Been a While. This is a short chapter. Not a ton of time.

Music Suggestion: Listen to Foiled for the Last Time.

I don't own Bleach.

Chapter 5

It Begins

Several hours had already passed since Ichigo's group had cleared out of the overcrowded back to school party, it was approaching midnight when a loud ping echoed. It was the sound of a baseball connecting with an aluminum bat. All four of the teens had ended up at a small event center that bolstered mini golf, laser tag, and baseball batting cages. Keigo was currently up to hit. He swung once more as the small machine fired a baseball at him. CLANG! Keigo connected again. It hailed some teasing from his friends, Mizuiro leading the charge, "Look at the athlete!"

Ichigo jeered as well, "What a sexy swing!"

Chad took a turn, "Why haven't you tried out for the baseball team Keigo?"

Keigo blushed from the compliments and turned to answer Chad when he forgot about the next pitch and it hit him in the gut. It successfully knocked the wind out of him, his friends laughed at him as he crawled out of the cage and handed the bat to Ichigo, and he spoke painfully, "Your turn Ichigo."

Ichigo laughed and took the bat, Keigo managed to sit on a small bench with his friends when he finally answered the question, "I didn't try out for baseball because I'm lazy man."

Mizuiro looked at his friend seriously, "You know Keigo…baseball players get a ton of girls."

Keigo's eyes went wide as he snagged Mizuiro by his shirt lapels, "Are you serious man!?"

Clang! The loud sound of Ichigo swinging at his first pitch drew their attention, likely on account of how much louder it rang than Keigo's did. They watched as Ichigo squared up for the next one and swung, hitting it so hard that it literally tore a hole in the mesh netting intended to prevent just that from happening. Keigo released his vice on Mizuiro and whistled, "Damn Ichigo, that's ridiculous, maybe you should try out for the team so you can land that Rukia girl!"

The thought of the girl popped in Ichigo's head, "I don't need to join a baseball team to get a girl."

Chad took another chance to speak, "Then ask her out."

Ichigo laughed, "You too Chad?"

Chad nodded, "She seemed really nice."

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah she did…do you think the girls are still out and about?"

Keigo picked up his phone, "I'll find out."

Ichigo nodded and then he took another swing, hitting the ball so hard that it struck the tripod that the pitching machine sat on and broke one of its three legs. The Machine fell to the ground when all of Ichigo's friends laughed and ran away, Mizuiro yelled, "We ain't paying for that you monster!"

Ichigo watched his friends flee and yelled, "Get back here you jerks!"

…

All the girls had ended up back at Tatskue's house, being that school didn't start until Monday and it was only Friday, they were all able to stay up as late as they wanted. The group had made the unanimous decision to gang at Tatskue's after all seized permission to stay over there for the night. Rukia felt nervous about going there after just meeting these new friends, but it was quickly dissolved when she got Tatskue talking about martial arts, the girl was flat out obsessed and it made the conversation simple, relaxing her out of any awkwardness. Orihime and Chizuru were already busy chatting about randomness so the night had seemed aimless until Tatskue's phone rang out, she answered and snapped at the person without saying hello, "What the hell Keigo, it's like midnight, why are you calling me?"

All the girls watched as Tatskue listened and replied, "What?"

Only Tatskue could hear his answer via the phone placed on her ear, "Ichigo has the hots for that Rukia chick and wants to come see her!"

In the background Tatskue could hear Ichigo hit Keigo and complain, "I never said that you jerk!"

Tatskue glanced at the quizzical look on Rukia's face and spoke back, "Yeah, yall come on over, just try to be quiet, my folks are all already asleep."

…

Thirty minutes later the girls were chattering when interrupted by some soft tapping on Tatskue's bedroom window and then one loud smack, the karate girl walked to the window to see where some small pebbles had struck it, she observed a tiny crack and pulled the window open, snapping at the assailant, "Damn it Keigo, you cracked my window!"

