Heroes

Chapter Forty

“Good morning, girls!” Kon yelled, sprinting into our room giddily. I groaned quietly. Who the hell needed all this commotion this freaking early?

Kon lunged and landed directly on Babs’ chest. “Aah, nee-san…” he sighed, “you’re so soft….”

Babs awoke slowly and noticed the plushie on her. As if it was a natural thing, she picked him up and threw him out the window without a word. As if nothing had happened, she proceeded to the bathroom groggily.

I sighed. She was such a stick-in-the-mud in the morning. I woke Tara up and began to get ready for the day. School was gonna be interesting, considering what had happened the previous day, what with everyone gaining their powers. 

I got dressed, brushed through my horsetail of a mane, polished my teeth, and was out the door with my friends in twenty minutes. We walked together to school today because Ichigo was paranoid about more Hollows showing up and didn’t want to leave us alone. 

“Aww,” I said, “Ichi-nii wants to protect his little girlfriend!”

Ichigo and Tara’s heads snapped towards me, both their faces turning bright as a Christmas light. 

“N-no!” Ichigo said. “That…that’s not it!”

“Yeah!” Tara finished. “He wants to protect everyone! That’s the kind of person he is!”

I grinned. “Whatever. Either way, you guys are so cute.”

They seemed to ignore me, their only response being the joining of their hands as they walked. 

“Jeez,” Babs whispered to me. “Don ‘cha think we get enough of this?”

“Babs!” I chastised. “They’re in love. Or maybe in lust, but whatever. They’re happy, and that’s all that matters. You don’t wanna be around the kawaii-moe flowers, buzz off.”

She gave me an angry growl but conceded with my argument. 

We made it to the school and parted ways to our respective classrooms. Besides Uryu’s lame excuse for why his arms were covered in medical tape, the day unexpectedly progressed as it normally would. Today Uryu ate lunch with us, which was extremely unexpected. It began quite awkwardly but he soon melded in with our crowd. 

As the final bell rung I sighed, streching in my chair. It’d been a long past couple of days and I was happy to get home and sleep; a nap sounded like Heaven on Earth to me right now. I slowly groggled home, ignoring my friend’s idle, giddy chatter. Going inside, I made a beeline for the bedroom and passed out. I was happy to get a full, 14-hour sleep.

Unfortunately, I was known for never getting what I wanted. 

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“Guys! Guys! Open up, come on!!” 

I woke up quietly, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to further wake. What the hell…?

Tara awoke and went to the door. “What is it?” she half-said, half-yawned. “It’s three in the morning!”

“It’s Rukia!” Kurosaki said from the other side of the door. “She’s gone and left a note!”

“Okay…?” I said, “isn’t it good that she left a note? Better than her just disappearing.”

Ichigo sighed. “You don’t understand! Come in my room, you guys gotta see this!”

Tara and I got up and made our way next door, where a piece of paper with awful doodlings on it was shoved in our faces. Yup, that was Rukia, alright. We skimmed the paper quickly, figuring out the adolescent code and reading the true message: