The power of cell phone
Ichigo was sitting in the class, completely bored with Ms Ochi's lecture. He didn't give a damn about hydrostatics laws or other shit like that.
He had worse problems than "what will happen if you increase the pressure?". For example more interesting question for him was "how to get shinigami powers back?". If they made classes about that he would be the first on the list to attend them.
He loosened the shirt under his neck and sat more comfortably on the chair, stretching his legs and putting hands in the pockets. He was lucky to sit at the back of the class or he would get a reprimand.
It's not like it would be the first one, but it would be stupid to get it for something like "improper sitting" on the class.
He looked behind the window, where some children from elementary school was playing softball, apparently very joyful for that reason. When was the last time he had so much fun?
He focused for a moment on the items hidden in his pocket. Hell, he didn't even realize there was such a mess inside of them. Some papers from chewing gum, sweets, tiny pencil, which was so small it was almost impossible to hold it, and of course his shinigami badge and cell phone- that was all in his trousers.
He checked the phone, but there was no messages.
Then, for a hundredth time, he touched his chest with the badge secretly, but nothing happened. He was still in his body, his soul refused to leave it.
Stupid thing.
He sighed heavily and put everything back in the pockets, messing his hair and leaning his elbows on the desk.
Boooring.
That normal life he wished for not that long time ago, totally sucked. No ghosts to help or simply keep company, no shinigami occupying your room, no friends to save… He used to think he really wanted that, just to be normal teenage boy, who doesn't have to care about the whole freaking world.
But now when he finally got it… He wanted his old life back. Especially the one when he had the power to protect the people he cared about, when he felt like he really belonged somewhere. But this… this was not his world.
He missed it.
A lot.
He missed the contact with ghosts, fighting hollows, old man Zangetsu… and well, he missed one very annoying person who did whatever the hell they wanted to do with him.
He missed her stupid jokes, sucky drawings and hits, which always brought him back to the normal state whenever he felt down or simply did something stupid.
It was hard to admit, even in front of himself, but he wondered how Rukia was doing, if she was alright, if she improved, if she finally got a seat in the squad.
Sometimes he caught himself on thinking about her like about someone who lived really far away, but who will eventually come back.
He never thought that when he lost his powers that was the last time seeing her. It seemed too abstract.
If there was any way to keep in touch with Soul Society…
That thought brought to his mind a very stupid idea. Well, anyway, it was worth a shot.
He slowly put out the cell phone out of his pocket and holding it down near his knees, he wrote a text message.
"Yo. What's up?"
He looked in his contacts for her old number, which she used during her stay in the Real World and sent.
He probably won't get any message back anyway, but at least he tried.
He blocked the phone and shoved it deeply inside of his pocket again, noticing, that Ms Ochi changed the topic and now she was talking about gases.
It was truly splendid that the molecules were in larger distances from themselves than in the liquids.
Fantastic, she should get a Noble Prize for that.
His phone vibrated and he involuntarily opened the message without checking from who it was.
"Nothing much, just resting from the training with Kiyone."
He read this twice, wrinkled his forehead and looked around the class. Was it some kind of sick joke somebody was playing with him?
He typed the reply, feeling of anger buzzing in his veins.
"Whoever you are, I'm gonna find ya and kick your butt so hard you won't be able to sit on it for a year."
Sent.
He scanned the class, watching if somebody else was playing with the phone, but he couldn't see anybody.
But hell, he could suspect Urahara or Yoruichi, they were the types to make fun of him. Just when he was about to write on Urahara's cell phone, he got a reply.
"You were the one who wrote to me, shithead. And well, even if you technically could find me, you would not be able to even touch my butt, because…umm… how to put it. You can't see me? :P "
This message he read about twenty times. That was just… too much Rukia in this one.
Noticing with shame that his finger shook slightly, he pushed the Reply button.
"Is that you, Rukia?"
He didn't even wait ten seconds before his phone vibrated.
"No, it's Sou Taicho.
Of course it's me, you dumbass, who else could it be under that number?"
Now Ichigo completely lost the track of the lecture he was sitting at and started to type with the speed of the light.
