Rai-kumo (Ichigo\Bleach) Ch. 66

After you and Orihime conspire to sneak a little food to Ichigo (you eat half of your bento, and encourage her to finish more of her share, so the bulk hidden under your robes will look less suspicious if you accidentally run into Kuukaku in the hall), you bid each other good-night and go your separate ways. Orihime heads off to bed while you go back to the training center to work a little more; after all, you'd only managed success once and although you weren't eager to see if your theory was responsible for your success after all, you want to make sure your team doesn't explode tomorrow because of you.
"Ichigo...!" you drawl as you poke your head through the door. "Ichigo! Oh, Yoruichi-san!" There's the cat, sitting with the exhausted-looking shinigami. They look like they're talking about something important. "So, how are we getting into Soul Society again?" Ichigo asks, not aware of your approach. Yoruichi sighs, "How many times must I explain it to you before you start paying attention? Very well, tomorrow..." THUD. Yoruichi lets out a blood-curdling yowl of pain when Ichigo's fingers close around the poor cat's tail as he falls over, dead asleep, on the spot. The sound doesn't wake him up, but Ishida comes charging into the room, his eyes widening in horror as he beholds the scene before him. "Ishida! Help me out here!" you shout, trying to pry Yoruichi's tail loose from Ichigo's grip. In barely two seconds, Chad comes into the room as well, followed by Orihime. It takes all four of you, three prying apart Ichigo's fingers, and one pulling on Yoruichi's tail, a full five minutes to free the poor cat, who, as soon as he is loose, turns on the shinigami boy and hisses, "You--!"
Before Yoruichi can claw Ichigo into ribbons, you pick the furious animal up (sweat-dropping at the sight of its tail bent into a zig-zag) and stuff it into Chad's arms. "Here, you take him away before we've got another useless battle on our hands," you explain in a rush. The boy doesn't argue, merely nodding as you hand Orihime the bento she had saved up, telling her she'd better wait and give it to Ichigo in the morning. As everyone hurries out of the room (Ishida helping Chad restrain Yoruichi), you pick up the ball that Ichigo had dropped and carry it back to the center of the room, standing a little bit away from Ichigo in case your bad concentration makes your shell break again.
You take a deep breath and again try to picture the circle. But you fill it with Rukia's eye color instead of Ichigo's, partly to test your theory and partly because Kuukaku reminded you that your concentration might be lacking. When you open your eyes and lightly tap on the energy before you with your foot, you find it doesn't crack. Taking it down, you frown, puzzled. "Why...? Why is it working now? Was it really just a simple matter of concentration? But if I was so distracted this whole time, how come it started working when you thought about Ichigo? Renji said emotion mattered when I'm trying to do something," you muse aloud. You cast a disdainful eye upon the orange-haired shinigami a couple of feet away. Hmph. So much for him. If it works just fine when you're thinking about saving Rukia, then you'll keep using that. No need to make yourself confused if it's really just your concentration that you should be worrying about.
You practice putting up and taking down the shield a few times. However, after your tenth (successful) attempt, you let out a tired breath and sit down, exhausted but satisfied. Suddenly, you think you hear a soft snoring noise coming from somewhere.
"Eh?" you mumble, shuffling over on your knees to check up on him. "Asleep, Kurosaki?" you yawn. When he doesn't move, you prod him and inquire, "Oi... you can't sleep here, you'll catch a cold..." You sit down next to him, your hands on the ground. "Wait... Do shinigami even get sick?" You lean in closer. His eyes are closed pretty tightly. Come to think of it, your eyelids are getting pretty heavy too. Your last thought before darkness takes you is how tired you are.
Next morning. Time: unknown. Probably 9:00 am.
You sigh. So warm. You breathe in softly. Wherever you are, it smells nice. Like freshly cleaned clothing, metal, and a light fragrance that reminds you of fruit. Soft folds of fabric envelop you as you snuggle in deeper to the warmth, tucking your arms closer to your chest. You rest your head against something firm, but you open your eyes with a start when you realize there's something wrapped pretty tightly around your shoulders and your waist. "Hmm?" you mumble sleepily, pulling away so you can rub the sleep from your eyes. The first thing you see is the partially open, rumpled V of a black kimono with a white under-kimono, revealing chest muscle. Oh... It's just Ichigo.
