Author's Note: Well, this story's got its claws in me for the moment, so I figure I'd jump on it while my muse is still with me. For those not familiar with my update schedule, I'll make it simple. I suck at it. Some of my other stories haven't been updated in a freakin' year. So when you look at this story and find it hasn't had a new chapter in a while, blame...um...not me...because it's totally not my fault for being an unreliable, irresponsible writer or anything, okay?

Anyway, I really do appreciate all the love this little fic has garnered in the past week or so. It really means a lot. Special thanks go to the fifteen beautiful souls who reviewed the last chapter. You are my heroes, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Okay, now that that's done, we can proceed with the fic.

Disclaimer and Warnings still apply from the first chapter.

Chapter 2: C'est La Vie

Ichigo stomped down on the urge to sigh in irritation as he tried to ignore the stares boring into him from literally every person in the classroom. Did these girls, like, never interact with guys or something?

The teacher was going on about how the second years had a duty to the freshmen and to maintain a good model for the underclassmen to look up to, but nobody was quite paying attention, even the teacher herself. Everyone was just...eyeing him like a piece of meat.

It couldn't be karma, could it? He'd always tried to be chivalrous and shit, never objectifying women or being a general creep toward any female (his mother had taught him better, child, mhm). Turnabout was only fair play when there was something to turn about, right? Or maybe it was an inherited thing? Goat-Face didn't seem like the lecherous type, but one never could tell...

Once the teacher had dismissed them, Ichigo left almost at once, falling into a sort of stalking pace that he hoped deterred any sort of idea that he wanted anyone to come up and engage him in conversation. His scowl settled into place as well, just for good measure; he could always count on his trusty scowl to see him through the day.

He let his feet guide him, and he eventually found himself staring out the windows of the first floor, looking down on the courtyard where gaggles of girls gathered on the grass as they gleefully gossiped about their break. A buzz from his pocket made him pull out his phone and discover that he was getting a call from...

...oh. That couldn't be good.

Quickly answering, Ichigo tried to make his vocal cords behave themselves as he said, "Hey, Tatsuki. What's up?"

"What's up? Is that all you have to say for yourself? What's up? Seriously, I don't hear from you for weeks and then I find out from Asano Fucking Keigo that you've transferred to a school in SEOUL!?"

Ichigo could just picture a rather irate Tatsuki carefully check her grip for fear of crushing the delicate hardware she was using to communicate with him. "Well it was sort of a surprise to me, too," he tried to defend himself. "Goat-Face strong-armed me into it, and Geta-Boushi ended up helping out as well."

There was a long pause before Tatsuki asked, "Is this about...about that crazy spirit-stuff you're involved in?"

"Sort of," Ichigo answered hesitantly. "I think Oyaji is hoping this could help me put all of that behind me, y'know, like a fresh perspective or something."

"And is it?"

Ichigo really sometimes hated how perceptive Tatsuki was. She wasn't usually like that, but when it came to his own personal problems, she could read him like a favorite book.

"It's certainly not hurting anything," he admitted. "It's actually pretty nice, to be honest. Those two meddling old bastards somehow managed to get me enrolled at Wild's High School..."

"Waitwaitwait," Tatsuki cut him off. "You're telling me that Isshin-jii enrolled you at an all-girls' school?" He could make out her conflicting tone, caught between amusement and jealousy.

"Yeah," he said reluctantly. "Thankfully, I'm not the only guy here. I made friends with a kid named Song Jae Gu. Nice guy, a year below me. He and his family are sort of in a difficult spot..."

"...so you ended up taking them in," the second-strongest girl in Japan finished, not sounding at all surprised. "Careful you don't bleed all over them with that gaping chest wound of yours, you big softie."

"Oi, I don't know how you people manage to come up with an idea like that," Ichigo protested lamely.

"You sure you're okay over there?"

