Game 3 - Chapter 3

Kukaku Shiba wrote:

As the approaching three drew closer, Kukaku looked at them all, one by one. The first one, seemingly the leader of their group, was obviously a student from the academy. Looking at the others, she noticed they all were students, though the girl farthest away seemed... different, yet familiar.
Turning her attention back to the first one, he was about six feet tall, he liked smiling, and it looked like intelligence shone in his eyes.
The next one, the other male student, was a little smaller, and didn't have as interesting of a reiatsu as the other two did. Still, this didn't make him seem uninteresting. It was the opposite: why would he be with two obviously more advanced students?
Finally, came the only female of the three. Yes, she was definitely familiar, her red hair was something Kukaku remembered, but the give away was her rack, although not the size of her own it was clearly a contender. This was--

"Hello! You two are really tall!"
Kukaku was broken from her thoughts as the first one was about twenty feet in front of her, looking straight up, and just shouted up to... the statues that sat on her house. Definitely removing the thought that intelligence shone in his eyes, she spoke out. "They are, aren't they? Too bad they're just statues." She emphasized the last word to really let the first guy know how stupid he just was, yet she almost doubted he would understand. Sighing, she turned to the girl who had just caught up to their 'leader'.
"Why, hello Orihime. What brings you back to visit me? If you need to be shot back into Seireitei, I could arrange for that tomorrow." She smiled devilishly, knowing Orihime didn't need to be shot into the city if she was wearing a student's outfit from the academy, but damn, it would be fun to shoot that cannon again.

"Oh! No, I'm fine, Miss Shiba!" Orihime smiled, bowing deeply to the lady. "We're just here to, um...," she trailed off.

"Um... Chiken-san? What did we come here for again?"

Mastuura was hightailing it the hell away, zooming past a very busty red-head and some pint size wearing...wearing...

....Oh...

...Oh... shit...

He fumbled around in his pockets, pulling out the 3 balls he had kept himself, lighting them and whipping them ahead of him. The burst into smoke upon hitting the ground. He feebly tried to cover his face with what remained of his robes, rushing into the cloud of smoke.

"All I did was pull a prank..why are they siccing a captain after me?!" He frantically looked around, trying to find something in the thick smoke, finding a door and getting inside. He did his best to mask his reiatsu, coughing slightly before resuming his dash, stumbling over desks as he went to the nearest window, peering out.

Why the hell did I go up a floor? I must be retarded....Oh wait, I had some crazy gay guy chasing me....maybe he just wanted to grab my junk....

He thought for a moment before slapping his head.

The one other gay guy here and I run away...goooooooood going Matsu...er wait, I can fantasize later!

He slid open the window, poking his head out and looking at the walls around.

Can't go down...bushes again..

He shuddered.

Can't go to the sides, nothing to grab onto... looks like I'm goin up. God I haven't done this in ages.

He manuevered his way out the window, shutting it behind him, as he started to climb up, expertly using small ledges from the woodwork to scale up the side of the building, sliding open the window in front of him and clambering into the room. He squinted, his eyes still burning from his little parade through the smoke.

Note to self...toss behind not in front...

He tip-toed his way to the door, peering out it, unmasking his reiatsue for a moment before scampering off to the far side of the class and slipping into the other classroom, deftly making his way over to the far side of this room and to the window, sliding it open.

"Here's hoping that worked..."

He started to make his way out the window.

Rangiku put her hand over her mouth, coughing and choking, waiting for the smoke to clear.

"Where did he...," she squinted. Down the hall, Zetsumei just happened to be staying late to practice swordplay.

"There he is!" Rangiku yelled, spotting his green hair.

She, Toushiro, and Yumichika turned and ran toward the bewildered student.

Chiken was still staring at the statues, dumbfounded. The thoughts whirling through the empty space called his head are basically summarized by this loop (for that is exactly what it was, he was stuck in an infinite loop): 'What was it the lady called them? "Sta-choos"? Does that mean giant? I mean wow, they're really big! I wonder how they got so big! Did they eat so much they became so tall? I bet they're always hungry, like me! Man, now I really wish I had more food. I wonder if Orihime or the lady has some food, I really am hungry... Hey, wait! I'll ask those guys! What was it the lady called them? "Sta-choos"?...'

"Um... Chiken-san? What did we come here for again?"

"Huh? Wha?" Orihime's question broke Chiken free from his thought loop, but he didn't understand what she had asked, at first. What did they come here for? Wasn't it to stare at the 'Sta-choos'? No, that wasn't it. Were they looking for something? 'That sounds right,' Chiken thought, 'wasn't it... lunch? Oh, I really could go for some lunch now, that must be what we were searching for!' Chiken instantly put his hands into his robe pockets to search for food, but came up with some paper and round, metal coins. 'Oh? What is this? Why do I have these things? Hmm... who was it that gave me these things?' Chiken asked himself mentally as he idly scratched his head. Pulling off a record two moments of clarity since a week ago, Chiken remembered being handed 'money' (as the guy called it) by a new friend... Matsuura? 'Yeah,' Chiken nodded to his thoughts, 'that was him name. He said... he said...' Chiken struggled getting the memory to form, unable to hear or see clearly when the memory had finally came to him.
"...to buy... buy... Fireworks!" Chiken exclaimed that loudly, instantly smiling extremely wide, proud of himself for remembering it. He still had no clue what they were still, but he looked around smiling at everyone anyways.

As he was looking around, he noticed the 'Sta-choos' again, and smiled at them especially. Surprisingly, he remembered some of the questions he had thought about before and, without breaking the smile, he yelled up to them once again. "Hey, Mr. Sta-Choos! How did you get so big? Did you eat a lot because I eat a lot but I don't get taller and I want to be as big as you are!"

"Thank you, ma'am," Keitaro said, bowing deeply. "Wow, is it true you're a survivor of the Shiba family? I heard they got wiped out a--" Keitaro turned red and stopped, realizing he'd said something he probably shouldn't have.

In mere minutes after entering the bar Naomi was already drunk. She walked towards her friends. “Hey guys, this is my new boyfriend Fred.”. Naomi was holding up a smelly guy who appeared to have past out. Mud coated the mans body. His hair was half slicked back with grease and there was a aroma of stale beer fuming from him. Naomi looked at the motionless corpses. “He’s not a big talker” said Naomi dropping the body on the floor as she walked away.

A couple minutes later Naomi got off the bar stool and walked over to here friends with a man on each arm. “Hey guys, this is Ass Ketchup and Brock... Noeyes”. Naomi let out a chuckle.” I call him that because it looks like he has no eyes”. Naomi broke out into laughter at her own joke. The boy with the red pokemon hat looked at Naomi.”Actually my name is Ash Ketchum and I should be going my uh, ... I just have to go.” Naomi’s smile turned from a smile to a menacing glare. “Your not going anywhere until I say, ok?” Naomi then put Ash in a headlock making sure he would not run. Brock then ran away.



Can anyone say lawsuit?

( or Lawlsuit )

Kasahara entered the bar and the first thing she saw was Naomi holding up a passed out drunkard. She declared him as her boyfriend and the tall brunette wasn't sure if the blue haired girl was drunk or just being her naturally wild self. As Kasahara was about to say something, Naomi dropped the drunkard like a rock. Fortunately for them, it didn't wake Fred up.

"Uh. Naomi?" The tomboy started to say while propping up the passed out drunk against the wall comfortably. She couldn't say anything further though; as soon as she turned around Naomi returned with two men attached to each of her arms. Both were wearing strange attire for being in the soul society but Kasahara didn't question their appearance. Naomi introduced them as Ass Ketchup and Brock Noeyes but, by looking at their expression on their faces, they were called something else. Ash, who corrected his name for Naomi, tried to weasel out of Naomi's grip but the blue haired was unwilling to let him go.

Brock managed to get away but Ash was still held captive. Kasahara smoothly moved towards Naomi with a fake grin upon her face and put on an act; it wasn't like Naomi was sober enough to tell the difference anyways, right? "Naaaomi~! Share the wealth why don'tcha?" She gave Naomi a hard slap on the back, enough to loosen her grip on the poor boy. "Can't hog Ass Ketchup all to yourself, now can you?"

