Hime Monogatari

Chapter 1: Brand New School Life!

"But, Mom! I really want to have a normal school life like other teenagers do!" Rukia said to her mother one day on the end of summer when they were having afternoon tea. She said it in a begging tone with those puppy eyes of her.

Kuchiki Hisana, being rather an overprotective mother, sighed desperately to her only daughter. "Rukia-chan, I think we have discussed this so many times that you know my answer too well, don't you?" she spoke softly to Rukia, looking right into her daughter's navy eyes.

And Rukia, being as tough as always, sighed for the twelfth time during their conversation.

"You won't move me to an ordinary school, will you?"

"No, I won't, Sweetheart," Hisana said as she patted Rukia's head.

Angry and depressed since her 'proposal' to attend an ordinary school instead of having private school had been rejected for the fifty-seventh time, Rukia leaned back into the chair roughly.

"Mom, really, I hate all of the private school stuff," the teenager said, "I'm bored with it."

Since she was in elementary school, Kuchiki Rukia had been lectured by the teachers from her private school. Everyday, she spent more than five hours for hearing some boring lecture from those teachers in her studying room, specially made by her parents for her. No classmates, any fun lunchtime with friends, no chatting with other friends before the school began; just plain and so boring. That was why she was sick of those oh-so-boring teachers.

"Please understand, my dear. It's all for your safety," Hisana said, "You know, as the head of Kuchiki Company, your father has plenty enemies out there who will take the chance to kidnap you and use you—"

"As a hostage to treat Dad," Rukia cut off her mother words and finished them herself. She had heard that too many times, and she knew them too well.

"See, you know," Hisana smiled to her.

Rukia sighed again and turned her gaze to her father who was enjoying the tea along with herself and her mother on their 'little' garden of the Kuchiki Manor.

"Please, say something Dad?"

Kuchiki Byakuya, the head of the most powerful corporation right now; the head of Kuchiki Company, sighed silently.

"Hisana, Rukia's a teenager already, just let her do what she wants," he said before sipping his ginger tea. "Besides, she deserves to experience a normal school life. You can go to Karakura High School after summer vacation has ended, Rukia."

Hisana's eyes widened in shock when she heard her husband's words; did her husband just say that their one-and-only daughter could go to the dangerous environment out there? Oh, no. She had to prevent their beloved daughter to go to the dangerous places out there.

"But, Dear, she's just—"

"I owe you everything, Dad!" Rukia yelled happily and hugged her dad, not giving her mother a chance to argue her father's decision.

--###--

Examining her surroundings with her large eyes, Rukia found that Karakura High School was better than she expected it to be. The building was quite new; it had a large yard and nice running track. Oh, and the gym was good too.

"Nervous, Rukia-chan?" Matsumoto Rangiku, Rukia's most loyal maid, best friend, and best 'sister' all at once, asked her in sing-song voice.

Rukia turned her head, looking at Rangiku sitting next to her, smiling nervously. "Pretty much," the raven-haired girl said, "Since I got here when the new semester began, I won't be in the same grade with you, Ran-nee-chan. Though I'm glad enough that you don't mind leaving your old school and accompanying me to this school."

Rangiku smiled kindly to her and patted her head. "Don't worry, Rukia-chan! Everything's gonna be okay, and I'm sure we're gonna have a fun adventure at this school!" she said, punching her fist in the air.

Rukia lightly chuckled and nodded. "Let's go!"

Once they entered the school's building, Rukia and Rangiku quickly went to the principal's office. There, they were given everything they needed; the classes they were going to attend, schedule, and were introduced to the teachers in charge of their classes. After that, the teachers led them to their own classes. Rukia's class, 1-A, was on the first floor, while Rangiku's one, the 2-D, was on the second floor.

"Attention, class!" Ochi-sensei, the teacher who had led Rukia, said once they had reached 1-A, "We have a new student today, and her name is Kuchiki Rukia."

Then, Ochi-sensei turned her attention to Rukia, smiling kindly. "Please, introduce yourself, Kuchiki-san," she said.

Rukia nodded and obediently introduced herself. "Hello! My name is Kuchiki Rukia, nice to meet you all!" she said before bowing to the students before her.

"Thank you, Kuchiki-san," Ochi-sensei said again, "Now, you can take your seat, it's on the fifth line of the second row from the window, right there," the teacher said, pointing a desk next to the boy who was staring at the schoolyard through the window.

Rukia nodded and walked to her desk. After she sat there, she looked to the boy sat next to her. She could tell that the boy's appearance was quite unusual; he had very pale skin that most of people would think he had never been in sunlight. And his hair was brilliant black that matched his pale skin, cut in shoulder-length layers. He also had a pair of emerald green eyes, which somehow seemed to lack emotion.

Being a new student in the class, Rukia felt the need to be nice to her new classmates and planned to greet them. First, she began with the boy sat right next to her.

"Hello, nice to meet you," she said, smiling at the green-eyed boy.

However, the boy just ignored her. He kept staring at the schoolyard with a bored expression on his face.

Honestly, Rukia was a bit taken a back at his reaction—or there was lack of. Was this boy deaf? Rukia decided that maybe the boy just didn't hear her because her voice was too low, and she put on another try. This time, she spoke a bit louder.

"My name's Rukia, may I know yours?"

