Chapter 2: Cherry Blossom Weather
If only I could be that tree,
To hold you in my arms,
To love you.
Karakura Town, Minamikawase, Kurosaki Clinic
7:35 a.m.
To hold you in my arms,
To love you.
Karakura Town, Minamikawase, Kurosaki Clinic
7:35 a.m.
"Good morning, Ichigo!" Yuzu Kurosaki greeted her brother as he came into the kitchen the following day. She was as bright and cheerful as usual, even for so early in the morning.
"Morning," Ichigo replied. He glanced about the kitchen and frowned upon noticing that one member of the family wasn't present. "Where's Dad?"
"Early meeting," Karin, Yuzu's twin sister, answered him, taking a sip of her barley tea from where she was seated at the kitchen table. "Said he'd be late tonight too."
"Again, huh?" Ichigo swiped a piece of toast up from the counter and looked up at the TV screen, the name Karakura Old Town catching his eye. He paused, the toast still hanging from his mouth, as a newscaster went on about a pipeline explosion between the Old Town and Tsubakidai.
The incident occurred outside the Karakura Station just after 7:30 a.m. as the morning commute was getting into full swing. Witnesses reported hearing a loud crash and feeling the ground shake beneath their feet. The entire area has been roped off. Further details...
"Something bad happen?" Yuzu asked anxiously, noticing Ichigo's hesitation.
"That's near here..." Ichigo mumbled.
Karakura Town, Karakura Old Town
7:40 a.m.
7:40 a.m.
"Hello?" Ichigo called. The empty alleyway answered him with silence. The flowers he had promised the little spirit the day before were tucked in his schoolbag, but the recipient was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you looking for someone?"
It took all of Ichigo's self-control not to yelp when a voice spoke quite suddenly into his right ear. There she was again, that French girl he had met the day before. Knee-length chestnut hair (which she had pulled back into a somewhat ragtag ponytail), angular green eyes that seemed somewhat feline, and a small but full-figured frame. "Uh... Kinkajou, right?"
"Oui." She looked distracted, staring up at the cloudless blue sky with unblinking eyes. "I was actually hoping I'd find you before you got to school." She paused for a moment, and then, without looking at him, she asked, "Do you feel something...?"
Ichigo frowned slightly, somewhat unnerved by the spacey way she was acting. "What-?"
"Chut!" Kinkajou's fingers, light and thin, brushed over Ichigo's lips, her gaze still fixated on the sky.
The two remained silent for one second, two seconds, three... Then there was a roar, like that of an angry animal in rut, far-off and reverberating.
Ichigo glanced at Kinkajou in surprise. This time she met his gaze, her eyes round and wide and green. And on unspoken agreement, they began to run.
Karakura Town, Tsubakidai
7:45 a.m.
7:45 a.m.
"What do you think that was?" Ichigo demanded as he and Kinkajou dashed through the crowded streets of Tsubakidai. They had been running for about five minutes, but there was no more roaring, only the gentle murmuring of the general public as they went about their day, oblivious to the bone-chilling sounds that only few could hear.
"If I had an idea, I wouldn't be running towards it," Kinkajou answered him dryly, her chest heaving for breath.
They were rushing through the stream of the morning commute, muttering "sorry" and "pardon" when ever they bumped someone on their way past. Ichigo stopped suddenly, swearing under his breath. "It sounded like it was coming from around here!" he told Kinkajou, who was staring at the sky again.
She glanced back at him almost immediately. Her gaze had earlier been calm and composed, but now it was wide with something similar to fear. "It did come from here," she whispered, her voice barely carrying over the steady hum of the passers-by. "We could hear it from all the way back there. But no one else did."
Ichigo's eyes widened at what she was implying. She was right; for how the roar had made his blood run cold even at the distance between them, no one around here seemed to be panicking in the slightest. It was as though they hadn't heard a thing. "But that means-!"