She linked arms with Ash and pulled him away from Noami, trying to act friendly with him. "We're just gonna step outside and get to know each other privately, kay?"

With that said, Kasahara pulled Ash out of the bar and finally let go of him. Once her Noami was no where in sight, she put her hands on both his shoulders and warned him in a low voice. "Run. Run FAR away." The poor boy did just that and darted off in Brock's direction. The tomboy went back into the bar and back to Naomi's side. "Ash said he had to go home and see his mom. What a nice guy."

Sarah Yadoumaru wrote:

"Sachi-chan!" Sarah whined, racing up to the other girl as she stepped out from the dressing room. "I can't find Byouko anywhere! I've been looking all over for her and I don't see her in the store and that dress looks sooo cute on you!"

Byouko had every intention of ignoring the glasses girl's whining. It was nice and comfortable and dark underneath the enormous pile of dresses, and Byouko still had a good two hundred pages left to go (two hundred and seventeen, her mind calculated unwillingly).

Sarah Yadoumaru wrote:

"And I'm afraid she might have run away or gone chasing some mice..."

Her efforts to tune Sarah out faltered a touch at the cat comparison, and Byouko bit her lip as the disgust shivered down her spine and she tried to ignore it. Her hand reflexively tightened around her pen light.

Crack!

The light went out. Oh, now isn't that just perfect. One cat comment and I break my favourite pen light. Byouko glared daggers through the wall of clothing at the sound of Sarah's voice, then sighed, defeated. She closed her book and stood up, the dresses falling away as she rose like a monster from a swamp of silk and satin.

Sarah Yadoumaru wrote:

"...or gotten kidnapped and it's aaall my faaaault!" Tears began pouring from her eyes in exaggerated waterfalls.

"I'm... right here," Byouko said quietly. She looked down at the pile of clothes and grabbed one dress at random, a black one. "I guess I'll try this one on," she shrugged her shoulders, sauntering into the nearest changing booth.

After Orihime bowed to her, Kukaku gave a light snort. She wasn't one for formalities like that, especially from someone she could trust like Orihime. When Orihime asked the traveling partner of hers named 'Chiken' ('What the hell kind of name is that?'Kukaku wondered secretly) what they came here for, Kukaku turned to the youngest male student, expecting him to be the one named Chiken. The other one just seemed too... oblivious to remember something like that. Of course, it was just her luck that it was the smiling buffoon that was named Chiken, not the younger student. The second she realized which was Chiken, she grimaced some and thought, 'Oh boy, here we go. Now we'll be here all day...'

Thankfully, Kukaku was still leaning up against her house in the shade so she could close her eyes while she waited. She sensed her brother approach and wait at her side, staring at the travelers. A few seconds after Ganju stopped next to her, the slowpoke finally started talking.
"..to buy... buy... Fireworks!"
"Finally, took him long enough." She muttered under her breath before his words really sunk in. 'Wow, to take that long to remember some... wait... fireworks?' A grin nearly as wide as Chiken's spread across her own face. "Well, you came to the right person, Kukaku Shiba: best fireworks master in all of Soul Society! I'll get you the best of my stock, and no charge because we're good friends! Well... maybe not, but I'll give you a discount." She smiled, stood up straight, and was walking with Ganju in front of herself to the door when the last of the three travelers spoke out.
"Thank you, ma'am. Wow, is it true you're a survivor of the Shiba family? I heard they got wiped out a--"

Kukaku stopped dead in her tracks. She turned slowly towards the last kid and stared for a half of a second, while Ganju instantly lost his temper and almost tackled the kid to the ground, the only thing holding him back has Kukaku grabbing his collar and quickly yanking it to the right, sending Ganju off-balance and crashing to the empty ground. Then, the next thing Keitaro knew, she was standing right in front of him, and glaring something fierce. "That," She growled, her temper hardly in control, "is none of your business." Although she came to terms with the most recent thing, her brother's killer and forgave her and everything, that was a very sore subject for her and hearing some random little shit talking about it like that pissed her and Ganju off to no end.
Kukaku barely had a better hold on her temper, and would've let Ganju maul the kid if they weren't friends and customers... but unfortunately they were. Grabbing Ganju and making sure he was going down the stairs first so he couldn't attack the kid (as much satisfaction as it would've brought her...), Kukaku barely growled out "Follow me." before setting off down into her house.

Naomi was in a daze and did not even realize Ass Ketchup was pulled away then released. About 5 minutes after Ass left Naomi did realize. Her lip then formed the shape of a puppy pout. “I don’t think he liked me very much” said Naomi but it was interrupted half way through by a hiccup. “Oh well there’s more men out there then that silly boy. Besides he kept going on about how he wanted to be a digimon master or something. Kind of geekish if you ask me.” Naomi gracefully and joyfully tried to skip over to the counter but tripped over a pretty blonde boy. “Who is he?” Naomi whispered to Fred who was past out comfortably on a cement wall. Fred did not reply. “Fine be stuck up” Naomi said giving a slight slap across his face. Naomi stood up and looked at The blonde boy. “You are Iga’s friend right?” Naomi then pressed her body against Satoko. Naomi grabbed Satoko’s hand and placed it on her breast. Naomi then whispered in his ear quite loudly. “Ass ran from me when I did this. Can I ask you a question, is there something wrong with my boobs?” Naomi then looked over to Kassie and mouthed the words “This ones a keeper.”

Kasahara held her hands up, ready to catch Naomi as she skipped about. Unfortunately, the tall brunette wasn't fast enough to save the blue haired girl from the fall. She cringed a little as she heard the thud and then moved over to where she crawled, which was next to the passed out drunk she was carrying around earlier. Something was said between the two but Kasahara didn't get to hear a word of it; the next thing she knew, there was the sound of a slap that echoed across the room. If "Fred" didn't feel that sting now, he'll be feeling it tomorrow.

The tomboy crouched down and tried to sit "Fred" upright after Naomi slapped him down. When she turned around, she found her little blue haired friend pushing herself against Takeshi and holding down his hand over her breast. Nothing happened. Not immediately, at least.

Kasahara didn't move until Naomi mouthed something to her, which she was too distracted to figure out. The tall girl stood up and watch Takeshi with a blank expression on her face. There was no anger or embarrassment. She just kept her eye on him for any expression on his face and listened closely to any words he may utter. There was a feeling of anticipation as to how the blond boy would react that was suffocating her.

Unfortunately, after comign in for only a moment, Takeshi lost sight of everything. The change in scenario blinded him, the sudden onslaught of what he saw, Takeshi was quickly taken aback by the fact that not only was there people here, there was a lot people. And noise. It didn't sound like anything distinguishable, just like a roar in the background of everything he could make out. People were acting eratically, chaos was occuring all around him, and Takeshi was blinding stumbling through it all, his mind coming into contact with something he hadn't remebered for a while- the fact that he hates being around people. It had taken him all his years in the Academy to become even remotely comfortable around people, and it wasn't until this year he actually spent time with people aside from avoiding them and spending his time alone. Up until two minutes ago, Takeshi hadn't even been aware establishments like this existed, he'd always stolen liquor off of people on the street and avoided noisy places like this when he'd lived in the streets. Now, however, Takeshi was more uncomfortable than he could remember being his entire after-life.

Takeshi staggered through the crowd of people after the others who had scampered away, he attempted to find them but was disoriented by the scent of liquor, the sound of people's antics, and the terrifying storm of people moving around each other, flailing, making exaggerated hand gestures, and a good chunk of the noise-producing baboons were necking. Become uncomfrotable, intimidated, and more and more compelled to run, Takeshi found that he couldn't find anyone he knew, he could barely navigate. Now adding frustration to his list of negative emotions, Takeshi decided to have a drink in an attempt to calm himself down, and so he sat at the bar and ordered... something, he wasn't completely sure what. When it arrived, Takeshi just downed it, barely taking the time to taste it before ordering a second shot, which he downed, than a third.
Then a fourth
Followed by a fifth.
And a sixth.
And around here Takeshi stopped drinking to glance around the room again and again lookign for his friends, not seeign them at first he turned to go back to his liquor when a less than welcome woman through her arms aroudn him and leaned in close, making it easy for Takeshi to smell the alcohol on her breath. "Oh THERE YOoooOoooOOou WHERE" her voice was slured and she likely had mistaken him for someone else- oh look she was kissing him- she'd definately mistaken him for someone else.

