that you'd seen those kids outside wearing. It consisted of a long-sleeved grey blazer with one pocket on the left and two on the bottom, a white long-sleeved dress shirt, a red ribbon (complete with school seal), and a short grey skirt. Next to the winter uniform, you spotted the summer uniform- a short-sleeved white shirt, the same red ribbon and the same grey skirt. If you remembered correctly, school starts at 9:00am... You'd better get ready to go then.
Like the house? (rest in results)
You examine the uniform for any tears or signs of damage (it had none) and put it on. "The skirt was a lot shorter than I'd thought it would be just looking at it," you grumble, tugging on it, hoping against hope it would extend. When it didn't, you sighed and checked in the mirror. Your closet had been empty besides those two items of clothing and you made a mental note to go shopping in the afternoon and get your aunt to send your clothes here. There would be no school tomorrow, since it would be Sunday, and you didn't want to hang around in your uniform all the time... You tugged on the skirt again. "It's too short..."
Making a mental note to call your aunt later, you headed out, picking up the bookcase on the way. You find the school with no problem, since you are following the rest of the herd over there You've been registered as a transfer student from your last school (your records had been kept for this), and you were put in a 10th grade class. Nothing special happened until you walked in... There, sitting right in the middle of the room, is Kuchiki Rukia, wearing a very calm expression on her face and the same uniform you're in. You hadn't been expecting to find her so quick. And so calm too? You are about to go up to her and talk to her when a couple of students start talking to her. "What's this?" you think. "Why can they see her? And what's she doing here?"
Rukia finishes talking to the students (you're puzzled because the language she uses is rather odd), and, spotting you, makes a gesture for you to come over. Seeing the puzzled look on your face, Rukia tells you, "I'll explain later." "Later?!" you squawk. "Why not now? What are we waiting for?" "Not what, who," Rukia says, pointing to the door, "And, no, that's not him (you had looked behind you to see who had walked in and it just happened to be the teacher), class is going to start soon. Aren't you supposed to keep up your studies while you're here?" You sigh, exasperated, but trusting her judgment on this one. "Rukia, could you at least tell me who we're waiting for first?"
"Miss Watanabe!" Urk... That would be the teacher's voice. You turn around to find him with a stern expression on his face and an attendance book in his right hand. "I'm not sure how things were done at your old school, but class is starting and here," he tapped the desk, "we sit down when class starts." You look around embarrassedly to find you were the only one still standing (you were at Rukia's desk). You mumble something incoherently and sit down in the back by a window.