The Cat Arrives Soi Fong stared at her open book, absorbing the words with a zeal that she didn't spare for the sandwich in her hand. Never taking her eyes off the text, she bit into the bread, chewing it slowly so as to have as few distractions as possible, especially since the story had reached a very interesting point. When she finally forced herself to look up and take a drink of juice, her eyes happened to fall upon Ichimaru, sneering at her as he made his way over to his friend Kira and his unlikely girlfriend Rangiku. She didn't see any of his other flunkies, but then they were in different classes and Ichimaru thought it better to avoid being grouped together to evade suspicion. In spite of the calm facade she wore, Soi was getting more worried with every inch the minute hand on the clock moved to the right. She tried to concentrate on reading again, but that disturbing smirk kept worming its way back into her mind. ...Should I run away? She shook her head as soon as the thought occured to her. No. I'm not afraid of a guy like him. Dad taught me better than that. Noticing that the lunch hour had practically disappeared, Soi wolfed down the remains of her meal and dashed to her homeroom before the bell for next period sounded. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "...You shouldn't wear that hat, you know." A sandy-haired teen (technically a legal adult, at age 19) only smirked at the observation made by his companion, a dark-skinned girl who was a year his junior and yet nearly rivaled him in the height department. "Oh, and why's that?" "...Because it makes you look like some sort of criminal," the girl answered with a mischevious grin as she took a bite of her still-warm taiyaki, small flakes of baked bread crumbling off onto the ground as she tore off a chunk and chewed on it. "You're already a delinquent, isn't that bad enough?" "Well..." the boy hummed contemplatively as he adjusted the green-and-white striped hat on his head that had began the whole conversation, "I don't see why that should matter if I'm already being labeled as a delinquent. And speaking of labels, doesn't that make you YOURSELF a delinquent for being seen in my company?" "No," the girl said as she absentmindedly pulled back a few loose strands of dark hair that had liberated themselves from her long ponytail with the aid of the slight breeze. "...It makes me the victim, for you forcing your presence on me." "That's too cruel," the boy sighed as he put on an expression of feigned indignation. The girl only chuckled to herself at the eccentric behavior she'd come to expect after 12 years of friendship with this young man. "You really are hopeless, you know that?" she asked as she swallowed another bite of her pastry. Her friend opened his mouth to retort when he noticed that she had come to a stop about 3 strides back. "Hmm? What's going on?" he muttered as he walked up to where his female companion stood overlooking a small manmade ravine that lay not too far from the high school. It wasn't very easy to tell from here, but it looked like there were a bunch of kids in their class, and they were surrounding a much shorter kid... "Oh well. Best to just forget about it. They do this all the time anyway." The tall girl nodded admissively and was about to continue walking when the kid in the middle fell to the ground and she could see a glimpse of his face. Or rather, hers. "That's a girl down there..." the cocoa-skinned upperclassman said with growing realization. Before the sandy-haired fellow at her side could say anything, she had shoved the remains of her pastry into his hand and had hoisted herself over the concrete guardrail. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A small groan escaped Soi Fong's lips as she felt a man's hand at her collar and she looked up to see it was Kira's. She narrowed her eyes rebelliously at him and was slightly surprised to find that he had a repentant look on his face. He hadn't thrown the blow, and he hated the idea of fighting a girl, but his loyalty to Ichimaru overrode the pang of guilt that made him want to protest what his 'boss' was doing. "Well, well...I guess ya ain't some whiny littl' brat after all, eh?" Soi turned her dark eyes in the direction of the boy towering over her, one of his silver eyebrows cocked in amusement. "...An' here I figur'd ya'd be cryin' like a baby..." Soi only let her glare rest on him, as if doing so would render her antagonist to naught but dust. Unfortunately, Ichimaru was nowhere close to disappearing. "Now, I bet that hurt, did't it?" The Chinese girl had wanted to laugh at that. Gin hadn't even had the courage to beat her up himself; he'd employed a handful of his faceless goons to do it for him. They'd only hit her a few times, but they were strong-- any other girl would have been in tears by now, but