Takeshi's eyes widened as she started macking on him, inconvientely covering his mouth when he wanted to take another drink. Takeshi wasn't completely sure what she was doing, but he wasn't really into it, he'd much rather just find his friends and get out of here before the noise drove him mad. Or the mad people drove him mad. His eyes looked around the room for someone he knew, or atleast someone who didn't have more alcohol in their system than red blood cells. About to give out another sigh, he felt the action stopped, and remembered that some woman was rather passionately kissing him, and he was rather unpasionately uninterested. Giving his eyes a roll he shoved her off of him, evidently with a little too much force because she tumbled over the countertop and landed on the barkeep's side. He spat twice, trying to remove the taste of that woman's dinner- or last three dinners maybe, she had bad breath- and than got up and removed himself from the situation.

Scanning the area once more, he sighed again, but didn't go back to drinking, instead deciding to worm his way over to the exit so he could loom around it for a while before that woman got up and started yelling at him. He also intended to give a look for everyone else on his way there, given being alone in a bar wasn't how he wanted to spend this evening.

Takeshi watched as Igarashi was dragged away, and saw the pleading look on his face, and as such followed after him, paying a surprisingly little attention to Kasahara. Although, being alone for at least another minute would have been favourable, given the next person who talked to him was a baguely familiar blue-haired girl who induced an apparently inexplicable feeling of guilt. She said something about an ass and breasts but Takeshi wasn't really listening, he was giving another look around for one of his friends, not seeing any until his eyes finally landed on Kassahara, and his hand simultaneously landed on something squishy. And rather soft, and slight arousing; but still uniteresting to him, he'd rather go and join Kasahara and then find Igarashi and her friends- wait that's who the blue-haired girl was! He looked down to the girl who was causing him to involuntarily grope her, and realize she was Kasahara's blue haired friend and ... something was amiss in his pants. Shaking that feeling off, he needed to shake the other thing he was feeling off- the blue haired girl, but that wouldn't be too hard. Takeshi gave his eyes a roll as he removed his hand from her breast and backed away. He directed his voice at Kasahara, and it was apallingly obvious utterly dumbfounded he was the night's going ons that a walrus would have been able to understand that he needed some help here. And Takeshi even asked for some help, in a very indirect way, but it was shown in his eyes and voice.
"... Is Blue-haired one okay?"

Chiken was staring at the 'Sta-choos', still waiting for a response when he heard a loud thud and heard someone land on the ground right next to him. Hard. Looking down, he saw a new person there, the one that had been standing next to the one-armed lady. Chiken stared at the guy on the ground for a few seconds, wondering who he was, why he fell, and if he wanted to be Chiken's friend too. Before Chiken could open his mouth to ask however, the other man was yanked up off the ground by the one-armed lady and shoved through the front door. She turned to them and said to follow before heading after the other guy through the door and down the stairs. Orihime and Keitaro followed right away, but Chiken stayed behind to yell up to the statues again. "Hey Mr. Sta-choos! We're going inside now! Don't squish the house on us please!" That said, Chiken stepped inside.

Right away was a small room, then a staircase downwards with a handrail the whole way down in the middle. Chiken looked as far down as he could see, but didn't see anyone. He sensed them at the bottom though, so without a second thought (as usual), Chiken sat on the handrail and zipped down, all the way to the bottom.

It turns out, the robes the students wear are made of just the right material to make sliding down a banister a very high speed ride. Without brakes. One moment Chiken was whooshing down the rail, the next moment it ended and he kept going. With quite the loud crash, Chiken met the ground and tumbled a few times before crashing into a wall. Without any sound he turned over, laid on his back, and wondered why everything was now spinning so much.

"Grah! Just my goddamn luck..."

Matsuura flailed a bit again before giving up. Currently he was hanging upside down, half naked just below a window on the third floor of the Academy.

"Maybe if I..." He tried to twist himself around, "No no maybe if I...Unrggggggghhhhhhh" He struggled to pull himself back up the tatters of his robes, only to slip and fall, slamming into the wall face first.

"Well...hmmph...this...seems to be quite the..urgh...pickle...I've... nnnngh....found myself in!" Matsuura chuckled to himself before submitting to a flurry of rage, thrashing and squirming around. He looked down at his Zanpakutou resting on the ground. "Why'd you have to fall?!?!" He shouted at it, thrashing yet again.

Riiiiiiiiiiip.

Matsuura froze, slowly looking up.

"Oh..oh no no no, not now...please not-"

RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

He flailed as he fell, twisting in midair and landing roughly for the most part in a three point stance. He angrily snatched his Zanpakutou off the ground as he stood up, dusting himself off while he started to storm off.

"Try to help next time jackass." He muttered angrily, quickly making his way to the dormitories. "Waaaahhhhhhoooooooooop!"

Splash!

In his rage he wasn't paying attention and ended up face first in one of the many koi ponds on the school grounds. He floundered for a bit before dragging himself out, laying on the grass and wiping a mat of his silve-....

He quickly scrambled to a sitting position running his hands through his hair, paint coming off with them. A satisfactory grin crossed his face, as he pulled the gunk out of his hair, shaking his head.

"Heh heh heh....excellent..."

He got to his feet and resumed his way to the dormitories for a fresh change of clothes, making sure to not fall into any more of the ponds.

Just as she reacted to Noami's actions towards Takeshi, the blond boy had done the same. It looked as though he was neither embarrassed nor angry at the blue haired girl for coming onto him. He just backed away and looked towards Kasahara, giving her a pleading look as though he was asking her for help. It made her feel a little happy to know that he relies on her for something. The brunette stepped towards the two just as Takeshi spoke out to her. "... Is Blue-haired one okay?"

There was the stench of alcohol on his breath. The tomboy didn't realize that he had been drinking until now; his behavior had been fairly normal despite consuming alcohol. Kasahara assumed that he hadn't had much to drink or had a high tolerance for the substance and believed that his judgment hasn't been impaired yet.

"Naomi? She's had a bit too much to drink." Obviously.

How will she get Naomi her to cease her advances on the blond boy? Kasahara wasn't even sure if her company was unwanted by him. By the bewildered look upon his face, she felt as though he needed saving from her playful, yet lustful, demeanor. Without thinking things through, she slid her arm between Takeshi's arm and side, linking arms with him. There was a flash of embarrassment on her face as the brunette gave him a glance before returning her attention to the drunken Naomi. "Psst, Naomi~" She said in a faux playful voice again. "You remember Takeshi, right? Fell-outta-the-tree-guy from the first day of class? I think he's off limits."

Inwardly, she grinned humorously as she remembered the incident fondly. Though Kasahara meant for Naomi to understand that he shouldn't be played with, she couldn't give up on the opportunity to teasingly say such things while he was next to her. She had hoped that it stirred some kind of reaction out of the normally quiet boy. Looking up at Takeshi again, she gave him one of those mischievous grins that she use to give him long ago, hinting that she was only teasing.

"No matches? Aw, you're no fun." Rumiko quickly patted herself down to see if she had anything on her that she could use to light the balls in her pocket, but, alas, she did not. Maybe she'd light them later. Matsu couldn't get too mad at her for waiting, especially since she was in the middle of the auditorium, the one where the Headmaster was currently. No, she'd get a match later on.

She continued unstacking chairs, placing them around the edges of the room with Ryouichi. After she'd unloaded a few more chairs, she glanced over at him and said, "You know it's not an exhibition match as well as I do. There are plenty of people in 3B that are pinning their careers on this first match, much as I'm sure the first match against one of your classmates will be a setback or a leap forward for your future."

Your future does not always hinge on the battles fought on the battlefield.

Unsmiling, she continued unstacking chairs, moving away from the window as she did so. She looked around the auditorium and the work that the other students were doing. It looked like the place had vomited up primary and secondary colors in streamer form. For the life of her, she could not remember why she had considered signing up to run for Class Representative had ever seemed appealing to her. Not if it meant that she had to contribute to this...this mess of gigantic proportions.