"Ichigo, DOWN!" Kinkajou shrieked, throwing her body over his and forcing him down onto the sidewalk. Simultaneously, a loud explosion shattered the peace of the morning.
There were screams as people fled the explosion, terrified like startled deer and in disarray. Kinkajou rolled away from Ichigo and leaped to her feet, eyes wide. Ichigo rose into a sitting position. What the-?!
Before them was the site of the explosion. There was smoke, but no fire. Smoke... and there was something else outlined faintly in the deep gunmetal cloud of gray...
"What the hell is that?"
Neither Ichigo nor Kinkajou could fathom a word to describe what had just stepped from the smoke. It was rather hideous, loosely resembling a very big albeit ugly brown preying mantis, complete with huge raptorial front legs not unlike Shinigami scythes. A tribal-looking white mask glared out at them rather than a face, and there was a hole in the creature's chest, huge and flawless, as though the thing had come from the womb with a gap serving as a heart. It easily stood fifteen feet tall and exhaled raw, ragged danger with every breath.
Stumbling out of the smoke, sobbing and coughing and heaving for breath, was the little spirit that Ichigo had helped the day before - the monster's hors d'oeuvre.
Ichigo jumped to his feet on impulse and rushed towards the masked monster. He could tell from the patter of shoes on pavement behind him that Kinkajou had followed him without being told to. A boy and a girl of fifteen, not a weapon between them, rushed past grown men and women to reach the helpless little girl that no one else could see.
The spirit, upon seeing them, began to cry even louder as she ran towards them, transparent tears catching the growing sunlight as they cascaded from her pale green eyes. Ichigo could smell it on her, a scent much stronger and sharper than any perfume: stark terror.
"Come on, run!" he roared as the little spirit fled past them. The monster, seeming relatively disgruntled at having lost its meal, turned its attention instead to Ichigo and Kinkajou, who were by far the larger delicacies.
"Ichigo! Take the girl and run!" Kinkajou yelled, stepping in front of him to face the oncoming beast. "I'll hold this monstre off for as long as I can!"
"What?!" Ichigo looked up from the spirit, whose breaths were heaving in her chest as her sobs grew louder. "That's crazy! I'm not gonna-!"
"Merde! Will you just shut up and run, you stupid moron?!" hissed Kinkajou, her eyes flashing like viridescent lightning. "When I tell you to move, you're gonna damn well move it!"
Just as Ichigo was preparing to make a stinging retort, the course of their lives shifted drastically once again. One second, the monster was there, stalking towards them on long, spearlike legs, and in the next, it was sliced completely in half like a large piece of bread.
Simultaneously, a shadow flickered in front of them. A butterfly?
No, not a butterfly.
Her clothes were as black as her skin was light, which was a color between bloodless and peach. Her hair was shoulder-length and a deep shade of obsidian, blending in so neatly against her strange, kimono-like attire that it was difficult to tell where her neck ended and her back began. She stood lightly, almost floating, as if she were as much a ghost as the little girl. She wielded a deadly-looking katana, the silver blade stained dark by the monster's blood, the wine red hilt clutched in her small, pale hand.
As both of the neat, equal halved of the monster fell to either side and then faded away into nothing, the mysterious girl sheathed her sword without wiping away the bloodstains that marred the blade. Her gaze, cold and blue like the night sky, swept over Ichigo and Kinkajou for only a second before she lit away, a silent and black enigma on the wind.
Ichigo turned back to look at Kinkajou, but her face held no answers for him. The little girl was gone; she had gotten away. As the two of them stood there stupidly, the rest of the public crowded up around them, clamoring about another pipeline explosion.
Kinkajou mouthed silently to Ichigo, Pipeline explosion?
Ichigo blinked at her. It made sense. Everyone around them thought that was a pipeline explosion, when in reality it was a giant masked monster trying to eat a little girl. If that samurai girl and the monster just went by unnoticed by all these people... then they had to be spirits!