the most noise Soi Fong had made was the occasional huff of air being knocked out of her lungs. "...Ya know, this'd prob'ly be over a lil' bit quicker if ya'd swallow that pride o' yours and jus' apologize." His ultimatum was met with, to his annoyance, only more of the girl's insufferable silence. "Oh, I get it...not answerin' me, huh?" Soi Fong said nothing. Still grinning, Gin backhanded her across the face, leaving a red mark on her cheek but not eliciting any verbal response. She knew that he was probably just going to keep hitting her, but that didn't matter. She'd take it--not because she didn't know how to defend herself, but because she refused to let him think for even a minute that he could control her, force her to bend to his will through violence. He wants tears. He won't get them. Gin pulled his hand back and was about to strike again when dark, slender fingers grabbed his wrist. "...Picking on underclassmen again, Ichimaru?" His grin slipped at the sound of an all-too familiar voice, and before he could turn around to acknowledge the hand's owner his face was promptly met with a right hook. His fellow hoodlums blinked collectively when they saw the face of the one who'd been bold enough to hit their beloved chieftain. Soi Fong raised her head to see a girl that was a bit taller than her, wearing the same uniform as she. Her coffee-toned body was accentuated by dark hair, which hung behind her in a long ponytail. She was athletic-looking and was obviously quite strong, but her slender form didn't betray her physical prowess. But the most bizarre aspect of this mystery girl's anatomy was her eyes, which seemed almost like a goldenrod yellow. "Hey, what the hell are you doing, you little bitch!" howled one of the punks who had his hair cut short and had highlighted it an atrocious green color. At this the girl smirked-- she was actually taller than him, making her in no way 'little.' "Don't you touch our boss!" "Yeah, you'll have to go through us first!" The three goons growled at her and flexed, but Kira, obviously and wisely familiar with the girl, backed away towards Ichimaru. The three rushed her at once, but a few moments of blinding footwork later and they were sprawed on the ground around her, moaning in pain while she only sighed as if she'd gotten a mild workout at most. Without another word, but still wearing that dangerous smile, she walked towards Gin and Kira, being careful to step on one of the fallen men as she approached. Soi Fong could only stare with her mouth hanging open. W...who the...? "To think that you'd sink so low as to beat up a girl, Ichimaru...Can't exactly say that I didn't see it coming." Gin said nothing at the young woman's assessment of his character, but his obnoxious smile was now replaced with the slightest of frowns. Kira glared at her and took a step forward, but to Soi's further surprise, Gin threw his arm out in front of his friend, making it clear that this was not someone he wanted to trifle with. Her smile widened at his reaction and she casually cracked her knuckles. "...I think you should leave before someone else gets hurt." Gin didn't need telling twice. He shook his head in the opposite direction to Kira, and the two set off as calmly as they could, with the three others scrambling after. "Hmph. Bastards," the woman muttered as she stretched her arm, turning to finally glance at the girl she had rescued. "Hey, are you okay?" She extended one of her hands to Soi, who glanced at her savior suspiciously before rejecting the hand to pick herself up off the ground. The tall girl grimaced slightly at Soi's reaction. "Hey, no need to be snippy. I DID just save your ass there, if you've forgotten." Soi Fong knew she shouldn't be rude, but instinct told her to be wary of this person, especially since she had beaten up three massive guys and put the fear of God into Ichimaru without so much as breaking a sweat. Still, her manners finally won out, and she reluctantly bowed to the other girl. "...Thank you very much for helping me." The tall girl, to Soi Fong's surprise, suddenly began to laugh. "Bowing? What do you think I am, some kinda royalty?" Soi opened her mouth to protest the girl's mockery of her good grace, but the young woman stuck out her hand. "Tell you what-- screw the pomp and all that, the least we can do is introduce ourselves." The Chinese girl stared at the hand ambiguously again for a moment before she grabbed it. "...I'm Soi Fong. Class 1-B." The taller girl smiled at the compromise they had finally managed to reach as she shook the slender hand in her slightly calloused one. "Yoruichi Shihouin, Class 4-E. Nice to meet you." A/N: I don't know if Japanese high schools go up to fourth year, but for all intent and purposes of this story they do now. Ha ha.
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