Not looking forward to this dance. Not even a little bit.

The walk down the stairs was dark and silent. The quiet soothed the angers of Kukaku and Ganju, and they both focused on one thing: watching the idiot of the travelers to make sure he doesn't touch anything. Once they reached the bottom room (which was roughly the same size as the room at the top of the stairs), all it took was one look at each other to decide it: Kukaku would lead them through and pick out the fireworks they wanted while Ganju does idiot watch. They silently agreed on this action and turned to the travelers.
"Alright so," Kukaku started, "I'll lead you back to the storage room where-- uhh..." She stopped however, when she did a head count. 'Oh great, the stupid one is already missing.' This thought vexing Kukaku's patience, she sighed. "Alright, where did--" Once again she stopped, but only because it was at that moment Chiken went soaring off the handrail, tumbled a little, then crashed into the wall with a loud thud, drawing the other's attentions. Both Ganju's and Kukaku's mouths hung open at the sight before the former burst out laughing and the latter still in shock that someone actually just did that.

Once Kukaku's composure and the idiot's senses were regained, Kukaku continued her speech. "Well, now that we're all finally here, I can continue. I'll be taking you to the storage room, and you'll wait there while I fetch some good stuff for you, then you can be on your way. Oh, and the most important thing: try not to break anything, but more specifically," Here she pointed to Chiken. "You do not touch anything, got it?" She waited for him to respond and was ready to beat it into his head if she had to, but he smiled at her so she assumed he understood something at least.

Turning back around, she led the group through a few hallways and doors before stopping outside the storage door, marked with a sign saying 'Firework Storage. Do not do anything stupid in here.'. Pulling the door open, she ushered them all into to the large room. It had all sorts of tables set out, and those were buried in all sorts of fireworks. She smiled at them and stood in the center of the room. "Well, here you go. These are all of the generic fireworks that I sell to the vendors. Of course, I guarantee you didn't come here for these, right? You want the only-slightly-illegal* Kukaku Special I assume." Her assumption was met with a blank stare from both Inoue and the idiot, while the last boy was still trying to avoid her gaze. Sighing, she shrugged. "I'll take that as a yes. Stay here while I go into my special lab to fix you up one." She started towards the other door out of the storage, then suddenly stopped and pointed at Chiken. "And remember, no touching." That said, she left Ganju to babysit while she prepares the fireworks show of those student's afterlives.

*-The Kukaku Special is a mix of extremely explosive proportions. Kukaku, tired of fireworks not having enough bang, whipped this up one day and set it off for a party in one of the random villages dotting Soul Society. Once the massive blaze was put out, she wasn't allowed back to the village and the Kukaku Special was banned from every event involving fireworks. Of course, being banned brings all sorts of new buyers and she has since learned how to maximize chances of an awesome show and minimize chances of causing fires and/or just plain exploding.

Sachi had seriously had been considering fetching her sword from her pile of school clothing and start tearing apart the shopping district for three reasons. 1) Byouko really could have been kidnapped. She did have cat ears after all, and people had wierd fetishes these days. 2) Sarah look like she was about to pass out from hyperventalatin' 3) Pulling the shopping district apart by it's finely stitched seams, would have satisfied a nagging urge to destroy something in retaliation for fate the deja vu all the fancy item were bringing on. Not to mention it would have been fun.

It wasn't to be though. For Byouko quickly emerged from a particulairly large mountain of dresses, and shuffled off with a black one, ending Sachi plan rather anti-climatically.

With a sigh Sachi sat down on a rack of skirts. Dispite the fact that her new outfit lacked pockets, she had someone managed to produce a ciggerette and a match. If she was going to sit around and wait, she may as well have something to occupy her, she justisfied striking the match against the leather of one particularly macho looking skirt. She watched the smoke from the ciggertte curl up towards the cieling breaking at least four different heath codes on it's way there.

"So.." she said idlely, glancing at Sarah, "Are you ready for your fight tomorrow"

Takeshi smiled as Kasahara linked arms with him, amused by both the sentiment and the flash of embarassment on her face. "Psst, Naomi~" She said in a faux playful voice. "You remember Takeshi, right? Fell-outta-the-tree-guy from the first day of class? I think he's off limits." His eyebrows arching upwards and a puzzled look on his momentarily before the incident came rushing back to him, and he remembered what Kasahara was talking about. He smiled as he thought back, he hadn't spent a lot of time with Kasahara over the last while, not a lot of time at all. But alas, now was not the time to think of the past, he should enjoy her time with her now.

He looked down at her and the grin on her face, that same grin he'd seen her give him before, and he couldn't help his eyes from glazing over a bit in a cheesy romantic kind of way before emitting an honest laugh, shaking the glaze away. Takeshi didn't laugh all to often, which was a shame because in all honesty he had a rather nice laugh. Still in a good mood, Takeshi opened his mouth to speak, but found that he was slightly flustered. His heart was also tingling and feeling funny, and it felt as though someone had tied a not in his stomach. This was not a pleasant feeling, and Takeshi had no idea how or why it had come about.
"I... uh... Yeah, she's right. Ever since than I tend to bite." Takeshi queezed out a hopefully comical response, not a retort in anyway, but immediately felt he needed soemthign to relax himself; the noise of this place was getting to him.

"It's... really loud here" Takeshi pointed out the obvious, clearly uncomfortable with the noise and being in the middle of the crowd, he needed to relax. "So... um... want a drink?" Takeshi asked nervously. He really needed a drink right then. Maybe five.

Once Chiken got back up and wasn't dazed anymore (well, he was as dazed as usual that is), he tried paying attention to the one-armed lady's new speech. It went as well as her other speeches, Chiken managed a few seconds before he once again thought about the giant 'Sta-choos' on top of the house, which lead to far too many other places that trying to relay them to you here would take far too much time to write. When Kukaku pointed at Chiken though, he noticed that at least, and smiled at her. Once again, everything she just said specifically to Chiken fell on dead ears, and once again she did not notice.

Chiken mindlessly followed Kukaku and the others down to the storage room, and they were ushered inside. In the room were all sorts of different tubes and rockets, with signs in front of each like group. As Kukaku gave another speech, Chiken was busy reading some of the signs. 'Bottle rockets' said one sign near some small rockets on sticks, 'Big explosions' was the next sign which was in front of some very large tubes. Chiken reached out to touch one when his hand was slapped away by his newest new friend. "She said don't touch anything." The new friend promptly spun Chiken about and thrust him to the center of the room, where there was nothing to touch.

Almost instantly, a crash was heard as a table leg collapsed and the other gave out, rolling some tubes across the floor. Keitaro stood above the wreckage and started apologizing instantly, but Ganju merely shrugged. "Eh, it's a bad table, it falls often." Quickly, the two set about to picking up the mess, while Chiken noticed the door Kukaku went through for the first time. Curious, he ignored the 'Kukaku only, STAY OUT!' sign on the door by opening it and walking inside.

The place was extremely white and clean, bright too. Chiken had to blink a few times for his eyes to adjust to the light change. He looked about the room, turning his head to the left and right, finally spotting a table in the corner that caught his limited attention span.

On top of the table were what seemed like a dozen or so nondescript nylon sacks, not that Chiken knew what nylon was or anything. But the sheen and texture appealed to him. He picked one up, anything else in the bright room fading into the background of Chiken's mind. Chiken squeezed the sack lightly a few times, curious. There seemed to be something inside, something round and squishy. Finding the squeezing to be fun, he squeezed it a few more times, and harder too. On the third squeeze, it popped and a strange, white gas floated out from the top. Intrigued, Chiken sniffed the gas a little, but it had no scent. Finding it weird, Chiken set down the sack and reached for another, but missed. Chiken stared at the second sack he just tried to grab and missed again, only this time he saw his hand pass right through it. He reached a few more times, not understanding why he couldn't grab it, when he was suddenly yanked back by his collar and quickly thrust back into the other room.