Down in the yard Keigo immediately hid behind Chad, a cowardly move belied by his boastful taunting, "Oh yeah, what are you gonna do, beat me up karate beast?"

Tatskue could see him hiding and yelled, "Yeah, I'll show you what a beast looks like!"

Mizuiro took a step in font of Chad and spoke calmly, "Calm down you two or you'll wake the neighborhood up."

The thought triggered Tatskue to remember her family sleeping and apparently the thought of awakening her folks outweighed the urge to smack Keigo, so she signaled for them to walk around the back of her house, "Come around back guys."

Having grown up around Tatskue's family and spending time at her house, Ichigo wasn't surprised to find a martial arts training ground and a massive second floor balcony when they walked around, but the other three boys were quite taken, Keigo whistled, "Tatskue's folks must be loaded to have a place this big."

Mizuiro came from a wealthier family, so he wasn't as impressed with his sense of it being normality to afford luxuries. Chad on the other hand was admiring the massive pool, his small apartment certainly afforded no such luxury. All of their attention was drawn by the sound of the balcony door opening, and out came Tatskue, followed by Orihime, Chizuru, and then Rukia. Tatskue led the group, looking down, she went to speak a hello when she noticed that Ichigo and Chad were both scuffed up from a fight. The small marks would have escaped a normal person, but her keen fighting eyes picked it up, "What the hell happened to you Ichigo, you two get in a fight?"

Ichigo answered with irritancy, "Yeah, some punks picked a fight with Chad, said it was a shame that someone so big could have such a tiny brain, stupid jerks."

All four girls now hung over the railing and listened as Mizuiro commented, "Yeah, Ichigo sure knocked those guys for a loop."

Keigo took a turn by smacking Chad on the chest, "I still don't know why you didn't fight back Chad."

Chad was silent, then spoke softly, "It's not like they're words hurt."

Keigo spoke aloud, "Bagh."

Orihime finally chimed, "Are you two okay Ichigo?"

The strawberry had started to look over to the new girl when the question was posed, so he shifted focus and made eye contact with Orihime, "Yeah, they only landed one hit on Chad, and I'm okay, one of them landed a hit on my face though, but I just got a bloody nose."

Chizuru barked, "Why are guys always fighting?"

Tatskue bandwagoned, "Seriously, if you're gonna fight anyways, you should just come back to the dojo."

Ichigo rolled his eyes, he had zero desire to hear this speech again, so he waltzed off to the side of the yard to a spot where he knew a punching bag was hung. Rukia watched him from the balcony but stopped when Keigo called her name in his oh so charming voice, "Hey Rukia?"

She jolted to attention, "Uh yeah?"

"How did ya get so chummy with these girls here so fast?" He pointed at them, "I've known them or years and they still don't like me very much."

Tatskue laughed, "That's because she's not lame like you."

He threw his arms in the air defensively, "Huh!?"

Chizuru chirped, "And she's not ugly like you."

He fell to his knees.

Orihime took her turn, placing a finger to her chin in thought, "And she's super nice."

Keigo began his on cue sobs, "Yall are too cruel!"

Everyone there laughed before Rukia waltzed over to the edge of the balcony in the same direction Ichigo had disappeared to, leaving the others all conversing as she observed Ichigo punching the bag below her. She watched him for a minute before she called to the strawberry, "Hey you."

Ichigo stopped his punching then looked up to the source of the voice to find the new girls pretty face looking down at him, he took a step towards her and answered, "Yeah?"

She placed her elbows on the rail and her hands on her chin, she had a question for him that she knew the answer to already, "So how did you like that band earlier?"

Ichigo immediately remembered the group that pompous Ishida had been in, the man irritated him, but the music was entrancing, "Fantastic!"

He reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a CD case, "I even bought their CD."

The girl peered at it closely, "Isn't that CD busted?"