The concern in Tatsuki's voice caught him off-guard, and he ruffled the hair that had slowly begun creeping down his neck uncomfortably. "I'm alright, Tats, really. You don't have to worry about me; I'm a grown-ass man already."

"More like a weak little crybaby in a grown-ass man's body," Tatsuki fired back, her usual caustic tone back. "Keep in touch; I don't wanna have to hear big news like this from Tweedledumshit anymore. I swear, he's lording it over me like some...lordy person who lords things over people."

"Your powers of simile are astounding, Tats," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes. As he did so, he noticed someone in the periphery of his vision. Turning, he recognized the girl who'd almost flattened Jae Gu with her bike earlier that morning, standing patiently off to the side and wondered how long she'd been there. "I'll call you later and catch you up."

"Yeah, okay. Make sure you call the twins as well; they miss you."

"Alright. See you."

As soon as he hung up, the girl pounced. "Hey, you're Kurosaki Ichigo, right? The exchange student from Japan?" Without waiting for a reply, she smiled and pointed at her with a thumb. "I'm Lee Moon Young, president of the Boxing Club, also Class 2-A Welterweight champ. Nice to meet ya."

"You seem to know who I am already," Ichigo said, nodding once as he noted her credentials. A boxing champion in a school that seemed to be practically built around martial arts was no one to scoff at. "Was there something you needed?"

"Yeah, Queen wants to see you and your friend, I think his name was Song Jae Gu or something?"

Ichigo recalled the blonde girl from earlier that morning. He'd seen her beat the crap out of that feisty redhead on TV who'd reminded him of Renji, and had recognized her instantly when Jae Gu had spilled that damn coffee milk on her. She could be dangerous, but he didn't exactly take too kindly to people who presumed to give him orders.

"And what does she want, exactly?" Ichigo asked. "Gonna give us a bill or something?"

Moon Young snorted. "Gonna give you a swift kick in the ass if you talk to her so disrespectfully. She's the daughter of the YK Group's head, practically a queen."

"Hence the name," Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Listen, let's just go and I'll pay for whatever. Jae Gu doesn't have to get involved."

"He's the one that spilled the coffee all over Queen," pointed out Moon Young, raising a curious eyebrow.

"So?" Ichigo retorted defensively. "I caused the incident by pulling him back. You caused it by nearly running him over with your bike. She caused it by not reacting as quickly as she could have. I've seen how she fights...with reflexes like hers, she could have dodged ten of those bags easy." He shrugged. "We can play the blame game all we want. So long as I'm willing to cover the costs, what's the difference in the end?"

Moon Young raised her hands in defeat. "Suit yourself. It doesn't matter to me, but Queen wanted the both of you. She won't be pleased."

"Like I give two shits about what pleases her," Ichigo answered bluntly, and Moon Young let out a startled laugh.

"A man in this country who knows who Queen is and isn't struck dumb, deaf, and blind by her beauty and ferocity! Now I've seen everything!"

"I'm from Japan, remember?" Ichigo said. "I'm not so easily impressed by a pretty face with a few martial arts tricks." Especially since he'd seen pretty faces who could cut down Hollows the size of skyscrapers, swallow frikkin' energy beams and blast them back twice as hard, and all manner of insane things. Beauty and a bit of brawn wasn't going to turn him into a blithering idiot. He had some class.

"Well, come on then," Moon Young said, turning back the way they'd come. Ichigo went to follow, but a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye made him pause. As he watched, a rather short girl with what appeared to be...cat ears poking out of her honey-blonde hair had just opened the window and nonchalantly hopped out to the ground...a floor down...

Ichigo raced to the window in time to see her land daintily, then promptly smash her elbow through the window directly below the one she'd just leapt from.

"What the...?" Ichigo couldn't exactly see what was going on, but the girl said something to whomever she had grabbed onto, and then leaned in. Moon Young came up next to him and glanced at the scene.