He landed hard on the floor and looked back at whatever just threw him. It was a very unhappy Kukaku and Chiken instantly smiled at her, then wondered, 'Has her face always been that red?' After that, he noticed something else, 'And has she always had five arms?'

It was good to see Takeshi smile again. There seemed to be a cozy feeling between Kasahara and the blond, though she reasoned to herself that his good mood was a side effect of the alcohol he consumed. She learned not to dwell on her feelings for too long. "I... uh... Yeah, she's right. Ever since than I tend to bite." Takeshi responded with a little bit of humor in his voice. It wasn't rewarded with a chuckle out of the tall brunette but she kept the grin on her face to be polite. She took this time to remove her arm away from Takeshi's as he started tensing up and appeared uncomfortable. Kasahara couldn't understand the sudden change. "It's... really loud here. So... um... want a drink?"

The tomboy didn't want to decline the invitation to keep the tall blond company but she didn't really want to consume any alcohol. She was planning to be the most sober one among her friends. After all, Naomi was heavily intoxicated and would need help getting back to her dorm later on in the night. Kasahara eyed Takeshi for a short moment, trying to determine how drunk he was and how much more he can able to take before he becomes belligerent as well. It looked as though he was fine right now, but Kasahara was already preparing herself to look after him when the night comes to a close.

She gave a curt response with a look of suspicion. "Sure." Her leers didn't last long; Kasahara casually lead Takeshi through the crowd to the bar, holding onto his wrist. If he wanted alcohol to become comfortable in this atmosphere, the brunette wanted to help. What kind of drinker would Takeshi be anyways? With little alcoholic experiences, she could only think of a few types of liquors and mixes. Kasahara ruled out that the blond would favor bourbon or tequila; one was for the more aged and mature audiences and the other was a inexpensive way to get in a drunken stupor quickly. Vodka was a liquor for all audiences and occasions, in her opinion, and therefore seemed to be a good choice. She let go of his wrist and waved to the bartender to get his attention. "A vodka tonic for my friend and a screwdriver without the spike for me."

The bartender turns his attention away from the two students to mix their drinks and returned with two glasses. He placed the vodka with tonic water concoction in front of the blond and a glass of plain orange juice in front of the brunette. Kasahara picked up her drink and held it up towards Takeshi. "This ones on me."

Kukaku thought she drilled into the idiot's skull to not touch anything, and she also thought that Ganju would make sure he didn't, but as she glared down at the dumbass she just threw onto the floor, she realized that her thoughts had not been idiot proofed enough. She looked over to see Ganju still bent over, picking up the last stray tube. "Ganju," Was all she had to say in that extremely icy tone to get him to stiffen, drop all the fireworks he had picked up, and turn slowly to his sister, praying that it wasn't what he though it was. Unfortunately, it was: she caught that idiot Chiken where he shouldn't've been, and now Ganju was about to pay the price. Getting ready to feign unconsciousness after one kick, Ganju slowly approached his sister.

However, Kukaku saw the fireworks and table on the floor and pieced two and two together. She let out a sigh, gave Ganju a look, and spoke, "It's ready, I need your help sealing it." She then turned to Orihime. "Orihime, find some way to let the dense kid know that if he touches anything, I chop his fingers off." Uncaring that she just said that to her customers, Kukaku and Ganju went back into Kukaku's mixing room.

Once they came back out, they had the Kukaku Special all ready to go. It was a series of many tubes* and one long wick wrapping the whole thing up. Kukaku smiled the whole time once she had brought it out, and carried that smile while she explained it. "Alright, here it is. Simply plop it onto the ground with the largest tube facing straight up and absolutely nothing blocking any tube's access to the sky, uncoil the wick a considerable distance, light and run." She almost added 'so easy, this idiot could do it!', but then realized that he probably couldn't. Scratch that, definitely couldn't. She handed the giant apparatus to the other boy, trusting him to be the most level-headed of the three and also the pack mule. He opened his mouth to say something about roman candles, but Kukaku misinterpreted it. "No no, this is something much better than a roman candle, trust me." She turned to the door they entered in and opened it. "Now come on, I want to let your bumbling idiot have as little time as possible in here." She turned back to see the 'bumbling idiot' still on his back from when she shoved him down before. He was... talking to himself and tracing shapes in the air with his finger. Now thoroughly weirded out, Kukaku once again yanked him up and personally led him to the stairs by holding the front of his uniform and practically dragging him there. Man, was she excited to almost have him out of her hair.

"Um..." The dressing room door opened and Byouko stepped out. "I'm, uh... dressed." Her bare feet slipped across the carpeted floor as she shuffled in front of Sarah and Sachi.

"Is it, um...," Byouko's face was turning red. She looked different, very different. Gone were Shinigami trainee uniform and the khaki scarf that she always wore, and in its place was a beautiful black dress that suited the young girl very well.

The dress was plain and simple, for the most part, though it shimmered like black satin under the store's overhead lights. It went almost all the way down to the floor, stopping just above Byouko's feet, and the colour complemented the indigo tones of her dark hair and eyes. It clung tightly to the curves of her body, yet was loose enough in the lower legs to allow reasonable freedom of movement.

The sleeves were sheer, almost not there at all, revealing her slender arms and shoulders. They hung loosely, draping down over her wrists. All in all, the whole outfit was lighter in weight than Byouko was used to, making her feel a little like she had to check every once in a while to make sure nothing was showing that shouldn't be. It didn't help how low-cut the dress was, showing off more cleavage than Byouko would have liked. She yanked her bodice up to her collarbone from time to time, turning a little more red.

Surprisingly enough, though, the dress wasn't that uncomfortable. And even someone like Byouko who was fashion-unconscious almost to the point of fashion-coma could tell that she looked very, very pretty wearing it. Still, though...

Byouko trained her eyes on her companions' feet, her ears twitching a bit, wringing her hands in front of her. "Is, um, so... uh, can I, uh... take this off now?"

(Nothing like fear to inspire creativity. )

Rikiki had made a discovery.

After finding Naomi, Rikiki got to exploring the place, still dragging Igarashi in tow. Finding the service area, Rikiki had spent a good few mintes staring in awe at the menu abve the counter. It was huge, with more beverages on it than one could possibly drink in ones deathtime (although some of customers appeared to be trying very hard), and most of which Rikiki didn't recognize.

Pulling herself and Igarashi up to the counter, she picked something at random. "Whiskey," it was called. She ordered two. Upon receiving it, Rikiki turned back to Igarashi, passing him one. "Cheers!" she said, indeed sounding cheerful, and took a gulp.

And spit it back out violently, onto Igarashi's front.

Rikiki had discovered something. This booze stuff was disgusting.

Igarashi's time inside the bar so far had been... Confusing. At least, thet seemed to be the word that fit more closely to what Igarashi had felt since he entered, being dragged around all over the place like a rag doll by RIkiki wasn't exactly his idea of fun. But then again, she hadn't gotten the disastrous Idea to actually sit down and do what people did in bars... Drink.

Sadly for Igarashi, that's what eventually happened. Before he knew it, he was in the counter facing Rikiki... And she was having a drink.... worse still, she was giving him one. Igarashi had glared to the little glass, as if it was bitter poison. Igarashi then pondered how exactly he was going to get out of that predicament. Rejecting the drink would probably feel like an insult to Rikiki, and he didn't want that... But drinking it... It would be even worse. No, Igarashi had no idea how he was gonna get away from this safely, much less when Rikiki said "Cheers".

And then she spit back her whole drink right onto his face.

For a second, it seemed as if Igarashi had frozen completely, eyes and mouth closed as a reflex. That whole second was the time Igarashi needed to process what just had happened... He had alcohol and saliva all sprayed on his face... Near his eyes, his nose... and soon it would probably start to enter trough his nostrils and sip trough his lips...

...

"PFFT! AH!! FUCK! FFFTH NO!!" As if the frozen statue had just exploded on life, Igarashi was on the next second standing up, walking erratically and passing both of his hands trough his face and screaming and spitting like a madman trying to get the liquid off. He couldn't let it get into his system, no matter what. And Igarashi's complete mind and body were now frantically trying to stop that from happening. Twitching, flailing and twisting like a fish that had just gotten out of the water, he was sure he had passed his hand trough his face at least a hundred times now, but he could still feel it... That smell... That dreadful smell. He had to clean it off. NOW.