Karakura Town, College Town
7:58 a.m.
7:58 a.m.
"I'm gonna be late," Ichigo grumbled.
"Sorry," Kinkajou said sheepishly. "If I hadn't held you up, you wouldn't have gotten mixed up in all that."
"Eh, don't worry about it. I'll just say I got held up by that pipeline explosion."
"They were spirits, non?" Kinkajou asked suddenly.
"That's what I was thinking," Ichigo answered, furrowing his brow. "Apparently no one else saw that monster of the chick in the samurai gear."
Kinkajou lowered her gaze, apparently lost in thought. But her head snapped up again as they neared Karakura High. "Mon dieu, is that your school?!" she squealed.
"Uh, yeah." Ichigo, a bit disturbed by her enthusiasm, edged away from her slightly.
She made a clipped sound of excitement and bounced forward; startled, Ichigo ran after her, exclaiming, "Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?!"
Kinkajou stopped just outside the walls, wriggling joyfully. "Uwaaah! C'est très incroyable! Je ne vois pas une école secondaire en japon!"
Ichigo stared at her blankly. "I have no idea what you just said."
"I've never seen a Japanese high school before!" Kinkajou repeated. "I always saw the ones in France, but I was never old enough to attend one. But they look so cool here! Do you really wear the little house slippers when you go in?"
Ichigo tilted his head to the side, completely at a loss. "Uh, yeah. We change into them before we go to class."
"Vraiment? Can I go in and see?" She was grinning so widely at this point that Ichigo half-expected her face to split.
"No, you can't!" he snapped. "I'm already late, so I've gotta go."
Kinkajou didn't look to be too crushed; instead, she began waving at him and cried, "D'accord! À tout à l'heure, Ichigo!", grinning like a fool all the while.
Ichigo walked briskly away, cursing quietly under his breath. What did I do to deserve this?
Karakura Town, College Town, Karakura High, Class 1-3
8:02 a.m.
8:02 a.m.
"I... CHI... GO!!!"
Keigo Asano crashed headlong into Ichigo's outstretched arm, who gave a brisk "Hey, Keigo, how's it going?" and left his friend lying on the floor.
"Hey, Ichigo," Mizuiro Kojima greeted him as Ichigo sat down, hanging his book bag on the side of his desk. "You're later than usual."
"Yeah, I got a little held up. There was another pipeline explosion in Tsubakidai."
"Really?"
"Hey! What was that for?!" Keigo had jumped back to his feet, looking totally affronted (a considerable welt shaped like Ichigo's arm was stretching across his face). "And I had a serious question to ask you and everything!"
"You, serious? That's a new one on me," Ichigo commented, disinterested.
"No, really! So who was that totally hot chick you walked to school with?!"
Ah, crap. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Ichigo said a little too quickly.
"You're a terrible liar, Strawberry," Mizuiro informed him.
"See, it's that girl, right out there!" Keigo pointed out the window towards the main entrance. Ichigo looked where he was indicating and made an exasperated noise at the back of his throat. Kinkajou was still there, of course, and she was examining the plaque posted on the outer wall with great interest.
"Oh, her. I met her out in the streets near Tsubakidai. She's from France, and she, uh, wanted me to show her around."
"A French girl, huh?" Keigo's chestnut eyes grew very intent. "So just how good are French girls at making-"
Ichigo elbowed him very hard in the face. "Just shut up, Keigo."
"So are you gonna walk her home, Strawberry?" Mizuiro asked, sounding mildly curious.
"No, I'm not. She'll probably go home on her own in a few minutes." Hopefully, Ichigo added silently. "Why do you even care, anyway?"
"Oh, no reason."
Any further conversation was postponed by the arrival of Ms. Ochi, who called for everyone to take his or her seat so she could take attendance. As she noted the continual absence of Reiichi Oshima and the rest of the delinquent population of the class, Ichigo gazed out the window, lost in thought. His mind strayed to the appearance of the strange girl in the samurai getup.