"That's Choi Dal Dal, president of the Taekwondo Club," she said. "She's always been quite the little firecracker. Always so high-strung." Moon Young grinned coyly. "Myself, on the other hand..."

She was interrupted by Choi Dal Dal shrieking, "ARGH, DAMN! WHAT KIND OF EMBARRASSMENT IS THIS!" She hauled the person out of the window and slammed them into the ground before mounting them. And Ichigo really figured that he shouldn't be surprised to recognize Jae Gu being pinned by the tiny girl. "I WILL HAVE YOU CONQUORED!"

"Oh, geez," Ichigo grumbled, then jumped down as well. He heard Moon Young protest, but he was already falling. He landed in a crouch just next to the pair before straightening up. "Oi, I don't mean to be rude," a bald-faced lie, "but you seem to be sitting on my friend's chest there."

He didn't even flinch as Moon Young dropped down beside him. After Dal Dal's nonchalant shortcut downstairs, he sort of figured that it must have been a common practice at Wild's.

""Choi Dal Dal, stop," Moon Young called.

"Lee Moon Young!" growled Dal Dal, shooting a glare at her. "What do you want? You've already got dibs on that other one, don't get greedy!"

"Queen said to bring him," Moon Young answered with a shrug, though not quite managing to dismiss the slight blush at Dal Dal's accusation. "You can go and interrogate her about it, if you want."

Grudgingly, Dal Dal lifted herself off Jae Gu fluidly, and Ichigo bent down to help him to his feet. The poor kid looked pretty shaken, and in all fairness, a girl had just leapt from the second floor and elbowed her way through a thick glass window before trying to molest him. If he hadn't gone through all the shit he had, it would have unnerved the fuck out of Ichigo as well.

"You good?" Ichigo asked quietly, and Jae Gu nodded after a moment's pause.

"Yeah, I think so," he replied, "but what kind of school is this, to just let these girls act like this?"

"It's a fighting school," Ichigo said. "You knew that. Most, if not all, of these women have trained themselves constantly to improve themselves. Can't you see it in every move they make? There's no wasted energy at all. Quick, precise...and dangerous if you get on their bad side."

"Like you, Sunbae?" Jae Gu said with a weak sort of chuckle.

"I suppose so," Ichigo answered uncomfortably. He didn't exactly know how Goat-Face and Geta-Boushi expected him to relax in a school full of powerful fighters who also happened to be drooling over him like the last dango stick in the world. Okay, yes it was true that he'd taken on beings of immeasurable strength and come out on top, but without any reiatsu to speak of and against truly dedicated fighters it really could go either way.

"Anyway," Ichigo forged on, motioning for Moon Young's attention. "We should get to this Queen chick before she explodes from not having her orders followed immediately."

"Ah, excellent idea!" Moon Young said, gesturing for them to follow. "And if you try running off, you're dead~!"

Before they could get more than two paces away, Dal Dal called out, "Lee Moon Young! You watch yourself, and don't be so cocky just because you're Queen's friend! You better hope we don't meet in the Wild's League!"

Moon Young chuckled condescendingly. "Don't joke around like that, dummy. What could you do, Tiny Bell?"

Ichigo watched as Dal Dal's eye twitched in irriation; apparently, that nickname didn't fly well with her. "What did you just say!? You're just the Queen's tool! Say it again if you wanna die right here..."

With little warning, Moon Young darted forward at blinding speed. Ichigo thought about catching her before she could take off the cat-eared girl's head off, but he sensed no true antagonism behind Moon Young's charge, so he let her be.

His instincts proved good, as Moon Young's bandaged fist stopped just short of decapitating Dal Dal. Even still, the force of the punch sent Dal Dal's hair fluttering behind her.

"Silly bell." Moon Young's voice was low and dangerous. "If we were to meet at the Wild's League, you would die." Straightening from her stance, she spun and started walking again, as though nothing had happened. "Kurosaki Ichigo, Song Jae Gu...let's go."