Using his hand to grab the first thing that could barely resemble cloth around him. He clutched something, not really caring what it was, he dug his face right trough it. Smearing the remaining liquid on his face completely by frantically rubbing his face at the piece of cloth. It was done, he had made it. He had managed to get the alcohol away from his face before it could affect him in any way.

"Wot teh fuck's yer problem?"

Grinning like a man that had just survived his greatest threat, Igarashi turned his face away from the cloth he had used to clean his eyes with, and opened his eyes to see that the piece of cloth he had grabbed... Was actually part of the robe of an evidently drunk, and obviously disgruntled man that was now looking at Igarashi in a rather ugly fashion. Quickly realizing his mistake, his current state, and the state of the man in front of him. Igarashi knew that an apology would not cut it. Not that he wanted to apologize actually, since he was actually rather irritated about what had just happened to him. Standing straight, he glared at the man in front of him. Igarashi tried his best to give him the meanest of looks he could muster. Foolishly hoping that it would intimidate the man from acting against Igarashi.

"ah... eh, y'know wot? ne'er mind... heh, yeah.. I'm jus' gunna go over 'ere now..." Bowing in apology in a rather ungraceful way, and then stumbled away from Igarashi.

Igarashi stood there for a moment. Visibly surprised, he couldn't believe that had just worked. For some reason, he felt as if he had pulled that of before, but couldn't quite remember how... Igarashi then looked down at his clothes and body, and realized why he pulled that off. Just now, he had realized that he was still bloodied and bruised from his earlier assault from the bunch of kids. That probably made him look like some sort of criminal or grunt that was not to be messed with. Igarashi didn't feel glad about that though, because he just remembered who he was supposed to be with... And that he had been in that deplorable state since she saw him.

Igarashi quickly spun around to the counter, and Indeed, Rikiki was still there. Most likely she had just now watched Igarashi make a complete idot of himself. Igarashi sighed, Way to go Jackass, freak out just like that, works like a fucking charm... Flustered, Igarashi considered for a moment just turning back and get the hell away from there, but doing that would make him look like even more of an idiot. So he decided to sit back next to Rikiki. Laughing and pretending that nothing serious had happened, and quickly talked to her. "So I assume you didn't like your drink? Might wanna try something without alcohol then? like juice or water or something?" Igarashi knew perfectly well he was blatantly deflecting what had just happened, but he also hoped he could try and at least use that to his favor to prevent any other close call with alcohol from happening.

Sachi Oyashio wrote:

With a sigh Sachi sat down on a rack of skirts. Dispite the fact that her new outfit lacked pockets, she had someone managed to produce a ciggerette and a match. If she was going to sit around and wait, she may as well have something to occupy her, she justisfied striking the match against the leather of one particularly macho looking skirt. She watched the smoke from the ciggertte curl up towards the cieling breaking at least four different heath codes on it's way there.

"So.." she said idlely, glancing at Sarah, "Are you ready for your fight tomorrow"

Sarah coughed and waved her hand to blow the smoke out of her face. "I... I don't know." Her hands moved to her lap and she smiled nervously. "I really don't know anyone in the advanced class. And I don't know who I'll be fighting or what I'll have to do or... I don't... really like hurting people." Her hands gripped the front of her dress, and Sachi could see that the young meganekko still had her tiny zanpakutou strapped to her side, even while wearing the formal gown. "Hey Sachi, do you mind if I ask you... what did you join the Shinigami for? I, um... I joined because--"

Byouko Kuroda wrote:

"Um..." The dressing room door opened and Byouko stepped out. "I'm, uh... dressed." Her bare feet slipped across the carpeted floor as she shuffled in front of Sarah and Sachi.

The serious thoughts melted out of Sarah's mind at the sight of the adorable catgirl looking shy and sweet and embarassed and ultra-kawaii in her black dress. Her face changed from serious to a bright, cheery smile. Uncontrollably, a squee bubbled out of Sarah's throat and she threw her arms around Byouko. "It's perfect it's wonderful oh my god oh my god so cute!!" She seized the catgirl's hands and practically began spinning her around the store in joy. "Come on let's buy it buy it we've got lots to do we need shoes and purses and let's go go go!" Leaving the pile of dresses (and Sachi) behind, Sarah dragged Byouko by the hand over toward the accessories. Sachi took advantage of this and tried to sneak away, but Sarah caught on, ran at full speed backwards to Sachi's side, grabbed her hand too, and took off. The cigarette flew from Sachi's hand, rolling dangerously close to the pile of dresses left on the floor.

“I remember you” was the first response out of Naomi’s mouth. The second thing was a little bit of vomit. Naomi then wiped it off hoping no one had noticed. Then the blonde boy began to speak.

"I... uh... Yeah, she's right. Ever since than I tend to bite."

Naomi then gave Satoko a seductive look. “I’ve alway tendency to bite” replied Naomi with a wink. Naomi then looked at Satoko again.
“Yeah I do kind of recall you even more now. You’re a girly prissy boy. You were whining when you fell out the window.” Naomi let out a laugh. “I bet I could take you, in a drinking game. What do you say?” Naomi then smiled waiting for a reply.

While Kukaku and Ganju were running about, getting the fireworks finished, Chiken was on the ground, fascinated with the pretty colors and shapes floating in the air. Lazily, he was trailing his fingers through the shapes, the most important of which being a long, thick trail of color changing... stuff that Chiken was particularly drawn to. It was simply floating in mid-air above him, but it was also floating out through the door they entered by, and with its constant color changing it was the thing that got most of Chiken's limited attention span. He simply ignored everyone else and played with the floating ethereal material, finding so much joy in it.

When Chiken was suddenly hauled to his feet, it took him a few seconds to notice. Everything was swirled and colorful; Chiken would've never noticed that he was moving if his feet didn't (slowly) tell the rest of him that they were dragging around on the ground. Chiken didn't worry about this at all; however he was moving, he was moving towards the stream of pretty colors.

Suddenly, his body told his brain they had stopped moving, and Chiken frowned. As amazing as the other colors and lights were to look at, he wanted to continue following the special trail of colors. He tried slowly looking around to see where it went, but the other lights and sounds distracted him, mostly the sounds coming out of the five-armed lady, who was now orange. Chiken couldn't comprehend any of the words she said, but it sent him into a fit of giggles anyway. He continued looking around at everything and still letting out an occasional giggle or two, until he finally noticed the stream of colors again. Drawn to it once more, Chiken started following it again as it led up the stairs this time.

Emerging outside and into the sunlight, Chiken stumbled at all the new, even brighter colors and sounds. The new senses were almost too much for his brain, which had already been smashed into sludge. However, he did manage to adjust enough to keep bodily functions going, but not well enough to keep him from veering into a bush. This set him into another set of giggles as he relaxed there, staring at the new pretty birds and elephants flying in the sky.

He might've lain there forever (or at least until he sobered up a little) if he didn't hear a faint, yet interesting sound. He turned his attention from the sky to it, and (for the third time) noticed the floating trail of pretty colors that kept changing and were very pretty and floating and they were just so pretty that Chiken had to go follow it. It took a few tries to get out of the bush, but somehow Chiken managed to do just that. He swayed a little once he was on his feet, but he managed to start walking after the stream once again. For some reason though, he turned back around in time to see some people running after him. At first it looked like a mob of people, then that number dwindled to eight, before jumping back up to four. Chiken managed to recognize all of them barely, knowing the guy carrying the fireworks to be someone he traveled with, the lady who was pretty that he also vaguely remembered traveling with, and the lady's friends who were hanging off her chest. He had never seen them like that before, but he liked them. He also looked up to see the 'Sta-Choos' again, who were standing up and waving to Chiken. Chiken waved back and yelled out to them, "Bye Mr. Sta-Choos!". They said goodbye in return, then one started dancing while the other turned into a cow. Chiken didn't watch them for long, his attention turned back to the trail of floating colors and where it would lead. Without even acknowledging his other four travelers, he set off in a half run/half stagger to find the end of the trail.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kukaku, meanwhile, was just happy to have them gone. She refused making them pay as long as they promised to not bring the lunatic back, who was freaking her out more and more. He started giggling suddenly and then, not a minute later, ran off and up the stairs. The others shortly followed, saying that they never saw him act like this, but Kukaku didn't care: it was no longer her problem.
Once the others were up the stairs, she turned to Ganju. "Follow them up and make sure they get off our property. Then, start preparing things for a move, we're going to the cannon and away from this place where that crazy may find us." Ganju merely nodded before following the others up the stairs, he didn't fully agree with his sister, but drastic idiots call for drastic measures (that and he didn't want to get mauled by her).