She sliced through that monster like it was butter. I've never seen a spirit fight before, let alone like that. In fact, Ichigo had never seen a spirit like her in any aspect. Most of the ghosts he had seen were Average Joes, just people, nothing too spectacular. This one had a certain... class. An aura that set her apart from everyone else, dead or alive, an aura reinforced by her emotionless face and the sword hanging at her waist. How weird.
Karakura Town, College Town
4:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m.
There was a road leading out of the high school that had a row of sakura trees planted on either side. It was an exceptionally popular path, especially with the young teenage couples. The tree branches blocked all but a vague breeze from flowing through, easing cherry blossoms from the branches and carrying their scent along the path. As pleasant and peaceful a place as it was, Ichigo didn't frequent it very often and only chose to take it to today in favor over the way through Tsubakidai - after the "pipeline explosions" earlier, there was no doubt the roads would be congested.
Strangely enough, the path was deserted. The breeze picked up a bit as Ichigo walked along, sending a shower of cherry blossoms spiraling towards the earth. A few caught in his hair, and he irritably swiped them away. In doing so, he glimpsed an odd shape up in the sakura tree beside him.
Kinkajou was fast asleep, nestled quite comfortably in the crook of two close-lying branches, her black jacket standing out amongst the browns and pinks of the cherry blossom tree. Her hair, loose and free, dangled over the limb, suspended in space, each individual cornsilk strand reaching for the earth and catching a ray of sunlight that peeked through the trees. If Ichigo had kept walking, he likely would have felt the curled ends whisk across his forehead. Her mouth was open slightly, her soft snores lost in the breeze.
How long has she been up there? Exasperated, Ichigo called, "Hey! Kinkajou!"
She didn't respond.
He spoke louder. "Oi!"
Still nothing. She didn't even stir. The only sign that she was even still alive was the deep rise and fall of her chest as she slept.
Why do I even care? Ichigo asked himself. He yelled, "Hey! Wake up, you idiot!"
Kinkajou continued to sleep.
Ichigo grabbed a fistful of her hair and gave an experimental tug. Still no response. "Dammit." He yanked her hair again.
Quite unexpectedly, Kinkajou's still-sleeping body rolled off the branch and onto Ichigo, who gave a yelp as she descended upon him and knocked him flat out on the ground. A moment later, her eyelids flickered open, as though she had woken on her own. She sat up, blinking sleepily, and raised her eyebrows, a little interested but not particularly surprised to find herself sprawled across Ichigo's chest. "What did I miss when I was asleep, mon amant?"
"Nothing. Get off," gritted Ichigo, very slowly going scarlet.
Unable to hide a coy smile, Kinkajou took care to get to her feet before stepping off of him; as soon as he had gotten his breath back and ascertained that all his ribs were intact, Ichigo stood as well. Kinkajou said, "I guess I fell asleep, didn't I?" She stood tiptoe to brush a cherry blossom off of Ichigo's shoulder. "Sorry about that."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm narcoleptic," she admitted with a weak laugh. "I fall asleep at random times, and it's really hard to wake me up. I think I got it from Maman, but I'm not sure."
Ichigo had heard of narcolepsy - his father owned a clinic. But he had never met anyone that had the condition in particular. "Why were you in the tree?"
"I had to go run a few errands after you got to school, but then I got bored, so I decided to wait for you. But school takes forever, and the sakuras are très belle, so I climbed up one to check it out. Besides," Kinkajou added breezily, "it's cherry blossom season anyway."
"That was last month," Ichigo said crushingly.
Kinkajou sagged as though she had been told there was no Christmas. "April? Bother." She sighed and gave him a sidelong glance. "I would have liked to have watched the sakura blossoms with you." Ichigo looked at her, but she sounded sincere.
He adverted his gaze. "So where do you stay?"
"Why do you want to know?" she asked slowly, treating him to another coy smile.
