She's Got Moxie Soi Fong furrowed her brow slightly at the sound of her savior's name. Yoruichi Shihouin... why does that name sound familiar? I could swear I've heard it before, but this is the first time we've met... "Hey, you're hurt!" Soi was awakened from her thoughts when Yoruichi indicated the bruise on her cheek. "That looks pretty bad..." The tall girl reached out to examine the slight injury, but Soi snapped her head out of reach. "...It's fine." Yoruichi cocked an eyebrow at the freshman's lack of self-concern. "Whatever, kid. Here," at this she grabbed Soi Fong by the arm and pulled her in the direction of the school. "...Maybe the nurse'll still be here..." The petite girl tried to break free of Yoruichi's grip, but finding the task quite impossible, finally sighed and allowed herself to be dragged along. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Well, it doesn't look too bad..." Soi Fong glanced up at Ms. Unohana, who was walking up to her with some sort of package that was dripping slightly on the ground. "Here, put this on your face," the nurse said with a smile as she held out the package to reveal that it was a zippable plastic bag full of ice cubes. The tiny girl accepted the cold compress wordlessly, only making a slight hiss as she felt the frigid package come into contact with the tender spot on her face. When her escort noticed that she had not thanked the school physician, Yoruichi took the initiative in her stead. "Thank you for helping us, ma'am," she said with a polite bow which Unohana brushed off with another warm grin and a wave of the hand. "Oh, it's no trouble, girls. You're just fortunate you managed to catch me, I was getting ready to leave." With nothing to do but allow the ice to take some affect, the nurse sat behind her desk, moving the massive braid which hung around her neck as she leaned comfortably into the seat. "...So, if you don't mind me asking...how did you get that bruise, Miss Fong?" Yoruichi hesitated, not sure how strongly the mellow woman would react to learning that Soi Fong's injury had been the result of being ganged up on and attacked. "Well, you see--" "I fell." At the sudden interjection of the youngest female in the room, both Yoruichi's and Ms. Unohana's heads turned in her direction. "...You fell?" "Yes. I was running up the steps when I tripped. This girl--" Soi indicated Yoruichi with a nod of the head, "...she saw me and helped me up here." The naturally tanned girl only spared the smallest of intrigued glances at Soi before the nurse turned to look at her instead. "...Really?..." Ms. Unohana said calmly. Fortunately for Soi Fong, the upperclassman had caught on to her evasion and responded in the affirmative. The sweet-natured woman nodded her head in acceptance but at the same time cast the impression that she didn't entirely believe the alibi. Still, she said nothing regarding it again, and in fact none of them spoke until the nurse took a look at Soi's cheek, said she'd be fine, and the two girls took their leave. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "...Interesting." Soi Fong turned her head up towards Yoruichi, who was currently walking beside her and had up to this point allowed silence to reign after they had left the nurse's office. It made her uncomfortable that the girl was still in her company, especially when most people would have brushed her off by now and left her on her own. Soi didn't mind being solitary; rather she enjoyed it when compared to the mindless rambling that so many of her peers indulged in. Still, she had the feeling she didn't want to get on this woman's bad side, so she reluctantly indulged her observation. "Sorry, but...what's interesting?" Yoruichi tilted her head slightly to make eye contact with the smaller girl and flashed a grin that, for some odd reason, reminded Soi Fong of a cat. "You could have said something--gotten those guys in trouble, but you kept your mouth shut. Not too mention that you took that beating without so much as a peep. There aren't many girls who could deal with that." In response, she got the silence that had met Ichimaru's taunting. Instead of getting angry, however, she only chuckled at Soi's behavior. "...That how you answer everything, kid?" "...No," Soi Fong said indignantly, "...If I'd told on him, he would've just come after me later." She avoided adding, 'You probably just made things worse for me anyway,' but it came out in her slightly narrowed eyes and was not lost on Yoruichi, whose smile refused to fade. "Well, I have to say, you've definitely got some moxie, standing up to an asshole like that." As soon as the unfamiliar word hit her ears, Soi's expression turned to one of puzzlement. "...Huh? 