Once Ganju was out of eyesight, Kukaku leaned up against a wall and let out a deep sigh. She felt sorry for Orihime, having to travel with someone like that. After relaxing for a few seconds, she went back to the storage room and her lab, to clean up her supplies and prepare them for the move. While she was packing the various experiments and chemicals, she came across her 'highly experimental' substances. She always kept those in nylon sacks, nylon seeming to be the safest material for holding stuff like that. As she was putting them into a box, she came across an open sack. Carefully pulling the contents out, it was revealed to be a popped membrane sac of a swamp gas frog that Kukaku had carefully injected with different types of gasses simply to find the result.
Unworried, she simply tossed the entire nylon sack away. As she was putting everything else in, however, she was keeping a tally of it. She knew she made about five of the gas sacs, but she only counted picking up three. Counting the one she threw away as number four, she started searching for the last nylon sack before it all clicked. 'The idiot had been standing right in front of this table when I caught him, and he must've popped the sac and inhaled the gas. That means...'

Kukaku's laughter could be heard ringing through the empty halls/tunnels of her house, and they continued to do so as Kukaku was clutching the table as hard as she could so she could remain upright as she laughed so hard she cried.

Satoko gave Kasahara a quick nod of thanks before turning to his drink. What was it she had called it? A Vodka? Weird. He'd managed to coast along drinking during his time without ever bothering to slap a funny name on things; he'd stolen most anything he drank, and it was all just alcohol to him, he'd occasionally heard names muttered along but never taken any real note of them.
And what had Kasahara ordered? A screwdriver without the spike? Wouldn't that just be the handle? Wait, she didn't have a screwdriver, that looked like orange juice. "Uhh..." Takeshi stammered out the syllable with confusion, "If you ordered a screwdriver... How'd you end up with orange juice?" Takeshi than proceeded to take notice of how Kasahara had held her drink up, "And, uh, why are you holding your drink out?"

Profusely confused by actual culture being displayed in front of him Takeshi had sputtered out his inquiries only to be interrupted before they could be answered by the Blue-haired buffoon: Naomi. She gave him a funny look before replying to his joke about by biting by stating that she had always had one. Uhh.... Okay... She's a tid bit odd. Naomi than spoke up again, annoying Takeshi with her words. “Yeah I do kind of recall you even more now. You’re a girly prissy boy. You were whining when you fell out the window."
"I... uh, what?" Takeshi was caught off guard by her sudden switch from simply oddities to bluntly insulting him, but his temper would be quick to flare if she didn't repair what she had said. And she didn't, the idiot in front of him challenged him to a drinking game. Takeshi was oversaturated in the way of confusion now.

How the hell did I get into this...?
I went to town with Igarashi, we ran here, and then Igarashi accidentally kicked a dog and caused us to go hound-hunting, we save a dog and ended up getting throttled by childern, which lead to us limping accidentally into this part of town, where we got dragged into this chaotic hellhole, I got seperated from the others and wound up having some woman attempt to maul me with her mouth, than running into Blue-haired one and having her try to do... something with me, then inexplicably getting an uncomfortable feeling near Kasahara, having fancy drink names shoved in front of me, I then got threatened with bites, got randomly demeaned, and now I'm being challenged to a drinking game.
Okay. It still doesn't make sense. Damn

Takeshi's bewilderment with his situation likely being the only thing saving Naomi from being mutilated, he responded. "A... a drinking game?" He cocked his head to the side and eventually decided that Blue-haired One could be ignored. However, an idea suddenly occured to him. The term "drinking game" didn't make sense, but what if she'd meant a challenge, like, combat? Was he supposed to hit her with his drink? Or... Screw it I'm going to have a drink. Satoko shrugged, attempting to brush Naomi off, but the fact that he downed a drink afterwards probably came off as consent rather than 'Leave me alone you blue-haired freak', which was what he'd intended. He'd much rather just spend time with Kasahara than some drunk buffoon, given he hasn't had any sort of substantial conversation with Kasahara for too long.

Embarrassed, Kasahara put her glass of orange juice back down after Takeshi inquired about why she held it up. Even though he seemed to have already had a some alcohol, he didn't know the lingo or the customs inside bars. Naomi approached Takeshi again, interrupting the awkward moment between them by inviting him to play a drinking game with him. The blond was lost as to what that meant and swallowed the drink she ordered him. He neither agreed nor disagreed to drink with the blue haired girl, simply brushing her off instead. Before Naomi could say anything else to the Takeshi, Kasahara placed both her hands on Naomi's shoulder and sat her down next to her so that she was between Naomi and Takeshi.

"Don'tcha think you've had enough? You know, homecoming is coming up soon. Have you found a date yet?" She glanced around the bar and found Sakimoto and Rikiki on the other side of the room. "You know, I don't think Sakimoto has a date yet. Maybe you can ask him." She had a feeling that Rikiki and Sakimoto were really close but didn't see either of them ask each other out to the homecoming dance yet.


She looked down at her orange juice and gave it a sip before starting up her conversation with Takeshi. "I take it that you haven't been to many bars. A screwdriver is orange juice and vodka." The brunette held up her glass again. "Without the spike, or alcohol, it's just orange juice. See?"

Kasahara finished her innocent drink in a mouthful and then smiled up at Takeshi. Now both their glasses were empty. Holding up her glass again, she proceeded to explain another think the blond didn't understand. "Also, when you are drinking with someone or in a group and they are celebrating or in a good mood, they may want to toast." The brunette lightly knocked her glass again Takeshi's to simulate a toast even though his glass wasn't held up. "Understand?"

This was the second time the tomboy had to explain something to the blond. She remembered a similar conversation a week or so ago when the homecoming was first announced, she had to explain to Takeshi what a dance and what couples meant. Kasahara ordered herself another glass or orange juice and fiddled around with her empty glass as she waited. "So." There was a brief pause as she thought of the next topic. Not being much of a conversationalist, it was hard for her to carry on a conversation even though she was comfortable around her friend. "Uh. Are you going to the dance with Chiken?"

Rikiki had burst out laughing.

After spraying the vile 'Whiskey' over Igarashi's front, there had been a moment of stillness, Igarashi merely sitting, face scrunched. Rikiki felt apprehensive waiting for his reaction. Should she apologize, or-

The problem was solved when, rather than do any of the reasonable things Rikiki had been expecting, Igarashi leapt up and began a bit of dancing about and swearing that would have shamed an Irishman. And, once you got past the insanity of the thing, it was hilarious. ...Actually, scratch that, the insanity made it hilarious.

And so, when Igarashi finally removed all traces of alchohol from his body and turned back, he would have found Rikiki looking at him incredulously.

Igarashi Sakimoto wrote:

"So I assume you didn't like your drink? Might wanna try something without alcohol then? like juice or water or something?"

Apparently this snapped Rikiki out of her minor shock, and she began to snicker. The snicker morphed into a chuckle, and then evolved into full-out laughter, with Rikiki clutching her stomache and almost flooring herself from laughing so hard.

Finally beginning to recover, she answered him.
"Actually.. hoo, maybe we should just go outside or something." She suggested, still shaking with internal laughter.

At first, Igarashi had just raised an eyebrow at Rikiki's chuckling, he didn't quite get what was so funny about what he had asked. But then she began to laugh out loud, and this just made Igarashi feel plain surprised and uncomfortable. Not only Rikiki's laugh was attracting the eyes of anyone nearby that heard her laughter above the incredibly loud music. But Igarashi also got the feeling that it was a belated reaction from the rather... awkward scene he had made before, but he wasn't totally sure, and this bothered him even more. Actually, a lot of things had been bothering him since he was here, the place itself felt familiar for some reason now that he paid more attention trying to avoid the looks of everyone near.