This time, the boy rolled his perfect green eyes from the yard to Rukia. But when Rukia thought he would answer her question, the pale-skinned boy just turned his gaze back to the schoolyard again.

That's it! If he really wanted to play deaf, fine! Rukia would ignore his presence as well. Glaring at the boy for one last time, she pulled her book out of her bag and began to focus on the lecture Mrs. Ochi was giving.

Who was that boy anyway?

"Oh, that boy!" one of Rukia's new classmates, Inoue Orihime, a cheerful girl with orange hair, said to the blue-eyed Kuchiki during the break time after Rukia asked about the green-eyed boy. "His name is Ulquiorra Schiffer," Orihime said again, clasping her hands.

Raising a delicate eyebrow, Rukia asked again, "Ulquiorra Schiffer? Did he come from another country? Ulquiorra Schiffer is definitely not a Japanese name."

Orihime put a finger on her own chin and seemed thought. "Well, I don't know. No one in this class knows anything about him except for his name and that he's a genius."

"Is he that clever?"

The orange-headed girl nodded energetically. "Oh yes. He's the number one among the whole first year students," she said, "He got the first rank on the entrance test since he got full marks for every subject tested, you know."

Rukia's eyes widened. What?! First rank and full marks for every single subject?! This Ulquiorra must be very brainy!

"That's why the teachers are never angry at him though he doesn't pay any attention to the lectures they're giving; he does perfectly at any tasks the teachers give him," Orihime added.

Geez… Right then, Rukia just started to hate this Ulquiorra already. Half of her hatred was because the bad attitude Ulquiorra had, and the other half was because she pretty much felt envy at how smart he was.

--###--

"Oh, so you've found an eye-catching guy already on the first day of the school?" Rangiku asked, smirking to the young Kuchiki when Rukia told her beloved maid/friend/sister about the stoic, green-eyed boy after dinner.

Rukia frowned a bit. "It's not like what you're thinking, Nee-chan!" she demanded, "I'm just wondering how smart he is since he got the first rank on the test. Though he's a real jerk."

"Still," Rangiku said, still smirking mockingly, "that means you're attracted to this Schiffer-boy, right?"

"Ran-nee-chan! It's not-"

"Yeah, yeah, as you wish, my Princess!" Rangiku waved her hand in dismissive manner in front of Rukia.

Rukia sighed to the elder girl. Sometimes, Rangiku could be as annoying as hell, indeed. Though she had knew her since she was very young — it had been nine years since the first time she met Rangiku, when her father started to work in Kuchiki household — however she still couldn't completely understand the way the wavy-haired girl thought.

"So, say it, Rukia-chan," Matsomoto spoke up again.

"What?"

"Is he handsome?"

"Nee-chan!"

Matsumoto just laughed hysterically and banged her fist on the table near by when Rukia gave her glare to the wave-haired girl.

While the two teenagers were talking about Rukia's first day in the 'normal' school—or mostly about her encounter with a certain boy, Hisana was talking about a serious matter to her husband in their room.

"Dear, are you sure it'll be okay to let her attend an ordinary school?"

Byakuya looked right into his wife's eyes with a comforting look. "Don't worry, Hisana. I've settled everything for her."

"But Dear," Hisana said in a worried tone, "What about 'them'? They're looking for a chance to get you down, am I right?"

Sighing, Byakuya rubbed his temples. "Yes, you're right," he said.

Hearing the answer of the man in front of her, Hisana's eyes grew eider in fear. "Doesn't that mean Rukia is in a grave danger?"

Byakuya closed his eyes and brought his wife into his arms, comforting her. "Don't worry, Hisana. I've told my men to call him."

--###--

In the dark, gloomy room, there was only a light came from a single laptop's screen, glinting in the darkness and making some eerie shadows on the room's wall. Suddenly, the laptop made a familiar 'beep' voice, noting that there was new message for the owner, a new job request.

Standing eagerly from his bed, the boy in his black, long-sleeved t-shirt approached his laptop that was laid on his quite messy desk, which was filled by so many unordinary things; a micro-sized camera, some bugs, some wireless earphones, four microchips, and other unusual stuff.

Once he reached at the laptop, he quickly opened the message and read it. Like he had suspected before, it was a job request sent by another big corporation that asked him to do another agent's things. Quickly he read message, the detail of the order.

And under the message, there was a picture of the 'target', a fifteen year old girl with black, shoulder-length hair and big dark blue eyes, as well as her database. The girl's name was Kuchiki Rukia.

After reading the message and the database of the target, he deleted them, making sure that his client's secret was safe. Then the boy leaned back on his office chair and stared blankly at the laptop's screen.

"Kuchiki… Rukia…" he stated. Two emerald-green eyes of his were glinting in the dark, reflecting the light from the screen in front of him.

--TO BE CONTINUED--

A/N: yeah, so this is the first chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it as much I enjoyed writing it. I really love this UlquiXRuki pairing! Anyway, I know this story is soooooooooooooo far, far away from perfect, and I'm terribly sorry for the wrong grammars/ wrong tenses/ wrong spellings I made in this story. Anyone want to help me fix this mess please? Oh, and I'm waiting for any constructive reviews—or flames—as well!

Disclaimer: I don't own BLEACH, really, because it belongs to Tite Kubo-sensei.

Thanks for reading! Review would be nice! n_n