"Forget it." Ichigo spun on his heels and stalked off.
"Attends, Ichi! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She scampered after him, overcome with giggles.
"Who the hell said you could call me that?!" Ichigo demanded, becoming steadily more ticked as the conversation went on.
"You don't like it?" Kinkajou sounded crestfallen. "Then how about fraise?"
"I don't even know what that means."
"Strawberry."
"No, you can't call me that either!"
"But why not?"
"Because it's stupid!"
Kinkajou let out a gusty, exasperated sigh. "Mon dieu, you're so boring! Not what I expected from you, Kurosaki. After hearing all those stories, I thought you'd be a character."
Her words were light, but they still sent a trill of surprise down Ichigo's spine. He jerked his gaze back to meet hers. "You know about me...?"
"Yep!" Kinkajou reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a black ribbon. She started tying up her hair as she went on, "I've heard a lot about you and Chad. You were a couple of delinquents from Mashiba Middle School. You'd knock out anyone who messed with you without even trying. And Chad, he's as tough as he is big, but he won't fight to defend himself - only others." She gave him a light grin. "You're pretty infamous, fraise."
Ichigo was still dumbfounded. "So you...?"
"I live out on the streets. My best friend and I both do. Can't you tell?" Kinkajou said breezily, tugging lightly at her shirt.
Ichigo's eyes widened. Now that he looked at her, he noticed that her clothes were rather dingy. As was she - her hair was a bit of a mess, and there was a scar along her left cheekbone made more evident by an accumulation of dirt and dust. Everything started to piece together: her avid interest in his high school, her knowledge of the gangs and punks of Karakura, and her apparent abundance of free time, time that could be spent sleeping away in a tree...
"Have you ever heard of the Alley Cat of Karakura?" Kinkajou asked suddenly.
"That's you?" exclaimed Ichigo. He'd heard stories about the beautiful but fearless girl that wasn't above killing those that made her angry, but he'd never seen her in person.
"Oui, c'est moi. I've got a name for myself too." Kinkajou smiled. "That's why I've always wanted to meet you."
"I can't really say the same. You always scared me just a bit."
"Vraiment?"
"I don't like having to hit girls."
Kinkajou's eyebrows met. "Seriously? You've got that stupid manly macho code too?"
"Yeah," Ichigo said testily. "What about it?"
"So if I was going to beat the living hell out of you... you would do anything about it just because I have boobs?"
"Essentially." Ichigo's face reddened.
Kinkajou studied him for a moment, then she laughed - it was a pretty sound. "You're such a prude! It's hilarious!"
Ichigo scowled. His blush strengthened. "Am not!"
"You are so. It's adorable."
"What're you even talking about?"
"Nothing at all, mon chaton."
"Would you stop doing that already?! You know I don't understand you!"
"Tu ne parles pas français? Le pauvre."
"Cut it out! Now you're doing it on purpose!"
"Je ne suis pas!"
Thus a friendship is born.
Karakura Town, Karakura Old Town
4:43 p.m.
4:43 p.m.
"So you live somewhere around here?" Ichigo asked.
"I wouldn't call it living, really, but yeah, I do stick around here," Kinkajou said dryly. "Fang stays with me too."
"Is he your brother or something?"
"Kinda. I've known him all my life. We just stick together out of mutual need, I guess."
Was it just Ichigo, or was her answer defensive?
"Mutual need?" he echoed.
"Fang's tougher than me. And he's two years older. But he'll never admit that he can't take care of himself anymore. He's only got one arm," Kinkajou added quietly.
Ichigo's eyes widened. "How did that happen?"
"It was about seven years ago. We hadn't been in the country long, just less than a year. A bunch of middle schoolers mugged us, pulled a knife on us. I guess it was because we were foreigners. Fang was eleven and I was nine, and I couldn't fight very well, so he protected me. One of them cut him really bad just below the shoulder. If the cut had been just a little farther down, it would have ripped open an artery, and he would have bled to death." Kinkajou's voice quavered slightly. "Eventually the wound got infected. I couldn't keep it clean."