They walked in silence for the most part. Moon Young would point out certain places of interest once in a while, and Ichigo sometimes commented on them, but mostly his attention was on Jae Gu, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Are all women like this?" Jae Gu finally whispered to him while Moon Young described some of the fighting arenas around school. "So terrifying and...gruesome?"

Ichigo didn't really know how to answer that. In his own experience, yes, all women were totally nuts. Then again, most of the females he'd had the dubious pleasure of meeting couldn't exactly be called normal. Even Yuzu and Karin had their quirks, and he wouldn't even get into the girls in his first-year high school class. Perhaps insanity was the norm when it came to women?

Then again, it wasn't like he could be considered normal in any sense of the word. Nor were any of his male friends and acquaintances just 'regular dudes.' It was probably just his luck that everyone he met was totally bananas.

But he knew that every one of those people were the way they were because of their past experiences, and the influences of their loved ones and friends, and even their enemies. And if Aizen Sosuke had taught Ichigo anything at all, it was that appearances could be very deceiving.

Instead, he simply said, "Don't judge a person just by first impressions, Jae Gu. Get to know them first before you pass them off; they might surprise you."

"Good answer," Moon Young called back, and Jae Gu blushed at having been overheard. "He's right, though, Song Jae Gu. At first, I thought Kurosaki Ichigo was just some punk bitch, what with that scowl. But seeing him act around you, I realize now that he's just a big mushy pile of shyness!"

"Wh-why do people keep saying that!?" Ichigo sputtered indignantly. "I am not shy or mushy! What does that even mean?"

"Oh?" Moon Young put on her most innocent face. "Then what are you, exactly?"

"I'm...I'm..." Ichigo struggled for a moment before landing on, "I'm complicated!"

Even Jae Gu laughed at that one, and Ichigo shot him a betrayed look.

Eventually, they made it back to the second floor, to the classroom Ichigo had been in before. This Queen woman was sitting by the window, her posture impeccable even in the uncomfortable school desk. She was the picture of aristocratic elegance, bored expression and all. Hell, if her hair had been black, she could've passed as a Kuchiki easy.

"Song Jae Gu, Kurosaki Ichigo," Moon Young said after they were all inside and the door was closed. "You remember this morning, right? Yeah, this is the Queen, in the flesh, haha!"

Ichigo watched Jae Gu closely. The younger boy's ash-brown hair was covering his eyes, and the rest of his expression and body language gave away nothing.

"Is he frozen up?" Moon Young asked Ichigo, leaning over to get a better look at Jae Gu's face. "Hey, I'm serious, this is Queen!" At the continued underreaction, she added. "Hey! The real, 4-D Queen is in front of you. Why is this your reaction?"

Queen's dark eyes moved from Ichigo to Jae Gu, who held her gaze for a moment. "Her eyes are like Mom's," he breathed so that only Ichigo could hear.

Oh, this might get weird...

Before Ichigo could intervene in any way, Queen spoke up. "You," she addressed Jae Gu, carefully setting the change she had received earlier that morning onto the desk. "What is this? Did you do it without knowing what I meant?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Or did you know, but treated me like a beggar all the same?"

When Jae Gu didn't answer, she made a little hmph noise, and slid the coins toward the edge of the desk. "Fine, whether you knew it or not..." She pushed the coins off the table, more than likely intending to make Jae Gu pick it up.

From what Ichigo knew, Jae Gu didn't have very much self-esteem to spare, and forcing him to kneel in front of Queen would probably wreck whatever was left. So before the coins hit the ground, Ichigo stooped and snatched them out of the air.

"Well, what do you know?" he quipped in what he hoped was a light-hearted tone. "Looks like we can get Jae Hyung and Jae Som some ice cream on the way home, eh?" He nudged Jae Gu, who spared him the ghost of a smile.