Ichigo?!
You take in a sharp breath as you realize you must've fallen asleep next to Ichigo last night, and somehow wound up as his teddy bear! "Oi!" you squeak, your cheeks growing warm, "Oi!! Ichigo, wake up!!" As you try to figure out how you're going to get free, Ichigo groans lightly in his sleep and pulls you in closer. You let out a small squeak and instinctively tense as he rests his head on top of yours. His breath, coming in slow and even, stirs a few of your long dark bangs. He stops moving, but his hold on you doesn't weaken. You let out a long, drawn out breath. For a second there, you thought he'd woken up and he was doing this on purpose. At this thought, your face burns again. "There's no way he'd do that!" You shut your eyes (so you won't be able see his chest any more) and wriggle a little bit, but Ichigo's arms are still locked around you, so you don't make much headway.
Geez. First Yoruichi and now you... This guy just needs to hang onto something when he's asleep, huh? You make a mental note to get him a stuffed animal (with a note of blackmail tied to its neck) for Christmas. That ought to serve him right! But for now... you've got to wake him up! Making a face, you kick him in the shin, but to your amazement, he doesn't even twitch. "He's takes sleeping like a rock to a new level!" you think, "He's practically immune to pain when he's like this!" You consider yelling for someone, but what would they think when they saw this? At this thought, your face gets so hot you're afraid the heat from your flaming cheeks will burn a hole in Ichigo's keikogi. "Wake up, damn you...!" you moan, half-expecting someone to burst through the door at any moment.
As you keep mumbling to yourself, thinking of ways to escape, his arms finally loosen a little. You take this chance to try to push him away. Unfortunately, after a couple minutes' worth of struggling, you still can't pry yourself loose (you nervously recall how it took all four of you to get Yoruichi's tail out last night), but at least you can breathe a little easier now. You let out a soft huff, finally resting your head against his chest. Huh...
"He's... really warm..."
Why did it take you so long to notice it?
As you lie there, you can feel his heart steadily beating beneath your cheek... sense his soft breathing, his chest slowly rising up and down. Now that you think about it... this isn't so bad. It's strange, but... somehow...
This makes you feel safe.
Seireitei... Karakura town... Everything seems so far away right now. Closing your eyes, you let out a long sigh, deciding to make yourself comfortable. Well, no one's probably going to come for a while... Most likely... So... "A few more seconds," you think, snuggling in closer, the smile on your face betraying your true feelings as you drift off.
After a while, Ichigo wakes up on his own. "R... run away with you...?!" he mumbles loudly, blinking the sleep from his eyes. "Man, what kind of weird dream was that?" He yawns. "Oh well. That was... Huh...? What am I holding...?" It's warm and soft... "Gah!!" he cries, flushing, his entire face and neck bright red. Aki?! What's he doing hugging Aki?! Quickly, he shoves you away (gently, but nonetheless very hastily) and immediately sits up. "Is she asleep?!!" He glances around, realizing you're both still in the training hall. Why were the two of you sleeping in here? And... like this?!?!
"Gyaaah!! What--? How--?!" he thinks, forcing himself not to panic. "Oi... Aki..." he whispers nervously, shaking your shoulders slightly. "Aki!" Blearily, you open your eyes (you'd temporarily fallen asleep again). "Eh? Oh. Morning, Ichigo... What's up?" "What's up?" he thinks incredulously. "She must still be half-asleep."
But as your mind clears completely, you let out a half-muffled yell (it would've been ear-shattering, but you covered your mouth, realizing in time that if you screamed, people will come running and that'd make everything worse!) and shove him as far away from you as possible, while at the same time, trying to scramble into an awkward sitting position. To see him awake, and know that he's still holding you was unbearably... "What the hell are you doing?!" you demand, blushing to the roots of your hair. "Omigod, even after he woke up, he didn't let go of me! Was it because he wanted to keep holding me?? No, wait! I'm thinking too much! Arghhhh!!!"
