Hiding the Body

It took a while, but Ichigo and Chiaki did eventually make it to the classroom, where they found their classmates in conversation regarding the incident at the Kurosaki residence.

"I really do hope Chiaki and Ichigo are ok. From what I heard, that explosion was pretty nasty."

"Are you kidding? I swear those two are tough as nails, I doubt a bomb would be enough to do them in."

Chiaki coughed slightly, making her presence known as she and Ichigo walked to their seats, the chatter ending abruptly as the speakers looked either embarrassed or relieved upon seeing the two. Tatsuki and Orihime in particular both looked completely overjoyed, though Tatsuki quickly looked away as Orihime made squeals of delight, trying to keep up a facade of toughness. Ichigo exchanged a quick wave with her, his stony expression softened a bit at the humor of the whole situation.

"We're not invulnerable, you know. We just got lucky this time."

Ichigo exchanged a knowing glance with Chiaki, causing Tatsuki to raise an eyebrow. Before she, or anyone else for that matter, could ask about any specifics though, a certain familiar girl smiled and waved at Ichigo.

"You are Mr. Kurosaki then? It's very nice to meet you!"

Ichigo did a visible double take upon hearing Rukia's voice, and Chiaki followed suit if only to keep up experiences. Mizuiro, noticing their expressions, smiled and leaned forward in his chair.

"It's crazy to get a student at this part of the year isn't it? This is Rukia Kuchiki, she had a family emergency and had to transfer in on short notice."

"Y-Yeah, crazy…"

This time it was Rukia's turn to look smug, and feigning the look of an innocent schoolgirl, gave a small bow to Ichigo.

"It's nice to meet the student that everyone has been saying so much about! I assume the girl with you is your sister? You have such a striking family resemblance! Do you perhaps mind if I borrow some of your books? I have yet to receive any of my own…"

Ichigo was too stunned to muster up a response, and Chiaki responded for him. She was a little more prepared for this than he was, and she quickly passed along a book to Rukia, who gave a slight nod in what seemed like genuine thanks. Before anything else could be exchanged between the two, the teacher made her way in, calling the class to attention (with Orihime looking very disappointed she hadn't had an opportunity to talk to Ichigo or the "transfer student").

"Alright alright, I know you're all very worked up, but now that you're all in the classroom, you have to leave those things behind at the door. Now, in terms of announcements, today…."

It was at that point that Chiaki completely tuned out of whatever the teacher was saying. If there was one thing that was good about this whole reincarnation thing, it was that she got to carry over all her memories from her old life into the new one, so school more or less ended up being a breeze no matter how little she paid attention. She wasn't exactly a slouch in the intelligence department either; she didn't even really need the book she had given to Rukia in the first place to follow along or answer questions. Her time would be better spent letting her thoughts roam than paying attention to anything going on in class.

Looking around the room, Chiaki made note of a few key figures. Of course, all of the Karakura High School group was recognizable to her, but Chiaki Kurosaki's memories gave an in depth understanding of everyone here, which gave her familiarity with a lot of the students that she never even remembered the name of when they showed up in the manga. Even with faces she was already aware of, she had a more in-depth understanding than any manga fan could really ever have. Through the eyes of "Chiaki Kurosaki", Tatsuki and Orihime were her longtime friends: like Ichigo, she'd known the former since her youth and their sparring as kids in the dojo. The latter, she'd known even longer than Ichigo had in this timeline, with her being a mutual friend through Tatsuki. It was easy for Orihime to latch on to someone who had also gone through discrimination due to their odd appearance. Being a good 6 inches taller than Orihime, she almost looked like a protective older sister to her as well, with their similar figure and hair colors.

"Man, this is really trippy…"

__________

The rest of the day followed similarly, with Chiaki being more or less lost in her thoughts for all her classes. She had a few close calls with teachers calling on her, but she managed to talk her way out of them, or at the very least come out without looking too dumb. Really, right now she was just biding time until the inevitable exchange at the end of the day between Rukia and Ichigo (and now probably herself too). While she was still a little worried her presence and actions might have messed things up irreparably, Ichigo wanted answers and Rukia wanted help, so they would have to meet at some point soon.

What was more worrying was the question of how she would handle things moving forward, since, as things stood, Rukia could still just erase her memories like she had with Yuzu and Karin if anything went wrong. The fact she hadn't meant that she saw her as important right now, or at least, not a liability, but who knew if that would change? No, if yesterday had taught her anything, if she wanted to both stay alive and make sure things didn't go too far outside of what she could predict, she couldn't be too passive. She needed to get… creative.