Quote :

"Actually.. hoo, maybe we should just go outside or something."

Despite her being the initial cause of him feeling extremely uncomfortable. He couldn't have been more grateful about what she had said. Without thinking it twice, he quickly replied "Yeah, we probably should" He then immediately took her hand, their roles reversing being now him the one leading her towards the exit. As he made his way across the crowd and other drunkards, Igarashi gave intermittent glances, wondering if Satoko and Kasahara were around, or if they had already made the wise thing and left way before them. He didn't find anything at first glance, but he wasn't worried, Whatever Satoko was doing, he was no doubt doing better than him.

A grateful look dawned on Takeshi's face as Kasahara directed the insolent, insensitive, idiotic, easily and infatuated Naomi away from him. Takeshi was not a fan of hers. Turning attentively to Kasahara as she explained both what a screwdriver was (turns out you can drink them) along with the details of drinking ettiquete. He watched as she tapped his cup as an example, and couldn't hide a slight look of wonderment in his eyes. He nodded when she asked if he understood, and found that the cultural ettiquete of associated things was qutie interesting, mentally asking himself how these traditions arose, why a drink was named after a utensil, and how did these things become widely accepted? I'll have to drop by the library when I get back to the school...

"So." Takeshi was snapped back to the real world at sound of Kasahara's voice, and smiled pleasantly at her, not a greta big grin or enough, but enough of an incline so he looked happy at least. Or, he hoped he did. What if he looked like a clown? Oh dear, he decided to stop smiling, but still keep looking pleasant if he could, before inquiring to himself how he knew what a clown was. However, Kasahara spoke again before Takeshi's mind derailed completely.

"Uh. Are you going to the dance with Chiken?"
"Chiken?"

Takeshi blinked a moment, his mind scrambling for a face to put the name with. He knew that he knew a Chiken, actually Takeshi could recall liking and respecting this Chiken. Of course! He felt foolish for not realizing sooner, Chiken, my 200 year old comrade. I met him my first day of the year, I always thought he must have collected wisdom over those years. Wise Chiken.

"Oh yeah", Takeshi's voice was starting to slur a bit, he'd been drinking rather heavily tonight, and had taken two more since his last told of one. "Chiken! Am I going to the dance with him? I.. I don't remember." Having never found the event of the dance very relevant, it hadn't taken long for Takeshi to shove it to the farthest corners of his mind, and now that he was becoming impaired reaching there wasn't the easiest things to do. The fact that he was still drinking didn't help, but after a moment's hesitation he managed it. Takeshi was still only mildly drunk, holding a high alcohol tolerance, much in contrast to a certain redhead. "Oh... Wait, yes, I am."

Takeshi blinked, he felt slightly dissapointed when he remembered this, but couldn't tell why. He only looked at Kasahara, a tid bit of remorse panging in his gut, he felt as though he "coulda', shoulda', and woulda' done it", but wasn't sure what it was.
"I..."

(We're no strangers to this drill. You know the rules, and so do I. This is myself, and this is Igarashi.)

Igarashi Sakimoto wrote:

"Yeah, we probably should"

At this Igarashi had taken Rikiki's hand, and headed the way they had come. Rikiki felt an odd need away from the crowds. Upon finding the exit, Rikiki had rushed out ahead again, pushing onto the busy street. Seeing nowhere on the street that wasn't filled with partying drunks, Rikiki turned to the roof which she had come down from.
"Let's go up there, Iggy!" Rikiki pipped, pointing at the roof.

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Taken slightly aback from being tugged by Rikiki once again. Igarashi then wondered for a second about what they should do next. Something Rikiki seemed to have an answer to rather quickly. "Uh... the roof?" Looking up at it for a second, Igarashi couldn't quite understand why on earth she was suggesting that. But then, he really didn't have any better idea of what to do, and perhaps getting away from the leftover of drunks from the bar by climbing up there wasn't actually a bad thing. So he then shrugged and nodded at her. "Eh.. sure, I suppose, who should go first?"

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"Ooh, I will!" Rikiki chirped, already backing up. "Stay right there, Iggy."

Running full tilt at the building, Rikiki made a running jump which definately more likely to carry her into the wall than to the roof. Of course, even Rikiki wouldn't jump at a two-story building. She landed, perched, like a bird on Igarashi's shoulder, and, for the second time that day, Igarashi was made a human trampoline a Rikiki kicked off his shoulder, and sailed to the roof.

Looking down, Rikiki called, "Come on up, Iggy!"

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Igarashi briefly glared at Rikiki, he had already forgotten how he had been used in a similar way today, and this certainly irritated him. But then again, he couldn't deny that her idea was actually a quite good and effective one. Actually, it made him question how he would be able to get up in such a fast way... He then realized that the answer was actually a quite simple one. Looking around, Igarashi spotted a few drunkards outside the bar that he immediately viewed as potential stepping stones. Normally, he would have considered his following plan to be quite outrageous and unnecessary, but since he now didn't want to look bad in front of Rikiki, he decided to carry it out anyway.

Focusing on a particular drunkard that was one of the few not sitting or laying down. But actually still standing up, babbling about whatever drunk people did. Igarashi then began to run forward at him pretty much the same way rikiki did, and just as she, he then jumped and used the drunkard as a trampoline to propel himself. Unlike Rikiki though, his jump to the roof didn't go quite as smooth thanks to the fact that the drunk man he used started to collapse as he took impulse. As a result, Igarashi's jump ended propelling just a few spaces below where he should have landed, making him slam most of his body into the wall, with his arms barely managing to clutch the roof. Grunting, Igarashi did his best to ignore and hide the pain he was feeling at the moment as he pulled himself up. Once he did, he then quickly sat down, gasping for air and looking at Rikiki with a rather embarrassed smile.

Matsuura peered out into the hallway, stepping out of the public bathroom, his robes wrapped around his waist, having just washed what was left of the paint off of him. Making sure no one was in the hallway, he stepped out and started to quickly make his way towards his room.

"IEEEE! It's Matsu-kun~ And he's practically naked!"

The shrill call of glee causing Matsuura to cringe as he slowly turned to face the person crying out, seeing it was Ayano, a very large and burly second year that had self appointed herself the head of the Matsuura Fanclub. She was at the far end of the hall, pointing at him, a flock of girls suddenly appearing behind her. She started to charge him, moving slow at first, but picking up speed, the ground rumbling under her weight as she bulldozed towards him, the others following behind or shooting past her.

Matsuura turned and started to sprint down the hall, running for his life, trying to keep the robes on, sliding around a corner and almost slamming into more of the girls, this group being led by Chinatsu, a small, frail girl with large bottlecap glasses and a nasally voice. She had a grin on her face as she pointed at him.

"Way of binding 1: Restrain!" She stated happily, Mastuura quickly twisted, barely dodging the flash of light and almost losing his robes in the process. He used the momentum to turn himself around and started running back towards Ayano, sliding to a halt and turning down a stairway. He took them 3 at a time, trying not to lose his balance or his robes, turning to the second floor only to find a few girls already waiting for him. It was a trap. He spun around only to find Ayano, Chinatsu and a pack of girls blocking the way back up. He let out a nervous laugh.

"Now, now..uh...girls...can't you uh...go...chase after some other guy?" He asked as the slowly closed in. "I mean... no offense or anything, but I'm not exactly into quivering landmasses of flesh." He stated, Ayano diving at him in retaliation, he dodged to the side and sprinted down the flight of stairs and out the dormitory, running across the school grounds half naked and screaming like a madman as the Matsuura Fanclub followed after him.

It was a very rough 2 hours later, involving crawling through rose bushes, diving into ponds, climbing out windows, doubling back and running past teachers before Matsuura had managed to evade the fanclub and make his way back to the dormitory. He managed to make his way to his room, slipping inside, making mental note that his roommate was still gone before collapsing on his makeshift bed.

"What a crazy day its been..." He sighed before falling asleep.