Both Queen and Moon Young looked taken aback by his action, but Queen recovered quickly. "Whether you knew it or not," she continued, "if you beg on your hands and knees, I'll forgive you."

Jae Gu's tiny smile vanished quicker than Yoruichi's shunpo. When neither of them made to bend their knees, Queen reiterated, "Beg."

"Ooh, so commanding," muttered Moon Young.

Jae Gu's bangs shifted so his eyes met Queen's in a mutual glare full of loathing, then, quietly, he spoke. "Monster."

There was a moment of utter silence when Ichigo and Moon Young shared a bewildered glance before Queen's hand moved.

It was a very small tell, and anyone other than Ichigo might have missed it. But he had fought in battles where the difference between living and being utterly annihilated was the shift of a foot or a muscle tensing slightly.

So in the moment after that, when Queen wound up and let her hand fly, Ichigo stepped in front of Jae Gu and took the stinging slap to the cheek. He didn't let it show, but that had really hurt. With the power behind that strike along with what he'd seen that morning on the TV, he figured this Queen person could give Tatsuki a run for her money, and that was truly saying something.

"Oi, Joou-sama," Ichigo said, voice dripping sarcasm as he uttered her title. "Don't the school rules say you can't strike a person outside a ring?"

Moon Young strode over to Queen and placed a hand on her shoulder, whether for support or restraint Ichigo couldn't tell. "You can't just hit people willy-nilly!" she hissed at the blonde. She turned to Ichigo and asked, "Hey, are you okay?" But Ichigo waved her concern away.

Queen dug into her purse and pulled out a slip of paper. She tossed it in Ichigo's general direction and began striding away. "Use it for the medical treatment. Take it and piss off!"

"Where are you going?" Moon Young asked as Queen pulled out a phone. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Driver, I have to go home right now," Queen spoke into the cell. "Bring the car over."

As they left, Jae Gu glanced down at the piece of paper. It was a check worth a million won. "See," he muttered at the door. "You are a monster."

Ichigo felt like shaking Jae Gu by the shoulders. "What the hell was that?" he snapped. "You can't just call people 'monster' without there being consequences. I don't know if you noticed, but that 'monster' who just walked away is a world-renowned martial artist!"

Jae Gu's dead expression slowly made way for a sick, miserable look as he picked up the check. "Sunbae, I'm sorry, but she...she just reminded me of my mother so much that I couldn't hold back my feelings. I shouldn't have thought of...her. I need to go apologize and give her back this money!"

He made to go after her, but Ichigo held him back. "Give her a little time to cool off. We don't know this girl's circumstances, just like she doesn't know yours or mine. Tomorrow, we'll return the money first thing once we get to school. Alright?"

Jae Gu sighed and nodded. "Okay."

"Good," Ichigo said, closing that book for a while. "Now, should we go to the opening ceremony, or do you wanna skip it and head to the car wash?"

At the end of the day, as Jae Gu and Ichigo trudged back to Ichigo's apartment (their home, a warm part of his subconscious supplied), the brown-haired boy couldn't get the events of that day out of his head. He kept replaying the scenes in his mind's eye, feeling horrified at his own reactions, no matter how fueled they were by memories of his less-than-stellar mother.

How could he have called anyone a monster like that? He wasn't a confrontational person, nor was he the type to just stick a label on a person he knew absolutely nothing about. Everything always seemed so...so unfair.

"Sunbae," he said, "how is it you're always so..." Jae Gu paused, searching for the right word. Calm didn't fit, since Ichigo was prone to prickly outbursts and moody spells from time to time. Arrogant wasn't right either, since Ichigo didn't necessarily flaunt whatever skill he had. "...so confident?"

Yes, that was it. No matter what, the young man he was quickly beginning to see as an older brother never seemed to feel uncomfortable in his own skin, like Jae Gu felt nearly constantly.

"Have you ever read The Art of War, Jae Gu?" Ichigo asked after a moment of thought. Jae Gu couldn't say that he had even thought about picking up Sun Tzu's acclaimed work, so he shook his head.