"I didn't think I can contact SS from here… I thought somebody was messing with me. It's kind of weird. How was your training then?"
"I didn't think it's possible either… Well, don't move, not to loose the range XD And training was cool. I kicked Kiyone's ass. Her sister is taking care of her right now :D"
Ichigo glanced at the clock in the phone. No worries, he had about 2 hours left until the end of the classes, he only hoped nobody will see him texting.
"Like I believed you. Kiyone was the candidate for lieutenant, there's no way some mere shinigami of your size could kick her ass :P"
"At a times like this I wish you could see me. So that I could kick you in the face!" Ichigo smirked. He finally found one advantage of being powerless. Then he got another sms.
"Think whatever you want but Captain Ukitake says I'm improving a lot. I even achieved Bankai."
"The story about Kiyone I could believe, but Bankai? You overdid it, seriously."
"Just checking on you ^^ So how are you? Finally got your wardrobe back, huh?"
"Yeah, you have no idea how cool it is to finally have some peace and a room with nobody else to share. No more snoring at night and ragging in the morning. :P"
"I DO NOT SNORE, bastard. You were the one making all those grunting noises at night D: But I'm seriously asking, how's Inoue, Ishida, Sado?"
"I WHAT? You never said anything! And they are all fine, but you know, they still can see you, you could check them out from time to time :/"
"How could I complain? You would kick me out of your house. But you are really noisy at night, I'm sorry to be the first to tell you that :P Seems like love life isn't going pretty well, hmm? About coming around, I have orders, I can't do whatever I want :/"
"I. AM. LOOSING. MY. PATIENCE. I hope next time you will train with your brother and he will use his fancy Senbonsakura on you… You really deserve it."
"Nii-sama would never raise his Senbonsakura against me : Even if he did, I probably wouldn't even notice it :P"
"Oh he would, trust me :/"
"I don't even remember that. Say hi from me to Inoue and the rest, will you?"
"Don't change the topic."
"WILL YOU?"
"I will." Ichigo sighed. She was right, there was no point in coming back to that story, so he didn't insist on pushing.
"Good." There was a short pause, when Ichigo wondered what else he could write. There were so many things he wanted to tell her, or ask…
"And how's Isshin and your sisters? Is your dad still as mad as he was when I met him? XD"
"He's getting worse every day, I swear. But Yuzu changed a lot. So did Karin. Actually, we are all pretty different :P Two years in the world of living is a lot of time, you know?"
"Really? I haven't thought about this. For me two years seems not that much… I don't believe you changed that much."
"Well, for a 150-year old lady… two years must be a time wasted for scratching the nose :P"
"Stop making me feel like I was standing above my grave, I'm not old, I'm mature."
"Yeah, call it whatever you like, but you definitely are not young :P"
"But I do LOOK young, right? It's all that matters :P"
"You have a point."
"I know :D I'm sorry but I gotta go. Squad's appointment :/ It's gonna be really boring :/"
Ichigo frowned. So soon?
"Do you think I can call you in the evening?"
"I am not sure if it's gonna work but you can try :D"
"Ok, so see ya:)" Ichigo put a smiling face, even though he didn't feel like smiling. He wanted to "talk" a little bit longer to her. After all, he hadn't told her what he wanted… As always actually.
"Rather, hear ya."
"Yeah. Better this than nothing, right?"
"Yep:) Bye."
Ichigo hesitated for a moment, but then he wrote one last message, feeling a bit silly, but screw it. It's not like he's gonna see her anytime soon.
"Miss ya." He blocked the phone and was about to throw it to the bag, when he felt vibrations.
It was from her. Probably mental kick in the face for being too sentimental.
"Miss you too."
He smiled widely and looked outside the window once again. Kids still played softball, the sun was shining as intensively as before, but somehow he felt like there were more colors in the whole picture.
And he had more faith that one day, maybe on a similar day like this, he will finally stand outside in the black kimono, holding Zangetsu tightly in his right hand and see the person, who showed his rainy soul how to enjoy the sun.
~Something light that popped into my head during studying xD Hope you like it, I'd love to hear your opinion about it :)
Take care, M.