"I--I--I--" Ichigo stutters, face becoming redder with each syllable.
"You don't have to feel too guilty, you know," someone drawls.
Startled by the sudden voice, you blink, then, exchange glances with Ichigo. You turn towards the far wall. There's Shiba Ganju, sitting there in his flowery robe and sewing some scraps of paper together. He was there the whole time...
Shit.
You and Ichigo gasp; your face feels so hot you know there's steam coming out of your ears.
"Ganju!" you cry out, Ichigo chiming in, "About earlier!! It-it-it's not what it looked like!!" But then Ichigo raises his eyebrows. "Wait..." he asks slowly, "What do you mean by 'I don't have to feel guilty?'" Ganju looks from Ichigo to you, then leers amusedly. You gasp. Shit! A flash of memory resurfaces; you remember the warmth, the comfort of Ichigo's embrace... This guy must've been watching!! Immediately, you get up and search the room for the training sphere as a puzzled, but curious Ichigo, unaware of your movements, continues to stare at Ganju for an answer. "I saw everything," Ganju declares, his smirk growing wider.
"Yes!" you hiss, locating the sphere and sprinting towards it.
"Everything?" Ichigo repeats, his eyes widening. "It happened while you were still asleep," Ganju continues. "When I showed up, you and Aki were already lying next to each other, and you had your arms around her." Ichigo shifts uncomfortably where he's sitting, his face the picture of embarrassment. "Uh... yeah..." he mumbles.
Meanwhile, you finally lay your hands on the sphere. You turn. You aim.
Ganju's grin has now grown VERY wide. "You see, Aki... woke up and...---yowch!!" Ichigo's mouth hangs slightly open as the glass sphere makes direct contact with the side of Ganju's skull with a resounding crack. "Yeah, got him!!" a blank-faced Ichigo hears you whoop from the far wall. "Ganju!" Ichigo exclaims as he regains his senses; he rushes over to the boar-rider, clutching the front of the man's shirt and shaking him. "Oi! Come on, what happened?!" Unfortunately, Ganju can't answer him---you knocked him out. As you continue cheering, a stress-mark breaks out on Ichigo's head. "What did you do that for?!" he hollers at you, looking justifiably irritated. "He was going to tell me something!"
"Too bad!" you respond, elated enough at your success to make a silly face to spite him. The stress-mark on Ichigo's head grows bigger. "You're acting like a little kid!!" he yells, waving his arms up and down. "So are you!" you retort, shaking your balled fists at him. The sound of a door sliding open draws your attention as you both glance at its opening to see Ishida. "Oh, you're awake," he exclaims, "Yoruichi-san is waiting for us all on the surface. We're leaving." "We are?" you ask, jumping up a little out of excitement. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" With surprising speed, you dash out of the room. Ishida and Ichigo can do nothing but watch the dust-cloud left in your wake in slack-jawed awe. "She was sure in a hurry to leave..." Ishida thinks. "Her face was all red too." Ping. Ishida raises an eyebrow and gazes at Ichigo through narrowed eyes.
"Kurosaki..." Ishida states, his voice as frosty as the flashing glasses he pushes back up his nose with a click. "What happened? Did you do something to Watanabe?"
"No!!" Ichigo cries out, waving his hands in front of him. "It's not like that! Ahem! You said Yoruichi wants us, right? I'll see you later, then!" Almost as fast as you, Ichigo also dashes out of the room, leaving a sighing Ishida to follow as he shakes his head. "I swear," he mumbles, "I'll never understand those two."
Gyaahh, I can't stop thinking about Ichigo!!
Moments later, you're all outside (although you've left Ganju lying unconscious, bleeding from a slight concussion, on the floor of the training room). "Good, everyone is here," Yoruichi purrs. "Yes," Ishida responds, nodding. " Yoruichi-san," Ichigo wonders aloud, pointing, "Why is your tail in a zig-zag shape all of a sudden?" You, Chad, Orihime and Ishida all gasp, the blood draining out of your faces as you exchange glances and watch Ichigo and Yoruichi carefully. "You... got a problem with that...?" the black cat snarls, yellow eyes gleaming ominously. "Uh... no..." Ichigo mumbles, looking nervous, "It's as pretty as ever..."