"Huh," Ichigo glanced at it and saw that the case was smashed, he quickly opened it to find the CD snapped in half as well, he spoke in frustration and face palmed, "Ah crap, I must have busted it up in the fight."

She giggled and pulled a CD from her own jacket pocket, "Check it out."

He glanced up as she continued, "I bought a copy too, want me to burn you a copy?"

"Yes Please!"

She nodded, "No problem."

They sat this way smiling for a second before Ichigo took his turn to ask a question he'd already learned the answer to, but was yet to hear it from her, "Say, What's your name?"

She put the CD back in her pocket, "My name is Rukia, Rukia Kuchiki…and you?"

He kept eye contact as he answered, "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

Their little introduction was interrupted by Keigo grabbing hold of Ichigo's shoulder like he was a real pal, he spoke with suspicion of love, "What are you TWO talking about?"

Ichigo answered defensively, "Music!"

Keigo laughed, he was having fun with this, "Oh, you sure you weren't telling her about how you said you thought that even though she had a man's hair cut she was still pretty cute?"

Ichigo grabbed his friend in an arm lock, "You're the one who-"

Before he could answer Rukia snapped, "You said what!?"

Ichigo could see the irritation in her face, "I never said-"

She interrupted him again, this guy had just met her, how dare he say something so insulting? "Who are YOU to say I look like a man! At least I don't dye my hair orange like some hipster."

Everyone present went wide eyed, they'd know many a fight Ichigo had been in was on account of people insulting his hair. They watched as the tea kettle exploded. While craning his neck, Ichigo snapped back, "I was born with hair like this you jerk!"

Rukia snapped, "As if, I would snarl all the time too if my hair dye malfunctioned."

Ichigo went wide eyed, all their friends sat quiet, afraid to cut in. Ichigo snapped back, "Wow, you sure have a lot of hate for someone so short!"

She made several stunted guttural sounds as she choked on the lack of a comeback until she settled for crossing her arms defiantly, "Hmph."

Ichigo followed suit, except his arm crossing was accompanied by one last stab, "Friggin jerk."

Before anyone could speak, the bottom floor back door opened and a massive, well built, 40 something year old man stepped out of the house, "What's all this yelling out here?"

The man spotted Ichigo, "Ah, I thought I recognized your voice Ichigo, what's going on, it's awful late?"

At the sight of Tatskue's father, Ichigo immediately calmed, He began to speak an apology, "I'm sorry sir, we were out for a walk and stopped by to say hi to your daughter."

The man apparently knew Chad as well, but had yet to meet Keigo or Mizuiro, Ichigo quickly introduced them, the man shook their hands and spoke to everyone present, he was much kinder than you'd expect out of someone so serious looking, yet each hand he shook felt a tinge of pain from the vice, "Next time don't be so loud, but you should all head home, it's nearly one in the morning, your folks will be worried."

They all nodded together, "Yes sir."

The man spoke orders to the girls upstairs too, "That goes for you as well Tatskue, you and your friends get to bed."

Tatskue yelled back over the rail, "Yes sir! Sorry dad!"

The girls indeed headed back inside and the boys headed out, waving a goodbye as they headed on down the street.

Back in Tatskue's room, Rukia was met with surprised looks from all three girls, Tatskue lead the charge, "What the heck was that all about?"

…

A mile away from Tatskue's, Keigo laughed the spoke to the group, "Guess that Rukia girl isn't so nice after all."

Chad answered softly, "You started it."

Mizuiro slapped Keigo on the shoulder, "Yeah, you just crushed Ichigo's chances with that girl."

Keigo's face saddened, "Oh my gosh Ichigo, I'm sorry bro!"

Ichigo's scowl had deepened at the mention of her, "Don't worry about it, I don't like people that don't listen to reason anyway…I'm fine if I never see her again."

Mizuiro thought a moment then answered, "I suppose you won't have a choice if she lands in our homeroom."

Ichigo made a sour face but didn't reply. So they walked on home in the empty streets, content to crash for the night.

See you soon.