"Why didn't you bring him to the clinic?" Ichigo asked. "Dad would've looked him over without charging you a penny."
Kinkajou shook her head. "I could barely speak Japanese. And I didn't know how to get anywhere. Fang got so sick, and I-" Her voice broke, and she paused to swallow painfully. "I cut his arm off with a pocketknife.
Ichigo felt a shudder run down his spine, but he didn't speak.
"I cauterized the wound afterwards, so it healed up okay. He didn't bleed out because I'm good with bindings." Kinkajou let out a harsh bark of laughter. "And yet I couldn't save his arm in the first place."
When she spoke of bindings, something scuttled in the back of Ichigo's mind, a beetle of thoughts, but it shot away before he could grab it. "But you've stuck together all this time," he commented in an attempt to change the subject. "That's pretty amazing."
"Oui, we're awesome!" Kinkajou grinned. It was then that she froze, a ghost of the smile still on her face.
Ichigo stopped too. "What's wrong?" he asked. She had frozen up like that only this morning, before the monster had attacked. Was it happening again?
No... This was different. Then, Kinkajou had been lifeless and spacey, as though her spirit had left her body vacant for a few fleeting moments. Now her eyes were clear and sharp and piercing, her entire frame as stiff as a board. Her gaze grew steadily wider as if every beat of her speeding heart was lifting her eyelids higher and higher.
She looked down the alley to their left. "Sorry, Ichigo, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She yelled the last words over her shoulder as she launched herself down the alleyway.
"Wh- Hey, wait!" Ichigo took off after her.
Even though Ichigo was taller and had longer legs, Kinkajou was fast, and she had had a head start. Ichigo thought he had lost her when he turned the corner and found her standing there, stiff-legged as though she had stopped running abruptly. Reflected in her wide eyes was the scene before her.
Several men were grouped around a limp and fallen figure, laughing and jeering and sneering as they mauled the person's body, coating the skin in cuts and bruises from their kicking and hitting. While Ichigo recognized certain members of the gang, the man being beaten was a stranger to him. The black hair and fair skin did not ring a bell. But something else did.
This man only had one arm.
French to English
Oui- Yes.
Chut- Hush!
Pardon- Excuse me.
Monstre- Monster.
Merde- Damn!
Non- No?
Mon dieu- My god!
C'est très incroyable- It's so amazing!
Je ne vois pas une école secondaire en japon- I've never seen a high school in Japan!
Vraiment- Really?
D'accord- Okay.
À tout à l'heure- See you in a few hours!
Amant- Lover.
Maman- Mama.
Très belle- Very beautiful.
Attends- Wait!
Fraise- Strawberry.
C'est moi- That's me.
Mon chaton- My kitten.
Tu ne parles pas français- You don't speak French?
Le pauvre- Poor thing.
Je ne suis pas- I am not!
Oui- Yes.
Chut- Hush!
Pardon- Excuse me.
Monstre- Monster.
Merde- Damn!
Non- No?
Mon dieu- My god!
C'est très incroyable- It's so amazing!
Je ne vois pas une école secondaire en japon- I've never seen a high school in Japan!
Vraiment- Really?
D'accord- Okay.
À tout à l'heure- See you in a few hours!
Amant- Lover.
Maman- Mama.
Très belle- Very beautiful.
Attends- Wait!
Fraise- Strawberry.
C'est moi- That's me.
Mon chaton- My kitten.
Tu ne parles pas français- You don't speak French?
Le pauvre- Poor thing.
Je ne suis pas- I am not!
Evil cliffhanger! ^.^ I'm going to explore Kinkajou's backstory just a bit, both in this chapter and the next. Also, there's a side story for this chapter, and it's a flashback to Ichigo's childhood, when he was about twelve. I hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading thus far~! <3