'Moxie?'" "Yeah, you know--" Yoruichi began, but was cut off as a guy wearing a striped hat and the boy's uniform for Rukongai ran up to them. "Hey, Yoru-chan!" he called with a goofy smile on his face, too far to notice the slight twitch on her own features that wasn't lost on Soi Fong. When the long-haired teen finally caught up with the two girls, he was greeted by Yoruichi with a swift smack to the top of his head that knocked off his sandal-hat. "Oww... What was that for?" he whimpered playfully, but Yoruichi only gave him a stoic glare. "Damnit, Kisuke...I've told you a million times not to call me that." "Actually, Yoru-chan...it's probably closer to a million and twenty-fi-- Oww!" He rubbed his head where she'd chopped him again, but her expression was one of sardonic amusement, much to Soi Fong's confusion. She considered taking advantage of their distraction and getting away from the odd pair, but to her chagrin Yoruichi's 'friend' had taken notice of her. "Hey, who's this? You going into kidnapping now, Yoruichi?" The tall girl rolled her eyes as she flipped her hand in Soi's vicinity. "Hmm...Well, I may as well introduce you, now that you've corrupted her innocence with your mere presence... Kisuke, this is...the name's Soi, right?" she said with a confused expression to the Chinese girl, who nodded in response. "Yeah, this is Soi Fong. Soi, this is..." "...Kisuke Urahara," he said with much feigned humility as he extended his palm to Soi Fong. The freshman could only stare at him as the light fell on his face and she managed to finally get a good look at him. With his long, sandy-blonde hair, unshaven face and beach-bum hat, he looked like he had come straight from the encyclopedic definition for 'flower child.' When he did not feel Soi Fong's hand return his gesture of friendship, Urahara looked up to see the new girl giving him a barely-concealed expression of mild distaste. Before he could speak, Yoruichi, who'd noticed Soi Fong's face, smacked Kisuke on the head again, eliciting another groan of pain. "Now look at what you've done-- you've scared the poor girl!" Yoruichi said wryly. "But how? I didn't do anything!" "Well, I TOLD you to get rid of that hat, didn't I?" "Umm..." Kisuke and Yoruichi stopped their playful teasing at the sound of Soi Fong's quiet voice. "...Listen, it was...nice to meet you both, and thank you for helping me...(she gave Yoruichi a little bow) but I need to get home, so..." "Oh, don't worry about that!" Yoruichi said with a smile. "We'll walk you home!" She didn't catch the slight groan that Soi uttered upon hearing that she would be escorted by two people barely as mature as she was old. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fortunately for the uncomfortable girl, the journey home was spent in relative silence. About ten minutes from the house, Soi Fong stopped and bowed. "...Thank you very much," she said reluctantly, "...but I can go the rest of the way on my own." "Don't tell me you're ashamed of your house..." Yoruichi said with a bit of a groan. The truth was that Soi didn't feel like answering a lot of awkward questions from her father if she came to the door accompanied by two upperclassmen, who of course avoided any and all contact with their younger fellow students. Well, goodbye, Shihouin-san, Urahara-san." Yoruichi snorted at the display of formality, while Kisuke only cocked an eyebrow that was invisible behind the brim of his hat. "Well, nice to meet you, Miss Fong," Urahara uttered with a smirk at the girl's attempt to hide her annoyance at being condescended to, "...I just wish Shihouin-san here was as even-tempered as you are." "Oh, don't underestimate her, Kisuke. You wouldn't think it, but she's a tough little thing-- got plenty of moxie, don't ya?" She smiled at Soi Fong with something resembling respect in her eyes, but the young girl ignored the unspoken appraisal of her indomitability in favor of aggravation. "You keep saying that word. Well, what does it mean, anyway?" she finally asked, a little more harshly than she had meant to. Yoruichi, who'd begun to walk away with Urahara in tow, turned at the unexpected question, looking up pensively at the darkening sky before answering. "Hmm...well, 'moxie' means you've got spunk. You know, nerve." "Then why didn't you just say that?" In response, the older girl only shrugged her shoulders. "...Dunno. Just thought it sounded cool, is all. Well, see ya later, Soi Fong," Yoruichi called as she waved over her shoulder. Once the two had moved a fair distance away, squabbling amongst themselves all the while, Soi turned away and continued the walk to her house, barely observing the transformation of the houses she passed as they gradually became more and more delapidated and weatherworn. 'See me later?' Soi Fong mused as the upperclassman's parting words went through her head. ...Yeah, right. She knew better than to think that she would see either of them again. What had happened was little more than a lucky coincidence-- if anything, Yoruichi would probably avoid any contact with Soi Fong that wasn't absolutely necessary. Still, she grudgingly had to admit that she was a very impressive woman-- any retribution that Ichimaru leveled on her in the future would be worthwhile just for seeing him cower away from a member of the 'fairer sex'. And she'd said that she had 'moxie'... even if it was an odd figure of speech, it did make the stoic girl smile just a bit, though she wasn't sure why.
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