"Idiot! You're the one who did that!" Ishida hisses in Ichigo's ear. "I did?!" Ichigo whispers back. While Ishida's recounting how it took all of you to pry Yoruichi loose, you turn your attention to Kuukaku who asks, "Hey, what's Ganju doing?" "I dunno," you mumble awkwardly, shifting your feet. You really don't want to tell his sister you knocked him out so Ichigo wouldn't know that you... "Aki?" Kuukaku inquires, looking slightly concerned. "You look kind of flushed. Is something wrong?"
"Hold on a minute!!!" someone roars, catching everyone's attention.
Everyone turns and looks to see Ganju, who appears to have come from around the back of the Shiba house, breathing hard and leaning with his hand against the wall. He's clutching a long sheaf of folded paper with him ("looks like a sutra" you think **look this up on Wikipedia... I'm too lazy to explain it) and he's changed his clothes; instead of the flowery robe from earlier, he's wearing a green sleeveless jacket and matching head-wrapping, a red sash over white sleeveless gi top, and white-spiral patterned black puffy pants, gathered in at the knees. Black wrappings cover his lower legs and arms, and there's a board like the side of a match-box on each of his four limbs where he's wrapped the cloth. Goggles around his neck and a small sword showing from where it hangs on his lower back, Ganju grins and gives everyone a tired thumbs-up. "The heroes," he pants, "Always arrive a little later."
"What are you wearing?" Ichigo asks pointedly, looking creeped out. "This is my special battle-suit!" Ganju proudly proclaims, jutting out his chest and indicating it with his thumb. "Cool, huh? No matter how you beg, I won't let you try it! Sucker!!" As you sweat-drop, Ichigo persists, "Battle-suit? What for? Aren't you just here to say good-bye?" At this, Ganju shoots Ichigo a strange glare, one without malice, and stalks towards the orange-haired shinigami. He stares Ichigo straight in the face, his eyes narrowed, and grinds out, "My older brother was killed in cold blood by shinigami. Your eyes widen as Kuukaku cries out from the platform behind you, "Ganju! Shut--!"
"Sis, don't interrupt me, just listen!" Ganju calls, shouting her down. "My older brother was a genius. He passed the entrance exam for the shinigami academy in one try and his spirit-energy was rated at level six, at par with the vice-captain of the 13th division. Then he finished the six years worth of curriculum in just two years and became an official shinigami. Five years after, he became a vice-captain." You heave a small sigh hearing all of that; once again, the feeling that Soul Society may have been planning something unsavory when allowing you into the academy enters your mind.
"But then he was killed! Betrayed by his shinigami partner!" Ganju declares. "I was young, and I don't know all the details, but... there are two things I will never forget. The cold eyes of the shinigami who brought... my dying brother back, and... the smiling face that shinigami made when thanking my brother." You and Chad exchange glances as Ganju continues to address Ichigo, "I don't know why, but... not once, did my big brother speak out in hatred against the shinigami. I want to know... the reason why he never hated shinigami, the reason why he believed in the shinigami even in death!" Ichigo flinches a little as Ganju grasps the collar of his black robes and pulls his face in even closer, but the boar-rider's words are far from threatening. "You are different from the other shinigami. I can feel it," he says, "If I go with you, I know... I will discover the reasons. So I will... lend you a hand on this one. I will see with my own eyes what shinigami are like!"
Ganju...
Mumbles of "Ganju!" are all around, a few tears on the giant guards' side ("Ganju-dono!! *sniff* Well said!").
Kuukaku smirks and sighs, " Hah... it seems like you've made up your mind. Just don't run away half-way, brat! If you want to do it, give it everything you've got!!"
"Yeah!" Ganju roars back.
Suddenly, Ichigo smacks Ganju's hand away and grabs the man's shirt-front in retaliation.
"Hey," Ichigo orders, "Watch my back."
"Scum," Ganju snarls half-heartedly.
"Is everyone ready?" Kuukaku asks, "I'm not waiting any longer, brats! Let's go!!"