"Me neither," Ichigo admitted freely with a sardonic little smirk. "But a lot of the stuff he wrote in there has become sort of common knowledge in the world's culture. One of the things that I eventually learned came from him that I've always kept in mind was that old saying: If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles."

Jae Gu could see the wisdom in the adage; after all, everyone knew that knowledge was power.

"You wonder how I can always be so confident," Ichigo continued. "It's 'cause I know exactly what I'm capable of, and I know better than anyone else my flaws and weaknesses. But more than that, I know my enemy."

"Who is your enemy, Sunbae?" Jae Gu asked, wondering what sort of foes Ichigo could have.

"I thought you would know, Jae Gu," Ichigo said. "After all, you've been waging war against it for four years."

As he said that, Jae Gu realized exactly what enemy Ichigo was speaking of. Hadn't he just been musing earlier that simply living was a war, and that he couldn't afford to lose a single battle for the sake of his siblings?

Ichigo seemed to know that he'd cottoned on. "Yep. Here's another old saying I always liked: Life's a bitch, and then you die. Everyone's fighting the same war you have. Sure, it might vary from case to case, but there's not a person alive who hasn't fought to make it through to the next day. Some take it all in stride, some struggle with such a harsh reality, most are scattered somewhere in the middle. But in the end, we're all just insignificant little mites on a speck of mud floating in the black."

"Then," Jae Gu mumbled, more than ever feeling the soul-crushing despair he wrestled with every day of his life, "what does it all mean? Or is it meaningless to begin with?"

Ichigo smiled more naturally, and Jae Gu was astounded by the transformation. The older teen usually presented a face full of storm clouds and thunder, but a simple smile managed to seem like a summer sunrise all by itself.

"The meaning of life, Jae Gu," he said, patting his shoulder reassuringly, "is to give life a meaning." He turned to look forward again. "To me, living means protecting those who I care about, no matter what, and I think you're similar to me in that respect. It's part of the reason we get along so well."

Jae Gu was rather surprised to find how eloquent Ichigo could be when speaking about something so profound as the meaning of life, the universe, and...well, everything. Every time he thought he might have Ichigo pegged, the orange-haired boy would reveal yet another facet of his personality. The way he had articulated his thoughts so simply and yet in such a way that really hammered in the idea was really quite impressive.

Something in his chest that had been peering out of its cold haunts for the past few weeks finally raised its head for the first time in years. It took Jae Gu a moment to place the unfamiliar feeling, but he smiled when he did. It had been a very long time since he'd allowed himself to feel any sort of hope.

After-Action Report: Yes, more touchy-feely stuff to go through, but Jae Gu has taken his first steps on the road to becoming a certifiable badass. And with Ichigo showing him the ropes, I really can't wait for Han Gyul's dumb ass to try his shit. Ichigo's got a sort of warrior poet thing going on at the end there, I don't really know where it came from but I like it so it stays.

Speaking of things I like, I unashamedly admit to Ichi/Tatsu being my OTP in Bleach. Probably won't ever happen, but a guy can dream, right? Tatsuki won't really have that much of an impact on this particular story, but it's nice to think about. Who else would pay money to see Arisawa Tatsuki VS Yoon In Gyi (Queen)? If I play my cards right, I might just be able to work that in somewhere along the line.

Coincidentally, I've got a non-crossover Bleach story dealing with Ichigo and Tatsuki's relationship going on eight chapters, if anyone's interested...

Um, not much else, I suppose. Ichigo calls Queen Joou-sama which is what Japanese called foreign queens (i.e. Queen Elizabeth became Elizabeth-joou-sama) and I figure that it's more appropriate than some of the other similar Japanese words for female monarchs, so I went with that.

Any questions, comments, corrections, or otherwise can be left in a review or a PM (I'm not picky). Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!