Eventually, the time came for the end-of-day cleaning, which went by pretty quickly for everyone involved, before everyone was dismissed to extracurriculars, much to everyone's elation. Rukia, though, had a more serious expression on her face and wordlessly motioned for the two to follow her to a more secluded area of the school grounds. Chiaki raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as she followed Ichigo and Rukia to the private location. Rukia smiled as she saw both walk to her position, crossing her arms with another smirk of satisfaction.

"Nice to see both of you are here! I was worried one of you would have an extracurricular activity that wouldn't let you meet with me now, but it seems all my worries were for naught!"

"Cut the crap there, shorty. Why are you bothering us at school of all places, shouldn't you be going back to your "Soul Society" place?"

Before Rukia could even get in a response, Chiaki couldn't help but elbow Ichigo in the ribs for being an idiot. Was it unnecessary? Yep. But, she couldn't stand how daft he could be sometimes.

"Hey, what was that for sis?"

"Obviously, you have her powers, so she has to get them back before she leaves. You didn't think she could just rub off without them?"

Chiaki shook her head in a disappointed fashion, causing Rukia to clear her throat to try and regain control of the conversation, looking rather sheepish about the issue.

"Well… that's not too far off from the truth. It's true that your brother has taken my powers for the time being, forcing me to take this human form until I regain them. Unfortunately, I cannot simply get them back as it were. I need to wait a substantial amount of time for them to return on their own, and so I cannot perform my normal shinigami duties. That is in fact, my actual reason for being here: your brother needs to take over as a new shinigami for the time being."

"Absolutely not."

Ichigo didn't miss a beat, and even Chiaki was taken aback by his sudden rejection. Rukia seemed to take a moment to process this, looking utterly dumbstruck for a moment before regaining her composure.

"What do you mean, no?"

"I'm not going out to fight your battles for you, I've already got enough to deal with as it is. I only risk my neck for family, got that?"

Rukia stared for a moment, processing the information, before sighing disappointedly, clearly unamused by her new recruit's stubbornness.

"Then I guess I have no choice…"

Quick as lightning, Rukia placed the soul glove on her hand and slapped her hand straight into Ichigo's chest, sending Ichigo's spirit flying out of his body, causing Chiaki to step back instinctively as Ichigo's body fell face first into the ground.

"You slapped his soul out of him?!"

"Yes, it's not a big deal at all, do not worry. Now, do me a favor and hide the body before anyone sees it."

Admittedly, Chiaki hasn't been expecting that order, and, as she tried to figure out how to deal with that issue, Ichigo managed to regain his bearings, looking completely flabbergasted at the sudden change.

"You turned me into a ghost?!"

Rukia simply grabbed his hand, before taking advantage of his shock to begin dragging him as fast as possible to some other location.

"A shinigami, not a ghost. Come with me, I have something important to show you. Chiaki, please do us a favor and keep things covered up while we're gone."

The two then proceeded to run off to whatever location Rukia had in mind, leaving Chiaki more than a little baffled.

"Well, at least nothing too crazy changed…"

It was at that point Chiaki realized Ichigo's body was still laying on the floor. Seeing as she didn't want to be framed for her brother's murder, Chiaki decided it would probably be a good idea to follow Rukia's advice. Huffing in annoyance, Chiaki used her reiatsu enhanced strength to lift up his body, and, looking around quickly, found a few thick shrugs and bushes she could hide the body with. It was just in time too, since the kendo instructor, currently on his way to meet with the club, passed through the area, and Chiaki did her best to look as innocent as humanly (and spiritually) possible.

"Oh, hello sensei, good day out today right?"

The instructor looked at her with a suspicious glare, and Chiaki suddenly felt very nervous. Her "delinquent" hair color always got her profiled just as much as it did Ichigo, and she really didn't want to deal with this staff member's reprimands. After a moment though, the instructor simply shook his head, looking too exasperated to get involved.

"Whatever it is, I don't have time to deal with it. Just stay out of trouble. If I hear anything fishy went on, I'll know it was you and your brother, so just keep that in mind."

Chiaki smiled as innocently as she could, giving the man a thumbs up to really show off her completely un-criminal demeanor.

"Whatever you say, sir. I wouldn't do anything to disrupt the school's order if I could help it."

"I'll hold you to that."

Still looking at her suspiciously, the instructor began walking away slowly, keeping his eye on her all the while. Chiaki kept up the smile, until, finally, he was out of view, and she exhaled a deep sigh of relief.

"Ok, so…. That solves that problem for now."

Stepping out of the bushes, Chiaki looked around to make sure no one else was coming. When she was finally sure no one else was coming, she grinned madly before pumping her fist in celebration. Exclaiming to no one in particular, Chiaki began stretching excitedly. For the first time, she finally had the freedom to work in her own for a bit, and that meant only one thing. It was finally time for training.